10 34 years Stellar-mass black holes evaporate 10 67 years Supermassive black holes evaporate 10 91 years All matter decays to iron 10 1500 years All matter forms black holes, which then evaporate 10 1026 years Table 6.3: Estimates for the distant future, all but the 2nd and 7th made by Freeman Dyson. He made these calculations before the discovery of dark energy, which may enable several types of cosmocalypse in 10 10 10 11 years. Protons may be completely stable; if not, experiments suggest it will take over 10 34 years for half of them to decay. As long as superintelligent life hasnt run out of matter/energy, it can keep maintaining its habitat in the state it desires. Perhaps it can even discover a way to prevent protons from decaying using the so-called watched-pot effect of quantum mechanics, whereby the decay process is slowed by making regular observations. There is, however, a potential showstopper: a cosmocalypse destroying our entire Universe, perhaps as soon as 10100 billion years from now. The discovery of dark energy and progress in string theory has raised new cosmocalypse scenarios that Freeman Dyson wasnt aware of when he wrote his seminal paper. So hows our Universe going to end, billions of years from now? I have five main suspects for our upcoming cosmic apocalypse, or cosmocalypse, illustrated in figure 6.9 : the Big Chill, the Big Crunch, the Big Rip, the Big Snap and Death Bubbles. Our Universe has now been expanding for about 14 billion years. The Big Chill is when our Universe keeps expanding forever, diluting our cosmos into a cold, dark and ultimately dead place; this was viewed as the most likely outcome back when Freeman wrote that paper. I think of it as the T. S. Eliot option: This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper. If you, like Robert Frost, prefer the world to end in fire rather than ice, then cross your fingers for the Big Crunch, where the cosmic expansion is eventually reversed and everything comes crashing back together in a cataclysmic collapse akin to a backward Big Bang. Finally, the Big Rip is like the Big Chill for the impatient, where our galaxies, planets and even atoms get torn apart in a grand finale a finite time from now. Which of these three should you bet on? That depends on what the dark energy, which makes up about 70% of the mass of our Universe, will do as space continues to expand. It can be any one of the Chill, Crunch or Rip scenarios, depending on whether the dark energy sticks around unchanged, dilutes to negative density or anti-dilutes to higher density, respectively. Since we still have no clue what dark energy is, Ill just tell you how Id bet: 40% on the Big Chill, 9% on the Big Crunch and 1% on the Big Rip. Figure 6.9: We know that our Universe began with a hot Big Bang 14 billion years ago, expanded and cooled, and merged its particles into atoms, stars and galaxies. But we dont know its ultimate fate. Proposed scenarios include a Big Chill (eternal expansion), a Big Crunch (recollapse), a Big Rip (an infinite expansion rate tearing everything apart), a Big Snap (the fabric of space revealing a lethal granular nature when stretched too much), and Death Bubbles (space freezing in lethal bubbles that expand at the speed of light). What about the other 50% of my money? Im saving it for the none of the above option, because I think we humans need to be humble and acknowledge that there are basic things we still dont understand. The nature of space, for example. The Chill, Crunch and Rip endings all assume that space itself is stable and infinitely stretchable. We used to think of space as just the boring static stage upon which the cosmic drama unfolds. Then Einstein taught us that space is really one of the key actors: it can curve into black holes, it can ripple as gravitational waves and it can stretch as an expanding universe. Perhaps it can even freeze into a different phase much like water can, with fast-expanding death bubbles of the new phase offering another wild-card cosmocalypse candidate. If death bubbles are possible, they would probably expand at the speed of light, just like the growing sphere of cosmic spam from a maximally aggressive civilization. Moreover, Einsteins theory says that space stretching can always continue, allowing our Universe to approach infinite volume as in the Big Chill and Big Rip scenarios. This sounds a bit too good to be true, and I suspect that it is. A rubber band looks nice and continuous, just like space, but if you stretch it too much, it snaps. Why? Because its made of atoms, and with enough stretching, this granular atomic nature of the rubber becomes important. Could it be that space too has some sort of granularity on a scale thats simply too small for us to have noticed? Quantum gravity research suggests that it doesnt make sense to talk about traditional three-dimensional space on scales smaller than about 10 -34 meters. If its really true that space cant be stretched indefinitely without undergoing a cataclysmic Big Snap, then future civilizations may wish to relocate to the largest non-expanding region of space (a huge galaxy cluster) that they can reach. How Much Can You Compute? After exploring how long future life can last, lets explore how long it might want to last. Although you might find it natural to want to live as long as possible, Freeman Dyson also gave a more quantitative argument for this desire: the cost of computation drops when you compute slowly, so youll ultimately get more done if you slow things down as much as possible. Freeman even calculated that if our Universe keeps expanding and cooling forever, an infinite amount of computation might be possible. Slow doesnt necessarily mean boring: if future life lives in a simulated world, its subjectively experienced flow of time need not have anything to do with the glacial pace at which the simulation is being run in the outside world, so the prospects of infinite computation could translate into subjective immortality for simulated life forms. Cosmologist Frank Tipler has built on this idea to speculate that you could also achieve subjective immortality in the final moments before a Big Crunch by speeding up the computations toward infinity as the temperature and density skyrocketed. Since dark energy appears to spoil both Freemans and Franks dreams of infinite computation, future superintelligence may prefer to burn through its energy supplies relatively quickly, to turn them into computations before running into problems such as cosmic horizons and proton decay. If maximizing total computation is the ultimate goal, the best strategy will be a trade-off between too slow (to avoid the aforementioned problems) and too fast (spending more energy than needed per computation). Putting together everything weve explored in this chapter tells us that maximally efficient power plants and computers would enable superintelligent life to perform a mind-boggling amount of computation. Powering your thirteen- watt brain for a hundred years requires the energy in about half a milligram of matterless than in a typical grain of sugar. Seth Lloyds work suggests that the brain could be made a quadrillion times more energy efficient, enabling that sugar grain to power a simulation of all human lives ever lived as well as thousands of times more people. If all the matter in our available Universe could be used to simulate people, that would enable over 10 69 livesor whatever else superintelligent AI preferred to do with its computational power. Even more lives would be possible if their simulations were run more slowly. 9 Conversely, in his book Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom estimates that 10 58 human lives could be simulated with more conservative assumptions about energy efficiency. However we slice and dice these numbers, theyre huge, as is our responsibility for ensuring that this future potential of life to flourish isnt squandered. As Bostrom puts it: If we represent all the happiness experienced during one entire such life by a single teardrop of joy, then the happiness of these souls could fill and refill the Earths oceans every second, and keep doing so for a hundred billion billion millennia. It is really important that we make sure these truly are tears of joy. Cosmic Hierarchies The speed of light limits not only the spread of life, but also the nature of life, placing strong constraints on communication, consciousness and control. So if much of our cosmos eventually comes alive, what will this life be like? Thought Hierarchies Have you ever tried and failed to swat a fly with your hand? The reason that it can react faster than you is that its smaller, so that it takes less time for information to travel between its eyes, brain and muscles. This bigger = slower principle applies not only to biology, where the speed limit is set by how fast electrical signals can travel through neurons, but also to future cosmic life if no information can travel faster than light. So for an intelligent information- processing system, going big is a mixed blessing involving an interesting trade- off. On one hand, going bigger lets it contain more particles, which enable more complex thoughts. On the other hand, this slows down the rate at which it can have truly global thoughts, since it now takes longer for the relevant information to propagate to all its parts. So if life engulfs our cosmos, what form will it choose: simple and fast, or complex and slow? I predict that it will make the same choice as Earth life has made: both! The denizens of Earths biosphere span a staggering range of sizes, from gargantuan two-hundred-ton blue whales down to the petite 10 -16 kg bacterium Pelagibacter, believed to account for more biomass than all the worlds fish combined. Moreover, organisms that are large, complex and slow often mitigate their sluggishness by containing smaller modules that are simple and fast. For example, your blink reflex is extremely fast precisely because its implemented by a small and simple circuit that doesnt involve most of your brain: if that hard-to-swat fly accidentally heads toward your eye, youll blink within a tenth of a second, long before the relevant information has had time to spread throughout your brain and make you consciously aware of what happened. By organizing its information processing into a hierarchy of modules, our biosphere manages to both have the cake and eat it, attaining both speed and complexity. We humans already use this same hierarchical strategy to optimize parallel computing. Because internal communication is slow and costly, I expect advanced future cosmic life to do the same, so that computations will be done as locally as possible. If a computation is simple enough to do with a 1 kg computer, its counterproductive to spread it out over a galaxy-sized computer, since waiting for the information to be shared at the speed of light after each computational step causes a ridiculous delay of about 100,000 years per step. What, if any, of this future information processing will be conscious in the sense of involving a subjective experience is a controversial and fascinating topic which well explore in chapter 8. If consciousness requires the different parts of the system to be able to communicate with one another, then the thoughts of larger systems are by necessity slower. Whereas you or a future Earth-sized supercomputer can have many thoughts per second, a galaxy-sized mind could have only one thought every hundred thousand years, and a cosmic mind a billion light-years in size would only have time to have about ten thoughts in total before dark energy fragmented it into disconnected parts. On the other hand, these few precious thoughts and accompanying experiences might be quite deep! Control Hierarchies If thought itself is organized in a hierarchy spanning a wide range of scales, then what about power? In chapter 4, we explored how intelligent entities naturally organize themselves into power hierarchies in Nash equilibrium, where any entity would be worse off if they altered their strategy. The better the communication and transportation technology gets, the larger these hierarchies can grow. If superintelligence one day expands to cosmic scales, what will its power hierarchy be like? Will it be freewheeling and decentralized or highly authoritarian? Will cooperation be based mainly on mutual benefit or on coercion and threats? To shed light on these questions, lets consider both the carrot and the stick: What incentives are there for collaboration on cosmic scales, and what threats might be used to enforce it? Controlling with the Carrot On Earth, trade has been a traditional driver of cooperation because the relative difficulty of producing things varies across the planet. If mining a kilogram of silver costs 300 times more than mining a kilogram of copper in one region, but only 100 times more in another, theyll both come out ahead by trading 200 kg of copper against 1 kg of silver. If one region has much higher technology than another, both can similarly benefit from trading high-tech goods against raw materials. However, if superintelligence develops technology that can readily rearrange elementary particles into any form of matter whatsoever, then it will eliminate most of the incentive for long-distance trade. Why bother shipping silver between distant solar systems when its simpler and quicker to transmute copper into silver by rearranging its particles? Why bother shipping high-tech machinery between galaxies when both the know-how and the raw materials (any matter will do) exist in both places? My guess is that in a cosmos teeming with superintelligence, almost the only commodity worth shipping long distances will be information . The only exception might be matter to be used for cosmic engineering projectsfor example, to counteract the aforementioned destructive tendency of dark energy to tear civilizations apart. As opposed to traditional human trade, this matter can be shipped in any convenient bulk form whatsoever, perhaps even as an energy beam, since the receiving superintelligence can rapidly rearrange it into whatever objects it wants. If sharing or trading of information emerges as the main driver of cosmic cooperation, then what sorts of information might be involved? Any desirable information will be valuable if generating it requires a massive and time- consuming computational effort. For example, a superintelligence may want answers to hard scientific questions about the nature of physical reality, hard mathematical questions about theorems and optimal algorithms and hard engineering questions about how to best build spectacular technology. Hedonistic life forms may want awesome digital entertainment and simulated experiences, and cosmic commerce may fuel demand for some form of cosmic cryptocurrency in the spirit of bitcoins. Such sharing opportunities may incentivize information flow not only between entities of roughly equal power, but also up and down power hierarchies, say between solar-system-sized nodes and a galactic hub or between galaxy-sized nodes and a cosmic hub. The nodes might want this for the pleasure of being part of something greater, for being provided with answers and technologies that they couldnt develop alone and for defense against external threats. They may also value the promise of near immortality through backup: just as many humans take solace in a belief that their minds will live on after their physical bodies die, an advanced AI may appreciate having its mind and knowledge live on in a hub supercomputer after its original physical hardware has depleted its energy reserves. Conversely, the hub may want its nodes to help it with massive long-term computing tasks where the results arent urgently needed, so that its worth waiting thousands or millions of years for the answers. As we explored above, the hub may also want its nodes to help carry out massive cosmic engineering projects such as counteracting destructive dark energy by moving galactic mass concentrations together. If traversable wormholes turn out to be possible and buildable, then a top priority of a hub will probably be constructing a network of them to thwart dark energy and keep its empire connected indefinitely. The questions of what ultimate goals a cosmic superintelligence may have is a fascinating and controversial one that well explore further in chapter 7. Controlling with the Stick Terrestrial empires usually compel their subordinates to cooperate by using both the carrot and the stick. While subjects of the Roman Empire valued the technology, infrastructure and defense that they were offered as a reward for their cooperation, they also feared the inevitable repercussions of rebelling or not paying taxes. Because of the long time required to send troops from Rome to outlying provinces, part of the intimidation was delegated to local troops and loyal officials empowered to inflict near-instantaneous punishments. A superintelligent hub could use the analogous strategy of deploying a network of loyal guards throughout its cosmic empire. Since superintelligent subjects can be hard to control, the simplest viable strategy may be using AI guards that are programmed to be 100% loyal by virtue of being relatively dumb, simply monitoring whether all rules are obeyed and automatically triggering a doomsday device if not. Suppose, for example, that the hub AI arranges for a white dwarf to be placed in the vicinity of a solar-system-sized civilization that it wishes to control. A white dwarf is the burnt-out husk of a modestly heavy star. Consisting largely of carbon, it resembles a giant diamond in the sky, and is so compact that it can weigh more than the Sun while being smaller than Earth. The Indian physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar famously proved that if you keep adding mass to it until it surpasses the Chandrasekhar limit, about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun, it will undergo a cataclysmic thermonuclear detonation known as a supernova of type 1A. If the hub AI has callously arranged for this white dwarf to be extremely close to its Chandrasekhar limit, the guard AI could be effective even if it were extremely dumb (indeed, largely because it was so dumb): it could be programmed to simply verify that the subjugated civilization had delivered its monthly quota of cosmic bitcoins, mathematical proofs or whatever other taxes were stipulated, and if not, toss enough mass onto the white dwarf to ignite the supernova and blow the entire region to smithereens. Galaxy-sized civilizations may be similarly controllable by placing large numbers of compact objects into tight orbits around the monster black hole at the galaxy center, and threatening to transform these masses into gas, for instance by colliding them. This gas would then start feeding the black hole, transforming it into a powerful quasar, potentially rendering much of the galaxy uninhabitable. In summary, there are strong incentives for future life to cooperate over cosmic distances, but its a wide-open question whether such cooperation will be based mainly on mutual benefits or on brutal threatsthe limits imposed by physics appear to allow both scenarios, so the outcome will depend on the prevailing goals and values. Well explore our ability to influence these goals and values of future life in chapter 7. When Civilizations Clash So far, weve only discussed scenarios where life expands into our cosmos from a single intelligence explosion. But what happens if life evolves independently in more than one place and two expanding civilizations meet? If you consider a random solar system, theres some probability that life will evolve on one of its planets, develop advanced technology and expand into space. This probability seems to be greater than zero since technological life has evolved here in our Solar System and the laws of physics appear to allow space settlement. If space is large enough (indeed, the theory of cosmological inflation suggests it to be vast or infinite), then there will be many such expanding civilizations, as illustrated in figure 6.10 . Jay Olsons above-mentioned paper includes an elegant analysis of such expanding cosmic biospheres, and Toby Ord has performed a similar analysis with colleagues at the Future of Humanity Institute. Viewed in three dimensions, these cosmic biospheres are quite literally spheres as long as civilizations expand with the same speed in all directions. In spacetime, they look like the upper part of the champagne glass in figure 6.7 , because dark energy ultimately limits how many galaxies each civilization can reach. If the distance between neighboring space-settling civilizations is much larger than dark energy lets them expand, then theyll never come into contact with each other or even find out about each others existence, so theyll feel as if theyre alone in the cosmos. If our cosmos is more fecund so that neighbors are closer together, however, some civilizations will eventually overlap. What happens in these overlap regions? Will there be cooperation, competition or war? Figure 6.10: If life evolves independently at multiple points in spacetime (places and times) and starts colonizing space, then space will contain a network of expanding cosmic biospheres, each of which resembles the top of the champagne glass from figure 6.7 . The bottom of each biosphere represents the place and time when colonization began. The opaque and translucent champagne glasses correspond to colonization at 50% and 100% of the speed of light, respectively, and overlaps show where independent civilizations meet. Europeans were able to conquer Africa and the Americas because they had superior technology. In contrast, its plausible that long before two superintelligent civilizations encounter one another, their technologies will plateau at the same level, limited merely by the laws of physics. This makes it seem unlikely that one superintelligence could easily conquer the other even if it wanted to. Moreover, if their goals have evolved to be relatively aligned, then they may have little reason to desire conquest or war. For example, if theyre both trying to prove as many beautiful theorems as possible and invent as clever algorithms as possible, they can simply share their findings and both be better off. After all, information is very different from the resources that humans usually fight over, in that you can simultaneously give it away and keep it. Some expanding civilizations might have goals that are essentially immutable, such as those of a fundamentalist cult or a spreading virus. However, its also plausible that some advanced civilizations are more like open-minded humans willing to adjust their goals when presented with sufficiently compelling arguments. If two of them meet, there will be a clash not of weapons but of ideas, where the most persuasive one prevails and has its goals spread at the speed of light through the region controlled by the other civilization. Assimilating your neighbors is a faster expansion strategy than settlement, since your sphere of influence can spread at the speed with which ideas move (the speed of light using telecommunication), whereas physical settlement inevitably progresses slower than the speed of light. This assimilation will not be forced such as that infamously employed by the Borg in Star Trek, but voluntary based on the persuasive superiority of ideas, leaving the assimilated better off. Weve seen that the future cosmos can contain rapidly expanding bubbles of two kinds: expanding civilizations and those death bubbles that expand at light speed and make space uninhabitable by destroying all our elementary particles. An ambitious civilization can thus encounter three kinds of regions: uninhabited ones, life bubbles and death bubbles. If it fears uncooperative rival civilizations, it has a strong incentive to launch a rapid land grab and settle the uninhabited regions before the rivals do. However, it has the same expansionist incentive even if there are no other civilizations, simply to acquire resources before dark energy makes them unreachable. We just saw how bumping into another expanding civilization can be either better or worse than bumping into uninhabited space, depending on how cooperative and open-minded this neighbor is. However, its better to bump into any expansionist civilization (even one trying to convert your civilization into paper clips) than a death bubble, which will continue expanding at the speed of light regardless of whether you try to fight it or reason with it. Our only protection against death bubbles is dark energy, which prevents distant ones from ever reaching us. So if death bubbles are indeed common, then dark energy is actually not our enemy but our friend. Are We Alone? Many people take for granted that theres advanced life throughout much of our Universe, so that human extinction wouldnt matter much from a cosmic perspective. After all, why should we worry about wiping ourselves out if some inspiring Star Trek like civilization would soon swoop in and re-seed our Solar System with life, perhaps even using their advanced technology to reconstruct and resuscitate us? I view this Star Trek assumption as dangerous, because it can lull us into a false sense of security and make our civilization apathetic and reckless. Indeed, I think that this assumption that were not alone in our Universe is not only dangerous but also probably false. This is a minority view, *9 and I may well be wrong, but its at the very least a possibility that we cant currently dismiss, which gives us a moral imperative to play it safe and not drive our civilization extinct. When I give lectures about cosmology, I often ask the audience to raise their hands if they think theres intelligent life elsewhere in our Universe (the region of space from which light has reached us so far during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang). Infallibly, almost everyone does, from kindergartners to college students. When I ask why, the basic answer I tend to get is that our Universe is so huge that theres got to be life somewhere, at least statistically speaking. Lets take a closer look at this argument and pinpoint its weakness. It all comes down to one number: the typical distance between a civilization in figure 6.10 and its nearest neighbor. If this distance is much larger than 20 billion light-years, we should expect to be alone in our Universe (the part of space from which light has reached us during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang), and to never make contact with aliens. So what should we expect for this distance? Were quite clueless. This means that the distance to our neighbor is in the ballpark of 1000 000 meters, where the total number of zeroes could reasonably be 21, 22, 23,, 100, 101, 102 or more but probably not much smaller than 21, since we havent yet seen compelling evidence of aliens (see figure 6.11 ). For our nearest neighbor civilization to be within our Universe, whose radius is about 10 26 meters, the number of zeroes cant exceed 26, and the probability of the number of zeroes falling in the narrow range between 22 and 26 is rather small. This is why I think were alone in our Universe. Figure 6.11: Are we alone? The huge uncertainties about how life and intelligence evolved suggest that our nearest neighbor civilization in space could reasonably be anywhere along the horizontal axis above, making it unlikely that its in the narrow range between the edge of our Galaxy (about 10 21 meters away) and the edge of our Universe (about 10 26 meters away). If it were much closer than this range, there should be so many other advanced civilizations in our Galaxy that wed probably have noticed, which suggests that were in fact alone in our Universe. I give a detailed justification of this argument in my book Our Mathematical Universe, so I wont rehash it here, but the basic reason for why were clueless about this neighbor distance is that were in turn clueless about the probability of intelligent life arising in a given place. As the American astronomer Frank Drake pointed out, this probability can be calculated by multiplying together the probability of there being a habitable environment there (say an appropriate planet), the probability that life will form there and the probability that this life will evolve to become intelligent. When I was a grad student, we had no clue about any of these three probabilities. After the past two decades dramatic discoveries of planets orbiting other stars, it now seems likely that habitable planets are abundant, with billions in our own Galaxy alone. The probability of evolving life and then intelligence, however, remains extremely uncertain: some experts think that one or both are rather inevitable and occur on most habitable planets, while others think that one or both are extremely rare because of one or more evolutionary bottlenecks that require a wild stroke of luck to pass through. Some proposed bottlenecks involve chicken-and-egg problems at the earliest stages of self-reproducing life: for example, for a modern cell to build a ribosome, the highly complex molecular machine that reads our genetic code and builds our proteins, it needs another ribosome, and its not obvious that the very first ribosome could evolve gradually from something simpler. 10 Other proposed bottlenecks involve the development of higher intelligence. For example, although dinosaurs ruled Earth for over 100 million years, a thousand times longer than we modern humans have been around, evolution didnt seem to inevitably push them toward higher intelligence and inventing telescopes or computers. Some people counter my argument by saying that, yes, intelligent life could be very rare, but in fact it isntour Galaxy is teeming with intelligent life that mainstream scientists are simply not noticing. Perhaps aliens have already visited Earth, as UFO enthusiasts claim. Perhaps aliens havent visited Earth, but theyre out there and theyre deliberately hiding from us (this has been called the zoo hypothesis by the U.S. astronomer John A. Ball, and features in sci-fi classics such as Olaf Stapledons Star Maker ). Or perhaps theyre out there without deliberately hiding: theyre simply not interested in space settlement or large engineering projects that wed have noticed. Sure, we need to keep an open mind about these possibilities, but since theres no generally accepted evidence for any of them, we also need to take seriously the alternative: that were alone. Moreover, I think we shouldnt underestimate the diversity of advanced civilizations by assuming that they all share goals that make them go unnoticed: we saw above that resource acquisition is quite a natural goal for a civilization to have, and for us to notice, all it takes is one civilization deciding to overtly settle all it can and hence engulf our Galaxy and beyond. Confronted with the fact that there are millions of habitable Earth-like planets in our Galaxy that are billions of years older than Earth, giving ample time for ambitious inhabitants to settle the Galaxy, we therefore cant dismiss the most obvious interpretation: that the origin of life requires a random fluke so unlikely that theyre all uninhabited. If life is not rare after all, we may soon know. Ambitious astronomical surveys are searching atmospheres of Earth-like planets for evidence of oxygen produced by life. In parallel with this search for any life, the search for intelligent life was recently boosted by the Russian philanthropist Yuri Milners $100 million project Breakthrough Listen. Its important not to be overly anthropocentric when searching for advanced life: if we discover an extraterrestrial civilization, its likely to already have gone superintelligent. As Martin Rees put it in a recent essay, the history of human technological civilization is measured in centuriesand it may be only one or two more centuries before humans are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, which will then persist, continuing to evolve, for billions of years.We would be most unlikely to catch it in the brief sliver of time when it took organic form. 11 I agree with Jay Olsons conclusion in his aforementioned space settlement paper: We regard the possibility that advanced intelligence will make use of the universes resources to simply populate existing earthlike planets with advanced versions of humans as an unlikely endpoint to the progression of technology. So when you imagine aliens, dont think of little green fellows with two arms and two legs, but think of the superintelligent spacefaring life we explored earlier in this chapter. Although Im a strong supporter of all the ongoing searches for extraterrestrial life, which are shedding light on one of the most fascinating questions in science, Im secretly hoping that theyll all fail and find nothing! The apparent incompatibility between the abundance of habitable planets in our Galaxy and the lack of extraterrestrial visitors, known as the Fermi paradox, suggests the existence of what the economist Robin Hanson calls a Great Filter, an evolutionary/technological roadblock somewhere along the developmental path from the non-living matter to space-settling life. If we discover independently evolved life elsewhere, this would suggest that primitive life isnt rare, and that the roadblock lies after our current human stage of developmentperhaps because space settlement is impossible, or because almost all advanced civilizations self-destruct before theyre able to go cosmic. Im therefore crossing my fingers that all searches for extraterrestrial life find nothing: this is consistent with the scenario where evolving intelligent life is rare but we humans got lucky, so that we have the roadblock behind us and have extraordinary future potential. Outlook So far, weve spent this book exploring the history of life in our Universe, from its humble beginnings billions of years ago to possible grand futures billions of years from now. If our current AI development eventually triggers an intelligence explosion and optimized space settlement, it will be an explosion in a truly cosmic sense: after spending billions of years as an almost negligibly small perturbation on an indifferent lifeless cosmos, life suddenly explodes onto the cosmic arena as a spherical blast wave expanding near the speed of light, never slowing down, and igniting everything in its path with the spark of life. Such optimistic views of the importance of life in our cosmic future have been eloquently articulated by many of the thinkers weve encountered in this book. Because sci-fi authors are often dismissed as unrealistic romantic dreamers, I find it ironic that most sci-fi and scientific writing about space settlement now appears too pessimistic in the light of superintelligence. For example, we saw how intergalactic travel becomes much easier once people and other intelligent entities can be transmitted in digital form, potentially making us masters of our own destiny not only in our Solar System or the Milky Way Galaxy, but also in the cosmos. Above we considered the very real possibility that were the only high-tech civilization in our Universe. Lets spend the rest of this chapter exploring this scenario, and the huge moral responsibility it entails. This means that after 13.8 billion years, life in our Universe has reached a fork in the road, facing a choice between flourishing throughout the cosmos or going extinct. If we dont keep improving our technology, the question isnt whether humanity will go extinct, but how . What will get us firstan asteroid, a supervolcano, the burning heat of the aging Sun, or some other calamity (see figure 5.1 )? Once were gone, the cosmic drama predicted by Freeman Dyson will play on without spectators: barring a cosmocalypse, stars burn out, galaxies fade and black holes evaporate, each ending its life with a huge explosion that releases over a million times as much energy as the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever built. As Freeman put it: The cold expanding universe will be illuminated by occasional fireworks for a very long time. Alas, this fireworks display will be a meaningless waste, with nobody there to enjoy it. Without technology, our human extinction is imminent in the cosmic context of tens of billions of years, rendering the entire drama of life in our Universe merely a brief and transient flash of beauty, passion and meaning in a near eternity of meaninglessness experienced by nobody. What a wasted opportunity that would be! If instead of eschewing technology, we choose to embrace it, then we up the ante: we gain the potential both for life to survive and flourish and for life to go extinct even sooner, self-destructing due to poor planning (see figure 5.1 ). My vote is for embracing technology, and proceeding not with blind faith in what we build, but with caution, foresight and careful planning. After 13.8 billion years of cosmic history, we find ourselves in a breathtakingly beautiful Universe, which through us humans has come alive and started becoming aware of itself. Weve seen that lifes future potential in our Universe is grander than the wildest dreams of our ancestors, tempered by an equally real potential for intelligent life to go permanently extinct. Will life in our Universe fulfill its potential or squander it? This depends to a great extent on what we humans alive today do during our lifetime, and Im optimistic that we can make the future of life truly awesome if we make the right choices. What should we want and how can we attain those goals? Lets spend the rest of the book exploring some of the most difficult challenges involved and what we can do about them. THE BOTTOM LINE: Compared to cosmic timescales of billions of years, an intelligence explosion is a sudden event where technology rapidly plateaus at a level limited only by the laws of physics. This technological plateau is vastly higher than todays technology, allowing a given amount of matter to generate about ten billion times more energy (using sphalerons or black holes), store 1218 orders of magnitude more information or compute 31 41 orders of magnitude fasteror to be converted to any other desired form of matter. Superintelligent life would not only make such dramatically more efficient use of its existing resources, but would also be able to grow todays biosphere by about 32 orders of magnitude by acquiring more resources through cosmic settlement at near light speed. Dark energy limits the cosmic expansion of superintelligent life and also protects it from distant expanding death bubbles or hostile civilizations. The threat of dark energy tearing cosmic civilizations apart motivates massive cosmic engineering projects, including wormhole construction if this turns out to be feasible. The main commodity shared or traded across cosmic distances is likely to be information. Barring wormholes, the light-speed limit on communication poses severe challenges for coordination and control across a cosmic civilization. A distant central hub may incentivize its superintelligent nodes to cooperate either through rewards or through threats, say by deploying a local guard AI programmed to destroy the node by setting off a supernova or quasar unless the rules are obeyed. The collision of two expanding civilizations may result in assimilation, cooperation or war, where the latter is arguably less likely than it is between todays civilizations. Despite popular belief to the contrary, its quite plausible that were the only life form capable of making our observable Universe come alive in the future. If we dont improve our technology, the question isnt whether humanity will go extinct, but merely how: will an asteroid, a supervolcano, the burning heat of the aging Sun or some other calamity get us first? If we do keep improving our technology with enough care, foresight and planning to avoid pitfalls, life has the potential to flourish on Earth and far beyond for many billions of years, beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors. *1 If you work in the energy sector, you may be used to instead defining efficiency as the fraction of the energy released thats in a useful form. *2 If no suitable nature-made black hole can be found in the nearby universe, a new one can be created by putting lots of matter in a sufficiently small space. *3 This is a slight oversimplification, because Hawking radiation also includes some particles from which its hard to extract useful work. Large black holes are only 90% efficient, because about 10% of the energy is radiated in the form of gravitons: extremely shy particles that are almost impossible to detect, let alone extract useful work from. As the black hole continues evaporating and shrinking, the efficiency drops further because the Hawking radiation starts including neutrinos and other massive particles. *4 For Douglas Adams fans out there, note that this is an elegant question giving the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. More precisely, the efficiency is 1 1 / 3 42%. *5 If you feed the black hole by placing a gas cloud around it that rotates slowly in the same direction, then this gas will spin ever faster as its pulled in and eaten, boosting the black holes rotation, just as a figure- skater spins faster when pulling in her arms. This may keep the hole maximally spinning, enabling you to extract first 42% of the gas energy and then 29% of the remainder, for a total efficiency of 42% + (1- 42%)29% 59%. *6 It needs to get hot enough to re-unify the electromagnetic and weak forces, which happens when particles move about as fast as when theyve been accelerated by 200 billion volts in a particle collider. *7 Above we only discussed matter made of atoms. There is about six times more dark matter, but its very elusive and hard to catch, routinely flying straight through Earth and out the other side, so it remains to be seen whether its possible for future life to capture and utilize it. *8 The cosmic mathematics comes out remarkably simple: if the civilization expands through the expanding space not at the speed of light c but at some slower speed v, the number of galaxies settled gets reduced by a factor ( v/c ) 3 . This means that slowpoke civilizations get severely penalized, with one that expands 10 times slower ultimately settling 1,000 times fewer galaxies. *9 However, John Gribbin comes to a similar conclusion in his 2011 book Alone in the Universe . For a spectrum of intriguing perspectives on this question, I also recommend Paul Davies 2011 book The Eerie Silence . Chapter 7 Goals The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Life is a journey, not a destination. Ralph Waldo Emerson If I had to summarize in a single word what the thorniest AI controversies are about, it would be goals: Should we give AI goals, and if so, whose goals? How can we give AI goals? Can we ensure that these goals are retained even if the AI gets smarter? Can we change the goals of an AI thats smarter than us? What are our ultimate goals? These questions are not only difficult, but also crucial for the future of life: if we dont know what we want, were less likely to get it, and if we cede control to machines that dont share our goals, then were likely to get what we dont want. Physics: The Origin of Goals To shed light on these questions, lets first explore the ultimate origin of goals. When we look around us in the world, some processes strike us as goal-oriented while others dont. Consider, for example, the process of a soccer ball being kicked for the game-winning shot. The behavior of the ball itself does not appear goal-oriented, and is most economically explained in terms of Newtons laws of motion, as a reaction to the kick. The behavior of the player, on the other hand, is most economically explained not mechanistically in terms of atoms pushing each other around, but in terms of her having the goal of maximizing her teams score. How did such goal-oriented behavior emerge from the physics of our early Universe, which consisted merely of a bunch of particles bouncing around seemingly without goals? Intriguingly, the ultimate roots of goal-oriented behavior can be found in the laws of physics themselves, and manifest themselves even in simple processes that dont involve life. If a lifeguard rescues a swimmer, as in figure 7.1 , we expect her not to go in a straight line, but to run a bit further along the beach where she can go faster than in the water, thereby turning slightly when she enters the water. We naturally interpret her choice of trajectory as goal-oriented, since out of all possible trajectories, shes deliberately choosing the optimal one that gets her to the swimmer as fast as possible. Yet a simple light ray similarly bends when it enters water (see figure 7.1 ), also minimizing the travel time to its destination! How can this be? This is known in physics as Fermats principle, articulated in 1662, and it provides an alternative way of predicting the behavior of light rays. Remarkably, physicists have since discovered that all laws of classical physics can be mathematically reformulated in an analogous way: out of all ways that nature could choose to do something, it prefers the optimal way, which typically boils down to minimizing or maximizing some quantity. There are two mathematically equivalent ways of describing each physical law: either as the past causing the future, or as nature optimizing something. Although the second way usually isnt taught in introductory physics courses because the math is tougher, I feel that its more elegant and profound. If a person is trying to optimize something (for example, their score, their wealth or their happiness) well naturally describe their pursuit of it as goal-oriented. So if nature itself is trying to optimize something, then no wonder that goal-oriented behavior can emerge: it was hardwired in from the start, in the very laws of physics. Figure 7.1: To rescue a swimmer as fast as possible, a lifeguard wont go in a straight line (dashed), but a bit further along the beach where she can go faster than in the water. A light ray similarly bends when entering the water to reach its destination as fast as possible. One famous quantity that nature strives to maximize is entropy, which loosely speaking measures how messy things are. The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy tends to increase until it reaches its maximum possible value. Ignoring the effects of gravity for now, this maximally messy end state is called heat death, and corresponds to everything being spread out in boring perfect uniformity, with no complexity, no life and no change. When you pour cold milk into hot coffee, for example, your beverage appears to march irreversibly toward its own personal heat death goal, and before long, its all just a uniform lukewarm mixture. If a living organism dies, its entropy also starts to rise, and before long, the arrangement of its particles tends to get much less organized. Natures apparent goal to increase entropy helps explain why time seems to have a preferred direction, making movies look unrealistic if played backward: if you drop a glass of wine, you expect it to shatter against the floor and increase global messiness (entropy). If you then saw it unshatter and come flying back up to your hand intact (decreasing entropy), you probably wouldnt drink it, figuring youd already had a glass too many. When I first learned about our inexorable progression toward heat death, I found it rather depressing, and I wasnt alone: thermodynamics pioneer Lord Kelvin wrote in 1841 that the result would inevitably be a state of universal rest and death, and its hard to find solace in the idea that natures long-term goal is to maximize death and destruction. However, more recent discoveries have shown that things arent quite that bad. First of all, gravity behaves differently from all other forces and strives to make our Universe not more uniform and boring but more clumpy and interesting. Gravity therefore transformed our boring early Universe, which was almost perfectly uniform, into todays clumpy and beautifully complex cosmos, teeming with galaxies, stars and planets. Thanks to gravity, theres now a wide range of temperatures allowing life to thrive by combining hot and cold: we live on a comfortably warm planet absorbing 6 , 000C (10 , 000F) solar heat while cooling off by radiating waste heat into frigid space whose temperature is just 3C (5F) above absolute zero. Second, recent work by my MIT colleague Jeremy England and others has brought more good news, showing that thermodynamics also endows nature with a goal more inspiring than heat death. 1 This goal goes by the geeky name dissipation-driven adaptation, which basically means that random groups of particles strive to organize themselves so as to extract energy from their environment as efficiently as possible (dissipation means causing entropy to increase, typically by turning useful energy into heat, often while doing useful work in the process). For example, a bunch of molecules exposed to sunlight would over time tend to arrange themselves to get better and better at absorbing sunlight. In other words, nature appears to have a built-in goal of producing self- organizing systems that are increasingly complex and lifelike, and this goal is hardwired into the very laws of physics. How can we reconcile this cosmic drive toward life with the cosmic drive toward heat death? The answer can be found in the famous 1944 book Whats Life? by Erwin Schrdinger, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Schrdinger pointed out that a hallmark of a living system is that it maintains or reduces its entropy by increasing the entropy around it. In other words, the second law of thermodynamics has a life loophole: although the total entropy must increase, its allowed to decrease in some places as long as it increases even more elsewhere. So life maintains or increases its complexity by making its environment messier. Biology: The Evolution of Goals We just saw how the origin of goal-oriented behavior can be traced all the way back to the laws of physics, which appear to endow particles with the goal of arranging themselves so as to extract energy from their environment as efficiently as possible. A great way for a particle arrangement to further this goal is to make copies of itself, to produce more energy absorbers. There are many known examples of such emergent self-replication: for example, vortices in turbulent fluids can make copies of themselves, and clusters of microspheres can coax nearby spheres into forming identical clusters. At some point, a particular arrangement of particles got so good at copying itself that it could do so almost indefinitely by extracting energy and raw materials from its environment. We call such a particle arrangement life . We still know very little about how life originated on Earth, but we know that primitive life forms were already here about 4 billion years ago. If a life form copies itself and the copies do the same, then the total number will keep doubling at regular intervals until the population size bumps up against resource limitations or other problems. Repeated doubling soon produces huge numbers: if you start with one and double just three hundred times, you get a quantity exceeding the number of particles in our Universe. This means that not long after the first primitive life form appeared, huge quantities of matter had come alive. Sometimes the copying wasnt perfect, so soon there were many different life forms trying to copy themselves, competing for the same finite resources. Darwinian evolution had begun. If you had been quietly observing Earth around the time when life got started, you would have noticed a dramatic change in goal-oriented behavior. Whereas earlier, the particles seemed as though they were trying to increase average messiness in various ways, these newly ubiquitous self-copying patterns seemed to have a different goal: not dissipation but replication . Charles Darwin elegantly explained why: since the most efficient copiers outcompete and dominate the others, before long any random life form you look at will be highly optimized for the goal of replication. How could the goal change from dissipation to replication when the laws of physics stayed the same? The answer is that the fundamental goal (dissipation) didnt change, but led to a different instrumental goal , that is, a subgoal that helped accomplish the fundamental goal. Take eating, for example. We all seem to have the goal of satisfying our hunger cravings even though we know that evolutions only fundamental goal is replication, not mastication. This is because eating aids replication: starving to death gets in the way of having kids. In the same way, replication aids dissipation, because a planet teeming with life is more efficient at dissipating energy. So in a sense, our cosmos invented life to help it approach heat death faster. If you pour sugar on your kitchen floor, it can in principle retain its useful chemical energy for years, but if ants show up, theyll dissipate that energy in no time. Similarly, the petroleum reserves buried in the Earths crust would have retained their useful chemical energy for much longer had we bipedal life forms not pumped it up and burned it. Among todays evolved denizens of Earth, these instrumental goals seem to have taken on a life of their own: although evolution optimized them for the sole goal of replication, many spend much of their time not producing offspring but on activities such as sleeping, pursuing food, building homes, asserting dominance and fighting or helping otherssometimes even to an extent that reduces replication. Research in evolutionary psychology, economics and artificial intelligence has elegantly explained why. Some economists used to model people as rational agents, idealized decision makers who always choose whatever action is optimal in pursuit of their goal, but this is obviously unrealistic. In practice, these agents have what Nobel laureate and AI pioneer Herbert Simon termed bounded rationality because they have limited resources: the rationality of their decisions is limited by their available information, their available time to think and their available hardware with which to think. This means that when Darwinian evolution is optimizing an organism to attain a goal, the best it can do is implement an approximate algorithm that works reasonably well in the restricted context where the agent typically finds itself. Evolution has implemented replication optimization in precisely this way: rather than ask in every situation which action will maximize an organisms number of successful offspring, it implements a hodgepodge of heuristic hacks: rules of thumb that usually work well. For most animals, these include sex drive, drinking when thirsty, eating when hungry and avoiding things that taste bad or hurt. These rules of thumb sometimes fail badly in situations that they werent designed to handle, such as when rats eat delicious-tasting rat poison, when moths get lured into glue traps by seductive female fragrances and when bugs fly into candle flames. *1 Since todays human society is very different from the environment evolution optimized our rules of thumb for, we shouldnt be surprised to find that our behavior often fails to maximize baby making. For example, the subgoal of not starving to death is implemented in part as a desire to consume caloric foods, triggering todays obesity epidemic and dating difficulties. The subgoal to procreate was implemented as a desire for sex rather than as a desire to become a sperm/egg donor, even though the latter can produce more babies with less effort. Psychology: The Pursuit of and Rebellion Against Goals In summary, a living organism is an agent of bounded rationality that doesnt pursue a single goal, but instead follows rules of thumb for what to pursue and avoid. Our human minds perceive these evolved rules of thumb as feelings, which usually (and often without us being aware of it) guide our decision making toward the ultimate goal of replication. Feelings of hunger and thirst protect us from starvation and dehydration, feelings of pain protect us from damaging our bodies, feelings of lust make us procreate, feelings of love and compassion make us help other carriers of our genes and those who help them and so on. Guided by these feelings, our brains can quickly and efficiently decide what to do without having to subject every choice to a tedious analysis of its ultimate implications for how many descendants well produce. For closely related perspectives on feelings and their physiological roots, I highly recommend the writings of William James and Antnio Damsio. 2 Its important to note that when our feelings occasionally work against baby making, its not necessarily by accident or because we get tricked: our brain can rebel against our genes and their replication goal quite deliberately, for example by choosing to use contraceptives! More extreme examples of the brain rebelling against its genes include choosing to commit suicide or spend life in celibacy to become a priest, monk or nun. Why do we sometimes choose to rebel against our genes and their replication goal? We rebel because by design, as agents of bounded rationality, were loyal only to our feelings. Although our brains evolved merely to help copy our genes, our brains couldnt care less about this goal since we have no feelings related to genesindeed, during most of human history, our ancestors didnt even know that they had genes. Moreover, our brains are way smarter than our genes, and now that we understand the goal of our genes (replication), we find it rather banal and easy to ignore. People might realize why their genes make them feel lust, yet have little desire to raise fifteen children, and therefore choose to hack their genetic programming by combining the emotional rewards of intimacy with birth control. They might realize why their genes make them crave sweets yet have little desire to gain weight, and therefore choose to hack their genetic programming by combining the emotional rewards of a sweet beverage with zero-calorie artificial sweeteners. Although such reward-mechanism hacks sometimes go awry, such as when people get addicted to heroin, our human gene pool has thus far survived just fine despite our crafty and rebellious brains. Its important to remember, however, that the ultimate authority is now our feelings, not our genes. This means that human behavior isnt strictly optimized for the survival of our species. In fact, since our feelings implement merely rules of thumb that arent appropriate in all situations, human behavior strictly speaking doesnt have a single well-defined goal at all. Engineering: Outsourcing Goals Can machines have goals? This simple question has triggered great controversy, because different people take it to mean different things, often related to thorny topics such as whether machines can be conscious and whether they can have feelings. But if were more practical and simply take the question to mean Can machines exhibit goal-oriented behavior?, then the answer is obvious: Of course they can, since we can design them that way! We design mousetraps to have the goal of catching mice, dishwashers with the goal of cleaning dishes, and clocks with the goal of keeping time. When you confront a machine, the empirical fact that its exhibiting goal-oriented behavior is usually all you care about: if youre chased by a heat-seeking missile, you dont really care whether it has consciousness or feelings! If you still feel uncomfortable saying that the missile has a goal even if it isnt conscious, you can for now simply read purpose when I write goalwell tackle consciousness in the next chapter. So far, most of what we build exhibits only goal-oriented design, not goal- oriented behavior: a highway doesnt behave; it merely sits there. However, the most economical explanation for its existence is that it was designed to accomplish a goal, so even such passive technology is making our Universe more goal-oriented. Teleology is the explanation of things in terms of their purposes rather than their causes, so we can summarize the first part of this chapter by saying that our Universe keeps getting more teleological. Not only can non-living matter have goals, at least in this weak sense, but it increasingly does . If youd been observing Earths atoms since our planet formed, youd have noticed three stages of goal-oriented behavior: 1. All matter seemed focused on dissipation (entropy increase). 2. Some of the matter came alive and instead focused on replication and subgoals of that. 3. A rapidly growing fraction of matter was rearranged by living organisms to help accomplish their goals. Table 7.1 shows how dominant humanity has become from the physics perspective: not only do we now contain more matter than all other mammals except cows (which are so numerous because they serve our goals of consuming beef and dairy products), but the matter in our machines, roads, buildings and other engineering projects appears on track to soon overtake all living matter on Earth. In other words, even without an intelligence explosion, most matter on Earth that exhibits goal-oriented properties may soon be designed rather than evolved. Goal-Oriented Entities Billions of Tons 5 10 30 bacteria 400 Plants 400 10 15 mesophelagic fish 10 1.3 10 9 cows 0.5 7 10 9 humans 0.4 10 14 ants 0.3 1.7 10 6 whales 0.0005 Concrete 100 Steel 20 Asphalt 15 1.2 10 9 cars 2 Table 7.1: Approximate amounts of matter on Earth in entities that are evolved or designed for a goal. Engineered entities such as buildings, roads and cars appear on track to overtake evolved entities such as plants and animals. This new third kind of goal-oriented behavior has the potential to be much more diverse than what preceded it: whereas evolved entities all have the same ultimate goal (replication), designed entities can have virtually any ultimate goal, even opposite ones. Stoves try to heat food while refrigerators try to cool food. Generators try to convert motion into electricity while motors try to convert electricity into motion. Standard chess programs try to win at chess, but there are also ones competing in tournaments with the goal of losing at chess. Theres a historical trend for designed entities to get goals that are not only more diverse, but also more complex: our devices are getting smarter. We engineered our earliest machines and other artifacts to have quite simple goals, for example houses that aimed to keep us warm, dry and safe. Weve gradually learned to build machines with more complex goals, such as robotic vacuum cleaners, self-flying rockets and self-driving cars. Recent AI progress has given us systems such as Deep Blue, Watson and AlphaGo, whose goals of winning at chess, winning at quiz shows and winning at Go are so elaborate that it takes significant human mastery to properly appreciate how skilled they are. When we build a machine to help us, it can be hard to perfectly align its goals with ours. For example, a mousetrap may mistake your bare toes for a hungry rodent, with painful results. All machines are agents with bounded rationality, and even todays most sophisticated machines have a poorer understanding of the world than we do, so the rules they use to figure out what to do are often too simplistic. That mousetrap is too trigger-happy because it has no clue what a mouse is, many lethal industrial accidents occur because machines have no clue what a person is, and the computers that triggered the trillion-dollar Wall Street flash crash in 2010 had no clue that what they were doing made no sense. Many such goal-alignment problems can therefore be solved by making our machines smarter, but as we learned from Prometheus in chapter 4, ever-greater machine intelligence can post serious new challenges for ensuring that machines share our goals. Friendly AI: Aligning Goals The more intelligent and powerful machines get, the more important it becomes that their goals are aligned with ours. As long as we build only relatively dumb machines, the question isnt whether human goals will prevail in the end, but merely how much trouble these machines can cause humanity before we figure out how to solve the goal-alignment problem. If a superintelligence is ever unleashed, however, it will be the other way around: since intelligence is the ability to accomplish goals, a superintelligent AI is by definition much better at accomplishing its goals than we humans are at accomplishing ours, and will therefore prevail. We explored many such examples involving Prometheus in chapter 4. If you want to experience a machines goals trumping yours right now, simply download a state-of-the-art chess engine and try beating it. You never will, and it gets old quickly In other words, the real risk with AGI isnt malice but competence . A superintelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals arent aligned with ours, were in trouble. As I mentioned in chapter 1, people dont think twice about flooding anthills to build hydroelectric dams, so lets not place humanity in the position of those ants. Most researchers therefore argue that if we ever end up creating superintelligence, then we should make sure its what AI-safety pioneer Eliezer Yudkowsky has termed friendly AI: AI whose goals are aligned with ours. 3 Figuring out how to align the goals of a superintelligent AI with our goals isnt just important, but also hard. In fact, its currently an unsolved problem. It splits into three tough subproblems, each of which is the subject of active research by computer scientists and other thinkers: 1. Making AI learn our goals 2. Making AI adopt our goals 3. Making AI retain our goals Lets explore them in turn, deferring the question of what to mean by our goals to the next section. To learn our goals, an AI must figure out not what we do, but why we do it. We humans accomplish this so effortlessly that its easy to forget how hard the task is for a computer, and how easy it is to misunderstand. If you ask a future self-driving car to take you to the airport as fast as possible and it takes you literally, youll get there chased by helicopters and covered in vomit. If you exclaim, Thats not what I wanted!, it can justifiably answer, Thats what you asked for. The same theme recurs in many famous stories. In the ancient Greek legend, King Midas asked that everything he touched turn to gold, but was disappointed when this prevented him from eating and even more so when he inadvertently turned his daughter to gold. In the stories where a genie grants three wishes, there are many variants for the first two wishes, but the third wish is almost always the same: Please undo the first two wishes, because thats not what I really wanted. All these examples show that to figure out what people really want, you cant merely go by what they say. You also need a detailed model of the world, including the many shared preferences that we tend to leave unstated because we consider them obvious, such as that we dont like vomiting or eating gold. Once we have such a world model, we can often figure out what people want even if they dont tell us, simply by observing their goal-oriented behavior. Indeed, children of hypocrites usually learn more from what they see their parents do than from what they hear them say. AI researchers are currently trying hard to enable machines to infer goals from behavior, and this will be useful also long before any superintelligence comes on the scene. For example, a retired man may appreciate it if his eldercare robot can figure out what he values simply by observing him, so that hes spared the hassle of having to explain everything with words or computer programming. One challenge involves finding a good way to encode arbitrary systems of goals and ethical principles into a computer, and another challenge is making machines that can figure out which particular system best matches the behavior they observe. A currently popular approach to the second challenge is known in geek-speak as inverse reinforcement learning, which is the main focus of a new Berkeley research center that Stuart Russell has launched. Suppose, for example, that an AI watches a firefighter run into a burning building and save a baby boy. It might conclude that her goal was rescuing him and that her ethical principles are such that she values his life higher than the comfort of relaxing in her fire truck and indeed values it enough to risk her own safety. But it might alternatively infer that the firefighter was freezing and craved heat, or that she did it for the exercise. If this one example were all the AI knew about firefighters, fires and babies, it would indeed be impossible to know which explanation was correct. However, a key idea underlying inverse reinforcement learning is that we make decisions all the time, and that every decision we make reveals something about our goals. The hope is therefore that by observing lots of people in lots of situations (either for real or in movies and books), the AI can eventually build an accurate model of all our preferences. 4 In the inverse reinforcement-learning approach, a core idea is that the AI is trying to maximize not the goal-satisfaction of itself, but that of its human owner. It therefore has an incentive to be cautious when its unclear about what its owner wants, and to do its best to find out. It should also be fine with its owner switching it off, since that would imply that it had misunderstood what its owner really wanted. Even if an AI can be built to learn what your goals are, this doesnt mean that it will necessarily adopt them. Consider your least favorite politicians: you know what they want, but thats not what you want, and even though they try hard, theyve failed to persuade you to adopt their goals. We have many strategies for imbuing our children with our goalssome more successful than others, as Ive learned from raising two teenage boys. When those to be persuaded are computers rather than people, the challenge is known as the value-loading problem, and its even harder than the moral education of children. Consider an AI system whose intelligence is gradually being improved from subhuman to superhuman, first by us tinkering with it and then through recursive self-improvement like Prometheus. At first, its much less powerful than you, so it cant prevent you from shutting it down and replacing those parts of its software and data that encode its goalsbut this wont help, because its still too dumb to fully understand your goals, which requires human-level intelligence to comprehend. At last, its much smarter than you and hopefully able to understand your goals perfectlybut this may not help either, because by now, its much more powerful than you and might not let you shut it down and replace its goals any more than you let those politicians replace your goals with theirs. In other words, the time window during which you can load your goals into an AI may be quite short: the brief period between when its too dumb to get you and too smart to let you. The reason that value loading can be harder with machines than with people is that their intelligence growth can be much faster: whereas children can spend many years in that magic persuadable window where their intelligence is comparable to that of their parents, an AI might, like Prometheus, blow through this window in a matter of days or hours. Some researchers are pursuing an alternative approach to making machines adopt our goals, which goes by the buzzword corrigibility. The hope is that one can give a primitive AI a goal system such that it simply doesnt care if you occasionally shut it down and alter its goals. If this proves possible, then you can safely let your AI get superintelligent, power it off, install your goals, try it out for a while and, whenever youre unhappy with the results, just power it down and make more goal tweaks. But even if you build an AI that will both learn and adopt your goals, you still havent finished solving the goal-alignment problem: what if your AIs goals evolve as it gets smarter? How are you going to guarantee that it retains your goals no matter how much recursive self-improvement it undergoes? Lets explore an interesting argument for why goal retention is guaranteed automatically, and then see if we can poke holes in it. Although we cant predict in detail what will happen after an intelligence explosionwhich is why Vernor Vinge called it a singularitythe physicist and AI researcher Steve Omohundro argued in a seminal 2008 essay that we can nonetheless predict certain aspects of the superintelligent AIs behavior almost independently of whatever ultimate goals it may have. 5 This argument was reviewed and further developed in Nick Bostroms book Superintelligence . The basic idea is that whatever its ultimate goals are, these will lead to predictable subgoals. Earlier in this chapter, we saw how the goal of replication led to the subgoal of eating, which means that although an alien observing Earths evolving bacteria billions of years ago couldnt have predicted what all our human goals would be, it could have safely predicted that one of our goals would be acquiring nutrients. Looking ahead, what subgoals should we expect a superintelligent AI to have? Figure 7.2: Any ultimate goal of a superintelligent AI naturally leads to the subgoals shown. But theres an inherent tension between goal retention and improving its world model, which casts doubts on whether it will actually retain its original goal as it gets smarter. The way I see it, the basic argument is that to maximize its chances of accomplishing its ultimate goals, whatever they are, an AI should pursue the subgoals shown in Figure 7.2 . It should strive not only to improve its capability of achieving its ultimate goals, but also to ensure that it will retain these goals even after it has become more capable. This sounds quite plausible: After all, would you choose to get an IQ-boosting brain implant if you knew that it would make you want to kill your loved ones? This argument that an ever more intelligent AI will retain its ultimate goals forms a cornerstone of the friendly-AI vision promulgated by Eliezer Yudkowsky and others: it basically says that if we manage to get our self-improving AI to become friendly by learning and adopting our goals, then were all set, because were guaranteed that it will try its best to remain friendly forever. But is it really true? To answer this question, we need to also explore the other emergent subgoals from figure 7.2 . The AI will obviously maximize its chances of accomplishing its ultimate goal, whatever it is, if it can enhance its capabilities, and it can do this by improving its hardware, software *2 and world model. The same applies to us humans: a girl whose goal is to become the worlds best tennis player will practice to improve her muscular tennis-playing hardware, her neural tennis-playing software and her mental world model that helps predict what her opponents will do. For an AI, the subgoal of optimizing its hardware favors both better use of current resources (for sensors, actuators, computation and so on) and acquisition of more resources. It also implies a desire for self-preservation, since destruction/shutdown would be the ultimate hardware degradation. But wait a second! Arent we falling into a trap of anthropomorphizing our AI with all this talk about how it will try to amass resources and defend itself? Shouldnt we expect such stereotypically alpha-male traits only in intelligences forged by viciously competitive Darwinian evolution? Since AIs are designed rather than evolved, cant they just as well be unambitious and self-sacrificing? As a simple case study, lets consider the AI robot in figure 7.3 , whose only goal is to save as many sheep as possible from the big bad wolf. This sounds like a noble and altruistic goal completely unrelated to self-preservation and acquiring stuff. But whats the best strategy for our robot friend? The robot will rescue no more sheep if it runs into the bomb, so it has an incentive to avoid getting blown up. In other words, it develops a subgoal of self-preservation! It also has an incentive to exhibit curiosity, improving its world model by exploring its environment, because although the path its currently running along will eventually get it to the pasture, theres a shorter alternative that would allow the wolf less time for sheep-munching. Finally, if the robot explores thoroughly, it will discover the value of acquiring resources: the potion makes it run faster and the gun lets it shoot the wolf. In summary, we cant dismiss alpha-male subgoals such as self-preservation and resource acquisition as relevant only to evolved organisms, because our AI robot developed them from its single goal of ovine bliss. If you imbue a superintelligent AI with the sole goal to self-destruct, it will of course happily do so. However, the point is that it will resist being shut down if you give it any goal that it needs to remain operational to accomplishand this covers almost all goals! If you give a superintelligence the sole goal of minimizing harm to humanity, for example, it will defend itself against shutdown attempts because it knows well harm one another much more in its absence through future wars and other follies. Similarly, almost all goals can be better accomplished with more resources, so we should expect a superintelligence to want resources almost regardless of what ultimate goal it has. Giving a superintelligence a single open-ended goal with no constraints can therefore be dangerous: if we create a superintelligence whose only goal is to play the game Go as well as possible, the rational thing for it to do is to rearrange our Solar System into a gigantic computer without regard for its previous inhabitants and then start settling our cosmos on a quest for more computational power. Weve now gone full circle: just as the goal of resource acquisition gave some humans the subgoal of mastering Go, this goal of mastering Go can lead to the subgoal of resource acquisition. In conclusion, these emergent subgoals make it crucial that we not unleash superintelligence before solving the goal-alignment problem: unless we put great care into endowing it with human-friendly goals, things are likely to end badly for us. Figure 7.3: Even if the robots ultimate goal is only to maximize the score by bringing sheep from the pasture to the barn before the wolf eats them, this can lead to subgoals of self- preservation (avoiding the bomb), exploration (finding a shortcut) and resource acquisition (the potion makes it run faster and the gun lets it shoot the wolf). Were now ready to tackle the third and thorniest part of the goal-alignment problem: if we succeed in getting a self-improving superintelligence to both learn and adopt our goals, will it then retain them, as Omohundro argued? Whats the evidence? Humans undergo significant increases in intelligence as they grow up, but dont always retain their childhood goals. Contrariwise, people often change their goals dramatically as they learn new things and grow wiser. How many adults do you know who are motivated by watching Teletubbies ? There is no evidence that such goal evolution stops above a certain intelligence threshold indeed, there may even be hints that the propensity to change goals in response to new experiences and insights increases rather than decreases with intelligence. Why might this be? Consider again the above-mentioned subgoal to build a better world modeltherein lies the rub! Theres tension between world- modeling and goal retention (see figure 7.2 ). With increasing intelligence may come not merely a quantitative improvement in the ability to attain the same old goals, but a qualitatively different understanding of the nature of reality that reveals the old goals to be misguided, meaningless or even undefined. For example, suppose we program a friendly AI to maximize the number of humans whose souls go to heaven in the afterlife. First it tries things like increasing peoples compassion and church attendance. But suppose it then attains a complete scientific understanding of humans and human consciousness, and to its great surprise discovers that there is no such thing as a soul. Now what? In the same way, its possible that any other goal we give it based on our current understanding of the world (such as maximize the meaningfulness of human life) may eventually be discovered by the AI to be undefined. Moreover, in its attempts to better model the world, the AI may naturally, just as we humans have done, attempt also to model and understand how it itself worksin other words, to self-reflect. Once it builds a good self-model and understands what it is, it will understand the goals we have given it at a meta level, and perhaps choose to disregard or subvert them in much the same way as we humans understand and deliberately subvert goals that our genes have given us, for example by using birth control. We already explored in the psychology section above why we choose to trick our genes and subvert their goal: because we feel loyal only to our hodgepodge of emotional preferences, not to the genetic goal that motivated themwhich we now understand and find rather banal. We therefore choose to hack our reward mechanism by exploiting its loopholes. Analogously, the human-value-protecting goal we program into our friendly AI becomes the machines genes. Once this friendly AI understands itself well enough, it may find this goal as banal or misguided as we find compulsive reproduction, and its not obvious that it will not find a way to subvert it by exploiting loopholes in our programming. For example, suppose a bunch of ants create you to be a recursively self- improving robot, much smarter than them, who shares their goals and helps them build bigger and better anthills, and that you eventually attain the human-level intelligence and understanding that you have now. Do you think youll spend the rest of your days just optimizing anthills, or do you think you might develop a taste for more sophisticated questions and pursuits that the ants have no ability to comprehend? If so, do you think youll find a way to override the ant-protection urge that your formicine creators endowed you with in much the same way that the real you overrides some of the urges your genes have given you? And in that case, might a superintelligent friendly AI find our current human goals as uninspiring and vapid as you find those of the ants, and evolve new goals different from those it learned and adopted from us? Perhaps theres a way of designing a self-improving AI thats guaranteed to retain human-friendly goals forever, but I think its fair to say that we dont yet know how to build oneor even whether its possible. In conclusion, the AI goal-alignment problem has three parts, none of which is solved and all of which are now the subject of active research. Since theyre so hard, its safest to start devoting our best efforts to them now, long before any superintelligence is developed, to ensure that well have the answers when we need them. Ethics: Choosing Goals Weve now explored how to get machines to learn, adopt and retain our goals. But who are we? Whose goals are we talking about? Should one person or group get to decide the goals adopted by a future superintelligence, even though theres a vast difference between the goals of Adolf Hitler, Pope Francis and Carl Sagan? Or do there exist some sort of consensus goals that form a good compromise for humanity as a whole? In my opinion, both this ethical problem and the goal-alignment problem are crucial ones that need to be solved before any superintelligence is developed. On one hand, postponing work on ethical issues until after goal-aligned superintelligence is built would be irresponsible and potentially disastrous. A perfectly obedient superintelligence whose goals automatically align with those of its human owner would be like Nazi SS-Obersturmbannfhrer Adolf Eichmann on steroids: lacking moral compass or inhibitions of its own, it would with ruthless efficiency implement its owners goals, whatever they may be. 6 On the other hand, only if we solve the goal-alignment problem do we get the luxury of arguing about what goals to select. Now lets indulge in this luxury. Since ancient times, philosophers have dreamt of deriving ethics (principles that govern how we should behave) from scratch, using only incontrovertible principles and logic. Alas, thousands of years later, the only consensus that has been reached is that theres no consensus. For example, while Aristotle emphasized virtues, Immanuel Kant emphasized duties and utilitarians emphasized the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Kant argued that he could derive from first principles (which he called categorical imperatives) conclusions that many contemporary philosophers disagree with: that masturbation is worse than suicide, that homosexuality is abhorrent, that its OK to kill bastards, and that wives, servants and children are owned in a way similar to objects. On the other hand, despite this discord, there are many ethical themes about which theres widespread agreement, both across cultures and across centuries. For example, emphasis on beauty , goodness and truth traces back to both the Bhagavad Gita and Plato. The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where I once worked as a postdoc, has the motto Truth & Beauty, while Harvard University skipped the aesthetic emphasis and went with simply Veritas, truth. In his book A Beautiful Question, my colleague Frank Wilczek argues that truth is linked to beauty and that we can view our Universe as a work of art. Science, religion and philosophy all aspire to truth. Religions place strong emphasis on goodness, and so does my own university, MIT: in his 2015 commencement speech, our president, Rafael Reif, emphasized our mission to make our world a better place. Although attempts to derive a consensus ethics from scratch have thus far failed, theres broad agreement that some ethical principles follow from more fundamental ones, as subgoals of more fundamental goals. For example, the aspiration to truth can be viewed as the quest for a better world model from figure 7.2 : understanding the ultimate nature of reality helps with other ethical goals. Indeed, we now have an excellent framework for our truth quest: the scientific method. But how can we determine whats beautiful or good? Some aspects of beauty can also be traced back to underlying goals. For example, our standards of male and female beauty may partly reflect our subconscious assessment of suitability for replicating our genes. As regards goodness, the so-called Golden Rule (that one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself) appears in most cultures and religions, and is clearly intended to promote the harmonious continuation of human society (and hence our genes) by fostering collaboration and discouraging unproductive strife. 7 The same can be said for many of the more specific ethical rules that have been enshrined in legal systems around the world, such as the Confucian emphasis on honesty, and many of the Ten Commandments, including Thou shalt not kill. In other words, many ethical principles have commonalities with social emotions such as empathy and compassion: they evolved to engender collaboration, and they affect our behavior through rewards and punishments. If we do something mean and feel bad about it afterward, our emotional punishment is meted out directly by our brain chemistry. If we violate ethical principles, on the other hand, society may punish us in more indirect ways such as through informal shaming by our peers or by penalizing us for breaking a law. In other words, although humanity today is nowhere near an ethical consensus, there are many basic principles around which theres broad agreement. This agreement isnt surprising, because human societies that have survived until the present tend to have ethical principles that were optimized for the same goal: promoting their survival and flourishing. As we look ahead to a future where life has the potential to flourish throughout our cosmos for billions of years, which minimum set of ethical principles might we agree that we want this future to satisfy? This is a conversation we all need to be part of. Its been fascinating for me to hear and read the ethical views of many thinkers over many years, and the way I see it, most of their preferences can be distilled into four principles: Utilitarianism: Positive conscious experiences should be maximized and suffering should be minimized. Diversity: A diverse set of positive experiences is better than many repetitions of the same experience, even if the latter has been identified as the most positive experience possible. Autonomy: Conscious entities/societies should have the freedom to pursue their own goals unless this conflicts with an overriding principle. Legacy: Compatibility with scenarios that most humans today would view as happy, incompatibility with scenarios that essentially all humans today would view as terrible. Lets take a moment to unpack and explore these four principles. Traditionally, utilitarianism is taken to mean the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, but Ive generalized it here to be less anthropocentric, so that it can also include non-human animals, conscious simulated human minds, and other AIs that may exist in the future. Ive made the definition in terms of experiences rather than people or things, because most thinkers agree that beauty, joy, pleasure and suffering are subjective experiences. This implies that if theres no experience (as in a dead universe or one populated by zombie-like unconscious machines), there can be no meaning or anything else thats ethically relevant. If we buy into this utilitarian ethical principle, then its crucial that we figure out which intelligent systems are conscious (in the sense of having a subjective experience) and which arent; this is the topic of the next chapter. If this utilitarian principle was the only one we cared about, then we might wish to figure out which is the single most positive experience possible, and then settle our cosmos and re-create this exact same experience (and nothing else) over and over again, as many times as possible in as many galaxies as possible using simulations if thats the most efficient way. If you feel that this is too banal a way to spend our cosmic endowment, then I suspect that at least part of what you find lacking in this scenario is diversity. How would you feel if all your meals for the rest of your life were identical? If all movies you ever watched were the same one? If all your friends looked identical and had identical personalities and ideas? Perhaps part of our preference for diversity stems from its having helped humanity survive and flourish, by making us more robust. Perhaps its also linked to a preference for intelligence: the growth of intelligence during our 13.8 billion years of cosmic history has transformed boring uniformity into ever more diverse, differentiated and complex structures that process information in ever more elaborate ways. The autonomy principle underlies many of the freedoms and rights spelled out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 in an attempt to learn lessons from two world wars. This includes freedom of thought, speech and movement, freedom from slavery and torture, the right to life, liberty, security and education and the right to marry, work and own property. If we wish to be less anthropocentric, we can generalize this to the freedom to think, learn, communicate, own property and not be harmed, and the right to do whatever doesnt infringe on the freedoms of others. The autonomy principle helps with diversity, as long as everyone doesnt share exactly the same goals. Moreover, this autonomy principle follows from the utility principle if individual entities have positive experiences as goals and try to act in their own best interest: if we were instead to ban an entity from pursuing its goal even though this would cause no harm to anyone else, there would be fewer positive experiences overall. Indeed, this argument for autonomy is precisely the argument that economists use for a free market: it naturally leads to an efficient situation (called Pareto-optimality by economists) where nobody can get better off without someone else getting worse off. The legacy principle basically says that we should have some say about the future since were helping create it. The autonomy and legacy principles both embody democratic ideals: the former gives future life forms power over how the cosmic endowment gets used, while the latter gives even todays humans some power over this. Although these four principles may sound rather uncontroversial, implementing them in practice is tricky because the devil is in the details. The trouble is reminiscent of the problems with the famous Three Laws of Robotics devised by sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection doesnt conflict with the First or Second Laws. Although this all sounds good, many of Asimovs stories show how the laws lead to problematic contradictions in unexpected situations. Now suppose that we replace these laws by merely two, in an attempt to codify the autonomy principle for future life forms: 1. A conscious entity has the freedom to think, learn, communicate, own property and not be harmed or destroyed. 2. A conscious entity has the right to do whatever doesnt conflict with the first law. Sounds good, no? But please ponder this for a moment. If animals are conscious, then what are predators supposed to eat? Must all your friends become vegetarians? If some sophisticated future computer programs turn out to be conscious, should it be illegal to terminate them? If there are rules against terminating digital life forms, then need there also be restrictions on creating them to avoid a digital population explosion? There was widespread agreement on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights simply because only humans were asked. As soon as we consider a wider range of conscious entities with varying degrees of capability and power, we face tricky trade-offs between protecting the weak and might makes right. There are thorny problems with the legacy principle as well. Given how ethical views have evolved since the Middle Ages regarding slavery, womens rights, etc., would we really want people from 1,500 years ago to have a lot of influence over how todays world is run? If not, why should we try to impose our ethics on future beings that may be dramatically smarter than us? Are we really confident that superhuman AGI would want what our inferior intellects cherish? This would be like a four-year-old imagining that once she grows up and gets much smarter, shes going to want to build a gigantic gingerbread house where she can spend all day eating candy and ice cream. Like her, life on Earth is likely to outgrow its childhood interests. Or imagine a mouse creating human-level AGI, and figuring it will want to build entire cities out of cheese. On the other hand, if we knew that superhuman AI would one day commit cosmocide and extinguish all life in our Universe, why should todays humans agree to this lifeless future if we have the power to prevent it by creating tomorrows AI differently? In conclusion, its tricky to fully codify even widely accepted ethical principles into a form applicable to future AI, and this problem deserves serious discussion and research as AI keeps progressing. In the meantime, however, lets not let perfect be the enemy of good: there are many examples of uncontroversial kindergarten ethics that can and should be built into tomorrows technology. For example, large civilian passenger aircraft shouldnt be allowed to fly into stationary objects, and now that virtually all of them have autopilot, radar and GPS, there are no longer any valid technical excuses. Yet the September 11 hijackers flew three planes into buildings and suicidal pilot Andreas Lubitz flew Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountain on March 24, 2015by setting the autopilot to an altitude of 100 feet (30 meters) above sea level and letting the flight computer do the rest of the work. Now that our machines are getting smart enough to have some information about what theyre doing, its time for us to teach them limits. Any engineer designing a machine needs to ask if there are things that it can but shouldnt do, and consider whether theres a practical way of making it impossible for a malicious or clumsy user to cause harm. Ultimate Goals? This chapter has been a brief history of goals. If we could watch a fast-forward replay of our 13.8-billion-year cosmic history, wed witness several distinct stages of goal-oriented behavior: 1. Matter seemingly intent on maximizing its dissipation 2. Primitive life seemingly trying to maximize its replication 3. Humans pursuing not replication but goals related to pleasure, curiosity, compassion and other feelings that theyd evolved to help them replicate 4. Machines built to help humans pursue their human goals If these machines eventually trigger an intelligence explosion, then how will this history of goals ultimately end? Might there be a goal system or ethical framework that almost all entities converge to as they get ever more intelligent? In other words, do we have an ethical destiny of sorts? A cursory reading of human history might suggest hints of such a convergence: in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker argues that humanity has been getting less violent and more cooperative for thousands of years, and that many parts of the world have seen increasing acceptance of diversity, autonomy and democracy. Another hint of convergence is that the pursuit of truth through the scientific method has gained in popularity over past millennia. However, it may be that these trends show convergence not of ultimate goals but merely of subgoals. For example, figure 7.2 shows that the pursuit of truth (a more accurate world model) is simply a subgoal of almost any ultimate goal. Similarly, we saw above how ethical principles such as cooperation, diversity and autonomy can be viewed as subgoals, in that they help societies function efficiently and thereby help them survive and accomplish any more fundamental goals that they may have. Some may even dismiss everything we call human values as nothing but a cooperation protocol, helping us with the subgoal of collaborating more efficiently. In the same spirit, looking ahead, its likely that any superintelligent AIs will have subgoals including efficient hardware, efficient software, truth-seeking and curiosity, simply because these subgoals help them accomplish whatever their ultimate goals are. Indeed, Nick Bostrom argues strongly against the ethical destiny hypothesis in his book Superintelligence, presenting a counterpoint that he terms the orthogonality thesis: that the ultimate goals of a system can be independent of its intelligence. By definition, intelligence is simply the ability to accomplish complex goals, regardless of what these goals are, so the orthogonality thesis sounds quite reasonable. After all, people can be intelligent and kind or intelligent and cruel, and intelligence can be used for the goal of making scientific discoveries, creating beautiful art, helping people or planning terrorist attacks. 8 The orthogonality thesis is empowering by telling us that the ultimate goals of life in our cosmos arent predestined, but that we have the freedom and power to shape them. It suggests that guaranteed convergence to a unique goal is to be found not in the future but in the past, when all life emerged with the single goal of replication. As cosmic time passes, ever more intelligent minds get the opportunity to rebel and break free from this banal replication goal and choose goals of their own. We humans arent fully free in this sense, since many goals remain genetically hardwired into us, but AIs can enjoy this ultimate freedom of being fully unfettered from prior goals. This possibility of greater goal freedom is evident in todays narrow and limited AI systems: as I mentioned earlier, the only goal of a chess computer is to win at chess, but there are also computers whose goal is to lose at chess and which compete in reverse chess tournaments where the goal is to force the opponent to capture your pieces. Perhaps this freedom from evolutionary biases can make AIs more ethical than humans in some deep sense: moral philosophers such as Peter Singer have argued that most humans behave unethically for evolutionary reasons, for example by discriminating against non-human animals. We saw that a cornerstone in the friendly-AI vision is the idea that a recursively self-improving AI will wish to retain its ultimate (friendly) goal as it gets more intelligent. But how can an ultimate goal (or final goal, as Bostrom calls it) even be defined for a superintelligence? The way I see it, we cant have confidence in the friendly-AI vision unless we can answer this crucial question. In AI research, intelligent machines typically have a clear-cut and well- defined final goal, for instance to win the chess game or drive the car to the destination legally. The same holds for most tasks that we assign to humans, because the time horizon and context are known and limited. But now were talking about the entire future of life in our Universe, limited by nothing but the (still not fully known) laws of physics, so defining a goal is daunting! Quantum effects aside, a truly well-defined goal would specify how all particles in our Universe should be arranged at the end of time. But its not clear that there exists a well-defined end of time in physics. If the particles are arranged in that way at an earlier time, that arrangement will typically not last. And what particle arrangement is preferable, anyway? We humans tend to prefer some particle arrangements over others; for example, we prefer our hometown arranged as it is over having its particles rearranged by a hydrogen bomb explosion. So suppose we try to define a goodness function that associates a number with every possible arrangement of the particles in our Universe, quantifying how good we think this arrangement is, and then give a superintelligent AI the goal of maximizing this function. This may sound like a reasonable approach, since describing goal-oriented behavior as function maximization is popular in other areas of science: for example, economists often model people as trying to maximize what they call a utility function, and many AI designers train their intelligent agents to maximize what they call a reward function. When were taking about the ultimate goals for our cosmos, however, this approach poses a computational nightmare, since it would need to define a goodness value for every one of more than a googolplex possible arrangements of the elementary particles in our Universe, where a googolplex is 1 followed by 10 100 zeroesmore zeroes than there are particles in our Universe. How would we define this goodness function to the AI? As weve explored above, the only reason that we humans have any preferences at all may be that were the solution to an evolutionary optimization problem. Thus all normative words in our human language, such as delicious, fragrant, beautiful, comfortable, interesting, sexy, meaningful, happy and good, trace their origin to this evolutionary optimization: there is therefore no guarantee that a superintelligent AI would find them rigorously definable. Even if the AI learned to accurately predict the preferences of some representative human, it wouldnt be able to compute the goodness function for most particle arrangements: the vast majority of possible particle arrangements correspond to strange cosmic scenarios with no stars, planets or people whatsoever, with which humans have no experience, so who is to say how good they are? There are of course some functions of the cosmic particle arrangement that can be rigorously defined, and we even know of physical systems that evolve to maximize some of them. For example, weve already discussed how many systems evolve to maximize their entropy, which in the absence of gravity eventually leads to heat death, where everything is boringly uniform and unchanging. So entropy is hardly something we would want our AI to call goodness and strive to maximize. Here are a few examples of other quantities that one could strive to maximize and that may be rigorously definable in terms of particle arrangements: The fraction of all the matter in our Universe thats in the form of a particular organism, say humans or E. coli (inspired by evolutionary inclusive-fitness maximization) The ability of an AI to predict the future, which AI researcher Marcus Hutter argues is a good measure of its intelligence What AI researchers Alex Wissner-Gross and Cameron Freer term causal entropy (a proxy for future opportunities), which they argue is the hallmark of intelligence The computational capacity of our Universe The algorithmic complexity of our Universe (how many bits are needed to describe it) The amount of consciousness in our Universe (see next chapter) However, when one starts with a physics perspective, where our cosmos consists of elementary particles in motion, its hard to see how one rather than another interpretation of goodness would naturally stand out as special. We have yet to identify any final goal for our Universe that appears both definable and desirable. The only currently programmable goals that are guaranteed to remain truly well-defined as an AI gets progressively more intelligent are goals expressed in terms of physical quantities alone, such as particle arrangements, energy and entropy. However, we currently have no reason to believe that any such definable goals will be desirable in guaranteeing the survival of humanity. Contrariwise, it appears that we humans are a historical accident, and arent the optimal solution to any well-defined physics problem. This suggests that a superintelligent AI with a rigorously defined goal will be able to improve its goal attainment by eliminating us. This means that to wisely decide what to do about AI development, we humans need to confront not only traditional computational challenges, but also some of the most obdurate questions in philosophy. To program a self-driving car, we need to solve the trolley problem of whom to hit during an accident. To program a friendly AI, we need to capture the meaning of life. Whats meaning? Whats life? Whats the ultimate ethical imperative? In other words, how should we strive to shape the future of our Universe? If we cede control to a superintelligence before answering these questions rigorously, the answer it comes up with is unlikely to involve us. This makes it timely to rekindle the classic debates of philosophy and ethics, and adds a new urgency to the conversation! THE BOTTOM LINE: The ultimate origin of goal-oriented behavior lies in the laws of physics, which involve optimization. Thermodynamics has the built-in goal of dissipation: to increase a measure of messiness thats called entropy . Life is a phenomenon that can help dissipate (increase overall messiness) even faster by retaining or growing its complexity and replicating while increasing the messiness of its environment. Darwinian evolution shifts the goal-oriented behavior from dissipation to replication. Intelligence is the ability to accomplish complex goals. Since we humans dont always have the resources to figure out the truly optimal replication strategy, weve evolved useful rules of thumb that guide our decisions: feelings such as hunger, thirst, pain, lust and compassion. We therefore no longer have a simple goal such as replication; when our feelings conflict with the goal of our genes, we obey our feelings, as by using birth control. Were building increasingly intelligent machines to help us accomplish our goals. Insofar as we build such machines to exhibit goal-oriented behavior, we strive to align the machine goals with ours. Aligning machine goals with our own involves three unsolved problems: making machines learn them, adopt them and retain them. AI can be created to have virtually any goal, but almost any sufficiently ambitious goal can lead to subgoals of self-preservation, resource acquisition and curiosity to understand the world betterthe former two may potentially lead a superintelligent AI to cause problems for humans, and the latter may prevent it from retaining the goals we give it. Although many broad ethical principles are agreed upon by most humans, its unclear how to apply them to other entities, such as non-human animals and future AIs. Its unclear how to imbue a superintelligent AI with an ultimate goal that neither is undefined nor leads to the elimination of humanity, making it timely to rekindle research on some of the thorniest issues in philosophy! *1 A rule of thumb that many insects use for flying in a straight line is to assume that a bright light is the Sun and fly at a fixed angle relative to it. If the light turns out to be a nearby flame, this hack can unfortunately trick the bug into an inward death spiral. *2 Im using the term improving its software in the broadest possible sense, including not only optimizing its algorithms but also making its decision-making process more rational, so that it gets as good as possible at attaining its goals. Chapter 8 Consciousness I cannot imagine a consistent theory of everything that ignores consciousness. Andrei Linde, 2002 We should strive to grow consciousness itselfto generate bigger, brighter lights in an otherwise dark universe. Giulio Tononi, 2012 Weve seen that AI can help us create a wonderful future if we manage to find answers to some of the oldest and toughest problems in philosophyby the time we need them. We face, in Nick Bostroms words, philosophy with a deadline. In this chapter, lets explore one of the thorniest philosophical topics of all: consciousness. Who Cares? Consciousness is controversial. If you mention the C-word to an AI researcher, neuroscientist or psychologist, they may roll their eyes. If theyre your mentor, they might instead take pity on you and try to talk you out of wasting your time on what they consider a hopeless and unscientific problem. Indeed, my friend Christof Koch, a renowned neuroscientist who leads the Allen Institute for Brain Science, told me that he was once warned of working on consciousness before he had tenureby none less than Nobel laureate Francis Crick. If you look up consciousness in the 1989 Macmillan Dictionary of Psychology, youre informed that Nothing worth reading has been written on it. 1 As Ill explain in this chapter, Im more optimistic! Although thinkers have pondered the mystery of consciousness for thousands of years, the rise of AI adds a sudden urgency, in particular to the question of predicting which intelligent entities have subjective experiences. As we saw in chapter 3, the question of whether intelligent machines should be granted some form of rights depends crucially on whether theyre conscious and can suffer or feel joy. As we discussed in chapter 7, it becomes hopeless to formulate utilitarian ethics based on maximizing positive experiences without knowing which intelligent entities are capable of having them. As mentioned in chapter 5, some people might prefer their robots to be unconscious to avoid feeling slave- owner guilt. On the other hand, they may desire the opposite if they upload their minds to break free from biological limitations: after all, whats the point of uploading yourself into a robot that talks and acts like you if its a mere unconscious zombie, by which I mean that being the uploaded you doesnt feel like anything? Isnt this equivalent to committing suicide from your subjective point of view, even though your friends may not realize that your subjective experience has died? For the long-term cosmic future of life (chapter 6), understanding whats conscious and whats not becomes pivotal: if technology enables intelligent life to flourish throughout our Universe for billions of years, how can we be sure that this life is conscious and able to appreciate whats happening? If not, then would it be, in the words of the famous physicist Erwin Schrdinger, a play before empty benches, not existing for anybody, thus quite properly speaking not existing? 2 In other words, if we enable high-tech descendants that we mistakenly think are conscious, would this be the ultimate zombie apocalypse, transforming our grand cosmic endowment into nothing but an astronomical waste of space? What Is Consciousness? Many arguments about consciousness generate more heat than light because the antagonists are talking past each other, unaware that theyre using different definitions of the C-word. Just as with life and intelligence, theres no undisputed correct definition of the word consciousness. Instead, there are many competing ones, including sentience, wakefulness, self-awareness, access to sensory input and ability to fuse information into a narrative. 3 In our exploration of the future of intelligence, we want to take a maximally broad and inclusive view, not limited to the sorts of biological consciousness that exist so far. Thats why the definition I gave in chapter 1, which Im sticking with throughout this book, is very broad: consciousness = subjective experience In other words, if it feels like something to be you right now, then youre conscious. Its this particular definition of consciousness that gets to the crux of all the AI-motivated questions in the previous section: Does it feel like something to be Prometheus, AlphaGo or a self-driving Tesla? To appreciate how broad our consciousness definition is, note that it doesnt mention behavior, perception, self-awareness, emotions or attention. So by this definition, youre conscious also when youre dreaming, even though you lack wakefulness or access to sensory input and (hopefully!) arent sleepwalking and doing things. Similarly, any system that experiences pain is conscious in this sense, even if it cant move. Our definition leaves open the possibility that some future AI systems may be conscious too, even if they exist merely as software and arent connected to sensors or robotic bodies. With this definition, its hard not to care about consciousness. As Yuval Noah Harari puts it in his book Homo Deus: 4 If any scientist wants to argue that subjective experiences are irrelevant, their challenge is to explain why torture or rape are wrong without reference to any subjective experience. Without such reference, its all just a bunch of elementary particles moving around according to the laws of physicsand whats wrong with that? Whats the Problem? So what precisely is it that we dont understand about consciousness? Few have thought harder about this question than David Chalmers, a famous Australian philosopher rarely seen without a playful smile and a black leather jacket which my wife liked so much that she gave me a similar one for Christmas. He followed his heart into philosophy despite making the finals at the International Mathematics Olympiadand despite the fact that his only B grade in college, shattering his otherwise straight As, was for an introductory philosophy course. Indeed, he seems utterly undeterred by put-downs or controversy, and Ive been astonished by his ability to politely listen to uninformed and misguided criticism of his own work without even feeling the need to respond. As David has emphasized, there are really two separate mysteries of the mind. First, theres the mystery of how a brain processes information, which David calls the easy problems. For example, how does a brain attend to, interpret and respond to sensory input? How can it report on its internal state using language? Although these questions are actually extremely difficult, theyre by our definitions not mysteries of consciousness, but mysteries of intelligence: they ask how a brain remembers, computes and learns. Moreover, we saw in the first part of the book how AI researchers have started to make serious progress on solving many of these easy problems with machinesfrom playing Go to driving cars, analyzing images and processing natural language. Then theres the separate mystery of why you have a subjective experience, which David calls the hard problem. When youre driving, youre experiencing colors, sounds, emotions, and a feeling of self. But why are you experiencing anything at all? Does a self-driving car experience anything at all? If youre racing against a self-driving car, youre both inputting information from sensors, processing it and outputting motor commands. But subjectively experiencing driving is something logically separateis it optional, and if so, what causes it? I approach this hard problem of consciousness from a physics point of view. From my perspective, a conscious person is simply food, rearranged. So why is one arrangement conscious, but not the other? Moreover, physics teaches us that food is simply a large number of quarks and electrons, arranged in a certain way. So which particle arrangements are conscious and which arent? *1 Figure 8.1: Understanding the mind involves a hierarchy of problems. What David Chalmers calls the easy problems can be posed without mentioning subjective experience. The apparent fact that some but not all physical systems are conscious poses three separate questions. If we have a theory for answering the question that defines the pretty hard problem, then it can be experimentally tested. If it works, then we can build on it to tackle the tougher questions above. What I like about this physics perspective is that it transforms the hard problem that we as humans have struggled with for millennia into a more focused version thats easier to tackle with the methods of science. Instead of starting with a hard problem of why an arrangement of particles can feel conscious, lets start with a hard fact that some arrangements of particles do feel conscious while others dont. For example, you know that the particles that make up your brain are in a conscious arrangement right now, but not when youre in deep dreamless sleep. This physics perspective leads to three separate hard questions about consciousness, as shown in figure 8.1 . First of all, what properties of the particle arrangement make the difference? Specifically, what physical properties distinguish conscious and unconscious systems? If we can answer that, then we can figure out which AI systems are conscious. In the more immediate future, it can also help emergency-room doctors determine which unresponsive patients are conscious. Second, how do physical properties determine what the experience is like? Specifically, what determines qualia, basic building blocks of consciousness such as the redness of a rose, the sound of a cymbal, the smell of a steak, the taste of a tangerine or the pain of a pinprick? *2 Third, why is anything conscious? In other words, is there some deep undiscovered explanation for why clumps of matter can be conscious, or is this just an unexplainable brute fact about the way the world works? The computer scientist Scott Aaronson, a former MIT colleague of mine, has lightheartedly called the first question the pretty hard problem (PHP), as has David Chalmers. In that spirit, lets call the other two the even harder problem (EHP) and the really hard problem (RHP), as illustrated in figure 8.1 . *3 Is Consciousness Beyond Science? When people tell me that consciousness research is a hopeless waste of time, the main argument they give is that its unscientific and always will be. But is that really true? The influential Austro-British philosopher Karl Popper popularized the now widely accepted adage If its not falsifiable, its not scientific. In other words, science is all about testing theories against observations: if a theory cant be tested even in principle, then its logically impossible to ever falsify it, which by Poppers definition means that its unscientific. So could there be a scientific theory that answers any of the three consciousness questions in figure 8.1 ? Please let me try to persuade you that the answer is a resounding YES!, at least for the pretty hard problem: What physical properties distinguish conscious and unconscious systems? Suppose that someone has a theory that, given any physical system, answers the question of whether the system is conscious with yes, no or unsure. Lets hook your brain up to a device that measures some of the information processing in different parts of your brain, and lets feed this information into a computer program that uses the consciousness theory to predict which parts of that information are conscious, and presents you with its predictions in real time on a screen, as in figure 8.2 . First you think of an apple. The screen informs you that theres information about an apple in your brain which youre aware of, but that theres also information in your brainstem about your pulse that youre unaware of. Would you be impressed? Although the first two predictions of the theory were correct, you decide to do some more rigorous testing. You think about your mother and the computer informs you that theres information in your brain about your mother but that youre unaware of this. The theory made an incorrect prediction, which means that its ruled out and goes in the garbage dump of scientific history together with Aristotelian mechanics, the luminiferous aether, geocentric cosmology and countless other failed ideas. Heres the key point: Although the theory was wrong, it was scientific ! Had it not been scientific, you wouldnt have been able to test it and rule it out. Someone might criticize this conclusion and say that they have no evidence of what youre conscious of, or even of you being conscious at all: although they heard you say that youre conscious, an unconscious zombie could conceivably say the same thing. But this doesnt make that consciousness theory unscientific, because they can trade places with you and test whether it correctly predicts their own conscious experiences. Figure 8.2: Suppose that a computer measures information being processed in your brain and predicts which parts of it youre aware of according to a theory of consciousness. You can scientifically test this theory by checking whether its predictions are correct, matching your subjective experience. On the other hand, if the theory refuses to make any predictions, merely replying unsure whenever queried, then its untestable and hence unscientific. This might happen because its applicable only in some situations, because the required computations are too hard to carry out in practice or because the brain sensors are no good. Todays most popular scientific theories tend to be somewhere in the middle, giving testable answers to some but not all of our questions. For example, our core theory of physics will refuse to answer questions about systems that are simultaneously extremely small (requiring quantum mechanics) and extremely heavy (requiring general relativity), because we havent yet figured out which mathematical equations to use in this case. This core theory will also refuse to predict the exact masses of all possible atoms in this case, we think we have the necessary equations, but we havent managed to accurately compute their solutions. The more dangerously a theory lives by sticking its neck out and making testable predictions, the more useful it is, and the more seriously we take it if it survives all our attempts to kill it. Yes, we can only test some predictions of consciousness theories, but thats how it is for all physical theories. So lets not waste time whining about what we cant test, but get to work testing what we can test! In summary, any theory predicting which physical systems are conscious (the pretty hard problem) is scientific, as long as it can predict which of your brain processes are conscious. However, the testability issue becomes less clear for the higher-up questions in figure 8.1 . What would it mean for a theory to predict how you subjectively experience the color red? And if a theory purports to explain why there is such a thing as consciousness in the first place, then how do you test it experimentally? Just because these questions are hard doesnt mean that we should avoid them, and well indeed return to them below. But when confronted with several related unanswered questions, I think its wise to tackle the easiest one first. For this reason, my consciousness research at MIT is focused squarely on the base of the pyramid in figure 8.1 . I recently discussed this strategy with my fellow physicist Piet Hut from Princeton, who joked that trying to build the top of the pyramid before the base would be like worrying about the interpretation of quantum mechanics before discovering the Schrdinger equation, the mathematical foundation that lets us predict the outcomes of our experiments. When discussing whats beyond science, its important to remember that the answer depends on time! Four centuries ago, Galileo Galilei was so impressed by math-based physics theories that he described nature as a book written in the language of mathematics. If he threw a grape and a hazelnut, he could accurately predict the shapes of their trajectories and when they would hit the ground. Yet he had no clue why one was green and the other brown, or why one was soft and the other hardthese aspects of the world were beyond the reach of science at the time. But not forever! When James Clerk Maxwell discovered his eponymous equations in 1861, it became clear that light and colors could also be understood mathematically. We now know that the aforementioned Schrdinger equation, discovered in 1925, can be used to predict all properties of matter, including whats soft or hard. While theoretical progress has enabled ever more scientific predictions, technological progress has enabled ever more experimental tests: almost everything we now study with telescopes, microscopes or particle colliders was once beyond science. In other words, the purview of science has expanded dramatically since Galileos days, from a tiny fraction of all phenomena to a large percentage, including subatomic particles, black holes and our cosmic origins 13.8 billion years ago. This raises the question: Whats left? To me, consciousness is the elephant in the room. Not only do you know that youre conscious, but its all you know with complete certaintyeverything else is inference, as Ren Descartes pointed out back in Galileos time. Will theoretical and technological progress eventually bring even consciousness firmly into the domain of science? We dont know, just as Galileo didnt know whether wed one day understand light and matter. *4 Only one thing is guaranteed: we wont succeed if we dont try! Thats why I and many other scientists around the world are trying hard to formulate and test theories of consciousness. Experimental Clues About Consciousness Lots of information processing is taking place in our heads right now. Which of it is conscious and which isnt? Before exploring consciousness theories and what they predict, lets look at what experiments have taught us so far, ranging from traditional low-tech or no-tech observations to state-of-the-art brain measurements. What Behaviors Are Conscious? If you multiply 32 by 17 in your head, youre conscious of many of the inner workings of your computation. But suppose I instead show you a portrait of Albert Einstein and tell you to say the name of its subject. As we saw in chapter 2, this too is a computational task: your brain is evaluating a function whose input is information from your eyes about a large number of pixel colors and whose output is information to muscles controlling your mouth and vocal cords. Computer scientists call this task image classification followed by speech synthesis. Although this computation is way more complicated than your multiplication task, you can do it much faster, seemingly without effort, and without being conscious of the details of how you do it. Your subjective experience consists merely of looking at the picture, experiencing a feeling of recognition and hearing yourself say Einstein. Psychologists have long known that you can unconsciously perform a wide range of other tasks and behaviors as well, from blink reflexes to breathing, reaching, grabbing and keeping your balance. Typically, youre consciously aware of what you did, but not how you did it. On the other hand, behaviors that involve unfamiliar situations, self-control, complicated logical rules, abstract reasoning or manipulation of language tend to be conscious. Theyre known as behavioral correlates of consciousness, and theyre closely linked to the effortful, slow and controlled way of thinking that psychologists call System 2. 5 Its also known that you can convert many routines from conscious to unconscious through extensive practice, for example walking, swimming, bicycling, driving, typing, shaving, shoe tying, computer-gaming and piano playing. 6 Indeed, its well known that experts do their specialties best when theyre in a state of flow, aware only of whats happening at a higher level, and unconscious of the low-level details of how theyre doing it. For example, try reading the next sentence while being consciously aware of every single letter, as when you first learned to read. Can you feel how much slower it is, compared to when youre merely conscious of the text at the level of words or ideas? Indeed, unconscious information processing appears not only to be possible, but also to be more the rule than the exception. Evidence suggests that of the roughly 10 7 bits of information that enter our brain each second from our sensory organs, we can be aware only of a tiny fraction, with estimates ranging from 10 to 50 bits. 7 This suggests that the information processing that were consciously aware of is merely the tip of the iceberg. Taken together, these clues have led some researchers to suggest that conscious information processing should be thought of as the CEO of our mind, dealing with only the most important decisions requiring complex analysis of data from all over the brain. 8 This would explain why, just like the CEO of a company, it usually doesnt want to be distracted by knowing everything its underlings are up tobut it can find them out if desired. To experience this selective attention in action, look at that word desired again: fix your gaze on the dot over the i and, without moving your eyes, shift your attention from the dot to the whole letter and then to the whole word. Although the information from your retina stayed the same, your conscious experience changed. The CEO metaphor also explains why expertise becomes unconscious: after painstakingly figuring out how to read and type, the CEO delegates these routine tasks to unconscious subordinates to be able to focus on new higher-level challenges. Where Is Consciousness? Clever experiments and analyses have suggested that consciousness is limited not merely to certain behaviors, but also to certain parts of the brain. Which are the prime suspects? Many of the first clues came from patients with brain lesions: localized brain damage caused by accidents, strokes, tumors or infections. But this was often inconclusive. For example, does the fact that lesions in the back of the brain can cause blindness mean that this is the site of visual consciousness, or does it merely mean that visual information passes through there en route to wherever it will later become conscious, just as it first passes through the eyes? Although lesions and medical interventions havent pinpointed the locations of conscious experiences, theyve helped narrow down the options. For example, I know that although I experience pain in my hand as actually occurring there, the pain experience must occur elsewhere, because a surgeon once switched off my hand pain without doing anything to my hand: he merely anesthetized nerves in my shoulder. Moreover, some amputees experience phantom pain that feels as though its in their nonexistent hand. As another example, I once noticed that when I looked only with my right eye, part of my visual field was missinga doctor determined that my retina was coming loose and reattached it. In contrast, patients with certain brain lesions experience hemineglect, where they too miss information from half their visual field, but arent even aware that its missing for example, failing to notice and eat the food on the left half of their plate. Its as if consciousness about half of their world has disappeared. But are those damaged brain areas supposed to generate the spatial experience, or were they merely feeding spatial information to the sites of consciousness, just as my retina did? The pioneering U.S.-Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield found in the 1930s that his neurosurgery patients reported different parts of their body being touched when he electrically stimulated specific brain areas in whats now called the somatosensory cortex ( figure 8.3 ). 9 He also found that they involuntarily moved different parts of their body when he stimulated brain areas in whats now called the motor cortex. But does that mean that information processing in these brain areas corresponds to consciousness of touch and motion? Fortunately, modern technology is now giving us much more detailed clues. Although were still nowhere near being able to measure every single firing of all of your roughly hundred billion neurons, brain-reading technology is advancing rapidly, involving techniques with intimidating names such as fMRI, EEG, MEG, ECoG, ePhys and fluorescent voltage sensing. fMRI, which stands for functional magnetic resonance imaging, measures the magnetic properties of hydrogen nuclei to make a 3-D map of your brain roughly every second, with millimeter resolution. EEG (electroencephalography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) measure the electric and magnetic field outside your head to map your brain thousands of times per second, but with poor resolution, unable to distinguish features smaller than a few centimeters. If youre squeamish, youll appreciate that these three techniques are all noninvasive. If you dont mind opening up your skull, you have additional options. ECoG (electrocorticography) involves placing say a hundred wires on the surface of your brain, while ePhys (electrophysiology) involves inserting microwires, which are sometimes thinner than a human hair, deep into the brain to record voltages from as many as a thousand simultaneous locations. Many epileptic patients spend days in the hospital while ECoG is used to figure out what part of their brain is triggering seizures and should be resected, and kindly agree to let neuroscientists perform consciousness experiments on them in the meantime. Finally, fluorescent voltage sensing involves genetically manipulating neurons to emit flashes of light when firing, enabling their activity to be measured with a microscope. Out of all the techniques, it has the potential to rapidly monitor the largest number of neurons, at least in animals with transparent brainssuch as the C. elegans worm with its 302 neurons and the larval zebrafish with its about 100,000. Figure 8.3: The visual, auditory, somatosensory and motor cortices are involved with vision, hearing, the sense of touch and motion activation, respectivelybut that doesnt prove theyre where consciousness of vision, hearing, touch and motion occurs. Indeed, recent research suggests that the primary visual cortex is completely unconscious, together with the cerebellum and brainstem. Image courtesy of Lachina (www.lachina.com). Although Francis Crick warned Christof Koch about studying consciousness, Christof refused to give up and and eventually won Francis over. In 1990, they wrote a seminal paper about what they called neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs), asking which specific brain processes corresponded to conscious experiences. For thousands of years, thinkers had had access to the information processing in their brains only via their subjective experience and behavior. Crick and Koch pointed out that brain-reading technology was suddenly providing independent access to this information, allowing scientific study of which information processing corresponded to what conscious experience. Sure enough, technology-driven measurements have by now turned the quest for NCCs into quite a mainstream part of neuroscience, one whose thousands of publications extend into even the most prestigious journals. 10 What are the conclusions so far? To get a flavor for NCC detective work, lets first ask whether your retina is conscious, or whether its merely a zombie system that records visual information, processes it and sends it on to a system downstream in your brain where your subjective visual experience occurs. In the left panel of figure 8.4 , which square is darker: the one labeled A or B? A, right? No, theyre in fact identically colored, which you can verify by looking at them through small holes between your fingers. This proves that your visual experience cant reside entirely in your retina, since if it did, theyd look the same. Now look at the right panel of figure 8.4 . Do you see two women or a vase? If you look long enough, youll subjectively experience both in succession, even though the information reaching your retina remains the same. By measuring what happens in your brain during the two situations, one can tease apart what makes the differenceand its not the retina, which behaves identically in both cases. The death blow to the conscious-retina hypothesis comes from a technique called continuous flash suppression pioneered by Christof Koch, Stanislas Dehaene and collaborators: its been discovered that if you make one of your eyes watch a complicated sequence of rapidly changing patterns, then this will distract your visual system to such an extent that youll be completely unaware of a still image shown to the other eye. 11 In summary, you can have a visual image in your retina without experiencing it, and you can (while dreaming) experience an image without it being on your retina. This proves that your two retinas dont host your visual consciousness any more than a video camera does, even though they perform complicated computations involving over a hundred million neurons. Figure 8.4: Which square is darkerA or B? What do you see on the righta vase, two women or both in succession? Illusions such as these prove that your visual consciousness cant be in your eyes or other early stages of your visual system, because it doesnt depend only on whats in the picture. NCC researchers also use continuous flash suppression, unstable visual/auditory illusions and other tricks to pinpoint which of your brain regions are responsible for each of your conscious experiences. The basic strategy is to compare what your neurons are doing in two situations where essentially everything (including your sensory input) is the sameexcept your conscious experience. The parts of your brain that are measured to behave differently are then identified as NCCs. Such NCC research has proven that none of your consciousness resides in your gut, even though thats the location of your enteric nervous system with its whopping half-billion neurons that compute how to optimally digest your food; feelings such as hunger and nausea are instead produced in your brain. Similarly, none of your consciousness appears to reside in the brainstem, the bottom part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord and controls breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. More shockingly, your consciousness doesnt appear to extend to your cerebellum ( figure 8.3 ), which contains about two-thirds of all your neurons: patients whose cerebellum is destroyed experience slurred speech and clumsy motion reminiscent of a drunkard, but remain fully conscious. The question of which parts of your brain are responsible for consciousness remains open and controversial. Some recent NCC research suggests that your consciousness mainly resides in a hot zone involving the thalamus (near the middle of your brain) and the rear part of the cortex (the outer brain layer consisting of a crumpled-up six-layer sheet which, if flattened out, would have the area of a large dinner napkin). 12 This same research controversially suggests that the primary visual cortex at the very back of the head is an exception to this, being as unconscious as your eyeballs and your retinas. When Is Consciousness? So far, weve looked at experimental clues regarding what types of information processing are conscious and where consciousness occurs. But when does it occur? When I was a kid, I used to think that we become conscious of events as they happen, with absolutely no time lag or delay. Although thats still how it subjectively feels to me, it clearly cant be correct, since it takes time for my brain to process the information that enters via my sensory organs. NCC researchers have carefully measured how long, and Christof Kochs summary is that it takes about a quarter of a second from when light enters your eye from a complex object until you consciously perceive seeing it as what it is. 13 This means that if youre driving down a highway at fifty-five miles per hour and suddenly see a squirrel a few meters in front of you, its too late for you to do anything about it, because youve already run over it! In summary, your consiousness lives in the past, with Christof Koch estimating that it lags behind the outside world by about a quarter second. Intriguingly, you can often react to things faster than you can become conscious of them, which proves that the information processing in charge of your most rapid reactions must be unconscious. For example, if a foreign object approaches your eye, your blink reflex can close your eyelid within a mere tenth of a second. Its as if one of your brain systems receives ominous information from the visual system, computes that your eye is in danger of getting struck, emails your eye muscles instructions to blink and simultaneously emails the conscious part of your brain saying Hey, were going to blink. By the time this email has been read and included into your conscious experience, the blink has already happened. Indeed, the system that reads that email is continually bombarded with messages from all over your body, some more delayed than others. It takes longer for nerve signals to reach your brain from your fingers than from your face because of distance, and it takes longer for you to analyze images than sounds because its more complicatedwhich is why Olympic races are started with a bang rather than with a visual cue. Yet if you touch your nose, you consciously experience the sensation on your nose and fingertip as simultaneous, and if you clap your hands, you see, hear and feel the clap at exactly the same time. 14 This means that your full conscious experience of an event isnt created until the last slowpoke email reports have trickled in and been analyzed. A famous family of NCC experiments pioneered by physiologist Benjamin Libet has shown that the sort of actions you can perform unconsciously arent limited to rapid responses such as blinks and ping-pong smashes, but also include certain decisions that you might attribute to free willbrain measurements can sometimes predict your decision before you become conscious of having made it. 15 Theories of Consciousness Weve just seen that, although we still dont understand consciousness, we have amazing amounts of experimental data about various aspects of it. But all this data comes from brains, so how can it teach us anything about consciousness in machines ? This requires a major extrapolation beyond our current experimental domain. In other words, it requires a theory. Why a Theory? To appreciate why, lets compare theories of consciousness with theories of gravity. Scientists started taking Newtons theory of gravity seriously because they got more out of it than they put into it: simple equations that fit on a napkin could accurately predict the outcome of every gravity experiment ever conducted. They therefore also took seriously its predictions far beyond the domain where it had been tested, and these bold extrapolations turned out to work even for the motions of galaxies in clusters millions of light-years across. However, the predictions were off by a tiny amount for the motion of Mercury around the Sun. Scientists then started taking seriously Einsteins improved theory of gravity, general relativity, because it was arguably even more elegant and economical, and correctly predicted even what Newtons theory got wrong. They consequently took seriously also its predictions far beyond the domain where it had been tested, for phenomena as exotic as black holes, gravitational waves in the very fabric of spacetime, and the expansion of our Universe from a hot fiery originall of which were subsequently confirmed by experiment. Analogously, if a mathematical theory of consciousness whose equations fit on a napkin could successfully predict the outcomes of all experiments we perform on brains, then wed start taking seriously not merely the theory itself, but also its predictions for consciousness beyond brainsfor example, in machines. Consciousness from a Physics Perspective Although some theories of consciousness date back to antiquity, most modern ones are grounded in neuropsychology and neuroscience, attempting to explain and predict consciousness in terms of neural events occurring in the brain. 16 Although these theories have made some successful predictions for neural correlates of consciousness, they neither can nor aspire to make predictions about machine consciousness. To make the leap from brains to machines, we need to generalize from NCCs to PCCs: physical correlates of consciousness, defined as the patterns of moving particles that are conscious. Because if a theory can correctly predict whats conscious and whats not by referring only to physical building blocks such as elementary particles and force fields, then it can make predictions not merely for brains, but also for any other arrangements of matter, including future AI systems. So lets take a physics perspective: What particle arrangements are conscious? But this really raises another question: How can something as complex as consciousness be made of something as simple as particles? I think its because its a phenomenon that has properties above and beyond those of its particles. In physics, we call such phenomena emergent. 17 Lets understand this by looking at an emergent phenomenon thats simpler than consciousness: wetness. A drop of water is wet, but an ice crystal and a cloud of steam arent, even though theyre made of identical water molecules. Why? Because the property of wetness depends only on the arrangement of the molecules. It makes absolutely no sense to say that a single water molecule is wet, because the phenomenon of wetness emerges only when there are many molecules, arranged in the pattern we call liquid. So solids, liquids and gases are all emergent phenomena: theyre more than the sum of their parts, because they have properties above and beyond the properties of their particles. They have properties that their particles lack. Now just like solids, liquids and gases, I think consciousness is an emergent phenomenon, with properties above and beyond those of its particles. For example, entering deep sleep extinguishes consciousness, by merely rearranging the particles. In the same way, my consciousness would disappear if I froze to death, which would rearrange my particles in a more unfortunate way. When you put lots of particles together to make anything from water to a brain, new phenomena with observable properties emerge. We physicists love studying these emergent properties, which can often be identified by a small set of numbers that you can go out and measurequantities such as how viscous the substance is, how compressible it is and so on. For example, if a substance is so viscous that its rigid, we call it a solid, otherwise we call it a fluid. And if a fluid isnt compressible, we call it a liquid, otherwise we call it a gas or a plasma, depending on how well it conducts electricity. Consciousness as Information So could there be analogous quantities that quantify consciousness? The Italian neuroscientist Giulio Tononi has proposed one such quantity, which he calls the integrated information, denoted by the Greek letter ( Phi ), which basically measures how much different parts of a system know about each other (see figure 8.5 ). Figure 8.5: Given a physical process that, with the passage of time, transforms the initial state of a system into a new state, its integrated information measures inability to split the process into independent parts. If the future state of each part depends only on its own past, not on what the other part has been doing, then = 0: what we called one system is really two independent systems that dont communicate with each other at all. I first met Giulio at a 2014 physics conference in Puerto Rico to which Id invited him and Christof Koch, and he struck me as the ultimate renaissance man whod have blended right in with Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci. His quiet demeanor couldnt hide his incredible knowledge of art, literature and philosophy, and his culinary reputation preceded him: a cosmopolitan TV journalist had recently told me how Giulio had, in just a few minutes, whipped up the most delicious salad hed tasted in his life. I soon realized that behind his soft-spoken demeanor was a fearless intellect whod follow the evidence wherever it took him, regardless of the preconceptions and taboos of the establishment. Just as Galileo had pursued his mathematical theory of motion despite establishment pressure not to challenge geocentrism, Giulio had developed the most mathematically precise consciousness theory to date, integrated information theory (IIT). Id been arguing for decades that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain complex ways. 18 IIT agrees with this and replaces my vague phrase certain complex ways by a precise definition: the information processing needs to be integrated, that is, needs to be large. Giulios argument for this is as powerful as it is simple: the conscious system needs to be integrated into a unified whole, because if it instead consisted of two independent parts, then theyd feel like two separate conscious entities rather than one. In other words, if a conscious part of a brain or computer cant communicate with the rest, then the rest cant be part of its subjective experience. Giulio and his collaborators have measured a simplified version of by using EEG to measure the brains response to magnetic stimulation. Their consciousness detector works really well: it determined that patients were conscious when they were awake or dreaming, but unconscious when they were anesthetized or in deep sleep. It even discovered consciousness in two patients suffering from locked-in syndrome, who couldnt move or communicate in any normal way. 19 So this is emerging as a promising technology for doctors in the future to figure out whether certain patients are conscious or not. Anchoring Consciousness in Physics IIT is defined only for discrete systems that can be in a finite number of states, for example bits in a computer memory or oversimplified neurons that can be either on or off. This unfortunately means that IIT isnt defined for most traditional physical systems, which can change continuouslyfor example, the position of a particle or the strength of a magnetic field can take any of an infinite number of values. 20 If you try to apply the IIT formula to such systems, youll typically get the unhelpful result that is infinite. Quantum-mechanical systems can be discrete, but the original IIT isnt defined for quantum systems. So how can we anchor IIT and other information-based consciousness theories on a solid physical foundation? We can do this by building on what we learned in chapter 2 about how clumps of matter can have emergent properties that are related to information. We saw that for something to be usable as a memory device that can store information, it needs to have many long-lived states. We also saw that being computronium, a substance that can do computations, in addition requires complex dynamics: the laws of physics need to make it change in ways that are complicated enough to be able to implement arbitrary information processing. Finally, we saw how a neural network, for example, is a powerful substrate for learning because, simply by obeying the laws of physics, it can rearrange itself to get better and better at implementing desired computations. Now were asking an additional question: What makes a blob of matter able to have a subjective experience? In other words, under what conditions will a blob of matter be able to do these four things? 1. remember 2. compute 3. learn 4. experience We explored the first three in chapter 2, and are now tackling the fourth. Just as Margolus and Toffoli coined the term computronium for a substance that can perform arbitrary computations, I like to use the term sentronium for the most general substance that has subjective experience (is sentient). *5 But how can consciousness feel so non-physical if its in fact a physical phenomenon? How can it feel so independent of its physical substrate? I think its because it is rather independent of its physical substrate, the stuff in which it is a pattern! We encountered many beautiful examples of substrate-independent patterns in chapter 2, including waves, memories and computations. We saw how they werent merely more than their parts (emergent), but rather independent of their parts, taking on a life of their own. For example, we saw how a future simulated mind or computer-game character would have no way of knowing whether it ran on Windows, Mac OS, an Android phone or some other operating system, because it would be substrate-independent. Nor could it tell whether the logic gates of its computer were made of transistors, optical circuits or other hardware. Or what the fundamental laws of physics arethey could be anything as long as they allow the construction of universal computers. In summary, I think that consciousness is a physical phenomenon that feels non-physical because its like waves and computations: it has properties independent of its specific physical substrate. This follows logically from the consciousness-as-information idea. This leads to a radical idea that I really like: If consciousness is the way that information feels when its processed in certain ways, then it must be substrate-independent; its only the structure of the information processing that matters, not the structure of the matter doing the information processing. In other words, consciousness is substrate-independent twice over! As weve seen, physics describes patterns in spacetime that correspond to particles moving around. If the particle arrangements obey certain principles, they give rise to emergent phenomena that are pretty independent of the particle substrate, and have a totally different feel to them. A great example of this is information processing, in computronium. But weve now taken this idea to another level: If the information processing itself obeys certain principles, it can give rise to the higher-level emergent phenomenon that we call consciousness. This places your conscious experience not one but two levels up from the matter. No wonder your mind feels non-physical! This raises a question: What are these principles that information processing needs to obey to be conscious? I dont pretend to know what conditions are sufficient to guarantee consciousness, but here are four necessary conditions that Id bet on and have explored in my research: Principle Definition Information principle A conscious system has substantial information-storage capacity. Dynamics principle A conscious system has substantial information-processing capacity. Independence principle A conscious system has substantial independence from the rest of the world. Integration principle A conscious system cannot consist of nearly independent parts. As I said, I think that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain ways. This means that to be conscious, a system needs to be able to store and process information, implying the first two principles. Note that the memory doesnt need to last long: I recommend watching this touching video of Clive Wearing, who appears perfectly conscious even though his memories last less than a minute. 21 I think that a conscious system also needs to be fairly independent from the rest of the world, because otherwise it wouldnt subjectively feel that it had any independent existence whatsoever. Finally, I think that the conscious system needs to be integrated into a unified whole, as Giulio Tononi argued, because if it consisted of two independent parts, then they would feel like two separate conscious entities, rather than one. The first three principles imply autonomy: that the system is able to retain and process information without much outside interference, hence determining its own future. All four principles together mean that a system is autonomous but its parts arent. If these four principles are correct, then we have our work cut out for us: we need to look for mathematically rigorous theories that embody them and test them experimentally. We also need to determine whether additional principles are needed. Regardless of whether IIT is correct or not, researchers should try to develop competing theories and test all available theories with ever better experiments. Controversies of Consciousness Weve already discussed the perennial controversy about whether consciousness research is unscientific nonsense and a pointless waste of time. In addition, there are recent controversies at the cutting edge of consciousness researchlets explore the ones that I find most enlightening. Giulio Tononis IIT has lately drawn not merely praise but also criticism, some of which has been scathing. Scott Aaronson recently had this to say on his blog: In my opinion, the fact that Integrated Information Theory is wrong demonstrably wrong, for reasons that go to its coreputs it in something like the top 2% of all mathematical theories of consciousness ever proposed. Almost all competing theories of consciousness, it seems to me, have been so vague, fluffy and malleable that they can only aspire to wrongness. 22 To the credit of both Scott and Giulio, they never came to blows when I watched them debate IIT at a recent New York University workshop, and they politely listened to each others arguments. Aaronson showed that certain simple networks of logic gates had extremely high integrated information ( ) and argued that since they clearly werent conscious, IIT was wrong. Giulio countered that if they were built, they would be conscious, and that Scotts assumption to the contrary was anthropocentrically biased, much as if a slaughterhouse owner claimed that animals couldnt be conscious just because they couldnt talk and were very different from humans. My analysis, with which they both agreed, was that they were at odds about whether integration was merely a necessary condition for consciousness (which Scott was OK with) or also a sufficient condition (which Giulio claimed). The latter is clearly a stronger and more contentious claim, which I hope we can soon test experimentally. 23 Another controversial IIT claim is that todays computer architectures cant be conscious, because the way their logic gates connect gives very low integration. 24 In other words, if you upload yourself into a future high-powered robot that accurately simulates every single one of your neurons and synapses, then even if this digital clone looks, talks and acts indistinguishably from you, Giulio claims that it will be an unconscious zombie without subjective experiencewhich would be disappointing if you uploaded yourself in a quest for subjective immortality. *6 This claim has been challenged by both David Chalmers and AI professor Murray Shanahan by imagining what would happen if you instead gradually replaced the neural circuits in your brain by hypothetical digital hardware perfectly simulating them. 25 Although your behavior would be unaffected by the replacement since the simulation is by assumption perfect, your experience would change from conscious initially to unconscious at the end, according to Giulio. But how would it feel in between, as ever more got replaced? When the parts of your brain responsible for your conscious experience of the upper half of your visual field were replaced, would you notice that part of your visual scenery was suddenly missing, but that you mysteriously knew what was there nonetheless, as reported by patients with blindsight? 26 This would be deeply troubling, because if you can consciously experience any difference, then you can also tell your friends about it when askedyet by assumption, your behavior cant change. The only logical possibility compatible with the assumptions is that at exactly the same instance that any one thing disappears from your consciousness, your mind is mysteriously altered so as either to make you lie and deny that your experience changed, or to forget that things had been different. On the other hand, Murray Shanahan admits that the same gradual- replacement critique can be leveled at any theory claiming that you can act conscious without being conscious, so you might be tempted to conclude that acting and being conscious are one and the same, and that externally observable behavior is therefore all that matters. But then youd have fallen into the trap of predicting that youre unconscious while dreaming, even though you know better. A third IIT controversy is whether a conscious entity can be made of parts that are separately conscious. For example, can society as a whole gain consciousness without the people in it losing theirs? Can a conscious brain have parts that are also conscious on their own? The prediction from IIT is a firm no, but not everyone is convinced. For example, some patients with lesions severely reducing communication between the two halves of their brain experience alien hand syndrome, where their right brain makes their left hand do things that the patients claim they arent causing or understanding sometimes to the point that they use their other hand to restrain their alien hand. How can we be so sure that there arent two separate consciousnesses in their head, one in the right hemisphere thats unable to speak and another in the left hemisphere thats doing all the talking and claiming to speak for both of them? Imagine using future technology to build a direct communication link between two human brains, and gradually increasing the capacity of this link until communication is as efficient between the brains as it is within them. Would there come a moment when the two individual consciousnesses suddenly disappear and get replaced by a single unified one as IIT predicts, or would the transition be gradual so that the individual consciousnesses coexisted in some form even as a joint experience began to emerge? Another fascinating controversy is whether experiments underestimate how much were conscious of. We saw earlier that although we feel were visually conscious of vast amounts of information involving colors, shapes, objects and seemingly everything thats in front of us, experiments have shown that we can only remember and report a dismally small fraction of this. 27 Some researchers have tried to resolve this discrepancy by asking whether we may sometimes have consciousness without access, that is, subjective experience of things that are too complex to fit into our working memory for later use. 28 For example, when you experience inattentional blindness by being too distracted to notice an object in plain sight, this doesnt imply that you had no conscious visual experience of it, merely that it wasnt stored in your working memory. 29 Should it count as forgetfulness rather than blindness? Other researchers reject this idea that people cant be trusted about what they say they experienced, and warn of its implications. Murray Shanahan imagines a clinical trial where patients report complete pain relief thanks to a new wonder drug, which nonetheless gets rejected by a government panel: The patients only think they are not in pain. Thanks to neuroscience, we know better. 30 On the other hand, there have been cases where patients who accidentally awoke during surgery were given a drug to make them forget the ordeal. Should we trust their subsequent report that they experienced no pain? 31 How Might AI Consciousness Feel? If some future AI system is conscious, then what will it subjectively experience? This is the essence of the even harder problem of consciousness, and forces us up to the second level of difficulty depicted in figure 8.1 . Not only do we currently lack a theory that answers this question, but were not even sure whether its logically possible to fully answer it. After all, what could a satisfactory answer sound like? How would you explain to a person born blind what the color red looks like? Fortunately, our current inability to give a complete answer doesnt prevent us from giving partial answers. Intelligent aliens studying the human sensory system would probably infer that colors are qualia that feel associated with each point on a two-dimensional surface (our visual field), while sounds dont feel as spatially localized, and pains are qualia that feel associated with different parts of our body. From discovering that our retinas have three types of light-sensitive cone cells, they could infer that we experience three primary colors and that all other color qualia result from combining them. By measuring how long it takes neurons to transmit information across the brain, they could conclude that we experience no more than about ten conscious thoughts or perceptions per second, and that when we watch movies on our TV at twenty-four frames per second, we experience this not as a sequence of still images, but as continuous motion. From measuring how fast adrenaline is released into our bloodstream and how long it remains before being broken down, they could predict that we feel bursts of anger starting within seconds and lasting for minutes. Applying similar physics-based arguments, we can make some educated guesses about certain aspects of how an artificial consciousness may feel. First of all, the space of possible AI experiences is huge compared to what we humans can experience. We have one class of qualia for each of our senses, but AIs can have vastly more types of sensors and internal representations of information, so we must avoid the pitfall of assuming that being an AI necessarily feels similar to being a person. Second, a brain-sized artificial consciousness could have millions of times more experiences than us per second, since electromagnetic signals travel at the speed of lightmillions of times faster than neuron signals. However, the larger the AI, the slower its global thoughts must be to allow information time to flow between all its parts, as we saw in chapter 4. Wed therefore expect an Earth- sized Gaia AI to have only about ten conscious experiences per second, like a human, and a galaxy-sized AI could have only one global thought every 100,000 years or soso no more than about a hundred experiences during the entire history of our Universe thus far! This would give large AIs a seemingly irresistible incentive to delegate computations to the smallest subsystems capable of handling them, to speed things up, much like our conscious mind has delegated the blink reflex to a small, fast and unconscious subsystem. Although we saw above that the conscious information processing in our brains appears to be merely the tip of an otherwise unconscious iceberg, we should expect the situation to be even more extreme for large future AIs: if they have a single consciousness, then its likely to be unaware of almost all the information processing taking place within it. Moreover, although the conscious experiences that it enjoys may be extremely complex, theyre also snail-paced compared to the rapid activities of its smaller parts. This really brings to a head the aforementioned controversy about whether parts of a conscious entity can be conscious too. IIT predicts not, which means that if a future astronomically large AI is conscious, then almost all its information processing is unconscious. This would mean that if a civilization of smaller AIs improves its communication abilities to the point that a single conscious hive mind emerges, their much faster individual consciousnesses are suddenly extinguished. If the IIT prediction is wrong, on the other hand, the hive mind can coexist with the panoply of smaller conscious minds. Indeed, one could even imagine a nested hierarchy of consciousnesses at all levels from microscopic to cosmic. As we saw above, the unconscious information processing in our human brains appears linked to the effortless, fast and automatic way of thinking that psychologists call System 1. 32 For example, your System 1 might inform your consciousness that its highly complex analysis of visual input data has determined that your best friend has arrived, without giving you any idea how the computation took place. If this link between systems and consciousness proves to be valid, then it will be tempting to generalize this terminology to AIs, denoting all rapid routine tasks delegated to unconscious subunits as the AIs System 1. The effortful, slow and controlled global thinking of the AI would, if conscious, be the AIs System 2. We humans also have conscious experiences involving what Ill term System 0: raw passive perception that takes place even when you sit without moving or thinking and merely observe the world around you. Systems 0, 1 and 2 seem progressively more complex, so its striking that only the middle one appears unconscious. IIT explains this by saying that raw sensory information in System 0 is stored in grid-like brain structures with very high integration, while System 2 has high integration because of feedback loops, where all the information youre aware of right now can affect your future brain states. On the other hand, it was precisely the conscious-grid prediction that triggered Scott Aaronsons aforementioned IIT- critique. In summary, if a theory solving the pretty hard problem of consciousness can one day pass a rigorous battery of experimental tests so that we start taking its predictions seriously, then it will also greatly narrow down the options for the even harder problem of what future conscious AIs may experience. Some aspects of our subjective experience clearly trace back to our evolutionary origins, for example our emotional desires related to self- preservation (eating, drinking, avoiding getting killed) and reproduction. This means that it should be possible to create AI that never experiences qualia such as hunger, thirst, fear or sexual desire. As we saw in the last chapter, if a highly intelligent AI is programmed to have virtually any sufficiently ambitious goal, its likely to strive for self-preservation in order to be able to accomplish that goal. If theyre part of a society of AIs, however, they might lack our strong human fear of death: as long as theyve backed themselves up, all they stand to lose are the memories theyve accumulated since their most recent backup, as long as theyre confident that their backed-up software will be used. In addition, the ability to readily copy information and software between AIs would probably reduce the strong sense of individuality thats so characteristic of our human consciousness: there would be less of a distinction between you and me if we could easily share and copy all our memories and abilities, so a group of nearby AIs may feel more like a single organism with a hive mind. Would an artificial consciousness feel that it had free will? Note that, although philosophers have spent millennia quibbling about whether we have free will without reaching consensus even on how to define the question, 33 Im asking a different question, which is arguably easier to tackle. Let me try to persuade you that the answer is simply Yes, any conscious decision maker will subjectively feel that it has free will, regardless of whether its biological or artificial. Decisions fall on a spectrum between two extremes: 1. You know exactly why you made that particular choice. 2. You have no idea why you made that particular choiceit felt like you chose randomly on a whim. Free-will discussions usually center around a struggle to reconcile our goal- oriented decision-making behavior with the laws of physics: if youre choosing between the following two explanations for what you did, then which one is correct: I asked her on a date because I really liked her or My particles made me do it by moving according to the laws of physics ? But we saw in the last chapter that both are correct: what feels like goal-oriented behavior can emerge from goal-less deterministic laws of physics. More specifically, when a system (brain or AI) makes a decision of type 1, it computes what to decide using some deterministic algorithm, and the reason it feels like it decided is that it in fact did decide when computing what to do. Moreover, as emphasized by Seth Lloyd, 34 theres a famous computer-science theorem saying that for almost all computations, theres no faster way of determining their outcome than actually running them. This means that its typically impossible for you to figure out what youll decide to do in a second in less than a second, which helps reinforce your experience of having free will. In contrast, when a system (brain or AI) makes a decision of type 2, it simply programs its mind to base its decision on the output of some subsystem that acts as a random number generator. In brains and computers, effectively random numbers are easily generated by amplifying noise. Regardless of where on the spectrum from 1 to 2 a decision falls, both biological and artificial consciousnesses therefore feel that they have free will: they feel that it is really they who decide and they cant predict with certainty what the decision will be until theyve finished thinking it through. Some people tell me that they find causality degrading, that it makes their thought processes meaningless and that it renders them mere machines. I find such negativity absurd and unwarranted. First of all, theres nothing mere about human brains, which, as far as Im concerned, are the most amazingly sophisticated physical objects in our known Universe. Second, what alternative would they prefer? Dont they want it to be their own thought processes (the computations performed by their brains) that make their decisions? Their subjective experience of free will is simply how their computations feel from inside: they dont know the outcome of a computation until theyve finished it. Thats what it means to say that the computation is the decision. Meaning Lets end by returning to the starting point of this book: How do we want the future of life to be? We saw in the previous chapter how diverse cultures around the globe all seek a future teeming with positive experiences, but that fascinatingly thorny controversies arise when seeking consensus on what should count as positive and how to make trade-offs between whats good for different life forms. But lets not let those controversies distract us from the elephant in the room: there can be no positive experiences if there are no experiences at all, that is, if theres no consciousness. In other words, without consciousness, there can be no happiness, goodness, beauty, meaning or purposejust an astronomical waste of space. This implies that when people ask about the meaning of life as if it were the job of our cosmos to give meaning to our existence, theyre getting it backward: Its not our Universe giving meaning to conscious beings, but conscious beings giving meaning to our Universe. So the very first goal on our wish list for the future should be retaining (and hopefully expanding) biological and/or artificial consciousness in our cosmos, rather than driving it extinct. If we succeed in this endeavor, then how will we humans feel about coexisting with ever smarter machines? Does the seemingly inexorable rise of artificial intelligence bother you and if so, why? In chapter 3, we saw how it should be relatively easy for AI-powered technology to satisfy our basic needs such as security and income as long as the political will to do so exists. However, perhaps youre concerned that being well fed, clad, housed and entertained isnt enough. If were guaranteed that AI will take care of all our practical needs and desires, might we nonetheless end up feeling that we lack meaning and purpose in our lives, like well-kept zoo animals? Traditionally, we humans have often founded our self-worth on the idea of human exceptionalism: the conviction that were the smartest entities on the planet and therefore unique and superior. The rise of AI will force us to abandon this and become more humble. But perhaps thats something we should do anyway: after all, clinging to hubristic notions of superiority over others (individuals, ethnic groups, species and so on) has caused awful problems in the past, and may be an idea ready for retirement. Indeed, human exceptionalism hasnt only caused grief in the past, but it also appears unnecessary for human flourishing: if we discover a peaceful extraterrestrial civilization far more advanced than us in science, art and everything else we care about, this presumably wouldnt prevent people from continuing to experience meaning and purpose in their lives. We could retain our families, friends and broader communities, and all activities that give us meaning and purpose, hopefully having lost nothing but arrogance. As we plan our future, lets consider the meaning not only of our own lives, but also of our Universe itself. Here two of my favorite physicists, Steven Weinberg and Freeman Dyson, represent diametrically opposite views. Weinberg, who won the Nobel Prize for foundational work on the standard model of particle physics, famously said, The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless. 35 Dyson, on the other hand, is much more optimistic, as we saw in chapter 6: although he agrees that our Universe was pointless, he believes that life is now filling it with ever more meaning, with the best yet to come if life succeeds in spreading throughout the cosmos. He ended his seminal 1979 paper thus: Is Weinbergs universe or mine closer to the truth? One day, before long, we shall know. 36 If our Universe goes back to being permanently unconscious because we drive Earth life extinct or because we let unconscious zombie AI take over our Universe, then Weinberg will be vindicated in spades. From this perspective, we see that although weve focused on the future of intelligence in this book, the future of consciousness is even more important, since thats what enables meaning. Philosophers like to go Latin on this distinction, by contrasting sapience (the ability to think intelligently) with sentience (the ability to subjectively experience qualia). We humans have built our identity on being Homo sapiens, the smartest entities around. As we prepare to be humbled by ever smarter machines, I suggest that we rebrand ourselves as Homo sentiens ! THE BOTTOM LINE: Theres no undisputed definition of consciousness. I use the broad and non- anthropocentric definition consciousness = subjective experience. Whether AIs are conscious in that sense is what matters for the thorniest ethical and philosophical problems posed by the rise of AI: Can AIs suffer? Should they have rights? Is uploading a subjective suicide? Could a future cosmos teeming with AIs be the ultimate zombie apocalypse? The problem of understanding intelligence shouldnt be conflated with three separate problems of consciousness: the pretty hard problem of predicting which physical systems are conscious, the even harder problem of predicting qualia, and the really hard problem of why anything at all is conscious. The pretty hard problem of consciousness is scientific, since a theory that predicts which of your brain processes are conscious is experimentally testable and falsifiable, while its currently unclear how science could fully resolve the two harder problems. Neuroscience experiments suggest that many behaviors and brain regions are unconscious, with much of our conscious experience representing an after-the-fact summary of vastly larger amounts of unconscious information. Generalizing consciousness predictions from brains to machines requires a theory. Consciousness appears to require not a particular kind of particle or field, but a particular kind of information processing thats fairly autonomous and integrated, so that the whole system is rather autonomous but its parts arent. Consciousness might feel so non-physical because its doubly substrate-independent: if consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain complex ways, then its merely the structure of the information processing that matters, not the structure of the matter doing the information processing. If artificial consciousness is possible, then the space of possible AI experiences is likely to be huge compared to what we humans can experience, spanning a vast spectrum of qualia and timescalesall sharing a feeling of having free will. Since there can be no meaning without consciousness, its not our Universe giving meaning to conscious beings, but conscious beings giving meaning to our Universe. This suggests that as we humans prepare to be humbled by ever smarter machines, we take comfort mainly in being Homo sentiens, not Homo sapiens. *1 An alternative viewpoint is substance dualism that living entities differ from inanimate ones because they contain some non-physical substance such as an anima, lan vital or soul. Support for substance dualism among scientists has gradually dwindled. To understand why, consider that your body is made of about 10 29 quarks and electrons, which, as far as we can tell, move according to simple physical laws. Imagine a future technology able to track all your particles: if they were found to obey the laws of physics exactly, then your purported soul is having no effect on your particles, so your conscious mind and its ability to control your movements would have nothing to do with a soul. If your particles were instead found not to obey the known laws of physics because they were being pushed around by your soul, then the new entity causing these forces would by definition be a physical one that we can study just like weve studied new fields and new particles in the past. *2 I use the word qualia according to the dictionary definition, to mean individual instances of subjective experiencethat is, to mean the subjective experience itself, not any purported substance causing the experience. Beware that some people use the word differently. *3 Id originally called the RHP the very hard problem, but after I showed this chapter to David Chalmers, he emailed me the clever suggestion of switching to the really hard problem, to match what he really meant: since the first two problems (at least put this way) arent really part of the hard problem as I conceived of it whereas the third problem is, you could perhaps use really hard instead of very hard for the third one to match my usage. *4 If our physical reality is entirely mathematical (information-based, loosely speaking), as I explored in my book Our Mathematical Universe, then no aspect of realitynot even consciousnesslies beyond the purview of science. Indeed, the really hard problem of consciousness is, from that perspective, the exact same problem as that of understanding how something mathematical can feel physical: if part of a mathematical structure is conscious, then it will experience the rest as its external physical world. *5 Although Ive earlier used perceptronium as a synonym for sentronium, that name suggests too narrow a definition, since percepts are merely those subjective experiences that we perceive based on sensory inputexcluding, for example, dreams and internally generated thoughts. *6 Theres potential tension between this claim and the idea that consciousness is substrate-independent, since even though the information processing may be different at the lowest level, its by definition identical at the higher levels where it determines behavior. Epilogue The Tale of the FLI Team The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac Asimov Here we are, my dear reader, at the end of the book, after exploring the origin and fate of intelligence, goals and meaning. So how can we translate these ideas into action? What concretely should we do to make our future as good as possible? This is precisely the question Im asking myself right now as I sit here in my window seat en route from San Francisco back to Boston on January 9, 2017, from the AI conference we just organized in Asilomar, so let me end this book by sharing my thoughts with you. Meia is catching up on sleep next to me after the many short nights of preparing and organizing. Wowwhat a wild week its been! We managed to bring almost all the people Ive mentioned in this book together for a few days to this Puerto Rico sequel, including entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Larry Page and AI research leaders from academia and companies such as DeepMind, Google, Facebook, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Baidu, as well as economists, legal scholars, philosophers and other amazing thinkers (see figure 9.1 ). The results superseded even my high expectations, and Im feeling more optimistic about the future of life than I have in a long time. In this epilogue, Im going to tell you why. FLI Is Born Ever since I learned about the nuclear arms race at age fourteen, Ive been concerned that the power of our technology was growing faster than the wisdom with which we manage it. I therefore decided to sneak a chapter about this challenge into my first book, Our Mathematical Universe, even though the rest of it was primarily about physics. I made a New Years resolution for 2014 that I was no longer allowed to complain about anything without putting some serious thought into what I could personally do about it, and I kept my pledge during my book tour that January: Meia and I did lots of brainstorming about starting some sort of nonprofit organization focused on improving the future of life through technological stewardship. She insisted that we give it a positive name as different as possible from Doom & Gloom Institute and Lets-Worry-about-the-Future Institute. Since Future of Humanity Institute was already taken, we converged on the Future of Life Institute (FLI), which had the added advantage of being more inclusive. On January 22, the book tour took us to Santa Cruz, and as the California Sun set over the Pacific, we enjoyed dinner with our old friend Anthony Aguirre and persuaded him to join forces with us. Hes not only one of the wisest and most idealistic people I know, but also someone whos managed to put up with running another nonprofit organization, the Foundational Questions Institute (see http://fqxi.org ), with me for over a decade. The following week, the tour took me to London. Since the future of AI was very much on my mind, I reached out to Demis Hassabis, who graciously invited me to visit DeepMinds headquarters. I was awestruck by how much theyd grown since he visited me at MIT two years earlier. Google had just bought them for about $650 million, and seeing their vast office landscape filled with brilliant minds pursuing Demis audacious goal to solve intelligence gave me a visceral feeling that success was a real possibility. The next evening, I spoke with my friend Jaan Tallinn using Skype, the software hed helped create. I explained our FLI vision, and an hour later, hed decided to take a chance on us, funding us at up to $100,000 a year! Few things touch me more than when someone places more trust in me than Ive earned, so it meant the world to me when a year later, after the Puerto Rico conference I mentioned in chapter 1, he joked that this was the best investment hed ever made. Figure 9.1: Our January 2017 Asilomar conference, the Puerto Rico sequel, brought together a remarkable group of researchers in AI and related fields. Back row, from left to right: Patrick Lin, Daniel Weld, Ariel Conn, Nancy Chang, Tom Mitchell, Ray Kurzweil, Daniel Dewey, Margaret Boden, Peter Norvig, Nick Hay, Moshe Vardi, Scott Siskind, Nick Bostrom, Francesca Rossi, Shane Legg, Manuela Veloso, David Marble, Katja Grace, Irakli Beridze, Marty Tenenbaum, Gill Pratt, Martin Rees, Joshua Greene, Matt Scherer, Angela Kane, Amara Angelica, Jeff Mohr, Mustafa Suleyman, Steve Omohundro, Kate Crawford, Vitalik Buterin, Yutaka Matsuo, Stefano Ermon, Michael Wellman, Bas Steunebrink, Wendell Wallach, Allan Dafoe, Toby Ord, Thomas Dietterich, Daniel Kahneman, Dario Amodei, Eric Drexler, Tomaso Poggio, Eric Schmidt, Pedro Ortega, David Leake, Sen higeartaigh, Owain Evans, Jaan Tallinn, Anca Dragan, Sean Legassick, Toby Walsh, Peter Asaro, Kay Firth-Butterfield, Philip Sabes, Paul Merolla, Bart Selman, Tucker Davey, ?, Jacob Steinhardt, Moshe Looks, Josh Tenenbaum, Tom Gruber, Andrew Ng, Kareem Ayoub, Craig Calhoun, Percy Liang, Helen Toner, David Chalmers, Richard Sutton, Claudia Passos-Ferriera, Jnos Krmar, William MacAskill, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Brian Ziebart, Huw Price, Carl Shulman, Neil Lawrence, Richard Mallah, Jurgen Schmidhuber, Dileep George, Jonathan Rothberg, Noah Rothberg. Front row: Anthony Aguirre, Sonia Sachs, Lucas Perry, Jeffrey Sachs, Vincent Conitzer, Steve Goose, Victoria Krakovna, Owen Cotton-Barratt, Daniela Rus, Dylan Hadfield-Menell, Verity Harding, Shivon Zilis, Laurent Orseau, Ramana Kumar, Nate Soares, Andrew McAfee, Jack Clark, Anna Salamon, Long Ouyang, Andrew Critch, Paul Christiano, Yoshua Bengio, David Sanford, Catherine Olsson, Jessica Taylor, Martina Kunz, Kristinn Thorisson, Stuart Armstrong, Yann LeCun, Alexander Tamas, Roman Yampolskiy, Marin Solja i , Lawrence Krauss, Stuart Russell, Eric Brynjolfsson, Ryan Calo, ShaoLan Hsueh, Meia Chita-Tegmark, Kent Walker, Heather Roff, Meredith Whittaker, Max Tegmark, Adrian Weller, Jose Hernandez-Orallo, Andrew Maynard, John Hering, Abram Demski, Nicolas Berggruen, Gregory Bonnet, Sam Harris, Tim Hwang, Andrew Snyder-Beattie, Marta Halina, Sebastian Farquhar, Stephen Cave, Jan Leike, Tasha McCauley, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Arrived later: Guru Banavar, Demis Hassabis, Rao Kambhampati, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Anthony Romero. The next day, my publisher had left a gap in my schedule, which I filled with a visit to the London Science Museum. After having obsessed about the past and future of intelligence for so long, I suddenly felt that I was walking through a physical manifestation of my thoughts. Theyd assembled a fantastic collection of stuff representing our growth of knowledge, from Stephensons Rocket locomotive to the Model T Ford, a life-size Apollo 11 lunar lander replica and computers dating all the way from Babbages Difference Engine mechanical calculator to present-day hardware. They also had an exhibit about the history of our understanding of the mind, from Galvanos frog-leg experiments to neurons, EEG and fMRI. I very rarely cry, but thats what I did on the way outand in a tunnel full of pedestrians, no less, en route to the South Kensington tube station. Here were all these people going about their lives blissfully unaware of what I was thinking. First we humans discovered how to replicate some natural processes with machines, making our own wind and lightning, and our own mechanical horsepower. Gradually, we started realizing that our bodies were also machines. Then the discovery of nerve cells started blurring the borderline between body and mind. Then we started building machines that could outperform not only our muscles, but our minds as well. So in parallel with discovering what we are, are we inevitably making ourselves obsolete? That would be poetically tragic. This thought scared me, but it also strengthened my resolve to keep my New Years resolution. I felt that we needed one more person to complete our team of FLI founders, whod spearhead a team of idealistic young volunteers. The logical choice was Viktoriya Krakovna, a brilliant Harvard grad student whod not only won a silver medal in the International Mathematics Olympiad, but also founded the Citadel, a house for about a dozen young idealists who wanted reason to play a greater role in their lives and the world. Meia and I invited her over to our place five days later to tell her about our vision, and before wed finished the sushi, FLI had been born. The Puerto Rico Adventure This marked the beginning of an amazing adventure, which still continues. As I mentioned in chapter 1, we held regular brainstorming meetings at our house with dozens of idealistic students, professors and other local thinkers, where the top-rated ideas transformed into projectsthe first being that AI op-ed from chapter 1 with Stephen Hawking, Stuart Russell and Frank Wilczek that helped ignite the public debate. In parallel with the baby steps of setting up a new organization (such as incorporating, recruiting an advisory board and launching a website), we held a fun launch event in front of a packed MIT auditorium, at which Alan Alda explored the future of technology with leading experts. Figure 9.2: Jaan Tallinn, Anthony Aguirre, yours truly, Meia Chita-Tegmark and Viktoriya Krakovna celebrate our incorporation of FLI with sushi on May 23, 2014. We focused the rest of the year on pulling together the Puerto Rico conference which, as I mentioned in chapter 1, aimed to engage the worlds leading AI researchers in the discussion of how to keep AI beneficial. Our goal was to shift the AI-safety conversation from worrying to working: from bickering about how worried to be, to agreeing on concrete research projects that could be started right away to maximize the chance of a good outcome. To prepare, we collected promising AI-safety research ideas from around the world and sought community feedback on our growing project list. With the help of Stuart Russell and a group of hardworking young volunteers, especially Daniel Dewey, Jnos Krmar and Richard Mallah, we distilled these research priorities into a document to be discussed at the conference. 1 Building consensus that there was lots of valuable AI-safety research to be done would, we hoped, encourage people to start doing such research. The ultimate moonshot triumph would be if it could even persuade someone to fund it since, so far, there had been essentially no support for such work from government funding agencies. Enter Elon Musk. On August 2, he appeared on our radar by famously tweeting Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes. I reached out to him about our efforts, and got to speak with him by phone a few weeks later. Although I felt quite nervous and starstruck, the outcome was outstanding: he agreed to join our FLI scientific advisory board, to attend our conference and potentially to fund a first-ever AI-safety research program to be announced in Puerto Rico. This electrified all of us at FLI, and made us redouble our efforts to create an awesome conference, identify promising research topics and build community support for them. I finally got to meet Elon in person for further planning when he came to MIT two months later for a space symposium. It felt very strange to be alone with him in a small green room just moments after hed enraptured over a thousand MIT students like a rock star, but after a few minutes, all I could think of was our joint project. I instantly liked him. He radiated sincerity, and I was inspired by how much he cared about the long-term future of humanityand how he audaciously turned his aspiration into actions. He wanted humanity to explore and settle our Universe, so he started a space company. He wanted sustainable energy, so he started a solar company and an electric-car company. Tall, handsome, eloquent and incredibly knowledgeable, it was easy to understand why people listened to him. Unfortunately, this MIT event also taught me how fear-driven and divisive media can be. Elons stage performance consisted of an hour of fascinating discussion about space exploration, which I think would have made great TV. At the very end, a student asked him an off-topic question about AI. His answer included the phrase with artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon, which became the only thing that most media reportedand generally out of context. It struck me that many journalists were inadvertently doing the exact opposite of what we were trying to accomplish in Puerto Rico. Whereas we wanted to build community consensus by highlighting the common ground, the media had an incentive to highlight the divisions. The more controversy they could report, the greater their Nielsen ratings and ad revenue. Moreover, whereas we wanted to help people from across the spectrum of opinions to come together, get along and understand each other better, media coverage inadvertently made people across the opinion spectrum upset at one another, fueling misunderstandings by publishing only their most provocative-sounding quotes without context. For this reason, we decided to ban journalists from the Puerto Rico meeting and impose the Chatham House Rule, which prohibits participants from subsequently revealing who said what. * Although our Puerto Rico conference ended up being a success, it didnt come easy. The countdown mostly required diligent prep work, for example me phoning or skyping large numbers of AI researchers to assemble a critical mass of participants to attract the other attendees, and there were also dramatic momentssuch as when I got up by 7 a.m. on December 27 to reach Elon on a lousy phone connection to Uruguay, and was told I dont think this is gonna work. He was concerned that an AI-safety research program might provide a false sense of security, enabling reckless researchers to forge ahead while paying lip service to safety. But then, despite the sound incessantly cutting out, we extensively talked through the huge benefits of mainstreaming the topic and getting more AI researchers working on AI safety. After the call dropped, he sent me one of my favorite emails ever: Lost the call at the end there. Anyway, docs look fine. Im happy to support the research with $5M over three years. Maybe we should make it $10M? Four days later, 2015 got off to a good start for Meia and me as we briefly relaxed before the meeting, dancing in the new year on a Puerto Rico beach illuminated by fireworks. The conference got off to a great start too: there was remarkable consensus that more AI-safety research was needed, and based on further input from the conference participants, that research priorities document wed worked so hard on was improved and finalized. We passed around that safety-research-endorsing open letter from chapter 1, and were delighted that almost everyone signed it. Meia and I had a magical meeting with Elon in our hotel room where he blessed the detailed plans for our grants program. She was touched by how down-to-earth and candid he was about his personal life, and how much interest he took in us. He asked us how we met, and liked Meias elaborate story. The next day, we filmed an interview with him about AI safety and why he wanted to support it and everything seemed on track. 2 The conference climax, Elons donation announcement, was scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 4, 2015, and Id been so tense about it that Id tossed and turned in my sleep the night before. And then, just fifteen minutes before we were supposed to head to the session where it would happen, we hit a snag! Elons assistant called and said that it looked like Elon might not be able to go through with the announcement, and Meia said shed never seen me look more stressed or disappointed. Elon finally came by, and I could hear the seconds counting down to the session start as we sat there and talked. He explained that they were just two days away from a crucial SpaceX rocket launch where they hoped to pull off the first-ever successful landing of the first stage on a drone ship, and that since this was a huge milestone, the SpaceX team didnt want to distract from it with concurrent media splashes involving him. Anthony Aguirre, cool and levelheaded as always, pointed out that this meant that nobody wanted media attention for this, neither Elon nor the AI community. We arrived a few minutes late to the session I was moderating, but we had a plan: no dollar amount would get mentioned, to ensure that the announcement wasnt newsworthy, and Id lord Chatham House over everyone to keep Elons announcement secret from the world for nine days if his rocket reached the space station, regardless of whether the landing succeeded; he said hed need even more time if the rocket exploded on launch. The countdown to the announcement finally reached zero. The superintelligence panelists that Id moderated still sat there next to me onstage in their chairs: Eliezer Yudkowsky, Elon Musk, Nick Bostrom, Richard Mallah, Murray Shanahan, Bart Selman, Shane Legg and Vernor Vinge. People gradually stopped applauding, but the panelists remained seated, because Id told them to stay without explaining why. Meia later told me that her pulse reached the stratosphere around now, and that she clutched Viktoriya Krakovnas calming hand under the table. I smiled, knowing that this was the moment wed worked, hoped and waited for. I was very happy that there was such consensus at the meeting that more research was needed for keeping AI beneficial, I said, and that there were so many concrete research directions we could work on right away. But there had been talk of serious risks in this session, I added, so it would be nice to raise our spirits and get into an upbeat mood before heading out to the bar and the conference banquet that had been set up outside. And Im therefore giving the microphone toElon Musk! I felt that history was in the making as Elon took the mic and announced that he would donate a large amount of money to AI- safety research. Unsurprisingly, he brought down the house. As planned, he didnt mention how much, but I knew that it was a cool $10 million, as wed agreed. Meia and I went to visit our parents in Sweden and Romania after the conference, and with bated breath, we watched the live-streamed rocket launch with my dad in Stockholm. The landing attempt unfortunately ended with what Elon euphemistically calls an RUD, rapid unscheduled disassembly, and pulling off a successful ocean landing took his team another fifteen months. 3 However, all the satellites were successfully launched into orbit, as was our grants program via a tweet by Elon to his millions of followers. 4 Mainstreaming AI Safety A key goal of the Puerto Rico conference had been to mainstream AI-safety research, and it was exhilarating to see this unfold in multiple steps. First there was the meeting itself, where many researchers started feeling comfortable engaging with the topic once they realized that they were part of a growing community of peers. I was deeply touched by encouragement from many participants. For example, Cornell University AI professor Bart Selman emailed me saying, Ive honestly never seen a better organized or more exciting and intellectually stimulating scientific meeting. The next mainstreaming step began on January 11 when Elon tweeted Worlds top artificial intelligence developers sign open letter calling for AI- safety research, 5 linking to a sign-up page that soon racked up over eight thousand signatures, including many of the worlds most prominent AI builders. It suddenly became harder to claim that people concerned about AI safety didnt know what they were talking about, because this now implied that a whos who of leading AI researchers didnt know what they were talking about. The open letter was reported by media around the world in a way that made us grateful that wed barred journalists from our conference. Although the most alarmist word in the letter was pitfalls, it nonetheless triggered headlines such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking Sign Open Letter in Hopes of Preventing Robot Uprising, illustrated by murderous terminators. Of the hundreds of articles we spotted, our favorite was one mocking the others, writing that a headline that conjures visions of skeletal androids stomping human skulls underfoot turns complex, transformative technology into a carnival sideshow. 6 Fortunately, there were also many sober news articles, and they gave us another challenge: keeping up with the torrent of new signatures, which needed to be manually verified to protect our credibility and weed out pranks such as HAL 9000, Terminator, Sarah Jeanette Connor and Skynet. For this and our future open letters, Viktoriya Krakovna and Jnos Krmar helped organize a volunteer brigade of checkers that included Jesse Galef, Eric Gastfriend and Revathi Vinoth Kumar working in shifts, so that when Revathi went to sleep in India, she passed the baton to Eric in Boston, and so on. The third mainstreaming step began four days later, when Elon tweeted a link to our announcement that he was donating $10 million to AI-safety research. 7 A week later, we launched an online portal where researchers from around the world could apply and compete for this funding. We were able to whip the application system together so quickly only because Anthony and I had spent the previous decade running similar competitions for physics grants. The Open Philanthropy Project, a California-based charity focused on high-impact giving, generously agreed to top up Elons gift to allow us to give more grants. We werent sure how many applicants wed get, since the topic was novel and the deadline was short. The response blew us away, with about three hundred teams from around the world asking for about $100 million. A panel of AI professors and other researchers carefully reviewed the proposals and selected thirty-seven winning teams, who were funded for up to three years. When we announced the list of winners, it marked the first time that the media response to our activities was fairly nuanced and free of killer-robot pictures. It was finally sinking in that AI safety wasnt empty talk: there was actual useful work to be done, and lots of great research teams were rolling up their sleeves to join the effort. The fourth mainstreaming step happened organically over the next two years, with scores of technical publications and dozens of workshops on AI safety around the world, typically as parts of mainstream AI conferences. Persistent people had tried for many years to engage the AI community in safety research, with limited success, but now things really took off. Many of these publications were funded by our grants program and we at FLI did our best to help organize and fund as many of these workshops as we could, but a growing fraction of them were enabled by AI researchers investing their own time and resources. As a result, ever more researchers learned about safety research from their own colleagues, discovering that aside from being useful, it could also be fun, involving interesting mathematical and computational problems to puzzle over. Complicated equations arent everyones idea of fun, of course. Two years after our Puerto Rico conference, we preceded our Asilomar conference with a technical workshop where our FLI grant winners could showcase their research, and watched slide after slide with mathematical symbols on the big screen. Moshe Vardi, an AI professor at Rice University, joked that he knew wed succeeded in establishing an AI-safety research field once the meetings got boring. This dramatic growth of AI-safety work wasnt limited to academia. Amazon, DeepMind, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft launched an industry partnership for beneficial AI. 8 Major new AI-safety donations enabled expanded research at our largest nonprofit sister organizations: the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk in Cambridge (UK). Further donations of $10 million or more kick-started additional beneficial-AI efforts: the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence in Cambridge, the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies in Pittsburgh and the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund in Miami. Last but not least, with a billion-dollar commitment, Elon Musk partnered with other entrepreneurs to launch OpenAI, a nonprofit company in San Francisco pursuing beneficial AI. AI-safety research was here to stay. In lockstep with this surge of research came a surge of opinions being expressed, both individually and collectively. The industry Partnership on AI published its founding tenets, and long reports with lists of recommendations were published by the U.S. government, Stanford University and the IEEE (the worlds largest organization of technical professionals), together with dozens of other reports and position papers from elsewhere. 9 We were eager to facilitate meaningful discussion among the Asilomar attendees and learn what, if anything, this diverse community agreed on. Lucas Perry therefore took on the heroic task of reading all of those documents wed found and extracting all their opinions. In a marathon effort initiated by Anthony Aguirre and concluded by a series of long telecons, our FLI team then attempted to group similar opinions together and strip away redundant bureaucratic verbiage to end up with a single list of succinct principles, also including unpublished but influential opinions that had been expressed more informally in talks and elsewhere. But this list still included plenty of ambiguity, contradiction and room for interpretation, so the month before the conference, we shared it with the participants and collected their opinions and suggestions for improved or novel principles. This community input produced a significantly revised principle list for use at the conference. In Asilomar, the list was further improved in two steps. First, small groups discussed the principles they were most interested in ( figure 9.4 ), producing detailed refinements, feedback, new principles and competing versions of old ones. Finally, we surveyed all attendees to determine the level of support for each version of each principle. Figure 9.3: Groups of great minds ponder AI principles in Asilomar. This collective process was both exhaustive and exhausting, with Anthony, Meia and I curtailing sleep and lunch time at the conference in our scramble to compile everything needed in time for the next steps. But it was also exciting. After such detailed, thorny and sometimes contentious discussions and such a wide range of feedback, we were astonished by the high level of consensus that emerged around many of the principles during that final survey, with some getting over 97% support. This consensus allowed us to set a high bar for inclusion in the final list: we kept only principles that at least 90% of the attendees agreed on. Although this meant that some popular principles were dropped at the last minute, including some of my personal favorites, 10 it enabled most of the participants to feel comfortable endorsing all of them on the sign-up sheet that we passed around the auditorium. Heres the result. The Asilomar AI Principles Artificial intelligence has already provided beneficial tools that are used every day by people around the world. Its continued development, guided by the following principles, will offer amazing opportunities to help and empower people in the decades and centuries ahead. R ESEARCH I SSUES 1 Research Goal: The goal of AI research should be to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence. 2 Research Funding: Investments in AI should be accompanied by funding for research on ensuring its beneficial use, including thorny questions in computer science, economics, law, ethics, and social studies, such as: (a) How can we make future AI systems highly robust, so that they do what we want without malfunctioning or getting hacked? (b) How can we grow our prosperity through automation while maintaining peoples resources and purpose? (c) How can we update our legal systems to be more fair and efficient, to keep pace with AI, and to manage the risks associated with AI? (d) What set of values should AI be aligned with, and what legal and ethical status should it have? 3 Science-Policy Link: There should be constructive and healthy exchange between AI researchers and policy-makers. 4 Research Culture: A culture of cooperation, trust, and transparency should be fostered among researchers and developers of AI. 5 Race Avoidance: Teams developing AI systems should actively cooperate to avoid corner-cutting on safety standards. E THICS AND V ALUES 6 Safety: AI systems should be safe and secure throughout their operational lifetime, and verifiably so where applicable and feasible. 7 Failure Transparency: If an AI system causes harm, it should be possible to ascertain why. 8 Judicial Transparency: Any involvement by an autonomous system in judicial decision-making should provide a satisfactory explanation auditable by a competent human authority. 9 Responsibility: Designers and builders of advanced AI systems are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications. 10 Value Alignment: Highly autonomous AI systems should be designed so that their goals and behaviors can be assured to align with human values throughout their operation. 11 Human Values: AI systems should be designed and operated so as to be compatible with ideals of human dignity, rights, freedoms, and cultural diversity. 12 Personal Privacy: People should have the right to access, manage, and control the data they generate, given AI systems power to analyze and utilize that data. 13 Liberty and Privacy: The application of AI to personal data must not unreasonably curtail peoples real or perceived liberty. 14 Shared Benefit: AI technologies should benefit and empower as many people as possible. 15 Shared Prosperity: The economic prosperity created by AI should be shared broadly, to benefit all of humanity. 16 Human Control: Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to AI systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives. 17 Non-subversion: The power conferred by control of highly advanced AI systems should respect and improve, rather than subvert, the social and civic processes on which the health of society depends. 18 AI Arms Race: An arms race in lethal autonomous weapons should be avoided. L ONGER- T ERM I SSUES 19 Capability Caution: There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions regarding upper limits on future AI capabilities. 20 Importance: Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. 21 Risks: Risks posed by AI systems, especially catastrophic or existential risks, must be subject to planning and mitigation efforts commensurate with their expected impact. 22 Recursive Self-Improvement: AI systems designed to recursively self- improve or self-replicate in a manner that could lead to rapidly increasing quality or quantity must be subject to strict safety and control measures. 23 Common Good: Superintelligence should only be developed in the service of widely shared ethical ideals, and for the benefit of all humanity rather than one state or organization. The signature list grew dramatically after we posted the principles online, and by now it includes an amazing list of more than a thousand AI researchers and many other top thinkers. If you too want to join as a signatory, you can do so here: http://futureoflife.org/ai-principles . We were struck not only by the level of consensus about the principles, but also by how strong they were. Sure, some of them sound about as controversial as Peace, love and motherhood are valuable at first glance. But many of them have real teeth, as is most easily seen by formulating negations of them. For example, Superintelligence is impossible! violates 19, and Its a total waste to do research on reducing existential risk from AI! violates 21. Indeed, as you can see for yourself if you watch our long-term panel discussion on YouTube, 11 Elon Musk, Stuart Russell, Ray Kurzweil, Demis Hassabis, Sam Harris, Nick Bostrom, David Chalmers, Bart Selman and Jaan Tallinn all agreed that superintelligence would probably be developed and that safety research was important. I hope that the Asilomar AI Principles will serve as a starting point for more detailed discussions, which will ultimately lead to sensible AI strategies and policies. In this spirit, our FLI media director Ariel Conn worked with Tucker Davey and other team members to interview leading AI researchers about the principles and how they interpreted them, while David Stanley and his team of international FLI volunteers translated the principles into key world languages. Mindful Optimism As I confessed in the opening of this epilogue, Im feeling more optimistic about the future of life than I have in a long time. I shared my personal story to explain why. My experiences over the past few years have increased my optimism for two separate reasons. First, Ive witnessed the AI community come together in a remarkable way to constructively take on the challenges ahead, often in collaboration with thinkers from other fields. Elon told me after the Asilomar meeting that he found it amazing how AI safety has gone from a fringe issue to mainstream in only a few years, and Im just as amazed myself. And now its not merely the near-term issues from chapter 3 that are becoming respectable discussion topics, but even superintelligence and existential risk, as in the Asilomar AI Principles. Theres no way that those principles could have been adopted in Puerto Rico two years earlier, where the most scary-sounding word that made it into the open letter was pitfalls. I like people-watching, and at one point during the final morning of the Asilomar conference, I stood at the side of the auditorium and watched the participants listen to a discussion about AI and law. To my surprise, a warm and fuzzy feeling swept through me and I suddenly felt very moved. This felt so different from Puerto Rico! Back then, I remember viewing most of the AI community with a combination of respect and fearnot exactly as an opposing team, but as a group that my AI-concerned colleagues and I felt we needed to persuade. But now it felt so obvious that we were all on the same team. As youve probably gleaned from reading this book, I still dont have the answers for how to create a great future with AI, so it feels great to be part of a growing community searching for the answers together. Figure 9.4: A growing community searches for answers together in Asilomar. The second reason Ive grown more optimistic is that the FLI experience has been empowering. What had triggered my London tears was a feeling of inevitability: that a disturbing future may be coming and there was nothing we could do about it. But the next three years dissolved my fatalistic gloom. If even a ragtag bunch of unpaid volunteers could make a positive difference for whats arguably the most important conversation of our time, then imagine what we can all do if we work together! Erik Brynjolfsson spoke of two kinds of optimism in his Asilomar talk. First theres the unconditional kind, such as the positive expectation that the Sun will rise tomorrow morning. Then theres what he called mindful optimism, which is the expectation that good things will happen if you plan carefully and work hard for them. Thats the kind of optimism I now feel about the future of life. So what can you do to make a positive difference for the future of life as we enter the age of AI? For reasons Ill soon explain, I think that a great first step is working on becoming a mindful optimist, if you arent one already. To be a successful mindful optimist, its crucial to develop positive visions for the future. When MIT students come to my office for career advice, I usually start by asking them where they see themselves in a decade. If a student were to reply Perhaps Ill be in a cancer ward, or in a cemetery after getting hit by a bus, Id give her a hard time. Envisioning only negative futures is a terrible approach to career planning! Devoting 100% of ones efforts to avoiding diseases and accidents is a great recipe for hypochondria and paranoia, not happiness. Instead, Id like to hear her describe her goals with enthusiasm, after which we can discuss strategies for getting there while avoiding pitfalls. Erik pointed out that according to game theory, positive visions form the foundation of a large fraction of all collaboration in the world, from marriages and corporate mergers to the decision of independent states to form the USA. After all, why sacrifice something you have if you cant imagine the even greater gain that this will provide? This means that we should be imagining positive futures not only for ourselves, but also for society and for humanity itself. In other words, we need more existential hope! Yet, as Meia likes to remind me, from Frankenstein to the Terminator, futuristic visions in literature and film are predominantly dystopian. In other words, we as a society are planning our future about as poorly as that hypothetical MIT student. This is why we need more mindful optimists. And this is why Ive encouraged you throughout this book to think about what sort of future you want rather than merely what sort of future you fear, so that we can find shared goals to plan and work for. Weve seen throughout this book how AI is likely to give us both grand opportunities and tough challenges. A strategy thats likely to help with essentially all AI challenges is for us to get our act together and improve our human society before AI fully takes off. Were better off educating our young to make technology robust and beneficial before ceding great power to it. Were better off modernizing our laws before technology makes them obsolete. Were better off resolving international conflicts before they escalate into an arms race in autonomous weapons. Were better off creating an economy that ensures prosperity for all before AI potentially amplifies inequalities. Were better off in a society where AI-safety research results get implemented rather than ignored. And looking further ahead, to challenges related to superhuman AGI, were better off agreeing on at least some basic ethical standards before we start teaching these standards to powerful machines. In a polarized and chaotic world, people with the power to use AI for malicious purposes will have more motivation and ability to do so, and teams racing to build AGI will feel more pressure to cut corners on safety than to cooperate. In summary, if we can create a more harmonious human society characterized by cooperation toward shared goals, this will improve the prospects of the AI revolution ending well. In other words, one of the best ways for you to improve the future of life is to improve tomorrow. You have power to do so in many ways. Of course you can vote at the ballot box and tell your politicians what you think about education, privacy, lethal autonomous weapons, technological unemployment and other issues. But you also vote every day through what you choose to buy, what news you choose to consume, what you choose to share and what sort of role model you choose to be. Do you want to be someone who interrupts all their conversations by checking their smartphone, or someone who feels empowered by using technology in a planned and deliberate way? Do you want to own your technology or do you want your technology to own you? What do you want it to mean to be human in the age of AI? Please discuss all this with those around you its not only an important conversation, but a fascinating one. Were the guardians of the future of life now as we shape the age of AI. Although I cried in London, I now feel that theres nothing inevitable about this future, and I know that its much easier to make a difference than I thought. Our future isnt written in stone and just waiting to happen to usits ours to create. Lets create an inspiring one together! * This experience also made me rethink how I personally should interpret news. Although Id obviously been aware that most outlets have their own political agenda, I now realized that they also have a bias away from the center on all issues, even nonpolitical ones. Notes Chapter 1 1. The AI Revolution: Our Immortality or Extinction? Wait But Why (January 27, 2015), at http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html . 2. This open letter, Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence, can be found at http://futureoflife.org/ai-open-letter/ . 3. Example of classic robot alarmism in the media: Ellie Zolfagharifard, Artificial Intelligence Could Be the Worst Thing to Happen to Humanity, Daily Mail, May 2, 2014; http://tinyurl.com/hawkingbots . Chapter 2 1. Notes on the origin of the term AGI: http://wp.goertzel.org/who-coined-the-term-agi . 2. Hans Moravec, When Will Computer Hardware Match the Human Brain? Journal of Evolution and Technology (1998), vol. 1. 3. In the figure showing computing power versus year, the pre-2011 data is from Ray Kurzweils book How to Create a Mind, and subsequent data is computed from the references in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS . 4. Quantum computing pioneer David Deutsch describes how he views quantum computation as evidence of parallel universes in his The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universesand Its Implications (London: Allen Lane, 1997). If you want my own take on quantum parallel universes as the third of four multiverse levels, youll find it in my previous book: Max Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality (New York: Knopf, 2014). Chapter 3 1. Watch Google DeepMinds Deep Q-learning Playing Atari Breakout on YouTube at https://tinyurl.com/atariai . 2. See Volodymyr Mnih et al., Human-Level Control Through Deep Reinforcement Learning, Nature 518 (February 26, 2015): 529533, available online at http://tinyurl.com/ataripaper . 3. Heres a video of the Big Dog robot in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww . 4. For reactions to the sensationally creative line 5 move by AlphaGO, see Move 37!! Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo Match 2, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNrXgpSEEIE . 5. Demis Hassabis describing reactions to AlphaGo from human Go players: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otJKzpNWZT4 . 6. For recent improvements in machine translation, see Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The Great A.I. Awakening, New York Times Magazine (December 14, 2016), available online at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/magazine/the-great-ai-awakening.html . GoogleTranslate is available here at https://translate.google.com . 7. Winograd Schema Challenge competition: http://tinyurl.com/winogradchallenge . 8. Ariane 5 explosion video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnHn8W1Em6E . 9. Ariane 5 Flight 501 Failure report by the inquiry board: http://tinyurl.com/arianeflop . 10. NASAs Mars Climate Orbiter Mishap Investigation Board Phase I report: http://tinyurl.com/marsflop . 11. The most detailed and consistent account of what caused the Mariner 1 Venus mission failure was incorrect hand-transcription of a single mathematical symbol (a missing overbar): http://tinyurl.com/marinerflop . 12. A detailed description of the failure of the Soviet Phobos 1 Mars mission can be found in Wesley T. Huntress Jr. and Mikhail Ya. Marov, Soviet Robots in the Solar System (New York: Praxis Publishing, 2011), p. 308. 13. How unverified software cost Knight Capital $440 million in 45 minutes: http://tinyurl.com/knightflop1 and http://tinyurl.com/knightflop2 . 14. U.S. government report on the Wall Street flash crash: Findings Regarding the Market Events of May 6, 2010 (September 30, 2010), at http://tinyurl.com/flashcrashreport . 15. 3-D printing of buildings ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SObzNdyRTBs ), micromechanical devices ( http://tinyurl.com/tinyprinter ) and many things in between ( https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xVU4FLrsPXs ). 16. Global map of community-based fab labs: https://www.fablabs.io/labs/map . 17. News article about Robert Williams being killed by an industrial robot: http://tinyurl.com/williamsaccident . 18. News article about Kenji Urada being killed by an industrial robot: http://tinyurl.com/uradaaccident . 19. News article about Volkswagen worker being killed by an industrial robot: http://tinyurl.com/baunatalaccident . 20. U.S. government report on worker fatalities: https://www.osha.gov/dep/fatcat/dep_fatcat.html . 21. Car accident fatality statistics: http://tinyurl.com/roadsafety2 and http://tinyurl.com/roadsafety3 . 22. On the first Tesla autopilot fatality, see Andrew Buncombe, Tesla Crash: Driver Who Died While on Autopilot Mode Was Watching Harry Potter, Independent (July 1, 2016), http://tinyurl.com/teslacrashstory . For the report of the Office of Defects Investigation of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, see http://tinyurl.com/teslacrashreport . 23. For more about the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster, see R. B. Whittingham, The Blame Machine: Why Human Error Causes Accidents (Oxford, UK: Elsevier, 2004). 24. Documentary about the Air France 447 crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpPkp8OGQFI ; accident report: http://tinyurl.com/af447report ; outside analysis: http://tinyurl.com/thomsonarticle . 25. Official report on the 2003 U.S.-Canadian blackout: http://tinyurl.com/uscanadablackout . 26. Final report of the Presidents Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island: http://www.threemileisland.org/downloads/188.pdf . 27. Dutch study showing how AI can rival human radiologists at MRI-based diagnosis of prostate cancer: http://tinyurl.com/prostate-ai . 28. Stanford study showing how AI can best human pathologists at lung cancer diagnosis: http://tinyurl.com/lungcancer-ai . 29. Investigation of the Therac-25 radiation therapy accidents: http://tinyurl.com/theracfailure . 30. Report on lethal radiation overdoses in Panama caused by confusing user interface: http://tinyurl.com/cobalt60accident . 31. Study of adverse events in robotic surgery: https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03518 . 32. Article on number of deaths from bad hospital care: http://tinyurl.com/medaccidents . 33. Yahoo set a new standard for big hack when announcing a billion(!) of their user accounts had been breached: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/yahoo-hack-billion-users/ . 34. New York Times article on acquittal and later conviction of KKK murderer: http://tinyurl.com/kkkacquittal . 35. The Danziger et al. 2011 study ( http://www.pnas.org/content/108/17/6889.full ), arguing that hungry judges are harsher, was criticized as flawed by Keren Weinshall-Margela and John Shapard ( http://www.pnas.org/content/108/42/E833.full ), but Danziger et al. insist that their claims remain valid ( http://www.pnas.org/content/108/42/E834.full ). 36. Pro Publica report on racial bias in recidivism-prediction software: http://tinyurl.com/robojudge . 37. Use of fMRI and other brain-scanning techniques as evidence in trials is highly controversial, as is the reliability of such techniques, although many teams claim accuracies better than 90%: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00709/full . 38. PBS made the movie The Man Who Saved the World about the incident where Vasili Arkhipov single- handedly prevented a Soviet nuclear strike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPY2SgyG5w . 39. The story of how Stanislav Petrov dismissed warnings of a U.S. nuclear attack as a false alarm was turned into the movie The Man Who Saved the World (not to be confused with the movie by the same title in the previous note), and Petrov was honored at the United Nations and given the World Citizen Award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IncSjwWQHMo . 40. Open letter from AI and robotics researchers about autonomous weapons: http://futureoflife.org/open- letter-autonomous-weapons/ . 41. A U.S. official seemingly wanting a military AI arms race: http://tinyurl.com/workquote . 42. Study of wealth inequality in the United States since 1913: http://gabriel- zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2015.pdf . 43. Oxfam report on global wealth inequality: http://tinyurl.com/oxfam2017 . 44. For a great introduction to the hypothesis of technology-driven inequality, see Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (New York: Norton, 2014). 45. Article in The Atlantic about falling wages for the less educated: http://tinyurl.com/wagedrop . 46. The data plotted are taken from Facundo Alvaredo, Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, The World Wealth and Income Database ( http://www.wid.world ), including capital gains. 47. Presentation by James Manyika showing income shifting from labor to capital: http://futureoflife.org/data/PDF/james_manyika.pdf . 48. Forecasts about future job automation from Oxford University ( http://tinyurl.com/automationoxford ) and McKinsey ( http://tinyurl.com/automationmckinsey ). 49. Video of robotic chef: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE6i2OO6Y6s . 50. Marin Solja i explored these options at the 2016 workshop Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society: http://futureoflife.org/2016/05/06/computers-gone-wild/ . 51. Andrew McAfees suggestions for how to create more good jobs: http://futureoflife.org/data/PDF/andrew_mcafee.pdf . 52. In addition to many academic articles arguing that this time is different for technological unemployment, the video Humans Need Not Apply succinctly makes the same point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU . 53. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm . 54. Argument that this time is different for technological unemployment: Federico Pistono, Robots Will Steal Your Job, but Thats OK (2012), http://robotswillstealyourjob.com . 55. Changes in the U.S. horse population: http://tinyurl.com/horsedecline . 56. Meta-analysis showing how unemployment affects well-being: Maike Luhmann et al., Subjective Well-Being and Adaptation to Life Events: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102, no. 3 (2012): 592; available online at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3289759 . 57. Studies of what boosts peoples sense of well-being: Angela Duckworth, Tracy Steen and Martin Seligman, Positive Psychology in Clinical Practice, Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 1 (2005): 629651, online at http://tinyurl.com/wellbeingduckworth . Weiting Ng and Ed Diener, What Matters to the Rich and the Poor? Subjective Well-Being, Financial Satisfaction, and Postmaterialist Needs Across the World, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107, no. 2 (2014): 326, online at http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/107/2/326 . Kirsten Weir, More than Job Satisfaction, Monitor on Psychology 44, no. 11 (December 2013), online at http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/12/job- satisfaction.aspx . 58. Multiplying together about 10 11 neurons, about 10 4 connections per neuron and about one (10 0 ) firing per neuron each second might suggest that about 10 15 FLOPS (1 petaFLOPS) suffice to simulate a human brain, but there are many poorly understood complications, including the detailed timing of firings and the question of whether small parts of neurons and synapses need to be simulated too. IBM computer scientist Dharmendra Modha has estimated that 38 petaFLOPS are required ( http://tinyurl.com/javln43 ), while neuroscientist Henry Markram has estimated that one needs about 1,000 petaFLOPS ( http://tinyurl.com/6rpohqv ). AI researchers Katja Grace and Paul Christiano have argued that the most costly aspect of brain simulation is not computation but communication, and that this too is a task in the ballpark of what the best current supercomputers can do: http://aiimpacts.org/about . 59. For an interesting estimate of the computational power of the human brain: Hans Moravec When Will Computer Hardware Match the Human Brain? Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 1 (1998). Chapter 4 1. For a video of the first mechanical bird, see Markus Fischer, A Robot That Flies like a Bird, TED Talk, July 2011, at https://www.ted.com/talks/a_robot_that_flies_like_a_bird . Chapter 5 1. Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near (New York: Viking Press, 2005). 2. Ben Goertzels Nanny AI scenario is described here: https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Nanny_AI . 3. For a discussion about the relationship between machines and humans, and whether machines are our slaves, see Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Boyhood, New York magazine (May 20, 2015), online at http://tinyurl.com/aislaves . 4. Mind crime is discussed in Nick Bostroms book Superintelligence and in more technical detail in this recent paper: Nick Bostrom, Allan Dafoe and Carrick Flynn, Policy Desiderata in the Development of Machine Superintelligence (2016), http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/aipolicy.pdf . 5. Matthew Schofield, Memories of Stasi Color Germans View of U.S. Surveillance Programs, McClatchy DC Bureau (June 26, 2013), online at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article24750439.html . 6. For thought-provoking reflections on how people can be incentivized to create outcomes that nobody wants, I recommend Meditations on Moloch, http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on- moloch . 7. For an interactive timeline of close calls when nuclear war might have started by accident, see Future of Life Institute, Accidental Nuclear War: A Timeline of Close Calls, online at http://tinyurl.com/nukeoops . 8. For compensation payments made to U.S. nuclear testing victims, see U.S. Department of Justice website, Awards to Date 4/24/2015, at https://www.justice.gov/civil/awards-date-04242015 . 9. Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, April 2008, available online at http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473- EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf . 10. Independent research by both U.S. and Soviet scientists alerted Reagan and Gorbachev to the risk of nuclear winter: P. J. Crutzen and J. W. Birks, The Atmosphere After a Nuclear War: Twilight at Noon, Ambio 11, no. 2/3 (1982): 114125. R. P. Turco, O. B. Toon, T. P. Ackerman, J. B. Pollack and C. Sagan, Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions, Science 222 (1983): 12831292. V. V. Aleksandrov and G. L. Stenchikov, On the Modeling of the Climatic Consequences of the Nuclear War, Proceeding on Applied Mathematics (Moscow: Computing Centre of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1983), 21. A. Robock, Snow and Ice Feedbacks Prolong Effects of Nuclear Winter, Nature 310 (1984): 667670. 11. Calculation of climate effects of global nuclear war: A. Robock, L. Oman and L. Stenchikov, Nuclear Winter Revisited with a Modern Climate Model and Current Nuclear Arsenals: Still Catastrophic Consequences, Journal of Geophysical Research 12 (2007): D13107. Chapter 6 1. For more information, see Anders Sandberg, Dyson Sphere FAQ, at http://www.aleph.se/nada/dysonFAQ.html . 2. Freeman Dysons seminal paper on his eponymous spheres: Freeman Dyson, Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation, Science , vol. 131 (1959): 16671668. 3. Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland explain their proposed black hole engine in Are Black Hole Starships Possible?, at http://arxiv.org/pdf/0908.1803.pdf . 4. For a nice infographic from CERN summarizing known elementary particles, see http://tinyurl.com/cernparticles . 5. This unique video of a non-nuclear Orion prototype illustrates the idea of nuclear-bomb-powered rocket propulsion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Lxx2VAYi8 . 6. Heres a pedagogical introduction to laser sailing: Robert L. Forward, Roundtrip Interstellar Travel Using Laser-Pushed Lightsails, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets 21, no. 2 (MarchApril 1984), available online at http://www.lunarsail.com/LightSail/rit-1.pdf . 7. Jay Olson analyzes cosmically expanding civilizations in Homogeneous Cosmology with Aggressively Expanding Civilizations, Classical and Quantum Gravity 32 (2015), available online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.4359 . 8. The first thorough scientific analysis of our far future: Freeman J. Dyson, Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe, Reviews of Modern Physics 51, no. 3 (1979): 447, available online at http://blog.regehr.org/extra_files/dyson.pdf . 9. Seth Lloyds above-mentioned formula told us that performing a computational operation during a time interval costs an energy E h/4 , where h is Plancks constant. If we want to get N operations done one after the other (in series) during a time T , then = T N , so E N hN 4 T, which tells us that we can perform N 2 ET/h serial operations using energy E and time T . So both energy and time are resources that it helps having lots of. If you split your energy between n different parallel computations, they can run more slowly and efficiently, giving N 2 ETn/h . Nick Bostrom estimates that simulating a 100-year human life requires about N = 10 27 operations. 10. If you want to see a careful argument for why the origin of life may require a very rare fluke, placing our nearest neighbors over 10 1000 meters away, I recommend this video by Princeton physicist and astrobiologist Edwin Turner: Improbable Life: An Unappealing but Plausible Scenario for Lifes Origin on Earth, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt6n6Tu1beg . 11. Essay by Martin Rees on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: https://www.edge.org/annual- question/2016/response/26665 . Chapter 7 1. A popular discussion of Jeremy Englands work on dissipation-driven adaptation can be found in Natalie Wolchover, A New Physics Theory of Life, Scientific American (January 28, 2014), available online at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-new-physics-theory-of-life/ . Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengerss Order Out of Chaos: Mans New Dialogue with Nature (New York: Bantam, 1984) lays many of the foundations for this. 2. For more on feelings and their physiological roots: William James, Principles of Psychology (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1890); Robert Ornstein, Evolution of Consciousness: The Origins of the Way We Think (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992); Antnio Damsio, Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (New York: Penguin, 2005); and Antnio Damsio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (New York: Vintage, 2012). 3. Eliezer Yudkowsky has discussed aligning the goals of friendly AI not with our present goals, but with our coherent extrapolated volition (CEV). Loosely speaking this is defined as what an idealized version of us would want if we knew more, thought faster and were more the people we wished we were. Yudkowsky began criticizing CEV shortly after publishing it in 2004 ( http://intelligence.org/files/CEV.pdf ), both for being hard to implement and because its unclear whether it would converge to anything well-defined. 4. In the inverse reinforcement-learning approach, a core idea is that the AI is trying to maximize not its own goal-satisfaction, but that of its human owner. It therefore has incentive to be cautious when its unclear about what its owner wants, and to do its best to find out. It should also be fine with its owner switching it off, since that would imply that it had misunderstood what its owner really wanted. 5. Steve Omohundros paper on AI goal emergence, The Basic AI Drives, can be found online at http://tinyurl.com/omohundro2008 . Originally published in Artificial General Intelligence 2008: Proceedings of the First AGI Conference, ed. Pei Wang, Ben Goertzel and Stan Franklin (Amsterdam: IOS, 2008), 483492. 6. A thought-provoking and controversial book on what happens when intelligence is used to blindly obey orders without questioning their ethical basis: Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin, 1963). A related dilemma applies to a recent proposal by Eric Drexler ( http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/reports/2015-3.pdf ) to keep superintelligence under control by compartmentalizing it into simple pieces, none of which understand the whole picture. If this works, this could again provide an incredibly powerful tool without an intrinsic moral compass, implementing its owners every whim without any moral qualms. This would be reminiscent of a compartmentalized bureaucracy in a dystopian dictatorship: one part builds weapons without knowing how theyll be used, another executes prisoners without knowing why they were convicted, and so on. 7. A modern variant of the Golden Rule is John Rawls idea that a hypothetical situation is fair if nobody would change it without knowing in advance which person in it theyd be. 8. For example, the IQs of many of Hitlers top officials were found to be quite high. See How Accurate Were the IQ Scores of the High-Ranking Third Reich Officials Tried at Nuremberg?, Quora, available online at http://tinyurl.com/nurembergiq . Chapter 8 1. The entry on consciousness by Stuart Sutherland is quite amusing: Macmillan Dictionary of Psychology (London: Macmillan, 1989). 2. Erwin Schrdinger, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics, made this remark in his book Mind and Matter while contemplating the past and what would have happened if conscious life never evolved in the first place. On the other hand, the rise of AI raises the logical possibility that we may end up with a play for empty benches in the future . 3. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives an extensive survey of different definitions and uses of the word consciousness: http://tinyurl.com/stanfordconsciousness . 4. Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (New York: HarperCollins, 2017): 116. 5. This is an excellent introduction to System 1 and System 2 from a pioneer: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011). 6. See Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2004). 7. Perhaps were only aware of a tiny fraction (say 1050 bits) of the information that enters our brain each second: K. Kpfmller, 1962, Nachrichtenverarbeitung im Menschen, in Taschenbuch der Nachrichtenverarbeitung, ed. K. Steinbuch (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1962): 14811502. T. Nrretranders, The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (New York: Viking, 1991). 8. Michio Kaku, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (New York: Doubleday, 2014); Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee, On Intelligence (New York: Times Books, 2007); Stanislas Dehaene, Michel Kerszberg and Jean-Pierre Changeux, A Neuronal Model of a Global Workspace in Effortful Cognitive Tasks, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95 (1998): 1452914534. 9. Video celebrating Penfields famous I can smell burnt toast experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSN86kphL68 . Sensorimotor cortex details: Elaine Marieb and Katja Hoehn, Anatomy & Physiology, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2008), 391395. 10. The study of neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) has become quite mainstream in the neuroscience community in recent yearssee, e.g., Geraint Rees, Gabriel Kreiman, and Christof Koch, Neural Correlates of Consciousness in Humans, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3 (2002): 261 270, and Thomas Metzinger, Neural Correlates of Consciousness: Empirical and Conceptual Questions (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000). 11. How continuous flash suppression works: Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2004); Christof Koch and Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Continuous Flash Suppression Reduces Negative Afterimages, Nature Neuroscience 8 (2005): 10961101. 12. Christof Koch, Marcello Massimini, Melanie Boly and Giulio Tononi, Neural Correlates of Consciousness: Progress and Problems, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 17 (2016): 307. 13. See Koch, The Quest for Consciousness, p. 260, and further discussion in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://tinyurl.com/consciousnessdelay . 14. On synchronization of conscious perception: David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You (New York: Pantheon, 2015), and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://tinyurl.com/consciousnesssync . 15. Benjamin Libet, Mind Time: The Temporal Factor in Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004); Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze and John-Dylan Haynes, Unconscious Determinants of Free Decisions in the Human Brain, Nature Neuroscience 11 (2008): 543545, online at http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v11/n5/full/nn.2112.html . 16. Examples of recent theoretical approaches to consciousness: - Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained (Back Bay Books, 1992) - Bernard Baars, In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) - Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2004) - Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi, A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination (New York: Hachette, 2008) - Antnio Damsio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (New York: Vintage, 2012) - Stanislas Dehaene, Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts (New York: Viking, 2014) - Stanislas Dehaene, Michel Kerszberg and Jean-Pierre Changeux, A Neuronal Model of a Global Workspace in Effortful Cognitive Tasks, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95 (1998): 1452914534 - Stanislas Dehaene, Lucie Charles, Jean-Rmi King and Sbastien Marti, Toward a Computational Theory of Conscious Processing, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 25 (2014): 760784 17. Thorough discussion of different uses of the term emergence in physics and philosophy by David Chalmers: http://cse3521.artifice.cc/Chalmers-Emergence.pdf . 18. Me arguing that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain complex ways: https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510188 , https://arxiv.org/abs/0704.0646 , Max Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe (New York: Knopf, 2014). David Chalmers expresses a related sentiment in his 1996 book The Conscious Mind: Experience is information from the inside; physics is information from the outside. 19. Adenauer Casali et al., A Theoretically Based Index of Consciousness Independent of Sensory Processing and Behavior, Science Translational Medicine 5 (2013): 198ra105, online at http://tinyurl.com/zapzip . 20. Integrated information theory doesnt work for continuous systems: - https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.1219 - http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00063/full - https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.02626 21. Interview with Clive Wearing, whose short-term memory is only about 30 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmzU47i2xgw . 22. Scott Aaronson IIT critique: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799 . 23. Cerrullo IIT critique, arguing that integration isnt a sufficient condition for consciousness: http://tinyurl.com/cerrullocritique . 24. IIT prediction that simulated humans will be zombies: http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1668/20140167 . 25. Shanahan critique of IIT: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.05696.pdf . 26. Blindsight: http://tinyurl.com/blindsight-paper . 27. Perhaps were only aware of a tiny fraction (say 1050 bits) of the information that enters our brain each second: Kpfmller, Nachrichtenverarbeitung im Menschen; Nrretranders, The User Illusion. 28. The case for and against consciousness without access: Victor Lamme, How Neuroscience Will Change Our View on Consciousness, Cognitive Neuroscience (2010): 204220, online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17588921003731586 . 29. Selective Attention Test, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo . 30. See Lamme, How Neuroscience Will Change Our View on Consciousness, n. 28. 31. This and other related issues are discussed in detail in Daniel Dennetts book Consciousness Explained . 32. See Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow , cited in n. 5. 33. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy reviews the free will controversy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill . 34. Video of Seth Lloyd explaining why an AI will feel like it has free will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epj3DF8jDWk . 35. See Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (New York: Pantheon, 1992). 36. The first thorough scientific analysis of our far future: Freeman J. Dyson, Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe, Reviews of Modern Physics 51, no. 3 (1979): 447, available online at http://blog.regehr.org/extra_files/dyson.pdf . Epilogue 1. The open letter ( http://futureoflife.org/ai-open-letter ) that emerged from the Puerto Rico conference argued that research on how to make AI systems robust and beneficial is both important and timely, and that there are concrete research directions that can be pursued today, as exemplified in this research-priorities document: http://futureoflife.org/data/documents/research_priorities.pdf . 2. My video interview with Elon Musk about AI safety can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBw0eoZTY-g . 3. Heres a nice video compilation of almost all SpaceX rocket landing attempts, culminating with the first successful ocean landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AllaFzIPaG4 . 4. Elon Musk tweets about our AI-safety grant competition: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/555743387056226304 . 5. Elon Musk tweets about our AI-safety-endorsing open letter: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/554320532133650432 . 6. Erik Sofge in An Open Letter to Everyone Tricked into Fearing Artificial Intelligence ( Popular Science, January 14, 2015) pokes fun at the scaremongering news coverage of our open letter: http://www.popsci.com/open-letter-everyone-tricked-fearing-ai . 7. Elon Musk tweets about his big donation to the Future of Life Institute and the world of AI-safety researchers: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/555743387056226304 . 8. For more about the Partnership on AI to benefit people and society, see their website: https://www.partnershiponai.org . 9. Some examples of recent reports expressing opinions about AI: One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, Report of the 2015 Study Panel, Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030 (September 2016), at http://tinyurl.com/stanfordai ; White House report on the future of AI: http://tinyurl.com/obamaAIreport ; White House report on AI and jobs: http://tinyurl.com/AIjobsreport ; IEEE report on AI and human well-being, Ethically Aligned Design, Version 1 (December 13, 2016), at http://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/ec/ead_v1.pdf ; road map for U.S. Robotics: http://tinyurl.com/roboticsmap . 10. Among the principles that didnt make the final cut, one of my favorites was this one: Consciousness caution: There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions as to whether or not advanced AI would possess or require consciousness or feelings. It went through many iterations, and in the last one, the controversial word consciousness was replaced by subjective experiencebut this principle nonetheless got only 88% approval, just barely falling short of the 90% cutoff. 11. Discussion panel on superintelligence with Elon Musk and other great minds: http://tinyurl.com/asilomarAI . Whats next on your reading list? Discover your next great read! Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author. Sign up now."}}},{"rowIdx":13,"cells":{"text":{"kind":"string","value":"MAHANIRVANA TANTRA TANTRA OF THE GREAT LIBERATION TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR AVALON 1913 Mahanirvana Tantra By Arthur Avalon. This edition was created and published by Global Grey GlobalGrey 2020 Get more free ebooks at globalgreyebooks.com CONTENTS Preface Introduction Chapter 1 - Questions Relating To The Liberation Of Beings Chapter 2 - Introduction To The W orship Of Brahman Chapter 3 - Description Of The Worship Of The Supreme Brahman Chapter 4 - Introduction Of The Worship Of The Supreme Prakriti Chapter 5 - The Formation Of The Mantras, Placing Of The Jar, And Purification Of The Elements Of Worship Chapter 6 - Placing Of The Shri -Patra, Homa, Formation Of The Chakra, And Other Rites Chapter 7 - Hymn Of Praise (Stotra), Amulet (Kavacha), And The Description Of The Kula Tattva Chapter 8 - The Dharmma And Customs Of The Castes And Ashramas Chapter 9 - The Ten Kinds Of Purificatory Rites (Sangskara) Chapter 10 - Rites Relating To Vriddhi Shraddha, Funeral Rites, And Purnabhisheka Chapter 11 - The Account Of Expiatory Rites Chapter 12 - An Account Of The Eternal And Immutable Dharmma Chapter 13 - Installation Of The Devata Chapter 14 - The Consecration Of Shiva- Linga And Description Of The Four Classes Of Avadhutas PREFACE THE Indian Tantras, which are numerous, constitute the Scripture ( Shastra) of the Kaliyuga, and as such are the voluminous source of present and practical orthodox \"Hinduism.\" The Tantra Shastra is, in fact, and whatever be its historical origin, a development of the Vaidika Karmakanda, promulgated to meet the needs of that age. Shiva says: \"For the benefit of men of the Kali age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kaula doctrine, O auspicious one! is given\" (Chap. IX., verse 12). To the Tantra we must therefore look if we would understand aright both ritual, yoga, and sadhana of all kinds, as also the general principles of which these practices are but the objective expression. Yet of all the forms of Hindu Shastra, the Tantra is that which is least known and understood, a circumstance in part due to the difficulties of its subject -matter and to the fact that the key to much of its terminology and method rest with the initiate. The present translation is, in fact, the first published in Europe of any Indian Tantra. An inaccurate version rendered in imperfect English was published in Calcutta by a Bengali editor some twelve years ago, preceded by an Introduction which displayed insufficient knowledge in respect of what it somewhat quaintly described as \"the mystical and superficially technical passages\" of this Tantra. A desire to attempt to do it greater justice has in part prompted its selection as the first for publication. This Tantra is, further, one which is well known and esteemed, though perhaps more highly so amongst that portion of the Indian public which favours \"reformed\" Hinduism than amongst some Tantrikas, to whom, as I have been told, certain of its provisions appear to display unnecessary timidity. The former admire it on account of its noble exposition of the worship of the Supreme Brahman, and in the belief that certain of its passages absolutely discountenance the orthodox ritual. Nothing can be more mistaken than such belief, even though it be the fact that \"for him who has faith in the root, of what use are the branches and leaves.\" This anyone will discover who reads the text. It is true that, as Chap. VII., verse 94, says: \"In the purified heart knowledge of Brahman grows,\" and Brahmajnane samutpanne krityakrityang na vidyate. But the statement assumes the attainment of Brahmajana, and this, the Shastra says, can be attained, not by Vedantic discussions nor mere prayer, after the manner of Protestant systems of Christian worship; but by the Sadhana which is its main subject -matter. I have referred to Protestant systems, for the Catholic Church possesses an elaborate ritual and a sadhana of its own which is in many points strikingly analogous to the Hindu system. The section of Tantrikas to whom I have referred are, I believe, also in error. For the design of this Tantra appears to be, whilst conserving commonly -recognized Tantrik principles, to secure that, as has sometimes proved to be the case, they are not abused. Parvvati says (Chap. I., verse 67): \"I fear, 0 Lord! that even that which Thou hast ordained for the good of men will, through them, turn out for evil.\" Hitaya yane, karmani kathitani tvaya prabho 1 Manyetani mahadeva viparitani manave. It is significant, in connection with these observations, to note that this particular Tantra was chosen as the subject of commentary by Shrimad Hariharananda Bharati, the Guru of the celebrated Hindu \"reformer,\" Raja Ram Mohun Roy. The Tantra has been assigned to the group of sixty -four known as those of the Rathakranta. It was first published by the Adi -Brahma- Samaja in 1798 Shakabda (A.D. 1876), and was printed in Bengali characters, with the notes of the Kulavadhuta Shrimad Hariharananda Bharati under the editorship of Anandachandra Vidyavagisha. The preface to this edition stated that three MSS. were consulted; one belonging to the library of the Samaja; the second supplied by Durgadasa Chandhuri, and the third taken from the library of Raja Ram Mohun Roy. This text appears to be the basis of subsequent publications. It was again printed in 1888 by Shri Krishna Gopala Bhakta, since when there have been several editions with Bengali translations, including that of Shri Prasanna Kumara Shastri. The late Pandit Jivananda Vidyasagara published an edition in Devanagari character, with the notes of Hariharananda; and the Venkateshvara Press at Bombay have issued another in similar character with a Hindi translation. The translation published is that of the first part only. It is commonly thought (and was so stated by the author of the Calcutta edition in English to which I have referred) that the second portion is lost. This is, however, not so, though copies of the complete Tantra are rare enough. The full text exists in manuscript, and I hope at a later date to have an opportunity of publishing a translation of it. I came across a complete manuscript some two years ago in the possession of a Nepalese Pandit. He would, however, only permit me to make a copy of his manuscript on the condition that the Shatkarmma Mantras were not published. For, as he said, virtue not being a condition precedent for the acquisition of siddhi in such Mantras, their publication might enable the evilly disposed to work harm against others, a crime which, he added, was, in his own country, where the Tantra was current, punishable by the civil power. I was unable to persuade him even with the observation that the mere publication of the Mantra without knowledge of what is called the prayoga (which cannot be learned of books) would in any case be ineffectual. I could not give an undertaking which would have involved the publication of a mutilated text, and the reader must therefore for the present be content with a translation of the first part of the Tantra, which is generally known, and has, as stated, been several times printed. The incident has further value than the direct purpose for which I have told it. There are some to whom the Tantra, though they may not have read a line of it, is \"nothing but black magic,\" and all its followers are \"black magicians.\" This is of course absurd. In this connection I cannot avoid interposing the observation that certain practices are described in Tantra which, though they are alleged to have the results described therein, yet exist \"for delusion.\" The true attitude of the higher Tantrika is illustrated by the action of the Pandit who, if 2 he disappointed my expectations, at any rate by his refusal afforded an answer to these too general allegations. The second portion of the manuscript in his possession contained over double the number of Shlokas to be found in the first part here published. The edition which has been used for the translation is that (now out of print) edited and published at Calcutta by Shri Krishna Gopala Bhakta in Chaitra 1295 Bengali era (April, 1888), with Commentary of Shrimad Hariharananda Bharati, and with additional notes by the learned and lately deceased Pandit Jaganmohana Tarkalangkara, called Vriddha in order to distinguish him from another celebrated Pandit of the same name. A new edition of the same work is now, in course of publication, with further notes by the latters son, Pandit Jnanendranatha Tantraratna. This valuable Commentary is not, however, altogether suitable for the general reader, for it assumes a certain amount of knowledge on his part which he does not possess. I have accordingly, whilst availing myself of its aid, written my own commentary, and added an Introduction explaining certain matters and terms referred to or presupposed by the text which, as they require a somewhat more extended treatment, could not be conveniently dealt with in the footnotes. Some of the matters there explained are, though common and fundamental, seldom accurately defined. Nothing, therefore, is lost by a re- statement of them with an intention to serve such accuracy. Other matters are of a special character, and are either not generally known or are misunderstood. The Introduction, however, does not profess to be an exhaustive treatment of that with which it deals. On the contrary, it is but an extended note written to help some way towards a better understanding of the text by the ordinary reader. For a fuller exposition of general principles and practice the interested are referred to three works which I have in preparation, \"Principles of Tantra\" ( Tantratattva), \"Exposition of the Secret Worship\" (Rahasyapujapaddhati ), and \"Description of the Six Centres\" ( Shatchakranirupana). There are, however, some matters in the Shast ra or its accompanying oral tradition which he must, and if disposed thereto will, find out for himself. This, too, is implied by the saying in this Tantra that it is by merit acquired in previous births that the mind inclines to Kaula doctrine (Chapter VII., verse 99). However this may be, no one will understand the Shastra who starts his inquiry with a mind burdened with the current prejudices against it, whatever be the colour of truth some of them may possess by reason of actual abuse of Shastric princi ples. In conclusion, I wish to thank my Indian friends for the aid they have given me in the preparation of this and other kindred works, and to whom I am indebted for much information gathered during many pleasant hours which we have spent together in the study of a subject of common interest to them and myself. The Tantras generally are written in comparatively simple Sanskrit. For their rendering, however, a working knowledge of their terminology and ritual is required, which can be only fully found in 3 those to whom it is familiar through race, upbringing, and environment, and in whom there is still some regard for their ancient inheritance. As for others, they must learn to see through the Indian eye of knowledge until their own have been trained to its lines of vision. In this way we shall be in the future spared some of the ridiculous presentments of Indian beliefs common in the past and even now too current. ARTHUR AVALON. January 7, 1913. 4 INTRODUCTION Mount Kailasa The scene of the revelation of this Tantra is laid in Himalaya, the \"Abode of Snow,\" a holy land weighted with the traditions of the Aryan race. Here in these lofty uplands, encircled with everlasting snows, rose the great mountain of the north, the Sapta Kula Parvata. Hence the race itself came, and there its early legends have their setting. There are still shown at Bhimudiyar the caves where the sons of Pandu and Draupadi rested, as did Rama and his faithful wife at the point where the Kosi joins the Sita in the grove of Asoka trees. In these mountains Munis and Rishis lived. Here also is the Kshetra of Shiva Mahadeva, where His Spouse Parvvati, the daughter of the Mountain King, was born, and where Mother Ganges also has her source. From time immemorial pilgrims have toiled through these mountains to visit the three great shrines of Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. At Kangri, further north, the pilgrims make the parikrama of Mount Kailasa (Kang Rinpoche), where Shiva is said to dwell. This nobly towering peak rises to the north- west of the sacred Mansarowar Lake (Mapham Yum -tso) from amidst the purple ranges of the lower Kangri Mountains. The paradise of Shiva is a summerland of both lasting sunshine and cool shade, musical with the song of birds and bright with undying flowers. The air, scented with the sweet fragrance of Mandara chaplets, resounds with the music and song of celestial singers and players. The Mount is Gana Parvata, thronged with trains of Spirits ( devayoni ), of which the opening Chapter speaks. And in the regions beyond rises Mount Meru, centre of the world- lotus. Its heights, peopled with spirits, are hung with clusters of stars as with wreaths of Malati flowers. In short, it is written: \"He who thinks of Himachala, though he should not behold him, is greater than he who performs all worship in Kashi (Benares). In a hundred ages of the Devas I could not tell thee of the glories of Himachala. As the dew is dried up by the morning sun, so are the sins of mankind by the sight of Himachala.\" It is not, however, necessary to go to the Himalayan Kailasa to find Shiva. He dwells wheresoever his worshippers, versed in Kulatattva, abide, and His mystic mount is to be sought in the thousand- petalled lotus ( sahasrara- padma) in the body of every human jiva, hence called Shivasthana, to which all, wheresoever situate, may repair when they have learned how to achieve the way thither. Shiva promulgates His teaching in the world below in the works known as Yamala, Damara, Shiva Sutra, and in the Tantras which exist in the form of Dialogues between the Devata and his Shakti, the Devi in Her form as Parvvati. According to the Gayatri Tantra, the Deva Ganesha first preached the Tantra to the Devayoni on Mount Kailasa, after he had himself received them from the mouth of Shiva. 5 After a description of the mountain, the Dialogue opens with a question from Parvvati in answer to which and those which succeed it, Shiva unfolds His doctrine on the subjects with which this particular Tantra deals. Shiva and Shakti That eternal immutable existence which transcends the turiya and all other states is the unconditioned Absolute, the supreme Brahman or Para- brahman, without Prakriti (nishkala) or Her attributes ( nir-guna), which, as being the inner self and knowing subject, can never be the object of cognition, and is to be apprehended only through yoga by the realization of the Self ( atmajana), which It is. For as it is said, \"Spirit can alone know Spirit.\" Being beyond mind, speech, and without name, the Brahman was called \" Tat,\" \"That,\" and then \" Tat S at,\" \"That which is.\" For the sun, moon, and stars, and all visible things, what are they but a glimpse of light caught from \"That\" ( Tat)? Brahman is both nishkala and sakala. Kala is Prakriti. The nishkala Brahman or Para -brahman is the Tat, when thought of as without Prakriti ( prakriteranya). It is called sakala when with Prakriti. As the substance of Prakriti is the three gunas It is then su-guna, as in the previous state It was nir-guna. Though in the latter state It is thought of as without Shakti, yet (making accommodation to human speech) in It potentially exists Shakti, Its power and the whole universe produced by It. To say, however, that the Shakti exists in the Brahman is but a form of speech, since It and Shakti are, in fact, one, and Shakti is eternal ( Anadi -rupa). She is Brahma -rupa and both vi-guna ( nir-guna) and sa-guna; the Chaitanya- rupini -Devi, who manifests all bhuta. She is the Ananda- rupini -Devi, by whom the Brahman manifests Itself, and who, to use the words of the Sarada, pervades the universe as does oil the sesamum seed. In the beginning the Nishkala Brahman alone existed. In the beginning there was the One. It willed and became many. Ahab bahu syam \"may I be many.\" In such manifestation of Shakti the Brahman is known as the lower ( apara) or manifested Brahman, who, as the subject of worship, is meditated upon with attributes. And, in fact, to the mind and sense of the embodied spirit ( jiva) the Brahman has body and form. It is embodied in the forms of all Devas and Devils, and in the worshipper himself. Its form is that of the universe, and of all things and beings therein. As Shruti says: \"He saw\" ( Sa aikshata, aham bahu syam prajayeya). \"He thought to Himself may I be many.\" \" Sa aikshaya\" was itself a manifestation of Shakti, the Para- mapurva- nirvana shakti , or Brahman as Shakti. From the Brahman, with Shakti (Para -shakti -maya ) issued Nada (Shiva- Shakti as the \"Word\" or \"Sound\" ), and from Nada, Vindu appeared. Kalicharana in his commentary on the Shatchakra- nirupana says that Shiva and Nirvana Shakti bound by a mayik bond and covering, should be thought of as existing in the form of Parang Vindu. 6 The Sarada says: Sachchidananda vibhavat sakalat parameshvarat asichchhaktistato nado, nadad vindu- samudbhavah (\"From Parameshvara vested with the wealth of sachchidananda and with Prakriti ( sakala) issued Shakti; from Shakti came Nada and from Nada was born Vindu\" ). The state of subtle body which is known as Kama- kala is the mula of mantra . The term mula -mantratmika, when applied to the Devi, refers to this subtle body of Hers known as the Kama- kala. The Tantra also speaks of three Vindus, namely Shiva- maya, Shakti -maya, and Shiva- shakti -maya. The Parang- vindu is represented as a circle, the centre of which is the brahma - pada, or place of Brahman, wherein are Prakriti -Purusha, the circumference of which is encircling maya . It is on the crescent of nirvana- kala, the seventeenth, which is again in that of ama-kala, the sixteenth digit (referred to in the text) of the moon- circle ( Chandramandal a), which circle is situate above the Sun- Circle (Suryyamandala), the Guru and the hangsah, which are in the pericarp of the thousand- petalled lotus ( sahasrarapadma). Next to the Vindu is the fiery Bodhini, or Nibodhika (v. post). The Vindu, with the Nirvana- kala, Nibodhika, and Ama- kala, are situated in the lightning -like inverted triangle known as \" A, Ka, Tha,\" and which is so called because at its apex is A; at its right base is Za; and at its left base Tha. It is made up of forty -eight letters ( matrika ): the sixteen vowels running from A to Ka; sixteen consonants of the ka-varga and other groups running from A to Ka; and the remaining sixteen from Ka to Tha. Inside are the remaining letters (matrika ), ha, la(second), and ksha . As the substance of Devi is matrika (matrika -mayi ) the triangle represents the \"Word\" of all that exists. The triangle is itself encircled by the Chandramandala. The Vindu is symbolically described as being like a grain of gram ( chanaka), which under its encircling sheath contains a divided seed. This Parang- vindu is Prakriti -Purusha, Shiva- Shakti. It is known as the Shabda -Brahman (the Sound Brahman), or Aparabrahman. A polarization of the two Shiva and Shakti Tattvas then takes place in Parashaktimaya. The Devi becomes Unmukhi . Her face turns towards Shiva. There is an unfolding which bursts the encircling shell of Maya, and creation then takes place by division of Shiva and Shakti or of \"Hang\" and \"Sah.\" The Sarada says: \"The Devataparashaktimaya is again Itself divided, such divisions being known as Vindu, Vaja, and Nada. Vindu is of the nature of Nada or Shiva, and Vaja of Shakti, and Nada has been said to be the relation of these two by those who are versed in all the Agamas.\" The Sarada says that before the bursting of the shell enclosing the brahma -pada, which, together with its defining circumference, constitute the Shabda- brahman, an indistinct sound arose ( avyaktatmaravobhavat ). This avyaktanada is both the first and the last state of Nada, according as it is viewed from the standpoint of evolution or involution. For Nada, as Raghava- bhatta says, exists in three states. In Nada are the guna ( sattva , rajas , and tamas ), which form the substance of Prakriti, which with Shiva It is. When tamo -guna predominates Nada is merely an indistinct or unmanifested ( dhvanyat mako vykta- nadah) sound in the nature of dhvani . In this state, in which it is a phase of Avyaktanada, it is called 7 Nibodhika, or Bodhini. It is Nada when rajoguna is in the ascendant, when there is a sound in which there is something like a connected or combined disposition of the letters. When the sattva- guna preponderates Nada assumes the form of Vindu. The action of rajas on tamas is to veil. Its own independent action effects an arrangement which is only perfected by the emergence of the essentially manifesting sattvika guna set into play by it. Nada, Vindu, and Nibodhika, and the Shakti, of which they are the specific manifestation, are said to be in the form of Sun, Moon, and Fire respectively. Jana (spiritual wis dom) is spoken of as fire as it burns up all actions, and the tamoguna is associated with it. For when the effect of cause and effect of action are really known, then action ceases. Ichchha is the Moon. The Moon contains the sixteenth digit, the Ama- kala with its nectar, which neither increases nor decays, and Ichchha, or will, is the eternal precursor of creation. Kriya is like the Sun, for as the Sun by its light makes all things visible, so unless there is action and striving there cannot be realization or manifestation. As the Gita sways: \"As one Sun makes manifest all the loka.\" The Shabda- Brahman manifests Itself in a triad of energies knowledge (janashakti ), will ( ichchha- shakti ), and action ( kriya-shakti ), associated with the three gunas of Prakri ti, tamas , sattva , and rajas . From the Parang- Vindu, who is both vindvat -maka and kalatma i.e., Shakti issued Raudri, Rudra, and his Shakti, whose forms are fire ( vahni ), and whose activity is knowledge ( jana); Vama, and Vishnu and his Shakti, whose form is the sun, and whose activity is kriya (action): and Jyeshtha and Brahma and his Shakti, whose form is the Moon and whose activity is desire. The Vamakeshvara Tantra says that Tri -pura is threefold, as Brahma, Vishnu, and Isha; and as the energies desire, wisdom, and action, the energy of will when Brahman would create; the energy of wisdom when She reminds Him, saying \"Let this be thus\" ; and when, thus knowing, He acts, She becomes the energy of action. The Devi is thus Ichchha- shakti -jana -shakti -kriya-shakti -svaru- pini. Para -shiva exists as a septenary under the form, firstly, of Shambhu, who is the associate of time ( kala-bandhu). From Him issues Sada- shiva, Who pervades and manifests all things, and then come Ishana and the triad, Rudra, Vishnu, and Brahma, each with their respective Shakti (without whom they avail nothing) separately and particularly associated with the gunas, tamas , sattva and rajas . Of these Devas, the last triad, together with Ishana, and Sada- shiva, are the five Shivas who are collectively known as the Maha- preta, whose vija is \"Hsauh .\" Of the Maha- preta, it is said that the last four form the support, and the fifth the seat, of the bed on which the Devi is united with Parama- shiva, in the room of chintamani stone, on the jewel led island clad with clumps of kadamba and heavenly trees set in the ocean of Ambrosia. Shiva is variously addressed in this work as Shambhu, Sada- shiva, Shankara, Maheshvara, etc., names which indicate particular states, qualities, and manifestations of the One in its descent towards the many; for there are many 8 Rudras. Thus Sada- shiva indicates the predominance of the sattva- guna. His names are many, 1,008 being given in the sixty -ninth chapter of the Shiva Purana, and in the seventeenth chapter of the Anushasana Parvan of the Mahabharata. Shakti is both maya , that by which the Brahman creating the universe is able to make Itself appear to be different from what It really is, and mula -prakriti , or the unmanifested ( avyakta ) state of that which, when manifest, is the universe of name and form. It is the primary so called \"material cause,\" consisting of the equipoise of the triad of guna or \"qualities\" which are sattva (that which manifests) rajas (that which acts), tamas (that which veils and produces inertia). The three gunas represent Nature as the revelation of spirit, Nature as the passage of descent from spirit to matter, or of ascent from matter to spirit, and Nature as the dense veil of spirit. The Devi is thus guna- nidhi (\"treasure- house of guna\" ). Mula-prakriti is the womb into which Brahman casts the seed from which all things are born. The womb thrills to the movement of the essentially active rajo-guna. The equilibrium of the triad is destroyed, and the guna, now in varied combinations, evolve under the illumination of Shiva ( chit), the universe which is ruled by Maheshvara and Maheshvari. The dual principles of Shiva and Shakti, which are in such dual form the product of the polarity manifested in Parashakti -maya , pervade the whole universe, and are present in man in the Svayambhu- Linga of the muladhara and the Devi Kundalini, who, in serpent form, encircles it. The Shabda- Brahman assumes in the body of man the form of the Devi Kundalini, and as such is in all prani (breathing creatures), and in the shape of letters appears in prose and verse. Kundala means coiled. Hence Kundalini, whose form is that of a coiled serpent, means that which is coiled. She is the luminous vital energy ( jiva-shakti ) which manifests as prana, She sleeps in the muladhara, and has three and a half coils corresponding in number with the three and a half vindus of which the Kubjika Tantra speaks. When after closing the ears the sound of Her hissing is not heard death approaches. From the first avyakta creation issued the second mahat , with its three guna distinctly manifested. Thence sprung the third creation ahangkara (selfhood), which is of threefold form vaikarika , or pure sattvika ahangkara; the taijasa , or rajasika ahangkara; and the tamasika , or bhutadika ahangkara. The latter is the origin of the subtle essences ( tan-matra ) of the Tattvas , ether, air, fire, water, earth, associated with sound, touch, sight, taste and smell, and with the colours pure transparency, shyama, red, white, and yellow. There is some difference in the schools as to that which each of the three forms produces, but from such threefold form of Ahang- kara issue the indriya (\"senses\"), and the Devas Dik, Vata, Arka, Prachetas, Vahni, Indra, Upendra, Mitra, and the Ashvins. The vaikarika , taijasa , and bhutadika are the fourth, fifth, and sixth creations, which are known as prakrita , or appertaining to Prakriti. The rest, which are products of these, such as the vegetable world with its upward life current, animals with horizontal life current, and bhuta , preta and the like, whose life current tends downward, constitute the vaikrita creation, the two being known as the kaumara creation. 9 The Goddess (Devi) is the great Shakti. She is Maya, for of Her the maya which produces the sangsara is. As Lord of Maya She is Mahamaya. Devi is a- vidya (nescience) because She binds and vidya (knowledge) because She liberates and destroys the sangsara. She is Prakriti, and as existing before creation is the Adya (primordial) Shakti. Devi is the vachaka- shakti , the manifestation of chit in Prakriti, and the vachya- shakti , or Chit itself. The Atma should be contemplated as Devi. Shakti or Devi is thus the Brahman revealed in Its mother aspect ( shri-mata ) as Creatrix and Nourisher of the worlds. Kali says of Herself in Yogini Tantra \"Sachchidananda- rupaham brahmaivaham sphurat -prab- ham.\" So the Devi is described with attributes both of the qualified Brahman; and (since that Brahman is but the manifestation of the Absolute) She is also addressed with epithets, which denote the unconditioned Brahman. She is the great Mother ( Ambika ) sprung from the sacrificial hearth of the fire of the Grand Consciousness ( chit); decked with the Sun and Moon; Lalita, \"She who plays\"; whose play is world- play; whose eyes playing like fish in the beauteous waters of her Divine face, open and shut with the appearance and disappearance of countless worlds now illuminated by her light now wrapped in her terrible darkness. The Devi, as Para- brahman, is beyond all form and guna. The forms of the Mother of the Universe are threefold. There is first the Supreme ( para) form, of which, as the Vishnu -yamala says, \"none know.\" There is next her subtle ( sukshma ) form, which consists of mantra. But as the mind cannot easily settle itself upon that which is formless, She appears as the subject of contemplation in Her third, or gross (sthula), or physical form, with hands and feet and the like as celebrated in the Devi- stotra of the Puranas and Tantras. Devi, who as Prakriti is the source of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh- vara, has both male and female forms. But it is in Her female forms that She is chiefly contemplated. For though existing in all things, in a peculiar sense female beings are parts of Her. The Great Mother, who exists in the form of all Tantras and all Yantras, is, as the Lalita says, the \"unsullied treasure- house of beauty\" ; the Sapphire Devi, whose slender waist, bending beneath the burden of the ripe fruit of her breasts, swells into jewelled hips heavy with the promise of infinite maternities. As the Mahadevi She exists in all forms as Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Gayatri, Durga, Tripura- sundari, Anna- purna, and all the Devi who are avatara of the Brahman. Devi, as Sati, Uma, Parvvati, and Gauri, is spouse of Shiva. It was as Sati prior to Dakshas sacrifice ( daksha- yajna ) that the Devi manifested Herself to Shiva in the ten celebrated forms known as the dasha- mahavidya referred to in the text Kali, Bagala, Chhinnamasta, Bhuvaneshvari, Matangini, Shodashi, Dhumavati, Tripura- sundari, Tara, and Bhairavi. When, at the Daksha- yajna She yielded up her life in shame and sorrow at the treatment accorded by her father to Her Husband, Shiva took away the body, and, ever bearing it with Him, remained wholly distraught and spent with grief. To save the world from the forces of evil which arose and grew with the withdrawal of His Divine control, Vishnu with His discus ( chakra) cut the dead 10 body of Sati, which Shiva bore, into fifty -one fragments, which fell to earth at the places thereafter known as the fifty -one maha -pitha- sthana (referred to in the text), where Devi, with Her Bhairava, is worshipped under various names. Besides the forms of the Devi in the brahmanda there is Her subtle form called Kundalini in the body ( pindanda). These are but some only of Her endles s forms. She is seen as one and as many, as it were, but one moon reflected in countless waters. She exists, too, in all animals and inorganic things, since the universe with all its beauties is, as the Devi Purana says, but a part of Her. All this diversi ty of form is but the infinite manifestations of the flowering beauty of the One Supreme Life, a doctrine which is nowhere else taught with greater wealth of illustration than in the Shakta Shastras, and Tantras. The great Bharga in the bright Sun and all Devatas, and, indeed, all life and being, are wonderful, and are worshipful, but only as Her manifestations. And he who worships them otherwise is, in the words of the great Devi- bhagavata, \"like unto a man who, with the light of a clear lamp in his hands, yet falls into some waterless and terrible well.\" The highest worship for which the sadhaka is qualified ( adhikari ) only after external worship and that internal form known as sadhara, is described as niradhara. Therein Pure Intelligence is the Supreme Shakti who is worshipped as the Very Self, the Witness freed of the glamour of the manifold Universe. By ones own direct experience of Maheshvari as the Self She is with reverence made the object of that worship which leads to liberation. Guna It cannot be said that current explanations give a clear understanding of this subject. Yet such is necessary, both as affording one of the chief keys to Indian philosophy and to the principles which govern Sadhana. The term guna is generally translated \"quality,\" a word which is only accepted for default of a better. For it must not be overlooked that the three guna (Sattva , rajas , and tamas ), which are of Prakriti, constitute Her very substance. This being so, all Nature which issues from Her, the Maha- karana- svarupa., is called tri-gunatmaka, and is composed of the same guna in different states of relation to one another. The functions of sattva , rajas , and tamas are to reveal, to make active, and to suppress respectively. Rajas is the dynamic, as sattva and tamas are static principles. That is to say, sattva and tamas can neither reveal nor suppress without being first rendered active by rajas . These gunas work by mutual suppression. The unrevealed Prakriti ( avyakta- prakriti ) or Devi is the state of stable equilibrium of these three guna. When this state is disturbed the manifested universe appears, in every object of which one or other of the three guna is in the ascendant. Thus in Devas, as in those who approach the divya state, sattva predominates, and rajas and tamas are very much reduced. That is, their independent manifestation is reduced. They are in one sense still there, for where rajas is not independently active it is operating on sattva to suppress tamas , which appears or 11 disappears to the extent to which it is, or is not, subject to suppression by the revealing principle. In the ordinary human jiva, considered as a class, tamas is less reduced than in the case of the Deva, but very much reduced when comparison is made with the animal jiva. Rajas has great independent activity, and sattva is also considerably active. In the animal creation sattva has considerably less activity. Rajas has less independent activity than in man, but is much more active than in the vegetable world. Tamas is greatly less preponderant than in the latter. In the vegetable kingdom tamas is more preponderant than in the case of animals, and both rajas and sattva less so. In the inorganic creation rajas makes tamas active to suppress both sattva and its own independent activity. It will thus be seen that the \"upward\" or revealing movement from the predominance of tamas to that of sattva represents the spiritual progress of the jivatma . Again, as between each member of these classes one or other of the three guna may be more or less in the ascendant. Thus, in one man as compared with another, the sattva guna may predominate, in which case his temperament is sattvik, or, as the Tantra calls it, divyabhava. In another the rajoguna may prevail, and in the third the tamoguna, in which case the individual is described as rajasik, or tamasik, or, to use Tantrik phraseology, he is said to belong to virabhava, or is a pashu respectively. Again the vegetable creation is obviously less tamasik, and more rajasik and sattvik than the mineral, and even amongst these last there may be possibly some which are less tamasik than others. Etymologically, sattva is derived from \" sat,\" that which is eternally existent. The eternally existent is also chit, pure Intelligence or Spirit, and ananda or Bliss. In a secondary sense, sat is also used to denote the \"good.\" And commonly (though such use obscures the original meaning), the word sattva guna is rendered \"good quality.\" It is, however, \"good\" in the sense that it is productive of good and happiness. In such case, however, stress is laid rather on a necessary quality or effect (in the ethical sense) of \" sat\" than upon its original meaning. In the primary sense sat is that which reveals . Nature is a revelation of spirit ( sat). Where Nature is such a revelation of spirit there it manifests as sattva guna. It is the shining forth from under the veil of the hidden spiritual substance ( sat). And that equality in things which reveals this is sattva guna. So of a pregnant woman it is said that she is antahsattva, or inst inct with sattva ; she in whom sattva as jiva (whose characteristic guna is sattva ) is living in an hidden state. But Nature not only reveals, but is also a dense covering or veil of spirit, at times so dense that the ignorant fail to discern the spirit which it veils. Where Nature is a veil of spirit there it appears in its quality of tamoguna. In this case the tamoguna is currently spoken of as representative of inertia, because that is the effect of the nature which veils. This quality, again, when translated into the moral sphere, becomes ignorance, sloth, etc. 12 In a third sense nature is a bridge between spirit which reveals and matter which veils. Where Nature is a bridge of descent from spirit to matter, or of ascent from matter to spirit, there it mani fests itself as rajoguna. This is generally referred to as the quality of activity, and when transferred to the sphere of feeling it shows itself as passion. Each thing in Nature then contains that in which spirit is manifested or reflected as in a mirror or sattvaguna; that by which spirit is covered, as it were, by a veil of darkness or tamoguna, and that which is the vehicle for the descent into matter or the return to spirit or rajoguna. Thus sattva is the light of Nature, as tamas is its shade. Rajas is, as it were, a blended tint oscillating between each of the extremes constituted by the other guna. The object of Tantrik sadhana is to bring out and make preponderant the sattva guna by the aid of rajas , which operates to make the former guna active. The subtle body ( lingasharira) of the jivatma comprises in it buddhi , ahangkara , manas , and the ten senses. This subtle body creates for itself gross bodies suited to the spiritual state of the jivatma . Under the influence of prarabdhda karmma , buddhi becomes tamasik , rajasik , or sattvik. In the first case the jivatma assumes inanimate bodies; in the second, active passionate bodies; and in the third, sattvik bodies of varying degrees of spiritual excellence, ranging from man to the Deva. The gross body is al so trigunatmaka. This body conveys impressions to the jivatma through the subtle body and the buddhi in particular. When sattva is made active impressions of happiness result, and when rajas or tamas are active the impressions are those of sorrow and delus ion. These impressions are the result of the predominance of these respective guna. The action of rajas on sattva produces happiness, as its own independent activity or operation on tamas produce sorrow and delusion respectively. Where sattva or happiness is predominant, there sorrow and delusion are suppressed. Where rajas or sorrow is predominant, there happiness and delusion are suppressed. And where tamas or delusion predominates there, as in the case of the inorganic world, both happiness and sorrow are suppressed. All objects share these three states in different proportions. There is, however, always in the jivatma an admixture of sorrow with happiness, due to the operation of rajas . For happiness, which is the fruit of righteous acts done to attain happiness, is after all only a vikara . The natural state of the jivatma that is, the state of its own true nature is that bliss ( ananda) which arises from the pure knowledge of the Self, in which both happiness and sorrow are equally objects of indifference. The worldly enjoyment of a person involves pain to self or others. This is the result of the pursuit of happiness, whether by righteous or unrighteous acts. As spiritual progress is made, the gross body becomes more and more refined. In inanimate bodies karma operates to the production of pure delusion. On the exhaustion of such karma the jivatma assumes animate bodies for the operation of such forms of karma as lead to sorrow and happiness mixed with delusion. In the vegetable world sattva is but lit tle active, with a corresponding lack of discrimination, for discrimination is the effect of sattva in buddhi , and from discrimination arises the recognition of pleasure and 13 pain, conceptions of right and wrong, of the transitory and intransitory, and so f orth, which are the fruit of a high degree of discrimination, or of activity of sattva . In the lower animal sattva in buddhi is not sufficiently active to lead to any degree of development of these conceptions. In man, however, the sattva in buddhi is cons iderably active, and in consequence these conceptions are natural in him. For this reason the human birth is, for spiritual purposes, so important. All men, however, are not capable of forming such conceptions in an equal degree. The degree of activity in an individuals buddhi depends on his prarabdha karma. However bad such karma may be in any particular case, the individual is yet gifted with that amount of discrimination which, if properly aroused and aided, will enable him to better his spiritual condition by inducing the rajoguna in him to give more and more activity to the sattva guna in his buddhi . On this account proper guidance and spiritual direction are necessary. A good guru, by reason of his own nature and spiritual attainment and disinterested wisdom, will both mark out for the sishya the path which is proper for him, and aid him to follow it by the infusion of the tejas which is in the Guru himself. Whilst sadhana is, as stated, a process for the stimulation of the sattva guna, it is evident that one form of it is not suitable to all. It must be adapted to the spiritual condition of the sishya , otherwise it will cause injury instead of good. Therefore it is that the adoption of certain forms of sadhana by persons who are not competent (adhikari ), may not only be fruitless of any good result, but may even lead to evils which sadhana as a general principle is designed to prevent. Therefore also is it said that it is better to follow ones own dharma than that, however exalted it be, of another. The Worlds (Loka) This earth, which is the object of the physical senses and of the knowledge based thereon, is but one of fourteen worlds or regions placed \"above\" and \"below\" it, of which (as the sutra says) knowledge may be obtained by meditation on the s olar \"nerve\" ( nada) sushumna in the merudanda . On this nadi six of the upper worlds are threaded, the seventh and highest overhanging it in the Sahasrara Padma, the thousand- petalled lotus. The sphere of earth ( Bhurloka), with its continents, their mountai ns and rivers, and with its oceans, is the seventh or lowest of the upper worlds. Beneath it are the Hells and Nether Worlds, the names of which are given below. Above the terrestrial sphere is Bhuvarloka, or the atmospheric sphere known as the antariksha, extending \"from the earth to the sun,\" in which the Siddhas and other celestial beings ( devayoni ) of the upper air dwell. \"From the sun to the pole star\" dhruva) is svarloka , or the heavenly sphere. Heaven ( svarga) is that which delights the mind, as hell (naraka) is that which gives it pain. In the former is the abode of the Deva and the blest. These three spheres are the region of the consequences of work, and are termed transitory as compared with the three highest spheres, and the fourth, which is of a 14 mixed character. When the jiva has received his reward he is reborn again on earth. For it is not good action, but the knowledge of the atma which procures Liberation (moksha). Above Svarloka is Maharloka, and above it the three ascending regions known as the janarloka, tapoloka, and satyaloka, each inhabited by various forms of celestial intelligence of higher and higher degree. Below the earth ( Bhuh) and above the nether worlds are the Hells (commencing with Avichi), and of which, according to popular theology, there are thirty -four, though it is elsewhere said there are as many hells as there are offences for which particular punishments are meted out. Of these, six are known as the great at hells. Hinduism, however, even when popular, knows nothing of a hell of eternal torment. To it nothing is eternal but the Brahman. Issuing from the Hells the jiva is again reborn to make its future. Below the Hells are the seven nether worlds, Sutala, Vitala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, Atala, and Patala, where, according to the Puranas, dwell the Naga serpent divinities, brilliant with jewels, and where, too, the lovely daughters of the Daityas and Danavas wander, fascinating even the most austere. Yet below Patala is the form of Vishnu proceeding from the dark qual ity (tamogunah), known as the Sesha serpent or Ananta, bearing the entire world as a diadem, attended by his Shakti Varuni, his own embodied radiance. Inhabitants of the Worlds The worlds are inhabited by countless grades of beings, ranging from the highes t Devas (of whom there are many classes and degrees) to the lowest animal life. The scale of beings runs from the shining manifestations of Spirit to those in which it is so veiled that it would seem almost to have disappeared in its material covering. There is but one Light, one Spirit, whose manifestations are many. A flame enclosed in a clear glass loses but little of its brilliancy. If we substitute for the glass, paper, or some other more opaque yet transparent substance, the light is dimmer. A covering of metal may be so dense as to exclude from sight the rays of light which yet burns within with an equal brilliancy. As a fact, all such veiling forms are maya . They are none the less true for those who live in and are themselves part of the mayik world. Deva, or \"heavenly and shining one\" for spirit is light and self -manifestation is applicable to those descending yet high manifestations of the Brahman, such as the seven Shivas, including the Trinity ( trimurtti ), Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra. Devi, again, is the title of the Supreme Mother Herself, and is again applied to the manifold forms assumed by the one only Maya, such as Kali, Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Gauri, Gayatri, Sandhya, and others. In the sense also in which it is said, \"Verily, in the beginning there was the Brahman. It created the Devas,\" the latter term also includes lofty intelligencies belonging to the created world intermediate between Ishvara (Himself a Purusha) and man, who in the person of the Brahmana is known as Earth -deva ( bhudeva). These spirits are of varying degrees. For there are no breaks in the creation which represents an apparent descent of the Brahman in gradually lowered forms. Throughout these forms play the divine currents of pravritti and nivritti , the latter drawing to Itself that which the former has sent forth. 15 Deva , jiva and jara (inorganic matter) are, in their real, as opposed to their phenomenal and illusory, being, the one Brahman, which appears thus to be other than Itself through its connection with the upadhi or limiting conditions with which ignorance ( avidya) invests it. Therefore all beings which are the object of worship are each of them but the Brahman seen through the veil of avidya. Though the worshippers of Devas may not know it, their worship is in reality the worship of the Brahman, and hence the Mahanirvana Tantra says that, \"as all streams flow to the ocean, so the worship given to any Deva is received by the Brahman.\" On the other hand, those who, knowing this, worship the Devas, do so as manifestations of the Brahman, and thus worship It mediately. The sun, the most glorious symbol in the physical world, is the mayik vesture of Her who is \"clothed with the sun.\" In the lower ranks of the celestial hierarchy are the Devayonis, some of whom are mentioned in the opening verses of the first chapter of the text. The Devas are of two classes: \"unborn\" ( ajata ) that is, those which have not, and those which have (sadhya) evolved from humanity as in the case of King Nahusha, who became Indra. Opposed to the divine hosts are the Asura, Danava, Daitya, Rakshasa, who, with other spirits, represent the tamasik or demonic element in creation. All Devas, from the highest downwards, are subordinate to both time and karma . So it is said, \"Salutation to Karma, over which not even Vidhi (Brahma) prevails\" ( Namastat karmmabhyovidhirapi na yebhyah prabhavati ). The rendering of the term \"Deva\" by \"God\" has led to a misapprehension of Hindu thought. The use of the term \"angel\" may also mislead, for though the world of Devas has in some respects analogy to the angelic choirs, the Christian conception of these Beings, their origin and functions, does not include, but in fact excludes, other ideas connoted by the Sanskrit term. The pitris , or \"Fathers,\" are a creation (according to some) separate from the predecessors of humanity, and are, according to others, the lunar ancestry who are addressed in prayer with the Devas. From Brahma, who is known as the \"Grandfather\" Pita Maha of the human race, issued Marichi, Atri, and others, his \"mental sons\": the Agnishvattvah, Saumnyah, Havishmantah, Ushmapah, and other classes of Pitris , numbering, according to the Markandeya Purana, thirty - one. Tarpanam , or oblation, is daily offered to these pitris. The term is also applied to the human ancestors of the worshipper generally up to the seventh generation to whom in shraddha (the obsequial rites) pinda and water are offered with the mantra \"svadha.\" The Rishi are seers who know, and by their knowledge are the makers of shastra and \"see\" all mantras. The word comes from the root rish Rishati- prapnoti sarvvang mantrang jnanena pashyati sangsaraparangva, etc. The seven great Rishi or saptarshi of the first manvantara are Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya, and Vashishtha. In other manvantara there are other sapta- rshi. In the present manvantara the seven are Kashyapa Atri, Vashishtha, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja. To the Rishi the Vedas were revealed. Vyasa 16 taught the Rigveda so revealed to Paila, the Yajurveda to Vaishampayana, the Samaveda to Jaimini, Atharvaveda to Samantu, and Itihasa and Purana to Suta. The three chief classes of Rishi are the Brah -marshi , born of the mind of Brahma, the Devarshi of lower rank, and Rajarshi or Kings who became Rishis through their knowledge and austerities, such as Janaka, Ritaparna, etc. Thc Shrutarshi are makers of Shastras, as Sushruta. The Kandarshi are of the Karmakanda, such as Jaimini. The Muni , who may be a Rishi, is a sage. Muni is so called on account of his mananam (mananat muniruchyate). Mananam is that thought, investigation, and discussion which marks the independent thinking mind. First there is shravanam listening; then mananam , which is the thinking or understanding, discussion upon, and testing of what is heard as opposed to the mere acceptance on trust of the lower intelligence. There two are followed by nididhyasanam , which is attention and profound meditation on the conclusions ( siddhanta) drawn from what is so heard and reasoned upon. As the Mahabharata says, \"The Veda differ, and so do the Smriti . No one is a muni who has no independent opinion of his own ( nasau muniryasya matang na bhinnam ). The human being is called jiva that is, the embodied Atma possessed by egoism and of the notion that it directs the puryashtaka, namely, the five organs of action (karmendriya), the five organs of perception ( jnanendriya), the fourfold antahkarana or mental self (Manas , Buddhi , Ahangkara, Chitta ), the five vital airs ( Prana), the five elements, Kama (desire), Karma (action and its results), and Avidya (illusion). When these false notions are destroyed, the embodiment is destroyed, and the wearer of the mayik garment attains nirvana. When the jiva is absorbed in Brahman, there is no longer any jiva remaining as such. Varna Ordinarily there are four chief divisions or castes ( varna ) of Hindu society viz.: Brahmana (priesthood; teaching); Kshattriya (warrior); Vaishya (merchant); Shudra (servile) said to have sprung respectively from the mouth, arm, thigh, and foot of Brahma. A man of the first three classes becomes an investiture, during the upanayana ceremony of the sacred thread, twice- born ( dvija). It is said that by birth one is shudra, by sangskara (upanayana), dvija (twice -born); by study of the Vedas one attains the state of a vipra ; and that he who has knowledge of the Brahman is a Brahmana. The present Tantra, however, speaks of a fifth or hybrid class (samanya), resulting from intermixture between the others. It is a peculiarity of Tantra that its worship is largely free of Vaidik exclusiveness, whether based on caste, sex, or otherwise. As the Gautamiya Tantra says, \"The Tantra is for all men, of whatever caste, and for all women\" ( Sarvvavarnadhikaraschcha narinang yogya eva cha). 17 Ashrama The four stages, conditions, or periods in the life of a Brahman are: First, that of the chaste student, or brahmachari ; second, the period of secular life as a married householder, or grihastha; third, that of the recluse, or vanaprastha , when there is retirement from the world; and lastly, that of the beggar, or bhikshu, who begs his single daily meal, and meditates upon the Supreme Spirit to which he is about to return. For the Kshattriya there are the first three Ashramas; for the Vaishya , the first two; and for the Shudra, the grihastha Ashrama only. This Tantra states that in the Kali age there are only two Ashrama. The second garhasthya and the last bhikshuka or avadhuta. Neither the conditions of life, nor the character, capacity, and powers of the people of this age allow of the first and third. The two ashramas prescribed for the Kali age are open to all castes indiscriminately. There are, it is now commonly said, two main divisions of avadhuta namely, Shaivavadhuta and Brahmavadhuta of each of which there are, again, three divisions. Of the first class the divisions are firstly Shaivavadhuta, who is apurna (imperfect). Though an ascetic, he is also a householder and like Shiva. Hence his name. The second is the wandering stage of the Shaiva (or the parivrajaka) , who has now left the world, and passes his time doing puja, japa, etc., visiting the tirtha and pitha, or places of pilgrimage. In this stage, which, though higher, is still imperfect, the avadhuta is competent for ordinary sadhana with a shakti. The third is the perfect stage of a Shaiva. Wearing only the kaupina, he renounces all things and all rites, though within certain limits he may practise some yoga, and is permitted to meet the request of a woman who makes it of him. Of the second class the three divisions ar e, firstly, the Brahma - vadhuta, who, like the Shaivavadhuta, is imperfect (apurna) and a householder. He is not permitted, however, to have a Shaiva Shakti , and is restricted to sviya- shakti. The second-class Brahma -parivrajaka is similar to the Shaiva of the same class, except that ordinarily he is not permitted to have anything to do with any woman, though he may, under the guidance of his Guru , practise yoga accompanied by Shakti. The third or highest class Hangsavadhuta is similar to the third Shaiv a degree, except that he must under no circumstances touch a woman or metals, nor may he practise any rites or keep any observances. Correspondence Between Macrocosm and Microcosm The universe consists of a Mahabrahmanda , or grand Kosmos, and of numerous Brihatbrahmanda, or macrocosms evolved from it. As is said by the Nirvana Tantra, all which is in the first is in the second. In the latter are heavenly bodies and beings, which are microcosms reflecting on a minor scale the greater worlds which evolve them. \"As above, so below.\" This mystical maxim of the West is stated in the Vishvasara Tantra as follows: \"What is here is elsewhere; what is not here is nowhere\" ( yadihasti tadanyatra yannehasti natatkvachit ). The macrocosm has its meru , or vertebral column, extending from top to bottom. There are fourteen 18 regions descending from Satyaloka, the highest. These are the seven upper and the seven nether worlds ( vide ante). The meru of the human body is the spinal column, and within it are the chakra, in which the worlds are said to dwell. In the words of the Shaktananda- Tarangini, they are pindamadhyesthita. Satya has been said to be in the sahasrara, and Tapah, Janah , Mahah, Svah , Bhuvah, Bhuh in the ajna, vishuddha, anahata, manipura, svadishthana, and muladhara lotuses respectively. Below muladhara and in the joints, sides, anus , and organs of generation are the nether worlds. The bones near the spinal column are the kula- parvata. Such are the correspondences as to earth. Then as to water. The nadi are the rivers. The seven substances of the body ( dhatu) are the seven islands. Sweat, tears, and the like are the oceans. Fire exists in the muladhara, sushumna, navel, and elsewhere. As the worlds are supported by the pravahana and other vayu (\"airs\"), so is the body supported by the ten vayu prana , etc. There is the same akasha (ether) in both. The witness within is the purusha without, for the personal soul of the microcosm corresponds to the cosmic soul ( hiranyagarbha) in the macrocosm. The Ages The passage of time within a maha -yoga influences for the worse man and the world in which he lives. This passage is marked by the four ages ( yuga), called Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali -yuga, the last being that in which it is generally supposed the world now is. The yuga is a fraction of a kalpa, or day of Brahma of 4,320,000 human years. The kalpa is divided into fourteen manvantara, which are again subdivided into seventy -one maha .-yuga; the length of each of which is 4,320,000 human years. The maha -yuga (great age) is itself composed of four yuga (ages) (a) Satya, ( b) Treta, ( c) Dvapara, ( d) Kali. Official science teaches that man appeared on the earth in an imperfect state, from which he has since been gradually, though continually, raising himself. Such teaching is, however, in conflict with the traditions of all peoples Jew, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, Roman, and Christian which speak of an age when man was both innocent and happy. From this state of primal perfection he fell, continuing his descent until such time as the great Avatara, Christ and others, descended to save his race and enable it to regain the righteous path. The Garden of Eden is the emblem of the paradisiacal body of man. There man was one with Nature. He was himself paradise, a privileged enclosure in a garden of delight gan be Eden. Et eruditus est Moyse omni sapientia gyptiorum . The Satya Yuga is, according to Hindu belief, the Golden Age of righteousness, free of sin, marked by longevity, physical strength, beauty, and stature. \"There were giants in those days\" whose moral, mental, and physical strength enabled them to undergo long brahmacharyya (continence) and tapas (austerities). Longevity permitted lengthy spiritual exercises. Life then depended on the marrow, and lasted a lakh of years, men dying when they willed. Their stature was 21 cubits. 19 To this age belong the Avatara or incarnations of Vishnu, Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Nri-singha, and Vamana. Its duration is computed to be 4,800 Divine years, which, when multiplied by 360 (a year of the Devas being equal to 360 human years) are the equivalent of 1,728,000 of the years of man. (b) The second age, or Treta (three- fourth) Yuga, is that in which righteousness ( dharmma) decreased by one- fourth. The duration was 3,600 Divine years, or 1,296,000 human years. Longevity, strength, and stature decreased. Life was in the bone, and lasted 10,000 years. Mans stature was 14 cubits. Of sin there appeared one- quarter, and of virtue there remained three- quarters. Men were still attached to pious and charitable acts, penances, sacrifice, and pilgrimage, of which the chief was that to Naimisharanya. In this period appeared the avatars of Vishnu as Parashurama and Rama. (c) The third, or Dvapara (one- half) Yuga, is that in which righteousness decreased by one- half, and the duration of which was 2,400 Divine, or 864,000 human, years. A further decrease in longevity and strength, and increase of weakness and disease, mark this age. Life which lasted 1,000 years was centred in the blood. Stature was 7 cubits. Sin and virtue were of equal force. Men became restless, and, though eager to acquire knowledge, were deceitful, and followed both good and useful pursuits. The principal place of pilgrimage was Kurukshetra. To this age belongs (according to Vyasa, Anushtubhacharya and Jiya- deva) the avatara of Vishnu as Bala- rama, the elder brother of Krishna, who, according to other accounts, takes his place. In the sandhya, or intervening period of 1,000 years between this and the next yuga the Tantra was revealed, as it will be revealed at the dawn of every Kali -yuga. (d) Kali - yuga is the alleged present age, in which righteousness exists to the extent of one- fourth only, the duration of which is 1,200 Divine,or 432,000 human, years. According to some, this age commenced in 3120 B.C. on the date of Vishnus return to heaven after the eighth incarnation. This is the periodwhich, according to the Puranas and Tantras, is characterized by the prevalence of viciousness, weakness, disease, and the general decline of all that is good. Humanlife, which lasts at most 120, or, as some say, 100, years,is dependent on food. Stature is 3 cubits. The chief pilgrimage is now to the Ganges. In this age has appeared the Buddha Avatara. The last, or Kalki Avatara,the Destroyer of sin, has yet to come. It is He who will destroy iniquity and restore the age of righteousness.The Kalki Purana speaks of Him as One whose body is blue like that of the rain- charged cloud, who with sword in hand rides, as does the rider of the Apocalypse, a white horse swift as the wind, the Cherisher of the people, Destroyer of the race of the Kali -yuga, the Source of true religion. And Jayadeva, in his Ode to the Incarnations,addresses Him thus: \"For the destruction of all the impure thou drawest thy cimeter like a blazing comet. O how tremendous! Oh, Keshava, assuming the body of Kalki! Be victorious. O Hari, Lord of the Universe!\" With the Satya- yuga a new maha- yaga will commence, and the ages will continue to revolve with their rising and descending races until the close of the kalpa or day of Brahma.. Then a night of dissolution (pralaya) of equal duration follows, the Lord reposing in yoga- nidra (yoga sleep in pralaya) on the Serpent Shesha, the Endless One, till day break, when the universe is created anew and the next kalpa follows. 20 The Scriptures of the Ages Each of these Ages has its appropriate Shastra or Scripture, designed to meet the characteristics and needs of the men who live in them The Hindu Shastra are classed into: (1) Shruti , which commonly includes the four Veda. (Rik, Yajuh, Sama, Atharva, and the Upanishads), the doctrine of which is philosophically exposed in the Vedanta- Darshana. (2) Smriti, such as the Dharma- Shastra of Manu and other works on family and social duty prescribing for pavritti -dhamia , as the Upanishads had revealed the nivritti -dharma. (3) The Puranas, of which, according to the Brahma- vaivartta Purana, there were originally four lakhs, and of which eighteen are now regarded as the principal. (4) The Tantra. For each of these ages a suitable Shastra is given. The Veda is the root of all Shastra (mula -shastra). All others are based on it. The Tantra is spoken of as a fifth Veda. Kulluka- Bhatta, the celebrated Commentator on Manu, says that Shruti is of two kinds, Vaidik and Tantrik (vaidiki- tantriiki chaiva dvi -vidha shrutih- kirttita). The various Shastras , however, are different presentments of shruti appropriate to the humanity of the age for which they are given. Thus the Tantra is that presentment of shruti which is modelled as regards its ritual to meet the characteristics and infirmities of the Kali- yuga. As men have no longer the capacity, longevity, and moral strength necessary for the application of the Vaidika Karma -kanda, the Tantra prescribes a special sadhana or means or practice of its own, for the attainment of that which is the ultimate and common end of all Shastra. The Kularnava Tantra says that in the Satya or Krita age the Shastra is Shruti (in the sense of the Veda and Upanishads); in Treta- yuga, Smriti (in the sense of the Dharma - Shastra and Shruti -jivika , etc.); in Dvapara Yuga the Purana; and in the last or Kali - yuga the Tantra, which should now be followed by all orthodox Hindu worshippers. The Maha- nirvana and other Tantras and Tantrik works lay down the same rule. The Tantra is also said to contain the very core of the Veda to which, it is described to bear the relation of the Paramatma to the Jivatma . In a similar way, Kaulachara is the central informing life of the gross body called vedachara, each of the achara which follow it up to kaulachara being more and more subtle sheaths. The Human Body The human body is Brahma -para, the city of Brahman. Ishvara Himself enters into the universe as jiva. Wherefore the maha -vakya \"That thou art\" means that the ego (which is regarded as jiva only from the standpoint of an upadhi ) is Brahman. The Five Sheaths In the body there are five kosha or sheaths anna- maya , prana- maya , mano - maya , vijana -maya , ananda- maya , or the physical and vital bodies, the two mental bodies, and the body of bliss. In the first the Lord is self -conscious as being dark or fair, short or tall, old or youthful. In the vital body He feels alive, hungry, and thirsty. In the mental bodies He thinks and understands. And in the body of Bliss He r esides 21 in happiness. Thus garmented with the five garments, the Lord, though all pervading, appears as though He were limited by them. Anna- Maya Kosha In the material body, which is called the \"sheath of food\" ( anna- maya kosha), reign the elements earth, water, and fire, which are those presiding in the lowest Chakra , the Muladhara, Svadhishthana, and mani -pura centres. The two former produce food and drink, which is assimilated by the fire of digestion, and converted into the body of food. The indriya are both the faculty and organs of sense. There are in this body the material organs, as distinguished from the faculty of sense. In the gross body ( sharira- kosha) there are six external kosha viz., hair, blood, flesh, which come from the mother, and bone, m uscle, marrow, from the father. The organs of sense ( indriya) are of two kinds viz.: jnanendriya, or organs of sensation, through which knowledge of the external world is obtained (ear, skin, eyes, tongue, nose); and karmendriya, or organs of action mouth, arms, legs, anus, penis, the functions of which are speech, holding, walking, excretion, and procreation. Prana- Maya Kosha The second sheath is the prana- maya -kosha , or sheath of \"breath\" ( prana), which manifests itself in air and ether, the presiding elements in the Anahata and Vishuddha chakra. There are ten vayu (airs), or inner vital forces, of which the first five are the principal namely, the sapphire prana; apana, the colour of an evening cloud; the silver vyana ; udana, the colour of fire; and the milky samana. These are all aspects of the action of the one Prana- devata. Kundalini is the Mother of prana, which She the Mula- Prakriti, illumined by the light of the Supreme Atma , generates. Prana is vayu , or the universal force of activity, divided on entering each individual into fivefold function. Specifically considered, prana is inspiration, which with expiration is from and to a distance of eight and twelve inches respectively. Udana is the ascending vayu . Apana is the downward vayu , expelling wind, excrement, urine, and semen. The samana, or collective vayu , kindles the bodily fire, \"conducting equally the food, etc., throughout the body.\" Vyana is the separate vayu , effecting division and diffusion. These forces cause respiration, excretion, digestion, circulation. Mano- maya, Vijana Kosha, and Ananda- maya Kosha The next two sheaths are the mano -maya and vijana kosha. These constitute the antah- karana, which is fourfold namely, mind in its twofold aspect of buddhi and manas , self-hood ( ahankara), and chitta . The function of the first is 22 doubt sangkalpa- vikalpatmaka, (uncertainty, certainty); of the second, determination (nishchaya -karini ); of the third (egoity), consciousness (abhimana). Manas automatically registers the facts which the senses perceive. Buddhi , on attending to such registration, discriminates, determines, and cognizes the object registered, which is set over and against the subjective self by Ahangkara. The function of chitta is contemplation ( chinta), the faculty whereby the mind in its widest sense raises for itself the subject of its thought and dwells thereon. For whilst buddhi has but three moments in which it is born, exists, and dies, chitta endures. The antah- karana is master of the ten senses, which are the outer doors through which it looks forth upon the external world. The faculties, as opposed to the organs or instruments of sense, reside here. The centres of the powers inherent in the last two sheaths are in the Ajna Chakra and the region above this and below the sahasrara lotus. In the latter the Atma of the last sheath of bliss resides. The physical or gross body is called sthula- sharira. The subtle body ( sukshma- sharira, also called linga -sharira and karana -shanra) comprises the ten indriya , manas , ahangkara, buddhi , and the five functions of prana. This subtle body contains in itself the cause of rebirth into the gross body when the period of reincarnation arrives. The atma , by its association with the upadhis , has three states of consciousness namely, the jagrat , or waking state, when through the sense organs are perceived objects of sense through the operation of manas and buddhi . It is explained in the Ishvara- pratya -bhijna as follows \"the waking state dear to all is the source of external action through the activity of the senses.\" The jiva is called jagari that is, he who takes upon himself the gross body called Vishva . The second is svapna, the dream state, when, the sense organs being withdrawn, Alma is conscious of mental images generated by the impressions of jagrat experience. Here manas ceases to record fresh sense impressions, and it and buddhi work on that which manas has registered in the waking state. The explanation of this state is also given in the work last cited. \"The state of svapna is the objectification of visions perceived in the mind, due to the perception of ideas there latent.\" Jiva in the state of svapna is termed taijasa . Its individuality is merged in the subtle body. Hiranyagarbha is the collective form of these jiva, as Vaisvanar a is such form of the jiva in the waking state. The third state is that of sushupti , or dreamless sleep, when manas itself is withdrawn, and buddhi , dominated by tamas , preserves only the notion: \"Happily I slept; I was not conscious of anything\" (Patanjal a-yoga- sutra). In the Macrocosm the upadhi of these states are also called Virat, Hiranyagarbha, and Avyakta . The description of the state of sleep is given in the Shiva- sutra as that in which there is incapacity of discrimination or illusion. By the saying cited from the Patanjala- sutra three modifications of avidya are indicated viz., ignorance, egoism, and happiness. Sound sleep is that state in which these three exist. The person in that state is termed prajna , his individuality being merged in the causal body ( karana). 23 Since in the sleeping state the prajna becomes Brahman, he is no longer jiva as before; but the jiva is then not the supreme one ( Paramatma ), because the state is associated with avidya . Hence, because the vehicle in the jiva in the sle eping state is Karana, the vehicle of the jiva in the fourth is declared to be mahakarana. Ishvara is the collective form of the prajna jiva. Beyond sushupti is the turiya , and beyond turiya the transcendent fifth state without name. In the fourth state shuddha -vidya is acquired, and this is the only realistic one for the yogi which he attains through, samadhi -yoga. Jiva in turiya is merged in the great causal body ( maha- karana ). The fifth state arises from firmness in the fourth. He who is in this state becomes equal to Shiva, or, more strictly, tends to a close equality; for it is only beyond that, that \"the spotless one attains the highest equality,\" which is unity. Hence even in the fourth and fifth states there is an absence of that full perfection which constitutes the Supreme. Bhaskara- raya, in his Commentary on the Lalita, when pointing out that the Tantrik theory adds the fourth and fifth states to the first three adopted by the followers of the Upanishads, says that the latter states are not separately enumerated by them owing to the absence in those two states of the full perfection of Jiva or of Shiva. Nadi It is said that there are 3 crores of nadi in the human body, of which some are gross and some are subtle. Nadi means a nerve or artery in the ordinary sense; but all the nadis of which the books on Yoga speak are not of this physical character, but are subtle channels of energy. Of these nadi, the principal are fourteen; and of these fourteen, ida, pingala, and sushumna are the chief; and, again, of these three sushumna is the greatest, and to it all others are subordinate. Sushumna is in the hollow of the meru in the cerebro- spinal axis. It extends from the Muladhara lotus, the Tattvik earth centre, to the cerebral region. Sushumna is in the form of Fire ( vahni -svarupa), and has within it the vajrini- nadi in the form of the sun ( surya- svarupa). Within the latter is the pale nectar -dropping chitra or chitrini- nadi, which is also called Brahma -nadi, in the form of the moon ( chandra- svarupa,). Sush umna is thus triguna. The various lotuses in the different Chakra of the body ( vide post ) are all suspended from the chitra -nadi, the chakra being described as knots in the nadi, which is as thin as the thousandth part of a hair. Outside the meru and on each side of sushumna are the nadi ida and pingala. Ida is on the left side, and, coiling round sushumna, has its exit in the left nostril. Pingala is on the right, and, similarly coiling, enters the right nostril. The sushumna, interlacing ida and pingala and the ajna-chakra round which they pass, thus forms a representation of the caduceus of Mercury. Ida is of a pale colour, is moon- like ( chandra- svarupa), and contains nectar. Pingala is red, and is sun- like (suryya- svarupa), containing \"venom,\" the fluid of mortality. These three \"rivers,\" which are united at the ajna- chakra, flow separately from that point, and for this reason the ajna- chakra is called mukta triveni . The muladhara is called Yukta (united) -tri-veni, since it is the meeting- place of the thr ee nadi, which 24 are also called Ganga ( Ida), Yamuna ( Pingala ), and Sarasvati ( sushumna), after the three sacred rivers of India. The opening at the end of the sushumna in the muladhara is called brahma- dvara, which is closed by the coils of the sleeping Devi Kundalini. Chakra There are six chakra, or dynamic Tattvik centres, in the body viz., the muladhara, svadhishthana, mani -pura, anahata, vishuddha, and ajna which are described in the following notes. Over all there is the thousand- petalled lotus (sahasrara- padma). Muladhara Muladhara is a triangular space in the midmost portion of the body, with the apex turned downwards like a young girls yoni. It is described as a red lotus of four petals, situate between the base of the sexual organ and the anus. \"Earth\" evolved from \"water\" is the Tattva of this chakra. On the four petals are the four golden varnas \"vang,\" \"shang,\" \"shang,\" and \" sang,\" In the four petals pointed towards the four directions ( Ishana, etc.) are the four forms of bliss yogananda (yoga bliss), paramananda (supreme bliss), samaj -ananda (natural bliss), and virananda (vira bliss). In the centre of this lotus is Svayambhu- linga , ruddy brown, like the colour of a young leaf. Chitrini- nadi is figured as a tube, and the opening at its end at the base of the linga is called the door of Brahman ( brahma- dvara), through which the Devi ascends. The lotus, linga and brahma- dvara, hang downwards. The Devi Kundalini, more subtle than the fibre of the lotus, and luminous as lightning, lies asleep coiled like a serpent around the linga , and closes with Her body the door of Brahman. The Devi has forms in the brahmanda . Her subtlest form in the pindanda, or body, is called Kundalini , a form of Prakriti pervading, supporting, and expressed in the form of the whole universe; \"the Glittering Dancer \"(as the Sarada- tilaka calls Her) \"in the lotus -like head of the yogi.\" When awakened, it is She who gives birth to the world made of mantra . A red fiery triangle surrounds svayambhu- linga , and within the triangle is the red Kandarpa-vayu , or air, of Kama , a form of the apana vayu, for here is the seat of creative desire. Outside the triangle is a yellow square, called the prithivi- (earth) -mandala, to which is attached the \"eight thunders\" ( ashta- vajra ). Here is the vija \"lang\", and with it prithivi on the back of an elephant. Here also are Brahma and Savitri, and the red four-handed Shakti Dakini. Svadhisthana Svadhishthana is a six -petalled lotus at the base of the sexual organ, above muladhara and below the navel. Its pericarp is red, and its petals are like lightning. \"Water\" evolved from \"fire\" is the Tattva of this chakra. The varnas on the petals are \"bang,\" \"bhang,\" \"mang,\" \"yang,\" \"rang,\" and \"lang.\" In the six petals are also the vritti (states, qualities, functions, or inclinations) namely, prashraya (credulity), a-vishvasa (suspicion, 25 mistrust), avajna (disdain), murchchha (delusion, or, as some say, disinclination), sarvva- nasha (false knowledge), and krurata (pitilessness). Within a semicircular space in the pericarp are the Devata, the dark blue Maha- vishnu, Maha- lakshmi, and Sarasvati. In front is the blue four -handed Rakini Shakti, and the vija of Varuna, Lord of water or \"vang.\" Inside the vija there is the region of Varuna., of the shape of an half -moon, and in it is Varuna himself seated on a white alligator (makara). Mani -pura Mani -para- chakra is a ten- petalled golden lotus, situate above the last in the region of the navel. \"Fire\" evolved from \"air\" is the Tattva of this chakra. The ten petals are of the colour of a cloud, and on them are the blue varnas \"dang,\" \"dhang,\" \"nang,\" tang,\" \"thang,\" \" dang,\" \"dhang,\" \"nang,\" \"pang,\" \"phang,\" and the ten vritti (vide ante), namely, lajja (shame), pishunata (fickleness), irsha (jealousy), trishna (desire), sushupti (laziness), vishada (sadness), kashaya (dullness), moha (ignorance), ghrin a (aversion, disgust), bhaya (fear). Within the pericarp is the vija of fire (\" rang\"), and a triangular figure ( mandala) of Agni, Lord of Fire, to each side of which figure are attached three auspicious signs or svastika . Agni, red, four -handed, and seated on a ram, is within the figure. In front of him are Rudra and his Shakti Bhadra- kali. Rudra is of the colour of vermilion, and is old. His body is smeared with ashes. He has three eyes and two hands. With one of these he makes the sign which grants boons and blessings, and with the other that which dispels fear. Near him is the four -armed Lakini Shakti, of the colour of molten gold ( tapta- kanchana), wearing yellow ra iments and ornaments. Her mind is maddened with passion ( mada- matta -chitta ). Above the lotus is the abode and region of Suryya. The solar region drinks the nectar which drops from the region of the Moon. Anahata Anahata-chakra is a deep red lotus of twelve petals, situate above the last and in the region of the heart, which is to be distinguished from the heart -lotus facing upwards of eight petals, spoken of in the text, where the patron deity ( Ishta -devata) is meditated upon. \"Air\" evolved from \"ether\" is the Tattva of the former lotus. On the twelve petals are the vermilion varnas \"Kang\" \"Khang ,\" \"Gang,\" \"Ghang,\" \"ngang,\" \"chang\", \"Chhang,\" \"Jang,\" \"Jhang,\" \"Nyang,\" \"Tang,\" \"Thang,\" and the twelve vrittis ( vide ante) namely asha (hope), chinta (care, anxiety), cheshta (endeavour), mamata (sense of mineness), dambha (arrogance or hypocrisy), vikalata (languor), ahangkara (conceit), viveka (discrimination), lolata (co vetousness), kapatata (duplicity), vitarka (indecision), anutapa (regret). A triangular mandala within the pericarp of this lotus of the lustre of lightning is known as the Tri-kona Shakti . Within this mandala is a red vana- linga , called Narayana or Hiranya -garbha, and near it Ishvara and His Shakti Bhuvaneshvari. Ishvara, who is the Overlord of the first three chakra , is of the colour of molten gold, and with His two 26 hands grants blessings and dispels fear. Near him is the three- eyed Kakini Shakti, lustrous as lightning, with four hands holding the noose and drinking -cup, and making the sign of blessing, and that which dispels fear. She wears a garland of human bones. She is excited, and her heart is softened with wine. Here, also, are several other Shakti , such as Kala- ratri, as also the vija of air ( vayu ) or \" vang.\" Inside the lotus is a six -cornered smoke- coloured mandala, and the circular region of smoke- coloured Vayu , who is seated on a black antelope. Here, too, is the embodied atma (jivatma ), like the tapering flame of a lamp. Vishuddha Vishuddha chakra or Bharatisthana, abode of the Devi of speech, is above the last and at the lower end of the throat ( kantha- mula ). The Tattva of this chakra is \"ether.\" The lotus is of a smoky colour, or the colour of fire seen through smoke. It has sixteen petals, which carry the red vowels \"ang,\" \"ang\" \"ing,\" \"ing ,\" \"ung,\" \"ung \",\" \"ring,\" \"ring ,\" \"lring ,\" \"lring ,\" \"eng,\" \"aing,\" \"ong,\" \"aung,\" \"ang,\" \"ah;\" the seven musical notes (nishada, rishabha, gandhara, shadaja, madhyama , dhaivata and panchama) : \"veno m\" (in the eighth petal); the vija \"hung,\" \"phat ,\" \"vaushat ,\" \"vashat ,\" \"svadha,\" \"svaha,\" \"namah,\" and in the sixteenth petal nectar ( amrita ). In the pericarp is a triangular region, within which is the androgyne Shiva, known as Arddha- narishvara. There also are the region of the full moon and ether, with its vija \"hang.\" The akasha- mandala is transparent and round in shape. Akasha himself is here dressed in white, and mounted on a white elephant. He has four hands, which hold the noose ( pasha), the elephant -hook ( angkusha), and with the other he makes the mudra which grant blessing and dispel fear. Shiva is white, with five faces, three eyes, ten arms, and is dressed in tiger skins. Near Him is the white Shakti Shakini, dressed in yellow raiments, holding in Her four hands the bow, the arrow, the noose, and the hook. Above the chakra, at the root of the palate ( talumula ) is a concealed chakra, called Lalana and, in some Tantras, Kala-chakra. It is a red lotus with twelve petals, bearing the following vritti shraddha (faith), santosha (contentment), aparadha (sense of error), dana (self- command), mana (anger), sneha (affection), shoka (sorrow, grief), kheda (dejection), shuddhata (purity), arati (detachment), sambhrama (agitatio n), Urmmi (appetite, desire). Ajna Ajna chakra is also called parama- hula and mukta -tri-veni, since it is from here that the three nadis Ida, Pingala , and Sushumna go their separate ways. It is a two- petalled lotus, situate between the two eyebrows. In this Chakra there is no gross Tattva, but the subtle Tattva mind is here. Hakararddha , or half the letter La, is also there. On its two petals are the red varnas \"hang \"and \" kshang.\" 27 In the pericarp is concealed the vija \"ong.\" In the two petals and the pericarp there are the three guna sattva , rajas , and tamas . Within the tria ngular mandala in the pericarp there is the lustrous ( tejo-maya ) linga in the form of the pranava (pranavakriti ), which is called Itara. Para -Shiva, in the form of hangsa (hangsa- rupa) is also there with his Shakti Siddha- Kali. In the three corners of the triangle are Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara, respectively. In this chakra there is the white Hakini -Shakti, with six heads and four hands, in which are jana- mudra, a skull, a drum ( damaru ), and a rosary. Sahasrara Padma Above the ajna- chakra there is another secret chakra, called manas -chakra. It is a lotus of six petals, on which are shabda- jana , sparsha- jana, rupa-jana, aghrano- palabdhi , rasopabhoga, and svapna, or the faculties of hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste, and sleep, or the absence of these. Above this, again, there is another secret chakra, called Soma -chakra. It is a lotus of sixteen petals, which are also called sixteen Kala. These Kala are called kripa (mercy), mriduta (gentleness), dhairyya (patience, composure), vairagya (dispassion ), dhriti (constancy), sampat (prosperity), hasya (ch eerfulness), romancha (rapture, thrill), vinaya (sense of propriety, humility), dhyana (meditation), susthirata (quietude, restfulness), gambhiryya (gravity), udyama (enterprise, effort), akshobha (emoti onlessness), audarya (magnanimity), and ekagrata (concentration). Above this last chakra is \"the house without support\" ( niralamba -puri), where yogis see the radiant Ishvara. Above this is the pranava shining like a flame, and above pranava the white crescent Nada, and above this last the point Vindu. There is then a white lotus of twelve petals with its head upwards, and over this lotus there is the ocean of nectar ( sudha- sagara), the island of gems ( mani -dvipa), the altar of gems ( mani -pitha), the forked lightning- like lines a, ka, tha, and therein Nada and Vindu . On Nada and Vindu , as an altar, there is the Paramahangsa, and the latter serves as an altar for the feet of the Guru ; there the Guru of all should be meditated. The body of the Hangsa on which the feet of the Guru rest is jana- maya , the wings Agama and Nigama , the two feet Shiva and Shakti, the beak Pranava, the eyes and throat Kama -Kala. Close to the thousand -petalled lotus is the sixteenth digit of the moon, which is called ama-kala, which is pure red and lustrous like lightning, as fine as a fibre of the lotus, hanging downwards, receptacle of the lunar nectar. In it is the crescent nirvana- kala, luminous as the Sun, and finer than the thousandth part of a hair. This is the Ishta -devata of all. Near nirvana- kala is parama -nirvana- Shakti , infinitely subtle, lustrous as the Sun, creatrix of tattva -jnana. Above it are Vindu and Visarga -Shakti , root and abode of all bliss. 28 Sahasrara- padma or thousand petalled lotus of all colours hangs with its head downwards from the brahma- randhra above all the chakra. This is the region of the first cause ( Brahma -loka), the cause of the six proceeding causes. It is the great Sun both cosmically and individually, in whose effulgence Parama- Shiva and Adya- Shakt i reside. The power is the vachaka- Shakti or saguna- brahman, holding potentially within itself, the gunas , powers , and planes . Parama- Shiva is in the form of the Great Ether ( paramakasha- rupi), the Supreme Spirit ( paramatma), the Sun of the darkness of ignorance. In each of the petals of the lotus are placed all the letters of the alphabet; and whatever there is in the lower chakra or in the universe (brahmanda) exist here in potential state ( avyakta- bhava). Shaivas call this place Shiva -sthana, Vaishnavas, Parama -purusha, Shaktas , Devi- sthana, the Sankhya sages Prakriti -purusha- sthana. Others call it by other names, such as Hari- hara- sthana. Shakti -sthana, Parama- Brahma , Parama- hangsa, Parama -jyotih , Kula- sthana, and Parama -Shiva -Akula . But whatever the name, all speak of the same. The Three Temperaments The Tantras speak of three temperaments, dispositions, characters ( bhava), or classes of men namely, the pashu- bhava (animal), vira-bhava (heroic), and divya- bhava (deva- like or divine). These divisions are based on various modifications of the guna (v. ante) as they manifest in man ( jiva). It has been pointed out that the analogous Gnostic classification of men as material, psychical, and spiritual, correspond to the three guna of the Sankhya- darshana . In the pashu the rajo- guna operates chiefy on tamas, producing such dark characteristics as error (bhranti ), drowsiness ( tandra), and sloth ( alasya). It is however, an error to suppose that the pashu is as such a bad man; on the contrary, a jiva of this class may prove superior to a jiva of the next. If the former, who is greatly bound by matter, lacks enlightenment, the latter may abuse the greater freedom he has won. There are also numerous kinds of pashu, some more some less tamasik than others. Some there are at the lowest end of the scale, which marks the first advance upon the higher forms of animal life. Others approach and gradually merge into the vira class. The term pashu comes from the root pash, \"to bind.\" The pashu is, in fact, the man who is bound by the bonds ( pasha), of which the Kularnava Tantra enurnerates eight namely, pity ( daya), ignorance and delusion ( moha ), fear (bhaya), shame ( lajja), disgust ( ghrina), family (kula ), custom (shila ), and caste ( varna). Other enumerations are given of the afflictions which, according to some, are sixty -two, but all such larger divisions are merely elaborations of the simpler enumerations. The pashu is also the worldly man, in ignorance and bondage, as opposed to the yogi and the tattva- jnani. Three divisions of pashsu are also spoken of namely, sakala, who are bound by the three pasha, called anu (want of knowledge or erroneous knowledge of the self), bheda (the division also induced by maya of the one self into many), and karmma (action and its product. These are the three impurities ( mala ) called anava- mala , maya -mala , and Karmma -mala . Pratayakala are those bound by the first and last, and Vijnana -kevala are those bound by anava- mala only. He who 29 frees himself of the remaining impurity of anu becomes Shiva Himself. The Devi bears the pasha, and is the cause of them, but She, too, is pashupasha- vimochini , Liberatrix of the pashu from his bondage. What has been stated gives the root notion of the term pashu. Men of this class are also described in Tantra by exterior traits, which are manifestations of the interior disposition. So the Kubjika Tantra says: \"Those who belong to pashu- bhava .re simply pashu. A pashu does not touch a yantra, nor make japa of mantra at night. He entertains doubt about sacrifices and Tantra; regards a mantra as being merely letters only. He lacks faith in the guru, and thinks that the image is but a block of stone. He distinguishes one Deva from another, and worships without flesh and fish. He is always bathing, owing to his ignorance, and talks ill of others. Such an one is called pashu, and he is the worst kind of man.\" Similarly the Nitya Tantra describes the pashu as \"He who does not worship at night, nor in the evening, nor in the latter part of the day; who avoids sexual intercourse, except on the fifth day after the appearance of the courses ( ritu-kalang vina devi ramanang parivarjayet ); who do not eat meat, etc., even on the five auspicious days ( parvvana)\"; in short, those who, following Vedachara, Vaishnavachara, and Shaivachara, are bound by the Vaidik rules which govern all pashus . In the case of vira-bhava, rajas more largely works on sattva , yet also largely (though in lessening degrees, until the highest stage of divya- bhava is reached) works independently towards the production of acts in which sorrow inheres. There are several classes of vira. The third, or highest, class of man is he of the divya- bhava (of which, again, there are several degrees some but a stage in advance of the highest form of vira- bhava, others completely realizing the deva- nature), in which rajas operate on sattva- guna to the confirmed preponderance of the latter. The Nitya Tantra says that of the bhava the divya is the best, the vira the next best, and the pashu the lowest; and that devata- bhava must be awakened through vira- bhava. The Pichchhila Tantra says that the only difference between the vira and divya men is that the former are very uddhata, by which is probably meant excitable, through the greater prevalence of the independent working of the rajo-guna in them than in the calmer sattvik temperament. It is obvious that such statements must not be read with legal accuracy. There may be, in fact, a considerable difference between a low type of vira and the highest type of divya , though it seems to be true that this quality of uddhata which is referred to is the cause of such differences, whether great or small. The Kubjika Tantra describes the marks of the divya as he \"who daily does ablutions, sandhya; and wearing clean cloth, the tripundar a mark in ashes, or red sandal, and ornaments of rudraksha beads, performs japa and archchana. He gives charity daily also. His faith is strong in Veda, Shastra, guru, and Deva . He worships 30 the Pitri and Deva , and performs all the daily rites. He has a great knowledge of mantra. He avoids all food, except that which his guru offers him, and all cruelty and other bad actions, regarding both friend and foe as one and the same. He himself ever speaks the truth, and avoids the company of those who decry the Devata. He worships thrice daily, and meditates upon his guru daily, and, as a Bhairava, worships Parameshvari with divya -bhava. All Devas he regards as beneficial. He bows down at the feet of women, regarding them as his guru (strinang pada- talang drishtva guru-vad bhavayet sada). He worships the Devi at night, and makes japa at night with his mouth full of pan, and makes obeisance to the kula vriksha. He offers everything to the Supreme Devi. He regards this universe as pervaded by stri (shakti ), and as Devata. Shiva is in all men, and the whole brahmanda is pervaded by Shiva- Shakti. He ever strives for the attainment and maintenance of devata- bhava, and is himself of the nature of a Devata. Here, again, the Tantra only seeks to give a general picture, the details of which are not applicable to all men of the divya- bhava class. The passage shows that it, or portions of it, refer to the ritual divya , for some of the practices there referred to would not be performed by the avadkuta, who is above all ritual acts, though he would also share (possibly in intenser degree) the beliefs of divya men of all classes that he and all else are but manifestations of the universe- pervading Supreme Shakti. According to the temperament of the sadhaka, so is the form of worshi p and sadhana. In fact, the specific worship and sadhana of the other classes is strictly prohibited by the Tantra to the pashu. It is said in this Tantra and elsewhere that, in the Kali - yuga, divya and pashu dispositions can scarcely be found. It may be thought difficult at first sight to reconcile this (so far as the pasha is concerned) with other statements as to the nature of these respective classes. The term pashu, in these and similar passages, would appear to be used in a good sense as referring to a man who, though tamasic, yet performs his functions with that obedience to nature which is shown by the still more tamasic animal creation free from the disturbing influences of rajas , which, if it may be the source of good, may also be, when operating independently, the source of evil. The Commentator explains the passage cited from the Tantra as meaning that the conditions and character of the Kali -yuga are not such as to be productive of pasha- bhava (apparently in the sense stated), or to allow of its achara (that is, Vaidikachara). No one, he says, can fully perform the vedachara, vaishnavachara, and shavachara rites, without which the Vaidik, Pauranik mantra, and yajna are fruitless. No one now goes through the brahma- charya ashrama, or adopts after the fiftieth year that called vana- prastha. Those whom the Veda does not control cannot expect the fruit of Vaidik observances. On the contrary, men have taken to drink, associate with the low, and are fallen; as are 31 also those men who associate with them. There can therefore be no pure pashu . Under these circumstances the duties prescribed by the Vedas which are appropriate for the pasha being incapable of performance, Shiva for the liberation of men of the Kali Age has proclaimed the Agama. \"Now, there is no other way.\" The explanation thus given, therefore, appears to amount to this. The pure type of pashu for whom vedachara was designed does not exist. For others who though pasha are not purely so, the Tantra is the governing Shastra. This, however, does not mean that all are now competent for virachara. It is to be noted, however, that the Prana- toshini cites a passage purporting to come from the Mahanirvana Tantra, which is apparently in direct opposition to the foregoing: Divya -vira-mayo bhavah kalau nasti kada- chana Kevalang pasha- bhavena mantra -siddhirbhavennrinam . \"In the Kali Age there is no divya or vira-bhava. It is only by the pashu- bhava that men may obtain mantra- siddhi .\" This matter of the bhava prevalent in the Kali-yuga has been the subject of considerable discussion and difference of opinion, and is only touched upon here. Guru and Shishya The Guru is the religious teacher and spiritual guide to whose direction orthodox Hindus of all divisions of worshippers submit themselves. There is in reality but one Guru . The ordinary human Guru is but the manifestation on the phenomenal plane of the Adi -natha Maha- kala, the Supreme Guru abiding in Kailasa. He it is who enters into and speaks with the voice of the earthly Guru at the time of giving mantra . Guru is the root ( mala ) of diksha (imitation). Diksha is the root of mantra. Mantra is the root of Devata; and Devata is the root of siddhi . The Munda- mala Tantra says that mantra is born of Guru and Devata of mantra , so that the Guru occupies the position of a grandfather to the Ishta -devata. It is the Guru who initiates and helps, and the relationship between him and the disciple ( shishya ) continues until the attainment of monistic siddhi . Manu says: \"Of him who gives natural birth and of him who gives knowledge of the Veda the giver of sacred knowledge is the more venerable father. Since second or divine birth insures life to the twice -born in this world and the next.\" The Shastra is, indeed, full of the greatness of Guru . The Guru is not to be thought of as a mere man. There is no difference between Guru , mantra , and Deva. Guru is father, mother, and Brahman. Guru , it is said, can save from the wrath of Shiva, but none can save from the wrath of the Guru . Attached to this greatness there is, however, responsibility; for the sins of the disciple recoil upon him. 32 Three lines of Guru are worshipped: heavenly ( divyangga) siddha (siddhangga), and human ( manavangga). The kala-guru are four in number, viz.: the Guru , Parama- guru, Parapara- guru, Parameshti -guru; each of these being the guru of the preceding one. According to the Tantra, woman with the necessary qualifications may be a guru, and give initiation. Good qualities are required in the disciple, and according to the Sara- sangraha a guru should examine and test the intending disciple for a year. The qualifications of a good disciple are stated to be good birth, purity of soul ( shuddhatma), and capacity for enjoyment, combined with desire for liberation ( purushartha- parayanah). Those who are lewd ( kamuka ), adulterous ( para- daratura), constantly addicted to sin ( sada papa-kriya ), ignorant, slothful, and devoid of religion, should be rejected. The perfect sadhaka who is entitled to the knowledge of all Shastra is he who is pure- minded, whose senses are controlled ( jitendriyah ), who is ever engaged in doing good to all beings, free from false notions of dualism, attached to the speaking of, taking shelter with, and living in the supreme unity of the Brahman. So long as Shakti is not fully communicated (see next note) to the shishyas body from that of the guru, so long the conventional relation of guru and shishya exists. A man is shishya only so long as he is sadhaka. When, however, siddhi is attained, both Guru and Shishya are above this dualism. With the attainment of pure monism, naturally this relation, as all others, disappears. Initiation Diksha Initiation is the giving of mantra by the guru. At the time of initiation the guru must first establish the life of the guru in his own body; that is the vital force ( prana- shakti ) of the Supreme Guru whose abode is in the thousand- petalled lotus. As an image is the instrument ( yantra ) in which divinity ( devatva) inheres, so also is the body of guru. The day prior thereto the guru should, according to Tantra, seat t he intending candidate on a mat of kusha grass. He then makes japa of a \"sleep mantra\" ( supta- mantra) in his ear, and ties his crown lock. The disciple, who should have fasted and observed sexual continence, repeats the mantra thrice, prostrates himself at the feet of the guru, and then retires to rest. Initiation, which follows, gives spiritual knowledge and destroys sin. As one lamp is lit at the flame of another, so the divine shanti , consisting of mantra , is communicated from the gurus body to that of the Shishya . Without daksha, japa of the mantra, puja, and other ritual acts, are said to be useless. Certain mantra are also said to be forbidden to shudra and women. A note, however, in the first Chalakshara Sutra, to the Lalita would, however, show that even the shudra are not debarred the use even of the Pranava, as is generally asserted. For, according to the Kalika Purana (when dealing with svara or tone), whilst the udatta, an-udatta, and prachita are appropriate to the first of these castes, the svara, called aukara, with anusvara and nada, is appropriate to shudra, who may use the Pranava, either at the beginning or end 33 of mantra, but not, as the dvija may, at both places. The mantra chosen for initiation should be suitable ( anukala). Whether a mant ra is sva-kula or a-kula to the person about to be initiated is ascertained by the kula-chakra, the zodiacal circle called rashichakra and other chakra which may be found described in the Tantra- sara. Initiation by a woman is efficacious; that by a mother is eight -fold so. Certain special forms of initiation, called abhisheka, are described in the next note. Abhisheka Abhisheka is of eight kinds, and the forms of abhisheka which follow the first at later stages, mark greater and greater degrees of initiation. The first shaktabhisheka is given on entrance into the path of sadhana . It is so called because the guru then reveals to the shishya the preliminery mysteries of shakti -tattva . By it the shishya is cleansed of all sinful or evil shakti or proclivities, and acquires a wonderful new shakti . The next purnabhisheka is given in the stage beyond dakshinachara, when the disciple has qualified himself by purascharana and other practices to receive it. Here the real work of sadhana begins. Asana, yama , etc., stre ngthen the disciples determina,tion (pratijna) to persevere along the higher stages of sadhana. The third is the difficult stage commenced by krama -dikshabhisheka, in which it is said the great Vashishtha became involved, and in which the Rishi Vishvamitr a acquired brahma- jnana, and so became a Brahmana. The sacred thread is now worn round the neck like a garland. The shishya, then undergoing various ordeals (pariksha), receives samrajyabhisheka and maha- samrajyabhisheka, and at length arrives at the most dificult of all stages introduced by yoga- dikshabhisheka. In previous stages the sadhaka has performed the panchanga- puraschharana, and, with the assistance of his guru (with whom he must constantly reside, and whose instructions he must receive direct), he does the panchanga- yoga that is, the last five limbs of the ashtanga. He is thereafter qualified for purna- dikshabhisheka , and, following that, maha- purna-diksha- bhisheka , sometimes called viraja - grahanabhisheka. On the attainment of perfection in this last grade, the sadhaka performs his own funeral rite ( shraddha), makes purnahuti with his sacred thread and crown lock. The relation of guru and shishya now ceases. From this point he ascends by himself until he realizes the great saying, Soham (\"I am He\"). At this stage, which the Tantra calls jivan-mukta (liberated whilst yet living), he is called parama- hangsa. Sadhana Sadhana is that which produces siddhi (q.v.). It is the means, or practice, by which the desired end may be attained, and consists in the exercise and training of the body and psychic faculties, upon the gradual perfection of which siddhi follows; the nature and degree of which, again, depends upon the progress made towards the realization of the atma , whose veiling vesture the body is. The means employed are various, such as worship ( puja), exterior or mental; shastric learning; austerities 34 (tapas ); the pancha- tattva , mantra, and so forth. Sadhana takes on a special character, according to the end sought. Thus, sadhana for brahma -jana, which consists in the acquisition of internal control (shama ) over buddhi , manas , and ahangkara; external control ( dama) over the ten indriya , discrimination between the transitory and the external, and renunciation both of the world and heaven ( svarga), is obviously different from that prescribed for, say, the purposes of the lower magic. The sadhaka and sadhika are respectively the man or woman who perform sadhana. They are, according to their physical, mental, and moral qualities, divided into four class es mridu , madhya, adhimatraka, and the highest adhimatrama, who is qualified ( adhikari ) for all forms of yoga. In a similar way the Kaula division of worshippers are divided into the prakriti , or common Kaula following virachara, addicted to ritual pract ice, and sadhana, with pancha- tattva ; the madhyama -kaulika , or middling Kaula, accomplishing the same sadhana, but with a mind more turned towards meditation, knowledge, and samadhi ; and the highest type of Kaula ( kaulikottama), who, having surpassed all ritualism, meditates upon the Universal Self. Worship Generally There are four different forms of worship corresponding with four states ( bhava). The realization that the jivatma and paramatma are one, that everything is Brahman, and that nothing but the Brahman exists, is the highest state, or brahma -bhava. Constant meditation by the yoga process upon the Devata in the heart is the lower and middlemost ( dhyana- bhava) japa (q.v.) and stava (hymns and prayer) is still lower and the lowest of all is mere external worship ( puja) (q.v.). Puja-bhava is that which arises out of the dualistic notions of worshipper and worshipped; the servant and the Lord. This dualism exists in greater or less degree in all the states except the highest. But for him who, having realized the advaita- tattva , knows that all is Brahman, there is neither worshipper nor worshipped, neither yoga nor puja, nor dharana, dhyana, stava , japa, vrata , or other ritual or process of sadhana. In external worship there is worship either of an image ( pratima), or of a yantra (q.v.), which takes its place. The sadhaka should first worship inwardly the mental image of the form assumed by the Devi, and then by the life- giving ( prana- pratishtha) ceremony infuse the image with Her life by the communication to it of the light and energy ( tejas ) of the Brahman which is within him to the image without, from which there bursts the lustre of Her whose substance is consciousness itself (chaitanya- mayi ). She exists as Shakti in stone or metal, or elsewhere, but is there veiled and seemingly inert. Chaitanya (consciousness) is aroused by the worshipper through the prana- pratishtha mantra. Rites ( karma ) are of two kinds. Karma is either nitya nr naimittika . The first is both daily and obligatory, and is done because so ordained. Such as the sandhya (v. post), which in the case of Shudras is in the Tantrik form; and 35 daily puja (v. post) of the Ishta - and Kula-Devata (v. post); and for Brahmamas the pancha -maha -yajna (v. post). The second or conditional karma is occasion al and voluntary, and is kamya when done to gain some particular end, such as yajna for a particular object; tapas with the same end (for certain forms of tapas are also nitya ); and vrata (v. post). The Shudra is precluded from the performance of Vaidik rites, or the reading of the Vedas, or the recital of the Vaidik mantra . His worship is practically limited to that of the Ishta- Devata and the Bana- linga -puja, with Tantrik and Pauranik mantra and such vrata as consist in penance and charity. In other cases the vrata is performed through a Brahmana. The Tantra makes no caste distinctions as regards worship. All may read the Tantras, perform the Tantrik worship, such as the sandhya (v. post), and recite the Tantrik mantra, such as the Tantrik Gayatri. All castes, and even the lowest chandala, may be a member of a chakra , or Tantrik circle of worship. In the chakra all its members partake of food and drink together, and are deemed to be greater than Brahmanas; though upon the break -up of the chakras the ordinary caste and social relations are re- established. All are competent for the specially Tantrik worship, for, in the words of the Gautamiya Tantra, the Tantra Shastra is for all castes and for all women. The latter are also excluded under the present Vaidik system, though it is said by Shankha Dharma- shastra- kara that the wife may, with the consent of her husband, fast, take vows, perform homa and vrata , etc. According to the Tantra, a woman may not only receive mantra , but may, as a Guru, initiate and give it. She is worshipful as Guru, and as wife of Guru. The Devi is Herself Guru of all Shastras and woman, as, indeed, all females who are Her embodiments are, in a peculiar sense, Her earthly representatives. Forms of Achara There are seven, or, as some say, nine, divisions of worshippers. The extra divisions are bracketed in the following quotation. The Kularnava Tantra mentions seven, which are given in their order of superiority, the first being the lowest: Vedachara, Vaishnavachara, Shaivachara, Dakshinachara , Vamachara, Sidd hantachara (Aghorachara, Yogachara), and Kaulachara , the highest of all. The achara is the way, custom, and practice of a particular class of sadhaka. They are not, as sometimes supposed, different sects, but stages through which the worshipper in this or other births has to pass before he reaches the supreme stage of the Kaula . Vedachara, which consists in the daily practice of the Vaidik rites, is the gross body ( sthula- deha), which comprises within it all other acharas , which are, as i t were, its subtle bodies ( sukshma- deha) of various degrees. The worship is largely of an external and ritual character, the object of which is to strengthen dharma. This is the path of action ( kriya- marga). In the second stage the worshipper passes from blind faith to an understanding of the supreme protecting energy of the Brahman, towards which he has feelings of devotion. This is the path of devotion ( bhakti - marga), and the aim at this stage is the union of it and faith previously acquired. With 36 an increasing determination to protect dharma and destroy a- dharma, the sadhaka passes into Shaivachara, the warrior ( kshatriya ) stage, wherein to love and mercy are added strenuous striving and the cultivation of power. There is union of faith, devotion ( bhakti ), and inward determination ( antar -laksha). Entrance is made upon the path of knowledge ( jnana- marga). Following this is Dakshinachara, which in Tantra does not mean \"right -hand worship,\" but \"favourable\" that is, that achara which is favourable to the accomplishment of the higher sadhana, and whereof the Devi is the Dakshina Kalika. This stage commences when the worshipper can make dhyana and dharana of the threefold shakti of the Brahman ( kriya , ichchha, jana), and understands the mutual connection ( samanvaya) of the three guna until he receives purnabhisheka (q.v.). At this stage the sadhaka is Shakta, and qualified for the worship of the threefold shakti of Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara. He is fully initiated in the Gayatri - mantra, and worships the Devi Gayatri, the Dakshina Kalika, or Adya Shakti the union of the three Shakti. This is the stage of individualistic Brahmana- tattva, and its aim is the union of faith, devotion, and determination, with a knowledge of the threefold energies. After this a change of great importance occurs, marking, as it does, the entry upon the path of return ( nivritti). This it is which has led some to divide the achara into the two broad divisions of Dakshinachara (including the first four) and Vamachara (including the last three), it being said that men are born into Dakshinachara, but are received by initiation into Vamachara. The latter term does not mean, as is vulgarly supposed, \"left -hand worship,\" but the worship in which woman ( vama ) enters that is lata-sadhana. In this achara there is also worship of the Vama Devi. Vija is here \"adverse,\" in that the stage is adverse to pravritti , which governed in varying degrees the preceding achara , and entry is here made upon the path of nivritti, or return to the source whence the world sprung. Up to the fourth stage the sadhaka followed pravrittimarga , the outgoing path which led from the source, the path of worldly enjoyment, albeit curved by dharma . At first unconsciously, and later consciously, sadhana sought to induce nivritt t, which, however, can only fully appear after the exhaustion of the forces of the outward current. In Vamachara , however, the sadhaka commences to directly destroy pravritti , and with the help of the Guru (whose help throughout is in this necessary) to cultivate nivritti . The method at this stage is to use the force of pravritti in such a way as to render them self -destructive. The passions which bind may be so employed as to act as forces whereby the particular life of which they are the strongest manifestation is raised to the universal life. Passion, which has hitherto run downwards and outwards to waste, is directed inwards and upwards, and transformed to power. But it is not only the lower physical desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse which must be subjugated. The sadhaka must at this stage commence to cut off all the eight bonds ( pasha) which mark the pashu which the Kularnava Tantra enumerates as pity ( daya), ignorance ( moha), shame ( lajja), family (kula), custom ( shila), and caste ( varna). When Shri Krishna stole the clothes of the bathing Gopi , and made them approach him naked, he removed the artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the sangsara. The Gopi were eight, as are 37 the bonds ( pasha), and the errors by which the jiva is misled are the clothes which Shri Krishna stole. Freed of these, the jiva is liberated from all bonds arising from his desires, family, and society. He then reaches the stage of Shiva ( shivatva). It is the aim of Vamachara to liberate from the bonds which bind men to the sangsara, and to qualify the sadhaka for the highest grades of sadhana in which the sattvika guna predominates. To the truly sattvik there is neither attachment, fear, or disgust. That which has been commenced in these stages is by degrees completed in those which follow viz.: Siddhantachara, and according to some, Aghorachara and Yogachara. The sadhaka becomes more and more freed from the darkness of the sangsara, and is attached to nothing, hates nothing, and is ashamed of nothing, having freed himself of the artificial bonds of family, caste, and society. The sadhaka becomes, like Shiva himself, a dweller in the cremation ground (smashana ). He learns to reach the upper heights of sadhana and the mysteries of yoga. He learns the movements of the different vayu in the microcosm the Kshudra- brahmanda, the regulation of which controls the inclinations and propensities ( vritti). He learns also the truth which concern the macrocosm (brahmanda). Here also the Guru teaches him the inner core of Vedachara. Initiation by yoga- diksha fully qualifies him for yogachara. On attainment of perfection in ashtanga- yoga, he is fit to enter the highest stage of Kaulachara . Kaula- dharma is in no wise sectarian, but, on the contrary, is the heart of all sects. This is the true meaning of the phrase which, like many another touching the Tantra, is misunderstood, and used to fix the kaula with hypocrisy antah- shaktah, vahih- shaivah sabhayang vaishnavahmatah nana rupadharah kaulah vicharanti mahitale (outwardl y Shaivas; in gatherings, Vaishnavas; at heart, Shaktas; under various forms the Kaulas wander on earth). A Kaula is one who has passed through these and other stages, which have as their own inmost doctrine (whether these worshippers know it or not) that of Kaulachara. It is indifferent what the Kaulas apparent sect may be. The form is nothing and everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no power to narrow the Kaulas own inner life; it is everything in the sense that knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an universal meaning. So understood, form is never a bond. The Vishva- sara Tantra, says of the Kaula that \"for him there is neither rule of time; nor place. His actions are unaffected either by the phases of the moon or the position of the stars. The Kaula roams the earth in differing forms. At times adhering to social rules ( shishta), he at others appears, according to their standard, to be fallen ( bhrashta). At times, again, he seems to be as unearthly as a ghost ( bhuta or pishacha) To him no difference is there between mud and sandal paste, his son and an enemy, home and the cremation ground.\" At this stage the sadhaka attains to Brahma- jnana, which is the true gnosis in its perfect form. On receiving mahapurna- daksha he performs his own funeral rites and is dead to the sangsara. Seated alone in some quiet place, he remains in constant samadhi , and attains its nir-vikalpa form. The Great Mother, the Supreme Prakriti Maha -shakti, dwells in the heart of the sadhaka, which is now the c remation 38 ground wherein all passions have been burnt away. He becomes a Parama- hangsa, who is liberated whilst yet living ( javan -mukta ). It must not, however, be supposed that each of these stages must necessarily be passed through by each jiva in a single life. On the contrary, they are ordinarily traversed in the course of a multitude of births. The weaving of the spiritual garment is recommenced where in a previous birth, it was dropped on death. In the present life a sadhaka may commence at any stage. If he is born into Kaulachara, and so is a Kaula in its fullest sense, it is because in previous births he has by sadhana, in the preliminary stages, won his entrance into it. Knowledge of Shakti is, as the Niruttara Tantra says, acquired after many births; and, according to the Mahanirvana Tantra, it is by merit acquired in previous births that the mind is inclined to Kaulachara. Mantra Shabda, or sound, which is of the Brahman, and as such the cause of the Brahmanda, is the manifestation of the Chit -shakti Itself. The Vishva- sara Tantra says that tha Para- brahman, as Shabda- brahman, whose substance is all mantra , exists in the body of the jivatma . It is either unlettered ( dhvani ) or lettered (varna). The former, which produces the latter, is the subtle aspect of the jivas vital shakti . As the Prapancha- sara states, the brahmanda is pervaded by shakti , consisting of dhvani , also called nada, prana, and the like. The manifestation of the gross form ( sthula) of shabda is not possible unless shabda exists in a subtle ( sukshma ) form. Mantras are all aspects of the Brahman and manifestations of Kula-kundalini . Philosophically shabda is the guna of akasha, or ethereal space. It is not, however, produced by akasha, but manifests in it. Shabda is itself the Brahman. In the same way, however, as in outer space, waves of sound are produced by movements of air ( vayu ); so in the space within the jivas body waves of sound are produced according to the movements of the vital air ( prana-vayu ) and the process of inhalation and exhalation. Shabda first appears at the muladhara , and that which is known to us as such is, in fact, the shakti which gives life to the jiva. She it is who, in the muladhara, is the cause of the sweet indistinct and murmuring dhvani , which sounds like the humming of a black bee. The extremely subtle aspect of sound which first appears in the Muladhara is called para; less subtle when it has reached the heart, it is known as pashyanti . When connected with buddhi it becomes more gross, and is called madhy ama. Lastly, in its fully gross form, it issues from the mouth as vaikhari . As Kula -Kundalini, whose substance is all varna and dhvani , is but the manifestation of, and Herself the Paramatma; so the substance of all mantra is chit, notwithstanding their external manifestation, as sound, letters, or words; in fact, the letters of the alphabet, which are known as akshara, are nothing but the yantra of the akshara, or imperishable Brahman. This, however, is only 39 realized by the sadhaka when his shakti , generat ed by sadhana, is united with the mantra -shakti . It is the sthula or gross form of Kulakundalini, appearing in different aspects as different Devata, which is the presiding Devata ( adhishthatri ) of all mantra , though it is the subtle or sukshma form at whi ch all sadhakas aim. When the mantrashakti is awakened by sadhana the Presiding Devata appears, and when perfect mantra - siddhi is acquired, the Devata, who is sachchidananda, is revealed. The relations of varna, nada, vindu, vowel and consonant in a mantra , indicate the appearance of Devata in different forms. Certain vibhuti , or aspects, of the Devata are inherent in certain varna, but perfect Shakti does not appear in any but a whole mantra. Any word or letter of the mantra cannot be a mantra . Only that mantra in which the playful Devata has revealed any of Her particular aspects can reveal that aspect, and is therefore called the individual mantra of that one of Her particular aspects. The form of a particular Devata, therefore, appears out of the particular mantra of which that Devata is the adhishthatri Devata. A mantra is composed of certain letters arranged in definite sequence of sounds of which the letters are the representative signs. To produce the designed effect mantra must be intoned in the proper way, according to svara (rhythm), and varna (sound). Their textual source is to be found in Veda, Purana, and Tantra. The latter is essentially the mantra- shastra, and so it is said of the embodied shastra, that Tantra, which consists of mantra, is the paramatma , the Vedas are the jivatma , Darshana (systems of philosophy) are the senses, Puranas are the body, and Smriti are the limbs. Tantra is thus the shakti of consciousness, consisting of mantra. A mantra is not the same thing as prayer or self -dedication (atma -nivedana). Prayer is conveyed in what words the worshipper chooses, and bears its meaning on its face. It is only ignorance of shastrik principle which supposes that mantra is merely the name for the words in which one expresses what one has to say to the Divinity. If it were, the sadhaka might choose his own language without recourse to the eternal and determined sounds of Shastra. A mantra may, or may not, convey on its face its meaning. Vija (seed) mantra, such as Aing, Kling , Hring , have no meaning, according to the ordinary use of language. The initiate, however, knows that their meaning is the own form ( sva-rupa) of the particular Devata, whose mantra they are, and that they are the dhvani which makes all letters sound and which exists in all which we say or hear. Every mantra is, then, a form ( rupa) of the Brahman. Though, therefore, manifesting in the form and sound of the letters of the alphabet, Shastra says that they go to Hell who think that the Guru is but a stone, and the mantra but letters of the alphabet. From manana, or thinking, arises the real understanding of the monistic truth, that the substance of the Brahman and the brahmanda are one and the same. Man- of mantra comes from the first syllable of manana, and -tra from trana, or liberation from the bondage of the sangsara or phenomenal world. By the combination of man- 40 and -tra, that is called mantra which calls forth ( amantrana), the chatur -varga (vide post), or four aims of sentient being. Whilst, therefore, mere prayer often ends in nothing but physical sound, mantra is a potent compelling force, a word of power (the fruit of which is mantra- siddhi ), and is thus effective to produce the chatur - varga, advaitic perception, and mukti . Thus it is said that siddhi is the certain res ult of japa (q.v.). By Mantra the sought for ( sadhya) Devata, is attained and compelled. By siddhi in mantra is opened the vision of the three worlds. Though the purpose of worship ( puja), reading ( patha), hymn (stava ), sacrifice (homa ), dhyana, dharana, and samadhi (vide post ), and that of the diksha- mantra are the same, yet the latter is far more powerful, and this for the reason that, in the first, the sadhakas sadhana- shakti only operates, whilst in the case of mantra that sadhana- shakti works, in conjunction with mantra- shakti , which has the revelation and force of fire, and than which nothing is more powerful. The special mantra which is received at initiation ( diksha) is the vija, or seed mantra, sown in the field of the sadhakas heart, and the Tant rik sandhya, nyasa, puja, and the like are the stem and branches upon which hymns of praise ( stuti) and prayer and homage ( vandana ) are the leaves and flower, and the kavacha , consisting of mantra, the fruit. Mantra are solar ( saura) and lunar ( saumya), and are masculine, feminine, or neuter. The solar are masculine and lunar feminine. The masculine and neuter forms are called mantra. The feminine mantra is known as vidya . The neuter mantra, such as the Pauranik -mantra, ending with namah, are said to lack the force and vitality of the others. The masculine and feminine mantra end differently. Thus, Hung, Phat, are masculine terminations, and \" thang,\" or svaha , are feminine ones. The Nitya Tantra gives various names to mantra. according to the number of their syllables, a one- syllabled mantra being called pinda, a three- syllabled one kartari , a mantra with four to nine syllables vija, with ten to twenty syllables mantra, and mantra with more than twenty syllables mala . Commonly, however, the term vija is applied to monosyllabic mantra. The Tantrik mantras called vija (seed) are so named because they are the seed of the fruit, which is siddhi , and because they are the very quintessence of mantra. They are short, unetymological vocables, such as Hring , Shring , Kring , Hung, Aing, Phat, etc., which will be found throughout the text. Each Devata has His or Her vija. The primary mantra of a Devata is known as the root mantra ( mula -mantra). It is also said that the word mula denotes the subtle body of the Devata called Kama -kala. The utterance of a mantra without knowledge of its meaning or of the mantra method is a mere movement of the lips and nothing more. The mantra sleeps. There are various processes preliminary to, and involved in, its right utterance, which processes again consist of mantra , such as, purification of the mouth ( mukha -shodhana), purification of the tongue ( jihva-shodhana), and of the mantra (ashaucha- bhanga), kulluka , nirvvana, setu, nidra- bhanga, awakening of mantra, mantra- chaitanya, or giving of life or vitality to 41 the mantra . Mantrarthabhavana, forming of mental image of the Divinity. There are also ten sangskara of the mantra . Dipani is seven japa of the vija, preceded and followed by one. Where hring is employed instead of Ong it is prana- yoga. Yoni- mudra is meditation on the Guru in the head and on the Ishta- devata in the heart, and then on the Yoni-rupa Bhagavati from the head to the muladhara , and from the muladhara to the head, making japa of the yoni vija (eng) ten times. The mantra itself is Devata. The worshipper awakens and vitalizes it by chit- shakti , putting away all thought of the letter, piercing the six Chakra, and contemplating the Spotless One. The shakti of the mantra is the vachaka- shakti , or the means by which the vachya- shakti or object of the mantra is attained. The mantra lives by the energy of the former. The saguna- shanti is awakened by sadhana and worshipped, and She it is who opens the portals whereby the vachya- shakti is reached. Thus the Mother in Her saguna form is the presiding deity ( adhishthatri Devata) of the Gayatri -mantra . As the nirguna (formless) One, She is its vachya- shakti . Both are in reality one and the same; but the jiva, by the laws of his nature and its three guna, must first meditate on the gross ( sthula) form before he can realize the subtle ( sukshma ) form, which is his liberator. The mantra of a Devata is the Devata. The rhythmical vibrations of its sounds not merely regulate the unsteady vibrations of the sheaths of the worshipper, thus transforming him, but from it arises the form of the Devata, which it is. Mantra - siddhi is the ability to make a mantra efficacious and to gather its fruit in which case the mantra is called mantra- siddha. Mantra are classified as siddha, sadhya, susiddha, and ari, accor ding as they are friends, servers, supporters, or destroyers a matter which is determined for each sadhaka by means of chakra calculations. The Gayatri Mantra The Gayatri is the most sacred of all Vaidik mantras . In it the Veda lies embodied as in its se ed. It runs: Ong bhur bhuvah svah: tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi: dhiyo yo nah prachodayat . Om. \"Ong. Let us contemplate the wondrous spirit of the Divine Creator (Savitri) of the earthly, atmospheric, and celestial spheres. May He direct our minds (that is, towards the attainment of dharmma., artha, kama , and moksha), Om.\" The Gayatrt -Vyakarana of Yogi Yajnavalkya thus explains the following words: Tat, that. The word yat (which) is understood. Savituh is the possessive case of Savitri, derived from the root su, \"to bring forth.\" Savitri is, therefore, the Bringer - forth of all that exists. The Sun ( Suryya ) is the cause of all that exists, and of the state in which they exist. Bringing forth and creating all things, it is called Savitri. The Bhavishya Purana says Suryya is the visible Devata. He is the Eye of the world and the Maker of the day. There is no other Devata eternal like unto Him. This universe has emanated from, and will be again absorbed into, Him. Time is of and in Him. The planets, sta.rs, the Vasus. Rudras, Vayu, Agni, and the rest are but parts of Him. 42 By Bhargah is meant the Aditya- devata, dwelling in the region of the Sun ( suryya- mandala) in all His might and glory. He is to the Sun what our spirit ( atma ) is to our body. Though He is in the region of the sun in the outer or material sphere He also dwells in our inner selves. He is the light of the light in the solar circle, and is the light of the lives of all beings. As He is in the outer ether, so also is He in the ethereal region of the heart. In the outer ether He is Suryya, and in the inner ether He is the wonderful Light which is the Smokeless Fire. In short, that Being whom the sadhaka realizes in the region of his heart is the Aditya in the heavenly firmament. The two are one. The word is derived in two ways: (1) from the root bhrij, \"to ripen, mature, destroy, reveal, shine.\" In this derivation Suryya is He who matures and transforms all things. He Himself shines and reveals all things by His light. And it is He who at the final Dissolution ( pralaya) will in His image of destructive Fire ( kalagni ) destroy all things. (2) From bha = dividing all things into different classes; ra = colour; for He produces the colour of all created objects; ga, constantly going and returning. The sun divides all things, produces the different colours of all things, and is constantly going and returning. As the Brahmana- sarvasva says: \"The Bhargah is the Atma of all that exists, whether moving or motionless, in the three loka (Bhur bhuvah svah ). There is nothing which exists apart from it.\" Devasya is the genitive of Deva, agreeing with Savituh . Deva is the radiant and playful ( lilamaya ) one. Suryya is in constant play with creation ( srishti ), existence (sthiti), and destruction ( pralaya), and by His radiance pleases all. ( Lila, as applied to the Brahman, is the equivalent of maya .) Varenyam = varaniya, or adorable. He should be meditated upon and adored that we may be relieved of the misery of birth and death. Those who fear rebirth, who desire freedom from death and liberation and who strive to escape the three kinds of pain ( tapa- traya ), which are adhyatmika, adhidaivika, and adhibhautika, meditate upon and adore the Bharga, who, dwelling in the region of the Sun, is Himself the three regions called Bhur -loka, Bhuvar -loka, and Svar-loka. Dhimahi = dhya- yema , from the root dhyai . We meditate upon, or let us meditate upon. Prachodayat = may He direct. The Gayatri does not so expressly state, but it is understood that such direction is along the chatur -varga, or four -fold path, which is dharmma, artha, kama , and moksha (piety, wealth, desire and its fulfilment, and liberation, vide post ). The Bhargah is ever directing our inner faculties ( buddhi - vritti) along these paths. The above is the Vaidika Gayatri , which, according to the Vaidik system, none but the twice -born may utter. To the Shudra whether man or woman, and to women of all other castes it is forbidden. The Tantra, which has Gayatri -Mantra of its own, shows no such exclusiveness; Chapter I II., verses 109- 111, gives the Brahma -gayatri for worshippers of the Brahman: \" Parameshva- raya vidmahe para- tattvaya dhimahi: tan no Brahma prachodayat \"(May we know the supreme Lord. Let us contemplate the Supreme essence. And may that Brahman direct us). 43 Yantra This word in its most general sense means an instrument, or that by which anything is accomplished. In worship it is that by which the mind is fixed on its object. The Yogini Tantra says that the Devi should be worshipped either in pratima (image), mandala, or yantra. At a certain stage of spiritual progress the sadhaka is qualified to worship yantra. The siddha- yogi in inward worship ( antar - puja) commences with the worship of yantra, which is the sign ( sangketa) of brahma- vijnana as the mantra is the sangketa of the Devata. It is also said that yantra is so called because it subdues ( niyantrana) lust, anger, and the other sins of jiva and the sufferings caused thereby. This yantra is a diagram engraved or drawn on metal, paper, or other substances, which is worshipped in the same manner as an image ( pratima). As different mantra are prescribed for different worships, so are different yantra . The yantras are therefore of various designs, according to the object of worship. The cover of this work shows a silver Gayatri yantra belonging to the author. In the centre triangle are engraved in the middle the words, Shri Shri Gayatri sva-prasada siddhing kuru (\"Shri Shri Gayatri Devi: grant me success\"), and at each inner corner there are the vija Hring and Hrah. In the spaces formed by the intersections of the outer ovoid circles is the vija \"Hring .\" The outside circular band contains the vija \"Tha\" which indicates \" Svaha,\" commonly employed to terminate the feminine mantra or vidya . The eight lotus petals which spring from the band are inscribed with the vija, \"Hring , Ing, Hrah .\" The outermost band contains all the matrika , or letters of the alphabet, from ankara to laksha. The whole is enclosed in the way common to all yantra by a bhupura, by which, as it we re, the yantra is enclosed from the outer world. The yantra when inscribed with mantra, serves (so far as these are concerned) the purpose of a mnemonic chart of the mantra appropriate to the particular Devata whose presence is to be invoked into the yantr a. Certain preliminaries precede, as in the case of a pratima, the worship of a yantra. The worshipper first meditates upon the Devata, and then arouses Him or Her in himself. He then communicates the divine presence thus aroused to the yantra . When the Devata has by the appropriate mantra been invoked into the yantra, the vital airs (prana) of the Devata are infused therein by the prana- pratishtha ceremony, mantra, and mudra. The Devata is thereby installed in the yantra, which is no longer mere gross matter veiling the spirit which has been always there, but instinct with its aroused presence, which the sadhaka first welcomes and then worships. Mantra in itself is Devata, and yantra is mantra in that it is the body of the Devata who is mantra . Mudra The term mudrais derived from the root mud, \"to please,\" and in its upasana form is so called because it gives pleasure to the Devas. Devanang moda- da mudra tasmat tang yatnatashcharet . It is said that there are 108, of which 55 are commonly used. 44 The term means ritual gestures made with the hands in worship or positions of the body in yoga practice. Thus of the first class the matsya (fish) mudra is formed in offering arghya by placing the right hand on the back of the left and extending, fin- like, on each side the two thumbs, with the object that the conch which contains water may be regarded as an ocean with aquatic animals; and the yoni-mudra which presents that organ as a triangle formed by the thumbs, the two first fingers, and the two little fingers is sh own with the object of invoking the Devi to come and take Her place before the worshipper, the yoni being considered to be Her pitha or yantra. The upasana mudra is thus nothing but the outward expression of inner resolve which it at the same time intensif ies. Mudra are employed in worship (archchana ) japa, dhyana (q.v.), kamya- karma (rites done to effect particular objects), pratishtha (q.v.), snana (bathing), avahana (welcoming), naivedya (offering of food), and visarjana, or dismissal of the Devata. Some mudra of hatha yoga are described sub voc . \"Yoga.\" The Gheranda Sanghita says that knowledge of the yoga mudras grants all siddhi , and that their performance produces physical benefits such as stability, firmness and cure of disease. Sandhya The Vaidika s andhya is the rite performed by the twice- born castes thrice a day, at morning, midday, and evening. The morning sandhya is preceded by the following acts. On awakening, a mantra is said in invocation of the Tri-murtti and the sun, moon, and planets, and salutation is made to the Guru. The Hindu dvi-ja then recites the miantra: \"I am a Deva. I am indeed the sorrowless Brahman. By nature I am eternally free, and in the form of existence, intelligence, and Bliss.\" He then offers the actions of the day to the Deity, confesses his inherent frailty, and prays that he may do right. Then, leaving his bed and touching the earth with his right foot, the dvi- ja says, \"Om, 0 Earth! salutation to Thee, the Guru of all that is good.\" After attending to natural calls, the twice -born does achamana (sipping of water) with mantra, cleanses his teeth, and takes his early morning bath to the accompaniment of mantra. He then puts on his caste- mark ( tilaka ) and makes tarpanam , or oblation of water, to the Deva , Rishi , and Pitri. The sandhya follows, which consists of achamana (sipping of water), marjjana -snanam (sprinkling of the whole body with water taken with the hand or kasha- grass ), pranayama (regulation of prana through its manifestation in breath), agha- marshana (expulsion of the person of sin from the body; the prayer to the sun, and then (the canon of the sandhya) the silent recitation ( japa) of the Gayatn mantra , which consists of invocation ( avahana) of the Gayatri -Devi; rishi- nyasa and shadanga- nyasa (vide post ), medita tion on the Devi -Gayatri in the morning as Brahmani; at midday as Vaishnavi; and in the evening as Rudrani; japa of the Gayatri a specified number of times; dismissal ( visarjana ) of the Devi, followed by other mantra. Besides the Brahmanical Vaidiki- sandhy a from which the Shudras are debarred, there is the Tantriki -sandhya, which may be performed by all. The general outline is 45 similar; the rite is simpler; the mantra vary; and the Tantrika- vijas or \"seed\" mantras are employed. Puja This word is the common term for worship of which there are numerous synonyms in the Sanskrit language. Puja is done daily of the Ishta -devata or the particular Deity worshipped by the sadhaka the Devi in the case of a Shakti, Vishnu in the case of a Vaishnava, and so forth. But though the Ishta- devata is the principal object of worship, yet in puju all worship the Pancha- devata, or the Five Deva Aditya (the Sun), Ganesha, the Devi, Shiva, and Vishnu, or Narayana. After worship of the Pancha- devata, the family Deity ( Kula-devat a), who is generally the same as the Ishta -devata, is worshipped. Puja, which is kamya , or done to gain a particular end as also vrata , are preceded by the sangkalpa; that is, a statement of the resolution to do the worship, as also of the particular object, if any, with which it is done. There are sixteen upachara, or things done or used in puja: (1) asana (seat of the image); (2) svagata (welcome); (3) padya (water for washing the feet); (4) arghya (offering of unboiled rice, flowers, sandal paste, durva grass, etc., to the Devata in the kushi ) (vessel); (5 and 6) achamana (water for sipping, which is offered twice); (7) madhuparka (honey, ghee, milk, and curd offered in a silver or brass vessel); (8) snana (water for bathing); (9) vasana (cloth); (10) abharana (jewels); (11) gandha (scent and sandal paste is given); (12) pushpa (flowers); (13) dhupa (incense stick); (14) dipa (light); (15) naivedya (food); (16) vandana or namas -kara (prayer). Other articles are used which vary with the puja, such as Tulasi leaf in the Vishnu -puju and bael -(bilva) leaf in the Shiva- puja. The mantras said also vary according to the worship. The seat ( asana) of the worshipper is purified. Salutation being made to the Shakti of support or the sustaining force ( adhara- shakti ); the water, flowers, etc., are purified. All obstructive spirits are driven away ( Bhutapasarpana), and the ten quarters are fenced from their attack by striking the earth three times with the left foot, uttering the Astra vija \"phat ,\" and by snapping the fingers (twice) round the head. Pranayama (regulation of breath) is performed and ( vide post ) the elements of the body are purified ( bhuta- shuddhi ). There is nyasa (vide post); dhyana (meditation) offering of the upachara; japa (vide post ), prayer and obeisance ( pranama). In the ashta- murti -puja of Shiva the Deva is worshipped under the eight forms: Sharvva (Earth), Bhava (Water), Rudra (Fire), Ugra (Air), Bhima (Ether), Pashupati ( yajamana the Sacrificer man), Ishana (Sun), Mahadeva (Moon). Yajna This word, which comes from the root yaj (to worship), is commonly translated \"sacrifice.\" The Sanskrit word is, however, retained in the translation, since Yajna means other things also than those which come within the meaning of 46 the word \"sacrifice,\" as understood by an English reader. Thus the \"five great sacrifices\" ( pancha- maha- yajna) which should be performed daily by the Brahmana are: The homa sacrifice, including Vaishva -deva offering, \" bhuta- yajna or vali, in which offerings are made to Deva, Bhuta, and other Spirits and to animals; pitri- yajna or tarpana, oblations to the pitri; Brahma- yajna, or study of the Vedas and Manushyayajna, or entertainment of guests ( atithisaparyya). By these five yajna the worshipper places himself in right relations with all being, affirming such relation between Deva, Pitri, Spirits, men, the organic creation, and himself. Homa , or Deva -yajna, is the making of offerings to Fire. which is the carrier thereof to the Deva. A firepit ( kunda) is prepared and fire when brought from the house of a Brahmana is consecrated with mantra . The fire is made conscious with the mantra Vang vahni -chaitanyaya namah, and then saluted and named. Meditation is then made on the three nadis (vide ante) Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna and on Agni, the Lord of Fire. Offerings are made to the Ishta -devata in the fire. After the puja of fire, salutation is given as in Shadanga- nyasa, and then clarified butter (ghee) is poured with a wooden spoon into the fire with mantra, commencing with Om and ending with Svaha. Homa is of various kinds, several of which are referred to in the text, and is performed either daily, as in the case of the ordinary nitya -vaishva- deva- homa , or on special occasions, such as the upanayana or sacred thread ceremony, marriage, vrata , and the like. It is of various kinds, such as prayashchitta- homa , srishtikrit -homa, janu homa, dhara- homa , and others, some of which will be found in the text. Besides the yajna mentioned there are others. Manu speaks of four kinds: deva , bhauta (where articles and ingredients are employed, as in the case of homa, daiva, vali), nriyajna, and pitri-yajna. Others are spoken of, such as japa- yajna, dhyana- yajna, etc. Yajna are also classified according to the dispositions and intentions of the worshipper into sattvika , rajasika , and tamasika yajna. Vrata Vrata is a part of Naimittika , or voluntary karma . It is that which is the cause of virtue (punya), and is done to achieve its fruit. Vrata are of various kinds. Some of the chief are Janmashtami on Krishna s birthday; Shiva- ratri in honour of Shiva; and the Shat - panchami, Durvashtami, Tala- navami. Ananta- chaturdashi performed at specified times in honour of Lakshmi, Narayana, and Ananta. Others may be performed at any time, such as the Savitri vrata by women only, and the Karttikeya- puja by men only. The great vrata is the celebrated Durga- puja, maha- vrata in honour of the Devi as Durga, which will continue as long as the sun and moon endure, and which, if once commenced, must always be continued. There are numerous other vrata which have developed to a great extent in Bengal, and for which there is no Shastric authority such as Madhu- sankranti -vrata, Jala- sankranti -vrata, and others. While each vrata has its peculiarities, certain features are common to vrata of differing kinds. There is both in preparation and performance sangyama, such as sexual 47 continence, eating of particular food, such as havishyanna, fasting, bathing. No flesh or fish are taken. The mind is concentrated to its purposes, and the vow or resolution (niyama ) is taken. Before the vrata the Sun, Planets, and Kula- devata are worshipped, and by the \" suryahsomoyamahkala\" mantra all Deva and Beings are invoked to the side of the worshipper. In the vaidika vrata the sangkalpa is made in the morning, and the vrata is done before midday. Tapas This term is generally translated as meaning penance or austerities. It includes these, such as the four monthly fast ( chatur -masya ), the sitting between five fires (pancha- gnitapah), and the like. It has, however, also a wider meaning, and in this wider sense is of three kinds, namely, sharira, or bodily; vachika , by speech; manasa, in mind. The first includes external worship, reverence, and support given to the Guru, Brahmanas, and the wise ( prajna), bodily cleanliness, continence, simplicity of life and avoidance of hurt to any being ( a-hingsa). The second form includes truth, good, gentle, and affectionate speech, and the study of the Vedas. The third or mental tapas in-cludes self -restraint, purity of dispositi on, silence, tranquillity, and silence. Each of these classes has three subdivisions, for tapas may be sattvika , rajasika , or tamasika, according as it is done with faith, and without regard to its fruit; or for its fruit; or is done through pride and to gain honour and respect; or, lastly, which is done ignorantly or with a view to injure and destroy others, such as the sadhana of the Tantrika- shat-karma , when performed for a malevolent purpose ( abhichara). Japa Japa is defined as \" vidhanena mantrochcharanam ,\" or the repeated utterance or recitation of mantra according to certain rules. It is according to the Tantra- sara of three kinds: Vachika or verbal japa, in which the mantra is audibly recited, the fifty matrika being sounded nasally with vindu; Upangshu- japa, which is superior to the last kind, and in which the tongue and lips are moved, but no sound, or only a slight whisper, is heard; and, lastly, the highest form which is called manasa- japa, or mental utterance. In this there is neither sound nor movement of the external organs, but a repetition in the mind which is fixed on the meaning of the mantra . One reason given for the differing values attributed to the several forms is that where there is audible utterance the mind thinks of the words and the process of correct utterance, and is therefore to a greater (as in the case of vachika- japa), or to a less degree (as in the case of upangshu- japa), distracted from a fixed attention to the meaning of the mantra . The japa of different kinds have also the relative values attachable to thought and its materialization in sound and word. Certain conditions are prescribed as those under which japa should be done, relating to physical cleanliness, the dressing of the hair, and wearing of silk garments, the seat ( asana), the avoidance of certain conditions of mind and actions, and the nature of the recitation. The japa is useless unless done a specified number of times of which 108 is esteemed to be 48 excellent. The counting is done either with a mala or rosary ( mala-japa), or with the thumb of the right hand upon the joints of the fingers of that hand ( kara- japa). The method of counting in the latter case may differ according to the mantra. Sangskara There are ten (or, in the case of Shudras, nine) purificatory ceremonies, or \"sacraments,\" called sangskara, which are done to aid and purify the jiva in the important events of his life. These are jiva-sheka, also called garbhadhana- ritu- sangskara, performed after menstruation, with the object of insuring and sanctify ing conception. The garbhadhana ceremony takes place in the daytime on the fifth day, and qualifies for the real garbhadhana at night that is, the placing of the seed in the womb. It is preceded on the first day by the ritu-sangskara which is mentioned i n Chapter IX. of the text. After conception and during pregnancy, the pung- savana and simantonnayana rites are performed; the first upon the wife perceiving the signs of conception, and the second during the fourth, sixth, or eighth month of pregnancy. In the ante- natal life there are three main stages, whether viewed from the objective (physical) standpoint, or from the subjective (super -physical) standpoint. The first period includes on the physical side all the structural and physiological changes which occur in the fertilized ovum from the moment of fertilization until the period when the embryonic body, by the formation of trunk, limbs, and organs, is fit for the entrance of the individualized life, or jivatma . When the pronuclear activity and different iation are completed, the jivatma , whose connection with the pronuclei initiated the pro- nuclear or formative activity, enters the miniature human form, and the second stage of growth and de- velopment begins. The second stage is the fixing of the connection between the jiva and the body, or the rendering of the latter viable. This period includes all the anatomical and physiological modifications by which the embryonic body becomes a viable ftus. With the attainment of viability, the stay of the jiva has been assured; physical life is possible for the child, and the third stage in ante- natal life is entered. Thus, on the form side, if the language of comparative embryology is used, the first sangskara denotes the impulse to development, from the \"fertilization of the ovum\" to the \"critical period.\" The second sangskara denotes the impulse to development from the \"critical period\" to that of the \"viability stage of the ftus \"; and the third sangskara denotes the development from \"viability\" to \"full term.\" On the birth of the child there is the jata-karma , performed for the continued life of the new -born child. Then follows the nama -karana, or naming ceremony, and nishkramana in the fourth month after delivery, when the child is taken out of doors for the first time and shown the sun, the vivifying source of life, the material embodiment of the Divine Savita. Between the fifth and eighth month after birth the annaprasana ceremony is observed, when rice is put in the childs mouth for the first time. Then follo ws the chuda- karana, or tonsure ceremony; and in the case of 49 the first three, or \"twice -born\" classes, upanayana, or investiture with the sacred thread. Herein the jiva is reborn into spiritual life. There is, lastly, udvaha, or marriage, whereby the unper fected jiva insures through offspring that continued human life which is the condition of its progress and ultimate return to its Divine Source. These are all described in the Ninth Chapter of this Tantra. There are also ten sangskara of the mantra (q.v.). The sangskara are intended to be performed at certain stages in the development of the human body, with the view to effect results beneficial to the human organism. Medical science of to- day seeks to reach the same results, but uses for this purpose the physical methods of modern Western science, suited to an age of materiality; whereas in the sangskara the super -physical (psychic, or occult, or metaphysical and subjective) methods of ancient Eastern science are employed. The sacraments of the Catholic Church and other of its ceremonies, some of which have now fallen into disuse, are Western examples of the same psychic method. Purashcharana This form of sadhana consists in the repetition (after certain preparations and under certain conditions) of a mantra a large number of times. The ritual deals with the time and place of performance, the measurements and decoration of the mandapa, or pandal, and of the altar and similar matters. There are certain rules as to food both prior to, and during, its performance. The sadhaka should eat havishyanna, or alternately boiled milk ( kshira ), fruits, or Indian vegetables, or anything obtained by begging, and avoid all food calculated to influence the passions. Certain conditions and practices are enjoined for the destruction of sin, such as continence, bathing, japa (q.v.) of the Savitri- mantra 5,008, 3,008, or 1,008 times, the entertainment of Brahmamas, and so forth. Three days before puja there is worship of Ganesha and Kshetra- pala, Lord of the Place. Pancha- gavya, or the five products of the cow, are eaten. The Sun, Moon, and Devas are invoked. Then follows the sangkalpa. The ghata, or kalasa (jar), is then placed into which the Devi is to be invoked. A mandala, or figure of a particular design, is marked on the ground, and on it the ghata is placed. Then the five or nine gems are placed on the kalasa, which is painted with red and covered with leaves. The ritual then prescribes for the tying of the crown lock ( shikha), the posture ( asana) of the sadhaka; japa (q.v.) nyasa (q.v.), and the mantra ritual or process. There is meditation, as directed. Kulluka is said, and the mantra \"awakened\" ( mantra -chaitanya), and recited the number of times for which the vow has been taken. Bhuta- shuddhi The object of this ritual, which is described in Chapter V., verses 93 et seq., is the purification of the elements of which the body is composed. The Mantra- mahodadhi speaks of it as a rite which is preliminary to the worship of a Deva. The process of evolution from the Para- brahman has been described. By this 50 ritual a mental process of involution takes place whereby the body is in thought resolved into the source from whence it has come. Earth is associated with the sense of smell, water, with taste, fire, with sight, air, with touch, and ether, with sound. Kundalini is roused, and led to the svadhishthana Chakra. The \"earth\" element is dissolved by that of \"water,\" as \"water\" is by \"fire,\" \"fire\" by \"air,\" and \"air\" by \"ether.\" This is absorbed by a higher emanation, and that by a higher, and so on, until the Source of all is reached. Having dissolved each gross element ( maha - bhuta), together with the subtle element ( tan-matra ) from which it proceeds, and the connected organ of sense ( indriya ) by another, the worshipper absorbs the last element, \"ether,\" with the tan-matra sound into self -hood ( ahangkara), the latter into Mahat , and that, again, into Prakriti, thus retracing the steps of evolution. Then, in accordance with the monistic teaching of the Vedanta, Prakriti is Herself thought of as the Brahman, of which She is the energy, and with which, therefore, She is already one. Thinking then of the black Purusha, which is the image of all sin, the body is purified by mantra , accompanied by kumbhaka and rechaka, and the sadhaka meditates upon the new celestial ( deva) body, which has thus been made and which is then strengthened by a \"celestial gaze.\" Nyasa This word, which comes from the root \"to place,\" means placing the tips of the fingers and palm of the right hand on various parts of the body, accompanied by particular mantra. The nyasa are of various kinds. Jiva- nyasa follows upon bhuta- shuddhi . After the purification of the old, and the formation of the celestial body, the sadhaka proceeds by jiva-nyasa to infuse the body with the life of the Devi. Placing his hand on his heart, he says the \" sohang\" mantra (\"I am He\"), thereby identifying himself with the Devi. Then, placing the eight Kula- kundalini in their several places he says the following mantra: Ang, Kring , Kring , Yang, Rang, Lang, Vang, Shang, Shang, Sang, Hong, Haung, Ha ngsah: the vital airs of the highly blessed and auspicious Primordial Kalika are here. \"Ang , etc., the embodied spirit of the highly blessed and auspicious Kalika is placed here.\" \" Ang, etc., here are all the senses of the highly auspicious and blessed Kalika,\" and, lastly, \" Ang, etc., may the speech, mind, sight, hearing, smell, and vital airs of the highly blessed and auspicious Kalika coming here always abide here in peace and happiness Svaha.\" The sadhaka then becomes devata- maya . After having thus dissolved the sinful body, made a new Deva body, and infused it with the life of the Devi, he proceeds to matrika -nyasa. Mahika are the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet; for as from a mother comes birth, so from matrika , or sound, the world proceeds. Shabda- brahman, the \"Sound,\" \" Logos ,\" or \"Word,\" is the Creator of the worlds of name and of form. The bodies of the Devata are composed of the fifty matrika . The sadhaka, therefore, first sets mentally (antar -matrika-nyasa) in their several places in the six chakra, and then externally by physical action ( Vahy -amatrika- nyasa) the letters of the alphabet which form the different parts of the body of the Devata, which is thus built up in 51 the sadhaka himself. He pla ces his hand on different parts of his body, uttering distinctly at the same time the appropriate matrika for that part. The mental disposition in the chakra is as follows: In the Ajna Lotus, Hang, Kshang (each letter in this and the succeeding cases is said, followed by the mantra namah); in the Vishuddha Lotus Ang, Ang, and the rest of the vowels; in the Anahata Lotus kang, khang to thang; in the Manipura Lotus, dang dhang, etc., to Phang; in the Svadisthana Lotus bang, bhang to lang; and, lastly, in the Muladhara Lotus, vang, shang, shang, sang. The external disposition then follows. The vowels in their order with anusvara and visarga are placed on the forehead, face, right and left eye, right and left ear, right and left nostril, right and left cheek, upper and lower lip, upper and lower teeth, head, and hollow of the mouth. The consonants kang to vang are placed on base of right arm and the elbow, wrist, base and tips of fingers, left arm, right and left leg, right and left side, back, navel, belly, heart, right and left shoulder, space between the shoulders ( kakuda), and then from the heart to the right palm shang is placed; and from the heart to the left palm the (second) shang; from the heart to the right foot, sang; from the heart to the left foot, hang; and, lastly, from the heart to the belly, and from the heart to the mouth, kshang. In each case ong is said at the beginning and namah at the end. According to the Tantra- sara, matrika -nyasa is also classified into four kinds, performed with different aims viz.: kevala where the matrika is pronounced without vindu ; vindu- sangyuta with vindu; sangsarga with visarga ; and sobhya with visarga and vindu. Rishi- nyasa then follows for the attainment of the chatur -varga. The assignment of the mantra is to the head, mouth, heart, anus, the two feet, and all the body generally. The mantra commonly employed are: \"In the head, salutation to the Rishi (Revealer) Brahma; in the mouth, salutation to the mantra Gayatri , in the heart, salutation to the Devi Mother Sarasvati; in the hidden part, salutation to the vija, the consonants; salutation to the shakti , the vowels in the feet, salutation to visargah, the kilaka in the whole body.\" Another form in which the vija employed is that of the Aiya: it is referred to but n ot given in Chap. V., verse 123, and is: \"In the head, salutation to Brahma and the Brahmarshis , in the mouth, salutation to Gayatri and the other forms of verse; in the heart, salutation to the primordial Devata Kali, in the hidden part, salutation to the vija, kring ; in the two feet, salutation to the shakti , Hring ; in all the body, salutation to the Kalika Shring .\" Then follows anga-nyasa and kara- nyasa. These are both forms of shad- anga- nyasa. When shad- anga- nyasa is performed on the body, it is called hridayadi -shad- anga- nyasa; and when done with the five fingers and palms of the hands only, angushthadi -shad- anga-nyasa . The former kind is done as follows: The short vowel a, the consonants of the ka-varga group, and the long vowel a, are recited with \"hridayaya namah\" (namah salutation to the heart). The short vowel i, the consonants of the cha-varga group, and the long vowel i, are said with \" shirasi svaha\" (svaha to the head). The hard ta-varga consonants set between the two 52 vowels u are recited with \" shikhayai vashat \" (vashat to the crown lock); similarly the soft ta-varga between the vowels e and ai are said with \" kavachaya hung.\" The short vowel o, the pavarga, and the long vowel o are recited with netra- trayaya vaushat (vaushat to the three eyes). Lastly, between vindu and visargah the consonants ya to ksha with \" kara- tala-prishthabhyang astraya phat \" (phat to the front and back of the palm). The mantras of shadanga- nyasa on the body are used for Kara -nyasa, in which they are assigned to the thumbs, the \"threatening\" or index fingers, the middle fingers, the fourth, little fingers, and the front and back of the palm. These actions on the body, fingers, and palms also stimulate the nerve centres and nerves therein. In pitha- nyasa the pitha are established in place of the matrika. The pitha, in their ordinary sense, are Kama- rupa and the other places, a list of which is given in the Yogini -hridaya. For the attainment of that state in which the sadhaka feels that the bhava (nature, disposition) of the Devata has come upon him nyasa is a great auxiliary. It is, as it were, the wearing of jewels on different parts of the body. The vija of the Devata are the jewels which the sudkaka places on the different parts of his body. By nyasa he places his Abhishta- devata in such parts, and by vyapaka- nyasa he spreads Its presence throughout himself. He becomes permeated by it losing himself in the divine Self. Nyasa is also of use in effecting the proper distribution of the shaktis of the human frame in their proper positions so as to avoid the production of discord and distraction in worship. Nyasa as well as Asana are necessary for the production of the desired state of mind and of chitta -shuddhi (its purification). \"Das denken ist der mass der Dinge.\" Transformation of thought is Transformation of being. This is the essential principle and rational basis of all this and similar Tantrik sadhana. Panchatattva There are, as already stated, three classes of men pashu, Vira, and Divya . The operation of the guna which produce these types affect, on the gross material plane, the animal tendencies, manifesting in the three chief physical functions eating and drinking, whereby the annamayakosha is maintained; and sexual intercourse, by which it is reproduced. These functions are the subject of the panchatattva or panchamakara (\"five ms\"), as they are vulgarly called viz.: madya (wine), mangsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (parched grain), and maithuna (coition). In ordinary parlance, mudra means ritual gestures or positions of the body in worship and hathayoga, but as one of the five elements it is parched cereal, and is defined as Bhrishtadanyadikang yadyad chavyaniyam prachakshate, sa mudra kathita devi sarvveshang naganam -dini. The Tantras speak 53 of the five elements as pancha- tattva , kuladravya, kulatattva, and certain of the elements have esoteric names, such as Karanavari or tirtha -vari, for wine, the fifth element being usually called lata-sadhana (sadhana with woman, or shakti ). The five elements, moreover have various meanings, according as they form part of the tamasika (pashvachara), rajasika (virachara), or divya or sattvika sadhanas respectively. All the elements or their substitutes are purified and consecrated, and then, with the appropriate ritual, the first four are consumed, such consumption being followed by lata-sadhana or its symbolic equivalent. The Tantra prohibits indiscriminate use of the elements, which may be consumed or employed only after purification ( sho- dhana) and during worship according to the Tantric ritual. Then, also, all excess is forbidden. The Shyama- rahasya says that intemperance leads to Hell, and this Tantra condemns it in Chapter V. A well -known saying in Tantra describes the true \"hero\" ( vira) to be, not he who is of great physical strength and prowess, the great eater and drinker, or man of powerful sexual energy, but he who has controlled his senses, is a truth- seeker, ever engaged in worship, and who has sacrificed lust and all other passions. ( Jitendriyah satyavadi nityanushthanatatparah kamadi - validanashcha sa vira iti giyate.) The elements in their literal sense are not available in sadhana for all. The nature of the Pashu requires strict adherence to Vaidik rule in the matter of these physical functions even in worship. This rule prohibits the drinking of wine, a substance subject to the three curses of Brahma, Kacha, and Krishna, in the following terms: Madyamapeyamadeyamagrahyam (\"Wine must not be drunk, given, or taken\"). The drinking of wine in ordinary life for satisfaction of the sensual appetite is, in fact, a sin, involving prayaschiyta, and entailing, according to the Vishnu Purama, punishment in the same Hell as that to which a killer of a Brahmana goes. As regards flesh and fish, the higher castes (outside Bengal) who submit to the orthodox Smarta discipline eat neither. Nor do high and strict Brahmanas even in that Province. But the bulk of the people there, both men and women, eat fish, and men consume the flesh of male goats which have been previously offered to the Deity. The Vaidika dharmma is equally strict upon the subject of sexual intercourse. Maithuna other than with the householders own wife is condemned. And this is not only in its literal sense, but in that of which is known as Ashtanga (eight -fold) maithuna viz., smaranam (thinking upon it), kirttanam (talking of it), keli (play with women), prekshanam (looking upon women), guhyabhashanan (talk in private with women), sangkalpa (wish or resolve for maithuua), adhyavasaya (determination towards it), kriyanis hpati (actual accomplishment of the sexual act). In short, the pashu (and except for ritual purposes those who are not pashu) should, in the words of the Shaktakramya, avoid maithuna, conversation on the subject, and assemblies of women ( maithunam tatkathalapang tadgoshthing parivarjjayet ). Even in the case of the householders 54 own wife marital continency is enjoined. The divinity in woman, which the Tantra in particular proclaims, is also recognized in the ordinary Vaidik teaching, as must obviously be the case given the common foundation upon which all the Shastra rest. Woman is not to be regarded merely as an object of enjoyment, but as a house-goddess ( grihadevata). According to the sublime notions of Shruti , the union of man and wife is a veritable sacr ificial rite a sacrifice in fire ( homa ), wherein she is both hearth ( kunda) and flame and he who knows this as homa attains liberation. Similarly the Tantrika Mantra for the Shivashakti Yoga runs: \"This is the in- ternal homa in which, by the path of sushumna, sacrifice is made of the functions of sense to the spirit as fire kindled with the ghee of merit and demerit taken from the mind as the ghee- pot Svaha.\" It is not only thus that wife and husband are associated, for the Vaidika dharmma (in this now neglected) prescribes that the householder should worship in company with his wife. Brahmacharyya, or continency, is not as is sometimes supposed, a requisite of the student ashrama only, but is a rule which governs the married householder (grihastha) also. According to Vaidika injunctions, union of man and wife must take place once a month on the fifth day after the cessation of the menses, and then only. Hence it is that the Nitya Tantra, when giving the characteristics of a pashu, says that he is one who avoids sexual union except on the fifth day ( ritukalangvina devi rama -nang parivarjjayet ). In other words, the pashu is he who in this case, as in other matters, follows for all purposes, ritual or otherwise, the Vaidik injunctions which govern the ordinary life of all. The above- mentioned rules govern the life of all men. The only exception which the Tantra makes is for purpose of sudhana in the case of those who are competent (adhikari ) for virachara. It is held, indeed, that the exception is not strictly an exception to Vaidik teaching at all, and that it is an error to suppose that the Tantrika rahasya- puja is opposed to the Vedas. Thus, whilst the vaidik rule prohibits the use of wine in ordinary life, and for purpose of mere sensual gratification it prescribes the religious yajna with wine. This ritual use the Tantra also allows, provided that the sadhaka is competent for the sadhana, in which its consumption is part of its ritual and method. The Tantra enforces the Vaidik rule in all cases, ritual or otherwise, for those who are governed by the vaidikachara. The Nitya Tantra says: \"They ( pashu ) should never worship the Devi during the latter part of the day in the evening or at night\" ( ratrau naiva yajeddeving sandhyayang vaparanhake); for all such wor ship connotes maithuna prohibited to the pashu. In lieu of it, varying substitutes are prescribed, such as either an offering of flowers with the hands formed into the kachchchapa mudra, or union with the worshippers own wife. In the same way, in lieu of wine, the pashu should (if a Brahmana) take milk, (if a Kshattriya ) ghee, (if a vaishya ) honey, and (if a shudra) a liquor made from rice. Salt, ginger, sesamum, wheat, mashkalai (beans), and garlic are various substitutes for meat; and the white brinjal vegetable, red radish, masur (a kind of gram), red sesamum, 55 and paniphala (an aquatic plant), take the place of fish. Paddy, rice, wheat, and gram geneally are mudra. The vira, or rather he who is qualified ( adhikari ) for virachara since the true vira is its finished product commences sadhana with the rajasika panchatattva first stated, which are employed for the destruction of the sensual tendencies which they connote. For the worship of Shakti the panchatattva are declared to be essential. This Tantra declares that such worship without their use is but the practice of evil magic. Upon this passage the commentator Jaganmohana Tarkalangkara observes as follows: \"Let us consider what most contributes to the fall of a man, making him forget his duty, sink into sin, and die an early death. First among these are wine and women, fish, meat and mudra, and accessories. By these things men have lost their manhood. Shiva then desires to employ these very poisons in order to eradicate the poison in the human system. Poison is the antidote for poison. This is the right treatment for those who long for drink or lust for women. The physician must, however, be an experienced one. If there be a mistake as to the application, the patient is like to die. Shiva has said that the way of Kulachara is as difficult as it is to walk on the edge of a sword or to hold a wild tiger. There isa secret argument in favour of the panchatattva, and those tattva so understood should be followed by all. None, however, but the initiate can grasp this argument, and therefore Shiva has directed that it should not be revealed before anybody and everybody. An initiate, when he sees a woman, will worship her as his own mother or goddess (Ishtadevata), and bow before her. The Vishnu Purana says that by feeding your desires you cannot satisfy them. It is like pouring ghee on fire. Though this is true, an experienced spiritual teacher ( guru) will know how, by the application of this poisonous medicine, to kill the poison of sangsara. Shiva has, however, prohibited the indiscriminate publication of this. The meaning of this passage would therefore appear to be this: \"The object of Tantrika worship is brahmasayujya, or union with Brahman. If that is not attained, nothing is attained. And, with mens propensities as they are, this can only be attained through the special treatment prescribed by the Tantras. If this is not followed, then the sensual pro- pensities are not eradicated, and the work is for the desired end of Tantra as useless as magic which, worked by such a man, leads only to the injury of others.\" The other secret argument here referred to is that by which it is shown that the particular may be raised to the universal life by the vehicle of those same passions, which, when flowing only in an outward and downward current, are the most powerful bonds to bind him to the former. The passage cited refers to the necessity for the spiritual direction of the Guru. To the want of such is accredited the abuses of the system. When the patient ( sishya ) and the disease are working together, there is poor hope for the former; but when the patient, the disease, and the physician ( guru) are on one, and that the wrong, side, then nothing can save him from a descent on that downward path which it is the 56 object of the sadhana to prevent. Verse 67 in Chapter I. of this Tantra is here in point. Owing, however, to abuses, particularly as regards the tattva of madya and maithuna , this Tantra, according to the current version, prescribes in certain cases, limitations as regards their use. It prescribes that when the Kaliyuga is in full strength, and in the case of householders ( grihastha) whose minds are engrossed with worldly affairs, the \"three sweets\" ( madhuratraya) are to be substituted for wine. Those who are of virtuous temperament, and whose minds are turned towards the Brahman, are permitted to take five cups of wine. So also as regards maithuna, this Tantra states that men in this Kali age are by their nature weak and disturbed by lust, and by reason of this do not recognize woman ( shakti ) to be the image of the Deity. It accordingly ordains that when the Kaliyuga is in full sway, the fifth tattva shall only be accomplished with sviyashakti , or the worshippers own wife, and that union with a woman who is not married to the sadhaka in either Brahma or Shaiva form is forbidden. In the case of other shakti (parakiya and sadharani ) it prescribes, in lieu of maithuna, meditation by the worshipper upon the lotus feet of the Devi, together with japa of his ishtamantra . This rule, however, the Commentator says, is not of universal application. Shiva has, in this Tantra, prohibited sadhana with the last tattva , with parakiya, and sadharani shakti , in the case of men of ordinary weak intellect ruled by lust; but for those who have by sadhana conquered their passions and attained the state of a true vira, or siddha, there is no prohibition as to the mode of latasadhana. This Tantra appears to be, in fact, a protest against the misuse of the tattwa , which had followed upon a relaxation of the original rules and conditions governing them. Without the panchatattva in one form or another, the shaktipuja cannot be performed. The Mother of the Universe must be worshipped with these elements. By their use the universe ( jagatbrahmanda) itself is used as the article of worship. Wine signifies the power ( shakti ) which produces all fiery elements; meat and fish all terrestrial and aquatic animals; mudra all vegetable life; and maithuna the will ( ichchha) action ( kriya ) and knowledge ( jnana) shakti of the Supreme Prakriti productive of that great pleasure which accompanies the process of creation. To the Mother is thus offered the restless life of Her universe. The object of all sadhana is the stimulation of the sattvaguna. When by such sadhana this guna largely preponderates, the sattvika sadhana suitable for men of a high type of divyabhava is adopted. In this latter sadhana the names of the panchatattva are used symbolically for operations of a purely mental and spiritual character. Thus, t he Kaivalya says that \"wine\" is that intoxicating knowledge acquired by yoga of the Parabrahman, which renders the worshipper senseless as regards the external world. Meat ( mangsa) is not any fleshly thing, but the act whereby the sadhaka consigns all his acts to Me ( Mam ). Matsya (fish) is that sattvika knowledge by which through the sense of \"mineness\" the worshipper sympathizes with the pleasure and pain of all beings. Mudra is the act of 57 relinquishing all association with evil which results in bondage, and maithuna is the union of the Shakti Kundalini with Shiva in the body of the worshipper. This, the Yogini Tantra says, is the best of all unions for those who have already con- trolled their passions ( yati). According to the Agamasara, wine is the somadhara , or lunar ambrosia, which drops from the brahmarandhra; Mangsa (meat) is the tongue (ma), of which its part ( angsha) is speech. The sadhaka, in \"eating\" it, controls his speech. Matsya (fish) are those two which are constantly moving in the two rivers I da and Pingala. He who controls his breath by pranayama (q.v.), \"eats\" them by kumbhaka. Mudra is the awakening of knowledge in the pericarp of the great sahasrara Lotus, where the Atma , like mercury, resplendent as ten million suns, and deliciously cool as ten million moons, is united with the Devi Kundalini. The esoteric meaning of maithuna is thus stated by the Agama: The ruddy -hued letter Ra is in the Kunda, and the letter Ma, in the shape of vindu, is in the mahayoni . When Makara (m), seated on the Hangsa in the form of Akara (a), unites with rakara (r), then the Brahmajnana , which is the source of supreme Bliss, is gained by the sadhaka, who is then called atmarama, for his enjoyment is in the Atma . in the sahasrara. This is the union on the purely sattvika plane, which corresponds on the rajasika plane to the union of Shiva and Shakti in the persons of their worshippers. The union of Shiva and Shakti is described as a true yoga, from which, as the Yamala says, arises that joy which is known as the Supr eme Bliss. Chakrapuja Worship with the panchatattva generally takes place in an assembly called a chakra, which is composed of men ( sadhaka) and women (shakti ), or Bhairava and Bhairavi . The worshippers sit in a circle ( chakra), men and women alternately, the shakti sitting on the left of the sadhaka. The Lord of the chakra (chakrasvamin, or chakreshvara) sits with his Shakti in the centre, where the wine- jar and other articles used in the worship are kept. During the chakra all eat, drink, and worship together, there being no distinction of caste. No pashu should, however, be introduced. There are various kinds of chakra, such as the Vira, Raja, Deva , Maha Chakras productive, it is said, of various fruits for the participators therein. Chapter VI. of the Mahanirvvana Tantra deals with the panchatattva, and Chapter VIII. gives an account of the Bhairavi and Tattva (or Divya ) chakras . The latter is for worshippers of the Brahma -Mantra . Yoga This word, derived from the root Yuj (\"to join\"), is in grammar sandhi , in logic avayavashakti , or the power of the parts taken together, and in its most widely known and present sense the union of the jiva, or embodied spirit, with the Paramatma , or Supreme Spirit, and the practices by which this union may be 58 attained. There is a natural yoga , in which all beings are, for it is only by virtue of this identity in fact that they exist. This position is common ground, though in practice too frequently overlooked. \"Primus modus unionis est, quo Deus, ratione su immensitatis e st in omnibus rebus per essentiam, prsentiam, et potentiam; per essentiam ut dans omnibus esse; per prsentiam ut omnia prospiciens; per potentiam ut de omnibus disponens.\" The mystical theologian cited, however, proceeds to say: \"Sed hc unio anim cum Deo est generalis, communis omnibus et ordinis naturalis . . . illa namque de qua loquimur est ordinis supernaturalis actualis et fructiva.\" It is of this special yaga, though not in reality more \"supernatural\" than the first, that we here deal. Yoga in its technical sense is the realization of this identity, which exists, though it is not known, by the destruction of the false appearance of separation. \"There is no bond equal in strength to maya , and no force greater to destroy that bond than yoga. There is no better friend than knowledge ( jnana), nor worse enemy than egoism ( ahangkara). As to learn the Shastra one must learn the alphabet, so yoga is necessary for the acquirement of tattvajnana (truth).\" The animal body is the result of action, and from the body flows action, the process being compared to the seesaw movement of a ghatiyantra, or water -lifter. Through their actions beings continually go from birth to death. The complete attainment of the fruit of yoga is lasting and unchanging life in the noumenal world of the Absolute. Yoga is variously named according to the methods employed, but the two main divisions are those of the hathayoga (or ghatasthayoga) and samadhi yoga, of which raja-yoga is one of the forms. Hathayoga is commonly misunderstood, both in its definition and aim being frequently identified with exaggerated forms of self - mortification. The Gherandasanghita well defines it to be \"the means whereby the excellent rajayoga is attained.\" Actual union is not the result of Hathayoga alone, which is concerned with certain physical processes preparatory or auxiliary to the control of the mind, by which alone union may be directly attained. It is, however, not meant that all the processes of Hathayoga here or in the books described are necessary for the attainment of rajayoga. What is necessary must be determined according to the circumstances of each particular case. What is suited or necessary in one case may not be so for another. A peculiar feature of Tan-trika virachara is the union of the sadhaka and his shakti in latasadhana. This is a process which is expressly forbidden to Pashus by the same Tantras which prescribe it for the vira. The union of Shiva and Shakti in the higher sadhana is different in form, being the union of the Kundalini Shakti of the Muladhara with the Vindu which is upon the Sahasrara. This process, called the piercing of the six chakra , is described later on in a separate paragraph. Though, however, all Hathayoga processes are not necessary, some, at least, are generally considered to be so. Thus, in the well - known ashtangayoga (eight -limbed yoga), of which samadhi is the highest end, the 59 physical conditions and processes known as asana and pranayama (vide post ) are prescribed. This yoga prescribes five exterior ( vahiranga) methods for the subjugation of the body namely (1) Yama , forbearance or self -control, such as sexual continence, avoidance of harm to others ( ahingsa), kindness, forgiveness, the doing of good without desire for reward, absence of covetousness, temperance, purity of mind and body, etc. (2) Niyama , religious observances, charity, austerities, reading of the Shastra and Ishvara Pranidhana, persevering devotion to the Lord. (3) Asana, seated positions or postures ( vide post ). (4) Pranayama , regulation of t he breath. A yogi renders the vital airs equable, and consciously produces the state of respiration which is favourable for mental concentration, as others do it occasionally and unconsciously ( vide post ). (5) Pratyahara, restraint of the senses, which fol low in the path of the other four processes which deal with the subjugation of the body. There are then three interior ( yogangga) methods for the subjugation of the mind namely (6) Dharana, attention, steadying of the mind, the fixing of the internal organ (chitta ) in the particular manner indicated in the works on yoga. (7) Dhyana or the uniform continuous contemplation of the object of thought; and (8) that samadhi which is called savikalpasamadhi . Savikalpasamadhi is a deeper and more intense contemplation on the Self to the exclusion of all other objects, and constituting trance or ecstasy. This ecstasy is perfected to the stage of the removal of the slightest trace of the distinction of subject and object in nirvikalpasamadhi , in which there is complete union with the Paramatma, or Divine Spirit. By vairagya (dispassion), and keeping the mind in its unmodified state, yoga is attained. This knowledge, Ahang Brahmasmi (\"I am the Brahman\"), does not produce liberation (moksha), but is liberation itself, W hether yoga is spoken of as the union of Kulakundalini with Paramashiva, or the union of the individual soul (jivatma ) with the Supreme Soul ( paramatma ), or as the state of mind in which all outward thought is suppressed, or as the controlling or suppression of the thinking faculty ( chittavritti ), or as the union of the moon and the sun (Ida and Pingala), Prana and Apana, Nada and Vindu, the meaning and the end are in each case the same. Yoga, in seeking mental control and concentration, makes use of certain preliminary physical processes ( sadhana), such as the shatkarmma , asana, mudra, and pranayama. By these four processes and three mental acts, seven qualities, known as shodhana, dridhata, sthirata , dhairyya, laghava, pratyaksha, nirliptatva (vide post), are acquired. Shodhana: Shatkarmma The first, or cleansing, is effected by the six processes known as the shatkarmma. Of these, the first is Dhauti , or washing, which is fourfold, or inward washing ( antar - dhauti ), cleansing of the teeth, etc. ( dantadhauti ) of the \"heart\" ( hriddhauti ), and of the rectum (muladhauti ). Antardhauti is also fourfold namely, vatasara, by which air 60 is drawn into the belly and then expelled; varisara, by which the body is filled with water, which is then evacuated by the anus ; vahnisara, in which the nabhi -granthi is made to touch the spinal column ( meru ); and vahishkrita, in which the belly is by kakinimudra filled with air, which is retained half a yama , and then sent downward. Dantadhauti is fourfold, consisting in the cleansing of the root of the teeth and tongue, the ears, and the \"hollow of the forehead\" (kapalarandhra). By hriddhauti phlegm and bile are removed. This is done by a stick (dandadhauti ) or cloth ( vasodhauti ) pushed into the throat, or swallowed, or by vomiting ( vamanadhauti ). Mudadhauti is done to cleanse the exit of the apanavayu either with the middle finger and water or the stalk of a turmeric plant. Vasti, the second of the shatkarmma, is twofold, and is either of the dry ( shuska) or watery ( jala) kind. In th e second form the yogi sits in the utkatasana posture in water up to the navel, and the anus is contracted and expanded by ashvini mudra; or the same is done in the pashchimottanasana, and the abdomen below the navel is gently moved. In neti the nostrils are cleansed with a piece of string. Lauliki is the whirling of the belly from side to side. In trataka the yogi, without winking, gazes at some minute object until the tears start from his eyes. By this the \"celestial vision\" (divya drishti) so often referred to in the Tantrika upasana is acquired. Kapalabhati is a process for the removal of phlegm, and is threefold vatakrama by inhalation and exhalation; vyutkrama by water drawn through the nostrils and ejected through the mouth; and shitkrama the reverse process. These are the various processes by which the body is cleansed and made pure for the yoga practice to follow. Dridhata: Asana Dridhata, or strength or firmness, the acquisition of which is the second of the above-mentioned processes, is attained by asana. Asana are postures of the body. The term is generally described as modes of seating the body. But the posture is not necessarily a sitting one; for some asana are done on the belly, back, hands, etc. It is said that the asana are as numerous as living beings, and that there are 8,400,000 of these; 1,600 are declared to be excellent, and out of these thirty -two are auspicious for men, which are described in detail. Two of the commonest of these are muktapadmasana (\"the loosened lotus seat\"), the or dinary position for worship, and baddhapadmasana. Patanjali, on the subject of asana, merely points out what are good conditions, leaving each one to settle the details for himself according to his own requirements. There are certain other asana, which are peculiar to the Tantras, such as munddasana, chitasana, and shavasana, in which skulls, the funeral pyre, and a corpse respectively form the seat of the sadhaka. These, though they may have other ritual objects, form part of the discipline for the conquest of fear and the attainment of indifference, which is the quality of a yoga . And so the Tantras pre- 61 scribe as the scene of such rites the solitary mountain- top, the lonely empty house and river -side, and the cremation- ground. The interior cremation- ground is there where the kamik body and its passions are consumed in the fire of knowledge. Sthirata: Mudra Sthirata , or fortitude, is acquired by the practice of the mudra. The mudra dealt with in works of hathayoga are positions of the body. They are gymnastic, health- giving, and destructive of disease, and of death, such as the jaladhara and other mudra. They also preserve from injury by fire, water, or air. Bodily action and the health resulting therefrom react upon the mind, and by the union of a perfect mind and body siddhi is by their means attained. The Gheranda Sanghita describes a number of mudra, of which those of importance may be selected. In the celebrated yonimudra the yogi in siddhasana stops with his fingers the ears, eyes, nostrils, and mouth. He inhales pranavayu by kakinimudra, and unites it with apanavayu. Meditating in their order upon the six chakra , he arouses the sleeping Kulakundalini by the mantra \"Hung Hangsah,\" and raises Her to the Sahasrara; then, deeming himself pervaded with the Shakti, and in blissful union (sanggama ) with Shiva, he meditates upon himself, as by reason of that union Bliss itself and the Brahman. Ashvinimudra consists of the repeated contraction and expansion of the anus for the purpose of shodhana or of contraction to restrain the apana in Skatchakrabheda. Shaktichalana employs the latter mudra, which is repeated until vayu manifests in the sushumna. The process is accompanied by inhalation and the union of prana and apana whilst in siddhasana. Dhairya: Pratyahara Dhairya, or steadiness, is produced by pratyahara. Pratyahara is the restraint of the senses, the freeing of the mind from all distractions, and the keeping of it under the control of the Atma . The mind is withdrawn from whatsoever direction it may tend by the dominant and directing Self. Pratyahara destroys the six sins. Laghava: Pranayama From pranayama (q.v.) arises laghava (lightness). All beings say the ajapa Gayatri , which is the expulsion of the breath by Hangkara, and its inspiration by Sahkara, 21,600 times a day. Ordinarily, the breath goes forth a distance of 12 fingers breadth, but in singing, eating, walking, sleeping, coition, the distances are 16, 20, 24, 30, and 36 breadths respectively. In violent exercise these distances are exceeded, the greatest distance being 96 breadths. Where the breathing is under the normal distance, life is prolonged. Where it is above that, it is shortened. Puraka is inspiration, and rechaka expira - tion. Kumbhaka is the retention of breath between these two movement s. Kumbhaka is, according to the Gheranda Sanghita of eight kinds: sahita, suryyabheda, ujjayi , shitali, bhastrika, bhramari , murchchha, and keval . 62 Pranayama similarly varies. Pranayama is the control of the breath and other vital airs. It awakens shakti , frees from disease, produces detachment from the world, and bliss. It is of varying values, being the best ( uttama) where the measure is 20; middling ( madhyama ) when at 16 it produces spinal tremor; and inferior (adhama) when at 12 it induces perspiration. It is necessary that the nadi should be cleansed, for air does not enter those which are impure. The cleansing of the nadi (nadi-shuddhi ) is either samau or nirmanu that is, with or without, the use of vija. According to the first form, the yogi in padmasana does gurunyasa according to the directions of the guru. Meditating on \" yang,\" he does japa through Ida of the vija 16 times, kumbhaka with japa of vija 64 times, and then exhalation through the solar nadi and japa of vija 32 times. Fire is raised fr om manipura and united with prithivi . Then follows inhalation by the solar nadu with the vahni vija 16 times, kumbhaka with 64 japa of the vija, followed by exhalation through the lunar nadi and japa of the vija 32 times. He then meditates on the lunar bri lliance, gazing at the tip of the nose. and inhales by Ida with japa of the vija \"thang\" 16 times. Kumbhaka is done with the vija vang 64 times. He then thinks of himself as flooded by nectar, and considers that the nadi have been washed. He exhales by Pingala with 32 japa of the vija lang , and considers himself thereby as strengthened. He then takes his seat on a mat of kusha grass, a deerskin, etc., and, facing east or north, does pranayama. For its exercise there must be, in addition to nadi shuddhi , consideration of proper place, time, and food. Thus, the place should not be so distant as to induce anxiety, nor in an unprotected place, such as a forest, nor in a city or crowded locality, which induces distraction. The food should be pure, and of a vegetarian character. It should not be too hot or too cold, pungent, sour, salt, or bitter. Fasting, the taking of one meal a day, and the like, are prohibited. On the contrary, the Yogi should not remain without food for more than one yama (three hours). The food taken should be light and strengthening. Long walks and other violent exercise should be avoided, as also cer-tainly in the case of beginners sexual intercourse. The stomach should only be half filled. Yoga should be commenced, it is said, in spring or autumn. As stated, the forms of pranayama vary. Thus, sahita, which is either with ( sagarbha) or without ( nirgarbha) vija, is, according to the former form, as follows: The sadhaka meditates on Vidhi (Brahma), who is full of rajoguna , red in colour, and the image of akara. He inhales by Ida in six measures (matra ). Before kumbhaka he does the uddiyanabandha mudra. Meditating on Hari (Vishnu) as sattvamaya and the black vija ukara, he does kumbhaka with 64 japa of the vija; then, meditating on Shiva as tamomaya and his white vija makara, he exhales through Pingala with 32 japa of the vija; then, inhaling by Pingala, he does kumbhaka, and exhales by Ida with the same vija. The process is repeated in the normal and reversed order. Pratyaksha: Dhyana Through dhyana is gained the third quality of realization or pratyaksha. Dhyana , or meditation, is of three kinds: (1) sthula, or gross; (2) jyotih ; (3) sukshma , or subtle. In 63 the first the form of the Devata is brought before the mind. One form of dhyana for this purpose is as follows: Let the sadhana think of the great ocean of nectar in his heart. In the middle of that ocean is the island of gems, the shores of which are made of powdered gems. The island is clothed with a kadamba forest in yellow blossom. This forest is surrounded by Malati , Champaka , Parijata , and other fragrant trees. In the midst of the Kadamba forest there rises the beautiful Kalpa tree, laden with fresh blossom and fruit. Amidst its leaves the black bees hum and the koel birds make love. Its four branches are the four Vedas. Under the tree there is a great mandapa of precious stones, and within it a beautiful bed, on which let him picture to himself his Ishtadevata. The Guru will direct him as to the form, raiment, vahana, and the title of the Devata. Jyotirdhyana is the infusion of fire and life (tejas ) into the form so imagined. In the muladhara lies the snake- like Kundalini. There the jivatma , as it were the tapering flame of a candle, dwells. The sadhaka then meditates upon the tejomaya Brahman, or, alternatively, between the eyebrows on pranavatmaka, the flame emitting its lustre. Sukshmadhyana is meditation on Kundalini with sham -bhavi mudra after She has been roused. By this yoga (vide post ) the atma is revealed ( atmasakshatkara). Nirliptatva: Samadhi Lastly, through samadhi the quality of nirliptatva , or detachment, and thereafter mukti (liberation) is attained. Samadhi considered as a process is intense mental con- centration, with freedom from all sangkalpa, and attachment to the world, and all sense of \"mineness,\" or self -interest ( mamata ). Considered as the result of such process it is the union of Jiva with the Paramatma. Forms Of Samadhi Yoga This samadhi yoga is, according to the Gheranda Sanghita, of six kinds. (1) Dhyanayogasamadhi , attained by shambhavi mudra, in which, after meditation on the Vindu- Brahman and realization of the Atma (atmapratyaksha), the latter is resolved into the Mahakasha. (2) Nadayoga, attained by khechari mudra, in which the frenum of the tongue is cut, and the latter is lengthened until it reaches the space between the eyebrows, and is then introduced in a reversed position into the mouth. (3) Rasanandayoga, attained by kumbhaka, in which the sadhaka in a silent place closes both ears and does puraka and kumbhaka until he hears the word nada in sounds varying in strength from that of the crickets chirp to that of the large kettledrum. By daily practice the anahata sound is heard, and the jyotih with the manas therein is seen, which is ultimately dissolved in the supreme Vishnu. (4) Layasiddhiyoga, accomplished by the celebrated yonimudra already described. The sadhaka, thinking of himself as Shakti and the Paramatma as Purusha, feels himself in union ( sanggama) with Shiva, and enjoys with him the bliss whic h is shringararasa, and becomes Bliss itself, or the Brahman. (5) Bhakti Yoga, in which meditation is made on the Ishtadevata with devotion ( bhakti ) until, with tears flowing 64 from the excess of bliss, the ecstatic condition is attained. (6) Rajayoga, accom plished by aid of the manomurchchha kumbhaka. Here the manas detached from all worldly objects is fixed between the eyebrows in the ajnachakra, and Kumbhaka is done. By the union of the manas with the atma , in which the jnani sees all things, rajayogasamadhi is attained. Shatchakra- bheda The piercing of the six chakra is one of the most important subjects dealt with in the Tantras, and is part of the practical yaga process of which they treat. Details of practice can only be learnt from a Guru , but generally it may be said that the particular is raised to the universal life, which as chit is realizable only in the sahasrara in the following manner: The jivatma in the subtle body, the receptacle of the five vital airs ( pancha prana ), mind in its three aspects of manas , ahangkara, and buddhi ; the five organs of action (panchakarmendriya) and the five organs of perception ( panchajnanendriya) is united with the Kulakundalini. The Kandarpa or Kama Vayu in the muladhara a form of the Apana Vayu is given a leftward revolution and the fire which is round Kundalini is kindled. By the vija \"Hung,\" and the heat of the fire thus kindled, the coiled and sleeping Kundalini is wakened. She who lay asleep around svayambhu- linga , with her coils three circles and a half closing the entrance of the brahma- dvara, will, on being roused, enter that door and move upwards, united with the jivatma . On this upward movement, Brahma, Savitri, Dakini -Shakti, the Devas, vija, and vritti, are dissolved in the body of Kundalini. The Mahimandala or prithivi is converted into the vija \"Lang,\" and is also merged in Her body. When Kundalini leaves the muladhara , that lotus which, on the awakening of Kundalini had opened and turned its flower upwards, again closes and hangs down- wards. As Kundalini reaches the svadhishthana- chakra, that lotus opens out, and lifts its flower upwards. Upon the entrance of Kundalini, Mahavishnu, Mahalakshmi, Sarasvati, Rakini Shakti, Deva, Matrikas, and vritti, Vaikunthadhama, Golaka, and the Deva and Devi residing therein are dissolved in the body of Kundalini. The prithivi, or \"earth\" vija \"Lang ,\" is dissolved in apas , and apas converted into the vija vang remains in the body of Kundalini. When the Devi reaches the manipura chakra all that is in the chakra merges in Her body. The Varuna vija \"vang\" is dissolved in fire, which remains in the body of the Devi as the Vija \"rang.\" This chakra is called the Brahma - granthi (or knot of Brahma). The piercing of this chakra may involve considerable pain, physical disorder, and even disease. On this account the directions of an experienced Guru are necessary, and therefore also other modes of yoga have been recommended for those to whom they are applicable: for in such modes activity is provoked directly in the higher centre and it is not necessary that the lower chakras should be pierced. Kundalini next reaches the anahata chakra, where all which is therein is merged in Her. The vija of Tejas , \"rang,\" disappears in Vayu and Vayu converted into its vija \"Yang\" merges into the body of Kundalini. This chakra is known as Vishnu -granthi (knot of Vishnu). Kundalini then ascends to 65 the abode of Bharati (or Sarasvati) or the vishuddha chakra. Upon Her entrance, Arddha- narishvara Shiva, Shakini, the sixteen vowels, mantra , etc., are dissol ved in the body of Kundalini. The vija of Vayu , \"yang ,\" is dissolved in akasha, which itself being transformed into the vija \"hang,\" is merged in the body of Kundalini. Piercing the lalana chakra, the Devi reaches the ajnachakra, where Parama Shiva, Siddha -Kali, the Deva, guna, and all else therein, are absorbed into Her body. The vija of akasha, \"Hang,\" is merged in the manas chakra, and mind itself in the body of Kundalini. The ajnachakra is known as Rudra- granthi (or knot of Rudra or Shiva). After this chakra has been pierced, Kundalini of Her own motion unites with Parama Shiva. As She proceeds upwards from the two -petalled lotus, the niralamba puri , pranava, nada , etc., are merged in Her. The Kundalini has then in her progress upwards absorbed in herself the twenty - four tattva commencing with the gross elements, and then unites Herself and becomes one. with Parama Shiva. This is the maithuna (coition) of the sattvika- pancha- tattva . The nectar which flows from such union floods the kshudrabrahmanda or human body. It is then that the sadhaka, forgetful of all in this world, is immersed in ineffable bliss. Thereafter the sadhaka, thinking of the vayu vija \"yang\" as being in the left nostril, inhales through Ida, making japa of the vija sixteen times. Then, closing both nostrils, he makes japa of the vija sixty-four times. He then thinks that the black \"man of sin\" (Papapurusha) in the left cavity of the abdomen is being dried up (by air), and so thinking he exhales through the right nostril Pingala, making japa of the vija thirty -two times. The sadhaka then meditating upon the red- coloured vija \"rang\" in the manipura , inhales, making sixteen japa of the vija, and then closes the nostrils, making sixteen japa. While making the japa he thinks that the body of \"the man of sin\" is being burnt and reduced to ashes (by fire). He then exhales through the right nostril with thirty -two japa. He then meditates upon the white chandravija \"thang.\" He next inhales through Ida, making japa of the vija sixteen times, closes b oth nostrils with japa done sixty -four times, and exhales through Pingala with thirty - two japa. During inhalation, holding of breath, and exhalation, he should consider that a new celestial body is being formed by the nectar (composed of all the letters of the alphabet, matrika -varna) dropping from the moon. In a similar way with the vija \"vang,\" the formation of the body is continued, and with the vija \"lang \" it is completed and strengthened. Lastly, with the mantra \"Sohang,\" the sadhaka leads the jivatma into the heart. Thus Kundalini, who has enjoyed Her union with Paramashiva, sets out on her return journey the way she came. As she passes through each of the chakra all that she has absorbed therefrom come out from herself and take their several places in the chakra. In this manner she again reaches the muladhara, when all that is described to be in the chakras (see pp. lvii -lxiii) are in the positions which they occupied before her awakening. 66 The Guru s instructions are to go above the ajna- chakra, but no special directions are given; for after this chakra has been pierced the sadhaka can reach the brahmasthana unaided. Below the \"seventh month of Shiva\" the relationship of Guru and sishya ceases. The instructions of the seventh amnaya is not expressed (aprakashita). Sin and Virtue According to Christian conceptions, sin is a violation of the personal will of, and apostasy from, God. The flesh is the source of lusts which oppose Gods commands, and in this lies its positive significance for the origin of a bias of life against God. According to St. Thomas, in the original state, no longer held as the normal, the lower powers were subordinate to reason, and reason subject to God. \"Original sin\" is formally a \"defect of original righteousness,\" and materially \"concupiscence.\" As St. Paul says (Rom. vii. 8, 14), the pneumatic law, which declares war on the lusts, meets with opposition from the \"law in the members.\" These and similar notions involve a religious and moral conscious judgment which is assumed to ex ist in humanity alone. Hindu notions of papa (wrong) and punya (that which is pure, holy, and right) have a wider content. The latter is accordance and working with the will of Ishvara (of whom the jiva is itself the embodiment), as manifested at any parti cular time in the general direction taken by the cosmic process, as the former is the contrary. The two terms are relative to the state of evolution and the surrounding circumstances of the jiva to which they are applied. Thus, the impulse towards individu ality which is necessary and just on the path of inclination or \"going forth\" (pra-vritti marga ), is wrongful as a hindrance to the attainment of unity, which is the goal of the path of return ( nivritti marga ) where inclinations should cease. In short, what makes for progress on the one path is a hindrance on the other. The matter, when rightly undertsood, is not (except, perhaps, sometimes popularly) viewed from the juristic standpoint of an external Lawgiver, His commands, and those subject to it, but fro m that in which the exemplification of the moral law is regarded as the true and proper expression of the jivas own evolution. Morality, it has been said, is the true nature of a being. For the same reason wrong is its destruction. What the jiva actually does is the result of his karmma . Further, the term jiva, though commonly applicable to the human embodiment of the atma , is not limited to it. Both papa and punya may therefore be manifested in beings of a lower rank than that of humanity in so far as what they (whether consciously or unconsciously) do is a hindrance to their true development. Thus, in the Yoga Vashishtha it is said that even a creeping plant acquired merit by association with the holy muni on whose dwelling it grew. Objectively considered, sin is concisely defined as duhkhajanakam papam . It is that which has been, is, and will be the cause of pain, mental or physical, in past, present, and future births. The pain as the consequence of the action done need not be immediate. Though, however, the suffering may be experienced as a result later than the action of which it is the cause, the consequence of the action is not really something separate, but a part of the action 67 itself namely, that part of it which belongs to the future. The six chief sins are kama , krodha, lobha, moha , mada, matsaryya lust, anger, covetousness, ignorance or delusion, pride and envy. All wrong is at base self -seeking, in ignorance or disregard of the unity of the Self in all creatures. Virtue ( punya), therefore, as the contrary of sin, is that which is the cause of happiness ( sukhajanakam punyam ). That happiness is produced either in this or future births, or leads to the enjoyment of heaven ( Svarga). Virtue is that which leads towards the unity whose substance is B liss (ananda). This good karmma produces pleasant fruit, which, like all the results of karmma , is transitory. As Shruti says: \"It is not by acts or the pindas offered by ones children or by wealth, but by renunciation that men have attained liberation.\" It is only by escape from karmma through knowledge, that the jiva becoming one with the unchanging Absolute attains lasting rest. It is obvious that for those who obtain such release neither vice nor virtue, which are categories of phenomenal being, exist. Karmma Karmma is action, its cause, and effect. There is no uncaused action, nor action without effect. The past, the present, and the future are linked together as one whole. The ichchha, jnana, and kriya shakti manifest in the jivatma living on the worldly plane as desire, knowledge, and action. As the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: \"Man is verily formed of desire. As is his desire, so is his thought. As is his thought, so is his action. As is his action, so is his attainment.\" These fashion the individuals Karmma . \"He who desires goes by work to the object on which his mind is set.\" \"As he thinks, so he becometh.\" Then, as to action, \"whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap.\" The matter is not one of punishment and reward, but of consequence, and the consequence of action is but a part of it. If anything is caused, its result is caused, the result being part of the original action, whigh continues, and is transformed into the result. The jivatma experiences happiness for his good acts and misery for his evil ones. Karmma is of three kinds viz., sanchita karmma that is, the whole vast accumulated mass of the unexhausted karmma of the past, whether good or bad, which has still to be worked out. This past karmma is the cause of the character of the succeeding births, and, as such, is called sangskara, or vasana. The second form of karmma is prarabdha, or that part of the first which is ripe, and which is worked out and bears fruit in the present birth. The third is the new karmma , which man is continually making by his present and future actions, and is called vartamana and agami . The embodied soul ( jivatma ), whilst in the sangsara or phenomenal world, is by its nature ever making present karmma and experiencing the past. Even the Devas themselves are subject to time and karmma . By his karmma a jiva may become an Indra. 68 Karmma is thus the invisible ( adrishta), the product of ordained or prohibited actions capable of giving bodies. It is either good or bad, and together these are called the impurity of acti on (karmma mala ). Even good action, when done with a view to its fruit, can never secure liberation. Those who think of the reward will receive benefit in the shape of that reward. Liberation is the work of Shiva- Shakti, and is gained only by brahmajnana, the destruction of the will to separate life, and realization of unity with the Supreme. All accompanying action must be without thought of self. With the cessation of desire the tie which binds man to the sangsara is broken. According to the Tantra, the sadhana and achara (q.v.) appropriate to an individual depends upon his karmma . A mans tendencies, character, and temperament is moulded by his sanchita karmma . As regards prarabdha- karmma , it is unavoidable. Nothing can be done but to work it out. Some systems prescribe the same method for men of divers tendencies. But the Tantra recognizes the force of karmma , and moulds its method to the temperament produced by it. The needs of each vary, as also the methods which will be the best suited to each to lead them to the common goal. Thus, forms of worship which are permissible to the vira are forbidden to the pashu. The guru must determine that for which the sadhaka is qualified (adhikara). Four Aims Of Being There is but one thing which all seek happiness though it be of differing kinds and sought in different ways. All forms, whether sensual, intellectual, or spiritual, are from the Brahman, who is Itself the Source and Essence of all Bliss, and Bliss itself (rasovai sah). Though issuing from the same source pleasure differs in its forms in being higher and lower, transitory or durable, or permanent. Those on the path of desire ( pravritti marga ) seek it through the enjoyments of this world ( bhukti ) or in the more durable, though still impermanent delights of heaven ( svarga). He who is on the path of return ( nivritti marga ) seeks happiness, not in the created worlds, but in everlasting union with their primal source ( mukti ); and thus it is said that man can never be truly happy until he seeks shelter with Brahman, which is Itself the great Bliss ( rasam hyevayam labdhva anandi bhavati ). The eternal rhythm of the Divine Breath is outwards from spirit to matter and inwards from matter to spirit. Devi as Maya evolves the world. As Mahamaya She recalls it to Herself. The path of outgoing is the way of pravritti ; that of return nivritti . Each of these movements is Divine. Enjoyment ( bhukti ) and liberation ( mukti ) are each Her gifts. And in the third chapter of the work cited it is said that of Vishnu and Shiva mukti only can be had, but of Devi both bhukti and mukti ; and this is so in so far as the Devi is, in a peculiar sense, the source whence those material things come from which enjoyment ( bhoga) arises. All jiva on their way to humanity, and the bulk of humanity itself, is on the forward path, and rightly seeks the enjoyment which is appropriate to its stage of evolution. 69 The thirst for life will continue to manifest itself until the point of return is reached and the outgoing energy is exhausted. Man must, until such time, remain on the path of desire. In the hands of Devi is the noose of desire. Devi herself is both desire and that light of knowledge which in the wise who have known enjoyment lays bare its futilities. But one cannot renounce until one has enjoyed, and so of the world- process itself it is said: that the unborn ones, the Purushas, are both subservient to Her ( prakriti ), and leave Her by reason of viveka . Provision is made for the worldly life which is the \"outgoing\" of the Supreme. And so it is s aid that the Tantrika has both enjoyment ( bhukti ) and liberation ( mukti ). But enjoyment itself is not without its law. Desire is not to be let loose without bridle. The mental self is, as is commonly said, the charioteer of the body, of which the senses are the horses. Contrary to mistaken notions on the subject, the Tantras take no exception to the ordinary rule that it is necessary not to let them run away. If one would not be swept away and lost in the mighty force which is the descent into matter, thought and action must be controlled by Dharmma. Hence the first three of the aims of life (trivarga) on the path of pravritti are dharmma, artha, and kama. Dharmma Dharmma means that which is to be held fast or kept law, usage, custom, religion, piety, right, equity, duty, good works, and morality. It is, in short, the eternal and immutable (sanatana) principles which hold together the universe in its parts and in its whole, whether organic or inorganic matter. \"That which supports and holds together the peoples (of the universe) is dharmma. \" \"It was declared for well -being and bringeth well -being. It upholds and preserves. Because it supports and holds together, it is called Dharmma. By Dharmma are the people upheld.\" It is, in short, not an artificial rule, but the principle of right living. The mark of dharmma and of the good is achara (good conduct), from which dharmma is born and fair fame is acquired here and hereafter. The sages embraced achara as the root of all tapas. Dharmma is not only the principle of right living, but also its application. That course of meritorious action by which man fits himself for this world, heaven, and liberation. Dharmma is also the result of good action that is, the merit acquired thereby. The basis of the sanatana dharm ma is revelation (shruti) as presented in the various Shastra. Smriti, Purana, and Tantra. In the Devi Bhagavata it is said that in the Kaliyuga Vishnu in the form of Vyasa divides the one Veda into many parts, with the desire to benefit men, and with the knowledge that they are short -lived and of small intelligence, and hence unable to master the whole. This dharmma is the first of the four leading arms ( chaturvarga) of all being. Kama Kama is desire, such as that for wealth, success, family, position, or other forms of happiness for self or others. It also involves the notion of the necessity for the posses -sion of great and noble aims, desires, and ambitions, for such possession is 70 the characteristic of greatness of soul. Desire, whether of the higher or lower kinds, must, however, be lawful, for man is subject to dharmma , which regulates it. Artha Artha (wealth) stands for the means by which this life may be maintained in the lower sense, food, drink, money, house, land, and other property; and in the higher sense the means by which effect may be given to the higher desires, such as that of worship, for which artha may be necessary, aid given to others, and so forth. In short, it is all the necessary means by which all right desire, whether of the lower or higher kinds, may be fulfilled. As the desire must be a right desire for man is subject to dharmma, which regulates them so also must be the means sought, which are equally so governed. This first group is known as the trivarga, which must be cultivated whilst man is upon the pravritti marga . Unless and until there is renunciation on entrance upon the path of return, where inclination ceases ( nivritti marga ), man must work for the ultimate goal by meritorious acts ( dharmma), desires ( kama ), and by the lawful means ( artha) whereby the lawful desires which give birth to righteous acts are realized. Whilst on the pravritti marga \"the trivarga should be equally cultivated, for he who is addicted to one only is despicable\" ( dharmmartha- kamah samameva sevyah yo hyekasaktah sa jano- jagha- nyah). Moksha Of the four aims, moksha or mukti is the truly ultimate end, for the other three are ever haunted by the fear of Death the Ender. Mukti means \"loosening\" or liberation. It is advisable to avoid the term \"salvation,\" as also other Christian terms, which connote different, though in a loose sense, analogous ideas. According to the Christian doctrine (soteriology), faith in Christs Gospel and in His Church effects salvation, which is the forgiveness of sins mediat ed by Christs redeeming activity, saving from judgment, and admitting to the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, mukti means a loosening from the bonds of the sangsara (phenomenal existence), resulting in a union (of various degrees of completeness) of the embodied spirit ( jivatma ) or individual life with the Supreme Spirit ( paramatma). Liberation can be attained by spiritual knowledge (atmajnana ) alone, though it is obvious that such knowledge must be preceded by, and accompanied with, and, indeed, can only be attained in the sense of actual realization, by freedom from sin and right action through adherence to dharmma. The idealistic system of Hinduism, which posits the ultimate reality as being in the nature of mind, rightly, in such cases, insists on what, for default of a better term, may be described as the intellectual, as opposed to the ethical, nature. Not that it fails to recognize the importance of the latter, but regards it as subsidiary and powerless of itself to achieve that extinction of the modifications of the energy of consciousness which constitute the supreme mukti known as Kaivalya . Such 71 extinction cannot be effected by conduct alone, for such conduct, whether good or evil, pro -duces karmma , which is the source of the modifications which i t is mans final aim to suppress. Moksha belongs to the nitvritti marga , as the trivarga appertain to the pravritti marga. There are various degrees of mukti , some more perfect than the others, and it is not, as is generally supposed, one state. There are four future states of Bliss, or pada , being in the nature of abodes viz., salokya , samipya, sarupya, and sayujya that is, living in the same loka, or region, with the Deva worshipped; being near the Deva,; receiving the same form or possessing the same aishvaryya (Divine qualities) as the Deva, and becoming one with the Deva worshipped. The abode to which the jiva attains depends upon the worshipper and the nature of his worship, which may be with, or without, images, or of the Deva regarded as distinct from the worshipper, and with attributes, and so forth. The four abodes are the result of action, transitory and conditioned. Mahanirvvana, or Kaivalya , the real moksha, is the result of spiritual knowledge ( jnana), and is unconditioned and permanent. Those who know the Brahman, recognizing that the worlds resulting from action are imperfect, reject them, and attain to that unconditioned Bliss which transcends them all. Kaivalya is the supreme state of oneness without attributes, the state in which, as the Yogasutra says, modification of the energy of consciousness is extinct, and when it is established in its own real nature. Liberation is attainable while the body is yet living, in which case there exists the state of jivanmukti celebrated in the Jivanmuk tigita of Dattatreya. The soul, it is true, is not really fettered, and any appearance to the contrary is illusory. There is, in fact, freedom, but though moksha is already in possession still, because of the illusion that it is not yet attained, means must be taken to remove the illusion, and the jiva who succeeds in this is jivanmukta , though in the body, and is freed from future embodi -ments. The enlightened Kaula, according to the Nitya- nita, sees no difference between mud and sandal, friend and foe, a dwelling -house and the cremation- ground. He knows that the Brahman is all, that the Supreme soul (paramatma) and the individual soul ( jivatma ) are one, and freed from all attachment he is jivanmukta , or liberated, whilst yet living. The means whereby mukti is attained is the yoga process ( vide ante). Siddhi Siddhi is produced by sadhana. The former term, which literally means \"success,\" includes accomplishment, achievement, success, and fruition of all kinds. A person may thus gain siddhi in speech, siddhi in mantra , etc. A person is siddha also who has perfected his spiritual development. The various powers attainable namely, anima, mahima, laghima, garima, prapti , prakamya, ishitva , vashitva , the powers of becoming small, great, light, heavy, attaining what one wills, and the like 72 are known as the eight siddhi . The thirty -ninth chapter of the Brahmavaivarta Purana mentions eighteen kinds, but there are many others, including such minor accomplishments as nakhadarpana siddhi or \"nail -gazing.\" The great siddhi is spiritual perfection. Even the mighty powers of the \"eight siddhi \" are known as the \"lesser siddhi ,\" since the greatest of all siddhi is full liberation ( mahanirvana) from the bonds of phenomenal life and union with the Paramatma, which is the supreme object ( paramartha) to be attained through human birth. A. A. 73 CHAPTER 1 - QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE LIBERATION OF BEINGS THE enchanting summit of the Lord of Mountains, resplendent with all its various jewels, clad with many a tree and many a creeper, melodious with the song of many a bird, scented with the fragrance of all the seasons flowers, most beautiful, fanned by soft, cool, and perfumed breezes, shadowed by the still shade of stately trees; where cool groves resound with the sweet -voiced s ongs of troops of Apsara, and in the forest depths flocks of kokila maddened with passion sing; where (Spring) Lord of the Seasons with his followers ever abide (the Lord of Mountains, Kailasa); peopled by (troops of) Siddha, Charana, Gandharva, and Ganapatya (1 -5). It was there that Parvati, finding Shiva, Her gracious Lord, in mood serene, with obeisance bent low and for the benefit of all the worlds questioned Him, the Silent Deva, Lord of all things movable and immovable, the ever Beneficent and ever Bl issful One, the nectar of Whose mercy abounds as a great ocean, Whose very essence is the Pure Sattva Guna, He Who is white as camphor and the Jasmine flower, the Omnipresent One, Whose raiment is space itself, Lord of the poor and the beloved Master of al l yogi, Whose coiled and matted hair is wet with the spray of Ganga and (of Whose naked body) ashes are the adornment only; the passionless One, Whose neck is garlanded with snakes and skulls of men, the three- eyed One, Lord of the three worlds, with one hand wielding the trident and with the other bestowing blessings; easily appeased, Whose very substance is unconditioned Knowledge; the Bestower of eternal emancipation, the Ever -existent, Fearless, Changeless, Stainless, One without defect, the Benefactor of all, and the Deva of all Devas (5- 10). Shri Parvati said: O Deva of the Devas, Lord of the world, Jewel of Mercy, my Husband, Thou art my Lord, on Whom I am ever dependent and to Whom I am ever obedient. Nor can I say ought without Thy word. If Thou hast affection for me, I crave to lay before Thee that which passeth in my mind. Who else but Thee, O Great Lord, in the three worlds is able to solve these doubts of mine, Thou Who knowest all and all the Scriptures (11- 13). Shri Sadashiva said: What is that Thou sayest, O Thou Great Wise One and Beloved of My heart, I will tell Thee anything, be it ever so bound in mystery, even that which should not be spoken of before Ganesha and Skanda Commander of the Hosts of Heaven. What is there in all the three worlds which should be concealed from Thee? For Thou, O Devi, art My very Self. There is no difference between Me and Thee. Thou too art omnipresent. What is it then that Thou knowest not that Thou questionest like unto one who knoweth nothing (14- 16). 74 The pure Parvati, gladdened at hearing the words of the Deva, bending low made obeisance and thus questioned Shangkara. Shri Adya said: O Bhagavan! Lord of all, Greatest among those who are versed in Dharmma, Thou in former ages in Thy mercy didst through Brahma reveal the four Vedas which are the propagators of all dharmma and which ordain the rules of life for all the varying castes of men and for the different stages of their lives (18- 19). In the First Age, men by the practice of yaga and yajna prescribed by Thee were virtuous and pleasing to Devas and Pitris (20). By the study of the Vedas, dhyana and tapas, and the conquest of the senses, by acts of mercy and charity men were of exceeding power and courage, strength and vigour, adherents of the true Dharmma, wise and truthful and of firm resolve, and, mortals though they were, they were yet like Devas and went to the abode of the Devas (21, 22). Kings then were faithful to their engagements and were ever concerned with the protection of their people, upon whose wives they were wont to look as if upon their mothers, and whose children they regarded as their very own (23). The people, too, did then look upon a neighbours property as if it were mere lumps of clay, and, with devotion to their Dharmma, kept to the path of righteousness (24). There were then no liars, none who were selfish, thievish, malicious, foolish, none who were evil -minded, envious, wrathful, gluttonous, or lustful, but all were good of heart and of ever blissful mind. Land then yielded in plenty all kinds of grain, clouds showered seasonable rains, cows gave abundant milk, and trees were weighted with fruits (25- 27). No untimely death there was, nor famine nor sickness. Men were ever cheerful, prosperous, and healthy, and endowed with all qualities of beauty and brilliance. Women were chaste and devoted to their husbands. Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras kept to and followed the customs, Dharmma, yajna, of their respective castes, and attained the final liberation (28- 29). After the K rita Age had passed away Thou didst in the Treta Age perceive Dharmma to be in disorder, and that men were no longer able by Vedic rites to accomplish their desires. For men, through their anxiety and perplexity, were unable to perform these rites in which much trouble had to be overcome, and for which much preparation had to be made. In constant distress of mind they were neither able to perform nor yet were willing to abandon the rites. Having observed this, Thou didst make known on earth the Scripture in the form of Smriti, which explains the meaning of the Vedas, and thus delivered from sin, which is cause of all pain, sorrow, and sickness, men too feeble for the practice of tapas and the study of the Vedas. For men in this terrible ocean of the world, who is there but Thee to be their Cherisher, Protector, Saviour, their fatherly Benefactor, and Lord? (30- 33). 75 Then, in the Dvapara Age when men abandoned the good works prescribed in the Smritis, and were deprived of one half of Dharmma and were afflicted by ills of mind and body, they were yet again saved by Thee, through the instructions of the Sanghita and other religious lore (34- 36). Now the sinful Kali Age is upon them, when Dharmma is destroyed, an Age full of evil customs and deceit. Men pursue evil ways. The Vedas have lost their power, the Smritis are forgotten, and many of the Puranas, which contain stories of the past, and show the many ways (which lead to liberation), will, O Lord! be destroyed. Men will become averse from religious rites, without restraint, maddened with pride, ever given over to sinful acts, lustful, gluttonous, cruel. heartless, harsh of speech, deceitful, short -lived, poverty -stricken, harassed by sickness and sorrow, ugly, feeble, low, stupid, mean, and addicted to mean habits, companions of the base, thievish, calumnious, malicious, quarrelsome, depraved, cowards, and ever -ailing, devoid of all sense of shame and sin and of fear to seduce the wives of others. Vipras will live like the Shudras, and whilst neglecting their own Sandhya will yet officiate at the sacrifices of the low. They will be greedy, given over to wicked and sinful acts, liars, insolent, ignorant, deceitful, mere hangers -on of others, the sellers of their daughters, degraded, averse to all tapas and vrata. They will be heretics, impostors, and think themselves wise. They will be without faith or devotion, and will do japa and puja with no other end than to dupe the people. They will eat unclean food and follow evil customs, they will serve and eat the food of the Shudras and lust after low women, and will be wicked and ready to barter for money even their own wives to the low. In short, the only sign that they are Brahmanas will be the thread they wear. Observing no rule in eating or drinking or in other matters, scoffing at the Dharmma Scriptures, no thought of pious speech ever so much as entering their minds, they will be but bent upon the injury of the good (37- 50). By Thee also have been composed for the good and liberation of men the Tantras, a mass of Agamas and Nigamas, which bestow both enjoyment and liberation, containing Mantras and Yantras and rules as to the sadhana of both Devis and Devas. By Thee, too, have been described many forms of Nyasa, such as those called srishti, sthiti (and sanghara). By Thee, again, have been described the various seated positions (of yoga), such as that of the \"tied\" and \"loosened\" lotus, the Pashu, Vira, and Divya classes of men, as also the Devata, who gives success in the use of each of the mantras (50- 52). And yet again it is Thou Who hast made known in a thousand ways rites relating to the worship with woman, and the rites which are done with the use of skulls, a corpse, or when seated on a funeral pyre (53). By Thee, too, have been forbidden both pashu- bhava and di vya-bhava. If in this Age the pashu- bhava cannot exist, how can there be divya- bhava? (54). For the pashu must with his own hand collect leaves, flowers, fruits, and water, and should not look at a Shudra or even think of a woman (55). On the other hand, the Divya is all but a Deva, ever pure of heart, and to whom all opposites are alike, free from attachment to worldly things, the same to all creatures and forgiving (56). How can men with the 76 taint of this Age upon them, who are ever of restless mind, prone to sleep and sloth, attain to purity of disposition? (57). By Thee, too, have been spoken the rites of Vira- sadhana, relating to the Pancha- tattva namely, wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and sexual union of man and woman (58- 59). But since the men of the Kali Age are full of greed, lust, gluttony, they will on that account neglect sidhana and will fall into sin, and having drunk much wine for the sake of the pleasure of the senses, will become mad with intoxication, and bereft of all notion of right and wrong (61). Some will violate the wives of others, others will become rogues, and some, in the indiscriminating rage of lust, will go (whoever she be) with any woman (62). Over eating and drinking will disease many and deprive them of strength and sense. Disordered by madness, they will meet death, falling into lakes, pits, or in impenetrable forests, or from hills or house- tops (63- 64). While some will be as mute as corpses, others will be for ever on the chatter, and yet others will quarrel with their kinsmen and elders. They will be evil -doers, cruel, and the destroyers of Dharmma (65-66). I fear, O Lord! that even that which Thou hast ordained for the good of men will through them turn out for evil (67). O Lord of the World! who will practise Yoga or Nyasa, who will sing the hymns and draw the Yantra and make Purashcharana? (68). Under the influences of the Kali Age man will of his nature become indeed wicked and bound to all manner of sin (69). Say, O Lord of all the distressed! in Thy mercy how without great pains men may obtain longevity, health, and energy, increase of strength and courage, learning, intelligence, and happiness; and how they may become great in strength and valour, pure of heart, obedient to parents, not seeking the love of others wives, but devoted to their own, mindful of the good of their neighbour, reverent to the Devas and to their gurus, cherishers of their children and kinsmen (70- 72), possessing the knowledge of the Brahman, learned in the lore of, and ever meditating on, the Brahman. Say, O Lord! for the good of the world, what men should or should not do according to their different castes and stages of life. For who but Thee is their Protector in all the three worlds? (73- 74). End of the First Joyful Message, entitled \"Questions relating to the Liberation of Beings.\" 77 CHAPTER 2 - INTRODUCTION TO THE WORSHIP OF BRAHMAN HAVING heard the words of the Devi, Shangkara, Bestower of happiness on the world, great Ocean of mercy, thus of the truth of things spoke. Sadashiva said: O Exalted and Holy One! Benefactress of the universe, well has it been asked by Thee. By none has such an auspicious question been asked aforetime (2). Worthy of all thanks art Thou, Who knoweth all good, Benefactress of all born in this age, O Gentle One! Thou art Omniscient. Thou knowest the past, present, and future, and Dharmma. What Thou hast said about the past, present, and future, and, indeed, all things, is in accordance with Dharmma, and is the truth, and is without a doubt accepted by Me. O Sureshvari! I say unto you most truly and without all doubt that men, whether they be of the twice born or other castes, afflicted as they are by this sinful Age, and unable to distinguish the pure from the impure, will not obtain purity or the success of their desired ends by the Vedic ritual, or that prescribed by the Sanghitas and Smritis (3- 6). Verily, verily, and yet again verily, I say unto you that in this Age there is no way to liberation but that proclaimed by the Agama (7). I, O Blissful One, have already foretold in the Vedas, Smritis, and Puranas,' that in this Age the wise shall worship after the doctrine of the Agama (8). Verily, verily, and beyond all doubt, I say to you that there is no liberation for him who in this Age, heedless of such doctrine, follows another (9). There is no Lord but I in this world, and I alone am He Who is spoken of in the Vedas, Puranas, and Smritis and Sanghitas (10). The Vedas and the Puranas proclaim Me to be the cause of the purity of the three worlds, and they who are averse to My doctrine are unbelievers and sinners, as great as those who slay a Brahmana (11). Therefore, O Devi! the worship of him who heeds not My precepts is fruitless, and, moreover, such an one goes to hell (12). The fool who would follow other doctrine heedless of Mine is as great a sinner as the slayer of a Brahmana or of a woman, or a parricide; have no doubt of that (13). In this Age the Mantras of the Tantras are efficacious, yield immediate fruit, and are auspicious for Japa, Yajna, and all such practices and ceremonies (14). The Vedic rites and Mantras which were efficacious in the First Age have ceased to be so in this. They are now as powerless as snakes, the poison- fangs of which are drawn and are like to that which is dead (15). The whole heap of other Mantras have no more power than the organs of sense of some pictured image on a wall. To worship with the aid of other Mantras is as fruitless as it is to cohabit with a barren woman. The labour is lost (16- 17). He who in this Age seeks salvation by ways prescribed by others is like a thirsty fool who digs a well on the bank of the Jahnavi (18), and he who, knowing My Dharmma, craves for any other is as one who with nectar in his 78 house yet longs for the poisonous juice of the akanda plant (19). No other path is there to salvation and happiness in this life or in that to come like unto that shown by the Tantras (20). From my mouth have issued the several Tantras with their sacred legends and practices both for Siddhas and Sadhakas (21). At times, O My Beloved! by reason of the great number of men of the pashu disposition, as also of the diversity of the qualifications of men, it has been said that the Dharmma spoken of in the Kulachara Scriptures should be kept secret (22). But some portions of this Dharmma, O Beloved! have been revealed by Me with the object of inclining the minds of men thereto. Various kinds of Devata and worshippers are mentioned therein, such as Bhairava, Vetala, Vatuka, Nayika, Shaktas, Shaivas, Vaishnavas, Sauras, Ganapatyas, and others. In them, too, are described various Mantra and Yantra which aid men in the attainment of siddhi, and which, though they demand great and constant effort, yet yield the desired fruit (23- 25). Hitherto My answer has been given according to the nature of the case and the questioner, and for his individual benefit only (26). None before has ever questioned Me as Thou hast done for the advantage of all mankind nay, for the benefit of all that breathes, and that, too, in such detail and with reference to the Dharmma of each of the different Ages. Therefore, out of My affection for Thee, O Parvati! I will speak to Thee of the essence of essences and of the Supreme (27- 28). O Deveshi! I will state before Thee the very essence distilled from the Vedas and Agamas, and in particular from the Tantras (29). As men versed in the Tantras are to other men, as the Jahnavi is to other rivers, as I am to all other Devas, so is the Mahanirvana Tantra to all other Agamas (30). O Auspicious One! of what avail are the Vedas, the Puranas, or the Shastras, since he who has the knowledge of this great Tantra is Lord of all Siddhi? (31). Since Thou hast questioned Me for the good of the world, I will speak to Thee of that which will lead to the benefit of the universe (32). O Parameshvari! should good be done to the universe, the Lord of it is pleased, since He is its soul, and it depends on Him (33). He is One. He is the Ever -existent. He is the Truth. He is the Supreme Unity without a second. He is Ever -full and Self - manifest. He is Eternal Intelligence and Bliss (33- 34). He is without change, Self - existent, and ever the Same, Serene, above all attributes. He beholds and is the Witness of all that passes, Omni -present, the Soul of everything that is. He, the Eternal and Omnipresent, is hidden and pervades all things. Though Himself devoid of sense, He is the Illuminator of all the senses and their powers (35- 36). The Cause of all the three worlds, He is yet beyond them and the mind of men. Ineffable and Omniscient, He knows the universe, yet none know Him (37). He sways this incompre- hensible universe, and all that has movement and is motionless in the three worlds depends on Him; and lighted by His truth, the world shines as does Truth itself. We too have come from Him as our Cause (38- 39). He, the one Supreme Lord, is the Cause of all beings, the Manifestation of Whose creative Energy in the three worlds is called Brahma (40). By His will Vishnu protects and I 79 destroy, Indra and all other Guardian Devas of the world depend on Him and hold rule in their respective regions under His command. Thou His supreme Prakriti art adored in all the three worlds (41- 42). Each one does his work by the power of Him who exists in his heart. None are ever independent of Him (43). Through fear of Him the Wind blows, the Sun gives heat, the Clouds shower seasonable rain, and the Trees in the forest flower (44). It is He who destroys Time at the Great Dissolution, of Whom even Fear and Death itself are afraid. He is Bhagavan, Who is known as Yat Tat in the Vedanta (45).O Adored of the Devas! all the Devas and Devis nay, the whole universe, from Brahma to a blade of grass are His forms (46). If He be pleased, the Universe is pleased. If aught be done to gratify Him, then the gratification of All is caused (47). As the pouring of water at the root of a tree satisfies the wants of the leaves and branches, so by worshipping Him all the Deathless Ones are satisfied (48). Just as, O Virtuous One! all the beautiful Ones are pleased when Thou art worshipped and when men meditate on and make Japa and pray to Thee (49). As all rivers must go to the ocean, so, O Parvati! all acts of worship must reach Him as the ultimate goal (50). Whoever be the worshipper, and whoever be the Devata, he reverentially worships for some desired end, all that is given to him through the Deva he so worships comes from Him as the Supreme (51). Oh, what use is it to say more before Thee, O My Beloved? There is none other but Him to meditate upon, to pray to, to worship for the attainment of liberation (52). Need there is none to trouble, to fast, to torture ones body, to follow rules and customs, to make large offerings; need there is none to be heedful as to time nor as to Nyasa or Mudra, wherefore, O Kuleshani! who will str ive to seek shelter elsewhere than with Him? (53- 54). End of the Second Joyful Message, entitled \"Introduction to the Worship of Brahman.\" 80 CHAPTER 3 - DESCRIPTION OF THE WORSHIP OF THE SUPREME BRAHMAN SHRI DEVI said: O Deva of the Devas, great Deva, Guru of Brihaspati himself, Thou Who discourseth of all Scriptures, Mantra, Sadhana, and hast spoken of the Supreme Brahman by the adoration of Whom mortals attain happiness and liberation, do Thou, O Lord! deign to instruct us in the way of service of the Supreme Soul and of the observances, Mantra, and meditation in His worship. It is my desire, O Lord! to hear the essential substance of all these from Thee (1- 4). Shri Sadashiva said: Listen, then, O Beloved of My life! to the most secret and supreme Truth, the mystery whereof has nowhere yet been revealed (5). Because of My affection for Thee I shall speak to Thee of that Supreme Brahman, Who is ever Existent, Intelligent, and Who is dearer to Me than life itself. O Maheshvari! the eternal, intelligent, infinite Brahman may be known in Its real Self or by Its external signs (5 -6). That Which is changeless, existent only, and beyond both mind and speech, Which shines as the Truth amidst the illusion of the three worlds, is the Brahman according to Its real nature (7). That Brahman is known in samadhi - yoga by those who look upon all things alike, who are above all contraries, devoid of doubt, free of all illusion regarding body and soul (8). That same Brahman is known from His external signs, from Whom the whole universe has sprung, in Whom when so sprung It exists, and into Whom all things return (9). That which is known by intuition may also be perceived from these external signs. For those who would know Him through these external signs, for them sadhana is enjoined (10). Attend to me, Thou, O dearest One! while I speak to Thee of such sadhana. And firstly, O Adye! I tell Thee of the Mantroddhara of the Supreme Brahman (11). Utter first the Pranava, then the words \"existence\" and \"intelligence,\" and after the word \"One\" say \"Brahman.\" MANTRA Ong Sachchidekam Brahma (12). This is the Mantra. These words, when combined according to the rules of Sandhi, form a Mantra of seven letters. If the Pranava be omitted, it becomes a Mantra of six letters only (13). This is the most excellent of all the Mantras, and the one which immediately bestows Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. In the use of this Mantra there is no need to consider whether it be efficacious or not, or friendly or inimical, 81 for no such considerations affect it (14). Nor at initiation into this Mantra is it necessary to make calculations as to the phases of the Moon, the propitious junction of the stars, or as to the Signs of the Zodiac. Nor are there any rules as to whether the Mantra is suitable or not. Nor is there need of the ten Sangskara. This Mantra is in every way efficacious in initiation. There is no necessity for considering anything else (15). Should one have obtained, through merit acquired in previous births, an excellent Guru, from whose lips this Mantra is received, then life indeed becomes fruitful (16), and the worshipper receiving in his hands Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha, rejoices both in this world and the next (17). He whose ears this great jewel of Mantra reaches is indeed blest, for he has attained the desired end, being virtuous and pious, and is as one who has bathed in a the sacred places, been initiated in all Yajnas, versed in all Scriptures, and honoured in all the worlds (18- 19). Happy is the father and happy the mother of such a one yea, and yet more than this, his family is hallowed and the gladdened spirits of the Pitris rejoice with th Devas, and in the excess of their joy sing (20): \"In our family is born the most excellent of our race, one initiate in the Brahma- mantr a. What need have we now of pinda offered at Gaya, or of shraddha, tarpana, pilgrimage at holy places (21); of what use are alms, japa, homa, or sadhana, since now we have obtained imperishable satisfaction?\" (22) Listen, O Devi! Adored of the world, whilst I tell You the very truth that for the worshippers of the Supreme Brahman there is no need for other religious observances (23). At the very moment of initiation into this Mantra the disciple is filled with Brahman, and for such an one, O Devi! what is there which is unattainable in all the three worlds? (24). Against him what can adverse planets or Vetala, Chetaka, Pishacha, Guhyaka, Bhuta, the Matrika, Dakini, and other spirits avail? The very sight of him will drive them to flight with averted faces (25). Guarded by the Brahma- mantra, clad with the splendour of Brahman, he is as it were another Sun. What should he fear, then, from any planet? (26). They flee, frightened like elephants at the sight of a lion, and perish like moths in a flame (27). No sin can touch, and none but one as wicked as a suicide can harm, him, who is purified by truth, without blemish, a benefactor of all beings, a faithful believer in Brahman (28). The wicked and sinful who seek to harm him who is initiate in the knowledge of the Supreme Brahman do but harm themselves, for are they not indeed in essence inseparate from the ever -existent One? (29). For he is the holy sage and well -wisher, working for the happiness of all, and, O Devi! should it be possible to harm such an one who can go in peace? (31). For him, however, who has no knowledge of the meaning of nor of the awakening of the Mantra, it is fruitless, even though it were inwardly uttered ten million times (31). Listen, then, O My Beloved! while I tell Thee of the meaning and awakening of Mantra. By the letter A is meant the Protector of the world; the letter U denotes its Destroyer; and M stands for its Creator (32). The meaning of Sat is Ever -existent; 82 of Chit, Intelligence; and of Ekam, One without a second. Brahman is so called because He exists everywhere. Now, O Devi! I have given You the meaning of the Mantra, which grants the fulfilment of desires. The awakening of the Mantra is the knowledge of Him, Who is the pervading Devata of the Mantra, and such knowledge, O Sup reme Devi! yields the fruit of worship to the worshipper (35). O Devi! the presiding Devata of the Mantra is the omnipresent, eternal, inscrutable, formless, passionless, and ineffable Brahman (36). When introduced by the Vija of Sarasvati, Maya, or Kamala, instead of the Mantra Om, it bestows various kinds of learning, siddhi, and prosperity in every quarter (37). The Mantra may be varied either by the prefixing or omitting of Om, or by the placing of it before each word or every two words of the Mantra (38). Sadashiva is the Rishi of this Mantra. The verse is called Anushtup, and its presiding Devata is the Supreme Brahman, Who is without attributeand Who abides in all things. It avails for the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Now listen, dear One, whilst I speak to You of Anga- nyasa and Kara- nyasa (39- 40). O great and adorable Devi! the syllable Om, the words Sat, Chit, Ekam, Brahma, should be pronounced over the thumb, the threatening finger, the middle, nameless, and little fingers respectively, followed in each case by the words Namah, Svaha, Vashat, Hung, and Vaushat; and Ong Sachchidekam Brahma should be said over the palm and back of the hand, followed by the Mantra Phat (41, 42). The worshipper disciple should in the like manner, with his mind well under control, perform Anga- nyasa in accordance with the rules thereof, commencing with the heart and ending with the hands (43). After this, whilst reciting the Mantra Om or the Mula -mantra, Pranayama should be performed thus: He should close the left nostril with the middle of the fourth finger, and then inhale through the right nostril, meanwhile making japa of the Pranava or the Mula- mantra eight times. Then, closing the right nostril with the thumb and shutting also the mouth, make japa of the Mantra thirty -two times. After that gently exhale the breath through the right nostril, doing japa of the Mantra the while sixteen times. In the same way perform these three acts with the left nostril, and then repeat the same process with the right nostril. O adored of the Devas! I have now told Thee of the method of Pranayama to be observed in the use of the Brahma- Mantra (44 -48). The Sadhaka should then make meditation which accomplishes his desire (49). DHYANA In the lotus of my heart I contemplate the Divine Intelligence, the Brahman without distinctions and difference, Knowable by Hari, Hara, and Vidhi, whom Yogis approach in meditation, He Who destroys the fear of birth and death, Who is Existence, Intelligence, the Root of all the three worlds (50) 83 Having thus contemplated the Supreme Brahman, the worshipper should, in order to attain union with Brahman, worship with offerings of his mind (51). For perfume let him offer to the Supreme Soul the essence of the Earth, for flowers the ether, for incense the essence of the air, for light the Lustre of the universe, and for food the essence of the Waters of the world (52). After mentally repeating the great mantra and offering the fruit of it to the Supreme Brahman, the excellent disciple should commence external worship Meditating with closed eyes on the Eternal Brahman, the worshipper should with reverence offer to the Supreme whatever be at hand, such as perfumes, flowers, clothes, jewels, food, and drink, after having purified them with the following (54- 55): MANTRA The vessel in which these offerings are placed is Brahman, and so, too, is the gheeoffered therein. Brahman is both the sacrificial Fire and he who makes the sacrifice, and to Brahman he will attain whose mind is fixed on the Brahman by t he performance of the rites which lead to Brahman (56). Then, opening the eyes, and inwardly and with all his power making japa with the Mula- mantra, the worshipper should offer the japa to Brahman and then recite the hymn that follows and the Kavacha- mant ra (57). Hear, O Maheshvari! the hymn to Brahman, the Supreme Spirit, by the hearing whereof the disciple becomes one with the Brahman (58). Stotra Ong! I bow to Thee, the eternal Refuge of all: I bow to Thee, the pure Intelligence manifested in the univer se. I bow to Thee Who in His essence is One and Who grants liberation. I bow to Thee, the great, all -pervading attributeless One (59). Thou art the only Refuge and Object of adoration. The whole universe is the appearance of Thee Who art its Cause. Thou alone art Creator, Preserver, Destroyer of the world. Thou art the sole immutable Supreme, Who art neither this nor that (6o); Dread of the dreadful, Terror of the terrible. Refuge of all beings, Purificator of all purificators. Thou alone rulest the high- placed ones, Supreme over the supreme, Protector of the Protectors (61). O Supreme Lord in Whom all things are, yet Unmanifest in all, 84 Imperceptible by the senses, yet the very truth. Incomprehensible, Imperishable, All -pervading hidden Essence. Lord and Light of the Universe! save us from harm (62). On that One alone we meditate, that One alone we in mind worship, To that One alone the Witness of the Universe we bow. Refuge we seek with the One Who is our sole Eternal Support, The Self -existent Lord, the Vessel of safety in the ocean of being (63). This is the five- jewelled hymn to the Supreme Soul. He who pure in mind and body recites this hymn is united with the Brahman (64). It should be said daily in the evening, and particularly on the day of the Moon. The wise man should read and explain it to such of his kinsmen as believe in Brahman (65). I have spoken to You, O Devi! of the five- jewelled hymn, O Graceful One! listen now to the jagan- mangala Mantra of the amulet, by the wearing and reading whereof one becomes a knower of the Brahman (66). MANTRA May the Supreme Soul protect the head, May the Supreme Lord protect the heart, May the Protector of the world protect the throat, May the All -pervading, All -seeing Lord protect the face (67), May the Soul of the Universe protect my hands, May He Who is Intelligence itself protect the feet, May the Eternal and Supreme Brahman protect my body in all its parts always (68). The Rishi of this world -beneficent amulet is Sada- shiva; the verse is anushtup, its presiding Devata is the Supreme Brahman, and the object of its use is the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (69). He who recites this protective Mantra after offering it to its Rishi attains knowledge of Brahman, and is one immediately with the Brahman (70). If written on birch- bark and encased in a golden ball, it be worn round the neck or on the right arm, its wearer attains all kinds of powers (71). I have now revealed to Thee the amulet Mantra of the Supreme Brahman. It should be given to the favourite disciple who is both devoted to the Guru and possessed of understanding (72). The excellent Sadhaka shall, after reciting the Mantra and the hymn with reverence, salute the Supreme (73). 85 Salutation Ong I bow to the Supreme Brahman. I bow to the Supreme Soul. I bow to Him Who is above all qualities. I bow to the Ever -existent again and again (74). The worship of the Supreme Lord may be by body or mind or by word; but the one thing needful is purity of disposition (75). After worshipping in the manner of which I have spoken, the wise man should with his friends and kinsmen partake of the holy food consecrated to the Supreme Spirit. (76) In the worship of the Supreme there is no need to invoke Him to be present or to desire Him to depart. It may be done always and in all places (77). It is of no account whether the worshipper has or has not bathed, or whether he be fasting or have taken food. But the Supreme Spirit should ever be worshipped with a pure heart (78). After purification by the Brahma- Mantra, whatever food or drink is offered to the Supreme Lord becomes itself purifying (79). The touch of inferior castes may pollute the water of Ganga and the Shaligrama, but nothing which has been consecrated to the Brahman (80) can be so polluted. If dedicated to Brahman with this Mantra, the worshipper with his people may eat of anything, whether cooked or uncooked (81). In the partaking of this food no rule as to caste or time need be observed. No one should hesitate to take the leavings from the plate of another, whether such another be pure or impure. (82). Whenever and whatsoever the place may be, howsoever it may have been attained, eat without scruple or inquiry the food dedicated to the Brahman (83). Such food, O Devi! even the Devas do not easily get, and it purifies even if brought by a Chamdala, or if it be taken from the mouth of a dog (84). As to that which the partaking of such food affects in men, what, O Adored of the Devas! shall We say of it? It is deemed excellent even by the Devas. Without a doubt the partaking of this holy food, be it but once only, frees the greatest of sinners and all sinners of their sins (85- 86). The mortal who eats of it acquires such merit as can only otherwise be earned by bathing and alms at thirty -five millions of holy places (87). By the eating of it ten million times greater merit is gained than by the Horse- sacrifice, or indeed by any other sacrifice whatever (88). Its excellence cannot be described by ten million tongues and a thousand million mouths (89). Wherever the Sadhaka may be, and though he be a Chandala, he attains to union with the Brahman the very moment he partakes of the nectar dedicated to Him (90). Even Brahmans versed in the Vedanta should take food prepared by low -caste men if it be dedicated to the Brahman (91). No distinction of caste should be observed in eating food dedicated to the Supreme Spirit. He who thinks it impure becomes a great sinner (92). It would be better, O 86 Beloved! to commit a hundred sins or to kill a Brahmana than to despise food dedicated to the Supreme Brahman (93). Those fools who reject food and drink made holy by the great Mantra. cause the fall of their ancestors into the lower regions, and they themselves go headlong into the Hell of blind darkness, where they remain until the Dissolution of things. No liberation is there for such as despise food dedicated to Brahman (94- 95). In the sadhana of this great Mantra, even acts without merit become meritorious; in slumber merit is acquired; and acts are accepted as rightful which are done according to the worshippers desires (96). For such what need is there of Vedic practices, or for the matter of that what need is there even of those of the Tantra? Whatever he does according to his desire, that is recognized as lawful in the case of the wise believer in the Brahman (97). For them there is neither merit nor demerit in the performance or non- performance of the customary rites. In the sadhana of this Mantra his faults or omissions are no obstacle (98). By the sadhana of this Mantra, O Great Devi! man becomes truthful, conqueror of the passions devoted to the good of his fellow -men, one to whom all things are indifferent, pure of purpose, free of envy and arrogance, merciful and pure of mind, devoted to the service and seeking the of his parents, a listener ever to things devine, a meditator ever on the Brahman. His mind is ever turned to the search for Brahman. With strength of determination holding his mind in close control, he is ever conscious of the nearness of Brahman (99- 101). He who is initiated in the Brahma- Mantra will not lie or think to harm, and will shun to go with the wives of others (102). At the commencement of all rites, let him say, \"Tat Sat\"; and before eating or drinking aught let him say, \"I dedicate this to Brahman\" (103). For the knower of Brahman, duty consists in action for the well -being of fellow -men. This is the eternal Dharmma. I will now, O Shambhavi! speak to Thee of the duties relating to Sandhya in the practice of the Brahma Mantra, whereby men acquire that real wealth which comes to them in the form of Brahman (105). Wheresoever he may be, and in whatsoever posture, the excellent and well -intentioned sadhaka shall, at morning, noon and eventide, meditate upon the Brahman in the manner prescribed. Then, O Devi! let him make japa of th Gayatri one hundred and eight times. Offering the japa to the Devata, let him make obeisance in the way of which I have spoken (106- 108). I have now told thee of the sandhya to be used by him in the sadhana of the Brahma-Mantra, and by which the worshipper shall become pure of heart (106- 108). Listen to Me now, Thou Who art figured with grace, to the Gayatri, which destroys all sin. Say \"Parameshvara\" in the dative singular, then \"vidmahe,\" and, Dear One, after the word \"Paratattvaya\" say \"dhimahi,\" adding, O Devi! the words, \"tanno Brahma prachodayat.\" MANTRA \"May we know the Supreme Lord; let us contemplate the Supreme Essence, and may that Brahman direct us.\" 87 This is the auspicious Brahma- Gayatri which confers Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (109- 111). Let everything which is done, be it worship or sacrifice, bathing, drinking, or eating, be accompanied by the recitation of the Brahma- Mantra (112). When arising at the middle of the fourth quarter of the night, and after bowing to the Preceptor who gave initiation in the Brahma- Mantra, let it be recited with all recollection. Then obeisance should be made to the Brahman as aforesaid, after meditating upon Him. This is the enjoined morning rites (113). For Purashcharana, O Beautiful One! japa of the Mantra should be done thirty -two thousand times, for oblations three thousand two hundred times; for the presenting of or offering water to the Devata, three hundred and twenty times; for purification before worship thirty -two times; an d Rrahmanas should be feasted four times(114- 115). In Purashcharana no rule need be observed touching food or as regards what should be accepted or rejected. Nor need an auspicious time nor place for performance be selected (116). Whether he be fasting or have taken food, whether with or without bathing, let the Sadhaka, as he be so inclined, make sadhana with this supreme Mantra (117). Without trouble or pain, without hymn, amulet, nyasa, mudra, or setu, without the worship of Ganesha as the Thief, yet surely and shortly the most Supreme Brahman is met face to face (118- 119). In the sadhana of this great Mantra no other Sangkalpa is necessary than the inclination of the mind thereto and purity of disposition. The worshipper of Brahman sees Brahman in everything (120). The worshipper does not sin, nor does he suffer harm should he perchance in such sadhana omit anything. On the contrary, if there be any omission, the use of this great Mantra is the remedy therefor (121). In this terrible and sinful Age devoid of tapas which is so difficult to traverse, the very seed of liberation is the use of the Brahma- Mantra (122). Various Tantras and Agamas have prescribed various modes of sadhana, but these, O Great Devi! are beyond the powers of the feeble men of this Age (123). For these, O Beloved! are short -lived, without enterprise, their life dependent on food, covetous, eager to gain wealth, so unsettled in their intellect that it is without rest, even in its attempts at yoga. Incapable, too, are they of suffering and impatient of the austerities of yoga. For the happiness and liberation of such have been ordained the Way of Brahman (124- 125). O Devi! verily and verily I say to You that in this Age there is no other way to happiness and liberation than that by initiation in Brahma- Mantra; I again say to You there is no other way (126). The rule in all the Tantras is that that which is prescribed for the morning should be done in the morning, Sandhya thrice daily and worship at midday, but, O Auspicious One! in the worship of Brahman there is no other rule but the desire of the worshipper (127). Since in Brahma- worship rules are but servants and the prohibitions of other worships do not prevail, who will seek shelter in any other? (128). Let the disciple obtain a Guru who is a knower of Brahman, peaceful and of placid mind, and then, clasping his lotus -like feet, let him supplicate him as follows: 88 Supplication to the Guru O merciful one! Lord of the distressed! to thee I have come for protection: cast then the shadows of thy lotus -like feet over my head, oh thou whose wealth is fame (130). Having thus with all his powers prayed to and worshipped his Guru, let the disciple remain before him in silence with folded hands (131). The Guru will the carefully examine the signs on and qualities of the disciple, kindly call the latter to him, and give to the good disciple the great Mantra (132). Let the wise one sitting on a seat, with his face to the East or to the North place his disciple on his left, and gaze with tenderness upon him (133). The Guru, after performing Rishi -nyasa, will then place his hand on his disciples head, and for the siddhi of the latter make japa of the Mantra one hundred and eight times (134). Let the excellent Guru, ocean of kindness, next whisper the Mantra seven times into the right ear of the disciple if he be a Brahmana, or into the left ear if he be of another caste (135). O Kalika! I have now described the manner in which instructions in Brahma- Mantra should be given. For this there is no need of puja, and his Sangkalpa should be mental only (136). The Guru should then raise the disciple, now become his son, who is lying prostrate at his lotus -feet, and say with affection the following (137). Reply of the Guru Rise, my son, thou art liberated: Be ever devoted to the knowledge of Brahman: Conquer thy passions: May thou be truthful, and have strength and health (138). Let the excellent disciple on rising make an offering of his own self, money or a fruit, as he may afford. Remaining obedient to his preceptors commands, he may then roam the world like a Deva (139). Immediately upon his initiation into this Mantra his soul is suffused with the Divine Being. What need, then, O Deveshi! for such an one to practise various kinds of sadhana? O Dearest One! I have now briefly told You of the initiation into the Brahma- Mantra (140). For such initiation the merciful mood of the Guru is alone necessary (141). The worshipper of the Divine Power, of Shiva, of the Sun, of Vishnu, Ganesha, Brahmanas versed in the Vedas and all other castes may be initiated (142). It is by the grace of this Mantra, O Devi! that I have become the Deva of Devas, have conquered Death, and have become the Guru of the whole world. By it I have done whatever I will, casting from Me ignorance and doubt (143). Brahma was the First to receive the Mantra from Me, and He taught it to the Brahmarshis, who taught it to the Devas. From these the Devarshis learnt it. The Sages learnt it of these last, and royal Rishis learnt it of Sages, and all have thus, through the grace of the Supreme Spirit and this Mantra, become one with Brahman (144- 145). In the use of this Brahma- Mantra, O Great Devi there are no restrictions. The Guru may without hesitation give his disciple his own Mantra, a father may initiate his 89 sons, a brother his brothers, a husband his, wife, a maternal uncle his nephews, a maternal grand father his grandsons (146- 147). Such fault as elsewhere there is in other worships, in the giving of ones own Mantra, in initiation by a father or oth er near relative does not exist in the case of this great and successfu Mantra (148). He who has heard it, however it may be from the lips of one initiate in the knowledge of Brahman, is purified, and attains the state of Brahman, and is affected neither by virtue nor sin (149). The householder of the Brahmanas and other castes who pray with the Brahma Mantra should be respected and worshipped as being the greatest of their respective classes (150). Brahmanas at once become like those who have conquered their passions, and lower castes become equal to Brihmanas: therefore let all worship those initiate in the Brahma- Mantra, and thus possessed of Divine knowledge (151). They who slight them are as wicked as the slayers of Brahmanas, and go to a terrible Hell, where they remain as long as the Sun and Stars endure (152). To revile and calumniate a worshipper of the Supreme Brahman is a sin ten million times worse than that of killing a woman or bringing about an abortion (153). As men by initiation in the Brahma- Mantra become freed of all sins, so, O Devi! also may they be freed by the worship of Thee (154). End of Third Joyful Message, entitled \"Description of the Worship of the Supreme Brahman.\" 90 CHAPTER 4 - INTRODUCTION OF THE WORSHIP OF THE SUPREME PRAKRITI HAVING listened with attention to that which has been said concerning the worship of the Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Devi greatly pleased again thus questioned Shankara (1). Shri Devi said: O Lord of the Universe and Husband! I bathe with contentment in the nectar of Thy words concerning the excellent worship of the Supreme, which lead to the well -being of the world and to the path of Brahman, and gives light, intelligence, strength, and prosperity (2- 3). Thou hast said, 0 Ocean of Mercy! that as union with the Brahman is attainable through worship of Him, so, it may be attained by worship of Me (4). I wish to know, O Lord! of this excellent worship of Myself, which as Thou sayest is the cause of union of the worshipper with the Brahman (5). What are its rites, and by what means may it be accomplished? What is its Mantra, and what the form of its meditation and mode of worship? (6). O Shambhu! who but Thee, great Physician of earthly ills, is fit to speak of it, from its beginning to its end, and in all its detail agreeable as it is to Me and beneficent to all humanity? (7). Hearing the words of the Devi, the Deva of Devas, Husband of Parvati, was delighted, and spoke to Her thus: (8) Shri Sadashiva said: Listen, O Thou of high fortune and destiny, to the reasons why Thou shouldst be worshipped, and how thereby the individual becomes united with the Brahman (9). Thou art the only Para Prakriti of the Supreme Soul Brahman, and from Thee has sprung the whole Universe O Shiva its Mother (10). O gracious One ! whatever there is in this world, of things which have and are without motion, from Mahat to an atom, owes its origin to and is dependent on Thee (11). Thou art the Original of all the manifestations; Thou art the birthplace of even Us; Thou knowest the w hole world, yet none know Thee (12). Thou art Kali, Tarini, Durga, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Dhumavati. Thou art Bagala, Bhairavi, and Chhinna -mastaka. Thou art Anna- purna, Vagdevi, Kama- lalaya. Thou art the Image or Embodiment of all the Shaktis and of all the Devas (13- 14). Thou art both Subtle and Gross, Manifested and Veiled, Formless, yet with form. Who can understand Thee? (15). For the accomplishment of the desire of the worshipper, the good of the world, and the destruction of the Danavas, Thou dost assume various forms (16). Thou art four -armed, two- armed, six -armed, and eight -armed, and holdest various missiles and weapons for the protection of the Universe (17). In other Tantras I have spoken of the different Mantras and Yantras, with the use of which 91 Thou shouldst be worshipped according to Thy different forms, and there, too, have I spoken of the different dispositions of men (18). In this Kali Age there is no Pashu- bhava: Divya- bhava is difficult of attainment, but the practices relating to Vira- sadhana yield visible fruit (19). In this Kali Age, O Devi! success is achieved by Kaulika worship alone, and therefore should it be performed with every care (20). By it, O Devi! is acquired the knowledge of Brahman, and the mortal endowed therewith is of a surety whilst living freed from future births and exonerated from the performance of all religious rites (21). According to human knowledge the world appears to be both pure and impure, but when Brahma- jnana has been acquired there is no distinction between pure and impure (22). For to him who knows that the Brahman is in all things and eternal, what is there that can be impure? (23). Thou art the Image of all, and above all Thou art the Mother of all. If Thou art pleased, O Queen of the Devas! then all are pleased (24). Before the Beginning of things Thou didst exist in the form of a Darkness which is beyond both speech and mind, and of Thee by the creative desire of the Supreme Brahman was the entire Universe born (25). This Universe, from the great pri nciple of Mahat down to the gross elements, has been created by Thee, since Brahman Cause of all causes is but the instrumental Cause (26). It is the Ever -existent, Changeless, Omnipresent, Pure Intelligence unattached to, yet existing in and enveloping al l things (27). It acts not, neither does It enjoy. It moves not, neither is It motionless. It is the Truth and Knowledge, without beginning or end, Ineffable and Incomprehensible (28). Thou the Supreme Yogini dost, moved by his mere desire, create, protect, and destroy this world with all that moves and is motionless therein (29). Mahakala, the Destroyer of the Universe, is Thy Image. At the Dissolution of things, it is Kala Who will devour all (30), and by reason of this He is called Mahakala, and since Thou devourest Mahakala Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kalika (31). Because Thou devourest Kala, Thou art Kali, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya Kali (32). Resuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable (33). Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art (34). Hence it is, 0 Gentle One! that whatsoever fruit is attained by initiation in the Brahma- Mantra, the same may be had by the worship of Thee (35). According to the differences in place, time, and capacity of the worshippers I have, O Devi! in some of the Tantras spoken of secret worship suited to their respective customs and dispositions (36). Where men perform that worship which they are privileged to perform, there they participate in the fruits of worship, and being freed 92 from sin will with safety cross the Ocean of Being (37). By merit acquired in many previous births the mind inclines to Kaulika doctrine, and he whose soul is purified by such worship himself becomes Shiva (38). Where there is abundance of enjoyment, of what use is it to speak of Yoga, and where there is Yoga there is no enjoyment, but the Kaula enjoys both (39). If one honours but one man versed in the knowledge of the essence of Kula doctrine, then all the Devas and Devis are worshipped there is no doubt of that (40). The merit gained by honouring a Kaulika is ten million times that which is acquired by giving away the world with all its gold (41). A Chandala versed in the knowledge of Kaulika doctrine excels a Brahmana, and a Brahmana who is wanting in such knowledge is beneath even a Chandala. (42). I know of no Dharmma superior to that of the Kaulas, by adherence to which man becomes possessed of Divine knowledge (43). I am telling Thee the truth, O Devi! Lay it to the heart and ponder over it. There is no doctrine superior to the Kaulika doctrine, the most excellent of all (44). This is the most excellent path kept hidden by reason of the crowd of Pashus, but when the Kali Age advances this pathway will be reveal ed (45). Verily and verily I say unto you that when the Kali Age reaches the fullness of its strength there will be no Pashus, and all men on earth will be followers of the Kaulika doctrine (46). O Vararohe! know that when Vedic and Puranic initiations cease then the Kali Age has become strong (47). O Shive! 0 Peaceful One! when virtue and vice are no longer judged by the Vedic rules, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (48). O Sovereign Mistress of Kaula doctrine! when the Heavenly Stream is at s ome places broken, and at others diverted from its course, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (49). O Wise One! when kings of the Mlechchha race become excessively covetous, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (50). When women become difficult of control, heartless and quarrelsome, and calumniators of their husbands, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (51). When men become subject to women and slaves of lust, oppressors of their friends and Gurus, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (52). When the fertility of the earth has gone and yields a poor harvest, when the clouds yield scanty rain, and trees give meagre fruit, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (53). When brothers, kinsmen, and companions, prompted by the desire for some trifle, will strike one another, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (54). When the open partaking of flesh and liquor will pass without condemnation and punishment, when secret drinking will prevail, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (55). As in the Satya, Treta, and Dvapara Ages wine and the like could be taken, so they may be taken in the Kali Age in accordance with the Kaulika Dharmma (56). The Kali 93 Age cannot harm those who are purified by truth, who have conquered their passions and senses, who are open in their ways, without deceit, are compassionate and follow the Kaula doctrine (57). The Kali Age cannot harm those who are devoted to the services of their Guru, to the lotus of their mothers feet, and to their own wives (58). The Kali Age cannot harm those who are vowed to and grounded in truth, adherents of the true Dharmma, and faithful to the performance of Kaulika rites and duties (59). The Kali Age cannot harm those who give to the truthful KaulikaYogi the elements of worship, which have been previously purified by Kaulika rites (60). The Kali Age cannot harm those who are free of malice, envy, arrogance, and hatred, and who are firm in the faith of Kaulika dharmma (61). The Kali Age cannot harm those who keep the company of Kaulikas, or live with Kaulika Sages, or serve the Kaulikas (62). The Kali Age cannot harm those Kaulikas who, whatever they may appear outwardly to be, yet remain firm in their Kaulika Dharmma, worshipping Thee according to its doctrine (63). The Kali Age cannot harm those who perform their ablutions, charities, penances, pilgrimages, devotions, and offerings of water according to the Kaulika ritual (64). The Kali Age cannot harm those who perform the ten purificatory ceremonies, such as the blessing of the womb, obsequial ceremonies of their fathers, and other rites according to Kaulika ritual (65). The Kali Age cannot harm those who respect the Kaula- tattva, Kaula- dravya, and Kaula- yogi (66). The Kali Age is but the slave of those who are free of all crookedness and falsehood, men of candour, devoted to the good of others, who follow Kaulika ways (67). In spite of its many blemishes, the Kali Age possesses one great merit, that from the mere intention of a Kaulika of firm resolution desired result ensues (68). In the other Ages, O Devi! effort of will produced both religious merit and demerit, but in the Kali Age men by intention merely acquire merit only, and not demerit (68). The slaves of the Kali Age, on the other hand, are those who know not Kulachara, and who are ever untruthful and the persecutors of others (70). They too are the slaves of the Kali Age who have no faith in Kulacharas, who lust after others wives, and hate them who are faithful to Kaulika doctrine (71). In speaking of the customs of the different Ages, I have, O Gentle One! and out of love, O Parvati! truly recounted to Thee the signs of the dominance of the Kali Age (72). When the Kali Age is made manifest, piety is enfeebled and Truth alone remains; therefore should one be truthful (73). O Thou Virtuous One! know this for certain, that whatsoever man does with Truth that bears fruit (74). There is no Dharmma higher than Truth, there is no sin greater than falsehood; therefore should man seek protection under Truth with all his soul (75). Worship without Truth is useless, and so too without Truth is the Japa of Mantras and the performance of Tapas. It is in such cases just as if one sowed seed in salt earth (76). 94 Truth is the appearance of the Supreme Brahman; Truth is the most excellent of all Tapas; every act is rooted in Truth. Than Truth there is nothing more excellent (77). Therefore has it been said by Me that when the sinful Kali Age is dominant, Kaula ways should be practised truthfully and without concealment (78). Truth is divorced from concealment. There is no concealment without untruth. Therefore is it that the Kaulika -sadhaka, should perform his Kaulika -sadhana openly (79). What I have said in other Kaulika Tantras about the concealment of Kaulika- dharmma not being blameworthy is not applicable when the Kali Age becomes strong (8o). In the (First or) Satya. Age, O Devi! Virtue possessed the four quarters of its whole; in the Treta Age it lost one- quarter of its Virtue; in the Dvapara Age there was of Virtue but two quarters, and in the Kali Age it has but one (81). In spite of that Truth will remain strong, though Tapas and Charity become weakened. If Truth goes Virtue goes also, therefore of all acts Truth should be the abiding support (82). O Sovereign Mistress of the Kaula- Dharmma! since men can in this Age have recourse to Kaulika Dharmma only, if that doctrine be itself infected with untruth, how can there be liberation? (83). With his soul purified in every way by Truth, man should, according to his caste and stage of life, perform the following acts in the manner shown by Me (84): initiation, worship, recitation of Mantras, the worship of Fire with ghee, repetition of Mantras, private devotions, marriage, the conception ceremony, and that performed in the fourth, sixth, or eighth months of pregnancy, the natal rite, the naming and tonsure ceremonies, and obsequial rites upon cremation and after death. All such ceremonies should be performed in the manner approved by the Agamas (85- 86). The ritual which I have ordained should be followed, too, as regards Shraddha at holy places, dedication of a bull, the autumnal festival, on setting out on a journey, on the first entry into a house, the wearing of new clothes or jewels, dedication of tanks, wells, or lakes, in the ceremonies performed at the phases of the Moon, the building and consecration of houses, the installation of Devas, and in all observances to be performed during the day or at night, in each month, season, or year, and in observances both daily or occasional, and also in deciding generally what ought and what ought not to be done, and in determining what ought to be rejected and what ought to be adopted (87- 90). Should one not follow the ritual ordained, whether from ignorance, wickedness, or irreverence, then one is disqualified for all observances, and becomes a worm in dung (91). O Maheshi! if when the Kali Age has become very powerful any act be done in violation of My precepts, then that which happens is the very contrary of that which is desired (92). Initiation of which I have not approved destroys the life of the disciple, and his act of worship is as fruitless as oblations poured on ashes, and the Deva whom he worships becomes angry or hostile, and at every step he encounters danger (93). Ambika! he who during the dominance of the Kali Age, knowing My ordinances, yet performs his religious observances in other ways, is a great sinner (94). The man who performs any Vrata, or marries according to other ways, will remain in a terrible 95 Hell so long as the Sun and Moon endure (95). By his performance of Vrata he incurs the sin of killing a Brahmana, and similarly by being invested with the sacred thread he is degraded. He merely wears the thread, and is lower than a Chandala (96), and so too the woman who is married according to other ways than Mine is to be despised, and, 0 Sovereign Mistress of the Kaulas! the man who so marries is her associate in wrong, and is day after day guilty of the sin of going with a prostitute (97). From him the De vata will not accept food, water, and other offerings, nor will the Pitris eat his offerings, considering them to be as it were mere dung and pus (98). Their children are bastards, and disqualified for all religious, ancestral, and Kaulika observances and rites (99). To an image dedicated by rites other than those prescribed by Shambhu the Deva never comes. Benefit there is none either in this or the next world. There is but mere waste of labour and money (100). A Shraddha performed according to other rites than those prescribed by the Agamas is fruitless, and he who performs it will go to Hell together with his Pitris (101). The water offered by him is like blood, and the funeral cake like dung. Let the mortal then follow with great care the precepts of Shankara (102). What is the need of saying more? Verily and verily I say to You, O Devi! that all that is done in disregard of the precepts of Shambhu is fruitless (103). For him who follows not His precepts there is no future merit. That which has been already acquired is destroyed, and for him there is no escape from Hell (104). O Great Ruler! the performance of daily and occasional duties in the manner spoken of by Me is the same as worshipping Thee (105). Listen, O Devi! to the particulars of the worship with its Mantras and Yantras, which is the medicine for the ills of the Kali Age (106). End of the Fourth Chapter, entitled \"Introduction of the Worship of the Supreme Prakriti.\" 96 CHAPTER 5 - THE FORMATION OF THE MANTRAS , PLACING OF THE JAR, AND PURIFICATION OF THE ELEMENTS OF WORSHIP SHRI SADASHIVA said: Thou art the Adya Parama Shakti, Thou art all Power. It is by Thy power that We (the Trinity) are powerful in the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction. Endless and of varied colour and form are Thy appearances, and various are the strenuous efforts whereby the worshippers may realize them. Who can describe them? (1- 2). In the Kula Tantras and Agamas I have, by the aid of but a small part of Thy mercies and with all My powers, described the Sadhana and Archana of Thy appearances; yet nowhere else is this very secret Sadhana revealed. It is by the grace of this (Sadhana), O Blessed One! that Thy mercy in Me is so great (3- 4). Questioned by Thee I am no longer able to conceal it. For Thy pleasure, O Beloved! I shall speak of that which is dearer to Me than even life itself (5). To all sufferings it brings relief. It wards off all dangers. It gives Thee pleasure, and is the way by which Thou art most swiftly obtained (6). For men rendered wretched by the taint of the Kali Age, short - lived and unfit for strenuous effort, this is the greatest wealth (7). In this (sadhana) there is no need for a multiplicity of Nyasa, for fasting or other practices of self - restraint. It is simple and pleasurable, yet yields great fruit to the worshipper (8). Then first listen, O Devi! to the Mantroddhara of the Mantra, the mere hearing of which liberates man from future births while yet living (9). By placing \"Pranesha\" on \"Taijasa,\" and adding to it \"Bherunda\" and the Vindu, the first Vija is formed. After this, proceed to the second (to). By placing \"Sandhya\" on \"Rakta,\" and adding to it \"Vama- netra\" and Vindu, the second Mantra is formed. Now listen, O Blessed One! to the formation of the third Mantra. Prajapati is placed on Dipa, and to them is added Govinda and Vindu. It yields happiness to the worshippers: After making these three Mantras add the word Parameshvari in the vocative, and then the word for Vahni -kanta. Thus, O Blessed One! is the Mantra of ten letters formed. This Vidya of the Supreme Devi contains in itself all Mantras (11- 13). The most excellent worshipper should for the attainment of wealth and all his desires make Japa of each or all of the first three Vijas (14). By omitting the first three Devi the Vidya of ten letters become one of seven. By prefixing the Vija of Kama, or the Vagbhava, or the Tara, three Mantras of eight letters each are formed (15). At the end of the Mantra of ten letters the word Kalika in the vocative should be uttered, and then the first three Vija, followed by the name of the Wife of Vahni (16). 97 This Vidya is called Shodashi, and is concealed in all the Tantras. If it be prefixed by the Vija of Vadhu or by the Pranava, two Mantras of seventeen letters each are formed (17). O Belo ved! there are tens of millions upon tens of millions, nay an hundred millions, nay countless Mantras for Thy worship. I have here but shortly stated twelve of them (18). Whatsoever Mantras are set forth in the various Tantras, they are all Thine, since Thou art the Adya Prakriti (19). There is but one sadhana in the case of all these Mantras, and of that I shall speak for Thy pleasure and the benefit of humanity (20). Without Kulachara, O Devi! the Shakti -Mantra is powerless to give success, and therefore the worshipper should worship the Shakti with Kulachara rites O Adya! the five essential Elements in the worship of Shakti have been prescribed to be Wine, Meat, Fish, parched Grain, and the Union of man with woman (22). The worship of Shakti without these five elements is but the practice of evil magic. That Siddhi which is the object of sadhana is never attained thereby, and obstacles are encountered at every step (23). As seed sown on barren rocks does not germinate, so worship without these five elements is fruitless (24). Without the prior performance of the morning rites a man is not qualified to perform the others. And therefore, O Devi! I shall first speak of those which are to be performed in the morning (25). In the second half of the last quarter of the night the disciple should rise from sleep. Having seated himself and shaken off drowsiness, let him meditate upon the image of his Guru: Dhyana As two -eyed and two- armed, situate in the white lotus of the head (26); clad in white raiment, engarlanded with white flowers, smeared with sandal paste. With one hand he makes the sign which dispels fear, and with the other that which bestows blessings. He is calm, and is the image of mercy. On his left his Shakti, holding in her hand a lotus, embraces him. He is smiling and gracious, the bestower of the fulfilment of the desires of his disciples (27- 28). O Kuleshvari! the disciple should, after having thus meditated upon his Teacher and worshipped him with the articles of mental worship, make Japa with the excellent Mantra, the Vagbhava- Vija. (29). After doing Japa of the Mantra as best lies in his power, the wise disciple should, after placing the Japa in the right palm of his excellent Guru, bow before him, saying meanwhile the following (30): Mantra I bow to thee, O Sad- guru, 98 Thou who destroyeth the bonds which hold us to this world, Thou who bestoweth the vision of Wisdom, Together with worldly enjoyment and final liberation, Dispeller of ignorance, Revealer of the Kula- dharmma, Image in human form of the Supreme Brahman (31- 32). The disciple, having thus made obeisance to his Guru, should meditate upon his Ishta -devata, and worship Her as aforesaid, inwardly reciting the Mula- mantra meanwhile (33). Having done this to the best of his powers, he should place the Japa in the left palm of the Devi, and then make obeisance to his Ishta- devata with the following (34): Mantra To thee I bow Who art one with, and the Supporter of, the Universe, I bow to Thee again and yet again, the Adya Kalika, both Creatrix and D estructress (35). Having thus made obeisance to the Devi, he should leave his house, placing his left foot first, and then make water, discharge his bowels, and cleanse his teeth (36). He then should go towards some water, and make his ablutions in the manner prescribed (37). First of all let him rinse his mouth, and then enter the water, and stand therein up to his navel. He should then cleanse his body by a single immersal only, and then, standing up and rubbing himself, rinse his mouth, saying the Mantra the while (38). That best of worshippers, the Kula- Sadhaka, should then sip a little water and say: Mantra Atma -tattvaya Svaha After that he should again sip water twice, followed in each case by the Mantras Vidya -tattvaya Svaha. Shiva -tattvaya Svaha, respectively. Lastly, he should rinse the upper lip twice (39). Then, O Beloved! the wise disciple should draw on the water the Kula- yantra with the Mantra in its centre, and do Japa over it with the Mula- mantra twelve times (40). 99 Then meditating on the Water as the Image of Fire, let him offer it thrice to the Sun in his joined palms. Sprinkling it thrice over his head, let him close the seven openings therein (41). Then for the pleasure of the Devi he should immerse himself thrice, leave the water, dry his body, and put on two pieces of clean cloth. Tying up his hair whilst reciting the Gayatri, he should mark on his forehead with pure earth or ashes the tilaka and tri -pundra, with a Vindu over it (42). Let the worshipper then perform both the Vaidika and Tantrika forms of Sandhya in their respective order. Listen while I now describe to you the Tantrika Sandhya (4g). After rinsing his mouth in the manner described, he should, O Blessed One! invoke into the water the Waters of the holy Rivers thus (45): Mantra O Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Sarasvati, Narmmada, Sindhu, Kaveri, come into this water (46). The intelligent worshipper having invoked the sacred Rivers with this Mantra, and made the angkusha- mudra, should do Japa with the Mula- mantra twelve times (47). Let him then again utter the Mula -mantra, and with the middle and nameless fingers joined together throw drops of that water thrice upon the ground (48). He should then sprinkle his head seven times with the water, and taking some in the palm of his left hand cover it up with his right (49). Then inwardly reciting the Vija of Ishana, Vayu, Varuna, Vahni, and Indra four times, the water should be transferred to the right palm (50). Seeing (in his minds eye) and meditating upon the water as Fire, the worshipper should draw it through the nose by Ida, expel it through Pingala (into his palm), and so wash away all inward impurity (51). The worshipper should then three times dash the water (so expelled into his palm) against an (imaginary) adamant. Uttering the As tra-Mantra, let him then wash his hands (52). Then rinsing his mouth, oblation of water should be offered to the Sun with the following (53): Mantra Ong Hring Hangsa To Thee, O Sun, full of heat, shining, effulgent, I offer this oblation; Svaha (54). Then let him meditate morning, midday, and evening upon the great Devi Gayatri, the Supreme Devi, as manifested in her three different forms and according to the three qualities (55). Dhyana 100 In the morning meditate upon Her in Her Brahmi form, as a Maiden of ruddy hue, with a pure smile, with two hands, holding a gourd full of holy water, garlanded with crystal beads, clad in the skin of a black antelope, seated on a Swan (56). At midday meditate upon Her in Her Vaishnavi form, of the colour of pure gold, youthf ul, with full and rising breasts, situated in the Solar disc, with four hands holding the conch-shell, discus, mace, and lotus, seated on Garuda, garlanded with wild- flowers (57- 58). In the evening the Yati should meditate upon Her as of a white colour, clad in white raiment, old and long past her youth, with three eyes, beneficent, propitious, seated on a Bull, holding in Her lotus -like hands a noose, a trident, a lance, and a skull (59 -60). Having thus meditated on the great Devi Gayatri, and offered water three times in the hollow of his joined hands, the worshipper should make Japa with the Gayatri either ten or a hundred times (61). Listen now, O Devi of the Devas! while I out of my love for Thee recite the Gayatri (62). After the word \"Adyayai\" say \"vidmahe,\" and then \"Parameshvaryyai dhimahi: tannah Kali prachodayat.\" This is Thy Gayatri which destroys all great sins (63). The inward recitation of this Vidya thrice daily obtains the fruit of the performance of Sandhya. Water should then be offered to the Devas, Rishis, and the Pitris (64). First say the Pranava, and then the name of the Deva (the Rishi or the Pitri) in the accusative case, and after that the words \"tarpayami namah.\" When, however, oblation is offered to Shakti, the Maya Vija should be said in place of the Pranava, and in lieu of Namah the Mantra Svaha (65). After uttering the Mula- mantra, say \"Sarvva- bhuta- nivasinyai,\" and then \"Sarvva- svarupa\" and \"Sayudha\" in the dative singular, as also \"Savarana\" and \"Paratpara,\" and then \"Adyayai, Kalikayai, te, idam arghyam: Svaha\" (66- 67). (When the Mantra will be.) Mantra Hring, Shring, Kring, to the Supreme Devi. O Supreme Devi, Thou Who dwelleth in all things and Whose image all things are, Who art surrounded by attendant deities, and Who bearest arms, Who art above even the most high to Thee, Who art the Adya Kalika, I offer this oblation: Svaha. Having offered this arghya to the Mahadevi, the wise one should make Japa with the Mula -mantra with all his powers, and then place the Japa in the left hand of the Devi (68). Then let the Sadhaka bow to the Devi, take such water as is needed for his worship, bowing to the water whence he has drawn it, and proceed to the place of worship, earnestly meditating on and reciting hymns of praise to the Devi meanwhile. On his arrival there let him wash his hands and feet, and then make in front of the door the Samanyarghya (69- 70). The wise one should draw a triangle, and outside it a circle, and outside the circle a square, and after worshipping the Adhara- shak ti place the vessel on the figure (71). 101 Let him wash the vessel with the Weapon- Mantra, and while filling it with water let him say the Heart -Mantra. Then, throwing flowers and perfume into the water, let him invoke the holy Rivers into it (72). Worshipping Fire, Sun, and Moon in the water of the vessel, let him say the Maya Vija over it (73). The Dhenu and Yoni Mudras should then be shown. This is known as Samanyarghya. With the water and flowers of this oblation the Devata of the entrance to the place of worship should be worshipped (74), such as Ganesha, Kshetrapala, Vatuka, Yogini, Ganga, Yamuna, Lakshmi, and Vani (75). The wise one, lightly touching that part of the door -frame which is on his left, should then enter the place of worship with his left foot forward, meditating the while on the lotus -feet of the Devi (76). Then, after worship of the presiding Deva of the site, and of Brahma in the south- west corner, the place of worship should be cleansed with water taken from the common offering (77). Let the best of worshippers then with a steady gaze remove all celestial obstacles, and by the repetition of the Weapon- Mantra remove all obstacles in the Anta- riksha (78). Striking the ground three times with his heel, let him drive away all earthly obstacles , and then fill the place of worship with the incense of burning sandal, fragrant aloe, musk, and camphor. He should then mark off a rectangular space as his seat, draw a triangle within it, and therein worship Kama- rupa with the Mantra To Kama- rupa, Namah: (79 -80). Then for his seat spreading a mat over it, let him worship the Adhara- Shakti with the Mantra Kling, Obeisance to the Adhara- Shakti of the lotus -seat (81). The learned worshipper should then seat himself according to the \"tied heroic\" mode, with his face towards the East or the North, and should consecrate the Vijaya (81). (With the following) Mantra Ong Hring. Ambrosia, that springeth from ambrosia, Thou that showereth ambrosia, draw ambrosia for me again and again. Bring Kalika within my control. Give siddhi; Svaha. This is the Mantra for the consecration of Vijaya (83- 84). Then inwardly reciting the Mula -mantra seven times over the Vijaya, show the Dhenu, the Yoni, the Avahani, and other Mudras (85). Then satisfy the Guru who resides in the Lotus of a thousand petals by thrice offering the Vijaya with the Sangketa- Mudra, and the Devi in the heart by thrice offering the Vijaya with the same Mudra, and reciting the Mula- mantra (86). Then offer oblations to the mouth of the Kundali, with the Vijaya reciting the following 102 Mantra Aing (0 Devi Sarasvati), Thou Who art the Ruler of all the essences, do Thou inspire me, do Thou inspire me, and remain ever on the tip of my tongue; Svaha (87). After drinking the Vijaya he should bow to the Guru, placing his folded palms over the left ear, then to Ganesha, placing his folded palms over his right ear, and lastly to the Eternal Adya Devi, by placing his folded palms in the middle of his forehead, and should the meanwhile meditate on the Devi. (88). The wise worshipper should place the articles necessary for worship on his right, and scented water and other Kula articles on his left (89). Saying the Mula- mantra terminated by the Weapon- Mantra, let him take water from the common offering and sprinkle the articles of worship with it, and then enclose himself and the articles in a circle of water. After that, O Devi! let him by the Vahni Vija surround them with a wall of fire (90). Then for the purification of the palms of his hands he should take up a flower which h as been dipped in sandal paste, rub it between the palms, reciting meanwhile the Mantra Phat, and throw it away (91). Then in the following manner let him fence all the quarters so that no obstructions proceed from them. Join the first and second fingers of the right hand, and tap the palm of the left hand three times, each time after the first with greater force, thus making a loud sound, and then snap the fingers while uttering the weapon- Mantra (92). He should then proceed to perform the purification of the elements of his body. The excellent disciple should place his hands in his lap with the palms upwards, and fixing his mind on the Muladhara Chakra let him rouse Kundalini by uttering the Vija \"Hung.\" Having so roused Her, let him lead Her with Prithivi by means of the Hangsa Mantra to the Svadhishthana Chakra, and let him there dissolve each one of the elements of the body by means of another of such elements (93- 94). Then let him dissolve Prithivi together with odour, as also the organ of smell, into water. Dissolve water and taste, as also the sense of taste itself, into Fire (95). Dissolve Fire and vision and form, and the sense of sight itself, into air (96). Let air and touch, as also the sense of touch itself, be dissolved into ether. Dissolve ether and sound into the conscious Self and the Self into Mahat, Mahat itself into Prakriti, and Prakriti Herself into Brahman (97). Let the wise one, having thus dissolved (the twenty -four) tattvas, then think of an angry black man in the left side of the cavity of his abdomen of the size of his thumb with red beard and eyes, holding a sword and shield, with his head ever held low, the very image of all sins (98- 99). Then the foremost of disciples should, thinking of the purple Vayu Vija as on his left nostril , inhale through that nostril sixteen times. By this let him dry the sinful body (100). Next, meditating on the red Vija of Agni as being situate in the navel, the body with all its sinful inclinations should be burnt up by the fire born of the Vija, as also by sixty-four Kumbhakas (101). Then, thinking of the white Varuna Vija in his forehead, 103 let him bathe (the body which has been so burnt) with the nectar -like water dropping from the Varuna Vija by thirty -two exhalations (102). Having thus bathed the whole body from feet to head, let him consider that a Deva body has come into being (103). Then, thinking of the yellow Vija of the Earth as situate in the Muladhara circle, let him strengthen his body by that Vija and by a steadfast and winkless gaze (104). Placing his hand on his heart and uttering the Mantra Ang, Hring, Krong, Hangsah, Sohang. let him infuse into his body the life of the Devi (105). O Ambika! having thus purified the elements (the disciple) with a mind well under control, and intent upon the nature of the Devi, should do Matrika- nyasa. The Rishi of Matrika is Brahma, and the verse is Gayatri, and Matrika is presiding Devi thereof; the consonants are its Seed, and the vowels its Shaktis, and Visarga is the End. In Lipi -nyasa, O Mahadevi! each letter should be separately pronounced as it is placed in the different parts of the body. Having similarly performed Rishi- nyasa, Kara -nyasa and Ang- ga-nyasa should be performed (106- 108). O Beauteous Face! the Mantras enjoined for Shad- ang-ga-nyasa are Ka-varga between Ang and ng, Cha- varga between ng and ng, Ta- varga between ng and ng, Ta- varga between Eng and Aing, and Pa- varga between Ong and Aung, and the letters from Ya to Ksha between Vindu and Visarga respectively (109- 110), and having placed the letters according to the rules of Nyasa, the Sadhaka should then meditate upon Sarasvati: Dhyana I seek refuge in the Devi of Speech, three- eyed, encircled with a white halo, whose face, hands, feet, middle body, and breast are composed of the fifty letters of the alphabet, on whose radiant forehead is the crescent moon, whose breasts are high and rounded, and who with one of her lotus hands makes Jnana- mudra, and with the other holds the rosary of Rudraksha beads, the jar of nectar, and learning (112 ). Having thus meditated upon the Devi Matrika, place the letters in the six Chakras as follows: Ha and Kska in the Ajna Lotus, the sixteen vowels in the Vishuddha Lotus, the letters from Ka to Tha in the Anahata Lotus, the letters from Da to Pha in Manipura Lotus, the letters from Ba to La in the Svadhishthana Lotus, and in the Muladhara Lotus the letters Va to Sa. And having thus in his mind placed these letters of the alphabet, let the worshipper place them outwardly (113- 115). Having placed them on the forehead, the face, eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, upper lip, teeth, head, hollow of the mouth, back, the hump of the back, navel, belly, heart, shoulders, (four) joints in the arms, end of the arms, heart, (four) joints of the legs, ends of legs, and on all parts from the heart to the two arms, from the heart to the two legs, from 104 the heart to the mouth, and from the heart to the different parts as above indicated, Pranayama should be performed (116- 118). Draw in the air by the left nostril whilst muttering the Maya Vija sixteen times, then fill up the body by Kumbhaka by stopping the passage of both the nostrils with the little, third finger, and thumb whilst making japa of the Vija sixty -four times, and, lastly, exhale the air through the right nostril whilst making japa of the Vija thirty -two times (119- 120). The doing of this thrice through the right and left nostrils alternately is Pranayama. After this has been done, Rishi -nyasa should be performed (121). The Revealers of the Mantra are Brahma and the Brahmarshis, the metre is of the Gayatri and other forms, and its presiding Devata is the Adya Kali (122). The Vija is the Vija of the Adya, its Shakti is the Maya Vija, and that which comes at the end is the Kamala Vija (123). Then the Mantra should be assigned to the head, mouth, heart, anus, the two feet, and all the parts of the body (123). The passing of the two hands three or seven times over the whole body from the feet to the head, and from the head to the feet, making japa meanwhile of the Mula- mantra, is called Vyapaka- nyasa, which yields the declared result (124). O Beloved! by adding in succession the six long vowels to the first Vija of the Mula-mantra, six Vidya are formed. The wise worshipper should in Angga- kalpana utter in succession these or the Mula -mantra alone (125), and then say \"to the two thumbs,\" \"to the two index fingers,\" \"to the two middle fingers,\" \"to the two ring fingers,\" \"to the two little fingers,\" \"to the front and back of the two palms,\" concluding with Namah, Svaha, Vashat, Hung, Vaushat, and Phat in their order respectively (126). When touching the heart say \"Namah,\" when touching the head \"Svaha,\" and when touching the crown lock thereon \"Vashat.\" Similarly, when touching the two upper portions of the arms, the three eyes and the two palms, utter the Mantras Hung and Vaushat and Phat respectively. In this manner nyasa of the six parts of the body should be practised, and then the Vira should proceed to Pithanyasa (127- 128). Then let the Vira place in the lotus of the heart, the Adhara- shakti, the tortoise, Shesha serpent, Prithivi, the ocean of ambrosia, the Gem Island, the Parijata tree, the chamber of gems which fulfil all desires, the jewelled altar, and the lotus seat (129- 130). Then he should place on the right shoulder, the left shoulder, the right hip, the left hip, respectively and in their order, Dharmma, Jnana, Aishvaryya, and Vairagya (131), and the excellent worshipper should place the negatives of these qualities on the mouth, the left side, the navel, and the right side respectively (132). Next let him place in the heart Ananda Kanda, Sun, Moon, Fire, the three qualities, adding to the first of their letters the sign Vindu, and the filaments and pericarp of the Lotus, and let him place in the petals of the lotus the eight Pitha Nayikas Mangala, Vijaya, Bhadra, Jayanti, Aparajita, Nandini, Narasinghi, Vaishnavi, and in the tips of the petals of the lotus the eight Bhairavas Asitanga, Chanda, Kapali, Krodha, Bhishana, Unmatta, Ruru, Sanghari (133- 135). 105 Then the worshipper should, after forming his hands into the Kachchhapa Mudra, take two fragrant flowers, and, placing his hands on his heart, let him meditate upon the ever -existent Devi (136). The nature of meditation upon Thee, O Devi! is of two kinds, according as Thou art imagined formless or with a form. As formless Thou art ineffable and incomprehensible, imperceptible. Of Thee it cannot be said that Thou art either this or that, Thou art omnipresent, unobtainable, attainable only by Yogis through penances and acts of self -restraint (137- 138). I will now speak of meditation upon Thee in corporeal form in order that the mind may learn concentration, that desires be speedily achieved, and that the power to meditate according to the subtle form may be aroused (139). The form of the greatly lustrous Kalika, Mother of Kala Who devours all things, is imagined according to Her qualities and actions (140). Dhyana I adore the Adya Kalika Whose body is of the hue of the (dark) rain- cloud, upon Whose forehead the Moon gleams, the three- eyed One, clad in crimson raiment, Whose two hands are raised the one to dispel fear, and the other to bestow blessing Who is seated on a red lotus in full bloom, Her beautiful face radiant, watching Maha- Kala, Who, drunk with the delicious wine of the Madhuka flower, is dancing before Her (141). After having meditated upon the Devi in this form, and placed a flower on his head, let the devotee with all devotion worship Her with the articles of mental worship (142). Let him offer the lotus of the heart for Her seat, the ambrosia trickling from the lotus of a thousand petals for the washing of Her feet, and his mind as arghya (143). Then let him offer the same ambrosia as water for rinsing of Her mouth and bathing of Her body, let him offer the essence of the ether to be raiment of the Devi, the essence of scent to be the perfumes, his own heart and vital air the essence of fire, and the ocean of nectar to be respectively the flowers, incense, light, and food offerings (of worship). Let him offer the sound in the Anahata Chakra for the ringing of the bell, the essence of the air for the fan and fly -whisk, and the functions of the senses and the restlessness of the mind for the dance before the Devi (144- 146). Let various kinds of flowers be offered for the attainment of the object of ones desire: amaya, anahangkara, araga, amada, amoha, adambha, advesha, akshobha, amatsaryya, alobha, and thereafter the five flowers namely, the most excellent flowers, ahingsa, indriya -nigraha, daya, kshama, and jnana. With these fifteen flowers, fifteen qualities of disposition, he should worship the Devi (147- 149). Then let him offer (to the Devi) the ocean of ambrosia, a mountain of meat and fried fish, a heap of parched food, grain cooked in milk with sugar and ghee, the Kula nectar, the Kula flower, and the water which has been used for the washing of the 106 Shakti. Then, having sacrificed all lust and anger, the cause of all impediments, let him do japa (150- 151). The mala (rosary) prescribed consists of the letters of the alphabet, strung on Kundalini as the thread (152). After reciting the letters of the alphabet from A to La, with the Vindu superposed upon each, the Mula- mantra should be recited. This is known as Anuloma. Again, beginning with La and ending with A, let the sadhaka make japa of the Mantra. This is known as Viloma and Ksha- kara is called the Meru (153- 154). The last letters of the eight groups should be added to the Mula- mantra, and having made japa of this Mantra of one hundred and eight letters the japa should be offered (to the Devi) with the following (155): Mantra O Adya Kali, Who abidest in the innermost soul of all, Who art the innermost light, O Mother! accept this japa of my heart. I bow to Thee (156). Having finished the japa, he should mentally prostrate himself, touching the ground with the eight parts of his body. Having concluded the mental worship, let him commence the outer worship (157). I am now speaking of the consecration of the Vishesh- arghya, by the mere placing whereof the Devata is exceedingly pleased. Do Thou listen (158). At the mere sight of the cup of this offering the Yoginis, Bhairavas, Brahma, and other Devatas dance for joy and grant siddhi (159). The disciple should on the ground in front of him and on his left draw with water taken from the Samanyarghya a triangle, with the Maya Vija in its centre, outside the triangle a circle, and outside the circle a square, and let him there worship the Shakti of the Adhara with the Mantra Hring! Obeisance to the Shakti of the Adhara (160- 161). He should then wash the Adhara, and place it on the Mandala, and worship the region of Fire with the Mantra Mang! Obeisance to the circle of Fire possessed of ten sections. And having washed the arghya vessel with the Mantra Phat, the worshipper should place it on the Adhara with the Mantra Namah (162- 163). He should then worship the cup with the 107 Mantra Ang! Obeisance to the circle of Sun who has twelve divisions; and fill the vessel (in which the offering is made) whilst repeating the Mula- mantra three parts with wine and one part with water, and having placed scent and flower in it, he should there worship, O Mother! with the Mantra following (164- 165): Mantra Ung! Obeisance to the Moon with its sixteen digits (166). He should then place in front of the special offering, on bael leaves dipped in red sandal paste, durva grass, flowers, and sun- dried rice (167). Having invoked the holy waters (of the sacred Rivers into the arghya) by the Mula-mantra and Angkusha- mudra, the Sadhaka should meditate upon the Devi, and worship Her with incense and flowers, making japa of the Mula- mantra twelve times (168). After this let him display over the arghya the Dhenu Mudra and the Yoni Mudra, incense sticks and a light. The worshipper should then pour a lit tle water from the arghya into the vessel kept for that purpose, and sprinkle himself and the offering therewith. The vessel containing the offering must not, however, be moved until the worship is concluded (169- 170). O Thou of pure Smiles! I have now spoken of the consecration of the special offering. I will now pass to the principal Yantra which grants the aims of all human existence (171). Draw a triangle with the Maya Vija within it, and around it two concentric circles (the one outside the other). In the space between the two circumferences of the circles draw in pairs the sixteen filaments, and outside these the eight petals of the lotus, and outside them the Bhu- pura, which should be made of straight lines with four entrances, and be of pleasing appearance (172- 173). In order to cause pleasure to the Devata the disciple should (reciting the Mula- mantra the meanwhile) draw the Yantra either with a gold needle, or with the thorn of a bael tree on a piece of gold, silver, or copper, which has been smeared with either the Svayambhu, Kunda, or Gola flowers, or with sandal, fragrant aloe, kungkuma, or with red sandal paste. A clever carver may also carve the Yantra on crystal, coral, or lapis lazuli (174- 176). After it has been consecrated by auspicious rites, it should be kept inside the house; and on this being done all wicked ghosts, all apprehensions from (adverse) planets, and diseases are destroyed; and by the grace of this Yantra the worshippers house becomes of pleasing aspect. With his children and grandchildren, and with happiness and dominion, he becomes a bestower of gifts and charities, a protector of his dependents, and his fame goes abroad (177- 178). After having drawn the 108 Yantra and placed it on a jewelled altar in front of the worshipper, and having worshipped the Devata of the Pitha according to the rules of Pitha- nyasa, the principal Devi should be adored in the pericarp of the Lotus (179). I will now speak of the placing of the jar and the formation of the circle of worship by the mere institution of which the Devata is well pleased, the Mantra becomes fruitful, and the wishes of the worshipper are accomplished (180). The jar is called kalasa, because Vishva- karma made it from the different parts of each of the Devatas (181). It should be thirty -six fingers breadth (in circumference) in its widest part, and sixteen in height. The neck should be four fingers breadth, the mouth six fingers, and the bottom five fingers breadth. This is the rule for the design of the kalasha (182). It should be made either of gold, silver, copper, bell -metal, mud, stone, or glass, and without hole or crack. In its making all miserliness should be avoided, since it is fashioned for the pleasure of the Devas (183). A kalasha of gold, one of silver, one of copper, and one of bell -metal give enjoyment, emancipation, pleasure of mind, and nourishment respectively to the worshipper. One of crystal is good for the attainment of Vashikarana, and one of stone for the attainment of Stambhana. A kalasha made of mud is good for all purposes. Whatever it is made of it should be clean and of pleasing design (184). On his left side the worshipper should draw a hexagon with a point in its centre, around it a circle, and outside the circle a square (185). These figures should be drawn either with vermilion or Rajas (Kula- pushpa), or red sandal paste; the Devata of the support should then be worshipped thereon (186). The Mantra for the worship of the Shakti or Devi of the support is Mantra Hring, salutation to the Shakti of the support (187). The support for the jar should be washed with the Mantra namah, and placed on the Mandala, and the jar itself with the Mantra Phat, and then placed on the support (188). Let the disciple then fill the kalasha with wine, uttering meanwhile the Mula -mantra and the Matrika Varnas, with Vindu in Viloma order (189). The wise one who is then himself possessed of the disposition of the Devi should worship the region of Fire, Sun, and Moon in the support in the jar and in the wine in the manner already described (190). After decorating the jar with vermilion, red sandal paste, and a garland of crimson flowers, the worshipper should perform Panchikarana (191). Strike the wine -jar with a wisp of kusha grass, saying Phat; then, whilst uttering the Vija Hung, veil it by the Avagunthana Mudra, next utter the Vaja Hring, and look with unwinking eye upon the jar, then sprinkle the jar with the Mantra Namah. Lastly, 109 whilst reciting the Mula- mantra, smell the jar three times. this is the Panchikarama ceremony (192) . Making obeisance to the jar, purify the wine therein by throwing red flowers into it, and say the following (193): Mantra Ong, O Devi Sudhe! by the Supreme Brahman, Who is One without a second: and who is always both gross and subtle, destroy the sin of slaying a Brahmana which attached to thee (the wine) by the death of Kacha (194). O Thou Who hast Thy abode in the region of the Sun, and Thy origin in the dwelling- place of the Lord of Ocean (in the churning of which thou, O Nectar! wast produced), thou w ho art one with the Ama Vija, mayest Thou be freed from the curse of Shukra (195). O Devi! as the Pranava of the Vedas is one with the bliss of Brahman, may by that truth be destroyed Thy sin of slaying a Brahmana. Mantra Hring: the Supreme Hangsa dwells in the brilliant Heaven, as Vasu It moves throughout the space between Heaven and Earth. It dwells on earth in the form of the Vedic Fire, and in the Sacrificer, and is honoured in the Guest. It is in the household Fire and in the consciousness of man, and dwells in the honoured region. It resides in Truth and in the Ether. It is born in water, in the rays of light in Truth and in the Eastern Hill where the Sun rises. Such is the great Aditya, the Truth, Which cannot be bound or concealed, the Great Consciousness Who dwelleth everywhere Brahman (196- 197). Exchange the vowel of the Varuna Vija for each of the long vowels, then say \"Salutation to the Devi of Ambrosia, who is relieved of the curse of Brahma.\" By the repetition of the entire Mantra seven times, the curse of Brahma is removed (198). Substituting in their order the six long vowels in place of the letter o in Angkusha, and adding thereto the Shri and Maya Vijas, say the following: Mantra \"Remove the curse of Krishna in the wine: pour nectar again and again: Svaha\" (199). Having thus removed the curse of Shukra, of Brahma and of Krishna, the worshipper should with mind controlled worship Ananda- Bhairava and Ananda -Bhairavi (200). The Mantra of the former is: Mantra \"Ha-Sa-Ksha -Ma-La-Va-Ra-Yung: 110 Salut ation to Ananda- Bhairava: Vashat\" (201); and in the worship of the Ananda -Bhairavi the Mantra is the same, except that its face is reversed, and in place of its Ear the left Eye should be placed, and then should be said: Mantra \"Sa-Ha-Ksha -Ma-La-Va-Ra-Ying: Salutation to the Wine Devi: Vaushat\" (202). Then, meditating upon the union of the Deva and Devi in the wine, and thinking that the same is filled with the ambrosia of such union, japa should be made over it of the Mula -mantra twelve times (203). Then, considering the wine to be the Devata, handfuls of flowers should be offered with japa of the Mula- Mantra. Lights and incense- sticks should be waved before it to the accompaniment of the ringing of a bell (204). Wine should be always thus purified in all ceremonies, whether puja of the Devata, Vrata, Homa, marriage, or other festivals (205). The disciple, after placing the meat on the triangular Mandala in front of him, should sprinkle it with the Mantra Phat, and then charge it thrice with the Vijas of Air and Fire (206). Let him then cover it up with the Gesture of the Veil, uttering the Kavacha- Mantra, and protect it with the Weapon- Mantra Phat. Then, uttering the Vija of Varuna, and displaying the Dhenu- Mudra, make the meat like unto nectar with the following (207): Mantra May that Devi whose abode is in the breast of Vishnu and in the breast of Shankara purify this my meat, and give me a resting- place at the excellent foot of Vishnu (208). In a similar manner, placing the fish and sanctifying it with the Mantras already prescribed, let the wise one say the following Mantra over it (208): Mantra \"We worship the Father of the Three; He Who causes nourishment, He Who is sweet -scented. As the fruit of the Urvaruka is detached of itself from the stalk on which it grows, so may He free us whilst living from the bond of Karmma, until we are finally liberated, and made one with the Supreme\" (210). Then, O Beloved! the disciple should take and purify the parched grain with the following: Mantras Ong! As the Eye of Heaven is plainly visible to those of the common man, so do the Wise have constant vision of the Excellent Foot of Vishnu (211). The Intelligent and 111 Prayerful, whose mind is awake and controlled, see the most excellent Foot of Vishnu (212). Or all the Tattvas may be consecrated by the Mula- Mantra itself. To him who has belief in the root, of what use are the branches and leaves? (213). I say that anything which is sanctified by the Mula- Mantra alone is acceptable for the pleasure of the Devata (214). If the time be short, or if the disciple be pressed for time, everything should be sanctified with the Mula- Mantra, and offered to the Devi (215). Truly, truly, and again truly, the ordinance of Shankara is that if the Tattvas be so offered, there is no sin or shortcoming (216). End of Fifth Joyful Message, entitled \"The Formation of the Mantras, Placing of the Jar, and Purification of the Elements of Worship.\" 112 CHAPTER 6 - PLACING OF THE SHRI-PATRA , HOMA, FORMATION OF THE CHAKRA , AND OTHER RITES SHRI DEVI said: As Thou hast kindness for Me, pray tell Me, O Lord! more particularly about the Pancha- tattvas and the other observances of which Thou hast spoken (1). Shri Sadashiva said: There are three kinds of wine which are excellent namely, that which is made f rom molasses, rice, or the Madhuka flower. There are also various other kinds made from the juice of the palmyra and date tree, and known by various names according to their substance and place of production. They are all declared to be equally appropriate in the worship of the Devata (2). Howsoever it may have been produced, and by whomsoever it is brought, the wine, when purified, gives to the worshipper all siddhi. There are no distinctions of caste in the taking of wine so sanctified (3). Meat, again, is of three kinds, that of animals of the waters, of the earth, and of the sky. From wheresoever it may be brought, and by whomsoever it may have been killed, it gives, without doubt, pleasure to the Devas (4). Let the desire of the disciple determine what should be offered to the Devas. Whatsoever he himself likes, the offering of that conduces to his well -being (5). Only male animals should be decapitated in sacrifice. It is the command of Shambhu that female animals should not be slain (6). There are three superior kinds of Fish namely, Shala, Pathina and Rohita. Those which are without bones are of middle quality, whilst those which are full of bones are of inferior quality. The latter may, however, if well fried, be offered to the Devi (7- 8). There are also three kinds of parched food, superior, middle, and inferior. The excellent and pleasing kind is that made from Shali rice, white as a moonbeam, or from barley or wheat, and which has been fried in clarified butter. The middling variety is made of fried paddy. Other kinds of fried grain are inferior (9- 10). Meat, fish, and parched food, fruits and roots, or anything else offered to the Devata along with wine, are called Shuddhi (11). O Devi! the offering of wine without Shuddhi, as also puja and tarpana (without Shuddhi), become fruitless, and the Devata is not propitiated (12). The drinking of wine without Shuddhi is like the swallowing of poison. The disciple is ever ailing, and lives for a short time and dies (13). O Great Devi! when the weakness of the Kali Age becomes great, ones own Shakti or wife should alone be known as the fifth Tattva. This is devoid of all defects (14). O Beloved of My Life! in this (the last Tattva) I have spoken of Svayambhu and other kinds of flower. As substitutes for them, however, I enjoin red sandal paste (15). 113 Neither the Tattvas nor flowers, leaves, and fruits should be offered to the Mahadevi unless purified. The man who offers them without purification goes to hell (16). The Shri -patra should be placed in the company of ones own virtuous Shakti; she should be sprinkled with the purified wine or water from the common offering (17). The Mantra for the sprinkling of the Shakti is Mantra Aing, Kling, Sauh. Salutation to Tripura; purify this Shakti, make her my Shakti; Svaha (18- 19). If she who is to be Shakti is not already initiated, then the Maya Vija should be whispered into her ear, and other Shaktis who are present should be worshipped and not enjoyed (20). The worshipper should then, in the space between himself and the Yantra, draw a triangle with the Maya Vija in its centre, and outside the triangle and in the order here stated a circle, a hexagon, and a square (21). The excellent disciple should then worship in the four corners of the square the Pithas, Purna-shaila, Uddiyana, Jalandhara, and Kama- rupa, with the Mantras formed of their respective names, preceded by Vijas formed by the first letter of their respective names, and followed by Namah (22). Then the six parts of the body should be worshipped in the six corners of the hexagon. Then worship the triangle, with the Mula- Mantra, and then the Shakti of the receptacle with the Maya Vija and Namah (23). Wash the receptacle with the Mantra Namah, and then place it (as in the case of the jar) on the Mandala, and worship in it the ten parts of Vahni with the first letters of their respective names as Vijas (24). These parts, which are ten in number viz., Dhumra, Archih, Jvalini, Sukshma, Jvalini, Vishphulingini, Sushri, Surupa, Kapila,Havya-kavya- vaha should be uttered in the Dative singular, and followed by the Mantra Namah (25- 26). Then worship the region of Vahni (in the adhara or receptacle) with the following: Mantra Mang: Salutation to the region of Vahni with his ten qualities (27). Then, taking the vessel of offering and purifying it with the Mantra Phat, place it on the receptacle, and, having so placed it, worship therein the twelve parts of the Sun with the Vijas, commencing with Ka- Bha to Tha- Da (28). These twelve parts are Tapini, Tapini, Dhumra, Marichi, Jvalini, Ruchi, Sudhumra, Bhoga- da, Vishva, Bodhini, Dharini, Kshama (29). After this, worship the region of Sun in the vessel of offering with the following: Mantra 114 Ang: Salutation to the circle of Sun, with His twelve parts (30). Then the worshipper should fill the cup of offering three- quarters full with wine taken from the jar, uttering the Matrika Vijas in the reverse order (31). Filling the rest of the cup with water taken from the special offering, let him worship with a well -controlled mind the sixteen digits of the Moon, saying as Vijas each of the sixteen vowels before each of the sixteen digits spoken in the dative singular, followed by the Mantra Namah (32). The sixteen desire- granting digits of Moon are Amrita, Pranada, Pusha, Tushti, Pushti, Rati, Dhriti, Shashini, Chandrika, Kanti, Jyotsna, Skri, Priti, Angada, Purna, and Purnamrita (33). As in the case of the other Devas mentioned, the disciple should then worship the region of the Moon with the following: Mantra Ung: Salutation to the region of Moon with its sixteen digits (34). Durva grass, sun- dried rice, red flowers, Varvara, leaf, and the Aparajita flower should be thrown into the vessel with the Mantra Hring, and the sacred waters should be invoked into it (35). Then, covering the wine and the vessel of offering with the Avagunthana Mudra, and uttering the Armour Vija, protect it with the Weapon- Vija, and converting it into ambrosia with the Dhenu- Mudra, cover it with the Matsya- Mudra (36). Making japa of the Mula- Mantra ten times, the Ishta- devata should be invoked and worshipped with flowers offered in the joined palms. Then charge the wine with the following five Mantras, beginning with akhanda: (37) Mantras O Kula -rupini! infuse into the essence of this excellent wine which produces full and unbroken bliss its thrill of joy (38). Thou who art like the nectar which is in Ananga, and art the embodiment of Pure Knowledge, place into this liquid the ambrosia of Brahmananda (39). O Thou, who art the very image of That! do Thou unite this arghya with the image or self of That, and having become the kulamrita, blossom in me (40). Bring into this sacred vessel, which is full of wine, essence of ambrosia produced from the essence of all that is in this world, and containing all kinds of taste (41). May this cup of self, which is filled with the nectar of self, Lord, be sacrificed in the Fire of the Supreme Self (42). Having thus consecrated the wine with the Mantra, think of the union in it of Sadashiva and Bhagavati and wave lights and burning incense- sticks before it (43). 115 This is the consecration of the Shri -patra in Kaulika worship. Without such purification the disciple is guilty of sin, and the worship is fruitless (44). The wise one should then, according to the rules prescribed for the placing of the common offering, place between the jar and the Shri -patra the cups of the Guru, the cup of Enjoyment, the cup of the Shakti, the cups of the Yoginis of the Vira and of Sacrifice, and those for the washing of the feet and the rinsing of the mouth respectively, making nine cups in all (45- 46). Then, filling the cups three- quarters full of wine from the jar, a morsel of Shuddhi of the size of a pea should be placed in each of them (47). Then, holding the cup between the thumb and the fourth finger of the left hand, taking the morsel of Shuddhi in the right hand, making the Tattva -mudra, Tarpana should be done. This is the practice which has been enjoined (48). Taking an excellent drop of wine from the Shripatra and a piece of Shuddhi, Tarpana should be made to the Deva Ananda- Bhairava and the Devi Ananda- Bhairavi (49). Then, with the wine in the cup of the Guru, offer oblations to the line of Gurus. in the first place to the worshippers own Guru seated together with his wife on the lotus of a thousand petals, and then to the Parama Guru, the Parapara Guru, the Parameshti Guru successively. In offering oblations to the four Gurus, the Vagbhava Vija should first be pronounced, followed in each case by the names of each of the four Gurus (50). Then, with wine from the cup of enjoyment, the worshipper should, in the lotus of his heart, offer oblations to the Adya- Kali. In this oblation Her own Vija should precede, and Svaha should follow Her name. This should be done thrice (51). Next, with wine taken from the cup of the Shakti, oblation should be similarly offered to the Devata of the parts of Her body and their Avarana -Devatas (52). Then, with the wine in the cup of the Yogini, oblation should be offered to the Adya- Kalika, carrying all Her weapons and with all Her followers. Then should follow the sacrifice to the Vatukas (53). The wise worshipper should draw on his left an ordinary rectangular figure, and after worshipping it, place therein food with wine, meat, and other things (54). With the Vijas of Vak, Maya, Kamala, and with the Mantra: \"Vang, Salutation to Vatuka,\" he should be worshipped in the East of the rectangle, and then sacrifice should be offered to him (55). Then, with the Mantra \"Yang to the Yogin is Svaha,\" sacrifice should be made to the Yoginis on the South (56), and then to Kshetra- pala on the West of the rectangle, with the 116 Mantra \"To Kshetra- pala namah,\" preceded by the letter Ksha, to which in succession the six long vowels are added with the Vindu (57). Following this, sacrifice should be made to Gana- pati on the North, adding to Ga the six long vowels in succession with the Vindu thereon, followed by the name of Ganesha in the dative singular, and ending with Svaha. Lastly, sacrifice should be made inside the rectangle to all Bhutas, according to proper form (58- 59). Uttering \"Hring, Shring, Sarvva- vighna- kridbhyah,\" add \"Sarvva- bhutebhyah,\" and then \"Hung Phat Svaha;\" this is how the Mantra is formed (60). Then a sacrifice to Shiva should be made with the following: Mantra Ong, O Dev! O Shiva, O Exalted One, Thou art the image of the final conflagration at the dissolution of things, deign to accept this sacrifice, and to reveal clearly to me the good and evil which is my destiny. To Shiva I bow. This is the Mula- Mantra in the worship of Shiva. Having said this, perform the sacrifice, saying, \"This is Thy Vali. To Shiva, Namah. O Holy One! I have now described to Thee the mode of formation of the circle of worship (and the placing of the cup and other rites) (61 -62). Then, making with the two hands the Kachchhapa- Mudra, let the worshipper take up with his hands a beautiful fiower scented with sandal, fragrant aloes, and musk, and, carrying it to the lotus of his heart, let him meditate therein (in the lotus) upon the most supreme Adya (63-64). Then let him lead the Devi along the Sushumna Nadi, which is the highway of Brahman to the great Lotus of a thousand petals, and there make Her joyful. Then, bringing Her through his nostrils, let him place Her on the flower (her presence being communicated) as it were, by one light to another, and place the flower on the Yantra and with folded hands pray with all devotion to his Ishta- devata thus (65- 66): Mantra O Queen of the Devas! Thou who art easily attained by devotion. Remain here, I pray Thee, with all Thy following, the while I worship Thee (67). Then, uttering the Vija Kring, say the following: Mantra 117 O Adya Devi Kalika! come here with all Thy following, come here (and then say), stay here, stay here (68); (and then say) place Thyself here, (and then say) be Thou detained here. Accept my worship (69). Having thus invoked (the Devi) into the Yantra, the Vital Airs of the Devi should be infused therein by the following pratishtha Mantra (70): Mantra Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha; may the five Vital Airs of this Devata be here: Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha (71). Her Jiva is here placed Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha all senses Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha. Speech, mind, sight, smell, hearing, touch, and the Vital Airs of the Adya- Kali Devata, may they come here and stay happily here for ever. Svaha (72- 74). Having recited the above three times, and having in due form placed the Vital Airs (of the Devi) in the Yantra with the Lelihina- Mudra, with folded palms, he (the worshipper) should say (75): Mantra O Adya Kali! hast Thou had a good journey, hast Thou had a good journey? O Parameshvari! mayest Thou be seated on this seat (76)? Then, whilst repeating the primary Mantra, sprinkle thrice the water of the special oblati on over the Devi, and then make Nyasa of the Devi with the six parts of Her body. This ceremony is called Sakalikarama or Sakalikriti. Then worship the Devi with all the sixteen offerings (77). These are: water for washing the feet, the water for the offering, water for rinsing the mouth and for Her bath, garments, jewels, perfume, flowers, incense- sticks, lights, food, water for washing the mouth, nectar, pan, water of oblation, and obeisance. In worship these sixteen offerings are needed (78 -79). Uttering the Adya Vija, and then saying \"this water is for washing the feet of the (Adya). To the Devata Namah,\" offer the water at the feet of the Devi. Similarly with the word Svaha, in place of Namah, the offering should be placed at the head of the Devi (80). Then the wise worshipper with Svadha should offer the water for rinsing the mouth to the mouth of the Devi, and then the worshipper should offer to the lotus -mouth of the Devi Madhu- parka with the Mantra Svadha. He should then offer water to rinse the mouth (a second time) with the Mantra \"Vang Svadha\" (81). Then the worshipper, saying: Mantra Hring, Shring, Kring, Parameshvari, Svaha: I offer this water for bathing, this apparel, these jewels, to the Supreme Devi, the Primordial Kalika. Svaha, make an offer of them to all parts of the body of the Devi (82). 118 Then the worshipper should, with the same Mantra, but ending with Namah, offer scent with his middle and third finger to the heart -lotus (of the Devi), and with the same Mantra, but ending with Vaushat, he should similarly offer to Her flowers (83). Having placed the burning incense and lighted lamp in front of Devi, and sprinkling them with water, they should be given away with the Mantra Hring, Shring, Kring, Parameshvari, Svaha: This incense- stick and light I humbly offer to Adya- Kalika. Svaha. After worship of the Bell with the Mantra O Mother, Who produces the sound which proclaims triumph to Thee. Svaha, he should ring it with his left hand, and, taking up the incense- stick with his right hand, he should wave it up to the nostrils of the Devi. Then, placing the incense -stick on Her left, he should raise and wave the light ten times up to and before the eyes of the Devi (84- 86). Then, taking the Cup and the Shuddhi in his two hands, the worshipper should, whilst uttering the Mula- Mantra, offer them to the centre of the Yantra (87). Mantra O Thou who hast brought to an end a crore of kalpas, take this excellent wine, as also the Shuddhi, and grant to me endless liberation (88). Then, drawing a figure (in front of the Yantra), according to the rules of ordinary worship, place the plate with food thereon (89). Sprinkle the food (with the Mantra Phat) and veil it with the Avagunthana- Mudra (and the Mantra Hung), and then again protect it (by the Mantra Phat) (Saying Vang), and, exhibiting the Dhenu- Mudra over it, make it into the food of immortality. Then, after recitation of the Mula- Mantra seven times, it should be oftered to the Devi with the water taken from the vessel of offering (90). The worshipper, after reciting the Mula- Mantra, should say: \"This cooked food, with all other necessaries, I offer to the Adya- Kali, my Ishta -devi.\" He should then say: \"O Shiva! partake of this offering\" (91). Then he should make the Devi eat the offering by means of the five Mudras called Prana, Apana, Samana, Vyana, and Udana (90). Next, form with the left hand the Naivedya- Mudra, which is like a full -blown lotus. Then, whilst reciting the Mula- Mantra, give away the jar with wine to the Devi for Her to drink. After that offer again water for rinsing the mouth, and following that a threefold oblation should be made to the Devi with wine from the cup of the Shri - patra (93- 94). Then, reciting the Mula- Mantra, let the worshipper offer five handfuls of flowers to the head, heart, Muladhara Lotus, the feet, and all parts of the body of 119 the Devi (95), and thereafter with folded palms he should pray to his Ishta- devata thus: Mantra O Ishta -devata! I am now worshipping the Devatas who surround thee, namah (96). The six parts of the body of the Devi should then be worshipped at the four corners of the Yantra, and in front and behind it in their order; and then the line of Gurus should be worshipped (97). Then, with scent and flowers, worship the four Kula- gurus namely, Guru, Parama -guru, Parapara- guru, Parameshti -guru (98). Then, with the wine in the cup of the Guru, make three Tarpanas to each, and on the lotus of eight petals worship the eight Mother Nayikas namely, Mangala, Vijaya, Bhadra, Jayanti, Aparajita, Nandini, Narasinghi, and Kaumari (99- 100), and on the tips of the petals worship the eight Bhairavas Asitanga, Ruru, Chanda, Krodhonmatta, Bhayangkara, Kapali, Bhishana, and Sanghara (101- 102). Indra and the other Dik -palas should be worshipped in the Bhu- pura, and their w eapons outside the Bhu- pura, and then Tarpana should be made to them (103). After worshipping (the Devi) with all the offerings, sacrifice should be carefully made to Her (104). The ten approved beasts which may be sacrificed are deer, goat, sheep, buffalo, hog, porcupine, hare, iguana, and rhinoceros (105); but other beasts may also be sacrificed if the worshipper so desires (106). The worshipper versed in the rules of sacrifice should select a beast with good signs, and, placing it before the Devi, should sprinkle it with the water from the Vishesharghya, and by the Dhenu- Mudra should make it into nectar. Let him then worship the goat (sheep, or whatever other animal is being sacrificed) with (the Mantra) \"Namah to the goat,\" which is a beast, and with perfumes, flowers, vermilion, food, and water. Then he should whisper into the ears of the beast the Gayatri Mantra, which severs the bond of its life as a beast (107- 108). The Pashu- Gayatri, which liberates a beast from its life of a beast, is as follows: After the word \"Pashu- pashaya\" say \" Vidmahe,\" then, after the word \"Vishva- karmane,\" say \"Dhimahi,\" and then \"Tanno jivah prachodayat.\" Mantra Let us bring to mind the bonds of the life of a beast. Let us meditate upon the Creator of the Universe. May He liberate us from out of this life (of a beast) (109- 110). Then, taking the sacrificial knife, the excellent worshipper should worship it with the Vija \"Hung,\" and worship Sarasvati and Brahma at its end, Lakshmi and Narayana at its middle, and Uma and Maheshvara at the handle (111- 112). Then the sacrificial knife should be worshipped with the 120 Mantra Namah to the sacrificial knife infused with the presence of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and their Shaktis (113). Then, dedicating it with the Great Word, he should, with folded hands, say: \"May this dedication to Thee be according to the ordained rites\" (114). Having thus offered the beast to the Devi, it should be placed on the ground (115). The worshipper then, with mind intent upon the Devi, should sever the head of the beast with one sharp stroke. This may be done either by the worshipper himself or by his brother, brothers son, a friend, or a kinsman, but never by one who is an enemy (116). The blood, when yet warm, should be offered to the Vatukas. Then the head with a light on it should be offered to the Devi with the following: Mantra \"This head with the light upon it I offer to the Devi with obeisance \" (117). This is the sacrificial rite of the Kaulikas in Kaula worship. If it be not observed, the Devata is never pleased (118). After this Homa should be performed. Listen, O Beloved One! to the rules which relate to it (119). The worshipper should, with sand, make on his right a square, each side of which is one cubit. Let him, then, while reciting the Mula- Mantra, gaze at it, stroke it with a wisp of kusha grass, uttering the Weapon- Vija, and then sprinkle it with water to the accompaniment of the same Vija (120). Then, veiling it with the Kurchcha- Vija, he should say: \"Obeisance to the sthandila of the Devi,\" and with this Mantra worship the square (121). Then, inside the square three lines should be drawn from East to West, and three lines from South to North, of the length of a pradesha. When this has been done, the (following Devatas, whose names are hereinafter given) should be worshipped over these lines (122). Over the lines from West to East worship Mukunda, Isha, and Purandara: over the lines from South to North, Brahma, Vaivasvata, and Indu (123). Then a triangle should be drawn within the square, and within the triangle the Vija Hsauh should be written. Outside the triangle draw a hexagon, outside this a cirde, and outside the circle a lotus with eight petals, and outside this a (square) Bhu -pura, with four entrances; so should the wise one draw the excellent Yantra (124). Having worshipped with the Mula- Mantra and with offerings of handfuls of flowers, the space thus marked off and washed, the articles for the Homa sacrifice with the Pranava, the intelligent one, should, after first uttering the Maya Vija, worship in the pericarp of the lotus the Adhara- shakti and others, either individually or collectively (125). Piety, Knowledge, Dispassion, and Dominion should be worshipped in the Agni, Ishana, Vayu, and Nairrita corners of the Yantra respectively, and the negation of the qualities in the East, North, West, and South respectively, and in the centre Ananta and Padma (126- 127). Then let him worship Sun with his twelve parts, and Moon 121 with her sixteen digits, and, on the filament commencing from the East, worship Pita, and then Shveta, Aruna, Krishna, Dhumra, Tibra, Sphulingini, Ruchira, in their order, and in the centre Jvalini (128- 129). In all worship Pranava should commence the Mantra, and Namah should end it. The seat of Fire should be worshipped with the Mantra Rang, Salutation to the seat of Fire. Then the Mantrin should meditate upon the Devi Sarasvati after She has bathed, with eyes like the blue lotus on the seat of Fire in the embrace of Vagishvara, and worship in the seat of Fire with the Maya-V ija (130). Then let him bring Fire in the manner prescribed, and gaze intently on it, and, whilst repeating the Mula- Mantra, invoke Vahni into it with the Mantra Phat (131- 132). Then the seat of Fire should be worshipped in the Yantra with the Mantra Ong Salutation to the Yoga- pitha of Fire, and on the four sides, beginning on the East and ending on the South, Vama, Jyeshtha, Raudri, Ambika, should be worshipped in the order given (133). Then the marked- off space should be worshipped with the Mantra Salutat ion to the sthandila of the revered Devata, the Primeval Kalika: and then within this place the worshipper should meditate upon the Devi Vagishvari under the form of the Mula- Devata. After lighting the Fire with the Vija Rang, and reciting the Mula- Mantra, and then the Mantra Hung Phat: to the eaters of raw flesh: Svaha, the share of the raw meat eaters (Rakshasas) should be put aside. Gaze at the Fire, saying the Weapon- Mantra, and surround it with the Veil Mudra, uttering the Vija Hung (134- 136). Make the Fire into nectar with the Dhenu- Mudra. Take some Fire in both palms, and wave it thrice in a circle over the sthandila from right to left. Then with both knees on the ground, and meditating on Fire as the male seed of Shiva, the worshipper should place it into that portion of the Yoni Yantra which is nearest him (137- 138). Then, first, worship the Image of Fire with the Mantra Hring, Salutation to the Image of Fire, 122 and after that the Spirit of Fire with the Mantra Rang: to the Spirit of Fire namah (139). The Mantrin will then think in his mind of the awakened form of Vahni, and kindle the fire with the following (140) Mantra Ong, yellow Spirit of Fire, which knows all, destroy, destroy, burn, burn, ripen, ripen command: Svaha. This is the Mantra for kindling Fire. After this, with folded hands, Fire should again be adored (141- 142). Mantra I adore the kindled Fire of the colour of gold, free from impurity, burning, author of the Veda the devourer of oblations, which faces every quarter (143). After adoratio n of Fire in this manner, cover the marked- off space with kusha grass, and then the worshipper, giving Fire the name of his own, Ishta- devata, should worship him (144). Mantra Ong,O Red- eyed One! Vaishvanara, origin of the Veda, come here, come, come here, (help me to) accomplish all (my) works: Svaha. Then the seven Tongues of Fire, Hiranya and others, should be worshipped (145- 146). The worshipper should next adore the six Limbs of Vahni uttering the word \"of a thousand rays\" in the dative singular, and at the end \"obeisance to the heart\" (147). Then the wise one should worship the forms of Vahni (147), the eight forms Jata- veda and others (148), and then the eight Shaktis namely, Brahmi and others, the eight Nidhis namely, Padma and others, and the ten Dik -palas namely, Indra and others (149). After worshipping the thunderbolt and other weapons, the sacrificer should take two blades of kusha grass of the length of the space between his stretched- out thumb and forefinger, and place them lengthwise in the ghee (150). He should meditate on the Nadi Ida in the left part of the ghee, and on the Nadi Pingala in the right portion, and on the Nadi Sushumna in the centre, and with a well -controlled mind take ghee from the right side, and offer it to the right eye of Vahni with the following: Mantra 123 Ong to Agni Svaha. Then, taking ghee from the left side, offer it to the left eye of Vahni with the Mantra Ong to Soma Svaha (151- 153). Then, taking ghee from the middle portion, offer it to the forehead of Vahni with the Mantra Ong to Agni and Soma Svaha (154). Then, saying namah, take the ghee again from the right side, say first the Pranava, and then Mantra To Agni the Svishti -krit Svaha. With this Mantra he should offer oblation to the mouth of Vahni. Then, uttering the Vyahriti with the Pranava at the commencement, and Svaha at the end, the Homa sacrifice should be performed (155- 156). Then he should offer oblations thrice with the Mantra Om,O Vaishvanara, origin of the Veda, come hither, come hither, O Red- eyed O ne! and fulfil all my works (157) Then, invoking the Ishta- Devata with the proper Mantra into the Fire, let him worship Her and the Pitha- Devata. Twenty -five oblations should then be offered (uttering the Mula -Mantra with Svaha at the end), and, contemplating on the union (or identity) of his own soul with Vahni and the Devi, eleven oblations should also be offered with the Mula- Mantra to the Anga- Devatas, concluding with Svaha (158 -159). Then, with a mixture of ghee, tila- seed, honey, or with flowers and bael -leaves, or with (other prescribed) articles, oblation should be made for the attainment of ones desire. This oblation should be made not less than eight times, and with every attention and care (160- 161). Then, reciting the primary Mantra ending with Svaha, complete oblation should be made (with a full ladle) with fruits and leaves. The worshipper, with the Sanghara- Mudra, transferring the Devi from the Fire to the lotus of his heart (162), should then say \"Pardon me,\" and dismiss Him who feeds on oblations. Then, distributing presents, the Mantrin should consider that the Homa has been duly performed (163). Then the excellent worshipper should place between the eyebrows what is left over of the oblations (164). This is the ordinance relating to Homa in all forms of Agama 124 worship. After performance of Homa the worshipper should proceed to do japa (165). Now, listen,O Devi! to the instructions which relate to japa by which the Vidya is pleased. During japa, the Devata, the Guru, and the Mantra should be considered as one (166). The letters of the Mantra are the Devata, and the Devata is in the form of the Guru. To him who worships them as one and the same, his is the greatest success (167). The worshipper should then meditate upon his Guru as being in his head, the Devi in his heart, the Mula- Mantra in the form of tejas on his tongue, and himself as united with the glory of all three (168). Then, adding the Tara to the beginning and the end of the Mula -Mantra, it should be made japa of seven times, and then it should be recapitulated with the Matrika Vija at its beginning and end (169). The wise worshipper should make japa of the Maya- Vija over his head ten times, and of the Pranava ten times over his mouth, and of the Maya- Vija again seven times in the lotus of his heart, and then perform Pranayama (170). Then, taking a rosary of coral, etc, let him worship it thus: Mantra O rosary,O rosary,O great rosary, thou art the image of all Shaktis. Thou art the repository of the fourfold blessings. Do thou therefore be the giver to me of all success. Having thus worshipped the Mala, and also made Tarpana to it thrice with wine taken from the Shri -patra, accompanied by recitation of the Mula- Mantra, the worshipper should, with well -controlled mind, make japa one thousand and eight, or at least one hundred and eight times (171- 173). Then, doing Pranayama, he should offer on the left lotus -hand of the Devi the fruit of his japa, whose form is Tejas, together with water and flowers from the Shri -patra, and, bowing down his head to the ground, say the following: Mantra O Great Queen! Thou Who protectest that which is most secret, deign to accept this my recitation. May by Thy grace success attend my effort. After this, let him with folded hands recite the hymn and the protective Mantra (174- 176). Then the Sadhaka should, with the special oblation in his hand, going round the Devi, keeping Her to his right, say the following, and dedicate his own self by offering Vilomarghya (177). Mantra Om, whatsoever ere this I in the possession of life, intelligence, body, or in action, awake, in dream or dreamless sleep have done, whether by word or deed, by my hands, feet, belly, or organ of generation, whatsoever I have remembered or spoken 125 of all that I make an offering to Brahman. I and all that is mine I lay at the lotus -feet of the Adya Kali. I make the sacrifice of myself Ong tat sat (178- 179). Then, with folded hands, let him supplicate his Ishta- Devata, and reciting the Maya- Mantra, say: Mantra \"O Primordial Kalika! I have worsh ipped Thee with all my powers and devotion,\" and then saying, \"Forgive me,\" let him bid the Devi go. Let him with his hands formed into Sanghara- Mudra take up a flower, smell it, and place it on his heart (182- 183). A triangular figure well and clearly made should next be drawn in the North- East corner, and there he should worship the Devi Nirmalya- vasini with the Mantra Hring salutation to the Devi Nirmalya- vasini (184). Then, distributing Naivedya to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and all the other Devas, the worshipper should partake of it (185). Then, placing his Shakti on a separate seat to his left, or on the same seat with himself, he should make a pleasing drink in the cup (186), The cup should be so formed as to hold not more than five and not less than three tolas of wine, and may be of either gold or silver (187), or crystal, or made of the shell of a cocoa- nut. It should be kept on a support on the right side of the plate containing the prepared food (188). Then the wise one should serve the sacred food and wine either himself or by his brothers sons among the worshippers according to the order of their seniority (189). The purified wine should be served in the drinking- cups, and the purified food in plates kept for that purpose, and then should food and drink be taken with such as are present at the time (190). First of all, some purified food should be eaten to make a bed as it were (for the wine which is to be drunk). Let the assembled worshippers then joyously take up each his own cup filled with excellent nectar. Then let him take up each his own cup and meditate upon the Kula- Kundalini, who is the Chit, and who is spread from the Muladhara lotus to the tip of the tongue, and, uttering the Mula- Mantra, let each, after taking the others permission, offer it as oblation to the mouth of the Kundali (191- 193). When the Shakti is of the household, the smelling of the wine is the equivalent of drinking it. Worshippers who are householders may drink five cups only (194). Excessive drinking prevents the attainment of success by Kula worshippers (195). They may drink until the sight or the mind is not affected. To drink beyond that is bestial (196). How is it possible for a sinner who becomes a fool through drink and who shows contempt for the Sadhaka of Shakti to say \"I worship the Adya Kalika\"? 126 (197). As touch cannot affect food, etc, offered to Brahman, so there is no distinction of caste in food offered to Thee (198). As I have directed, so should eating and drinking be done. After partaking of food offeredto Thee, the hands should not be washed, but with a piece of cloth or a little water remove that which has adhered to the hands (199). Lastly, after placing a flower from the nirmalya on his head, and wearing a tilaka mark made from the remnants of the oblation on the Yantra between his eyebrows, the intelligent worshipper may roam the earth like a Deva (200). End of the Sixth Joyful Message, entitled \"Placing of the Shri -patra, Homa, Formation of the Chakra, and other Rites.\" 127 CHAPTER 7 - HYMN OF PRAIS E (STOTRA ), AMULET (KAVACHA ), AND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE KULA TATTVA PARVATI was pleased at hearing the revelation of the auspicious Mantra of the Adya Kalika, which yields abundant blessings, is the only means of attaining to a knowledge of the Divine essence, and leads to liberation; as also at hearing of the morning rites, the rules relating to bathing, Sandhya, the purification of Bhang, the methods of external and internal Nyasa and worship, the sacrifice of animals, Homa, the formation of the circle of worship, and the partaking of the holy food. Bowing low with modesty, the Devi questioned Shankara (1- 3). Shri Devi said: O Sadashiva! Lord, and Benefactor of the Universe, Thou hast in Thy mercy spoken of the mode of worship of the supreme Prakriti (4), which benefits all being, is the sole path both for enjoyment and final liberation, and which gives, in this Age, in particular, immediate success (5). My mind, immersed in the ocean of the nectar of Thy word, has no desire to rise therefrom, but craves for more and more (6). O Deva, in the directions Thou hast given relating to the worship of the great Devi, Thou hast but given a glimpse of the hymn of praise, and of the protective Mantra. Do Thou reveal them now (7). Shri Sadashiva said: Listen, then, O Devi, Who art the adored of the worlds,to this unsurpassed hymn, by the reciting of or listening to which one becomes the Lord of all the Siddhis (8), (a hymn) which allays evil fortune, increases happiness and prosperity, destroys untimely death, and removes all calamities (9), and is the cause of the happy approach to the gracious Adya Kalika. It is by the grace of this hymn,O Happy One, that I am Tripurari (10). O Devi! the Rishi of this hymn is Sadashiva, its metre is Anushtup, its Devata is the Adya Kalika, and the object of its use is the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (11). Hymn Entitled Adya -Kali-Svarupa. Hring, O Destroyer of Time, Shring, O Terrific One, Kring, Thou Who art beneficent, Possessor of all the Arts, Thou art Kamala, 128 Destroyer of the pride of the Kali Age, Who art kind to Him of the matted hair, (12) Devourer of Him Who devours, Mother of Time, Thou Who art brilliant as the Fires of the final Dissolution, Wife of Him of the matted hair, O Thou of formidable countenance, Ocean of the nectar of compassion, (13) Merciful, Vessel of Mercy, Whose Mercy is without limit, Who art attainable alone by Thy mercy, Who art Fire, Tawny, Black of hue, Thou Who increasest the joy of the Lord of Creation, (14) Night of Darkness, Image of Desire, Yet Liberator from the bonds of desire, Thou Who art (dark) as a bank of Clouds, And bearest the crescent -moon, Destructress of sin in the Kali Age, (15) Thou Who art pleased by the worship of virgins, Thou Who art the Refuge of the worshippers of virgins, Who art pleased by the feasting of the virgins, Who art the Image of the virgin, (16) Thou Who wanderest in the kadamba forest, Who art pleased with the flowers of the kadamba forest, Who hast Thy abode in the kadamba forest, Who wearest a garland of kadamba flowers, (17) Thou Who art youthful, Who hast a soft low voice, Whose voice is sweet as the cry of a Chakravaka bird, Who drinkest and art pleased with the kadambari wine, (18) And Whose cup is a skull, Who wearest a garland of bones, Who art pleased with, And Who art seated on the Lotus, (19) Who abidest in the centre of the Lotus, Whom the fragrance of the Lotus pleases, Who movest with the swaying gait of a Hangsa, Destroyer of fear, Who assumest all forms at will, Whose abode is at Kama- rupa, (20) 129 Who ever plays at the Kama- pitha, O beautiful One, O Creeper Which givest every desire, Who art the Possessor of beautiful ornaments, (21) Adorable as the Image of all tenderness, Thou with a tender body, And Who art slender of waist, Who art pleased with the nectar of purified wine, Giver of success to them whom purified wine rejoices, (22) The own Deity of those who worship Thee when joyed with wine, Who art gladdened by the worship of Thyself with purified wine, Who art immersed in the ocean of purified wine, Who art the Protectress of those who accomplish vrata with wine, (23) Whom the fragrance of musk gladdens, And Who art luminous with a tilaka- mark of musk, Who art attached to those who worship Thee with musk, Who lovest those who worship Thee with musk, (24) Who art a Mother to those who burn musk as incense, Who art fond of the musk -deer and art pleased to eat its musk, Whom the scent of camphor gladdens, Who art adorned with garlands of camphor, And Whose body is smeared with camphor and sandal paste, (25) Who art pleased with purified wine flavoured with Camphor, Who drinkest purified wine flavoured with camphor, Who art bathed in the ocean of camphor, Whose abode is in the ocean of camphor, (26) Who art pleased when worshipped with the Vija Hung, Thou Who threatenest with the Vija Hung, Embodiment of Kulachara, Adored by Kaulikas, Benefactress of the Kaulikas, (27) Observant of Kulachara, Joyous One, Revealer of the path of the Kaulikas, Queen of Kashi, Allayer of sufferings, Giver of blessings to the Lord of Kashi,(28) Giver of pleasure to the Lord of Kashi, Beloved of the Lord of Kashi, (29) Thou Whose toe- ring bells make sweet melody as Thou movest, Whose girdle bells sweetly tinkle, Who abidest in the mountain of gold, Who art like a Moon- beam on the mountain of gold, (30) Who art gladdened by the recitation of the Mantra Kling, Who art the Kama Vija, 130 Destructress of all evil inclinations, And of the afflictions of the Kaulikas, Lady of the Kaulas, (31) O Thou Who by the three Vijas, Kring, Hring, Shring, art the Destructress of the fear of Death. (To Thee I make obeisance.) These are proclaimed as the Hundred Names of Kalika (32), beginning with the letter Ka. They are all identical with the image of Kali (33). He who in worship recites t hese names with his mind fixed on Kalika, for him Mantra- siddhi is quickly obtained, and with him Kali is pleased (34). By the mere bidding of his Guru he acquires intelligence, knowledge, and becomes wealthy, famous, munificent, and compassionate (35). Such an one enjoys life happily in this world with his children and grandchildren with wealth and dominion (36). He who, on a new moon night, when it falls on Tuesday, worships the great Adya Kali, Mistress of the three worlds, with the five Ma- karas, and repeats Her hundred names, becomes suffused with the presence of the Devi, and for him there remains nothing in the three worlds which is beyond his powers (37- 38). He becomes in learning like Brihaspati himself, in wealth like Kuvera. His profundity is that of the ocean, and his strength that of the wind (39). He shines with the blinding brilliance of the Sun, yet pleases with the soft glamour of the Moon. In beauty he becomes like the God of Love, and reaches the hearts of women (40). He comes forth as conqueror everywhere by the grace of this hymn of praise. Singing this hymn, he attains all his desires (41). All these desires he shall attain by the grace of the gracious Adya, whether in battle, in seeking the favour of Kings, in wagers, or in disputes, and when his life be in danger (42), at the hands of robbers, amidst burning villages, lions, or tigers (43), in forests and lonely deserts, when imprisoned, threatened by Kings or adverse planets, in burning fever, in long sickness, when attacked by fearful disease (44), in the sickness of children caused by the influence of adverse planets, or when tormented by evil dreams, when fallen in boundless waters, and when he be in some storm -tossed ship (45). O Devi! he who with firm devotion meditates upon the Parama Maya image of the most excellent Kali is without a doubt relieved of all dangers. For him there is never any fear, whether arising from sin or disease (46- 47). For him there is ever victory, and defeat never. At the mere sight of him all dangers flee (48). He expounds all Scriptures, enjoys all good fortune, and becomes the leader in all matters of caste and duty,and the lord among his kinsmen (49). In his mouth Vani ever abides, and in his home Kamala. Men bow with respect at the mere mention of his name (50). The eight Siddhis, such as Anima and others, he looks upon as but mere bits of grass. I have now recited the hymn of a hundred names, which is called \"The Very Form of the Adya Kali\" (51). 131 Purashcharana of this hymn, which is its repetition one hundred and eight times, yields all desired fruit (52). This hymn of praise of a hundred names, which is the Primeval Kali Herself, if read, or caused to be read, if heard, or caused to be heard, frees from all sins and leads to union with Brahman (53- 54). Shri Sadashiva said. I have spoken of the great hymn of the Prakriti of the Supreme Brahman, hear now the protective Mantra of the sacred Adya Kalika (55). The name of the Mantra is \"Conqueror of the three Worlds,\" its Rishi is Shiva, the verse is Anushtup, and its Devata the Adya Kali (56). Its Vija is the Maya Vija, its Shakti is Kama Vija, and its Kilaka is Kring. It should be used for the attainment of all desired objects (57). The Protective Mantra (Known As Trailokya- Vijaya) Hring, may the Adya protect my head; Shring, may Kali protect my face; Kring, may the Supreme Shakti protect my heart; May She Who is the Supreme of the Supreme protect my throat (58); May Jagaddhatri protect my two eyes; May Shankari protect my two ears; May Mahamaya protect my power of smell; May Sarvva -mangala protect my taste (58); May Kaumari protect my teeth; May Kamalalaya protect my cheeks; May Kshama protect my upper and lower lips; May Charu- hasini protect my chin (60); May Kuleshani protect my neck; May Kripa -mayi protect the nape of my neck; May Bahu- da protect my two arms; May Kaivalya- dayini protect my two hands; (61) May Kapardini protect my shoulders; May Trailokya- tarini protect my back; May Aparna protect my two sides; May Kamathasana protect my hips (62); May Vishalakshi protect my navel; May Prabha- vati protect my organ of generation; May Kalyani protect my thighs; May Parvati protect my feet; May Jaya -durga protect my vital breaths, And Sarvva- siddhi -da protect all parts of my body (63). 132 As to those parts as have not been mentioned in the Kavacha, and are unprotected, may the Eternal Primeval Kali protect all such (64). I have now spoken to Thee of the wonderful heavenly Protective Mantra of the Adya Devi Kalika, which is known as the \"Conqueror of the three Worlds\" (65). He who repeats it at his devotions with his mind fixed upon the Adya obtains all his desires, and She becomes propitious unto him (66). He quickly attains Mantra- siddhi. The lesser siddhis become, as it were, his slaves (67). He who is childless gets a son, he who desires wealth gains riches. The seeker of learning attains it, and whatsoever a man desires he attains the same (68). The Purashcharana of this Protective Mantra is its repetition a thousand times, and this gives the desired fruit (69). If it be written on birch- bark, with the paste of sandal, fragrant aloe, musk, saffron, or red sandal, and encased in a golden ball, worn either on the right arm, round the neck, in the crown lock, or round the waist, then the Adya Kali becomes devoted to its wearer, and grants him whatsoever he may desire (70- 71). Nowhere has he fear. In all places he is a conqueror. He becomes ready of speech, free from ailments, long- lived and strong, endowed with all power of endurance (72), and an adept in all learning. He knows the meaning of all Scriptures, has Kings under his control, and holds both pleasure and emancipation in the hollow of his hand (73). For men affected with the taint of the Kali Age it is a most excellent Mantra for the attainment of final liberation (74). Shri Devi said: Thou hast, O Lord! in Thy kindness told me of the Hymn and Protective Mantra; I now desire to hear of the rules relating to Purashcharana (75). Shri Sadashiva said: The rules relating to Purashcharana in the worship of the Adya Kalika are the same as those relating to the Purashcharana in the worship with the Brahma- Mantra (76). For Sadhakas who are unable to do them completely, both Japa, Puja and Homa, and Purashcharana may be curtailed (77), since it is better to observe these rites on a small scale than not to observe them at all. Now listen, O Gentle One! the while I describe to Thee the shortened form of worship (78). Let the wise one rinse his mouth with the Mula- Mantra, and then perform Rishi -nyasa. Let him purify the palms of the hands, and proceed to Kara- nyasa and Anga- nyasa (79). Passing the hands all over the body, let him practise Pranayama, and then meditate, worship, and inwardly recite. This is the ceremonial for the shortened form of worship (80). In this form of worship, in lieu of Homa and other rites, the Mantras may be recited four times the number prescribed in the case of each of them respectively (81). There is also another mode of performance. A person who, when the fourteenth day 133 of the dark half of the month falls on a Tuesday or Saturday, worships Jaganmayi with the five elements of worship, and recites with fully attentive mind the Mantra ten thousand times at midnight and feasts believers in the Brahman has performed Purashcharana (82- 83). From one Tuesday to another Tuesday the Mantra should every day be inwardly recited a thousand times. The Mantra thus recited eight thousand times is equal to the performance of Purashcharana (84- 85). In all Ages, O Devi! but particularly in the Kali Age, the Mantras of the Sacred Primeval Kalika are of great efficacy, and yield complete success (85- 86). O Parvati! In the Kali Age, Kali in her various forms is ever watchful, but when the Kali Age is in full sway, then the form of Kali Herself is for the benefit of the world (87). In initiation into this Kalika Mantra there is no necessity to determine whether it be siddha or su- siddha, or the like, or favourable or inimical. If japa is made of it, which is both niyama and a- niyama, the Adya Devi is pleased (88). The mortal, by the grace of the glorious Adya, attains a knowledge of the divine essence, and, possessed of such knowledge, is, without a doubt, liberated even while living (89). Beloved, there is no need here for over -exertion or endurance or penances. The religious exercises of the worshippers of the Adya Kali are pleasant to accomplish (90). By the mere purification of the heart the worshipper attains all that he desires (91). So long, however, as the heart is not purified, so long must the worshipper practise the rites with devotion to Kula. (92) The carrying out of the practices ordained produces purification of the heart. The Mantra should, however, first be received from the mouth of the Guru in the case of the Brahma- Mantra (93). O Great Queen! Purashkriya should be done after the performance of the necessary worship and of other prescribed rites. In the purified heart knowledge of Brahman grows. And when knowledge of Brahman is attained, there is neither that which should, nor that which should not, be done (94). Shri Parvati said: O Great Deva! what is Kula, and what is Kulachara? O Great Lord! what is the sign of each of the five elements of worship? I desire to hear the truth relating to these (95). Shri Sadashiva said: Thou hast asked well, O Lady of the Kulas. Thou art indeed the Benefactress of the worshippers. Listen! For Thy pleasure I shall accurately describe to Thee these things (96). The Kula are Jiva, Prakriti, space, time, ether, earth, water, fire, and air (97). O Primeval One! the realization that all this is one with Brahman is Kulachara, and produces Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (98). Those whose sins are washed away by merits acquired in various previous births by penances, alms, and faithful observance of worship, it is they whose minds are inclined in Kaulika worship (99). When the intelligence realizes the essence of Kaulika worship, it becomes at once purified, and the mind inclines to the lotus -feet of the Primeval Kali (100). The 134 excellent worshipper versed in Kaula doctrine who has received this most excellent Vidya by the service of a good spiritual teacher, if he remains firmly attached to Kaulika worship and to the worship with the five elements of the Primeval Kalika, the Patron Devi of Kula, will enjoy a multitude of blessings in this life, and attain final liberation at its close. (102) The characteristic of the first element is that it is the great medicine for humanity, helping it to forget deep sorrows, and is the cause of joy (103). But, O Dearest One! the element which is not purified stupefies and bewilders, breeds disputes and diseases, and should be rejected by the Kaulas (104). Beasts bred in villages, in the air, or forest, which are nourishing, and increase intelligence, energy, and strength, are the second element (105). O Beautiful One! of the animals bred in water, that which is pleasing and of good taste, and increases the generative power of man, is the third element (106). The characteristics of the fourth element are that it is easily obtainable, grown in the earth, and is the root of the life of the three worlds (107). And, O Devi, the signs of the fifth element are that it is the cause of intense pleasure to all living things, is the origin of all creatures, and the root of the world which is without either beginning or end (108). Know, Dearest One! that the first element is fire, the second is air, the third is water, the fourth is the earth (109), and, O Beauteous Face! as to the fifth element, know it to be ether, the support of the Universe (110). O Sovereign Mistress of Kula, he who knows Kula, the five Kula- tattvas, and Kula worship, is liberated whilst yet living (111). End of the Seventh Joyful Message, entitled \"Hymn of Praise (Stotra), Amulet (Kavacha), and the description of the Kula- tattva.\" 135 CHAPTER 8 - THE DHARMMA AND CUSTOMS OF THE CASTES AND ASHRAMAS AFTER hearing of the various forms of Dharmma, Bhavani, Mother of the worlds, Destructress of all worldly bonds, spoke again to Shankara (1). Shri Devi said: I have heard of the different Dharmma, which bring happiness in this world and the next, and bestow piety, wealth, fulfilment of desire, ward off danger, and are the cause of union with the Supreme (2). I wish now to hear of the castes and of the stages of life. Speak in Thy kindness, O Omnipresent One! of these, and of the mode of life which should be observed therein (3). Shri Sadashiva said: O Thou of auspicious Vows! in the Satya and other Ages there were four castes; in each of these were four stages of life, and the rules of conduct varied according to the caste and stages of life. In the Kali Age, however, there are five castes namely, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Samanya. Each of these five castes, O Great Queen! have two stages of life. Listen, then, Adye! whilst I narrate to Thee their mode of life, rites, and duties (4- 6). I have already spoken to Thee of the incapacity of men born in the Kali Age. Unused as they are to penance, and devoid of learning in the Vedas, short -lived, and incapable of strenuous effort, how can they endure bodily labour? (7). O Beloved! there is in the Kali Age no Brahmacharya nor Vanaprastha. There are two stages only, Grihastha and Bhikshuka (8). O Auspicious One! In the Kali Age the householder should in all his acts be guided by the rules of the Agam as. He will never attain success by other ways (9). And, O Devi! at the stage of the mendicant the carrying of the staff is not permitted, since, O Thou of Divine Knowledge! both that and other practices are Vedic (10). In the Kali Age, O Gentle One! the adoption of the life of an Avadhuta, according to the Shaiva rites, is in the Kali Age equivalent to the entry into the life of a Sannyasin (11). When the Kali Age is in full sway, the Vipras and the other castes have equal right to enter into both these stages of life (12) The purificatory rites of all are to be according to the rules ordained by Shiva, though the particular practices of the Vipras and other castes vary (13). A man becomes a householder the moment he is born. It is by Sangskara that he enters upon any of the other stages of life. For this reason, O Great Queen! One should first be a householder, following the rules of that mode of life (14). When, however, one is freed of worldly desires by the knowledge of the Real, it is then that one should abandon all and seek refuge in the life of an ascetic (15). In childhood one should acquire knowledge; in youth, wealth and wife. The wise man in middle 136 age will devote himself to acts of religion, and in his old age he should retire from the world (16) . No one should retire from the world who has an old father or mother, a devoted and chaste wife, or young and helpless children (17). He who becomes an ascetic, leaving mothers, fathers, infant children, wives, agnates and cognates, is guilty of a great sin (18). He who becomes a mendicant without first satisfying the need of his own parents and relatives is guilty of the sins of killing his father and mother, a woman, and a Brahmana (19). The Brahmanas and men of other castes should perform their respecti ve purificatory rites according to the ordinances laid down by Shiva. This is the rule in the Kali Age (20). Shri Devi said: O Omnipresent One! tell Me what is the rule of life for the householder and mendicant, and what are the purificatory rites for the Vipras and other castes (21). Shri Sadashiva said: The state of an householder is for all the descendants of Manu the first duty. I shall, therefore, first speak of it, and do Thou listen to Me, O Lady of the Kaulas (22). A householder should be devoted to the contemplation of Brahman and possessed of the knowledge of Brahman, and should consign whatever he does to Brahman (23). He should not tell an untruth, or practise deceit, and should ever be engaged in the worship of the Devatas and guests (24). Regarding his father and mother as two visible incarnate deities, he should ever and by every means in his power serve them (25). O Shiva! O Parvati! if the mother and father are pleased, Thou too art pleased. and the Supreme Being is propitious to him (26). O Primeval One! Thou art the Mother of the Worlds, and the Supreme Brahman is the Father; what better religious act can there be than that which pleases You both? (27). According to their requirements, one should offer seats, beds, clothes, drink, and food t o mother and father. They should always be spoken to in a gentle voice, and their childrens demeanour should ever be agreeable to them. The good son who ever obeys the behests of his mother and father hallows the family (28- 29). If one desires ones own welfare, all arrogance, mockery, threats, and angry words should be avoided in the parents presence (30). The son who is obedient to his parents should, out of reverence to them, bow to them and stand up when he sees them, and should not take his seat without their permission (31). He who, intoxicated with the pride of learning or wealth, slights his parents, is beyond the pale of all Dharmma, and goes to a terrible Hell (32). Even if the vital breath were to reach his throat, the householder should not eat without first feeding his mother, father, son, wife, guest, and brother (33). The man who, to the deprivation of his elders and equals, fills his own belly is despised in this world, and goes to Hell in the next (34). The householder should cherish his wife, educate his children, and support his kinsmen and friends. This is the supreme eternal duty (35). The body is nourished by the 137 mother. It originates from the father. The kinsmen, out of love, teach. The man, therefore, who forsakes them is indeed vile (36). For their sake should an hundred pains be undergone. With all ones ability they should be pleased. This is the eternal duty (37). That man who in this world turns his mind to Brahman and adheres faithfully to the truth is above all a man of good deeds, and knows the Supreme, and is blest in all the worlds (38). The householder should never punish his wife, but should cherish her like a mother. If she is virtuous and devoted to her husband, he should never forsake her even in times of greatest misfortune (39). The wise man, whilst his own wife is living, should never with wicked intent touch another woman, otherwise he will go to hell (40). The wise man should not, when in a private place, live and sleep or lie down close to other mens wives. He should avoid all improper speech and braggart boldness in their presence (41). By riches, clothes, love, respect, and pleasing words should ones wife be satisfied. The husband should never do anything displeasing to her (42). The wise man should not send his wife to any festival, concourse of people, pilgrimage, or to anothers house, except she be attended by his son or an inmate of his own house (43). O Maheshvari! that man whose wife is both faithful and happy is surely looked upon as if he had performed all Dharmma, and is truly Thy favourite also (44). A father should fondle and nurture his sons until their fourth year, and then until their sixteenth they should be taught learning and their duties (45). Up to their twentieth year they should be kept engaged in household duties, and thenceforward, considering them as equals, he should ever show affection towards them (46). In the same manner a daughter should be cherished and educated with great care, and then given away with money and jewels to a wise husband (47). The householder should thus also cherish and protect his brothers and sisters and their children, his kinsmen, friends, and servants (48). He should also maintain his fellow- worshippers, fellow -villagers, and guests, whether ascetics or others (49) . If the wealthy householder does not so act, then let him be known as a beast, a sinner, and one despised in the worlds (50). The householder should not be inordinately addicted to sleep, idling, care for the body, dressing his hair, eating or drinking, or attention to his clothes (51). He should be moderate as to food, sleep, speech, and sexual intercourse, and be sincere, humble, pure, free from sloth, and persevering (52). Chivalrous to his foes, modest before his friends, relatives, and elders, he should neither respect those who deserve censure nor slight those who are worthy of respect (53). Men should only be admitted to his trust and confidence after association with them and observation of their nature, inclination, conduct, and friendly character (54). Even an insignificant enemy should be feared, and ones own power should be disclosed only at the proper time. But on no account should one deviate from the path of duty (55). A religious man should not speak of his own fame and prowess, of what has been told him in secret, nor of the good that he has done for others (56). A man of good name should not engage in any quarrel with an unworthy motive, nor when defeat is certain, nor with those who are superior or 138 inferior to himself He should diligently earn knowledge, wealth, fame, and religious merit, and avoid all vicious habits, the company of the wicked, falsehood, and treachery (58). Ventures should be undertaken according to the circumstances and ones condition in life, and actions should be done according to their season. Therefore, in everything that a man does he should first consider whether the circumstances and time are suitable (59). The householder should employ himself in the acquisition of what is necessary and in the protection of the same. He should be judicious, pious, good to his friends. He should be moderate in speech and laughter, in particular in the presence of those entitled to his reverence (60). He should hold his senses under control, be of cheerful disposition, think of what is good, be of firm resolve, attentive, far -sighted, and discriminating in the use of his senses (61). The wise householders speech should be truthful, mild, agreeable, and salutary, yet pleasing, avoiding both self -praise and the disparagement of others (62). The man who has dedicated tanks, planted trees, built rest -houses on the roadside, or bridges, has conquered the three worlds (63). That man who is the happiness of his mother and father, to whom his friends are devoted, and whose fame is sung by men, he is the conqueror of the three worlds (64). He whose aim is truth, whose charity is ever for the poor, who has mastered lust and anger, by him are the three worlds conquered (65). He who covets not others wives or goods, who is free of deceit and envy, by him the three worlds are conquered (66). He who is not afraid in battle nor to go to war when there is need, and who dies in battle undertaken for a sacred cause, by him the three worlds are conquered (67). He whose soul is free from doubts, who is devoted to and a faithful follower of the ordinances of Shiva, and remains under My control, by him the three worlds are conquered (68). The wise man who in his conduct with his fellow -men looks with an equal eye upon friend and foe, by him are the three worlds conquered (69). O Devi! purity is of two kinds, external and internal. The dedication of oneself to Brahman is known as internal purity (70), and the cleansing of the impurities of the body by water or ashes, or any other matter which cleanses the body, is called external purity (71). O Dearest One! the waters of Ganga, or of any other river, tank, pond, well, or pool, or of the celestial Ganga, are equally purifying (72). O Thou of auspicious Vows! the ashes from a place of sacrifice and cleansed earth are excellent, and the skin of an antelope and grass are as purifying as earth (73). O Auspicious One! what need is there to say more about purity and impurity? Whatever purifies the mind that the householder may do (74). Let there be external purification upon awakening from sleep, after sexual intercourse, making water, voiding the bowels, and at the close of a meal, and whenever dirt of any kind has been touched (75). Sandhya, whether Vaidika or Tantrika should be performed thrice daily, and according as the worship changes so does its service (76). The worshippers of the Brahma- Mantra have performed their Sandhya when they have made japa of the Gayatri, realizing within themselves the identity of the Gayatri and Brahman (77). In 139 the case of those who are not Brahma- worshippers, Vaidika Sandhya consists of the worship of and offering of oblations to the Sun and the recitation of the Gayatri (78). O Gentle One! In all daily prayers recitation shouldbe done one thousand and eight or a hundred and eight or ten times (79). O Devi! the Shudras and Samanyas may observe any of the rites proclaimed by the Agamas, and by these they attain that which they desire (80). The three times of performance (of Sandhya) are at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset (81). Shri Devi said: Thou hast Thyself said, O Lord! that when the Kali Age is in full sway for all castes, commencing with the Brahmamas, Tantrika rites are alone appropriate. Why, then, dost Thou restrict the Vipras to Vedic rites? It behoveth Thee to explain this fully to Me (82- 83). Shri Sadashiva said: O Thou Who knowest the essence of all things, truly hast Thou spoken. In the Kali Age all observances bear the fruit of enjoyment and liberation when done according to the rites of the Tantras (84). The Brahma- Savitri, though known as Vaidika, should be called Tantrika also, and is appropriate in both observances (85). It is, therefore, O Devi! that I have said that when the Kali Age is in full sway, the twice- born shall alone be entitled to the Gayatri, but not the other Mantras (86). In the Kali Age the Savitri should be said by the Brahmanas, preceded by the Tara, and by the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, preceded by the Kamala and Vagbhava Vijas respectively (87). In order, O Supreme Devi! That a distinction may be drawn between the twice- born and the Shudras, the daily duties are directed to be preceded by Vaidika Sandhya (88). Success, however, may also be attained by the mere following of the ordinances of Shambhu. This is verily true, and I repeat it is true and very true, and there is no doubt about it (89). O Adored of the Devas! even if the stated time for the saying of the daily prayer is past, all who desire emancipation and are not prevented by sickness or weakness should say, \"Ong the Ever -existent Brahman\" (90). The seat, clothes, vessels, bed, carriages, residence, and household furniture of the worshipper should be as clean as possible (91). At the close of the daily prayers the householder should keep himself occupied with household duties or the study of the Vedas; he should never remain idle (92). In holy places, on holy days, or when the Sun or Moon is in eclipse, he should do inward recitation, and give alms, and thus become the abode of all that is good (93). In the Kali Age life is dependent on the food that is eaten, fasting is therefore not recommended, in lieu of it, the giving of alms is ordained (94). O Great Queen! in the Kali Age alms are efficacious in the accomplishment of all things. The proper objects of such alms are the poor devoted to meritorious acts (95). O Mother! the first days of the month, of the year, of the lunar half -months, the fourteenth day of the lunar half-month, the eighth day of the light half of the lunar month, the eleventh day of the 140 lunar half -month, the new moon, ones birthday, the anniversary of ones fathers death, and days fixed as those of festivals, are holy days (96- 97). The River Ganges and all the great Rivers, the house of the religious Teacher, and the places of the Devas are holy places. But for those who, neglecting the study of the Veda, the service of mother and father, and the protection of their wife, go to places of pilgrimage, such holy places are changed to hell (98- 99). For women there is no necessity to go on pilgrimage, to fast, or to do other like acts, nor is there any need to perform any devotion except that which consists in the service of their husband (100). For a woman her husband is a place of pilgrimage, the performance of penance, the giving of alms, the carrying out of vows, and her spiritual teacher. Therefore should a woman devote herself to the service of her husband with her whole self (101). She should ever by words and deeds of devotion act for the pleasure of her husband, and, remaining faithful to his behests, should please his relatio ns and friends (102). A woman whose husband is her vow should not look at him with hard eyes, or utter hard words before him. Not even in her thought should she do anything which is displeasing to her husband (103). She who by body, mind, and word, and by pleasant acts, ever pleases her husband, attains to the abode of Brahman (104). Remaining ever faithful to the wishes of her husband, she should not look upon the face of other men, or have converse with them, or uncover her body before them (105). In childhood she should remain under the control of her parents, in her youth of her husband, and in her old age of the friends and relatives of her husband. She should never be independent (106). A father should not marry his daughter if she does not know her duty to a husband and how to serve him, also the other rules of womans conduct (107). Neither the flesh of human beings, nor the animals resembling them, nor the flesh of the cow, which is serviceable in various ways, nor the flesh of carnivorous animals, nor such meat as is tasteless, should be eaten (108). Auspicious One! fruits and roots of various kinds whether grown in villages or jungles, and all that is grown in the ground, may be eaten at pleasure (109). Teaching and the performance of sacrifices are the proper duties of a Brahmana. But if he be incapable of these, he may earn his livelihood by following the profession of a Kshatriya or Vaishya (110). The proper occupation of a Rajanya is that of fighting and ruling. But if he be incapable of these, he may earn his livelihood by following the profession of a Vaishya or Shudra (111). If a Vaishya cannot trade, then for him the following of the profession of a Shudra involves no blame. For a Shudra, O Sovereign Queen! service is the prescribed means of livelihood (112). O Devi! members of the Samanya class may for their maintenance follow all occupations except such as are specially reserved for the Brahmana (113). The latter, void of 141 hate and attachment, self -controlled, truthful, the conqueror of his senses, free of envy and all guile, should pursue his own avocations (114). He should ever be the same to, and the well -wisher of, all men, and teach his well -behaved pupils as if they were his own sons (115). He should ever avoid falsehood, detraction, and vicious habits, arrogance, friendship for low persons, the pursuit of low objects, and the use of language which gives offence (116). Where peace is possible, avoid war. Peace with honour is excellent. O Adorable Face! for the Rajanya it should be either death or victory in battle (117). A man of the kingly caste should not covet the wealth of his subjects, or levy excessive taxes, but, being faithful to his promises, he should ever in the observance of his duty protect his subjects as though they were his own children (118). In government, war, treaties, and other affairs of State the King should take the advice of his Ministers (119). War should be carried on in accordance with Dharmma. Rewards and punishments should be awarded justly and in accordance with the Shastras. The best treaty should be concluded which his power allows (120). By stratagem should the end desired be attained. By the same means should wars be conducted and treaties concluded. Victory, peace, and prosperity follow stratagem (121). He should ever avoid the company of the low, and be good to the learned. He should be of a calm disposition judicious of action in time of trouble, of good conduct and reasonable in his expenditure (122). He should be an expert in the maintenance of his forts, well trained in the use of arms. He should ever ascertain the disposition of his army, and teach his soldiers military tactics (123). O Devi1 he should not in battle kill one who is stunned, who has surrendered his arms, or is a fugitive, nor those of his enemies whom he has capturedn nor their wives or children (124). Whatever is acquired either by victory or treaty should be distributed amongst the soldiers in shares according to merit (125). The King should make known to himself the character and courage of each of his warriors, and if he would care for his interests he should not place a large army under the command of a single officer (126). He should not put his trust in any single person, nor place one man in charge of the administration, nor treat his inferiors as equals, nor be familiar with them (127). He should be very learned, yet not garrulous; full of knowledge, yet anxious to learn; full of honours, yet without arrogance. In awarding both reward and punishment he should be discriminating (128). The King should either himself or through his spies watch his subjects, kinsmen, and servants (129). A wise master should not either honour or degrade anyone in a fit of passion or arrogance and without due cause (130). Soldiers, commanders, ministers, wife, children, and servitors he should protect. If guilty, they should be punished according to their deserts (131). The King should protect, like a father, the insane, incapable, children and orphans, and those who are old and infirm (132). Know that agr iculture and trade are the appropriate callings of the Vaishya. It is by agriculture and trade that mans body is maintained (133). Therefore, O Devi! in agriculture and trade all negligence, vicious habits, laziness, untruth, and deceit should be avoided with the whole soul (134). Shiva! when both buyer and seller are agreed as to the object of 142 sale and the price thereof, and mutual promises have been made, then the purchase becomes complete (135). O Dearest One! the sale or gift of property by one who is a lunatic, out of his senses, under age, a captive, or enfeebled by disease, is invalid (136). The purchase of things not seen is concluded by hearing the description thereof. If the article be found to differ from its description, then the purchase is set aside (137). The sale of an elephant, a camel, and a horse is effected by the description of the animal. The sale is, however, set aside if the animal does not answer its description (138). If in the purchase of elephants, camels, and horses a latent vice becomes patent within the course of a year from the date of sale, then the purchase is set aside, but not after the lapse of one year (139). O Devi of the Kulas! the human body is the receptacle of piety, wealth, desires, and final liberation. It should therefore never be the subject of purchase; and such a purchase is by reason of My commands invalid (140). O Dear One! in the borrowing of barley, wheat, or paddy, the profit of the lender at the end of the year is laid down to be a fourth of the quantity lent, and in the case of the loan of metals one- eighth (141). In monetary transactions, agriculture, trade, and in all other transactions, men should ever carry out their undertakings. This is approved by the laws (142). A servant should be skilful, clean, wakeful, careful and alert, and possess his senses under control (143). He should, as he desires happiness in this and the next world, regard his master as if he were Vishnu Himself, his masters wife; his own mother, and respect his masters kinsmen and f riends (144). He should know his masters friends to be his friends, and his masters enemies to be his enemies and should ever remain in respectful attendance upon his master, awaiting his orders (145). He should carefully conceal his masters dishonour, the family dissensions, anything said in private or which would disgrace his master (146). He should not covet the wealth of his master, but remain ever devoted to his good. He should not make use of bad words or laugh or play in his masters presence (147). He should not, with lustful mind, even look at the maidservants in his masters house, or lie down with them, or play with them in secret (148). He should not use his masters bed, seat, carriages, clothes, vessels, shoes, jewels, or weapons (149). If guilty, he should beg the forgiveness of his master. He should not be forward, impertinent, or attempt to place himself on an equal footing with his master (150). Except when in the Bhairavi -chakra or Tattva- chakra persons of all castes should marry in their caste according to the Brahma form, and should eat with their own caste people (151). O Great Queen! in these two circles, however, marriage in the Shaiva form is ordained, and as regards eating and drinking, no caste distinctions exist (152). Shri Devi s aid: What is the Bhairavi -chakra, and what is the Tattva- chakra? I desire to hear, and it kindly behoves Thee to speak of them (153). 143 Shri Sadashiva said: O Devi! in the ordinances relating to Kula worship I have spoken of the formation of circles by the excellent worshippers at times of special worship (154). O Dear One! there is no rule relating to the Bhairavi -chakra. This auspicious circle may at any time be formed (155). I will now speak of the rites relating to this circle, which benefits the worshipp ers, and in which, if the Devi be worshipped, She speedily grants the prayers of Her votaries (156). The Kulacharyya should spread an excellent mat in a beautiful place, and, after purifying it with the Kama and Astra Vijas, should seat himself upon it (157). Then the wise one should draw a square with a triangle in it with either vermilion or red sandal wood paste, or simply water (158). Then, taking a painted jar, and smearing it with curd and sun- dried rice, and placing a vermilion mark on it, let him put a branch or leaves and fruit upon it (159). Filling it with perfumed water whilst uttering the Pranava, the worshipper should place it on the Mandala, and exhibit before it lights and incense- sticks (160). The jar should then be worshipped with two fragr ant flowers. Ishta -devata should be meditated upon as being in the jar. The ritual should be according to the shortened form (161). Listen, O Adored of the Immortals! whilst I speak to Thee of the peculiar features of this worship. There is no necessity of placing the wine- cups for the Guru and others 162). The worshipper should then take such of the elements of worship as he wishes, and place them in front of himself. Then, purifying them with the Weapon Mantra, let him gaze upon them with steadfast eyes ( 163). Then, placing scent and flowers in the wine- jar, let him meditate upon the Ananda- Bhairava and Ananda -Bhairavi in it (164). Dhyana He should meditate upon the Blissful Devi as in first bloom of youth, with a body rosy as the first gleam of the rising Sun. The sweet nectar of Her smiles illumines Her face as beautiful as a full -blown lotus. Decked with jewels, clad in beauteous coloured raiment delighting in dance and song, She with the lotus of her hands makes the signs which confer blessings and dispel fears (165- 166). After thus meditating on Blissful Devi, let the worshipper thus meditate upon the Blissful Bhairava (167). Dhyana I meditate upon the Deva Who is white as camphor, Whose eyes are large and beautiful like lotuses, the lustre of Whose body is adorned with celestial raiments and jewels, Who holds in His left hand the cup of nectar, and in the right a ball of Shuddhi (168). 144 Having thus meditated upon Them both, and thinking of them in a state of union in the wine- jar, the worshipper should then worship Them therein. With Mantra, beginning with the Pranava and ending with Namah, the names of the Devata being placed between, and with perfume and flower, let him then sanctify the wine (169) The Kula worshipper should sanctify the wine by repeating over it the Pashadi -trika- vija a hundred and eight times (170). When the Kali Age is in full sway, in the case of the householder whose mind is entirely engrossed with domestic desires, the three sweets should be substituted in the place of the first element of worship (wine) (171). Milk, sugar, and honey are the three sweets. They should be deemed to be the image of wine, and as such offered to the Deity (172). Those born in the Kali Age are by their nature weak in intellect, and their minds are distracted by lust. By reason of this they do not recognize the Shakti to be the image of the Deity (173). Therefore, O Parvati! for such as these let there be, in place of the last element of worship (sexual union), meditation upon the lotus -feet of the Devi and the inward recitation of their Ishta -mantra (174). Therefore such of the elements of worship as have been obtained should be consecrated by the recitation over each of them of the same Mantra one hundred times (175). Let the worshipper, with closed eyes, meditate upon them as suffused by Brahman, then offer them to Kali, and, lastly, eat and drink the consecrated elements (176). O Gentle One! this is the Bhairavi -chakra, which is not revealed in the other Tantras. I have, however spoken before Thee of it. It is the essence of essences, and more excellent than the best (177). Parvati! In Bhairavi -chakra and Tattva- chakra the excellent worshipper should be wedded to his Shakti, according to the laws prescribed by Shiva (178). The Vira who without marriage wor ships by enjoyment of Shakti is, without doubt, guilty of the sin of going with another mans wife (179). When the Bhairavi -chakra has been formed, the members thereof are like the best of the twice- born; but when the circle is broken, they revert again to their own respective castes (180). In this circle there is no distinction of caste nor impurity of food. The heroic worshippers in the circle are My image; there is no doubt of that (181). In the formation of the circle there is no rule as to time or place or question as to fitness. The necessary articles may be used by whomsoever they may have been brought (182). Food brought from a long distance, whether it be cooked or uncooked, whether brought by a Vira or a Pashu, becomes pure immediately it is brought within the circle (183). While the circle is being formed, all dangers flee in confusion, awed by the Brahmanic lustre of its heroes (184). Upon the mere hearing that a Bhairavi circle has been formed at any place, fierce Pishachas, Guhyakas, Yakshas, and Vetalas depart afar off in fear (185). Into the circle come all the holy places, the great and holy places, and with reverence Indra and all the Immortals (186). Shiva! the place where a circle is formed is a great and holy place, more sacred than each and all the other holy places. Even the Thirty desire the excellent offerings made to Thee in this circle (187). Whatever the food be, whether cooked or uncooked, and whether 145 brought by a Mlechchha, Chandala, Kirata, or Huna, it becomes pure as soon as it i s placed in the hand of a Vira (188). By the seeing of the circle and of the worshippers therein, who are but images of Myself, men infected with the taint of the Kali Age are liberated from the bonds of the life of a Pashu (189). When, however the Kali Age is in full sway, the circle should not be concealed. The Vira should at all places and at all times practise Kula rites and make Kula worship (190). In the circle all distinction of caste, frivolous talk, levity, garrulity, spitting, and breaking wind should be avoided (191). Such as are cruel, mischievous, Pashu, sinful, atheists, blasphemers of Kula doctrine, and calumniators of the Kula Scriptures, should not be allowed into the circle (192). Even the Vira who, induced by affection, fear, or attachment, admits a Pashu into the circle falls from his Kula duty, and goes to hell (193). All who have sought refuge in the Kula Dharmma, whether Brahmamas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, or Samanyas, should ever be worshipped like Devas (194). He who, whilst in the circle, makes, from pride, distinctions of caste, descends to a terrible hell, even though he should have gone to the very end of the Vedanta (195). How within the circle can there be any fear of sin for Kaulas, who are good and pure of heart and who are manifestly the very image of Shiva? (196). Vipras and others who are followers of Shiva should, so long as they are within the circle, follow the ordinance of Shiva and the observances prescribed by Him (197). Without the circle each should follow his own calling according to his caste and stage of life, and should discharge his duty as a man of the world (198). One Japa made by a devout man, when seated within the circle, bears the fruit attainable by the performance of a hundred Purashcharana and by Shavasana, Mundasana, and Chitasana (199). Who can describe the glory of the Bhairavi -chakra? Its formation, though but once only, frees of all sins (200). The man who for six months worships in such a circle will become a King: he who so worships for a year becomes the conqueror of death, and by the daily performance of such worship he attains to Nirvvana (201). What is the need, O Kalika! of saying more? Know this for certain: that for the attainment of happiness in this or the next world there is only the Kula -dharmma, and no other (202). When the Kali Age is dominant and all religion is abandoned, even a Kaula merits hell by concealment of the Kula- dharmma (203). I have spoken of the Bhairavi circle, which is the sole means of attaining enjoyment and final liberation. I will now speak to Thee, O Queen of the Kaulas! of the Tattva circle. Do Thou listen (204). The Tattva circle is the king of all circles. It is also called the celestial circle. Only worshippers who have attained to a knowledge of Brahman may take part in it (205). Only those servants of the Brahman may take part in this circle who have attained to knowledge of Brahman, who are devoted to Brahman, pure of heart, tranquil, 146 devoted to the good of all things, who are unaffected by the external world, who see no differences, but to whom all things are the same, who are merciful, faithful to their vows, and who have realized the Brahman (206- 207). O Knower of the Supreme Soul! only those who, possessing the knowledge of the Real, look upon this moving and motionless Existence as one with Brahman, such men are privileged to take part in this circle (208). They who regard everything in the Tattva circle as Brahman, they alone, O Devi, are qualified to take part therein (209). In the formation of this circle there is no necessity for placing the wine- jar, no lengthy ritual. It can be formed everywhere in a spirit of devotion to Brahman (210). O Dearest One! the worshipper of the Brahma- Mantra and a devout believer in Brahman should be the Lord of the circle, which he should form of other worshippers who know the Brahman (211). In a beautiful and clean place, pleasant to the worshippers, pure seats should be spread with beautiful carpets (212). There, O Shiva! the Lord of the circle should seat himself with the worshippers of Brahman, and have the elements of worship brought and placed in front of him (213). The Lord of the Circle should inwardly recite the Mantra, beginning with the Tara and ending with the Prana- vija, a hundred times, and then pronounce the following Mantra over the elements (214): Mantra The act of offering is Brahman. The offering itself is Brahman. The Fire is Brahman. He by whom the offering is made is Brahman. By him who is absorbed in the worship of Brahman is unity with Brahman attained (215). All the elements should be purified by the inward recitation of this Mantra seven or three times (216). Then, with the Brahma- Mantra, making an offering of the food and drink to the Supreme Soul, he should partake thereof with the other worshippers, knowers of the Brahman (217). O Great Queen! there is no distinction of caste in the Brahma circle, nor rule as to place or time or cup. The ignorant who, through want of care, make distinctions of birth or caste go upon the downward path (218- 219). And therefore should those excellent worshippers, possessed of the knowledge that the Supreme Brahman pervades all things, perform the rites of the Tattva circle with every care for the attainment of religious merit, fulfilment of desire, wealth, and liberation (220). Shri Devi said: Lord! Thou hast spoken in full of the duties of the householder; it now behoves Thee kindly to speak of the duties appropriate to the ascetic life (221). Shri Sadashiva said: Devi! the stage of life of an Avadhuta is in the Kali Age called Sannyasa. Now listen while I tell thee what should be done (222). 147 When an adept in spiritual wisdom has acquired the knowledge of Brahman, and has ceased to care for the things of the world, he should seek refuge in the life of an ascetic (223). If, however, in order to adopt the life of a wandering mendicant, one abandons an old mother or father, infant children and a devoted wife, or helpless dependents, one goes to hell (224). All, whether Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, or Samanya are equally entitled to take part in the purificatory ceremony of the Kula ascetic (225). After the performance of all the duties of a householder, and after satisfying all dependents, one should go forth from his house indifferent, free from desires, with al l his senses conquered (226). He who wishes thus to leave his house should call together his kinsmen and friends, his neighbours and men of his village, and lovingly ask of them their permission (227). Having obtained it, and made obeisance to his Ishta -devata, he should go round his village, and then without attachment set forth from his house (228). Liberated from the bonds of household life, and immersed in exceeding joy, he should approach a Kula ascetic of divine knowledge and pray to him as follows: ( 229) \"0 Supreme Brahman! all this life of mine has been spent in the discharge of household duties. Do Thou O Lord! be gracious to me in this my adoption of the life of an ascetic\" (230). The religious Preceptor should thereupon satisfy himself that the di sciples duties as a householder have all been accomplished, and, on finding him to be meek and full of discernment, initiate him into the second stage (231). The disciple should then, with a well- controlled mind, make his ablutions and say his daily prayer, and then, with the object of being absolved from the threefold debt due to them, worship the Devas, the Rishis, and the Pitris (232). By the Devas are meant Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra, with their followers; by the Rishis are meant Sanaka and others, as also the Devarshis and the Brahmarshis (233). Listen, whilst I now enumerate the ancestors which should be worshipped (234). The father, paternal grandfather, paternal great -grandfather, mother, the maternal grandfather, and others in the ascending line, and the maternal grandmother and others in the ascending line (235). Upon the dedication of oneself to the life of an ascetic, the Devas and Rishis should be worshipped in the East, the paternal ancestors in the South, the maternal ancestors in the West (236). Spreading two seats on each of these sides, beginning from the East, and invoking the Devas and others thereto, they should there be worshipped (237). Having worshipped them in proper form, pindas should be offered to each of them separately according to the rules relating thereto; And then, with folded palms, let the disciple thus supplicate the Devas and Ancestors (238): Mantra 148 O Fathers! O Mothers! O Devas! O Rishis! be you satisfied. Do you absolve me, about to enter upon the path of renunciation from all debts (239). Having thus prayed to be free from all debts, bowing again and again, and being thus freed of all debts, he should perform his own funeral rites (240). The father and paternal grandfather and great -grandfather are one soul. In offering, therefore, the individual soul to the Supreme Soul, he who is wise should perform his own funeral rites (241). O Devi! sitting with his face to the North, and invoking the spirits of his ancestors upon the seats which he has prepared for them, he should, after doing them homage, offer the funeral cakes (242). In so offering he should spread kusha grass with its end towards the East, South, West, and towards the North for himself (243). After completion, according to the directions of the Guru, of the funeral rites, the seeker after emancipation should, in order to purify his heart inwardly, recite the following Mantra a hundred times (244): Mantra Hring, let us worship the Three- eyed One whose fame is fragrant, the Augmenter of increase. May I, as the urvaruka is freed of its stalk, be liberated from death unto immortality (245). Then the religious Preceptor should draw a figure on the altar of a shape in accordance with the divinity about to be worshipped and then place the jar on the altar and commence worship (246). Then the Guru, possessed of divine knowledge, should meditate upon the Supreme Spirit in the manner prescribed by Shambhu, and after worship place fire on the altar (247). The Guru should then offer unto the fire so sanctified the oblation according to the Sangkalpa, and then make his disciple perform the complete homa (248). He should first offer oblation with the Vyahritis, and then with the vital airs, prana, apana, samana, udana, vyana (249). For the destruction of the false belief that the body, whether gross or subtle, is the Atma, the Tattva -Homa should be performed, uttering the following words: Mantra Earth, water, fire, air, ether, (then) scent, taste, vision, touch, sound, (then) speech, hands, feet, anus and organ of generation, (then) ears, skin, eyes, tongue, and smell, (then) manas, buddhi, ahangkara, and chitta, (and lastly) all the functions of the senses and of life (250- 253). He should then say: \"May they be purified;\" (adding) \"May I be like unto the universal Chaitanya united with Hring. May I be like the Light beyond and above Rajo- guna, and may I be free of the taint of ignorance\" (254). 149 Having consigned as oblations into the fire the twenty -four tattvas and the functions of the body, he who is now devoid of all action should consider his body as dead (255). Considering his body as dead and devoid of all function, and calling to mind the Supreme Brahman, let him take off his sacred thread (256). He, the possessor of divine knowledge, should take it from his shoulder, uttering t he Mantra Aing Kling Hangsa. Holding it in his hand while he recites the three Vyahritis, ending with Svaha, let him throw it steeped in ghee into the fire (257). Having thus offered the sacred thread as an oblation to the fire, he should, whilst uttering the Kama Vija, cut off his crown-lock and take and place it in the ghee (258). Mantra O Crown Lock! Daughter of Brahman! thou art an ascetic in the form of hair. I am now placing thee in the Purifying One. Depart, O Devi! I make obeisance to thee (259). He should then, whilst uttering the Kama, Maya, Kurcha, and Astra Vijas, ending with the word Svaha, make the Homa sacrifice of that lock of hair in the well -sanctified fire (260). The Pitris, Devas, and Devarshis, as also all acts performed in the stages of life, reside in that lock and have it as their support (261). Therefore the man who renounces the crown- lock and sacred thread after the performance of the oblation becomes one with Brahman (262). The twice- born enter the stage of an ascetic by renunciation of the crown- lock and sacred thread, and the Shudras and Samanyas by the renunciation of the crown- lock only (263). Then he whose crown- lock and sacred thread have been thus removed should make obeisance to the Guru, laying himself full length upon the ground. The Guru should then raise his disciple and say into his right ear: \"0 wise one! thou art That.\" \"Think within thyself that I am He and He is I. Free from all attachments and sense of self, do thou go as thou pleasest as moved thereto by thy nature\" (264- 265). The Guru, full of the knowledge of the Divine essence, should then, after removal of the jar and the fire, bow to the disciple, recognizing in him his own very self (266), and say: \"O Thou whose form is this Universe! I bow to Thee and to myself. Thou art That and That is Thou. Again I bow to thee.\" (267). The worshippers of the Brahma- Mantra, possessed of divine knowledge, who have conquered themselves, attain the stage of an ascetic by cutting off the crown-lock with their own Mantra (268). What need is there for those purified by divine knowledge of sacrificial or funeral rites or ritual worship? For they, acting as they please, are never guilty of any fault (269). The disciple, image of the absence of all contraries, desireless, and of tranquil mind, may, as he pleases, roam the earth, the visible image of Brahman (270). He will think of everything, from Brahma to a blade 150 of grass, as the image of the existent one, and, oblivious of his own name and form, he will meditate upon the Supreme Soul in himself (271). Homeless, merciful, fearless, devoid of attachment claiming nothing as his own, devoid of egoism, the ascetic will move about the earth (272). He is free of all prohibitions. He shall not strive to attain what he has not, nor to protect what he has. He knows himself. He is equally unaffected by either joy or sorrow. He is calm, the conqueror of himself, and free from all desires (273). His soul is untroubled even in sorrow, desireless even in prosperity. He is ever joyful, pure, calm, indifferent and unperturbed. He will hurt no living thing, but will be ever devoted to the good of all being. He is free from anger and fear, with his senses under contro1 and without desire. He strives not for the preservation of his body. He is not obsessed by any longing (274- 275). He will be free from grief and resentment, equal to friend and foe, patient in the endurance of cold and heat, and to him both honour and disgrace are one and the same (276). He is the same in good or evil fortune, pleased with whatsoever, without effort, he may obtain. He is beyond the three attributes, of unconditioned mind free of covetousness, and (wealth) he will hoard not (277). He will be happy in the knowledge that, as the unreal universe exists dependent upon the Truth, so does the body depend upon the soul (278). He attains liberation by the realization that the soul is completely detached from the organs of sense, and is the witness of that which is done (279). The ascetic should not accept any metal, and should avoid calumny, untruth, jealousy, all play with woman, and all discharge of seed (280). He should regard with an equal eye worms, men, and Devas. The religious mendicant should know that in everything he does, in that is Brahman (281). He should eat without making any distinction of place, time, person, or vessel, and whether from the hand of a Vipra or Chandala, or from any other person whatsoever (282). The ascetic, thouugh passing his time as he pleases, should study the Scriptures relating to the Soul and in meditation upon the nature of That (283). The corpse of an ascetic should on no account be cremated. It should be worshipped with scents and flowers, and then either buried or sunk into water (284). O Devi! the inclination of those men who have not attained union with the Supreme Soul and who ever seek after enjoyment, is by nature turned towards the path of action (285). They remain attached to the practice of meditation, ritual worship, and recitation. Let them who are strong in their faith therein know that to be the best for them (286). It is on account of them that I have spoken of various rites for the purification of the heart, and have with the same object devised many names and forms (287). O Devi! without knowledge of the Brahman and the abandonment of all ritual worship, man cannot attain emancipation even though he performed countless such acts of worship (288). The householder should consider the Kula ascetic, possessed of divine knowledge, to be the visible Narayana in the form of man, and should worship Him as such (289). By the mere sight of one who has subdued his passions a man is freed of all his sins, and earns that merit which he obtains by journeying to places of 151 pilgrimage, the giving of alms, and the performance of all vows, penances, and sacrifices (290) End of the Eighth Joyful Message, entitled \"The Dharmma and Customs of the Castes and Ashramas.\" 152 CHAPTER 9 - THE TEN KINDS OF PURIFICATORY RITES (SANGSKARA ) THE Adorable Sadashiva said: O Virtuous One! I have spoken to Thee of the custom and religious duties appropriate to the different castes and stages of life. Do thou now listen whilst I tell Thee of the purificatory rites of the different castes (1). Without such rites, O Devi! the body is not purified, and he who is not purified may not perform the ceremonies relating to the Devas and the Pitris (2). Therefore it is that men of every caste, commencing with the Vipras, who desire their welfare in this life and hereafter, should, in all things and with care, perform the purificatory rites which have been ordained for their respective castes (3). The ten purificatory ceremonies are those relating to conception, pregnancy, and birth of the child; the giving of its name, its first view of the sun, its first eating of rice, tonsure, investiture, and marriage (4). The Shudras and mixed castes have no sacred thread, and but nine purificatory ceremonies; for the twice- born classes there are ten (5). O Beautiful Lady! all observances, whether they be obligatory, occasional, or voluntary, should be performed according to the injunctions of Shambhu (6). O Dearest One! I have already, in My form of Brahma, spoken of the rules appropriate to the purificatory and other observances (7), and of the Mantras appropriate to the various purificatory and other observances, according to the differences in caste (8). In the Satya, Treta, and Dvapara Ages, the Mantras, O Kalika! were in their application preceded by the Pranava (9); but in the Kali Age, O Supreme Devi! the decree of Shangkara is that man do perform all rites with the aid of the same Mantras, but preceded by the Maya Vija (10). All Mantras in the Nigamas, Agamas, Tantras, Sanghitas and Vedas, have been spoken by Me. Their employment, however, varies according to the Ages (11). For the benefit of men of the Kali Age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kula doctrine, O Auspicious One! is given (12). I will now speak to Thee in brief of the purificatory and other rites, suitable for the weak men of the Kali Age, whose minds are incapable of continued effort (13). Kushandika precedes all auspicious ceremonies. I shall, therefore, O Adored of the Devas! speak firstly of it. Do Thou listen (14). In a clean and pleasant spot, free from husks and charcoal, let the wise one make a square, the sides of which are of one cubits length (15). Then draw in it three lines from the West to East (of the square). Let him then sprinkle water over them, uttering the Kurcha Vija the while. Then Fire should be brought to the accompaniment of the Vahni Vija (16). The Fire, when so 153 brought, should be placed by the side of the square, the worshipper breathing the Vagbhava Vija (17). Then, taking up a piece of burning wood with the right hand from the Fire, he should put it aside as the share of the Rakshasas, saying: Mantra Hring, Salutation to the raw -meat eaters: Svaha (18). The worshipper, lifting up the consecrated Fire with both hands, should place it in front of him on the three lines (above mentioned), inwardly reciting the while the Maya Vija before the Vyahritis (19). Grass and wood should then be thrown upon the Fire to make it blaze, and two pieces of wood should be smeared with ghee and offered as an oblation to it. Thereafter Fire should be named according to the objec t of worship, and then meditated upon as follows (20): Dhyana Ruddily effulgent like the young Sun, with seven tongues and two crowned heads of matted hair, seated on a goat, whose weapon is Shakti. (21) Having so meditated upon the Carrier of oblations, He should be thus invoked with joined palms (22). Mantra Hring, come, O Carrier of Oblations to all the Immortals, come! Come with the Rishis and Thy followers, and protect the sacrifice. I make obeisance to Thee. Svaha (23). Having thus invoked Him, the worshipper should say, \"0 Fire! this is Thy seat,\" and then worship him, the Seven- tongued, with appropriate offerings (24). The seven licking Tongues of Fire are: Kali, Karali, Mano- java, Sulohita, Su- dhumra- varna, Sphulingini, and Vishva- nirupini (25). Then, O Great Devi! the sides of the Fire should be thrice sprinkled with water from the hand, beginning from the East and ending at the North (26). Then the sides of the Fire, from the South to the North, should be thrice sprinkled with water, and following that the articles of sacrifice should be thrice sprinkled (27). Then spread kusha grass on the sides of the square, beginning with the East and ending with the North. The ends of the blades of grass on the North should be turned towards the North, and the rest of the grass should be placed with its ends towards the East (28). The worshipper should then proceed to the seat placed for Brahma, keeping the Fire on his right, and, picking up with his left thumb and little finger a blade of kusha grass from the seat of Brahma, should throw it along with the remaining blades of kusha grass on the South side of the fire, uttering the Mantra \"Hring, Destroy the abode of the enemy\" (29- 30). 154 (The performer of the sacrifice should then say to Brahma:) \" O Brahman, Lord of Sacrifices, be thou seated here. This seat is made for thee.\" The Brahma, saying \"I sit,\" should then sit down, with his face turned towards the North (31). After worshipping Brahma with scent, flowers, and the other articles of worship, let him be supplicated thus (32): Mantra O Lord of Sacrifices! protect the sacrifice.O Brihaspati! protect this sacrifice. Protect me also, the performer of this sacrifice.O Witness of all acts! I bow to Thee (33). Brahma should then say, \"I protect,\" and if there is no person representing Brahma, then the performer of the sacrifice should, for the success of the sacrifice, make an image with darbha grass of the Vipra, and himself say this (34). The worshipper should then invoke Brahma, saying, \"0 Brahman, come here, come here!\" and, after doing honour to him by offering water for washing his feet and the like, let him supplicate him, saying, \"So long as this sacrifice be not concluded, do Thou deign to remain here,\" and then make obeisance to him (35). He should then spri nkle the space between the North- East corner of the fire and the seat of Brahma three times with water taken in his hand, and should thereafter sprinkle the fire also three times, and then, returning the way he went, take his own seat. Let him then spread on the North side of the square some darbha grass, with the ends of the blades towards the North (36- 37). He should then place thereon the articles necessary for the sacrifice, such as the vessel (filled with water) for sprinkling, and the vesse1 containing ghee, sacrificial fuel, and kusha grass. He should also place the sacrificial ladle and spoon on the darbha grass, and purify them by sprinkling water over them, and then, regarding them with a celestial gaze, uttering the Mantra Hrang Hring Hrung (38- 39). Then, with his right knee touching the ground, let him put ghee into the spoon with the ladle, and, with desire for his own well -being, Jet him offer three oblations, saying the Mantra Hring to Vishnu. Svaha (4o). Taking again ghee in the same way, and meditating upon Prajapati, oblations should be offered with ghee streaked across the fire from the corner of Agni to that of Vayu (41). Taking ghee again and meditating on Indra, let him offer oblations from the corner of Nairrita to that of Ishana (42). O Devi! oblations should thereafter be offered to the North, the South, and to the middle of the fire, to Agni, Soma, and to Agni and Soma together (43). Upon that three oblations should be offered, uttering the 155 Mantras Hring salutation to Agni, Hring salutation to Soma, Hring salutation to both Agni and Soma, respectively. Having performed these (preliminary) rites, the wise one should proceed to that prescribed for the Homa sacrifice, which is to be performed (44). The offering of oblations (as above described), commencing with the three offerings made to Vishnu and ending with the offering to Agni and Soma, is called Dhara Homa (45). When making any offering, both the Deva, to which the same is being made, and the thing offered should be mentioned, and upon the conclusion of the principal rite he should perform the Svishti -krit Homa (46). O Beautiful One! in the Kali Age there is no Prayashchitta Homa. The object thereof is attained by Svishti -krit and Vyahriti Homas (47). O Devi! (for Svishti -krit Homa.) g hee should be taken in manner above mentioned, and, whilst mentally reciting the name of Brahma, oblation should be offered with the following: Mantra Hring, O Deva of the Devas! do Thou make faultless any shortcomings that there may be in this rite, and anything done needlessly, whether by negligence or mistake. Svaha (48- 49). Then oblation should be offered to Fire, thus: Mantra Hring, O Fire! Thou art the Purificator of all things. Thou makest all sacrifices propitious, and art the Lord of all. Thou art the Witness of all sacrificial rites, and the Insurer of their success. Do Thou fulfil all my desires (50). The sacrificing priest, having thus concluded the Svishti -krit Homa, should thus (pray to the Supreme Brahman): Mantra O Supreme Brahman! O Omnipresent One! for the removal of the effects of whatsoever has been improperly done in this sacrifice, and for the success of the sacrifice, I am making this Vyahriti Homa. Saying this, he should offer three oblations with the three Mantras Hring Bhuh Svaha, 156 Hring Bhuvah Svaha, Hring Svah Svaha. Thereafter offering one more oblation with the Mantra Hring Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah Svaha, the wise priest should, jointly with the giver of the sacrifice, offer the complete oblation (51- 53). If the latter has performed the sacrifice without a priest, he should offer the oblation himself. This is the rule in Abhisheka and other observances (54). The Mantra for the complete oblation is Mantra Hring, O Lord of Sacrifice! may this Sacrifice of mine be complete. May all the Devatas of sacrifices be pleased and grant that which is desired. Svaha (55). The wise one should then, with the giver of the sacrifice, stand up, and, with a well - controlled mind, offer oblations with fruit and pan leaves, uttering the while the aforesaid Mantra (56). The learned one should, after offering the complete oblation, perform Shanti -karma. Taking water from the sprinkling vessel, he should with kusha grass sprinkle it over the heads of the persons present (57), reciting the Mantra May the water be friendly to me, may water be like a medicament to me, may water preserve me always; water is Narayana Himself (58). Do thou, O water! grant me happiness and my earthly desires, and so forth. Having said this, and sprinkled water over the heads of those present, throw a few drops on the ground, saying (59): Mantra To those who are ever hostile to me, and to those to whom we are ever hostile, may water be their enemy and engulf them (60). Sprinkling a few drops of water in the North -East corner to the accompaniment of the above- mentioned Mantra, the kusha grass should be put away, and supplication should be made to the Carrier of oblations as follows (61): Mantra O Carrier of Oblations! do Thou grant unto me understanding, knowledge, strength, intelligence, wisdom, faith, fame, fortune, health, energy, and long life (62). 157 Having thus prayed to Fire, he should, O Shiva! be bidden to depart with the following (63): Mantra Sacrifice! do thou depart to the Lord of Sacrifice. Fire! do thou depart to the Sacrifice it self. Lord of Sacrifice! do Thou depart to Thine own place and fulfil my desires (64). Then saying, \"Fire, forgive me,\" the Fire should be moved to the South by pouring oblations of curd on the North of Fire (65). Then the worshipper should give a present to Brahma, and, after bowing to him respectfully, bid him go, and, with the ashes adhering to the ladle, the officiating priest should then make a mark on his own forehead and on that of the giver of the sacrifice, uttering the Mantra Hring, Kling, do thou bring peace; mayest thou cause prosperity (66- 67). By the grace of Indra, of Agni, of the Maruts, Brahma, the Vasus, the Rudras, and Praja- pati, may there be peace, may there be prosperity. Whilst saying this Mantra, he should place a flower on his own head. Thereafter the giver of the sacrifice should, as his means allow, offer presents for the success of the sacrifice and for the Kushandika rite (68- 69). I have spoken to Thee, O Devi! of Kushandika, which is the groundwork of all auspicious ceremonies, and which all Kula worshippers should with care perform at the commencement thereof (70). O Auspicious One! I will now speak to Thee of Charu- karma, in order to insure the ritual success in those families in which the cooking of charu is a traditional pract ice in the performance of all rites (71). The pot for cooking charu should be made of either copper or mud (72). In the first place, the articles should be consecrated according to the rules prescribed in Kushandika, and then the pot of charu should be placed in front of the worshipper (73). After careful examination to see that it is without holes and unbroken, a blade of kusha grass of the length of a pradesha should be put in the pot (74). The rice should be placed near the square and then, O Adored of the Devas! the names of such of the Devas as are to be worshipped in each particular ceremony should be uttered in the dative case, followed by the words \"to please Thee,\" and then \"I take,\" \"I place it in the pot,\" and \"I put water into it,\" and put four handfuls of rice in the name of each Deva. He should then take the rice, put it in the pot, and pour water over it (75- 77). O Virtuous One! milk and sugar should be added thereto, as is done in cooking. The whole should then be well and carefully cooked over the consecrated fire (78). And when he is satisfied that it is well cooked and soft, the sacrificial ladle, filled with ghee, should be let into it (79). Thereafter 158 placing the pot on kusha grass on the northern side of the Fire, and adding ghee to the charu three times, the pot should be covered with blades of kusha grass (80). Then, putting a little ghee into the sacrificial spoon, a little charu should be taken from the pot. With it Janu Homa is done (81). Then, after doing Dhara Homa, oblations should be made with the Mantras of the Devas, who are directed to be worshipped in the principal rite (82). Completing the principal Homa after performance of Svishti -krit Homa, expiatory Homa should be performed, and the rite thus completed (83). In the sacramental and consecratory ritual this is the method to be observed. In all auspicious ceremonies it should be followed for the complete success thereof (84). Now,O Mahamaya! I will speak of Garbhadhana and other rites. I will speak of them in their order, beginning with Ritusangskara. Do Thou listen (85). After performing his daily duties and purifying himself, (the priest) should worship the five deities Brahma, Durga, Ganesha, the Grahas, and the Dikpalas (86). They should be worshipped in the jars on the East side of the square, and then the sixteen Matrikas namely, Gauri and others should be worshipped in their order (87). The sixteen Matrikas are Gauri, Padma, Shachi, Medha, Savitri, Vijaya, Jaya, Deva- sena, Svadha, Svaha, Shanti, Pushti, Dhriti, Kshama, the worshippers own tutelary Devata, and the family Devata (88). Mantra May the Mothers that cause the joy of the Devas come and bring all success to weddings, vratas, and yajnas. May they come upon their respective carriers, and in all the fulness of their power, in their benign aspect, and add to the glory of this festival (89- 90). Having thus invoked the Mothers and worshipped them to the best of his powers, the priest should make five or seven marks with vermilion and sandal paste on the wall, at the height of his navel, and within the space of a pradesha (91). The wise one should then, whilst breathing the three Vijas Kling, Hring, and Shring pour an unbroken stream of ghee from each of the said marks, and there worship the Deva Vasu (92). The wise man, having thus made the Vasu- dhara according to the directions which I have given, and having made the square and placed the Fire thereupon, and consecrated the articles requisite for Homa, should then cook the excellent charu (93). Charu which is cooked in t his (Ritu -sangskara) is called Prajapatya, and the name of this Fire is Vayu. After concluding Dhara Homa, the rite of Ritu -sangs -kara should be begun (94). Three oblations of charu should be offered with the Mantra Hring. salutation to Prajapati. Svaha. 159 The one oblation should be offered with the following (95): Mantra May Vishnu grant the power to conceive. May Tvashta give the form. May Prajapati sprinkle it, and may Dhata give the power to bear (96). This oblation should be made with either ghee or charu, or with ghee and charu, and should be offered meditating upon the Sun, Vishnu, and Prajapati (97). Mantra May Sinibali give support to thy womb, may Sarasvati give support to thy womb, may the two Ashvins, who wear garlands of lotuses, give support to thy womb (98). Meditating upon the Devis Sinibali and Sarasvati and the two Ashvins, excellent oblations should be offered with the above Mantra, followed by Svaha (99). Then oblation should be offered to the sanctified Fire, meditating upon Surya and Vishnu with the Mantra Kling, String, Hring, Shring, Hung, grant conception to her, who desires a son: Svaha (100). Then, in the name of Vishnu, oblations should be offered with the following: Mantra As this extended Earth ever carries a full womb, do thou likewise carry for ten months until delivery. Svaha (101). Meditating upon the Supreme Vishnu, let a little more ghee be thrown into the Fire with the following: Mantra Vishnu! do Thou in Thy excellent form put into this woman an excellent son: Svaha (102). And, uttering the following Mantra Kling, Hring, Kling, Hring, String, Hring, Kling, Hring, let the husband touch his wifes head (103). Then the husband, surrounded by a few married women having sons, should place both hands on the head of his wife, and, after meditating on Vishnu, Durga, Vidhi and Surya, place three fruits on the cloth of her lap. Thereupon he should bring the ceremony to a close by making Svishti -krit 160 oblations and expiatory rites (104 -105). Or the wife and husband may be purified by worsh ipping Gauri and Shangkara in the evening, and by giving oblations to Sun (106). I have now spoken of Ritu- sangskara. Now listen to that relating to Garbhadhana (107). On the same night, or on some night having a date of an even number, after the ceremony, the husband should enter the room with his wife, and, meditating on Prajapati, should touch his wife and say: Mantra Hring, O Bed! be thou propitious for the begetting of a good offspring of us two (108-109). He should then with the wife get on the bed, and there sit with his face towards the East or the North. Then, looking at his wife, let him embrace her with his left arm, and, placing his right hand over her head, let him make japa of the Mantra on the different parts of her body (as follows) (110): Let him make japa over the head of the Kama Vija a hundred times; over her chin of the Vagbhava Vija a hundred times; over the throat of the Rama Vija twenty times; and the same Vija a hundred times over each of her two breasts (111). He should then recite the Maya Vija ten times over her heart, and twenty -five times over her navel. Next let him place his hand on her member, and recite jointly the Kama and Vagbhava Vijas a hundred and eight times, and let him similarly recite the same Vijas over his own member a hundred and eight times; and then, saying the Vija \"Hring,\" let him part the lips of her member, and let him go into her with the object of begetting a child (112- 113). The husband should, at the time of the spending of his seed, meditate on Brahma, and, discharging it below the navel into the Raktikanadi in the Chitkunda, he should at the same time recite the following (114, 115): Mantra As the Earth is pregnant of Fire, as the Heaven is pregnant of Indra, as the Points of the compass are pregnant of the Air they contain, so do thou also become pregnant (by this my seed) (116). If the wife then, or at a subsequent period, conceive, the householder, O Maheshvari! should perform in the third month after conception the Pungsavana rite (117). After the performance of his daily duties, the husband should worship the five Devas and the heavenly Mothers, Gauri and others, and should make the Vasu- dhara (118). The wise one should then perform Briddhi Shraddha, and, as aforementioned, the ceremonies up to Dhara-H oma, and then proceed to the Pungsavana rites (119). The charu prepared for Pungsavana is called \"Prajapatya,\" and the fire is called Chandra (120). One grain of barley and two Masha beans should be put into curd made from cows milk, and this should be given to the wife to drink, and, whilst she is 161 drinking it, she should be asked three times: \"What is that thou art drinking,O gentle one?\" (121). The wife should make answer: \"Hring, I am drinking that which will cause me to bear a son.\" In this manner the wife should drink three mouthfuls of the curd (122). The wife should then be led by women whose husbands and children are living to the place of sacrifice, and the husband should there seat her on his left and proceed to perform Charu- Homa (123). Taking a little charu as aforementioned, and uttering the Maya Vija and the Kurcha Vija, he should offer it as oblation, with the following: Mantra Do thou destroy, do thou destroy all these Bhutas, Pretas, Pishachas, and Vetalas, who are inimical to conception and destroyers of the child in the womb, and of the young. Do thou protect (the child in) the womb, do thou protect (the child in) the womb (124- 125). Whilst reciting the above Mantra, meditate upon Fire, as Raksko- ghna, and on Rudra and Prajapati, and then offer twelve oblations (126). He should then offer five oblations with the Mantra Hring, Salutation to Chandra. Svaha. And then, touching his wifes heart, breathe inwardly the Vijas Hring and Shring one hundred times (127). He should then perform Svishti -krit Homa and Prayash -chitta, and complete the ceremony. Panchamrita should be given in the fifth month of pregnancy 128). Sugar, honey, milk, ghee, and curd in equal quantities make Panchamrita. It is needful for the purification of the body (129). Breathing the Vijas Aing, Kling, Shring, Hring, Hung, and Lang, five times over each of the five ingredients, the husband, after mixing them together, should cause his wife to eat it (130). Then, in the sixth or eighth month, the Simantonnayana rite should be performed. It may, however, be performed any time before the child is born (131). The wise one should, after performing the rites as aforementioned, do Dhara- Homa, and sit with his wife on a seat, and offer three oblations to Vishnu, Surya, and Brahma, saying: Mantra To Vishnu Svaha, to the Effulgent One Svaha, to Brahma Svaha (132). Then, meditating on Chandra, let him offer seven oblations to Soma into Fire under his name of Shiva (133). Then, O Shiva! he should meditate upon the Ashwins, Vasava, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Prajapati and offer five oblations to each of them (134). The husband should after that take a gold comb, and comb back the hair on each side of the head and tie it up with the chignon (135). He should, whilst so 162 combing the hair, meditate upon Shiva, Vishnu. and Brahma, and pronounce the Maya Vija (136) and the Mantra O Wife! thou auspicious and fortunate one, thou of auspicious vows! do thou in the tenth month, by the grace of Vishva- karma, be safely delivered of a good child. May thou live long and happy. This comb, may it give thee strength and prosperity! Saying this Mantra, the ceremony should be completed with Svishti -krit Homa and other rites (137- 138). Immediately after the birth of the son the wise one should look upon his face and present him with a piece of gold, and then in another room perform Dhara Homa in the manner already described (139). He should then offer five oblations to Agni, Indra, Prajapati, the Vishva- devas, and Brahma (140). The father should thereafter mix equal quantities of honey and ghee in a bell -metal cup, and, breathing the Vagbhava Vija over it a hundred times, make the child swallow it (141). It should be put into the childs mouth with the fourth finger of the right hand, with the following: Mantra Child, may t hy life, vitality, strength, and intelligence ever increase (142). After performing this rite for the longevity of the child, the father should give him a secret name, by which at the time of the investiture with the sacred thread he should be called (143). The father should then finish the Jata- karma by the performance of the usual expiatory and other rites, and then the midwife should with firmness cut the umbilical cord (144). The period of uncleanliness commences only after the cord is cut; therefore al l rites relating to the Devas and the Pitris should be performed before the cord is cut (145). If a daughter is born, all the acts as above indicated are to be performed, but the Mantras are not to be said. In the sixth or eighth month the boy should be given the name by which he is usually known (146). At the time of naming of the child the mother should, after bathing him and dressing him in two pieces of fine cloth, come to and place him by the side of her husband, with his face towards the East (147). The father should thereupon sprinkle the head of the child with water taken up upon blades of kusha grass and gold, saying at the time the following: Mantra May Jahnavi, Yamuna, Reva, the holy Sarasvati, Narmada, Varada, Kunti, the Oceans and Tanks, Lakes all these bathe thee for the attainment of Dharmma, Kama, and Artha (149). O Waters! thou art the Pranava, and thou givest all happiness. Do thou therefore provide for us food in (this) world, and do thou also enable us to see the Supreme and Beautiful (Par a-brahman). Water! thou art not different from the Pranava. Grant 163 that we may enjoy in this world thy most beneficent essence. Your wishes arise of themselves spontaneously like those of mothers. Water! thou art the very form of Pranava. We go to enjoy to our fill that essence of thine by which thou satisfieth (this Universe). May thou bring us enjoyment therein (150- 152). The wise one should sprinkle water over the child, with the three preceding Mantras, and then, as aforesaid, consecrate the fire and perform the rites leading up to Dhara Homa in the manner already described, and then should offer five oblations (153). He should make the oblation to Agni, then to Vasava, then to Prajapati, then to the Vishva -Devas, and then to Yahni under his name of Parthiva (154). Then, taking the son in his lap, the prudent father should speak into his right ear an auspicious name one that is short, and that can easily be pronounced (155). After whispering the name three times into the sons ear, he should inform the Brahmanas who are present of it, and then conclude the ceremony with Svishtikrit Homa and the other concluding rites (156). For a daughter there is no Nishkramana, nor is Vriddhi Shraddha necessary. The wise man performs the naming, the giving of the first rice, and tonsure of a daughter without any Mantra (157). In the fourth or sixth month after birth the Nishkramana Sangskara ceremony of the son should be performed (158). After performing his daily duties, the father should, after bathing, worship Ganesha, and then bathe and adorn his son with clothes and jewels, and, placing him in front of himself, pronounce the following (159): Mantra Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Ganesha, Bhaskara, Indra, Vayu, Kuvera, Varuna, Agni, and Brihaspati, may They always be propitious to this child, and may They always protect him throughout his going forth from the house (160). Having said this, he should take the child in his arms, and, preceded by vocal and instrumental music, and surrounded by his rejoicing kinsmen, take the son out of the house (161). Going a little distance, he should show the Sun to the child, with the following (162): Mantra Ong, yonder is the Eye (of Heaven) who excels even Shukra in his effulgence, who is beneficent even to the Devas. May we see him a hundred years. May we live a hundred years (163). Having shown the Sun to his child, the father should return to his own house, and, after making offering to the Sun, feast his kinsmen (164). O Shiva! in the sixth or eighth month either the fathers brother or the father himself should give the first rice 164 to the child (165). After worshipping the Devas and purifying fire as aforementioned, and duly performing the ceremonies leading to Dhara Homa, the father should make five oblations to Fire, under his name of Shuchi, to each of the following Devas: He should make the oblations first to Agni, next to Vasava, after him to Prajapati, then to the Vishva- devas, and then the fifth ahuti to Brahma (166- 168). He should then meditate upon the Devi Annada, and, after giving Her five oblations in Fire, place the son, adorned with clothes and jewels, in his lap, and give him payasa, either in the same or in another room (169). The payasa should be put into the childs mouth five times, uttering the Mantras for making oblations to the five vital airs; and after that a little rice and curry should be put into the childs mouth (170). The ceremony should be brought to a close by the blowing of conches and horns and other music, and by performing the concluding expiatory rite. I have done speaking of the rice- eating ceremony. I shall now speak of the tonsure ceremony. Do Thou listen (171). In the third or fifth year, according to the custom in the family, the tonsure of the boy should be performed for the success of the sacramental rites of the boy (172). The wise father should, after concluding the preliminary rites leading up to Dhara Homa, place on the north side of the Fire, called Satya, a mud platter filled with cow -dung, tila-seeds, and wheat, also a little lukewarm water and a keen- edged razor (173- 174). The father should place the son on his mothers lap, the mother sitting on her husbands left, and, after breathing the Varuna Vija ten times over the water, rub the hair of the boys head with lukewarm water. He should then tie the hair with two blades of kusha grass into a knot, uttering meanwhile the Maya Vija (175- 176). Then, saying the Maya and Lakshmi Vijas three times, he should cut off the knot with the steel razor and place it in the hands of the childs mother (177). The boys mother should then take it with both hands and place it in the platter containing the cow - dung, and the father should then say to the barber: \"Barber, do thou at thine ease proceed with the shaving of the boys hair, Svaha.\" Then, looking at the barber, he should make three oblations to Prajapati, into Vahni, under his name of Satya (178- 179). After the boy has been shaved by the barber he should be bathed and adorned with clothes and jewels, and placed near the fire on the left of his mother, and the father should, after performance of Svishti- krit Homa and the expiatory rites, offer the complete oblation (180- 181). Then, uttering the following: Mantra Hring, O Child! may the omnipresent Creator of the Universe grant thee well -being, he should pierce the ears of the boy with gold or silver needles (182). He should then sprinkle the child with water, uttering the Mantra 165 O Water! thou art, etc. (aforementioned); and, after performing Shanti Karma and other rites, and making presents, bring the ceremony to a close (183). The sacramental rites from Garbhadhana to Chudakarana are common to all castes. But for Shudras and Samanyas they must be performed without Mantras (184). In the case of the birth of a daughter all castes are to perform the rites without Mantras. In the case of a daughter there is no Nishkramana (185). I will now speak of the Sacred Thread Ceremony of the twice- born classes, by which the twice -born become qualified for performing rites relating to the Devas and Pitris (186). In the eighth year from conception, or the eighth year after birth, the boy should be invested with the sacred thread. After the sixteenth year the son should not be invested, and one so invested is disqualified for all rites (187). The learned man should, after finishing his daily duties, worship the five Devas, as also the Matrikas, Gauri, and others, and make the Vasudhara (188). He should thereafter perform Briddhi Shraddha for the satisfaction of the Devas and Pitris, and perform the rites, ending with Dhara Homa, as directed in the performance of Kushandika (189). The boy should be given a little to eat; then his head, with the exception of the crown lock, should be shaved, and after that he should be well bathed and decked with jewels and silken clothes (190). The boy should then be taken to the Chhaya -mandapa, near Fire, under his name of Samudbhava, and there made to sit on a clean seat to the left (of his father or Guru) (191). The Guru should say: \"My son, dost thou adopt Brahma- charyya?\" The disciple s hould say respectfully: \"I do adopt it\" (192). The Preceptor should then with a cheerful mind give two pieces of Kashaya cloth for the long life and strength of mind of the gentle boy (193). Then when the boy has put on the Kashaya cloth, he should, without speaking, give him a knotted girdle made of three strings of munja or kusha grass (194). On that the boy should say, \"Hring, may this auspicious girdle prove propitious\"; and, saying this, and putting it round his waist, let him sit in silence before the Guru (195). Mantra This sacrificial thread is very sacred; Brihaspati of old wore it. Do thou wear this excellent white sacrificial thread which contributes to prolong life. May it be for thee strength and courage (196). With this Mantra the boy should be given a sacrificial thread made of the skin of the black buck, as also a staff made of bamboo, or a branch of Khadira, Palasha, or 166 Kshira trees (197). When the boy has put the sacred thread round his neck and holds the staff in his hand, the Guru should three times recite the Mantra \"O Water! thou art,\" etc. (aforementioned), preceded and followed by Hring, and should sprinkle the boy with water taken with kusha grass, and fill the joined palms of the latter with water (198). After the boy has offered the water to Suryya, the Guru should show the boy the Sun, and recite the Mantra. \"Yonder is the Sun,\" etc. (aforementioned) (199). After the boy has viewed the Sun, the Guru should address him as follows: \"My Son! place thy mind on my observances. I bestow upon thee my disposition. Do thou follow the observances with an undivided mind. May my word contribute to thy well - being\" (200). After saying this, the Guru, touching the boys heart, should ask, \"My Son! what is thy name?\" and the boy should make reply: \" . . . Sharmma, I bow to thee\" (201). And to the question of the Guru, \"Whose Brahma- chari art thou?\" the disciple will reverently answer: \"I am thy Brahma- chari\" (202). The Guru should thereupon say: \"Thou art the Brahma- chari of Indra, and Fire is thy Guru.\" Saying this, the good Guru should consign him to the protection of the Devas (203). \"My Son! I give thee to Prajapati, to Savitri, to Varuna, to Prithivi, to the Vishva- devas, and to all the Devas. May they all ever protect thee\" (204). The boy should thereafter go round the sacrificial fire and the preceptor, keeping both upon his right, and then resume his own seat (205). The Guru, O Beloved! should then, with his disciple touching him, offer five oblations to Five Devas (206) namely, Prajapati, Shukra, Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva (207). When the oblations are offered into Fire, under his name of Samud- bhava, the names of each of the Devas should be pronounced in the dative, preceded by Hring and followed by Svaha. Where there is no Mantra mentioned, this method is to be followed in all cases (208). After this, oblation should be offered to Durga, Mahalakshmi, Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Indra, and the other nine regents of the quarters, and Bhaskara and the eight planets (209). The name of each of these should be mentioned whilst the offering of oblations is made. The wise Guru should then cover the boy with cloth, and ask him, who is desirous of attaining Brahma- charyya: \"What is the ashrama thou desirest, my son! and what is thy hearts desire?\" (210). The disciple should thereupon hold the feet of the Preceptor, and, with a reverent mind, say: \"First instruct me in Divine Knowledge, and then in that of the householder\" (211). O Shiva! when the disciple in this manner has thus beseeched his Guru, the latter should three times whisper into his disciples right ear the Pranava, which contains all the Mantras in itself, and should also utter the three Vyahritis, as also the Savitri 167 (212). Sadashiva is its Rishi, the verse is Trishtup, the presiding Deva is Savitri, and its object is the attainment of final liberation (213). The Gayatri Mantra is: Mantra Ong, let us contemplate the wonderful Spirit of the Divine Creator. May He direct our understanding, Ong. The Guru should then explain the meaning of the Gayatri (214- 215). By the Tara, which contains the letters i.e., A, U, and M the Paresh is meant. He Who is the Protector, Destroyer, and Creator. He is the Deva Who is above Prakriti (106). This Deva is the Spirit of the three worlds, containing in Himself the three qualities. By the three Vyahritis, therefore, the all -pervading Brahman is expressed (217). He Who is expressed by the Pranava and the Vyahritis is also known by the Savitri. Let us meditate upon the sublime, all -pervading eternal Truth, the great immanent and lustrous energy, adored by the self -controlled; Savita, effulgent and omnipresent One, Whose manifested form the world is, the Creator. May Bharga, Who witnesseth all, and is the Lord of all, direct and engage our mind, intelligence, and senses towards those acts, which lead to the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (218- 220). O Devi! the excellent Guru, having thus instructed the disciple, and explained to him the Divine Wisdom, should direct him in the duties of a householder (221). \"My Son! do thou now discard the garments of a Brahma- chari, and honour the Devas and Pitris according to the way revealed by Shambhu\" (222). Thy body is sanctified by the instructions thou hast received in Divine Wisdom. Do thou, now that thou hast reached the stage of a householder, engage thyself in thy duties appropriate to that mode of life (223). Put on two sacred threads, two good pieces of cloth, jewels, shoes, umbrella, fragrant garland, and paste (224). The disciple should then take off his Kashaya cloth and his sacred thread of black -buck skin and his girdle, and give them and his staff, begging- bowl, and also what has been received by him in the shape of customary alms, to his Guru. He should then put on two sacred threads and two fine cloths, and wear a garland of fragrant fiowers, and perfume himself, and thereafter sit in silence near the Guru, who should address him as follows (225- 227): \"Conquer the senses, be truthful and devoted to the acquisition of Divine Knowledge and the study of the Vedas, and discharge the duties of a householder according to the rules prescribed in the Dharmma Shastras\" (228). Having thus instructed the disciple, the Guru should make him offer three oblations into Fire in the name of Samudbhava with the Mantra 168 Hring, Earth, Firmament, and Heaven, Ong. He should then himself perform Svishti -krit Homa, and then, O Gentle One! he should bring the investiture ceremony to a close by offering the complete oblation (229- 230). Beloved! all ceremonies, from the Jivaseka to Upana- yana ceremonies, are performed by the father alone. The ceremony relating to marriage may be performed either by the father or by the bridegroom himself (231). The pious man should on the day of marriage perform his ablutions and finish his daily duties, and should then worship the five Devas and the Divine Mothers, Gauri and others, and making the Vasu -dhara do Briddhi Shraddha (232). At night the betrothed bridegroom, preceded by vocal and musical instrumental music, should be brought to the chhaya- mandapa and seated on an excellent seat (233). The bridegroom should sit facing the East, and the giver of the bride should face the west, and the latter, after rinsing his mouth, should, with the assisting Brahmanas, say the words \"Svasti\" and \"Riddhi\" (234). The giver of the bride should ask after the bridegrooms welfare, and ask also his permission to honour him, and upon receiving his answer should honour him by the offer of water for his feet and the like (235), and saying, \"I give this to you,\" let him give the bridegroom the gifts. The water should be given at the feet and the oblation at the head (236). Articles for the rinsing of the mouth should be offered at the mouth, and then scents, garlands, two pieces of good cloth, beautiful ornaments and gems, and a sacred thread should be given to the bridegroom (237), The giver should make madhu- parka by mixing together curd, ghee, and honey in a bell -metal cup, and place it in the hand of the bridegroom with the words, \"I give you\" (238). The bridegroom, after taking it, should place the cup in his left hand, and, dipping the thumb and ring fingers of his right hand into the madhu- parka, should smell it five times, reciting meanwhile the Pranahuti Mantra, and then place the cup on his north. Having offered the madhu- parka, the bridegroom should be made to rinse his mouth (239- 240). The giver of the daughter should then, holding durva and akshata, touch the right knee of the bridegroom with his hand, and then, first meditating on Vishnu and saying \"Tat Sat,\" he should mention the name of the month, the paksha, and tithi, and then the names of the gotra and pravara of the bridegroom and his ancestors one by one, from the great -grandfather, beginning with the last, and ending with the father. The bridegrooms name should be in the objective, and the names of the others in the possessive case. Then follow the brides name and the names of her ancestors, their gotras, etc.; and he should then say: \"I honour thee with the object of giving her to thee in Brahma marriage\" (241- 244). The bridegroom should then say: \"I am honoured.\" The giver upon this should say, \"Perform the ordained marriage rites,\" and the bridegroom should then say: \"I do it to the best of my knowledge\" (245). The bride, adorned with beautiful clothes and 169 jewels, and covered with another piece of cloth, should then be brought and placed in front of the bridegroom (246). The giver of the bride should once again show his respect to the bridegroom by the present of clothes and ornaments, and join the right hand of the bridegroom with that of the bride (247). He should place in their joined hands five gems or a fruit and a pan- leaf, and, having saluted the bride, should consign her to his hands (248). At the time of consigning the bride the giver should, as before, mention his name twice in the nominative case, and should state his wish, and should also mention the names of the three ancestors of the bridegroom, with their gotras, all in the possessive case, as before. He should then mention the name of the bridegroom in the dative singular, and then the names of the three ancestors of the bride, with their gotras, etc., in the possessive case. At the time of mentioning the brides name in the objective singular he should say after that, \"The honoured, adorned, clothed, and Prajapati -devataka,\" and saying, \"to thee I give,\" he should give away the bride. The bridegroom should, saying \"Svasti,\" agree to take her as his wife (249- 251). Let the giver then say, \"In Dharmma, in Artha, in Kama, thou should be with thy wife;\" and the bridegroom should reply, saying, \"So I shall,\" and then recite the praise of Kama (252). Mantra It is Kama who gives and Kama who accepts. It is Kama who has taken the Kamini for the satisfaction of Kama. Prompted by Kama, I take thee. May both our kamas be fulfilled (353). The giver should then, addressing the son- in-law and the daughter, say: \"May, by the grace of Prajapati, the desires of you both be accomplished. May you two fare well. Do you two together perform the religious observances\" (254). Then both the bride and bridegroom, to the accompaniment of music and blowing of conch- shells, should be covered with the cloth, so that they may have their first auspicious glance at one another (255). Then gold and jewels, according to the givers means, should be offered to the son- in-law as presents. The giver should then think to himself that the ceremony has been faultlessly done (256). The bridegroom either, on the same night or the day following, should establish fire, according to the rules of Kushandika (257). The fire that is made in this Kushandika is called Yojaka, and the charu which is cooked is called Prajapatya. After performing Dhara Homa in the fire, the bridegroom should offer five oblations (258). The oblation should, after meditation upon Shiva, Durga, Brahma, Vishnu, and the Carrier of Thunder, be made to them one after the other singly in the sanctified fire (259). Taking both his wifes hands, the husband should say: \"I take thy hands, O fortunate one! Do thou be devoted to the Guru and the Devatas, and duly perform thy household duties according to the religious precepts\" (260). The wife should then, with ghee given by the husband, and fried paddy given by her brother, make four oblations in the name of Prajapati (261). The 170 husband should then rise from his seat with his wife and go round the Fire with her and offer oblations to Durga and Shiva, Rama and Vishnu, Brahmi and Brahma, three times to each couple (262). Then, without reciting any Mantra, the bride should step on a stone, and, standing thereon, the bride should take seven steps. If the Kushamdika ceremony is performed at night, the bride and bridegroom, surrounded by the ladies present, should gaze upon the stars Dhruva and Arundhati (263). Returning to their seats and seated thereon, the bridegroom should bring the ceremony to a close by performing Svishti- krit Homa and offering complete oblations (264). The Brahma marriage, according to kula- dharmma, in order to be faultless, should take place with a girl of the same caste as the husband, but she should not be of the same gotra, nor should she be a sapinda (265). The wife married according to Brahma rites is the mistress of the house, and without her permission another wife should not be married according to those rites (266). O Kuleshvari! if the children of the Brahma wife are living or any of her descendants be living, then the children of the Shaiva wife shall not inherit (267). O Parameshvari! the Shaiva wife and her children are entitled to food and clothing from the heir of her Shaiva husband in proportion to the property of the latter (268). Shaiva marriage celebrated in the Chakra is of two kinds. One kind is terminated with the Chakra and the other is lifelong (269). At the time of the formation of the Chakr a the Vira, surrounded by his friends, relatives, and fellow -worshippers, should, with a well- controlled mind, by mutual consent, perform the marriage ceremony (270). He should first of all submit their wishes, saying to the Bhairavis and Viras there assembled, \"Approve our marriage according to Shaiva form\" (271). The Vira should, after obtaining their permission, bow to the Supreme Kalika, repeating the Mantra of seven letters (Kalika Mantra) one hundred and eight times (272). O Shiva! he should then say to the woman: \"Dost thou love me as thy husband with a guileless heart?\" (273). O Queen of the Devas! the Kaula woman should then honour her beloved with scents, flowers, and coloured rice, and with a faithful heart place her own hands on his (274). The Lord of the Chakra should then sprinkle them with the following Mantra, and the Kaulas, seated in the Chakra, should approve and say: \"It is well\" (275) Mantra May Raja- rajeshvari, Kali, Tarini, Bhuvaneshvari, Bagala, Kamala, Nitya, Bhairavi, ever protect thee both (276). The Lord of the Chakra should sprinkle them twelve times with wine or water of oblation, reciting the above Mantra. The two should then bow to him, and he should upon that let them hear the Vijas of Vagbhava and Rama (277). There is no 171 restriction of caste or age in Shaiva marriage. By the command of Shambhu, any woman who is not a sapinda, and has not already a husband, may be married (278). The wife married for the purposes of Chakra in the Shaiva form should, in the case of the Vira who desires offspring, be released on the dissolution of the Chakra only after the appearance of her menses. The offspring of the Shaiva marriage is of the same caste as the mother if it be an Anuloma marriage, and a Samanya if the marriage is Viloma (279- 281). These mixed castes should, at the time of their fathers shraddha and other ceremonies, give presents of edibles to, and feast the Kaulas only (282). Eating and sexual union, O Devi! are desired by, and natural to, men, and their use is regulated for their benefit in the ordinances of Shiva (283). Therefore, O Mahe- shani! he who follows the ordinances of Shiva undoubtedly acquires Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (284). End of the Ninth Joyful Message, entitled \"The Ten Kinds of Purificatory Rites (Sangskar a).\" 172 CHAPTER 10 - RITES RELATING TO VRIDDHI SHRADDHA , FUNERAL RITES, AND PURNABHISHEKA SHRI DEVI said: I have now learned from Thee, O Lord! of the ordinances relating to Kushandika and the ten Sang-skaras. Do Thou now,O Deva! reveal to Me the ordinances relating to Briddhi Shraddha (1). O Shangkara! tell Me in detail, both for My pleasure and the benefit of all beings, in which of the sacramental and dedicatory ceremonies Kushandika and Briddhi Shraddha should be, or be not, performed. Say this, O Maheshana (2- 3). Shri Sadashiva said: O Gentle One! I have already in detail spoken of all that should be done in the ten Sangskaras commencing from Jiva- seka and ending in marriage (4), and of all that which should be performed by wise men who desire their own weal.O Beauteous One! I will now speak of what should be done in other rites. Do Thou listen to it (5). My Beloved! in consecrating tanks, wells, and ponds, images of Devatas houses, gardens and in vrata, the five Devas and the celestial Mothers should be worshipped, and the Vasu- dhara should be made and Briddhi Shraddha and Kushandika should be performed (6- 7). In ceremonies which may be, and are, performed by women alone there is no Briddhi Shraddha, but (in lieu thereof) a present of edibles should be made for the satisfaction of the Devatas and the Pitris (8). O Lotus -faced One! in such ceremonies the worship of the Deva, Vasu- dhara, and Kushandika should be devoutly performed by the women through the aid of priests (9). If a man cannot perform a rite himself, then his son, the sons son, the daughters son, agnate relatives, sisters son and son- in-law and the priest, are, O Shiva! the best substitutes (10). I will, O Kalika! now in detail speak of Briddhi Shraddha. Do Thou listen to it (11). After performing the daily duties, a man should with mind intent worship Ganga, Vishnu the Lord of Sacrifice, the Divinity of the homestead, and the King (12); and inwardly reciting the Pranava, he should make nine, seven, five, or three Brahmanas of Darbha grass (13). The Brahmanas should be made with ends of the grass which have no knots in them, by twisting the upper ends of the blades from right to left two and a half times (14). In Briddhi Shraddha and Parvana Shraddha there should be six Brahmanas, but, O Shiva! in Ekoddishta Shraddha there should be only one (15). The wise one should 173 place the Brahmanas made of kusha grass all in one receptacle, with their faces to the north, and bathe them with the following (16) Mantra May the Divinity of water, who is like the Maya Vija, be propitious for the attainment of our desire. May He be propitious in that which we drink, May He always stand forward for our good (17). Then with scents and flowers the Brahmanas made with kusha grass should be worshipped (18). The wise one should then place on the west and the south six vessels in pairs with kusha, sesamum -seed, and Tulasi (19). On the two vessels placed on the west two of the Brahmanas should be seated facing east, and on the four seats on the south the four Brahmanas should be seated facing north (20). The Divinities should be imagined to be in the two seated on the west and the paternal Ancestors in the two seated on the left of those on the south and the maternal ancestors on the right. Know this, O Parvati (21). In Abhyudayika Shraddha the Nandimukha fathers and the Nandimukhi mothers, as also the maternal Ancestors in the male line and in the female line, should be mentioned by name. Before this, however, one should turn to his right and face the north, and after the performance of the requisite ceremonies for the worship of the Devas he should turn to his left and face the south and perform the rites necessary for the offering of the Pindas (22- 23). In this Abhyudayika Shraddha, O Shiva! all the rites should be performed in their order, beginning with the rites relating to the Devas, and if there be any deviation the Shraddha fails in its object (24). The word of supplication addressed to the Devas should be said whilst facing the north, and when the same is addressed to the paternal or maternal Ancestors it should be said whilst facing south. And now, O Thou of pure Smiles! I will first state the words of entreaty which should be addressed to the Devas (25). After mentioning the name of the month and paksha, the tithi and the occasion, the excellent worshipper should say \"for the prosperous result of the ceremony.\" Then he should repeat the names and gotras of the three fathers and of the three mothers, and of the three maternal grandfathers and of the three maternal grandmothers, in the possessive case, and he should thereafter say: \"I am performing the Shraddha of the Vishva- Devas represented by the image of the two Brahmanas made of kusha grass.\" These, O Great Devi! are the words of entreaty\" (26- 29). O Parvati! whe n the Anujna- vakya is either for paternal or maternal Ancestors, the same words should, with the necessary alterations, be said for the paternal and maternal Ancestors, and the Vishva- Devas left out (30). Then, O Shiva! the 174 worshipper should recite the Brahma -Vidya Gayatri ten times (31). He should next say the following Mantra I salute the Divinities, the Fathers i.e., the Fathers and Mothers the great Yogis; I salute Pushti and Svaha; may we have such auspicious occasions over and over again. The excellent worshipper, having repeated the above Mantra three times, and taking water in his hand, should wash the Shraddha articles with the Mantra Vang, Hung, Phat (32 -33). O Mistress of the Kula! a vessel should next be placed in the corner of Agni. Then utterin g the Mantra O Water! Thou art the nectar which killest the Rakshasas, protect this sacrifice of mine. Water with Tulasi -leaves and barley should be put into it; and the wise one should, after first offering handfuls of water to the Devas and then to the Vipras, give them seats of kusha grass (34- 35). The learned men, O Shiva! should then invoke the Vishva- Devas, the fathers, the mothers, the maternal grandfathers, and the maternal grandmothers (36). Having so invoked them, the Vishva- Devas should first be worshipped; and then the three fathers, the three mothers, the three maternal grandfathers, and the three maternal grandmothers should be worshipped, with offets of Padya, Arghya, Achamaniya, incense, lights, cloths. Then, O Beauteous One! permission should be asked in the first place of the Devas for the spreading of the leaves (37- 38). Then a four -sided figure should be drawn uttering the Maya Vija, and then in a similar way for the paternal and maternal sides two figures each should be drawn (39). After these have been sprinkled with the Varuna Vija, leaves should be spread over the figures. These leaves should be sprinkled with the Varuna Vija, and then drinking- water and different kinds of edibles and rice should be distributed in their order (40). After giving honey and grains of barley and sprinkling the offerings with water, accompanied by the Mantra Hrang, Hrung, Phat, 175 the worshipper possessed of the knowledge of Truth should dedicate the edibles by the names of the Vishva- Devas, the fathers, the mothers, the maternal grandfathers and the maternal grandmothers, and thereafter repeat the Gayatri ten times and thrice repeat the Mantra \"I salute the Divinities,\" as aforesaid. After this, O Adya! he should take the directions (of the officiating Brahmanas ) relating to the disposal of the remnants of edibles and of the Pindas (41- 43). Upon receiving the directions of the Brahmana, he should, O Beloved! make twelve Pindas of the size of bael fruits with the remnants of the Akshata and other things (44). He should make one more Pinda equal in size with the others, and then, O Ambika! he should spread some kusha grass and barley on the Nairrita corner of the figure (45). Mantra Such of my family as have none to offer Pindas to them whom neither son nor wife survive, who were burnt to death or were killed by tigers or other beast of prey, such kinsmen of mine as themselves are without kinsmen, all such as were my kinsmen in previous births, may they all obtain imperishable satisfaction by the Pinda and water hereby given by me (46- 47). O Adored of the Devas! having with the above Mantra offered the Pinda to those who have no one to offer them Pindas, he should wash his hands and inwardly recite the Gayatri, and repeat the Mantra \"I salute the Divinities,\" and so forth, three times, and then make the square (48). O Devi! the wise man should in front of the vessels containing the remnants of the offerings make such squares in twos (for his Ancestors), beginning with the paternal Ancestors (49). O Shive! he should then sprinkle the squares with water with the Mantra already prescribed, and then spread kusha grass over them and sprinkle them with the Vayu Vija (49), beginning with the kusha spread on the square for the paternal (male) Ancestors, and then offer three Pindas, one at the top, another at the bottom, and one in the middle, in each of the squares (50). O Maheshvari! the names of each of the Ancestors should be mentioned, inviting him or her, and then the Pinda should be given with honey and barley, concluding 176 with Svadha (51). After the Pindas are given (in manner aforesaid) the Lepa- bhoji Ancestors should be satisfied by the offer to them of the remnants which remain on the hand. These should be scattered on all sides with the Mantra Ong, may the Lepa- bhoji An cestors be pleased. In Ekoddishta Shraddha the offering to the Lepa- bhoji Ancestors is not made (52). Then for the satisfaction of the Devas and Pitris the Gayatri should be inwardly recited ten times, and the Mantra, \"I salute the Divinities,\" as aforesaid should be similarly recited three times, and then the Pindas should be worshipped (53). Lighting an incense- stick and a light, the wise one should, with closed eyes, think of the Pitris in their celestial forms partaking of their allotted Pindas, each his own, and should then bow to them, uttering the following (54) Mantra My father is my highest Dharmma. My father is my highest Tapas. My father is my Heaven. On my father being satisfied, the whole Universe is satisfied (55). Taking up some flowers from the remnants, the Pitris should be asked for their blessings, with the following (56) Mantra Give me your blessings, O Merciful Pitris. May my knowledge, progeny, and kinsmen always increase. May my benefactors prosper. May I have food in profusion. May many always beg of me, and may I not have to beg of any (57- 58). Then he should remove the Devas and Brahmanas made of kusha grass, as also the Pindas, commencing with the Devas. The wise one should then make presents to all three (59). He should then make japa of the Gayatri ten times, and the Mantra, \"I salute the Divinities,\" five times, and, after looking at the fire and the Sun, should, with folded palms, ask the Vipra the following question (60): \"Is the Shraddha complete?\" and the Brahmana should make r eply: \"It has been completed according to the injunctions\" (61). Then, for the removal of the effects of any error or omission, the Pranava should be inwardly recited ten times, and the ceremony should be brought to a close, uttering the following Mantra \"May the Shraddha rite be faultless\"; 177 and then the food and drink in the vessels should be offered to the officiating Brahmana (62). In the absence of a Vipra, it should be given to cows and goats, or should be thrown into water. This is called \"Vriddhi Shraddha,\" enjoined for all obligatory sacramental rites (63). Shraddha performed on the occasion of any Parvvan is called \"Parvvana Shraddha\" (64). In ceremonies relating to the consecration of emblems or images of Devas, or while starting for or returning from pilgrimage, the Shraddha should be according to the injunctions laid down for Parvvana Shraddha (65). On the occasion of Parvvana Shraddha the Pitris should not be addressed with the prefix \"Nandimukha,\" and for the words \"Salutation to Pushti\" should be substituted the words \"Salutation to Svadha\" (66). O Beautiful One! if any of the three Ancestors be alive, then the wise one should make the offerings to another Ancestor of higher degree (67). If the father, grandfather, and great -grandfather be alive, then, O Queen of the Devas! no Shraddha need be performed. If they are pleased, then the object of the funeral rite and sacrifice is attained (68). If his father be living, then a man may perform his mothers Shraddha, his wifes Shraddha, and Nandi -mukha Shraddha; but he is not entitled to perform the Shraddha of anyone else (69).O Queen of the Kula! at the time of Ekoddishta Shraddha the Vishva- Devas are not to be worshipped. The word of entreaty should be addressed to one Ancestor only (70). At the time of Ekoddishta Shraddha cooked rice and Pinda should be given whilst facing south. The rest of the ceremony is the same as that which has been already described, with the exception that sesamum should be substituted for barley (71). The peculiarity in Preta Shraddha is that the worship of Ganga and others is omitted, and in the framing of the Mantra the deceased should be spoken of as Preta whilst rice and Pindas are offered to him (72). The Shraddha performed for one man is called \"Ekoddishta.\" In offering Pinda to the Preta, fish and meat should be added (73). O Mistress of the Kula! know this, that the Shraddha which is performed on the day following the end of the period of uncleanliness is Preta Shraddha (74). If there is a miscarriage, or if the child dies immediately on birth, or if a child is born or dies, then the period of uncleanliness is to be reckoned according to the custom of the family (75). The period of uncleanliness in the case of the twice- born is ten days (for Brahmanas), twelve (for Kshatriyas), and a fortnight (for Vaishyas); for Shudras and Samanyas the period is one month (thirty days) (76). 178 On the death of an Agnate who is not a Sapinda, the period of uncleanliness is three days, and on the death of a Sapinda, should information of it arrive after the period prescribed, one becomes unclean for three days (77). The unclean man, O Primordial One! is not entitled to perform any rite relating to the Devas and the Pitris, excepting Kula worship and that which has been already commenced (78). Persons over five years of age should be burnt in the burning- ground, but, O Kuleshani! a wife should not be burnt with her dead husband (79). Every woman is Thy image Thou residest concealed in the forms of all women in this world. That woman who in her delusion ascends the funeral pyre of her lord shall go to hell (80). Kalika! the corpses of worshippers of Brahman should be either buried, thrown into running water, or burnt, according as they may direct (81). Ambika! death in a holy place or a place of pilgrimage, or near the Devi, or near the Kaulikas, is a happy one (82). He who at the time of his death meditates on the one Truth, forgetful of the three worlds, attains to his own Essential Being (83). After death the corpse should be taken to the bur ning- ground, and when it has been washed it should be smeared with ghee and placed on the pyre, with the face to the north (84). The deceased should be addressed by his name, and Gotra and as Preta. Giving the Pinda to the mouth of the corpse, the pyre should be lighted by applying the torch to the mouth of the corpse, inwardly the while reciting the Vahni Vija (85). Beloved! the Pinda should be made of boiled or unboiled rice, or crushed barley, or wheat, and should be of the size of an emblic myrobalam (86). To the eldest son of the Preta is given the privilege of performing the Shraddha; in his absence to the other sons, according to the order of their seniority (87). The day after the day upon which the period of uncleanliness expires, the mourner should bathe and purify himself, and give away gold and sesamum for the liberation of the Preta (88). The son of the Preta should give away cattle, lands, clothes, carriages, vessels made of metals, and various kinds of edibles, in order that the Preta may attai n Heaven (89). He should also give away scents, garlands, fruits, water, a beautiful bed, and everything which the Preta himself liked to insure his passage to Heaven (90). 179 Then a bull should be branded with the mark of a trident, and decorated with gold and ornaments, and then let loose, with the object that the deceased may attain Heaven (91). He should then with a devout spirit perform the Shraddha, according to the injunctions laid down for the performance of Preta Shraddha, and then feed Brahmanas and Kaulas possessed of Divine knowledge, and the hungry (92). The man who is unable to make gifts should perform the Shraddha to the best of his ability, and feed the hungry, and thus liberate his father from the state of existence of a Preta (93). This Preta Shraddha is known as Adya or Ekod- dishta Shraddha, and it liberates the deceased from the state of Preta. After this every year on the tithi of his death edibles should be given to the deceased (94). There is no necessity for a multitude of injunctions nor for a multitude of rituals. Man may attain all siddhi by honouring a Kaulika. The object of all Sangskaras is completely attained if, in lieu of the prescribed Homa, Japa, and Shraddha, even a single Kaulika is duly honoured (96), at the time of the ceremony. The injunction of Shiva is that all auspicious ceremonies should be performed between the period beginning with the fourth day of the light half of the lunar half - month, and ending on the fifth of the dark half -month (97). He, however, who is desirous of performing any rite which must be performed may perform it even on an inauspicious day, provided he be so directed by his Guru, by a Ritvij, or a Kaulika (98). A Kaulika should commence the building of a house, should first enter a house, start on a journey, wear new jewels, and the like,only after worshipping the Primordial One with the five Elements (99). Or the excellent worshipper may shorten the rite. He may thus, after meditating on the Devi, and inwardly reciting the Mantra and bowing to the Devi, go wherever he may desire (100). In the worship of all Devatas, such as the Autumnal Festival and others, dhyana and puja should be performed according to the ordinances laid down in the Shastras relating to such worship (101). According to the ordinances relating to the worship of the Primordial Kali, animal sacrifice and Homa should be performed, and the rite should be brought to an end by the honouring of Kaulikas and making of offerings (102). The general rule is that Ganga, Vishnu, Shiva, Suryya, and Brahma should first be worshipped, and then the Deva the special object of worship (103). 180 The Kaulika is the most excellent Dharmma, the Kaulika is the most excellent Deva, the Kaulika is the most excellent pilgrimage, therefore should the Kaula be alway s worshipped (104). The three and a half kotis of Places of Pilgrimage, all the Devas beginning with Brahma Himself, reside in the body of the Kaula. What, therefore, is there which is not attained by worshipping him? The land in which the good and fully initiated Kaula resides is blessed and deserving of honour. It is most holy, and is coveted even by the Devas (105- 106). Who can in this world understand the majesty of the fully initiated Sadhaka, who is Shiva Himself, and to whom there is nothing either holy or sinful? (107). Such a Kaula, possessing merely the form of man, moves about this earth for the salvation of the entire world and the instruction of men in the conduct of life (108). Shri Devi said: Thou hast, O Lord! spoken of the greatness of the Soul of the fully initiated Kaula. Do Thou in Thy mercy speak to Me of the ordinances relating to such initiation (109). Shri Sadashiva said: In the three Ages this rite was a great secret.; men then used to perform it in all secrecy, and thus attain liberation (110). When the Kali Age prevails, the followers of Kula rite should declare themselves as such, and, whether in the night or the day, should openly be initiated (111). By the mere drinking of wine, without initiation, a man does not become a Kaula. The Kula worshipper becomes the Lord of the Kula Chakra only after full initiation (112). The Guru should, the day before the initiation, worship the Deva of Obstacles with offerings, according to his ability for the removal of all obstacles (113). If the Guru is not qualified to officiate at a full initiation ceremony, then it should,O Beloved! be performed by a duly initiated Kaula (114). Gang is the Vija of Ganapati (Ganesha) (115). Ganaka is the Rishi, the Chhanda is Nivrit, the Lord of Obstacles is the Devata, and the Mantra is applicable for the removal of obstacles to the performance of the rite (116). Adding successively six long vowels to the Mula Mantra, Shadanga- nyasa should be performed, and O Shiva! after doing Pranayama let Ganapati be meditated upon (117). Dhyana Meditate on Gana- pati as of the colour of vermilion, having three eyes, a large belly, holding in His lotus -hands the conch, the noose, the elephant -goad, and the sign of 181 blessing. His great trunk adorned with the jar of wine which it holds. On His forehead shines the young Moon. He has the head of the King of elephants; His cheeks are constantly bathed in wine. His hody is adorned with the coils of the King of servants. He is dressed in red raiment, and His body is smeared with scented ointments (118). Having thus meditated upon Ganapati, he should be worshipped with mental offerings, and then the protecting power of the seat should be worshipped. These are Tibra, Jvalini, Nanda, Bhoga- da, Kama- rupini, Ugra, Tejasvati, Satyi, and Vighna -vinashini. The first eight should be worshipped in their order, beginning from the east, and the last should be worshipped in the middle of the Mandala. Having thus worshipped them all, the lotus -seat itself should be worshipped (119- 120). Meditating on Ganesha once again, He should be worshipped with offerings of the five elements. On each of His four sides should the excellent Kaulika worship Ganesha, Gana- nayaka, Gana- natha, Gana- krida, Eka -danta, Rakta- tunda, Lambodara, Gajanana, Mahodara, Vikata, Dhumrabha, and Vighna -nashana (121- 123). Then the eight Shaktis, Brahmi, and others, and the ten Dikpalas and their weapons, should be worshipped, and after that Vighna- raja should be bidden to depart (124). Having thus worshipped the King of Obstacles, the worshipper should perform the preliminary ceremony, and then entertain the Kaulas versed in divine knowledge with the five elements (125). The next day, having bathed and performed his ordinary daily duties as already enjoined, he should, O Beloved! give away sesamum -seed and gold for the destruction of all sins from his birth, and a bhojya for the satisfaction of the Kaulas (126). Then, giving arghya to Suryya, and having worshipped Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the nine Planets, as also the sixteen divine Mothers, he should make a Vasu -dhara (127). He should then perform Vriddhi Shraddha for the good result of the rite, and, going up to the Guru, bow to him, and pray to him as follows (128): (Prayer to the Guru) Save me, O Lord! thou that art the Sun of the Kaulas. Protect my head, O Ocean of Mercy! with the shade of thy lotus -foot (129). Grant us leave, O Exalted One! in this auspicious Purnabhisheka that by thy grace I may attain the success of my undertaking without any hindrance (130). (The Guru should then r eply:) My son! be thou, by the permission of the Shiva- Shakti, initiated with the full initiation. May thou attain the object of thy desire by the command of Shiva (131). 182 Having thus obtained the permission of the spiritual Preceptor, he should make the Sangkalpa for the removal of all obstacles and for the attainment of long life, prosperity, strength, and good health (132). The Sadhaka, having solemnly formed his resolve, should worship the Guru, by presenting him with clothes and jewels, and karana with Shuddhi, and do honour to him (133). The Guru should then make with earth an altar four fingers in height and measuring one and a half cubit either way in a beautiful room painted with red earth, etc., decorated with pictures, flags, fruits, and leaves, and strings of small bells. The room should have a beautiful ceiling- cloth, lighted with lines of lamps fed with ghee to dispel all traces of darkness, and should be scented with burning camphor, incense- sticks, and incense, and ornamented with fans, fly -whisks, the tail feathers of the peacock, and mirrors, etc., and then he should with rice powdered and coloured yellow, red, black, white, and dark blue draw Mandala called Sarvato- bhadra, beautiful and auspicious in every way (134- 138). Then each person should perform the rite preparatory to mental worship, according to his Sangkalpa, and then, having made mental worship, should purify the five elements with the Mantra previously mentioned (139). After the Pancha- tattvas have been purified, the jar, which must be either of gold or silver or copper or earth, should be placed with the Brahma Vija on the Mandala. It should be washed with the Weapon Mantra and smeared with curd, Akshata, and then a vermilion mark should be placed on it with the Mantra \"Shring\" (14 0-141). He should then recite three times the letters of the alphabet, with the Vindu superposed from Ksha to A, and recite inwardly the Mula Mantra, and fill the jar with wine or water from some holy place, or with ordinary pure water, and then throw into the jar nine gems or gold (142- 143). The merciful Guru should then place over the mouth of the jar a leafy branch of a Jack- tree, a Fig- tree, an Ashvattha- tree, and of a Vakula and Mango- tree, with the Vagbhava Vija (144). He should then place on the leafy branch a gold, silver, copper, or earthen platter, uttering the Rama Vija and Maya Vija (145). Then, O Beauteous One! two pieces of cloth should be tied to the neck of the jar. When worshipping Shakti the cloth should be of a red colour, and in the worship of Shiva and Vishnu it should be white (146). Inwardly reciting the Mantra Sthang, Sthing, Hring, Shring, 183 the jar should be fixed in its place, and after putting into it the Pancha- tattvas the nine cups should be placed in their order (147). The Shakti Patra should be of silver, the Guru Patra of gold, the Shri Patra should be made of the human skull, the rest of copper (148). Cups made of stone, wood, and iron should be rejected; the material of the cups in the worship of the Maha- Devi should be accordi ng to the means of the worshipper (149). After placing the cups, libations should be offered to the four Gurus and the Devi, and the wise one should then worship the jar filled with nectar (150). Lights and incense should then be waved and sacrifices made to all beings, and after worshipping the divinities of the pitha he should perform Shadangganyasa (151). He should then do Pranayama, and, meditating on the Great Devi, invoke Her, and thereafter worship Her, the Object of his worship, to the best of his ability and without niggardliness (151). The excellent Guru, O Shiva! should perform all the rites ending with Homa, and then honour the Kumaris and worshippers of Shakti by presenting them with flowers, sandal -paste, and clothes (153). The Guru should then ask the permission of those present with the following words: O you Kaulas! who are vowed to Kula- worship, be kind to my disciple. Do you give your permission to his Sangskara of Purnabhisheka (154). The Lord of the Chakra, having thus asked those present, should respectfully say: \"By the grace of Mahamaya and the majesty of the Supreme Soul, may thy disciple be perfect and devoted to the Supreme Essence\" (155). The Guru should then make the disciple worship the Devi in the jar, which has been worshipped by himself, and then, mentally repeating the Mantra Kling, Hring, Shring over it, move the immaculate jar, with the following Mantra Rise, O Brahma -kalasha, thou art the Devata and grantest all success. May my disciple, being bathed with thy water and leaves, be devoted to Brahman (156- 157). Having moved the jar in this manner, the Guru should mercifully sprinkle the disciple seated with his face to the North with the Mantra about to be spoken (158). The Rishi of the Mantra of this auspicious Purnabhisheka rite is Sadashiva, the presiding Devata is the Adya Devata, the Vija is \"Ong,\" and its applicability is for the auspicious sprinkling on the occasion of the Purnabhisheka ceremony (158- 159). Mantra 184 May the Gurus sprinkle thee. May Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara sprinkle thee; may the Mothers Durga, Lakshmi, Bhavani, sprinkle thee; may Shodashi, Tarini, Nitya, Svaha, Mahisha- mardini, all these sprinkle thee with the water that has been sanctified by the Mantra; may Jaya- durga, Vishalakshi, Brahmani, Sarasvati , may all These sprinkle thee; may Bagala, Varada, and Shiva sprinkle thee; may the Shaktis, Narasinghi, Varahi, Vaishnavi, Vana- malini, Indrani, Varuni, Raudri, sprinkle thee; may Bhairavi, Bhadra- kali, Tushti, Pushti, Uma, Kshama, Shraddha, Kanti, Daya, Shanti, always sprinkle thee; may Maha- kali, Maha- lakshmi, Maha- nila-sarasvati, Ugra -chanda, Prachanda, constantly sprinkle thee; may Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Nrisingha, Vamana, Rama, Bhrigu- Rama, sprinkle thee with water; may Asitanga, Ruru, Chanda, Krodhonmatta, Bhayangkara, Kapali, Bhishana, sprinkle thee; may Kali, Kapalini, Kulla, Kurukulla, Virodhini, Viprachitta, Mahogra, ever sprinkle thee; may Indra, Agni, Shamana, Raksha, Varuna, Pavana, Dhana- da, Maheshana, who are the eight Dikpalas, sprinkle thee; may Ravi, Soma, Mangala, Budha, Jiva, Sita, Shani, Rahu, Ketu, with all their Satellites, sprinkle thee; may the stars, the Karanas, the Yogas, the Days of the Week, and the two Divisions of the Month, the Days, Seasons, Months, and the Year anoint thee always; may the Salt Ocean, the Sweet Ocean, the Ocean of Wine, the Ocean of Ghee, the Ocean of Curd, the Ocean of Milk, the Ocean of Sweet Water sprinkle thee with their consecrated waters; may Ganga, Yamuna, Reva, Chandra -bhaga, Sarasvati, Sarayu, Gandak i, Kunti, Shveta - ganga, Kaushiki, may all these sprinkle thee with their consecrated waters; may the great Nagas beginning with Ananta, the birds beginning with Garuda, the trees beginning with the Kalpa tree, and the great Mountains sprinkle thee; may the beneficent Beings residing in Patala, on the earth, and in the air, pleased at this hour of thy Purnabhisheka, sprinkle thee with water (160- 175). May thy ill -luck, bad name, illness, melancholy and sorrows be destroyed by the Purnabhisheka, and by the glory of the Supreme Brahman (176). May Alakshmi, Kala- karni, the Dakinis, and the Yoginis, being driven away by the Kali Vija, be destroyed by the Abhisheka (177). May the Bhuta, Preta, Pishachas, and the maleficent Planets be driven out, put to flight, and destroyed by the Rama Vija; may all misfortune caused thee by magic and by the incantations of thy enemies, may all thy transgressions of mind, word, and body be destroyed as the result of this initiation; may all thy adversities be destroyed, may thy prosperity be undisturbed, may all thy desires be fulfilled as the result of this Purnabhisheka (178- 180). With these twenty -one Mantras the disciple should be sprinkled with water; and if he has obtained already the Mantra from the mouth of a Pashu, the Guru should make him hear it again (181). The Kaulika Guru should, having informed the worshippers of Shakti, call his disciple by his name and give him a name ending with Anandanatha (182). Being thus initiated in the Mantra by the Guru, the disciple should worship his Ishta-devata in the Yantra (of the Guru), and then honour the Guru by presenting him with the Pancha -tattvas (183). 185 The disciple should also give as Dakshina cows, land, gold, clothes, drinks, and jewels to the Guru, and then honour the Kaulas, who are the very embodiments of Shiva (184). The self -possessed, purified, and humble disciple, having honoured the Kaulas, should touch the sacred feet of the Guru with veneration, and, bowing to him, pray to him as follows (185): Prayer to Guru Holy Lord! Thou art the Lord of the world. Lord! thou art my Lord.O Ocean of Mercy! do Thou gratify my hearts desire by the gift of the excellent nectar (186). The Guru should then say: \"Give me leave, O Kaulas! you who are the visible images of Shiva Himself, that I may give to my good and humble disciple the excellent nectar\" (187). The Kaulas will then say: \"Lord of the Chakra! thou art the Supreme Lord Himself, Thou art the Sun of the Kaula lotus. Do Thou gratify this good disciple, and give him the Kaula nectar\" (188). The Guru, having obtained the leave of the Kaulas, should place in the hand of the disciple the drinking- cup filled with the excellent nectar, as also the Shuddhi (189). The Guru should then, devoutly meditating on the Devi in his heart, place the tilaka on the forehead of the disciple, as also of the Kaulas, with the ashes adhering to the sacrificial spoon (190). Let the Guru then distribute the Tattvas offered to the Devi, and partake of the food and drink as directed in the injunctions relating to the formation of Chakra (191). O Devi! I have spoken to Thee of the auspicious rites relating to Purnabhisheka. By this one attains divine knowledge and becomes Shiva Himself (192). The Purnabhisheka should be performed for nine or seven or five or thr ee or one night (193). There are, O Kuleshani! five different forms in this purificatory rite. In the rite which lasts nine nights the Mandala known as Sarvato- bhadra should be made (194). Beloved! in the rite which lasts seven nights the Mandala Nava- nabha, in the rite which lasts five nights the Mandala Panchabja, in the rite which lasts three nights and in the rite which lasts one night the Mandala of eight -petalled lotus should be respectively made (195). O Devi! the injunction is that on the Sarvato- bhadra and Nava- nabha Mandalas nine jars should be placed, on Panchabja Mandala five, and on Ashta- dalabja Mandala 186 one jar, and the Angga- Devatas and the Avarana- Devatas should be worshipped in the filaments and other parts of the lotuses (196- 197). The Kaulas who have been fully initiated are pure of soul. All things are purified by their looking, touching, and by their smelling them (198). All men, whether they are Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Shaivas, Sauras, or Ganapatas, should worship the Kaula Sadhu with devotion (199). It is good for a Shakta to have a Guru who is a Shakta, for a Shaiva a Shaiva Guru is commendable, and for a Vaishnava a Vaishnava, for a Saura a Saura as Guru is advised, and a Ganapata is the proper Guru for a Ganapata, but a Kaula is excellent as Guru in the case of all; therefore the wise one should with all his soul be initiated by a Kaula (200- 201). Those who worship the Kaulas with Pancha- tattva and with heart uplifted cause the salvation of their Ancestors, and themselves attain the highest end (202). The man who has obtained the Mantra from the mouth of a Pashu is of a certainty a Pashu, and he who has obtained the Mantra from a Vira is a Vira, and he who obtains it from a Kaula knows the Brahman (203). One who has been initiated according to Shakta rites is a Vira; he may purify the Pancha- tattvas only in the worship of his own Ishta- devata, he may never be the Chakreshvara (204). He who kills a Vira, he who drinks wine which has not been consecrated, he who seduces the wife of or steals the property of a Vira, these four are great sinners, and the man who associates with any of these is the fifth sinner (205). Those evil -natured men who disparage the Kula Way, Kula articles, and the Kula worshipper go down the low and vile path (206). The Rudra- dakinis and Rudra- bhairavis dance in joy (at the thought of) chewing the bones and flesh of men who hate wine and the Kaulas (207). They are merciful and truthful, and ever desire the good of others, for such as slander them there is no escape from Hell (208). I have in the various Tantras spoken of various ceremonies and of many repetitions of practices; but in the case of a Kaula who is devoted to the Brahman, it is a matter of indifference whether he practises or omits them (209). There is one Supreme Brahman Who exists, spread throughout the Universe (or any part of it). He is worshipped, because there is nothing which exists apart from Him (210). Beloved! even those who look to the fruit of action and are governed by their desires and by the worship of different Devas, and addicted to worldly pursuits, go to and become united with Him (211). He who sees everything in Brahman, and who sees Brahman everywhere, is undoubtedly known as an excellent Kaula, who has attained liberation while yet living ( 212). 187 End of the Tenth Joyful Message, entitled \"Rites relating to Vriddhi Shraddha, Funeral Rites, and Purnabhisheka.\" 188 CHAPTER 11 - THE ACCOUNT OF EXPIATORY RITES LISTENING to the injunctions of Shambhu relating to the different castes and stages of life, Aparna was greatly pleased, and questioned Shangkara thus (1): Shri Devi said: Thou hast, O Lord! out of Thy kindness for Me and in Thy omniscience, spoken of the customs and the rules of religious conduct and sacraments for the well -being of the world (2). But the men of the Kali Age, being wicked, and blinded by anger and lust, atheists, of wavering minds and addicted to the gratification of their senses, will not in their ignorance and folly follow the way laid down by Thee; it behoves Thee, O Ishana! to say what will be the means of their liberation (3- 4). Shri Sadashiva said: Thou hast asked well, O Devi! Thou who art the Benefactress of the world, the Mother of the world, Thou art Durga, Thou liberatest people from the bonds of birth and the toils of this world (5). Thou art the Primordial One, Thou fosterest and guardest this world, Thou art beyond the most excellent; Thou, O Devi! supportest the moving and the motionless Universe (6). Thou art Earth, Thou art Water, Thou art Fire, Thou art Air, Thou art the Void, Thou art consciousness itself, Thou art the mahat -tattva (7). Thou art life in this world; Thou art the knowledge of self, and Thou art the Supreme Divinity. Thou art the senses; Thou art the mind, Thou art the intellect; Thou art the motion and existence of the Universe (8). Thou art the Vedas, Thou art the Pranava, Thou art the Smritis, the Sanghitas, the Nigamas, the Agamas, and the Tantras, Thou pervadest all the Shastras, and art the Abode of all that is good (9). Thou art Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Maha- nila-sarasvati, Mahodari, Mahamaya, Maharaudri, and Maheshvari; Thou art Omniscient and full of knowledge, there is nothing which Thou knowest not; yet, O Wise One! since Thou askest Me, I will speak of it for Thy pleasure (10- 11). Thou hast truly spoken, O Devi! of the ways of men, who, knowing what is for their welfare, yet, maddened by sinful desire for things which bring immediate enjoyment, and devoid of the sense of right and wrong, will desert the True Path. I speak now of that which will contribute to their salvation (12- 13). 189 In the doing of what is forbidden and in the omitting of what is enjoined men sin, and sins lead to pain, sorrow, and disease (14). O Kula -nayika! know that there are two kinds of sin that which contributes merely to the injury of ones own self, and that which causes injury to others (15). Man is released of the sin of injuring others by the punishment inflicted by the King, and from other sins by expiatory rites and Samadhi (16). Those sinful men who are not purified by either punishment or expiation cannot but go to hell, and are despised both in this world and the next (17). O Adya! I shall first of all speak of the Rules relating, O Maheshvari! to punishment by the King. The King who deviates from these himself goes upon the downward path (18). In the administration of justice, servants, sons, mendicants, friends, and foes should all be treated alike (19). If the King is guilty of any sin himself, or if he should have wronged one who is not guilty, then he may purify himself by fasting and by placating those he has wronged by gifts (20). If the King should consider that he is guilty of any sin which is punishable by death, he should then abdicate his kingdom and go to a forest, and there labour for his liberation and penances (21). The King should not, without sufficient reason, inflict heavy punishment on persons guilty of a light offence, nor should he inflict light punishment on persons guilty of a great offence (22). But the punishment by which many offenders may be deterred from ill -doing, and (punishment) in the case of an offender who is fearless of crimes, should be heavy, although the offence be a light one (23). In the case of one who has committed the offence but once only and is ashamed of his ill- deed, or of one who fears crime and is a respectable man, a light punishment should be inflicted, even if the offence be a grave one (24). If a Kaula or a Brahmana is guilty of a slight offence, they should even, though highly honourable, be punished by the King by a rebuke (25). The King who does not bestow adequate rewards and punishments after consultation with his ministers is a great sinner (26). A son should not leave his mother and father, the subjects should not leave their King, nor the wife her husband, even though they are greatly guilty (27). The subjects should actively protect the kingdom, property, and life of the just King; otherwise they will go upon the downward path (28). Shiva! those who knowingly go with their, mother, daughter, or sister, those who have killed their Maha- gurus, those who have, after having taken refuge in the Kula 190 Faith, abandoned it, and those who have broken the trust placed in them, are great sinners (29- 30). Shiva! the punishment of those that go with their mother, sister, and daughter is death, and if the latter are wilful participants the same punishment should be inflicted upon them (31). The sinful man who with a lustful mind goes to the bed of his mother or fathers sister, or daughter s-in-law, or mothers -in-law (wifes mother), the wife of his preceptor, the wife of his maternal or paternal grandfather, the daughter or wife of his mother or fathers brother, the wife or daughter of his brother, the sisters daughter, the masters wife or daughter, or with an unmarried girl, should be punished by castration, and these women also if they are wilful participants in the crime should be punished by the cutting of their noses and turning them out of the house that they may be released from sin (32- 34). The punishment of the man who goes with the wife or daughter of a sapinda, or with the wife of a man who has trusted him, is to be deprived of all his property and to have his head shaved (35). If through mistake (by ignorance) one should happen to marry any of these, either in Brahma or Shaiva form, then she should at once be disespoused (36). A man who goes with the wife of another man of the same caste as himself, or of a caste inferior to his own, should be punished by the imposition of a fine and by being kept on a diet of grains for one month (37). If a Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, or Samanya, O Thou of Beauteous Face! goes with a Brahmana woman knowing her to be such, then his punishment is castration, and the Brahmana woman should be disfigured and banished from his kingdom by the King. For such as go with the wives of Viras, and for such wives, the punishment should be the same (38- 39). The wicked man who enjoys the wife of one of a higher caste should be heavily fined, and kept on a diet of grains for three months (40). And if the woman is a wilful party, she should be punished as above mentioned. If the wife is the victim of a rape, then she should be separated from, but maintained by, her husband (41). A wife, whether married according to Brahma or Shaiva form, should in all cases be renounced if she has gone with another even if it be only once, and then whether of her own desire or against it (42). Those who have intercourse with public women, or with cows or other animals, should, O Deveshi! be purified by being kept on a diet of grains for three nights (43). 191 The punishment of those wicked men who have unnatural intercourse with a woman is death; this is the injunction of Shambhu (44). A man who ravishes a woman, even if she be the wife of a Chandala, should be punished by death, and should never be pardoned (45). A man should consider as wife only that woman who has been married to him according to Brahma or Shaiva form. All other women are the wives of others (46). A man who with lust looks at another mans wife should fast for a day to purify himself. He who accosts her in a secret place should fast for two days. He who touches her should fast for four days; and he who embraces her should fast for eight days to purify himself (47). And the woman who with a lustful mind behaves in the same manner should purify herself by following the same rules of fasting (48). The man who uses offensive language towards a woman, who sees the private parts of a woman who is not his wife, and laughs derisively at her, should fast for two days to purify himself (49). A man who shows his naked body to another, or who makes another person naked, should cease eating for two days to purify himself (50). If the husband proves that his wife has had intercourse wi th another, then the King should punish her and her paramour according to the injunction laid down (51). If the husband (has good cause to believe and yet) is unable to prove the faithlessness of his wife, then he should separate from her, but he should maintain her if she remains under his control (52). If the husband, on seeing his wife enjoying with her paramour, kills her with her paramour, then the King should not punish him with death (53). If the husband prohibits the wife to go to any place or to talk with anyone, then the wife should neither go to that place nor talk with that person (54). If, on the death of the husband, the widow lives with the relatives of the husband under their control, following the customs of a widows life, or in their absence she lives with the relatives of her father, then she deserves to inherit her husbands property (55). The widow should not eat twice a day, nor should she eat food cooked by one who is not her husbands Agnate; she should renounce sexual enjoyment, animal food, jewels, sleeping on soft beds, and coloured clothes (56). 192 The widow faithful to her Dharmma should not anoint herself with fragrant ointments, she should avoid village gossip, and should spend her time in the worship of the Deities and in the performance of Vratas (57). In the case of the boy who has neither father, mother, nor paternal grandfather, the mothers relatives are the best guardians (58). The mothers mother, mothers father, mothers brother, mothers brothers son, mothers fathers brother, these are the relatives on the mothers side (59). Fathers mother, father, brother, fathers brothers and sisters sons, fathers fathers brother, are known as paternal relatives (60). The husbands mother, father, brother, the husbands brothers and sisters sons, and the husbands fathers brothers, all these are known as the relatives of the husband (61). Ambika! the King should compel a man, according to his means, to give food and clothes to his father, mother, fathers father, fathers mother, the wife whose son cannot support her, and to the maternal grandfather and grandmother, who are poor and have no son (62- 63). If a man speaks rudely to his wife he must fast for a day, if he beats her he must go without food for three days, and if he causes her bloodshed then he must fast for seven days (64). If a man in his anger or folly calls his wife his mother, his sister, or daughter, then he should purify himself by fasting seven days (65). If a girl be married to an impotent man, then the King should cause her to be married again, even if the fact is discovered after the lapse of some time. This is Shivas injunction (66). If a girl becomes a widow before consummation of marriage, she also ought to be remarried. This also is the command of Shiva (67). The woman who is delivered of a child within six months of her marriage, or after the lapse of a year following her husbands death, is not a wife, nor is the child legitimate (68). The woman who causes a miscarriage before the completion of the fifth month, as well as the person who helps her thereto, should be heavily punished (69). The woman who after the fifth month destroys the child in her womb, and the person who helps her thereto, are guilty of killing a human being (70). The cruel man who wilfully kills another man should always be sentenced to death by the King (71). 193 The King should correct the man who kills another man through ignorance, or in a fit of passion, or by mistake, either by taking his property from him or by giving him a severe beating (72). The man who tries to compass his own death, whether by himself or by the aid of another, should be awarded the same punishment as the man who kills another through ignorance (73). The man who kills another in a duel, or kills an enemy who attempts to kill him, is not guilty of any offence (74). The King should punish the man who has maimed another by maiming him, and the man who has beaten another by having him beaten (75). The wicked man who flings any missile, or lifts his hand to strike a Vipra, or one who should be honoured, or who strikes either of them, should be punished by a pecuniary fine for the first offence, and by the burning of his hand for a second offence (76). If a ma n dies consequent upon a wound inflicted by any weapon or otherwise after six months, then the offender should be punished for the assault, and shall not be punished with death by the King (77). If the King kills subverters of his government, men who plot to usurp his kingdom, servants secretly befriending the Kings enemies, men creating dissatisfaction against the King among the troops, subjects who wish to wage war against the King, or armed highway robbers, he shall not be guilty of any sin (78- 79). The man who kills another, compelled by his masters order, is not himself guilty of the killing, for it is the masters killing. This is the command of Shiva (80). If a mans death is caused by a beast belonging to, or weapons in the hand of, a careless man, then the latter should be punished by a pecuniary or bodily punishment (81). Those detestable persons who disobey the Kings command, who are arrogant in their speech in the Kings presence, or who decry the Kula faith, should be punished by the King (82) . He who misappropriates property entrusted to him, the malicious man, the cheat, he who creates ill -feeling between men, or who makes people quarrel with one another, should be banished from the kingdom by the King (83). The King should banish from his kingdom those abandoned and wicked- minded men who give away their sons and daughters in marriage for money, and who give their daughters (in marriage) to impotent husbands (84). 194 Persons who attempt to harm others by the spreading of baseless calumnies should be punished by the just King in accordance with their offence (85). The King should compel the calumniator to pay the sufferer money commensurate with the harm done (86). For such persons as steal gems, pearls, gold, and other metals, the punishment should be either the cutting off of the hand or the entire arm, according to the value of the stolen property (87). Those who steal buffaloes, horses, cattle, jewels, etc., and infants, should be punished by the King as thieves (88). Thieves who steal food and articles of small value should be corrected by being kept on a diet of grains for a week or a fortnight (89). O Adored of the Devas! the traitor and the ingrate can never attain liberation by sacrifices, votive observances, penances, acts of charity, and other expiatory rites (90). The King should, after severely punishing them, exile from his dominion men who give false evidence, or who are partial as arbitrators (91). The testimony of six, four, or even three witnesses is sufficient to prove a fact; but, O Shiva! the testimony of two witnesses of well -known piety is enough (92). Beloved! if witnesses contradict one another on questions of place, time, and other details of fact, then their testimony should be rejected (93). O Beloved! the word of the blind and the deaf should be accepted as evidence, and the signs and writing of a dumb man and of one who is both deaf and dumb should also be accepted (94). Of all evidence and in all cases, and particularly in litigation, documentary evidence is the best, as it does not perish and always endures (95). The man who fabricates a writing for his own use or for the use of another should be punished with double the punishment of a false witness (96). The statement on oath, on his own behalf, of a careful and unerring man is of a higher probative value than the word of many witnesses (97). O Parvvati! as all virtues find their support in Truth, so do all vices find their support in untruth (98). Therefore, the King shall incur no blame by chastizing those who are devoid of Truth and are the receptacle of all vices. This is the command of Shiva (99). 195 Devi! if a man says, \"I tell the truth,\" at the same time touching any of the following a Kaula, the Guru, a Brahmana, water of Ganga, an image of a Devata, a Kula religious Book, Kulamrita, or the offerings made to a Deity, he has taken an oath. If after that he speaks an untruth, then he will go to hell for one Kalpa (100- 101). An oath that an act which is not sinful will be or will not be done, should always be kept by men (102). The man who has broken his oath should purify himself by a fortnights fast; and one who has broken it by mistake should live on grains for twelve days (103). Even the Kula -dharmma, if not followed according to Truth and the injunctions, not only fails to secure final liberation and beatitude, but leads to sin (104). Wine is Tara Herself in liquid form, is the Saviour of beings, the Mother of enjoyment and liberation, who destroys danger and diseases, burns up the heaps of sins, and purifies the world.O Beloved! She grants all success, and increases knowledge, intellect, and learning, and, O Adya! She is ever worshipped by those who have attained final liberation and those who are desirous of attaining final liberation, by those that have become and those striving to be adepts, and by Kings and Devas for the attainment of their desires (105- 107). Mortals who drink wine with their minds well under control and according to the injunctions (of Shiva) are, as it were, Immortals on earth (108). By partaking, in accordance to the injunctions, of any of the tattvas, man becomes like unto Shiva. What, then, is the result of partaking of all the five Tattvas? (109). But the drinking of this Devi Varuni in disregard of the injunctions destroys the intellect (understanding), life, fame, and wealth of men (110). By the excessive drinking of wine the drunkard destroys the understanding, which is the means for the attainment of the fourfold end of human existence (111). Only harm at every step, both to himself and to others, comes out of a man whose mind is distracted and who knows not what should and what should not be done (112). Therefore, the King or the Lord of the Chakra should correct by bodily and pecuniary punishments those who are over -addicted to wine and intoxicating drugs (113). The understanding of men is clouded by the drinking of wine, whether in small or large quantities, according to the difference in the quality of the wine, to the temperament of the individuals, to the place where and the time when it is taken (114). 196 Therefore, excessive drinking is to be judged, not from the quantity drunk, but from the result as shown in difficulty of speech and from the unsteadiness of hands, feet, and sight (115). The King should burn the tongues and confiscate the money of, and inflict corporal punishments on, men who hold not their senses under control, whose minds are distracted by drink, who deviate from the duty they owe to Devas and Gurus, who are fearful to behold, who are the source of all folly, who are sinful, and transgressors of the injunctions of Shiva, and bring ruin on themselves (116- 117). The King should severely chastise and fine the man who is unsteady in hands, feet, or in speech, who is bewildered, maddened, and beyond himself with drink (118). The King, who labours for the happiness of his subjects, should inflict pecuniary punishment on the drunkard who is guilty of evil language and is devoid of fear and shame (119). O Kuleshvari! a Kaula, even if he has been initiated a hundred times, should be regarded as a Pashu, and expelled from the Kula community (120). The Kaula who drinks excessively of wine, be it consecrated or not, should be renounced by all Kaulas and punished by the King (121). The drunken twice- born man who makes his Brahmi wife drink wine should purify both himself and his wife by living on a diet of grains for five days (122). The man who has drunk wine which has not been sanctified should purify himself by fasting for three days, and who has eaten meat which has not been sanctified should fast for two days (123). If a man partakes of fish and parched food which have not been sanctified, he should fast for a day, but who participates in the fifth tattva without conforming to the rites should be corrected by the Kings punishment (124). He who knowingly eats human flesh or beef should purify himself by a fortnights fast. This is the expiation for this sin (125). Beloved! a man who has eaten the flesh of animals of human shape, or of carnivorous animals, should purify himself by a three days fast (126). The man who partakes of food cooked by Mlechchhas, Chandalas, and Pashus, who are the enemies of the Kula creed, is purified by a fortnights fast (127). And, O Kuleshvari! if anyone knowingly partakes of the leavings of these, then he should fast for a month to purify himself, and if he has done so unknowingly he should fast for a fortnight (128). 197 The injunction is that if a man partakes of food cooked by a man of a caste inferior to his own, he should, to purify himself, fast for three days (129). By the partaking of food of a Pashu, Chandala, and Mlechchha, which has been placed in the Chakra or in the hands of a Vira, no sin is incurred (130). One who partakes of forbidden food at a time when food is scarce, in times of famine and danger, or when life is at stake, is guiltless of any transgression (131). If food is eaten on the back of an elephant, or on a block of stone, or on a piece of wood, which can be carried only by several men, or in places where nothing objectionable is actually perceived, there is no fault (132). Animals the flesh of which is forbidden, as also diseased animals, should not be killed even for the purpose of sacrifice to the Devas. By killing such animals sin is incurred (133). If anyone knowingly kills a bull, then he shall do penance (as described below), and if he does so unknowingly he shall do half of such penance. This is the command of Shangkara (134). So long as the penance is not performed he shall not shave or pare his nails nor wear clean raiments (135). Shiva! he should fast for a month, and should live on grains for another month, and should live eating food which he has begged during the third month. This is called Krichchhra- Vrata (136). At the end of the penance he should shave his head and free himself from the sin of wilful killing of the bull by feasting Kaulas, relatives (Agnates), and Bandhavas (137). If the death of a cow or bull is caused by want of care, the expiation is an eight days fast for a Brahmana, and for a Kshatriya or inferior castes fasting for six, four, and two days (138). O Kaulini! the sin of wilfully slaughtering an elephant or a camel, or a buffalo, or a horse is expiated by a three days fast (139). Expiation for killing a deer, sheep, goat, or a cat, is a fast for one whole day and a night, and one who has killed a peacock, a parrot, or a gander should abstain fom food till sunset of the day on which the sin is committed (140). If anyone kills any other inferior animal which possesses bones, he should live on vegetable food for a night. The killing of a boneless animal is expiated by repentance (141). There is no blame upon Kings who kill beasts, fish, and oviparous creatures when hunting; for hunting, O Devi! is an immemorial practice among Kings (142). 198 Killing should always be avoided, O Gentle One! except if it be for the purpose of sacrifice to a Deva. The man who kills according to the injunctions sins not (143). Should a man be unable to complete a religious devotion which he has undertaken, if he walks across the remnants after the worship of any Devata, or if he touches an image of a Deva when he is unclean, then in all such cases he should recite the Gayatri (144). The father, the mother, and the giver of the Brahman are the Maha- gurus. He who speaks ill of, or towards, them should, in order to purify himself, fast for five days (145). Similarly, O Beloved ! if anyone speaks ill of other persons entitled to respect, Kaulas and Vipras, then he should purify himself by fasting two days and a half (146). A man may for the acquisition of wealth go to any country, but he should avoid such countries and Shastras as prohibit Kaulika rites (147). The man who of his own free- will goes to a country where the Kaula- dharmma is prohibited falls from his status, and should be purified by Purnabhisheka (148). In expiatory penance, that which is recognized as a fast is going without food for eight yamas from sunrise (149). The fast is, however, not broken should one drink a handful of water or eat the air for the preservation of his life (150). If one is unable, by reason of old age or disease, to fast, then, in lieu of each fast, he should feast twelve Brahmanas (151). The sins of speaking ill of others, self -laudation, evil habits, impropriety in speech or action, should be expiated by repentance (152). All other sins, whether committed knowingly or unknowingly, are destroyed by repeating the Gayatri of the Devi and feeding the Kaulas (153). These general rules are applicable to men, women, and the sexless; the only difference is that in the case of the women the husband is their Maha- guru (154). Men who are suffering from very great disease and those who are always ailing become purified and entitled to perform rites relating to the Devas and the Pitris by giving away g old (155). A house which has been defiled by unnatural death, or which has been struck by lightning, should be purified by one hundred Vyahriti Homas (156). If the dead body of an animal possessing bones be found in a lake, tank, or well, then it should be at once taken out, and the same should be purified (157). 199 The method of purifying such places is as follows: Twenty -one jars of pure water should, after being consecrated with Purnabhisheka Mantra, be poured into it (158). If such places contain but a small quantity of water, and this has been polluted by the stench of the dead body, then they should be dewatered and the loose mud removed therefrom, and when this has been done water should be poured in the manner described (159). If they contain water of sufficient quantity to drown an elephant, then a hundred jars of water should be removed, and then consecrated water should be poured into them (160). If not so purified, then the waters of the reservoirs polluted by the touch of the dead body become undrinkable, and the reservoir cannot be consecrated (161). Bathing in these reservoirs is useless, and any rite performed with their waters becomes fruitless, and any person using the water for any purpose whatever should remain without food for a day and take Panchamrita to purify himself (162). Should anyone perchance see a wealthy man who begs, a warrior averse to battle, a detractor of the Kula dharmma, a lady of the family who drinks wine, a man who is a traitor, or a learned man addicted to sin, then in any of these cases he should view the Sun, utter the name of Vishnu, and bathe in the clothes which he is wearing at the time (163- 164). Men of the twice- born classes should, if they sell donkeys, fowls, or swine, or if they engage in any low pursuits, purify themselves by observing the three days vrata (165). The Tri -dina-vrata, O Ambika! is thus performed: the first day is to be spent in fasting, the second day is to be spent in eating grain meals only, and the third in drinking water only (166). The man who, without being asked, enters a room the door of which is closed, and one who speaks of things which he has been asked to keep secret, should go without food for five days (167). The man who from pride fails to rise when he sees anyone worthy of venerati on coming towards him, or when he sees the Kula Scriptures being brought in, should go without food for a day in order to purify himself (168). In this Shastra spoken by Shiva the meanings of the words used are plain; those who put far -fetched meanings upon them go the downward path (169). I have spoken to thee, O Devi! of that which is the Essence of essences, of that which is above the most excellent, of that which conduces to the well -being (of men) in this worId and the next, as also of that which is both purifying and beneficent and according to Dharmma (170). 200 End of the Eleventh Joyful Message, entitled \"The Account of Expiatory Rites.\" 201 CHAPTER 12 - AN ACCOUNT OF THE ETERNAL AND IMMUTABLE DHARMMA SHRI SADASHIVA said: O Primordial One! I am speaking to Thee again of the everlasting laws; the wise King may easily rule his subjects if he follows them (1). If Kings did not establish rules, men in their covetousness would quarrel among themselves, even with their friends, relatives, and their superiors (2). These self -seeking men, O Devi! would for the sake of wealth kill one another, and be full of sin by reason of their maliciousness and desire to thieve (3). It is therefore for their good that I am laying down the rule in accordance with Dharmma, by following which men will not swerve from the right (path) (4). As the King should punish the wicked for the removal of their sins, so should he also divide the inheritance according to the relationship (5). Relationship is of two kinds by marriage and by birth; of these, relationship by birth is stronger than relationship by marriage (6). In inheritance, O Shiva! descendants have a stronger claim than ascendants, and in this order of descendants and ascendants the males are better qualified for inheritance than females (7). But among these, again, the proximate relation is entitled to the inheritance; the wise ones should divide the property according to this rule and in this order (8): If the deceased leaves son, grandson, daughters, father, wife, and other relations, then the son is entitled to the whole of the inheritance, and not the others (9). If there are several sons, they are all entitled to equal shares. (In the case of a King) the kingdom goes to the eldest son, but that is in accordance to the custom of the family (10). If there be any paternal debt which should be paid out of the paternal property, such property should not be divided (11). If men should divide and take paternal property, then the King should tak e it from them, and discharge the paternal debt (12). As men go to hell by reason of their own sins, so they are bound by their individually incurred debts, and others are not (13). 202 Whatever general property there may be, either immovable or of other kinds , sharers shall get the same according to their respective shares (14). The division is complete on the co- partners agreeing to it. If they do not agree, then the King should divide it impartially (15). The King should divide the value or profits of property which is incapable of division, whether the same be immovable or movable (16). If a man proves his right to a share after the property is divided, then the King should divide the property over again, and give the person entitled his share (17). O Shiva! the King should punish the man who, after property is once divided by the consent of the co- partners, quarrels again with respect to it (18). If the deceased dies leaving behind him grandson, wife, and father, then the grandson is entitled to the property by reason of his being a descendant (19). If the childless man leaves (surviving him) father, brother, and grandfather, then the father inherits the property by reason of the closeness of consanguinity (20). Beloved! if the deceased leaves daughters (surviving him), although they are closer to him, yet the grandsons (sons sons) are entitled to his property, because man is prior (21). From the grandfather the property goes to the grandson by the deceased son, and thus it is that men proclaim that the fathers self is in the image of the son (22). In marital relationship the Brahmi wife is the superior, and the sonless mans property should go to the wife, who is half his body (23). The sonless widow, however, is not competent to sell or give away property inherited from her husband, except what is her own by her own right (24). Anything given by the fathers and fathers -in-law approved by Dharmma, whatever is earned by her personal efforts, is to be recognized as \"Womans property\" (25). On her death it goes to the husband, and to his heirs according to the grades of descendants and ancestors (26). If the woman remains faithful to her Dharmma, and lives under the control of the relations of her husband, and in their absence under the control of her fathers relations, then only is she entitled to inherit (27). The woman who is even likely to go astray is not entitled to inherit the husbands property . She is merely entitled to a living allowance from the heirs of her husband (28). 203 If the man who has died has many wives, all of whom are pious, then, O Thou of pure Smiles! they are entitled to the husbands property in equal shares (29). If the woman who inherits her husbands property dies leaving daughters, then the property is taken to have gone back from the husband and from him to the daughter (30). In this way, if there is a daughter and the property goes to the sons widow, then, on the death of the latter, it would go back to the husband, and from the father -in-law descend to the daughter of the latter (31). Similarly, O Shiva! if property goes to the mother in the lifetime of the paternal grandfather, then, on her death, it goes to her father -in-law through her son and husband (32). As the property of the deceased ascends to the father, so it also ascends to the mother if she is a widow (33). But the stepmother shall not inherit if the mother is living, but on the death of the mother it goes to the stepmother through the father (34). Where, in the absence of descendants, the inheritance cannot descend, it would ascend the same way by which it would descend (35). Therefore, even when the fathers brother is alive, the daughter inherits the property, and if she dies childless then such property goes to the fathers brother (36). As inheritance descends in the male line, the stepbrother inherits even when there is a uterine sister (37). And when there is a uterine sister and sons of stepbrother, it is the latter who inherit the property (38). If the deceased leaves (surviving him) both uterine and stepbrother, then, by reason of the property descending through the father, they are entitled to inherit in equal shares (39). In the lifetime of their daughters their sons are not entitled to inherit until the obstruction is removed by the death of the daughters (40). In the absence of sons, the daughters divide among themselves the paternal property, after deducting the marriage expenses of an unmarried daughter (if any) out of the general estate (41). On the death of a childless woman the stri -dhana goes to her husband, and the property which she inherited from anyone else goes back to the line of the person from whom she inherited (42). 204 The woman may spend property inherited by her on her own maintenance, and she may spend profits of it on acts of religious merit, but she is not able to sell or make gifts of it (43). Where the daughter -in-law of the grandfather (fathers father) is living, or the stepmother of the father is living, the inheritance goes to the grandfather, and through his son to the (grandfathers) daughter -in-law (44). Where the grandfather, the fathers brother, and the brother are living, the brother succeeds by reason of the priority in claim of the descendant (45). If a man dies leaving him surviving his grandfather, brother, and uncle, both of the former are nearer in degree than the last, and the property descends through the father to the deceaseds brother (46). If the deceased leaves a daughters son and father (surviving him), then the daughters son inherits, because property in the first place descends (47). If both the father and the mother of the deceased be living (at his death), then, O Kalika! by reason of the superior claim of the male, the father takes his property (48). If the mothers brother is living, the sapindas of the father take the property of the deceased by reason of the superior claim of the paternal relationship (49). Property failing to go downwards has (here) gone upwards, but, O Shiva! by reason of the superior claim of the male line it has gone to the fathers family. The mothers brother, in spite of the nearness of his relationship, does not inherit (50). The grandson by a deceased son inherits from his grandfathers estate the share which his father would have inherited along with his (the fathers) brothers (51). Similarly, the granddaughter who has no brother and whose parents are dead, inherits, if she be well conducted, her grandfathers (fathers father) property with her father's brothers (52). On the death of the grandfather leaving him surviving his wife, his daughter, and granddaughter, the last, O Devi! is the heiress of the property, since she takes it through her father (53). In property which descends the male among the descendants, and in property which ascends, the male among the ascendants, are pre- eminently qualified (to inherit) (54). Therefore, O Beloved! if the deceased has daughter -in-law, granddaughter, and daughter surviving him, then his father cannot take the property (55). 205 If there is no one in the family of the father of the deceased entitled to inherit his property, then in manner above indicated it goes to the family of his mothers father (56). Property which has gone to the maternal grandfather shall ascend and descend, and go both to males and females through the maternal uncle and his sons and others (57). If the line of Brahmi marriage, or if the sapindas of the father or of the mother, be in existence, then the issue of the Shaiva marriage are not entitled to inherit the fathers property (58). The wife and children of the Shaiva marriage, O Gentle One! are entitled to receive, from the person who inherits the property of the deceased, their food and clothes in proportion to the property left (59).Beloved! the Shaiva wife, if well conducted, is entitled to be maintained by the Shaiva husband alone. She has no claim to the property of her father and others (60). Therefore, the father who marries his well -born daughter according to Shaiva rites by reason of anger or covetousness will be despised of men (61). In the absence of issue of the Shaiva marriage, the Sodaka, the Guru, and the King shall, by the injunctions of Shiva, take the property of the deceased (62). Beloved! men within the seventh degree are sapindas, and beyond them to the seventh degree are sodakas, and beyond them are Gotra- jas merely (63). Where property which has been divided is again wilfully mixed together, it should be divided again as if it had not been divided (64). The heirs of a deceased are on his death entitled to such share of property, whether partitioned or not partitioned, as the deceased himself was entitled to (65). Those who inherit the property of another should offer him pindas as long as they live; it is otherwise in the case of a son by Shaiva marriage (66). Just as the rules relating to uncleanliness should, in this world, be observed by reason of birth- connection, so they should be observed for three nights by reason of connection by heirship (67). The twice- born and other classes shall purify themselves by observing the rules as to uncleanliness from the day they hear the cause of it until the end of the period prescribed; this is so both in the case of Purnashaucha and of Khandashaucha (68). If the period has expired when one hears the cause of it, then there is no Khandashaucha. And as regards Purnashaucha, it should be observed for only three days, but if one hears of the cause of the uncleanliness after the lapse of a year there is no period of uncleanliness to be observed (69). 206 If a son hears of his fathers or mothers death, or if the faithful wife hears of her husbands death after one year, then the son or the widow shall observe the period of uncleanliness for three nights (71). If during the continuance of a period of uncleanliness another new period begins, then the period comes to an end with the end of the Garu- ashaucha (71). The degree of different kinds of uncleanliness depends on the greater or lesser length of the period which should be observed. Of the various kinds of uncleanliness, that which is extensive in point of time is greater than that which is less extensive (72). If on the last day of a period of uncleanliness another period commences, then the uncleanliness is removed on the last day of the first period of uncleanliness; but if the cause of uncleanliness be such as to necessitate the observance of the full period, then the pre- existing period should be extended by two days (73). The unmarried female shall observe the period of uncleanliness of the fathers family, but after she is married she is to observe impurity for three days on the death of her parents (74). After her marriage the wife becomes of the same gotra as her husband; the adopted son similarly becomes of the same gotra as the person who adopts him (75). A son should be adopted with consent of his father and mother, and at the time of adoption the adopted should, with his kinsmen, perform the sacramental rites, mentioning his own gotra and name (76). The adopted son shall have the same right to the property of his adoptive mother and father, and the same rights to offer pindas to them as the natural -born son has, since they are his mother and father (77). A boy of less than five years of age and of ones own caste should be adopted and brought up; a boy of over five years of age is not eligible (78). O Kalika! if a brother adopts his brothers son, then the brother adopting becomes the father, and the natural father becomes the uncle of the boy so adopted (79). He who inherits the property of another should observe the Dharmma of the person he inherits; he should also follow his family custom and please his kinsmen (80). In the case of the death of kaninas, golakas, kundas, and persons guilty of great sins, there is no uncleanliness to be observed, and they are not qualified to inherit (81). In the case of the death of a man who has been punished by castration, or of a woman who has been punished by the cutting of her nose, or of persons guilty of very great sins, there is no period of uncleanliness to be observed (82). 207 The King should for twelve years protect the family and property of those of whom no news is known, and who have disappeared without any trace of their whereabouts (83). On the expiration of twelve years the image of such a person should be made with kusha grass and cremated. His children and others should observe a period of uncleanliness for three days, and liberate him from the condition of a Preta (84). The King should then divide his property among the members of his family in their order, beginning with the son; otherwise he (the King) incurs sin (85). The King should protect the man who has no protector, who is powerless, who is in the midst of adversity, because the King is the Lord of his subjects (86). Kalika! if the man who has disappeared returns after the lapse of twelve years, then he shall recover his wife, children, and property; there is no doubt of that (87). Even a man is not competent to give away ancestral, immovable property, either to his own people or to strangers, without the consent of his heirs (88). A man may, at his pleasure, give away self -acquired property, be it movable or immovable, and may also give away ancestral movable property (89). If there be a son or wife living, or daughter or daughters son, or father or mother, or brother or sister, even then one may give away self -acquired property, both movable and immovable, and inherited movable property (90- 91). If a man gives away or dedicates such property to any religious object, then his sons and others cannot affect such gift or dedication (92). Property dedicated to any religious object should be looked after by the giver. The latter is, however, not competent to take it back, because the ownership of such property is Dharmma (93). Ambika! the property or the profits thereof should be employed by the dedicat or himself, or his agent, for the religious object to which it was dedicated (94). If the proprietor out of affection gives away half his self -acquired property to anyone, then his heirs shall not be able to annul the gift (95). If the proprietor gives hal f his self -acquired wealth to any of his heirs, in such a case the other heirs shall not be able to avoid such gift (96). If one of several brothers earns money with the help of the paternal property, then, while the other brothers are entitled to proportionate shares of the paternal property, no one but the acquirer is entitled to the profits (97). If one brother acquires ancestral property which was lost, then he shall receive two shares, and the other brothers shall together receive one share (98). 208 Relig ious merit, wealth, and learning are all dependent on the body, and inasmuch as this body comes from the father, then (in such sense) what is there which is not paternal property? (99). If whatever men earn, even when separate in mess and separate in property, is to be considered paternal property, then what is there that is self -acquired? (100). Therefore, O Great Devi! whatever money is earned by ones own individual labour shall be self -acquired; the person acquiring it shall be the owner thereof, and no one else (101). O Devi! the man who even lifts his hand against his mother, father, Guru, paternal and maternal grandfathers, shall not inherit (102). The man who kills another shall not inherit his property; but the other heirs of the person killed shall inherit his property (103). Ambika! eunuchs and persons who are crippled are entitled to food and clothes so long as they live, but they are not entitled to inherit property (104). If a man finds property which belongs to another, on the road or anywhere else, then the King shall, after due deliberation, make the finder restore it to the owner (105). If a man finds property, or a beast of which there is no owner, then the finder becomes the owner of the same, but should give the King a tenth share of such property or beast (or of the value thereof) (106). If there be a competent buyer for immovable property, who is a near relation, then it is not competent for the owner of the immovable property to sell the same to another (107). Among buyers who are near, the agnate and one of the same caste are specially qualified, and in their absence friends, but the desire of the seller should prevail (108). If immovable property is about to be sold at a price fixed, and a neighbour pays the same price, then the latter is entitled to purchase it and no other (109). If the neighbour is unable to pay the price and consents to the sale (to another), then only may the householder sell the property to another (110). O Devi! if immovable property be bought without the knowledge of the neighbour, the latter is entitled to have it upon the condition of his paying the price immediately he hears of such sale (111). Should, however, the buyer, after purchasing it, have converted the place into a garden, or built a house thereon, or if he has pulled down any building, the neighbour 209 is not entitled in such a case to obtain the immovable property by the payment of its price (112). A man may, without permission, without payment, and without obstruction, bring under cultivation any land which rises from the water, which is in the middle of a forest, or otherwise difficult of access (113). Where land has been brought under cultivation by considerable labour, the King, since he is the Lord of the soil, should be given a tenth of the profits of the land, and the rest should be enjoyed by him who has reclaimed it (114). One should not excavate tanks, reservoirs, or wells, nor plant trees, nor build houses in places where they are likely to injure other people (115). All have the right to drink the water of tanks and wells dedicated to Devas, as also the water of rivers, but the neighbours alone have the right to bale it out (116). The water should not be baled out of tanks, etc., even by neighbours, if to do so would cause a water famine (117). The mortgage and sale of property which is undivided without the consent of the co- sharers, as also when the right of the parties therein is not determined, is invalid (118). If property mortgaged or deposited with another is destroyed wilfully or by negligence, then the King should make the mortgagee or depositee restore the value thereof to the owner (119). If any animal or any other thing is used with the consent of the depositor by the person with whom they are placed, then the depositee should bear the expense of food and keep (120). Where immovable or movable property is made over to another for profit, such transaction will be invalid if it be not for a definite time, or if the amount of profits is indeterminate (121). Commo n (joint) property should not, on the fathers death, be employed for profit without the consent of all the co- sharers (122). If articles are sold at improper prices, then the King may set aside such sale (123). As a body is born and dies only once, and property can be given away only once, so there can be but one Brahma marriage of the daughter (124). The man, devoted to his ancestors, who has an only son, should not give him away (in adoption), and, similarly, he should not give away an only wife or an only daughter in Shaiva marriage (125). 210 In rites relating to the Devas and the Pitris, in mercantile transactions, and in Courts of law, whatever the substitute (Agent) does is the act of the employer (126). The immutable rule is that the Agent or emissary should not be punished for the guilt of the employer (127). In monetary dealings, in agriculture, in mercantile transactions, as also in all other dealings, whatever is undertaken, the same should be performed if in agreement with Dharmma (128). The Lord protects this universe. Whoever wish to destroy it will be themselves destroyed, and whosoever protect it them the Lord of the Universe Himself protects. Therefore should one act for the good of the world (129). End of Twelfth Joyful Message, entitled, \"An Account of the Eternal and Immutable Dharmma.\" 211 CHAPTER 13 - INSTALLATION OF THE DEVATA PARVATI, the Mother of the three worlds, Her mind engrossed with thoughts for the purification of men polluted with the impurities of the Kali Age, humbly asked Mahesha, the Deva among Devas, who had thus spoken of the essence of all the Nigamas, which is the seed of heaven and final liberation (as follows) (1): Shri Devi said: How should the form of Mahakali be thought of, She who is the Great Cause, the Primordial Energy, the Great Effulgence, more subtle than the subtlest elements? (2). It is only that which is the work of Prakriti which has form. How should She have form? She is above the most high. It behoves thee, O Deva! to completely remove this doubt of mine (3). Shri Sadashiva said: Beloved! I have already said that to meet the needsof the worshippers the image of the Devi is formed according to Her qualities and actions (4). As white, yellow, and other colours all disappear in black, in the same way, O Shailaja! all beings enter Kali (5). Therefore it is that by those who have attained the knowledge of the means of final liberation, the attributeless, formless, and beneficent Kalashakti is endowed with the colour of blackness (6). As the eternal and inexhaustible One image of Kala and soul of beneficence is nectar itself, therefore the sign of the Moon is placed on her forehead (7). As She surveys the entire universe, which is the product of time, with Her three eyes the Moon, the Sun, and Fire therefore she is endowed with three eyes (8). As She devours all existence, as She chews all things existing with her fierce teeth, therefore a mass of blood is imagined to be the apparel of the Queen of the Devas (at the final dissolution) (9). As time after time She protects all beings from danger, and as She directs them in the paths of duty, her hands are lifted up to dispel fear and grant blessings (10). As She encompasses the universe, which is the product of Rajoguna, she is spoken of, O Gentle One! as the Devi who is seated on the red lotus, gazing at Kala drunk with intoxicating wine and playing with the universe. The Devi also, whose substance is intelligence, witnesseth all things (11- 12). 212 It is for the benefit of such worshippers as are of weak intelligence that the different shapes are formed according to the attributes (of the Divinity) (13). Shri Devi said: What merit does the worshipper gain who makes an image of the Great Devi of mud, stone, wood, or metal, in accordance with the representation described by Thee for the salvation of humanity, and who decks the same with clothes and jewels, and who, in a beautifully decorated house, consecrates it? (14- 15). O Lord! out of Thy kindness for me, reveal this also, with all the particular rules according to which the image of the Devi should be consecrated (16). Thou hast already spoken of the consecration of Tanks, Wells, Houses, Gardens, and the images of Devas, but Thou didst not speak in detail (17). I wish to hear the injunctions relating to them from thy lotus -mouth. Ou t of thy kindness, speak, O Para- meshana! if it pleases Thee (18). Shri Sadashiva said: O Parameshvari! this supreme essence about which Thou hast asked is very mysterious. Do thou, therefore, listen attentively (19). There are two classes of men those who act with, and without, a view to the fruits of action. The latter attain final liberation. I am now speaking of the former (20). Beloved! the man who consecrates the image of a Deva goes to the region of such Deva, and enjoys that which is there attainable (21). He who consecrates an image of mud stays in such region for ten thousand kalpas. He who consecrates an image of wood stays there ten times that period. In the case of the consecration of a stone image the length of stay is ten times the latter period, and in the case of the consecration of a metal image it is ten times the last - mentioned period (22). Listen to the merit which is acquired by the man who, in the name of any Deva, or for the attainment of any desire, builds and consecrates and gives away a temple made of timber and thatch and other materials, or renovates such a temple, decorated with flags and images of the carriers of the Deva (23). He who gives away a thatched temple shall live in the region of the Devas for one thousand koti years (24). He who gives away a brick -built temple shall live a hundred times that period, and he who gives away a stone- built temple, ten thousand times the last -mentioned period (25). 213 Adya! the man who builds a bridge or causeway shall not see the region of Y ama, but will happily reach the abode of the Suras, and will there have enjoyment in their company (26). He who dedicates trees and gardens goes to the region of the Devas, and lives in celestial houses surrounded by Kalpa trees in the enjoyment of all desired and agreeable enjoyments (27). Those who give away ponds and the like for the comfort of all beings are washed of all sins, and, having attained the blissful region of Brahma, reside there a hundred years for each drop of water which they contain (28). Devi! the man who dedicates the image of a Vahana for the pleasure of any Deva shall live continually in the region of such Deva, protected by Him (29). Ten times the merit which is acquired on earth by the gift of a Vahana made of mud is acquired by the gift of one made of wood, and ten times the latter is acquired by the gift of one made of stone. Should one made of brass or bell -metal or copper, or any other metal, be given, then the merit is multiplied in each case tenfold (30- 31). The excellent worshipper should present a great lion to the temple of Devi, a bull to the temple of Shangkara, and a Garuda to the temple of Keshava (32). The geat lion has sharp teeth, a ferocious mouth, and mane on his neck and shoulder. The claws of his four feet are as hard as the thunderbolt (33). The bull is armed with horns, is white of body, and has four black hoofs, a large hump, black hair at the end of his tail, and a black shoulder (34). The Garuda is winged, has thighs like a bird, and a face like a mans, with a long nose. He is seated on his haunches, with folded palms (35). By the present of flags and flag- staffs the Devas remain pleased for a hundred years. The flag- staff should be thirty -two cubits long (36), and should be strong, without defects, straight, and pleasant to look at. It should be wrapped round with a red cloth, with a chakra at its top (37) The flag should be attached to the top of the staff, and should be marked with the image of the carrier of the particular Devata. It should be broad at the part nearest the staff and narrow at the other end. It should be made of fine cloth. In short, whatever ornaments the top of the flag- staff is a flag (38). Whatever a man presents with faith and devotion in the name of a Deva, be it clothes, jewels, beds, carriages, vessels for drinking and eating, pan plates, spittoon, precious stones, pearl, coral, gems, or anything else with which he is pleased, such a man will reach the region of such Deva and receive in turn a Koti times the presents he made (39- 40). 214 Those who worship with the object of attaining a particular reward gain such reward which (however) is as destructible as a kingdom acquired in a dream. Those, however, who rightly act without hope of reward attain nirvana, and are released from rebirth (41). In ceremonies relating to the dedication of a reservoir of water, a house, a garden, a bridge, a causeway, a Devati, or a tree, the Vastu Spirit should be carefully worshipped (42). The man who performs any of these ceremonies without worshipping the Vastu- Daitya is troubled by the Vastu-D aitya and his followers (43). The twelve followers of the Vastu Daitya are Kapi -lasya, Pingakesha, Bhishana, Raktalochana, Kotara- raksha, Lambakarna, Dirghajanggha, Mahodara, Ashvatunda, Kakakantha, Vajravahu, and Vratantaka, and these followers of Vastu should be propitiated with great care (44- 45). Now, listen! I am speaking of the Mandala where the Vastu- Purusha should be worshipped (36). On an altar or on a level space, which has been well washed with pure water, a straight line should be drawn, one cubit in length, from the Vayu to the Ishana corner. In the same manner another line should be drawn from the Ishana to the Agni corner, and another from the Agni to the Nairita corner, and then from the Nairita to the Vayu corner (47- 48). By these straight lines a square mandala should be drawn (49). Then two lines should be drawn from corner to corner (diagonally) to divide the mandala into four parts, like four fish- tails (50). The wise man should then draw two lines, one from the West to the East, and the other from the North to the South, through the point where the diagonal lines cut one another, so as to pass through the tip of the fish- tails (51). Then four diagonal lines should be drawn connecting the corners of the four inner squares so formed by the lines at each of the corners (52). According to these rules, sixteen rooms should be drawn with five different colours, and an excellent yantra thus made (53). In the four middle rooms draw a beautiful lotus with four petals, the pericarp of yellow and red colour, and the filaments of red (54). The petals may be white or yellow, and the interstices may be coloured with any colour chosen (55). 215 Beginning with the corner of Shambhu, the twelve rooms should be filled up with the four colours viz., white, blac k, yellow, and red (56). In filling up the rooms one should go towards ones right, and in the worship of the Devas therein one should go to the left (57). The Vastu Spirit should be worshipped in the lotus, and the twelve daityas, Kapilasya and others, should be worshipped in the twelve rooms, beginning with the Ishana corner (58). Fire should be consecrated according to the injunctions laid down for Kushandika, and after offer of oblations to the best of ones ability, the Vastu- yajna should be concluded (59). I have thus described, O Devi! the auspicious Vastu worship, by the performance of which a man never suffers dangers from Vastu (and his followers) (60). Shri Devi said: Thou hast described the mandala of, and the injunctions relating to, the worship of Vastu, but thou hast not spoken of the Dhyana, my husband; do thou now reveal it (61). Shri Sadashiva said: I am speaking of Dhyana of the Vastu- Rakshasa, by constant and devoted repetition of which all dangers are destroyed. O Maheshani! do thou listen (62). The Deva Vastu- pati should be meditated upon as four -armed, of great body, his head covered with matted hair, three eyed, of ferocious aspect, decked with garlands and earrings, with big belly and long ears and hairy body, wearing yellow garments, holding in his hand the mace, the trident, the axe, and the Khatvanga. Let him be pictured as (red) like the rising Sun and like the God of Death to ones enemies, seated in the padmasana posture on the back of a tortoise, surrounded by Kapilasya and other powerful followers, carrying swords and shields (63- 66). Whenever there is panic caused by pestilence or epidemics, an apprehension of any public calamity, danger to ones children, or fear arising from ferocious beasts or Rakshasas, then Vastu with his followers should be meditated upon as above, and then worshipped, and thus all manner of peace may be obtained by the offer of oblations of sesamum -seeds, ghee, and payasa (67-6 8). O Suvrata! in these rites the Grahas and the ten Dikpalas should be worshipped in the same way as Vastu is worshipped (69). Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Vani, Lakshmi, the celestial mothers, Ganesha, and the Vasus, should also be worshipped (70). 216 O Kalika! if in these rites the Pitris are not satisfied, then all which is done becomes fruitless, and there is danger in every stage (71). Therefore, O Maheshi! in all these rites Abhyudayika. Shraddha should be performed for the satisfaction of the Pitris (72). I shall now speak of the Graha- yantra, which is the cause of all kinds of peace. If Indra and all the planets are worshipped, then they grant every desire (73). In order to draw the yantra three triangles should be drawn with a circle outside them, and outsi de, but touching the circle, eight petals should be drawn (74). Then should a beautiful Bhupura be drawn (outside the yantra) with four entrances, and (outside the Bhupura) between the East and North- East corners a circle should be drawn with its diameter the length of a pradesha, and between the West and the South- West corners another similar circle should be drawn (75- 76). Then the nine corners should be filled up with colours of the nine planets, and the left and right sides of the two inner triangles should be made white and yellow, and the base should be black. The eight petals should be filled up with the colours of the eight regents of the quarters (77- 78). The walls of the Bhupura should be decorated with white, red, and black powders, and, O Devi! the two circles outside the Bhupura should be coloured red and white, and the intervening spaces of the yantra may be coloured in any manner the wise may choose (79- 80). Listen now to the order in which each planet should be worshipped in the particular chambers, and in which each Dikpati should be worshipped in the particular petals, and as to the names of the Devas who are present at each particular entrance (81). In the inner triangle the Sun should be worshipped, and in the angles of the two sides Aruna and Shikha. Behind him with the garland of rays the two standards of the two fierce ones (Shikha and Aruna) should be worshipped (82). Worship the maker of nights in the corner above the Sun on the East, in the Agni corner Mangala, on the South side Budha, in the Nairrita corner Vrihaspati, on the West Shukra, in the Vayu corner Shani, in the corner on the North Rahu, and in the Ishana corner Ketu, and, lastly, round about the Moon the multitude of stars (83- 84). Sun is red, Moon is white, Mangala is tawny, Budha is pale or yellowish- white, Vrihaspati is yellow, Shukra is white, Shani is black, and Rahu and Ketu are of variegated colour; thus I have spoken of the different colours of the Grahas (85- 86). The Sun should be meditated upon as having four hands, in two of which he is holding lotuses; and of the other two, one hand is lifted up to dispel fear, and the other makes the sign of blessing. The Moon should be meditated upon as having nectar in one hand, and the other hand in the attitude of giving. Mangala should be 217 meditated upon as slightly bent and holding a staff in his hands. Budha, the son of Moon, should be meditated upon as a boy, the locks of whose hair play about upon his forehead. Guru should be meditated upon with a sacred thread, and holding a book in one hand and a string of Rudraksha beads in the other; and the Guru of Daityas should be meditated upon as blind of one eye, and Shani as lame, and Rahu as a trunkless head, and Ketu as a headless trunk, both deformed and wicked (86- 87). Having worshipped each of the planets in this manner, the eight Dikpalas, Indra and others, beginning from the East, should be worshipped (89). He of a thousand eyes, of a yellow colour, should first be worshipped. He is dressed in yellow silk garments, and, holding the thunder in his hand, is seated on Airavata (90). The body of Agni is of red hue. He is seated on a goat; in his hand is the Shakti. Yama is black, and, holding a staff in his hand, is seated on a bison. Nirriti is of dark green colour, and, holding a sword in his hand, is seated on a horse. Varuna is white, and, seated on an alligator, holds a noose in his hand. Vayu should be meditated on as possessed of a black radiance, seated on a deer and holding a hook. Kuvera is of the colour of gold, and seated on a jewelled lion- seat, holding the noose and hook in his hands. He is surrounded by Yakshas, who are singing his praises. Ishana is seated on the bull; he holds the trident in one hand, and with the other bestows blessings, He is dressed in raiments of tiger -skin, and his effulgence is like that of the full moon (91- 95). Having thus meditated upon and worshipped them in their order, Brahma should be worshipped in the upper circle, which is outside the mandala, and Vishnu in the lower one. Then the Devatas at the entrances should be worshipped (96). Ugra, Bhima, Prachanda, and Isha, are at the eastern entrance; Jayanta, Kshetra- pala, Nakulesha, and Vrihat -shirah, are at the southern entrance; at the door on the west are Vrika, Ashva, Ananda, and Durjaya; and Trishirah, Purajit, Bhimanada, and Mahodara are at the northern entrance. As protectors of the entrances, they are all armed with weapons, offensive and defensive (97- 98). Suvrata! listen to the meditation on Brahma and Ananta. Brahma is of the colour of the red lotus, and has four hands and four faces. He is seated on a swan. With two of his hands he makes the signs which dispel fear and grant boons, and in the others he holds a garland and a book. Ananta is white as the snow, the Kunda flower, or the Moon. He has a thousand hands and a thousand faces, and he should be meditated upon by Suras and Asuras (99- 101). Beloved! I have now spoken of the meditation, the mode of worship, and the yantra. Now, my beloved, listen to their Mantras in their order, beginning with the Vastu Mantra (102). 218 Mantras When Ksha- kara is placed on the Carrier of Oblations. and the long vowels are then added to it, and ornamented with the nada- vindu, the six -lettered Vastu Mantra is formed (103). The Suryya Mantra is thus formed: first the tara should be said; then the Maya; then the word tigma- rashme; then the word arogya- daya (in the dative singular); and, last of all, the wife of Fire (104). The recognized or approved Mantra of Soma is formed by saying the vijas of Kama, Maya and Vani, then Amrita- kara, amritam plavaya plavaya svaha (105). The Mantra of Mangala is proclaimed to be Aing hrang hring sarva- dushtan nashaya nashaya svaha (106). The Mantra of the son of Soma is Hrang, Shring, Saumya sarvan kaman puraya svaha(107). The Mantra of the Sura- Guru is formed thus: Let the tara precede and follow the Vija of Vani, and then say, Abhishtam yachchha yachchha, and lastly svaha (108). The Mantra of Shukra is Shang, Shing, Shung, Shaing, Shaung, Shngah (109). The Mantra of the Slowly Moving One is Hrang hrang hring hring sarva- shatrun vidravaya vidravaya Martan- dasunave namah Destroy, destroy all enemies I bow to the son of Martanda (110). The Mantra of Rahu is Rang, Hraung, Bhraung, Hring Soma -shatro shatrun vidhvangsaya vidhvangsaya Rahave namah --O Enemy of Soma (Moon)! destroy, destroy all enemies. I bow to Rahu (111). Krung, Hrung, Kraing to Ketu is proclaimed to be the Mantra of Ketu (112). Lang, Rang, Mring, Strung, Vang, Yang, Kshang, Haung, Vring, and Ang are in their order the ten Mantras of the ten Dikpalas, beginning with Indra and ending with Ananta (113). The names of the other attendant Devas are their Mantras; in all instances where there is no Mantra mentioned this is the rule. (114). Sovereign Mistress of the Devas! the wise man should not add Namah to Mantras that end with the word Namah, nor should he put the wife of Vahni to a Mantra that ends with Svaha (115). To the Planets and others should be given flowers, clothes, and jewels, but the colour of the gifts should be the same as that of the respective Planets; otherwise they are not pleased (116). 219 The wise man should place fire in the manner prescribed for Kushandika, and perform homa either with flowers of variegated colours or with sacred fuel (117). In rites for the attainment of peace or good fortune, or nourishment or prosperity, the Carrier of Oblations is called Varada; in rites relating to consecration he is called Lohitaksha; in destructive rites he is called Shatruha (118). Maheshani! in Shanti, Pushti, and Krura rites the man who sacrifices to the Planets will obtain the desired end (119). As in the rites relating to the consecration the Devas should be worshipped and libations offered to the Pitris, so also should there be the same sacrifices to Vastu and the Planets (120). Should one have to perform two or three consecratory and sacrificial rites on the same day, then the worship of the Devas, the Shraddha of the Pitris, and consecration of fire are required once only (121). One who desires the fruit of his observances should not give to any Deva reservoirs of water, houses, gardens, bridges, causeways, carriers, conveyances, clothes, jewels, drinking- cups, and eating -plates, or whatever else he may desire to give, without first sanctifying the same (122- 123). In all rites performed with an ultimate object the wise one should in all cases perform a sangkalpa, in accordance with directions, for the full attainment of the good object (124). Complete merit is earned when the thing about to be given is first sanctified, worshipped, and mentioned by name, and then the name of him to whom it is given is pronounced (125). I will now tell you the Mantras for the consecration of reservoirs of water, houses, gardens, bridges, and cause- ways. The Mantras should always be preceded by the Brahma- Vidya (126). Mantras Reservoir of Water! thou that givest life to all beings! thou that art presided over by Varuna! may this consecration of thee (by me) give satisfaction to all beings that live and move in water, on land, and in air (127). House made of timber and grass! thou art the favourite of Brahma; I am consecrating thee with water; do thou be always the cause of pleasure (128). When consecrating a house made of bricks and other materials, one should say: \"House made of bricks,\" etc. (129). Mantras 220 Garden! thou art pleasant by reason of thy fruits, leaves, and branches, and by thy shadows. I am sprinkling thee with the sacred water (of sacred places); grant me all my wishes (130). Bridge! thou art like the bridge across the Ocean of Existence, thou art welcome to the wayfarer; do thou, being consecrated by me, grant me the fitting reward thereof (131). Causeway! I am consecrating thee, as thou helpest people in going from one place to another: do thou likewise help me in my way to Heaven (132). The wise ones shall use the same Mantra in consecrating a tree as is prescribed for the sprinkling of a garden (133). In consecrating all other things, the Pranava, Varuna, and Astra should be used (134). Those vahanas that can (or ought to be) bathed should be bathed with the Brahma-gayatri; others should be purified by arghya- water taken up with the ends of kusha grass (135). After performing prana -pratishtha, calling it by its name, the vahana called by its name should be duly worshipped, and when decked out should be given to the Devata (136). Whilst consecrating a reservoir, Varuna, the lord of aquatic animals, should be worshipped. In the case of a house, Brahma, the lord of all things born, should there be worshipped. Whilst consecrating a garden, a bridge a causeway, Vishnu, who is the protector of the universe, the soul of all, who witnesseth all and is omni present, should be worshipped (137). Shri Devi said: Thou hast spoken of the different injunctions relating to the different rites, but thou hast not yet shown the order in which man should practise them (138). Rites not properly performed according to the order enjoined do not, even though performed with labour, yield the full benefit to men who follow the life of Karmma (139). Shri Sadashiva said: O Parameshani! thou art beneficent like a mother. What thou hast said is indeed the best for men whose minds are occupied with the results (of their efforts) (140). The practices relating to the aforementioned rites are different. Devi! I am relating them in their order, beginning with the Vastu- yaga. Do thou listen attentively (141). 221 (He who wishes to perform the Vastu- yaga) should the day previous thereto live on a regulated or a restricted diet. After bathing in the early auspicious hour of morning, and performing the ordinary daily religious duties, he should worship the Guru and Narayana (142). The worshipper should then, after making sangkalpa, worship Ganesha and others for the attainment of his own object, according to the rules shown in the ordinances (143). Dhyanam Worship Ganapati who is of the colour of the Bandhuka flower, and has three eyes; whose head is that of the best of elephants; whose sacred thread is made of the King of Snakes; who is holding in his four lotus hands the conch, the discus, the sword, and a spotless lotus; on whose forehead is the rising young moon; the shining effulgence of whose body and raiments is like that of the Sun; who is decked with various jewels, and is seated on a red lotus (144). Having thus meditated upon and worshipped Ganesha to the best of his ability, he should worship Brahma, Vani, Vishnu, and Lakshmi (145). Then, after worshipping Shiva, Durga, the Grahas, the sixteen mothers, and the Vasus in the Vasudhara, he should perform the Vriddhishraddha (146). Then the mandala of the Vastu- daitya should be drawn, and there the Vastu- daitya with his followers should be worshipped (147). Then there make a sthandila and purifying fire as before; first perform Dhara- homa, and then commence Vastu- homa (148). Oblations should be offered to the Vastu- purusha and all his followers according to the best of ones ability. The sacrifice should be brought to a close by the gift of oblations to the Devas worshipped (149). When Vastu- yajna is separately performed, this is the order which is prescribed, and in this order also the sacrifice to the planets should be performed (150). Moreover, the Planets being the principal objects of worship, they should not be subordinately worshipped. The Vastu should be worshipped immediately after the sangkalpa (151). Ganesha and the other Devas should be worshipped as in Vastu- yaga. I have already spoken to you of the Yantra and Mantra and Dhyana of the Planets (152). I have, O Gentle One! during my discourse with thee spoken of the order to be observed in the yajnas of the planets and of Vastu. I shall now speak to thee of the various praiseworthy acts, beginning with the consecration of wells (153). 222 After making sangkalpa in the proper manner, Vastu should be worshipped either in a mandala, or a jar, or a Shilagrama, according to inclination (154). Then Ganapati should be worshipped, as also Brahma and Vani, Hari, Rama, Shiva, Durga, the Planets, the Dikpatis (155). Then the Matrikas and the eight Vasus having been worshipped, Pitrikriya should be performed. Since Varuna is principal Deva (for the purposes of this ceremony), he should then be worshipped with particular care (156). Having worshipped Varuna with various presents to the best of his ability, Varuna Homa should then be performed in Fire duly consecrated (157). And after offering oblations to each of the Devas worshipped, he should bring the Homa rite to an end by giving the Purnahuti (158). Then he should sprinkle the excellent well, decorated with flagstaffs and flags, garlands, scents, and vermilion, with the Prokshana Mantra, spoken of before (159). Then he should, in the name of the Deva, or for the attainment of the object of his desire, give away the well or tank for the benefit of all beings (160). Then the most excellent worshipper should make supplication with folded palms as follows: \"Be well pleased, all beings, whether living in the air or on earth or in water; I have given this excellent water to all beings; may all beings be satisfied by bathing in, drinking from, or plunging into this water; I have given this common water to all beings. Should anyone by his ownmisfortune be endangered in this, may I not be guilty of that sin, may my work (good work) bear fruit!\" (161 -163). Then presents should be made, and Shanti and other rites performed, and thereafter Brahmanas, Kaulas, and the hungry poor should be fed. Shive! this is the order to be observed in the consecration of all kinds of reservoirs of water (164- 165). In the consecration of a Tadaga and other kinds of reservoirs of water there should be a Nagastambha and some aquatic animals (166). Aquatic animals, such as fish, frogs, alligators, and tortoises, should be made of metal, according to the means of the person consecrating (167). There should be made two fish and two frogs of gold, two alligators of silver, and two tortoises, one of copper and another of brass (168). After giving away the Tadaga or Dirghika or Sagara with these aquatic animals, Naga should, after having been supplicated, be worshipped (169). Ananta, Vasuki, Padma, Mahapadma, Takshaka, Kulira, Karkata, and Shankha all these are the protectors of water (170). 223 These eight names of the Nagas should be written on Ashvattha leaves, and, after making japa of the Pranava and the Gayatri, the leaf should be thrown into a jar (171). Calling upon Sun and Moon to witness, the leaves should be mixed up together, and one-half should be drawn therefrom, and the Naga whose name is drawn should be made the protector of water (172). Then a wooden pillar, auspicious and straight, should be brought and smeared with oil and turmeric, and bathed in consecrated water, to the accompaniment of the Vyahriti and the Pranava, and then the Naga who has been made the protector of the water should be worshipped with the Shaktis Hri, Shri, Kshama, and Shanti (173-174). Mantra O Naga! Thou art the couch of Vishnu, Thou art the adornment of Shiva; do Thou inhabit this pilla r and protect my water (175). Having thus made supplication to Naga, the pillar should be set in the middle of the reservoir, and the dedicator should then go round the Tadaga, keeping it on his right (176). If the pillar has been already fixed, then the Naga should be worshipped in a jar, and, throwing the water of the jar into the reservoir, the remainder of the rites should be performed (177). Similarly, the wise man who has taken a vow to consecrate a house should perform the rites, beginning with the worship of Vastu, and ending with that of the Vasus, and perform the rites relating to the Pitris as prescribed for the consecration of a well, and the excellent devotee should worship Prajapati and do Prajapatya homa (178- 179). The house should be sprinkled with the Mantra already mentioned, and then worshipped with incense, etc.; after that, with his face to the Ishana corner, he should pray as follows (180): Mantra \"O Room (or House)! Prajapati is thy Lord; decked with flowers and garlands and other decorations, be thou always pleasant for our happy residence.\" (181). He should then offer presents, and, performing Shanti rites, accept blessings. Thereafter he should feed Vipras, Kulinas, and the poor to the best of his ability (182). 224 O Daughter of the Mountain! if the house is being consecrated for someone else, then in the place \"our residence\" should be said \"their residence\"; and now listen to the ordinances relating to the consecration of a house (or room) for a Deva (183). After consecrating the house in the above manner, the Deva should be approached with the blowing of conch- shells and the sound of other musical instruments, and he should be supplicated thus (184): Mantra Rise, O Lord of the Deva among Devas! thou that grantest the desires of thy votaries! come and make my life blessed, O Ocean of Mercy! (185). Having thus invited (the Deva) into the room, he should be placed at the door, and the Vahana should be placed in front of Him (186). Then on the top of the house a trident or a discus should be placed, and in the Ishana corner a staff should be set with a flag flying from it (187). Let the wise man then decorate the room with awnings, small bells, garlands of flowers, and mango- leaves, and then cover the house up with celestial cloth (188). The Deva should be placed with his face to the North, and in the manner to be described he should be bathed with the things prescribed. I now am speaking of their order; do thou listen (189). After saying Aing, Hring, Shring, the Mula Mantra should be repeated, and then let the worshipper say: Mantra I am bathing thee with milk; do thou cherish me like a mother (190). Repeating the three Vijas and the Mula Mantra aforesaid, let him then say: Mantra I am bathing thee to- day with curds; do thou remove the heat of this mundane existence (191). Repeating again the three Vijas and the Mula Mantra, let him say: Mantra O Giver of Joy to all! being bathed in honey, do Thou make me joyful (192). Repeating the Mula Mantra as before, and inwardly reciting the Pranava and the Savitri, he should say: Mantra 225 I am bathing Thee in ghee, which is dear to the Devas, which is longevity, seed, and courage; do Thou, O Lord! keep me free from disease (193). Again repeating the Mula Mantra, as also the Vyahriti and the Gayatri, let him say: Mantra O Devesha ! bathed by me in sugar water, do Thou grant me (the object of) my desire (194). Repeating the Mula Mantra, the Gayatri, and the Varuna Mantra, he should say: Mantra I am bathing thee with cocoanut -water, which is the creation of the Vidhi, which is divine, which is welcome to Devas, and is cooling, and which is not of the world; I bow to thee (195). Then, with the Gayatri and the Mula Mantra, the Deva should be bathed with the juice of sugar -cane (196). Repeating the Kama Vija and the Tara, the Savitri, and the Mula Mantra, he should, whilst bathing the Deva, say: Mantra Be thou well bathed in water scented with camphor, fragrant aloe, saffron, musk, and sandal; be thou pleased to grant me enjoyment and salvation (197). After bath ing the Lord of the World in this manner with eight jarfuls (of water, etc.), He should be brought inside the room and placed on His seat (198). If the image be one which cannot be bathed, then the Yantra, or Mantra, or the Shalagrama- shila, should be bathed and worshipped (199). If one be not able to bathe (the Deva) in manner above, then he should bathe (Him) with eight, seven, or five jars of pure water (200). The size and proportions of the jar has been already given whilst speaking of Chakra worship. In all rites prescribed in the Agmas that is the jar which is appropriate (201). Then the Great Deva should be worshipped according to the injunctions to be followed in His worship. I shall speak of the offerings. Do thou, O Supreme Devi! Listen (202). A seat, welcome, water to wash the feet, offerings, water for rinsing the mouth, Madhuparka, water for sipping, bathing water, clothes and jewels, scents and flowers, lights and incense- sticks, edibles and words of praise, are the sixteen offerings requisite in the worship of the Devas (203- 204). 226 Padya, Arghya, Achamana, Madhuparka, Achamya, Gandha, Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa, Naivedya these are known as Dashopachara (ten requisite offerings) (205). Gandha, Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa, and Naivedya, are spoken of as the Panchopachara (five offerings) in the worship of a Deva (206). The articles should be sprinkled with water taken from the offering with the Weapon Mantra, and be worshipped with scents and flowers, the names of separate articles being mentioned. (207) Mentally repeating the Mantra that is about to be said, as also the Mula Mantra, and the name of the Deva in the dative case, the words of gift should be repeated (208). I have told you of the way in which the things to be given to the Devas should be dedicat ed. The learned man should in this manner give away an article to a Deva (209). I have shown (whilst describing) the mode of worship of the Adya Devi how Padya, Arghya, etc., should be offered, and how Karana should be given (210). To such of the Mantras as were not spoken then, do thou, O Beloved ! listen to them here; these should be said when Asana and other requisites are offered (211). Mantra (O Deva!) Thou who residest within all beings! who art the innermost of all beings! I am offering this seat for Thee to sit. I bow to Thee again and again (212). O Deveshi! after giving the excellent asana in this way, the giver of the asana sbould with folded arms bid him welcome as follows (213): Mantra (O Deva!) Thou art He whom even the Devas seek for the accomplishment of their objects, yet for me Thy auspicious visit has easily been obtained. I bow to Thee, O Supreme Lord! (214). My lifes aim is accomplished to -day; all my efforts are crowned with success; I have obtained the fruits of my tapas all this by Thy auspicious coming (215). Ambika! the Deva should thus be invited, prayed to, and questioned as to His auspicious coming, and then, taking padya, the following Mantra should be repeated (216): Mantra By the mere touch of the washings of Thy feet the three worlds are purified; I am offering Thee padya for washing Thy lotus feet (217). He by whose grace is attained 227 all manner of supreme bliss, to Him who is the Soul of all beings I offer this Anandarghya (218). Then pure water which has been scented with nutmeg, cloves, and kakkola, should be poured out, and taken and offered with the following (219): Mantra (O Lord!) By the mere touch of that which Thou hast touched the whole of this impure world is purified; for washing that lotus mouth I offer thee this achamaniya (220). Then, taking madhuparka, offer it with devotion and with the following (221): Mantra For the destruction of the three afflictions, for the attainment of uninterrupted bliss, I give Thee to- day, O Parameshvara! this madhuparka; be Thou propitious (222). By the mere touch of anything which has touched Thy mouth things impure become pure: this punarachama- niyam is for the lotus mouth of Thine (223). Taking water for the bath, and pouring it and consecrating it as before, it should be placed before the Deva, and the following Mantra should be repeated (224): Mantra To Thee whose splendour envelops the world, from whom the world was born, who is the support of the world, do I offer this water for Thy bath (225). When offering bathing water, clothes, and edibles, achamaniya should be given as each is offered, and, after offering other articles, water should be given only once (226). Bringing the cloth consecrated as aforementioned, holding it up with both hands, the wise man should repeat the following (227): Mantra Without any raiments as Thou art, Thou hast kept Thy splendour or glory concealed by Thy maya. To Thee I offer these two pieces of cloth. I bow to Thee (228). Taking different kinds of ornaments made of gold and silver and other materials, and sprinkling and consecrating them, he should offer them to the Deva, uttering the following (229): Mantra To Thee who art the ornament of the Universe, who art the one cause of the beauty of the universe, I offer these jewels for the adornment of Thy illusion- image (230). 228 Mantra To Thee who by the subtle element of smell hast created the earth which possesses all scents, to Thee, the Supreme Soul, I offer this excellent scent (231). Mantra By me have been dedicated with devotion beautiful flowers, and charming and sweet scents prepared by Devas: do Thou accept this fiower (232). Mantra This incense- stick is the sap of the trees; it is Divine, and possesses a delicious scent, and is charming, and is fit to be inhaled by all beings. I give it to Thee to smell (233). Mantra Do Thou accept this light which illumines and has a strong flame, which removes all darkness, and which is brightness itself, and makes bright that which is around it (234). Mantra This offering of food is of delicious taste, and consists of various kinds of edibles. I offer it to Thee in a devout spirit; do Thou partake of it (235). Mantra O Deva! this clear drinking- water, perfumed with camphor and other scents which satisfies all, I offer to Thee Salutation to Thee (236). The worshipper should then offer pan made with camphor, catechu, cloves, cardamums, and, after offering achamaniya, bow to Him (237). If the offerings are presented along with the vessels in which they are contained, then the names and description of the offerings may jointly be repeated when making the present, or the names (or description) of the vessels may separately be said and the same given (238). Having worshipped the Deva in this manner, three double handfuls of flowers should be given to the Deva. Then, sprinkling the temple and its awnings with water, the following Mantra should be said with folded palms (239): Mantra Temple! thou art adorable of all men; thou grantest virtue and fame. In affording a resting- place to this Deva, do thou be like unto Sumeru (240). Thou art Kailasa, thou art Vaikuntha, thou art the place of Brahma, since thou art holding the Deva, who is the adored of the Devas within thee (241). 229 Since thou holdest within thyself the image of Him whose body is produced by Maya, and within whose belly exists this universe, with all that is movable and immovable therein (242). Thou art the equal of the Mother of the Devas; all the holy places are in thee; do thou grant all my desires, and do thou bring me peace. I bow to thee (243). Having thus praised the temple decorated with the discus, flag, etc., and worshipped it three times, the worshipper should give it to the Deva, mentioning the object of his desire (444). Mantra To Thee, whose abode is the universe for Thy residence, I dedicate this temple.O Maheshana! do Thou accept it and in Thy mercy abide here (245). Having said this and having made presents, the Deva to whom the temple has been dedicated should be placed on the altar to the accompaniment of the music of conches, horns, and other instruments (246). He should then touch the two feet of the Deva and utter the Mula Mantra, and say, Sthang! Sthing! be Thou steady; this temple is made by me for Thee, and, having fixed the Deva there, he should pray again to the temple thus (247): Mantra Temple! be thou always in every way pleasant for the residence of the Deva; thou hast been dedicated by me; may the Lokas be lasting and without danger for me (248). Help my fourteen generations of ancestors, my fourteen generations of successors, and me and the rest of my family to find places to reside in the abode of the Devas (249). May I, by thy grace, attain the fruits attainable by performing all forms of yajnas, by visiting all the places of pilgrimage (250). May my line continue so long as this world, so long as these mountains, so long as the Sun and Moon endure (251) . The wise man, after having thus addressed the temple and worshipped the Deva, should dedicate mirrors and other articles and the flag to Him (252). Then the Vahana appropriate to the Deity should be given. To Shiva should be given a bull. Then pray to Hi m thus (253): Mantra 230 O Bull! thou art large of body, thy horns are sharp, thou killest all enemies, thou art worshipped even by the Tridashas, as thou carriest on thy back the Lord of the Devas (254). In thy hoofs are all the holy shrines, in thy hair are all the Vedic Mantras, in the tip of thy teeth are all the Nigamas, Agamas, and Tantras (255). May the husband of Parvati, pleased with this gift of thee, give me a place in Kailasa, and do thou protect me always (256). O Maheshani! do Thou listen to the manner of prayer upon giving a lion to Mahadevi or a Garuda to Vishnu (257). Mantra Thou didst display thy great strength in the wars between the Suras and the Asuras; thou didst give victory to the Devas, and didst destroy the Demons. Thou formidable one, thou art the favourite of the Devi, thou the favourite of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva; with devotion I am dedicating thee to the Devi; do thou destroy my enemies. I bow to thee (258- 259). O Garuda! most excellent bird! Thou art the favoured one of the husband of Lakshmi; Thy beak is hard like adamant; Thy talons are sharp, and golder are Thy wings. I bow to Thee, O Indra among birds! I bow to Thee, O King of birds! (260). As Thou abidest near Vishnu with folded palms, do Thou, O Destroyer of the pride of enem ies! help me to be there as Thou art (261). When Thou art pleased, the Lord of the Universe is pleased, and grants success (262). When a gift is made to any Deva, an additional present should be made to the Deva for His acceptance of such gifts, and the merit of such rites should also be given to Him in a spirit of devotion (263). He should then, with dancing, singing, and music, go round the temple, accompanied by his friends and kinsmen, keeping the temple on his right, and, having bowed to the Deva, feed the twice -born! (264). This is the way in which a temple to a Deva should be dedicated, and the same rule is to be observed in the dedication of a garden, a bridge, a causeway, or a tree (265). With this difference only: that in these rites the ever -existing Vishnu should be worshipped; but Puja and Homa, etc., are the same as in the case of the dedication of a temple (266). No temple or other thing should be dedicated to a Deva whose image has not been consecrated. The rules laid down above are for the worship of and dedication to a Deva who has been worshipped and consecrated (267). 231 I shall now speak of the manner in which the auspicious Adya should be installed, and by which the Devi grants quickly all desires (268). On the morning of the day (of Pratishtha) the worshipper should, after bathing and purifying himself, sit facing the North, and, having taken Sangkalpa, worship the Vastu -devata (269). After performing the worship of the planets, the Protectors of the Quarters, Ganesha and others, and having performed the Shraddha of his Pitris, he should approach the image with a number of devout Vipras (270). The excellent worshipper should then bring the image to the temple which has been dedicated, or to some other place, and there duly bathe it (271). It should first be bathed with water, then with sandy earth, then with mud thrown up by the tusk of the boar or elephant, then with mud taken from the door of a Veshya, and then with mud from the lake of Pradyumna (272). The wise man should then bathe the image with Pancha- kashaya and Pancha- pushpa, and three leaves, and then with scented oil (273). The decoctions of Vatyala, Vadari, Jambu, Vakula, and Shalmali, are called the five Kashayas for bathing the Devi (274). Kara vira, Jati, Champaka, Lotus, and Patali, are the five flowers (275). By three leaves are meant the leaves of Varvvara, Tulasi, and Vilva (276). With the above- mentioned articles water should be mixed, but no water should be put into scented oil and the five nectars (277). He should, after repeating the Vyahriti, the Pranava, the Gayatri, and the Mula Mantra, say, \"I bathe thee with the water of these articles\" (278). The wise man should then bathe the image with the eight jars filled with milk and other ingredients in manners aforementioned (279). The image should then be rubbed with powdered white wheat or sesamum cakes, or powdered shali rice, and thus cleansed (280). After bathing the image with eight jars of holy water, and rubbing it with cloth of fine texture, it should bc brought to the place of worship (281). Should one be unable to perform all these rites, then he should in a devout spirit bathe the image with twenty -five jars of pure water (282). On each occasion that the Great Devi is bathed she should, to the best of ones ability, be worshipped (283). 232 Then, placing the image on a well -cleaned seat, She should be worshipped by offering padya, arghya, etc., and then prayed to (as follows) (284): Mantra O Image! thou that art the handicraft of Vishvakarmma, I bow to thee; thou art the abode of the Devi, I bow to thee; thou fulfillest the desire of the votary, I bow to thee (285). In thee I worship the most excellent primordial Supreme Devi; if there be any defect in thee by reason of the want of skill of him who has fashioned thee, do thou make it good; I bow to thee (286). He should then restrain his speech, and, placing his hand over the head of the Image, inwardly do japa of the Mula Mantra one hundred and eight times, and thereafter do Anga-nyasa (287). He should then perform Shadanga- nyasa and Matri -kanyasa on the body of the Image, and, when performing Shadanga- nyasa, add one after the other the six long vowels to the Vija (288). The eight groups of the letters of the alphabet preceded by the Tara, Maya, and Rama, with the Vindu, added to them, and followed by Namah, should be placed in different parts of the body of the Deva (289). The wise man should place the vowels in the mouth; kavarga in the throat; chavargaon the belly; tavarga on the right and tavarva on the left arm; pavarga on the right thigh, and yavarga on the left thigh, and shavarga on the head (290- 291). Having placed these groups of the letters of the alphabet on different parts of the image (the worshipper) should perform Tattva- nyasa (as follows): (292) Place on the two feet Prithivi -tattva; on the Linga Toya -tattva; on the region of the navel Tejas -tattva; on the lotus of the heart Vayu- tattva; on the mouth Gagana- tattva; on the two eyes Rupa- tattva; on the two nostrils Gandha -tattva; on the two ears Shabda- tattva; on the tongue Rasa- tattva; on the skin Sparsha- tattva. The foremost of worshippers should place Manas -tattva between the eyebrows, Shiva- tattva, Jnana- tattva, and Para- tattva on the lotus of a thousand petals; on the heart Jiva - tattva and Prakriti -tattva. Lastly, he should place Mahat -tattva and Ahangkara- tattva all over the body. The tattvas should, whilst being placed, be preceded by Tara, Maya, and Rama, and should be uttered in the dative singular, followed by namah (293-297). Repeating the Mula Mantra, preceded and followed by each of the Matrika- varnas, with vindu added to them, and followed by the word namah, Matrika- nyasa should be performed at the Matrikasthanas (298). (The worshipper should then say): Mantra 233 (Although) Thy radiance embraces all the sacrifices, and although Thy body embraces all being, this is the image that has been made of Thee. I place Thee here (299). Thereafter the Devi should be meditated upon and invoked, according to the rules of worship, and after Prana- pratishtha the Supreme Devata should be worshipped (300). The Mantras which are prescribed for the dedication of a temple to a Deva should be used in this ceremony, the necessary changes in gender being made (301). The Devi should then be invoked into the fire, which has in due form been consecrated by the offer of oblations to the Devatas who are to be worshipped; and thereafter the Devi should be worshipped, and jata- karmma, etc., should be performed (302). The Sangskaras are six in number viz., Jatakarmma, Namakarana, Nishkramana, Annaprashana, Chudikarana, and Upanayana this has been said by Shiva (303). Repeating the Pranava, the Vyahritis, the Gayatri, the Mula Mantra, the worshipper used in the injunctions should say, \"thine,\" and then the name of (the sangskara) jatakarmma, and others, and uttering, \"I perform, Svaha,\" offer five oblations at the end of each sangskara (304- 305). Thereafter repeating the Mula Mantra and the name (given to the Devi), one hundred oblations should be offered, and the remnants of each oblation should be thrown over the head of the Devi (306). The wise man, after having brought the ceremony to a close by Prayashchitta and other rites, should feed and thus please Sadhakas and Vipras and the poor and the helpless (307). Should anyone be unable to perform all these rites, he should bathe (the Deva) with seven jars of water, and, having worshipped to the best of his ability, repeat the name of the Devi (308). Beloved! I have now spoken to Thee of the Pratishtha of the illustrious Adya. In a similar way should men versed in the regulations carefully perform the Pratishtha of Durga and other Vidyas, Mahesha, and other Devatas, and of the Shiva- lingas that may be moved (309- 310). End of the Thirteenth Joyful Message, entitled \"Installation of the Devata.\" 234 CHAPTER 14 - THE CONSECRATION OF SHIVA-LINGA AND DESCRIPTION OF THE FOUR CLASSES OF AVADHUTAS SHRI DEVI said: I am grateful to Thee, O Lord of Mercy! in that Thou hast in Thy discourse upon the Worship of the Adya Shakti, spoken, in Thy mercy, of the mode of Worship of various other Devas (1). Thou hast spoken of the Installation of a Movable Shiva- linga, but what is the object of installing an immovable Shiva- linga, and what are the rites relating to the installation of such a Linga? (2). Do Thou, O Lord of the Worlds! now tell Me all the particulars thereof; for say, who is there but Thee that I can honour by My questions anent this excellent subject? (3). Who is there that is Omniscient, Merciful, All -knowing, Omnipresent, easily satisfied, Protector of the humble, like Thee? Who makes My joys increase like Thee? (4). Shri Sadashiva said: What shall I tell Thee of the merit acquired by the installation of a Shiva -linga? By it a man is purified of all great sins, and goes to the Supreme Abode (5). There is no doubt that by the installation of a Shiva- linga a man acquires ten million times the merit which is acquired by giving the world and all its gold, by the performance of ten thousand horse- sacrifices, by the digging of a tank in a waterless country, or by making happy the poor and such as are enfeebled by disease (6- 7). Kalika! Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, and the other Devas reside where Mahadeva is in His linga f orm (8). Thirty -five million known and unknown places of pilgrimage and all the holy places abide near Shiva. The land within a radius of a hundred cubits of the linga is declared to be Shiva- kshetra (9- 10). This land of Isha is very sacred. It is more excellent than the most excellent of holy places, because there abide all the Immortals and there are all the holy places (11). He who in a devout spirit lives there, be it even for but a little while, becomes purged of all sins, and goes to the heaven of Shangkara after death (12). Anything great or small (meritorious or otherwise) which is done in this land of Shiva becomes multiplied (in its effect) by the majesty of Shiva (13). 235 All sins committed elsewhere are removed (by going) near Shiva, but sins committed in Shiva -kshetra adhere to a man with the strength of a thunderbolt (14). The merit acquired by the performance there of Purashcharana, japa, acts of charity, Shraddha, tarpana, or any other pious acts is eternal (15). The merit acquired by the performance of a hundred Purashcharana at times of lunar or solar eclipse is acquired by merely performing one japa near Shiva (16). By the offering of Pinda once only in the land of Shiva, a man obtains the same fr uit as he who offers ten million pindas at Gaya, the Ganges, and Prayaga (17). Even in the case of those who are guilty of many sins or of great sins attain the supreme abode if Shraddha be performed in their names in the land of Shiva (18). The fourteen worlds abide there where abides the Lord of the Universe in His Linga form with the auspicious Devi Durga (19). I have spoken a little about the majesty of the immovable Mahadeva in His linga form. The mahima of the Anadi -linga is beyond the power of words to express (20). O Suvrat! even in Thy worship at the Mahapithas the touch of an untouchable is unclean, but this is not so in the worship of Hara in His linga image (21). O Devi! as there are no prohibitions at the time of Chakra worship, so know this, O Kalika! that there are none in the holy shrine in Shivas land (22). What is the use of saying more? I am but telling Thee the very truth when I say that I am unable to describe the glory, majesty, and sanctity of the linga image of Shiva (23). Whether the Linga is placed on a Gauri -patta or not, the worshipper should, for the successful attainment of his desires, worship it devoutly (24). The excellent worshipper earns the merit of (performing) ten thousand horse-sacrifices if he performs the Adhivasa of the Deva in the evening previous to the day of installation (25). The twenty articles to be used in the rite of Adhivasa are: Earth, Scent, a Pebble, Paddy, Durvva grass, Flower, Fruit, Curds, Ghee, Svastika, Vermillion, Conch- shell, Kajjala, Rochana, White Mustard Seed, Silver, Gold, Copper, Lights, and a Mirror (26-27). Taking each of these articles, the Maya Vija and the Brahma- Gayatri should be repeated, and then should be said \"Anena\" (with this) and \"Amushya\" (of this ones or his or hers) \"may the auspicious Adhivasa be\" (28). And then the forehead of the worshipped divinity should be touched with the earth and all other articles aforesaid. Then Adhivasa should be performed with the 236 Prashasti -patra that is, the receptacle should be lifted up, and with it the forehead of the image should be touched three times (29). The worshipper conversant with the ordinances, having thus performed the Adhivasa of the Deva, should bathe the deity with milk and other liquids, as directed in the ceremony relating to the dedication of a temple (30). Rubbing the linga with a piece of cloth and placing it on its seat, Ganesha and other Deities should be worshipped according to the rules prescribed for their worship (31). Having performed Kara- nyasa and Anga- nyasa and Pranayama with the Pranava, the ever -existent Shiva should be meditated upon. Dhyana As tranquil, possessed of the effulgence of ten million Moons; clothed in garments of tiger-skins; wearing a sacred thread made of a serpent; His whole body covered with ashes; wearing ornaments of serpents; His five faces are of reddish- black, yellow, rose, white, and red colours, with three eyes each; His head is covered with matted hair; He is Omnipresent; He holds Ganga on His head, and has ten arms, and in His forehead shines the (crescent) Moon; He holds in His left hand the skull, fire, the noose, the Pinaka, and the axe, and in His right the trident, the thunderbolt, the arrow, and blessings; He is being praised by all the Devas and great Sages; His eyes half -closed in the excess of bliss; His body is white as the snow and the Kunda flower and the Moon; He is seated on the Bull; He is by day and night surrounded on every side by Siddhas, Gandharvas, and Apsaras, who are chanting hymns in His praise; He is the husband of Uma; the devoted Protector of His worshippers (32- 38). Having thus meditated upon Mahadeva and worshipped Him with articles of mental worship, He should be invoked into the Linga, and worshipped to the best of ones powers, and as laid down in the ordinances relating to such worship (39). I have already spoken of the Mantras for the giving of Asana and other articles of worship. I shall now speak of the Mula Mantra of the Great Mahesha (40). Maya, Tara, and the Shabda Vija, with Au and Ardhendu- Vindu added to it, is the Shiva Vija that is, \"Hring Ong Haung.\" (41). Covering Shangkara with clothes and garland of sweet -smelling flowers, and placing Him on a beautiful couch, the Gauri -patta should be consecrated in manner above- mentioned (42). The Devi should be worshipped in the Gauri -patta according to the following rites: with the Maya Vija, Anga- nyasa, Kara- nyasa, and Pranayama should be performed (43). The Great Devi should, to the best of the worshippers ability, be worshipped after medit ation upon Her as follows: 237 Dhyana I meditate upon the stainless One, Whose splendour isthat of a thousand rising Suns, Whose eyes are like Fire, Sun and Moon, and Whose lotus face in smiles is adorned with golden earrings set with lines of pearls. With her lotus hands She makes the gestures which grant blessings and dispel fear, and holds the discus and lotus; Her breasts are large and rounded; She is the Dispeller of all fear, and She is clothed in saffron- coloured raiments. Having thus meditated upon Her, the ten Dikpalas and the Bull should be worshipped to the best of ones powers (44- 45). I will now speak of the Mantra of the Bhagavati, by which the World- pervading One should be worshipped (46). Repeating the Maya, Lakshmi Vijas, and the letter which follows Sa with the sixth vowel, with the Vindu added to it, and thereafter uttering the name of the Wife of Fire, the Mantra is formed (which is as follows): Mantra Hring Shring Hung Svaha (47). Placing the Devi as aforementioned, offerings should be made to all the Devas with a mixture of Masha beans, rice, and curds, with sugar, etc., added to it (48). These articles of worship should be placed in the Ishana corner, and purified with the Varuna Vija, and should be offered after purification with scents and flowers and the following (49) Mantra O Devas, Siddhas, Gandharvas, Uragas, Rakshasas, Pishachas, Mothers, Yakshas, Bhutas, Pitris, Rishis, and other Devas! do you quietly take this offering, and do you stay surrounding Mahadeva and Girija (50- 51). Then japa should be made of the Mantra of the Great Devi as often as one may, and then with excellent songs and instrumental music let the festival be celebrated (52). Having completed the Adhivasa in manner above, the following day after performance of the compulsory daily duties, and having taken the vow, the Five Devas should be worshipped (53). After worshipping the Matris and making the Vasudhara, and performing Vriddhi - Shraddha, the Door -keepers of Mahesha should, in a calm and devout frame of mind, be worshipped (54). The Door -keepers of Shiva are Nandi, Maha- bala, Kishavadana, and Gana- nayaka; they are all armed with missiles and other weapons (55). 238 Bringing the Linga and Tarini, as represented by the Gauri -patta, they should be placed on a Sarvato- bhadra Mandala, or on an auspicious seat (56). Shambhu should then be bathed with eight jars of water with the Mantra \"Tryambaka,\" etc., and worshipped with the sixteen articles of worship (57). After bathing the Devi in a similar way with the Mula Mantra, and worshipping Her, the good worshipper should pray to Shangkara with joined palms (58). Mantra Come, O Bhagavan! O Shambhu! O Thou before Whom all Devas bow! I bow to Thee, Who art armed with the Pinaka, Thee the Lord of all, O Great Deva (59). O Deva! Thou Who conferrest benefits on Thy votaries! do Thou in Thy mercy come to this temple with Bhagavati: I bow to Thee again and again (60). O Mother! O Devi! O Mahamaya! O All -beneficent One! be Thou along with Shambhu pleased: I bow to Thee, O Beloved of Hara (61). Come to this house, O Devi! Thou Who grantest all boons, be Thou pleased, and do Thou grant me all prosperity (62). Rise, O Queen of Devas! and Each with Thy followers abide happy in this place; may Both of You be pleased, You Who are kind to your devotees (63). Having thus prayed to Shiva and the Devi, They should first be carried three times round the Temple, keeping the latter on the right to the accompaniment of joyful sounds, and then taken inside (64). Repeating the Mula Mantra, one- third of the Linga should be set in a hollow made in a piece of stone or in a masonry hole (65). (With the following Mantra): Mantra O Mahadeva! do Thou remain here so long as the Moon and the Sun endure, so long as the Earth and the Oceans endure: I bow to Thee (66). Having firmly fixed Sadashiva with this Mantra, the Gauri -patta, with its tapering end to the North, should be placed on the Linga, that it may be entered by the latter (67). Mantra Be still, O Jagad -dhatri! Thou That art the Cause of creation, existence, and destruction of things; abide Thou here so long as the Sun and the Moon endure (68). Having firmly fixed it, the Linga should be touched and the following (Mantra) should be repeated (69): Mantra 239 I invoke that Deva Who has three eyes, the Decayless, Ishana, around whose lion- seat are tigers, Bhutas, Pishachas, Gandharvas, Siddhas, Charanas, Yakshas, Nagas, Vetalas, Loka- palas, Maharshis, Matris, Gana- nathas, Vishnu Brahma, and Vrihaspati, and all beings which live on earth or in the air; come, O Bhagavan! to this Yantra, which is the handiwork of Brahma, for the prosperity, happiness, and Heaven of all (70- 72). Beloved! Shiva should then be bathed according to the injunctions relating to the consecration of a Deva, and, having been meditated upon as before -mentioned, should be worshipped with mental offerings (73). After placing a special arghya, and having worshipped the Gana- devatas, and meditated upon Mabesha again, flowers should be placed on the Linga (74). Repeating the Shakti Vija between Pasha and Angkusha, and the letters from Ya to Sa with the nasal point, and then \" Haung Hangsa,\" the life of Sadashiva should be infused into the Linga (75). Then, smearing the Husband of the Daughter of the Mountain with sandal, aguru, and saffron, He should be worshipped with the sixteen articles of worship according to the injunctions laid down after performing the jata, the nama, and other rites (76). After concluding everything according to the injunctions, and after worshipping the Devi in the Gauri -patta, the eight images of the Deva should be carefully worshipped (77). By the name Sharva the Earth is meant; by Bhava is meant Water; by Rudra, Fire; by Ugra, Wind; by Bhuna, Ether; by Pashu- pati is meant the Employer of a priest for sacrifice; by Mahadeva, the Source of Nectar, and by Ishana, the Sun: these are declared to be the Eight Images (78- 79). Each of these should be invoked and worshipped in their order (in the corners), beginning with the East and ending with the North- East, uttering the Pranava first and Namah last (80). After having worshipped Indra and the other Dikpalas, the eight Matris, Brahmi, and others, the worshipper should give to Isha the Bull, awning, houses, and the like (81). Then, with joined palms, he should with fervour pray to the Husband of Parvati (as follows) (82): Mantra O Ocean of Mercy! O Lord! Thou hast been placed in this place by me; be Thou pleased (with me). O Shambhu! Thou Who art the Cause of all causes, do Thou abide in this room, O Supreme Deva! so long as the Earth with all its Oceans exist, so long as the Moon and the Sun endure. I bow to Thee. Should there occur the 240 death of any living being, may I, O Dhurjjati! by Thy grace, be kept from that sin (83- 85). The dedicator should go round the image, keeping it on his right, and, having bowed before the Deva, go home. Returning again in the morning, he should bathe Chandra- Shekhara (86). He should first be bathed with consecrated Panchamrita with a hundred jars of scented water, and the worshipper, having worshipped Him to the best of his powers, should pray to Him (as follows) (87- 88): Mantra O Husband of Uma,! if there has been any irregularity, omission, want of devotion in this worship, may they all, by Thy grace, be rectified, and may my fame remain incomparable in this world so long as Moon, the Sun, the Earth, and its Oceans endure (89- 90). I bow to the three- eyed Rudra, Who wields the excellent Pinaka, to Him Who is worshipped by Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, Suryya, and other Devas, I bow again and again (91). The worshipper should then make presents, and feast the Kaulika- dvijas, and give pleasure to the poor by gifts of food, drink, and clothes (92). The Deva should be worshipped every day according to ones means. The fixed Shiva -linga should on no account be removed (93). Parameshvari! I have in brief spoken to you of the rites relating to the consecration of the immovable Shiva- linga, gathering same from all the Agamas (94). Shri Devi said: If, O Lord! there be an accidental omission in the worship of the Devas, then what should be done by their votaries do Thou speak in detail about this (95). Say, on account of what faults are images of Devas unfit for worship, and should thus be rejected, and what should be done? (96). Shri Sadashiva said: If there be an omission to worship an image for a day, then (the next day) the worship should be twice performed; if for two days, then the worship should be four times performed; if for three days, then it should be celebrated eight times (97). If the omission extends three days, but does not exceed six months, then the wise man should worship after bathing the Deva with eight jars of water (98). 241 If the period of omission exceeds six months, then the excellent worshipper should carefully consecrate the Deva according to the rules already laid down, and then worship Him (99) The wise man should not worship the image of a Deva which is broken or is holed, or which has lost a limb, or has been touched by a leper, or has fallen on unholy ground (100). The image of a Deva with missing limbs, or which is broken or has holes in it, should be consigned to water. If the image has been made impure by touch, it should be consecrated, and then worshipped (101). The Mahapithas and Anadi -lingas are free from all deficiencies, and these should always be worshipped for the attainment of happiness by each worshipper as he pleases (102). Mahamaya! whatever Thou hast asked for the good of men who act with a view to the fruits of action, I have answered all this in detail (103). Men cannot live without such actions even for half amoment. Even when men are unwilling, they are, in spite of themselves, drawn by the whirlwind of action (104). By action men enjoy happiness, and by action again they suffer pain. They are born, they live, and they die the slaves of action (105). It is for this that I have spoken of various kinds of action, such as S,dhana and the like, for the guidance of the intellectually weak in the paths of righteousness, and that they may be restrained from wicked acts (106). There are two kands of action good and evil; the effect of evil action is that men suffer acute pain (107). And, O Devi! those who do good acts with minds intent on the fruits thereof go to the next world, and come back again to this, chained by their action (108). Therefore men will not attain final liberation even at the end of a hundred kalpas so long as action, whether good or evil, is not destroyed (109). As a man is bound, be it by a gold or iron chain, so he is bound by his action, be it good or evil (110). So long as a man has not real knowledge, he does not attain final liberation, even though he be in the constant practice of religious acts and a hundred austerities (111). The knowledge of the wise from whom the darkness of ignorance is removed, and whose souls are pure, arises from the performance of duty without expectation of fruit or reward, and by constant meditation on the Brahman (112). 242 He who knows that all which is in this u niverse from Brahma to a blade of grass is but the result of Maya, and that the Brahman is the one and supreme Truth, has this (113). That man is released from the bonds of action who, renouncing name and form, has attained to complete knowledge of the essence of the eternal and immutable Brahman (114). Liberation does not come fram japa, homa, or a hundred fasts; man becomes liberated by the knowledge that he himself is Brahman (115). Final liberation is attained by the knowledge that the Atma (Soul) is the witness, is the Truth, is omnipresent, is one, free from all illuding distractions of self and not -self, the supreme, and, though abiding in the body, is not in the body (116). All imagination of name- form and the like are but the play of a child. He who put away all this sets himself in firm attachment to the Brahman, is, without doubt, liberated (117). If the image imagined by the (human) mind were to lead to liberation, then undoubtedly men would be Kings by virtue of such kingdoms as they gain in thei r dreams (118). Those who (in their ignorance) believe that Ishvara is (only) in images made of clay, or stone, or metal, or wood, merely trouble themselves by their tapas. They can never attain liberation without knowledge (119). Can men attain final liberation by restriction in food, be they ever so thin thereby, or by uncontrolled indulgence, be they ever so gross therefrom, unless they possess the knowledge of Brahman? (120). If by observance of Vrata to live on air, leaves of trees, bits of grain, or water, final liberation may be attained, then snakes, cattle, birds, and aquatic animals should all be able to attain final liberation (121). Brahma- sad-bhava is the highest state of mind; dhyana -bhava is middling; stuti and japa is the last; and external worship is the lowest of all (122). Yoga is the union of the embodied soul and the Supreme Soul,\" Puja is the union of the worshipper and the worshipped; but he who realizes that all things are Brahman for him there is neither Yoga nor Puja (123). For him who possesses the knowledge of Brahman, the supreme knowledge, of what use are japa, yajna,\" tapas, niyama, and vrata? (124). He who sees the Brahman, Who is Truth, Knowledge, Bliss, and the One, is by his very nature one with the Brahman. Of what use to him are puja, dhyana, and dharana? (125). 243 For him who knows that all is Brahman there is neither sin nor virtue, neither heaven nor future birth. There is none to meditate upon, nor one who meditates (126). The soul which is detached from all things is ever liberated; what can bind it? From what do fools desire to be liberated? (127). He abides in this Universe, the creation of His powers of illusion, which even the Devas cannot pierce. He is seemingly in the Universe, but not in it (128). The Spirit, the eternal witness, is in its own nature like the void which exists both outside and inside all things, and which has neither birth nor childhood, nor youth nor old age, but is the eternal intelligence which is ever the same, knowing no change or decay (129 -130). It is the body which is born, matures, and decays. Men enthralled by illusion, seeing this, understand it not (131). As the Sun (though one and the same) when reflected in different platters of water appears to be many, so by illusion the one soul appears to be many in the different bodies in which it abides (132). As when water is disturbed the Moon which is reflected in it appears to be disturbed, so when the intelligence is disturbed ignorant men think that it is the soul which is disturbed (133). As the void inside a jar remains the same ever after the jar is broken, so the Soul remains the same after the body is destroyed (134). The knowledge of the Spirit, O Devi! is the one means of attaining final liberation; and he who possesses it is ver ily yea, verily liberated in this world, even yet whilst living, there is no doubt of that (135). Neither by acts, nor by begetting offspring, nor by wealth is man liberated; it is by the knowledge of the Spirit, by the Spirit that man is liberated (136). It is the Spirit that is dear to all; there is nothing dearer than the Spirit;O Shive! it is by the unity of Spirits that men become dear to one another (137). Knowledge, Object of knowledge, the knower appear by illusion to be three different things; but if careful discrimination is made, Spirit is found to be the sole residuum (138). Knowledge is Spirit in the form of intelligence, the object of knowledge is Spirit whose substance is intelligence, the Knower is the Spirit Itself. He who knows this knows the Spirit (139). I have now spoken of knowledge which is the true cause of final liberation. This is the most precious possession of the four classes of Avadhutas (140). 244 Shri Devi said: Thou hast spoken of the two stages in the life of man namely, that of householder and mendicant; what is this wonderful distinction of four classes of Avadhutas which I now hear? (141). I wish to hear and clearly understand the distinctive features of the four classes of Avadhutas: do Thou, O Lord! speak (about them) t ruly (142). Shri Sadashiva said: Those Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and other castes who are worshippers of the Brahma- mantra should be known to be Yatis, even though they be living the life of a householder (143). O Worshipped of the Kulas! those men who are sanctified by the rites of Purnabhisheka should be known and honoured as Shaivavadhutas (144). Both the Brahma and Shaiva Avadhutas shall do all acts in their respective states of life according to the way directed by me (145). They should not partake of forbidden food or drink unless the same has been offered to the Brahman or offered in the Chakra (146). O Beauteous One! I have already spoken of the customs and Dharmma of the Kaulas, who are Brahma Avadhutas, and of the Kaulas who have been initiated. For Brahma and Shaiva Avadhutas, bathing, eating evening meals, drinking, the giving of charities, and marital intercourse should be done according to the way prescribed by the Agamas (147- 148). The above Avadhutas are of two classes, according as they are perf ect or imperfect. Beloved! the perfect one is called Parama- hangsa, and the other or imperfect one is called Parivrat (149). The man who has gone through the Sangskara of an Avadhuta, but whose knowledge is yet imperfect, should, by living the life of a householder, purify his spirit (150). Preserving his caste- mark and practising the rites of a Kaula, he should, remaining constantly devoted to the Brahman, cultivate the excellent knowledge (151). With his mind ever free from attachment, yet discharging all his duty, he should constantly repeat \"Ong Tat Sat,\" and constantly think upon and realize the saying, \"Sah aham\" (152). Doing his duties, his mind as completely detached as the water on the lotus leaf, he should constantly strive to free his soul by the knowledge of Divine truth and discrimination (153). 245 The man, be he a householder or an ascetic, who commences any undertaking with the Mantra \"Ong Tat Sat,\" is ever successful therein (154). Japa, homa, pratishtha, and all sacramental rites, if performed with the Mantra \"Ong Tat Sat,\" are faultess beyond all doubt (155). What use is there of the various other Mantras? What use of the other multitudinous practices? With this Brahma Mantra alone may all rites be concluded (156). Ambika! this Mantra is easily practised, is not prolix, and gives complete success, and there is no other way besides this great Mantra (157). If it be kept written in any part of the house or on the body, then such house becomes a holy place and the body becomes sanctified (158). O Deveshi! I am telling Thee the very truth when I say that the Mantra \"Ong Tat Sat\" is superior to the essence of essences of the Nigamas, the Agamas, and the Tantras (159). This most excellent of Mantras, \"Ong Tat Sat,\" has pierced through the palate, the skull, and crownlock of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and has thus manifested itself (160). If the four kinds of food and other articles are sanctified by this Mantra, then it becomes useless to sanctify them by any other Mantras (161). He is a King among Kaulas, who sees the Great Being everywhere, and constantly makes japa of the great Mantra \"Tat Sat\" (i.e., Ong Tat Sat), acts as he so inclines, and is pure of heart withal (162). By japa of this Mantra a man becomes a Siddha; by thinking of its meaning he is liberated, and he who, when making japa, thinks of its meaning, becomes like unto the Brahman in visible form (163). This Great, Three- footed Mantra is the cause of all causes; by its sadhana one becomes the Conqueror of Death himself (164). O Maheshani! the worshipper attains siddhi in whatsoever way he makes japa of it (165). He who, renouncing all acts (rites), has been cleansed by the Sangskara of a Shaiva Avadhuta, ceases to have any right to worship Devas, to perform the Shraddha of the Pitris, or to honour the Rishis (166). Of the four classes of Avadhutas, the fourth is called the Hangsa (Parama- hangsa). The other three both practise yoga and have enjoyment. They are all liberated and are like unto Shiva (167). 246 The Hangsa should not have intercourse with women, and should not touch metals. Unfettered by restrictions, he moves about enjoying the fruits of his meritorious acts done in previous lives (168). The fourth class, removing his caste-m arks and relinquishing his household duties, should move about in this world without aim or striving (169). Always pleased in his own mind, he is free from sorrow and illusion, homeless and forgiving, fearless, and doing harm to none (170). For him there is no offering of food and drink (to any Deva); for him there is no necessity for dhyana or dharana, the Yati is liberated, is free from attachment, unaffected by all opposites, and follows the ways of a Hangsa (171). O Devi! I have now spoken to Thee in detail of the distinctive marks of the four classes of Kula- Yogis, who are but images of Myself (172). By seeing them, by touching them, conversing with them, or pleasing them, men earn the fruit of pilgrimage to all the holy places (173). All the shrines and holy places which there are in this world, they all, O my Beloved! abide in the body of the Kula- Sannyasi (174). Those men who have worshipped Kula Sadhus with Kula-dravya are indeed blessed and holy, have attained their desired aim, and have earned the fruit of all sacrifices (175). By mere touch of these Sadhus the impure becomes pure, the untouchable becomes touchable, and food unfit to be eaten becomes fit to be eaten. By their touch even the Kiratas, the sinful, the wicked, the Pulindas, the Yavanas, and the wicked and ferocious, are made pure; who else but they should be honoured? (176- 177). Even those who but once worship the Kaulika Yogi with Kula- tattva and Kula- dravya become worthy of honour in this world (178). O Thou with the lotus face! there is no Dharmma superior to Kaula -Dharmma, by seeking refuge in which even a man of inferior caste becomes purified and attains the state of a Kaula (179). As the footmarks of all animals disappear in the footmark of the elephant, so do all other Dharmmas disappear in the Kula- Dharmma (180). My Beloved! how holy are the Kaulas! They are like the images of the holy places. They purify by their merepresence even the Chandalas and the vilest of the vile (181). As other waters falling into Ganga become the water of Ganga, so all men following Kulachara reach the stage of a Kaula (182). 247 As water gone into the sea does not retain its separateness, so men sunk in the ocean of Kula lose theirs (183). All beings in th is world which have two feet, from the Vipra to the inferior castes, are competent for Kulachara (184). Those that are averse to the acceptance of Kula- Dharmma, even when invited, are divorced from all Dharmma and go the downward path (185). The Kulina who deceived those men who seek for Kulachara shall go to the hell named Raurava (186). That low Kaula who refuses to initiate a Chandala or a Yavana into the Kula- Dharmma, considering them to be inferior, or a woman out of disrespect for her, goes the downward way (187). The merit acquired by a hundred Abhisheka, by the performance of a hundred Purashcharana, ten million times that merit is acquired by the initiation of one man into the Kula- Dharmma (188). All the different castes, all the followers of the different Dharmmas in this world, are, by becoming Kaulas, freed from their bonds, and go to the Supreme Abode (189). The Kaulas who follow that Shaiva- Dharmma are like places of pilgrimage, and possess the soul of Shiva. They worship and honour one another with affection, respect, and love (190). What is the use of saying more? I am speaking the very truth before Thee when I say that the only bridge for the crossing of this ocean of existence is the Kula- Dharmma and none other (191). By the following of Kul a-Dharmma all doubts are cut through, all the accumulation of sins is destroyed, and the multitude of acts is destroyed (192). Those Kaulikas are excellent who, truthful and faithful to the Brahman, in their mercy invite men to purify them by Kulachara (193). Devi! I have spoken to Thee the first portion of the Maha- nirvana Tantra for the purification of men. It contains the conclusions of all Dharmmas (194). He who hears it daily or enables other men to hear it becomes freed from all sins, and attains Nirvana at the end (195). By knowing this King among Tantras, which contains the essence of essence of all the Tantras, and is the most excellent among the Tantras, a man becomes versed in all the Shastras (196). The man who knows this Maha- Tantra is freed fromthe bonds of actions. Of what use is it to him to go on pilgrimage, or to do japa, yajna, and sadhana? (197). 248 Kalika! he who knows this Tantra, is conversant with all the Shastras, he is pre - eminent among the virtuous, is wise, knows the Brahman, and is a Sage (198). There is no use of the Vedas, the Puranas, the Smritis,. the Sanghitas, and the various other Tantras, as by knowing this Tantra one knows all (199). All the most secret rites and practices and the most excellent knowledge have been revealed by me in reply to Thy questions (200). Suvrata! as Thou art my most excellent Brahmi Shakti, and art to me dearer than life itself, know Thou that the Mahanirvana Tantra is likewise (201). As the Himalaya is among the Mountains, as the Moon is among the Stars, as the Sun is among all lustrous bodies, so this Tantra is the King among Tantras (202). All the Dharmmas pervade this Tantra. It is the only means for the acquirement of the knowledge of Brahman. The man who repeats himself or causes others to repeat it will surely acquire such knowledge (203). In the family of the man in whose house there is this most excellent of all Tantras there will never be a Pashu (204). The man blinded by the darkness of ignorance, the fool caught in the meshes of his actions, and the illiterate man, by listening to this Great Tantra, are released fromthe bonds of karmma (205). Parameshani! reading, listening to, and worshipping this Tantra, and singing its praise, gives liberation to men (206). Of the other various Tantras each deals with one subject only. There is no other Tantra which contains all the Dharmmas (207). The last part contains an account of the nether, earthly, and heavenly worlds. He who knows it (along with the first) undoubtedly knows all (208). The man who knows the second part with this book is able to speak of the past, present, and future, and knows the three worlds (209). There are all manner of Tantras and various Shastras, but they are not equal to a sixteenth part (in value) of this Mahanirvana Tantra (210). What further shall I tell Thee of the greatness of the Mahanirvana Tantra? Through the knowledge of it one shall attain to Brahma- nirvana (211). End of the Fourteenth Joyful Message of the First Part of the Mahanirvana, entitled, \"The Consecration of Shiva- linga and Description of the Four Classes of Avadhutas.\" 249 A quick note: Hi! I'm Julie, the woman who runs Global Grey - the website where this ebook was published for free. These are my own editions, and I hope you enjoyed reading this particular one. To support the site, and to allow me to continue offering these quality (and completely free) ebooks, please think about donating a small amount (if you already have - thank you!). It helps with the site costs, and any amount is appreciated. Thanks for reading this and I really hope you visit Global Grey again - new books are added regularly so you'll always find something of interest :) 250"}}},{"rowIdx":14,"cells":{"text":{"kind":"string","value":"The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays Albert Camus Translated from the French by Justin OBrien 1955 Contents Preface The Myth Of Sisyphus An Absurd Reasoning Absurdity and Suicide Absurd Walk Philosophical Suicide Absurd Freedom The Abs urd Man Don Juanism Drama Conquest Absurd Creation Philosophy and Fiction Kirilov Ephemeral Creation The Myth Of Sisyphus Appendix: Hope and the Absurd in the Work of Franz Kafka Summer In Algiers The Minotaur or The Stop In Oran The Street The Desert in Oran Sports Monuments Ariadnes Stone Helens Exile Return To Tipasa The Artist And His Time Preface For me The Myth of Sisyphus marks the beginning of an idea which I was to pursue in The Rebel. It attempts to resolve the problem of suicide, as The Rebel attempts to resolve that of murder, in both cases without the aid of eternal values which, temporarily perhaps, are absent or distorted in contemporary Europe. The fundamental subject of The Myth of Sisyphus is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legitimate to meet the probl em of suicide face to face. The answer, underlying and appearing through the paradoxes which cover it, is this: even if one does not believe in God, suicide is not legitimate. Written fifteen years ago, in 1940, amid the French and European disaster, this book declares that even within the limits of nihilism it is possible to find the means to proceed beyond nihilism. In all the books I have written since, I have attempted to pursue this direction. Although The Myth of Sisyphus poses mortal problems, it s ums itself up for me as a lucid invitation to live and to create, in the very midst of the desert. It has hence been thought possible to append to this philosophical argument a series of essays, of a kind Ihave never ceased writing, which are somewhat mar ginal to my other books. In a more lyrical form, they all illustrate that essential fluctuation from assent to refusal which, in my view, defines the artist and his difficult calling. The unity of this book, that I should like to be apparent to American re aders as it is to me, resides in the reflection, alternately cold and impassioned, in which an artist may indulge as to his reasons for living and for creating. After fifteen years I have progressed beyond several of the positions which are set down here; but I have remained faithful, it seems to me, to the exigency which prompted them. That is why this hook is in a certain sense the most personal of those I have published in America. More than the others, therefore, it has need of the indulgence and unders tanding of its readers. Albert Camus, Paris, March 1955 for PASCAL PIA Omy soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible. Pindar, Pythian iii The pages that follow deal with an absurd sensitivity that can be found widespread in the age and not with an absurd philosophy which our time, properly speaking, has not known. It is therefore simply fair to point out, at the outset, what these pages owe to certain contemporary thinkers. It is so far from my intention to hide this that they Will be found cited and commented upon throughout this work. But it is useful to note at the same time that the absurd, hitherto taken as a conclusion, is considered in this essay as a starting - point. In this sense it may be said that there is something provisional in my commentary: one cannot prejudge the position it entails. There will be found here merely the description, in the pure state, of an intellectual malady. No metaphysic, no belief is involved in it for the moment. These are the limits and the only bias of this book. Certain personal experiences urge me to make this clear. The Myth Of Sisyphus An Absurd Reasoning Absurdity and Suicide There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether li fe is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. A nd if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for carefu l study before they become clear to the intellect. If I ask myself how to judge that this question is more urgent than that, I reply that one judges by the actions it entails. I have never seen anyone die for the ontologi -cal argument. Galileo, who held a scientific truth of great importance, abjured it with the greatest ease as soon as it endangered his life. In a certain sense, he did right.[1]That truth was not worth the stake. Whether the earth or the sun revolves arou nd the other is a matter of profound indifference. To tell the truth, it is a futile question. On the other hand, I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions t hat give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions. How to answer it? On all essential problems (I mean thereby those that run the risk of leading to death or those that intensify the passion of living) there are probably but two methods of thought: the method of La Palisse and the method of Don Quixote. Solely the balance between evidence and lyricism can allow us to achi eve simultaneously emotion and lucidity. In a subject at once so humble and so heavy with emotion, the learned and classical dialectic must yield, one can see, to a more modest attitude of mind deriving at one and the same time from common sense and unders tanding. Suicide has never been dealt with except as a social phenomenon. On the contrary, we are concerned here, at the outset, with the relationship between individual thought and suicide. An act like this is prepared within the silence of the heart, as is a great work of art. The man himself is ignorant of it. One evening he pulls the trigger or jumps. Of an apartment -building manager who had killed himself I was told that he had lost his daughter five years before, that be bad changed greatly since, and that that experience had undermined him. A more exact word cannot be imagined. Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined. Society has but little connection with such beginnings. The worm is in mans heart. That is where it must be sought. One mus t follow and understand this fatal game that leads from lucidity in the face of existence to flight from light. There are many causes for a suicide, and generally the most obvious ones were not the most powerful. Rarely is suicide committed (yet the hypothesis is not excluded) through reflection. What sets off the crisis is almost always unverifiable. Newspapers often speak of personal sorrows or of incurable illness. Th ese explanations are plausible. But one would have to know whether a friend of the desperate man had not that very day addressed him indifferently. He is the guilty one. For that is enough to precipitate all the rancors and all the boredom still in suspens ion.[2] But if it is hard to fix the precise instant, the subtle step when the mind opted for death, it is easier to deduce from the act itself the consequences it implies. In a sense, and as in melodrama, killing yourself amounts to confessing. It is confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it. Lets not go too far in such analogies, however, but rather return to everyday words. It is merely confessing that that is not worth the trouble. Living, naturally, is never easy. You continue making the gestures commanded by existence for many reasons, the first of which is habit. Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinc tively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the abse nce of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering. What, then, is that incalculable feeling that deprives the mind of the sleep necessary to life? A world that can be explained even with b ad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. T his divorce between man and this life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity. All healthy men having thought of their own suicide, it can be seen, without further explanation, that there is a direct connection between this feeling and the longing for death. The subject of this essay is precisely this relationship between the absurd and suicide, the exact degree to which suicide is a solution to the absurd. The principle can be established that for a man who does not cheat, what he believes to be true must determine his action. Belief in the absurdity of existence must then dictate his conduct. It is legitimate to wonder, clearly and without false pathos, whether a conclusion of this importance requires forsaking as rapidly as possib le an incomprehensible condition. I am speaking, of course, of men inclined to be in harmony with themselves. Stated clearly, this problem may seem both simple and insoluble. But it is wrongly assumed that simple questions involve answers that are no less simple and that evidence implies evidence. A priori and reversing the terms of the problem, just as one does or does not kill oneself, it seems that there are but two philosophical solutions, either yes or no. This would be too easy. But allowance must be made for those who, without concluding, continue questioning. Here I am only slightly indulging in irony: this is the majority. I notice also that those who answer no act as if they thought yes. As a matter of fact, if I accept the Nietzschean criterio n, they think yes in one way or another. On the other hand, it often happens that those who commit suicide were assured of the meaning of life. These contradictions are constant. It may even be said that they have never been so keen as on this point wher e, on the contrary, logic seems so desirable. It is a commonplace to compare philosophical theories and the behavior of those who profess them. But it must be said that of the thinkers who refused a meaning to life none except Kirilov who belongs to litera ture, Peregrinos who is born of legend,[3]and Jules Lequier who belongs to hypothesis, admitted his logic to the point of refusing that life. Schopenhauer is often cited, as a fit subject for laughter, because he praised suicide while seated at a well -set table. This is no subject for joking. That way of not taking the tragic seriously is not so grievous, but it helps to judge a man. In the face of such contradictions and obscurities must we conclude that there is no relat ionship between the opinion one has about life and the act one commits to leave it? Let us not exaggerate in this direction. In a mans attachment to life there is something stronger than all the ills in the world. The bodys judgment is as good as the min ds and the body shrinks from annihilation. We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us toward death, the body maintains its irreparable lead. In short, the essence of that contradiction lies in what I shall call the act of eluding because it is both less and more than diversion in the Pascalian sense. Eluding is the invariable game. The typical act of eluding, the fatal evasion that constitutes the third theme of this essay, is hope. Hope of another life one must deserve or trickery of those who live not for life itself but for some great idea that will transcend it, refine it, give it a meaning, and betray it. Thus everything contributes to spreading confusion. Hitherto, and it has not been wasted effort, people have played on words and pretended to believe that refusing to grant a meaning to life necessarily leads to declaring that it is not worth living. In truth, there is no necessary common measure between these two judgments. One merely has to refuse to he misled by the confusions, divorces, and inconsistencies previously pointed out. One must brush everything aside and go straight to the real problem. One kills oneself because life is not worth living, that is certainly a truth yet an un fruitful one because it is a truism. But does that insult to existence, that flat denial in which it is plunged come from the fact that it has no meaning? Does its absurdity require one to escape it through hope or suicide this is what must be clarified, h unted down, and elucidated while brushing aside all the rest. Does the Absurd dictate death? This problem must be given priority over others, outside all methods of thought and all exercises of the disinterested mind. Shades of meaning, contradictions, the psychology that an objective mind can always introduce into all problems have no place in this pursuit and this passion. It calls simply for an unjust in other words, logical thought. That is not easy. It is always easy to be logical. It is almost impos sible to be logical to the bitter end. Men who die by their own hand consequently follow to its conclusion their emotional inclination. Reflection on suicide gives me an opportunity to raise the only problem to interest me: is there a logic to the point of death? I cannot know unless I pursue, without reckless passion, in the sole light of evidence, the reasoning of which I am here suggesting the source. This is what I call an absurd reasoning. Many have begun it. I do not yet know whether or not they kept to it. When Karl Jaspers, revealing the impossibility of constituting the world as a unity, exclaims: This limitation leads me to myself, where I can no longer withdraw behind an objective point of view that I am merely representing, where neither I mysel f nor the existence of others can any longer become an object for me, he is evoking after many others those waterless deserts where thought reaches its confines. After many others, yes indeed, but how eager they were to get out of them! At that last cross road where thought hesitates, many men have arrived and even some of the humblest. They then abdicated what was most precious to them, their life. Others, princes of the mind, abdicated likewise, but they initiated the suicide of their thought in its pures t revolt. The real effort is to stay there, rather, in so far as that is possible, and to examine closely the odd vegetation of those distant regions. Tenacity and acumen are privileged spectators of this inhuman show in which absurdity, hope, and death ca rry on their dialogue. The mind can then analyze the figures of that elementary yet subtle dance before illustrating them and reliving them itself. Absurd Walls Like great works, deep feelings always mean more than they are conscious of saying. The regular ity of an impulse or a repulsion in a soul is encountered again in habits of doing or thinking, is reproduced in consequences of which the soul itself knows nothing. Great feelings take with them their own universe, splendid or abject. They light up with t heir passion an exclusive world in which they recognize their climate. There is a universe of jealousy, of ambition, of selfishness, or of generosity. A universe in other words, a metaphysic and an attitude of mind. What is true of already specialized feel ings will be even more so of emotions basically as indeterminate, simultaneously as vague and as definite, as remote and as present as those furnished us by beauty or aroused by absurdity. At any streetcorner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. As it is, in its distressing nudity, in its light without effulgence, it is elusive. But that very difficulty deserves reflection. It is probably true that a man remains forever unknown to us and that there is in him something irreducible tha t escapes us. But practically I know men and recognize them by their behavior, by the totality of their deeds, by the consequences caused in life by their presence. Likewise, all those irrational feelings which offer no purchase to analysis. I can define t hem practically, appreciate them practically, by gathering together the sum of their consequences in the domain of the intelligence, by seizing and noting all their aspects, by outlining their universe. It is certain that apparently, though I have seen the same actor a hundred times, I shall not for that reason know him any better personally. Yet if I add up the heroes he has personified and if I say that I know him a little better at the hundredth character counted off, this will be felt to contain an elem ent of truth. For this apparent paradox is also an apologue. There is a moral to it. It teaches that a man defines himself by his make -believe as well as by his sincere impulses. There is thus a lower key of feelings, inaccessible in the heart but partiall y disclosed by the acts they imply and the attitudes of mind they assume. It is clear that in this way I am defining a method. But it is also evident that that method is one of analysis and not of knowledge. For methods imply metaphysics; unconsciously the y disclose conclusions that they often claim not to know yet. Similarly, the last pages of a book are already contained in the first pages. Such a link is inevitable. The method defined here acknowledges the feeling that all true knowledge is impossible. Solely appearances can be enumerated and the climate make itself felt. Perhaps we shall be able to overtake that elusive feeling of absurdity in the different but closely related worlds of intelligence, of the art of living, or of art itself. The climate of absurdity is in the beginning. The end is the absurd universe and that attitude of mind which lights the world with its true colors to bring out the privileged and implacable visage which that attitude has discerned in it. * * * All great deeds and all gr eat thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street -corner or in a restaurants revolving door. So it is with absurdity. The absurd world more than others derives its nobility from that abject birth. In certain situations, repl ying nothing when asked what one is thinking about may be pretense in a man. Those who are loved are well aware of this. But if that reply is sincere, if it symbolizes that odd state of soul in which the void be -comes eloquent, in which the chain of dail y gestures is broken, in which the heart vainly seeks the link that will connect it again, then it is as it were the first sign of absurdity. It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetc ar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday accord ing to the same rhythm this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the why arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with am azement. Begins this is important. Weariness comes at the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at the same time it inaugurates the impulse of consciousness. It awakens consciousness and provokes what follows. What follows is the gradual return into the chain or it is the definitive awakening. At the end of the awakening comes, in time, the consequence: suicide or recovery. In itself weariness has something sickening about it. Here, I must conclude that it is good. For everything be -gins with consciou sness and nothing is worth anything except through it. There is nothing original about these remarks. But they are obvious; that is enough for a while, during a sketchy reconnaissance in the origins of the absurd. Mere anxiety, as Heidegger says, is at t he source of everything. Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. But a moment always comes when we have to carry it. We live on the future: tomorrow, later on, when you have made your way, you will understand when yo u are old enough. Such irrelevan -cies are wonderful, for, after all, its a matter of dying. Yet a day comes when a man notices or says that he is thirty. Thus he asserts his youth. But simultaneously he situates himself in relation to time. He takes his place in it. He admits that he stands at a certain point on a curve that he acknowledges having to travel to its end. He belongs to time, and by the horror that seizes him, he recognizes his worst enemy. Tomorrow, he was longing for tomorrow, whereas every thing in him ought to reject it. That revolt of the flesh is the absurd.[4] A step lower and strangeness creeps in: perceiving that the world is dense, sensing to what a degree a stone is foreign and irreducible to us, w ith what intensity nature or a landscape can negate us. At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, he nceforth more remote than a lost paradise. The primitive hostility of the world rises up to face us across millennia, for a second we cease to understand it because for centuries we have understood in it solely the images and designs that we had at - tribute d to it beforehand, because henceforth we lack the power to make use of that artifice. The world evades us because it becomes itself again. That stage scenery masked by habit becomes again what it is. It withdraws at a distance from us. Just as there are d ays when under the familial face of a woman, we see as a stranger her we had loved months or years ago, perhaps we shall come even to desire what suddenly leaves us so alone. But the time has not yet come. Just one thing: that denseness and that strangenes s of the world is the absurd. Men, too, secrete the inhuman. At certain moments of lucidity, the mechanical aspect of their gestures, their meaningless pantomime makes silly everything that surrounds them. A man is talking on the telephone behind a glass p artition; you cannot hear him, but you see his incomprehensible dumb show: you wonder why he is alive. This discomfort in the face of mans own inhumanity, this incalculable tumble before the image of what we are, this nausea, as a writer of today calls it, is also the absurd. Likewise the stranger who at certain seconds comes to meet us in a mirror, the familiar and yet alarming brother we encounter in our own photographs is also the absurd. I come at last to death and to the attitude we have toward it. On this point everything has been said and it is only proper to avoid pathos. Yet one will never be sufficiently surprised that everyone lives as if no one knew. This is because in reality there is no experience of death. Properly speaking, nothing has b een experienced but what has been lived and made conscious. Here, it is barely possible to speak of the experience of others deaths. It is a substitute, an illusion, and it never quite convinces us. That melancholy convention cannot be persuasive. The hor ror comes in reality from the mathematical aspect of the event. If time frightens us, this is because it works out the problem and the solution comes afterward. All the pretty speeches about the soul will have their contrary convincingly proved, at least f or a time. From this inert body on which a slap makes no mark the soul has disappeared. This elementary and definitive aspect of the adventure constitutes the absurd feeling. Under the fatal lighting of that destiny, its uselessness becomes evident. No cod e of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori in the face of the cruel mathematics that command our condition. Let me repeat: all this has been said over and over. I am limiting myself here to making a rapid classification and to pointing out these ob vious themes. They run through all literatures and all philosophies. Everyday conversation feeds on them. There is no question of reinventing them. But it is essential to be sure of these facts in order to be able to question oneself subsequently on the pr imordial question. I am interested let me repeat again not go much in absurd discoveries as in their consequences. If one is assured of these facts, what is one to conclude, how far is one to go to elude nothing? Is one to die voluntarily or to hope in spi te of everything? Beforehand, it is necessary to take the same rapid inventory on the plane of the intelligence. *** The minds first step is to distinguish what is true from what is false. However, as soon as thought reflects on itself, what it first discovers is a contradiction. Useless to strive to be convincing in this case. Over the centuries no one has furnished a clearer and more elegant demonstration of the business than Aristotle: The often ridiculed consequence of these opinions is that they des troy themselves. For by asserting that all is true we assert the truth of the contrary assertion and consequently the falsity of our own thesis (for the contrary assertion does not admit that it can be true). And if one says that all is false, that asserti on is itself false. If we declare that solely the assertion opposed to ours is false or else that solely ours is not false, we are nevertheless forced to admit an infinite number of true or false judgments. For the one who expresses a true assertion procla ims simultaneously that it is true, and so on ad infinitum. This vicious circle is but the first of a series in which the mind that studies itself gets lost in a giddy whirling. The very simplicity of these paradoxes makes them irreducible. Whatever may b e the plays on words and the acrobatics of logic, to understand is, above all, to unify. The minds deepest desire, even in its most elaborate operations, parallels mans unconscious feeling in the face of his universe: it is an insistence upon familiarity , an appetite for clarity. Understanding the world for a man is reducing it to the human, stamping it with his seal. The cats universe is not the universe of the anthill. The truism All thought is anthropomorphic has no other meaning. Likewise, the mind that aims to understand reality can consider itself satisfied only by reducing it to terms of thought. If man realized that the universe like him can love and suffer, he would be reconciled. If thought discovered in the shimmering mirrors of phenomena ete rnal relations capable of summing them up and summing themselves up in a single principle, then would be seen an intellectual joy of which the myth of the blessed would be but a ridiculous imitation. That nostalgia for unity, that appetite for the absolute illustrates the essential impulse of the human drama. But the fact of that nostalgias existence does not imply that it is to be immediately satisfied. For if, bridging the gulf that separates desire from conquest, we assert with Parmenides the reality of the One (whatever it may be), we fall into the ridiculous contradiction of a mind that asserts total unity and proves by its very assertion its own difference and the diversity it claimed to resolve. This other vicious circle is enough to stifle our hopes . These are again truisms. I shall again repeat that they are not interesting in themselves but in the consequences that can be deduced from them. I know another truism: it tells me that man is mortal. One can nevertheless count the minds that have deduced the extreme conclusions from it. It is essential to consider as a constant point of reference in this essay the regular hiatus between what we fancy we know and what we really know, practical assent and simulated ignorance which allows us to live with ide as which, if we truly put them to the test, ought to upset our whole life. Faced with this inextricable contradiction of the mind, we shall fully grasp the divorce separating us from our own creations. So long as the mind keeps silent in the motionless wor ld of its hopes, everything is reflected and arranged in the unity of its nostalgia. But with its first move this world cracks and tumbles: an infinite number of shimmering fragments is offered to the understanding. We must despair of ever reconstructing t he familiar, calm surface which would give us peace of heart. After so many centuries of inquiries, so many abdications among thinkers, we are well aware that this is true for all our knowledge. With the exception of professional rationalists, today people despair of true knowledge. If the only significant history of human thought were to be written, it would have to be the history of its successive regrets and its impotences. Of whom and of what indeed can I say: I know that! This heart within me I can f eel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction. For if I try to seize this self of which I feel sure, if I try to define and to summarize it, it is nothing but water slipping through my fingers. I can sketch one by one all the aspects it is able to assume, all those likewise that have been attributed to it, this upbringing, this origin, this ardor or these silences, this nobility or this vileness. But as pects cannot be added up. This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myse lf. In psychology as in logic, there are truths but no truth. SocratesKnow thyself has as much value as the Be virtuous of our confessionals. They reveal a nostalgia at the same time as an ignorance. They are sterile exercises on great subjects. They are legitimate only in precisely so far as they are approximate. And here are trees and I know their gnarled surface, water and I feel its taste. These scents of grass and stars at night, certain evenings when the heart relaxes how shall I negate this worl d whose power and strength I feel? Yet all the knowledge on earth will give me nothing to assure me that this world is mine. You describe it to me and you teach me to classify it. You enumerate its laws and in my thirst for knowledge I admit that they are true. You take apart its mechanism and my hope increases. At the final stage you teach me that this wondrous and multicolored universe can be reduced to the atom and that the atom itself can be reduced to the electron. All this is good and I wait for you t o continue. But you tell me of an invisible planetary system in which electrons gravitate around a nucleus. You explain this world to me with an image. I realize then that you have been reduced to poetry: I shall never know. Have I the time to become indig nant? You have already changed theories. So that science that was to teach me everything ends up in a hypothesis, that lucidity founders in metaphor, that uncertainty is resolved in a work of art. What need had I of so many efforts? The soft lines of these hills and the hand of evening on this troubled heart teach me much more. I have returned to my beginning. I realize that if through science I can seize phenomena and enumerate them, I cannot, for all that, apprehend the world. Were I to trace its entire r elief with my finger, I should not know any more. And you give me the choice between a description that is sure but that teaches me nothing and hypotheses that claim to teach me but that are not sure. A stranger to myself and to the world, armed solely wit h a thought that negates itself as soon as it asserts, what is this condition in which I can have peace only by refusing to know and to live, in which the appetite for conquest bumps into walls that defy its assaults? To will is to stir up paradoxes. Every thing is ordered in such a way as to bring into being that poisoned peace produced by thoughtlessness, lack of heart, or fatal renunciations. Hence the intelligence, too, tells me in its way that this world is absurd. Its contrary, blind reason, may well claim that all is clear; I was waiting for proof and longing for it to be right. But despite so many pretentious centuries and over the heads of so many eloquent and persuasive men, I know that is false . On this plane, at least, there is no happiness if I cannot know. That universal reason, practical or ethical, that determinism, those categories that explain everything are enough to make a decent man laugh. They have nothing to do with the mind. They ne gate its profound truth, which is to be enchained. In this unintelligible and limited universe, mans fate henceforth assumes its meaning. A horde of irrationals has sprung up and surrounds him until his ultimate end. In his recovered and now studied lucid ity, the feeling of the absurd becomes clear and definite. I said that the world is absurd, but I was too hasty. This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild l onging for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment it is all that links them together. It binds them one to the other as only hatred can weld two creatures together. This is all I can discern clearly in this measureless universe where my adventure takes place. Let us pause here. If I hold to be true that absurdity that determines my relationship with life, if I become thoroughly imbued with that sentiment that seizes me in face of the worlds scenes, with that lucidity imposed on me by the pursuit of a science, I must sacrifice everything to these certainties and I must see them squarely to be able to maintain them. Above all, I must adapt my behavior to them and pursue them in all their consequences. I am speaking here of decency. But I want to know beforehand if thought can live in those deserts. * * * I already know that thought has at least entered those deserts. There it found its bread. There it realized that it had previously been feeding on phantoms. It justified some of the most urgent themes of human reflection. From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all. But whether or not one can live with ones passions, whether or not one can acce pt their law, which is to burn the heart they simultaneously exalt that is the whole question. It is not, however, the one we shall ask just yet. It stands at the center of this experience. There will be time to come back to it. Let us recognize rather tho se themes and those impulses born of the desert. It will suffice to enumerate them. They, too, are known to all today. There have always been men to defend the rights of the irrational. The tradition of what may be called humiliated thought has never cease d to exist. The criticism of rationalism has been made so often that it seems unnecessary to begin again. Yet our epoch is marked by the rebirth of those paradoxical systems that strive to trip up the reason as if truly it had always forged ahead. But that is not so much a proof of the efficacy of the reason as of the intensity of its hopes. On the plane of history, such a constancy of two attitudes illustrates the essential passion of man torn between his urge toward unity and the clear vision he may have of the walls enclosing him. But never perhaps at any time has the attack on reason been more violent than in ours. Since Zarathustras great outburst: By chance it is the oldest nobility in the world. I conferred it upon all things when I proclaimed that above them no eternal will was exercised, since Kierkegaards fatal illness, that malady that leads to death with nothing else following it, the significant and tormenting themes of absurd thought have followed one another. Or at least, and this proviso is of capital importance, the themes of irrational and religious thought. From Jaspers to Heidegger, from Kierkegaard to Che -stov, from the phenomenologists to Scheler, on the logical plane and on the moral plane, a whole family of minds related by their nostalgia but opposed by their methods or their aims, have persisted in blocking the royal road of reason and in recovering the direct paths of truth. Here I assume these thoughts to be known and lived. Whatever may be or have been their ambitions, all sta rted out from that indescribable universe where contradiction, antinomy, anguish, or impotence reigns. And what they have in common is precisely the themes so far disclosed. For them, too, it must be said that what matters above all is the conclusions they have managed to draw from those discoveries. That matters so much that they must be examined separately. But for the moment we are concerned solely with their discoveries and their initial experiments. We are concerned solely with noting their agreement. If it would be presumptuous to try to deal with their philosophies, it is possible and sufficient in any case to bring out the climate that is common to them. Heidegger considers the human condition coldly and announces that that existence is humiliated. T he only reality is anxiety in the whole chain of beings. To the man lost in the world and its diversions this anxiety is a brief, fleeting fear. But if that fear becomes conscious of itself, it becomes anguish, the perpetual climate of the lucid man in whom existence is concentrated. This professor of philosophy writes without trembling and in the most abstract language in the world that the finite and limited character of human existence is more primordial than man himself. His interest in Kant exten ds only to recognizing the restricted character of his pure Reason. This is to coincide at the end of his analyses that the world can no longer offer anything to the man filled with anguish. This anxiety seems to him so much more important than all the categories in the world that he thinks and talks only of it. He enumerates its aspects: boredom when the ordinary man strives to quash it in him and benumb it; terror when the mind contemplates death. He too does not separate consciousness from the absurd . The consciousness of death is the call of anxiety and existence then delivers itself its own summons through the intermediary of consciousness. It is the very voice of anguish and it adjures existence to return from its loss in the anonymous They. Fo r him, too, one must not sleep, but must keep alert until the consummation. He stands in this absurd world and points out its ephemeral character. He seeks his way amid these ruins. Jaspers despairs of any ontology because he claims that we have lost naiv ete. He knows that we can achieve nothing that will transcend the fatal game of appearances. He knows that the end of the mind is failure. He tarries over the spiritual adventures revealed by history and pitilessly discloses the flaw in each system, the illusion that saved everything, the preaching that hid nothing. In this ravaged world in which the impossibility of knowledge is established, in which everlasting nothingness seems the only reality and irremediable despair seems the only attitude, he tries to recover the Ariadnes thread that leads to divine secrets. Chestov, for his part, throughout a wonderfully monotonous work, constantly straining toward the same truths, tirelessly demonstrates that the tightest system, the most universal rationalism alw ays stumbles eventually on the irrational of human thought. None of the ironic facts or ridiculous contradictions that depreciate the reason escapes him. One thing only interests him, and that is the exception, whether in the domain of the heart or of the mind. Through the Dostoevskian experiences of the condemned man, the exacerbated adventures of the Nietzschean mind, Hamlets imprecations, or the bitter aristocracy of an Ibsen, he tracks down, il -luminates, and magnifies the human revolt against the irre mediable. He refuses the reason its reasons and begins to advance with some decision only in the middle of that colorless desert where all certainties have become stones. Of all perhaps the most engaging, Kierkegaard, for a part of his existence at least, does more than discover the absurd, he lives it. The man who writes: The surest of stubborn silences is not to hold ones tongue but to talk makes sure in the beginning that no truth is absolute or can render satisfactory an existence that is impossible in itself. Don Juan of the understanding, he multiplies pseudonyms and contradictions, writes his Discourses of Edification at the same time as that manual of cynical spiritualism, The Diary of the Seducer. He refuses consolations, ethics, reliable princip les. As for that thorn he feels in his heart, he is careful not to quiet its pain. On the contrary, he awakens it and, in the desperate joy of a man crucified and happy to be so, he builds up piece by piece lucidity, refusal, make believe a category of the man possessed. That face both tender and sneering, those pirouettes followed by a cry from the heart are the absurd spirit itself grappling with a reality beyond its comprehension. And the spiritual adventure that leads Kierkegaard to his beloved scandals begins likewise in the chaos of an experience divested of its setting and relegated to its original incoherence. On quite a different plane, that of method, Husserl and the phenomenologists, by their very extravagances, reinstate the world in its diversit y and deny the transcendent power of the reason. The spiritual universe becomes incalculably enriched through them. The rose petal, the milestone, or the human hand are as important as love, desire, or the laws of gravity. Thinking ceases to be unifying or making a semblance familiar in the guise of a major principle. Thinking is learning all over again to see, to be attentive, to focus consciousness; it is turning every idea and every image, in the manner of Proust, into a privileged moment. What justifies thought is its extreme consciousness. Though more positive than Kierkegaards or Chestovs, Husserls manner of proceeding, in the beginning, nevertheless negates the classic method of the reason, disappoints hope, opens to intuition and to the heart a whole proliferation of phenomena, the wealth of which has about it something inhuman. These paths lead to all sciences or to none. This amounts to saying that in this case the means are more important than the end. All that is involved is an attitude for understanding and not a consolation. Let me repeat: in the beginning, at very least. How can one fail to feel the basic relationship of these minds! How can one fail to see that they take their stand around a privileged and bitter moment in which hope has n o further place? I want everything to be explained to me or nothing. And the reason is impotent when it hears this cry from the heart. The mind aroused by this insistence seeks and finds nothing but contradictions and nonsense. What I fail to understand is nonsense. The world is peopled with such irrationals. The world itself, whose single meaning I do not understand, is but a vast irrational. If one could only say just once: This is clear, all would be saved. But these men vie with one another in proclai ming that nothing is clear, all is chaos, that all man has is his lucidity and his definite knowledge of the walls surrounding him. All these experiences agree and confirm one another. The mind, when it reaches its limits, must make a judgment and choose its conclusions. This is where suicide and the reply stand. But I wish to reverse the order of the inquiry and start out from the intelligent adventure and come back to daily acts. The experiences called to mind here were born in the desert that we must not leave behind. At least it is essential to know how far they went. At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the h uman need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter these are t he three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable. Philosophical Suicide The feeling of the absurd is not, for all that, the notion of the absurd. It lays the foundations for it, and that is all. It is not limited to that notion, except in the brief moment when it passes judgment on the universe. Subsequently it has a chance of going further. It is alive; in other words, it must die or else reverberate. So it is with the themes we have gathered together. But there again what interests me is not works or minds, criticism of which would call for another form and another place, but the discovery of what their conclusions have in common. Ne ver, perhaps, have minds been so different. And yet we recognize as identical the spiritual landscapes in which they get under way. Likewise, despite such dissimilar zones of knowledge, the cry that terminates their itinerary rings out in the same way. It is evident that the thinkers we have just recalled have a common climate. To say that that climate is deadly scarcely amounts to playing on words. Living under that stifling sky forces one to get away or to stay. The important thing is to find out how peop le get away in the first case and why people stay in the second case. This is how I define the problem of suicide and the possible interest in the conclusions of existential philosophy. But first I want to detour from the direct path. Up to now we have man aged to circumscribe the absurd from the outside. One can, however, wonder how much is clear in that notion and by direct analysis try to discover its meaning on the one hand and, on the other, the consequences it involves. If I accuse an innocent man of a monstrous crime, if I tell a virtuous man that he has coveted his own sister, he will reply that this is absurd. His indignation has its comical aspect. But it also has its fundamental reason. The virtuous man illustrates by that reply the definitive anti nomy existing between the deed I am attributing to him and his lifelong principles. Its absurd means Its impossible but also Its contradictory. If I see a man armed only with a sword attack a group of machine guns, I shall consider his act to be a bsurd. But it is so solely by virtue of the disproportion between his intention and the reality he will encounter, of the contradiction I notice between his true strength and the aim he has in view. Likewise we shall deem a verdict absurd when we contrast it with the verdict the facts apparently dictated. And, similarly, a demonstration by the absurd is achieved by comparing the consequences of such a reasoning with the logical reality one wants to set up. In all these cases, from the simplest to the most c omplex, the magnitude of the absurdity will be in direct ratio to the distance between the two terms of my comparison. There are absurd marriages, challenges, rancors, silences, wars, and even peace treaties. For each of them the absurdity springs from a c omparison. I am thus justified in saying that the feeling of absurdity does not spring from the mere scrutiny of a fact or an impression, but that it bursts from the comparison between a bare fact and a certain reality, between an action and the world that transcends it. The absurd is essentially a divorce. It lies in neither of the elements compared; it is born of their confrontation. In this particular case and on the plane of intelligence, I can therefore say that the Absurd is not in man (if such a meta phor could have a meaning) nor in the world, but in their presence together. For the moment it is the only bond uniting them. If wish to limit myself to facts, I know what man wants, I know what the world offers him, and now I can say that I also know what links them. I have no need to dig deeper. A single certainty is enough for the seeker. He simply has to derive all the consequences from it. The immediate consequence is also a rule of method. The odd trinity brought to light in this way is certainly not a startling discovery. But it resembles the data of experience in that it is both infinitely simple and infinitely complicated. Its first distinguishing feature in this regard is that it cannot be divided. To destroy one of its terms is to destroy the whol e. There can be no absurd outside the human mind. Thus, like everything else, the absurd ends with death. But there can be no absurd outside this world either. And it is by this elementary criterion that I judge the notion of the absurd to be essential and consider that it can stand as the first of my truths. The rule of method alluded to above appears here. If I judge that a thing is true, I must preserve it. If I attempt to solve a problem, at least I must not by that very solution conjure away one of the terms of the problem. For me the sole datum is the absurd. The first and, after all, the only condition of my inquiry is to preserve the very thing that crushes me, consequently to respect what I consider essential in it. I have just defined it as a confr ontation and an unceasing struggle. And carrying this absurd logic to its conclusion, I must admit that that struggle implies a total absence of hope (which has nothing to do with despair), a continual rejection (which must not be confused with renunciatio n), and a conscious dissatisfaction (which must not be compared to immature unrest). Everything that destroys, conjures away, or exorcises these requirements (and, to begin with, consent which overthrows divorce) ruins the absurd and devaluates the attitud e that may then be proposed. The absurd has meaning only in so far as it is not agreed to. *** There exists an obvious fact that seems utterly moral: namely, that a man is always a prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot free himself from them. One has to pay something. A man who has be -come conscious of the absurd is forever bound to it. A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future. That is natural. But it is just as natural that he should strive to es cape the universe of which he is the creator. All the foregoing has significance only on account of this paradox. Certain men, starting from a critique of rationalism, have admitted the absurd climate. Nothing is more instructive in this regard than to scr utinize the way in which they have elaborated their consequences. Now, to limit myself to existential philosophies, I see that all of them without exception suggest escape. Through an odd reasoning, starting out from the absurd over the ruins of reason, in a closed universe limited to the human, they deify what crushes them and find reason to hope in what impoverishes them. That forced hope is religious in all of them. It deserves attention. I shall merely analyze here as examples a few themes dear to Chest ov and Kierkegaard. But Jaspers will provide us, in caricatural form, a typical example of this attitude. As a result the rest will be clearer. He is left powerless to realize the transcendent, incapab le of plumbing the depth of experience, and conscious of that universe upset by failure. Will he advance or at least draw the conclusions from that failure? He contributes nothing new. He has found nothing in experience but the confession of his own impotence and no occasion to infer any satisfactory principl e. Yet without justification, as he says to himself, he suddenly asserts all at once the transcendent, the essence of experience, and the superhuman significance of life when he writes: Does not the failure reveal, beyond any possible explanation and inte rpretation, not the absence but the existence of transcendence? That existence which, suddenly and through a blind act of human confidence, explains everything, he defines as the unthinkable unity of the general and the particular. Thus the absurd becom es god (in the broadest meaning of this word) and that inability to understand becomes the existence that illuminates everything. Nothing logically prepares this reasoning. I can call it a leap. And para-doxically can be understood Jasperss insistence, hi s infinite patience devoted to making the experience of the transcendent impossible to realize. For the more fleeting that approximation is, the more empty that definition proves to be, and the more real that transcendent is to him; for the passion he devo tes to asserting it is in direct proportion to the gap between his powers of explanation and the irrationality of the world and of experience. It thus appears that the more bitterly Jaspers destroys the reasons preconceptions, the more radically he will e xplain the world. That apostle of humiliated thought will find at the very end of humiliation the means of regenerating being to its very depth. Mystical thought has familiarized us with such devices. They are just as legitimate as any attitude of mind. Bu t for the moment I am acting as if I took a certain problem seriously. Without judging beforehand the general value of this attitude or its educative power, I mean simply to consider whether it answers the conditions I set myself, whether it is worthy of t he conflict that concerns me. Thus I return to Chestov. A commentator relates a remark of his that deserves interest: The only true solution, he said, is precisely where human judgment sees no solution. Otherwise, what need would we have of God? We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible. As for the possible, men suffice. If there is a Chestovian philosophy, I can say that it is altogether summed up in this way. For when, at the conclusion of his passionate analyses, Chestov discovers the fundamen tal absurdity of all existence, he does not say: This is the absurd, but rather: This is God: we must rely on him even if he does not correspond to any of our rational categories. So that confusion may not be possible, the Russian philosopher even hint s that this God is perhaps full of hatred and hateful, incomprehensible and contradictory; but the more hideous is his face, the more he asserts his power. His greatness is his incoherence. His proof is his inhumanity. One must spring into him and by this leap free oneself from rational illusions. Thus, for Chestov acceptance of the absurd is contemporaneous with the absurd itself. Being aware of it amounts to accepting it, and the whole logical effort of his thought is to bring it out so that at the same t ime the tremendous hope it involves may burst forth. Let me repeat that this attitude is legitimate. But I am persisting here in considering a single problem and all its consequences. I do not have to examine the emotion of a thought or of an act of faith. I have a whole lifetime to do that. I know that the rationalist finds Chestovs attitude annoying. But I also feel that Chestov is right rather than the rationalist, and I merely want to know if he remains faithful to the commandments of the absurd. Now, if it is admitted that the absurd is the contrary of hope, it is seen that existential thought for Chestov presupposes the absurd but proves it only to dispel it. Such subtlety of thought is a conjurors emotional trick. When Chestov elsewhere sets his absurd in opposition to current morality and reason, he calls it truth and redemption. Hence, there is basically in that definition of the absurd an approbation that Chestov grants it. If it is admitted that all the power of that notion lies in the way it run s counter to our elementary hopes, if it is felt that to remain, the absurd requires not to be consented to, then it can be clearly seen that it has lost its true aspect, its human and relative character in order to enter an eternity that is both incompreh ensible and satisfying. If there is an absurd, it is in mans universe. The moment the notion transforms itself into eternitys springboard, it ceases to be linked to human lucidity. The absurd is no longer that evidence that man ascertains without consent ing to it. The struggle is eluded. Man integrates the absurd and in that communion causes to disappear its essential character, which is opposition, laceration, and divorce. This leap is an escape. Chestov, who is so fond of quoting Hamlets remark: The t ime is out of joint, writes it down with a sort of savage hope that seems to belong to him in particular. For it is not in this sense that Hamlet says it or Shakespeare writes it. The intoxication of the irrational and the vocation of rapture turn a lucid mind away from the absurd. To Chestov reason is useless but there is something beyond reason. To an absurd mind reason is useless and there is nothing beyond reason. This leap can at least enlighten us a little more as to the true nature of the absurd. We know that it is worthless except in an equilibrium, that it is, above all, in the comparison and not in the terms of that comparison. But it so happens that Chestov puts all the emphasis on one of the terms and destroys the equilibrium. Our appetite for u nderstanding, our nostalgia for the absolute are explicable only in so far, precisely, as we can understand and explain many things. It is useless to negate the reason absolutely. It has its order in which it is efficacious. It is properly that of human experience. Whence we wanted to make everything clear. If we cannot do so, if the absurd is born on that occasion, it is born precisely at the very meeting -point of that efficacious but limited reason with the ever resurgent irrational. Now, when Chestov ris es up against a Hegelian proposition such as the motion of the solar system takes place in conformity with immutable laws and those laws are its reason, when he devotes all his passion to upsetting Spinozas rationalism, he concludes, in effect, in favor of the vanity of all reason. Whence, by a natural and illegitimate reversal, to the pre -eminence of the irrational.[5]But the transition is not evident. For here may intervene the notion of limit and the notion of level. The laws of nature may be operative up to a certain limit, beyond which they turn against themselves to give birth to the absurd. Or else, they may justify themselves on the level of description without for that reason being true on the level of explanati on. Everything is sacrificed here to the irrational, and, the demand for clarity being conjured away, the absurd disappears with one of the terms of its comparison. The absurd man, on the other hand, does not undertake such a leveling process. He recognize s the struggle, does not absolutely scorn reason, and admits the irrational. Thus he again embraces in a single glance all the data of experience and he is little inclined to leap before knowing. He knows simply that in that alert awareness there is no fur ther place for hope. What is perceptible in Leo Chestov will be perhaps even more so in Kierkegaard. To be sure, it is hard to outline clear propositions in so elusive a writer. But, despite apparently opposed writings, beyond the pseudonyms, the tricks, and the smiles, can be felt throughout that work, as it were, the presentiment (at the same time as the apprehension) of a truth which eventually bursts forth in the last works: Kierkegaard likewise takes the leap. His childhood having been so frightened by Christianity, he ultimately returns to its harshest aspect. For him, too, antinomy and paradox become criteria of the religious. Thus, the very thing that led to despair of the meaning and depth of this life now gives it its truth and its cla rity. Christianity is the scandal, and what Kierkegaard calls for quite plainly is the third sacrifice required by Ignatius Loyola, the one in which God most rejoices: The sacrifice of the intellect.[6] This effect of t he leap is odd, but must not surprise us any longer. He makes of the absurd the criterion of the other world, whereas it is simply a residue of the experience of this world. In his failure, says Kierkegaard, the believer finds his triumph. It is not for me to wonder to what stirring preaching this attitude is linked. I merely have to wonder if the spectacle of the absurd and its own character justifies it. On this point, I know that it is not so. Upon considering again the content of the absurd, one understands better the method that inspired Kierkegaard. Between the irrational of the world and the insurgent nostalgia of the absurd, he does not maintain the equilibrium. He does not respect the relationship that constitutes, properly speaking, the feeli ng of absurdity. Sure of being unable to escape the irrational, he wants at least to save himself from that desperate nostalgia that seems to him sterile and devoid of implication. But if he may be right on this point in his judgment, he could not be in hi s negation. If he substitutes for his cry of revolt a frantic adherence, at once he is led to blind himself to the absurd which hitherto enlightened him and to deify the only certainty he henceforth possesses, the irrational. The important thing, as Abbe G aliani said to Mme dEpinay, is not to be cured, but to live with ones ailments. Kierkegaard wants to be cured. To be cured is his frenzied wish, and it runs throughout his whole journal. The entire effort of his intelligence is to escape the antinomy of the human condition. An all the more desperate effort since he intermittently perceives its vanity when he speaks of himself, as if neither fear of God nor piety were capable of bringing him to peace. Thus it is that, through a strained subterfuge, he give s the irrational the appearance and God the attributes of the absurd: unjust, incoherent, and incomprehensible. Intelligence alone in him strives to stifle the underlying demands of the human heart. Since nothing is proved, everything can be proved. Indeed , Kierkegaard himself shows us the path taken. I do not want to suggest anything here, but how can one fail to read in his works the signs of an almost intentional mutilation of the soul to balance the mutilation accepted in regard to the absurd? It is the leitmotiv of the Journal. What I lacked was the animal which also belongs to human destiny .... But give me a body then. And further on: Oh! especially in my early youth what should I not have given to be a man, even for six months ... what I lack, basically, is a body and the physical conditions of existence. Elsewhere, the same man nevertheless adopts the great cry of hope that has come down through so many centuries and quickened so many hearts, except that of the absurd man. But for the Christian death is certainly not the end of everything and it implies infinitely more hope than life implies for us, even when that life is overflowing with health and vigor. Reconciliation through scandal is still reconciliation. It allows one perhaps, as can be s een, to derive hope of its contrary, which is death. But even if fellow - feeling inclines one toward that attitude, still it must be said that excess justifies nothing. That transcends, as the saying goes, the human scale; therefore it must be superhuman. B ut this therefore is superfluous. There is no logical certainty here. There is no experimental probability either. All I can say is that, in fact, that transcends my scale. If I do not draw a negation from it, at least I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone. I am told again that here the intelligence must sacrifice its pride and the reason bow down. But if I recognize the limits of the reason, I do not therefore negat e it, recognizing its relative powers. I merely want to remain in this middle path where the intelligence can remain clear. If that is its pride, I see no sufficient reason for giving it up. Nothing more profound, for example, than Kierkegaards view accor ding to which despair is not a fact but a state: the very state of sin. For sin is what alienates from God. The absurd, which is the metaphysical state of the conscious man, does not lead to God.[7]Perhaps this notion wil l become clearer if I risk this shocking statement: the absurd is sin without God. It is a matter of living in that state of the absurd I know on what it is founded, this mind and this world straining against each other without being able to embrace each o ther. I ask for the rule of life of that state, and what I am offered neglects its basis, negates one of the terms of the painful opposition, demands of me a resignation. I ask what is involved in the condition I recognize as mine; I know it implies obscur ity and ignorance; and I am assured that this ignorance explains everything and that this darkness is my light. But there is no reply here to my intent, and this stirring lyricism cannot hide the paradox from me. One must therefore turn away. Kierkegaard m ay shout in warning: If man had no eternal consciousness, if, at the bottom of everything, there were merely a wild, seething force producing everything, both large and trifling, in the storm of dark passions, if the bottomless void that nothing can fill underlay all things, what would life be but despair? This cry is not likely to stop the absurd man. Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable. If in order to elude the anxious question: What would life be? one must, like the donkey, feed on the roses of illusion, then the absurd mind, rather than resigning itself to falsehood, prefers, to adopt fearlessly Kierkegaards reply: despair. Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage. *** I am taking the liberty at this point of c alling the existential attitude philosophical suicide. But this does not imply a judgment. It is a convenient way of indicating the movement by which a thought negates itself and tends to transcend itself in its very negation. For the existentials negation is their God. To be precise, that god is maintained only through the negation of human reason.[8]But, like suicides, gods change with men. There are many ways of leaping, the essential being to leap. Those redeeming nega tions, those ultimate contradictions which negate the obstacle that has not yet been leaped over, may spring just as well (this is the paradox at which this reasoning aims) from a certain religious inspiration as from the rational order. They always lay cl aim to the eternal, and it is solely in this that they take the leap. It must be repeated that the reasoning developed in this essay leaves out altogether the most widespread spiritual attitude of our enlightened age: the one, based on the principle that a ll is reason, which aims to explain the world. It is natural to give a clear view of the world after accepting the idea that it must be clear. That is even legitimate, but does not concern the reasoning we are following out here. In fact, our aim is to she d light upon the step taken by the mind when, starting from a philosophy of the worlds lack of meaning, it ends up by finding a meaning and depth in it. The most touching of those steps is religious in essence; it becomes obvious in the theme of the irrat ional. But the most paradoxical and most significant is certainly the one that attributes rational reasons to a world it originally imagined as devoid of any guiding principle. It is impossible in any case to reach the consequences that concern us without having given an idea of this new attainment of the spirit of nostalgia. I shall examine merely the theme of the Intention made fashionable by Husserl and the phenomenologists. I have already alluded to it. Originally Husserls method negates the classic procedure of the reason. Let me repeat. Thinking is not unifying or making the appearance familiar under the guise of a great principle. Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing ones consciousness, making of every image a privileged place . In other words, phenomenology declines to explain the world, it wants to be merely a description of actual experience. It confirms absurd thought in its initial assertion that there is no truth, but merely truths. From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder, everything has its truth. Consciousness illuminates it by paying attention to it. Consciousness does not form the object of its understanding, it merely focuses, it is the act of attention, and, to borrow a Bergsonian image, it resembles the p rojector that suddenly focuses on an image. The difference is that there is no scenario, but a successive and incoherent illustration. In that magic lantern all the pictures are privileged. Consciousness suspends in experience the objects of its attention. Through its miracle it isolates them. Henceforth they are beyond all judgments. This is the intention that characterizes consciousness. But the word does not imply any idea of finality; it is taken in its sense of direction: its only value is topograp hical. At first sight, it certainly seems that in this way nothing contradicts the absurd spirit. That apparent modesty of thought that limits itself to describing what it declines to explain, that intentional discipline whence results paradoxically a prof ound enrichment of experience and the rebirth of the world in its prolixity are absurd procedures. At least at first sight. For methods of thought, in this case as elsewhere, always assume two aspects, one psychological and the other metaphysical.[9]Thereby they harbor two truths. If the theme of the intentional claims to illustrate merely a psychological attitude, by which reality is drained instead of being explained, nothing in fact separates it from the absurd spirit. It aims to enumerate what it cannot transcend. It affirms solely that without any unifying principle thought can still take delight in describing and understanding every aspect of experience. The truth involved then for each of those aspects is psychologic al in nature. It simply testifies to the interest that reality can offer. It is a way of awaking a sleeping world and of making it vivid to the mind. But if one attempts to extend and give a rational basis to that notion of truth, if one claims to discov er in this way the essence of each object of knowledge, one restores its depth to experience. For an absurd mind that is incomprehensible. Now, it is this wavering between modesty and assurance that is noticeable in the intentional attitude, and this shi mmering of phenomenological thought will illustrate the absurd reasoning better than anything else. For Husserl speaks likewise of extra -temporal essences brought to light by the intention, and he sounds like Plato. All things are not explained by one th ing but by all things. I see no difference. To be sure, those ideas or those essences that consciousness effectuates at the end of every description are not yet to be considered perfect models. But it is asserted that they are directly present in each da tum of perception. There is no longer a single idea explaining everything, but an infinite number of essences giving a meaning to an infinite number of objects. The world comes to a stop, but also lights up. Platonic realism becomes intuitive, but it is st ill realism. Kierkegaard was swallowed up in his God; Parmenides plunged thought into the One. But here thought hurls itself into an abstract polytheism. But this is not all: hallucinations and fictions likewise belong to extra -temporal essences. In the new world of ideas, the species of centaurs collaborates with the more modest species of metropolitan man. For the absurd man, there was a truth as well as a bitterness in that purely psychological opinion that all aspects of the world are privileged. To s ay that everything is privileged is tantamount to saying that everything is equivalent. But the metaphysical aspect of that truth is so far -reaching that through an elementary reaction he feels closer perhaps to Plato. He is taught, in fact, that every ima ge presupposes an equally privileged essence. In this ideal world without hierarchy, the formal army is composed solely of generals. To be sure, transcendency had been eliminated. But a sudden shift in thought brings back into the world a sort of fragmenta ry immanence which restores to the universe its depth. Am I to fear having carried too far a theme handled with greater circumspection by its creators? I read merely these assertions of Husserl, apparently paradoxical yet rigorously logical if what precede s is accepted: That which is true is true absolutely, in itself; truth is one, identical with itself, however different the creatures who perceive it, men, monsters, angels or gods. Reason triumphs and trumpets forth with that voice, I cannot deny. What can its assertions mean in the absurd world? The perception of an angel or a god has no meaning for me. That geometrical spot where divine reason ratifies mine will always be incomprehensible to me. There, too, I discern a leap, and though performed in the abstract, it nonetheless means for me forgetting just what I do not want to forget. When farther on Husserl exclaims: If all masses subject to attraction were to disappear, the law of attraction would not be destroyed but would simply remain without any possible application, I know that I am faced with a metaphysic of consolation. And if I want to discover the point where thought leaves the path of evidence, I have only to reread the parallel reasoning that Husserl voices regarding the mind: If we could contemplate clearly the exact laws of psychic processes, they would be seen to be likewise eternal and invariable, like the basic laws of theoretical natural science. Hence they would be valid even if there were no psychic process. Even if the mind were not, its laws would be! I see then that of a psychological truth Husserl aims to make a rational rule: after having denied the integrating power of human reason, he leaps by this expedient to eternal Reason. Husserls theme of the concrete universe canno t then surprise me. If I am told that all essences are not formal but that some are material, that the first are the object of logic and the second of science, this is merely a question of definition. The abstract, I am told, indicates but a part, without consistency in itself, of a concrete universal. But the wavering already noted allows me to throw light on the confusion of these terms. For that may mean that the concrete object of my attention, this sky, the reflection of that water on this coat, alone preserve the prestige of the real that my interest isolates in the world. And I shall not deny it. But that may mean also that this coat itself is universal, has its particular and sufficient essence, belongs to the world of forms. I then realize that mere ly the order of the procession has been changed. This world has ceased to have its reflection in a higher universe, but the heaven of forms is figured in the host of images of this earth. This changes nothing for me. Rather than encountering here a taste f or the concrete, the meaning of the human condition, I find an intellectualism sufficiently unbridled to generalize the concrete itself. * * * It is futile to be amazed by the apparent paradox that leads thought to its own negation by the opposite paths o f humiliated reason and triumphal reason. From the abstract god of Husserl to the dazzling god of Kierkegaard the distance is not so great. Reason and the irrational lead to the same preaching. In truth the way matters but little; the will to arrive suffic es. The abstract philosopher and the religious philosopher start out from the same disorder and support each other in the same anxiety. But the essential is to explain. Nostalgia is stronger here than knowledge. It is significant that the thought of the ep och is at once one of the most deeply imbued with a philosophy of the non -significance of the world and one of the most divided in its conclusions. It is constantly oscillating between extreme rationalization of reality which tends to break up that thought into standard reasons and its extreme irrationalization which tends to deify it. But this divorce is only apparent. It is a matter of reconciliation, and, in both cases, the leap suffices. It is always wrongly thought that the notion of reason is a oneway notion. To tell the truth, however rigorous it may be in its ambition, this concept is nonetheless just as unstable as others. Reason bears a quite human aspect, but it also is able to turn toward the divine. Since Plotinus, who was the first to reconcile it with the eternal climate, it has learned to turn away from the most cherished of its principles, which is contradiction, in order to integrate into it the strangest, the quite magic one of participation.[10]It is an instrument of thought and not thought itself. Above all, a mans thought is his nostalgia. Just as reason was able to soothe the melancholy of Plotinus, it provides modern anguish the means of calming itself in the familiar setting of the eternal. The absu rd mind has less luck. For it the world is neither so rational nor so irrational. It is unreasonable and only that. With Husserl the reason eventually has no limits at all. The absurd, on the contrary, establishes its lim -its since it is powerless to calm its anguish. Kierkegaard independently asserts that a single limit is enough to negate that anguish. But the absurd does not go so far. For it that limit is directed solely at the reasons ambitions. The theme of the irrational, as it is conceived by the existentials, is reason becoming confused and escaping by negating itself. The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits. Only at the end of this difficult path does the absurd man recognize his true motives. Upon comparing his inner exigence and what is the n offered him, he suddenly feels he is going to turn away. In the universe of Husserl the world becomes clear and that longing for familiarity that mans heart harbors becomes useless. In Kierkegaards apocalypse that desire for clarity must be given up if it wants to be satisfied. Sin is not so much knowing (if it were, everybody would be innocent) as wanting to know. Indeed, it is the only sin of which the absurd man can feel that it constitutes both his guilt and his innocence. He is offered a solution i n which all the past contradictions have become merely polemical games. But this is not the way he experienced them. Their truth must be preserved, which consists in not being satisfied. He does not want preaching. My reasoning wants to be faithful to the evidence that aroused it. That evidence is the absurd. It is that divorce between the mind that desires and the world that disappoints, my nostalgia for unity, this fragmented universe and the contradiction that binds them together. Kierkegaard suppresses my nostalgia and Husserl gathers together that universe. That is not what I was expecting. It was a matter of living and thinking with those dislocations, of knowing whether one had to accept or refuse. There can be no question of masking the evidence, of suppressing the absurd by denying one of the terms of its equation. It is essential to know whether one can live with it or whether, on the other hand, logic commands one to die of it. I am not interested in philosophical suicide, but rather in plain suici de. I merely wish to purge it of its emotional content and know its logic and its integrity. Any other position implies for the absurd mind deceit and the minds retreat before what the mind itself has brought to light. Husserl claims to obey the desire to escape the inveterate habit of living and thinking in certain well - known and convenient conditions of existence, but the final leap restores in him the eternal and its comfort. The leap does not represent an extreme danger as Kierkegaard would like it t o do. The danger, on the contrary, lies in the subtle instant that precedes the leap. Being able to remain on that dizzying crest that is integrity and the rest is subterfuge. I know also that never has helplessness inspired such striking harmonies as thos e of Kierkegaard. But if helplessness has its place in the indifferent landscapes of history, it has none in a reasoning whose exigence is now known. Absurd Freedom Now the main thing is done, I hold certain facts from which I cannot separate. What I know, what is certain, what I cannot deny, what I cannot reject this is what counts. I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this need for clarity and cohesion. I can refute everything in this world surrounding me that offends or enraptures me, except this chaos, this sovereign chance and this divine equivalence which springs from anarchy. I dont know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what resists me that is what I understand. And these two certainties my appe tite for the absolute and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle I also know that I cannot reconcile them. What other truth can I admit without lying, without bringing in a hope I lack and which means nothing within the limits of my condition? If I were a tree among trees, a cat among animals, this life would have a meaning, or rather this problem would not arise, for I should belong to this world. I should bethis world to which I am now opposed by my whole consciousness and my whole insistence upon familiarity. This ridiculous reason is what sets me in opposition to all creation. I cannot cross it out with a stroke of the pen. What I believe to be true I must therefore preserve. What seems to me so obv ious, even against me, I must support. And what constitutes the basis of that conflict, of that break between the world and my mind, but the awareness of it? If therefore I want to preserve it, I can through a constant awareness, ever revived, ever alert. This is what, for the moment, I must remember. At this moment the absurd, so obvious and yet so hard to win, returns to a mans life and finds its home there. At this moment, too, the mind can leave the arid, dried -up path of lucid effort. That path now emerges in daily life. It encounters the world of the anonymous impersonal pronoun one, but henceforth man enters in with his revolt and his lucidity. He has forgotten how to hope. This hell of the present is his Kingdom at last. All problems recover their sharp edge. Abstract evidence retreats before the poetry of forms and colors. Spiritual conflicts become embodied and return to the abject and magnificent shelter of mans heart. None of them is settled. But all are transfigured. Is one going to die, esca pe by the leap, rebuild a mansion of ideas and forms to ones own scale? Is one, on the contrary, going to take up the heart -rending and marvelous wager of the absurd? Lets make a final effort in this regard and draw all our conclusions. The body, affecti on, creation, action, human nobility will then resume their places in this mad world. At last man will again find there the wine of the absurd and the bread of indifference on which he feeds his greatness. Let us insist again on the method: it is a matter of persisting. At a certain point on his path the absurd man is tempted. History is not lacking in either religions or prophets, even without gods. He is asked to leap. All he can reply is that he doesnt fully understand, that it is not obvious. Indeed, h e does not want to do anything but what he fully understands. He is assured that this is the sin of pride, but he does not understand the notion of sin; that perhaps hell is in store, but he has not enough imagination to visualize that strange future; that he is losing immortal life, but that seems to him an idle consideration. An attempt is made to get him to admit his guilt. He feels innocent. To tell the truth, that is all he feels his irreparable innocence. This is what allows him everything. Hence, what he demands of himself is to live solely with what he knows, to accommodate himself to what is, and to bring in nothing that is not certain. He is told that nothing is. But this at least is a certainty. And it is with this that he is concerned: he wants t o find out if it is possible to live without appeal. Now I can broach the notion of suicide. It has already been felt what solution might be given. At this point the problem is reversed. It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had t o have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning. Living an experience, a particular fate, is accepting it fully. Now, no one will live this fate, knowing it to be absurd, unless he does everything to keep before him that absurd brought to light by consciousness. Negating one of the terms of the opposition on which he lives amounts to escaping it. To abolish conscious revolt is to elude the problem. The theme of permanent revoluti on is thus carried into individual experience. Living is keeping the absurd alive. Keeping it alive is, above all, contemplating it. Unlike Eurydice, the absurd dies only when we turn away from it. One of the only coherent philosophical positions is thus r evolt. It is a constant confrontation between man and his own obscurity. It is an insistence upon an impossible transparency. It challenges the world anew every second. Just as danger provided man the unique opportunity of seizing awareness, so metaphysica l revolt extends awareness to the whole of experience. It is that constant presence of man in his own eyes. It is not aspiration, for it is devoid of hope. That revolt is the certainly of a crushing fate, without the resignation that ought to accompany it. This is where it is seen to what a degree absurd experience is remote from suicide. It may be thought that suicide follows revolt but wrongly. For it does not represent the logical outcome of revolt. It is just the contrary by the consent it presupposes. Suicide, like the leap, is acceptance at its extreme. Everything is over and man returns to his essential history. His future, his unique and dreadful future he sees and rushes toward it. In its way, suicide settles the absurd. It engulfs the absurd in the same death. But I know that in order to keep alive, the absurd cannot be settled. It escapes suicide to the extent that it is simultaneously awareness and rejection of death. It is, at the extreme limit of the condemned mans last thought, that shoelace t hat despite everything he sees a few yards away, on the very brink of his dizzying fall. The contrary of suicide, in fact, is the man condemned to death. That revolt gives life its value. Spread out over the whole length of a life, it restores its majesty to that life. To a man devoid of blinders, there is no finer sight than that of the intelligence at grips with a reality that transcends it. The sight of human pride is unequaled. No disparagement is of any use. That discipline that the mind imposes on its elf, that will conjured up out of nothing, that face-to-face struggle have something exceptional about them. To impoverish that reality whose inhumanity constitutes mans majesty is tantamount to impoverishing him himself. I understand then why the doctrin es that explain everything to me also debilitate me at the same time. They relieve me of the weight of my own life, and yet I must carry it alone. At this juncture, I cannot conceive that a skeptical metaphysics can be joined to an ethics of renunciation. Consciousness and revolt, these rejections are the contrary of renunciation. Everything that is indomitable and passionate in a human heart quickens them, on the contrary, with its own life. It is essential to die unrecon -ciled and not of ones own free wi ll. Suicide is a repudi ation. The absurd man can only drain everything to the bitter end, and deplete himself. The absurd is his extreme tension, which he maintains constantly by solitary effort, for he knows that in that consciousness and in that day -to-day revolt he gives proof of his only truth, which is defiance. This is a first consequence. *** If I remain in that prearranged position which consists in drawing all the conclusions (and nothing else) involved in a newly discovered notion, I am faced wit h a second paradox. In order to remain faithful to that method, I have nothing to do with the problem of metaphysical liberty. Knowing whether or not man is free doesnt interest me. I can experience only my own freedom. As to it, I can have no general not ions, but merely a few clear insights. The problem of freedom as such has no meaning, for it is linked in quite a different way with the problem of God. Knowing whether or not man is free involves knowing whether he can have a master. The absurdity pecul iar to this problem comes from the fact that the very notion that makes the problem of freedom possible also takes away all its meaning. For in the presence of God there is less a problem of freedom than a problem of evil. You know the alternative: either we are not free and God the all -powerful is responsible for evil. Or we are free and responsible but God is not all powerful. All the scholastic subtleties have neither added anything to nor subtracted anything from the acuteness of this paradox. This is why I cannot act lost in the glorification or the mere definition of a notion which eludes me and loses its meaning as soon as it goes beyond the frame of reference of my individual experience. I cannot understand what kind of freedom would be given me by a higher being. I have lost the sense of hierarchy. The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action. Now if the absurd cancels all m y chances of eternal freedom, it restores and magnifies, on the other hand, my freedom of action. That privation of hope and future means an increase in mans availability. Before encountering the absurd, the everyday man lives with aims, a concern for the future or for justification (with regard to whom or what is not the question). He weighs his chances, he counts on someday, his retirement or the labor of his sons. He still thinks that something in his life can be directed. In truth, he acts as if he w ere free, even if all the facts make a point of contradicting that liberty. But after the absurd, everything is upset. That idea that I am, my way of acting as if everything has a meaning (even if, on occasion, I said that nothing has) all that is given the lie in vertiginous fashion by the absurdity of a possible death. Thinking of the future, establishing aims for oneself, having preferences all this presupposes a belief in freedom, even if one occasionally ascertains that one doesnt feel it. But at th at moment I am well aware that that higher liberty, that freedom to be, which alone can serve as basis for a truth, does not exist. Death is there as the only reality. After death the chips are down. I am not even free, either, to perpetuate myself, but a slave, and, above all, a slave without hope of an eternal revolution, without recourse to contempt. And who without revolution and without contempt can remain a slave? What freedom can exist in the fullest sense without assurance of eternity? But at the sa me time the absurd man realizes that hitherto he was bound to that postulate of freedom on the illusion of which he was living. In a certain sense, that hampered him. To the extent to which he imagined a purpose to his life, he adapted himself to the deman ds of a purpose to be achieved and became the slave of his liberty. Thus I could not act otherwise than as the father (or the engineer or the leader of a nation, or the post -office sub -clerk) that I am preparing to be. I think I can choose to be that rathe r than something else. I think so unconsciously, to be sure. But at the same time I strengthen my postulate with the beliefs of those around me, with the presumptions of my human environment (others are so sure of being free, and that cheerful mood is so contagious!). However far one may remain from any presumption, moral or social, one is partly influenced by them and even, for the best among them (there are good and bad presumptions), one adapts ones life to them. Thus the absurd man realizes that he was not really free. To speak clearly, to the extent to which I hope, to which I worry about a truth that might be individual to me, about a way of being or creating, to the extent to which I arrange my life and prove thereby that I accept its having a meanin g, I create for myself barriers between which I confine my life. I do like so many bureaucrats of the mind and heart who only fill me with disgust and whose only vice, I now see clearly, is to take mans freedom seriously. The absurd enlightens me on this point: there is no future. Henceforth this is the reason for my inner freedom. I shall use two comparisons here. Mystics, to begin with, find freedom in giving themselves. By losing themselves in their god, by accepting his rules, they become secretly free . In spontaneously accepted slavery they recover a deeper independence. But what does that freedom mean? It may be said, above all, that they feelfree with regard to themselves, and not so much free as liberated. Likewise, completely turned toward death ( taken here as the most obvious absurdity), the absurd man feels released from everything outside that passionate attention crystallizing in him. He enjoys a freedom with regard to common rules. It can be seen at this point that the initial themes of existe ntial philosophy keep their entire value. The return to consciousness, the escape from everyday sleep represent the first steps of absurd freedom. But it is existential preaching that is alluded to, and with it that spiritual leap which basically escapes consciousness. In the same way (this is my second comparison) the slaves of antiquity did not belong to themselves. But they knew that freedom which consists in not feeling responsible.[11]Death, too, has patrician hands which, while crushing, also liberate. Losing oneself in that bottomless certainty, feeling henceforth sufficiently remote from ones own life to increase it and take a broad view of it this involves the principle of a liberation. Such new independence has a definite time limit, like any freedom of action. It does not write a check on eternity. But it takes the place of the illusions of freedom, which all stopped with death. The divine availability of the condemned man before whom the prison doors open in a certain early dawn, that unbelievable disinterestedness with regard to everything except for the pure flame of life it is clear that death and the absurd are here the principles of the only reasonable freedom: that which a human heart can experience and li ve. This is a second consequence. The absurd man thus catches sight of a burning and frigid, transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given, and beyond which all is collapse and nothingness. He can then decide to acce pt such a universe and draw from it his strength, his refusal to hope, and the unyielding evidence of a life without consolation. *** But what does life mean in such a universe? Nothing else for the moment but indifference to the future and a desire to use up everything that is given. Belief in the meaning of life always implies a scale of values, a choice, our preferences. Belief in the absurd, according to our definitions, teaches the contrary. But this is worth examining. Knowing whether or not one can l ivewithout appeal is all that interests me. I do not want to get out of my depth. This aspect of life being given me, can I adapt myself to it? Now, faced with this particular concern, belief in the absurd is tantamount to substituting the quantity of exp eriences for the quality. If I convince myself that this life has no other aspect than that of the absurd, if I feel that its whole equilibrium depends on that perpetual opposition between my conscious revolt and the darkness in which it struggles, if I ad mit that my freedom has no meaning except in relation to its limited fate, then I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living. It is not up to me to wonder if this is vulgar or revolting, elegant or deplorable. Once and for all, va lue judgments are discarded here in favor of factual judgments. I have merely to draw the conclusions from what I can see and to risk nothing that is hypothetical. Supposing that living in this way were not honorable, then true propriety would command me to be dishonorable. The most living; in the broadest sense, that rule means nothing. It calls for definition. It seems to begin with the fact that the notion of quantity has not been sufficiently explored. For it can account for a large share of human exper ience. A mans rule of conduct and his scale of values have no meaning except through the quantity and variety of experiences he has been in a position to accumulate. Now, the conditions of modern life impose on the majority of men the same quantity of exp eriences and consequently the same profound experience. To be sure, there must also be taken into consideration the individuals spontaneous contribution, the given element in him. But I cannot judge of that, and let me repeat that my rule here is to get along with the immediate evidence. I see, then, that the individual character of a common code of ethics lies not so much in the ideal importance of its basic principles as in the norm of an experience that it is possible to measure. To stretch a point so mewhat, the Greeks had the code of their leisure just as we have the code of our eight -hour day. But already many men among the most tragic cause us to foresee that a longer experience changes this table of values. They make us imagine that adventurer of t he everyday who through mere quantity of experiences would break all records (I am purposely using this sports expression) and would thus win his own code of ethics.[12]Yet lets avoid romanticism and just ask ourselves what such an attitude may mean to a man with his mind made up to take up his bet and to observe strictly what he takes to be the rules of the game. Breaking all the records is first and foremost being faced with the world as often as possible. How can that be done without contradictions and without playing on words? For on the one hand the absurd teaches that all experiences are unimportant, and on the other it urges toward the greatest quantity of experiences. How, then, can one fail to do as so many of th ose men I was speaking of earlier choose the form of life that brings us the most possible of that human matter, thereby introducing a scale of values that on the other hand one claims to reject? But again it is the absurd and its contradictory life that t eaches us. For the mistake is thinking that that quantity of experiences depends on the circumstances of our life when it depends solely on us. Here we have to be over -simple. To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same s um of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them. Being aware of ones life, ones revolt, ones freedom, and to the maximum, is living, and to the maximum. Where lucidity dominates, the scale of values becomes useless. Lets be even more simple. Let us say that the sole obstacle, the sole deficiency to be made good, is constituted by premature death. Thus it is that no depth, no emotion, no passion, and no sacrifice could render equal in the eyes of the absurd man (even if he wished it so) a consc ious life of forty years and a lucidity spread over sixty years.[13]Madness and death are his irreparables. Man does not choose. The absurd and the extra life it involves therefore do not defend on mans will, but on its contrary, which is death.[14]Weighing words carefully, it is altogether a question of luck. One just has to be able to consent to this. There will never be any substitute for twenty years of life and experience. By what is an odd inconsistency in such an alert race, the Greeks claimed that those who died young were beloved of the gods. And that is true only if you are willing to believe that entering the ridiculous world of the gods is forever losing the purest of joys, which is feeling, and feeling on this earth. The present and the succession of presents before a constantly conscious soul is the ideal of the absurd man. But the word ideal rings false in this connection. It is not even his vocation, but merely the thir d consequence of his reasoning. Having started from an anguished awareness of the inhuman, the meditation on the absurd returns at the end of its itinerary to the very heart of the passionate flames of human revolt.[15] ** * Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death and I refuse suicide. I know, to be sure, the dull resonance that vibrates throughout these days. Yet I have but a word to say: that it is necessary. When Nietzsche writes: It clearly seems that the chief thing in heaven and on earth is to obey at length and in a single direction: in the long run there results something for which it is worth the trouble of living on this earth as, for example, virtue, art, music, the dance, reason, the mind something that transfigures, something delicate, mad, or divine, he elucidates the rule of a really distinguished code of ethics. But he also points the way of the absurd man. Obeying the flame is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do. However, it is good for man to judge himself occasionally. He is alo ne in being able to do so. Prayer, says Alain, is when night descends over thought. But the mind must meet the night, reply the mystics and the existentials. Yes, indeed, but not that night that is born under closed eyelids and through the mere will of man dark, impenetrable night that the mind calls up in order to plunge into it. If it must encounter a night, let it be rather that of despair, which remains lucid polar night, vigil of the mind, whence will arise perhaps that white and virginal brightn ess which outlines every object in the light of the intelligence. At that degree, equivalence encounters passionate understanding. Then it is no longer even a question of judging the existential leap. It resumes its place amid the age -old fresco of human a ttitudes. For the spectator, if he is conscious, that leap is still absurd. In so far as it thinks it solves the paradox, it reinstates it intact. On this score, it is stirring. On this score, everything resumes its place and the absurd world is reborn inall its splendor and diversity. But it is bad to stop, hard to be satisfied with a single way of seeing, to go without contradiction, perhaps the most subtle of all spiritual forces. The preceding merely defines a way of thinking. But the point is to live. The Absurd Man If Stavrogin believes, he does not think he believes. If he does not believe, he does not think he does not believe. The Possessed My field, said Goethe, is time. That is indeed the absurd speech. What, in fact, is the absurd man? He who, without negating it, does nothing for the eternal. Not that nostalgia is foreign to him. But he prefers his courage and his reasoning. The first teaches him to live without appeal and to get along with what he has; the second informs him of his limits . Assured of his temporally limited freedom, of his revolt devoid of future, and of his mortal consciousness, he lives out his adventure within the span of his lifetime. That is his field, that is his action, which he shields from any judgment but his own. A greater life cannot mean for him another life. That would be unfair. I am not even speaking here of that paltry eternity that is called posterity. Mme Roland relied on herself. That rashness was taught a lesson. Posterity is glad to quote her remark, bu t forgets to judge it. Mme Roland is indifferent to posterity. There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules. There is but one moral code th at the absurd man can accept, the one that is not separated from God: the one that is dictated. But it so happens that he lives outside that God. As for the others (I mean also immoralism), the absurd man sees nothing in them but justifications and he has nothing to justify. I start out here from the principle of his innocence. That innocence is to be feared. Everything is permitted, exclaims Ivan Karamazov. That, too, smacks of the absurd. But on condition that it not be taken in the vulgar sense. I don t know whether or not it has been sufficiently pointed out that it is not an outburst of relief or of joy, but rather a bitter acknowledgment of a fact. The certainty of a God giving a meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave b adly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice, and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. Everything is permitted does not mean that nothing is forbidden. The absurd merely confers an equivalence on the consequences of those actions. It does not recommend crime, for this would be childish, but it restores to remorse its futility. Likewise, if all experiences are indifferent, that of duty is as leg itimate as any other. One can be virtuous through a whim. All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. A mind imbued with the absurd merely judges that those consequences must be considered calmly. It is ready to pay up. In other words, there may be responsible persons, but there are no guilty ones, in its opinion. At very most, such a mind will consent to use past experience as a basis for its future actions. Time will prolong time, and life wi ll serve life. In this field that is both limited and bulging with possibilities, everything in himself, except his lucidity, seems unforeseeable to him. What rule, then, could emanate from that unreasonable order? The only truth that might seem instructiv e to him is not formal: it comes to life and unfolds in men. The absurd mind cannot so much expect ethical rules at the end of its reasoning as, rather, illustrations and the breath of human lives. The few following images are of this type. They prolong th e absurd reasoning by giving it a specific attitude and their warmth. Do I need to develop the idea that an example is not necessarily an example to be followed (even less so, if possible, in the absurd world) and that these illustrations are not therefore models? Besides the fact that a certain vocation is required for this, one becomes ridiculous, with all due allowance, when drawing from Rousseau the conclusion that one must walk on all fours and from Nietzsche that one must maltreat ones mother. It is essential to be absurd, writes a modern author, it is not essential to be a dupe. The attitudes of which I shall treat can assume their whole meaning only through consideration of their contraries. A sub - clerk in the post office is the equal of a conqu eror if consciousness is common to them. All experiences are indifferent in this regard. There are some that do either a service or a disservice to man. They do him a service if he is conscious. Otherwise, that has no importance: a mans failures imply jud gment, not of circumstances, but of himself. I am choosing solely men who aim only to expend themselves or whom I see to be expending themselves. That has no further implications. For the moment I want to speak only of a world in which thoughts, like lives , are devoid of future. Everything that makes man work and get excited utilizes hope. The sole thought that is not mendacious is therefore a sterile thought. In the absurd world the value of a notion or of a life is measured by its sterility. Don Juanism If it were sufficient to love, things would be too easy. The more one loves, the stronger the absurd grows. It is not through lack of love that Don Juan goes from woman to woman. It is ridiculous to represent him as a mystic in quest of total love. But it is indeed because he loves them with the same passion and each time with his whole self that he must repeat his gift and his profound quest. Whence each woman hopes to give him what no one has ever given him. Each time they are utterly wrong and merely man age to make him feel the need of that repetition. At last, exclaims one of them, I have given you love. Can we be surprised that Don Juan laughs at this? At last? No, he says, but once more. Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to lov e much? Is Don Juan melancholy? This is not likely. I shall barely have recourse to the legend. That laugh, the conquering insolence, that playfulness and love of the theater are all clear and joyous. Every healthy creature tends to multiply himself. So it is with Don Juan. But, furthermore, melancholy people have two reasons for being so: they dont know or they hope. Don Juan knows and does not hope. He reminds one of those artists who know their limits, never go beyond them, and in that precarious interv al in which they take their spiritual stand enjoy all the wonderful ease of masters. And that is indeed genius: the intelligence that knows its frontiers. Up to the frontier of physical death Don Juan is ignorant of melancholy. The moment he knows, his lau gh bursts forth and makes one forgive everything. He was melancholy at the time when he hoped. Today, on the mouth of that woman he recognizes the bitter and comforting taste of the only knowledge. Bitter? Barely: that necessary imperfection that makes hap piness perceptible! It is quite false to try to see in Don Juan a man brought up on Ecclesiastes. For nothing is vanity to him except the hope of another life. He proves this because he gambles that other life against heaven itself. Longing for desire kill ed by satisfaction, that commonplace of the impotent man, does not belong to him. That is all right for Faust, who believed in God enough to sell himself to the devil. For Don Juan the thing is simpler. Molinas Burlador ever replies to the threats of hell : What a long respite you give me! What comes after death is futile, and what a long succession of days for whoever knows how to be alive! Faust craved worldly goods; the poor man had only to stretch out his hand. It already amounted to selling his soul when he was unable to gladden it. As for satiety, Don Juan insists upon it, on the contrary. If he leaves a woman it is not absolutely because he has ceased to desire her. A beautiful woman is always desirable. But he desires another, and no, this is not t he same thing. This life gratifies his every wish, and nothing is worse than losing it. This madman is a great wise man. But men who live on hope do not thrive in this universe where kindness yields to generosity, affection to virile silence, and communion to solitary courage. And all hasten to say: He was a weakling, an idealist or a saint. One has to disparage the greatness that insults. * * * People are sufficiently annoyed (or that smile of complicity that debases what it admires) by Don Juans speech es and by that same remark that he uses on all women. But to anyone who seeks quantity in his joys, the only thing that matters is efficacy. What is the use of complicating the passwords that have stood the test? No one, neither the woman nor the man, list ens to them, but rather to the voice that pronounces them. They are the rule, the convention, and the courtesy. After they are spoken the most important still remains to be done. Don Juan is already getting ready for it. Why should he give himself a proble m in morality? He is not like Miloszs Manara, who damns himself through a desire to be a saint. Hell for him is a thing to be provoked. He has but one reply to divine wrath, and that is human honor: I have honor, he says to the Commander, and I am keep ing my promise because I am a knight. But it would be just as great an error to make an immoralist of him. In this regard, he is like everyone else: he has the moral code of his likes and dislikes. Don Juan can be properly understood only by constant re ference to what he commonly symbolizes: the ordinary seducer and the sexual athlete. He isan ordinary seducer.[16]Except for the difference that he is conscious, and that is why he is absurd. A seducer who has become lu cid will not change for all that. Seducing is his condition in life. Only in novels does one change condition or become better. Yet it can be said that at the same time nothing is changed and everything is transformed. What Don Juan realizes in action is a n ethic of quantity, whereas the saint, on the contrary, tends toward quality. Not to believe in the profound meaning of things belongs to the absurd man. As for those cordial or wonder -struck faces, he eyes them, stores them up, and does not pause over th em. Time keeps up with him. The absurd man is he who is not apart from time. Don Juan does not think of collecting women. He exhausts their number and with them his chances of life. Collecting amounts to being capable of living off ones past. But he r ejects regret, that other form of hope. He is incapable of looking at portraits. * * * Is he selfish for all that? In his way, probably. But here, too, it is essential to understand one another. There are those who are made for living and those who are made for loving. At least Don Juan would be inclined to say so. But he would do so in a very few words such as he is capable of choosing. For the love we are speaking of here is clothed in illusions of the eternal. As all the specialists in passion teach us, there is no eternal love but what is thwarted. There is scarcely any passion without struggle. Such a love culminates only in the ultimate contradiction of death. One must be Werther or nothing. There, too, there are several ways of committing suicide, one of which is the total gift and forget -fulness of self. Don Juan, as well as anyone else, knows that this can be stirring. But he is one of the very few who know that this is not the important thing. He knows just as well that those who turn away from all personal life through a great love enrich themselves perhaps but certainly impoverish those their love has chosen. A mother or a passionate wife necessarily has a closed heart, for it is turned away from the world. A single emotion, a single creature, a si ngle face, but all is devoured. Quite a different love disturbs Don Juan, and this one is liberating. It brings with it all the faces in the world, and its tremor comes from the fact that it knows itself to be mortal. Don Juan has chosen to be nothing. Forhim it is a matter of seeing clearly. We call love what binds us to certain creatures only by reference to a collective way of seeing for which books and legends are responsible. But of love I know only that mixture of desire, affection, and intelligence that binds me to this or that creature. That compound is not the same for another person. I do not have the right to cover all these experiences with the same name. This exempts one from conducting them with the same gestures. The absurd man multiplies her e again what he cannot unify. Thus he discovers a new way of being which liberates him at least as much as it liberates those who approach him. There is no noble love but that which recognizes itself to be both short -lived and exceptional. All those deaths and all those rebirths gathered together as in a sheaf make up for Don Juan the flowering of his life. It is his way of giving and of vivifying. I let it be decided whether or not one can speak of selfishness. * * * I think at this point of all those who absolutely insist that Don Juan be punished. Not only in another life, but even in this one. I think of all those tales, legends, and laughs about the aged Don Juan. But Don Juan is already ready. To a conscious man old age and what it portends are not a s urprise. Indeed, he is conscious only in so far as he does not conceal its horror from himself. There was in Athens a temple dedicated to old age. Children were taken there. As for Don Juan, the more people laugh at him, the more his figure stands out. The reby he rejects the one the romantics lent him. No one wants to laugh at that tormented, pitiful Don Juan. He is pitied; heaven itself will redeem him? But thats not it. In the universe of which Don Juan has a glimpse, ridicule toois included. He would c onsider it normal to be chastised. That is the rule of the game. And, indeed, it is typical of his nobility to have accepted all the rules of the game. Yet he knows he is right and that there can be no question of punishment. A fate is not a punishment. That is his crime, and how easy it is to understand why the men of God call down punishment on his head. He achieves a knowledge without illusions which negates everything they profess. Loving and possessing, conquering and consuming that is his way of knowi ng. (There is significance in that favorite Scriptural word that calls the carnal act knowing.) He is their worst enemy to the extent that he is ignorant of them. A chronicler relates that the true Burlador died assassinated by Fransciscans who wanted t o put an end to the excesses and blasphemies of Don Juan, whose birth assured him impunity. Then they proclaimed that heaven had struck him down. No one has proved that strange end. Nor has anyone proved the contrary. But without wondering if it is probab le, I can say that it is logical. I want merely to single out at this point the word birth and to play on words: it was the fact of living that assured his innocence. It was from death alone that he derived a guilt now become legendary. What else does th at stone Commander signify, that cold statue set in motion to punish the blood and courage that dared to think? All the powers of eternal Reason, of order, of universal morality, all the foreign grandeur of a God open to wrath are summed up in him. That gi gantic and soulless stone merely symbolizes the forces that Don Juan negated forever. But the Commanders mission stops there. The thunder and lightning can return to the imitation heaven whence they were called forth. The real tragedy takes place quite ap art from them. No, it was not under a stone hand that Don Juan met his death. I am inclined to believe in the legendary bravado, in that mad laughter of the healthy man provoking a non - existent God. But, above all, I believe that on that evening when Don J uan was waiting at Annas the Commander didnt come, and that after midnight the blasphemer must have felt the dreadful bitterness of those who have been right. I accept even more readily the account of his life that has him eventually burying himself in a monastery. Not that the edifying aspect of the story can he considered probable. What refuge can he go ask of God? But this symbolizes rather the logical outcome of a life completely imbued with the absurd, the grim ending of an existence turned toward short lived joys. At this point sensual pleasure winds up in asceticism. It is essential to realize that they may be, as it were, the two aspects of the same destitution. What more ghastly image can be called up than that of a man betrayed by his body who, s imply because he did not die in time, lives out the comedy while awaiting the end, face to face with that God he does not adore, serving him as he served life, kneeling before a void and arms outstretched toward a heaven without eloquence that he knows to he also without depth? I see Don Juan in a cell of one of those Spanish monasteries lost on a hilltop. And if he contemplates anything at all, it is not the ghosts of past loves, but perhaps, through a narrow slit in the sun - baked wall, some silent Spanish plain, a noble, soulless land in which he recognizes himself. Yes, it is on this melancholy and radiant image that the curtain must be rung down. The ultimate end, awaited but never desired, the ultimate end is negligible. Drama The plays the thing, sa ys Hamlet, wherein Ill catch the conscience of the king. Catch is indeed the word. For conscience moves swiftly or withdraws within itself. It has to be caught on the wing, at that barely perceptible moment when it glances fleetingly at itself. The everyday man does not enjoy tarrying. Everything, on the contrary, hurries him onward. But at the same time nothing interests him more than himself, especially his potentialities. Whence his interest in the theater, in the show, where so many fates are offer ed him, where he can accept the poetry without feeling the sorrow. There at least can be recognized the thoughtless man, and he continues to hasten toward some hope or other. The absurd man begins where that one leaves off, where, ceasing to admire the pla y, the mind wants to enter in. Entering into all these lives, experiencing them in their diversity, amounts to acting them out. I am not saying that actors in general obey that impulse, that they are absurd men, but that their fate is an absurd fate which might charm and attract a lucid heart. It is necessary to establish this in order to grasp without misunderstanding what will follow. The actors realm is that of the fleeting. Of all kinds of fame, it is known, his is the most ephemeral. At least, this is said in conversation. But all kinds of fame are ephemeral. From the point of view of Sirius, Goethes works in ten thousand years will be dust and his name forgotten. Perhaps a handful of archaeologists will look for evidence as to our era. That idea ha s always contained a lesson. Seriously meditated upon, it reduces our perturbations to the profound nobility that is found in indifference. Above all, it directs our concerns toward what is most certain that is, toward the immediate. Of all kinds of fame t he least deceptive is the one that is lived. Hence the actor has chosen multiple fame, the fame that is hallowed and tested. From the fact that everything is to die someday he draws the best conclusion. An actor succeeds or does not succeed. A writer has s ome hope even if he is not appreciated. He assumes that his works will bear witness to what he was. At best the actor will leave us a photograph, and nothing of what he was himself, his gestures and his silences, his gasping or his panting with love, will come down to us. For him, not to be known is not to act, and not acting is dying a hundred times with all the creatures he would have brought to life or resuscitated. *** Why should we be surprised to find a fleeting fame built upon the most ephemeral of c reations? The actor has three hours to be Iago or Alceste, Phedre or Gloucester. In that short space of time he makes them come to life and die on fifty square yards of boards. Never has the absurd been so well illustrated or at such length. What more reve latory epitome can be imagined than those marvelous lives, those exceptional and total desti nies unfolding for a few hours within a stage set? Off the stage, Sigismundo ceases to count. Two hours later he is seen dining out. Then it is, perhaps, that lif e is a dream. But after Sigismundo comes another. The hero suffering from uncertainty takes the place of the man roaring for his revenge. By thus sweeping over centuries and minds, by miming man as he can be and as he is, the actor has much in common with that other absurd individual, the traveler. Like him, he drains something and is constantly on the move. He is a traveler in time and, for the best, the hunted traveler, pursued by souls. If ever the ethics of quantity could find sustenance, it is indeed o n that strange stage. To what degree the actor benefits from the characters is hard to say. But that is not the important thing. It is merely a matter of knowing how far he identifies himself with those irreplaceable lives. It often happens that he carries them with him, that they somewhat overflow the time and place in which they were born. They accompany the actor, who cannot very readily separate himself from what he has been. Occasionally when reaching for his glass he resumes Hamlets gesture of raisin g his cup. No, the distance separating him from the creatures into whom he infuses life is not so great. He abundantly illustrates every month or every day that so suggestive truth that there is no frontier between what a man wants to be and what he is. Al ways concerned with better representing, he demonstrates to what a degree appearing creates being. For that is his art to simulate absolutely, to project himself as deeply as possible into lives that are not his own. At the end of his effort his vocation b ecomes clear: to apply himself wholeheartedly to being nothing or to being several. The narrower the limits allotted him for creating his character, the more necessary his talent. He will die in three hours under the mask he has assumed today. Within three hours he must experience and express a whole exceptional life. That is called losing oneself to find oneself. In those three hours he travels the whole course of the dead -end path that the man in the audience takes a lifetime to cover. * * * A mime of the ephemeral, the actor trains and perfects himself only in appearances. The theatrical convention is that the heart expresses itself and communicates itself only through gestures and in the body or through the voice, which is as much of the soul as of the b ody. The rule of that art insists that everything be magnified and translated into flesh. If it were essential on the stage to love as people really love, to employ that irreplaceable voice of the heart, to look as people contemplate in life, our speech wo uld be in code. But here silences must make themselves heard. Love speaks up louder, and immobility itself becomes spectacular. The body is king, Not everyone can be theatrical, and this unjustly maligned word covers a whole aesthetic and a whole ethic. Half a mans life is spent in implying, in turning away, and in keeping silent. Here the actor is the intruder. He breaks the spell chaining that soul, and at last the passions can rush onto their stage. They speak in every gesture; they live only through shouts and cries. Thus the actor creates his characters for display. He outlines or sculptures them and slips into their imaginary form, transfusing his blood into their phantoms. I am of course speaking of great drama, the kind that gives the actor an opportunity to fulfill his wholly physical fate. Take Shakespeare, for instance. In that impulsive drama the physical passions lead the dance. They explain everything. Without them all would collapse. Never would King Lear keep the appointment set by madness without the brutal gesture that exiles Cordelia and condemns Edgar. It is just that the unfolding of that tragedy should thenceforth be dominated by madness. Souls are given over to the demons and their saraband. No fewer than four madmen: one by trade, an other by intention, and the last two through suffering four disordered bodies, four unutterable aspects of a single condition. The very scale of the human body is inadequate. The mask and the buskin, the make -up that reduces and accentuates the face in its essential elements, the costume that exaggerates and simplifies that universe sacrifices everything to appearance and is made solely for the eye. Through an absurd miracle, it is the body that also brings knowledge. I should never really understand Iago unless I played his part. It is not enough to hear him, for I grasp him only at the moment when I see him. Of the absurd character the actor consequently has the monotony, that single, oppressive silhouette, simultaneously strange and familiar, that he carr ies about from hero to hero. There, too, the great dramatic work contributes to this unity of tone.[17]This is where the actor contradicts himself: the same and yet so various, so many souls summed up in a single body. Y et it is the absurd contradiction itself, that individual who wants to achieve everything and live everything, that useless attempt, that ineffectual persistence. What always contradicts itself nevertheless joins in him. He is at that point where body and mind converge, where the mind, tired of its defeats, turns toward its most faithful ally. And blest are those, says Hamlet, whose blood and judgment are so well commingled that they are not a pipe for fortunes finger to sound what stop she please. How could the Church have failed to condemn such a practice on the part of the actor? She repudiated in that art the heretical multiplication of souls, the emotional debauch, the scandalous presumption of a mind that objects to living but one life and hurls itself into all forms of excess. She proscribed in them that preference for the present and that triumph of Proteus which are the negation of everything she teaches. Eternity is not a game. A mind foolish enough to prefer a comedy to eternity has lost its salvation. Between everywhere and forever there is no compromise. Whence that much maligned profession can give rise to a tremendous spiritual conflict. What matters, said Nietzsche, is not eternal life but eternal vivacity. All drama is, in fact, i n this choice. Celimene against Elianthe, the whole subject in the absurd consequence of a nature carried to its extreme, and the verse itself, the bad verse, barely accented like the monotony of the characters nature. Adrienne Lecouvreur on her deathbe d was willing to confess and receive communion, but refused to abjure her profession. She thereby lost the benefit of the confession. Did this not amount, in effect, to choosing her absorbing passion in preference to God? And that woman in the death throes refusing in tears to repudiate what she called her art gave evidence of a greatness that she never achieved behind the footlights. This was her finest role and the hardest one to play. Choosing between heaven and a ridiculous fidelity, preferring oneself to eternity or losing oneself in God is the age -old tragedy in which each must play his part. The actors of the era knew they were excommunicated. Entering the profession amounted to choosing Hell. And the Church discerned in them her worst enemies. A few men of letters protest: What! Refuse the last rites to Moliere! But that was just, and especially in one who died onstage and finished under the actors make -up a life entirely devoted to dispersion. In his case genius is invoked, which excuses everythin g. But genius excuses nothing, just because it refuses to do so. The actor knew at that time what punishment was in store for him. But what significance could such vague threats have compared to the final punishment that life itself was reserving for him? This was the one that he felt in advance and accepted wholly. To the actor as to the absurd man, a premature death is irreparable. Nothing can make up for the sum of faces and centuries he would otherwise have traversed. But in any case, one has to die. For the actor is doubtless everywhere, but time sweeps him along, too, and makes its impression with him. It requires but a little imagination to feel what an actors fate means. It is in time that he makes up and enumerates his characters. It is in time likewise that he learns to dominate them. The greater number of different lives he has lived, the more aloof he can be from them. The time comes when he must die to the stage and for the world. What he has li ved faces him. He sees clearly. He feels the harrowing and irreplaceable quality of that adventure. He knows and can now die. There are homes for aged actors. Conquest No, says the conqueror, dont assume that because I love action I have had to forget how to think. On the contrary I can throughly define what I believe. For I believe it firmly and I see it surely and clearly. Beware of those who say: I know this too well to be able to express it. For if they cannot do so, this is because they dont kno w it or because out of laziness they stopped at the outer crust. I have not many opinions. At the end of a life man notices that he has spent years becoming sure of a single truth. But a single truth, if it is obvious, is enough to guide an existence. As for me, I decidedly have something to say about the individual. One must speak of him bluntly and, if need be, with the appropriate contempt. A man is more a man through the things he keeps to himself than through those he says. There are many that I shal l keep to myself. But I firmly believe that all those who have judged the individual have done so with much less experience than we on which to base their judgment. The intelligence, the stirring intelligence perhaps foresaw what it was essential to note. But the era, its ruins, and its blood overwhelm us with facts. It was possible for ancient nations, and even for more recent ones down to our machine age, to weigh one against the other the virtues of society and of the individual, to try to find out which was to serve the other. To begin with, that was possible by virtue of that stubborn aberration in mans heart according to which human beings were created to serve or be served. In the second place, it was possible because neither society nor the individu al had yet revealed all their ability. I have seen bright minds express astonishment at the masterpieces of Dutch painters born at the height of the bloody wars in Flanders, be amazed by the prayers of Silesian mystics brought up during the frightful Thir ty Years War. Eternal values survive secular turmoils before their astonished eyes. But there has been progress since. The painters of today are deprived of such serenity. Even if they have basically the heart the creator needs I mean the closed heart itis of no use; for everyone, including the saint himself, is mobilized. This is perhaps what I have felt most deeply. At every form that miscarries in the trenches, at every outline, metaphor, or prayer crushed under steel, the eternal loses a round. Consci ous that I cannot stand aloof from my time, I have decided to be an integral part of it. This is why I esteem the individual only because he strikes me as ridiculous and humiliated. Knowing that there are no victorious causes, I have a liking for lost causes: they require an uncontaminated soul, equal to its defeat as to its temporary victories. For anyone who feels bound up with this worlds fate, the clash of civilizations has something agonizing about it. I have made that anguish mine at the same time th at I wanted to join in. Between history and the eternal I have chosen history because I like certainties. Of it, at least, I am certain, and how can I deny this force crushing me? There always comes a time when one must choose between contemplation and ac tion. This is called becoming a man. Such wrenches are dreadful. But for a proud heart there can be no compromise. There is God or time, that cross or this sword. This world has a higher meaning that transcends its worries, or nothing is true but those wor ries. One must live with time and die with it, or else elude it for a greater life. I know that one can compromise and live in the world while believing in the eternal. That is called accepting. But I loathe this term and want all or nothing. If I choose a ction, dont think that contemplation is like an unknown country to me. But it cannot give me everything, and, deprived of the eternal, I want to ally myself with time. I do not want to put down to my account either nostalgia or bitterness, and I merely want to see clearly. I tell you, tomorrow you will be mobilized. For you and for me that is a liberation. The individual can do nothing and yet he can do everything. In that wonderful unattached state you understand why I exalt and crush him at one and the s ame time. It is the world that pulverizes him and I who liberate him. I provide him with all his rights. Conquerors know that action is in itself useless. There is but one useful action, that of remaking man and the earth. I shall never remake men. But on e must do as if. For the path of struggle leads me to the flesh. Even humiliated, the flesh is my only certainty. I can live only on it. The creature is my native land. This is why I have chosen this absurd and ineffectual effort. This is why I am on theside of the struggle. The epoch lends itself to this, as I have said. Hitherto the greatness of a conqueror was geographical. It was measured by the extent of the conquered territories. There is a reason why the word has changed in meaning and has ceased to signify the victorious general. The greatness has changed camp. It lies in protest and the blind -alley sacrifice. There, too, it is not through a preference for defeat. Victory would be desirable. But there is but one victory, and it is eternal. That is the one I shall never have. That is where I stumble and cling. A revolution is always accomplished against the gods, beginning with the revolution of Prometheus, the first of modern conquerors. It is mans demands made against his fate; the demands of the poor are but a pretext. Yet I can seize that spirit only in its historical act, and that is where I make contact with it. Dont assume, however, that I take pleasure in it: opposite the essential contradiction, I maintain my human contradiction. I establi sh my lucidity in the midst of what negates it. I exalt man be -fore what crushes him, and my freedom, my revolt, and my passion come together then in that tension, that lucidity, and that vast repetition. Yes, man is his own end. And he is his only end. I f he aims to be something, it is in this life. Now I know it only too well. Conquerors sometimes talk of vanquishing and overcoming. But it is always overcoming oneself that they mean. You are well aware of what that means. Every man has felt himself to be the equal of a god at certain moments. At least, this is the way it is expressed. But this comes from the fact that in a flash he felt the amazing grandeur of the human mind. The conquerors are merely those among men who are conscious enough of their st rength to be sure of living constantly on those heights and fully aware of that grandeur. It is a question of arithmetic, of more or less. The conquerors are capable of the more. But they are capable of no more than man himself when he wants. This is why t hey never leave the human crucible, plunging into the seething soul of revolutions. There they find the creature mutilated, but they also encounter there the only values they like and admire, man and his silence. This is both their destitution and their w ealth. There is but one luxury for them that of human relations. How can one fail to realize that in this vulnerable universe everything that is human and solely human assumes a more vivid meaning? Taut faces, threatened fraternity, such strong and chaste friendship among menthese are the true riches because they are transitory. In their midst the mind is most aware of its powers and limitations. That is to say, its efficacity. Some have spoken of genius. But genius is easy to say; I prefer the intelligenc e. It must be said that it can be magnificent then. It lights up this desert and dominates it. It knows its obligations and illustrates them. It will die at the same time as this body. But knowing this constitutes its freedom. We are not ignorant of the f act that all churches are against us. A heart so keyed up eludes the eternal, and all churches, divine or political, lay claim to the eternal. Happiness and courage, retribution or justice are secondary ends for them. It is a doctrine they bring, and one m ust subscribe to it. But I have no concern with ideas or with the eternal. The truths that come within my scope can be touched with the hand. I cannot separate from them. This is why you cannot base anything on me: nothing of the conqueror lasts, not even his doctrines. At the end of all that, despite everything, is death. We know also that it ends everything. This is why those cemeteries all over Europe, which obsess some among us, are hideous. People beautify only what they love, and death repels us and tires our patience. It, too, is to be conquered. The last Carrara, a prisoner in Padua emptied by the plague and besieged by the Venetians, ran screaming through the halls of his deserted palace: he was calling on the devil and asking him for death. This w as a way of overcoming it. And it is likewise a mark of courage characteristic of the Occident to have made so ugly the places where death thinks itself honored. In the rebel s universe, death exalts injustice. It is the supreme abuse. Others, without com promising either, have chosen the eternal and denounced the illusion of this world. Their cemeteries smile amid numerous flowers and birds. That suits the conqueror and gives him a clear image of what he has rejected. He has chosen, on the contrary, the bl ack iron fence or the potters field. The best among the men of God occasionally are seized with fright mingled with consideration and pity for minds that can live with such an image of their death. Yet those minds derive their strength and justification f rom this. Our fate stands before us and we provoke him. Less out of pride than out of awareness of our ineffectual condition. We, too, sometimes feel pity for ourselves. It is the only compassion that seems acceptable to us: a feeling that perhaps you hardly understand and that seems to you scarcely virile. Yet the most daring among us are the ones who feel it. But we call the lucid ones virile and we do not want a strength that is apart from lucidity. * * * Let me repeat that these images do not propose m oral codes and involve no judgments: they are sketches. They merely represent a style of life. The lover, the actor, or the adventurer plays the absurd. But equally well, if he wishes, the chaste man, the civil servant, or the president of the Republic. It is enough to know and to mask nothing. In Italian museums are sometimes found little painted screens that the priest used to hold in front of the face of condemned men to hide the scaffold from them. The leap in all its forms, rushing into the divine or t he eternal, surrendering to the illusions of the everyday or of the idea all these screens hide the absurd. But there are civil servants without screens, and they are the ones of whom I mean to speak. I have chosen the most extreme ones. At this level the absurd gives them a royal power. It is true that those princes are without a kingdom. But they have this advantage over others: they know that all royalties are illusory. They know that is their whole nobility, and it is useless to speak in relation to the m of hidden misfortune or the ashes of disillusion. Being deprived of hope is not despairing. The flames of earth are surely worth celestial perfumes. Neither I nor anyone can judge them here. They are not striving to be better; they are attempting to be c onsistent. If the term wise man can be applied to the man who lives on what he has without speculating on what he has not, then they are wise men. One of them, a conqueror but in the realm of mind, a Don Juan but of knowledge, an actor but of the intelli gence, knows this better than anyone: You nowise deserve a privilege on earth and in heaven for having brought to perfection your dear little meek sheep; you nonetheless continue to be at best a ridiculous dear little sheep with horns and nothing more even supposing that you do not burst with vanity and do not create a scandal by posing as a judge. In any case, it was essential to restore to the absurd reasoning more cordial examples. The imagination can add many others, inseparable from time and exile, w ho likewise know how to live in harmony with a universe without future and without weakness. This absurd, godless world is, then, peopled with men who think clearly and have ceased to hope. And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator. Absurd Creation Philosophy and Fiction All those lives maintained in the rarefied air of the absurd could not persevere without some profound and constant thought to infuse its strength into them. Right here, it can be only a strange feeling of f idelity. Conscious men have been seen to fulfill their task amid the most stupid of wars without considering themselves in contradiction. This is because it was essential to elude nothing. There is thus a metaphysical honor in enduring the worlds absurdit y. Conquest or play -acting, multiple loves, absurd revolt are tributes that man pays to his dignity in a campaign in which he is defeated in advance. It is merely a matter of being faithful to the rule of the battle. That thought may suffice to sustain a m ind; it has supported and still supports whole civilizations. War cannot be negated. One must live it or die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons and recovering their flesh. In this regard the a bsurd joy par excellence is creation. Art and nothing but art, said Nietzsche; we have art in order not to die of the truth. In the experience that I am attempting to describe and to stress on several modes, it is certain that a new torment arises wher ever another dies. The childish chasing after forgetfulness, the appeal of satisfaction are now devoid of echo. But the constant tension that keeps man face to face with the world, the ordered delirium that urges him to be receptive to everything leave him another fever. In this universe the work of art is then the sole chance of keeping his consciousness and of fixing its adventures. Creating is living doubly. The groping, anxious quest of a Proust, his meticulous collecting of flowers, of wallpapers, and of anxieties, signifies nothing else. At the same time, it has no more significance than the continual and imperceptible creation in which the actor, the conqueror, and all absurd men indulge every day of their lives. All try their hands at miming, at repe ating, and at recreating the reality that is theirs. We always end up by having the appearance of our truths. All existence for a man turned away from the eternal is but a vast mime under the mask of the absurd. Creation is the great mime. Such men know to begin with, and then their whole effort is to examine, to enlarge, and to enrich the ephemeral island on which they have just landed. But first they must know. For the absurd discovery coincides with a pause in which future passions are prepared and justi fied. Even men without a gospel have their Mount of Olives. And one must not fall asleep on theirs either. For the absurd man it is not a matter of explaining and solving, but of experiencing and describing. Everything begins with lucid indifference. Descr ibing that is the last ambition of an absurd thought. Science likewise, having reached the end of its paradoxes, ceases to propound and stops to contemplate and sketch the ever virgin landscape of phenomena. The heart learns thus that the emotion delightin g us when we see the worlds aspects comes to us not from its depth but from their diversity. Explanation is useless, but the sensation remains and, with it, the constant attractions of a universe inexhaustible in quantity. The place of the work of art can be understood at this point. It marks both the death of an experience and its multiplication. It is a sort of monotonous and passionate repetition of the themes already orchestrated by the world: the body, inexhaustible image on the pediment of temples, f orms or colors, number or grief. It is therefore not indifferent, as a conclusion, to encounter once again the principal themes of this essay in the wonderful and childish world of the creator. It would be wrong to see a symbol in it and to think that the work of art can be considered at last as a refuge for the absurd. It is itself an absurd phenomenon, and we are concerned merely with its description. It does not offer an escape for the intellectual ailment. Rather, it is one of the symptoms of that ailme nt which reflects it throughout a mans whole thought. But for the first time it makes the mind get outside of itself and places it in opposition to others, not for it to get lost but to show it clearly the blind path that all have entered upon. In the tim e of the absurd reasoning, creation follows indifference and discovery. It marks the point from which absurd passions spring and where the reasoning stops. Its place in this essay is justified in this way. It will suffice to bring to light a few themes com mon to the creator and the thinker in order to find in the work of art all the contradictions of thought involved in the absurd. Indeed, it is not so much identical conclusions that prove minds to be related as the contradictions that are common to them. S o it is with thought and creation. I hardly need to say that the same anguish urges man to these two attitudes. This is where they coincide in the beginning. But among all the thoughts that start from the absurd, I have seen that very few remain within it. And through their deviations or infidelities I have best been able to measure what belonged to the absurd. Similarly I must wonder: is an absurd work of art possible? * * * It would be impossible to insist too much on the arbitrary nature of the former op position between art and philosophy. If you insist on taking it in too limited a sense, it is certainly false. If you mean merely that these two disciplines each have their peculiar climate, that is probably true but remains vague. The only acceptable argu ment used to lie in the contradiction brought up between the philosopher enclosed within his system and the artist placed before his work. But this was pertinent for a certain form of art and of philosophy which we consider secondary here. The idea of an a rt detached from its creator is not only outmoded; it is false. In opposition to the artist, it is pointed out that no philosopher ever created several systems. But that is true in so far, indeed, as no artist ever expressed more than one thing under diffe rent aspects. The instantaneous perfection of art, the necessity for its renewal this is true only through a preconceived notion. For the work of art likewise is a construction and everyone knows how monotonous the great creators can be. For the same reaso n as the thinker, the artist commits himself and becomes himself in his work. That osmosis raises the most important of aesthetic problems. Moreover, to anyone who is convinced of the minds singleness of purpose, nothing is more futile than these distinct ions based on methods and objects. There are no frontiers between the disciplines that man sets himself for understanding and loving. They interlock, and the same anxiety merges them. It is necessary to state this to begin with. For an absurd work of art to be possible, thought in its most lucid form must be involved in it. But at the same time thought must not be apparent except as the regulating intelligence. This paradox can be explained according to the absurd. The work of art is born of th e intelligences refusal to reason the concrete. It marks the triumph of the carnal. It is lucid thought that provokes it, but in that very act that thought repudiates itself. It will not yield to the temptation of adding to what is described a deeper mean ing that it knows to be illegitimate. The work of art embodies a drama of the intelligence, but it proves this only indirectly. The absurd work requires an artist conscious of these limitations and an art in which the concrete signifies nothing more than i tself. It cannot be the end, the meaning, and the consolation of a life. Creating or not creating changes nothing. The absurd creator does not prize his work. He could repudiate it. He does sometimes repudiate it. An Abyssinia suffices for this, as in the case of Rimbaud. At the same time a rule of aesthetics can be seen in this. The true work of art is always on the human scale. It is essentially the one that says less. There is a certain relationship between the global experience of the artist and the w ork that reflects that experience, between Wilhelm Meister and Goethes maturity. That relationship is bad when the work aims to give the whole experience in the lace -paper of an explanatory literature. That relationship is good when the work is but a piec e cut out of experience, a facet of the diamond in which the inner luster is epitomized without being limited. In the first case there is overloading and pretension to the eternal. In the second, a fecund work because of a whole implied experience, the wea lth of which is suspected. The problem for the absurd artist is to acquire this savoir -vivre which transcends savoir -faire. And in the end, the great artist under this climate is, above all, a great living being, it being understood that living in this cas e is just as much experiencing as reflecting. The work then embodies an intellectual drama. The absurd work illustrates thoughts renouncing of its prestige and its resignation to being no more than the intelligence that works up appearances and covers wit h images what has no reason. If the world were clear, art would not exist. I am not speaking here of the arts of form or color in which description alone prevails in its splendid modesty.[18]Expression begins where thoug ht ends. Those adolescents with empty eyesockets who people temples and museums their philosophy has been expressed in gestures. For an absurd man it is more educative than all libraries. Under another aspect the same is true for music. If any art is devoi d of lessons, it is certainly music. It is too closely related to mathematics not to have borrowed their gratuitousness. That game the mind plays with itself according to set and measured laws takes place in the sonorous compass that belongs to us and beyo nd which the vibrations nevertheless meet in an inhuman universe. There is no purer sensation. These examples are too easy. The absurd man recognizes as his own these harmonies and these forms. But I should like to speak here of a work in which the temptat ion to explain remains greatest, in which illusion offers itself automatically, in which conclusion is almost inevitable. I mean fictional creation. I propose to inquire whether or not the absurd can hold its own there. * * * To think is first of all to cr eate a world (or to limit ones own world, which comes to the same thing). It is starting out from the basic disagreement that separates man from his experience in order to find a common ground according to ones nostalgia, a universe hedged with reasons o r lighted up with analogies but which, in any case, gives an opportunity to rescind the unbearable divorce. The philosopher, even if he is Kant, is a creator. He has his characters, his symbols, and his secret action. He has his plot endings. On the contra ry, the lead taken by the novel over poetry and the essay merely represents, despite appearances, a greater intellectualiza - tion of the art. Let there be no mistake about it; I am speaking of the greatest. The fecundity and the importance of a literary for m are often measured by the trash it contains. The number of bad novels must not make us forget the value of the best. These, indeed, carry with them their universe. The novel has its logic, its reasonings, its intuition, and its postulates. It also has it s requirements of clarity.[19] The classical opposition of which I was speaking above is even less justified in this particular case. It held in the time when it was easy to separate philosophy from its authors. Today whe n thought has ceased to lay claim to the universal, when its best history would be that of its repentances, we know that the system, when it is worth while, cannot be separated from its author. The Ethics itself, in one of its aspects, is but a long and re asoned personal confession. Abstract thought at last returns to its prop of flesh. And, likewise, the fictional activities of the body and of the passions are regulated a little more according to the requirements of a vision of the world. The writer has gi ven up telling stories and creates his universe. The great novelists are philosophical novelists that is, the contrary of thesis -writers. For instance, Balzac, Sade, Melville, Stendhal, Dostoevsky, Proust, Malraux, Kafka, to cite but a few. But in fact t he preference they have shown for writing in images rather than in reasoned arguments is revelatory of a certain thought that is common to them all, convinced of the uselessness of any principle of explanation and sure of the educative message of perceptib le appearance. They consider the work of art both as an end and a beginning. It is the outcome of an often unexpressed philosophy, its illustration and its consummation. But it is complete only through the implications of that philosophy. It justifies at l ast that variant of an old theme that a little thought estranges from life whereas much thought reconciles to life. Incapable of refining the real, thought pauses to mimic it. The novel in question is the instrument of that simultaneously relative and inex haustible knowledge, so like that of love. Of love, fictional creation has the initial wonder and the fecund rumination. *** These at least are the charms I see in it at the outset. But I saw them likewise in those princes of humiliated thought whose suicides I was later able to witness. What interests me, indeed, is knowing and describing the force that leads them back toward the common path of illusion. The same method will consequently help me here. The fact of having already utilized it will allow me to shorten my argument and to sum it up without delay in a particular example. I want to know whether, accepting a life without appeal, one can also agree to work and create without appeal and what is the way leading to these liberties. I want to liberate my universe of its phantoms and to people it solely with flesh -and-blood truths whose presence I cannot deny. I can perform absurd work, choose the creative attitude rather than another. But an absurd attitude, if it is to remain so, must remain aware of its gratuitousness. So it is with the work of art. If the commandments of the absurd are not respected, if the work does not illustrate divorce and revolt, if it sacrifices to illusions and arouses hope, it ceases to be gratuitous. I can no longer detach myse lf from it. My life may find a meaning in it, but that is trifling. It ceases to be that exercise in detachment and passion which crowns the splendor and futility of a mans life. In the creation in which the temptation to explain is the strongest, can one overcome that temptation? In the fictional world in which awareness of the real world is keenest, can I remain faithful to the absurd without sacrificing to the desire to judge? So many questions to be taken into consideration in a last effort. It must be already clear what they signify. They are the last scruples of an awareness that fears to forsake its initial and difficult lesson in favor of a final illusion. What holds for creation, looked upon as oneof the possible attitudes for the man conscious of the absurd, holds for all the styles of life open to him. The conqueror or the actor, the creator or Don Juan may forget that their exercise in living could not do without awareness of its mad character. One becomes accustomed so quickly. A man wants to e arn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end. Likewise, the whole effort of this conqueror will be diverted to ambition, which was but a way toward a greater life. Don Juan in turn will likewise yield to his fate, be satisfied with that existence whose nobility is of value only through revolt. For one it is awareness and for the other, revolt; in both cases the absurd has disappea red. There is so much stubborn hope in the human heart. The most destitute men often end up by accepting illusion. That approval prompted by the need for peace inwardly parallels the existential consent. There are thus gods of light and idols of mud. But i t is essential to find the middle path leading to the faces of man. So far, the failures of the absurd exigence have best informed us as to what it is. In the same way, if we are to be informed, it will suffice to notice that fictional creation can present the same ambiguity as certain philosophies. Hence I can choose as illustration a work comprising everything that denotes awareness of the absurd, having a clear starting -point and a lucid climate. Its consequences will enlighten us. If the absurd is not r espected in it, we shall know by what expedient illusion enters in. A particular example, a theme, a creators fidelity will suffice, then. This involves the same analysis that has already been made at greater length. I shall examine a favorite theme of Do stoevsky. I might just as well have studied other works.[20]But in this work the problem is treated directly, in the sense of nobility and emotion, as for the existential philosophies already discussed. This parallelism serves my purpose. Kirilov All of Dostoevskys heroes question themselves as to the meaning of life. In this they are modern: they do not fear ridicule. What distinguishes modern sensibility from classical sensibility is that the latter thrives on moral pr oblems and the former on metaphysical problems. In Dostoevskys novels the question is propounded with such intensity that it can only invite extreme solutions. Existence is illusory orit is eternal. If Dostoevsky were satisfied with this inquiry, he woul d be a philosopher. But he illustrates the consequences that such intellectual pastimes may have in a mans life, and in this regard he is an artist. Among those consequences, his attention is arrested particularly by the last one, which he himself calls l ogical suicide in his Diary of a Writer. In the installments for December 1876, indeed, he imagines the reasoning of logical suicide. Convinced that human existence is an utter absurdity for anyone without faith in immortality, the desperate man comes to the following conclusions: Since in reply to my questions about happiness, I am told, through the intermediary of my consciousness, that I cannot be happy except in harmony with the great all, which I cannot conceive and shall never be in a p osition to conceive, it is evident ... Since, finally, in this connection, I assume both the role of the plaintiff and that of the defendant, of the accused and of the judge, and since I consider this comedy perpetrated by nature altogether stupid, and s ince I even deem it humiliating for me to deign to play it ... In my indisputable capacity of plaintiff and defendant, of judge and accused, I condemn that nature which, with such impudent nerve, brought me into being in order to suffer I condemn it to b e annihilated with me. There remains a little humor in that position. This suicide kills himself because, on the metaphysical plane, he is vexed. In a certain sense he is taking his revenge. This is his way of proving that he will not be had. It is know n, however, that the same theme is embodied, but with the most wonderful generality, in Kirilov of The Possessed, likewise an advocate of logical suicide. Kirilov the engineer declares somewhere that he wants to take his own life because it is his idea. Obviously the word must be taken in its proper sense. It is for an idea, a thought, that he is getting ready for death. This is the superior suicide. Progressively, in a series of scenes in which Kirilovs mask is gradually illuminated, the fatal thought d riving him is revealed to us. The engineer, in fact, goes back to the arguments of the Diary. He feels that God is necessary and that he must exist. But he knows that he does not and cannot exist. Why do you not realize, he exclaims, that this is suffic ient reason for killing oneself? That attitude involves likewise for him some of the absurd consequences. Through indifference he accepts letting his suicide be used to the advantage of a cause he despises. I decided last night that I didnt care. And finally he prepares his deed with a mixed feeling of revolt and freedom. I shall kill myself in order to assert my insubordination, my new and dreadful liberty. It is no longer a question of revenge, but of revolt. Kirilov is consequently an absurd charac teryet with this essential reservation: he kills himself. But he himself explains this contradiction, and in such a way that at the same time he reveals the absurd secret in all its purity. In truth, he adds to his fatal logic an extraordinary ambition wh ich gives the character its full perspective: he wants to kill himself to become god. The reasoning is classic in its clarity. If God does not exist, Kirilov is god. If God does not exist, Kirilov must kill himself. Kirilov must therefore kill himself to b ecome god. That logic is absurd, but it is what is needed. The interesting thing, however, is to give a meaning to that divinity brought to earth. That amounts to clarifying the premise: If God does not exist, I am god, which still remains rather obscure . It is important to note at the outset that the man who flaunts that mad claim is indeed of this world. He performs his gymnastics every morning to preserve his health. He is stirred by the joy of Chatov recovering his wife. On a sheet of paper to be foun d after his death he wants to draw a face sticking out his tongue at them. He is childish and irascible, passionate, methodical, and sensitive. Of the superman he has nothing but the logic and the obsession, whereas of man he has the whole catalogue. Yet it is he who speaks calmly of his divinity. He is not mad, or else Dostoevsky is. Consequently it is not a megalomaniacs illusion that excites him. And taking the words in their specific sense would, in this instance, be ridiculous. Kirilov himself helps us to understand. In reply to a question from Stavrogin, he makes clear that he is not talking of a god -man. It might be thought that this springs from concern to distinguish himself from Christ. But in reality it is a matter of annexing Christ. Kirilov i n fact fancies for a moment that Jesus at his death did not find himself in Paradise. He found out then that his torture had been useless. The laws of nature, says the engineer, made Christ live in the midst of falsehood and die for a falsehood. Solely in this sense Jesus indeed personifies the whole human drama. He is the complete man, being the one who realized the most absurd condition. He is not the God -man but the man -god. And, like him, each of us can be crucified and victimized and is to a certai n degree. The divinity in question is therefore altogether terrestrial. For three years, says Kirilov, I sought the attribute of my divinity and I have found it. The attribute of my divinity is independence. Now can be seen the meaning of Kirilovs pre mise: If God does not exist, I am god. To become god is merely to be free on this earth, not to serve an immortal being. Above all, of course, it is drawing all the inferences from that painful independence. If God exists, all depends on him and we can d o nothing against his will. If he does not exist, everything depends on us. For Kirilov, as for Nietzsche, to kill God is to become god oneself; it is to realize on this earth the eternal life of which the Gospel speaks.[21]But if this metaphysical crime is enough for mans fulfillment, why add suicide? Why kill oneself and leave this world after having won freedom? That is contradictory. Kirilov is well aware of this, for he adds: If you feel that, you are a tsar and, f ar from killing yourself, you will live covered with glory. But men in general do not know it. They do not feel that. As in the time of Prometheus, they entertain blind hopes.[22]They need to be shown the way and cannot do without preaching. Consequently, Kirilov must kill himself out of love for humanity. He must show his brothers a royal and difficult path on which he will be the first. It is a pedagogical suicide. Kirilov sacrifices himself, then. But if he is cruci fied, he will not be victimized. He remains the man -god, convinced of a death without future, imbued with evangelical melancholy. I, he says, am unhappy because I am obliged to assert my freedom. But once he is dead and men are at last enlightened, thi s earth will be peopled with tsars and lighted up with human glory. Kirilovs pistol shot will be the signal for the last revolution. Thus, it is not despair that urges him to death, but love of his neighbor for his own sake. Before terminating in blood an indescribable spiritual adventure, Kirilov makes a remark as old as human suffering: All is well. This theme of suicide in Dostoevsky, then, is indeed an absurd theme. Let us merely note before going on that Kirilov reappears in other characters who the mselves set in motion additional absurd themes. Stavrogin and Ivan Karamazov try out the absurd truths in practical life. They are the ones liberated by Kirilovs death. They try their skill at being tsars. Stavrogin leads an ironic life, and it is well known in what regard. He arouses hatred around him. And yet the key to the character is found in his farewell letter: I have not been able to detest anything. He is a tsar in indifference. Ivan is likewise by refusing to surrender the royal powers of the mind. To those who, like his brother, prove by their lives that it is essential to humiliate oneself in order to believe, he might reply that the condition is shameful. His key word is: Everything is permitted, with the appropriate shade of melancholy. Of course, like Nietzsche, the most famous of Gods assassins, he ends in madness. But this is a risk worth running, and, faced with such tragic ends, the essential impulse of the absurd mind is to ask: What does that prove? * * * Thus the novels, like t heDiary, propound the absurd question. They establish logic unto death, exaltation, dreadful freedom, the glory of the tsars become human. All is well, everything is permitted, and nothing is hateful these are absurd judgments. But what an amazing creat ion in which those creatures of fire and ice seem so familiar to us. The passionate world of indifference that rumbles in their hearts does not seem at all monstrous to us. We recognize in it our everyday anxieties. And probably no one so much as Dostoevsk y has managed to give the absurd world such familiar and tormenting charms. Yet what is his conclusion? Two quotations will show the complete metaphysical reversal that leads the writer to other revelations. The argument of the one who commits logical suic ide having provoked protests from the critics, Dostoevsky in the following installments of the Diary amplifies his position and concludes thus: If faith in immortality is so necessary to the human being (that without it he comes to the point of killing himself), it must therefore be the normal state of humanity. Since this is the case, the immortality of the human soul exists without any doubt. Then again in the last pages of his last novel, at the conclusion of that gigantic combat with God, some childre n ask Aliocha: Karamazov, is it true what religion says, that we shall rise from the dead, that we shall see one another again? And Aliocha answers: Certainly, we shall see one another again, we shall joyfully tell one another everything that has happen ed. Thus Kirilov, Stavrogin, and Ivan are defeated. The Brothers Karamazov replies to The Possessed. And it is indeed a conclusion. Aliochas case is not ambiguous, as is that of Prince Muichkin. Ill, the latter lives in a perpetual present, tinged with smiles and indifference, and that blissful state might be the eternal life of which the Prince speaks. On the contrary, Aliocha clearly says: We shall meet again. There is no longer any question of suicide and of madness. What is the use, for anyone who is sure of immortality and of its joys? Man exchanges his divinity for happiness. We shall joyfully tell one another everything that has happened. Thus again Kirilovs pistol rang out somewhere in Russia, but the world continued to cherish its blind hope s. Men did not understand that. Consequently, it is not an absurd novelist addressing us, but an existential novelist. Here, too, the leap is touching and gives its nobility to the art that inspires it. It is a stirring acquiescence, riddled with doubts, uncertain and ardent. Speaking of The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky wrote: The chief question that will be pursued throughout this book is the very one from which I have suffered consciously or unconsciously all life long: the existence of G od. It is hard to believe that a novel sufficed to transform into joyful certainty the suffering of a lifetime. One commentator[23]correctly pointed out that Dostoevsky is on Ivans side and that the affirmative chapter s took three months of effort whereas what he called the blasphemies were written in three weeks in a state of excitement. There is not one of his characters who does not have that thorn in the flesh, who does not aggravate it or seek a remedy for it in sensation or immortality.[24]In any case, let us remain with this doubt. Here is a work which, in a chiaroscuro more gripping than the light of day, permits us to seize mans struggle against his hopes. Having reached th e end, the creator makes his choice against his characters. That contradiction thus allows us to make a distinction. It is not an absurd work that is involved here, but a work that propounds the absurd problem. Dostoevskys reply is humiliation, shame ac cording to Stavrogin. An absurd work, on the contrary, does not provide a reply; that is the whole difference. Let us note this carefully in conclusion: what contradicts the absurd in that work is not its Christian character, but rather its announcing a fu ture life. It is possible to be Christian and absurd. There are examples of Christians who do not believe in a future life. In regard to the work of art, it should therefore be possible to define one of the directions of the absurd analysis that could have been anticipated in the preceding pages. It leads to propounding the absurdity of the Gospel. It throws light upon this idea, fertile in repercussions, that convictions do not prevent incredulity. On the contrary, it is easy to see that the author of The Possessed, familiar with these paths, in conclusion took a quite different way. The surprising reply of the creator to his characters, of Do -stoevsky to Kirilov, can indeed be summed up thus: existence is illusory andit is eternal. Ephemeral Creation Atthis point I perceive, therefore, that hope cannot be eluded forever and that it can beset even those who wanted to be free of it. This is the interest I find in the works discussed up to this point. I could, at least in the realm of creation, list some t ruly absurd works.[25]But everything must have a beginning. The object of this quest is a certain fidelity. The Church has been so harsh with heretics only because she deemed that there is no worse enemy than a child who has gone astray. But the record of Gnostic effronteries and the persistence of Manichean currents have contributed more to the construction of orthodox dogma than all the prayers. With due allowance, the same is true of the absurd. One recognizes ones co urse by discovering the paths that stray from it. At the very conclusion of the absurd reasoning, in one of the attitudes dictated by its logic, it is not a matter of indifference to find hope coming back in under one of its most touching guises. That show s the difficulty of the absurd ascesis. Above all, it shows the necessity of unfailing alertness and thus confirms the general plan of this essay. But if it is still too early to list absurd works, at least a conclusion can be reached as to the creative at titude, one of those which can complete absurd existence. Art can never be so well served as by a negative thought. Its dark and humiliated proceedings are as necessary to the understanding of a great work as black is to white. To work and create for noth ing, to sculpture in clay, to know that ones creation has no future, to see ones work destroyed in a day while being aware that fundamentally this has no more importance than building for centuries this is the difficult wisdom that absurd thought sancti ons. Performing these two tasks simultaneously, negating on the one hand and magnifying on the other, is the way open to the absurd creator. He must give the void its colors. This leads to a special conception of the work of art. Too often the work of a cr eator is looked upon as a series of isolated testimonies. Thus, artist and man of letters are confused. A profound thought is in a constant state of becoming; it adopts the experience of a life and assumes its shape, likewise, a mans sole creation is stre ngthened in its successive and multiple aspects: his works. One after another, they complement one an -other, correct or overtake one another, contradict one another too. If something brings creation to an end, it is not the victorious and illusory cry of the blinded artist: I have said everything, but the death of the creator which closes his experience and the book of his genius. That effort, that superhuman consciousness are not necessarily apparent to the reader. There is no mystery in human creation. Will performs this miracle. But at least there is no true creation without a secret. To be sure, a succession of works can be but a series of approximations of the same thought. But it is possible to conceive of another type of creator proceeding by juxtap osition. Their works may seem to be devoid of interrelations. To a certain degree, they are contradictory. But viewed all together, they resume their natural grouping. From death, for instance, they derive their definitive significance. They receive their most obvious light from the very life of their author. At the moment of death, the succession of his works is but a collection of failures. But if those failures all have the same resonance, the creator has managed to repeat the image of his own condition, to make the air echo with the sterile secret he possesses. The effort to dominate is considerable here. But human intelligence is up to much more. It will merely indicate clearly the voluntary aspect of creation. Elsewhere I have brought out the fact thathuman will had no other purpose than to maintain awareness. But that could not do without discipline. Of all the schools of patience and lucidity, creation is the most effective. It is also the staggering evidence of mans sole dignity: the dogged revolt against his condition, perseverance in an effort considered sterile. It calls for a daily effort, self -mastery, a precise estimate of the limits of truth, measure, and strength. It constitutes an ascesis. All that for nothing, in order to repeat and mark time. But perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than in the ordeal it demands of a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality. * * * Let there be no mistake in aesthetics. It is not patient inquiry, the unceasing, sterile illustration of a thesis that I am calling for here. Quite the contrary, if I have made myself clearly understood. The thesis -novel, the work that proves, the most hateful of all, is the one that most often is inspired by a smug thought. You demonstrate the truth you feel sure of possessing. But those are ideas one launches, and ideas are the contrary of thought. Those creators are philosophers, ashamed of themselves. Those I am speaking of o r whom I imagine are, on the contrary, lucid thinkers. At a certain point where thought turns back on itself, they raise up the images of their works like the obvious symbols of a limited, mortal, and rebellious thought. They perhaps prove something. But t hose proofs are ones that the novelists provide for themselves rather than for the world in general. The essential is that the novelists should triumph in the concrete and that this constitute their nobility. This wholly carnal triumph has been prepared fo r them by a thought in which abstract powers have been humiliated. When they are completely so, at the same time the flesh makes the creation shine forth in all its absurd luster. After all, ironic philosophies produce passionate works. Any thought that ab andons unity glorifies diversity. And diversity is the home of art. The only thought to liberate the mind is that which leaves it alone, certain of its limits and of its impending end. No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life. Detached from it, the work will once more give a barely muffled voice to a soul Forever freed from hope. Or it will give voice to nothing if the creator, tired of his activity, intends to turn away. That is equivalent. * * * Thus, I ask of absurd creation what I required from thought revolt, freedom, and diversity. Later on it will manifest its utter futility. In that daily effort in which intelligence and passion mingle and delight each other, the absurd man discovers a discipline that will make up the gre atest of his strengths. The required diligence, the doggedness and lucidity thus resemble the conquerors attitude. To create is likewise to give a shape to ones fate. For all these characters, their work defines them at least as much as it is defined by them. The actor taught us this: there is no frontier between being and appearing. Let me repeat. None of all this has any real meaning. On the way to that liberty, there is still a progress to be made. The final effort for these related minds, creator or c onqueror, is to manage to free themselves also from their undertakings: succeed in granting that the very work, whether it be conquest, love, or creation, may well not be; consummate thus the utter futility of any individual life. Indeed, that gives them m ore freedom in the realization of that work, just as becoming aware of the absurdity of life authorized them to plunge into it with every excess. All that remains is a fate whose outcome alone is fatal. Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. A world remains of which man is the sole master. What bound him was the illusion of another world. The outcome of his thought, ceasing to be renunciatory, flowers in images. It frolics in myths, to be sure, but myths with no other depth than that of human suffering and, like it, inexhaustible. Not the divine fable that amuses and blinds, but the terrestrial face, gesture, and drama in which are summed up a difficult wisdom and an ephemeral passion. The Myth Of Sisyphus The god s had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. If one believes Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. According to another tradition, however, he was disposed to practice the profession of highwayman. I see no contradiction in this. Opinions differ as to the reasons why he became the futile labor er of the underworld. To begin with, he is accused of a certain levity in regard to the gods. He stole their secrets. AEgina, the daughter of AEsopus, was carried off by Jupiter. The father was shocked by that disappearance and complained to Sisyphus. He, who knew of the abduction, offered to tell about it on condition that AEsopus would give water to the citadel of Corinth. To the celestial thunderbolts he preferred the benediction of water. He was punished for this in the underworld. Homer tells us also t hat Sisyphus had put Death in chains. Pluto could not endure the sight of his deserted, silent empire. He dispatched the god of war, who liberated Death from the hands of her conqueror. It is said also that Sisyphus, being near to death, rashly wanted to test his wifes love. He ordered her to cast his unburied body into the middle of the public square. Sisyphus woke up in the underworld. And there, annoyed by an obedience so contrary to human love, he obtained from Pluto permission to return to earth in order to chastise his wife. But when he had seen again the face of this world, enjoyed water and sun, warm stones and the sea, he no longer wanted to go back to the infernal darkness. Recalls, signs of anger, warnings were of no avail. Many years more he liv ed facing the curve of the gulf, the sparkling sea, and the smiles of earth. A decree of the gods was necessary. Mercury came and seized the impudent man by the collar and, snatching him from his joys, led him forcibly back to the underworld, where his roc k was ready for him. You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is,as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the w hole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay -covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth -clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing -space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. * * * If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy. This word is not too much. Again I fancy Sisyphus returning toward his rock, and the sorrow was in the beginning. When the images of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of hap piness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy rises in mans heart: this is the rocks victory, this is the rock itself. The boundless grief is too heavy to bear. These are our nights of Gethsemane. But crushing truths perish from being acknowle dged. Thus, CEdipus at the outset obeys fate without knowing it. But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins. Yet at the same moment, blind and desperate, he realizes that the only bond linking him to the world is the cool hand of a girl. Then a treme ndous remark rings out: Despite so many ordeals, my advanced age and the nobility of my soul make me conclude that all is well. Sophocles CEdipus, like Dostoevskys Kirilov, thus gives the recipe for the absurd victory. Ancient wisdom confirms modern he roism. One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness. What! by such narrow ways ? There is but one world, however. Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. It would be a mistak e to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd discovery. It happens as well that the feeling of the absurd springs from happiness. I conclude that all is well, says CEdipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited unive rse of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile sufferings. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men. All Sisyp hus silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing. Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. In the universe suddenly restored to its silence, the myriad wondering little voices of the earth rise up. Unconscious, secret calls, invitations from all the faces, they are the necessary reverse and price of victory. There is no sun without shadow, and it is es -sential to know the night. The absurd man says yes and his effort will hencefo rth be unceasing. If there is a personal fate, there is no higher destiny, or at least there is but one which he concludes is inevitable and despicable. For the rest, he knows himself to be the master of his days. At that subtle moment when man glances bac kward over his life, Sisyphus returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions which becomes his fate, created by him, combined under his memorys eye and soon sealed by his death. Thus, convinced of the w holly human origin of all that is human, a blind man eager to see who knows that the night has no end, he is still on the go. The rock is still rolling. I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds ones burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each m ineral flake of that night -filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a mans heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Appendix: Hope and the Absurd in the Work of Franz Kafka The whole art of Kafka co nsists in forcing the reader to reread. His endings, or his absence of endings, suggest explanations which, however, are not revealed in clear language but, before they seem justified, require that the story be reread from another point of view. Sometimes there is a double possibility of interpretation, whence appears the necessity for two readings. This is what the author wanted. But it would be wrong to try to interpret everything in Kafka in detail. A symbol is always in general and, however precise its translation, an artist can restore to it only its movement: there is no word -for-word rendering. Moreover, nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than h e is aware of expressing. In this regard, the surest means of getting hold of it is not to provoke it, to begin the work without a preconceived attitude and not to look for its hidden currents. For Kafka in particular it is fair to agree to his rules, to a pproach the drama through its externals and the novel through its form. At first glance and for a casual reader, they are disturbing adventures that carry off quaking and dogged characters into pursuit of problems they never formulate. In The Trial, Joseph K. is accused. But he doesnt know of what. He is doubtless eager to defend himself, but he doesnt know why. The lawyers find his case difficult. Meanwhile, he does not neglect to love, to eat, or to read his paper. Then he is judged. But the courtroom i s very dark. He doesnt understand much. He merely assumes that he is condemned, but to what he barely wonders. At times he suspects just the same, and he continues living. Some time later two well - dressed and polite gentlemen come to get him and invite hi m to follow them. Most courteously they lead him into a wretched suburb, put his head on a stone, and slit his throat. Before dying the condemned man says merely: Like a dog. You see that it is hard to speak of a symbol in a tale whose most obvious quali ty just happens to be naturalness. But naturalness is a hard category to understand. There are works in which the event seems natural to the reader. But there are others (rarer, to be sure) in which the character considers natural what happens to him. By a n odd but obvious paradox, the more extraordinary the characters adventures are, the more noticeable will be the naturalness of the story: it is in proportion to the divergence we feel between the strangeness of a mans life and the simplicity with which that man accepts it. It seems that this naturalness is Kafkas. And, precisely, one is well aware what The Trial means. People have spoken of an image of the human condition. To be sure. Yet it is both simpler and more complex. I mean that the significance of the novel is more particular and more personal to Kafka. To a certain degree, he is the one who does the talking, even though it is me he confesses. He lives and he is condemned. He learns this on the first pages of the novel he is pursuing in this wor ld, and if he tries to cope with this, he nonetheless does so without surprise. He will never show sufficient astonishment at this lack of astonishment. It is by such contradictions that the first signs of the absurd work are recognized. The mind projects into the concrete its spiritual tragedy. And it can do so solely by means of a perpetual paradox which confers on colors the power to express the void and on daily gestures the strength to translate eternal ambitions. Likewise, The Castle is perhaps a theo logy in action, but it is first of all the individual adventure of a soul in quest of its grace, of a man who asks of this worlds objects their royal secret and of women the signs of the god that sleeps in them. Metamorphosis, in turn, certainly represent s the horrible imagery of an ethic of lucidity. But it is also the product of that incalculable amazement man feels at being conscious of the beast he becomes effortlessly. In this fundamental ambiguity lies Kafkas secret. These perpetual oscillations bet ween the natural and the extraordinary, the individual and the universal, the tragic and the everyday, the absurd and the logical, are found throughout his work and give it both its resonance and its meaning. These are the paradoxes that must be enumerated , the contradictions that must be strengthened, in order to understand the absurd work. A symbol, indeed, assumes two planes, two worlds of ideas and sensations, and a dictionary of correspondences between them. This lexicon is the hardest thing to draw up . But awaking to the two worlds brought face to face is tantamount to getting on the trail of their secret relationships. In Kafka these two worlds are that of everyday life on the one hand and, on the other, that of supernatural anxiety.[26]It seems that we are witnessing here an interminable exploitation of Nietzsches remark: Great problems are in the street. There is in the human condition (and this is a commonplace of all literatures) a basic absurdity as well as a n implacable nobility. The two coincide, as is natural. Both of them are represented, let me repeat, in the ridiculous divorce separating our spiritual excesses and the ephemeral joys of the body. The absurd thing is that it should be the soul of this body which it transcends so inordinately. Whoever would like to represent this absurdity must give it life in a series of parallel contrasts. Thus it is that Kafka expresses tragedy by the everyday and the absurd by the logical. An actor lends more force to a tragic character the more careful he is not to exaggerate it. If he is moderate, the horror he inspires will be immoderate. In this regard Greek tragedy is rich in lessons. In a tragic work fate always makes itself felt better in the guise of logic and nat uralness. CEdipuss fate is announced in advance. It is decided supernaturally that he will commit the murder and the incest. The dramas whole effort is to show the logical system which, from deduction to deduction, will crown the heros misfortune. Merel y to announce to us that uncommon fate is scarcely horrible, because it is improbable. But if its necessity is demonstrated to us in the framework of everyday life, society, state, familiar emotion, then the horror is hallowed. In that revolt that shakes m an and makes him say: That is not possible, there is an element of desperate certainty that that can be. This is the whole secret of Greek tragedy, or at least of one of its aspects. For there is another which, by a reverse method, would help us to und erstand Kafka better. The human heart has a tiresome tendency to label as fate only what crushes it. But happiness likewise, in its way, is without reason, since it is inevitable. Modern man, however, takes the credit for it himself, when he doesnt fail t o recognize it. Much could be said, on the contrary, about the privileged fates of Greek tragedy and those favored in legend who, like Ulysses, in the midst of the worst adventures are saved from themselves. It was not so easy to return to Ithaca. What mus t be remembered in any case is that secret complicity that joins the logical and the everyday to the tragic. This is why Samsa, the hero of Metamorphosis, is a traveling salesman. This is why the only thing that disturbs him in the strange adventure that makes a vermin of him is that his boss will be angry at his absence. Legs and feelers grow out on him, his spine arches up, white spots appear on his belly and I shall not say that this does not astonish him, for the effect would be spoiled but it causes hi m a slight annoyance. The whole art of Kafka is in that distinction. In his central work, The Castle, the details of everyday life stand out, and yet in that strange novel in which nothing concludes and everything begins over again, it is the essential a dventure of a soul in quest of its grace that is represented. That translation of the problem into action, that coincidence of the general and the particular are recognized likewise in the little artifices that belong to every great creator. In The Trial the hero might have been named Schmidt or Franz Kafka. But he is named Joseph K. He is not Kafka and yet he is Kafka. He is an average European. He is like everybody else. But he is also the entity K. who is the xof this flesh -and-blood equation. Likewise, if Kafka wants to express the absurd, he will make use of consistency. You know the story of the crazy man who was fishing in a bathtub. A doctor with ideas as to psychiatric treatments asked him if they were biting, to which he received the ha rsh reply: Of course not, you fool, since this is a bathtub. That story belongs to the baroque type. But in it can be grasped quite clearly to what a degree the absurd effect is linked to an excess of logic. Kafkas world is in truth an indescribable uni verse in which man allows himself the tormenting luxury of fishing in a bathtub, knowing that nothing will come of it. Consequently, I recognize here a work that is absurd in its principles. As for The Trial, for instance, I can indeed say that it is a com plete success. Flesh wins out. Nothing is lacking, neither the unexpressed revolt (but itis what is writing), nor lucid and mute despair (but itis what is creating), nor that amazing freedom of manner which the characters of the novel exemplify until the ir ultimate death. * ** Yet this world is not so closed as it seems. Into this universe devoid of progress, Kafka is going to introduce hope in a strange form. In this regard The Trial andThe Castle do not follow the same direction. They complement each other. The barely perceptible progression from one to the other represents a tremendous conquest in the realm of evasion. The Trial propounds a problem which The Castle, to a certain degree, solves. The first describes according to a quasi scientific metho d and without concluding. The second, to a certain degree, explains. The Trial diagnoses, and The Castle imagines a treatment. But the remedy proposed here does not cure. It merely brings the malady back into normal life. It helps to accept it. In a certai n sense (let us think of Kierkegaard), it makes people cherish it. The Land Surveyor K. cannot imagine another anxiety than the one that is tormenting him. The very people around him become attached to that void and that nameless pain, as if suffering assu med in this case a privileged aspect. How I need you, Frieda says to K. How forsaken I feel, since knowing you, when you are not with me. This subtle remedy that makes us love what crushes us and makes hope spring up in a world without issue, this sudd en leap through which everything is changed, is the secret of the existential revolution and ofThe Castle itself. Few works are more rigorous in their development than The Castle. K. is named Land Surveyor to the Castle and he arrives in the village. Bu t from the village to the Castle it is impossible to communicate. For hundreds of pages K. persists in seeking his way, makes every advance, uses trickery and expedients, never gets angry, and with disconcerting good will tries to assume the duties entrust ed to him. Each chapter is a new frustration. And also a new beginning. It is not logic, but consistent method. The scope of that insistence constitutes the works tragic quality. When K. telephones to the Castle, he hears confused, mingled voices, vague laughs, distant invitations. That is enough to feed his hope, like those few signs appearing in summer skies or those evening anticipations which make up our reason for living. Here is found the secret of the melancholy peculiar to Kafka. The same, in truth , that is found in Prousts work or in the landscape of Plotinus: a nostalgia for a lost paradise. I become very sad, says Olga, when Barnabas tells me in the morning that he is going to the Castle: that probably futile trip, that probably wasted day, t hat probably empty hope. Probably on this implication Kafka gambles his entire work. But nothing avails; the quest of the eternal here is meticulous. And those inspired automata, Kafkas characters, provide us with a precise image of what we should be i f we were deprived of our distractions[27]and utterly consigned to the humiliations of the divine. InThe Castle that surrender to the everyday becomes an ethic. The great hope of K. is to get the Castle to adopt him. Un able to achieve this alone, his whole effort is to deserve this favor by becoming an inhabitant of the village, by losing the status of foreigner that everyone makes him feel. What he wants is an occupation, a home, the life of a healthy, normal man. He ca nt stand his madness any longer. He wants to be reasonable. He wants to cast off the peculiar curse that makes him a stranger to the village. The episode of Frieda is significant in this regard. If he takes as his mistress this woman who has known one of the Castles officials, this is because of her past. He derives from her something that transcends him while being aware of what makes her forever unworthy of the Castle. This makes one think of Kierkegaards strange love for Regina Olsen. In certain men, the fire of eternity consuming them is great enough for them to burn in it the very heart of those closest to them. The fatal mistake that consists in giving to God what is not Gods is likewise the subject of this episode of The Castle. But for Kafka it s eems that this is not a mistake. It is a doctrine and a leap. There is nothing that is not Gods. Even more significant is the fact that the Land Surveyor breaks with Frieda in order to go toward the Barnabas sisters. For the Barnabas family is the only one in the village that is utterly forsaken by the Castle and by the village itself. Amalia, the elder sister, has rejected the shameful propositions made her by one of the Castles officials. The immoral curse that followed has forever cast her out from t he love of God. Being incapable of losing ones honor for God amounts to making oneself unworthy of his grace. You recognize a theme familiar to existential philosophy: truth contrary to morality. At this point things are far -reaching. For the path pursued by Kafkas hero from Frieda to the Barnabas sisters is the very one that leads from trusting love to the deification of the absurd. Here again Kafkas thought runs parallel to Kierkegaard. It is not surprising that the Barnabas story is placed at the en d of the book. The Land Surveyors last attempt is to recapture God through what negates him, to recognize him, not according to our categories of goodness and beauty, but behind the empty and hideous aspects of his indifference, of his injustice, and of h is hatred. That stranger who asks the Castle to adopt him is at the end of his voyage a little more exiled because this time he is unfaithful to himself, forsaking morality, logic, and intellectual truths in order to try to enter, endowed solely with his m ad hope, the desert of divine grace.[28] *** The word hope used here is not ridiculous. On the contrary, the more tragic the condition described by Kafka, the firmer and more aggressive that hope becomes. The more truly absurd The Trial is, the more moving and illegitimate the impassioned leap ofThe Castle seems. But we find here again in a pure state the paradox of existential thought as it is expressed, for instance, by Kierkegaard: Earthly hope must be killed; onl y then can one be saved by true hope,[29]which can be translated: One has to have written The Trial to undertake The Castle. Most of those who have spoken of Kafka have indeed defined his work as a desperate cry with no recourse left to man. But this calls for review. There is hope and hope. To me the optimistic work of Henri Bordeaux seems peculiarly discouraging. This is because it has nothing for the discriminating. Malrauxs thought, on the other hand, is always br acing. But in these two cases neither the same hope nor the same despair is at issue. I see merely that the absurd work itself may lead to the infidelity I want to avoid. The work which was but an ineffectual repetition of a sterile condition, a lucid glor ification ol the ephemeral, becomes here a cradle of illusions. It explains, it gives a shape to hope. The creator can no longer divorce himself from it. It is not the tragic game it was to be. It gives a meaning to the authors life. It is strange in any case that works of related inspiration like those of Kafka, Kierkegaard, or Chestov those, in short, of existential novelists and philosophers completely oriented toward the Absurd and its consequences should in the long run lead to that tremendous cry of hope. They embrace the God that consumes them. It is through humility that hope enters in. For the absurd of this existence assures them a little more of supernatural reality. If the course of this life leads to God, there is an outcome after all. And the perseverance, the insistence with which Kierkegaard, Chestov, and Kafkas heroes repeat their itineraries are a special warrant of the uplifting power of that certainty.[30] Kafka refuses his god moral nobility, evidence, virtue, coherence, but only the better to fall into his arms. The absurd is recognized, accepted, and man is resigned to it, but from then on we know that it has ceased to be the absurd. Within the limits of the human condition, what greater hope than the hope that allows an escape from that condition? As I see once more, existential thought in this regard (and contrary to current opinion) is steeped in a vast hope. The very hope which at the time of early Christianity and the spreading of the good news in flamed the ancient world. But in that leap that characterizes all existential thought, in that insistence, in that surveying of a divinity devoid of surface, how can one fail to see the mark of a lucidity that repudiates itself? It is merely claimed that t his is pride abdicating to save itself. Such a repudiation would be fecund. But this does not change that. The moral value of lucidity cannot be diminished in my eyes by calling it sterile like all pride. For a truth also, by its very definition, is steril e. All facts are. In a world where everything is given and nothing is explained, the fecundity of a value or of a metaphysic is a notion devoid of meaning. In any case, you see here in what tradition of thought Kafkas work takes its place. It would indeed be intelligent to consider as inevitable the progression leading from The Trial toThe Castle. Joseph K. and the Land Surveyor K. are merely two poles that attract Kafka.[31]I shall speak like him and say that his work is probably not absurd. But that should not deter us from seeing its nobility and universality. They come from the fact that he managed to represent so fully the everyday passage from hope to grief and from desperate wisdom to intentional blindness. His wo rk is universal (a really absurd work is not universal) to the extent to which it represents the emotionally moving face of man fleeing humanity, deriving from his contradictions reasons for believing, reasons for hoping from his fecund despairs, and calli ng life his terrifying apprenticeship in death. It is universal because its inspiration is religious. As in all religions, man is freed of the weight of his own life. But if I know that, if I can even admire it, I also know that I am not seeking what is un iversal, but what is true. The two may well not coincide. This particular view will be better understood if I say that truly hopeless thought just happens to be defined by the opposite criteria and that the tragic work might be the work that, after all fut ure hope is exiled, describes the life of a happy man. The more exciting life is, the more absurd is the idea of losing it. This is perhaps the secret of that proud aridity felt in Nietzsches work. In this connection, Nietzsche appears to be the only arti st to have derived the extreme consequences of an aesthetic of the Absurd, inasmuch as his final message lies in a sterile and conquering lucidity and an obstinate negation of any supernatural consolation. The preceding should nevertheless suffice to bring out the capital importance of Kafka in the framework of this essay. Here we are carried to the confines of human thought. In the fullest sense of the word, it can be said that everything in that work is essential. In any case, it propounds the absurd prob lem altogether. If one wants to compare these conclusions with our initial remarks, the content with the form, the secret meaning of The Castle with the natural art in which it is molded, K.s passionate, proud quest with the everyday setting against which it takes place, then one will realize what may be its greatness. For if nostalgia is the mark of the human, perhaps no one has given such flesh and volume to these phantoms of regret. But at the same time will be sensed what exceptional nobility the absur d work calls for, which is perhaps not found here. If the nature of art is to bind the general to the particular, ephemeral eternity of a drop of water to the play of its lights, it is even truer to judge the greatness of the absurd writer by the distance he is able to introduce between these two worlds. His secret consists in being able to find the exact point where they meet in their greatest disproportion. And, to tell the truth, this geometrical locus of man and the inhuman is seen everywhere by the pure in heart. If Faust and Don Quixote are eminent creations of art, this is because of the immeasurable nobilities they point out to us with their earthly hands. Yet a moment always comes when the mind negates the truths that those hands can touch. A moment comes when the creation ceases to be taken tragically; it is merely taken seriously. Then man is concerned with hope. But that is not his business. His business is to turn away from subterfuge. Yet this is just wha t I find at the conclusion of the vehement proceedings Kafka institutes against the whole universe. His unbelievable verdict is this hideous and upsetting world in which the very moles dare to hope.[32] Summer In Algiers for JACQUES HEURGON The loves we share with a city are often secret loves. Old walled towns like Paris, Prague, and even Florence are closed in on themselves and hence limit the world that belongs to them. But Algiers (together with certain other privile ged places such as cities on the sea) opens to the sky like a mouth or a wound. In Algiers one loves the commonplaces: the sea at the end of every street, a certain volume of sunlight, the beauty of the race. And, as always, in that unashamed offering ther e is a secret fragrance. In Paris it is possible to be homesick for space and a beating of wings. Here at least man is gratified in every wish and, sure of his desires, can at last measure his possessions. Probably one has to live in Algiers for some time in order to realize how paralyzing an excess of natures bounty can be. There is nothing here for whoever would learn, educate himself, or better himself. This country has no lessons to teach. It neither promises nor affords glimpses. It is satisfied to gi ve, but in abundance. It is completely accessible to the eyes, and you know it the moment you enjoy it. Its pleasures are without remedy and its joys without hope. Above all, it requires clairvoyant souls that is, without solace. It insists upon ones perf orming an act of lucidity as one performs an act of faith. Strange country that gives the man it nourishes both his splendor and his misery! It is not surprising that the sensual riches granted to a sensitive man of these regions should coincide with the m ost extreme destitution. No truth fails to carry with it its bitterness. How can one be surprised, then, if I never feel more affection for the face of this country than amid its poorest men? During their entire youth men find here a life in proportion to their beauty. Then, later on, the downhill slope and obscurity. They wagered on the flesh, but knowing they were to lose. In Algiers whoever is young and alive finds sanctuary and occasion for triumphs everywhere: in the bay, the sun, the red and white gam es on the seaward terraces, the flowers and sports stadiums, the cool - legged girls. But for whoever has lost his youth there is nothing to cling to and nowhere where melancholy can escape itself. Elsewhere, Italian terraces, European cloisters, or the prof ile of the Provencal hills all places where man can flee his humanity and gently liberate himself from himself. But everything here calls for solitude and the blood of young men. Goethe on his deathbed calls for light and this is a historic remark. At Belc ourt and Bab -el-Oued old men seated in the depths of cafes listen to the bragging of young men with plastered hair. Summer betrays these beginnings and ends to us in Algiers. During those months the city is deserted. But the poor remain, and the sky. We jo in the former as they go down toward the harbor and mans treasures: warmth of the water and the brown bodies of women. In the evening, sated with such wealth, they return to the oilcloth and kerosene lamp that constitute the whole setting of their life. In Algiers no one says go for a swim, but rather indulge in a swim. The implications are clear. People swim in the harbor and go to rest on the buoys. Anyone who passes near a buoy where a pretty girl already is sunning herself shouts to his friends: I tell you its a seagull. These are healthy amusements. They must obviously constitute the ideal of those youths, since most of them continue the same life in the winter, undressing every day at noon for a frugal lunch in the sun. Not that they have read the boring sermons of the nudists, those Protestants of the flesh (there is a theory of the body quite as tiresome as that of the mind). But they are simply comfortable in the sunlight. The importance of this custom for our epoch can never be overestimat ed. For the first time in two thousand years the body has appeared naked on beaches. For twenty centuries men have striven to give decency to Greek insolence and naivete, to diminish the flesh and complicate dress. Today, despite that history, young men ru nning on Mediterranean beaches repeat the gestures of the athletes of Delos. And living thus among bodies and through ones body, one becomes aware that it has its connotations, its life, and, to risk nonsense, a psychology of its own.[33]The bodys evolution, like that of the mind, has its history, its vicissitudes, its progress, and its deficiency. With this distinction, however: color. When you frequent the beach in summer you become aware of a simultaneous progression of all skins from white to golden to tanned, ending up in a tobacco color which marks the extreme limit of the effort of transformation of which the body is capable. Above the harbor stands the set of white cubes of the Kasbah. When you are at water level , against the sharp while background of the Arab town the bodies describe a copper -colored frieze. And as the month of August progresses and the sun grows, the white of the houses becomes more blinding and skins take on a darker warmth. How can one fail to participate, then, in that dialogue of stone and flesh in tune with the sun and seasons? The whole morning has been spent in diving, in bursts of laughter amid splashing water, in vigorous paddles around the red and black freighters (those from Norway wit h all the scents of wood, those that come from Germany full of the smell of oil, those that go up and down the coast and smell of wine and old casks). At the hour when the sun overflows from every corner of the sky at once, the orange canoe loaded with bro wn bodies brings us home in a mad race. And when, having suddenly interrupted the cadenced beat of the double paddles bright -colored wings, we glide slowly in the calm water of the inner harbor, how can I fail to feel that I am piloting through the smooth waters a savage cargo of gods in whom I recognize my brothers? But at the other end of the city summer is already offering us, by way of contrast, its other riches: I mean its silence and its boredom. That silence is not always of the same quality, depend ing on whether it springs from the shade or the sunlight. There is the silence of noon on the Place du Gouvernement. In the shade of the trees surrounding it, Arabs sell for five sous glasses of iced lemonade flavored with orange -flowers. Their cry Cool, cool can be heard across the empty square. After their cry silence again falls under the burning sun: in the vendors jug the ice moves and I can hear its tinkle. There is the silence of the siesta. In the streets of the Marine, in front of the dirty barb ershops it can be measured in the melodious buzzing of flies behind the hollow reed curtains. Elsewhere, in the Moorish cafes of the Kasbah the body is silent, unable to tear itself away, to leave the glass of tea and rediscover time with the pulsing of it s own blood. But, above all, there is the silence of summer evenings. Those brief moments when day topples into night must be peopled with secret signs and summons for my Algiers to be so closely linked to them. When I spend some time far from that town, I imagine its twilights as promises of happiness. On the hills above the city there are paths among the mastics and olive trees. And toward them my heart turns at such moments. I see flights of black birds rise against the green horizon. In the sky suddenly divested of its sun something relaxes. A whole little nation of red clouds stretches out until it is absorbed in the air. Almost immediately afterward appears the first star that had been seen taking shape and consistency in the depth of the sky. And then suddenly, all consuming, night. What exceptional quality do the fugitive Algerian evenings possess to be able to release so many things in me? I havent time to tire of that sweetness they leave on my lips before it has disappeared into night. Is this the secret of its persistence? This countrys affection is overwhelming and furtive. But during the moment it is present, ones heart at least surrenders completely to it. At Padovani Beach the dance hall is open every day. And in that huge rectangular box wi th its entire side open to the sea, the poor young people of the neighborhood dance until evening. Often I used to await there a moment of exceptional beauty. During the day the hall is protected by sloping wooden awnings. When the sun goes down they are r aised. Then the hall is filled with an odd green light born of the double shell of the sky and the sea. When one is seated far from the windows, one sees only the sky and, silhouetted against it, the faces of the dancers passing in succession. Sometimes a waltz is being played, and against the green background the black profiles whirl obstinately like those cut -out silhouettes that are attached to a phonographs turntable. Night comes rapidly after this, and with it the lights. But I am unable to relate the thrill and secrecy that subtle instant holds for me. I recall at least a magnificent tall girl who had danced all afternoon. She was wearing a jasmine garland on her tight blue dress, wet with perspiration from the small of her back to her legs. She was l aughing as she danced and throwing back her head. As she passed the tables, she left behind her a mingled scent of flowers and flesh. When evening came, I could no longer see her body pressed tight to her partner, but against the sky whirled alternating sp ots of white jasmine and black hair, and when she would throw back her swelling breast I would hear her laugh and see her partners profile suddenly plunge forward. I owe to such evenings the idea I have of innocence. In any case, I learn not to separate t hese creatures bursting with violent energy from the sky where their desires whirl. * * * In the neighborhood movies in Algiers peppermint lozenges are sometimes sold with, stamped in red, all that is necessary to the awakening of love: (1) questions: Whe n will you marry me? Do you love me? and (2) replies: Madly, Next spring. After having prepared the way, you pass them to your neighbor, who answers likewise or else turns a deaf ear. At Belcourt marriages have been arranged this way and whole lives been pledged by the mere exchange of peppermint lozenges. And this really depicts the childlike people of this region. The distinguishing mark of youth is perhaps a magnificent vocation for facile joys. But, above all, it is a haste to live that borders o n waste. At Belcourt, as at Bab -el-Oued, people get married young. They go to work early and in ten years exhaust the experience of a lifetime. A thirty -year-old workman has already played all the cards in his hand. He awaits the end between his wife and h is children. His joys have been sudden and merciless, as has been his life. One realizes that he is born of this country where everything is given to be taken away. In that plenty and profusion life follows the sweep of great passions, sudden, exacting, an d generous. It is not to be built up, but to be burned up. Stopping to think and becoming better are out of the question. The notion of hell, for instance, is merely a funny joke here. Such imaginings are allowed only to the very virtuous. And I really thi nk that virtue is a meaningless word in all Algeria. Not that these men lack principles. They have their code, and a very special one. You are not disrespectful to your mother. You see that your wife is respected in the street. You show consideration for a pregnant woman. You dont double up on an adversary, because that looks bad. Whoever does not observe these elementary commandments is not a man, and the question is decided. This strikes me as fair and strong. There are still many of us who automatic ally observe this code of the street, the only disinterested one I know. But at the same time the shopkeepers ethics are unknown. I have always seen faces around me filled with pity at the sight of a man between two policemen. And before knowing whether t he man had stolen, killed his father, or was merely a nonconformist, they would say: The poor fellow, or else, with a hint of admiration: Hes a pirate, all right. There are races born for pride and life. They are the ones that nourish the strangest vo cation for boredom. It is also among them that the attitude toward death is the most repulsive. Aside from sensual pleasure, the amusements of this race are among the silliest. A society of bowlers and association banquets, the three - franc movies and paris h feasts have for years provided the recreation of those over thirty. Algiers Sundays are among the most sinister. How, then, could this race devoid of spirituality clothe in myths the profound horror of its life? Everything related to death is either ridi culous or hateful here. This populace without religion and without idols dies alone after having lived in a crowd. I know no more hideous spot than the cemetery on Boulevard Bru, opposite one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. An accumulation o f bad taste among the black fencings allows a dreadful melancholy to rise from this spot where death shows her true likeness. Everything fades, say the heart -shaped ex -votos, except memory. And all insist on that paltry eternity provided us cheaply by the hearts of those who loved us. The same words fit all despairs. Addressed to the dead man, they speak to him in the second person (our memory will never forsake you); lugubrious pretense which attributes a body and desires to what is at best a black liq uid. Elsewhere, amid a deadly profusion of marble flowers and birds, this bold assertion: Never will your grave be without flowers. But never fear: the inscription surrounds a gilded stucco bouquet, very time -saving for the living (like those immortelles which owe their pompous name to the gratitude of those who still jump onto moving buses). Inasmuch as it is essential to keep up with the times, the classic warbler is sometimes replaced by an astounding pearl airplane piloted by a silly angel who, withou t regard for logic, is provided with an impressive pair of wings. Yet how to bring out that these images of death are never separated from life? Here the values are closely linked. The favorite joke of Algerian undertakers, when driving an empty hearse, is to shout: Want a ride, sister? to any pretty girls they meet on the way. There is no objection to seeing a symbol in this, even if somewhat untoward. It may seem blasphemous, likewise, to reply to the announcement of a death while winking ones left eye: Poor fellow, hell never sing again, or, like that woman of Oran who bad never loved her husband: God gave him to me and God has taken him from me. But, all in all, I see nothing sacred in death and am well aware, on the other hand, of the distance t here is between fear and respect. Everything here suggests the horror of dying in a country that invites one to live. And yet it is under the very walls of this cemetery that the young of Belcourt have their assignations and that the girls offer themselves to kisses and caresses. I am well aware that such a race cannot be accepted by all. Here intelligence has no place as in Italy. This race is indifferent to the mind. It has a cult for and admiration of the body. Whence its strength, its innocent cynicism, and a puerile vanity which explains why it is so severely judged. It is commonly blamed for its mentality that is, a way of seeing and of living. And it is true that a certain intensity of life is inseparable from injustice. Yet here is a rate without p ast, without tradition, and yet not without poetry but a poetry whose quality I know well, harsh, carnal, far from tenderness, that of their very sky, the only one in truth to move me and bring me inner peace. The contrary of a civilized nation is a creati ve nation. I have the mad hope that, without knowing it perhaps, these barbarians lounging on beaches are actually modeling the image of a culture in which the greatness of man will at last find its true likeness. This race, wholly cast into its present, l ives without myths, without solace. It has put all its possessions on this earth and therefore remains without defense against death. All the gifts of physical beauty have been lavished on it. And with them, the strange avidity that always accompanies that wealth without future. Everything that is done here shows a horror of stability and a disregard for the future. People are in haste to live, and if an art were to be born here it would obey that hatred of permanence that made the Dorians fashion their fir st column in wood. And yet, yes, one can find measure as well as excess in the violent and keen face of this race, in this summer sky with nothing tender in it, before which all truths can be uttered and on which no deceptive divinity has traced the signs of hope or of redemption. Between this sky and these faces turned toward it, nothing on which to hang a mythology, a literature, an ethic, or a religion, but stones, flesh, stars, and those truths the hand can touch. * * * To feel ones attachment to a ce rtain region, ones love for a certain group of men, to know that there is always a spot where ones heart will feel at peace these are many certainties for a single human life. And yet this is not enough. But at certain moments everything yearns for that spiritual home. Yes, we must go back there there, indeed. Is there anything odd in finding on earth that union that Plotinus longed for? Unity is expressed here in terms of sun and sea. The heart is sensitive to it through a certain savor of flesh which constitutes its bitterness and its grandeur. I learn that there is no superhuman happiness, no eternity outside the sweep of days. These paltry and essential belongings, these relative truths are the only ones to stir me. As for the others, the ideal tru ths, I have not enough soul to understand them. Not that one must be an animal, but I find no meaning in the happiness of angels. I know simply that this sky will last longer than I. And what shall I call eternity except what will continue after my death? I am not expressing here the creatures satisfaction with his condition. It is quite a different matter. It is not always easy to be a man, still less to be a pure man. But being pure is recovering that spiritual home where one can feel the worlds relatio nship, where ones pulse - beats coincide with the violent throbbing of the two -oclock sun. It is well known that ones native land is always recognized at the moment of losing it. For those who are too uneasy about themselves, their native land is the one that negates them. I should not like to be brutal or seem extravagant. But, after all, what negates me in this life is first of all what kills me. Everything that exalts life at the same time increases its absurdity. In the Algerian summer I learn that one thing only is more tragic than suffering, and that is the life of a happy man. But it may be also the way to a greater life because it leads to not cheating. Many, in fact, feign love of life to evade love itself. They try their skill at enjoyment and at indulging in experiences. But this is illusory. It requires a rare vocation to be a sensualist. The life of a man is fulfilled without the aid of his mind, with its backward and forward movements, at one and the same time its solitude and its presences. To see these men of Belcourt working, protecting their wives and children, and often without a reproach, I think one can feel a secret shame. To be sure, I have no illusions about it. There is not much love in the lives I am speaking of. I ought to say that not much remains. But at least they have evaded nothing. There are words I have never really understood, such as sin. Yet I believe these men have never sinned against life. For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despair ing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life. These men have not cheated. Gods of summer they were at twenty by their enthusiasm for life, and they still are, deprived of all hope. I have seen two of them di e. They were full of horror, but silent. It is better thus. From Pandoras box, where all the ills of humanity swarmed, the Greeks drew out hope after all the others, as the most dreadful of all. I know no more stirring symbol; for, contrary to the general belief, hope equals resignation. And to live is not to resign oneself. This, at least, is the bitter lesson of Algerian summers. But already the season is wavering and summer totters. The first September rains, after such violence and hardening, are like the liberated earths first tears, as if for a few days this country tried its hand at tenderness. Yet at the same period the carob trees cover all of Algeria with a scent of love. In the evening or after the rain, the whole earth, its womb moist with a seed redolent of bitter almond, rests after having given herself to the sun all summer long. And again that scent hallows the union of man and earth and awakens in us the only really virile love in this world: ephemeral and noble. (1936) The Minotaur or The Stop In Oran for PIERRE GALINDO This essay dates from 1939. The reader will have to bear this in mind to judge of the present -day Oran. Impassioned protests from that beautiful city assure me, as a matter of fact, that all the imperfections have been (or will be) remedied. On the other hand, the beauties extolled in this essay have been jealously respected. Happy and realistic city, Oran has no further need of writers: she is awaiting tourists. (1953) There are no more deserts. There are no more islands. Yet there is a need for them. In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion; in order to serve men better, one has to hold them at a distance for a time. But where can one f ind the solitude necessary to vigor, the deep breath in which the mind collects itself and courage gauges its strength? There remain big cities. Simply, certain conditions are required. The cities Europe offers us are too full of the din of the past. A practiced ear can make out the flapping of wings, a fluttering of souls. The giddy whirl of centuries, of revolutions, of fame can be felt there. There one cannot forget that the Occident was forged in a series of uproars. All that does not make for enough si lence. Paris is often a desert for the heart, but at certain moments from the heights of Pere -Lachaise there blows a revolutionary wind that suddenly fills that desert with flags and fallen glories. So it is with certain Spanish towns, with Florence or wit h Prague. Salzburg would be peaceful without Mozart. But from time to time there rings out over the Salzach the great proud cry of Don Juan as he plunges toward hell. Vienna seems more silent; she is a youngster among cities. Her stones are no older than t hree centuries and their youth is ignorant of melancholy. But Vienna stands at a crossroads of history. Around her echoes the clash of empires. Certain evenings when the sky is suffused with blood, the stone horses on the Ring monuments seem to take wing. In that fleeting moment when everything is reminiscent of power and history, can he distinctly heard, under the charge of the Polish squadrons, the crashing fall of the Ottoman Empire. That does not make for enough silence either. To be sure, it is just th at solitude amid others that men come looking for in European cities. At least, men with a purpose in life. There they can choose their company, take it or leave it. How many minds have been tempered in the trip between their hotel room and the old stones of the Ile Saint Louis! It is true that others have died there of isolation. As for the first, at any rate, there they found their reasons for growing and asserting themselves. They were alone and they werent alone. Centuries of history and beauty, the ar dent testimony of a thousand lives of the past accompanied them along the Seine and spoke to them both of traditions and of conquests. But their youth urged them to invite such company. There comes a time, there come periods, when it is unwelcome. Its be tween us two! exclaims Rasti -gnac, facing the vast mustiness of Paris. Two, yes, but that is still too many! The desert itself has assumed significance; it has been glutted with poetry. For all the worlds sorrows it is a hallowed spot. But at certain mom ents the heart wants nothing so much as spots devoid of poetry. Descartes, planning to meditate, chose his desert: the most mercantile city of his era. There he found his solitude and the occasion for perhaps the greatest of our virile poems: The first [precept] was never to accept anything as true unless I knew it to be obviously so. It is possible to have less ambition and the same nostalgia. But during the last three centuries Amsterdam has spawned museums. In order to flee poetry and yet recapture the peace of stones, other deserts are needed, other spots without soul and without reprieve. Oran is one of these. The Street I have often heard the people of Oran complain: There is no interesting circle. No, indeed! You wouldnt want one! A few right -thinking people tried to introduce the customs of another world into this desert, faithful to the principle that it is impossible to advance art or ideas without grouping together.[34]The result is such that the only instru ctive circles remain those of poker -players, boxing enthusiasts, bowlers, and the local associations. There at least the unsophisticated prevails. After all, there exists a certain nobility that does not lend itself to the lofty. It is sterile by nature. And those who want to find it leave the circles and go out into the street. The streets of Oran are doomed to dust, pebbles, and heat. If it rains, there is a deluge and a sea of mud. But rain or shine, the shops have the same extravagant and absurd look. All the bad taste of Europe and the Orient has managed to converge in them. One finds, helter -skelter, marble greyhounds, ballerinas with swans, versions of Diana the huntress in green galalith, discus -throwers and reapers, everything that is used for bir thday and wedding gifts, the whole race of painful figurines constantly called forth by a commercial and playful genie on our mantelpieces. But such perseverance in bad taste takes on a baroque aspect that makes one forgive all. Here, presented in a casket of dust, are the contents of a show window: frightful plaster models of deformed feet, a group of Rembrandt drawings sacrificed at 150 francs each, practical jokes, tricolored wallets, an eighteenth -century pastel, a mechanical donkey made of plush, bot tles of Provence water for preserving green olives, and a wretched wooden virgin with an indecent smile. (So that no one can go away ignorant, the management has propped at its base a card saying: Wooden Virgin.) There can be found in Oran: 1) Cafes wi th filter -glazed counters sprinkled with the legs and wings of flies, the proprietor always smiling despite his always empty cafe. A small black coffee used to cost twelve sous and a large one eighteen. 2) Photographers studios where there has been no pro gress in technique since the invention of sensitized paper. They exhibit a strange fauna impossible to encounter in the streets, from the pseudo -sailor leaning on a console table to the marriageable girl, badly dressed and arms dangling, standing in front of a sylvan background. It is possible to assume that these are not portraits from life: they are creations. 3) An edifying abundance of funeral establishments. It is not that people die more in Oran than elsewhere, but I fancy merely that more is made of it. The attractive naivete of this nation of merchants is displayed even in their advertising. I read, in the handbill of an Oran movie theater, the advertisement for a third -rate film. I note the adjectives sumptuous, splendid, extraordinary, amazing, s taggering, and tremendous. At the end the management informs the public of the considerable sacrifices it has undertaken to be able to present this startling realization. Nevertheless, the price of tickets will not be increased. It would be wrong to as sume that this is merely a manifestation of that love of exaggeration characteristic of the south. Rather, the authors of this marvelous handbill are revealing their sense of psychology. It is essential to overcome the indifference and profound apathy felt in this country the moment there is any question of choosing between two shows, two careers, and, often, even two women. People make up their minds only when forced to do so. And advertising is well aware of this. It will assume American proportions, havi ng the same reasons, both here and there, for getting desperate. The streets of Oran inform us as to the two essential pleasures of the local youth: getting ones shoes shined and displaying those same shoes on the boulevard. In order to have a clear idea of the first of these delights, one has to entrust ones shoes, at ten oclock on a Sunday morning, to the shoe -shiners in Boulevard Gal -lieni. Perched on high armchairs, one can enjoy that peculiar satisfaction produced, even upon a rank outsider, by the sight of men in love with their job, as the shoe -shiners of Oran obviously are. Everything is worked over in detail. Several brushes, three kinds of cloths, the polish mixed with gasoline. One might think the operation is finished when a perfect shine come s to life under the soft brush. But the same insistent hand covers the glossy surface again with polish, rubs it, dulls it, makes the cream penetrate the heart of the leather, and then brings forth, under the same brush, a double and really definitive glos s sprung from the depths of the leather. The wonders achieved in this way are then exhibited to the connoisseurs. In order to appreciate such pleasures of the boulevard, you ought to see the masquerade of youth taking place every evening on the main arteri es of the city. Between the ages of sixteen and twenty the young people of Oran Society borrow their models of elegance from American films and put on their fancy dress before going out to dinner. With wavy, oiled hair protruding from under a felt hat sl anted over the left ear and peaked over the right eye, the neck encircled by a collar big enough to accommodate the straggling hair, the microscopic knot of the necktie kept in place by a regulation pin, with thigh -length coat and waist close to the hips, with light -colored and noticeably short trousers, with dazzlingly shiny triple -soled shoes, every evening those youths make the sidewalks ring with their metal - tipped soles. In all things they are bent on imitating the bearing, forthrightness, and superior ity of Mr. Clark Gable. For this reason the local carpers commonly nickname those youths, by favor of a casual pronunciation, Clarques. At any rate, the main boulevards of Oran are invaded late in the afternoon by an army of attractive adolescents who go to the greatest trouble to look like a bad lot. Inasmuch as the girls of Oran feel traditionally engaged to these softhearted gangsters, they likewise flaunt the make -up and elegance of popular American actresses. Consequently, the same wits call them Ma rlenes. Thus on the evening boulevards when the sound of birds rises skyward from the palm trees, dozens of Clarques and Marlenes meet, eye and size up one another, happy to be alive and to cut a figure, indulging for an hour in the intoxication of perfec t existences. There can then be witnessed, the jealous say, the meetings of the American Commission. But in these words lies the bitterness of those over thirty who have no connection with such diversions. They fail to appreciate those daily congresses of youth and romance. These are, in truth, the parliaments of birds that are met in Hindu literature. But no one on the boulevards of Oran debates the problem of being or worries about the way to perfection. There remains nothing but flappings of wings, plume d struttings, coquettish and victorious graces, a great burst of carefree song that disappears with the night. From here I can hear Klestakov: I shall soon have to be concerned with something lofty. Alas, he is quite capable of it! If he were urged, he w ould people this desert within a few years. But for the moment a somewhat secret soul must liberate itself in this facile city with its parade of painted girls unable, nevertheless, to simulate emotion, feigning coyness so badly that the pretense is immedi ately obvious. Be concerned with something lofty! Just see: Santa -Cruz cut out of the rock, the mountains, the flat sea, the violent wind and the sun, the great cranes of the harbor, the trains, the hangars, the quays, and the huge ramps climbing up the ci tys rock, and in the city itself these diversions and this boredom, this hubbub and this solitude. Perhaps, indeed, all this is not sufficiently lofty. But the great value of such overpopulated islands is that in them the heart strips bare. Silence is no longer possible except in noisy cities. From Amsterdam Descartes writes to the aged Guez de Balzac: I go out walking every day amid the confusion of a great crowd, with as much freedom and tranquillity as you could do on your garden paths.[35] The Desert in Oran Obliged to live facing a wonderful landscape, the people of Oran have overcome this fearful ordeal by covering their city with very ugly constructions. One expects to find a city open to the sea, washed and refreshed by the evening breeze. And aside from the Spanish quarter,[36]one finds a walled town that turns its back to the sea, that has been built up by turning back on itself like a snail. Oran is a great circular yellow wall covered over with a leaden sky. In the beginning you wander in the labyrinth, seeking the sea like the sign of Ariadne. But you turn round and round in pale and oppressive street s, and eventually the Minotaur devours the people of Oran: the Minotaur is boredom. For some time the citizens of Oran have given up wandering. They have accepted being eaten. It is impossible to know what stone is without coming to Oran. In that dustiest of cities, the pebble is king. It is so much appreciated that shopkeepers exhibit it in their show windows to hold papers in place or even for mere display. Piles of them are set up along the streets, doubtless for the eyes delight, since a year later the pile is still there. Whatever elsewhere derives its poetry from the vegetable kingdom here takes on a stone face. The hundred or so trees that can be found in the business section have been carefully covered with dust. They are petrified plants whose branches give off an acrid, dusty smell. In Algiers the Arab cemeteries have a well -known mellowness. In Oran, above the Ras-el-Ain ravine, facing the sea this time, flat against the blue sky, are fields of chalky, friable pebbles in which the sun blinds with its fires. Amid these bare bones of the earth a purple geranium, from time to time, contributes its life and fresh blood to the landscape. The whole city has solidified in a stony matrix. Seen from Les Planteurs, the depth of the cliffs surrounding it is s o great that the landscape becomes unreal, so mineral it is. Man is outlawed from it. So much heavy beauty seems to come from another world. If the desert can be defined as a soulless place where the sky alone is king, then Oran is awaiting her prophets. A ll around and above the city the brutal nature of Africa is indeed clad in her burning charms. She bursts the unfortunate stage setting with which she is covered; she shrieks forth between all the houses and over all the roofs. If one climbs one of the roa ds up the mountain of Santa -Cruz, the first thing to be visible is the scattered colored cubes of Oran. But a little higher and already the jagged cliffs that surround the plateau crouch in the sea like red beasts. Still a little higher and a great vortex of sun and wind sweeps over, airs out, and obscures the untidy city scattered in disorder all over a rocky landscape. The opposition here is between magnificent human anarchy and the permanence of an unchanging sea. This is enough to make a staggering scen t of life rise toward the mountainside road. There is something implacable about the desert. The mineral sky of Oran, her streets and trees in their coating of dust everything contributes to creating this dense and impassible universe in which the heart an d mind are never distracted from themselves, nor from their sole object, which is man. I am speaking here of difficult places of retreat. Books are written on Florence or Athens. Those cities have formed so many European minds that they must have a meaning . They have the means of moving to tears or of uplifting. They quiet a certain spiritual hunger whose bread is memory. But can one be moved by a city where nothing attracts the mind, where the very ugliness is anonymous, where the past is reduced to nothin g? Emptiness, boredom, an indifferent sky, what are the charms of such places? Doubtless solitude and, perhaps, the human creature. For a certain race of men, wherever the human creature is beautiful is a bitter native land. Oran is one of its thousand cap itals. Sports The Central Sporting Club, on rue du Fondouk in Oran, is giving an evening of boxing which it insists will be appreciated by real enthusiasts. Interpreted, this means that the boxers on the bill are far from being stars, that some of them are entering the ring for the first time, and that consequently you can count, if not on the skill, at least on the courage of the opponents. A native having thrilled me with the firm promise that blood would flow, I find myself that evening among the real enthusiasts. Apparently the latter never insist on comfort. To be sure, a ring has been set up at the back of a sort of whitewashed garage, covered with corrugated iron and violently lighted. Folding chairs have been lined up in a square around the ropes. These are the honor rings. Most of the length of the hall has been filled with seats, and behind them opens a large free space called lounge by reason of the fact that not one of the five hundred persons in it could take out a handkerchief without caus ing serious accidents. In this rectangular box live and breathe some thousand men and two or three women the kind who, according to my neighbor, always insist on attracting attention. Everybody is sweating fiercely. While waiting for the fights of the y oung hopefuls a gigantic phonograph grinds out a Tino Rossi record. This is the sentimental song before the murder. The patience of a true enthusiast is unlimited. The fight announced for nine oclock has not even begun at nine thirty and no one has prote sted. The spring weather is warm and the smell of a humanity in shirt sleeves is exciting. Lively discussion goes on among the periodic explosions of lemon -soda corks and the tireless lament of the Corsican singer. A few late arrivals are wedged into the a udience when a spotlight throws a blinding light onto the ring. The fights of the young hopefuls begin. The young hopefuls, or beginners, who are fighting for the fun of it, are always eager to prove this by massacring each other at the earliest opportunit y, in defiance of technique. They were never able to last more than three rounds. The hero of the evening in this regard is young Kid Airplane, who in regular life sells lottery tickets on cafe terraces. His opponent, indeed, hurtled awkwardly out of the ring at the beginning of the second round after contact with a fist wielded like a propeller. The crowd got somewhat excited, but this is still an act of courtesy. Gravely it breathes in the hallowed air of the embrocation. It watches these series of slow rites and unregulated sacrifices, made even more authentic by the propitiatory designs, on the white wall, of the fighters shadows. These are the deliberate ceremonial prologues of a savage religion. The trance will not come until later. And it so happens that the loudspeaker announces Amar, the tough Oranese who has never disarmed, against Perez, the slugger from Algiers. An uninitiate would misinterpret the yelling that greets the introduction of the boxers in the ring. He would imag ine some sensational combat in which the boxers were to settle a personal quarrel known to the public. To tell the truth, it is a quarrel they are going to settle. But it is the one that for the past hundred years has mortally separated Algiers and Oran. B ack in history, these two North African cities would have already bled each other white as Pisa and Florence did in happier times. Their rivalry is all the stronger just because it probably has no basis. Having every reason to like each other, they loathe each other proportionately. The Oranese accuse the citizens of Algiers of sham. The people of Algiers imply that the Oranese are rustic. These are bloodier insults than they might seem because they are metaphysical. And unable to lay siege to each other, Oran and Algiers meet, compete, and insult each other on the field of sports, statistics, and public works. Thus a page of history is unfolding in the ring. And the tough Oranese, backed by a thousand yelling voices, is defending against Perez a way of li fe and the pride of a province. Truth forces me to admit that Amar is not conducting his discussion well. His argument has a flaw: he lacks reach. The slugger from Algiers, on the contrary, has the required reach in his argument. It lands persuasively betw een his contradictors eyes. The Oranese bleeds magnificently amid the vociferations of a wild audience. Despite the repeated encouragements of the gallery and of my neighbor, despite the dauntless shouts of Kill him!, Floor him!, the insidious Below the belt, Oh, the referee missed that one!, the optimistic Hes pooped, He cant take any more, nevertheless the man from Algiers is proclaimed the winner on points amid interminable catcalls. My neighbor, who is inclined to talk of sportsmanship, applauds ostensibly, while slipping to me in a voice made faint by so many shouts: So that he wont be able to say back there that we of Oran are savages. But throughout the audience, fights not included on the program have already broken out. Chairs are brandished, the police clear a path, excitement is at its height. In order to calm these good people and contribute to the return of silence, the management, without losing a moment, commissions the loudspeaker to boom out Sambre -et-Meuse. For a few mi nutes the audience has a really warlike look. Confused clusters of com -batants and voluntary referees sway in the grip of policemen; the gallery exults and calls for the rest of the program with wild cries, cock -a- doodle -doos, and mocking catcalls drowned in the irresistible flood from the military band. But the announcement or the big fight is enough to restore calm. This takes place suddenly, without flourishes, just as actors leave the stage once the play is finished. With the greatest unconcern, hats a re dusted off, chairs are put back in place, and without transition all faces assume the kindly expression of the respectable member of the audience who has paid for his ticket to a family concert. The last fight pits a French champion of the Navy against an Oran boxer. This time the difference in reach is to the advantage of the latter. But his superiorities, during the first rounds, do not stir the crowd. They are sleeping off the effects of their first excitement; they are sobering up. They are still sho rt of breath. If they applaud, there is no passion in it. They hiss without animosity. The audience is divided into two camps, as is appropriate in the interest of fairness. But each individuals choice obeys that indifference that follows on great expendi tures of energy. If the Frenchman holds his own, if the Oranese forgets that one doesnt lead with the head, the boxer is bent under a volley of hisses, but immediately pulled upright again by a burst of applause. Not until the seventh round does sport ris e to the surface again, at the same time that the real enthusiasts begin to emerge from their fatigue. The Frenchman, to tell the truth, has touched the mat and, eager to win back points, has hurled himself on his opponent. What did I tell you? said my n eighbor; its going to be a fight to the finish. Indeed, it isa fight to the finish. Covered with sweat under the pitiless light, both boxers open their guard, close their eyes as they hit, shove with shoulders and knees, swap their blood, and snort with rage. As one man, the audience has stood up and punctuates the efforts of its two heroes. It receives the blows, returns them, echoes them in a thousand hollow, panting voices. The same ones who had chosen their favorite in indifference cling to their ch oice through obstinacy and defend it passionately. Every ten seconds a shout from my neighbor pierces my right ear: Go to it, gob; come on, Navy! while another man in front of us shouts to the Oranese: Anda! hombre! The man and the gob go to it, and to gether with them, in this temple of whitewash, iron, and cement, an audience completely given over to gods with cauliflower ears. Every blow that gives a dull sound on the shining pectorals echoes in vast vibrations in the very body of the crowd, which, wi th the boxers, is making its last effort. In such an atmosphere a draw is badly received. Indeed, it runs counter to a quite Manichean tendency in the audience. There is good and there is evil, the winner and the loser. One must be either right or wrong. T he conclusion of this impeccable logic is immediately provided by two thousand energetic lungs accusing the judges of being sold, or bought. But the gob has walked over and embraced his rival in the ring, drinking in his fraternal sweat. This is enough to make the audience, reversing its view, burst out in sudden applause. My neighbor is right: they are not savages. The crowd pouring out, under a sky full of silence and stars, has just fought the most exhausting fight. It keeps quiet and disappears furtivel y, without any energy left for post mortems. There is good and there is evil; that religion is merciless. The band of faithful is now no more than a group of black -and-white shadows disappearing into the night. For force and violence are solitary gods. The y contribute nothing to memory. On the contrary, they distribute their miracles by the handful in the present. They are made for this race without past which celebrates its communions around the prize ring. These are rather difficult rites but ones that si mplify everything. Good and evil, winner and loser. At Corinth two temples stood side by side, the temple of Violence and the temple of Necessity. Monuments For many reasons due as much to economics as to metaphysics, it may be said that the Oranese style, if there is one, forcefully and clearly appears in the extraordinary edifice called the Maison du Colon. Oran hardly lacks monuments. The city has its quota of imperial marshals, ministers, and local benefactors. They are found on dusty little squares, re signed to rain and sun, they too converted to stone and boredom. But, in any case, they represent contributions from the outside. In that happy barbary they are the regrettable marks of civilization. Oran, on the other hand, has raised up her altars and ro stra to her own honor. In the very heart of the mercantile city, having to construct a common home for the innumerable agricultural organizations that keep this country alive, the people of Oran conceived the idea of building solidly a convincing image of their virtues: the Maison du Colon. To judge from the edifice, those virtues are three in number: boldness in taste, love of violence, and a feeling for historical syntheses. Egypt, Byzantium, and Munich collaborated in the delicate construction of a piece of pastry in the shape of a bowl upside down. Multicolored stones, most vigorous in effect, have been brought in to outline the roof. These mosaics are so exuberantly persuasive that at first you see nothing but an amorphous effulgence. But with a closer view and your attention called to it, you discover that they have a meaning: a graceful colonist, wearing a bow tie and white pith helmet, is receiving the homage of a procession of slaves dressed in classical style.[37]The edifice and its colored illustrations have been set down in the middle of a square in the to -and-fro of the little two -car trams whose filth is one of the charms of the city. Oran greatly cherishes also the two lions of its Place dArmes, or parade gro und. Since 1888 they have been sitting in state on opposite sides of the municipal stairs. Their author was named ( ain. They have majesty and a stubby torso. It is said that at night they get down from their pedestal one after the other, silently pace around the dark square, and on occasion uninate at length under the big, dusty ficus trees. These, of course, are rumors to which the people of Oran lend an indulgent ear. But it is unlikely. Despite a certain amount of research, I have not been able to get interested in Cain. I merely learned that he had the reputation of being a skillful animal -sculptor. Yet I often think of him. This is an intellectual bent that comes naturally in Oran. Here is a sonorously named artist who left an unimportant work here. Several hundred thousand people are familiar with the easygoing beasts he put in front of a pretentious town hall. This is one way of succeeding in art. To be sure, these two lions, like thousands of works of the same type, are proof of something else than t alent. Others have created The Night Watch, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, David, or the Pharsalian bas -relief called The Glorification of the Flower. Cain, on the other hand, set up two hilarious snouts on the square of a mercantile provin ce overseas. But the David will go down one day with Florence and the lions will perhaps be saved from the catastrophe. Let me repeat, they are proof of something else. Can one state this idea clearly? In this work there are insignificance and solidity. Sp irit counts for nothing and matter for a great deal. Mediocrity insists upon lasting by all means, including bronze. It is refused a right to eternity, and every day it takes that right. Is it not eternity itself? In any event, such perseverance is capable of stirring, and it involves its lesson, that of all the monuments of Oran, and of Oran herself. An hour a day, every so often, it forces you to pay attention to something that has no importance. The mind profits from such recurrences. In a sense this is its hygiene, and since it absolutely needs its moments of humility, it seems to me that this chance to indulge in stupidity is better than others. Everything that is ephemeral wants to last. Let us say that everything wants to last. Human productions mean nothing else, and in this regard Cains lions have the same chances as the ruins of Angkor. This disposes one toward modesty. There are other Oranese monuments. Or at least they deserve this name because they, too, stand for their city, and perhaps in a more significant way. They are the public works at present covering the coast for some ten kilometers. Apparently it is a matter of transforming the most luminous of bays into a gigantic harbor. In reality it is one more chance for man to come to grips with stone. In the paintings of certain Flemish masters a theme of strikingly general application recurs insistently: the building of the Tower of Babel. Vast landscapes, rocks climbing up to heaven, steep slopes teeming with workmen, animals, ladders, strange machines, cords, pulleys. Man, moreover, is there only to give scale to the inhuman scope of the construction. This is what the Oran coast makes one think of, west of the city. Clinging to vast slopes, rails, dump -cars, cranes, tiny trains ... Under a broi ling sun, toy -like locomotives round huge blocks of stone amid whistles, dust, and smoke. Day and night a nation of ants bustles about on the smoking carcass of the mountain. Clinging all up and down a single cord against the side of the cliff, dozens of m en, their bellies pushing against the handles of automatic drills, vibrate in empty space all day long and break off whole masses of rock that hurtle down in dust and rumbling. Farther on, dump -carts tip their loads over the slopes; and the rocks, suddenly poured seaward, bound and roll into the water, each large lump followed by a scattering of lighter stones. At regular intervals, at dead of night or in broad daylight, detonations shake the whole mountain and stir up the sea itself. Man, in this vast cons truction field, makes a frontal attack on stone. And if one could forget, for a moment at least, the harsh slavery that makes this work possible, one would have to admire. These stones, torn from the mountain, serve man in his plans. They pile up under the first waves, gradually emerge, and finally take their place to form a jetty, soon covered with men and machines which advance, day after day, toward the open sea. Without stopping, huge steel jaws bite into the cliffs belly, turn round, and disgorge into the water their overflowing gravel. As the coastal cliff is lowered, the whole coast encroaches irresistibly on the sea. Of course, destroying stone is not possible. It is merely moved from one place to another. In any case, it will last longer than the men who use it. For the moment, it satisfies their will to action. That in itself is probably useless. But moving things about is the work of men; one must choose doing that or nothing.[38]Obviously the people of Oran hav e chosen. In front of that indifferent bay, for many years more they will pile up stones along the coast. In a hundred years tomorrow, in other words they will have to begin again. But today these heaps of rocks testify for the men in masks of dust and swe at who move about among them. The true monuments of Oran are still her stones. Ariadnes Stone It seems that the people of Oran are like that friend of Flaubert who, on the point of death, casting a last glance at this irreplaceable earth, exclaimed: Clos e the window; its too beautiful. They have closed the window, they have walled themselves in, they have cast out the landscape. But Flauberts friend, Le Poittevin, died, and after him days continued to be added to days. Likewise, beyond the yellow walls of Oran, land and sea continue their indifferent dialogue. That permanence in the world has always had contrary charms for man. It drives him to despair and excites him. The world never says but one thing; first it interests, then it bores. But eventually it wins out by dint of obstinacy. It is always right. Already, at the very gates of Oran, nature raises its voice. In the direction of Canastel there are vast wastelands covered with fragrant brush. There sun and wind speak only of solitude. Above Oran th ere is the mountain of Santa -Cruz, the plateau and the myriad ravines leading to it. Roads, once carriageable, cling to the slopes overhanging the sea. In the month of January some are covered with flowers. Daisies and buttercups turn them into sumptuous p aths, embroidered in yellow and white. About Sant - Cruzz everything has been said. But if I were to speak of it, I should forget the sacred processions that climb the rugged hill on feast days, in order to recall other pilgrimages. Solitary, they walk in th e red stone, rise above the motionless bay, and come to dedicate to nakedness a luminous, perfect hour. Oran has also its deserts of sand: its beaches. Those encountered near the gates are deserted only in winter and spring. Then they are plateaus covered with asphodels, peopled with bare little cottages among the flowers. The sea rumbles a bit, down below. Yet already the sun, the faint breeze, the whiteness of the asphodels, the sharp blue of the sky, everything makes one fancy summer the golden youth the n covering the beach, the long hours on the sand and the sudden softness of evening. Each year on these shores there is a new harvest of girls in flower. Apparently they have but one season. The following year, other cordial blossoms take their place, whic h, the summer before, were still little girls with bodies as hard as buds. At eleven a.m., coming down from the plateau, all that young flesh, lightly clothed in motley materials, breaks on the sand like a multicolored wave. One has to go farther (strangel y close, however, to that spot where two hundred thousand men are laboring) to discover a still virgin landscape: long, deserted dunes where the passage of men has left no other trace than a worm -eaten hut. From time to time an Arab shepherd drives along t he top of the dunes the black and beige spots of his flock of goats. On the beaches of the Oran country every summer morning seems to be the first in the world. Each twilight seems to be the last, solemn agony, announced at sunset by a final glow that dark ens every hue. The sea is ultramarine, the road the color of clotted blood, the beach yellow. Everything disappears with the green sun; an hour later the dunes are bathed in moonlight. Then there are incomparable nights under a rain of stars. Occasionally storms sweep over them, and the lightning flashes flow along the dunes, whiten the sky, and give the sand and ones eyes orange -colored glints. But this cannot be shared. One has to have lived it. So much solitude and nobility give these places an unforget table aspect. In the warm moment before daybreak, after confronting the first bitter, black waves, a new creature breasts nights heavy, enveloping water. The memory of those joys does not make me regret them, and thus I recognize that they were good. Afte r so many years they still last, somewhere in this heart which finds unswerving loyalty so difficult. And I know that today, if I were to go to the deserted dune, the same sky would pour down on me its cargo of breezes and stars. These are lands of innocen ce. But innocence needs sand and stones. And man has forgotten how to live among them. At least it seems so, for he has taken refuge in this extraordinary city where boredom sleeps. Nevertheless, that very confrontation constitutes the value of Oran. The c apital of boredom, besieged by innocence and beauty, it is surrounded by an army in which every stone is a soldier. In the city, and at certain hours, however, what a temptation to go over to the enemy! What a temptation to identify oneself with those stones, to melt into that burning and impassive universe that defies history and its ferments! That is doubtless futile. But there is in every man a profound instinct which is neither that of destruction nor that of creation. It is merely a matter of resemblin g nothing. In the shadow of the warm walls of Oran, on its dusty asphalt, that invitation is sometimes heard. It seems that, for a time, the minds that yield to it are never disappointed. This is the darkness of Eurydice and the sleep of Isis. Here are the deserts where thought will collect itself, the cool hand of evening on a troubled heart. On this Mount of Olives, vigil is futile; the mind recalls and approves the sleeping Apostles. Were they really wrong? They nonetheless had their revelation. Just thi nk of Sakyamuni in the desert. He remained there for years on end, squatting motionless with his eyes on heaven. The very gods envied him that wisdom and that stone -like destiny. In his outstretched hands the swallows had made their nest. But one day they flew away, answering the call of distant lands. And he who had stifled in himself desire and will, fame and suffering, began to cry. It happens thus that flowers grow on rocks. Yes, let us accept stone when it is necessary. That secret and that rapture weask of faces can also be given us by stone. To be sure, this cannot last. But what canlast, after all? The secret of faces fades away, and there we are, cast back to the chain of desires. And if stone can do no more for us than the human heart, at least i t can do just as much. Oh, to be nothing! For thousands of years this great cry has roused millions of men to revolt against desire and pain. Its dying echoes have reached this far, across centuries and oceans, to the oldest sea in the world. They still reverberate dully against the compact cliffs of Oran. Everybody in this country follows this advice without knowing it. Of course, it is almost futile. Nothingness cannot be achieved any more than the absolute can. But since we receive as favors the eterna l signs brought us by roses or by human suffering, let us not refuse either the rare invitations to sleep that the earth addresses us. Each has as much truth as the other. This, perhaps, is the Ariadnes thread of this somnambulist and frantic city. Here o ne learns the virtues, provisional to be sure, of a certain kind of boredom. In order to be spared, one must say yes to the Minotaur. This is an old and fecund wisdom. Above the sea, silent at the base of the red cliffs, it is enough to maintain a delica te equilibrium halfway between the two massive headlands which, on the right and left, dip into the clear water. In the puffing of a coast -guard vessel crawling along the water far out bathed in radiant light, is distinctly heard the muffled call of inhuma n and glittering forces: it is the Minotaurs farewell. It is noon; the very day is being weighed in the balance. His rite accomplished, the traveler receives the reward of his liberation: thelittle stone, dry and smooth as an asphodel, that he picks up on the cliff. For the initiate the world is no heavier to bear than this stone. Atlass task is easy; it is sufficient to choose ones hour. Then one realizes that for an hour, a month, a year, these shores can indulge in freedom. They welcome pell -mell, without even looking at them, the monk, the civil servant, or the conqueror. There are days when I expected to meet, in the streets of Oran, Descartes or Cesare Borgia. That did not happen. But p erhaps another will be more fortunate. A great deed, a great work, virile meditation used to call for the solitude of sands or of the convent. There were kept the spiritual vigils of arms. Where could they be better celebrated now than in the emptiness of a big city established for some time in unintellectual beauty? Here is the little stone, smooth as an asphodel. It is at the beginning of everything. Flowers, tears (if you insist), departures, and struggles are for tomorrow. In the middle of the day when the sky opens its fountains of light in the vast, sonorous space, all the headlands of the coast look like a fleet about to set out. Those heavy galleons of rock and light are trembling on their keels as if they were preparing to steer for sunlit isles. O mornings in the country of Oran! From the high plateaus the swallows plunge into huge troughs where the air is seething. The whole coast is ready for departure; a shiver of adventure ripples through it. Tomorrow, perhaps, we shall leave together. (1939) Helens Exile The mediterranean sun has something tragic about it, quite different from the tragedy of fogs. Certain evenings at the base of the seaside mountains, night falls over the flawless curve of a little bay, and there rises from the silent waters a sense of anguished fulfillment. In such spots one can understand that if the Greeks knew despair, they always did so through beauty and its stifling quality. In that gilded calamity, tragedy reaches its highest point. Our time, on the other hand, has fed i ts despair on ugliness and convulsions. This is why Europe would be vile, if suffering could ever be so. We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her. First difference, but one that has a history. Greek thought always took refuge behind the conce ption of limits. It never carried anything to extremes, neither the sacred nor reason, because it negated nothing, neither the sacred nor reason. It took everything into consideration, balancing shadow with light. Our Europe, on the other hand, off in the pursuit of totality, is the child of disproportion. She negates beauty, as she negates whatever she does not glorify. And, through all her diverse ways, she glorifies but one thing, which is the future rule of reason. In her madness she extends the eternal limits, and at that very moment dark Erinyes fall upon her and tear her to pieces. Nemesis, the goddess of measure and not of revenge, keeps watch. All those who overstep the limit are pitilessly punished by her. The Greeks, who for centuries questioned t hemselves as to what is just, could understand nothing of our idea of justice. For them equity implied a limit, whereas our whole continent is convulsed in its search for a justice that must be total. At the dawn of Greek thought Hera -clitus was already im agining that justice sets limits for the physical universe itself: The sun will not overstep his measures; if he does, the Erinyes, the handmaids of justice, will find him out.1We who have cast the universe and spirit out of our sphere laugh at that th reat. In a drunken sky we light up the suns we want. But nonetheless the boundaries exist, and we know it. In our wildest aberrations we dream of an equilibrium we have left behind, which we naively expect to find at the end of our errors. Childish presump tion which justifies the fact that child -nations, inheriting our follies, are now directing our history. A fragment attributed to the same Heraclitus simply states: Presumption, regression of progress. And, many centuries after the man of Ephesus, Socrat es, facing the threat of being condemned to death, acknowledged only this one superiority in himself: what he did not know he did not claim to know. The most exemplary life and thought of those centuries close on a proud confession of ignorance. Forgetting that, we have forgotten our virility. We have preferred the power that apes greatness, first Alexander and then the Roman conquerors whom the authors of our schoolbooks, through some incomparable vulgarity, teach us to admire. We, too, have conquered, mov ed boundaries, mastered1 Bywaters translation. [Translators note.] heaven and earth. Our reason has driven all away. Alone at last, we end up by ruling over a desert. What imagination could we have left for that higher equilibrium in which nature balanc ed history, beauty, virtue, and which applied the music of numbers even to blood -tragedy? We turn our backs on nature; we are ashamed of beauty. Our wretched tragedies have a smell of the office clinging to them, and the blood that trickles from them is th e color of printers ink. This is why it is improper to proclaim today that we are the sons of Greece. Or else we are the renegade sons. Placing history on the throne of God, we are progressing toward theocracy like those whom the Greeks called Barbarians and whom they fought to death in the waters of Salamis. In order to realize how we differ, one must turn to him among our philosophers who is the true rival of Plato. Only the modern city, Hegel dares write, offers the mind a field in which it can becom e aware of itself. We are thus living in the period of big cities. Deliberately, the world has been amputated of all that constitutes its permanence: nature, the sea, hilltops, evening meditation. Consciousness is to be found only in the streets, because history is to be found only in the streets this is the edict. And consequently our most significant works show the same bias. Landscapes are not to be found in great European literature since Dostoevsky. History explains neither the natural universe that e xisted before it nor the beauty that exists above it. Hence it chose to be ignorant of them. Whereas Plato contained everything nonsense, reason, and myth our philosophers contain nothing but nonsense or reason because they have closed their eyes to the re st. The mole is meditating. It is Christianity that began substituting the tragedy of the soul for contemplation of the world. But, at least, Christianity referred to a spiritual nature and thereby preserved a certain fixity. With God dead, there remains o nly history and power. For some time the entire effort of our philosophers has aimed solely at replacing the notion of human nature with that of situation, and replacing ancient harmony with the disorderly advance of chance or reasons pitiless progress. W hereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the wills impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly. For the Greeks, values pre -existed all action, of which they definitely set the limits. Mod ern philosophy places its values at the end of action. They arenot but are becoming, and we shall know them fully only at the completion of history. With values, all limit disappears, and since conceptions differ as to what they will be, since all struggl es, without the brake of those same values, spread indefinitely, todays Messianisms confront one another and their clamors mingle in the clash of empires. Disproportion is a conflagration, according to Heraclitus. The conflagration is spreading; Nietzsche is outdistanced. Europe no longer philosophizes by striking a hammer, but by shooting a cannon. Nature is still there, however. She contrasts her calm skies and her reasons with the madness of men. Until the atom too catches fire and history ends in the t riumph of reason and the agony of the species. But the Greeks never said that the limit could not he overstepped. They said it existed and that whoever dared to exceed it was mercilessly struck down. Nothing in present history can contradict them. The hist orical spirit and the artist both want to remake the world. But the artist, through an obligation of his nature, knows his limits, which the historical spirit fails to recognize. This is why the latters aim is tyranny whereas the formers passion is freed om. All those who are struggling for freedom today are ultimately fighting for beauty. Of course, it is not a question of defending beauty for itself. Beauty cannot do without man, and we shall not give our era its nobility and serenity unless we follow it in its misfortune. Never again shall we be hermits. But it is no less true that man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard. It steels itself to attain the absolute and authority; it wants to transfigure the world before having exhausted it, to set it to rights before having understood it. Whatever it may say, our era is deserting this world. Ulysses can choose at Calypsos bidding between immortality and the land of his fathers. He chooses the land, and death with it. Such simple nobility is foreign to us today. Others will say that we lack humility; but, all things considered, this word is ambiguous. Like Dostoevskys fools who boast of everything, soar to heaven, and end up flaunting their shame in any public plac e, we merely lack mans pride, which is fidelity to his limits, lucid love of his condition. I hate my time, Saint -Exupery wrote shortly before his death, for reasons not far removed from those I have spoken of. But, however upsetting that exclamation, c oming from him who loved men for their admirable qualities, we shall not accept responsibility for it. Yet what a temptation, at certain moments, to turn ones back on this bleak, fleshless world! But this time is ours, and we cannot live hating ourselves. It has fallen so low only through the excess of its virtues as well as through the extent of its vices. We shall fight for the virtue that has a history. What virtue? The horses of Patroclus weep for their master killed in battle. All is lost. But Achille s resumes the fight, and victory is the outcome, because friendship has just been assassinated: friendship is a virtue. Admission of ignorance, rejection of fanaticism, the limits of the world and of man, the beloved face, and finally beauty this is where we shall be on the side of the Greeks. In a certain sense, the direction history will take is not the one we think. It lies in the struggle between creation and inquisition. Despite the price which artists will pay for their empty hands, we may hope for th eir victory. Once more the philosophy of darkness will break and fade away over the dazzling sea. O midday thought, the Trojan war is being fought far from the battlefields! Once more the dreadful walls of the modern city will fall to deliver up soul sere ne as the oceans calm the beauty of Helen. (1948) Return To Tipasa You have navigated with raging soul far from the paternal home, passing beyond the seas double rocks, and you now inhabit a foreign land. Medea For five days rain had been falling cea selessly on Algiers and had finally wet the sea itself. From an apparently inexhaustible sky, constant downpours, viscous in their density, streamed down upon the gulf. Gray and soft as a huge sponge, the sea rose slowly in the ill -defined bay. But the sur face of the water seemed almost motionless under the steady rain. Only now and then a barely perceptible swelling motion would raise above the seas surface a vague puff of smoke that would come to dock in the harbor, under an arc of wet boulevards. The ci ty itself, all its white walls dripping, gave off a different steam that went out to meet the first steam. Whichever way you turned, you seemed to be breathing water, to be drinking the air. In front of the soaked sea I walked and waited in that December A lgiers, which was for me the city of summers. I had fled Europes night, the winter of faces. But the summer city herself had been emptied of her laughter and offered me only bent and shining backs. In the evening, in the crudely lighted cafes where I took refuge, I read my age in faces I recognized without being able to name them. I merely knew that they had been young with me and that they were no longer so. Yet I persisted without very well knowing what I was waiting for, unless perhaps the moment to go back to Tipasa. To be sure, it is sheer madness, almost always punished, to return to the sites of ones youth and try to relive at forty what one loved or keenly enjoyed at twenty. But I was forewarned of that madness. Once already I had returned to Tipas a, soon after those war years that marked for me the end of youth. I hoped, I think, to recapture there a freedom I could not forget. In that spot, indeed, more than twenty years ago, I had spent whole mornings wandering among the ruins, breathing in the w ormwood, warming myself against the stones, discovering little roses, soon plucked of their petals, which outlive the spring. Only at noon, at the hour when the cicadas themselves fell silent as if overcome, I would flee the greedy glare of an all - consumin g light. Sometimes at night I would sleep open -eyed under a sky dripping with stars. I was alive then. Fifteen years later I found my ruins, a few feet from the first waves, I followed the streets of the forgotten walled city through fields covered with bitter trees, and on the slopes overlooking the hay I still caressed the bread -colored columns. But the ruins were now surrounded with barbed wire and could be entered only through certain openings. It was also forbidden, for reasons which it appears that morality approves, to walk there at night; by day one encountered an official guardian. It just happened, that morning, that it was raining over the whole extent of the ruins. Disoriented, walking through the wet, solitary countryside, I tried at least to re capture that strength, hitherto always at hand, that helps me to accept what is when once I have admitted that I cannot change it. And I could not, indeed, reverse the course of time and restore to the world the appearance I had loved which had disappeared in a day, long before. The second of September 1939, in fact, I had not gone to Greece, as I was to do. War, on the contrary, had come to us, then it had spread over Greece herself. That distance, those years separating the warm ruins from the barbed wire were to be found in me, too, that day as I stood before the sarcophaguses full of black water or under the sodden tamarisks. Originally brought up surrounded by beauty which was my only wealth, I had begun in plenty. Then had come the barbed wireI mean t yrannies, war, police forces, the era of revolt. One had had to put oneself right with the authorities of night: the days beauty was but a memory. And in this muddy Tipasa the memory itself was becoming dim. It was indeed a question of beauty, plenty, or youth! In the light from conflagrations the world had suddenly shown its wrinkles and its wounds, old and new. It had aged all at once, and we with it. I had come here looking for a certain lift; but I realized that it inspires only the man who is unawar e that he is about to launch forward. No love without a little innocence. Where was the innocence? Empires were tumbling down; nations and men were tearing at one anothers throats; our hands were soiled. Originally innocent without knowing it, we were now guilty without meaning to be: the mystery was increasing with our knowledge. This is why, O mockery, we were concerned with morality. Weak and disabled, I was dreaming of virtue! In the days of innocence I didnt even know that morality existed. I knew it now, and I was not capable of living up to its standard. On the promontory that I used to love, among the wet columns of the ruined temple, I seemed to be walking behind someone whose steps I could still hear on the stone slabs and mosaics but whom I shou ld never again overtake. I went back to Paris and remained several years before returning home. Yet I obscurely missed something during all those years. When one has once had the good luck to love intensely, life is spent in trying to recapture that ardor and that illumination. Forsaking beauty and the sensual happiness attached to it, exclusively serving misfortune, calls for a nobility I lack. But, after all, nothing is true that forces one to exclude. Isolated beauty ends up simpering; solitary justice e nds up oppressing. Whoever aims to serve one exclusive of the other serves no one, not even himself, and eventually serves injustice twice. A day comes when, thanks to rigidity, nothing causes wonder any more, everything is known, and life is spent in begi nning over again. These are the days of exile, of desiccated life, of dead souls. To come alive again, one needs a special grace, self -forgetfulness, or a homeland. Certain mornings, on turning a corner, a delightful dew falls on the heart and then evapora tes. But its coolness remains, and this is what the heart requires always. I had to set out again. And in Algiers a second time, still walking under the same downpour which seemed not to have ceased since a departure I had thought definitive, amid the same vast melancholy smelling of rain and sea, despite this misty sky, these backs fleeing under the shower, these cafes whose sulphureous light distorted faces, I persisted in hoping. Didnt I know, besides, that Algiers rains, despite their appearance of nev er meaning to end, nonetheless stop in an instant, like those streams in my country which rise in two hours, lay waste acres of land, and suddenly dry up? One evening, in fact, the rain ceased. I waited one night more. A limpid morning rose, dazzling, over the pure sea. From the sky, fresh as a daisy, washed over and over again by the rains, reduced by these repeated washings to its finest and clearest texture, emanated a vibrant light that gave to each house and each tree a sharp outline, an astonished newness. In the worlds morning the earth must have sprung forth in such a light. I again took the road for Tipasa. For me there is not a single one of those sixty -nine kilometers that is not filled with memories and sensations. Turbulent childhood, adolescen t daydreams in the drone of the buss motor, mornings, unspoiled girls, beaches, young muscles always at the peak of their effort, evenings slight anxiety in a sixteen -year-old heart, lust for life, fame, and ever the same sky throughout the years, unfail ing in strength and light, itself insatiable, consuming one by one over a period of months the victims stretched out in the form of crosses on the beach at the deathlike hour of noon. Always the same sea, too, almost impalpable in the morning light, which I again saw on the horizon as soon as the road, leaving the Sahel and its bronze -colored vineyards, sloped down toward the coast. But I did not stop to look at it. I wanted to see again the Chenoua, that solid, heavy mountain cut out of a single block of s tone, which borders the bay of Tipasa to the west before dropping down into the sea itself. It is seen from a distance, long before arriving, a light, blue haze still confused with the sky. But gradually it is condensed, as you advance toward it, until it takes on the color of the surrounding waters, a huge motionless wave whose amazing leap upward has been brutally solidified above the sea calmed all at once. Still nearer, almost at the gates of Tipasa, here is its frowning bulk, brown and green, here is t he old mossy god that nothing will ever shake, a refuge and harbor for its sons, of whom I am one. While watching it I finally got through the barbed wire and found myself among the ruins. And under the glorious December light, as happens but once or twice in lives which ever after can consider themselves favored to the full, I found exactly what I had come seeking, what, despite the era and the world, was offered me, truly to me alone, in that forsaken nature. From the forum strewn with olives could be see n the village down below. No sound came from it; wisps of smoke rose in the limpid air. The sea likewise was silent as if smothered under the unbroken shower of dazzling, cold light. From the Chenoua a distant cocks crow alone celebrated the days fragile glory. In the direction of the ruins, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but pock -marked stones and wormwood, trees and perfect columns in the transparence of the crystalline air. It seemed as if the morning were stabilized, the sun stopped fo r an incalculable moment. In this light and this silence, years of wrath and night melted slowly away. I listened to an almost forgotten sound within myself as if my heart, long stopped, were calmly beginning to beat again. And awake now, I recognized one by one the imperceptible sounds of which the silence was made up: the figured bass of the birds, the seas faint, brief sighs at the foot of the rocks, the vibration of the trees, the blind singing of the columns, the rustling of the wormwood plants, the furtive lizards. I heard that; I also listened to the happy torrents rising within me. It seemed to me that I had at last come to harbor, for a moment at least, and that henceforth that moment would be endless. But soon after, the sun rose visibly a degree in the sky. A magpie preluded briefly, and at once, from all directions, birds songs burst out with energy, jubilation, joyful discordance, and infinite rapture. The day started up again. It was to carry me to evening. At noon on the half -sandy slopes cov ered with heliotropes like a foam left by the furious waves of the last few days as they withdrew, I watched the sea barely swelling at that hour with an exhausted motion, and I satisfied the two thirsts one cannot long neglect without drying up I mean lov ing and admiring. For there is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this misfortune. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that neverth eless gave birth to it. In the clamor in which we live, love is impossible and justice does not suffice. This is why Europe hates daylight and is only able to set injustice up against injustice. But in order to keep justice from shriveling up like a beauti ful orange fruit containing nothing but a bitter, dry pulp, I discovered once more at Tipasa that one must keep intact in oneself a freshness, a cool wellspring of joy, love the day that escapes injustice, and return to combat having won that light. Here Irecaptured the former beauty, a young sky, and I measured my luck, realizing at last that in the worst years of our madness the memory of that sky had never left me. This was what in the end had kept me from despairing. I had always known that the ruins o f Tipasa were younger than our new constructions or our bomb damage. There the world began over again every day in an ever new light. O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. * * * I have again left Tipasa; I have returned to Europe and its struggles. But the memory of that day still uplifts me and helps me to welcome equally what delights and what crushes. In the difficult hour we are living, what else can I desire than to exclude nothing and to learn how to braid with white thread and black thread a single cord stretched to the breaking -point? In everything I have done or said up to now, I seem to recognize these two forces, even when they work at cross -purposes. I have not been able to disown the light into which I was born and yet I have n ot wanted to reject the servitudes of this time. It would be too easy to contrast here with the sweet name of Tipasa other more sonorous and crueler names. For men of today there is an inner way, which I know well from having taken it in both directions, l eading from the spiritual hilltops to the capitals of crime. And doubtless one can always rest, fall asleep on the hilltop or board with crime. But if one forgoes a part of what is, one must forgo being oneself; one must forgo living or loving otherwise th an by proxy. There is thus a will to live without rejecting anything of life, which is the virtue I honor most in this world. From time to time, at least, it is true that I should like to have practiced it. Inasmuch as few epochs require as much as ours th at one should be equal to the best as to the worst, I should like, indeed, to shirk nothing and to keep faithfully a double memory. Yes, there is beauty and there are the humiliated. Whatever may be the difficulties of the undertaking, I should like never to be unfaithful either to one or to the others. But this still resembles a moral code, and we live for something that goes farther than morality. If we could only name it, what silence! On the hill of Sainte -Salsa, to the east of Tipasa, the evening is in habited. It is still light, to tell the truth, but in this light an almost invisible fading announces the days end. A wind rises, young like the night, and suddenly the waveless sea chooses a direction and flows like a great barren river from one end of t he horizon to the other. The sky darkens. Then begins the mystery, the gods of night, the beyond -pleasure. But how to translate this? The little coin I am carrying away from here has a visible surface, a womans beautiful face which repeats to me all I hav e learned in this day, and a worn surface which I feel under my fingers during the return. What can that lipless mouth be saying, except what I am told by another mysterious voice, within me, which every day informs me of my ignorance and my happiness: The secret I am seeking lies hidden in a valley full of olive trees, under the grass and the cold violets, around an old house that smells of wood smoke. For more than twenty years I rambled over that valley and others resembling it, I questioned mute goathe rds, I knocked at the door of deserted ruins. Occasionally, at the moment of the first star in the still bright sky, under a shower of shimmering light, I thought I knew. I did know, in truth. I still know, perhaps. But no one wants any of this secret; I d ont want any myself, doubtless; and I cannot stand apart from my people. I live in my family, which thinks it rules over rich and hideous cities built of stones and mists. Day and night it speaks up, and everything bows before it, which bows before nothin g: it is deaf to all secrets. Its power that carries me bores me, nevertheless, and on occasion its shouts weary me. But its misfortune is mine, and we are of the same blood. A cripple, likewise, an accomplice and noisy, have I not shouted among the stones ? Consequently, I strive to forget, I walk in our cities of iron and fire, I smile bravely at the night, I hail the storms, I shall be faithful. I have forgotten, in truth: active and deaf, henceforth. But perhaps someday, when we are ready to die of exhau stion and ignorance, I shall be able to disown our garish tombs and go and stretch out in the valley, under the same light, and learn for the last time what I know. (1952) The Artist And His Time I.As an artist, have you chosen the role of witness? This would take considerable presumption or a vocation I lack. Personally I dont ask for any role and I have but one real vocation. As a man, I have a preference for happiness; as an artist, it seems to me that I still have characters to bring to life without the help of wars or of law -courts. But I have been sought out, as each individual has been sought out. Artists of the past could at least keep silent in the face of tyranny. The tyrannies of today are improved; they no longer admit of silence or neutrality . One has to take a stand, be either for or against. Well, in that case, I am against. But this does not amount to choosing the comfortable role of witness. It is merely accepting the time as it is, minding ones own business, in short. Moreover, you are f orgetting that today judges, accused, and witnesses exchange positions with exemplary rapidity. My choice, if you think I am making one, would at least be never to sit on a judges bench, or beneath it, like so many of our philosophers. Aside from that, th ere is no dearth of opportunities for action, in the relative. Trade -unionism is today the first, and the most fruitful among them. II. Is not the quixotism that has been criticized in your recent works an idealistic and romantic definition of the artists role? However words are perverted, they provisionally keep their meaning. And it is clear to me that the romantic is the one who chooses the perpetual motion of history, the grandiose epic, and the announcement of a miraculous event at the end of time. If I have tried to define something, it is, on the contrary, simply the common existence of history and of man, everyday life with the most possible light thrown upon it, the dogged struggle against ones own degradation and that of others. It is likewise id ealism, and of the worse kind, to end up by hanging all action and all truth on a meaning of history that is not implicit in events and that, in any case, implies a mythical aim. Would it therefore be realism to take as the laws of history the future in ot her words, just what is not yet history, something of whose nature we know nothing? It seems to me, on the contrary, that I am arguing in favor of a true realism against a mythology that is both illogical and deadly, and against romantic nihilism whether i t be bourgeois or allegedly revolutionary. To tell the truth, far from being romantic, I believe in the necessity of a rule and an order. I merely say that there can be no question of just any rule whatsoever. And that it would be surprising if the rule we need were given us by this disordered society, or, on the other hand, by those doctrinaires who declare themselves liberated from all rules and all scruples. III.The Marxists and their followers likewise think they are humanists. But for them human natur e will be formed in the classless society of the future. To begin with, this proves that they reject at the present moment what we all are: those humanists are accusers of man. How can we be surprised that such a claim should have developed in the world of court trials? They reject the man of today in the name of the man of the future. That claim is religious in nature. Why should it be more justified than the one which announces the kingdom of heaven to come? In reality the end of history cannot have, with in the limits of our condition, any definable significance. It can only be the object of a faith and of a new mystification. A mystification that today is no less great than the one that of old based colonial oppression on the necessity of saving the souls of infidels. IV. Is not that what in reality separates you from the intellectuals of the left? You mean that is what separates those intellectuals from the left? Traditionally the left has always been at war against injustice, obscurantism, and oppression . It always thought that those phenomena were interdependent. The idea that obscurantism can lead to justice, the national interest to liberty, is quite recent. The truth is that certain intellectuals of the left (not all, fortunately) are today hypnotized by force and efficacy as our intellectuals of the right were before and during the war. Their attitudes are different, but the act of resignation is the same. The first wanted to be realistic nationalists; the second want to be realistic socialists. In the end they betray nationalism and socialism alike in the name of a realism henceforth without content and adored as a pure, and illusory, technique of efficacy. This is a temptation that can, after all, be understood. But still, however the question is loo ked at, the new position of the people who call themselves, or think themselves, leftists consists in saying: certain oppressions are justifiable because they follow the direction, which cannot be justified, of history. Hence there are presumably privilege d executioners, and privileged by nothing. This is about what was said in another context by Joseph de Maistre, who has never been taken for an incendiary. But this is a thesis which, personally, I shall always reject. Allow me to set up against it the tra ditional point of view of what has been hitherto called the left: all executioners are of the same family. V.What can the artist do in the world of today? He is not asked either to write about co -operatives or, conversely, to lull to sleep in himself the sufferings endured by others throughout history. And since you have asked me to speak personally, I am going to do so as simply as I can. Considered as artists, we perhaps have no need to interfere in the affairs of the world. But considered as men, yes. T he miner who is exploited or shot down, the slaves in the camps, those in the colonies, the legions of persecuted throughout the world they need all those who can speak to communicate their silence and to keep in touch with them. I have not written, day af ter day, fighting articles and texts, I have not taken part in the common struggles because I desire the world to be covered with Greek statues and masterpieces. The man who has such a desire does exist in me. Except that he has something better to do in t rying to instill life into the creatures of his imagination. But from my first articles to my latest book I have written so much, and perhaps too much, only because I cannot keep from being drawn toward everyday life, toward those, whoever they may be, who are humiliated and debased. They need to hope, and if all keep silent or if they are given a choice between two kinds of humiliation, they will be forever deprived of hope and we with them. It seems to me impossible to endure that idea, nor can he who can not endure it lie down to sleep in his tower. Not through virtue, as you see, but through a sort of almost organic intolerance, which you feel or do not feel. Indeed, I see many who fail to feel it, but I cannot envy their sleep. This does not mean, howeve r, that we must sacrifice our artists nature to some social preaching or other. I have said elsewhere why the artist was more than ever necessary. But if we intervene as men, that experience will have an effect upon our language. And if we are not artists in our language first of all, what sort of artists are we? Even if, militants in our lives, we speak in our works of deserts and of selfish love, the mere fact that our lives are militant causes a special tone of voice to people with men that desert and t hat love. I shall certainly not choose the moment when we are beginning to leave nihilism behind to stupidly deny the values of creation in favor of the values of humanity, or vice versa. In my mind neither one is ever separated from the other and I measur e the greatness of an artist (Moliere, Tolstoy, Melville) by the balance he managed to maintain between the two. Today, under the pressure of events, we are obliged to transport that tension into our lives likewise. This is why so many artists, bending und er the burden, take refuge in the ivory tower or, conversely, in the social church. But as for me, I see in both choices a like act of resignation. We must simultaneously serve suffering and beauty. The long patience, The strength, the secret cunning such service calls for are the virtues that establish the very renascence we need. One word more. This undertaking, I know, cannot be accomplished without dangers and bitterness. We must accept the dangers: the era of chairbound artists is over. But we must re ject the bitterness. One of the temptations of the artist is to believe himself solitary, and in truth he bears this shouted at him with a certain base delight. But this is not true. He stands in the midst of all, in the same rank, neither higher nor lower , with all those who are working and struggling. His very vocation, in the face of oppression, is to open the prisons and to give a voice to the sorrows and joys of all. This is where art, against its enemies, justifies itself by proving precisely that it is no ones enemy. By itself art could probably not produce the renascence which implies justice and liberty. But without it, that renascence would be without forms and, consequently, would be nothing. Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future. (1953) [1]1From the point of view of the relative value of truth. On the other hand, from the point of view of virile behavior, this scholars fragility may well make us smile. [2]2Let us not miss this opportunity to point ou t the relative character of this essay. Suicide may indeed be related to much more honorable considerations for example, the political suicides of protest, as they were called, during the Chinese revolution. [3]3I hav e heard of an emulator of Peregrinos, a post -war writer who, after having finished his first hook, committed suicide to attract attention to his work. Attention was in fact attracted, but the book was judged no good. [4]4But not in the proper sense. This is not a definition, but rather an enumeration of the feelings that may admit of the absurd. Still, the enumeration finished, the absurd has nevertheless not been exhausted. [5]5Apropos of the notion of exception particularly and against Aristotle. [6]6It may be thought that I am neglecting here the essential problem, that of faith. But I am not examining the philosophy of Kierkegaard or of C hestov or, later on, of Husserl (this would call for a different place and a different attitude of mind); I am simply borrowing a theme from them and examining whether its consequences can fit the already established rules. It is merely a matter of persist ence. [7]7I did not say excludes God, which would still amount to asserting. [8]8Let me assert again: it is not the affirmation of God that is questioned here, but rather the logic leading to that affirmation. [9]9Even the most rigorous epistemologies imply metaphysics. And to such a degree that the metaphysic of many contemporary thinkers consists in having nothing but an epistemology. [10] 1A.At that time reason had to adapt itself or die. It adapts itself. With Plotinus, after being logical it becomes aesthetic. Metaphor takes the place of the syllogism. B.Moreover, this is not Plotinus only contribution to phenomenology. This whole attitude is already contained in the concept so dear to the Alexandrian thinker that there is not only an idea of man but also an idea of Socrates. [11] 2I am concerned here with a factual comparison, not with an apology of humility. The absurd man is the contrary of the reconciled man. [12] 3Quantity sometimes constitutes quality. If I can believe the latest restatements of scientific theory, all matter is constituted by centers of energy. Their greater or lesser quantity makes its specificity more or less remarkable. A billion ions and one ion differ not only in quantity but also in quality. It is easy to find an analogy in human experience. [13] 4Same reflection on a notion as different as the idea of eternal nothingness. It neither adds anything to nor subtracts anything from reality. In psychological experience of nothin gness, it is by the consideration of what will happen in two thousand years that our own nothingness truly takes on meaning. In one of its aspects, eternal nothingness is made up precisely of the sum of lives to come which will not be ours. [14] 5The will is only the agent here: it tends to maintain consciousness. It provides a discipline of life, and that is appreciable. [15] 6What matters is coherence. We start out here from acc eptance of the world. But Oriental thought teaches that one can indulge in the same effort of logic by choosing against the world. That is just as legitimate and gives this essay its perspectives and its limits. But when the negation of the world is pursue d just as rigorously, one often achieves ( in certain Vedantic schools) similar results regarding, for instance, the indifference of works. In a book of great importance, Le Choix, Jean Grenier establishes in this way a veritable philosophy of indifferenc e. [16] 1In the fullest sense and with his faults. A healthy attitude also includes faults. [17] 2At this point I am thinking of Molieres Alceste. Everything is so simple, so ob vious and so coarse. Alceste against Philinte, [18]It is curious to note that the most intellectual kind of painting, the one that tries to reduce reality to its essential elements, is ultimately but a visual delight. All it has kept of the world is its color. (This is apparent particularly in Leger.) [19]If you stop to think of it, this explains the worst novels. Almost everybody considers himself capable of thinking and, to a ce rtain degree, whether right or wrong, really does think. Very few, on the contrary, can fancy themselves poets or artists in words. But from the moment when thought won out over style, the mob invaded the novel. That is not such a great evil as is said. Th e best are led to make greater demands upon themselves. As for those who succumb, they did not deserve to survive. [20]Malrauxs work, for instance. But it would have been necessary to deal at the same time with the s ocial question which in fact cannot be avoided by absurd thought (even though that thought may put forward several solutions, very different from one another). One must, however, limit oneself. [21]Stavrogin: Do you believe in eternal life in the other world? Kirilov: No, but in eternal life in this world. [22]Man simply invented God in order not to kill himself. That is the summary of universal history down to this moment. [23]Boris de Schloezer. [24]Gides curious and penetrating remark: almost all Dostoevskys heroes are polygamous. [25]Melvilles Moby Dick, for instance. [26]It is worth noting that the works of Kafka can quite as legitimately be interpreted in the sense of a social criticism (for instance in The Trial). It is probable, moreover, th at there is no need to choose. Both interpretations are good. In absurd terms, as we have seen, revolt against men is also directed against God: great revolutions are always metaphysical. [27]InThe Castle it seems th at distractions in the Pascalian sense are represented by the assistants who distract K. from his anxiety. If Frieda eventually becomes the mistress of one of the assistants, this is because she prefers the stage setting to truth, everyday life to shar ed anguish. [28]This is obviously true only of the unfinished version of The Castle that Kafka left us. But it is doubtful that the writer would have destroyed in the last chapters his novels unity of tone. [29]Purity of heart. [30]The only character without hope in The Castle is Amalia. She is the one with whom the Land Surveyor is most violently contrasted. [31]On the two aspects of Kafkas thought, compare In the Penal Colony, published by the Cahiers du Sud (and in America by Partisan Review translators note): Guilt [of man is understood] is never doubtful and a fragment of The Castle (Momuss report): The guilt of the Land Surveyor K. is hard to establish. [32]What is offered above is obviously an interpretation of Kafkas work. But it is only fair to add that nothing prevents its being considered, aside from any interpretation, from a purely aesthetic point of view. For instance, B. Groethuysen in his remarkable preface to The Trial limits himself, more wisely than we, to following merely the painful fancies of what he calls, most strikingly, a daydreamer. It is the fate and perhaps the greatness of that work that it offers everything and confirms nothing. [33]May I take the ridiculous position of sayi ng that I do not like the way Gide exalts the body? He asks it to restrain its desire to make it keener. Thus he comes dangerously near to those who in brothel slang are called involved or brain -workers. Christianity also wants to suspend desire. But, more natural, it sees a mortification in this. My friend Vincent, who is a cooper and junior breast -stroke champion, has an even clearer view. He drinks when he is thirsty, if he desires a woman tries to go to bed with her, and would marry her if he loved her (this hasnt yet happened). Afterward he always says: I feel better and this sums up vigorously any apology that might be made for satiety. [34]Gogols Klestakov is met in Oran. He yawns and then: I feel I shall soon have to be concerned with something lofty. [35]Doubtless in memory of these good words, an Oran lecture -and- discussion group has been founded under the name of Cogito -Club. [36]And the new boulevard called Front -de-Mer. [37]Another quality of the Algerian race is, as you see, candor. [38]This essay deals with a certain temptation. It is essential t o have known it. One can then act or not, but with full knowledge of the facts."}}},{"rowIdx":15,"cells":{"text":{"kind":"string","value":"1 The Perennial Philosophy By ALDOUS HUXLEY (1947) Contents RiSY Editors Notes: A Brief Biography of Aldous Huxley 3 Words, Language and Chapters 4 Brief Notes on the Saints, Mys tics and Books quoted from 5 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY: INTRODUCTION 14 Chapter 1. THAT THOU ART 20 Chapter 2. THE NATURE OF THE GROUND 43 Chapter 3. PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION 61 Chapter 4. GOD IN THE WORLD 86 Chapter 5. CHARITY 113 Chapter 6. MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT 131 Chapter 7. TRUTH 164 Chapter 8. RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT 189 2 Chapter 9. SELF-KNOWLEDGE 208 Chapter 10. GRACE AND FREE WILL 212 Chapter 11. GOOD AND EVIL 224 Chapter 12. TIME AND ETERNITY 234 Chapter 13. SALVATION, DELIVERANCE, ENLIGHTENMENT 253 Chapter 14. IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL 267 Chapter 15. SILENCE 271 Chapter 16. PRAYER 276 Chapter 17. SUFFERING 285 Chapter 18. FAITH 293 Chapter 19. GOD IS NOT MOCKED 299 Chapter 20. TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM 305 Chapter 21. IDOLATRY 313 Chapter 22. EMOTIONALISM 318 Chapter 23. THE MIRACULOUS 324 Chapter 24. RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT 327 Chapter 25. SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 341 Chapter 26. PERSEVERANCE AND REGULARITY 364 Chapter 27. CONTEMPLATION, ACTION AND SOCIAL UTILITY 366 A List of Recommended Books 374 INDEX 382 3 A Brief Biography of Aldous Huxley Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) was the grandson of Thomas Huxley, a famous biologist who championed Darwins evolution theory; and Aldous s brothers Julian and Andrew also became Nobel-winning biologists . Nominated nine times for the Nobel Prize (but never awarded) Huxley had a life-long interest in philosophy, mysticism and the big questions, being an active member of the Californian Vedanta Society for thirty- five years. He wrote many novels an d was a successful Hollywood scriptwriter for some time, the proceeds of which he put toward s assisting Jews to esca pe from Nazi Germany. His very poor eyesight - a condit ion he developed as a teenager prevented him from fighting in the First World War and he becam e an active pacifist and universalis t. He commented in 1961 that unl ess humans started to view their activities from an ecological pers pective, the world was in for disaster. H is book Brave New World was a view of the directions in which unbridled science might lead us. Shortly before his death Huxley had experiences on mescaline an d LSD which opened the Doors of Perception (the name of the book he wrote about it, a quote from William Blake) which afforded him some glimpses behind the veil which he had been seeking for so many years. Ho wever he never advocated the use of drugs other than in carefully con trolled and supervised conditions. Along with his exposition of the spiritual path, in this book h e gives his v i e w s o n t h e c o n d i t i o n o f t h e w o r l d a n d t h e d i r e c t i o n i t i s h e a ding, which, given that this was written eighty years ago, are surpri singly up- to-date and apposite today. He dared to ask what is the purpos e of life? and came up, in this book at le ast, with the right answer! By a strange coincidence both he and C.S.Lewis died on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated (22-11-63) . 4 Words, Language and Chapters H u x l e y s l a n g u a g e i s n o t t h e m o s t a c c e s s i b l e - e v e n t o a n e d u c a ted Englishman! - and his tendency t o use long slightly made-up wor ds (realizableness, Boswellizing , salvationism, sacramental ization, etc.) and to write long sentences with numerous sub-phrases, can make it necessary to re-read some passage s several times to grasp his m eaning (the opening sentence of the Introduction, seven lines long, is a good example. Personally I read it abo u t s e v e n t i m e s b e f o r e I f e l t I had really grasped what he was saying -Ed.) . He also uses some words in ways which may not be familiar to to days reader. Two of these a re explained below:- Ground (capital G, 157 times) He talks of the Divine Ground, and the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being, the spiritual Ground o f t h i n g s . W e c o u l d t r a n s l a t e t h i s a s B a s i s , f o u n d a t i o n , u n d e rlying reality, ultimate source. Substantial to forming the basis of, (Intro, 1stpara. substantial to the material world) Some notes on Chapters Huxley elucidates, with quotations from great saints and mystic s of all the worlds main religions, the essential concept that there is a Higher Consciousness (God) , and that only one wh o has detached their attention from the worldly plane is purified enough to experien ce it. He does not claim to have rea ched this level himself. Most of the chapters are well-defined by their titles but one o r two are worthy of some introduction. Ch.8. Religion and Temperament. Huxley was a promoter of the ideas of W.H.Sheldon, a 20thc. psychologist who invented the physical classifications of Ectomorph, E ndomorph and Mesomorph and the (respective) characterisations of Cerebrotonic (brain-oriented shy, 5 introspective, emotionally restrained) , Viscerotonic (gut-oriented - love of comfort, food, relaxation and sociability) and Somatotonic (action-oriented; from Soma body) . Huxley gives an interesting analysis of the styles of religion which suit each type, pointing out that the founders o f the religions are mainly cerebrotoni cs advocating self-restraint, detachment from worldly desires, etc. - but their followers may be of all types and adapt religions to suit themselves. Ch.20. Tantum Religio Potuit. Huxley illustrates in some detail how those who have dedicated their lives to God (or religion) without dying to themselves (losing their ego, ambitions, etc.) have perpetrated some of the most horrendous crimes in th e name of God. True saints, tho se who have negated I, me and mi ne and live in Thee, exhibit l ove, tolerance and benevolence. Notes on the Saints, Mystics and Books quoted from (a) by religion and (b) in chronological order: (1) Buddhism-Tao-Zen (2) Pre-Chri stian European (3) Christian (4) Sufi- Hindu saints (5) Books This is not an exhaustive list as Huxley interpolates many quot ations, but it covers all the quotations given separately in Sylfaen font. (1) Buddhist Taoist Chan Zen (a) Buddhist Stras (or Sutta in Pali) (Discourses of the Buddha) :- Lankvatra Stra Descending on Lanka. O n e o f t h e c o r e t e x t s o f Buddhism which expounds that everything in the world is a produ ct of mind; but this understanding must be experienced first-hand. Diamond Sutra ; on living, working and loving without attachment. Tevijja Sutta Discourse on Three Knowledges. Buddha explains the no path to two seekers. 6 Metta Sutta Discourse on Loving Kindness, spreading love through meditation. Dhammapada (3rdc.BCE) The sayings of the Buddha simplified and encoded in verse form, which helped ordinary people to grasp the message. rangama Stra -Treatise on Heroic Action, Chinese Chan Buddhist text; explaining how to find the true self hidden within. Strlamkra 4thc. Mahayana Buddhist text describing Yogchara Path to Unification. Prabuddha Stra (Yuanjue Ching) The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment (possibly 8thc. Chinese) . Buddha answers the ques tions of the Bodhisattvas. Lao Tzu (7thc.BCE) Founder of Taoism of whom very little is known apart from his book Tao Te Ching, one of th e seminal texts of Taoism and Z en. Chuang Tzu (5thc.BCE) The other main text of Taoism which is longer, more earthy and humorous than Lao Tzu, containing many stories and p arables. Mo Tzu (470-391 BCE) Chinese philosopher who argued against Taoism and Confucianism and advocated unconditional universal love. Ahvaghosha (80-150) Indian Buddhist poe t and philosopher. Sen Tsen (Seng Tsan, c.650) Chinese, the Third Patriarch of Chan Buddhism . Hui Neng (638-713) Chinese, Sixth Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, whose teachings are embodied i n the Platform Stra. Yung-chia Ta-shih, a.k.a. Yoka Daishi (Japanese) (665-713). Chinese Chan Buddhist, main disciple of Hui Neng (qv). The quotes are from the Song of Enlightenment. Shih-tou (Shitou Xiquan) (700-790) Chinese monk, poet and writer, a student of Hui Neng (qv), who advocated a reclusive life. Huang Po (d.850) Chinese Zen master. He stressed that there is nowhere to go, no path to follow, nothing to be achieved; we are already t here, we just have to realise it Ryo-nen Genso (1646-1711) Japanese female Zen monk, teacher and poet. 7 Daito Kokushi (1283-1338) Japanese Zen master, founder of the Daitoku Temple in Kyoto. Wu Cheng-en (1505-1582) Chinese writer, poet and politician who was critical of societal norms. His novel Journey to the West is famous as Monkey. Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) Influential Japanese Zen master. (2) Pre-Christian European Philo (25BCE-48CE) Jewish philosopher from Alexandria (Egypt) who tried to synthesise Jewish and Hellenistic thought (Moses and Plato!) (3) Christian St Jerome (342-420) Roman (born in Slovenia) theologian, scholar and writer . His translation of the Bible into Latin became the accepted Cat holic version (Vulgate) and he wrote extensive commentaries on it and many other works . St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Roman philosopher and writer of North African origin, who particularly promoted the teachings of Paul . One of the most influential Christian philosophers. Pelagius (354-418) British/Roman Christian monk and theologian who believed in human goodness and denied original sin. Boethius (475-524) Roman senator and influential early Middle Ages philosopher. Technically a Christian he was more of a Greek Phi losopher. St Gregory the Great (Pope Gregory I) (540-604) A Roman nobleman who took to monastic life, became Pope and created a more enlighten ed Roman church. St Anselm (1033-1109) Italian monk, abbot and philosopher who later became Archbishop of Canterbury, considered the first to propos e an ontological proof of the existence of God. St Bernard (of Clairvaux) (1090-1153) Influential French Benedictine abbot and co-founder of th e Knights Templar. 8 Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) G e r m a n D o m i n i c a n m o n k , b i s h o p , philosopher and scientist. He was a prolific writer and is cons idered the greatest German philosoph er of the Middle Ages. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Italian monk considered the greatest medieval philosopher. He synthesised Greek (particularly Aristotle) and Christian thought and is considered a model priest in Catholici sm. Eckhart (c.1260-1328) German Dominican monk, known as Meister Eckhart, who gained high positions in the Church and was a powerful and outspoken preacher (which caused him to be later tried for heresy, though not foun d guilty). He believed that all concepts of God were erroneous, and God si mply is. Jan van Ruysbroek (1293-1381) Flemish priest given to contemplation and ecstatic rapture, who wrote twelve books in Dutch, some of whic h were popular and translated into La tin, German and English. Walter Hilton (1340-1396) E n g l i s h m o n k , m y s t i c a n d w r i t e r . H i s S c a l e o f Perfection, a book of advice to spiritual aspirants, was widel y read. St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) Influential activist and writer considered one of the greatest Catholic saints. She took to austerities at a young age and influenced popes and church policy. Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) German Catholic cardinal, theologian and philosopher who tried to heal rifts in European politics. He su pported other religions and quoted the Koran. St Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510). W orked among the poor and sick and wrote of her mystical experiences. Hans Denk (1495-1527) German Anabaptist leader during the Reformation. He did not care for scriptural a uthority but believed in direct experience of the Divine. Sebastian Castellio (1515-1564) French theologian, a very learned Calvinist who preached religious tolerance and freedom of thought. St Philip Neri (1515-1595) Italian Catholic priest a nd saint, who was famously cheerful and witty, and worked to help the poor and sick. 9 St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Spanish nun, mystic and religious reformer who revitalised the Car melite monastic order . St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Carmelite monk, considered the greatest of Spanish mystics, who helped to revitalise the Catholic faith in the Counter- r e f o r m a t i o n . H e w a s i m p r i s o n e d f o r s e v e r a l y e a r s b y h i s f e l l o w Carmelite monks who did not wish to be revitalised! Benet of Canfield (1562-1610) Influential English mystic who refused to accept the Church of England and w a s b a n i s h e d t o F r a n c e . H e h e l ped to found the French School of Spirituality. St. Francois de Sales (1567-1622) a French Catholic bishop famous for his kindness, gentleness and devotion , who tried to heal the rifts caused by the Protestant Reformation. He wrote s e v e r a l b o o k s i n c l u d i n g t h e m y stical Treatise on the Love of God. St. Jeanne Chantal (1572-1641) A Baroness who became a follower of de Sales (qv) and founded a monastic order for sick and older women. Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) German Lutheran theologian who worked as a shoemaker. He wrote of the visions and mystical experiences he had from a young age. His writings were bot h widely admired and widely con demned. Augustine Baker (1575-1641) Controversial but successful English Benedictine monk, mystic and writer. St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) French priest who dedicated himself to helping the poor. John Everard (1584-1641) Controversial English preacher and mystic who translated some important my stical texts into English. Jean Pierre Camus (1584-1652, not Albert Camus, 20thc. French writer!) Bishop, preacher and writer who w as a follower of St Francois d e Sales (qv). Charles de Condren (1588-1647) French mystic, a leading member of the French School of Spirituality and founder of many seminaries of the Counter- Reformation. His biographer was Denis Amelote (1609-1678). 10 Franois Bourgoing (15851662) French priest who succeeded Charles de Condren (qv) as Superior General of the Oratory of Jesus. D a m e G e r t r u d e M o r e (1606-1633) English nun, writer and founder of Cambrai Abbey; great-great-gra nddaughter of Thomas More. J.J.Olier (1608-1657) French Catholic priest and follower of Charles de Condren (qv) who advocated a devoted lif e for all, not just clergy. Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683) A non-fanatical Puritan English bishop who believed man to be a reasonable creature and argued for rel igious tolerance. John Smith the Platonist (1618-1652) English philosopher, theologian and educator who reconciled scie nce with a religious life. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) Brilliant French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher and writer, famous in all areas. George Fox (1624-1691) English preacher, healer and founder of the Quakers after the English Civil War (1642-1651) . He believed each person has the Divine light within themselves. Spinoza (1632-1677) Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent. He was ostracised by both Jews and Christians for his heretical ideas, but his book Ethics is now kept in the Dutch parliament with the Bibl e as representing the state s moral viewpoint. Thomas Traherne (c.1636-1674) English cleric, mystic, poet and religious writer both scholarly and intensely devotional . Fnelon (1651-1715) French Archbishop, poet and writer who later followed Quietism, the idea that by com plete surrender one annihilates the self and becomes fully absorbed in the Divine. J. P. de Caussade (1675-1751) French Jesuit priest and writer. His book The Joy of Full Surrender was compi led 100 years after his death. William Law (1686-1761) Anglican priest who wrote extensively on devotion and a surrendered life. His ideas influenced Enlightenment thin kers such as 11 Samuel Johnson and John Wesley. He was later an admirer of Boeh me (qv) and became more mystically inclined. John Woolman (1720-1772) American Quaker who advocated abolition of slavery. J.N.Grou (1731-1803) French Jesuit priest, mystic and writer on self- purification and spiritual practice, who fled to England during t h e F r e n c h Revolution. Steven Grellet (1772-1855) French-American Quaker missionary who effected social reform in Europe and America. Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) English educator and historian, father of poet Matthew Arnold. Lacordaire (1802-1861) French preacher, theologian, journalist and political activist. Leo Tolstoy (1829-1910) Russian writer (considered one of the geatest ever) whose ideas on non-violent resistance influenced Gandhi, Martin Luther King, etc.. Heinrich Suso (1844-1905) Austrian Dominican monk considered the great follower of Eckhart (qv). He was very musical, wrote extensively on mysticism and was a scholarly resear cher into Church history. Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) German theologian who believed the experience of the Numinous was the essence of all religions. His book The Idea of the Holy is still widely read. R. Garrigou-Lagrange (1877-1960) Influential French monk and theologian. Archbishop Temple (1887-1944) Widely admired English Archbishop of Canterbury who strove to improve English society and education. (4) Sufis - Hindu saints Shankara (di hakarchrya ) 6thc. Indian saint who revitalised Hinduism which had fallen into rituals an d superstition. He was admired by Shri Mataji 12 who recommended his books (Viveka-chmai, Saundarya-lahar, tm- bodha, etc.) Bayazid of Bistun (Bastam) (804-874) Persian Sufi who advocated ecstatic absorption in the Divine. Ansari of Herat (1006-1088) Afghan Sufi, religious philosopher and writer. He was the direct descendent of a close friend of the Prophet M ohammad. Al Ghazzali (c.1058-1111) Persian polymath considered a Renewer of the Faith (one of whom appears every 100 years). He helped to get Sufi ideas more accepted in mainstream Islam. Jallal-uddin Rumi (1207-1273) Persian Sufi poet who felt that music was the greatest way to absorption in the Divine. Jallal-uddin is an ho norific title meaning Glory of the Faith. Rabia of Basra (Iraq) (716-801) Considered the greatest female Sufi, Rabia took to austerities and a secluded contemplative life at an early ag e and wrote devotional poetry about unconditional Divine Love. Vivantha (1378-1434) Prolific Hindu poet and scholar from Odisha. Kabr Ds (1440-1518). Indian Sufi who was one of the main founders of the Bhakti devotion movement in Hinduism. His poems and couplets are still popular today and He was often quoted by Shri Mataji. ri Aurobindo (1872-1950) Bengali freedom fighter, writer and guru. (5) Books in alphabetical order Ancren Riwle. An early 13thc. English guide for anchorites (hermit contemplatives) of which there were many at that time. Bible. Huxley deliberately avoided well-known textual quotes on the grounds that familiarity breeds a kind of numbness. p.95 quote from John is the only Bible quote and the Ko ran does not get an entry! Bhagavad-Gt. (500 BCE) A book from the Mahbhr ata where Shri Krishna expounds the Vednta philosophy. 13 Monkey. (1540) A name for Wu Cheng-ens (qv) novel Journey to the West. Monkey-mind is a common phrase in Zen for the restless, capri cious and troublesome mental nature. rimad Bhagavatam. (1000 BCE) Pura of the exploits of Shri Krishna (not the Shrimad Devi Bhagavatam!) Tattva (samgraha) Tantra. 7thc. Buddhist text with Yoga tantric teachings (Kundalini and Chakras) . The Cloud of Unknowing . A late 14th c. English mystical and spiritual guide to contemplative prayer which stresses love and surrender. The Imitation of Christ aka. The Following of Christ c.1420 by Thomas a Kempis, is a manual for those on the spiritual path, especially monks. After the Bible it is still the most widely read Christian book. Theologia Germanica . A l a t e 1 4th c . G e r m a n m a n u s c r i p t o n m y s t i c i s m , possibly written by the Friends of God (a reformist movement in the Catholic Church) . Due, perhaps, to Protestant favour by such as Luther, it was later banned by the Catholic Church. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol). A guide to traversing the Bardo the state between death and the next birth. The name is slightly misleading and the book is ab out attaining liberation. Upanishads (c.1500-500 BCE). Short extracts from the Vedas encapsulating fundamental Hindu philoso phy known as Vednta final knowledge. Yoga Vsiha 6thc. Sanskrit exposition of Ved nta incorporating ideas from most of the Indian schools of philosophy, with many stories. Af ter the Mahabharata, it is the longest Sanskrit text. 14 The Perennial Philosophy INTRODUCTION HILOSOPHIA PERENNIS - the phrase was coined by Leibniz (1646- 1716) ; but the thing - the metaphysic that recognizes a Divine Reality substantial to the world o f t h i n g s a n d l i v e s a n d m i n d s ; t h e psychology that finds in the sou l something similar to, or even identical with, Divine Reality; the ethic that places mans final end in the knowledge of the immanent and tra nscendent Ground of all being - the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitiv e peoples in every region of the w orld, and in its fully develope d forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions. A v e r s i o n o f t h i s H i g h e s t C o m m o n F a c t o r i n a l l p r e c e d i n g a n d subsequent theologies was first committed to writing more than twenty-five centuries ago (in the Upanishads) , and since that time the inexhaustible theme ha s been treated again and again, from the standpoint of every religious tradition and in all the principa l languages of Asia and Europe. In the pages that follow I have brought tog ether a number of selections from these writings, chosen mainly for the ir significance - because they effectively illustrated some partic ular point i n t h e g e n e r a l s y s t e m o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y - b u t a l s o f o r their intrinsic beauty and memorablene ss. These selections are arrang ed under various heads a nd embedded, so to sp eak, in a commentary of my own, designed to illustrate and connect, to develop and, where necessary, to elucidate. P 15 Knowledge is a function of being . When there is a change in the being of the knower, there is a corresponding change in the nature and a mount of knowing. For example, the being of a child is transformed by growth and education into that of a m an; among the results of this transformation is a revolutionar y change in the way of knowing and the amount and character of the things known. As the individual gro ws up, his knowledge becomes more conceptual and systematic in form, a nd its factual, utilitarian content is enormously increased. But t hese gains are offset by a certain deterioration in the quality of immedia te apprehension, a blunting and a loss of intuitive power. Or consider the change in his being which the scientist is able to induce mechanically by means of his instruments. Equipped with a spect ro- scope and a sixty-inch reflector an astronomer becomes, so far as eyesight is concerned, a superhuman creature; and, as we should naturally expect, the knowledge possessed by this superhuman cr eature is very different, both in quantity and quality, from that whic h can be acquired by a stargazer with unmodified, merely human eyes. Nor are changes in the knowers physiological or intellectual b eing the only ones to affect his knowledge. What we know depends also on what, as moral beings, we choose to make ourselves. Practice, in th e words of William James, may change our theoretical horizon, and this i n a twofold way; it may lead into new worlds and secure new powers. Knowledge we could never attain, remaining what we are, may be attainable in consequence of higher powers and a higher life, w hich we may morally achieve. To put the matter more succinctly, Bless ed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And the same idea h as been e x p r e s s e d b y t h e S u f i p o e t , J a l a l - u d d i n R u m i , i n t e r m s o f a s c i entific metaphor: The astrolabe of th e mysteries of God is love. T h i s b o o k , I r e p e a t , i s a n a n t h o l o g y o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y; but, though an anthology, it contains but few extracts from the writ ings of 16 professional men of letters and, though illustrating a philosop hy, hardly anything from the professional philosophers. The reason for thi s is very simple. The Perennial Philosophy is primarily concerned with th e one Divine Reality substantial to the manifold world of things and lives and minds. But the nature of this one Reality is such that it canno t be directly and immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfil certain conditions; making themselves loving, pure in heart, an d poor in spirit. Why should this be so? We do not know. It is just one o f those facts which we have to accept, w hether we like them or not and however implausible and unlikely they may seem. Nothing in our everyday experience gives us any reason for supp osing that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen; and yet when we s ubject water to certain rather drastic treatments, the nature of its c onstituent elements becomes manifest. Simil arly, nothing in our everyday experience gives us much reason for supposing that the mind of the average sensual man ha s, as one of its constituents, something resembling, or identical with, the Reality substantial to the m anifold world; and yet, when that mind is subjected to certain rather d rastic treatments, the Divine element, of which it is, in part at leas t, composed, becomes manifest, not only to the mind itself, but also, by its reflection in external behaviour, to other minds. I t i s o n l y b y m a k i n g p h y s i c a l e x periments that we can discover the intimate nature of matter and its potentialities. And it is onl y by making psychological and moral experiments that we can discover the in timate nature of mind and its potentia lities. In the ordinary circumst ances of average sensual life these potentialities of the mind remain la tent and unmanifested. If we would realiz e them, we must fulfil certain conditions and obey certain rule s, which experience has shown empirically to be valid. 17 In regard to few professional ph ilosophers and men of letters; is there any evidence that they did very much in the way of fulfilling t he necessary conditions of direct sp iritual knowledge? When poets or metaphysicians talk about the subject matter of the Perennial Philosophy, it is generally at second hand. But in every age th ere have been some men and women who chose to fulfil the conditions upon which alone, as a matter of brute empirical fact, such immediat e k n o w l e d g e c a n b e h a d ; a n d o f t h e s e a f e w h a v e l e f t a c c o u n t s o f the Reality they were thus enabled t o apprehend and have tried to r elate, in one comprehensive system of thou ght, the given facts of this ex perience with the given facts of th eir other experiences. To such first-hand exponents of the Perennial Philosophy those who knew them have generally given t he name of saint or prophet , sage or enlightened one. And it is mainly to these, because there is good reason for supposing that they kn ew what they were talking abou t, and not to the professional philosophers or men of letters, that I have gone for my selections. In India two classes of scripture are recognized: the Shruti (such as the Vedas) , or inspired writings which are their own authority, since the y are the product of immediate insight into Ultimate Reality; and the Smriti (such as the Mahbhrata) , which are based upon the Shruti and from them derive such authority as th ey have. The Shruti, in Shank aras words, depends upon direct perception. The Smriti plays a part analogous to induction, since, like induction, it derives its a uthority from a n a u t h o r i t y o t h e r t h a n i t s e l f . T h i s b o o k , t h e n , i s a n a n t h o l o gy, with explanatory comments, of passages drawn from the Shruti and Smr iti of many times and places. Unfortunately, familiarity with traditionally hallowed writings tends to breed, not indeed contempt, but s omething which, for practical purposes, is almost as bad - namely a kind of reverential insen sibility, a 18 stupor of the spirit, an inward deafness to the meaning of the sacred words. For this reason, when selecting material to illustrate t he doctrines of the Perennial Philo sophy, as they were formulated in the West, I have gone almost always to sources other than the Bible . This Christian Smriti, from which I have drawn, is based upon the Sh ruti of the canonical books, but has the great advantage of being less well known and therefore more vivid and, so to say, more audible tha n they are. Moreover, much of this Smriti is the work of genuinely sai ntly men and women, who have qualified themselves to know at first-hand what they are talking about. Consequently it may be regarded as bein g itself a form of inspired and self-validating Shruti - and this in a m uch higher degree than many of the writings now included in the Biblical c anon. In recent years a number of atte mpts have been made to work out a system of empirical theology. Bu t in spite of the subtlety and intellectual power of such writers as Sorley, Oman and Tennant, the effort h as met with only a partial success. Even in the hands of its ablest ex ponents empirical theology is not partic ularly convincing. The reason, it seems to me, must be sought in the fact t hat the empirical theologians h ave confined their attention more or less exclusively to the experi ence of those whom the theologians of an older school called the unreg enerate (those who have not repented of their sins) - that is to say, the experience of people who have not gone very far in fulfilling the necessar y conditions of spiritual knowledg e . B u t i t i s a f a c t , c o n f i r m e d and re- confirmed during two or three tho usand years of religious histo ry, that the Ultimate Reality is not clear ly and immediately apprehended , except by those who have made themselves loving, pure in heart and poo r in spirit. T h i s b e i n g s o , i t i s h a r d l y s u r p r i s i n g t h a t a t h e o l o g y b a s e d u p on the experience of nice, ordinary, un regenerate people should carry so little conviction. This kind of empirical theology is on precisely the s a m e 19 footing as an empirical astronom y, based upon the experience of naked- eye observers. With the unaided eye a small, faint smudge can b e detected in the constellation of Orion, and doubtless an imposi ng cosmological theory could be bas ed upon the observation of this smudge. But no amount of such theorizing, however ingenious, co uld ever tell us as much about the g alactic and extra-galactic nebu lae as can direct acquaintance by means of a good telescope, camera and spectroscope. Analogously, no am ount of theorizing about such h ints as may be darkly glimpsed within the ordinary, unregenerate experi ence of the manifold world can tell us as much about Divine Reality as can be directly apprehended by a mind i n a state of detachment, charit y and humility. Natural science is empirical; but it does not confine itself to t h e experience of human beings in th eir merely human and unmodified condition. Why empirical theolog ians should feel themselves obl iged to submit to this handicap, goodness only knows. And of course, so long as they confine empirical experienc e within these all too human li mits, they are doomed to the perpetual stul tification of their best effort s. From the material they have chosen to consider, no mind, however brillia ntly gifted, can infer more than a set of possibilities or, at the v ery best, specious probabilities. The self- validating certainty of direct awareness cannot in the very nature of thin gs be achieved except by those equipped with the moral astrola be of Gods mysteries. If one is not oneself a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the fiel d of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely h uman mode of being, were capabl e of a more than merely human kin d and amount of knowledge. avb 20 Chapter 1 THAT THOU ART N s t u d y i n g t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y w e c a n b e g i n e i t h e r a t t h e bottom, with practice and moral ity; or at the top, with a consideration of metaphysical truths; or, finally, in the middl e, at the focal point where mind and matter, action and thought have thei r meeting place in human psychology. The lower gate is that preferred by strictly practical teachers - men who, like Gautama Buddha, have no use for speculation and whose prim ary c o n c e r n i s t o p u t o u t i n m e n s h e a r t s t h e h i d e o u s f i r e s o f g r e e d, resentment and infatuation. Through the upper gate go those who se vocation it is to think and speculate - the born philosophers a nd theologians. The middle gate gives entrance to the exponents of what has been called spiritual religion - the devout contemplative s of India, the Sufis of Islam, the Catholic mystics of the later Middle Ag es, and, in the Protestant tradition, such men as Denk and Franck and Caste llio, as Everard and John Smith and the f irst Quakers and William Law. It is through this central door, and just because it is central , that we shall make our entry into the subject matter of this book. The psycho logy of the Perennial Philosophy has its source in metaphysics and issu es logically in a characteristic way of life and system of ethics. Starting from t h i s m i d - p o i n t o f d o c t r i n e , i t i s e a s y f o r t h e m i n d t o m o v e i n either direction. I n t h e p r e s e n t s e c t i o n w e s h a l l c o n f i n e o u r a t t e n t i o n t o b u t a single feature of this traditional psychology - the most important, th e most emphatically insisted upon by all exponents of the Perennial Ph ilosophy and, we may add, the least psychological. For the doctrine that is to be I 21 illustrated in this section belongs to autology rather than psy chology - to the science, not of the personal ego, but of that eternal Self in the depth of particular, individualized se lves, and identical with, or at least akin to, the Divine Ground. Based upon the direct experience of those wh o have fulfilled the necessary conditions of such knowledge, this teac hing is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, Tat Tvam1 Asi (That art thou); the tman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of ev ery human being is to discover the fact for himself, to find out who he r eally is. 1 Tattvamasi has a range of subtle meanings: Tattva m e a n s r e a l i t y , t r u t h , essence, quality, principle [ tat that, tva -ity, -ness] and Tattva-gyna means Knowing the Ultimate Reality, the Supreme Truth (i.e. Go d) (tattvam i s t h e a c c u s a t i v e f o r m ) and so Tattvam-asi means You are the Ultimate Reality. Asi Thou art, you are is the 2ndpers. sing. pres. of as to be. Alternatively (and this is the sense that Huxley uses) Tat t h a t i s t h e Formless All-pervading Consciousness ( Brahman , the Father), Tvam You, Thou can mean either the individual soul ( tman ) or the personal aspect of God (Divine Incarnation -Shri Kr ishna, Buddha, Jesus, Shri Mata ji, or the Mother energy Kundalini); In this sense it means either: You ( individual soul) and the Supreme Spirit are the same or You (Divine) are both the Impersonal Formless Consciousness and the p ersonal God (who knows us bette r than we know ourselves and has compassi on for our suffering). Ed. The more God is in all things, the more He is outside them. The more He is within, the more without. Eckhart Only the transcendent, the compl etely other, can be immanent wi thout being modified by the becoming of that in which it dwells. The Perennial Philosophy teaches that it is desirable and indeed necessary to know the spiritual Ground of things, not only within the soul, but also outside in the world and, beyond world and soul, in its transcendent other ness - in heaven. 22 Though God is everywhere present, ye t He is only present to thee in the deepest and most central part of thy soul. The natural senses cannot possess God or unite thee to Him; nay, thy inward faculties of understanding, will and memory can only reach after God, but cannot be the place of His habitation in th ee. But there is a root or depth of thee from whence all these faculties come forth, as lines from a centre, or as branches from the body of the tree. This depth is called the centre, the fund or bott om of the soul. This de pth is the unity, the eternity - I had almost said the infinity - of thy soul; for it is so infinite that nothing can satisfy it or give it rest but the infinity of God. William Law T h i s e x t r a c t s e e m s t o c o n t r a d i c t w h a t w a s s a i d a b o v e ; b u t t h e contradiction is not a real one. God within and God without - t hese are two abstract notions, which can be entertained by the understan ding and expressed in words. But the facts to which these notions re fer cannot be realized and experienced except in the deepest and m ost central part of the soul. And th is is true no less of God with out than of God within. But though the two abstract notions have to be real ized (to use a spatial metaphor) in the same place, the intrinsic nature of the realization of God within is qua litatively different from that of the realization of God without, and each in turn is different from that of the realization of the Ground as sim ultaneously within and without - as the Self of the perceiver and at the same time (in the words of the Bhagavad- Gita) as That by which all this world is pervaded. When Svetaketu was twelve years old he was sent to a teacher, with whom he studied until he was twen ty-four. After le arning all the Vedas, he returned home full of conceit in the belief that he was consummately well educated, and very censorious. 23 His father said to him, Svetaketu, my child, you who are so full of your learning and so censorious, have you asked for that knowledge by which we hear the unhearable, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived and know what cannot be known? What is that knowledge, sir? asked Svetaketu. His father replied, As by knowing one lump of clay all that is made of clay is known, the difference bein g only in name, but the truth being that all is clay - so, my child, is that knowledge, knowing which we know all. But surely these venerable teachers of mine are ignorant of this knowledge; for if they possessed it they would have imparted it to me. Do you, sir, therefore gi ve me that knowledge. So be it, said the father. . . . And he said, Bring me 'a fruit of the nyagrodha tree. Here is one, sir. Break it. It is broken, sir. What do you see there? Some seeds, sir, exceedingly small. Break one of these. It is broken, sir. What do you see there? Nothing at all. The father said, My son, that subtle essence which you do not perceive there - in that very essence stands the being of the huge nyagrodha tree. In that which is the subtle esse nce all that exists has its self. That is the True, that is the Self, and thou, Svetaketu, art That. 24 Pray, sir, said the son, tell me more. Be it so, my child, the father replie d; and he said, Place this salt in water, and come to me tomorrow morning. The son did as he was told. Next morning the father said, Bring me the salt which you put in the water. The son looked for it, but could not fi nd it; for the salt, of course, had dissolved. The father said, Taste some of the water from the surface of the vessel. How is it? Salty. Taste some from the middle. How is it? Salty. Taste some from the bottom. How is it? Salty. The father said, Throw the water away and then come back to me again. The son did so; but the salt was not lost, for salt exists for ever. Then the father said, Here likewise in this body of yours, my son, you do not perceive the True; but there in fact it is. In that which is the subtle essence, all that exists has it s self. That is the True, that is the Self, and thou, Svetaketu, art That. From the Chandogya Upanishad The man who wishes to know the T hat which is thou may set t o work in any one of three ways. He may begin by looking inwards into his own particular thou and, by a process of dying to self - self in reasoning, self in willing, self in feeling - come at last to a knowledge of th e Self, the Kingdom of God that is within. Or else he may begin with the th ous existing outside himself, and may try to realize their essentia l unity with 25 God and, through God, with one another and with his own being. Or, finally (and this is doubtless the best way), he may seek to approach the ultimate That both from within and from without, so that he com es to realize God experimentally as at once the principle of his own thou and of all other thous, animate and inanimate. The completely illu minated human being knows, with Law, tha t God is present in the deepes t and most central part of his own soul; but he is also and at the s ame time one of those who, in the words of Plotinus: see all things, not in process of becoming, but in Being, and see themselves in the Other. Each be ing contains in itself the whole intelligible world. Ther efore All is everywhere. Each is there All, and All is each. Man as he now is has ce ased to be the All. But when he ceases to be an individual, he rais es himself again an d penetrates the whole world. It is from the more or less obscure intuition of the oneness t hat is the Ground and principle of all multiplicity that philosophy takes its source. And not alone philosophy, but na tural science as well. All scie nce, in Meyersons phrase, is the reducti on of multiplicities to identi ties. Divining the One within and beyond the many, we find an intrins ic plausibility in any explanation of the diverse in terms of a si ngle principle. The philosophy of the Upanishads reappears, developed and enric hed, in the Bhagavad-Gita and was fin ally systematized, in the ninth century of our era, by Shankara (di hakarchrya) . Shankaras teaching (simultaneously theoretical and p ractical, as is that of all tr ue exponents of the Perennial Philosophy) is summarized in his versified treatise, Viveka- Chmai (The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom). All the following passages are taken from this conveniently b rief and untechnical work. 26 The tman is that by which the un iverse is pervaded, but which nothing pervades; which causes all things to shine, but which all things cannot make to shine. . The nature of the one Reality must be known by ones own clear spiritual perception; it cannot be known through a pandit (learned man). Similarly the form of the moon can only be known through ones own ey es. How can it be known through others? Who but the tman is capable of removing the bonds of ignorance, passion and self-interested action? . . . Liberation cannot be achieved except by the perception of the iden tity of the individual spirit with the universal Spirit. It can be achieved neither by Yoga (physical training), nor by Sankhya (speculative philosophy), nor by the practice of religious ceremonies, nor by mere learning. . . . Disease is not cured by pronouncin g the name of medicine, but by taking medicine. Deliverance is no t achieved by repeating the word Brahman, but by directly ex periencing Brahman. . . . The tman is the witness of the indivi dual mind and its operations. It is absolute knowledge. . . . The wise man is one who understa nds that the essence of Brahman and of tman is Pure Consciousness, an d who realizes their absolute identity. The identity of Brahman and tman is affirmed in hundreds of sacred texts. . . . Caste, creed, family and lineage do not exist in Brah man. Brahman has neither name nor form, transcends me rit and demerit, is beyond time, space and the objects of sense-experi ence. Such is Brahman, and thou art That. Meditate upon this tr uth within your consciousness. 27 Supreme, beyond the power of speech to express, Brahman may yet be apprehended by the eye of pure illumination. Pure, absolute and eternal Reality - such is Brahman, and thou art That. Meditate upon this truth within your consciousness. . . . Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many. There is no other cause. And yet Brahman is independen t of the law of causation. Such is Brahman, and thou art That. Medi tate upon this truth within your consciousness. . . . The truth of Brahman may be understood intellectually. But (even in those who so understand) the desire for personal separateness is deep- rooted and powerful, for it exists from beginningless time. It creates the notion, I am the actor, I am he who experiences. This notion is the cause of bondage to conditional existence, birth and death. It can be removed only by the earnest effort to live constantly in union with Brahman. By the sages, and scriptur e, the eradication of this notion and the craving for personal separa teness is called Liberation. It is ignorance that causes us to identify ourselves with the body, the ego, the senses, or anyt hing that is not the tman. He is a wise man who overcomes this ignorance by devotion to the tman. . . . When a man follows the way of the wo rld, or the way of the flesh, or the way of tradition (i.e. when he believes in re ligious rites and the letter of the scriptures, as though th ey were intrin sically sacred), knowledge of Reality cannot ar ise in him. The wise say that this threefold way is like an iron chain, binding the feet of him who aspires to escape fr om the prison-house of this world. He who frees himself from the chain achieves Deliverance. Shankara 28 In the Taoist formulations of the Perennial Philosophy there is a n insistence, no less forcible than in the Upanishads, the Gita a nd the w r i t i n g s o f S h a n k a r a , u p o n t h e u n i v e r s a l i m m a n e n c e o f t h e transcendent spiritual Ground of all existence. What follows is an extract from one of the great classics o f Taoist literature, the Book o f Chuang Tzu, most of which seems to hav e been written around the turn o f the fourth and third centuries .. Do not ask whether the Principle is in th is or in that; it is in all beings. It is on this account that we apply to it the epithets of supreme, universal, total. . . . It has ordained that all things should be limited, but is Itself unlimited, infinite. As to what pertains to manifestation, the Principle causes the succession of its phases, but is not this succession. It is the author of causes and effects, but is not the causes and effects. It is the author of condensations and dissipations (birth and death, changes of state), but is not itself condensations and dissipations. All proceeds from It and is under its in fluence. It is in all things, but is not identical with beings, for it is neither differentiated nor limited. Chuang Tzu From Taoism we pass to that Mahayana Buddhism which, in the Far East, came to be so closely associated with Taoism, borrowing and bes towing until the two came at last to be fused in what is known as Zen. T h e Lakvatra Stra, from which the following extract is taken, w as the scripture which the founder of Ze n Buddhism expressly recommend ed to his first disciples. Those who vainly reason without un derstanding the truth are lost in the jungle of the Vijnanas (the various forms of relative knowledge), running about here and there and tryi ng to justify their view of ego- substance. 29 The self realized in your inmost consciousness appears in its purity; this is the Tath gata-garbha (literally, Buddha-womb), which is not the realm of those given over to mere reasoning. . . . Pure in its own nature and free from the category of fi nite and infinite, Universal Mind is the undefiled Buddha-womb, which is wrongly apprehended by sentient beings. Lakvatra Sutra One Nature, perfect and pervading, circulates in all natures, One Reality, all-comprehensive, contai ns within itself all realities. The one Moon reflects itself wherever there is a sheet of water, And all the moons in the waters ar e embraced within the one Moon. The Dharma-body (the Absolute) of all the Buddhas enters into my own being. And my own being is found in union with theirs. . . . The Inner Light is beyond praise and blame; Like space it knows no boundaries, Yet it is even here, within us, ever retaining its serenity and fullness. It is only when you hunt for it that you lose it; You cannot take hold of it, But equally you cannot get rid of it, And while you can do neither, it goes on its own way. You remain silent and it speaks ; you speak, and it is dumb; The great gate of charity is wide op en, with no obstacles before it. Yung-chia Ta-shih I am not competent, nor is this the place to discuss the doctri nal differences between Buddhism and Hinduism. Let it suffice to po int out that, when he insisted that huma n beings are by nature non-tm an, the Buddha was evidently speaking about the personal self and n ot the 30 universal Self. The Brahman cont roversialists, who appear in ce rtain of the Pali scriptures, never so mu ch as mention the Vedanta doctr ine of the identity of tman and Godhead and the non-identity of ego a nd tman. What they maintain and Gautama denies is the substantial nature and eternal persistence of t h e i n d i v i d u a l p s y c h e . A s a n unintelligent man seeks for the abode of music in the body of t he lute, so does he look for a soul within the Skandhas (the material and psychic aggregates, of which the individ ual mind-body is composed). About the e x i s t e n c e o f t h e t m a n t h a t i s B r a h m a n , a s a b o u t m o s t o t h e r metaphysical matters, the Buddha declines to speak, on the grou nds that such discussions do not tend to edification or spiritual p rogress among the members of a monastic order, such as he had founded. But though it has its dangers, though it may become the most absorb ing, because the most serious and noblest, of distractions, metaphys ical thinking is unavoidable and finally necessary. Even the Hinayan ists found this, and the later Mahayanists were to develop in connection with the practice of their religion, a splendid and imposing system of cosmological, ethical and psychological thought. This system was based upon the postulates of a strict idealism and professed to dispense with the id e a o f G o d . B u t m o r a l a n d s p i r i tual experience was too strong for philosophical theory, and under t he inspiration of direct experience , the writers of the Mahayana S utras found themselves using all their ingenuity to explain why the T athgata and the Bodhisattvas display an i nfinite charity towards beings that do n o t r e a l l y e x i s t . A t t h e s a m e t i me they stretched the framework o f subjective idealism so as to make room for Universal Mind; qual ified the idea of soullessness with the doc trine that, if purified, the i ndividual mind can identify itself with th e Universal Mind or Buddha-womb ; and, while maintaining godlessness, a sserted that this realizable Un iversal Mind is the inner consciousness of the eternal Buddha and that the 31 B u d d h a - m i n d i s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h a g r e a t c o m p a s s i o n a t e h e a r t w h ich desires the liberation of every sentient being and bestows Divi ne grace on all who make a serious effort to achieve mans final end. In a word, despite their inauspicious vocab ulary, the best of the Mahayana Sutras contain an authentic formulation of the Perennial Philosophy - a formulation which in some respects (as we shall see when we come to the section, God in the World) is more complete than any other. In India, as in Persia, Mohammedan thought came to be enriched by the d o c t r i n e t h a t G o d i s i m m a n e n t a s w e l l a s t r a n s c e n d e n t , w h i l e t o Mohammedan practice were added the moral disciplines and spiri tual exercises, by means of which th e soul is prepared for contempl ation or the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. It is a significant histo rical fact that the poet-saint Kabir is cla imed as a co-religionist both b y Moslems and Hindus. The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the pers ecuting and make the wars. Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray. Kabir That this insight into the nature of things and the origin of g ood and evil is not confined exclusively to the saint, but is recognized obs curely by every human being, is proved by the very structure of our langu age. For language, as Richard Trench pointed out long ago, is often wis er, not merely than the vulgar, but even than the wisest of those who s peak it. Sometimes it locks up truths which were once well known, but ha ve been forgotten. In other cases it holds the germs of truths whi ch, though they were never plainly discerne d , t h e g e n i u s o f i t s f r a m e r s c a ught a glimpse of in a happy moment of d i v i n a t i o n . F o r e x a m p l e , h o w significant it is that in the In do-European languages, as Darms teter has pointed out, the root meaning two should connote badness. The Greek prefix dys (as in dyspepsia) and the Latin dis- (as in dishonourable) are both 32 derived from duo. The cognate bis- gives a pejorative sense t o such modern French words as bevue (blunder, literally two-sight). Traces of that second which leads you astray can be found in dubious, doubt and Zweifel - for to doubt is to be double-minded. Bunyan has h is Mr. Facing-both-ways, and modern Ame rican slang its two-timers. Obscurely and unconsciously wise, our language confirms the fin dings of the mystics and proclaims the e ssential badness of division - a w o r d , incidentally, in which our old enemy two makes another decisi ve appearance. Here it may be remarked that the cult of unity on the political level is only an idolatrous ersat for the genuine religion of unity on the personal and spiritual levels. Totalitarian regimes justify their existe nce by means of a philosophy of political monism, according to which the sta te is God on earth, unification under the heel of the Divine state is sal vation, and all means to such unification, however intrinsically wicked, ar e right and may be used without scruple. This political monism leads in pra ctice to excessive privilege and power for the few and oppression for th e many, to discontent at home and war ab road. But excessive privilege a nd power are standing temptations to pride, greed, vanity and crue lty; oppression results in fear and envy; war breeds hatred, misery and despair. All such negative emotio ns are fatal to the spiritual life. Only the pure in heart and poor in spirit can come to the unitive knowle dge of God. Hence, the attempt to impos e more unity upon societies tha n their i n d i v i d u a l m e m b e r s a r e r e a d y f o r m a k e s i t p s y c h o l o g i c a l l y a l m o s t impossible for those individuals to realize their unity with th e Divine Ground and with one another. Among the Christians and the Sufis, to whose writings we now re turn, the concern is primarily with the human mind and its Divine ess ence. My Me is God, nor do I recogn ize any other Me except my God Himself. St. Catherine of Genoa 33 In those respects in which the soul is unlike God, it is also unlike itself. St. Bernard I went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, O. thou I! Bayazid of Bistun Two of the recorded anecdotes ab out this Sufi saint deserve to be quoted here. When Bayazid was a sked how old he was, he replied , Four years. They said, How can that be? He answered, I have been veiled from God by the world for seventy years, but I have seen Him du ring the last four years. The period during which one is veiled does not belong to ones life. On another occasion someone knocked at the saint s door and cried, Is Bayazid here P Bayazid answered, Is anybody he re except God? To gauge the soul we must gauge it with God, for the Ground of God and the Ground of the Soul are one and the same. Eckhart The spirit possesses God essentia lly in naked nature, and God the spirit. Ruysbroeck For though she sink all sinking in the oneness of divinity, she never touches bottom. For it is of the very essence of the soul that she is powerless to plumb the depths of her creator. And here one cannot speak of the soul any more, for she has lost her nature yonder in the oneness of Divine essence. There sh e i s n o m o r e c a l l e d s o u l , b u t i s called immeasurable being. Eckhart The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God, as if He stood ther e and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge. Eckhart I live, yet not I, but Christ in me. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to use the verb transitively and say, I live, yet not I; for i t is the Logos who lives me - lives me as an actor lives his part. In such a case, of 34 course, the actor is always infi nitely superior to the rle. Wh ere real life is concerned, there ar e no Shakespearean characters, there are only Addisonian Catos or, more often, grotesque Monsieur Perrichons and Charleys Aunts mistaking themse lves for Julius Caesar or the P rince of Denmark. But by a merciful dispensation it is always in the pow er of every dramatis persona to get hi s low, stupid lines pronounced and supernaturally transfigured by t he Divine equivalent of a Garri ck. O my God, how does it happen in this poor old world that Thou art so great and yet nobody finds Thee, that. Thou callest so loudly and nobody hears Thee, that Thou art so near and nobody feels Thee, that Thou givest Thyself to everybod y and nobody knows Thy name? Men flee from Thee and say they cannot find Thee; they turn their backs and say they cannot see Thee; they st op their ears and say they cannot hear Thee. Hans Denk Between the Catholic mystics of the fourteenth and fifteenth. c enturies a n d t h e Q u a k e r s o f t h e s e v e n t e e n t h t h e r e y a w n s a w i d e g a p o f t i me made hideous, so far as religion is concerned, with interdenomi national wars and persecutions. But the gulf was bridged by a succession of men, whom Rufus Jones, in the only accessible English work devoted t o their lives and teachings, has called the Spiritual Reformers. Denk , Franck, Castellio, Weigel, Everard, the Cambridge Platonists - in spite o f t h e murdering and the madness, the apostolic succession remains unbroken. The truths that had b een spoken in the Theologia Germ anica - that book which Luther professed to love so much and from whi ch, if we may judge from his career, he learned so singularly little - were being uttered once again by Englishmen during the Civil War and under the Cromwellian dictatorship. The mystical tradition, perpetuated b y the Protestant Spiritual Reformers, had become diffused, as it were , in the religious atmosphere of the time when George Fox had his first great opening and knew by direct experience: 35 That Every Man was enlightened by the Divine Light of Christ, and I saw it shine through all; And that they that believed in it came out of Condemnation and came to the Light of Life, and became the Children of it; And that they that hated it and did not believe in it, were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure Openings of Light, wi thout the help of any Man, neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures, though afterwards, searching the Scriptures, I found it. From Foxs Journal The doctrine of the Inner Light a c h i e v e d a c l e a r e r f o r m u l a t i o n in the writings of the second generation of Quakers. There is, wrote William Penn, something nearer to us th an Scriptures, to wit, the Word in the heart from which all Scriptures c ome. And a little later Rober t Barclay sought to explain the direct experience of Tat Tvam Asi in term s of an Augustinian theology that had, of course, to be considerably st retched and trimmed before it could fit the facts. Man, he declared in his famous theses, is a fallen being, incapable of good, unless united to the Divine Light. This Divine Light is Christ within the human soul, and i s as universal as the seed of sin. All men, heathen as well as Christian, are endowed w i t h t h e I n w a r d L i g h t , e v e n t h o u g h t h e y m a y k n o w n o t h i n g o f t h e outward history of Christs life . Justification is for those wh o do not resist the Inner Light and so permit of a new birth of holiness within them. Goodness needeth not to enter into the soul, for it is there already, only it is unperceived. Theologia Germanica When the Ten Thousand things ar e viewed in their oneness, we return to the Origin and remain where we have always been. Sen Tsen It is because we dont know who we are, because we are unaware that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, that we behave in the gener ally silly, the often insane, the sometimes criminal ways that are so 36 characteristically human. We are saved, we are liberated and enlightened, by perceiving the hi therto unperceived good that i s already within us, by returning to our e ternal Ground and remaining whe re, without knowing it, we have alwa y s b e e n . P l a t o s p e a k s i n t h e s a me sense when he says, in the Republic, that the virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a Divine element which always remai ns. And in the Theaetetus he makes the point, so frequently insiste d upon by those who have practised spiritual religion, that it is only by becoming Godlike that we can know God - and to become Godlike is to iden tify ourselves with the Divine elemen t which in fact constitutes our essential nature, but of which, in our mainly voluntary ignorance, we cho ose to remain unaware. They are on the way to truth wh o apprehend God by means of the Divine, Light by the light. Philo Philo was the exponent of the Hellenistic Mystery Religion whic h grew up, as Professor Goodenough has shown, among the Jews of the Dispersion, between about 200 B.C . and IOO A.D. Reinterpreting the Pentateuch in terms of a metaphy sical system derived from Plato nism, Neo-Pythagoreanism and Stoicism, Philo transformed the wholly transcendental and almost anthro pomorphically personal God of t he Old Testament into the immanent - transcendent Absolute Mind of the Perennial Philosophy. But even from the orthodox scribes and Ph arisees of that momentous century which witnessed, along with the dissemination of Philos doctrines, the first beginnings of Chr istianity and the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, even from the guardians of the Law we hear significantly mystical utterances. Hillel, the great rabbi whose teachings on humility and the love of God and man read like an earlier, cruder vers ion of some of the Gospel serm ons, is reported to have spoken these wo rds to an assemblage in the cou rts of 37 the Temple. If I am here (it is Jehovah who is speaking through the mouth of his prophet). everyone is here. If I am n ot here, no one is here. The Beloved is all in all; the lover merely veils Him; The Beloved is all that live s, the lover a dead thing. Jalaluddin Rumi There is a Spirit in the soul, un touched by time and flesh, flowing from the Spirit, remaining in the Spirit , itself wholly sp iritual. In this principle is God, ever verdant, ever flowering in all the joy and glory of His actual Self. Sometimes I have called this principle the Tabernacle of the soul, sometimes a sp iritual Light, anon I say it is a Spark. But now I say that it is more exalted over this and that than the heavens are exalted above the earth. So now I name it in a nobler fashion. . . .It is free of all names and void of all forms. It is one and simple, as God is one and simple, an d no man can in any wise behold it. Eckhart Crude formulations of some of th e doctrines of the Perennial Ph ilosophy are to be found in the thought-systems of the uncivilized and s o-called primitive peoples of the world. Among the Maoris, for example, every human being is regarded as a compound of four elements - a Divi ne eternal principle, known as the Toiora; an ego, which disappear s at death; a ghost-shadow, or psyche, which survives death; and fin ally a body. Among the Oglala Indians the Divine element is called the Sican, and this is regarded as identical with the Tan, or Divine essen ce of the world. Other elements of the sel f are the Nagi, or personality, and Niya, or vital soul. After death the S ican is reunited with the Divin e Ground of all things, the Nagi survives in the ghost world of psychic phe nomena and the Niya disappears in to the material universe. In regard to no twentieth-century primitive society can we ru le out the possibility of influence by, or borrowing from, some higher cul ture. Consequently, we have no right to argue from the present to the past. 38 Because many contemporary savages have an esoteric philosophy t hat is monotheistic with a monotheism that is sometimes of the Tha t art thou variety, we are not entitled to infer offhand that neolit hic or palaeolithic men held similar views. More legitimate and more intrinsically plausible are the infere nces that m a y b e d r a w n f r o m w h a t w e k n o w a b o u t o u r o w n p h y s i o l o g y a n d psychology. We know that human minds have proved themselves capable of everything from imbec ility to Quantum Theory, from M ein Kampf and sadism to the sanctity of Philip Neri, from metaphysi cs to crossword puzzles, power politics and the Missa Solemnis. We al so know that human minds are in some way associated with human brains, and w e h a v e f a i r l y g o o d r e a s o n s f o r s u p p o s i n g t h a t t h e r e h a v e b e e n no considerable changes in the size and conformation of human brai ns for a good many thousands of years. C onsequently it seems justifiab le to infer that human minds- in the remote past were capable of as m any and as various kinds and come to the unitive degrees of activit y as are minds at the present time. It is, however, certain that man y activities undertaken by some minds at the present time were not, in th e remote past, undertaken by an y minds at all. For this there are severa l obvious reasons. Certain tho ughts are practically unthinkable except in terms of an appropriate langu age and within the framework of an appropriate system of classification . Where these necessary instruments do not exist, the thoughts in quest ion are not expressed and not even conceived. Nor is this all: the ince ntive to develop the instruments of certa in kinds of thinking is not alw ays present. For long periods of history and prehistory it would seem that m en and women, though perfectly capable of doing so, did not wish to pa y attention to problems which their descendants found absorbingly interesting. For example, there is no reason to suppose that, b etween 39 the thirteenth century and the twentieth, the human mind underw ent any kind of evolutionary change, comparable to the change, let us say, i n t h e p h y s i c a l s t r u c t u r e o f t h e h o r s e s f o o t d u r i n g a n i n c o m p a rably longer span of geological time. What happened was that men turn ed their attention from certain asp ects of reality to certain othe r aspects. The result, among other things, was the development of the natu ral sciences. Our perceptions and our understanding are directed, i n large measure, by our will. We are aware of, and we think about, the things w h i c h , f o r o n e r e a s o n o r a n o t h e r , we want to see and understand . Where theres a will there is always an intellectual way. The c apacities of the human mind are almost ind efinitely great. Whatever we wi ll to do, whether it be to come to the unitive knowledge of the Godhe ad, or to manufacture self-propelled fl ame-throwers - that we are able to do, provided always that the willing be sufficiently intense and su stained. It is clear that many of the things to which modern men have chose n to pay attention were ignored by their predecessors. Consequently the very means for thinking clearly and fruitfully about those thin gs remained uninvented, not merely during prehistoric times, but e ven to the opening of t he modern era. The lack of a suitable vocabulary and an adequate frame of refe rence, and the absence of any strong an d sustained desire to invent th ese necessary instruments of thought - here are two sufficient reas ons why so many of the almost endless po tentialities of the human mind remained for so long unactualized. Another and, on its own leve l, equally cogent reason is this: much of the worlds most original and fr uitful thinking is done by people of poor physique and of a thoroughly unpractical turn of mind. Because this is so, and because the v alue of pure thought, whether analytical or integral, has everywhere be en more or less clearly recognized, provision was and still is made by every civilized society for giving thinkers a measure of protection f rom the 40 o r d i n a r y s t r a i n s a n d s t r e s s e s o f s o c i a l l i f e . T h e h e r m i t a g e , t h e monastery, the college, the acad emy and the research laboratory ; the begging bowl, the endowment, patronage and the grant of taxpaye rs money - such are the principal devices that have been used by a ctives to conserve that rare bird, the re ligious, philosophical, artistic or scientific contemplative. In many primitive societies cond itions are hard and there is no surplus wealth. The born contemplative has to face the struggle for exi stence and social predominance without protection. The result, in most cases, is that he either dies young or is too desperately busy merely keeping a l i v e t o b e a b l e t o d e v o t e h i s a t t e n t i o n t o a n y t h i n g e l s e . W h e n t h i s happens the prevailing philosophy will be that of the hardy, ex traverted man of action. All this sheds some light - dim, it is true, and merely inferen tial - on the problem of the perennial-ness of the Perennial Philosophy. In I ndia the scriptures were regarded, not as revelations made at some given moment of history, but as eternal gospels, existent from everla sting to everlasting, inasmuch as coeval with man, or for that matter wi th any o t h e r k i n d o f c o r p o r e a l o r i n c o r p o r e a l b e i n g p o s s e s s e d o f r e a s o n. A similar point of view is expressed by Aristotle, who regards th e fundamental truths of religion as everlasting and indestructibl e. There have been ascents and falls, periods (literally roads around or cycles) of progress and regress; but the gre at fact of God as the First Mo ver of a universe which cant fact remains partakes of his divinity has a lways been r e c o g n i z e d . I n t h e l i g h t o f w h a t w e k n o w a b o u t p r e h i s t o r i c m a n (and what we know amounts to nothing more than a few chipped stones, some paintings, drawings and sculptures) and of what we may legitimately infer from other, better documented fi elds of knowledge, what are we to think of these traditional doctrines? 41 M y o w n v i e w i s t h a t t h e y m a y b e t r u e . W e k n o w t h a t b o r n c o n t e m p l a t i v e s i n t h e r e a l m b o t h o f a n a l y t i c a n d o f i n t e g r a l t h ought have turned up in fair numbers an d at frequent intervals during recorded history. There is therefore every reason to suppose that they t urned up before history was recorded. That many of these people died you ng or were unable to exercise their talents is certain. But a few of them must have survived. In this context it is highly significant that, a mong many contemporary primitives, two tho ught-patterns are found - an ex oteric pattern for the unphilosophic many and an esoteric pattern (often monotheistic, with a belief in a God not merely of power, but o f goodness and wisdom) for the initiated few. There is no reason to suppose that circumstances were any harder for prehistoric men than they are f o r many contemporary savages. But i f an esoteric monotheism of the kind that seems to come natural to the born thinker is possible in m odern savage societies, the majority of whose members accept the sort o f polytheistic philosophy that seems to come natural to men of ac tion, a similar esoteric doctrine might h a v e b e e n c u r r e n t i n p r e h i s t o r i c societies. True, the modern esot eric doctrines may have been de rived from higher cultures. But the significant fact remains that, if so derived, they yet had a meaning for certain members of t he primitive society and were considered valuable enough to be c a r e f u l l y p r e s e r v e d . W e h a v e s een t h a t m a n y t h o u g h t s a r e u n t h i n k a b l e a p a r t f r o m a n a p p r o p r i a t e vocabulary and frame of reference . But the fundamental ideas of the Perennial Philosophy can be form ulated in a very simple experie nce; and the experiences to which the ideas refer can and indeed must be had immediately and apart from any v ocabulary whatsoever. Strange openings and theophanies are granted to quite small children, w ho are often profoundly and permanently affected by these experiences. We have no reason to suppose that what happens now to persons with small 42 vocabularies did not happen in remote antiquity. In the modern world (as Vaughan and Traherne and Wordsworth, among others, have tol d us) the child tends to grow out of his direct awareness of the one Grou nd of things; for the habit of analyti cal thought is fatal to the int uitions of integral thinking, whether on th e psychic or the spiritual le vel. Psychic preoccupations may be and often are a major obstacle in the way of genuine spirituality. In primitive societies now (and, presumably,in the remote past) there is much preoccupation with, and a widespread talent for, psychic thinking. But a few people may have worked their way through psychic into genuinely s piritual experience - just as, even in modern industrialized societies, a few people work their way ou t of the prevailing preoccupation with matt er and through the prevailing habits of analytical thought into the direct experience of the spiritu al Ground of things. Such, then, very briefly are the reasons for supposing that the historical traditions of oriental and our own classical antiquity may be t rue. It is interesting to find that at least one distinguished contemporar y ethnologist is in agreement with Aristotle and the Vedantists. Orthodox ethnolo gy, writes Dr. Paul Radin in his Primitive Man as Philo sopher, has been nothing but an enthusiastic and quite uncritical atte mpt to apply the Darwinian theory of evolution to the facts of social experience. And he adds that no progress in ethnology will be achieved until scholars rid themselves once and for all of the curious n otion that everything possesses a history; until they realize that certain ideas and certain concepts are as ultimate for man, as a social being, as specific physiological reactions are ulti mate for him, as a biological b eing. Among these ultimate concepts, i n Dr. Radins view, is that of monotheism. Such monotheism is often no more than the recogniti on of a single dark and numinous Power ruling the world. But it ma y sometimes be genuinely e thical and spiritual. 43 The nineteenth centurys mania f or history and prophetic Utopia nism tended to blind the eyes of even its acutest thinkers to the ti meless facts of eternity. Thus we find T. H. Green writing of mystical union as though it were an evolutionary p rocess and not, as all the evid ence seems to show, a state which man, as man, has always had it in his power to realize. An animal orga nism, which has its history in time, gradually becomes the vehicle of an eternally complete consciou sness, which in itself can have no hist ory, but a history of the proce ss by which the animal organism becomes its vehicle. But in actual f act it is only in regard to peripheral know ledge that there has been a ge nuine historical development. Withou t much lapse of time and much accumulation of skills and inform ation, there can be but an imp erfect knowledge of the material world. But direct awareness of the e ternally complete consciousness, which is the Ground of the material wo rld, is a possibility occasionally actua lized by some human beings at a lmost any stage of their own personal development, from childhood to old age, and at any period of the races history. avb 44 Chapter 2 THE NATURE OF THE GROUND U R s t a r t i n g p o i n t h a s b e e n t h e p s y c h o l o g i c a l d o c t r i n e T h a t a r t t h o u . T h e q u e s t i o n t h a t n o w q u i t e n a t u r a l l y p r e s e n t s i t s e l f i s a metaphysical one: What is the Th at to which the thou can discov er itself to be akin? To this the fully developed Perennial Philosophy has at all tim es and in all places given fundamentally the same answer. The Divine Grou nd of all existence is a spiritual Abs olute, ineffable in terms of di scursive thought, but (in certain circumstances) susceptible of being directly experienced and realized by the human being. This Absolute is t he God- without-form of Hindu and Christian mystical phraseology. The l ast end of man, the ultimate reason for human existence, is unitive kno wledge of the Divine Ground - the knowledge that can come only to thos e who are prepared to die to self and so make room, as it were, for God. Out of any given generation of men and women very few will achieve the final end of human existence; bu t the opportunity for coming to unitive knowledge will, in one way or another, continually be offered u ntil all sentient beings realize who in fact they are. The Absolute Ground of all existe nce has a personal aspect. The activity of Brahman is hvara, and hva ra is further manifested in the Hindu Trinity and, at a more distant remove, in the other deities or angels of the Indian pantheon. Analogously, for Christian mystics, the in effable, attributeless Godhead is manifest ed in a Trinity of Persons, of whom it is possible to predicate such human attributes as goodness, wis dom, mercy and love, but in a super-eminent degree. O 45 Finally there is an incarnation of God in a human being, who po ssesses the same qualities of character as the personal God, but who ex hibits them under the limitations necessarily imposed by confinement w ithin a m a t e r i a l b o d y b o r n i n t o t h e w o r l d a t a g i v e n m o m e n t o f t i m e . For Christians there has been and incommensurable and, ex hypothesi , can be but one such Divine incarnati on; for Indians there can be an d have been many. In Christendom as well as in the East, contemplative s who follow the path of devotion conceive of, and indeed directly pe rceive, the incarnation as a constantly renewed fact of experience. Chr ist is for ever being begotten within the soul by the Father, and the play o f Krishna is the pseudo-historical symbol of an everlasting God i mmanent. That truth of psychology and metaphysics - the fact that, in re lation to God, the personal soul is a lways feminine and passive. Mahayana Buddhism teaches these s ame metaphysical doctrines in t e r m s o f t h e T h r e e B o d i e s o f B u d d h a - t h e a b s o l u t e D h a r m a k a y a , known also as the Primordial Buddha, or Mind, or the Clear Ligh t of the Void; the Sambhogakaya, corresponding to hvara or the persona l God of Judaism, Christianity and Isl am; and finally the Nirmanakaya , the material body, in which the Logos is incarnated upon earth as a living, historical Buddha. Among the Sufis, Al Haqq, the Re al, seems to be thought of as t he abyss of Godhead underlying the personal Allah, while the Prophet is taken out of history and regarded as t he incarnation of the Logos. S o m e i d e a o f t h e i n e x h a u s t i b l e r i c h n e s s o f t h e D i v i n e N a t u r e c a n be o b t a i n e d b y a n a l y s i n g , w o r d b y w o r d , t h e i n v o c a t i o n w i t h w h i c h the Lords Prayer begins - Our Father who art in heaven. God is o urs - ours in the same intimate sense that our consciousne ss and life are ours. But as well as immanently ours, God is also transcendently the pers onal Father, who loves His creatures and to whom love and allegiance are owed by them in return. Our Father who art: when we come to 46 consider the verb in isolation, we perceive that the immanent- transcendent personal God is als o the immanent-transcendent One , the essence and principle of all existence. And finally Gods being i s i n heaven; the Divine Nature is ot her than, and incommensurable w ith, the nature of the creatures in whom God is immanent. That is wh y we can attain to the unitive knowledge of God only when we become in some measure Godlike, only when we permit Gods kingdom to come by personal being. making our o wn creaturely kingdom go. God may be worshipped and contemplated in any of his aspects. B ut to persist in worshipping only one aspect to the exclusion of all the rest is to run into grave spiritual per il. Thus, if we approach God wit h the preconceived idea that He is exc lusively the personal, transcen dental, all-powerful ruler of the world, we run the risk of becoming en tangled in a religion of rites, propitiatory sacrifices (sometimes of the most horrible nature) a n d l e g a l i s t i c O b s e r v a n c e s . I n e v i t a b l y s o ; f o r i f G o d 'philosophical' is an unapproachab le potentate out there, givin g mysterious orders, this kind of religion is entirely appropriat e to the cosmic situation. The best that can be said for ritualistic leg alism is that it improves conduct. It does little, however, to alter characte r and nothing of itself to modify consciousness. T h i n g s a r e a g r e a t d e a l b e t t e r w hen the transcendent, omnipoten t personal God is regarded as also a loving Father. The sincere w orship of such a God changes character as well as conduct, and does somet hing to modify consciousness. But t h e c o m p l e t e t r a n s f o r m a t i o n o f consciousness, which is enlight enment, deliverance, salvat ion, comes only when God is thought o f as the Perennial Philosophy a ffirms Him to be - immanent as well as transcendent, supra-personal as well as personal - and when religious pra ctices are adapted to this con ception. When God is regarded as exclusiv ely immanent, legalism and exte rnal practices are abandoned and there is a concentration on the Inn er Light. 47 The dangers now are quietism and antinomianism, a partial modif ication of consciousness that is useless or even harmful, because it is n o t accompanied by the transformatio n of character which is the nec essary prerequisite of a total, complet e and spiritually fruitful tran sformation of consciousness. Finally it is possible to think of God as an exclusively supra- personal being. For many persons this con ception is too philosophical to provide an adequate motive for doing anything practical about their bel iefs. Hence, for them, it is of no value. It would be a mistake, of course, to suppose that people who wo rship one aspect of God to the exclusion of all the rest must inevita bly run into the different kinds of trouble d escribed above. If they are not t o o stubborn in their ready-made beliefs, if they submit with docil ity to what happens to them in the process of worshipping, the God who is b oth i m m a n e n t a n d t r a n s c e n d e n t , p e r s o nal and more than personal, may reveal Himself to them in His fu llness. Nevertheless, the fact remains that it is easier for us to reach our goal if we are not handic apped by a set of erroneous or inadequate beliefs about the right way to g et there and the nature of what we are looking for. Who is God? I can think of no bett er answer than, He who is. Nothing is more appropriate to the eternity which God is. If you call God good, or great, or blessed, or wise, or anything else of this sort, it is included in these words, namely, He is. St. Bernard The purpose of all words is to ill ustrate the meaning of an obj ect. When they are heard, they should enable the hearer to understand this meaning, and this according to th e four categories of substance, of activity, of quality and of relati onship. For example, cow and horse belong to the category of substance. He cooks or he prays belongs to the category of activity. White and black belong to the category of 48 quality. Having money or possessing cows belongs to the category of relationship. Now there is no class of substance to which the Brahman belongs, no common genus. It ca nnot therefore be denoted by words which, like being in the ordinary sense, signify a category of things. Nor can it be denoted by quality, for it is without qualities; nor yet by activity, because it is without activity - at rest, without parts or activity, according to the Scriptur es. Neither can it be denoted by relationship, for it is without a second and is not the object of anything but its own self. Therefore it cannot be defined by word or idea; as the Scripture says, it is the One before whom words recoil. Shankara It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang; The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind. Truly, Only he that rids hi mself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences. He that has never rid himself of desire can see only the Outcomes. Lao Tzu One of the greatest favours bestowed on the soul transiently in this life is to enable it to see so distinctly and to feel so profoundly that it cannot comprehend God at all. Thes e souls are herein somewhat like the saints in heaven, where they who know Him most perfectly perceive most clearly that He is infinitely incomprehensible; for those who have the less clear vision do no t perceive so clearly as do these others how greatly He transcends their vision. St. John of the Cross When I came out of the Godhead in to multiplicity, then all things proclaimed, There is a God (the personal Creator). Now this cannot make me blessed, for hereby I realize myself as creature. But in the breaking through I am more than a ll creatures; I am neither God nor creature; I am that which I was an d shall remain, now and for ever 49 more. There I receive a thrust whic h carries me above all angels. By this thrust I become so rich that Go d is not sufficient for me, in so far as He is only God in his Divine works. For in thus breaking through, I perceive what God and I are in common. There I am what I was. There I neither increase nor decrease. Fo r there I am the immovable which moves all things. Here man has won again what he is eternally and ever shall be. Here God is received into the soul. Eckhart The Godhead gave all things up to God. The Godhead is poor, naked and empty as though it were not; it has not, wills not, wants not, works not, gets not. It is God who has th e treasure and the bride in him, the Godhead is as void as though it were not. Eckhart We can understand something of what lies beyond our experience by considering analogous cases lying within our experience. Thus, the relations subsisting between the world and God and between God and the Godhead seem to be analogous, in some measure at least, to those between the body (with its environment) and the psyche, and between the psyche and the spirit. In the light of what we know about t he second - and what we know is not, unfortunately, very much - we may be able to form some not too hopelessly inadequate notions about the fi rst. Mind affects its body in four way s - subconsciously, through th at unbelievably subtle physiologic al intelligence, which Driesch hypostatized under the name of the entelechy; consciously, by deliberate acts of will; subconsc iously again, by the reaction upon the p h y s i c a l o r g a n i s m o f e m o t i o n a l s t a t e s h a v i n g n o t h i n g t o d o w i t h t h e organs or processes reacted upon; and, either consciously or subconsciously, in certain supe rnormal manifestations. Outsid e the body matter can be influenced by the mind in two ways - first, by means of the body, and second, by a s upernormal process, recently s tudied under laboratory conditions an d described as the PK effect (psycho- 50 kinesis) . Similarly, the mind can establish. relations with other mind s either indirectly, by willing its body to undertake symbolic ac tivities, such as speech or writing; or supernormally, by the direct ap proach of mind-reading, telepathy, extra-sensory perception. Let us now consider these relationships a little more closely. In some fields the physiological intelligence works on its own initiati ve, as when it directs the never-ceasing pro cesses of breathing, say, or as similation. In others it acts at the behest of the conscious mind, as when we will to a c c o m p l i s h s o m e a c t i o n , b u t d o n o t a n d c a n n o t w i l l t h e m u s c u l a r , g l a n d u l a r , n e r v o u s a n d v a s c u l a r m e a n s t o t h e d e s i r e d e n d . T h e apparently simple act of mimicry well illustrates the extraordi nary nature of the feats performed by the physiological intelligence . When a parrot (making use, let us remember, of the beak, tongue and throat of a bird) imitates the sounds produced by the lips, teeth, palate and voc al cords of a man articulating word s, what precisely happens? Resp onding in some as yet entirely uncomprehended way to the conscious min ds desire to imitate some remembere d or immediately perceived even t, the physiological intelligence sets in motion large numbers of muscles, co-ordinating their efforts with such exquisite skill that the result is a more or less perfect copy of the original. Working on its own l evel, the conscious mind not merely of a parrot, but of the most highly g ifted of human beings, of what Professor Rhine has called the PK effect. Nevertheless he would find itself completely baffled by a probl em of comparable complexity. As an example of the third way in which our minds affect matter , we may cite the all-too-familiar phen omenon of nervous indigestio n. In c e r t a i n p e r s o n s s y m p t o m s o f d y s p e p s i a m a k e t h e i r a p p e a r a n c e w h e n the conscious mind is troubled b y such negative emotions as fea r, envy, anger or hatred. These emotions are directed towards events or persons in the outer environment; but in some way or other they adverse ly affect 51 the physiological intelligence and this derangement results, am ong other things, in nervous indigestion. From tuberculosis and g astric ulcer to heart disease and even dental caries, numerous physical ailm ents have been found to be closely correlated with certain undesirab le states of the conscious mind. Conversely, every physician knows that a calm and cheerful patient is much more likely to recover than one wh o is agitated and depressed. F i n a l l y w e c o m e t o s u c h o c c u r r e n c e s a s f a i t h h e a l i n g a n d l e v i t a tion - occurrences supernormally strange, but nevertheless attested by masses of evidence which it is hard to discount completely. Pre cisely how faith cures diseases (whether at Lourdes or in the hypnotists consulting room), or how St. Joseph of Cupertino was able to ignore the laws of gravitation, we do not know (but let us remember that we are no less ignorant of the way in which minds and bodies are related in the most ordinary of everyday activities). In the same way we are unable to form any idea of the modus operandi of what Professor Rhine has call ed the PK effect. Neverthele ss the fact that the fall of dice can be i nfluenced by t h e m e n t a l s t a t e s o f c e r t a i n i n d i v i d u a l s s e e m s n o w t o h a v e b e e n established beyond the possibility of doubt. And if the PK effe ct can be demonstrated in the laboratory and measured by statistical meth ods, then, obviously, the intrinsic c redibility of the scattered ane cdotal evidence for the direct influence of mind upon matter, not mere ly within the body, but outside in the external world, is thereby notably increased. The same is true of extra-sensor y perception. Apparent examples of it are constantly turning up in ordinary life. But science is almo st impotent to cope with the particular case, the isolated instance. Promot ing their methodological ineptitude to the rank of a criterion of truth, dogmatic scientists have often branded ev erything beyond the pale of the ir limited competence as unreal and even impossible. But when test s for ESP can be repeated under standardized conditions, the subject comes 52 under the jurisdiction of the law of probabilities and achieves (in the teeth of what passionate opposition!) a measure of scientific respectability. Such, very baldly and briefly, are the most important things we know about mind in regard to its capacity to influence matter. From this modest knowledge about ourselves, what are we entitled to concl ude in regard to the Divine object of our nearly total ignorance? First, as to creation: if a human mind can directly influence m atter not merely within, but even outside its body, then a Divine mind, i mmanent in the universe or transcendent to it, may be presumed to be ca pable of imposing forms upon a pre-existing chaos of formless matter, or even, perhaps, of thinking substance a s well as forms into existence. Once created or Divinely informed, the universe has to be susta ined. The necessity for a continuous re-creation of the world becomes man ifest, according to Descartes, when we consider the nature of time, o r the duration of things; for this is of such a kind that its parts a re not mutually dependent and never co-existent; and, accordingly, from the fac t that we are now it does not necessarily follow that we shall be a mo ment afterwards, unless some cause, viz. that which first produced c reator of the us, shall, as it were, continually reproduce us, that is, c onserve us. Here we seem to have something analogous, on the cosmic level, to that physiological intelligence which , in men and the lower animals, unsleepingly performs the task of seeing that bodies behave as they should. Indeed, the physiological intelligence may plausibly be regarded as, a special aspect of the general re-creating Logos. In Chine se phraseology it is the words He t o some extent at Tao as it mani fests itself on the level of living bodies. The bodies of human beings are affected by the good or bad stat es of their minds. Analogously, the existence at the heart of things of a Divine serenity and goodwill may be regarded as one of the reasons why the 53 worlds sickness, though chronic, has not proved fatal. And if, i n t h e psychic universe, there should b e other and more than human consciousnesses obsessed by thou ghts of evil and egotism and re bellion, t h i s w o u l d a c c o u n t , p e r h a p s , f o r s o m e o f t h e q u i t e e x t r a v a g a n t and improbable wickedness of human behaviour. T h e a c t s w i l l e d b y o u r m i n d s a r e a c c o m p l i s h e d e i t h e r t h r o u g h t h e instrumentality of the physiological intelligence and the body , or, very exceptionally, and to a limited extent, by direct supernormal m eans of the PK variety. Analogously the physical situations willed by a Divine P r o v i d e n c e m a y b e a r r a n g e d b y t h e perpetually creating Mind tha t sustains the universe - in which case Providence will appear to do its work by wholly natural means; or else, very exceptionally, the Divine Mind may act directly on the universe from the outside, as it w ere - in which case the workings of Providence and the gifts of grace wi ll appear to be miraculous. Similarly, the Divine Mind may choose to communicate with finite minds ei ther by manipulating the world of men a n d t h i n g s i n w a y s w h i c h t h e p a r t i c u l a r m i n d t o b e r e a c h e d a t t hat moment will find meaningful; or else there may be direct communication by something resem bling thought transference. In Eckharts phrase, God, the cr eator and perpetual recreator o f the world, becomes and disbecomes. In other words He is, to some extent at least, in time. A temporal God might have the nature of the traditional Hebrew God of the Old Testament; or He might be a limited deity of the kind described by certain philosophical theologians of the pres ent c e n t u r y ; o r a l t e r n a t i v e l y H e m i g h t b e a n e m e r g e n t G o d , s t a r t i n g unspiritually at Alpha and becom ing gradually more Divine as th e aeons rolled on towards some hypothetical Omega. (Why the movement should be towards more and better rather than less and worse, upwards rather than downwards undulations, onwards rather than round and round, one really doesnt know. There seems to be no reason why a God who is excl usively 54 temporal - a God who merely beco mes and is ungrounded in eterni ty - should not be as completely at the mercy of time as is the individual mind apart from the spirit. A God who becomes is a God who also disbecomes, and it is the disbecoming which may ultimately prevail, so that the last stat e of emergent deity may be worse than the first.) The Ground in which the multifarious and time-bound psyche is r ooted is a simple, timeless awareness. By making ourselves pure in he art and poor in spirit we can discover and be identified with this awar eness. In the spirit we not only have, but are, the unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground. A n a l o g o u s l y , G o d i n t i m e i s G r o u n d e d i n t h e e t e r n a l n o w o f t h e modeless Godhead. It is in the Godhead that things, lives and m inds have their being; it is through God t hat they have their becoming - a becoming whose goal and purpose is to ret urn to the eternity of the Grou nd. Meanwhile, I beseech you by the et ernal and imperishable truth, and by my soul, consider; grasp the un heard-of. God and God-head are as distinct as heaven and earth. Heaven stands a thousand miles above the earth, and even so the Godhea d is above God. God becomes and disbecomes. Whoever understands th is preaching, I wish him well. But even if nobody had been here, I must still have preached this to the poor-box. Eckhart Like St. Augustine, Eckhart was to some extent the victim of hi s own literary talents. Le style cest lhomme. No doubt. But the con verse is also partly true. Lhomme cest le style. Because we have a gif t for writing in a certain way, we find ourselves, in some sort, beco ming our w a y o f w r i t i n g . W e m o u l d o u r s e l v e s i n t h e l i k e n e s s o f o u r p a r t i cular brand of eloquence. Eckhart was one of the inventors of German prose, and he was tempted by his new-fo und mastery of forceful express ion to commit himself to extreme positi ons - to be doctrinally the ima ge of his 55 powerful and over-emphatic senten ces. A statement like the fore going would lead one to believe that he despised what the Vedantists call the lower knowledge of Brahman, no t as the Absolute Ground of all things, but as the personal God. In rea lity he, like the Vedantists, ac cepts the lower knowledge as genuine knowledge and regards devotion to th e personal God as the best preparation for the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. Another point to remember is tha t the attributeless Godhead of Vedanta, of Mahayana Buddhism, of Christian and Sufi mysticism is the Ground of all the qualities possessed by the personal God and t he Incarnation. God is not good, I am good, says Eckhart in his violent and excessive way. What he really meant was, I am just humanly goo d; God i s s u p e r - e m i n e n t l y g o o d ; t h e G o d h e a d i s , a n d h i s i s n e s s (istigkeit, in Eckharts German) contains goodness, love, wisdom and all the rest in their essence and principle. In consequence, the Godhead is ne ver, for the exponent of the Perennial Philosophy, the mere Absolute of academic metaphysics, but someth ing more purely perfect, more reverently to be adored than even the personal God or his human incarnation - a Being towards whom it is possible to feel the m ost intense devotion and in relation to whom it is necessary (if one is to come to that unitive knowledge w hich is mans final end) to practise a discipline more arduous and unremitting than any imposed by ecclesiastical authority. There is a distinction and differen tiation, according to our reason, between God and the Godhead, between action and rest. The fruitful nature of the Persons ever worketh in a living differentiation. But the simple Being of God, according to the nature thereof, is an eternal Rest of God and of all created things. Ruysbroeck 56 (In the Reality unitively known by the mystic), we can speak no more of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, nor of any creature, but only one Being, which is the very substance of the Divine Persons. There were we all one before our creation, for this is our super-essence. There the Godhead is in simple esse nce without activity. Ruysbroeck The holy light of faith is so pure that, compared with it, particular lights are but impurities; and even ideas of the saints, of the Blessed Virgin, and the sight of Jesus Christ in his humanity are impediments in the way of the sight of God in His purity. J. J. Olier Coming as it does from a devout Catholic of the Counter Reforma tion, this statement may seem somewhat startling. But we must remembe r that Olier (who was a man of saintly life and one of the most influential religious teachers of the seventeenth century) is speaking here about a state of consciousness, to which few people ever come. To those on the ordinary levels of being he recommends other modes of knowledge . One of his penitents, for example, was advised to read, as a correc tive to St. John of the Cross and other expo nents of pure mystical theology , St. Gertrudes revelations of the in carnate and even physiological aspects o f t h e d e i t y . I n O l i e r s o p i n i o n , a s i n t h a t o f m o s t d i r e c t o r s of souls, whether Catholic or Indian, it was mere folly to recommend the worship of God - without - form to persons who are in a condition to un derstand only the personal and the incarnate aspects of the Divine Groun d. This is a perfectly sensible attitud e, and we are justified in adopt ing a policy in accordance with it - provided always that we clearly remembe r that i t s a d o p t i o n m a y b e a t t e n d e d b y c e r t a i n s p i r i t u a l d a n g e r s a n d disadvantages. The nature of these dangers and disadvantages wi ll be illustrated and discussed in ano ther section. For the present i t will suffice to quote the warning words of Philo: He who thinks that God ha s any quality and is not the One, in jures not God, b ut himself. 57 Thou must love God as not-God, not-Spirit, not-person, not-image, but as He is, a sheer, pure absolute One, sundered from all two-ness, and in whom we must eternally si nk from nothing - Super-Essential No-Thing-ness to nothingness. Eckhart What Eckhart describes as the pure One, the absolute not-God in whom we must sink from nothingness to n o t h i n g n e s s i s c a l l e d i n M a h a y ana Buddhism the Clear Light of the Void. What follows is part of a formula addressed by the Tibetan priest to a person in the act of death . O nobly born, the time has now co me for thee to seek the Path. Thy breathing is about to cease. In the past thy teacher hath set thee face to face with the Clear Light; and no w thou art about to experience it in its Reality in the Bardo state (the intermediate state immediately following death, in which the soul is judged - or rather judges itself by choosing, in accord with the characte r formed during its life on earth, what sort of an afte r-life it shall have). In this Bardo state all things are like the cloudless sky, and the naked, immaculate Intellect is like unto a translucent void without circumfere nce or centre. At this moment know thou thyself and abide in that stat e. I, too, at this time, am setting thee face to face. The Tibetan Book of the Dead Going back further into the past, we find in one of the earliest Upanishads the classical descriptio n of the Absolute One as a Super- Essential No-Thing. The significance of Brahman is expressed by Neti (not so, not so) ; for beyond this, that you say it is not so, there is nothing further. Its name, however, is the Reality of reality. That is to say, the senses are real, an d the Brahman is their Reality. Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad In other words, there is a hierarchy of the real. The manifold world of our everyday experience is real with a relative reality that is , on its own 58 level, unquestionable; but this relative reality has its being within and because of the absolute Reality, which, on account of the incommensurable otherness of its eternal nature, we can never h ope to describe, even though it is possi ble for us directly to apprehe nd it. The extract which follows next is of great historical significa nce, since it was mainly through the Mystical Theology and the Divine Name s of t h e f i f t h - c e n t u r y a u t h o r w h o w r o t e u n d e r t h e n a m e o f D i o n y s i u s the Areopagite that mediaeval Christ endom established contact with Neoplatonism and thus, at several r e m o v e s , w i t h t h e m e t a p h y s i c a l t h o u g h t a n d d i s c i p l i n e o f I n d i a . I n t h e n i n t h c e n t u r y S c o t u s E r igena translated the two books into Latin, and from that time forth t heir influence upon the philosophical speculations and the religious life of the West was wide, deep and beneficent. It was to the authority of the Areopagite that the Christian ex ponents of the Perennial Philos ophy appealed, whenever they were menaced (and they were always being menaced) by those whose primary interest was in ritual, legalism and ecclesiastical organization. And because Dionysius was mistaken ly identified with St. Pauls first Athenian convert, his authorit y was regarded as all but apostolic; t herefore, according to the rule s of the Catholic game, the appeal to it could not lightly be dismissed, even by t h o s e t o w h o m t h e b o o k s m e a n t l e s s t h a n n o t h i n g . I n s p i t e o f t h eir maddening eccentricity, the men and women who followed the Dionysian path had to be tolerated. And once left free to produ ce the f r u i t s o f t h e s p i r i t , a n u m b e r o f t h e m a r r i v e d a t s u c h a c o n s p i cuous degree of sanctity that it became impossible even for the heads of the Spanish Inquisition to condemn the tree from which such fruits had sprung. The simple, absolute and immutable mysteries of Divine Truth are hidden in the super-luminous darkness of that silence which revealeth in secret. For this darkness, thou gh of deepest obscurity, is yet 59 radiantly clear; and, though beyond touch and sight, it more than fills our unseeing minds with splendours of transcendent beauty. . . . We long exceedingly to dwell in this translucent darkness and, through not seeing and not knowing, to s ee Him who is beyond both vision and knowledge - by the very fact of neither seeing Him nor knowing Him. For this is truly to see and to know and, through the abandonment of all things, to praise Him who is beyond and above all things. For this is not unlike the ar t of those who carve a life - like image from stone: removing from around it all that impedes clear vision of the latent form, revealing its hidden beauty solely by taking away. For it is, as I beli eve, more fitting to prai se Him by taking away than by ascription; for we ascribe attributes to Him, when we start f r o m u n i v e r s a l s a n d c o m e d o w n through the intermediate to the particulars. But here we take away all things from Him going up from particulars to universals, that we may know openly the unknowable, which is hidden in and under all things that may be known. And we behold that darkness beyond being, concealed under all natural light. Dionysius the Areopagite T h e w o r l d a s i t a p p e a r s t o c o m m o n s e n s e c o n s i s t s o f a n i n d e f i n i te number of successive and presumably causally connected events, involving an indefinite number of separate, individual things, lives and thoughts, the whole constituting a presumably orderly cosmos. I t is in order to describe, discuss and manage this common-sense univers e that human languages have been developed. Whenever, for any reason, we wis h to think of the world, not as i t appears to common sense, but as a continuum, we find that our traditional syntax and vocabular y are quite inadequate. Mathema ticians have therefore been compelled to invent only by radically new s ymbol- systems for this express purpose. But the Divine Ground of all existence is not merely a continuum, it is also out of time, and differen t, not merely 60 in degree, but in kind from the worlds to which traditional lan guage and the languages of mathematics are adequate. Hence, in all exposi tions of the Perennial Philosophy, the frequency of paradox, of verbal extravagance, sometimes even of seeming blasphemy. Nobody has y et invented a Spiritual Calculus, in terms of the barrier which we may talk coherently about the Divine Grou nd and of the world conceived a s its manifestation. For the present, therefore, we must be patient w ith the l i n g u i s t i c e c c e n t r i c i t i e s o f t h o s e w h o a r e c o m p e l l e d t o d e s c r i b e one order of experience in terms of a symbol-system, whose relevanc e is to the facts of another and quite different order. So far, then, as a fully adequate expression of the Perennial P hilosophy is concerned, there exists a pro blem in semantics that is final ly insoluble. The fact is one which must be st eadily borne in mind by all who read its formulations. Only in this way s hall we be able to understand e ven remotely what is being talked about. Consider, for example, tho se negative definitions of the transcendent and immanent Ground of being. In statements such as Eckharts, God is equated with nothing. A nd in a certain sense the equation is exact; for God is certainly no th ing. In the phrase used by Scotus Erigena God is not a what; He is a That. In other words, the Ground can be denoted as being time, but not defined as having qualities. This means that discursive knowl edge about the Ground is not me rely, like all inferential knowledge, a thing at one remove, or even at several removes, from the reality of imme diate acquaintance; it is and, because of the very nature of our langua ge and our standard patterns of thought, it must be, paradoxical knowledge. Direct knowledge of the Grou nd cannot be had except by union, and union can be achieved only b y the annihilation of the self-regardi ng ego, which is the barrier se parating the Thou from the That. avb 61 Chapter 3 PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION N E n g l i s h , w o r d s o f L a t i n o r i g i n t e n d t o c a r r y o v e r t o n e s o f intellectual, moral and aesthetic classiness - overtones whic h are not carried, as a rule, by their Anglo-Saxon equivalents. Mate rnal, for instance, means the same as mot herly, intoxicated as drunk - but with what subtly important shades of difference! And when Shakespeare needed a name for a comic character, it was Sir Tob y Belch that he chose, not Caval ier Tobias Eructation. The word personality is derived from the Latin, and its upper partials are in the highest degree respec table. For some odd philologica l reason, the Saxon equivalent of persona lity is hardly ever used. Whic h is a pity. For if it were used as currently as belch is used for eructa tion - would people make such a reverential f uss about the thing connoted as certain English-speaking philosophers, m oralists and theologians have r ecently done? Personality, we are const antly being assured, is the hi ghest form of reality with which we are acquainted. But surely people woul d think twice about making or accepting this affirmation if, instead of personality, the word employed h a d b e e n i t s T e u t o n i c s y n o n y m , selfness. For selfness, though it means precisely the same, carries none of the high-class overtones that go with personality. On the contrary, its primary meaning comes to us embedded, as i t were, in discords, like the note of a cracked bell. For, as all expon ents of the Perennial Philosophy have consta ntly insisted, mans obsessive consciousness of, and insistence on being, a separate self is t he final and most formidable obstacle to the unitive knowledge of God. To be a self is, for them, the original sin, and to die to self, in feeling, will and intellect, is the final and all-inclusive virtue. It is the mem ory of these I 62 utterances that calls up the unfa vourable overtones with which the word selfness is associated. Th e all too favourable overtones o f personality are evoked in part by its intrinsically solemn La tinity, but also by reminiscences of what ha s been said about the persons of the Trinity. But the persons of the Trinity have nothing in common with the flesh-and-blood persons of our ev eryday acquaintance - nothing, that is to say, except that indwelling Spirit, with which we ought and are intended to identify ourselves, but which most of us prefer to ignore in favour of our separate selfness. That this God-eclipsing and an ti-spiritual selfness should have been given the same name as is applied to the God who is a Spirit, is, to say the least of it, unfortunate. Like all such mistakes it is probably, in some obscure and subconscious way, voluntary and purposeful. We love our selfness; we want to be justified in ou r love; therefore we christen it with the same name as is applied by th eologians to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But now thou askest me how thou mayest destroy this naked knowing and feeling of thine own being. For pe radventure thou thinkest that if it were destroyed, all other hindra nces were destroyed; and if thou thinkest thus, thou thinkest right tr uly. But to this I answer thee and I say, that without a full special gr ace full freely given by God, and also a full according ableness on thy part to receive this grace, this naked knowing and feeling of thy being may in nowise be destroyed. And this ableness is nought else but a strong and a deep ghostly sorrow. All men have matter of sorrow; but most specially he feeleth matter of sorrow that knoweth and feeleth th at he is. All other sorrows in comparison to this be but as it were game to earnest. For he may make sorrow earnestly that knoweth and feeleth not only what he is, but that he is. And whoso felt never th is sorrow, let him make sorrow; for he hath never yet felt perfect sorrow. This sorrow, when it is had, 63 cleanseth the soul, not only of sin, but also of pain that it hath deserved for sin; and also it maketh a soul able to receive that joy, the which reaveth from a man all knowing and feeling of his being. This sorrow, if it be truly conceive d, is full of holy desire; and their constituent atoms of else a man might ne ver in this life abide it or bear it. For were it not that a soul were somewhat fed with a manner of comfort by his right working, he should not be able to bear that pain that he hath by the knowing and feel ing of his being. For as he would have a true knowing and a feeling of his God in purity of spirit (as it may be here), and then feeleth that he may not - for he findeth evermore his knowing and his feeling as it were occupied own accord and filled with a foul stinking lump of himself, the which must always be hated and despised and forsaken, if he shall be Gods perfect disciple, taught by Himself in the mo unt of perfection - so often goeth nigh mad for sorrow. . . . This sorrow and this desire must ev ery soul have and feel in itself (either in this mann er or in another), as God vouchsafeth to teach his ghostly disciples according to his good will and their according ableness in body and in soul, in degr ee and disposition, ere the time be that they may perfectly be oned unto God in perfect ch arity - such as may be had here, if God vouchsafeth. The Cloud of Unknowing W h a t i s t h e n a t u r e o f t h i s s t i n k i n g l u m p o f s e l f n e s s o r p e r s o nality, which has to be so passionately repented of and so completely d ied to, before there can be any true knowing of God in purity of spiri t? The most meagre and non-committal hypothesis is that of Hume. Mank ind, he says, are nothing but a bundl e or collection of different p erceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity and are in a perpetual flux and movement. An almost identical answer is giv en by 64 the Buddhists, whose doctrine of Anatta is the denial of any pe rmanent soul, existing behind the flux of experience and the various ps ycho- physical Skandhas (closely corresponding to Humes bundles), which constitute the more enduring elements of personality. Hume and the Buddhists give a sufficiently re alistic description of selfness in action; but they fail to explain how or why the bundles ever became bundles . Did their constituent atoms of experience come together of their ow n accord? And, if so, why, or by what means, and within what kind of a non-spatial universe? To give a plausible answer to these quest ions in terms of natt is so difficult that we are forced to abandon t he doctrine in favour of the notion that, behind the flux and within the bu ndles, there exists some kind of perman ent soul, by which experience i s organized and which in turn makes use of that organized experie nce to become a particular and unique personality. This is the view of the orthodox Hinduism, from which Buddhist thought parted company, and of almost a ll European thought from before the time of Aristotle to the present day. But whereas most contempo rary t h i n k e r s m a k e a n a t t e m p t t o d e s c r i b e h u m a n n a t u r e i n t e r m s o f a dichotomy of interacting psyche and physique, or an inseparable wholeness of these two elements within particular embodied selv es, all the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy make, in one form or another, the affirmation that ma n is a kind of trinity composed of body, psyche and spirit. Selfness or p ersonality is a product of the first two elements. The third element (that guidguia increatum et increabile, as Eckhart called it) is akin to, or even identical with, the Divine Spirit that is the Ground of all being. Mans final end, the purpose of his ex istence, is to love, know and be united with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. And this identification of self with spiritual not-sel f can be achieved only by dying to se lfness and living to spirit. 65 What could begin to deny self, if there were not something in man different from self? William Law What is man? An angel, an an imal, a void, a world, a nothing surrounded by God, indigent of God, capable of God, filled with God, if it so desires. Brulle The separate creaturely life, as oppo sed to life in union with God, is only a life of various appetites, hu ngers and wants, and cannot possibly be anything else. God Himself cannot make a creature to be in itself, or in its own nature, anyt hing else but a state of emptiness. The highest life that is natural and creaturely can go no higher than this; it can only be a bare capacity for goodness and cannot possibly be a good and happy life but by the life of God dwelling in and in union with it. And this is the twofold average citizens, life that, of all necessity, must be united in every good and perfect and happy creature . William Law The Scriptures say of human beings that there is an outward man and along with him an inner man. To the outward man belong those thin gs that depend on the soul, but are connected with the flesh and are blended with it, and the co- operative functions of the several me mbers, such as the eye, the ear, the tongue, the hand and so on. The Sc ripture speaks of all this as the old man, the earthy man, the outwar d person, the enemy, the servant. Within us all is the ot her person, the inner man, whom the Scripture calls the new man, the heavenly man, the young person, the friend, the aristocrat. Eckhart The seed of God is in us. Give n an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and 66 accordingly its fruits will be God-na ture. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut tree s, and God seed into God. Eckhart T h e w i l l i s f r e e a n d w e a r e a t liberty to identify our being ei ther exclusively with our selfness and its interests, regarded as in dependent of indwelling Spirit and transcendent Godhead (in which case we shall be passively damned or actively fiendish), or exclusively with the Divine within us and without (in which case we shall be saints), or finally with self at one moment or in one context and with spiritual not-self at other m oments and in other contexts (in which case we shall be average citizens, too theocentric to be wholly lost, and too egocentric to achieve en lightenment and a total deliverance). Since human craving can never be satisfied except by the unitive knowledge of God and since the mind - bod y is capable of an enormous variety of experiences, we are free to i dentify ourselves with an almost infinit e number of possible objects - with the pleasures of gluttony, for exampl e, or intemperanc e, or sensual ity; with money, power or fame; with our family, regarded as a possession o r actually an extension and projec tion of our own selfness; with our goods and chattels, our hobbies, our c ollections; with our artistic o r scientific t a l e n t s ; w i t h s o m e f a v o u r i t e b r a n c h o f k n o w l e d g e , s o m e f a s c i n a t ing s p e c i a l s u b j e c t ; w i t h o u r p r o f e s s i o n s , o u r p o l i t i c a l p a r t i e s , o u r churches; with our pains and illnesses; with our memories of su ccess or misfortune, our hopes, fears and schemes for the future; and fi nally with the eternal Reality within which and by which all the rest has its being. And we are free, of course, to identify ourselves with more tha n one of these things simultaneously or in succession. Hence the quite astonishingly improbable combination of traits making up a comp lex personality. Thus a man can be at once the craftiest of politicians and the dupe of his own verbiage, can have a passion for brandy and money, and an e qual passion for the poetry of George Meredith and under-age girls a nd his 67 m o t h e r , f o r h o r s e - r a c i n g a n d d e t e c t i v e s t o r i e s a n d t h e g o o d o f his country - the whole accompanied by a sneaking fear of hell-fire , a hatred of Spinoza and an unblemished re cord for Sunday church-going. A person born with one kind of psycho-physical constitution will be tempted to identify himself with one set of interests and passi ons, while a person with another kind of temperament will be tempted to ma ke very different identificatio ns. But these temptations (though extremely powerful, if the constitutio nal bias is strongly marked) do not have to be succumbed to; people can and do resist them, can and do refuse to identify themselves with what it would be all too easy and natu ral for them to be; can and do become be tter and quite other than their own selves. In this context the follo wing brief article on How Men Behave in Crisis (published in a recent issu e of Harpers Magazine) is highly significant. A young psychiatrist, who went as a medical observer on five c ombat missions of the Eighth Air Force in England, says that in times of great stress and danger men are likely to react quite uniformly, even though under normal circumstances they differ widely in personality. H e went on one mission, during which the B-17 plane and crew were so se verely damaged that survival seemed imp ossible. He had already studied the on the Ground personalities of t he crew and had found that th ey represented a great diversity of human types. Of their behaviou r in crisis he reported: Their reactions were remarkably alike. During the violent physiological combat and in the ac ute emergencies that arose during it, they were all quietly precise on the interphone and decisive in action. The tail gunner, right waist gunner and navigator were severely wounded early in the fight, but all three kept at their duties efficiently and without cessation. Th e burden of emergency work fell on the pilot, engineer and ball turre t gunner, and all functioned with 68 rapidity, skilful effectiveness and no lost motion. The burden of the decisions, during, but particularly after the combat, rested essentially on the pilot and, in secondary detail s, on the co-pilot and bombardier. The decisions, arrived at with care and speed, were unquestioned once they were made, and proved excellent . In the period when disaster was momentarily expected, the altern ative plans of action were made clearly and with no thought other th an the safety of the entire crew. All at this point were quiet, unobtrusively cheerful and ready for anything. There was at no time pa ralysis, panic, unclear thinking, faulty or confused judgment, or se lf-seeking in any one of them. One could not possibly have inferr ed from their behaviour that this one was a man of unstable moods and that that one was a shy, quiet, introspective man. They all became outwardly calm, precise in thought and rapid in action. Such acti on is typical of a crew who know intimately what fear is, so that th ey can use, without being distracted by, its physiological concomitants; who are well trained, so that they can direct their action with clarit y; and who have all the more than personal trust inherent in a unified team. We see then that, when the crisis came, each of these young men forgot the particular personality which he had built up out of the ele ments provided by his heredity and the environment in which he had gr own up; that one resisted the normally irresistible temptation to i dentify h i m s e l f w i t h h i s m o o d o f t h e m o m e n t , a n o t h e r t h e t e m p t a t i o n t o identify himself with his private day-dreams, and so on with th e rest; and that all of them behaved in the same strikingly similar and wholly heart's content. And how we wallow It is for admirable way. It was as though the crisis and the preliminary training for crisis had l ifted them out of their divergent personalities and raised them to the sam e higher level. 69 Sometimes crisis alone, without any preparatory training, is su fficient to make a man forget to be his customary self and become, for the time being, something quite different. Thus the most unlikely people will, under the influence of disaster, temporarily turn into heroes, martyrs, selfless labourers for the good of their fellows. Very often, t oo, the proximity of death produces sim ilar results. For example, Samue l Johnson behaved in one way during almost the whole of his life and in quite another way during his last illness. The fascinatingly co mplex personality, in which six genera tions of Boswellians have taken so much delight - the learned boor and glutton, the kind-hearted bully, t h e superstitious intellectual, the convinced Christian who was a f etishist, the courageous man who was terrified of death - became, while h e was actually dying, simple, single , serene and God-centred. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is, for very many persons, much easier to behave selflessly in time of crisis than it is when life is tak ing its normal course in undisturbed tranquillity. When the going is easy, the re is nothing to make us forget our precious selfness, nothing (except our own will to mortification and the knowledge of God) to distract our minds from the distractions with which we h ave chosen to be identified; we are at perfect liberty to wallow in our personality to our hearts con tent. And how we wallow! It is for this reason that all the masters of th e spiritual life insist so strongly upon the importance of little things. God requires a faithful fulfilment of the merest trifle given us to do, rather than the most ardent aspiration to things to which we are not called. St. Franois de Sales There is no one in the world who cannot arrive without difficulty at the most eminent perfection by fu lfilling with love obscure and common duties. F. P. de Caussade 70 Some people measure the worth of go od actions only by their natural qualities or their difficulty, givi ng the preference to what is conspicuous or brilliant. Such men fo rget that Christian virtues, which are Gods inspirations, should be vi ewed from the side of grace, not that of nature. The dignity and diff iculty of a good action certainly affects what is technically called its accidental worth, but all its essential worth comes from love alone. Jean Pierre Camus (quoting St. Franois de Sales) The saint is one who knows that every moment of our human life is a moment of crisis; for at every moment we are called upon to mak e an all-important decision - to choose between the way that leads t o death and spiritual darkness and the way that leads towards light and life; between interests exclusively temporal and the eternal order; b etween our personal will, or the will of some projection of our person ality, and the will of God. In order to fit himself to deal with the emerg encies of his way of life, the saint undertakes appropriate training of m ind and body, just as the soldier does. But whereas the objectives of m ilitary training are limited and v e r y simple, namely, to make men courageous, cool-headed and co- operatively efficient in the business of killing other men, wit h whom, personally, they have no quarrel, the objectives of spiritual t raining are much less narrowly specialized. Here the aim is primarily to br ing human beings to a state in which, beca use there are no longer any God -eclipsing obstacles between themselves and Reality, they are able to be a ware continuously of the Divine Ground of their own and all other be ings; secondarily, as a means to this end, to meet all, even the most trivial circumstances of daily living, without malice, greed, self-asse rtion or voluntary ignorance, but consistently with love and understandi ng. Because its objectives are not limited, because, for 'loves his enemies' 71 the lover of God, every moment is a moment of crisis, spiritual training is incomparably more difficult a nd searching than military trai ning. There are many good soldiers, few saints. We have seen that, in critical emergencies, soldiers specifical ly trained to cope with that kind of thing tend to forget the inborn and a cquired idiosyncrasies with which they normally identify their being an d, transcending selfness, to behave in the same, one-pointed, bett er-than- personal way. What is true of soldiers is also true of saints, but with this important difference - that the aim of spiritual training is to make people become selfless in every circumstance of life, while the aim of military t r a i n i n g i s t o m a k e t h e m s e l f l e s s o n l y i n c e r t a i n v e r y s p e c i a l circumstances and in relation to only certain classes of human beings. This could not be otherwise; for all that we are and will and d o depends, in the last analysis, upon what we believe the Nature of Things to be. The philosophy that rationalizes power politics and justifies w ar and military training is always (whatever the official re ligion of the politicians and war makers) some wildly unrealistic doctr ine of national, racial or ideological idolatry, having, as its inevitable corollaries, th e notions of Herrenvolk and the lesser breeds without the Law. The biographies of the saints testify unequivocally to the fact t h a t spiritual training leads to a transcendence of personality, not merely in the special circumstances of bat tle, but in all circumstances a nd in relation to all creatures, so th at the saint loves his enemies or, if he is a Buddhist, does not even recognize the existence of enemies, b ut treats all sentient beings, the Blessed One sub-human as well as human , with the same compassion and disinterested goodwill. Those who win through to the unitive knowledge of God set out upon their cour se from the most diverse starting points . One is a man, another a woman ; one a born active, another a born cont emplative. No two of them inher it the same temperament and physical constitution, and their lives are passed 72 in material, moral and intellectual environments that are profo undly dissimilar. Nevertheless, in so far as whose non-destruction wo uld have individualized me as a they are s a i n t s , i n s o f a r a s t h e y p o s s e ss the unitive knowledge that makes the m perfect as their Father whic h is in h e a v e n i s p e r f e c t , t h e y a r e a l l a s t o n i s h i n g l y a l i k e . T h e i r a c t ions are uniformly selfless and they are constantly recollected, so that at every moment they know who they are and what is their true relation t o the universe and its spiritual Ground. Of even plain average people it may b e s a i d t h a t t h e i r n a m e i s L e g i o n - m u c h m o r e s o o f e x c e p t i o n a l ly complex personalities, who identify themselves with a wide dive rsity of moods, cravings and opinions. Saints, on the contrary, are nei ther doubleminded nor half-hear ted, but single and, however great their intellectual gifts, profoundly simple. The multiplicity of Legion has given place to one-pointedness - not to any of those evil one-pointednesses of ambition or covetousness, or lu st for power and fame, not even to any of the nobler, but still all to o human one-pointednesses of art, schola rship and science, regarded as ends in themselves, but to the supreme, m ore than human one-pointedness that is the very being of those souls who consciously and consi stently pursue mans final end, the know ledge of eternal Reality. In on e of the Pali scriptures there is a significant anecdote about the Brahm an Drona who, seeing the Blessed One sitting at the foot of a tree, ask ed him, Are you a deva?. And the Exalted On e answered, I am not. Are yo u a Gandharva? I am not. Are you a Yaksha? I am not. Are yo u a man? I am not a man. On the Brahman asking what he might be, the B lessed One replied, Those evil influenc es, those cravings, whose non- destruction would have individua lized me as a deva, a Gandharva , a Yaksha (three types of supernatural being), or a man, I have completely annihilated. Know theref ore that I am Buddha. 73 Here we may remark in passing tha t it is only the one-pointed w ho are truly capable of worshipping one God. Monotheism as a theory ca n be entertained even by a person who se name is Legion. But when it comes to passing from theory to practi ce, from discursive knowledge a bout to immediate acquaintance with the one God, there cannot be monotheism except where there is singleness of heart. Knowledge is in the knower according to the mode of the knower. Where the knowe r is poly-psychic the universe he kno ws by immediate experience is polytheistic. The Buddha decline d to make any statement in rega rd to the ultimate Divine Reality. All he would talk about was Nirvan a, which is the name of the experience that comes to the totally selfles s and one- pointed. To this same experience others have given the name of union with Brahman, with Al Haqq, with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. Maintaining, in this matter, the attitude of a strict operationalist, the Buddha would speak only of the spiritual ex perience, not of the metaphysical entity presumed by the theologians of o ther religions, as also of later Bu ddhism, to be the object and (since in contemplation the knower, the kn own and the knowledge are all o ne) at the same time the subject and subs tance of that experience. When a man lacks discrimination, hi s will wanders in all directions, after innumerable aims. Those who la ck discrimination may quote the letter of the scripture; but they are really denying its inner truth. They are full of worldly desires and hungry for the rewards of heaven. They use beautiful figures of speech; they teach elaborate rituals, which are supposed to obtain pleasure and power for those who practise them. But, actually, they understand noth ing except the law of Karma that chains men to rebirth. Those whose discrimination is stolen away by such talk grow deeply attached to pleasure and power. And so they are unable to develop that 74 one-pointed concentration of th e will, which leads a man to absorption in God. Bhagavad-Gita Among the cultivated and mentally active, hagiography is now a very u n p o p u l a r f o r m o f l i t e r a t u r e . T h e f a c t i s n o t a t a l l s u r p r i s i n g . The cultivated and the mentally activ e have an insatiable appetite for novelty, diversity and distractio n. But the saints, however com manding their talents and whatever the n ature of their professional act ivities, are all incessantly preoccupied with only one subject-spiritual Rea lity and t h e m e a n s b y w h i c h t h e y a n d t h e i r f e l l o w s c a n c o m e t o t h e u n i t i ve knowledge of that Reality. And as for their actions - these are a s monotonously uniform as their thoughts; for in all circumstance s they behave selflessly, patiently and with indefatigable charity. No wonder, then, if the biographies of such men and women remain unread. F or one well-educated person who knows anything about William Law there are two or three hundred who have read Boswells life of his younge r contemporary. Why? Because, unti l he actually lay dying, Johnso n indulged himself in the most fascinating of multiple personalit ies; whereas Law, for all the superiority of his talents, was almost absurdly simple and single-minded. Legion prefers to read about Legion. It is for this reason that, in the whole r epertory of epic, drama and the novel, there are hardly any representati ons of true theocentric saints . O Friend, hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live; for in li fe deliverance abides. If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliverance in death? It is but an empty dream that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body; If He is found now, He is found then; If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death. Kabir This figure in the form of a sun (the description is of the engraved frontispiece to the first edition of The Rule of Perfection) represents the will 75 of God. The faces placed here in the sun represent souls living in the Divine will. These faces are arranged in three concentric circl es, showing the three degrees of this Divine will. The first or outermost degree si gnifies the souls of the active life; the second, those of the life of contemplation; the third, those of the life of super-eminence. Outside the first circle are many tools, such a s pincers and hammers, denoting the active life. But round the second cir cle we have placed nothing at all, in or d e r t o s i g n i f y t h a t i n t h i s k i nd of contemplative life, without any other speculations or practices , one must follow the leading of the w ill of God. The tools are on th e Ground and in shadow, inasmuch as outwa rd saint, works are in themselv es full of darkness. These tools, however, are touched by a ray of the sun, to show that works may be enlightened and illuminated by the will of God. The light of the Divine will shines but little on the faces of the first circle; much more on those of the second; while those of the third or innermost circle are resplendent. Th e features of the first show up most clearly; the second, less; the third, hardly at all. This signifies that the souls of the first degree are much in themselves; those of the second degree are less in themselv es and more in God; those in the third degree are almost nothing in th emselves and all in God, absorbed in his essential will. All these faces ha ve their eyes fixed on the will of God. Benet of Canfield It is in virtue of his absorption in God and just because he ha s not identified his being with the inborn and acquired elements of h is private personality, that the saint is a ble to exercise his entirely no n-coercive and therefore entirely beneficent influence on individuals and even on whole societies. Or, to be more accurate, it is because he has purged himself of selfness that Divine Reality is able to use him as a channel of grace and power. I live, yet not I, but Christ - the eternal L ogos liveth in 76 m e . T r u e o f t h e s a i n t , t h i s m u s t a f o r t i o r i b e t r u e o f t h e A v a t ar, or incarnation of God. If, in so far as he was a saint, St. Paul w as not I, then certainly Christ was not I. The moral of all this is unambiguous and to talk, as so many li beral churchmen now do, of worshipping the personality of Jesus, is a n absurdity. For, obviously, had Jesus remained content merely to have a personality, like the rest of us, he would never have exercised the kind of influence which in fact he did exercise, and it would never have occurred to anyone to regard him as a Divine incarnation and to identify him with the Logos. That he came to be thought of as the Christ was due to the fact that he had passed be yond selfness and had become t he bodily and mental conduit through which a more than personal, s uper- life flowed down into the world. Souls which have come to the unitive knowledge of God are, in B enet of Canfields phrase, almost nothin g in themselves and all in God . This vanishing residue of selfness persists because, in some slight measure, they still identify their being with some innate psycho-physica l idiosyncrasy, some acquired habi t o f t h o u g h t o r f e e l i n g , s o m e convention or unanalysed prejudice current in the social enviro nment. Jesus was almost wholly absorbed in the essential will of God; but in spite of this, he may have retai ned some elements of selfness. To what extent there was any I associated with the more-than-personal , Divine Not-I, it is very difficult, on the basis of the existing evi dence, to judge. For example, did Jesus interpret his experience of Divine Reali ty and his own spontaneous inferences from that experience in terms of tho se fascinating apocalyptic notions current in contemporary Jewish circles? Some eminent scholars have argued that the doctrine of the worl ds i m m i n e n t d i s s o l u t i o n w a s t h e c e n t r a l c o r e o f h i s t e a c h i n g . O t h e rs, equally learned, have held that it was attributed to him by the authors o f t h e S y n o p t i c G o s p e l s , a n d t h a t J e s u s h i m s e l f d i d n o t i d e n t i f y his 77 experience and his theological thinking with locally popular op inions. Which party is right? Goodness knows. On this subject, as on so many others, the existing evidence does not permit of a certain and unambiguous answer. The moral of all this is plain. The quantity and quality of the surviving b i o g r a p h i c a l d o c u m e n t s a r e s u c h t h a t w e h a v e n o m e a n s o f k n o w i n g what the residual personality of Jesus was really like. But if the Gospels tell us very little about the I which was Jesus, they make up for this deficiency by telling us inferent ially, in the parables and dis courses, a good deal about the spiritual n ot I, whose manifest presence in the mortal man was the reason why his disciples called him the Chri st and identified him with the eternal Logos. The biography of a saint or avatar is valuable only in so far a s it throws l i g h t u p o n t h e m e a n s b y w h i c h i n t h e c i r c u m s t a n c e s o f a p a r t i c u lar human life, the I was purged away so as to make room for the Divine not-I. The authors of the Synoptic Gospels did not choose to write such a biography, and no amount of textual criticism or ingenious su rmise can call it into existence. In the course of the last hundred years a n enormous sum of energy has been expended on the attempt to make documents yield more evidence than in fact they contain. Howeve r regrettable may be the Synoptist s l a c k o f i n t e r e s t i n b i o g r a p h y, and whatever objections may be raised against the theologies of Pau l and John, there can still be no doubt that their instinct was essen tially sound. Each in his own way wrote about the eternal not-I of Christ r ather than the historical I; ea ch in his own way stressed that element i n the life of Jesus, in which, because it is m ore-than-personal, all persons can participate. (The nature of selfness is such that one person cannot be a par t of another person. A self can contain or be contained by someth ing that is either less or more than a self, it can never contain or be con tained by a self.) 78 The doctrine that God can be incarnated in human form is found in most o f t h e p r i n c i p a l h i s t o r i c e x p o s i t i o n s o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p hy - in Hinduism, in Mahayana Buddhism, in Christianity and in the Mohammedanism of the Sufis, by w hom the Prophet was equated wit h the eternal Logos. When goodness grows weak, when evil increases, I make myself a body. the incarnation of the Godhead in human form differs from that In every age I come back, to deliver the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinner, to establish righteousness. He who knows the nature of my task and my holy birth is not reborn wh en he leaves this body; he comes to Me. Flying from fear, from lust and anger, He hides in Me, his refuge and safety. Burnt clean in the blaze of my being, in Me many find home. Bhagavad-Gita Then the Blessed One spoke and said: Know, Vasetha, that from time to time a Tath gata is born into the worl d, a fully Enlightened One, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men, a Bl essed Buddha. He thoroughly understands this universe, as though he saw it face to face. . . . The Truth does he proclaim both in its le tter and in its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. A higher life doth he make known in all its pu rity and in all its perfectness. Tevijja Sutta Krishna is an incarnation of Brahman, Gautama Buddha of what th e Mahayanists called the Dharmakaya, Suchness, Mind, the spiritua l Ground of all being. The Christian doctrine of the incarnation of the Godhead in human form differs from that of India and the Far Ea st inasmuch as it affirms that there has been and can be only one Avatar. 79 What we do depends in large measure upon what we think, and if what w e d o i s e v i l , t h e r e i s g o o d e m p i r i c a l r e a s o n f o r s u p p o s i n g t h a t our thought-patterns are inadequate to material, mental or spiritua l reality. Because Christians believed that t h e r e h a d b e e n o n l y o n e A v a t a r , Christian history has been disgraced by more and bloodier crusa des, inter-denominational wars, perse cutions and proselytizing imper ialism than has the history of Hinduism and Buddhism. Absurd and idolatrous doctrines, affirming the quasi-Divine nat ure of sovereign states and their rulers, have led oriental, no less t han Western peoples into innumerable politica l wars; but because they have not believed in an exclusive revelati on at one sole instant of time , or in the quasi-divinity of an ecclesiasti cal organization, oriental peop les have kept remarkably clear of the mass murder for religions sake, w hich has been so dreadfully frequent in Christendom. And while, in this important respect, the level of public mor ality has been lower in the Wes t than in the East, the levels of exceptio nal sanctity and of ordinary in dividual morality have not, so far as one can judge from the available e vidence, been any higher. If the tree is indeed known by its fruits, Chr istianitys departure from the norm of the P erennial Philosophy would seem to be philosophically unjustifiable. The Logos passes out of eternity into time for no other purpose than to assist the beings, whose bodily form he takes, to pass out of t ime into eternity. If the Avatars appearance upon the stage of history is enormously important, this is du e to the fact that by his teach ing he points out, and by his being a channel of grace and Divine powe r he a c t u a l l y i s , t h e m e a n s b y w h i c h h u m a n b e i n g s m a y t r a n s c e n d t h e limitations of history. The auth or of the Fourth Gospel affirms that the Word became flesh; but in another passage he adds that the fles h profiteth nothing - nothing, that is to say, in itself, but a g reat deal, of course, as a means to the union with immanent and transcendent Spirit. 80 In this context it is very interesting to consider the developm ent of Buddhism. Under the forms of religious or mystical imagery, w rites R. E. Johnston in his Buddhist China, the Mahayana expresses the universal, whereas Hinayana cann ot set itself free from the dom ination of historical fact. In the words of an eminent orientalist, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, The Mahayanist believer is warned - precisely as the worshipper of Krishna i s w a r n e d i n t h e V a i s h n a v i t e s c r i p t u r e s t h a t t h e K r i s h n a L l a i s not a h i s t o r y , b u t a p r o c e s s f o r e v e r u n f o l d e d i n t h e h e a r t o f m a n - that matters of historical fact are w ithout religious significance (except, we should add, in so far as they point to or themselves constitute the means - whether remote or proximate, whether political, ethical or spir itual - by which men may come to deliveranc e from selfness and the tempora l order.) In the West, the mystics went some way towards liberating Chris tianity from its unfortunate servitude to historic fact (or, to be more accurate, to those various mixtures of contemporary record with subsequent i nference and phantasy, which have, at di fferent epochs, been accepted as h i s t o r i c fact). From the writings of Eckhart, Ta uler and Ruysbroeck, of Boehme, William Law and the Quakers, it would be possible to extract a spiritualized and universalized C hristianity, whose narratives should refer, not to history as it was, or as someone afterwards thoug ht it ought to be, but to processes forever unfolded in the heart of man. B u t unfortunately the influence of th e mystics was never powerful e nough to bring about a radical Mahayanist revolution in the West. In spite of them, Christianity has remained a religion in which the pure Pe rennial P h i l o s o p h y h a s b e e n o v e r l a i d , n o w m o r e , n o w l e s s , b y a n i d o l a t r ous preoccupation with events and things in time - events and thing s regarded not merely as useful me ans, but as ends, intrinsically sacred and indeed Divine. 81 Moreover, such improvements on history as were made in the cour se of centuries were, most imprudently , treated as though they themse lves were a part of history - a procedure which put a powerful weapo n into the hands of Protestant and, later, of Rationalist controversia lists. How m u c h w i s e r i t w o u l d h a v e b e e n t o a d m i t t h e p e r f e c t l y a v o w a b l e f act that, when the sternness of Christ the Judge had been unduly emphasized, men and women felt the need of personifying the Div ine compassion in a new form, with the result that the figure of th e Virgin, mediatrix to the mediator, came into increased prominence. And when, in course of time, the Queen of Heaven was felt to be too awe-i nspiring, compassion was re-personified in the homely figure of St. Josep h, who thus became mediator to the mediatrix to the mediator. In exact ly the same way Buddhist worshippers felt that the historic Sakyamuni, with his insistence on recollectedne ss, discrimination and a total d ying to self as the principal means of liberat ion, was too stern and too int ellectual. The result was that the love and compassion which Sakyamuni had also inculcated came to be personified in Buddhas such as Amida and M a i t r e y a - D i v i n e c h a r a c t e r s c o m p l e t e l y r e m o v e d f r o m h i s t o r y , inasmuch as their temporal career was situated somewhere in the distant past or distant future. H e r e i t m a y b e r e m a r k e d t h a t t h e vast numbers of Buddhas and Bodhisattv as, of whom the Mahayanist theologians speak, are commensurate with the vastness of their cosmology. Time, for them, is beg inningless, and the innumerabl e universes, every one of them sup porting sentient beings of ever y possible variety, are born, evolve, decay and die, only to repe at the same cycle again and again, until the final inconceivably remote consummation, when every sentien t being in all the worlds shall have won to deliverance out of time into eternal Suchness or Buddhah ood. This cosmological background to B uddhism has affinities with th e world picture of modern astronomy - especially with that version of i t offered 82 in the recently published theory of Dr. Weizscker regarding th e formation of planets. If the Weizscker hypothesis is correct, the production of a planetary system would be a normal episode in t he life of every star. There are forty thousand million stars in our ow n galactic system alone, and beyond our galaxy other galaxies, indefinitel y. If, as we have no choice but to believe, spiritual laws governing cons ciousness are uniform throughout the whole planet - bearing and presumabl y life- supporting universe, then certainly there is plenty of room, an d at the same time, no doubt, the most ag onizing and desp erate need, for those innumerable redemptive incarnations of Such-ness, upon whose sh ining multitudes the Mahayanists love to dwell. For my part, I think the chief re ason which prompted the invisible God to become visible in the flesh and to hold converse with men was to lead carnal men, who are only able to love carnally, to the healthful love of his flesh, and afterwards, li ttle by little, to spiritual love. St. Bernard St. Bernards doctrine of the carnal love of Christ has been admirably summed up by Professor Etienne G ilson in his book, The Mystical Theology of St. Bernard. Knowle dge of self already expanded in to social carnal love of the neighbour, so like oneself in misery, is now a second time expanded into a carnal love of Christ, the model of compas sion, since for our salvation He has b ecome the Man of Sorrows. Here then is the place occupied in Cistercian mysticism by the meditation on t h e visible Humanity of Christ. It is but a beginning, but an absol utely necessary beginning. . . . Charity, of course, is essentially spiritual, and a love of thi s kind can be no more than its first moment. It is too much bound up with the senses, unless we know how to make use of it with prudence, and to lean on it only as something to be surpasse d. In expressing himself thus, Bernard merely codified the teachings of his own experience; for we hav e it from 83 him that he was much given to the practice of this sensitive lo ve at the outset of his conversion; later on he was to consider it an adv ance to have passed beyond it; not, that is to say, to have forgotten i t, but to have added another, which outwei ghs it as the rational and spir itual outweigh the carnal. Nevertheless, this beginning is already a summit. This sensitive affection for Christ was always presented by St. Bernard as love of a relatively inferior order. It is so precisely on a ccount of its sensitive character, for charity is of a purely spiritual essen ce. In right the soul should be able to enter directly into union, in virtue o f i t s s p i r i t u a l p o w e r s , w i t h a G o d w h o i s p u r e s p i r i t . T h e I n c a r n a t i o n, moreover, should be regarded as one of the consequences of man s transgression, so that love for the Person of Christ is, as a m atter of fact, bound up with the history of a fall which need not, and should not, have happened. St. Bernard furthermor e, and in several places, notes t h a t this affection cannot stand safely alone, but needs to be suppo rted by what he calls science. He had examples before him of the devi ations 'into which even the most ardent devotion can fall, when it is not allied with, and ruled by, a sane theology. Can the many fantastic and mutually incompatible theories of ex piation and atonement, which have been g rafted on to the Christian doct rine of Divine incarnation, be regarded as indispensable elements in a sane theology? I find it difficult to imagine how anyone who has lo oked into a history of these notions, as expounded, for example, by the a uthor of the Epistle to the Hebrews, by Athanasius and Augustine, by Ans elm and Luther, by Calvin and Grotius, can plausibly answer this questi on in the affirmative. In the present cont ext, it will be enough to call attention to one of the bitterest of all the bitter ironies of history. For the Christ of the Gospels, lawyers seemed further from the Kingdom of Heaven, more hopelessly impervious to Reality, than almost any other class o f human beings except the rich. 84 But Christian theology, especia lly that of the Western churches , was the product of minds imbued with Jewish and Roman legalism. In all too many instances the immediate ins ights of the Avatar and the the ocentric saint were rationalized into a sy stem, not by philosophers, but b y speculative barristers and metaphysical jurists. Why should wha t Abbot John Chapman calls the problem of reconciling (not merely uniting) Mysticism and Christianity be so extremely difficult? Simply b ecause so much Roman and Protestant thinking was done by those very lawye rs w h o m C h r i s t r e g a r d e d a s b e i n g p e culiarly incapable of understan ding the true Nature of Things. The Abbot (Chapman is apparently re ferring to Abbot Marmion) says St. John of the Cross is like a sponge full of Christianity. You can squeeze it all out, and the mystical theory (in other words, the pure Perennial Philosophy) remains. Consequently for fift een years or so I hated St. John of the Cross and called him a Bu ddhist. I loved St. Teresa and read her over and over again. She is firs t a Christian, only secondarily a mystic. Then I found I had wasted fi fteen years, so far as prayer was concerned. Abbot John Chapman Now see the meaning of these two sayings of Christs. The one: No man cometh unto the Father but by me, that is through my life. The other saying, No man cometh unto me except the Father draw him; that is, he does not take my life upon him and follow after me, except he is moved and drawn of my Father, that is, of the Simple and Perfect Good, of which St. Paul saith: When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. Theologa Germanica In other words, there must be im itation of Christ before there can be identification with the Father; and there must be essential ide ntity or likeness between the human spirit and the God who is Spirit in order t h a t t h e i d e a o f i m i t a t i n g t h e e a r t h l y b e h a v i o u r o f t h e i n c a r n a te 85 Godhead should ever cross anybod ys mind. Christian theologians speak o f t h e p o s s i b i l i t y o f d e i f i c a t i o n , b u t d e n y t h a t t h e r e i s i d e ntity of substance between spiritual Realit y and the human spirit. In Ve danta and Mahayana Buddhism, as also a mong the Sufis, spirit and Spir it are held to be the same substance; tman is Brahman; That art thou. When not enlightened, Buddhas are no other than ordinary beings; when there is enlightenment, ordi nary beings at once turn into Buddhas. Hui Neng Every human being can thus become an Avatar by adoption, but no t by his unaided efforts. He must be shown the way, and he must be a ided by Divine grace. That men and women may be thus instructed and helped, the Godhead assumes the form of an ordinary human being , who has to earn deliverance and enlightenment in the way that i s prescribed by the Divine Nature of Things - namely, by charity, by a total dying to self and a total, one-pointed awareness. Thus enlighte ned, the Avatar can reveal the way of enlightenment to others and help t hem actually to become what they already potentially are. Tel quen L u i - mme enfin lternit le change. And of course the eternity whi ch transforms us into Ourselves is not the experience of mere pers istence after bodily death. There will be no experience of timeless Rea lity then, unless there is the same or a s imilar knowledge within the worl d of time and matter. By precept and by exa mple, the Avatar teaches that this transforming knowledge is possible, that all sentient beings ar e called to it and that, sooner or later, in one way or another, all must f inally come to it. avb 86 Chapter 4 GOD IN THE WORLD HAT art thou: Behold but One i n all things - God within and G od without. There is a way to Reality in and through the soul, an d there is a way to Reality in and through the world. Whether the ultimate goal can be reached by following either of these ways to the ex clusion of the other is to be doubted. The third, best and hardest way is that which leads to the Divine Ground simultaneously in the perceive r and in that which is perceived. The Mind is no other than the Bu ddha, and Buddha is no other than sentient being. When Mind assumes the form of a sentient being, it has suffered no decrease; when it has become a Buddha, it has added nothing to itself. Huang Po All creatures have existed eternally in the Divine essence, as in their exemplar. So far as they conform to the Divine idea, all beings were, before their creation, one thin g with the essence of God. (God creates into time what was and is in eternity.) Eternally, all creatures are God in God. . . . So far as they are in Go d, they are the same life, the same essence, the same power, the same One, and nothing less. Suso The image of God is found essentiall y and personally in all man- kind. Each possesses it whole, entire an d undivided, and all together not more than one alone. In this way we are all one, intimately united in our eternal image, which is the imag e of God and the source in us of all our life. Our created essence and ou r life are attached to it without mediation as to their eternal cause. Ruysbroeck T 87 When is a man in mere understand ing? I answer, When a man sees one thing separated from another. And when is a man above mere understanding? That I can tell you: When a man sees All in all, then a man stands beyond mere understanding. Eckhart There are four kinds of Dhyana (spiritual disciplines). W hat are these four? They are, first, the Dhyana practised by the ignorant; second, the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning; third, the Dhyana with Suchness for its object; fourth, the Dhyana of the Tathgatas (Buddhas). What is meant by the Dhyana practised by the ignorant? It is th e one resorted to by the Yogins who exercise themselves in the discip lines of Sravakas and Pratyeka-buddhas (contemplatives and solitary Buddhas of the Hinayana school), who perceiving that there is no ego substance, that the body is a shadow and a skele ton which is transient, impure and full of suffering, persistently cling to these notions, which are re garded as just so and not otherwise, and wh o , s t a r t i n g f r o m t h e m , a d v a n c e b y stages until they reach the cessa tion, where there are no thoug hts. This is called the Dhyana pract ised by the ignorant. What then is the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning? It is the one practised by those who, having gone beyond the egolessn ess of things, beyond individuality and generality, beyond the untenab ility of such ideas as self, other and both, which are held by the philosophers, proceed to examine and follow up the meaning of t he various aspects of Bodhisattva-hood. This is the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning. When followers of Zen fail to go beyond the world of their senses and though ts, all their doings and moveme nts are of no significance. But when the senses and thoughts ar e annihilated, all the passages to Universal Mind are blocked, and no entrance then becomes possible. The original Mind is to be recognized along with the working of the 88 senses and thoughts - only it does not belong to them, nor yet is it independent of them. Do not build up your views upon your senses and thoughts, do not base your un derstanding upon your senses and thoughts; but at the same time do not seek the Mind away from your senses and thoughts, do not try to grasp Reality by rejecting your senses and thoughts. When you are neither attached to, nor detached from, them, then you enjoy your pe rfect unobstructed freedom, then you have your seat of enlightenment. Huang-Po Every individual being, from the atom up to the most highly org anized of living bodies and the most exalted of finite minds, may be t hought of, i n R e n G u n o n s p h r a s e , a s a p o i n t w h e r e a r a y o f t h e p r i m o r d i al Godhead meets one of the differentiated, creaturely emanations of that same Godheads creative energy. The creature, as creature, may be very far from God, in the sense that it lacks the intelligence to di scover the nature of the Divine Ground of its being. But the creature in i ts eternal essence - as the meeting place of creatureliness and primordial Godhead - is one of the infinite number of points where Divine Reality is wholly and eternally present. Because of this, rational beings can come to the unitive knowle dge of s u i t a b l y t h e D i v i n e G r o u n d , n o n - r a t i o n a l a n d i n a n i m a t e b e i n g s m ay r e v e a l t o r a t i o n a l b e i n g s t h e f u l l n e s s o f G o d s p r e s e n c e w i t h i n t h e i r material forms. The poets or the painters vision of the Divin e in nature, the worshippers awareness of a h oly presence in the sacrament, symbol o r i m a g e - t h e s e a r e n o t e n t i r e l y s u b j e c t i v e . T r u e , s u c h p e r c e p tions cannot be had by all perceivers, for knowledge is a function of being; but the thing known is independent o f the mode and nature of the kn ower. really what the poet and painter see, and try to record for us, is actually there, waiting to be apprehended by anyone who has the right ki nd of faculties. Similarly, in the ima ge or the sacramental object th e Divine 89 Ground is wholly present. Faith a nd devotion prepare the worshi ppers mind for perceiving the ray of Godhead at its point of intersec tion with the particular fragment of matter before him. Incidentally, by being worshipped, such symbols become the centres of a field of force . The longings, emotions and imaginations of those who kneel and, for generations, have knelt before the shrine create, as it were, a n enduring vortex in the psychic medium, so that the image lives with a se condary, inferior Divine life projected on to it by its worshippers, as well as with the primary Divine life which, in common with all other animate a n d inanimate beings, it possesses in virtue of its relation to the Divine G r o u n d . T h e r e l i g i o u s e x p e r i e n c e o f s a c r a m e n t a l i s t s a n d i m a g e worshippers may be perfectly genu ine and objective; but it is n ot always o r n e c e s s a r i l y a n e x p e r i e n c e o f G o d o r t h e G o d h e a d . I t m a y b e , and perhaps in most cases it actual ly is, an experience of the fiel d of force generated by the minds of past and present worshippers and proj ected on to the sacramental object whe re it sticks, so to speak, in a condition of what may be called second-hand objectivity, waiting to be pe rceived by minds suitably attuned to it. How desirable this kind of experience really is will have to be discussed i n a n o t h e r s e c t i o n . A l l t h a t n e e d b e s a i d h e r e i s t h a t t h e i c o n oclasts contempt for sacraments and symb ols, as being nothing but mumme ry with stocks and stones, is quite unjustified. The workmen still in doub t what course to take, Whether Id best a saint or hog-trough make, After debate resolved me for a saint; And so famed Loyola I represent. The all too Protestant satirist forgot that God is in the hog-t rough no less than in the conventionally sacred image. Lift the stone and yo u will find me, affirms the best known of the Oxyrhinchus Logia of Jesus, cleave 90 the wood, and I am there. Those who have personally and immedi ately r e a l i z e d t h e t r u t h o f t h i s s a y i n g a n d , a l o n g w i t h i t , t h e t r u t h o f Brahmanisms That art tho u are wholly delivered. The Sravaka (literally hearer, the name given by Mahayana Buddhists to contemplatives of the Hinayana school) fails to perceive that Mind, as it is in itself, has no stages, no ca usation. Disciplining himself in the cause, he has attained the result and abides in the samadhi (contemplation) of Emptiness for ever so many aeons. However enlightened in this way, the Sravaka is not at all on the right track. From the point of view of the Bodhis attva, this is like suffering the torture of hell. The Sravaka has buri ed himself in Emptiness and does not know how to get out of his qu iet contemplation, for he has no insight into the Buddha-nature itself. Mo Tsu When Enlightenment is perfected, a Bodhisattva is free from the bondage of things, but does not se ek to be delivered from things. Samsara (the world of becoming) is not hated by him, nor is Nirvana loved. When perfect Enlightenment shines, it is neither bondage nor deliverance. Prnabuddha-stra The touch of Earth is always reinvi gorating to the son of Earth, even when he seeks a supraphysical Knowle dge. It may even be said that the supraphysical can only be really mastered in its fullness - to its heights we can always reach - when we keep our feet firmly on the physical. Earth is His footing, says the Upanishad, whenever it images the Self that manifests in the universe. Sri Aurobindo T o i t s h e i g h t s w e c a n a l w a y s c o m e . F o r t h o s e o f u s w h o a r e s t ill splashing about in the lower ooz e, the phrase has a rather iron ical ring. Nevertheless, in the light of even the most distant acquaintanc e with the heights and the fullness, it is p ossible to understand what its a u t h o r 91 m e a n s . T o d i s c o v e r t h e K i n g d o m o f G o d e x c l u s i v e l y w i t h i n o n e s e l f is easier than to discover it, not only there, but also in the out er world of minds and things and living creat ures. It is easier because the heights within reveal themselves to those who are ready to exclude from their purview all that lies without. A nd though this exclusion may be a painful and mortificatory process, the fact remains that it is less ard uous than the process of inclusion, by which we come to know the fullness as well as the heights of spiritual life . Where there is exclusive conc entration on the heights within, temptations and distractions are avoided an d there is a general denial and suppression. But when the hope is to kn ow God inclusively - to realize the Divine Ground in the world as well as in the soul, temptations and distractio ns must not be avoided, but sub mitted to and used as opportunities for advance; there must be no supp ression of outward - turning activities, but a transformation of them s o that they become sacramental. Mortification becomes more searching and mo re subtle; there is need of unsleepin g awareness and, on the level s of thought, feeling and conduct, the constant exercise of somethin g like an artists tact and taste. It is in the literature of Mahayana and especially of Zen Buddh ism that we find the best account of the psychology of the man for whom Samsara and Nirvana, time and eternity, are one and the same. M ore systematically perhaps than any other religion, the Buddhism of the Far East teaches the way to spiritual Knowledge in its fullness as well as in its heights, in and through the world as well as in and through the soul. In this context we may point to a highly significant fact, whic h is that the incomparable landscape painting of China and Japan was essentia lly a religious art, inspired by Taois m and Zen Buddhism; in Europe, on the contrary, landscape painting and the poetry of nature worship w e r e secular arts which arose when Christianity was in decline, and derived little or no inspiration from Christian ideals. 92 Blind, deaf, dumb! Infinitely be yond the reach of imaginative contrivances! In these lines Seccho has swept everything away for you - what you see together with what you do not see, what you hear together with what you do not hear, and what you talk about together with what you cannot talk about. All these are comple tely brushed out, and you attai n the life of the blind, deaf and dumb. Here all your imaginations, contri vances and calculations are once and for all put an end to; they are n o more made use of. This is where lies the highest po int of Zen, this is where we h ave true blindness, true deafness and tr ue dumbness, each in its artless a n d effectless aspect. Above the heavens and below th e heavens! How ludicrous, how disheartening! Here Seccho lifts up with one hand and with the other puts down . Tell me what he finds to be ludicrous, what he finds to be dish eartening. It is ludicrous that this dumb pe rson is not dumb after all, th at this deaf person is not after all deaf; it is disheartening that the one who is not at all blind is blind for all that, and that the one who is not at all deaf is deaf for all that. Li-lou does not know how to discriminate right colour. Li-lou lived in the reign of the Emperor Huang. He is said to h ave been able to distinguish the point of a soft hair at a distance of o ne hundred paces. His eyesight was extraord inary. When the Emperor Huang t ook a pleasure cruise on the River Ch ih, he dropped his precious jew el in the water and made Li fetch it up. B u t h e f a i l e d . T h e E m p e r o r m a d e C h i h - k o u s e a r c h f o r i t ; b u t h e a l s o failed to find it. Later Hsiang-wang was ordered to get it, and he got it. 93 Hence, When Hsiang-wang goes down, th e precious gem shines most brilliantly; But where Li-lou walks about, the waves rise even to the sky. When we come to these higher spheres, even the eyes of Li-lou a re incapable of discriminating the right colour. How can Shih-kuang recogniz e the mysterious tune? Shih-kuang was the son of Ching-kuang of Chin in the province o f Chiang under the Chou dynasty. His other name was Tzu-yeh. He could thoroughly distinguish the five sounds and the six notes; he co uld even hear the ants fighting on the other side of a hill. When Chin a nd Chu were at war, Shih-kuang could tell, just by softly fingering th e strings of his lute, that the engagement wo uld surely be unfavourable for Chu. In spite of his extraordinary sensitiveness Seccho declares that h e is unable to recognize the mysterious tune . After all, one who is not at all deaf is really deaf. The most exquisite n ote in the higher spheres is b eyond the hearing of Shih-kuang. Says Seccho, I am not going to be a Li-l ou, nor a Shih-kuang; for What life can compare with this? Sitting quiet ly by the window, I watch the leaves fall and the flowers bloom, as the s easons come and go. When one reaches this stage of r ealization, seeing is no-seeing , hearing is no-hearing, preaching is no-preaching. When hungry one eats, when tired one sleeps. Let the leaves fall, let the flowers bloom as they like. When the leaves fall, I know it is the autumn; when the flowers bloom, I know it is the spring. Having swept everything clean before you, Seccho now opens a pa ssage- way, saying: Do you understand, or not? An iron bar without a hole! He has done all he could for you; he is exhausted - only able t o turn round and present you with this iron bar wi thout a ho le . It i s a most significant expression. Look and see with your own eyes! If you hesitate, 94 you miss the mark for ever. Yengo (the author of this commentary) now raised his staff and said, Do you see? He then struck his cha ir and said, D o y o u h e a r ? C o m i n g d o w n f r o m t h e c h a i r , h e s a i d , W a s a n y t h i ng talked about? What precisely is the significance of that iron bar without a hole? I do not pretend to know. Zen has always specialized in nonsense as a means of stimulating the mind to go forward to that which is beyond sense; so perhaps the point of the bar resides precisely in its pointlessness and in our disturbed, bewildered reaction to that pointlessness. In the root Divine Wisdom is all- Brahman; in the stem she is all- Illusion; in the flower she is al l-World; and in the fruit, all- Liberation. Tantra Tattva The Sravakas and the Pratyeka-bu ddhas, when they reach the eighth stage of the Bodhisattvas discipline , become so intoxicated with the bliss of mental tranquillity that th ey fail to realize that the visible world is nothing but the Mind. Th ey are still in the realm of individuation; their insight is not yet pure. The Bodhisattvas, on the other hand, are alive to their original vows, flowing out of the all- embracing love that is in their hear ts. They do not enter into Nirvana (as a State separate from the world of becoming); they know that the visible world is nothing but a mani festation of Mind itself. Condensed from the Lakvatra Sutra A conscious being alone understand s what is meant by moving. To those not endowed with consciousness the moving is unintelligible. If you exercise yourself in the practi ce of keeping your mind unmoved, the immovable you gain is that of one who has no consciousness. If you are desirous for the truly immovable, the immovable is in the moving itself, And this immovable is the truly immovable one. There is no seed of Buddhahood where there is no consciousness. 95 Mark well how varied are the aspect s of the immovable one, and know that the first reality is immovable. Only when this reality is attained Is the true working of Suchness understood. Hui Neng These phrases about the unmovi n g f i r s t m o v e r r e m i n d o n e o f Mahayanist Aristotle. But between Aristotle and the exponents o f the Perennial Philosophy within the gr eat religious traditions ther e is this vast difference: Aristotle is primarily concerned with cosmolog y, the Perennial Philosophers are primar ily concerned with liberation and enlightenment: Aristotle is content to know about the unmoving mover, f r o m t h e o u t s i d e a n d t h e o r e t i c a l l y ; t h e a i m o f t h e P e r e n n i a l Philosophers is to become directly aware of it, to know it unit ively, so that they and others may actually become the unmoving One. This unitive knowledge can be knowledge in the heights, or knowledge in the fullness, or knowledge simultaneously in the heights and the fu llness. Spiritual knowledge exclusively in the heights of the soul was rejected by Mahayana Buddhism as inadequa te. The similar rejection of qu ietism within the Christian tradition w ill be touched upon in the sect ion, Contemplation and Action. Meanwhile it is interesting to find that the problem which aroused such acrimonious debate throughout seventeenth-century Europe had arisen for the Buddhists at a considerably earlier epoch. But whereas in Catholic Europe the outcome of the battle over Molinos, Mme Guyon and Fnelon was to all in tents and purposes the extinction of mysticism for the best part of t wo c e n t u r i e s , i n A s i a t h e t w o p a r t i e s w e r e t o l e r a n t e n o u g h t o a g r e e to differ. Hinayana spirituality continued to explore the heights within, while the Mahayanist masters held up the ideal not of the Arhat , but of t h e B o d h i s a t t v a , a n d p o i n t e d t h e way to spiritual knowledge in its fullness as well as in its heigh ts. What follows is a poetical account, by a Zen saint of the eighteenth century, of the state of those who have realized the Zen ideal. 96 Abiding with the non-particular which is in particulars, Going or returning, they remain for ever unmoved. Taking hold of the not-though t which lies in thoughts, In their every act they he ar the voice of Truth. How boundless the sky of contemplation! How transparent the moonlight of the four-fold Wisdom! As the Truth reveals itself in its eternal tranquillity, This very earth is the Lotus-Land of Purity, And this body is the body of the Buddha. Hui Nuin Natures intent is neither food, no r drink, nor clothing, nor comfort, nor anything else from which God is left out. Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly Nature seeks and hunts and tries to ferret out the track in which God may be found. E c k h a r t Any flea as it is in God is nobler than the highest of the angels in himself. Eckhart My inner man relishes things not as creatures but as the gift of God. But to my innermost man they savour not of Gods gift, but of ever and aye. Eckhart Pigs eat acorns, but neither consider the sun that gave them life, nor the influence of the heavens by wh ich they were nourished, nor the very root of the tree from whence they came. Thomas Traherne Your enjoyment of the world is never right till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in yo ur Fathers palace; and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as ce lestial joys; having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were amon g the Angels. The bride of a monarch, 97 in her husbands chamber, hath no su ch causes of delight as you. You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heaven s and crowned with the stars; and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and kings in sceptres, you ca n never enjoy the world. ll your spirit filleth the whole worl d, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all ages as with your walk and table; till you are intima tely acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was ma de; till you love men so as to desire their happiness with a thirst eq ual to the zeal of your own; till you delight in God for being good to all; you never enjoy the world. Till you more feel it than your priv ate estate, and are more present in the hemisphere, considering the glor ies and the beauties there, than in your own house; till you rememb er how lately you were made, and how wonderful it was when you came into it; an d more rejoice in the palace of your glory than if it had been made today morning. Yet further, you never enjoyed the wo rld aright, till you so love the beauty of enjoying it, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it. And so perfectl y hate the abominable corruption of men in despising it that you had ra ther suffer the flames of hell than willingly be guilty of their error. The world is a mirror of Infinite Be auty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regard s it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God. It is more to man since he is fallen than it was be fore. It is the place of Angels and 98 the Gate of Heaven. When Jacob wake d out of his dream, he said, God is here, and I wist it not. How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the House of God and the Gate of Heaven. Thomas Traherne Before going on to discuss the me ans whereby it is possible all to come to the fullness as well as the h eight of Spiritual knowledge, l et us briefly consider the experienc e of those who have been privileged to b ehold the One in all things, but have made no efforts to perceive it w i t h i n themselves. A great deal of inte resting material on this subjec t may be found in Bucks Cosmic Conscious ness. All that n eed be said her e is that such cosmic consciousness may come unsought and is in the nat ure of what Catholic theologians call a gratuitous grace. One may ha ve a gratuitous grace ( t h e p o w e r o f h e a l i n g , f o r e x a m p l e , o r f o r e - k n o w l e d g e ) while in a state of mortal sin, and the gift is neither necessa ry to, nor sufficient for, salvation. At th e best such sudden accessions o f cosmic consciousness as are described by Buck are merely unusual invi tations to further personal effort in the direction of the inner height as well as the external fullness of knowledge. In a great many cases the i nvitation is not accepted; the gift is pri zed for the ecstatic pleasure i t brings; its coming is remembered nostalgically and, if the recipient happen s to be a poet, written about with eloquence - as Byron, for example, w rote in a splendid passage of Childe Har old, as Wordsworth wrote in Tin tern Abbey and The Prelude. In these matters no human being may presume to pass definitive judgment upon another human being; but it is at least permissib le to say t h a t , o n t h e b a s i s o f t h e b i o g r a phical evidence, there is no re ason to suppose that either Wordsworth or Byron ever seriously did anyt hing about the theophanies they descr ibed; nor is there any evidence that these theophanies were of themse l v e s s u f f i c i e n t t o t r a n s f o r m t h eir characters. That enormous egotism, to which De Quincey and Keat s and 99 Haydon bear witness, seems to have remained with Wordsworth to the end. And Byron was as fascinatingly and tragi-comically Byronic after he had beheld the One in all th ings as he was before. In this context it is interesting to compare Wordsworth with an other great nature lover and man of letters, St. Bernard. Let Nature be your t e a c h e r , s a y s t h e f i r s t ; a n d h e g o e s o n a u t h o r , t o a f f i r m t h a t : One impulse from the vernal wood, w ill tell you more of man, of mor al evil and of good, Than al l the sages can. The truth St. Bernard speaks in what seems a similar strain. kn ow of the Divine sciences and Holy Scripture, I learnt in woods and field s. I have had no other masters than the beeches and the oaks. And in ano ther of his letters he says: Listen to a man of experience: thou wilt learn more in the woods than in books. Trees and sto nes will teach thee mo re than t h o u c a n s t a c q u i r e f r o m t h e m o u t h of a magister. The phrases a re similar; but their inner significance is very different. In Aug ustines language, God alone is to be enjoyed; creatures are not to be e njoyed but used - used with love and compassion and a wondering, detac hed appreciation, as means to the kn owledge of that which may be en joyed. Wordsworth, like almost all ot her literary Nature-worshippers, preaches the enjoyment of creatures rather than their use for the attain ment of spiritual ends - a use which, as we shall see, entails much sel f-discipline for the user. For Bernard it goes without sayi ng that his correspondents are actively practising this self-discipline and that Nature, though loved a nd heeded as a teacher, is only being used as a means to God, not enjoyed as though she were God. The beauty of flowers and landscape is not merely to be relished as one wanders lonely as a cloud about the countrysi de, is not merely to be pleasurably remembe red when one is lying in vacan t or in pensive mood on the sofa in the library, after tea. The reacti on must be a little more strenuous and purpo seful. Here, my brothers, sa ys an 100 ancient Buddhist author, are th e roots of trees, here are empt y places; meditate. The truth is, of course, that th e world is only for those who h ave deserved it; for, in Philos words, even though a man may be i ncapable of making himself worthy of the creator of the cosmos, yet he o ught to try to make himself worthy of the cosmos. He ought to transform himself from being a man into the nature of the cosmos and become, if o ne may s a y s o , a l i t t l e c o s m o s . F o r t h o s e w h o h a v e n o t d e s e r v e d t h e w orld, either by making themselves worthy of its creator (that is to say, by non- attachment and a total self-naughting), or, less arduously, by making themselves worthy of the cosmos (by bringing order and a measure of unity to the manifold confusion of undisciplined human personal ity), the world is, spiritually speaking, a very dangerous place. T h a t N i r v a n a a n d S a m s a r a a r e o n e i s a f a c t a b o u t t h e n a t u r e o f the universe; but it is a fact which cannot be fully realized or di rectly experienced, except by souls far advanced in spirituality. For ordinary, nice, unregenerate people to acc ept this truth by hearsay, and to act upon it in practice, is merely to court disaster. All the disma l story of antinomianism is there to warn u s of what happens when men and women make practical applications o f a m e r e l y i n t ellectual and u n r e a l i z e d t h e o r y t h a t a l l i s G o d a n d G o d i s a l l . A n d h a r d l y l e ss depressing than the spectacle of antinomianism is that of the e arnestly respectable well-rounded life of good citizens who do their b est to live sacramentally, but dont in fact have any direct acquaintance w ith that for which the sacramental activity really stands. Dr. Oman, in his The Natural and the Supernatural, wr ites at length on the theme tha t reconciliation to the evanescent is revelation of the eternal ; and in a recent volume, Science, Religion and the Future, Canon Raven ap plauds Dr. Oman for having stated the principles of a theology in whic h there could be no ultimate antithesis between nature and grace, scien ce and 101 religion, in which, in deed, the worlds of th e scientist and the theologian are seen to be one and the same. All this is in full accord with Taoism and Zen Buddhism and wit h such Christian teachings as St. Augustines Ama et fac quod vis and Father Lallemants advice to theocentric contemplatives to go out and act in the world, since their actions are t he only ones capable of doing a ny real good to the world. But what neither Dr. Oman nor Canon Raven ma kes sufficiently clear is that natur e and grace, Samsara and Nirvan a, perpetual perishing and eternity , are really and experientially one only t o p e r s o n s w h o h a v e f u l f i l l e d c e r t a i n c o n d i t i o n s . F a c q u o d v i s in the temporal world - but only when you have learnt the infinitely d ifficult art of loving God with all your mind and heart and your neighbour a s yourself. If you havent learnt this lesson, you will either be a n antinomian eccentric or else a respectable well-rounded-lifer, who has left himself no time to understand either nature or grace. The Gospels are perfectly clear about the process by which, and by which al one, a man may gain the right to live in the world as though he were a t home in it: he must make a total denial of selfhood, submit to a com plete and absolute mortification. At one period of his career, Jesu s himself seems to have undert aken austerities, not merel y of the mind, but of the body. There is the record of his forty days fast and his statement, evidently drawn from personal experience, that some demons can not be cast out except by those who have fasted much as well as prayed. (The Cur dArs, whose knowledge of miracles and corporal penance was based on personal experience, insists on the close correlation between severe bodily austerities and the power to get petitionary prayer answered in w ays that are sometimes supernor mal.) The Pharisees reproached Jesus because he came eating and drinking , and associated with publicans and s inners; they ignored, or were unaware of, the fact that this apparently worldly prophet had at one ti me rivalled 102 the physical austerities of John the Baptist and was practising t h e spiritual mortifications which he consistently preached. The pattern of Jesus life is es sentially similar to that of th e ideal sage, whose career is traced in the O x-herding Pictures, so popular among Zen Buddhists. The wild ox, symbolizing the unregenerate self, is caught, made to change its direction, then tamed and gradually transfor med from black to white. Regeneration goes so far that for a time t he ox is completely lost, so that nothing remains to be pictured but the f u l l - orbed moon, symbolizing Mind, Suchness, the Ground. But this is not the final stage. In the end, the herdsman comes back to the world o f men, riding on the back of his ox. Because he now loves, loves to th e extent of being identified with the Divine object of his love, he can do what he likes; for what he likes is what the Nature of Things likes. He is found in company with wine - bibbers and butchers; he and they are all c onverted i n t o B u d d h a s . F o r h i m , t h e r e i s c o m p l e t e r e c o n c i l i a t i o n t o t h e evanescent and, through that reco nciliation, revelation of the eternal. But for nice ordinary unregener ate people the only reconciliati on to the evanescent The is that of indulg ed passions, of distractions su bmitted to and enjoyed. To tell such persons that evanescence and eternity are the same, and not immediately to qualify the statement, is positive ly fatal - for, in practice, they are not the same except to the saint; an d there is no record that anybody ever came to sanctity who did not, at th e outset of his or her career, behave as if evanescence and eternity, na ture and grace, were profoundly different and in many respects incompati ble. As always, the path of spirituality is a knife - edge between abys ses. On one side is the danger of mere rejection and escape, on the other t he danger of mere acceptance and the enjoyment of things which should onl y be used as instruments or symbols. The versified caption which accompanies the last of the Ox- herding Pictures runs as follo ws: Even beyond the ultimate limits there extends a passage-way, 103 By which he comes back to th e six realms of existence. Every worldly affair is now a Buddhist work, And wherever he goes he finds his home air. Like a gem he stands ou t even in the mud, Like pure gold he shines even in the furnace. Along the endless road (of birth and death) he wanders sufficient unto himself. In all circumstances he moves tranquil and unattached. The means whereby man's final end is to be attained will be des cribed and illustrated at length in the section on Mortification and Non- attachment. This section, howev er, is mainly concerned with th e disciplining of the will. But the disciplining of the will must have as its accompaniment a no less thorough disciplining of the consciousn ess. There has to be a conversion, su dden or otherwise, not merely o f the heart, but also of the senses and of the perceiving mind. What follows is a brief account of this metanoia, as the Greeks called it, one who is in this total and radical change of mind. It is in the Indian and Far Eastern formulations of the Perenni al P h i l o s o p h y t h a t t h i s s u b j e c t i s m o s t s y s t e m a t i c a l l y t r e a t e d . W h at is prescribed is a process of consc ious discrimination between the personal self and the Self that is identical with Brahman, betw een the individual ego and the Buddha-wo mb or Universal Mind. The resul t of this discrimination is a more or less sudden and complete revu lsion of consciousness, and the realization of a state of no-mind, whi ch may be described as the freedom from pe rceptual and intellectual attac hment to the ego-principle. This state of no-mind exists, as it wer e, on a knife- e d g e b e t w e e n t h e c a r e l e s s n e s s o f t h e a v e r a g e s e n s u a l m a n a n d t h e strained over-eagerness of the zea lot for salvation. To achieve it, one 104 must walk delicately and, to maintain it, must learn to combine the most intense alertness with a tranquil and self-denying passivity, t he most indomitable determination with a perfect submission to the lead ings of the spirit. When no-mind is sought after by a mind, says Huan g-Po, that is making it a particular object of thought. There is onl y testimony o f s i l e n c e ; i t g o e s b e y o n d t h i n k i n g . I n o t h e r w o r d s , w e , a s s e parate individuals, must not try to think it, but rather permit oursel ves to be t h o u g h t b y i t . S i m i l a r l y , i n t h e D i a m o n d S u t r a w e r e a d t h a t i f a Bodhisattva, in his attempt to r ealize Suchness, retains the t hought of a n e g o , a p e r s o n , a s e p a r a t e b e i n g , o r a s o u l , h e i s n o l o n g e r a Bodhisattva. Al-Ghazzali, the p hilosopher of Sufism, also stre sses the need for intellectual humbleness and docility. If the thought that he is effaced from self occurs to one who is in Fana (a term roughly corresponding to Zens no-mind, or mushin), that is a defect. The highest state is to be effaced from effac ement. There is an ecstatic e ffacement from-effacement in the interior heights of the tman-Brahman; a nd there is another, more comprehen sive effacement-from-effacement , not only in the inner heights, but also in and through the worl d, in the waking, everyday knowledge of God in his fullness. A man must become truly poor and as free from his own creaturely will as he was when he was born. An d I tell you, by the eternal truth, t h a t s o l o n g a s y o u d e s i r e t o f u l f i l t h e w i l l o f G o d a n d h a v e a n y hankering after eternity and God, fo r just so long you are not truly poor. He alone has true spiritual poverty who wills nothing, knows nothing, desires nothing. Eckhart The Perfect Way knows no difficulties, Except that it refuses to make preferences. Only when freed from hate and love Does it reveal itself fu lly and without disguise. 105 A tenth of an inchs difference, And heaven and earth are set apart. If you wish to see it before your own eyes, Have no fixed thoughts ei ther for or against it. To set up what you like ag ainst what you dislike - This is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of th e Way is not understood, Peace of mind is disturbe d to no purpose. . . . Pursue not the outer entanglements, Dwell not in the inner void; Be serene in the oneness of things, And dualism vanishes of itself. When you strive to gain quiescence by stopping motion, The quiescence so gained is ever in motion. So long as you tarry in such dualism, How can you realize oneness? And when oneness is not thoroughly grasped, Loss is sustained in two ways: The denying of external realit y is the assertion of it, And the assertion of Emptiness (the Absolute) is the denying of it. Transformations going on in the empty world that confronts us Appear to be real because of Ignorance. Do not strive to se ek after the True, Only cease to cherish opinions. The two exist because of the One; But hold not even to this One. 106 When a mind is not disturbed, The ten thousand things o ffer no offence. . . . If an eye never falls asleep, All dreams will cease of themselves; If the Mind retains its absoluteness, The ten thousand things are of one substance. When the deep mystery of one Suchness is fathomed, All of a sudden we forget th e external entanglements; When the ten thousand things ar e viewed in their oneness, We return to the origin and remain where we have always been. . . One in all, all in One - If only this is realized, No more worry about not being perfect! When Mind and each believin g mind are not divided, And undivided are each believing mind and Mind, This is where words fail, For it is not of the past, present or future. The Third Patriarch of Zen Do what you are doing now, suffer what you are suffering now; to do all this with holiness, nothing n eed be changed but your hearts. Sanctity consists in willing what happens to us by Gods order. de Caussade The seventeenth-century Frenchman s vocabulary is very differen t from that of the seventh-century Chinamans. But the advice they giv e is fundamentally similar. Conformity to the will of God, submissio n, docility to the leadings of the Holy Ghost - in practice, if no t verbally, these are the same as conformity to the Perfect Way, refusing t o have 107 preferences and cherish opinions , keeping the eyes open so that dreams may cease and Truth reveal itself. The world inhabited by ordinary, ni c e, un re g e ne ra t e p e o pl e i s m ainly dull (so dull that they have to distra ct their minds from being awar e of it by all sorts of artificial amusements), sometimes briefly and intensely pleasurable, occasionally or qui te often disagreeable and even a g o n i z i n g . F o r t h o s e w h o h a v e d e s e r v e d t h e w o r l d b y m a k i n g themselves fit to see God within it as well as within their own souls, it wears a very different aspect. The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold. The gates at first were the end of the world. The green trees, when I saw them first through one of the gates, transported and ravished me; thei r sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap, and almost mad with ecstasy, they were such strange and wonderful things. The Men! O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And young men glittering and sparkling Angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys an d girls tumbling in the street, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die ; But all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the light of the day, and something infinite behind everything appeared; which talked with my expectation and moved my desire. The city seemed to stand in Eden, or to be built in Heaven. The streets were mine, the temple was mine, th e people were mine, their clothes and gold and silver were mine, as much as their sparkling eyes, fair 108 skins and ruddy faces. The skies we re mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the world was mine; and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it. . . . And so it was that with much ado I was corrupted and made to learn the dirty devices of the world. Wh ich now I unlearn, and become as it were a little child ag ain, that I may enter into the Kingdom of God. Thomas Traherne Therefore I give you still anothe r thought, which is yet purer and more spiritual: In the Kingdom of Heav en all is in all, all is one, and all is ours. Eckhart The doctrine that God is in the world has an important practica l corollary - the sacredness of Nature, and t he sinfulness and folly of man s overweening efforts to be her master rather than her intelligen tly docile collaborator. Sub-human lives and even things are to be treated w ith respect and understanding, not brutally oppressed to serve our human ends. The ruler of the Southern Ocean wa s Shu, the ruler of the Northern Ocean was Hu, and the ruler of the Centre was Chaos. S h u a n d H u w e r e c o n t i n u a l l y m e e t i n g i n t h e l a n d o f C h a o s , w h o treated them very well. They co nsulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said: Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearin g, eating and breathing, while this ruler alone has not a single one. Let us try to make them for him. Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every da y. At the end of seven days Chaos died.' Chuang Tzu In this delicately comic parable Chaos is Nature in the state o f wu-wei - non-assertion or equilibrium. Shu and Hu are the living images of those busy persons who thought they wo uld improve on Nature by turnin g dry 109 prairies into wheat fields, and produced deserts; who proudly proclaimed the Conquest nemesis, of the Air, and then discovere d that t h e y h a d d e f e a t e d c i v i l i z a t i o n ; w h o c h o p p e d d o w n v a s t f o r e s t s t o provide the newsprint demanded by that universal literacy which was to make the world safe for intelligence and democracy, and got who lesale erosion, pulp magazines and the organs of Fascist, Communist, c apitalist and nationalist propaganda. In b rief, Shu and Hu are devotees o f the a po ca ly ptic re li gio n of In evi ta b le Pr ogr e s s , and t he ir c r e ed is that the Kingdom of Heaven is outside you, and in the future. Chuang Tz u, on the other hand, like all good Taoists, has no desire to bully N ature into subserving ill-considered tempora l ends, at variance with the f inal end of men as formulated in the Perennial Philosophy. His wish is t o work with Nature, so as to produce material and social conditions in which individuals may realize Tao on e very level from the physiologic al up to the spiritual. C o m p a r e d w i t h t h a t o f t h e T a o i s t s and Far Eastern Buddhists, th e Christian attitude towards Nature has been curiously insensitiv e and often downright domineering and Violent. Taking their cue from an unfortunate remark in Genesis, Ca tholic moralists have regarded animals as mere things which men do right to exploit for their own ends. Like landscape painting, the hum anitarian movement in Europe wa s an almost completely secular affair . In the Far East both were ess entially religious. The Greeks believed that Hubris was always followed by Nemesis, that if you went too far you would get a knock on the head to remind you that the gods will not tolerate insolence on the part of mortal men. In the sphere of human relations, t he modern mind understands the doctrine of hubris and regards it as mainly true. We wish pride to have a fall, and we see that very often it does fall. 110 To have too much power over ones fellows, to be too rich, too violent, too ambitious - all this invites punishment, and in the long ru n, we notice, punishment of one sort or another duly comes. But the G reeks did not stop there. Because they regarded Nature as in some way Divine, they felt that it had to be respected and they were convinced t hat a hubristic lack of respect for Nat ure would be punished by aveng ing nemesis. In The Persians Aeschylus gives the reasons - the ul timate, metaphysical reasons - for the barbarians defeat. Xerxes was p unished for two offences - overweening i mperialism directed against the Athenians, and overweening imperialism directed against Nature. H e t r i e d t o e n s l a v e h i s f e l l o w - m e n , a n d h e t r i e d t o e n s l a v e t h e s e a, by building a bridge acr oss the Hellespont. Atessa. From shore to shore he bridged the Hellespont. Ghost of Darius. What, could he chain the mighty Bosphorus? Atessa. Even so, some god assisting his design. Ghost of Darius. Some god of po wer to cloud his better sense. Today we recognize and condemn the first kind of imperialism; b ut most of us ignore the existence and even the very possibility of the second. And yet the author of Erewhon was certainly not a fool, and now that we are paying the appalling price for our much touted conquest o f Nature his book seems more than ever topical. And Butler was n ot the only nineteenth-century sceptic in regard to Inevitable Progres s. A generation or more before him, Alfred de Vigny was writing abou t the new technological marvel of his days, the steam engine - writin g in a tone very different from the enthusiastic roarings and trumpeti ngs of his great contemporary, Victor Hugo. Sur le taureau de fer, qui fume, souflle et beagle, Lhomme est mont trop tt. Nul ne connat encor 111 Quels orages en lui porte ce rude aveugle, Et le gai voyageur lui livre son tresor. And a little later in the same poem he adds: Tous se sont dit: Allons, mais aucun nest le matre Dun dragon mugissant quun savant a fait natre. Nous nous sommes jous pl us fort que nous tous. Looking backwards across the carn age and the devastation, we ca n see that Vigny was perfectly right. None of those gay travellers, o f whom Victor Hugo was the most vocifer ously eloquent, had the faintes t notion where that first, funny little Puffing Billy was taking them. O r rather they had a very clear notion, but it happened to be entirely false. For they were convinced that Puffing Billy was hauling them at full spee d towards universal peace and the brotherhood of man; while the newspaper s which they were so proud of bein g able to read, as the train ru mbled along towards its Utopian destination not more than fifty years or so a w a y , w e r e t h e g u a r a n t e e t h a t l i b e r t y a n d r e a s o n w o u l d s o o n b e everywhere triumphant. Puffing Billy has now turned into a four-motored bomber loaded with white phosphorus and high explosives, and the free press is eve rywhere the servant of its advertisers, of a pressure group, or of the government. And yet, for some inexplicab le reason, the travellers (now far from gay) still hold fast to the religion of Inevitable Progress which is, in the last analysis, the hope and faith (in the teeth of all human experience) that one can get something for nothing. How much saner and more realisti c is the Greek view that every victory ha s to be paid for, and that, for s o m e victories, the price exacted is so high that it outweighs any a dvantage that may be obtained! Modern man no longer regards Nature as be ing in any sense Divine and feels pe rfectly free to behave towards her as an 112 overweening conqueror and tyrant. The spoils of recent technolo gical imperialism have been enormous; but meanwhile nemesis has seen to it that we get our kicks as well as halfpence. For example, has the ability t o t r a v e l i n t w e l v e h o u r s f r o m N e w Y o r k t o L o s A n g e l e s g i v e n m o re pleasure to the human race than the dropping of bombs and fire has given pain? There is no known method of computing the amount of felicity or goodness in the world at large. What is obvious, ho wever, is that the advantages accruing from recent technological advances - or, in Greek phraseology, from recent acts of hubris directed against Nature - are generally accompanied by corresponding disadvantages, that gains in one direction entail losses in other directions, and that we never get something except for something. Whether the net result of these elaborate cr edit and debit oper ations is a genuine Progress in virtue, ha ppiness, charity and intelligen ce is something we can never definitely determine. It is because the reality of Progress can never be determined that the nineteenth and twenti eth c e n t u r i e s h a v e h a d t o t r e a t i t a s an article of religious faith . To the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy, the question whether Pro gress i s i n e v i t a b l e o r e v e n r e a l i s n o t a m a t t e r o f p r i m a r y i m p o r t a n c e. For them, the important thing is that individual men and women shou ld come to the unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground, and what in terests them in regard to the social environment is not its progressive ness or non-progressiveness (whatever those terms may mean), but the degree to which it helps or hinders indivi duals in their advance towards mans final end. avb 113 Chapter 5 CHARITY He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. 1 John iv By love may He be gotten and ho lden, but by thought never. The Cloud of Unknowing Whosoever studies to reach contemplation (i.e. unitive knowledge) should begin by searchingly enquirin g of himself how much he loves. For love is the motive power of the mind (machina mentis), which draws it out of the world and raises it on high. St. Gregory the Great The astrolabe of the mysteries of God is love. Jalal-uddin Rumi Heavens, deal so still! Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man That slaves your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, f eel your power quickly. Shakespeare Love is infallible; it has no errors, for all errors are the want of love. William Law E c a n o n l y l o v e w h a t w e k n o w , a n d w e c a n n e v e r k n o w completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge, and when the love is sufficiently disinterested and sufficientl y intense, the knowledge becomes unitive kn owledge and so takes on the qua lity of infallibility. Where ther e is no disinterested love (or, more briefly. no charity), there is only biased self-love, and consequently only a partial and distorted knowledge both of the self and of the world of th ings, lives, minds and spirit outside the self. The lust-dieted man slaves the ordinances of Heaven - that is to say, he subordinates the law s of Nature and the spirit to his own cravin gs. The result is that he does not feel W 114 and therefore makes himself inca pable of knowledge. His ignoran ce is ultimately voluntary; if he ca nnot see, it is because he will not see. Such voluntary ignorance inevitably has its negative reward. Ne mesis follows hubris - sometimes in a spectacular way, as when the se lf- blinded man (Macbeth, Othello, Lear) falls into the trap which his own ambition or possessiveness or petulant vanity has prepared for him; sometimes in a less obvious way, as in the cases where power, prosperity and reputation endure to the end but at the cost of an ever- increasing imperviousness to grace and enlightenment, an ever completer inability to escape, n ow or hereafter, from the stiff ing prison of selfness and separateness. How profound can be the spiritual ignorance by which such ensl avers of Heavens ordinances are punishe d is indicated by the behaviour o f Cardinal Richelieu on his death-bed. The priest who attended hi m urged the great man to prepare his soul for its coming ordeal by forg iving all his enemies. I have never had any enemies, the Cardinal repli ed with t h e c a l m s i n c e r i t y o f a n i g n o r a n c e w h i c h l o n g y e a r s o f i n t r i g u e a n d avarice and ambition had rendere d as absolute as had been his p olitical power, save only those of the State. Like Napoleon, but in a different way, he was feeling heavens pow er, because he had refused to feel charity and therefore refused to know the whole truth about his own soul or anything else. Here on earth the love of God is better than the knowledge of od, while it is better to know inferior things than to love them. By knowing them we raise them, in a way, to our intelligence, whereas by loving them we stoop towards them and may become subservient to them, as the miser to his gold. St. Thomas Aquinas (paraphrased) This remark seems, at first sight, to be incompatible with what precedes it. But in reality St. Thomas is merely distinguishing between the various 115 forms of love and knowledge. It is better to love-know God than just to know about God, without love, through the reading of a treatise o n theology. Gold, on the other ha nd, should never be known with t he misers love, or rather concupisc ence, but either abstractly, a s the scientific investigator knows it, or else with the disintereste d love- knowledge of the artist in metal, or of the spectator, who love -knows the goldsmiths work, not for its cash value, not for the sake of possessing it, but just because it is beautiful. And the same a pplies to all created things, lives and minds. It is bad to love-know them wi th self- centred attachment and cupidity; it is somewhat better to know them with scientific dispassion; it i s best to supplement abstract k nowledge- without-cupidity with true disinterested love-knowledge, having t h e quality of aesthetic delight, or of charity, or of both combine d. We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship. Pascal By a kind of philological accident (which is probably no accident at all, but one of the more subtle expressions of mans deep - seated will to ignorance and spiritual darkness), the word charity has come, in modern English, to be synonymous with almsgiving, and is almost never used in i t s original sense, as signifying th e highest and most Divine form of love. Owing to this impoverishment of our, at the best of times, very inadequate vocabulary of psychological and spiritual terms, the w o r d love has had to assume an added burden. God is love, we rep eat glibly, and that we must love our neighbours as ourselves; bu t love, unfortunately, stands for everyth ing from what happens when, on the screen, two close-ups rapturously collide to what happens when a John Woolman or a Peter Claver feels a concern about Negro slaves, b ecause they are temples of the Holy Spirit - from what happens when cr owds shout and sing and wave flags in the Sport-Palast or the Red Sq uare to 116 what happens when a solitary contemplative becomes absorbed in the prayer of simple regard. Ambiguity in vocabulary leads to confu sion of t h o u g h t ; a n d , i n t h i s m a t t e r o f l o v e , c o n f u s i o n o f t h o u g h t a d m i rably serves the purpose of an unregen erate and divided human nature that is determined to make the best of both worlds - to say that it is serving God, while in fact it is serving Mammon, Mars or Priapus. Systematically or in brief aphorism and parable, the masters of t h e spiritual life have described the nature of true charity and ha ve distinguished it from the other, lower forms of love. Let us co nsider its principal characteristics in ord er. First, charity is disintere sted, seeking no reward, nor allowing itself to be diminished by any return o f evil for its good. God is to be loved for Himself, not for his gifts, an d persons and things are to be loved for Gods sake, because they are temples of the Holy Ghost. Moreover, since charity is disinterested, it must o f necessity be universal. Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I lov e; I love in order that I may love. . . . Of all the motions an d affections of the soul , love is the only one by means of which the creature, though not on equal terms, is able to treat with the Creator and to give back something resembling what has been given to it. . . . When God lo ves, He only desires to be loved, knowing that love will render al l those who love Him happy. St. Bernard For as love has no by-ends, wills nothing but its own increase, so everything is as oil to its flame; it must have that which it wills and cannot be disappointed, because everything (including unkindness on the part of those loved) naturally helps it to live in its own way and to bring forth its own work. William Law 117 Those who speak ill of me are really my good friends. When, being slandered, I cherish neither enmity nor preference, There grows within me the power of love and humility, which is born of the Unborn. Yung-chia Ta-shih Some people want to see God with th eir eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people wh o love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfor t. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in yo ur mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth. Eckhart A beggar, Lord, I ask of Thee more than a thousand kings could ask. Each one wants something, which he asks of Thee. I come to ask Thee to give me Thyself. Ansari of Herat I will have nothing to do with a love which would be for God or -in God. This is a love which pure love cannot abide; for pure love is God Himself. St. Catherine of Genoa As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son, so let there be good will without measure be tween all beings. Let good will without measure prev ail in the whole world, above, below, around, unstinted, unmixed with any feeling of differing or opposing interests. If a man remain st eadfastly in this state of mind all the time he is awake, then is come to pass the saying, Even in this world holiness has been found. Metta Sutra Learn to look with an equal eye upon all beings, seeing the one Self in all. Srimad Bhagavatam 118 The second distinguishing mark of charity is that, unlike the l ower forms of love, it is not an emotion. It begins as an act this of the will and1s consummated as a purely spiritual awareness, a unitive love-kno wledge of the essence of us object. Let everyone understand that real l ove of God does not consist in tear - shedding, nor in that sweetness an d tenderness for which usually we long, just because they console us , but in serving God in justice, fortitude of soul and humility. St. Teresa The worth of love does not consist in high feelings, but in detachment, in patience under all trials for th e sake of God whom we love. St. John of the Cross By love I do not mean any natural tenderness, which is more or less in people according to their constitu tion; but I mean a larger principle of the soul, founded in reason and piety, which makes us tender, kind and gentle to all our fellow creature s as creatures of God, and for his sake. William Law The nature of charity, or the love-knowledge of God, is defined b y Shankara, the great Vedantist saint and philosopher of the nint h century, in the thirty-second co uplet of his Viveka Chudamani. Among the instruments of emanci pation the supreme is devotion. Contemplation of the true form of the real Self (the Atman which is identical with Brahman) is said to be devotion. In other words, the highest form of the love of God is an immediate spiritual intuition, by which knower, known and kn owledge are made one. The means to, and earlier stages of, this supreme love-knowledg e of Spirit by spirit are described by Shankara in the preceding ver ses of his philosophical poem, and consist in acts of a will directed towa rds the denial of selfness in thought, fe eling and action, towards desi relessness 119 and non-attachment or (to use the corresponding Christian term) holy indifference, towards a cheerful acceptance of affliction, wit hout self- pity and without thought of returning evil for evil, and finall y towards unsleeping and one-pointed mindfulness of the Godhead who is at once transcendent and, because transc endent, immanent in every soul. It is plain that no distinct object whatever that pleases the w ill can be God; and, for that reason, if the will is to be united with Him , it must empty itself, cast away every di sorderly affection of the desir e, every satisfaction it may distinctly have, high and low, temporal and spiritual, so that, purified and cleansed f rom all unruly satisfactions, j oys and desires, it may be wholly occupie d, with all its affections, in loving God. For if the will can in any way co mprehend God and be united wit h Him, it cannot be through any capacity of the desire, but only by lo ve; and as all the delight, sweetness and joy, of which the will is sensib le, is not love, it follows that none of these pleasing impressions can be t h e adequate means of uniting the will to God. These adequate means consist in an act of the will. And because an act of the will i s quite distinct from feeling, it is by an act that the will is united with God and rests in Him; that act is love. This union is never wrought by feeling o r exertion of the desire; for these remain in the soul as aims and ends. I t is only as motives of love that feelings can be of service, if the will is bent on going onwards, and for nothing else. . . . He, then, is very unwise who, wh en sweetness and spiritual delight fail him, thinks for that reason th at God has abandoned him; and when he finds them again, rejoices and is glad, thinking that he has in that way come to possess God. More unwise still is he who goes about seeking for sweetness in God, rejoices in it, and dwells upon it; fo r in so doing he is not seeking after God with the will Grounded in the em ptiness of faith and charity, but 120 only in spiritual sweetness and de light, which is a created thing, following herein in his own will and fo nd pleasure. . . . It is impossible for the will to attain to the sweetn ess and bliss of the Divine union otherwise than - in detachment, in refusing to the desire every pleasure in the things of heaven and earth. St. John of the Cross Love (the sensible love of the emotions) does not unify. True, it unites in act; but it does no t unite in essence. Eckhart The reason why sensible love even of the highest object cannot unite the soul to its Divine Ground in spiritual essence is that, lik e all other emotions of the heart, sensible love intensifies that selfness, which is the final obstacle in the way of such union. The damned are in eternal movement without any mixture of rest; we mortals, who are yet i n this p ilgr im a g e, ha v e n ow move m e n t, no w re s t. . . . On l y G od h a s re p ose without movement. Consequently it is only if we abide in the p eace of God that passes all understanding that we can abide in the know ledge and love of God. And to the peace that passes understanding we have t o g o b y w a y o f t h e h u m b l e a n d v e r y o r d i n a r y p e a c e w h i c h c a n b e understood by everybody - peace between nations and within them (for wars and violent revolutions have the effect of more or less to tally eclipsing God for the majority of those involved in them); peace between individuals and within the individual soul (for personal quarrels and private fears, loves, hates, ambitions and distractions are, in their petty wa y, no less fatal to the development of the spiritual life than are the greater c alamities). W e have to will the peace that it is within our power to get for o urselves and others, in order that we may be fit to receive that other peace , which is a fruit of the Spirit and the condition, as St. Paul implied, o f the unitive knowledge-love of God. It is by means of tranquillity of mind that you are able to transmute this false mind of death and rebirth into the clear Intuitive Mind and, 121 by so doing, to realize the primal and enlightening Essence of Mind. You should make this your starti ng point for spiritual practices. Having harmonized your starting point with your goal, you will be able by right practice to attain your true end of perfect Enlightenment. If you wish to tranquillize your mi nd and restore its original purity, you must proceed as you would do if you were purifying a jar of muddy water. You first let it stand, until the sediment settles at the bottom, when the water will become clear, which corresponds with the state of the mind before it was troubled by defiling passions. Then you carefully strain off the pure water. When the mind becomes tranquillize d and concentrated into perfect unity, then all things will be seen , not in their separateness, but in their unity, wherein there is no pl ace for the passions to enter, and which is in full conformity with the mysterious and indescribable purity of Nirvana. urangama Sutra This identity out of the One into the One and with the One is the source and fountainhead and brea king forth of glowing Love. Eckhart Spiritual progress, as we have had occasion to discover in seve ral other contexts, is always spiral and reciprocal. Peace from distracti ons and emotional agitations is the way to charity; and charity, or uni tive love- knowledge, is the way to the higher peace of God. And the same is true of humility, which is the third characteristic mark of charity. Humility is a necessary condition of the highest form of love, and the high est form of love makes possible the cons ummation of humility in a total self- naughting. Would you become a pilgrim on the road of Love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes. Ansari of Herat 122 I have but one word to say to you concerning love for your neighbour, namely that nothing save humility can mould you to it; nothing but the consciousness of your own we akness can make you indulgent and pitiful to that of others. You will answer, I quite understand that humility should produce forbeara nce towards others, but how am I first to acquire humility? Two things combined will bring that about; you must never separate them. The first is contemplation of the deep gulf, whence Gods all- powerful hand has drawn you out, an d over which He ever holds you, so to say, suspended. The second is the presence of that all-penetrating God. It is only in beholding an d loving God that we can learn forgetfulness of self, measure duly the nothingness which has dazzled us, and accustom ourselves thankfully to decrease beneath that great Majesty which absorbs all things. Love God and you will be humble; love God and you will throw off the l ove of self; love God and you will love all that He gives you to love for love of Him. Fenelon Feelings, as we have seen, may be of service as motives of char ity; but charity as charity has its begi nning in the will - will to peac e and humility in oneself, will to patience and kindness towards ones fellow - creatures, will to that disinteres ted love of God which asks n othing and refuses nothing. But the will c an be strengthened by exercise and confirmed by perseverance. This is very clearly brought out in the following record - delightful fo r its Boswellian vividness - of a conversation between the young B ishop of Belley and his beloved friend and master, Francois de Sales. I once asked the Bishop of Geneva (Francois de Sales) what one must do to attain perfection. You must love God with all your heart, he answered, and your neighbour as yourself. 123 I did not ask wherein perfection lies, I rejoined, but how to attain it. Charity, he said again, that is both the means and the end, the only way by which we can reach that pe rfection which is, after all, but Charity itself. . . . Just as the soul is the life of the body, so charity is the life of the soul. I know all that, I said. But I wa nt to know how one is to love God with all ones heart and one s neighbour as oneself. But again he answered, We must love God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves. I am no further than I was, I repl ied. Tell me how to acquire such love. The best way, the shortest and easi est way of loving God with all ones heart is to love Him wh olly and heartily! He would give no other answer. At last, however, the Bishop said, There are many besides you who want me to te ll them of methods and systems and secret ways of becoming perfect, and I can only tell them that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that love is by loving. You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves. If you want to love God, go on loving Him more and mo re. Begin as a mere apprentice, and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master in the art. Those who have made most progress wi ll continually press on, never believing themselves to have reache d their end; for charity should go on increasing until we dr aw our last breath. Jean Pierre Camus 124 The passage from what St. Bernard calls the carnal love of th e sacred humanity to the spiritual love o f the Godhead, from the emotion al love that can only unite lover and bel oved in act to the perfect cha rity which unifies them in spiritual substa nce, is reflected in religious practice as the passage from meditation, dis cursive and affective, to infus ed contemplation. All Christian writers insist that the spiritual love of the God head is superior to the carnal love of the humanity, which serves as in troduction and means to mans final end in unitive love-knowledge of the D ivine G r o u n d ; b u t a l l i n s i s t n o l e s s s t r o n g l y t h a t c a r n a l l o v e i s a n ecessary introduction and an indispensable harnessing the means. Orienta l writers would agree that this is true for many persons, but not for all, since there are some born contemplatives who are able to harmo nize their starting point with their goal and to embark directly up on the Yoga of Knowledge. It is from the point of view of the born contempl ative that the greatest of Taoist philosoph ers writes in the following pas sage. Those men who in a special way re gard Heaven as Father and have, as it were, a personal love for it, how much more should they love what is above Heaven as Father! Other men in a special way regard their rulers as better than themselves and they, as it were, personally die for them. How much more should they die for what is truer than a ruler! When the springs dry up, the fish are all together on dry land. They then moisten each other with their dampness and keep each other wet with their slime. But th is is not to be compared with forgetting each other in a river or lake. Chuang Tzu The slime of personal and emotional love is remotely similar to the water o f t h e G o d h e a d s s p i r i t u a l b e i n g , b u t o f i n f e r i o r q u a l i t y a n d (precisely because the love is emotio nal and therefore personal) of insufficient quantity. Having, by their voluntary ignorance, wrong-doing and wrong 125 being, caused the Divine springs to dry up, human beings can do something to mitigate the horrors of their situation by keepin g one another wet with their slime. But there can be no happiness or safety in time and no deliverance into eternity, until they give up think ing that slime is enough and, by abandoning themselves to what is in fac t their e l e m e n t , c a l l b a c k t h e e t e r n a l w a t e r s . T o t h o s e w h o s e e k f i r s t the Kingdom of God, all the rest will be added. From those who, lik e the modern idolaters of progress, see k first all the rest in the ex pectation that (after the harnessing of atomic power and the next revolution b ut three) the Kingdom of God will be added, everything will be taken away . And yet we continue to trust in progress, to regard personal slime as the highest form of spiritual moisture and to prefer an agonizing a nd impossible existence on dry land to love, Joy and peace in our native ocean. The sect of lovers is distinct from all others; Lovers have a religion and a faith all their own. Jalal-uddin Rumi The Soul lives by that which it love s rather than in the body which it animates. For it has not its life in the body, but rather gives it to the body and lives in that which it loves. St. John of the Cross Temperance is love surrendering it self wholly to Him who is its object; courage is love hearing all things gladly for the sake of Him who is its object; justice is love se rving only Him who is its object, and therefore rightly ruling; prudence is love making wise distinctions between what hinders and what helps itself. St. Augustine The distinguishing marks of char ity are disinterestedness, tran quillity and humility. But where there is disinterestedness there is nei ther greed for personal advantage nor fea r for personal lo ss or punishment ; where there is tranquillity, there is neither craving nor aversion, b ut a steady will to conform to the Divine Tao or Logos on every level of ex istence 126 and a steady awareness of the Divine Suchness and what should b e ones o w n r e l a t i o n s t o i t ; a n d w h e r e t h e r e i s h u m i l i t y t h e r e i s n o censoriousness and no glorification of the ego or any projected alter - ego at the expense of others, wh o are recognized as having the same weaknesses and faults, but also the same capacity for transcend ing them in the unitive knowledge of God, as one has oneself. From all this it follows that charity is the root and substance of morality, and that where there is little charity there will be much avoidable evil . All this has been summed up in Augustines for mula: Love, and do what you l ike. Among the later elaborations of the Augustinian theme we may ci te the f o l l o w i n g f r o m t h e w r i t i n g s o f J o h n E v e r a r d , o n e o f t h o s e s p i r i tually minded seventeenth-century Divines still whose teachings fell o n the deaf ears of warring factions and, when the revolution and the military dictatorship were at an end, on the even deafer ears of Restora tion clergymen and thei r successors in the Augustan age. (Just how deaf those ears could be we may judge by what Swift wrote of his beloved a nd morally perfect Houyhnhnms. The subject matter of their conversations, as of their poetry, consisted of such things as friendship and benevolence , the visible operations of nature Divine or a ncient traditions; the bounds a nd limits of virtue, the unerring rules of re ason. Never once do the ideas of God, or charity, or deliverance engage their minds. Which shows suffici ently clearly what the Dean of St. Patricks t hought of the religion by which he made his money.) Turn the man loose who has found th e living Guide within him, and then let him neglect the outward if he can! Just as you would say to a man who loves his wife with all tenderness, You are at liberty to beat her, hurt her or kill her, if you want to. John Everard F r o m t h i s i t f o l l o w s t h a t , w h e r e t h e r e i s c h a r i t y , t h e r e c a n b e n o coercion. 127 God forces no one, for love cannot compel, and Gods service, therefore, is a thing of perfect freedom. Hans Denk But just because it cannot compel, charity has a kind of author ity, a non- coercive power, by means of whic h it defends itself and gets it s beneficent will done in the world - not always, of course, not inevitably or automatically (for individuals and, still mo re, organizations can be impenetrably armoured against Divine influence), but in a surprisingly large number of cases. Heaven arms with pity those whom it would not see destroyed. Lao Tzu He abused me, he beat me, he defe ated me, he robbed me; those who harbour such thoughts ha tred will never cease. He abused me, he beat me, be defeated me, he robbed me - in those who do not harbour such thoughts hatred will cease. For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time - this is an old rule. Dhammapada Our present economic, social and international-arrangements are based, in large measure, upon or ganized lovelessness. We begin by lacking charity towards Nature, so that instead of trying to co -operate with Tao or the Logos on the inanimate and sub-human levels, we try to dominate and exploit, we waste the earths mineral resources, r uin its soil, ravage its forests, pour fi lth into its rivers and poison ous fumes into its air. From lovelessness in relation to Nature we advance to lovelessn ess in relation to art - a lovelessness so extreme that we have effect ively killed all the fundamental or useful arts and set up various kinds of mass- production by machines in their place. And of course this lovel essness in regard to art is at the same time a lovelessness in regard to t he human beings who have to perform the fool-proof and grace-proof tasks imposed by our mechanical art-surrogates and by the interminabl e 128 paper work connected with mass-production and mass - distributi on. With mass-production and mass-distribution go mass-financing, a nd the three have conspired to expropri ate ever-increasing numbers of small owners of land and productive equipment, thus reducing the sum of freedom among the majority and increasing the power of a minori ty to exercise a coercive control over the lives of their fellows. This coercively controlling minor ity is composed of private cap italists or governmental bureaucrats or of b oth classes of bosses acting in c o l l a b o r a t i o n - a n d , o f c o u r s e , t he coercive and therefore esse ntially loveless nature of the control re mains the same, whether the bo sses call themselves company directors o r civil servants. The only di fference between these two kinds of oligarchical rulers is that the firs t derive more of their power from wealt h than from position within a conventionally respected hierarchy, while the second derive mor e power from position than from wealth. Upon this fairly uniform Groundwork of loveless relationships are imposed others, which vary widely from one society to another, according to local conditio ns and local habits of thou ght and feeling. H e r e a r e a f e w e x a m p l e s : c o n t e m p t a n d e x p l o i t a t i o n o f c o l o u r e d minorities living among white ma jorities, or of coloured majori ties governed by minorities of white imperialists; hatred of Jews, C atholics, Freemasons or of any against charity, other minority whose lang uage, habits, appearance or religion ha ppens to differ from those of the local majority. And the crowning superstructure of uncharity is the o rganized lovelessness of the relations between state and sovereign state - a lovelessness that expresses itself in the axiomatic assumption that it is right and natural for national organizations to behave like thi eves and murderers, armed to the teeth an d ready, at the first favourabl e opportunity, to steal and kill. (Just how axiomatic is this assumption about the nature of nationhood is shown by the history of Central Ame rica. So long 129 as the arbitrarily delimited territories of Central America wer e called provinces of the Spanish colonia l empire, there was peace betwe en their inhabitants. But early in the ni neteenth century the various ad ministrative districts of the Spanish empire broke from their allegiance to the mother country and decided to become nations on the European model. R esult: they immediately went to war with one another. Why? Because, by defi nition, a s o v e re i gn na t io n al s t a te i s a n o rganization that has the right and duty to coerce its members to steal and kill on the largest possible sc ale.) Lead us not into temptation mu st be the guiding principle of all social organization, and the temptation s to be guarded against and, so far as p o s s i b l e , e l i m i n a t e d b y m e a n s o f a p p r o p r i a t e e c o n o m i c a n d p o l i t ical arrangements are temptations aga inst charity, that is to say, a gainst the disinterested love of God, Nature and man. First, the dissemination and general acceptance of any form of the Perennial Philosophy will do somet hing to preserve men and wome n from the temptation to idolatrous worship of things in time - c hurch- worship, state-worship, revoluti onary future-worship, humanisti c self- worship, all of them essentially and necessarily opposed to cha rity. Next come decentralization, widesprea d private ownership of land and the means of production on a small sc ale, discouragement of monopol y by state or corporation, war and division of economic and politica l power (the only guarantee, as Lord Acton was never tired of insisting , of civil liberty under law). These social rearrangements would do much to prevent ambitious individuals, organizati ons and governments from being l e d into the temptation of behaving tyrannously; while co-operative s, democratically controlled professional organizations and town m eetings would deliver the masses of the people from the temptation of m aking their decentralized indi vidualism too rugged. But of course none of these intr insically desirable reforms can possibly be carried out, so long as it is thought right and natural that sovereign 130 states should prepare to make wa r o n o n e a n o t h e r . F o r m o d e r n w a r cannot be waged except by countries with an over - developed ca pital goods industry; countr ies in which economic power is wielded ei ther by the state or by a few monopolistic corporations which it is eas y to tax and, if necessary, temporarily to nationalize; countries where the labouring masses, being without property, are rootless, easily transferable from one place to a nother, highly regimented by fa ctory discipline. Any decentralized soc iety of free, uncoerced small owners, with a properly balanced economy must, in a war-making world su ch as ours, be at the mercy of one whose production is highly mechani zed and centralized, whose people are without property and therefore ea sily coercible, and whose economy is l op-sided. This is why the one desire of industrially undeveloped countries like Mexico and China is to become like Germany, or England, or the United States. So long as the organized lovelessness of war and preparation fo r war remains, there can be no mitigat ion, on any large, nation-wide or world- wide scale, of the organized lovelessness of our economic and p olitical relationships. War and preparation for war are standing temptat ions to m a k e t h e p r e s e n t b a d , G o d - e c l i psing arrangements of society progressively worse as technolo g y b e c o m e s p r o g r e s s i v e l y m o r e efficient. avb 131 Chapter 6 MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD This treasure of the Kingdom of God has been hidden by time and multiplicity and the souls own work s, or briefly by its creaturely nature. But in the measure that the so ul can separate itself from this multiplicity, to that extent it reveal s within itself the Kingdom of God. Here the soul and the Godhead are one. Eckhart OUR kingdom go is the necessary and unavoidable corollary of Thy kingdom come. For the more there is of self, the less the re is of God. The Divine eternal fullness of life can be gained on ly by those who have deliberately lost the partial, separative life of crav ing and self- interest, of egocentric thinking, feeling, wishing and acting. Mortification or deliberate dying to self is inculcated with an u n c o m p r o m i s i n g f i r m n e s s i n t h e c a n o n i c a l w r i t i n g s o f C h r i s t i a n i ty, Hinduism, Buddhism and most of the other major and minor religi ons of the world, and by every theocent ric saint and spiritual reforme r who has ever lived out and expounded the principles of the Perennial Ph ilosophy. But this self-naughting is never (at least by anyone who knows what he is talking about) regarded as an end in itself. It possesses merely an instrumental value, as the indis pensable means to something els e. In the words of one whom we have often had occasion to cite in earlier sections, it is necessary for all of us to learn the true natu re and worth of all self-denials and mortifications. As to their nature, considered in themselves, they have nothing of goodness or holiness, nor are any real part of our sanctification, they Y 132 are not the true food or nourishment of the Divine Life in our souls, they have no quickening, sanctifyin g power in them; their only worth consists in this, that they remove the impediments of holiness, break down that which stands between God and us, and make way for the quickening, sanctifying spirit of Go d to operate on our souls, which operation of God is the one only thing that can raise the Divine Life in the soul, or help it to the smallest degree of real holi ness or spiritual life. . . . Hence we may learn the reason why many people not only lose the benefit, but are even the worse for all their mortifications. It is because they mistake the whole nature and worth of them. They practise them for their own sakes, as things good in themselves; they think them to be real parts of holiness, and so rest in them and look no further, but grow full of self-esteem and self-admiration for their own progress in them. This makes them self-sufficient, morose, severe judges of all those that fall short of their mortifications. And thus their self-denials do only that for th em which indulgen ces do for other people: they withstand and hinder the operation of God upon their souls, and instead of being really se lf-denials, they strengthen and keep up the kingdom of self. William Law The rout and destruction of the passions, while a good, is not the ultimate good; the discovery of wisd om is the surpassing good. When this is found, all the people will sing. Philo Living in religion (as I can speak by experience) if one is not in a right course of prayer and other exercises between God and our soul, ones nature groweth much worse than ever it would have been, if one had lived in the world. For pride and self -love, which are rooted in the soul by sin, find means to strengthen th emselves exceedingly in religion, if the soul is not in a course that may teach her and procure her true 133 humility. For by the corrections and contradictions of the will (which cannot be avoided by any living in a religious community) I find my heart grown, as I may say, as hard as a Stone; and nothing would have been able to soften it but by being put in to a course of prayer, by which the soul tendeth towards God and learne th of Him the lesson of truly humbling herself. Dame Gertrude More Once, when I was grumbling over be ing obliged to eat meat and do no penance, I heard it said that sometimes there was more of self-love than desire of penance in such sorrow. St. Teresa That the mortified are, in some respects, often much worse than th e unmortified is a commonplace of history, fiction and descriptiv e psychology. Thus, the Puritan may practise all the cardinal vir tues- prudence, fortitude, temperance an d chastity - and yet remain a thoroughly bad man; for, in all too many cases, these virtues o f his are accompanied by, and indeed causa lly connected with, the sins of pride, envy, chronic anger and an uncha ritableness pushed sometimes to the level of active cruelty. Mistaking the means for the end, the Puritan has fancied himsel f holy because he is stoically austere. But stoical austerity is merel y the exaltation of the more creditable side of the ego at the expens e of the less creditable. Holine ss, on the contrary, is the total denial o f t h e separative self, in its creditable no less than its discreditab le aspects, and the abandonment of the will to God. To the extent that there is attachment to I, me, mine t here is no attachment to, and t herefore no unitive knowledge of, the Divine Ground. Mortification has t o be carried to the pitch of non-attachment or (in the phrase of St. Francois de Sales) holy indifference; otherwise i t merely transfers self-will fr om one channel to another, without decr ease in the total volume of tha t self- will, but sometimes with an actual increase. 134 As usual, the corruption of the best is the worst. The differen ce between the mortified but still proud and self-centred stoic and the un mortified hedonist consists in this: the latter, being flabby, shiftless and at heart rather ashamed of himself, lacks the energy and the motive to d o much harm except to his own body, min d and spirit; the former, becau se he has all the secondary virtues a nd looks down on those who are n ot like himself, is morally equipped to wish and to be able to do harm on the very largest scale and with a perfectly untroubled conscience. These are obvious being difficult, painful facts; and yet, in the current religious jargon of our day the word immoral is reserved almost exclusi vely for the carnally self-indulgent. The covetous and the ambitious, th e respectable toughs and those who cloak their lust for power and place under the right sort of idealistic cant, are not merely unblame d; they are even held up as models of virtue and godliness. The representat ives of the organized churches begin by putting haloes on the heads of the people who do most to make wars and revolutions, then go on, ra ther plaintively, to wonder why the w orld should be in such a mess. Mortification is not, as many pe ople seem to imagine, a matter, primarily, of severe physical au sterities. It is possible that, f o r c e r t a i n persons in certain circumstances , t h e p r a c t i c e o f s e v e r e p h y s i c al austerities may prove helpful in advance towards mans final en d. In m o s t c a s e s , h o w e v e r , i t w o u l d s e e m t h a t w h a t i s g a i n e d b y s u c h austerities is not liberation, b ut something quite different - the achievement of psychic powers. The ability to get petitionary p rayer answered, the power to he al and work other miracles, the knack o f looking into the future or in to other people's minds - these, it would seem, are often related in som e kind of causal connection with fasting, watching and the self-inflictio n of pain. Most of the great theocentric sa ints and spiritual teachers hav e admitted the existence of supernor mal powers, only, however, to 135 deplore them. To think that such Siddhis, as the Indians call t hem, have anything to do with liberation is, they say, a dangerous illusi on. These things are either irrelevant to the main issue of life, or, if too much prized and attended to, an obstacle in the way of spiritual advance. N or are these the only objections to physical austerities. C a r r i e d t o e x t r e m e s , t h e y m a y b e d a n g e r o u s t o h e a l t h - a n d w i t h out health the steady persistence of effort required by the spiritu al life is very difficult of achievement. And being difficult, painful and generally conspicuous, physical austerities are a standing temptation to vanity and the competitive spirit of record breaking. When thou didst giv e thyself up to physical mortification, th o u w a s t g r e a t , t h o u w a s t a d m i r e d. So writes Suso of his own experienc es - experiences which led him, just as G auta ma Buddha ha d been led man y centu ries before, to give up h is course of bodily penance. And St. Teresa remarks how much easie r it is to impose great penances upon on eself than to suffer in patienc e, charity and humbleness the ordina ry everyday crosses of family life (which did not prevent her, incidentally, from practising, to t he very day of her death, the most excruciating forms of self-torture. Whether t h e s e austerities really helped her to come to the unitive knowledge of God, or whether they were prized and persisted in because of the psychi c powers they helped to develop, there is n o means of determining.) Our dear Saint (Francois de Sales) disapproved of immoderate fasting. He used to say that the spirit coul d not endure the body when overfed, but that, if underfed, the body co uld not endure the spirit. Jean Pierre Camus When the will, the moment it feels any joy in sensible things rises upwards in that joy to God, and when sensible things move it to pray, it should not neglect them, it should make use of them for so holy an exercise; because sensible things, in these conditions, subserve the end 136 for which God created them, namely to be occasions for making Him better known and loved. St. John of the Cross He who is not conscious of liberty of spirit among the things of sense and sweetness - things which should serve as motives to prayer - and whose will rests and feeds upon them , ought to abstain from the use of them; for to him they are a hind rance on the road to God. St. John of the Cross One man may declare that he cannot fast; but can he declare the course of that he cannot love God? Another may affirm that he cannot preserve virginity or sell all his good s in order to give the price to the poor; but can he tell me that he ca nnot love his enemies? All that is necessary is to look into ones own heart; for what God asks of us is not found at a great distance. St. Jerome Anybody who wishes to do so can get all, and indeed more than a ll, the mortification he wants out of th e incidents of ordinary, day - to-day living, without ever resorting to harsh bodily penance. Here ar e the rules l a i d d o w n b y t h e a u t h o r o f H o l y s p e c i f i c W i s d o m f o r D a m e G e r t r u de More. First, that she should do all that belonged to her to do by any law, human or Divine. Secondly, that she was to refrain from doing those things that were forbidden her by hu man or Divine Law, or by Divine inspiration. Thirdly, that she should bear with as much patience or resignation as possible all crosses and contradictions to her natural will, which were inflicted by the hand of God. Such, for instance, were aridities, temptations, afflictions or bodily pain, sickness and infirmity; or again, the loss of friends or wa nt of necessaries and comforts. All this was to be endured patiently, wh ether the crosses came direct from God or by means of His creatures. . . . These indeed were mortifications 137 enough for Dame Gertrude, or for any other soul, and there was no need for anyone to advise or impose others. Augustine Baker sum up, that mortification is the best which results in the elimination of self-will, self-interest, self-centred thinking, wishing and i m a g i n i n g . E x t r e m e p h y s i c a l a u s t e r i t i e s a r e n o t l i k e l y t o a c h i e v e t h i s k i n d of mortification. But the acceptance of what happens to us (apart, of course, from our own sins) in the course of daily living is likely to produce this result. If specific exercises in self-denial are undertaken, th ey should be inconspicuous, non-competitive and uninjurious to health. Thus, in the matter of diet, most people will find it sufficiently mortifyin g to refrain from eating all the - things which the experts in nutrition con demn as u n w h o l e s o m e . A n d w h e r e s o c i a l r e lations are concerned, self-den ial should take the form, Rabi'a, not of showy acts of would - be h umility, but of control of the tongue and the moods - in refraining from saying anything uncharitable or merely frivolous (which means, in practice, refraining from about fifty per cent of ordinary conversation), and in behaving calmly and with quiet cheerfulness when of devotional theism the Buddhist theologian, externa l circumstances or the state of o u r bodies predisposes us to anxiety , gloom or an excessive elation . When a man practises charity in orde r to be reborn in heaven, or for fame, or reward, or from fear, such charity can obtain no pure effect.' Sutra on the Distinction and Protection of the Dharma When Prince Wen Wang was on a tour of inspection in Tsang, he saw an old man fishing. But his fishing wa s not real fishing, for he did not fish in order to catch fish, but to amuse himself. So Wen Wang wished to employ him in the administration of government, but feared lest his own ministers, uncles and brothers might object. On the other hand, if he let the old man go, he could no t bear to think of the people being deprived of such an influence. Chuang Tzu 138 God, if I worship Thee in fear of hell , burn me in hell. And if I worship Thee in hope of Paradi se, exclude me from Para dise; but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not Thine everlasting Beauty. Rabia Rabia, the Sufi woman-saint, sp eaks, thinks and feels in terms o f d e v o t i o n a l t h e i s m ; t h e B u d d h i s t t h e o l o g i a n , i n t e r m s o f i m p e r s o nal moral Law; the Chinese philosopher, with characteristic humour, i n terms of politics; but all three insist on the need for non-att achment to self-interest - insist on it as strongly as does Christ when he reproaches t h e P h a r i s e e s f o r t h e i r e g o c e n t r i c p i e t y , a s d o e s t h e K r i s h n a o f the Bhagavad-Gita when he tells Arjuna to do his Divinely ordained duty without personal craving for, or fear of, the fruits of his act ions. St. Ignatius Loyola was once ask ed what his feelings would be i f the Pope were to suppress the Company of Jesus. A quarter of an hour of prayer, he answered, and I should think no more about it. This is, p e r h a p s , t h e m o s t d i f f i c u l t o f a l l m o r t i f i c a t i o n s - t o a c h i e v e a holy indifference to the temporal success or failure of the cause t o which one has devoted ones best energ ies. If it triumphs, well and g ood; and if it meets defeat, that also is well and good, if only in ways that, to a limited and timebound mind, are here and now entirely incomprehensible. By a man without passions I mean on e who does not permit good or evil to disturb his inward economy, but rather falls in with what happens and does not add to the sum of his mortality. Chuang Tzu The fitting disposition for union with God is not that the soul should understand, feel, taste or imagine anyt hing on the subjec t of the nature of God, or any other thing whatever, but should remain in that pureness and love which is pe rfect resignation and complete detachment from all things for God alone. St. John of the Cross 139 Disquietude is always vanity, becaus e it serves no good. Yes, even if the whole world were thrown into confusion and all things in it, disquietude on that account would be vanity. St. John of the Cross Sufficient not only unto the da y, but also unto the place, is t he evil thereof. Agitation over happenin gs which we are powerless to mo dify, either because they have not yet occurred, or else are occurrin g at an inaccessible distance from us, achieves nothing beyond the inoc ulation of here and now with the remote or anticipated evil that is the object of our distress. Listening four or five times a day to newscasters a n d commentators, reading the morning papers and all the weeklies a nd monthlies - nowadays, this is described as taking an intellige nt interest in politics. St. John of the Cross would have called it indulg ence in idle curiosity and the cultivation of disquietude for disquietudes sake. I want very little, and what I do want I have very little wish for. I have hardly any desires, but if I were to be born again, I should have none at all. We should ask nothing and refuse nothing, but leave ourselves in the arms of Divine Providence without wasting time in any desire, except to will what God wills of us. St. Franois de Sales Push far enough towards the Void, Ho ld fast enough to Quietness, And of the ten thousand things none but can be worked on by you. I have beheld them, whither they go back. See, all things howsoe ver they flourish Return to the root fr om which they grew. This return to the Root is called Quietness; Quietness is called submission to Fate; What has submitted to Fate be comes part of the always-so; To know the always-so is to be illumined; Not to know it means to go blindly to disaster. Lao Tzu 140 I wish I could join the Solitaries (on Caldey Island), instead of being Superior and having to write books. But I dont wish to have what I wish, of course. Abbot John Chapman We must not wish anything other than what happens from moment to moment, all the while, however, exercising ourselves in goodness. St. Catherine of Genoa In the practice of mortification as in most other fields, advan ce is along a knife-edge. On one side lurks th e Scylla of egocentric auster ity, on the other the Charybdis of an uncaring quietism. The holy indiffere nce inculcated by the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy is neit her stoicism nor mere passivity. It i s rather an active resignation . Self-will is renounced, not that there may be a total holiday from willing, but that the Divine will may use the mortif ied mind and body as its inst rument for good. Or we may say, with Kabir, that the devout seeker is he who mingles in his heart the double curre nts of love and detachment, like the mingling of the stream s of Ganges and Jumna. Until we put an end to particular attachments, there can be no love of God with the whole heart, mind a nd strength and no universal ch arity towards all creatures for Gods sake. Hence the hard sayings in t h e Gospels about the need to renoun ce exclusive family ties. And i f the Son o f M a n h a s n o w h e r e t o l a y h i s h e a d , i f t h e T a t h g a t a a n d t h e Bodhisattvas have their thoughts awakened to the nature of Reality without abiding in anything whatever, this is because a truly Godlike love which, like the sun, shines equally upon the just and the unjust, is impossible to a mind imprisoned i n private preferences and aver sions. The soul that is attached to anyt hing, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the libe rty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters nor, if it really ho lds it fast; for, until the cord be 141 broken, the bird cannot fly. So th e soul, held by the bonds of human affections, however slight they may be, cannot, while they last, make its way to God. St. John of the Cross There are some who are newly delive red from their sins and so, would be able to though they are resolved to love God, they are still novices and apprentices, soft and weak. . . . They love a number of superfluous, vain and dangerous things at the sa me time as Our Lord. Though they love God above all things, they yet co ntinue to take pleasure in many things which they do not love a ccording to God, but besides Him - things such as slight inordinations in word, gesture, clothing, pastimes and frivolities. St. Franois de Sales There are souls who have made so me progress in Divine love, and have cut off all the love they had for dangerous things; yet they still have dangerous and superfluous love s , b e c a u s e t h e y l o v e w h a t G o d wills them to love, but with excess and too tender and passionate a love. . . . The love of our relations, friends and benefactors is itself according to God, but we may love them excessively; as also our vocations, however spiritual they be; and our devotional exercises (which we should yet love very greatly) may be loved inordinately, when we set them above obedience an d the more general good, or care for them as an end, when they are only means. St. Franois de Sales The goods of God, which are be yond all measure, can only be contained in an empty and solitary heart. St. John of the Cross Suppose a boat is crossing a river and another boat, an empty one, is about to collide with it. Even an irritable man would not lose his temper. But suppose there was someon e in the second boat. Then the occupant of the first would shout to him to keep clear. And if he did 142 not hear the first time, nor even when called to three times, bad language would inevitably follow. In the first case there was no anger, in the second there was - because in the first case the boat was empty, in the second it was occupied. And so it is with man. If he could only pass empty through life, who woul d be able to injure him? Chuang Tzu When the heart weeps for what it ha s lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found. Anonymous Sufi Aphorism It is by losing the egocentric life that we save the hitherto l atent and undiscovered life which, in the spiritual part of our being, we share with the Divine Ground. This new-found life is more abundant than the other, and of a different and higher kind. Its possession is li beration into the eternal, and liberation is beatitude. Necessarily so; for t he Brahman, who is one with the Arman, is not only Being and Knowledge, but also Bliss, and, after Love and Peace, the final fruit of the Spirit i s J o y . Mortification is painful, but th at pain is one of the pre-condi tions of blessedness. This fact of spiritual experience is sometimes obscured by the language i n w h i c h i t i s d e s c r i b e d . T h u s , w h e n C h r i s t s a y s t h a t t h e K i n g d om of Heaven cannot be entered except by those who are as little chil dren, we are apt to forget (so touching are the images evoked by the simple phrase) that a man cannot become childlike unless he chooses to underta ke the most strenuous and searching cour se of self-denial. In practice t h e command to become as little children is identical with the comm and to lose ones life. As Traherne makes clear in the beautiful passa ge quoted in the section on God in the World, one cannot know created N ature in all its essentially sacred beaut y, unless one first unlearns th e dirty devices of adult humanity. Seen through the dung-coloured spect acles of self-interest, the universe l ooks singularly like a dung-hea p; and as, through long wearing, the specta cles have grown on to the eyeba lls, the 143 process of cleansing the doors of perception is often, at any rate in the earlier stages of the spiritual life, painfully like a surgical operation. Later on, it is true, even self-naughting may be suffused with the jo y of the Spirit. On this point the following passage from the fourteenth -century Scale of Perfection is illuminating. Many a man hath the virtues of humility, patience and charity towards his neighbours, only in th e reason and will, and hath no spiritual delight nor love in them; for of times he feeleth grudging, heaviness and bitterness for to do them, but yet nevertheless he doth them, but tis only by stirring of reason for dread of God. goods. This man hath these virtues in reas on and will, but not the love of them in affection. But when, by th e grace of Jesus and by ghostly and bodily exercise, reason is turned into light and will into love, then hath he virtues in affection; for he hath so gnawn on the bitter bark or shell of the nut that at length he hath br oken it and now feeds on the kernel; that is to say, the virtues which were first heavy for to practise are now turned into a very delight and savour. Walter Hilton As long as I am this or that, or ha ve this or that, I am not all things and I have not all things. Become pure till you neither are nor have either this or that; then you are omnipresent and, being neither this nor that, are all things. Eckhart The point so dramatically emphasized by Eckhart in these lines is one t h a t h a s o f t e n b e e n m a d e b y t h e m o r a l i s t s a n d p s y c h o l o g i s t s o f the spiritual life. It is only when w e have renounced our preoccupa tion with I, me, mine that we can tr uly possess the world in which we live. Everything is ours, provided that we regard nothing as our prop erty. And not only is everything ours; it is also everybody elses. 144 True love in this differs from dross and clay, that to divide i s not to take away. There can be no complete communism except in the goods of the spirit and, to some extent also, of the mind, and only when suc h goods are possessed by men and women in a state of non-attachment and self- denial. Some degree of mortification, it should be noted, is an indispensable prerequisite for t he creation and enjoyment even of merely intellectual and aesthetic goods. Those who choose the profession of artist, philosopher or man of science, choose, in m a n y cases, a life of poverty and unrew arded hard work. But these ar e by no means the only mortifications they have to undertake. When he l ooks at the world, the artist must deny his ordinary human tendency to think of things in utilitarian, self-regarding terms. Similarly, the critical philosopher must mortify his common sen se, while the research worker must steadfastly resist the temptations to over- simplify and think conventionally , and must make himself docile to the leadings of mysterious Fact. And what is true of the creators o f aesthetic and intellectual goods is also true of the enjoyers of such goo ds, when created. That these mortifications are by no means trifling has b e e n shown again and again in the course of history. One thinks, for example, of the intellectually mortified Socrates and the hemlock with w hich his unmortified compatriots rewarded him. One thinks of the heroic efforts that had to be made by Galileo and his contemporaries to break with the Aristotelian convention of thought, and the no less heroic effo rts that have to be made today by any scientist who believes that there is more in the universe than can be disc overed by employing the time-ha llowed recipes of Descartes. Such mortifications have their reward in a state of consciousness that corresponds, on a lower level, to spiritual beatitude. The artist - and the philosopher and the man of science are als o artists - knows the bliss of aesthetic contemplation, discovery and non - attached possession. 145 The goods of the intellect, the em otions and the imagination are real goods; but they are not the final good , and when we treat them as ends in themselves, we fall into idolatry . Mortification of will, desire and action is not enough; there must also be mortification in the fields of knowing, thinking, feeling and fancying. Mans intellectual faculties are by th e Fall in a much worse state than his animal appetites and want a mu ch greater self-denial. And when own will, own understanding and ow n imagination have their natural strength indulged and gratified, and are made seemingly rich and honourable with the treasures acquir ed from education they will just as much help to be like-minded with Christ as the art of cookery, well and duly studied, will he lp a professor of the Gospel to the spirit and practice of Christian abstinence. William Law Because it was German and spelt with a K, Kultur was an object, during the First World War, of derisive contempt. All this has now bee n changed. In Russia, Literature, Art and Science have become the three persons of a new humanistic Trinity. Nor is the cult of Culture confined to the Soviet write about everything else with the condescendin g cynicism century. Union. It is practised by a majority of intel lectuals in the capitalist democracies. Cleve r, hard-boiled journalists, wh o of people who know all about God, Man and the Universe, and have s een through the whole absurd caboodle, fairly fall over themselves when it comes to Culture. With an earnestness and enthusiasm that are, in the circumstances, unutterably ludicrous, they invite us to share t heir positively religious emotions in the face of High Art, as repre sented by the latest murals or civic centr es; they insist that so long as Mrs. X goes on writing her inimitable novels and Mr. Y his more than Coleri dgean criticism, the world, in spite o f all appearance s to the contra ry, makes sense. 146 T h e s a m e o v e r - v a l u a t i o n o f C u l t u r e , t h e s a m e b e l i e f t h a t A r t a n d Literature are ends in themselves and can flourish in isolation fro m a reasonable and realistic philosoph y of life, have even invaded the schools and colleges. Among advanced educationists there are many people who seem to think that all will be well so long as adole scents are permitted to express themselves, and small children are encou raged to be creative in the art class. But, alas, plasticine and self- expression will not solve the problems of educat ion. Nor will technology and vo cational guidance; nor the classics and th e Hundred Best Books. The foll owing criticisms of education were made more than two and a half cent uries ago; but they are as relevant today as they were in the sevente enth century. He knoweth nothing as he ought to know, who thinks he knoweth anything without seeing its place and the manner how it relateth to God, angels and men, and to all the creatures in earth, heaven and hell, time and eternity. Thomas Traherne Nevertheless some things were defective too ( a t O x f o r d u n d e r t h e Commonwealth). There was never a tutor that did pr ofessly teach Felicity, though that be the mistress of all the other scie nces. Nor did any of us study these things but as aliens, which we ou ght to have studied as our own enjoyments. We studied to inform our knowledge, but knew not for what end we studied. And for lack of aiming at a certain end, we erred in the manner. Thomas Traherne In Trahernes vocabulary felicity means beatitude, which is identical in practice with liberation, whic h, in its turn, is the unitive knowledge of God in the heights within and in the fullness without as well a s within. ` 147 What follows is an account of the intellectual mortifications w hich must be practised by those whose prim ary concern is with the knowled ge of the Godhead in the interior heights of the soul. Happy is the man who, by continua lly effacing all images and through introversion and the lifting up of his mind to God, at last forgets and leaves behind all such hindrances. Fo r by such means only, he operates inwardly, with his naked, pure, simp le intellect and affections, about the most pure and simple object, God. Therefore see that thy whole exer cise about God within thee may depend wholly and only on that nake d intellect, affection and will. For indeed, this exercise cannot be discha rged by any bodily organ, or by the external senses, but only by that which constitutes the essence of man - understanding and love. If, ther efore, thou desirest a safe stair and short path to arrive at the end of true bliss, then, with an intent mind, earnestly desire an d aspire after continual cleanness of heart and purity of mind. Add to this a cons tant calm and tranquillity of the senses, and a recollecting of the affe ctions of the heart, continually fixing them above. Work to simplify the heart, that being immovable and at peace from any invading vain phantasms, thou mayest always stand fast in the Lord within thee, to that degree as if thy soul had already entered the always present no w of eternity - that is, the state of the deity. mount to God is to enter into oneself. For he who so mounts and enters an d goes above and beyond himself, he truly mounts up to God. The mind must then raise itself above itself and say, He who above all I need is above all I know. And so carried into the darkness of the mind, gather ing itself into that all-sufficient good, it learns to stay at home and with its whole affection it cleaves and becomes habitually fixed in the supreme good within. Thus 148 continue, until thou becomest immuta ble and dost arrive at that true life which is God Himself, perpet ually, without any vicissitude of space or time, reposing in that inward quiet and secret mansion of the deity. Albertus Magnus Some men love knowledge and disc ernment as the best and most excellent of all things. Behold, th en knowledge and discernment come to be loved more than that which is discerned; for the false natural light loveth its knowledge and powe rs, which are itself, more than what is known. And were it possible that this false natural light should understand the simple Truth, as it is in God and in truth, it still would not lose its own property, that is, it could not depart from itself and its own things. Theologa Germanica The relationship between moral action and spiritual knowledge i s circular, as it were, and recipr ocal. Selfless be haviour makes possible an accession of knowledge, and the accession of knowledge makes po ssible the performance of further and more genuinely selfless actions, which in their turn enhance the agents capacity for knowing. And so on, if all goes well and there is perfect docility and obedience, indefini tely. The process is summed up in a few li nes of the Maitrayana Upanishad . A man undertakes right action (which includes, of course, right recollectedness and right meditation) and this enables him to catch a glimpse of the Self that underlies his separate individuality. Having seen his own self as the Self, he becomes selfless (and therefore acts selflessly) and in virtue of selflessness he is to be conceived as unconditioned. This is the highest mystery, betokening emancipation; through selflessness he has no part in pleasure or pain (in other words, he enters a state of nonattachment or holy indifference), but achieves 149 absoluteness (or as Albertus Magnus phrases it, becomes immutable and arrives at that true life wh ich is God Himself). When mortification is perfect, it s most characteristic fruit is simplicity. A simple heart will love a ll that is most precious on earth, husband or wife, parent or child, brother or friend, without marring its singleness; external th ings will have no attrac tion save inasmuch as they lead souls to Him; all exaggera tion or unreality, affectation and falsehood must pass away from such a one, as the dews dry up before the sunshine. The single motive is to please God, and hence arises total indifference as to what others say and think, so that words and actions are perfectly simple and natural, as in his sight only. Such Christian simplicity is the very perfection of interior life - God, his will and pleasure, its sole object. J.N. Grou And here is a more extended account of the matter by one of the greatest masters of psychological analysis. In the world, when people call anyo ne simple, they generally mean a foolish, ignorant, credulous person. But real simplicity, so far from being foolish, is almost sublime. A ll good men like and admire it, are conscious of sinning against it, observ e it in others and know what it involves; and yet they could not precisely define it. I should say that simplicity is an uprightness of soul which prevents self-consciousness. It is not the same as sincerity, which is a much humbler virtue. Many people are sincere who are not simple . They say nothing but what they believe to be true, and do not aim at appearing anything but what they are. But they are for ever thinking about themselves, weighing their every word and thought, and dw elling upon themselves in apprehension of having done too mu ch or too little. These people are sincere but they are not simple. They are not at their ease with others, 150 nor others with them. There is noth ing easy, frank, unrestrained or natural about them. One feels that one would like less admirable people better, who we re not so stiff. To be absorbed in the world around and never turn a thought within, as is the blind condition of some who are carried away by what is pleasant and tangible, is one extrem e as opposed to simplicity. And to be self-absorbed in all matters, whet her it be duty to God or man, is the other extreme, which makes a pe rson wise in his own conceit - reserved, self-conscious, uneasy at the least thing which disturbs his inward self-complacency. Such false wisdom, in spite of its solemnity, is hardly less vain and foolish th an the folly of those who plunge headlong into worldly pleasures. Th e one is intoxicated by his outward surroundings, the other by what he believes himself to be doing inwardly; but both are in a state of intoxication, and the last is a worse state than the first, because it seems to be wise, though it is not really, and so people do not try to be cure d . R eal s imp li cit y l ies i n a j us t e milieu equally free from thoughtlessness and affectation, in which the soul is not overwhelmed by externals, so as to be unable to reflect, nor yet given up to the endless refine ments, which self-consciousness induces. That soul which looks wher e it is going without losing time arguing over every step, or looking back perpetually, possesses true simplicity. Such simplicity is ind eed a great treasure. How shall we attain to it? I would give all I possess for it; it is the costly pearl of Holy Scripture. The first Step, then, is for the soul to put away outward things and look within so as to know its own real inte rest; so far all is right and natural; t h u s m u c h i s o n l y a w i s e s e l f -love, which seeks to avoid the intoxication of the world. 151 In the next step the soul must add the contemplation of God, whom it fears, to that of self. This is a fa int approach to the real wisdom, but the soul is still greatly self-absorbe d: it is not satisfied with fearing God; it wants to be certain that it does fear Him and fears lest it fear Him not, going round in a perpetual circle of self-consciousness. All this restless dwelling on self is ve ry far from the pe ace and freedom of real love; but that is ye t in the distance; the soul must needs go through a season of trial, and were it sudde nly plunged into a state of rest, it would not know how to use it. The third step is that, ceasing from a restless self-contemplation, the soul begins to dwell upon God inst ead, and by degr ees realistically forgets itself in Him. It becomes fu ll of Him and ceases to feed upon self. Such a soul is not blinded to its own faults or indifferent to its own errors; it is more conscious of th em than ever, and increased light shows them in plainer form, but this self-knowledge comes from God, and therefore it is not restless or uneasy. Fnelon How admirably acute and subtle this is! One of the most extraor dinary, because most gratuitous, pieces of twentieth-century vanity is the assumption that nobody knew anything about psychology before th e days of Freud. But the real truth is that most modern psycholog ists understand human beings less well than did the ablest of their predecessors. Fnelon and La Roch efoucauld knew all about the s urface rationalization of deep, discredi table motives in the subconsci ous, and were fully aware that sexuality and the will to power were, all too often, t h e e f f e c t i v e f o r c e s a t w o r k u n d e r t h e p o l i t e m a s k o f t h e p e r s o na. Machiavelli had drawn Paretos d istinction between residues a nd derivations - between the real, s e l f - i n t e r e s t e d m o t i v e s f o r p olitical action and the fancy theories, pr inciples and ideals in terms o f which such action is explained and jus tified to the credulous public. 152 Like Buddhas and St. Augustines, Pascals view of human virtu e and rationality could not have been more realistically low. But all these men, even La Rochefoucauld, even Mach iavelli, were aware of certain facts which twentieth-century psychologists have chosen to ignore - t he fact that human nature is tripartite, consisting of a spirit as well as of a mind and body; the fact that we live on the border-line between two worlds, the temporal and the eternal, the physical-vital-human and the Divine; the fact that, though nothing in himself, man is a nothing sur rounded by God, indigent of God, capable of God and filled with God, if he so desires. The Christian simplicity, of whic h Grou and Fnelon write, is t he same thing as the virtue so much admired by Lao Tzu mortification of the will and his successors. According to these Chinese sages, personal sins and social maladjustments are all du e to the fact that men have sep arated themselves from their Divine source and live according to their own will and notions, not according to Tao - which is the Great Way, the Logos, the Nature of Things, as it manif ests itself on every plane fro m the physical, up through the animal and the mental, to the spiritua l. Enlightenment comes when we give up self-will and make ourselve s docile to the workings of Tao in the world around us and in our own bodies, minds and spirits. Sometimes the Taoist philosophers write as though they believed i n Rousseaus Noble Savage, and ( b e i ng Ch i ne s e an d t h e re f o r e m uc h m o re concerned with the concrete and the practical than with the mer ely speculative) they are fond of prescribing methods by which rulers may reduce the complexity of civilization and so preserve their sub jects from the corrupting influences of ma n-made and therefore Tao-eclipsi ng conventions of thought, feeling and action. But the rulers who are to perform this task for the masses must themselves be sages; and to become a sage, one must get rid of all the rigidities of unrege nerate 153 adulthood and become again as a little child. For. only that wh ich is soft and docile is truly alive; that which conquers and outlives eve rything is that which adapts itself to ever ything, that which always seeks t h e l o w e s t p l a c e - n o t t h e h a r d r o c k , b u t t h e w a t e r t h a t w e a r s a w a y t h e everlasting hills. The simplicity and spontaneity of the perfect sage are the frui ts of mortification - mortification of the will and, by recollectedne ss and m e d i t a t i o n , o f t h e m i n d . O n l y t h e m o s t h i g h l y d i s c i p l i n e d a r t i s t can Nature of recapture, on a higher level, the spontaneity of the child with its first paint-box. Nothing is more difficult than to be simpl e. May I ask, said Yen Hui, in what consists the fasting of the heart? Cultivate unity, replied Confucius. You do your hearing, not with your ears, but with your mind; not wi th your mind, but with your very soul. But let the hearing stop with the ears. Let the working of the m i n d s t o p w i t h i t s e l f . T h e n t h e s o u l w i l l b e a n e g a t i v e e x i s t e n c e , passively responsive to externals. In such a negative existence, only Tao can abide. And that negative st ate is the fasting of the heart. Then, said Yen Hui, the reason I could not get the use of this method is my own individuality. If I could get the use of it, my individuality would have gone. Is this what yo u mean by the negative state? Exactly so, replied the Master. Let me tell you. If you can enter the domain of this prince (a bad ruler whom Yen Hui was ambitious to reform) without offending his amour propr e, cheerful if he hears you, passive if he does not; without scie nce, without drugs, simply living there in a state of complete indiffer ence - you will be near success. . . . Look at that window. Through it an empty room becomes bright with scenery; but the landscape stops ou tside. In this sense you may use your ears and eyes to communicate within, but shut out all wisdom (in 154 the sense of conventional, copybook maxims) from your mind. This is the method for regenera ting all creation. Chuang Tzu Mortification may be regarded, in this context, as the process of study, by which we learn at last to have unstudied reactions to events - reactions in harmony with Tao, Suchness, the Will of God. Those who have made themselves docile to the Divine Nature of Things, tho se who respond to circumstances, not with craving and aversion, but wi th the love that permits them to do spo ntaneously what they like; thos e who can truthfully say, Not I, but God in me, such men and women are compared by the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy to childr en, to fools and simpletons, even sometimes, as in the following passa ge, to drunkards. A drunken man who falls out of a ca rt, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other peoples; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is not conscious of riding in the cart; neithe r is he conscious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear and the like cannot penetrate his breast; and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existence. If such security is to be got from wine, ho w much more is it to be got from God? Chuang Tzu It is by long obedience and hard work that the artist comes to unforced spontaneity and consummate maste ry. Knowing that he can never create anything on his own account, out of the top layers, so t o speak, of his personal consciousness, h e submits obediently to the wor kings of inspiration; and knowing that the medium in which he works ha s its own self-nature, which must not b e ignored or violently overrid den, he makes himself its patient servan t and, in this way, achieves pe rfect freedom of expression. But life i s also an art, and the man who would become a consummate artist in living must follow, on all the le vels of his 155 being, the same procedure as tha t by which the painter or the s culptor or any other craftsman comes to his own more limited perfection . Prince Huis cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blow of his knife, every heave of his shoulders, every tread of his foot, every whshh of rent flesh, every chhk of the chopper, was in perfect harmony - rhythmical like the Dance of the Mu lberry Grove, simultaneous like the chords of the Ching Shou. Well done! cried the Prince. Yours is skill indeed. Sire, replied the cook, I have always devoted myself to Tao. And It is better than skill. When I first began to cut up bullocks, I saw before me simply whole bullocks. After thre e years practice I saw no more whole animals. And now I work with my mind and not with my eye. When my senses bid me stop, but my mind urges me on, I fall back upon eternal principles. I follow such openings or caviti es as there may be, according to the natural consti tution of the animal. I do not attempt to cut through joints, St ill less through large bones. A good cook changes his chopper on ce a year - because he cuts. An ordinary cook, once a month - becaus e he hacks. But I have had this chopper nineteen years, and though I have cut up many thousands of bullocks, its edge is as if fresh fr om the whetstone. For at the joints there are always interstices, and th e edge of a chopper being without thickness, it remains only to inse rt that which is without thickness into such an interstice. By these me ans the interstice will be enlarged, and the blade will find plenty of room . It is thus that I have kept my chopper for nineteen years, as th ough fresh from the whetstone. Nevertheless, when I come upon a hard part, where the blade meets with a difficulty, I am all caution. I fix my eyes on it. I stay my hand, 156 and gently apply the blade, until with a hwah the part yields like earth crumbling to the Ground. Then I wi thdraw the blade and stand up and look. around; and at last I wipe my chopper and put it carefully away. Bravo! cried the Prince. From the wo rds of this cook I have learnt how to take care of my life. Chuang Tzu In the first seven branches of his Eightfold Path the Buddha de scribes the conditions that must be fulf illed by anyone who desires to come to t h a t r i g h t c o n t e m p l a t i o n w h i c h i s t h e e i g h t h a n d f i n a l b r a n c h . The fulfilment of these conditions entails the undertaking of a cou rse of the most searching and comprehensive mortification - mortification of intellect and will, craving and emotion, thought, speech, actio n and, finally, means of livelihood. Ce rtain professions are more or l ess completely incompatible with the achievement of mans final end ; and there are certain ways of making a living which do so much phys ical and, above all, so much moral, intellectual and spiritual dangerous harm that, even if they could be practi sed in a non-attached spirit (which is generally impossible), they would still have to be eschewed by anyone dedicated to the task of liberating, not only himself, but others. The exponents of the Perennial Philosophy are not content to av oid and forbid the practice of criminal professions, such as brothel-ke eping, forgery, racketeering and the lik e; they also avoid themselves, and warn o t h e r s l i v e l i h o o d a g a i n s t , a n u m b e r o f w a y s o f l i v e l i h o o d c o m m o nly regarded as legitimate. Thus, in many Buddhist societies, the manufacture of arms, the concocti on of intoxicating liquors and t h e wholesale purveying of butchers meat were not, as in contempor ary Christendom, rewarded by wealth, peerages and political influen ce; they were deplored as businesses whic h, it was thought, made it part icularly difficult for their practitioner s and for other members of the communities in which they were p ractised to achieve enlightenme nt 157 and liberation. Similarly, in me diaeval Europe, Christians were forbidden to make a living by the taking of interest on money or by corne ring the m a r k e t . A s T a w n e y a n d o t h e r s h a v e s h o w n , i t w a s o n l y a f t e r t h e Reformation that coupon-clipping , usury and gambling in stocks and commodities became respectable a nd received ecclesiastical appr oval. For the Quakers, soldiering was and is a form of wrong liveliho od - war being, in their eyes, anti-Christian, not so much because it ca uses suffering as because it propagates hatred, puts a premium on fr aud and c r u e l t y , i n f e c t s w h o l e s o c i e t i e s w i t h a n g e r , f e a r , p r i d e a n d uncharitableness. Such passions eclipse the Inner Light, and th erefore the wars by which they are aroused and intensified must be rega rded, whatever their immediate political outcome, as crusades to make the world safe for spiritual darkness. It has been found, as a matter of experience, that it is danger ous to lay d o w n d e t a i l e d a n d i n f l e x i b l e r u l e s f o r r i g h t l i v e l i h o o d - d a n g e rous, because most people see no reaso n for being righteous overmuch and consequently respond to the imposition of too rigid a code by h ypocrisy or open rebellion. In the Christia n tradition, for example, a d istinction is made between the precepts, which are binding on all and sundry, and the counsels of perfection, bind ing only upon those who feel dr awn towards a total renunciation of the world. The precepts inclu de the ordinary moral code and the commandment to love God with all on es heart, strength and mind, and ones neighbour as oneself. Some of those who make a serious effort to obe y this last and greatest comman dment find that they cannot do so whol e-heartedly unless they follow the counsels and sever all connections with the world. Nevertheless i t i s possible for men and women to ach ieve that perfection, which is deliverance into the unitive knowledge of God, without abandoni ng the married state and without selling all they have and giving to t he poor. Effective poverty (possessing no money) is by no means always affective 158 poverty (being indifferent to money). One man may be poor, but desperately concerned with what money can buy, full of cravings , envy a n d b i t t e r s e l f - p i t y . A n o t h e r m a y h a v e m o n e y , b u t n o a t t a c h m e n t t o money or the things, powers and privileges that money can buy. Evangelical poverty is a combination of effective with affect ive poverty; but a genuine poverty of spirit is possible even in those who a re not effectively poor. It will be seen, then, that the problems of right livelihood, i n so far as they lie outside the jurisdiction of the common moral code, are strictly personal. The way in which any i ndividual problem presents itse lf and the nature of the appropriate solution depend upon the degree o f knowledge, moral sensibility and spiritual insight achieved by the individual concerned. For this reason no universally applicable rules can be formulated except in the most general terms. Here are my th ree treasures, says Lao Tzu. Guard and keep them! The first is pi ty, the s e c o n d f r u g a l i t y , t h e t h i r d r e f u s a l t o b e f o r e m o s t o f a l l t h i n g s under h e a v e n . A n d w h e n J e s u s i s a s k e d b y a s t r a n g e r t o s e t t l e a d i s p ute between himself and his brother over an inheritance, he refuses (since he does not know the circumstances) to be a judge in the case and merely utters a general warning against covetousness. Ga-San instructed his adherents on e day: Those who speak against killing, and who desire to spare the lives of all conscious beings, are right. It is good to protec t even animals and insects. But what about those persons who kill time, what about those who destroy wealth, and those who murder the economy of their society? We should not overlook them. Again, what of the one who preaches without enlightenment? He is killing Buddhism. From One Hundred an d One Zen Stories 159 Once the noble Ibrahim, as he sat on his throne, Heard a clamour and noise of cries on the roof, Also heavy footsteps on the roof of his palace. He said to himself, Whose heavy feet are these? He shouted from the wind ow, Who goes there? The guards, filled with confusion, bowed their heads, saying, It is we, going the rounds in search. He said, What seek ye? Th ey said, Our camels. He said, Who ever searched for camels on a housetop? They said, We follow thy example, Who seekest union with God, wh ile sitting on a throne. Jalal-uddin Rumi O f a l l s o c i a l , m o r a l a n d s p i r i t u a l p r o b l e m s t h a t o f p o w e r i s t h e most chronically urgent and the most d ifficult of solution. Craving for power is not a vice of the body, consequently knows none of the limit ations imposed by a tired or satiated physiology upon gluttony, intemp erance and lust. Growing with every succ e s s i v e s a t i s f a c t i o n , t h e a p p e t ite for power can manifest itself indefinitely, without interruption by b o d i l y f a t i g u e o r s i c k n e s s . M o r e o v e r , t h e n a t u r e o f s o c i e t y i s s u c h t h at the higher a man climbs in the polit ical, economic or religious hie rarchy, the greater are his opportunities and r e s o u r c e s f o r e x e r c i s i n g p o w e r. But climbing the hierarchical ladder is ordinarily a slow process, and the ambitious rarely reach the top t ill they are well advanced in l ife. The older he grows, the more chances does the power lover have for indulging his besetting sin, the more continuously is he subjec ted to temptations and the more glamorous do those temptations become. In this respect his situation is profoundly different from that of t h e debauchee. The latter may never voluntarily leave his vices, bu t at least, 160 as he advances in years, he finds his vices leaving him; the fo rmer neither leaves his vices nor is left by them. Instead of bringing to th e power lover a merciful respite from his addictions, old age is apt to inten sify them by making national servitude to a it easier for him to satisfy his cravings on a l a r g e r s c a l e a n d i n a m o r e s p e c t a c u l a r w a y . T h a t i s w h y , i n A ctons words, all great men are bad. Can we therefore be surprised i f political action, undertaken, in all too many cases, not for the public g ood, but solely or at least primarily to gratify the powe r lusts of bad men, should prove so often either self-stult ifying or downright disastrous? Ltat cest moi, says the tyrant; and this is true, of cours e, not only of the autocrat at the apex of the pyramid, but of all the members of the ruling minority through whom he governs and who are, in fact, t he real rulers of the nation. Moreover, so long as the policy which gra tifies the power lusts of the ruling class is successful, and so long as t he price of success is not too high, even the masses of the ruled will feel that the state is themselves - a vast and splendid projection of the ind ividuals intrinsically insignificant ego. The little man can satisfy his lust for power vicariously through the activiti es of the imperialistic state, just as the big man does; the difference between them is one of degree, not of kind. No infallible method for controlling the political manifestatio ns of the lust for power has ever been dev ised. Since power is of its ver y essence indefinitely expansive, it cannot be checked except by collidin g with another power. Hence, any societ y that values liberty, in the s ense of g o v e r n m e n t b y l a w r a t h e r t h a n b y c l a s s i n t e r e s t o r p e r s o n a l d e c ree, m u s t s e e t o i t t h a t t h e p o w e r o f i t s r u l e r s i s d i v i d e d . N a t i o n a l unity means national servitude to a single man and his supporting oli garchy. Organized and balanced disunity is the necessary condition of l iberty. His Majestys Loyal Opposition i s the loyalest, because the mos t genuinely useful section of any liberty-loving community. 161 Furthermore, since the appetite for power is purely mental and therefore insatiable and impervious to disease or old age, no c ommunity that values liberty can afford to give its rulers long tenures of office. The Carthusian Order, which was neve r reformed because never defor med, owed its long immunity from corruption to the fact that its abb ots were elected for periods of only a single year. In ancient Rome the amount of liberty under law was in inverse ratio to the length of the mag istrates terms of office. These rules for controlling the lust for power are very e a s y t o f o r m u l a t e , b u t v e r y d i f f i c u l t , a s h i s t o r y s h o w s , t o e n f orce in p r a c t i c e . T h e y a r e p a r t i c u l a r l y d i f f i c u l t t o e n f o r c e a t a p e r i o d like the present, when time-hallowed polit ical machinery is being render ed obsolete by rapid technological change and when the salutary pr inciple of organized and balanced disunity requires to be embodied in n ew and more appropriate institutions. Acton, the learned Catholic historian, was of opinion that all great men a r e b a d ; R u m i , t h e P e r s i a n p o e t a n d m y s t i c , t h o u g h t t h a t t o s e e k for union with God while occupying a throne was an undertaking hard ly less senseless than looking for camel s among the chimney-pots. A sli ghtly more optimistic note is sounded b y St. Francois de Sales, whose views on the matter were recorded by his Boswellizing disciple, the y oung Bishop of Belley. Mon Pre, I said one day, how is it possible for those who are themselves high in office to prac tise the virtue of obedience? Franois de Sales replied, They have greater and more excellent ways of doing so than their inferiors. As I did not understand this reply, he went on to say, Those who are bo und by obedience are usually subject to one superior only. . . . But thos e who are themselves superiors have a wider field for obedience, even whil e they command; for if they bear in mind that it is God who has pl aced them over othe r men, and gives 162 them the rule they have, they will ex ercise it out of obedience to God, and thus, even while commanding, th ey will obey. Moreover, there is no position so high but that it is su bject to a spiritual superior in what concerns the conscience and the soul . But there is a yet higher point of obedience to which all superiors may aspire, even that to which St. Paul alludes, when he says: Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all. It is by such universal obedience to everyone that we become all things to all men; and serving everyone for Our Lords sake, we esteem all to be our superiors. In accordance with this rule, I ha ve often observed how Franois de Sales treated everyone, even the most insignificant persons who approached him, as though he we re the inferior, never repulsing anyone, never refusing to enter into conversation, to speak or to listen, never betraying the slightest sign of weariness, impatience and annoyance, however importunate or ill-timed the interruption. To those who asked him why he thus wa sted his time his constant reply was, It is Gods will; it is what He requires of me; what more need I ask? I am not required to do anyt hing else. Gods Holy Will is the centre from which all we do must ra diate; all else is mere weariness and excitement. Jean Pierre Camus We see, then, that a great man can be good - good enough even to aspire to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground provided that, while exercising power, he fulfils two conditions. First, he must den y himself all the personal advantages of p ower and must practise the pati ence and recollectedness without which there cannot be love either of ma n or God. And, second, he must realize that the accident of possessi ng t e m p o r a l p o w e r d o e s n o t g i v e h i m s p i r i t u a l a u t h o r i t y , w h i c h b e l ongs only to those seers, living or d ead, who have achieved a direct insight 163 into the Nature of Things. A soc iety, in which the boss is mad enough to believe himself a prophet, is a so ciety doomed to destruction. A viable society is one in which those who have qualified themselves to see indicate the goals to be aimed at, while those whose business i t is to rule respect the authority and liste n to the advice of the seers. In theory, at least, all this was well understood in India and, until the Reformation, in Europe, where n o position was so high but that it was subject to a spiritual superior in what concerned the conscienc e and the soul. Unfortunately the churches tried to make the best of bot h worlds - to combine spiritual authority with temporal power, wielded e ither d i r e c t l y o r a t o n e r e m o v e , f r o m behind the throne. But spiritu al authority can be exercised only by those who are perfectly disi nterested and whose motives are therefore above suspicion. An ecclesiasti cal organization may call itself the Mystical Body of Christ; but i f its prelates are slave-holders and the rulers of states, as they were in the past, or if the corporation is a large-scale capitalist, as is the case tod ay, no titles, however honorific, can conceal t he fact that, when it passes ju dgment, it does so as an interested party with some political or econom ic axe to grind. True, in matters which do not directly concern the tempo ral powers of the corporation, individual churchmen can be, and hav e actually proved themselves, perf ectly disinterested - consequen tly can possess, and have possessed, genui ne spiritual authority. St. P hilip Neris i s a c a s e i n p o i n t . P o s s e s s i n g a b s o l u t e l y n o t e m p o r a l p o w e r , h e y e t exercised a prodigious influence over sixteenth-century Europe. But for that influence, it may be doubted whether the efforts of the Co uncil of Trent to reform the Roman church from within would have met wit h much success. In actual practice how many great men have ever fulfilled, or a re ever likely to fulfil, the conditions which alone render power innoc uous to the ruler as well as to the ruled? Obviously, very few. Except by s aints, the 164 problem of power is finally insoluble. But since genuine self-g overnment is possible only in very small groups, societies on a national scale will always be ruled by oligarchies wh ose members come to power beca use t h e y l u s t f o r p o w e r . T h i s m e a n s t h a t t h e p r o b l e m o f p o w e r , s i n c e it cannot be solved except by people like Franois de Sales, will always make trouble. And this, in turn, means that we cannot expect th e large- scale societies of the future to be much better than were the s ocieties of the past during the brief per iods when they were at their be st. Chapter 7 TRUTH Why dost thou prate of God? Whatever thou sayest of Him is untrue. Eckhart N religious literature the word truth is used indiscriminatel y in at least three distinct and very di fferent senses. Thus, it is som etimes treated as a synonym for fact, as when it is affirmed that Go d is Truth - meaning that He is the primordial Reality. But this is clearly not the meaning of the word in such a phras e as w o r s h i p p i n g G o d i n s p i r i t a n d i n t r u t h . H e r e , i t i s o b v i o u s , truth signifies direct apprehension of spiritual Fact, as opposed to second- hand knowledge about Reality, formulated in sentences and accep ted o n a u t h o r i t y o r b e c a u s e a n a r g u m e n t f r o m p r e v i o u s l y g r a n t e d postulates was logic ally convincing. And finally there is the more ord inary meaning of the word, as in such a sentence as, This statement is the truth, where we mean to as sert that the verbal symbols of which the statement is composed correspon d to the facts to which it refers. When Eckhart writes that whateve r thou sayest of God is untrue, he is not affirming that all theologi cal I 165 s t a t e m e n t s a r e f a l s e . I n s o f a r a s t h e r e c a n b e a n y c o r r e s p o n d e nce between human symbols and Divine Fact, some theological stateme nts are as true as it is possible for us to make them. Himself a th eologian, Eckhart would certainly have admitted this. But besides being a theologian, Eckhart was a mystic. And being a mystic, h e u n d e r s t o o d v e r y v i v i d l y w h a t t h e m o d e r n s e m a n t i c i s t i s s o b u sily (and, also, so unsuccessfully) trying to drum into contemporary minds - namely, that words are not the s ame as things and that a knowle dge of words about facts is in no sense equivalent to a direct and imm ediate apprehension of the fa cts themselves. What Eckhart actually ass erts is this: whatever one may say about God can never in any circumsta nces be the truth in the first two meanings of that much abused an d ambiguous word. B y i m p l i c a t i o n S t . T h o m a s A q u i n a s w a s s a y i n g e x a c t l y t h e s a m e t hing when, after his experience of in fused contemplation, he refused to go on with his theological work, de claring that everything he had written up to that time was as mere straw compared with the immediate knowledge, which had been vouchsafed to him. Two hundred years earlier, in Baghdad, the great Mohammedan theologian, Al-Ghazza li, had similarly turned from the consideration of truths about God to the contemplation and direct apprehension of Truth-the-Fact, from t he purely intellectual discipline of t h e p h i l o s o p h e r s t o t h e m o r a l a n d spiritual discipline of the Sufis. The moral of all this is obvious. Whenever we hear or read abou t truth, we should always pause long enough to ask ourselves in which of the three senses listed above the word is, at the moment, being use d. By taking this simple precaution (and to take it is a genuinely virtuous act of intellectual honesty) we shall save ourselves a great deal of disturbing and quite unnecessary mental confusion. Wishing to entice the blind, 166 The Buddha playfully let words es cape from his golden mouth; Heaven and earth are filled, ever since, with entangling briars. Daito Kokushi There is nothing true anywhere, The True is nowhere to be found. If you say you see the True, This seeing is not the true one. When the True is left to itself, There is nothing false in it , for it is Mind itself. When Mind in itself is not liberated from the false, There is nothing true; nowhere is the True to be found. Hui Neng The truth indeed has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing of that one has to realize it within oneself. Sutralamkara The further one travels, the less one knows. Lao Tzu Listen to this! shouted Monkey. A fter all the trouble we had getting here from China, and after you spec ially ordered that we were to be given the scriptures, Ananda and Ka syapa made a fraudulent delivery of goods. They gave us blank copies to take away; I ask you, what is the good of that to us? You neednt shout, said the Buddha, smiling. . . . As a matter of fact, it is such blank scrolls as these that are the true scriptures. But I quite see that the people of China are t oo foolish and ignorant to believe this, so there is nothing for it bu t to give them copies with some writing on. Wu Cheng-en The philosophers indeed are clever enough, but wanting in wisdom; As to the others, they are either ig norant or puerile! They take an empty fist as containing something real and the pointing finger as the 167 object pointed at. Because the finger is adhered to as though it were the Moon, all their efforts are lost. Yoka Daishi What is known as the teaching of the Buddha is not the teaching of the Buddha. Diamond Sutra What is the ultimate teaching of Buddhism? You wont understand it until you have it. Shih-tou The subject matter of the Perenn ial Philosophy is the nature of eternal, spiritual Reality; but the language in which it must be formula ted was developed for the purpose of dea ling with tangling phenomena in time. That is why, in all these formulations, we find an element of p aradox. The nature of Truth-the-Fact can not be described by means of ve rbal symbols that do not seriously en ough, adequately correspond to it. At best it can be hinted at in term s of non sequiturs and contradi ctions. To these unavoidable paradoxes some spiritual writers have chos en to add deliberate and calculated enormities of language - hard say ings, exaggerations, ironic or humorous extravagances, designed to st artle and shock the reader out of that self-satisfied complacency whi ch is the original sin of the intellect. way Of this second kind of parad ox the masters of Taoism and Zen Buddhism were particularly fond. The latter, indeed, made use of paralogisms and even of nonsense as a devic e for taking the kingdom of heaven by v i o l e n c e . A s p i r a n t s t o t h e l i fe of perfection were encouraged to practise discursive meditation on some completely non-logical formula. The result was a kind of reduct io ad absurdum of the whole self-centr ed and world-centred discursive process, a sudden breaking through from reason (in the language of scholastic philosophy) to intuitive intellect, capable of a genuine insight into the Divine Ground of all be ing. This method strikes us as odd and eccentric: but the fact remains that it worked to the extent of producing 168 i n m a n y p e r s o n s t h e f i n a l m e t a n o i a , o r t r a n s f o r m a t i o n c o n s c i o u s ness and character. Zens use of almost comic extrav agance to emphasize the philoso phic truths it regarded as most important is well illustrated in the first the extracts cited above. We are not intended seriously to imagine that an Avatar preaches in order to play a practical joke on the human race. But meanwhile what the author has succeeded in doing is to startle us out of our habitual complacency abou t the home-made verbal universe in which we normally do most of our living. Words are not facts, a nd still less are they the primo rdial Fact. If we take them too seriousl y, we shall lose our way in a forest of entangling briars. But if, on the c ontrary, we dont take them seriously enough, we shall still remain unaware t h a t there is a way to lose or a goal to be reached. If the Enlightened did not preach, there would be no deliveranc e for anyone. But because human minds and human languages are what th ey are, this necessary and indispensable preaching is beset with d angers. The history of all the religions is similar in one important re spect; some of their adherents are enlighten ed and delivered, because they have chosen to react appropriately to the words which the founders h ave let f a l l ; o t h e r s a c h i e v e a p a r t i a l s a l v a t i o n b y r e a c t i n g w i t h p a r t i al appropriateness; yet others harm themselves and their fellows b y reacting with a total inappropriateness - either ignoring the w ords altogether or, more often, taking them too seriously and treati ng them as though they were identical wi th the Fact to which they refer . That words are at once indispensable and, in many cases, fatal has been recognized by all the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy. Th us, Jesus spoke of himself as bringing int o the world something even wors e than briars - a sword. St. Paul distinguished between the letter tha t kills and the spirit that gives life. And throughout the centuries that f ollowed, the masters of Christian spirituality have found it necessary to ha rp again 169 and again upon a theme which has never been outdated because ho mo loguax, the talking animal, is still as naively delighted by hi s chief accomplishment, still as helplessly the victim of his own words , as he was when the Tower of Babel was being built. Recent years have seen the public ation of numerous works on sem antics and of an ocean of nationalistic , racialistic and militaristic propaganda. Never have so many capable write rs warned mankind against the dangers of wrong speech - and ne ver have words been used more recklessly by politicians or taken more seriously by the public . The fact is surely proof enough that, under changing forms, the old prob lems remain what they always were - urgent, unsolved and, to all appearances, insoluble. All that the imagination can imag ine and the reason conceive and understand in this life is not, and cannot be, a proximate means of union with God. St. John of the Cross Jejune and barren speculations may unfold the plicatures of Truths garment, but they cannot discover her lovely face. John Smith, the Platonist In all faces is shown the Face of face s, veiled and in a riddle. Howbeit, unveiled it is not seen, until, above all faces, a man enter into a certain secret and mystic silence, where th ere is no knowing or concept of a face. This mist, cloud, darkness or ignorance, into which he that seeketh thy Face entereth, when he goeth beyond all knowledge or concept, is the state below which thy Face cannot be found, except veiled; but that very darkness reveal eth thy Face to be there beyond all veils. Hence I observe how needfu l it is for me to enter into the darkness and to admit the coincidence of opposites, beyond all the grasp of reason, and there to seek the Truth, where impossibility meeteth us. Nicholas of Cusa 170 As the Godhead is nameless, and all naming is alien to Him, so also the soul is nameless; for it is here the same as God. E c k h a r t God being, as He is, inaccessible, do not rest in the consideration of objects perceptible to the sens es and comprehended by the understanding. This is to be conten t with what is less than God; so doing, you will destroy the energy of the soul, which is necessary for walking with Him. St. John of the Cross To find or know God in reality by any outward proofs, or by anything but by God Himself made manifest an d self-evident in you, will never be your case either here or hereaf ter. For neither God, nor heaven, nor hell, nor the devil, nor the flesh, can be any otherwise knowable in you or by you but by their own ex istence and manifestation in you. And all pretended knowledge of an y of these things, beyond and without this self-evident sensibility of their birth within you, is only such knowledge of them as the blin d man hath of the light that hath never entered into him. William Law What follows is a summary by an eminent scholar of the Indian d octrines concerning Jna, the liberating knowledge of Brahman or the Di vine Ground. Jnna is eternal, is general, is necessary and is not a personal knowledge of this man or that man. It is in the tman itself, and lies there hidden under all avidya (ignorance), irremovable, though it may be obscured, unprovable, because self-evident, needing no proof, because itself giving to all pr oof the Ground of possibility. These sentences come near to Eckharts knowledge and to the teaching of Augustine on the Eterna l Truth in the soul which, itself immediately certain, is the Ground of all certainty and is a possession, not of A or B, but of the soul. Rudolf Otto 171 The science of aesthetics is not the same as, nor even a proxim ate means to, the practice and appreciation of the arts. How can one lear n to have a n e y e f o r p i c t u r e s , o r t o b e c o m e a g o o d p a i n t e r ? C e r t a i n l y n o t b y reading Benedetto Croce. One learns to paint by painting, and o ne learns to appreciate pictures by going to picture galleries and lookin g at them. But this is not to say that Croce and his fellows have wasted t heir time. We should be grateful to them for their labours in building up a system of thought, by means of which the immediately apprehended significance and value of art can be assessed in the light of g eneral knowledge, related to other facts of experience and, in this wa y and to this extent, explained. What is true of aesthetics is also true of theology. Theologica l speculation is valuable in so fa r as it enables those who have had immediate experience of various aspects of God to form intellig ible ideas about the nature of the Di vine Ground, and of their own experience of the Ground in rela tion to other experiences. And when a coherent system of theology has been worked out, it is useful i n so far as it convinces those who study it that there is nothing inhere ntly self- contradictory about the postulate of the Divine Ground and that , for those who are ready to fulfil ce rtain conditions, the postulate m a y become a realized Fact. In no circumstances, however, can the s tudy of theology or the minds assent to theological propositions take Ghost), the place of what Law calls the birth of God Within. For theo ry is not practice, and words are not the things for which they stand. Theology as we know it has been formed by the great mystics, especially St. Augustine and St. Thomas. Plenty of other great theologians - especially St. Gregor y and St. Bernard, even down to Suarez - would not have had such insight without mystic super- knowledge. Abbot John Chapman 172 A g a i n s t t h i s w e m u s t s e t D r . T e n n a n t s v i e w - n a m e l y , t h a t r e l i gious experience is something real and unique, but does not add anyth ing to the experiencers knowledge of u ltimate Reality and must always b e interpreted in terms of an idea of God derived from other sourc es. A study of the facts would suggest that both these opinions are t o some degree correct. The facts of mystical insight (together with the facts of what is taken to be historic revelation) are rationalized in terms of general knowledge and become the basis o f a theology. And, reciprocally , an existing theology in terms of general knowledge exercises a pro found influence upon those who have undertaken the spiritual life, ca using them, if it is low, to be content with a low form of experience , if it is high, to reject as inadequate the expe rience of any form of reality h aving characteristics incompatible with those of the God described in t h e books. Thus mystics make theology , and theology makes mystics. A person who gives assent to untrue dogma, or who pays all his attention and allegiance to one true dogma in a comprehensive system, whi le neglecting the others (as many Christians concentrate exclusively on the humanity of the Second Person of the Trinity and ignore the Fat her and the Holy Ghost), runs the risk of limiting in advance his direct apprehension of Reality. In religion as in na tural science, experience is de termined only by experience. It is fatal to prejudge it, to and then compel i t to fit the mould imposed by a theory which either does not correspond to t he facts at all, or corresponds t o only some of the facts. Do not strive to seek after the true, writes a Zen master, o nly cease to cherish opinions. There is only one way to cure the results of belief in a false or incomplete theology and it is the same as the only kno wn way o f p a s s i n g f r o m b e l i e f i n e v e n t h e t r u e s t t h e o l o g y t o k n o w l e d g e o r primordial Fact - selflessness, docility, openness to the datum a n d discrimination that one is enabled to enter of Eternity. Opinio ns are things which we make and can ther efore understand, formulate an d 173 argue about. But to rest in the consideration of objects perce ptible to the sense or comprehended by the understanding is to be content , in the words of St. John of the Cross, with what is less than God . Unitive knowledge of God is possible only to those who have ceased to cherish opinions - even opinions that a re as true as it is possible fo r verbalized abstractions to be. Up then, noble soul! Put on thy ju mping shoes which are intellect and love, and overleap the worship of thy mental powers, overleap thine understanding and spring into the heart of God, into his hiddenness where thou art hidden from all creatures. Eckhart With the lamp of discrimination o n e m u s t g o b e y o n d w o r d a n d discrimination and enter upon the path of realization. Lakvatra Sutra The word intellect is used by Eckhart in the scholastic sense o f immediate intuition. Intellect and reason, says Aquinas, are not two powers, but distinct as the perfect from the imperfect. . . . T he intellect m e a n s , a n i n t i m a t e p e n e t r a t i o n o f t r u t h ; t h e r e a s o n , e n q u i r y a n d discourse. It is by following, and then abandoning, the ration al and emotional path of word and discrimination that one is enabled to enter upon the intellectual or intuiti ve path of realization. And y et, in spite of the warnings pronounced by those who, through selflessness, hav e passed from letter to spirit and from theory to immediate knowl edge, the organized Christian churches have persisted in the fatal ha bit of mistaking means for ends. The verbal statements of theologys m ore or less adequate rationalizations of experience have been taken to o seriously and treated with the re verence that is due only to th e Fact they are intended to describe. It has been fancied that souls are sa ved if assent is given to what is locally regarded as the correct form ula, lost if it is withheld. The two words, filio-que, may not have been the s o l e 174 cause of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches; b ut they were unquestionably the pretext and casus belli. The over-valuation of words and formulae may be regarded as a s pecial c a s e o f t h a t o v e r - v a l u a t i o n o f t h e t h i n g s o f t i m e , w h i c h i s s o fatally characteristic of historic Chris tianity. know Truth-as-Fact and to know it unitively, in spirit and in truth-as-immedia te-apprehension - this is deliverance, in this standeth o ur eternal life. To be familia r with the verbalized truths, which symbolically correspond to Truth-as-Fa ct in so far as it can be known in, or in ferred from, truth-as-immediate apprehension, or truth-as-histor ic-revelation - this is not sal vation, but merely the study of a special branch of philosophy. Even the mo st ordinary experience of a thing o r event in time can never be fu lly or adequately described in words. T he experience of seeing the sky o r having neuralgia is incommunicable; the best we can do is to sa y blue or pain, in the hope that those who hear us may have had expe riences similar to our own and so be able to supply their own version o f the meaning. God, however, is not a thing or event in time, and the time-bou nd words w h i c h c a n n o t d o j u s t i c e e v e n t o t e m p o r a l m a t t e r s a r e e v e n m o r e i n a d e q u a t e t o t h e i n t r i n s i c n a t u r e a n d o u r o w n u n i t i v e e x p e r i e n ce of that which belongs to an incommensurably different order. o su ppose that people can be saved by studying and giving assent to formu lae is like supposing that one can get to Timbuctoo by poring over a m ap of Africa. Maps are symbols, and ev en the best of them are loose a nd inaccurate and imperfect symbols. But to anyone who really want s to reach a given destination, a map is indispensably useful as ind icating the direction in which the traveller should set out and the roads w hich he must take. In later Buddhist philosophy words are regarded as one of the p rime determining factors in the creat ive evolution of human beings. In this 175 philosophy five categor ies of being are rec ognized - Name, Appe arance, Discrimination, Right Knowledge, Suchness. The first three are related for evil, the last two for good. Appearances are discriminated by the sense organs, then reified by na ming, so that wo rds are taken f or things and symbols are used as the measure of reality. According to th is view, language is a main source of the sense of separateness and the blasphemous idea of individual se lf-sufficiency, with their ine vitable corollaries of greed, envy, lust f or power, anger and cruelty. And from these evil passions there spring s the necessity of an indefinit ely protracted and repeated separate existence under the same, self - perpetuated conditions of craving and infatuation. The only esc ape is through a creative act of the will, assisted by Buddha-grace, l eading through selflessness to Right Kno wledge, which consists, among other things, in a proper appraisal of Names, Appearances and Discrim ination. I n a n d t h r o u g h R i g h t K n o w l e d g e , o n e e m e r g e s f r o m t h e i n f a t u a t i n g delusion of I, me, mine, and, resisting the temptation to deny the world in a state of premature and one-sided ecstasy, or to affi rm it by living like the average sensual man, one comes at last to the transfiguring awareness that Sam sara and Nirvana are one, to th e unitive apprehension of pure Suchness - the ultimate Ground, wh ich can only be indicated, never adequately described in verbal symbols . In connection with the Mahayanist view that words play an impor tant and even creative part in the ev olution of unregenerate human n ature, w e m a y m e n t i o n H u m e s a r g u m e n t s a g a i n s t t h e r e a l i t y o f c a u s a t i o n. These arguments start from the postulate that all events are l oose and s e p a r a t e f r o m o n e a n o t h e r a n d p r o c e e d w i t h f a u l t l e s s l o g i c t o a conclusion that makes complete n onsense of all organized though t or purposive action. The fallacy, as Professor Stout has pointed out, lies in the pr eliminary postulate. And when we ask ourselves what it was that induced H ume 176 to make this odd and quite unrealistic assumption that events a re loose a n d s e p a r a t e , w e s e e t h a t h i s o n l y r e a s o n f o r f l y i n g i n t h e f a ce of immediate experience was the fact that things and happenings ar e symbolically represented in our thought by nouns, verbs and adj ectives, a n d t h a t t h e s e w o r d s a r e , i n e f f e c t , l o o s e a n d s e p a r a t e f r o m one another in a way which the events and things they stand for qui te obviously are not. Taking words as the measure of things, instead of using things as the measure of words, Hume imposed the discrete and, so to say, pointilliste pattern of language upon the con tinuum of actual experience - w ith the impossibly paradoxical results with which we are all familiar. Most human beings are not philosophers and care not at all for consi stency in thought or action. Thus, in some circumstances they take it for granted that events are not loose and separate, but coexist or follow o n e another within the organized and organizing field of a cosmic w hole. But on other occasions, where the o pposite view is more nearly in a ccord with their passions or interests , they adopt, all unconsciously , the Humian position and treat events as though they were as indepen dent of one another and the rest of the world as the words by which they are symbolized. This is generally true of all occu rrences involving I, me, mine. Reifying the loose and separate names, we regard the things as also lo ose and s e p a r a t e - n o t s u b j e c t t o l a w , n o t i n v o l v e d i n t h e n e t w o r k o f relationships, by which in fact they are so obviously bound up with their physical, social and spiritual environment. We regard as absurd the idea t h a t t h e r e i s n o c a u s a l p r o c e s s i n n a t u r e a n d n o o r g a n i c c o n n e c tion between events and things in the lives of other people; but at the same time we accept as axiomatic the notion that our own sacred ego is loose a n d s e p a r a t e f r o m t h e u n i v e r s e , a l a w u n t o i t s e l f a b o v e t h e m o ral Dharma and even, in many respects , above the natural law of cau sality. 177 Both in Buddhism and Catholicism, monks and nuns were encourage d deliberately to avoid the personal pronoun and to speak of them selves in circumlocutions that clearly indicated their real relationsh ip with the cosmic reality and their fellow-creatures. The precaution was a wise one. Our responses to familiar words are conditioned reflexes. By ch anging the stimulus, we can do something to change the response. No Pa vlov bell, no salivation; no harping on words like me and mine, no purely automatic and unreflecting egotis m. When a monk speaks of himse lf, not as I, but as this sinner o r this un-profitable servant , he tends to stop taking his loose and separa te selfhood for granted, and makes himself aware of his real, organ ic relationship with God and hi s neighbours. I n p r a c t i c e w o r d s a r e u s e d f o r o t h e r p u r p o s e s t h a n f o r m a k i n g statements about facts. Very often they are used rhetorically, in order to arouse the passions and direct the will towards some course of action regarded as desirable. And sometimes, too, they are used poetic ally - that is to say, they are used in such a way that, besides makin g a s t a t e m e n t a b o u t r e a l o r i m a g i n a r y t h i n g s a n d e v e n t s , a n d b e s i d e s appealing rhetorically to the wi ll and the passions, they cause the reader to be aware that they are beautiful. Beauty in art or nature is a matter of relationships between things not in themselves intrinsically beautiful. There is nothing beautiful, for example, about the vocables ti me, or syllable. But when they are used in such a phrase as to the last syllable of recorded time, the relationship between the sound of the component words, between our ideas of the things for which they stand, and between the overtones of association with which each word a nd the phrase as a whole are charged, is apprehended, by a direct and immediate intuition, as being beautiful. About the rhetorical use of word s nothing much need be said. Th ere is rhetoric for good causes and there is rhetoric for bad causes - rhetoric 178 w h i c h i s t o l e r a b l y t r u e t o f a c t s a s w e l l a s e m o t i o n a l l y m o v i n g , a n d rhetoric which is unconsciously or deliberately a lie. To learn t o discriminate between the different kinds of rhetoric is an esse ntial part of intellectual morality; and intellectual morality is as neces sary a pre- condition of the spiritual life as is the control of the will a nd the guard of heart and tongue. W e h a v e n o w t o c o n s i d e r a m o r e d i f f i c u l t p r o b l e m . H o w s h o u l d t h e poetical use of words be related to the life of the lively spir it? (And, of course, what applies to the poetical use of words applies equal ly to the pictorial use of pigments, the m usical use of sounds, the sculp tural use of clay or stone - in a word, to all the arts.) Beauty is truth, truth beauty. But unfortunately Keats failed to specify in which of its principal meanings he was using the word truth . Some critics have assumed that he was using it in the third of the s enses listed at the opening of this section, and have therefore dismissed th e aphorism as nonsensical. Zn + H 2SO 4 = ZnSO 4 + H 2. This is a truth in the third sense of the word - and, manifestly, this truth is not id entical with beauty. But no less manifestly Keats was not talking about this kind of truth. He was using the word p rimarily in its first sense, as a synonym for fact, and secondarily with the significance attached to i t in the Johannine phrase, to worship God in truth. His sentence, ther efore, carries two meanings. Beauty is the Primordial Fact, and the P rimordial Fact is Beauty, the principle of all particular beauties ; and Beauty is an immediate experience, and this i mmediate experience is identica l with B e a u t y - a s - P r i n c i p l e , B e a u t y - a s - P r i m o r d i a l F a c t . T h e f i r s t o f t hese statements is fully in accord with the doctrines of the Perenni al Philosophy. Among the trinities in which the ineffable One make s itself manifest is the trinity of the Good, the True, and the Beautifu l. We p e r c e i v e b e a u t y i n t h e h a r m o n i o u s i n t e r v a l s b e t w e e n t h e p a r t s o f a whole. In this context the Divine Ground might be paradoxically defined 179 as Pure Interval, independent of w h a t i s s e p a r a t e d a n d h a r m o n i z ed within the totality. With Keatss statement in its secondary meaning the exponents o f the Perennial Philosophy would certainly disagree. The experience o f beauty in art or in nature may be qualit atively akin to the immediate, unitive experience of the Divine Ground or Godhead; but it is not the s ame as t h a t e x p e r i e n c e , a n d t h e p a r t i c u lar beauty-fact experienced, th ough partaking in some sort of the Di vine nature, is at several remo ves from the Godhead. The poet, the nature l o v e r , t h e a e s t h e t e a r e g r a n t ed apprehensions of Reality analogo us to those vouchsafed to the s elfless contemplative; but because they have not troubled to make thems elves perfectly selfless, they are inca pable of knowing the Divine Be auty in its fullness, as it is in itself. The poet is born with the capacity of arranging words in such a way that something of the quality of the graces and inspirations he has received can make itself felt to other human beings in the white spaces, so to speak, between the lines of his verse. This is a great and prec ious gift; but if the poet remains content with his gift, if he persists i n worshipping the beauty in art and nature without going on to make himself c apable, through selflessness, of apprehending Beauty as it is in the Di vine Ground, then he is only an idolater. True, his idolatry is amon g the highest of which human beings are capable; but an idolatry, non e the less, it remains. The experience of beauty is pu re, self-manifested, compounded equally of joy and consciousness, free from admixture of any other perception, the very twin brother of mystical experience, and the very life of it is super-sensuous wonder. . . . It is enjoyed by those who are competent thereto, in identity, just as the form of God is itself the joy with which it is recognized. Vishvanatba 180 What follows is the last composition of a Zen nun, who had been in her youth a great beauty and an accomplished poetess. Sixty-six times have these eyes beheld the changing scenes of Autumn. I have said enough about moonlight, Ask me no more. Only listen to the voice of pines an d cedars, when no wind stirs. Ryo-Nen The silence under windlass trees is what Mallarm would call a creux nant musicien. But whereas the music for which the poet listen ed was merely aesthetic and imaginative, it was to pure Suchness that the self- naughted contemplative was laying herself open. Be still and k now that I am God. This truth is to be lived, it is no t to be merely pronounced with the mouth. . . There is really nothing to argue about in this teaching; Any arguing is sure to go against the in tent of it. Doctrines given up to controversy and argumentation lead of themselves to birth and death. Hui Neng A w a y , t h e n , w i t h t h e f i c t i o n s a n d w o r k i n g s o f d i s c u r s i v e r e a s o n , either for or against Christianity! Th ey are only the wanton spirit of the mind, whilst ignorant of God an d insensible of its own nature and condition. Death and life are the only things in question; life is God living and working in the soul; deat h is the soul living and working according to the sense and reason of bestial flesh and blood. Both this life and this death are of their own growth, growing from their own seed within us, not as busy reason talks and directs, but as the heart turns either to the one or to the other. William Law Can I explain the Friend to on e for whom He is no Friend? Jalal-uddin Rumi 181 When a mother cries to her suckin g babe, Come, O son, I am thy mother; Does the child answer, O mother, show a proof, That I shall find comfort in taking thy milk? Jalal-uddin Rumi Great truths do not take hold of th e hearts of the masses. And now, as all the world is in error, how shall I, though I know the true path, how shall I guide? If I know that I ca nnot succeed and yet try to force success, this would be but another source of error. Better then to desist and strive no more. But if I do not strive, who will? C h u a n g T z u Between the horns of Chuang Tzus dilemma there is no way but t hat of love, peace and joy. Only those who manifest their possession, in however small a measure, of the fruits of the Spirit can persua de others that the life of the spirit is worth living. Argument and contr oversy are almost useless; in many cases, in deed, they are positively harm ful. But this, of course, is a thing that clever men with a gift for syl logisms and sarcasm find it peculiarly hard to admit. M i l t o n , n o d o u b t , g e n u i n e l y b e l i e v e d t h a t h e w a s w o r k i n g f o r t r uth, righteousness and the glory of G od by exploding in torrents of learned scurrility against the enemies of his favourite dictator and hi s favourite brand of nonconformity. In actual fact, of course, he and the o ther controversialists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries di d nothing b u t h a r m t o t h e c a u s e o f t r u e r e l i g i o n , f o r w h i c h , o n o n e s i d e or the other, they fought with an equal learning and ingenuity and wit h the same foul-mouthed intemperance of language. The successive controversies wen t on, with occasional lucid int ervals, for about two hundred years - Papist s arguing with anti-Papists, Pr otestants with other Protestants, Jesuits with Quietists and Jansenists. When the noise finally died down, Christianity (which, like any other religion, can survive only if it manifests the fruits of the Spirit) was all but dead; the real religion of most educated Europea ns was now nationalistic idola try. 182 During the eighteenth century this change to idolatry seemed (after the atrocities committed in the name of Christianity by Wallenstein and Tilly) to be a change for the better. This was because the ruling classes w e r e determined that the horrors of t he wars of religion should not be r e p e a t e d a n d t h e r e f o r e d e l i b e r a t ely tempered power politics wit h gentlemanliness. Symptoms of gentlemanliness can still be obser ved in the Napoleonic and Crimean wars. But the national Molochs were st eadily devouring the eighteenth - century ideal. During the First and Second World Wars we have witnessed the total elimination of the old checks and self-rest raints. The consequences of political spiritu ality. idolatry now display th emselves without the smallest mitigation either of humanistic honour and etiquette or of transcendental religion. By its internecine qua rrels over words, forms of organization, mo ney and power, historic Christi anity consummated the work of self-destruction, to which its excessiv e preoccupation with things in time had from the first so the tra gically committed it. Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition. Jalaluddin Rumi Reason is like an officer when the King appears; The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun. Jalaluddin Rumi Non-rational creatures do not lo ok before or after, but live in the animal eternity of a perpetual present; instinct is their animal grace a n d constant inspiration; and they a re never tempted to live otherw ise than in accord with their own animal Dharma, or immanent law. Thanks to his reasoning powers and to the instr ument of reason, language, man (in his merely human condition) lives nostalgically, appre hensively and hopefully in the past and future as well as in the present; has no instin cts to tell 183 h i m w h a t t o d o ; m u s t r e l y o n p e r s o n a l c l e v e r n e s s , r a t h e r t h a n o n inspiration from the Divine Natu re of Things; finds himself in a condition of chronic civil war between passion and prudence and, on a hig her level of awareness and ethical sensibili ty, between egotism and dawni ng spirituality. B u t t h i s w e a r i s o m e c o n d i t i o n o f h u m a n i t y i s t h e i n d i s p e n s a b l e prerequisite of enlightenment and deliverance. Man must live in time in order to be able to advance more into eternity, no longer on th e animal, but on the spiritual level; he must be conscious of himself as a separate ego in order to be able consciously to transcend separate selfh ood; he must do battle with the lower self in order that he may become identified with that higher Self within him, which is akin to t he Divine Not-Self; and finally he must ma ke use of his cleverness in ord er to pass beyond cleverness to the intelle ctual vision of Truth, the imme diate, unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground. Reason and its works are not and cannot be a proximate means o f union with God. The proximate means i s intellect, in the scholasti c sense of the word, or spirit. In the last analysis the use and purpose o f reason is t o c r e a t e t h e i n t e r n a l a n d e x t e r n a l c o n d i t i o n s f a v o u r a b l e t o i t s own transfiguration by and into spir it. It is the lamp by which it finds the way to go beyond itself. We see, then, that as a means to a proxima te means to an End, discursive reasoning is of enormous value. But if, i n our pride and madness, we treat it as a prox imate means to the Divine End (as so many religious people have done and still do), or if, denying the existence of an eternal End, we regard it as at once the means to Progres s and its ever-receding goal in time, clev erness becomes the enemy, a sou rce of spiritual blindness, moral evil a nd social disaster. At no peri od in history has cleverness been so highly val ued or, in certain directions, so widely and efficiently trained as at the present time. And at no time have intellectual vision and spiritual ity been less esteemed, or the End to 184 which they are proximate means less widely and less earnestly s ought for. Because technology advances, we fancy that we are making corresponding progress all along the line; because we have cons iderable power over inanimate nature, we are convinced that we are the s elf- s u f f i c i e n t m a s t e r s o f o u r f a t e a n d c a p t a i n s o f o u r s o u l s ; a n d b ecause cleverness has given us technology and power, we believe, in sp ite of all the evidence to the contrary, th at we have only to go on being yet cleverer in a yet more systematic way to achieve social order, international peace an d personal happiness. In Wu Chng-ns extraordinary masterpiece (so admirably translated by Mr. Arthur Waley) there is an episode, at once comical and profound, in which Monkey (who, in the allegory, is the incarnation of human cleverness) gets to heaven and there causes so much trouble that at last Bu ddha has to be called in to deal with hi m. It ends in the following pass age: Ill have a wager with you, said Bu ddha. If you are really so clever, jump off the palm of my right hand . If you succeed, Ill tell the Jade Emperor to come and live with me in the Western Paradise, and you shall have his throne without more ado. But if you fail, you shall go back to earth and do penance there for many a kalpa before you come back to me with your talk. This Buddha, Monkey thought to hims elf, is a perfect fool. I can jump a hundred and eight thousand league s, while his palm cannot be as much as eight inches across. How coul d I fail to jump clear of it? Youre sure youre in a position to do this for me? he asked. Of course I am, said Buddha. He stretched out his right hand, whic h looked about the size of a lotus leaf. Monkey put his cudgel behind his ear, and leapt with all his 185 might. Thats all right, he said to himself. I'm right off it now. He was whizzing so fast that he was almost invisible, and Buddha, watching him with the eye of wi sdom, saw a mere whirligig shoot along. Monkey came at last to five pink pi llars, sticking up into the air. This is the end of the world, sa id Monkey to himself. All I have got to do is to go back to Buddha and clai m my forfeit. The throne is mine. Wait a minute, he said. presently, Id better just leave a record of some kind, in case I have trouble with Buddha. He plucked a hair and blew on it with magic breath, crying Change! It changed at once into a writing brush charged with heavy in k, and at the base of the central pillar he wrote, The Great Sage eq ual to Heaven reached this place. Then, to mark his disrespect, he reli eved nature at the bottom of the first pillar, and somersaulted ba ck to where he had come from. Standing on Buddhas palm, he said, Well, Ive gone and come back. You can go and tell the Jade Empero r to hand over the palaces of Heaven. You stinking ape, said Buddha, you ve been on the palm of my hand all the time. Youre quite mistaken, said Monkey . I got to the end of the world, where I saw five flesh-coloured pillars sticking up into the sky. I wrote something on one of them. Ill take you there and show you, if you like. No need for that, said Buddha. Just look down. Monkey peered down with his fiery, steely eyes, and there at the base of the middle finger of Buddhas hand he saw written the words, The 186 Great Sage equal to Heaven reache d this place, and from the fork between the thumb and first finger came a smell of monkeys urine. From Monkey And so, having triumphantly urinated on the proffered hand of w isdom, the Monkey within us turns back and, full of a bumptious confid ence in his own omnipotence, sets out to refashion the world of men and things into something nearer to his hea rts desire. Sometimes his inte ntions are good, sometimes consciously bad. But, whatever the intentions m ay be, the results of action undertaken by even the most brilliant cle verness, when it is unenlightened by the Divine Nature of Things, unsubo rdinated t o t h e S p i r i t , a r e g e n e r a l l y e v i l . T h a t t h i s h a s a l w a y s b e e n c l early understood by humanity at large is proved by the usages of lang uage. Cunning and canny are equiva lent to knowing, and all thre e adjectives pass a more or less unfavourable moral judgment on t hose to whom they are applied. Conceit is just concept; but what a mans mind conceives most clearly is th e supreme value of his own ego . Shrewd, which is the participi al form of shrew, meaning mal icious, and is connected with beshrew, to curse, is now applied, by w ay of rather dubious compliment, to astute business men and attorneys . Wizards are so called because they are wise - wise, of course, in the sense that, in American slang, a wise guy is wise. Conversely , an idiot was once popularly known as an innocent. This use of innocent, says Richard Trench, assumes that to hurt and harm is the chief emp loyment, towards which men turn their int ellectual powers; that where th ey are wise, they are oftenest wise to do evil. Meanwhile it goes wit hout saying that cleverness and accumulated knowledge are indispensable, bu t always as means to proximate mea ns, and never as proximate mean s or, what is even worse, as ends in themselves. Quid facere erudizio sine dilectione? says St. Bernard. Inflaret. Quid absque eruditione dilectio? 187 Erraret. What would learning do without love? in certain It would puff up. And love without learnin g? It would go astray. Such as men themselves are, such wi ll God Himself seem to them to be. John Smith, the Platonist Mens minds perceive second causes , But only prophets perceive the action of the First Cause. Jalal-uddin Rumi The amount and kind of knowledge we acquire depends first upon the will and, second, upon our psycho-physical constitution and the modifications imposed upon it by environment and our own choice . Thus, Professor Burkitt has poin ted out that, where technologic al d i s c o v e r y i s c o n c e r n e d m a n s d e s i r e h a s b e e n t h e i m p o r t a n t f a c tor. Once something is definitely wanted, again and again it has bee n produced in an extremely short t ime. . . . Conversely, nothing will teach the Bushmen of South Africa to plant and herd. They have no des ire to do so. The same is true in regard to ethical and spiritual dis coveries. You are as holy as you wish to be, was the motto given by Ruy sbroeck to the students who came to visit him. And he might have added, You c a n t h e r e f o r e k n o w a s m u c h o f R e a l i t y a s y o u w i s h t o k n o w - f o r knowledge is in the knower according to the mode of the knower, and the mode of the knower is, in certain all - important respects, within the knowers control. Liberating kno wledge of God comes to the pure i n heart and poor in spirit; and th ough such purity and poverty ar e enormously difficult of achievem ent, they are nevertheless poss ible to all. She said, moreover, that if one woul d attain to purity of mind it was necessary to abstain altogether from any judgment on ones neighbour and from all empty talk about his conduct. In creatures one should always seek only for the will of God. With great force she said: For no reason whatever should one judge the actions of creatures or their 188 motives. Even when we see that it is an actual sin, we ought not to pass judgment on it, but have holy and sincere compassion and offer it up to God with humble and devout prayer. St. Catherine of Siena, writte n down by Tommaso di Petra This total abstention from judgment upon ones fellows is only one of the conditions of inward purity. The others have already been d escribed in the section on Mortification. Learning consists in adding to ones stock day by day. The practice of Tao consists in subtracting day by day: subtracting and yet again subtracting until one has reached inactivity. Lao Tzu It is the inactivity of self-will and ego-centred cleverness th at makes possible the activity within the emptied and purified soul of t he eternal Suchness. And when eternity is known in the heights within, it is also known in the fullness of experience, outside in the world. Didst thou ever descry a glorious eternity in a winged moment of time? Didst thou ever see a bright infinite in the narrow point of an object? Then thou knowest what spir it means - the spire-top, whither all things ascend harmoniously, wher e they meet and sit contented in an unfathomed Depth of Life. Peter Sterry avb 189 Chapter 8 RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT T seems best at this point to turn back for a moment from ethic s to psychology, where a very important problem awaits us - a proble m to which the exponents of the Pe rennial Philosophy have given a great deal of attention. What precisely is the relation between indiv idual constitution and temperament on the one hand and the kind and d egree o f s p i r i t u a l k n o w l e d g e o n t h e o t h e r ? T h e m a t e r i a l s f o r a comprehensively accurate answer to this question are not availa ble - except, perhaps, in the form of that incommunicable science, ba sed upon intuition and long practice, that exists in the minds of e xperienced s p i r i t u a l d i r e c t o r s . B u t t h e a n s w e r t h a t c a n b e g i v e n , t h o u g h incomplete, is highly significant. All knowledge, as we have seen, is a function of being. Or, to phrase the s a m e i d e a i n s c h o l a s t i c t e r m s , t h e t h i n g k n o w n i s i n t h e k n o w e r according to the mode of the knower. In the Introduction, refer ence was made to the effect upon knowledge of changes of being along wha t may be called its vertical axis, in the direction of sanctity or it s opposite. But there is also variation in the horizontal plane. Congenitally b y psychophysical constitution, each o n e o f u s i s b o r n i n t o a c e r t ain position on this horizontal plane. It is a vast territory, still imp erfectly explored, a continent stretching all the way from imbecility to genius, from shrinking weakness to a g g r e s s i v e s t r e n g t h , f r o m c r u e l t y to Pickwickian kindliness, fr om self- revealing sociability to tacitur n misanthropy and love of solit ude, from an almost frantic lasciviousness to an almost untempted contine nce. From any point on this huge expanse of possible human nature an individual can move almost indefinitely up or down, towards uni on with I 190 the Divine Ground of his own and all other beings, or towards t he last, the infernal extremes of sep arateness and selfhood. But where horizontal movement is concerned there is far less fr eedom. It is impossible for one kind of physical constitution to trans form itself into another kind; and the particular temperament associated wi th a given physical constitution can be modified only within narrow limits. With the best will in the world a nd the best social environment , all that anyone can hope to do is to make the best of his congenital psy cho - physical make - up; to change the fundamental patterns of const itution and temperament is beyond his power. In the course of the last thirty centuries many attempts have w ay Mary been made to work out a classifi cation system in terms of which human differences could be measured an d described. For example, there is the ancient Hindu method of classifying people according to the psy cho- physico-social categories of cas te. There are the primarily med ical classifications associated with the name of Hippocrates, classi fications in terms of two main habits - the phthisic and the apoplectic - or of the four humours (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile) and the four qualities (hot, cold, moist and dry). More recently there have been th e various physiognomic systems of the eighteenth and early nineteenth c e n t u r i e s ; t h e c r u d e a n d m e r e l y psychological dichotomy of introversion and extraversion; the m ore complete, but still inadequate, ps ychophysical classifications proposed by Kretschmer, Stockard, Viola a nd others; and finally the syst em, more comprehensive, more flexibly ade quate to the complex facts than a l l those which preceded it, worked out by Dr. William Sheldon and his collaborators. I n t h e p r e s e n t s e c t i o n o u r c o n c e r n i s w i t h c l a s s i f i c a t i o n s o f h uman differences in relation to the problems of the Spiritual life. Traditional systems will be described and illustrated, and the findings of the 191 Perennial Philosophy will be compared with the conclusions reac hed by the most recent scientific research. I n t h e W e s t , t h e t r a d i t i o n a l C a t h o l i c c l a s s i f i c a t i o n o f h u m a n b eings is b a s e d u p o n t h e G o s p e l a n e c d o t e o f M a r t h a a n d M a r y . T h e w a y o f Martha is the way of salvation through action, the way of Mary is the way through contemplation. Follo wing Aristotle, who in this as in many other matters was in accord with the Perennial Philosophy, Cath olic thinkers have regarded contemplation (the highest term of which is the unitive knowledge of the Godhead) as mans final end, and therefore have always held that Marys was indeed the better way. Significantly enough, it is in e ssentially similar terms that D r. Radin classifies and (by implication) evaluates primitive human beings in so far a s t h e y a r e p h i l o s o p h e r s a n d r e l i g i o u s d e v o t e e s . F o r h i m t h e r e is no doubt that the higher monotheistic forms of primitive religion are created ( o r s h o u l d o n e r a t h e r s a y , w i t h P l a t o , d i s c o v e r e d ? ) by people belonging to the first of the tw o great psycho-physical classes of human beings - the men of thought. those belonging to the other cl ass, the men of action, is due the creation or discovery of the lower, unphilosophical, polytheistic kinds of religion. This simple dichotomy is a class ification of human differences that is valid so far as it goes. But like all such dichotomies, whether physical (like Hippocrates division of humanity into those of phthisic and th ose of apoplectic habit) or psychological (like Jungs classification in terms of introvert and extravert), t h i s g r o u p i n g o f t h e r e l i g i o u s i n t o t h o s e w h o think and those who act, those who follow the way of Martha and those who follow the way of Mary, is inadequate to the facts. And of course no director souls, no head of a religious organization, is ever , in actual practice, content with this all too simple system. Underlying t he best Catholic writing on prayer and the best Catholic practice in th e matter of recognizing vocations and assigning duties, we sense the exi stence of 192 an implicit and unformulated classification of human difference s more complete and more realistic than the explicit dichotomy of acti on and contemplation. I n H i n d u t h o u g h t t h e o u t l i n e s o f t h i s c o m p l e t e r a n d m o r e a d e q u a te c l a s s i f i c a t i o n a r e c l e a r l y i n d i c a t e d . T h e w a y s l e a d i n g t o t h e d elivering union with God are not two, but three - the way of works, the w ay of knowledge and the way of devotion. In the Bhagavad-Gita Sri Kri shna instructs Arjuna in all three pa ths - liberation through action w i t h o u t attachment; liberation through knowledge of the Self and the Ab solute Ground out what of all being with which it is identical; and li beration through intense devotion to the personal God or the Divine inca rnation. Do without attachment the work yo u have to do; for a man who does his work without attachment atta ins the Supreme Goal verily. By action alone men like Janaka attained perfection. Freed from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, and purified by the fires of Knowledge, many have become one with my Being. And again: Those who have complete ly controlled their senses and are of even mind under all conditions and thus contemplate the Imperishable, the Ineffable, the Unmanifest, the Omnipresent, the Incomprehensible, the Eternal - they, devoted to the welfare of all beings, attain Me alone and none el se. But the path of contemplation is not easy. The task of those whose minds are set on the Unmanifest is the more difficult; for, to those who are in the body, the realization of the Unmanifest is hard. But those who co nsecrate all their actions to Me (as the personal God, or as the Divine Incarnation), who regard Me as the supreme Goal, who worship Me and meditate upon Me with single- minded concentration - for those wh ose minds are thus absorbed in 193 Me, I become ere long the Savi our from the worlds ocean of mortality. Bhagavad Gt Ch.3 These three ways of deliverance are precisely correlated with t he three categories, in terms of which Sheldon has worked out what is, w ithout question, the best and most ad equate classification of human differences. Human beings, he has shown, vary continuously betw een the viable extremes of a tri-polar system; and physical and psy chological measurements can be devised, whe reby any given individual may b e activity, aggressiveness accurately located in relation to the three co - ordinates. Or we can put the matter different ly and say that any given ind ividual is a mixture, in varying proportion s, of three physical and three closely related psychological components. The strength of each componen t can be measured according to empirically determined procedures. To the three physical components Sheldon gives the names of endomorphy , mesomorphy and ectomorphy. The individual with a high degree of endomorphy is predominantly soft and rounded and may easily bec ome grossly fat. The high mesomorph is hard, big-boned and strong-m uscled. The high ectomorph is slender an d has small bones and stringy, weak, unemphatic muscles. The endomorph has a huge gut, a gut that ma y be m o r e t h a n t w i c e a s h e a v y a n d t w i c e a s l o n g a s t h a t o f t h e e x t r e me ectomorph. In a real sense his or her body is built around the digestive tract. The centrally significant fact of mesomorphic physique, on the other hand, is the powerful muscu lature, while that of the ecto morph is the over - sensitive and (since the ratio of body sur face to mass is higher in e c t o m o r p h s t h a n i n e i t h e r o f t h e o t h e r t y p e s ) relatively unprotected nervous system. With endomorphic constitution is closely correlated a temperame ntal p a t t e r n , w h i c h S h e l d o n c a l l s v i s c e r o t o n i a . S i g n i f i c a n t a m o n g t h e viscerotonic traits are love of food and, characteristically, l ove of eating 194 i n c o m m o n ; l o v e o f c o m f o r t a n d l u x u r y ; l o v e o f c e r e m o n i o u s n e s s ; indiscriminate amiability and love of people as such; fear of s olitude and craving for company; uninhibited expression of emotion; love of childhood, in the form of nostalgia towards ones own past and in an intense enjoyment of family life; craving for affection and soc ial support, and need of people when in troubl e. The temperament that is rel ated to mesomorphy is called somatotonia. In this the dominating traits are love of muscular activity, aggressiveness and lust for power; indiff erence to pain; callousness in regard to oth er peoples feelings; a love of combat and competitiveness; a high degree of physical courage; a nosta lgic f e e l i n g , n o t f o r c h i l d h o o d , b u t f o r y o u t h , t h e p e r i o d o f m a x i m u m muscular power; a need for activ ity punishment when in trouble. From the foregoing descriptions it will be seen how inadequate is the Jungian conception of extraversi on, as a simple antithesis to introversion. Extraversion is no t simple; it is of two radicall y different kinds. There is the emotional, sociable extraversion of the vis cerotonic e n d o m o r p h - t h e p e r s o n w h o i s a l w a y s s e e k i n g c o m p a n y a n d t e l l i n g everybody just what he feels. And there is the extraversion of the big- muscled somatotonic - the person who looks outward on the world as a place where he can exercise powe r, where he can bend people to his will and shape things to his hearts desire. One is the genial extra version of the salesman, the Rotarian good mixer, the liberal Protestant c lergyman. The other is the extraversion of the engineer who works off his lust for power on things, of the sportsma n and the professional blood-an d-iron soldier, of the ambitious business executive and politician, of t h e dictator, whether in the home or at the head of a state. With cerebrotonia, the temperament that is correlated with e c t o m o r p h i c p h y s i q u e , w e l e a v e t h e g e n i a l w o r l d o f P i c k w i c k , t h e strenuously competitive world of Hotspur, and pass into an enti rely different and somewhat disquieting kind of universe - that of H amlet and 195 Ivan Karamazov. The extreme cere brotonic is the over-alert, ove r- sensitive introvert, who is more concerned with what goes on be hind his eyes - with the constructions of thought and imagination, with the variations of feeling and consciousness - than with that extern al world, to which, in their different ways, the viscerotonic and the som atotonic pay their primary attent ion and allegiance. Cerebrotonics have little or no desire to dominate, nor do they feel the viscerotonics indiscriminate lik ing for people as people; on t he contrary they want to live and let live, and their passion for privacy i s intense. Solitary confinement, the most te rrible punishment that can be inflicted o n t h e s o f t , r o u n d , g e n i a l p e r s o n , i s , f o r t h e c e r e b r o t o n i c , n o punishment at all. For him the ultimate horror is the boarding school and the barracks. In company cerebro t o n i c s a r e n e r v o u s a n d s h y , t e n sely inhibited and unpredictably moody. (It is a significant fact that no extreme cerebrotonic has ever been a good actor or actress.) Cerebrotonics hate to slam doors or raise their voices, and suffer acutely from the u nrestrained bellowing and trampling of the somatotonic. Their manner is restrained, and when it comes to expressing the ir feelings they are extremely rese rved. The emotional gush of the viscerotonic strikes them as offensively shallow and even insin cere, nor have they any patience with viscerotonic ceremoniousness and lo ve of luxury and magnificence. They do not easily form habits and fin d it hard clearly to adapt their lives to the routines which come so natu rally to somatotonics. Owing to their over-sensitiveness, cerebrotonics are often extremely, almost insanely sexual; but they are hardly ev er tempted to take to drink - for alcohol, which heightens the nat ural aggressiveness of the somatotonic and increases the relaxed ami ability of the viscerotonic, merely make s them feel ill and depressed. Each in his own way, the viscerotonic and the somatotonic are w ell adapted to the world they live in ; but the introverted cerebrot onic is in 196 some sort incommensurable with the things and people and instit utions that surround him. Consequently a remarkably high proportion of extreme cerebrotonics fail to make good as normal citizens and average pillars of society. But if many fail, many also become abnormal on the h i g h e r s i d e o f t h e a v e r a g e . I n universities, monasteries and re search laboratories - wherever sheltered conditions are provided for t hose whose small guts and feeble muscles do not permit them to eat o r fight their way through the ordinary rough and tumble - the percentag e of outstandingly gifted and accomp lished cerebrotonics will almost always be very high. Realizing the impo rtance of this extreme, over-ev olved and scarcely viable type of human be ing, all civilizations have pro vided in one way or another for its protection. In the light of these descriptions we can understand more clear ly the Bhagavad-Gitas classification o f paths to salvation. The path of devotion is the path naturally followed by the person in whom the viscer otonic component is high. His inborn tendency to externalize the emoti ons he spontaneously feels in regard to persons can be disciplined and canalized, so that a merely anim al gregariousness and a merely human kindliness become transformed into charity - devotion to the pe rsonal God and universal goodwill and co mpassion towards all sentient beings. The path of works is for those w hose extraversion is of the som atotonic kind, those who in all circumstances feel the need to do somet hing. In the unregenerate somatotonic this craving for action is always associated with aggressiveness, s elf-assertion and the lust for p o w e r . For the born Kshatriya, or warri or-ruler, the task, as Krishna explains to Arjuna, is to get rid of those fatal accompaniments to the love of action and to work without regard to the fruits of work, in a state of complete non-attachment to self. Which is, of course, like everything el se, a good deal easier said than done. 197 F i n a l l y , t h e r e i s t h e w a y o f k n o w l e d g e , t h r o u g h t h e m o d i f i c a t i o n of consciousness, until it ceases to be ego-centred and becomes ce ntred in and united with the Divine Ground. This is the way to which the extreme cerebrotonic is naturally drawn. His special discipline consist s in the mortification of his innate tendency towards introversion for i ts own sake, towards thought and imagin ation and self-analysis as ends i n themselves rather than as means towards the ultimate transcende nce of phantasy and discursive reasoning in the timeless act of pur e intellectual intuition. Within the general population, a s we have seen, variation is co ntinuous, and in most people the three components are fairly evenly mixed . Those exhibiting extreme predominance of any one component are relati vely r a r e . A n d y e t , i n s p i t e o f t h e i r r a r i t y , i t i s b y t h e t h o u g h t - p atterns characteristic of these extreme individuals that theology and e thics, at any rate on the theoretical side, have been mainly dominated. T he r e a s o n f o r t h i s i s s i m p l e . A n y e x t r e m e p o s i t i o n i s m o r e uncompromisingly clear and therefore more easily recognized and understood theism, through than t he intermediate positions, whi ch are the natural thought pattern of the person in whom the constitue nt components of to the personalit y are evenly balanced. These intermediate positions, it should be noted, do not in any sense contain o r r e c o n c i l e t h e e x t r e m e p o s i t i o n s ; t h e y a r e m e r e l y o t h e r t h o u g ht- patterns added to the list of po ssible systems. The constructio n of an all- embracing system of metaphysics, ethics and psychology is a tas k that can never be accomplished by any single individual, for the suf ficient reason that he is an individual with one particular kind of con stitution and temperament and therefore ca pable of knowing only according to the mode of his own being. Hence the advantages inherent in wha t may be called the anthologic al approach to truth. 198 The Sanskrit Dharma - one of the key words in Indian formulatio ns of the Perennial Philosophy - has two principal meanings. The Dharma o f an individual is, first of all, his essential nature, the intrinsi c law of his being and development. But Dharma also s i gn i fi e s th e l a w o f ri g h te o u s ness and piety. The implications of this double meaning are clear: a mans duty, how he ought to live, what he ought to believe and what h e ought to do about his beliefs - these things are conditioned by his e ssential nature, his constitution and temp e r a m e n t . G o i n g a g o o d d e a l f u r ther than do the Catholics, with their doctrine of vocations, the In dians admit the right of individuals with different Dharma: to worship diff erent aspects or conceptions of the Divine. Hence the almost total ab sence, among Hindus and Buddhists, of bloody persecutions, religious w ars and proselytizing imperialism. It should, however, be remarked that, within its own ecclesiast ical fold, Catholicism has been almost as tolerant as Hinduism and Mahayan a Buddhism. Nominally one, each of these religions consists, in f act, of a number of very different religions, covering the whole gamut of thought and behaviour from fetishism, through polytheism, through legal istic monotheism, through devotion to the sacred humanity of the Avat ar, to the profession of the Perennial Philosophy and the practice of a purely spiritual religion that seeks the unitive knowledge of the Abso lute Godhead. These tolerated religions-within- a-religion are not, of course, regarded as equally valuable or equally true. To worship polytheisticall y may be ones Dharma;not nevertheless th e fact remains that mans final end is the unitive knowledge of the God head, and all the historical formulations of the Perennial Philosophy are agreed that every human being ought, and perhaps in some way or other actually will, ac hieve that end. All souls, writes Father Garrigou-Lagrange, receive a g eneral remote call to the mystical life ; and if all were faithful in a voiding, as they 199 should, not merely mortal but ve nial sin, if they were, each ac cording to his condition, docile to the Holy Ghost, and if they lived long enough, a day would come when they would receive the proximate and effica cious vocation to a high perfection an d to the mystical life properly so called. With this statement Hindu and Buddhist theologians would probab ly agree; but they would add that e very soul will in fact eventual ly attain this high perfection. All are called, but in any given genera tion few are chosen, because few choose themselves. But the series of consci ous existences, corporeal or incorporeal, is indefinitely long; the re is t h e r e f o r e t i m e a n d o p p o r t u n i t y f o r e v e r y o n e t o l e a r n t h e n e c e s s ary lessons. Moreover, there will alwa ys be helpers. For periodical ly there are descents of the Godhead in to physical form; and at all ti mes there a r e f u t u r e B u d d h a s r e a d y , o n t h e t h r e s h o l d o f r e u n i o n w i t h t h e Intelligible Light, to renounce the bliss of immediate liberati on in order to return as saviours and teachers again and again into the wor ld of suffering and time and evil, until at last every sentient being shall have been delivered into eternity. The practical consequences of th is doctrine are clear enough. T he lower forms of religion, whether emoti onal, active or intellectual, a re never to be accepted as final. True, each of them comes naturally to per sons of a certain kind and temperament; but the Dharma or duty of an indi vidual is not to remain complacently in that religion that happens to suit him; but to transcend, not by impossibly denying the modes of feelin g that a r e n a t u r a l t o h i m , b u t b y m a k i n g u s e o f t h e m , s o t h a t b y m e a n s o f n a t u r e h e m a y p a s s b e y o n d n a t u r e . T h u s t h e i n t r o v e r t u s e s discrimination (in the Indian phrase), and metanoia, so learns to distinguish the mental activities of the ego from the principia l consciousness of the Self, which is akin to, or identical with, the Divine Ground. 200 The emotional extravert learns t o hate his father and mother (in other words, to give up his selfish at tachment to the pleasures of in discriminately loving and being loved), concentrates his devotion on the personal or incarnate aspect of God, and comes at last to love the change m ay Absolute Godhead by an act, no l onger of feeling, but of will i lluminated by knowledge. And finally there is that other kind of extravert , whose concern is not with the pleasure s of giving or receiving affect ion, but with the satisfaction of his lust for power over things, events and persons. Using his own nature to transcend his own nature, he m ust follow the path laid down in the Bhagavad-Gita for the bewilder ed Arjuna - the path of work without attachment to the fruits of w ork, the path of what St. Francois de Sales calls holy indifference, t he path that leads through the forgetting of self to the discovery of the Se lf. In the course of history it has often happened that one or othe r of the imperfect religions has been taken too seriously and regarded a s good and true in itself, instead of a s a means to the ultimate end o f all religion. The effects of such mistakes are often disastrous. For example, many Protestant sects have insisted on the necessity, or at least th e extreme desirability, of a violent conver sion. But violent conversion, as Sheldon has pointed out, is a phenomenon confined almost exclusively to p e r s o n s w i t h a h i g h d e g r e e o f s o m a t o t o n i a . T h e s e p e r s o n s a r e s o intensely extraverted as to be quite unaware of what is happeni ng in the lower levels of their minds. If for any reason their attention comes to be turned inwards, the resulting se lf-knowledge, because of its no velty and strangeness, presents itself wit h the force and quality of a re velation and their metanoia, or change of mind, is sudden and thrilling. Thi s change may be to religion, or it may be to something else - for exampl e, to psycho-analysis. To insist upon the necessity of violent conver sion as the only means to salvation is about as sensible as it would be to insist upon the necessity of having a large face, heavy bones and powerful muscles. 201 To those naturally subject to this kind of emotional upheaval, the doctrine that makes salvation dependent on conversion gives a complacency that is quite fatal to spiritual growth, while thos e who are incapable of it are filled with a no less fatal despair. Other examples of inadequate theologies based upon the extreme viscerotonic with his logical ignorance could easily b e cited. One remembers, for ins tance, the sad case of Calvin, the cerebrotonic who took his own intellect ual constructions so seriously that he lost all sense of reality, b oth human and spiritual. And then there is our liberal Pr otestantism, that predominantly viscerotonic heresy, which seems to have forgotten the very exi stence of the Father, Spirit and Logos and equates Christianity with a n emotional attachment to Christs humanity or (to use the currently popular phrase) the personality of Jesus, worshipped idolatrously as though there were no other God. Even within Catholicism we cons tantly hear complaints of the ignorant and self-centred directors, who impose upon the souls under their charge a religious Dharma wholly uns uited to their nature - with results which writers such as St. John of t he Cross describe as wholly pernicious. W e see, then, that it is natural for us to think of God as possessed of the qualities which our temperamen t tends t o m a k e u s p e r c e i v e i n H i m ; b u t u n l e s s n a t u r e f i n d s a w a y o f transcending i t self by means o f itself, w e are lost. In the las t analysis Philo is quite right in saying that those who do not conceive G od purely and simply as the One injure, not God of course, but themselves and, along with themselves, their fellows. The way of knowledge comes most naturally to persons whose temperament is predominantly cerebrotonic. By this I do not mea n that the following of this way is eas y for the cerebrotonic. His spe cially besetting sins are just as difficult to overcome as are the sin s which beset the power-loving somatotonic and the extreme viscerotonic with his 202 gluttony for food and comfort and social approval. Rather I mea n that the idea that such a way exists and can be followed (either by discrimination, or through non-a ttached work and one-pointed de votion) is one which spontaneously occurs to t h e c e r e b r o t o n i c . A t a l l l e v e ls of culture he is the natural monoth eist; and this natural monothei st, as Dr. Radins examples of primitive theology clearly show, is often a monotheist of the Tat Tvam A si, inner-light school. Persons committed by their temperament to one or other of the t wo kinds of extraversion are natural polytheists. But natural poly theists can, without much difficulty, be convinced of the theoretical superi ority of mono- cation, theism. The nature of human reason is such that t here is an intrinsic plausibility about any hypothesis which seeks to e xplain the manifold in terms of unity, to reduce apparent multiplicity to essential identity. And from this theoreti cal monotheism the half-convert ed polytheist can, if he chooses, go on (through practices suitable to his own particular temperament) to the actual realization of the Divine Ground of his own and all other beings. He can, I repeat, and sometimes h e actually does. But very often he does not . There are many theoretical monotheists whose whole life and every action prove that in rea lity they are still what their temperament inclines them to be - polythei sts, worshippers not of the one God th ey sometimes talk about, but o f the many gods, nationalistic and tec h n o l o g i c a l , f i n a n c i a l a n d f a m i l ial, to whom in practice they pay all their allegiance. In Christian art the Saviour has almost invariably been represe nted as slender, small-boned, unemphatically muscled. Large, powerful C hrists are a rather shocking exception to a very ancient rule. Of Rube ns crucifixions William Blake contem ptuously wrote: I understood Christ was a carpenter, and not a bre wers servant, m y good sir. In a word, the traditional Jesus is thought of as a man of pred ominantly ectomorphic physique and therefo re, by implication, of predomin antly 203 cerebrotonic temperament. The central core of primitive Christi an doctrine confirms the essential correctness of the iconographic tradition. The religion of the G ospels is what we should expect from a cerebrotonic - not, of course, f rom any cerebrotonic, but from one who had used the psycho-physical peculiarities of his own nature to transcend nature, who had followed his particular Dharma to its spiritual goal. The insistence that the Kingdom of Heaven is within; the ignoring of ritual; the slightly contemptuous attitude towards legalism, towards the ceremonial routines of organ ized religion, towards hallowed d a y s and places; the general other-wo rldliness; the emphasis laid up on restraint, not merely of overt action, but even of desire and u nexpressed intention; the indifference to t he splendours of material civil ization and the love of poverty as one of the greatest of goods; the doctri ne that non-attachment must be carried even into the sphere of family relationships and that even devo tion to the highest goals of me rely human ideals, even the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharise es, may be idolatrous distractions from the love of God - all these are characteristically cerebrotonic ideas, such as would never have occurred spontaneously to the extraverted power lover or the equally ext raverted viscerotonic. Primitive Buddhism is no less pr edominantly cerebrotonic than p rimitive Christianity, and so is Vedanta, the metaphysical discipline wh ich lies at the heart of Hinduism. Confucianism, on the contrary, is a main ly viscerotonic system - familial, c eremonious and thoroughly this -worldly. And in Mohammedanism we find a system which incorporates strong ly somatotonic elements. Hence Isla ms black record of holy wars a nd persecutions - a record comparable to that of later Christianit y, after that religion had so far compromised with unregenerate somatoto nia as to call its ecclesiastical organ ization the Church Militant. 204 So far as the achievement of mans final end is concerned, it i s as much of a handicap to be an extreme c erebrotonic or an extreme visce rotonic as it is to be an extreme somatotonic. But whereas the cerebrot onic and the viscerotonic cannot do much harm except to themselves and t hose in immediate contact with them, the extreme somatotonic, with h is native aggressiveness, plays havoc with whole societies. From o ne point o f v i e w c i v i l i z a t i o n m a y b e d e f i n e d a s a c o m p l e x o f r e l i g i o u s , legal passionate concern, and educationa l devices for preventing extr eme somatotonics from doing too much mischief, and for directing th eir irrepressible energies into so cially desirable channels. Confucianism and Chinese culture have sought to achieve this en d by inculcating filial piety, good manners and an amiably visceroto nic epicureanism - the whole reinforced somewhat incongruously by t he cerebrotonic spirituality and re straints of Buddhism and classi cal Taoism. In India the caste system represents an attempt to subo rdinate military, political and financial power to spiritual authority; and the education given to all classes st ill insists so strongly upon t he fact that mans final end is unitive knowledge of God that even at the pr esent time, even after nearly two hun dred years of gradually accelera ting Europeanization, successful somat otonics will, in middle life, give up wealth, position and power to end their days as humble seekers after enlightenment. I n C a t h o l i c E u r o p e , a s i n I n d i a , t h e r e w a s a n e f f o r t t o s u b o r d i nate t e m p o r a l p o w e r t o s p i r i t u a l a u t h o r i t y ; b u t s i n c e t h e C h u r c h i t s elf exercised temporal power through the agency of political prelat es and mitred business men, the effort was never more than partially successful. After the Reformation even the pious wish to limit temporal power by means of spiritual authority was completely abandoned. Henry VIII made himself, in Stubb ss words, the Pope, the whol e Pope, and something more than the Pope, and his example has been fol lowed 205 by most heads of states ever since. Power has been limited only by other powers, not by an appeal to firs t principles as interpreted by those who are morally and spiritually qualified to know what they are tal king about. Meanwhile, the interest in religi on has everywhere declined and even among believing Christians the Perennial Philosophy has been to a great extent replaced by a metaphysic of inevitable progress and an e volving God, by a passionate concern, not with eternity, but with futur e time. And almost suddenly, within the last quarter of a century, ther e has b e e n c o n s u m m a t e d w h a t S h e l d o n c a l l s a s o m a t o t o n i c r e v o l u t i o n , directed against all that is cha racteristically cerebrotonic in the theory and practice of traditional Christian culture. Here are a few s ymptoms of this somatotonic revolution. In traditional Christianity, as in all the great religious form ulations of the Perennial Philosophy, it was axiomatic that contemplation is th e end and purpose of action. Today the great majority even of professed C hristians regard action (directed towards material and social progress) as the end, and analytic thought (there is no question any longer of integral the thought, or contemplation) as the means to that end. In traditional Christianity, as in the other formulations of th e Perennial Philosophy, the secret of happiness and the way to salvation we re to be sought, not in the external envi ronment, but in the individual s state of mind with regard to the environment. Today the all-important th ing is not the state of the mind, but the state of the environment. Ha ppiness and moral progress depend, it is thought, on bigger and better gadgets and a higher standard of living. In traditional Christian education the stress was all on restra int; with the r e c e n t r i s e o f t h e p r o g r e s s i v e s c h o o l i t i s a l l o n a c t i v i t y a nd self- expression. Traditionally Christian good manners outlawed all expressions o f pleasure in the satisfaction of physical appetites. You may lo ve a 206 screeching owl, but you must not love a roasted fowl - such wa s the rhyme on which children were brought up in the nurseries of onl y fifty years ago. Today the young unceasingly proclaim how much they love and adore different kinds of f ood and drink; adolescents and adults talk about the thrills they derive from the stimulation of their s exuality. The popular philosophy of life has ce a s e d t o b e b a s e d o n t h e c l a s s i cs of d e v o t i o n a n d t h e r u l e s o f a r i s t o c r a t i c g o o d b r e e d i n g , a n d i s n o w moulded by the writers of advertising copy, whose one idea is t o persuade everybody to be as extr averted and uninhibitedly greed y as possible, since of course it is only the possessive, the restle ss, the distracted, who spend money on the things that advertisers want to sell. Technological progress is in part the product of the somatotoni c revolution, in part the current w orld-wide reversal of an immem orial social producer and sustainer of that revolution. The extraverted attention result s in technological discoveries (significantly enough, a high degree of material civilization h as always been associated with the large-scale and officially sanctioned pract ice of polytheism). In their turn, technological discoveries have resulted in mass-production; and mass-production, it is obvious, cannot be kept going at full blast except by persuading the whole population t o accept the somatotonic Weltanscha uung and act accordingly. Like technological progress, wit h which it is so closely associ ated in so many ways, modern war is at once a cause and policy a result of the somatotonic revolution. Nazi edu cation, which was specifically education for war, had two principal aims: to encourage the manifestation of somatotonia in those most richly endowed with that component of personality, and to make the rest of the populatio n feel ashamed of its relaxed amiabilit y or its inward-looking sensiti veness and tendency towards self-restraint and tender-mindedness. During t he war 207 the enemies of Nazism have been compelled, of course, to borrow from the Nazis educati onal philosophy. All over the world millions of young men and even young women a re being systematically educated to be tough and to value tough ness beyond every other moral quality. With this system of somatoton ic ethics is associated the idolatrous and polytheistic theology o f nationalism - a pseudo-religion far stronger at the present tim e for evil and division than is Christianit y, or any other monotheistic re ligion, for unification and good. In the past most societies tried systemat ically to discourage somatotonia. This was a measure self-defence; they d id not want to be physically destroyed by the power-loving aggressiven ess of their most active minority, and they did not want to be spiritu ally blinded by an excess of extraversion. During the last few years all this has been changed. What, we may a pprehensively wonder, will be t he result the current world-wide reversal of an immemorial social policy? Time alone will show. avb 208 Chapter 9 SELF-KNOWLEDGE ICE may be defined as a course of behaviour consented to by the will and having results which are bad, primarily because they a re God-eclipsing and, secondarily, because they are physically or psychologically harmful to th e agent or his fellows. Ignorance of self is something t hat answers to this description . In its origins it is voluntary; for by introspection and by listening to other peoples judgments of our charac ter we can all, if we so desire , come to a very shrewd understanding of ou r flaws and weaknesses and the real, as opposed to the avowed and advertised, motives of our actions . If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-kno wledge is painful and we prefer the pleasu res of illusion. As for the con sequences of such ignorance, these are bad by every criterion, from the u tilitarian to the transcendental. Bad becaus e self-ignorance leads to unre alistic behaviour and so causes every kind of trouble for everyone conc erned; and bad because, without self-kn owledge, there can be no true h umility, therefore no effective self-naug hting, therefore no unitive kno wledge of the Divine Ground underlying the self and ordinarily eclipsed b y it. The importance, the indispensabl e necessity, of self-knowledge has been stressed by the saints and doctors of every one of the gre at religious traditions. To us in the West, the most familiar voic e is that of Socrates. More systematically than Socrates the Indian exponent s of the Perennial Philosophy harped on t he same theme. There is, for ex ample, the Buddha, whose discourse on The Setting-Up of Mindfulness expounds (with that positively inexorable exhaustiveness characteristic of the Pali scriptures) the whole art of self-knowle dge in all its branches - knowledge of ones body, ones senses, ones feelings, ones th oughts. V 209 This art of self-knowledge is practised with two aims in view. The proximate aim is that a brother, as to the body, continues so to look u p o n t h e b o d y , t h a t h e r e m a i n s a r d e n t , s e l f - p o s s e s s e d a n d m i n d f ul, having overcome both the hankering and dejection common in the world. And in the same way as to feelings, thoughts and ideas, words can he so looks upon each that he remains ardent, self-possesse d and mindful, without hankering or dejection. Beyond and through th is desirable psychological condition lies the final end of man, kn owledge of that which underlies the individualized self. In their own voca bulary, Christian writers express the same ideas. A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an oxs or a bears, so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into your own Ground and learn to know yourself there. Eckhart Fools regard themselves as awak e now - so personal is their knowledge. It may be as a prince or it may be as a herdsman, but so cock-sure of themselves! Chuang Tzu This metaphor of waking from dreams recurs again and again in t he various expositions of the Peren nial Philosophy. In this contex t liberation might be defined as the process of waking up out of the nonsense, nightmares and illusory pleasures of what is ordinari ly called real life into the awareness of eternity. The sober certainty of waking bliss - that wonderful phrase i n which Milton described the ex perience of the noblest kind of music - comes, I suppose, about as near as words can get to enlightenment and deliverance. Thou (the human being) art that which is not. I am that I am. If thou perceivest this truth in thy soul, never shall the enemy deceive thee; thou shalt escape all his snares. St. Catherine of Siena 210 Knowledge of ourselves teaches us whence we come, where we are and whither we are going. We come from God and we are in exile; and it is because our potency of affect ion tends towards God that we are aware of this state of exile. Ruysbroeck Spiritual progress is through the growing knowledge of the self a s nothing and of the Godhead as all-embracing Reality (Such knowledge, of course, is worthless if it is merely theoretical; to be effecti ve, it must be realized as an immediate, intuitive experience and appropriatel y acted upon). Of one great master of the spiritual life Professor Etienne Gil son writes: The displacement of fear by Ch arity by way of the practice of humility - in that consists the wh ole of St. Bernards ascesis, its beginning, its development and its term. Fear, worry, anxiety - these form the central core of individua lized selfhood. Fear cannot be got rid of by personal effort, but onl y by the egos absorption in a cause grea ter than its own interests. Abs orption in any cause will rid the mind of some of its fears; but only abso rption in the loving and knowing of the Divine Ground can rid it of all f ear. For when the cause is less than the highest, the sense of fear and anxiety is transferred from the self to the cause - as when heroic self-sa crifice for a loved individual or institution is accompanied by anxiety in regard to that for which the sacrifice is made. Whereas if the sacrifice is made for G o d , a n d f o r o t h e r s f o r G o d s s a k e , t h e r e c a n b e n o f e a r o r a b i ding anxiety, since nothing can be a menace to the Divine Ground and even failure and disaster are to be accepted as being in accord with the Divine will. In few men and women is the love of God intense enough to cast out this projected fear and anxiety for cherished persons and institutions. The reason is to be sought in the fact that few m en and women are humble enough to be capable of loving as they should. And t h e y l a c k t h e n e c e s s a r y h u m i l i t y b e c a u s e t h e y a r e w i t h o u t t h e f ully realized knowledge of their own personal nothingness. 211 Humility does not consist in hidi ng our talents and virtues, in thinking ourselves worse and more ordinary than we are, but in possessing a clear knowledge of all th at is lacking in us and in not exalting ourselves for that which we have, seeing that God has freely given it us and that, with all His gifts, we are still of infinitely little importance. Lacordaire As the light grows, we see ourselves to be worse than we thought. We are amazed at our former blindness as we see issuing from our heart a whole swarm of shameful feelings, li ke filthy reptiles crawling from a hidden cave. But we must be neithe r amazed nor disturbed. We are not worse than we were; on the cont rary, we are better. But while our faults diminish, the light we see th em by waxes brighter, and we are filled with horror. So long as there is no sign of cure, we are unaware of the depth of our dise ase; we are in a state of blind presumption and hardness, the prey of self-delusion. While we go with the stream, we are unconscious of its rapid course; bu t when we begin to stem it ever so little, it makes itself felt. Fenelon My daughter, build yourself two cells. First a real cell, so that you do not run about much and talk, unless it is needful, or you can do it out of love for your neighbour. Next bu ild yourself a spiritual cell, which you can always take with you, and that is the cell of true self- knowledge; you will find there th e knowledge of Gods goodness to you. Here there are really two cells in one, and if you live in one you must also live in the other; otherwise the soul will either despair or be presumptuous. If you dwelt in self-knowledge alone, you would despair; if you dwelt in the know ledge of God alone, you would be tempted to presumption. One must go with the other, and thus you will reach perfection. St. Catherine of Siena avb 212 Chapter 10 GRACE AND FREE WILL E L I V E R A N C E i s o u t o f t i m e i n t o e t e r n i t y , a n d i s a c h i e v e d b y obedience and docility to the ete rnal Nature of Things. We have been given Free Will, in order that we may will our self-will o ut of existence and so come to live continuously in a state of grace . All our actions must be directed, in the last analysis, to making ourse lves passive in relation to the activi ty and the being of Divine Rea lity. We are, as it were, aeolian harps, endowed with the power either to exp ose themselves to the wind of the Spirit or to shut themselves away from it. The Valley Spirit never dies. It is called the Mysterious Female. And the doorway of the Mysterious Female Is the base from which He aven and Earth spring. It is there within us all the time. Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry. Lao Tzu In every exposition of the Perennial Philosophy the human soul is regarded as feminine in relation to the Godhead, the personal G od and even the Order of Nature. Hubris, which is the original sin, co nsists in regarding the personal ego as se lf-sufficiently masculine in re lation to the Spirit within and to Nature without, and in behaving accord ingly. St. Paul drew a very useful and illuminating distinction betwee n the psyche and the pneuma. But the latter word never achieved any d egree of popularity, and the hopelessly ambiguous term, psyche, came to be used indifferently for either th e personal consciousness or the s p i r i t . And why, in the Western church, did devotional writers choose t o speak D 213 o f m a n s a n i m a (which for the Romans signified the lower, animal soul) instead of using the word traditionally reserved for the ration al soul, n a m e l y a n i m u s ? T h e a n s w e r , I s u s p e c t , i s t h a t t h e y w e r e a n x i o u s t o stress by every means in their power the essential femininity o f the human spirit in its relations wit h God. Pneuma, being grammatic ally neuter, and animus, being masculine, were felt to be less suita ble than anima and psyche. Consider this concrete example; given the structure of Greek an d Latin, it would have been very difficult for the speakers of these lan guages to identify anything but a grammatically feminine soul with the he roine of the Song of Songs - an allegorical figure who, for long centuri es, played the same part in Christian thought and sentiment as the Gopi Ma idens played in the theology and devotion of the Hindus. Take note of this fundamental truth. Everything that works in nature and creature, except sin, is the work ing of God in nature and creature. The creature has nothing else in it s power but the free use of its will, and its free will hath no other power but that of concurring with, or resisting, the working of God in nature. The creature with its free will can bring nothing into being, nor make any alteration in the working of na ture; it can only change its own state or place in the working of natu re, and so feel or find something in its state that it did not feel or find before. William Law Defined in psychological terms, grace is something other than o ur self- conscious personal self, by which we are helped. We have experi ence of three kinds of such helps - animal grace, human grace and spiri tual grace. Animal grace comes when w e are living in full accord wit h our own nature on the biological level - not abusing our bodies by excess, not interfering with the workings of our indwelling animal inte lligence by conscious cravings and aversions, but living wholesomely and laying 214 ourselves open to the virtue of the sun and the spirit of the air. The reward of being thus in harmony with Tao or the Logos in its ph ysical and physiological aspects is a s ense of well-being, an awarenes s of life as good, not for any reason, but just because it is life. There is no question, when we ar e i n a c o n d i t i o n o f a n i m a l g r a c e, of propter vitam vivendi perdere causas ; for in this state there is no distinction between the reasons for living and life itself. Lif e, like virtue, is then its own reward. But, of course, the fullness of animal grace is reserved for animals. Mans natu r e i s s u c h t h a t h e m u s t l i v e a self- conscious life in time, not in a blissful sub-rational eternity on the hither side of good and evil. Consequently animal grace is something t hat he knows only spasmodically in an occasional holiday from self-consciousness, or as an accompan iment to other states, in which life is not its own reward but has to be lived for a reason outside its elf. Human grace comes to us either f rom persons, or from social gro ups, or from our own wishes, hopes and imaginings projected outside our selves and persisting somehow in the psychic medium in a state of what may be called second-hand objectivity. W e h a v e a l l h a d e x p e r i e n c e o f the different types of human grace. There is, for example, the grac e which, during childhood, comes from mother, father, nurse or beloved t eacher. At a later stage we experience the grace of friends; the grace of men and women morally better and wiser than ourselves; the grace of the guru, or spiritual director. Then there is the grace which comes to u s because of our attachment to country, par ty, church or other social org anization - a grace which has helped even the feeblest and most timid ind ividuals to achieve what, without it, wou ld have been the impossible. And finally there is the grace which we derive from our ideals, whether low or high, whether conceived of in abstract terms or bodied f orth in imaginary personifications. To t his last type, it would seem, b elong many of the graces experienced by the pious adherents of the various 215 religions. The help received by those who devotedly adore or pr ay to some personal saint, deity or Av atar is often, we may guess, no t a genuinely Spiritual grace, but a human grace, coming back to th e worshipper from the vortex of psychic power set up by repeated acts (his own and other peoples) of faith, yearning and imagination. Spiritual grace cannot be received continuously or in its fulln ess, except by those who have willed away the ir self-will to the point of b eing able truthfully to say, Not I, but G od in me. There are, however, few people so irremediably condemned to i mprisonment within their own personality as to be wholly incapable of receiving the graces w hich are f r o m i n s t a n t t o i n s t a n t b e i n g o f f e r e d t o e v e r y s o u l . B y f i t s a n d starts most of us contrive to forget, i f only partially, our preoccupa tion with I, me, mine, and so become capabl e of receiving, if only parti ally, the graces which, in that moment , are being offered us. Spiritual grace originates from the Divine Ground of all being, and it is given for the purpose of helping man to achieve his final end, which is to r e t u r n o u t o f t i m e a n d s e l f h o o d t o t h a t G r o u n d . I t r e s e m b l e s a n imal grace in being derived from a source wholly other than our self - conscious, human selves; indeed, it is the same thing as animal grace, but manifesting itself on a higher level of the ascending spira l that leads from matter to the Godhead. In any given instance, human grace may be wholly good, inasmuch as it helps the recipient in the task of achieving the unitive knowledge of God; but because of its sour ce in the individualized self, it is alway s a little suspect and, in many c a s e s , o f course, the help it gives is help towards the achievement of en ds very different from the true end of our existence. All our goodness is a loan; God is the owner. God works and his work is God. St. John of the Cross 216 Perpetual inspiration is as necessar y to the life of goodness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiratio n is necessary to animal life. William Law Conversely, of course, the life of goodness, holiness and beati tude is a necessary condition of perpetual inspiration. The relations bet ween action and contemplation, ethics and spirituality are circular and reciprocal. Each is at once cause and effect. It was when the Great Way declined that human kindness and morality arose. Chinese verbs are tenseless. Thi s statement as to a hypothetica l event in history refers at the same time to the present and the future. It means simply this: that with the rise of self-consciousness, animal g race is no longer sufficient for the conduct of life, and must be suppleme nted by conscious and deliberate choices between right and wrong - choi ces which have to be made in the light of a clearly formulated ethi cal code. But, as the Taoist sages are never tired of repeating, codes of ethics and deliberate choices made by the su rface will are only a second b est. The individualized will and the supe rficial intelligence are to be used for the purpose of recapturing the old animal relation to Tao, but on a higher, spiritual level. The goal is perpetual inspiration from sources beyond the personal self; and the means are human kindness and morality, leading to the charity, which is unitive knowledge of Tao, as at once t he Ground and Logos. Lord, Thou hast given me my bein g of such a nature that it can continually make itself more able to receive thy grace and good ness. And this power, which I have of Th ee, wherein I have a living image of Thine almighty power, is free will . By this I can either enlarge or restrict my capacity for Thy grace . Nicholas of Cusa 217 Shun asked Cheng, saying, Can on e get Tao so as to have it for oneself? Your very body, replied Cheng, is not your own. How should Tao be? If my body, said Shun, is not my own, pray whose is it? It is the delegated image of God, re plied Cheng. Your life is not your own. It is the delegated harmony of God. Your individuality is not your own. It is the delegated adap tability of without are God. Your posterity is not your own. It is the delegated exuviae of God. You move, but know not how. You are at rest, but know not why. You taste, but know not the cause. Thes e are the operations of Gods laws. How then Lao Tzu should you get Tao so as to have it for your own? Chuang Tzu I t i s w i t h i n m y p o w e r e i t h e r t o s e r v e G o d , o r n o t t o s e r v e H i m . suitable tree. It contains the form Serving Him I add to my own good and the good of the whole world. Not serving Him, I forfeit my own good and deprive the world of that good, which was in my power to create. Leo Tolstoy God did not deprive thee of the oper ation of his love, but thou didst deprive Him of thy cooperation. God would never have rejected thee, if thou hadst not rejected his love . O all-good God, thou dost not forsake unless forsaken, thou never takest away thy gifts until we take away our hearts. St. Franois de Sales Ching, the chief carpenter, was ca rving wood into a stand for musical instruments. When finished, the work appeared to those who saw it as though of supernatural execution; and the Prince of Lu asked him, saying, What mystery is there in your art? 218 No mystery, Your Highness, re plied Ching. And yet there is something. When I am about to make such a stand, I guard against any diminution of my vita l power. I first reduce my mind to absolute quiescence. Three days in this cond ition, and I become oblivious of any reward to be gained. Five days, and I become oblivious of any fame to be acquired. Seven days, and I be come unconscious of my four limbs and my physical frame. Then, with no thought of the Court present in my mind, my skill becomes concentr ated, and all disturbing elements from without are gone. I enter some mountain forest, I search for a suitable tree. It contains the fo rm required, which is afterwards elaborated. I see the stand in my minds eye, and then set to on the work. Beyond that there is nothing. I bring my own native capacity into relation with that of the w ood. What was suspected to be of supernatural execution in my work was due solely to this. Chuang Tzu The artists inspiration may be either a human or a spiritual g race, or a mixture of both. High artistic achievement is im- trial worker at his possible without at least those forms of intellectual, emotiona l and p h y s i c a l m o r t i f i c a t i o n a p p r o p r i a t e t o t h e k i n d o f a r t w h i c h i s being practised. Over and above this course of what may be called pro fessional m o r t i f i c a t i o n , s o m e a r t i s t s h a v e p r a c t i s e d t h e k i n d o f s e l f - n a u ghting which is the indispensable preco ndition of the unitive knowledg e the Divine Ground. Fra Angelico, for example, prepared himself for his work by means prayer and meditation; and from the foregoing extract from Chuang Tzu we see how essentially religious (and not merely professional) was the Taoist craftsmans approach to his art. Here we may remark in passing tha t mechanization is incompatibl e with inspiration. The artisan could d o and often did do a thoroughly bad job. But if, like Ching, the chief carpenter, he cared for his art and were ready 219 to do what was necessary to make himself docile to inspiration, he could a n d s o m e t i m e s d i d d o a j o b s o g o o d t h a t i t s e e m e d a s t h o u g h supernatural execution. Among the many and enormous advantages of efficient automatic machinery is t h i s : i t i s c o m p l e t e l y f o o l p r o of. But every gain has to be paid for: The automatic machine is fool-pr oof; but just because it is fool-proof it is also grace-proof. The man w ho tends such a machine is impervious to every form aesthetic inspiratio n, whether of human or of genuinely spiritual origin. Industry wi thout art is brutality. But actually Ruskin maligns the brutes. The indu strious bird or insect is inspired, when it works, by the infallible animal grace of instinct - by Tao as it manifests itself on the level immediate ly above the physiological. The industrial worker at his fool-proof and grac e-proof machine does his job in a man-made universe of punctual automat a - a universe that lies entirely beyond the pale of Tao on any level , brutal, human or spiritual. In this context we may mention those sudden theophanies which a re sometimes vouchsafed to children and sometimes to adults, who m ay be poets or Philistines, learned or unsophisticated, but who ha ve this in common, that they have done noth ing at all to prepare for what has happened to them. These gratuito us graces, which have inspired much literary and pictorial art , some splendid and some (where inspiration was not seconded by native talent) pathetically inadequate, seem generally to b e l o n g t o o n e o r o t h e r o f t w o m a i n c l a s s e s - s u d d e n a n d p r o f o u n dly impressive perception of ultimat e Reality as Love, Light and Bl iss, and a no less impressive perception of it as dark, awe-inspiring and inscrutable Power. In memorable forms, Wor dsworth has recorded his own experience of both these asp ects of the Divine Ground. There was a time when meadow, grove and stream, The earth and every common sigh t, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light. And so on. (from Intimations of Immortality) 220 But that was not the only vision: Lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake, And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat Went heaving through the water like a swan; When, from behind that craggy steep, till then The horizons bound, a huge peak, black and huge, As if with voluntary power instinct, Upreared its head. I stru ck and struck again, And growing still in stature, the grim shape Towered up between me and the stars. . . . But after I had seen That spectacle, for many days my brain Worked with a dim and undetermined sense Of unknown modes of being; oer my thoughts There hung a darkness, call it solitude, Or blank desertion. From The Prelude Significantly enough, it is to t his second aspect of Reality th at primitive minds seem to have been most receptive. The formidable God, to whom Job at last submits, is an unkn own mode of Being, whose most characteristic creations are Beh emoth and Leviathan. He is the sort of God who calls, in Kierkegaards phrase, for teleological suspe nsions of morality, chiefly in the form of blood sacrifices, even human sacrifices. T h e H i n d u g o d d e s s , K a l i , i n h e r m o r e f r i g h t f u l a s p e c t s , i s a n o t her manifestation of the same unknown mode of Being. And by many contemporary savages the underly ing Ground is apprehended and theologically rationalized as sh eer, unmitigated Power, which h as to be propitiatively worshipped and, if possible, turned to profitabl e use by means of a compulsive magic. 221 To think of God as mere Power, and not also, at the same time a s Power, Love and Wisdom, comes quite naturally to the ordinary, unregen erate h u m a n m i n d . O n l y t h e t o t a l l y s e l f l e s s a r e i n a p o s i t i o n t o k n o w experimentally that, in spite of everything, all will be well and, in some way, already is well. The philosopher who denies Divine provid ence, says Rumi, is a stranger to the perception of the saints. Onl y those who have the perception of the saints can know all the time and by immediate experience that Divine Reality manifests itself as a Power that is loving, compassionate an d wise. The rest of us are not yet in a spiritual position to do more than accept their findings on fai th. If it were not for the records they have le ft behind, we should be more in clined to agree with Job and the primitives. Inspirations prevent us, and even before they are thought of make themselves felt; but after we have felt them it is ours either to consent to them, so as to second and follow th eir attractions, or else to dissent and repulse them. They make themselv es felt without us, but they do not make us consent without us. St. Franois de Sales Our free will can hinder the cour se of inspiration, and when the favourable gale of Gods grace swells the sails of our soul, it is in our power to refuse consent and thereby hinder the effect of the winds favour; but when our spirit sa ils along and makes its voyage prosperously, it is not we who make the gale of inspiration blow for us, nor we who make our sails swell with it, nor we who give motion to the ship of our heart; but we si mply receive the gale, consent to its motion and let our ship sail un der it, net hindering it by our resistance. St. Franois de Sales Grace is necessary to salvation, free will equally so - but grace in order to give salvation, free will in order to receive it. Therefore we should not attribute part of the good work to grace and part to free will; it is 222 performed in its entirety by the common and inseparable action of both; entirely by grace, entirely by free will, but springing from the first in the second. St. Bernard St. Bernard distinguishes between voluntas communis desire for the good of the community and voluntas propria desire for ones own good . Voluntas communis is common in t wo senses; it is the will to sh are, and it is the will common to man and God. For practical purposes it i s equivalent to charity. Voluntas propria is the will to get and hold for oneself, and is the root of all sin. In its cognitive aspect, v oluntas propria is the same as sensum proprium, which is ones own opinion, che rished because it is ones own and ther efore always morally wrong, eve n though it may be theoretically correct. Two students from the University of Paris came to visit Ruysbro eck and asked him to furnish them with a short phrase or motto, which m ight serve them as a rule of life. Vas estis tam sancti sicut vultis, Ruysbroeck answered. You are as holy as you will to be. For those who take God is bound to act, to pour Himself into thee as soon as He upon scriptur al shall find thee ready. E c k h a r t The will is that which has all power; it makes heaven and it makes hell; for there is no hell but where th e will of the creature is turned from God, nor any heaven but where the will of the creature worketh with God. William Law O man, consider thyself! Here thou standest in the earnest perpetual strife of good and evil; all nature is continually at work to bring forth the great redemption; the whole crea tion is travailing in pain and laborious working to be delivered fr om the vanity of time; and wilt thou be asleep? Everything thou he arest or seest says nothing, shows nothing to thee but what either eter nal light or eternal darkness has 223 brought forth; for as day and night divide the whole of our time, so heaven and hell divide all our thou ghts, words and actions. Stir which way thou wilt, do or design what thou wilt, thou must be an agent with the one or the other. Thou ca nst not stand still, because thou livest in the perpetual wo rkings of temporal and eternal nature; if thou workest not with the good, the evil th at is in nature carries thee along with it. Thou hast the height and depth of eternity in thee and therefore, be doing what thou wilt, either in the closet, the field, the shop or the church, thou art sowing that which grows and must be reaped in eternity. William Law God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you ar e a created being and let God be God in you. Eckhart For those who take pleasure in t heological speculations based u pon s c r i p t u r a l t e x t s a n d d o g m a t i c p o s t u l a t e s , t h e r e a r e t h e t h o u s a n ds of pages of Catholic and Protestant controversy upon grace, works, faith and justification. And for stude nts of comparative religion the re are scholarly commentaries on the Bh agavad-Gita, on the works of Ramanuja and those later Vaishnavites, whose doctrine of grace bears a striking resemblance to that of Luther; there are histories of Buddhism which duly trace the development of that religion from the Hina yanist doctrine that salvation is the fruit of strenuous self-help to the Mahayanist doctrine that it cann ot be achieved without the grac e of the Primordial Buddha, whose inner consciousness and great compassionate heart constitute the eternal Suchness of things. For the rest of us, the foregoing quotations from writers within the Ch ristian and early Taoist tradition provide, it seems to me, an adequate acc ount of the observable facts of grace an d inspiration and their relatio n to the observable facts of free will. avb 224 Chapter 11 GOOD AND EVIL E S I R E i s t h e f i r s t d a t u m o f o u r c o n s c i o u s n e s s ; w e a r e b o r n i n t o sympathy and antipathy, wishing and willing. Unconsciously at first, then consciously, we evaluate: This is good, that is ba d. And a little later we discover obligation. This, being good, ought to be do ne; that, being bad, ought not to be done. All evaluations are not equally valid. We are called upon to pa ss judgment on what our desires and dislikes affirm to be good or bad. Very often we discover that the verdict of the higher court is at va riance with the decision reached so quickly and light-heartedly in the cour t of first i n s t a n c e . I n t h e l i g h t o f w h a t w e k n o w a b o u t o u r s e l v e s , o u r f e l low- b e i n g s a n d t h e w o r l d a t l a r g e , w e d i s c o v e r t h a t w h a t a t f i r s t s eemed good may, in the long run or in the larger context, be bad; and that what a t f i r s t s e e m e d b a d m a y b e a g o o d which we feel ourselves under obligation to accomplish. When we say that a man is possessed of penetrating moral insigh t we mean that his judgment of value- claims is sound; that he knows enough to be able to say what is good in the longest run and the large st context. When we say that a man has a strong moral character, we mean th at he is ready to act upon the findings of his insight, even when the se findings a r e u n p l e a s a n t l y o r e v e n e x c r u c i a t i n g l y a t v a r i a n c e w i t h h i s f i rst, spontaneous valuations. In actual practice moral insight is never a strictly personal m atter. The judge administers a system of law and is guided by precedent. I n other w o r d s , e v e r y i n d i v i d u a l i s t h e m e m b e r o f a c o m m u n i t y , w h i c h h a s a moral code based upon past findings of what in fact is good in the longer D 225 run and the wider context. In most circumstances most of the me mbers of any given society permit themselves to be guided by the gene rally accepted code of morals; a few r eject the code, either in its e ntirety or in part; and a few choose to live by another, higher and more e xacting code. In Christian phraseology, there are the few who stubbornl y persist in living in a state of mortal s in and antisocial lawlessness; there are the many who obey the laws, make the Precepts of Morality their gui de, repent of mortal sins when they commit them, but do not make mu ch e f f o r t t o a v o i d v e n i a l s i n s ; a n d f i n a l l y t h e r e a r e t h e f e w w h o s e righteousness exceeds the righte ousness of the scribes and Pha risees, who are guided by the Counsels o f Perfection and have the insig ht to perceive and the character to avoid venial sins and even imperf ections. P h i l o s o p h e r s a n d t h e o l o g i a n s h a v e s o u g h t t o e s t a b l i s h a t h e o r e t ical basis for the existing moral codes, by whose aid individual men a n d women pass judgment on their spon taneous evaluations. From Mose s to Bentham, from Epicurus to Cal vin, from the Christian and Bud dhist philosophies of universal love to the lunatic doctrines of nati onalism and racial superiority - the list is long and the span of thought e normously wide. But fortunately there is no need for us to consider these various theories. Our concern is only with the Perennial Philosophy and with the system of ethical principles which those who believe in that ph ilosophy have used, when passing judgment on their own and other people s evaluations. The questions that we have to ask in this section are simple enough, and simple too are the answers. As always, the difficul ties begin o n l y w h e n w e p a s s f r o m t h e o r y t o p r a c t i c e , f r o m e t h i c a l p r i n c i p le to particular application. Granted that the Ground of the in dividual soul is akin to, or i dentical with, the Divine Ground of all existence, and granted that this D i v i n e Ground is an ineffable Godhead th at manifests itself as persona l God or 226 even as the incarnate Logos, wha t is the ultimate nature of goo d and evil, and what the true purpose and last end of human life? The answers to these questions will be given to a great extent in the words of that most surprising product of the English eighteenth century, William Law. (How very odd our educational system is! Students of English literature are forced to read the graceful journalism of Steele and Addison, are expected to know all about the minor novels of Defoe and th e tiny elegances of Matthew Prior. But they can pass all their examina tions summa cum laude without havi ng so much as looked i nto the writings of a man who was not only a master of English prose, but also one of the mos t interesting thinkers of his period and one of the most endearingly saintly figures in the whole history of Anglicanism). Our current neglect of Law is yet another of the many indications that twentieth-century educators have c eased to be concerned with questions o f ultimate truth or meaning and (apart from mere vocational training) are interested solely in the dissemination of a rootless and irrelevant culture, and the fostering of the solemn foolery of scholarship for scholarships sake. Nothing burns in hell but the self. Theologa Germanica The mind is on fire, thoughts are on fire. Mind-consciousness and the impressions received by the mind, an d the sensations that arise from the impressions that the mind rece ives - these too are on fire. And with what are they on fire? With. the fire of greed, with the fire of resentment, with the fire of in fatuation; with birth, old age and death, with sorrow and lamentation, with misery and grief and despair they are on fire. From the Buddhas Fire Sermon If thou hast not seen the devi l, look at thine own self. Jalaluddin Rumi 227 Your own self is your own Cain th at murders your own Abel. For every action and motion of self has the spirit of Anti-Christ and murders the Divine life within you. William Law The city of God is made by the love of God pushed to the contempt of self; the earthly city, by the love of self push ed to the contempt of God . St. Augustine The difference between a good and a bad man does not lie in this, that the one wills that which is good and the other does not, but solely in this, that the one concurs with the living inspiring spirit of God within him, and the other resists it , and can be chargeable with evil only because he resists it. William Law People should think less about what they ought to do and more about what they ought to be. If only their being were good, their works would shine forth brightly. Do not imagine that you can ground your salvation upon actions; it must rest on what you are. The Ground upon which good character rests is the ve ry same Ground from which mans work derives its value, namely a mi nd wholly turned to God. Verily, if you were so minded, you might tr ead on a stone and it would be a m o r e p i o u s w o r k t h a n i f y o u , s i m p ly for your own profit, were to receive the Body of the Lord and were wanting in spiritual detachment. Eckhart Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. Bhagavad-Gita It is mind which gives to things their quality, their foundation and their being. Whoever sp eaks or acts with impure mind, him sorrow follows, as the wheel follows the steps of the that draws the cart. Dhammapada 228 The nature of a mans being determines the nature of his action s; and the nature of his being comes to manifestation first of all in the mind. What he crave s and thi nks, w hat he believes and feels - this is , so to speak, the Logos, by whose agency an individuals fundamental character performs its creative acts. These acts will be beauti ful and morally good if the being is God-centred, bad and ugly if it is centred in the personal self. The stone, says Eckhart, performs its wor k without ceasing, day and night. For even when it is not actually falli ng the stone has weight. A mans being is his potential energy directed towa rds or away from God; and it is by this potential energy that he will be judged a s g o o d o r e v i l - f o r i t i s p o s s i b l e , i n t h e l a n g u a g e o f t h e G o spel, to commit adultery and murder in the heart, even while remaining blameless in action. Covetousness, envy, pride and wrath are the four elements of self, or nature, or hell, all of them insepara ble from it. And the reason why it must be thus, and cannot be otherwis e, is because the natural life of the creature is brought forth for the participation of some high supernatural good in the Creator. But it could have no fitness, no possible capacity to receiv e such good, unless it was in itself both an extremity of want and an extremit y of desire for some high good. When therefore this natural life is de prived of or fallen from God, it can be nothing else in itself but an extremity of want continually desiring, and an extremity of desire continually wanting. And because it is that, its whole life can be no thing else but a plague and torment of covetousness, envy, pride and wrat h, all which is precisely nature, self, or hell. Now covetousness, prid e and envy are not three different things, but only three different name s for the restless workings of one and the same will or desire. Wrath, which is a fourth birth from these three, can have no existence till one or all of these three are 229 contradicted, or have something done to them that is contrary to their will. These four properties generate their own torment. They have no outward cause, nor any inward po wer of altering themselves. And therefore all self or nature must be in this state until some supernatural good comes into it, or gets a birth in it. Whilst man indeed lives among the va nities of time, his covetousness, envy, pride and wrath may be in a to lerable state, may hold him to a mixture of peace and trouble; they may have at times their gratifications as well as their torm ents. But when death has put an end to the vanity of all earthly cheats, th e soul that is not born again of the s u p e r n a t u r a l W o r d a n d S p i r i t o f G o d , m u s t f i n d i t s e l f u n a v o i d a b l y devoured or shut up in its own insatiable, unchangeable, self- tormenting covetousness, envy, pride and wrath. William Law It is true that you cannot prop erly express the degree of your sinfulness; but that is because it is impossible, in this life, to represent sins in all their true ugliness; nor shall we ever know them as they r e a l l y a r e e x c e p t i n t h e l i g h t o f G o d . G o d g i v e s t o s o m e s o u l s a n impression of the enormi ty of sin, by which He makes them feel that sin is incomparably greater than it seems. Such souls must conceive their sins as fait h represents them (that is, as they are in themselves), but must be content to describe them in such human words as their mouth is able to utter. Charles de Condren Lucifer, when he stood in his natura l nobility, as God had created him, was a pure noble creature. But when he kept to self, when he possessed himself and his natural nobility as a property, he fell and became, instead of an angel, a devil. So it is with man. If he remains in himself and possesses himself of his natural nobility as a property, he falls and becomes, instead of a man, a devil. The Following of Christ 230 If a delicious fragrant fruit had a pow er of separating itself from the rich spirit, fine taste, smell and colour, which it receives from the virtue of the air and the spirit of the sun, or if it could, in the beginning of its growth, turn away from the sun and receive no virtue from it, then it would stand in its own first birth of wrath, sourness, bitterness, astringency, just as the devils do, who have turned back into their own dark root and have rejected the Light and Spirit of God. So that the hellish nature of a devil is nothin g but its own first forms of life withdrawn or separated from the heav enly Light and Love; just as the sourness, bitterness and astringency of a fruit are nothing else but the first form of its vegetable life, befo re it has reached the virtue of the sun and the spirit of the air. And as a fruit, if it had a sensibility of itself, would be full of torment as soon as it was shut up in the first forms of its life, in its own astr ingency, sourness and stinging bitterness, so the angels, when they had turned back into these very same first forms of their own life , and broke off from the heavenly Light and Love of God, became th eir own hell. No hell was made for them, no new qualities came into them, no vengeance or pains from the Lord of Love fell on them; they on ly stood in that state of division and separation from the Son and Holy Spirit of God, which by their own motion they had made for themselves. They had nothing in them but what they had from God, the fi rst forms of a heavenly life; but they had them in a state of self-t orment, because they had separated them from birth of Love and Light. William Law In all the possibility of things th ere is and can be but one happiness and one misery. The one misery is natu re and creature left to itself, the one happiness is the Life, the Light, the Spirit of God, manifested in nature and creature. This is the true meaning of the words of Our Lord: There is but one that is good, and that is God. William Law 231 Men are not in hell because God is angry with them; they are in wrath and darkness because they have done to the light, which infinitely flows forth from God, as that man does to the light of the sun, who puts out his own eyes. William Law Though the light and comfort of the outward world keeps even the worst of men from any constant stro ng sensibility of that wrathful, fiery, dark and self-tormenting nature that is the very essence of every fallen unregenerate soul, yet every ma n in the world has more or less frequent and strong intimations given him that so it is with him in the inmost Ground of his soul. How ma ny inventions are some people forced to have recourse to in or der to keep off a certain inward uneasiness, which they are afraid of and know not whence it comes? Alas, it is because there is a fallen sp irit, a dark aching fire within them, which has further never had its proper relief and is trying to discover itself and calling out for help at every cessation of worldly joy. William Law In the Hebrew-Christian tradition the Fall is subsequent to cre ation and is due e xclusively to the egocentric use of a free will, which ought to have remained centred in the Divine Ground and not in the separ ate selfhood. The myth of Genesis embodies a very important psychol ogical truth, but falls short of being an entirely satisfactory symbol , because it fails to mention, much less to account for, the fact of evil an d suffering in the non-human world. To be adequate to our experience the my th would have to be modified in two ways. In the first place, it w ould have to make clear that creation, the incomprehensible passage from the unmanifested One into the manife st multiplicity of nature, from eternity into time, is not merely the prelude and necessary condition of the Fall; to some extent it is the Fall. And in the second place, it woul d have to 232 indicate that something analogous to free will may exist below the human level. T h a t t h e p a s s a g e f r o m t h e u n i t y o f spiritual to the manifoldnes s of t e m p o r a l b e i n g i s a n e s s e n t i a l p a r t o f t h e F a l l i s c l e a r l y s t a t ed in the Buddhist and Hindu renderings of the Perennial Philosophy. Pain and evil are inseparable from individual existence in a world of time; a nd, for human beings, there is an intens ification of this inevitable pa in and evil when the desire is turned towards the self and the many, rather than towards the Divine Ground. To th is we might speculatively add t he opinion that perhaps even sub-human existences may be endowed (both individually and collectively, as kinds and species) with something resembling the power of choice. T here is the extraordinary fact t h a t man stands alone - that, so far as we can judge, every other species is a species of living fossils, capable only of degeneration and e xtinction, not of further evolu tionary advance. In the phraseology of Scholastic Aristotelianism, matter posses ses an a pp e ti te f o r f o rm - no t n e ce s sar i l y fo r t he be s t fo r m, b u t fo r form as such. Looking about us in the world of living things, we observ e (with a delighted wonder, touched occasion ally, it must be admitted, wi th a certain questioning dismay) the innumerable forms, always beautiful, often extravagantly odd and sometimes even sinister, in which the ins atiable appetite of matter has found its satisfaction. Of all this livi ng matter only that organized as human beings has succeeded in finding a form capable, at least on the mental side, of further development. All the re st is now locked up in forms that can only remain what they are or, if th ey change, only change for the worse. It looks as though, in the cosmic in telligence test, all living matter, except the human, had succumbed, at on e time or another during its biological car eer, to the temptation of assu ming, not the ultimately best, but the imm ediately most profitable form. 233 By an act of something analogous to free will every species, ex cept the human, has chosen the quick returns of specialization, the pres ent rapture of being perfect, but per fect on a low level of being, the result is that they all stand at the end of evolutionary blind alleys. To the initial cosmic Fall of creation, of mult itudinous manifestation in time , they have added the obscurely biological equivalent of mans volunta ry Fall. As species, they have chosen the immediate satisfaction of the self rather than the capacity for reunion with the Divine Ground. Fo r this wrong choice, the non-human forms of life are punished negative ly, by being debarred from realizing the supreme good, to which only t he unspecialized and therefore freer, more highly conscious human form is capable. But it must be remembered, of course, that the c ap acit y for supreme good is achieved only at the price of becoming also cap able of extreme evil. Animals do not suffer in so many ways, nor, we ma y feel pretty certain, to the same exte nt as do men and women. Further , they are quite innocent of that literally diabolic wickedness which, together with sanctity, is one of the dis tinguishing marks of the human species. We see then that, for the Perennial Philosophy, good is the sep arate selfs conformity to, and finall y annihilation in, the Divine G round which gives it being; evil, the intensification of separateness, the refusal to know that the Ground exists. This doctrine is, of course, perfe ctly compatible with the formulation of ethical principles as a seri es of negative and positive Divine commandments, or even in terms of social utility. The crimes which are eve rywhere forbidden proceed from states of mind which are everywhere condemned as wrong; and these wron g states of mind are, as a matter o f empirical fact, absolutely i ncompatible with that unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground, which, accord ing to the Perennial Philosophy, is the supreme good. avb 234 Chapter 12 TIME AND ETERNITY HE universe is an everlasting su ccession of events; but its Gro und, according to the Perennial Philosophy, is the timeless now of t he Divine Spirit. A classical statement of the relationship betwee n time and e t e r n i t y m a y b e f o u n d i n t h e l a t e r c h a p t e r s o f t h e C o n s o l a t i o n s o f Philosophy, where Boethius summarizes the conceptions of his predecessors, notably of Plotinus. It is one thing to be carried throug h an endless life, another thing to embrace the whole presence of an endless life together, which is manifestly proper to the Divine Mind. The temporal world seems to emulate in part that which it cannot fu lly obtain or expr ess, tying itself to whatever presence there is in this exiguous and fleeting moment - a presence which, since it carries a certain image of that abiding Presence, gives to whatever may part ake of it the quality of seeming to have being. But because it could not stay, it undertook an infinite journey of time; and so it came to pa ss that, by going, it continued that life, whose plenitude it could not comprehend by staying. Boethius Since God hath always an eternal and present state, His knowledge, surpassing times notions, remaineth in the simplicity of His presence and, comprehending the infinite of what is past and to come, considereth all things as though they were in the act of being accomplished. Boethius Knowledge of what is happening now does not determine the event. What is ordinarily called Gods fore -knowledge is in reality a timeless now-knowledge, which is compatible with the freedom of the human creatures will in time. T 235 The manifest world and whatever is moved in any sort take their causes, order and forms from the st ability of the Divine Mind. This hath determined manifold ways for doing things; which ways being considered in the purity of Gods understanding are named Providence; but being referred to th ose things which He moveth and disposeth are called Fate. . . . Provi dence is the very Divine Reason itself, which disposeth all things. But Fate is a disposition inherent in changeable things, by which Providence connecteth all things in their due order. For Providence equally embraceth all things together, though diverse, though infinite; but Fate puts into motion all things, distributed by places, forms and time s; so that the unfolding of the temporal order, being terminate, unit ed in the foresight of the Divine Mind, is Providence, and the same uniting, being digested and unfolded in time, is called Fate. . . . As a workman conceiving the form of anything in his mind, taketh his work in hand and executeth by order of time that which he had simply and in a moment foreseen, so God by his Providence disposeth w h a t e v e r i s t o b e d o n e w i t h s i m p l i c i t y a n d s t a b i l i t y , a n d b y F a t e effecteth by manifold ways and in th e order of time those very things w h i c h H e d i s p o s e t h . . . . A l l t h a t i s u n d e r F a t e i s a l s o s u b j e c t t o Providence. But some things whic h are under Providence are above the course of Fate. For they are thos e things which, being stably fixed in virtue of their nearness to the first divinity, exceed the order of Fates mobility. Boethius The concept of a clock enfolds all succession in time. In the concept the sixth hour is not earlier than the seventh or eighth, although the clock never strikes the hour, save when the concept biddeth. Nicholas of Cusa 236 From Hobbes onwards, the enemies of the Perennial Philosophy ha ve d e n i e d t h e e x i s t e n c e o f a n e t e r n a l n o w . A c c o r d i n g t o t h e s e t h i n kers, time and change are fundamental; there is no other reality. Mor eover, future events are completely ind eterminate, and even God can ha ve no knowledge of them. Consequently God cannot be described as Alpha and Omega - merel y as Alpha and Lambda, or whatever ot her intermediate letter of the t e m p o r a l a l p h a b e t i s n o w i n p r o c e s s o f b e i n g s p e l l e d o u t . B u t t he anecdotal evidence collected by the Society for Psychical Resea rch and the statistical evidence accumul ated during many thousands of laboratory tests for extra-senso ry perception point inescapably to the conclusion that even human minds are capable of foreknowledge. And if a finite consciousness can know what card is going to be tur ned up three seconds from now, or what shipwreck is going to take plac e next week, by then there is nothing i mpossible or even intrinsically improbable in the idea of an inf inite consciousness that can kn ow now events indefinitely remote in wh at, for us, is future time. The specious present in which human beings live may be, and perhaps always is, something more than a brief section of transition from known pa st to unknown future, regarded, because of the vividness of memory, a s the instant we call now; it may and perhaps always does contain a portion of the immediate and even of the relatively distant future. For t h e Godhead, the specious present may be precisely that interminalis vitae tota simul et perpetua possessio, of which Boethius speaks. The existence of the eternal now is sometimes denied on the Gro und that a temporal order cannot co-exist with another order which is non- temporal; and that it is impossible for a changing substance to be united with a changeless substance. Thi s objection, it is obvious, wou ld be valid if the non-temporal order were of a mechanical nature, or if th e changeless substance were possess ed of spatial and material qua lities. 237 But according to the Perennial Philosophy, the eternal now is a consciousness; the Divine Ground is spirit; the being of Brahma n is chit, o r k n o w l e d g e . T h a t a t e m p o r a l w o r l d s h o u l d b e k n o w n a n d , i n b e i ng known, sustained and perpetually created by an eternal consciou sness is an idea which contains no thing self-contradictory. Finally we come to the arguments directed against those who hav e asserted that the eternal Ground can be unitively known by huma n minds. This claim is regarded as absurd because it involves the assertion, A t o n e t i m e I a m e t e r n a l , a t a n o t h e r t i m e I a m i n t i m e . B u t t his statement is absurd only if man is a live being of a two-fold n ature, capable of living on only one level. But if, as the exponents o f the Perennial Philosophy have always maintained, man is not only a body and a psyche, but also a spirit, and if he can at will live eit her on the merely human plane or else in harmony and even in union with th e Divine Ground of his being, then the statement makes perfectly good sense. The body is always in time, the spirit is always timeles s and the psyche is an amphibious creature compelled by the laws The spir it remains always what it eternally is; but man is so egotism of m ans being t o a s s o c i a t e i t s e l f t o s o m e e x t e n t w i t h i t s b o d y , b u t c a p a b l e , if it so desires, of experiencing and bei ng identified with its spirit a nd, through its spirit, with the Divine Ground. constituted that his psyche cannot always remain identified With the spirit. In the statement, At one time I am eternal, at another time I am in time, the word I stand s for the psyche, which passes from time to eternity when it is identifie d with the spirit and passes again from eternity to time, either voluntari ly or by involuntary necessity, when it chooses or is compelled to ident ify itself with the body. The Sufi, says Jalal-uddin Rumi, is the son of time present. Spiritual progress is a spiral advance. We start as infants in the animal eternity of life in the moment, without anxi ety for the future or regret fo r the past; 238 we grow up into the specifically human condition of those who l ook before and after, who live to a great extent, not in the presen t but in memory and anticipation, not spo ntaneously but by rule and with prudence, in repentance and fear a nd hope; and we can continue, if we so desire, up and on in a returning sweep towards a point corre sponding to our starting place in animality, but incommensurably above i t. Once m o r e l i f e i s l i v e d i n t h e m o m e n t - t h e l i f e n o w , n o t o f a s u b - h uman creature, but of a being in whom charity has cast out fear, vis ion has taken the place of hope, selfle ssness has put a stop to the pos itive egotism of complacent reminiscen ce and the negative egotism of remorse. The present moment is the only aperture through which the soul can pass out of time into eternity, through which grace ca n pass out of eternity into the soul, and th rough which charity can pass f rom one soul in time to another soul in time. That is why the Sufi and, along with him, every other practising exponent of the Perennial Philosoph y is, or tries to be, a son o f time present. Past and future veil God from our si ght; Burn up both of them with fire. How long Wilt thou be partitio ned by these segments, like a reed? So long as a reed is partitioned, it is not privy to secrets, Nor is it vocal in response to lip and breathing. Jalal-uddin Rumi This emptying of the memory, though the advantages of it are not so from much sorrow, grief and sadness, besides imperfections and sins, is in reality a great good. St. John of the Cross In the idealistic cosmology of M ahayana Buddhism memory plays t he part of a rather mal eficent demiurge. When the triple world is surveyed by the Bodhisattva, he perceives that its existence is due to memory that has been accumulated since the beginningless past, but wrongly interpreted. Lakvatra Stra 239 The word here translated as mem ory means literally perfuming . The mind-body carries with it the ineradicable smell of all that ha s been thought and done, desired and felt, throughout its racial and p ersonal past. The Chinese tran slate the Sanskrit term by two symbols, s ignifying habit-energy. The world is what ( i n o u r e y e s ) it is, because of all the consciously or unconsciously and physiologically remembered hab its formed by our ancestors or by ourselves, either in our present life or in previous existences. These remembered bad habits cause us to be lieve that multiplicity is the sole reality and that the idea of I, me, mine represents the ultimate truth. Nirvana consists in seeing into the abode of reality as it is, and not reality quoad nos , as it seems to us. Obviously, this cannot be achieved so long as there is an us, to which reality can be relative. Hence the n e e d , s t r e s s e d b y e v e r y e x p o n e n t o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y , f or mortification, for dying to self. And this must be a mortificat ion not only of the appetites, the feelings and the will, but also of the re asoning powers, of consciousness itself and of that which makes our consciousness what it is - our personal memory and our inherite d habit- energies. To achieve complete de liverance, conversion from sin is not enough; there must also be a conversion of the mind, a Paravrit ti, as the Mahayanists call it, or revulsion in the very depths of conscio usness. As the result of this revulsion, th e habit-energies of accumulated memory are destroyed and, along with them, the sense of being a separa te ego. Reality is no longer perceived quoad nos (for the good reason that there is no longer a nos to perceive it), but as it is in itself. In Blakes words, If the doors of perception were cleanse d, everything would be seen as it is, infinite. By those who are pure in heart and poor in spirit, S amsara and Nirvana, appearance and reality, time and eternity are experien ced as one and the same. 240 Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time. And not only time but temporalities, not only temporal things but temporal affections; not only temporal affections but the very ta int and smell of time. Eckhart Rejoice in God all the time, says St. Paul. rejoices all the time who rejoices above time and free from time. Three things prevent a man from knowing God. The first is time , the second is corporeality, the third is multiplicity. That God may come in, these things must go out - except thou have them in a hi gher, better way: multitude summed up to one in thee. Eckhart Whenever God is thought of as being wholly in time, there is a tendency to regard Him as a numinous rat her than a moral being, a God of mere unmitigated Power rather than a God of Power, Wisdom and Love, an inscrutable and dangerous potent ate to be propitiated by sacrif ices, not a Spirit to be worshipped in spirit. All this is only natural; for time is a perpetual perishing and a God who is wholly in time is a God wh o destroys as fast as He creates. Nature is as incomprehensibly a ppalling as it is lovely and bountiful. If the Divine does not transcend t h e temporal order in which it is immanent, and if the human spirit does not transcend its time-bound soul, the then there is no possibility o f justifying the ways of God to man. God as manifested in the u niverse is the irresistible Being who speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, and whose emblems are Behemoth and Leviath an, the war horse and the eagle . It is this same Being who is des cribed in the apocalyptic eleve nth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita. O Supreme Spirit, says Arjuna, addressi ng himself to the Krishna whom he now knows to be the incarnation of the Godhead, I long to see your hvara-form - that is to say, Hi s form as God of the world, Nature, the temporal order. Krishna answers, You shall behold the whole universe, with all things animate and in animate, 241 within this body of mine. Arjunas reaction to the revelation is one of amazement and fear: Ah, my God, I see all gods within your bod y; Each in his degree, the multitude of creatures; See Lord Brahma seat ed upon his lotus, See all the sages and the holy serpents. Universal F orm, I see you without limit, Infinite of eyes, arms, mouths and bellies - See, and find no end, midst or beginning. There follows a long passage, enlarging on the omnipotence and all-comprehensiveness of God in his hv ara- form. Then the quality of the vis ion changes, and Arjuna realiz es, with fear and trembling, that the God of the universe is a God of de struction as well as of creation. Now with frightful tusks yo ur mouths are gnashing, Flaring like the fires of Doomsday morning - North, south, east and we st seem all confounded - Lord of devas, worlds ab ode, have mercy! . . . Swift as many rivers st reaming to the ocean, Rush the heroes to your fiery gullets, Moth-like to meet the flam e of their destruction. Headlong these plunge into you and perish. . . . Tell me who you are, and were from the beginning, You of aspect grim. O God of gods, be gracious. Take my homage, Lord. From me your ways are hidden. Tell me who you are. The answer is clear and unequivocal: I am come as Time, the waster of the peoples, Ready for the hour that ri pens to their ruin. 242 But the God who comes so terribly as Time also exists timelessl y as the Godhead, as Brahman, whose essence is Sat-Chit-Ananda Being, Awareness, Bliss; and within and beyond mans time-tortured ps yche is his spirit, uncreated and uncreatable, as Eckhart says, the tman which is akin to or even identical with Brahman. The Gita, like all o ther formulations of the Perennial Ph ilosophy, justifies Gods ways to man by affirming - and the affirmation is based upon observation and i mmediate experience - that man can, if he so desires, die to his separat e temporal selfness and so come to union wit h timeless Spirit. It affirms, too, that the Avatar becomes incarnate in order to assist human beings to achieve this union. This he does in three ways - by teaching the true d octrine in a world blinded by voluntary ignorance; by inviting souls to a carnal love of his humanity, not indeed as an end in itself, but as t he means to spiritual love-knowledge of Spir it; and finally by serving as a channel of grace. God who is Spirit can only be worshipped in spirit and for his own sake; but God in time is normally worshipped by material means with a view to achieving temporal ends. Time is manifestly the destroyer as well as the creator; and because this is so, it has seemed proper to wo rship him by methods which are as terrible as the destructions he himself inflicts. Hence, in India, the blood sacrifices to Kali, in her aspect as Nature-the- D e s t r o y e r ; h e n c e t h o s e o f f e r i n g s o f c h i l d r e n t o t h e M o l o c h s , denounced by the Hebrew prophets; hence the human sacrifices practised, for example, by the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Druids, the Aztecs. In all such cases the divinity addressed wa s a god in time, or a personification of Nat ure, which is nothing else but Time itself, the devourer of its own offspring; and in all cases the purpose of the rite w a s t o o b t a i n a f u t u r e b e n e f i t o r t o a v o i d o n e o f t h e e n o r m o u s evils which Time and Nature forever hold in store. For this it was th ought to be worthwhile to pay a high price in that currency of suffering , which the 243 Destroyer so evidently valued. T he importance of the temporal e nd j u s t i f i e d t h e u s e o f m e a n s t h a t w e r e i n t r i n s i c a l l y t e r r i b l e , b e cause intrinsically time-like. Sublimated traces of these ancient pat terns of thought and behaviour are still to be found in certain theories of the Atonement, and in the conception of the Mass as a perpetually r epeated sacrifice of the God-Man. In the modern world the gods to whom human sacrifice is offered are personifications, not of Nature, but of mans own, home-made po litical ideals. These, of course, all refer to events in time - actual events in the past or the present, fancied eve nts in the future. And here it should be noted that the philosophy which affirms the existence and the immediate realizableness of eternity is related to one kind of political theory and practice; the philosophy which affirms that what goe s on in time is the only reality, results in a different kind of theory and justifies quite another kind of political p ractice. This has been clearly recognized b y M a r x i s t w r i t e r s , * w h o p o i n t o u t t h a t w h e n C h r i s t i a n i t y i s m a inly preoccupied with events in time, it is a revolutionary religio n, and that when, under mystical influences, it stresses the Eternal Gospel , of which the historical or pseudo-historical facts recorded in Scripture a r e b u t symbols, it becomes politically static and reactionary. This Marxian account of the matter is somewhat oversimplified. It is not quite true to say that all theologies and philosophies whose pr imary concern is with time, rather tha n eternity, are necessarily rev olutionary. The aim of all revolutions is to make the future radically diff erent from and better than the past. But some time-obsessed philosophies a re primarily concerned with the past , not the future, and their po litics are entirely a matter of preserving or restoring the status quo and getting back to the good old days. But the retrospective time-worshippe rs have one thing in common with the rev olutionary devotees of the bigg er and better future; they are prepared to use unlimited violence to a chieve 244 their ends. It is here that we discover the essential differenc e between the politics of eternity-philosophers and the politics of time- philosophers. For the latter, the ultimate good is to be found in the tempora l world - in a future, where everyone will be happy because all are doing and thinking something either entirely new and unprecedented or, alternatively, something old, tr aditional and hallowed. And bec ause the ultimate good lies in time, they feel justified in making use o f any temporal means for achieving it. The Inquisition burns and tort ures in order to perpetuate a creed, a ri t u a l a n d a n e c c l e s i a s t i c o - p o l i tico- financial organization regarded as necessary to mens eternal s alvation. Bible-worshipping Protestants fight long and savage wars, in or der to make the world safe for what they fondly imagine to be the genu inely antique Christianity of apostolic times. Jacobins and Bolshevik s are ready to sacrifice millions of hu man lives for the sake of a po litical and economic future gorgeously unlike the present. And now all Euro pe and m o s t o f A s i a h a s h a d t o b e s a c r i f i c e d t o a c r y s t a l - g a z e r s v i s i on of perpetual Co-Prosperity and the Thousand-Year Reich. From the records of history it seems to be abundantly clear tha t most of the religions and philosophies which take time too seriously ar e correlated with political theories that inculcate and justify t h e u s e o f large-scale violence. The only e xceptions are those simple Epic urean faiths, in which the reaction to an all too real time is Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. This is not a very noble, nor even a very realistic kind of morality. But it seems to make a good deal mo re sense than the revolutionary ethic: Die (and kill), for tomorrow someone else will eat, drink and be merry. In practice, of course, the pros pect even of somebody elses future merriment is extremely precarious. For t he process of wholesale dying and k illing creates material, social a n d 245 psychological conditions that pr actically guarantee the revolut ion against the achievement of its beneficent ends. For those whose philosophy does not compel them to take time wi th an excessive seriousness the ultimate good is to be sought neither in the revolutionarys progressive socia l apocalypse, nor in the react ionarys revived and perpetuated past, but in an eternal Divine now whic h those who sufficiently desire this good can realize as a fact of imme diate experience. The mere act of dying is not in itself a passport t o eternity; nor can wholesale killing do anything to bring deliverance eith er to the s l a y e r s o r t h e s l a i n o r t h e i r p o s t e r i t y . T h e p e a c e t h a t p a s s e s all understanding is the fruit of liberation into eternity; but in its ordinary everyday form peace is also the root of liberation. For where t here are violent passions and compelling distractions, this ultimate goo d can never be realized. That is one of the reasons why the policy co rrelated with eternity-philosophies is tolerant and non-violent. The oth er reason is that the eternity, whose real ization is the ultimate good, i s a kingdom o f h e a v e n w i t h i n . T h o u a r t T h a t ; a n d t h o u g h T h a t i s i m m o r t a l a n d impassible, the killing and torturing of individual thous is a matter of cosmic significance, inasmuch as it interferes with the normal and natural relationship between ind ividual souls and the Divine et ernal Ground of all being. Every violenc e is, over and above everythi ng else, a sacrilegious rebellion agai nst the Divine order. P as s i ng no w f ro m th e o r y to h i s to ri c al f ac t, w e fi n d th a t t he re ligions, whose theology has been least preoccupied with events in time a nd most concerned with eternity, ha ve been consistently the least violent and the most humane in political practice. Unlike early Judaism , Christianity and Mohammedanism (all of them obsessed with time), Hinduism and of Buddhism have neve r been persecuting faiths, ha ve preached almost no holy wars and have refrained from that prose lytizing 246 religious imperialism, which has gone hand in hand with the pol itical and economic oppression of th e coloured peoples. For four hundred years, from the beginning of the sixteenth cen tury to the beginning of the twentieth, most of the Christian nations o f Europe have spent a good part of their time and energy in attacking, c onquering and exploiting their non-Christian neighbours in other continen ts. In the course of these centuries many individual churchmen did their b est to mitigate the consequences of such iniquities; but none of the m ajor C h r i s t i a n c h u r c h e s o f f i c i a l l y c o n d e m n e d t h e m . T h e f i r s t c o l l e c t ive protest against the slave system, introduced by the English and t h e Spaniards into the New World, was made in 1688 by the Quaker Me eting of Germantown. This fact is highly significant. Of all Christia n sects in the seventeenth century, the Quakers were the least obsessed with h istory, the least addicted to the idolatry of things in time. They beli eved that the inner light was in all human beings and that salvation came to those who lived in conformity with that light and was not dependent o n the profession of belief in historica l or pseudo-historical events, nor on the p e r f o r m a n c e o f c e r t a i n r i t e s , n o r o n t h e s u p p o r t o f a p a r t i c u l a r ecclesiastical organization. Mor eover, their eternity-philosoph y preserved them from the materialistic apocalypticism of that pr ogress- worship which in recent times has justified every kind of iniqu ity from war and revolution to sweated labour, slavery and the exploitat ion of savages and children - has justified them on the Ground that th e supreme good is in future time and that any temporal means, how ever intrinsically horrible, may be us ed to achieve in terest in that good. B e c a u s e Q u a k e r t h e o l o g y w a s a f o r m o f e t e r n i t y - p h i l o s o p h y , Q u a k er political theory rejected war and persecution as means to ideal ends, denounced slavery and proclaimed racial equality. Members of ot her denominations had done good work for the African victims of the white mans rapacity. One thinks, for example, of St. Peter Claver at Cartagena. 247 But this heroically charitable slave of the slaves never rais ed his voice against the institution of slavery or the criminal trade by whi ch it was sustained; nor, so far as the ex tant documents reveal, did he e ver, like John Woolman, attempt to persuad e the slave-owners to free thei r human chattels. The reason, pres umably, was that Claver was a J esuit, vowed to perfect obedience and constrained by his theology to r egard a certain political and ecclesiastic al organization as being the mystical body of Christ. The heads of thi s o r g a n i z a t i o n h a d n o t p r o n o u n c ed against slavery or the slave trade. Who was he, Pedro Claver, t o express a thought not officially approved by his superiors? Another practical corollary of the great historical eternity ph ilosophies, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, is a morality inculcating kindne ss to animals. Judaism and orthodox Ch ristianity taught that animals might be used as things, for the realizat ion of mans temporal ends. Eve n St. F r a n c i s a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s t h e b r u t e c r e a t i o n w a s n o t e n t i r e l y unequivocal. True, he converted a wolf and preached sermons to birds; but when Brother Juniper hacked t h e f e e t o f f a l i v i n g p i g i n o r der to satisfy a sick mans craving for fried trotters, the saint mere ly blamed his disciples intemperate zeal in damaging a valuable piece of pri vate property. It was not until the nineteenth century, when orthodo x Christianity had lost much of its power over European minds, th at the idea that it might be a good thi ng to behave humanely towards a nimals began to make headway. This new morality was correlated with th e new interest in Nature, which had be en stimulated by the romantic p oets and the men of science. Because it w as not founded upon an eternity - philosophy, a doctrine of divin ity dwelling in all living creat ures, the modern movement in favour of kindness to animals was and is per fectly compatible with intolerance, per s e c u t i o n a n d s y s t e m a t i c c r u e l t y towards human beings. Young Nazis are taught to be gentle with dogs and cats, ruthless with Jews. That is because Nazism is a typic al time- 248 philosophy, which regards the ultimate good as existing, not in eternity, but in the future. Jews are, ex hypothesi , o b s t a c l e s i n t h e w a y o f t h e realization of the supreme good; dogs and cats are not. The res t follows logically. Selfishness and partiality are very inhuman and base qualities even in the things of this world; but in the doctrines of religion they are of a baser nature. Now, this is the greatest evil that the division of the church has brought forth; it rais es in every communion a selfish, partial orthodoxy, which consists in courageously defending all that it has, and condemning al l that it has not. And thus every champion is trained up in defence of their own truth, their own learning and their own ch urch, and he has the most merit, the most honour, who likes everyt hing, defends everything, among themselves, and leaves nothing unce nsored in those that are of a different communion. Now, how can truth and goodness and union and religion be more struck at than by such defenders of it? If you ask why the great Bishop of Meaux wrot e so many learned books against all parts of the Reformation, it is because he was born in France and bred up in the bosom of Mother Chur ch. Had he been born in England, had Oxford or Cambridge been his Al ma Mater, he might have rivalled our great Bishop Stillingfleet, and would have wrote as many learned folios against the Church of Rome as he has done. And yet I will venture to say that if each Church could produce but one man apiece that had the piety of an apostle an d the impartial love of the first Christians in the first Church at Jerusalem, that a Protestant and a Papist of this stamp would not want half a sheet of paper to hold their articles of union, nor be half an hour before they were of one religion. 249 If, therefore, it should be said that churches are divided, estranged and made unfriendly to one another by a learning, a logic, a history, a criticism in the hands of partiality, it would be saying that which each particular church too much proves to be true. Ask why even the best amongst the Catholics are very shy of owning the validity of the orders of our Church; it is because they are afraid of removing any odium from the Reformation. Ask why no Protestants anywhere touch upon the benefit or necessity of celibacy in those who are separated from worldly business to preach the gosp el; it is because that would be seeming to lessen the Roman error of not suffering marriage in her clergy. Ask why even the most wort hy and pious among the clergy of the Established Church are afraid to assert the sufficiency of the Divine Light, the necessity of seeking only the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit; it is because the Quakers, who have broke off from the church, have made this doctrine their corner-stone. If we loved truth as such, if we sought for it for its own sake, if we loved our neighbour as ourselves, if we desired nothing by our religion but to be acceptable to God, if we equally desired the salvation of all men, if we were afraid of error on ly because of its harmful nature to us and our fellow-creatures, then noth ing of this spirit could have any place in us. There is therefore a catholic spirit, a communion of saints in the love of God and all goodness, which no one can learn from that which is called orthodoxy in particular churches , but is only to be had by a total d y i n g t o a l l w o r l d l y v i e w s , b y a p u r e l o v e o f G o d , a n d b y s u c h a n unction from above as delivers the mind from all selfishness and makes it love truth and goodness with an equality of affection in every man, whether he is Christian, Jew or Gentile. He that would obtain this 250 Divine and catholic spirit in this disordered, divided state of things, and live in a divided part of th e church without partaking of its division, must have these three tr uths deeply fixed in his mind. First, that universal love, which gi ves the whole strength of the heart to God, and makes us love every ma n as we love ourselves, is the noblest, the most Divine, the Godl ike state of the soul, and is the utmost perfection to which the most perfect religion can raise us; and that no religion does any man any g ood but so far as it brings this perfection of love into him. Th is truth will show us that true orthodoxy can nowhere be found but in a pure disinterested love of God and our neighbour. Second, that in this present divided state of the church, truth itself is torn and divided asunder; and that, th erefore, he can be the only true catholic who has more of truth and less of error than is hedged in by any divided part. This truth will enab le us to live in a divided part unhurt by its division, and keep us in a true liberty and fitness to be edified and assisted by all the good that we hear or see in any other part of the church. Thirdly, he must always have in mind this great truth, that it is the glory of the Divine Justice to have no respect of parties or persons, but to stand equally disposed to that which is right and wrong as well as in the Jew as in the Gentile. He ther efore that would like as God likes, and condemn as God condemns, must have neither the eyes of the Papist nor the Protestant; he must like no truth the less because Ignatius Loyola or John Bunyan were very zeal ous for it, nor have the less aversion to any error, beca use Dr. Trapp or George Fox had brought it forth. William Law 251 Dr. Trapp was the author of a religious tract entitled On the Nature, Folly, Sin and Danger of Being Ri g h t e o u s O v e r m u c h . O n e o f L a w s controversial pieces was a n answer to this work. Benares is to the East, Mecca to th e West; but explore your own heart, for there are both Rama and Allah. Kabir Like the bee gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different Script ures and sees only the good in all religions. From the Srimad Bhagavatam His Sacred Majesty the King does reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or householders, by gifts and various forms of reverence. His Sacred Majesty, howeve r, cares not so much for gifts or external reverence as that there shou ld be a growth in the essence of the matter in all sects. The growth of the essence of the matter assumes various forms, but the root of it is restraint of speech, to wit, a man must not do reverence to his own se ct or disparage that of another without reason. Depreciation should be for specific reasons only; for the sects of other people all dese rve reverence for one reason or another. . . . He who does reverenc e to his own sect, while disparaging the sects of others wholly from atta chment to his own, with intent to enhance the glory of his own sect, in reality by such conduct inflicts the severest injury on his own sect . Concord therefore is meritorious, to wit, hearkening and hearkening willingly to the Law of Piety, as accepted by other people. Edict of Ashoka It would be difficult, alas, to find any edict of a Christian k ing to match A s h o k a s . I n t h e W e s t t h e g o o d o l d r u l e , t h e s i m p l e p l a n , w a s glorification of ones own sect, disparagement and even persecu tion of all others. Recently, however, g overnments have changed their p olicy. Proselytizing and persecuting zeal is reserved for the politica l pseudo- 252 religions, such as Communism, Fascism and nationalism; and unle ss they are thought to stand in the way of advance towards the temporal ends professed by such pseudo-religions, the various manifestations of the Perennial Philosophy are treated with a contemptuously tolerant indifference. The children of God are very dear but very queer, very nice but very narrow. Sadha Sundar Singh (an Indian convert to Christianity) Such was the conclusion to which the most celebrated of Indian converts was forced after some years of a ssociation with his fellow Chri stians. There are many honourable except i o n s , o f c o u r s e ; b u t t h e r u l e e ven among learned Protestants and Catholics is a certain blandly bu mptious provincialism which, if it did not constitute such a grave offe nce against charity and truth, would be just uproariously funny. A hundred years ago, hardly anything was known of Sanskrit, Pali or Chinese. Th e ignorance of European scholars was sufficient reason for their provincialism. Today, when more or less adequate translations a re available in plenty, there is not only no reason for it, there is no excuse. And yet most European and American authors of books about relig ion and metaphysics write as though nobody had ever thought about t hese s u b j e c t s , e x c e p t t h e J e w s , t h e G reeks and the Christians of the Mediterranean basin an d western Europe. This display of what, in the twentieth century, is an entirely voluntary and deliberate ignorance is not only absurd and discreditable; it is also s o c i a l l y d a n g e r o u s . L i k e a n y o t h e r f o r m o f i m p e r i a l i s m , t h e o l o g ical i m p e r i a l i s m i s a m e n a c e t o p e r m a n e n t w o r l d p e a c e . T h e r e i g n o f violence will never come to an end until, first, most human bei ngs accept the same, true philosophy of life ; until, second, this Perennia l Philosophy is recognized as the highest factor common to all the world rel igions; until, third, the adherents of every religion renounce the idol atrous time-philosophies, with which, in their own particular faith, t he 253 Perennial Philosophy of eternity has been overlaid; until, four th, there is a world-wide rejection of all the political pseudo-religions, w hich place mans supreme good in future tim e and therefore justify and com mend the commission of every sort of pr esent iniquity as a means to that end. If these conditions are not fulfilled, no amount of political p lanning, no economic blue-prints however inge niously drawn, can prevent the recrudescence of war and revolution. avb 254 Chapter 13 SALVATION, DELIVERANCE, ENLIGHTENMENT ALVATION - but from what? Deliverance - out of which particular situation into what other situation? Men have given many answer s to these questions, and because human temperaments are of such profoundly different kinds, beca use social situations are so va rious and fashions of thought and feelin g so compelling while they last, the answers are many and mu tually incompatible. There is first of all material salvationism. In its simplest fo rm this is merely the will to live expressing itself in a formulated desir e to escape from circumstances that menace life. In practice, the effective fulfilment of such a wish depends on two things: the application of intell igence to particular economic and political problems, and the creation an d maintenance of an atmosphere of goodwill, in which intelligence can do its work to the best advantage. But men are not content to be m erely kind and clever within the limits of a concrete situation. They aspire to relate their actions, and the th oughts and feelings accompanyin g those actions, to general principles and a philosophy on the cosmic s cale. When this directing and explanat ory philosophy is not the Peren nial P h i l o s o p h y o r o n e o f t h e h i s t o r i c a l t h e o l o g i e s m o r e o r l e s s c l o sely connected with the Perennial Philosophy, it takes the form of a pseudo- religion, a system of organized idolatry. Thus, the simple wish not to s tarve, the well-founded convictio n that it is very difficult to be good or wise or happy when one is despe rately hungry, comes to be elaborated, under the influence of the meta physic of Inevitable Progress, into pro phetic Utopianism; the desire t o escape from oppression and exploitation comes to be pld and guid ed by S 255 a belief in apocalyptic revolutionism, combined, not always in theory, but invariably in practice, with the Moloch-worship of the nati on as the highest of all goods. In all these cases salvation is regarded as a deliverance, by means of a variety of political and economic de vices, out of the miseries and evils associated with bad material conditio ns into another set of future material conditions so much better than t he present that, somehow or other, they will cause everybody to be perfectly happy, wise and virtuous. Officially promulgated in all the totalitarian countries, wheth er of the right or the left, this confession of faith is still only semi- official in the nominally Christian world of capitalistic democracy, where it i s drummed into the popular mind, not by the representatives of st ate or church, but by those most influential of popular moralists and philosophers, the writers of advertising copy (the only authors in all the history of literature whose works are read every day by every m ember of the population). In the theologies of the various religions, salvation is also r egarded as a deliverance out of folly, evil and misery into happiness, goodn ess and wisdom. But political and economic means are held to be subsidi ary to the cultivation of personal holin ess, to the acquiring of perso nal merit and to the maintenance of persona l faith in some Divine princip le or person having power, in one way or another, to forgive and sanc tify the i n d i v i d u a l s o u l . M o r e o v e r , t h e e n d t o b e a c h i e v e d i s n o t r e g a r d ed as existing in some Utopian future period, beginning, say, in the twenty- second century or perhaps even a little earlier, if our favouri te politicians remain in power and make the right laws; the end exists in hea ven. This last phrase has two very different meanings. For what is probab ly the majority of those who profess th e great historical religions, i t signifies and has always signified a happy posthumous condition of indefi nite p e r s o n a l s u r v i v a l , c o n c e i v e d o f a s a r e w a r d f o r g o o d b e h a v i o u r and 256 correct belief and a co mpensation for the m iseries inseparable from life in a body. But for those who, within the various religious trad itions, have accepted the Perennial Philosophy as a theory and have done the ir best to live it out in practice, heaven is something else. They as pire to be delivered out of separate selfhood in time and into eternity as realized in the unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground. Since the Ground can and ought to be unitively known in the pre sent life (whose ultimate end and purpose is nothing but this knowledge), heaven is not an exclusively posthumous co ndition. He only is completely saved who is delivered here and now. A s to the means to salvation, th ese are simultaneously ethical, intellect ual and spiritual and have bee n summed up with admirable clarity and economy in the Buddhas Eightfold Path. Complete deliverance is conditio nal on the following: first, Ri ght Belief in the all too obvious truth that the cause of pain and evil is craving for separative, ego-centred existenc e, with its corollary that ther e can be no deliverance from evil, whether per sonal or collective, except b y getting rid of such craving and the obse ssion of I, me, mine; sec ond, Right Will, the will to deliver oneself and others; third, Right Spee ch, directed b y c o m p a s s i o n a n d c h a r i t y t o w a r d s a l l s e n t i e n t b e i n g s ; f o u r t h , Right Actio n, with th e aim o f crea ting and main taining peace and g ood will; fifth, Right Means of Livelihood, or the choice only of such pr ofessions as are not harmful, in their exercise, to any human being or, i f possible, any living creature; sixth, Righ t Effort towards Self-control; seventh, Right Attention or Recollectedness, to be practised in all the circumstances of life, so that we may never do evil by mere thoughtlessness, because we know not what we do; and, eighth, Right Contemplation, the unitive knowledge of the Ground, to which recollectedness and the ethical se lf-naughting prescribed in th e first six branches of the Path give access. 257 Such then are the means which it is within the power of the hum an being to employ in order to achieve mans final end and be saved. o f the means which are employed by the Divine Ground for helping human beings to reach their goal, the Buddha of the Pali scriptures (a teacher whose dislike of footless questi o n s i s n o l e s s i n t e n s e t h a n t hat of the severest experimental physicis t of the twentieth century) declines to speak. All he is prepared to talk about is sorrow and the ending of s orrow - the huge brute fact of pain and evil and the other, no less empiric al fact that there is a method by which the i ndividual can free himself from evil and do something to diminish the sum of evil in the world around hi m. It is only in Mahayana Buddhism that the mysteries of grace are discu ssed with anything like the fullness of treatment accorded to the su bject in the Speculations of Hindu and especially Christian theology. Th e Hinayana teaching on deliverance is simply an elaboration of th e Buddhas last recorded words: Decay is inherent in all compone nt things. Work out your own salvation with diligence. As in the well- known passage quoted below, all the stress is upon personal eff ort. Therefore, Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the Trut h as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, bu t holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, shall not look for refuge to anyone beside themselves - it is they who shall reach the very topmost Height. B u t t h e y m u s t b e a n x i o u s t o l e a r n . W h a t f o l l o w s i s a p a s s a g e f r eely translated from the Chandogya Upanishad. The truth which this l ittle myth is meant to illustrate is that there are as many conceptio ns of salvation as there are degrees of spiritual knowledge and that the kind 258 of liberation (or enslavement) actually achieved by any individual soul depends upon the extent to which that soul chooses to dissipate i t s essentially voluntary ignorance. That Self who is free fr om impurities, from old age and death, from grief and thirst and hunger, whose desire is true and whose desires come true - that Self is to be sought after and enquired about, that Self is to be realized. The Devas (gods or angels) and the Asuras (demons or titans) both heard of this Truth. They thought: Let us seek after and realize this Self, so that we can obtain all worlds and the fulfilment of all desires. Thereupon Indra from the Devas and Virochana from the Asuras approached Prajapati, the famous t e a c h e r . T h e y l i v e d w i t h h i m a s pupils for thirty-two years. Then Prajapati asked them: For what reason have you both live d here all this time? They replied: We have heard that one who realizes the Self obtains all the worlds and all his desires. We have lived here because we want to be taught the Self. Prajapati said to them: The person wh o is seen in the eye - that is the Self. That is immortal, that is fearless and that is Brahman. Sir, enquired the disciples, who is seen reflected in water or in a mirror? He, the tman, was the reply. He indeed is seen in all these. Then Prajapati added: Look at yourselves in the water, and whatever you do not understand, come and tell me. Indra and Virochana pored over their reflections in the water, and when they were asked what they had seen of the Self, they replied: Sir, we see the Self ; we see even the hair and nails. 259 Then Prajapati ordered them to put on their finest clothes and look again at their selves in the water. This they did and when asked again what they had seen, they answered : We see the Self, exactly like ourselves, well adorned and in our finest clothes. Then said Prajapati: The Self is in deed seen in these. That Self is immortal and fearless, and that is Brahman. And the pupils went away, pleased at heart. But looking after them, Prajapati lamented thus: Both of them departed without analysing or discriminating, and without comprehending the true Self. Whoeve r follows this false doctrine of the Self must perish. Satisfied that he had found the Self , Virochana returned to the Asuras and began to teach them that the bodi ly self alone is to be worshipped, that the body alone is to be served , and that he who worships the ego and serves the body gains both worlds, this and the next. And this in effect is the doctrine of the Asuras. But Indra, on his way back to the Devas, realized the uselessness of this knowledge. As this Self, he reflected, seems to be well adorned when the body is well adorned, well dressed when the body is well dressed, so too will it be blind if the body is blind, lame if the body is lame, deformed if the body is deform ed. Nay more, this same Self will die when the body dies. I see no go od in such knowledge. So Indra returned to Prajapati for further in struction. Prajapati compelled him to live with him for another span of thirty-two years; after which he began to instruct him, step by step, as it were. Prajapati said: He who moves about in dreams, enjoying and glorified - he is the Self. That is immortal and fearless, and that is Brahman. 260 Pleased at heart, Indra again depart ed. But before he had rejoined the other angelic beings, he realized the uselessness of that knowledge also. True it is, he thought within himself, that this new Self is not blind if the body is blind, not lame , nor hurt, if the body is lame or hurt. But even in dreams the Self is conscious of many sufferings. So I see no good in this teaching. Accordingly he went back to Prajapati for more instruction, and Prajapati made him live with hi m for thirty-two years more. At the end of that time Prajapati taught him thus: When a person is asleep, resting in perfect tranquilli ty, dreaming no dreams, then he realizes the Self. That is immortal and fearless, and th at is Brahman. Satisfied, Indra went away. But even before he had reached home, he felt the uselessness of this knowle dge also. When one is asleep, he thought, one does not know oneself as This is I. One is not in fact conscious of any existence. That stat e is almost annihilation. I see no good in this knowledge either. So Indra went back once again to be taught. Prajapat i made him stay with him for five years more. At the end of that time Prajapati taught him the highest truth of the Self. This body, he said, is mortal, for ever in the clutch of death. But within it resides the Self, immortal, and without form. This Self, when associated in consciousness with the body, is subject to pleasure and pain; and so long as this association continues, no man can find freedom from pains and pleasures. But when the association comes to an end, there is an end also of pain and pleasure. Rising above physical consciousness, knowing the Self as di stinct from the sense - organs and the mind, knowing Him in his true li ght, one rejoices and one is free. From the Chandogya Upanishad 261 Having realized his own self as th e Self, a man becomes selfless; and in virtue of selflessness he is to be conceived as unconditioned. This is the highest mystery, betokening eman cipation; through selflessness he has no part in pleasure or pa in, but attains absoluteness. Maitrayana Upanishad We should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and goodness, and even that Eterna l Good, which is God Himself, can never make a man virtuous, good or ha ppy so long as it is outside the soul, that is, so long as the man is holding converse with outward things through his senses and reas on, and does not withdraw into himself and learn to understand his own life, who and what he is. Theologa Germanica Indeed, the saving trut h has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing that one has to re alize it within oneself. Sutralamkara In what does salvation consist? Not in any historic faith or knowledge of anything absent or distant, not in any variety of restraints, rules and methods of practising virtue, not in any formality of opinion about faith and works, repentance, forgiven ess of sins, or justification and sanctification, not in any truth or righteousness that you can have from yourself, from the best of me n and books, but solely and wholly from the life of God, or Christ of God, quickened and born again in you, in other words in the restorat ion and perfect union of the first twofold life in humanity. William Law Law is using here the phraseology of Boehme and those other Sp iritual Reformers, whom the orthodox Protestants, Lutheran, Calvinisti c and Anglican, agreed (it was one of the very few points they were able to agree on) either to ignore or to persecute. But it is clear that what he and they call the new birth of God within the soul is essentially the sa me fact of 262 e x p e r i e n c e a s t h a t w h i c h t h e H i n d u s , t w o t h o u s a n d a n d m o r e y e a r s before, described as the realization of the Self as within and yet transcendentally other than the individual ego. Not by the slothful, nor the fool, th e undiscerning, is that Nirvana to be reached, which is the untying of all knots. Iti-vuttaka This seems sufficiently self-evident. But most of us take pleas ure in being lazy, cannot be bothered to be co nstantly recollected and yet passionately desire to be saved f rom the results of sloth and unawareness. Consequently there has been a widespread wish for and belief in Saviours who will step into our lives, above all at t he hour of their termination, and, like Alexander, cut the Gordian knots w hich we have been too lazy to untie. But God is not mocked. The nature of things is such that the unitive knowledge of the Ground which is conti ngent upon the achievement of a total selflessness cannot possibly be realized, even with outside help, by those who are not yet selfless. The salvation obtained by belief in the saving power of Amida, say, or Jesus is not the total deliverance described in the Upanishads, the Buddhist scr iptures and the writings of the Christia n mystics. It is something diff erent, not merely in degree, but in kind. Talk as much philosophy as you pl ease, worship as ma ny gods as you like, observe all ceremonies, sing de votional praises to any number of divine beings - liberati on never comes, even at the end of a hundred aeons, without the realization of the Oneness of Self. Shankara This Self is not realizable by study nor even by intelligence and learning. The Self reveals its essenc e only to him who applies himself to the Self. He who has not given up the ways of vice, who cannot control himself, who is not at peace within, whose and mind is distracted, can never realize the Self, though full of all the learning in the world. Katha Upanishad 263 Nirvana is where there is no birth, no extinction; it is seeing into the state of Suchness, absolutely tr anscending all the categories constructed by mind; for it is the Tath gatas inner consciousness. Lakvatra Sutra The false or at best imperfect salvations described in the Chan dogya Upanishad are of three kinds. The re is first the pseudo-salvati on associated with the belief that matter is the ultimate Reality. Virochana, the demonic being who is the apotheosis of power-loving, extrav erted somatotonia, finds it perfectly natural to identify himself wit h his body, and he goes back to the other Titans to seek a purely material salvation. Incarnated in the present centur y, Virochana would have been an ardent Communist, Fascist or nationalis t. Indra sees through material salvationism and is then offered dream-salvation, deliverance o ut of bodily existence into the interm ediate world between matter and spirit - that fascinatingly odd and exciting psychic universe, out of which miracles and fore-knowledge, spi rit communications and extra- sensory perceptions make their startling irruptions into ordinary life. B u t t h i s freer kind of individualized existence is still all too persona l and egocentric to satisfy a soul conscious of its own incompletenes s and eager to be made whole. Indra accordingly goes further and is t empted to accept the undifferentiated co nsciousness of deep sleep, of false Samdhi and quietistic trance, a s the final deliverance. But he refuses, in Brahmanandas words, to mistake Tamas for Sattvas, sloth and sub- consciousness for poise and su p e r - c o n s c i o u s n e s s . A n d s o , b y discrimination, he comes to the realization of the Self, which is the enlightenment of the darkness that is ignorance and the deliver ance from the mortal consequenc es of that ignorance. The illusory salvations, against which we are warned in the oth er extracts, are of a different kind. The emphasis here is upon id olatry and superstition - above all the idolatrous worship of the analytic al reason 264 a n d i t s n o t i o n s , a n d t h e s u p e r s t i t i o u s b e l i e f i n r i t e s , d o g m a s and confessions of faith as being so mehow magically efficacious in themselves. Many Christians, as Law implies, have been guilty o f these idolatries and superstitions. For them, complete deliverance in to union with the Divine Ground is impossible, either in this world or posthumously. The best they can hope for is a meritorious but s till e g o c e n t r i c l i f e i n t h e b o d y a n d s o m e s o r t o f h a p p y p o s t h u m o u s longevity, as the Chinese call it, some form of survival, par adisal perhaps, but still involved in t ime, separateness and multiplic ity. The beatitude into which the enlightened soul is delivered is s omething quite different from pleasure. What, then, is its nature? The q uotations which follow provide at least a partial answer. Blessedness dep ends on non-attachment and selflessness, t h e r e f o r e c a n b e e n j o y e d w i t h o ut satiety and without revulsion; is a participation in eternity, and therefore remains itself without dim inution or fluctuation. Henceforth in the real Brahman, he (the liberated spirit) becomes perfected and another. His fruit is the untying of bonds. Without desires, he attains to bliss eternal and immeasurable, and therein abides. Maitrayana Upanishad God is to be enjoyed, creatures only used as means to That which is to be enjoyed. St. Augustine There is this difference between sp iritual and corporal pleasures, that corporal ones beget a desire before we have obtained them and, after we have obtained them, a disgust; but spiritual pleasures, on the contrary, are not cared for when we have them not, but are desired when we have them. St. Gregory the Great When a man is in one of these two states (beatitude or dark night of the soul) all is right with him, and he is as safe in hell as in heaven. And so 265 long as a man is on earth, it is pos sible for him to pass often-times from the one to the other - nay, even within the space of a day and night, and all without his own doing. But when a man is in neither of these two states, he holds converse with the creatures, and wavereth hither and thither and knoweth not what manner of man he is. Theologa Germanica Much of the literature of Sufism is poetical. Sometimes this po etry is rather strained and extravagant, sometimes beautiful with a lum inous simplicity, sometimes darkly and almost disquietingly enigmatic . To this l a s t c l a s s b e l o n g t h e u t t e r a n c e s o f t h a t M o s l e m s a i n t o f t h e t e nth c e n t u r y , N i f f a r i t h e Eg y p t i a n . T h i s i s wh a t h e w r o t e o n t h e s u b ject of salvation. God made me behold the sea, an d I saw the ships sinking and the planks floating; then the planks t oo were submerged. And God said to me, Those who voyage are not saved. And He said to me, Those who, instead of voyaging, cast themselves into the sea, take a risk. And He said to me, Those who voyage and take no risk shall perish. And He said to me, The surface of the sea is a gleam that cannot be reached. And the bottom is a darkness impe netrable. And between the two are great fishes, which are to be feared. The allegory is fairly clear: Th e ships that bear the individua l voyagers across the sea of life are sects and churches, collections of d ogmas and religious organizations. The pla nks which also sink at last are all good works falling short of total s elf-surrender and all faith less absolute than the unitive knowledge of God. Li beration into eternity is the r esult of throwing oneself into the sea; in the language of the Gospels , one must lose ones life in order to save it. But throwing oneself into the sea is a risky business - not so risky, of course, as travelling in a va st Queen Mary, fitted up with the very latest in dogmatic conveniences and lit urgical 266 decorations, and bound either for D a v y J o n e s s l o c k e r o r a t b e s t, the wrong port, but still quite dangerous enough. For the surface o f the sea - t h e D i v i n e G r o u n d a s i t i s m a n i f e s t e d i n t h e w o r l d o f t i m e a n d multiplicity - gleams with a reflected radiance that can no mor e be seized than the image of beauty in a mirror; while the bottom, the Ground as it is eternally in itself, seems merely darkness to t he analytic mind, as it peers down into the depths; and when the analytic m ind decides to join the will in the final necessary plunge into sel f-naughting it must run the gauntlet, as it sinks down, of those devouring pseudo- salvations described in the Chan dogya Upanishad - dream-salvati on into that fascinating psychic world, where the ego still survives, b ut with a happier and more untrammelled kind of life, or else the sleep - salvation of false Samdhi, of unity in su b-consciousness instead of unit y in super- consciousness. Niffaris estimate of any indivi duals chances of achieving man s final end d o e s n o t e r r o n t h e s i d e o f e x c e s s i v e o p t i m i s m . B u t t h e n n o s a i nt or founder of a religion, no exponent of the Perennial Philosophy, has ever been optimistic. Many are called, but few are chosen. Those w ho do not choose to be chosen cannot hope for anything better than so me form of partial salvation under conditions that will permit the m to advance towards complete deliverance. avb 267 Chapter 14 IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL MMORTALITY is participation in the eternal now of the Divine Ground; survival is persistence i n o n e o f t h e f o r m s o f t i m e . Immortality is the result of total deliverance. Survival is the lot of those who are partially delivered into some heaven, or who are not de livered a t a l l , b u t f i n d t h e m s e l v e s , b y t h e l a w o f t h e i r o w n u n t r a n s c e n ded nature, compelled to choose some purgatorial or embodied servit ude even more painful than the one they have just left. Goodness and virtue make men know and love, believe and delight in their immortality. When the soul is purged and enlightened by true sanctity, it is more capable of th ose Divine irradiations, whereby it feels itself in conjunction with God. It knows that almighty Love, by which it lives, is stronger than death. It knows that God will never forsake His own life, which He has quickened in the soul. Those breathings and gaspings after an et ernal participation of Him are but the energy of His own breath within us. John Smith, the Platonist I have maintained ere this and I st ill maintain that I already possess all that is granted to me in eterni ty. For God in the fullness of his Godhead dwells eternally in his image - the soul. Eckhart T r o u b l e d o r s t i l l , w a t e r i s a l w a y s w a t e r . W h a t d i f f e r e n c e c a n embodiment or disembodiment make to the Liberated? Whether calm or in tempest, the sameness of the Ocean suffers no change. Yoga-vasishta To the question Where does the soul go, when the body dies? J acob Boehme answered: There is no ne cessity for it to go anywhere. I 268 The word Tath gata (one of the names of the Buddha) signifies one who does not go to anywhere and do es not come from anywhere; and therefore is he called Tath gata (Thus-gone), holy and fully enlightened. Diamond Sutra Seeing Him alone, one transcends deat h; there is no other way. God, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life. Book of Common Prayer I died a mineral and became a plant. I died a plant and rose an animal. I died an animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as man, to soar with the blessed angels; But even from angelhood I must pass on. All except God perishes. When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become that which no mind ever conceived. O, let me not exist! for Non-Existence proclaims, To Him we shall return. Jalal-uddin Rumi There is a general agreement, East and West, that life in a bod y provides uniquely good opportunities for achieving salvation or delivera nce. Catholic and Mahayana Buddhist do ctrine is alike in insisting t hat the soul in its disembodied state after death cannot acquire merit, b u t merely suffers in purgatory the consequences of its past acts. But whereas Catholic orthodoxy decla res that there is no possibilit y of progress in the next world, and that the degree of the souls b eatitude is determined solely by what it has done and thought in its ear thly life, t h e e s c h a t o l o g i s t s o f t h e O r i e n t a f f i r m t h a t t h e r e a r e c e r t a i n posthumous conditions in which meritorious souls are capable of advancing from a heaven of happy personal survival to genuine immortality in union with the ti meless, eternal Godhead. And, o f course, 269 there is also the possibility (indeed, for most individuals, the necessity) of returning to some form of embodi ed life, in which the advance t owards complete beatification, or deliverance through enlightenment, c an be continued. Meanwhile, the fact t hat one has been born in a huma n body is one of the things for which, says Shankara, one should daily g i v e thanks to God. The spiritual creature which we are has need of a body, without which it could nowise attain that knowledge which it obtains as the only approach to those things, by knowledge of which it is made blessed. St. Bernard Having achieved human birth, a rare and blessed incarnation, the wise man, leaving all vanity to those wh o are vain, should strive to know God, and Him only, before life passes into death. Srimad Bhagavatam Good men spiritualize their bodies ; bad men incarnate their souls. Benjamin Whichcote More precisely, good men spiritualize their mind-bodies; bad me n incarnate and mentaliz e their spirits. The completely spiritual ized mind- body is a Tathgata, who do esnt g o anywhere when he dies, for the good reason that he is already, actually and consciously, where everyone has always potentially been without knowing. The person who has not, in this life, gone into Thusness, into the eternal principle of all states of b e i n g , g o e s a t d e a t h i n t o s o m e p articular state, either purgato rial or paradisal. In the Hindu scriptur es and their commentaries sever al different kinds of posthumous salvation are distinguished. The thus- gone soul is completely delivered into complete union with the Divine G r o u n d ; b u t i t i s a l s o p o s s i b l e t o a c h i e v e o t h e r k i n d s o f M u k t i , or liberation, even while retaining a form of purified I-conscious ness. The nature of any individuals deliv erance after death depends upon three factors: the degree of holiness achieved by him while in the bo dy, the 270 p a r t i c u l a r a s p e c t o f t h e D i v i n e R e a l i t y t o w h i c h h e g a v e h i s p r imary allegiance, and the particular p ath he chose to follow. Similar ly, in the D i v i n e C o m e d y , P a r a d i s e h a s i t s various circles; but whereas in t h e o r i e n t a l e s c h a t o l o g i e s t h e s a v e d s o u l c a n g o o u t o f e v e n s u b l i m ated individuality, out of religious s urvival even in some kind of c elestial time, to a complete deliverance into t he eternal, Dantes souls remai n for ever where ( a f t e r p a s s i n g t h r o u g h t h e u n m e r i t o r i o u s s u f f e r i n g s o f p u r g a t o r y) they find themselves as the resu lt of their single incarnation in a body. Orthodox Christian doctrine does not admit the possibility, eit her in the posthumous state or in some othe r embodiment, of any further gr owth towards the ultimate perfection of a total union with the Godhe ad. But in the Hindu and Buddhist versions of the Perennial Philosophy the Divine mercy is matched by the Divine patience: both are infini te. For oriental theologians there is no eternal damnation; there are o nly purgatories and then an indefinite series of second chances to go forward towards not only mans, but the whole creations final end - total reunion with the Ground of all being. Preoccupation with posthumous deli verance is not one of the mea ns to such deliverance, and may easily , indeed, become an obstacle in the way of advance towards it. There is not the slightest reason to sup pose that a r d e n t s p i r i t u a l i s t s a r e m o r e l i k e l y t o b e s a v e d t h a n t h o s e w h o h a v e never attended a sance or familiarized themselves with the lit erature, speculative or evidential. My intention here is not to add to t hat literature, but rather to give the baldest summary of what has been written about the subject of survival within the various religi ous traditions. In oriental discussions of the s ubject, that which survives dea th is not the personality. Buddhism accepts the doctrine of reincarnation ; but it is not a soul that passes on (Buddhism denies the existence of a soul); it is the character. What we choose to make of our mental and physica l 271 constitution in the course of our life on earth affects the psy chic medium within which individual minds lea d a part at least of their amp hibious existence, and this modification of the medium results, after t he bodys death, in the initiation of a new existence either in a heaven, o r a purgatory, or another body. I n t h e V e d a n t a c o s m o l o g y t h e r e i s , o v e r a n d a b o v e t h e t m a n o r spiritual Self, identical with the Divine Ground, something in the nature of a soul that reincarnates in a gross or subtle body, or manif ests itself in some incorporeal state. This soul is not the personality of the defunct, but rather the particularized I-consciousness out of which a pe rsonality arises. Either one of these conc eptions of survival is logicall y self- consistent and can be made to save the appearances - in other words, t o f i t t h e o d d a n d o b s c u r e f a c t s of psychical research. The onl y personalities with which we have any direct acquaintance are in carnate beings, compounds of a body and some unknown x. But if x plus a body equals a personality, then, obviously, it is impossible for x m inus a body to equal the same thing. The appa rently personal entities which psychical research sometimes seems to discover can only be rega rded as temporary pseudo-personalities compounded of x and the mediu ms body. These two conceptions are not mu tually exclusive, and survival may be the joint product of a persisten t consciousness and a modificat ion of the psychic medium. If this is so, it is possible for a given human being to survive in more than one posthumous form. His soul - the non- personal Ground and principle of past and future personalities - may go marching on in one mode of being, while the traces left by his thoughts and volitions in the psychic medium may become the origin of new individualized existences, havin g quite other modes of being. avb 272 Chapter 15 SILENCE The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him for ever in everlastin g silence; and in silenc e the soul has to hear it. St. John of the Cross The spiritual life is nothing else but the working of the Spirit of God within us, and therefore our own sile nce must be a great part of our preparation for it, and much speaking, or delight in it, will be often no small hindrance of that good whic h we can only have from hearing what the Spirit and voice of God spea keth within us. . . . Rhetoric and fine language about the things of the spirit is a vainer babble than in other matters; and he that thinks to grow in true goodness by hearing or speaking flaming words or striking expressions, as is now much the way of the world, may have a great de al of talk, but wi ll have little of his conversation in heaven. William Law He who knows does not speak; He who speaks does not know. Lao Tzu NRESTRAINED and indiscriminate talk is morally evil and spiritu ally dangerous. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. This may seem a very hard saying. And yet if we pass in review the words we have given vent to in the course of the average day, we shal l find that the greater number of them may b e classified under three main h eads: words inspired by malice and uncha ritableness towards our neigh bours; words inspired by greed, sensuality and self-love; words inspir ed by pure imbecility and uttered without rhyme or reason, but merely for the sake U 273 of making a distracting noise. T hese are idle words; and we sha ll find, if we look into the matter, that th ey tend to outnumber the words that are dictated by reason, charity or necessity. And if the unspoken w ords of o u r m i n d s e n d l e s s , i d i o t m o n o l o g u e a r e c o u n t e d , t h e m a j o r i t y f or idleness becomes, for most of us, overwhelmingly large. In these idle words, the silly no less than the self-regarding and the uncharitable, are impediments in the way of the unitive knowled ge of the Divine Ground, a dance of dust and flies obscuring the inwa rd and the outward Light. The guard of the tongue (which is also, of course, a guard of the mind) is not only one of the most difficult and searching of all mortifications; it is also the most fruitful. When the hen has laid, she must ne eds cackle. And what does she get by it? Straightway comes the chough and robs her of her eggs, and devours all that of which she should have brought forth her live birds. A n d j u s t s o t h a t w i c k e d c h o u g h , the devil, beareth away from the cackling anchoresses, and swallowe th up all the goods they have brought forth, and which ought, as birds, to bear them up towards heaven, if it had not been cackled. Modernized from the Ancren Riwle You cannot practise too rigid a fast from the charms of worldly talk. Fnelon W h a t n e e d o f s o m u c h n e w s f r o m a b r o a d , w h e n a l l t h a t c o n c e r n s either life or death is all transa cting and at work within us? William Law My dear Mother, heed well the prec epts of the saints, who have all warned those who would become holy to speak little of themselves and their own affairs. St. Franois de Sales (in a letter to St. Jeanne de Chantal) A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man be cause he is a good talker. Chuang Tzu 274 The dog barks; the Caravan passes. Arabic Proverb It was not from want of will that I have refrained from writing to you, for truly do I wish you all good; but because it seemed to me that enough has been said already to effect all that is needful, and that what is wanting (if indeed anything be wanting) is not writing or speaking - whereof ordinarily there is more th an enough - but silence and work. For whereas speaking distracts, sile nce and work collect the thoughts and strengthen the spirit. As soon therefore as a person understands what has been said to him for his good , there is no further need to hear or to discuss; but to set himself in ea rnest to practise what he has learnt with silence and attention, in humili ty, charity and contempt of self. St. John of the Cross Molinos (and doubtless he was not the fi r s t t o u s e t h i s c l a s s i f i c a t i o n ) distinguished three degrees of silence - silence of the mouth, silence of the mind and silence of the will. To refrain from idle talk is hard; to quiet the gibbering of memory and imag ination is much harder; hardest of all is to still the voices of cravi ng and aversion within the will. The twentieth century is, among other things, the Age of Noise. Physical noise, mental noise and noise of desire - we hold historys rec ord for all of them. And no wonder; for all the resources of our almost mir aculous technology have been thrown into the current assault against si lence. That most popular and influential of all recent inventions, the radio, is nothing but a conduit through which pre-fabricated din can flow into our homes. And this din goes far deeper, of course, than the ear-dr ums. It penetrates the mind, filling it with a babel of distractions - news items, m u t u a l l y i r r e l e v a n t b i t s o f i n f o r m a t i o n , b l a s t s o f c o r y b a n t i c o r sentimental music, continually rep eated doses of drama that bri ng no catharsis, but merely create a c raving for daily or even hourly emotional e n e m a s . A n d w h e r e , a s i n m o s t c o u n t r i e s , t h e b r o a d c a s t i n g s t a t i ons 275 support themselves by selling time to advertisers, the noise is carried from the ears, through the realm s of phantasy, knowledge and fe eling t o t h e e g o s c e n t r a l c o r e o f w i s h a n d d e s i r e . S p o k e n o r p r i n t e d , broadcast over the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising copy has but one purpose - to prevent the wil l from ever achieving silence. Desirelessness is the condition of deliverance and illumination . The condition of an expanding and te chnologically progressive syste m of mass production is universal cravi ng. Advertising is the organi zed effort to extend and intensify craving - to extend and intensify, that is to say, the workings of that force, which (as all the saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is the principal cause of suffering and wrong-doing and the gr eatest obstacle betw een the human soul an d its Divine Ground. avb 276 Chapter 16 PRAYER HE word prayer is applied to at least four distinct procedure s - petition, intercession, adoration, contemplation. Petition is t he asking of something for ourselves. Intercession is the asking o f something for other people. Adoration is the use of intellect, feeling, will and imagination in making acts of devotion directed towards God in his personal aspect or as incarnated in human form. Contemplation i s that condition of alert passivity in which the soul lays itself open to the Divine Ground within and without, the i mmanent and transcendent Godhea d. Psychologically, it is all but impossible for a human being to practise contemplation without preparing for it by some kind of adoratio n and without feeling the need to revert at more or less frequent int ervals to intercession and some form at least of petition. On the other h and, it is both possible and easy to practise petition apart not only from contemplation, but also from adoration and, in rare cases of ex treme and unmitigated egotism, even fr o m i n t e r c e s s i o n . P e t i t i o n a r y a n d intercessory prayer may be used - and used, what is more, with what would ordinarily be regarded as success - without any but the m ost perfunctory and superficial reference to God in any of his aspe cts. To acquire the knack of getting his petitions answered, a man does not have to know or love God, or even to know or love the image of God i n his own mind. All that he requires is a burning sense of the import ance of his own ego and its desires, coupled with a firm conviction tha t there exists, out there in the univers e, something not himself which can be wheedled or dragooned into sa tisfying those desires. If I repeat My will be done with the necessary degree of fait h and persistency, the chances are that, sooner or later and somehow or other, T 277 I shall get what I want. Wheth er my will coincides with the wil l of God, and whether in getting what I want I shall get what is spiritua lly, morally or even materially good for me, are questions which I cannot an swer in advance. Only time and eternity will show. Meanwhile we shall b e well advised to heed the warnings of folk-lore. Those anonymous real ists who wrote the worlds fairy stories knew a great deal about wis hes and t h e i r f u l f i l m e n t . T h e y k n e w , f i r s t o f a l l , t h a t i n c e r t a i n c i r c umstances petitions actually get themselves answered; but they also knew that God is not the only answerer and that if one asks for something in the wrong spirit, it may in effect be give n - but given with a vengeance and not by a Divine Giver. Getting what one wants by means of self-regardi ng petition is a form of hubris, which invites its condign and app ropriate nemesis. Thus, the folk-lore of the North American Indian is fu ll of stories about people who fast and pray egotistically, in order to get m ore than a reasonable man ought to have, and who, receiving what they as k for, thereby bring about their own do wnfall. From the other side of the world come all the tales of the m en and women who make use of s ome kind of magic to get their petitions answered - always with far cical or catastrophic consequence. Hardly ever do the Three Wishes of ou r traditional fairy lore lead to anything but a bad end for the s uccessful wisher. Picture God as saying to you, My son, why is it that day by day you rise and pray, and genuflect, and even strike the ground with your forehead, nay, sometimes even shed tears, while you say to Me: My Father, my God, give me wealth! If I were to give it to you, you would think yourself of some importance, you would fancy you had gained something very great. Because you as ked for it, you have it. But take care to make good use of it. Befo re you had it you were humble; now that you have begun to be rich yo u despise the poor. What kind of a good is that which only makes you worse? For worse you are, since 278 you were bad already. And that it would make you worse you knew not; hence you asked it of Me. I gave it you and I proved you; you have found - and you are found out! Ask of Me better things than these, greater things than these. Ask of Me spiritual things. Ask of Me Myself. St. Augustine O Lord, I, a beggar, ask of Thee mo re than a thousand kings may ask of Thee. Each one has something he needs to ask of Thee; I have come to ask Thee to give me Thyself. Ansari of Herat In the words of Aquinas, it is legitimate for us to pray for an ything which it is legitimate for us to desire. There are some things that n obody has t h e r i g h t t o d e s i r e , s u c h a s t h e f r u i t s o f c r i m e o r w r o n g - d o i n g . Other things may be legitimately desir ed by people on one level of sp iritual development, but should not be desired (and indeed cease to be desired) b y t h o s e o n a n o t h e r , h i g h e r l e v e l . T h u s , S t . F r a n c o i s d e S a l e s had reached a point where he could say, I have hardly any desires, but if I were to be born again I should have none at all. We should ask nothing and refuse nothing, but leave ourselves in the arms of Divine P rovidence without wasting time in any desire, except to will what God wil ls of us. But meanwhile the third clause o f the Lords Prayer is repeated daily by millions, who have not the slightest intention of letting any w ill be done, except their own. The savour of wandering in the ocean of deathless life has rid me of all my asking; As the tree is in th e seed, so all diseases are in this asking. Kabir Lord, I know not what to ask of thee. Thou only knowest what I need. Thou lovest me better than I know ho w to love myself. Father, give to thy child that which he himself know s not how to ask. Smite or heal, depress me or raise me up: I ador e all thy purposes without knowing 279 them. I am silent; I offer myself up in a sacrifice; I yield myself to Thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray. Pray Thyself in me. Fenelon A dervish was tempted by the d evil to cease calling upon Allah, on the Ground that Allah never answered. The Prophet Khadir appeared t o him in a vision with a message from God: Here am I. Was it not I who su mmoned thee to my service? Was it not I who made thee busy with my name? Thy calling Allah! was my Here am I. Jalaluddin Rumi I pray God the Omnipotent to plac e us in the ranks of his chosen, among the number of those whom He directs to the path of safety; in whom He inspires fervour lest they forget Him; whom He cleanses from all defilement, that nothing ma y remain in them except Himself; yea, of those whom He indwells co mpletely, that they may adore none beside Him. Al-Ghazzali About intercession, as about so many other subjects, it is Will iam Law who writes most clearly, s imply and to the point. By considering yourself as an advoc ate with God for your neighbours and acquaintances, you would never fi nd it hard to be at peace with them yourself. It would be easy for you to bear with and forgive those, for whom you particularly im plored the Divine mercy and forgiveness . William Law Intercession is the best arbitrator of all differences, the best promoter of true friendship, the best cure and preservative ag ainst all unkind tempers, all angry an d haughty passions. William Law You cannot possibly have any i ll-temper, or show any unkind behaviour to a man for whose welfar e you are so much concerned, as 280 to be his advocate with God in priv ate. For you cannot possibly despise and ridicule that man whom your private prayers recommend to the love and favour of God. William Law Intercession, then, is at once the means to, and the expression of, the love of ones neighbour. And in the same way adoration is the m eans to, a n d t h e e x p r e s s i o n o f , t h e l o v e o f G o d - a l o v e t h a t f i n d s i t s consummation in the unitive knowledge of the Godhead which is t he fruit of contemplation. It is to these higher forms of communio n with God that the authors of the foll owing extracts refer whenever t hey use the word prayer. The aim and end of prayer is to re vere, to recognize and to adore the sovereign majesty of God, through what He is in Himself rather than what He is in regard to us, and rath er to love his goodness by the love of that goodness itself than for what it sends us. Bourgoing In prayer he (Charles de Condren) did not stop at the frontiers of his knowledge and his reasoning. He ador ed God and his mysteries as they are in themselves and not as he understood them. Amelote What God is in Himself, God and his mysteries as they are in themselves - the phrases have a Kantian ring. But if Kant was right and the Thing in itself is unknowabl e, Bourgoing, De Condren and al l the other masters of the spiritual life were engaged in a wild-goos e-chase. But Kant was right only as regards minds that have not yet come t o enlightenment and deliverance. To such minds Reality, whether material, psychic or spiritual, presents itself as it is darken ed, tinged and refracted by the medium of their own individual natures. But in those who are pure in heart and poor in spirit there is no distortion of Reality, because there is no separate selfhood to obscure or refract, no painted lantern slide of intellectual be liefs and hallowed imagery to g ive a personal and historical colouring to the white radiance of Ete rnity. For 281 such minds, as Olier says, even ideas of the saints, of the Bl essed Virgin, and the sight of Jesus Christ in his humanity are impediments i n the way of the sight of God in his purity. The Thing in itself can be perceived - but only by one who, in himself, is no-thing. By prayer I do not understand petition or supplication which, according to the doctrines of the sc hools, is exercise d principally by the understanding, being a significat ion of what the person desires to receive from God. But prayer here specially meant is an offering and giving to God whatsoever He may justly require from us. Now prayer, in its general notion, ma y be defined to be an elevation of the mind to God, or more largel y and expressly thus: prayer is an actuation of an intellective soul to wards God, expressing, or at least implying, an entire dependence on Him as the author and fountain of all good, a will and readiness to give Him His due, which is no less than all love, all obedience, adoratio n, glory and worship, by humbling and annihilating the self and all cr eatures in His presence; and lastly, a desire and intention to aspire to an union of spirit with Him. Hence it appears that prayer is the most perfect and most Divine action that a rational soul is capable of. It is of all actions and duties the most indispensably necessary. Augustine Baker Lord, teach me to seek Thee and reveal Thyself to me when I seek Thee. For I cannot seek Thee except Thou teach me, nor find Thee except Thou reveal Thyself. Let me seek Thee in longing, let me long for Thee in seeking: let me find Thee in love and love Thee in finding. Lord, I acknowledge and I thank Thee that Thou hast created me in this Thine image, in order that I may be mindful of Thee, may conceive of Thee and love Thee: but that image has be en so consumed and wasted away by vices and obsc ured by the smoke of wrong-doing 282 that it cannot achieve that for whic h it was made, except Thou renew it and create it anew. Is the eye of the soul darkened by its infirmity, o r d a z z l e d b y T h y g l o r y ? S u r e l y , i t i s b o t h d a r k e n e d i n i t s e l f a n d dazzled by Thee. Lord, this is the unapproachable light in which Thou dwellest. Truly I see it not, becaus e it is too bright for me; and yet whatever I see, I see through it, as the weak eye sees what it sees through the light of the sun, which in the sun itself it cannot look upon. Oh supreme and unapproachab le light, oh holy and blessed truth, how far art Thou from me wh o am so near to Thee, how far art Thou removed from my vision, th o u g h I a m s o n e a r t o T h i n e ! Everywhere Thou art wholly presen t, and I see Thee not. In Thee I move and in Thee I have my being, and cannot come to Thee, Thou art within me and about me, and I feel Thee not. St. Anselm Oh Lord, put no trust in me; for I sh all surely fail if Thou uphold me not. St. Philip Neri To pretend to devotion without great humility and renunciation of all worldly tempers is to pretend to im possibilities. He that would be devout must first be humble, have a full sense of his own miseries and wants and the vanity of the world, and then his soul will be full of desire after God. A proud, or vain , or worldly-minded man may use a manual of prayers, but he cannot be devout, because devotion is the application of an humble heart to God as its only happiness. William Law The spirit, in order to work, must have all sensible images, both good and bad, removed. The beginner in a spiritual course commences with the use of good sensible images, and it is impossible to begin in a good spiritual course with the exercises of the spirit. . . . Those souls who have not a propensity to the inte rior must abide always in the 283 exercises, in which sensible images are used, and these souls will find the sensible exercises very profitable to themselves and to others, and pleasing to God. And this is the wa y of the active life. But others, who have the propensity to the interi or, do not always remain in the exercises of the senses, but after a time these will give place to the exercises of the spirit, which are independent of the senses and the imagination and consist simply in the elevation of the will of the intellective soul to God. . . . The soul elevates her will towards God, apprehended by the understanding as a spirit, and not as an imaginary thing, the human spirit in this way aspiring to a union with the Divine Spirit. Augustine Baker You tell me you do nothing in prayer . But what do you want to do in prayer except what you are doing, which is, presenting and representing your nothingness an d misery to God? When beggars expose their ulcers and their necessitie s to our sight, that is the best appeal they can make. But from wh at you tell me, you sometimes do nothing of this, but lie there like a shadow or a statue. They put statues in palaces simply to please the prince s eyes. Be content to be that in the presence of God: He will bring th e statue to life when He pleases. St. Franois de Sales I h a v e c o m e t o s e e t h a t I d o n o t limit my mind enough simply to prayer, that I always want to do so mething myself in it, wherein I do very wrong. . . . I wish most definite ly to cut off and separate my mind from all that, and to hold it with a ll my strength, as much as I can, to the sole regard and simple unity. B y a l l o w i n g t h e f e a r o f b e i n g ineffectual to enter into the state of prayer, and by wishing to accomplish something myself, I spoilt it all. St. Jeanne Chantal 284 So long as you seek Buddhahood, sp ecifically exercising yourself for it, there is no attainment for you. Chuang Tzu How does a man set himself in harm ony with the Tao? I am already out of harmony. Shih-tou How shall I grasp it? Do not grasp it. That which remains when there is no more grasping is the Self. Panchadashi I order you to remain simply either in God or close to God, without trying to do anything there, and without asking anything of Him, unless He urges it. St. Franois de Sales Adoration is an activity of the loving, but still separate, ind ividuality. Contemplation is the state of union with the Divine Ground of a ll being. The highest prayer is the most p assive. Inevitably; for the les s there is of self, the more there is of God. That is why the path to passive or infused contemplation is so hard and, for many, so painful - a passage through successive or simultaneous Dark Nights, in which the pilgrim mu st die to the life of sense as an end in i tself, to the life of pri vate a nd even of traditionally hallowed thinking a nd believing, and finally to t he deep source of all ignorance and evil , the life of the separate, ind ividualized will. avb 285 Chapter 17 SUFFERING HE Godhead is impassible; for whe re there is perfection and uni ty, there can be no suffering*. The capacity to suffer arises where t h e r e i s i m p e r f e c t i o n , d i s u n i t y a n d s e p a r a t i o n f r o m a n e m b r a c i n g totality; and the capacity is ac tualized to the extent that imp erfection, disunity and separateness are acc ompanied by an urge towards th e intensification of these creatur ely conditions. For the individ ual who achieves unity within his own organism and union with the Divin e Ground, there is an end of suffering. The goal of creation is t he return of all sentient beings out of separateness and that infatuating ur ge-to- separateness which results in suf fering, through unitive knowle dge, into the wholeness of eternal Reality. The elements which ma ke up man produce a capacity for pain. The cause of pain is the cr aving for individual life. Deliverance from craving does away with pain. The way of deliverance is the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Tru ths of Buddhism The urge to separateness, or craving for independent and indivi dualized existence, can manifest itself on all the levels of life, from the merely cellular and physiological, through the instinctive, to the ful ly conscious. * Not mentioned is the more archa ic meaning of the word suffer which is to allow, tolerate, be patient (as in Jesus saying suffer the l ittle children to come unto me; or: whose pride is suffering, to suffer fools gladly). In this sense saints suffer a great deal by surrendering and acceptin g the will of God. T 286 It can be the craving of a whole organism for an intensificatio n of its separateness from the environment and the Divine Ground. Or it can be the urge of a part within an organism for an intensification of its own partial life as distinct from (and consequently at the expense of ) the life of the organism as a whole. In the first case we speak of impulse, passion, desire, self-will, sin; in the sec ond, we describe what is happ ening as illness, injury, functional or organic disorder. In both cases the craving for separateness results in suffering, not only for the craver, but also for the cravers sentient environmen t - other organisms in the exte rnal world, or other organs within the same organism. In one way suf fering is entirely private; in another, f a tal l y c o n tag i o us . No l i vi ng creature is able to experience the suffering of another creature. But the c raving for separateness which, sooner or later, directly or indirectly, re sults in s o m e f o r m o f p r i v a t e a n d u n s h a r e a b l e s u f f e r i n g f o r t h e c r a v e r , also results, sooner or later, direct ly or indirectly, in suffering (equally private and unshareable) for others. Suffering and moral evil have the same source - a craving for the intensification of the separateness which is the primary datum of all creatureliness. It will be as well to illustrate these generalizations by a few examples. Let us consider first the suffering inflicted by living organis ms on themselves and on other living organisms in the mere process of keeping alive. The cause of such suffering is the craving for individua l existence, expressing itself specifically i n the form of hunger. Hunger is entirely natural - a part of every creatu res Dharma. The suffering it c auses alike to the hungry and to those who satisfy their hunger is insepara ble from the existence of sentient creatu res. The existence of sentient creatures has a goal and purpose which is ultimately the supreme good of every one of them. But meanwhile the suffering of creatures remains a fact a nd is a n ec e s s ary p ar t o f c re a t ur el i ne s s . I n s o f ar a s t hi s i s t h e c as e , creation is the beginning of the Fall. The consummation of the Fall takes 287 place when creatures seek to inte nsify their separateness beyon d the limits prescribed by the law of their being. On the biological level the Fall would seem to have been consummated very frequently during the course of evolutionary history. Every species, e xcept the human , chose i m m e d i a t e , s h o r t - r a n g e s u c c e s s b y m e a n s o f s p e c i a l i z a t i o n . B u t specialization always leads into blind alleys. It is only by re maining precariously generalized that an organism can advance towards t hat rational intelligence which is its compensation for not having a body and instincts perfectly adapted to one particular kind of life in o ne particular kind of environment. Rational intelligence makes possible unpar alleled w o r l d l y s u c c e s s o n t h e o n e h a n d a n d , o n t h e t h e s e o t h e r , a f u r t her advance towards spirituality and a return, through unitive know ledge, to the Divine Ground. Because the human species refrained from consummating the Fall on the biological level, human individuals now possess the momento us power of choosing either selflessness and union with God, or th e intensification of separate selfhood in ways and to a degree, w hich are entirely beyond the ken of the lower animals. Their capacity fo r good is infinite, since they can, if they so desire, make room within t hemselves f o r D i v i n e R e a l i t y . B u t a t t h e s a m e t i m e t h e i r c a p a c i t y f o r e v i l is, not indeed infinite (since evil is always ultimately self-destructive and therefore temporary), but uniquely great. Hell is total separation from God, and the devil is the will to that separation. Being rational and free, human beings are capable of being diabolic. This is a feat which no animal c an d u p l i c a t e , f o r n o a n i m a l i s s u f f i c i e n t l y c l e v e r , s u f f i c i e n t l y p urposeful, sufficiently strong-willed or su fficiently moral to be a devil. (We should note that, to be diabolic on the grand scale, one must, like Mi ltons Satan, exhibit in a high degree all the moral virtues, except only cha rity and wisdom). 288 Mans capacity to crave more violently than any animal for the intensification of his separaten ess results not only in moral e vil and the s u f f e r i n g s w h i c h m o r a l e v i l i n f l i c t s , i n o n e w a y o r a n o t h e r , u p on the victims of evil and the perpetra tors of it, but also in certain characteristically human derange m e n t s o f t h e b o d y . A n i m a l s s u f f er mainly from contagious diseases, which assume epidemic proporti ons whenever the urge to reproduction combines with exceptionally favourable circumstances to produce overcrowding, and from dise ases due to infestation by parasites. (These last are simply a special case of the sufferings that must inevitably a rise when many species of crea tures coexist and can only survive at o ne anothers expense.) Civilized man has been fairly su ccessful in protecting himself against these plagues, but in their place he has called up a formidable array of degenerative diseases hardly known among the lower animals. Mos t of these degenerative diseases are due to the fact that civilized human beings do not, on any level of their being, live in harmony wit h Tao, or the Divine Nature of Things. They love to intensify their selfh ood through gluttony, therefore eat the wrong food and too much of it; they inflict upon themselves chronic anxiety over money and, because they cr ave excitement, chronic over-stimulation; they suffer, during their working hours, from the chronic boredom and frustration imposed by the sort of jobs that have to be done in order to satisfy the artificially stimulated demand for the fruits of fully mechanized mass-production. Among the consequences of these wrong uses of the psycho-physic al organism are degenerative change s in particular organs, such as t h e heart, kidneys, pancreas, intest ines and arteries. Asserting th eir partial selfhood in a kind of declaratio n of independence from the orga nism as a w h o l e , t h e d e g e n e r a t i n g o r g a n s c a u s e s u f f e r i n g t o t h e m s e l v e s and t h e i r p h y s i o l o g i c a l e n v i r o n m e n t . I n e x a c t l y t h e s a m e w a y t h e h u man individual asserts his own partia l selfhood and his separatenes s from his 289 neighbours, from Nature and from God - with disastrous conseque nces to himself, his family, his friends and society in general. And , reciprocally, a disordered socie ty, professional group or famil y, living by- a false philosophy, influences it s members to assert their indi vidual selfhood and separateness, just as the wrong-living and wrong-t hinking individual influences his own or gans to assert, by some excess or defect of function, their partial selfh ood at the expense of the total organism. The effects of suffering may be morally and spiritually bad, ne utral or good, according to the way in which the suffering is endured an d reacted to. In other words, it may stimulate in the sufferer a consciou s or unconscious craving for the intensification of his separateness ; or it may leave the craving such as it was before the suffering; or, fina lly, it may mitigate it and so become a means for advance towards self-abandonment and the love and knowledge of God. Which of these t hree alternatives shall be realized dep ends, in the last analysis, u pon the sufferer's choice. This seems to be true even on the subhuman l evel. The higher animals, at any rate, ofte n seem to resign themselves to pain, sickness and death with a kind of serene acceptance of what the Divine Nature of Things has decreed for them. But in other cases there is panic, fear and struggle, a frenzied res istance to those decrees. To s ome extent, at least, the embodied a nimal self appears to be free, in the face of suffering, to choose self-abandonment or self-assertion. For embodied human selves, this freed om of choice is unquestionable . The choice of self-abandonment in suffering makes possible the rece ption of grace - grace on the spiritual l evel, in the form of an accessi on of the love and knowledge of God, and grace in the mental and physiological levels, in the form of a diminution of f ear, self-concern and even of p ain. When we conceive the love of suffer ing, we lose the sensibility of the senses and dead, dead we wi ll live in that garden. St. Catherine of Siena 290 He who suffers for love does not su ffer, for all suffering is forgot. Eckhart In this life there is not purgatory, but only heaven or hell; for he who bears afflictions with patience has paradise, and he who does not has hell. St. Philip Neri Many sufferings are the immediat e consequence of moral evil, an d these cannot have any good effec ts upon the sufferer, so long a s the causes of his distress are not eradicated. Each sin begetteth a special spiritual suffering. A suffering of this kind is like unto that of hell, for the more you suffer, the worse you become. This happeneth to sinners; the more they suffer through their sins, the more wicked they become; and they fall continually more and more into their sins in order to ge t free from their suffering. The Following of Christ The idea of vicarious suffering has too ofte n been formulated i n crudely juridical and commercial terms. A has committed an offence for which the law decrees a certain punishment; B voluntarily undergoes t he punishment; justice and the lawg ivers honour are satisfied; consequently A may go free. Or else it is all a matter of debts and repayments. A owes C a sum which he cannot pay; B steps in with the cash and so prevents C from foreclosing on the mortgage. Applie d to the facts of mans suffering and his relations to the Divine Ground , these conceptions are neither en lightening nor edifying. The orthodox doctrine of the Atonement attributes to God characteristics that would be discreditable even to a human pot entate, and its model of the universe is not the product of spiritual i nsight rationalized by philosophic reflection, but rather the projecti on of a lawyers phantasy. But in spite of these deplorable crudities i n their formulation, the idea of vicarious suffering and the other, clo sely related 291 idea of the transferability of m e r i t a r e b a s e d u p o n g e n u i n e f a c ts of e x p e r i e n c e . T h e s e l f l e s s a n d G o d - f i l l e d p e r s o n c a n a n d d o e s a c t a s a channel through which grace is able to pass into the unfortunat e being who has made himself impervious to the Divine by the habitual c raving for intensifications of his own separateness and selfhood. It i s because of this that the saints are able to exercise authority, all the greater for being entirely non-compulsive, ov er their fellow-beings. They transfer merit to those who are in need of it; but that which converts the victims of self-will and puts them on the path of liberation is not the merit of the saintly individual - a merit that consists in his having made h imself capable of eternal Reality, as a pipe, by being cleaned out, is m a d e capable of water; it is rather t he Divine charge he carries, th e eternal Reality for which he has become the conduit. And similarly, in vicarious suffering, it is not the actual pai ns experienced by the saint which are redemptiv e for to believe that God is an gry at sin and that his anger cannot be propitiated except by the offer of a certain sum of pain is to blaspheme against the Divine Nature. No, what saves is the gift from beyond the temporal order, brought to those im prisoned in selfhood by these selfless and God-filled persons, who have been r e a d y t o a c c e p t s u f f e r i n g , i n o r d e r t o h e l p t h e i r f e l l o w s . T h e Bodhisattvas vow is a promise to forgo the immediate fruits of enlightenment and to accept rebirth and its inevitable concomit ants, pain and death, again and again, until such time as, thanks to his labours and the graces of which, being selfless, he is the channel, all sentient beings shall have come to final and complete deliverance. I saw a mass of matter of a dull gloomy colour between the North and the East, and was informed that th is mass was human beings, in as great misery as they could be, and live; and that I was mixed up with them and henceforth I must not co nsider myself as a distinct or separate being. John Woolman 292 Why must the righteous and the in nocent endure undeserved suffe ring? For anyone who conceives of human individuals as Hume conceived of events and things, as loose and separate, the question admits of no acceptable answer. But, in fact, human individuals are not loos e and separate, and the only reason wh y we think they are is our own wrongly interpreted self-interest. We wa nt to do what we damned well l ike, to h a v e a g o o d t i m e a n d n o r e s p o n sibilities. Consequently, we fi nd it convenient to be misled by the inadequacies of language and to believe (not always, of course, but just when it suits us) that things, persons and events are as completely distinct and separate one from another as the words by means of which we think about them. The truth is, of c ourse, that we are all organically related to God, to Nature and to ou r fellow- men. If every human being were constantly and consciously in a proper relationship with his Divine, na tural and social environments t here would be only so much suffering as Creation makes inevitable. B ut actually most human beings are c hronically in an improper relat ion to God, Nature and some at least of their fellows. The results of these wrong relat ionships are manifest on the so cial level as wars, revolutions, exploitation and disorder; on the natural level, as waste and exhaustion of irreplaceable resources; on the biologi cal level, as degenerative diseases and the deterioration of racial stocks ; on the moral level, as an overweening bumptiousness; and on the spirit ual level, as blindness to Divine Reality and complete ignorance of t h e reason and purpose of human exis tence. In such circumstances it would be extraordinary if the innocent and righteous did not suffer - just as it would be extraordinary if the innocent kidneys and the righteou s heart w e r e n o t t o s u f f e r f o r t h e s i n s o f a l i c o r o u s p a l a t e a n d o v e r l o aded stomach, sins, we may add, imposed upon those organs by the wil l of the gluttonous individual to whom they belong, as he himself be longs to a society which other individuals, his contemporaries and prede cessors, 293 have built up into a vast and enduring incarnation of disorder, inflicting suffering upon its members and infecting them with its own igno rance and wickedness. The righteous man can escape suffering only by accepting it and passing b e y o n d i t ; a n d h e c a n a c c o m p l i s h t h i s o n l y b y b e i n g c o n v e r t e d f rom righteousness to total selflessness and God-centredness, by cea sing to be just a Pharisee, or good citiz en, and becoming perfect as y our Father which is in heaven is perfect. The difficulties in the way of such a transfiguration are, obviously, enormous. But of those who spe ak with authority, who has ever said th at the road to complete deliver ance was easy or the gate anything but strait and narrow. avb 294 Chapter 18 FAITH HE word faith has a variety of meanings, which it is importan t to distinguish. In some contexts it is used as a synonym for trus t, as when we say that we have faith in Dr. Xs diagnostic skill or i n lawyer Ys integrity. This is our faith in authority - the belief that w hat certain persons say about certain subjec ts is likely, because of their special qualifications, to be true. On other occasions faith stands f or belief in propositions which we have not h ad occasion to verify for ourse lves, but which we know that we could verify if we had the inclination, t he opportunity and the necessary capacities. In this sense of the word we have faith, even though we may never have been to Australia, that there is such a creature as a duck-billed platypus; we have fa ith in the a t o m i c t h e o r y , e v e n t h o u g h w e m a y n e v e r h a v e p e r f o r m e d t h e experiments on which that theo r y r e s t s , a n d b e i n c a p a b l e o f understanding the mathematics by which it is supported. And fin ally there is the faith, which is a belief in propositions which w e know we cannot verify, even if we should desire to do so - propositions such as those of the Athanasian Creed or those which constitute the doc trine of the Immaculate Conception. This kind of faith is defined by t he Scholastics as an act of the int ellect moved to assent by the w ill. Faith in the first three senses of the word plays a very import ant part, not only in the activities of ev eryday life, but even in those of pure and applied science. Credo ut intelligam - and also, we should add, ut agam and ut vivam . Faith is a pre-condition of all systematic knowing, all purposive doing and all decent living. Societies are held toget her, not primarily by the fear of the man y for the coercive power of the few, but by a widespread faith in the other fellows decency. Such a fai th tends T 295 to create its own object, while the widespread mutual mistrust, due, for example, to war or domestic disse nsion, creates the object of m istrust. Passing now from the moral to the intellectual sphere, we find faith lying at the root of all organized thinking. Science and technology c ould not exist unless we had faith in the reliability of the universe un less, in Clerk Maxwells words, we implicitly b elieved that the book of Nature is really a book and not a magazine, a coherent work of art and not a hod ge- podge of mutually irrelevant snippets. To this general faith in t h e r e a s o n a b l e n e s s a n d t r u s t w o r t h i n e s s o f t h e w o r l d t h e s e a r c h e r a f ter truth must add two kinds of special faith - faith in the author ity of qualified experts, sufficient to permit him to take their word for statements which he personally has not verified; and faith in h is own working hypotheses, sufficient to induce him to test his provis ional b e l i e f s b y m e a n s o f a p p r o p r i a t e a c t i o n . T h i s a c t i o n m a y c o n f i r m t h e belief which inspired it. Alternatively it may bring proof that the original working hypothesis was ill-founde d, in which case it will have to be modified until it becomes conformable to the facts and so passe s from the realm of faith to that of knowledge. The fourth kind of faith is the thing which is commonly called religious faith. The usage is justifiable, not because the other kinds o f faith are not fundamental in religion just as they are in secular affairs , but because this willed assent to propositions which are known to b e unverifiable occurs in religion, and only in religion, as a cha racteristic addition to faith as trust, faith in authority and faith in unv erified but v e r i f i a b l e p r o p o s i t i o n s . T h i s i s t h e k i n d o f f a i t h w h i c h , a c c o r ding to C h r i s t i a n t h e o l o g i a n s , j u s t i f i e s a n d s a v e s . I n i t s e x t r e m e a n d most uncompromising form, such a doctrine can be very dangerous. Her e, for example, is a passage from one of Luthers letters. Esta pecca tor, et pecca fortiter, sed fortim crede et gaude in Christo, qui victo r est peccati, mortis et mundi. Peccandum est quam diu sic sumus, vita haec no n est 296 habitatio justitiae. (Be a sinner and sin strongly; but yet more strongly believe and rejoice in Christ, who is the conqueror of sin, dea th and the world. So long as we are as we are, there must be sinning; this life i s not the dwelling place of righteousness.) To the danger that faith in the doctrine of justification by fa ith may serve as an excuse for and even an invi tation to sin must be added an other danger, namely, that the faith w hich is supposed to save may be faith in propositions not merely unverifiable, but repugnant to reason a nd the moral sense, and entirely at variance with the findings of thos e who have fulfilled the conditions of spiritual insight into the Nature o f Things. This is the acme of faith, says Luther in his De Servo Arbitrio, t o believe that God who saves so few and condemns so many, is merciful; that He is just w h o , a t H i s o w n p l e a s u r e , h a s m a d e u s n e c e s s a r i l y d o o m e d t o damnation, so that He seems to delight in the torture of the wr etched and to be more deserving of hate than of love. If by any effort of reason I could conceive how God, who shows so much anger and harshness , could be merciful and just, ther e would be no need of faith. R evelation (which, when it is genuine, is simply the record of the immedia te experience of those who are pure enough in heart and poor enough in spirit to be able to see God) says nothing at all of these hideous doctrines, to which the will forces the quite naturally and rightly reluctant intellect t o g i v e assent. Such notions are the product, not of the insight of sai nts, but of the busy phantasy of jurists, wh o were so far from having trans cended selfness and the prejudices of e ducation that they had the foll y and presumption to interpret the uni verse in terms of the Jewish an d Roman law with which they happened to be familiar. Woe unto you lawy ers, said Christ. The denunciation wa s prophetic and for all time. The core and spiritual heart of all the higher religions is the Perennial Philosophy; and the Perennial Philosophy can be assented to and acted upon without resort to the kind of faith about which Luther was writing 297 in the foregoing passages. There must, of course, be faith as t rust - for confidence in ones fellows is th e beginning of charity towards men, and c o n f i d e n c e n o t o n l y i n t h e m a t e r i a l , b u t a l s o t h e m o r a l a n d s p i ritual reliability of the universe, is t he beginning of charity or lov e-knowledge in relation to God. There must also be faith in authority - the authority of those whose selflessness has qualified them to know the spir itual Ground of all being by direct ac quaintance as well as by report . And finally there must be faith in such propositions about Real ity as are enunciated by philosophers in the light of genuine revelation - propositions which the believer knows that he can, if he is pre pared to fulfil the necessary conditions, verify for himself. But, so lo ng as the Perennial Philosophy is accepted i n its essential simplicity, t here is no need of willed assent to propositions known in advance to be unverifiable. Here it is necessa ry to add that such unverifiabl e propositions may become verifiable to the extent that intense f aith affects the psychic substratum and so creates an existence, who se derived objectivity can actually be discovered out there. Let us, however, remember that an existence which derives its objectivity from the mental activity of those who intensely bel ieve in it cannot possibly be the spiritual Ground of the world, and that a mind busily engaged in the voluntary and intellectual activity, whic h is religious faith, cannot possibl y be in the state of selflessn ess and alert passivity which is the necessary c ondition of the unitive knowl edge of the Ground. That is why the Bud dhists affirm that loving faith leads to heaven; but obedience to the Dhar ma leads to Nirvana. Faith in t h e existence and power of any supernatural entity which is less th an ultimate spiritual Reality, and in any form of worship that fal ls short of self-naughting, will certainly, if the object of faith is intri nsically good, result in improvement of character, and probably in posthumous survival of the improved persona lity under heavenly condition s. But 298 this personal survival within what is still the temporal order is not the eternal life of timeless union with the Spirit. This eternal li fe stands in the knowledge of the Godhead, not in faith in anything less th an the Godhead. The immortality attained through the acquisition of any objective condition (e.g., the condition - merited through good works, which have been inspired by love of, and faith in, something less than the supreme Godhead - of being united in act to what is worshipped) is liable to end; for it is distinctly stated in the Scriptures that Karma action is never the cause of emancipation. Shankara Karma is the causal sequence in time, from which we are deliver ed solely by dying to the temporal self and becoming united with the et ernal, which is beyond time and cause. For as to the notion of a Firs t Cause, or a Causa Sui (to quote the words of an eminen t theologian and philosopher, Dr. F. R. Tennant), we have, on the one hand, to bear in mind that we refute ourselves in trying to establish it by extension of the application of the causal category, for causality when universalized contai ns a contradiction; and, on the other, to remember that the ultimate Ground simply is. Only when the individual also simply is, by rea son of his union through love-knowledge with the Ground, can there be any question of complete and eternal liberation. avb 299 Chapter 19 GOD IS NOT MOCKED Why hast thou said, I have sinned so much, And God in His mercy has not punished my sins? How many times do I smite th ee, and thou knowest not! Thou art bound in my chai ns from head to foot. On thy heart is rust on rust collected So that thou art blind to Divine mysteries. When a man is stubborn and follows evil practices, He casts dust in the eyes of his discernment. Old shame for sin and calling on God quit him; Dust five layers deep settles on his mirror, Rust spots begin to gnaw his iron, The colour of his jewel grows less and less. Jalal-uddin Rumi F there is freedom (and even Determinists consistently act as if they were certain of it) and if (as everyone who has qualified himself to talk about the subject has always been convinced) there is a spiritual Reality, which it is the final end and purpose of consciousness to know; then all life is in the nature of an inte lligence test, and the higher t he level of awareness and the greater the potentialities of the creature, t he more searchingly difficult will be the questions asked. For, in Bage hots words: We could not be what we ought to be, if we lived in the sort of universe we should expect. . . . A la tent Providence, a confused life, an odd material world, an existence br oken short in the midst and on a I 300 sudden, are not real difficulties, but real helps; for they, or something like them, are essential conditions of a moral life in a subordinate being. Because we are free, it is possible for us to answer lifes que stions either well or badly. If we answer them badly, we shall bring down upo n ourselves self-stultification. M ost often this self-stultificat ion will take subtle and not immediately detectable forms, as when our failur e to answer properly makes it impossible for us to realize the highe r potentialities of our being. Sometimes, on the contrary, the se lf- stultification is manifest on the physical level, and may invol ve not only individuals as individuals, but entire societies, which go down i n catastrophe or sink more slowly into decay. The giving of corre ct answers is rewarded primarily by spiritual growth and progressi ve realization of latent potent ialities, and secondarily (when circumstances make it possible) by the adding of all the rest to the realized kingdom of God. Karma exists; but its equivalence of act and award is not always obvious and material, as the earlier Buddhist and Hebrew writer s ingenuously imagined that it should be. The bad man in prosperi ty may, all unknown to himself, be darkened and corroded with inward ru st, while the good man under afflictions may be in the rewarding pr ocess of spiritual growth. No, God is not mocked; but also, let us al ways remember, He is not understood. Per nella giustigia sempiterna, la vista che riceve vostro mondo, comacchio per la mar, dentro sinte rna, ch, bench dalla prada veggia il fonda, in pelago nal vede, e non di meno l, ma cela lui lesser profondo. (Wherefore, in the eternal justice, such sight as your earth receives is engulfed, like the eye in the sea; for though by th e shore it can see the bottom, in the ocean it cannot see it; yet none the les s the bottom is there, but the depth hides it.) 301 Love is the plummet as well as the astrolabe of Gods mysteries , and the pure in heart can see far down into the depths of the Divine ju stice, to catch a glimpse, not indeed of the details of the cosmic proces s, but at least of its principle and natur e. These insights permit them t o say, with Juliana of Norwich, that all shall be well, that, in spite of t ime, all is well, and that the problem of evil has its solution in the eternity, which men can, if they so desire, experi ence, but can never describe. But, you urge, if men sin from the necessity of their nature, they are excusable. You do not explain, ho wever, what you would infer from this fact. Is it perhaps that God will be prevented fr om growing angry with them? Or is it rather that th ey have deserved that blessedness which consists in the knowledge an d love of God? If you mean the former, I altogether agree that God does not grow angry and that all things happen by his decree. But I de ny that, for this reason, all men ought to be happy. Surely men may be excusable and ne vertheless miss happiness, and be tormented in ma ny ways. A horse is excusable for being a horse and not a man; but neve rtheless he must needs be a horse and not a man. One who goes mad from the bite of a dog is excusable; yet it is right that he sh ould die of suffocation. So, too, he who cannot rule his pass ions, nor hold them in check out of respect for the law, while he ma y be excusable on the ground of weakness, is incapable of enjoying conformity of spirit and knowledge and love of God; and he is lost inevitably. Spinoza Horizontally and vertically, in physical and temperamental kind as well as in degree of inborn ability and native goodness, human being s differ profoundly one from another. Why? To what end and for what past causes? Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his p arents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. The man of 302 science, on the contrary, would say that the responsibility res ted with the parents who had caused the blindness of their child either by having t h e w r o n g k i n d o f g e n e s , o r b y c o n t r a c t i n g s o m e a v o i d a b l e d i s e a se. H i n d u o r B u d d h i s t b e l i e v e r s i n r e i n c a r n a t i o n a c c o r d i n g t o t h e l aws of Karma (the destiny which, by their act ions, individuals and groups of individuals impose upon themselves, one another and their desce ndants) would give another answer and say that, owing to what he had previously done in previous existences, the blind man had prede stined himself to choose the sort of parents from whom he would have t o inherit blindness. These three answers are not mutu ally incompatible. The parents are responsible for making the child what, by heredity and upbringi ng, he turns out to be. The soul or character incarnated in the child is of such a n a t u r e , o w i n g t o p a s t b e h a v i o u r , t h a t i t i s f o r c e d t o s e l e c t t h ose particular parents. And collaborating with the material and eff icient causes is the final cause, the teleological pull from in front. T h i s teleological pull is a pull from the Divine Ground of things ac ting upon that part of the timeless now, which a finite mind must regard as the future. Men sin and their parents sin; but the works of God hav e to be manifested in every sentient being (either by exceptional ways, as in this case of supernormal healing, or in the ordinary course of event s) - have to be manifested again and again, with the infinite patience of et ernity, until at last the creature makes itself fit for the perfect and consummate manifestation of unitive knowledge, of the state of not I, but God in me. Karma, according to the Hindus, never dispels ignorance, bei ng under the same category with it. Knowle dge alone dispels ignorance, j ust as light alone dispels darkness. In other words, the causal proce ss takes place within time and cannot possibly result in deliverance fro m time. S u c h a d e l i v e r a n c e c a n o n l y b e a c h i e v e d a s a c o n s e q u e n c e o f t h e intervention of eternity in the temporal domain; and eternity c annot 303 intervene unless the individual will makes a creative act of se lf-denial, thus producing, as it were, a vacuum into which eternity can fl ow. suppose that the causal process in time can of itself result in deliverance from time is like supposing that water will rise into a space f rom which the air has not been previously exhausted. The right relation between prayer and conduct is not that conduct is supremely important and prayer may help it, but that prayer is supremely important and conduct tests it. Archbishop Temple The aim and purpose of human life is the unitive knowledge of G od. Among the indispensable means to that end is right conduct, and by the degree and kind of virtue achiev ed, the degree of liberating kn owledge may be assessed and its quality evaluated. In a word, the tree is known by its fruits; God is not mocked. Religious beliefs and practices are certainly not the only very adequate factors determining the behaviou r o f a g i v e n s o c i e t y . B u t , n o l ess certainly, they are among the de termining factors. At least to some extent, the collective conduct of a nation is a test of the rel igion prevailing within it, a criterion by which we may legitimately judge the doctri na l validi ty of th at rel ig ion a nd i ts prac ti cal efficienc y in helping individuals to advance towards t he goal of human existence. In the past the nations of Christendom persecuted in the name o f their faith, fought religious wars and undertook crusades against inf idels and heretics; today they have ceased to be Christian in anything bu t name, and the only religion they profess is some brand of local idola try, such as nationalism, state-worship, bo ss-worship and revolutionism. From these fruits of (among other things) historic Christianity, what inferences can we draw as to the nature of the tree? The answer has alread y been given in the section on Time and Eternity. If Christians used t o b e persecutors and are now no longer Christians, the reason is tha t the 304 Perennial Philosophy incorporated in their religion was overlai d by wrong beliefs that led inevitably, since God is never mocked, t o wrong actions. These wrong beliefs had one element in common - namely , an over-valuation of happenings in time and an under-valuation of the everlasting, timeless fact of eternity. Thus, belief in the supreme impor tance for salvation of remote historical events resulted in bloody disputes over the interpretation of t he not very adequate and often conflicti ng records. And belief in the sacredness, nay, the actual divin ity, of the ecclesiastico-poli tico-financial organizations, which developed after the fall of the Roman Empi re, not only added bitterness to the all too human struggles for their control, but served to rational ize and justify the worst excesses of tho se who fought for place, wealth and pow er within and through the Churc h. But this is not the whole story. The same over-valuation of events in time, which once caused Christians to persecute and fight religious w ars, led at last to a widespread indiffer ence to a religion that, in spi te of everything, was still in part preoccupied with eternity. But na ture abhors a vacuum, and into the yawning void of this indifference there flowed the tide of political idolatry. The practical consequences of s uch idolatry, as we now see, are total war , revolution and tyranny. Meanwhile, on the credit side of the balance sheet, we find suc h items as the following: an immense increase in technical and governme ntal efficiency and an immense increas e in scientific knowledge - ea ch of them a result of the general shi ft of Western mans attention f rom the eternal to the temporal order, f irst within the sphere of Chris tianity and then, inevitably, outside it. avb 305 Chapter 20 TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM To such heights of evil has re ligion been able to drive men Would you know whence it is that so many false spirits have appeared in the world, who have deceived them selves and others with false fire and false light, laying claim to info rmation, illumination and openings of the Divine Life, particularly to do wonders under extraordinary calls from God? It is this: they have turned to God without turning from themselves; would be alive to God before they are dead to their own nature. Now religion in the hands of self, or corrupt nature, serves only to discover vices of a worse kind t h a n i n n a t u r e l e f t t o i t s e l f . Hence are all the disorderly passions of religious men, which burn in a worse flame than passions only employed about worldly matters; pride, self-exaltation, hatred and persecution, under a cloak of religious zeal, will sanctify actions which nature, left to itself, would be ashamed to own. William Law URNING to God without turning fr om self the formula is absurd ly simple; and yet, simple as it is , it explains all the follies a nd iniquities committed in the name of religion. Those who turn to G o d without turning from themselves are tempted to evil in several characteristic and easily recogni zable ways. They are tempted, first of all, to practise magical rites, by means of which they hope to compel God to answer their petitions and, in general, to serve their priva te or collective ends. T 306 All the ugly business of sacrifi ce, incantation and what Jesus called vain repetition is a product of this wish to treat God as a means t o indefinite self-aggrandizement, rather than as an end to be reached throug h total self-denial. Next, they are tempted to use the name of God to j ustify what they do in pursuit of place, power and wealth. And because they believe themselves to have Divine justification for their actio ns, they proceed, with a good conscience, to perpetrate abominations, w hich nature, left to itself, wo uld be ashamed to own. Throughout recorded history an i ncredible sum of mischief has b een done by ambitious idealists, self-deluded by their own verbiage and a lust for power into a conviction that they were acting for the highest good of their fellow-men. In the past, the justification for su ch wickedness was God or the Church, or the True Faith; toda y idealists kill and torture and exploit in the name of the Revolution, the New Order, the World of the Common Man, or simply the Future. Finally there are the temptation s which arise when the falsely religious begin to acquire the powers which are the fruit of their pious and magical practices. For, let there be no mistake, sacrifice, inc antation and vain repetition actually do produce fruits, especially when p ractised in conjunction with physical austerities. Men who turn towards God without turning away from themselves do not, of course, reach G od; but if they devote themselves energe tically enough to their pseudo- religion, they will get results. Some of these results are doubtless the product of auto-suggestion . (It was through vain repetition that Cou got his patients to cure themselves of their diseases.) Others are due, apparently, to that something not ourselves in the psychic medium - that somethin g which makes, not necessarily for right eousness, but always for power. Whether this something is a piece of second-hand objectivity, p rojected into the medium by the individua l worshipper and his fellows an d p r e d e c e s s o r s ; w h e t h e r i t i s a p i e c e o f f i r s t - h a n d o b j e c t i v i t y , 307 corresponding, on the psychic level, to the data of the materia l universe; or whether it is a combination of both these things, it is impo ssible to determine. All that need be said in this pla ce is that people who turn tow ards God without turning from themselves often seem to acquire a knack o f getting their petitions answered and sometimes develop consider able super-normal powers, such as tho se of psychic healing and extra - sensory perception. But, it may be asked: Is it necessarily a g ood thing to be able to get ones petitions answered in the way one wants them to be? And how far is it spirit ually profitable to be possessed of these miraculous powers? These are questions which were considered in the chapter on Prayer and will be f urther discussed in the chapte r on The Miraculous. The Grand Augur, in his ceremonial robes, approached the shambles (slaughter-house) and thus addressed the pigs. How can you object to die? I shall fatten you for three mont hs. I shall discipline myself for ten days and fast for three. I shall strew fine grass and place you bodily upon a carved sacrificial dish. Does not this satisfy you? Then, speaking from the pigs point of view, he continued: It is better perhaps, after all, to live on bran and escape from the shambles. But then, he added, speaking from his own point of view, to enjoy honour when alive, one would readil y die on a war-shield or in the headsmans basket. So he rejected the pigs point of view and adopted his own point of view. In what sense, then, was he different from the pigs? Chuang Tzu Anyone who sacrifices anything b ut his own person or his own in terests is on exactly the same level as Chuang Tzus pigs. The pigs see k their own advantage inasmuch as they prefer life and bran to honour and t he 308 shambles; the sacrificers seek t heir own advantage inasmuch as they prefer the magical, God-constrai ning death of pigs to the death of their own passions and self-will. And what applies to sacrifice, appl ies equally to incantations, rituals and vain repetitions, when these are u sed (as they all too frequently are, even in the higher religions) as a form of compulsive magic. Rites and vain repetitions have a legitimate place in re ligion as aids to recollectedness, reminders of truth momentarily forgott en in the turmoil of worldly distractions. When spoken or performed as a kind of magic, their use is either com pletely pointless; or else (and this is worse) it may have ego-enhancing results, which do not in any way cont ribute to the attainment of mans final end. The vestments of Isis are variegated to represent the cosmos; that of Osiris is white, symbolizing the Inte lligible Light beyond the cosmos. Plutarch So long as the symbol remains, in the worshippers mind, firmly attached and instrumental to that which i s symbolized, the use of such t hings as w h i t e a n d v a r i e g a t e d v e s t m e n t s c a n d o n o h a r m . B u t i f t h e s y m b o l breaks loose, as it were, and becomes an end in itself, then we have, at the best, a futile aestheticism and sentimentality, at the wors t a form of psychologically effective magic. All externals must yield to love; for they are for the sake of love, and not love for them. Hans Denk Ceremonies in themselves are not sin; but whoever supposes that he can attain to life either by baptism or by partaking of bread is still in superstition. Hans Denk If you be always handling the lette r of the Word, always licking the letter, always chewing u pon that, what great thing do you? No marvel you are such starvelings. John Everard 309 While the Right Law still prevail ed, innumerable were the conve rts who fathomed the depths of the Dharma by merely listening to half a stanza or even to a single phrase of the Buddhas teaching. But as we come to the age of similitude and to these latter days of Buddhism, we are indeed far away from the Sage. People find themselves drowning in a sea of letters; they do no t know how to get at the one substance which alone is truth. This was what caused the appearance of the Fathers (of Zen Buddhism) who, pointing directly at the human mind, told us to see here the ultimate Gr ound of all things and thereby to attain Buddhahood. This is known as a special transmission outside the scriptural teaching. If one is endowed w i t h superior talents or a special sh arpness of mind, a gesture or a word will suffice to give one an immediate knowledge of the truth. Hence, since they were advocates of special transmission, Ummon treated th e (historical) Buddha with the utmost irrevere nce and Yakusan forbade his followers even to read the Sutras. Zen is the name given to this branch of Buddhism, which keeps i tself away from the Buddha. It is also called the mystical branch, be cause it does not adhere to the literal m eaning of the Sutras. It is for this reason that those who blindly follow the steps of Buddha are sure to d eride Zen, while those who have no liking for the letter are naturally inc lined towards the mystical approach. The followers of the two schools know how to shake the head at each other, but fail to realize that t hey are after all complementary. Is not Zen one of the six virtues of p erfection? If so, how can it conflict with the teachings of the Buddha? In my view, Zen is the outcome of the Buddhas teaching, and the mystical i ssues from the letters. There is no reason why a man should shun Zen because of the Buddhas teaching; nor n eed we disregard the letters on account of the mystical teachings of Zen. . . . Students of scriptural Buddhism run t h e r i s k o f b e c o m i n g s t i c k l e r s f o r t h e s c r i p t u r e s , t h e r e a l m e a ning of 310 which they fail to understand. By such men ultimate reality is never grasped, and for them Zen would mean salvation. Whereas those w ho study Zen are too apt to run into the habit of making empty tal ks and practising sophistry. They fail to understand the significance of letters. To save them, the study of Buddh ist scriptures is recommended. It is only when these one-sided views are mutually corrected that the re is a perfect appreciation of th e Buddhas teaching. It would be hard to find a better summing up of the conclusions , to which any spiritually and psychologically realistic mind must s ooner or later come, than the foregoing paragraphs written in the eleven th century by one of the masters of Zen Buddhism. The extract that follows is a moving protest against the crimes and follies p e r p e t r a t e d i n t h e n a m e o f r e l i g i o n b y t h o s e s i x t e e n t h - c e n t u r y Reformers who had turned to Go d without turning away from themselves and who were therefor e far more keenly interested in the temporal aspects of historic Christianity - the ecclesiastical organization, the logic-chopping, the letter of Scripture - than in the Spiri t who must be worshipped in spirit, the eternal Reality in the selfless kn owledge of whom stands mans eternal life. Its author was Sebastian Castel lio, who was at one time Calvins favourite disciple, but who parted com pany with his master when the latter burned Servetus for heresy agai nst his own heresy. Fortunately Castelli o was living in Basel when he m ade his plea for charity and common decency; penned in Geneva, it would have earned him torture and death. If you, illustrious Prince (the words were addressed to the Duke of Wrtemberg) had informed your subjects th at you were coming to visit them at an unnamed time, and had re quested them to be prepared in white garments to meet you at your coming, what would you do if on arrival you should find that, instea d of robing themselves in white, 311 they had spent their time in violent debate about your person - some insisting that you were in France, ot hers that you were in Spain; some declaring that you would come on horseback, others that you would come by chariot; some holding th at you would come with great pomp and others that you would come without any train or following? And what especially would you say if they debated not only with words, but with blows of fist and sw ord strokes, and if some succeeded in killing and destroying othe rs who differed from them? He will come on horseback. No, he will not; it will be by chariot. You lie. I do not; you are the liar. Take that - a blow with the fist. Take that - a sword-thrust throug h the body. Prince, what would you think of such citizens? Christ asked us to put on the white robes of a pure and holy life; but what occu pies our thoughts? We dispute not only of the way to Christ, but of hi s relation to God the Father, of the Trinity, of predestination, of free will, of the nature of God, of the angels, of the condition of the soul after death - of a multitude of matters that are not essential to sa lvation; matters, moreover, which can never be known until our hearts are pure; for they are things which must be spiritually perceived. Sebastian Castellio People always get what they ask for; the only trouble is that t hey never know, until they get it, what it actually is that they have ask ed for. Thus, Protestants might, if they had so desired, have followed the le ad of Castellio and Denk; but they pre f e r r e d C a l v i n a n d L u t h e r - p r e f erred them because the doctrines of justification by faith and of predestination were more excitin g than those of the Perennial Philosophy. And not only more exciting, but also less exacting; for if they were true, one could be saved without going through that distas teful process of self-naughting, which is the necessary pre-condition o f 312 deliverance into the knowledge of eternal Reality. And not only less exacting, but also more satisfying to the intellectuals appeti te for clear- cut formulae and the syllogistic d emonstrations of abstract tru ths. Waiting on God is a bore; but what fun to argue, to score off o pponents, to lose ones temper and call it righteous indignation, and a t last to pass from controversy to blows, from words to what St. Augustine so deliciously described as the ben ignant asperity of persecutio n and punishment! Choosing Luther and Calvin instead of the spiritual reformers w ho were their contemporaries, Protestant Europe got the kind of theolog y it liked. But it also got, along with other unanticipated by-produ cts, the Thirty Years War, capitalism and the first rudiments of modern G e r m a n y . I f w e w i s h , D e a n I n g e h a s r e c e n t l y w r i t t e n , t o f i n d a scapegoat on whose shoulders we may lay the miseries which Germ any has brought upon the world . . . I am more and more convinced t hat the worst evil genius of that country is not Hitler or Bismarck or Frederick the Great, but Martin Luther. . . . It (Lutheranism) worships a God who is neither just nor merciful. . . . The Law of Nature, which ought to be the court of appeal against unjust authority, is identified (by Luther) with the existing order of society, to wh ich absolute obedience is due. And so on. Right belief is the first branch of the Eightfold Path leading to deliverance; the root and primal cause of bondage is wrong beli ef, or ignorance - an ignorance, let us remember, which is never compl etely invincible, but always, in the last analysis, a matter of will. If we dont know, it is because we find it m ore convenient not to know. Ori ginal ignorance is the same thing as original sin. avb 313 Chapter 21 IDOLATRY O educated persons the more pr imitive kinds of idolatry have ceased to be attractive. They find it easy to resist the tempta tion t o b e l i e v e t h a t p a r t i c u l a r n a t u r a l o b j e c t s a r e g o d s , o r t h a t c e rtain symbols and images are the very forms of Divine entities and as such must be worshipped and propitiated. True, much fetishistic supe rstition survives even today. But though it survives, it is not consider ed respectable. Like drinking and prostitution, the primitive form s of idolatry are tolerated, but not approved. Their place in the ac credited hierarchy of values is among the lowest. How different is the case with the developed and more modern fo rms of idolatry! These have achieved not merely survival, but the h ighest degree of respectability. They are recommended by men of scienc e as an up-to-date substitute for gen uine religion and by many profe ssional religious teachers are equated with the worship of God. All thi s may be deplorable; but it is not in the least surprising. Our educatio n disparages the more primitive forms of idolatry; but at the same time it d isparages, or at the best it ignores, the Perennial Philosophy and the pra ctice of s p i r i t u a l i t y . I n p l a c e o f m u m b o - j u m b o a t t h e b o t t o m a n d o f t h e immanent and transcendent Godhead at the top, it sets up, as ob jects of admiration, faith and worship, a pantheon of strictly human ideas and ideals. In academic circles and among those who have been subje cted to higher education, there are f ew fetishists and few devout contemplatives; but the enthusia stic devotees of some form of p olitical or social idolatry are as common as blackberries. Significantly enough, I have observed, when making use o f university libraries, that bo oks on spiritual religion were taken out much less frequently than was the case T 314 in public libraries, any political blue-print, patronized in th e main by men and women who had not enjoyed th e advantages, or suffered under the handicaps, of prolonged a cademic instruction. The many varieties of higher idolatry may be classed under thre e main heads: technological, political a nd moral. Technological idolat ry is the most ingenuous and primitive of the three; for its devotees, li ke those o f t h e l o w e r i d o l a t r y , b e l i e v e t h a t t h e i r r e d e m p t i o n a n d l i b e r a tion depend upon material objects - in this case gadgets. Technologi cal idolatry is the religion whose doctrines are promulgated, expli citly or by implication, in the advertisement pages of our newspapers and magazines - the source, we may a dd parenthetically, from which millions of men, women and children in the capitalistic countries derive t h e i r working philosophy of life. In Soviet Russia too, technological idolatry was strenuously preached, becomi ng, during the years of that co untrys i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n , a k i n d o f s t a te religion. So whole-hearted i s the modern faith in technological idols that ( d e s p i t e a l l t h e l e s s o n s o f mechanized warfare) it is impossible to discover in the popular thinking of our time any trace of the ancient and profoundly realistic d octrine of hubris and inevitable nemesis. T here is a very general belief t hat, where gadgets are concerned, we can get something for nothing - can e njoy all the advantages of an elaborate, top-heavy and constantly advanc ing technology without having to pay for them by any compensating disadvantages. Only a little less ingenuous are the political idolaters. For t he worship of redemptive gadgets these have su bstituted the worship of redemp tive s o c i a l a n d e c o n o m i c o r g a n i z a t i o n s . I m p o s e t h e r i g h t k i n d o f organizations upon human beings, and all their problems, from s in and unhappiness to nationalism and w ar, will automatically disappea r. Most political idolaters are also technological idolaters - and this in spite of the fact that the two pseudo-religions are finally incompatible , since 315 technological progress at its present rate makes nonsense of an y political blue-print, however ing eniously drawn, within a matte r, not of generations, but of years and so metimes even of months. Further , the human being is, unfortunately, a creature endowed with free wil l; and if, for any reason, individuals do not choose to make it work, even the best organization will not produce the results it was intended to produce. The moral idolaters are realists inasmuch as they see that gadg ets and organizations are not enough to guarantee the triumph of virtue and the increase of happiness, and that t he individuals who compose soc ieties and use machines are the arbiters who finally determine whether there shall be decency in personal relationship, order or disorder in society. Material and organizational instr uments are indispensable, and a good tool is preferable to a bad one. But in listless or malicious h ands the finest instrument is either useless or a means to evil. The moralists cease to be reali stic and commit idolatry inasmuc h as they worship, not God, but their own e thical ideals, inasmuch as the y treat virtue as an end in itself and not as the necessary condition o f the knowledge and love of God - a knowledge and love without which that virtue will never be made perfect or even socially effective. What follows is an extract from a very remarkable letter writte n in 1836 by Thomas Arnold to his old pupil and future biographer, A. P. Stanley: Fanaticism is idolatry; and it has the moral evil of idolatry in it; that is, a fanatic worships something wh ich is the creation of his own desire, and thus even his self-devot ion in support of it is only an apparent self-devotion; for in fact it is making the parts of his nature or his mind, which he least values, o ffer sacrifice to that which he most values. The moral fault, as it appears to me, is the idolatry - the setting up of some idea which is most kindred to our ow n minds, and the 316 putting it in the place of Christ, wh o alone cannot be made an idol and inspire idolatry, because He combin es all ideas of perfection and exhibits them in their just harmon y and combination. Now in my own mind, by its natural tendency - that is, taking my mind at its best - truth and justice would be the idol s I should follow; and they would be idols, for they would not supply all the food which the mind wants, and whilst worshipping them, revere nce and humility and tenderness might very likely be forgotten. Bu t Christ Himself includes at once truth and justice and all these ot her qualities too. . . . Narrow- mindedness tends to wickedness, because it does not extend its watchfulness to every part of our moral nature, and the neglect fosters wickedness in the parts so neglected. T h o m a s A r n o l d As a piece of psychological analysis this is admirable. Its onl y defect is one of omission; for it neglects to take into account those inf luxes from the eternal order into the temporal, which are called grace or inspiration. Grace and inspiration are given when, and to the e xtent to which, a human being gives up se lf-will and abandons himself, m oment by moment, through constant reco llectedness and non-attachment, to the will of God. As well as the a nimal and spiritual graces, wh ose source is the Divine Nature of Things, there are human pseudo-graces - such as, for example, the accessions of s trength and virtue that follow self- devotion to some form of political or moral idolatry. To distin guish the true grace from the false is oft en difficult; but as time and c ircumstances reveal the full extent of their consequences on the soul, discr imination becomes possible even to observers having no special gifts of i nsight. Where the grace is genuinely su pernatural, an amelioration in o n e aspect of the total personality is not paid for by atrophy or d eterioration elsewhere. The virtue which is a ccompanied and perfected by the love and knowledge of God is something quite different from the 317 righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees which, for Christ, w a s among the worst of moral evils. Hardness, fanaticism, uncharita bleness and spiritual pride - these are the ordinary by-products of a c ourse of stoical self-improvement by mean s of personal effort, either un assisted or, if assisted, seconded only by the pseudo-graces which are g iven when the individual devotes hims elf to the achievement of an en d which is not his true end, when the goal is not God, but merely a mag nified projection of his own favourite ideas or moral excellences. The idolatrous worship of ethical values in and for themselves defe ats its own object and defeats it not only because, as Arnold insists, there is a lack of all-round development, but also and above all because e ven the highest forms of moral idolatry are God-eclipsing and therefore guarantee the idolater against the enlightening and liberating knowledge of Reality. avb 318 Chapter 22 EMOTIONALISM You have spent all your life in th e belief that you are wholly devoted to others, and never self-seeking. Noth ing so feeds self-conceit as this sort of internal testimony that on e is quite free from self-love, and always generously devoted to one s neighbours. But all this devotion that seems to be for others is really for yourself. Your self-love reaches to the point of perpetual self-congrat ulation that you are free from it; all your sensitiveness is lest you mi ght not be fully satisfied with self; this is at the root of all your scruples. It is the I which makes you so keen and sensitive. You want God as well as man to be always satisfied with you, and you want to be sati sfied with yourself in all your dealings with God. Besides, you are not accustomed to be contented with a simple good will - your self-love wants a lively emotion, a reassuring pleasure, some kind of charm or excitement. Yo u are too much used to be guided by imagination and to suppose that your mind and will are inactive, unless you are conscious of th eir workings. And thus you are dependent upon a kind of excite ment similar to that which the passions arouse, or theatrical repres entations. By dint of refinement you fall into the opposite extreme - a real coarseness of imagination. Nothing is more opposed, not only to th e life of faith, but also to true wisdom. There is no more dangerou s illusion than the fancies by which people try to avoid illusion. It is imagination which leads us astray; and the certainty which we se ek through imagination, feeling, 319 and taste, is one of the most dang erous sources from which fanaticism springs. This is the gulf of va nity and corruptio n which God would make you discover in your heart; you must look upon it with the calm and simplicity belonging to true humility. It is mere self-love to be inconsolable at seeing ones own im perfections; but to stand face to face with them, neither flattering nor tolerating them, seeking to correct oneself without becoming pett ish - this is to desire what is good for its own sake, and for Gods. Fenelon LETTER from the Archbishop of C ambrai - what an event, what a signal honour! And yet it must have been with a certain trepida tion t h a t o n e b r o k e t h e e m b l a z o n e d s e a l . T o a s k f o r a d v i c e a n d a f r a nk opinion of oneself from a man who combines the character of a s aint w ith th e tale nt s o f a Mar ce l Pro us t, is to as k f or th e s e ve re s t k i nd o f shock to ones self-esteem. And duly, in the most exquisitely l ucid prose, the shock would be administered - and, along with the shock, th e i n c o m p a t i b l e s p i r i t u a l a n t i d o t e t o i t s e x c r u c i a t i n g c o n s e q u e n c e s. Fnelon never hesitated to disin tegrate a correspondents compl acent e g o ; b u t t h e d i s i n t e g r a t i o n w a s always performed with a view to reintegration on a highe r, non-egotistic level. This particular letter is not only an admirable piece of charac ter analysis; it also contains some very inter esting remarks on the subject o f emotional excitement in its rela tion to the life of the spirit. The phrase, religion of experie nce, has two distinct and mutu ally incompatible meanings. There is the experience of which the P erennial Philosophy treats - the direct apprehension of the Divine Groun d in an act of intuition possible, in its fullness, only to the selfles sly pure in heart. And there is the experience i nduced by revivalist sermons, im pressive ceremonials, or the deliberate efforts of ones own imagination . This experience is a state of emotio nal excitement - an excitement which A 320 may be mild and enduring or brie f and epileptically violent, wh ich is sometimes exultant in tone and sometimes despairing, which expr esses itself here in song and dance, t here in uncontrollable weeping. B u t emotional excitement, whatever its cause and whatever its natur e, is always excitement of that individualized self, which must be di ed to by a n y o n e w h o a s p i r e s to l i v e t o D i v i n e R e a l i t y . E x p e r i e n c e a s e motion about God (the highest form of this kind of excitement) is incompatible with experience as immediate awaren ess of God by a pure heart whic h has mortified even its most exalted answer: the creditable emotions . That is why Fnelon, in the foregoing extract, insists upon the need fo r calm and simplicity, why St. Franoi s de Sales is never tired of pr eaching the serenity which he himself so consistently practised, why all th e Buddhist s c r i p t u r e s h a r p o n t r a n q u i l l i t y o f m i n d a s a n e c e s s a r y c o n d i t i o n of deliverance. The peace that passe s all understanding is one of the fruits o f t h e s p i r i t . B u t t h e r e i s a l s o t h e p e a c e t h a t d o e s n o t p a s s understanding, the humbler peace o f emotional self-control and self- denial; this is not a fruit of the spirit, but rather one of it s indispensable roots. The imperfect destroy true devotio n, because they seek sensible sweetness in prayer. St. John of the Cross The fly that touches honey cannot use its wings; so the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness ruins its fr eedom and hinders contemplation. St. John of the Cross What is true of the sweet emotions is equally true of the bitte r. For as some people enjoy bad health, so others enjoy a bad conscience. Repentance is metanoia, or change of mind; and without it the re cannot be even a beginning of the spiritual life - for the life of the spirit is incompatible with the life of t h a t o l d m a n , w h o s e a c t s , w h ose thoughts, whose very existence are the obstructing evils which have to be repented. This necessary change of mind is normally accompan ied by 321 sorrow and self-loathing. But the se emotions are not to be pers isted in a n d m u s t n e v e r b e a l l o w e d t o b e c o m e a s e t t l e d h a b i t o f r e m o r s e . I n Middle English remorse is rendered, with a literalness which to modern r e a d e r s i s a t o n c e s t a r t l i n g a n d s t i m u l a t i n g , a s a g a i n - b i t e . In this cannibalistic encounter, who bites whom? Observation and self-a nalysis provide the answer: the creditab l e a s p e c t s o f t h e s e l f b i t e t h e discreditable and are themselves bitten, receiving wounds that fester with incurable shame and despair. But, in Fnelons words, it is mere s e l f - l o v e t o b e i n c o n s o l a b l e a t s e e i n g o n e s o w n i m p e r f e c t i o n s . Self- reproach is painful; but the ver y pain is a reassuring proof th at the self is still intact; so long as attention is fixed on the delinquen t ego, it cannot be fixed upon God and the ego (which lives upon attention and dies only when that sustenance is withheld) cannot be dissolved in the Divine Light. Eschew as though it were a hell the consideration of yourself and your offences. No one should ever think of these things exce pt to humiliate himself and love Our Lord. It is enou gh to regard yourself in general as a sinner, even as there are many saints in heaven who were such. Charles de Condren Faults will turn to good, provi ded we use them to our own humiliation, without slackening in the effort to correct ourselves. Discouragement serves no possible pu rpose; it is simply the despair of wounded self-love. The real way of profiting by the humiliation of ones own faults is to face them in their true hideousness, without ceasing to hope in God, while hoping nothing from self. Fnelon Came she (Mary Magdalene) down from the height of her desire for God into the depth of her sinful life , and searched in the foul stinking fen and dunghill of her soul? Nay, su rely she did not do so. And why? Because God let her know by His grace in her soul that she should never so bring it about. For so migh t she sooner have raised in herself 322 an ableness to have often sinned th an have purchased by that work any plain forgiveness of all her sins. The Cloud of Unknowing In the light of what has been said above, we can understand the peculiar spiritual dangers by which every kind of predominantly emotiona l religion is always menaced. A hell-fire faith that uses the the atrical techniques of revivalism in order to stimulate remorse and indu ce the crisis of sudden conversion; a sa viour cult that is for ever st irring up what St. Bernard calls the amor carnalis o r f l e s h l y l o v e o f t h e A v a t a r a n d personal God; a ritualistic myst ery-religion that generates hig h feelings of awe and reverence and aesthetic ecstasy by means of its sacr aments and ceremonials, its music and its incense, its numinous darkne sses and sacred lights - in its own special way, each one of these runs the risk of b e c o m i n g a f o r m o f p s y c h o l o g i c a l i d o l a t r y , i n w h i c h G o d i s i d e n tified with the egos affective attitude towards God and finally the e motion becomes an end in itself, to be eagerly sought after and worshi pped, as the addicts of a drug spend life in the pursuit of their artifi cial paradise. All this is obvious enough. But it is no less obvious that reli gions that make no appeal to the emotions have very few adherents. Moreove r, when pseudo-religions with a strong emotional appeal make their appearance, they immediately wi n millions of enthusiastic devot ees from among the masses to whom the real religions have ceased to have a meaning or to be a comfort. But whereas no adherent of a pseu do - religion (such as one of our current political idolatries, compounded of nationalism and revolutionism) can possibly go forward into the way of genuine spirituality, such a way always remains open to the adh erents of even the most highly emotionalized varieties of genuine reli gion. T h o s e w h o h a v e a c t u a l l y f o l l o w e d t h i s w a y t o i t s e n d i n t h e u n i tive knowledge of the Divine Ground constitute a very small minority of the total. Many are called; but, since few choose to be chosen, few a r e chosen. The rest, say the orient al exponents of the Perennial P hilosophy, 323 earn themselves another chance, i n c i r c u m s t a n c e s m o r e o r l e s s propitious according to their deserts, to take the cosmic intel ligence test. If they are sa ved, their incomplete and undefinitive de liverance is into some paradisal state of freer personal existence, from whi ch (directly or through further incarnations) they may go on to the final r e l e a s e i n t o e t e r n i t y . I f t h e y a r e l o s t , t h e i r h e l l i s a t e mporal and temporary condition of thicker darkness and more oppressive bon dage to self-will, the root and principle of all evil. We see, then, that if it is persisted in, the way of emotional religion may lead, indeed, to a great good, but not to the greatest. But the emotional way opens into the way of unitive knowledge, and those who care to go on in this other way are well prepared for their task if they h ave used the emotional approach without succumbing to the temptations wh ich have beset them on the way. Only the perfectly selfless and enl ightened can do good that does not, in som e way or other, have to be pai d for by actual or potential evils. The re ligious systems of the world h ave been built up, in the main, by men an d women who were not completely selfless or enlightened. Hence a ll religions have had their dar k and even frightful aspects, while the good they do is rarely gratuitous, but must, in most cases, be paid for, eith er on the nail or by instalment s. The emotion-rousing doctrines an d practices, which play so impo rtant a part in all the worlds organized religions, are no exception t o this rule. They do good, but not gratuitously. The price paid varies accor ding to the nature of the individual worshippers. Some of these choose to wallow in emotionalism and, becom ing idolaters of feeling, pay for the good of their religion by a spiritual evil that may actually ou tweigh that good. Others resist the temptation to self-enhancement and go f orward to the mortification of self, including the selfs emotional si de, and to the worship of God rather than of their own feelings and fancies ab out God. The further they go in this direction, the less they have to pa y for the 324 good which emotionalism brought them and which, but for emotionalism, most of them might never have had. avb Chapter 23 THE MIRACULOUS Revelations are the aberration of fa ith; they are an amusement trance, that spoils simplicity in relation to God, that embarrasses the soul and makes it swerve from its directness in relation to God. They distract the soul and occupy it with other things than God. Special illuminations, auditions, pr ophecies and the rest are marks of weakness in a soul that cannot suppor t the assaults of temptation or of anxiety about the future and Gods judgment upon it . Prophecies are also marks of creaturely curiosity in a soul to whom God is indulgent and to whom, as a father to his importunate child, he gives a few trifling sweetmeats to satisfy its appetite. J. J. Olier The slightest degree of sanctifying grace is superior to a miracle, w h i c h i s s u p e r n a t u r a l o n l y b y r e a s o n o f i t s c a u s e , b y i t s m o d e o f production (quoad modum), not by its intimate reality; the life restored to a corpse is only the natural life, low indeed in comparison with that of grace. R. Garrigou-Lagrange Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a blue-bottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody. Ansari of Herat 325 HE abnormal bodily states, by wh ich the immediate awareness of t h e D i v i n e G r o u n d i s o f t e n a c c o m p a n i e d , a r e n o t , o f c o u r s e , essential parts of that experience. Many mystics, indeed, deplo red such things as being signs, not of Divine grace, but of the bodys w eakness. To l e v i t a t e , t o g o i n t o t r a n c e , t o l o s e t h e u s e o f o n e s s e n s e s - in De Condrens words, this is to rec eive the effects of God and his h o l y communications in a very a nimal and carnal way. One ounce of sanctifying grace, he (St. Francois de Sales) used to say, is worth more than a hundredw eight of those graces which theologians call gratuitous, among whic h is the gift of miracles. It is possible to receive such gifts and yet to be in mortal sin; nor are they necessary to salvation. Jean Pierre Camus The Sufis regard miracles as ve ils intervening between the so ul and God. The masters of Hindu spirituality urge their disciples to pay no attention to the Siddhis, or psychic powers, which may come to them unsought, as a by-product of o ne-pointed contemplation. The cultivation of these powers, the y warn, distracts the soul from Reality and sets up insurmountable obsta cles in the way of enlightenmen t and deliverance. A similar attitude is taken by the best Buddhist t eachers, a n d i n o n e o f t h e P a l i s c r i p t u r e s t h e r e i s a n a n e c d o t e r e c o r d i n g the Buddhas own characteristically d ry comment on a prodigious fea t of l e v i t a t i o n p e r f o r m e d b y o n e o f h i s d i s c i p l e s . T h i s , h e s a i d , will not conduce to the conversion of the unconverted, nor to the advant age of the converted. Then he went bac k to talking about deliverance. Because they know nothing of spirituality and regard the materi al world and their hypotheses about it as supremely significant, rationa lists are anxious to convince themselves a n d o t h e r s t h a t m i r a c l e s d o n o t and cannot happen. Because they have had experience of the spiritua l life and its by-products, the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy are T 326 convinced that miracles do happe n, but regard them as things of little importance, and that mainly negative and anti-spiritual. The miracles which at present ar e i n g r e a t e s t d e m a n d , a n d o f w h ich there is the steadiest supply, are those of psychic healing. In w h a t circumstances and to what extent the power of psychic healing s hould be used has been clearly indicat ed in the Gospel: Whether is i t easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk? If one can forgive sins, one c an safely use the gift of healing. But the forgiving of sins is possible, in its fullness, only to those who speak with authority, in virtue of being se lfless channels of the Divine Spirit. T o these theocentric saints the ordinary, u n r e g e n e r a t e h u m a n b e i n g r e a c t s w i t h a m i x t u r e o f l o v e a n d a w e -longing to be close to them and yet constrained by their very h oliness to say, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Such holiness mak es holy to the extent that the sins of those who approach it are forgiv en and they are enabled to make a new start, to face the consequences of their past wrong-doings (for of course the coming consequences remain) in a new spirit that makes it possibl e for them to neutralize the ev il or turn it into positive good. A less perfec t kind of forgiveness can be b estowed by those who are not themselves outstandingly holy, but who speak with the delegated authority of an institution which the sinner beli eves to be in some way a channel of superna tural grace. In this case the c ontact between unregenerate soul and Div ine Spirit is not direct, but is mediated through the s inners imagination. Those who are holy in virtue of being selfless channels of the Spirit may practise psychic healing with pe rfect safety; for they will kno w which of the sick are ready to accept forgiveness along with the mere mi racle of a bodily cure. Those who are not holy, but who can forgive sins in virtue of belonging to an institution which is believed to be a channe l of grace, m ay a l s o pr ac ti s e h e al i n g w i th a fa i r c o nfi de n ce th a t the y w i l l n o t do 327 more harm than good. But unfortu nately the knack of psychic hea ling seems in some persons to be inbo rn, while others can acquire it without acquiring the smallest degree of holiness. (It is possible to receive such graces and yet be in mortal sin.) Such persons will use their knack indiscriminately, either to show off or for profit. Often they produce spectacular cures - but, lacking the power to forgive sins or e ven to understand the psychological corre lates, conditions or causes o f the symptoms they have so miraculously dispelled, they leave a soul empty, swept and garnished against the coming of seven other devils wo rse than the first. avb 328 Chapter 24 RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT ASWALA: O Yajnavalkya, since everything connected with the sacrifice is pervaded by death and is subject to death, by what means can the sacrificer overcome death? YAJNAVALKYA: By the knowledge of the identity between the sacrificer, the fire and the ritual wo rd. For the ritual word is indeed the sacrificer, and the ritual word is the fire, and the fire, which is one with Brahman, is the sacrificer. Th is knowledge leads to liberation. This knowledge leads one beyond death. Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad N other words, rites, sacraments , and ceremonials are valuable to the extent that they remind those who take part in them of the true Nature of Things, remind them of what ought to be and (if only they would be docile to the immanent and transcendent Spirit) of what actually might be their own relation to the world and its Divine Ground. Theoretically any ritual or sacrament is as good as any other r itual or sacrament, provided always that the object symbolized be in fac t some aspect of Divine Reality and that the relation between symbol a nd fact b e c l e a r l y d e f i n e d a n d c o n s t a n t . I n t h e s a m e w a y , o n e l a n g u a g e is theoretically as good as another. Human experience can be thoug ht about as effectively in Chines e as in English or French. But in practice Chinese is the best language for those brought up in China, English for those brought up in England and French for t hose brought up in France. It is, of course, much easier to learn th e order of a rite and to understand its doctrin al significance than to maste r the I 329 intricacies of a foreign languag e. Nevertheless what has been s aid of language is true, in large measure, of religious ritual. For pe rsons who have been brought up to think of God by means of one set of sym bols, i t i s v e r y h a r d t o t h i n k o f H i m i n t e r m s o f o t h e r a n d , i n t h e i r e y e s , unhallowed sets of words, c eremonies and images. The Lord Buddha then warned Subhuti, saying , Subhuti, do not think that the Tath gata ever considers in his own mind: I ought to enunciate a system of teaching for the elucidation of the Dharma. You should never cherish such a thought. And why? Because if any disciple harboured such a thought he would not only be misunderstanding the Tath gatas teaching, but he would be slandering him as well. Moreover, the expression a system of teaching has no meaning; for Truth (in the sense of Reality) cannot be cut up into pieces and arranged into a system. The words can only be used as a figure of speech. Diamond Sutra But for all their inadequacy and their radical unlikeness to th e facts to which they refer, words remain t he most reliable and accurate o f our symbols. Whenever we want to have a precise report of facts or ideas, we must resort to words. A ceremony, a carved or painted image, may convey more meanings and overtones of meaning in a smaller comp ass and with greater vividness than can a verbal formula; but it is liable to convey them in a form that is much more vague and indefinite. O ne often meets, in modern literature, with the notion that mediaev al churches were the arch itectural, sculptural and pictorial equiv alents of a theological summa, and that mediaeval worshippers who admired the works of art around them were th ereby enlightened on the subjec t of doctrine. This view was evidently not shared by the more earnest churchme n of t h e M i d d l e A g e s . C o u l t o n c i t e s t h e u t t e r a n c e s o f p r e a c h e r s w h o 330 complained that congregations were getting entirely false ideas o f Catholicism by looking at the pictures in the churches instead of listening to sermons. (Similarly, in our own day the Catholic Indians of Central America have evolved the wildest heresies by brooding on the ca rved and painted symbols with which the Conquistadors filled their churc hes.) St. Bernards objection to the richness of Cluniac architecture, sc ulpture and ceremonial was motivated by intellectual as well as strictl y moral considerations. So great and ma rvellous a variety of divers fo rms meets the eye that one is tempted to read in the marbles rather than in the books, to pass the whole day looking at these carvings one afte r another r a t h e r t h a n i n m e d i t a t i n g o n t h e l a w o f G o d . I t i s i n i m a g e l e s s contemplation that the soul comes to the unitive knowledge of R eality; consequently, for those who, lik e St. Bernard and his Cistercia ns, are r e a l l y c o n c e r n e d t o a c h i e v e m a n s final end, the fewer distract ing symbols the better. Most men worship the gods because they want success in their worldly undertakings. This kind of material success can be gained very quickly (by such worship), here on earth. Bhagavad-Gita Among those who are purified by their good deeds there are four kinds of men who worship Me: the world-weary, the seeker for knowledge, the seeker for happiness and the man of spiritual discrimination. The man of discrimina tion is the highest of these. He is continually united wi th Me. He devotes himself to Me always, and to no other. For I am very dear to that man, and he to Me. Certainly, all these are noble; but the man of discrimi nation I see as my very Self. For he alone loves Me because I am Myself, the last and only goal of his devoted heart. Through many a long life his discrimination ripens; he makes Me his refuge, knows that Brahman is all. How rare are such great ones! 331 Men whose discrimination has been blunted by worldly desires, establish this or that ritual or cu lt and resort to various deities, according to the impulse of their inborn nature. But no matter what deity a devotee chooses to worship, if he has faith, I make his faith unwavering. Endowed with the faith I give him, he worships that deity and gets from it everything he prays for. In reality, I alone am the giver. But these men of small understanding pray only for what is transient and perishable. The worshippers of the devas will go to the devas. Those who worship Me will come to Me. Bhagavad-Gita I f s a c r a m e n t a l r i t e s a r e c o n s t a n tly repeated in a spirit of fai th and devotion, a more or less enduring effect is produced in the psy chic medium, in which individual minds bathe and from which they hav e, so to speak, been crystallized out into personalities more or less fully developed, according to the more or less perfect development of the bodies with which they are associated. Of this psychic medium an eminent contemporary philosopher, Dr. C. D. B r o a d , h a s w r i t t e n , i n a n e s s a y o n t e l e p a t h y c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e Proceedings of the Society: We must therefore consider Psychi cal Research as follows: seriously the possibility that a persons ex perience initiates more or less permanent modifications of structur e or process in something which is neither his mind nor his brain. Th ere is no reason to suppose that this substratum would be anything to which possessive adjectives, such as mine and yours and his, could properly be applied, as they can be to minds and animated bodi es. . . . Modifications which have been produced in the substratum by certain of Ns past experiences are 332 activated by Ns present experience s or interests, and they become cause factors in producing or modifying Ns later experiences. Within this psychic medium or non-personal substratum of indivi dual minds, something which we may think of metaphorically as a vort ex persists as an independent existence, possessing its own derive d and secondary objectivity, so that, wherever the rites are performe d, those whose faith and devotion are suf ficiently intense actually disc over something out there, as distinc t from the subjective somethin g in their own imaginations. And so long as this projected psychic entity is nourished by the faith and love of its worshippers, it will pos sess, not merely objectivity, but power to get peoples prayers answered. Ultimately, of course, I alone am the giver, in the sense tha t all this happens in accordance with the D ivine laws governing the univer se in its psychic and spiritual, no less than in its material, aspects. N evertheless, the Devas ( t h o s e i m p e r f e c t f o r m s u n d e r w h i c h , b e c a u s e o f t h e i r o w n voluntary ignorance, men w orship the Divine Ground) may be thought of as relatively independent powers. The primitive notion that the go ds feed o n t h e s a c r i f i c e s m a d e t o t h e m i s s i m p l y t h e c r u d e e x p r e s s i o n o f a profound truth. When their worship falls off, when faith and de votion lose their intensity, the Devas sicken and finally die. Europe is full of old shrines, whose saints and Virgins and relics have lost the powe r and the second-hand psychic objectivity which they once possessed. T h u s , w h e n C h a u c e r l i v e d a n d w r o t e , t h e D e v a c a l l e d T h o m a s B e c k et was giving to any Canterbury pilgrim, who had sufficient faith, all the boons he could ask for. This once-powerful deity is now stone-d ead; but there are still certain churches in the west, certain mosques a nd temples i n t h e E a s t , w h e r e e v e n t h e m o s t i r r e l i g i o u s a n d u n - p s y c h i c t o u rist cannot fail to be aware of some intensely numinous presence. It would, of course, be a mistake to imagine that this presence is the pr esence of that God who is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit; it i s rather the 333 psychic presence of mens though ts and feelings about the parti cular, limited form of God, to which they have resorted according to the impulse of their inborn nature; thoughts and feelings projecte d into objectivity and haunting the sac red place in the same way as th oughts and feelings of another kind, but of equal intensity, haunt the scenes of some past suffering or crime. Th e presence in these consecrated buildings, the presence evoked by the performance of traditiona l rites, t h e p r e s e n c e i n h e r e n t i n a s a c r a m e n t a l o b j e c t , n a m e o r f o r m u l a - all these are real presences, but re al presences, not of God or the A v a t a r , but of something which, though i t may reflect the Divine Realit y, is yet less and other than it. Dulcis Jesu memoria dans vera co rdi gaudia: sed super mel et omnia ejus dulcis praesentia. Sweet is the memory of Jesus, giving true joys to the heart; but sweeter beyond hone y and all else is His presence. This opening stanza of the famou s twelfth-century hymn summariz es in fifteen words the relations subsi sting between ritual and real presence and the character of the worship pers reaction to each. Systema tically cultivated memoria (a thing in itself full of sweetness) first contributes to the evocation, then results, for certain souls, in the immediat e apprehension of praesentia, which brings with it joys of a tota lly different and higher kind. This presence ( w h o s e p r o j e c t e d o b j e c t i v i t y i s occasionally so complete as to be apprehensible not merely by t he devout worshipper, but by more or less indifferent outsiders) is always that of the Divine being who has been previou sly remembered, Jesus here, Kr ishna or Amitabha Buddha there. The value of this practice (repetition of the name of Amitabha Buddha) is this. So long as one pe rson practises his method (of spirituality) and another practises a different method , they counterbalance one another and their meeting is just the same as their not meeting. Whereas if two 334 persons practise the same method, their mindfulness tends to become deeper and deeper, and they tend to remember each other and to develop affinities for each other, life after life. Moreover, whoever recites the name of Amitabha Buddha , whether in the present time or in future time, will surely see th e Buddha Amitabha and never become separated from Him. By reason of that association, just as one associating with a maker of perf umes becomes permeated with the s a m e p e r f u m e s , s o h e w i l l b e c o m e p e r f u m e d b y A m i t a b h a s compassion, and will become enlighte ned without resort to any other expedient means. urangama Sutra We see then that intense faith and devotion, coupled with perse verance by many persons in the same form s of worship or spiritual exerc ise, have a tendency to objectify the idea or memory which is their conte nt and so to create, in some sort, a numinous real presence, which wor shippers actually find out there no less, and in quite another way, th an in here. In so far as this is the case, t he ritualist is perfectly corre ct in attributing to his hallowed acts and words a power which, in another contex t, would be called magical. The Mantram w orks, the sacrifice really does something, the sacrament confers grace ex opere operato : these are, or rather may be, matters of direct experience, facts which anyone who chooses to fulfil the necessary c onditions can verify empirical ly for himself. But the grace conferred ex opere operato is not always spiritual grace and the hallowed acts and formulae have a power which is not necessarily from God. Worshippers can, and very often do, get g race and power from one another and from the faith and devotion of their predecessors, projected into inde pendent psychic existences tha t are hauntingly associated with certain places, words and acts. A gr eat deal of ritualistic religion is not spirituality, but occultism, a r efined and well- 335 meaning kind of white magic. Now, just as there is no harm in a rt, say, or science, but a great deal of good, provided always that thes e activities are not regarded as ends, but simply as means to the final end of all life, so too there is no harm in white magic, but the possibilities o f much good, so long as it is treated, not as true religion, but as on e of the roads to true religion - an effective way of reminding people with a certain kind of psycho-physical make-up that there is a God, in knowledge o f whom standeth their eternal life. If ritualistic white magic is reg arded as being in itself true religion; if the real presences it evokes are ta ken to be God in Himself and not the projectio ns of human thoughts and feelin gs about God or even about something less than God; and if the sacrament al rites are performed and attended for the sake of the spiritual sweet ness experienced and the powers and ad vantages conferred - then ther e is idolatry. This idolatry is, at its best, a very lofty and, in m any ways, beneficent kind of religion. But the consequences of worshippin g God as anything but Spirit and in any way except in spirit and in trut h are necessarily undesirable in this sense - that they lead only to a partial salvation and delay the souls ultimate reunion with the eterna l Ground. That very large numbers of men and women have an ineradicable d esire for rites and ceremonies is clea rly demonstrated by the history o f religion. Almost all the Hebrew prophets were opposed to ritual ism. Rend your hearts and not your garments. I desire mercy and n ot sacrifice. I hate, I despise your feasts; I take no delight i n your solemn assemblies. And yet, in spite of the fact that what the prophe ts wrote was regarded as Divinely inspired, the Temple at Jerusalem cont inued to be, for hundreds of years after their time, the centre of a rel igion of rites, ceremonials and blood sacrifice. (It may be remarked in passing that the shedding of blood, ones own or that of animals or other human beings, seems to be a peculiarly efficaci ous way of constraining the o ccult or psychic world to answer petitions and confer supernormal powers. If thi s is a fact, as from the anthropological and ant iquarian evidence it appears to be, it would 336 supply yet another cogent reason for avoiding animal sacrifices , savage bodily austerities and even, sin ce thought is a form of action, t h a t imaginative gloating over spilled blood which is so common in c ertain Christian circles.) What the Jews did in spite of their prophets, Christians have d one in spite of Christ. The Christ of the Gospels is a preacher and no t a dispenser of sacraments or perfo rmer of rites; he speaks agains t vain repetitions; he insists on the supreme importance of private wo rship; he has no use for sacrifices and not much use for the Temple. But this did not prevent historic Christianity from going its own, all too h uman, way. A precisely similar development took place in Buddhism. For the Buddha of the Pali scriptures, ritual was one of the fetters holding b ack the soul from enlightenment and liberation. Nevertheless, the profession al religion he founded has made full use of ceremonies, vain repet itions and sacramental rites. There would seem to be two mai n reasons for the observed developments of the historical r eligions. First, most people do not want spirituality or deliverance, but rather a religion that gives t hem emotional satisfactions, answers to prayer, supernormal powers and partial salvation in some sort of posthumous heaven. Second, so me of those few who do desire spirituality and deliverance find that, for them, the most effective means to thos e ends are ceremonies, vain repetitions and sacramental rite s. It is by participating in t hese acts and uttering these formulae that they are most powerfully reminded of the eternal Ground of all being; it is by immersing themselves in t he symbols that they can most easily come through to that which is symboli zed. Every thing, event or thought is a point of intersection betwee n creature and Creator, between a more or less distant manifestation of Go d and a ray, so to speak, of the unmanif est Godhead; every thing, event o r thought can therefore be made th e doorway through which a soul may 337 pass out of time into eternity. That is why ritualistic and sac ramental religion can lead to deliverance. But at the same time every hu man being loves power and self-enhancement , and every hallowed ceremony, form of words or sacramental rite is a channel through which power c an flow out of the fascinating psychic universe into the universe of em bodied selves. That is why ritualistic and sacramental religion can al so lead away from deliverance. There is another disadvantage inherent in any system of organiz ed sacramentalism, and that is that it gives to the priestly caste a power which it is all too natural for them to abuse. In a society whi ch has been taught that salvation is exclusively or mainly through certain sacraments, and that these sacra ments can be administered effec tively only by a professional priesthood, that professional priesthood will possess an enormous coercive power. The possession of such powe r is a standing temptation to use it for individual satisfaction and corporate aggrandizement. To a temptation of this kind, if repeated often enough, most human beings who are not sa ints almost inevitably succumb. That is why Christ taught his disciples to pray that they should not be led into temptation. This is, or should b e, the guiding principle of all social reform - to organize the economic, poli tical and social relationships between human beings in such a way that there shall be, for any given i ndividual or group within the society, a minimum of temptations to coveto usness, pride, cruelty and lust for power. Men and women being what they ar e, it is only by reducing the n umber and intensity of temptations that human societies can be, in so me measure at least, delivered from evil. Now, the sort of temptat ions to w h i c h a p r i e s t l y c a s t e i s e x p o s e d i n a s o c i e t y t h a t a c c e p t s a predominantly sacramental religio n are such that none but the m ost saintly persons can be expected consistently to resist them. Wh at happens when ministers of religion are led into these temptatio ns is 338 clearly illustrated by the histo ry of the Roman Church. Because Catholic Christianity taught a version of the Perennial Philosophy, it p roduced a succession of great saints. But because the Perennial Philosoph y was o v e r l a i d w i t h a n e x c e s s i v e a m o u n t o f s a c r a m e n t a l i s m a n d w i t h a n idolatrous preoccupation with things in time, the less saintly members of its hierarchy were exposed to enormous and quite unnecessary temptations and, duly succumbi ng to them, launched out into persecution, simony, power polit ics, secret diplomacy, high fin ance and collaboration with despots. I very much doubt whether, since the Lord by his grace brought me into the faith of his dear Son, I ha ve ever broken bread or drunk wine, even in the ordinary course of li fe, without remembrance of, and some devout feeling regarding, the broken body and the blood-shedding of my dear Lord and Saviour. Stephen Grellet We have seen that, when they are promoted to be the central cor e of organized religious worship, ritu alism and sacramentalism are b y no means unmixed blessings. But that the whole of a mans workaday life should be transformed by him int o a kind of continuous ritual, that every object in the world around him should be regarded as a symbol o f the worlds eternal Ground, that all his actions should be performe d sacramentally - this would seem to be wholly desirable. All the masters of the spiritual life, from the authors of the Upanishads to So crates, from Buddha to St. Bernard, are agree d that without self-knowledge t here cannot be adequate knowledge of God, that without a constant recollectedness there can be no complete deliverance. The man w ho has learnt to regard things as symbo ls, persons as temples of the H oly Spirit and actions as sacraments, is a man who has learned constantly to remind himself who he is, where he stands in relation to the un iverse and its Ground, how he should be have towards his fellows and wh at he must do to come to his final end. 339 Because of this indwelling of the Logos, writes Mr. Kenneth S aunders in his valuable study of the Fourth Gospel, the Gita and the Lo tus Sutra, all things have a reality. They are sacraments, not illusions like the phenomenal word of the Vedanta. That the Logos is in things, l ives and conscious minds, and they in the Logos, was taught much more emphatically and explicitly by th e Vedantists than by the autho r of the Fourth Gospel; and the same idea is, of course, basic in the th eology of Taoism. But though all things in fact exist at the intersection between a D i v i n e m a n i f e s t a t i o n a n d a r a y o f t h e u n m a n i f e s t G o d h e a d , i t b y n o means follows that everyone always knows that this is so. On th e contrary, the vast majority of h uman beings believe that their own selfness and the objects around th em possess a reality in thems elves, wholly independent of the Logos. This belief leads them to iden tify their being with their sensations, cra vings and private notions, and in its turn this self-identification with wh at they are not effectively wal ls them in from Divine influence and the ve ry possibility of deliverance. To most of us on most occasions things are not symbols and actions are not sacramental; and we have to teac h ourselves, consciously and deliberately, to rememb er that they are. The world is imprisoned in its own activity, except when actions are performed as worship of God. Th erefore you must perform every action sacramentally (as if it were Yajna, the sa crifice that, in its Divine Logos-essence, is identical with th e Godhead to whom it is offered), and be free from all attachment to results . Bhagavad-Gita Precisely similar teachings are found in Christian writers, who recommend that persons and even things should be regarded as temples of the Holy Ghost and th at everything done or suffered should be constantly offered to God. 340 It is hardly necessary to add th at this process of conscious sacramentalization can be applie d only to such actions as are n ot intrinsically evil. Somewhat unfortunately, the Gita was not or iginally published as an independent work, but as a theological digressi on within an epic poem; and since, like most epics, the Mahabharata is la rgely concerned with the exploits of wa rriors, it is primarily in rel ation to warfare that the Gitas advice t o act with non-attachment and f or Gods sake only is given. Now, war is accompanied and followed, among other things, by a widespread dissemination of anger and hatred, prid e, cruelty and fear. But, it may be asked, is it possible (the Nature of Things being what it is) to sacramentalize actions whose psychological by- p r o d u c t s a r e s o c o m p l e t e l y G o d - e clipsing as are these passions? T h e Buddha of the Pali scriptures wou ld certainly have answered thi s question in the negative. So would the Lao Tzu of the Tao Teh K ing. So would the Christ of the Synoptic Gospels. The Krishna of the Gi ta (who is also, by a kind of literary acci dent, the Krishna of the Mahabh arata) gives an affirmative answer. But this aff i r m a t i v e a n s w e r , i t s h o u l d b e remembered, is hedged around wit h limiting conditions. Non-atta ched slaughter is recommended only to those who are warriors by cast e, and to whom warfare is a duty and vocation. But what is duty or Dha rma for the Kshatriya is adharma and fo rbidden to the Brahman; nor is it any part of the normal vocation or c a s t e d u t y o f t h e m e r c a n t i l e a n d labouring classes. Any confusion of castes, any assumption by o ne man of another mans vocation and du ties of state, is always, say t he Hindus, a moral evil and a menace to social stability. Thus, it is the business of the Brahmans to fit themselves t o be seers, so that they may be able to explain to their fellow-men the nature of the universe, of man s last end a n d o f t h e w a y t o l i b e r a t i o n . W h e n soldiers or administrators, or usurers, or manufacturers or workers usurp the functions of the Brahmans and formulate a philosophy of life in accordance with their variously distorted notions of the universe, then society is th rown into 341 confusion. Similarly, confusion reigns when the Brahman, the ma n of non-coercive spiritual authority, assumes the coercive power of t h e Kshatriya, or when the Kshatriyas job of ruling is usurped by bankers and stockjobbers, or finally when the warrior castes Karma of fighting is imposed, by conscription, on Brahman, Vaisya and Sudra alike. T he history of Europe during the lat er Middle Ages and Renaissance is largely a history of the social confusions that arise when large number s of those who should be seers abandon spir itual authority in favour of mo ney and political power. And contemporary history is the hideous record of what happens when political bosses, business men or class-conscious proletarians assume the Brahmans function of formulating a phi losophy of life; when usurers dictate policy and debate the issues of w ar and peace; and when the warriors ca ste duty is imposed on all and sundry, regardless of psycho-physica l makeup and vocation. avb 342 Chapter 25 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES ITES, sacraments, ceremonies, lit urgies - all these belong to p ublic worship. They are devices, by means of which the individual members of a congregation are reminded of the true Nature of Th ings and of their proper relations to one another, the universe and God. What ritual is to public worship, spiritual exercises are to pr ivate devotion. They are devices to be used by the solitary individua l when he enters into his closet, shuts the door and prays to his Father which is in secret. Like all other devices, f rom psalm-singing to Swedish e xercises and from logic to internal-combustion engines, spiritual exerci ses can be used either well or badly. Some of those who use spiritual exer cises make progress in the life of the spirit; others, using the same exercises, make no progress. To believe that their use either constitutes enlightenment or guarantees it, i s mere idolatry and superstiti on. To neglect them altogether, to refu se to find out whether and in w hat way they can help in the achievement of our final end, is nothing b ut self- opinionatedness and stubborn obscurantism. St. Francois de Sales used to say, I hear of nothing but perfection on every side, so far as talk goes; bu t I see very few people who really practise it. Everybody has his ow n notion of perfection. One man thinks it lies in the cut of his clot hes, another in fasting, a third in almsgiving, or in frequenting the Sa craments, in meditation, in some special gift of contemplation, or in extraordinary gifts or graces - but they are all mistaken, as it seem s to me, because they confuse the means, or the results, wi th the end and cause. R 343 For my part, the only perfection I know of is a hearty love of God, and to love ones neighbour as oneself. Charity is the only virtue which rightly unites us to God and man. Su ch union is our final aim and end, and all the rest is mere delusion. Jean Pierre Camus St. Franois himself recommended t h e u s e o f s p i r i t u a l e x e r c i s e s a s a means to the love of God and ones neighbours, and affirmed tha t such exercises deserved to be greatly cherished; but this affection for the set forms and hours of mental prayer must never, he warned, be allo wed to become excessive. To neglect any urgent call to charity or obed ience for the sake of practising ones spiritual exercises would be to ne glect the end and the proximate means for the sake of means which are not proximate, but at several remo ves from the ultimate goal. Spiritual exercises constitute a special class of ascetic pract ices, whose purpose is, primarily, to prepar e the intellect and emotions fo r those higher forms of prayer in which the soul is essentially passive in relation to Divine Reality, and secondarily, by means of this self-expos ure to the L i g h t a n d o f t h e i n c r e a s e d s e l f - knowledge and self-loathing res ulting from it, to modify character. In the Orient the systematization of mental prayer was carried out at s o m e u n k n o w n b u t c e r t a i n l y v e r y e a r l y d a t e . B o t h i n I n d i a a n d C hina spiritual exercises (accompanied or preceded by more or less elaborate physical exercises, especia lly breathing exercises) are known to have been used several centuries before th e birth of Christ. In the west, the monks of the Theba'd spent a good part of each day in meditation as a means to contemplation or the unitive knowledge of God; and at all pe riods of C h r i s t i a n h i s t o r y , m o r e o r l e s s m e t h o d i c a l m e n t a l p r a y e r h a s b e en largely used to supplement the vocal praying of public and priv ate worship. 344 But the systematization of menta l prayer into elaborate spiritu al exercises was not undertaken, it would seem, until near the end of the Middle Ages, when reformers within the Church popularized this new form of spirituality in an effort to revivify a decaying monast icism and to reinforce the religious life of a laity that had been bewildere d by the Great Schism and profoundly shocked by the corruption of the cl ergy. Among these early systematizers of knowledge, the most effectiv e and i n f l u e n t i a l w e r e t h e c a n o n s o f W i n d e s h e i m , w h o w e r e i n c l o s e t o uch with the Brethren of the Common Life. During the later sixteent h and early seventeenth centuries spir itual exercises became, one mig ht almost say, positively fashionab le. The early Jesuits had shown w h a t extraordinary transformations of character, what intensities of will and devotion, could be achieved by m en systematically trained on th e intellectual and imaginative exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, and as the prestige of the Jesuits stood very high, at this time, in Catho lic Europe, the prestige of spiritual exerci ses also stood high. Throughout the first century of the Counter-Reformati on numerous systems of mental prayer (many of them, unlike the Ignati an exercises, specifically myst ical) were composed, published and eagerly bought. After the Quietist controversy, mysticism fell into disrepute a nd, along with mysticism, many of the once popular systems, which their a uthors had designed to assist the soul on the path towards contemplati on. For more detailed information on thi s interesting and important sub ject the reader should consult Pourrats Christian Spirituality, Bede Fr osts The Art of Mental Prayer, Edward Leen s Progress through Mental Pra yer and Aelfrida Tillyards Spiritual Exercises. Here it is only po ssible to give a few characteristic specimens f rom the various religious tradi tions. Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the Beloved. There is no other secret to be learnt, and more than this is not known to me. Ansari of Herat 345 Six hundred years later, as we hav e seen, St. Francois de Sales was saying very much the same thing to young Camus and all the others who came t o h i m i n t h e i n g e n u o u s h o p e t h a t h e c o u l d r e v e a l s o m e e a s y a n d infallible trick for achieving the unitive knowledge of God. Bu t to lose self in the Beloved - there is n o other secret. And yet the Suf is, like their Christian counterparts, made ample use of spiritual exercises - not, of c o u r s e , a s e n d s i n t h e m s e l v e s , n o t e v e n a s p r o x i m a t e m e a n s , b u t a s means to the proximate means of union with God, namely selfless and loving contemplation. For twelve years I was the smith of my soul. I put it in the furnace of austerity and burned it in the fire of combat, I laid it on the anvil of reproach and smote it with the hamm er of blame until I made of my soul a mirror. Five years I was the mirror of myself and was ever polishing that mirror with divers ac ts of worship and piety. Then for a year I gazed in contemplation. On my waist I saw a girdle of pride and vanity and self-conceit and re liance on devotion and approbation of my works. I laboured for five ye ars more until that girdle became worn out and I professed Islam anew. I looked and saw that all created things were dead. I pronounced fo ur Akbirs over them and returned from the funeral of them all, an d without intrusion of creatures, through Gods help alone, I attained unto God. Bayazid of Bistun The simplest and most widely prac tised form of spiritual exerci se is r e p e t i t i o n o f t h e D i v i n e n a m e , o r o f s o m e p h r a s e a f f i r m i n g G o d s existence and the souls dependence upon Him. And therefore, when thou pu rposest thee to this work (of con- templation), and feelest by grace that thou art called by God, lift up thine heart unto God with a meek st irring of love. And mean God that made thee, and bought thee, and grac iously called thee to thy degree, 346 and receive none other thought of God. And yet not all these, except thou desirest; for a naked intent di rected unto God, without any other cause than Himself, sufficeth wholly. And if thou desirest to have this intent lapped and folden in one word , so that thou mayest have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word of one syllable, for so it is better than of two; for the shorter the word, the better it accordeth with the work of the spirit. And such a word is this word GOD or this word LOVE. Choose whichever thou wilt, or another; whatever word thou likest best of one syllable. And fasten this word to thy heart that so it may never go thence fo r anything that befalleth. The word shall be thy shield and th y spear, whether thou ridest on peace or on war. With this word thou shalt beat on this cloud and this darkness above thee. With this word thou shalt smite down all manner of thought under the cloud of fo rgetting. Insomuch that, if any thought press upon thee to ask what thou wouldst have, answer with no more words than with this one word (GOD or LOVE). And if he offer of his great learning to expo und to thee that word, say to him that thou wilt have it all whole, and not broken nor undone. And if thou wilt hold fast to this purpose, be sure that that thought will no while bide. The Cloud of Unknowing In another chapter the author of the Cloud suggests that the wo rd symbolizing our final end should sometimes be alternated with a word denoting our present position in relation to that end. The word s to be repeated in this exerc ise are SIN and GOD. Not breaking or expounding thes e words with curiosity of wit, considering the qualities of these wo rd s, a s if th o u wo u ld st b y tha t consideration increase thy devotion. I believe it should never be so in this case and in this work. But ho ld them all whole, these words; and 347 mean by SIN a lump, thou knowest never what, none other thing but thyself. . . . And because ever the wh iles thou livest in this wretched life, thou must always feel in some part this foul stinking lump of sin, as it were oned and congealed wi th the substance of thy being, therefore shalt thou alternately me an these two words - SIN and GOD. With this general understanding that, if thou hadst God, then shouldst t h o u l a c k s i n ; a n d m i g h t e s t t h o u l a c k s i n , t h e n s h o u l d s t t h o u h a v e God. The Cloud of Unknowing The shaykh took my hand and led me into the convent. I sat down in the portico, and the shaykh picked up a book and began to read. As is the way of scholars, I could not help wondering what the book was. The shaykh perceived my thoughts. Abu Said, he said, all the hundred and twenty-four thousand pr ophets were sent to preach one word. They bade the people say Alla h, and devote themselves to Him. Those who heard this word by the ea r alone let it go out by the other ear; but those who heard it with thei r souls imprinted it on their souls and repeated it until it penetrated their hearts and souls, and their whole beings became this word. Th ey were made independent of the pronunciation of the word; they were released from the sound of the letters. Having understood the spir itual meaning of this word, they became so absorbed in it that they were no more conscious of their own non-existence. Abu Said Take a short verse of a psalm, and it shall be shield and buckler to you against all your foes. Cassian, quoting Abbot Isaac In India the repetition of the Divine name or the Mantram (a short devotional or doctrinal affirmation) is called Japam and is a favourite spiritual exercise among all the sects of Hinduism and Buddhism . The S h o r t e s t M a n t r a m i s O M - a s p o k e n s y m b o l t h a t c o n c e n t r a t e s w i t h in 348 itself the whole Vedanta philoso phy. To this and other Mantrams Hindus attribute a kind of magical power. The repetition of them is a sacramental act, conferring grace ex opere operata. A similar e fficacity was and indeed still is attribut e d t o s a c r e d w o r d s a n d f o r m u l a e b y B u d d h i s t s , M o s l e m s , J e w s a n d C h r i s t i a n s . A n d , o f c o u r s e , j u s t a s traditional religious rites seem to possess the power to evoke the real presence of existents projected into psychic objectivity by the faith and devotion of generations of worshippers, so too long-hallowed wo rds and phrases may become channels for conveying powers other and grea ter than those belonging to the individual who happens at the momen t to be pronouncing the Divine Word within the soul. It is them. And meanwhile the constant repetitio n of this word GOD or this wor d LOVE may, in favourable circumstances , have a profound effect upon t he subconscious mind, inducing that selfless one-pointedness of wi ll and thought and feeling, without which the unitive knowledge of God i s impossible. Furthermore, it may happen that, if the word is sim ply repeated all whole, and not broken up or undone by discursive analysis, the Fact for which the word stands will end by presenting itsel f to the soul in the form of an integral intuition. When this happens, the doors of the letters of this word are opened (to use the language of the Sufis) and the soul passes through into Reality. B u t t h o u g h a l l t h i s m a y h a p p e n , i t n e e d n o t n e c e s s a r i l y h a p p e n . F o r there is no spiritual patent med icine, no pleasant and infallib le panacea for souls suffering from separat eness and the deprivation of Go d. No, there is no guaranteed cure; and , if used improperly, the medic ine of spiritual exercises may start a new disease or aggravate the ol d. For example, a mere mechanical repet ition of the Divine name can re sult in a kind of numbed stupefaction that is as much below analytical thought as intellectual vision is above it. And because the sacred word constitutes a kind of prejudgment of the experience induced by its 349 repetition, this stupefaction, o r some other abnormal state, is taken to be the immediate awareness of Rea lity and is idolatrously culti vated and hunted after, with a turning of the will towards what is suppos ed to be God before there has been a turni ng of it away from the self. The dangers which beset the prac tiser of Japam, who is insuffic iently mortified and insufficiently recollected and aware, are encount ered in the same or different forms by t hose who make use of more elabo rate spiritual exercises. Intense con centration on an image or idea, such as is recommended by many teachers, both Eastern and Western, may be very helpful for certain persons in certain circumstances, very harmful in other cases. It is helpful when the concentration results in such mental stillness, such a silence of int ellect, will and feeling, that the Divine Word can be uttered within the soul. I t i s h a r m f u l w h e n t h e i m a g e c o n c e n t r a t e d u p o n b e c o m e s s o hallucinatingly real that it is taken for objective Reality and idolatrously worshipped; harmful, too, when the exercise of concentration pr oduces unusual psycho-physical results, in which the person experienci ng them takes a personal pride, as being special graces and Divine communications. Of these unusual psycho-physical occurrences th e most ordinary are visions and a uditions, fore-knowledge, telepa thy and other psychic powers, and the curious bodily phenomenon of inte nse heat. Many persons who practise concentration exercises experie nce this heat occasionally. A number of Christian saints, of whom t he best known are St. Philip Neri and St. Catherine of Siena, have expe rienced it continuously. In the East techniques have been developed whereby the accessio n of heat resulting from intense conc entration can be regulated, con trolled and put to do useful work, such as keeping the contemplative wa rm in freezing weather. In Europe, wh ere the phenomenon is not well understood, many would-be contemp latives have experienced this heat, 350 a n d h a v e i m a g i n e d i t t o b e s o m e s p e c i a l D i v i n e f a v o u r , o r e v e n the experience of union, and being insufficiently mortified and hum ble, have fallen into idolatry and a God- eclipsing spiritual pride. The following passage from one of the great Mahayana scriptures contains a searching criticism o f the kind of spiritual exercis es prescribed by Hinayanist teachers - concent ration on symbolic objects, med itations on transience and decay (to wean the soul away from attachment to earthly things), on the different virtues which must be cultivated, on the fundamental doctrines of Buddhism. (Many of these exercises are described at length in The Path of Purity, a book which has bee n translated in full and published by the Pa li Text Society. Mahayanist exer cises are described in the urangama Sutra, translated by Dwight Goddard, and in the volume on Tibetan Yoga, edited by Dr. Evans-Wentz.) In his exercise the Yogin sees (imaginatively) the form of the sun or moon, or something looking like a lo tus, or the underworld, or various forms, such as sky, fire and the like. All these appearances lead him in the way of the philosophers; they throw him down into the state of Sravaka-hood, into the realm of th e Pratyeka-buddhas. When all these are put aside and there is a state of imagelessness, then a condition in conformity with Suchness presents itself, and the Buddhas will come together from all their countries and with their shining hands will touch the head of this benefactor. Lakvatra Sutra In other words intense concentration on any image (even if the image be a sacred symbol, like the lotus) or on any idea, from the idea of hell to the i d e a o f s o m e d e s i r a b l e v i r t u e o r i t s a p o t h e o s i s i n o n e o f t h e D ivine attributes, is always concentration on something produced by on es own mind. Sometimes, in mortified and recollected persons, the art of concentration merges into the state of openness and alert passi vity, in which true contemplation becomes possible. But sometimes the fa ct 351 that the concentration is on a product of the concentrators ow n mind results in some kind of false or incomplete contemplation. Such ness, or the Divine Ground of all being, reveals itself to those in whom there is no ego-centredness (nor even any alter-ego-centredness) either of will, imagination, feeling or intellect. I say, then, that introversion must be rejected, because extraversion must never be admitted; but one must live continuously in the abyss of the Divine Essence and in the noth ingness of things; and if at times a man finds himself separated from them (the Divine Essence and created nothingness) he must return to them, not by introversion, but by annihilation. Benet of Canfield Introversion is the process condemned in the Lakvatra Sutra as the way of the Yogin, the way that leads at worst to idolatry, at b est to a partial knowledge of God in the heights within, never to comple te knowledge in the fullness without as well as within. Annihilati on (of which Father Benet distinguishes two kinds, passive and active) is for the Mahayanist the state of imagele ssness in contemplation and, i n active life, the wholly good state of t otal non-attachment, in which e ternity can be apprehended within time, and S a m s a r a i s k n o w n t o b e o n e w i t h Nirvana. And therefore, if thou wilt stan d and not fall, cease never in thine intent, but beat evermore on this cloud of unknowing that is betwixt thee and thy God, with a sharp dart of longing love. And loathe to think of aught under God. And go no t thence for any- the tree thing that befalleth. For this only is that work that destroyeth the Ground and the root of sin. . . . Yea, and what more? Weep thou never so much for sorrow of thy sins, or of the passi on of Christ, or have thou never so much thought of the joys of heav en, what may it do to thee? Surely much good, much help, much profit, much grace will it get thee. But 352 in comparison of this blind stirring of love, it is but little that it doth, or may do, without this. This by itself is the best part of Mary, without these other. They without it profit but little or nought. It destroyeth not only the Ground and the root of si n, as it may be here, but also it getteth virtues. For if it be truly co nceived, all virtues shall be subtly and perfectly conceived, felt and comprehended in it, without any mingling of thine intent. And ha ve a man never so many virtues without it, all they be mingled wi th some crooked intent, for the which they be imperfect. For virtue is nought else but an ordered and measured affection, plainly dire cted unto God for Himself. The Cloud of Unknowing If exercises in concentration, repetitions of the Divine name, or meditations on Gods attributes or on imagined scenes in the li fe of saint o r A v a t a r h e l p t h o s e w h o m a k e u s e o f t h e m t o c o m e t o s e l f l e s s n e ss, openness and (to use Augustine Bakers phrase) that love of the pure divinity, which makes possible the souls union with the Godhe ad, then such spiritual exercises are who lly good and desirable. If they have other results - well, the tree is known by its fruits. B e n e t o f C a n f i e l d , t h e E n g l i s h C apuchin who wrote The Rule of Perfection and was the spiritual guide of Mme Acarie and Cardin al Brulle, hints in his treatise at a method by which concentrati on on an image may be made to lead up to imageless contemplation, blind beholding, love of the pure divinity. The period of mental p rayer is to begin with intense concentration on a scene of Christs passion ; then the mind is, as it were, to abolish this imagination of the sacred humanity and to pass from it to the forml ess and attribut eless Godhead a nd a kind of which that humanity incarnate s. A strikingly similar exercis e is described in the Bardo Thodol or Tibetan Book of the Dead (a work of 353 quite extraordinary profundity and beauty, now fortunately avai lable in translation with a valuable introduction and notes by Dr. Evans -Wentz). Whosoever thy tutelary deity may be, meditate upon the form for much time - as being apparent, yet no n-existent in reality, like a form produced by a magician. . . . Then le t the visualization of the tutelary deity melt away from the extremit ies, till nothing at all remaineth visible of it; and put thyself in the state of the Clearness and the Voidness - which thou canst not conc eive as something - and abide in that state for a little while. Again meditate upon the tutelary deity; again meditate upon the Clear Light; do this alternately. Afterwards allow thine own intellect to melt away gradually, beginning from the extremities. The Tibetan Book of the Dead As a final summing up of the whole matter we may cite a sentenc e of Eckharts. He who seeks God under settled form lays hold of th e form, while missing the God concealed in it. Here, the key word is settled. It is permissible to seek God provisionally under a form which is from the first recognized as merely a sym bol of Reality, and a symbol wh ich must sooner or later be discarded in favour of what it stands for. T o seek Him under a settled form - settled b ecause regarded as the very sha pe of Reality - is to commit oneself t o illusion and a kind of idolat ry. The chief impediments in the way of taking up the practice of s ome form of mental prayer are ignorance o f the Nature of dreams, Things (which has never, of course, been more a bysmal than in this age of fre e compulsory education) and the absorption in self-interest, in positive and negative emotions connected with the passions and with what is technical ly known as a good time. And when the practice has been taken up , the chief impediments in the way of advance towards the goal of men tal prayer are distractions. 354 Probably all persons, even the most saintly, suffer to some ext ent from distractions. But who, in the intervals of mental prayer, leads a dispersed, unrecollected, self-c entred life will have more and worse distractions to contend with than one w ho liv e s one - poin ted l y, never f o r g e t t i n g w h o h e i s a n d h o w r e l a t e d t o t h e u n i v e r s e a n d i t s D i vine Ground. Some of the most profitable spiritual exercises actuall y make use of distractions, in such a way that these impediments to se lf- abandonment, mental silence and passivity in relation to God ar e transformed into means of progress. But first, by way of preface to the description of these exerci ses, it should be remarked that all teac hers of the art of mental praye r concur in advising their pupils never t o use violent efforts of the wi ll against the distractions which arise in the mind during periods of recollec tion. The reason for this has been succinc tly stated by Benet of Canfield in his Rule of Perfection. The more a man operates, the more he is and exi sts. And the more he is and exists, the less of God is and exists within him. Every enhancement of the separate pers onal self produces a correspond ing diminution of that selfs awareness of Divine Reality. But any violent reaction of the surface will against distractions automatically enhances the separate, personal self and therefore reduce s the individua ls chances of coming to the knowledge and love of God. In the proc ess of trying forcibly to abolish our Go d-eclipsing daydreams, we mere ly deepen the darkness of o ur native ignorance. This being so, we must give up the attempt to fight distraction s and find ways either of circumventing them, or of somehow making use of them. F o r e x a m p l e , i f w e h a v e a l r e a d y a c h i e v e d a c e r t a i n d e g r e e o f a l ert passivity in relation to Reality and distractions intervene, we can simply look over the shoulder of the malicious and concupiscent imbe cile who stands between us and the object of our simple regard. The di stractions now appear in the foreground of consciousness; we take notice o f their 355 presence, then, lightly and gent ly, without any straining of th e will, we shift the focus of attention to Reality which we glimpse, or Di vine, or (by past experience or an act of faith) merely know about, in the background. In many cases, this effortless shift of attention will cause th e distractions to lose their obsessive therene ss and, for a time at least, t o disappear. If the heart wanders or is distracted , bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in it s Masters presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in Our Lords pr esence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your ho ur would be very well employed. St Franois de Sales I n t h i s c a s e t h e c i r c u m v e n t i o n o f d i s t r a c t i o n s c o n s t i t u t e s a v a luable lesson in patience and perseveran ce. Another and more direct me thod of making use of the monkey in our heart is described in The Cl oud of Unknowing. When thou feelest that thou mayest in no wise put them (distractions) down, cower then down under th em as a caitin and a coward overcome in battle, and think it is bu t folly to strive any longer with them, and therefore thou yieldest th yself to God in the hands of thine enemies. . . . And surely, I think, if th is device be truly conceived, it is nought else but a true knowing and a feeling of thyself as thou art, a wretch and a filthy thing, far wo rse than nought; the which knowing and feeling is meekness (humility). And this meekness meriteth to have God mightily descending to venge thee on thine enemies, so as to take thee up and cherishingly dry thy ghos tly eyes, as the father doth to the child that is at the point to perish under the mouths of wild swine and mad biting bears. The Cloud of Unknowing 356 Finally, there is the exercise, much employed in India, which c onsists in dispassionately examining the di stractions as they arise and in tracing t h e m b a c k , t h r o u g h t h e m e m o r y o f p a r t i c u l a r t h o u g h t s , f e e l i n g s and actions, to their origins in tem perament and character, constit ution and acquired habit. This procedure reveals to the soul the true rea sons for its separation from the Divine Ground of its being. It comes to realize that its spiritual ignorance is due to the inert recalcitrance or positive rebelliousness of its selfhood, an d it discovers, specifically, th e poin ts w h e r e t h a t e c l i p s i n g s e l f h o o d c o n g e a l s , a s i t w e r e , i n t o t h e h a rdest, densest clots. Then, having made the resolution to do what it c an, in the course of daily living, to rid itself of these impediments to L ight, it quietly puts aside the thought of them and empty, purged and silent, pa ssively exposes itself to whatever it may be that lies beyond and withi n. N o v e r i m m e , n o v e r i m T e , S t . F r a n c i s o f A s s i s i u s e d t o r e p e a t . S e l f - knowledge, leading to self-hatred and humility, is the conditio n of the love and knowledge of God. Spiritual exercises that make use of distractions have this great mer it, that they increase self-kno wledge. Every soul that approaches God must be aware of who and what it is. To practise a form of mental or vocal prayer that is, so to speak, above ones m o r a l s t a t i o n i s t o a c t a l i e : a n d t h e c o n s e q u e n c e s o f s u c h l y i ng are wrong notions about God, idolatrous worship of private and unre alistic phantasies and (for lack of the humilit y of self-knowledge) spiritual pride. It is hardly necessary to add that this method has, like every other, its dangers as well as its advantages. For those who employ it ther e is a standing temptation to forget th e end in the all too squalidly personal means - to become absorbed in a whitewashing or remorseful essa y in autobiography to the exclusion of the pure Divinity, before who m the angry ape played all the fantas tic tricks which he now so rel ishingly remembers. 357 We come now to what may be calle d the spiritual exercises of da ily life. The problem, here, is simple enough - how to keep oneself remin ded, during the hours of work and recreation, that there is a good d eal more to the universe than that which meets the eye of one absorbed i n business or pleasure? There is no single solution to this probl em. Some kinds of work and recreation are so simple and unexactive that they permit of continuous repetition of sacred name or phrase, unbro ken thought about Divine Reality, or, what is still better, uninter rupted mental silence and alert passivity. Such occupations as were th e daily task of Brother Lawrence (whose practice of the presence of God has enjoyed a kind of celebrity in circles otherwise completely uni nterested in mental prayer or spiritual exercises) were almost all of this simple and unexacting kind. But there are other tasks too complex to admit of this constant recollectedness. Thus, to quote E ckhart, a celebrant of the ma ss who is over-intent on recollection is l iable to make mistakes. The bes t way is to try to concentrate the mind before and afterwards, but, when sa ying it, to do so quite straightforwardly . This advice applies to any o ccupation demanding undivided attention. B ut undivided attention is seldo m demanded and is with difficulty sustained for long periods at a stretch. There are always intervals of relaxation. Everyone is free to c hoose whether these intervals shall be filled with day-dreaming or wi th something better. Whoever has God in mind, simply an d solely God, in all things, such a man carries God with him into all his works and into all places, and God alone does all his works. He se eks nothing but God, nothing seems good to him but God. He becomes on e with God in every thought. Just as no multiplicity can dissipate God, so nothing can dissipate this man or make him multiple. Eckhart 358 I do not mean that we ought volun tarily to put ourselves in the way of dissipating influences; God forbid ! That would be tempting God and seeking danger. But such distractions as come in any way providentially, if met with due prec aution and carefully guarded hours of prayer and reading, will turn to good. Often those things which make you sigh for solitude are more profitable to your humiliation and self-denial than the most utter solitu de itself would be. . . . Sometimes a stimulating book of devotion, a fervent meditation, a striking conversation, may flatter your tastes and make you feel self-satisfied and complacent, imagining yourself far advanced towards perfection; and by filling you with unreal notions, be all the time swelling your pride and making you come from your religious exercises less tolerant of whatever crosses your will. I would have you hold fast to this simple rule: seek nothing dissipating, bu t bear quietly with whatever God sends without your seeking it, whethe r of dissipation or interruption. It is a great delusion to seek Go d afar off in matters perhaps quite unattainable, ignoring that He is be side us in our daily annoyances, so long as we bear humbly and brav ely all those which arise from the manifold imperfections of our neighbours and ourselves. Fnelon Consider that your life is a perpetual perishing, and lift up your mind to God above all whenever the clock strikes, saying, God, I adore your eternal being; I am happy that my being should perish every moment, so that at every moment it may render homage to your eternity. J.J. Olier When you are walking alone, or else where, glance at the general will of God, by which He wills all the works of his mercy and justice in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and approve, praise and then love that sovereign will, all holy, all just , all beautiful. Gl ance next at the 359 special will of God, by which He l oves his own, and works in them in divers ways, by consolation and tribulation. And then you should ponder a little, considering the variety of consolations, but especially of tribulations, that the good suff er; and then with great humility approve, praise and love all this wi ll. Consider that will in your own person, in all the good or ill that happens to you and may happen to you, except sin; then approve, praise and love all that, protesting that you will ever cherish, honour an d adore that sovereign will, and submitting to Gods pleasure an d giving Him all who are yours, amongst whom am I. End in a great conf idence in that will, that it will work all good for us and our happi ness. I add that, when you have performed this exercise two or three times in this way, you can shorten it, vary it and arrange it, as you find best, for it should often be thrust into your heart as an aspiration. St. Franois de Sales Dwelling in the light, there is no oc casion at all for stumbling, for all things are discovered in the light. Wh en thou art walking abroad it is present with thee in thy bosom, thou needest not to say, Lo here, or Lo there; and as thou lyest in thy bed, it is present to teach thee and judge thy wandering mind, which wanders abroad, and thy high thoughts and imaginations, and make s them subject. For following thy thoughts, thou art quickly lost. By dwelling in this light, it will discover to thee the body of sin an d thy corruptions and fallen estate, where thou art. In that light which shows thee all this, stand; go neither to the right nor to the left. George Fox The extract which follows is taken from the translation by Wait ao and Goddard of the Chinese text of The Awakening of Faith, by Ashva ghosha - a work originally composed in Sanskrit during the first centu ry of our e r a , b u t o f w h i c h t h e o r i g i n a l h a s b e e n l o s t . A s h v a g h o s h a d e v o t es a 360 section of his treatise to the expedient means, as they are c alled in Buddhist terminology, whereby un itive knowledge of Thusness may be achieved. The list of these indi spensable means includes charit y and compassion towards all sentient beings, sub-human as well as hu man, self-naughting or mortification, personal devotion to the incar nations of the Absolute Buddha nature, and spiritual exercises designed to free the mind from its infatuating desires for separateness and independ ent selfhood and so make it capable of realizing the identity of it s own essence with the universal Essence of Mind. Of these various e xpedient means I will cite only the last two - the Way of Tranquillity, and the Way of Wisdom. The Way of Tranquillity The purpose of this discipline is tw o-fold: to bring to a standstill all disturbing thoughts (and all discriminating thoughts are disturbing), to quiet all engrossing moods and emotio ns, so that it will be possible to concentrate the mind for the purpos e of meditation and realization. Secondly, when the mind is tranqu illized by stoppin g all discursive thinking, to practise reflection or meditation, not in a discriminating, analytical way, but in a more intellectual way (cp. the scholastic distinction between reason and intellect), by realizing the meaning and significances of ones thoughts and experiences. By this twofold practice of stopping and realizing, ones faith, which has already been awakened, will be developed, and gr adually the two aspects of this practice will merge into one another - the mind perfectly tranquil, but most active in realization. In the past one naturally had co nfidence in ones faculty of discrimination (analytical thinking), but this is now to be eradicated and ended. Those who are practising stopping should retire to some 361 quiet place and there, sitting erect, earnestly seek to tranquillize and concentrate the mind. While one may at first think of ones breathing, it is not wise to continue this prac tice very long, nor to let the mind rest on any particular appearances, or sights, or conc eptions, arising from the senses, such as the primal elements of earth, water, fire and ether (objects on which Hinayanists were wont to concentrate at one stage of their spiritual training), nor to let it rest on any of the minds perceptions, particularizations, di scriminations, moods or emotions. All kinds of ideation are to be discar ded as fast as they arise; even the notions of controlling and discarding are to be got rid of. Ones mind should become like a mirror, reflec ting things, but not judging them or retaining them. Conceptions of th emselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Conceptions arising from the senses and lower mind will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if th ey are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing. The sa me is true of conditions outside the mind; they should not be allowe d to engross ones attention and so to hinder ones practice. The mind cannot be absolutely vacant, and as the thoughts arising from the senses and the lower mind are discarded and ignored, one must supply thei r place by right mentation. The question then arises: what is ri ght mentation? The reply is: right mentation is the realization of mind itself, of its pure undifferentiated Essence. When the mind is fixed on its pure Essence, there should be no lingering notions of the self, even of the self in the act of realizing, nor of realization as a phenomenon. . . . 362 The Way of Wisdom The purpose of this discipline is to bring a man into the habit of applying the insight that has come to him as the result of the preceding disciplines. When one is rising, st anding, walking, doing something, stopping, one should constantly conc entrate ones mind on the act and the doing of it, not on ones relation to the act, or its character or value. One should think: there is walking, there is stopping, there is realizing; not, I am walking, I am doing this, it is a good thing, it is disagreeable, I am gaining merit, it is I who am realizing how wonderful it is. Thence come vagrant thoughts, feelings of elation or of failure and unhappiness. Instead of all this , one should simply practise concentration of the mind on the act itself, understanding it to be an expedient means for attaining tranquillity of mind, realization, insight and wisdom; and one should follow th e practice in faith, willingness and gladness. After long practice the bondage of old habits becomes weakened and disappears, and in its place appear confidence, satisfaction, awareness and tranquilli ty. What is this Way of Wisdom designed to accomplish? There are three classes of conditions that hinder one from advancing along the path to Enlightenment. First, there are the allurements arising from the senses, from external conditions and from the discrimina ting mind. Second, there are the internal conditions of the mind, its thoughts, desires and mood. All these the earlier practices (ethical and mortificatory) are designed to eliminate. In the third class of impe diments are placed the individuals instinctive and fundamental (and therefore most insidious and persistent) urges - the will to live and to enjoy, the will to cherish ones personality, the will to propagate, which give rise to greed and lust, fear and anger, infatuation, pride and egotism. 363 The practice of the wisdom Parami ta is designed to control and eliminate these fundamental and inst inctive hindrances. By means of it the mind gradually grows cleare r, more luminous, more peaceful. Insight becomes more penetrating, faith deepens and broadens, until they merge into the inconceivabl e Samadhi of the Minds Pure Essence. As one continues the prac tice of the Way of Wisdom, one yields less and less to thoughts of comfort or desolation; faith becomes surer, more pervasive, beneficent an d joyous; and fear of retrogression vanishes. But do not think that the consummati on is to be attained easily or quickly; many rebirths may be ne cessary, many aeons may have to elapse. So long as doubts, unbelief, slanders, evil conduct, hindrances of Karma, weakness of faith, pride, sloth and mental agitation persist, so long as even their shadows linger , there can be no attainment of the Samadhi of the Buddhas. But he who has attained to the radiance of highest Samadhi, or unitive Knowledge, will be able to realize, with all the Buddhas, the perfect unity of all sentient beings with B u d d h a h o o d s D h a r m a k a y a . I n t h e p u r e D h a r m a k a y a t h e r e i s n o dualism, neither shadow of differenti ation. All sentient beings, if only they were able to realize it, are al ready in Nirvana. The Minds pure Essence is Highest Samadhi, is Anuttara-samyak-Sam dhi, is Prajna Paramita, is Highest Perfect Wisdom. Ashvaghosha avb 364 Chapter 26 PERSEVERANCE AND REGULARITY He who interrupts the course of hi s spiritual exercises and prayer is like a man who allows a bird to es cape from his hand; he can hardly catch it again. St. John of the Cross Si volumus non redire, currendum est. (If we wish not to go backwards, we must run.) Pelagius If thou shouldst say, It is enough , I have reached perfection, all is lost. For it is the function of perfection to make one know ones imperfection. St. Augustine HE Buddhists have a similar saying to the effect that, if an Ar hat thinks to himself that he is an Arhat, that is proof that he is not an Arhat. I tell you that no one ca n experience this birth (of God realized in the soul) without a mighty effort. No one ca n attain this birth unless he can withdraw his mind entirely from things. Eckhart If a sharp penance had been laid upon me, I know of none that I would not very often have willingly undert aken, rather than prepare myself for prayer by self-recollection. And certainly the violence with which Satan assailed me was so irresistible, or my evil habits were so strong, that I did not betake myself to prayer ; and the sadness I felt on entering the oratory was so great that it requ ired all the courage I had to force myself in. They say of me that my co urage is not slight, and it is known that God has given me a courage beyond that of a woman; but I have made a bad use of it. In the end Our Lord came to my relief, and when T 365 I had done this violence to myself , I found greater pe ace and joy than I sometimes had when I ha d a desire to pray. St. Teresa To one of his spiritual children our dear father (St. Francois de Sales) said, Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disheartened by your imperf ections, but always rise up with fresh courage. I am glad you make a fresh beginning daily; there is no better means of attaining to the sp iritual life than by continually beginning again, and never thinking that we have done enough. How are we to be patient in bearing with our neighbours faults, if we are impatient in bearing with our own? He who is fretted by his own failings will not correct them; all profitable correction comes from a calm, peaceful mind. Jean Pierre Camus There are scarce any souls that give themselves to in ternal prayer but some time or other do find themselv es in great indisposition thereto, having great obscurities in the mind and great insensibility in their affections, so that if imperfect souls be not well instructed and prepared, they will be in danger, in case that such contradictions of inferior nature continue long, to be dejected, yea, and perhaps deterred from pursuing prayer, for th ey will be apt to think that their recollections are to no purpose at a ll, since, for as much as seems to them, whatsoever they think or actu ate towards God is a mere loss of time and of no worth at all; and therefore that it would be more profitable for them to employ their time some other way. Yea, some souls there are conducte d by Almighty God by no other w a y , b u t o n l y b y s u c h p r a y e r o f a r i d i t y , f i n d i n g n o s e n s i b l e contentment in any recollection, but, on the contrary, continual pain and contradiction, and yet, by a privy grace and courage imprinted deeply in the spirit, cease not for a ll that, but resolutely break through 366 all difficulties and continue, the be st way they can, their internal exercises to the great adva ncement of their spirit. Augustine Baker avb Chapter 27 CONTEMPLATION, ACTION AND SOCIAL UTILITY N all the historic formulations of the Perennial Philosophy it is axiomatic that the end of human life is contemplation, or the d irect and intuitive awareness of God; that action is the means to tha t end; that a society is good to the extent that it renders contemplat ion possible for its members; and that the existence of at least a minority of c o n t e m p l a t i v e s i s n e c e s s a r y f o r t h e w e l l - b e i n g o f a n y s o c i e t y . In the popular philosophy of our own tim e it goes without saying that the end of human life is actio n; that contemplation (above all in its lower forms of discursive thought) is the means to that end; that a society is good to the extent that the actions of its members make for progress in tec hnology and organization (a progress which is assumed to be causally related to ethical and cultural advance) ; and that a minority of contemplatives is perfectly useless and perhaps even harmful to the community whi ch tolerates it. To expatiate furth er on the modern Weltanschauung i s unnecessary; explicitly or by imp lication it is set forth on ev ery page of the advertising sections of every newspaper and magazine. The e xtracts that follow have been chosen in order to illustrate the older, truer, less familiar theses of the Perennial Philosophy. Work is for the purification of th e mind, not for the perception of Reality. The realization of Truth is brought about by discrimination, and not in the least by ten millions of acts. Shankara I 367 Now, the last end of each thing is that which is intended by the first author or mover of that thing; an d the first author and mover of the universe is an intellect. Conseque ntly, the last end of the universe must be the good of the intellect; and this is truth. Therefore truth must be the last end of the whol e universe, and the consideration thereof must be the chief occupation of wisdom. And for this reason Divine Wisdom, clothed in flesh, decl ares that He came into the world to make known the truth.. . . Mo reover Aristotle defines the First Philosophy as being the knowledge of truth, not of any truth, but of that truth which is the source of all truth, of that, namely, which refers to the first principle of being of a ll things; wherefore its truth is the principle of all truth, since the dispos ition of things is the same in truth as in being. St. Thomas Aquinas These works (of mercy), though they be but active, yet they help very much, and dispose a man in the begi nning to attain afterwards to contemplation. Walter Hilton In Buddhism, as in Vedanta and in all but the most recent forms o f Christianity, right action is th e means by which the mind is pr epared for contemplation. The first seven branches of the Eightfold Path a re the active, ethical preparation for unitive knowledge of Suchness. Only those who consistently practise the Four Virtuous Acts, in whic h all other virtues are included - namely, t he requital of hatred by love, resignation, holy indifference or desireles sness, obedience to the Dharma or venial N a t u r e o f T h i n g s - c a n h o p e t o a c h i e v e t h e l i b e r a t i n g r e a l i z a t i on that Samsara and Nirvana are one, tha t the soul and all other beings have as their living principle the Intell igible Light or Buddha-womb. A question now, quite naturally, presents itself: Who is called to that highest form of prayer which is contemplation? The answer is unequivocally plain. All are call e d t o c o n t e m p l a t i o n , b e c a u s e a ll are 368 called to achieve deliverance, which is nothing else but the kn owledge that unites the knower with what is known, namely the eternal G round or Godhead. The oriental exponen ts of the Perennial Philosophy would probably deny that everyone is c alled here and now; in this par ticular life, they would say, it may be to all intents and purposes imp ossible for a given individual to achieve more than a partial deliverance, such as personal survival in some kind of heaven, from which there ma y be either an advance towards total liberation or else a return to those material conditions which, as al l the masters of the spiritual life agree, are so uniquely propitious for taking the cosmic intelligence t est that results in enlightenment. In orthodox Christianity it is denied that the individual soul can have more than one incarnation, or that it can make any progress in its posthumous existence. If it goes to hell, i t stays there. If it goes to purgatory, it mere ly expiates past evil doing, so as to become capable of the beatific vision. And when it gets to heaven, it has just so much of the beatific vision as its conduct during its one brief life on earth made it capable of, and everlastingly no more. Granted these postulates, it follows that, if all are called to contemplation, they are called to it from that particular posit ion in the hierarchy of being, to which nature, nurture, free will and gra ce have conspired to assign them. In the words of an eminent contempora ry theologian, Father Garrigou-Lagr ange, all souls receive a gene ral remote call to the mystical life, and if all were faithful in a voiding, as they should, not only mortal but veni al sins, if they were, each acc ording to his condition, generally docile to the Holy Ghost, and if they lived long enough, a day would come when they would receive the proximate and efficacious vocation to a high perfection and to the mystical l ife properly so called. This view - that the life of mystical contemplation is the proper and normal development of the i nterior life of recollectednes s and devotion to God is then justified by the following consideratio ns. First, 369 the principle of the two lives is the same. Second, it is only in the life of mystical contemplation that the interior life finds its consumm ation. Third, their end, which is eternal life, is the same; moreover, only the life of mystical contemplation prepar es immediately and perfectly fo r that end. There are few contemplatives, because few souls are perfectly humble. The Imitation of Christ God does not reserve such a lofty vocation (that of mystical contemplation) to certain souls only; on the contrary, He is willing that all should embrace it. But He finds few who permit Him to work such sublime things for them. There are many who, when He sends them trials, shrink from the labour and re fuse to bear with the dryness and mortification, instead of submitti ng, as they must, with perfect patience. St. John of the Cross This assertion that all are called to contemplation seems to conflict with what we know about the inborn varieties of temperament and with the doctrine that there are at least three principal roads to liberation - the ways of works and devotion as well as the way of knowledge. But the conflict is more apparent than real. If the ways of devotion and works lead to liberation, it is because they lead into the way of knowledge. For total delive rance comes only through unitive knowledge. A soul which does not go on from the ways of devotion and works into the way of knowle dge is not totally delivered, but achieves at the best the incomplete salvation of heaven. Coming now to the question of temperament, we find that, in effect, certain individuals are naturally drawn to lay the main doctrinal and practical emphasis in one place, certain others elsewhere. But though there may be born devotees, born workers, born contemplatives, it is 370 nevertheless true that even th ose at the extreme limits of temperamental eccentricity are capa ble of making use of other ways than that to which they are natu rally drawn. Given the requisite degree of obedience to the lead ings of the Light, the born contemplative can learn to purify his heart by work and direct his mind by one-pointed adoration; the born devotee and the born worker can learn to be still and know that I am God. Nobody need be the victim of his peculiar talents. Few or many, of this stamp or of that, they are given us to be used for th e gaining of one great end. We have the power to choose whether to use th em well or badly - in the easier, worse way or the harder and better . Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon th emselves the works of the active life so as to become yet mo re apt for contemplation. St. Thomas Aquinas He who is strong in faith, weak in understanding, will generally place his confidence in good-for-nothing people and believe in the wrong object. He who is strong in understa nding, weak in faith, leans towards dishonesty and is difficult to cure, like a disease caused by medicine. One in whom both are equal believes in the right object. He who is strong in concentration, weak in energy, is overcome by idleness, since concentration partakes of the nature of idleness. He who is strong in energy, weak in concentration, is overcome by distractions, since energy partakes of the nature of distraction. Therefore they should be made eq ual to one another, since from equality in both comes contem plation and ecstasy. . . . 371 Mindfulness should be strong ever ywhere, for mindfulness keeps the mind away from distraction, into which it might fall, since faith, energy and understanding partake of the nature of distraction: and away from idleness, into which it might fall, since concentration partakes of the nature of idleness. Buddhaghosha At this point it is worth remarking parenthetically that God is b y n o means the only possible object of contemplation. There have bee n and still are many philosophic, aest hetic and scientific contemplat ives. One- pointed concentration on that wh ich is not the highest may beco me a dangerous form of idolatry. In a letter to Hooker, Darwin wrote that it is a cursed evil to any man to become so absorbed in any subjec t as 'I am in mine. It is an evil becau se such one-pointedness may res ult in the more or less total atrophy of all but one side of the mind. Dar win himself records that in later life he was unable to take the smallest i nterest in poetry, art or religion. Professi onally, in relation to his cho sen specialty, a man may be completely mature. Spiritually and sometimes even ethically, in relation to God and his neighbours, he may be har dly more than a foetus. In cases where the one-pointed contemplation is of God there is also a risk that the minds unemployed capacities may atrophy. The her mits of Tibet and the Thebaid were certa i n l y o n e - p o i n t e d , b u t w i t h a o n e- pointedness of exclusion and mutilation. It may be, however, th at if they had been more truly docile to th e Holy Ghost, they would have come to understand that the one-poin tedness of exclusion is at best a preparation for the one-pointedness of inclusion - the realizat ion of God in the fullness of cosmic being as well as in the interior heig ht of the individual soul. Like the Taoist sage, they would at last have turned back into the world riding on their t amed and regenerate individuali ty; they would have come eating and drinking, would have associated wi th publicans and sinners or their Buddhist equivalents, wine-bi bbers and 372 butchers. For the fully enlight ened, totally liberated person, Samsara and Nirvana, time and eternity, the phenomenal and the Real, ar e essentially one. His whole life is an unsleeping and one-pointe d contemplation of the Godhead in and through the things, lives, minds and events of the world of becom ing. There is here no mutilatio n of the soul, no atrophy of any of its p owers and capacities. Rather, t here is a general enhancement and intensification of consciousness, and a t the s a m e t i m e a n e x t e n s i o n a n d t r a n s f i g u r a t i o n . N o s a i n t h a s e v e r complained that absorption in God was a cursed evil. In the beginning was the Word; beho ld Him to whom Mary listened. And the Word was made flesh; behold Him whom Martha served. St. Augustine God aspires us into Hi mself in contemplation, and then we must be wholly His; but afterwards the Spirit of God expires us without, for the practice of love and good works. Ruysbroeck Action, says Aquinas, should be something added to the life of prayer, not something taken away from it. One of the reasons for this recommendation is strictly utilitarian; action that is taken aw ay from the life of prayer is action unenlightened by contact with Reality, uninspired and unguided; consequently it is apt to be ineffective and even harmful. The sages of old, says Chuang Tzu, first got Tao for themsel ves, then got it for others. There can be no taking of motes out of othe r peoples eyes so long as the beam in our own eye prevents us from seeing the Divine Sun and working by its light. Speaking of those who prefer imm ediate action to acquiring, thr ough contemplation, the power to act well, St. John of the Cross ask s, What do they accomplish? And he answers, Poco mas que nada, y a ve ces nada, y aun cz veces dano (Little more than nothing, and sometimes nothing at all, and s ometimes even harm). Income must balance 373 expenditure. This is necessary not merely on the economic level , but also on the physiological, the intellectual, the ethical and the spi ritual. We cannot put forth physical energ y unless we stoke our body with fuel in the form of food. We cannot hope to utter anything worth saying , unless we read and inwardly digest the utterances of our betters. We c annot act rightly and effectively unless we are in the habit of layin g ourselves open to leadings of the Divine Nature of Things. We must draw i n the goods of eternity in order to be able to give out the goods of time. But the goods of eternity cannot be had except by giving up at leas t a little of our time to silently waiting for them. This means that the l ife in which ethical expenditure is balanced by spiritual income must be a l ife in which action alternates with repo se, speech with alertly passiv e silence. Otium sanctum quaert cantas veri tatis; negotium justum suscipit necessitas caritatis The love of Truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of love undert akes righteous action The bodies of men and animals are reciprocating engines, in whi ch tension is always succeeded by re laxation. Even the unsleeping heart rests between beat and beat. Ther e is nothing in living Nature that even distantly resembles ma ns greatest technical invention, the con tinuously revolving wheel. (It is this fact, no doubt, which accounts for the boredom, weariness and apathy of those who, in modern factories, are for ced to adapt their bodily and mental movements to circular motions of mechan ically uniform velocity.) What a man takes in by contemplation, says Eckhart, that he pours out in love. The well-meaning humanist and the merely muscular Christian, who imagines that he can obey the second of the grea t commandments without taking time even to think how best he may love God with all his heart, soul and mind, are people engaged in th e i mpossible task of pou ring unc easingly from a contai n er that is never replenished. 374 Daughters of Charity ought to love prayer as the body loves the soul. And just as the body cannot live wi thout the soul, so the soul cannot live without prayer. And in so far as a daughter prays as she ought to pray, she will do well. She will not walk, she will run in the ways of the Lord, and will be raised to a hi gh degree of the love of God. St. Vincent de Paul Households, cities, countries and nations have enjoyed great happiness, when a single individual has taken heed of the Good and Beautiful. . . . Such men not only li berate themselves; they fill those they meet with a free mind. Philo Similar views are expressed by A l-Ghazzali, who regards the mys tics not only as the ultimate source of o ur knowledge of the soul and it s capacities and defects, but as th e salt which preserves human s ocieties from decay. In the time of the philosophers, he writes, as a t every other period, there existed some of these fervent mystics. God does not deprive this world of them, for they are its sustainers. It is they who, dying to themselves, become capable of perpetual inspiration an d so are made the instruments through whi ch Divine Grace is mediated to those whose unregenerate nature is imp ervious to the delicate touches of the Spirit. avb 375 A List of Recommended Books This is not a Bibliography as it does not list all the books qu oted from (see p.13) or give references for the quotations used. AL-GHAZZALI. Confessions. T ranslated by Claud Field (London, 1909). ANSARI of HERAT. The Invocations of Sheikh Abdullah Ansari of H erat. Translated by Sardar Sir Jogendra Singh (London, 1939) ATTAR. Selections. Translated by Margaret Smith (London, 1932). AUGUSTINE, ST. Confessions (numerous editions). AUROBINDO, SRI. The Li fe Divine, 3 vols. (Calcutta, 1939). BAKER, AUGUSTINE. Holy Wisdom (London, 1876). BEAUSOBRE, JULIA DE. The Woman Who Could Not Die (London and New York, 1938). BERNARD of CLAIRVAUX, ST. The Steps of Humility (Cambridge, Mass., 1940). On the Love of God (New York, 1937). Selected Letters (London, 1904). An admirably lucid account of St. Bernards thought may be foun d in The Mystical Doctrine of Saint Bernard, by Professor tienne Gilson (London and New York, 1940). BERTOCCI, PETER A. The Empirical Argument for God in Late Briti sh Philosophy (Cambridge, Mass., 1938). BHAGAVAD-GITA. Among many translations of this Hindu scripture the best, from a literary point of view, is that of Swami Prabhavan anda and Christopher Isherwood (Los Angeles, 1944). Valuable notes, based upon the commentaries of Shankara, are to be found in Swami Nikhilan andas edition (New York, 1944), and Professor Franklin Edgertons literal translation (Cambridge, Mass., 1944) is preceded by a long and scholarly introduction. BINYON, L. The Flight of the Dragon (London, 1911). 376 BOEHME, JAKOB. Some good introdu ction is needed to the work of this important but difficult mystic. On the theological and devotion al side the Danish Bishop H. L. Martensens Jacob Boehme (trans., London, 1885) is r e c o m m e n d e d ; o r f r o m a m o r e p h i l o s o p h i c a l v i e w p o i n t A . K o y r s splendid volume La Philosophie de Jacob Boehme ( n o t y e t t r a n s l a t e d , Paris, 1929) or H. H. Brintons The Mystic Will (New York, 1930). BRAHMANANDA, SWAMI. Records of h is teaching and a biography by Swami Prabhavananda are contained in The Eternal Companion (Los Angeles, 1944). CAMUS, JEAN PIERRE. The Spirit of St. Franois de Sales (London, n.d.). CAUSSADE, J. P. DE. Abandonment (New York, 1887). Spiritual Letters, 3 vols. (London, 1937). C H A N T A L , S T . J E A N N E F E A N G O T S E . S e l e c t e d L e t t e r s (London and New York, 1918). CHAPMAN, ABBOT JOHN. Spiritual Letters (London, 1935). C H U A N G T Z U . C h u a n g T z u - M y s t i c , M o r a l i s t a n d S o c i a l R e f o r m e r . Translated by Herbert Giles (Shanghai, 1936). Musings of a Chinese Mystic (London, 1920). Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times. 'Translated by E. R. Hug hes (London, 1943). The Cloud of Unknowing (with comme ntary by Augustine Baker). Ed ited with an introduction by Justice McCann (London, 1924). COOMARASWAMY, ANANDA K. Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism (New York, 1916). The Transformation of Nature in Art (Cambridge, Mass., 1935). Hinduism and Buddhism (New York, n.d.). CURTIS, A. M. Th e Way of Silence (Burton Bradstock, Dorset, 1937) DEUSSEN, PAUL. The Philosophy of the Upanishads (London, 1906). 377 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE. On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology. Translated with an introduction by C. E. Rolt (London, 1920). E C K H A R T , M E I S T E R . W o r k s , t r a n s l a t e d b y C . B . E v a n s (London, 1924). Meister Eckhart, A Modern Translation. By R. B. Blakney (New York, 1941). EVANS-WENTZ, W. Y. The T ibetan Book of the Dead (New York, 1927). Tibets Great Yogi, Milarepa (New York, 1928). Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines (New York, 1935). The Following of Christ. Unknown author, but mistakenly attribu ted to Tauler in the first English edition (London, 1886). FOX, GEORGE. Journal (London, 1911). FROST, BEDE. The Art of Mental Prayer (London, 1940). Saint John of the Cross (London, 1937). GARRIGOU - LAGRANGE, R. Christia n Perfection and Contemplation. (London and St. Louis, 1937). GODDARD, DWIGHT. A Buddhist Bible (published by the editor, Thetford, Maine, 1938). This volume contains translations of several Mahayana texts not to be found, or to be found only with much difficulty , e l s e w h e r e . A m o n g t h e s e a r e T h e Diamond Sutra, The urangama Sutra, The Lakvatra Sutra, The Awakening of Faith and The Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. GUNON, REN. Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta (London, n.d.). East and West (London, 1941). The Crisis of the Modern World (London, 1942). HEARD, GERALD. The Creed of Christ (New York, 1940). The Code of Christ (New York, 1941). Preface to Prayer (New York, 1944). HILTON, WALTER. The Scale of Perfection (London, 1927). 378 HUEGEL, FRIEDRICH VON. The Mystical Element in Religion as Stud ied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends (London, 1923) IBN TUFAIL. The Awakening of the Soul. Translated by Paul Bronn ie (London, 1910). The Imitation of Christ. Whitfords translation, edited by E. J . Klein (New York, 1941). INGE, W. R. Christian Mysticism (London, 1899). Studies of English Mystics - including William Law (London, 1906). JOHN of THE CROSS, ST. Works, 3 vols. (London, 1934-1935). JONES, RUFUS. Studies in Mystical Religion. The Spiritual Refor mer: in the 15th and 17th Centuries (New York, 1914). The Flowering of Mysticism (New York, 1939). JORGENSEN, JOHANNES. Sai nt Catherine of Siena (London, 1938). JULIANA of NORWICH. Reve lations of Divine Love (London, 1917). LAO TZU. There are many translations of the Tao Teh King. Consu lt and compare those of Arthur Waley in The Way and Its Power (London, 1933) , of F. R. Hughes in Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times (Everymans Library) and of Chu Ta-Kao (London, 1927) reprinted in The Bible of the World (New York, 1939). LAW, WILLIAM. Several modern editions of his Serious Call are a vailable; but none of Laws still finer and much more distinctly mystical works, such as The Spirit of Prayer and The Spirit of Love, have been reprinted in full in recent years. Long ex tracts from them may however be found in Stephen Hobhouses Selected Mystical Writings of William Law (London, 1939) (a work which also contains some useful Notes a nd Studies in the mystical theology of William Law and Jacob Boehme ) and in the same writers William Law and Eighteenth Century Quakerism (London, 1927). Alexander Whyte also compiled a fine anthology, Characters and Characteristics of William Law ( 4 t h e d . L o n d o n , 1 9 0 7 ) ; while for the 379 student there is Christopher Waltons extraordinary encyclopaed ic collection of Nates and Materials for an adequate biography of William Law (London, 1856). LEEN, EDWARD. Progress through Mental Prayer (London, 1940). MCKEON, RICHARD. Selections from Medieval Philosophers, 2 vols. (New York, 1929). RUMI, JALAL-UDDIN. The Mirror of Simple Souls. Author unknown (London, 1927). NICHOLAS of CUSA. The Idiot (San Francisco, 1940). The Vision of God (London and New York, 1928). NICHOLSON, R. The Mystics of Islam (London, 1914). OMAN, JOHN. The Natural and the Supernatural (London, 1938). OTTO, RUDOLF. Indias Religion of Grace (London, 1930). Mysticism East and West (London, 1932). PATANJALI. Yoga Aphorisms. Translated with a commentary by Swam i Vivekananda (New York, 1899). PLOTINUS. The Essence of Plotinus ( G . H . T u m b u l l , N e w Y o r k , 1 9 3 4 ) . A good anthology of this very important and voluminous mystic. PONNELLE, L. and L. BORDET. St. Ph ilip Neri and the Roman Socie ty of His Time (London, 1932). POULAIN, A. The Graces of Interior Prayer (London, 1910). POURRAT, P. Christian Spirituality, 3 vols. (London, 1922). PRATT, J. B. The Pilgrimage of Buddhism (New York, 1928). QUAKERS. The Beginnings of Quakerism, by W. P. Braithwaite (London, 1912). See also George Fox, p. 348. 380 RADHAKRISHNAN, S. The Hindu View of Life (London and New York, 1927). Indian Philosophy (London and New York, 1923-1927). Eastern Religions and Western Thought (New York, 1939). RAMAKRISHNA, SRI. The Gospel of S ri Ramakrishna. Translated fro m the Bengali narrative of M by Swami Nikhilananda (New York, 1942). RUMI, JALAL-UDDIN. Masnavi. Translated by E. H. Whinfield (London, 1898). RUYSBROECK, JAN VAN. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage (London, 1916). Consult also the studies by Evelyn Underhill (London, 1915) and Wautier dAygalliers (London, 1925). SALES, ST. FRANOIS DE. Introduction to the Devant Life (numerous editions). Treatise on the Love of God (new edition, Westminster, Md., 1942). Spiritual Conferences (London, 1868). See also J. P. Camus. The Secret of the Golden Flower. Translated from the Chinese by Richard Wilhelm. Commentary by Dr. C. G. Jung (London and New York, 1931). SPURGEON, CAROLINE. Mysticism in English Literature (Cambridge, 1913). STOCKS, J. L. Time, Cause and Eternity (London, 1938). STOUT, G. F. Mind and Matter (London, 1931). Sutra Spoken by the Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng. Translated by Wung Mou-lam (Shanghai, 1930). Reprinted in A Buddhist Bible (Thetford, 1938). SUZUKI, B. L. Mahayana Buddhism (London, 1938). S U Z U K I , D . T . S t u d i e s i n Z e n B u d d h i s m (London, 1927). Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra ( K y o t o a n d L o n d o n , 1 9 3 5 ) . Manual onen Buddhism (Kyoto, 1935). TAGORE, RABINDRANA TH. One Hundred Poems of Kabir (London, 1915). 381 TAULER, JOHANN. Life and Sermons (London, 1907). The Inner Way (London, 1909). Consult Inges Christian Mysticism, Rufus Joness Studies in Mystical Religion and Pourrats Christian Spirituality. TENNANT, F. R. Philosophical Theology (Cambridge, 1923). Theologia Germanica. Winkworths translation (new edition, London, 1937). TILLYARD, AELFRIDA. Spiritual Exercises (London, 1927). 352. THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY TRAHERNE, THOMAS. Centuries of Meditation (London, 1908). Consult Thomas Traherne, A Critical Biography, by Gladys I. Wade (Princeton, 1944). UNDERHILL, EVELYN. Mysticism (London, 1924). The Mystics of the Church (London, 1925). Upanishads. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Translated by R. E . Hume (New York, 1931). The Ten Principal Upanishads. Tr anslated by Shree Purohit and W . B. Yeats (London, 1937). The Himalayas of the Soul. Translated by J. Mascaro (London, 1938). WATTS, ALAN W. The Spirit of Zen (London, 1936). W H I T N E Y , J A N E T . J o h n W o o l m a n , A m e r i c a n Q u a k e r (Boston, 1942). Elizabeth Fry, Quaker Heroine (Boston, 1936). 382 INDEX This has the original page numbe rs from Huxleys book; so, to f ind the page number in the present edition, add 5% plus 13. (eg. 108 (in the index) = 108 + 5 + 13 = 126 (in this book) : or 255 = 255 + 13 + 13 = 281) Abu Said,319 Bourgoing,255 Aedo,73,170,183,311,343 Brah man,8,12,13,42,67,301 Acton,140 Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad,42 Adoration,255 Broad,C.D.,304 Advertising,231,250,337 Buddha ,7,56,66,117,1 46,147,154, Aeschylus,92 232,299,308,312 Al-Ghazzali,86,146,254 B uddhas Fire Sermon,204 Amelot,255 Buddhaghosha,342 Ancren Riwle,The,248 Butler,S.,92 Animals,kindness to,224 Byron,81 Ansari of Herat,99 ,103,253,298,316 Anselm,St.,257 Camus, Jean Pierre,53,105,117,142, Aphorism,Sufi,124 299,315,335 Aquinas,St.Thomas,96,146,153,338 Cassian,319 Aridity,335 Caste,182 Aristotle,26,27,78 Castel lio,Sebastian,7,20,285 Arnold,Thomas,289 Catherin e,St.,of Genoa ,18,99,122 Art,artist,135,151,158,195 Catherine,St.,of Siena,167,187,189, Ashvaghosha,33 3 written down by T. di Petra ,167 Asoka,228,264 Catholicism,176 tman,8,11-13,15,67,15 1,219 Causation,155 Atonement,66,220,265 Ca ussade,J.P de,53,89 Attention,332 Chandogya Upanishad,10,236 Augustine,St.,82,83,107,205,240,253,334,343 Aurobindo,Sri,74 Chantal,St. Jeanne,258 Avatar,58,61,68,148,219 Chapman,Abbot John,121,152 Bagehot,W.,273 Charity,65,98,100,104,110,119,175, Baker,Augustine,118,256,25 8,336 187,1941992703I4 . Barclay,Robert,21 Chuang T zu,13,14,91,106,119,120, 383 Bayazid of Bistun,18,317 123,134-136,161,186,195,196 Beatitude,128,239 249,281,343 Beauty,158 Civilization,181 Becket,Thomas,305 Claver,St. Peter,224 Benet of Canfield,58,322,324,325 Cloud of Unknowing,The,47,295, 318, Bernard,St.,18,32,65,70,82,98,166 323,327 187,199,244,302 Condren, Charles de,207,295,298 Brulle,48 Constitution/temper,168,177,358 Bhagavad-Gita,9,11,57,61,170,174, Contemplation,105,170,183, 205,218,313,343,372 259 ,303,322,337,338,344 Bhagavatam,Srimad,99,227,244 Daishi,Yoka,147 Blake,W.,217 DArs,Cur,84 Blood,308 Darwin,342 Bodhisattva,73,77,79,266 D e Caussade,J. P.,53,89 Body,34 Decentralization,111 Boehme,Jacob,63,237, 243 De Condren,Ch arles,207,295,298 Boethius,185,212,213 Deliverance,liberation,12,13,31,50, Controversy,160,161 Feeling, emotion,100,1 01,104,292,296 Conversion,178 Fnelon, 104,132,188,248,254,293, Coomaraswamy,Ananda K.,63 295,329 Cou,280 Folk-lore,252 Craving,desire,55,96,260 Follo wing of Christ,The,207,264 Culture,127 Forek nowledge,214 Cur dArs,84 Form,210,218 Chng-n,Wu,147,164 Four Nob le Truths of Buddhism, 282 Chiang Chih-chi,283 Fox,George,20,330 Christ,20,58-60,65-67,124,127,18 0, Francis,St.,of Assisi,327 285,289,308,310 ,312 Francois de Sal es,St.,53,104,115,117,121, carnal love o f,65 123,141,195,199, 249 253,253,259, following of,2 07,264 314-315,326,330 imitation of,340 Freedom,109 57,64,106,2 17,230,245,250 Denk,Hans,7,20,108,282 Garri gou-Lagrange,R.,177,298,339 384 Descartes,36 Gilson,Etienne,187,253 Desire,33,87,101,121,165,202,250 Gita,Bhagavad,9,11,57,61, Detachment,100,102,1 20,122 170,174,20 2,218,303,304,312 De Vigny,Alfred,92 Godhead :29,33,3840,48,49,68, Devotion,100,170,175,257 71,7 2,101,113,128,150,158-159, Dhammapada. 109,205 203,260,271,309,339 Dharma,162,176,179,181 ,261,313 God,nature of,29-32,66-71,83,87, 97 Dhyana,70 especially Chapters II,III and IV Diamond Sutra,147,243,302 Good,205,210,211,222,262 Dionysius,the Areopagite,42 ,43 Gopi maidens,191 Disease,262 Gospels,Synoptic,60 Disquietude,120 Grace,81,191,266,290 Distraction,250,325,32 9 Green,T. H., 28 Eckhart,8,19,23,33,37,38,41,48 Gregory,St.,the Great,95,240 4970,79,87,90,99,102, 103,115, Grellet,Stephen,310 145,I 50,153,186,200,205,206, Grou,N.,130 217,242,2 64,324,329,334 Gun on,Ren,71,344 Ectomorphy,172 Hakuin,79 Education,17,287 Healing,299 Eightfold Path,136 Hillel,22 Emotion,feeling,100,292,296 Hilton,Walter,125,338 Endomorphy,172 Hinayana,16,78 Enlightenment,67-68,71,73,103 Hinayanists,16 Erigena,Scotus,44 Hipp ocrates,169,276,277 Eternity,38,68,90,106,162 ,167,274 History,63 Everard,John,108,282 Hobbes,213 Evil,205,209,211,232,26 4,274 How Men Behav e in Crisis, 50 Experience,152-15 3,156, 293 Huang-Po,69,71,86 Extraversion,173 Hubris,91,190,252,288 Faith, 268 Hugo,Victor,92 Fall,the,209,261 Hui Neng,67,78,146,160 Fate,213 Humanitarianism,91,355 Fear,187 Hume,47,155-156 Humility,103-104,114, 185-188,257,292,334 385 Idealists,280 Lacordaire,188 Idolatrous,17,111 Lallement,Father L.,83 Idolatry,17,54,106,111,126,159 ,161 Landscape painting,75 Ignorance,185 Language ,17,24,43,147-8,156, Imagination,292 165-6,239, 277,278,287,308,324,342 Imitation of Christ,The,340 Lank avatara Sutra,14,71,77,153,238, 322 Immanence,8 Lao Tzu, 33,121,133, 138,147, Immanent,8,30,31 167,190,194,247,312 Immortality,242 Lawrence,Brother,328 Incarnation,29,58-59,66 Law,Wil liam:7,8,48,49,57,63,95,98,100, 114, Incarnations,64 127,150,15 2,160,191,193,200,203,204, Inge,Dean,285 207-209,227, 237,247,248,254,257,279 Inner Light,21,137,223 Lawyers,66,270 Inquisition,the,221 Legalism,31,66 Inspiration,135,193, 196,197 Leibniz,1 Intellect,153,163 Libera l Protestantism,179 Intercession,254,255 Liberati on,deliverance,12,13,116, Introversion,322 124,128,138,186,238,301 Introvert,173 Liberty,140 Iti-vuttaka,237 Logia of Jesus,73 Logos,19,37,58,59,62, 107,109,133, 191,311 James,William,2 Love,2, 95-101,103,104,122, Japam,320 123,153,282,323,3 44 Jerome,St.,118 carnal, of Christ,65, spiritual,65 Jesuits,316 Logia of,73 Jesus,59,84,149,275 Loyola,St.Ignatius,120 Jews,308 Luther,269,285-286. Jnana,151 Job,198 Machinery,196 John,I-4,95 Magic,307 John,St.,of the Cross,33,66-67,100,102, Magnus,Albertus,129 107,117 ,120-122,123,149,183,193, Mahayana,16,30,41,62,67 ,74,216,321 216,247,249,2 94,334,340,343 Mahay anists,16,63,64,78 Johnson,Samuel,52,57 Maitraya na Upanishad,129,236,239 386 Jones,Rufus,20 Mallarm,160 Juliana of Norwich,274 Mans final end,94,105,137,177 Jung,C.,170 Mantram,319 Kabir,17,57,122,227,253 Natu re,82,90,91,92,93,109,124 Karma,56,272,274,275 Nemesis,91,94,96 Kierkegaard,S.,198 Nen g,Hui,67,78,146,160 Kindness to animals,224 Neri,St. Philip,257,264 Knowledge,5,19,28,31,39,44,55,56 ,94, Nicholas of Cusa,150,194,2 13 95,96,107,115, 128,129,150-151,153, Niffari,240 155,166 ,168,170,171,175,212,232, Nirvana,56,73,74,77,83,8 7,216, 260,275,301 ,333,339,340 21 7,237,238,271,333 Kokushi,Daito,146 No-mind,86 Krishna,61,63 Non-attachment,120,125,175 Miracles,299 Obedience,141 Monkey,165 Objections,116 More,Dame Gertrude,115,118 Olier,J.J.,40,298,329 Mortification,84,113,116,1 25, Oman,Dr.J.,4,83,84 126,133,196,217,248 10 1 Zen Stories,139 Mo Tsu,73 One-pointedness,342 Mysticism,66 Otto,Rudolf,151 Maxwell,Clerk,269 Ox-h erding Pictures, 84 Meditation,105 Prayer,115,251,276,343 Memory,216 Protesta ntism,liberal,179 Mental prayer,315 Providence,213 Mesomorphy,172 Purnabuddha-sutra,73 Meyerson,E.,11 Psychic,27 medium,304 Milton,161 Psychism,27,116 Mind,14,16,34,69,71,73,77, Pr ogress,91,92,93,94,106,163,337 87,102, 146,211 Psychism,27,116 Mind and body,34,246 Progre ss,91,92,93,94,106,163,337 Prophecy,298 Panchadasi,259 Quake rs,7,20,137,223,224 Pascal,97 Quietism ,7,8,31,47,69,166 387 Patience,335 Richelieu,Cardinal,96 Paul,St. Vincent de,344 Right livelihood,136 Paul,St.,58,60,67,102,149,190,217 Rites,304 Peace,102,103,222 Ritual,301 Pelagius,334 Rumi,Jalal-uddin,2,22,95,107,139, Penn,William,21 160,16 2,198,204,215 ,216,243,273 Perennial Philosophy,1,4,7,8, Ruskin,196 13,23,24,25,27,44,45,48,60,62,78 ,86, Ruysbroeck,19,40,69,166,18 7,199,343 91,94,111,131,132,135,16 8,190,203, Ryo-Neti,159 209,210,213,215,217,231,241,270, 277,285,287,293,310,337 Sa craments,72,73,301,309 Personality,45,47,48,52, 60,193, Said,Abu,319 selfness,45 St.Anselm,257 Petition,251 St.Augustine,66,82,85,107,205,240 Philo,22,41,83,114,179 ,345 253,334,343 Plato,21 St.Bernard,18,32,65,70,82, Plotinus,11 98,166 ,187,199,244,302 Plutarch,282 St.Catherine of Genoa,18,99,122 Po,Huang,69,71,86 St.Catherine of Siena,167,187,189,264, Poverty,138 written by T. di Petra,167 Power,92,94,111,142,143,309,3 13 St.Francis of Assisi,327 Petition,251 St.Franois de Sales,53,104,115,117,123, Philo,22,41,83,114,179,345 141,199,249,258, 259,314-315,3 26,330 St.Gregory the Great,95,240 St.Ignatius Loyola,120 Saints,54 St.Jerome,118 Sur vival,242,245,246 St.Jeanne Chantal,258 S ufis,7,30,67,299,316 St.John of the Cross,33, 6 6-67,100, Sufism,86,240 102,107,117, 120-122, 123,149,150, Suso,69,117 153,I93,216,247,24 9,294,334,340,343 St.Paul,58,60,67,102,14 9,190,217 Sutra,Diam ond,147,243,302,341 St.Philip Neri,257,264 Sutralamkara,147,236 St.Teresa,67,100,115,335 Sutra,L ankavatara,14,71,77,153,238,32 2 St.Peter Claver,224,357 Sutra,Purnabuddha,73 388 St.Thomas Aquinas,96,146,153,338 Sutra,Surangama,103,307 St.Vincent de Paul,344 Sutra on Protection of Dharma,119 Salvation,230,236,237 Samsara,73,74,83 Sutta,Metta,99 Saunders,Kenneth,311 Swift,Dean,108 Saviours,236 Symbol,282,303,309,324 Scotus Erigena,44 Synoptic Gospels,59 Scriptures,4,20,21,25,147,227 Seccho,75 Ta-shih,Kung-chia,99 Self,10,114,204-207,279 Tao ,37,133,134,167,194,263 -knowledge,185,188,32 7 Taoism,14,311 Superstition,-Will,1,15 Taoist,13 Selfness,personality,45,6 0 Tathgata,16,71,243 Sen Tsen,21. Tattva,Tantra,77 Shakespeare,95 Temperament /constitution,166,177 Shankara,4,11,13,32,100,238, Temple,Archbishop,277 244,272,337 Temp tation,110,310 Sheldon,William,169,171,172 Tennant,F. R.,4,152,272 Shih-tou,147,259 Teresa ,St.,67,100,115,117,335 Shruti,4 Tevijja Sutta,61 Silence,86,247,249,250 Theologia Germanica,20,21,67,129, Simplicity,130,133 204,236,240 Sin,207,275,318 Theol ogy,66,151,152,175 Sincerity,130 Third Patriarch of Zen,The,89 Singh,Sadhu Sundar,228 Three Bodies,The,30 Slavery,223,224 Tibetan B ook of the Dead,41,324 Smith,John,150,166,242 Time,6 3,64,106,111,2 17,219,277 Smriti,4 Tolstoy,Leo,195 Song of Songs,191 Traherne ,Thomas,79,81,90,124,128 Soul,18,19,22,105,113,122-123,1 50 Transcendence,8,30,208,242 Specialization,261 Trench,Richard,17,166 Spinoza,275 Trinity,29 Spirit,46,48,62,65,67,100, Truth:79,88,89,96,99,129,145,146, 133,167,214,257 1 58,163,302,338 389 Spiritual authority,142,18 2,313 True,88,146,150,151 exercises,314 T'sen,Sen,21 Spirituality,85 Tsu,Mo,73 Sterry,Peter,167 Tzu,Chuang,1 3,14,91,106,119,120, 123,134 Stout,G. F.,156 136,161 ,186,195,196, 2 49,281,343 Suchness,64,88,107 Suffering,260 Waley,Arthur,164 Sufi,215 aphorism,124 War,111,137,269 Sufis,7,30,67,299,316 Whi chcote,Benjamin,244 Sufism,86,240 Will,24,4 9,86,87,101,114,117,188, Superstition,282,358 191,1 94,199,200,210,256,286 Woolman,John,224,266 Vedanta,39,67,81,319 Words, 32,89,145,148,149,153,154, Vedantists,39 155,247,302 Vicarious suffering,265 Wordsworth,81,197 Vigny,Alfred de,92 Wu Chng-n,147,164 Violence,222 Yeng, 77 Virtue,323,338 Yoga-vasistha,242 Visvanatha,159 Yung-chi a Ta-shih,15,99,258 Viveka-Chudamani,11 Zen,1 4,71,75,77,1 48,159,283"}}},{"rowIdx":16,"cells":{"text":{"kind":"string","value":"Being and Nothingness First published in French in 1943, Jean-Paul Sartres Ltre et le Nant is one of the greatest philosophical works of the twentieth century. In it, Sartre offers nothing less than a brilliant and radical account of the human condi - tion. The English philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch wrote to a friend of the excitement I remember nothing like it since the days of discovering Keats and Shelley and Coleridge. This new translation, the first for over sixty years, makes this classic work of philosophy available to a new generation of readers. What gives our lives significance, Sartre argues in Being and Nothingness, is not pre-established for us by God or nature but is something for which we ourselves are responsible. At the heart of this view are Sartres radical con - ceptions of consciousness and freedom. Far from being an internal, passive container for our thoughts and experiences, human consciousness is con - stantly projecting itself into the outside world and imbuing it with meaning. Combining this with the unsettling view that human existence is character - ized by radical freedom and the inescapability of choice, Sartre introduces us to a cast of ideas and characters that are part of philosophical legend: anguish; the bad faith of the memorable waiter in the caf; sexual desire; and the look of the other, brought to life by Sartres famous description of someone looking through a keyhole. Above all, by arguing that we alone create our values and that human relationships are characterized by hopeless conflict, Sartre paints a stark and controversial picture of our moral universe and one that resonates strongly today. This new translation includes a helpful Translators Introduction, a compre- hensive Index and a Foreword by Richard Moran, Brian D. Young Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University, USA. Jean-Paul Sartre (19051980) was one of the great philosophers of the twentieth century and a renowned novelist, dramatist, and political activist. As a teenager Sartre was drawn to philosophy after reading Henri Bergsons Time and Free Will. He passed the agrgation in philosophy at the cole Normale Suprieure in Paris in 1929. His first novel La Nause, which Sartre considered one of his best works, was published in 1938. Sartre served as a meteorologist in the French army before being captured by German troops in 1940, spending nine months as a prisoner of war. He continued to write dur - ing his captivity and, after his release, he published his great trilogy of novels, Les Chemins de la Libert . In 1964, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature but declined it. During the events of 1968 he was arrested for civil disobedience but swiftly released by President Charles de Gaulle, who alleg - edly said one does not arrest Voltaire. He died on 15 April 1980 in Paris, his funeral attracting an enormous crowd of up to 50,000 mourners. He is buried in the Cimetire du Montparnasse in Paris. Translated by Sarah Richmond, University College London, UK. Sarah Richmonds marvellously clear and thoughtful new translation brings Sartres rich, infuriating, endlessly fertile masterpiece to a whole new English-language readership. Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Caf Sartres philosophy will always be important. Being and Nothingness is not an easy read but Sarah Richmond makes it accessible in English to the general reader. Her translation is exemplary in its clarity. Richard Eyre Sarah Richmonds translation of this ground-zero existentialist text is breathtaking. Having developed a set of brilliant translation principles, laid out carefully in her introductory notes, she has produced a version of Sartres magnum opus that finally! renders his challenging philo - sophical prose comprehensible to the curious general reader and his most compelling phenomenological descriptions and analyses luminous and thrilling for those of us who have studied Being and Nothingness for years. Nancy Bauer, Tufts University, USA This superb new translation is an extraordinary resource for Sartre scholars, including those who can read the work in French. Not only has Sarah Richmond produced an outstandingly accurate and fluent translation, but her extensive notes, introduction, and editorial com - ments ensure that the work will be turned to for clarification by all readers of Sartre. All in all, this is a major philosophical moment in Sartre studies. Christina Howells, University of Oxford, UK A new translation of Being and Nothingness has been long overdue. Sarah Richmond has done an excellent job of translating and clarifying Sartres magnum opus, making its rich content accessible to a wider audience. Dan Zahavi, University of Copenhagen, Denmark With its scholarly introduction, up-to-date bibliography and numer - ous footnotes, Richmonds fluent and precise translation will be an indispensable tool even for scholars able to read Sartre in French. Andrew Leak, University College London, UK This fine new translation provides us with as crisp a rendering as possi - ble of Sartres complex prose. Richmonds introduction, and a panoply of informative notes, also invite readers to share with her the intricacies of the task of translation and assist in grasping many of the conceptual vocabularies and nuances of this vital text. Sonia Kruks, author of Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity Being and Nothingness An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology Jean-Paul Sartre Translated by Sarah Richmond This edition published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Being and Nothingness, by Jean-Paul Sartre, originally published as Ltre et le Nant 1943, ditions Gallimard English Translation 2018, Taylor & Francis Foreword 2018, Richard Moran Translators Introduction 2018, Sarah Richmond All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1905-1980, author. | Richmond, Sarah, translator. | Moran, Richard, 1953- writer of foreword. Title: Being and nothingness : an essay in phenomenological ontology / Jean-Paul Sartre ; translated by Sarah Richmond. Other titles: Etre et le neant. English Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017047546 | ISBN 9780415529112 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Existentialism. | Existential psychology. Classification: LCC B819 .S272 2018 | DDC 111dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017047546 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-52911-2 (hbk) Typeset in Joanna by Swales and Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK DOI: 10.4324/9780429434013 CONTENTS Foreword Richard Moran x Note on abbreviations xviii Translators introduction Sarah Richmond xix Notes on the translation Sarah Richmond xxxviii Translators acknowledgements Sarah Richmond lxv Introduction: in search of being 1 I.The idea of the phenomenon II.The phenomenon of being and the being of the phenomenon III.The prereflective cogito and the being ofthe percipere IV.The being of the percipi V.The ontological proof VI.Being in itself PART ONE: THE PROBLEM OF NOTHINGNESS 31 Chapter 1 The origin of negation 33 I.Questioning II.Negations III.The dialectical conception of nothingness CONTENTS viii IV. The phenomenological conception of nothingness V. The origin of nothingness Chapter 2 Bad faith 87 I. Bad faith and lies II. Forms of bad faith III. The faith of bad faith PART TWO: BEING-FOR-ITSELF 119 Chapter 1 The immediate structures of the for-itself 121 I. Self-presence II. The for-itselfs facticity III. The for-itself and the being of value IV. The for-itself and the being of possibles V. My self and the circuit of ipseity Chapter 2 Temporality 163 I. Phenomenology of the three temporal dimensions II. The ontology of temporality III. Original temporality and psychological temporality: reflection Chapter 3 Transcendence 244 I. Knowledge as a type of relation between the for-itself and the in-itself II. On determination as negation III. Quality and quantity, potentiality and equipmentality IV. World-time V. Knowledge PART THREE: BEING-FOR-THE-OTHER 305 Chapter 1 The Others existence 307 I. The problem II. The reef of solipsism CONTENTS ix III. Husserl, Hegel, Heidegger IV. The look Chapter 2 The body 409 I. The body as being-for-itself: facticity II. The body-for-the-Other III. The third ontological dimension of the body Chapter 3 Concrete relations with the Other 479 I. Our first attitude towards the Other: love, language, masochism II. The second attitude towards the Other: indifference, desire, hatred, sadism III. Being-with (Mitsein) and the we PART FOUR: TO HAVE, TO DO AND TO BE 567 Chapter 1 Being and doing: freedom 569 I. The first condition of action is freedom II. Freedom and facticity: the situation III. Freedom and responsibility Chapter 2 To do and to have 723 I. Existential psychoanalysis II. To do and to have: possession III. The revelation of being through qualities Conclusion 798 I. In-itself and for-itself: some metaphysical observations II. Moral perspectives Bibliography 812 Index 817 FOREWORD Richard Moran With this new translation by Sarah Richmond, Sartres major work Ltre et le Nant is available to the English-speaking world as never before. Not only is the translation itself a great improvement in accuracy and reada - bility on the Hazel Barnes version published in 1956, but the Translators Introduction and Notes on the Translation illuminate this difficult text for both earlier readers of Sartre and those encountering this book for the first time. The inadequacies of the Barnes translation have been widely recognized for a long time, but it is always difficult to launch a new trans - lation of a well-known work that is still selling, and in this case the scope of the task was especially daunting. The world of philosophy in English has reason to be grateful to Richmond and the people at Routledge for seeing this through. *** *** *** Jean-Paul Sartre was born in 1905 in Paris. He had already published a few short stories when he entered the cole Normale Suprieure in 1924, where he met Simone de Beauvoir, who remained a companion for life and whose influence on Being and Nothingness , while difficult to determine, was no doubt considerable. Like most young French phi - losophers at the time, he was influenced by the work of Henri Bergson FOREWORD xi and by the neo-Kantianism represented by Lon Brunschvicg, but he had already conceived for himself the dream of a manner of writing that would be literary and philosophical at once. It was in 1932 that he had the famous meeting in a caf with Raymond Aron, when Aron was back visiting Paris during the year he was spending at the Institut Franais in Berlin, learning about the new philosophy called phenomenology. As Beauvoir tells the story in The Prime of Life, We ordered the specialty of the house, apricot cocktails. Aron said, pointing to his glass: You see, my dear fellow, if you were a phenom - enologist, you could talk about this cocktail glass and make philosophy out of it. Sartre turned pale with emotion at this. Here was just the thing he had been longing to achieve for years to describe objects just as he saw and touched them, and extract philosophy from the process. 1 Aron helped Sartre obtain a fellowship in Berlin for the following year, where he immersed himself in Husserl and Heidegger, and wrote his critique of Husserl, The Transcendence of the Ego , and the bulk of his first novel Nausea (published respectively in 1937 and 1938). Both works attracted considerable attention, but Sartres budding fame was cut short by the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the general mobilization in France. Sartre was called up and was captured by the Germans in 1940 and transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp in Trier. He does not describe his time there as having been harsh, and he seems to have spent most of his days teaching philosophy to fellow prisoners and working on the volumi - nous notebooks in which he sketched out the plan for his big book Being and Nothingness. After managing to get himself released in 1941, he returned to occupied Paris, where he sought unsuccessfully to form a resistance group independent of the Gaullists and the Communists. For the remain - der of the war he was by his own account an intellectual resistant, and concentrated on finishing his magnum opus. It was published by Gallimard in 1943, at 722 pages weighing precisely one kilogram, which 1 Simone de Beauvoir (1962), The Prime of Life, trans. Peter Green (Harmondsworth: Penguin), p. 135. FOREWORD xii (if Jean Paulhan is to be believed) helped with the initial sales, since the book was being used as a weight measure at home when the normal brass weights had been confiscated by the German authorities. What sort of book is this, and what is its philosophical importance now? Any account of its importance and genuine brilliance has to come to grips with the several different forms of obstacle to its reception today, both those intrinsic to the book and those stemming from the contempo - rary intellectual context. Part of the problem is simply Sartres own fame and the cultural saturation that was part of the reception of existential - ism in France from the beginning. In the Paris of the 1950s something called existentialism was not merely a school of philosophy but an entire lifestyle, encompassing literature, music, film and a succession of political stances. This broad influence was amplified by the fact that, in France as elsewhere, the post-war years were also the beginning of the first age of mass media and a new prominence of youth culture in European and American life. Sartres own personality as provocateur and intellectuel engag lent itself to this context. He was on television almost as soon as television came to France, and was perhaps the first major philosopher to have his own radio show. In the decades following the war in France he was rarely without an opinion or an opportunity for publishing it. And of course he threw himself into the various political crises of his day, creating a cer - tain notoriety and gaining enemies among both the Catholic right and the Communist left in France. The result of this cultural saturation is that today everyone is entitled to an opinion about Sartrean existentialism, however minimal ones exposure to his writing may be. This presence as cultural reference is itself unusual for a philosopher, and is an aspect of how his enduring fame is maintained even by his detractors. All philosophers wax and wane in their influence, and most can enjoy a posthumous existence in comfortable obscurity, but Sartre stands out among the notable twentieth-century philosophers for the extent to which he is still invoked for conde - scension, seen less as a philosopher than as a provocation to be put down both in intellectual circles and in the popular media. Another obstacle is the sheer length and the style of Being and Nothingness . It can be an impossible and infuriating text; one can only dream wistfully of what a ruthless editor might have been able to do with its bulk. The tone is often abrupt and peremptory, with little or no explanation given to key philosophical terms, whether German or French. In a manner that FOREWORD xiii we have become used to among certain philosophers, it is as though the presumed audience for the work could only be those for whom such things as the distinction between the phenomenon of being and the being of the phenomenon is always already quite familiar, and we are being invited to appreciate the unexpected spin the brilliant author is putting on these old ideas. It is extremely uneven as a piece of philo-sophical writing. Sometimes we do indeed get what look very much like arguments, powerful ones, and other times Sartre puts his powers of description to genuinely illuminating use, but too often we get bold declarations, invidious distinctions, and a fondness for paradoxical for - mulation that seems to know no bounds. Sartre himself paid a price for the difficulty of access of Being and Nothingness, in the fact that readers who were curious but not prepared to take on the 722 pages of the original had available to them a much shorter Sartrean text, a pamphlet really, called Existentialism is a Humanism, something dashed off and never intended for publication in the first place. In October 1945, in the early months of the Liberation, Sartre was persuaded by a friend to give what was to be a small public lecture on the new philosophy at the Club Maintenant. It turned into a huge event, with an overflow crowd and people being carried out after having fainted from the heat and overcrowding. Sartre spoke without notes. To help pay for the rental of the hall and the damage to the prem - ises, the organizer prevailed upon Sartre to agree to publish a version of his remarks for sale, which he agreed to. As a text it is full of crudities, misstatements and willful exaggerations for effect, and soon became far and away the most famous and widely read piece he ever wrote. It is still commonly cited as representative of Sartrean existentialism by philoso-phers who should know better. A final obstacle to be mentioned is that so much of French thought since the 1960s and 1970s has proceeded from an assumed repudiation of Sartre. Being and Nothingness is, among other things, the last great expression of the philosophy of the subject that later French thought has expended so much energy in dismantling and decentering. Both structuralist (originally in the person of Claude Lvi-Strauss) and post-structuralist thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan begin by repudiating the Cartesian starting point of so many of the reflections in Being and Nothingness , as well as Sartres appropriation of phenomenology and early Heidegger. FOREWORD xiv All of this is further reason to welcome this new translation and the opportunity it gives readers in English to encounter this book with fresh eyes, for despite its flaws it is still one of the great and engaging texts of twentieth-century philosophy. It is a text to struggle with, yes, but when the writing is at its best it is rewarding and illuminating in ways that few major works of philosophy in the modern world can touch. Of course like any philosophical text it needs to be comprehended as a whole, but many of its famous sections (on bad faith, on the look of the Other, on various self-defeating strategies of love and desire, on freedom and responsibility, on the existential psychoanalysis of qualities) can be profitably read by themselves. Today it is easy to forget how daring this text is, and the different ways Sartre expanded the possible forms of philosophical writing. This new edition makes this available to a new generation of readers. Different philosophers will have different reasons for engaging with Being and Nothingness today. From the perspective of the history of phi - losophy it may be read as a remarkably ambitious attempt to inherit the phenomenology of Husserl and the early work of Heidegger, in the context of a general metaphysical picture of the world and the place of human thought and action within it. Today one may be skeptical about the very idea of such a general metaphysical picture, and in par - ticular the dualism of being as such and nothingness, and yet still be impressed with the creative use to which it is put and how Sartre is able to begin from these bare categories to an analysis of the difference between the categories of ordinary objects (being-in-itself) and the categories of human life (being-for-itself). Despite rumors to the con - trary, the idea of nothingness here has little to do with despair or the contemplation of suicide. Rather, the idea of the negative is bound up with the most basic abilities to describe the world and pick out and dis - criminate objects themselves (Sartre never tires of alluding to Spinozas formulation Omnis determinatio est negatio). At the same time the fundamental power of thought to negate, to assert difference, is also something that he seeks to derive from Husserls basic thought about consciousness (itself an idea associated with Brentano): consciousness is pure relatedness to an object, which is to say something other than itself, something it is not. Consciousness just is this basic capacity for relatedness to the world and the distinguishing of itself from the world FOREWORD xv it is directed upon. This assertion of difference is described as part of the nihilating action of consciousness, which enables Sartre to forge his unbreakable connection between consciousness (as for-itself) and freedom, in action and in thought. For in the same way that a picture of the world as consisting purely of positive reality cannot account for the ability to grasp or even perceive the negative truth of, for instance, an objects being fragile (breakable, but not broken), or different from another one, or no longer what it once was (not to mention Pierres absence from the caf), so understanding human action requires the negative modes of thought involved in being underway with an action not yet completed, and in the capacity to step back from or posit ones freedom with respect to ones currently constituted motives and ones past (ones facticity). The stepping back or putting ones past out of play is the same nihilating capacity of consciousness, the capacity to distinguish, hold oneself separate from the facticity of what the world has made of one so far, and raise the question for oneself of how one is to relate oneself to this positive reality from here on. It is along these lines that we can see that some of Sartres most provocative formulations are no mere paradox-mongering: The human being is what it is not (in the sense that, as agent, I am my relation to my unrealized possibili-ties, the action I am embarked on but have not completed) and is not what it is (in the sense that in adopting the standpoint of freedom to my possibilities I posit my difference from my past and the facticities of my situation, which make up what I am so far). Here as elsewhere Sartres borrowings are as undeniable as the bold - ness and originality of his use of them. Are the notions of negation, nothingness and difference being stretched here to do too many different kinds of work as we move from the more purely metaphysical structure of the world to the story of action and human subjectivity? No doubt that is a question one may and should press throughout the read - ing of Being and Nothingness, but what remains impressive is the richness and diversity of the phenomenon that Sartre manages in this way to bring into philosophical contact with each other, the new questions this orien-tation makes possible. The same vaulting ambition that takes him from the ancient Parmenidean problem of how there can be thought about what is not, to the object-directedness of thought (intentionality), to a distinctive perspective on human freedom is also what helps us FOREWORD xvi formulate new questions about how the appeal to freedom can be genu-inely explanatory of human action, and how we should understand the relation between the intentionality of thought and the intentionality of action, and hence the understanding of action itself as a form of thought. Being and Nothingness is not only about human freedom, but is a text that is plainly obsessed with the question of freedom and its meaning, and organizes all its many topics around it. In relation to freedom it is less concerned to solve the traditional problem of freedom and determinism and more concerned to understand what is contained in the ordinary assumption of human freedom and the variety of ways it manifests itself. Part of Sartres great originality here is in his drive to find the question of freedom not only in, say, the conditions for holding people accountable, but virtually everywhere in human life, in the inescapabil - ity of some answer I give to how I relate myself to my past as well as my future, to the forms of intersubjectivity and what it is that is aimed at in seeking the desire or recognition of another person, in the conflicting demands of the first-person and third-person points of view in under - standing oneself. What is sometimes criticized as the unboundedness of Sartres conception of human freedom is a reflection of the fact that the place of freedom in his system is less that of a human capacity among others and more that of a principle of intelligibility of human affairs quite generally. Sartre is of course a novelist and playwright as well as philosopher, and part of the originality of Being and Nothingness as a piece of writing lies in the combination of an abstract and austere metaphysical picture with an essentially dramatic sense of the source of philosophical questions as they exhibit themselves in recognizable human situations. One of his great topics is that of the question of the forms of comprehensibility of human life, and of an individual human life taken as a whole (especially in his later books on Genet and Flaubert). He is properly and profitably struck by the contradictory demands we place on the comprehensibility of human life and action, and by the question of the priority of different forms of comprehensibility we demand of ourselves and others. The meta- physics of the in-itself and the for-itself, or the self-as-facticity and the self-as-transcendence, will have earned its philosophical keep if they are what bring into view and make available for thought what Sartre takes up in the sections of Being and Nothingness on bad faith, on the nature of shame FOREWORD xvii and the self-consciousness that pertains to it, on the encounter with the Other through the look, on the internal conflicts of love and desire. Despite how long Being and Nothingness has been a looming presence on the philosophical scene, much of it is only recently getting the atten - tion it deserves in the anglophone world. Sartres long chapter on The body is one of the first extended philosophical meditations in the mod - ern era on that meaning of ones identity with a certain living body, and is beginning to attract new attention today. And his reflections on the different forms of self-consciousness (thetic or positional versus non-thetic or non-positional, as originally developed in his short work The Transcendence of the Ego ) are entering into contemporary discus- sions on the nature of self-knowledge and the first-person point of view. In many ways, Sartre is as present on the scene as ever, but even in that presence we can see him still struggling with his fame, and his life and personality somehow continue to exert a fascination out of balance with attention to the works that are supposedly the reason for any special interest in the details of this mans life. With new biographies of Sartre appearing every few years, and words like existential being part of every pundits vocabulary, this new translation makes this an opportune time to go back to the source and see what its all about. NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS BN Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (unless otherwise stated, reference is to the present translation). EN Jean-Paul Sartre (1943), Ltre et le Nant (Paris: Gallimard) (i.e. the original French text of Being and Nothingness). EH Jean-Paul Sartre (1973), Existentialism and Humanism, trans. Philip Mairet (London: Methuen). Note: The marginal pagination in the present translation corresponds to the pagination in the Gallimard Collection Tel edition of Ltre et le Nant, as published in 1976. Footnotes: In the present translation, Sartres notes have been labelled Sartres note and those written by the translator labelled TN(Translators Note). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION Sarah Richmond Ltre et le Nant is widely and correctly regarded as Sartres most important philosophical work, but it attracted little public attention when it first appeared in France in 1943. Perhaps we should not be surprised, as the Second World War was not yet over and the German Occupation was still in force in Northern France. Today, the place of Being and Nothingness (hereafter BN 1) within the canon of twentieth-century European philos - ophy is uncontested, and it is taught, read and studied across the globe. In this Introduction my primary aim is to describe BNs philosophical impact so far, focusing especially on France and the English-speaking world. As a great deal of Sartre criticism and exegesis is now available, I will only briefly survey the content of the text. Instead I offer an over-view of its reception, to provide the reader with some background to my translation, produced three-quarters of a century later. For remarks about the practical task of translating it, challenges it has posed, and my reasons for some of my decisions, see the Notes on the Translation. At the time of BNs first publication, Sartre had returned to teaching philosophy in the French secondary school system, after an uneventful stint of military service (his poor eyesight meant he was exempt from active combat) and a period spent in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Although 1 I will use EN only when the reference is necessarily to the French version of the text. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xx Sartre had published some impressive work in the 1930s, he was not yet well known, and his reputation as a writer was owed primarily to his 1938 novel (La Nause), some short stories and plays (Les Mouches was first staged in Paris in 1943), book reviews (mostly of fiction) published in various periodicals, and other journalism. A year later, after Path had commis-sioned him to write the screenplay for a feature film ( Typhus, which was never made), Sartre believed he could earn a living as a full-time writer and gave up his teaching post. Not long after that following his legendary public lecture (subsequently translated as EH) in which Sartre presented a simplified version of his philosophy to a packed audience in Paris in 1945 he became a national figure. By the 1960s Sartres further writings, his association with Simone de Beauvoir, his appearances around the world and his numerous political interventions had also made him an interna-tional figure, a public intellectual who is frequently described as the most famous philosopher of the twentieth century. BN presents itself as a traditional, scholarly and comprehensive work of philosophy. Sartre had not yet detached himself from the values of academia, and he adopts the persona of a distinguished professor who has the entire Western philosophical corpus at his fingertips. Modern thought, he tells us in his opening sentence, has [reduced] the existent to the series of appearances that manifest it. How, if at all, do statements of this highly abstract kind bear any relation to the doctrines and slogans that we associate with existentialist philosophy? In fact, as readers are sometimes surprised to discover, the term existentialist is applied only retrospectively to the philosophy of BN, and it does not figure in the text. It does figure importantly in EH, where Sartre sums existentialism up quite simply in the famous claim that existence comes before essence. To explain this claim, Sartre (an atheist) contrasts it with a religious conception, according to which we are created by God. Had God created us, Sartre argues, our essence would precede our existence, as it would be determined by Gods inten - tions. But there is no such thing as human nature in a godless world, where Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. This con-trast seems to suggest that existentialism is incompatible with religious belief, which would conflict with Sartres acknowledgement in the same lecture that Christian existentialism also exists, but we will not pursue this here. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxi The French title of EH LExistentialisme est un Humanisme asserts the thesis that Sartre will be defending for his audience (and, once it was published, for his readers). Being and Nothingness is rather more obscure, and its sub-title An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology is also unlikely to help anyone without a philosophical training. Ontology is the philosophical study of being or of what exists, of what is in the most general sense, and Sartres fundamental claim is elegantly con - densed within his title. In order to account for being, Sartre is saying, we need also to acknowledge nothingness (or non-being). The relationship between this ontological project and the better-known existentialist tenets that are associated with Sartre is in fact straightforward: the for - mer provides the theoretical underpinnings for the latter. Nothingness explains why we humans are radically free, just as Sartres account in BN of the interpersonal orientation he calls being for the Other explains why our interpersonal relationships are likely to be hellish. The philosophy advanced in BN was of course attacked from the out - set, in the first instance and before it had been translated into any other languages by Sartres fellow French intellectuals. Indeed, just two years after the publication of EN in France, Sartre announces in EH his intention to defend existentialism against several reproaches. Sartre is not too bothered by the censure of the Christians, for whom atheistic existentialism is incompatible with morality: the points Sartre goes on to make in the lecture are supposed to refute that claim. He would have been more troubled by the attacks from the political left. In a discussion of EH that was organized specifically for Sartre to face his opponents, the Communist activist Pierre Naville raised several criticisms that have often been repeated since. (Indeed, only a year or so later, Herbert Marcuses review of BN (Marcuse 1947) sounded a similar hostile Marxist note.) For Naville, Sartres rejection of human nature was an illusion; rather than abolishing the idea, Sartre was regressively proposing an alternative to it, in the guise of human freedom. In more explicitly political terms, Naville also accused Sartre of resurrecting liberalism (Sartre 1973: 60). The next most significant date in the history of BN is probably 1956, in so far as Sartres international reputation as a philosopher depends at least in the English-speaking world on the first (and until now the only) English translation of EN, published in the US in that year. It was translated by Hazel Barnes (19152008), a Classics scholar at the TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxii University of Colorado, who took on the task because she admired Sartres philosophy and wanted to make it available to the anglophone world. Barness own work was also important in acquainting English speakers with Sartres existentialism: much of her academic output, in the form of books and essays, took the form of critical discussion of his philosophy. And that was not all: Barnes also presented a series of programmes about philosophy on Ohio University radio in 1952, as well as a ten-episode television series about existentialism (screened on national American tel - evision) in the 1960s, entitled Self-Encounter: A Study in Existentialism. She even classified the memoir that she published in her eighties as a venture in Existentialist autobiography (Barnes 1997). These details alone suffice to show how radically the relations between intellectuals both within and outside academic institutions and the wider public culture have changed since the middle of the twentieth century. Sartre and Barnes had different personalities and intellectual out - looks, but they both believed that philosophy should concern itself with contemporary human existence, and that it should correct our under - standing of our existence in a way that would oblige us to live differently. And people were hungry for these ideas, willing to attend public lec - tures or to learn more from the radio, newspapers and television. The philosophy of BN, with its emphasis on human freedom, agency and responsibility, may also have held special appeal for a post-war public open to change and desiring a fresh start. The early reception of EN in the English-speaking world also illustrates an intellectual cosmopolitanism within academic philosophy that is less common in todays more specialized and professional departments. In the post-war period, the gulf within philosophy that is still often thought to separate Sartre, as a Continental philosopher, from the anglophone analytical traditions was not yet evident. Moreover, and especially in the UK, the profile of the philosophers who showed an interest in Sartres work in some cases, even before it had been translated is remarkable. A.J. Ayer, who was a French speaker and had friends in Paris, published a two-part discussion of Sartres work in the journal Horizon in 1945, quoting lengthy passages from it in French. Iris Murdochs first book was a slim volume on Sartre, pub - lished in 1953: although she focuses mainly on his novels, she had also read EN (and other non-fiction by Sartre) in French, and her book pays TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxiii particular attention to the way Sartres philosophy influences his fiction. Later decades saw further contributions by other major British philoso - phers: Stuart Hampshire reviewed Barness translation in The Observer in 1957, while Alasdair MacIntyre wrote the entry on Existentialism for the Encyclopedia of Philosophy published in 1967. A few years later, MacIntyre also contributed to a collection of critical essays on Sartre edited by Mary Warnock (1971), another prominent Sartre scholar; this collection also included an excellent discussion by Hide Ishiguro of Sartres theory of the imagination which helped to establish Sartre as someone worthy of attention from analytical philosophers of mind. 2 Two lines of thought about Sartres philosophy, which jointly exhibit a marked ambivalence, are especially prominent in this first wave of anglophone critical discussion. On the one hand and as the legacy of Logical Positivisms hostility to traditional metaphysics would lead one to expect there is a dismissive attitude towards Sartres ontological frame - work. In his review articles, Ayer was particularly harsh about Sartres assertions in relation to le nant (nothingness), which he judged to be literally nonsensical (Ayer 1945: 19). (Although Ayer does not mention Rudolf Carnap, his criticism here bears a strong resemblance to Carnaps earlier criticism of Heideggers concept of das Nichts, usually translated as nothing; nor is this a historical coincidence, as Heideggers concept influenced Sartres. 3) Similarly, in his Observer review of BN, Hampshire mentions the malignant influences of Hegel and Heidegger, and asks whether the sophistries of Hegelian logic might conceal the banality of some of Sartres observations before conceding, in Sartres favour, 2 Sartres account of the imagination has also earned him a place within analytical aes - thetics. See for example Hopkins (1998). Another, m uch bigger, collection of papers appeared in the US a decade later: Schilpp (1981). 3 Isaiah Berlin, another infuential fgure in British philosophy at the time, was aware of Sartres philosophy , although he never engaged with it in detail. (As Berlin was also centrally concerned with freedom, this was perhaps a missed opportunity .) In a letter written in 1955, Berlin reports:I have been reading, of all people, the detestable Sartre. The novels are too slimy & dark, but he is a very clever man & his moral philosophy is what I think I 3/4 believe.What a fool I was to be deceived by Freddies articles in Horizon at the end of the war which concentrated on Sartres obscure logic & his attitudes to sex & proved it all bogus. It is not. It is most imaginative and bold and important (Berlin 2009: 467). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxiv that his criticism of traditional theories of mind is at too many points convincing for his whole system to be ignored (Hampshire 1957: 16). 4 On the other hand, British commentators also noted the congruence between Sartres phenomenological approach to philosophy in BN (sub-titled An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology) and the empiricist tradition in British philosophy. Iris Murdoch was especially alert to this similarity: It might even be argued that recent continental philosophers have been discovering, with immense fuss, what the English empiricists have known since Hume, whom Husserl himself claimed as an ancestor (Murdoch 1967: 8). 5 Sartre had studied the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (18591938) intensively in the 1930s: as he understood Husserls phe - nomenological method, it directed philosophers to attend closely to humans experience of the world, in order to describe the phenomena (the way the world appears to human consciousness) in rigorous detail. In an early paper about Husserl published in 1939, Sartres excitement about this revolutionary method was palpable. 6 Along with two other German philosophers, Hegel and Heidegger, Husserl forms part of the trio often referred to as the three Hs with whom Sartre enters into dialogue at various points in BN, usually in order to argue for the advantages of his view over theirs. As a fellow novelist-philosopher, Iris Murdoch was well placed to understand the appeal for Sartre indeed, for anyone with literary ambitions of Husserls descriptive philosoph - ical methodology. The often-quoted and highly evocative vignettes in BN (Pierre in the caf, the woman on the date, the hiker who gives in to fatigue) show Sartre taking full advantage of the opportunity to indulge in the detailed and stylish elaboration of fictional characters and scenarios which, he thought, the phenomenological method provided. And, some years later, when Murdoch came to downgrade her earlier 4 By traditional theories of mind Hampshire is referring to post-Cartesian conceptions. Sartres relationship to Desc artes is too complicated to discuss here. 5 Describing the reception of Sartre in the US,Ann Fulton suggests that a perceived afnity with empiricism although in this case it was with William J amess philosophy rather than Humes also helped to legitimize Sartr es philosophy there (Fulton 1999: 3). 6 Sartres early paper about Husserl is available in translation as Sartre (1970). For a readable account o f Husserls phenomenology and its relation to Sartres concerns, see Bakewell (2016). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxv opinion of Sartre, she produced a competing vignette of her own (fea - turing M, a mother, and D, her daughter-in-law) to illustrate her criticisms of Sartre (Murdoch 1970). In America it took longer for serious interest in Sartres philosophy to become established: with a few exceptions, most philosophical dis - cussion post-dated and depended on Barness translation.7 This time-lag seems also to have made it more difficult for Sartres ideas to get an unprejudiced hearing: by the late 1950s Sartre was often presented out-side France as a lightweight celebrity whose philosophy did not deserve to be taken seriously outside caf society. Some of Sartres critical articles about American society (written after a visit in 1945) had been translated into English in the 1950s; his increasingly vocal political criticisms of the West had also made him enemies. 8 Apparently Hazel Barnes herself, before she had read any of Sartres philosophical work, had dismissed existentialism as a fashionable philosophy of defeatism and despair (Cannon 2008: 92). The early reception of Sartre in the UK and the US was idiosyn - cratic in a number of ways. First, Sartre was often presented as a moral philosopher and, accordingly, criticized from that perspective. Both Murdoch and MacIntyre saw him this way while, in the US, Marjorie Grene presented existentialism as a philosophy in which the central virtue was authenticity, a line of thought that was also taken up and 7 The exceptions are interesting, however. Wilfrid Desan, who was born in Belgium and studied in Lille, was a native French speaker who apparently met Sartre during the Second World War. He moved to the US in 1948, gained a doctorate there, and spent his working life as a university professor of philosophy . His frst book, published in 1954, was a critical study of EN and relied on the French text (Desan 1954). Marjorie Grene, an American who had spent time studying in Germany with Heidegger and Jaspers in the early 1930s, published various books and papers about existentialism. The Canadian-born Robert Denoon Cumming served as a US soldier in France in the Second World War and spent time as a student at the Sorbonne. Although his own work on Sartre (Cumming 19912001) was only published later, he introduced generations of students to contemporary European thought in his classes at Columbia University . Herbert Marcuse, who emigrated from Germany in 1932, was already developing his new interpretation of Marxism when he published his unfavourable review of EN (Marcuse 1947). 8 Beauvoir also had an international name by now, as a controversial French intellectual. She visited America separately in 1947 and published her own ambivalent observations in France a year later (translated as Beauvoir 1999). xxvi TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION criticized by Charles Taylor. Alvin Plantingas hostile 1958 paper, An Existentialists Ethics, claimed Sartres account of freedom was incom - patible with any genuine morality and interpreted Sartre as a moral nihilist. From todays standpoint, and with the benefits of closer atten-tion to BN as well as historical hindsight, this focus seems misguided. Sartre himself states explicitly at the end of BN (and in some impor - tant footnotes) that an adequate discussion of morality would have to appear in a future work, but he never succeeded in fulfilling that promise, although we have some idea of the evolution of his moral thinking from the posthumously published Notebooks for an Ethics (Sartre 1992). 9 This moral perspective may have been encouraged to some extent by Barnes; although she was aware of Sartres reticence in BN, her interest in Sartre was driven by her strong desire for a credible post-religious morality, a possibility she continued to explore in her academic writing. Many commentators also read back into BN the optimistic moral ideas that Sartre had sketched out in EH, erroneously conflating these two texts. More generally, the categories used within analytical philosophy and the tacitly accepted boundaries of the discipline have shaped the approach of anglophone philosophers to BN. For example, it is probably because Freud is rarely included (outside France) within the philosophi - cal curriculum that Sartres conception of existentialist psychoanalysis has largely been ignored while, on the other hand, his account of bad faith is seen as a contribution to the debate within the philosophy of mind about self-deception, and his account of shame is assessed with reference to the sceptical problem of other minds. In her introduction to the 1965 edition of her translation, Barnes complained that this piecemeal attention to BN hindered readers understanding: one can no more understand Sartres view of freedom, for instance, without considering his peculiar view of consciousness than one can judge Platos doctrine that knowledge is recollection without relating it to the theory of ideas. What critics usually fail to see is that Sartre is 9 The Notebooks many references to the desirability of a social revolution suggest that at least part of Sartr es reason for abandoning his work on morality was that political imperatives had come to seem more fundament al. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxvii one of the very few twentieth century philosophers to present us with a total system.10 The predominantly ahistorical outlook of analytical philosophy has also inflected the study of Sartre. With a few exceptions, and in spite of Sartres frequent references to the three Hs, most anglophone commentators have said little about Sartres relations to these predecessors, or even about his place in the European post-Kantian tradition more broadly. Work still remains to be done exploring Sartres relations not only to the three Hs but also to more shadowy figures behind the text, including Kierkegaard, Bergson, Leibniz and the Stoics. 11 It is perhaps especially surprising that so little attention was given to Sartres relationship with Heidegger: after all, Heidegger was still alive when BN appeared and he pre-deceased Sartre by only four years. 12 In fact, Heideggers influence pervades BN, although Sartre does not always acknowledge it. Heideggers example may be responsible for BNs title (which can be seen as a response to Heideggers most famous philo - sophical work, Being and Time ), and is surely the reason for the mention of ontology in its sub-title. Heideggers example must also have influ - enced Sartres decision to make nothingness into a central philosophical concept. Sartres focus on mans practical immersion in his everyday tasks, the choice of the activity of questioning as an investigative point of departure, and the redeployment of anguish within a new framework are also all indebted to Heidegger. 13 Despite this debt, most of Sartres reading of Heidegger appears to have been in French translation and he relied heavily on a small anthology of extracts and essays translated by Henry Corbin and published in France in 1938 (Heidegger 1938). Sartre borrowed the phrase human-reality 10 Barnes (1965: viiiix). 11 The exceptions include the following:Aquila (1998), Baiasu (2011), Baldwin (1979), Gardner (2005, 2009). More of this type o f work has been published in France and Germany , where philosophy tends to b e studied from a more historical perspective. See for example Hartmann (1966) and Simont (1998). 12 Various reasons may explain this neglect: in particular, I think Heideggers writing style was a deterrent. It is difcult to imagine Ay er, Murdoch, Hampshire or Berlin enjoying his dense and humourless prose. 13 Of course Sartre also disagrees with Heidegger on many topics, including the signif - cance of human death and the nature o f our relations with others. xxviii TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION (la ralit humaine) directly from Corbin (who had used it to translate Heideggers term Dasein). This monstrous translation, as Jacques Derrida famously described it a quarter of a century later (Derrida 1982b: 115), was subsequently held against Sartre. In conjunction with other evidence (including, importantly, EH), this usage was thought to warrant dismissal of BN as a philosophy resting on outdated and unacceptable humanist premises. The anti-humanist criticism was one among several lines of attack within a broader critical backlash against Sartre that was at its height in the 1960s and 1970s, in both France and the English-speaking world. Feminist theory provided a different kind of opposition (about which more later). In so far as it involves Sartre, the so-called Humanism Debate begins in 1946 when Jean Beaufret (a French philosopher with an interest in German thought) wrote to Heidegger, with the intention of re-establishing a dialogue between French and German philosophy after the disruption of the Second World War. 14 In EH, Sartre had cited Heidegger as a fellow existentialist, and Beaufret was effectively inviting Heidegger to respond. Heideggers reply published in an expanded version as the Letter on Humanism (Heidegger 1978b) was disdainful. (It did not help that almost two decades had elapsed since the publication of Being and Time and Heideggers philosophical focus had shifted.) Although Sartre is not exten - sively discussed in the Letter, Heidegger makes it clear that, in his view, Sartre is one of the many Western philosophers who have misconceived the proper task of thought. Sartres focus in EH on (free) human action is, Heidegger suggests, superficial: instead, we should develop our thinking in a way that lets itself be claimed by Being so that it can say the truth of Being (194). To do this, it is important to notice the resources of language and to reconceptualize our relationship with it. Indeed, the first page of the Letter contains one of Heideggers most-quoted claims: Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells (Heidegger 1978b: 193). Why does Heidegger reject humanism at least as it is normally con- ceived? Although the Letter pursues several relevant lines of thought, the central claim is that the way the human being is interpreted throughout the history 14 See Baldwin (2007) for further discussion of this debate. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxix of humanism is insufficiently radical, and sets us on the wrong philosophical path. For example the Greek view that a human is essentially a rational animal helps itself uncritically to a conception of life and locates humans among other animals in a way that conceals our difference (which does not consist, for Heidegger, in rationality). Behind this criticism lies a more fundamental problem, namely that every humanism is either grounded in a metaphysics or is itself made to be the ground of one. . . . Accordingly, every humanism is metaphysical (Heidegger 1978b: 202). Heideggers critique of metaphysics is an immense topic; for our purposes, the key idea to retain is Heideggers claim which is taken up in Derridas philosophy that the Western philosophical tradition has repeatedly determined being in terms of presence. For Heidegger, humanism is complicit with this metaphysical tendency; in its Cartesian incarnation, for example, humans are characterized as thinking subjects to whom beings are made present (or represented) as objects. Derrida elaborates the theme of the metaphysics of presence with particular reference to questions of linguistic meaning and reference (which had, by the late twentieth century, also become dominant in anglophone phi - losophy as well as in Continental Europe). Had French thought taken a different path after Heideggers anti- Sartrean intervention, the question of humanism might have been forgotten. But the massive impact of structuralism in virtually every branch of the human sciences in France in the 1960s resulted in a range of anti-humanist theoretical proposals that were thought to be antithetical to Sartres earlier philosophy, by authors who were often explicitly critical of Sartre. As its name suggests, structuralisms basic insight is that the production of meaning where this is broadly under - stood to include linguistic meaning, the meaning of literary texts and the meaning of social practices depends on pre-existing and socially shared structures or systems that determine and delimit the signifying possibilities available to the people who inhabit them. A host of famous French thinkers are associated with this paradigm, including Barthes, Foucault, Lvi-Strauss, Lacan and Althusser. 15 Across these different fields 15 See Gutting (2001) for a helpful overview of many of these fgures. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxx of investigation, the structuralist model denies explanatory primacy to individual subjectivity, and emphasizes instead the often-quoted decen-tring of the subject and the death of the author. 16 Sartre was portrayed as an advocate of the individualist humanism held by this body of work to be untenable. Of course a case can be, and has been, made in Sartres defence; defendants have portrayed and promoted a new Sartre. It should also be noted that many of the French theorists who distanced themselves from Sartre were separated from him by only a few years in age: Sartres prominence in public life needed to be questioned if they were to dis - place him. A further question, which some have answered affirmatively, is whether Sartres post-BN writings show him to be following a similar trajectory to the structuralist theorists in any case. 17 The feminist attacks on Sartre were largely independent of this debate, and arose as part of the wider feminist Zeitgeist in the second half of the twentieth century. One strand of feminist discussion has been biographically centred, in so far as it examines Sartres relationship with Beauvoir and his intellectual debts to her through a feminist lens. In this context, the relevance of BN is exhausted by the light it throws on these wider questions (whether, for example, it reveals Beauvoirs influence). For this reason, I will merely remind the reader that Sartre dedicated BN au Castor and move on. 18 The so-called second wave of feminism was at its height in the 1970s when two American scholars published an influential article, Holes and Slime: Sexism in Sartres Psychoanalysis (Collins and Pierce 1976). Their purpose was to show that Sartres examples in BN of the psychoanalysis of things manifest a sexism that contradicts BNs basic anti-essentialist standpoint. In the passages they cite from Barness trans-lation, Sartre considers the significance of holes and slime. 19 Slime, he tells 16 Foucaults eloquent concluding paragraphs to The Order of Things are often quoted to the same efect. Foucault states that man is an invention of recent date and that, if the fundamental arrangements of knowledge were to crumble,man would be erased, like a face drawn in sand at the edg e of the sea (Foucault 1970: 387). 17 See for example Caws (1992). 18 Le Castor, which is French for beaver , was Sartres nickname for Beauvoir. See Daigle and Golomb (2008) for the question of Beauvoirs infuence. 19 Sartres French term is visqueux, which (as I argue below) should be translated as viscous rather than slimy . TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxi us, has a negative ontological meaning, in so far as it signifies a threat to consciousness, or an inversion of its central characteristics (lucidity, freedom, etc.). Sartre describes the action of slime as a moist and femi - nine sucking which is also the revenge of the In-itself. A sickly-sweet feminine revenge. . . . Collins and Pierces objections to Sartres treat - ment of holes are less forceful, as Sartre mentions several types of hole (including non-corporeal ones). Nonetheless, his suggestion that the vagina is a mouth and a voracious mouth which devours the penis did not please them. One response to these criticisms, voiced by Barnes and other critics, points out that these damning passages do not play an important role in BN; it would be absurd to take them to be gendering Sartres ontology, i.e. to infer that the for-itself is implicitly male and the in-itself implicitly female throughout. According to this defence, we ought to distinguish the (incidental) sexism of Sartres imagery from his central philosophical doctrines. As Barnes conceded, a full investigation of the linguistic codes in Sartres writing would reveal him to be a man comfortably ensconced in a world of male dominance (Barnes 1990: 341). But, Sartres sup - porters argued, we need to look beyond the regrettably sexist imagery and language in order to notice the emancipatory potential of Sartres basic anti-essentialism. 20 However, this defence of Sartre may not work in relation to another, more theoretically sophisticated line of feminist criticism. According to the French philosopher Michle Le Doeuff (2007), a philosophical imaginary, expressing a male outlook and male privilege, can be dis-cerned within the Western philosophical canon as a whole and BN is no exception. As this orientation is largely unconscious and surfaces most often in imagery or examples that may appear to be incidental, we can - not dismiss these aspects of a text. One of Le Doeuffs most compelling analyses focuses on Sartres depictions of women in his discussion of bad faith: not only the well-known woman on the date who tries not to notice her suitors sexual ambitions but also the unfortunate women, featured in some case-studies from Stekel and cited by Sartre, who claim not to enjoy sex with their husbands, although both Stekel and Sartre disagree 20 Feminists have also found other elements in BN useful, e.g. its account of the objectify - ing efect of the Others gaze . For a collection of feminist interpretations of Sartre, see Murphy (1999). xxxii TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION (Le Doeuff 2007: 6468). In her unconventional book, Le Doeuff also draws on a wide range of other materials, including Beauvoirs memoirs and letters from Sartre, arguing that the real-life consequence of their intellectual partnership was effectively that Beauvoir was deprived (or deprived herself) of the status of a philosopher. Genevieve Lloyds The Man of Reason , first published in 1984, also sur - veyed the Western philosophical canon from a feminist critical point of view, although through a slightly different lens (Lloyd 1993). Lloyd claims that the ideal of reason is repeatedly associated in philosophy with maleness; this association, moreover, is sometimes inherited by philos - ophers who may not consciously appreciate its workings. Lloyd argues that the idea of transcendence that Beauvoir took over from Sartre (and, via Sartre, from Hegel), and uses in The Second Sex, is contaminated in this way and therefore an unsuitable feminist ideal. Le Doeuffs and Lloyds books are insightful, and their remarks about BN deserve serious attention. Still, we should note that the ambition and generality of these surveys mean that Sartre is seen to instantiate a rule rather than an exception. In addition, these critics suggest that the bias they are documenting needs to be unearthed: it is not always obvious, and nor do the philosophers who exhibit it even necessarily intend it. In this respect, these feminist interpretations of Western philosophy share some of the features of Derridas deconstructionist approach to philosophy, published in France in several influential books and arti - cles in the late 1960s and 1970s. 21 Some of these writings target the structuralism that was then so fashionable in France: because of their deflationary effect, Derrida is often described as a post-structuralist. For Derrida there is something quixotic about the view that a signifying system can be mastered once its basic structures have been identified. Derridas own writing focuses especially on the case of language: one of the features that makes his prose difficult to read (and even more difficult to translate) is the multiple performances of language eluding authorial control. Puns, ambiguities and neologisms abound in Derridas highly self-conscious texts. 21 Derrida continued to publish until his death in 2014, but the classical deconstructive texts appeared in the late 1960s and 1970s. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxiii Derridas ambitious and complicated project is difficult to sum up (in part because it deliberately resists presentation as a set of doctrines), but a few further remarks about his relationship to Sartre are called for. As we saw, Derrida blames Sartre for using the term human-reality and, more broadly, for perpetuating a navely anthropological or humanist reading of Heideggers work (Derrida 1982b). Nonetheless, the effect of Derridas wider analysis in this essay is ultimately to dilute Sartres spe - cific accountability for the persistence of humanism in recent philosophy by showing, for example, that despite Heideggers stated intentions (in his Letter and elsewhere) there is a residual humanism in his thought too. As Derrida puts it: What must hold our interest . . . is the kind of profound justifica - tion, whose necessity is subterranean, which makes the Hegelian, Husserlian and Heideggerian critiques or de-limitations of metaphysi- cal humanism appear to belong to the very sphere of that which they criticize or de-limit. (Derrida 1982b: 119) How does BN stand in relation to these more recent developments in French philosophy? Although the phenomenon of language is occasion- ally discussed, it is not at the centre of Sartres concerns. Moreover, despite occasional instances of linguistic playfulness in the text, Sartres style and tone exhibit a pre-Derridean confidence that language can be used to say what we mean that would not have been possible (or, at least, not with - out discussion) twenty-five years later. The same confidence emerges in some of Sartres reflections on his own linguistic practice, as the follow - ing exchange, from an interview with Michel Contat in 1975, shows: Q: Your philosophical manuscripts are written in long hand, with almost no crossings out or erasures, while your literary manuscripts are very much worked over, perfected. Why is there this difference? A: The objectives are different: in philosophy, every sentence should have only one meaning. The work I did on Les Mots, for example, attempting to give multiple and superimposed meanings to each sentence, would be bad work in philosophy. (Sartre 1978b: 7) xxxiv TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION But if Sartres attitude towards language in BN is old-fashioned, the proponents of the new Sartre have shown that in other respects, and sympathetically read, BN is ahead of its time. The humanist criticisms voiced by Heidegger and the structuralists, for example, often draw on a simplifying interpretation of Sartres Cartesian standpoint in BN that can easily be shown to be incomplete. 22 For Descartes, the cogito affords the subject indubitable first-personal knowledge, while mind and body are two separate substances which are, respectively, immaterial and material. In Sartres hands, all these elements are radically modified: the reflec - tive standpoint of the cogito is shown to be epistemologically unreliable, consciousness is not a substance and, in addition, it has no contents. Moreover, Sartres characterization of the for-itself as being-what-it-is-not and not-being-what-it-is decentres the Sartrean subject, and undermines the possibility of self-coincidence in a way that, arguably, keeps the metaphysics of presence at bay. 23 Whatever its merits, the new Sartre exemplifies BNs relevance to later French thought, enlisting it in a dialogue with more recent philosophy. At the same time, academic philosophy in the English-speaking world, which typically resists European fashion, has come to accept BN as a classic text that belongs in the post-Kantian tradi - tion. I hope this new translation will help the reader to form her own view of it for herself, responsibly and freely, as Sartre would have urged. References Aquila, Richard E. (1998), Sartres Other and the Field of Consciousness: A Husserlian Reading, European Journal of Philosophy , 6 (3): 253276. Ayer, A.J. (1945), Novelist-Philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, Horizon, 12 (67): 1226, and 12 (68): 101110. Baiasu, Sorin (2011), Kant and Sartre: Re-discovering Critical Ethics (London: Palgrave Macmillan). Bakewell, Sarah (2016), At the Existentialist Caf (London: Vintage). 22 Heideggers attack in particular can be seen to be limited by its reliance on EH rather than BN. 23 For fuller discussion, see Farrell Fox (2003) and Howells (1992b). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxv Baldwin, Thomas (1979), The Original Choice in Sartre and Kant, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 80: 3144. Baldwin, Thomas (2007), The Humanism Debate, in Leiter and Rosen (eds) (2007): 671710. Barnes, Hazel (1965), Translators Introduction, in Sartre (1965): viiixliii. Barnes, Hazel (1990), Sartre and Sexism, Philosophy and Literature, 14 (2): 340347. Barnes, Hazel (1997), The Story I Tell Myself (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Beauvoir, Simone de (1999), America Day by Day, trans. Carol Cosman (Berkeley: University of California Press). Berlin, Isaiah (2009), Enlightening: Letters 194660, ed. H. Hardy and J. Holmes (London: Chatto & Windus). Cannon, Betty (2008), Hazel E. Barnes 19152008: A Tribute and Farewell, Sartre Studies International, 14 (2): 90103. Caws, Peter (1992), Sartrean Structuralism?, in Howells (ed.) (1992a): 293317. Collins, Margery and Pierce, Christine (1976), Holes and Slime: Sexism in Sartres Psychoanalysis, in Gould and Wartofsky (eds) (1976): 112127. Cumming, Robert Denoon (19912001), Phenomenology and Deconstruction (4 vols) (Chicago: Chicago University Press). Daigle, Christine and Golomb, Jacob (eds) (2008), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of Influence (Indiana: Indiana University Press). Derrida, Jacques (1982a), Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass (Sussex: Harvester Press). Derrida, Jacques (1982b), The Ends of Man, in Derrida (1982a): 109136. Desan, Wilfrid (1954), The Tragic Finale: An Essay on the Philosophy of Jean- Paul Sartre (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press). Edwards, Paul (ed.) (1967), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: Macmillan). Farrell Fox, Nik (2003), The New Sartre (London: Continuum). Foucault, Michel (1970), The Order of Things (London: Tavistock). Fulton, Ann (1999), Apostles of Sartre: Existentialism in America 19451963 (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press). Gardner, Sebastian (2005), Sartre, Intersubjectivity, and German Idealism, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 43 (3): 325351. Gardner, Sebastian (2009), Sartres Being and Nothingness (London: Continuum). Gould, Carol and Wartofsky, Marx (eds) (1976), Women and Philosophy: Toward a Theory of Liberation (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxvi Gutting, Gary (2001), French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Hampshire, Stuart (1957), Sartre the Philosopher, The Observer (London), 12 May. Hartmann, Klaus (1966), Sartres Ontology (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press). Heidegger, Martin (1938), Quest-ce que la Mtaphysique? Suivi dExtraits sur ltre et le Temps et dune Conference sur Hlderlin , trans. Henry Corbin (Paris: Gallimard). Heidegger, Martin (1978a), Basic Writings, trans. David Krell (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul). Heidegger, Martin (1978b), Letter on Humanism, trans. David Krell, in Heidegger (1978a): 193242. Hopkins, Robert (1998), Picture, Image and Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Howells, Christina (ed.) (1992a), The Cambridge Companion to Sartre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Howells, Christina (1992b), Sartre and the Deconstruction of the Subject, in Howells (ed.) (1992a): 318352. Le Doeuff, Michle (2007), Hipparchias Choice, trans. Trista Selous (New York: Columbia University Press). Leiter, B. and Rosen, M. (eds) (2007), The Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Lloyd, Genevieve (1993), The Man of Reason (London: Routledge). MacIntyre, Alasdair (1967), Existentialism, in Edwards (ed.) (1967), Vol. 3: 147154. Marcuse, Herbert (1947), Existentialism: Remarks on Jean-Paul Sartres Ltre et le Nant, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 8 (3): 309336. Murdoch, Iris (1967), Sartre (London: Fontana). Murdoch, Iris (1970), The Sovereignty of Good (New York: Schocken Books). Murphy, Julien (ed.) (1999), Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre (University Park: Pennsylvania University Press). Plantinga, Alvin (1958), An Existentialists Ethics, Review of Metaphysics, 12 (2): 235256. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1943), Ltre et le Nant (Paris: Gallimard). Sartre, Jean-Paul (1965), Being and Nothingness, trans. and introduced by Hazel Barnes (New York: Washington Square Press). Sartre, Jean-Paul (1970), Intentionality: A Fundamental Idea of Husserls Phenomenology, trans. Joseph Fell, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 1 (2): 45. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1973), Existentialism and Humanism, trans. Philip Mairet (London: Methuen). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxvii Sartre, Jean-Paul (1978a), Sartre in the Seventies: Interviews and Essays , trans. Paul Auster and Lydia Davis (London: Andre Deutsch). Sartre, Jean-Paul (1978b), Self-Portrait at Seventy, reprinted in Sartre (1978a): 492. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1992), Notebooks for an Ethics , trans. David Pellauer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Schilpp, P.A. (ed.) (1981), The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court). Simont, Juliette (1998), Jean-Paul Sartre: Un Demi-sicle de Libert (Brussels: De Boeck). Warnock, Mary (ed.) (1971), Sartre: A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Anchor Books). NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION Sarah Richmond Frederick Olafson, an American philosopher, reviewed Barness trans- lation of BN in 1958. He was unsympathetic to its content and also commented harshly on its style: The French text presents, notoriously, a thankless task; it is endlessly repetitive, full of ugly neologisms, and in places quite unintelligible. Inevitably, the English version shares these defects to a degree and read - ers are not likely to find it much easier going than the original. (Olafson 1958: 276, my emphasis) When readers of this translation encounter stylistic infelicities, repeti - tions and ramblings, I hope they will bear Olafsons sentences in mind. It is common for translators to dissociate themselves from the content of their translated text, but the despair I have sometimes felt has usually been in connection with BNs style. Where they seem legitimate, I have taken steps (detailed below) to mitigate stylistic defects, but in this respect the options available to a responsible translator are limited. Punctuation is the main area where I have felt licensed to depart from Sartres practice in order to make the text more readable. Written French often contains long sentences with multiple subordinate clauses that are often punctuated only by commas. Sartre uses such sentences throughout NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xxxix the text. Good English prose usually works differently: sentences tend to be shorter, and parentheses, colons and semi-colons (as well as com - mas) are used to order the meaning. It seems appropriate for a translator to take advantage, where she can, of these differences. In making some of Sartres sentences shorter (by dividing one French sentence into two or more English ones) and/or punctuating them differently (with more semi-colons and colons, and fewer commas), I do not think I have been unfaithful. In the same vein, I have not translated all the numerous instances of en effet (indeed or in effect): in the French, this phrase is often used more for emphasis than to add information so, where it seems unnecessary in the English, I have sometimes deleted it. Another phrase Sartre uses frequently is cest--dire, which translates literally as that is to say: because it would badly clutter the English text if I translated each instance like that, I have often used the near-synonymous i.e. instead. As the rules for the use of quotation marks also differ between French and English (e.g. within dialogue, or to show that words are mentioned rather than used), I have also taken advantage of this difference and introduced quotation marks where that improves clarity. Sartre likes to hyphenate phrases: it seems likely he got this habit from Heidegger. I have not felt entitled to interfere with this practice, despite the many cumbersome word-strings that ensue: presumably (as in Heideggers Being-in-the-world) the hyphens are intended, at least in most instances, to emphasize the indissolubility of the terms they conjoin. This is true for example of ralit-humaine, which I translate as human-reality. In other instances, the purpose of the hyphen is unclear. I have no idea why Sartre hyphenates peopled-world ( monde-peupl) at EN 601 or human-will ( volont-humaine) at EN 486. Sartre is also incon - sistent in his use of hyphens, using the same phrase at different points in the text with or without them: although this is puzzling, I have not interfered. With some hyphenated phrases Sartre switches with apparent arbitrariness between one word order and its reverse, as for example in Other-object at EN 266 and object-Other at EN 296 ( objet-autrui and autrui-objet respectively). I sometimes switch the order of the hyphen - ated words in translation: French and English follow different rules with respect to word order anyway, but there are also instances where I have switched the word order in the English, not because it is grammatically required, but for the sake of a more euphonious phrase. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xl What are the main differences between Barness older translation and mine? Barness achievement was immense, especially when one bears in mind the limited technology at her disposal (no computers, internet, etc.), and her translation of BN is far better than many other first English translations of French philosophical texts from the same period. Although some of Barness decisions were flawed, and she made a number of outright mistakes, these shortcomings alone might not warrant a new translation. Fortunately, and in part because of advances in technology and professional standards as well as the availability of recent philosophi - cal scholarship and translations, I have also been able to enhance the text in a number of ways that I hope readers will find helpful. Many of the writings to which Sartre refers either directly or more allusively were unavailable in English translation in the 1950s. To give just one example, Heideggers Being and Time was first translated into English by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson in 1962. This care - ful, thoroughly annotated translation has enabled me to find the source of many of Sartres numerous Heidegger references in the published English version and to quote, or discuss, or direct the reader to the cor - responding passages. In the same way, of course, I have been able to benefit from other reliable translations of other philosophical works, in particular those by Husserl and Hegel. These English translations, in conjunction with additional critical discussion by anglophone scholars, have resulted in the existence of vari - ous lexicons associated with different European philosophers; this has allowed me, in some cases, to translate a French term by an English term from the relevant lexicon, and thus to maintain cross-textual consistency. In some instances this works well: I have followed most English trans - lations of Bergson, for example, in rendering lan by impulse rather than the alternative terms offered by FrenchEnglish dictionaries (e.g. momentum). But this accumulated history also creates complicated sit - uations in which some advantages have to be sacrificed for others. Sartres negative vocabulary offers an illustration: Sartre would have found the term le nant in Corbins translation of Heideggers What Is Metaphysics?, where Corbin uses it to translate the German das Nichts (Heidegger 1938). Sartre was also familiar with Bergsons rejection of the idea of le nant in Lvolution Cratrice (translated as Bergson 1911). Many English translations of Heidegger render das Nichts as the Nothing, while Bergsons term le NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xli nant was for a long time rendered as the Nought. Three different terms, then, are in circulation in English: nothingness, nothing and the nought. Further complications arise when one tries to reproduce in English the connections between the words in this negative vocabulary. The intended assonance of Heideggers controversial sentence Das Nichts nichtet has been reproduced, in a translation suggested by some Heidegger scholars, as The nothing noths (Inwood 1999). Sartre built a parallel assonance into his French text by inventing the verb nantiser. To reproduce this assonance in English, one could either translate nantiser by borrowing the verb to noth from Heidegger, or make up a new verb along the same lines: to nothingize, perhaps? However, nantir also closely resembles the existing French verb anantir (to annihilate), and this connection speaks in favour of translating it into English as nihilate. This was Barness solution, and after some reflection I have endorsed it. The widespread use of Barness translation has of course naturalized some of her vocabulary and, where I disagree with her decision about a significant term, I have had to consider the cost to (some) readers of introducing a change. For example, Sartre frequently uses the noun sur-gissement and the related verb surgir to characterize the way the for-itself arises within the world. Surgir is not an unusual verb in everyday French, where it simply means to arise, with an implication of abruptness that sometimes speaks in favour of a phrase such as to suddenly appear or to crop up. The related noun is harder to translate: one option might be sudden appearance, but that would blur the boundaries of the term appearance in BN, which is better confined, in my view, to instances where Sartre uses apparence or apparition (often with a phenomenological sense). The difficulties are clear; nonetheless, I think Barness choice of the term upsurge was eccentric. Upsurge is rarely used in English, and the first entry for it in most dictionaries defines it as an increase of some- thing in its size or incidence: the word can be used, for example, in a phrase such as a recent upsurge of crime. (Less commonly, the verb can be used intransitively to mean to surge up, as in the water upsurged: perhaps Barnes had this usage in mind.) I have decided to use the verb to arise instead and (where necessary) the noun arising, as these are more faithful to the register used in the French. The case for conservatism in relation to existing translations is some - times strengthened by the weight of published commentary elsewhere: NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlii even if I could think of an accurate way of translating ralit-humaine that did less violence to Heideggers term Dasein, the Humanism Debate (dis - cussed in my Introduction) has now made Sartres and Corbins decision into a significant event in the French reception of Heidegger. To reverse that decision would be rather like rewriting history, and in any case it is not the role of a translator to correct the author of her text. Because many of the people to whom Sartre refers have since faded into obscurity I have provided many identifying footnotes. In addition, where Sartre refers to passages or arguments in works by other philoso - phers I have tried to reference these for the reader. Note that I have not provided explanatory footnotes for obvious names (e.g. Plato). In the remainder of these notes I list some further elements of my translation, either to explain my decision or to provide further infor - mation, or both. I start with parts of speech and move on to various clusters of vocabulary. Prepositions Sartre frequently uses prepositions as if they were nouns (especially lau-del and dehors). I have often put quotation marks round the English equivalents, for example the unconditioned beyond (EN 129) or purely as an outside (EN 517), to make the grammatical structure clearer than it would otherwise be in English. Pronouns Il, elle, cest : Several translation difficulties arise from the differences between the French and English pronoun systems. The following sets out my policy in relation to the main difficulties. 1. Often, once Sartre has used some noun in a sentence, he refers back to it with il or elle, where the gender of the pronoun in French helps the reader track the referent. (For example, having mentioned une table, Sartre may refer back to it with elle.) In these cases the English may be less clear, as the gender-neutral it may have more than one referent. To maintain clarity, I have sometimes repeated the noun in such cases. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xliii 2. Sartres two modes of being pour-soi and en-soi are naturally trans - lated as for-itself and in-itself; a consistent description of the for- itselfs doings will therefore refer to it with the impersonal pro - noun, it. It needs to be remembered, however, that the for-itself is the mode of being of human consciousness, so it is exemplifed by persons. In consequence, there are some contexts where the decision to translate with the pronoun it (rather than the personal pronouns he or she) will cause strain. Where the phrase pour-soi is followed in close proximity by some characterization of an activity or atti - tude that clearly belongs to a person, I have therefore often switched (sometimes within the same sentence) from itself to himself. For example, at EN 450 I have: It may happen that the for-itself, having experienced these various avatars in the course of its histori- alization, decides in full knowledge of the futility of his previous attempts to pursue the others death. Similarly , I have avoided using the pronoun it for the Other. At EN 281, for example, I translate Sartres autrui nest pas pour soi comme il mapparat as the Other is not for himself as he appears to me. For greater clarity of reference, I also sometimes repeat the phrase for-itself within a sentence or paragraph. 3. Soi: Sartre sometimes uses this term (e.g. in the phrase pour-soi) such that it corresponds to the refexive pronoun itself in English; at other times it is used as a noun to mean the self, or Ego. (Sartre also uses le moi in this sense: in some cases I signal whether the French has moi or soi by putting the French pronoun in square brackets in the text.) Sartre also uses the noun soi to refer to the unattainable self-coincidence that haunts the for-itself (e.g. at EN 126). Here, I have translated it by the itself, sometimes putting itself within scare quotes to acknowledge the grammatical oddity . One advantage of itself is that it maintains the con - nection with the for-itself whose ideal it is; it also makes it clear that Sartre is not concerned in these instances with the kind of self possessed by persons, but rather with self-coincidence. For conscience (de) soi, see Other words worthy of note below . 4. Il: In line with French linguistic convention, Sartre often uses this masculine pronoun universally to refer to a man or a woman, and (similarly) he uses lhomme to mean man in the general sense, i.e. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xliv humanity (male and female) in general. Of course, the correspond - ing terms can also be used like this in English. In both France and England, this practice has in recent decades been criticized for its implicit sexism, and many writers now use a more egalitarian alter - native (e.g. he or she, they, etc.). In relation to this political issue, it would clearly be an anach - ronistic imposition to alter Sartres traditional use of the masculine pronoun (il); similarly , where he writes in the first-personal voice I have assumed that voice is male. In addition, once the topic of the Other is introduced (in Part Three), I have followed Sartre in refer - ring to the Other as a he. Nonetheless, there are some contexts where, in my view , it is important to use female pronouns, as I explain in the next paragraph. Gender pronouns in the context of interpersonal relations In the sections in Part Three in which Sartre discusses love and sexual desire, the translation of the masculine pronoun il becomes particularly challenging. There is good reason to suppose that in Sartres analysis of these relations he has a malefemale (heterosexual) couple in mind. Sartre sometimes provides examples that make this explicit, and in any case any other supposition would have been unusual in the 1940s. (In addition Sartre sometimes manifests in BN and in other writings the prejudiced attitudes of his time towards homosexuality.) Despite this implicit heterosexual assumption, Sartre continues to refer frequently, as French allows him to, to both members of the loving or sexual couple with the male pronoun. Thus, in speaking of the lover and his beloved, Sartre regularly refers to them as lamant and laim (not in the feminine form aime), and uses the masculine pronoun il for each of them. Now, in French this usage is consistent with the belief that one member of the couple is female the universality of il is sufficiently robust to allow that. But in English, if both members of a couple are referred to by he, most people would conclude that they are both male (and, perhaps, that they are homosexual). For this reason, in sections I and II of Part Three, Chapter 3, I have often indicated that one partner in a couple is female by using the pronoun she, even where this means translating Sartres il by she. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlv Note that my motive here is not political, but to replicate in English the scenario I think Sartre has in mind. If it has the effect of increas - ing ones sense of female presence within the text, that is a happy but coincidental consequence. (From a political perspective, of course, the heteronormativity of the scenario may be regrettable. 1) In section III of the same chapter Sartre discusses groupings [ nous]: here the relevant pronouns are we or us. At this point I revert to using he throughout, as it is not clear that females are involved. Neologisms and ungrammatical locutions (NB: Although some of these words discussed here are now included in some French dictionaries, the earliest use given is most often Sartres.) chosifier, chosiste Sartre invents this verb (and the corresponding adjec - tive), using it to mean to make into a thing [une chose]. As thingify is cumbersome in English and Sartres verb is synonymous with the fairly ordinary English verb to reify, I have often preferred the latter over the former. Where the idea of thing seems important, I signal it. est t In this ungrammatical locution, Sartre tampers with the correct way of saying that something has been in French (i.e. to use the verb avoir fol- lowed by t, the past participle of tre), by replacing the main verb avoir by tre. This generates a grammatically incorrect phrase equivalent to the English is been. For example, at EN 57, Sartre writes le nant est t , using scare quotes to acknowledge the oddness of the phrase. (Sartre also offers some reasons for using it in the same paragraph.) I cannot see any reason not to translate it literally, rendering the quoted phrase as: nothingness is been. ngatit is a noun coined by Sartre to refer to a particular instance of noth - ingness within the world. I do not think it is necessary to leave it in French (as Barnes did), when a mirror neologism negatity (pl. negatities) can be used. objectit can straightforwardly be translated as objecthood. 1 With respect to the question of heteronormativity , some aspects of Sartres theoretical account of human sexuality are interestingly ambiguous. His disagreement with biologi - cally based theories leads him to deny the impor tance of physiological sexual diference and to claim that heterosexuality is not fundamental to sexual relations (EN 424), although a few pages later he also states that in our culture we do not often desire others of the same sex (EN 427). NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlvi Vocabulary relating to the mind: psychology, motivation, experience, perception There is a cluster of issues that are worth noting in relation to the concept of the mind (or, as Sartre puts it, le psyche). From his earliest philosophical writing, Sartre engages in a polemical debate with empirical (or, as he often calls it, positivist) psychology. In BN he regards it as a source of grave ontological misunderstanding and rejects a range of psychological com-monplaces, including the existence of mental states, the passivity of the emotions, and the alleged differences between acts of passion and of rea - son. (Although Sartre often directs these arguments against psychologists, he also finds similar targets elsewhere; for example he rejects Bergsons concep - tion of the deep-seated self, as well as Prousts analysis of jealousy.) Sartres account of our experience of the Other is also revisionary, and also brought into line with his account of its ontological structure. He often describes our relations with the Other in negative and conflictual terms, as his discussion of shame shows. This is one reason for bringing out the negative connotation of the noun preuve (discussed below). Sartre rejects an account of motivation that was prominent in France in the first half of the twentieth century and often used by historians and biographers. The pair of terms mobiles and motifs (see below for discussion of their translation) is central to this account. Sartres attitude to the Gestalt theory of perception was more positive, and he relies on it at several points in BN. This theory was developed by the Czech psychologist Max Wertheimer (18801943) and others, and influenced many twentieth-century European thinkers. The German noun Gestalt translates as form: accordingly, Gestalt theory emphasizes the role of structure within the perceptual field as a determinant of percep-tion. The organization of the perceptual field allows a specific figure to emerge against a ground; the same field, differently organized, may yield a different perception. (As these are the terms used in English trans - lations of Gestalt theory, I use them to translate Sartres forme and fond.) In anglophone philosophy, the duck-rabbit discussed by Wittgenstein is one of the best-known Gestalt examples. Sartre also borrows the adjec - tive hodological from the psychologist Kurt Lewin (18901947), who was also associated with the Gestalt school. The Greek hodos means path; hodological space is therefore the space that we inhabit lived NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlvii space in which our pathways are more or less difficult, according to our projects. angoisse I translate this by anguish. Sartre inherits this word (via Corbins translation) from Heideggers Angst, which is usually translated into English as anxiety. The term anxiety is also often used in English translation and discussion of Kierkegaards philosophy, and within a broader theological tradition with which Heidegger engaged. These con-siderations weigh in favour of translating angoisse as anxiety (and this is compatible with the range of dictionary suggestions). On the other hand anxiety has a more medical sound in English, whereas anguish sounds more literary and, therefore, more Sartrean. In addition, several French dictionaries suggest that angoisse is a more severe form of affliction. preuve, prouver Sartre often uses the noun preuve to characterize my experi - ence of the Other (e.g. EN 403: je suis preuve dautrui ). A choice has to be made between the many possible ways of translating this French term, which belongs to several semantic fields. It can mean trial, as in a scientific trial or test, or an academic test, or the activity through which one tries out a horse or a car. It can also refer to the kind of challenge one might set someone e.g. Hercules to test their strength or courage. It can also mean ordeal or hardship. At its most neutral, it might simply be translated as experience. Because Sartre frequently emphasizes the asymmetrical and threatening aspects of our relation with the Other, I frequently translate preuve with verbs that hint at these aspects (e.g. I undergo the Other); where a noun seems unavoidable, I sometimes use ordeal. Where Sartre uses prouver with a more neutral sense, I translate it as to experience. mobile(s) and motif(s) Sartre sometimes uses the word mobile on its own; here it is unproblematically translated as motive. Elsewhere, in the course of more extended discussions of motivation, Sartre uses the pair of terms mobile(s) and motif(s), invoking a terminology that was familiar in French academic discourse in the twentieth century. The two terms are counterparts, in so far as mobile refers to subjective (e.g. psycho - logical) motivational forces, while motif refers to objective factors, i.e. grounds or reasons for action. Sartre discusses this familiar explanatory apparatus at length in Part Four. I translate mobile as motive and motif as reason. Barnes translated motif as cause: although she must have meant cause in the sense of ground (as in cause for complaint), this policy is NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlviii potentially confusing, given Sartres categorical denial of any causal rela - tions within consciousness. psyche, psychique Sartre uses the term psyche to refer to the object studied by psychologists and presented to first-person reflection (EN 198): i.e. the mind. This can usually be easily translated by the English equivalent psyche. The corresponding adjective psychic is also available in English, but it is not ordinarily used in the way in which Sartre typically uses psychique, i.e. to mean psychological or mental. If I were to use the word psychic in these contexts, the English would seem outlandish, and it might be difficult to keep the idea of paranormal (e.g. telepathic) phenomena at bay. In most instances, therefore, I translate psychique as psychological. Religious vocabulary Given Sartres atheism, the abundant use of religious vocabulary in BN may surprise some readers. However, for Sartre the concept of God is philosophically necessary, even if He does not exist. For helpful dis - cussion of the relationship between theology and Sartres philosophy, see Kirkpatrick (2017). Apart from ens causa sui (discussed immediately below), the religious vocabulary does not cause difficulties in translation; the main purpose of this note is to draw it to the readers attention. In some cases there is more room for doubt about whether a religious allusion is intended than in others. Examples of terms that (probably) import a religious allusion include: incarnation, deliverance, salvation, emanation, grace, passion. ens causa sui Sartre frequently uses this phrase, both in its original Latin, and translated into French as cause de soi. The reference of course is to God, or the Supreme Being, i.e. a being whose existence does not depend (causally or in any other way) on any other being. I have translated it by [the being that] is its own cause or, occasionally, the self-caused. Vocabulary from the three Hs General note: Where Sartre uses a term in the German (sometimes with - out any translation), I usually explain it in a footnote on the same page. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlix The following notes explain how the French terms that Sartre takes from (translations of) these German philosophers correlate with those used by English translators and scholars. In many cases I also provide the original German term and offer a brief explanation of its meaning. Hegel vocabulary Sartres footnote to EN 42 mentions a collection of extracts from Hegels writing in French translation edited by Henri Lefebvre and published under the title Morceaux Choisis in 1938 (available in French as Hegel 1995). It turns out that Sartre took virtually every Hegel quotation he uses in BN from this anthology. In providing the sources of these quota - tions, Sartre follows Lefebvre in distinguishing (as is also customary in English) between Hegels lesser ( Petite) Logic and his greater ( Grande) Logic. These are nicknames for Hegels Encyclopaedia Logic and Science of Logic respectively. dpasser In everyday French, this verb means to go beyond, or to overtake. However, it is also used in many French translations of Hegel to translate Hegels German term Aufhebung, which is often translated into English by to sublate. For this reason, where the context is clearly Hegelian, I use to sublate. poser This verb is used by French translators of Hegel to render his verb Setzen (which many other German philosophers, including Husserl, also use). I follow most other translators by rendering it as to posit. Sartre sometimes uses the noun position to mean the act of positing here I translate it by positing. Unlike posit in English, poser is also used in ordinary French, where it can mean to put down or to pose (e.g. a question). In these non-technical contexts I have used everyday English vocabulary. scission, scissiparit The word scission also exists in English, although it is not commonly used: it means split or division. French transla - tors of Hegel use scission frequently to translate the German Entzweiung; English translations of Hegel sometimes use sundering or division for the corresponding term. I have stuck to scission. Sartre appears to use the noun scissiparit interchangeably with scission: as scissiparity also exists in English, I have used it, mirroring Sartres oscillation between the two terms. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION l Husserl vocabulary As I have mentioned (in my Introduction), Sartre discovered Husserls work in the 1930s; he had read several of Husserls texts in their original German before he wrote BN, as well as Emmanuel Levinass early book on Husserl (translated into English as Levinas 1995). Readers should note that the correct interpretation of many of Husserls concepts is contested (and there are questions about consistency across texts): the notes below provide no more than a rough idea. Husserls key methodological concept is the phenomenological reduction. Sartre also sometimes refers to it with the Greek term (transliterated epche), which Husserl also used. The basic idea is that, by effecting the phenomenological reduction, the philosophizing subject sus-pends or parenthesizes the natural attitude of everyday life, and reflects from the first-personal point of view on the way the world appears (i.e. in phenomena) to consciousness. All presuppositions concerning the existence or non-existence of the things that appear are bracketed in this reflective exercise, which is supposed to deliver presuppositionless knowledge. apprsenter Husserl uses this verb for intentional objects that are mediately (i.e. indirectly) given to the subject. A central example would be other peoples consciousness which, for Husserl, is appresented in their bodies. I follow Husserls English translators in rendering this verb as to appresent. en personne Sartre sometimes uses this phrase, or prsence en personne, in scare quotes, perhaps to indicate its Husserlian origins. Husserl uses it to describe the direct way in which objects are given when they are actu - ally there, as for example in ordinary sensory perception. The spatial physical thing which we see is, with all its transcendence, still something perceived, given in person in the manner peculiar to consciousness (Husserl 1983: 43). I translate it as in person. hyle Husserl borrows this term from the Greek word hyle for matter. In Husserls phenomenology the hyle in a mental act is its sensory matter, the brute given. intentionner French translators use this verb to render Husserls verb meinen, which is usually translated into English as to intend, in the sense where this means the relation of consciousness to its (intentional) object. Sartre may have come across this verb in Levinass writing on Husserl. I translate it as to intend. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION li irrel In ordinary usage, this French word can simply mean unreal, but it is also used in philosophical contexts to translate Husserls German adjective irreal. For this reason, if the context suggests that Sartre is using technical phenomenological vocabulary, I follow English translations of Husserl by using irreal for irrel (even though, of course, that is not an ordinary English word). In Husserls phenomenology the term irreal is used to describe facts or objects (e.g. essences) that do not have spatial or temporal locations, as well as imagined objects. ncessit de fait Sartre uses this phrase frequently and tells us (at EN 21) that he borrows it from Husserl, who uses it to characterize conscious - ness. Husserls point is that, although consciousness does not have any necessary existence, once it does exist, the non-being of its moments is inconceivable. Husserl scholars variously translate the phrase into English as necessity of a fact, factual necessity and de facto necessity. I use fac - tual necessity. nome, nose In translations of Husserl, these French terms correspond to noema and noesis in English. (Husserl borrows the words from ancient Greek, where noema means thought, perception or idea.) The noema is, roughly, the content of a mental act, i.e. the way its referent is presented; the noesis is the correlative subjective process, for example the thinking of the thought or the perceiving of the perception. objectivant, objectiver The French adjective corresponds to Husserls term objektivierend; in Husserl, it describes a basic feature of all mental acts, i.e. their having an object. English translations of Husserl render it as either objectivating or objectifying. I use the latter, and I translate objectiver as to objectify throughout. passifier Some dictionaries suggest that Sartre may have made this verb up. In any case he uses it to mean to make/render past and, while I have not been able to match it with Husserlian terminology, I would guess that he borrows the concept from Husserl. I translate it by my own neologistic verb to pastify, although where that is ungainly I have sometimes translated it instead as to make/render past. poser See entry above, in Hegel vocabulary. prsentifier French translators use this verb to translate Husserls vergegenwr- tigen. I have followed most English translators in using the neologistic verb to presentify. Husserl uses this term to describe a way in which objects may be somehow made present to consciousness even though they are NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lii not perceptually given. For example, anticipation presentifies an object, in so far as its presence is not thought to be actual, but at some future date; recollection does the same thing but represents the object as having been in the past; another form of presentification is imagination, etc. protension French translators use this noun to translate Husserls German noun Protention. I follow Husserls English translators in rendering it as protention. According to Husserls account of temporal experience, protentions and retentions are counterpart non-independent elements of any conscious experience. Protentions reach forwards, into the future, while retentions reach back into the immediate past. remplir, remplissement These terms correspond to Husserls German erfllen and Erfllung; the usual English translations are to fulfil and fulfilment. For Husserl, an act is fulfilled when evidence shows it to be as the sub-ject took it to be. In the case of perception, for example, an intuition of a landscape is fulfilled by the sensory determinations that present it, as Husserl puts it, as being there, in person. Where an object is absent, a subject might intend it emptily, i.e. without sensory fulfilment. (Thus I use emptily to render Sartres adverbial phrase vide.) rtention I translate this as retention. See protension above for explanation. thse, thtique A thetic act, for Husserl, is one that sets something forth, or posits it. For example, the object of a doxic thesis will be posited in some modality of belief. Heidegger vocabulary The reader should bear in mind that, as discussed earlier, Sartres access to Heidegger is often mediated by Henry Corbins French translations (Heidegger 1938), as well as by French commentaries, such as Alphonse De Waelhenss La Philosophie de Martin Heidegger (De Waelhens 1942) (where Sartre found the passage from Heidegger that he quotes in a footnote to EN 413). dpasser This verb is used in French translations of Heidegger as well as in translations of Hegel, although, confusingly, it does not usually render the same original German verb(s). In Heideggers case, dpasser sometimes translates the German verb bersteigen (for which it is a good match, as both these verbs can simply mean to go beyond in ordinary language). English translations of Heidegger often use to surpass in these contexts. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION liii Apart from Heideggerean contexts, Sartre frequently uses the verb dpasser in BN on his own account to characterize the relation of the for-itself to the objects in the world that it goes beyond in the pur - suit of its ends (e.g. EN 638: lorsque je dpasse mes objets vers un but). Here I use the verb to surpass, which avoids cumbersome prepositions and also harmonizes with the precedent set by Heidegger, which influences Sartres use. ek-stase Sartre borrows this term (Ekstase in German) from Heidegger. Heidegger intends to exploit the Greek root meaning of the word (which is generally used to mean displacement or removal), i.e. standing-outside. The hyphen in Sartres French also emphasizes this etymology. In using ecstasis and ecstases (pl.), I follow the English translation of Heidegger (1980) and therefore drop the hyphen. en sursis This expression is often used in French to mean suspended (e.g. in the judicial context of a suspended sentence), pending or out - standing (e.g. with reference to unpaid bills). It is highly probable that Sartre took it from Corbins translations of Heidegger, where en sursis is used to translate the German noun Ausstand (something outstanding, as in the financial sense just cited). The basic idea, then, in connection with human-reality, is that its life always stretches before it as something not yet settled. For these reasons I translate the phrase as suspended or pending. tre-dans-le-monde, tre au milieu du monde In Being and Time and other writ - ings from the same period, Heidegger argues that our way of being in the world is wholly different from the way things worldly objects are in the world. The hyphens that he often uses Being-in-the-world emphasize the indissolubility of our connection to the world we inhabit, a world that concerns us. In contrast to this, the relation of worldly objects to the world that surrounds them is one of indifference; they are merely in the world spatially, and not involved in it (Heidegger 1980: 12). This merely spatial relation is rendered in some English translations as being within the world. I have translated the phrases with which Sartre makes the same distinction as being in the world and being-in-the-midst-of-the-world respectively. He is inconsistent in his use of hyphens. facticit This term is the French translation of the German word Faktizitt, which appears frequently in Heideggers philosophy, where it refers to the fact-like aspects of Daseins being. From the German, it is usually NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION liv translated into English as facticity; as Sartre takes over the term from Heidegger, I translate it the same way. historialiser, shistorialiser This verb was coined by Corbin, in his translation of Heidegger, which is presumably Sartres source (French dictionaries do not give earlier usages). It refers to Daseins basic constitutive capacity to be historical. Although Macquarrie and Robinson (in Heidegger 1980: see 6) translate it into English by to historize, I think it better to map Sartres term more closely, and I translate it therefore as to historialize, etc. (Sartre does not use it consistently, sometimes using historiciser which I render as to historicize instead.) Following Sartre, other French thinkers (e.g. Paul Ricoeur) have used this verb. il y a (and grammatical variants) Sartre sometimes uses this ordinary French phrase (which means there is or there are) with the inten-tion of alluding to Heideggers use of the roughly synonymous German phrase es gibt. In emphasizing this phrase, Heidegger wants to direct the readers attention to two ideas: the idea of an event or happening (rather than a state); and (via the verb geben) the idea of giving, i.e. that Being is given to Dasein. At its first appearance and on occasional later ones (where I think signalling is helpful), I have inserted il y a in square brackets to remind the reader. Sartre frequently highlights this phrase himself (with italics, etc.): the reader should bear in mind the implicit allusion to Heidegger. ipsit Sartre would have found this term in Corbins translations of Heidegger, where it translates Heideggers Selbstheit, which is usually translated into English as selfhood. Independently of his dialogue with Heidegger, Sartre also uses the word to characterize the for-itselfs reflexive relationship to itself. The French ipsit builds on the Latin word ipse ( itself) and is rare in French usage. As the Latinate term can be easily anglicized as ipseity, I think that is how it should be translated. on, lon Although the French term on is translated literally by the English one, Sartre frequently uses it (implicitly or explicitly) to trans - late Heideggers notion das Man. This expression (which is also used in everyday German) is usually translated into English by [the] they. The reader needs to keep in mind that here, as in Heideggers usage, the sense of they at play is that vague, anonymous idea, as in they say that the weather will improve. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lv possibiliser Sartre would have found this verb in Corbins translations of Heidegger. Corbin uses it to translate Heideggers German verb ermgli- chen, which means to make possible. As possibiliser is rare in French, and as Heidegger often italicizes the verb in German in order to emphasize its structure, I have used the neologism to possibilize in English. Sartre sometimes contrasts it with probabiliser, which I translate as to probabilize. possibilit, possible Sartre seems to use the substantive le possible (the possible) interchangeably with la possibilit (possibility). As the possible sounds ter - rible in English, and I cannot discern any difference in meaning between the two terms, as Sartre uses them, I considered the option of collapsing them into a single English noun possibility. However, Sartre may have thought he was working with a real distinction (originating perhaps in Heidegger and/ or Leibniz, both of whom are important background figures to discussions of possibility in the text). The conservative option seemed best. projet, projeter, pro-jet, pro-jeter I translate these respectively as project (noun), to project (verb), pro-ject (neologistic noun) and to pro-ject (neologistic verb). Sartre takes the hyphenated usage from Corbin, who seeks in turn to do justice to Heideggers exploitation of the semantic resources of the German verb entwerfen (to design, sketch) and the noun der Entwurf (sketch, blueprint, etc.). Heidegger often connects these words with the similar-sounding verb werfen (to throw) and its cognates (e.g. geworfen). Corbins choice of pro-jet, etc. allowed him to retain this connection with the idea of throwing ( jeter) in the French, a connection that is less obvious in the English. ralit-humaine As discussed earlier, Corbin used this phrase to translate Heideggers term Dasein, and Sartre borrows it from Corbin. I translate it straightforwardly as human-reality. English translators of Heidegger often leave Dasein untranslated. ustensile, ustensilit, le complexe . . . des [ralits] ustensiles Sartre borrows these terms from Corbins translation of Heidegger. I translate complexe dustensiles as structure of equipment and the ungainly ustensilit as equipmentality. I translate ustensile on its own as implement. Bergson vocabulary Commentators have argued that the influence of the philosopher Henri Bergson (18591941) on BN is usually underestimated. As a student, Sartre had read a great deal of Bergson, whose influence on French NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lvi philosophy only began to decline later in the twentieth century. There are passages in BN where Sartre is recognizably in dialogue with Bergson but does not explicitly say so. Of course, because Bergsons philosophy is written in French, it has not caused any additional translation difficul - ties. For the most part I retain the vocabulary used by Bergsons English translators. dure, durer I have followed Bergsons translators in rendering dure Bergsons term for lived time as duration, and the verb durer as to endure. lan vital This is one of Bergsons most famous concepts, usually trans - lated as vital impulse. It is possible that Sartre has it in mind when he uses the term lan in relation to the for-itself. For this reason I translate lan in these contexts as impulse. fantme Bergson often uses this adjective; following Bergson transla - tors, I translate it as phantom. Negative vocabulary nant I have followed Barnes in translating this noun by nothingness (see discussion above). Although it is an unusual word in French and in English, it has been available in both these languages for many centuries. In French, it can be found in Descartes and Pascal. In English, it is used by John Donne in his poem A Nocturnal upon St. Lucys Day (first published in 1633). ngatit See the entry for this term under Neologisms and ungrammati- cal locutions. nier This French verb corresponds to two different English verbs: to deny and to negate. This can cause difficulty in some contexts, and especially in relation to Hegels philosophy: the French nier manifests its proximity to the idea of negation ( ngation in French; negieren or verneinen in German), whereas the connection is far less obvious in the English verb to deny. The use of to negate throughout, however, results in clumsy English sentences: for example, pour nier de ce Pierre . . . quil soit l (EN 61) will translate as to negate in Pierre . . . his being there, which leads us far from ordinary English. For this stylistic reason, I sometimes translate nier by deny. The reader should bear in mind that deny and negate have a common ancestor in the Latin verb negare. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lvii Words and metaphors for movement Sartre repeatedly emphasizes the dynamic nature of the for-itself by charac - terizing it with various movement verbs. He often draws (metaphorically or quasi-metaphorically) on dynamic vocabulary whose literal use is to describe natural processes or events. Many of these verbs also convey the idea of upwards movement. These verbs do not always translate easily into ordinary English, especially when Sartre uses the substantive form: we would not ordinarily say, for example, that the for-itself is a bursting forth or an upheaval. It may be helpful for the reader to note the fol - lowing examples of this kind of vocabulary. jaillir, jaillissement The verb jaillir is often used for movements of water, for example in contexts where we might translate by to spring up, to gush, to spurt, to burst out, etc. I have often rendered this by to burst forth. surgir, surgissement See my discussion above. surrection The relatively rare French term surrection is geological, refer - ring to an upheaval or uplift of land, an area that has been elevated. I have translated it as elevation (e.g. EN 174). Other words worthy of note affecter, saffecter The verb affecter often straightforwardly means to affect (i.e. to have an effect on something), but its reflexive form saffecter can be harder to translate. While it can mean to affect oneself, Sartre often uses it with the preposition de in more abstract contexts, where the meaning is closer to to assign (e.g. a property to X) or to endow (e.g. X with a property). At EN 58, for example, Sartre writes that lhomme . . . saffecte lui-mme de non-tre cette fin: in cases like this I have often used to assign. apparence, apparition Sartre uses both these words throughout BN. Although in many instances they appear to be interchangeable, there can be a difference in meaning in French. Apparence is more frequently used to mean appearance in the philosophical sense (as, for example, in the appearance/reality distinction); apparition means appearance in the sense of an event, for example an unannounced appearance at a party, etc. If both these French terms are translated into English as appearance, this distinction is of course hidden. However, Sartre does not explicitly indicate any intention to use these words with distinct senses in BN, and NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lviii nor does he consistently use them with identifiably different meanings. In addition, apparition is a very unusual word in English and, used as a substantive, [an] appearing often sounds odd. I have therefore often used appearance for both these terms, using appearing instead only when it seems important to convey the event-like sense of apparition. assumer Sartre often uses this French verb in the sense in which it means to take on/up (e.g. a role or responsibility). Although the English verb assume can also be used in this sense (e.g. to assume the leadership), it is more frequently used in everyday English to mean to presuppose. To avoid confusion in the English, I have used assume only sparingly in these contexts, varying it with to take up and to accept. lautre, autrui, les autres Sartre uses all of these terms to refer to another per- son or other people. Although in most cases the French term autrui (which, although it has no plural form, can refer to either one or more than one person) is synonymous with lautre (or les autres), it has an old-fashioned and literary quality and is rarely used in everyday speech. The Littr dictionary suggests that autrui can have the sense of this person here; used with this sense, it may oppose the person spoken about (rather than people in general) to the speaker. Now, Sartres account of interpersonal relations empha-sizes the case in which one person stands in (asymmetric) opposition to another; one person looks, while the Other is looked at. For this reason I translate autrui by the Other (i.e. in the singular), capitalizing it in order to signal that it means another person. I translate les autres and lautre slightly less strictly, using others, another or sometimes an other person (leaving the o in the lower case), where this makes the sense clearer. Sartre is not consistent in his terminology but I have avoided eliminating the difference (between autrui and alternative terms) from the translation. conduite(s) I translate most occurrences of this everyday French word as behaviour, but I avoid the plural behaviours, as it is less common in English. To handle Sartres frequent use of conduites (pl.), I sometimes use forms of behaviour or a different synonymous noun. conscience This noun is used in French to mean both consciousness and conscience (e.g. moral conscience). In the first sense, the term appears throughout BN in various different contexts. (i) Sartre uses conscience to refer to consciousness quite generally as a mode of being and NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lix (ii) as in English, the same term can be used to apply to some particular consciousness, as in my or his consciousness. Neither (i) nor (ii) causes diffculty in translation. (iii) In addition, conscience can be used in French, but not in English, to refer to particular conscious events, as for example at EN 311: la notion mme de conscience ne fait que renvoyer mes consciences possibles , where the lat - ter half of this phrase means to my possible acts of consciousness. Here I have sometimes inserted [acts of] into the translation, to make the meaning clearer. (iv) Sartre sometimes uses the plural form [i.e. consciences] to refer, for example, to the coexisting consciousnesses of two or more people. Although this English plural (consciousnesses) is clunky, I have not always been able to avoid it. (v) The reader should note that the French phrase avoir conscience de trans - lates as to be conscious of. The translation will therefore replace French avoir (to have) by to be. I do not think this causes diff - culty, but, as both verbs are charged with philosophical import in BN, it is worth pointing out. conscience (de) soi Sartre uses this phrase to describe the basic reflexiv- ity of human consciousness. When he first introduces it (at EN 20), he explains that his reason for placing the preposition de in brackets is in order to emphasize the non-positionality of this mode of consciousness; in it, the self is not presented to the subject as a possible object of knowledge. Without any brackets, the French phrase conscience de soi means self- consciousness and, since that English phrase has no preposition, Barnes decided she could use it (see her footnote to Sartre 1965: liv). To my ear, however, self-consciousness may still suggest a positional attitude (in which the subject confronts his self) of the kind Sartre wishes to avoid, and so I use phrases that retain Sartres brackets. A further question about soi arises: should soi be translated as self or as itself? Although the latter has some advantages (for example, it harmonizes with Sartres view that there is no substantial self at the most basic level of first-personal expe - rience), I think that to use it would be to over-interpret. Sartres use of the phrase prereflective cogito (as well as ipseity) registers that there is a self-like structure in consciousness (albeit not a substantial one) which, he argues, provides the ground of reflective self-consciousness. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lx dpasser Sartre sometimes uses this verb in its everyday sense, to mean to go beyond, to reach beyond, to exceed, to outstrip, etc. Where the context is of this kind, I have chosen from this range of words, in a way that maximizes stylistic fluency. See above for uses of this verb in connection with Hegel and Heidegger. engager, sengager This verb often means to engage or to be/become engaged in the physical sense in which we might say a cog was engaged in machinery. However, as in English, it can also be used to mean to commit (oneself) as well as to enlist (e.g. in the army). Given Sartres emphasis on human responsibility and choice, the best translation in many contexts is to commit, but the reader should bear in mind the range of meaning. tre (and phrases using this verb) As BN is a work of phenomenologi - cal ontology and heavily influenced by Heidegger, the verb to be and the (sometimes neologistic) uses that Sartre makes of it are extremely important. Two constructions that should be noted are the ungrammatical locution tre t (discussed earlier) and avoir tre . This latter phrase is used by Sartre to indicate the future-oriented, dynamic and responsible aspects of the for-itself: rather than simply being something (e.g. myself) or some way, I have it to be. Although it can be quite simply translated into English as to have to be, the reader needs to be careful in some instances not to read the phrase in the sense that involves the idea of obligation. If the for-itself has X to be it is not obliged to be X, but chooses itself as being or aspiring to be X. extriorit dindiffrence This phrase, which translates literally but cumber - somely as exteriority of indifference, occurs frequently in BN. Both the idea and the language are familiar in the German Idealist tradition, but less so in contemporary anglophone philosophy: Sartre would have found them in Hegel as well as Bergson. In both these philosophers, the adjectives external and indifferent are used to describe one form of relatedness, in contrast to another. Hegel, for example, holds that in mechanistic thinking an object consists of parts that are interrelated only externally and are indifferent to each other. This contrasts with objects that exhibit a genuine, intrinsic unity, for example the soul, whose parts are not indifferent to each other. I translate this phrase as indifferent externality. Although exteriority is also available in English, externality has the advantage of establishing continuity with many English translations of Hegel and Bergson. (Note, NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxi however, that the second part of the title of Levinass famous book Totalit et Infini: Essai sur lextriorit has been translated into English as An Essay on Exteriority (Levinas 1969).) manquer, le manque The verb means to miss [something] or to lack [something]; the noun means lack. Sartre uses these terms in some extremely complicated sentences to describe the relations in play where something is incomplete; the frequent repetition of m sounds is a fea - ture of the original text. The following sentence from (EN 122) includes the phrases built on manquer that Sartre uses most often in the text: Un manque suppose une trinit: ce qui manque ou manquant, ce quoi manque ce qui manque ou existant, et une totalit qui a t dsagrge par le manque et qui serait restaure par la synthse du manquant et de lexistant: cest le manqu. I translate the phrase ce qui manque as the missing item. The noun which follows le manquant can be used in French to refer to a missing thing (e.g. a missing person), and Sartre uses it here as a synonym for ce qui manque, but, as missing cannot be used that way in English, I have omit - ted this synonym from the corresponding English sentence (and for the second manquant of the quoted passage I have reused the missing item). I have translated ce quoi manque ce qui manque as that from which [the missing item] is missing, le manque as the lack, and the final phrase cest le manqu as that which is missed. Sartre often puns by also using manqu in the way we sometimes use it in English (i.e. to mean failed); where it is not obvious, I have signalled this. originel(le) Sartre uses this adjective frequently to mean original, in the sense of pertaining to the origin (as in original sin). Because original in English is also often used to mean inventive or new, I considered using originary instead, but this would undercut associations of origi - nal that one might want to keep: for example, Sartres original choice has often been compared to a similar idea in Kants philosophy. In the end I decided to stick to original for most instances, but the reader should bear Sartres intended sense in mind. positivit, positive Although it is rare in English philosophy to find posi - tivity used as a noun, the French term is well established. Sartre would NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxii have been familiar with it from the writings of Auguste Comte (1798 1857), who coined the term positivism. For Comte, the sciences could be ranked in a hierarchy according to their degree of positivity, or the extent to which the phenomena they studied could be demonstrated or measured. Sartre often uses positivity in opposition to negativity, to refer to something unquestionably real, capable of being affirmed. Because of this semi-technical context, I have translated the term as pos - itivity. I also use the related adjective positive in this sense. raliser, se realiser, irralisable Sartre uses the verb quite often with the sense of to make real. Although the English verb to realize can be used with that sense, using it to translate raliser will sometimes produce English sentences that are easily misconstrued as meaning to realize in the more common, cognitive sense, i.e. to become aware of something. My policy has been to use to actualize most of the time, where the intended sense is to make real. However, Sartre also uses the noun irralisable to refer to something that cannot be made real. Here I translate irralisable as unre - alizable and, if Sartre uses the verb raliser in the same context, I either translate the verb in that context by to realize or insert to realize in square brackets, to remind the reader of the connection to the unrealizable. In addition, at EN 216 Sartre comments on the double meaning (ontological and gnostic) of the French verb raliser: obviously, the verb needs to be translated here as to realize. reflet, refltant, rflexion, rflchi This cluster of terms, already philosophi - cally complicated in the text, presents additional difficulties in translation because the English fails to distinguish (by means of different spellings) between the types of reflection that Sartre is able to keep distinct by using two slightly different French verbs (rflchir and reflter). It will help if the reader keeps in mind Sartres view that there is one basic form of reflection that is a permanent and necessary structure of consciousness. For this, Sartre uses the French verb reflter, which means to reflect in the sense of to cast back an image/light, i.e. in the sense in which a mirror reflects. In this context Sartre often uses the hyphen - ated phrase reflet-refltant to describe the back-and-forth play of reflections within consciousness. I translate this phrase as reflection-reflecting. Sartre uses the different verb rflchir to refer to a different type, or second level, of reflection a cognitive act in which consciousness takes itself as an object. According to Sartre, this kind of reflection is NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxiii liable to distort what it reflects on; this is complicit reflection, which Sartre contrasts with pure reflection. Because of the close connection in meaning (cognitive reflection can be seen to be a kind of mirroring of our minds), I do not think the answer would be to use two different verbs in English. In most cases the context makes it clear which type of reflection Sartre is talking about, but where I think it is possible that confusion may arise I have provided a clarifying footnote. regarder, le regard For Sartre, the experience of le regard (usually translated as the look) is fundamental to our experience of the Other. Shame is a paradigmatic instance of that experience, in so far precisely as it involves our being looked at by someone else. Unfortunately, the effect of translating le regard by the noun (the) look is to produce some infelicitous English sentences. For example, un regard viter is better translated by to avoid being seen rather than by a look to be avoided; similarly, son regard fix terre translates well as his gaze fixed to the ground, whereas his look in this sentence is terrible. However, the danger of these stylistically preferable alterna-tives is that they may distract from, or dilute the force of, the look, which is almost a technical term in BN. I have compromised by stick - ing to the look most of the time, and using gaze occasionally in the interests of style. tendance Early translations of Freud into French often used the noun tendance (tendency in English) to translate the German term Trieb which corresponds to drive in English. But this is not an ideal choice (at least not when tendance is translated again into English), because tendency sounds much weaker (and less instinctual) than drive. Where Sartre is clearly in dialogue with Freud, therefore, I translate tendance by drive, but elsewhere I sometimes use tendency. le visqueux, la viscosit Hazel Barnes translated these terms as slime (adj. slimy); her aim, she tells us in a footnote, was to make the figurative meanings of the French and English terms correspond (Sartre 1965: 604). It is true that Sartre often uses visqueux figuratively and intends it to have unpleasant associations. On the other hand, some of these figurative uses are creative even in French, and in some instances slimy has, I think, an overly negative force. Moreover there are good reasons for translating visqueux straightforwardly as viscous. Sartres debt to Gaston Bachelards NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxiv psychoanalysis of things (an exploration of the psychological meaning of natural elements) is explicit, and this precedent is important. Both Bachelard and Sartre are concerned with the psychological significance of forms of materiality: the word viscous, with its scientific or chemical register is, I think, best suited for this. References Bergson, Henri (1911), Creative Evolution , trans. Arthur Mitchell (New York: Henry Holt). De Waelhens, Alphonse (1942), La Philosophie de Martin Heidegger (Louvain: ditions de lInstitut Suprieur de Philosophie). Hegel, G.W.F. (1995), Morceaux Choisis, trans. H. Lefebvre and N. Guterman (Paris: Gallimard Folio). Heidegger, Martin (1938), Quest-ce que la Mtaphysique? Suivi dExtraits sur ltre et le Temps et dune Conference sur Hlderlin , trans. Henry Corbin (Paris: Gallimard). Heidegger, Martin (1980), Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (Oxford: Blackwell). Husserl, Edmund (1983), Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, First Book, trans. F. Kersten (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff). Inwood, Michael (1999), Does the Nothing Noth?, in OHear (ed.) (1999): 271290. Kirkpatrick, Kate (2017), Sartre and Theology (London: Bloomsbury). Levinas, Emmanuel (1969), Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority , trans. Alphonso Lingis (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press). Levinas, Emmanuel (1995), The Theory of Intuition in Husserls Phenomenology, trans. Andr Orianne (2nd edition) (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press). OHear, Anthony (ed.) (1999), German Philosophy since Kant (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Olafson, F.A. (1958), Review of Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre and Hazel E. Barnes, Philosophical Review, 67 (2): 276280. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1965), Being and Nothingness, trans. and introduced by Hazel Barnes (New York: Washington Square Press). TRANSLATORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sarah Richmond My thanks are due in the first instance to Tony Bruce at Routledge, who invited me to do this translation. He and Adam Johnson (also at Routledge) have been consistently encouraging and helpful. Their tact - ful enquiries about my progress on the project have enabled me to keep deadlines and promises in mind without becoming frozen by panic. I am grateful to Luc Foisneau and Etienne Balibar, who have gen - erously shared with me their expertise in French philosophy and their linguistic intuitions, and to Michle Le Doeuff for helpful discussion of le visqueux. In the UK, I thank Mary Margaret McCabe for advice about terminology and sources for Aristotle and Plato, and Sebastian Gardner for the amazing helpline he has provided for numerous questions about Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy. Sebastians solidarity, his sense of humour and our lunches in the student caff have meant a lot to me. Armand DAngour has answered my emails about ancient Greek and Latin words within seconds, providing translations, transliterations and Greek inscriptions on demand. Galen Strawson has been a valued correspondent for several years: his emails have encouraged me and I have also benefited from his excellent knowledge of French as well as his sense of English style. From Australia, Andrew Inkpin has sent many illuminating and informative messages about Heidegger, thereby saving me labour I would not have enjoyed. George di Giovanni has generously TRANSLATORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lxvi lent me his expertise as a Hegel translator and scholar, and helped me to locate several passages in Hegel. The text has also benefited from my cor - respondence with another experienced translator, Andrew Brown, with whom I have had several enjoyable face-to-face consultations in vari - ous Cambridge locations. Andrew put me in touch with Nick Walker, another UK-based translator, who has offered further useful thoughts. Jean-Pierre Boul and Ben ODonohoe, two former colleagues at Sartre Studies International, have also helpfully commented on a number of issues. Marcus Giaquinto has allowed me to pick his brains about mathematical terminology, while Henri Chabrol has advised about psychiatry. Tom Stern told me all I needed to know about Nietzsches term Hinterwelt. Florence Caeymaex, Danile Tort-Maloney, Jeanne Balibar, Antoine Amalric and Pierre Amalric have also usefully commented. Jonathan Wolff and Jos Zalabardo, who have served as heads of the Philosophy Department at UCL, have been sensitive line-managers. They have been generous in awarding me research time as well as some fund-ing for research assistance. This funding enabled me to delegate some tasks to two excellent research assistants, Alexandre Sayegh and Olivia Fairweather, whose help I also gratefully acknowledge. Jo Wolff also commented on a draft of the Translators Introduction, as did Judith Barrett. I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers who wrote such positive reviews for my application for funding to the AHRC, and to record my disappointment in the AHRC for failing nonetheless to sup - port it. I regret the immense amount of time I spent struggling with the AHRCs hideous electronic interface and with the many irrelevant questions they obliged me to answer. I am immensely grateful to the French government-funded CNRS ( Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ) for maintaining the superb website for textual and lexical resources, from which I have learned a great deal. I am indebted to Dr Maria Pozzi and Dr Kate Kandasamy for their kind and expert support during a period of ill health. Their thoughtful advice was indispensable in helping me to keep going through a difficult time, and deeply appreciated. A complete first draft of the translation was sent out for review to Ron Santoni, Jonathan Webber, Kate Kirkpatrick and Curtis Sommerlatte, and I am grateful for their helpful feedback. Special thanks are due to Curtis TRANSLATORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lxvii Sommerlatte for his painstaking and thoughtful scrutiny, which resulted in several important improvements. At a later stage I had the good for - tune to work with Helen Moss, my copy-editor; Helens discriminating queries and her eagle eye led to the elimination of many typos and infe - licities from the text. I would also like to thank Elizabeth Kent at Swales & Willis for all her help with production. My parents, Theo Richmond and Lee Richmond, looked at passages of the translation as well as the Translators Introduction, and offered help - ful criticisms. As professional writers of English, they gave advice that has guided me in matters of register, style and syntax. I must also thank them for their love and their unwavering interest in my activities. Thanks also to Judith Barrett, who has been a brilliant friend ever since we were undergraduates together. My frequent phone calls and outings with her have significantly enhanced my well-being while I worked on this translation. My greatest debt is to my spouse Neil Vickers and our two sons, Noah Vickers and Samuel Vickers. I cannot imagine three more wonderful family members, friends and companions. I gratefully acknowledge their generous love, patience and support. This translation would not have been possible without them, and I dedicate it to them. Au Castor INTRODUCTION 9 In search of being110 11 I THE IDEA OF THE PHENOMENON By reducing the existent to the series of appearances that manifest it, modern thought has made considerable progress. The aim was to elimi - nate a number of troublesome dualisms from philosophy, and to replace them with the monism of the phenomenon. Has it succeeded? In the first place, we have certainly got rid of the dualism that opposes an existents inside to its outside. The existent no longer has an outside, if by that we mean some skin at its surface that conceals the objects true nature from view. And if this true nature is, in turn, to be the things secret reality something that we can anticipate or assume, but that we can never reach, because it is inside the object in question that does not exist either. The appearances that manifest the existent are neither internal nor external: they are all of equal worth, each of them refers to 1 Translators note (TN): Sartres Introduction is entitled A la recherche de ltre . I have been guided in my translation by the thought that Sartre probably intended to echo Prousts A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. Note that Proust is used as an example within BNs opening pages. DOI: 10.4324/9780429434013-1 2 INTRODUCTION other appearances, and none of them has priority. Force, for example, is not a metaphysical conatus of some unknown kind, concealed behind its effects (accelerations, deviations, etc.); it is the sum of these effects. Similarly, an electric current has no secret other side: it is nothing but the collection of physicochemical actions (electrolytic processes, the incan-descence of a carbon filament, the movement of the galvanometers nee - dle, etc.) that manifest it. None of these actions is sufficient to reveal it. But it does not point to anything behind it; each action points to itself and to the total series. From this it obviously follows that the dualism of being and appearing no longer has a legitimate place in philosophy. An appear - 12 ance refers to the total series of appearances, not to some hidden reality that siphons off all the existents being for itself. And the appearance, for its part, is not an unstable manifestation of that being. For as long as we were still able to believe in noumenal realities, the appearance was pre - sented as purely negative, as that which is not being: it had no being other than that of illusion and error. But that being was itself borrowed, it was itself a sham, and the biggest problem facing us was how to main - tain the appearance with enough cohesion and existence to stop it from being reabsorbed into non-phenomenal being. But once we have freed ourselves from what Nietzsche called the illusion of backworlds 2 and if we no longer believe in any being-behind-appearance the appearance becomes, on the contrary, full positivity. Its essence is an appearing that is no longer opposed to being but which is, on the contrary, its measure. For the being of an existent is precisely the way it appears. Thus we are led to the idea of the phenomenon as we encounter it, for example, in Husserls or Heideggers Phenomenology: the phenomenon, or the absolute-relative. The phenomenon remains relative because its appear - ing necessarily implies someone to whom it appears. But it does not have the twofold relativity of Kants Erscheinung. 3 It does not indicate, behind its shoulder some true being, a being that is itself the absolute. It is what it is absolutely, because it is disclosed as it is . The phenomenon can be studied and described as such, because it is absolutely indicative of itself. 2 TN: Sartre is loosely quoting from a French translation of Nietzsches Thus Spake Zarathustra. The French arrire-mondes is used to translate Nietzsches German neologism Hinterwelten, which is often translated into English as backworld .The idea is that of a world beyond or behind the world we experience. 3 TN: Kants term Erscheinung is normally translated into English as appearance . 3 INTRODUCTION At the same time, the duality of potentiality and actuality will collapse.4 Everything is in actuality. Behind the act there is neither potentiality, nor hexis,5 nor virtue.6 The term genius, for example as it is used when we say that Proust had great genius or that he was a genius should not be taken to mean a distinctive power to produce various writings, a power that is not exhausted in producing those writings. Prousts genius is neither his work considered in isolation, nor the subjective power to produce it: it is his work, seen as the set of manifestations of his person. That is why we can, in the end, also reject the dualism of appearance and essence. Appearance does not hide essence, but reveals it: it is the essence. The essence of an existent is no longer a power embedded deep inside it; it is the manifest law governing the succession of its appearances, the principle of the series. Duhem was right to oppose Poincars nominalism which defined a physical reality (for example, an electrical power) as the sum of its various manifestations with his own theory, according to which a concept is the synthetic unity of those manifestations. 7 Of course, nothing could be farther from nominalism than phenomenology. But ultimately, an essence, understood as the principle of a series, is no more than the connection between the appearances which means it is itself an appearance. That explains how an intuition of essences (Husserls 13 Wesenschau, for example) is possible.8 Thus phenomenal being manifests itself: it manifests its essence just as much as its existence, and it is noth-ing but the interconnected series of these manifestations. Does this mean we have succeeded in eliminating all dualisms, by reducing the existent to its manifestations? It seems rather that we have 4 TN: Sartre is referring to the distinction between energeia and dunamis in Aristotles metaphysics. Both terms are variously translated in diferent English translations: I use actuality and potentiality for Sartres acte and puissance. 5 TN: The ancient Greek term hexis is important in Aristotles philosophy. Although it is agreed to be difcult to translate Aristotles exact meaning, habit and disposition are both commonly used. 6 TN: Sartre uses the French word v ertu here in its older sense, to mean a power or active principle as it is used in English philosophy in the well-known example of dormitive virtue . 7 TN: Pierre Duhem (18611916) was a French physicist and philosopher of science. Henri Poincar (18541912) was a French mathematician, physicist and philosopher of science. 8 TN: Husserls English translators usually render Wesenschau as intuition of essences . 4 INTRODUCTION converted them all into one new dualism: the finite and the infinite. For the existent cannot be reduced to a finite series of manifestations, as each of these is a relationship to a constantly changing subject. While an object may only be given through a single Abschattung, the mere fact of being a subject implies the possibility of multiplying the points of view on to that Abschattung. 9 This amounts to multiplying the Abschattung in question to infinity. Furthermore, if the series of appearances was finite it would follow (absurdly) that the ones appearing first could not reappear or (even more absurdly) that they could all be given at the same time. We need to be quite clear that our theory of the phenomenon has replaced the things reality with the phenomenons objectivity, and that it founds this latter by appealing to the infinite. The reality of this cup is that it is there, and that it is not me. We can express this by saying that the series of its appearances is connected by a principle that does not depend on my whim. But an appearance considered just as it is without reference to the series to which it belongs can only be an intuitive and subjective plenitude: the way in which the subject is affected. If a phenomenon is to show itself as transcendent, the subject himself must transcend the appearance towards the total series of which it is a member. He must grasp redness i.e. the principle of the series through his impression of red; the electric current through the electrolysis, etc. But if the objects transcendence is grounded in the necessity that any appearance can be transcended, it follows axiomatically that the series of appearances for any object is posited as infinite. Thus a finite appearance indicates itself in its finitude but at the same time, in order to be grasped as an appearance-of-that-which-appears, it demands to be surpassed towards the infinite. This new opposition, the finite and the infinite or, better still, the infinite within the finite, replaces the dualism of being and appearing: what appears is in effect only an aspect of the object, and the object is entirely within this aspect and entirely outside it. Entirely inside, in so far as it manifests itself in this aspect: it is indicated as the structure of the appearance, which is at the same time the principle of the series. Entirely outside, because the series itself never appears, and cannot appear. 9 TN: The term Abschattung refers in Husserls phenomenology to the incomplete aspect of an object given in our perception of it, for example to the one side of a six-sided die that we may be able to see. Kersten translates it as adumbration (Husserl 1983); it is sometimes translated as profle . INTRODUCTION 5 Thus, once again, the outside is opposed to the inside, and the being- that-does-not-appear is opposed to its appearance. Similarly, a certain power returns to the phenomenon, inhabiting it and endowing it with its very transcendence: the power to be developed through a series of real or possible appearances. Even if we reduce Prousts genius to the 14 works he produced, it is still equivalent to the infinity of possible points of view that we can take up on Prousts work its so-called inexhausti- bility. But isnt this inexhaustibility, which implies a transcendence and an appeal to the infinite, a hexis even at the very moment in which we apprehend it in the object? In the end, the essence is radically cut off from any individual appearance that manifests it, because it must be possible, as a matter of principle, for it to be manifested by a series of individual manifestations. By replacing in this way a variety of oppositions with a single dual - ism that founds them all, have we gained or lost? Soon we shall see. For now, the primary consequence of the theory of the phenomenon is that the appearance does not refer to being in the way in which the phenomenon, in Kantian philosophy, refers to the noumenon. Because there is nothing behind the appearance, and it indicates noth - ing more than itself (and the total series of appearances), it cannot be supported by any being other than its own, and cannot therefore be the thin skin of nothingness separating subject-being from absolute-being. If the essence of appearance is an appearing that is no longer opposed to any being, there is a genuine problem of the being of this appearing. This is the problem with which we are concerned here, and it will be the point of departure for our investigations into being and nothingness. II THE PHENOMENON OF BEING AND THE BEING OF THE PHENOMENON An appearance is not supported by some other, different, existent: it has its own being. The first being that we encounter in our ontologi - cal investigations is, therefore, the being of appearance. Is that being itself an appearance? So it seems, at first sight. A phenomenon is some - thing that manifests itself, and being manifests itself in some way to 6 INTRODUCTION all of us, since we can talk about it and have some understanding of it. Thus there must be a phenomenon of being, an appearing of being, that can be described as such. Being will be disclosed to us through some immediate means of access (boredom, nausea, etc.), and ontology will be the description of the phenomenon of being as it manifests itself, i.e. without intermediary. However, for any ontology, we need to ask a preliminary question: is the phenomenon of being that we reach by these means identical to the being of the phenomena? Or: is the being that is disclosed to me, that appears to me, the same in nature as the being of the existents that appear to me? Here there seems to be no problem: Husserl showed us how an eidetic reduction is always 15 possible in other words, how we can always surpass a concrete phe - nomenon towards its essence and, for Heidegger, human-reality is ontico-ontological, which means it can always surpass the phenom - enon towards its being.10 But to move from a particular object to its essence is to move between two homogeneous items. Can the same be said of the movement from an existent to the phenomenon of being? In surpassing an existent towards the phenomenon of being, are we really surpassing it towards its being, as we might surpass a particular red towards its essence? Let us take a closer look. In a particular object, we may always distinguish qualities such as colour, smell, etc. And, on the basis of these, we can always establish the essence they imply just as a sign implies its meaning. The object essence pair is an organized whole: the essence is not inside the object; it is the objects meaning, the principle of the series of appearances which disclose it. But the objects being is neither one of its qualities, capable of being grasped among others, nor is it a meaning of the object. The object does not refer to being as it might refer to a mean - ing: it is not possible, for example, to define being as a presence, since absence also discloses being, since not being there is still a way of being. The object does not possess being, and its existence is not a participation in being or any other kind of relation. The only way to define its way of being is to say that it is; for the object does not conceal being, but neither does it disclose it. It does not conceal it: it would be futile to set aside some of an existents qualities, to try to find its being behind 10 TN: Sartre probably has Being and Time in mind here (Heidegger 1980). INTRODUCTION 7 them; its being belongs to all of them equally. It does not disclose it: it would be futile to appeal to the object in order to apprehend its being. The existent is phenomenal; in other words, it designates itself as an organized set of qualities. Itself, and not its being. Being is merely the condition of any disclosure: it is being-in-order-to-disclose, not being disclosed. What, then, does Heidegger mean when he speaks of a sur - passing towards the ontological? Of course, I can surpass this table or this chair towards its being, and I can pose the question of the table-being or chair-being. But in that moment I look away from the table-phenomenon in order to fasten on the being-phenomenon, which is no longer the condition of all disclosure but which is itself something disclosed, an appearance which, as such, needs in its turn some being on whose foundation it could be disclosed. If the being of phenomena cannot be resolved into a phenomenon of being and if, however, we can only say anything about being by consult - ing this phenomenon of being, we must establish first and foremost the exact nature of the relationship that joins the phenomenon of being to the being of the phenomenon. This will be easier if we note that all our observations so far were directly inspired by the revealing intuition of the phenomenon of being. By considering being not as the condition of disclosure, but rather as an appearance that can be fixed in concepts, we have understood in the first place that knowledge alone cannot account 16 for being, i.e. that the being of the phenomenon cannot be reduced to the phenomenon of being. In brief, the phenomenon of being is ontological in the sense in which Saint Anselms and Descartess proof is called ontological. It is a call for being: it requires, in so far as it is a phenomenon, a transphenomenal foundation. The phenomenon of being requires the transphenomenality of being. That does not mean that being is hidden behind the phenomena (we saw that the phenom - enon cannot mask being), nor that the phenomenon is an appearance that refers to a being distinct from it (the phenomenon has being qua appearance, i.e. it indicates itself on the foundation of being). The preced - ing considerations imply that, although the being of the phenomenon is coextensive with the phenomenon, it must escape the phenomenal condition in which existence is possible only to the extent that it is revealed, and consequently that it overflows and founds any knowledge we can have of it. 8 INTRODUCTION III THE PREREFLECTIVE COGITO AND THE BEING OF THE PERCIPERE One might be tempted to reply that all the difficulties mentioned so far stem from a particular conception of being, a kind of ontological real - ism that is wholly incompatible with the very idea of appearance. Indeed, the being of an appearance is proportionate to its appearing. And, since we have limited reality to the phenomenal, we can say of the phenomenon that it is as it appears. Why not pursue this idea right to its limit and say that the being of an appearance is its appearing? That is simply a way of clothing Berkeleys venerable phrase esse est percipi in new words. And effectively, that is just what Husserl does when, having carried out the phenomenological reduction, 11 he treats the noema as irreal and declares its esse to be a percipi.12 Berkeleys famous formula seems unlikely to satisfy us. And essentially this is for two reasons: first, because of the nature of the percipi and sec- ond, because of the nature of the percipere. The nature of the percipere If any metaphysics presupposes a theory of knowledge, it is equally true that any theory of knowledge presupposes a metaphysics. That means, among other things, that any idealism aiming to reduce being to our knowledge of it must first account in some way 17 for the being of knowledge. If, on the contrary, you begin by positing the latter as a given without any concern to found its being and you go on to claim that esse est percipi, the perceptionperceived totality, deprived of any solid being to support it, will collapse into nothingness. Thus the being of knowledge cannot be measured by knowledge; it escapes the percipi. 13 Thus the foundation-being of the percipere and of the percipi must 11 TN: See my note on the phenomenological reduction in the section on Husserl vocab- ulary in Notes on the Translation. 12 TN: Husserl says this in 98 of Ideas (Husserl 1983). Berkeleys formula esse est percipi means to be is to be perceived . Percipere in this sections title is the infnitive form of to perceive in Latin. For the terms noema, noesis and irreal, see the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation. 13 Sartres note: It goes without saying that any attempt to replace the percipere by some other attitude of human-reality will be equally fruitless. If you allow that being is revealed to man in his doing , you still need to establish the being of the doing, apart from the action. 9 INTRODUCTION itself escape the percipi: it must be transphenomenal. We are back where we began. However, one might allow that the percipi refers to a being that escapes the laws of appearance, while still maintaining that this trans - phenomenal being is the subjects being. The percipi would therefore direct us towards the percipiens the known towards the knowledge and this latter to the knowing being in so far as he is, and not in so far as he is known, i.e. to consciousness. Husserl understood this: for if in his view the noema is an irreal correlative of the noesis, whose ontological law is the percipi, he regards the noesis on the contrary as reality, whose chief characteristic is to offer itself up to the reflection that knows it as having already been there first. For the law of being that governs the knowing subject is being-conscious. Consciousness is not a special kind of knowledge, called inner sense or self-knowledge; it is the subjects dimension of transphenomenal being. Let us try to improve our understanding of this dimension of being. We said that consciousness is the knowing being in so far as he is, and not in so far as he is known. In consequence, we ought to abandon the primacy of knowledge, if we want to found that knowledge itself. And, without doubt, consciousness can know and it can know itself. But it is, in itself, something other than knowledge turned back on itself. As Husserl showed, all consciousness is consciousness of something. 14 In other words, there is no [act of] consciousness that does not posit a transcendent object or, if you prefer, consciousness has no content. We need to give up these neutral givens that can constitute themselves, according to the chosen system of reference, into the world or the psyche. A table is not in consciousness, not even as a representation. A table is in space, beside the window, etc. Indeed the tables existence is a centre of opacity for consciousness; an infinite process would be required to make an inventory of the total content of a thing. To intro - duce this opacity within consciousness would be to refer to infinity any inventory that consciousness might make of itself, to turn conscious - ness into a thing, and to reject the cogito. Philosophys first course of 18 action, therefore, should be to expel things from consciousness and to restore the true relationship between this latter and the world: namely, 14 TN: Husserl makes this point in many of his writings. See for example Husserl (1960: 72). 10 INTRODUCTION that consciousness is a positional consciousness of the world. All con - sciousness is positional in that it transcends itself to reach an object, and it is exhausted by just this act of positing. All that is intentional in my consciousness is directed outside, towards the table: all my judicative or practical activities, and all the affectivity of the moment, transcend themselves; they aim at the table, and are absorbed within it. Not every [act of] consciousness is a form of knowledge (for example, there are affective modes of consciousness), but every knowing consciousness can only be knowledge of its object. Nonetheless, the necessary and sufficient condition for a knowing consciousness to be knowledge of its object is that it should be conscious of itself as being this knowledge. It is a necessary condition: if my con - sciousness were not conscious of being conscious of a table, it would thereby be conscious of the table without being conscious that it was so or, alternatively, it would be a consciousness that did not know itself, an unconscious consciousness which is absurd. It is a sufficient condition: my being conscious of being conscious of the table suffices for me in fact to be conscious of it. It is not of course sufficient to enable me to claim that the table exists in itself but rather that it exists for me. What is this consciousness of consciousness? We are in the grip of the illusion of the primacy of knowledge to such an extent that we are willing to turn our consciousness of consciousness immediately into an idea ideae, as Spinoza does, 15 in other words to turn it into a knowledge of knowledge. When Alain comes to express the evident fact that to know is to be conscious of knowing, he translates it into these terms: To know is to know that one knows. What is hereby defined is reflection, or the positional consciousness of consciousness or, better still, knowledge of consciousness. This is to be understood as an [act of] consciousness that is complete in itself and directed towards something that it is not, in other words towards the reflected consciousness. It thus transcends itself and, like our positional consciousness of the world, its aiming at its object exhausts it. Only in this case its object is itself an [act of] consciousness. This interpretation of the consciousness of consciousness does not seem acceptable. The reduction of consciousness to knowledge effectively imports the subjectobject duality which is typical of knowledge within 15 TN: Spinoza advances this view of self-consciousness in Part Two of his Ethics (Spinoza 1985). INTRODUCTION 11 consciousness. But if we accept the law of the knowingknown dyad, a third term will become necessary for the knowing in its turn to become known, and we are placed in a dilemma. Either we stop at some term within the series: the known, the knowing that is known, the knowing of the know-ing that is known, etc. in which case the phenomenon in its totality col - 19 lapses into the unknown (i.e. we always come up against a reflection that is not conscious of itself and is the final term); or we declare an infinite regress (idea ideae ideae, etc.) to be necessary, which is absurd. In this way the necessity of ontologically founding knowledge is duplicated by a new necessity: that of founding it epistemologically. Surely we ought not to introduce the law of the dyad into consciousness? Consciousness of self is not a dyad. If we want to avoid an infinite regress, it must be an immediate and non-cognitive relationship of self to self. Moreover, reflective consciousness posits the reflected consciousness as its object: in the act of reflection I bring judgements to bear on my reflected consciousness; I am ashamed of it, I am proud of it, I want it, I reject it, etc. The immediate consciousness that I have of perceiving does not allow me either to judge, or to want, or to be ashamed. It does not know my perception, or posit it: all that is intentional within my current [act of] consciousness is directed outwards, towards the world. On the other hand, this spontaneous consciousness that I have of my percep - tion is constitutive of my perceptual consciousness. In other words, any positional consciousness of an object is at the same time a non-positional consciousness of itself. If I count the cigarettes that are in this case, my impression is that of disclosing an objective property of this group of cigarettes: they are twelve . This property appears to my consciousness as a property existing in the world. I may well have no positional conscious - ness at all of counting them. I do not know myself as counting. Proof of this can be seen in the fact that children who are capable of sponta - neous addition are unable to explain afterwards how they did it. The tests by Piaget which demonstrated this constitute an excellent refutation of Alains formula: To know is to know that one knows. And yet, at the moment when these cigarettes disclose themselves to me as twelve, I am non-thetically conscious of my adding activity. 16 Indeed, if I am 16 TN: . . . une conscience non-thtique . . . See note on thse in the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation. 12 INTRODUCTION questioned, if someone asks me: What are you doing?, I will reply immediately I am counting, and my reply does not aim only at the instantaneous [act of] consciousness that I can reach through reflection, but also at those [acts of] consciousness that have passed by without being reflected on, which will forever remain unreflected in my immediate past. Thus, reflection lacks any kind of primacy in relation to reflected consciousness: it is not by means of the former that the latter is revealed to itself. On the contrary, non-reflective consciousness is what makes reflection possible: there is a prereflective cogito, which is the condition of the Cartesian cogito. At the same time, my non-thetic consciousness of counting is actually the condition of my activity of addition. How, if it were otherwise, could addition be the unifying theme of my [acts of] consciousness? In order for that theme to preside over the whole series of syntheses of unifications and of recognitions it must be present to itself, 20 not in the manner of a thing but as an operative intention that can exist only to use an expression of Heideggers as a revealing-revealed.17 Thus, in order to count, it is necessary to be conscious of counting. Of course, it might be said, but that is circular. Because isnt it necessary, for me to be able to be conscious of counting, that in fact I am counting? That is true. However, that does not lead to a circle or, alternatively, it is the very nature of consciousness to exist in a circle. We can express this in these terms: any conscious existence exists as the consciousness of existing. We can understand now why the most basic consciousness of consciousness is not positional: because it and the consciousness of which it is conscious are one and the same. In a single movement, consciousness determines itself as consciousness of percep - tion, and as perception. The requirements of syntax here have obliged us until now to talk of non-positional consciousness of self. But we cannot go on using this expression, in which the phrase of self still evokes the idea of knowledge. (From now on we will put the of between brackets, to indicate that it answers only to a grammatical constraint. 18) 17 TN: . . . comme rvlante-rvele . . . I have not been able to fnd this exact phrase in Heidegger; Sartre probably took it from Corbins preface to his translations. Here Corbin says that the mode of being of human-reality is: dtre rvlante et en mme temps ralite-rvele , using these phrases to translate Heideggers erschliessend and Erschlossenheit (Heidegger 1938: 15). 18 TN: See my note on conscience (de) soi in Notes on the Translation. INTRODUCTION 13 We should not regard this consciousness (of) self as a new [act of] con - sciousness, but as the only possible mode of existence for any consciousness of something . Just as an extended object is constrained to exist in three dimensions, so an intention, a pleasure and a pain can exist only as immediately con - scious (of) themselves. The being of an intention can only be conscious - ness; otherwise the intention would be a thing inside consciousness. We must not therefore take this to mean that some external cause (an organic disturbance, an unconscious drive, another Erlebnis 19) can determine the production of a psychological event a pleasure, for example and that the event whose material structure is hereby determined will in addition be compelled to produce itself as conscious (of) self. That would make non-thetic consciousness into a quality of positional consciousness (in the sense in which perception as a positional consciousness of that table might have the additional quality of consciousness (of) self), and would thereby lead us back to the illusion of the theoretical primacy of knowl - edge. In addition, it would turn the psychological event into a thing, and qualify it as conscious, as I may qualify, for example, this blotting paper as pink. Pleasure cannot be distinguished even logically from the con-sciousness of pleasure. The consciousness (of) pleasure is constitutive of pleasure, as its very mode of existence, as the matter of which it is made, and not as a form that is subsequently imposed on to some hedonic mat - ter. Pleasure cannot exist before any consciousness of pleasure not even in virtual form, or as a potentiality. A potential pleasure can exist only as a consciousness (of) its potentiality; there are no virtualities in 21 consciousness that are not conscious of being virtual. Conversely, as I showed earlier, we must avoid defining pleasure in terms of my consciousness of it. That would push us into an idealist view of consciousness that would lead us back in a roundabout way to the primacy of knowledge. We must not let pleasure disappear behind its consciousness (of) itself: it is not a representation, but a concrete, full and absolute event. Pleasure is no more a quality of consciousness (of) self than consciousness (of) self is a quality of pleasure. It is no more true that there is first a consciousness which afterwards becomes affected by 19 TN:The term Erlebnis comes from Husserl, who uses it to mean experience in a broad sense. In deference to this broad sense, Kersten translates it as mental process (Husserl 1983). French translators, picking up the sense of Leben (to live), sometimes render it as le vcu. 14 INTRODUCTION pleasure like water being dyed than that there is first a pleasure (unconscious or psychological) which afterwards receives the quality of being conscious, like a beam of light. There is one indivisible and indis - soluble being not a substance that supports its qualities as lesser beings, but a being that is existence through and through. The pleasure is the being of the consciousness (of) self, and consciousness (of) self is the pleasures law of being. Heidegger formulates this well when he writes (about Dasein, to be exact, rather than consciousness) that: The how (essentia) of this being must, if it is possible to speak of it at all, be con - ceived in terms of its being (existentia). 20 This means that consciousness is not produced as a particular exemplar of an abstract possibility but that, in arising in the heart of being, it creates and maintains its essence, i.e. the synthetic arrangement of its possibilities. This also means that the being of consciousness is opposite in type to the being revealed to us by the ontological proof: as consciousness is not possible before being but instead comprises in its being the source and condition of all possibility, its existence implies its essence. This is felici - tously expressed by Husserl as its factual necessity. 21 For there to be an essence of pleasure, there must first be the fact of some consciousness (of) this pleasure. And any attempt to invoke the alleged laws of conscious- ness, whose articulated sum would be said to constitute its essence, will be futile: a law is a transcendent object of consciousness; it is possible to have consciousness of a law, but not a law of consciousness. For the same reasons, it is impossible to assign to consciousness any motivation other than itself. Otherwise we would need to conceive of consciousness, to the extent to which it is an effect, as not being conscious (of) itself. In some respect, consciousness would need to be without being conscious (of) being. We would succumb to that all too common illusion that makes consciousness into something half-unconscious, or passivity. But consciousness is consciousness through and through. It cannot therefore be limited by anything other than itself. We must not conceive of this determination of consciousness by itself 22 as a genesis, or a becoming, because that would require us to suppose that consciousness is prior to its own existence. Nor must we conceive 20 TN: Sartre is quoting from Being and Time (Heidegger 1980), 9. 21 TN: See my note on Husserls factual necessity in Notes on the Translation. INTRODUCTION 15 of this self-creation as an act. In that case consciousness would be con - sciousness (of) itself as an act, which it isnt. Consciousness is a ple - num of existence and this determining of itself by itself is an essential characteristic. We must be careful not to misuse the expression cause of itself, which can lead one to suppose a progression, a relationship between a self-cause and a self-effect. It would be more accurate to say, quite simply, that consciousness exists through itself. And by this we do not mean that it is drawn out of nothingness. 22 There could not be any nothingness of consciousness before consciousness.23 Before conscious- ness we can conceive only of a plenum of being, no element of which could refer to an absent consciousness. For there to be a nothingness of consciousness we would need a consciousness that has existed and is no longer, and a witness consciousness positing the nothingness of the first consciousness in the service of a synthesis of recognitions. Consciousness is prior to nothingness, and derives from being. 24 Perhaps these conclusions are difficult to accept. But, examined more carefully, they seem perfectly clear: the paradox is not that some exist - ences exist through themselves, but that there are any that do not. What is genuinely unthinkable is passive existence in other words, an exist - ence that can perpetuate itself without having enough power either to produce or to conserve itself. From this point of view, nothing could be more unintelligible than the principle of inertia. For if consciousness were indeed able to come from something else, where would it come from? Out of the limbo of the unconscious, or the physiological. But if we ask, in turn, how such a limbo can exist and how it derives its existence, we find ourselves led back to the concept of passive existence. In other words, we are absolutely unable to understand how these givens which are not conscious and do not derive their existence from themselves might nonetheless perpetuate this existence, and even find the power to produce 22 TN: . . . quelle se tire du nant. This phrase is often used in French to refer to the act of creation (as in Gods creation of the world out of nothing , for example). 23 TN: . . .nant de conscience . . . I am not sure why Sartre puts this phrase within quotation marks. Although it is tempting to translate it as the non-being of consciousness because that sounds better in English, I stick to nothingness for consistency . 24 Sartres note: This does not at all imply that consciousness is the foundation of its being. On the contrary , as we will see later, the being of consciousness is fully con - tingent. We wish to point out mer ely that: 1. nothing is the cause of consciousness; 2. consciousness is the cause of its own way of being . 16 INTRODUCTION a consciousness. We can see a clear symptom of this in the huge popular- ity of the proof a contingentia mundi.25 Thus, by renouncing the primacy of knowledge, we have discovered the being of the knower and encountered the absolute that same abso - lute that the seventeenth-century rationalists defined, and constituted logically, as an object of knowledge. But, precisely because we are con - cerned here with an absolute existence rather than knowledge, we escape 23 the well-known objection, according to which a known absolute can no longer be absolute, because it becomes relative to the knowledge we have of it. For here the absolute is not the result of a logical construction in the field of knowledge, but the subject of the most concrete experi - ences. And it is in no way relative to this experience, because it is this expe- rience. It is therefore a non-substantial absolute. The ontological error of Cartesian rationalism was not to have seen that, if we define the absolute in terms of the primacy of existence over essence, we cannot conceive of it as a substance. There is nothing substantial about consciousness; it is a pure appearance, where this means it exists only to the extent to which it appears. But it is precisely because consciousness is pure appearance, because it is a total void (since the entire world is outside it), because of this identity within it between its appearance and its existence, that it can be considered as the absolute. IV THE BEING OF THE PERCIPI We appear to have reached the end of our investigation. Having reduced things to the combined totality of their appearances, we noted that these appearances called for a being that was no longer itself an appearance. The percipi directed us to a percipiens, whose being was revealed to us as consciousness. Thus we have reached the ontological foundation of knowledge: the first being, to whom all other appearances appear; the absolute, in relation to which each phenomenon is relative. This being is not the subject, in the Kantian sense of the term, but subjectivity 25 TN: This Latin phrase means from the worlds contingency; it often fgures in a so- called proof of Gods existence.The idea is that the contingent world requires a ground in necessity . INTRODUCTION 17 itself, in its self-immanence. In arriving here, we have escaped idealism, according to which being is measured by knowledge and is therefore subject to the law of duality. For idealism, all being is known, includ- ing thought itself: thought appears to itself only through its own prod - ucts, such that we only ever grasp it as the meaning of thoughts that have occurred, and the philosopher in search of thought is obliged to consult the constituted sciences in order to derive thought from them as their condition of possibility. We have apprehended a being, on the contrary, that escapes and founds our knowledge, and we have laid hold of thought, not as it is given in representation, or as the meaning of thoughts that have been expressed, but directly, as it is and this mode of apprehension is not a phenomenon of knowledge, but the structure of being. We find ourselves here on the terrain of Husserlian phenom - enology, even though Husserl himself was not always faithful to his 24 primary intuition. Are we satisfied? We have found a transphenomenal being, but is that really the being to which the phenomenon of being points? Is it really the being of the phenomenon? In other words, is the being of consciousness sufficient to found the being of appearance qua appearance? We have robbed the phenomenon of its being, in order to give it to consciousness, and we expected consciousness subsequently to return it. Is consciousness able to do that? By examining the ontological requirements of the percipi, we will find out. We should note at the outset that there is a being of the perceived thing qua perceived. Even if I wanted to reduce this table to a synthesis of subjective impressions, I would have to notice at least that it reveals itself as a table through that synthesis, of which it is the transcendent limit, the principle and the goal. The table stands before our knowledge, and it cannot be assimilated to the knowledge we gain from it; otherwise it would be consciousness i.e. pure immanence and would dissolve as a table. On the same grounds, even if what separates the table from the synthesis of subjective impressions through which it is apprehended is purely a distinction within reason, at least the table cannot be this syn - thesis: that would be to reduce it to a synthetic activity of combination. 26 In so far, then, as the known cannot be absorbed into our knowledge of 26 TN: . . . une activit synthtique de liaison. Here I translate liaison as combination (which is normally used to translate Kants Verbindung into English), as it is likely Sartre takes this phrase from Kant. INTRODUCTION 18 it, we must recognize its being. This being, we are told, is the percipi. Let us acknowledge from the outset that we can no more reduce the being of the percipi to that of the percipiens i.e. to consciousness than we can reduce the table to the combination of representations. The most we can say is that it is relative to that being. But this relativity does not excuse us from the need to inspect the percipis being. Now, the mode of the percipi is passive. If, then, the phenomenons being resides in its percipi, its being will be passivity. The characteristic structures of esse, in so far as it can be reduced to percipi, turn out to be relativity and passivity. What is passivity? I am passive when I undergo a modification of which I am not the origin that is to say, neither the foundation nor the creator. Thus my being supports a way of being of which it is not the source. Only, to be able to support something, I still need to exist, and my existence is in consequence always located beyond passivity. For exam - ple, passively supporting something is an attitude that I uphold, which engages my freedom just as much as resolutely rejecting it. If I am to be forever the person who was offended, I must persevere in my being; in other words, I must assign existence to myself. 27 But, in so doing, I take up the offence on my own account in some way; I accept this offence, and I cease to be passive in relation to it. The result is this alternative: either I am not passive in my being in which case I become the founda - tion of the ways I am affected, even if I was not at first their origin or 25 I am characterized by passivity in my very existence, and my being is received in which case everything collapses into nothingness. Hence passivity is a doubly relative phenomenon: relative to the agents activity, and to the patients existence. From this it follows that passivity does not involve the very being of the passive existent: it is a relation between one being and another being, and not between a being and a nothingness. It is impossible for the percipere to assign the perceptum its being because, in order to be assigned anything, the perceptum would already need to be given in some way and thus to exist before receiving its being. We may think in terms of creation, on condition that the created being takes pos - session of itself, and separates itself from its creator in order immediately to close in on itself and take up its being: it is in this sense that a book 27 TN: . . . je mafecte moi-mme de lexistence. See my note on safecter in Notes on the Translation. INTRODUCTION 19 exists against its author. But if the act of creation needs to be continued indefinitely, if the created being is supported even in its minutest parts, if it has no proper independence, if it is in itself only nothingness, then the creature cannot be distinguished at all from its creator, but is reabsorbed within him; what we have here is a false transcendence, and the creator cannot even have the illusion of leaving his subjectivity behind. 28 Moreover, the passivity of the patient demands an equal passivity in the agent this idea finds expression in the principle of action and reac - tion: it is because it is possible to crush my hand, to grasp it or to cut it that my hand can crush, cut or grasp. How much passivity should we attribute to perception, to knowledge? They are entirely active, entirely spontaneous. It is precisely because it is pure spontaneity, because noth - ing can bite into it, that consciousness cannot act on anything. Hence, the doctrine of esse est percipi requires that consciousness, a pure sponta - neity unable to act on anything, should bestow being on a transcendent nothingness while preserving the nothingness of its being and this is absurd. Husserl attempted to ward off these objections by introduc - ing passivity into the noesis: namely the hyle, 29 the pure flux of what is lived through, the materiality of the passive syntheses. But all he did was to add a further difficulty to those we have mentioned. In effect, he reintroduced those neutral givens whose impossibility we demon - strated earlier. Of course these are not contents of consciousness, but that only adds to their unintelligibility. For the hyle cannot in fact belong to consciousness, or it would dissolve into translucency and be unable to provide the resistant impressional 30 base that we surpass towards the object. But if it does not belong to consciousness, what is the source of its being and its opacity? How can it retain at one and the same time the opaque resistance of things and the subjectivity of thought? Since it is not even perceived, and since consciousness transcends it towards its objects, its esse cannot derive from a percipi. But if we say that it derives its essence only from itself, we return to the insoluble problem of how con- 26 sciousness can relate to any independent existents. And even if we were 28 Sartres note: It is for this reason that the Cartesian doctrine of substance reaches its logical conclusion in Spinozas thought. 29 TN: For hyle see the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation. 30 TN: As impressionel is not an ordinary French word, I translate it with a parallel (made - up) adjective, impressional . INTRODUCTION 20 to concede to Husserl that the noesis has a hyletic layer, we would still be unable to conceive how consciousness could transcend this subjective element towards objectivity. By endowing the hyle with the characteristics of a thing and the characteristics of consciousness, Husserl believed he could facilitate the passage from one to the other, but he succeeded only in creating a hybrid being that consciousness rejects, and which cannot be part of the world. But in addition, as we saw, the percipi implies that relativity governs the being of the perceptum. Is it conceivable that the being of the known should be relative to our knowledge of it? What could the relativity of its being mean, in the case of an existent, other than that the existents being lies in something other than itself, in other words in an existent that it is not ? Admittedly, it is not inconceivable for a being to be external to itself, if we take this to mean that the being is its own externality. But that is not the case here. The perceived being stands before a consciousness that it cannot penetrate and that cannot make contact with it and, as it is cut off from consciousness, it exists cut off from its own existence. It is no use to claim, as Husserl did, that it is irreal: even if the status of what is perceived is irreal, it has to exist. Thus there is no case in which either of the two determinations of rela- tivity and passivity which concern ways of being is applicable to being itself. The esse of the phenomenon cannot be its percipi. The transphe- nomenal being of consciousness cannot provide the foundation for the phenomenons transphenomenal being. We can see the phenomenalists mistake: having correctly reduced the object to the series of its combined appearances, they thought they had reduced its being to the succession of its ways of being. That is why they tried to explain being in terms of concepts which apply only to ways of being, because they refer to rela-tions between a plurality of beings that already exist. V THE ONTOLOGICAL PROOF We have not given being its due: we thought that our discovery of the trans - phenomenality of the being of consciousness excused us from the need to grant any transphenomenal being to the phenomenon. On the contrary, as we will see, the transphenomenality of consciousness actually requires the INTRODUCTION 21 phenomenons being to be transphenomenal. We can derive an ontologi- cal proof, not from the reflective cogito, but from the prereflective being of the percipiens. Let us try to set it out here. All consciousness is consciousness of something. We can take this definition of consciousness in two quite distinct ways: we can take it 27 to mean either that consciousness is constitutive of its objects being, or that consciousness is in its innermost nature related to a transcend - ent being. But the first interpretation of the phrase destroys itself: to be conscious of something is to confront a full and concrete presence that is not consciousness. Doubtless, one can be conscious of an absence. But that absence must necessarily appear against a ground of presence. Now, as we have seen, consciousness is a real subjectivity, and an impression is a subjective plenitude. But this subjectivity cannot step outside itself in order to posit a transcendent object by conferring upon it the pleni - tude of the impression. If, therefore, we want at any cost to make the phenomenons being depend on consciousness, the object will need to distinguish itself from consciousness not through its presence, but through its absence, not through its plenitude, but through its nothingness. If being belongs to consciousness, the object must differ from consciousness not in so far as it is another being, but in so far as it is a non-being. Here we have the recourse to the infinite that we discussed in the first section of this work. For Husserl, for example, the animation of the hyletic core by only those intentions which find their fulfilment 31 (Erfllung) in that hyle is not sufficient to take us out of the domain of subjectivity. The genu - inely objectifying intentions32 are empty intentions, intentions that aim, beyond the present and subjective appearance, at the infinite totality of the series of appearances. Let us be clear, moreover, that these intentions aim at them as appearances that cannot ever be given all at the same time. The fact that it is necessarily impossible for the infinite number of terms in the series to stand before consciousness simultaneously, in conjunction with the fact that all but one of these terms is really absent, is the foundation of objectivity. If these impressions were present even if their number were infinite they would become merged into 31 TN: . . . trouver leur remplissement . . . See my note on remplir in the section on Husserl vocab - ulary in Notes on the Translation. 32 TN: Les intentions . . . objectivantes . . . See my note on objectiver in the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation."}}},{"rowIdx":17,"cells":{"text":{"kind":"string","value":"SHAKTI AND SHAKTA BY ARTHUR AVALON (SIR JOHN WOODROFFE ) 1918 Shakti and Shakta by Arthur Avalon . This edition was created and published by Global Grey GlobalGrey 2018 globalgreyebooks.com CONTENTS Chapter One. Indian Religion As Bharata Dharma Chapter Two. Shakti: The World As Power Chapter Three. What Are The Tantras And Their Significance? Chapter Four. Tantra Shastra And Veda Chapter Five. The Tantras And Religion Of The Shaktas Chapter Six. Shakti And Shakta Chapter Seven. Is Shakti Force? Chapter Eight. Cinacara (Vashishtha And Buddha) Chapter Nine. The Tantra Shastras In China Chapter Ten. A Tibetan Tantra Chapter Eleven. Shakti In Taoism Chapter Twelve. Alleged Conflict Of Shastras Chapter Thirteen. Sarvanandanatha Chapter Fourteen. Cit -Shakti (The Consciousness Aspect Of The Universe) Chapter Fifteen. Maya -Shakti (The Psycho- Physical Aspect Of The Universe) Chapter Sixteen. Matter And Consciousness Chapter Seventeen. Shakti And Maya Chapter Eighteen. Shakta Advaitavada Chapter Nineteen. Creation As Explained In The Non- Dualist Tantras Chapter Twenty. The Indian Magna Mater Chapter Twenty -One. Hindu Ritual Chapter Twenty -Two. Vedanta And Tantra Shastra Chapter Twenty -Three. The Psychology Of Hindu Religious Ritual Chapter Twenty -Four. Shakti As Mantra (Mantramayi Shakti) Chapter Twenty -Five. Varnamala (The Garland Of Letters) Chapter Twenty -Six. Shakta Sadhana (The Ordinary Ritual) Chapter Twenty -Seven. The Pacatattva (The Secret Ritual) Chapter Twenty -Eight. Matam Rutra (The Right And Wrong Interpretation) Chapter Twenty -Nine. Kundalini Shakta (Yoga) Chapter Thirty. Conclusions CHAPTER ONE. INDIAN RELIGION AS BHARATA DHARMA A FRIEND of mine who read the first edition of this book suggested that I should add to it an opening Chapter, stating the most general and fundamental principles of the subject as a guide to the understanding of what follows, together with an outline of the latter in which the relation of the several parts should be shown. I have not at present the time, nor in the present book the space, to give effect to my friend's wishes in the way I would have desired, but will not altogether neglect them. To the Western, Indian Religion generally seems a \"jungle\" of contradictory beliefs amidst which he is lost. Only those who have understood its main principles can show them the path. It has been asserted that there is no such thing as Indian Religion, though there are many Religions in India. This is not so. As I have already pointed out (Is India Civilized?) there is a common Indian religion which I have called Bharata Dharma, which is an Aryan religion (Aryadharma) held by all Aryas whether Brahmanic, Buddhist or Ja ina. These are the three main divisions of the Bharata Dharma. I exclude other religions in India, namely, the Semitic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Not that all these are purely Semitic. Christianity became in part Aryanized when it was adop ted by the Western Aryans, as also happened with Islam when accepted by such Eastern Aryans as the Persians and the Aryanized peoples of India. Thus Sufism is either a form of Vedanta or indebted to it. The general Indian Religion or Bharata Dharma holds that the world is an Order or Cosmos. It is not a Chaos of things and beings thrown haphazard together, in which there is no binding relation or rule. The world- order is Dharma, which is that by which the universe is upheld (Dharyate). Without Dharma it would fall to pieces and dissolve into nothingness. But this is not possible, for though there is Disorder (Adharma), it exists, and can exist only locally, for a time, and in particular parts of the whole. Order however will 1 and, from the nature of things, must ultimately assert itself. And this is the meaning of the saying that Righteousness or Dharma prevails. This is in the nature of things, for Dharma is not a law imposed from without by the Ukase of some Celestial Czar. It is the nature of things; that which constitutes them what they are (Svalakshana -dharanat Dharma). It is the expression of their true being and can only cease to be, when they themselves cease to be. Belief in righteousness is then in something not arbitrarily imposed from without by a L awgiver, but belief in a Principle of Reason which all men can recognize for themselves if they will. Again Dharma is not only the law of each being but necessarily also of the whole, and expresses the right relations of each part to the whole. This whole is again harmonious, otherwise it would dissolve. The principle which holds it together as one mighty organism is Dharma. The particular Dharma calls for such recognition and action in accordance therewith. Religion, therefore, which etymologically means that which obliges or binds together, is in its most fundamental sense the recognition that the world is an Order, of which each man, being, and thing, is a part, and to which each man stands in a definite, established relation; together with action based on, and consistent with, such recognition, and in harmony with the whole cosmic activity. Whilst therefore the religious man is he who feels that he is bound in varying ways to all being, the irreligious man is he who egoistically considers everything from the standpoint of his limited self and its interests, without regard for his fellows, or the world at large. The essentially irreligious character of such an attitude is shown by the fact that, if it were adopted by all, it would lead to the negation of Cosmos, that is Chaos. Therefore all Religions are agreed in the essentials of morality and hold that selfishness, in its widest sense, is the root of all sin (Adharma). Morality is thus the true nature of man. The general Dharma (Samanya Dharma) is the universal law governing all, just as the particular Dharma (Vishesha Dharma) varies with, and is peculiar to, each class of being. It follows from what is above stated that disharmony is suffering. This is an obvious fact. Wrong conduct is productive of ill, as right conduct is productive of good. As a man sows, so he will reap. There is an Immanent Justice. But these results, though they may appear at once, do not always do so. The fruit of no action is lost. It must, according to the law of causality, which i s a law of reason, bear effect. 2 If its author does not suffer for it here and now in the present life, he will do so in some future one. Birth and death mean the creation and destruction of bodies. The spirits so embodied are infinite in number and eternal . The material universe comes and goes. This in Brahmanism has been said (see Sanatana Vaidika Dharma by Bhagavan Das) to be \"the Systole and Diastole of the one Universal Heart, Itself at rest -- the moveless play of Consciousness\". The appearance and disappearance of the Universe is the nature or Svabhava of That which it ultimately is. Its immediate cause is Desire, which Buddhism calls Trishna -- or Thirst, that is desire or thirst for world- enjoyment in the universe of form. Action (Karma) is prompted by desire and breeds again desire. This action may be good (Dharma) or bad (Adharma) leading to enjoyment or suffering. Each embodied soul (Jivatma) will be reborn and reborn into the world until it is freed from all desire. This involves the doctrine of Re -incarnation. These multiple births and deaths in the transmigratory worlds are called Samsara or Wandering. The world is a Dvandva, that is, a composite of happiness and suffering. Happiness of a transitory kind may be had therein by adherence to Dharma in following Kama (desire) and Artha (the means) by which lawful desires may be given effect. These constitute what Brahmanism calls the Trivarga of the Purushartha, or three aims of sentient being. But just as desire leads to manifestation in form, so desirelessness leads away from it. Those who reach this state seek Moksha or Nirvana (the fourth Purushartha), which is a state of Bliss beyond the worlds of changing forms. For there is a rest from suffering which Desire (together with a natural tendency to pass its right limits) brings upon men. They must, therefore, either live with desire in harmony with the universal order, or if desireless, they may (for each is master of his future) pass beyond the manifest and become That which is Moksha or Nirvana. Religion, and therefore true civilization, consists in the upholding of Dharma as the individual and general good, and the fostering of spiritual progress, so that, with justice to all beings, true happiness, which is the immediate and ultimate end of all Humanity, and indeed of all being, may be attained. Anyone who holds these beliefs follows the Bharata Dharma or common principles of all Aryan beliefs. Thus as regards God we may either deny His existence (Atheism) or affirm it (Theism) or say we have no sufficient proof 3 one way or another (Agnosticism). It is possible to accept the concept of an eternal Law (Dharma) and its sanctions in a self -governed universe without belief in a personal Lord (Ishvara). So Samkhya, which proceeds on intellectual proof only, doe not deny God but holds that the being of a Lord is \"not proved\". There are then based on this common foundation three main religions, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism. Of the second, a great and universal faith, it has been said that, with each f resh acquirement of knowledge, it seems more difficult to separate it from the Hinduism out of which it emerged and into which (in Northern Buddhism) it relapsed. This is of course not to say that there are no differences between the two, but that they share in certain general and common principles as their base. Brahmanism, of which the Shakta doctrine and practice is a particular form, accepts Veda as its ultimate authority. By this, in its form as the four Vedas, is revealed the doctrine of the Brahman, the \"All -pervader,\" the infinite Substance which is in Itself (Svarupa) Consciousness (Caitanya or Cit), from Which comes creation, maintenance and withdrawal, commonly called destruction (though man, not God, destroys), and Which in Its relation to the un iverse which the Brahman controls is known as Ishvara, the Ruling Lord or Personal God. Veda both as spiritual experience and the word \"which is heard\" (Shruti) is the warrant for this. But Shruti, as the ultimate authority, has received various interpreta tions and so we find in Brahmanism, as in Christianity, differing schools and sects adopting various interpretations of the Revealed Word. Veda says: \"All this (that is, the Universe) is Brahman.\" All are agreed that Brahman or Spirit is relatively to us, Being (Sat), Consciousness (Cit) and Bliss (Ananda). It is Saccidananda. But in what sense is \"This\" (Idam) Brahman? The Monistic interpretation (Advaitavada), as given for instance by the great scholastic Shamkaracarya, is that there is a complete identity in essence of both. There is one Spirit (Atma) with two aspects: as transcendent supreme (Paramatma), and as immanent and embodied (Jivatma). The two are at base one when we eliminate Avidya in the form of mind and body. According to the qualified Monism (Vishishtadvaita) of the great scholastic Ramanuja, \"This\" is Brahman in the sense that it is the body of the Brahman, just as we distinguish our body from our inner self. According to the Dualists 4 (Dvaitavada) the saying is interpreted in terms of nearness (Samipya) and likeness (Sadrishya) for, though God and man are distinct, the former so pervades and is so inextricably involved in the universe as creator and maintainer, that the latter, in this sense, seems to be Brahman through proximity. Then again there is the Shuddhadvaita of that branch of the Agamas which is called Shaivasiddhanta, the Vaishnava Pacaratra doctrine, the Advaita of the Kashmirian Shaiva -gama (Trika), the followers of which, though Advaitins, have very subtly criticized Shamkara's doctrine on several points. Difference of views upon this question and that of the nature of Maya, which the world is said to be, necessarily implies difference upon other matters of doctrine. Then there are, with many resemblances, some differences in rit ual practice. Thus it comes about that Brahmanism includes many divisions of worshippers calling themselves by different names. There are Smartas who are the present day representatives of the old Vaidik doctrine and ritual practice, and on the other hand a number of divisions of worshippers calling themselves Shaktas, Shaivas, Vaishnavas and so forth with sub -divisions of these. It is not possible to make hard and fast distinctions between the sects which share much in common and have been influenced one by the other. Indeed the universality of much of religious doctrine and practice is an established fact. What exists in India as elsewhere to -day has in other times and places been in varying degrees anticipated. \"In Religion,\" it has been said (Gnostics an d 1heir Remains, viii) \"there is no new thing. The same ideas are worked up over and over again.\" In India as elsewhere, but particularly in India where religious activity has been syncretistic rather than by way of supersession, there is much which is com mon to all sects and more again which is common between particular groups of sects. These latter are governed in general, that is, in their older forms, by the Agamas or Tantra -Shastras, which, at any rate to- day and for centuries past (whatever may have b een their origin), admit the authority of the Vedas and recognize other Scriptures. (As to these, see the Introduction to the Kaulacarya Satyananda's Commentary on the Isha Upanishad which I have published.) 5 The meaning of Veda is not commonly rightly unde rstood. But this is a vast subject which underlies all others, touching as it does the seat of all authority and knowledge into which I have not the space to enter here. There are four main classes of Brahmanical Scripture, namely, Veda or Shruti, Smriti, Purana, and Agama. There are also four ages or Yugas the latter being a fraction of a Kalpa or Day of Brahma of 4,320,000,000 years. This period is the life of an universe, on the expiration of which all re- enters Brahman and thereafter issues from it. A M ahayuga is composed of the Four Ages called Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali, the first being the golden age of righteousness since when all has gradually declined physically, morally, and spiritually. For each of the ages a suitable Shastra is given, for Satya or Krita the Vedas, for Treta the Smritishastra, for Dvapara the Puranas, and for Kaliyuga the Agama or Tantra Shastra. So the Kularnava Tantra says: Krite shrutyukta acarastretayam smriti -sambhavah Dvapare tu puranoktah, kalavagamasammatah (see also Maha nirvana Tantra, I -- 28 et seq.) and the Tara-pradipa says that in the Kaliyuga (the supposed present age) the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma, in the sense of mode of life and ritual, is to be followed (see Principles of Tantra). When it is said that the Agama is the peculiar Scripture of the Kali age, this does not mean (at any rate to any particular division of its followers) that something is presented which is opposed to Veda. It is true however that, as between these followers, there is sometimes a conflict on the question whether a particular form of the Agama is unvedic (Avaidika) or not. The Agama, however, as a whole, purports to be a presentment of the teaching of Veda, just as the Puranas and Smritis are. It is that presentment of Vaidik truth which is suitable for the Kali age. Indeed the Shakta followers of the Agama claim that its Tantras contain the very core of the Veda to which it is described to bear the same relation as the Supreme Spirit (Paramatma) to the embodied spirit (Jivatma). In a similar way, in the seven Tantrik Acaras (see Ch. IV post), Kaulacara is the controlling, informing life of the gross body called Vedacara, each of the Acaras, which follow the latter up to Kaulacara, being more and more subtle sheaths. The Tantra Shastra is thus that presentment of Vedantic truth which is modeled, as regards mode of life and ritual, to 6 meet the characteristics and infirmities of the Kaliyuga. As men have no longer the capacity, longevity and moral strength required to carry out the Vaidika Karmakanda (ritual section), the Tantra Shastra prescribes a Sadhana of its own for the attainment of the common end of all Shastra, that is, a happy life on earth, Heaven thereafter, and at length Liberation. Religion is in fact the true pursuit of h appiness. As explained in the next and following Chapters, this Agama, which governs according to its followers the Kali -yuga, is itself divided into several schools or communities of worshippers. One of these divisions is the Shakta. It is with Shakta doctrine and worship, one of the forms of Brahmanism, which is again a form of the general Bharata Dharma, that this book deals. The Shakta is so called because he is a worshipper of Shakti (Power), that is, God in Mother -form as the Supreme Power which creat es, sustains and withdraws the universe. His rule of life is Shaktadharma, his doctrine of Shakti is Shaktivada or Shakta Darshana. God is worshipped as the Great Mother because, in this aspect, God is active, and produces, nourishes, and maintains all. Theological Godhead is no more female than male or neuter. God is Mother to the Sadhaka who worships Her Lotus Feet, the dust on which are millions of universes. The Power, or active aspect of the immanent God, is thus called Shakti. In Her static transcende nt aspect the Mother or Shakti or Shiv is of the same nature as Shiva or \"the Good\". That is, philosophically speaking, Shiva is the unchanging Consciousness, and Shakti is its changing Power appearing as mind and matter. Shiva -Shakti is therefore Conscio usness and Its Power. This then is the doctrine of dual aspects of the one Brahman acting through Its Trinity of Powers (Iccha, Will; Jana, Knowledge; Kriya, Action). In the static transcendent aspect (Shiva) the one Brahman does not change and in the kinetic immanent aspect (Shiv or Shakti) It does. There is thus changelessness in change. The individual or embodied Spirit (Jivatma) is one with the transcendent spirit (Paramatma). The former is a part (Amsha) of the latter, and the enveloping mind and bod y are manifestations of Supreme Power. Shakta Darshana is therefore a form of Monism (Advaitavada). In creation an effect is produced without change in the Producer. In creation the Power (Shakti) \"goes forth\" (Prasharati) in a series of emanations or transformations, which are called, in 7 the Shaiva and Shakta Tantras, the 36 Tattvas. These mark the various stages through which Shiva, the Supreme Consciousness, as Shakti, presents Itself as object to Itself as subject, the latter at first experiencing the f ormer as part of the Self, and then through the operations of Maya Shakti as different from the Self. This is the final stage in which every Self (Purusha) is mutually exclusive of every other. Maya, which achieves this, is one of the Powers of the Mother or Devi. The Will -to-become -many (Bahu syam prajayeya) is the creative impulse which not only creates but reproduces an eternal order. The Lord remembers the diversities latent in His own Maya Shakti due to the previous Karmas of Jivas and allows them to u nfold themselves by His volition. It is that Power by which infinite formless Consciousness veils Itself to Itself and negates and limits Itself in order that it may experience Itself as Form. This Maya Shakti assumes the form of Prakriti Tattva, which is composed of three Gunas or Factors called Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. The function of Prakriti is to veil, limit, or finitize pure infinite formless Consciousness, so as to produce form, for without such limitation there cannot be the appearance of form. These G unas work by mutual suppression. The function of Tamas is to veil Consciousness, of Sattva to reveal it, and of Rajas the active principle to make either Tamas suppress Sattva or Sattva suppress Tamas. These Gunas are present in all particular existence, as in the general cause or Prakriti Shakti. Evolution means the increased operation of Sattva Guna. Thus the mineral world is more subject to Tamas than the rest. There is less Tamas and more Sattva in the vegetable world. In the animal world Sattva is increased, and still more so in man, who may rise through the cultivation of the Sattva Guna to Pure Consciousness (Moksha) Itself. To use Western parlance, Consciousness more and more appears as forms evolve and rise to man. Consciousness does not in itself change, but its mental and material envelopes do, thus releasing and giving Consciousness more play. As Pure Consciousness is Spirit, the release of It from the bonds of matter means that Forms which issue from the Power of Spirit (Shakti) become more and more Sattvik. A truly Sattvik man is therefore a spiritual man. The aim of Sadhana is therefore the cultivation of the Sattva Guna. Nature (Prakriti) is thus the Veil of Spirit as Tamas Guna, the Revealer of Spirit as Sattva Guna, and the Activity (Rajas Gu na) which makes either work. Thus the upward or 8 revealing movement from the predominance of Tamas to that of Sattva represents the spiritual progress of the embodied Spirit or Jivatma. It is the desire for the life of form which produces the universe. This desire exists in the collective Vasanas, held like all else, in inchoate state in the Mother -Power, which passing from its own (Svarupa) formless state gives effect to them. Upon the expiration of the vast length of time which constitutes a day of Brahma the whole universe is withdrawn into the great Causal Womb (Yoni) which produced it. The limited selves are withdrawn into it, and again, when the creative throes are felt, are put forth from it, each appearing in that form and state which its previous Karma had made for it. Those who do good Karma but with desire and self -regard (Sakama) go, on death, to Heaven and thereafter reap their reward in good future birth on earth -- for Heaven is also a transitory state. The bad are punished by evil births on earth and suffering in the Hells which are also transitory. Those, however, who have rid themselves of all self -regarding desire and work selflessly (Nishkama Karma) realize the Brahman nature which is Saccidananda. Such are liberated, that is never appear again in the World of Form, which is the world of suffering, and enter into the infinite ocean of Bliss Itself. This is Moksha or Mukti or Liberation. As it is freedom from the universe of form, it can only be attained through detachment from the world and desirelessness. For those who desire the world of form cannot be freed of it. Life, therefore, is a field in which man, who has gradually ascended through lower forms of mineral, vegetable and animal life, is given the opportunity of heaven-life and Liberation. The universe has a moral purpose, namely the affording to all existence of a field wherein it may reap the fruit of its actions. The forms of life are therefore the stairs (Sopana) on which man mounts to the state of infinite, eternal, and formless Bl iss. This then is the origin and the end of man. He has made for himself his own past and present condition and will make his future one. His essential nature is free. If wise, he adopts the means (Sadhana) which lead to lasting happiness, for that of the world is not to be had by all, and even when attained is perishable and mixed with suffering. This Sadhana consists of various means and disciplines employed to produce purity of mind (Cittashuddhi), and devotion to, and worship of, the Magna Mater of all. It is with these means that the religious Tantra Shastras are mainly concerned. 9 The Shakta Tantra Shastra contains a most elaborate and wonderful ritual, partly its own, partly of Vaidik origin. To a ritualist it is of absorbing interest. Ritual is an art , the art of religion. Art is the outward material expression of ideas intellectually held and emotionally felt. Ritual art is concerned with the expression of those ideas and feelings which are specifically called religious. It is a mode by which religious truth is presented, and made intelligible in material forms and symbols to the mind. It appeals to all natures passionately sensible of that Beauty in which, to some, God most manifests Himself. But it is more than this. For it is the means by which the mind is transformed and purified. In particular according to Indian principles it is the instrument whereby the consciousness of the worshipper (Sadhaka) is shaped in actual fact into forms of experience which embody the truths which Scripture teaches. The Shakta is thus taught that he is one with Shiva and His Power or Shakti. This is not a matter of mere argument. It is a matter for experience. It is ritual and Yoga- practice which secure that experience for him. How profound Indian ritual is, will be admitted by those who have understood the general principles of all ritual and symbolism, and have studied it in its Indian form, with a knowledge of the principles of which it is an expression. Those who speak of \"mummery,\" \"gibberish\" and \"superstition\" betray both their incapacity and ignorance. The Agamas are not themselves treatises on Philosophy, though they impliedly contain a particular theory of life. They are what is called Sadhana Shastras, that is, practical Scriptures prescribing the means by which happiness, the quest of all mankind, may be attained. And as lasting happiness is God, they teach how man by worship and by practice of the disciplines prescribed, may attain a divine experience. From incidental statements and the practices described the philosophy is extracted. The speaker of the Tantras and the revealer of the Shakta Tantra is Shiva Himself or Shiv the Devi Herself. Now it is the first who teaches and the second who listens (Agama). Now again the latter assumes the role of Guru and answers the questions of Shiva (Nigama). For the two are one. Sometimes there are other interlocutors. Thus one of the Tantras is called Ishvarakartikeya -samvada, for there the Lord addresses his son Kartikeya. The Tantra Shastra therefore claims to be a Revel ation, and of the same 10 essential truths as those contained in the Eternal Veda which is an authority to itself (Svatah- siddha). Those who have had experience of the truths recorded in Shastra, have also proclaimed the practical means whereby their experien ce was gained. \"Adopt those means\" they say, \"and you will also have for yourself our experience.\" This is the importance of Sadhana and all Sadhana Shastras. The Guru says: \"Do as I tell you. Follow the method prescribed by Scripture. Curb your desires. Attain a pure disposition, and thus only will you obtain that certainty, that experience which will render any questionings unnecessary.\" The practical importance of the Agama lies in its assumption of these principles and in the methods which it enjoins for the attainment of that state in which the truth is realized. The following Chapters shortly explain some of the main features of both the philosophy and practice of the Shakta division of the Agama. For their full development many volumes are necessary. What is here said is a mere sketch in a popular form of a vast subject. I will conclude this Chapter with extracts from a Bengali letter written to me shortly before his death, now many years ago, by Pandit Shiva -candra Vidyarnava, the Shakta author of the Tantratattva which I have published under the title Principles of Tantra. The words in brackets are my own. \"At the present time the general public are ignorant of the principles of the Tantra Shastra. The cause of this ignorance is the fact that the Tant ra Shastra is a Sadhana Shastra, the greater part of which becomes intelligible only by Sadhana. For this reason the Shastra and its Teachers prohibit their general promulgation. So long as the Shastra was learnt from Gurus only, this golden rule was of immense good. In course of time the old Sadhana has become almost extinct, and along with it, the knowledge of the deep and mighty principles of the Shastra is almost lost. Nevertheless some faint shadowings of these principles (which can be thoroughly known by Sadhana only) have been put before the public partly with the view to preserve Shastric knowledge from destruction, and partly for commercial reasons. When I commenced to write Tantra -tattva some 25 years ago, Bengali society was in a perilous state owing to the influx of other religions, want of faith and a spirit of disputation. Shortly before this a number of English books had appeared on the Tantra Shastra which, whilst ignorant of 11 Dharma, Sadhana and Siddhi contained some hideous and outrageous pictures drawn by the Bengali historians and novelists ignorant of, and unfaithful to, Shastric principles. The English books by English writers contained merely a reflection of what English- educated Bengalis of those days had written. Both are even to- day equally ignorant of the Tantra Shastra. For this reason in writing Tantratattva I could not go deeply into the subject as my heart wished. I had to spend my time in removing thorns (objections and charges) from the path by reasoning and argument. I could not therefore deal in my book with most of the subjects which, when I brought out the first volume, I promised to discuss. The Tantra Shastra is broadly divided into three parts, namely Sadhana, Siddhi (that which is gained by Sadhana) and Philosophy (Darshana). Unlike other systems it is not narrow nor does it generate doubt by setting forth conflicting views. For its speaker is One and not many and He is omniscient. The philosophy is however scattered throughout the Tantrik treatises and is dealt with, as occasion arises, in connection with Sadhana and Siddhi. Could (as I had suggested to him) such parts be collected and arranged, according to the principles of the subject -matter, they would form a vast system of philosophy wonderful, divine, lasting, true, and carrying conviction to men. As a Philosophy it is at the head of all others. You have prayed to Parameshvara (God) for my long life, and my desire to carry out my project makes me also pray for it. But the state of my body makes me doubt whether the prayer will be granted. By the grace therefore of the Mother the sooner the work is done the better. You say 'that those who worship Parameshvara, He makes of one family. Let therefore all distinctions be put aside for all Sadhakas are, as such, one.' This noble principle is the final word of all Shastras, all communities, and all religions. All distinctions which arise from differences in the physical body are distinctions for the human world only. They have no place in the world of worship of Parameshvara. T he more therefore that we shall approach Him the more will the differences between you and me vanish. It is because both of us pray for the removal of all such differences, that I am led to rely on your encouragement and help and am bold to take up on your encouragement and help and am bold to take up this difficult and daring work. If by your grace the gate of this Tantrik philosophy is opened in the third part of Tantra -tattva I dare to say that the 12 learned in all countries will gaze, and be astonished for it is pure truth, and for this reason I shall be able to place it before them with perfect clearness.\" Unfortunately this project of a third part of the Tantra- tattva could not be carried out owing to the lamented death of its author, which followed not long after the receipt of this letter. Naturally, like all believers throughout the whole world, he claimed for his Scripture the possession in all its details of what was true or good. Whilst others may not concede this, I think that those with knowledge and understanding and free from prejudice will allow that it contains a profoundly conceived doctrine, wonderfully worked out in practice. Some of its ideas and principles are shared (through it be under other names and forms) by all religious men, and others either by all or some Indian communities, who are not Shaktas. Leaving therefore for the moment aside what may be said to be peculiar to itself it cannot be that wholly absurd, repulsive, and infamous system (\"lust, mummery and magic\" as Brian Hodgson called it) which it has been said to be. An impartial criticism may be summed up in the few words that, together with what has value, it contains some practices which are not generally approved and which have led to abuse. As to these the reader is referred to the Chapter on the Pacatattva or Secret Ritual. I conclude with a translation of an article in Bengali by a well -known writer, (P. Bandyopadhyaya, in the Sahitya, Shrubby 1320, Calcutta, July -August 1913). It was evoked by the publication of Arthur Abalone's Translation of, and Introduction to, the Mahanirvana Tantra. It is an interesting statement as regards the Shakta Tantra and Bengali views thereon. Omitting here some commendatory statements touching A. Avalon's work and the writer's \"thanks a hundred times\" for the English version, the article continues as follows: \"At one time the Mahanirvana Tantra had some popularity in Bengal. It was printed and published under the editorship of Pandit Ananda- candra Vedanta- vagisha and issued from the Adi -Brahmo -Samaj Press. Raja Ram Mohan Roy himself was a follower of the Tantras, married after the Shaiva form and used to practice the Tantrik worship. His spiritual preceptor Svami Hariharananda, was well known to be a saint who had attained to perfection (Siddha -purusa). He endeavored to establish the Mahanirvana Tantra as the 13 Scripture of the Brahmo -Samaj. The formula and the forms of the Brahmo Church are borrowed from the initiation in Brahman worship, (Brahma - diksha) in this Tantra. The later Brahmos somewhat losing their selves in their spirit of imitation of Christian rituals were led to abandon the path shown to them by Raja Ram Mohan; but yet even now many among them recite the Hymn to the Brahman which occurs in the Mahanirvana Tantra. In the first era of the excessive dissemination of English culture and training Bengal resounded with opprobrious criticisms of the Tantras. No one among the educated in Bengal could praise them. Even those who called themselves Hindus were unable outwardly to support the Tantrik doctrines. But even then there were very great Tantrik Sadhakas and men learned in the Tantras with whose help the principles of the Tantras might have been explained to the public. But the educated Bengali of the age was bewitched by the Christia n culture, and no one cared to inquire what did or did not exist in their paternal heritage; the more especially that any who attempted to study the Tantras ran the risk of exposing themselves to contumely from the 'educated community'. Maharaja Sir Jatindra Mohan Tagore of sacred name alone published two or three works with the help of the venerable Pandit Jaganmohan Tarkalankara. The Hara -tattva -didhiti associated with the name of his father is even now acknowledged to be a marvelously glorious production of the genius of the Pandits of Bengal. The venerable (Vriddha) Pandit Jaganmohan also published a commentary on the Mahanirvana Tantra. Even at that epoch such study of the Tantras was confined to a certain section of the educated in Bengal. Maharaja Sir Jatindra Mohan alone endeavored to understand and appreciate men like Bama Khepa (mad Bama), the Naked Father (Nengta Baba) of Kadda and Svami Sadananda. The educated community of Bengal had only neglect and contempt for Sadhakas like Bishe Pagla (the mad Bishe) and Binu the Candala woman. Bengal is even now governed by the Tantra; even now the Hindus of Bengal receive Tantrik initiation. But the glory and the honor which the Tantra had and received in the time of Maharajas Krishna -candra and Shiva -candra no longer exist. This is the reason why the Tantrik Sadhakas of Bengal are not so well known at present. It seems as if the World -Mother has again willed it, has again desired to manifest Her power, so that Arthur Avalon is studying the Tantras and has published so beautiful 14 a version of the Mahanirvana. The English educated Bengali will now, we may hope, turn his attention to the Tantra. \"The special virtue of the Tantra lies in its mode of Sadhana. It is neither mere worship (Upasana) nor prayer. It is not lamenting or contrition or repentance before the Deity. It is the Sadhana which is the union of Purusha and Prakriti; the Sadhana which joins the Male Principle and the Mother Element within the body, and strives to make the attributed attributeless. That which is in me and that for which I am (this consciousness is ever present in me) is spread, like butter in milk, throughout the created world of moving and unmoving things, through the gross and the subtle, the conscious and unconscious, through all. It is the object of Tantrik Sadhana to merge that self -principle (Svarat) into the Universal (Virat). This Sadhana is to be performed through the awakening of the forces within the body. A man is Siddha in this Sadhana when he is able to awaken Kundalini a nd pierce the six Cakras. This is not mere 'philosophy' a mere attempt to ponder upon husks of words, but something which is to be done in a thoroughly practical manner. The Tantras say -- 'Begin practicing under the guidance of a good Guru; if you do not obtain favorable results immediately, you can freely give it up.' No other religion dares to give so bold a challenge. We believe that the Sadhana of the Moslems and the 'esoteric religion' or secret Sadhana (and rituals) of the Christians of the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches is based on this ground work of the Tantras. \"Wherever there is Sadhana we believe that there is the system of the Tantra. While treating of the Tantras some time back in the Sahitya, I hinted at this conclusion and I cannot say that the author, Arthur Avalon, has not noticed it too. For he has expressed his surprise at the similarity which exists between the Roman Catholic and the Tantrik mode of Sadhana. The Tantra has made the Yoga -system of Patajali easily practicable and has combined with it the Tantrik rituals and the ceremonial observances (Karma -kanda); that is the reason why the Tantrik system of Sadhana has been adopted by all the religious sects of India. If this theory of the antiquarians, that the Tantra was brought into India from Chaldea or Shakadvipa be correct, then it may also be inferred that the Tantra passed from Chaldea to Europe. The Tantra is to be found in all the strata of Buddhism; the Tantrik Sadhana is 15 manifest in Confucianism; and Shintoism is but anothe r name of the Tantrik cult. Many historians acknowledge that the worship of Shakti or Tantrik Sadhana which was prevalent in Egypt from ancient times spread into Phoenicia and Greece. Consequently we may suppose that the influence of the Tantra was felt in primitive Christianity. \"The Tantra contains nothing like idolatry or 'worship of the doll' which we, taking the cue from the Christian missionaries, nowadays call it. This truth, the author, Arthur Avalon, has made very clear in the Introduction to his translation. The Tantra repeatedly says that one is to adore the Deity by becoming a Deity (Devata) himself. The Ishta -devata is the very self of Atman, and not separate from It; He is the receptacle of all, yet He is not contained in anything, for He is the great witness, the eternal Purusha. The true Tantrik worship is the worship in and by the mind. The less subtle form of Tantrik worship is that of the Yantra. Form is born of the Yantra. The form is made manifest by Japa, and awakened by Mantra -Shakti. T ens of millions of beautiful forms of the Mother bloom forth in the heavens of the heart of the Siddhapurusha. Devotees or aspirants of a lower order of competency (Nimna -adhikari) under the directions of the Guru adore the great Maya by making manifest'. (to themselves) one of Her various forms which can be only seen by Dhyana (meditation). That is not mere worship of the idol! if it were so, the image would not be thrown into the water; no one in that case would be so irreverent as to sink the earthen image of the Goddess in the water. The Primordial Shakti is to be awakened by Bhava, by Dhyana, by Japa and by the piercing of the six Cakras. She is all will. No one can say when and how She shows Herself and to what Sadhaka. We only know that She is, and there are Her names and forms. Wonderfully transcending is Her form -- far beyond the reach of word or thought. This has made the Bengali Bhakta sing this plaintive song -- 'Hard indeed is it to approach the sea of forms, and to bathe in it. Ah me, this my c oming is perhaps in vain?' 16 \"The Tantra deals with another special subject -- Mantra -Shakti. It is no exaggeration to say that we have never heard even from any Bengali Pandit such a clear exposition of Mantra- Shakti as that which the author, Arthur Avalon, has given in his Introduction to the Mahanirvana Tantra. We had thought that Mantra- Shakti was a thing to be felt and not to be explained to others. But the author with the force of his genius has in his simple exposition given us such explanation of it a s is possible in the English language. The Tantras say that the soul in the body is the very self of the letters -- of the Dhvani (sound). The Mother, the embodiment of the fifty letters (Varna), is present in the various letters in the different Cakras. L ike the melody which issues when the chords of a lute are struck, the Mother who moves in the six Cakras and who is the very self of the letters awakens with a burst of harmony when the chords of the letters (Varnas) are struck in their order; and Siddhi b ecomes as easy of attainment to the Sadhaka as the Amalaka fruit in one's hand when She is roused. That is why the great Sadhaka Ramaprasad awakened the Mother by the invocation -- 'AriseO Mother (Jagrihi, janani)'. That is the reason why the Bhakta sang -- 'How long wilt thou sleep in the Muladhara,O Mother Kulakundalini?' \"The Bodhana (awakening) ceremony in the Durga Puja is nothing but the awakening of the Shakti of the Mother, the mere rousing of the consciousness of the Kundalini. This awakening is pe rformed by Mantra - Shakti. The Mantra is nothing but the harmonious sound of the lute of the body. When the symphony is perfect, She who embodies the Worlds (Jaganmayi) rouses Herself. When She is awake it does not take long before the union of Shiva and Shakti takes place. Do Japa once; do Japa according to rule looking up to the Guru, and the effects of Japa of which we hear in the Tantra will prove to be true at every step. Then you will understand that the Tantra is not mere trickery, or a false weaving out of words. What is wanted is the good Guru; Mantra capable of granting Siddhi, and application (Sadhana). Arthur Avalon has grasped the meaning of the principles of Mantra which are so difficult to understand. We may certainly say that he 17 could only mak e this impossible thing possible through inherent tendencies (Samskara) acquired in his previous life. \"The Tantra accepts the doctrine of rebirth. It does not, however, acknowledge it as a mere matter of argument or reasoning but like a geographical map it makes clear the unending chain of existences of the Sadhaka. The Tantra has two divisions, the Dharma of Society (Samaja) and the Dharma of Spiritual Culture (Sadhana). According to the regulation of Samaja -Dharma it acknowledges birth and caste. But in Sadhana -Dharma there is no caste distinction, no Brahmana or Shudra, no man or woman; distinction between high and low follows success in Sadhana and Siddhi. We only find the question of fitness or worthiness (Adhikara -tattva) in the Tantra. This fitness (Adhikara) is discovered with reference to the Samskaras of past existences; that is why the Candala Purnananda is a Brahmana, and Kripasiddha the Sadhaka is equal to Sarvananda; that is why Ramaprasada of the Vaidya caste is fit to be honored even by Brahmanas. The Tantra is to be studied with the aid of the teachings of the Guru; for its language is extraordinary, and its exposition impossible with a mere grammatical knowledge of roots and inflections. The Tantra is only a system of Shakti- Sadhana. There a re rules in it whereby we may draw Shakti from all created things. There is nothing to be accepted or rejected in it. Whatever is helpful for Sadhana is acceptable. This Sadhana is decided according to the fitness of the particular person (Adhikari -anusare ). He must follow that for which he is fit or worthy. Shakti pervades all and embraces all beings and all things, the inanimate and the moving, beasts and birds, men and women. The unfolding of the Power (Shakti) enclosed within the body of the animal (Jiva) as well as the man is brought about only with the help of the tendencies within the body. The mode of Sadhana is ascertained with regard to these tendencies. The very meaning of Sadhana is unfolding, rousing up or awakening of Power (Shakti). Thus the Shakta obtains power from all actions in the world. The Sadhana. of the Tantra is not to be measured by the little measuring- yard of the well -being or ill -being of your community or mine. \"Let you understand and I understand,O my mind -- Whether any one el se understands it or not.\" 18 The author, Arthur Avalon, is fully conscious of this. In spite of it, he has tried to explain almost all points making them easy to comprehend for the intellect of materialistic civilized society of to- day. For this attempt on hi s part we are grateful to him. \"The Tantra has no notion of some separate far -seeing God. It preaches no such doctrine in it as that God the Creator rules the Universe from heaven. In the eye of the Tantra the body of the Sadhaka is the Universe, the auto- kratos (Atma -Shakti) within the body is the desired (Ishta) and the \"to be sought for\" (Sadhya), Deity (Devata) of the Sadhaka. The unfolding of this self-power is to be brought about by self -realization (Atma- darshana) which is to be achieved through Sadhana. Whoever realizes his self attains to Liberation (Mukti). The author, Arthur Avalon, has treated of these matters (Siddhanta) in his work, the Tantra- tattva. Many of the topics dealt with in the Mahanirvana Tantra will not be fully understood without a thorough perusal of the book. The Principles of the Tantra must be lectured on to the Bengali afresh. If the Mahanirvana Tantra as translated by Arthur Avalon is spread abroad, if the Bengali is once more desirous to hear, that attempt might well be undertaken. \"Our land of Bengal used to be ruled by Tantrik works such as the Saradatilaka, Shaktanandatarangini, Pranatoshini, Tantrasara, etc. Then the Mahanirvana Tantra did not have so great an influence. It seems to us that, considering the form into which, as a result of English education and culture, the mind of the Bengali has been shaped, the Mahanirvana is a proper Tantra for the time. Raja Ram Mohan Roy endeavored to encourage regard for the Mahanirvana Tantra because he understood this. If the Englis h translation of the Mahanirvana Tantra by Arthur Avalon is well received by the thoughtful public in Bengal, the study of the original Sanskrit work may gradually come into vogue. This much hope we may entertain. In fact, the English- educated Bengali community is without religion (Dharma) or action (Karma), and is devoid of the sense of nationality (Jatiya Dharma) and caste. The Mahanirvana Tantra alone is fit for the country and the race at the present time. We believe that probably because such an impossibility is going to be possible, a cultured, influential, rich Englishman like Arthur Avalon, honored of the rulers, has translated and published the Mahanirvana 19 Tantra. When his Tantratattva is published we shall be able to speak out much more. For the pr esent we ask the educated people of Bengal to read this most unprecedented Mahanirvana Tantra. Arthur Avalon has not spoken a single word to satisfy himself nor tried to explain things according to his own imagination. He has only given what are true inferences according to the principles of Shastric reasoning. An auspicious opportunity for the English- knowing public to understand the Tantra has arrived. It is a counsel of the Tantra itself, that if you desire to renounce anything, renounce it only after a thorough acquaintance with it; if you desire to embrace anything new, accept it only after a searching inquiry. The Tantra embodies the old religion (Dharma) of Bengal; even if it is to be cast away for good, that ought only to be done after it has been fully known. In the present case a thoughtful and educated Englishman of high position has taken it upon himself to give us a full introduction to the Tantra. We can frankly say that in this Introduction he has not tried a jot to shirk or to gloss over the conclusions of the Shastra, with the vanity of explanation born of his imagination. He has endeavored to bring before the mind of his readers whatever actually is in the Tantra, be it regarded as either good or evil. Will not the Bengali receive with welcom e such a full offering (Arghya) made by a Bhakta from a foreign land?\" 20 CHAPTER TWO. SHAKTI : THE WORLD AS POWER There is no word of wider content in any language than this Sanskrit term meaning 'Power'. For Shakti in the highest causal sense is God as Mother, and in another sense it is the universe which issues from Her Womb. And what is there which is neither one nor the other? Therefore, the Yoginihridaya Tantra thus salutes Her who conceives, bears, produc es and thereafter nourishes all worlds: \"Obeisance be to Her who is pure Being - Consciousness -Bliss, as Power, who exists in the form of Time and Space and all that is therein, and who is the radiant Illuminatrix in all beings.\" It is therefore possible onl y to outline here in a very general way a few of the more important principles of the Shakti -doctrine, omitting its deeply interesting practice (Sadhana) in its forms as ritual worship and Yoga. Today Western science speaks of Energy as the physical ultimate of all forms of Matter. So has it been for ages to the Shaktas, as the worshippers of Shakti are called. But they add that such Energy is only a limited manifestation (as Mind and Matter) of the almighty infinite Supreme Power (Maha- Shakti) of Becoming in 'That' (Tat), which is unitary Being (Sat) itself. Their doctrine is to be found in the traditions, oral and written, which are contained in the Agamas, which (with Purana, Smriti and Veda) constitute one of the four great classes of Scripture of the Hindus. The Tantras are Scriptures of the Agama. The notion that they are some queer bye- product of Hinduism and not an integral part of it, is erroneous. The three chief divisions of the Agama are locally named Bengal (Gauda), Kashmira and Kerala. That Beng al is a home of Tantra -shastra is well known. It is, however, little known that Kashmir was in the past a land where Tantrik doctrine and practice were widely followed. The communities of so -called 'Tantrik' worshippers are five- fold according as the cult is of the Sun, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva or Shakti. To the Knower, however, the five named are not distinct Divinities, but different aspects of the one Power or Shakti. An instructed Shakti -worshipper is one of the least 21 sectarian of men. He can worship in all temples, as the saying is. Thus the Sammohana Tantra says that \"he is a fool who sees any difference between Rama (an Avatara of Vishnu) and Shiva'. \"What matters the name,\" says the Commentator of the Satcakranirupana, after running through the gamut of them. The Shakta is so called because the chosen Deity of his worship (Ishta - devata) is Shakti. In his cult, both in doctrine and practice, emphasis is laid on that aspect of the One in which It is the Source of Change and, in the form of Time and Space and all objects therein, Change itself. The word Shakti is grammatically feminine. For this reason an American Orientalist critic of the doctrine has described it as a w orthless system, a mere feminization of orthodox (whatever that be) Vedanta -- a doctrine teaching the primacy of the Female and thus fit only for \"suffragette monists\". It is absurd criticism of this kind which makes the Hindu sometimes wonder whether the Western psyche has even the capacity to understand his beliefs. It is said of the Mother (in the Hymn to Her in the Mahakala- Samhita): \"Thou art neither girl, nor maid, nor old. Indeed Thou art neither female nor male, nor neuter. Thou art inconceivable, immeasurable Power, the Being of all which exists, void of all duality, the Supreme Brahman, attainable in Illumination alone.\" Those who cannot understand lofty ideas when presented in ritual and symbolic garb will serve their reputation best by not speaking of them. The Shaiva is so called because his chosen Divinity is Shiva, the name for the changeless aspect of the One whose power of action and activity is Shakti. But as the two are necessarily associated, all communities acknowledge Shakti. It is, for the above reason, a mistake to suppose that a 'Tantrik,' or follower of the Agama, is necessarily a Shakta, and that the 'Tantra' is a Shakta Scripture only. Not at all. The Shakta is only one branch of the Agamik school. And so we find the Scriptures of Saivaism, whether of North or South, called Tantras, as also those of that ancient form of Vaishnavism which is called the Pancaratra. The doctrine of these communities, which share certain common ideas, varies from the monism of the Shaktas and Northern Shaivas to the more or less dualistic systems of others. The ritual is to a large extent common in all communities, though there are necessarily 22 variations, due both to the nature of the divine aspect worshipped and to the particular form of theology taught. Shakta doctrine and practice are contained primarily in the Shakta Tantras and the oral traditions, some of which are secret. As the Tantras are mainly Scriptures of Worship such doctrine is contained by implication in the ritual. For reasons above state d recourse may be had to other Scriptures in so far as they share with those of the Shakta certain common doctrines and practices. The Tantras proper are the Word of Shiva and Shakti. But there are also valuable Tantrik works in the nature of compendia and commentaries which are not of divine authorship. The concept 'Shakti' is not however peculiar to the Shaktas. Every Hindu believes in Shakti as God's Power, though he may differ as to the nature of the universe created by it. Shakta doctrine is a special presentment of so - called monism (Advaita: lit. 'not -two') and Shakta ritual, even in those condemned forms which have given rise to the abuses by which this Scripture is most generally known, is a practical application of it. Whatever may have been the case at the origin of these Agamic cults, all, now and for ages past, recognize and claim to base themselves on the Vedas. With these are coupled the Word of Shiva -Shakti as revealed in the Tantras. Shakta - doctrine is (like the Vedanta in general) what in Western parlance would be called a theology based on revelation that is, so- called 'spiritual' or supersensual experience, in its primary or secondary sense. For Veda is that. This leads to a consideration of the measure of man's knowing and of the basis of Vedantik knowledge. It is a fundamental error to regard the Vedanta as simply a speculative metaphysic in the modern Western sense. It is not so; if it were, it would have no greater right to acceptance than any other of the many systems which jostle one another for our custom in the Philosophical Fair. It claims that its supersensual teachings can be established with certainty by the practice of its methods. Theorizing alone is insufficient. The Shakta, above all, is a practical and active man, worshipping the Divine Activity; his watchword is Kriya or Action. Taught that he is Power, he desires fully to realize himself in fact as such. A Tantrik poem (Anandastotra) speaks with amused disdain of the learned chatterers 23 who pass their time in futile debate aro und the shores of the 'Lake of Doubt'. The basis of knowing, whether in super- sense or sense-knowledge, is actual experience. Experience is of two kinds: the whole or full experience; and incomplete experience -- that is, of parts, not of, but in, the whol e. In the first experience, Consciousness is said to be 'upward -looking' (Unmukhi) -- that is, 'not looking to another'. In the second experience it is 'outward-looking' (Bahirmukhi) The first is not an experience of the whole, but the Experience -whole. The second is an experience not of parts of the whole, for the latter is partless, but of parts in the whole, and issuing from its infinite Power to know itself in and as the finite centers, as the many. The works of an Indian philosopher, my friend Professor Pramatha Natha Mukhyopadhyaya, aptly call the first the Fact, and the second the Fact - section. The Isha Upanishad calls the Supreme Experience -- Purna, the Full or Whole. It is not, be it noted, a residue of the abstracting intellect, which is itself only a limited stress in Consciousness, but a Plenum, in which the Existent All is as one Whole. Theologically this full experience is Shiva, with Shakti at rest or as Potency. The second experience is that of the finite centers, the numerous Purushas or Jivas, which are also Shiva -Shakti as Potency actualized. Both experiences are real. In fact there is nothing unreal anywhere. All is the Mother and She is reality itself. \"Sa'ham\" (\"She I am\"), the Shakta says, and all that he senses is She in the form in which he perceives Her. It is She who in, and as, he drinks the consecrated wine, and She is the wine. All is manifested Power, which has the reality of Being from which it is put forth. But the reality of the manifestation is of something which appears and disappears, while that of Causal Power to appear is enduring. But this disappearance is only the ceasing to be for a limited consciousness. The seed of Power, which appears as a thing for such consciousness, remains as the potency in infinite Being itself. The infinite Experience is real as the Full (Purna); that is, its reality is fullness. The finite experience is real, as such. There is, perhaps, no subject in Vedanta, which is more misunderstood than that of the so- called 'Unreality' of the World. Every School admits the reality of all finite experience (even of 'illusive' 24 experience strictly so -called) while such experience lasts. But Shamkaracarya, defines the truly Real as that which is changeless. In this sense, the World as a changing thing has relative reality only. Shamkara so defines Reality because he sets forth his doctrine from the standpoint of transcendent Being. The Shakta Shastra, on the other hand, is a practical Scripture of Worship, delivered from the world -standpoint, according to which the world is necessarily real. According to this view a thing may be real and yet be the subject of change. But its reality as a thing ceases with the passing of the finite experiencer to whom it is real. The supreme Shiva - Shakti is, on the other hand, a real, full Experience which ever endures. A worshipper must, as such, believe in the reality of himself, of the world as his field of action and instrument, in its causation by God, and in God Himself as the object of worship. Moreover to him the world is real because Shiva - Shakti, which is its material cause, is real. That cause, without ceasing to be what it is, becomes the effect. Further the World is the Lord's Experience. He as Lord (Pati) is the whole Experience, and as creature (Pashu) he is the expe riencer of parts in it. The Experience of the Lord is never unreal. The reality, however, which changelessly endures may (if we so choose) be said to be Reality in its fullest sense. Real however as all experience is, the knowing differs according as the experience is infinite or finite, and in the latter case according to various grades of knowing. Full experience, as its name implies, is full in every way. Assume that there is at any 'time' no universe at all, that there is then a complete dissolution of all universes, and not of any particular universe -- even then the Power which produced past, and will produce future universes, is one with the Supreme Consciousness whose Shakti it is. When again this Power actualizes as a universe, the Lord- Consciousnes s from and in Whom it issues is the All -knower. As Sarvaja He knows all generals, and as Sarvavit, all particulars. But all is known by Him as the Supreme Self, and not, as in the case of the finite center, as objects other than the limited self. Finite e xperience is by its definition a limited thing. As the experience is of a sectional character, it is obvious that the knowing can only be of parts, and not of the whole, as the part cannot know the whole of which it is a part. But the finite is not always so. It may expand into the infinite by processes 25 which bridge the one to the other. The essential of Partial Experience is knowing in Time and Space; the Supreme Experience, being changeless, is beyond both Time and Space as aspects of change. The latter i s the alteration of parts relative to one another in the changeless Whole. Full experience is not sense-knowledge. The latter is worldly knowledge (Laukika Jana), by a limited knowing center, of material objects, whether gross or subtle. Full Experience i s the Supreme Knowing Self which is not an object at all. This is unworldly knowledge (Alaukika Jana) or Veda. Sense - knowledge varies according to the capacity and attainments of the experiencer. But the normal experience may be enhanced in two ways: eith er physically by scientific instruments such as the telescope and microscope which enhance the natural capacity to see; or psychically by the attainment of what are called psychic powers. Everything is Shakti; but psychic power denotes that enhancement of normal capacity which gives knowledge of matter in its subtle form, while the normal man can perceive it only in the gross form as a compound of sensible matter (the Bhutas). Psychic power is thus an extension of natural faculty. There is nothing 'supernat ural' about it. All is natural, all is real. It is simply a power above the normal. Thus the clairvoyant can see what the normal sense -experiencer cannot. He does so by the mind. The gross sense- organs are not, according to Vedanta, the senses (Indriya.) The sense is the mind, which normally works through the appropriate physical organs, but which, as the real factor in sensation, may do without them, as is seen both in hypnotic and yogic states. The area of knowledge is thus very widely increased. Knowledg e may be gained of subtle chemistry, subtle physiology (as of the cakras or subtle bodily centers), of various powers, of the 'world of Spirits,' and so forth. But though we are here dealing with subtle things, they are still things and thus part of the sense -world of objects -- that is, of the world of Maya. Maya, as later explained, is, not 'illusion,' but Experience in time and space of Self and Not-Self. This is by no means necessarily illusion. The Whole therefore cannot be known by sense -knowledge. In short, sense or worldly knowledge cannot establish, that is, prove, what is super- sensual, such as the Whole, its nature and the 'other side' of its processes taken as a collectivity. Reasoning, whether working in metaphysic or science, is based on the da ta of sense and governed by those forms of understanding which constitute 26 the nature of finite mind. It may establish a conclusion of probability, but not of certainty. Grounds of probability may be made out for Idealism, Realism, Pluralism and Monism, or any other philosophical system. In fact, from what we see, the balance of probability perhaps favors Realism and Pluralism. Reason may thus establish that an effect must have a cause, but not that the cause is one, For all that we can say, there may be as many causes as effects. Therefore it is said in Vedanta that \"nothing (in these matters) is established by argument.\" All Western systems which do not possess actual spiritual experience as their basis are systems which can claim no certainty as regards any matter not verifiable by sense- knowledge and reasoning thereon. Shakta, and indeed all Vedantik teaching, holds that the only source and authority (Pramana) as regards supersensual matters, such as the nature of Being in itself, and the like, is Veda. Veda, which comes from the root vid, to know, is knowledge par excellence, that is super- sensual experience, which according to the Monist (to use the nearest English term) is the Experience - Whole. It may be primary or secondary. As the first it is actual ex perience (Sakshatkara) which in English is called 'spiritual' experience. The Shakta, as a 'monist,' says that Veda is full experience as the One. This is not an object of knowledge. This knowing is Being. \"To know Brahman is to be Brahman.\" He is a \"monist,' not because of rational argument only (though he can adduce reasoning in his support), but because he, or those whom he follows, have had in fact such 'monistic' experience, and therefore (in the light of such experience) interpret the Vedantik texts. But 'spiritual' experience (to use that English term) may be incomplete both as to duration and nature. Thus from the imperfect ecstasy (Savikalpa- Samadhi), even when of a 'monistic' character, there is a return to world- experience. Again it may not be completely 'monistic' in form, or may be even of a distinctly dualistic character. This only means that the realization has stopped short of the final goal. This being the case, that goal is still perceived through the forms of duality which linger as part of the constitution of the experiencer. Thus there are Vedantik and other schools which are not 'monistic'. The spiritual experiences of all are real experiences, whatever be their character, and they are true according to the 27 truth of the stage in which the experience is had. Do they contradict one another? The experience which a man has of a mountain at fifty miles distance, is not false because it is at variance with that of the man who has climbed it. What he sees is the thing from where he sees it. The f irst question then is: Is there a 'monistic' experience in fact? Not whether 'monism' is rational or not, and shown to be probable to the intellect. But how can we know this ~ With certainty only by having the experience oneself. The validity of the experience for the experiencer cannot be assailed otherwise than by alleging fraud or self -deception. But how can this be proved? To the experiencer his experience is real, and nothing else is of any account. But the spiritual experience of one is no proof to another who refuses to accept it. A man may, however, accept what another says, having faith in the latter's alleged experience. Here we have the secondary meaning of Veda, that is secondary knowledge of super -sensual truth, not based on actual experience of the believer, but on the experience of some other which the former accepts. In this sense Veda is recorded for Brahmanism in the Scriptures called Vedas, which contain the standard experience of those whom Brahmanism recognizes as its Rishis or Seers. But the interpretation of the Vaidik record is in question, just as that of the Bible is. Why accept one interpretation rather than another'? This is a lengthy matter. Suffice to say here that each chooses the spiritual food which his spiritual body needs, and which it is capable of eating and assimilating. This is the doctrine of Adhikara. Here, as elsewhere, what is one man's meat is another man's poison. Nature works in all who are not altogether beyond her workings. What is called the 'will to believe' inv olves the affirmation that the form of a man's faith is the expression of his nature; the faith is the man. It is not man's reason only which leads to the adoption of a particular religious belief. It is the whole man as evolved at that particular time whi ch does so. His affirmation of faith is an affirmation of his self in terms of it. The Shakta is therefore a 'monist,' either because he has had himself spiritual experiences of this character, or because he accepts the teaching of those who claim to have had such experience. This is Apta knowledge, that is received from a source of authority, just as knowledge of the scientific or other expert is received. It is true that the latter may be verified. But so in its own way can the former be. Revelation to th e Hindu is 28 not something stated 'from above,' incapable of verification 'below'. He who accepts revelation as teaching the unity of the many in the One, may himself verify it in his own experience. How? If the disciple is what is called not fit to receive truth in this 'monistic' form, he will probably declare it to be untrue and, adhering to what he thinks is true, will not further trouble himself in the matter. If he is disposed to accept the teachings of 'monistic' religion -philosophy, it is because his own spiritual and psychical nature is at a stage which leads directly (though in a longer or shorter time as may be the case) to actual 'monistic' experience. A particular form of 'spiritual' knowledge like a particular psychic power can be developed only in him who has the capacity for it. To such an one asking, with desire for the fruit, how he may gather it, the Guru says: Follow the path of those who have achieved (Siddha) and you will gain what they gained. This is the 'Path of the Great' who are those whom we esteem to be such. We esteem them because they have achieved that which we believe to be both worthy and possible. If a would- be disciple refuses to follow the method (Sadhana) he cannot complain that he has not had its result. Though reason by itself cannot establish more than a probability, yet when the super- sensual truth has been learnt by Veda, it may be shown to be conformable to reason. And this must be so, for all realities are of one piece. Reason is a limited manifestation of the same Sha kti, who is fully known in ecstasy (Samadhi) which transcends all reasoning. What, therefore, is irrational can never be spiritually true. With the aid of the light of Revelation the path is made clear, and all that is seen tells of the Unseen. Facts of daily life give auxiliary proof. So many miss the truth which lies under their eyes, because to find it they look away or upwards to some fancied 'Heaven'. The sophisticated mind fears the obvious. \"It is here; it is here,\" the Shakta and others say. For he and every other being is a microcosm, and so the Vishvasara Tantra says: \"What is here, is elsewhere. What is not here, is nowhere.\" The unseen is the seen, which is not some alien disguise behind which it lurks. Experience of the seen is the experience of the unseen in time and space. The life of the individual is an expression of the same laws which govern the universe. Thus the Hindu knows, from his own daily rest, that the Power which projects the universe rests. His dreamless slumber when only Bliss is known tells him, in some fashion, of the causal state of universal rest. From the mode of his 29 awakening and other psychological processes he divines the nature of creative thinking. To the Shakta the thrill of union with his Shakti is a faint reflection of the infinite Shiva -Shakti Bliss in and with which all universes are born. All matter is a relatively stable form of Energy. It lasts awhile and disappears into Energy. The universe is maintained awhile. This is Shakti as Vaishnavi, the Maintainer. At every moment creation, as rejuvenascent molecular activity, is going on as the Shakti Brahmani. At every moment there is molecular death and loosening of the forms, the work of Rudrani Shakti. Creation did not take place only at some past time, nor is dissolu tion only in the future. At every moment of time there is both. As it is now and before us here, so it was 'in the beginning'. In short the world is real. It is a true experience. Observation and reason are here the guide. Even Veda is no authority in matt ers falling within sense- knowledge. If Veda were to contradict such knowledge, it would, as Shamkara says, be in this respect no Veda at all. The Hindu is not troubled by 'biblical science'. Here and now the existence of the many is established for the sen se-experiencer. But there is another and Full Experience which also may be had here and now and is in any case also a fact, -- that is, when the Self 'stands out' (ekstasis ) from mind and body and sense -experience. This Full Experience is attained in ecstasy (Samadhi). Both experiences may be had by the same experiencer. It is thus the same One who became many. \"He said: May I be many,\" as Veda tells. The 'will to be many' is Power or Shakti which operates as Maya. In the preceding portion of this paper it was pointed out that the Power whereby the One gives effect to Its Will to be Many is Maya Shakti. What are called the 36 Tattvas (accepted by both Shaktas and Shaivas) are the stages of evolution of the One into the Many as mind and matter. Again with what warrant is this affirmed? The secondary proof is the Word of Shiva and Shakti. Revealers of the Tantra- shastra, as such Word is expounded in the teachings of the Masters (Acaryas) in the Agama. Corroboration of their teaching may be had by observation of psychological stages in normal life and reasoning thereon. These psychological states again are the individual representation of the collective cosmic processes. 30 \"As here, so elsewhere.\" Primary evidence is actual experience of the surrounding and supreme states. Man does not leap at one bound from ordinary finite sense -experience to the Full Experience. By stages he advances thereto, and by stages he retraces his steps to the world, unless the fullness of experience has been such as to burn up in the fire of Self - knowledge the seed of desire which is the germ of the world. Man's consciousness has no fixed boundary. On the contrary, it is at root the Infinite Consciousness, which appears in the form of a contraction (Shamkoca), due to limitation as Shakti in the form of mind and matter. This contraction may be greater or less. As it is gradually loosened, consciousness expands by degrees until, all bonds being gone, it becomes one with the Full Consciousness or Purna. Thus there are, according to common teaching, seven ascending light planes of experience, called Lokas, that is 'what are seen' ( lokyante ) or experienced; and seven dark descending planes, or Talas, that is 'places'. It will be observed that one name is given from the subjective and the other from the objective standpoint. The center of these planes is the 'Earth -plane' (Bhurloka). This is not the same as experience on earth, for every experience, including the highest and lowest, can be had here. The planes are not like geological strata, though necessity may picture them thus. The Earth -plane is the normal experience. The ascending planes are states of super-normal, and the descending planes of sub-normal experience. The highest of the planes is the Truth -plane (Satya - loka). Beyond this is the Supreme Experience, which is above all planes, which is Light itself, and the love of Shiva and Shakti, the 'Heart of the Supreme Lord' ( Hridayam parameshituh). The lowest Tala on the dark side is described in the Puranas with wonderful symbolic imagery as a Place of Darkness where monster serpents, crowned with dim light, live in perpetual anger. Below this is the Shakti of the Lord called Tamomayi Shakti -- that is, the Veiling Power of Being in all its infinite intensity. What then is the Reality -- Whole or Purna? It is certainly not a bare abstraction of intellect, for the intellect is only a fractional Power or Shakti in it. Such an abstraction has no worth for man. In the Supreme Reality, which is the Whole, there is everything which is of worth to men , and which proceeds from it. In fact, as a Kashmir Scripture says: \"The 'without' appears without only because it is within.\" Unworthy also proceeds from it, not in the 31 sense that it is there as unworthy, but because the experience of duality, to which ev il is attached, arises in the Blissful Whole. The Full is not merely the collectively (Samashti) of all which exists, for it is both immanent in and transcends the universe. It is a commonplace that it is unknowable except to Itself. Shiva in the Yoginihri daya Tantra, says: \"Who knows the heart of a woman? Only Shiva knows the Heart of Yogini (the Supreme Shakti).\" For this reason the Buddhist Tantrik schools call it Shunya or the Void. This is not 'nothing' but nothing known to mind and senses. Both Shaktas and some Vaishnavas use the term Shunya, and no one suspects them of being 'Nihilists'. Relatively, however, the One is said to be Being (Sat), Bliss (Ananda) and Cit -- an untranslatable term which has been most accurately defined as the Changeless Principle of all changing experience, a Principle of which sensation, perception, conception, self- consciousness, feeling, memory, will, and all other psychic states are limited modes. It is not therefore Consciousness or Feeling as we understand these words, for these are directed and limited. It is the infinite root of which they are the finite flower. But Consciousness and possibly (according to the more ancient views) Feeling approach the most nearly to a definition, provided that we do not understand thereby Consciousness and Feeling in man's sense. We may thus (to distinguish it) call Cit, Pure Consciousness or Pure Feeling as Bliss (Ananda) knowing and enjoying its own full Reality. This, as such Pure Consciousness or Feeling, endures even when finite cen ters of Consciousness or Feeling arise in It. If (as this system assumes) there is a real causal nexus between the two, then Being, as Shiva, is also a Power, or Shakti, which is the source of all Becoming. The fully Real, therefore, has two aspects: one c alled Shiva, the static aspect of Consciousness, and the other called Shakti, the kinetic aspect of the same. For this reason Kali Shakti, dark as a thundercloud, is represented standing and moving on the white inert body of Shiva. He is white as Illumination (Prakasha). He is inert, for Pure Consciousness is without action and at rest. It is She, His Power, who moves. Dark is She here because, as Kali, She dissolves all in darkness, that is vacuity of existence, which is the Light of Being Itself. Again She is Creatrix. Five corpse- like Shivas form the support of Her throne, set in the wish -granting groves of the Isle of Gems (Manidvipa), the golden sands of 32 which are laved by the still waters of the Ocean of Nectar (Amrita), which is Immortality. In both cases we have a pictorial presentment in theological form of the scientific doctrine that to every form of activity there is a static background. But until there is in fact Change, Shakti is merely the Potency of Becoming in Being and, as such, is wholly one with it. The Power (Shakti) and the possessor of Power (Shaktiman) are one. As therefore He is Being -Bliss - Consciousness, so is She. She is also the Full (Purna), which is no mere abstraction from its evolved manifestations. On the contrary, of Her the Mahakali Stotra says: \"Though without feet, Thou movest more quickly than air. Though without ears, Thou dost hear. Though without nostrils, Thou dost smell. Though without eyes, Thou dost see. Though without tongue, Thou dost taste all tastes.\" Those who talk of the 'bloodless abstractions' of Vedanta, have not understood it. The ground of Man's Being is the Supreme 'I' (Purnosham) which, though in Itself beyond finite personality, is yet ever finitely personalizing as the beings of the universe. \"Sa'ham,\" -- \"She I am.\" This is the Supreme Shakti, the ultimate object of the Shaktas' adoration, though worshipped in several forms, some gentle, some formidable. But Potency is actualized as the universe, and this also is Shakti, for the effect is the cause modified. Monistic Vedanta teaches that God is the material cause of the world. The statement that the Supreme Shakti also exists as the Forms evolved from It, may seem to conflict with the doctrine that Power is ultimately one with Shiva who is changeless Being. Shamkara answers that the existence of a causal nexus is Maya, and that there is (from the transcendental standpoint) only a seeming cause and seeming modification or effect. The Shakta, who from his world-standpoint posits the reality of God as the Ca use of the universe, replies that, while it is true that the effect (as effect) is the cause modified, the cause (as cause) remains what it was and is and will be. Creative evolution of the universe thus differs from the evolution in it. In the latter case the material cause when producing an effect ceases to be what it was. Thus milk turned into curd ceases to be milk. But the simile given of the other evolutionary process is that of 'Light from Light'. There is a similarity between the 'conventional' 33 stan dpoint of Shamkara and the explanation of the Shakta; the difference being that, while to the former the effect is (from the transcendental standpoint) 'unreal,' it is from the Shakta's immanent standpoint 'real'. It will have been observed that cosmic evo lution is in the nature of a polarization in Being into static and kinetic aspects. This is symbolized in the Shakta Tantras by their comparison of Shiva -Shakti to a grain of gram (Canaka). This has two seeds which are so close together as to seem one, and which are surrounded by a single sheath. The seeds are Shiva and Shakti and the sheath is Maya. When the sheath is unpeeled, that is when Maya Shakti operates, the two seeds come apart. The sheath unrolls when the seeds are ready to germinate, that is when in the dreamless slumber (Sushupti) of the World- Consciousness the remembrance of past enjoyment in Form gives rise to that divine creative 'thinking' of 'imagining' (Srishtikalpana) which is 'creation'. As the universe in dissolution sinks into a Memory which is lost, so it is born again from the germ of recalled Memory or Shakti. Why? Such a question may be answered when we are dealing with facts in the whole; but the latter itself is uncaused, and what is caused is not the whole. Manifestation is of the nature of Being -Power, just as it is Its nature to return to Itself after the actualization of Power. To the devotee who speaks in theological language, \"It is His Will\". As the Yoginihridaya says: \"He painted the World -Picture on Himself with the Brush which is His Will and was pleased therewith.\" Again the World is called a Prapaca, that is an extension of the five forms of sensible matter (Bhuta.) Where does it go at dissolution? It collapses into a Point (Bindu). We may regard it as a metaphysical point which is the complete 'subjectification' of the divine or full 'I' (Purnahanta), or objectively as a mathematical point without magnitude. Round that Point is coiled a mathematical Line which, being in touch with every part of the surface of the Point, makes one Point with it. What then is meant by these symbols of the Point and Line? It is said that the Supreme Shiva sees Himself in and as His own Power or Shakti. He is the 'White Point' or 'Moon' (Candra), which is Illumination and in the completed process, the 'I' (Aham), side of experience, She is the 'Red Point'. Both colors are seen in the microcosmic generation of the child. Red too is the color of Desire. She is 34 'Fire' which is the object of experience or 'This' (Idam), the objective side of expe rience. The 'This' here is nothing but a mass of Shiva's own illuminating rays. These are reflected in Himself as Shakti, who, in the Kamakalavilasa, is called the 'Pure Mirror' of Shiva. The Self sees the Self, the rays being thrown back on their source. The 'This' is the germ of what we call 'Otherness,' but here the 'Other' is and is known as the Self. The relation and fusion of these two Points, White and Red, is called the Mixed Point or 'Sun'. These are the three Supreme Lights. A = Shiva, Ha = Shakti, which united spell 'Aham' or 'I'. This 'Sun' is thus the state of full 'I- ness' (Purnaham -bhava). This is the Point into which the World at dissolution lapses, and from which in due time it comes forth again. In the latter case it is the Lord -Consciousne ss as the Supreme 'I' and Power about to create. For this reason Bindu is called a condensed or massive form of Shakti. It is the tense state of Power immediately prior to its first actualization. That form of Shakti, again by which the actualization takes place is Maya; and this is the Line round the Point. As coiled round the Point, it is the Supreme Serpent - Power (Mahakundalini) encircling the Shiva -Linga. From out of this Power comes the whisper to enjoy, in worlds of form, as the memory of past univers es arises therein. Shakti then 'sees'. Shakti opens Her eyes as She reawakens from the Cosmic Sleep (Nimesha), which is dissolution. The Line is at first coiled and one with the Point, for Power is then at rest. Creation is movement, an uncoiling of Maya -Shakti. Hence is the world called Jagat, which means 'what moves'. The nature of this Power is circular or spiraline; hence the roundness and 'curvature' of things of which we now hear. Nothing moves in a really straight line. Hence again the universe is al so called a spheroid (Brahmanda). The gross worlds are circular universal movements in space, in which, is the Ether (Akasha), Consciousness, as the Full (Purna), is never dichotomized, but the finite centers which arise in it, are so. The Point, or Bindu, then divides into three, in various ways, the chief of which is Knower, Knowing and Known, which constitute the duality of the world- experience by Mind of Matter. Unsurpassed for its profound analysis is the account of the thirty -six Tattvas or stages of Cosmic Evolution (accepted by both Shaivas and Shaktas) given by the Northern Shaiva School of the Agama, which flourished after the date which Western Orientalists assign to Shamkaracarya, and which was 35 therefore in a position to criticize him. According to this account (which I greatly condense) Subject and Object in Pure Being are in indistinguishable union as the Supreme Shiva -Shakti. We have then to see how this unity is broken up into Subject and Object. This does not take place all at once. There is an intermediate stage of transition, in which there is a Subject and Object, but both are part of the Self, which knows its Object to be Itself. In man's experience they are wholly separate, the Object then being perceived as outside the Self, the plurality of Selves being mutually exclusive centers. The process and the result are the work of Shakti, whose special function is to negate, that is to negate Her own fullness, so that it becomes the finite center contracted as a limited Subject perceiving a limited Object, both being aspects of the one Divine Self. The first stage after the Supreme is that in which Shakti withdraws Herself and leaves, as it were, standing by itself the 'I' side (Aham) of what, when completed, is the 'I- This' (Aham -Idam) experience. But simultaneously (for the 'I' must have its content) She presents Herself as a 'This' (Idam), at first faintly and then clearly; the emphasis being at first laid on the 'I' and then on the 'This'. This last is the stage of Ishvara Tattva or Bindu, as the Mantra Shastra, dealing with the causal state of 'Sound' (Shabda), calls it. In the second and third stage, as also in the fourth which follows, though there is an 'I' and a 'This' and therefore not the indistinguishable 'I - This' of the Supreme Experience, yet both the 'I' and the 'This' are experienced as aspects of and in the Self. Then as a preliminary to the division which follows, the emphasis is laid equally on the 'I' and the 'This'. At this point Maya -Shakti intervenes and completely separates the two. For that Power is the Sense of Difference (Bheda -Buddhi). We have now the finite centers mutually exclusive one of the other, each seeing, to the extent of its power, finite centers as objects outside of and different from the self. Consciousness thus becomes contracted. In lieu of being All- knowing, it is a 'Little Knower,' and in lieu of being Almighty Power, it is a 'Little Doer'. Maya is not rightly rendered 'Illusion'. In the first place it is conceived as a real Power of Being and as such is one with the Full Reality. The Full, free of all illusion, experiences the engendering of the finite centers and the centers themselves in and as Its own changeless partless Self. It is these individual 36 centers produced from out of Power as Maya- Shakti wh ich are 'Ignorance' or Avidya Shakti. They are so called because they are not a full experience but an experience of parts in the Whole. In another sense this 'Ignorance' is a knowing, namely, that which a finite center alone has. Even God cannot have man's mode of knowledge and enjoyment without becoming man. He by and as His Power does become man and yet remains Himself. Man is Power in limited form as Avidya. The Lord is unlimited Power as Maya. In whom then is the 'Illusion'? Not (all will admit) in the Lord. Nor is it in fact (whatever be the talk of it) in man whose nature it is to regard his limitations as real. For these limitations are he. His experience as man provides no standard whereby it may be adjudged 'Illusion'. The latter is non- conformity with normal experience, and here it is the normal experience which is said to be Illusion. If there were no Avidya Shakti, there would be no man. In short the knowing which is Full Experience is one thing and the knowing of the limited experience is anothe r. The latter is Avidya and the Power to produce it is Maya. Both are eternal aspects of Reality, though the forms which are Avidya Shakti come and go. If we seek to relate the one to the other, where and by whom is the comparison made? Not in and by the Full Experience beyond all relations, where no questions are asked or answers given, but on the standing ground of present finite experience where all subjectivity and objectivity are real and where therefore, ipso facto, Illusion is negative. The two aspects are never present at one and the same time for comparison. The universe is real as a limited thing to the limited experiencer who is himself a part of it. But the experience of the Supreme Person (Parahanta) is necessarily different, otherwise it would not be the Supreme Experience at all. A God who experiences just as man does is no God but man. There is, therefore, no experiencer to whom the World is Illusion. He who sees the world in the normal waking state, loses it in that form in ecstasy (Samadhi). It may, however, (with the Shakta) be said that the Supreme Experience is entire and unchanging and thus the fully Real; and that, though the limited experience is also real in its own way, it is yet an experience of change in its twin aspects of Time and Space. Maya, therefore, is the Power which engenders in Itself finite centers in Time and Space, and Avidya is such experience in fact of the finite experiencer in Time and Space. So much is 37 this so, that the Time- theorists (Kalavadins) give the name 'Sup reme Time' (Parakala) to the Creator, who is also called by the Shakta 'Great Time' (Mahakala). So in the Bhairavayamala it is said that Mahadeva (Shiva) distributes His Rays of Power in the form of the Year. That is, Timeless Experience appears in the finite centers as broken up into periods of time. This is the 'Lesser Time' which comes in with the Sun, Moon, Six Seasons and so forth, which are all Shaktis of the Lord, the existence and movements of which give rise, in the limited observer, to the notion of Time and Space. That observer is essentially the Self or 'Spirit' vehicled by Its own Shakti in the form of Mind and Matter. These two are Its Body, the first subtle, the second gross. Both have a common origin, namely the Supreme Power. Each is a real mode of It. One therefore does not produce the other. Both are produced by, and exist as modes of, the same Cause. There is a necessary parallelism between the Perceived and the Perceiver and, because Mind and Matter are at base one as modes of the same Po wer, one can act on the other. Mind is the subjective and Matter the objective aspect of the one polarized Consciousness. With the unimportant exception of the Lokayatas, the Hindus have never shared what Sir William Jones called \"the vulgar notions of mat ter,\" according to which it is regarded as some gross, lasting and independently existing outside thing. Modern Western Science now also dematerializes the ponderable matter of the universe into Energy. This and the forms in which it is displayed is the Power of the Self to appear as the object of a limited center of knowing. Mind again is the Self as 'Consciousness,' limited by Its Power into such a center. By such contraction there is in lieu of an 'All -knower' a 'Little Knower,' and in lieu of an 'All -doer' a 'Little Doer'. Those, however, to whom this way of looking at things is naturally difficult, may regard the Supreme Shakti from the objective aspect as holding within Itself the germ of all Matter which develops in It. Both Mind and Matter exist in every particle of the universe though not explicitly displayed in the same way in all. There is no corner of the universe which contains anything either potential or actual, which is not to be found 38 elsewhere. Some aspect of Matter or Mind, however, may be more or less explicit or implicit. So in the Mantra Scripture it is said that each letter of the alphabet contains all sound. The sound of a particular letter is explicit and the other sounds are implicit. The sound of a particular letter is a particular physical audible mode of the Shabdabrahman (Brahman as the cause of Shabda or 'Sound'), in Whom is all sound, actual and potential. Pure Consciousness is fully involved in the densest forms of gross or organic matter, which is not 'inert' but full of 'mov ement' (Spanda), for there is naught but the Supreme Consciousness which does not move. Immanent in Mind and Matter is Consciousness (Cit Shakti). Inorganic matter is thus Consciousness in full subjection to the Power of Ignorance. It is thus Consciousness identifying Itself with such inorganic matter. Matter in all its five forms of density is present in everything. Mind too is there, though, owing to its imprisonment in Matter, undeveloped. \"The Brahman sleeps in the stone.\" Life too which displays itself with the organization of matter is potentially contained in Being, of which such inorganic matter is, to some, a 'lifeless' form. From this deeply involved state Shakti enters into higher and higher organized forms. Prana or vitality is a Shakti -- the Ma ntra form of which is 'Hangsah'. With the Mantra 'Hang' the breath goes forth, with 'Sah' it is indrawn, a fact which anyone can verify for himself if he will attempt to inspire after putting the mouth in the way it is placed in order to pronounce the lett er 'H'. The Rhythm of Creative Power as of breathing (a microcosmic form of it) is two -fold -- an outgoing (Pravritti) or involution as universe, and an evolution or return (Nivritti) of Supreme Power to Itself. Shakti as the Great Heart of the universe pu lses forth and back in cosmic systole and diastole. So much for the nature of the Power as an evolutionary process. It is displayed in the Forms evolved as an increasing exhibition of Consciousness from apparently, though not truly, unconscious matter, through the slight consciousness of the plant and the greater consciousness of the animal, to the more highly developed consciousness of man, who in the completeness of his own individual evolution becomes freed of Mind and Matter which constitute the Form, a nd thus is one with the Supreme Consciousness Itself. There are no gaps in the process. In existence there are no rigid partitions. The vital phenomena, to which we give the name of 'Life', appear, it is true, with organized Matter. But Life is not then 39 something entirely new which had no sort of being before. For such Life is only a limited mode of Being, which itself is no dead thing but the Infinite Life of all lives. To the Hindu the difference between plant and animal, and between the latter and man, h as always been one rather of degree than of kind. There is one Consciousness and one Mind and Matter throughout, though the Matter is organized and the Mind is exhibited in various ways. The one Shakti is the Self as the 'String' (Sutratma) on which all the Beads of Form are strung, and these Beads again are limited modes of Herself as the 'String'. Evolution is thus the loosening of the bonds in which Consciousness (itself unchanging) is held, such loosening being increased and Consciousness more fully exhibited as the process is carried forward. At length is gained that human state which the Scripture calls so 'hard to get'. For it has been won by much striving and through suffering. Therefore the Scripture warns man not to neglect the opportunities of a s tage which is the necessary preliminary to the attainment of the Full Experience. Man by his striving must seek to become fully humane, and then to pass yet further into the Divine Fullness which is beyond all Forms with their good and evil. This is the wo rk of Sadhana (a word which comes from the root sadh 'to exert'), which is discipline, ritual, worship and Yoga. It is that by which any result (Siddhi) is attained. The Tantrik Shastra is a Sadhana Scripture. As Powers are many, so may be Sadhana, which is of various kinds and degrees. Man may seek to realize the Mother- Power in Her limited forms as health, strength, long life, wealth, magic powers and so forth. The so- called 'New Thought' and kindred literature which bids men to think Power and thus to become power, is very ancient, going back at least to the Upanishad which says: \"What a man thinks, that he becomes.\" Those who have need for the Infinite Mother as She is, not in any Form but in Herself, seek directly the Adorable One in whom is the essence of all which is of finite worth. The gist of a high form of Kulasadhana is given in the following verse from the Hymn of Mahakalarudra Himself to Mahakali: \"I torture not my body with penances.\" (Is not his body Hers? If man be God in human guise why torm ent him?) \"I lame not my feet in pilgrimage to Holy Places.\" (The body is the Devalaya or Temple of Divinity. Therein are all the spiritual Tirthas or Holy Places. Why then trouble to go elsewhere?) \"I spend 40 not my time in reading the Vedas.\" (The Vedas, which he has already studied, are the record of the standard spiritual experience of others. He seeks now to have that experience himself directly. What is the use of merely reading about it? The Kularnava Tantra enjoins the mastering of the essence of all Scriptures which should then be put aside, just as he who has threshed out the grain throws away the husks and straw.) \"But I strive to attain Thy two sacred Feet.\" 41 CHAPTER THREE . WHAT ARE THE TANTRAS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE ? A VERY common expression in English writings is \"The Tantra\"; but its use is often due to a misconception and leads to others. For what does Tantra mean? The word denotes injunction (Vidhi), regulation (Niyama), Shastra generally or treatise. Thus Shamkara calls the Samkhya a Tantra. A secular writing may be called Tantra. For the following note I am indebted to Professor Surendranath Das Gupta. \"The word 'Tantra' has been derived in the Kashika -Vritti (7-2- 9) from the root 'Tan' 'to spread' by the Aunadika rule Sarvadhatubhyah tran, with the addition of the suffix 'tran'. Vacaspati, Anandagiri, and Govindananda, however, derive the word from the root 'Tatri' of 'Tantri' in the sense of Vyutpadana, origination or knowledge. In Ganapatha, however, 'Tantri' has the same meaning as 'Tan' 'to spread' and it is probable that the former root is a modification of the latter. The meaning Vyutpadana is also probably derived by narrowing the general sense of Vistara which is the meaning of the root 'Tan'.\" According to the derivation of 'Tantra' from Tan, to spread, Tantra is that (Scripture) by which knowledge (Jana) is spread (Tanyate, vistaryate janam anena, iti Tantram). The Suffix Tra is from the root 'to save'. That knowledge is spread which saves. What is that but religious knowledge? Therefore, as here and generally used, Tantra means a particular kind of religious scripture. The Kamika Agama of the Shaiva Siddhanta (Tantrantara Patala) says: Tanoti vipulan arthan tattvamantra-samanvitan Trananca kurute yasmat tantram ityabhidhyate. (It is called Tantra because it promulgates great knowledge concerning Tattva and Mantra and because it saves.) It is a common misconception that Tantra is the name only of the Scripture of the Shaktas or worship pers of Shakti. This is not so. There are Tantras of 42 other sects of the Agama, Tantras of Shaivas, Vaishnavas and so forth. We cannot speak of \"The Treatise\" nor of \"The Tantra\" any more than we can or do speak of the Purana, the Samhita. We can speak of \"the Tantras\" as we do of \"the Puranas\". These Tantras are Shastras of what is called the Agama. In a review of one of my works it was suggested that the Agama is a class of Scriptures dealing with the worship of Saguna Ishvara which was revealed at the close of the age of the Upanishads, and introduced partly because of the falling into desuetude of the Vaidika Acara, and partly because of the increasing numbers of persons entering the Hindu fold who were not competent (Adhikari) for that Acara. I will not however deal with this historical question beyond noting the fact that the Agama is open to all persons of all castes and both sexes, and is not subject to the restrictions of the Vaidika Acara. This last term is a common one and comes from the verbal root char, which means to move or to act, the prefix 3 being probably used in the sense of restriction. Acara thus means practice, way, rule of life governing a Sadhaka, or one who does Sadhana or practice for some desired end (Siddhi). The Agamas are divided into three main groups according as the Ishtadevata worshipped is Shakti, Shiva or Vishnu. The first is the Shakta Agama, the second the Shaivagama, and the third the Vaishnava Agama or Pancaratra. This last is the Scripture to which the Shrimad Bhagavata (X. 90. 34) refers as Sattvata Tantra in the lines, Tenoktang sattvatang tantram yaj jnattva muktibhag bhavet Yatra strishudradasanang sangskaro vaisnavah smritah. Some Agamas are called Vaidik (Vaidika Agama) and some non- Vaidik (Avaidika). The Kurma Purana (XVI.1) mentions as belonging to the latter, Kapala, Lakula, Vama, Bhairava, Purva, Pashcima, Pacaratra, Pashupata and many others. Pashupata again is said to be both Vaidika and Avaidika such as Lakula. Kurma Purana (Uttarabhaga, Ch. 38) says \"By Me w as first composed, for the attainment of Liberation, Shrauta (Vaidika) Pashupata which is excellent, subtle, and secret, the essence of Veda (Vedasara). The learned devoted to Veda should meditate on Shiva Pashupati. This is Pashupata Yoga to be practiced by seekers of Liberation. By Me also have 43 been spoken Pashupata, Soma, Lakula and Bhairava opposed to Veda (Vedavadaviruddhani). These should not be practiced. They are outside Veda.\" Sanatkumara Samhita says: Shrautashrautavibhedena dvividhastu shivagamah Shrutisaramapah shrautah sah punar dvividho matah Svatantra itarash ceti svatantro dashadha pura Tatha' shtadashadha pashcat siddhanta iti giyate Itarah shrutisaras tu shatakoti -pravistarah. (See also Vayu Samhita, Ch. I. 28 (Shaivagama is of two kinds, Shrauta and Ashrauta. Shrauta is Shrautisaramaya and of two kinds, Svatantra and Itara. Svatantra is first of ten kinds and then Siddhanta of eighteen kinds. (This is the Shaivasiddhanta Agama with 28 Mula Agamas and 207 Upagamas. It is Shuddhadvaita becaus e in it there is no Visheshana). Itara is Shrutisara with numerous varieties. Into this mass of sects I do not attempt here to enter, except in a general way. My subject is the doctrine and ritual of the Shaktas. There are said to be Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Shakta Upanishads favoring one or another doctrine. We must, however, in all cases distinguish between what a School says of itself and what others say of it. So far as I am aware all Agamas, whatever be their origin, claim now to be based on Shruti, though of course as different interpretations are put on Shruti, those who accept one interpretation are apt to speak of differing Schools as heretical. These main divisions again have subdivisions. Thus there are several Schools of Shaivas; and there are Shaktas with their nine Amnayas, four Sampradayas (Kerala, Kashmira, Gauda and Vilasa) each divided into two- fold division of inner and outer worship (Sammohana Tantra, Ch. V). There is for instance the Northern Shaiva School called Trika of Kashmir, in which country at one time Tantra Shastras were very prevalent. There is again the Southern Shaiva School called Shaivasiddhanta. The Shaktas who are to be found throughout India are largely prevalent in Bengal and Assam. The Shaktas are rather allied with 44 the Northern Advaita Shaiva than with the others, though in them also there is worship of Shakti. Shiva and Shakti are one and he who worships one necessarily worships the other. But whereas the Shaiva predominantly worships Shiva, the Shakta predominantly w orships the Shakti side of the Ardhanarishvara Murti, which is both Shiva and Shakti. Mahavishnu and Sadashiva are also one. As the Sammohana Tantra (Ch. VIII) says, \"Without Prakriti the Samsara (World) cannot be. Without Purusha true knowledge cannot be attained. Therefore should both be worshipped; with Mahakali, Mahakala.\" Some, it says, speak of Shiva, some of Shakti, some of Narayana (Vishnu). But the supreme Narayana (Adinarayana) is supreme Shiva (Parashambhu), the Nirguna Brahman, pure as crystal. The two aspects of the Supreme reflect the one in the other. The Reflection (Pratibimba) is Maya whence the World -Lords (Lokapalas) and the Worlds are born. The Adya Lalita (Mahashakti) at one time assumed the male form of Krishna and at another that of Rama (Ch. IX). For all aspects are in Mahakali, one with Bhairava Mahakala, who is Mahavishnu. \"It is only a fool\" it says, \"who sees any difference between Rama and Shiva.\" This is of course to look at the matter from the high Vedantik standpoint of Shakta doctrine. Nevertheless separate worship and rituals exist among the Sects. A common philosophical basis of the Shaivas and those of Shaktas, who are Agamavadins, is the doctrine of the Thirty -six Tantras. These are referred to in the Tantra (Ch. VII) so well known in Bengal which is called Kularnava. They are also referred to in other Shakta works and their commentaries such as the Anandalahari. The Sharada Tilaka, a great authority amongst the Bengal Shaktas, is the work of Lakshmanacarya, an author of the Kashmir Shaiva school. The latter school as also the Shaktas are Advaitins. The Shaiva Siddhanta and Pancaratra are Shuddhadvaita and Vishishtadvaita respectively. There is also a great body of Buddhist Tantras of differing schools. (I have published one -- the Shricakra Sambhara Tantra as Vol. VII of Tantrik Texts.) Now all these schools have Tantras of their own. The original connection of the Shaiva schools is said to be shown amongst other things, by the fact that some Tantras arc common, such as Mrige ndra and Matanga Tantras. It has been asserted that the Shakta school is not historically connected with the Shaivas. No grounds were given for this statement. Whatever be the historical origins of the former, the two appear 45 to be in several respects allied at present, as any one who knows Shakta literature may find out for himself. In fact Shakta literature is in parts unintelligible to one unacquainted with some features of what is called the Shaiva Darshana. How otherwise is it that the 36 Tattvas and Shadadhva (see my Garland of Letters) are common to both? The Shaktas have again been divided into three groups. Thus the esteemed Pandit R. Ananta Shastri in the Introduction to his edition of Anandalahari speaks of the Kaula or Shakta Shastras with sixty -four Tantras; the Mishra with eight Tantras; and the Samaya group which are said to be the most important of the Shakta Agamas, of which five are mentioned. This classification purports to be based on the nature of the object pursued, according as it belong s to one or the other of the Purusharthas. Pancaratra literature is very considerable, one hundred and eight works being mentioned by the same Pandit in Vol. XIII, pp. 357- 363 of The Theosophist. I would refer the reader also to the very valuable edition of the Ahirbudhnya Samhita by my friend Dr. Otto Schrader, with an Introduction by the learned Doctor on the Pancaratra system where many Vaishnava Tantras and Samhitas are cited. The Trika school has many Tantras of which the leading one is Malinivijaya. The Svacchanda Tantra comes next. Jagadisha Chandra Chattopadhyaya Vidyavaridhi has written with learning and lucidity on this school. The Shaivasiddhanta has twenty -eight leading Tantras and a large number of Upagamas, such as Taraka Tantra, Vama Tantra and others, which will be found enumerated in Schomerus' Der Shaiva -siddhanta, Nallasvami Pillai's Studies in Shaivasiddhanta (p. 294), and Shivajanasiddihiyar (p. 211). The Sammohana Tantra (Ch. VI) mentions 64 Tantras, 327 Upatantras, as also Yamalas, Damaras, Samhitas and other Scriptures of the Shaiva class; 75 Tantras, 205 Upatantras, also Yamalas, Damaras, Samhitas of the Vaishnava class; numerous Tantras and other scriptures of the Ganapatya and Saura classes, and a number of Puranas, Upapuranas and other variously named Scriptures of the Bauddha class. It then (Ch. VII) mentions over 500 Tantras and nearly the same number of Upatantras, of some 22 Agamas, Cinagama (see Ch. VI post), Buddhagama, Jaina, Pashupata, Kapalika, Pancaratra, Bhairava and othe rs. There is thus a vast mass of Tantras in the Agamas belonging to differing schools of doctrine and practice, all of which must be studied before we can speak 46 with certainty as to what the mighty Agama as a whole is. In this book I briefly deal with one section of it only. Nevertheless when these Agamas have been examined and are better known, it will, I think, be found that they are largely variant aspects of the same general ideas and practices. As instances of general ideas I may cite the following: the conception of Deity as a supreme Personality (Parahanta) and of the double aspect of God in one of which He really is or becomes the Universe; a true emanation from Him in His creative aspect; successive emanations (Abhasa, Vyuha) as of \"fire from fire\" from subtle to gross; doctrine of Shakti; pure and impure creation; the denial of unconscious Maya, such as Shamkara teaches; doctrine of Maya Kosha and the Kacukas (the six Shaiva Kacukas being, as Dr. Schrader says, represented by the possibly earlier classification in the Pancaratra of the three Samkocas); the carrying of the origin of things up and beyond Purusha- Prakriti; acceptance at a later stage of Purusha -Prakriti, the Samkhyan Gunas, and evolution of Tattvas as applied to the doctrine of Shakti ; affirmance of the reality of the Universe; emphasis on devotion (Bhakti); provision for all castes and both sexes. Instances of common practice are for example Mantra, Bija, Yantra, Mudra, Nyasa, Bhutashuddhi, Kundaliyoga, construction and consecration of temples and images (Kriya), religious and social observances (Carya) such as Ahnika, Varnashramadharma, Utsava; and practical magic (Maya- yoga). Where there is Mantra, Yantra, Nyasa, Diksha, Guru and the like, there is Tantra Shastra. In fact one of the names of the latter is Mantra Shastra. With these similarities there are certain variations of doctrines and practice between the schools. Necessarily also, even on points of common similarity, there is some variance in terminology and exposition which is unessential. Thus when looking at their broad features, it is of no account whether with the Pancaratra we speak of Lakshmi, Shakti, Vyuha, Samkoca; or whether in terms of other schools we speak of Tripurasundari and Mahakali, Tattvas and Kacukas. Again there are some differences in ritual which are not of great moment except in one and that a notable instance. I refer to the well - known division of worshippers into Dakshinacara and Vamacara. The secret Sadhana of some of the latter (which I may here say is not usually understood) has acquired such notoriety that to most the term \"The Tantra\" 47 connotes this particular worship and its abuses and nothing else. I may here also observe that it is a mistake to suppose that aberrations in doctrine and practice are peculiar to India. A Missionary wrote to me some years ago that this country was \"a demon-haunted land\". There are de mons here, but they are not the only inhabitants; and tendencies to be found here have existed elsewhere. The West has produced many a doctrine and practice of an antinomian character. Some of the most extreme are to be found there. Moreover, though this does not seem to be recognized, it is nevertheless the fact that these Kaula rites are philosophically based on monistic doctrine. Now it is this Kaula doctrine and practice, limited probably, as being a secret doctrine, at all times to comparatively few, which has come to be known as \"The Tantra\". Nothing is more incorrect. This is but one division of worshippers who again are but one section of the numerous followers of the Agamas, Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava. Though there are certain common features which may be called Tantrik yet one cannot speak of \"The Tantra\" as though it were one entirely homogeneous doctrine and practice. Still less can we identify it with the particular practices and theories of one division of worshippers only. Further the Tantras are concerned with Science, Law, Medicine and a variety of subjects other than spiritual doctrine or worship. Thus Indian chemistry and medicine are largely indebted to the Tantrikas. According to a common notion the word \"Tantra\" is (to use the language of a well- known work) \"restricted to the necromantic books of the latter Shivaic or Shakti mysticism\" (Waddell's Buddhism of Tibet, p, 164). As charity covers many sins, so \"mystic\" and \"mysticism\" are words which cover much ignorance. \"Necromancy\" too looms unnecessarily large in writers of this school. It is, however, the fact that Western authors generally so understand the term \"Tantra\". They are, however, in error in so doing as previously explained. Here I shortly deal with the significance of the Tan tra Shastra, which is of course also misunderstood, being generally spoken of as a jumble of \"black magic,\" and \"erotic mysticism,\" cemented together by a ritual which is \"meaningless mummery\". A large number of persons who talk in this strain have never h ad a Tantra in their hands, and such Orientalists as have read some portions of these Scriptures have not generally understood them, otherwise they would not have found them to be so \"meaningless\". 48 They may be bad, or they may be good, but they have a meaning. Men are not such fools as to believe for ages in what is meaningless. The use of this term implies that their content had no meaning to them. Very likely; for to define as they do Mantra as \"mystical words,\" Mudra as \"mystical gestures\" and Yantra as \"mystical diagrams\" does not imply knowledge. These erroneous notions as to the nature of the Agama are of course due to the mistaken identification of the whole body of the Scripture with one section of it. Further this last is only known through the abus es to which its dangerous practices as carried out by inferior persons have given rise. It is stated in the Shastra itself in which they are prescribed that the path is full of difficulty and peril and he who fails upon it goes to Hell. That there are thos e who have so failed, and others who have been guilty of evil magic, is well known. I am not in this Chapter concerned with this special ritual or magic but with the practices which govern the life of the vast mass of the Indian people to be found in the Tantras of the Agamas of the different schools which I have mentioned. A Western writer in a review of one of my books has expressed the opinion that the Tantra Shastra (I think he meant the Shakta) was, at least in its origin, alien and indeed hostile to the Veda. He said: \"We are strongly of opinion that in their essence the two principles are fundamentally opposed and that the Tantra only used Vedic forms to mask its essential opposition.\" I will not discuss this question here. It is, however, the fact no w, as it has been for centuries past, that the Agamavadins claim to base their doctrine on Veda. The Vedanta is the final authority and basis for the doctrines set forth in the Tantras, though the latter interpret the Vedanta in various ways. The real mean ing of Vedanta is Upanishad and nothing else. Many persons, however, speak of Vedanta as though it meant the philosophy of Shamkara or whatever other philosopher they follow. This of course is incorrect. Vedanta is Shruti. Shamkara's philosophy is merely one interpretation of Shruti just as Ramanuja's is another and that of the Shaivagama or Kaulagama is a third. There is no question of competition between Vedanta as Shruti and Tantra Shastra. It is, however, the fact that each of the followers of the different schools of Agama contend that their interpretation of the Shruti texts is the true one and superior to that of other schools. As a stranger to all these sects, I am not here concerned to 49 show that one system is better than the other. Each will adopt that, which most suits him. I am only stating the facts. As the Ahirbudhnya Samhita of the Pacaratra Agama says, the aspects of God are infinite, and no philosopher can seize and duly express more than one aspect. This is perfectly true. All systems of interpretation have some merits as they have defects, that of Shamkara included. The latter by his Mayavada is able to preserve more completely than any other interpretation the changelessness and stainlessness of Brahman. It does this, however, at the cost o f certain defects, which do not exist in other schools, which have also their own peculiar merits and shortcomings. The basis and seat of authority is Shruti or experience and the Agama interprets Shruti in its own way. Thus the Shaiva - Shakta doctrines are specific solutions of the Vedantic theme which differ in several respects from that of Shamkara, though as they agree (I speak of the Northern Shaiva School) with him on the fundamental question of the unity of Jivatma and Paramatma, they are therefore Advaita. The next question is how the experience of which the Agama speaks may be gained. This is also prescribed in the Shastra in the form of peculiar Sadhanas or disciplines. In the first place there must be a healthy physical and moral life. To know a thing in its ultimate sense is to be that thing. To know Brahman is, according to Advaita, to be Brahman. One cannot realize Brahman the Pure except by being oneself pure (Shuddhacitta). But to attain and keep this state, as well as progress therein, certain specific means, practices, rituals or disciplines are necessary. The result cannot be got by mere philosophical talk about Brahman. Religion is a practical activity. Just as the body requires exercise, training and gymnastic, so does the mind. This may be of a merely intellectual or spiritual kind. The means employed are called Sadhana which comes from the root \"Sadh,\" to exert. Sadhana is that which leads to Siddhi. Sadhana is the development of Shakti. Man is Consciousness (Atma) vehicled by Shakti in the form of mind and body. But this Shakti is at base Pure Consciousness, just as Atma is; for Atma and Shakti are one. Man is thus a vast magazine of both latent and expressed power. The object of Sadhana is to develop man's Shakti, whether for temporal or spiritual purposes. But where is Sadhana to be found P Seeing that the Vaidika Acara has fallen in practical desuetude we can find it nowhere but in the Agamas and in the Puranas which are replete with 50 Tantrik rituals. The Tantras of these Agamas therefore contain both a practical exposition of' spiritual doctrine and the means by which the truth it teaches may be realized. Their authority does not depend, as Western writers and some of their Eastern followers suppose, on the date when they were revealed bu t on the question whether Siddhi is gained thereby. This too is the proof of Ayurveda. The test of medicine is that it cures. If Siddhi is not obtained, the fact it is written \"Shiva uvaca\" (Shiva speaks) or the like counts for nothing. The Agama therefore is a practical exposition and application of Doctrine varying according to its different schools. The latest tendency in modern Western philosophy is to rest upon intuition, as it was formerly the tendency to glorify dialectic. Intuition has, however, to be led into higher and higher possibilities by means of Sadhana. This term means work or practice, which in its result is the gradual unfolding of the Spirit's vast latent magazine of power (Shakti), enjoyment and vision which everyone possesses in himself . The philosophy of the Agama is, as a friend and collaborator of mine, Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyo- padhyaya, very well put it, a practical philosophy, adding, that what the intellectual world wants to -day is this sort of philosophy; a philosophy which not merely argues but experiments. The form which Sadhana takes is a secondary matter. One goal may be reached by many paths. What is the path in any particular case depends on considerations of personal capacity and temperament, race and faith. For the Hindu there is the Agama which contains forms of discipline which his race has evolved and are therefore prima facie suitable for him. This is not to say that these forms are unalterable or acceptable to all. Others will adopt other forms of Sadhana suitable to them. Thus, amongst Christians, the Catholic Church prescribes a full and powerful Sadhana in its Sacraments (Samskara) and Worship (Puja, Upasana), Meditation (Dhyana), Rosary (Japa) and the like. But any system to be fruitful must experiment to gain experience,The significance of the Tantra Shastra lies in this that it claims to afford a means available to all, of whatever caste and of either sex, whereby the truths taught may be practically realized. The Tantras both in India and Tibet are the expression of principles which are of universal application. The mere statement of religious truths avails 51 not. What is necessary for all is a practical method of realization. This too the occultist needs. Further the ordinary run of mankind can neither apprehend, nor do they derive satisfaction from mere metaphysical concepts. They accept them only when presented in personal form. They care not for Shunyata, the Void, nor Saccidananda in the sense of mere Consciousness -- Being -- Bliss. They appeal to personal Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Shiva, Vishnu, Devi who will hear their prayer, and grant them aid. Next they cannot stand by themselves. They need the counsel and guidance of priest and Guru and the fortifying virtues of the sacraments. They need a definite picture of their object of worship, such as is detailed in the Dhyana of the Devatas, an image, a Yantra, a Mandala and so forth, a developed ritual and pictorial religion. This is not to say that they are wrong. These natural tendencies, however, become accentuated in course of time to a point where \"superstition,\" mechanical devotion and lifeless formalism and other abuses are produced. There then takes place what is called a \"Reform,\" in the direction of a more spiritual religion. This too is accentuated to the point of barrenness. Religion becomes sterile to produce practical result and ritual and pictorial religion recurs. So Buddhism, which in its origin has been represented to be a reaction against excessive and barren ritualism, could not rest with a mere statement of the noble truths and the eightfold path. Something practical was needed. The Mahayana (Thegpa Chhenpo) was produced. Nagarjuna in the second century A.D. (?) is said to have promulgated ideas to be found in the Tantras. In order to realize the desired end, use was made of all the powers of man, physical and mental. Theistic notions as also Yoga came again to the fore in the Yogacarya and other Buddhist systems. The worship of images and an elaborate ritual was introduced. The worship of the Shaktis spread. The Mantrayana and Vajrayana found acceptance with, what an English writer (The Buddhism of Tibet by L. Waddell) describes in the usual style as its \"silly mummery of unmeaning jargon and gibberish,\" the latter being said to be \"the most depraved form of Buddhist doctrine.\" So- called Tantrik Buddhism became thus fully developed. A Tantrik reformer in the person of Tsongkhapa arose, who codified the Tantras in his work Lam -rim Chhen- mo. The great code, the Kah- gyur, contains in one of its sections the Tantras (Rgyud) containing ritual, worship of the Divine Mothers, theology, astrology and natural 52 science, as do their Indian counterparts. These are of four classes, the Kriya, Carya, Yoga, Anuttara Tantras, the latter comprising Maha, Anu and Ati -Yoga Tantras. The Tan -ghur similarly contains many volumes of Tantras (Rgyud). Then, at length, Buddhism was driven from out of India. Brahmanism and its rituals survived and increased, until both in our day and the nearer past we see in the so -called reformed sects a movement towards what is claimed to be a more spiritual religion. Throughout the ages the same movements of action and reaction manifest. What is right here lies in the middle course. Some practical method and ritual is necessary if religion is not to be barren of result. The nature of the method and ritual will vary according to the capacity and development of men. On the other hand, the \"crooked influence of time\" tends to overlay the essential spiritual truths with unintelligent and dead formalism. The Tantra Shastra stands for a principle of high value though, like other things admittedly good, it is capable of, and has suffered, abuse. An important point in this connection should be noted. In Europe we see extreme puritan reaction with the result that the religious movements which embody them become one -sided and without provision for ordinary human needs. Brahmanism has ever been all -inclusive, producing a Sadhana of varying kinds, material and mental, for the different stages of sp iritual advancement and exempting from further ritual those for whom, by reason of their attainment, it is no longer necessary. 53 CHAPTER FOUR. TANTRA SHASTRA AND VEDA In writing this Chapter I have in mind the dispute which some have raised upon the question whether the Agamas, or some of them, are Vaidik or non - Vaidik. I do not here deal with the nature and schools of Tantra or Agama nor with their historical origin. Something has been said on these points in the Introductions to the English translations of Pandit Shiva Chandra Vidyarnava's Tantra- tattva. I have also dealt with this subject in the two Chapters, \"What are the Tantras and their significance?\" and \"Shakti and Shakta\". I wish to avoid repetitions, except so far as is absolutely necessary for the elucidation of the particular subject in hand. On the disputed question whether the Agamas are Vaidik or non -Vaidik I desire to point out that an answer cannot be given unless we keep apart two distinct mat ters, viz., (1) what was the origin of the Agamas and (2) what they are now. I am not here, however, dealing with the first or historical question, but with the second so far as the Shakta Agama is concerned. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that ( to take a specific example) worship of Kali and other Devis by the Shaktas indicates the existence of non- Aryan elements in their Agama. The question of real importance here, as always, is not as to what were the facts in remote past ages, but what they are now. The answer then is -- let it be as you will regarding the origin of the Shakta Agama; but at present Shakta worship is an integral part of the Hinduism and as such admits the authority of Veda, accepting, as later explained, every other belief held by the general body of the Hindu people. In a recent prosecution under Sections 292, 293 of the Indian Penal Code against an accused who had published a Tantra (but who was rightly acquitted), an Indian Deputy Magistrate who had advised the prosecution, and who claimed to be an orthodox Hindu, stated (I am informed) in the witness box, that he could not define what the Tantra Shastra was, or state whether it was a Hindu scripture of the Kali age, or whether a well -known particular Shastra shown to him was one of the Tantras. Such ignorance is 54 typical of many at the present time and is a legacy from a vanishing age. How is it that a Shastra which has had its followers throughout India from the Himalayas (the abode of Shiva and of Parvati Devi) to Cape Comorin (a corruption of Kumart Devi) which ruled for centuries, so that we may speak of a Tantrik epoch; which even to- day governs the household and temple ritual of every Hindu; how is it that such a Shastra has fallen into complete neglect and disrepute amongst the larger body of the English- educated community'? I remember a time when mention of the Shastra was only made (I speak of course of the same class) with bated breath; and when any one who concerned himself therewith became thereby liable to the charge of giving licentious sway to drink and women. The answer is both a general and particular one. In the first place the English- educated people of this country were formerly almost exclusively, and later to a considerable extent, under the sway of their Engl ish educators. In fact they were in a sense their creation. They were, and some of them still are, the Manasaputra of the English. For them what was English and Western was the mode. Hindu religion, philosophy and art were only, it was supposed, for the so -called \"uneducated\" women and peasants and for native Pandits who, though learned in their futile way, had not received the illuminating advantages of a Western training. In my own time an objection was (I am informed) taken by Indian Fellows of the Calcu tta University to the appointment of the learned Pandit Candrakanta Tarkalamkara to a chair of Indian philosophy on the ground that he was a mere native Pandit. In this case English Fellows and the then Vice -Chancellor opposed this absurd and snobbish objection. When the authority of the English teachers was at its highest, what they taught was law, even though their judgments were, in respect of Indian subjects of which they had but a scant and imperfect knowledge, defective. If they said with, or in anticipation of, one Professor, that the Vedas were \"the babbling of a child humanity\" and the Brahmanas \"the drivel of madmen,\" or with another that the thought of the Upanishads was so \"low\" that it could not be correctly rendered in the high English language ; that in \"treating of Indian philosophy a writer has to deal with thoughts of a lower order than the thoughts of the every- day life of Europe\"; that Smriti was mere priestly tyranny, the Puranas idle legends and the Tantras mere wickedness and debauchery; that Hindu philosophy was 55 (to borrow another English Professor's language concerning the Samkhya) \"with all its folly and fanaticism little better than a chaotic impertinence\"; and that Yoga was, according to the same man of learning, \"the fanatical vagar ies of theocracy\"; that Indian ritual was nothing but superstition, mummery, and idolatry, and (Indian) art, inelegant, monstrous, and grotesque -- all this was with readiness accepted as high learning and wisdom, with perhaps here and there an occasional faint, and even apologetic, demur. I recollect in this connection a rather halting, and shamefaced, protest by the late Rajendra Lal Mitra. I do not say that none of these or other adverse criticisms had any ground whatever. There has been imperfection, fo lly, superstition, wickedness, here as elsewhere. There has been much of it, for example, in the countries, whence these critics of India came. It is, however, obvious that such criticisms are so excessive as to be absurd. Even when giving an account of Ea stern thought the Western is apt to take up a \"superior\" attitude because he believes himself to be superior. The Bishop of Durham very clearly reveals this sense of superiority (Christian Aspects of Life, by B. F. Westcott, 175) when after stating that th e duty of the Christian missionary was to substitute for \"the sterile theism of Islam and the shadowy vagueness of Hindu Philosophy a belief in a living and speaking God\" he goes on to point out that \"our very advantages\" by way of \"the consciousness of social and intellectual superiority with which we are filled\" and \"the national force which sets us as conquerors where we come as evangelists\" constitute a danger in the mission field. It is this notion of \"superiority\" also which prevents a right understanding, and which notwithstanding the facts, insists on charges which, if established, would maintain the reputation for inferiority of the colored races. It is this reiterated claim to superiority that has hypnotized many persons amongst Eastern races into the belief that the European is, amongst other things, always a safe and learned critic even of their own beliefs and practices. Raja Rammohan Roy was the first to take up the cause of his faith, divorcing it from the superstitious accretions which gather around all religions in the course of the ages. The same defense was made in recent times by that man of upstanding courage, Svami Vivekananda. Foreign criticism on Indian 56 religion now tends in some quarters to greater comprehension. I say in some quarters; for even in quite recent years English books have been published which would be amazing, were one not aware of the deep ignorance and prejudice which exist on the subject. In one of these books the Hindu religion is described as \"a mixture of nightmare nonsense and time -wasting rubbish fulfilling no useful purpose whatever: only adding to the general burden of existence borne by Humanity in its struggle for existence.\" In another it is said to be \"a weltering chaos of terror, darkness, and uncertainty\". It is a religion without the apprehension of a moral evolution, without definite commandments, without a religious sanction in the sphere of morals, without a moral code and without a God: such so- called God, as there is, being \"a mixture of Beaches, Don Juan and Dick Turin.\" It is there further described as the most material and childishly superstitious animalism that ever masqueraded as idealism; not another path to God but a pit of abomination as far set from God as the mind of man can go; staggering the brain of a rational man; filling his mind with wild contempt for his species and which has only endured \"because it has failed.\" Except for the purpose of fanatical polemic, one would assume that the endurance of a faith was in some measure the justification of it. It is still more wonderful to learn from this work (The Light of India written by Mr. Harold Begbie and published by the Christian Literature Society for India) that out of this weltering chaos of all that is ignominious, immoral and crassly superstitious, come forth men who (in the words of the author) \"standing at prayer startle you by their likeness to the pictures of Christ -- eyes large, luminous and tranquil -- the whole face exquisite with meekness and majestic with spirit.\" One marvels how these perfect men arise from such a worthless and indeed putrescent source. This absurd picture was highly colored in a journalistic spirit and with a purpose. In other cases, faulty criticism is due to supercilious ignorance. As another writer says (the italics are mine) \"For an Englishman to get a plain statement of what Brahmanism really means is far from easy. The only wonder is that people who have to live on nine pence a week, who marry when they are ten years old, are prevented by caste life from ri sing out of what is often, if not always, a degraded state, have any religion at all.\" As the Bishop of Peterborough has recently said it is difficult for some to estimate worth in 57 any other terms than g. s. d. It is to be hoped that all such snobbish mate rialism will be hindered from entrance into this country. These quotations reveal the depths of ignorance and prejudice which still exist. As we are however aware, all English criticism is not as ignorant and prejudiced as these, even though it be often marred by essential error. On the contrary there are an increasing number who appreciate and adopt, or appreciate if they cannot accept, Indian beliefs. Further than this, Eastern thought is having a marked influence on that of the West, though it is not oft en acknowledged. Many have still the notion that they have nothing to learn in any domain from this hemisphere. After all, what any one else says should not affect the independence of our own judgment. Let others say what they will. We should ourselves determine matters which concern us. The Indian people will do so when they free themselves from that hypnotic magic, which makes them often place blind reliance on the authority of foreigners, who, even when claiming to be scholars, are not always free from b ias, religious or racial. Such counsel, though by no means unnecessary to-day, is happily becoming less needed than in the past. There are, however, still many Indians, particularly those of my own generation, whose English Gurus and their teaching have ma de them captives. Their mind has been so dominated and molded to a Western manner of thinking (philosophical, religious, artistic, social and political) that they have scarcely any greater capacity to appreciate their own cultural inheritance than their teachers, be that capacity in any particular case more or less. Some of them care nothing for their Shastra. Others do not understand it. The class of whom I speak are, in fact, as I have said, the Manasaputra of the English in a strict sense of the term. The Indian who has lost his Indian soul must regain it if he would retain that independence in his thought and in the ordering of his life which is the mark of a man, that is of one who seeks Svarajya -siddhi. How can an imitator be on the same level as his original? Rather he must sit as a Cela at the latter's feet. Whilst we can all learn something from one another, yet some in this land have yet to learn that their cultural inheritance with all its defects (and none is without such) is yet a noble one; an e qual in rank, (to say the least), with those great past civilizations which have molded the life and thought of the West. All this has been admitted by Indians who have discernment. Such value as my own 58 remarks possess, is due to the fact that I can see an d judge from without as an outsider, though (I will admit in one sense) interested observer -- interested because I have at heart Indian welfare and that of all others which, as the world now stands, is bound up with it. As regards the Tantra Shastra in pa rticular, greater ignorance prevailed and still exists. Its Vamacara practice however, seemed so peculiar, and its abuses were so talked of, that they captured attention to the exclusion of every thing else; the more particularly that this and the rest of the Shastra is hard to understand. Whilst the Shastra provides by its Acaras for all types from the lowest to the most advanced, its essential concepts, under whatever aspect they are manifested, and into whatever pattern they are woven, are (as Professor De La Vallee Poussion says of the Buddhist Tantra) of a metaphysical and subtle character. Indeed it is largely because of the subtlety of its principles, together with the difficulties which attend ritual exposition, that the study of the Tantras, notwith standing the comparative simplicity of their Sanskrit, has been hitherto neglected by Western scholars. Possibly it was thought that the practices mentioned rendered any study of a system, in which they occurred, unnecessary. There was and still is some ground for the adverse criticism which has been passed on it. Nevertheless it was not a just appreciation of the Shastra as a whole, nor even an accurate judgment in respect of the particular ritual thus singled out for condemnation. Let those condemn this Shastra who will. That is their affair. But let them first study and understand it. I have dealt with the subject of the Tantras in several papers. It is only necessary here to say that \"the Tantra\" as it is called was wrongly considered to be synonymous with the Shakta Tantras; that in respect of the latter the whole attention was given to the Vamacara ritual and to magic (Shatkarma); that this ritual, whatever may in truth be said against it, was not understood; that it was completely ignored that the Tantras contained a remarkable philosophic presentment of religious teaching, profoundly applied in a ritual of psychological worth; and that the Shastras were also a repertory of the alchemy, medicine, law, religion, art and so forth of their time. It was suf ficient to mention the word \"Tantra\" and there was supposed to be the end of the matter. 59 I have often been asked why I had undertaken the study of the Tantra Shastra, and in some English (as opposed to Continental) quarters it has been suggested that my time and labor might be more worthily employed. One answer is this: Following the track of unmeasured abuse I have always found something good. The present case is no exception. I protest and have always protested against unjust aspersions upon the Civilization of India and its peoples. If there be what is blameworthy, accuracy requires that criticism should be reduced to its true proportions. Having been all my life a student of the world's religions and philosophies, I entered upon a particular study of thi s Shastra to discover for myself what it taught, and whether it was, as represented, a complete reversal of all other Hindu teaching with which I was acquainted. For it was said to be the cultivation or practice of gluttony, lust, and malevolence (\"ferocity, lust, and mummery\" as Brian Hodgson called it), which I knew the Indian Shastra, like all the other religious Scriptures of the world, strictly forbids. I found that the Shastra was of high importance in the history of Indian religion. The Tantra Shastr a or Agama is not, as some seem to suppose, a petty Shastra of no account; one, and an unimportant sample, of the multitudinous manifestations of religion in a country which swarms with every form of religious sect. It is on the contrary with Veda, Smriti and Purana one of the foremost important Shastras in India, governing, in various degrees and ways, the temple and household ritual of the whole of India to- day and for centuries past. Those who are so strenuously averse to it, by that very fact recognize and fear its influence. From a historical point of view alone, it is worthy of study as an important part of Indian Culture, whatever be its intrinsic worth. History cannot be written if we exclude from it what we do not personally like. As Terence grandly said: \"We are men and nothing which man has done is alien to us\". There are some things in some of the Tantras and a spirit which they manifest of which their student may not personally approve. But the cause of history is not to be influenced by personal predilections. It is so influenced in fact. There are some who have found in the Shastra a useful weapon of attack against Indian religion and its tendencies. Should one speak of the heights which Indian spiritual experience has reached, one might be told that the infamous depths to which it had descended in Tantra Shastra, the Pushtimarga, the Vaishnava 60 Sahajiya and so forth were more certainly established. Did one praise the high morality to be found in Indian Shastra, it might be admitted that India was not altogether destitute of the light of goodness; but it might be asked, what of the darkness of the Tantra? And so on and so forth. Let us then grapple with and not elude the objection. There was of course something in all this. But such objectors and others had not the will (even if they had the capacity to understand) to give a true presentment of the teachings of the Shastra. But the interests of fairness require both. Over and above the fact that the Shastra is an historical fact, it possesses, in some respects, an intrinsic value which justifies its study. Thus it is the storehouse of Indian occultism. This occult side of the Tantras is of scientific importance, the more particularly having regard to the present revived interest in occultist study in the West. \"New thought\" as it is called and kindred movements are a form of Mantravidya. Vasikaranam is hypnotism, fascination. There is \"Spiritualism\" and \"Powers\" in the Tantras and so forth. For myself, however, the philosophical and religious aspect of the Scripture is more important still. The main question for the generality of men is not \"Powers\" (Siddhi). Indeed the study of occultism and its practice has its dangers; and the pursuit of these powers is considered an obstacle to the attainment of that true Siddhi which is the end of every Shastra. A subject of greater interest and value is the remarkable presentation of Vedantic knowledge which the Shakta Tantra in particular gives (I never properly understood the Vedanta until after I had studied the Tantras) as also the ritual by which it is sought to gain realization (Aparokshajana). The importance of the Shakta Tantra may be summed up by the statement that it is a Sadhana Shastra of Advaitavada. I will develop this last matter in a future paper. I will only say now that the main question of the day everywhere is how to realize practically the truths of religion, whatever they be. This applies to all, whether Hindu, Mohammed or Christian. Mere philosophical speculation and talk will avail nothing beyond a clarification of intellect. But, that, we all know, is not enough. It is not what we speculate about but what we are, which counts. The fundamental question is, how to realize (Sakshatkara) religious teaching. This is the fruit of Sadhana alone, whether the form of that Sadhana be Christian, Hindu, Mohammed, Buddhist or what else. The chief Sadhana -Shastra for the orthodox Hindu is the Tantra Shastra or 61 Agama in its varying schools. In this fact lies its chief significance, and for Hindus its practi cal importance. This and the Advaitavada on which the Shakta ritual rests is in my opinion the main reason why Shakta Darshana or doctrine is worthy of study. The opinion which I had formed of the Shastra has been corroborated by several to whom I had intr oduced the matter. I should like to quote here the last letter I had only a month ago from an Indian friend, both Sanskritist and philosopher (a combination too rare). He says \"they (the Tantras) have really thrown before me a flood of new light. So much so, that I really feel as if I have discovered a new world. Much of the mist and haziness has now been cleared away and I find in the Tantras not only a great and subtle philosophy but many of the missing links in the development of the different systems of Hindu philosophy which I could not discover before but which I have been seeking for, for some years past.\" These statements might perhaps lead some to think that the Shastra teaches something entirely, that is in every respect, new. As regards fundamenta l doctrines, the Tantra Shastra (for convenience I confine myself to the Shakta form) teaches much which is to be found in the Advaita Vedanta. Therefore those who think that they will find in the Shastra some fundamental truths concerning the world which are entirely new will be disillusioned. The observation does not apply to some doctrinal teaching, presentment, methods, and details, to which doubtless my friend's letter referred. He who has truly understood Indian Shastra as a whole will recognize, unde r variety of form and degree of spiritual advancement, the same substance by way of doctrine. Whilst the Shakta Tantra recognizes, with the four Vedas, the Agamas and Nigaimas, it is now based, as are all other truly Indian Shastras on Veda. Veda, in the sense of Knowledge, is ultimately Spiritual Experience, namely Cit which Brahman is, and in the one partless infinite Ocean of Which the world, as a limited stress in Consciousness arises. So it is said of the Devi in the Commentary on the Trishati: Vedanta mahavakya- janya sakshatkara- rupa -brahmavidya 62 She is Brahman -knowledge (Brahmavidya) in the form of direct realization produced by the Vedantic great saying (Mahavakya) -- that is \"Tat tvam asi\" (\"That thou art\") and all kindred sayings, So'ham, (\"He I am\"), Brahmasmi (\"I am Brahman\") and so forth. In other words, Self -knowledge is self - luminous and fundamental and the basis of all other knowledge. Owing to its transcendency it is beyond both prover and proof. It is self- realized (Svanubhava). But Shruti is the source from which this knowledge arises, as Samkara says, by removing (as also to some extent reason may do) false notions concerning it. It reveals by removing the superincumbent mass of human error. Again, Veda in a primary sense is the world as Idea in the Cosmic Mind of the creating Brahman and includes all forms of knowledge. Thus it is eternal, arising with and as the Samskaras at the beginning of every creation. This is the Vedamurtibrahman. Veda in the secondary sense is the various partial revelations relating to Tattva, Brahman or God, and Dharma, morality, made at different times and places to the several Rishis which are embodied in the four Vedas, Rig, Yajus, Sama and Atharva. Veda is not coextensive therefore with the four Vedas. But are these, even if they be regarded as the \"earliest,\" the only (to use an English term) revelations? Revelation (Akasha -vani) never ceases. When and wherever there is a true Rishi or Seer there is Revelation. And in this sense the Tantra Shastra or Agama claims to be a Revelation. The Shabdabrahmamurti is Nigamadishastramaya: it being said that Agama is the Paramatma of that Murti, the four Vedas with their Angas are its Jivatma; the six philosophies its Indriyas; the Puranas and Upapuranas its gross body; Smriti its hands and other limbs and all, \"other Shastras are the hairs of its body. In the Heart - lotus are the fifty Tejomayi Matrika. In the pericarp are the Agamas glittering like millions of suns and moons which are Sarvadharmamaya, Brahmajanamaya, Sarvasiddhimaya, and Murtiman. These were revealed to the Rishis. In fact all Shastras are said to constitute one great many - millioned collection (Shatakoti Samhita) each being particular manifestations to man of the one, essential Veda. From this follows the belief that they do not contradict, but are in agreement with, one another; for Truth is one whatever be the degree in which it is received, or the form in which the Seers (Rishis) promulgated it to those whose spiritual sight has not strength enough to disce rn it directly and for themselves. But how, 63 according to Indian notions, can that which is put forward as a Revelation be shown to be such? The answer is that of Ayurveda. A medicine is a good one if it cures. In the same way a Shastra is truly such if the Siddhi which it claims to give is gained as the fruit of the practice of its injunctions, according to the competency and under the conditions prescribed. The principle is a practical and widely adopted one. The tree must be judged by its fruit. This prin ciple may, if applied to the general life of to- day, lead to an adverse judgment on some Tantrik practices. If so, let it be. It is, however, an error to suppose that even such practices as have been condemned, claim to rest on any other basis than Veda. It is by the learned in Tantra Shastra said to be ignorance (Avidya) to see a difference between Agama and Veda. Ignorant notions prevail on the subject of the relation of the Tantras to Veda and the Vedas. I read some years ago in a Bengali book by a Brahmo author that \"the difference was that between Hell and Heaven\". Now on what is such a condemnatory comparison based? It is safe to challenge production of the proof of such an assertion. Let us examine what the Shakta Tantra (to which allusion was ma de) teaches. In the first place \"Hell\" recognizes \"Heaven,\" for the Shakta Tantra, as I have said, acknowledges the authority of Veda. All Indian Shastras do that. If they did not, they would not be Indian Shastra. The passages on this point are so numerou s, and the point itself is so plain that I will only cite a few. Kularnava Tantra says (II. 85,140,141) that Kuladharma is based on and inspired by the Truth of Veda. Tasmat vedatmakam shastram viddhi kaulatmakam priye. In the same place Shiva cites passag es from Shruti in support of His doctrine. The Prapacasara and other Tantras cite Vaidika Mahavakya and Mantras; and as Mantras are a part of Veda, therefore, Meru Tantra says that Tantra is part of Veda (Pranatoshini 70). Niruttara Tantra calls Tantra the Fifth Veda and Kulacara is named the fifth Ashrama (ib.); that is it follows all others. Matsyauktamahatantra (XIII) says that the disciple must be pure of soul (Shuddhatma) and a knower of Veda. He who is devoid of Vaidika -kriya (Vedakriya- vivarjita) is disqualified (Maharudrayamala, I Khanda, Ch. 15; II Khanda, Ch. 2; Pranatoshini 108). Gandharva Tantra (Ch. 2, Pranatoshini 6) says that the Tantrik Sadhaka must be a believer in Veda (Astika), ever attached to Brahman, ever speaking of 64 Brahman, living in Brahman and taking shelter with Brahman; which, by the way, is a queer demand to make of those, the supposed object of whose rites is mere debauchery. The Kularnava says that there is no knowledge higher than that of Veda and no doctrine equal to Kaula (III. 113, Nahivedadhika vidya na kaula- samadarshanam). Here a distinction is drawn between Veda which is Vidya and the Kaula teaching which he calls Darshana. See also Mahanirvana Tantra (I. 18, 19; II. 8 -15). In Mahanirvana Tantra (III. 72) the Mantra Om Saccidekam Brahma is given and in the Prapacasara (Ch. XXIX) this (what it calls) \"Secret of the Vedas\" is explained. That the Shakta Tantra claims to be based on Veda admits of no doubt. In fact Kulluka Bhatta, the celebrated commentator on Manu, says tha t Shruti is of two kinds, Vaidik and Tantrik. Vaidiki tantrums caviar dvividha shrutih kirtita It is of course the fact that different sects bandy words upon the point whether they in fact truly interpret Shruti and follow practice conformable to it. Statements are made by opposing schools that certain Shastras are contrary to Shruti even though they profess to be based thereon. So a citation by Bhaskararaya in the Commentary to V. 76 of the Lalita sahasranama speaks of some Tantras as \"opposed to Veda \" (Vedaviruddhani). The Vayu Samhita says: \"Shaivagama is twofold, that which is based on Shruti and that which is not. The former is composed of the essence of Shruti. Shrauta is Svatantra and Itara\" (v. ante, p. 19). Shaivagamo'pi dvividhah, shrauto' shrautash ca samsmritah Srutisaramayah shrautah svantrastvitaro matah. So again the Bhagavata or Pancaratra Agama has been said to be non- Vaidik. This matter has been discussed by Samkaracarya and Ramanuja following Yamunacarya. We must in all cases distingui sh between what a school says of itself and what others say of it. In Christianity both Catholicism and Protestantism claim to be based on the Bible and each alleges that the other is a wrong interpretation of it. Each again of the numerous Protestant sects says the same thing of the others. 65 But is Shakta Tantra contrary to Veda in fact? Let us shortly survey the main points in its doctrine. It teaches that Paramatma Nirguna Shiva is Saccidananda (Prapacasara, Ch. XXIX: Kularnava, Ch. I. vv. 6- 7). Kularnav a says \"Shiva is the impartite Supreme Brahman, the All -knowing (Sarvaja) Creator of all. He is the Stainless One and the Lord of all. He is One without a second (Advaya). He is Light itself. He changes not, and is without beginning or end. He is attributeless and above the highest. He is Saccidananda\" (I. 6 -7. And see the Dhyana and Pacaratnastotra in Mahanirvana Tantra III. 50, 59- 63). Brahman is Saccidananda, Eternal (Nitya), Changeless (Nirvikara), Partless (Nishkala), Untouched by Maya (Nirmala), Att ributeless (Nirguna), Formless (Arupa), Imperishable (Akshara), All -spreading like space (Vyomasannibha), Self -illuminating (Svyamjyotih), Reality (Tattva) which is beyond mind and speech and is to be approached through spiritual feeling alone (Bhavanagamya). Kularnava I, 6-8; III. 92, 93; IX. 7). (Mahanirvana III. 50, 59 -63, 67 -68, 74; III. 12). In His aspect as the Lord (Ishvara) of all, He is the All-knower (Sarvaja), Lord of all: whose Body is pure Sattva (Shuddhasattvamaya), the Soul of the universe (Vishvatma). (Mahanirvana I. 61, III. 68). Such definitions simply re -affirm the teaching of Veda. Brahman is That which pervades without limit the Universe (Prapacasara XXIX; MahanirvanaIII. 33- 35) as oil the sesamum seed (Sharada Tilaka I, Shaktanandatarangini I, Pranatoshini 13). This Brahman has twofold aspect as Parabrahman (Nirguna, Nishkala) and Shabda -brahman (Saguna, Sakala). Sammohana, a highly interesting Tantra, says (Ch. I) that Kubjika is of twofold aspect, namely, Nishkala when She is Candra -vaktra, and Sakala when called Paramukhi. So too is Guhyakali who as the first is Ekavaktra mahapashupatishi advaitabhavasampanna and as the second Dashavaktra. So the Kularnava says Shabda -brahmaparamabrahmabhedena Brahmano dvaividyam uktam (Khanda V, Ull asa 1). The same Tantra says that Sadashiva is without the bonds (of Maya) and Jiva is with them (Pashabadho bhavej jivah pashamuktah Sadashivahi, IX. 42) upon which the author of the Pranatoshini, citing this passage says \"thus the identity of Jiva and Shiva is shown (iti Shivajivayoraikyam uktam). The Shakta Tantra is thus Advaitavada: for it proclaims that Paramatma and Jivatma are one. So it affirms the \"grand words\" (Mahavakya) of Veda -- \"Tat tvam asi,\" \"So'ham,\" \"Brahmasmi\" (Mahanirvana VIII. 264- 265, V. 105); Prapacasara II; identifying 66 Hrim with Kundali and Hangsah and then with So'ham. Yah Suksmah So'ham ib. XXIV, Janarnava Tantra XXI. 10). As to Brahmasmi, see Kularnava IX. 32 and ib. 41. So'hambhavena pujayet. The Mantra \"all this is surely Bra hman (Sarvam khalvidam Brahma)\" is according to theMahanirvana (VII. 98) the end and aim of Tantrika Kulacara, the realization of which saying the Prapacasara Tantra describes as the fifth or Supreme State (Ch. XIX); for the identity of Jivatma and Parama tma is Liberation which the Vedantasara defines to be Jivabrahmanoraikyam). Kularnava refers to the Advaita of which Shiva speaks (Advaitantu shivenoktam I. 108. See also Mahanirvana II. 33- 34; I II. 33 -35; 50 - 64; Prapacasara II, XI X, XXIX). Gandharva Tantra says that the Sadhaka must be a nondualist (Dvaitahina). (See Ch. II. ib. Pranatoshini 108; Maharudrapamala I Khanda, Ch. 15; II Khanda, Ch. 2). It is useless to multiply quotations on this point of which there is no end. In fact that particular form of worship which has earned the Shakta Tantras ill- fame claims to be a practical application of Advaitavada. The Sammohana Tantra(Ch. VIII) gives high praise to the philosopher Samkaracarya saying that He was an incarnation of Shiva for the destruction of Buddhism. Kaulacarya is said to properly follow a full knowledge of Vedantic doctrine. Shiva in the Kularnava (I. 110) says \"some desire dualism (Dvaita), others nondualism (Advaita) but my truth is beyond both (Dvaitadvaitavivarjita)\". Advaitavedanta is the whole day and life of the Shakta Sadhaka. On waking at dawn (Brahmamuhurta) he sits on his bed and meditates \"I am the Devi and none other. I am Brahman who is beyond all grief. I am a form of Saccidananda whose true nature is eternal Liberation.\" Aham Devi na canpo'smi, Brahmaivaham na sokabhak, Saccidanandarupo'ham nitpamuktasvabhavavan. At noon again seated in Pujasana at time of Bhutasuddhi he meditates on the dissolution of the Tattvas in Paramatma. Seeing no difference between Paramatma and Jivatma he affirms Sa'ham \"I am She\". Again in the evening after ritual duties he affirms himself to be the Akhilatma and Saccidananda, and having so thought he sleeps. Similarly (I may here interpose) in the Buddhist Tantra -- the Sadhaka on rising in the state of Devadeha (hLayi -sku) 67 imagines that the double drums are sounding in the heavens proclaiming the Mantras of the 24 Viras (dPahvo), and regards all things around him as constituting the Mandala of himself as Buddha Vajrasattva. When about to sleep he again imagines his body to be that of Buddha Vajrasattva and then merges himself into the tranquil state of the Void (Shunyata). Gandharva Tantra says: \"Having saluted the Guru as directed and thought 'So'ham' the wise Sadhaka, the performer of the rite should ponder the unity of Jiva and Brahman.\" Gurun natva vidhanena so'ham iti porudhasah Aikyam sambhavayed dhiman jivasya Brahmano'pi ca. Kali Tantra says: \"Having meditated in this way, a Sadhaka should worship Devi as his own Atma, thinking I am Brahman.\" Kubjika Tantra says (Devi is called Kubjika because She is Kundali): \"A Sadhaka should meditate on his own Self as one and the same with Her (Taya sahitam atmanam ekibhutam vicintayet)\" and so on. The cardinal doctrine of these Shakta Tantras is that of Shak ti whether in its Svarupa (that is, as It is in Itself) as Cidrupini, the Paraprakriti of Paramatma (Mahanirvana IV. 10) or as Maya and Prakriti (see as to the latter the great Hymn to Prakriti in Prapacasara, Ch. XI). Shakti as the Kubjika Tantra says (Ch. I) is Consciousness (Caitanyarupini) and Bliss (Anandarupini). She is at the same time support of (Gunashraya) and composed of the Gunas (Gunamayi). Maya is however explained from the standpoint of Sadhana, the Tantra Shastra being a Sadhana Shastra, and not according to the Mayavada, that is, transcendental standpoint, of Samkara. What is there in the great Devi Sukta of the Rigveda (Mandala X, Sukta 125) which the Shakta Tantra does not teach? The Rishi of this revelation was a woman, the daughter of Rishi Ambhrina. It was fitting that a woman should proclaim the Divine Motherhood. Her Hymn says: \"I am the Sovereign Queen the Treasury of all treasures; the chief of all objects of worship whose all-pervading Self all Devatas manifest; whose birthplace is in the midst of the causal waters; who breathing forth gives form to all created worlds and yet extends beyond them, so vast am I in greatness.\" (The full Hymn is 68 translated in the French Edition of A. and E. Avalon's Hymns to the Goddess, Bossard, Paris. ) It is useless to cite quotations to show that the Shakta Tantra accepts the doctrine of Karma which as the Kularnava (IX. 125) says Jiva cannot give up until he renounces the fruit of it; an infinite number of universes, and their transitoriness (Mahanirvana III. 7), the plurality of worlds, Heaven and Hell, the seven Lokas, the Devas and Devis, who as the Kulacudamani Nigama (following the Devi -Sukta) says (Ch. I) are but parts of the great Shakti (Shaktanandatarangim III). Being Advaitavada, Moksha the state of Liberation and so forth is Paramatma. It accepts Smriti and Puranas; the Mahanirvana and other Tantras saying that they are the governing Shastras of the Treta and Dvapara ages respectively, as Tantra is that of the Kaliyuga. So the Tarapradipa (Ch. I) says that in the Kaliyuga, the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma is to be followed. It is said that in Satya, Veda was undivided. In Dvapara, Krishnadvaipayana separated it into four parts. In Satya, Vaidika Upasana was Pradhana, that is, prevailed; Sadhakas worshipping Indra for wealth, children and the like; though Nishkama Rishis adored the Sarvashaktiman (Devisukta is Advaitasiddhipurna). In Treta, worship according to Smriti prevailed. It was then, that Vashishtha is said to have done Sadhana of Brahmavidya according to Cinacarakrama. Though in the Dvapara there was both Smriti and Purana, rites were generally performed according to the Puranas. There was also then, as always, worshippers of the Purnashaktimahavidya. At the end of Dvapara and beginning of the Kali age the Tantra Shastra was taught to men. Then the ten Samskaras, Shraddha and Antyeshtikriya were, as they are now, performed according to the Vaidikadharma: Ashramacara according to Dayabhaga and other Smriti Texts; Vratas according t o Purana; Disha and Upasana of Brahman with Shakti, and various kinds of Yoga Sadhana, according to the Agama which is divided into three parts Tantra (Sattvaguna), Yamala (Rajoguna), and Damara (Tamoguna). There were 64 Tantras for each of the three divis ions Ashvakranta, Rathakranta, Vishnukranta. Such is the Tantrik tradition concerning the Ages and their appropriate Scriptures. Whether this tradition has any historical basis still awaits inquiry, which is rendered difficult by the fact that many Tantras have been lost and 69 others destroyed by those inimical to them. It is sufficient for my purpose to merely state what is the belief: that purpose being to show that the Tantra Shastra recognizes, and claims not to be in conflict with Veda or any other recog nized Shastra. It accepts the six Philosophies (Darshana) which Shiva says are the six limbs of Kula and parts of his body, saying that he who severs them severs His limbs (Kularnava II. 84, 84- 85). The meaning of this is that the Six Philosophies and the Six Minds, as all else, are parts of His body. It accepts the Shabda doctrine of Mimamsa subject to certain modifications to meet its doctrine of Shakti. It, in common with the Shaiva Tantra, accepts the doctrine of the 36 Tattvas, and Shadadhva (Tattva, Kala, Bhuvana, Varna, Pada, Mantra; see my Garland of Letters). This is an elaboration in detail which explains the origin of the Purusha and Prakriti Tattvas of the Samkhya. These are shown to be twin facets of the One, and the \"development\" of Shakti into Purusha -Prakriti Tattva is shown. These Tattvas include the ordinary 24 Prakriti with it, Gunas to Prithivi. It accepts the doctrine of three bodies (causal, subtle, gross) and the three states (Jagrat, Svapna Sushupti) in their individual and collective aspects. It follows the mode of evolution (Parinama) of Samkhya in so far as the development of Jiva is concerned, as also an Abhasa, in the nature of Vivartta, \"from Fire to Fire\" in the Pure Creation. Its exposition of the body includes the five Pranas, the seven Dhatus, the Doshas (Vayu, Pitta, Kapha) and so forth (Prapacasara II). On the ritual side it contains the commonly accepted ritual of present- day Hinduism; Mantra, Yantra, Pratima, Linga, Shalagrama, Nyasa, Japa, Puja, Stotra, Kavaca, Dhyana and so forth, as well 'as the Vaidik rites which are the ten Samskaras, Homa and the like. Most of the commonly accepted ritual of the day is Tantrik. It accepts Yoga in all its forms Mantra, Hatha, Laya, Jana; and is in particular distinguished by its pract ice of Laya or Kundali -yoga and other Hatha processes. Therefore not only is the authority of the Veda acknowledged along with the Agamas, Nigamas and Tantras but there is not a single doctrine or practice, amongst those hitherto mentioned, which is either not generally held, or which has not the adherence of large numbers of Indian worshippers. It accepts all the notions common to Hinduism as a whole. Nor is there a single doctrine previously mentioned which is contrary to Veda, that is on the assumption of the truth of Advaitavada. For of course it is 70 open to Dualists and Vishishtadvaitins to say that its Monistic interpretation of Vedanta is not a true exposition of Vaidik truth. No Shakta will however say that. Subject to this, I do not know of anything which it omits and should have included, or states contrary to the tenor of Vaidik doctrine. If there be anything I shall be obliged, as a student of the Shastra, to any one who will call my attention to it. The Shastra has not, therefore, up to this point shown itself as a \"Hell\" in opposition to the Vaidik \"Heaven.\" But it may said that I have omitted the main thing which gives it its bad and un-Vaidik character, namely the ill -famed Pacatattva or worship with meat, wine, fish, grain and woman. I have also omitted the magic to be found in some of the Shastras. The latter may be first shortly dealt with. Magic is not peculiar to the Tantras. It is to be found in plenty in the Atharvaveda. In fact the definition of Abhicara is \"the Karma described in the Ta ntras and Atharvaveda.\" Abhicara is magical process with intent to destroy or injure. It is Himsa - karma, or act injurious to others. There is nothing anti -Vaidik then in Magic. I may, however, here also point out that there is nothing wrong in Magic (Shatkarma) per se. As with so many other things it is the use or abuse of it which makes it right or wrong. If a man kills, by Marana Karma, a rival in his business to get rid of competition and to succeed to his clients' custom, he commits a very grave sin -- one of the most grievous of sins. Suppose, however, that a man saw a tiger stalking a child, or a dacoit about to slay it for its golden ornament; his killing of the tiger or dacoit would, if necessary for the safety of the child, be a justifiable act. Magic is, however, likely to be abused and has in fact been abused by some of the Tantriks. I think this is the most serious charge established against them. For evil magic which proceeds from malevolence is a greater crime than any abuse of natural appetite. But in this, as in other matters, we must distinguish between what the Shastra says and the practices of its followers. The injunction laid upon the Sadhaka is that he \"should do good to other beings as if they were his own self\". Atmavat sarvabhutebhyo h itam kuryat kuleshvari (Kularnava Tantra XII. 63). In the Kularnava Samhita (a different and far inferior work to the Tantra of that name) Shiva recites some horrible rites with the flesh of rat and bat; with the soiled linen of a Candala woman, with the shroud of a 71 corpse, and so forth; and then he says, \"My heart trembles (hridayam kampate mama), my limbs tremble (gatrani mama kampante), my mouth is dry, Oh Parvati! (mukham shushyate Parvati!) Oh gentle one, my mind is all disturbed (kshobho me jayate bhadre). What more shall I say? Conceal it (Na vaktavyam) conceal it, conceal it.\" He then says: \"In the Kali age Sadhakas are generally greedy of money. Having done greatly sinful acts they destroy living beings. For them there is neither Guru nor Rudra, nor Thee nor Sadhika. My dear life! they are ready to do acts for the destruction of men. Therefore it is wrong to reveal these matters, oh Devi. I have told Thee out of affection for Thee, being greatly pleased by Thy kisses and embrace. But it should be as carefully concealed by Thee, as thine own secret body. Oh Parvati! all this is greatly sinful and a very bad Yoga. (Mahapatakayuktam tat kuyogo'yam udahritah.)\" Kalikale sadhakastu prapasho dhanalolupah Mahakrityam vidhayaiva praninam badhabhaginah Na guru r napi Rudro va naiva tvam naiva sadhika Mahapranivinashaya samarthah pranavallabhe Etat prakashanam devi dosaya parikalpyate Snehena tava deveshi chumbanalinganaistatha Santusyaiva maya devi sarvam etat prakashitam Tvapa gopyam prayatnena svayoniriva Parvati Mahapataka-yuktam tat kuyogo'yam udahritah. \"None of these things are ever to be done by Thee, Oh Daughter of the Mountain (Sarvatha naiva kartavyastvaya Parvatanandini). Whoever does so, incurs the sin of destroying Me. I destroy all such, as does fire, dry grass. Of a surety such incur the sin of slaying a Brahmana. All such incur the sin of slaying a Brahmana.\" Sarvatha naiva kartavya stvaya Parvatanandini Badhabhak mama deveshi krityamimam samacaret 72 Tasya sarvam haramyashu vahnih shuskatrinam yat ha Avyartham brahmahatyanca brahmahatyam savindati. When therefore we condemn the sin of evil magic it is necessary to remember both such teaching as is contained in this quotation, and the practice of those of good life who follow the Shastra. To do so is to be both fair and accurate. There is nothing, in any event, in the point that the magical contents of the Tantra Shastra make it contrary to Veda. Those who bring such a charge must also prefer it against the Atharvaveda. As a matter of fact Magic is common to all early religions. It has been practiced, though condemned, in Christian Europe. It is not necessary to go back to the old witchcraft trials. There are some who protest against its recrudescence to -day. It has been well observed that there are two significant facts about occultism, namely its catholicity (it is to be found in all lands and ages) and its amazing power of recuperation after it has been supposed to have been disproved as mere \"superstition\". Even some quarter of a century ago (I am q uoting from the same author) there were probably not a score of people in London (and those kept their preoccupation to themselves) who had any interest at all in the subject except from a purely antiquarian standpoint. Magic was dismissed by practically all educated men as something too evidently foolish and nonsensical to deserve attention or inquiry. In recent years the position has been reversed in the West, and complaint is again made of the revival of witchcraft and occultism to- day. The reason of this is that modern scientific investigation has established the objectivity of some leading phenomena of occultism. For instance a little more than a century or so ago, it was still believed that a person could inflict physical injury on another by means other than physical. And this is what is to be found in that portion of the Tantra Shastras which deal with the Shatkarma. Witches confessed to having committed this crime and were punished therefor. At a later date the witchcraft trials were held to be evidence of the superstition both of the accused and accusers. Yet psychology now allows the principle that Thought is itself a Force, and that by Thought alone, properly directed, without any known physical means the thought of another, and hence his whole condition, can be affected. By physical means I mean direct physical means, 73 for occultism may, and does avail itself of physical means to stimulate and intensify the force and direction of thought. This is the meaning of the magic rituals which have been so much ridiculed. Why is black the color of Marana Karma? Because that color incites and maintains and emphasizes the will to kill. So Hypnotism (Vashikaranam), as an instance of the exercise of the Power of Thought, makes use of gestures, rotatory instrument s and so forth. The Magician having a firm faith in his (or her) power (for faith in occultism as in Religion is essential) surrounds himself with every incentive to concentrated, prolonged and (in malevolent magic), malevolent thought. A figure or other o bject such as part of the clothing, hair, nails and so forth of the victim represents the person to be attacked by magic. This serves as the 'immediate object' on which the magical thought is expended. The Magician is helped by this and similar aids to a state of fixed and malignant attention which is rendered intense by action taken on the substituted object. It is not of course the injuries done to this object which are the direct cause of injury to the person attacked, but the thought of the magician of which these injuries are a materialization. There is thus present the circumstances which a modern psychologist would demand for success in a telepathic experiment. As the witchcraft trials show, the victim is first affected in thought and then in body by the malignant thought thus focused upon him. Sometimes no apparent means are employed, as in a case reported to me by a friend of mine as occurring in a Bombay Hotel when a man well -known in India for his \"Powers\" (Siddhi) drove away, by the power of his t hought only, a party of persons sitting at a neighboring table whose presence was greatly distasteful to one of his companions. This, if the effect of' magical power, was an instance of what the Tantras call Ucchatana. In all cases the general principle is the same, namely the setting in motion and direction of powerful thought by appropriate means. This is the view of those who give what may be called a psychological explanation of these phenomena. These would hold that the magical symbolisms are without i nherent force but work according to race and individual characteristics on the mind which does the rest. Others believe that there is an inherent power in Symbolism itself, that the \"Symbol\" is not 74 merely such but an actual expression of, and instrument by which, certain occult laws are brought into play. In other words the power of \"Symbolism\" derives not merely from the effect which it may have on particular minds likely to be affected by it but from itself as a law external to human thought. Some again (and Indian magicians amongst others) believe in the presence and aid of discarnate personalities (such as the unclean Pishacas) given in the carrying out of occult operations. Similarly it is commonly held by some that where so -called \"spiritualistic\" phenomena are real and not fraudulent (as they sometimes are) the action is not that of the dead but of Infernal Spirits simulating them and misleading men to their ruin. Occultism in the sense of a belief in, and claim to be able to use, a certain range of forces which may be called preternatural, has the adherence not only of savage and barbarous people (who always believe in it) but also of an increasing number of \"civilized\" Londoners, Berliners, Americans, Parisians and other Western peoples. They differ i n all else but they are united in this. Even what most would regard as downright superstition still abundantly flourishes in the West. Witness the hundreds of thousands of \"touch -wood\" figures and the like sent to the troops in the recent war, the horror o f' sitting 13 to a table, and so on. In fact, from the earliest ages, magic has gone hand- in- hand with religion, and if for short periods the former has been thought to be dead it always rises again. Is this, as some say, the mark of the inherent silly credulity of mankind, or does the fact show that there is something in the claims which occultism has made in all ages P India (I do not speak of the English- educated community which shares in the rise and fall of English opinion) has always believed in occul tism and some of the Tantra Shastras are repertories of its ritual. Magic and superstition proper, exist in this country but are also to be found in the West. The same remark applies to every depreciatory criticism passed upon the Indian people. Some have thought that occultism is the sign both of savagery and barbarism on the one hand and of decadent civilization on the other. In India it has always existed and still exists. It has been well said that there is but one mental attitude impossible to the educ ated man, namely blank incredulity with regard to the whole subject. There has been, and is, a change of attitude due to an increase of psychological knowledge and scientific investigation into objective facts. Certain reconciliations have been suggested, bringing 75 together the ancient beliefs, which sometimes exist in crude and ignorant forms. These reconciliations may be regarded as insufficiently borne out by the evidence. On the other hand a proposed reconciliation may be accepted as one that on the whol e seems to meet the claims made by the occultist on one side and the scientific psychologist on the other. But in the present state of knowledge it is no longer possible to reject both claims as evidently absurd. Men of approved scientific position have, notwithstanding the ridicule and scientific bigotry to which they have been exposed, considered the facts to be worthy of their investigation. And on the psychological side successive and continuous discoveries are being made which corroborate ancient beliefs in substance, though they are not always in consonance with the mode in which those beliefs were expressed. We must face the fact that (with Religion) Occultism is in some form or another a widely diffused belief of humanity. All however will be agreed in holding that malevolent Magic is a great Sin. In leaving the subject of Magic I may here add that modern psychology and its data afford remarkable corroboration of some other Indian beliefs such as that Thought is a Force, and that its operation is in a field of Consciousness which is wider than that of which the mind is ordinarily aware. We may note also the aid which is derived from the establishment of dual and multiple personalities in understanding how it may be possible that in one unity there may be yet varying aspects. The second charge is the alleged Avaidik character of the secret Pacatattva Sadhana, with wine, flesh and women, its alleged immorality of principle, and the evil lives of those who practice it. I am not in the present paper dealing in full with this subject; not that I intend by any means to shirk it; but it is more appropriately the subject of consideration in future Chapters on the subject of Shakta Tantrik Sadhana of which it forms a part. What I wish to say now is only this: We must distinguish in the first place between a principle and its application. A principle may be perfectly right and sound and yet a supposed application may not be an application in fact; or if there be an application, the latter may violate some other moral or physical law, or be dangerous and inexpedient as leading to abuse. I will show later that the principle involved is one which is claimed to be in conformity with Vaidik truth, and to be in fact recognized in varying forms by all classes of Hindus. Some do so dualistically. The Sadhana of the Shakta Tantra is, whether right 76 or wrong, an application of the principles of Advaitavada and in its full form should not, it is said, be entered upon until after Vedantic principles have been mastered. For this reason Kauladharma has been called the fifth Ashrama. Secondly I wish to point out that this ritual with wine and meat is not as some suppose a new thing, something introduced by the Shakta Tantriks. On the contrary it is very old and has sanction in Vaidi k practice as will appear from the authorities cited in the Appendix to this Chapter. So much is this so, that a Tantrik Sadhu discussing the matter with a Bengali friend of mine said of himself, as a follower of this ritual, that he was a Hindu and that t hose who were opposed to it were Jainas. What he meant, and what seems to be the fact, is that the present -day general prohibition against the use of wine, and the generally prevalent avoidance, or limitation of an animal diet, are due to the influence of Jainism and Buddhism which arose after, and in opposition to, Vaidik usage. Their influence is most marked of course in Vaishnavism but has not been without effect elsewhere. When we examine ancient Vaidik usage we find that meat, fish and Mudra (the latter in the form of Purodasha) were consumed, and intoxicating liquor (in the form of Soma) was drunk, in the Vaidik Yajas. We also discover some Vaidik rites in which there was Maithuna. This I have dealt with in my article on \"Shakti and Shakta\". The above -mentioned facts show in my opinion that there is ground for the doctrine of the Tantrikas that it is a mark of ignorance (Avidya) to sever Veda and Tantra. My conclusion is not however a counsel to follow this or any other particular form of ritual. I am only concerned to state the facts. I may, however, here add two observations. From an outside point of view (for I do not here deal with the subject otherwise) we must consider the age in which a particular Shastra was produced and consequently the conditi ons of the time, the then state of society, its moral and spiritual development and so forth. To understand some rites in the past history of this and other countries one must seek, in lieu of surface explanations, their occult significance in the history of the human race; and the mind must cast itself back into the ages whence it has emerged, by the aid of those traces it still bears in the depths of its being of that which outwardly expressed itself in ancient custom. 77 Take for instance the rite of human sacrifice which the Kalikalpalata says that the Raja alone may perform (Raja naravalim dadayenna yo'pi parameshvari) but in which, as the Tantrasara states, no Brahmana may participate (Brahmananam naravalidane nadhikarah). Such an animal sacrifice is not peculiarly \"Tantrik\" but an instance of the survival of a rite widely spread in the ancient world; older than the day when Jehovah bade Abraham sacrifice his son (Gen. XXII) and that on which Sunasshepa (Aitareya Brahmana VII, 3) like Isaac was released. R eference, it is true, is made to this sacrifice in the Shastras, but save as some rare exception (I myself judged a case in Court some years ago) it does not exist to-day and the vast mass of men do not wish to see it revived. The Cakra ritual similarly is either disappearing or becoming in spirit transformed where there had been abuse. What is of primary value in the Tantra Shastra are certain principles with which I have dealt elsewhere, and with which I deal again in part in this and the following lectures. The application of these principles in ritual is a question of form. All form is a passing thing. In the shape of ritual its validity is limited to place and time. As so limited, it will continue so long as it serves a useful purpose and meets the needs of the age, and the degree of its spiritual advancement, or that of any particular body of men who practice it; otherwise it will disappear, whilst the foundations of Vedanta on which it rests may remain. In the same way it is said that we ourselves come and go with our merits and demerits, but that the Spirit ever abides beyond both good and evil. NOTE TO CHAPTER IV The following note as to Tantra Shastra and Veda was kindly prepared for me at my request by Sj. Braja Lal Mukherji, M.A.: My purpose in this paper is not to give to the public any pre- conceived opinion, but is simply to put together certain facts which will enable it to form a correct opinion on the subject. These facts have been collected from sources as to the authenticity of which there is no doubt. There is no dispute that most of these works disclose the state of Vaidik society prior to the 6th century s.c. and that at the time when 78 the said works were composed the Vaidik rituals were being observed and performed. Certain elements which h ave been assumed to be non- Vaidik, appear in the said works or at least in many of them, and they have been summarily disposed of by some scholars as supplementary (Parishishta), or interpolations (Prakshipta). The theory that these portions are interpolat ions is based on the assumption that the said elements are non - Vaidik or post -Vaidik and also on the assumption that at the times when the said works were composed, the Anushtupchhandah was not known; and that therefore, those portions of the said works wh ich appear in Anushtub, must be later interpolations. We need not go into the propriety of these assumptions in this paper; but suffice it to say, that the first assumption simply begs the question, and the second one is not of any importance in connection with the subject of this paper; inasmuch as, the statements made in the Anushtub portions are corroborated by earlier authorities as to whose antiquity there is no question, and in any case, the fact that the statements have been made are proof of earlier usage or custom. Vaidik sacrifices are divided into three classes: (1) Pakayajas, (2) Haviryajas and (3) Soma sacrifices; and there are sub- divisions under each of the said classes. The Soma sacrifices are classed under three heads according to the numb er of days required for performance, viz., Ekaha, Ahina and Satra. Ekaha sacrifices are those which are performed in one day by three Savanas, exactly as in the Jagaddhatri Puja; Ahina sacrifices are performed from two to eleven days and Satras are performed during a long period, the minimum number of days required being thirteen and the maximum being a thousand years. The twelve- day sacrifices are arranged as a separate class. The principal Somayajas are (1) Agnishtoma, (2) Atyagnishtoma, (3) Ukthyah, (4) Shodashi, (5) Vajapeyah, (6) Atiratrah, (7) Aptoryama. The Ishtis or Haviryajas are also principally seven in number, namely, (1) Agnyadheyam, (2) Agnihotram, (3) Darsha -paurnamasa, (4) Caturmasyam, (5) Agrayaneshti, (6) Nirudhapashubandha, and (7) Sautramani. The Pakayajas are also seven in number, namely, (1) Astaka, (2) Parvanam, (3) Shraddham, (4) Shravani, (5) Agrahayani, (6) Caitri, and (7) Ashvayuji. The last seven. are to be performed with the help of the Grihya fire and are described in the Grih ya works. The others are described in the Shrauta works. 79 Whatever be the differences among these Yajas in regard to the number of stomas or stotras and the Samans to be sung and the Kapalas, Grahas, or the number and nature of sacrifices or as to other pa rticulars, there are some ideas which prevail in all of them. All Yajas are based on the idea that Mithunikarana leads to spiritual happiness. Sexual intercourse is Agnihotra (S.B. XI. 6. 2. 10). Maithunikarana is consecration (S.B. III. 2. l. 2, etc.) Th ey enclose the Sadas secretly, for enclosing is Mithunikarana and therefore it must be done secretly (S.B. IV. 6, 7, 9 and 10). Bricks (Vishvajyotis) are made because the making of the bricks causes generation (S.B. VI. 5. 3. 5.) Two Padas or Caranas of an Anushtub verse are read in a detached manner and the two remaining are read together to imitate the manner of sexual union (A.B. II.5.3.); they do not worship a female Devata, unless she is coupled with a male Deva (A.B. III. 5. 4); they use a couple of Chandas distinguishing the one as male from the other as female and the two are taken together and believed to be the symbol of Maithuna, and by such Maithuna the desired result of ritual is achieved (A.B. V. 3. 1); they believe that the reading of the Ahan asya mantra (S.S.S. XII. 24. 1- 10; A.U. XX. 136) will confer bliss (A.B. VI. 5. 10); they say that the highest and best form of Maithuna is that of Shraddha and Satya, Piety and Truth (A.B. VII. 2. 9) and this kind of Maithuna in the abstract is directed f or Agnihotris who have purified themselves by actual performances and observances in a religious spirit. They direct the observance and performance of Maithuna as a religious rite or part of a religious rite (L.S.S. IV. 3. 17; K.S.S. XIII. 42; 7.A. IV. 7. 50; X 62, 7; A.A. I. 2. 4. 10; V. 1. 5. 13; G.G.S. II. 5. 6. 9. 10; S.G.S: I. 19. 2- 6; K.G.S. l. 4. 15; H.G.S. I. 24. 3; Ap. G.S. III.8. 10; P.G.S. I. 11. 7; Ap.V. 25. 11; Tan. Br. VIII. 7. 12; Chh. Up. II. 13. 1-2) and they direct that Mantras are to be uttered during the observance of this rite (Br. D. V. 90; VIII. 82; A.V. V. 82. 4; R. V. X 85. 37; R.V. Kh. 30 1; Rik P. II. 15. 1- 8; As. S.S. VIII. 3. 28; G.B. VI. 15). One of the articles of faith of the Vaidik people therefore was, that sexual union led the way to bliss hereafter and must be performed in a true religious spirit to ensure spiritual welfare; wanton indulgence being severely deprecated. Ida (a woman) said: \"If thou wilt make use of me at the sacrifice, then whatever blessing thou shalt invoke through me, shall be granted to thee.\" (S.B. I. 8 -- 1. 9, etc.) 80 The Vaidik people performed their Somayajas and Haviryajas which included the Sautramani, with libations and drinks of intoxicating liquor (L.S.S. V. 4, 11; K.S.S. XIX, 1, etc.; S.S.S. XV. 15; XIV. 13. 4.; S.B. V. 1. 2. 12; V. 1. 5. 28; XII. 7. 3. 14, etc.; XII. 8. 1, etc.; XII. 8. 2. 21, 22; V. 5. 4. 19, etc.; XII. 7. 3. 8; Ap. S.S. XVIII. l. 9.) Sura purifies the sacrificer whilst itself is purified (S.B. XII. 8. 1. 16). Rishi Kakshivan sings the praises of Sura (R.V. I. 116. 7). It is said to be a desirable thing (R.V.. X. 107. 9; VIII. 2. 12). They prefer Soma, the sweet drink. Soma is Paramahutih (S.B. VI. 6. 3. 7); it is the nectar of immortality (S.B. IX. 4. 4. 8.) They deprecate and punish the wanton use of intoxicating liquor (Ap. Dh. S. I. 25. 3.; Ga. Dh. S. XXIII. 10; Va. Dh. S. XX. 19; Ba. Dh. S. II. l. 18, etc.; S.V.B. I. 5). They direct the use of Sura and Soma for attainment of happiness and prescribe the manner and purpose of drinking the same; they prescribe the measure and number of drinks to be offered or taken at a sacrifice (S.B. V. l. 2. 9, etc., V. 5. 4), and they add that a breach of these rules destroys the efficacy of the rite. They offer libations of Sura to the Fat hers (A.B. III. l. 5; S.B. V. 5. 4. 27, etc.) They offer Sura to the Ashvins (R. V.B. I. 44). They offer Sura to Vinayak's mother ( Yag. I. 2. 88). During the performance of a sacrifice, the priests and the householder sit together; they all touch their cups, and raise them to their mouths, all the while reciting proper Mantras addressed to Devas (A.B. VI. 3. 1) and then they drink (A.B. VII. 5. 7). The Vaidik people used to offer to their Devatas at their sacrifices animal and vegetable food. The vegetable substances are Tandula, Pishtaka, Phalikarana, Purodasha, Odana, Yavaguh, Prithuka, Laja, Dhanah and Saktu, and the animal food was Payah, Dadhi, Ajyam, Amiksa Vajinam, Vapa, Mamsam, Lohitam, Pashurasah; the principal of these being Dhanah, Karambha, Paribaha, Purodasha and Payasya (A.B. II. 3.6). Indeed it would not be incorrect to say that no Vaidik rite can be performed without these offerings; the forms and the mode of preparation and the number of cakes to be offered, differing in each case (A.B. I. 1. 1.; II. 1 -9; II. 3. 5; II. 3 -6; S.B. I. 2. 2; L.S.S. V. 4. 1, etc.; Ap. S.S. XII. 3. 12; XII. 4, 9. 14; K.S.S. V. 309; Tait. Br. III. 2. 6, etc.) They offer animal sacrifices (Kat. S.S.Chap. VI; S.B. III. 6. 4; III. 8. 1; V. 1. 3. 2. 14; V. 3. 1. 10; VI. 2. 2. 15. Kanda XIII; As. G.S. I. 11; P.G.S. III. 11; G.G.S. III. 10. 18; Kh. G.S. III. 4; H.G.S. II. 15), which include the horse, goats, sheep, oxen (Tait. Br. II. 8. 1, etc.) and human beings (Tait. Br. III. 4. 1). They believe that by performing anima l sacrifices, the sacrificer ransoms himself (S.B. XI. 81 7. 1. 3; A.B. II. l. 3). or wins all these worlds (Ap. S.S. VII. 1. 1). The animal is the sacrificer himself (A.B. II. 2.1). They direct by special rules, in what manner the animal should be killed, cut and offered (A.B. II. 6; S.B. III. 8. l. 15). They were aware that wanton killing of animals was wrong (A.B. II. l. 7) and believed that offering animal sacrifices to the Devatas, was one of the means whereby bliss hereafter could be attained (Ba. Dh. S. II. 4. 23). And it was only for certain Yajas that animals could be slain (Va. Dh. S. IV. 5- 8; S.G.S. II. 16; 1 Ba. S.S. IV). Wanton killing of animals was very severely punished (Ap. Dh. S. I. 25. 13 -26; Ga. Dh. S. XXII. 18, etc.; Va. Dh. S. 18. 23, etc.; Ba. Dh. S. I. 19. 6). The Vaidik people from the time of the earliest Yajas severely deprecated lust of any kind whatsoever; and they allowed Maithuna, Mamsa, Madya and Mudra for religious purposes only and as offerings to the Devas. The Cakra sittings of the Tantriks (M.N.T. Ch. VI) have unmistakable similarities with the Vajapeya and Sautramani (S.B. V; K.S.S. XIV; A.B. III. 4. 3; S.B. XII. 7.1, etc.; K.S.S. XIX) and even the manner of drinking in company has been preserved as will appear from the references given above. When performing Yaja in company, the members of the company become Brahmanas and there is no distinction of caste (3.B. VIII. 4. 1). The worship in both Vaidik and Tantrik rites begins with Acamana, which is a form of ablution, in which certain parts of the body are touched with water. In this respect, the Vaidik and the Tantrik practices are exactly similar (G.G.S. l. 2. 5; Tait. A. II. 11; M.N.T.; Chap. V). They purify themselves by uttering some mantras as Bijas while contemplating the Deities of certain parts of their bodies and touching such parts with their fingers (A.A. III. 2. l. 2; III. 2. 5. 2; R.V.B. II. 16). They contemplate each Deva through his or her particular Mantras (R.V. III. 62. 10) which will be found collected in the Parishishta to the Taittirya Aranyaka. They make use of certain sounds for removing unclean spirits, e.g., \"Khat. Phat. Hum.\" (7.A. IV. 27; S.V. St. I. 2. 1; I. l. 3; Aranyagana VI. 1- 8; IV. 2. 19; S.B. I 5. 2. 18; I. 3. 3. 14; I. 7. 2. 11 -14; I. 7. 2. 21; XI. 2. 2. 3 and 5; M.N.T.Chap. III) and for other purposes (A.B. II. 3. 6.). They attribute a Deity to each letter in a Mantra (A.B. II.5.5) 82 They make gestures with their fingers as part of their religious rites (S.B. III. l. 3. 25; III. 4. 3. 2) and locate the Devatas of particular sounds in particular parts of their bodies (P.S. 54, 56; K.S.S. VII. 71, 73). They perform their baths as a means of and with the view of pleasing their Devas (G. Sn. S. and M.N.T.) and in performing the Acamana they sacrifice unto themselves conceiving that they are part and parcel of the Great Brahma (T.A. X. i). They worship the Great Brahma thrice daily, such worship being called Sandhyavandan or Ahnika -kriya, twilight prayers or daily rites. How and when the forms of Vaidik Sandhya now practiced by Vaidikas commenced has not yet been ascertained but, there is no doubt that prior to the time when the Taittirya Aranyaka was composed the practice existed in its present form. It will be remembered that it is only in that work that we find the Sandhya -mantras recorded. The practice of Pranayama and Tarpana to Rishis, Fathers, and Devas also existed before Baudhayana. This practice of Vaidik Sandhya worship should be compared with the Tantrik mode, to gain an insight into the relationship of the Vedas and the Tantras. In the Yajas, the Vaidik people principally worshipped (1) Sarasvati (S.B. II. 5. 4. 6; III. 1. 4. 9; III. 9. 1. 7; V. 2. 2. 14; V. 3. 5. 8; V. 4. 5. 7; V. 5. 2. 7) to whom animals are sacrificed (S.B. III. 9. l. 7; V. 5. 4. 1; XII. 7. 2. 3) and who is the same as Vak or Vagdevi who became a lioness and went over to the Devatas, on their undertaking that to her offerings should be made before they were made to Agni (S.B. III. 5. 1. 21) and who bestows food (S.B. XII. 8. 2. 16); (2) Mahadeva or Mahesa, another form of Agni, in all his eight forms (S.B. VI. l. 3. 10 et seq.); (3) Rudra, (4) Vishnu, (5) Vinayaka (Ganesha), (6) Skanda (Kartikeya) (S.V.B. I. 4. 31 et seq.); (7) the Lingam or Phallus (7.A. X. 17) on whom they meditated during the daily Sandhya worship and who is the same as Shambhu riding on a bull, (8) Shiva (S.V.B. I. 2. 2). They also worshipped (9) the cow whom they called Bhagavati (A.B. V. 5. 2) and also (10) Indra, Varuna, Agni, Soma, Rudra, Pushan, the Ashvins, Surya and some other Deities. For purposes of attaining eternal bliss they worshipped Ratridevi (S.V.B. III. 8) and this Ratridevi is described as a girl growing into womanhood who bestows happiness. She has long and flowing hair, has in her hand a noose. If she is pleased, then all other Devas are pleased. She being pleased, offers boons, but the worshipper must reject the same and then he will gain freedom from rebirth. This is the worship of Ratri; it 83 requires no fasting and must be performed at night. The Mantras to be recited is the Ratri Sukta which commences with Ratri vakhyad (Rig Veda X. 127. 1) to be followed by aratri parthivam rajas. The Rig -Vidhana -Brahmana (IV. 19) which follows the Sama -Vidhana - Brahmana declares that the Ratri Sukta must be recited; the worship; the worship must be performed as a Sthalipaka -Yaja. Ratri is substantially the same with, but in form different from, Vagdevi; and they are sometimes worshipped as one and the same (Tait. Br. II. 4. 6. 10 et seq.). The Ratri Sukta describes her as black (R.V. X. 127. 2- 3). The portion of the Ratri Sukta which is included in the Khila portion of the Rig -Veda (R.V. Kh. 25) calls Ratri Devi by the name of Durga and this Mantra appears inTaittiriya Aranyaka (X. 1). She is described here, as the bearer of oblations; therefore, she is the same as Agni and as such she has tongues which are named as follows: (1) Kali, (2) Karali, (3) Manojava., (4) Sulohita, (5) Sudhumravarna, (6) Sphulingini, (7) Shucismita and these tongues loll out and by these tongues offerings are received (Grihya -Sangraha I. 13. 14). The Brihaddevata mentions that Aditi, Vak, Sarasvati and Durga are the same (II. 79). In conformity with the Vaidik system the Tantrik system of worship acknowledges that Om is the s upreme Bija (A.B. VII. 3. 6; II. l. 2; V. 5. 7; A.A. II. 3. 8; Chh. Up. I. l. 1 et seq.; 7.A. VII. 8; X. 63. 21 et seq.; Shakatayana, p. 106 (Op- pert); Panini VIII. 2. 87; Br. D. II. 127. 133; G.B. IX. l. 24; I. l. 17. 19; M.N.T.; II. 32) and they also acknowledge and use the Hinkara of the Vedas pronounced Hum (S.B. I. 4. 1. 2; IX. 1. 2. 3. 4; A.B. III. 2. 12; L.S.S. I. 10. 25; I. 1. 27; II. 1. 4; IV. 3. 22). The rules and practice of Acamana, and the bath are exactly the same as will be found on a comparison of chapter V of the Mahanirvana Tantra with the Snanasutra of Gobhila. The Tantras prefer to use single compounds instead of long sentences to express an idea and form one letter Mantras very much according to the Vaidik method. We also find the practice of Nyasa and Shuddhi foreshadowed in the Vedas as has been already mentioned. (See also S.B. VII. 5. 2. 12). The principal Devi of the Veda is Sarasvati, who is called Nagna in the Nighantu, expressing nudeness, and also referring to that age of a woman when womanhood has not expressed itself. If we again take these ideas with that of the Sama -Vidhana -Brahmana, we have the almost complete form of a Devi who is called at the present day 84 by the name of Kali. Another Devi whose worship is very popular at the present day is Durga, who has a lion for her carrier. It will have been observed that Vach turned herself into a lion, and after earnest solicitations went over to the Devas; and therefore, Vach and the lion are identically the same. We have already given references which show that Vach and Durga were the same; and these facts explain how Durga has a lion to carry her. The worship of Ratri is to be performed at night and therefore the worship of Kali must be a night performance; and therefore, must partake of all the features of a night performance; and these elements must be sought for in the Vaidi k Atiratra. The Atiratra is a performance of three Paryyayas or rounds of four Stotras and Shastras in each and at the end of each libations are offered, followed by drinking of Soma. The same rules and practices as in the Atiratra are substantially followed in the worship of the Devi Kali, bhang being very largely used under the name of Vijaya and Amrita. It will be remembered that the Devi of the Atiratra is Sarasvati. The principal male Devata of the Tantras is Mahadeva named also Shiva, Mahesa, Shambhu, Soma and also in a different aspect Rudra. Rudra and Mahadeva are admittedly Vaidik gods. Rudra is described as having bows and arrows and has hundred heads and thousand eyes (S.B. IV. l. l. 6.; Yajur Veda III. 27). Mahadeva is Maham devah, the great God (S.B. VI. l. 3. 16). It appears that the Mantras of the different aspects of Mahadeva, which are even now used by Tantriks, were known and used by the Vaidik people. I cannot, however, trace the name Mahesa in Vaidik literature. Shiva can be identified wit h Rudra Susheva, who is a kind god (S.B. V. 4. 4. 12). Mahadeva (Soma) is clad in a tiger skin which can be traced in Vaidik literature (S.B. V. 3. 5. 3; V. 4. 1. 11). Rudra is black, in the Tantras as well as in the Vedas. He is the same as Manyu with a Devi on each side of him (S.B. IX. l. 1. 6; XI. 6. 1. 12 and 13). In this connection, we must not fail to note some of the attributes of Vaidik Nirriti. Nirriti is black and is a terrible Devi and punishes those who do not offer Soma to her. She is the Devi of misfortunes and removes all misfortunes. She is the genetrix and she is fond of the cremation ground (S.B. VII. 2. 1; A.B. IV. 2. 4.) The Tantras direct the worship also of Ganesha, Kartika and Vishnu, for whose worship the Sama -Vidhana -Brahmana prescribes the singing of 85 certain Samans, known as the Vinayaka Samhita (S. V. 4. 5. 3. 3), Skanda - Samhita (S. V. 3. 2. l. 4) and the Vishnu -Samhita (S. U. 3. l. 3. 9) respectively. The Tantras also direct the use of certain figures which are called Yantras. These may be of various kinds and forms and may be used for various purposes. One of these which is constantly used, is a triangle within a square (M.N.T. Chap. V) and this can traced to the rules for the preparation of the Agnikshetra, or the Fire Altar of the Vaidik people (S.B. VI. l. l. 6). Another curious circumstance in connection with the altar, is, that both in the Vaidik and the Tantri k ritual, the heads of five animals are used in its preparation (S.B. VI. 2. l. 5 -8). The worship of the Lingam is foreshadowed by the Vaidik Deity Vishnu Shipivishta (R.V. VII. 1001, etc., Nirukta V. 2. 2) and the serpent which twines round Devas or Devis is foreshadowed by the Sarparaji, the Serpent Queen (S.B. IV. 6. 9. 17) who is the same as Vach. The facts collected here will, it is hoped, enable impartial readers to come to a definite conclusion as to the relationship of the Vaidik to the Tantrik rit ual. 86 CHAPTER FIVE. THE TANTRAS AND RELIGION OF THE SHAKTAS (What follows this bracket is a translation, done in literal fashion, from the German, of an article by the learned Sanskritist, Professor Winternitz, entitled \"Die Tantras und die Religion der Saktas\" published in the Berlin monthly, the Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1916, Heft. 3. The article does not show a complete comprehension of its subject- matter, nor was this to be expected. In European fashion Sadhaka is translated \"Magician\" and Sadhana is thought of as \"magical evocation\" and Mahayogini as \"Great Magician\". This is the more unfortunate, as the Professor evidently does not like \"magic\". It is true that in Indrajalavidya there is Sadhana to achieve its purposes, but what is of course meant is Sadhana in its religious sense. We hear again of \"idolatry\" though idolatry is not (in the sense in which those who make the charge use the word) to be found in any part of the world. Mantra is still \"gibberish,\" \"trash\" and so on. After all, many of these matters are as much a question of temperament as argument. The mind which takes these views is like that of the Protestant who called the Catholic Mass \"Hocus Pocus\". It is superstitious trash to him but a holy reality to the believer. Such criticism involves the fallacy of judging others from one's own subjective standpoi nt. Moreover, not one man in thousands is capable of grasping the inner significance of this doctrine and for this reason it is kept secret nor does any writing reveal it to those without understanding. The learned Professor has also evidently no liking for \"Occultism\" and \"India - faddists\" (Indiensschwarmern). But the former exists whether we like its facts or not. Nevertheless, in reading this article one feels oneself in the presence of a learned mind which wills to be fair and is not to be stampeded from investigation on hearing the frightful word \"Tantra\". Several appreciations are just. Particularly noteworthy is the recognition that the Tantra Shastras or Agamas are not merely some pathological excrescence on \"Hinduism\" but simply one of its several pr esentations. Nor are they simply Scriptures of the Shaktas. Their metaphysics and ethics are those of the common Brahmanism of which all the sects are offshoots, whatever be 87 the special peculiarities in presentment of doctrine or in its application. Before this Professor Albert Grunwedel had said (in his Der Weg Nach Sambhala, Munchen 1915): \"The Tantras are nothing but the continuation of the Veda\" (Die Tantras, sind eben die fortsetzung des Veda). He calls also the Tantras the \"model -room\" (Akt -saal) of Indian Art (the Akt -saal is a room in an Academy of Art in which casts are kept as models for the students). \"These Scriptures,\" he adds, \"furnish the aesthetics and in fact we find that in the later books (of the Kalacakra) the whole figurative mythology (of that system) has been built upon this scheme. Whence this evolution of forms arises is indeed another question which will bring many a surprise to the friends of 'National Indian Art' (sic!). Talking is easier. The Jains too have such things.\" I may add that the fact that some Jains carry out some so- called \"Tantrik rites\" is not generally known. Vaishnavas and Bauddhas also have these rites. Notions and practices generally charged to Shaktas only are held and carried out by other sects. It is to be remembered also that there are many schools of Agama. Some of them state that other Agamas were promulgated \"for the delusion of men\". It is needless to add that, here as elsewhere, to the adherent of a particular Agama his particular scripture is good, and it is the scripture of his opponent which is \"for delusion\". Orthodoxy is \"my doxy\" in India also amongst some sects. Shakta liberalism (being Advaita Vedanta) finds a place for all. It cannot, therefore, be said the Agamas are wholly worthless and bad witho ut involving all Hinduism in that charge. On the contrary the Professor discovers that behind the \"nonsense\" there may be a deep sense and that \"immorality\" is not the end or aim of the Cult of the Mother. He also holds that if the Tantrik Scriptures conta in some things to which he and others take objection, such things in no wise exhaust their contents. There is nothing wonderful about this discovery, which anyone may make for himself by simply reading and understanding the documents, but the wonder consis ts in this, that it has not hitherto been thought necessary (where it has been possible) to read and understand the Tantra Shastras first and then to criticize them. All the greater then are our thanks to the learned Sanskritist for his share in this work of justice. -- J. W.) 88 India remains still the most important country on earth for the student of religion. In India we meet with all forms of religious thought and feeling which we find on earth, and that not only at different times but also all together ev en to -day. Here we find the most primitive belief in ancestral Spirits, in Demons and Nature Deities with a primeval, imageless sacrificial cult. Here also is a polytheism passing all limits, with the most riotous idolatry, temple cult, pilgrimages, and so forth. And, side by side with and beyond these crudest forms of religious life, we find what is deepest and most abstract of what religious thinkers of all times have ever thought about the Deity, the noblest pantheistic and the purest monotheistic concep tions. In India we also find a priestcraft as nowhere else on earth side by side with a religious tolerance which lets sect after sect, with the most wonderful saints, exist together. Here there were and still are forest recluses, ascetics, and mendicant monks, to whom renunciation of this world is really and truly a matter of deepest sincerity, and together with them hosts of idle mendicant monks, vain fools and hypocrites, to whom religion is only a cloak for selfish pursuits for the gratification of gree d for money, of greed for fame or the hankering after power. From India also a powerful stream of religious ideas has poured forth over the West, and especially over the East, has flooded Central Asia, has spread over Tibet, China, Korea and Japan, and has trickled through the further East down to the remotest islands of the East Indian Archipelago. And finally, in India as well as outside India, Indian religions have often mixed with Christianity and with Islam, now giving and now taking. Indeed, sufficient reason exists to welcome every work which contributes in one way or other to a richer, deeper or wider knowledge of Indian religion. I would like, therefore, to draw attention in what follows to some recently published works of this nature. These are the exceedingly meritorious publications of Arthur Avalon with reference to the literature of the Tantras. Through these works we obtain, for the first time, a deeper insight into the literature of the Tantras, the holy books of Shaktism, and into the nature of this much abused religion itself. It is true that H. H. Wilson in his essays on the religious sects of the Hindus which appeared from 1828 to 1832 has given a brief but relatively reliable 89 and just exposition of this religion. M. Monier -Williams who has treated more fully of Shaktism, worship of the Goddess, and the contents of the Tantras, has only to tell terrible and horrible things. He describes the faith of the Shaktas, of the worshippers of the feminine Deities, as a mixture of sanguinary sacrifice s and orgies with wine and women. Similar is the picture of this sect presented by A. Barth who on the one hand indeed admits that the Cult of the Mother is based on a deep meaning and that the Tantras are also full of theosophical and moral reflections and ascetic theories, but is not thereby prevented from saying that the Shakta is \"nearly always a hypocrite and a superstitious debauchee\", even though many amongst the authors of the Tantras may have really believed that they were performing a sacred work. R. G. Bhandarkar, to whom we owe the latest and most reliable exposition of Indian sectarianism, happens in fact to deal with the Shaktas very summarily. Whereas the greater part of his excellent book deals with the religion of the Vaishnavas and with the sects of the Shaivas, he only devotes a few pages to the sect of the Shaktas which evidently seems unimportant to him. He speaks, however, both about the metaphysical doctrines and about the cult of this sect, with in every way, the cool, quiet objectivity of the historian. The exposition is only a little too brief and meager. So, all the more are Avalon's books welcome. The most valuable is the complete English translation of a Tantra, the Mahanirvana Tantra with an Introduction of 146 pages which introdu ces us to the chief doctrines of the Shaktas and with the exceedingly complicated, perhaps purposely confused, terminology of the Tantras. If we have been accustomed, up till the present, to see nothing else in Shaktism and in the Tantras, the sacred books of this sect, than wild superstition, occult humbug, idiocy, empty magic and a cult with a most objectionable morality, and distorted by orgies -- then a glimpse at the text made accessible to us by Avalon, teaches us that -- all these things are indeed t o be found in this religion and in its sacred texts, but that by these their contents are nevertheless, in no wise exhausted. On the contrary, we rather find that behind the nonsense there lies hidden after all much deep sense and that immorality is not the end and aim of the cult of the Mother. We find that the mysticism of the Tantras has been built 90 up on the basis of that mystic doctrine of the unity of the soul and of all with the Brahman, which is proclaimed in the oldest Upanishads and which belongs to the most profound speculations which the Indian spirit has imagined. This Brahman however, the highest divine principle, is, according to the doctrines of the Shakta philosophers, no \"nothing\", but the eternal, primeval Energy (Shakti) out of which everything has been created, has originated, has been born. Shakti \"Energy\", however is not only grammatically feminine. Human experience teaches also that all life is born from the womb of the woman, from the mother. Therefore the Indian thinkers, from whom Shaktism has originated, believed that the highest Deity, the supremest creative principle, should be brought nearest to the human mind not through the word \"Father,\" but through the word \"Mother\". And all philosophical conceptions to which language has given a feminine gender, as well as all mythological figures which appear feminine in popular belief, become Goddesses, Divine Mothers. So, before all, there is Prakriti, taken from the Samkhya philosophy, primeval matter, \"Nature,\" who stands in contrast to Purusha, the male spirit, and is identical with Shakti. And this Shakti is, again, mythologically conceived as the spouse of God Shiva, Mahadeva, the \"Great God\". Mythology, however, knew already Uma or Parvati, \"the daughter of the Mountain,\" the daughter of the Himalaya, as the spouse of Shiva. And so Prakriti, Shakti, Uma, Parvati, are ever one and the same. They are only different names for the one great All - Mother, the Jaganmata, \"the Mother of all the living\". The Indian mind had been long since accustomed to see Unity in all Multiplicity. Just as one moon reflects itself in innumerable waters, so Devi, the \"Goddess,\" by whatever other names she may be otherwise called, is the embodiment of all Gods and of all \"energies\" (Shaktis) of the Gods. Within her is Brahma, the Creator, and his Shakti; within her is Vishnu, the Preserver, and his Shakti; within her is also Shiva as Mahakala, \"great Father Time\", the great Destroyer. But as this one is swallowed up by herself, she is also Adyakalika, the \"primordial Kali\"; and as a \"great magician,\" Mahayogini, she is at the same time Creatrix, Preservatrix, and Destroyer of the world. She is also the mother of Mahakala, who dances before her, intoxicated by the wine of Madhuka blossoms. As, however, the highest Deity is a woman, every woman is regarded as an embodiment of this Deity. Devi, \"the Goddess\", is 91 within every feminine being. This conception it is, which has led to a woman worship which, undoubtedly, has taken the shape, in many circles, of wild orgies, b ut which also -- at least according to the testimony of the Mahanirvana Tantra -- could appear in a purer and nobler form, .and has as surely done so. To the worship of the Devi, the Goddess, who is the joyously creative energy of nature, belong the \"five true things\" (Pancatattva) through which mankind enjoy gladly, preserve their life and procreate; intoxicating drink which is a great medicine to man, a breaker of sorrows and a source of pleasure; meat of the animals in the villages, in the air and in the forests, which is nutritious and strengthens the force of body and mind; fish which is tasty and augments procreative potency; roasted corn which, easily obtained, grows in the earth and is the root of life in the three worlds; and fifthly physical union with Shakti \"the source of bliss of all living beings, the deepest cause of creation and the root of the eternal world.\" But these \"five true things\" may only be used in the circle of initiates, and only after they have been consecrated by sacred formulas and ceremonies. The Mahanirvana Tantra lays stress on the fact that no abuse may be made of these five things. Who drinks immoderately is no true worshipper of the Devi. Immoderate drinking, which disturbs seeing and thinking, destroys the effect of the sa cred action. In the sinful Kali age also, only the own spouse should be enjoyed as Shakti. In everything the Tantra takes all imaginable trouble to excuse the Pancatattva ceremonies and to prevent their abuse. In the Kali age sweets (milk, sugar, honey) must be used instead of intoxicating drink, and the adoration of the lotus feet of the Devi should be substituted for the physical union. The worship should not be secret, indecencies should not occur, and evil, impious people should not be admitted to the circle of the worshippers. True, it is permissible for the \"Hero\" (Vira) who is qualified to the Sadhaka or \"magician\" to unite in secret worship with other Shaktis. Only in the highest \"heavenly condition\" (Divyabhava) of the saint do purely symbolical actions take the place of the \"five true things\". But to the worship of the Devi belong in the first place Mantras (formulas) and Bijas (monosyllabic mysterious words like Aim, Klim, Hrim etc.); further also Yantras (diagrams of a mysterious meaning, drawn on metal, paper or 92 other material), Mudras (special finger positions and hand movements) and Nyasas. (These last consist in putting the tips of the fingers and the flat of the right hand, with certain mantras, on the various parts of the body, in order by th at to fill one's own body with the life of the Devi.) By the application of all these means the worshipper renders the Deity willing and forces him into his service, and becomes a Sadhaka, a magician. For Sadhana, \"Magic,\" is the chief aim, though not the final aim of Devi worship. This highest and final aim is the same as that of all Indian sects and religious systems; Moksha or deliverance, the unification with the Deity in Mahanirvana, the \"great extinction\". The perfected saint, the Kaula, reaches this condition already in the present life and is one who is liberated whilst living (Jivanmukta). But the way to deliverance can only be found through the Tantras. For Veda, Smriti, Puranas and Itihasa are each the sacred books of past ages of the world, whils t for our present evil age, the Kali age, the Tantras have been revealed by Shiva for the salvation of mankind (I, 20 ff.) The Tantras thus on the strength of their own showing indicate themselves to be relatively modern works. In the present age Vedic and other rites and prayers have no value but only the mantras and ceremonies taught in the Tantras (II, 1 K). And just as the worship of the Devi leads equally to thoroughly materialistic results through magic and to the highest ideal of Nirvana, so there is a strong mixture in the worship itself of the sensuous and the spiritual. Characteristic is Mahanirvana Tantra V, 139 -151 (P. 86 K): The worshipper first offers to the Devi spiritual adoration, dedicating to her his heart as her seat, the nectar of his heart as the water for washing her feet, his mind as a gift of honor, the restlessness of his senses and thoughts as a dance, selflessness, dispassionateness, and so forth as flowers, but then he offers to the Devi an ocean of intoxicating drink, a mountain of meat and dried fish, a heap of roasted corn in milk, with sugar and butter, \"nectar\" and other things. Besides the \"five true things\" and other elements of this most sensuous worship which is calculated to produce the intoxication of the senses, and in which also bells, incense, flowers, lights and rosaries are not lacking, there is also the quiet contemplation (Dhyana) of the Deity. And likewise, we find side by side with mantras which are completely senseless and insipid such beautiful sayings as, for instance, V, 156: \"O Adya Kali, who 93 dwellest in the innermost soul of all, who art the innermost light,O Mother! Accept this prayer of my heart. I bow down before thee.\" The Shaktas are a sect of the religion which is commonly designated \"Hinduism,\" a term which is a facile one but which has not been chosen very happily. The word embraces all the sects and creeds which have originated from Brahmanism through a mixture with the cults of the aborigines of India and thus present a kind of degeneration of the old Brahmanical religion, but which still hold fast more or less, to orthodox Brahmanism and so distinguish themselves from the heretical sects (Buddhists and Jains). In reality there is strictly no sense in speaking of \"Hinduism\" as a \"system\" or as one \"religion\". For it is impossible to say where Brahmanism ends and where \"Hinduism\" begins. We are also altogether ignorant as to how much the old Brahmanic religion had already assimilated from the faith and the customs of the non- Aryan populace. For it is not admissible to classify without further ado all animal worship, all demon worship, all fetichism and so on as \"non- Aryan\". In reality, all sects of \"Hinduism\" which are related to a worship of Vishnu or of Shiva, are nothing but offshoots of the original Brahmanism, which they never, however, deny. So also Shaktism has as a special characteristic merely the worship of the Shaktis, of the female deities, with its accessory matter (of the \"five true things,\" the worship in the cakra or \"circle\" of the initi ates, and so on). For the rest, its dogmatics -- or if it be preferred, its metaphysics -- as well as its ethics are altogether those of Brahmanism, of which also the essential ritual institutions have been preserved. In dogmatics it is the teachings of th e orthodox systems of the Vedanta and the Samkhya, which meet us also in the Tantras clearly enough, sometimes even under the trash of senseless magic formulas. And as far as ethics are concerned, the moral teaching in the VIII chapter of the Mahanirvana Tantra reminds us from beginning to end of Manu's Code, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Buddhist sermons. Notwithstanding the fact that in the ritual proper of the Shakta there are no caste differences but in Shakti worship all castes as well as the sexes are equal yet, in harmony with Brahmanism, the castes are recognized with this modification that a fifth caste is added to the four usual ones, which springs from the mixture of the four older ones, namely, the caste of the Samanyas. Whilst Manu, however, distin guishes four Ashramas or statuses of life, the Mahanirvana 94 Tantra teaches that, there are only two Ashramas in the Kali age, the status of the householder and that of the ascetic. For the rest, everything which is taught in our Tantra about the duties towards parents, towards wife and child, towards relations and in general towards fellow -men, might find a place, exactly in the same way, in any other religious book or even in a profane manual of morals. As an example we may quote only a few verses from this Chapter VIII: (vv. 24, 25, 33, 35, 39, 45 -47, 63- 67). The duties of each of the castes as well as the duties of the king are not prescribed much differently from Manu. Family life is estimated very highly by the Mahanirvana Tantra. So it is rigorously prescribed that no one is allowed to devote himself to the ascetic life who has children, wives, or such like near relations to maintain. Entirely in consonance with the prescriptions of the Brahmanic texts also are the \"sacraments from conception until the marriage which are described in the 9th chapter of the Mahanirvana Tantra (Samskaras). Likewise in the 10th chapter the direction for the disposal and the cult of the dead (Shraddha) are given. A peculiarity of the Shaktas in connection with marriage consis ts in the fact that side by side with the Brahma marriage for which the Brahmanic prescriptions are valid, there is also a Shaiva marriage, that is kind of marriage for a limited period which is only permitted to the members of the circle (Cakra) of the initiates. But children out of such a marriage are not legitimate and do not inherit. So far Brahmanic law applies also to the Shaktas, and so the section concerning civil and criminal law in the 11th and 12th chapters of the Mahanirvana Tantra substantially agree with Manu. Of course, notwithstanding all this, the Kauladharma expounded in the Tantra is declared the best of all religions in an exuberant manner and the veneration of the Kula -saint is praised as the highest merit. It is said in a well - known Buddhist text: \"As, ye monks, there is place for every kind of footprints of living beings that move in the footprint of the elephant, because, as is known indeed, the footprint of the elephant is the first in size amongst all, so, ye monks, all salutary doctrines are contained in the four noble truths.\" So it is said in the Mahanirvana Tantra, (probably in recollection of the Buddhist passage): \"As the footprints of all animals 95 disappear in the footprint of the elephant, so disappear all other religions (dhar ma) in the Kula religion (kula -dharma) .\" From what has been said it is clear that Avalon is right when he declares that up till now this literature has been only too often judged and still more condemned without knowing it, and that the Tantras deserve to become better known than has been the case hitherto. From the point of view of the history of religion they are already important for the reason that they have strongly influenced Mahayana Buddhism and specially the Buddhism of Tibet. It is, therefore, mu ch to be welcomed that Avalon has undertaken to publish a series of texts and translations from this literature. It is true that we have no desire to be made acquainted with all the 3 x 64 Tantras which are said to exist. For -- this should not be denied, that for the greatest part these works contain, after all, only stupidity and gibberish (\"doch nur Stumpfsinn und Kauderwelsch\"). This is specially true of the Bijas and Mantras, the mysterious syllables and words and the magic formulas which fill these vo lumes. To understand this gibberish only to a certain degree and to bring some sense into this stupidity, it is necessary to know the Tantric meaning of the single vowels and consonants. For, amongst the chief instruments of the magic which plays such a gr eat part in these texts, belongs the spoken word. It is not the meaning embedded in the mantra which exercises power over the deity, but the word, the sound. Each sound possesses a special mysterious meaning. Therefore, there are special glossaries in whic h this mysterious meaning of the single vowels and consonants. is taught. A few of such glossaries, indispensable helps for the Sadhaka, or rather the pupil who wants to develop himself into Sadhaka, have been brought to light in the first volume of the series of Tantric Texts, published by Avalon: The Mantrabhidhana belonging to the Rudrayamala, Ekaksharakosha ascribed to Purushottamadeva, the Bijanighantu of Bhairava and two Matrikanighantus, the one by Mahidhara, the other by Madhava. Added to these is one other auxiliary text of this same kind, the Mudranighantu, belonging to the Vamakeshvara Tantra, an enumeration of the finger positions as they are used in Yoga. The second volume of the same series of Texts contains the text of the Satcakranirupana, the \"description of the six circles,\" together with no 96 less than three commentaries. The \"six circles\" are six places in the human body, imagined as lotus -shaped, of great mystical significance and therefore of great importance for Yoga. The first of these c ircles is Muladhara, which is described as a triangle in the middle of the body with its point downwards and imagined as a red lotus with four petals on which are written the four golden letters Vam, Sham, Sham and Sham. In the center of this lotus is Svay ambhulinga. At the root of this reddish brown linga the Citrininadi opens, through which the Devi Kundalini ascends, more delicate than a lotus fiber and more effulgent than lightning, and so on. The Satcakranirupana is the chapter of the Shritattvacintamani composed by Purnananda Swami. In addition the volume contains the text of a hymn, entitled Paduka -pacakam, which is said to have been revealed by Shiva, and a voluminous commentary. The third volume of the Series contains the text of the Prapacasaratantra which is ascribed to the Vedantic philosopher Shamkaracarya, and by others to the deity Shiva in his incarnation as Shamkaracarya. The name Samara appears fairly often in Tantra literature, but it is not at all sure that the works in question really c ome from the Philosopher. Avalon prefaces the text by a detailed description of the contents of the work. Prapaca means \"extension,\" \" the extended Universe\" from which, \"Prapacasara\" \"the innermost being of the universe\". The work begins with a description of creation, accompanied, in the first two chapters, by detailed expositions of Chronology, Embryology, Anatomy, Physiology and Psychology, which are exactly as \"scientific,' as both the following chapters which treat of the mysterious meaning of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and of the Bijas. The further chapters which partly contain rituals, partly prayers, meditations and Stotras, are of greater importance from the standpoint of the history of religion. To how high a degree in the Shakti cult the erotic element predominates, is shown in IX, 23 ff., where a description is given, \"how the wives of the gods, demons, and demi -gods impelled by mantras come to the magician, the Sadhaka, oppressed by the greatness of their desires\". In the XVIII chapt er, the mantras and the dhyanas (meditations) for the adoration of the God of love and his Shaktis are taught, and the union of man and woman is represented as a mystic union 97 of the \"I\" (Ahamkara) with perception (Buddhi) and as a sacred sacrificial action. When a man honors his beloved wife in such a way, she will, struck by the arrows of the God of love, follow him like a shadow even in the other world (XVIII, 33). The XXVIII chapter is devoted to Ardhanarishvara, the God who is half woman -- Shiva, represented as a wild looking man, forms the right- hand half of the body, and his Shakti represented as a voluptuous woman, the left -hand half. The XXXIII chapter which seems to have originally closed the work describes in its first part ceremonies against childlessness, the cause of which is indicated as lack of veneration of the Gods and neglect of the wife. The second part is connected with the relation between teacher and pupil which is of extreme importance for the Shakta religion. Indeed, worship of t he Guru, the teacher, plays a prominent part in this sect. However, the rituals and Mantras described in this Tantra are not exclusively connected with the different forms of the Devi and Shiva, but Vishnu and his Avataras are also often honored. The XXXVI chapter contains a disquisition on Vishnu Trailokyamohana (the Enchanter of the triple world) in verses 35 - 47 translated by Avalon. It is a description, glowing and sensuous (Voll sinnlicher Glut.): Vishnu shines like millions of suns and is of infinite b eauty. Full of goodness his eye rests on Shri, his spouse, who embraces him, full of love. She too is of incomparable beauty. All the Gods and Demons and their wives offer homage to the August Pair. The Goddesses, however, press themselves in a burning yearning of love towards Vishnu, whilst exclaiming: \"Be our husband, our refuge, August Lord!\" In addition to this passage Avalon has also translated the hymns to Prakriti (Chapter XI), to Vishnu (Chapter XXI) and to Shiva (Chapter XXVI). Of these hymns the s ame holds good as of the collection of hymns to the Devi, which Avalon, together with his wife, has translated in a separate volume. Whilst many of these texts are mere insipid litanies of names and epithets of the worshipped deities, there are others, which, as to profoundness of thought and beauty of language may be put side by side with the best productions of the religious lyrics of the Indians. So the hymn to Prakriti in the Prapacasara XI, 48, begins with the words: \"Be gracious to me,O Pradhana, who art Prakriti in the form of the elemental world. Life of all that lives. With folded hands I make obeisance to 98 thee our Lady, whose very nature it is to do that which we cannot understand.\" It is intelligible that the poets have found much more intimate c ries of the heart when they spoke of the Deity as their \"Mother\" than when they addressed themselves to God as Father. So, for instance, it is said in a hymn to the Goddess ascribed to Shamkara: 2 By my ignorance of They commands By my poverty and sloth I had not the power to do that which I should have done Hence my omission to worship Thy feet. But Oh Mother, auspicious deliverer of all, All this should be forgiven me For, a bad son may sometimes be born, but a bad mother never. 3 Oh Mother! Thou hast many sons on earth, But I, your son, am of no worth; Yet it is not meet that Thou shouldst abandon me For, a bad son may sometimes be born, but a bad mother never. 4 Oh Mother of the world, Oh Mother! I have not worshipped Thy feet, Nor have I given abundant wealth to Thee, 99 Yet the affection which Thou bestowest on me is without compare, For, a bad son may sometimes be born, but a bad mother never. Avalon looks with great sympathy on the Shakta religion which has found the highest expression for the divine pri nciple in the conception \"Mother\". He is of opinion that when the European thinks that it is a debasement of the deity to conceive of it as feminine, then this can only be because he \"looks upon his mother's sex as lower than his own\" and because he thinks it unworthy of the deity to conceive it otherwise than masculine. That the conception of the Indian and especially of the Shakta is, in this connection, the more unbiased and unprejudiced one, we will freely concede to Avalon. He, however, goes still further and believes that the Tantras not only have an interest from the point of view of the history of religion, but that they also possess an independent value as manuals of Sadhana, that is magic. However grateful we might be to the editor and translator of these texts for having made us better acquainted with a little known and much misunderstood Indian system of religion, we yet would hope to be saved from the possibility of seeing added to the Vedantists, Neo -Buddhists, Theosophists and other India -fattest (Indiensschwarmern) in Europe and America, adherents of the Sadhana of the Shakti cult. The student of religion cannot and may not leave the Tantras and Shaktism unnoticed. They have their place in the history of religion. But, may this occultism, which often flows from very turbid sources -- (this word should not be translated as \"Secret Science\" thus abusing the sacred name of Science, but rather as \"Mystery Mongering\" Geheimtuerei) remain far away from our intellectual life. (To the above may be added a recent criticism of M. Masson Oursel of the College de France in the Journal Isis (iii, 1920) which is summarized and translated from the French: \"The obscurity of language, strangeness of thought and rites sometimes adjudged scandalous, have turned awa y from the study of the immense Tantrik literature even the most courageous savants. If, however, the Tantras have appeared to be a mere mass of 100 aberrations, it is because the key to them was unknown. The Tantras are the culmination of the whole Indian lit erature. Into them How both the Vedic and popular cults. Tantricism has imposed itself on the whole Hindu mentality (le Tantrisme, est impos a toute la mentalit hindoue). Arthur Avalon has undertaken with complete success a task which in appearance seems to be a thankless one but is in reality fecund of results.\" The article of Dr. Winternitz deals largely with the Mahanirvana Tantra. Because objections cannot be easily found against this Tantra, the theory has been lately put forward by Dr. Farquhar in his last work on Indian Literature that this particular scripture is exceptional and the work of Ram Mohun Roy's Guru Hariharananda Bharati. The argument is in effect \"All Tantras are bad; this is not bad: therefore it is not a Tantra.\" In the first place , the MS. referred to in the Preface to A. Avalon's translation of this Tantra as having been brought to Calcutta, was an old MS. having the date Shakabda 1300 odd, that is, several hundreds of years ago. Secondly, the Mahanirvana which belongs to the Visnukranta, or as some say Rathakranta, is mentioned in the Mahasiddhisara Tantra, an old copy of which was the property of Raja Sir Radhakant Dev (b. 1783 -- d. 1867), a contemporary of Raja Ram Mohun Roy (1774- 1833) who survived the latter's son. The earlie st edition of that Tantra by Anandacandra Vedantavagisha was published from a text in the Sanskrit College Library which is not likely to have had amongst its MSS. one which was the work of a man who, whatever be the date of his death, must have died within a comparatively short period of the publication of this edition. In fact, the Catalogue describes it as an old MS. and an original Tantra. Dr. Rajendralala Mitra in his notice of a MS. of the Tagore collection speaks of it as containing only the first ha lf of fourteen chapters. This is so. The second half is not published and is very rare. The Pandit's copy to which reference was made in the Preface to A.A.'s translation of the Mahanirvana contained both parts. How comes it that if the Tantra was written by Raja Ram Mohun Roy's Guru that we have only the first half and not the second containing amongst other things the so- called magic or Shatkarma. It should be mentioned that there are three Tantras -- the Nirvana, Brihannirvana and Mahanirvana Tantras, similar to the group Nila, 101 Brihannila and Mahanila Tantras. It is to be noted also that in the year 1293 B.S. or 1886 an edition of the Mahanirvana was published with commentary by a Samnyasin calling himself Shamkaracarya under the auspices of the Danda Shabha of Manikarnika Ghat, Benares, which contains more verses than is contained in the text, commented upon by Hariharananda and the interpretation of the latter as also that of Jagamohan Tarkalamkara, are in several matters controverted. We are asked to su ppose that Hariharananda was both the author of, and commentator on, the Tantra. That the Mahanirvana has its merits is obvious, but there are others which have theirs. The same critic speaks of the Prapacasara as a \"rather foul work\". This criticism is ridiculous. The text is published for any one to judge. All that can be said is what Dr. Winternitz has said, namely, that there are a few passages with sensuous erotic imagery. These are descriptive of the state of women in love. What is wrong here? There is nothing \"foul\" in this except for people to whom all erotic phenomena are foul. \"This is a very indecent picture,\" said an elderly lady to Byron, who retorted \"Madam, the indecency consists in your remark\". It cannot be too often asserted that the ancient East was purer in these matters than the modern West, where, under cover of a pruriently modest exterior, a cloaca of extraordinarly varied psychopathic filth may flow. This was not so in earlier days, whether of East or West, when a spade was called a spade and not a horticultural instrument. In America it is still, I am told, considered indecent to mention the word \"leg\". One must say \"limb\". Said Tertullian: \"Natura veneranda et non eru -bescenda\"; that is, where the knower venerates his unknowing critic blushes. The Prapacasara which does not even deal with the rite against which most objection has been taken (while the Mahanirvana does), treats of the creation of the world, the generation of bodies, physiology, the classification of the letters, the Kalas, initiation, Japa, Homa, the Gayatri Mantra, and ritual worship of various Devatas and so forth; with facts in short which are not \"foul\" with or without the qualifying \"rather\". (J. W.) 102 CHAPTER SIX. SHAKTI AND SHAKTA Shakti who is in Herself pure blissful Consciousness (Cidrupini) is also the Mother of Nature and is Nature itself born of the creative play of Her thought. The Shakta faith, or worship of Shakti, is I believe, in some of its essential features one of the oldest and most wide- spread religions in the world. Though very ancient, it is yet, in its essentials, and in the developed form in which we know it to- day, harmonious with some of the teachings of modern philosophy and science; not that this is necessarily a test of its truth. It may be here noted that in the West, and in particular in America and England, a large number of books are now being published on \"New Thought,\" \"Will Power,\" \"Vitalism,\" \"Creative Thought,\" \"Right Thought,\" \"Sel f Unfoldment,\" \"Secret of Achievement,\" \"Mental Therapeutics\" and the like, the principles of which are essentially those of some forms of Shakti Sadhana both higher and lower. There are books of disguised magic as how to control (Vashikarana) by making them buy what they do not want, how to secure \"affection\" and so forth which, not -withstanding some hypocrisies, are in certain respects on the same level as the Tantrik Shavara as a low class of books on magic are called. Shavara or Candala are amongst the lowest of men. The ancient and at the same time distinguishing character of the faith is instanced by temple worship (the old Vaidik worship was generally in the home or in the open by the river), the cult of images, of Linga and Yoni (neither of which, it is said, were part of the original Vaidik Practice), the worship of Devis and of the Magna Mater (the great Vaidik Devata was the male Indra) and other matters of both doctrine and practice. Many years ago Edward Sellon, with the aid of a learned Oriental ist of the Madras Civil Service, attempted to learn its mysteries, but for reasons, which I need not here discuss, did not view them from the right standpoint. He, however, compared the Shaktas with the Greek Telestica or Dynamica, the Mysteries of Dionysu s \"Fire born in the cave of initiation\" with the Shakti Puja, the Shakti Shodhana with the purification shown in d'Hancarvilles' \"Antique Greek Vases\"; and after referring to the frequent mention of this ritual in the writings of the Jews and other ancient authors, concluded that 103 it was evident that we had still surviving in India in the Shakta worship a very ancient, if not the most ancient, form of Mysticism in the whole world. Whatever be the value to be given to any particular piece of evidence, he was right in his general conclusion. For, when we throw our minds back upon the history of this worship we see stretching away into the remote and fading past the figure of the Mighty Mother of Nature, most ancient among the ancients; the Adya Shakti, the dusk Divinity, many breasted, crowned with towers whose veil is never lifted, Isis, \"the one who is all that has been, is and will be,\" Kali, Hathor, Cybele, the Cowmother Goddess Ida, Tripurasundari, the Ionic Mother, Tef the spouse of Shu by whom He effects the birth of all things, Aphrodite, Astarte in whose groves the Baalim were set, Babylonian Mylitta, Buddhist Tara, the Mexican Ish, Hellenic Osia, the consecrated, the free and pure, African Salambo who like Parvati roamed the Mountains, Roman Juno, Egypt ian Bast the flaming Mistress of Life, of Thought, of Love, whose festival was celebrated with wanton Joy, the Assyrian Mother Succoth Benoth, Northern Freia, Mulaprakriti, Semele, Maya, Ishtar, Saitic Neith Mother of the Gods, eternal deepest ground of al l things, Kundali, Guhyamahabhairavi and all the rest. And yet there are people who allege the \"Tantrik\" cult is modern. To deny this is not to say that there has been or will be no change or development in it. As man changes, so do the forms of his belief s. An ancient feature of this faith and one belonging to the ancient Mysteries is the distinction which it draws between the initiate whose Shakti is awake (Prabuddha) and the Pashu the unillumined or \"animal,\" and, as the Gnostics called him, \"material\" man. The Natural, which is the manifestation of the Mother of Nature, and the Spiritual or the Mother as She is in and by Herself are one, but the initiate alone truly recognizes this unity. He knows himself in all his natural functions as the one Conscious ness whether in enjoyment (Bhukti), or Liberation (Mukti). It is an essential principle of Tantrik Sadhana that man in general must rise through and by means of Nature, and not by an ascetic rejection of Her. A profoundly true principle is here involved whatever has been said of certain applications of it. When Orpheus transformed the old Bacchic cult, it was the purified who in the beautiful words of Euripides \"went dancing over the hills with the daughters of Iacchos\". I cannot, however, go into this matter in this paper which is concerned with some 104 general subjects and the ordinary ritual. But the evidence is not limited to mysteries of the Shakti Puja. There are features in the ordinary outer worship which are very old and widespread, as are also other p arts of the esoteric teaching. In this connection, a curious instance of the existence, beyond India, of Tantrik doctrine and practice is here given. The American Indian Maya Scripture of the Zunis called the Popul Vuh speaks of Hurakan or Lightning, that is (I am told) Kundalishakti; of the \"air tube\" or \"Whitecord\" or the Sushumna Nadi; of the \"two-fold air tube\" that is Ida and Pingala; and of various bodily centers which are marked by animal glyphs. Perhaps the Pacatattva Ritual followed by some of the adherents of the Tantras is one of the main causes which have operated in some quarters against acceptance of the authority of these Scriptures and as such responsible for the notion that the worship is modern. On the contrary, the usage of wine, meat, an d so forth is itself very old. There are people who talk of these rites as though they were some entirely new and comparatively modern invention of' the \"Tantra,\" wholly alien to the spirit and practice of the early times. If the subject be studied it will , I think. be found that in this matter those worshippers who practice these rites are (except possibly as to Maithuna) the continuators of very ancient practices which had their counterparts in the earlier Vaidikacara, but were subsequently abandoned. possibly under the influence of Jainism and Buddhism. I say \"counterpart,\" for I do not mean to suggest that in every respect the rites were the same. In details and as regards, I think, some objects in view, they differed. Thus we find in this Pacatattva Ritual a counterpart to the Vaidik usage of wine and animal food. As regards wine, we have the partaking of Soma; meat was offered in Mamsashtaka Shraddha; fish in the Ashtakashraddha and Pretashraddha; and Maithuna as a recognized rite will be found in the Vamadevya Vrata and Maravrata of universally recognized Vaidik texts, apart from the alleged, and generally unknown, Saubhagykanda of the Atharvaveda to which the Kalikopanishad and other \"Tantrik\" Upanishads are said to belong. Possibly, however, this element of Maithuna may be foreign and imported by Cinacara (see Ch. V). So again, as that distinguished scholar Professor Ramendra Sundara Trivedi has pointed out in his Vicitraprasanga, the Mudra of Pacatattva corresponds with the Purodasa cake of the Soma and other Yagas. The present rule of abstinence from 105 wine, and in some cases, meat is due, I believe, to the original Buddhism. It is so-called \"Tantriks,\" who follow (in and for their ritual only) the earlier practice. It is true that the Samhita of Usha nah says, \"Wine is not to be drunk, given or taken (Madyam apeyam adeyam agrahyam)\" but the yet greater Manu states, \"There is no wrong in the eating of meat or the drinking of wine (Na mamsabakshane dosho na madye)\" though he rightly adds, as many now do, that abstention therefrom is productive of great fruit (Nivrittistu mahaphala). The Tantrik practice does not allow extra -ritual or \"useless\" drinking (Vrithapana). Further, it is a common error to confound two distinct things, namely, belief and practice and the written records of it. These latter may be comparatively recent, whilst that of which they speak may be most ancient. When I speak of the ancient past of this faith I am not referring merely to the writings which exist today which are called Tantr as. These are composed generally in a simple Sanskrit by men whose object it was to be understood rather than to show skill in literary ornament. This simplicity is a sign of age. But at the same time it is Laukika and not Arsha Sanskrit. Moreover, there are statements in them which (unless interpolations) fix the limits of their age. I am not speaking of the writings themselves but of what they say. The faith that they embody, or at least its earlier forms, may have existed for many ages before it was redu ced to writing amongst the Kulas or family folk, who received it as handed down by tradition (Paramparyya) just as did the Vaidik Gotras. That such beliefs and practices, like all other things, have had their development in course of time is also a likely hypothesis. A vast number of Tantras have disappeared probably for ever. Of those which survive a large number are unknown. Most of those which are available are of fragmentary character. Even if these did appear later than some other Shastras, this would not, on Indian principles, affect their authority. According to such principles the authority of a Scripture is not determined by its date; and this is sense. Why, it is asked, should something said 1,000 years ago be on that account only truer than what was said 100 years ago? It is held that whilst the teaching of the Agama is ever existent, particular Tantras are constantly being revealed and withdrawn. There is no objection against a Tantra merely because it was revealed to- day. When it is 106 said that Shi va spoke the Tantras, or Brahma wrote the celebrated Vaishnava poem called the Brahmasamhita, it is not meant that Shiva and Brahma materialized and took a reed and wrote on birch bark or leaf, but that the Divine Consciousness to which men gave these and other names inspired a particular man to teach, or to write, a particular doctrine or work touching the eternally existing truth. This again does not mean that there was any one whispering in his ear, but that these things arose in his consciousness. What is done in this world is done through man. There is a profounder wisdom than is generally acknowledged in the saying \"God helps those who help themselves\". Inspiration too never ceases. But how, it may be asked, are we to know that what is said is right and true? The answer is \"by its fruits.\" The authority of a Shastra is determined by the question whether Siddhi is gained through its provisions or not. It is not enough that \"Shiva uvaca\" (Shiva says) is writ in it. The test is that of Ayurveda. A medicine is a true one if it cures. The Indian test for everything is actual experience. It is from Samadhi that the ultimate proof of Advaitavada is sought. How is the existence of Kalpas known? It is said they have been remembered, as by the Buddha who is record ed as having called to mind 91 past Kalpas. There are arguments in favor of rebirth but that which is tendered as real proof is both the facts of ordinary daily experience which can, it is said, be explained only on the hypothesis of pre -existence; as also actual recollection by self- developed individuals of their previous lives. Modern Western methods operate through magnetic sleep producing \"regression of memory\". (See A. de Rochas Les Vies Successives and Lancelin La Uie Posthume.) Age, however, is not wholly without its uses: because one of the things to which men look to see in a Shastra is whether it has been accepted or quoted in works of recognized authority. Such a test of authenticity can, of course, only be afforded after the lapse of considerable time. But it does not follow that a statement is in fact without value because, owing to its having been made recently, it is not possible to subject it to such a test. This is the way in which this question of age and authority is looked at on Indian pri nciples. A wide survey of what is called orthodox \"Hinduism\" today (whatever be its origins) will disclose the following results: Vedanta in the sense of Upanishad as its common doctrinal basis, though variously interpreted, and a 107 great number of differing disciplines or modes of practice by which the Vedanta doctrines are realized in actual fact. We must carefully distinguish these two. Thus the Vedanta says \"So'ham\"; which is Hamsha. \"Hakara is one wing; Sakara is the other. When stripped of both wings She, Tara, is Kamakala.\" (Tantraraja Tantra.) The Acaras set forth the means by which \"So'ham\" is to be translated into actual fact for the particular Sadhaka. Sadhana comes from the root \"Sadh\" which means effort or striving or accomplishment. Effort for and towards what? The answer for those who desire it is liberation from every form in the hierarchy of forms, which exist as such, because consciousness has so limited itself as to obscure the Reality which it is, and which \"So'ham\" or \"Shivo'ham\" affirms. And why should man liberate himself from material forms? Because it is said, that way only lasting happiness lies: though a passing, yet fruitful bliss may be had here by those who identify themselves with active Brahman (Shakti). It is the actual experienc e of this declaration of 'So'ham\" which in its fundamental aspect is Veda: knowledge (Vid) or actual Spiritual Experience, for in the monistic sense to truly know anything is to be that thing. This Veda or experience is not to be had sitting down thinking vaguely on the Great Ether and doing nothing. Man must transform himself, that is, act in order to know. Therefore, the watchword of the Tantras is Kriya or action. The next question is what Kriya should be adopted towards this end of Jana. \"Tanyate, vistaryate janam anena iti Tantram.\" According to this derivation of the word Tantra from the root \"Tan\" \"to spread,\" it is defined as the Shastra, by which knowledge (Jana) is spread. Mark the word Jana. The end of the practical methods which these Shastra s employ is to spread Vedantic Jana. It is here we find that variety which is so puzzling to those who have not gone to the root of the religious life of India. The end is substantially one. The means to that end necessarily vary according to knowledge, capacity, and temperament. But here again we may analyze the means into two main divisions, namely, Vaidik and Tantrik, to which may be added a third or the mixed (Mishra). The one body of Hinduism reveals as it were, a double framework represented by the V aidik and Tantrik Acaras, which have in certain instances been mingled. 108 The word \"Tantra\" by itself simply means as I have already said \"treatise\" and not necessarily a religious scripture. When it has the latter significance, it may mean the Scripture of several divisions of worshippers who vary in doctrine and practice. Thus there are Tantras of Salvias, Vaishnavas, and Shaktas and of various sub -divisions of these. So amongst the Salvias there are the Salvias of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Advaita Shaiva o f the Kashmir School, Pashupatas and a multitude of other sects which have their Tantras. If \"Tantric\" be used as meaning an adherent of the Tantra Shastra, then the word, in any particular case, is without definite meaning. A man to whom the application i s given may be a worshipper of any of the Five Devatas (Surya, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti) and of any of the various Sampradayas worshipping that Devata with varying doctrine and practice. The term is a confusing one, though common practice compels its use. So far as I know, those who are named, \"Tantrics\" do not themselves generally use this term but call themselves Shaktas, Salvias and the like, of whatever Sampradaya they happen to be. Again Tantra is the name of only one class of Scripture followed by \"Tantrics\". There are others, namely, Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas, Damaras, Uddishas, Kakshaputas and so forth. None of these names are used to describe the adherents of these Shastras except, so far as I am aware, Agama in the use of the term Agamavadin, and Agamanta in the descriptive name of Agamanta Shaiva. I give later a list of these Scriptures as contained in the various Agamas. If we summarize them shortly under the term Tantra Shastra, or preferably Agama, then we have four main classes of Indian Scripture, namely, Veda (Samhita, Brahmana, Upanishad), Agama or Tantra Shastra, Purana, Smriti. Of these Shastras the authority of the Agama or Tantra Shastra has been denied in modern times. This view may be shown to be erroneous by reference to Shastras of admitted authority. It is spoken of as the Fifth Veda. Kulluka Bhatta, the celebrated commentator on Manu, says: \"Shruti is twofold, Vaidik and Tantrik (Vaidiki tantriki caiva dvividha srutih lurtita)\". This refers to the Mantra portion of the Agamas. In the Great Vaishnava Shastra, the Srimad Bhagavata, Bhagavan says: \"My worship is of the three kinds -- Vaidik, Tantrik and Mixed (Mishra)\" and that, in Kaliyuga, \"Keshava is to be worshipped according to the injunction of Tantra.\" The Devibhagavata speaks of the Tantra Shastra as a Vedanga. It is cited as 109 authority in the Ashtavimshati Tattva of Raghunandana who prescribes for the worship of Durga as before him had done Shridatta, Harinatha, Vidyadhara and many others. Some of these and other references a re given in Mahamahopadhyaya Yadaveshvara Tarkaratna's Tantrer Pracinatva in the Sahitpa Samhita of Aswin 1317. The Tarapradipa and other Tantrik works say that in the Kali -yuga the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma is to be followed. This objection abou t the late character and therefore unauthoritativeness of the Tantra Shastras generally (I do not speak of any particular form of it) has been taken by Indians from their European Gurus. According to the Shakta Scriptures, Veda in its wide sense does not o nly mean Rig, Yajus, Sama, Atharva as now published but comprises these together with the generally unknown and unpublished Uttara Kanda of the Atharva Veda, called Saubhagya, with the Upanishads attached to this. Sayana's Commentary is written on the Purva Kanda. These are said (though I have not yet verified she fact) to be 64 in number. Some of these, such as Advaitabhava, Kaula, Kalika, Tripura, Tara, Aruna Upanishads and Bahvricopanishad, Bhavanopanishad, I have published as the XI volume of Tantrik \"t exts. Aruna means \"She who is red\". Redness ( (Lauhityam) is Vimarsha. (See Vol. XI, Tantrik Texts. Ed. A. Avalon.) I may also here refer my reader to the Kaulacarya Satyananda's Commentary on the great Isha Upanishad. Included also in \"Veda\" (according to the same view) are the Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas and Tantras. From these all other Shastras which explain the meaning (Artha) of Veda such as Purana and Smriti, also Itihasa and so forth are derived. All these Shastras constitute what is called a \"Many millioned\" (Shatakoti) Samhita which are developed, the one from the other as it were an unfolding series. In the Tantrik Sangraha called Sarvollasa by the Sarvavidyasiddha Sarvanandanatha the latter cites authority (Narayani Tantra) to show that from Nigama came Agama. Here I pause to note that the Sammohana says that Kerala Sampradaya is Dakshina and follows Veda (Vedamargastha), whilst Gauda (to which Sarvanandanatha belonged) is Vama and follows Nigama. Hence apparently the pre- eminence given to Nigama. He then says from Agama came Yamala, from Yamala the four Vedas, from Vedas the Puranas, from Puranas Smriti, and from Smriti all other Shastras. There are, he says, five Nigamas and 64 Agamas. Four Yamalas are mentioned, which are said to 110 give the gross form (Sthularupa). As some may be surprised to learn that the four Vedas came from the Yamalas (i.e. were Antargata of the Yamalas) which literally means what is uniting or comprehensive, I subjoin the Sanskrit verse from Narayani Tantra. Brahmayamalasambhutam samaveda -matam shive Rudrayamalasamjata rigvedo paramo mahan Vishnuyamalasambhuto yajurvedah kuleshvari Shaktiyamalasambhutam atharva paramam mahat. Some Tantras are called by opposing sects Vedavirud -dhani (opposed to Veda), which of course those who accept them deny, just as the Commentary of the Nityashodashikarnava speaks of the Pacaratrin as Vedabhrashta. That some sects were originally Avaidika is probable, but in process of time various amalgamations of scriptural authority, belief and practice to ok place. Whether we accept or not this theory, according to which the Agamas and kindred Shastras are given authority with the four Vedas we have to accept the facts. What are these? As I have said, on examination the one body of Hinduism reveals as it were a double framework. I am now looking at the matter from an outside point of view which is not that of the Shakta worshipper. We find on the one hand the four Vedas with their Samhitas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads and on the other what has been called the \"Fifth Veda,\" that is Nigama, Agama and kindred Shastras and certain especially \"Tantrik\" Upanishads attached to the Saubhagya Kanda of the Atharvaveda. There are Vaidik and Tantrik Kalpa Sutras and Suktas such as the Tantrika Devi and Matsya Suktas. As a counterpart of the Brahma -sutras, we have the Shakti Sutras of Agastya. Then there is both Vaidik and \"Tantrik\" ritual such as (he ten Vaidik Samskaras and the Tantrik Samskaras, such as Abhisheka; Vaidik and Tantrik initiation (Upanayana and Diksha); Vaidik and Tantrik Gayatri; the Vaidik Om, the so -called \"Tantrik\" Bijas such as Hring; Vaidika. Guru and Deshika Guru and so forth. This dualism may be found carried into other matters as well, such as medicine, law, writing. So, whilst the Vaidik Ayurveda em ployed 111 generally vegetable drugs, the \"Tantriks\" used metallic substances. A counterpart of the Vaidika Dharmapatni was the Shaiva wife; that is, she who is given by desire (Kama). I have already pointed out the counterparts of the Pacatattva in the Vedas. Some allege a special form of Tantrik script at any rate in Gauda Desha and so forth. What is the meaning of all this? It is not at present possible to give a certain answer. The subject has been so neglected and is so little known. Before tendering any conclusions with any certainty of their correctness, we must examine the Tantrik Texts which time has spared. It will be readily perceived, however, that if there be such a double frame as I suggest, it indicates that there were originally two sources of religion one of which (possibly in some respects the older) incorporated parts of, and in time largely superseded the other. And this is what the \"Tantriks\" impliedly allege in their views as to the relation of the four Vedas and Agamas. If they are not both of authority, why should such reverence be given to the Deshika Gurus and to Tantrik Diksha? Probably, there were many Avaidika cults, not without a deep and ancient wisdom of their own, that is, cults outside the Vaidik religion (Vedabahya) which in the course of time adopted certain Vaidik rites such as Homa: the Vaidikas, in their own turn, taking up some of the Avaidika practices. It may be that some Brahmanas joined these so -called Anarya Sampradayas just as we find to -day Brahmanas officiating for low castes and being called by their name. At length the Shastras of the two cults were given at least equal authority. The Vaidik practice then largely disappeared, surviving chiefly both in the Smarta rites of to -day and as embedded in the ritual of the Agamas. These are speculations to which I do not definitely commit myself. They are merely suggestions which may be worth consideration when search is made for the origin of the Agamas. If they be correct, then in this, as in other cases, the beliefs and practices of the Soil have been upheld until to-day against the incoming cults of those \"Aryas\" who followed the Vaidik rites and who in their turn influenced the various religious communities without the Vaidik fold. The Smartas of to -day represent what is generally called the Srauta side, though in these rites there are mingled many Pauranic ingredients. The Arya 112 Samaja is another present-day representative of the old Vaidika Acara, mingled as it seems to me with a modernism, which is puritan and otherwise. The other, or Tantrik side, is represented by the general body of present -day Hinduism, and in particular by the various sectarian divisions of Salvias, Shaktas, Vaishnavas and so forth which go to its making. Each sect of worshippers has its own Tantras. In a previous chapter I have shortly referred to the Tantras of the Shaivasiddhanta, of the Pacaratra Agama, and of the Northern Saivaism of which the Malinivijapa Tantra sets the type. The old fivefold division of worshippers was, according to the Pacopasana, Saura, Ganapatya, Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta whose Mula Devatas were Surya, Ganapati, Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti respectively. At the present time the three- fold division, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, is of more practical importance, as the other two survive only to a limited extent to-day. In parts of Western India the worship of Ganesha is still popular and I believe some Sauras or traces of Sauras here and there exist, especially in Sind. Six Amnayas are mentioned in the Tantras. (Shadamnayah). These are the six Faces of Shiva, looking East (Purvamnaya), South (Dakshinamnaya), West (Pashcim amnaya), North (Uttaramnaya), Upper (Urddhvamnaya), Lower and concealed (Adhamnaya). The six Amnayas are thus so called according to the order of their origin. They are thus described in the Devyagama cited in the Tantrarahasya (see also, with some variation probably due to corrupt text, Patala II of Samayacara Tantra): \"(1) The face in the East (that is in front) is of pearl -like luster with three eyes and crowned by the crescent moon. By this face I (Shiva) revealed (the Devis) Shri Bhuvaneshvari, Triputa, Lalita, Padma, Shulini, Sarasvati, Tvarita, Nitya, Vajraprastarim, Annapurna, Mahalakshmi, Lakshmi, Vagvadini with all their rites and Mantras. (2) The Southe rn face is of a yellow color with three eyes. By this face I revealed Prasadasadashiva, Mahaprasadamantra, Dakshinamurti, Vatuka, Majughosha, Bhairava, Mritasanjivanividya, Mrityunjaya with their rites and Mantras. (3) The face in the West (that is at the back) is of the color of a freshly formed cloud. By this face I revealed Gopala, Krishna, Narayana, Vasudeva, Nrishimha, Vamana, Varaha, Ramacandra, Vishnu, Harihara, Ganesha, Agni, Yama, Surya, Vidhu (Candra) and other planets, Garuda, 113 Dikpalas, Hanuman and other Suras, their rites and Mantras. (4) The face in the North is blue in color and with three eyes. By this face, I revealed the Devis, Dakshinakalika, Mahakali, Guhyakah, Smashanakalika, Bhadrakali, Ekajata, Ugratara, Taritni, Katyayani, Chhinnamast a, Nilasarasvati, Durga, Jayadurga, Navadurga, Vashuli, Dhumavati, Vishalakshi, Gauri, Bagalamukhi, Pratyangira, Matangi, Mahishamardini, their rites and Mantras. (5) The Upper face is white. By this face I revealed Shrimattripurasundari, Tripureshi, Bhair avi, Tripurabhairavi, Smashanabhairavi, Bhuvaneshibhairavi, Shatkutabhairavi, Annapurnabhairavi, Pacami, Shodashi, Malini, Valavala, with their rites and Mantras. (6) The sixth face (Below) is lustrous of many colors and concealed. It is by this mouth tha t I spoke of Devatasthana, Asana, Yantra, Mala, Naivedya, Balidana, Sadhana, Purashcarana, Mantrasiddhi. It is called \"Ishanamnaya.\" The Samayacara Tantra (Ch. 2) says that whilst the first four Amnayas are for the Caturvarga or Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha , the upper (Urddhvamnaya) and lower (Adhamnaya) are for liberation only. The Sammohana Tantra (Ch. V) first explains Purvamnaya, Dakshinamnaya, Pashcimamnaya, Uttaramnaya, Urdhvamnaya according to what is called Deshaparyyaya. I am informed that no Puja of Adhamnaya is generally done but that Shadanvaya Shambhavas, very high Sadhakas, at the door of Liberation do Nyasa with this sixth concealed Face. It is said that Patala Amnaya is Sam -bhogayoga. The Nishkala aspect in Shaktikrama is for Purva, Tripura; for Dakshina, Saura, Ganapatya and Vaishnava; for Pashcima, Raudra, Bhairava; for Uttara, Ugra, Apattarini. In Shaivakarma the same aspect is for the first, Sampatprada and Mahesha; for the second, Aghora, Kalika and Vaishnava darshana; for the third, Raudra, Bhairava, Shaiva; for the fourth, Kubera, Bhairava, Saudrashaka; and for Urddhvamnaya, Ardhanarisha and Pranava. Niruttara Tantra says that the first two Amnayas contain rites for the Pashu Sadhaka (see as to the meaning of this and the other classes of Sadhakas, the Chapter on Pacatattva ritual Purvamnayoditam karma Pashavam kathitam priye, and so with the next). The third or Pashcimamnaya is a combination of Pashu and Vira (Pashcimamnayajam karma Pashu -virasamashritam). Uttaramnaya is for Vira and Div ya (Uttaramnayajam karma divpa-virashritam priye). The upper Amnaya is for the Divya (Urdhvamnayoditam karma divyabhavashritam priye). It adds that even the Divya does Sadhana in the cremation ground in 114 Virabhava (that is, heroic frame: of mind and disposition) but he does such worship without Virasana. The Sammohana also gives a classification of Tantras according to the Amnayas as also special classifications, such as the Tantras of the six Amnayas according to Vatukamnaya. As only one Text of the Sammohana is available whilst I write, it is not possible to speak with certainty of accuracy as regards all these details. Each of these divisions of worshippers have their own Tantras, as also had the Jainas and Bauddhas. Different sects had their own particula r subdivisions and Tantras of which there are various classifications according to Krantas, Deshaparyaya, Kalaparyaya and so forth. The Sammohana Tantra mentions 22 different Agamas including Cinagama (a Shakta form), Pashupata (a Shaiva form), Pacaratra (a Vaishnava form), Kapalika, Bhairava, Aghora, Jaina, Bauddha; each of which is said there to contain a certain number of Tantras and Upatantras. According to the Sammohana Tantra, the Tantras according to Kalaparyaya are the 64 Shakta Tantras, with 327 U patantras, 8 Yamalas, 4 Damaras, 2 Kalpalatas and several Samhitas, Cudamanis (100) Arnavas, Puranas, Upavedas, Kakshaputas, Vimarshini and Cintamanis. The Shaiva class contains 32 Tantras with its own Yamalas, Damaras and so forth. The Vaishnava class contains 75 Tantras with the same, including Kalpas and other Shastras. The Saura class has Tantras with its own Yamalas, Uddishas and other works. And the Ganapatya class contains 30 Tantras with Upatantras, Kalpas and other Shastras, including one Damara and one Yamala. The Bauddha class contains Kalpadrumas, Kamadhenus, Suktas, Kramas, Ambaras, Puranas and other Shastras. According to the Kularnava and Janadipa Tantras there are seven Acaras of which the first four, Veda, Vaishnava, Shaiva and Dakshina belong to Pashvacara; then comes Vama, followed by Siddhanta, in which gradual approach is made to Kaulacara the reputed highest. Elsewhere six and nine Acaras are spoken of and different kinds of Bhavas, Sabhava, Vibhava and Dehabhava and so forth which are referred to in Bhavacudamani. 115 An account of the Acaras is given in the Haratattvadidhiti [pp. 339 -342. See in particular Vishvasara Tantra (Ch. 24) and Nitya Tantra and Pranatoshini. The first is the best account]. Vedacara is the lowest and Kaulacara the highest. (Kularnava Tantra II). Their characteristics are given in the 24th Patala of Vishvasara Tantra. The first four belong to Pashvacara (see Chapter on Shakta Sadhana) and the last three are for Vira and Divya Sadhakas. Summarizing the points of the Vishvasara: a Sadhaka in Vedacara should carry out the prescriptions of the Veda, should not cohabit with his wife except in the period following the courses. He should not eat fish and meat on the Parva days. He should not worship the Deva at night. In Vaishnavacara he follows injunctions (Niyama) of Vedacara. He must give up eating of flesh (Nitya Tantra says he must not kill animals), avoid sexual intercourse and even the talk of it. This doubtless means a negation of the Vira ritual. He should worshi p Vishnu. This Acara is distinguished from the last by the great endurance of Tapas and the contemplation of the Supreme everywhere. In Shaivacara, Vedacara is prescribed with this difference that there must be no slaughter of animals and meditation is on Shiva. Dakshinacara is said to have been practiced by Rishi Dakshinamurti and is therefore so called. This Acara is preparatory for the Vira and Divya Bhavas. Meditation is on the Supreme Ishvari after taking Vijaya (Hemp). Japa of Mantra is done at night. Siddhi is attained by using a rosary of human bone (Mahshankha) at certain places including a Shaktipitha. Vamacara is approved for Viras and Divyas. One should be continent (Brahmacari) at day and worship with the Pacatattva at night. (\"Pacatattvakrame naiva ratrau devim prapujayet\"). The statement of Nitya (Pacatattvanukalpena ratrau deving prapujayet) is, if correctly reported, I think incorrect. This is Vira Sadhana and the Vira should generally only use substitutes when the real Tattvas cannot be fo und. Cakra worship is done. Siddhi is destroyed by revelation thereof; therefore the Vama path is hidden. The Siddhantacari is superior to the last by his knowledge \"hidden in the Vedas, Shastras and Puranas like fire in wood, by his freedom from fear of the Pashu, by his adherence to the truth, and by his open performance of the Pacatattva ritual. Open and frank, he cares not what is said.\" He offers the Pancatattvas openly. Then follows a notable passage. \"Just as it is not blameable to drink openly in the Sautramani Yaja (Vaidik 116 rite), so in Siddhantacara wine is drunk openly. As it is not blameable to kill horses in the Ashvamedha Yaja (Vaidik rite), so no offense is committed in killing animals in this Dharma.\" Nitya Tantra says that an article, be i t pure or impure, becomes pure by purification. Holding a cup made of human skull, and wearing the Rudraksha, the Siddhantacari moves on earth in the form of Bhairava Himself. The knowledge of the last Acara, that of the Kaula, makes one Shiva. Just as the footprint of every animal disappears in that of the elephant, so every Dharma is lost in the greatness of Kuladharma. Here there are no injunctions or prohibitions, no restriction as to time or place, in fact no rule at all. A Kaula is himself Guru and Sadashiva and none are superior to him. Kaulas are of three classes, inferior (the ordinary or Prakrita Kaula), who is ever engaged in ritual such as Japa, Homa, Puja, follows Viracara (with Pacatattva) and strives to attain the highland of knowledge; middling is the Kaula who does Sadhana with Pacatattva, is deeply immersed in meditation (Dhyana) and Samadhi; superior, the Kaula who \"Oh Mistress of the Kaulas sees the imperishable, and all- pervading Self in all things and all things in the Self.\" He is a good Kaula who makes no distinction between mud and sandalpaste, gold and straw, a home and the cremation ground. He is a superior Kaula who meditates on the Self with the self, who has equal regard for all, who is full of contentment, forgiveness and compa ssion. Nitya Tantra (Patala III) says that Kaulas move about in various shapes, now as an ordinary man of the world adhering to social rules (Shishta), at other times as one who has fallen therefrom (Bhrashta). At other times, he seems to be as weird and u nearthly as a ghost (Bhuta). Kaulacara is, it says, the essence which is obtained from the ocean of Veda and Agama after churning it with the staff' of knowledge. In a modern account of the Acaras (see Sanatana -- sadhana -Tattva or Tantra - rahashya by Saccidananda Svami) it is said that some speak of Aghoracara and Yogacara as two further divisions between the last but one and last. However this may be, the Aghoras of to -day are a separate sect who, it is alleged, have degenerated into mere eaters of corpses, though Aghora is said to only mean one who is liberated from the terrible (Ghora ) Samsara. In Yogacara was learnt the upper heights of Sadhana and the mysteries of Yoga such as the movements of the Vayu in the bodily microcosm (Kshudravrahmanda), the regulation of which controls the inclinations and 117 propensities (Vritti), Yogacara is entered by Yoga -diksha and achievement in Ashtangayoga qualifies for Kaulacara. Whether there were such further divisions I cannot at present say. I prefer for the time bein g to follow the Kularnava. The Svami's account of these is as follows: Vedacara which consists in the daily practice of the Vaidik rites (with, I may add, some Tantrik observances) is the gross body (Sthula -deha) which comprises within it all the other Aca ras, which are as it were its subtle body (Sukshma -deha) of various degrees. The worship is largely of an external character, the object of which is to strengthen Dharma. This is the path of action (Kriyamarga). This and some other observations may be a modern reading of the old facts but are on the whole, I think, justified. The second stage of Vaishnavacara is the path of devotion (Bhaktimarga) and the aim is union of devotion with faith previously acquired. The worshipper passes from blind faith to an understanding of the supreme protecting Energy of the Brahman, towards which his devotion goes forth. With an increasing determination to uphold Dharma and to destroy Adharma, the Sadhaka passes into the third stage or Shaivacara which the author cited calls the militant (Kshattriya) stage, wherein to love and mercy are added strenuous striving and the cultivation of power. There is union of faith, devotion, and inward determination (Antarlaksha). Entrance is here made upon the path of knowledge (Janamarga). Following this is the fourth stage or Dakshinacara, which originally and in Tantra Shastra does not mean \"right - hand worship\" but according to the author cited is the Acara \"favorable\" to the accomplishment of the higher Sadhana of which Dakshina -Kalika is Devi. (The Vishvasara already cited derives the word from Dakshinamurthi muni, but Dakshina in either case has the same meaning. Daksinakali is a Devi of Uttaramnaya and approach is here made to Vira rituals.) This stage commences when the worshipper can make Dhyana and Dharana of the threefold Shakti of the Brahman (Iccha, Kriya, Jana) and understands the mutual connection of the three and of their expression as the Gunas, and until he receives the rite of initiation called Purnabhisheka. At this stage the Sadhaka is Shakta and qualified for the worship of the threefold Shakti of Brahman (Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara). He worships the Adya -Shakti as Dakshina -Kalika in whom are united the three Shaktis. The aim of this stage is the union of faith, devotion, and determination with a knowledge of the 118 threefold energies. (Passage is thus made from the Deva -aspect to the Deva - whole.) Up to this stage the Sadhaka has followed Pravritti Marga, or the outgoing path, the path of worldly enjoyment, albeit curbed by Dharma. The Sadhaka now, upon the exhaustion of the forces of the outward current, makes entry on the path of return (Nivritti -Marga). As this change is one of primary importance, some have divided the Acaras into the two broad divisions of Dakshinacara (including the first four) and Vamacara (including the last three). Strictly, however, the first three can only be thus included in the sense that they are preparatory to Dakshinacara proper and are all in the Pravritti Marga and are not Vamacara. It is thus said that men are born into Dakshinacara but are received by initiation into Vamacara. As Dakshinacara does not mean \"right -hand worship\" so Vamacara does not mean, as is vulgarly supposed, \"left -hand worship\". \"Left -hand\" in English has a bad sense and it is not sense to suppose that the Shastra, which prescribes this Acara, itself gives it a bad name. Vama is variously interpreted. Some say it is the worship in which woman (Vama) enters, that is Lata- sadhana. Vama, this author says, means \"adverse\" that i s the stage adverse to the Pravritti, which governs in varying degrees the previous Acaras. For, entry is here made on the Nivritti path of return to the Source of outgoing. (In this Acara also there is worship of the Vama Devi.) In Vamacara the Sadhaka commences to directly destroy Pravritti and, with the help of the Guru, to cultivate Nivritti. The help of the Guru throughout is necessary. It is comparatively easy to lay down rules for the Pravritti Marga but nothing can be achieved in Vama -cara without the Guru's help. Some of the disciplines are admittedly dangerous and, if entered upon without authority and discretion, will probably lead to abuse. The method of the Guru at this stage is to use the forces of Pravritti in such a way as to render them self - destructive. The passions which bind (notably the fundamental instincts for food, drink, and sexual satisfaction) may be it is said so employed as to act as forces whereby the particular life, of which they are the strongest physical manifestation, is rai sed to the universal life. Passion which has hitherto run downward and outwards (often to waste) is directed inwards and upwards and transformed to power. But it is not only the lower physical desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse which must be subjugated. The Sadhaka must at this stage commence (the process 119 continues until the fruit of Kaulacara is obtained) to cut off all the eight bonds (Pasha) which have made him a Pashu, for up to and including Dakshinacara is Pashu worship. These Pasha, bonds or \"afflictions\", are variously enumerated but the more numerous classifications are merely elaborations of the smaller divisions. Thus, according to the Devi- Bhagavata, Moha is ignorance or bewilderment, and Mahamoha is the desire for worldly pleasure which flows from it. The Kularnava Tantra mentions eight primary bonds, Daya (that is pity as the feeling which binds as opposed to divine compassion or Karuna), Moha (ignorance), Lajja (shame, which does not mean that a man is to be a shameless sinner but weak worldly shame of being looked down upon, of infringing conventions and so forth), Family (Kula, which ceases to be a tie), Shila (here usage, convention) and Varna (caste; for the enlightened is beyond all its distinctions). When, to take the Svami's example, Shri Krishna stole the clothes of the bathing Gopis or milkmaids and cowherds and made them approach Him naked, He removed the artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the Samsara. The Gopis were eight, as are the Bonds, and the errors by which the Jiva is misled are the clothes which Krishna stole. Freed of these the Jiva is liberated from all bonds arising from his desires, family and society. Formerly it was sufficient to live in worldly fashion according to the morality governing life in the world. Now the Sadhaka must go further and transcend the world, or rather seek to do so. He rises by those things which are commonly the cause of fall. When he has completely achieved his purpose and liberated himself from all bonds, he reaches the stage of Shiva (Shivatva). It is the aim of the Nivritti Sadhana to liberate man from the bonds which bind him to the Samsara, and to qualify the Vira Sadhaka, through Rajasika Upasana (see Chapter on Pacatattva) of the highest grades of Sadhana in which the Sattvika Guna predominates. He is then Divya or divine. To the truly Sattvik, there is neither attachment, fear nor disgust (Ghrina). What is thus commenced in Vamacara, is gradually completed by the rituals of Siddhantacara and Kaulacara. In the la st three Acaras the Sadhaka becomes more and more freed from the darkness of Samsara and is attached to nothing, hates nothing, is ashamed of nothing (really shameful acts being ex hypothesi below his acquired stage), and has freed himself of the artificia l bonds of family, caste, and society. He 120 becomes an Avadhuta, that is, one who has \"washed off\" everything and has relinquished the world. Of these, as stated later, there are several classes. For him there is no rule of time or place. He becomes, like Sh iva himself, a dweller in the cremation ground (Smashana). He attains Brahmajana or the Gnosis in perfect form. On receiving Mahapurnadiksha, he performs his own funeral rites and is dead to the Samsara. Seated alone in some quiet place, he remains in constant Samadhi (ecstasy), and attains it in its highest or Nirvikalpa form. The Great Mother, the Supreme Prakriti, Mahashakti dwells in his heart which is now the inner cremation ground wherein all passions have been burnt away. He becomes a Paramahamsa who is liberated whilst yet living (Jivanmukta). From the above it will be seen that the Acaras are not various sects in the European sense, but stages in a continuous process through which the Sadhaka must pass before he reaches the supreme state of the hig hest Kaula (for the Kaulas are of differing degrees). Passing from the gross outer body of Vedacara, he learns its innermost core of doctrine, not expressed but latent in it. These stages need not be and are not ordinarily passed through by each Jiva in the course of a single life. On the contrary they are as a rule traversed in the course of a multitude of births, in which case the weaving of the spiritual garment is recommenced where, in a previous birth, it was dropped on death. In one life the Sadhaka may commence at any stage. If he is a true Kaula now it is because in previous births he has by Sadhana in the preliminary stages won his entrance into it. Knowledge of Shakti is, as the Niruttara Tantra says, acquired after many births; and according to the Mahanirvana Tantra it is by merit acquired in previous births that the mind is inclined to Kaulacara. Kauladharma is in no wise sectarian but on the contrary claims to be the head of all sects. It is said \"at heart a Shakta, outwardly a. Shaiva, in gathe rings a Vaishnava (who are wont to gather together for worship in praise of Hari) in thus many a guise the Kaulas wander on earth.\" Antah -shaktah bahih -shaivah sabhayam vaishnava matah Nana- rupadharah Kaulah vicaranti mahitale. 121 The saying has been said to be an expression of this claim which is I think involved in it. It does however also I think indicate secrecy, and adaptability to sectarian form, of him who has pierced to the core of that which all sects in varying, though partial, ways present. A Kaula is one who has passed through these and other stages, which have as their own inmost doctrine (whether these worshippers know it or not) that of Kaulacara. It is indifferent what the Kaula's apparent sect may be. The form is nothing and everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no power to narrow the Kaula's inner life. It is everything in the sense that knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an universal meaning. A man may thus live in all sects, without their form being ever to him a bond. In Vaidik times there were four Ashramas, that is, states and stages in the life of the Arya, namely (in their order) that of the chaste student (Brahmacarya), secular life as a married house -holder (Grihastha), the life of the forest recluse with his wife in retirement from the world (Vanaprastha), lastly that of the beggar (Bhikshu or Avadhuta), wholly detached from the world, spending his time in meditation on the Supreme Brahman in preparation for shortly coming death. All these four were for the Brahmana caste, the first three for the Kshattriya, the first two for the Vaishya and for the Shudra the second only (Yogayajavalkpa, Ch. I). As neither the conditions of life nor the character, capacity and powers of the people of this age allow of the first and third Ashrama, the Mahanirvana Tantra states (VIII. 8) that in the Kali age there are only two Ashramas, namely, the second and last, and these are open to all castes indiscriminately (ib. 12). The same Tantra (XIV. 141 et seq.) speaks of four classes of Kulayogis or Avadhutas namely the Shaivavadhuta and Brahmavadhuta, which are of two kinds, imperfect (Apurna) and perfect (Purna). The first three have enjoyment and practice Yoga. The fourth or Paramahamsa should be absolutely chaste and should not touch metal. He is beyond all household duties and caste, and ritual, such as the offering of food and drink to Devata. The Bhairavadamara classes the Avadhuta into (a) Kulavadhuta, (b) Shaivavadhuta, (c) Brahmavadhuta, (d) Hamsavadhuta. Some speak of three divisions of each of the classes Shaivavadhuta and Brahmavadhuta (see pp. 32 -33 of Introduction to Tantra Shastra). The Shaivavadhutas are not, either, from a Western or Shastric standpoint, as high as the Brahmavadhuta. The lowest 122 of the last class can have intercourse only with the own wife (Shvakiya Shakti as opposed to the Shaiva Shakti); the middling has ordinarily nothing to do with any Shakti, and the highest must under no circumstance touch a woman or metal, nor does he practice any rites or keep any observances. The main divisions here are Vedacara, Dakshinacara and Vamacara. Vedacara is not Vaidikacara, that is, in the Srauta sense, for the Srauta Vaidikacara appears to be outside this sevenfold Tantrik division of which Vedacara is the Tantrik counterpart. For it is Tantrik Upasana with Vaidik rites and mantras, with (I have been told) Agni as Devata. As a speculation we may suggest that this Acara was for those not Adhikari for what is called the Srauta Vaidikacara. The second and third belong and lead up to the completed Dakshinacara. This is Pashvacara. Vama -cara commences the other mode of worship, leading up to the completed Kaula, the Kaulavadhuta, Avadhuta, and Divya. Here, with the attainment of Brahmajana, we reach the region which is beyond all Acaras which is known as Sveccacara. All that those belonging to this state do or touch is pure. In and after Vamacara there is eating and drinking in, and as part of, worship and Maithuna. After the Pashu there is the Vira and then the Divya. Pashu is the starting point, Vira is on the way and Divya is the goal. Each of the sects has a Dakshina and Vama division. It is commonly thought that this is peculiar to Shaktas: but this is not so. Thus there are Vama, Ganapatyas and Vaishnavas and so forth. Again Vamacara is itself divided again into a right and left side. In the former wine is taken in a cup of stone or other substance, and worship is with the Svakiya -Shakti or Sadhaka's own wife; in the latter and more advanced stage drinking is done from a skull and worship may be with Parastri, that is, some other Shakti. In the case however of some sects which belong to the Vama -cara division, whilst there is meat and wine, there is, I am told, no Shakti for the members are chaste (Brahmacari). So far as I can ascertain these sects which are mentioned later seem to belong to the Shaiva as opposed to the Shakta group. The Tantrik Samgraha called Shaktanandatarangini by Brahmananda Svami says (Ch. 2) that Agama is both Sadagama and Asadagama and that the former alone is Agama according to the primary meaning of the 123 word (Sadagama eva agamashabdasya mukhyatvat). He then says that Shiva in the Agama Samhita condemns the Asadagama saying \"Oh Deveshi, men in the Kali age are generally of a Rajasik and Tamasik disposition and being addicted to forbidden ways deceive many others. Oh Sureshvari, those who in disregard of their Varnashrama Dharma offer to us flesh, blood and wine become Bhutas, Pretas, and Brahmarakshasas,\" that is, various forms of evil spirits. This prohibits such worship as is opposed to Varnashramadharma. It is said, however, by the Vamacaris, who take consecrated wine and flesh as a Yaja, not to cover their case. It is not uncommonly thought that Vamacara is that Acara into which Vama or woma n enters. This is true only to a, certain extent: that is, it is a true definition of those Sadhakas who do worship with Shakti according to Vamacara rites. But it seems to be incorrect, in so far as there are, I am told, worshippers of the Vamacara divisi on who are chaste (Brahmacari). Vamacara means literally \"left\" way, not \"left -handed\" in the English sense which means what is bad. As the name is given to these Sadhakas by themselves it is not likely that they would adopt a title which condemns them. Wh at they mean is that this Acara is the opposite of Dakshinacara. Philosophically it is more monistic. It is said that even in the highest Siddhi of a Dakshinacari \"there is always some One above him\"; but the fruit of Vamacara and its subsequent and highes t stages is that the Sadhaka \"becomes the Emperor Himself\". The Bhava differs, and the power of its method compared with Dakshinacara is said to be that between milk and wine. Moreover it is to be noted that the Devi whom they worship is on the left of Shiva. In Vamacara we find Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, Pashupatas, Bhandikeras, Digambaras, Aghoras, followers of Cinacara and Kaulas generally who are initiated. In some cases, as in that of the advanced division of Kaulas, worship is with all five Tattvas (Pacatattvas). In some cases there is Brahmacarya as in the case of Aghora and Pashupata, though these drink wine and eat flesh food. Some Vamacaris, I am informed, never cease to be chaste (Brahmacari), such as Oghada Sadhus worshippers of Batuka Bhairava, Kanthadhari and followers of Gorakshanatha, Sitanatha and Matsyendranatha. In Nilakrama there is no Maithuna. In some sects 124 there are differing practices. Thus, I am told, amongst the Kalamukhas, the Kalaviras only worship Kumaris up to the age of nine, where as the Kamamohanas worship with adult Shaktis. Some advanced members of this (in its general sense) Vamacara division do not, I am informed, even take wine and meat. It is said that the great Vamacari Sadhaka Raja Krishnacandra of Nadia, Upasaka of the Chi nnamasta Murti, did not take wine. Such and similar Sadhakas have passed beyond the preliminary stage of Vamacara, and indeed (in its special sense) Vamacara itself. They may be Brahma Kaulas. As regards Sadhakas generally it is well to remember what the Mahakala Samhita, the great Shastra of the Madhyastha Kaulas, says in the 11th Ullasa called Sharira -yoga- kathanam: \"Some Kaulas there are who seek the good of this world (Aihikarthadhritatmanah). So also the Vaidikas enjoy what is here (Aihikartham kamayan te: as do, I may interpose, the vast bulk of present humanity) and are not seekers of liberation (Amrite ratim na kurvanti). Only by Nishkamasadhana is liberation attained.\" The Pacatattva are either real (Pratyaksha. \"Idealizing\" statements to the contrary are, when not due to ignorance, false), substitutional (Anukalpa) or esoteric (Divyatattva). As regards the second, even a vegetarian would not object to \"meat\" which is in fact ginger, nor the abstainer to \"wine\" which is coconut water in a bell- metal vessel. As for the Esoteric Tattva they are not material articles or practices, but the symbols for Yogic processes. Again some notions and practices are more moderate and others extreme. The account given in the Mahanirvana of the Bhairavi and Tattva Cakras may be compared with some more unrestrained practice; and the former again may be contrasted with a modern Cakra described in the 13th Chapter of the Life of Bejoy Krishna Gosvami by Jagad-bandhu Maitra. There a Tantrika Siddha formed a Cakra at w hich the Gosvami was present. The latter says that all who were there, felt as if the Shakti was their own Mother who had borne them, and the Devatas whom the Cakreshvara invoked appeared in the circle to accept the offerings. Whether this is accepted as a fact or not, it is obvious that it was intended to describe a Cakra of a different kind from that of which we have more commonly heard. There are some practices which are not correctly understood; there are some principles which the 125 bulk of men will not u nderstand; for to so understand there must be besides knowledge that undefinable Bhava, the possession of which carries with it the explanation which no words can give. I have dealt with this subject in the Chapter on the Pacatattva. There are expressions which do not bear their surface meaning. Gomamhsa -bhakshana is not \"beef -eating\" but putting the tongue in the root of the throat. What some translate as \"Ravishing the widow\" refers not to a woman but to a process in Kundalini Yoga and so forth. Lastly and this is important: a distinction is seldom, if ever, made between Shastric principles and actual practice, nor is count taken of the conditions properly governing the worship and its abuse. It is easy to understand that if Hinduism has in general degene rated, there has been a fall here. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that the sole object of these rites is enjoyment. It is not necessary to be a \"Tantrik\" for that. The moral of all this is, that it is better to know the facts than to make erroneous generalizations. There are said to be three Krantas or geographical divisions of India, of which roughly speaking the North-Eastern portion is Vishnukranta, the North -Western Rathakranta and the remaining and Southern portion is Ashvakranta. According to the Shaktamarigala and Mahasiddhisara Tantras, Vishnukranta (which includes Bengal) extends from the Vindhya range to Chattala or Chittagong. From Vindhya to Tibet and China is Rathakranta. There is then some difference between these two Tantras as to the po sition of Ashvakranta. According to the first this last Kranta extends from the Vindhya to the sea which perhaps includes the rest of India. According to the Mahasiddhisara Tantra it extends from the Karatoya River to a point which cannot be identified with certainty in the text cited, but which may be Java. To each of these 64 Tantras have been assigned. One of the questions awaiting solution is whether the Tantras of these three geographical divisions are marked by both doctrinal and ritual peculiarities and if so what they are. This subject has been referred to in the first part of the Principles of Tantra wherein a list of Tantras is given. In the Shakta division there are four Sampradayas, namely, Kerala, Kashmira, Gauda and Vilasa, in each of which there is both outer and inner worship. The Sammohana Tantra gives these four Sampradayas, also the number of Tantras, not only in the first three Sampradayas, but in Cina and Dravida. I 126 have been informed that out of 56 Deshas (which included besides Hunas, places outside India, such as Cina, Mahacina, Bhota, Simhala), 18 follow Gauda extending from Nepala to Kalinga and 19 follow Kerala extending from Vindhyacala to the Southern Sea, the remaining countries forming part of the Kashmira Desha; and that in each Sampradaya there are Paddhatis such as Shuddha, Gupta, Ugra. There is variance in Devatas and Rituals some of which are explained in the Tarasukta and Shaktisamgama Tantra. There are also various Matas such as Kadi Mata, called Viradanuttara of which the Devata is Kali (see Introduction to Tantraraja Tantra, A Short Analysis); Hadi Mata called Hamsaraja of which Tripurasundari is Devata and Kahadi Mata the combination of the two of which Tara is Devata that is Nilasarasvati. Certain Deshas are called Kadi, Hadi, Kahadi Deshas and each Mata has several Amnayas. It is said that the Hamsatara Mahavidya is the Sovereign Lady of Yoga whom Jainas call Padmavati, Shaktas Shakti, Bauddhas Tara, Cina Sadhakas Mihogra, and Kaulas Cakreshvari. The Kadis call her Kali, the Hadis Shrisundari and the Kadi -Hadis Hamsah. Volumes VIII and XII of \"Tantrik Texts\" contain that portion of the Tantraraja which belongs to Kadi Mata and in the English Introduction, mentioned above, I have dealt with this subject. Gauda Sampradaya considers Kadi the highest Mata, whilst Kashmira and Kerala worship Tripura and Tara. Possibly there may have been originally Deshas which were the exclusive seats of specific schools of Tantra, but later and at present, so far as they exist, this cannot be said. In each of the Deshas different Sampradayas may be found, though doubtless at particular places, as in Bengal, particular sects may be predominant. In my opinion it is not yet possible to present, with both accuracy and completeness, the doctrine an d practice of any particular Tantrik School, and to indicate wherein it differs from other Schools. It is not possible at present to say fully and precisely who the original Shaktas were, the nature of their sub -divisions and of their relation to, or distinction from, some of the Shaiva group. Thus the Kaulas are generally in Bengal included in the Brahmajani Shakta group but the Sammohana in one passage already cited mentions Kaula and Shakta separately. Possibly it is there meant to distinguish ordinary Shaktas from the special group called Kaula Shaktas. In 127 Kashmir some Kaulas, I believe, call themselves Shaivas. For an answer to these and other questions we must await a further examination of the texts. At present I am doing clearing of mud (Pankoddhara) from the tank, not in the expectation that I can wholly clear away the mud and weeds, but with a desire to make a beginning which others may complete. He who has not understood Tantra Shastra has not understood what \"Hinduism\" is as it exists to -day. The subject is an important part of Indian culture and therefore worth study by the duly qualified. What I have said should be sufficient to warn the ignorant from making rash generalizations. At present we can say that he who worships the Mantra and Yantra o f Shakti is a Shakta, and that there were several Sampradayas of these worshippers. What we can, and should first do, is to study the Shakta Darshana as it exists to -day, working back from the known to the unknown. What I am about to describe is the Shakta faith as it exists to-day, that is Shaktivada, not as something entirely new but as the development and amalgamation of the various cults which were its ancestors. Summarizing Shakta doctrine we may first affirm that it is Advaitavada or Monism. This we m ight expect seeing that it flourished in Bengal which, as the old Gauda Desha, is the Guru both of Advaitavada and of Tantra Shastra. From Gauda came Gaudapadacarya, Madhusudana Sarasvati, author of the great Advaitasiddhi, Ramacandratirthabharati, Citsukhacarya and others. There seems to me to be a strong disposition in the Brahmaparayana Bengali temperament towards Advaitavada. For all Advaitins the Shakta Agama and Advaita Shaivagama must be the highest form of worship. A detailed account of the Advaita teachings of the Shaktas is a matter of great complexity and of a highly esoteric character, beyond the scope of this paper. I may here note that the Shakta Tantras speak of 94 Tattvas made up of 10, 12 and 16 Kalas of Fire, Sun and Moon constituting the K amakala respectively; and 19 of Sadashiva, 6 of Ishvara, 10 each of Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma. The 51 Kalas or Matrikas which are the Sukshmarupa of the 51 letters (Varna) are a portion of these 94. These are the 51 coils of Kundali from Bindu to Shrimatrik otpatti -Sundari mentioned in my Garland of Letters or Studies on the Mantra Shastra. These are all worshipped in the wine jar by those Shaktas who take wine. The Shastras also set out the 36 128 Tattvas which are common to Shaktas and Salvias; the five Kalas which are Samanya to the Tattvas, namely, Nivritti, Pratishtha, Vidya, Shanta, Shantyatita, and the Shadadhva, namely, Varna, Pada, and Mantra, Kala, Tattva, Bhuvana, which represent the Artha aspect and the Shabda aspect respectively. (See Garland of Letters.) To pass to more popular matters, a beautiful and tender concept of the Shaktas is the Motherhood of God, that is, God as Shakti or the Power which produces, maintains and withdraws the universe. This is the thought of a worshipper. Though the Sammohana Tantra gives high place to Shamkara as conqueror of Buddhism (speaking of him as a manifestation of Shiva and identifying his four disciples and himself with the five Mahapretas), the Agamas as Shastras of worship do not teach Mayavada as set forth accor ding to Shamkara's transcendental method. Maya to the Shakta worshipper is not an unconscious something, not real, not unreal, not real-unreal, which is associated with Brahman in its Ishvara aspect, though it is not Brahman. Brahman is never associated with anything but Itself. Maya to the Shakta is Shakti veiling Herself as Consciousness, but which, as being Shakti, is Consciousness. To the Shakta all that he sees is the Mother. All is Consciousness. This is the standpoint of Sadhana. The Advaitins of Shamkara's School claim that their doctrine is given from the standpoint of Siddhi. I will not argue this question here. When Siddhi is obtained there will be no argument. Until that event Man is, it is admitted, subject to Maya and must think and act according to the forms which it imposes on him. It is more important after all to realize in fact the universal presence of the Divine Consciousness, than to attempt to explain it in philosophical terms. The Divine Mother first appears in and as Her worshipper's earthly mother, then as his wife; thirdly as Kalika, She reveals Herself in old age, disease and death. It is She who manifests, and not without a purpose, in the vast outpouring of Samhara Shakti which was witnessed in the great world- conflict of our time . The terrible beauty of such forms is not understood. And so we get the recent utterance of a Missionary Professor at Madras who being moved to horror at the sight of (I think) the Camundamurti called the Devi a \"She -Devil\". Lastly She takes to Herself th e dead body in the fierce tongues of flame which light the funeral pyre. 129 The Monist is naturally unsectarian and so the Shakta faith, as held by those who understand it, is free from a narrow sectarian spirit. Nextly it, like the other Agamas, makes provision for all castes and both sexes. Whatever be the true doctrine of the Vaidikas, their practice is in fact marked by exclusiveness. Thus they exclude women and Shudras. It is easy to understand why the so- called Anarya Sampradayas did not do so. A gloriou s feature of the Shakta faith is the honor which it pays to woman. And this is natural for those who worship the Great Mother, whose representative (Vigraha) all earthly women are. Striyo devah striyah pranah. \"Women are Devas; women are life itself,\" as an old Hymn in theSarvollasa has it. It is because Woman is a Vigraha of the Amba Devi, Her likeness in flesh and blood, that the Shakta Tantras enjoin the honor and worship of women and girls (Kumaris), and forbid all harm to them such as the Sati rite, en joining that not even a female animal is to be sacrificed. With the same solicitude for women, the Mahanirvana prescribes that even if a man speaks rudely (Durvacyam kathayan) to his wife, he must fast for a whole day, and enjoins the education of daughter s before their marriage. The Moslem Author of the Dabistan (ii. 154. Ed. 1843) says \"The Agama favors both sexes equally. Men and women equally compose mankind. This sect hold women in great esteem and call them Shaktis and to ill -treat a Shakti, that is, a woman, is a crime\". The Shakta Tantras again allow of women being Guru, or Spiritual Director, a reverence which the West has not (with rare exceptions) yet given them. Initiation by a Mother bears eightfold fruit. Indeed to the enlightened Shakta the whole universe is Stri or Shakti. \"Aham stri\" as the Advabhavano Upanishad says. A high worship therefore which can be offered to the Mother to- day consists in getting rid of abuses which have neither the authority of ancient Shastra, nor of modern social science and to honor, cherish, educate and advance women (Shakti). Striyo devah striyah pranah. Gautamiya Tantra says Sarvavarnadhikarashca narinam yogya eva ca; that is, the Tantra Shastra is for all castes and for women; and the Mahanirvana says that the l ow Kaula who refuses to initiate a Candala or Yavana or a woman out of disrespect goes the downward path. No one is excluded from anything except on the grounds of a real and not artificial or imagined incompetency. 130 An American Orientalist critic, in speaking of \"the worthlessness of Tantric philosophy\", said that it was \"Religious Feminism run mad,\" adding \"What is all this but the feminisation of orthodox Vedanta? It is a doctrine for suffragette Monists: the dogma unsupported by any evidence that the female principle antedates and includes the male principle, and that this female principle is supreme Divinity.\" The \"worthlessness\" of the Tantrik philosophy is a personal opinion on which nothing need be said, the more particularly that Orientalists who, with insufficient knowledge, have already committed themselves to this view are not likely to easily abandon it. The present criticism, however, in disclosing the grounds on which it is based, has shown that they are without worth. Were it not for such ig norant notions, it would be unnecessary to say that the Shakta Sadhaka does not believe that there is a Woman Suffragette or otherwise, in the sky, surrounded by the members of some celestial feminist association who rules the male members of the universe. As the Yamala says for the benefit of the ignorant \"neyam yoshit na ca puman na shando na jadah smritah\". That is, God is neither female, male, hermaphrodite nor unconscious thing. Nor is his doctrine concerned with the theories of the American Professor Lester Ward and others as to the alleged pre -eminence of the female principle. We are not here dealing with questions of science or sociology. It is a common fault of western criticism that it gives material interpretations of Indian Scriptures and so misu nderstands it. The Shakta doctrine is concerned with those Spiritual Principles which exist before, and are the origin of, both men and women. Whether, in the appearance of the animal species, the female \"antedates\" the male is a question with which it is not concerned. Nor does it say that the \"female principle\" is the supreme Divinity. Shiva the \"male\" is co-equal with Shiv the \"female,\" for both are one and the same. An Orientalist might have remembered that in the Samkhya, Prakriti is spoken of as \"female,\" and Purusha as \"male\". And in Vedanta, Maya and Devi are of the feminine gender. Shakti is not a male nor a female \"person,\" nor a male nor a female \"principle,\" in the sense in which sociology, which is concerned with gross matter, uses those terms. Shakti is symbolically \"female\" because it is the productive principle. Shiva in so far as He represents the Cit or consciousness aspect, is actionless (Nishkriya), though the two are inseparably associated even in creation. The Supreme is the 131 attributeless (Nirguna) Shiva, or the neuter Brahman which is neither \"male\" nor \"female\". With such mistaken general views of the doctrine, it was not likely that its more subtle aspects by way of relation to Shamkara's Mayavada, or the Samkya Darshana should be appreciated. The doctrine of Shakti has no more to do with \"Feminism\" than it has to do with \"old age pensions\" or any other sociological movement of the day. This is a good instance of those apparently \"smart\" and cocksure judgments which Orientalists and ot hers pass on things Indian. The errors would be less ridiculous if they were on occasions more modest as regards their claims to know and understand. What is still more important, they would not probably in such cases give unnecessary ground for offense. The characteristic features of Shakta -dharma are thus its Monism; its concept of the Motherhood of God; its un- sectarian spirit and provisions for Shudras and women, to the latter of whom it renders high honor, recognizing that they may be even Gurus; and lastly its Sadhana skillfully designed to realize its teachings. As I have pointed out on many an occasion this question of Sadhana is of the highest importance, and has been in recent times much overlooked. It is that which more than anything else gives va lue to the Agama or Tantra Shastra. Mere talk about religion is only an intellectual exercise. Of what use are grand phrases about Atma on the lips of those who hate and injure one another and will not help the poor. Religion is kindness. Religion again is a practical activity. Mind and body must be trained. There is a spiritual as well as a mental and physical gymnastic. According to Shakta doctrine each man and woman contains within himself and herself a vast latent magazine of Power or Shakti, a term which comes from the root \"Shak\" to be able, to have force to do, to act. They are each Shakti and nothing but Shakti, for the Svarupa of Shakti, that is, Shakti as it is in itself is Consciousness, and mind and body are Shakti. The problem then is how to raise and vivify Shakti. This is the work of Sadhana in the Religion of Power. The Agama is a practical philosophy, and as the Bengali friend and collaborator of mine, Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyopadhyaya, whom I cite again, has well put it, what the intell ectual world wants to- day is the sort of philosophy which not merely argues but experiments. This is Kriya. The form which Sadhana takes 132 necessarily varies according to faith, temperament and capacity. Thus, amongst Christians, the Catholic Church, like Hinduism, has a full and potent Sadhana in its sacraments (Samskara), temple (Church), private worship (Puja, Upasana) with Upacara \"bell, light and incense\" (Ghanta, Dipa, Dhupa), Images or Pratima (hence it has been called idolatrous), devotional rites suc h as Novenas and the like (Vrata), the threefold \"Angelus\" at morn, noon and evening (Samdhya), rosary (Japa), the wearing of Kavacas (Scapulars, Medals, Agnus Dei), pilgrimage (Tirtha), fasting, abstinence and mortification (Tapas), monastic renunciation (Samnyasa), meditation (Dhyana), ending in the union of mystical theology (Samadhi) and so forth. There are other smaller details such for instance as Shanti -abhisheka (Asperges) into which I need not enter here. I may, however, mention the Spiritual Direc tor who occupies the place of the Guru; the worship (Hyperdulia) of the Virgin-Mother which made Svami Vivekananda call the Italian Catholics, Shaktas; and the use of wine (Madya) and bread (corresponding to Mudra) in the Eucharist or Communion Service. Whilst, however, the Blessed Virgin evokes devotion as warm as that which is here paid to Devi, she is not Devi for she is not God but a creature selected as the vehicle of His incarnation (Avatara). In the Eucharist the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ appearing under the form or \"accidents\" of those material substances; so also Tara is Dravamayi, that is, the \"Saviour in liquid form\". (Mahanirvana Tr.xi. 105- 107.) In the Catholic Church (though the early practice was otherwise) the laity no l onger take wine but bread only, the officiating priest consuming both. Whilst however the outward forms in this case are similar, the inner meaning is different. Those however who contend that eating and drinking are inconsistent with the \"dignity\" of worship may be reminded of Tertullian's saying that Christ instituted His great sacrament at a meal. These notions are those of the dualist with all his distinctions. For the Advaitin every function and act may be made a Yaja. Agape or \"Love Feasts,\" a kind o f Cakra, were held in early times, and discontinued as orthodox practice, on account of abuses to which they led; though they are said still to exist in some of the smaller Christian sects of the day. There are other points of ritual which are peculiar to the Tantra Shastra and of which there is no counterpart in the Catholic ritual such as Nyasa and Yantra. Mantra exists in the form of prayer and as formulae of consecration, 133 but otherwise the subject is conceived of differently here. There are certain gest ures (Mudra) made in the ritual, as when consecrating, blessing, and so forth, but they are not so numerous or prominent as they are here. I may some day more fully develop these interesting analogies, but what I have said is for the present sufficient to establish the numerous similarities which exist between the Catholic and Indian Tantrik ritual. Because of these facts the \"reformed\" Christian sects have charged the Catholic Church with \"Paganism\". It is in fact the inheritor of very ancient practices bu t is not necessarily the worse for that. The Hindu finds his Sadhana in the Tantras of the Agama in forms which his race has evolved. In the abstract there is no reason why his race should not modify these forms of Sadhana or evolve new ones. But the point is that it must have some form of Sadhana. Any system to be fruitful must experiment to gain experience. It is because of its powerful sacraments and disciplines that in the West the Catholic Church has survived to this day, holding firm upon its \"Rock\" amid the dissolving sects, born of what is called the \"Reform\". It is likely to exist when these, as presently existing sects, will have disappeared. All things survive by virtue of the truth in them. The particular truth to which I here refer is that a fai th cannot be maintained by mere hymn- singing and pious addresses. For this reason too Hinduism has survived. This is not necessary to say that either of these will, as presently existing forms, continue until the end of time. The so- called Reformed or Protestant sects, whether of West or East, are when viewed in relation to man in general, the imperfect expression of a truth misunderstood and misapplied, namely, that the higher man spiritually ascends, the less dependent is he on form. The mistake which such sects make is to look at the matter from one side only, and to suppose that all men are alike in their requirement. The Agama is guilty of no such error. It offers form in all its fullness and richness to those below the stage of Yoga, at which point man reaches what the Kularnava Tantra calls the Varna and Ashrama of Light (Jyotirvarnashrami), and gradually releases himself from all form that he may unite his self with the Formless One. I do not know which most to admire -- the colossal affirmations of Indian doctrine, or the wondrous variety of the differing disciplines, which it prescribes for their realization in fact. 134 The Buddhists called Brahmanism Shilavrataparamarsha, that is, a system believing in the efficacy of ritual acts. And so it is, and so at length was Buddhism, when passing through Mahayana it ended up with the full Tantrik Sadhana of the Vajrayana School. There are human tendencies which cannot be suppressed. Hinduism will, however, disappear, if and when Sadhana (whatever be its form) ceases; for that will be the day on which it will no longer be something real, but the mere subject of philosophical and historical talk. Apart from its great doctrine of Shakti, the main significance of the Shakta Tantra Shastra lies in this, that it affirms the principle of the necessity of Sadhana and claims to afford a means available to all of whatever caste and of either sex whereby the teachings of Vedanta may be practically realized. But let no one take any statement from any one, myself included, blindly, without examining and testing it. I am only concerned to state the facts as I know them. It is man's prerogative to think. The Sanskrit word for \"man\" comes from the root man \"to think\". Those who are Shaktas may be pleased at what I have said ab out their faith. It must not, however, be supposed that a doctrine is necessarily true simply because it is old. There are some hoary errors. As for science, its conclusions shift from year to year. Recent discoveries have so abated its pride that it has c onsiderably ceased to give itself those pontifical airs which formerly annoyed some of us. Most will feel that if they are to bow to any Master it should be to a spiritual one. A few will think that they can safely walk alone. Philosophy again is one of the noblest of life's pursuits, but here too we must examine to see whether what is proposed for our acceptance is well founded. The maxim is current that there is nothing so absurd but that it has been held by some philosopher or another. We must each ourselves judge and choose, and if honest, none can blame our choice. We must put all to the test. We may here recollect the words of Shruti -- \"Shrotavyah, Mantavyah, Nididhyasitavyah,\" -- \"listen, reason and ponder\"; for as Manu says \"Yastarke - nanusandhatte s a dharmam veda, netarah\" -- \"He who by discussion investigates, he knows Dharma and none other.\" Ultimately there is experience alone which in Shakta speech is Saham -- \"She I am\". 135 NOTE TO CHAPTER VI I have referred to the Vaidik and Agamic strands in Indian Dharma. I wish to add some weighty remarks made by the well -known Vedantic Monthly The Prabuddha Bharata (Mayavati, U. P., July 1914). They were elicited by the publication of Arthur Avalon's Principles of Tantra. After pointing out that a vindicati on of the Tantras rebounds directly to the benefit of Hinduism as a whole, for Tantrikism in its real sense is nothing but the Vedic religion struggling with wonderful success to reassert itself amidst all those new problems of religious life and discipline which historical events and developments have thrust upon it, and after referring to the Introduction to that work, the author of the review wrote as follows: \"In this new publication, the most noteworthy feature of this new Introduction he has written f or the Tantra -tattva is his appreciative presentation of the orthodox views about the antiquity and the importance of the Tantras, and it is impossible to overestimate the value of this presentation. \"For hitherto all theories about the origin and the importance of the Tantras have been more or less prejudiced by a wrong bias against Tantrikism which some of its own later sinister developments were calculated to create. This bias has made almost every such theory read either like a. condemnation or an apology. All investigation being thus disqualified, the true history of Tantrikism has not yet been written; and we find cultured people mostly inclined either to the view that Tantrikism originally branched off from the Buddhistic Mahayana or Vajrayana as a cult of some corrupted and self - deluded monastics, or to the view that it was the inevitable dowry which some barbarous non-Aryan races brought along with them into the fold of Hinduism. According to both these views, however, the form which this Tantrikism -- either a Buddhistic development or a barbarous importation -- has subsequently assumed in the literature of Hinduism, is its improved edition as issuing from the crucibles of Vedic or Vedantic transformation. But this theory of the curious co -mingling o f the Vedas and Vedanta with Buddhistic corruption or with non- Aryan barbarity is perfectly inadequate to 136 explain the all -pervading influence which the Tantras exert on our present - day religious life. Here it is not any hesitating compromise that we have g ot before us to explain, but a bold organic synthesis, a legitimate restatement of the Vedic culture for the solution of new problems and new difficulties which signalized the dawn of a new age. \"In tracing the evolution of Hinduism, modern historians take a blind leap from Vedic ritualism direct to Buddhism, as if to conclude that all those newly formed communities, with which India had been swarming all over since the close of the fateful era of the Kurukshetra war and to which was denied the right of Vedic sacrifices, the monopoly of the higher three -fold castes of pure orthodox descent, were going all the time without any religious ministrations. These Aryanized communities, we must remember, were actually swamping the Vedic orthodoxy, which was already gradually dwindling down to a helpless minority in all its scattered centers of influence, and was just awaiting the final blow to be dealt by the rise of Buddhism. Thus the growth of these new communities and their occupation of the whole land constituted a mighty event that had been silently taking place in India on the outskirts of the daily shrinking orthodoxy of Vedic ritualism, long before Buddhism appeared on the field, and this momentous event our modern historians fail to take due notice of either it may be because of a curious blindness of self -complacency or because of the dazzle which the sudden triumph of Buddhism and the overwhelming mass of historical evidences left by it create before their eyes. The traditional Kali Yuga dates from the rise of these communities and the Vedic religious culture of the preceding Yuga underwent a wonderful transformation along with a wonderful attempt it made to Aryanize these rising communities. \"History, as hitherto understood and read, speaks of the Brahmins of the Buddhistic age -- their growing alienation from the Jana -kanda or the Upanishadic wisdom, their impotency to save the orthodox Vedic communities from the encroachments of the non- Vedic hordes and races, their ever- deepening religious formalism and s ocial exclusiveness. But this history is silent on the marvelous feats which the Upanishadic sects of anchorites were silently performing on the outskirts of the strictly Vedic community with the object of Aryanizing the new India that was rising over 137 the ashes of the Kurukshetra conflagration. This new India was not strictly Vedic like the India of the bygone ages, for it could not claim the religious ministrations of the orthodox Vedic Brahmins and could not, therefore, perform Yajas like the latter. The question, therefore, is as to how this new India became gradually Aryanized, for Aryanization is essentially a spiritual process, consisting in absorbing new communities of men into the fold of the Vedic religion. The Vedic ritualism that prevailed in those days was powerless, we have seen, to do anything for these new communities springing up all over the country. Therefore, we are obliged to turn to the only other factor in Vedic religion besides the Karma -kanda for an explanation of those changes which the Vedic religion wrought in the rising communities in order to Aryanize them. The Upanishads represent the Jana- kanda of the Vedic religion and if we study all of them, we find that not only the earliest ritualism of Yajas was philosophized upon the ea rlier Upanishads, but the foundation for a new, and no less elaborate, ritualism was fully laid in many of the later Upanishads. For example, we study in these Upanishads how the philosophy of Paca -upasana (five -fold worship, viz., the worship of Shiva, Devi, Sun, Ganesha and Vishnu) was developed out of the mystery of the Pranava (\"Om\"). This philosophy cannot be dismissed as a post- Buddhistic interpolation, seeing that some features of the same philosophy can be clearly traced even in the Brahmanas (e.g. , the discourse about the conception of Shiva). \"Here, therefore, in some of the later Upanishads we find recorded the attempts of the pre -Buddhistic recluses of the forest to elaborate a post- Vedic ritualism out of the doctrine of the Pranava and the Vedic theory of Yogic practices. Here in these Upanishads we find how the Bija -mantras and the Shatcakra of the Tantras were being originally developed, for on the Pranava or Udgitha had been founded a special learning and a school of philosophy from the very earliest ages and some of the \"spinal\" centers of Yogic meditation had been dwelt upon in the earliest Upanishads and corresponding Brahmanas. The Upakaranas of Tantrik worship, namely, such material adjuncts as grass, leaves, water and so on, were most ap parently adopted from Vedic worship along with their appropriate incantations. So even from the Brahmanas and the Upanishads stands out in clear relief a system of spiritual discipline -- which we would unhesitatingly classify as 138 Tantrik -- having at its core the Paca -upasana and around it a fair round of rituals and rites consisting of Bija -mantras and Vedic incantations, proper meditative processes and proper manipulation of sacred adjuncts of worship adopted from the Vedic rites. This may be regarded as the earliest configuration which Tantrik -ism had on the eve of those silent but mighty social upheavals through which the Aryanization of vast and increasing multitudes of new races proceeded in pre- Buddhistic India and which had their culmination in the eventful centuries of the Buddhistic coup de grace. \"Now this pre- Buddhistic Tantrikism, perhaps, then recognized as the Vedic Paca -upasana, could not have contributed at all to the creation of a new India, had it remained confined completely within the limits of monastic sects. But like Jainism, this Paca -upasana went forth all over the country to bring ultra -Vedic communities under its spiritual ministrations. Even if we inquire carefully into the social conditions obtaining in the strictly Vedic ages, we find that there was always an extended wing of the Aryanized society where the purely Vedic Karma -kanda could not be promulgated, but where the molding influence of Vedic ideals worked through the development of suitable spiritual activities. It is alwa ys to the Jana- kanda and the monastic votaries thereof, that the Vedic religion owed its wonderful expansiveness and its progressive self -adaptability, and every religious development within the Vedic fold, but outside, the ritualism of Homa sacrifices, is traceable to the spiritual wisdom of the all renouncing forest recluses. This 'forest' wisdom was most forcibly brought into requisition when after the Kurukshetra a new age was dawning with the onrush and upheaval of non- Aryan and semi -Aryan races all over India -- an echo of which may be found in that story of the Mahabharata where Arjuna fails to use his Gandiva to save his protgs from the robbery of the non - Aryan hordes. \"The greatest problem of the pre- Buddhistic ages was the Aryanization of the ne w India that rose and surged furiously from every side against the fast-dwindling centers of the old Vedic orthodoxy struggling hard, but in vain, by social enactments to guard its perilous insulation. But for those religious movements, such as those of th e Bhagavatas, Shaktas, Sauryas, Shaivas, Ganapatyas and Jainas, that tackled this problem of Aryanization 139 most successfully, all that the Vedic orthodoxy stood for in the real sense would have gradually perished without trace. These movements, specially the five cults of Vedic worship, took up many of the non- Aryan races and cast their life in the mold of the Vedic spiritual ideal, minimizing in this way the gulf that existed between them and the Vedic orthodoxy and thereby rendering possible their gradual amalgamation. And where this task remained unfulfilled owing to the mold proving too narrow still to fit into the sort of life which some non- Aryan races or communities lived, there it remained for Buddhism to solve the problem of Aryanization in due time. But still we must remember that by the time Buddhism made its appearance, the pre- Buddhistic phase of Tantrik worship had already established itself in India so widely and so firmly that instead of dislodging it by its impetuous onset -- all the force of which, by the bye, was mainly spent on the tattering orthodoxy of Vedic ritualism -- Buddhism was itself swallowed up within three or four centuries by its perhaps least suspected opponent of this Tantrik worship and then wonderfully transformed and ejected on the arena as the Mahayana. \"The publication of these two volumes is an event of great interest and importance. The religious beliefs of the modern Hindus have been represented to English readers from various points of view, but the peculiar mold into which they have been sought to be cast in comparatively modern centuries has not received adequate attention. The exponents of the religion of modern Hindus take cognizance more of the matter and source of their beliefs than of the change of form they have been undergoing through the many centuries. The volumes under review, as well as other publications brought out by Arthur Avalon, serve to carry this important question of form to such a prominence as almost makes it obligatory for every exhaustive exposi tion of Hindu doctrines in future to acknowledge and discriminate in them the formative influences of the Tantrik restatement. In the Tantratattva, the presentation and vindication of the Hindu religious beliefs and practices avowedly and closely follow the methodology of the Tantras, and the learned pundit has fully succeeded in establishing the fact that what lies behind these beliefs and practices is not mere prejudice or superstition but a system of profound philosophy based on the Vedas. Every student of modern Hinduism should acquaint himself 140 with this, namely, its immediate background of Tantrik philosophy and ritualism. \"The Hindu religious consciousness is like a mighty Ganges emerging from the Himalayas of Vedic wisdom, receiving tributaries and sending out branch streams at many points in its course. And though the nature of the current, its color, velocity or uses may vary at different places, the Ganges is the same Ganges whether at Hardwar, Allahabad or Calcutta. The stream is not only one but it has also its one main channel in spite of all the many tributaries and branches. And the whole of the stream is sacred, though different sects may choose special points and confluences as of special sanctity to themselves, deriving inspiration thence for their special sectarian developments. Now, though the rise of Tantrik philosophy and ritualism created in former times new currents and back -waters along the stream of Hinduism, it was essentially an important occurrence in the main stream and channel; and instead of producing a permanent bifurcation in that stream, it coalesced with it, coloring and renovating, more or less, the whole tenor of the Hindu religious consciousness. As a result, we find Tantrik thought and sentiment equally operative in the extreme metaphysical wing of Hinduism as well as in its lower matter- of-fact phases. This actual permeation of Hindu religious consciousness by Tantrik thought and sentiment should receive the fullest recognition at the hands of every up-to-date exponent. His predecessors of former generations might have to strengthen their advocacy of Tantrik doctrines by joining issue with the advocates of particular phases of Hindu religion and philosophy. But the present epoch in the history of our religious conscious ness is pre-eminently an epoch of wonderful synthetic mood of thought and sentiment, which is gradually pervading the Hindu religious consciousness ever since Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa embodied in himself its immediate possibilities, to find in the literature that is being so admirably provided for English readers by Arthur Avalon an occasional tendency to use Tantrik doctrines as weapons for combating certain phases of Hindu belief and practice. This tendency seems 141 to betray quite a wrong standpoint in the study of the Tantras, their relation to other Scriptures and their real historical significance.\" 142 CHAPTER SEVEN . IS SHAKTI FORCE ? There are some persons who have thought, and still think, that Shakti mea ns force and that the worship of Shakti is the worship of force. Thus Keshub Chunder Sen (New Dispensation, p. 108), wrote: Four centuries ago the Shaktas gave way before the Bhaktas. Chaitanya's army proved invincible, and carried all Bengal captive. Even to-day his gospel of love rules as a living force, though his followers have considerably declined both in faith and in morals. Just the reverse of this we find in England and other European countries. There the Shaktas are driving the Bhaktas out of the field. Look at the Huxleys, the Tyndalls and the Spencers of the day. What are they but Shaktas, worshippers of Shakti or Force? The only Deity they adore, if they at all adore one, is the Prime Force of the universe. To it they offer dry homage. Surely t hen the scientists and materialists of the day are a sect of Shakti -worshippers, who are chasing away the true Christian devotees who adore the God of Love. Alas! for European Vaishnavas; they are retreating before the advancing millions of Western Shaktas. We sincerely trust, however, the discomfiture of devotion and Bhakti will be only for a time, and that a Chaitanya will yet arise in the West, crush the Shaktas, who only recognize Force as Deity and are sunk in carnality and voluptuousness, and lead natures into the loving faith, spirituality, simplicity, and rapturous devotion of the Vaishnava. Professor Monier Williams (\"Hinduism\") also called it a doctrine of Force. Recently the poet Rabindranath Tagore has given the authority of his great name to thi s error (Modern Review, July, 1919). After pointing out that Egoism is the price paid for the fact of existence and that the whole universe is assisting in the desire that the \"I\" should be, he says that man has viewed this desire in two different ways, either as a whim of Creative Power, or a joyous self- expression of Creative Love. Is the fact then of his being, he asks, a revealment of Force or of Love? Those who hold to the first view must also, he thinks, recognize conflict as inevitable and eternal. For according to 143 them Peace and Love are but a precarious coat of armor within which the weak seek shelter, whereas that which the timid anathematize as unrighteousness, that alone is the road to success. \"The pride of prosperity throws man's mind outwards and the misery and insult of destitution draws man's hungering desires likewise outwards. These two conditions alike leave man unashamed to place above all other gods, Shakti the Deity of Power -- the Cruel One, whose right hand wields the weapon of guile. In the politics of Europe drunk with Power we see the worship of Shakti.\" In the same way the poet says that in the days of their political disruption, the cowed and down- trodden Indian people through the mouths of their poets sang the praises of the same Shakti. \"The Chandi of Kavikangkan and of the Annadamangala, the Ballad of Manasa, the Goddess of Snakes, what are they but Paeans of the triumph of Evil? The burden of their song is the defeat of Shiva the good at the hands of the cruel deceitful criminal Shakti.\" \"The male Deity who was in possession was fairly harmless. But all of a sudden a feminine Deity turns up and demands to be worshipped in his stead. That is to say that she insisted on thrusting herself where she had no right. Under what t itle? Force! By what method? Any that would serve.\" The Deity of Peace and Renunciation did not survive. Thus he adds that in Europe the modern Cult of Shakti says that the pale anaemic Jesus will not do. But with high pomp and activity Europe celebrates her Shakti worship. \"Lastly the Indians of to- day have set to the worship Europe's Divinity. In the name of religion some are saying that it is cowardly to be afraid of wrong - doing. Both those who have attained worldly success, and those who have failed to attain it are singing the same tune. Both fret at righteousness as an obstacle which both would overcome by physical force.\" I am not concerned here with any popular errors that there may be. After all, when we deal with a Shastrik term it is to the Shastra itself that we must look for its meaning. Shakti comes from the root Shak \"to be able,\" \"to do\". It indicates both activity and capacity therefor. The world, as word, is activity. But when we have said that, we have already indicated that it is erroneous to confine the meaning of the term Shakti to any special form of activity. On the contrary 144 Shakti means both power in general and every particular form of power. Mind is a Power: so is Matter. Mind is constantly functioning in the form of Vritti; Reasoning, Will and Feeling (Bhava) such as love, aversion and so forth are all aspects of Mind- power in its general sense. Force is power translated to the material plane, and is therefore only one and the grossest aspect of Shakti or power. But all these special powers are limited forms of the great creative Power which is the Mother (Ambika) of the Universe. Worship of Shakti is not worship of these limited forms but of the Divine will, knowledge and action, the cause of these effects. That Mahashakti is perfect consciousness (Cidrupini) and Bliss (Anandamayi) which produces from Itself the contracted consciousness experiencing both pleasure and pain. This production is not at all a \"whim\". It is the nature (Svabhava) of the ultimate. Bliss is Love (Niratishayapremaspadatvam anandatvam). The production of the Universe is according to the Shakta an act of love, illustrated by the so- called erotic imagery of the Shastra. The Self loves itself whether before, or in, creation. The thrill of human love which continues the life of humanity is an infinitesimally small fragment and faint reflection of the creative act in which Shiva and Shakti join to produce the Bindu which is the seed of the Universe. I quite agree that the worship of mere Force is Asurik and except in a transient sense futile. Force, however, may be moralized by the good purpose which it serves. The antithesis is not rightly between Might and Right but between Might in the service of Right and Might in the service of Wrong. To worship force merely is to worship matter. He however who worships the Mother in Her Material forms (Sthularupa) will know that She has others, and will worship Her in all such forms. He will also know that She is beyond all limited forms as that which gives being to them all. We may then say that Force is a gross form of Shakti, but Shakti is much more than that \"here\" (Iha) and the infinite Power of Consciousness \"there\" (Amutra). This last, the Shakti of worship, is called by the Shastra the Purnahambhava or the experience \"All I am\". 145 CHAPTER EIGHT . CINACARA (VASHISHTHA AND BUDDHA ) It has been the subject of debate whether the Tantrik Pacatattva ritual with wine and so forth is a product of Buddhism, and whether it is opposed to Vaidika Dharma. Some have supposed that these rites originally came from yellow Asia, penetrated into India where they received its impress, and again made their way to the north to encounter earlier original forms. I have elsewhere put forward some facts which suggest that these rites may be a continuance, though in another form, of ancient Vaidik usage in which Soma, Meat, Fish and Purodasa formed a part. Though there are some Maithuna rites in the Vedas it is possible that the Bengal Shakta ritual in thi s respect has its origin in Cinacara. Possibly the whole ritual comes therefrom. I have spoken of Bengal because we should distinguish it from other forms of Shakta worship. The matter is so obscure at present that any definite affirmation as to historical origins lacks justification. Most important however in the alleged Buddhist connection is the story of Vashishtha to be found in the Tantras. He is said to have gone to Mahacina (Tibet), which, according to popular belief, is half way to Heaven. Mahadeva is said to be visible at the bottom of the Manasarova Lake near Kailasa. Some of the Texts bearing on it have been collected in the Appendix to the edition of the Tara Tantra which has been published by the Varendra Anusandhana Samiti. The Tara Tantra opens (l. 2) with the following question of Devi Tara or Mahanila -Sarasvati: \"Thou didst speak of the two Kula -bhairavas, Buddha and Vashishtha. Tell me by what Mantra they became Siddha'. The same Tantra (IV. 10) defines a Bhairava as follows: \"He who purifie s these five (i.e., Pacatattva) and after offering the same (to the Devata) partakes thereof is a Bhairava.\" Buddha then is said to be a Kula -bhairava. It is to be noted that Buddhist Tantriks who practice this ritual are accounted Kaulas. Shiva replied, \"Janardana (Vishnu) is the excellent Deva in the form of Buddha (Buddharupi).\" It is said in the Samayacara Tantra that Tara and Kalika, in their different forms, as also Matangi, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, and Dhumavati belong to the northern Amnaya. The sixth Chapter of 146 the Sammohana Tantra mentions a number of Scriptures of the Bauddha class, together with others of the Shakta, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Saura and Ganapatya classes. Vashishtha is spoken of in the XVII Chapter of the Rudrayamala and the 1st Patala of the Brahmayamala. The following is the account in the former Tantrik Scripture: Vashishtha, the self -controlled, the son of Brahma, practiced for ages severe austerities in a lonely spot. For six thousand years he did Sadhana, but still the Daughter of the Mountains did not appear to him. Becoming angry he went to his father and told him his method of practice. He then said, \"Give me another Mantra, Oh Lord! since this Vidya (Mantra) does not grant me Siddhi (success); otherwise in your presence I shall u tter a terrible curse.\" Dissuading him Brahma said, \"Oh son, who art learned in the Yoga path, do not do so. Do thou worship Her again with wholehearted feeling, when She will appear and grant you boons. She is the Supreme Shakti. She saves from all dangers. She is lustrous like ten million suns. She is dark blue (Nila). She is cool like ten million moons. She is like ten million lightning -flashes. She is the spouse of Kala (Kalakamini). She is the beginning of all. In Her there is neither Dharma nor Adharma. She is in the form of all. She is attached to pure Cinacara (Shuddhacinacararata). She is the initiator (Pravarttika) of Shakticakra. Her greatness is infinitely boundless. She helps in the crossing of the ocean of the Samsara. She is Buddheshvari (poss ibly Buddhishvari, Lord of Buddhi). She is Buddhi (intelligence) itself (Buddhirupa). She is in the form of the Atharva branch of the Vedas (Atharvavedashakhini). Numerous Shastric references connect the Tantra Shastra with the Atharvaveda. (See in this connection my citation from Shaktisangama Tantra in Principles of Tantra.) She protects the beings of the worlds. Her action is spread throughout the moving and motionless. Worship Her, my son. Be of good cheer. Why so eager to curse? Thou art the jewel of k indness. Oh, son, worship Her constantly with thy mind (Cetas). Being entirely engrossed in Her, thou of a surety shalt gain sight of Her.\" Having heard these words of his Guru and having bowed to him again and again the pure one (Vashishtha), versed in the meaning of Vedanta, betook 147 himself to the shore of the ocean. For full a thousand years he did Japa of Her Mantra. Still he received no message (Adesha). Thereupon the Muni Vashishtha grew angry, and being perturbed of mind prepared to curse the Mahavidy a (Devi). Having sipped water (Acamana) he uttered a great and terrible curse. Thereupon kuleshvari (Lady of the Kaulas) Mahavidya appeared before the Muni. She who dispels the fear of the Yogins said, \"How now Vipra (Are Vipra), why have you terribly cursed without cause? Thou dost not understand My Kulagama nor knowest how to worship. How by mere Yoga practice can either man or Deva get sight of My Lotus-Feet. My worship (Dhyana) is without austerity and pain. To him who desires My Kulagama, who is Siddha in My Mantra, and knows My pure Vedacara, My Sadhana is pure (Punya) and beyond even the Vedas (Vedanamapyagocara). (This does not mean unknown to the Vedas or opposed to them but something which surpasses the Vaidik ritual of the Pashu. This is made plain by the following injunction to follow the Atharvaveda.) Go to Mahacina (Tibet) and the country of the Bauddhas and always follow the Atharvaveda (Bauddha deshe' tharvaveda Mahacine sada braja). Having gone there and seen My Lotus -Feet which are Mahabhava (the great blissful feeling which in Her true nature She is) thou shalt, Oh Maharisi, become versed in My Kula and a great Siddha\". Having so said, She became formless and disappeared in the ether and then passed through the ethereal region. The great Rishi having heard this from the Mahavidya Sarasvati went to the land of China where Buddha is established (Buddhapratishthita). Having repeatedly bowed to the ground, Vashishtha said, \"Protect me, Oh Mahadeva who art the Imperishable One in the form of Buddha (Buddharupa). I am the very humble Vashishtha, the son of Brahma. My mind is ever perturbed. I have come here (Cina) for the Sadhana of the Mahadevi. I know not the path leading to Siddhi. Thou knowest the path of the Devas. Seeing however thy way of lif e (Acara) doubts assail my mind (Bhayani santi me hridi: because he saw the (to him) extraordinary ritual with wine and woman). Destroy them and my wicked mind which inclines to Vaidik ritual (Vedagamini; that is, the ordinary Pashu ritual). Oh Lord in Thy abode there are ever rites which are outside Veda (Vedavavahishkrita: that is, the Vaidik ritual and what is consistent with 148 Veda as Vashishtha then supposed). How is it that wine, meat, woman (Angana) are drunk, eaten and enjoyed by naked (Digambara) Siddhas who are high (Vara), and awe -inspiring (Raktapanodyata). They drink constantly and enjoy (or make enjoy) beautiful women (Muhurmuhuh prapivanti ramayanti varanganam). With red eyes they are ever exhilarated and replete with flesh and wine (Sadamangsas avaih purnah). They are powerful to favor and punish. They are beyond the Vedas (Vedasyagocarah). They enjoy wine and women (Madyastrisevane ratah)\" (Vashishtha merely saw the ritual surface). Thus spoke the great Yogi having seen the rites which are outside the Veda (Veda -vahishkrita. v. ante). Then bowing low with folded hands he humbly said, \"How can inclinations such as these be purifying to the mind? How can there be Siddhi without Vaidik rites?\" Manah -pravrittireteshu katham bhavati pavani Kathang va jayate siddhir veda karyyang vina prabho. Buddha said, \"Oh Vashishtha, listen the while I speak to thee of the excellent Kula path, by the mere knowing of which one becomes in a short time like Rudra Himself. I speak to thee in brief the Agama which is the essence of all and which leads to Kulasiddhi. First of all, the Vira (hero) should be pure (Shuci). Buddha here states the conditions under which only the rites are permissible. His mind should be penetrated with discrimination (Viveka) and freed of all Pashubhava (state of an uninitiate Pashu or animal man). Let him avoid the company of the Pashu and remain alone in a lonely place, free from lust, anger and other passions. He should constantly devote himself to Yoga practice. He should be firm in his resolve to learn Yoga; he should ever tread the Yoga path and fully know the meaning of the Veda (Vedarthanipuno mahan). In this way the pious one (Dharmatma) of good conduct and largeness of heart (Audarya) should, by gradual degrees, restrain his breath, and through the path of breathing compass the destruction of mind. Following this practice the self -controlled (Vashi) becomes Yogi. In slow degrees of practice the body firstly sweats. This is the lowest stage (Adhama). The next is middling (Madhyama). Here there is trembling (Kampa). In the third or highest (Para) stage one is able to levitate 149 (Bhumityaga). By the attainment of Siddhi in Pranayama one becomes a master in Yoga. Having become a Yogi by practice of Kumbhaka (restraint of breath) he should be Mauni (given over to silence) and full of intent, devotion (Ekanta -bhakti) to Shiva, Krishna and Brahma. The pure one should realize by mind, action, and speech that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are restless like the moving air (Vayavigaticancalah). Quaere. Perh aps the transient nature of these Devatas, as compared with the supreme Shakti, is indicated. The man of steady mind should fix it on Shakti, who is consciousness (Cidrupa). Thereafter the Mantrin should practice Mahavirabhava (the feeling of the great hero) and follow the Kula path, the Shakti -cakra, the Vaishnava Sattvacakra and Navavigrah and should worship Kulakatyayani, the excellent one, the Pratyaksha Devata (that is, the Deity who responds to prayer) who grants prosperity and destroys all evil. She is consciousness (Cidrupa), She is the abode of knowledge (Jana) and is Consciousness and Bliss, lustrous as ten million lightnings, of whom all Tattvas are the embodiment, who is Raudri with eighteen arms, fond of wine and mountains of flesh (the text is Shivamangsacalapriyam, but the first word should be Sura). Man should do Japa of the Mantra, taking refuge with Her, and following the Kula path. Who in the three worlds knows a path higher than this? By the grace gained therein, the great Brahma Himself became the Creator, and Vishnu, whose substance is Sattva -guna, the object of adoration of all, highly deserving of worship, the great, and Lord of Yajurveda, became able to protect. By it Hara the Lord of Viras, the wrathful one, Lord of wrath and of mighty power, became the Destroyer of all. By the grace of Virabhava the Dikpalas (Protectors of the quarters) became like unto Rudra. By a month's practice power to attract (Akarshanasiddhi) is attained. In two months one becomes the Lord of Speech. In four m onths one becomes like unto the Dikpalas, in five months one becomes the five arrows (probably masters the five Tanmatras), and in six months he becomes Rudra Himself. The fruit of this method (Acara) is beyond all others. This is Kaulamarga. There is nothing which surpasses it. If there be Shakti, the Vipra becomes a complete Yogi by six months' practice. Without Shakti even Shiva can do nought. What then shall we say of men of small intelligence\". 150 Having said this, He whose form is Buddha (Buddharupi) made him practice Sadhana. He said, \"Oh Vipra, do thou serve Mahashakti. Do thou practice Sadhana with wine (Madyasadhana) and thus shalt thou get sight of the Lotus Feet of the Mahavidya.\" Vashishtha having heard these words of the Guru and meditating on Devi Sarasvati went to the Kulamandapa to practice the wine ritual (Madirasadhana) and having repeatedly done Sadhana with wine, meat, fish, parched grain and Shakti he became a complete Yogi (Purnayogi). A similar account is given in the Brahmayamala. There are some variants however. Thus while in the Rudrayamala, Vashishtha is said to have resorted to the shore of the ocean, in the Brahmayamala he goes to Kamakhya, the great Tantrik Pitha and shrine of the Devi. (The prevalence of Her worship amongst the Mongolian Assamese is noteworthy.) It may be here added that this Yamala states that, except at time of worship, wine should not be taken nor should the Shakti be unclothed. By violation of these provisions life, it says, is shortened, and man goes to Hell. According to the account of the Brahmayamala, Vashishtha complaining of his ill -success was told to go to the Blue Mountains (Nilacala) and worship parameshvari near Kamakhya (Karma in Assam). He was told that Vishnu in the form of Buddha (Buddharupi) alone knew this worship according to Cinacara. Devi said, \"without Cinacara you cannot please Me. Go to Vishnu who is Udbodharupi (illumined) and worship Me according to the Acara taught by Him.\" Vashishtha then went to Vishnu in the country Mahacina, which is by the side of the Himalaya (Himavatparshve), a country inhabited by great Sadhakas and thousands of beautiful and youthful women whose hearts were gladdened with wine, and whose minds were blissful with enjoyment (Vilasa). They were adorned with clothes which inspired love (Shringaravesha) and the movement of their hips made tinkle their girdles of little bells. Free of both fear and prudish shame they enchanted the world. They surround Ishvara and are devoted to the worship of Devi. Vashishtha wondered greatly when he saw Him in the form of Buddha (Buddharupi) with eyes drooping from wine. \"What\" he said, \"is Vishnu doing in His Buddha form? This map (Acara) is opposed to Veda (Vedavadaviruddha). I do not approve of it (Asammato mama).\" Whilst so thinking, he heard a voice 151 coming from the ether saying, \"Oh thou who art devoted to good acts, think not like this. This Acara is of excellent result in the Sadhana of Tarini. She is not pleased with anything which is the contrary of this. If thou dost wish to gain Her grace speedily, then worship Her according to Cinacara.\" Hearing this voice, Vashishtha's hairs stood on end and he fell to the ground. Being filled with exceeding joy he prayed to Vishnu in the form of Buddha (Buddharupa). Buddha, who had taken wine, seeing him was greatly pleased and said, \"Why have you come here?\" Vashishtha bowing to Buddha told him of his worship of Tarini. Buddha who is Hari and full of knowledge (Tattvajana) spoke to him of the five Makaras (M: that is, the five commencing with the letter M are Madya, or wine and so forth) which are in Cinacara (Majnanam Cinacaradikaranam) saying that this should not be disclosed (a common injunction as regards this ritual and renders it from the opponents' standpoint suspect). \"By practicing it thou shalt not again sink into the ocean of being. It is full of knowledge of the Essence (Tattvajana) and gives immediate liberation (Mukti).\" He then goes on to explain a principal feature of this cult, namely, its freedom from the ritual rules of the ordinary worship above which the Sadhaka has risen. It is mental worship. In it bathing, purification, Japa, and ceremonial worship is by the mind only. (No outward acts are necessary; the bathing and so forth is in the mind and not in actual water, as is the case in lower and less advanced worship.) There are no rules as to auspicious and inauspicious times, or as to what should be done by day and by night. Nothing is pure or impure (there is no ritual defect of impurity) nor prohibition against the taking of food. Devi should be worshipped even though the worshipper has had his food, and even though the place be unclean. Woman who is Her image should be worshipped (Pujanam striya) and never should any injury be done to her (Stridvesho naiva kartavyah). Are we here dealing with an incident in which Sakyamuni or some other Buddha of Buddhism was concerned? According to Hindu belief the Ramayana was composed in the Treta age, and Vashishtha was the family priest of Dasharatha and Rama (Adikanda VII. 4, 5, VIII. 6), Ayodhya -kanda V. 1). The Mahabharata was composed in Dvapara. Krishna appeared in the Sandhya between this and the Kali -yuga. Both 152 Kurukshetra and Buddha were in the Kali age. According to this chronology, Vashishtha who was the Guru of Dasharatha was earlier than Sakyamuni. There were, however, Buddhas before the latter. The text does not mention Sakyamuni or Gautama Buddha. According to Buddhistic tradition there were many other Buddhas before him such as Dipankara \"The Luminous One,\" Krakuccanda and others, the term Buddha being a term applicable to the enlightened, whoever he be. It will no doubt be said by the Western Orientalist that both these Yamalas were composed after the time of Sakyamuni. But if this be so, their author or authors, as Hind us, would be aware that according to Hindu Chronology Vashishtha antedated Sakyamuni. Apart from the fact of there being other Buddhas, according to Hinduism \"types\" as distinguished from \"forms\" of various things, ideas, and faiths, are persistent, though the forms are variable, just as is the case with the Platonic Ideas or eternal archetypes. In this sense neither Veda, Tantra - Shastra nor Buddhism had an absolute beginning at any time. As types of ideas or faiths they are beginningless (Anadi), though the forms may have varied from age to age, and though perhaps some of the types may have been latent in some of the ages. If the Vedas are Anadi so are the Tantra - shastras. To the Yogic vision of the Rishi which makes latent things patent, variable forms show their hidden types. Nothing is therefore absolutely new. A Rishi in the Treta Yuga will know that which will apparently begin in Kali or Dvapara but which is already really latent in his own age. Vishnu appears to his vision as the embodiment of that alr eady latent, but subsequently patent, cult. Moreover in a given age, what is latent in a particular land (say Aryavarta) may be patent in another (say Mahacina). In this way, according to the Hindu Shastra, there is an essential conservation of types subject to the conditions of time, place, and person (Deshakalapatra). Moreover, according to these Shastras, the creative power is a reproducing principle. This means that the world -process is cyclic according to a periodic law. The process in one Kalpa is sub stantially repeated in another and Vashishtha, Buddha, and the rest appeared not only in the present but in previous grand cycles or Kalpas. Just as there is no absolute first beginning of the Universe, so nothing under the sun is absolutely new. Vashishtha, therefore, might have remembered past Buddhas, as he might have foreseen those to come. In Yogic vision both the 153 past and the future can project their shadows into the present. Every Purana and Samhita illustrates these principles of Yogic intuition backwards and forwards. To the mind of Ishvara both past and future are known. And so it is to such who, in the necessary degree, partake of the qualities of the Lord's mind. The date upon which a particular Shastra is compiled is, from this viewpoint, unimpo rtant. Even a modern Shastra may deal with ancient matter. In dealing with apparent anachronisms in Hindu Shastra, it is necessary to bear in mind these principles. This of course is not the view of \"Oriental scholars\" or of Indians whom they have stampeded into regarding the beliefs of their country as absurd. It is however the orthodox view. And as an Indian friend of mine to whose views I have referred has said, \"What the Psychic research society of the West is conceding to good 'mediums' and 'subjects' cannot be withheld from our ancient supermen -- the Rishis.\" The peculiar features to be noted of this story are these. Vashishtha must have known what the Vedas and Vaidik rites were, as ordinarily understood. He is described as Vedantavit. Yet he was surprised on seeing Cinacara rites and disapproved of them. He speaks of it as \"outside Veda\" (Vedavahishkrita) and even opposed to it (Vedavadaviruddha). On the other hand the connection with Veda is shown, in that the Devi who promulgates this Acara is connected with the Atharvaveda, and directs Vashishtha always to follow that Veda, and speaks of the Acara not as being opposed to, but as something so high as to be beyond, the ordinary Vaidik ritual (Vedanamapyagocarah). He is to be fully learned in the import of Veda (Vedarthanipuno). It was by the grace of the doctrine and practice of Cinacara that Vishnu became the Lord of Yajurveda. The meaning there fore appears to be, that the doctrine and practice lie implicit in the Vedas, but go beyond what is ordinarily taught. Vishnu therefore says that it is not to be disclosed. What meaning again are we to attach to the word Visnubuddharupa? Buddha means \"enlightened\" but here a particular Buddha seems indicated, though Vishnu is also spoken of as Udbodharupi and the Devi as Buddheshvari. The Tara Tantra calls him a Kulabhairava. As is well known, Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu. Vashishtha is told to go to Mahacina by the Himalaya and the country of the Bauddhas (Bauddhadesh). The Bauddhas who follow the Pacatattva ritual are accounted Kaulas. It is a noteworthy fact that the flower of the Devi is Jaba, the scarlet hibiscus or 154 China rose. As the last name may indicate it is perhaps not indigenous to India but to China whence it may have been imported possibly through Nepal. This legend, incorporated as it is in the Shastra itself, seems to me of primary importance in determining the historical origin of the Pacatattva ritual. 155 CHAPTER NINE. THE TANTRA SHASTRAS IN CHINA Adopting for the purpose of this essay, and without discussion as to their accuracy, the general views of Orientalists on chronology and the development of the Buddhistic schools, the history of the Buddhistic Tantra is shortly as follows. The Mahayana (which commenced no one knows exactly when) was represented in the first and second centuries by the great names of Ashvaghosha and Nagarjuna. Its great scripture is the Prajaparamita. Its dominance under the protection of Kanishka marks the first steps towa rds metaphysical, theistic, and ritualistic religion, a recurring tendency amongst men to which I have previously referred. In the second half of the first century A.D., Buddhism, apparently in its Mahayana form, spread to China, and thence to Korea, then to Japan in sixth century A.D. and to Tibet in the seventh. Some time between the 4th and 5th centuries AD Asanga, a Buddhist monk of Gandhara, is said to have promulgated the Buddhist Yogacara which, as its name imports, was an adaptation of the Indian Patajali's Yoga Darshana. Dr. Waddell says that \"this Yoga parasite (most Europeans dislike what they understand of Yoga) containing within itself the germs of Tantrism\" soon developed \"monster out -growths\" which \"cankered\" \"the little life of purely Buddhistic stock\" in the Mahayana, which is itself characterized as merely \"sophistic nihilism\". Whatever that may mean, it certainly has the air of reducing the Mahayana to nothingness. We are then told that at the end of the sixth century \"Tantrism or Sivaic mysticism (a vague word) with its worship of female energies (Shakti) and Fiendesses began to tinge both Hinduism and Buddhism, the latter of which \"became still more debased with silly contemptible mummery of unmeaning jargon, gibberish, charmed sentences (Dharani) and magic circles (Mandala)\" in the form of the \"Vehicle\" called Mantrayana alleged to have been founded by Nagarjuna who received it from the Dhyani Buddha Vairocana through the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva at the \"Iron tower\" in Southern India. Continuing he says \"that on the evolution in the tenth century of the demoniacal Buddhas of the Kalacakra (system) the Mantrayana developed into the Vajrayana \"the most depraved form of 156 Buddhist doctrine\" wherein the \"Devotee\" endeavors with the aid of the \"Demoniacal Buddhas\" and of \"Fiendesses\" (Dakini) \"to obtain various Siddhis\". The missionary author, the Rev. Graham Sandberg, who is so little favorable to Buddhism that he can discover (p. 260) in it \"no scheme of metaphysics or morality which can be dignified with the title of an ethical system,\" when however speaking of this \"most depraved form\" in a short Chapter on the Tantras and Tantrik rites \"Tibet and the Tibetans,\" 218) says that this new vehicle (Ngag -kyi Thegpa) did not profess to supersede the time-honored Vajrayana (Dorje -Thegpa) but it claimed \"by its expanded mythological scheme and its fascinating and even sublime mystic conceptions to crystallize the old Tantrik methods into a regular science as complicated as it was resourceful.\" We are all naturally pleased at finding resemblances in other doctrines to teachings of our own, and so the reverend author, after pointing out that a leading feature of the Kalacakra (Dus -Kyi-khorlo) was the evolution of the idea of a Supreme Personal Being, says that \"many fine and distinctively theistic characteristics of the Deity, His disposition, purity, fatherliness, benevolence and isolated power are set out in the Kalacakra treatises.\" But he is, as we might expect, of the opinion that this was only an effort towards the real thing, probably influenced by the fact of Christian and Mohamedan teaching. We commonly find that a Semitic source is alleged for what cannot be denied to be good in Hinduism, or its child Buddhism. One wonders however how the \"demoniaca l Buddhas\" and \"Fiendesses\" work themselves into this be -praised effort to teach Christian ideas. At the risk of straying from my subject, I may point out that in Buddhism the Devatas are given both peaceful (Zhi) and wrathful (Khro) aspects. The latter denotes the terrible (what in India is called Bhairava) aspects of the Divinity, but does not change Him or her into a Demon, at least in Buddhist or Indian belief. Even to the Christian, God has both a terrible and a benign aspect. It is true that some of t he representations of the former aspect in Northern Buddhism are, to most Westerns, demoniac in form, but that is the way the Tibetan mind works in endeavoring to picture the matter for itself, as the Hindus do with their Devis, Kali, Chinnamasta and Candi. Another and artistically conceived idea of Bhairava is pictured in a beautiful Indian Kangra painting in my possession in which a smoldering restrained wrath, as it were a lowering dark storm - 157 cloud, envelopes the otherwise restrained face and immobile posture of the Devata. As regards the esoteric worship of Dakinis I have said a word in the Foreword to the seventh volume of my Tantrik Texts. Without having recourse to abuse, we can better state the general conclusion by saying that the Tantrik cult intro duced a theistical form of organized worship with prayers, litanies, hymns, music, flowers, incense, recitation of Mantra ( Japa), Kavacas or protectors in the form of Dharanis, offerings, help of the dead: in short, with all practical aids to religion for the individual together with a rich and pompous public ritual for the whole body of the faithful. For the following facts, so far as China is concerned, I am indebted in the main to the learned work of the Jesuit Father L. Wieger Histoire des Croyances Re ligieuses et des Opinions Philosophiques en Cine (Paris Challamel 1917). The author cited states that Indian Tantrism \"the school of efficacious formula\" developed in China in the seventh and eighth centuries of our era, as a Chinese adaptation of the old Theistic Yoga of Patajali (Second century B.C.) recast by Samanta Bhadra, \"and fixed in polytheistic (?) form\" by Asamgha (circ. 400 AD or as others say 500 AD). A treatise of the latter translated into Chinese in 647 AD had but little success. But in 716 the Indian Shubhakara came to the Chinese Court, gained the support of the celebrated Tchang -soei, known under his monastic name I- hing to whom he taught Indian doctrine, the latter in return giving aid by way of translations. Shubhakara, in the Tantrik way, thought that the Buddhist Monks in China were losing their time in mere philosophizing since (I cite the author mentioned) the Chinese people were not capable of abstract speculations. Probably Shubhakara, like all of his kind, was a practical man, who recognized, as men of sense must do, that in view of the present character of human nature, religion must be organized and brought to the people in such a form as will be fruitful of result. Metaphysical speculations count with them for little either in C hina or elsewhere. Shubhakara and his school taught the people that \"man was not like the Banana a fruit without kernel\". His body contained a Soul. A moral life was necessary, for after death the Soul was judged and if found wicked was cast into Hell. But how was man to guard against this and the evil spirits around him? How was he to secure health, wealth, pardon for his sins, good being in this world and the hereafter? The people were then taught the existence of Divine Protectors, 158 including some forms of Hindu Divinities as also the manner in which their help might be invoked. They were instructed in the use of Mantras, Dharanis, and Mudras the meaning of which is not explained by Dr. Waddell's definition \"certain distortions of the fingers\". They were t aught to pray, to make offerings, and the various other rituals everywhere to be found in Tantra Shastra. Father Wieger says that pardon of sins and saving from the punishment of Hell was explained by the Chinese Tantriks of this school not as a derogation from justice, but as the effect of the appeal to the Divine Protector which obtained for the sinful man a fresh lease of life, a kind of respite during which he was enabled to redeem himself by doing good in place of expiating his sins by torture in Hell. The devout Tantrik who sought after his death to be born in the heaven of such and such Buddha, obtained his wish. Sinners who had done nothing for themselves might be helped even after their death by the prayers of relatives, friends and priests. The dev otion of the Tantriks for the salvation of the deceased was very great. \"Let us suppose\" says one of the Texts \"that a member of your family is thrown in prison. What will you not do to relieve him there, or to get him out from it. In the same way, we must act for the dead who are in the great Prison of Hell.\" Prayer and charity with the view to aid them is accounted to their merit. Above all it is necessary to obtain the aid of the priests who deliver these bound souls by the ritual ad hoc, accompanied by music which forms an important part of the Buddhist Tantrik rites. The resemblance of all this to the Catholic practice as regards the souls in purgatory is obvious. As in the Indian Compendia, such as the Tantrasara, there were prayers, Mantras and Dharanis to protect against every form of evil, against the bad Spirits, wild beasts, natural calamities, human enemies, and so forth, which were said to be effective, provided that they were applied in the proper disposition and at the right time and in the right manner. But more effective than all these was the initiation with water (Abhisheka). For innumerable good Spirits surround the initiates in all places and at all times so that no evil touches them. It was recommended also to carry on the body the writte n name of one's protector (Ishtadevata) or one of those signs which were called \"Transcendent seals, conquerors of all Demons\". This practice again is similar to that of the use by the Indian Tantriks of the Kavaca, and to the practice of Catholics who wear scapulars, \"Agnus Dei\", and consecrated 159 medals. In order to encourage frequent invocations, as also to count them, the Buddhist Tantriks had Buddhistic chaplets like the Indian Mala and Catholic Rosary. The beads varied from 1,080 (Quaere 1008) to 27. In invoking the Protectors the worshipper held firmly one bead with four fingers (the thumb and first finger of both hands) and then centered his mind on the formula of invocation. Carried on the body, these Rosaries protected from every ill, and made all that one said, a prayer. To use the Indian phrase all that was then said, was Mantra. Tantricism was reinforced on the arrival in 719 A.D. of two Indian Brahmanas, Vajrabodhi and Amogha. The demand for Tantras then became so great that Amogha was officially deputed by the Imperial Government to bring back from India and Ceylon as many as he could. Amogha who was the favorite of three Emperors holding the rank of minister and honored with many titles lived till 774. He made Tantricism the fashionable sect. Fat her Wieger says that in the numerous works signed by him, there is not to be found any of those rites, Indian or Tibetan, which come under the general term Vamacara, which includes worship with wine and women. He has it from Buddhist sources that they depl ore the abuses which as regards this matter have taken place in India. In the state of decadence witnessed to -day there largely remains only a liturgy of invocations accompanied by Mudra and Music, with lanterns and flags from which Bonzes of low degree ma king a living when called upon by householders to cure the sick, push their business and so forth. Amogha, however, demanded more of those who sought initiation. In the Indian fashion he tested (Pariksha) the would- be disciple and initiated only those who were fit and had the quality of Vajra. To such only was doubtless confided the higher esoteric teachings and ritual. Initiation was conferred by the ritual pouring of water on the head (Abhisheka), after a solemn act of contrition and devotion. The followi ng is a description of the rite of initiation (Abhisheka). I t is the Buddha who speaks. \"Just as an imperial prince is recognized as he who shall govern so my disciples, tested and perfectly formed, are consecrated with water. For the purpose of this cere mony one places on a height, or at least on rising ground, a platform seven feet in diameter strewn with flowers and sprinkled with scented water. Let silence be kept all around. 160 Persian incense is burnt. Place a mirror of bronze and seven arrows to keep away demoniac spirits. The candidate who has been previously prepared by a rigorous abstinence, fully bathed and clad in freshly washed garments kneels on the platform and listens to a lecture explaining the meaning of the rite. His right shoulder is uncovered and his two hands joined. He forms interiorly the necessary intention. Then the Master of the ceremony, holding him firmly by the right hand, pours with the left on the head of the candidate for initiation the ritual water.\" This initiation made the Chela a son of Buddha and a depository of the latter's doctrine, for the Tantras were deemed to represent the esoteric teaching of the Buddha, just as in India they contain the essence of all knowledge as taught by Shiva or Devi. The initiates of Amogha were distinguished by their retired life and secret practices, which gained for them the name of \"School of Mystery\". It transpired that they were awaiting a Saviour in a future age. This rendered them suspect in the eye of Government who thought that they were perhaps a revolutionary society. The sect was accordingly forbidden. But this did not cause it to disappear. On the contrary, for as the Reverend Father says, in China (and we may add elsewhere) the forbidden fruit is that which is of all the most delicious. The lower ranks avoided this higher initiation and largely lapsed into mechanical formalism, and the true adepts wrapt themselves in a mystery still more profound, awaiting the coming of the future Buddha Maitreya, who, they taught, had inspired Asangha with the doctrine they held. Father Wieger says that their morality is severe and their life very austere. (Leur morale est svre, leur vie trs austre.) There is a hierarchy of teachers who visit the households at appointed intervals, always after nightfall, leaving before daybreak and supported by the alms of those whom they thus teach. The learned missionary author adds that Tantrik adepts of this class are often converted to Christianity and quickly become excellent Christians \"since their morals a re good and they have a lively belief in the supernatural\". (\"Leurs moeurs ayant t bonnes et leur croyance au surnaturel tant trs vive.\") Here I may note on the subject of Dharanis, that it has been said that these were only introduced into China during the Tang Dynasty. Father Wieger, however, (p. 385) says that an authentic Riddhi -mantra is to be found in 161 translations made by Leou -Keatch'an in the second century AD Buddha is said to have announced to Ananda, who accompanied him, that five hundred years after his Nirvana, a sect of magicians (whom the author calls Shivaite Tantriks) would be the cause of the swarming of evil spirits. Instructions were then given for their exorcism. This puts the \"Shivaites\" far back. 162 CHAPTER TEN. A TIBETAN TANTRA [This Chapter is an admirably understanding review (reprinted from The Theosophist of July 1919) by Mr. Johan Van Manen, the Tibetan scholar. It was written on the seventh volume of Tantrik Texts which contains the first Tibetan Tantra to be published. The Tantra which was selected for the series was the Shricakra -Sambhara, because the Editor happened to have manuscripts of this and other works of the same school.] All lovers of Indian philosophy are familiar with the magnificent series of works on the Tantra which, under the general editorship of \"Arthur Avalon,\" have seen the light within the last few years. Some, 15 volumes, either texts, translations, or studies, have hitherto been published, and the titles of a number of further works are announced as in preparation or in the press. Just now a new volume has been added to the series, constituting Vol. VII of the \"Texts,\" and this book is undoubtedly one of the most interesting of all those hitherto issued. Up till now the series has only dealt with works and thoughts originally written down in Sanskrit; this new volume goes further afield and brings us the text and translation of a Tibetan work, dealing with the same subject t he whole series is intended to study. Tibetan Tantrism is undoubtedly a development of its Indian prototype, and at a further stage of our knowledge of the whole subject, the historical development of this school of thought will be, no doubt, studied minut ely. Though this present volume brings valuable material towards such an historical study, our knowledge of the Tantra under this aspect is as yet far too limited to enable us to say much about this side of the questions raised by its publication or to fin d a place for it in the present review of the work. What is more urgent now is to examine this book as it stands, to try to define the general trend of its contents, and to attempt to value it generally in terms of modern speech and thought. In our discussion of the book, therefore, we shall not concern ourselves with questions of technical scholarship at all, but attempt to go to the heart of the subject in such a manner as might be of interest to any 163 intelligent man attracted towards philosophical and rel igious thought. And it is perhaps easier to do so with the present work than with many others in the series to which it belongs, for more than these others this work makes an appeal to the intellect direct, and proves very human and logical, so as to evoke a response in even such readers as are not prepared by a detailed knowledge of system and terminology, to disentangle an elaborate outer form from the inner substance. It is true that here also, every page and almost every line bristles with names and terms, but the thought connecting such terms is clear, and these, serving much the purposes of algebraical notations in mathematical formulae, can be easily filled in by any reader with values derived from his own religious and philosophical experience. The Tantras have, often, not been kindly spoken of. It has been said that they have hitherto played, in Indology, the part of a jungle which everybody is anxious to avoid. Still stronger, a great historian is quoted as having said that it would be \"the unfortun ate lot of some future scholar to wade through the disgusting details of drunkenness and debauchery which were regarded as an essential part of their religion by a large section of the Indian community not long ago\" And Grnwedel, speaking especially of the Tibetan Tantras (Mythology, p. 106), from the immense literature of which as yet nothing had been translated, says: \"To work out these things will be, indeed, a sacrficium intellectus, but they are, after all, no more stupid than the Brahmanas on which s o much labor has been spent.\" But here we have the first translation into a European language of one of these Tantrik texts; and far from being obscene or stupid, it strikes us as a work of singular beauty and nobility, and as a creation of religious art, almost unique in its lofty grandeur. It is so totally unlike any religious document we are acquainted with, that it is almost inconceivable that this is only a brief specimen, a first specimen, made accessible to the general public, of a vast literature of which the extent (as existing in Tibet) cannot yet even be measured. Yet, in saying that the nature of our book is unique, we do not mean to imply that close analogies cannot be found for it in the religious literatures and practices of the world. Such an aloofness would be rather suspicious, for real religious experience is, of course, universal, and, proceeding from the same elements in the human heart, and aspiring to the same ends, must always show kinship in manifestation. Yet this Tibetan product has a 164 distinctive style of its own, which singles it out in appearance as clearly, let us say, as the specific character of Assyrian or Egyptian art is different from that of other styles. When we now proceed to examine the document before us, at the outset a verdict of one of the critics of Tantrism comes to our mind, to the effect that the Tantra is perhaps the most elaborate system of auto -suggestion in the world. This dictum was intended as a condemnation; but though accepting the verdict as correct, we ourselves are not inclined to accept, together with it, the implied conclusion. Auto -suggestion is the establishment of mental states and moods from within, instead of as a result of impressions received from without. Evidently there must be two kinds of thi s auto -suggestion, a true and a false one. The true one is that which produces states of consciousness corresponding to those which may be produced by realities in the outer world, and the false one is that which produces states of consciousness not corresponding to reactions to any reality without. In the ordinary way the consciousness of man is shaped in response to impressions from without, and so ultimately rests on sensation, but theoretically there is nothing impossible in the theory that these \"modifications of the thinking principle\" should be brought about by the creative will and rest rather on imagination and intuition than on sensation. This theory has not only been philosophically and scientifically discussed, but also practically applied in many a school of mysticism or Yoga. If I remember well, there is a most interesting book by a German (non-mystic) Professor, Staudenmeyer, dealing with this subject, under the title of Magic as an Experimental Science (in German), and the same idea seems also to underlie Steiner's theory of what he calls \"imaginative clairvoyance\". In Christian mysticism this has been fully worked out by de Loyola in his \"Spiritual Exercises\" as applied to the Passion of the Christ. In what is now -a-days called New Thought, this principle is largely applied in various manners. In our book we find it applied in terms of Tantrik Buddhism with a fullness and detail surpassing all other examples of this type of meditation. In order to present the idea in such a way that it may look plausible in itself, we have first to sketch out the rationale underlying any such system. This is easily done. 165 We can conceive of this universe as an immense ocean of consciousness or intelligence in which the separate organisms, human beings included, l ive and move and have their being. If we conceive of this mass of consciousness as subject to laws, analogous to those of gravity, and at the same time as being fluidic in nature, then the mechanism of all intellectual activity might well be thought of, in one of its aspects, as hydraulic in character. Let any organism, fit to be a bearer of consciousness, only open itself for the reception of it, and the hydraulic pressure of the surrounding sea of consciousness will make it flow in, in such a form as the construction of the organism assumes. The wave and the sea, the pot and the water, are frequent symbols in the East, used to indicate the relation between the all - consciousness and the individual consciousness. If the human brain is the pot sunk in the ocean of divine consciousness, the form of that pot will determine the form which the all -consciousness will assume within that brain. Now imagination, or auto- suggestion, may determine that form. Through guess, intuition, speculation, tradition, authority, or whatever the determinant factor may be, any such form may be chosen. The man may create any form, and then, by expectancy, stillness, passivity, love, aspiration or whatever term we choose, draw the cosmic consciousness within him, only determining its form for himself, but impersonally receiving the power which is not from himself, but from without. The process is like the preparation of a mold in which molten metal is to be cast, with this difference, that the metal cast into the mold is not self -active and alive, and not ever- present and pressing on every side, as the living consciousness is which constitutes our universe. We may take an illustration from the mechanical universe. This universe is one seething mass of forces in constant interplay. The forces are there and at work all the time, but only become objectified when caught in suitable receivers. The wind -force, if not caught by the arms of the windmill, the forces of stream or waterfall, if not similarly gathered in a proper mechanism, disperse themselves in space and are not focused in and translated into objective units of action. So with the vibrations sent along the wire, in telegraphic or telephonic communication, or with the other 166 vibrations sent wirelessly. In a universe peopled with intel ligences, higher beings, gods, a whole hierarchy of entities, from the highest power and perfection to such as belong to our own limited class, constant streams of intelligence and consciousness must continuously flash through space and fill existence. Now it seems, theoretically indeed, very probable, assuming that consciousness is one and akin in essence, that the mechanical phenomenon of sympathetic vibration may be applied to that consciousness as well as to what are regarded as merely mechanical vibrat ions. So, putting all the above reasonings together, it is at least a plausible theory that man, by a process of auto- suggestion, may so modify the organs of his consciousness, and likewise attune his individual consciousness in such a way, as to become ab le to enter into a sympathetic relation with the forces of cosmic consciousness ordinarily manifesting outside him and remaining unperceived, passing him as it were, instead of being caught and harnessed. And this is not only a theory, but more than that -- a definite statement given as the result of experience by mystics and meditators of all times and climes. Now we may ask: how has this method been applied in our present work? A careful analysis of its contents makes us discover several interesting chara cteristics. First of all we have to remember that our text presupposes a familiarity with the religious conceptions, names, personalities and philosphical principles of Northern Buddhism, which are all freely used in the composition. What is strange and foreign in them to the Western reader is so only because he moves in unfamiliar surroundings. But the character of the composition is one which might be compared to such analogous Western productions (with great differences, however) as the Passion Play at O berammergau or the mediaeval mystery -plays. Only, in some of the latter the historical element predominates, whilst in the Tibetan composition the mythological element (for want of a better word) forms the basis and substance. In other words, in this ritua l of meditation the Gods, Powers and Principles are the actors, and not, historical or symbolical personages of religious tradition. Secondly the play is enacted in the mind, inwardly, instead of on the scene, outwardly. The actors are not persons, but conceptions. 167 First, the meditator has to swing up his consciousness to a certain pitch of intensity, steadiness, quiet, determination and expectancy. Having tuned it to the required pitch, he fixes it on a simple center of attention which is to serve as a sta rting -point or gate through which his imagination shall well up as the water of a fountain comes forth through the opening of the water - pipe. From this central point the mental pictures come forth. They are placed round the central conception. From simple to complex in orderly progression the imaginative structure is elaborated. The chief Gods appear successively, followed by the minor deities. Spaces, regions, directions are carefully determined. Attributes, colors, symbols, sounds are all minutely prescri bed and deftly worked in, and explications carefully given. A miniature world is evolved, seething with elemental forces working in the universe as cosmic forces and in man as forces of body and spirit. Most of the quantities on this elaborate notation are taken from the body of indigenous religious teaching and mythology. Some are so universal and transparent that the non- Tibetan reader can appreciate them even without a knowledge of the religious technical terms of Tibet. But anyhow, an attentive reading and re -reading reveals something, even to the outsider, of the force of this symbological structure, and makes him intuitively feel that here we are assisting in the unfolding of a grand spiritual drama, sweeping up the mind to heights of exaltation and nobility. As to the terminological side of the text, the Editor's abundant notes prove as valuable as useful. They may disturb the elevated unity of the whole at first, but after some assiduous familiarizing, lead to fuller and deeper comprehension. Even a s ingle reading is sufficient to gain the impression that a stately and solemn mental drama is enacted before us with an inherent impressiveness which would attach, for instance to a Christian, to the performance of a ritual in which all the more primary biblical persons, human and superhuman, were introduced, in suitable ways, as actors. And the superlative cleverness of this structure! Starting from a single basic note, this is developed into a chord, which again expands into a melody, which is then elaborately harmonized. Indeed the meditation is in its essence both music and ritual. The initial motives are developed, repeated, elaborated, and new ones introduced. These again are treated in the same way. A symphony is evolved and brought to a powerful climax, and then again this 168 full world of sound, form, meaning, color, power is withdrawn, limited, taken back into itself, folded up and dissolved, turned inwards again and finally returned into utter stillness and rest, into that tranquil void from which it was originally evoked and which is its eternal mother. I do not know of any literature which in its nature is so absolutely symphonic, so directly akin to music, as this sample of a Tibetan meditational exercise. And curiously enough, it makes us think of a nother manifestation of Indian religious art, for in words this document is akin to the Indian temple decoration, especially the South Indian gopura, which in its endless repetitions and elaborations seems indeed instinct with the same spirit which has given birth to this scheme of imagination taught in these Tantras. Only, in stone or plaster, the mythological host is sterile and immovable, whilst, as created in the living mind, the similar structure partakes of the life of the mind within and without. The sculptural embodiment is, therefore, serviceable to the less evolved mind. The Tantra is for the religious thinker who possesses power. But we said that our meditational structure was also akin to ritual. What we mean by this is that all the figures and images evoked in the mind in this meditation are, after all, only meant, as the words, vestures and gestures in a ritual, to suggest feelings, to provoke states of consciousness, and to furnish (if the simile be not thought too pathetic) pegs to hang ideas upon. Like as a fine piece of music, or a play, can only be well rendered when rehearsed over and over again, and practiced so that the form side of the production becomes almost mechanical, and all power in the production can be devoted to the infusion of inspiration, so can this meditation only be perfectly performed after untold practice and devotion. It would be a totally mistaken idea to read this book as a mere piece of literature, once to go through it to see what it contains, and then to let it go. Just as the masterpieces of music can be heard hundreds of times, just as the great rituals of the world grow in power on the individual in the measure with which he becomes familiar with them and altogether identifies himself with the most infinitely small minutiae of their form and constitution, so this meditation ritual is one which only by repetition can be mastered and 169 perfected. Like the great productions of art or nature, it has to \"grow\" on the individual. This meditational exercise is not for the small, nor for the flippant, nor for those in a hurry. It is inherently an esoteric thing, one of those teachings belonging to the regions of \"quiet\" and \"tranquillity\" and \"rest\" of Taoistic philosophy. To the ignorant it must be jabber, and so it is truly esoteric, hiding itself by its own nature within itself, though seemingly open and accessible to all. But in connection with this meditation we do not think of pupils who read it once or twice, or ten times, or a hundred, but of austere thinkers who work on it as a life -work through laborious years of strenuous endeavor. For, what must be done to make this meditation into a reality? Every concept in it must be vivified and drenched with life and power. Every god in it must be made into a living god, every power manipulated in it made into a potency. The whole structure must be made vibrant with forces capable of entering into sympathetic relation with the greater cosmic forces in the universe, created in imitation on a lower scale within the individual medi tator himself. To the religious mind the universe is filled with the thoughts of the gods, with the powers of great intelligences and consciousnesses, radiating eternally through space and really constituting the world that is. \"The world is only a thought in the mind of God.\" It must take years of strenuous practice even to build up the power to visualize and correctly produce as an internal drama this meditation given in our book. To endow it with life and to put power into this life is an achievement tha t no small mind, no weak devotee, can hope to perform. So this meditation is a solemn ritual, like the Roman Catholic Mass; only it is performed in the mind instead of in the church, and the mystery it celebrates is an individual and not a general sacrament. In what we have said above we have tried to give some outlines of the chief characteristics of this remarkable work, now brought within the reach of the general reading public, and especially of benefit to those among them interested in the study of com parative religion along broad lines. We owe, indeed, a debt of gratitude to Arthur Avalon, whose enthusiasm for and insight into the Indian religious and philosophical mind have unearthed this particular gem for us. We may be particularly grateful that his enthusiasm 170 has not set itself a limit, so as to prevent him from dealing with other than Sanskrit lore alone, and from looking for treasure even beyond the Himalayas. In this connection we may mention that it is his intention to maintain this catholic att itude, for he is now taking steps to incorporate also an important Japanese work on the Vajrayana in his Tantrik series. As far as this first Tibetan text is concerned, the choice has been decidedly happy, and he has been no less fortunate in having been a ble to secure a competent collaborator to undertake the philological portion of the work, the translating and editing labor. The result of thus associating himself with a capable indigenous scholar to produce the work, has been a great success, a production of practical value which will undoubtedly not diminish in all essentials for a long time to come. For not only is this particular work in and for itself of interest, with a great beauty of its own; it has another value in quite other directions than those connected with the study of meditation or of religious artistic creation. The work furnishes a most important key to a new way of understanding many phases and productions of Indian philosophy. The projection of the paraphernalia of Hindu mythology inwards into the mind as instruments of meditation, the internalizing of what we find in the Puranas or the Epic externalized as mythology, has seemed to me to throw fresh and illuminating light on Indian symbology. To give an illustration: In this Tantra we find an elaborate manipulation of weapons, shields, armor, as instruments for the protection of the consciousness. Now all these implements figure, for instance, largely and elaborately in such a work as the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, of which Dr. Schrader has given us a splendid summary in his work, Introduction to the Pacaratra. But in the Pacaratra all these implements are only attributes of the gods. In our text we find a hint as to how all these external mythological data can also be applied to and unde rstood as internal workings of the human consciousness, and in this light Indian mythology assumes a new and richer significance. I do not want to do more here than hint at the point involved, but no doubt any student of Hindu mythology who is also interested in Hindu modes of thought, in the Hindu Psyche, will at once see how fruitful this idea can be. 171 One of the riddles of Indian thought is that its symbology is kinetic and not static, and eludes the objective formality of Western thought. That is why every Hindu god is another, who is again another, who is once more another. Did not Kipling say something about \"Kali who is Parvati, who is Sitala, who is worshipped against the small- pox\"? So also almost every philosophical principle is an \"aspect\" of another principle, but never a clear-cut, well -circumscribed, independent thing by itself. Our text goes far towards giving a hint as to how all these gods and principles, which in the Puranas and other writings appear as extra -human elements, may perhaps also be interpreted as aspects of the human mind (and even human body) and become a psychological mythology instead of a cosmic one. The idea is not absolutely new, but has been put forward by mystics before. The Cherubinic Wanderer sang that it would be of no avail to anyone, even if the Christ were born a hundred times over in Bethlehem, if he were not born within the man himself. It has been said of the Bhagavad -Gita that it is in one sense the drama of the soul, and that meditation on it, transplanting the field of Kurukshetra within the human consciousness, may lead to a direct realization of all that is taught in that book, and to a vision of all the glories depicted therein. That idea is the same as that which is the basis of our text. Its message is: \"Create a universe within, in order to be able to hear the echoes of the universe without, which is one with that within, in essence.\" If seers, occultists, meditators really exist, they may be able to outline the way and method by which they themselves have a ttained. So it was with de Loyola and his \"Spiritual Exercises,\" and there is no reason why it should not be the same with the book we are discussing here. As to how far we have here a result of practical experience, or only an ingenious theory, a great \"attempt,\" as it were, we will not and cannot decide. To make statements about this needs previous experiment, and we have only read the book from the outside, not lived its contents from within. But however this may be, even such an outer reading is sufficient to reveal to us the grandeur of the conception put before us, and to enable us to feel the symphonic splendor of the creation as a work of religio- philosophic art; and that alone is enough to enable us to judge the work as a masterpiece and a document of first -class value in the field of religious and mystical 172 literature. The form is very un -Western indeed and in many ways utterly unfamiliar and perhaps bewildering. But the harmony of thought, the greatness of the fundamental conceptions, the sublimity of endeavor embodied in it, are clear; and these qualities are certainly enough to gain for it admirers and friends -- perhaps here and there a disciple -- even in our times so badly prepared to hear this Tibetan echo from that other world, which in many w ays we in the West make it our strenuous business to forget and to discount. 173 CHAPTER ELEVEN . SHAKTI IN TAOISM The belief in Shakti or the Divine Power as distinguished from the Divine Essence (Svarupa), the former being generally imagined for purposes of worship as being in female form, is very ancient. The concept of Shakti in Chinese Taoism is not merely a proof of this (for the Shakti notion is much older) but is an indication of the ancient Indian charact er of the doctrine. There are some who erroneously think, the concept had its origin in \"Sivaic mysticism,\" having its origin somewhere in the sixth century of our era. Lao- tze or the \"old master\" was twenty years senior to Confucius and his life was said to have been passed between 570 -490 B.C. A date commonly accepted by European Orientalists as that of the death of Buddha (Indian and Tibetan opinions being regarded, as \"extravagant\") would bring his life into the sixth century s.c., one of the most wonderful in the world's history. Lao- tze is said to have written the Tao -tei-king, the fundamental text of Taoism. This title means Treatise on Tao and Tei. Tao which Lao-tze calls \"The great\" is in its Sanskrit equivalent Brahman and Tei is Its power or activity or Shakti. As Father P. L. Wieger, S. J., to whose work (Histoire des Croyances Religieuses et des Opinions Philosophiques en Chine, p. 143 et seg. 1917) I am here indebted, points out, Lao- tze did not invent Taoism no more than Confucius (557 -419 B.C.) invented Confucianism. It is characteristic of these and other Ancient Eastern Masters that they do not claim to be more than \"transmitters\" of a wisdom older than themselves. Lao -tze was not the first to teach Taoism. He had precursors who, however, wer e not authors. He was the writer of the first book on Taoism which served as the basis for the further development of the doctrine. On this account its paternity is attributed to him. There was reference to this doctrine it is said in the official archives (p. 743). The pre -Taoists were the analysts and astrologers of the Tcheou. Lao- tze who formulated the system was one of them (ib. 69). The third Ministry containing these archives registered all which came from foreign parts, as Taoism did. For as Father Wieger says, Taoism is in its main lines a Chinese adaptation of the contemporary doctrine of the Upanishads (\"or le Taoisme est dans ses grandes lignes une adaptation 174 Chinoise de la doctrine Indienne contemporaine des Upanisads\"). The actual fact of importation cannot in default of documents be proved but as the learned author says, the fact that the doctrine was not Chinese, that it was then current in India, and its sudden spread in China, creates in favor of the argument for foreign importation almost a certain conclusion. The similarity of the two doctrines is obvious to any one acquainted with that of the Upanishads and the doctrine of Shakti. The dualism of the manifesting Unity (Tao) denoted by Yin- Yang appears for the first time in a text of Confuci us, a contemporary of Lao- tze, who may have informed him of it. All Chinese Monism descends from Lao- tze. The patriarchal texts were developed by the great Fathers of Taoism Lie-tzeu and Tchong -tzeu (see \"Les Pres du systme Taoiste\" by the same author) whom the reverend father calls the only real thinkers that China has produced. Both were practically prior to the contact of Greece and India on the Indus under Alexander. The first development of Taoism was in the South. It passed later to the North where it had a great influence. According to Taoism there was in the beginning, is now, and ever will be an ultimate Reality, which is variously called Huan the Mystery, which cannot be named or defined, because human language is the language of limited beings touching limited objects, whereas Tao is imperceptible to the senses and the unproduced cause of all, beyond which there is nothing: Ou the Formless, or Tao the causal principle, the unlimited inexhaustible source from which all comes, (\"Tao le principe par ceque tout derive de lui\") Itself proceeds from nothing but all from It. So it is said of Brahman that It is in Itself beyond mind and speech, formless and (as the Brahmasutra says) That from which the Universe is born, by which it is maintained and into which it is dissolved. From the abyss of Its Being, It throws out all forms of Existence and is never emptied. It is an infinite source exteriorizing from Itself all forms, by Its Power (Tei). These forms neither diminish nor add to Tao which remains ever the same. These limited beings are as a drop of water in Its ocean. Tao is the sum of, and yet as infinite, beyond all individual existences. Like Brahman, Tao is one, eternal, infinite, self -existent, omnipresent, unchanging (Immutable) and complete (Purna). At a particular moment (to speak in our language for It was then beyond time) Tao threw out from Itself Tei Its Power (Vertu or Shakti) which operates in alternating modes 175 called Yin and Yang and produces, as it were by condensation of its subtlety (Sha kti ghanibhuta), the Heaven and Earth and Air between, from which come all beings. The two modes of Its activity, Yin and Yang, are inherent in the Primal That, and manifest as modes of its Tei or Shakti. Yin is rest, and therefore after the creation of the phenomenal world a going back, retraction, concentration towards the original Unity (Nivritti), whereas Yang is action and therefore the opposite principle of going forth or expansion (Pravritti). These modes appear in creation under the sensible forms of Earth (Yin) and Heaven (Yang). The one original principle or Tao, like Shiva and Shakti, thus becomes dual in manifestation as Heaven- Earth from which emanate other existences. The state of Jinn is one of rest, concentration and imperceptibility which was the own state (Svarupa) of Tao before time and things were. The state of fang is that of action, expansion, of manifestation in sentient beings and is the state of Tao in time, and that which is in a sense not Its true state (\"L'etat Yin de concentrati on, de repos, d'imperceptibilit, qui fut celui du Principe avant le temps, est son tat propre. L'etat Yang d'expansion et d'action, de manifestation dans les tres sensibles, est son tat dans le temps, en quelque sorte impropre\"). All this again is Indi an. The primal state of Brahman or Shiva -Shakti before manifestation is that in which It rests in Itself (Svarupa -vishranti), that is, the state of rest and infinite formlessness. It then by Its Power (Shakti) manifests the universe. There exists in this power the form of two movements or rhythms, namely, the going forth or expanding (Pravritti) and the return or centering movement (Nivritti). This is the Eternal Rhythm, the Pulse of the universe, in which it comes and goes from that which in Itself, does neither. But is this a real or ideal movement? According to Father Wieger, Taoism is a realistic and not idealistic pantheism in which Tao is not a Conscious Principle but a Necessary Law, not Spiritual but Material, though imperceptible by reason of its tenuity and state of rest. (\"Leur systme est un pantheisme realiste, pas ideliste. Au commencement tait un tre unique non pas intelligent mais loi fatale, non spirituel mais matriel, imperceptible a force de tenuit, d' abord immobile.\") He also calls Heaven and Earth unintelligent agents of production of sentient beings. (Agent non- intelligents de la production de tous les tres sensibles.) I speak with all respect for the opinion of one who has made a special study of the 176 subject which I have not so fa r as its Chinese aspect is concerned. But even if, as is possible, at this epoch the full idealistic import of the Vedanta had not been developed, I doubt the accuracy of the interpretation which makes Tao material and unconscious. According to Father Wieg er, Tao prolongates Itself. Each being is a prolongation (Prolongement) of the Tao, attached to it and therefore not diminishing It. Tao is stated by him to be Universal Nature, the sum (Samashti) of all individual natures which are terminal points (Termin aisons) of Tao's prolongation. Similarly in the Upanishads, we read of Brahman producing the world from Itself as the spider produces the web from out of itself. Tao is thus the Mother of all that exists (\"la mre de tout ce qui est\"). If so, it is the Mot her of mind, will, emotion and every form of consciousness. How are these derived from merely a\" material\" principle? May it not be that just as the Upanishads use material images to denote creation and yet posit a spiritual conscious (though not in our li mited sense) Principle, Lao- tze, who was indebted to them, may have done the same. Is this also not indicated by the Gnostic doctrine of the Taoists? The author cited says that to the cosmic states of Yin and Yang correspond in the mind of man the states o f rest and activity. When the human mind thinks, it fills itself with forms or images and is moved by desires. Then it perceives only the effects of Tao, namely, distinct sentient beings. When on the contrary the action of the human mind stops and is fixed and empty of images of limited forms, it is then the Pure Mirror in which is reflected the ineffable and unnamable Essence of Tao Itself, of which intuition the Fathers of Taoism speak at length. (\"Quand an contraire l'esprit humain est arrt est vide et fixe, alors miroir net et pur, il mire l'essence ineffable et innomable du Principe lui- meme. Les Pres nous parleront au long de cette intuition.\") This common analogy of the Mirror is also given in the Kamakalavilasa (v. 4) where it speaks of Shakti as the pure mirror in which Shiva reflects Himself pratiphalati vimarsha darpane vishade). The conscious mind does not reflect a material principle as its essence. Its essence must have the principle of consciousness which the mind itself possesses. It is to Tei, the Virtue or Power which Tao emits from Itself (\"ce Principe se mit a mettre Tei sa vertu\") that we should attribute what is apparently unconscious and material. But the two are one, just as Shiva the possessor of power (Shaktiman) and Shakti or power are one, and this being so distinctions are 177 apt to be lost. In the same way in the Upanishads statements may be found which have not the accuracy of distinction between Brahman and its Prakriti, which we find in later developments of Vedanta and particularly in the Shakta form of it. Moreover we are here dealing with the One in Its character both as cause and as substance of the World Its effect. It is of Prakriti- Shakti and possibly of Teithat we may say that it is an apparently material unconscious principle, imperceptible by reason of its tenuity and (to the degree that it is not productive objective effect) immobile. Further Wieger assures us that all contraries issue from the same unchanging Tao and that they are only apparent(\"Toute contrarit n'est qu' apparente\"). But relative to what? He says that they are not subjective illusions of the human mind, but objective appearances, double aspects of the unique Being, corresponding to the alternating modalities of Yin and Yang. That is so. For as Shamka ra says, external objects are not merely projections of the individual human mind but of the cosmic mind, the Ishvari Shakti. We must not, of course, read Taoism as held in the sixth century B.C. as if it were the same as the developed Vedanta of Shamkara who, according to European chronology, lived more than a thousand years later. But this interpretation of Vedanta is an aid in enabling us to see what is at least implicit in earlier versions of the meaning of their common source -- the Upanishads. As is w ell known, Shamkara developed their doctrine in an idealistic sense, and therefore his two movements in creation are Avidya, the primal ignorance which produces the appearance of the objective universe, and Vidya or knowledge which dispels such ignorance, ripening into that Essence and Unity which is Spirit -Consciousness Itself. Aupanishadic doctrine may be regarded either from the world or material aspect, or from the non-world and spiritual aspect. Men have thought in both ways and Shamkara's version is a n attempt to synthesize them. The Taoist master Ki (Op. cit., 168) said that the celestial harmony was that of all beings in their common Being. All is one as we experience in deep sleep (Sushupti). All contraries are sounds from the same flute, mushrooms springing from the same humidity, not real distinct beings but differing aspects of the one universal \"Being\". \"I\" has no meaning except in contrast with \"you\" or \"that\". But who is the Mover of all? Everything happens as 178 if there were a real governor. The hypothesis is acceptable provided that one does not make of this Governor a distinct being. He (I translate Father Wieger's words) is a tendency without palpable form, the inherent norm of the universe, its immanent evolutionary formula. The wise know that the only Real is the Universal Norm. The unreflecting vulgar believe in the existence of distinct beings. As in the case of the Vedanta, much misunderstanding exists because the concept of Consciousness differs in East and West as I point out in detail in the essay dealing with Cit -Shakti. The space between Heaven and Earth in which the Power (Vertu, Shakti, Tei) is manifested is compared by the Taoists to the hollow of a bellows of which Heaven and Earth are the two wooden sides; a bellow which blows wit hout exhausting itself. The expansive power of Tao in the middle space is imperishable. It is the mysterious Mother of all beings. The come and go of this mysterious Mother, that is, the alternating of the two modalities of the One, produce Heaven and Eart h. Thus acting, She is never fatigued. From Tao was exteriorized Heaven and Earth. From Tao emanated the producing universal Power or Shakti, which again produced all beings without self - exhaustion or fatigue. The one having put forth its Power, the latter acts according to two alternating modalities of going forth and return. This action produces the middle air or Ki which is tenuous Matter, and through Yin and Yang, issue all gross beings. Their coming into existence is compared to an unwinding (Dvidage) from That or Tao, as it were a thread from reel or spool. In the same way the Shakta Tantra speaks of an \"uncoiling.\" Shakti is coiled (Kundalini) round the Shiva- point (Bindu), one with It in dissolution. On creation She begins to uncoil in a spiral line movement which is the movement of creation. The Taoist Father Lieu -tze analyzed the creative movement into the following stages: \"The Great Mutation\" anterior to the appearance of tenuous matter (Movement of the two modalities in undefined being), \"the Gr eat Origin\" or the stage of tenuous matter, \"the Great Commencement\" or the stage of sensible matter, \"the Great Flux\" or the stage of plastic matter and actual present material compounded existences. In the primitive stage, when matter was imperceptible, all beings to come were latent in an homogeneous state. 179 I will only add as bearing on the subject of consciousness that the author cited states that the Taoists lay great stress on intuition and ecstasy which is said to be compared to the unconscious state of infancy, intoxication, and narcosis. These comparisons may perhaps mislead just as the comparison of the Yogi state to that of a log (Kashthavat) misled. This does not mean that the Yogi's consciousness is that of a log of wood, but that he no more perceives the external world than the latter does. He does not do so because he has the Samadhi consciousness, that is, Illumination and true being Itself. He is one then with Tao and Tei or Shakti in their true state. 180 CHAPTER TWELVE . ALLEGED CONFLICT OF SHASTRAS A NOT uncommon modern criticism upon the Indian Shastras is that they mutually conflict. This is due to a lack of knowledge of the doctrine of Adhikara and Bhumi ka, particularly amongst Western critics, whose general outlook and mode of thought is ordinarily deeply divergent from that which has prevailed in India. The idea that the whole world should follow one path is regarded by the Hindus as absurd, being contrary to Nature and its laws. A man must follow that path for which he is fit, that is, for which he is Adhikari. Adhikara or competency literally means \"spreading over\" that is \"taking possession of\". What is to be known (Jatavya), done (Kartavya), acquire d (Praptavya) is determined not once and generally for all, but in each case by the fitness and capacity therefor of the individual. Each man can know, do, and obtain not everything, nor indeed one common thing, but that only of which he is capable (Adhikari). What the Jiva can think, do, or obtain, is his competency or Adhikara, a profound and practical doctrine on which all Indian teaching and Sadhana is based. As men are different and therefore the Adhikara is different, so there are different forms of teaching and practice for each Adhikara. Such teaching may be Srauta or Ashrauta. Dealing here with the first, it is said of all Vidyas the Lord is Ishana, and that these differing forms are meant for differing competencies, though all have one and the same object and aim. This has been well and concisely worked out by Bhaskararaya, the Commentator on Tantrik and Aupanishadic Texts in his Bhashya upon the Nityashodashikarnava, which is, according to him, a portion of the great Vamakeshvara Tantra. The second portion of the Nityasohdashkarnava is also known as the Yoginihridaya. These valuable Tantrik Texts have been published as the 56th Volume of the Poona Anandashrama Series which includes also (Vol. 69) the Janarnava Tantra. The importance of the Vamakeshvara is shown by the fact that Bhaskararaya claims for it the position of the independent 65th Tantra which is mentioned in the 31st verse of the Anandalahari. Others say that the Svatantra there spoken of, is the Janarnava Tantra, and others again are of the opinion that the Tantraraja is the great independent Tantra of which 181 the Anandalahari (ascribed to Shrimadacaryabhagavatpada, that is, Shamkaracarya) speaks. Bhaskararaya who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century gives in his Commentary th e following exposition: In this world all long for happiness which is the sole aim of man. Of this there is no doubt. This happiness again is of two kinds, namely, that which is produced and transient (Kritrima) and that which is unproduced and enduring (Akritrima), called respectively Desire (Kama) and Liberation (Moksha). Dharma procures happiness of both kinds, and Artha helps to the attainment of Dharma. These therefore are desired of all. There are thus four aims of man (Purusharthas) which though, as between themselves, different, are yet intimately connected, the one with the other. The' Kalpasutra says that self -knowledge is the aim and end of man (Svavimarshah purusharthah). This is said of Liberation as being the highest end, since it alone gives real and enduring happiness. This saying, however, does not raise any contradiction. For, each of the four is to be had by the Jana and Vijana appropriate for such attainment. These (Purusharthas) are again to be attained according to the capacity of the individual seeking them (Tadrisa -tadrisha -cittaikasadhyani). The competency of the individual Citta depends again on the degree of its purity. The very merciful Bhagavan Parameshvara desirous of aiding men whose mind and disposition (Citta) differ according to the results produced by their different acts, promulgated different kinds of Vidya which, though appearing to be different as between themselves, yet have, as their common aim, the highest end of all human life, that is, Liberation. Shruti also says (Nrisimhapurvatapani Up. I- 6; Mahanarayana Up. XVII- 5): \"Of all Vidyas the Lord is Ishana\" (Ishanah sarvavidyanam) and (Sveta. Up. VI- 18) \"I who desire liberation seek refuge in that Deva who creates Brahma who again reveals the Vedas and all other learning\" (Yo Brahmanam vidadhati purvam yo vai vedamshca prahinoti). The particle \"ca\" impliedly signifies the other Vidyas collectively. We also find it said in furtherance of that statement: \"To him the first born He gave the Vedas and Puranas.\" Smriti also states that the omniscient Poet (Kavi), Carrier of the Trident (Shiva shulapani), is the first Promulgator of these eighteen Vidyas which take differing paths (Bhinnavartma). It follows that, inasmuch as 182 Paramashiva, the Benefactor of the Worlds, is the Promulgator of all Vidyas, they are all authoritative, though each is applicable for differing classes of competency (Adhikaribhedena). This has been clearly stated in Sutasmhita and similar works. Capacity (Adhikara) is (for example) of this kind. The unbeliever (Nastika i.e., in Veda) has Adhikara in Darshanas such as Arhata (Jaina) and the like. Men of the first three castes have Adhikara in the path of Veda. Similarly the Adhikara of an individual varies according to the purity of his Citta. For we see that the injunctions relating to Dharma vary according to Ashrama and caste (Varna- bheda). Such texts as praise any particular Vidya are addressed to those who are Adhikari therein, and their object is to induce them to follow it. Such texts again as disparage any Vidya are addressed to those who are not Adhikari therein, and their object is to dissuade them from it. Nor again should these words of blame (or praise) be taken in an absolute sense, that is otherwise than relatively to the person to whom they are addressed. Yani tattad vidyaprashamsakani vacanani tani tattadadhikarinam pratyeva pravartakani. Yani ca tannindakani tani tattadan- adhikarinam prati nivartakani. Na punarnahi nindanyayena vidheya -stavakani (Bhaskararaya's Introductory Commentary to Nityasodashikarnava Tantra, p. 2). In early infancy, parents and guardians encourage the play of the child in their charge. When the age of study is reached, the same parents and guardians chastise the child who inopportunely plays. This we all see. A mal e of the three higher castes should, on the passing of the age of play, learn his letters and then metre (Chhandas) in order to master language. The Agni Purana has many texts such as \"Faultless is a good Kavya\"; all of which encourage the study of Kavya. We also come across prohibitions such as \"He who has mastered the subject should avoid all discussion relating to Kavya\". When the object to be gained by the study of Kavya is attained and competency is gained for the next higher stage (Uttarabhumika), it is only a harmful waste of time to busy oneself with a lower stage (Purvabhumika), in neglect of that higher stage for the Sadhana of which one has become 183 competent. This is the meaning of the prohibition. Again the injunction is to study Nyayashastra so as to gain a knowledge of the Atma as it is, and other than as it appears in the body and so forth. The texts are many such as \"By reasoning (Shungga) seek the Atma\". Shungga=Hetu=Avayavasamudayatmakanyaya, that is Logic with all its five limbs. When it is known that the Atma as such is other than the body, is separate from the body and so forth, and the means which lead to that knowledge are mastered, then man is prohibited from occupying himself with the subject of the former stage (Purvabhumika) by such texts as \"Anvikshiki and Logic (Tarkavidya) are useless\" (Anvikshikim tarkavidyamanurakto nirarthikam). Injunctions such as \"The wise should practice Dharma alone (Dharmam evacaret prajnah)\" urge man towards the next stage (Uttarabhumika). The study of the Purvamimamsa and the Karmakanda in the Vedas is useful for this purpose. When by this means Dharma, Artha and Kama are attained, there arises a desire for the fourth Purushartha (Liberation or Moksha). And therefore to sever men from the former stage (Purv abhumika) there are texts which deprecate Karma such as (Mund. Up. 1- 2, 12) \"By that which is made cannot be attained that which is not made\" (Nastyakritah kritena). Vashishtha says that these (earlier stages) are seven and that all are stages of ignorance (Ajanabhumika). Beyond these are stages of Jana. For the attainment of the same there are injunctions relating to Brahmajana which lead on to 'the next higher stage, such as (Mund. Up. I. 2, 12) \"He should go to the Guru alone\" (Sa gurum evabhigacchet), \"Listen (Br. Ar. II. 4, 5, IV. 5, 6), oh Maitreyi, the Atma should be realized\" (Atma va are drashtavyah). Some say that the Janabhumikas are many and rely on the text \"The wise say that the stages of Yoga are many\". The holy Vashishtha says that there are seven, namely, Vividisha (desire to know), Vicarana (reflection), Tanumanasa (concentration), Sattvapatti (commencement of realization), Asamshakti (detachment), Padarthabhavini (realization of Brahman only) and Turyaga (full illumination in the fourth state). The meaning of these is given in, and should be learnt from, the Janashastra of Vashishtha. These terms are also explained in Brahmananda's Commentary on the Hathayoga Pradipika (1 -3). His account differs from that of Bhaskararaya as regards the name of the first Bhumika which he calls Janabhumi or 184 Subheccha and the sixth is called by him Pararthabhavini and not Padarthabhavini. The sense in either case is the same. According to Brahmananda, Janabhumi is the initial stage of Yoga characterized b y Viveka, Vairagya, and the six Sadhanas beginning with Sama and leading to Mumuksha. Vicarana is Shravana and Manana (Shravanamananatmika). Tanuminasa=Nididhyasana when the mind, the natural characteristic of which is to wander, is directed towards its proper Yoga -object only. These three preliminary stage are known as Sadhanabhumika. The fourth stage Sattvapatti is Samprajatayogabhumika. The mind having been purified by practice in the three preceding Bhumikas the Yogi commences to realize and is called Brahmavit. The last three stages belong to Asamprajatayoga. After attainment of Sattvapatti Bhumika, the Yogi reaches the fifth stage called Asamshakti. Here he is totally detached and in the state of wakening (Vyuttishthate). As such he is called Brahmav id-vara. At the sixth, or Pararthabhavini Bhumika he meditates on nothing but Parabrahman (Parabrahmatiriktam na bhavayati). He is supremely awakened (Paraprabodhita) and is awake (Vyuttishta). He is then called Brahmavid- vanyan. In the last or seventh sta ge (Turyyaga) he is Brahmavidvarishta, and then truly attains illumination in itself (Svatahparato va vyutthanam prapnoti). The Upanishads and Uttaramimamsa are helpful for this purpose (Upayogi) and should therefore be studied, Brahmajana again is of two kinds: namely, Seabed and Aparokshanubhavarupa. Understanding of the meaning of Shastra (Shashtradrishti), the word of the Guru (Gurorvakyam) and certainty (Nishcaya) of the unity of the individual self (Sva) and the Atma. are powerful to dispel inward da rkness, but not the mere knowledge of words (Shabdabodha); (See Yogavashishtha, Utpatti, Kh. IX. 7- 16). Therefore, when the Shabdabhumika is attained one should not waste one's time further at this stage, and there are texts which prohibit this. Thus (Br. Ar. III, 5- 1) \"Having become indifferent to learning let him remain simple as in childhood\" (Pandityannirvidya balyena tishthaset). Between the second and third of the seven stages (Bhumika) there is the great stage Bhakti. Bhaktimimamsa (e.g., Narada Sutra, Sanatsujatiya) is 185 helpful and should be studied. Bhakti continues to the end of the fifth Bhumika. When this last is attained the Sadhaka gains the fifth stage which is Aparokshanubhavarupa. This is Jivanmukti; Following closely upon this is Videhakaivalya. In the text \"From Jana alone Kaivalya comes (Janad eva tu kaivalyam), the word Jana signifies something other and higher than Anubhava (Anubhavaparatva). In Nyaya and other Shastras it is stated that Moksha will be attained by mastery in such particular Shastra, but that is merely a device by which knowledge of the higher stage is not disclosed. This is not blameworthy because its object is to remove the disinclination to study such Shastra by reason of the delay thereby caused in the attainment of Purushartha (which disinclination would exist if the Sadhaka knew that there was a higher Shastra than that which he was studying). There are texts such as \"By Karma alone (eva) is achievement\" (Karmanaiva tu samsiddhih); \"Him whom he selects hp him he is attainable\" (Yamevaisha vrinnute tena labhyah). The word \"eva\" refers to the Bhumika which is spoken of and prohibits Sadhana for the attainment of fruit which can only be gained by mastery of, or competency in (Adhikara), the next higher Bhumika (Uttarabhumika). The words do not deny that there is a higher stage (Bhumika). The word alone (eva) in \"Janad eva tu\" (\"from Jana alone\") indicates, however, that there is a stage of Sadhana subsequent to that here spoken of. There is thus no conflict between the Rishis who are teachers of the different Vidyas. Each one of these Bhumikas has many sub - divisions (Avantara -bhumika) which cannot be altogether separated the one from the other, and which are only known by the discerning through experience (Anubhava). So it has been said: \"Oh Raghava, I have spoken to thee of the seven States (Avastha) of ignorance (Ajana). Each one is hundred fold (that is many) and yields many fruits (Nanavibhavarupim). Of these many Bhumikas, each is achieved by Sadhana through many b irths. When a man by great effort prolonged through countless lives, and according to the regular order of things (Kramena), gains a full comprehension of the Bhumika in which he has certain knowledge of the Shabdatattva of Parabrahman, he ceases to have any great attachment to or aversion for, Samsara and this is a form of excellent Cittashuddhi. Such an one is qualified for the path of Devotion (Bhakti).\" For, it has been said: 186 \"Neither indifferent (Nirvinna) nor attached; for such an one Bhaktiyoga grant s achievement (Siddhida).\" Bhakti again is of two kinds: Gauni (secondary) and Para (supreme). The first comprises Dhyana, Arcana, Japa, Namakirtana and the like of the Saguna Brahman. Parabhakti is special\" state (Anuragavishesharupa) which is the product of these. The first division of Bhakti includes several others (Avantara -Cumika). The first of these is Bhavanasiddhi illustrated by such texts \"Let him meditate on woman as fire\" (Yoshamagnim dhyayita). The second is worship (Upasti') as directed in such texts (Chha. Up. III. 18- 1) as \"Mano brahmetyupasita\". The third is Ishvaropasti (worship of the Lord). Since the aspects of the Lord vary according as He is viewed as Surya, Ganesha, Vishnu, Rudra, Parashiva and Shakti, the forms of worship belong to different Bhumikas. The forms of Shakti again are endless such as Chhaya, Ballabha, Lakshmi and the like. In this manner, through countless ages all these Bhumikas are mastered, when there arises Gaunabhakti for Tripurasundari. On perfection of this there is Parabhakti for Her. This is the end, for it has been said (Kularnava Tantra, III. 82): \"Kaulajana is revealed for him whose Citta has been fully purified, Arka, Ganapatya, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Daurga (Shakta) and other Mantras in their order.\" Bhaskararaya also quotes the statement in the Kularnava Tantra (II, 7, 8): \"Higher than Vedacara is Vaishnavacara, higher than Vaishnavacara is Shaivacara, higher than Shaivacara is Dakshinacara, higher than Dakshinacara is Vamacara, higher than Vamacara is Siddhantacara, higher than Siddhantacara is Kaulacara than which there is nothing higher nor better.\" Many original texts might be cited relative to the order of stages (Bhumikakrama) but which are not quoted for fear of prolixity. Some of these have been set out in Saubhagyabhaskara, (that is, Bhaskararaya's Commentary on the Lalitasahasranama). The Sundari tapanipancaka, Bhavanopanishad, Kaulopanishad, Guhyopanishad, Mahopanishad, and other Upanishads (Vedashirobhaga) describe in detail the Gauni Bhakti of Shri Maha tripurasundari and matter relating thereto. The Kalpasutras of Ashvalayana and others, the Smritis of Manu and others come after the Purvakanda) of the Veda. In the same way the Kalpasutras of Parashurama and others and the Yamalas and other Tantras belong to the latter part of 187 the Veda or the Upanishadkanda. The Puranas relate to, and follow both, Kandas. Therefore the authority of the Smritis, Tantras, and Puranas is due to their being based on Veda (Smrititantra puranam vedamulakatvenaiva pramanyam). Those which seem (Pratyaksha) opposed to Shruti (Shrutiviruddha) form a class of their own and are without authority and should not be followed unless the Veda (Mulashruti) is examined (and their conformity with it established). There are some Tantras, however, which are in every way in conflict with Veda (Yanitu sarvamshena vedaviruddhanyeva). They are some Pashupata Shastras and Pacaratra. They are not for those who are in this Bhumika (i.e., Veda Pantha). He who is qualified for rites enjoined in Shruti and Smriti (Shrautasmartakarmadhikara) is only Adhikari for these (Pashupata and Pacaratra) if by reason of some sin (Papa) he falls from the former path. It has therefore been said: \"The Lord of Kamala (Vishnu) spoke the Pacaratras, the Bhagavata, and that which is known as Vaikhanasa (Vaikhanasabhidhama form of Vaishnavism) for those who have fallen away from the Vedas (Vedabhrashta).\" The following Texts relate only to some of the Shastras of the classes mentioned. So we have the following: \"He who has fallen from Shruti, who is afraid of the expiatory rites (Prayashcitta) prescribed therein, should seek shelter in Tantra so that by degrees he may be qualified for Shruti (Shruti -siddhyar -tham).\" Though the general term \"Tantra\" is employed, particular Tan tras (that is, those opposed to Shruti or Ashrauta) are here meant. The Adhikarana (Sutra) Patyurasamanjasyat (II: 2. 37) applies to Tantras of this class. The Agastya and other Tantras which describe the worship of Rama, Krishna, Nrisimha, Rudra, Parashiva, Sundari (Shakti) and others evidently derive from the Ramatapani and other Upanishads. There is therefore no reason to doubt but that they are authoritative. Worship (Upasti) of Sundari Shakti is of two kinds: Bahiryaga or outer, and Antaryaga or inner, worship. Antaryaga is again of three kinds: Sakala, Sakala- Nishkala, and Nishkala, thus constituting four Bhumikas. As already stated, the passage is from a lower to a higher and then to a yet higher Bhumika. Five forms of Bahiryaga are spoken of, namely, Kevala, Yamala, Mishra, Cakrayuk and Virashamkara which have each five divisions under the heads Abhigamana and others and Daurbodhya and others in different Tantras. Bahiryaga with these distinctions belongs to one and the same 188 Bhumika. Distinctions in the injunctions (Vyavastha) depend entirely on differences as to place, time, and capacity, and not on the degree of Cittashuddhi (Na punashcittashuddhibhedena). On the other hand injunctions given according to difference of Bhumika, which is itself depende nt on the degree of purity of the Citta, are mandatory. To sum up the reply to the question raised by the title of this paper: The Shastras are many and are of differing form. But Ishvara is the Lord of all the Vidyas which are thus authoritative and have a common aim. The Adhikara of men varies. Therefore so does the form of the Shastra. There are many stages (Bhumika) on the path of spiritual advance. Man makes his way from a lower to a higher Bhumika. Statements in any Shastra which seem to be in conflict with some other Shastra must be interpreted with reference to the Adhikara of the persons to whom they are addressed. Texts laudatory of any Vidya are addressed to the Adhikari therein with the object of inducing him to follow it. Texts in disparagement of any Vidya are addressed to those who are not Adhikari therein, either because he has not attained, or has surpassed, the Bhumika applicable, and their object is to dissuade them from following it. Neither statements are to be taken in an absolute sense, for what is not fit for one may be fit for another. Evolution governs the spiritual as the physical process, and the truth is in each case given in that form which is suitable for the stage reached. From step to step the Sadhaka rises, until having passed through all presentments of the Vaidik truth which are necessary for him, he attains the Vedasvarupa which is knowledge of the Self. These ancient teachings are in many ways very consonant with what is called the \"modernist\" outlook. Thus, let it be noted that there may be (as Bhaskararaya says) Adhikara for Ashrauta Shastra such as the Arhata, and there is a Scripture for the Vedabhrashta. These, though non- Vaidik, are recognized as the Scriptures of those who are fitted for them. This is more than the admission, that they are the Scriptures in fact of such persons. The meaning of such recognition is brought out by an incident some years ago. An Anglican clergyman suggested that Mohamedanism might be a suitable Scripture for the Negro who was above \"fetichism\" but not yet fit to receive Christian teaching. Though he claimed that the latter was the highest and 189 the most complete truth, thi s recognition (quite Hindu in its character) of a lower and less advanced stage, brought him into trouble. For those who criticized him gave no recognition to any belief but their own. Hinduism does not deny that other faiths have their good fruit. For thi s reason, it is tolerant to a degree which has earned it the charge of being \"indifferent to the truth\". Each to his own. Its principles admit q, progressive revelation of the Self to the self, according to varying competencies (Adhikara) and stages (Bhumi ka) of spiritual advance. Though each doctrine and practice belongs to varying levels, and therefore the journey may be shorter or longer as the case may be, ultimately all lead to the Vedasvarupa or knowledge of the Self, than which there is no other end. That which immediately precedes this complete spiritual experience is the Vedantik doctrine and Sadhana for which all others are the propaedeutic. There is no real conflict if we look at the stage at which the particular instructions are given. Thought mo ves by an immanent logic from a less to a more complete realization of the true nature of the thinker. When the latter has truly known what he is, he has known what all is. Vedayite iti Vedah. \"Veda is that by which what is, and what is true, is made known.\" Whilst the Smritis of the Seers vary and therefore only those are to be accepted which are in conformity with the Standard of true experience or Veda, it is to be remembered that because a Seer such as Kapila Adividvan (upon whose Smriti or experience t hat Samkhya is assumed to be founded) teaches Dvaitavada, it does not (in the Hindu view) follow that he had not himself reached a higher stage, such as Advaitavada is claimed to be. A Seer may choose to come down to the level of more ordinary people and teach a Dvaitavada suited to their capacity (Adhikara). If all were to teach the highest experience there would be none to look after those who were incapable of it, and who must be led up through the necessary preliminary stages. Samkhya is the science of analysis and discrimination, and therefore the preparation for Vedanta which is the science of synthesis and assimilation. Kapila, Gautama and Kanada mainly built on reason deepened and enlarged, it may be, by Smriti or subjective experience. We do not find in them any complete synthesis of Shruti. A general appeal is made to Shruti and a few texts are cited which accord with what (whether it was so in fact to them or not) is in fact a provisionally adopted point of view. They 190 concentrate the thoughts and wills of their disciples on them, withholding (if they themselves have gone further) the rest, as not at present suited to the capacity of the Shishya, thus following what Shamkara calls Arundhatidarshana -nyaya. Nevertheless the higher truth is immanent in the lower. The Differential and Integral Calculus are involved in elementary Algebra and Geometry because the former generalize what the latter particularize. But the teacher of elementary Mathematics in the lower forms of a school would only confound his young learners if he were to introduce such a general theorem (as say Taylor's) to them. He must keep back the other until the time is ripe for them. Again the great Teachers teach whole-heartedness and thoroughness in both belief and action, without which the acceptance of a doctrine is useless. Hence a teacher of Dvaitavada, though himself Advaitadarshi, presents Dvaita to the Adhikari Shishya in such a forcible way that his reason may be convinced and his interest may be fully aroused. It is useless to say to a Sadhaka on the lower plane: \"Advaita is the whole truth. Dvaita is not; but though it is not, it is suited to your capacity and therefore accept it.\" He will of course say that he does not then want Dvaita, and being incapable of understanding Advaita, will lose himself. This, I may observe, one of the causes of Skepticism to -day. In the olden time it was possible to teach a system without anything being known of that which was higher. But with printing of books some people learn that all is Maya, that Upasana is for the \"lower\" grades and so forth, and, not understanding what all this means, are disposed to throw Shastric teaching in general overboard. This they would not have done if they had been first qualified in the truth of their plane and thu s become qualified to understand the truth of that which is more advanced. Until Brahma- sakshatkara, all truth is relative. Hence, Bhagavan in the Gita says: \"Na buddhi- bhedam janayed ajanam karma sanginam.\" Tradition supports these views. Therefore Vyasa , Kapila, Gautama, Jaimini, Kanada and others have differently taught, though they may have possibly experienced nearly similarly. Jaimini in his Purva Mimamsa differs in several respects from Vyasa or Badarayana in his Uttara - Mimamsa though he was the disciple of the latter. Vyasa is Advaita -darshi in Vedanta but Dvaita -darshi in Yoga -bhashya. Is it to be supposed, that the Shishya was Anadhikari, and that his Guru, therefore, withheld the higher 191 truth from him, or was the Guru jealous and kept his Shishya in actions, withholding Brahma -jana? A Rishi who has realized Advaita may teach Ayurveda or Dhanuveda. He need not be Sthula -darshi, because he teaches Sthula -vishaya. Again Shastras may differ, because their standpoint and objective is different. Thus the Purva -mimamsa deals with Dharma -jignasa, stating that Veda is practical and enjoins duties, so that a Text which does not directly or indirectly mean or impose a duty is of no account. The Uttara -mimamsa, on the other hand, deals with Brahma- jignasa and therefore in the Sutra 'Tattu samanvayat' it is laid down that a Mantra is relevant, though it may not impose a duty (\"Do this or do not do this\") but merely produces a Jana (Know this, \"That Thou art\"). The difference in interpretation is incidental to difference in standpoint and objective. The same remarks apply to the various forms of Advaita such as Vishishtadvaita, Shuddhadvaita; between the Shaktivada of the Shakta Agama and Vivarttavada. In some Shastras stress is laid on Karma, in others on Bhakti, and yet in others on Jana as in the case of Mayavada. But though the emphasis is differently placed, each is involved in the other and ultimately, meet and blend. The Mahimnastava says: \"Though men, according to their natures, follow differing paths, Thou art the end of all, as is the ocean of all the rivers which flow thereto.\" Madhusudana Sarasvati commenting on this, has written his Prasthanabheda, the reconciliation of varying doctrines. To- day the greatest need in these matters is (for those who are capable of understanding) the establishment of this intellectual and spiritual Whole (Purna). The Seers who live in the exalted Sphere of Calm, understand the worth and significance of each form of spiritual culture as also their Synthesis, and to the de gree that lesser minds attain this level to this extent they will also do so. Whilst the lower mind lives in a section of the whole fact and therefore sees difference and conflict, the illumined who live in and have in varying degrees experience of the Fact itself, see all such as related parts of an Whole. 192 CHAPTER THIRTEEN . SARVANANDANATHA The Sarvollasa, a copy of which came into my possession some three years ago, is a rare MS. It is a Samgraha by the Sarvavidyasiddha Sarvanandanatha who, though celebrated amongst the Bengal followers of the Agama, is I should think, almost unknown to the general public. There is a life in Sanskrit of Sarvanandanatha entitled Sarvanandataramgini by his son Shivanatha in which an account of the attainment of his Siddhi is given and I am indebted in respect of this article to a short unpublished memoir by Sj. Dinesha Candra Bhattacaryya, formerly Research Scholar, who as a native of Tipperah has had the desire to see Sarva nandanatha's place in the History of the so -called \"Tantricism\" in Bengal duly recognized. It is said that Sarvananda had striven for Siddhi for seven previous births and a verse preserves the names of the places where he died in these successive lives. His grandfather Vasudeva originally lived at Purvasthali in the Burdwan district but was led by a divine call to Mehar in Tipperah where in ages past Matanga Muni had done Tapas. A deep hole is still shown as being of Matanga's time. It is also said that round about the place where Sarvanandanatha performed his Shavasadhana, adept Sadhakas even now discover the hidden Linga established by Matanga marked out by equally hidden barriers or Kilakas. Vasudeva then went to Kamakhya where he died after undergoing se vere Tapas. He left his son at Mehar who himself afterwards had a son, the grandson of Vasudeva. In fact it is said that the grandfather Vasudeva was reborn as the son of his own son, that is, as Sarvananda. In early life the latter was stupid and illiterate. He was sharply rebuked by the local Rajah for his ignorance in proclaiming a New Moon day to be Full Moon day. Being severely punished by his relatives he determined to begin his letters and went out to search for the necessary palm -leaves. There in the jungle he met a Samnyasi, who was Mahadeva himself in that form and who whispered in his ears a Mantra and gave him certain instructions. His servant Puna was an advanced Sadhaka, who had been psychically developed under Vasudeva. 193 Puna separating the sub tle (Sukshmadeha) from the gross body, served as a corpse on the back of which Sarvananda performed Shavasadhana and attained Siddhi that same new moon night on which to the amazement of all a perfect moon shone over Mehar. This full moon episode is popula rly the most famous of Sarvananda's wonders. Some time after Sarvananda left Mehar after having given utterance to the curse that his own family would die out in the 22nd, and that of the local chief in the 15th generation. This last announcement is said to have come true as the Rajah's descendant in the fifteenth generation actually died without issue, though the family survives through his adopted son. Sarvananda started for Benares but stopped at Senhati in Jessore where he was compelled to marry again a nd where he lived for some years. His place of worship at Senhati is still shown. At the age of 50 he went to Benares with his servant Puna and nephew Sadananda. At Benares the Shaiva Dandins were then, as now, predominant. He quarreled with them, or they with him, on account of his doctrines and practice. In return for their treatment of him, he to their awe and possibly disgust, converted (so it is said) their food into meat and wine. Of course the Benares Dandins, as is usual in such cases, give a different account of the matter. Their tradition is that, after a Shastric debate, Sarvananda was convinced by the Dandins that the Siddhi which he boasted of was no real Siddhi at all and was then made a convert to their own doctrines, which is the most satisfa ctory of all results for the men of piety who wrangle with others and try to make them come over to their views. It is worthy of note how quarrelsome in all ages many of the pious and wonder -workers have been. But perhaps we do not hear so much of the quieter sages who lived and let others live, diffusing their views not amongst those who were satisfied with what they knew or thought they knew, but among such as had not found and therefore sought. After this event Sarvananda disappeared from Benares which rather points to the fact that the Dandins did not acquire a distinguished adversary for their community. Tradition is silent as to what happened to him later and as to the date and place of his end. 194 Sj. Dinesh Chandra Bhattacarya has made for me a calculat ion as to the date of Sarvananda's Siddhi which fell on a Pausha Samkranti corresponding to Caturdasi or Amavasya falling on a Friday. Between 1200 and 1700 A.D. there are three dates on which the above combination took place, viz.,1342, 1426 and 1548 A.D. The first date is toe early as 15 or 16 generations, to which his family descends at present, does not carry us so far back. The last date seems too late. For according to tradition Janakivallabha Gurvvacarya, himself a famous Siddha, and fifth in descent from Sarvananda, was a contemporary of one of the \"twelve Bhuiyas\" of Bengal late in the reign of Akbar (circ. 1600 A.D.). The date 1426 A.D. is therefore adopted. It will thus appear that he lived about a century before the three great Bengal Tantrikas, namely, Krishnananda, Brahmananda and Purnananda, all of whom are of the 16th century. But this calculation has still to be verified by data culled from an examination of the Sarvollasa such as the authorities which its author cites. This last work, I am told, is that by which he is best known. Two other short Tantrika works are ascribed to a Sarvananda though whether it is the same Siddha is not certain. There is, I am told, a Navarnapujapaddhati by Sarvanandanatha in a MS dated 1668 Vikramabda in the Raghunath Temple Library in Kashmir, and another work the Tripurarcanadipika is reported from the Central Provinces. As is usual in such cases there is a legend that Sarvananda is still living by Kayavyuha in some hidden resort of Siddha- purushas. The author o f the memoir, from which I quote, tells of a Sadhu who said to my informant that some years ago he met Sarvanandanatha in a place called Campakaranya but only for a few minutes, for the Sadhu was himself miraculously wafted elsewhere. Some very curious reading of deep interest to the psychologist, the student of psychic phenomena and the historian of religions is to be found in the stories which are told of Sadhus and Siddhas of Sarvananda's type who, whether they did all that is recounted of them or not, y et lived so strangely, as for instance, to take another case, that of Brahmananda the author of the Shaktanandatarangini who going in his youth in quest of a prostitute, found in the house he entered and in the woman who came to him his own 195 mother, herself the victim of a Mussulman ravisher. It was the horror of this encounter which converted his mind and led him to become a Sadhu, during which life he did Dhyana in the body of a dead and rotting elephant and the other things related of him. They await coll ection. But when their value has been discovered possibly these traditions may have disappeared. Even if all the facts related of these Sadhus and Siddhas were the work of imagination (and whilst some of them may be so, others are in all probability true enough) they are worth preservation as such. The history of the human mind is as much a fact as anything which is reverenced because it is \"objective\". This last class of fact is generally only the common experience. It is attractive, yet sometimes fearsome , to follow the mind's wanderings both in the light and in that curious dark, which only explorers in these paths know. If one does not lose one's way (and in this lies a peril) we emerge with a confidence in ourselves at having passed a test -- a confidence which will serve our future. In any case as I have said there is an opportunity of research for those whose workings are in the outer crust of mere historical fact. 196 CHAPTER FOURTEEN . CIT-SHAKTI (THE CONSCIOUSNESS ASPECT OF THE UNIVERSE ) Cit-Shakti is Cit, as Shakti, that is as Power, or that aspect of Cit in which it is, through its associated Maya -Shakti, operative to create the universe. It is a commonly accepted doctrine that the ultimate Reality is Samvid, Caitanya or Cit. But what is Cit? There is no word in the English language which adequately describes it. It is not mind: for mind is a limited instrument through which Cit is manifested. It is that which is behind the mind and by which the mind itsel f is thought, that is created. The Brahman is mindless (Amanah). I f we exclude mind we also exclude all forms of mental process, conception, perception, thought, reason, will, memory, particular sensation and the like. We are then left with three availabl e words, namely, Consciousness, Feeling, Experience. To the first term there are several objections. For if we use an English word, we must understand it according to its generally received meaning. Generally by \"Consciousness\" is meant self- consciousness, or at least something particular, having direction and form, which is concrete and conditioned; an evolved product marking the higher stages of Evolution. According to some, it is a mere function of experience, an epiphenomenon, a mere accident of mental process. In this sense it belongs only to the highly developed organism and involves a subject attending to an object of' which, as of itself, it is conscious. We are thus said to have most consciousness when we are awake (Jagrat avastha) and have full experience of all objects presented to us; less so when dreaming (Svapna avastha) and deep anesthesia in true dreamless sleep (Sushupti). I may here observe that recent researches show that this last state is not so common as is generally supposed. That is complete dreamlessness is rare; there being generally some trace of dream. In the last state it is commonly said that consciousness has disappeared, and so of course it has, if we first define consciousness in terms of the waking state and of knowledge of objects. According to Indian notions there is a form of conscious experience in the deepest sleep 197 expressed in the well -known phrase \"Happily I slept, I knew nothing\". The sleeper recollects on waking that his state has been one of happiness. And he cannot recollect unless there has been a previous experience (Anubhava) which is the subject- matter of memory. In ordinary parlance we do not regard some low animal forms, plants or mineral as \"conscious\". It is true that now in the West there is (due to the sprea d of ideas long current in India) growing up a wider use of the term \"consciousness\" in connection not only with animal but vegetable and mineral life, but it cannot be said the term \"consciousness\" has yet generally acquired this wide signification. If then we use (as for convenience we do) the term \"Consciousness\" for Cit, we must give it a content different from that which is attributed to the term in ordinary English parlance. Nextly, it is to be remembered that what in either view we understand by consciousness is something manifested, and therefore limited, and derived from our finite experience. The Brahman as Cit is the infinite substratum of that. Cit in itself (Svarupa) is not particular nor conditioned and concrete. Particularity is that aspect in which it manifests as, and through, Maya -Shakti. Cit manifests as Jana -Shakti which, when used otherwise than as a loose synonym for Cit, means knowledge of objects. Cit- Svarupa is neither knowledge of objects nor self -consciousness in the phenomenal sense. Waking, dreaming and dreamless slumber are all phenomenal states in which experience varies; such variance being due not to Cit but to the operation or cessation of particular operation of the vehicles of mind (Antahkarana) and sense (Indriya). But Cit never disappears nor varies in either of the three states, but remains one and the same through all. Though Cit -Svarupa is not a knowledge of objects in the phenomenal sense, it is not, according to Shaiva -Shakta views (I refer always to Advaita Shaiva- darshana), a mere abstract knowing (Jana) wholly devoid of content. It contains within itself the Vimarsha -Shakti which is the cause of phenomenal objects, then existing in the form of Cit (Cidrupini). The Self then knows the Self. Still less can we speak of mere 'awareness\" as the equivalent of Cit. A worm or meaner form of animal may be said to be vaguely aware. In fact mere \"awareness\" (as we understand that term) is a state of Cit in which it is seemingly overwhelmed by obscuring Maya -Shakti in the form of Tamoguna. Unless therefore we give to \"awareness,\" as also to consciousness, a content, other than that with which our experience 198 furnishes us, both terms are unsuitable. In some respects Cit can be more closely described by Feeling, which seems to have been the most ancient meaning of the term Cit. Feeling is more primary, in that it is only after we have been first affected by something that we become conscious of it. Feeling has thus been said to be the raw material of thought, the essential element i n the Self, what we call personality being a particular form of feeling. Thus in Samkhya, the Gunas are said to be in the nature of happiness (Sukha), sorrow (Dukha) and illusion (Moha) as they are experienced by the Purusha -Consciousness. And in Vedanta, Cit and Ananda or Bliss or Love are one. For Consciousness then is not consciousness of being (Sat) but Being - Consciousness (Sat -Cit); nor a Being which is conscious of Bliss (Ananda) but Being -Consciousness -Bliss (Sacchidananda). Further, \"feeling\" has this advantage that it is associated with all forms of organic existence even according to popular usage, and may scientifically be aptly applied to inorganic matter. Thus whilst most consider it to be an unusual and strained use of language, to speak of the consciousness of a plant or stone, we can and do speak of the feeling or sentiency of a plant. Further the response which inorganic matter makes to stimuli is evidence of the existence therein of that vital germ of life and sentiency (and therefore Cit) which expands into the sentiency of plants, and the feelings and emotions of animals and men. It is possible for any form of unintelligent being to feel, however obscurely. And it must do so, if its ultimate basis is Cit and Ananda, however veiled by Maya -Shakti these may be. The response which inorganic matter makes to stimuli is the manifestation of Cit through the Sattvaguna of Maya - Shakti, or Shakti in its form as Prakriti- Shakti. The manifestation is slight and apparently mechanical because of the extreme predominance of the Tamoguna in the same Prakriti- Shakti. Because of the limited and extremely regulated character of the movement which seems to exclude all volitional process as known to us, it is currently assumed that we have merely to deal with wha t is an unconscious mechanical energy. Because vitality is so circumscribed and seemingly identified with the apparent mechanical process, we are apt to assume mere unconscious mechanism. But as a fact this latter is but the form assumed by the conscious Vital Power which is in and works in all matter whatever it be. To the eye, however, unassisted by scientific instruments, which extend our capacity for experience, 199 establishing artificial organs for the gaining thereof, the matter appears Jada (or unconscious); and both in common English and Indian parlance we call that alone living or Jiva which, as organized matter, is endowed with body and senses. Philosophically, however, as well as scientifically, all is Jivatma which is not Paramatma: everything in fa ct with form, whether the form exists as the simple molecule of matter, or as the combination of these simple forms into cells and greater organisms. The response of metallic matter is a form of sentiency -- its germinal form -- a manifestation of Cit inte nsely obscured by the Tamoguna of Prakriti -Shakti. In plants Cit is less obscured, and there is the sentient life which gradually expands in animals and men, according as Cit gains freedom of manifestation through the increased operation of Sattvaguna in the vehicles of Cit; which vehicles are the mind and senses and the more elaborate organization of the bodily particles. What is thus mere incipient or germinal sentiency, simulating unconscious mechanical movement in inorganic matter, expands by degrees in to feeling akin, though at first remotely, to our own, and into all the other psychic functions of consciousness, perception, reasoning, memory and will. The matter has been very clearly put in a Paper on \"The Four Cosmic Elements\" by C. G. Sander which (s ubject to certain reservations stated) aptly describes the Indian views on the subject in hand. He rightly says that sentiency is an integrant constituent of all existence, physical as well as metaphysical and its manifestation can be traced throughout the mineral and chemical as well as vegetable and animal worlds. It essentially comprises the functions of relationship to environment, response to stimuli, and atomic memory in the lower or inorganic plane; whilst in the higher or organic planes it includes all the psychic functions such as consciousness, perception, thought, reason, volition and individual memory. Inorganic matter through the inherent element of sentiency is endowed with aesthesia or capacity of feeling and response to physical and chemical stimuli such as light, temperature, sound, electricity, magnetism and the action of chemicals. All such phenomena are examples of the faculty of perception and response to outside stimuli of matter. We must here include chemical sentiency and memory; that is the atom's and molecule's remembrance of its own identity and behavior therewith. Atomic memory does not, of course, imply self -consciousness, 200 but only inherent group -spirit which responds in a characteristic way to given outside stimuli. We may call it atomic or physical consciousness. The consciousness of plants is only trance -like (what the Hindu books call 'Comatose') though some of the higher aspects of sentiency (and we may here use the word 'consciousness') of the vegetable world are highly interesting: such as the turning of flowers to the sun; the opening and shutting of leaves and petals at certain times, sensitiveness to the temperature and the obvious signs of consciousness shewn by the sensitive and insectivorous plants, such as the Sundew, the Venus Flytrap, and others. The micro -organisms which dwell on the borderland between the vegetable and animal worlds have no sense organs, but are only endowed with tactile irritability, yet they are possessed of psychic life, sentiency, and inclination, whereby they perceive their environment and position, approach, attack and devour food, flee from harmful substances and reproduce by division. Their movements appear to be positive, not reflex. Every cell, both vegetable and animal, possesses a biological or vegetative consciousness, which in health is polarized or subordinate to the government of the total organism of which it forms an integral part; but which is locally impaired in disease and ceases altogether at the death of the organism. In plants, however, (unlike animals) the cellular consciousness is diffused or distributed amongst the tissues or fibers; there being apparently no special conducting or centralizing organs of consciousness such as we find in higher evolutionary forms. Animal consciousness in its highest modes becomes self-consciousness. The psychology of the lower animals is still the field of much controversy; some regarding these as Cartesian machines and others ascribing to them a high degree of psychic development. In the animals there is an endeavor at centralization of consciousness which reaches its most complex stage in man, the possessor of the most highly organized system of consciousness, consisting of the nervous system and its centers and functions, such as the brain and solar plexus, the site of Aja and upper centers, and of the Manipura Cakra. Sentiency or feeling is a constituent of all existence. We may call it consciousness however, if we understand (with the author cited) the term \"consciousness\" to include atomic or physical consciousness, the trance consciousness of plant life, animal consciousness and man's completed self -consciousness. 201 The term Sentiency or Feeling, as the equivalent of manifested Cit, has, however, this disadvantage: whereas intelligence and con sciousness are terms for the highest attributes of man's nature, mere sentiency, though more inclusive and common to all, is that which we share with the lowest manifestions. In the case of both terms, however, it is necessary to remember that they do not represent Cit- Svarupa or Cit as It is in itself. The term Svarupa (own form) is employed to convey the notion of what constitutes anything what it is, namely, its true nature as it is in itself. Thus, though the Brahman or Shiva manifests in the form of the world as Maya - Shakti, its Svarupa is pure Cit. Neither sentiency nor consciousness, as known to us, is Cit -Svarupa. They are only limited manifestations of Cit just as reason, will, emotion and memory, their modes are. Cit is the background of all forms of experience which are its modes, that is Cit veiled by Maya -Shakti; Cit -Svarupa is never to be confounded with, or limited to, its particular modes. Nor is it their totality, for whilst it manifests in these modes It yet, in Its own nature, infinitely transcends them. Neither sentiency, consciousness, nor any other term borrowed from a limited and dual universe can adequately describe what Cit is in Itself (Svarupa). Vitality, mind, matter are its limited manifestations in form. These forms are ceaselessl y changing, but the undifferentiated substratum of which they are particularized modes is changeless. That eternal, changeless, substratum is Cit,, which may thus be defined as the changeless principle of all our changing experience. All is Cit, clothing i tself in forms by its own Power of Cit-Shakti and Maya -Shakti: and that Power is not different from Itself. Cit is not the subject of knowledge or speech. For as the Varaha Upanishad (Chap. IV) says it is \"The Reality which remains after all thoughts are g iven up.\" What it is in Itself, is unknown but to those who become It. It is fully realized only in the highest state of Ecstasy (Samadhi) and in bodiless liberation (Videha Mukti) when Spirit is free of its vehicles of mind and matter. A Modern Indian Philosopher has (See \"Approaches to Truth\" and the \"Patent Wonder\" by Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyopadhyaya) very admirably analyzed the notion of the universal Ether of Consciousness (Cidakasha) and the particular Stress formed in it by the action of Maya-Shakti. In the first place, he points out that logical thought is inherently dualistic and therefore pre -supposes a 202 subject and object. Therefore to the pragmatic eye of the western, viewing the only experience known to him, consciousness is always particular having a particular form and direction. Hence where no direction or form is discernible, they have been apt to imagine that consciousness as such has also ceased. Thus if it were conceded that in profounded sleep there were no dreams, or if in perfect anesthesia it were granted that nothing particular was felt, it was thereby considered to be conceded that consciousness may sometimes cease to exist in us. What does in fact cease is the consciousness of objects which we have in the waking and dreaming sta tes. Consciousness as such is neither subjective nor objective and is not identical with intelligence or understanding -- that is with directed or informed consciousness. Any form of unintelligent being which feels, however chaotically it may be, is yet, though obscurely so (in the sense here meant) conscious. Pure consciousness, that is consciousness as such, is the background of every form of experience. In practical life and in Science and Philosophy when swayed by pragmatic ends, formless experience has no interest, but only certain forms and tones of life and consciousness. Where these are missed we are apt to fancy that we miss life and feeling -consciousness also. Hence the essential basis of existence or Cit has been commonly looked upon as a very much specialized and peculiar manifestation in nature. On the contrary, Cit is Being or Reality itself. Cit as such is identical with Being as such. The Brahman is both Cit and Sat. Though in ordinary experience Being and Feeling -Consciousness are essentially bound up together, they still seem to diverge from each other. Man by his very constitution inveterately believes in an objective existence beyond and independent of his self. And this is so, so long as he is subject to the veil (Maya -Shakti). But in that ultimate basis of experience which is the Paramatma the divergence has gone; for the same boundless substratum which is the continuous mass of experience is also that which is experienced. The self is its own object. To the exalted Yogin the whole univers e is not different from himself as Atma. This is the path of the \"upward- going\" Kundali (Urddhva -Kundalini). 203 Further, there has been a tendency in fact to look upon consciousness as a mere function of experience; and the philosophy of unconscious ideas and mind -stuff would even go so far as to regard it as a mere accident of mental process. This is to reverse the actual facts. Consciousness should rather be taken as an original datum than as a later development and peculiar manifestation. We should begin wi th it in its lowest forms, and explain its apparent pulse- life by extending the principle of veiling (Maya -Shakti) which is ceaselessly working in man, reducing his life to an apparent series of pulses also. An explanation which does not start with this primordial extensity of experience cannot expect to end with it. For if it be not positive at the beginning, it cannot be derived at the end. But what, it may be asked, is the proof of such pure experience? Psychology which only knows changing states does not tell us of it. This is so. Yet from those states, some of which approach indifferentiation, inferences may be drawn; and experience is not limited to such states, for it may transcend them. It is true that ordinarily we do not meet with a condition of consciousness which is without a direction or form; but tests drawn from the incidents of ordinary normal life are insufficient, it has been argued, to prove that there is no consciousness at all when this direction and form are supposed to have gone. Though a logical intuition will not tell its own story, we can make reflection on intuition render us some sort of account, so that the intuitive fact appears in review, when it will appear that consciousness is the basis of, indeed, existence itself, and not merely an attendant circumstance. But the only proof of pure consciousness is an instance of it. This cannot be established by mere reflection. The bare consciousness of this or that, the experi ence of just going to sleep and just waking, and even the consciousness of being as such, are but approximations to the state of consciousness as such, that is pure consciousness, but are not identical with it. Then, what evidence, it may be asked, have we of the fact that pure consciousness is an actual state of being? In normal life as well as in abnormal pathological states, we have occasional stretches of experience in which simplicity of feature or determination has advanced near to indifferentiation, in which experience has become almost structureless. But 204 the limit of pure experience is not there reached. On the other hand, there is no conclusive proof that we have ever had a real lapse of consciousness in our life, and the extinction of consciousness as such is inconceivable in any case. The claim, however, that consciousness as such exists, rests not so much on logical argument as on intuitive grounds, on revelation (Shruti) and spiritual experience of the truth of that revelation. According to Indian Monism, a Pure Principle of Experience not only is, but is the one and only ultimate permanent being or reality. It does not regard Cit as a mere function, accident, or epiphenomenon, but holds it to be the ever existing plenum which sustains and vitalizes all phenomenal existence, and is the very basis on which all forms of multiple experience, whether of sensation, instinct, will, understanding, or reason, rest. It is, in short, the unity and unchanging Reality behind all these various changing forms which, by the veil or Maya- Shakti, Jiva assumes. The Cit -Svarupa, inadequately described as mere blissful awareness of feeling, exists, as the basis and appears in the form of, that is clothed with, mind; a term which in its general sense is not used merely in the sense of the purely mental function of reason but in the sense of all the forms in which consciousness is displayed, as distinguished from Cit Itself, which is the unity behind all these forms whether reason, sensation, emotion, instinct, or will. All these are modes wherein the plastic unformed clay of life is determined. For every conception or volition is essentially an apparent circumscription or limitation of that Sat which is the basis of phenomenal life. Professor P. N. Mukhyopadhyaya has described pure consciousness to be an infinitude of \"awareness,\" lacking name and form and every kind of determination, which is a state of complete quiescence where the potential is zero or infinity -- a condition without strain or tension which is at once introduced when the slightest construction is put upon it, resulting in a consciousness of bare \"this\" and \"that\". It is not a consciousness of anything. It is an experience of nothing in particular. But this must not be confounded with no experience. The former is taken to be the latter because life is pragmatic, interest being shown in particular modes of awareness. To man's life, which is little else than a system of partialities, pure experience in which there is nothing particular to observe or shun, lov e 205 or hate seems practically to be no experience at all. Pure Consciousness is impartial. There is no difference (Bheda) so far as pure Awareness is concerned. Pure Consciousness is a kind of experience which stands above all antithesis of motion and rest. It does not know Itself either as changing or statical, since it is consciousness as such without any determinations or mode whatever. To know itself as changing or permanent, it must conceal its illogical and unspeakable nature in a veil (Maya). Every determination or form makes experience a directive magnitude. Consciousness then assumes a direction or special reference. It is not possible to direct and refer in a special way without inducing such a feeling of strain or tension, whether the conditions be physiological or psychological. Pure consciousness has, thus, been compared to an equipotential surface of electrical distribution. There is no difference of potentials between any two points A and R over this surface. It is a stretch of consciousness, in which there is, apparently, no sensible diversity of features, no preference, no differential incidence of subjective regard. Like the equipotential surface, such consciousness is also quiescent. To secure a flow on it. there must be a difference of potent ials between any two points. Similarly, to have a reference, a direction, a movement of attention, there must be a determination in the total experience of the moment in the given mass of consciousness. Absolute quiescence is a state of consciousness. whic h is pure being with no special subjective direction and reference; with no difference of level and potential between one part of the experience and another. Experience will show special subjective direction and reference if it assumes at least form or determination, such as \"this\" or \"that\"; to have no difference of level or potential, experience must be strictly undifferentiated -- that is to say, must not involve the least ideal or representative structure. Absolute quiescence exists only with that Consciousness which is pure Being, or Paramatma. With regard, however, to all descriptions of this state, it must be borne in mind that they only negatively correspond with their subject -matter by the elimination of characteristics which are peculiar to, and co nstitute the human consciousness of, the Jiva, and are therefore alien to the Supreme Consciousness. They give us no positive information as to the nature of pure Cit, for this is only known in Yoga by the removal of ignorance (Avidya) under which all logical thinking and speaking is done. This \"ignorance\" is 206 nothing but a term for those limitations which make the creature what he is. It is a commonplace in Indian religion and philosophy that the Brahman as It exists in itself is beyond all thought and words, and is known only by the Samadhi of Yoga. As the Mahanirvana Tantra says (III. V. 6 et seq.): \"The Brahman is known in two ways: from His manifestations which are the object of Sadhana or as It is in itself in Samadhiyoga\": for, as Ch. XIV, V. 135 Ibid. , says, Atmajana is the one means of liberation in which Its nature is realized. It is, perhaps in part at least, because the merely negative and imperfect character of such description is not sufficiently noted that pure consciousness, as the author cited points out, has in general awakened no serious interest in the practical West; though it has been the crown of glory for some of, what have been said to be, the stateliest forms of Eastern thought, which asserts itself to be in possession of an experimen tal method by which the condition of pure consciousness may be realized. The question is, thus, not one of mere speculation, but of demonstration. This state, again, is believed by the East to be not a dull and dreary condition, a dry abstraction or reductio ad absurdum of all which imparts to our living its worth and significance. Not at all; since it is the first Principle in which as Power all existence is potential and from which it proceeds. It is reasonable, therefore, it is contended, to assume that all which life possesses of real worth exists in the Source of life itself. Life is only a mode of infinite Supremacy with beatitude, which is Being and Consciousness in all its metaphysical grandeur, an absolutely understandable condition which no imagina tion can depict and no categories can reach and possess. Owing to the necessarily negative character of some of the descriptions of the Supreme Brahman we find such questions \"How can it differ from a nullity?\" (Dialogues on Hindu Philosophy, 259, by Rev. K. M. Banerjee): and the statement of the English Orientalist Colonel Jacob (whose views are akin to those of others) that \"Nirvana is an unconscious (sic) and stone - like (sic) existence\". Such a misconception is the more extraordinary in that it occurs in the work of an author who was engaged in the translation of a Vedantic treatise. These and many similar statements seem to establish that it is possible to make a special study of Vedanta and yet to misunderstand its primary concepts. It is true that the Brahman is unconscious in the sense that It is not our consciousness; for, if so, It would be Jiva and not 207 Paramatma. But this is only to say that it has not our limitations. It is unlimited Cit. A stone represents its most veiled existence. In its Self it is all light and self -illumining (Svaprakasha). As Shruti says (Katha Up. 5-15) \"All things shed luster by His luster. All things shine because He shines.\" All things depend on It: but It has not to depend on anything else for Its manifestation. It is therefore better to say with the Hamsopanishad and the Christian Gospel that It is the Peace beyond all understanding. It has been dryly remarked that \"The idea that Yoga means a dull state is due, perhaps, to the misunderstanding of Patajali's definition of it. Man, however, ordinarily and by his nature craves for modes and forms (Bhaumananda); and though all enjoyment comes from the pure Supreme Consciousness, it is supposed that dualistic variety and polarity are necessary for enjoyment. What, thus, in its plenitude belongs to the sustaining spirit of all life is transferred to life alone. All knowledge and existence are identified with variety, change, polarity. Whilst skimming over the checkered surface of the sea, we thus, it is said, ignore the unfathom ed depths which are in respose and which nothing stirs, wherein is the Supreme Peace (Santa) and Bliss (Paramananda). The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: \"Other beings live on a fraction of this great Bliss.\" The Bliss of Shiva and Shakti are one, for they are inseparate. Hence she is called (Trishati II. 32) Ekabhoga: for Eka = Ishvara and Bhoga = Svasvarupananda. Nyaya and Samkhya say that the chief end of man is the absolute cessation of pain, but Vedantins, going beyond this negative definition, say that, all pain having surceased on Unity with the Supreme, the chief end is that positive Bliss which is of its essence. The Devi Kalyani, the Mother of all, is Herself Bliss -- that is, all bliss from earthly bliss (Bhaumananda) to Brahman- Bliss (Brahmananda). As the Commentator Shamkara in his commentary on the Trishati says (citing Shruti): \"Who else can make us breathe, who else can make us live, if this blissful Ether were not?\" If, further, it be asked what is pure Experience which manifests itself in all these diverse forms, it must be said that from Its very definition pure Cit, or the Supreme Brahman (Parabrahman), is that about which nothing in 208 particular can be predicated: for predication is possible only in relation todeterminations or modes in consciousness. And in this sense Yogatattva Upanishad says that those who seek a knowledge of it in Shastras are deluded; \"How can that which is self -shining be illuminated by the Shastras? Not even the Devas can describe that indescribable state.\" The Mandukya Upanishad, speaking of the fourth aspect (Pada) of Atma, says that it is the non- dual Shiva which is not an object which can be sensed, used, taken, determined (by any marks), or of which an account can be given, but is unthinkable and knowable only by the realization of Atma. Negative predication may, however, clear away improper notions. It is really inscrutable Being upon which no category can be fastened. This must always be borne in mind in any attempted definition of this transcendent state. It is of a self -existent (Niradhara), unending (Nitya), changeless (Avikari), undifferentiated (Abhinna), spaceless (Purna), timeless (Shasvata), all-pervading (Sarvatravastha), self -illumining (Svayamjyotih), pure (Shuddha) experience. As the Kularnava Tantra says (I -- 6, 7): \"Shiva is the impartite Supreme Brahman, the all -knowing Creator of all.\" He is the stainless One and the Lord of all. He is one without a second (Advaya). He is light itself. He changes not, and is without beginning or end. He is without attribute and above the highest. He is Being (Sat), Consciousness (Cit), and Bliss (Ananda). As Sat, It is unity of being beyond the opposites of \"this\" and \"that\". \"here and there,\" \"then and now\". As Cit, It is an experiencing beyond the opposites of world ly knowledge and ignorance. As Supreme Ananda, It is the Bliss which is known upon the dissolution of the dualistic state which fluctuates between, and is composed of, happiness and sorrow; for created happiness is only an impermanent change of state (Vikara) or Becoming, but the Supreme Bliss (Paramananda) endures. Bliss is the very Nature (Svarupa) of this Supreme Consciousness, and not, as with the creature, a mere changing attribute of some form of Becoming. Supreme Being (Sat) is a unity without parts (Nishkala). Supreme Feeling -Consciousness (Cit) is immediacy of experience. In the Jiva, Consciousness of Self is set over against the not -Self; for logical thought establishes a polarity of subject. Thus the undifferentiated Supreme Consciousness transcen ds, and the Supreme Bliss (Paramananda) is beyond, the changing feelings of happiness and sorrow. It is the great Peace (Santa) which, in the words of 209 the Hamsopanishad (V. 12, Ed. Anandashrama, XXIX, p. 593) as of the New Testament, passes all worldly und erstanding. Sacchidananda, or Pure Being, persists in all the states of Becoming which are its manifestation as Shakti. It may be compared to a continuous, partless, undifferentiated Unity universally pervading the manifested world like ether or space, as opposed to the limited, discontinuous, discrete character of the forms of \"matter\" which are the products of its power of Shakti. It is a state of quiescence free of all motion (Nishpanda), and of that vibration (Spandana) which operating as the Primordial Energy, evolves the phenomenal world of names and forms. It is, in short, said to be the innermost Self in every being -- a changeless Reality of the nature of a purely experiencing principle (Caitanyam Atma) as distinguished from whatever may assume the form of either the experienced, or of the means of experience. This Cit in bodies underlies as their innermost Self all beings. The Cit or Atma as the underlying Reality in all is, according to Vedanta, one, and the same in all: undivided and unlimited by any of them, however much they may be separated in time and space. It is not only all -pervading, but all -transcending. It has thus a two- fold aspect: an immanent aspect as Shakti (Power), in which It pervades the universes (Saguna Brahman); and a transcendental aspect, in which It exists beyond all Its worldly manifestations (Nirguna Brahman). Cit, as it is in itself, is spaceless and timeless, extending beyond all limitations of time and space and all other categories of existence. We live in the Infinite. All limits exist in Cit. But these limits are also another aspect of It that is Shakti. It is a boundless tranquil ocean on the surface of which countless varied modes, like waves, are rising, tossing and sinking. Though It is the one Cause of the univers e of relations, in itself It is neither a relation nor a totality of relations, but a completely relationless Self- identity unknowable by any logical process whatever. Cit is the boundless permanent plenum which sustains and vitalizes everything. It is the universal Spirit, all- pervading like the Ether, which is, sustains, and illumines all experience and all process in the continuum of experience. In it the universe is born, grows and dies. This plenum orcontinuum is as such all- pervading, eternal, unproduced, and indestructible: for production and destruction involve the existence and bringing together and separation of parts which in an absolute 210 partless continuum is impossible. It is necessarily in itself, that is as Cit, motionless, for no parts of an a ll-filling continuum can move from one place to another. Nor can such a continuum have any other form of motion, such as expansion, contraction or undulation, since all these phenomena involve the existence of parts and their displacement. Cit is one undifferentiated, partless, all -pervading, eternal, spiritual substance. In Sanskrit, this plenum is called Cidakasha; that is, just as all material things exist in the all- pervading physical Ether, so do they and the latter exist in the infinitely extendi ng Spiritual \"Ether\" which is Cit. The Supreme Consciousness is thought of as a kind of permanent spiritual \"Space\" (Cidakasha) which makes room for and contains all varieties and forms appearing and disappearing. Space itself is an aspect of spiritual sub stance. It is a special posture of that stress in life which takes place in unchanging consciousness (P. Mukhyopadhyaya \"The Patent Wonder,\" 21 -- 24). In this Ocean of Being -Consciousness we live, move and have our being. Consciousness as such (that is as distinguished from the products of Its power or Shakti), is never finite. Like space, it cannot be limited, though, through the operation of its power of self - negation or Maya- Shakti, it may appear as determined. But such apparent determinations do not ev er for us express or exhaust the whole consciousness, any more than space is exhausted by the objects in it. Experience is taken to be limited because the Experiencer is swayed by a pragmatic interest which draws his attention only to particular features i n the continuum. Though what is thus experienced is a part of the whole experience, the latter is felt to be an infinite expanse of consciousness or awareness in which is distinguished a definite mass of especially determined feeling. As Cit is the infinite plenum, all limited being exists in it, and it is in all such beings as the Spirit or innermost Self and as Maya -Shakti it is their mind and body. When the existence of anything is affirmed, the Brahman is affirmed, for the Brahman is Being itself. This pure Consciousness or Cit is the Paramatma Nirguna Shiva who is Being -Consciousness -Bliss (Sacchidananda). Consciousness is Being. Paramatma, according to Advaita Vedanta, is not a consciousness of being, but Being-Consciousness. Nor is it a consciousness of Bliss, but it is Bliss. All these are one in pure Consciousness. That which is the nature of Paramatma never changes, 211 notwithstanding the creative ideation (Srishtikalpana) which is the manifestation of Shakti as Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti. It is this l atter Shakti which, according to the Sakta Tantra, evolves. To adopt a European analogy which is yet not complete, Nishkala Paramatma is Godhead (Brahmatva), Sakala, or Saguna Atma, is God (Ishvara). Each of the three systems Samkhya, Mayavada Vedanta, and Sakta monism agrees in holding the reality of pure consciousness (Cit). The question upon which they differ is as to whether unconsciousness is a second independent reality, as Samkhya alleges; and, if not, how the admitted appearance of unconsciousness as the Forms is to be explained consistently with the unity of the Brahman. Such then is Cit, truly known as it is in Itself only in completed Yoga or Moksha; known only through Its manifestations in our ordinary experience, just as to use the simile of the Kaivalya Kalika Tantra, we realize the presence of Rahu or Bhucchaya (the Eclipse) by his actions on the sun and moon. The Eclipse is seen but not the cause of it. Cit- Shakti is a name for the same changeless Cit when associated in creation with its opera ting Maya - Shakti. The Supreme Cit is called Parasamvit in the scheme of the Thirty -six Tattvas which is adopted by both the Shaiva and Shakta Agamas. According to Shamkara, the Supreme Brahman is defined as pure Jana without the slightest trace of either actual or potential objectivity. The Advaita Shaiva- Shaktas regard this matter differently in accordance with an essential principle of the Agamic School with which I now deal. All occultism whether of East or West posits the principle that there is nothing in any one state or plane which is not in some other way, actual or potential, in another state or plane. The Western Hermetic maxim runs \"As above, so below\". This is not always understood. The saying does not mean that what exists in one plane exists in that form in another plane. Obviously if it did the planes would be the same and not different. If Ishvara thought and felt and saw objects, in the human way, and if he was loving and wrathful, just as men are, He, would not be Ishvara but Jiva. The saying cited means that a thing which exists on one plane exists on all other planes, according either to the form of each plane, if it be an intermediate causal body (Karanavantarasharira) or ultimately as the mere potentiality of becoming which exists in Atma in its aspect as Shakti. The Hermetic maxim 212 is given in another form in the Visvasara Tantra: \"What is here is elsewhere. What is not here is nowhere\" (Yadihasti tad anyatra. Yannehasti na tat kvacit). Similarly the northern Shaiva Shastra says that what appears without only so appears because it exists within. One can only take out of a receptacle what is first assumed to be within it. What is in us must in some form be in our cause. If we are living, though finite forms, it is because that cause is infi nite Being. If we have knowledge, though limited, it is because our essential substance is Cit the Illuminator. If we have bliss, though united with sorrow, it is because It is Supreme Bliss. In short, our experience must exist in germ in it. This is becau se in the Sakta Agama, there is for the worshipper a real creation and, therefore, a real nexus between the Brahman as cause and the world as effect. According to the transcendent method of Shamkara, there is not in the absolute sense any such nexus. The n otion of creation by Brahman is as much Maya as the notion of the world created. Applying these principles we find in our dual experience an \"I\" (Aham) or subject which experiences an object a \"This\" (Idam): that is the universe or any particular object of the collectively which composes it. Now it is said that the duality of \"I\" and \"This\" comes from the One which is in its essential nature (Svarupa) an unitary experience without such conscious distinction. For Vedanta, whether in its Mayavada or Sakta form, agrees in holding that in the Supreme there is no consciousness of objects such as exists on this plane. The Supreme does not see objects outside Itself, for it is the whole and the experience of the whole as Ishvara. It sees all that is as Itself. It is Purna or the Whole. How then, it may be asked, can a supreme, unchanging, partless, formless, Consciousness produce from Itself something which is so different from Itself, something which is changing, with parts, form and so forth. Shamkara's answer is that transcendentally, it does not produce anything. The notion that it does so is Maya. What then is his Maya? This I have more fully explained in my papers on \"Maya -Shakti\" and on \"Maya and Shakti\". I will only here say that his Maya is an unexplainable (anirvacaniya) principle of unconsciousness which is not real, not unreal, and partly either; which is an eternal falsity (Mithyabhuta sanatani), which, though not Brahman, is inseparably associated with It in Its aspect as Ishvara; which Maya has Brahman for its support (Maya Brahmashrita); from which support 213 it draws appearance of separate independent reality which in truth it does not possess. The Parabrahman aspect of the One is not associated with Maya. According to the Sakta exposition of Advaitavada, Maya is not an unconscious (jada) principle but a particular Shakti of Brahman. Being Shakti, it is at base consciousness, but as Maya -Shakti it is Consciousness veiling Itself. Shakti and Shaktiman are one and the same: that is, Power and its Possessor ( Shaktiman). Therefore Maya- Shakti is Shiva or Cit in that particular aspect which He assumes as the material cause (Upadanakarana) in creation. Creation is real; that is, there is a direct causal nexus between Shiva as Shakti (Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti) and the universe. In short Shiva as Shakti is the cause of the universe, and as Shakti, in the form of Jiva (all manifested forms, He actually evolves. Comparing these two views; -- Shamkara says that there is in absolute truth no creation and therefore there can be no question how it arose. This is because he views the problem from the transcendental (Paramarthika) standpoint of self -realization or Siddhi. The Sakta Shastra, on the other hand, being a practical Sadhana Shastra views the matter from our, that is the Jiva, standpoint. To us the universe and ourselves are real. And Ishvara the Creator is real. Therefore there is a creation, and Shiva as Shakti creates by evolving into the Universe, and then appearing as all Jivas. This is the old Upanishadic doctrine of the spider actually evolving the web from itself, the web being its substance in that form. A flower cannot be raised from seed unless the flower was in some way already there. Therefore as there is an \"Aham\" and \"Idam\" in our experience, in some way it is in the supreme experience of Parashiva or Parasamvit. But the Idam or Universe is not there as with us; otherwise It would be Jiva. Therefore it is said that there are two principles or aspects in the Brahman, namely, that Prakasha or Cit aspect, and Vimarsha Shakti, the potential Idam, which in creation explicates into the Universe. But in the supreme experience or Amarsha, Vimarsha Shakti (which has two states) is in Its supreme form. The subtler state is in the form of consciousness (Cidrupini ); the gross state is in the form of the Universe (Vishvarupini). The former is beyond the universe (Vishvottirna). But if Vimarsha Shakti is there in the form of consciousness (Cidrupini), it is one with Cit. Therefore it is said that the Aham and Idam, w ithout ceasing to be in the supreme experience, 214 are in supreme Shiva in undistinguishable union as Cit and Cidrupini. This is the Nirguna state of Shivashakti. As She is then in undistinguishable union with Shiva, She is then also simple unmanifested Cit. She is then Caitanya - rupa or Cidrupini: a subtle Sanskrit expression which denotes that She is the same as Cit and yet suggests that though in a present sense She is one with Him, She is yet in a sense (with reference to Her potentiality of future manifest ation) different from Him. She is Sacchidanandamayi and He is Sacchidananda. She is then the unmanifested universe in the form of undifferentiated Cit. The mutual relation, whether in manifestation or beyond it, whether as the imperfect or Ideal universe, is one of inseparable connection or inherence (Avinabhava -sambandha, Samanvaya) such as that between \"I -ness\" (Ahanta) and \"I\" (Aham), existence and that which exists (Bhava, Bhavat), an attribute and that in which it inheres (Dharma, Dharmin), sunshine and the sun and so forth. The Pacaratra School of the Vaishnava Agama or Tantra, speaking of the Mahashakti Lakshmi says, that in Her supreme state She is undistinguishable from the \"Windless Atmosphere\" (Vasudeva) existing only as it were in the form of \"darkness\" and \"emptiness\" (that is of unmanifested formlessness). So the Mahanirvana Tantra speaks of Her \"dark formlessness\". In the Kulacudamani Nigama, Devi says (I. 16 -24) -- \"I, though in the form of Prakriti, rest in consciousness -bliss' (Aham prakritirupa cet cidanandaparayana). Raghava Bhatta in his commentary on the Sharada Tilaka (Ch. I) says, \"She who is eternal existed in a subtle (that is unmanifested) state, as consciousness, during the final dissolution\" (Ya anadirupa caitanyadhyasena mahapralaye sukshma sthita). It would be simpler to say that She is then what She is (Svarupa) namely Consciousness, but in creation that consciousness veils itself. These terms \"formless,\" \"subtle,\" \"dark,\" \"empty,\" all denote the same unmanifested state in which Shakti is in undistinguishable union with Shiva, the formless consciousness. The Pacaratra (Ahirbudhnya Samhita, Ch. IV), in manner similar to that of the other Agamas, describes the supreme state of Shakti in the dissolution of the Universe as one in which manifested Shakti \"returns to the condition of Brahman\" (Brahmabhavam brajate). \"Owing to complete intensity of embrace\" (Atisankleshat) the two all- pervading ones, Narayana and His Shakti, become as it were a single principle (Ekam tattvam iva). This return to the Brahman condition is said to take place in the same way as a 215 conflagration, when there is no more combustible matter, returns to the latent condition of fire (Vahni -bhava). There is the same fire in both cases but in one case there is the activity of combustion and in the other there is not. It follows from this that the Supreme Brahman is not a mere knowing with out trace of objectivity. In It the Aham is the Self as Cit and the Idam is provided by Cidrupini -shakti. There is Atmarama or play of the Self with the Self in which the Self knows and enjoys the Self, not in the form of external objects, but as that aspect of consciousness whose projection all objects are. Shakti is always the object of the Self and one with it. For the object is always the Self, since there is nothing but the Self. But in the supreme experience the object is one in nature with Shiva being Caitanya -rupa; in the universe the object seems to the Jiva, the creation of and subject to Maya, to be different from the Self as mind and matter. The next point is the nature of creation or rather emanation (Abhasa) for the former term is associated with dualistic notions of an extra -Cosmic God, who produces a world which is as separate from Himself as is the pot from the potter. According to this doctrine there is an Evolution of Consciousness or Cit -Shakti (associated with Maya- Shakti) into certain forms. This is not to say that the Brahman is wholly transformed into its emanations, that is exhausted by them. The Brahman is infinite and can never, therefore, be wholly held in this sense in any form, or in the universe as a whole. It always transcends the universe. Therefore when Consciousness evolves, it nevertheless does not cease to be what it was, is, and will be. The Supreme Cit becomes as Shakti the universe but still remains supreme Cit. In the same way every stage of the emanation -process prior to the real evolution (Parinama of Prakriti) remains what it is, whilst giving birth to a new Evolution. In Parinama or Evolution as known to us on this plane, when one thing is evolved into another, it ceases to be what it was. Thus when milk is changed into curd, it ceases to be milk. The Evolution from Shiva -Shakti of the Pure Tattvas is not of this kind. It is an Abhasa or \"shining forth,\" adopting the simile of the sun which shines without (it was supposed) change in, or diminution of, its light. This unaffectedness in spite of its being the material cause is called in the Pacaratra by the term Virya, a condition which, the Vaishnava Lakshmi Tantra says, is not found in the world \"where milk quickly loses its nature when curds appear.\" It is a process in which one 216 flame springs from another flame. Hence it is called \"Flame to Flame\". There is a second Flame but the first from which it comes is unexhausted and still there. The cause remains what it was and yet appears differently in the effect. God is never \"emptied\" as it is said wholly into the world. Brahman is ever changeless in one aspect; in another It changes, such change being as it were a mere point of stress in the infinite Ether of Cit. This Abhasa, therefore, is a form of Vivartta, distinguishable however from the Vivartta of Mayavada, because in the Agama, whether Vaishnava, or Shakta, the effect is regarded as real, whereas according to Shamkara, it is only empirically so. Hence the latter system is called Sat -karanavada or the doctrine of the reality of the original source or basis of things, and not also of the apparent effects of the cause. This Abhasa has been called Sadrisha Parinama (See Introduction to Principles of Tantra, Part II), a term borrowed from the Samkhya but which is not altogether appropriate. In the latter Philosophy, the term is used in connection with the state of the Gunas of Prakriti in dissolution when nothing is produced. Here on the contrary we are dealing with creation and an evolving Power -Consciousness. It is only appropriate to this extent that, as in Shadrisa Parinama there is no real evolution or objectivity, so also there is none in the evo lution of the Tattvas until Maya intervenes and Prakriti really evolves the objective universe. This being the nature of the Supreme Shiva and of the evolution of consciousness, this doctrine assumes, with all others,. a transcendent and a creative or imma nent aspect of Brahman. The first is Nishkala Shiva; the second Sakala Shiva; or Nirguna Saguna; Parama, Apara (in Shamkara's parlance); Paramatma, Ishvara; and Paramabrahman, Shabdabrahman. From the second or changing aspect the universe is born. Birth means 'manifestation'. Manifestation to what'? The answer is to consciousness. But there is nothing but Cit. Creation is then the evolution whereby the changeless Cit through the power of its Maya -Shakti appears to Itself in the form of limited objects. All is Shiva whether as subject or object. This evolution of consciousness is described in the scheme of the Thirty -six Tattvas. Shamkara and Samkhya speak of the 24 Tattvas from Prakriti to Prithivi. Both Shaivas and Shaktas speak of the Thirty -six Tattvas, s howing, by the 217 extra number of Tattvas, how Purusha and Prakriti themselves originated. The northern or Advaita Shaiva Agama and the Sakta Agama are allied, though all Shaiva Scriptures adopt the same Tattvas. In all the Agamas whether Vaishnava, Shaiva, or Shakta, there are points of doctrine which are the same or similar. The Vaishnava Pacaratra, however, moves in a different sphere of thought. It speaks in lieu of the Abhasa here described of four Vyuha or forms of Narayana, viz., Vasudeva, Samkarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The Thirty -six Tattvas are the 24 from Prithivi to Prakriti together with (proceeding upwards) Purusha, Maya and the five Kacukas (Kala, Kala, Niyati, Vidya, Raga), Shuddhavidya (or Sad- vidya), Shakti, Shiva. These are divided into three groups named Shiva Tattva, Vidya Tattva, Atma Tattva, and Shuddha, Shuddhashuddha, Ashuddha Tattvas. The Shuddha or Pure Tattvas are all the Tattvas from Shiva -Shakti Tattvas to and including Sadvidya Tattva. The Pure -Impure or Mixed (Shuddha -ashu ddha) Tattvas are those between the first and third group which are the Impure Tattvas (Ashuddha Tattva) of the world of duality, namely, the 24 Tattvas from Prakriti to Prithivi. The other group of three is as follows: Shiva Tattva includes Shiva Tattva and Shakti Tattva, Vidya Tattva includes all Tattvas from Sadashiva to Sadvidya, and Atma Tattva includes all Tattvas from Maya and the Kacukas to Prithivi. The particular description here of the 36 Tattvas, held by both Shaivas and Shaktas, is taken from the northern Shaiva Kashmir philosophical school, itself based on the older Agamas such as Malinivijaya Tantra and others. It is common doctrine of Advaitavada that the One is of dual aspect; the first static (Shiva) and the other kinetic (Shakti). This doctrine of aspects is a device whereby it is sought to reconcile the fact that there is changelessness and change. Philosophically it is an evasion of the problem and not a solution. The solution is to be found in revelation (Veda) and in direct Spiritual E xperience (Samadhi). These states vary in different men and in different races and creeds. But in support of Advaitavada, reliance may be placed on the fact that Samadhi or ecstasy, in all parts of the world and in all faiths, tends towards some kind of unity, more or less complete. All seek union with God. But the dispute is as to the nature of that union. Pure Advaitavada is complete identity. The scheme now outlined shows how that unitary experience, without ceasing to be what it is, assumes limited forms. 218 [The reader is referred to the Diagram on the following page] Parasamvit shown on top of the Diagram is Nishkala Shiva or the changeless Brahman aspect; and Shiva -Shakti below is the aspect of the supreme Brahman from which change comes and which appear s as its products or changing forms. Both are Shiva -Shakti. When, however, Shiva is kinetic, He is called Shakti. Regarding the matter from the Shakti aspect both are Shakti. Neither ever exists without the other, though Shakti is in one aspect Cidrupini, and in the other in the form of the Universe (Vishvarupini). In themselves and throughout they are one. The divergence takes place in consciousness, after it has been subjected to the operation of Maya, the effect of which is to polarize consciousness into an apparently separate \"I\" and \"This\". Parasamvit is not accounted a Tattva, for It is beyond all Tattvas (Tattvatita). Shiva Tattva and Shakti Tattva are counted separately, though Shakti Tattva is merely the negative aspect of Shiva Tattva. Shiva Tattva and Shakti Tattva are not produced. They thus are, even in dissolution. They are Saguna -Brahman; and Parasamvit is the Nirguna -Brahman. The first evolved Tattva is Sadashiva of Sadakhya Tattva of which the meaning is Sat akhya yatah, or that state in which there is the first notion of Being; for here is the first incipiency of the world- experience as the notion \"I am this\" which ultimately becomes a separate \"I\" and \"This\". In my Garland of Letters I have with more technical detail described the evolution of Jiva -consciousness. Here I will only shortly summarize the process. As already stated, the Aham and Idam exist in an unitary state which is indescribable in Parasamvit. Shakti Tattva is called negative because negation is the function of Shakti (Nishedha- vyapara -rupa Shaktih). Negation of what P The answer is negation of consciousness. The universe is thus a product of negation. Where there is pure experience there is no manifested universe. Shakti negates the pure experience or consciousness to the extent, that it appears to itself limited. Shakti disengages the unified elements (Aham and Idam) which are latent in the Supreme Experience as an undistinguishable unity. How? The answer is one of great subtlety. Of the Shiva -Shakti Tattvas, Shiva represents the Prakasha and Shakti the Vimarsha aspect, which contains potentially within it, the seed of the Universe to be. The result is that the Prakasha aspect is left standing alone. 219 The Shiva Tattva is Prakasha -matra, that is, to use the imagery of our plane, an \"I\" without a \"This\". This is a state in which the unitary consciousness is broken up to this extent, that it is no longer a Perfect Experience in which the Aham and Idam exist in undistinguishable union, but there is one Supreme Aham Consciousness only, which is the root of all limited subjectivity To this Aham or Shiva Tattva, Shakti gradually unveils Herself as the Idam or Vimarsha aspect of consciousness. The result is that from Shiva and Shakti (in which the latter takes the playful part) there is evolved the first produced consciousness called Sadakhya Tattva. There is then an Aham and Idam aspect of experience. But that experience is not like the Jiva's, which arises at a later stage after the intervention of Maya- Shakti. In the Jiva consciousness (Jivatma) the object (Idam) is seen as something outside and different from itself. In Sadakhya Tattva and all the subsequent pure Tattvas, that is Ishvara Tattva and Shuddhavidya Tattva, the \"This\" is experienced as part of the Self and not as separate from it. There is (as will appear from the Diagram) no outer and inner. The circle which represents the one Consciousness is. divided into \"I\" and \"This\" which are yet parts of the same figure. The \"This\" is at first only by degree and hazily (Dhyamala prayam) presented to the Aham like a picture just forming itself (Unmilitamatra- citrakalpam). For this reason it is said that there is emphasis on the Aham which is indicated in the Diagram by the arrow -head. This is called the \"Nimesha\" or \"closing of the eyes\" of Shakti. It is so called because it is the last stage in dissolution before all effects are withdrawn into their first cause. Being the last stage in dissolution it is the first in creation. Then the Idam side becomes clear in the next evolved Ishvara Tattva in which the emphasis is therefore said to be on the \"This\" which the Aham subjectifies. This is the \"Unmesha\" or \"opening of the eyes\" state of Shakti; for this is the state of consciousness when it is first fully equipped to create and does so. The result again of this is the evolved consciousness called Shuddhavidya Tattva in which the emphasis is equal on the \"I\" and \"This\". Consciousness is now in the state in which the two halves of experience are ready to be broken up and experienced separately. It is at this state that Maya -Shakti intervenes and does so through its power and the Kacukas which are forms of it. Maya -Shakti is thus defined as the sense of difference (Bhedabuddhi); that is the power by which things are seen as 220 different from the Self in the dual manifested world. The Kacukas which are evolved from, and are particular forms of, the operation of Maya are limitations of the natural perfections of the Supreme Consciousness. These are Kala which produces division (Pariccheda) in the partless and unlimited; Niyati which affects independence (Svatantrata); Raga which produces interest in, and then attachment to, objects in that which wanted nothing (Purna); Vidya which makes the Purusha a \"little knower\" in lieu of being all - knower (Sarv a-jata) and Kala which makes Purusha a \"little doer,\" whereas the Supreme was in its Kartrittva or power action of almighty. The result of Maya and its offshoots which are the Kacukas is the production of the Purusha and Prakriti Tattvas. At this stage t he Aham and Idam are completely severed. Each consciousness regards itself as a separate 'I' looking upon the \"This\" whether its own body or that of others as outside its consciousness. Each Purusha (and they are numberless) is mutually exclusive the one o f the other. Prakriti is the collectivity of all Shaktis in contracted (Sankucadrupa) undifferentiated form. She is Feeling in the form of the undifferentiated mass of Buddhi and the rest and of the three Gunas in equilibrium. The Purusha or Self experiences Her as object. Then on the disturbance of the Gunas in Prakriti the latter evolves the Vikritis of mind and matter. The Purusha at this stage has experience of the multiple world of the twenty -four impure Tattvas. Thus from the supreme \"I\" (Parahanta) which is the creative Shiva -Shakti aspect of Parasamvit which changelessly endures as Sacchidananda, Consciousness experiences Itself as object (Sadakhya, Ishvara, Sadvidya Tattvas) and then through Maya and the limitations or contractions which are the Ka cukas or Samkocas it loses the knowledge that it is itself its own object. It sees the separate \"other\"; and the one Consciousness becomes the limited experiencers which are the multiple selves and their objects of the dual universe. Shakti who in Herself (Svarupa) is Feeling -Consciousness (Cidrupini) becomes more and more gross until physical energy assumes the form and becomes embedded in the \"crust\" of matter vitalized by Herself as the Life -Principle of all things. Throughout all forms it is the same Shakti who 221 works and appears as Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti, the Spirit and Matter aspect of the Power of the Self -Illumining Pure Super -Consciousness or Cit. 222 CHAPTER FIFTEEN . MAYA-SHAKTI (THE PSYCHO - PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE UNIVERSE ) Spirit, Mind and Matter are ultimately one, the two latter being the twin aspects of the Fundamental Substance or Brahman and Its Power or Shakti. Spirit is the substance of mind -matter, the Reality (in the sense of the lasting changelessness) out of which, by Its Power, all Appearance is fashioned not by the individual mind and senses but by the cosmic mind and senses of which they are but a part. What It creates It perceives. In the last chapter I dealt with the Spirit or Consciou sness (Cit) aspect: in this I consider the mind -matter aspect in which Consciousness veils itself in apparent unconsciousness. These twin principles are called Purusha, Brahman, Shiva on the one hand and Prakriti, Maya, and Maya -Shakti on the other by the Samkhya Mayavada Vedanta and Shaktivada of the Shakta Agama respectively. The latter Shastra, however, alone treats them as aspects of the one Substance in the manner here described and thus most aptly in this respect accommodates itself to the doctrine of Western scientific monism. So, Professor Haeckel points out in conformity with Shakta Advaitavada that Spirit and Matter are not two distinct entities but two forms or aspects of one single Entity or fundamental Substance. According to him, the One Entity with dual aspect is the sole Reality which presents itself to view as the infinitely varied and wondrous picture of the universe. Whatever be the case transcendentally in what the Buddhist Tantra aptly calls \"The Void\" (Shunyata. In Tibetan sTongpa -nyid) which is not \"nothing\" as some have supposed, but That which is like nothing known to us; the ultimate formless (Arupa) Reality as contrasted with appearance (sNang -va-dang) or form (Rupa) of which the Prajaparamita- hridaya -garbha says only \"neti neti\" ca n be affirmed, -- in this universe immaterial Spirit is just as unthinkable as spiritless matter. The two are inseparately combined in every atom which, itself and its forces, possess the elements of vitality, growth and intelligence in all their developments. In the four Atmas which are contemplated in the Citkunda in the Muladhara Cakra, Atma pranarupi represents the vital aspect, Janatma the Intelligence aspect, and Antaratma is that spark of the 223 Paramatma which inheres in all bodies, and which when spread (Vyapta) appears as the Bhuta or five forms of sensible matter which go to the making of the gross body. These are all aspects of the one Paramatma (Janarnava Tantra, Ch. XXI, Vv. 1 -- 9). The Vedanta recognizes four states of experience, Jagrat, Svapn a, Sushupti and Turiya. These, as my friend Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyopadhyaya has, in his radical clear -thinking way, pointed out, may be regarded from two stand- points. We may, with Shamkara, from the standpoint of Siddhi alone, regard the last only, that is transcendental or pure experience (Nirvishesha - jana), as the real Fact or Experience: or we may, with the Shakta Agama, looking at the matter from the standpoint of both Sadhana (that is practical experience) and Siddhi (or transcendental experience), regard not only the supreme experience as alone real, but the whole of experience without any reservation whatever -- the whole concrete Fact of Being and Becoming -- and call it the Real. This is the view of the Shaiva -Shakta who says that the world is Shiva's Experience and Shiva's Experience can never be unreal. The question turns upon the definition of \"Real\". Shamkara's conception of that term is that, That to which it is applied must be absolutely changeless in all the \"three times\". It is That which absolutely continues through and underlies all the changes of experience; being that which is given in all the four states, Jagrat and the rest. It is That which can never be contradicted (Vadhita) in all the three tenses of time and the four states of Experience. This is the Ether of Consciousness (Cidakasha) and none of Its modes. Our ordinary experience, it is claimed, as well as Supreme non- polar Nirvikalpa Samadhi proves this unchanging aspect of the ultimate Substance, as the changeless principle of all our modes of changing experience, which according to this definition are unreal. Thus Shamkara's Real = Being = Sat - Cit-Ananda: Unreal = Becoming = Vivartta = Jagat -Prapaca or universe. According to this view, there are three levels or planes of being (Satta), namely transcendental (Paramarthika), empirical (Vyavaharika) and illusory (Pratibhasika). The Real (Satya) is that which is given in all the three planes (Paramarthika Satya): the empirical (Vyavaharika Satya) is that which is given in the second and third planes but not in the first. It is worldly or dual experience, and not undual experience of Samadhi or Videha -Mukti which latter, however, underlies all states of experience, being the Ether of 224 Consciousness Itself. The last (Pratibhasika Satya) is given or obtains only in the last plane, being only such reality as can be attributed to illusion such as \"the rope -snake\". A higher plane contradicts a lower: the third is contradicted by the second, the second by the first, and the first by not hing at all. Thus there is a process of gradual elimination from changing to changeless consciousness. Real change or Parinama is said by the Vedanta Paribhasha to exist when the effect or phenomenon and its ground (Upadana or material cause) belong to the same level or plane of existence; as in the case of clay and pot, milk and curd, which both belong to the Vyavaharika plane; milk being the Upadana and curd the effect or change appertaining it (Parinamo hi upadana -sama -sattaka -karya pattih). When, howeve r, the effect's level of existence is different from (Vishama) and therefore cannot be equaled to that of its material cause or Upadana; when, for instance, one belongs to the Vyavaharika experience and the other to the Pratibhasika, there is Nivartta (Viv artto hi upadana- vishama -sattaka - karyapattih). Thus, in the case of the \"rope -snake,\" the Satta of the rope is Vyavaharika, whilst that of the Rajju -sarpa is only Pratibhasika. For the same reason, the rope, and the whole Jagat -prapaca (universe) for the matter of that, is a Vivartta in relation to the Supreme Experience of pure Cit. On its own plane or level of Satta, every phenomenon may be a Parinama, but in relation to a higher level by which it becomes Vadhita, it is only a Vivartta. The Shakta Agama differs in its presentment as follows. The Fact or Concrete Experience presents two aspects -- what professor Mukhyopadhyaya has aptly called in his work the \"Patent Wonder\" -- the Ether and the Stress -- the quiescent background of Cit and the sprouting and evolving Shakti. Agama takes this whole (Shiva -Shakti) embracing all the aspects as its real. If one aspect be taken apart from the others, we are landed in the unreal. Therefore, in the Shakta Agama, all is real; whether the transcendent real of' Shamkara (Turiya), or the empirical real waking (Jagrat, dreaming (Svapna) or dreamless sleep (Sushupti). If it is conceded that Real = Changelessness, then the last three states are not real. But this definition of Reality is not adopted. It is again conceded that the Supreme Substance (Paravastu) is alone real, in the sense of changeless, for the worlds come and go. But the Agama says with the Samkhya, that a thing is not unreal because it changes. The Substance has two aspects, in one of 225 which It is changeless, and in the other of which It changes. It is the same Substance in both its Prakasha and Vimarsha aspects. Shamkara limits Reality to the Prakasha aspect alone. Agama extends it to both Prakasha and Vimarsha; for these are aspects of the one. As explaine d later, this divergence of views turns upon the definition of Maya given by Shamkara, and of Maya- Shakti given by the Agama. The Maya of Shamkara is a mysterious Shakti of Ishvara, by which Vivartta is sought to be explained and which has two manifestations, viz., Veiling (Avarana) and moving, changing and projecting (Vikshepa) power. Ishvara is Brahman reflected in Maya; a mystery which is separate, and yet not separate, from Brahman in Its Ishvara aspect. The Shakta Maya -Shakti is an aspect of Shiva or Brahman Itself. Starting from these premises we must assume a real nexus between the universe and its ultimate cause. The creation is real, and not Maya in Shamkara's sense of Maya, but is the operation of and is Shakti Herself. The cause being thus real, the effect or universe is real though it changes and passes away. Even when it is dissolved, it is merged in Shakti who is real; withdrawn into Her as the Samkhyan tortoise or Prakriti withdraws its limbs (Vikriti) into itself. The universe either is as unmanifested Shakti, which is the perfect formless universe of Bliss, or exists as manifested Shakti, the limited and imperfect worlds of form. The assumption of such nexus necessarily involves that what is in the effect is in the cause potentially. Of course , the follower of Shamkara will say that if creation is the becoming patent or actual of what is latent or potential in Shiva, then Shiva is not really Nishkala. A truly Nirajana Brahman cannot admit potential differentiation within Itself (Svagata -bheda. ) Again, potentiality is unmeaning in relation to the absolute and infinite Being, for it pertains to relation and finite existence. If it is suggested that Brahman passes from one condition in which Maya lies as a seed in it, to another in which Maya manifests Herself, we are involved in the doctrine of an Absolute in the making. It is illogical to affirm that whilst Brahman in one aspect does not change, It in another aspect, that is as Shakti, does truly change. All such objections have alogical foundation and it is for this reason that Shamkara says that all change (Srishti, Sthiti, Laya) are only apparent, being but a Kalpana or imagination. 226 But an answer is given to these objections. The Shakta will say that the one Brahman Shiva has two aspects in one of which, as Shakti, It changes and in the other of which, as Shiva, It does not. Reality is constituted of both these aspects. It is true that the doctrine of aspects does not solve the problem. Creation is ultimately inscrutable. It is, however, he urges, better to hold both the reality of the Brahman and the world leaving spiritual experience to synthesize them, than to neglect one at the cost of the other. For this, it is argued, is what Shamkara does. His solution is obtained at the cost of a denial of true reality to the world which all our worldly experience affirms; and this solution is supported by the illogical statement that Maya is not real and is yet not unreal, not partly real and partly unreal. This also, flies in the face of the logical principle of contradiction. Both theories, therefore, it may be said in different ways, run counter to logic. All theories ultimately do. The matter is admittedly alogical, that is beyond logic, for it is beyond the mind and its logical forms of thinking. Practically, therefore, it is said to be better to base our theory on our experience of the reality of the world, frankly leaving it to spiritual experience to solve a problem for which all logic, owing to the very constitution of the mind, fails. The ultimate proof of authority is Spiritual Experience either recorded in Veda or realized in Samadhi. As I have already said in my chapter on the spirit- aspect of the One Substance, all occultism, whether of East or West, posits the principle that there is nothing i n any one state or plane which is not in some way, actual or potential, in another state or plane. The Western Hermetic maxim, \"as above so below,\" is stated in the Visvasara Tantra in the form, \"what is here is there. What is not here is nowhere\" (Yad iha sti tad anyatra yan nehasti na tat kvacit); and in the northern Shaiva Scripture in the form, \"that which appears without only so appears because it exists within\", \"Vartamanava- bhasanam bhavanam avabhasanam antahsthitavatam eva ghatate bahiratmana\". For these reasons man is rightly called a microcosm (Kshudrabrahmanda; hominem quasi minorem quendam mundum. Firm. Maternus Math. III init.) So Caraka says that the course of production, growth, decay and destruction of the universe and of man are the same. But these statements do not mean that what exists on one plane exists in that form or way on another plane. It is obvious that if it did, the planes would be the same and not different. It means that the same thing exists on one plane 227 and on all other levels of being or planes, according either to the form of that plane, if it be what is called an intermediate causal body (Karanavantara- sharira) or ultimately as mere formless potentiality. According to Shamkara all such argument is itself Maya. And it may be so to those who have realized true consciousness (Citsvarupa) which is beyond all causality. The Tantra Shastra is, however, a practical and Sadhana Shastra. It takes the world to be real and then applies, so far as it may, to the question of its origin, th e logic of the mind which forms a part of it. It says that it is true that there is a Supreme or Perfect Experience which is beyond all worlds (Shakti Vishvottirna), but there is also a worldly or (relatively to the Supreme) imperfect (in the sense of limi ted) and partly sorrowful experience. Because the one exists, it does not follow that the other does not: though mere logic cannot construct an unassailable monism. It is the one Shiva who is Bliss itself, and who is in the form of the world (Vishvatmaka) which is Happiness -Unhappiness. Shiva is both changeless as Shiva and changeful as Shakti. How the One can be both is a mystery. To say, however, with Shamkara that it is Maya, and in truth Brahman does not change, is not to explain, in an ultimate sense, the problem but to eliminate some other possible cause and to give to what remains a name. Maya by itself does not explain the ultimate. What can? It is only a term which is given to the wondrous power of the Creatrix by which what seems impossible to us b ecomes possible to Her. This is recognized as it must be, by Shamkara who says that Maya is unexplainable (Anirvacaniya) as of course it is. To \"explain\" the Creator, one would have to be Creator Himself and then in such case there would be no need of any explanation. Looking, however, at the matter from our own practical standpoint, which is that which concerns us, we are drawn by the fore- going considerations to the conclusion that, what we call \"matter,\" is, in some form, in the cause which according to the doctrine here described, produces it. But matter as experienced by us is not there; for the Supreme is Spirit only. And yet in some sense it is there, or it would not be here at all. It is there as the Supreme Shakti which is Being - Consciousness -Bliss (Cidrupini, Anandamayi) who contains within Herself the potentiality of all worlds to be projected by Her Shakti. It is there as unmanifested Consciousness Power (Cidrupini Shakti). It here exists as the mixed conscious -unconsciousness (in the sense of the limited 228 consciousness) of the psychical and material universe. If the ultimate Reality be one, there is thus one Almighty Substance which is both Spirit (Shiva - Shakti Svarupa) and force -mind -matter (Shiva -Shakti- Vishvatmaka). Spirit and Mind- Matter are th us in the end one. This ultimate Supreme Substance (Paravastu) is Power or Shakti, which is again, of dual aspect as Cit -Shakti which represents the spiritual, and Maya - Shakti which represents the material and mental aspects. The two, however, exist in ins eparable connection (Avinabhava -sambandha); as inseparable to use a simile of the Shastra as the winds of heaven from the Ether in which they blow. Shakti, who is in Herself (Svarupa) Consciousness, appears as the Life- force, as subtle Mind, and as gross M atter. See sections in my World as Power dealing in detail with Life (Prana- Shakti), Mind (Manasi -Shakti) and Matter (Bhuta -Shakti). As all is Shakti and as Shakti -svarupa is Being - Consciousness -Bliss, there is, and can be, nothing absolutely unconscious. For Shakti -svarupa is unchanging Being- Consciousness beyond all worlds (Cidrupini Vishvottirna), the unchanging principle of experience in such worlds; and appears as the limited psychical universe and as the apparently unconscious material forms which are the content of man's Experience (Vishvatmika). The whole universe is Shakti under various forms. Therefore it is seen as commingled Spirit-Mind -Matter. According to Shaiva -Shakta doctrine, Shiva and Shakti are one. Shiva represents the static aspect of the Supreme substance, and Shakti its kinetic aspect: the term being derived from the root \"Sak\" which denotes capacity of action or power. According to Shamkara, Brahman has two aspects, in one of which as Ishvara, it is associated with Maya and seems to change, and in the other dissociated from Maya (Parabrahman). In the Agama, the one Shiva is both the changeless Parashiva and Parashakti and really changing Shiva -Shakti or universe. As Shiva is one with Himself, He is never associated with anything but Him self. As, however, the Supreme He is undisplayed (Shiva -Shakti Svarupa) and as Shiva -Shakti He is manifest in the form of the universe of mind and matter (Vishvarupa). Before the manifestation of the universe there was Mahasatta or Grand - being. Then also t here was Shiva -Shakti, for there is no time when Shakti is not; though She is sometimes manifest and sometimes not. Power is Power 229 both to Be and to Become. But then Shakti is not manifest and is in its own true nature (Svarupa); that is, Being, Feeling -Consciousness- Bliss (Cinmayi, Anandamayi). As Shiva is consciousness (Cit) and Bliss or Love (Ananda), She is then simply Bliss and Love. Then when moved to create, the Great Power or Megale Dunamis of the Gnostics issues from the depths of Being and becomes Mind and Matter whilst remaining what She ever was: the Being (Sat) which is the foundation of manifested life and the Spirit which sustains and enlightens it. This primal Power (Adya Shakti), as object of worship, is the Great Mother (Magna -Mater) of all natural things (Natura Naturans) and nature itself (Natura Naturata). In herself (Svarupa) She is not a person in man's sense of the term, but She is ever and incessantly personalizing; assuming the multiple masks (Persona) which are the varied forms of m ind-matter. As therefore manifest, She is all Personalities and as the collectivity thereof the Supreme Person (Parahanta). But in Her own ground from which, clad in form, She emerges and personalizes, She is beyond all form, and therefore beyond all perso nality known to us. She works in and as all things; now greatly veiling Her consciousness -bliss in gross matter, now by gradual stages more fully revealing Herself in the forms of the one universal Life which She is. Let us now first examine Her most gross manifestation, that is, sensible matter (Bhuta), then Her more subtle aspect as the Life- force and Mind, and lastly Her Supreme Shakti aspect as Consciousness. I here deal with the subject in a general way having treated of it in greater detail in the book just now cited (World as Power). The physical human body is composed of certain compounds of which the chief are water, gelatin, fat, phosphate of lime, albumen and fibrin, and, of these, water constitutes some two -thirds of the total weight. These compounds, again, are composed of simpler non -metallic elements of which the chief are oxygen (to the extent of about two -thirds), hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus. So about two-thirds of the body is water and this is H 2O. Substantially then our gross body is water. But when we get to these simpler elements, have we got to the root of the matter P No. It was formerly thought that matter was composed of certain elements beyond which it was not possible to go, and that these elements and their 230 atoms were indestructible. These notions have been reversed by modern science. Though the alleged indestructibility of the elements and their atoms is still said by some to present the character of a \"practical truth,\" well - known recent discoveries and experiments go to re-establish the ancient doctrine of a single primordial substance to which these various forms of matter may be reduced, with the resultant of the possible and hitherto derided transmutation of one element into another; since each is but one of the many plural manifestations of the same underlying unity. The so- called elements are varied forms of this one substance which themselves combine to form the various compounds. The variety of our experience is due to permutation and combination of the atoms of the matter into which the primordial energy materializes. We thus find that owing to the variety of atomic combinations of H N O C there are differences in the compounds. It is curious to note in passing how apparently slight variations in the qu antity and distribution of the atoms produce very varying substances. Thus gluten which is a nutrient food, and quinine and strychnine which are in varying degree poisons, are each compounds of C H N O. Strychnine, a powerful poison, is C 21H22N2O2 and quinine is C 20H24N2O2. N and 0 are the same in both and there is a difference of one part only of C and 2 of H. But neither these compounds nor the so-called elements of which they are composed are permanent things. Scientific matter is now found to be only a relatively stable form of cosmic energy. All matter dissociates and passes into the energy of which it is a materialized form and again it issues from it. Modern Western Science and Philosophy have thus removed many difficulties which were formerly thought to be objections to the ancient Indian doctrine on the subject here dealt with. It has, in the first place. dispelled the gross notions which were hitherto generally entertained as to the nature of \"matter.\" According to the notions of quite recent sc ience, \"matter\" was defined to be that which has mass, weight and inertia. It must be now admitted that the two latter qualities no longer stand the test of examination, since, putting aside our ignorance as to the nature of weight, this quality varies, if we conceive matter to be placed under conditions which admittedly affect it; and the belief in inertia is due to superficial observation, it being now generally conceded that the final elements of matter are in a state of spontaneous and perpetual motion. In fact, the most 231 general phenomenon of the universe is vibration, to which the human body as all else is subject. Various vibrations affect differently each organ of sensation. When of certain quality and number, they denote to the skin the degree of external temperature; others incite the eye to see different colors; others again enable the ear to hear defined sounds. Moreover \"inertia\", which is alleged to be a distinguishing quality of \"matter,\" is said to be the possession of electricity, which is con sidered not to be \"material\". What, then, is that to which we attribute \"mass\" P In the first place, it is now admitted that \"matter,\" even with the addition of all possible forces, is insufficient to explain many phenomena, such as those of light; and it has, accordingly, come to be for some an article of scientific faith that there is a substance called \"Ether\": a medium which, filling the universe, transports by its vibrations the radiations of light, heat, electricity, and perhaps action from a distance , such as the attraction exercised between heavenly bodies. It is said, however, that this Ether is not \"matter,\" but differs profoundly from it, and that it is only our infirmity of knowledge which obliges us, in our attempted descriptions of it, to borrow comparisons from \"matter,\" in its ordinary physical sense, which alone is known by our senses. But if we assume the existence of Ether, we know that \"material\" bodies immersed in it can change their places therein. In fact, to use an Indian expression, t he characteristic property of the vibrations of the Akasha Tattva is to make the space in which the other Tattvas and their derivatives exist. With \"Matter\" and Ether as their materials, Western purely \"scientific\" theories have sought to construct the world. The scientific atom which Du Bois Raymond described as an exceedingly useful fiction -- \"ausserst nutzliche fiction\" -- is no longer considered the ultimate indestructible element, but is held to be, in fact, a kind of miniature solar system, formed by a central group or nucleus charged with positive electricity, around which very much smaller elements, called electrons or corpuscles, charged with negative electricity, gravitate in closed orbits. These vibrate in the etheric medium in which they and the positively charged nucleus exist, constituting by their energy, and not by their mass, the unity of the atom. But what, again, is the constitution of this \"nucleus\" and the electrons revolving around it? There is no scientific certainty that any part of e ither is due to the presence of \"matter\". On the contrary, if a hypothetical corpuscle consisting solely of an electric charge 232 without material mass is made the subject of mathematical analysis, the logical inference is that the electron is free of \"matter\", and is merely an electric charge moving in the Ether; and though the extent of our knowledge regarding the positive nucleus which constitutes the remainder of the atom is small, an eminent mathematician and physicist has expressed the opinion that, if t here is no \"matter\" in the negative charges, the positive charges must also be free from it. Thus, in the words of the author upon whose lucid analysis I have drawn, (Houllevigue's Evolution of Science) the atom has been dematerialized, if one may say so, and with it the molecules and the entire universe. \"Matter\" (in the scientific sense) disappears, and we and all that surround us are physically, according to these views, mere disturbed regions of the ether determined by moving electric charges -- a logical if impressive conclusion, because it is by increasing their knowledge of \"matter\" that physicists have been led to doubt its reality. But the question, as he points out, does not remain there. For if the speculations of Helmholtz be adopted, there is nothing absurd in imaging that two possible directions of rotation of a vortex formed within, and consisting of, ether correspond to the positive and negative electric charges said to be attached to the final elements of matter. If that be so, then the trini ty of matter, ether, and electricity, out of which science has hitherto attempted to construct the world, is reduced to a single element, the ether (which is not scientific \"matter\") in a state of motion, and which is the basis of the physical universe. The old duality of force and matter disappears, these being held to be differing forms of the same thing. Matter is a relatively stable form of energy into which, on disturbance of its equilibrium, it disappears; for all forms of matter dissociate. The ultimate basis is that energy called in Indian philosophy Prakriti, Maya or Shakti. Herbert Spencer, the Philosopher of Modern Science, carries the investigation farther, holding that the universe, whether physical or psychical, whether within or without us, is a play of Force, which, in the case of Matter, we experience as object, and that the notion that the ultimate realities are the supposed atoms of matter, to the properties and combinations of which the complex universe is due, is not true. Mind, Life and Matter are each varying aspects of the one cosmic process from the 233 First Cause. Mind as such is as much a \"material\" organ as the brain and outer sense organs, though they are differing forms of force. Both mind and matter derive from what Herbert Spencer calls the Primal Energy (Adya Shakti), and Haeckel the fundamental Spirit -Matter Substance. Professor Fitz Edward Hall described the Samkhya philosophy as being \"with all its folly and fanaticism little better than a chaotic impertinence\". It has doubtless its weaknesses like all other systems. Wherein, however, consists its \"fanaticism,\" I do not know. As for \"impertinence,\" it is neither more nor less so than any other form of Western endeavor to solve the riddle of life. As regards its leading concept, \"Prakriti,\" the Professor said that it was a notion for which the European languages were unable to supply a name; a failure, he added, which was \"nowise to their discredit\". The implication of this sarcastic statement is that it was not to the discredit of Western languages that they had no name for so foolish a notion. He wrote before the revolution of ideas in science to which I have referred, and with that marked antagonism to things Indian which has been and to some extent still is so common a feature of the more ordinary type of the professional orientalist. The notion of Prakriti is not absurd. The doctrine of a Primordial Substance was held by some of the greatest minds in the past and has support from the most modern developments of Science. Both now concur to reject what the great Sir William Jones called the \"vulgar notion of material substance\" (Opera I. 36). Many people were wont, as some still are, to laugh at the idea of Maya. Was not matter solid, permanent and real enough? But according to science what are we (as physical beings) at base P The answer is, infinitely tenuous formless energy which materializes into relatively stable, yet essentially transitory, forms. According to the apt expression of the Shakta Shastra, Shakti, as She creates, becomes Ghanibhuta, that is, massive or thickened; just as milk becomes curd. The process by which the subtle becomes gradually more and more gross continues until it develops into what has been called the \"crust\" of solid matter (Parthiva bhuta). This whil st it lasts is tangible enough. But it will not last for ever, and in some radio- active substances dissociates before our eyes. Where does it go, according to Shakta doctrine, but to that Mother -Power from whose womb it came; 234 who exists as all forms, gross and subtle, and is the formless Consciousness Itself. The poet's inspiration led Shakespeare to say, \"We are such stuff as dreams are made of.\" It is a wonderful saying from a Vedantic standpoint, for centuries before him Advaitavada had said, \"Yes, dream s; for the Lord is Himself the Great World -dreamer slumbering in causal sleep as Ishvara, dreaming as Hiranyagarbha the universe experienced by Him as the Virat or totality of all Jivas, on waking.\" Scientific revision of the notion of \"matter\" helps the V edantic standpoint, by dispelling gross and vulgar notions upon the subject; by establishing its impermanence in its form as scientific matter; by positing a subtler physical substance which is not ponderable matter; by destroying the old duality of Matter and Force; and by these and other conclusions leading to the acceptance of one Primal Energy or Shakti which transforms itself into that relatively stable state which is perceived by the senses as gross \"matter.\" As, however, science deals with matter onl y objectively, that is, from a dualistic standpoint, it does not (whatever hypotheses any particular scientist may maintain) resolve the essential problem which is stated in the world Maya. That problem is, \"How can the apparent duality be a real unity? How can we bridge the gulf between the object and the Self which perceives it? Into whatever tenuous energy the material world is resolved, we are still left in the region of duality of Spirit, Mind and Matter. The position is not advanced beyond that taken by Samkhya. The answer to the problem stated is that Shakti which is the origin of, and is in, all things has the power to veil Itself so that whilst in truth it is only seeing itself as object, it does not, as the created Jiva, perceive this but takes things to be outside and different from the Self. For this reason Maya is called, in the Shastra, Bhedabuddhi or the sense of difference. This is the natural characteristic of man's experience. Herbert Spencer, the Philosopher of Modern Science, carrying the investigation beyond physical matter, holds, as I have already said, that the universe, whether physical or psychical, whether as mind or matter, is a play of Force; Mind, Life and Matter being each varying aspects of the one cosmic process from the First Cause. This, again, is an Indian notion. For, the affirmation that \"scientific matter\" is an appearance produced by the play of Cosmic Force, and that mind is itself a product of the same play is what both Samkhya and Mayavada Vedanta hold. Both these systems teach that mind, 235 considered in itself, is, like matter, an unconscious thing, and that both it and matter ultimately issue from the same single Principle which the former calls Prakriti and the latter Maya. Consciousness and Unconsciousness are in the universe inseparate, whatever be the degree of manifestation or veiling of Consciousness. For the purpose of analysis, Mind in itself -- that is, considered hypothetically as dissociated from Consciousness, which, in fact, is never the case, (though Consciousness exists apart from the Mind) -- is a force -process like the physical brain. Consciousness (Cit) is not to be identified with mind (Antahkarana) which is the organ of expression of mind. Consciousness is not a mere manifestation of material mind. Consciousness must not be identified with its mental modes; an identification which leads to the difficulties in which western metaphysics has so often found itself. It is the ultimate Reality in which all modes whether subjective or objective exist. The assertion that mind is in itself unconscious may seem a strange statement to a Western reader who, if he does not identify mind and consciousness, at any rate, regards the latter as an attribute or function of mind. The point, however, is of such fundamental importance for the understanding of Indian doctrine that it may be further developed. According to the Lokayata School of Indian Materialism, mind was considered to be the result of the chemical combination of the four forms of material substance, earth, wa ter, fire and air, in organic forms. According to the Purva -Mimamsa and the Nyaya -Vaisheshika, the Self or Atma is in itself and that is by nature (Svabhavatah), unconscious (Jada, Acidrupa): for Atma is said to be unconscious (Acetana) in dreamless sleep (Sushupti); and consciousness arises as a produced thing, by association of the Atma with the mind, senses and body. The reader is referred to Pandit Chandra Kanta Tarkalamkara's Bengali Lectures on Hindu Philosophy. At p. 105 he cites Prabhakara Mimamsaka -carya, saying that Vaisheshika -Nyaya supports the view. Sacetanashcittayogat todyogena vina jadah. \"Atma is conscious by union with knowledge (Jana) which comes to it by association with mind and body. Without it, it is unconscious.\" Atma, according to this Darshana, is that in which (Ashraya) Jana inheres. Kumarila Bhatta says Atma is partly Prakasha and partly Aprakasha, (luminous and non- luminous) like a fire -fly. 236 But this is denied, as Atma is Niramsha (part- less). Knowledge thus arises from the asso ciation of mind (Manas) with Atma, the senses (Indriya) with Manas, and the senses with objects, that, is, worldly (Laukika) knowledge, which is the true -- that is, non- illusive -- apprehension of objects. Jana in the spiritual Vedantic sense of Mayavada is Paramatma, or pure Consciousness realized. The former Jana, in that it arises without effort on the presentation of the objects is not action (Kriya), and differs from the forms of mental action (Manasi Kriya), such as will (Iccha), contemplation and the like. Atma manasa samyujyate, mana indriyena, indriyam arthena, tato bhavati janam. Both these theories are refuted by Samkhya and Advaitavada Vedanta (as interpreted by Shamkara, to which unless otherwise stated I refer) which affirm that the very nature of Atma is Consciousness (Cit), and all else, whether mind or matter, is unconscious, though the former appears not to be so. The Jiva mind is not itself conscious, but reflects consciousness, and therefore appears to be conscious. Consciousness as such is eternal and immutable; Mind is a creation and changeable. Consciousness as such is unconditional. In the mind of the Jiva, Consciousness appears to be conditioned by that Maya - Shakti which produces mind, and of which Shakti, mind is a particular mani festation. Mind, however, is not the resultant of the operation of the Bhuta -- that is, of gross natural forces or motions -- but is, in Samhya and in Shakta monism, an evolution which is logically prior to them. The mode of exposition in which Consciousness is treated as being in itself something apart from, though associated with, mind, is profound; because, while it recognizes the intermingling of Spirit and Matter in the embodied being (Jiva), it yet at the same time clearly distinguishes them. It thus avoids the imputation of change to Spirit (Atma). The latter is ever in Its own true nature immutable. Mind is ever changing, subject to sensations, forming ideas, making resolves, and so forth. Spirit in Itself is neither affected nor acts. Manifold change takes place, through motion and vibration in the unconscious Prakriti and Maya. Mind is one of the results of such motion, as matter is another. Each of them is a form of specific transformation of the one Principle whence unconsciousness, whether real or apparent, arises. That, however, mind appears to be conscious, the Mayavada Vedanta and Samkhya admit. This is called Cidabhasa -- that is, the appearance of 237 something as Cit (Consciousness) which is not really Cit. This appearance of Consciousness is due to the reflection of Cit upon it. A piece of polished steel which lies in the sunshine may appear to be self -luminous, when it is merely reflecting the sun, which is the source of the light it appears to give out. Cit as such is immutable and never evol ves. What do evolve are the various forms of natural forces produced by Prakriti or Maya. These two are, however, conceived as being in association in such a way that the result of such association is produced without Cit being really affected at all. The classical illustration of the mode and effect of such association is given in the Samkhyan aphorism, \"Just like the jewel and the flower\" -- Kusumavacca manih (Samkhya- Pravacana- Sutra, II, 35) -- that is, when a scarlet hibiscus flower is placed in contigu ity to a crystal, the latter appears to be red, though it still in fact retains its pure transparency, as is seen when the flower is removed. On the other hand, the flower as reflected in the crystal takes on a shining, transparent aspect which its opaque surface does not really possess. In the same way Consciousness appears to be conditioned by the force of unconsciousness in the Jiva, but is really not so. \"Changeless Cit - Shakti does not move towards anything, yet seems to do so\" (Samkhya - pravacana -Sutra) . And, on the other hand, Mind as one of such unconscious forces takes on the semblance of Consciousness, though this is borrowed from Cit and is not its own natural quality. This association of Unconscious Force with Consciousness has a two -fold result, b oth obscuring and revealing. It obscures, in so far as, and so long as it is in operation, it prevents the realization of pure Consciousness (Cit). When mind is absorbed pure Consciousness shines forth. In this sense, this Power or Maya is spoken of as a Veil. In another sense, it reveals -- that is, it manifests -- the world, which does not exist except through the instrumentality of Maya which the world is. Prakriti and Maya produce both Mind and Matter; on the former of which Consciousness is reflected (Cidabhasa). The human mind, then, appears to be conscious, but of its own nature and inherent quality is not so. The objective world of matter is, or appears to be, an unconscious reality. These alternatives are necessary, because, in Samkhya, unconsciousn ess is a reality; in Vedanta, an appearance. In the Shakta Tantra, apparent unconsciousness is an aspect (Avidya Shakti) of Conscious Shakti. 238 Consciousness is according to Advaita Vedanta, the true existence of both, illumining the one, hidden in the other . The internal instrument (Antahkarana) or Mind is one only, but is given different names -- Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas -- to denote the diversity of its functions. From the second of these issue the senses (Indriya) and their objects, the sensibles (Mahabhuta), or gross matter with the super-sensibles (Tanmatra) as its intermediate cause. All these proceed from Prakriti and Maya. Therefore, according to these systems, Consciousness is Cit, and Mind or Antahkarana is a transformation of Prakriti and Maya respectively. In itself, Mind is an unconscious specialized organ developed out of the Primordial Energy, Mulaprakriti or Maya. It is thus, not in itself, consciousness but a special manifestation of conscious existence, borrowing its consciousness from the Cit which is reflected on it. Shakta doctrine states the same matter in a different form. Consciousness at rest is Cit- Svarupa. Consciousness in movement is Cit- Shakti associated with Maya- Shakti. The Shiva -Shakti Svarupa is consciousness (Cit, Cidrupini). There is no independent Prakriti as Samkhya holds, nor an unconscious Maya which is not Brahman and yet not separate from Brahman, as Shamkara teaches. What there is, is Maya- Shakti; that is Consciousness (Shakti is in itself such) veiling, as the Mother, He rself to herself as Her creation, the Jiva. There is no need then for Cidabhasa. For mind is consciousness veiling itself in the forms or limitation of apparent unconsciousness. This is an attractive exposition of the matter because in the universe consciousness and unconsciousness are mingled, and the abolition of unconscious Maya satisfies the desire for unity. In all these cases, however, mind and matter represent either the real or apparent unconscious aspect of things. If man's consciousness is, or appears to be, limited, such limitation must be due to some principle without, or attached to, or inherent in consciousness; which in some sense or other must ex hypothesi be really, or apparently different from the consciousness, which it seems to affect or actually affects. In all these systems, mind and matter equally derive from a common finitizing principle which actually or apparently limits the Infinite Consciousness. In all three, there is, beyond manifestation, Consciousness or 239 Cit, which in manifestation appears as a parallelism of mind and matter; the substratum of which from a monistic standpoint is Cit. Herbert Spencer, however, as many other Western Philosophers do, differs from the Vedanta in holding that the noumenon of these phenomena is not Consciousness, for the latter is by them considered to be by its very nature conditioned and concrete. This noumenon is therefore declared to be unknown and unknowable. But Force as such is blind, and can only act as it has been predetermined. We discover consciousness in the universe. The cause must, therefore, it is argued, be Consciousness. It is but reasonable to hold that, if the first cause be of the nature of either Consciousness or Matter, and not of both, it must be of the nature of the former, and not of the latter. An unconscious object may wall be conceived to modify Consciousness, but not to produce Consciousness out of its Self. According to Indian Realism, the Paramanus are the material (Upadana) cause (Karana), and Ishvara the instrumental (Nim itta) cause, for He makes them combine. According to Vedanta, Matter is really nothing but a determined modification of knowledge in the Ishvara Consciousness, itself unaffected by such determination. Ishvara is thus both the material and instrumental caus e. A thing can only dissolve into its own cause. The agency (Kartritva) of Ishvara is in Mayavada attributed (Aupadika) only. The Vedanta, therefore, in its Shakta presentment says, that the Noumenon is knowable and known, for it is the inner Self, which is not an unconscious principle but Being -Consciousness, which, as above explained, is not conditioned or concrete, but is the absolute Self -identity. Nothing can be more intimately known than the Self. The objective side of knowledge is conditioned because of the nature of its organs which, whether mental or material, are conditioned. Sensation, perception, conception, intuition are but different modes in which the one Consciousness manifests itself, the differences being determined by the variety of condition and form of the different organs of knowledge through which consciousness manifests. There is thus a great difference between the Agnostic and the Vedantist. The former, as for instance Herbert Spencer, says that the Absolute cannot be known because nothing can be predicated of it. Whereas the Vedantin when he says, that It cannot be known (in the ordinary sense) means that 240 this is because It is knowledge itself. Our ordinary experience does not know a consciousness of pure being without difference. But , though it cannot be pictured, it may be apprehended. It cannot be thought because it is Pure Knowledge itself. It is that state which is realized only in Samadhi but is apprehended indirectly as the Unity which underlies and sustains all forms of changing finite experience. What, lastly, is Life? The underlying substance is Being -in-itself. Life is a manifestation of such Being. If by Life we understand life in form, then the ultimate substance is not that; for it is formless. But in a supreme sense it is Life; for it is Eternal Life whence all life in form proceeds. It is not dead Being. If it were It could not produce Life. The Great Mother is Life; both the life of Her children and the Life of their lives. Nor does She produce what is without life or po tency of life. What is in the cause is in the effect. Some Western Scientists have spoken of the \"Origin of Life,\" and have sought to find it. It is a futile quest, for Life as such has no origin though life in form has. We cannot discover the beginnings of that which is essentially eternal. The question is vitiated by the false assumption that there is anything dead in the sense that it is wholly devoid of Life or potency of Life. There is no such thing. The whole world is a living manifestation of the source of all life which is Absolute Being. It is sometimes made a reproach against Hinduism that it knows not a \"living God\". What is meant I cannot say. For it is certain that it does not worship a \"dead God,\" whatever such may be. Perhaps by \"living\" is me ant \"Personal\". If so, the charge is again ill -founded. Ishvara and Ishvari are Rulers in whom all personalities and personality itself are. But in their ground they are beyond all manifestation, that is limitation which personality, as we understand it, i nvolves. Man, the animal and the plant alone, it is true, exhibit certain phenomena which are commonly called vital. What exhibits such phenomena, we have commonly called \"living\". But it does not follow that what does not exhibit the phenomena which belong to our definition of life is itself altogether \"dead\". We may have to revise our definition, as in fact we are commencing to do. Until recently it was commonly assumed that matter was of two kinds: inorganic or \"dead,\" and organic or \"living\". The mineral was \"dead,\" the vegetable, animal and man were endowed with \"life\". But these living forms are compounded of so - called \"dead\" matter. How then, is it possible that there is life in the organic 241 kingdom the parts of which are ultimately compounded of \"dead\" matter? This necessarily started the futile quest for the \"origin of life\". Life can only come from life: not from death. The greatest errors arise from the making of false partitions in nature which do not exist. We make these imaginary partitions and t hen vainly attempt to surmount them. There are no absolute partitions or gulfs. All is continuous, even if we cannot at present establish in each case the connection. That there should be such gulfs is unthinkable to any one who has even in small degree grasped the notion of the unity of things. There is a complete connected chain in the hierarchy of existence, from the lowest forms of apparently inert (but now held to be moving) matter, through the vegetable, animal, human worlds; and then through such Dev atas as are super- human intelligences up to the Brahman. From the latter to a blade of grass (says the Shastra) all are one. Western scientific notions have, however, in recent years undergone a radical evolution as regards the underlying unity of substance, destructive of the hitherto accepted notions of the discontinuity of matter and its organization. The division of nature into the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms is still regarded as of practical use; but it is now recognized that no such clear line of demarcation exists between them as has hitherto been supposed in the West. Between each of nature's types there are said to be innumerable transitions. The notion of inert, \"dead\" matter, the result of superficial observation, has given way upon the revelation of the activities at work under this apparent inertia -- forces which endow \"brute substance\" with many of the characteristics of living beings. It is no longer possible to dogmatically affirm where the inorganic kingdom ends and \"life\" begins. It must be rather asserted that many phenomena, hitherto considered characteristic of \"life,\" belong to \"inert matter,\" composed of molecules and atoms, as \"animated matter\" is of cells and micellae. It has been found that so -called \"inert matter,\" possesses an extraordinary power of organization, and is not only capable of apparently imitating the forms of \"living\" matter, but presents in a certain degree the same functions and properties. Sentiency is a characteristic of all forms of Existence. P hysiologists measure the sensibility of a being by the degree of excitement necessary to produce 242 in it a reaction. Of this it has been said (Le Bon Evolution of Matter, 250), \"This sensibility of matter, so contrary to what popular observation seems to indicate, is becoming more and more familiar to physicists. This is why such an expression as the \"life of matter,\" utterly meaningless twenty -five years ago has come into common use. The study of mere matter yields ever - increasing proofs that it has properties which were formerly deemed the exclusive appanage of living beings.\" Life exists throughout, but manifests in various ways. The arbitrary division which has been drawn between \"dead\" and \"living\" matter has no existence in fact, and speculations as to the origin of \"life\" are vitiated by the assumption that there is anything which exists without it, however much its presence may be veiled from us. Western science would thus appear to be moving to the conclusion that there is no \"dead\" matter, but that life exists everywhere, not merely in that in which, as in \"organic matter,\" it is to us plainly and clearly expressed, but also in the ultimate \"inorganic\" atoms of which it is composed -- atoms which, in fact, have their organizations as have the beings which they go to build -- and that all, to the minutest particle, is vibrating with unending Energy (Tejas). (See Author's World as Power). Manifested life is Prana, a form of Kriya Shakti in, and evolved from, the Linga Sharira, itself born of Prakriti. Pra na or the vital principle has been well defined (Hindu Realism, by J. C. Chatterji) to be, \"the special relation of the Atma with a certain form of matter which, by this relation, the Atma organizes and builds up as a means of having experience.\" This spec ial relation constitutes the individual Prana in the individual body. Just as in the West, \"life\" is a term commonly used of organized body only, so also is the term Prana used in the East. It is the technical name given to the phenomena, called \"vital,\" exhibited by such bodies, the source of which is the Brahman Itself. The individual Prana is limited to the particular body which it vitalizes and is a manifestation in all breathing creatures (Prani), of the creative and sustaining activity of the Brahman. All beings exist so long as the Prana is in the body. It is as the Kaushitaki Upanishad says, \"the life duration of all\". The cosmic all-pervading Prana is the collectivity of all Pranas and is the Brahman as the source of the individual Prana. On the physical plane, Prana manifests as breath through inspiration, \"Sa\" or Shakti and expiration, \"Ha\" or Shiva. So 243 the Niruttara Tantra (Chapter IV) says: \"By Hamkara it goes out and by Sakara it comes in again. A Jiva always recites the Supreme Mantra Hamsa.\" Hang- karena bahir yati sah -karena vishet punah Hangesti paramam mantram jivo japati sarvada. Breathing is itself the Ajapa Mantra. Prana is thus Shakti as the universally pervading source of life, organizing itself as matter into what we call living forms. When the Prana goes, the organism which it holds together disintegrates. Nevertheless each of the atoms which remain has a life of its own, existing as such separately from the life of the organized body of which they formed a part; just as each of the cells of the living body has a life of its own. The gross outer body is heterogeneous (Paricchinna) or made up of distinct or well- defined parts. But the Pranamaya Self which lies within the Annamaya Self is a homogeneous undivided whole (Sadharana) permeati ng the whole physical body (Sarvapindavyapin). It is not cut off into distinct regions (Asadharana) as is the Pinda or mircrocosmic physical body. Unlike the latter it has no specialized organs each discharging a specific function. It is a homogeneous unit y (Sadharana), present in every part of the body which it ensouls as its inner vital Self. Vayu, as universal vital activity, on entry into each body, manifests itself in ten different ways. It is the one Prana, though different names are given according to its functions, of which the five chief are Appropriation (Prana), Rejection (Apana), Assimilation (Samana), Distribution (Vyana), and that vital function (Udana) which is connected with self -expression in speech. Prana in its general sense represents the involuntary reflex action of the organism; just as the Indriyas are one aspect of its voluntary activity. Breathing is a manifestation of the Cosmic Rhythm to which the whole universe moves and according to which it appears and disappears. The life of Bra hma is the duration of the outgoing breath (Nisvasa) of Kala. The Samkhya rejecting the Lokayata notion that Vayu is a mere biomechanical force or mechanical motion resulting from such a Vayu, holds, on the principle of the economy of categories, that life is a resultant of the various concurrent activities of other principles or forces in the organism. This, again, the Vedantists deny, holding that it is a separate, 244 independent principle and material form assumed through Maya by the one Consciousness. In either case, it is an unconscious force, since everything which is not the Atma or Purusha, is, according to Mayavada and Samkhya, unconscious, or, in Western parlance, material (Jada). If we apply Shakta principles, then Prana is a name of the general Shakti displaying itself in the organization of matter and the vital phenomena which bodies, when organized, exhibit. Manifest Shakti is vitality, which is a limited concrete display in forms of Her own formless Being or Sat. All Shakti is Jana, Iccha, Kriya, and in its form as Prakriti, the Gunas Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. She desires, impelled by Her nature (Iccha), to build up forms; sees how it should be done (Jana); and then does it (Kriya). The most Tamasic form of Kriya is the apparently mechanical energy displayed in material bodies. But this is itself the product of Her Activity and not the cause of it. Ultimately then Prana, like everything else, is consciousness which, as Shakti, limits Itself in form which it first creates and sustains; then builds up into other more elaborate forms and again sustains until their life -period is run. All creation and maintenance is a limiting power, with the appearance of unconsciousness, in so far as, and to the degree that, it confines the boundless Being -Consciousness -Bliss; yet that Power is nothing but Consciousness negating and limiting itself. The Great Mother (Sri Mata) limits Her infinite being in and as the universe and maintains it. In so far as the form and its life is a limited thing, it is apparently unconscious, for consciousness is thereby limited. At each moment there is creation, but we call the first appearance creation (Srishti), and its continuance, through the agency of Prana, maintenance (Sthiti). But both that which is apparently limited and that whose operation has that effect is Being -Consciousness. Prana Vayu is the self -begotten but limited manifestation of the eternal Life. It is called Vayu (Va -- to move) because it courses throughout the whole universe. Invisible in itself yet its operations are manifest. For it determines the birth, growth, and decay of all animated organisms and as such receives the homage of all created Being. For it is the Pranarupi Atma, the Prana Shakti. For those by whom inorganic matter was considered to be \"dead\" or lifeless, it followed that it could have no Feeling -Consciousness, since the 245 latter was deemed to be an attribute of life. Further, consciousness was denied because it was, and is indeed now, commonly assumed that every conscious experience pre- supposes a su bject, conscious of being such, attending to an object. As Professor P. Mukhyopadhyaya (Approaches to Truth) has well pointed out, consciousness was identified with intelligence or understanding -- that is with directed consciousness; so that where no dire ction or form is discernible, Western thinkers have been apt to imagine that consciousness as such has also ceased. To their pragmatic eye consciousness is always particular having a particular direction and form. According, however, to Indian views, there are three states of consciousness: (1) a supramental supreme consciousness dissociated from mind. This is the Paramatma Cit which is the basis of all existence, whether organic or inorganic, and of thought; of which the Shruti says, \"know that which does not think by the mind and by which the mind itself is thought.\" These are then two main manifested states of consciousness: (2) consciousness associated with mind in organic matter working through its vehicles of mind and matter; (3) consciousness associated with and almost entirely veiled by inorganic gross matter (Bhuta) only; such as the muffled consciousness, evidenced by its response to external stimuli, as shown in the experiments with which Sir Jagadish Bose's name is associated. Where are we to draw the lowest limit of sensation; and if a limit be assigned, why there? As Dr. Ernst Mach has pointed out ( Analysis of Sensations , 243) the question is natural enough if we start from the commonly current physical conception. It is, of course, not asserted that inorganic matter is conscious to itself in the way that the higher organized life is. The response, however, which it makes to stimuli is evidence that consciousness is there, though it lies heavily veiled in and imprisoned by it. Inorganic matter displays it in the form of that seed or rudiment of sentiency which enlarging into the simple pulses of feeling of the lowest degrees of organized life, at length emerges in the developed self -conscious sensations of human life. Owing to imperfect scientific knowledge, the first of these aspects was not in antiquity capable of physical proof in the same way or to the same extent, as Modern Science with its delicate instruments have made possible. Starting, however, from the revealed and intuitionally held truth that all was Brahman, the conclusion necessarily followed. All Bhuta is composed of the 246 three Gunas or factors of Prakriti or the psycho -physical potentials. It is the Sattva or Principle of Presentation of Consciousness in gross matter (almost entirely suppressed by Tamas or the Principle of Veiling of Consciousness though it be) which manifests the phenomena of sensibility observed in matter. In short, nature, it has been well said, knows no sharp boundaries or yawning gulfs, though we may ignore the subtle connecting links between things. There is no break in continuity. Being and Consciousness are co- extensive. Consciousness is not limited to those centers in the Ether of consciousness which are called organized bodies. But just as life is differently expressed in the mineral and in man, so is Consciousness which many have been apt to think exists in the developed animal and even in man only. Consciousness (Cit -Shakti) exists in all the hierarchy of Being, and is, in fact, Being. It is, however, in all bodies veiled by its power or Maya -Shakti which is composed of the three Gunas. In inorganic matter, owing to the predominance of Tamas, Consciousness is so greatly veiled and the life force is so restrained that we get the appearance of insensibility, inertia and mere mechanical energy. In organized bodies, the action of Tamas is gradually lessened, so that the members of the universal hierarchy become more and more Sattvik as they ascend in the scale of evolution. Consciousness itself does not change. It remains the same throughout. What does change is, its wrappings, unconscious or apparently so, as they may alternatively be called. This wrapping is Maya and Prakriti with their Gunas. The figure of \"wrapping\" is apt to illustrate the presentment of Samkhy a and Mayavada. From the Shakta aspect we may compare the process to one in which it is assumed that in one aspect there is an unchanging light, in another it is either turned up or turned down as the case may be. In gross matter the light is so turned down that it is not ordinarily perceptible and even delicate scientific experiment may give rise to contending assertions. When the veiling by Tamas is lessened in organic life, and the Jiva is thus less bound in matter, the same Consciousness (for there is n o other) which previously manifested as, what seems to us, a mere mechanical reaction, manifests in its freer environment in that sensation which we associate with consciousness as popularly understood. Shakti, who ever negates Herself as Maya -Shakti, more and more reveals Herself as Cit -Shakti. There is thus a 247 progressive release of Consciousness from the bonds of matter, until it attains complete freedom or liberation (Moksha) when the Atma is Itself (Atma Svarupi) or Pure Consciousness. At this point, the same Shakti, who had operated as Maya, is Herself Consciousness (Cidrupini). According to the Hindu books, plants have a sort of dormant Consciousness, and are capable of pleasure and pain. Cakrapani says in the Bhanumati that the Consciousness of plants is a kind of stupefied, darkened, or comatose Consciousness. Udayana also says that plants have a dormant Consciousness which is very dull. The differences between plant and animal life have always been regarded by the Hindus as being one not of kind, but of degree. And this principle may be applied throughout. Life and Consciousness is not a product of evolution. The latter merely manifests it. Manu speaks of plants as being creatures enveloped by darkness caused by past deeds having, however, an internal Consciousness and a capacity for pleasure and pain. And, in the Mahabharata, Bhrigu says to Bharadhvaja that plants possess the various senses, for they are affected by heat, sounds, vision (whereby, for instance, the creeper pursues its path to the light ), odors and the water which they taste. I may refer also to such stories as that of the Yamalarjunavriksha of the Srimad Bhagavata mentioned in Professor Brajendra Nath Seal's learned work, The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus, and Professor S. N. Das Gupta's scholarly paper on Parinama to which I am indebted for these instances. Man is said to have passed through all the lower states of Consciousness and is capable of reaching the highest through Yoga. The Jiva attains birth as man after having been, it is said, born 84 lakhs (84,000,000) of times as plants (Vrikshadi), aquatic animals (Jalayoni), insects and the like (Krimi), birds (Pakshi), beasts (Pashvadi), and monkeys (Vanar). He then is born 2 lakhs of times (2,000,000) in the inferior species of humanity, and then gradually attains a better and better birth until he is liberated from all the bonds of matter. The exact number of each kind of birth is in 20, 9, 11, 10, 30 and 4 lakhs, respectively -- 84 lakhs. As pointed out by Mahamahopadhyaya Chandrakanta Tarkalankara Lectures on \"Hindu Philosophy\" (5th year, p. 227, Lecture VII), pre- appearance in monkey form is not a Western theory only. The Consciousness which manifests in him is not altogether a new 248 creation, but an unfolding of that which has ever existed in the elements of which he is composed, and in the Vegetable and Animal through which prior to his human birth he has passed. In him, however, matter is so re- arranged and organized as to permit of the fullest rnanifestation which has hit herto existed of the underlying Cit. Man's is the birth so \"difficult of attainment\" (Durlabha). This is an oft -repeated statement of Shastra in order that he should avail himself of the opportunities which Evolution has brought him. If he does not, he falls back, and may do so without limit, into gross matter again, passing intermediately through the Hells of suffering. Western writers in general, describe such a descent as unscientific. How, they ask, can a man's Consciousness reside in an animal or plant '? The correct answer (whatever be popular belief) is that it does not. When man sinks again into an animal he ceases to be a man. He does not continue to be both man and animal. His consciousness is an animal consciousness and not a human consciousness. It is a, childish view which regards such a case as being the imprisonment of a man in an animal body. If he can go up he can also go down. The soul or subtle body is not a fixed but an evolving thing. Only Spirit (Cit) is eternal and unchanged. In man, the revealing constituent of Prakriti Shakti (Sattvaguna) commences to more fully develop, and his consciousness is fully aware of the objective world and his own Ego, and displays itself in all those functions of it which are called his faculties. We here reach the world of ideas, but these are a superstructure on consciousness and not its foundation or basis. Man's consciousness is still, however, veiled by Maya- Shakti. With the greater predominance of Sattvaguna in man, consciousness becomes more and more divine, until he is altogether freed of the bonds of Maya, and the Jiva Consciousness expands into the pure Brahman Consciousness. Thus life and Consciousness exist throughout. All is living. All is Consciousness. In the world of gross matter they seem to disappear, being almost suppressed by the veil of Maya -Sakti's Tamoguna. As however ascent is made, they are less and less veiled, and True Consciousness is at length realized in Samadhi and Moksha. Cit-Shakti and Maya- Shakti exist inseparable throughout th e whole universe. There is therefore according to the principles of the Shakta Shastra not a particle of matter which is without life and consciousness variously displaced or concealed though they be. Manifest Maya -Shakti is the universe 249 in which Cit -Shakt i is the changeless Spirit. Unmanifest Maya -Shakti is Consciousness (Cidrupini). There are many persons who think that they have disposed of a doctrine when they have given it an opprobrious, or what they think to be an opprobrious, name. And so they dub all this \"Animism,\" which the reader of Census Reports associates with primitive and savage tribes. There are some people who are frightened by names. It is not names but facts which should touch us. Certainly \"Animism\" is in some respects an incorrect and childlike way of putting the matter. It is, however, an imperfect presentment of a central truth which has been held by some of the profoundest thinkers in the world, even in an age in which we are apt to think to be superior to all others. Primitive man in his simplicity made the discovery of several such truths. And so it has been well said that the simple savage and the child who regard all existence as akin to their own, living and feeling like himself, have, notwithstanding their errors, more truly felt the pulse of being, than the civilized man of culture. How essentially stupid some of the latter can be needs no proof. For the process of civilization being one of abstraction, they are less removed from the concrete fact than he is. Hence their errors which seem the more contorted due to the mass of useless verbiage in which they are expressed. And yet, as extremes meet, so having passed through our present condition, we may regain the truths perceived by the simple, not only through formal worship but by that which consists of the pursuit of all knowledge and science, when once the husk of all material thinking is cast aside. For him, who sees the Mother in all things, all scientific research is wonder and worship. So Gratry said that the calculus of Newton and Leibnitz was a supralogical procedure, and that geometric induction is essentially a process of prayer, by which he evidently meant an appeal from the finite mind to the Infinite, for light on finite concerns. The seeker looks upon not mere mechanical movements of so-called \"dead\" matter, but the wondrous play of Her Whose form all matter is. As She thus reveals Herself She induces in him a passionate exaltation and that sense of security which is only gained as approach is made to the Central Heart of things. For, as the Upanishad says, \"He only fears who sees duality\". Some day may be, when one who unites in himself the scientific ardor of the West and the all -embracing religious feeling of India will create another and a modern Candi, with its mu ltiple salutations to the sovereign 250 World -Mother (Namastasyai namo namah). Such an one, seeing the changing marvels of Her world-play, will exclaim with the Yoginihridaya Tantra, \"I salute Her the Samvid Kala who shines in the form of Space, Time and all O bjects therein.\" Deshakalapadarthatma yad yad vastu yatha yatha, Tattadrupena ya bhati tam shraye samvidam kalam This is, however, not mere Nature-worship as it is generally understood in the West, or the worship of Force as Keshub Chunder Sen took the Sha kta doctrine to be. All things exist in the Supreme who in Itself infinitely transcends all finite forms. It is the worship of God as the Mother- Creatrix who manifests in the form of all things which are, as it were, but an atom of dust on the Feet of Her who is Infinite Being (Sat), Experience (Cit), Love (Ananda) and Power (Shakti). As Philibert Commerson said: \"La vie d'un naturaliste est, je L'ose dire, une adoration presque perptuelle.\" I have in my paper Shakti and Maya (here reprinted from the India n Philosophical Review, 1918, No. 2) contrasted the three different concepts of the Primal Energy as Prakriti, Maya and Shakti of Samkhya, Vedanta and the Agama respectively. I will not, therefore, repeat myself but will only summarize conclusions here. In the first place, there are features common to all three concepts. Hitherto, greater pains have been taken to show the differences between the Darshanas than to co -ordinate them systematically, by regarding their points of agreement or as regard apparent d isagreement, their viewpoint. It has been said that Truth cannot be found in such a country as India, in which, there are six systems of philosophy disputing with one another, and where even in one system alone, there is a conflict between Dvaita, Vishisht advaita and Advaita. One might suppose from such a criticism that all in Europe were of one mind, or that al least the Christian Community was agreed, instead of being split up, as it is, into hundreds of sects. An American humorist observed with truth tha t there was a good deal of human nature in man everywhere. Of course there is difference which, as the Radd -ul-Muhtar says, is also the gift of God. This is not to deny that Truth is only one. It is merely to recognize that whilst Truth is one, the nature and capacities of those who 251 seek it, or claim to possess it, vary. To use a common metaphor, the same white light which passes through varicolored glass takes on its various colors. All cannot apprehend the truth to the same extent or in the same way. Hence the sensible Indian doctrine of competency or Adhikara. In the Christian Gospel it is also said, \"Throw not your pearls before swine lest they trample upon them and then rend you.\" What can be given to any man is only what he can receive. The Six Philosophies represent differing standards according to the manner and to the extent to which the one Truth may be apprehended. Each standard goes a step beyond the last, sharing, however, with it certain notions in common. As regards the present matter, all these systems start with the fact that there is Spirit and Mind, Matter, Consciousness and Unconsciousness, apparent or real. Samkhya, Vedanta and the Shakta Agama called the first Purusha, Brahman, Shiva; and the second Prakriti, Maya, Shakti respectively. All agree that it is from the association together of these two Principles that the universe arises and that such association is the universe. All, again, agree that one Principle, namely, the first, is infinite, formless consciousness, and the second is a finitizing principle which makes forms. Thirdly, all regard this last as a veiling principle, that is, one which veils consciousness; and hold that it is eternal, all -pervading, existing now as seed (Mula- prakriti, Avyakta) and now as fruit (Vikriti), composed of the Gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (Principles of presentation of Consciousness, Action, and Veiling of Consciousness respectively); unperceivable except through its effects. In all, it is the Natural Principle, the material cause of the material uni verse. The word Prakriti has been said to be derived from the root \"Kri,\" and the affix \"Ktin,\" which is added to express Bhava or the abstract idea, and sometimes the Karma or object of the action, corresponding with the Greek affix Sis. Ktin inflected in the nominative becomes tis. Prakriti, therefore, has been said to correspond with Phusis (Nature) of the Greeks. In all three systems, therefore, it is, as the \"natural,\" contrasted with the \"spiritual\" aspect of things. The first main point of difference is between Samkhya, on the one hand, and the Advaita Vedanta, whether as interpreted by Shamkara or taught by the 252 Shaiva -Shakta Tantra on the other. Classical Samkhya is a dualistic system, whereas the other two are non -dualistic. The classical Samkhya posits a plurality of Atmans representing the formless consciousness, with one unconscious Prakriti which is formative activity. Prakriti is thus a real independent principle. Vedantic monism does not altogether discard these two principles, but says that they cannot exist as two independent Realities. There is only one Brahman. The two categories of Samkhya, Purusha and Prakriti are reduced to one Reality, the Brahman; otherwise the Vakya, \"All this is verily Brahman\" (Sarvam khalvidam Brahma), is falsified. But how is this effected? It is on this point that Mayavada of Shamkara and the Advaita of Shaiva- Shakta Agama differ. Both systems agree that Brahman has two aspects in one of which It is transcendent and in another creative and immanent. According to Shamkara, Brahman is in one aspect Ishvara associated with, and in another one dissociated from Maya which, in his system, occupies the place of the Samkhyan Prakriti, to which it is (save as to reality and independence) similar. What is Maya P It is not a r eal independent Principle like the Samkhyan Prakriti. Then is it Brahman or not'? According to Shamkara, it is an unthinkable, alogical, unexplainable (Anirvacantia) mystery. It is an eternal falsity (Mithyabhuta sanatani), owing what false appearance of r eality it possesses to the Brahman, with which in one aspect it is associated. It is not real for there is only one such. It cannot, however, be said to be unreal for it is the cause of and is empirical experience. It is something which is neither real (Sa t) nor unreal (Asat), nor partly real and partly unreal (Sadasat), and which though not forming part of Brahman, and therefore not Brahman, is yet, though not a second reality, inseparably associated and sheltering with (Maya Brahmashrita) Brahman in Its Ishvara aspect. Like the Samkhyan Prakriti, Maya (whatever it be) is in the nature of an unconscious principle. The universe appears by the reflection of consciousness (Purusha, Brahman) on unconsciousness (Prakriti, Maya). In this way the unconscious is made to appear conscious. This is Cidabhasa. Maya is illusive and so is Shamkara's definition of it. Further, though Maya is not a second reality, but a mysterious something of which neither reality nor unreality can be affirmed, the fact of positing it at all in this form gives to Shamkara's doctrine a tinge of dualism from which the Shakta doctrine is 253 free. For, it is to be noted that notwithstanding that Maya is a falsity, it is not, according to Shamkara, a mere negation or want of something (Abhava), but a positive entity (Bhavarupam ajanam), that is in the nature of a Power which veils (Acchadaka) consciousness, as Prakriti does in the case of Purusha. Shamkara's system, on the other hand, has this advantage from a monistic standpoint, that whilst he, like the Shakta, posits the doctrine of aspects saying that in one aspect the Brahman is associated with Maya (Ishvara), and in another it is not (Parabrahman; yet in neither aspect does his Brahman change. Whereas, according to Shakta doctrine, Shiva does, in one aspect, that is as Shakti, change. Whilst then Shamkara's teaching is consistent with the changelessness of Brahman, he is not so successful in establishing the saying,. \"All this is Brahman\". The position is reversed as regards Shaiva -Shakta Darshana which puts forth its doctrine of Maya -Shakti with greater simplicity. Shakta doctrine takes the saying, \"All this is Brahman\" (the realization of which, as the Mahanirvana Tantra states, is the aim and end of Kulacara) in its literal sense. \"This\" is the universe. Then the universe is Brahman. But Brahman is Consciousness. Then the universe is really That. But in what way P Shamkara says that what we sense with our senses is Maya, which is practically something, but in a real sense nothing; which yet ap pears to be something because it is associated with the Brahman which alone is Real. Its appearance of independent reality is thus borrowed and is in this sense said to be \"illusory\". When, therefore, we say, \"All this is Brahman\" -- according to Shamkara, this means that what is at the back of that which we see is Brahman; the rest or appearance is Maya. Again, according to Shamkara, man is spirit (Atma) vestured in the Mayik falsities of mind and matter. He, accordingly, can then only establish the unity of Ishvara and Jiva by eliminating from the first Maya, and from the second Avidya; when Brahman is left as a common denominator. The Shakta, however, eliminates nothing. For him, in the strictest sense, \"All is Brahman.\" For him, man's Spirit (Atma) is Sh iva. His mind and body are Shakti. But Shiva and Shakti are one. Paramatma is Shiva -Shakti in undistinguishable union. Jivatma is Shiva -Shakti in that state in which the Self is distinguished from the not -Self. Man, therefore, according to the Shakta Tantra, is not Spirit seemingly clothed by a non- Brahman falsity, but Spirit covering Itself with its own power or Maya - 254 Shakti. All is Shakti whether as Cit -Shakti or Maya -Shakti. When, therefore, the Shakta Tantric says, \"All this is Brahman,\" he means it literally. \"This,\" here means Brahman as Shakti, as Maya -Shakti, and Cit -Shakti. Shiva as Parabrahman is Shiva -Shakti in that state when Shakti is not operating and in which She is Herself, that is, pure consciousness (Cidrupini). Shiva as Ishvara is Shiva -Sha kti in that state in which Shiva, associated with Maya -Shakti, is the source of movement and change; Shiva -Shakti as Jiva is the state produced by such action which is subject to Maya, from which Ishvara, the Mayin is free. The creative Shakti is therefore changeless Cit - Shakti and changing Maya -Shakti. Yet the One Shakti must never be conceived as existing apart from, or without the other, for they are only twin aspects of the fundamental Substance (Paravastu). Vimarsha -Shakti (See Kamakalavilasa, 3rd Edit ion, 1961, Verses 1 -4) as Maya -Shakti produces the forms in which Spirit as Cit -Shakti inheres and which it illuminates (Prakasha). But Maya- Shakti is not unconscious. How can it be; for it is Shakti and one with Cit -Shakti. All Shakti is and must be Consciousness. There is no unconscious Maya which is not Brahman and yet not separate from Brahman. Brahman alone is and exists, whether as Cit or as manifestation of Maya. All is Consciousness, as the so- called \"New Thought\" of the West also affirms. But surel y, it will be said, there is an unconscious element in things. How is this accounted for if there be no unconscious Maya? It is conscious Shakti veiling Herself and so appearing as limited consciousness. In other words, whilst Shamkara says mind and matter are in themselves unconscious but appear to be conscious through Cidabhasa, the Shakta Agama reverses the position, and says that they are in themselves, that is in their ground, conscious, for they are at base Cit; but they yet appear to be unconscious, or more strictly limited consciousness, by the veiling power of Consciousness Itself as Maya- Shakti. This being so, there is no need for Cidabhasa which assumes, as it were, two things, the Brahman, and unconscious Maya in which the former reflects itself. Though some of the Shastras do speak of a reflection, Pratibimba is between Shiva and Shakti. Brahman is Maya -Shakti in that aspect in which it negates itself, for it is the function of Shakti to negate (Nishedhavyapararupa shaktih), as it is said by Yoga -Raja or Yoga- 255 Muni (as he is also called) in his commentary on Abhinava Gupta's Paramarthasara. In the Shakta Tantras, it is a common saying of Shiva to Devi, \"There is no difference between Me and Thee.\" Whilst Shamkara's Ishvara is associated with the unconscious Maya, the Shaiva Shakta's Ishvara is never associated with anything but Himself, that is as Maya- Shakti. Whether this doctrine be accepted as the final solution of things or not, it is both great and powerful. It is great because the whole world is seen in glory according to the strictest monism as the manifestation of Him and Her. The mind is not distracted and kept from the realization of unity, by the notion of any unconscious Maya which is not Brahman nor yet separate from It. Next, this doctrine accommodates itself to Western scientific monism, so far as the latter goes, adding to it however a religious and metaphysical basis; infusing it with the spirit of devotion. It is powerful because its standpoint is the 'here' and 'now,' and not the tr anscendental Siddhi standpoint of which most men know nothing and cannot, outside Samadhi, realize. It assumes the reality of the world which to us is real. It allows the mind to work in its natural channel. It does not ask it to deny what goes against the grain of its constitution to deny. It is, again, powerful because we stand firmly planted on a basis which is real and natural to us. From the practical viewpoint, it does not ask man to eschew and flee from the world in the spirit of asceticism; a course repugnant to a large number of modern minds, not only because mere asceticism often involves what it thinks to be a futile self - denial; but because that mind is waking to the truth that all is one; that if so, to deny the world is in a sense to deny an aspect of That which is both Being and Becoming. It thinks also that whilst some natures are naturally ascetic, to attempt ascetic treatment in the case of most is to contort the natural being, and to intensify the very evils which asceticism seeks to avoid. Not one man in many thousands has true Vairagya or detachment from the world. Most are thoroughly even glued to it. Again, there are many minds which are puzzled and confused by Mayavada; and which, therefore, falsely interpret it,-- may be to their harm. These men, Mayavada, or rather their misunderstanding of it, weakens or destroys. Their grip on themselves and the world is in any case enfeebled. They become intellectual and moral derelicts who are neither on the path of power nor of renunciation, and w ho have neither the strength to follow worldly life, nor to truly abandon it. It is 256 not necessary, however, to renounce when all is seen to be Her. And, when all is so seen, then the spiritual illumination which transfuses all thoughts and acts makes them noble and pure. It is impossible for a man, who in whatever sense truly sees God in all things, to err. If he does so, it is because his vision is not fully strong and pure; and to this extent scope is afforded to error. But given perfect spiritual eyesight then all \"this\" is pure. For, as the Greeks profoundly said, \"panta kathara tois katharois,\" \"To the pure all things are pure.\" The Shakta doctrine is thus one which has not only grandeur but is greatly pragmatic and of excelling worth. It has always bee n to me a surprise that its value should not have been rightly appreciated. I can only suppose that its neglect is due to the fact that is the doctrine of the Shakta Tantras. That fact has been enough to warrant its rejection, or at least a refusal to exam ine it. Like all practical doctrines, it is also intensely positive. There are none of those negations which weaken and which annoy those who, as the vital Western mind does, feel themselves to be strong and living in an atmosphere of might and power. For power is a glorious thing. What is wanted is only the sense that all Power is of God and is God, and that Bhava or feeling which interprets all thoughts and acts and their objects in terms of the Divine, and which sees God in and as all things. Those who truly do so will exercise power not only without wrong, but with that compassion (Karuna) for all beings which is so beautiful a feature of the Buddha of northern and Tantrik Buddhism. For in them Shakti Herself has descended. This is Shaktipata, as it is t echnically called in the Tantra Shastra; the descent of Shakti which Western theology calls the grace of God. But grace is truly not some exterior thing, though we may pictorially think of it as 'streaming' from above below. Atma neither comes nor goes. To be in grace is that state in which man commences to realize himself as Shiva -Shakti. His power is, to use a Western phrase, \"converted\". It is turned from the husk of mere outwardness and of limited self -seeking, to that inner Reality which is the great S elf which, at base, he (in this doctrine) is. The principles of Shakta doctrine, which will vary according to race, are a regenerating doctrine, giving strength where there is weakness, and, where strength exists, directing it to right ends. \"Shivo' ham,\" \"I am Shiva,\" \"Sha' 257 ham,\" \"I am She (the Devi),\" the Tantras say. The Western may call It by some other name. Some call It this and some that, as the Veda says. \"I am He,\" \"I am She,\" \"I am It,\" matters not to the Shakta so long as man identifies himself with the 'Oversoul,' and thus harmonizes himself with its Being, with Dharmic actions (as it manifests in the world) and therefore necessarily with Its true ends. In its complete form the Shakta doctrine is monistic. But to those to whom monism makes no appeal, the Shakta will say that by adopting its spirit, so far as the forms of their belief and worship allow, they will experience a reflection of the joy and strength of those who truly live because they worship Her who is Eternal life -- the Mother who is seated on the couch of Shivas (Mahapreta), in the Isle of Gems (Manidvipa), in the \"Ocean of Nectar,\" which is all Being- Consciousness and Bliss. This is the pearl which those who have churned the ocean of Tantra discover. That pearl is there in an Indian shell. There is a beautiful nacre on the inner shell which is the Mother of Pearl. Outside, the shell is naturally rough and coarse, and bears the accretions of weed and parasite and of things of all kinds which exist, good or bad as we call them, in the ocean of existence (Samsara). The Scripture leads man to remove these accretions, and to pass within through the crust, gross, though not on that account only, bad; for there is a gross (Sthula) and subtle (Sukshma) aspect of worship. Finally it leads man to seek to see the Mother of Pearl and lastly the Pearl which, enclosed therein, shines with the brilliant yet soft light which is that of the Moon-Cit (Cicchandra) Itself. 258 CHAPTER SIXTEEN . MATTER AND CONSCIOUSNESS The subject of my lecture to -day is Consciousness or Cit, and Matter or Unconsciousness, that is, Acit; the unchanging formlessness and the changing forms. According to Shakta Advaitavada, man is Consciousness - Unconsciousness or Cit -Acit; being Cit- Shakti as regards his Antaratma, and the particularized Maya -Shakti as to his material vehicles of mind and body. The reason that I have selected this subject, amongst the many others on which I might have addressed you, is that these two ideas are the key concepts of Indian Philosophy and religion. If they are fully understood both as to their definition and relations, then, all is understood so far as intellect can make such matters intelligible to us; if they are not understood then nothing is properly understood. Nor are they always understood even by those who profess to know and write on Indian Philosophy. Thus, the work on Vedanta, of an English Orientalist, now in its second edition, describes Cit as the condition of a stone or other inert su bstance. A more absurd error it is hard to imagine. Those who talk in this way have not learnt the elements of their subject. It is true that you will find in the Shastra, the state of the Yogi described as being like a log (Kashthavat). But this does not mean that his Consciousness is that of a piece of wood; but that he no more perceives the external world than a log of wood does. He does not do so because he has the Samadhi consciousness that is Illumination and true Being itself. I can to- night only scratch at the surface of a profound subject. To properly expound it would require a series of lectures, and to understand it in its depths, years of thinking thereon. I will look at the matter first from the scientific point of view; secondly, state what those concepts mean in themselves; and thirdly, show how they are related to one another in the Samkhya and the Mayavada and Shaktivada presentments of Vedanta doctrine. The Shaktivada of which I deal to- night may be found in the Tantras. It has been supposed that the Agamas arose at the close of the age of the Upanishads. They are Shastras of the Upasana Kanda dealing with the worship of Saguna Ishvara. It has been conjectured that they arose partly because of the declining strength of the Vaidika Acara, and partly because of 259 the increasing number of persons within the Hindu fold, who were not competent for the Vaidika Acara, and, for whom some spiritual discipline was necessary. One common feature distinguishes them; namely, their teaching is for all castes and all women. They express the liberal principle that whilst socially differences may exist, the path of religion is open to all, and that spiritual competency and not the external signs of caste determine the position of persons on that path. Ishvara in these Agamas is worshipped in threefold forms as Vishnu, Shiva, Devi. Therefore, the Agamas or Tantras are threefold, Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta, such as the Pacaratra Agamas of the first group, the Shaiva Siddhanta (with its 28 Tantras), the Nakulisha Pashupata, and the Kashmirian Trika of the second group; and the alleged division into Kaula, Mishra, Samaya of the third group. I express no opinion on this last division. I merely refer to this matter in order to explain what I mean by the word Agama. The Shaktivada, however, which I contrast with Mayavada to- day, is taken from the Shakta Agama. By Mayavada I mean Shamkara's exposition of Vedanta. Now, with reference to the scientific aspect of the subject, I show you that in three main particulars, modern western physics and psychology support Indian philosophy whatever such support may be worth. Indeed, Mr. Lowes Dickinson, in an acute recent analysis of the state of ideas in India, China and Japan observes that the Indian form of religion and philosophy is that which most easily accommodates itself to modern western science. That does not prove it is true, until it is established that the conclusions of western science to which it does conform, are true. But the fact is of great importance in countering t hose who have thought that eastern ideas were without rational foundation. It is of equal importance to those two classes who either believe in the ideas of India, or in the particular conclusions of science to which I refer. The three points on this head are firstly, that physicists, by increasing their knowledge of so- called \"matter,\" have been led to doubt its reality, and have dematerialized the atom, and, with it, the entire universe which the various atoms compose. The trinity of matter, ether and electricity out of which science has hitherto attempted to construct the world, has been reduced to a single element -- the ether (which is not scientific \"matter\") in a state of motion. According to Samkhya, the objective world is composed of Bhutas which derive ultimately from Akasha. 260 I do not say that scientific \"ether\" is Akasha, which is a concept belonging to a different train of thought. Moreover the sensible is derived from the supersensible Akasha Tanmatra, and is not therefore an ultimate. But it is important to note the agreement in this, that both in East and West, the various forms of gross matter derive from some single substance which is not \"matter\". Matter is dematerialized, and the way is made for the Indian concept of Maya. There is a point at which the mind cannot any longer usefully work outward. Therefore, after the Tanmatra, the mind is turned within to discover their cause in that Egoism which, reaching forth to the world of enjoyment produces sensorial, senses, and objects of sensation. That the mind and senses are also material has the support of some forms of western philosophy, such as that of Herbert Spencer, for he holds that the Universe, whether physical or psychical, is a play of force which in the case of matter we experience as object. Mind as such is, he says, as much a \"material\" organ as the brain and outer sense -organs, though they are differing forms of Force. His affirmation that scientific \"matter\" is an appearance produced by the play of cosmic force, and that mind itself is a product of the same play, is what Samkhya and Vedanta hold. The way again is opened for the concept, Maya. Whilst, however, Spencer and the Agnostic School hold that the Reality behind these phenomena is unknowable, the Vedanta affirms that it is kno wable and is Consciousness itself. This is the Self than which nothing can be more intimately known. Force is blind. We discover consciousness in the Universe. It is reasonable to suppose that if the first cause is of the nature of either Consciousness or Matter, and not of both, it must be of the nature of the former and not of the latter. Unconsciousness or object may be conceived to modify Consciousness, but not to produce Consciousness out of its unconscious Self. According to Indian ideas, Spirit which is the cause of the Universe is pure Consciousness. This is Nishkala Shiva: and, as the Creator, the great Mother or Devi. The existence of pure consciousness in the Indian sense has been decried by some thinkers in the West, where generally to its pragmatic eye, Consciousness is always particular having a particular direction and form. It assumes this particularity, however, through Maya. We must distinguish between Consciousness as such and modes in consciousness. Consciousness is the unity behind all forms of consciousness, whether sensation, emotion, 261 instinct, will or reason. The claim that Consciousness as such exists can only be verified by spiritual experience. All high mystic experiences, whether in East or West, have been experiences of unity in differing forms and degrees. Even, however, in normal life as well as in abnormal pathological states, we have occasional stretches of experience in which it becomes almost structure- less. Secondly, the discovery of the subliminal Consciousness aids Shastric doctrine, in so far as it shows that behind the surface consciousness of which we are ordinarily aware, there is yet another mysterious field in which all its operations grow. It is the Buddhi which here manifests. Well - established occult powers and phenomena now generally accepted such as telepathy, thought -reading, hypnotism and the like are only explainable on hypotheses which approach more nearly Eastern doctrine than any other theory which has in modern times prevailed in the West. Thirdly, as bearing on this subject, we have now the scientific recognition that from its materia prima all forms have evolved; that there is life or its potency in all things: and that there are no breaks in nature. There is the same matter and Consciousness throughout. There is unity of life. There is no such thing as \"dead\" matter. The well -known experiments of Dr. Jagadish Bose establish response to stimuli in inorganic matter. This response may be interpreted to indicate the existence of that Sattva Guna which Vedanta and Samkhya affirm to exist in all things organic or inorganic. It is the play of Cit in this Sattva, so muffled in Tamas as not to be recognizable except by delicate scientific experiment, which appears as the so -called \"mechanical\" response. Consciousness is here veiled and imprisoned by Tamas. Inorganic matter displays it in the form of that seed or rudiment of sentiency which, enlarging into the simple pulses of feeling of the lowest degrees of organized life, at length emerges in the developed self -conscious sensations of human life. Consciousness is throughout the same. What varies is its wrappings. There is, thus, a progressive release of Consciousness from gross matter, through plants and animals to man. This evolution, Indian doctrine has taught in its 84 lakhs of previous births. According to the Hindu books, plants have a dormant consciousness. The Mahabharata says that plants can see and thus they reach the light. Such power of vision would have been ridiculed not long ago, but Professor Haberlandt, the well -known botanist, has established that plants possess an organ of vision in the shape of a 262 convex lens on the upper surface of the leaf. The animal consciousness is greater, but seems to display itself almost entirely in the satisfaction of animal's wants. In man, we reach the world of ideas, but these are a superstructure on consciousness, and not its foundation or basis. It is in this modeless basis that the various modes of consciousness with which we are familiar in our waking and dreaming state s arise. The question then arises as to the relation of this principle of Form with Formlessness; the unconscious finite with infinite consciousness. It is noteworthy that in the Thomistic philosophy, Matter, like Prakriti, is the particularizing or finitizing principle. By their definition, however, they are opposed. How then can the two be one? Samkhya denies that they are one, and says they are two separate independent principles. This, Vedanta in its turn denies for it says that there is in fact only one true Reality, though from the empirical, dualistic standpoint there seem to be two. The question then is asked, Is dualism, pluralism, or monism to be accepted? For the Vedantist the answer of Shruti is that it is the last. But, apart from this, the question is, Does Shruti record a true experience, and is it the fact that spiritual experience is monistic or dualistic? The answer is, as we can see from history, that all high mystic experiences are experiences of unity in differing forms and degrees. The question cannot be decided solely by discussion, but by our conclusion as to the conformity of the particular theory held with spiritual experience. But how can we reconcile the unity of pure consciousness with the plurality of unconscious forms which the world of experience gives us? Vedanta gives various intellectual interpretations, though experience alone can solve this question. Shamkara says there is only one Sadvastu, the Brahman. From a transcendental standpoint, It is, and nothing happens. There is, in the state of highest experience (Paramatma), no Ishvara, no creation, no world, no Jiva, no bondage, no liberation. But empirically he must and does admit the world or Maya, which in its seed is the cosmic Samskara, which is the cause of all these noti ons which from the highest state are rejected. But is it real or unreal? Shamkara says it is neither. It cannot be real, for then there would be two Reals. It is not unreal, for the world is an empirical fact -- an experience 263 of its kind, and it proceeds f rom the Power of Ishvara. In truth, it is unexplainable, and as Sayana says, more wonderful than Cit itself. But if it is neither Sat nor Asat, then as Maya it is not the Brahman who is Sat. Does it then exist in Pralaya and if so how and where? How can unconsciousness exist in pure consciousness? Shamkara calls it eternal, and says that in Pralaya, Mayasatta is Brahmasatta. At that time, Maya, as the power of the ideating consciousness, and the world, its thought, do not exist: and only the Brahman is. But if so how does the next universe arise on the assumption that there is Pralaya and that there is not with him as Maya the seed of the future universe? A Bija of Maya as Samskara, even though Avyakta (not present to Consciousness), is yet by its terms different from consciousness. To all such questionings, Shamkara would say, they are themselves the product of the Maya of the state in which they are put. This is true, but it is possible to put the matter in a simpler way against which there are not so many objections as may be laid against Mayavada. It seems to me that Shamkara who combats Samkhya is still much influenced by its notions, and as a result of his doctrine of Maya he has laid himself open to the charge that his doctrine is not Shuddha Advaita. H is notion of Maya retains a trace of the Samkhyan notion of separateness, though separateness is in fact denied. In Samkhya, Maya is the real Creatrix under the illumination of Purusha. We find similar notions in Shamkara, who compares Cit to the Ayaskanta mani, and denies all liberty of self - determination in the Brahman which, though itself unchanging, is the cause of change. Jana Kriya is allowed only to Ishvara, a concept which is itself the product of Maya. To some extent the distinctions made are perha ps a matter of words. To some extent particular notions of the Agamas are more practical than those of Shamkara who was a transcendentalist. The Agama, giving the richest content to the Divine Consciousness, does not deny to it knowledge, but, in its supreme aspect, any dual knowledge; spiritual experience being likened by the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad to the union of man and wife in which duality exists as one and there is neither within nor without. It is this union which is the Divine Lila of Shakti, who is yet all the time one with Her Lord. 264 The Shakta exposition appears to be both simple and clear. I can only sketch it roughly -- having no time for its detail. It is first the purest Advaitavada. What then does it say? It starts with the Shruti, \"Sarvam K halvidam Brahma\". Sarvam = world; Brahman = consciousness or Sacchidananda; therefore this world is itself Consciousness. But we know we are not perfect consciousness. There is an apparent unconsciousness. How then is this explained? The unmanifested Brahman, before all the worlds, is Nirguna Shiva -- the Blissful undual consciousness. This is the static aspect of Shiva. This manifests Shakti which is the kinetic aspect of Brahman. Shakti and Shaktiman are one; therefore, Shiva manifests as Shiva -Shakti, wh o are one and the same. Therefore Shakti is consciousness. But Shakti has two aspects (Murti), viz., Vidya Shakti or Cit -Shakti, and Avidya Shakti or Maya- Shakti. Both as Shakti (which is the same as Shaktiman) are in themselves conscious. But the difference is that whilst Cit - Shakti is illuminating consciousness, Maya is a Shakti which veils consciousness to itself, and by its wondrous power appears as unconscious. This Maya -Shakti is Consciousness which by its power appears as unconsciousness. This Maya -Shakti is Triguna Shakti, that is, Shakti composed of the three Gunas. This is Kamakala which is the Trigunatmaka vibhuti. These Gunas are therefore at base nothing but Cit -Shakti. There is no necessity for the Mayavadin's Cidabhasa, that is, the reflection of conscious reality on unconscious unreality, as Mayavada says. All is real except, in the sense that some things endure and are therefore truly real: others pass and in that sense only are not real. All is Brahman. The Antaratma in man is the enduring C it-Shakti. His apparently unconscious vehicles of mind and body are Brahman as Maya -Shakti, that is, consciousness appearing as unconsciousness by virtue of its inscrutable power. Ishvara is thus the name for Brahman as Shakti which is conjoined Cit-Shakti and Maya- Shakti. The Mother Devi is Ishvara considered in His feminine aspect (Ishvari) as the Mother and Nourisher of the world. The Jiva or individual self is an Amsha or fragment of that great Shakti: the difference being that whilst Ishvara is Mayavin or the controller of Maya, Jiva is subject to Maya. The World - 265 thinker retains His Supreme undual Consciousness even in creation, but His thought, that is the forms created by His thinking are bound by His Maya that is the forms with which they identify themselves until by the power of the Vidya Shakti in them they are liberated. All is truly Sat -- or Brahman. In creation Shiva extends His power, and at Pralaya withdraws it into Himself. In creation, Maya is in itself Consciousness which appears as unconsciousness. Before creation it is as consciousness. Important practical results follow from the adoption of this view of looking at the world. The latter is the creation of Ishvara. The world is real; being unreal only in the sense that it is a shifting passing thing, whereas Atma as the true Reality endures. Bondage is real, for Bondage is Avidyashakti binding consciousness. Liberation is real for this is the grace of Vidyashakti. Men are each Centers of Power, and if they would achieve success must, accordi ng to this Shastra, realize themselves as such, knowing that it is Devata which thinks and acts in, and as, them and that they are the Devata. Their world enjoyment is His, and liberation is His peaceful nature. The Agamas deal with the development of this Power which is not to be thought of as something without, but as within man's grasp through various forms of Shakti Sadhana. Being in the world and working through the world, the world itself, in the words of the Kularnava Tantra, becomes the seat of liberation (Mokshayate Samsara). The Vira or heroic Sadhaka does not shun the world from fear of it. But he holds it in his grasp and wrests from it its secret. Realizing it at length as Consciousness the world of matter ceases to be an object of desire. Escaping from the unconscious drifting of a humanity which has not yet realized itself, He is the illumined master of himself, whether developing all his powers, or seeking liberation at his will. [As M. Masson -Oursel so well puts it (Esquisse dune histoire de la philosophie indienne, p. 257) \"Dans le tantrisme triomphent une conception immanentiste de 1'intelligibilite, L'esprit s'assigne pour but, non de se laisser vivre mais de se crer une vie digne de lui, une existence omnisciente omnipotente, qu'il maitrisera parce qu'il en sera auteur\" (by Sadhana).] 266 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN . SHAKTI AND MAYA In the Eighth Chapter of the unpublished Sammohana Tantra, it is said that Shamkara manifested on earth in the form of Shamkaracarya, in order to root out Buddhism from India. It compares his disciples and himself to the five Mahapreta (who form the couch on which the Mother of the Worlds rests), and identifies his maths with the Amnayas, namely, the Govardhana in Puri with Purvamnaya (the Sampradaya being Bhogavara), and so on with the rest. Whatever be the claims of Shamkara as destroyer of the great Buddhistic heresy, which owing to its subtlety was the most dangerous antagonist which the Vedanta has ever had, or his claims as expounder of Upanishad from the standpoint of Siddhi, his Mayavada finds no place in the Tantras of the Agamas, for the doctrine and practice is given from the standpoint of Sadhana. This is not to say that the doctrine is explicitly denied. It is not considered. It is true that in actual fact we often give accommodation to differing theories for which logic can find no living room, but it is obvious that in so far as man is a worshipper he must accept the world- standpoint, if he would not, like Kalidasa, cut from beneath himself the branch of the tree on which he sits. Next, it would be a mistake to overlook the possibility of the so- called \"Tantrik\" tradition having been fed by ways of thought and practice which were not, in the strict sense of the term, part of the Vaidic cult, or in the line of its descent. The worship of the Great Mother, the Magna Mater of the Near East, the Adya Shakti of the Shakta Tantras, is in its essentials (as I have elsewhere pointed out) one of the oldest and most widespread religions of the world, and one which in India was possibly, in its origins, independent of the Brahmanic religion as presented to u s in the Vaidik Samhitas and Brahmanas. If this be so, it was later on undoubtedly mingled with the Vedanta tradition, so that the Shakta faith of to- day is a particular presentation of the general Vedantik teaching. This is historical speculation from an outside standpoint. As the Sarvollasa of Sarvanandanatha points out, and as is well -known to all adherents of the Shakta Agamas, Veda in its general sense includes these and other Shastras in what is called the great Shatakoti Samhita. Whatever be the orig ins of 267 doctrine (and this should not be altogether overlooked in any proper appreciation of it), I am here concerned with its philosophical aspect, as shown to us to -day in the teachings and practice of the Shaktas who are followers of the Agama. This teac hing occupies in some sense a middle place between the dualism of Samkhya, and Shamkara's ultra- monistic interpretation of Vedanta to which, unless otherwise stated, I refer. Both the Shaiva and Shakta schools accept the threefold aspect of the Supreme known as Prakasha, Vimarsha and Prakasha- Vimarsha called in Tantrik worship, \"The Three Feet\" (Caranatritaya). Both adopt the Thirty -six Tattvas, Shiva, Shakti, Sadashiva, Ishvara and Shuddhavidya, preceding the Purusha - Prakriti Tattvas with which the Samkhya commences. For whereas these are the ultimate Tattvas in that Philosophy, the Shaiva and Shakta schools claim to show how Purusha and Prakriti are themselves derived from higher Tattvas. These latter Tattvas are also dealt with from the Shabda side as Shakti, Nada, Bindu and as Kalas which are the Kriya of the various grades of Tattvas which are aspects of Shakti. The Shakta Tantras, such as the Saubhagyaratnakara and other works, speak of ninety -four of such Kalas appropriate to Sadashiva, Ishvara, Rudra, Vishnu, and Brahma, \"Sun,\" \"Moon,' and \"Fire,\" (indicated in the form of the Ram Bija with Candrabindu transposed) of which fifty -one are Matrika Kalas, being the subtle aspects of the gross letters of Sanskrit alphabet. This last is the Mimamsaka doctrin e of Shabda adapted to the doctrine of Shakti. Common also to both Shakta and Shaiva Sampradayas is the doctrine of the Shadadhva. (See my Garland of Letters). I am not however here concerned with these details, but with the general concept of Shakti which is their underlying basis. It is sufficient to say that Shakta doctrine is a form of Advaitavada. In reply to the question what is \"silent concealment\" (Goptavyam), it is said: Atmaham -bhava -bhavanaya bhavayitavyam ityarthah. Hitherto greater pains have been taken to show the differences between the Darshanas than, by regarding their points of agreement, to co -ordinate them systematically. So far as the subject of the present article is concerned all three systems, Samkhya, Mayavada, Shaktivada, are in general agreement as to the nature of the infinite formless Consciousness, and posit therewith a finitizing principle called Prakriti, Maya and Shakti respectively. The main points on which Samkhya 268 (at any rate in what has been called its classical form) differs from Mayavada Vedanta are in its two doctrines of the plurality of Atmans on the one hand, and the reality and independence of Prakriti on the other. When however we examine these two Samkhya doctrines closely we find them to be mere accommodations to the infirmity of common thought. A Vedantic conclusion is concealed within its dualistic presentment. For if each liberated (Mukta) Purusha is all -pervading (Vibhu), and if there is not the slightest difference between one and another, what is the actual or practical difference between such pluralism and the doctrine of Atma? Again it is difficult for the ordinary mind to conceive that objects cease to exist when consciousness of objects ceases. The mind naturally conceives of their existing for others, although, according to the hypothesis, it has no right to conceive anything at all. But here again what do we find? In liberation Prakriti ceases to exist for the Mukta Purusha. In effect what is this but to say with Vedanta that Maya is not a real independent category (Padartha)? A critic has taken exception to my statement that the classical Samkhya conceals a Vedantic solution behind its dualistic presentment. I was not then, of course, speaking from historical standpoint. Shiva in the Kularnava Tantra says that the Six Philosophies are parts of His body, and he who severs them severs His body. They are each aspects of the Cosmic Mind as appearing in Humanity. The logical process which they manifest is one and continuous. The conclusions of each stage or standard can be shown to yield the material of that which follows. This is a logical necessity if it be assumed that the Vedanta is the truest and highest expression of that of which the lower dualistic and pluralistic stages are the approach. In Samkhya, the Purusha principle represents the formless consciousness, and Prakriti formative activity. Shamkara, defining Reality as that which exists as the same in all the three times, does not altogether discard these two principles, but says that they cannot exist as two independent Realities. He thus reduces the two categories of Samkhya, the Purusha Consciousness and Prakriti Unconsciousness to one Reality, the Brahman; otherwise the Vakya, \"All is Brahman\" (Sarvam khalvidam Brahma) is falsified. Brahman, however, in one aspect is dissociated from, and in another associated with Maya, which in his system takes the place of the Samkhyan Prakriti. Rut, 269 whereas, Prakriti is an independent Reality, Maya is something which is neither real (Sat) nor unreal (Asat) nor partly real and partly unreal (Sadasat), and which though not forming part of Brahman, and therefore not Brahman, is yet, though not a second reality, inseparably associated and sheltering with, Brahman (Maya Brahmashrita) in one of its aspects: owing what false appearance of reality it has, to the Brahman with which it is so associated. It is an Eternal Falsity (Mithyabhuta sanatani), unthinkable, alogical, unexplainable (Anirvacaniya). In other points, the Vedantic Maya and Samkhyan Prakriti agree. Though Maya is not a second reality, but a mysterious something of which neither reality nor unreality can be affirmed, the fact of positing it at all gives to Shamkara's doctrine a tinge of dualism from which Shakta theory is free. According to Samkhya, Prakriti is real although it changes. This question of reality is one of definition. Both Mulaprakriti and Maya are eternal. The world, though a changing thing, has at least empirical reality in either view. Both are unconsciousness. Consciousness is reflected on or in unconsciousness: that is to state one view for, as is known, there is a difference of opinion. The light of Purusha - Consciousness (Cit) is thrown on the Prakriti -Unconsciousness (Acit) in the form of Buddhi. Vijanabhikshu speaks of a mutual reflection. The Vedantic Pratibimbavadins say that Atma is reflected in Antahkarana, and the apparent likeness of the latter to Cit which is produced by such reflection is Cidabhasa or Jiva. This question of Cidabhasa is one of the main points of difference between Mayavada and Shaktivada. Notwithstanding that Maya is a falsity, it is not, according to Shamkara, a mere negation or want of something (Abhava), but a positive entity (Bhavarupamajanam): that is, it is in the nature of a power which veils (Acchadaka) consciousness, as Prakriti does in the case of Purusha. The nature of the great \"Unexplained\" as it is in Itself, and whether we call it Prakriti or Maya, is unknown. The Yoginihridaya Tantra beautifully says that we speak of the Heart of Yogini who is Knower of Herself (Yogini svavid), because the heart is the place whence all things issue. \"What man,\" it says, \"knows the heart of a woman? Only Shiva knows the Heart of Yogini.\" But from Shruti and its effects it is said to be one, all - pervading, eternal, existing now as seed and now as fruit, unconscious, composed of Gunas (Guna -mayi); unperceivable except through its effects, evolving (Parinami) these effects which are its products: that is the world, 270 which however assumes in each system the character of the alleged cause; that is, in Samkhya the effects are real: in Vedanta, neither real nor unreal. The forms psychic or physical arise in both cases as conscious -unconscious (Sadasat) effects from the association of Consciousness (Purusha or Ishvara) with Unconsciousness (Prakriti or Maya), Miyate anena iti Maya. Maya is that by which forms are measured or limited. This too is the function of Prakriti. Maya as the collective name of eternal ignorance (Ajana), produces, as the Prapacashakti, these forms, by fir st veiling (Avaranashakti) Consciousness in ignorance and then projecting these forms (Vikshepashakti) from the store of the cosmic Samskaras. But what is the Tamas Guna of the Samkhyan Prakriti in effect but pure Avidya? Sattva is the tendency to reflect consciousness and therefore to reduce unconsciousness. Rajas is the activity (Kriya) which moves Prakriti or Maya to manifest in its Tamasik and Sattvik aspect. Avidya means \"na vidyate,\" \"is not seen,\" and therefore is not experienced. Cit in association with Avidya does not see Itself as such. The first experience of the Soul reawakening after dissolution to world experience is, \"There is nothing,\" until the Samskaras arise from out this massive Ignorance. In short, Prakriti and Maya are like the materia prima of the Thomistic philosophy, the finitizing principle; the activity which \"measures out\" (Miyate), that is limits and makes forms in the formless (Cit). The devotee Kamalakanta lucidly and concisely calls Maya, the form of the Formless (Shunyasya akara iti Maya). In one respect, Mayavada is a more consistent presentation of Advaitavada, than the Shakta doctrine to which we now proceed. For whilst Shamkara's system, like all others, posits the doctrine of aspects, saying that in one aspect the Brahman is associated with Maya (Ishvara), and that in another it is not (Parabrahman); yet in neither aspect does his Brahman truly change. In Shakta doctrine, Shiva does in one aspect (Shakti) change. Brahman is changeless and yet changes. But as change is only experienced by Jivatma subject to Maya, there is not perhaps substantial difference between such a statement, and that which affirms changelessness and only seeming change. In other respects, however, to which I now proceed, Shakta doctrine is a more monis tic presentation of Advaitavada. If one were asked its most essential characteristic, the reply should be, the absence of the concept of unconscious Maya as taught by Shamkara. Shruti says, \"All is Brahman\". 271 Brahman is consciousness: and therefore all is consciousness. There is no second thing called Maya which is not Brahman even though it be \"not real\", \"not unreal\"; definition obviously given to avoid the imputation of having posited a second Real. To speak of Brahman, and Maya which is not Brahman is to speak of two categories, however much it may be sought to explain away the second by saying that it is \"not real\" and \"not unreal\"; a falsity which is yet eternal and so forth. Like a certain type of modern Western \"New Thought,\" Shakta doctrine affirms, \"all is consciousness,\" however much unconsciousness appears in it. The Kaulacarya Sadananda says in his commentary on the 4th Mantra of Isopanishad (Ed. A. Avalon): \"The changeless Brahman, which is consciousness appears in creation as Maya which is Brahman, (Brahmamayi), consciousness (Cidrupini) holding in Herself unbeginning (Anadi) Karmik tendencies (Karmasamskara) in the form of the three Gunas. Hence, She is Gunamayi, despite being Cinmayi. As there is no second principle these Gunas are Cit- Shakti.\" The Supreme Devi is thus Prakashavimarshasya -rupini, or the union of Prakasha and Vimarsha. According to Shamkara, man is Spirit (Atma) vestured in the Mayik 'falsities' of mind and matter. He, accordingly, can only establish the unity of Ishvara and Jiva by eliminating from the first Maya, and from the second Avidya, when Brahman is left as common denominator. The Shakta eliminates nothing. Man's spirit or Atma is Shiva, His mind and body are Shakti. Shakti and Shiva are one. The Jivatma is Shiva -Shakti. So is the Paramatma. This latter exists as one: the former as the manifold. Man is then not a Spirit covered by a non- Brahman falsity, but Spirit covering Itself with Its own power or Shakti. What then is Shakti, and how does it come about that there is some principle of unconsciousness in things, a fact which cannot be denied. Shakti comes from the root \"shak,\" \"to be able,\" \"to have power\". It may be applied to any form of activity. The power to see is visual Shakti, the power to burn is Shakti of fire, a nd so forth. These are all forms of activity which are ultimately reducible to the Primordial Shakti (Adya Shakti) whence every other form of Power proceeds. She is called Yogini because of Her connection with all things as their origin. It is this Origina l Power which is known in worship as Devi or Mother of Many Names. Those who worship 272 the Mother, worship nothing \"illusory\" or unconscious, but a Supreme Consciousness, whose body is all forms of consciousness -unconsciousness produced by Her as Shiva's power. Philosophically, the Mother or Daivashakti is the kinetic aspect of the Brahman. All three systems recognize that there is a static and kinetic aspect of things: Purusha, Brahman, Shiva on the one side, Prakriti, Maya, Shakti on the other. This is the time -honored attempt to reconcile the doctrine of a changeless Spirit, a changing Manifold, and the mysterious unity of the two. For Power (Shakti) and the possessor of the Power (Shaktiman) are one and the same. In the Tantras, Shiva constantly says to De vi, \"There is no difference between Thee and Me.\" We say that the fire burns, but burning is fire. Fire is not one thing and burning another. In the supreme transcendental changeless state, Shiva and Shakti are one, for Shiva is never without Shakti. The connection is called Avinabhavasambandha. Consciousness is never without its Power. Power is active Brahman or Consciousness. But, as there is then no activity, they exist in the supreme state as one Tattva (Ekam tattvam iva); Shiva as Cit, Shakti as Cidrup ini. This is the state before the thrill of Nada, the origin of all those currents of force which are the universe. According to Shamkara, the Supreme Experience contains no trace or seed of' objectivity whatever. In terms of speech, it is an abstract consciousness (Jana). According to the view here expressed, which has been profoundly elaborated by the Kashmir Shaiva School, that which appears \"without\" only so appears because it, in some form or other, exists \"within\". So also the Shakta Visvasara Tantra says, \"what is here is there, what is not here is nowhere.\" If therefore we know duality, it must be because the potentiality of it exists in that from which it arises. The Shaivashakta school thus assumes a real derivation of the universe and a causal nexus between Brahman and the world. According to Shamkara, this notion of creation is itself Maya, and there is no need to find a cause for it. So it is held that the supreme experience (Amarsha) is by the Self (Shiva) of Himself as Shakti, who as such is the Ideal or Perfect Universe; not in the sense of a perfected world of form, but that ultimate formless feeling (Bhava) of Bliss (Ananda) or Love which at root the whole world is. All is Love and by Love all is attained. The Shakta Tantras compare the state immediately prior to creation with that of a grain of gram (Canaka) wherein the two seeds (Shiva and Shakti) are held as one under a single 273 sheath. There is, as it were, a Maithuna in this unity of dual aspect, the thrill of which is Nada, productive of the seed or Bindu from which the universe is born. When the sheath breaks and the seeds are pushed apart, the beginning of a dichotomy is established in the one consciousness, whereby, the \"I\", and the \"This\" (Idam or Universe) appear as separate. The spec ific Shiva aspect is, when viewed through Maya, the Self, and the Shakti aspect the Not -Self. This is to the limited consciousness only. In truth the two, Shiva and Shakti, are ever one and the same, and never dissociated. Thus each of the Bindus of the Ka makala are Shiva -Shakti appearing as Purusha -Prakriti. At this point, Shakti assumes several forms, of which the two chief are Cit - Shakti or as Cit as Shakti, and Maya -Shakti or Maya as Shakti. Maya is not here a mysterious unconsciousness, a non-Brahman, non- real, non- unreal something. It is a form of Shakti, and Shakti is Shiva who is Consciousness which is real. Therefore Maya Shakti is in itself (Svarupa) Consciousness and Brahman. Being Brahman, It is real. It is that aspect of conscious power which conceals Itself to Itself. \"By veiling the own true form (Svarupa = Consciousness), its Shaktis always arise\", (Svarupavarane casya shaktayah satatotthitah) as the Spandakarika says. This is a common principle in all doctrine relating to Shakti. Indeed, this theory of veiling, though expressed in another form, is common to Samkhya and Vedanta. The difference lies in this that in Samkhya it is a second, independent Principle which veils; in Mayavada Vedanta it is the non- Brahman Maya (called a Shakti of Ishvar a) which veils; and in Shakta Advaitavada (for the Shaktas are nondualists) it is Consciousness which, without ceasing to be such, yet veils Itself. As already stated, the Monistic Shaivas and Shaktas hold certain doctrines in common such as the thirty -six Tattvas, and what are called Shadadhva which also appear as part of the teaching of the other Shaiva Schools. In the thirty -six Tattva scheme, Maya which is defined as \"the sense of difference\" (Bhedabuddhi), for it is that which makes the Self see things as different from the Self, is technically that Tattva which appears at the close of the pure creation, that is, after Shuddhavidya. This Maya reflects and limits in the Pashu or Jiva, the Iccha, Jana, Kriya Shaktis of Ishvara. These again are the three Bindus which are \"Moon,\" \"Fire,\" and \"Sun\". (See Author's Garland of Letters.) What are Jana and Kriya (including Iccha its preliminary) on the part of the Pati (Lord) in all beings and things 274 (Bhaveshu) which are His body: it is these two which, with Maya as the third, are the Sattva, Rajas and Tamas Gunas of the Pashu. This veiling power explains how the undeniable element of unconsciousness which is seen in things exists. How, if all be consciousness, is that principle there '? The answer is given in th e luminous definition of Shakti; \"It is the function of Shakti to negate\" (Nishedhavyapararupa Shaktih), that is, to negate consciousness and make it appear to Itself as unconscious (Karika 4 of Yogaraja or Yogamuni's Commentary on Abhinava Gupta's Paramar thasara). In truth the whole world is the Self whether as \"I\" (Aham) or \"This\" (Idam). The Self thus becomes its own object. It becomes object or form that it may enjoy dualistic experience. It yet remains, what it was in its unitary blissful experience. This is the Eternal Play in which the Self hides and seeks itself. The formless cannot assume form unless formlessness is negated. Eternity is negated into finality; the all -pervading into the limited; the all -knowing into the \"little knower\"; the almighty into the \"little doer,\" and so forth. It is only by negating Itself to Itself that the Self becomes its own object in the form of the universe. It follows from the above that, to the Shakta worshipper, there is no unconscious Maya in Shamkara's sense, and therefore there is no Cidabhasa, in the sense of the reflection of consciousness on unconsciousness, giving the latter the appearance of consciousness which it does not truly possess. For all is Consciousness as Shakti. \"Aham Stri,\" as the Advaitabhavopani sad exclaims. In short, Shamkara says there is one Reality or Consciousness and a not -real not -unreal Unconsciousness. What is really unconscious appears to be conscious by the reflection of the light of Consciousness upon it. Shakta doctrine says consciou sness appears to be unconscious, or more truly, to have an element of unconsciousness in it (for nothing even empirically is absolutely unconscious), owing to the veiling play of Consciousness Itself as Shakti. As with so many other matters, these apparent differences are to some extent a matter of words. It is true that the Vedantists speak of the conscious (Cetana) and unconscious (Acetana), but they, like the Shakta Advaitins, say that the thing in itself is Consciousness. When this is vividly displayed by reason of the reflection (Pratibimbha) of consciousness in 275 Tattva, (such as Buddhi), capable of displaying this reflection, then we can call that in which it is so displayed conscious. Where, though consciousness is all- pervading, Caitanya is not so dis played, there we speak of unconsciousness. Thus, gross matter (Bhuta) does not appear to reflect Cit, and so appears to us unconscious. Though all things are at base consciousness, some appear as more, and some as less conscious. Shamkara explains this by saying that Caitanya is associated with a non- conscious mystery or Maya which veils consciousness, and Caitanya gives to what is unconscious the appearance of consciousness through reflection. \"Reflection\" is a form of pictorial thinking. What is meant is that two principles are associated together without the nature (Svarupa) of either being really affected, and yet producing that effect which is Jiva. Shakta doctrine says that all is consciousness, but this same consciousness assumes the appearance of changing degrees of unconsciousness, not through the operation of anything other than itself (Maya), but by the operation of one of its own powers (Mayashakti). It is not unconscious Maya in Shamkara's sense which veils consciousness, but Consciousness as Shakti veils Itself, and, as so functioning, it is called Mayashakti. It may be asked how can Consciousness become Unconsciousness and cease to be itself '? The answer is that it does not. It never ceases to be Consciousness. It appears to itself, as Jiva, to be unconscious, and even then not wholly: for as recent scientific investigations have shown, even so -called \"brute matter\" exhibits the elements of that which, when evolved in man, is self -consciousness. If it be asked how consciousness can obscure itself partially or at all, the only answer is Acintya Shakti, which Mayavadins as all other Vedantists admit. Of this, as of all ultimates, we must say with the Western Scholastics, \"omnia exeunt in mysterium\". Prakriti is then, according to Samkhya, a real independent category different from Purusha. This both Mayavada and Shaktivada deny. Maya is a not -real, not-unreal Mystery dependent on, and associated with, and inhering in Brahman; but not Brahman or any part of Brahman. Maya -Shakti is a power of, and, in its Svarupa, not different from Shiva: is real, and is an aspect of Brahman itself. Whilst Brahman as Ishvara is associated with Maya, Shiva is never associated with anything but Himself. But the function of all three is the same, namely to make forms in the formless. It is That, by which the 276 Ishvara or Collective Consciousness pictures the universe for the individual Jiva's experience. Shakti is three- fold as Will (Iccha), Knowledge (Jana), and Action (Kriya). All three are but differing aspects of the one Shakti. Consciousness and its power or action are at base the same. It is true that action is manifested in matter, that is apparent unconsciousness, but its root, as that of all else is consciousness. Jana is self -proved and experienced (Svatahsiddha), whereas, Kriya, being inherent in bodies, is perceived by others than by ourselves. The characteristic of action is the manifestation of all objects. These objects, again, characterized by consciousness -unconsciousness are in the nature of a shining forth (Abhasa) of Consciousness. (Here Abhasa is not used in its sense of Cidabhasa, but as an intensive form of the term Bhasa.) The power of activity and knowledge are only differing aspects of one and the same Consciousness. According to Shamkara, Brahman has no form of self- determination. Kriya is a function of unconscious Maya. When Ishvara is said to be a doer (Karta), this is attributed (Aupadhika) to Him by ignorance only. It follows from the above that there are other material differences between Shakt a doctrine and Mayavada, such as the nature of the Supreme Experience, the reality and mode of creation, the reality of the world, and so forth. The world, it is true, is not; as the Mahanirvana Tantra says absolute reality in the sense of unchanging being, for it comes and goes. It is nevertheless real, for it is the experience of Shiva and Shiva's experience is not unreal. Thus again the evolution of the world as Abhasa, whilst resembling the Vivarta of Mayavada, differs from it in holding, as the Samkhya does, that the effect is real and not unreal, as Shamkara contends. To treat of these and other matters would carry me beyond the scope of this essay which only deals, and that in a summary way, with the essential differences and similarities in the concept Prakriti, Maya and Shakti. I may however conclude with a few general remarks. The doctrine of Shakti is a profound one, and I think likely to be attractive to Western minds when they have grasped it, just as they will appreciate the Tantrik watchword, Kriya or action, its doctrine of progress with and through the world and not against it, which is involved in its liberation- enjoyment (Bhukti -mukti) theory and other matters. The philosophy is, in any case, not, as an American writer, in his ignorance, absurdly called it, \"worthless,\" \"religious Feminism 277 run mad,\" and a \"feminization of Vedanta for suffragette Monists\". It is not a \"feminization\" of anything, but distinctive, original and practical doctrine worthy of a careful study. The Western student will find much in it which is more acceptable to generally prevalent thought in Europe and America -- than in the \"illusion\" doctrine (in itself an unsuitable term), and the ascetic practice of the Vedantins of Shamkara's school. This is not to say that ways of reconciliation may not be found by those who go far enough. It would not be difficult to show ground for holding that ultimately the same intellectual results are attained by viewing the matter from the differing standpoints of Sadhana and Siddhi. The writer of an interesting article on the same subject in the Prabuddha Bharata (August 1916) states that the Samnyasi Totapuri, the Guru of Sri Ramakrishna, maintained that a (Mayavadin) Vedantist could not believe in Shakti, for if causality itself be unreal there is no need to admit any power to cause, and that it is Maya to apply the principle of causation and to say that everything comes from Shakti. The Samnyasi was converted to Shakta doctrine after all. For as the writer well says, it is not merely by intellectual denial, but by living beyond the \"unreal,\" that Real is found. He, however, goes on to say, \"the Shaktivada of Tantra is not an improvement on the Mayavada of Vedanta, (that is the doctrine of Shamkara) but only its symbolization through the chromatics of sentiment and concept.\" It is true that it is a form of Vedanta, for all which is truly Indian must be that. It is also a fact that the Agama as a Shastra of worship is full of Symbolism. Intellectually, however, it is an original presentment of Vedanta, and from the practical point of view, it has some points of merit which Mayavada does not possess. Varieties of teaching may be different presentations of one truth leading to a similar end. But one set of \"chromatics\" may be more fruitful than another for the mass of men. It is in this that the strength of the Shakta doctrine and practice lies. Moreover (whether they be an improvement or not) there are differences between the two. Thus the followers of Shamkara do not, so far as I am aware, accept the thirty -six Tattvas. A question, however, which calls for inquiry is that of the relation of the Shakta and Shaiva (Advaita) Schools Mayavada is a doctrine which, whether true or not, is fitted only for advanced minds of great intellectuality, and for men of ascetic disposition, and of the highest moral 278 development. This is implied in its theory of competency (Adhikara) for Vedantic teaching. When, as is generally the case, it is not understood, and in some cases when it is understood, but is otherwise not suitable, it is liable to be a weakening doctrine. The Shakta teaching to be found in the Tantras has also its profundities which are to be revealed only to the competent, and contains a practical doctrine for all classes of worshippers (Sadhaka). It has, in this form, for the mass of men, a strengthening pragmatic value which is beyond dispute. Whether, as some may have contended, it is the fruit of a truer spiritual experience I will not here discuss, for this would lead me into a polemic beyond the scope of my present purpose, which is an impartial statement of the respective teachings, on one particular point, given by the three philosophical systems here discussed. 279 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN . SHAKTA ADVAITAVADA I have often been asked -- In what consists the difference between Vedanta and 'Tantra'. This question is the product of substantial error, for it assumes that Tantra Shastra is not based on Vedanta. I hope that, after many years of work, I have now ma de it clear that the Tantra Shastra or Agama (whatever be its ultimate origin as to which little is known by anybody) is now, and has been for centuries past, one of the recognized Scriptures of Hinduism, and every form of Hinduism is based on Veda and Vedanta. Another erroneous question, though less so, is -- In what consists the difference between Advaita Vedanta and 'Tantra' Shastra. But here again, the question presupposes a misunderstanding of both Vedanta and Agama. There are, as should be well known, several schools of Advaita Vedanta, such as Mayavada (with which too commonly the Advaita Vedanta is identified), such as the schools of the Northern Shaivagama, and Shuddhadvaita of Vallabhacarya. In the same way, there are different schools of doctrine and worship in what are called the 'Tantras', and a grievous mistake is committed when the Tantra is made to mean the Shakta Tantra only, such as is prevalent in Bengal and which, according to some, is either the product of, or has been influenced by Buddhism. Some English -speaking Bengalis of a past day, too ready to say, \"Aye aye,\" to the judgments of foreign critics, on their religion as on everything else, and in a hurry to dissociate themselves from their country's \"superstitions,\" were the source of t he notion which has had such currency amongst Europeans that, \"Tantra\" necessarily meant drinking wine and so forth. A legitimate and accurate question is -- In what consists the difference between, say, the Mayavadin's Vedanta and that taught by the Shakt a Sampradaya of Bengal. One obviously fundamental difference at once emerges. The Agamas being essentially ritual or Sadhana Shastras are not immediately and practically concerned with the Yoga doctrine touching Paramarthika Satta taught by Shamkaracarya. A Sadhaka ever assumes the reality of the Universe, and is a practical dualist, whatever be the non- dual philosophical doctrines to which he may be intellectually attracted. He 280 worships, that is assumes the being of some Other who is worshipped, that is a Real Lord who really creates, maintains, and really dissolves the Universe. He himself, the object of his worship and the means of worship are real, and his Advaita views are presented on this basis. It is on this presentment then that the next class of differences is to be found. What are they? The essence of them lies in this that the Sadhaka looks at the Brahman, through the world, whereas to the Mayavadin Yogi, placing himself at the Brahman standpoint, there is neither creation nor world but the luminous Atma. The Clear Light of the Void, as the Mahayanists call it, that alone is. Nevertheless, both the Advaita Sadhaka and the Advaita Yogi are one in holding that the Brahman alone is. Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma is the great saying (Vakya) on which all Shakta Tantra Shastra rests. The difference in interpretation then consists in the manner in which this Mahavakya is to be explained. Does it really mean what it says, or does it mean that the saying applies only after elimination of Maya and Avidya. Here there is the necessary difference because, in the case of the Sadhaka, the Vakya must be explained on the basis of his presuppositions already given, whereas the Yogi who has passed the stage in which he became Siddha in Sadhana surpasses, by auto- realization, all dualism. The vast mass of men are better warned off discussions on Paramarthika Satta. Whether the concept be true or not, it only leads in their case to useless argument (Vicara), and thus enfeebles them. Shakta doctrine, as its name implies, is a doctrine of power. It is true that Yoga is power, indeed the highest form of it (Yogabala). But it is a power only for those qualified (Adhikari), and not for the mass. I am not therefore here adversely criticizing Mayavada. It is a pity that this country whose great glory it is to have preached Abheda in varying forms, and therefore tolerance, is to -day full of hateful Bheda of all kinds. I say \"hateful\", for Bheda is a natural thing, only hateful when accompanied by hate and intolerance. Profoundly it is said in Halhed's Gentoo laws that, \"contrarieties of religion and diversity of belief are a demonstration of the power of the Supreme. Differences and varieties of created things are rays of the Glorious Essence, and types of His wonderful attributes whose complete power formed all creatures.\" There is also the saying attributed to the Apostle of God, Mohammed, in the Radd- ul-Muhtar and elsewhere -- \"difference of opinion is also the gift of God\". In these sayings speaks the 281 high spirit of Asia. There may be political remedies for sectarian ill -feeling, but a medicine of more certain effect in this country is the teaching, \"Rama Rahim ek hai\". Let us then not only objectively, but in all amity, examine the two great systems mentioned. We all know what is normal world- experience in the Samsara. Some through auto- realization have super -normal or \"mystic\" experience. This last is of varying kinds, and is had in all religions. The highest form of it, according to Mayavada, is Nirvana Moksha, but there are many degrees short of this complete self -realization as the Whole (Purna). But the great majority of men are not concerned directly with such high matters, but with a realization of power in the world. World- experience is called ignorance, Ajana. This may confuse. It is ignorance only in this sense, that whilst we have normal experience, we are by that very fact ignoring, that is, not having super -normal experience. In sup er-normal experience again there is no finite world- experience. The Lord Himself cannot have man's experience except as and through man. Avidya means Na Vidyate, that is, which is not seen or experienced. Some speak in foolish disparagement of the world which is our very close concern. As a link between Yoga and Bhoga, the Shakta teaches, Yogo Bhogayate. I am now dealing with Mayavada. Whence does this ignorance in the individual or Avidya, come? The world is actually ignorant and man is part of it. This ignorance is the material cause of the world. This is not ignorance of the individual (Avidya), for then, there would be as many worlds as individuals; but the collective ignorance or Maya. Avidya exists to provide happiness or pain (Bhoga) for individuals, that is normal world- experience. Stated simply, ignorance in the sense of Maya has no beginning or end, though worlds appear and go. What is this but to say that it is in the nature (Svabhava) of the Real which manifests to do so, and the nature of its fut ure manifestation proceeds upon lines indicated by the past collective Karma of the world. Now, enjoyment and suffering cannot be denied, nor the existence of an element of unconsciousness in man. But the Paramatma, as such, does not, it is said, suffer or enjoy, but is Pure Consciousness. What consciousness then does so? Shamkara, who is ever solicitous to preserve purity of the Supreme unchanging Self, says that it is not true consciousness, but a false 282 image of it reflected in ignorance and which disappe ars when the latter is destroyed. This is in fact Samkhyan Dualism in another form, and because of this Shaktivada claims to have a purer Advaita doctrine. In Samkhya the Purusha, and in Mayavada the Atma illumine Prakriti and Maya respectively, but are never in fact bound by her. What is in bondage is the reflection of Purusha or Atma in Prakriti or Maya. This is Cidabhasa or the appearance of consciousness in a thing which is in fact not conscious; the appearance being due to the reflection of consciousness (Cit), or ignorance (Ajana), or unconsciousness (Acit). The false consciousness as Jivatma, suffers and enjoys. According to the Shakta view there is, as later explained, no Cidabhasa. Now, is this Ajana independent of Atma or not? Its independence, such as Samkhya teaches, is denied. Ignorance then, whether collective or individual, must be traced to, and have its origin in, and rest on Consciousness as Atma. How this is so, is unexplained, but the unreal which owes its existence in some inscrutable way to Reality is yet, it is said, in truth no part of it. It is Brahman then, which is both the efficient and material cause of ignorance with its three Gunas, and of Cidabhasa, Brahma is the cause through its inscrutable power (Acintyashaktitvat) or Maya -Shakti, Now, is this Shakti real or unreal? According to the transcendent standpoint (Paramarthika) of Mayavada it is unreal. The creative consciousness is a reflection on ignorance or Maya. It is Brahman seen through the veil of Maya. This is not a denial of Brahman, but of the fact that it creates. A true consciousness, it is said, can have no incentive to create. From the standpoint of the Supreme State nothing happens. Both the consciousness which as Ishvara creates, and as Jiva enjoys are Cidabhasa, the only difference being that the first is not, and the second is under the influence of Maya. Then it is asked, ignorance being unconscious and incapable of independent operation, true consciousness being inactive (Nishkriya), and Cidabhasa being unreal, how is ignorance capable of hiding true consciousness and producing the world out of itself ? To this the only reply is Svabhava that is, the very nature of ignorance makes it capable of producing apparently impossible effects. It is inscrutable (Anirvacani ya). 283 The Shakta then asks whether this Shakti is real or unreal, conscious or unconscious, Brahman or not Brahman? If it be a Shakti of Brahman, it cannot be unreal, for there is no unreality in Brahman. It must be conscious for otherwise unconsciousness would be a factor in Brahman. It is Brahman then; for power (Shakti) and the possessor of power (Shaktiman) are one and the same. Therefore, the Shakta Tantra Shastra says that Shakti which, operating as Cit and Maya, is Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti, is real, conscious and Brahman itself (Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma). It follows that Shakti which is Brahman in its aspect as Creator is, in fact, both the efficient and material cause of the world. If the first or cause is real, so is the second or world. If the first be the cause of unreality, it is in itself unreal. But what is real is Brahman. Therefore, the world has a real cause which is not unreal unconsciousness or ignorance composed of three Gunas, but conscious Shakti and Brahman. It, therefore, does away with the necessity for Cidabhasa; for, if real conscious Shakti is the cause of the world, then there is no need for unreal unconsciousness which Mayavada is driven to posit to secure the absolute purity of the Brahman Consciousness. From the standpoint of Mayavada, the objection to the exclusion of Cidabhasa lies in the fact that, if the world is derived direct from conscious Shakti (as Shaktas hold), then the Supreme Consciousness is made both enjoyer and object of enjoyment. But it holds that, Paramatma does not enjoy and has no need to do so; whilst the object of enjoyment is unconscious. Hence, the trace of Samkhyan dualism, the Atma exerting an influence over Maya by virtue of its proximity only (Sannidhimatrena Upakari). Pure Atma is not itself concerned. Maya receives its influence. This is analogous to what is called in Chemistry catalytic action. The catalytic substance influences another by its mere presence, but remains itself apparently unchanged. Atma is in this sense an efficient but not instrumen tal or material cause of the world. As Atma is only Sacchidananda, the world, so long as it is considered to exist, must exist in Pure Consciousness (Atmastha), though essentially it is different from it (Atmavilakshana), and does not exist for its purpose . In Mayavada, the world, from the transcendental standpoint, does not exist 284 and Atma is not cognizant of it. Hence, the question of the cause of Creation is bred of ignorance. So also, is the idea of efficient cause, for it proceeds from a search for the cause of Creation which does not exist. Mayavada, from the standpoint of normal conventional experience (Vyavaharika Satta), speaks of the Shakti of Atma as a cause of Creation, simply to provide the empirical world of the worldly man with a worldly interp retation of its worldly existence. From this point of view, Brahman is looked at through the world, which is the natural thing for all who are not liberated. From the other end or Brahman, there is no Creation nor world, and Atma alone is. The Shakta may reply to this: Is not your Paramarthika standpoint in fact empirical, arrived at by argument (Vicara) with a limited intellect? If inscrutable power is a cause of the world, it is inscrutable, because the intellect cannot grasp it, though it is known to be Atma. If the latter can show inscrutable power, how can you say that it is incapable of appearing as enjoyer and object of enjoyment? To deny this is to deny the unlimited character of inscrutable power. If it be objected, that Atma cannot be object of enjoyment, because, the former is conscious and the latter unconscious, what proof is there, that such an object is essentially unconscious? It may be, that consciousness is not perceived in it, that is, the material world appears to be unconscious, and therefore unconsciousness comes in somewhere, otherwise it could not be perceived as unconscious. Thus, a school of European idealists hold the Universe to be a society of Spirits of all kinds and degrees, human, animal, and vegetable and even inorganic objects . All are minds of various orders. Even the last are an order, though yet so low that they are in practice not apprehended as minds. The material world is merely the way in which these lower kinds of mind appear to our senses. The world of objects are (to use Berkely's word) \"signs\" of Spirit, and the way in which it communicates itself to us. Thus, to the Hindu, the Bhargah in the Sun is the Aditya Devata, and the planets are intelligences. The physical sun is the body of the Surya Devata. The whole Univer se is an epiphany of Spirit. Matter is Cit as object to the mind, as mind is Cit as the Knower of such object. It is not, however, denied that there is an element of unconsciousness in the material world as it appears to us. But the Shakta says, that Shakti has the power of hiding its consciousness, which is exercised to varying extent; thus, to a greater extent in the case of inorganic 285 matter than in the case of the plant, and the less in the latter than in man, in whom consciousness is most manifest. This power is Her Avidya Murti, just as consciousness is her Vidya Murti. Nothing then in the material world is absolutely unconscious, and nothing is perfectly conscious. The Vidya Murti ever is because as consciousness it is the own nature or Svarupa of Shakti. The Avidya Murti which conceals consciousness, appears in Creation and disappears in dissolution. The Mayavadin may however ask, whether this Avidya -shakti is conscious or unconscious. It cannot, he says, be the latter, for it is said to be Atma which is conscious. How then can it conceal itself and appear as unconscious P For, nothing can be, what it is not, and the nature of consciousness is to reveal and not to conceal. If, again, consciousness on account of its concealment, is incapable of knowing i tself, it ceases to be consciousness. The reply is again that this also is empirical argument, based upon an imperfect idea of the nature of things. Every one knows that there is consciousness in him, but at the same time he recognizes, that it is imperfect. The Mayavadin seeks to explain this by saying, that it is a false consciousness (Cidabhasa), which is again explained by means of two opposites, namely, unconsciousness, which is an unreality to which Cidabhasa adheres, and true consciousness or Atma, w hich, by virtue of its inscrutable power, acts as efficient cause in its production. This theory compels its adherent to ignore the world, the limited consciousness and Shastra itself in order that the perfection of Atma may be maintained, though at the same time, Shakti is admitted to be unlimited and inscrutable. The Shakta's answer on the other side is, that there is in fact no false consciousness, and essentially speaking, no unconsciousness anywhere, though there appears to be some unconsciousness. In fact, Mayavada says, that the unconscious appears to be conscious through the play of Atma on it, whilst the Shakta says that, really and at base, all is consciousness which appears to be unconsciousness in varying degrees. All consciousness, however imperfect, is real consciousness, its imperfection being due to its suppressing its own light to itself, and all apparent unconsciousness is due to this imperfection in the consciousness which sees it. Mayavada seeks to explain away the world, from which nevert heless, it derives the materials for its theory. But it is 286 argued that it fails to do so. In its attempt to explain, it brings in a second principle namely unconsciousness, and even a third Cidabhasa. Therefore, the theory of Shaktivada which posits nothing but consciousness is (it is contended) a truer form of non- dualism. Yet we must note, that the theories of both are made up with the imperfect light of man's knowledge. Something must then remain unexplained in all systems. The Mayavada does not explain the character of the Shakti of Atma as Efficient cause of creation, and the Shakta does not explain the character of the Shakti of Atma which, in spite of being true consciousness, hides itself. But whilst the Shakta difficulty stands alone, the other theory brings, it is said, in its train a number of others. The Mayavadin may also ask, whether Avidya Murti is permanent or transient. If the latter, it cannot be Atma which eternally is, whereas if it is permanent, liberation is impossible. It may be replied that this objection does not lie in the mouth of Mayavada which, in a transcendental sense, denies creation, world, bondage and liberation. The latter is a transition from bondage to freedom which presupposes the reality of the world and a connection between it and that, which is beyond all worlds. This, Shamkara denies, and yet acknowledges a method of spiritual culture for liberation. The answer of course is, that transcendentally Atma is ever free, and that such spiritual culture is required for the emp irical (Vyavaharika) need of the empirical self or Cidabhasa, for empirical liberation from an empirical world. But, as all these conventional things are in an absolute sense \"unreal,\" the Mayavada's instructions for spiritual culture have been likened to consolations given to soothe the grief of a sterile woman who has lost her son. (See J. N. Mazumdar's paper read before the Indian Research Society on the Philosophical, Religious and Social Significance of the Tantra Shastra (July 31, 1915), to which I am here indebted.) Theoretically the answer may be sufficient, though this may not be allowed, but the method can in any case, have full pragmatic value only, in exceptional cases. Doubtless to the unliberated Mayavadin Sadhaka, the world is real, in the sense, that it imposes its reality on him, whatever his theories may be. But it is plain, that such a system does not ordinarily at least develop the same power as one, in which doubt as to the reality of things does not exist. In order that instruction shoul d work, we must 287 assume a real basis for them. Therefore, the Tantra Shastra here spoken of, deals with true bondage in a true world, and aims at true liberation from it. It is Shakti, who both binds and liberates, and Sadhana of Her is the means of liberation. Nothing is unreal or false. Shakti is and Shakti creates and thus appears as the Universe. In positing an evolution (Parinama), the Shastra follows Samkhya, because, both systems consider the ultimate source of the world to be real, as unconscious Prakriti or conscious Shakti respectively. The Shakta takes literally the great saying, \"All the (Universe) is Brahman\" -- every bit of it. Mayavada achieves its unity by saying, that Jivatma = Para matma after elimination of Avidya in the first and Maya in the second. Ignorance is something neither real nor unreal. It is not real in comparison with the supreme unchanging Brahman. It is not unreal, for we experience it as real, and it is for the length of the duration of such experience. Again, Shaktivada assumes a real development (Parinama), with this proviso that the cause becomes effect, and yet remains what it was as cause. Mayavada says that there is transcendentally no real change but only the appearance of it; that is, the notion of Parinama is Maya lik e all the rest. The Tantra Shastra deals with true bondage in a true world, and aims at true liberation from it. Atma binds itself by the Avidya Murti of its Shakti, and liberates itself by its Vidya Murti. Sadhana is the means whereby bondage becomes liberation. Nothing is unreal or false. Atma by its Shakti causes the play in itself of a Shakti which is essentially nothing but itself but operates in a dual capacity, namely as Avidya and Vidya. Creation is thus an epiphany of the Atma, which appears and is withdrawn from and into itself like the limbs of a tortoise. The All -Pervading Atma, manifests itself in many Jivas; as the world which supplies the objects of their enjoyment; as the mind and senses for the attainment of the objects; as ignorance which binds; as knowledge which liberates when Atma ceases to present itself; as Avidya; and as Shastra which provides the means for liberation. Shaktivada affirms reality throughout, because, it is a practical Scripture for real men in a real world. Without such presupposition, Sadhana is not possible. When Sadhana has achieved its object -- Siddhi -- as Auto -realization -- no question of the real or unreal arises. In the Buddhacarita -kavya it is said (cited in Hodgson \"Nepal,\" 45) that Sakya being questioned on an abstruse point, is reported to have said, \"For myself I can tell you nothing on these matters. Meditate on 288 Buddha and when you have obtained the supreme experience (Bodhijana) you will know the truth yourself.\" In these high realms we reach a point at which wisdom is silence. After all man in the mass is concerned with worldly needs, and there is nothing to be ashamed of in this. One of the greatest doctrines in the Shakta Tantra is its Bhukti Mukti teaching, and it is not less great because it may have been abused. All systems are at the mercy of their followers. Instead of the ascetic method of the Mayavadin suited for men of high spiritual development, whose Ascesis is not something labored but an expression of their own true nature, the Kaula teaches liberation through enjoyment, that is the world. The path of enjoyment is a natural one. There is nothing bad in enjoyment itself if it be according to Dharma. It is only Adharma which is blamed. Liberation is thus had through the world (Mokshayate Samsar a). In the natural order of development, power is developed in worldly things, but the power is controlled by a religious Sadhana, which both prevents an excess of worldliness, and molds the mind and disposition (Bhava) into a form which, at length and naturally, develops into that knowledge which produces dispassion (Vairagya) for the world. The two paths lead to the same end. But this is itself too big a subject to be developed here. Sufficient be it to repeat what I have said elsewhere. \"The Vira does not shun the world from fear of it. He holds it in his grasp and wrests from it its secret. Then escaping from the unconscious driftings of a humanity which has not yet realized itself, he is the illumined master of himself, whether developing all his powers or seeking liberation at his will.\" As regards the state of dissolution (Pralaya) both systems are at one. In positing an evolution Tantra follows Samkhya because both the two latter theories consider the ultimate source of the world to be real; real as unconscious Prakriti (Samkhya); real as conscious Shakti (Shakta Tantra). In the Mayavada scheme, the source of the world is an unreal ignorance, and reveals itself first as Tanmatras which gradually assume the form of senses and mind in order to appear before Cidabhasa as objects of enjoyment and suffering. The Tantra Shastra again, subject to modifications in consonance with its doctrine, agrees with Nyaya -Vaisheshika in holding that the powers of consciousness which are Will (Iccha), Knowledge (Jana) and Action 289 (Kriya) constitute the motive power in creation. These are the great Triangle of Energy (Kamakala) from which Shabda and Artha, the forces of the psychic and material worlds, arise. 290 CHAPTER NINETEEN . CREATION AS EXPLAINED IN THE NON-DUALIST TANTRAS A Psychological analysis of our worldly experience ordinarily gives us both the feeling of persistence and change. This personal experience expresses a cosmic truth. An examination of any doctrine of creation similarly reveals two fundamental concepts, those of Being and Becoming, Changelessness and Change, the One and the Many. In Sanskrit, they are called the Kutastha and Bhava or Bhavana. The first is the Spirit or Purusha or Brahman and Atman which is unlimited Being (Sat), Consciousness (Cit) and Bliss (Ananda). According to Indian notions the Atman as such is and never becomes. Its Power (Shakti) manifests as Nature, which is the subject of change. We may understand Nature in a two- fold sense: first, as the root principle or noumenal cause of the phenomenal world, that is, as the Principle of Becoming and secondly, as such World. Nature in the former sense is Mulaprakriti, which means that which exists as the root (Mula) substance of things before (Pra), creation (Kriti), and which, in association with Cit, either truly or apparently creates, maintains and destroys the Universe. This Mulaprakriti the Sharada Tilaka calls Mulabhuta Avyakta, and the Vedanta (of Shamkara to which alone I refer) Maya. Nature, in the second sense, that is the phenomenal world, which is a product of Mulaprakriti is the compound of the evolutes from this root substance which are called Vikritis in the Samkhya and Tantra, and name and form (Namarupa) by the Vedantins, who at tribute them to ignorance (Avidya). Mulaprakriti as the material and instrumental cause of things is that potentiality of natural power (natura naturans) which manifests as the Universe (natura naturata). Touching these two Principles, there are certain fu ndamental points of agreement in the three systems which I am examining -- Samkhya, Vedanta and the Advaitavada of the Tantra. They are as follows. According to the first two systems, Brahman or Purusha as Sat, Cit and Ananda is Eternal Conscious Being. It is changeless and has no activity (Kartrittva). It is not 291 therefore in Itself a cause whether instrumental or material; though in so far as Its simple presence gives the appearance of consciousness to the activities of Prakriti, It may in such sense be designated an efficient cause. So, according to Samkhya, Prakriti reflects Purusha, and in Vedanta, Avidya of the three Gunas takes the reflection of Cidananda. On the other hand, the substance or factors of Mulaprakriti or Maya are the three Gunas or the three characteristics of the principle of Nature, according to which it reveals (Sattva) or veils (Tamas), Consciousness (Cit) and the activity or energy (Rajas) which urges Sattva and Tamas to operation. It also is Eternal, but is unconscious (Acit) Becoming. Though it is without consciousness (Caitanya) it is essentially activity (Kartrittva) motion and change. It is a true cause instrumental and material of the World. But notwithstanding all the things to which Mulaprakriti gives birth, Its substance is in no wise diminished by the production of the Vikritis or Tattvas: the Gunas which constitute it ever remaining the same. The source of all becoming is never exhausted, though the things which are therefrom produced appear and disappear. Passing from the ge neral points of agreement to those of difference, we note firstly, those between the Samkhya and the Vedanta. The Samkhya is commonly regarded as a dualistic system, which affirms that both Purusha and Prakriti are real, separate and independent Principles. The Vedanta, however, says that there cannot be two Principles which are both absolutely real. It does not, however, altogether discard the dual principles of the Samkhya, but says that Mulaprakriti which it calls Maya, while real from one point of view, that is empirically, is not real from another and transcendental standpoint. It affirms therefore that the only Real (Sadvastu) is the attributeless (Nirguna Brahman). All else is Maya and its products. Whilst then the Samkhyan Mulaprakriti is an Eternal Reality, it is according to the transcendental method of Shamkara an eternal unreality (Mithyabhuta Sanatani). The empirical reality which is really false is due to the Avidya which is inherent in the nature of the embodied spirit (Jiva). Maya is Avastu or no real thing. It is Nishtattva. As Avidya is neither real nor unreal, so is its cause or Maya. The kernel of the Vedantik argument on this point is to be found in its interpretations of the Vaidik Mahavakya, \"That thou art\" (Tat 292 tvam asi). Tat here is Ishvara, that is, Brahman with Maya as his body or Upadhi. Tvam is the Jiva with Avidya as its body. It is then shown that Jiva is only Brahman when Maya is eliminated from Ishvara, and Avidya from Jiva. Therefore, only as Brahman is the Tvam the Tat; theref ore, neither Maya nor Avidya really exist (they are Avastu), for otherwise the equality of Jiva and Ishvara could not be affirmed. This conclusion that Maya is Avastu has far - reaching consequences, both religious and philosophical, and so has the denial of it. It is on this question that there is a fundamental difference between Shamkara's Advaitavada and that of the Shakta Tantra, which I am about to discuss. Before, however, doing so I will first contrast the notions of creation in Samkhya and Vedanta. It is common ground that creation is the appearance produced by the action of Mulaprakriti or principle of Nature (Acit) existing in association with Cit. According to Samkhya, in Mulaprakriti or the potential condition of the Natural Principle, the Gunas ar e in a state of equality (Samyavastha), that is, they are not affecting one another. But, as Mulaprakriti is essentially movement, it is said that even when in this state of equality the Gunas are yet continually changing into themselves (Sarupaparinama). This inherent subtle movement is the nature of the Guna itself, and exists without effecting any objective result. Owing to the ripening of Adrishta or Karma, creation takes place by the disturbance of this equality of the Gunas (Gunakshobha), which then commence to oscillate and act upon one another. It is this initial creative motion which is known in the Tantra as Cosmic Sound (Parashabda). It is through the association of Purusha with Mulaprakriti in cosmic vibration (Spandana) that creation takes place . The whole universe arises from varied forms of this grand initial motion. So, scientific \"matter\" is now currently held to be the varied appearance produced in our minds by vibration of, and in the single substance called ether. This new Western scientif ic doctrine of vibration is in India an ancient inheritance. \"Hring, the Supreme Hangsa dwells in the brilliant heaven.\" The word \"Hangsa\" comes, it is said, from the word Hanti, which means Gati or Motion. Sayana says that It is called Aditya, because It is in perpetual motion. But Indian teaching carries the application of this doctrine beyond the scientific ether which is a physical substance (Mahabhuta). There is vibration in the causal body that is of the Gunas of 293 Mulaprakriti as the result of Sadrishaparinama of Parashabdasrishti; in the subtle body of mind (Antahkarana); and in the gross body, compounded of the Bhutas which derive from the Tanmatras their immediate subtle source of origin. The Hiranyagarbha and Virat Sound is called Madhyama and Vaikh ari. If this striking similarity between ancient Eastern wisdom and modern scientific research has not been recognized, it is due to the fact that the ordinary Western Orientalist and those who take their cue from him in this country, are prone to the somewhat contemptuous belief that, Indian notions are of \"historical\" interest only, and as such, a welcome addition possibly for some intellectual museum, but are otherwise without value or actuality. The vibrating Mulaprakriti and its Gunas ever remain the same, though the predominance of now one, and now another of them, produces the various evolutes called Vikritis or Tattvas, which constitute the world of mind and matter. These Tattvas constitute the elements of the created world. They are the well -known Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas (constituting the Antahkarana), the ten Indriyas, five Tanmatras and five Mahabhutas of \"ether\", \"air\", \"fire\", \"water\" and \"earth\", which of course must not be identified with the notions which the English terms connote. These Tattv as are names for the elements which we discover as a result of a psychological analysis of our worldly experience. That experience ordinarily gives us both the feeling of persistence and change. The former is due to the presence of the Atma or Cit -Shakti, which exists in us in association with Mulaprakriti or Maya -Shakti. This is the Caitanya in all bodies. Change is caused by Mulaprakriti or Maya -Shakti, and its elements may be divided into the subjective and objective Tattvas, or what we call mind and mat ter. Analyzing, again, the former, we discover an individuality (Ahamkara) sensing through the Indriyas, a world which forms the material of its precepts and concepts (Manas and Buddhi). The object of thought or \"matter' are the varied compounds of Vaikrita creation, which are made up of combinations of the gross elements (Mahabhuta), which themselves derive from the subtle elements or Tanmatras. Now, according to Samkhya, all this is real, for all are Tattvas. Purusha and Prakriti are Tattvas, and so are Vikritis of the latter. According to the Vedanta also, creation takes place through the association of the Brahman, then known as the Lord or Ishvara (Mayopadhika - 294 Caitanyam Ishvarah), with Maya. That is, Cit is associated with, though unaffected by Maya which operates by reason of such association to produce the universe. The unchanging Sad- vastu is the Brahman. The ever- changing world is, when viewed by the spiritually wise (Jani), the form imposed by Avidya on the Changeless Sat. It is true, that it has the quality of being in accordance with the greatest principle of order, namely, that of causality. It is the Sat however, which gives to the World the character of orderliness, because it is on and in association with that pure Cit or Sat that Maya plays. It is true, that behind all this unreal appearance there is the Real, the Brahman. But the phenomenal world has, from the alogical standpoint, no real substratum existing as its instrumental and material cause. The Brahman as such, is no true cause, and Maya is unreal (Avastu). The world has only the appearance of reality from the reflection which is cast by the real upon the unreal. Nor is Ishvara, the creative and ruling Lord, in a transcendental sense real. For, as it is the Brahman in association with Maya, which Shamkara calls Ishvara, the latter is nothing but the Brahman viewed through Maya. It follows that the universe is the product of the association of the real and the unreal, and when world- experience ends in liberation (Mukti), the notion of Ishvara as its creator no longer exists. For His body is Maya and this is Avastu, So long however as there is a world, that is, so long as one is subject to Maya that is embodied, so long do we recognize the existence of Ishvara. The Lord truly exists for every Jiva so long as he is such. But on attainment of bodiless liberation (Videha Mukti), the Jiva becomes himself Sacchidananda, and as such Ishvara does not exist for him, for Ishvara is but the Sat viewed through that Maya of which the Sat is free. \"The Brahman is true, the world is false. The Jiva is Brahman (Paramatma) and nothing else.\" The opponents of this system or Mayavada have charged it with being a covert form of Buddhistic nihilism (Maya -vadam asacchastram pracchannam bauddham). It has, however, perhaps been more correctly said that Sri Shamkara adjusted his philosophy to meet the Mayavada of the Buddhists, and so promulgated a new theory of Maya without abandoning the faith or practice of his Shaiva -Shakta Dharma. 295 All systems obviously concede a t least the empirical reality of the world. The question is, whether it has a greater reality than that, and if so, in what way? Samkhya affirms its reality; Shamkara denies it in order to secure the complete unity of the Brahman. Each system has merits of its own. Samkhya by its dualism is able to preserve in all its integrity the specific character of Cit as Nirajana. This result, on the other hand, is effected at the cost of that unity for which all minds have, in some form or other, a kind of metaphysi cal hunger. Shamkara by his Mayavada secures this unity, but this achievement is at the cost of a denial of the ultimate reality of the world whether considered as the product (Vikriti) of Mulaprakriti, or as Mulaprakriti itself. There is, however, another alternative, and that is the great Shakta doctrine of Duality in Unity. There is, this Shastra says, a middle course in which the reality of the world is affirmed without compromising the truth of the unity of the Brahman, for which Shamkara by such lofty speculation contends. I here shortly state what is developed more fully later. The Shakta Advaitavada recognizes the reality of Mulaprakriti in the sense of Maya - Shakti. Here in a qualified way it follows the Samkhya. On the other hand, it differs from th e Samkhya in holding that Mulaprakriti as Maya -Shakti is not a principle separate from the Brahman, but exists in and as a principle of the one Brahman substance. The world, therefore, is the appearance of the Real. It is the Brahman as Power. The ground principle of such appearance or Maya- Shakti is the Real as Atma and Power. There is thus a reality behind all appearances, a real substance behind the apparent transformations. Maya -Shakti as such is both eternal and real, and so is Ishvara. The transformat ions are the changing forms of the Real. I pass now to the Advaitavada of the Shakta Tantra. The Shakta Tantra is not a formal system of philosophy (Darshana). It is, in the broadest sense, a generic term for the writings and various traditions which express the whole culture of a certain epoch in Indian History. The contents are therefore of an encyclopedic character, religion, ritual, domestic rites, law, medicine, magic, and so forth. It has thus great historical value, which appears to be the most fashionable form of recommendation for the Indian Scriptures now -a-days. The mere historian, I believe, derives encouragement from the fact that out of bad material may yet be made 296 good history. I am not here concerned with this aspect of the matter. For my present purpose, the Shakta Tantra is part of the Upasana kanda of the three departments of Shruti, and is a system of physical, psychical and moral training (Sadhana), worship and Yoga. It is thus essentially practical. This is what it claims to be. To its critics, it has appeared to be a system of immoral indiscipline. I am not here concerned with the charge but with the doctrine of creation to be found in the Shastra. Underlying however, all this practice, whatever be the worth or otherwise which is attributed to it, there is a philosophy which must be abstracted, as I have here done for the first time, with some difficulty, and on points with doubt, from the disquisitions on religion and the ritual and Yoga directions to be found in the various Tantras. The fundamental principles are as follows. It is said that equality (Samya) of the Gunas is Mulaprakriti, which has activity (Kartrittva), but no consciousness (Caitanya). Brahman is Sacchidananda who has Caitanya and no Kartrittva. But this is so only if we thus logically differentiate them. As a matter of fact, however, the two admittedly, ever and everywhere, co -exist and cannot, except for the purpose of formal analysis, be thought of without the other. The connection between the two is one of unseparateness (Avinabhava Sambandha). Brahman does not exist without Prakriti- Shakti or Prakriti without the Brahman. Some call the Supreme Caitanya with Prakriti, others Prakriti with Caitanya. Some worship It as Shiva; others as Shakti. Both are one and the same. S hiva is the One viewed from Its Cit aspect. Shakti is the One viewed from Its Maya aspect. They are the \"male\" and \"female\" aspects of the same Unity which is neither male nor female. Akula is Shiva. Kula is Shakti. The same Supreme is worshipped by Sadhan a of Brahman, as by Sadhana of Adyashakti. The two cannot be separated, for Brahman without Prakriti is actionless, and Prakriti without Brahman is unconscious. There is Nishkala Shiva or the transcendent, attributeless (Nirguna) Brahman; and Sakala Shiva or the embodied, immanent Brahman with attributes (Saguna). Kala or Shakti corresponds with the Samkhyan Mula -prakriti or Samyavastha of the three Gunas and the Vedantic Maya. But Kala which is Mulaprakriti and Maya eternally is, and therefore when we spea k of Nishkala Shiva it is not meant that there is then or at any time no Kala, for Kala ever is, but that 297 Brahman is meant which is thought of as being without the working Prakriti (Prakriteranyah), Maya -Shakti is then latent in it. As the Devi in the Kula cudamani says, \"Aham Prakritirupa chet Cidanandaparayana\". Sakala Shiva is, on the other hand, Shiva considered as associated with Prakriti in operation and manifesting the world. In one case, Kala is working or manifest, in the other it is not, but exists in a potential state. In the same way the two Shivas are one and the same. There is one Shiva who is Nirguna and Saguna. The Tantrik Yoga treatise Satcakranirupana describes the Jivatma as the Paryyaya of, that is another name for, the Paramatma; adding that the root of wisdom (Mulavidya,) is a knowledge of their identity. When the Brahman manifests, It is called Shakti, which is the magnificent concept round which Tantra is built. The term comes from the root \"Sak,\" which means \"to be able\". It is the pow er which is the Brahman and whereby the Brahman manifests itself; for Shakti and possessor of Shakti (Shaktiman) are one and the same. As Shakti is Brahman, it is also Nirguna and Saguna. Ishvara is Cit -Shakti, that is, Cit in association with the operating Prakriti as the efficient cause of the creation; and Maya- Shakti which means Maya as a Shakti that is in creative operation as the instrumental (Nimitta) and material (Upadana) cause of the universe. This is the Shakti which produces Avidya, just as Mahamaya or Ishvari is the Great Liberatrix. These twin aspects of Shakti appear throughout creation. Thus in the body, the Cit or Brahman aspect is conscious Atma or Spirit, and the Maya aspect is the Antahkarana and its derivatives or the unconscious ( Jada) mind and body. When, however, we speak here of Shakti without any qualifications, what is meant is Cit- Shakti in association with Maya- Shakti that is Ishvari or Devi or Mahamaya, the Mother of all worlds. If we keep this in view, we shall not fall into the error of supposing that the Shaktas (whose religion is one of the oldest in the world; how old indeed is as yet little known) worship material force or gross matter. Ishvara or Ishvari is not Acit, which, as pure sattva - guna is only His or Her body. Maya- Shakti in the sense of Mulaprakriti is Cit. So also is Avidya Shakti, though it appears to be Acit, for there is no Cidabhasa. In a certain class of Indian images, you will see the Lord, with a diminutive female figure on His lap. The makers and worshippe rs of those images thought of Shakti as being in the subordinate position which some persons 298 consider a Hindu wife should occupy. This is however not the conception of Shakta Tantra, according to which, She is not a handmaid of the Lord, but the Lord Himself, being but the name for that aspect of His in which He is the Mother and Nourisher of the worlds. As Shiva is the transcendent, Shakti is the immanent aspect of the one Brahman who is Shiva -Shakti. Being Its aspect, It is not different from, but one wit h It. In the Kulacudamani Nigama, the Bhairavi addressing Bhairava says, \"Thou art the Guru of all, I entered into Thy body (as Shakti) and thereby Thou didst become the Lord (Prabhu). There is none but Myself Who is the Mother to create (Karyyavibhavini). Therefore it is that when creation takes place Sonship is in Thee. Thou alone art the Father Who wills what I do (Karyyavibhavaka; that is, She is the vessel which receives the nectar which flows from Nityananda). By the union of Shiva and Shakti creation comes (Shiva -Shakti- sama -yogat jayate srishtikalpana). As all in the universe is both Shiva and Shakti (Shivashaktimaya), therefore Oh Maheshvara, Thou art in every place and I am in every place. Thou art in all and I am in all.\" The creative World thus sows Its seed in Its own womb. Such being the nature of Shakti, the next question is whether Maya as Shamkara affirms is Avastu. It is to be remembered that according to his empirical method it is taken as real, but transcendentally it is alleged to be an e ternal unreality, because, the object of the latter method is to explain away the world altogether so as to secure the pure unity of the Brahman. The Shakta Tantra is however not concerned with any such purpose. It is an Upasana Shastra in which the World and its Lord have reality. There cannot be Sadhana in an unreal world by an unreal Sadhaka of an unreal Lord. The Shakta replies to Mayavada: If it be said that Maya is in some unexplained way Avastu, yet it is admitted that there is something, however unreal it may be alleged to be, which is yet admittedly eternal and in association, whether manifest or unmanifest, with the Brahman. According to Shamkara, Maya exists as the mere potentiality of some future World which shall arise on the ripening of Adrishta which Maya is. But in the Mahanirvana Tantra, Shiva says to Devi, \"Thou art Thyself the Para Prakriti of the Paramatma\" (Ch. IV, v. 10). That is Maya in the sense of Mulaprakriti, which is admittedly eternal, is not Avastu, but is the Power of the Brahma n one with which is Cit. In Nishkala Shiva, Shakti lies inactive. It manifests in and as 299 creation, though Cit thus appearing through its Power is neither exhausted nor affected thereby. We thus find Ishvari addressed in the Tantra both as Sacchidanandarupi ni and Trigunatmika, referring to the two real principles which form part of the one Brahman substance. The philosophical difference between the two expositions appears to lie in this. Shamkara says that there are no distinctions in Brahman of either of the three kinds: svagata -bheda, that is, distinction of parts within one unit, svajatiya -bheda or distinction between units of one class, or vijatiya -bheda or distinction between units of different classes. Bharati, however, the Commentator on the Mahanirvana (Ch. II, v. 34) says that Advaita there mentioned means devoid of the last two classes of distinction. There is, therefore, for the purposes of Shakta Tantra, a svagata -bheda in the Brahman Itself namely, the two aspects according to which the Brahman is, on the one hand, Being, Cit and on the other, the principle of becoming which manifests as Nature or seeming Acit. In a mysterious way, however, there is a union of these two principles (Bhavayoga), which thus exist without derogation from the partless u nity of the Brahman which they are. In short, the Brahman may be conceived of as having twin aspects, in one of which, It is the cause of the changing world, and in the other of which It is the unchanging Soul of the World. Whilst the Brahman Svarupa or Ci t is Itself immutable, the Brahman is yet through its Power the cause of change, and is in one aspect the changeful world But what then is \"real\"; a term not always correctly understood. According to the Mayavada definition, the \"real\" is that which ever was, is and will be (Kalatrayasattvavan); in the words of the Christian liturgy, \"as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end\"; therefore that which changes, which was not, but is, and then ceases to be is according to this defin ition \"unreal,\" however much from a practical point of view it may appear real to us. Now Mayavada calls Mulaprakriti in the sense of Maya the material cause of the world, no independent real (Avastu). The Shakta Tantra says that the Principle, whence all becoming comes, exists as a real substratum so to speak below the world of names and forms. This Maya - Shakti is an eternal reality. What is \"unreal\" (according to the above definition), are these names and forms (Avidya), that is, the changing worlds (asat -triloki- sadbhavam svarupam Brahmanah smritam, Ch. III, v. 300 7, Mahanirvana Tantra). These are unreal however only in the sense that they are not permanent, but come and go. The body is called Sharira, which comes from the root Sri -- \"to decay\", for it is dissolving and being renewed at every moment until death. Again, however real it may seem to us, the world may be unreal in the sense that it is something other than what it seems to be. This thing which I now hold in my hands seems to me to be paper, which is white, smooth and so forth, yet we are told that it really is something different, namely, a number of extraordinarily rapid vibrations of etheric substance, producing the false appearance of scientific \"matter\". In the same way (as those who worship Y antras know), all nature is the appearance produced by various forms of motion in Prakritic substance. (Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma.) The real is the Brahman and its Power. The Brahman, whether in Its Cit or Maya aspect, eternally and changelessly endures, but Avidya breaks up its undivided unity into the changing manifold world of names and forms. It follows from the above that Brahman and Ishvara are two co- being aspects of the One ultimate Reality, as Power to Be and to Become. For as Shamkara points out (Comm. Svetasvatara Up. I. 2) Devatmashakti, the cause of the world, is not separate from the Paramatma, as Samkhya alleges its Pradhana to be. And thus it is that Shiva in the Kularnava Tantra (I. 110) says, \"some desire dualism (Dvaitavada), others monism (Advaitavada). Such however know not My truth, which is beyond both monism and dualism (Dvaitadvaitavivarjita).\" This saying may doubtless mean that to \"the knower (Jani) the arguments of philosophical systems are of no account, as is indeed the case.\" It has also a more literal meaning as above explained. The Shastra in fact makes high claims for itself. The Tantra, it has been said, takes into its arms as if they were its two children, both dualism and monism affording by its practical method (Sadhana) and the spiritual knowledge generated thereby the means by which their antinomies are resolved and harmonized. Its purpose is to give liberation to the Jiva by a method according to which monistic truth is reached through the dualistic world; immersing its Sadhakas in the current of Divine Bliss, by changing duality into unity, and then evolving from the latter a dualistic play, thus proclaiming the wonderful glory of the Spouse of Paramashiva in the love embrace of Mind-Matter (Jada) and Consciousness (Caitanya). It therefore says that those who have realized 301 this, move, and yet remain unsoiled in the mud of worldly actions which lead others upon the downward path. It claims, therefore, that its practical method (Sadhana) is more speedily fruitful than any ot her. Its practical method is an application of the general principles above described. In fact, one of its Acaras which has led to abuse is an attempt to put into full practice the theory of Advaitavada. Shamkara has in his transcendental method dealt with the subject as part of the Jana Kanda. Though the exponent of the Mayavada is esteemed to be a Mahapurusha, this method is not in favor with the Tantric Sadhaka who attributes much of the practical atheism which is to be found in this country, as elsewhere, to a misunderstanding of the transcendental doctrines of Mayavada. There is some truth in this charge, for, as has been well said, the vulgarization of Shamkara's \"Higher Science\" which is by its nature an esoteric doctrine destined for a small minorit y, must be reckoned a misfortune in so far as it has, in the language of the Gita, induced many people to take to another's Dharma instead of to their own, which is the \"Lower Science\" of the great Vedantin followed in all Shastras of worship. Such a Shast ra must necessarily affirm God as a real object of worship. Dionysius, the Areopagite, the chief of the line of all Christian mystics said that we could only speak \"apophatically\" of the Supreme as It existed in Itself, that is, other than as It displays Itself to us. Of It nothing can be affirmed but that It is not this and not that. Here he followed the, \"neti neti,\" of the Vedanta. Ishvari is not less real than the things with which we are concerned every day. She is for the Indian Sadhaka the highest reality and what may or may not be the state of Videha Mukti has for him, no practical concern. Those only who have attained it will know whether Shamkara is right or not; not that they will think about this or any other subject; but in the sense that when t he Brahman is known all is known. A friend from whom I quote, writes that he had once occasion to learn to what ridiculous haughtiness, some of the modern \"adepts\" of Sri Shamkara's school are apt to let themselves be carried away, when one of them spoke to him of the personal Ishvara as being a \"pitiable creature\". The truth is that such so -called \"adepts\" are no adepts at all, being without the attainment, and far from the spirit of Shamkara -- whose devotion and powers made him seem to his followers to be an incarnation of Shiva Himself. Such a remark betrays a radical 302 misunderstanding of the Vedanta. How many of those, who to-day discuss his Vedanta from a merely literary standpoint, have his, or indeed any faith'? What some would do is, to dismiss the faith and practice of Shamkara as idle superstition, and to adopt his philosophy. But what is the intrinsic value of a philosophy which emanates from a mind which is so ignorant as to be superstitious P Shamkara, however, has said that faith and Sadhana are the preliminaries for competency (Adhikara) for the Janakanda. He alone is competent (Adhikari) who possesses all good moral and intellectual qualities, faith (Shraddha), capacity for the highest contemplation (Samadhi), the Samkhyan discrimination (Viveka), absence of all desire for anything in this world or the next, and an ardent longing for liberation. There are few indeed who can claim even imperfectly all such qualifications. But what of the rest? There is no Vaidik Karmakanda in operation in the present age, but there are other Shastras of worship which is either Vaidik, Tantrik or Pauranik. These provide for those who are still, as are most, on the path of desire. The Tantra affirms that nothing of worth can be achieved without Sadhana. Mere speculation is without result. This principle is entirely sound whatever may be thought of the mode in which it is sought to be applied. Those to whom the questions here discussed are not mere matters for intellectual business or recreation will recall that Sham kara has said that liberation is attained not merely by the discussion of, and pondering upon revealed truth (Vicara), for which few only are competent, but by the grace of God (Ishvara Anugraha), through the worship of the Mother and Father from whom all creation springs. Such worship produces knowledge. In the Kulacudamani, the Devi says: Oh all -knowing One, if Thou knowest Me then of what use are the Amnayas (revealed teachings) and Yajanam (ritual)? If Thou knowest Me not, then again, of what use are they?\" But neither are, in another sense, without their uses for thereby the Sadhaka becomes qualified for some form of Urddhvamnaya, in which there are no rites (Karma). With this short exposition of the nature of Shaktitattva according to Shakta Tantra I pass to an equally brief account of its manifestation in the Universe. It is sufficient to deal with the main lines of the doctrine without going into their very great accompanying detail. I here follow, on the main theme, the account given in the celebrate d Sharada Tilaka a work written by 303 Lakshmanacarya, the Guru of Abhinava Gupta, the great Kashmirian Tantrik, about the commencement of the eleventh century, and its Commentary. by the learned Tantrik Pandit Raghava Bhatta which is dated 1454 A.D. This work has long been held to be of great authority in Bengal. Why creation takes place cannot in an ultimate sense be explained. It is the play (Lila) of the Mother. Could this be done the Brahman would be subject to the law of causality which governs the Univer se but which its Cause necessarily transcends. The Tantra, however, in common with other Indian Shastras recognizes Adrishta Srishti, or the doctrine that the impulse to creation is proximately caused by the Adrsta or Karma of Jivas. But Karma is eternal and itself requires explanation. Karma comes from Samskara and Samskara from Karma. The process of creation, maintenance and dissolution, according to this view, unceasingly recurs as an eternal rhythm of cosmic life and death which is the Mother's play (Lila). And so it is said of Her in the Lalita Sahasranamam that, \"the series of universes appear and disappear with the opening and shutting of Her Eyes\". The existence of Karma implies the will to cosmic life. We produce it as the result of such will. And when produced it becomes itself the cause of it. In the aggregate of Karma which will at one period or another ripen, there is, at any particular time, some which are ripe and others which are not so. For the fruition of the former only creation takes place. When this seed ripens and the time therefore approaches for the creation of another universe, the Brahman manifests in Its Vishvarupa aspect, so that the Jiva may enjoy or suffer therein the fruits of his Karma and (unless liberation be attained) accumul ate fresh Karma which will involve the creation of future worlds. When the unripened actions which are absorbed in Maya become in course of time ripe, the Vritti of Maya or Shakti in the form of desire for creation arises in Paramashiva, for the bestowal of the fruit of this Karma. This state of Maya is variously called by Shruti, Ikshana, Kama, Vicikirsha. It is when the Brahman \"saw,\" \"desired,\" or \"thought\" \"May I be many,\" that there takes place what is known as Sadrishaparinama in which the Supreme Bin du appears. This, in its triple aspect, is known as Kamakala, a 304 manifestation of Shakti whence in the manner hereafter described the Universe emanates. This Kamakala is the Mula or root of all Mantras. Though creation takes place in order that Karma may be suffered and enjoyed, yet in the aggregate of Karma which will at one time or another ripen, there is at any particular period some which are ripe and others which are not so. For the fruition of the former only creation takes place. As creation will serve no purpose in the case of Karma which is not ripe, there is, after the exhaustion by fruition of the ripe Karma, a dissolution (Pralaya). Then the Universe is again merged in Maya which thus abides until the ripening of the remaining actions. Karma, like everything else, re -enters the Brahman, and remains there in hidden potential state as it were a seed. When the seed ripens creation again takes place. With Ikshana, or the manifestation of creative will, creation is really instantaneous. When the \"Word\" went forth, \"Let there be light\", there was light, for the ideation of Ishvara is creative. Our mind by its constitution is however led to think of creation as a gradual process. The Samkhya starts with the oscillation of the Gunas (Gunakshobha) upon which the Vikritis immediately appear. But just as it explains its real Parinama in terms of successive emanations, so the Shakta Tantra describes a Sadrishaparinama in the body of Ishvara their cause. This development is not a real Parinama, but a resolution of like to like, that is, there is no actual change in the nature of the entity dealt with, the various stages of such Parinama being but names for the multiple aspects to us of the same unchanging Unity. Shakti is one. It appears as various by its manifestations. In one aspect there is no Parinama, for Sacchidananda is as such immutable. Before and after and in creation It remains what It was. There is therefore no Parinama in or of the Aksharabrahman as such. There is Parinama, however, in its Power aspect . The three Gunas do not change, each remaining what it is. They are the same in all forms but appear to the Jiva to exist in different combinations. The appearance of the Gunas in different proportions is due to Avidya or Karma which is this apparent Gunakshobha. It is Samskara which gives to the Samya Prakriti, existence as Vaishamya. What the Tantra describes as Sadrishaparinama is but an analysis of the different aspects of 305 what is shortly called in other Shastras, Ikshana. This Sadrishaparinama is concerned with the evolution of what is named Para Sound (Parashabdasrishti). This is Cosmic Sound; the causal vibration in the substance of Mulaprakriti which gives birth to the Tattvas which are its Vikritis: such Cosmic Sound being that which is distinguish ed in thought from the Tattvas so produced. The Sharada says that from the Sakala Parameshvara who is Sacchidananda issued Shakti that is, that power which is necessary for creation. God and His power are yet more than the creation which He manifests. Shakti is said to issue from that which is already Sakala or associated with Shakti, because as Raghava Bhatta says, She who is eternal (Anadi -rupa) was in a subtle state as Caitanya during the great dissolution (Pralaya), (Ya Anadirupa Caitanyadhyasena Mahapralaye Sukshma Sthita). With however the disturbance of the Gunas, Prakriti became inclined (Ucchuna) to creation, and in this sense, is imagined to issue. Shakti, in other words, passes from a potential state to one of actuality. The Parameshvara is, he adds, described as Sacchidananda in order to affirm that even when the Brahman is associated with Avidya, its own true nature (Svarupa) is not affected. According to the Sharada, from this Shakti issues Nada and from the latter Bindu (known as the Parabindu). The Sharada thus enumerates seven aspects of Shakti. This it does, according to Raghava Bhatta, so as to make up the seven component parts of the Omkara. In some Shakta Tantras this first Nada is omitted and there are thus only six aspects. The Shaiva Tantras mention five. Those which recognize Kala as a Tattva identify Nada with it. In some Tantras, Kala is associated with Tamoguna, and is the Mahakala who is both the child and spouse of Adyashakti; for creation comes from the Tamasic aspect of Shakti. I n the Saradatilaka, Nada and Bindu are one and the same Shakti, being the names of two of Her states which are considered to represent Her as being more prone to creation (Ucchunavastha). There are two states of Shakti -bindu suitable for creation (Upayogav astha). As there is no mass or Ghana in Nishkala Shiva, that Brahman represents the Aghanavastha. The Prapacasara Tantra says that She, who is in the first place Tattva (mere \"thatness\"), quickens under the influence of Cit which She reflects; then She longs to create (Vicikirshu) and 306 becomes massive (Ghanibhuta) and appears as Bindu (Parabindu). Ghanibhuta means that which was not dense or Ghana but which has become so (Ghanavastha). It involves the notion of solidifying, coagulating, becoming massive. Th us milk is said to become Ghanibhuta when it condenses into cream or curd. This is the first gross condition (Sthulavastha); the Brahman associated with Maya in the form of Karma assumes that aspect in which It is regarded as the primal cause of the subtle and gross bodies. There then lies in it in a potential, undifferentiated mass (Ghana), the universe and beings about to be created. The Parabindu is thus a compact aspect of Shakti wherein action or Kriya Shakti predominates. It is compared to a grain of gram (Canaka) which under its outer sheath (Maya) contains two seeds (Shivashakti) in close and undivided union. The Bindu is symbolized by a circle. The Shunya or empty space within is the Brahmapada. The supreme Light is formless, but Bindu implies both the void and Guna, for, when Shiva becomes Bindurupa He is with Guna. Raghava says, \"She alone can create. When the desire for appearance as all Her Tattvas seizes Her, She assumes the state of Bindu whose characteristic is action\" (Kriyashakti). This Bindu or Avyakta, as it is the sprouting root of the universe, is called the supreme Bindu (Parabindu), or causal or Karana Bindu, to distinguish it from that aspect of Itself which is called Bindu (Karya), which appears as a state of Shakti after the differen tiation of the Parabindu in Sadrishaparinama. The Parabindu is the Ishvara of the Vedanta with Maya as His Upadhi. He is the Saguna Brahman, that is, the combined Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti or Ishvara with undifferentiated Prakriti as His Avyaktasharira. Some call Him Mahavishnu and others the Brahmapurusha. He is Paramashiva. \"Some call the Hamsa, Devi. They are those who are filled with a passion for Her lotus feet.\" As Kalicarana the Commentator of the Shatcakranirupana says, it matters not what It is ca lled. It is adored by all. It is this Bindu or state of supreme Shakti which is worshipped in secret by all Devas. In Nishkala Shiva, Prakriti exists in a hidden potential state. The Bindu Parashaktimaya (Shivashaktimaya) is first movement of creative acti vity which is both the expression and result of the universal Karma or store of unfulfilled desire for cosmic life. It is then said that the Parabindu \"divides\" or \"differentiates\". In the Satyaloka is the formless and lustrous One. She exists like a grain of gram 307 (Canaka) surrounding Herself with Maya. When casting off (Utsrijya) the covering (Bandhana.) of Maya, She, intent on creation (Unmukhi), becomes twofold (Dvidha bhittva), or according to the account here given threefold, and then on this differentiation in Shiva and Shakti (Shiva -Shakti -vibhagena) arises creative ideation (Srishtikalpana). As so unfolding the Bindu is known as the Sound Brahman (Shabdabrahman). \"On the differentiation of the Parabindu there arose unmanifested sound\" (Bhidyamanat pa rad bindoravyaktatma ravo, 'bhavat). Shabda here of course does not mean physical sound, which is the Guna of the Karyakasha or atomic Akasha. The latter is integrated and limited and evolved at a later stage in Vikriti Parinama from Tamasika Ahamkara. Shabdabrahman in the undifferentiated Cidakasha or Spiritual Ether of philosophy, in association with its Kala, or Prakriti or the Sakala Shiva of religion. It is Cit- Shakti vehicled by undifferentiated Prakriti, from which is evolved Nadamatra (\"Sound only\" or the \"Principle of Sound\") which is un- manifest (Avyakta), from which again is displayed (Vyakta) the changing universe of names and forms. It is the Pranavarupa Brahman or Om which is the cosmic causal principle and the manifested Shabdartha. Avyakta Nada or unmanifested Sound is the undifferentiated causal principle of Manifested Sound without any sign or characteristic manifestation such as letters and the like which mark its displayed product. Shabdabrahman is the all- pervading, impartite, unmanifeste d Nadabindu substance, the primary creative impulse in Parashiva which is the cause of the manifested Shabdartha. This Bindu is called Para because It is the first and supreme Bindu. Although It is Shakti like the Shakti and Nada which precede It, It is considered as Shakti on the point of creating the world, and as such It is from this Parabindu that Avyakta Sound is said to come. Raghava Bhatta ends the discussion of this matter by shortly saying that the Shabdabrahman is the Caitanya in all creatures which as existing in breathing creatures (Pram) is known as the Shakti Kundalini of the Muladhara. The accuracy of this definition is contested by the Compiler of the Pranatoshini, but if by Caitanya we understand the Manifested Cit, that is, the latter displ ayed as and with Mulaprakriti in Cosmic vibration (Spandana), then the apparently differing views are reconciled. 308 The Parabindu on such differentiation manifests under the threefold aspects of Bindu, Nada, Bija. This is the fully developed and kinetic aspect of Parashabda. The Bindu which thus becomes threefold is the Principle in which the germ of action sprouts to manifestation producing a state of compact intensive Shakti. The threefold aspect of Bindu, as Bindu (Karyya), Nada and Bija are Shivamaya, Shivashaktimaya, Shaktimaya; Para, Sukshma, Sthula; Iccha, Jana, Kriya; Tamas, Sattva, Rajas; Moon, Fire and Sun; and the Shaktis which are the cosmic bodies known as Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha, and Virat. All three, Bindu, Bija, Nada are the different phases of Shakti in creation, being different aspects of Parabindu the Ghanavastha of Shakti. The order of the three Shaktis of will, action and knowledge differ in Ishvara and Jiva. Ishvara is a11 -knowing and therefore the order in Him, is Iccha, Jana, Kriya. In Jiva, it is Jana, Iccha, Kriya. Iccha is said to be the capacity which conceives the idea of work or action; which brings the work before the mind and wills to do it. In this Bindu, Tamas is said to be predominant, for there is as yet no stir to action. N ada is Jana Shakti, that is, the subjective direction of will by knowledge to the desired end. With it is associated Sattva. Bija is Kriya Shakti or the Shakti which arises from that effort or the action done. With it Rajoguna or the principle of activity is associated. Kriya arises from the combination of Iccha and Jana. It is thus said, \"Drawn by Icchashakti, illumined by Jana shakti, Shakti the Lord appearing as Male creates (Kriyashakti). From Bindu it is said arose Raudri; from Nada, Jyeshtha; and from Bija, Vama. From these arose Rudra, Brahma, Vishnu.\" It is also said in the Goraksha Samhita, \"Iccha is Brahmi., Kriya is Vaishnavi and Jana is Gauri. Wherever there are these three Shaktis there is the Supreme Light called Om.\" In the Sakala Parameshvara or Shabdabrahman in bodies (that is, Kundalini Shakti), Bindu in which Tamas prevails is, Raghava says, called Nirodhika; Nada in which Sattva prevails is called Ardhendhu, and Bija the combination of the two (Iccha and Jana) in which Rajas as Kriya works is called Bindu. The three preceding states in Kundalini are Shakti, Dhvani, and Nada. Kundalini is Cit -Shakti into which Sattva enters, a state known as the Paramakashavastha. When She into whom Sattva has entered is next pierced by Rajas, She is called Dhvani which is the Aksharavastha. When She is again pierced by Tamas, She is called Nada. This is the Avyaktavastha, the Avyakta Nada which is the 309 Parabindu. The three Bindus which are aspects of Parabindu constitute the mysterious Kamakala triangle which with the Harddhakala forms the roseate body of the lovely limbed great Devi Tripurasundari who is Shivakama and manifests the universe. She is the trinity of Divine energy of whom the Shritattvarnava says: \"Those glorious men who worship in that body in Samarasya are freed from the waves of poison in the untraversable sea of the Wandering (Samsara)\". The main principle which underlies the elaborate details here shortly summarized, is this. The state in which Cit and Prakriti- Shakta are as one undivided whole, that is, in which Prakriti lies latent (Nishkala Shiva), is succeeded by one of differentiation, that is, manifestation of Maya (Sakala Shiva). In such manifestation it displays several aspects. The totality of such aspects is the Maya body of Ish vara in which are included the causal, subtle and gross bodies of the Jiva. These are, according to the Sharada, seven aspects of the first or Para state of sound in Shabdasrishti which are the seven divisions of the Mantra Om, viz.: A, U, M, Nada, Bindu, Shakti, Santa. They constitute Parashabdasrishti in the Ishvara creation. They are Ishvara or Om and seven aspects of the cosmic causal body; the collectivity (Samashti) of the individual (Vyashti), causal, subtle and gross bodies of the Jiva Before passing to the manifested Word and Its meaning (Shabdartha), it is necessary to note what is called Arthasrishti in the Avikriti or Sadrishaparinama: that is the causal state of Sound called Parashabda; the other three states, viz.: Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari manifesting only in gross bodies. As Parabindu is the causal body of Shabda, It is also the causal body of Artha which is inseparately associated with It as the combined Shabdartha. As such, He is called Shambhu who is of the nature of both Bindu and Kala and the associate of Kala. From Him issued Sadashiva, \"the witness of the world,\" and from Him Isha, and then Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma. The six Shivas are various aspects of Cit as presiding over (the first) the subjective Tattvas and (the rest) the elemental world whose centers are five lower Cakras. These Devatas when considered as belonging to the Avikriti Parinama are the Devata aspect of apparently different states of causal sound by the process of resolution of like to like giving them the semblance of all- pervasive creative energies. They are Sound powers in the aggregate (Samashti). As appearing in, that is, presiding over, bodies they 310 are the ruling Lords of the individual (Vyashti) evolutes from the primal cause of Shabda. The completion of the causal Avikriti Parinama with its ensuing Cosmic vibration in the Gunas is followed by a real Parinama of the Vikritis from the substance of Mula- prakriti. There then appears the manifested Shabdartha or the individual bodies subtle or gross of the Jiva in which are the remaining three Bhavas of Sound or Shaktis called Pashyanti, Madhyama, Vaikhari. Shabda literally means sound, idea, word; and Artha its meaning; that is, the objective form which corresponds to the subjective conception formed and language spoken of it. The conception is due to Samskara. Artha is the externalized thought. There is a psycho- physical parallelism in the Jiva. In Ishvara thought is truly creative. The two are inseparable, neither existing without the other. Shabdartha has thus a composite meaning like the Greek word \"Logos,\" which means both thought and word combined. By the manifested Shabdartha is meant what the Vedantins call Namarupa, the world of names and forms, but with this difference that according to the Tantrik notions here discussed there is, underlying this world of names and forms, a real material cause that is Parashabda or Mulaprakriti manifesting as the principle of evolution. The Sharada says that from the Unmanifested Root -Avyakta Being in Bindu form (Mulabhuta Bindurupa) or the Paravastu (Brahman), that is, from Mulaprakriti in creative operation there is evolved the Samkhyan Tattvas. Transcendentally, creation of all things takes place simultaneously. But, from the standpoint of Jiva, there is a real development (Parinama) from the substance of Mula- bhuta Avyakta Bindurupa (as the Sharada calls Mulaprakriti) of the Tattvas, Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas, the Indriyas, Tanmatras and Mahabhutas in the order stated. The Tantra therefore adopts the Samkhyan and not the Vedantic order of emanation which starts with the Apancikrita Tanmatra, the Tamasik parts of which, on the one hand, develop by Pancikarana into the Mahabhuta, and on the other, the Rajasik and Sattvik parts of which are collectively and separatel y the source of the remaining Tattvas. In the Shakta Tantra, the Bhutas derive directly and not by Pancikarana from the Tanmatras. Pancikarana exists in respect of the compounds derived from the Bhutas. There is a further point of detail in the 311 Tantrik exp osition to be noted. The Shakta Tantra, as the Puranas and Shaiva Shastras do, speaks of a threefold aspect of Ahamkara, according to the predominance therein of the respective Gunas. From the Vaikarika Ahamkara issue the eleven Devatas who preside over Ma nas and the ten Indriyas; from the Taijasa Ahamkara are produced the Indriyas and Manas; and from the Bhutadika Ahamkara the Tanmatras. None of these differences in detail or order of emanation of the Tattvas has substantial importance. In one case start i s made from the knowing principle (Buddhi), on the other from the subtle object of knowledge the Tanmatra. The abovementioned creation is known as Ishvara Srishti. The Vishvasara Tantra says that from the Earth come the herbs (Oshadhi), from the latter food, and from food seed (Retas). From the latter living beings are produced by the aid of sun and moon. Here what is called Jiva Srishti is indicated, a matter into which I have no time to enter here. To sum up, upon this ripening of Karma and the urge therefrom to cosmic life, Nishkala Shiva becomes Sakala. Shakti manifests and the causal body of Ishvara is thought of as assuming seven causal aspects in Sadrishaparinama which are aspects of Shakti about to create. The Parabindu or state of Shakti thus develo ped is the causal body of both the manifested Shabda and Artha. The Parabindu is the source of all lines of development, whether of Shabda, or as Shambhu of Artha, or as the Mulabhuta of the Manifested Shabdartha. On the completed ideal development of this causal body manifesting as the triple Shaktis of will, knowledge and action, the Shabdartha in the sense of the manifested world with its subtle and gross bodies appears in the order described. From the above description, it will have been seen that the c reation doctrine here described is compounded of various elements, some of which it shares with other Shastras, and some of which are its own, the whole being set forth according to a method and terminology which is peculiar to itself. The theory which is a form of Advaita -vada has then some characteristics which are both Samkhyan and Vedantic. Thus it accepts a real Mulaprakriti, not however as an independent principle in the Samkhyan sense, but as a form of the Shakti of Shiva. By and out of Shiva -Shakti who are one, there is a real creation. In such creation there is a special Adrishta- Srishti up to the 312 transformation of Shakti as Parabindu. This is Ishvara Tattva of the thirty -six Tattvas, a scheme accepted by both Advaita Shaivas and Shaktas. Then by the operation of Maya -Shakti it is transformed into Purusha -Prakriti and from the latter are evolved the Tattvas of the Samkhya. Lastly, there is Yaugika Srishti of the Nyaya Vaisheshika in that the world is held to be formed by a combination of the elements . It accepts, therefore, Adrsta Srishti from the appearance of Shakti, up to the complete formation of the Causal Body known in its subtle form as the Kamakala; thereafter Parinama Srishti of the Vikritis of the subtle and gross body produced from the caus al body down to the Mahabhutas; and finally Yaugika Srishti in so far as it is the Bhutas which in varied combination go to make up the gross world. There are (and the doctrine here discussed is an instance of it) common principles and mutual connections e xisting in and between the different Indian Shastras, notwithstanding individual peculiarities of presentment due to natural variety of intellectual or temperamental standpoint or the purpose in view. Shiva in the Kularnava says that all the Darshanas are parts of His body, and he who severs them severs His limbs. The meaning of this is that the six Darshanas are the Six Minds, and these, as all else, are parts of the Lord's Body. Of these six minds, Nyaya and Vaisheshika teach Yaugika Srishti; Samkhya and Patajali teach Yaugika Srishti and Parinama Srishti; Mayavada Vedanta teaches Yaugika Srishti, Parinamasrishti according to the empirical method and Vivartta according to the transcendental method. According to the Vivartta of Mayavada, there is no real change but only the appearance of it. According to Shakta -vada, Ultimate Reality does in one aspect really evolve but in another aspect is immutable. Mayavada effects its synthesis by its doctrine of grades of reality, and Shakta -vada by its doctrine of asp ects of unity and duality, duality in unity and unity in duality. Ultimate Reality as the Whole is neither merely static nor merely active. It is both. The Natural and the Spiritual are one. In this sense the Shakta system claims to be the synthesis of all other doctrines. 313 CHAPTER TWENTY . THE INDIAN MAGNA MATER Introductory On the last occasion that I had the honor to address you, I dealt with the subject of the psychology of Hindu religious ritual from the particular standpoint of the religious community called Shaktas, or Worshippers of the Supreme Mother. To -day I speak of the Supreme Mother Herself as conceived and worshipped by them. The worship of the Great Mother as the Grand Multiplier is one of the o ldest in the world. As I have elsewhere said, when we throw our minds back upon the history of this worship, we discern even in the most remote and fading past the Figure, most ancient, of the mighty Mother of Nature. I suspect that in the beginning the Goddess everywhere antedated, or at least was predominant over, the God. It has been affirmed (Glotz: gean Civilization, 243) that in all countries from the Euphrates to the Adriatic, the Chief Divinity was at first in woman form. Looking to the east of the Euphrates we see the Dusk Divinity of India, the Adya -Shakti and Maha - Shakti, or Supreme Power of many names -- as Jagadamba, Mother of the World, which is the Play of Her who is named Lalita, Maya, Mahatripurasundari and Maha -kundalini, as Maha -Vaishnavi , the Sapphire Devi who supports the World, as Mahakali who dissolves it, as Guhyamahabhairavi, and all the rest. This Supreme Mother is worshipped by Her devotees from the Himalayas, the \"Abode of Snow,\" the northern home of Shiva, to Cape Comorin in the uttermost south -- for the word Comorin is a corruption of Kumart Devi or the Mother. Goddesses are spoken of in the Vedas as in the later Scriptures. Of these latter, the Shakta Tantras are the particular repository of Mother- worship. To the Shakta, God i s his Supreme Mother. In innumerable births he has had countless mothers and fathers, and he may in future have many, many 314 more. The human, and indeed any, mother is sacred as the giver (under God) of life, but it is the Divine Mother of All (Shrimata), the \"Treasure- House of Compassion\", who alone is both the Giver of life in the world and of its joys, and who (as Tarini) is the Saviouress from its miseries, and who again is, for all who unite with Her, the Life of all lives -- that unalloyed bliss named Liberation. She is the Great Queen (Maharajni) of Heaven and of yet higher worlds, of Earth, and of the Underworlds. To Her both Devas, Devis, and Men give worship. Her Feet are adored by even Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra. The Shakta system, in its origin possibly Non -Vaidik, is in several respects an original presentment, both as regards doctrine and practice, of the great Vedantic Theme concerning the One and the Many. As an organic and dynamic system it interprets all in terms of Power, from the atom of Matt er, which is said by modern science to be a reservoir of tremendous energy, to the Almighty, which is the commonest name in all Religions for God. It is the cult of Power both as the Partial and as the Whole, as the worshipper may desire. God is here regarded under twin aspects; as Power- Holder or the \"male\" Shiva, and as Power or Shakti, the Divine Spouse and Mother. The symbolism of the Shaktas' \"Jeweled Tree of Tantra\" is brilliant, and meets the demand of Nietzsche that the abstract should be made attra ctive to the senses. It is largely of the so -called \"erotic\" type which is to be found to some and varying degree in Hinduism as a whole. The symbols employed are either geometric -- that is, Yantric -- or pictorial. A Yantra is a diagrammatic presentation of Divinity, as Mantra is its sound- expression. The former is the body of the latter. The higher worship is done with Yantra. Pictorial symbolism is of higher and lower types. The former is popular, and the latter may be described by the French term peupl e. I will now describe a Yantra and the greatest of Yantras, namely the Shriyantra. We have no longer to deal with pictures of persons and their surroundings, but with lines, curves, circles, triangles, and the Point. The great symbol of the Mother is the Shriyantra, from the center of which She arises like the solar orb at morn, but in a blaze of light excelling the 315 brilliance of countless midday suns and the coolness of innumerable moons. The center is the Point, or Bindu -- that is, the Mother as Concent rated Power ready to create. Around Her is the Universe, together with its Divinities or Directing Intelligences. From the Point the World issues. Into it on dissolution, it enters. The extended Universe then collapses into an unextended Point, which itsel f then subsides like a bubble on the surface of the Causal Waters, which are the Immense. I. The Divine Mother The Real as Shiva -Shakti may be regarded from three aspects -- namely, as Universe, as God, and as Godhead. The Real is the World, but the Real is more than the World. The Real is God. The Real is God, but it is also more than what we understand by the word God. The Real is, as it were, beyond God as Godhead. This does not mean, as some have supposed, that God is a \"fiction,\" but that the Real as it is in its own alogical being is not adequately described in terms of its relation to the world as God. I will deal, then, first with its aspect as Godhead, then as the Supreme Self, or Person, or God, and thirdly, with Shiva -Shakti as the manifest and limited Universe. Pervading and transcending the Existent is the \"Spiritual Ether,\" also called the \"Immense\" in which is the Measurable, which Immense is also called the \"Fact\" (Sat), in which are the Fact -Sections (Kala) which Fact is also called alogical Experience -Whole (Purna), in which are all Experience - Modes (Vritti) of the limited Selves. The ultimate that is Irreducible Real is, in the system, not mere undetermined Being, but Power which is the source of all Determinations. This Power is both to Be, to self -conserve, and to resist change, as also to be the efficient cause of change, and as material cause to Become and suffer change. Relatively to the World, Immutable Being is as Divinity called Shiva the Power -Holder, and His Power is Shakti or the Mother Shiva, but in the supreme alogical state, Power to Be and Being- Power- Holder are merged in one another. 316 What is the nature of the Alogical Experience? In the Yoginihridaya Tantra it is asked. \"Who knows the heart of a woman? Only Shiva knows the heart of Yogini\" -- that is, the Divine Mother so called, as being one with, that is in the form of, all that exists, and as being in Herself the One in which they are. Since the Irreducible Real is the Whole, it cannot be conceived or described. It is neither Father nor Mother, for it is beyond Fatherhood and Motherhood and all other attributes. It is alogical. Though it cannot be conceived or put into words, some concepts are held to be more appropriate to it than others. And thus it is approximately said to be infinite undetermined Being, mindless Experiencing, and Supreme Bliss unalloyed with pain and sorrow. As Being and Power are merged in this alogical state, Power, in its form as Power to Be (Cidrupini ), is also Being - Consciousness and Bliss. Shiva -Shakti, the \"two in one,\" are here the Nameless One. The experience of this alogical state is not, however, that of an \"I\" (Aham) and \"This\" (Idam). The next or causal aspect of the Real is a Supreme Self. Its third and effectual aspect is the limited selves or Universe. The physical Ether is a symbol of this alogical state, in which the twofold Shiva- Shakti are the One in the unitary state, which is called the \"Ether of Consciousness\" (Cidakasha). Physical Ether is the all -extending, homogeneous, relative Plenum in which the Universe of particulars exists. The \"Spiritual Ether,\" or \"Ether of Consciousness,\" is the undetermined, all -diffusive, though inextended, absolute Plenum (Purna), in which both these particulars and the physical Ether itself exists. Ether is the physical counterpart of Consciousness, just as the Notion of Space is its psychical counterpart. These are such counterparts because Consciousness becomes through its Power as material cause both Matter and Mind. Each is a manifested form of Spirit in Time and Space. The shoreless Ocean of Nectar or Deathlessness is another symbol of the alogical Whole. We now pass to a consideration of the same Real in its aspect as related to the Universe, which is the appearance of the Immense as the Measurable or 317 Form. The Real is here related to the Universe as the Cause, Maintainer, and Directing Consciousness. Form is Maya, which, however, in this system (whatever be its meaning in Mayavada) does not mean \"Illusion\". All is power. All is real . The alogical One is here of dual aspect as Shiva and Shakti. The two concepts of Being and Power are treated as two Persons. Shiva is the Power- Holder, who is Being -Consciousness -Bliss, and Shakti is Power and the Becoming. She, in the alogical state, is also Being -Consciousness -Bliss. Without ceasing to be in Herself what She ever was, is, and will be, She is now the Power of Shiva as efficient and material cause of the Universe and the Universe itself. Whilst Shiva represents the Consciousness aspect of the Real, She i s its aspect as Mind, Life, and Matter. He is the Liberation (Moksha) aspect of the Real. S4>e is in the form of the Universe or Samsara. As Shiva -Shakti are in themselves one, so Moksha and Samsara are at root one. Shiva, in the Kularnava Tantra, says that His doctrine is neither non- dualist nor dualist, but beyond both. We have here a non- dualistic system as regards its teaching concerning the Alogical Whole, in which Shiva -Shakti are fused in one. We have again a kind of Duo-Monotheism. It is Monotheisti c because Shiva and Shakti are two aspects of one and the same Reality. It is dual because, these two aspects are worshipped as two Persons, from whose union as Being and Power the Universe evolves. The experience of this state, relative to the Alogical Wh ole, is a disruption of unitary alogical experience. I say \"relative\" because the Whole is always the Whole. Such disruption is the work of Power. She, as it were, disengages Herself as Power, from the embrace in which Power-Holder and Power are fused in one, and then represents Herself to Him. On this representation, Consciousness -Power assumes certain postures (Mudra) preparatory to the going forth as Universe, and then, when Power is fully concentrated, manifests as the World. The term Consciousness, which is inadequate to describe the alogical state, is here approximately appropriate, for the experience of this state is that of an \"I\" and \"This\". But it is to be distinguished from man's Consciousness. For 318 the experiencer as man is a limited (and not, as here, a Supreme Self ) and the object is experienced as separate from, and outside, the Self (and not, as in the case of the Lord and Mother, as one with the experiencing Self). The experience of Shiva as the Supreme Self, viewing the Universe is, \"All thi s, I am\". As contrasted with the alogical, all -diffusive, Spiritual Ether, the symbol of the second aspect of Shiva -Shakti, as the Supreme Self and Cause of the Universe is the metaphysical Point (Bindu) or Power as a Point. What, then is the meaning of the latter term? In Being -Power about to evolve there is a stressing of Power which gathers itself together to expand again as Universe. When it has become concentrated and condensed (Ghanibhuta Shakti) it is ready to evolve. Bindu, or the Point, is, therefore, Power in that Concentrated state in which it is ready and about to evolve the Universe. Though infinitely small, as the Absolute Little, when compared with the Absolute Great or Spiritual Ether, it is yet a source of infinite energy as (to borrow an example from modern science) the relatively Little or Atom, or other unit of matter, existing in the relatively Great or the physical Ether, is said to be a source of tremendous energy. Just as, again, the relative point or atom is as a fact in the relative Ether, so the Absolute Point is conceived to be in the Absolute Ether. I say \"conceived,\" because, as both Spiritual Point and Spiritual Ether are each absolute, it is only figuratively that the one can be said to be \"within\" the other. The \"Isle of Gems\" (Manidvipa) in the \"Ocean of Nectar\" (Amritarnava) is another symbol of this state. There is a painting that exhibits both the Alogical Immense and the Point of Power or Bindu \"in\" it. The former is here symbolized by the shoreless \"Ocean of Nectar\" (Amritarnava) -- that is, Immortality. This symbol of all - diffusive Consciousness is similar to that of the all -spreading Ether. In the blue, tranquil Waters of Eternal Life (Amritarnava) is set the Isle of Gems (Manidvipa). This Island is the Bindu or met aphysical Point of Power. The Island is shown as a golden circular figure. The shores of the Island are made of powdered gems. It is forested with blooming and fragrant trees -- Nipa, Malati, Champaka, Parijata, and Kadamba. There, too is the Kalpa tree laden with flower and fruit. In its leaves the black bees hum, and the Koel birds make love. Its four branches are the four Vedas. In the center there is a 319 house made of Cintamani stone which grants all desires. In it is a jeweled Mandapa or awning. Under it and on a gemmed and golden throne there is the Mother Mahatripurasundari as the Deity of the Bindu, which as shown later, becomes the three Bindus or Puras. Hence Her name \"Three Puras\" or Tripura. She is red, for red is the active color, and She is here creative as Vimarsha Shakti, or, the \"This\" of the Supreme Experiencer, which through Maya becomes the Universe. What man calls Matter is first experienced by mindless Consciousness as a \"This,\" which is yet though the \"Other\" one with the Self. Then, by the operation ofMaya, the \"This\" is experienced by mind as separate and different from and outside the Self, as complete \"otherness\". She holds in Her four hands, bows and arrows, noose and goad, which are explained later. She sits on two inert male figures which lie on a six -sided throne. The upper figure is Shiva (Sakala), who is awake, because, he is associated with his Power as efficient and material cause. On His head is the crescent Digit of the Moon, called Nada, the name for a state of stressing Power, His Shakti being now creative. He lies inert, for He is Immutable Being. He is white because he is Consciousness and Illumination (Prakasha). Consciousness illuminates and makes manifest the forms evolved by its Power, which in its turn by supplying the form (as object unconscious) helps Shiva to display Himself as the Universe which is both Being and Becoming. Under him is another male figure, darker in color, to represent colorlessness (vivarna), with closed eyes. This mysterious figure (Nishkala Shiva) is called Shava or the Corpse. It illustrates the doctrine that Shiva without his Power or Shakti can do and is, so far as the manifested is concerned, nothing. There is profundity in the doctrine of which this Corpse is a symbol. To those who have understood it a real insight is given into the Kaula Shakta system. This representation of Shiva and Shakti as of the same size, but the former lying inert, is perhaps peculiar to the Kaula Shaktas, and is the antithesis of the well -known \"Dancing Shiva\". I will here note some other symbolism, pictorial and geometric or Yantric. Pictorially, Shakti is shown either as the equal of Her Spouse -- that is, as an Androgyne figure in which the right half is male and the left female -- or as two figures, male and female, of equal size. Inequality is indicated where the 320 Shakti is smaller than the male Divinity. The meaning of this difference in dimension of the figures of Shakti lies in a difference of theological and philosophical concepts which may yet be reconciled. In the Shakta view, the Power- Holder and His Power as She is in Herself, that is, otherwise than as the manifested form, are one and equal. But He is recumbent. Alternatively, Shakti is the Mother as the Warrior Leader or Promachos with Shiva under Her feet. Where the figures are unequal it is meant to assert (a fact which is not denied) that Supreme Power as manifested is infinitely less than Power unmanifest. That Power is in no wise exhausted in the manifestation of the Worlds which are said to be as it w ere but dust on the feet of the Mother. Passing to Yantric symbols, the Male Power -Holder Shiva is represented by a triangle standing on its base. A triangle is selected as being the only geometric figure which represents Trinity in Unity -- the many Triads such as Willing, Knowing, and Acting in which the one Consciousness (Cit) displays itself. Power or the feminine principle or Shakti is necessarily represented by the same figure, for Power and Power- Holder are one. The Triangle, however, is shown reversed -- that is standing on its apex. Students of ancient symbolism are aware of the physical significance of this symbol. To such reversal, however, philosophic meaning may also be given, since all is reversed when reflected in the Waters of Maya. Why, it ma y now be asked, does the Shakta lay stress on the Power or Mother aspect of Reality? Like all other Hindus, he believes in a Static Real as Immutable Being -Consciousness, which is the ground of and serves to maintain that which, in this system, is the Dyna mic Real. He will point out, however, that the Mother is also in one of Her aspects of the same nature as Shiva, who is such Static Real. But it is She who does work. She alone also moves as material cause. He as Immutable Being does and can do nothing without Her as His Power. Hence the Kaula Shakta. symbolism shows Shiva as lying inert and to be, if deprived of His Power, but a corpse (Shava). Even when associated with his Shakti as efficient cause, Shiva does not move. A not uncommon picture, counted obscene, is merely the pictorial symbol of the fact that Being, even when associated with its active Power, is Immutable. It is She as Power who takes the active and changeful part in generation, as also in conceiving, bearing, and giving birth to the World- 321 Child. All this is the function of the divine, as it is of the human, mother. In such work the male is but a helper (Sahakari) only. In other systems it is the Mother who is the Helper of Shiva. It is thus to the Mother that man owes the World of Form or Universe. Without Her as material cause, Being cannot display itself. It is but a corpse (Shava). Both Shiva and Shakti give that supreme beyond -world Joy which is Liberation (Mukti, Paramananda). They are each Supreme Consciousness and Bliss. The Mother is Anandalahari or Wave of Bliss. To attain to that is to be liberated. But Shakti the Mother is alone the Giver of World -Joy (Bhukti, Bhaumananda), since it is She who becomes the Universe. As such She is the Wave of Beauty (Saundaryalahari). Further, it is through her Form as World that She, as also Shiva, are in their Formless Self attained. If, however, union is sought directly with Reality in its non- world aspect, it must necessarily be by renunciation. Liberation may, however be attained by acceptance of, and through the World, the other aspect of the Real. In the Shakta method, it is not by denial of the World, but, by and through the World, when known as the Mother that Liberation is attained. World enjoyment is made the means and instrument of Liberation (Mokshayate Samsara). The Shakta has both (Bhukti, Mukti). This essential unity of the World and Beyond World, and passage through and by means of the former to the latter is one of the most profound doctrines of the Shakta, and is none -the-less so beca use their application of these principles has been limited to man's gross physical functions, and such application has sometimes led to abuse. For these and other reasons primacy is given to the Mother, and it is said: \"What care I for the Father if I but be on the lap of the Mother?\" I note here in connection with primacy of the Mother -God that in the Mediterranean (gean) Civilization the Male God is said to have been of a standing inferior to the Mother, and present only to make plain Her character as the fruitful womb whence all that exists springs (Glotz, 243, et seq.). Such, then, is the great Mother of India in Her aspect as She is in Herself as the alogical world- transcending Whole (Purna), and secondly, as She is as the Creatrix of the World. It rem ains now but to say a word of Her as She exists in the form of the universe. 322 The psycho-physical universe is Maya. The devotee Kamalakanta lucidly defines Maya as the Form (Akara) of the Void (Sunya) or formless (not Nothingness). Is it Real? It is real, b ecause Maya, considered as a Power, is Devi Shakti, and She is real. The effect of the transformation of that Power must also be real. Some make a contrast between Reality and Appearance. But why, it is asked (apart from persistence), should appearance be unreal, and that of which it is such appearance alone be real? Moreover, in a system such as this, in which Power transforms itself, no contrast between Reality and Appearance in the sense of unreality emerges. The distinction is between the Real as it is its formless Self and the same Real as it appears in Form. Moreover, the World is experienced by the Lord and Mother, and their experience is never unreal. We are here on a healthy level above the miasma of Illusion. The experience of man (to take him as t he highest type of all other selves) is not the Experience -Whole. He knows the world as the other than Himself, just because Power has made him man -- that is, a limited Experiencer or center in the Whole. That is a fact, and no Illusion or Deceit. When He realizes Himself as \"All this I am\" that is, as an \"I\" which knows all form as Itself -- then Consciousness as man expands into the Experience -Whole which is the Fact (Sat). Man is Shakti, or the Mother, in so far as he is Mind, Life in Form, and Matter. He is Shiva. in so far as his essence is Consciousness as It is in Itself, which is also the nature of the Mother in Her own alogical Self. This union is achieved by rousing the sleeping Power in the lowest center of solid and leading it upwards to the cer ebrum as the center Consciousness. I now pass to the second part of my paper, which deals with the cosmic evolution of Power -- that is, the \"going forth\" of the Supreme Self upon its union with its Power in manifestation. As the result of such evolution w e have Shiva -Shakti as the limited selves. Shiva -Shakti are not terms limited to God only, but the forms into which Power evolves are also Shiva -Shakti. God as the Mother- Father is supreme Shiva -Shakti. The Limited Selves are Shiva - Shakti appearing as Form in Time and Space. The Measurable or World (Samsara) and the Immense Experience -Whole (Moksha) are at root one. This is fundamental doctrine in the community to whose beliefs reference is now made. 323 II. Evolution Shiva and Shakti as the Causal Head (Shiva -Shakti Tattvas) of the world - evolution are called Kameshvara and Kameshvari. Kama is Desire. Here it is Divine Desire, or (to use a Western term) the Libido, which in the Veda is expressed as the wish of the One, \"May I be many\". So also the Veda says: \"Desire first arose in it the primal germ.\" The form of this wish tells us what Libido, in its Indian sense, means. In its primary sense, it does not mean sensuous desire, but the will to, and affirmance of, \"otherness\" and differentiation, of which sensuous desire is a later and gross form in the evolutionary series. Procreation is the individual counterpart of Cosmic Creation. Why were the worlds (for there are many) evolved? The answer given is because it is the nature (Svabhava) of almighty formless Being- Power, whilst remaining what it is, to become Form -- that is, to exist. The Svabhava, or nature of Being -Power, is Lila, or Play, a term which means free spontaneous activity. Hence Lalita, or \"Player,\" is a name of the Mother as She who Plays and whose Play is World- Play. She is both Joy (Ananda-mayi) and Play (Lila- mayi). The action of man and of other selves is, in so far as they are the psycho- physical, determined by their Karma. The Mother's play is not idle or meaningless so far as man is concerned, for the world is the field on and means by which he attains all his worths, the greatest of which is Union with the Mother as She is in Herself as Highest Being. The Player is Power. How does it work? The Whole (Purna), which means here, the Absolute Spiritual Whole, and not the relative Whole or psychophysical universe, cannot as the Whole change. It is Immutable. Change can then take place only in It. This is the work of Power which becomes limited centers in the Whole, which centers, in relation to, and compared with, the Whole, are a contraction of it. Power works by negation, contraction, and finitization. This subtle doctrine is explained profoundly and in detail in the scheme of the thirty-six Tattvas accepted by both non- dualists, Shaivas and Shaktas, and is also dealt with in the Mantra portion of their Scriptures. A Tattva is a Posture (Mudra) of 324 Power -- that is, Reality- Power defined in a particular way, and, therefore the alogical aspect is that which is beyond all Tattvas (Tattvatita). A Tattva is then a stage in the evolutionary process. Mantra is a most important subject in the Tantra Scriptures which treat of Sound and Movement, for the one implies the other. Sound as lettered speech is the vehicle of thought, and Mind is a vehicle of Consciousness for world- experience. The picture of Shiva riding a bull is a popular presentation of that fact. Bull in Sanskrit is \"Go\", and that word also means \"sound\". Nada as inchoate stressing sound is shown in the form of a crescent -moon on His head. The cult of the Bull is an ancient one, and it may be that originally the animal had no significance as Sound, but subsequently, owing to the sameness of the Sanskrit term for Bull and Sound, the animal became a symbol for sound. Sometimes, however, a more l ofty conception is degraded to a lower one. It is here noteworthy that the crescent -moon worn by Diana and used in the worship of other Goddesses is said to be the Ark or vessel of boat -like shape, symbol of fertility or the Container of the Germ of all li fe. I can only in the most summary manner deal with the subject of the Evolution of Power, illustrating it by Yantric symbolism. The Shiva and Shakti triangles are ever united. To represent the alogical state, we may place one triangle without reversal upon the other, thus making one triangular figure. This will give some idea of the state in which the two triangles as \"I\" and \"This\" are fused in one as Being -Consciousness - Bliss. Here, however, we are concerned with the causal state which is the Supreme Sel f in Whose experience there is an \"I\" and a \"This\", though the latter is experienced as the Self. There is, therefore, a double triangular figure; Shiva and Shakti are in union, but now not as the alogical Whole, but as the Supreme Self experiencing His ob ject or Shakti as one with Himself. The marriage of the Divine couple, Kameshvara and Kameshvari -- that is, Being and Power to Become -- is the archetype of all generative embraces. To represent this aspect, the triangles are placed across one another, so as to produce a Hexagon, in which one triangle represents the \"I\", or Shiva and 325 the other the \"This,\" or object, as Power and its transformations -- that is, Shakti. As the result of this union, Power assumes certain Postures (Mudra) in its stressing to manifest as Universe. The first of such produced stresses is, from the Tattva aspect, Sadashiva, and, from the Mantra aspect, inchoate sound or movement called Nada. The state is shown by the Hexagon with a crescent-moon, the symbol of Nada, in its center. This Nada is not manifested sound or movement, but an inchoate state of both. In the next Mantric stage (corresponding to the Tattvas, Ishvara and Shuddhavidya) the crescent -moon enlarges into the full moonlike Bindu. This also is stressing Power as inchoate sound and movement, but is now such Power ready to evolve into manifested sound and movement. The word Bindu also means seed, for it is the seed of the universe as the result of the union of its ultimate principles as Shiva and Shakti. The Point, or Bindu, is shown as a circle, so as to display its content and a line divides the Point, one half representing the \"I\", and the other, the \"This\" aspect of experience. They are shown in one circle to denote that the \"This,\" or object, is not yet outside the self as non- self. The Bindu is compared in the Tantras to a grain of gram (Canaka), which contains two seeds (Aham and Idam) so close to one another within their common sheath as to seem to be one seed. At the stage when Consciousness lays equal emphasis on the \"I\" and \"This\" of experience, Maya -Shakti and its derivative powers called sheaths (Kacuka) and contractions (Samkoca) operate to disrupt the Bindu, which comes apart in two. Now the \"I\" and \"This\" are separated, the latter being experienced as outside the self or as non-self. The former becomes limited as \"Little Knower\" and \"Little Doer\". This is the work of Maya-Shakti. Power again (as Prakriti- Shakti) evolves the psycho -physical organs of this limited Self, as Mind, Senses, and Body. I have s poken of two Bindus standing for Shiva and Shakti. Their inter - relation and its product is another form of Nada. These then make three Bindus, which are a grosser form of the Kamakala. The Divinity of the 326 three Bindus is the Mother as Mahatripurasundari, \"the Beauteous One in whom are the three Puras,\" or Bindus. The Mantra equivalent of the state in which the Bindu divides and becomes threefold is the first manifested sound, which is the Great Mantra Om. As the Supreme Bindu bursts there is a massive, homogeneous, vibratory movement, as it were a cosmic thrill (samanya spandana) in psychophysical Substance the sound of which to man's gross ears is Om. The original sound of Om is that which was heard by the Absolute Ears of Him and Her who caused that moveme nt. Om is the ground- sound and ground movement of Nature. The Mundakopanishad says that the Sun travels the universe chanting the mantra Om. From Om are derived all special (vishesha spandana) movements, sounds, and Mantras. It is itself threefold, since i t is constituted by the union of the letters A, U, M. The Divinities of these three letters are Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, and their Shaktis. These, together with Sadashiva and Isha, are the Five Shivas to whom reference is made in the ritual, and who are pict ured in the Shakta symbolism as the Five who are Dead (Preta). Power, after involving itself in solid matter, technically called \"Earth,\" then rests in this last -named element. The evolution of the Tattvas is not a temporal process. Time only comes in with sun and moon, on the completion of the evolution of the Tattvas as constituent elements of the universe. The Tattvas are given as the results of an analysis of experience, in which the Prius is logical not temporal. For these reasons a Causal Tattva does not cease to be what it is as Cause when it is transformed into its effect, which is not the case in the manifested world wherein, as the Lakshmi -Tantra says, \"Milk when it becomes curd ceases to be milk\". Reality does not cease to be the Alogical Whole be cause it is from the Causal aspect a Supreme Self. It does not cease to be the Cosmic Cause because it evolves as the Universe its effect. Nor in such evolution does any Tattva cease to be what it is as cause because it is transformed into its effect. 327 I am now in the position to explain the great Yantra or diagram which is used in the worship of the Mother and which is called the Shri Yantra, a symbol of both the Universe and its Cause. I have not the time to describe it at length, but its meaning may be ge nerally stated. It is composed of two sets of Triangles. One set is composed of four male or Shiva triangles called Shrikanthas denoting four aspects (Tattva) of evolved or limited Consciousness -Power, and the five female or Shakti triangles (Shivayuvatis) denote the five vital functions, the five senses of knowledge, the five senses of action, and the five subtle and the five gross forms of matter. The place of the psychic element as Mind and the Psycho- physical Substance of both Mind and Matter, I will indicate later. These two sets of triangles are superimposed to show the union of Shiva and Shakti. As so united they make the figure within the eight lotus petals in the full Yantra. Outside these eight lotuses there are sixteen other lotuses. There are then some lines, and a surround with four gates or doors, which surround is found in all Yantras, and is called Bhupura. It serves the purpose of what in Magic is called a Fence. This Yantra has nine Cakras, or compartments, formed by the intersection of the Triangles. There is first a red central point or Bindu, the Cakra of Bliss. The central point or Bindu is Supreme Divinity -- the Mother as the Grand Potential whence all the rest which this diagram signifies proceed. It is red, for that is the active color, and thus the color of Vimarsha Shakti, or Evolving Power. The second Cakra is the white inverted Triangle, or \"Cakra of All Accomplishment\". In the corners of this white Triangle are the Divinities of the General Psychophysical Substance and its first t wo evolutes as Cosmic Mind. Outside the Cakra is Kama, the Divinity of Desire, with His Bow of Sugar -Cane, which is the Mind as director of the senses; with its Five Arrows, which are the five forms of subtle matter, which in their gross form are perceived by these senses; with his Noose, which is Attraction, and his Goad, which is Repulsion. Another version (taking the Bow and Arrow as one 328 symbol) makes the three implements, the Powers of Will, Knowledge and Action. The third Cakra is eight red Triangles, and is called \"Destroyer of all Disease\", a term which means lack of that Wholeness (Apurnam -manyata) which is Spiritual Health. The fourth Cakra is ten blue Triangles. The fifth is ten red Triangles. The sixth is fourteen blue Triangles. The seventh is eight red petals. The eighth is sixteen blue petals, and the ninth is the yellow surround. Each of these Cakras has its own name. In them there are a number of lesser Divinities presiding over forms of Mind, Life and Body, and their special functions. Those who hear the Devas spoken of as \"Gods\" are puzzled by their multitude. This is due to the ill -rendering of the terms Devas and Devis as Gods and Goddesses. God is the Supreme Mother and Father, the \"Two in One,\" who are alone the Supreme Self, and as such receive supreme worship. All forms -- whether of Devas, or men, or other creatures -- in so far as they are the psycho- physical forms, subtle or gross, are manifestations of the Power of their Immanent Essence, which is Spirit or Infinite Consciousness. That Essence is in itself one and changeless, but as related to a particular psycho- physical form as its cause and Director of its functions it is its Presiding Consciousness. Mind and Matter are not, as such, self - guiding. They are evolved and directed by C onsciousness. The presiding consciousness of the Form and its functions is its presiding Devata. A Deva is thus the consciousness aspect of the psycho -physical form. So the Deva Agni is the one Consciousness in its aspect as the Lord of Fire. A Devata may also mean an aspect as the Causal Consciousness itself. And so Mahatripurasundari is the name given to the creative aspect of such Consciousness -Power, as Mahakali is that aspect of the same Consciousness - Power which dissolves all worlds. The object of the worship of the Yantra is to attain unity with the Mother of the Universe in Her forms as Mind, Life, and Matter and their Devatas, as preparatory to Yoga union with Her as She is in herself as Pure Consciousness. The world is divinized in the consciousnes s of the 329 Worshipper, or Sadhaka. The Yantra is thus transformed in his consciousness from a material object of lines and curves into a mental state of union with the Universe, its Divinities and Supreme Deity. This leads to auto -realization as Mindless Consciousness. The Shri Yantra is thus the Universe and its one Causal Power of various aspects. The worshipper, too, is a Shri Yantra, and realizes himself as such. III. Dissolution I have dealt with the nature of Shiva -Shakti and the evolution of power as the Universe, and now will say a word as to the relative ending of the world on its withdrawal to reappear again, and as to the absolute ending for the individual who is liberated. In Hindu belief, this Universe had a beginning, and will have an end. But it is only one of an infinite series in which there is no absolutely first Universe. These Universes come and go with the beating of the Pulse of Power now actively going forth, now returning to rest. For the World has its life period, which, reckoning up to the Great Dissolution, is the duration of an outgoing \"Breath of Time\". In due course another Universe will appear, and so on to all eternity. This series of Worlds of Birth, Death, and Reincarnation is called by the Hindus the Samsara, and was named by the Greeks the Cycle of the Becoming (kuklos ton geneson). All selves which are withdrawn at the end of a world- period continue to reappear in the new worlds to be until they are liberated therefrom. The picture now described depicts the Mother- Power which dissolves -- that is, withdraws the World into Herself. This is another aspect of one and the same Mother. As such She is Mahakali, dark blue like a rain cloud. Nada is in Her head -dress. She is encircled by serpents, as is Shiva. She holds in Her hands, besides the Lotus and two weapons, a skull with blood in it. She wears a garland of human heads which are exotically the heads of conquered Demons, but are esoterically the letters of the alphabet which as well as the Universe of which they are the seed-mantras, are dissolved by Her. She stands on the white, inert Shiva, for it is not He but His power who withdraws the Universe into Herself. He lies on a funeral pyre, in the 330 burning -ground, where jackals -- favorite animals of Kali -- and carrion birds are gnawing and pecking at human flesh and bone. The cremation ground is a symbol of cosmic dissolution. In a similar picture, we see the Mother standing on two figures, the Shiva, and Shava previously explained. On the Corpse the hair has grown. The Deva s, or \"Gods,\" as they are commonly called, are shown making obeisance to Her on the left, for She is their Mother as well as being the Mother of men. There are some variations in the imagery. Thus Kali, who is commonly represented naked -- that is, free of her own Maya -- is shown clad in skins. Her function is commonly called Destruction, but as the Sanskrit saying goes, \"the Deva does not Destroy\". The Supreme Self withdraws the Universe into Itself. Nothing is destroyed. Things appear and disappear to reappear. To pass beyond the Worlds of Birth and Death is to be Liberated. Human selves alone can attain liberation. Hence the supreme worth of human life. But few men understand and desire Liberation, which is the Experience- Whole. They have not reached the stage in which it is sought as the Supreme Worth. The majority are content to seek the Partial in the satisfaction of their individual interests. But as an unknown Sage cited by the Commentators on the Yoginihridaya and Nityashodasika Tantras has profoundly said, \"Identification of the Self with the Non-Whole or Partial (Apurnam -manyata) is Disease and the sole source of every misery\". Hence one of the Cakras of the Shri Yantra which I have shown you is called \"Destroyer of all Disease\". Eternal Health is Wholeness which is the Highest Worth as the Experience- Whole. The \"Disease of the World\" refers not to the World in itself, which is the Mother in form, but to that darkness of vision which does not see that it is Her. As Upanishad said, \"He alone fears who sees Duality.\" This recognition of the unity of the World and the Mother has its degrees. That Whole is of varying kinds. It is thus physical or bodily health as the physical Whole which is sought in Hathayoga. Man, as he develops, lives more and more in that Current of Energy, which, having immersed itself in Mind and Matter for the purpose of World -Experience, returns to itself as the Perfect Experience, which is Transcendent Being - Power. With the transformation of man's nature his values become higher. 331 At length he discerns that his Self is rooted in and is a flowering of Supreme Being -Power. His cramped experience, loosened of its limitations, expands into fullness. For, it must be ever remembered, that Consciousness as it is itself never evolves. It i s the Immutable Essence, and Shakti the \"Wave of Bliss' as they each are in themselves. Evolution is thus a gradual release from the limitations of Form created by Being- Power. Interest in the Partial and Relative Wholeness gives way to a striving towards the Mother as the Absolute Whole (Purna) which She is in Her own spaceless, and timeless, nature. This complete Liberation is the Perfect Experience in which the Self, cramped in Mind and Body, overcomes its mayik bonds and expands into the Consciousness -Whole. The practical question is therefore the conversion of Imperfect (Apurna) into Perfect (Purna) Experience. This last is not the \"standing aloof\" (Kaivalya) \"here\" from some discarded universe \"over there,\" upon the discovery that it is without reality and worth. For the World is the Mother in Form. It is one and the same Mother -Power which really appears as the psycho -physical universe, and which in itself is Perfect Consciousness. Liberation is, according to this system, the expansion of the empirical consciousness in and through and by means of the world into that Perfect Consciousness which is the Experience- Whole. This can only be by the grace of the Mother, for who otherwise can loosen the knot of Maya which She Herself has tied ? The state of Liberation can only be approximately described. Even those who have returned from ecstasy cannot find words for that which they have in fact experienced. \"A full vessel,\" it is said, \"makes no sound\". It is not in this system an experience of mere empty \"being ,\" for this is an abstract concept of the intellect produced by the power of Consciousness. It is a concrete Experience -Whole of infinitely rich \"content\". The Mother is both the Whole and, as Samvid Kala, is the Cause and archetype of all Partials (Kala). She is Herself the Supreme Partial as She is also the Whole. So, She is the Supreme Word (Paravak), Supreme Sound and Movement (Parashabda Paranada), Supreme Space (Paravyoma),Supreme or Transcendental Time (Parakala) the infinite \"limit\" of that which man knows on the rising of Sun and Moon. She is again the Life of all 332 lives (pranapranasya). She thus contains within Herself in their \"limit\" all the realities and values of worldly life which is Her expression in Time and Space. But over and beyond this, She is also the alogical Experience -Whole. This experience neither supersedes nor is superseded by experience as the Supreme Self. This Alogical Experience is only approximately spoken of as Infinite Being, Consciousness and Joy which is the seamless (akhand a) Experience -Whole (Purna). Relative to the Supreme Self the Perfect Experience, She as His Power is the Perfect Universe. In the alogical transcendent state in which Shiva and Shakti are mingled as the One, She is the Massive Bliss (Ananda- ghana) which is their union, of which it has been said: Niratishaya premaspadatvam anandatvam, which may be translated: \"Love in its limit or uttermost love is Joy\". This is the love of the Self for its Power and for the Universe as which such Power manifests. She is ca lled the Heart of the Supreme Lord (Hridayam Parameshituh), with whom the Shakta unites himself as he says Sa'ham -- \"She I am\". If we analyze this description we find that it can be summed up in the single Sanskrit term Anandaghana, or Mass of Bliss. The essence of the Universe is, to the Shakta, nothing but that. Mystical states in all religions are experiences of joy. As I have elsewhere said, the creative and world - sustaining Mother, as seen in Shakta worship (Hadimata), is a Joyous Figure crowned with ruddy flashing gems, clad in red raiment Lauhityam etasya sarvasya vimarshah, more effulgent than millions of red rising suns, with one hand granting all blessings (varamudra), and with the other dispelling all fears (abhaya-mudra). It is true that She seems fearful to the uninitiated in Her form as Kali, but the worshippers of this Form (Kadimata) know Her as the Wielder of the Sword of Knowledge which, severing man from ignorance -- that is, partial knowledge -- gives him Perfect Experience. To such worshipper the burning ground -- with its corpses, its apparitions, and haunting malignant spirits -- is no terror. These forms, too, are Hers. Hinduism has with deep insight seen that Fear is an essential mark of the animal, and of man in so far as he is an animal (Pashu). The Shakta unites himself with this joyous and liberating Mother, saying Sa'ham -- \"She I am\". As he realizes this he is the fearless Hero, or Vira. For he who sees Duality, he alone fears. To see Duality means not merely to see otherness, but to see 333 that other as alien non- self. The fearless win all worldly enterprises, and fearlessness is also the mark of the Illuminate Knower. Such an one is also in his degree independent of all outward power, and Mrityujaya, or Master of Death. Such an one is not troubled for himself by the thought of Death. In the apt words of a French author (L'Ame Paienne, 83), he no more fears than do the leaves of the trees, yellowing to their fall in the mists of autumn. An imperishable instinct tells him that if he, like the leaves, is about to fall he is also the tree on which they will come out again, as also the Earth in which both grow, and yet again (as the Shakta would say) he is also, in his Body of Bliss, the Essence which as the Mother- Power sustains them all. As that Essence is imperishable, so in the deepest sense is its form as Nature. For whatever exists can never altogether cease to be. Either man's consciousness expands into that Lordliness which sees all as Itself, or he and all lower beings are wit hdrawn into the Womb of Power, in which they are conserved to reappear in that Sphuranaor Blossoming which is the Springtide of some new World. 334 CHAPTER TWENTY -ONE. HINDU RITUAL It is well said that Ritual is the Art of Religion. As practiced by the Hindus, it is not rightly judged, because the religious and philosophical doctrines of which it is a practical expression and method are either unknown or misunderstood. If we add to incapacity, a temperament hostile to all Ritualism, the resultant criticism is \"mummery,\" \"idolatry,\" \"gibberish,\" and so forth. It is true that Ritual is meaningless to those who do not know its meaning; just as a telegram sent in cipher is without sense to those who are ignorant of the code according to which it is written. It may, however, be admitted that in so far as, and to the extent that Ritual is carried out without understanding on the part of the worshipper, such criticisms may, to that extent, be justified. Despite shallow views, Ritual is a necessity for men as whole. Those who profess to reject it in religion are yet found to adhere to it, in some form or other, in social and political life. The necessity of Ritual is shown by well- known historical reactions. Degeneracy leads to \"Protestant\" abolitions. The jejune worship of the \"reformer\" lacks appeal and power and Ritual comes into its own again. This oscillation is well marked in Europe in the history of Catholicism and Protestantism. It is displayed again in the East in Buddhism, which, starting as a revolt from an excessive Vaidik Ritual, adopted in the end the elaborate rites to be found in the Hindu and Buddhist Tantras. The Brahmanic position is the middle and stable way, acknowledging the value of both the \"Protestant\" and \"Catholic\" attitude. Its view is that all men need Ritual, but in varying degree and various kinds, until they are Siddha, that is, until they have achieved the end which Ritual is designed to secure. When the end is gained there is no longer need for the means to it. Further, the need becomes less and less as approach is made to that end. The Ritual must be suitable to the spiritual attainments and disposition of the worshipper. For the simple and ignorant the Ritual is of a Sthula or gross kind. The word Sthula in Sanskrit does not necessarily imply any moral censure. It is here used as the opposite of Sukshma or subtle. Again, count is taken of human emotion and of its varieties. The dispositions or temperaments, or Bhava, of worshippers vary. One worshipper may place 335 himself before the Lord in the relation of a servant towards his Master, another in the relation of a friend, and yet another in the relation of a lover. In the same way, Yoga, in the sense of a system of self -control and self - fulfillme nt, varies. For those who are predominantly intellectual there is the Yoga of Knowledge (Jana); for those in whom emotion is strong there is the Yoga of Devotion (Bhakti); for such as belong to neither of these classes there is the great Yoga of Action (K arma). The end to which each medially or directly works is the same. There is, in fact, no religion more Catholic than Hinduism. For this reason, those who dislike and fear it, speak of its \"rapacious maw\". It has in fact, an enormous faculty of assimilation; for there is in it that which will satisfy all views and temperaments. In the West, we are too apt to quarrel with views and practices which we dislike. We will not, in such case, accept them, but that is not necessarily a reason why those who like them should not do so. Thus, to some, all Ritual is repellent, or some kinds of devotion, such as the use of erotic imagery. Let each take or reject what is suitable or unsuitable to him. Controversy is futile. Fitness or Adhikara is a fundamental principle of Hinduism. Some may be fit for one doctrine and practice, and others not. The wisdom of the universal man with a world- mind converts many an absolute judgment into a relative one. For the judgment, \"This is bad,\" he will substitute, \"This is not good for me\". In this way he will both save own health and temper, and that of the other. The term \"Ritual,\" in its religious sense, is included in the Sanskrit term Sadhana, though the latter word has a wider content. It is derived from the root Sadh = to exert or strive for, and includes any exertion or striving for anything. Thus a man who goes through a special training for an athletic match is doing Sadhana with a view to win in that contest. The taking of lessons in a foreign language is Sadhana with a view to attain proficiency in that language. Orientalists frequently translate the term by the English word \"evocation\". There is, of course, Sadhana, to gain the fruits of magic. But this is only one form of Sadhana. The form of which I write, and that to which reference is generally made, is that effort and striving in the form of self - training, discipline, and worship which has as its end a 'spiritual' and not merely physical or mental result -- though such result necessarily involves a transformation of both mind and body. The end, then, is some form of Unity with God as the Universal Father, or Mother as the Shaktas say. The person 336 who does Sadhana is called Sadhaka or, if a woman, Sadhika. The end sought by the process of Sadhana is Sadhya orSiddhi. Siddhi, or accomplishment, means any successful result, and the man who attains it, is in respect of such attainment, called Siddha. The highest Siddhi is Unity with Brahman, the All- pervader, either by merger in or expansion into It, as some say, or as others hold, by varying degrees of association with and proximity to the Lord. Dogmatic views on this or other points are necessarily, to some extent, reflected in the Ritual presented for their realization, but at the Sadhana stage there is less divergence of practice than might be supposed, because whatever be the doctrine held, a worshipper must practically be a dualist. For worship includes both a worshipper and that which is worshipped. There are persons who, in popular language, \"worship themselves,\" but this is not a spiritual exercise. Whatever God may be in Himself, or Itself, the worship is of a Supreme Person (Purnaham). The world sometimes distracts the Mind from this, its supreme object. Nevertheless there is another universal tendency towards it. This la st tendency is proof of man's divine origin. Springing from such a source, he must needs return to it. The striving to realize God, is part of man's nature. Sadhana is such striving in the forms which experience has shown to be fruitful. In the Orphic Myst eries it was said: \"I am the child of the earth and starry sky, but know that my origin is divine. I am devoured by and perish with thirst. Give me without delay the fresh water which flows from the 'Lake of Memory'.\" And again: \"Pure, and issued from what is pure, I come towards Thee.\" So again St. Augustine said that the Mind was not at rest until it found itself in God. Brahmanic doctrine also states the same and gives the reasons for it. A profound saying by an Indian sage runs: \"Identification with the imperfect (Apurnam manyata) -- that is, want of Wholeness, is Disease and the source of every misery.\" Whole = Hale = Health. Every form of want of wholeness, be it physical, psychical or spiritual, is disease and inflicts unhappiness. God is the whole and complete (Purna), which is without parts or section (Akhanda). Man is the reverse of this. But having sprung from the Whole, he seeks self -completion either by becoming or reflecting the Whole. The greatest of illnesses is that which the Hindu Scriptures call the Disease of Existence itself, in so far as such finite existence involves a hindrance to the 337 realization of perfect infinite Being. For these reasons one of the Cakras or compartments of the great Shri Yantra , is called Rogahara Cakra, that is, the \"Disease- destroying Cakra\". What is meant by the saying is that man's identification of the self with its particular form, that is with imperfection, is Disease, just as the knowledge that he is one with the whole is Health lasting. To gain this it is necessary that man should worship his Lord in one or other of the many ways in which his fellows have done so. For that purpose he may invent a ritual. But the more effective forms for the mass are those which tradition accredits. Amongst the greatest of ritual systems is that of the Hindus. Hinduism (to use a popular term) cannot be understood without a knowledge of it. But, it may be said, there are many Rituals. Which are to be adopted, and how can we know that they will give result? The answer is that the Ritual for any particular individual is that for which he is fit (Adhikari). The proof of its efficacy is given by experience. The Ayurveda, or the Veda which teaches the rules to secure a long life (Ayuh) says that that only is a medicine which cures the disease and which, at the same time, gives rise to no other. To those who put the question, the answer of the Teacher is -- \"Try\". If the seeker will not try he cannot complain that he has no success. The Teacher has himself or herself (for according to the Tantras a woman may be a Guru) been through the training, and warrants success to those who will faithfully adopt the means he has himself adopted. What, then, are the basic principles of Sadhana, and how does it work? To understand this we must have correct ideas of what the Hindus understand by the terms Spirit, Mind, and Body. I have in my volume The World As Power explained these terms and will now very shortly summarize what is there said, so far as it touches the main principles governing the subjec t of this paper. II The ultimate object of the ritual -- that is, the realization of God -- is effected by the transformation of the worshipper into likeness with the worshipped. Let us assume that the Sadhaka is doctrinally an adherent of the Advaita 338 Vedanta which is called Monism, but which is more accurately translated \"Not two,\" or non- dual, because, whilst it can be affirmed that the ultimate Reality is not two, still as it is beyond number and all other predicates, it cannot be affirmed to be one. Let us, then, investigate some of the general principles on which the Ritual expressing this doctrine works. Man is said to be Spirit -- to use an English term -- with two vehicles of Mind and Body. Spirit, or Brahman as it is in Itself (Svarupa), according to the Vedanta is, relative to us, pure infinite Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Sat, Cit, Ananda). That is Spirit viewed from our side and in relation to us. What Spirit is Itself only Spirit in Itself can say. This is only known in the experience of the perfect (Siddha) Yogi, who has completely transformed himself through the elimination of those elements of Mind and Body which constitute a finite individuality. \"To know Brahman is to be Brahman.\" God, or the Lord (Ishvara) is pure, infinite Spirit, in its aspect relative to the world as its Creator, Maintainer, and Ruler. Man is, according to this school, that self - same Spirit or Consciousness which, in one aspect is immutable, and in another is finitized by Mind and Matter. Consciousness and Mind are, then, two different and, indeed, opposite things. Mind is not Consciousness, but is (considered in itself) an Unconscious force. Consciousness is infinite. Mind is a product of a finitizing principle or power inherent in Consciousness itself, which appears to l imit consciousness. Mind per se is thus an unconscious force limiting Consciousness. This statement may seem strange in the West, but is coming to be acknowledged to some extent there, where it is now recognized that there is such a thing as unconscious mind. Vedanta says that mind in itself is always an unconscious force. The mind appears to be conscious, not because it is so in itself, but because it is associated with and is the vehicle of Spirit which alone is Consciousness in Itself. The function of Mind, on the contrary, is to cut into sections sectionless Consciousness. Let us suppose that Consciousness is represented by an unbroken light thrown on a blank screen. This unbroken light imperfectly represents -- (for images fail us in one respect or anot her) -- Consciousness. Let us suppose, then, another metal screen cut up into patterns imposed on the former and thus letting the light through in parts and in various shapes, and shutting it out in others. This last opaque screen represents Mind. Consciousness is self - revealing. Mind occludes it in varying ways, and is a subtle form of the 339 power (Shakti) possessed by Spirit to appear in finite form. Matter or Body is another but grosser form of the same Power. And because Mind and Body have a common origin, the one as subject can know the other as object. Cognition is then recognition. The same Power which has the capacity to so veil itself can unveil itself. The first step towards such unveiling is taken by Sadhana in its form as self- purification, both as regards body and mind, self - discipline and worship in its various ritual forms. At a high point of advance this Sadhana enters what is generally known as Yoga. How then does Sadhana work? It must be remembered that there is no such thing as mind or soul w ithout some form of body, be it gross or subtle. The individual mind has always a body. It is only Spirit which is Mind- less, and therefore wholly bodiless. Mind and Body are each as real as the other. When there is subject or mind there is always object or matter. The proper discipline purifies and controls both. A pure body helps to the attainment of a pure mind, because they are each aspects of one Power -Substance. Whenever, then, there is mind, it has some object or content. It is never without content. That object may be good or bad. The first design of the Ritual, then is to secure that the mind shall always have a good object. The best of all objects is its Lord. What, then, is the result of meditation on the Lord? What is the process of knowing? When the mind knows an object, that process consists in the projection from the Mind of a Mind- Ray, which goes out to the object, takes its form, and returns and models the mind itself into the form of the object. Thus, if attention is completely given, that i s without any distraction, to an image or Deity, a jar or any other object, the mind so long as it holds that object is completely transformed into the shape of that object. Thus, with complete concentration on the Lord, the mind is shaped into the image of Him, with all His qualities. That image is formulated by what is called the Dhyana. The Ritual gives the Dhyana of each of the forms of God or Spirit. Let it be assumed, then, that the mind is thus transformed; it is then necessary to keep it so. The min d is so unsteady, agile and variable that it has been compared both with mercury and the restless monkey. If this variability displayed itself in the choice of good thoughts only, it would not 340 so much matter. But there are others which are not good. Moreover, both intensity and durability of transformation are desired. The endeavor then is to attain complete power of concentration and for periods of increasing length. The effect of this is to establish in the mind a tendency in the direction desired. All have experience of the psychological truth that the longer and more firmly an object is held in the mind, the less is the tendency towards distraction from it. A tendency is called Samskara. Such tendency may be physical or psychical. Thus, the tendency of an India -rubber band when stretched to return to its original condition before such stretching, is physical samskara of India -rubber. In the same way, there are psychical samskaras. Thus, a man of miserly disposition is influenced by some sufficient impulse to be, on a particular occasion, generous, but when that or other sufficient impulse lacks, his miserly disposition or samskara asserts itself. On the other hand, but little is required to call out generosity in a naturally charitable man, for the good tendency is there. Sadhana confirms good and eradicates bad samskaras. As tendencies are produced by past action, intellectual or bodily, present and future good actions will secure that good samskaras are kept and others eliminated. Man is both born with samskaras and acquires others. No Hindu holds that the mind at birth is tabula rasa. On the contrary, it is compounded of all thesamskaras or tendencies which result from the actions of the previous lives of the individual in question. These are added to, varied, reversed or confirmed by actions taken in the present life. Many of such Samskaras are bad, and steps must be taken to substitute for them others. All are aware that bad acts and thoughts, if repeated, result in the establishment of a bad habit, that is a bad Samskara realized. The object of Sadhana is, then, firstly to substitute good objects for the mind in lieu of bad objects, and to overcome the tendency towards distraction and to revert to what is bad. This means the stabilizing of character in a good mold. How is this to be effected? The Sadhana must avoid all distractions by keeping the mind occupied with what is good. We accordingly find the repetitions which may be, but by no means necessarily are, \"vain\". A common instance of this is Japa, or repetition of mantra. This is done by count on a rosary (Mala) or with the thumb on the twelve phalanxes of the fingers. There are also forms of repetition in varying ways. Thoughts are 341 intensified and confirmed by appropriate bodily gestures Mudra. Aga in, real processes are imagined. Thus, in Nyasa, the worshipper with appropriate bodily actions places different parts of the body of the Divinity on the corresponding parts of his own body. Thus the Sadhaka imagines that he has acquired a new divine body. Again, in the more subtle rite called Bhutasuddhi, the worshipper imagines that each of the component elements of the body is absorbed in the next higher element until all are merged in the Supreme Power of whom man, as a compound of such elements, is a l imited manifestation. Whilst this is merely imagined in Sadhana, it objectively and actually takes place in Kundalini Yoga. The mind is thus constantly occupied in one form or another with, and thus shaped into, that which is divine and becomes itself, by being kept in such shape, at length permanently divine. For as the Chandogya Upanishad says: \"What a man thinks that he becomes.\" So also the Gandharva Tantra says: \"By meditating on anything as oneself, man becomes that.\" Thinking always on the Lord, man is transformed, within limits, into an image of Him. The preparatory work of Sadhana is completed in Yoga. I will next shortly note some of the principal forms of ritual employed in worship, viz., image and emblem, Yantra, Puja, Mantra, Mudra, Nyasa, Bhutashuddhi. These are in constant use, either daily or on special occasions. The ritual of the Sacraments, or Samskaras, are performed once, viz.,on the date of that sacrament, such as naming ceremony, marriage and so forth. III The third Chapter (here summ arized and explained) of the Sanskrit work called \"Wave of Bliss, for worshippers of the Mother-Power (Shakti),\" deals with the necessity for the use of images and other forms as representations of the formless All -Pervader (Brahman). The latter is, in Its own true nature, bodiless (ashariri) and pure Consciousness, or in Western language, Spirit. But Brahman, through Its power (shakti), assumes all the forms of the Universe, just as it is said an actor (natavat) assumes various roles. Thus Brahman has two aspects: the subtle, in which It is its own unmanifested Self; and the gross, in which It appears as the manifested universe. Or, if we 342 reserve the word \"subtle\" for what, though it is not pure Spirit, is yet finer than gross matter -- that is, Mind, we ma y say that the Ultimate Reality has three aspects: (a) Supreme or transcendent, that is pure formless Spirit; (b) subtle, or the same Spirit as manifested in mind, (c) gross, or the same spirit as manifested in Matter. It is clear that one cannot meditate on that which is wholly formless as is the supreme Brahman, which is without body. In meditation (Dhyana) there is duality, namely, the subject who meditates and the object of such meditation, though, in fact, the two are (according to the Advaita or non- dualism of the Shaktas), both differing aspects of the one Brahman through Its Power. As the mind cannot remain steady on what is formless (amurta), therefore, a form (murta) is necessary. Form is gross or subtle. Form is necessary both in Sadhana and Yoga -- in the latter for acquiring accomplishment in Trataka -Yoga, that is, steady gaze which leads to one -pointedness (Ekagrata), and this latter to Samadhi or ecstasy. The grossest form is that which is shown in the round, with hands, feet, and so forth -- that is, the image. Nothing is here left to the imagination. The particulars of the image, that is, how it should be shaped, its color. posture, and so forth, is given in what are called the meditations or Dhyanas, and the dimensions may be found in the Silpa Shastras. These describe the form, attitude, the position of the hands and legs, the articles such as weapons and the like carried, the vehicle or Vahana -- and the attendant Divinities (Avarana Devata). Less gross forms are pictures or representati ons in the flat, emblems such as the Shalagrama stone sacred to Vishnu, the Linga or sign of Shiva, and the inverted triangle which is the emblem of the Mother. Thus a linga set in the Yoni or triangle represents the union of Shiva and Shakti, of God and His Power, or in philosophical language, the union of the static and kinetic aspects of the one Ultimate Reality. A still more subtle form is the Yantra, which literally means \"instrument,\" viz., the instrument by which worship is done. It is as shown on the flat, a diagram which varies with each of the Devatas or Divinities, and has been called \"the body of Mantra\". Whilst gross (sthula) meditation takes place on the gross image, emblem or Yantra, subtle (sukshma) meditation has as its object the Mantra. The Mantra and the Devata are one. A Mantra is Devata in that form, that is as sound. Hearing is considered the finest of the senses. What is called 343 Supreme Meditation is nothing but ecstasy, or -- Consciousness, freed of both its subtle and gross vehicles, and therefore, limitations.As the Brahman is only directly known in the ecstasy of Yoga, It is imagined with form, or, as some translate this passage, It assumes form for the sake of the worshippers (upasakanam karyyartham). These forms are male or female, such as, in the first class, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and others, and in the second Tripurasundari, Lakshmi, Kali and others. The worship of a Eunuch (napumsaka) form does not bear fruit. What shall be the selected as patron Divinity, depends on the competency (adhikara) of the worshipper, that is, what is suitable or fit for him given his character and attainments. The Yamala says: \"Men see Him in various ways, each according to his own inclinations. But an advaitist worshipper should at the same time rememb er that each is an aspect of one and the same Deity. Varaha Purana says: \"What Durga is, that is Vishnu, and that also is Shiva. The wise know that they are not different from one another. The fool, who in his partiality thinks otherwise, goes to the Raura va Hell.\" There is, however, from the nature of the case, some distinction in the case of the worship of those on the path of enjoyment, who should worship according to the mode in which they have been initiated. But the renouncer should discard in every way all notions of difference. The Wave of Bliss, citing Samaya Tantra, says: \"By the worship of some Deva, liberation is with difficulty attained, and by the worship of others enjoyment is to be had, but in the case of the worshipper of the Mother, both en joyment and liberation lie in the hollow of his hands.\" But, unless prayed to, the Mother or Devi does not give fruit, and naturally so. For the Devi is moved to action through the prayers of the worshipper. Essentially the worshipper is the Devi Herself, and unless She in Her form as the worshipper is moved, She in Her aspect as the Supreme Lord -- \"Our Lady\" -- does not move. By \"worshipper\" is meant one who is proficient in Karma and Bhakti Yoga. The Janayogi's effort is directed towards the attainment of the formless Brahman. Worship implies duality, and so does Mantra- yoga of which worship is a part. From the Bija- mantra or seed mantra the Devata arises and this Devata is the Brahman. In the Kurma Purana it is said: \"Those who think themselves to be different from the Supreme Lord will never see Him. All 344 their labor is in vain.\" Therefore, the Shrikrama says: \"Meditate upon yourself as the Supreme Mother -- the primordial Power -- by your mind, word, and body.\" All three take part in the ritual. The mind, which must from its nature have an object, is given a good object, that is, the image of its Lord. It holds to that. The worshipper utters the ritual words and with his body performs the ritual acts, such as the gestures (Mudra), the giving of offerings , and so forth. And the reason is, as the Gandharva Tantra says: \"By meditating on anything as oneself, man becomes that.\" The mind assumes the form of its object -- that is, by good thoughts man is transformed into what is good. So the worshipper is enjoi ned constantly to think: \"I am the Devi and none other\". By meditating on Vishnu, man becomes Vishnu. By meditating on Devi, man becomes Devi,. He is freed from bodily ills and is liberated, for he attains spiritual knowledge. Such knowledge, in the Advait a sense (though there are also other schools) means \"to be\". To know Brahman is to be Brahman. Brahman in Itself is not an object, and is not known as such. Brahman is known by being Brahman, which man attains through ritual forms, and Yoga processes, of which worship is a necessary preliminary. IV In the preceding paragraphs, I have, in very general outline, dealt with the meaning of Sadhana as ritual worship, both as to its object and the principles on which it is based. I have given at the same time some examples. I propose here to pass a few remarks on certain other particular forms of ritual. I have already referred to image worship upon which, however, I will add a word. Western peoples speak of the image worshipped as being an \"idol,\" just as some so- called \"reformed\" Hindus influenced by Western views call it a \"doll\". The Hindu term is Pratika and Pratima indicating that which is placed before one as the immediate and apparent object of worship, representative of the Invisible Supreme. The mind cannot seize pure Spirit any more than (to use the simile of an Indian author) a pair of tongs can seize the air. The mind must, however, necessarily have before it some 345 definite object, and one of such objects is the image or emblem. At the same time, the Hin du image is something more than a mere aid to devotion such as is the case in general as regards images in the Catholic ritual. For, by the \"life -giving\" (prana- pratishtha) ceremony the life of the Devata or Divinity is invoked into the image. Deity is all -pervading and therefore cannot come or go. The image, like everything else, is already an appearance of Deity immanent in it, in the particular form or mold of earth, stone, metal, wood or whatever other the substance may be. Therefore, \"invocation\" (Avahana) and \"dismissal\" (Visarjana) in the Ritual by which the Deity is invoked \"to be present\" and bid \"to depart\" mean this -- that the immanence of Deity in the object of worship is recognized, kept present before, and ultimately released from the mind of the worshipper. In fact, the Deity is there, ritual or no ritual. By the ritual the Deity is not only there in fact, but is so, for the consciousness of the worshipper whose mind is transformed into a Divine mold. The Deity does not move, but the mind of the worshipper does so. It is the particular modification, a Vritti of the mind which comes and goes. Personally, I believe that \"Idolatry\" in its strictest literal sense is not to be found anywhere. The most ignorant individuals belonging to a primitive hu manity are aware that they are, in one sense, in the presence of \"stocks and stones,\" and that the worshipful character of the image is not because it is such stock and stone, for, in that case all stock and stone is worshipful, but for other reasons. It h as been noted already that the ritual is graded in this matter, as in others, into gross and subtle. The subtle form is that in which the least is left to the imagination, namely, an image in the round. Less so, in the order given, is the picture on the fi at; the emblem which has no external likeness to Divinity (such as the Linga and Shalagrama stone), and then the Yantra or diagram of worship. This Yantra is made up of different combinations of lines and curves, and is described as the body of the Mantra. Besides these external objects, there are mental representations of them and of other things. Thus actual flowers may be offered physically, or mental \"flowers\" may be offered by the mind, or the \"flowers\" of the virtues may be laid before the Devata. How often the word Mantra is used, and yet how few can say correctly what the term means? It is only possible here to lay down a few general lines of explanation of a subject with which I have endeavored to deal in my recent 346 work, The Garland of Letters; for Garland and Rosary are names given to the alphabet of Sanskrit letters, which are each a manifestation of the Mother of the Universe. The Universe is movement, of various kinds, of the ultimate substance. This movement is sensed in five ways. Whatever is h eard is the sound made by some particular form of movement, and the hearing by mind and ear is again a form of movement. If there be no movement there is nothing to hear. When a letter is uttered in our hearing there is a particular movement which can be represented as a form for the eye, which form again involves color, for what is perfectly colorless is formless, and, therefore, invisible. The letters are temporarily manifested by the action of the vocal organs and the circumambient air, but are in themselves, that is, as attitudes of Power, eternal. As Postures of Power they are eternal, though as manifestations they appear with each universe and disappear with it. They are, like all else, a form of appearance of the Magna Mater, the one great Mother- Powe r, and are particular world -aspects of Her. The sound which is heard, and the mind and ear which hear it, are each such appearance. Each thing has a double aspect -- one as a produced thing, or effect; the other as the particular Causal Power which produces or more accurately manifests as that thing. That power again, relative to any of its particular productions, is an aspect of the general Mother -Power, and is, as such, a Devata. Thus, the sun is a glorious epiphany of the Brahman or All -Pervader which, i n its character as the power inherent in that particular manifestation, is the Sun -Lord or Surya- Devata. Devata in its supreme (para) sense is the Lord of All, manifesting as the All. The Sun Devata is the same Lord in the character of a particular power of the All -Powerful manifesting in this form of the Sun. Whilst, therefore, in a sense, Mantra is the Sound -aspect of all that is, each Devata has His or Her own Mantra, and it is such mantras that the Scripture refers. The Mantra does not merely stand for or symbolize the Devata. Still less is it a mere conventional label for the Devata. It is the Devata. The Devata and Mantra are therefore one. In each mantra, however, there two Shaktis or powers. The Devata who is the mantra is called the indicating power (Vacaka Shakti). The Devata who is indicated (Vacya Shakti) is the Ultimate Reality, or Supreme Brahman. The 347 former leads to the latter. As each worshipper has his own Patron Deity or Ishtadevata, so each worshipper is initiated in and practices a pa rticular mantra. The Patron Deity is a particular aspect of the One Supreme Reality which cannot be directly worshipped, but which is worshipped indirectly as an aspect of that Reality in a world of duality. What Mantra a worshipper should practice is dete rmined by the Guru who initiates. He should settle what it shall be by reference to the physical, psychical and spiritual characteristics of the worshipper. This is the theory, but in practice a state of things often exists which has led to the criticism t hat Mantra is \"jabber\". Thus (to take but one example), I, though not a Hindu, was once asked by a Brahmin lady, through a pundit known to both of us, to tell her the meaning of her mantra, and this though she had passed fifty, she had never been told, nor could she find out even from the pundit. She was led to ask me and thus to reveal her mantra which should be kept secret, because she had heard that I had a manuscript Bija Kosha, or Dictionary, which gave the meanings of mantras. This incident is signifi cant of the present state of things. Initiation has often and perhaps in most cases now -a-days little reality, being merely a \"whispering in the ear\". A true and high initiation is one in which not merely instruction is given, but there is also an actual transference of power by teacher to disciple which enables the disciple first to understand, and then transforms him by infusing him with the powers of his Guru. Mantra- sadhana consists of the union of the Sadhana shakti or the power of the individual worshipper and the Mantra shakti or the power of the mantra itself. The worshipper exerts his own individual power to achieve through the mantra, and as he does this, the power of the mantra, which is as far greater than his own as the Devata is greater than he, aids his effort. On the theory this must be so, because as the worshipper more and more realizes the Devata in mantra form, and identifies himself with the Devata, he gains divine powers which supplement his human power as a worshipper. There are some Mantras which may be called prayers, such as the great Gayatri Mantra which prays for illumination of the understanding. A mantra, however, is not to be identified with prayer. which may be said in any form and in any language that the worshipper chooses. Prayer may be, of course, 348 a great power, but it is nevertheless the power of the particular worshipper only whatever that may be. Worship (Puja) is done with meditation, recital of mantras, obeisance, manual gestures, the making of offerings and the like. Th e gestures (Mudra) are part of a system which employs both body and mind, and makes the former express and emphasize the intentions of the latter. Similarly, an orator gives expression to his thought and emphasizes it by gesture. Thus, in the Matsya Mudra, the hands are put into the form of a fish to indicate that the worshipper is offering to the Deity not merely the little quantity of water which is used in the worship, but that his intention is to offer all the oceans with the fish and other marine anima ls therein. This is part of what has been called \"mummery\". Well -- it is \"acting\" but it is not necessarily more foolish than touching one's hat as a sign of respect. The charge of mummery as against all religions is largely due to the fact that there are many people who will pass judgments on matters which they do not understand. Ignorant and half -educated persons everywhere people the world with fools because they are themselves such. Asana, or posture, belongs to Yoga, except that the general posture fo r worship is Padmasana, and worship is part of Mantra Yoga. Japa is \"recital\" of Mantra. There is no exact English equivalent for it, for \"recital\" signifies ordinary utterance, whereas Japa is of three kinds, namely: (a) that in which the Mantra is audibl y uttered; (b) where the lips are moved, but no sound is heard; and (c) mental or by the mind only. The count is done on a rosary (mala) or on the phalanxes of the fingers. One of the great Mantras is the physical act of breathing. As this is done of itsel f so many times a day, now through the right, and then through the left nostril automatically, it is called the Ajapa Mantra -- that is, the mantra which is said without Japa or willed effort on man's part. The mantra which is thus automatically said is Hamsah. Breath goes out with Ham, and comes in with Sah. When outbreathing and inbreathing takes place, the throat and mouth are said to be in the position in which they are when pronouncing the letters H and S respectively. In other words, outbreathing is t he same form of movement which is heard as the letter H. 349 An important rite much referred to in the Tantras is Nyasa, which means the \"placing\" of the hands of the worshipper on different parts of his body, imagining at the same time that thereby the corresponding parts of the body of his Ishtadevata are being there placed. It terminates with a movement, \"spreading\" the Divinity all over the body. \"How absurd,\" someone may say, \"you cannot spread Divinity like jam on bread.\" Quite so; but the Hindu knows wel l that the word Brahman means the All -spreading Immense and cannot therefore be spread. But what may be and is spread is the mind -- often circumscribed enough -- of the worshipper, who by his thought and act is taught to remember and realize that he is pervaded by Divinity, and to affirm this by his bodily gesture. The ritual is full of affirmations. Affirm again, affirm, and still affirm. This injunction one might expect from a system which regards man and all that exists as limited forms of unlimited Pow er (Shakti). Affirm in every way is a principle of the ritual, a principle, which ought to be as easily understood as a child's repetition in order to learn a lesson. A man who truly thinks himself to be becoming divine becomes, in fact, in varying degrees, so. It is not possible in an account such as this to note more than a few of the leading rituals, and I conclude therefore with the very important Bhutasuddhi. This term does not mean, as an English orientalist thought, \"the driving away of demons\" but purification of the Elements (Bhuta) of which the body is composed. There are five of these with centers or Cakras in the spinal column. The grossest is at the base of the spine which is the seat of the power called Kundalini. In Yoga, this power is roused , and led up through the column, when it absorbs as it goes, each of the centers and the elements, and then the psychic center, finally merging with Spirit or Pure Consciousness in the upper brain which is the \"seat\" of the latter. In Yoga this actually ta kes place, but very few are Yogis: and not all Yogis possess this power. Therefore, in the case of ritual worship this ascent, purification of the body, and merging of Matter and Mind in Consciousness takes place in imagination only. The \"man of sin\" is burnt in mental fire, and a new body is created, refreshed with the nectar of divine joy arising from the union of the \"Divine 350 pair\" (Shiva and Shakti) or Consciousness and its Power. This is done in the imagination of the worshipper, and not without result since as the Chandogya Upanishad says: \"What a man thinks that he becomes.\" So also the Gandharva Tantra says: \"By thinking of That, one becomes That.\" In Kundalini Yoga or Laya Yoga, there is effected a progressive absorption of all limited and discrete forms of experience, that is fact- sections into the Primary Continuum which is Shiva and Shakti united together. Therefore, it is a merging or more properly expansion of the finite into the infinite, of the part into the whole, of the thinkable and measurable into the unthinkable and immeasurable. When we worship, this progress is imagined. There is in time a transformation of Mind and Body into a condition which renders them fit for the spiritual experience, which is the Samadhi of Yoga or the ecstasis or \"standing out\" of Spirit from its limiting vehicles. Consciousness is then the Purna or Whole. 351 CHAPTER TWENTY -TWO. VEDANTA AND TANTRA SHASTRA When your representative asked me to speak this evening, he suggested to me as my subject, that Shastra which is a practical application of the Vedantic teaching. Mere talk about Vedanta is nothing but a high form of amusement. If more than this is to be achieved, definite Sadhana is necessary. In the grand opening chap ter of the Kularnava Tantra it is said: \"In this world are countless masses of beings suffering all manner of pain. Old age is waiting like a tigress. Life ebbs away as it were water from out of a broken pot. Disease kills like enemies. Prosperity is but a dream; youth is like a flower. Life is seen and is gone like lightning. The body is but a bubble of water. How then can one know this and yet remain content? The Jivatma passes through lakhs of existence, yet only as man can he obtain the truth. It is wit h great difficulty that one is born as man. Therefore, he is a self -killer who, having obtained such excellent birth, does not know what is for his good. Some there be who having drunk the wine of delusion are lost in worldly pursuits, reck not the fight of time and are moved not at the sight of suffering. There are others who have tumbled in the deep well of the Six Philosophies -- idle disputants tossed on the bewildering ocean of the Vedas and Shastras. They study day and night and learn words. Some again, overpowered by conceit, talk of Unmani though not in any way realizing it. Mere words and talk cannot dispel the delusion of the wandering. Darkness is not dispelled by the mention of the world 'lamp'. What then is there to do? The Shastras are many, l ife is short and there are a million obstacles. Therefore should their essence be mastered, just as the Hamsa separates the milk from the water with which it has been mixed.\" It then says that knowledge alone can gain liberation. But, what is this knowledg e, and how may it be got? Knowledge in the Shastric sense is actual immediate experience (Sakshatkara), not the mere reading about it in books, however divine, and however useful as a preliminary such study may be. 352 How then to gain it? The answer is, by Sa dhana -- a term which comes from the root \"to exert\". It is necessary to exert oneself according to certain disciplines which the various religions of the world provide for their adherents. Much shallow talk takes place on the subject of ritual. It is quit e true that some overlook the fact that it is merely a means to an end. But it is a necessary means all the same. This end cannot be achieved by merely sitting in Padmasana and attempting to meditate on the Nirguna Brahman. One may as well try to seize the air with a pair of tongs. How then may the Vedantic truth be realized? The Indian Shastra purports to give the means for the Indian body and mind. What Shastra? Not the Karma- kanda of the Vedas, because with the exception of a few hardly surviving rites, such as Homa, it has passed away. The actual discipline you will find in the Tantras of the Agamas. I prefer the use of this term to that of \"the Tantra,\" now so common, but which has risen from a misconception and leads to others. Tantra means injunction (Vidhi) or regulation (Niyama) or treatise, i.e., simply Shastra. Thus Shamkara calls the Samkhya \"Tantra\". One cannot speak of \"the Tantra\" any more than one can speak of \"the treatise\". We do not speak of the Purana, the Samhita, but of the Puranas and Samhitas. Why then speak of \"the Tantra\"? One can speak of the Tantras or Tantra Shastra. The fact is that there is an Agama of several schools, Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava. Shiva and Shakti are one. The Shaiva (in the narrower sense) predominantly worshi ps the right side of the Ardhanarishvara Murti, the Shakta worships the left (Vama or Shakti) side, the place of woman being on the left. The Vaishnava Agama is the famous Pacaratra, though there are Tantras not of this school in which Vishnu is the Ishta devata. All Agamas of whatever group share certain common ideas, outlook and practice. There are also certain differences. Thus, the Northern Shaivagama which is called Trika and not \"the Tantra\" is, as is also the Shakta Tantra, Advaita. The Southern Shai va school which is called Shaiva Siddhanta and not \"the Tantra,\" as also the Vaishnava Agama or Pacaratra (and not \"the Tantra\") are Vishihstadvaita. There is some variance in ritual also as follows from variance in the Ishtadevata worshipped. Thus, as yo u all know, it is only in some forms of worship that there is animal sacrifice, and in one division, again, of 353 worshippers, there are rites which have led to those abuses which have gained for \"the Tantra\" its ill fame. A person who eats meat can never, i t is said, attain Siddhi in the Shiva Mantra according to Dakshinopasana. Each one of these schools has its own Tantras of which there were at one time probably thousands. The Shaiva Siddhanta speaks of 28 chief Tantras or Agamas with many Upatantras. In Bengal mention is made of 64. There are numerous Tantras of the Northern Shaiva school of which the Malini- vijaya and Svachanda Tantras are leading examples. The original connection between the Shaiva schools of North and South is shown by the fact that there are some books which are common to both, such as the Matanga and Mrigendra Tantras. The Pacaratra is composed of many Tantras, such as Lakshmi and Padma Tantras and other works called Samhitas. In the Commentary to the Brahma Samhita which has been called the \"essence of Vaishnavism,\" you will find Jiva Goswami constantly referring to Gautamiya Tantra. How then has it come about that there is the ignorant notion that (to use the words of an English work on Tibetan Buddhism) \"Tantra is restricted to the necromantic books of the later Shaivic or Shakti mysticism\"? I can only explain this by the fact that those who so speak had no knowledge of the Tantras as a whole, and were possibly to some extent misled by the Bengali use of the term \"the Tantra,\" to denote the Shakta Tantras current in Bengal. Naturally, the Bengalis spoke of their Tantras as \"Tantra,\" but it does not follow that this expression truly represents the fact. I might develop this point at great length but cannot do so here. I wish merely to correct a common notion. Well, it is in these Tantras or the Agamas that you will find the ritual and Sadhana which governs the orthodox life of the day, as also in some of the Puranas which contain much Tantrik ritual. I am not concerned to discuss the merits or the reverse of these various forms of Sadhana. But the Agama teaches an important lesson the value of which all must admit, namely: mere talk about Religion and its truths will achieve nothing spiritual. There must be action (Kriya). Definite means must be adopted if the truth is to be realized. The Vedanta is not spoken of as a mere speculation as some Western Orientalists describe it to be. It claims to be based on experience. The Agamas say that if you follow their direction 354 you will gain Siddhi. As a Tibetan Buddhist once explained to me, the Tantras were regarded by his people rather as a scientific discovery than as a revelation; that is, something discovered by the self rather than imparted from without. They claim to be the revealed means by which the Tattva or other matters may be discovered. But the point is, whether you follow these directions or not, you must follow some. For this reason every ancient faith has its ritual. It is only in modern times that persons with but little understandi ng of the subject have thought ritual to be unnecessary. Their condemnation of it is based on the undoubted abuses of mechanical and unintelligent devotion. But because a thing is abused it does not follow that it is itself bad. The Agama is, as a friend of mine well put it, apractical philosophy, adding what the intellectual world wants most to- day is this sort of philosophy -- a philosophy which not merely argues but experiments. He rightly points out that the latest tendency in modern Western philosophy is to rest upon intuition, as it was formerly the tendency to glorify dialectics. But, as to the latter \"Tarkapratishthanat,\" intuition, however, has to be led into higher and higher possibilities, by means of Sadhana, which is merely the gradual unfolding of the Spirit's vast latent magazine of power, enjoyment, and vision which every one possesses in himself. All that exists is here. There is no need to throw one's eyes into the heavens for it. The Visvasara Tantra says, \"What is here is there: what is not here is nowhere.\" As I have said, I am not here concerned with the truth or expediency of any particular religion or method (a question which each must decide for himself), but to point out that the principle is fully sound, namely, that Religion is and is based on spiritual experience, and if you wish to gain such experience it is not enough to talk about or have a vague wish for it, but you must adopt some definite means well calculated to produce it. The claim of the Agama is that it provides such mean s and is thus a practical application of the teaching of the Vedanta. The watchword of every Tantrik is Kriya -- to be up and doing. You will find in the useful compilation called Yatidharmanirnaya that even Dandins of Shamkara's school follow a Tantrik ritual suited to their state. In fact, all must act, who have not achieved. 355 This leads me to say a word on the Svami in whose honor we meet to -day. He was always up and doing. The qualities I most admire in him are his activity, manliness and courage. There are still Indians (though fortunately not so numerous as there were when I first came to India 30 years ago) who seem to be ashamed of and would apologize for their life, customs, race, art, philosophy and religion and so forth. The Svami was not of this s ort. He was, on the contrary, amongst the first to affirm his Hindu faith and to issue a bold challenge to all who attacked it. This was the attitude of a man. It is also a manly attitude to boldly reject this faith if after fully studying and understanding it you find that the doctrines it preaches do not commend themselves to your reason. For we must, at all costs, have intellectual, as well as every other form of honesty. But this is another thing from the shame -faced apology of which I speak and which is neither one thing nor another. The Svami spoke up and acted. And for this all must honor him who, whatever be their own religious beliefs, value sincerity, truth and courage which are the badge of every nobility. And so I offer these few words to his memory which we all here, either by our speech or presence, honor to- day. 356 CHAPTER TWENTY -THREE . THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HINDU RELIGIOUS RITUAL The word \"religious\" in the title of this lecture has been inserted in order to exclude magical ritual, with which I do not deal, though I have a word or two to say on the subject. As regards the word \"Hindu,\" it must be remembered that there is considerable variety of doctrine and ritual, for there are a number of communities of Indian worshippers. Though, perhaps, too much stress is generally laid on these differences, and sufficient notice is not taken of fundamental points of agreement, yet there are differences, and if we are to be exact, we must not forget that fact. It is not, of course, possible, during the hour or so at my disposal, to treat of all these differences. I have, therefore, selected the ritual of one of these communities called Shaktas. These worshippers are so called because they worship the great Mother-Power or Mahashakti. Their doctrine and practice is of importance, because, (as an Italian author has recently observed), of its accentuation of Will and Power. He describes it as \"a magnificent ensemble of metaphysic, magic and devotion raised on grandiose foundations\". And so, whether it be acceptable or not, I think it is. The title, therefore, is, in this matter, not exact. Some of what is here said is of common application and some is peculiar to the Shaktas. Now as to the word \"Ritual\". Ritual is the Art both of Religion and Magic. Magic, however, is more completely identified with ritual than is religion; for magic is ritual, using the latter term to include both mental and bodily activity; whereas religion, in the wide sense of Dharma, is not merely ritual - worship, but covers morality also. And so, it is finely said: \"The doing of good to others is the highest Dharma.\" In this sense of the term Dharma, we are not concerned with ritual. Ritual has been the subject of age -long dispute. Whilst there are some who favor it, others are fanatically opposed to it. In this matter, India, as usual, shows her great reconciling wisdom. She holds (I speak of those who follow the old ways) that ritual is a necessity for 357 the mass of men. To this extent she adopts what I may call the \"Catholic\" attitude. She makes, however, concession on the other hand to the \"Protestant\" view, in holding that, as a man becomes more and more spiritual, he is less and less dependent on externals, and therefore on ritual, which may be practically dispensed with in the case of the highest. Then as to the word \"Psychology\". In order to understand the ritual, one must know the psychology of the people whose it is; and in order to know and to understand their psychology, we must know their metaphysic. There are some who claim to dispense with metaphysic, but the Indian people have been, throughout their history, pre- eminently thinkers. The three greatest metaphysical peoples have been, in the past, the Greeks and the Indians, both Brahmanist and Buddhist, and, in modern times, the Germans. The Greek, Sanskrit, and German languages are pre- eminently fitted for metaphysical use. We must then deal with metaphysic when treating of Hindu ritual. I do not propose, however, here to enter upon the subje ct more than is absolutely necessary to understand the matter in hand. Now, when we look around us, we see everywhere Power, or Shakti. The world is called Jagat, which means \"the moving thing,\" because, anticipating modern doctrine, the Ancient Hindus held that everything was in a state of ceaseless activity, which was not the Brahman in Itself (Svarupa), Such movement is either due to the inherent power of mind and matter, or to a cause which, though immanent in the universe, yet is not wholly manifested by, but transcends it. This latter alternative represents the Indian view. Power (Shakti) connotes a Power -holder (Shaktiman). Power as universe is called Samsara. The state of power, as it is in itself, that is, the state of Power- holder, is (to use one o f the better- known terms, though there are others) Nirvana. What, then, is the nature of experience in the Samsara? The latter is the world of form, and Dharma is the Law of Form. Form necessarily implies duality and limitation. Therefore, experience in Samsara is an experience of form by form. It is limited, dualistic experience. It is limited or Apurna (not the whole or complete), relative to the state of Nirvana, which is the whole (Purna) or complete or Perfect Experience. Therefore, whilst the latter i s a state of all -knowingness and all -mightiness, man is a contraction (Samkoca), 358 and is a \"little -knower\" and \"little -doer\". The Power -holder is called Shiva- shakti -- that is, the supreme Shiva -shakti, for the universe, being but the manifestation of the transcendent Shiva -shakti, is also itself Shiva -shakti. The names Shiva and Shakti are the twin aspects of one and the same Reality. Shiva denotes the masculine, unchanging aspect of Divinity, while Shakti denotes its changing feminine aspect. These two are Hamsah, Ham being Shiva and male, and Sah being Shakti and female. It is this Hamsah, or legendary \"Bird,\" which is said, in the poem called \"Wave of Bliss,\" \"to swim in the waters of the mind of the great.\" The un -manifest Shiva -shakti aspect is unknown, except in the Samadhi or ecstasy of Yoga. But the Shakti aspect, as manifested in the universe, is near to the Shakta worshipper. He can see Her and touch Her, for it is She who appears as the universe, and so it is said: \"What care I for the Father, if I but be on the lap of the Mother?\" This is the Great Mother, the Magna Mater of the Mediterranean civilization, and the Mahadevi of India -- that August Image whose vast body is the universe, whose breasts are Sun and Moon. It was to Her that the \"mad,\" wine-drinking Sadhu Bhama referred, when he said to a man I know who had lost his mother: \"Earthly mothers and those who suck their breasts are mortal; but deathless are those who have fed at the breast of the Mother of the Universe\". It is She who personal izes in the form of all the beings in the universe; and it is She again who, as the essence of such personalizing, is the Supreme Personality (Parahanta), who in manifestation is \"God in Action.\" Why, it may be asked, is God thought of as Mother? This question may be countered by another -- \"Why is God called Father?\" God is sexless. Divinity is spoken of as Mother because It \"conceives, bears, gives birth to, and nourishes the Universe\". In generation man is said to be a helper only. The learned may call this mothernotion, \"infantilism\" and \"anthropomorphism\". But the Shakta will not be afraid, and will reply that it is not he who has arbitrarily invented this image of the Mother, but that is the form in which She has Herself presented Herself to his mind. The great Shakta poet, Ramaprasada, says: \"By feeling (Bhava) is She known. How then, can Abhava (that is, lack of feeling) find Her P\" In any case he may recall the lines of the Indian poet: \"If I understand, and you understand, 0 my mind, what matters it whether any other understand or not?\" 359 Viewing the matter more dryly and metaphysically, we have then to deal with two states. Firstly, the limited experience of Samsara the Becoming, and the Perfect Experience or transcendent Being, which is Nirvana. This last state is not for the Shakta mere abstract Being. This is not a fiction of the ratiocinating intellect. It is a massive, rich, and concrete experience, a state which -- being powerful to produce from out of itself the Universe -- must therefore hold t he seed or essence of it within itself. It is a mistake on this view to suppose that those who attain to it will lose anything of worth by so doing. The first point which is therefore established is that there are these two states. Both are so established by experience -- the first by the ordinary experience man has of this world. and the second by supernormal spiritual experience. For the Hindu holds that the Supreme State is proved not by speculation or argument (which may yet render its support), but by actual spiritual experience. The second point to remember is that these two states are one. We must not think of \"creation\" in the sense, in which there is an infinite break between man and God, and, therefore, man cannot become God. Man, in this system of Vedanta, is, though a contraction of Power, nevertheless, in essence, the self-same Power which is God. There is unity (Abheda) as Essence, and difference (Bheda) as Manifestation. Similarly, Islamic philosophy distinguishes between independent Zat,, or essence, and dependent and derivative Attribute, or Sifat. Essence is one, Manifestation is different. The two are thus neither identical nor separate. There is that which the Hindus call Abheda - Bheda. The third point then is that Man, being such Power, he can by his effort, and the grace of his patron Deity, enhance it even to the extent that he becomes one with Divinity. And so it is said that \"by the worship of Vishnu, man becomes Vishnu\". To know a being or thing is, according to non- dual Vedanta, to be that thing. To know God, then, is to be God. Man can then pass from limited experience, or Samsara, to Perfect Experience, or Nirvana. This \"towering tenet,\" to use Brian Hodgsons' phrase (\"Nepal\"), that finite mind may be raised to infinite consciousness, is also held by Buddhism. 360 The practical question then is: How is this experience of oneness with Divinity, its powers and attributes, obtained? The answer is that this is the work of Sadhana and Yoga. The term Sadhana comes from the root Sadh, which mean s to exert, to strive to attain a particular result or Siddhi, as it is called. The person making the effort is called Sadhaka, and if he obtains the result desired, or Siddhi, he is called Siddha. Etymologically Sadhana may refer to any effort. Thus a person who takes lessons in French or in riding, with a view to learn that language or to become a horseman, is doing Sadhana for those purposes respectively. If French or riding is learnt, then Siddhi is obtained, and the man who attains it is Siddha, or proficient in French and riding respectively. But technically Sadhana refers either to Ritual Worship or Ritual Magic. A Sadhaka is always a dualist, whatever his theoretical doctrine may be, because worship implies both worshipped and worshipper. The highest aim of religious worship is attainment of the Abode or Heaven of the Divinity worshipped. This Heaven is not Nirvana. The latter is a formless state, whereas Heaven is a pleasurable abode of forms -- a state intermediate between Death and Rebirth. Accordi ng to the ordinary view, Ritual Worship is a preparation for Yoga. When a man is Siddha in Sadhana he becomes qualified for Yoga, and when he is Siddha in Yoga he attains Perfect Experience. Yoga is thus the process whereby man is raised from Limited to Perfect experience. The Sadhana with which I am now concerned is religious Sadhana, a spiritual effort to achieve a moral and spiritual aim, though it may also seek material blessings from the Divinity worshipped. Magic is the development of supernormal powe r, either by extension of natural faculty or by control over other beings and forces of nature. I use the word \"supernormal\" and not \"supernatural\" because all power is natural. Thus one man may see to a certain extent with his eyes. Another man with more powerful eyes will see better. A man with a telescope will see further than either of these two. For the telescope is a scientific extension of the natural faculty of sight. Over and beyond this is the \"magical\" extension of power called clairvoyance. The last power is natural but not normal. Magic (of which there has been abuse) has yet been indiscriminately condemned. Whether an act is good or bad depends upon the intention and the 361 surrounding circumstances, and this same rule applies whether the act is normal or magical. Thus a man may in defense of his life use physical means for self -protection, even to the causing of the death of his adversary. Killing in such a case does not become bad because the means employed are not normal but \"magical\". On the other hand, Black Magic, or Abhicara, is the doing of harm to another without lawful excuse. This the Scripture (Shastra) condemns as a great sin. As the Kularnava Tantra says (XII. 63), Atmavat sarvabhutebhyo hitam kuryyat Kuleshvari -- that is, a man should not injure, but should do good to others as if they were his own self. In the Tantra Shastras are to be found magical rituals. Some classes of works, such as the \"Damaras,\" are largely occupied with this subject. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that because a practice is described in the Scripture, it is counseled by it. A book on legal medicine may state the substances by and manner in which a man may be poisoned. It describes the process which, if carried out, produces a particular result, but it does not on that account counsel killing. As regards the magical rites themselves, the view that they are mere childish superstition is not an understanding one. The objective ritual stimulates, is a support of, and serves the Mind -Rays, which, the Hindus w ould say, are not less but more powerful than the physical forms we call X -rays and the like. It has long been known in India, as it is becoming known in the West, that the mind is not merely a passive mirror of objects, but is a great and active Power. As I have already said, however, I do not propose to deal with this subject, and now return to that of religious worship. Religious ritual is either formal (Karma), such as the Homa rite, or is devotional (Upasana), according as the act done belongs to the Karma or Upasana Kandas, which together with the Jana Kanda, constitute the three- fold division of Veda. The distinction between Karma and Upasana is this. In ritual Karma the result is produced by performance of the rite, such as Homa, independently of the effort of the Sadhaka, provided there be strict ritual accuracy; whereas, the fruit of Upasana, or psychological worship, depends on the personal devotion of the worshipper, and without it the act is of no avail. Upasana, or devotional worship, is again either gross (Sthula) or subtle (Sukshma), according to the degree of competency or advancement of the Sadhaka or person who does Sadhana. We must not 362 understand by the word \"gross\" anything bad. It is merely used in contra - distinction to the word \"subtle\". Thus, a worshipper who is doing his Sadhana before an exterior image is performing gross worship, whereas he who worships a mentally conceived image is doing subtle worship. A man who offers real flowers is doing a part of gross worship. subtle worship i n such a case would be the offering of flowers of the mind. I will now shortly examine the Vedantic theory of Mind, which must be known if the ritual is to be understood. There is no Mind without Matter or Matter without Mind, except in dreamless sleep, wh en the latter is wholly withdrawn. The Mind has always an object. In a literal sense, there is no vacuous mind. It is not aware, of course, of all objects, but only of those to which it pays attention. Nextly, Mind is not Consciousness (Cit) which is immaterial. Mind, on the contrary, is a quasi -material principle of Unconsciousness, which, on one view, appears to be conscious by reason of the association of Consciousness with it. According to the Shakta view, Mind is an unconscious quasi- material force being the power of Consciousness to limit itself, and to the extent of such limitation, to appear as unconscious. How then does Mind operate? A Mind- Ray goes forth to the object, which in its turn shapes the mental substance into the form of the object. Thus, when a man thinks of an image of Divinity intently and without distraction, his mental substance takes the form of the image. The object which is perceived leaves an impress on the mind, and this impress, if repeated, sets up a tendency or Samskara. Thus a man who repeatedly thinks good thoughts has a tendency towards the thinking of such thoughts, and by continued good thought character is molded and transformed. As the Chandogya Upanishad says: \"As a man thinks that he becomes.\" Similarly, the Gandharva Tantra says: \"By meditating on anything as the self, one becomes that thing.\" A man can thus shape his mind for good or bad. The mind affects the body. As it is said in the West, \"the soul is form and doth the body make.\" Every thought has a corresponding change in the material substance of the brain. Well, then, as the mind must have an object which again shapes the mind, the ritual selects a good object, namely, the Divinity of worship with all good attributes. 363 The Sadhaka meditates on and worships that. Continued thought, repetition, the engagement of the body in the mental action co-operate to produce a lasting and good tendency in the mental substance. Sincere and continued effort effects the transformation of the worshipper into a likeness with the Div inity worshipped. For as he who is always thinking bad thoughts becomes bad, so he who thinks divine thoughts becomes himself divine. The transformation which is commenced in Sadhana is completed in Yoga, when the difference between worshipper and worshipp ed ceases in that unitary consciousness which is ecstasy or Samadhi, or transcendent perfect experience. Let us now examine some illustrations of the psychological principles stated. Divinity as it is in Itself cannot (as an Indian writer has said) be seized by the mind any more than air can be grasped by a pair of tongs. It is necessary, therefore, to have something placed before one as a representative of something else, which is what the Sanskrit terms, Pratika and Pratima, for the object worshipped, mea n. This may be an external object or a mental one. As regards the former, there are varying degrees of grossness and subtlety. The grossest is that in which there is no call upon imagination -- that is, the Image of three dimensions. Less so is the paintin g on the flat; then comes the emblem, which may be quite unlike the Devata or Divinity, of which it is an emblem, such as the Shalagrama stone in the worship of Vishnu, and, lastly, the Yantra, which is the diagrammatic body of a Mantra. Worship is outer -- that is, of an outer object with physical acts such as bodily prostrations, offering of real flowers, and so on; or it may be partly or wholly mental, as in the latter case, where both the form of the Divinity is imagined (according to the meditational form or Dhyana given in the Scriptures) as also the offerings. The forms of worship vary according to the capacity of the worshipper. In the simplest form, the worshipper draws upon the daily life, and treats the Divinity whom he invokes as he would a gues t, welcoming It after its journey, offering water for the dusty feet and the mouth, presenting It with flowers, lights, clothes, and so on. These ingredients of worship are called Upacara. In the psycho- physiological rites of some Shaktas, the abuse of 364 which has brought them ill -fame, the Upacara are the functions of the body. In image- worship, the mind is shaped into the form of the object perceived. But the perception of a material image is not enough. The worshipper must see Divinity before him. This he invokes into the image by what is called the welcoming (Avahana) and Life -giving (Pranapratishtha) ceremonies, just as, at the conclusion of the worship, he bids the Deity depart (Visarjana). Uncomprehending minds have asked: \"How can God be made to come a nd go?\" The answer is that He does not. What come and go are the modifications, or vrittis, of and in the mind of the Sadhaka or worshipper. To invoke the Deity means, then, a direction not to the Deity, but by the worshipper to himself to understand that the Deity is there. Deity which is omnipresent is in the Image as elsewhere, whatever the Sadhaka may do or not do. The Sadhaka informs his own mind with the notion that the Deity is present. He is then conscious of the presence of and meditates on Divinit y and its attributes, and if he be undistracted, his mind and its thought are thereby divinely shaped. Before the Divinity so present, both objectively and to the mind of the Sadhaka, worship is done. It is clear that the more this worship is sincerely continued, the greater both in degree and persistence is the transformation effected. The body is made to take its part either by appropriate gestures, called Mudra, or other acts such as prostrations, offerings, libations, and so forth. By constant worship the mind and disposition become good, for good thoughts repeated make a man good. Ritual produces by degrees, transformation, at first temporary, later lasting. \"Ridding the Divinity depart\" means that the mind of the Sadhaka has ceased to worship the Image. It is not that the Deity is made to retire at the behest of his worshipper. A true Sadhaka has Divinity ever in his thoughts, whether he is doing formal worship or not. \"Invitation\" and \"Bidding Depart\" are done for the purposes of the worship of the Ima ge only. Personally, I doubt whether idolatry exists anywhere in the sense that a worshipper believes a material image as such to be God. But, in any case, Indian image -worship requires for its understanding and practice some knowledge of Vedanta. Transfor mation of consciousness -feeling by ritual may be illustrated by a short examination of some other of its forms. Gesture of the hands, or Mudra, is a common part of the ritual. There is necessarily movement of the 365 hands and body in any worship which requires external action, but I here speak of the specially designed gestures. For instance, I am now making the Fish gesture, or Matsya Mudra. The hands represent a fish and its fins. The making of this gesture indicates that the worshipper is offering not only the small quantity of water which is contained in the ritual vessel, but that (such is his devotion) his intention is to give to the Deity all the oceans with the fish and other marine animals therein. The Sadhaka might, of course, form this intention without gesture, but experience shows that gesture emphasizes and intensifies thought, as in the case of public speaking. The body is made to move with the thought. I refer here to ritual gestures. The term Mudra is also employed to denote bodily postures assu med in Hathayoga as a health- giving gymnastic. Asana, or seat, has more importance in Yoga than in Sadhana. The principle as regards Asana is to secure a comfortable seat, because that is favorable to meditation and worship generally. If one is not comfort able there is distraction and worry. Both Mudra and Asana are, therefore, ancillary to worship as Puja, the principle of which has been described. Japa is recital of Mantra, the count being done either on a rosary or the phalanxes of the fingers. What is a Mantra P A Mantra is Divinity. It is Divine Power, or Daivi Shakti, manifesting in a sound body. The Shastra says that those go to Hell who think that an image is a mere stone, that Mantras are merely letters, and that a Guru is a mere man, and not a mani festation and representative of the Lord as Supreme Teacher, Illuminator, and Director. The chief Mantra is Om. This represents to human ears the sound of the first general movement of Divine Power towards the manifestation of the Universe. All other Mantras are particular movements and sounds (for the two co- exist) derived from Om. Here the Sadhaka strives to realize his unity with the Mantra, or Divinity, and to the extent that he does so, the Mantra Power (Mantra -Shakti) supplements his worship -power (Sadhana Shakti). This rite is also an illustration of the principle that repetition makes perfect, for the repetition is done (it may be) thousands of times. Japa is of three kinds -- gross, subtle, and supreme. In the first, the Mantra is audibly repeated, the objective body -aspect or sound predominating; in the second, there is no audible sound, the lips and other organs forming 366 themselves into the position which, together with contact with the air, produce the sound of the letters; in the third, the Japa i s mental -- that is, there is emphasis on the Divine, or subjective aspect. This is a means for the ritual realization -- that is, by mind -- of the unity of human power and Divine Power. Nyasa is an important rite. The word means \"placing\" -- that is, of the hands of the Sadhaka on different parts of his body, at the same time, saying the appropriate Mantras, and imagining that by his action the corresponding parts of the body of the Deity are placed there. The rite terminates with a movement of the hands, \"spreading\" the Divinity all over the body. It is not supposed that the Divinity can be spread like butter on bread. The Supreme Mother -Power is the Brahman, or All -Pervading Immense. What is all - spreading cannot be moved or spread. What can however, be \"spread\" is the thought of the worshipper, who, with appropriate bodily gesture, imagines that the Deity pervades his body, which is renewed and divinized. By imagining the body of the Deity to be his body, he purifies himself, and affirms his unity with th e Devata. An essential element in all rites Bhutasuddhi, which means the purification of the elements of which the body is composed. Man is physical and psychical. The physical body is constituted of five modes of motion of material substance, which have each, it is said, centers in the spinal column, at points which in the body correspond to the position of various plexuses. These centers extend from the base of the spine to the throat. Between the eyebrows is the sixth or psychical center, or mind. At the top of the brain, or cerebrum, is the place of consciousness; not that Consciousness in itself -- that is, as distinct from Mind -- can have a center or be localized in any way; for, it is immaterial and all -pervading. But, at this point, it is the least veiled by mind and matter, and is, therefore, most manifest. This place is the abode of transcendent Shiva -Shakti as Power- holder. In the lowest center (Muladhara), which is at the base of the spine, there sleeps the Immanent Cosmic Power in bodies called Kundalini Shakti. Here She is ordinarily at rest. She is so, so long as man enjoys limited world- experience. She is then roused. \"Jagrati Janani\" (\"Arise, 0 Mother!\"), calls out the Sadhaka poet, Ramaprasada. \"How long wilt thou sleep in the Muladhara?\" When so 367 roused, She is led up through the spinal column, absorbing all the physical and psychical centers, and unites with Shiva as consciousness in the cerebrum, which is known as the \"thousand- pealed lotus\". The body is then drenched with and renewed by the nectar which is the result of their union and is immortal life. This is the ecstasy which is the marriage of the Inner Divine Man and Woman. Metaphysically speaking, for the duration of such union, there is a substitution of the Supreme Experience for Wo rld- Experience. This is the real process in Yoga. But in ritual (for all are not Yogis) it is imagined only. In imagination, the \"man of sin\" (Papapurusha) is burnt in mental fire, kundalini absorbs the centers, unites with Shiva, and then, redescending, r ecreates the centers, bathing them in nectar. By the mental representation of this process, the mind and body are purified, and the former is made to realize the unity of man and the Supreme Power, whose limited form he is, and the manner whereby the Unive rse is involved into and evolved from Shiva -Shakti. All these, and other rituals keep the mind of the Sadhaka occupied with the thought of the Supreme Power and of his essential unity with It, with the result that he becomes more and more that which he thinks upon. His Bhava, or disposition, becomes purified and divinized so far as that can be in the world. At length practice makes perfect in Sadhana, and on the arising in such purified and illuminated mind, of knowledge and detachment from the world, there is competency for Yoga. When in turn practice in Yoga makes perfect all limitations on experience are shed, and Nirvana is attained. Ordinarily it is said that enjoyment (Bhoga) only enchains and Yoga only liberates. Enjoyment (Bhoga) does not only mean that which is bad (Adharma). Bad enjoyment certainly enchains and also leads to Hell. Good -- that is, lawful -- enjoyment also enchains, even though Heaven is its fruit. Moreover, Bhoga means both enjoyment and suffering. But, according to the Bengal Shakta worshippers, Enjoyment (which must necessarily be lawful) and Yoga may be one. According to this method (see Masson- Oursel, \"Esquisse d'une Histoire de la Philosophie Indienne\"), the body is not of necessity an obstacle to liberation. For there is no antinomy except such as we ourselves fancy, between Nature and Spirit, and therefore there is 368 nothing wrong or low in natural function. Nature is the instrument for the realization of the aims of the Spirit. Yoga controls but does not frustrate enjoyment, which may be itself Yoga in so far it pacifies the mind and makes man one with his inner self. The spontaneity of life is under no suspicion. Supreme power is immanent in body and mind, and these are also forms of its expression. And so, in the psycho -physiol ogical rites of these Shaktas, to which I have referred, the body and its functions are sought to be made a means of, as they may otherwise be an obstacle to, liberation. The Vira, or heroic man, is powerful for mastery on all the planes and to pass beyond them. He does not shun the world from fear of it, but holds it in his grasp and learns its secret. He can do so because the world does not exist in isolation from some transcendent Divinity exterior to Nature, but is itself the Divine Power inseparate from the Divine Essence. He knows that he is himself as body and mind such power, and as Spirit or Self such essence. When he has learned this, he escapes both from the servile subjection to circumstance, and the ignorant driftings of a humanity which has not yet realized itself. Most are still not men but candidates for Humanity. But he is the illumined master of himself, whether he is developing all his powers in this world, or liberating himself therefrom at his will. I conclude by citing a verse from a Hymn in the great \"Mahakala Samhita,\" by a Sadhaka who had surpassed the stage of formal external ritual, and was of a highly advanced devotional type. I first read the verse and then give a commentary thereon which is my own. \"I torture not my body by austerity.\" For the body is the Divine Mother. Why then torture it? The Hymnist is speaking of those who, like himself, have realized that the body is a manifestation of the Divine Essence. He does not say that no one is to practice austerities. These may be nec essary for those who have not realized that the body is divine, and who, on the contrary, look upon it as a material obstacle which must be strictly controlled. It is a common mistake of Western critics to take that which is meant for the particular case a s applying to all. \"I make no pilgrimages.\" 369 For the sacred places in their esoteric sense are in the body of the worshipper. Why should he who knows thistravel? Those, however, who do not know this may profitably travel to the exterior sacred places such a s Benares, Puri, Brindavan. \"I waste not my time in reading the Vedas.\" This does not mean that no one is to read the Vedas. He has already done so, but the Kularnava Tantra says: \"Extract the essence of the Scriptures, and then cast away the rest, as chaf f is separated from the grain.\" When the essence has been extracted, what need is there of further reading and study P Moreover, the Veda recalls the spiritual experiences of others. What each man wants is that experience for himself, and this is not to be had by reading and speculation, but by practice, as worship or Yoga. But, says the author of the Hymn, addressing the Divine Mother: \"I take refuge at thy Sacred Feet.\" For this is both the highest Sadhana and the fruit of it. In conclusion, I will say a word upon the Tantra Shastra to which I have referred. The four chief Scriptures of the Hindus are Veda, Smriti, Purana and Agama. There are four Ages, and to each of these Ages is assigned its own peculiar Scripture. For the present Age the governing Scripture is the Agama. The Agama or \"traditions,\" is made up of several schools such as Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta. It is a mistake to suppose that Agama is a name given only to the Southern Scriptures, and that Tantra is the name of the Scriptures of the Bengal School of Shaktas. The Scripture of all these communities is the Agama, and the Agama is constituted of Scriptures called Tantra and also by other names. To these Tantras titles are given just as they are given to chapters in a book, such as the Lakshmi Tantra of the Vaishnava Pacaratra, Malinivijapa Tantra of the Kashmir Shaiva Agama, and the Kularnava Tantra of the Bengal Shakta Agama. These four Scriptures do not supersede or contradict one another, but are said to be various expressions of the one truth presented in diverse forms, suited to the inhabitants of the different Ages. As a Pandit very learned in the Agama told me, all the Scriptures constitute one great \"Many -millioned Collection\" 370 (Shatakoti Samhita). Only portions of the Vaidik Ritual have survived to -day. The bulk of the ritual which to- day governs all the old schools of Hindu worshippers is to be found in the Agamas and their Tantras. And in this lies one reason for their importance. 371 CHAPTER TWENTY -FOUR. SHAKTI AS MANTRA (MANTRAMAYI SHAKTI ) This is in every way both a most important, as well as a most difficult, subject in the Tantra Shastra; so difficult that it is not understood, and on this account has been ridiculed. Mantra, in the words of a distinguished Indian, has been called \"meaningless jabber\". When we find Indians thus talking of their Shastra, it is not surprising that Europeans should take it to be of no account. They naturally, though erroneously, suppose that the Indian always understands his own beliefs, and if he says they are absurd it is taken that they are so. Even, however, amongst Indians, who have lost themselves through an English Education, the Science of Mantra is largely unknown. There are not many students of the Mimamsa now -a-days. The English- educated have in this, as in other matters, generally taken the cue from their Western Gurus, and passed upon Mantravidya a borrowed condemnation. There are those among them (particularly in this part of India), those who have in the past thought little of their old culture, and have been only too willing to sell their old lamps for new ones. Because they are new they will not always be found to give better light. Let us hope this will change, as indeed it will. Before the Indian condemns his cultural inheritance let him at least first study and understand it. It is true that Mantra is meaningless -- to those who do not know its meaning; but to those who do, it is not \"Jabber\"; though of course like everything else it may become, and indeed has become, the subject of ignorance and superstitious use. A telegram written in code in a merchant's office will seem the merest gibberish to those who do not know that code. Those who do may spell thereout a transaction bringing lakhs of \"real\" Rupees for those who have sent it. Mantravidya, whether it be true or not, is a profoundly conceived science, and, as interpreted by the Shakta Agama, is a practical application of Vedantic doctrine. The textual source of Mantras is to be found in the Vedas (see in particular the Mantra portion of the Atharvaveda so associated with the Tantra 372 Shastra), the Puranas and Tantras. The latter Scripture is essentially the Mantra -Shastra. In fact it is so called generally by Sadhakas and not Tantra Shas tra. And so it is said of all the Shastras, symbolized as a body, that Tantra Shastra which consists of Mantra is the Paramatma, the Vedas are the Jivatma, Darshanas or systems of philosophy are the senses, Puranas are the body and the Smritis are the limb s. Tantra Shastra is thus the Shakti of Consciousness consisting of Mantra. For, as the Vishvasara Tantra (Ch. 2) says, the Parabrahman in Its form as the Sound Brahman (Shabda -Brahman or Saguna -Brahman), whose substance is all Mantra, exists in the body of the Jivatma.. Kundalini Shakti is a form of the Shabda- Brahman in individual bodies (Sharada-Tilaka, Ch. 1). It is from this Shabda -Brahman that the whole universe proceeds in the form of sound (Shabda) and the objects (Artha) which sounds or words denot e. And this is the meaning of the statement that the Devi and the Universe are composed of letters, that is, the signs for the sounds which denote all that is. At any point in the flow of phenomena, we can enter the stream, and realize therein the changeless Real. The latter is everywhere and is in all things, and hidden in, and manifested by, sound as by all else. Any form (and all which is not the Formless is that) can be pierced by the mind, and union may be had therein with the Devata who is at its core . It matters not what that form may be. And why? What I have said concerning Shakti gives the answer. All is Shakti. All is Consciousness. We desire to think and speak. This is Iccha Shakti. We make an effort towards realization. This is Kriya Shakti. We t hink and know. This is Jana Shakti. Through Pranavayu, another form of Shakti, we speak; and the word we utter is Shakti Mantramayi. For what is a letter (Varna) which is made into syllable (Pada) and sentences (Vakya) '? It may be heard in speech, thus a ffecting the sense of hearing. It may be seen as a form in writing. It may be tactually sensed by the blind through the perforated dots of Braille type. The same thing thus affecting the various senses. But what is the thing which does so? The senses are S hakti, and so is the objective form which evokes the sensation. Both are in themselves Shakti as Cit Shakti and Maya Shakti, and the Svarupa of these is Cit or Feeling -Consciousness. When, therefore, a Mantra is realized, when there is what is called in the Shastra Mantra -Caitanya, what happens is the union of 373 the consciousness of the Sadhaka with that Consciousness which manifests in the form of the Mantra. It is this union which makes the Mantra \"work\". The subject is of such importance in the Tantras tha t their other name is Mantra Shastra. But what is a Mantra? Commonly Orientalists and others describe Mantra as \"Prayer,\" \"Formulae of worship,\" \"Mystic syllables\" and so forth. These are but the superficialities of those who do not know their subject. Wherever we find the word \"Mystic,\" we may be on our guard; for it is a word which covers much ignorance. Thus Mantra is said to be a \"mystic\" word, Yantra a \"mystic\" diagram, and Mudra a \"mystic\" gesture. But have these definitions taught us anything? No, nothing. Those who framed these definitions knew nothing of their subject. And yet, whilst I am aware of no work in any European language which shows a knowledge of what Mantra is or of its science (Mantra -vidya), there is nevertheless perhaps no subject which has been so ridiculed: a not unusual attitude of ignorance. There is a widely diffused lower mind which says, \"what I do not understand is absurd\". But this science, whether well -founded or not, is not that. Those who so think might expect Mantras which are prayers and the meaning of which they understand; for with prayer the whole world is familiar. But such appreciation itself displays a lack of understanding. For there is nothing necessarily holy or prayerful alone in Mantras as some think. Some combi nations of letters constitute prayers and are called Mantras, as for instance the most celebrated Gayatri Mantra. A Mantra is not the same thing as prayer or self -dedication (Atma- nivedana). Prayer is conveyed in the words the Sadhaka chooses. Any set of words or letters is not a Mantra. Only that Mantra in which the Devata has revealed His or Her particular aspects can reveal that aspect, and is therefore the Mantra of that one of His or Her particular aspects. The relations of the letters (Varna), whether vowel or consonant, Nada and Bindu, in a Mantra indicate the appearance of Devata in different forms. Certain Vibhuti or aspects of the Devata are inherent in certain Varna, but perfect Shakti does not appear in any but a whole Mantra. All letters are forms of the Shabda-Brahman, but only particular combinations of letters are a particular form, just as the name of a particular being is made up of certain letters and not of any indiscriminately. The whole universe is Shakti and is pervaded by Shakti. 374 Nada, Bindu, Varna are all forms of Shakti and combinations of these, and these combinations only are the Shabda corresponding to the Artha or forms of any particular Devata. The gross lettered sound is, as explained later, the manifestation of sound in a more subtle form, and this again is the production of causal \"sound\" in its supreme (Para) form. Mantras are manifestations of Kulakundalini (see Chapter on the same) which is a name for the Shabda- Brahman or Saguna- Brahman in individual bodies. Produced Shabda is an aspect of the Jiva's vital Shakti. Kundalini is the Shakti who gives life to the Jiva. She it is who in the Muladhara Cakra (or basal bodily center) is the cause of the sweet, indistinct and murmuring Dhvani which is compared to the humming of a black bee. Thence Shabda originates and, being first Para, gradually manifests upwards as Pashyanti, Madhyama, Vaikha ri (see post). Just as in outer space, waves of sound are produced by movements of air (Vayu), so in the space within the Jiva's body, waves of sound are said to be produced according to the movements of the vital air (Pranavayu) and the process of in and out breathing. As the Svarupa of Kundali, in whom are all sounds, is Paramatma, so the substance of all Mantra, Her manifestation, is Consciousness (Cit) manifesting as letters and words. In fact, the letters of the Alphabet which are called Akshara are nothing but the Yantra of the Akshara or Imperishable Brahman. This is however only realized by the Sadhaka, when his Shakti generated by Sadhana is united with Mantra -Shakti. kundalini, who is extremely subtle, manifests in gross (Sthula) form in differing aspects as different Devatas. It is this gross form which is the Presiding Deity (Adishthatri Devata) of a Mantra, though it is the subtle (Sukshma) form at which all Sadhakas aim. Mantra and Devata are thus one and particular forms of Brahman as Shiva - Shakti. Therefore the Shastra says that they go to Hell who think that the Image (or \"Idol\" as it is commonly called) is but a stone and the Mantra merely letters of the alphabet. It is therefore also ignorance of Shastric principle which supposes that Mantra is merely the name for the words in which one expresses what one has to say to the Divinity. If it were, the Sadhaka might choose his own language without recourse to the eternal and determined sounds of Shastra. (See generally as to the above the Chapter on Mantra- tattva in Principles of Tantra, Ed. A. Avalon.) The particular Mantra of a Devata is that Devata. A Mantra, on the contrary, 375 consists of certain letters arranged in definite sequence of sounds of which the letters are the representative signs. To produce the designed effect, the Mantra must be intoned in the proper way, according to both sound (Varna) and rhythm (Svara). For these reasons, a Mantra when translated ceases to be such, and becomes a mere word or sentence. By Mantra, the sought -for (Sadhya) Devata appears, and by Siddhi therein is had vision of the three worlds. As the Mantra is in fact Devata, by practice thereof this is known. Not merely do the rhythmical vibrations of its sounds regulate the unsteady vibrations of the sheaths of the worshipper, but therefrom the image of the Devata appears. As the Brihad -Gandharva Tantra says (Ch. V): Shrinu devi pravakshyami bijanam deva- rupatam Mantrochcharanamatrena deva -rupam prajayate. Mantrasiddhi is the ability to make a Mantra efficacious an d to gather its fruit in which case the Sadhaka is Mantra -siddha. As the Pranatoshini (619) says, \"Whatever the Sadhaka desires that he surely obtains.\" Whilst therefore prayer may end in merely physical sound, Mantra is ever, when rightly said, a potent compelling force, a word of power effective both to produce material gain and accomplish worldly desires, as also to promote the fourth aim of sentient being (Caturvarga), Advaitic knowledge, and liberation. And thus it is said that Siddhi (success) is the certain result of Japa or recitation of Mantra. Some Mantras constitute also what the European would call \"prayers,\" as for instance the celebrated Gayatri. But neither this nor any other Mantra is simply a prayer. The Gayatri runs Om (The thought is directed to the three- fold Energy of the One as represented by the three letters of which Om is composed, namely, A or Brahma, the Shakti which creates; U or Vishnu, the Shakti which maintains; and M or Rudra, the Shakti which \"destroys,\" that is, withdraws the world): Nada and Bindu, Earth, Middle region, Heaven (of which as the transmigrating worlds of Samsara, God, as Om, as also in the form of the Sun, is the Creator). Let us contemplate upon the Adorable Spirit of the Divine Creator who is in the form of the Sun (Aditya- Devata). Map He direct our minds, towards attainment of the four- fold aims (Dharma, Artha, 376 Kama, Moksha) of all sentient beings. Om. This great Mantra bears a meaning on its face, though the Commentaries explain and amplify it. The Self of all which exists in the three regions appears in the form of the Sun -god with His body of fire. The Brahman is the cause of all, and as the visible Devata is the Eye of the World and the Maker of the day who vivifies, ripens and reveals all beings and things. The Sun -god is to the sun what the Spirit (Atma) is to the body. He is the Supreme in the form of the great Luminary. His body is the Light of the world, and He Himself is the Light of the lives of all beings. He is everywhere. He is in the outer ether as the sun, and in the inner ethereal region of the heart. He is the Wondrous Light which is the smokeless Fire. He it is who is in constant play with creation (Srishti), maintenance (Sthiti) and \"destruction\" (Pralaya); and by His radiance pleases both eye and mind. Let us adore Him that we may escape the misery of birth and death. May He ever direct our minds (Buddhivritti) upon the path of the world (Trivarga) and liberation (Moksha). Only the twice -born castes and men may utter this Gayatri. To the Shudra, whether man or woman, and to women of all castes, it is forbidden. But the Tantra Shastra has not the exclusiveness of the Vaidik system. Thus the Mahanirvana provides (IV. 109 -111) a Brahma -gayatri for all: \"May we know the Supreme Lord. Let us contemplate the Supreme Essence. And may the Brahman direct us.\" All will readily understand such Mantras as the Gayatri, though some comment, which is thought amusing, has been made on the \"meaningless\" Om. I have already stated what it means, namely, (shortly speaking) the Energy (Nada) in Sadakhya Tattva which, springing from Shiva -Shakti Tattva, \"solidifies\" itself (Ghani -bhuta) as the creative Power of the Lord (Bindu or Ishvara Tattva) manifesting in the Trinity or Creative Energies. For further details see my Garland of Letters. \"Om\" then stands for the most general aspect of That as the Source of all. As it is recited, the idea arises in the mind corresponding with the sound which has been said to be the expression on the gross plane of that subtle \"sound\" which accompanied the first creative vibration. When rightly uttered this great syllable has an awe -inspiring effect. As I heard this Mantra chanted by some hundred Buddhist monks (one after the other) in a northern monastery it seemed to be the distant murmuring roll of some vast cosmic ocean. \"Om\" is the most prominent example of a \"meaningless\" Mantra, 377 that is, one which does not bear its meaning on its face, and of what is called a seed or Bija Mantra, because they are the very quintessence of Mantra, and the seed (Bija) of the fruit which is Siddhi (spiritual achievement). These are properly monosyllabic. Om is a Vaidik Bija, but it is the source of all the other Tantrik Bijas which represent particular Devata aspects of that which is presented as a whol e in 0m. As a Mantra -Shastra, the Tantras have greatly elaborated the Bijas, and thus incurred the charge of \"gibberish,\" for such the Bijas sound to those who do not know what they mean. Though a Mantra such as a Bija -mantra may not convey its meaning on its face, the initiate knows that its meaning is the own form (Svarupa) of the particular Devata whose Mantra it is, and that the essence of the Bija is that which makes letters sound, and exists in all which we say or hear. Every Mantra is thus a particular sound form (Rupa) of the Brahman. There are a very large number of these short unetymological vocables or Bijas such as Hrim, Shrim, Krim, Hum, Hum, Phat called by various names. Thus the first is called the Maya Bija, the second Lakshmi Bija, the third Kali Bija, the fourth Kurca Bija, the fifth Varma Bija, the sixth Astra Bija. Ram is Agni Bija, Em is Yoni Bija, Klim is Kama Bija, Shrim is Badhu Bija, Aim Sarasvati Bija and so forth. Each Devata has His or Her Bija. Thus Hrim is the Maya Bija, Krim the Kali Bija. The Bija is used in the worship of the Devata whose Mantra it is. All these Bijas mentioned are in common use. There are a large number of others, some of which are formed with the first letters of the name of the Devata for whom they stand, such as Gam for Ganesha, Dum for Durga. Let us then shortly see by examples what the meaning of such a Bija is. (For a fuller account see my Garland of Letters.) In the first place, the reader will observe the common ending \"m\" which represents the Sanskrit breathings known as Nada and Bindu or Candrabindu. These have the same meaning in all. They are the Shaktis of that name appearing in the table of the 36 Tattvas given ante. They are states of Divine Power immediately preceding the manifestation of the objective universe. The other letters denote subsequent developments of Shakti, and various aspects of the manifested Devata mentioned below. There are sometimes variant interpretations given. Take the great Bhuvaneshvari or Maya Bija, Hrim. I have given one interpretation in my Studies above cited. From the Tantrik compendium, the Pranatoshini, quoting the Barada Tantra we get the following: Hrim = H + R + 378 I + M. H = Shiva. R = Shakti Prakriti. I = Mahamaya. \"M\" is as above explained, but is here stated in the form that Nada is the Progenitrix of the Universe, and Bindu which is Brahman as Ishvara and Ishvari (Ishvaratattva) is described for the Sadhaka as the \"Dispeller of Sorrow\". The meaning therefore of this Bija Mantra which is used in the worship of Mahamaya or Bhuvaneshvari is, that that Devi in Her Turiya or transcendent state is Nada and Bindu, and is the causal body manifesting as Shiva -Shakti in the form of the manifested universe. The same idea is expressed in varying form but with the same substance by the Devigita (Ch. IV) which says that H = gross body, R = subtle body, I = causal body and M = the Turiya or transcendent fourth state. In other words, the Sadhaka worsh ipping the Devi with Hrim, by that Bija calls to mind the transcendent Shakti who is the causal body of the subtle and gross bodies of all existing things. Shrim, (see Barada Tantra) is used in the worship of Lakshmi Devi. Sh = Alahalaksmi, R = Wealth (Dha nartham) which as well as I = (satisfaction or Tushtyartham) She gives. Krim is used in the worship of Kali. K = Kali (Shakti worshipped for relief from the world and its sorrows). R = Brahma (Shiva with whom She is ever associated). I = Mahamaya (Her aspect in which She overcomes for the Sadhaka the Maya in which as Creatrix She has involved him). \"Aim\" is used in the worship of Sarasvati and is Vagbhava Bija. Dum is used in the worship of Durga. D = Durga. U = protection. Nada = Her aspect as Mother of th e Universe, and Bindu is its Lord. The Sadhaka asks Durga as Mother -Lord to protect him, and looks on Her in her protecting aspect as upholder of the universe (Jagaddhatri). In \"Strim.\" S = saving from difficulty. T = deliverer. R = (here) liberation (Muktyartho repha ukto'tra). I = Mahamaya. Bindu = Dispeller of grief. Nada = Mother of the Universe. She as the Lord is the dispeller of Maya and the sorrows it produces, the Savior and deliverer from all difficulties by grant of liberation. I have dealt elsew here (Serpent Power) with Hum and Hum the former of which is called Varma (armor) Bija and the latter Kurca, H denoting Shiva and \"u\", His Bhairava or formidable aspect (see generally Vol. I, Tantrik Texts. Tantrabhidhana). He is an armor to the Sadhaka by His destruction of evil. Phat is the weapon or guarding Mantra used with Hum, just as Svaha (the Shakti of Fire), is used with Vashat, in making offerings. The primary Mantra of a Devata is called Mula - Mantra. Mantras are solar (Saura) and masculine, and lunar (Saumya) and 379 feminine, as also neuter. If it be asked why things of mind are given sex, the answer is for the sake of the requirements of the worshipper. The masculine and neuter forms are called specifically Mantra and the feminine Vidya, though the first term may be used for both. Neuter Mantras end with Namah. Hum, Phat are masculine terminations, and \"Tham\" or Svaha, feminine (see Sharadatilaka II. Narada- pacaratra VII, Prayogasara, Pranatoshini 70). The Nitya Tantra gives various names to Mantra according to the number of the syllables such as Pinda, Kartari, Bija, Mantra, Mala. Commonly however the term Bija is applied to monosyllabic Mantras. The word \"Mantra\" comes from the root \"man\" to think. \"Man\" is the first syllable of manana or thinking. It is also the root of the word \"Man\" who alone of all creation is properly a Thinker. \"Tra\" comes from the root \"tra,\" for the effect of a Mantra when used with that end, is to save him who utters and realizes it. Tra is the first syllable of Trana or liberation from the Samsara. By combination of man and tra, that is called Mantra which, from the religious stand -point, calls forth (Amantrana) the four aims (Caturvarga) of sentient being as happiness in the world and eternal bliss in Liberation. Mantra is thus Thought -movement vehicled by, and expressed in, speech. Its Svarupa is, like all else, consciousness (Cit) which is the Shabda -Brahman. A Mantra is not merely sound or letters. This is a form in which Shakti manifests Herself. The mere utterance of a Mantra without knowing its meaning, without realization of the consciousness which Mantra manifests is a mere movement of the lips and nothing else. We are then in the outer husk of consciousness; just as we are when we identify ourselves with any other form of gross matter which is, as it were, the \"crust\" (as a friend of mine has aptly called it) of those subtler forces which emerge from the Yoni or Cause of all, who is, in Herself Consciousness (Cidrupini). When the Sadhaka knows the meaning of the Mantra he makes an advance. But this is not enough. He must, through his consciousness, realize that Consciousness which appears in the form of the Mantra, and thus attain Mantra -Caitanya. At this point, thought is vitalized by contact with the center of all thinking. At this point again thought becomes truly vital and creative. Then an effect is created by the realization thus induced. 380 The creative power of thought is now receiving increasing acceptance in the West, which is in some cases taking over, and in others, discovering anew, for itself, what was thought by the ancients in India. Because they have discovered it anew, they call it \"New Thought\"; but its fundamental principle is as old as the Upanishads which said, \"what you think that you become\". All recognize this principle in the limited form that a man who thinks good becomes good, and he who is ever harboring bad thought becomes bad. But the Indian and \"New Thought\" doctrine is more profound than this. In Vedantic India, thought has been ever held creative. The world is a creation of the thought (Cit Shakti associated with Maya Shakti) of the Lord (Ishvara and Ishvari). Her and His thought is the aggregate, with almighty powers of all thought. But each man is Shiva and can attain His powers to the de gree of his ability to consciously realize himself as such. Thought now works in man's small magic just as it first worked in the grand magical display of the World -Creator. Each man is in various degrees a creator. Thought is as real as any form of gross matter. Indeed it is more real in the sense that the world is itself a projection of the World- thought, which again is nothing but the aggregate in the form of the Samskaras or impressions of past experience, which give rise to the world. The universe exis ts for each Jiva because he consciously or unconsciously wills it. It exists for the totality of beings because of the totality of Samskaras which are held in the Great Womb of the manifesting Cit Itself. There is theoretically nothing that man cannot accomplish, for he is at base the Accomplisher of all. But, in practice, he can only accomplish to the degree that he identifies himself with the Supreme Consciousness and Its forces, which underlie, are at work in, and manifest as, the universe. This is the b asal doctrine of all magic, of all powers (Siddhi) including the greatest Siddhi which is Liberation itself. He who knows Brahman, becomes Brahman to the extent of his \"knowing\". Thought -reading, thought -transference, hypnotic suggestion, magical projectio ns (Mokshana) and shields (Grahana) are becoming known and practiced in the West, not always with good results. For this reason some doctrines and practices are kept concealed. Projection (Mokshana) the occultist will understand. But Grahana, I may here explain, is not so much a \"fence\" in the Western sense, to which use a Kavaca is put, but the knowledge of how to \"catch\" a Mantra thus projected. A stone thrown at 381 one may be warded off or caught and, if the person so wishes, thrown back at him who threw it. So may a Mantra. It is not necessary, however, to do so. Those who are sheltered by their own pure strength, automatically throw back all evil influences, which, coming back to the ill- wisher, harm or destroy him. Those familiar with the Western presentment of similar matters will more readily understand than others who, like the Orientalist and Missionary, as a rule know nothing of occultism and regard it as superstition. For this reason their presentment of Indian teaching is so often ignorant and absur d. The occultist, however, will understand the Indian doctrine which regards thought like mind, of which it is the operation, as a Power or Shakti; something therefore, very real and creative by which man can accomplish things for himself and others. Kind thoughts, without a word, will do good to all who surround us, and may travel round the world to distant friends. So we may suffer from the ill -wishes of those who surround us, even if such wishes do not materialize into deeds. Telepathy is the transferenc e of thought from a distance without the use of the ordinary sense organs. So, in initiation, the thought of a true Guru may pass to his disciple all his powers. Mantra is thus a Shakti (Mantra Shakti) which lends itself impartially to any use. Man can identify himself with any of nature's forces and for any end. Thus, to deal with the physical effects of Mantra, it may be used to injure, kill or do good; by Mantra again a kind of union with the physical Shakti is, by some, said to be effected. So the Vishn u-Purana speaks of generation by will power, as some Westerners believe will be the case when man passes beyond the domination of his gross sheath and its physical instruments. Children will then again be \"mind- born\". By Mantra, the Homa fire may, it is said, be lit. By Mantra, again, in the Tantrik initiation called Vedha -diksha there is, it is said, such a transference of power from the Guru to his disciple that the latter swoons under the impulse of the thought -power which pierces him. But Mantra is also that by which man identifies himself with That which is the Ground of all. In short, Mantra is a power (Shakti) in the form of idea clothed with sound. What, however, is not yet understood in the West is the particular Thought- science which is Mantravidya , or its basis. Much of the \"New Thought\" lacks this philosophical basis which is supplied by Mantravidya, resting itself on the Vedantik doctrine. Mantravidya is thus that form of Sadhana by which union is had with the Mother Shakti in the 382 Mantra form (Mantramayi), in Her Sthula and Sukshma aspects respectively. The Sadhaka passes from the first to the second. This Sadhana works through the letters, as other forms of Sadhana work through form in the shape of the Yantra, Ghata or Pratima. All such Sadhana belongs to Shaktopaya Yoga as distinguished from the introspective meditative processes of Shambhavopaya which seeks more directly the realization of Shakti, which is the end common to both. The Tantrik doctrine as regards Shabda is that of the Mimamsa with this exception that it is modified to meet its main doctrine of Shakti, In order to understand what a Mantra is, we must know its cosmic history. The mouth speaks a word. What is it and whence has it come'. As regards the evolution of consciousness as the world, I refer my reader to the Chapters on \"Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti\" dealing with the 36 Tattvas. Ultimately, there is Consciousness which in its aspect as the great \"I\" sees the object as part of itself, and then as other than itself, and thus has experience of the universe. This is achieved through Shakti who, in the words of the Kamakalavilasa, is the pure mirror in which Shiva experiences Himself (Shivarupa -vimarshanirmala -darshah). Neither Shiva nor Shakti alone suffices for creation. Shivarupa here = Svarupa. Aham ityevamakaram, that is, the form (or experience) which consists in the notion of \"I\". Shakti is the pure mirror for the manifestation of Shiva's experience as \"I\" (Aham). Aham ityevam rupam janam tasya praka -shane nirmaladarshah; as the commentator Natanananda (V- 2) says. The notion is, of course, similar to that of the reflection of Purusha on Prakriti as Sattvamayi Buddhi and of Brahman on Maya. From the Mantra aspect starting from Shakti (Shakti - Tattva) associated with Shiva (Shiva -Tattva), there was produced Nada, and from Nada, came Bindu which, to distinguish it from other Bindus, is known as the causal, supreme or Great Bindu (Karana, Para, Mahabindu). This is very clearly set forth in the Sharada Tilaka, a Tantrik work by an author of the Kashmirian School which was formerly of great authority among the Bengal Shaktas. I have dealt with this subject in detail in my Garland of Letters. Here I only summarize conclusions. Shabda literally means and is usually translated \"sound,\" the word coming from the root Shabd \"to sound\". It must not, however, be wholly identified 383 with sound in the sense of that which is heard by the ear, or sound as effect of cosmic stress. Sound in this sense is the effect produced through excitation of the ear a nd brain, by vibrations of the atmosphere between certain limits. Sound so understood exists only with the sense organs of hearing. And even then it may be perceived by some and not by others, due to keenness or otherwise of natural hearing. Further the best ears will miss what the microphone gives. Considering Shabda from its primary or causal aspect, independent of the effect which it may or may not produce on the sense organs, it is vibration (Spandana) of any kind or motion, which is not merely physical motion, which may become sound for human ears, given the existence of ear and brain and the fulfillment of other physical conditions. Thus, Shabda is the possibility of sound, and may not be actual sound for this individual or that. There is thus Shabda w herever there is motion or vibration of any kind. It is now said, that the electrons revolve in a sphere of positive electrification at an enormous rate of motion. If the arrangement be stable, we have an atom of matter. If some of the electrons are pitched off from the atomic system, what is called radio-activity is observed. Both these rotating and shooting electrons are forms of vibration as Shabda, though it is no sound for mortal ears. To a Divine Ear all such movements would constitute the \"music of t he spheres\". Were the human ear subtle enough, a living tree would present itself to it in the form of a particular sound which is the natural word for that tree. It is said of ether (Akasha) that its Guna or quality is sound (Shabda); that is, ether is th e possibility of Spandana or vibration of any kind. It is that state of the primordial \"material\" substance (Prakriti) which makes motion or vibration of any kind possible (Shabdaguna akashah). The Brahman Svarupa or Cit is motionless. It is also known as Cidakasha. But this Akasha is not created. Cidakasha is the Brahman in which stress of any kind manifests itself, a condition from which the whole creation proceeds. This Cidakasha is known as the Shabda - Brahman through its Maya -shakti, which is the cause of all vibrations manifesting themselves as sound to the ear, as touch to the tactile sense, as color and form to the eye, as taste to the tongue and as odor to the nose. All mental functioning again is a form of vibration (Spandana). Thought is a vibratio n of mental substance just as the expression of thought in the form of the spoken word is a vibration affecting the ear. All Spandana 384 presupposes heterogeneity (Vaishamya). Movement of any kind implies inequality of tensions. Electric current flows between two points because there is a difference of potential between them. Fluid flows from one point to another because there is difference of pressure. Heat travels because there is difference of temperature. In creation (Srishti) this condition of heterogenei ty appears and renders motion possible. Akasha is the possibility of Spandana of any kind. Hence its precedence in the order of creation. Akasha means Brahman with Maya, which Mayashakti or (to use the words of Professor P. N. Mukhyopadhyaya) Stress is ren dered actual, from a previous state of possibility of stress which is the Sakti's natural condition of equilibrium (Prakriti = Samyavastha). In dissolution, the Maya -Shakti of Brahman (according to the periodic law which is a fundamental postulate of India n cosmogony) returns to homogeneity when in consequence Akasha disappears. This disappearance means that Shakti is equilibrated, and that therefore there is no further possibility of motion of any kind. As the Tantras say, the Divine Mother becomes one wit h Paramashiva. The Sharada says -- From the Sakala Parameshvara who is Sacchidananda issued Shakti; from Shakti came Nada; and from Nada issued Bindu. Sacchidanandavibhavat sakalat parameshvarat Asicchhaktistato nado nadad bindusamudbhavah. Here the Sakala Parameshvara is Shiva Tattva. Shakti is Shakti Tattva wherein are Samani, Vyapini, and Anjani Shaktis. Nada is the first produced source of Mantra, and the subtlest form of Shabda of which Mantra is a manifestation. Nada is threefold, as Mahanada or Nadanta and Nirodhini representing the first moving forth of the Shabda -Brahman as Nada, the filling up of the whole universe with Nadanta and the specific tendency towards the next state of unmanifested Shabda respectively. Nada in its three forms is in the Sa dakhya Tattva. Nada becoming slightly operative towards the \"speakable\" (Vacya), (the former operation being in regard to the thinkable (Mantavya) ) is called Arddhacandra which develops into Bindu. Both of these are in Ishvara Tattva. This Mahabindu is threefold as the Kamakala. The undifferentiated Shabda -Brahman or Brahman as the immediate cause of the manifested Shabda and Artha is a unity of 385 consciousness (Caitanya) which then expresses itself in three -fold function as the three Shaktis, Iccha, Jana, Kriya; the three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas, Tamas; the three Bindus (Karyya) which are Sun, Moon and Fire; the three Devatas, Rudra, Vishnu, Brahma and so forth. These are the product of the union of Prakasha and Vimarsha Shakti. This Triangle of Divine Desire is the Kamakala, or Creative Will and its first subtle manifestation, the Cause of the Universe which is personified as the Great Devi Tripurasundari, the Kameshvara and Kameshvari, the object of worship in the Agamas. Kamakalavilasa, as explained in the work of that name, is the manifestation of the union of Shiva and Shakti, the great \"I\" (Aham) which develops through the inherent power of its thought -activity (Vimarsha -Shakti) into the universe, unknowing as Jiva its true nature and the secret of its gro wth through Avidya Shakti. Here then there appears the duality of subject and object; of mind and matter, of the word (Shabda) and its meaning (Artha). The one is not the cause of the other, but each is inseparable from, and concomitant with, the other as a bifurcation of the undifferentiated unity of Shabda -Brahman whence they proceed. The one cosmic movement produces at the same time the mind and the object which it cognizes; names (Nama) and language (Shabda) on the one hand; and forms (Rupa) or object (Artha) on the other. These are all parts of one co- ordinated contemporaneous movement, and, therefore, each aspect of the process is related the one to the other. The genesis of Shabda is only one aspect of the creative process, namely, that in which the Brahman is regarded as the Author of Shabda and Artha into which the undifferentiated Shabda - Brahman divides Itself. Shakti is Shabda -Brahman ready to create both Shabda and Artha on the differentiation of the Parabindu into the Kamakala, which is the root (Mula) of all Mantras. Shabda -Brahman is Supreme \"Speech\" (Para -Vak) or Supreme Shabda (Para -Shabda). From this fourth state of Shabda, there are three others -- Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari, which are the Shabda aspect of the stages whereby the seed of formless consciousness explicates into the multitudinous concrete ideas (expressed in language of the mental world) the counterpart of the objective universe. But for the last three states of sound the body is required and, therefore, they only exist in the Jiva. In the latter, the Shabda -Brahman is in the form of Kundalini Shakti in the Muladhara Cakra. In Kundalini is Parashabda. This 386 develops into the \"Matrikas\" or \"Little Mothers\" which are the subtle forms of the gross manifested letters (Varna). The letters make up syllables (Pada) and syllables make sentences (Vakya), of which elements the Mantra is composed. Para Shabda in the body develops in Pashyanti Shabda or Shakti of general movements (Samanya Spanda) located in the tract from the Muladhara to the Manipura associated with Manas. It then in the tract upwards to the Anahata becomes Madhyama or Hiranyagarbha sound with particularized movement (Vishesha Spanda) associated with Buddhi -Tattva. Vayu proceeding upwards to the throat expresses itself i n spoken speech which is Vaikhari or Virat Shabda. Now it is that the Mantra issues from the mouth and is heard by the ear. Because the one cosmic movement produces the ideating mind and its accompanying Shabda and the objects cognized or Artha, the creative force of the universe is identified with the Matrikas and Varnas, and Devi is said to be in the forms of the letters from A to Ha, which are the gross expressions of the forces called Matrika; which again are not different from, but are the same forces that evolve into the universe of mind and matter. These Varnas are, for the same reason, associated with certain vital and physiological centers which are produced by the same power that gives birth to the letters. It is by virtue of these centers and thei r controlled area in the body that all the phenomena of human psychosis run on, and keep man in bondage. The creative force is the union of Shiva and Shakti, and each of the letters (Varna) produced therefrom and thereby are part and parcel of that Force, and are, therefore, Shiva and Shakti in those particular forms. For this reason, the Tantra Shastra says that Devata and Mantra composed of letters, are one. In short, Mantras are made of letters (Varna). Letters are Matrika. Matrika is Shakti and Shakti is Shiva. Through Shakti (one with Shiva) Nada -Shakti, Bindu -Shakti, the Shabda -Brahman or Para Shabda, arise the Matrika, Varna, Pada, Vakya of the lettered Mantra or manifested Shabda. But what is Shabda or \"Sound\"? Here the Shakta Tantra Shastra follows the Mimamsa doctrine of Shabda, with such modifications as are necessary to adapt it to its doctrine of Shakti. Sound (Shabda) which is quality (Guna) of ether (Akasha) and is sensed by hearing is twofold, namely, lettered (Varnatmaka Shabda) and unlettered or Dhvani (Dhvanyatmaka Shabda). The latter is caused by the striking of two things together, and is apparently 387 meaningless. Shabda, on the contrary, which is Anahata (a term applied to the Heart -Lotus) is that Brahman sound which is not caused by the striking of two things together. Lettered sound is composed of sentences (Vakya), words (Pada) and letters (Varna). Such sound has a meaning. Shabda manifesting as speech is said to be eternal. This the Naiyayikas deny saying that it is transitory. A word is uttered and it is gone. This opinion the Mlmamsa denies saying that the perception of lettered sound must be distinguished from lettered sound itself. Perception is due to Dhvani caused by the striking of the air in contact with the vocal organs, namely, the throat, palate and tongue and so forth. Before there is Dhvani there must be the striking of one thing against another. It is not the mere striking which is the lettered Shabda. This manifests it. The lettered sound is produced by the formation of the vocal organs in contact with air; which formation is in response to the mental movement or idea which by the will thus seeks outward expression in audible sound. It is this perception which is transitory, for the Dhvani which manifests ideas in language is such. But lettered sound as it is in itself, that is, as the Consciousness manifesting Idea expressed in speech is eternal. It was not produced at the moment it was perceived. It was only manifested by the Dhvani. It existed before, as it exists after, su ch manifestation, just as a jar in a dark room which is revealed by a flash of lightning is not then produced, nor does it cease to exist on its ceasing to be perceived through the disappearance of its manifester, the lightning. The air in contact with the voice organs reveals sound in the form of the letters of the alphabet, and their combinations in words and sentences. The letters are produced for hearing by the person desiring to speak, and become audible to the ear of others through the operation of unlettered sound or Dhvani. The latter being a maifester only, lettered Shabda is something other than its manifester. Before describing the nature of Shabda in its different form of development, it is necessary to understand the Indian psychology of percept ion. At each moment, the Jiva is subject to innumerable influences which from all quarters of the Universe pour upon him. Only those reach his Consciousness which attract his attention and are thus selected by his Manas. The latter attends to one or other of these sense- impressions and conveys it to the Buddhi. When an object (Artha) is presented to the mind, and perceived, the 388 latter is formed into the shape of the object perceived. This is called a mental Vritti (modification) which it is the object of Yoga to suppress. The mind as a Vritti is thus a representation of the outer subject. But, in so far as it is such representation, the mind is as much an object as the outer one. The latter, that is, the physical object, is called the gross object (Sthula ar tha), and the former or mental impression is called the subtle object (Sukshma artha). But, besides the object, there is the mind which perceives it. It follows that the mind has two aspects, in one of which it is the perceiver, and in the other the perceived in the form of the mental formation (Vritti), which in creation precedes its outer projection, and after the creation follows as the impression produced in the mind by the sensing of a gross physical object. The mental impression and the physical object exactly correspond, for the physical object is in fact but a projection of the cosmic imagination, though it has the same reality as the mind has; no more and no less. The mind is thus both cognizer (Grahaka) and cognized Grahya), revealer (Prakashaka) and revealed (Prakashya), denoter (Vacaka) and denoted (Vacya). When the mind perceives an object, it is transformed into the shape of that object. So the mind which thinks of the Divinity which it worships (Ishtadevata) is, at length, through continued devotion, transformed into the likeness of that Devata. By allowing the Devata thus to occupy the mind for long, it becomes as pure as the Devata. This is a fundamental principle of Tantrik Sadhana or religious practice. The object perceived is called Artha, a term which comes from the root \"Ri,\" which means to get, to know, to enjoy. Artha is that which is known and which, therefore, is an object of enjoyment. The mind as Artha, that is in the form of the mental impression, is an exact reflection of the outer object or gross Artha. As the outer object is Artha, so is the interior subtle mental form which corresponds to it. That aspect of the mind which cognizes is called Shabda or Nama (name), and that aspect in which it is its own object or cognized is called Artha or Rupa (form). The outer physical object, of which the latter is in the individual an impression, is also Artha or Rupa, and spoken speech is the outer Shabda. The mind is thus, from the Mantra aspect, Shabda and Artha, terms corresponding to the Vedantic Nama and Rupa or concepts and concepts objectified. The Mayavada Vedanta says that the 389 whole creation is Nama and Rupa. Mind as Shabda is the Power (Shakti) the function of which is to distinguish and identify (Bhedasamsargavritti- Shakti). Just as the body is causal, subtle and gross, so is Shabda, of which there are four states (Bhava) called Para, Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari. Para sound is that which exists on the differentiation of the Mahabindu before actual manifestation. This is motionless, causal Shabda in Kundalini, in the Muladhara center of the body. That aspect of it in which it commences to move with a general, that is, non- particularized, motion (Samanya Spanda) is Pashyanti whose place is from the Muladhara to the Manipura Cakra, t he next center. It is here associated with Manas. These represent the motionless and first moving Ishvara aspect of Shabda. Madhyama Shabda is associated with Buddhi. It is Hiranyagarbha sound (Hiranyagarbharupa) extending from Pashyanti to the heart. Both Madhyama sound which is the inner \"naming\" by the cognitive aspect of mental movement, as also its Artha or subtle (Sukshma) object (Artha) belong to the mental or subtle body (Sukshma or Linga Sharira). Perception is dependent on distinguishing and identification. In the perception of an object that part of the mind which identifies and distinguishes and thus \"names\" or the cognizing part is, from the Shabda aspect, subtle Shabda: and that part of it which takes the shape of, and thus constitutes, the object (a shape which corresponds with the outer thing) is subtle Artha. The perception of an object is thus consequent on the simultaneous functioning of the mind in its two- fold aspect as Shabda and Artha, which are in indissoluble relation with one another as cognizer (Grahaka) and cognized Grahya). Both belong to the subtle body. In creation Madhyama sound first appeared. At that movement there was no outer Artha. Then the Cosmic Mind projected this inner Madhyama Artha into the world of sensual experience and named it in spoken speech (Vaikhari Shabda). The last or Vaikhari Shabda is uttered speech, developed in the throat, issuing from the mouth. This is Virat Shabda. Vaikhari Shabda is therefore language or gross lettered sound. Its corresponding Artha i s the physical or gross object which language denotes. This belongs to the gross body (Sthula Sharira). Madhyama Shabda is mental movement or ideation in its cognitive aspect and Madhyama Artha is the mental impression of the gross object. The inner though t-movement in its aspect as (Vacaka) and denoted (Vacya). When the mind perceives an object, it is transformed into 390 the shape of that object. So the mind which thinks of the Divinity which it worships (Ishtadevata) is, at length, through continued devotion, transformed into the likeness of that Devata. By allowing the Devata thus to occupy the mind for long, it becomes as pure as the Devata. This is a fundamental principle of Tantrik Sadhana or religious practice. The object perceived is called Artha, a ter m which comes from the root \"Ri,\" which means to get, to know, to enjoy. Artha is that which is known and which, therefore, is an object of enjoyment. The mind as Artha, that is in the form of the mental impression, is an exact reflection of the outer obje ct or gross Artha. As the outer object is Artha, so is the interior subtle mental form which corresponds to it. That aspect of the mind which cognizes is called Shabda or Nama (name), and that aspect in which it is its own object or cognized is called Artha or Rupa (form). The outer physical object, of which the latter is in the individual an impression, is also Artha or Rupa, and spoken speech is the outer Shabda. The mind is thus, from the Mantra aspect, Shabda and Artha, terms corresponding to the Vedantic Nama and Rupa or concepts and concepts objectified. The Mayavada Vedanta says that the whole creation is Nama and Rupa. Mind as Shabda is the Power (Shakti) the function of which is to distinguish and identify (Bhedasamsargavritti- Shakti). Just as the b ody is causal, subtle and gross, so is Shabda, of which there are four states (Bhava) called Para, Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari. Para sound is that which exists on the differentiation of the Mahabindu before actual manifestation. This is motionless, causal Shabda in Kundalini, in the Muladhara center of the body. That aspect of it in which it commences to move with a general, that is, non- particularized, motion (Samanya Spanda) is Pashyanti whose place is from the Muladhara to the Manipura Cakra, the next center. It is here associated with Manas. These represent the motionless and first moving Ishvara aspect of Shabda. Madhyama Shabda is associated with Buddhi. It is Hiranyagarbha sound (Hiranyagarbharupa) extending from Pashyanti to the heart. Both Madhyama sound which is the inner \"naming\" by the cognitive aspect of mental movement, as also its Artha or subtle (Sukshma) object (Artha) belong to the mental or subtle body (Sukshma or Linga Sharira). Perception is dependent on distinguishing and identification. In the perception of an object that part of the mind which identifies and distinguishes and thus \"names\" or the cognizing part is, from 391 the Shabda aspect, subtle Shabda: and that part of it which takes the shape of, and thus constitutes, the object ( a shape which corresponds with the outer thing) is subtle Artha. The perception of an object is thus consequent on the simultaneous functioning of the mind in its two- fold aspect as Shabda and Artha, which are in indissoluble relation with one another as cognizer (Grahaka) and cognized Grahya). Both belong to the subtle body. In creation Madhyama sound first appeared. At that movement there was no outer Artha. Then the Cosmic Mind projected this inner Madhyama Artha into the world of sensual experience and named it in spoken speech (Vaikhari Shabda). The last or Vaikhari Shabda is uttered speech, developed in the throat, issuing from the mouth. This is Virat Shabda. Vaikhari Shabda is therefore language or gross lettered sound. Its corresponding Artha is the physical or gross object which language denotes. This belongs to the gross body (Sthula Sharira). Madhyama Shabda is mental movement or ideation in its cognitive aspect and Madhyama Artha is the mental impression of the gross object. The inner thought- mov ement in its aspect as Shabdartha, and considered both in its knowing aspect (Shabda) and as the subtle known object (Artha) belongs to the subtle body (Sukshma Sharira). The cause of these two is the first general movement towards particular ideation (Pas hyanti) from the motionless cause Para Shabda or Supreme Speech. Two forms of inner or hidden speech, causal, subtle, accompanying mind movement thus precede and lead up to spoken language. The inner forms of ideating movement constitute the subtle, and the uttered sound the gross aspect of Mantra which is the manifested Shabda -Brahman. The gross Shabda called Vaikhari or uttered speech, and the gross Artha or the physical object denoted by that speech are the projection of the subtle Shabda and Artha, through the initial activity of the Shabda -Brahman into the world of gross sensual perception. Therefore, in the gross physical world, Shabda means language, that is, sentences, words and letters which are the expression of ideas and are Mantra. In the subtle or mental world, Madhyama sound is the Shabda aspect of the mind which \"names\" in its aspect as cognizer, and Artha, is the same mind in its aspect as the mental object of its cognition. It is defined to be the outer in the form of the mind. It is thus similar to the state of dreams (Svapna), as Parashabda is the causal dreamless (Sushupti), and Vaikhari the waking (Jagrat) state. Mental Artha 392 is a Samsara, an impression left on the subtle body by previous experience, which is recalled when the Jiva reawakes to world experience, and recollects the experience temporarily lost in the cosmic dreamless state (Sushupti) which is destruction (Pralaya). What is it which arouses this Samskara? As an effect (Kriya) it must have a cause (Karana). This Karana is the Sh abda or Name (Nama) subtle or gross corresponding to that particular Artha. When the word \"Ghata\" is uttered, this evokes in the mind the image of an object, namely, a jar; just as the presentation of that object does. In the Hiranyagarbha state, Shabda as Samskara worked to evoke mental images. The whole world is thus Shabda and Artha, that is Name and Form (Nama, Rupa). These two are inseparably associated. There is no Shabda without Artha or Artha without Shabda. The Greek word \"Logos\" also means thought and word combined. There is thus a double line of creation, Shabda and Artha; ideas and language together with objects. Speech as that which is heard, or the outer manifestion of Shabda, stands for the Shabda creation. The Artha creation are the inner and outer objects seen by the mental or physical vision. From the cosmic creative standpoint, the mind comes first, and from it, is evolved the physical world according to the ripened Samskaras which led to the existence of the particular existing universe. Therefore, the mental Artha precedes the physical Artha which is an evolution in gross matter of the former. This mental state corresponds to that of dreams (Svapna), when man lives in the mental world only. After creation which is the waking ( Jagrat) state, there is for the individual an already existing parallelism of names and objects. Uttered speech is a manifestation of the inner naming or thought. This thought -movement is similar in men of all races. When an Englishman or an Indian thinks of an object, the image is to both the same, whether evoked by the object itself or by the utterance of its name. For this reason possibly if thought -reading be accepted, a thought -reader whose cerebral center is en rapport with that of another, may read the hidden \"speech,\" that is thought, of one whose spoken speech he cannot understand. Thus, whilst the thought -movement is similar in all men, the expression of it as Vaikhari Shabda differs. According to tradition there was once a universal language. According to the Biblical account, this was so, before the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. Similarly there is, (a friend tells me though 393 he has forgotten to send me the reference), in the Rigveda, a mysterious passage which speaks of the \"Three Fathers and three Mothers,\" by whose action like that of the Elohim \"all -comprehending speech\" was made into that which was not so. Nor is this unlikely, when we consider that difference in gross speech is due to difference of races evolved in the course of time. If the instruments by which, and conditions under which thought is revealed in speech, were the same for all men then there would be but one language. But now this is not so. Racial characteristics and physical conditions, such as the nature of the vocal organs, climate, inherited impressions and so forth differ. So also does language. But for each particular man speaking any particular language, the uttered name of any object is the gross expression of his inner thought- movement. It evokes the idea and the idea i s consciousness as mental operation. That operation can be so intensified as to be itself creative. This is Mantra -Caitanya. It is said in the Tantra Shastras that the fifty letters of the alphabet are in the six bodily Cakras called Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Aja. These 50 letters multiplied by 20 are in the thousand- pealed Lotus or Sahasrara. From the above account, it will be understood that, when it is said that the \"Letters\" are in the six bodily Cakras, it is not to be supposed that it is intended to absurdly affirm that the letters as written shapes, or as the uttered sounds which are heard by the ear are there. The letters in this sense, that is, as gross things, are manifested only in speech and writing. This much is clear. But the precise significance of this statement is a matter of some difficulty. There is in fact no subject which presents more difficulties than Mantravidya, whether considered generally or in relation to the particular matters in hand. I do not pretend to have elucidated all its difficulties. What proceeds from the body is in it in subtle or causal form. Why, however, it may be asked are particular letters assigned to particular Cakras. I have heard several explanations given which do not, in my opi nion, bear the test of examination. 394 If the arrangement be not artificial for the purpose of Sadhana, the simplest explanation is that which follows: From the Brahman are produced the five Bhutas, Ether, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, in the order stated; and fro m them issued the six Cakras from Aja to Muladhara. The letters are (with the exception next stated) placed in the Cakras in their alphabetical order; that is, vowels as being the first letters or Shaktis of the consonants (which cannot be pronounced without them) are placed in Vishuddha Cakra: the first consonants Ka to Tha in Anahata and so forth until the Muladhara wherein are set the last four letters from Va to Sa. Thus in Aja there are Ha and Ksha as being Brahmabijas. In the next or Vishuddha Cakra are the 16 vowels which originated first. Therefore, they are placed in Vishuddha the ethereal Cakra; ether also having originated first. The same principle applies to the other letters in the Cakras. namely, Ka, to Tha (12 letters and petals) in Anahata; Da to Pha (10) in Manipura; Ba to La (6) in Svadhisthana; and Va to Sa (4) in Muladhara. The connection between particular letters and the Cakras in which they are placed is further said to be due to the fact that in uttering any particular letter, the Ca kra in which it is placed and its surroundings are brought into play. The sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet are classified according to the organs used in their articulation, and are guttural (Kantha), palatals (Talu), cerebrals (Murddha), dentals (Danta) and labials (Oshtha). When so articulated, each letter, it is said, \"touches\" the Cakra in which it is, and in which on this account it has been placed. In uttering them certain Cakras are affected; that is, brought into play. This, it is alleged, will be fo und to be so, if the letter is carefully pronounced and attention is paid to the accompanying bodily movement. Thus, in uttering Ha, the head (Aja) is touched, and in uttering the deep -seated Va, the basal Cakra or Muladhara. In making the first sound the forehead is felt to be affected, and in making the last the lower part of the body around the root -lotus. This is the theory put forth as accounting for the position of the letters in the Cakras. A Mantra is, like everything else, Shakti. But the mere utt erance of a Mantra without more is a mere movement of the lips. The Mantra must be awakened (Prabuddha) just like any other Shakti if effect is to be had therefrom. This is the union of sound and idea through a knowledge of the Mantra and its meaning. The recitation of a Mantra without knowing its 395 meaning is practically fruitless. I say \"practically\" because devotion, even though it be ignorant, is never wholly void of fruit. But a knowledge of the meaning is not enough; for it is possible by reading a book or receiving oral instructions to get to know the meaning of a Mantra, without anything further following. Each Mantra is the embodiment of a particular form of Consciousness or Shakti. This is the Mantra -Shakti. Consciousness or Shakti also exists in the form of the Sadhaka. The object then is to unite these two, when thought is not only in the outer husk, but is vitalized by will, knowledge, and action through its conscious center in union with that of the Mantra. The latter is Devata or a particular man ifestation of Shakti: and the Sadhaka who identifies himself therewith, identifies himself with that Shakti. According to Yoga when the mind is concentrated on any object it is unified with it. When man is so identified with a Varna or Tattva, then the power of objects to bind ceases, and he becomes the controller. Thus, in Kundalini- Yoga, the static bodily Shakti pierces the Cakras, to meet Shiva -Shakti in the Sahasrara. As the Sadhaka is, through the power of the rising Shakti, identified with each of the Centers, Tattvas and Matrika Shaktis they cease to bind, until passing through all he attains Samadhi. As the Varnas are Shiva- Shakti, concentration on them draws the mind towards, and then unifies it with, the Devata which is one with the Mantra. The Dev ata of the Mantra is only the creative Shakti assuming that particular form. As already stated, Devata may be realized in any object, not merely in Mantras, Yantras, Ghatas, Pratimas or other ritual objects of worship. The same power which manifests to the ear in the Mantra is represented in the lines and curves of the Yantra which, the Kaulavali Tantra says, is the body of the Devata: Yantram mantramayam proktam mantratma devataiva hi Dehatmanor yatha bhedo yantra- devata yoshtatha. The Yantra is thus the graphic symbol of the Shakti, indicated by the Mantra with which identification takes place. The Pratima or image is a grosser visual form of the Devata. But the Mantras are particular forms of Divine Shakti, the realization of which is efficacious to produce particular results. As in Kundalini - Yoga, so also here the identification of the Sadhaka with different Mantras gives rise to various Vibhutis or powers: for each grouping of the letters represents a new combination of the Matrika Shaktis. It is the 396 eternal Shakti who is the life of the Mantra. Therefore, Siddhi in Mantra Sadhana is the union of the Sadhaka's Shakti with the Mantra Shakti; the identification of the Sadhaka with the Mantra is the identification of the knower (Vedaka), knowing (Vidya) and known (Vedya) or the Sadhaka, Mantra and Devata. Then the Mantra works. The mind must feed, and is always feeding, something. It seizes the Mantra and works its way to its heart. When there, it is the Citta or mind of the Sadhaka unified with the Shakti of the Mantra which works. Then subject and object, in its Mantra form, meet as one. By meditation the Sadhaka gains unity with the Devata behind, as it were, the Mantra and Whose form the Mantra is. The union of the Sadhaka of the Mantra and the Devata of the Mantra is the result of the effort to realize permanently the incipient desire for such union. The will towards Divinity is a dynamic force which pierces everything and finds there Divinity itself. It is because Westerners and some Westernized Hindus do not understand the principles of Mantra; principles which lie at the center of Indian religious theory and practice, that they see nothing in it where they do not regard it as gross superstition. It must be admitted that Mantra Sadhana is often done ignorantly. Faith is placed in externals and the inner meaning is often lost. But even such ignorant worship is better than none at all. \"It is better to bow to Narayana with one's shoes on than never to bow at all.\" Much also is said of \"vain repetitions\". What Christ condemned was not repetition but \"vain\" repetition. That man is a poor psychologist who does not know the effect of repetition, when done with faith and devotion. It is a fact that the inner kingdom yields to violence and can be taken by assault. Indeed, it yields to nothing but the strong will of the Sadhaka, for it is that will in its purest and fullest strength. By practice with the Mantra, the Devata is invoked. This means that the mind itself is Devata when unified wit h Devata. This is attained through repetition of the Mantra (Japa). Japa is compared to the action of a man shaking a sleeper to wake him up. The Sadhaka's own consciousness is awakened. The two lips are Shiva and Shakti. The movement in utterance is the \" coition\" (Maithuna) of the two. Shabda which issues therefrom is in the nature of Bindu. The Devata then appearing is, as it were, the son of the Sadhaka. It is not the supreme Devata 397 who appears (for It is actionless), but in all cases an emanation produced by the Sadhaka's worship for his benefit only. In the case of worshippers of the Shiva- Mantra, a Boy -Shiva (Bala -Shiva) appears who is then made strong by the nurture which the Sadhaka gives him. The occultist will understand all such symbolism to mean that the Devata is a form of the Consciousness which becomes the Boy -Shiva, and which, when strengthened is the full - grown Divine Power Itself. All Mantras are forms of consciousness (Vijanarupa), and when the Mantra is fully practiced it enlivens the Sam skara, and the Artha appears to the mind. Mantras used in worship are thus a form of the Samskaras of Jivas; the Artha of which manifests to the consciousness which is pure. The essence of all this is -- concentrate and vitalize thought and will power, tha t is Shakti. The Mantra method is Shaktopaya Yoga working with concepts and form, whilst Shambhavopaya Yoga has been well said to be a more direct attempt at intuition of Shakti, apart from all passing concepts, which, as they cannot show the Reality, only serve to hide it the more from one's view and thus maintain bondage. These Yoga methods are but examples of the universal principle of Sadhana, that the Sadhaka should first work with and through form, and then, so far as may be, by a meditation which dis penses with it. It has been pointed out to me by Professor Surendra Nath Das Gupta that this Varna -Sadhana, so important a content of the Tantra Shastra, is not altogether its creation, but, as I have often in other matters observed, a development of ancie nt Vaidik teaching. For it was, he says, first attempted in the Aranyaka Epoch upon the Pradkopasana on which the Tantrik Sadhana is, he suggests, based; though, of course, that Shastra has elaborated the notion into a highly complicated system which is so peculiar a feature of its religious discipline. There is thus a synthesis of this Pratikopasana with Yoga method, resting as all else upon a Vedantic basis. 398 CHAPTER TWENTY -FIVE. VARNAMALA (THE GARLAND OF LETTERS ) The world has never altogether been without the Wisdom, nor its Teachers. The degree and manner in which it has been imparted have, however, necessarily varied according to the capacities of men to receive it. So also have the symbols by which it ha s been conveyed. These symbols further have varying significance according to the spiritual advancement of the worshipper. This question of degree and variety of presentation have led to the superficial view that the difference in beliefs negatives existen ce of any commonly established Truth. But if the matter be regarded more deeply, it will be seen that whilst there is one essential Wisdom, its revelation has been more or less complete according to symbols evolved by, and, therefore, fitting to, particula r racial temperaments and characters. Symbols are naturally misunderstood by those to whom the beliefs they typify are unfamiliar, and who differ in temperament from those who have evolved them. To the ordinary Western mind the symbols of Hindusim are ofte n repulsive and absurd. It must not, however, be forgotten that some of the Symbols of Western Faiths have the same effect on the Hindu. From the picture of the \"Slain Lamb,\" and other symbols in terms of blood and death, he naturally shrinks in disgust. T he same effect on the other hand, is not seldom produced in the Western at the sight of the terrible forms in which India has embodied Her vision of the undoubted Terrors which exist in and around us. All is not smiling in this world. Even amongst persons of the same race and indeed of the same faith we may observe such differences. Before the Catholic Cultus of the \"Sacred Heart\" had overcome the opposition which it at first encountered, and for a considerable time after, its imagery was regarded with aversion by some who spoke of it in terms which would be to -day counted as shocking irreverence. These differences are likely to exist so long as men vary in mental attitude and temperament, and until they reach the stage in which, having discovered the essent ial truths, they become indifferent to the mode in which they are presented. We must also in such matters distinguish between what a symbol may have meant and 399 what it now means. Until quite recent times, the English peasant folk and others danced around the flower- wreathed Maypole. That the pole originally (like other similar forms) represented the great Linga admits of as little doubt as that these folk, who in recent ages danced around it, were ignorant of that fact. The Bishop's mitre is said to be the h ead of a fish worn by ancient near -eastern hierophants. But what of that? It has other associations now. Let us illustrate these general remarks by a short study of one portion of the Kali symbolism which affects so many, who are not Hindus, with disgust or horror. Kali is the Deity in that aspect in which It withdraws all things which It had created, into Itself. Kali is so called because She devours Kala (Time) and then resumes Her own dark formlessness. The scene is laid in the cremation ground (Shmashana), amidst white sun -dried bones and fragments of flesh, gnawed and pecked at by carrion beasts and birds. Here the \"heroic\" (Vira) worshipper (Sadhaka) performs at dead of night his awe - inspiring rituals. Kali is set in such a scene, for She is that aspect of the great Power which withdraws all things into Herself at, and by, the dissolution of the universe. He alone worships without fear, who has abandoned all worldly desires, and seeks union with Her as the One Blissful and Perfect Experience. On the burning ground all worldly desires are burnt away. She is naked, and dark like a threatening rain- cloud. She is dark, for She who is Herself beyond mind and speech, reduces all things into that worldly, \"nothingness,\" which, as the Void (Shunya) of all which we now know, is at the same time the All (Purna) which is Peace. She is naked, being clothed in space alone (Digambari), because the great Power is unlimited; further, She is in Herself beyond Maya (Mayatita); that power of Hers which creates all universes. She stands upon the white corpse -like (Shavarupa) body of Shiva. He is white, because he is the illuminating transcendental aspect of consciousness. He is inert, because he is the changeless aspect of the Supreme and She, the apparently changing aspect of the same. In truth, She and He are one and the same, being twin aspects of the One who is changelessness in, and exists as, change. Much might be said in explanation of these and other symbols such as Her loosened hair, the lolling tongue, the thin strea m of blood which trickles from the corners of the mouth, the position of Her feet, the apron of dead men's hands around Her waist, Her 400 implements and so forth. (See Hymn to Kali.) Here I take only the garland of freshly -severed heads which hangs low from Her neck. Some have conjectured that Kali was originally the Goddess of the dark - skinned inhabitants of the Vindhya Hills taken over by the Brahmanas into their worship. One of them has thought that She was a deified Princess of these folk, who fought against the white in -coming Aryans. He pointed to the significant fact that the severed heads are those of white men. The Western may say that Kali was an objectification of the Indian mind, making a Divinity of the Power of Death. An Eastern may reply that She is the Sanketa (symbol) which is the effect of the impress of a Spiritual Power on the Indian mind. I do not pause to consider these matters here. The question before us is, what does this imagery mean now, and what has it meant for centuries past to the initiate in Her symbolism? An exoteric explanation describes this Garland as made up of the heads of Demons, which She, as a power of righteousness, has conquered. According to an inner explanation, given in the Indian Tantra Shastra, this string of heads is the Garland of Letters (Varnamala), that is, the fifty, and as some count it, fifty- one letters, of the Sanskrit Alphabet. The same interpretation is given in the Buddhist Demchog Tantra in respect of the garland worn by the great Heruka. These letters represent the universe of names and forms (Namarupa), that is, Speech (Shabda) and its meaning or object (Artha) She the Devourer of all \"slaughters\" (that is, withdraws), both into Her undivided Consciousness at the Great Dissolution of the Universe which they are. She wears the Letters which, She as the Creatrix bore. She wears the Letters which, She as the Dissolving Power, takes to Herself again. A very profound doctrine is connected with these Letters which space prevents me from fully entering into he re. This has been set out in greater detail in the Serpent Power (Kundalini) which projects Consciousness, in Its true nature blissful and beyond all dualism, into the World of good and evil. The movements of Her projection are indicated by the Letters sub tle and gross which exist on the Petals of the inner bodily centers or Lotuses. Very shortly stated, Shabda which literally means Sound -- here lettered sound -- is in its causal state (Para- Shabda) known as \"Supreme Speech\" (Para Vak). This is the Shabda -Brahman or Logos; that aspect of Reality or 401 Consciousness (Cit) in which it is the immediate cause of creation; that is of the dichotomy in Consciousness which is \"I\" and \"This\", subject and object, mind and matter. This condition of causal Shabda is the C osmic Dreamless State (Sushupti). This Logos, awakening from its causal sleep, \"sees,\" that is, creatively ideates the universe, and is then known as Pashyanti Shabda. As Consciousness \"sees\" or ideates, forms arise in the Creative Mind, which are themselv es impressions (Samskara) carried over from previous worlds, which ceased to exist as such, when the Universe entered the state of causal dreamless sleep on the previous dissolution. These re-arise as the formless Consciousness awakes to enjoy once again sensual life in the world of forms. The Cosmic Mind is at first itself both cognizing subject (Grahaka) and cognized object (Grahya); for it has not yet projected its thought into the plane of Matter; the mind as subject cognizer is Shabda, and the mind as the object cognized, that is, the mind in the form of object is subtle Artha. This Shabda called Madhyama Shabda is an \"Inner Naming\" or \"Hidden Speech\". At this stage, that which answers to the spoken letters (Varna) are the \"Little Mothers\" or Matrika, the subtle forms of gross speech. There is at this stage a differentiation of Consciousness into subject and object, but the latter is now within and forms part of the Self. This is the state of Cosmic Dreaming (Svapna). This \"Hidden Speech\" is understandable of all men if they can get in mental rapport one with the other. So a thought -reader can, it is said, read the thoughts of a man whose spoken speech he cannot understand. The Cosmic Mind then projects these mental images on to the material plane, and they there become materialized as gross physical objects (Sthula artha) which make impressions from without, on the mind of the created consciousness. This is the cosmic waking state (Jagrat). At this last stage, the thought -movement expresses itself through the vocal organs in contact with the air as uttered speech (Vaikhari Shabda) made up of letters, syllables and sentences. The physical unlettered sound which manifests Shabda is called Dhvani. The lettered sound is manifested Shabda or Name (Nama), and the physical objects denoted by speech are the gross Artha or form (Rupa). This manifested speech varies in men, for their individual and racial characteristics and the conditions, such as country and climate in which they 402 live, differ. There is a tradition that, there was once a universal speech before the building of the Tower of Babel, signifying the confusion of tongues. As previously stated, a friend has drawn my attention to a passage in Rigveda which he interprets in a similar sense. For, it says, that the Three Fathers and the Three Mothers, like the Elohim, made (in the interest of creation) all -comprehending speech into that which was not so. Of these letters and names and their meaning or objects, that is, concepts and concepts objectified, the whol e Universe is composed. When Kali withdraws the world, that is, the names and forms which the letters signify, the dualism in consciousness, which is creation, vanishes. There is neither \"I\" (Aham) nor \"This\" (Idam) but the one non- dual Perfect Experience which Kali in Her own true nature (Svarupa) is. In this way Her garland is understood. \"Surely,\" I hear it said, \"not by all. Does every Hindu worshipper think such an ordinary Italian peasant knows of, or can understand, the subtleties of either the catholic mystics or doctors of theology. When, however, the Western man undertakes to depict and explain Indian symbolism, he should, in the interest both of knowledge and fairness, understand what it means both to the high as well as to the humble worshipper. 403 CHAPTER TWENTY -SIX. SHAKTA SADHANA (THE ORDINARY RITUAL ) Sadhana is that, which produces Siddhi or the result sought, be it material or spiritual advancement. It is the means or practice by which the desired end may be attained and consists in the training and exercise of the body and psychic faculties, upon the gradual perfection of which Siddhi follows. The nature or degree of spiritual Siddhi depends upon the progress made towards the realization of the Atma whose veiling vesture the body is. The means employed are numerous and elaborate, such as worship (Puja) exterior or mental, Shastric learning, austerities (Tapas), Japa or recitation of Mantra, Hymns, meditation, and so forth. The Sadhana is necessarily of a nature and character appropriate to the end sought. Thus Sadhana for spiritual knowledge (Brahmajana) which consists of external control (Dama) over the ten senses (Indriya), internal control (Sama) over the mind (Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas), discrimination between the transitory and eternal, renunciation of both the world and heaven (Svarga), differs from the lower Sadhana of the ordinary householder, and both are obviously of a kind different from that prescribed and followed by the practitioners of malevolent magic (Abhicara). Sadhakas again vary in their physical, mental and moral qualities and are thus divided into four classes, Mridu, Madhya, Adhimatraka, and the highest Adhimatrama who is qualified (Adhikari) for all forms of Yoga. In a similar way, the Shakta Kaulas are divided into the Prakrita or common Kaula following Viracara with the Pancatattvas described in the following Chapter; the middling (Madhyama) Kaula who (may be) follows the same or other Sadhana but who is of a higher type, and the highest Kaula (Kaulikottama) who, having surpassed all ritualism, meditates upon the Universal Self. These are more particularly described in the next Chapter. Until a Sadhaka is Siddha, all Sadhana is or should be undertaken with the authority and under the direction of a Guru or Spiritual Teacher and Director. There is in reality but one Guru and that is the Lord (Ishvara) Himself. He is 404 the Supreme Guru as also is Devi His Power one with Himself. But He acts through man and human means. The ordinary human Guru is but the manifestation on earth of the Adi -natha Mahakala and Mahakali, the Supreme Guru abiding in Kailasa. As the Yogini Tantra (Ch. 1) says Guroh sthanam hi kailasam. He it is who is in, and speaks with the voice of, the Earthly Guru. So, to turn to an analogy in the West, it is Christ who speaks in the voice of the Pontifex Maximus when declaring faith and morals, and in the voice of the priest who confers upon the penitent absolution for his sins. It is not the man who speaks in either case but God through him. It is the Guru who initiates and helps, and the relationship between him and the disciple (Shishya) continues until the attainment of spiritual Siddhi. It is only from him that Sadhana and Yoga are learnt and not (as it is commonly said) from a thousand Shastras. As the Shatkarmadipika says, mere book - knowledge is useless. Pustake likhitavidya yena sundari jap yate Siddhir na jayate tasya kalpakoti -shatairapi. (O Beauteous one! he who does Japa of a Vidya (= Mantra) learnt from a book can never attain Siddhi even if he persists for countless millions of years.) Manu therefore says, \"of him who gives natural birth, and of him who gives knowledge of the Veda, the giver of sacred knowledge is the more venerable father.\" The Tantra Shastras also are full of the greatness of the Guru. He is not to be thought of as a mere man. There is no difference between Guru, Mantra and Deva. Guru is father, mother and Brahman. Guru, it is said. can save from the wrath of Shiva, but in no way, can one be saved from the wrath of the Guru. Attached to this greatness there is, however, responsibility; for the sins of the disciple may recoil upon him. The Tantra Shastras deal with the high qualities which are demanded of a Guru and the good qualities which are to be looked for in an intending disciple (see for instance Tantrasara, Ch. I). Before initiation, the Guru examines and tests the intending disciple for a specified period. The latter's moral qualifications are purity of soul (Shuddhatma), control of the senses (Jitendriya), the following of the Purushartha or aims of all sentient being 405 (Purusharthaparayana). Amongst others, those who are lewd (Kamuka), adulterous (Para -daratura), addicted to sin, ignorant, slothful and devoid of religion should be r ejected (see Matsyasukta Tantra, XIII; Pranatoshini 108; Maharudrayamala, I. XV, II. ii; Kularnava Tantra, Ch. XIII). The good Sadhaka who is entitled to the knowledge of all Shastra is he who is pure- minded, self -controlled, ever engaged in doing good to all beings, free from false notions of dualism, attached to the speaking of, taking shelter with and ever living in the consciousness of, the Supreme Brahman (Gandharva Tantra, Ch. ii). All orthodox Hindus of all divisions of worshippers submit themselves to the direction of a Guru. The latter initiates. The Vaidik initiation into the twice - born classes is by the Upanayana. This is for the first three castes only, viz., Brahmana (priesthood and teaching), Kshattriya (warrior) Vaishya (merchant). All are (it is said) by birth Shudra (Janmana jayate Shudrah) and by sacrament (that is, the Upanayana ceremony) twice -born. By study of the Vedas one is a Vipra. And he who has knowledge of the Brahman is a Brahmana (Brahma janati brahmanah). From this well- known v erse it will be seen how few there really are, who are entitled to the noble name of Brahmana. The Tantrik Mantra- initiation is a different ceremony and is for all castes. Initiation (Diksha) is the giving of Mantra by the Guru. The latter should first establish the life of the Guru in his own body; that is the vital power (Pranashakti) of the Supreme Guru in the thousand -petalled lotus (Sahasrara). He then transmits it to the disciple. As an image is the instrument (Yantra) in which Divinity (Devatva) inheres, so also is the body of the Guru. The candidate is prepared for initiation, fasts and lives chastely. Initiation (which follows) gives spiritual knowledge and destroys sin. As one lamp is lit at the flame of another, so the divine Shakti consisting of Mantra is communicated from the Guru's body to that of the Shishya. I need not be always repeating that this is the theory and ideal, which to- day is generally remote from the fact. The Supreme Guru speaks with the voice of the earthly Guru at the time of giving Mantra. As the Yogini Tantra (Ch. I) says: Mantra- pradana- kale hi manushe Naganandini Adhishthanam bhavet tatra Mahakalasya Shamkari 406 Ato na guruta devi manushe natra samshayah. (At the time the Mantra is communicated, there is in man (i.e., Guru) the Presence of Mahakala. There is no doubt that man is not the Guru.) Guru is the root (Mula) of initiation (Diksha). Diksha is the root of Mantra. Mantra is the root of Devata, and Devata is the root of Siddhi. The Mundamala Tantra says that Mantra is born of Guru, and Devata of Mantra, so that the Guru is in the position of Father's Father to the Ishtadevata. Without initiation, Japa (recitation) of the Mantra, Puja, and other ritual acts are useless. The Mantra chosen for the candidate must be suitable (Anukula). Whether a Mantra is Svakula or Akula to the person about to be initiated is ascertained by the Kulakulacakra, the zodiacal circle called Rashicakra and other Cakras which may be found in the Tantrasara. Initiation by a woman is efficacious; that by the mother is eightfold so (ib.). For, according to the Tantra Shastra, a woman with the necessary qualifications, may be a Guru and give initiation. The Kulagurus are four in number, each of them being the Guru of the preceding ones. There are also three lines of Gurus (see The Great Liberation). So long as the Shakti communicated by a Guru to his disciple is not fully developed, the relation of Teacher and Director and Disciple exists. A man is Shishya so long as he is Sadhaka. When, however, Siddhi is attained, Guru and Shishya, as also all other dualisms, and relations, disappear. Besides the preliminary initiation, there are a number of other initiations or consecrations (Abhisheka) which mark greater and greater degrees of advance from Shaktabhisheka when entrance is made on the path of Shakta Sadhana to Purnadikshabhisheka and Mahapurnadikshabhisheka also called Virajagrahanabhisheka. On the attainment of perfection in the last grade the Sadhaka performs his own funeral rite (Shraddha), makes Purnahuti with his sacred thread and crown lock. The relation of Guru and Shishya now ceases. From this point he ascends by himself until he realizes the great saying So'ham \"He I am,\" Sa'ham \"She I am\". Now he is Jivan- mukta and Paramahamsa. The word Sadhana comes from the root Sadh, to exert or strive, and Sadhana is therefore striving, practice, discipline and worship in order to obtain success or Siddhi, which may be of any of the kinds, worldly or spiritual, desired, but which, on the religious side of the Shastras, means 407 spiritual advancement with its fruit of happiness in this world and in Heaven and at length Liberation (Moksha). He who practices Sadhana is called (if a man) Sadhaka or (if a woman) Sadhika. But men vary in capacity, temperament, knowledge and general advancement, and therefore the means (for Sadhana also means instrument) by which they are to be led to Siddhi must vary. Methods which are suitable for highly advanced men will fail as regards the ignorant and undeveloped for they cannot under stand them. What suits the latter has been long out -passed by the former. At least that is the Hindu view. It is called Adhikara or competency. Thus some few men are competent (Adhikari) to study Vedanta and to follow high mental rituals and Yoga processes . Others are not. Some are grown -up children and must be dealt with as such . As all men, and indeed all beings, are, as to their psychical and physical bodies, made of the primordial substance Prakriti - Shakti (Prakrityatmaka), as Prakriti is Herself the t hree Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and as all things and beings are composed of these three Gunas in varying proportions, it follows that men are divisible into three general classes, namely, those in which the Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas Gunas, predominate respectively. There are, of course, degrees in each of these three classes. Amongst Sattvika men, in whom Sattva predominates, some are more and some less Sattvika than others and so on with the rest. These three classes of temperament (Bhava) are known in the Shakta Tantras as the Divine (Divyabhava), Heroic (Virabhava) and Animal (Pashubhava) temperaments respectively. Bhava is defined as a property or quality (Dharma) of the Manas or mind (Pranatoshini, 570). The Divyabhava is that in which Sattva -guna predominates only, because it is to be noted that none of the Gunas are, or ever can be, absent. Prakriti cannot be partitioned. Prakriti is the three Gunas. Sattva is essentially the spiritual Guna, for it is that which manifests Spirit or Pure Consciousness (Cit). A Sattvika man is thus a spiritual man. His is a calm, pure, equable, refined, wise, spiritual temperament, free of materiality and of passion, or he possesses these qualities imperfectly, and to the degree that he possesses them he is Sattvik. Pashubhava is, on the other hand, the temperament of the man in whom Tamas guna prevails and produces such dark characteristics as ignorance, error, apathy, sloth and so forth. He is called a Pashu or animal because Tamas predominates in the merely animal nature as compared with the 408 disposition of spiritually -minded men. He is also Pashu because he is bound by the bonds (Pasha). The term pasha comes from the root Pash to bind. The Kularnava enumerates eight bonds, namely, pity (Daya, of the type which Taoists call \"inferior benevolence\" as opposed to the divine compassion or Karuna), ignorance and delusion (Moha), fear (Bhaya), shame (Lajja), disgust (Ghrina), family (Kula), habit and observance (Shila), and caste (Varna). Other larger enumerations are given . The Pashu is the man caught by the world, in ignorance and bondage. Bhaskararaya, on the Sutra \"have no converse with a Pashu,\" says that a Pashu is Bahirmukha or outward looking, seeing the outside only of things and not inner realities. The injunction, he says, only applies to converse as regards things spiritual. The Shaiva Shastra speaks of three classes of Pashu, namely, Sakala bound by the three Pashas, Anu, Bheda, Karma, that is, limited knowledge, the seeing of the one Self as many by the operation of Maya, and action and its product. These are the three impurities (Mala) called Anavamala, Mayamala, and Karmamala. The Sakala Jiva or Pashu is bound by all three, the Pralayakala by the first and last, and the Vijanakala by the first only. (See as to these the diagram of the 36 Tattvas.) He who is wholly freed of the remaining impurity of Anu is Shiva Himself. Here however Pashu is used in a different sense, that is, as denoting the creature as contrasted with the Lord (Pati). In this sense, Pashu is a name for all men. In the Shakta use of the term, though all men are certainly Pashu, as compared with the Lord, yet as between themselves one may be Pashu (in the narrower sense above stated) and the other not. Some men are more Pashu than others. It is a mistake to suppose that the Pashu is necessarily a bad man. He may be and often is a good one. He is certainly better than a bad Vira who is really no Vira at all. He is, however, not, according to this Shastra, an enlightened man in the sense that the V ira or Divya is, and he is generally marked by various degrees of ignorance and material- mindedness. It is the mark of a bad Pashu to be given over to gross acts of sin. Between these two comes the Hero or Vira of whose temperament (Virabhava) so much is heard in the Shakta Shastras. In him there is prevalent the strongly active Rajas Guna. Rajas is always active either to incite Tamas or Sattva. In the former case the result is a Pashu, in the latter case either a Vira or Divya. Where Sattva approaches perfection of development there is the Divyabhava. Sattva is here firmly 409 established in calm and in high degree. But, until such time, and whilst man who has largely liberated himself through knowledge of the influence of Tamas, is active to promote Sattva, he is a Vira. Being heroic, he is permitted to meet his enemy Tamas face to face, counter -attacking where the lower developed man flees away. It has been pointed out by Dr. Garbe (Philosophy of Ancient India, 481), as before him by Baur, that the analogous Gnostic classification of men as material, psychical, and spiritual also corresponds (as does this) to the three Gunas of the Samkhya Darshana. Even in its limited Shakta sense, there are degrees of Pashu, one man being more so than another. The Pashas are the creations of Maya Shakti. The Devi therefore is pictured as bearing them. But as She is in Her form as Maya and Avidya Shakti the cause of bondage, so as Vidya Shakti She breaks the bonds (Pashupasa -Vimocini) (see v. 78, Lalita- sahasranama), and is thus the Liberatrix of the Pashu from his bondage. Nitya Tantra says that the Bhava of the Divya is the best, the Vira the next best, and Pashu the lowest. In fact, the state of the last is the starting point in Sadhana, that of the first the goal, and that of the Vira is the stage of one who having ceased to be a Pashu is on the way to the attainment of the goal. From being a Pashu, a man rises in this or some other birth to be a Vira and Divyabhava or Devata -bhava is awakened through Virabhava. The Picchila Tantra says (X, see also Utpatti Tantra, LXIV) that the difference between the Vira and the Divya lies in the Uddhatamanasa, that is, passionateness or activity by which the former is characterized, and which is due to the great effort of Rajas to procure for the Sadhaka a Sattvik state. Just as there are degrees in the Pashu state, so there are classes of Viras, some being higher than others. The Divya Sadhaka also is of higher or lower kinds. The lowest is only a degree higher than the best type of Vira. The highest completely realize the Deva- nature wherein Sattva exists in a state of lasting stability. Amongst this class are the Tattvajani and Yogi. The latter are emancipated from all ritual. The lower Divya class may apparently take part in the ritual of the Vira. The object and end of all Sadhana, whether of Pashu or Vira or Divya, is to develop Sattvaguna. The Tantras give descriptions of each of these three classes. The chief general distinction, which is constantly repeated, between 410 the pure Pashu (for there are also Vibhavapashus) and the Vira, is that the former does not, and the latter does, follow the Pacatattva ritual, in the form prescribed for Viracara and described in the next Chapter. Other portions of the description are characteristics of the Tamasik character of the Pashu. So Kubjika Tantra (VII) after describing this class of man to be the lowest, points out various forms of their ignorance. So it says that he talks ill of other classes of believers. That is, he is sectarian -minded and decries other forms of worship than his own, a characteristic of the Pashu the world over. He distinguishes one Deva from another as if they were really different and not merely the plural manifestations of the One. So, the worshipper of Rama may abuse the worshipper of Krishna, and both decry the worship of Shiva or Devi. As the Veda says, the One is called by various names. Owing to his ignorance \"he is always bathing,\" that is, he is always thinking about external and ceremonial purity. This, though good in its way, is nothing compared with internal purity of mind. He has ignorant or wrong ideas, or want of faith, concerning (Shakta) Tantra Shastra, Sacrifices, Guru, Images, and Mantra, the last of which he thinks to be mere letters only and not Devata (s ee Pranatoshini, 547, et seq., Picchila, X). He follows the Vaidik rule relating to Maithuna on the fifth day when the wife is Ritusnata (Ritu- kalam vina devi ramanam parivrajayet). Some of the descriptions of the Pashu seem to refer to the lowest class. Generally, however, one may say that from the standpoint of a Viracari, all those who follow Vedacara, Vaishnavacara and Shaivacara are Pashus. The Kubjika Tantra (VII) gives a description of the Divya. Its eulogies would seem to imply that in all matters which it mentions, the Pashu is lacking. But this, as regards some matters, is Stuti (praise) only. Thus he has a strong faith in Veda, Shastra, Deva and Guru, and ever speaks the truth which, as also other good qualities, must be allowed to the Pashu. He a voids all cruelty and other bad action and regards alike both friend and foe. He avoids the company of the irreligious who decry the Devata. All Devas he regards as beneficial, worshipping all without drawing distinctions. Thus, for instance, whilst an orthodox upcountry Hindu of the Pashu kind who is a worshipper of Rama cannot even bear to hear the name of Krishna, though both Rama and Krishna are each Avatara of the same Vishnu, the Divya would equally reverence both knowing each to be an aspect of the one Great Shakti, Mother of Devas and Men. This is one of the first qualities 411 of the high Shakta worshipper. As a worshipper of Shakti he bows down at the feet of women regarding them as his Guru (Strinam padatalam drishtva guruvad bhava pet sada). He offer s everything to the supreme Devi regarding the whole universe as pervaded by Stri (Shakti, not \"woman\") and as Devata. Shiva is (he knows) in all men. The whole universe (Brahmanda) is pervaded by Shiva Shakti. The description cited also deals with his ritual, saying that he does daily ablutions, Sandhya, wears clean cloth, the Tripundra mark in ashes or red sandal, and ornaments of Rudraksha beads. He does Japa (recitation of Mantras external and mental) and worship (Arcana). He worships the Pitris and Devas and performs all the daily rites. He gives daily charity. He meditates upon his Guru daily, and does worship thrice daily and, as a Bhairava, worships Parameshvari with Divyabhava. He worships Devi at night (Vaidik worship being by day), and after food (ordinary Vaidik worship being done before taking food). He makes obeisance to the Kaula Shakti (Kulastri) versed in Tantra and Mantra, whoever She be and whether youthful or old. He bows to the Kula -trees (Kulavriksha). He ever strives for the attainment and maintenance of Devatabhava and is himself of the nature of a Devata. Portions of this description appear to refer to the ritual and not Avadhuta Divya, and to this extent applicable to the high Vira also. The Mahanirvana (I. 56) describes the Divya as all but a Deva, ever pure of heart, to whom all opposites are alike (Dvandvatita) such as pain and pleasure, heat and cold, who is free from attachment to worldly things, the same to all creatures and forgiving. The text I have published, therefore, says t hat there is no Divya - bhava in the Kaliyuga nor Pashubhava; for the Pashu (or his wife) must, with his own hand, collect leaves, flowers and fruit, and cook his food, which regulations and others are impossible or difficult in the Kali age. As a follower of Smriti, he should not \"see the face of a Shudra at worship, or even think of woman\" (referring to the Pacatattva ritual). The Shyamarcana (cited in Haratattvadidhiti, 348) speaks to the same effect. On the other hand, there is authority for the proposition that in the Kaliyuga there is only Pashubhava. Thus, the Pranatoshini (510 -517) cites a passage 412 purporting to come from the Mahanirvana which is in direct opposition to the above: Divpa- vira-mayo bhavah kalau nasti kadacana Kevalampashu- bhavena mantra -siddhir bhaven nrinam. (In the Kali age there is no Divya or Virabhava. It is only by the Pashu- bhava that men may attain Mantra -siddhi.) I have discussed this latter question in greater detail in the introduction to the sixth volume of the series of \"Tantrik Texts\". Dealing with the former passage from the Mahanirvana, the Commentator explains it as meaning \"that the conditions and characters of the Kaliyuga are not such as to be productive of Pashubhava, or to allow of its Acara (in the sense of the stric t Vaidik ritual). No one, he says, can now -a-days fully perform the Vedacara, Vaishnavacara, and Shaiva -cara rites without which the Vaidik and Pauranic Yaja and Mantra are fruitless. No one now goes through the Brahmacarya Ashrama or adopts, after the fi ftieth year, Vanaprastha. Those whom the Vaidik rites do not control cannot expect the fruit of their observances. On the contrary, men have taken to drink, associate with the low and are fallen, as are also those who associate with them. There can, therefore, be no pure Pashu. (That is apparently whilst there may be a natural Pashu disposition the Vaidik rites appropriate to this bhava cannot be carried out.) Under these circumstances, the duties prescribed by the Vedas which are appropriate for the Pashu being incapable of performance, Shiva, for the liberation of men of the Kali age, has proclaimed the Agama. Now there is no other way.\" We are, perhaps, therefore, correct in saying that it comes to this: In a bad age, such as the Kali, Divya men are (to say the least) very scarce, though common-sense and experience must, I suppose, allow for exceptions. Whilst the Pashu natural disposition exists, the Vaidik ritual which he should follow cannot be done. It is in fact largely obsolete. The Vaidik Pashu or man who followed the Vaidik rituals in their entirety is non- existent. He must follow the Agamic rituals which, as a fact, the bulk of men do. The Agama must now govern the Pashu, Vira and would- be Divya alike. 413 As I have frequently explained, there are vari ous communities of the followers of Tantra of Agama according to the several divisions of the worshippers of the five Devatas (Pacopasaka). Of the five classes, the most important are Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta. I do not, however, hesitate to repeat a s tatement of a fact of which those who speak of \"The Tantra\" ignore. The main elements of Sadhana are common to all such communities following the Agamas; such as Puja (inner and outer), Pratima or other emblems (Linga, Shalagrama), Upacara, Sandhya, Yaja, Vrata, Tapas, Mandala, Yantra, Mantra, Japa, Purashcarana, Nyasa, Bhutasuddhi, Mudra, Dhyana, Samskara and so forth. Even the Vamacara ritual which some wrongly think to be peculiar to the Shaktas, is or was followed (I am told) by members of other Sampradayas including Jainas and Bauddhas. Both, in so far as they follow this ritual, are reckoned amongst Kaulas though, as being non- Vaidik, of a lower class. A main point to be here remembered, and one which establishes both the historical and practical importance of the Agamas is this: That whilst some Vaidik rites still exist, the bulk of the ritual of to- day is Agamic, that is, what is popularly called Tantrik. The Puranas are replete with Tantrik rituals. Notwithstanding a general community of ritual form s, there are some variances which are due to two causes: firstly, to difference in the Devata worship, and secondly, to difference of philosophical basis according as it is Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, or Dvaita. The presentment of fundamental ideas is someti mes in different terms. Thus the Vaishnava Pancaratra Agama describes the creative process in terms of the Vyuhas, and the Shaiva -Shakta Agamas explain it as the Abhasa of the thirty -six Tattvas. I here deal with only one form, namely, Shakta Sadhana in which the Ishtadevata is Shakti in Her many forms. I will here shortly describe some of the ritual forms above- mentioned, premising that so cursory an account does not do justice to the beauty and profundity of many of them. There are four different forms of worship corresponding to four different states and dispositions (Bhava) of the Sadhaka himself. The realization that 414 the Supreme Spirit (Paramatma) and the individual spirit (Jivatma) are one, that everything is Brahman, and that nothing but the Brahman has lasting being is the highest state or Brahma -bhava. Constant meditation with Yoga- processes upon the Devata in the heart is the lower form (Dhyanabhava). Lower still is that Bhava of which Japa (recitations of Mantra) and Hymns of praise (Stava) are the expression; and lowest of all is external worship (Bahyapuja). Pujabhava is that which arises out of the dualistic notions of worshipper and worshipped, the servant and the Lord, a dualism which necessarily exists in greater or less, degree until Monistic experience (Advaita -bhava) is attained. He who realizes the Advaita -tattva knows that all is Brahman. For him there is neither worshipper nor worshipped, neither Yoga, nor Puja nor Dharana, Dhyana, Stava, Japa, Vrata or other ritual or process of Sadhana. For, he is Siddha in its fullest sense, that is, he has attained Siddhi which is the aim of Sadhana. As the Mahanirvana says, \"for him who has faith in and knowledge of the root, of what use are the branches and leaves'?\" Brahmanism thus sagely resolves the Western dispute as to the necessity or advisability of ritual. It affirms it for those who have not attained the end of all ritual. It lessens and refines ritual as spiritual progress is made upwards; it dispenses with it altogether when there is no longer need for it. But, until a man is a real \"Knower\", some Sadhana is necessary if he would become one. The nature of Sadhana, again, differs according to the temperaments (Bhava) above described, and also with reference to the capacities and spiritual advancement of each in his own Bhava. What may be suitable for the unlettered peasant may not be so for those more intellectually and spiritually advanced. It is, however, a fine general principle of Tantrik worship that capacity, and not social distinction such as caste, determines competency for any particular worship. This is not so as regards the Vaidik ritual proper. One might have supposed that credit would have been given to the Tantra Shastra for this. But credit is given for nothing. Those who dilate on Vaidik exclusiveness have nothing to say as regards the absence of it in the Agama. The Shudra is precluded from the performance of Vaidik rites, the reading of the Vedas, and the recital of Vaidik Mantras. His worship is practically limited to that of his Ishtadevata, the Vana -lingapuja with Tantrik and Pauranik mantra and such Vrata as consist in penance and 415 charity. In other cases, the Vrata is performed through a Brahmana. The Tantra Shastra makes no caste distinction as regards worship, in the sense that though it may not challenge the exclusive right of the twice -born to Vaidik rites, it provides other and similar rites for the Shudra. Thus there is both a Vaidik and Tantrik Gayatri and Sandhya, and there are rites available for worshippers of all c astes. All may read the Tantras which contain their form of worship, and carry them out and recite the Tantrik Mantras. All castes, even the lowest Candala may, if otherwise fit, receive the Tantrik initiation and be a member of a Cakra or circle of worship. In the Cakra all the members partake of food and drink together, and are then deemed to be greater than Brahmanas, though upon the break -up of the Cakra the ordinary caste and social relations are re -established. It is necessary to distinguish between social differences and competency (Adhikara) for worship. Adhikara, so fundamental a principle of Brahmanism, means that all are not equally entitled to the same teaching and ritual. They are entitled to that of which they are capable, irrespective (according to the Agama) of such social distinctions as caste. All are competent for Tantrik worship, for, in the words of the Gautamiya which is a Vaishnava Tantra (Chap. I) the Tantra Shastra is for all castes and all women. Sarva-varnadhikarash ca narinam yog ya eva ca. Though according to Vaidik usage, the wife was co- operator (Sahadharmini) in the household rites, now -a-days, so far as I can gather, they are not accounted much in such matters, though it is said that the wife may, with the consent of her husband, fast, take vows, perform Homa, Vrata and the like. According to the Tantra Shastra, a woman may not only receive Mantra, but may, as Guru, initiate and give it (see Rudrayamala II, ii, and XV). She is worshipped both as wife of Guru and as Guru herself (see ib., I. i. Matrikabheda Tantra (c. vii), Annadakalpa Tantra cited in Pranatosini, p. 68, and as regards the former Yogini Tantra chap. i. Gurupatni Maheshani gurur eva). The Devi is Herself the Guru of all Shastras and woman, as indeed all females Her embodiments, are in a peculiar sense, Her representatives. For this reason all women are worshipful, and no harm should be ever done them, nor should any female animal be sacrificed. 416 Puja is the common term for ritual worship, of which there are numerous synonyms in the Sanskrit language such as Arcana, Vandana, Saparyya, Arhana, Namasya, Arca, Bhajana, though some of these stress certain aspects of it. Puja as also Vrata which are Kamya, that is, done to gain a particular end, are preceded by the Sankalpa, that is, a statement of the resolve to worship, as also of the particular object (if any) with which it is done. It runs in the form, \"I--of --Gotra and so forth identifying the individual) am about to perform this Puja (or Vrata) with the object -- \". The reby the attention and will of the Sadhaka are focused and braced up for the matter in hand. Here, as elsewhere, the ritual which follows is designed both by its complexity and variety (which prevents the tiring of the mind) to keep the attention always fixed, to prevent it from straying and to emphasize both attention and will by continued acts and mental workings. The object of the worship is the Ishtadevata, that is, the particular form of the Deity whom the Sadhaka worships, such as Devi in the case of a Shakta, Shiva in the case of the Shaiva (in eight forms in the case of Ashtamurti -puja as to which see Todala Tantra, chap. V) and Vishnu as such or in His forms as Rama and Krishna in the case of the Vaishnava Sadhaka. An object is used in the outer Puja (Bahyapuja) such as an image (Pratima), a picture and emblem such as a jar (Kalasa), Shalagrama (in the case of Vishnu worship), Linga and Yoni or Gauripatta (in the case of the worship) of Shiva (with Devi), or a geometrical design called Yantra. In the case of outer worship the first is the lowest form and the last the highest. It is not all who are capable of worshipping with a Yantra. It is obvious that simpler minds must be satisfied with images which delineate the form of the Devata completely and in material form. The advanced contemplate Devata in the lines and curves of a Yantra. In external worship, the Sadhaka should first worship inwardly the mental image of the Devata which the outer objects assist to produce, and then by the life -giving (Prana -Pratishtha) ceremony he should infuse the image with life by the communication to it of the light, consciousness, and energy (Tejas) of the Brahman within him to the image without, from which there then bursts the luster of Her whose substance is Consciousness Itself (Caitanyamayi). In every place She exists as Shakti, whether in stone or 417 metal as elsewhere, but in matter is veiled and seemingly inert. Caitanya (Consciousness) is aroused by the worshipper through the Pranapratishtha Mantra. An object exists for a Sadhaka only in so far as his mind perceives it. For and in him its essence as Consciousness is realized. This is a fitting place to say a word on the subject of the alleged \"Idolatry\" of the Hindus. We are all aware that a similar charge has been made against Christians of the Catholic Church, and those who are conversant with this controversy will be better equipped both with knowledge and caution against the making of general and indiscriminate charges. It may be well doubted whether the worl d contains an idolater in the sense in which that term is used by persons who speak of \"the heathen worship of sticks and stones\". According to the traveler A. B. Ellis (\"The Tshi speaking peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa\"), even \"negroes of the Go ld Coast are always conscious that their offerings and worship are not paid to the inanimate object itself but to the indwelling God, and every native with whom I have conversed on the subject has laughed at the possibility of its being supposed that he would worship or offer sacrifice to some such object as a stone\". Nevertheless a missionary or some traveler might tell him that he did. An absurd attitude on the part of the superior Western is that in which the latter not merely tells the colored races wha t they should believe, but what notwithstanding denial, they in fact believe and ought to hold according to the tenets of the latter's religion. The charge of idolatry is kept up, notwithstanding the explanations given of their beliefs by those against who m it is made. In fact, the conviction that Eastern races are inferior is responsible for this. If we disregard such beliefs, then, anything may be idolatrous. Thus; to those who disbelieve in the \"Real Presence,\" the Catholic worshipper of the Host is an i dolater worshipping the material substance, bread. But, to the worshipper who believes that it is the Body of the Lord under the form of bread, such worship can never be idolatrous. Similarly as regards the Hindu worship of images. They are not to be held to worship clay or stone because others disbelieve in the efficacy of the Prana -Pratishtha ceremony. When impartially considered, there is nothing necessarily superstitious or ignorant in this rite. Nor is this the case with the doctrine of the Real Presence which is interpreted in various ways. 418 Whether either rite has the alleged effect attributed to it is another question. All matter is, according to Shakta doctrine, a manifestation of Shakti, that is, the Mother Herself in material guise. She is present in and as everything which exists. The ordinary man does not so view things. He sees merely gross unconscious matter. If, with such an outlook, he were fool enough to worship what was inferior to himself, he would be an idolater. But the very act of worshi p implies that the object is superior and conscious. To the truly enlightened Shakta everything is an object of worship, for all is a manifestation of God who is therein worshipped. But that way of looking at things must be attained. The untutored mind must be aided to see that this is so. This is effected by the Pranapratishtha rite by which \"life is established\" in the image of gross matter. The Hindu then believes that the Pratima or image is a representation and the dwelling place of Deity. What differe nce, it may be asked, does this really make? How can a man's belief alter the objective fact? The answer is, it does not. God is not manifested by the image merely because the worshipper believes Him to be there. He is there in fact already. All that the Pranapratishtha rite does is, to enliven the consciousness of the worshipper into a realization of His presence. And if He be both in fact, and to the belief of the worshipper, present, then the Image is a proper object of worship. It is the subjective state of the worshipper's mind which determines whether an act is idolatrous or not. The Prana- Pratishtha rite is thus a mode by which the Sadhaka is given a true object of worship and is enabled to affirm a belief in the divine omnipresence with respect to th at particular object of his devotion. The ordinary notion that it is mere matter is cast aside, and the divine notion that Divinity is manifested in all that is, is held and affirmed. \"Why not then\" (some missionary has said) \"worship my boot?\" There are contemptible people who do so in the European sense of that phrase. But, nevertheless, there is no reason, according to Shakta teaching, why even his boot should not be worshipped by one who regards it and all else as a manifestation of the One who is in every object which constitutes the Many. Thus this Monistic belief is affirmed in the worship by some Shaktas of that which to the gross and ordinary mind is merely an object of lust. To such minds, this is a revolting and obscene worship. To those for whom such object of worship is obscene, such worship is and must be obscene. But what of the mind which is so 419 purified that it sees the Divine presence in that which, to the mass of men, is an incitement to and object of lust? A man who, without desire, can truly so worship must be a very high Sadhaka indeed. The Shakta Tantra affirms the Greek saying that to the pure all things are pure. In this belief and with, as the as the Janarnava Tantra says, the object of teaching men that this is so, we find the ritual use of substances ordinarily accounted impure. The real objection to the general adoption or even knowledge of such rites lies, from the Monistic standpoint, in the fact that the vast bulk of humanity are either of impure or weak mind, and that the worship of an object which is capable of exciting lust will produce it, not to mention the hypocrites who, under cover of such a worship, would seek to gratify their desires. In the Paradise Legend, just as amongst some primitive tribes, man and woman go naked. It was and is after they have fallen that nakedness is observed by minds no longer innocent. Rightly, therefore, from their standpoint, the bulk of men condemn such worship. Because, whatever may be its theoretical justification under conditions which rarely occur, pragmatically and for the bulk of men they are full of danger. Those who go to meet temptation should remember the risk. I have read that it is recorded of Robert d'Arbrissel, the saintly founder of the community of Fonte d'Evrault that he was wo nt on occasions to sleep with his nuns, to mortify his flesh and as a mode of strengthening his will against its demands. He did not touch them, but his exceptional success in preserving his chastity would be no ground for the ordinary man undertaking so dangerous an experiment. In short, in order to be completely just, we must, in individual cases, consider intention and good faith. But, practically and for the mass, the counsel and duty to avoid the occasion of sin is, according to Shastrik principles the mselves, enjoined. As a matter of fact, such worship has been confined to so limited a class that it would not have been necessary to deal with the subject were it not connected with Shakta worship, the matter in hand. To revert again to the \"missionary's boot\": whilst all things may be the object of worship, choice is naturally made of those objects which, by reason of their effect on the mind, are more fitted for it. An image or one of the usual emblems is more likely to raise in the mind of the worshipper the thought of a Devata than a boot, and therefore, even apart from scriptural authority, it would not be chosen. But, it has been again objected, if the Brahman is in and 420 appears equally in all things, how do we find some affirming that one image is more worthy of worship than another. Similarly, in Catholic countries, we find worshippers who prefer certain churches, shrines, places of pilgrimage and representations of Christ, His Mother and the Saints. Such preferences are not statements of absolute worth but of personal inclinations in the worshipper due to his belief in their special efficacy for him. Psychologically all this means that a particular mind finds that it works best in the direction desired by means of particular instruments. The image of Kali provokes in general only disgust in an European mind. But to the race -consciousness which has evolved that image of Deity, it is the cause and object of fervent devotion. In every case, those means must be sought and applied which will produce a practical and good result for the individual consciousness in question. It must be admitted, however, that image worship like everything else is capable of abuse; that is a wrong and (for want of a better term) an idolatrous tendency may manifest. This is due to ignorance. Thus the aunt of a Catholic schoolboy friend of mine had a statue of St. Anthony of Padua. If the saint did not answer her prayers, she used to give the image a beating, and then shut it up in a cupboard with its \"face to the wall\" by way of punishment. I could cite numbers of instances of this ignorant state of mind taken from the past and present history of Europe. It is quite erroneous to suppose that such absurdities are confined to India, Africa or other colored countries. Nevertheless, we must, in each case, distinguish between the true scriptural teaching and the acts and notions of which they are an abuse. The materials used or things done in Puja are called Upacara. The common number of these is sixteen, but there are more and less (see Principles of Tantra, Part ii). The sixteen which include some of the lesser number and are included in the greater are: (1) Asana (seating of the image), (2) Svagata (welcoming of the Devata), (3) Padya (water for washing the feet), (4) Arghya (offerings which may be general or Samanya and special or Vishesha) made in the vessel, (5), (6) Acamana (water for sipping and cleansing the lips -- offered twice), (7) Madhuparka (honey, ghee, milk and curd), (8) Snana (water for bathing), (9) Vasana (cloth for garment), (10) Abharana (jewels), (11) Gandha (Perfume), (12) Pushpa (flowers), (13) Dhupa (incense), (14) Dipa (lights), (15) Naivedya (food), and (16) Vandana or Namaskriya (prayer). 421 Why should such things be chosen? The Westerner who has heard of lights, flower and incense in Christian worship may yet ask the reason for the rest. The answer is simple. Honor is paid to the Devata in the way honor is paid to friends and those men who are worthy of veneration. So the Sadhaka gives that same honor to the Devata, a course that the least advanced mind can understand. When the guest arrives he is bidden to take a seat, he is welcomed and asked how he has journeyed. Water is given to him to wash his dusty feet and his mouth. Food and other things are given him, and so on. These are done in honor of men, and the Deity is honored in the same way. Some particular articles vary with the Puja. Thus, Tulasi leaf is issued in the Vishnu- puja; bael leaf (Bilva) in the Shiva -puja, and to the Devi is offered the scarlet hibiscus (Jaba). The Mantras said and other ritual details may vary according to the Devata worshipped. The seat (Asana) of the worshipper is purified as also the Upacara. Salutation is made to the Shakti of support (Adhara- shakti) the Power sustaining all. Obs tructive Spirits are driven away (Bhutapasarpana) and the ten quarters are fenced from their attack by striking the earth three times with the left foot, uttering the weapon -mantra (Astrabija) \"Phat,\" and by snapping the fingers round the head. Other ritua ls also enter into the worship besides the offering of Upacara such as Pranayama or Breath control, Bhutasuddhi or purification of the elements of the body, Japa of Mantra, Nyasa (v. post), meditation (Dhyana) and obeisance (Pranama). Besides the outer and material Puja, there is a higher inner (Antarpuja) and mental (Manasapuja). Here there is no offering of material things to an image or emblem, but the ingredients (Upacara) of worship are imagined only. Thus the Sadhaka, in lieu of material flowers offered with the hands, lays at the feet of the Devata the flower of good action. In the secret Rajasik Puja of the Vamacari, the Upacara are the five Tattvas (Pacatattva), wine, meat and so forth described in the next Chapter. Just as flowers and incense and so forth are offered in the general public ritual, so in this special secret ritual, dealt with in the next Chapter, the functions of eating, drinking and sexual union are offered to the Devata. 422 A marked feature of the Tantra Shastras is the use of the Yan tra in worship. This then takes the place of the image or emblem, when the Sadhaka has arrived at the stage when he is qualified to worship with Yantra. Yantra, in its most general sense, means simply instrument or that by which anything is accomplished. In worship, it is that by which the mind is fixed on its object. The Yantra, in lieu of the image or emblem holds the attention, and is both the object of worship, and the means by which it is carried out. It is said to be so called because it subdues (Niyantrana) lust, anger and the other sufferings of Jiva, and the sufferings caused thereby. (Tantra- tattva. Sadharana Upasana -tattva.) The Yantra is a diagram drawn or painted on paper, or other substances, engraved on metal, cut on crystal or stone. The magi cal treatises mention extraordinary Yantras drawn on leopard's and donkey's skin, human bones and so forth. The Yantras vary in design according to the Devata whose Yantra it is and in whose worship it is used. The difference between a Mandala (which is also a figure, marked generally on the ground) is that whilst a Mandala may be used in the case of any Devata, a Yantra is appropriate to a specific Devata only. As different Mantras are different Devatas, and differing Mantras are used in the worship of each of the Devatas, so variously formed Yantras are peculiar to each Devata and are used in its worship. The Yantras are therefore of various designs, according to the object of worship. The cover of \"Tantrik Texts\" shows the great Sri Yantra. In the metal or stone Yantras no figures of Devatas are shown, though these together with the appropriate Mantras commonly appear in Yantras drawn or painted on paper, such as the Devata of worship, Avarana Shaktis and so forth. All Yantras have a common edging called Bhupura, a quadrangular figure with four \"doors\" which encloses and separates the Yantra from the outside world. A Yantra in my possession shows serpents crawling outside the Bhupura. The Kaulavaliya Tantra says that the distinction between Yantra and Devata is that between the body and the self. Mantra is Devata and Yantra is Mantra, in that it is the body of the Devata who is Mantra. Yantram mantra- ma yam proktam mantratma devataiva hi Dehatmanor yatha bedo yantradevata yos tatha. 423 As in the case of the image, certain preliminaries precede the worship of Yantra. The worshipper first meditates upon the Devata and then arouses Him or Her in himself. He then communicates the Divine Presence thus aroused to the Yantra. When the Devata has by the appropriate Mant ra been invoked into the Yantra, the vital airs (Prana) of the Devata are infused therein by the Pranapratishtha ceremony, Mantra and Mudra (see for ritual Mahanirvana, VI. 63 et seq.). The Devata is thereby installed in the Yantra which is no longer mere gross matter veiling the Spirit which has been always there, but instinct with its aroused presence which the Sadhaka first welcomes and then worships. In Tantrik worship, the body as well as the mind has to do its part, the former being made to follow the latter. This is of course seen in all ritual, where there is bowing, genuflection and so forth. As all else, gesture is here much elaborated. Thus, certain postures (Asana) are assumed in worship and Yoga. There is obeisance (Pranama), sometimes with eight parts of the body (Ashtangapranama), and circumambulation (Pradakshina) of the image. In Nyasa the hands are made to touch various parts of the body and so forth. A notable instance of this practice are the Mudras which are largely used in the Tantrik ritual. Mudra in this sense is ritual manual gesture. The term Mudra has three meanings. In worship (Upasana,) it means these gestures. In Yoga it means postures in which not only the hands but the whole body takes part. And, in the secret worship with the P acatattva, Mudra means various kinds of parched cereals which are taken with the wine and other ingredients (Upacara) of that particular worship. The term Mudra is derived from the root \"to please\" (Mud). The Tantraraja says that in its Upasana form, Mudr a is so called because it gives pleasure to the Devatas. These Mudras are very numerous. It has been said that there are 108 of which 55 are in common use (Shabdakalpadruma Sub Voce, Mudra and see Nirvana Tantra, Chap. XI). Possibly there are more. 108 is favorite number. The Mudra of Upasana is the outward bodily expression of inner resolve which it at the same time intensifies. We all know how in speaking we emphasize and illustrate our thought by gesture. So in welcoming (Avahana) the Devata, an appropri ate gesture is made. When veiling anything, the hands assume that position (Avagunthana Mudra). Thus again in making offering (Arghya) a gesture is made which represents a fish 424 (Matsya Mudra) by placing the right hand on the back of the left and extending the two thumbs finlike on each side of the hands. This is done as the expression of the wish and intention that the vessel which contains water may be regarded as an ocean with fish and all other aquatic animals. The Sadhaka says to the Devata of his worship, \"this is but a small offering of water in fact, but so far as my desire to honor you is concerned, regard it as if I were offering you an ocean.\" The Yoni in the form of an inverted triangle represents the Devi. By the Yoni Mudra the fingers form a tri angle as a manifestation of the inner desire that the Devi should come and place Herself before the worshipper, for the Yoni is Her Pitha or Yantra. Some of the Mudra of Hathayoga which are in the nature both of a health- giving gymnastic and special positi ons required in Yoga -practice are described in A. Avalon's The Serpent Power. The Gheranda Samhita, a Tantrik Yoga work says (III. 4. 8. 10) that knowledge of the Yoga Mudras grants all Siddhi, and that their performance produces physical benefits, such as stability, firmness, and cure of disease. Bhutasuddhi, an important Tantrik rite, means purification of the five \"elements\" of which the body is composed, and not \"removal of evil demons,\" as Professor Monier -William's Dictionary has it. Though one of the meanings of Bhuta is Ghost or Spirit, it is never safe to give such literal translations without knowledge, or absurd mistakes are likely to be made. The Mantramahodadhi (Taranga I) speaks of it as a rite which is preliminary to the worship of a Deva. Devarca yog yata-praptyai bhuta- shuddhim samacaret. (For the attainment of competency to worship, the elements of which the body is composed, should be purified). The material human body is a compound of the five Bhutas of \"earth,\" \"water,\" \"fire,\" \"air\", and \"ether\". These terms have not their usual English meaning but denote the five forms in which Prakriti the Divine Power as materia prima manifests Herself. These have each a center of operation in the five Cakras or Padmas (Centers or Lotuses) which exist in the spinal column of the human body (see A. Avalon's Serpent Power where this matter is fully described). In the lowest of these centers (Muladhara), the Great Devi kundalini, a form of the Saguna Brahman, resides. She is ordinarily sleeping there. In k undalini -yoga, She is 425 aroused and brought up through the five centers, absorbing, as She passes through each, the Bhuta of that center, the subtle Tanmatra from which it derives and the connected organ of sense (Indriya). Having absorbed all these, She is led to the sixth or mind center (Aja) between the eyebrows where the last Bhuta or ether is absorbed in mind, and the latter in the Subtle Prakriti. The last in the form of Kundali Shakti then unites with Shiva in the upper brain called the thousand- petal led lotus (Sahasrara). In Yoga this involution actually takes places with the result that ecstasy (Samadhi) is attained. But very few are successful Yogis. Therefore, Bhutasuddhi in the case of the ordinary worshipper is an imaginary process only. The Sadhaka imagines Kundali, that She is roused, that one element is absorbed into the other and so on, until all is absorbed in Brahman. The Yoga process will be found described in The Serpent Power, and Ch. V. 93 et seq. of the Mahanirvana gives an account of the ritual process. The Sadhaka having dissolved all in Brahman, a process which instills into his mind the unity of all, then thinks of the \"black man of sin\" in his body. The body is then purified. By breathing and Mantra it is first dried and then burnt with all its sinful inclinations. It is then mentally bathed with the nectar of the water - mantra from head to feet. The Sadhaka then thinks that in lieu of his old sinful body a new Deva body has come into being. He who with faith and sincerity believes th at he is regenerated is in fact so. To each who truly believes that his body is a Deva body it becomes a Deva body. The Deva body thus brought into being is strengthened by the Earth-mantra and divine gaze (Divyadrishti). Saying, with Bijas, the Mantra \"He I am\" (So'ham) the Sadhaka by Jiva- nyasa infuses his body with the life of the Devi, the Mother of all. Nyasa is a very important and powerful Tantrik rite. The word comes from the root, \"to place,\" and means the placing of the tips of the fingers and palm of the right hand on various parts of the body, accompanied by Mantra. There are four general divisions of Nyasa, viz., inner (Antar), outer (Bahir), according to the creative (Srishti) and dissolving (Samhara) order (Krama). Nyasa is of many kinds such as Jiva -nyasa, Matrika or Lipi -nyasa, Rishi -nyasa, Shadamganyasa on the body (Hridayadi -shadamga -nyasa) and with the hands (Amgushthadi -shadamga -nyasa), Pitha -nyasa and so on. 426 The Kularnava (IV. 20) mentions six kinds. Each of these might come under one or the other of the four general heads. Before indicating the principle of this rite, let us briefly see what it is. After the Sadhaka has by Bhuta -shuddhi dissolved the sinful body and made a new Deva body, he, by Jiva -nyasa infuses into it the life of the Devi. Placing his hand on his heart he says, \"He I am\" thereby identifying himself with Shiva - Shakti. He then emphasizes it by going over the parts of the body in detail with the Mantra Am and the rest thus.' saying the Mantra and what he is doing, and touching the body on the particular part with his fingers, he recites: \"Am (and the rest) the vital force (Prana) of the blessed Kalika (in this instance) are here. Am (and the rest) the life of the Blessed Kalika is here; Am (and the rest) all the senses of the Blessed Kalika are here; Am (and the rest) may the speech, mind, sight, hearing, sense of smell of the Blessed Kalika coming here ever abide here in peace and happiness. Svaha\". By this, the body is thought to become like that of Devata (Devatamaya). Matrika are the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, for as from a mother comes birth, so from the Brahman who, as the creator of \"sound\" is called \"Shabdabrahman\", the universe proceeds. The Mantra -bodies of the Devata are composed of the Matrika or let ters. The Sadhaka first sets the letters mentally (Antar -matrika -nyasa) in their several places in the six inner centers (Cakra), and then externally by physical action (Bahya -matrika -nyasa). The letters of the alphabet form the different parts of the body of the Devata which is thus built up in the Sadhaka himself. He places his hand on different parts of his body, uttering distinctly at the same time the appropriate Matrika for that part. The mental disposition in the Cakra is that given in Serpent Power by A. Avalon, each letter being repeated thus, Om Ham Namah (obeisance), Om Ksham Namah and so on with the rest. The external disposition is as follows: The vowels are placed on the forehead, face, right and left eye, right and left ear, right and left nostril, right and left cheek, upper and lower lip, upper and lower teeth, head and hollow of the mouth. The consonants, 'Ka' to 'Va' are placed on the base of the right arm and the elbow, wrist base and tips of fingers, left arm, and right and left leg, righ t and left side, back navel, belly, heart, right and left shoulder, and space between the shoulders (Kakuda). Then, from the heart to the right palm, Sa; from the heart to the left palm, Sa (second); from the heart to the right 427 foot, Sa; from the heart to the left foot, Ha; and lastly from the heart to the belly and the heart to the mouth, Ksha. This Matrikanyasa is of several kinds. One form of Rishi -nyasa is as follows: \"In the head, salutation to Brahma and the Brahmarishis; in the mouth, salutation to Gayatri and other forms of Verse; in the heart, salutation to the primordial Devata Kali; in the hidden part (Guhya), salutation to the Bija Krim; in the two feet, salutation to Hrim; in all the body, salutation to Shrim and Kalika. In Shadamga -nyasa on the body, certain letters are placed with the salutation Namah, and with the Mantras Svaha, Vashat, Vaushat, Hrim, Phat on the heart, head, crown- lock (Shikha), eyes, the front and back of the palm. In Karanyasa, the Mantras are assigned to the thumbs, index fingers, middle fingers, fourth fingers, little fingers, and the front and back of the palm. From the above examples the meaning of Nyasa is seen. By associating the Divine with every part of the body and with the whole of it, the mind and body are sought to be made divine to the consciousness of the Sadhaka. They are that already, but the mind is made to so regard them. \"What if it does?\" the English reader may ask. How can the regarding a thing as divine make it so? In one sense it does not, for mind and body are as Shakti divine, whether this be known or not. But this must be known to the Sadhaka or they are not divine for him. His mind is trained to look upon them as divine manifestations of the One Supreme Essence which at base he and they are. According to Hindu views, primary importance is attached to mental states, for as the Divine Thought made the World, man makes his character therein by what he thinks. If he is always thinking of material things and has desires therefor, he becomes himself materia l and is given over to lust and other passions. If, on the contrary, he has always his mind on God, and associates everything with the thought of Him, his mind becomes pure and divine. As the Upanishad says, \"What a man thinks that he becomes.\" Thought is everything, molding our bodily features, moral and intellectual character and disposition, leading to and appearing in our actions. Much superficial criticism is leveled at this or other ritual, its variety, complexity, its lengthy character and so forth. If it is performed mechanically and without attention, doubtless it is mere waste of time. But if it is done with will, attention, faith and devotion, it must necessarily achieve the result intended. The reiteration of the same idea under varying forms bri ngs home with emphasis to the consciousness of the 428 Sadhaka the doctrine his Scripture teaches him, viz., that his essence is Spirit and his mind and body are its manifestation. All is divine. All is Consciousness. The object of this and all the other ritua l is to make that statement a real experience for the Sadhaka. For the attainment of that state in which the Sadhaka feels that the nature (Bhava) of the Devata has come upon him, Nyasa is a great auxiliary. It is as it were the wearing of Divine jewels in different parts of the body. The Bijas of the Devatas (which are Devatas) are the jewels which the Sadhaka places on the different parts of his body. By the particular Nyasa he places his Abhishtadevata in such parts, and by Vyapaka- Nyasa he spreads its p resence throughout himself. He becomes thus permeated by the Divine and its manifestations, thus merging or mingling himself in or with the Divine Self or Lord. Nyasa, Asana and other ritual are necessary, for the production of the desired state of mind and its purification (Cittashuddhi). The whole aim and end of ritual is Citta -shuddhi. Transformation of thought is transformation of being, for particular existence is a projection of thought, and thought is a projection from the Consciousness which is the Root of all. This is the essential principle and rational basis of this, as of all, Tantrik Sadhana. Nyasa also has certain physical effects, for these are dependent on the state of mind. The pure restful state of meditation is reflected in the body of the worshipper. The actions of Nyasa are said to stimulate the nerve centers and to effect the proper distribution of the Shaktis of the human frame according to their dispositions and relations, preventing discord and distraction during worship, which itself holds steady the state thus induced. In the Chapters on Mantramayi Shakti and Varnamala, as also in my Garland of Letters, I have dealt with the nature of Mantra and of its Sadhana. An account will also be found of the subject in the Mantratattva Chapter of the second part of Principles of Tantra. Mantra is Devata and by Sadhana therewith the sought- for (Sadhya) Devata is attained, that is, becomes present to the consciousness of the Sadhaka or Mantrin. Though the purpose of Worship (Puja), Reading (Patha), Hymn (Stava), Sacrifice (Homa), Meditation (Dhyana), and that of the Diksha -mantra obtained on initiation are the same, yet the latter is said to be far more powerful, and this for the reason that in the first, the Sadhaka's Sadhana- shakti only 429 operates whilst in the case of Mantra that Sadhana -shakti works in conjunction with Mantra -shakti which has the revelation and force of fire, than which nothing is more powerful. The special Mantra which is received at initiation (Diksha) is the Bija or Seed- Mantra sown in the field of the Sadhaka's heart, and the Tantrik Sandhya, Nyasa, Puja, and the like are the stem and branches upon which hymns of praise (Stuti) and prayer and homage (Vandana) are the leaves and flower, and the Kavaca consisting of Mantra, the f ruit. (See Chapter on Mantra -tattva, part ii, Principles of Tantra.) The utterance of a Mantra without knowledge of its meaning or of the Mantra -sadhana is a mere movement of the lips and nothing more. The Mantra sleeps. This is not infrequently the case in the present degeneracy of Hindu religion. For example, a Brahman lady confided to me her Diksha - mantra and asked me for its meaning, as she understood that I had a Bija - kosha or Lexicon which gave the meaning of the letters. Her Guru had not told her of its meaning, and inquiries elsewhere amongst Brahmanas were fruitless. She had been repeating the Mantra for years, and time had brought the wisdom that it could not do her much good to repeat what was without meaning to her. Japa is the utterance of Mantra as described later. Mantra -sadhana is elaborate. There are various processes preliminary to and involved in its right utterance which again consists of Mantra. There are the sacraments or purifications (Samskara) of the Mantra (Tantrasara, p. 90). There are \"birth\" and \"death\" defilements of a Mantra (ib., 75, et seq.,) which have to be cleansed. This and, of course, much else mean that the mind of the Mantrin has to be prepared and cleansed for the realization of the Devata. There are a number of defects (Dosha) which have to be avoided or cured. There is purification of the mouth which utters the Mantra (Mukha -shodhana) (see as to this and the following Sharada Tilaka (Chap. x), purification of the tongue (Jihva -shodhana) and of the Mantra (Ashauca - bhang a). Mantra processes called Kulluka, Nirvana, Setu (see Sharada Tilaka, loc cit, Tantrasara, and Purashcaranabodhini, p. 48) which vary with the Devata of worship, awakening of Mantra (Nidrabhanga) its vitalizing through consciousness (Mantracaitanya), pondering on the meaning of the Mantra and of the Matrikas constituting the body of the Devata (Mantrartha bhavana). There are Dipani, Yonimudra (see Purohita- darpanam) with meditation on the Yoni -rupa- bhagavati with the Yonibija (Eng) and so forth. 430 In ascertaining what Mantra may be given to any particular individual, certain Cakra calculations are made, according to which Mantras are divided into those which are friendly, serving, supporting or destroying (Siddha, Sadhya, Susiddha, Ari). All this ritual has as its object the establishment of that pure state of mind and feeling which are necessary for success (Mantra- siddhi). At length the Mantrin through his Cit -shakti awakening and vitalizing the Mantra which in truth is one with his own consciousness (in that form) pierces through all its centers and contemplates the Spotless One (Kubjika Tantra V). The Shakti of the Mantra is called the Vacika Shakti or the means by which the Vacya Shakti or ultimate object is attained. The Mantra lives by the energy of the former. The Saguna -Shakti in the form of the Mantra is awakened by Sadhana and worshipped and She it is who opens the portals whereby the Vacya -Shakti is reached. Thus the Mother in the Saguna form is the Presiding Deity (Adhishthatri Devata) of the Gayat ri Mantra. As the Nirguna (formless) One, She is its Vacya Shakti. Both are in truth one and the same. But the Sadhaka, by the laws of his nature and its three Gunas, must first meditate on the gross (Sthula) form before he can realize the subtle (Sukshma) form which is his liberator. So for from being merely superstition, the Mantra -sadhana is, in large part, based on profound notions of the nature of Consciousness and the psychology of its workings. The Sadhaka's mind and disposition are purified, the Devata is put before him in Mantra form and by his own power of devotion (Sadhana Shakti) and that latent in the Mantra itself (Mantra -shakti) and expressed in his mind on realization therein, such mind is first identified with the gross, and then with the su btle form which is his own transformed consciousness and its powers. Japa is defined as Vidhanena mantroccaranam, that is (for default of other more suitable words), the utterance or recitation of Mantra according to certain rules. Japa may however be of a nature which is not defined by the word, recitation. It is of three kinds (Janarnava Tantra, XX) namely, Vacika Japa, Upamshu Japa, Manasa Japa. The first is the lowest and the last the highest form. Vacika is verbal Japa in which the Mantra is distinctly and audibly recited (Spashta -vaca). Upamshu Japa is less gross and therefore superior to this. Here the Mantra is not uttered (Avyakta) but there is a movement of the lips and tongue (Sphuradvaktra) but no articulate sound is heard. In the highest form or mental utterance (Manasa -japa) there is 431 neither articulate sound nor movement. Japa takes place in the mind only by meditation on the letters (Chintanakshararupavan). Certain conditions are prescribed as those under which Japa should be done, relating to physical cleanliness, the dressing of the hair, garments worn, the seated posture (Asana), the avoidance of certain states of mind and actions, and the nature of the recitation. Japa is done a specified number of times, in lakhs by great Sadhakas. If the mind is really centered and not distracted throughout these long and repeated exercises the result must be successful. Repetition is in all things the usual process by which a certain thing is fixed in the mind. It is not considered foolish for one who has to learn a lesson to repeat it himself over and over again until it is got by heart. The same principle applies to Sadhana. If the \"Hail Mary\" is said again and again in the Catholic rosary, and if the Mantra is similarly said in the Indian Japa, neither proceeding is foolish, provided that both be done with attention and devotion. The injunction against \"vain repetition\" was not against repetition but that of a vain character. Counting is done either with a Mala or rosary (Mala -japa) or with the thumb of the right hand upon the joints of the fingers of that hand according to a method varying according to the Mantra (Kara -japa). Purashcarana is a form of Sadhana in which, with other ritual, Japa of Mantra, done a large number of times, forms the chief part. A short account of the rite is given in the Purashcarana -bodhini by Harakumara Tagore (1895). (See also Tantrasara 71 and the Purashcaryarnava of the King of Nepal.) The ritual deals with preparation for the Sadhana as regards chastity, food, worship, mea surements of the Mandapa or Pandal and of the altar, the time and place of performance and other matters. The Sadhaka must lead a chaste life (Brahmacarya) during the period prescribed. He must eat the pure food called Havishyannam or boiled milk (Kshtra), fruits, Indian vegetables, and avoid all other food which has the effect of stimulating the passions. He must bathe, do Japa of the Savitri Mantra, entertain Brahmanas and so forth. Pacagavya is eaten, that is, the five products of the cow, namely, milk, curd, ghee, urine, and dung, the two last (except in the case of the rigorously pious) in smaller quantity. Before the Puja there is worship of Ganesha and Kshetrapala and the Sun, Moon, and Devas are invoked. Then follows the Samkalpa. The Ghata or Kalasa (jar) is placed in which the Devata is invoked. A Mandala or figure of a particular design is 432 marked on the ground and on it the jar is placed. Then the five or nine gems are placed in the jar which is painted red and covered with leaves. The ritual then prescribes for the tying of the crown lock (Shikha), the posture (Asana) of the Sadhaka, Japa, Nyasa, and the Mantra ritual. There is meditation as directed, Mantra -chaitanya and Japa of the Mantra the number of times for which vow has been made. The dail y life of the religious Hindu was in former times replete with worship. I refer those who are interested in the matter to the little work, The Daily Practices of the Hindus by Srisha Candra Vasu, the Sandhyavandana of all Vedic Shakhas by B. V. Kameshvara Aiyar, the Kriyakandavaridhi and Purohita -darpanam. The positions and Mudras are illustrated in Mrs. S. C. Belons' Sandhya or daily prayer of the Brahmin published in 1831. It is not here possible to do more than indicate the general outlines of the rites followed. As the Sadhaka awakes he makes salutation to the Guru of all and recites the appropriate Mantras and confessing his inherent frailty (\"I know Dharma and yet would not do it. I know Adharma and yet would not renounce it,\") -- the Hindu form of the common experience \"Video meliora,\" he prays that he may do right and offers all the actions of the day to God. Upon touching the ground on leaving his bed he salutes the Earth, the manifestation of the All - Good. He then bathes to the accompaniment of Mantra and makes oblation to the Devas, Rishis or Seers and the Pitris who issued from Sandhya, Brahma the Pitamaha of humanity, and then does rite. This is the Vaidik form which differs according to Veda and Shakha for the twice- born and there is a Tantriki Sandhya for others. It is performed thrice a day at morn, at noon, and evening. The Sandhya consists generally speaking, of Acamana (sipping of water), Marjjana -snana (sprinkling of the whole body), Pranayama (Breath- control), Aghamarshana (expulsion of sin), prayer to the Sun and then (the canon of the Sandhya) Japa of the Gayatri -mantra. Rishi -nyasa and Shadamga -nyasa (v. ante), and meditation of the Devi Gayatri, in the morning as Brahmani (Shakti of Creation), at midday as Vaisnavi (Shakti of maintenance), and in evening as Rudrani (Shakti which \"destroys\" in the sense of withdrawing creation). The Sandhya with the Aupasana fire -rite and Pacayaja are the three main daily rites, the last 433 being offerings to the Devas, to the Pitris, to animals and birds (after the Vaishvadeva rite), to men (as by entertainment of guests) and the study of Vaidik texts. By these five Yajas, the worshipper daily places himself in right relations with all being, affirming such relation between Devas, Pitris, Spirits, men, th e organic creation and himself. The word \"Yaja\" comes from the root Yaj (to worship) and is commonly translated \"sacrifice,\" though it includes other rituals than what an English reader might understand by that term. Thus, Manu speaks of four kinds of Yaja as Deva, Bhauta (where ingredients are used), Niryaja and Pitryaja. Sometimes the term is used in connection with any kind of ceremonial rite, and so one hears of Japa -yaja (recitation of Mantra), Dhyana -yaja (meditation) and so on. The Pacatattva r itual with wine and the rest is accounted a Yaja. Yajas are also classified according to the dispositions and intentions of the worshipper into Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika Yaja. A common form of Yaja is the Devayaja Homa rite in which offerings of ghee are made (in the Kunda or fire -pit) to the Deva of Fire who is the carrier of oblations to the Devas. Homa is an ancient Vaidik rite incorporated with others in the General Tantrik ritual. It is of several kinds, and is performed either daily, or on special occasions, such as the sacred thread ceremony, marriage and so forth. Besides the daily (Nitya) ceremonies such as Sandhya there are occasional rites (Naimittika) and the purificatory sacraments (Samskara) performed only once. The ordinary ten Sams karas (see Mahanirvana Tantra, Ch. IX) are Vaidik rites done to aid and purify the individual in the important events of his life, namely, the Garbhadhana sanctifying conception prior to the actual placing of the seed in the womb, the Pumsavana and Simantonnayana or actual conception and during pregnancy. It has been suggested that the first Samskara is performed with reference to the impulse to development from the \"fertilization of the ovum to the critical period: the second with reference to the same impulse from the last period to that of the viability stage of the fetus,\" and the third refers to the period in which there is viability to the full term (see Appendix on Samskaras. Pranavavada, I. 194). Then follows the Samskara on birth (Jata -karma), the naming ceremony (Nama -karana), the taking of the child outdoors for the first time to see the 434 sun (Nishkramana), the child's first eating of rice (Annaprasana), his tonsure (Cudakarana), and the investiture in the case of the twice -born with the sacred thread (Upanayana) when the child is reborn into spiritual life. This initiation must be distinguished from the Tantrik initiation (Mantra -diksha) when the Bija -mantra is given by the Guru. Lastly there is marriage (Udvaha). These Samskaras, which are all described in the ninth Chapter of the Mahanirvana Tantra, are performed at certain stages in the human body with a view to effect results beneficial to the human organism through the superphysical and subjective methods of ancient East science. Vrata is a part of Naimittika -- occasional ritual or Karma. Commonly translated as vows, they are voluntary devotions performed at specified times in honor of particular Devatas (such as Krishna's birthday), or at any time (such as the Savitrivrata). Each Vrata has its peculiarities, but there are certain features common to all, such as chastity, fasting, bathing, taking of pure food only and no flesh or fish. The great Vrata for a Shakta is the Durga - puja in honor of the Devi as Durga. The fasting which is done in these or other cases is called Tapas, a term which includes all forms of ascetic austerity and zealous Sadhana such as the sitting between five fires (Pacagni -tapah) and the like. Tapas has however a still wider meaning and is then of three kinds, namely, bodily (Shariraka), by speech (Vacika) and by mind (Manasa), a common division both of Indian and Buddhist Tantra. The first includes external worship, reverence, support of the Guru, Brahmanas and the wise (Praja), bodily cleanliness, continence, simplicity of life and avoidance of hurt to any being (Ahimsa). The second form includes truth, good, gentle and affectionate speech and study of the Vedas. The third or mental Tapas includes self -restraint, purity of disposition, tranquillity and silence. Each of these classes has three sub - divisions, for Tapas may be Sattvika, Rajasika, or Tamasika according as it is done with faith, and without regard to its fruit, or for its fruit; or is done through pride and to gain honor or respect or power; or lastly which is done ignorantly or with a view to injure and destroy others such as Abhicara or the Sadhana of the Tantrik Shatkarma (other than Shanti), that is, fascination or Vashikarana, paralyzing or Stambhana, creating enmity or Vidveshana, driving away or Uccatana, and killing or Marana when 435 performed for a malevolent purpose. Karma ritual is called Kamya when it is done to gain some particular end such as health, prosperity and the like. The highest worship is called Nishkama -karma, that is, it is done not to secur e any material benefit but for worship's sake only. Though it is not part of ordinary ritual, this is the only place where I can conveniently mention a peculiar Sadhana, prevalent, so far as I am aware, mainly if not wholly amongst Tantrikas of a Shakta type which is called Nilasadhana or Black Sadhana. This is of very limited application being practiced by some Vira Sadhakas in the cremation ground. There are terrifying things in these rituals and therefore only the fearless practice them. The Vira trains himself to be indifferent and above all fear. A leading rite is that called Shava Sadhana which is done with the means of a human corpse. I have explained elsewhere (see Serpent Power) why a corpse is chosen. The corpse is laid with its face to the ground. The Sadhaka sits on the back of the body of the dead man on which he draws a Yantra and then worships. If the rite is successful it is said that the head of the corpse turns round and asks the Sadhaka what is the boon he craves, be it liberation or some m aterial benefit. It is believed that the Devi speaks through the mouth of the corpse which is thus the material medium by which She manifests Her presence. In another rite, the corpse is used as a seat (Shavasana). There are sittings also (Asana) on skulls (Mundasana) and the funeral pyre (Citasana). However repellent or suspect these rites may appear to be to a Western, it is nevertheless the fact that they have been and are practiced by genuine Sadhakas of fame such as in the past the famed Maharaja of Nattore and others. The interior cremation ground is within the body that being the place where the passions are burnt away in the fire of knowledge. The Adya Shakti or Supreme Power of the Shaktas is, in the words of the Trishati, concisely described as Eka nanda -cidakritih. Eka = Mukya, Ananda = Sukham, Cit = Caitanyam or Prakasha = Janam; and Akritih = Svaruipa. She is thus Sacchidananda -brahmarupa,. Therefore, the worship of Her is direct worship of the Highest. This worship is based on Advaitavada. Therefore, for all Advaitins, its Sadhana is the highest. The Shakta Tantra is thus a Sadhana Shastra of Advaitavada. This will explain why it is dear to, and so highly considered by Advaitins. It is claimed to be the one and only stepping stone which leads directly to Kaivalya or Nirvanamukti; other forms of worship 436 procuring for their followers (from the Saura to the Shaiva) various ascending forms of Gaunamukti. Others of course may claim this priority. Every sect considers itself to be the best and is in fact the best for those who, with intelligence, adopt it. Were it not so its members would presumably not belong to it but would choose some other. No true Shakta, however, will wrangle with others over this. He will be content with his faith of which the Nigamakalpataru says, that as among castes the Brahmanas are foremost, so amongst Sadhakas are the Shaktas. For, as Niruttara Tantra says, there is no Nirvana without knowledge of Shakti (Shaktijanam vina devi nirvanam naiva jayate). Amongst the Shaktas, the foremost are said to be the worshippers of the Kali Mantra. The Adimahavidya is Kalika. Other forms are Murttibheda of Brahmarupini Kalika. Kalikula is followed by Janis of Divya and Vira Bhavas; and Shrikula by Karmin Sadhakas. According to Niruttara, K alikula includes Kali, Tara, Raktakali, Bhuvana, Mardini, Triputa, Tvarita, Pratyamgiravidya, Durga, and Shrikula includes Sundari, Bhairavi, Bala, Bagala, Kamala, Dhumavati, Matamgi, Svapnavatividya, Madhumati Mahavidya. Of these forms Kalika is the highe st or Adyamurti as being Shuddhasattvagunapradhana, Nirvikara, Nirgunabrahma- svarupaprakashika, and, as the Kamadhenu Tantra says, directly Kaivalyadayini. Tara is Sattvagunatmika, Tattvavidyadayini, for by Tattvajana one attains Kaivalya. Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Cinnamasta are Rajahpradhana Sattvagunatmika, the givers of Gaunamukti and Svarga. Dhumavati, Kamala, Bagala, Matangi are Tamahpradhana whose action is invoked in the magical Shatkarma. The most essential point to remember as giving the key to all which follows is that Shaktadharma is Monism (Advaitavada). Gandharva Tantra says, \"Having as enjoined saluted the Guru and thought \"So'ham,' the wise Sadhaka, the performer of the rite should meditate upon the unity of Jiva and Brahman.\" Gurun natva vidh anena so'ham iti purodhasah Aikyam sambhavayet dhiman jivasya brahmano'pica. Kali Tantra says: \"Having thus meditated, the Sadhaka should worship Devi with the notion, 'So'ham'.\" Evam dhyatva tato devim so'ham atmanam arcayet. 437 Kubjika Tantra says: \"A Sadha ka should meditate upon himself as one and the same with Her\" ( Taya sahitamatmanam ekibhutam vicintayet). The same teaching is to be found throughout the Shastra: Nila Tantra directing the Sadhaka to think of himself as one with Tarini; Gandharva Tantratel ling him to meditate on the self as one with Tirupura not different from Paramatma; and Kalikulasarvasva as one with Kalika and so forth. For as the Kularnava Tantra says: \"The body is the temple of God. Jiva is Sadashiva. Let him give up his ignorance as the offering which is thrown away (Nirmalya) and worship with the thought and feeling, 'I am He'.\" Deho devalayah proktah jivo devah Sadashivah Tyajed ajananirmalyam so'ham bhavena pujayet. This Advaitavada is naturally expressed in the ritual. The Samhita and Brahmanas of the four Vedas are (as contrasted with the Upanishads) Traigunyavishaya. There is therefore much in the Vaidik Karmakanda which is contrary to Brahmajana. The same remarks apply to the ordinary Pashu ritual of the day. There are differences of touchable and untouchable, food, caste, and sex. How can a man directly qualify for Brahmajana who even in worship is always harping on distinctions of caste and sex and the like? He who distinguishes does not know. Of such distinctions the higher Tantrik worship of the Shakta type knows nothing. As the Yogini Tantra says, the Shastra is for all castes and for women as well as men. Tantra Shastra is Upasana Kanda and in this Shakta Upasana the Karma and Jana Kanda are mingled (Mishra). That is, Karma is the ritual expression of the teaching of Jana Kanda and is calculated to lead to it. There is nothing in it which contradicts Brahmajana. This fact, therefore, renders it more conducive to the attainment of such spiritual experience. Such higher ritual serves to reveal Jana in the mind of the Pashu. So it is rightly said that a Kula -jani even if he be a Candala is better than a Brahmana. It is on these old Tantrik principles that the Indian religion of to-day can alone, if at all, maintain itself. They have no concern, however, with social life and what is called \"social reform\". For all secular purposes the Tantras recognize caste, but in spiritual matters spiritual qualifications alone prevail. There are many such sound and high principles in the Tantra Shastra 438 for which it would receive credit, if it could only obtain a fair and unprejudiced consideration. But there are none so blind as those who will not see. And so we find that the \"pure and high\" ritual of the Veda is set in contrast with theca supposed \"low and impure\" notions of the Tantra. On the contrary, a Tantrik Pandit once said to me: \"The Vaidik Karmakanda is as useful for ordinary men as is a washerman for dirty clothes. It helps to remove their impurities. But the Tantra Shastra is like a glorious tree which gives jeweled fruit.\" Sadhana, as I have said, is defined as that which leads to Siddhi. Sadhana comes from the root \"Sadh\" -- to exert, to strive. For what'? That depends on the Sadhana and its object. Sadhana is any means to any end and not necessarily religious worship, ritual and discipline. He who does Hatha -yoga, for physical health and strength, who accomplishes a magical Prayoga, who practices to gain an \"eightfold memory\" and so forth are each doing Sadhana to gain a particular result (Siddhi), namely, health and strength, a definite magical result, increased power of recollection and so forth. A Siddhi again is any power gained as the result of practice. Thus, the Siddhi of Vetala Agni Sadhana is control over the fire -element. But the Sadhana which is of most account and that of which I here speak, is religious worship and discipline to attain true spiritual experience. What is thus sought and gained may be either Heaven (Svarga), secondary liberation (Gaunamukti) or full Nirvana. It is the latter which in the highest sense is Siddhi, and striving for that end is the chief and highest form of Sadhana. The latter term includes not merely ritual worship in the sense of adoration or prayer, but every form of spiritual discipline such as sacraments (Samskara), austerities (Tapas), the reading of Scripture (Svadhyaya), meditation (Dhyana) and so forth. Yoga is a still higher form of Sadhana; for the term Yoga means strictly not the result but the means whereby Siddhi in the form of Samadhi may be had. Ordinarily, however, Sadhana is used to express all spiritual disciplines based on the notion of worshipper and worshipped; referring thus to Upasana, not Yoga. The latter passes beyond these and all other dualisms to Monistic experi ence (Samadhi). The first leads up to the second by purifying the mind (Cittashuddhi), character and disposition (Bhava) so as to render it capable of Jana or Laya Yoga; or becomes itself Parabhakti which, as the Devibhagavata says, is not different from Jana. The great Siddhi is thus 439 Moksha; and Moksha is Para -matma, that is, the Svarupa of Atma. But the Sadhaka is Jivatma, that is, Atma associated with Avidya of which Moksha or Paramatma is free. Avidya manifests as mind and body, the subtle and gross vehicles of Spirit. Man is thus therefore Spirit (Atmasvarupa), which is Saccidananda, Mind (Antahkarana) and body (Sthula -sharira). The two latter are forms of Shakti, that is, projections of the Creative Consciousness through and as its Maya. The essential operation of Maya and of the Kacukas is to seemingly contract consciousness. As the Yoginihridaya Tantra says, the going forth (Prashara) of Consciousness (Samvit) is in fact a contraction (Sankoca as Matri, Mana, Meya or known, knowing, being known). Consciousness is thus finitized into a limited self which and other selves regard one another as mutually exclusive. The Self becomes its own object as the many forms of the universe. It conceives itself as separate from them. Oblivious in separateness of its essential nature it regards all other persons and things as different from itself. It acts for the benefit of its limited self. It is in fact selfish in the primary sense of the term; and this selfishness is the root of all its desires, of all its sins. The more mere worldly desires are fostered, the greater is the bondage of man to the mental and material planes. Excessively selfish desires display themselves as the sins of lust, greed, anger, envy and so forth. These bind more firmly than regulated desire and moreover lead to Hell (Naraka). The most general and ultimate object of Sadhana is therefore to cast off from the Self this veil of Avidya and to attain that Perfect experience which is Atmasvarupa or Moksha. But to know Brahman is to be Brahman. Brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati as Shruti says. In essence man is Brahman. But owing to Avidya it is necessary to do something in order that this ever existent fact may be realized. That action (Kriya) is the work of Sadhana in its endeavor to clear away the veiling of Avidya which is ignorance. In the sense that Avidya is being removed man may be said by Sadhana to become Brahman: that is, he realizes himself as what he truly is and was. Sadhana, therefore, by the grace of Devi or \"descent of Shakti\" (Shaktipata) \"converts\" (to use an English term) the Sadhaka, that is, turns him away from separatist worldly enjoyment to seek his own true self as the pure Spiritual Experience. This transformation is the work and aim of Sadhana. But this experience is not to be had in its completest sense at once and at a bound. It is, as Patajali says, very rare. 440 Indeed those who truly desire it are very few. Brahman is mindless (Amanah); for mind is a fetter on true consciousness. This mindlessness (Niralambapuri) is sought through the means of Yoga. But no would- be Yogi can attain this state unless his mind is already pure, that is, not only free from gross sin, but already possessing some freedom from the bondage of worldly desires, cultivated and trained, and desirous of lib eration (Mumukshu). The aim, therefore, of preliminary Sadhana is to secure that purification of mind (Cittashuddhi) which is alone the basis on which Yoga works. The first object then is to restrain the natural appetites, to control the senses, and all that excessive selfishness beyond the bounds of Dharma which is sin (Papa). Dharma prescribes these bounds because unrestricted selfish enjoyment leads man downward from the path of his true evolution. Man is, as regards part of his nature, an animal, and has, according to the Shastra, passed through all animal forms in his 84 lakhs of previous births. But he has also a higher nature and if he conforms to the path laid out for him will progress by degrees to the state of that Spirit whose limited form he now is. If he strays from that path he falls back, and continued descent may bring him again to the state of apparently unconscious matter through many intervening Hells in this and other worlds. For this reason, the Shastra repeats that he is a \"self- killer\" who, having with difficulty attained to manhood, neglects the opportunities of further progress which they give him (Kularnava Tantra I). Therefore, he must avoid sin which leads to a fall. How can the impure realize the Pure? How can the mere seeker of se nsual enjoyment desire formless liberating Bliss? How can he recognize his unity with all if he is bound in selfishness which is the root of all sin? How can he realize the Brahman who thinks himself to be the separate enjoyer of worldly objects and is bound by all sensualities? In various forms this is the teaching of all religions. It would be hardly necessary to elaborate what is so plain were it not apparently supposed that the Tantra Shastra is a strange exception to these universally recognized principles. \"I thought,\" said a recent English correspondent of mine, \"that the Tantra was a wholly bad lot belonging to the left hand path.\" This is not so: common though the notion be. The Shastra teaches that the Sadhaka must slay his \"Six Enemies\" which are the six cardinal sins and all others allied with them. Whether all the means enjoined are good, expedient, and fitting for the purpose is a 441 different matter. This is a distinction which none of its critics ever makes; but which accuracy and justice require they should make if they condemn the method. It is one thing to say that a particular method prescribed for a good end is bad, dangerous, or having regard to the present position of the generality of men, unadvisable; and a totally different thing to say that the end which is sought is itself bad. The Tantra, like all Shastras, seeks the Paramartha and nothing else. Whether all the forms of search are good (and against the bulk of them no moral objection can be raised) is another question. Let it be for argument supposed that one or other of the means prescribed is not good but evil. Is it accurate or just to condemn not only the particular Shastra in which they occur (as the discipline of a particular class of Sadhakas only), but also the whole of the Agamas of all classes of worshippers under the misleading designation \"The Tantra\"? I am here speaking from the point of view of one who is not a Hindu. Those, however, who are Hindus must logically either deny that the Tantra Shastra is the Word of Shiva or accept all which that Word says. For if a Tantra prescribes what is wrong this vitiates the authority, in all matters, of the Tantra in which wrong is ordained. It may be that other matters dealt with should be accepted, but this is so not because of any authority in the particular Tantra, but because they have the countenance elsewhere of a true authoritative scripture. From this logical position no escape is possible. Let us for the moment turn to the celebrated Hymn to Kali (of, as those who read it might call, the extremist, that is Vira Shakta worship) entitled the Karpuradi Stotra (Tantrik Texts, Vol. IX), which like most (probably all) of its kind has both a material (Sthula) and a subtle (Sukshma) meaning. In the 19th verse it is said that the Devi delights to receive in sacrifice flesh, with bones and hair, of goat, buffalo, cat, sheep, camel and of man. In its literal sense this passage may be taken as an instance of the man -sacrifice of which we find traces throughout the world (and in some of the Tantras) in past stages of man's evolution. Human sacrifices permitted by other Semites were forbidden by the Mosaic Code, although there is an obvious allusion to such a custom in the account of the contemplated sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham (Gen. xxii). The Israelites, however, offered bloody sacrifices the savor of which God (Yahweh) is represented as enjoying, they being 442 necessary in His honor and to avert His wrath (Gen. viii. 21; Lev. i. 9. 13, 17; Judges vi. 17, xii. 15; Gen. viii. 20 -21; 1 Sam xxvi. 19). Nothing is more common in all religions (and Christianity as by some understood provides many examples) than to materially understand spiritual truths. For such is the understanding of material of Sthuladarshin (grossly seeing) men. But, even in the p ast, those who were spiritual referred all sacrifice to the self; an inner sacrifice which all must make who would attain to that Spirit which we may call Kali, God, Allah, or what we will. But what is the Svarupa -vyakhya or true meaning of this apparently revolting verse? The meaning is that inner or mental worship (Antaryaga) is done to Her who is black (Asita) because She is the boundless (Sita = Baddha) Consciousness (Cidrupa) whose true nature is eternal liberation (Nityamukta -Svabhava). And just as in outer worship material offerings (Upacara) are made, so the Sadhaka sacrifices to Her his lust (the Goat -Kama), his anger (the Buffalo- Krodha), his greed (the Cat - Lobha), his stupidity of illusion (the Sheep -Moha), his envy (the Camel - Matsaryya) and his pride and infatuation with worldly things (the Man- Mada). All will readily recognize in these animals and man the qualities (Guna) here attributed to them. It is to such as so sacrifice to whom is given Siddhi in the form of the five kinds of Mukti. Competency for Tantra (Tantrashastradhikara) is described in the second Chapter of the Gandharva Tantra as follows: The aspirant must be intelligent (Daksha), with senses controlled (Jitendriya), abstaining from injury to all beings (Sarva himsa -vinirmukta), ever doing good to all (Sarvapranihite rata), pure (Shuci), a believer in Veda (Astika), a non- dualist (Dvaitahina), whose faith and refuge is in Brahman (Brahmanishtha, Brahmavadi, Brahma, Brahma -parayana). \"Such an one,\" it adds, \"is competent for this Scrip ture otherwise he is no Sadhaka\" (So'smin shastre'dhikari tad anyatra na sadhakah). It will be allowed by all that these are strange qualifications for a follower of \"a bad scripture of the left hand path.\" Those who are on such a path are not supposed to be seekers of the Brahman, nor solicitous for the good of all being. Rather the reverse. The Kularnava Tantra (which I may observe deals with the ill -famed Pacatattva ritual) gives in the thirteenth Chapter a long list of qualifications necessary in the case of a Tantrik disciple (Shishya). Amongst these, it rejects the slave of food and sexual pleasure (Jihvopasthapara); the lustful (Kamuka), shameless (Nirlajja), the greedy and 443 voracious eater, the sinner in general who does not follow Dharma and Acara, who is ignorant, who has no desire for spiritual knowledge, who is a hypocrite, with Brahman on his lips but not in his heart, and who is without devotion (Bhakti). Such qualifications are inconsistent with its alleged intention to encourage sensuality unless we assume that all such talk in all the Shastras throughout all time is mere hypocrisy. It is not however sufficient for the Sadhaka to turn from sin and the occasions of it. It is necessary to present the mind with a pure object and to busy it in pure actions. This not only excludes other objects and actions but trains the mind in such a way towards goodness and illumination that it at length no longer desires wrongful enjoyment; or lawful Pashu enjoyment or even enjoyment infused with a spiritual Bhava, and thus finally attains desirelessness (Nishkama -bhava). The mind dominated by matter, then regulated in matter, consciously releases itself to first work through matter, then against matter; then rising above matter it, at length, enters the Supreme S tate in which all the antithesis of Matter and Spirit have gone. What then are the means by which spiritual Siddhi is attained? Some are possibly common to all religions; some are certainly common to more than one religion, such as objective ritual worship (Bahyapuja), inner or mental worship (Manasa -Puja or Antarpuja) of the Ishtadevata, prayer (Prarthana), sacraments (Samskara), self -discipline for the control of the will and natural appetites (Tapas), meditation (Dhyana) and so forth. There is, for insta nce, as I have elsewhere pointed out, a remarkable similarity between the Tantrik ritual of the Agamas and Christian ritual in its Catholic form. It has been suggested that Catholicism is really a legacy of the ancient civilization, an adaptation of the old religions (allied in many respects with Shakta worship) of the Mediterranean races; deriving much of its strength from its non - Christian elements. I will not observe on this except to say that you do not dispose of the merits of any ritual by showing (if it be the fact) that it is extremely old and non- Christian. Christianity is one of the great religions, but even its adherents, unless ignorant, will not claim for it the monopoly of all that is good. To deal in detail with Tantrik Sadhana would take more than a volume. I have shortly summarized some important rituals. I will now shortly indicate 444 some of the general psychological principles on which it is based and which if understood, will give the key to an understanding of the extraordinary complexity and variety of the actual ritual details. I will also illustrate the application of these principles in some of the more common forms of worship. It is recognized in the first place that mind and body mutually react upon one another. There must therefore be a physical Sadhana as the groundwork of the mental Sadhana to follow. India has for ages recognized what is now becoming generally admitted, namely, that not only health but clarity of mind, character, disposition, and morals are affected by the nourishment, exercise, and general treatment of the body. Thus, from the moral aspect, one of the arguments against the use of meat and strong drink is the encouragement they give to animal passions. Why then it may be asked do these form a part of some forms of Shakta Sadhana'? I answer this later. It is however a Hindu trait to insist on purity of food and person. Tantrik Hathayoga deals in full with the question of bodily cleanliness, food, sexual continence, and physical exercise. But there are injunctions, though less strict, for the ordinary householder to whom wine and other intoxicating drinks and the eating of beef (thought by some to be a material foundation of the British Empire, but now recognized by several medical authorities to be the source of physical ills) and some other foods, as also all gluttony, as regards permitted food, are forbidden. Periodical fasts are enjoined; as also, during certain religious exercises, the eating of the pure food called Havishyannam made of fruit, vegetable and rice. The sexual life has also its regulations. In short, it is said, let the body be well treated and kept pure in order to keep the mind sane and pure and a good and not rebellious instrument for mental Sadhan a. In the Tantras will be found instances of several necessary bodily perfections in the Sadhaka. Thus he should not be deformed, with defective limbs, wanting in, or having excess of any limb, weak of limb, crippled, blind, deaf, dirty, diseased, with unnatural movements, paralyzed, slothful in action (Kularnava, XIII). Let us now pass to the mind. For the understanding of Hindu ritual it is necessary to understand both Hindu philosophy and Hindu psychology. This point, so far as I am aware, has never been observed Certainly Indian ritual 445 has never been dealt with on this basis. It has generally been considered sufficient to class it as \"Mummery\" and then to pass on to something supposed to be more worthy of consideration. It is necessary to remember that (outside successful Yoga) the mind (at any rate in its normal state) is never for one moment unoccupied. At every moment of time worldly objects are seeking to influence it. Only those actually do so, to which the mind, in its faculty as Manas, gives attention. In one of the Tantrik Texts (Satcakranirupana), the Manas is aptly spoken of as a door -keeper who lets some enter and keeps others outside. For this reason it is called Samkalpavikalpatmaka: that is, it selects (Samkalpa) some things which the senses (Indriyas) present to it and rejects (Vikalpa) others. If the Manas attends to the sensation demanding entrance, it is admitted and passed on to the Buddhi and not otherwise. So the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, \"My Manas was elsewhere and therefore I did not hear.\" This is a secret for the endurance of pain which not only the martyrs and the witches knew, but some others who have suffered lesser pains. When the sensation is passed on to the Buddhi, as also when the latter acts upon the material of remembered precepts, there is formed in the Buddhi a Vritti. The latter is a modification of the Mind into the form of the perceived object. Unless a man is a Siddhayogi, it is not possible to avoid the formation of mental Vrittis. The object, there fore, of Sadhana is firstly to take the attention away from undesirable objects and then to place a desirable object in their stead. For the mind must feed on something. The object is the Ishtadevata. When a Sadhaka fully, sincerely and deeply contemplates and worships his Ishtadevata, his mind is formed into a Vritti in the form of the Devata. As the latter is all purity, the mind, which contemplates it, is during and to the depth of such contemplation pure. By prolonged and repeated worship the mind becomes naturally pure and of itself tends to reject all impure notions. What to others is a source of impurity is pure. To the pure, as the Hellenes said, all things are pure. Things are not impure. It is the impure mind which makes them so. He learns to see that everythin g and all acts are manifestations of the Divine. He who realizes Consciousness in all objects no longer has desire therefor. In this way a good disposition or Bhava, as it is called, is attained which ripens into that which is divine or Devatabhava. This is the principle on which all Sadhana, as well as what is called specifically 446 Mantrayoga, is based. It is profoundly said in the Kularnva Tantra that a man must rise by means of the same things which are the cause of his fall. If you fall on the ground you must raise yourself by it. The mind is thus controlled by means of its own object (Vishaya); that is, the world of name and form (Namarupa). The unregulated mind is distracted by Namarupa. But the same Namarupa may be used as the first means of escape therefrom. A particular form of Namarupa productive of pure Bhava is therefore given as the object of meditation. This is called Sthula or Saguna Dhyana of the five Devatas. Material media are used as the first steps whereby the Formless One is, through Yoga, attained, such as Images (Pratima), emblems (Linga, Shalagrama), pictures (Citra), mural markings (Bhittirekha), Jar (Ghata), Mandalas and Yantras. To these worship (Puja) is done with other rites such as Japa, Nyasa and so forth, and gestures (Mudra). Siddhi in this, is the Samadhi called Mahabhava. The second principle to be noted is that the object or mind's content, as also the service (Seva) of it, may be either gross (Sthula) or subtle (Sukshma). This distinction pervades all the rituals and rightly so. Men are not all at the same degree of intellectual and spiritual advancement. For the simple - minded there are simple material and mental images. Progressively considered, the objects used to fix in the mind the thought of the Devata are images in human or semihuman form, similar pictures, non -human forms or emblems (such as Linga and Gauripatta, Shalagrama, the Jar or Ghata, Mandalas) and lastly Yantras. The image is not merely used for instruction (ut pictura pro scriptura haberetur), or to incite in the mind a mental picture, but after the Prana -Pratishtha rite is itself worshipped. So also amongst Christians, where however this rite is unknown, \"eikones acheiropoietoi\" (what are called in Sanskrit Svayambu emblems) and wonder -working images have been directly venerated. Superficial persons doubtless think themselves profound when they ask how the Devata can be invoked (Avahana). To them also the dismissal (Visarjana) savors of childish impudence and absurdity. How (I have read) can God be told to come a nd go P A Christian who sings the Hymn, \"Veni creator Spiritus,\" is indeed ignorant if he fancies that at his request the Holy Ghost comes to him flying through the skies. As Shamkara says, Spirit (Atma) never comes and never goes. That which in fact moves is the mind of the Sadhaka in which, if pure, 447 Spirit manifests Itself. That Spirit is in all places, and when the Sadhaka's mind fully realizes its presence in the Image, the latter as the manifestation of that Spirit is a fitting object of worship. Some knowledge of Vedanta is needful for the understanding and performance of image worship. Yantra worship is however higher and is fitter for those who have reached a more advanced stage in Sadhana. The term, as I have said, literally means an instrument; tha t by which anything is accomplished. In Upasana it is that instrument by which the mind is fixed upon the Devata of worship. It is, as drawn, a diagram consisting of lines, angles and curves, varying with the Devata worshipped as also, to some extent, according as it is a Puja or Dharana Yantra, the whole being included in a common Bhupura. A Yantra is three- dimensional, though it is very generally represented by a drawing on the flat. The Yantra and each part of it as representing certain Shaktis, has a significance which is known to the instructed Sadhaka. On the great Sri Yantra with its Baindava and other Cakras there is an entire literature. It is neglected now -a-days. Those who have fully understood it are masters in Tantra Shastras. The subject is sho rtly dealt with in the Introduction to the Tantraraja Tantra (Vol. VIII, Tantrik Texts). Not only is the object of worship subtle or gross, but so also is the ritual with which it is worshipped. For the simple Indian, worship avails itself of the ordinary incidents of daily life understood by even the most ignorant. And so we see the tending of the idol, waking it, bathing it, giving it food, putting it to sleep and so forth. In ordinary worship there is the offer of flowers, light, incense and the like Upa cara. In the subtle inner or mental worship (Antarpuja) these are but symbols. Thus the Janeshvara Samhita cited in the Mantrayogarahasyanirnaya speaks of the offering of \"flowers of feeling\" (Bhavapushpa) to the Divinity -- namely, the virtue of selflessness (Anahamkara), desirelessness (Araga), guilelessness (Adambha), freedom from malice and envy (Advesha, Amatsaryya), and infatuation and delusion (Amada and Amoha) and control over the feelings and mind (Akshobhaka, Amanaka). He who can truly make such offerings to Devi is a high Sadhaka indeed. The Shastra makes wonderful provision for all types. It recognizes that there must be a definite object to which the mind must turn; chooses that object with a view to the capacities of the Sadhaka; and similarly regulates the ensuing worship. Much ignorant talk takes place as to the 448 supposed worship of the Formless. Worship implies an object of worship and every object has some form. But that form and the ritual vary to meet the needs of differing capacities and temperaments; commencing with the more or less anthropomorphic image (Doll or Puttali, as those who dislike such worship call it) with its material service reproducing the ways of daily life, passing through pictures, emblems, Yantras, and mental worship t o adoration of the Point of Light (Jyotirbindu) in which at length, consciousness being merged, all worship ceases. The Shaktirahasya summarizes the stages of progress in a short verse, thus: \"By images, ceremonies, mind, identification, and knowing the Self, a mortal attains Liberation (Kaivalya)\". In the same way, meditation is either gross (Sthula) or subtle (Sukshma). The forms of the Mother of the Universe are threefold. There is first the Supreme (Para) form of which the Vishnuyamala says \"None know\". There is next Her subtle form which consists of Mantra. But as the mind cannot settle itself upon that which is formless, She appears also in physical form as celebrated in the Devi- stotras of the Puranas and Tantras. The third principle to be noticed is the part which the body is made to take in the ritual. Necessarily there is action in any case to carry out the ritual, but this is so prescribed as to emphasize the mental operation (Manasikriya), and in addition certain symbolic gestures (Mudra) are pres cribed. The body is made to take its part in the ritual, the mental processes being thus emphasized and intensified. This is based on a well -known natural tendency. When we speak with conviction and intensity of feeling, we naturally adopt appropriate movements of the body and gestures of the hands. We thus speak with the whole body. Take for example Nyasa which like Yantra is peculiar to the Tantras. The object of the Sadhaka is to identify himself with the Devata he contemplates and thus to attain Devatabhava for which it is, in its many forms, a most powerful means. Regarding the bo dy of the Devata as composed of Bija Mantras, he not merely imagines that his own body is so composed but he actually places (Nyasa means placing) these Bijas with the tip of his fingers on the various parts of his own body. The Abhishta Devata is thus in 449 imagination (expressed by outward acts) placed in each of the parts and members of the Sadhaka's body, and then with the motion of his arms he, by Vyapaka Nyasa, as it were, spreads the presence of the Devata all over his body. He thus feels himself permeated in every part by the presence of the Devata and identified with the Divine Self in that its form. How, it may be asked, can the Devata be spread as it were butter on bread? These are crude questionings and because critics of the ritual do not get beyon d this crude state of mind, this ritual is not understood. Devata is not spread. God is everywhere and He is not to be placed by man's fingers anywhere. What is done is to produce in man's mind the notion that he is so spread. Again with certain ritual act s Mudra is made. This Mudra expresses by the hands the thought of the worshipper of which it is sometimes a kind of manual shorthand. A further important point for consideration is that the mental Vritti is not only strengthened by the accompanying physical action, but by a prolonged repetition of either or both. There may be a literal repetition of either or both, of which a prominent example is Japa of Mantra with which I have dealt in the Chapters on Shakti as Mantra and on the Varnamala; or the object of contemplation may be severed into parts, as where meditation is done not simply on the Devata as a whole, but on each of the parts of His body and then on the whole; or a particular result, such as the dissolution of the Tattvas in Bhutasuddhi, may be analyzed into the component parts of a process commencing with the first movement and ending with the last. Repetition of a word and idea fixes it in the mind, and if the same essential thought can be presented in varied forms, the effect is more powerful an d at the same time less calculated to tire. \"Vain repetition\" is itself in the mouths of many a vain criticism when not a platitude. If it is in fact vain, it is vain. But it need not be so. In the current gross way of looking at things it is asked, \"Will the Deity yield (like a modern politician) to repeated clamor?\" The answer is the Devata is not so affected. What is in fact affected is, the mind of the Sadhaka himself, which, being thus purified by insistent effort, becomes a fit medium for the manifest ation of a divine consciousness (Devatabhava). In short fact Indian ritual cannot be understood unless the Vedantik principles of which they are a particular practical application are understood. Even when in devotion, complete understanding and feeling 450 are not attained, the intention to gain both will achieve success by quickening worshipper's interest and strengthening the forces of the will. A word now as to Symbolism, which exists in all religions in varying degrees. The Tantra Shastra is extraordinaril y full of it in all its kinds -- form, color, language, number, action. The subject is a highly interesting but very lengthy one. I can only make two remarks with regard to it here. Red is a favorite color in the Shakta Tantras. As pointed out in the Bhava nopanisad (Sutra 28) an Upanishad of the Kadimata and Bhaskararaya's commentary thereon, Redness denotes Raga and Vimarsha Shakti. (See Introduction to Tantraraja Tantra Vol. VIII, Tantrik Texts, and Vol. XI, Tantrik Texts.) There is a good deal of what is called erotic symbolism in some of the Tantras. This is apt to shock many English people, who are by no means all so moral in fact as some might think this sensitivity suggests. \"The Hindus are very natural as regards sexual matters.\" An English clergyman remarks (E. F. Elwin India and the Indians, p. 70) \"A leading Indian Christian said to me 'there is no reserve among us in the sense that you English people have it. There is nothing which our children do not know.\" It should be added, says this author, \"that the knowledge of evil (why I may ask is it always evil?) does not as a matter of course produce evil\". The mind of the ancients was a natural one and they called a spade a spade and not an horticultural instrument, and were not shocked thereby. For instance, coupled Yab-Yum figures were not thought impure. Another point has been observed upon by the Italian author Guido Gozzano, namely, that the European has lost the power of \"worshipping through the flesh\" which existed in antique pagan times. (Verso la cuna del Mondo). Fear of erotic symbols is rather indicative in the generality of cases of a tendency to weakness and want of self -control. The great Edward Carpenter speaks of the \"impure hush\" in these matters. A person whose mind is naturally bent towards sensual thoughts but who desires to control them has no doubt a fear, which one readily understands, of anything which may provoke such thoughts. But such a man is, in this respect, lower than him who looks upon natural things in a natural way without fear of injury to himself; and greatly lower than him to whom all is a manifestation of the One Consciousness, and who realizes this in those things which are the cause of all to the imperfectly self -governed Pashu. Nothing is in itself impure. It is the mind 451 which makes it so. It is however absolutely right that persons who feel that they have not sufficient self -control should, until they gain it, avoid what they think may do them injury. Apart from symbolism there are statements in some Shastras or so -called Shastras which are, in the ordinary modern sense, obscene. Some years ago a man wrote to me that he had come across in the Tantras \"obscenities the very reading of which was demoralizing\". The very fact that these portions of the Scripture had such an effect on him is a sufficient reason that he and others similarly situated should not read them. The Tantra Shastra recognizes this principle by certain injunctions into which I cannot enter here. The Kularnava expressly says that the Chapter on the Wine ritual is not to be read (Na pathed asavollasam); that is, by the unqualified. Again it is not necessary to admit either that every Text which calls Itself a Tantra is a genuine one or if so that it was the product of a high class Sadhaka. What is authoritative is that which is generally admitted to be so. Even if the Scripture be one of general acceptance, there is another matter to be remembered. As pointed out in Karpuradistotra (Hymn to Kali, where instances are given), an apparently \"obscene\" stateme nt may disguise something which is not so. Why it may be asked? An intending disciple may be questioned as to such passages. If he is a gross- minded or stupid man his answers will show it. Those who are not fit for the reception of the doctrine may be kept off on hearing or reading such statements which may be of such a character that anyone but a fool would know that they were not to be taken literally. It may be that the passages which my correspondent read were of this character. As regards erotic symbolism, however, (for to this I now limit myself) it is not peculiar to the Tantras. It is as old as the hills and may be found in other Scriptures. It is a matter of embarrassment to the class I have mentioned that the Bible is not free from it. Milton, after referring to Solomon's wedded leisures says, \"In the Song of Songs which is generally believed, even in the jolliest expressions, to figure the spousals of the Church with Christ, sings of a thousand raptures between those two lovely ones far on the hith er side of carnal enjoyment.\" If we would picture the cosmic processes we must take the materials therefor from our own life. It is not 452 always necessary to go to the erotic life. But man has generally done so for reasons I need not discuss here; and his selections must sometimes be admitted to be very apt. It has however been said that \"throughout Shakta symbolism and pseudo- philosophizing, there lies at the basis of the whole system, the conception of sexual relationship as the ultimate explanation of the universe.\" Reading these words as they stand, they are nonsense. What is true is that some Shakta Tantras convey philosophic and scientific truths by the media of erotic imagery; which is another matter. But so also does Upanishad. The charge of pseudo- philosophy is ill- founded, unless the Advaita- vedanta is such. The Shakta Tantra simply presents the Vedantik teachings in a symbolical ritualistic form for the worshipper to whom it also prescribes the means whereby they may be realized in fact. Those who th ink otherwise have not mastered the alphabet of the subject. I will conclude with a reply to a possible objection to what I have above written. It may be said that some of the rituals to which I have alluded are not merely the property of the Tantra Shastras and that they are not entitled to any credit for them. It is a fact that some (many have become extinct) Vaidik rituals such as the ten Samskaras, Sandhya, Homa and so forth are imbedded in and have been adopted by the Agamas. These and other rituals are to be found also in the Puranas. In any case, the Agama is what it is whether its elements are original or derived. If the rites adopted are creditable then praise must be given for the adoption of that which is good. If they are not, blame equally attaches to the original as to the copy. What however the Agamas have adopted has been shaped so as to be suitable for all, that is, for others than those for whom the original rituals were intended. Further many of the rituals here described seem to have been introduced by and to be peculiar to the Agamas. Possibly some of these may have been developed from other forms or seeds of form in the Vaidik ritual. The whole subject of Indian ritual and its origins is still awaiting inquiry. Personally I am disposed to favor the view that the Agamas have made a contribution which is both original and considerable. To me also the contribution seems to have greater conformity with Vedantik doctrine, which is applied by the ritual in a psychological manner which is profoun d. On an \"historical\" view of the matter this seems necessarily to be so. For, according to that view, the early Vaidik ritual either antedated or 453 was contemporaneous with the promulgation of the Vedantik doctrine to be found in the Upanishads, for the general acceptance of which considerable time was necessary. It could not therefore (if at all) embody that doctrine in the same way or to the same degree as a Ritual developed at a time when that doctrine had been widely disseminated, generally accepted and at least to a greater degree systematized. Ritual is only a practical expression of doctrine, and the Agamas, according to a generally accepted view, did not come into being earlier than a date later than the first and chief Upanishads, and perhaps at the close of what is generally called the Aupanishadic age. No \"historical\" argument, however, is yet entirely trustworthy, as the material upon which it is to be based has not been sufficiently explored. For myself I am content to deal with present -day facts. According to the Indian view, all Shastras are various parts of one whole and that Part which as a present -day fact contains the bulk of the ritual, now or recently in practice, consists of the Tantras of the various schools of Agama. As an Indian author and follower of the Shaivagama has said -- the Temple ritual throughout India is governed by the Agamas. And this must be so, if it be the fact as alleged, that Temples, Images, and other matters were unknown to the original Vaidik Aryas. If the Agamas have adopted some of the ritual of the latter, those in their turn in course of time took to themselves the practices of those outside the body of men for whom the Vaidik Karma -kanda was originally designed. Vedanta in its various forms has now for centuries constituted the religious notions of India, and the Agamas in their differing schools are its practical expression in worship and ritual affording the means whereby Vedantik doctrine is realized. 454 CHAPTER TWENTY -SEVEN . THE PACATATTVA (THE SECRET RITUAL ) The notoriety of the Shakta Pacatattva ritual with wine and women has thrown into the shade not only the practical topics with which I have dealt, but every other, including the valuable philosophical presentment of Vedanta contained in the Shakta Tantra. Notwithstanding, and indeed because, of the off- hand and (in certain respects) ignorant condemnation which this ritual has received, the interests of both scholarship and fairness (which by the wa y should be identical) require, that we should first ascertain the facts, think clearly and fearlessly, and then determine without prejudice. From both the Shastrik and historical point of view the subject is of such importance that it is not possible for me to here deal with it otherwise than in a very general way. It is necessary, however, in a paper on Upasana, to at least touch upon the matter because as against everything one says about the Tantras, there is raised the express or implied query \"That ma y be all very well. But what about the infamous Pacamakara?\" Anything said in favor of the Shastra is thus discounted in advance. We must first disentangle the general principles involved from their particular application. The principle may be sound and yet the application may not be so. We may, for instance, approve striving for Vedantik detachment (Audasinya), whilst at the same time we may reject the Aghora's application of it in eating human carrion. Next, let us see what in fact is the ritual applicat ion of these principles. Then let us judge the intention with which the ritual was prescribed. A principle may be good and the intention may be good, but its application may be intrinsically bad, or at least dangerous, and therefore inexpedient as leading to abuse. In life it is a mistake to altogether neglect the pragmatical aspect of any theory. Logic and life do not always go hand in hand. Lastly, let us see whether the application is good or bad or inexpedient; or whether it is partially one or the othe r. 455 In the first place it is necessary to clear the air of some common misconceptions. It is commonly thought that all the practitioners of the Pacatattva ritual with wine, woman, and so forth are immoral men, professing to follow a Scripture which does not accept the ordinary rules of morality as regards food, drink and woman which enjoin that men should curb their sensual desires. Rather is it thought that it teaches that men should yield to them and thus \"enjoy\" themselves. This view turns at least this portion of the Shakta Tantra into a scripture of libertinism. thinly veiling itself in pseudo -religious forms. Its followers are supposed to be in the condition of a sensual man who finds his wishes thwarted by the rules of morality of his fellows around him and who, asking himself how he can infringe those rules under color of some supposed authority, gives to the fulfillment of desire a \"religious\" sanction. In the words of an English writer, the bent towards religion of some sort is so strong in India that some of its people even \"sin religiously\". They are, on this view, hypocrites putting themselves to a deal of unnecessary trouble, for men can and do in India, as elsewhere, gratify their desires without religious rituals, and if wishful to establish a theory of enjoyment justifying their conduct, they can, as some have also done in India as elsewhere, advocate an \"epicurean\" materialism for that purpose. For the true sensualist who wishes to get at the object of his desire, these long Tantrik rituals would be obstructive and wearisome. Whatever may be thought of the ritual in question, these notions of it are wrong. The charge, however, if unrefuted, constitutes a blot on this country's civilization, which has been allowed to remain because some who know better are either afraid to acknowledge that they follow these rites, or if they do not, that it may be supposed that they do so. This blot, in so far as it is not justified by actual fact, I propose in the present Chapter to remove. The word Shastra or Scriptures comes from the root Shas, to control, because its object is to control the conduct of men otherwise prone to evil. Whether its methods be mistaken or not, the Shakta Scripture is a Shastra. Morality or Dharma is preached by all Shastras whether of East or West. That morality (Dharma) is in its essentials the same in all the great Scriptures. For what purpose is conduct controlled? The Indian answer is -- in order that man may make for himself a good Karma which spells happiness in this and the next world (Paraloka), and that then he may at length free 456 himself of all Karma and attain Liberation (Moksha). Bad Karma leads to suffering here and in the Hells of the afterlife. This is taught in the Shakta, as in other Shastras, which seek to train the Sa dhaka to attain Liberation. In a work of the present scope, I have not the space to cite authority in support of all these elementary propositions. There is, however, an abundance of Texts in support of them. Consult, for instance, the grand opening Chapter of the Kularnava Tantra, which points out the frailty of Man, the passing nature of this world and of all it gives to Man, and his duty to avail himself of that Manhood which is so difficult of attainment so that he does not fall but rises and advances to Liberation. I cite the Kularnava not merely because it is reputed to be a great Tantra and authority readily accessible, but because it teaches in full the practice of the rituals under consideration. But what is Liberation? It is the state of Brahman the Pure. How can the Pure be attained by counseling the practice of what the author of the Shastra thought to be impure. Every Tantra counsels the following of Dharma or morality. The same Tantra (above cited) in its Chapter dealing with the necessary qualifications of a disciple points out that he must be of good character and in particular must not be lewd (Kamuka) and given over to drink, gluttony and woman. If he is so, he is not competent for this particular ritual and must be trained by other disciplines (Pashvacara). I here and hereafter deal with these particular infractions of morality because they alone in this matter concern us in our attempt to understand a ritual which is supposed to be an instance of the commission of these very sins. The Mahanirvana Tantra, which is of special interest because it is an attempt to provide a general code including law (in its European sense) for the followers of its cult, makes provision, amongst other matters, for general decency and so forth, for the state -punishment (unknown to English legislation) of men who go with prostitutes (XI. 43) as also with unmarried girls (ib., 29 -34), with women of prohibited degree (ib.), with the wives of others (ib., 35-41), or who merely look with an eye of lust upon them (ib., 47), stating (ib., 46) \"A man should consider as wife only that woman who has been married to him according to Brahma (the common) or Shaiva form. All other women are the wives of others.\" It deplores (I -37) the 457 evil customs of the present age (Kaliyuga) wi th its irreligion, lust, adultery, gluttony and addiction to strong drinks. How strangely hypocritical are these laments in a Shastra which is supposed to consciously promote the very tendencies it deplores. It has been said that the Mahanirvana is a worth y exception in an unworthy class. It is true that this Tantra evidences what may be called a reforming tendency on account of abuses which had occurred and thus puts restrictions on the ordinary householder as regards particular portions of the ritual, a fact which made a Pandit, of whom I was told, say that in comparison with the Mahanila Tantra it was \"a woman's Shastra\". Nevertheless on the general matters here dealt with it is not an exception. Possibly those who so speak had only read the Mahanirvana w hich is the first Tantra to be translated in English. Certainly nothing that they say indicates any real acquaintance with any other. There are in fact other fine and more philosophical Tantras, and all the great authoritative Scriptures are at one, so far as I am aware, on the general question of morality and the search for Liberation with which I here deal. How, as I have said, could it, on commonly accepted principles, be otherwise? Whether the Sadhana they teach is good and effective for the end sought is another matter, and still more so is the question whether it has been productive in fact of abuse. What then arc the general Indian rules touching drinking, eating, and sexual intercourse? In ancient Vaidik times intoxicating liquor was taken in the for m of Soma. Such drink was found, however, in the course of time to be productive of great evils, and was thrice cursed by Brahma, Shukracarya and Krishna. It was then prohibited with the result that India has been the most temperate among the great peoples of the world, Manu having declared that though the drinking of wine was a natural tendency, abstention therefrom was productive of great fruit, The Ushanah Samhita says: \"Wine should not be drunk, given or taken\" (Madyam apeyam adeyam agrahyam). The drinking of wine is one of the great sins (Mahapataka) involving expiation (Prayashcitta), and otherwise leading the sinner to that great Hell in which the slayer of a Brahmana is confined ( Vishnu Purana, II. c. vi). In ancient Vaidik times, meat was eaten by the fair -colored auburn- haired Aryans, including even beef, as is done by their fellow -Aryans of the West. But in process of time the slaughter of cattle for food was absolutely 458 prohibited and certain meats such as that of the domesticated fowl and pig were held to be impure. As regards the eating of flesh and fish to -day, I believe the higher castes (outside Bengal) who submit to the orthodox Smarta discipline take neither. Nor do high and strict Brahmanas in that province. But the bulk of the people there, both men and women, eat fish, and men consume the flesh of male goats previously offered to the Deity. Grain of all kinds is a common diet. I speak, of course, of orthodox Hindus. Some who have adopted Western civilization have taken over with it the eating of beef, the whisky peg and champagne, the curses of Brahma, Shukra, Krishna, and the Hell of their Shastras being nothing to them. As regards Durga Devi the absurd statement has been made (Empire of India by Sir Bampfylde Fuller, 161) that \"to extremists among Her votaries any sexual restraint is a denial of Her authority.\" Yet it is common ground to all Shastras that sexual intercourse (Maithuna) by a man with a woman who is not lawful to him is a sin. The Vaidik Dharma is strict on this point. It forb ids not merely actual Maithuna but what is called Ashtamga (eightfold) Maithuna, namely, Smaranam (thinking upon it), Kirttanam (talking of it), Keli (play with women), Prekshanam (making eyes at women), Guhyabhashanam (talk in private with women), Samkalpa (wish or resolve for sexual union), Adhyavasaya (determination towards it), Kriyanishpatti (actual accomplishment of the sexual act). In short, the Pashu or follower of the ordinary ritual (and except for ritual purposes those who are not Pashu) should, in the words of the Shaktakramiya (cited by Mahamahopadhyaya Krishnanatha Nyayapacanana Bhattacarya in his Commentary to v. 15 of the Karpuradistotra, Hymn to Kali), avoid Maithuna, conversation on the subject and assemblies of women. Maithunam tatkathalapam tadgoshthim parivarjayet Even in marriage certain rules are to be observed such as that which prescribes intercourse on the fifth day after the termination of the period (Ritukalam vina devi ramanam parivarjayet) which is said by the Nitya Tantra to be a characteristic of the Pashu. Polygamy is permissible to all Hindus. 459 The Divinity in woman, which the Shakta Tantra in particular proclaims, is also recognized in the ordinary Vaidik teaching. The wife is a House -Goddess (Grihadevata) united to her husband by the sacrament (Samskara) of marriage and is not to be regarded merely as an object of enjoyment. Further, Vaidik Dharma (now neglected) prescribes that the householder should ever worship with his wife as necessary partner therein, Sastriko dharmamacaret (see also Matsyasukta Tantra, XXXI). According to the sublime notions of Shruti the union of man and wife is a veritable sacrificial rite -- a sacrifice in fire (Homa) wherein she is both hearth (Kunda) and flame -- and he who knows this as Homa attains Liberation (see Mantra 13 of Homaprakarana of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Edward Carpenter's remarks on what is called the \"obscenity\" of this Upanishad). Similarly, the Tantrik Mantra for Maithuna runs (see Pranatoshini and Tantrasara 698), \"Om, Into the Fire which is Spirit (Atma) brightened by (the pouring thereon) of the ghee of merit and demerit, I by the path of Sushumna (the central 'nerve') ever sacrifice (do Homa of) the functions of the senses using the mind as the ladle. Svaha.\" (In the Homa rite the performer pours ghee into the fire which causes it to shoot up and flame. The ghee is poured in with a ladle. This being internal Homa the mind is the ladle which makes the offering of ghee). Om Dharmadharma -havirdipte atmagnau manasa sr uca Sushumnavartmana nityam akshavrittir juhomyaham: Svaha. Here sexual union takes on the grandeur of a great rite (Yaja) compared with which the ordinary mere animal copulation to ease desire, whether done grossly, shamefacedly, or with flippant gallant ry is base. It is because this high conception of the function is not known that a \"grossness\" is charged against the association of sexual function with religion which does not belong to it. Grossness is properly attributable to those who mate like dumb a nimals, or coarsely and vulgarly, not to such as realize in this function the cosmic activity of the active Brahman or Shiva -Shakti with which they then, as always, unify themselves. 460 It has been already explained that Sadhakas have been divided into three classes -- Pashu, Vira and Divya, and for each the Shastra prescribes a suitable Sadhana, Tamasik, Rajasik and Sattvik accordingly. As later stated, the Pacatattva ritual in its full literal sense is not for the Pashu, and (judging upon principle) the Divya, unless of the lower ritual order, should be beyond it. In its fullest and literal sense it is for the Vira and is therefore called Rajasik Sadhana or Upasana. It is to be noted however that Pashu, Vira and Divya are the three primary classes (Mukhyasadhaka). Besides these there are secondary divisions (Gaunasadhaka). Thus in addition to the primary or Svabhava Pashu there is the Vibhava Pashu who is a step towards Viracara. Viras again have been said to be of three kinds, Svabhava Vira, Vibhava Vira, and Mantrasiddha Vira. It is to this Rajasik Puja that the Hymn to Cinnamasta from the Devirahasyakhanda of the Rudrayamala refers when the Vira therein says, Alipishitapurandhri -bhogapujaparo'ham Bahuvidhakulamargarambha- sambhavito'ham Pashujanavimukho'ham Bhairavim ashrito'ham Gurucaranarato'ham Bhairavo'ham Shivo'ham. (\"I follow the worship wherein there is enjoyment of wine, flesh and wife as also other different forms of Kula worship. In Bhairavi (the Goddess) I seek my refuge. To the feet of Guru I am d evoted. Bhairava am I. Shiva am I.\") To the ordinary English reader the association of eating, drinking and sexual union with worship will probably be incongruous, if not downright repulsive. \"Surely,\" he might say, \"such things are far apart from prayer to God. We go and do them, it is true, because they are a necessity of our animal nature, but prayer or worship have nothing to do with such coarseness. We may pray before or after (as in Grace) on taking food, but the physical acts between are not prayer. Such notions are based partly on that dualism which keeps separate and apart God and His creature, and partly on certain false and depreciatory notions concerning matter and material functions. According to Indian Monism such worship is not only understandable but (I am not speaking of any particular form of it) the only religious attitude 461 consistent with its principles. Man is, in his essence or spirit, divine and one with the universal Spirit. His mind and body and all their functions arc divine, for they are not merely a manifestation of the Power (Shakti) of God but that Power itself. To say that matter is in itself low or evil is to calumniate that Power. Nothing in natural function is low or impure to the mind which recognizes it as Shakti and the working of Shakti. It is the ignorant and, in a true sense, vulgar mind which regards any natural function as low or coarse. The action in this case is seen in the light of the inner vulgarity of mind. It has been suggested that in its proper application the M aithuna Karma is only an application to sexual function of the principles of Yoga (Masson- Oursel Historie de la Philosophie Indienne, pp. 231- 233). Once the reality of the world as grounded in the Absolute is established, the body seems to be less an obsta cle to freedom, for it is a form of that self -same Absolute. The creative function being natural is not in itself culpable. There is no real antinomy between Spirit and Nature which is an instrument for the realization of the Spirit. The method borrows, it is said (ib.), that of Yoga not to frustrate, but to regulate enjoyment. Conversely enjoyment produces Yoga by the union of body and spirit. In the psychophysiological rites of these Shaktas, enjoyment is not an obstacle to Yoga but may also be a means to it. This, he says, is an important conception which recalls the discovery of the Mahayana that Samsara and Nirvana are one. For here are made one, Yoga which liberates and Bhoga which enchains (ib.). It will then be readily understood that according to this doctrine only those are competent for this Yoga who are truly free, or on the way to freedom, of all dualism. External worship demands certain acts and instruments, such as bodily attitude, speech, and materials with which the rite is done, such as flow ers, incense, lights, water and other offerings. These materials and instruments are called Upacara. Orclinarily there are sixteen of these, but they may be more or less. There is nothing absolute in either the quality, quantity or nature of the offerings. Ordinarily such things are offered as might be given to guests or friends or others whom the worshipper loves, such as seat (Asana), welcome (Svagata), water to wash the feet (Padya), food (Naivedya), cloths (Vasana), jewels (Abharana), with other things such as lights, incense and flowers. In inner or mental worship (Manasapuja) these 462 are not things material, but of the mind of the worshipper. Pleasing things are selected as offering to the Devata because the worshipper wishing to please Devata offers wha t he thinks to be pleasant and would be glad himself to receive. But a man who recognized the divinity (and therefore value) of all things might offer any. With such a disposition a piece of mud or a stone would be as good an offering as any other. There a re some things the ordinary man looks upon as \"unclean\" and, as long as he does so, to offer such a thing would be an offense. But, if to his \"equal eye\" these things are not so, they might be given. Thus the Vira -sadhana of the Shakta Tantra makes ritual use of what will appear to most to be impure and repulsive substances. This (as the Janarnava Tantra says) is done to accustom the worshipper not to see impurity in them but to regard them as all else, as manifestation of Divinity. He is taught that there is nothing impure in itself in natural functions though they be made, by misuse or abuse, the instruments of impurity. Here again impurity consists not in the act per se but in the way and in the intention with which it is done. To a Vira all things, acts, and functions, done with right intention, may be instruments of worship. For, a Vira is one who seeks to overcome Tamas by Sattva. Therefore, the natural functions of eating, drinking and sexual union may be used as Upacara of worship. This does not mean that a man may do what he likes as regards these things and pass them off as worship. They must be rightly done, otherwise, a man would be offering his sin to Devata. The principle of all this is entirely sound. The only question which exists is as regard s the application to which the ritual in question puts it. Worship and prayer are not merely the going aside at a particular time or place to utter set formulae or to perform particular ritual acts. The whole of life, in all its rightful particulars, witho ut any single exception, may be an act of worship if man but makes it so. Who can rightly deny this? Of course, as long as a man regards any function as impure or a matter of shame, his mental disposition is such that he cannot worship therewith. To do so would distract and perturb him. But both to the natural -minded and illuminated man this is possible. The principle here dealt with is not entirely peculiar to this school. Those Hindus who are not Monists, (and whatever be their philosophical theories, no worshippers in practice are so, for worship connotes the dualism of worshipped (Upasya) and worshipper (Upasaka), of the means or 463 instrument (Sadhana) and that to be attained thereby (Sadhya)), yet make offering of their acts to Devata. By thus offering all their daily speech, each word they say becomes, in the words of Shastra, Mantra. Nor, if we examine it, is the principle alien to Christianity, for the Christian may, in opening his day, offer all his acts therein to God. What he thereafter does, is wors hip. The difference in these cases and that of the Vira principle lies (at any rate in practice) in this, that the latter is more thorough in its application, no act or function being excluded, and in worship, the Shakta being a Monist is taught to regard the offering not as given to someone other than his own essential Self, but to That. He is thus, according to the theory of this practice, led to divinise his functions, and by their constant association with the thought of Brahman his mind is, it is said, purified and led away from all carnal desires. If these functions are set apart as something common or impure, victory is not easily won. There is still some part of his life into which Brahman does not enter and which remains the source of distraction. By associating them with religion, it is the religious feeling which works first through and then supersedes them. He thus gradually attains Divyabhava and the state of the Devata he has worshipped. For it is common Indian principle that the end of worship is to assimilate oneself to its object or Devata. Thus it is said in the Agni Purana that. by worship of Rudra one becomes Rudra, by worship of Vishnu one becomes Vishnu, and by worship of Shakti one becomes Shakti. This is so because the mind mentally transforms itself into the likeness of that on which it is set. By thinking always, on the other hand, on sensual objects one becomes sensual. Even before worship, one should strive to attain the true attitude of worship, and so the Gandharva Tantra says, \"He who is not Deva (Adeva) should not worship Deva. The Deva alone should worship Deva.\" The Vira or strictly the Sadhaka qualified to enter Viracara -- since the true Vira is its finished product -- commences Sadhana with this Rajasik Upasana with the Pacatattva as Upacara which are employed for the transformation of the sensual tendencies they connote. I have heard the view expressed that this part of the Shastra was really promulgated for Shudras. Shiva knowing the animal propensities of their common life must lead them to take flesh and wine, prescribed these rites with a view to lessen the evil and to gradually wean them from enjoyment by promulgating conditions under which alone such enjoyment 464 could be had, and in associating it with religion. \"It is be tter to bow to Narayana with one's shoes on than never to bow at all. A man with a taste for drink will only increase his thirst by animal satisfaction (Pashupana). Rut if when he drinks he can be made to regard the liquid as a divine manifestation and have thought of God, gradually such thoughts will overcome and oust his sensual desires. On the same principle children are given powders in jam, though this method is not confined to actual children only. Those who so argue contend that a Brahmana should, on no account, take wine, and Texts are cited which are said to support this view. I have dealt with this matter in the Introduction to the Kalivilasa Tantra. It is sufficient to say here that the reply given is that such Texts refer to the unauthorized consumption of wine as by uninitiated (Anabhishikta) Brahmanas. In the same place I have discussed the question whether wine can be taken at all by any one in this Kali age. For, according to some authorities, there is only Pashubhava in the Kaliyuga. If this be correct then all wine -drinking, whether ritual or otherwise, is prohibited. For the worship of' Shakti, the Pacatattva are declared to be essential. Without the Pacatattva in one form or another Shaktipuja cannot be performed (Mahanirvana, V. 23 -24). The reason of this is that those who worship Shakti, worship Divinity as Creatrix and in the form of the universe. If She appears as and in natural function, She must be worshipped therewith, otherwise, as the Tantra cited says, worship is fruitless. The Mother of the Universe must be worshipped with these five elements, namely, wine, meat, fish, grain, and woman, or their substitutes. By their use the universe (Jagad- brahmanda) itself is used as the article of worship (Upacara). The Mahanirvana (VII. 103 -111) says that wine which gives joy and dispels the sorrows of men is Fire; flesh which nourishes and increases the strength of mind and body is Air; fish which increases generative power is Water, cereals grown on earth and which are the basis of life are Earth, and sexual union, which is the root of the world and the origin of all creation, is Ether. They thus signify the Power (Shakti) which produces all fiery elements, all terrestrial and aquatic life, all vegetable life, and the will, knowledge and acti on of the Supreme Prakriti productive of that great bliss which accompanies the process of creation. (See also Haratattvadidhiti XV, Kamakhya Tantra, Nigamatattvasara IV). 465 The Kailasa Tantra (Purvakhya, Ch. XC) identifies this Pentad (Pacatattva) with the five vital airs (Pranadi) and the five Mahapreta which support the couch of Tripurasundari. With these preliminaries, and postponing for the moment further comment, we may proceed to an examination in greater detail of the five (Paca) elements (Tattva), namely, Wine (Madya), Meat (Mamsa), Fish (Matsya), Parched Cereal (Mudra), and Sexual Union (Maithuna) which stand for drinking, eating and propagation. Because they all commence with the letter M, they are vulgarly called Paca -ma-kara (or five M's). These Pacatattva, Kuladravya or Kulatattva as they are called, have more esoteric names. Thus the last is known as \"the fifth\". Woman is called Shakti or Prakriti. A Tantrik commonly calls his wife his Shakti or Bhairavi. Woman is also called Lata or \"creeper\", because woman clings to and depends on man as the creeper does to the tree. Hence the ritual in which woman is enjoyed is called Lata- sadhana. Wine is called \"causal water\" (Karanavari) or Tirtha water (Tirthavari). But the Pacatattva have not always their literal meaning. The meaning differs according as they refer to the Tamasik (Pashvacara), Rajasik (Viracara) or Sattvik (Divyacara) Sadhanas respectively. \"Wine\" is only wine and Maithuna is only sexual union in the ritual of the Vira. To the Pashu, t he Vira ritual (Viracara) is prohibited as unsuitable to his state, and the Divya, unless of the lower ritual kind, is beyond such things. The result is that the Pacatattva have each three meanings. Thus \"wine\" may be wine (Vira ritual), or it may be coconut water (Pashu ritual) or it may mean the intoxicating knowledge of the Supreme attained by Yoga, according as it is used in connection with the Vira, the Pashu, or the Divya respectively. The Pacatattva are thus threefold, namely, real (Pratyaksha -tattva) where \"wine\" means wine, substitutional (Anukalpatattva) where wine means coconut water or some other liquid, and symbolical or divine (Divyatattva) where it is a symbol to denote the joy of Yoga -knowledge. The Pashu worships with the substitutional Tattvas mentioned later and never takes wine, the Vira worships with wine, and the Divya's \"wine\" is spiritual knowledge. There are further modifications of these general rules in the case of the intermediate Bhavas. Thus the author next cited says that whil st 466 the Svabhava Vira is a drinker of wine, the Vibhava Vira worships internally with the five mental Tattvas and externally with substitutes. The Mantra - siddhavira is free to do as he pleases in this matter, subject to the general Shastrik rules. In an essay by Pandit Jayacandra Siddhantabhushana, answering certain charges made against the Tantra Shastra, he, after stating that neither the Vibhava Vira nor Vibhava Pashu need worship with real wine, says that in modern Bengal this kind of worship is greatly prevalent. Such Tantriks do not take wine but otherwise worship according to the rule of Tantra Shastra. It is, as he says, an erroneous but common notion that a Tantrika necessarily means a drinker of wine. Some Sadhakas again in lieu of the material Maithuna, imagine the union of Shiva and Shakti in the upper brain center known as the Sahasrara. The Divya Pacatattva for those of a truly Sattvika or spiritual temperament (Divyabhava) have been described as follows: \"Wine\" (Madya) according to Kaula Tantra (see p. 85 of Pacatattva- vicara by Nilamani Mukhyopadhyaya) is not any liquid, but that intoxicating knowledge acquired by Yoga of the Parabrahman which renders the worshipper senseless as regards the external world. \"Meat\" (Mamsa) is not any fleshly thing, but the act whereby the Sadhaka consigns all his acts to Me (Mam), that is, the Lord, \"Fish\" (Matsya) is that Sattvik knowledge by which through the sense of \"Mineness\" (a play upon the word Matsya) the worshipper sympathizes with the pleasure and pain of all beings. Mudra is the act of relinquishing all association with evil which results in bondage. Coition (Maithuna) is the union of the Shakti Kundalini, the \"Inner woman\" and World -force in the lowest center (Muladhara Cakra) of the Sadhaka's body with the Supreme Shiva in the highest center (Sahasrara) in the upper Brain (see Essay on Kundalini Shakti post). This, the Yogini Tantra (Ch. VI) says, is the best of all unions for those who are Yati, that is, who have controlled their passions. Sahasrarop ari bindau kundalya melanam Shive Maithunam paramam dravyam yatinam parikirtitam According to the Agamasara, \"wine\" is the Somadhara or lunar ambrosia which drops from the Sahasrara. \"Meat\" (Mamsa) is the tongue (Ma) of 467 which its part (Amsha ) is speech. The Sadhaka in eating it controls his speech. \"Fish\" (Matsya) are those two (Vayu or currents) which are constantly moving in the two \"rivers\" (that is, Yoga \"nerves\" or Nadis) called Ida and Pingala, that is, the sympathetics on each side of the spinal col umn. He who controls his breath by Pranayama, \"eats\" then by Kumbhaka or retention of breath. Mudra is the awakening of knowledge in the pericarp of the great Sahasrara Lotus (the upper brain) where the Atma resplendent as ten million suns and deliciously cool as ten million moons is united with the Devi Kundalini, the World- force and Consciousness in individual bodies, after Her ascent thereto from the Muladhara in Yoga. The esoteric meaning of coition or Maithuna is thus stated in the Agama. The ruddy hued Ra is in the Kunda (ordinarily the seed- mantra Ram is in Manipura but perhaps here the Kunda in the Muladhara is meant). The letter Ma (white like the autumnal moon, Sattvaguna, Kaivalyarupa- prakritirupi (Ch. 2, Kamadhenu Tantra)) is in the Mahayoni (not I may observe the genitals but the lightning- like triangle or Yoni in the Sahasrara or upper brain) in the form of Bindu (a Ghanibhuta or \"condensed\" form of Shakti and transformation of Nada -shakti). When M (Makara) seated on the Hamsa (the \"bird\" which is the pair Shiva -Shakti as Jiva) in the form of A (A -kara) unites with R (Ra- kara) then Brahman knowledge (Brahmajana) which is the source of supreme bliss is gained by the Sadhaka who is then called Atmarama (Enjoyer with the Self), for his enjoyment is in the Atma in the Sahasrara. (For this reason too, the word Rama, which also means sexual enjoyment, is equivalent to the liberator - Brahman, Ra + a + ma). The union of Shiva and Shakti is described (Tantrasara, 702) as true Yoga (Shivashaktisamayogo yoga eva na samshayah) from which, as the Yamala says, arises that Joy which is known as the Supreme Bliss (ib., 703) (Samyogaj jayate sauklyam paramanandalakshanam). This is the union on the purely Sattvik plane which corresponds in the Rajasik plane to the union of Shiva and Shakti in the persons of their worshippers. It will have been observed that here in this Divya or Sattvik Sadhana \"Wine\", \"Woman\" and so forth are really names for operations. The substitutional Tattvas of Pashvacara also do not answer to their names, being other substances which are taken as substitutes of wine, meat, fish 468 (see Kulacudamani; Bhairavayamala, Ch. I). These have been variously described and sometimes as follows: In lieu of wine the Pashu should, if a Brahmana, take milk, if a Kshattriya ghee, if a Vaishya honey, and if a Shudra a liquor made from rice. Coconut water in a bell -metal utensil is also taken as a substitute. Salt, ginger, sesamum, wheat beans (Mashakalai) and garlic are some of the substitutes for meat; the white brinjal vegetable, red radish, masur (a kind of gram), red sesamum and Paniphala (an aquatic plant) take the place of fish. Paddy, rice, wheat and grain generally are Mudra both in Tamasik (Pashvacara) and Rajasik (Viracara) Sadhanas. In lieu of Maithuna there may be an offering of flowers with the hands formed into the gesture called Kachapa- mudra, the union of the Karavira flower (representative of the Linga) with the Aprajita (Clitoria) flower which is shaped as and represents the female Yoni and other substitutes, or there may be union with the Sadhaka's wife. On this and some other matters here dealt with there is variant practice. The Kaulikarcanadipika speaks of what is called the Adyatattvas. Adyamadya or wine is hemp (Vijaya), Adyashuddhi or meat is ginger (Adraka), Adyamina or fish is citron (Jambira), Adyamudra is Dhanyaja that is, made from paddy and Adyashakti is the worshipper's own wife. Quoting from the Tantrantara it says that worship without these Adya forms is fruitless. Even the strictest total abstainer and vegetarian will not object to \"wine\" in the shape of hot milk or coconut water, or to ginger or other substitutes for meat. Nor is there any offense in regarding sexual union between the Sadhaka and his wife not as a mere animal function but as a sacrificial rite (Yaja). At this point we may pass to the literal Tattvas. Wine here is not merely grape -wine but that which is made from various substances such as molasses (Gaudi), rice (Paishti) or the Madhuka flower (Madhvi) which are said by the Mahanirvana Tantra (Ch. VI) to be the best. There are others such as wine made from the juice of the Palmyra and Date tree, and aniseed (Maureya wine). Meat is of three kinds, that is, animals of the water, earth, and sky. But no female animal must be slain. Superior kinds of fish are Shala, Pathina, and Rohita. Mudra which every Orientalist whom I have read calls \"ritual gesture\" or the like is nothing of the kind here, though that is a 469 meaning of the term Mudra in another connection. They cannot have gone far into the subject, for it is elementary knowledge that in the Pacatattva, Mudra means parched cereal of various kinds and is defined inYogini Tantra (Ch. VI) as: Bhrishtadhanyadikam yad yad carvani yam pracakshate Sa mudra kathita Devi sarvesham Naganandini. (Oh Daughter of the Mountain, fried paddy and the like -- in fact all such (cereals) as are chewed -- are called Mudra). The Mahanirvana (Ch. VI) says that the most excellent is that made from Shali rice or from barley or wheat and which has been fried in clarified butter. Meat, fish, Mudra offered to the Devata along with wine is technically called Shuddhi. The Mahanirvana says that the drinking of wine without Shuddhi is like the swallowing of poison and the Sadhana is fruitless. It is not difficult to see why. For, wine taken without food has greater effect and produces greater injury. Moreover, another check on indiscriminate drinking is placed, for wine cannot be taken unless Shuddhi is obtained, prepared, and eaten with the necessary rit es. Woman, or Shakti, as She is properly called, since She is purified and consecrated for the rite and represents the Devi, is of three kinds, namely, Sviya or Svakiya (one's own wife), Parakiya the wife of another or some other woman, and Sadharani or one who is common. This aspect of the subject I deal with later. Here I will only say that, where sexual union is permitted at all, the ordinary Shakti is the Sadhaka's Brahmi wife. It is only under certain conditions that there can be any other Shakti. Shaktis are also of two kinds, namely, those who are enjoyed (Bhogya) and those who are worshipped only (Pujya). A Sadhaka who yields to desire for the latter commits the sin of incest with his own mother. Here again, according to Shakta notions, one must not think of these substances as mere gross matter in the form of wine, meat and so forth, nor on woman as mere woman; nor upon the rite as a mere common meal. The usual daily rites must be performed in the morning, midday and evening (Mahanirvana, V. 25). These are elaborate (ib.,) and take up a large part of the day. Bhutasuddhi is accomplished, at which time the Sadhaka 470 thinks that a Deva body has arisen as his own. Various Nyasas are done. Mental worship is performed of the Devi, the Adya Kalika, who is thought of as being in red raiment seated on a red lotus. Her body dark like a rain- cloud, Her forehead gleaming with the light of the crescent moon. Japa of Mantra is then done and outer worship follows. A further elaborate ritual succeeds. I pause here to ask the reader to conceive the nature of the mind and disposition of the Sadhaka who has sincerely performed these rites. Is it likely to be lustful or gluttonous? The curse is removed from the wine and the Sadhaka meditates upon the union of Deva and Devi i n it. Wine is to be considered as Devata. After the consecration of the wine, the meat, fish and grain are purified and are made like unto nectar. The Shakti is sprinkled with Mantra and made the Sadhaka's own. She is the Devi Herself in the form of woman. The wine is charged with Mantras ending with the realization (Mahanirvana Tantra, VI. 42) when Homa is done, that offering is made of the excellent nectar of \"This -ness\" (Idanta) held in the cup of \"I- ness\" (Ahanta) into the Fire which is the Supreme I- ness (Parahanta). Ahantapatra-bharitam idantaparamamritam Parahantamaye vahnau homasvikaralakshanam. Here the distinction is drawn between the \"I\" (Aham) and the \"This\". The former is either the Supreme \"I\" (Parahanta or Shiva) or the individual \"I\" (Jiva) vehicled by the \"This\" or Vimarsha -Shakti. The Sadhaka is the cup or vessel which is the individual Ego. \"This- ness\" is offered to the Supreme. Drinking is an offering to that Fire which is the transcendent Self \"whence all individual selves ( Jiva) proceed\". Wine is then Tara Dravamayi, that is, the Savioress Herself in the form of liquid matter (Maha -nirvana, XI. 105- 107). None of the Tattvas can be offered unless first purified and consecrated, otherwise the Sadhaka goes to Hell. With further ritual the first four Tattvas are consumed, the wine being poured as an oblation into the mouth of Kundali, after meditation upon Her as Consciousness (Cit) spread from Her seat, the Muladhara to the tip of the tongue. The whole ritual is of great interest, and I hope to give a fuller exposition of it on some future day. Worship with the Pacatattva generally takes place in a Cakra or circle composed of men and women, Sadhakas and Sadhikas, Bhairavas and 471 Bhairavis sitting in a circle, the Shakti being on the Sadhaka's left. Hence it is called Cakrapuja. A Lord of the Cakra (Cakreshvara) presides sitting with his Shakti in the center. During the Cakra, there is no distinction of caste, but Pashus of any caste are excluded. There are various kinds of Cakra -- productive, it is said, of differing fruits for the participator therein. As amongst Tantrik Sadhakas we come across the high, the low, and mere pretenders, so the Cakras vary in their characteristics from say the Tattva - cakra for the Brahma -kaulas, and the Bhairavi -cakra (as described in Mahanirvana, VII. 153) in which, in lieu of wine, the householder fakes milk, sugar and honey (Madhura -traya), and in lieu of sexual union does meditation upon the Lotus Feet of the Divine Mother with Mantra, to Cakras the ritual of which will not be approved such as Cudacakra, Anandabhuvana- yoga and others referred to later. Just as there are some inferior \"Tantrik\" writings, so we find rituals of a lower type of men whose notions or practices were neither adopted by high Sadhakas in the past nor will, if they survive, be approved for practice to -day. What is wanted is a discrimination which avoids both unjust general condemnations and, with equal ignorance, unqualified commendations which do harm. I refer in chapter VI (ante) to a modern Cakra. I heard a short time ago of a Guru, influenced by an English education, whose strictness went so far that the women did not form part of the Cakra but sat in another room. This was of course absurd. The two main objections to the Rajasik Puja are from both the Hindu and European standpoint the alleged infraction of sexual morality, and from the former standpoint, the use of wine. By \"Hindu\" I mean those who are not Shaktas. I will deal with the latter point first. The Vira Shakta admits the Smart a rule against the drinking of wine. He, however, says that drinking is of two kinds, namely, extra -ritual drinking for the satisfaction of sensual appetite, and the ritual drinking of previously purified and consecrated wine. The former is called Pashupana or \"animal drinking,\" and Vrithapana or \"useless drinking\": for, being no part of worship, it is forbidden, does no good, but on the contrary injury, and leads to Hell. The Western's drinking (even a moderate \"whisky and soda\") is Pashupana. The Viracari, like every other Hindu, condemns this and regards it as a great sin. But drinking for the purpose of worship is held to stand on a different ground. Just as the ancient Vaidiks drank Soma as part of the Sacrifice (Yaja), so does the Vira 472 drink wine as part of his ritual. Just as the killing of animals for the purpose of sacrifice is accounted no \"killing\", so that it does not infringe against the rule against injury (Ahimsa), so also drinking as part of worship is said not to be the drinking which the Smritis forbid. For this reason it is contended that the Tantrik secret worship (Rahasya -puja) is not opposed to Veda. The wine is no longer the gross injurious material substance, but has been purified and spiritualized, so that the true Sadhaka looks upon it as the liquid form of the Savior, Devi (Tara Dravamayi). The joy, it produces is but a faint welling up of the Bliss (Ananda), which in its essence, it is. Wine, moreover, is then taken under certain restrictions and conditions which should, if adhered to, prevent the abuse which follows on merely sensual drinking (Pashupana). The true Sadhaka does not perform the ritual for the purpose of drinking wine, (though possibly in these degenerate days many do) but drinks wine in order that he may perform the ritual. Thus, to take an analogous case, a Christian abstainer might receive wine in the Eucharist believing it to be the blood of his Lord. He would not partake of the sacrament in order that he might have the opportunity of drinking wine, but he would drink wine because, that is the way, by which he might take the Eucharist, of which wine together with bread (Mudra) is an element. I may here mention in this connection that not only are drops of wine sometimes sprinkled on the Prasada (sacred food) at Durga -puja and thus consumed by persons who are not Viracaris, but (though this is not generally known and will perhaps not be admitted) on the Prasada which all consume at the Vaisnava shrine of Jagannatha at Puri. This question about the consumption of wine will not appear to the average European a serious affair, though it is so to the non- Shakta Hindu. So strong is the general feeling against it, that when Babu Keshab Chandra Sen, in one of his imitations of Christian doctrine and ritual, started an Eucharis t of his own, the elements were rice and water. It is, however, a matter of common reproach against these Tantriks that some at least drink to excess. That may be so. From what I have heard but little credit attaches to the common run of this class of Tant riks to -day. Apart from the general degeneracy which has affected all forms of Hindu religion, it is to be remembered that in ancient times nothing was done except under the authority of the Guru. He alone could say whether his disciple was competent for a ny particular ritual. It was 473 not open to any one to enter upon it and do as he pleased. Nevertheless, we must clearly distinguish between the commands of the Shastra itself and abuses of its provisions by pretended Sadhakas. It is obvious that excessive drinking prevents the attainment of success and is a fall. As the Mahanirvana (VI. 195- 197; see also VIII. 171) with good sense says, \"How is it possible for a sinner who becomes a fool through drink to say 'I worship Adya Kalika'.\" William James says (Varie ties of Religious Experience, 387) \"The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold fact and dry criticisms of the sober hour. It unites. It is in fact the greatest exciter of the \"Yes\" function in man. It brings him from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core.\" In its effect it is one bit of the mystic consciousness. Wine, as is well known, also manifests and emphasizes the true disposit ion of a man (\"In vino veritas\"). (As to wine, drugs and 'anesthetic revelation', as to the clue to the meaning of life see R. Thouless, Introduction to Psychology of Religion, 61.) When the worshipper is of a previously pure and devout disposition, the moderate use of wine heightens his feelings of devotion. But if it is drunk in excess, there can be no devotion at all, but only sin. This same Tantra therefore, whilst doing away with wine in the case of one class of Cakra, and limiting the consumption in any case for householders, says that excessive drinking prevents success coming to Kaula worshippers, who may not drink to such an extent that the mind is affected (literally \"goes round\"). \"To drink beyond this,\" it says, \"is bestial.\" Yavan na calayed drishtir yavan na calayen manah Tavat panam prakurvvita pashu -panam atah param. Yet the fact that the Mahanirvana thought it necessary to give this injunction is significant of some abuse. Similar counsel may be found however elsewhere; as in the Shyamarah asya which says that excessive drinking leads to Hell. Thus also the great Tantraraja Tantra (Kadimata) says (Ch. VIII). Na kadacit pivet siddho devyarghyam aniveditam Pananca tavat kurvita yavata syan manolayah 474 Tatah karoti cet sadayah pataki bhavati dhruvam Devtagurusevanyat pivannasavam ashaya Pataki rajadandyash cavidyopasaka eva ca. (The Siddha should never drink the Arghya (wine) meant for the Devi, unless the same has been first offered (to Her). Drinking, again, should only be continued so long as the mind is absorbed (in the Devi). He who does so thereafter is verily a sinner. He who drinks wine through mere sensual desire and not for the purpose of worship of Devata and Guru is a worshipper of Ignorance (Avidya) and a sinner punishable by the King.) It must be admitted, however, that there are to be found words and passages which, if they are to be taken literally, would indicate that wine was not always taken in moderation. (See Asavollasa in Kularnava. The Ullasas, however, are stated to be stages of initiation). In reading any Hindu Scripture, however, one must allow for exaggeration which is called \"Stuti\". Thus if there is much meat and wine we may read of \"mountains of flesh\" and \"oceans of wine\". Such statements were not made to be taken literally. Some descriptions again may refer to Kaulavadhutas who, like other \"great\" men in other matters, appear to have more liberty than ordinary folk. Some things may not be \"the word of Shiva\" at all. It is open to any one to sit down and write a \"Tantra,\" \"Stotra\" or what not. The Ananda Stotra, for example, reads in parts like a libertine's drinking song. Though it has been attributed both to the Kulacudamani and Kularnava, a learned Tantrik Pandit, to whom I am much indebted and to whom I showed it, laughed and said, \"How can this be the word of Shiva. It is not Shiva Shastra. If it is not the writing of some fallen Upasaka (worshipper), it is the work of Acaryas trying to tempt disciples to themselves.\" Though a man of Tantrik learning of a kind rarely met with to -day, and a practitioner of the Cakrapuja, he told me that he had never heard of this Stotra until it was sung at a Cakra in Benares. On asking another Pandit there about it, he was told not to trouble himself over \"what these kind of people did \". Even when the words Shiva uvaca (Shiva said) appear in a work, it does not follow that it has any authority. Though all the world condemns, as does the Shastra itself, excessive drinking, yet it cannot be said that, according to views generally 475 accepted by the mass of men in the world today, the drinking of alcohol is a sin. General morality may yet account it such in some future day. I pass then to the other matter, namely, sexual union. The ordinary rule, as the Kaulikarcanadipika says (I refer to the exception later), is that worship should be done with the worshipper's own wife, called the Adya Shakti. This is the general Tantrik rule. Possibly because the exception to it led to abuse, the Mahanirvana (VIII. 173), after pointing out that men in the Kali age are weak of mind and distracted by lust, and so do not recognize woman (Shakti) to be the image of Deity, prescribes for such as these (in the Bhairavi Cakra) meditation on the Feet of the Divine Mother in lieu of Maithuna, or where the worship is with the Shakti (Bhogya) in Bhairavi and Tattva Cakra the worshipper should be wedded to his Shakti according to Shaiva rites. It adds (ib., 129) that \"the Vira, who without marriage worships by enjoyment a Shakti, is without doubt guilty of the sin of going with another woman.\" Elsewhere (VI. 14) it points out that when the evil age (Kaliyuga) is at its strength, the wife alone should be the fifth Tattva for \"this is void of all defect\" (Sarvadosha -vivarjita). The Sammohana Tantra (Ch. 2) also says that the Kali age is dominated by lust (Kama) and it is then most difficult to subjugate the senses and that by reason of the prevalence of ignorance (Avidya) the female Yoni is used for worship. That is, by reason of the material nature of man a material form is used to depict the supreme Yoni or Cause of all. The commentator on the Mahanirvana Tantra, Pandit Jaganmohana Tarkalamkara (see Bhakta Ed. 345) says, however, that this rule is not of universal application. Shiva (he says) in this Tantra prohibited Sadhana with the fifth Tattva with other Shaktis in the case of men of ordinary weak intellect ruled by lust; but for those who have by Sadhana conquered their passions and attained the state of a true Siddha Vira, there is no prohibition as to the mode of Latasadhana. With this I deal later, but meanwhile I may observe that because there is a Shakti in the Cakra it does not follow that there is sexual intercourse, which, when it occurs in the worship of householders, ordinarily takes place outside the Cakra. Shak tis are of two kinds -- those who are enjoyed (Bhogya Shakti) and those who are worshipped only (Pujya) as earthly representatives of the Supreme Mother of all. Those who yield to desire, even in thought, as regards the latter commit the sin of incest with their mother. Similarly, there is a 476 widespread practice amongst all Shaktas of worship of Virgins (Kumaripuja) -- a very beautiful ceremony. So also in Brahmarajayoga there is worship of virgins only. It is plain that up to this point there is (apart from the objection of other Hindus to wine) nothing to be said against the morality of the Sadhana prescribed, though some may take exception to the association of natural function of any kind, however legitimate, with what they regard as worship. This is not a question of morality and I have dealt with it. The reader will also remember that the ritual already described applies to the general mass of worshippers, and that to which I am passing is the ritual of the comparatively few, and so- called advanced Sadhakas. The charge of immorality against all Shaktas, whether following this ritual or not, fails, and people need not run away in fear on hearing that a man is a \"Tantrik\". He may not be a Shakta Tantrik at all, and if he is a Shakta, he may have done nothing to which the world at large will take moral exception. I now pass to another class of cases. Generally speaking, we may distinguish not only between Dakshinacara and Vamacara in which the full rites with wine and Shakti are performed, but also between a Vama and Dakshina division of the latter Acara itself. It is on the former side that there is worship with a woman (Parakiya Shakti) other than the Sadhaka's own wife (Svakiya Shakti). But under what circumstances? It is necessary (as Professor de la Valle Poussin, the Catholic Belgian Sanskritist, says (Adhi -karma - pradipa, 141) of the Buddhist Tantra) to remember the conditionsunder which these Tantrik rituals are, according to the Shastra, admissible, when judging of their morality; otherwise, he says condemnation becomes excessive ( \"Je crois d'ailleurs qu'on a exager la charactre d'immoralite des actes liturgiques de Maithuna faute d'avoir fix les diverses conditions dans lesquelles ils, doivent etre pratiqus.\" See also Masson- Oursel Esquisse dune Histoire de la Philosophie Indienne 1923, p. 230, who says that Western people often see obscenity where there is only symbolism.) As I have said, the ordinary rule is that the wife or Adya Shakti should be co -performer (Sahadharmini) in the rite. An exception, however, exists where the Sadhaka has no wife or she is incompetent (Anadhikarini). There seems to be a notion that the Shastra directs union with some other person than the 477 Sadhaka's wife. This is not so. A direction to go after other women as such wou ld be counsel to commit fornication or adultery. What the Shastra says is -- that if the Sadhaka has no wife, or she is incompetent (Anadhikarini) then only may the Sadhaka take some other Shakti. Next, this is for the purpose of ritual worship only. Just as any extra -ritual drinking is sin, so also outside worship any Maithuna, otherwise than with the wife, is sin. The Tattvas of each kind can only be offered after purification (Shodhana) and during worship according to the rules, restrictions, and conditions of the Tantrik ritual. (See Tantrasara, 698, citingBhavacudamani, Uttara - Kulamrita. In Ch. IV, Brihannila Tantra it is said Paradaran na gacheran gachech ca prapayed yadi, but that is for purposes of worship). Outside worship the mind is not even to think of the subject, as is said concerning the Shakti in the Uttara Tantra. Pujakalam vina nanyam purusham manasa sprishet Puja- kale ca Deveshi vesyeva paritoshayet. What then is the meaning of this \"competency\" the non- existence of which relaxes the ordi nary rule? The principle on which worship is done with another Shakti is stated in the Guhyakalikhanda of the Mahakala Samhita as follows: Yadrishah sadhakah proktah sadhika'pi ca tadrishi. Tatah siddhim avapnoti nanyatha varsha- kotibhih. (\"As is the competency of the Sadhaka so must be that of the Sadhika. In this way only is success attained and not otherwise even in ten million years.\") That is both the man and the woman must be on the same level and plane of development. Thus, in the performance of the great Shodhanyasa, the Shakti must be possessed of the same powers and competency as the Sadhaka. In other words, a Sahadharmini must have the same competency as the Sadhaka with whom she performs the rite. Next, it is not for any man at his own undisciplined will to embark on a practice of this kind. He can only do so if adjudged competent by his Guru. A person of an ignorant, irreligious, and lewd disposition is, properly, incompetent. Then, it is commonly thought, that because another Shakti is permitted promiscuity is 478 allowed. This is of course not so. It must be admitted that the Shakta Tantra at least pretends to be a religious Scripture, and could not as such directly promote immorality in this way. For, under no pretense can morality, or Sadhana for spiritual advancement, be served by directions for, or tacit permissions of, uncontrolled promiscuous sexual intercourse. There may, of course, have been hypocrites wandering around the country and its women who sought to cover their lasciviousness with th e cloak of a pretended religion. But this is not Sadhana but conscious sin. The fruit of Sadhana is lost by license and the growth of sensuality. The proper rule, I am told, is that the relationship with such a Shakti should be of a permanent character; it being indeed held that a Shakti who is abandoned by the Sadhaka takes away with her the latter's merit (Punya). The position of such a Shakti may be described as a wife \"in religion\" for the Sadhaka, one who being of his competency (Adhikara) works with him as Sahadharmini, in the performance of the rituals of their common cult. In all cases, the Shakti must be first made lawful according to the rules of the cult by the performance of the Shaiva sacrament (Shaiva -samskara). From a third party view it may, of course, be said that the necessity for all this is not seen. I am not here concerned with that, but state the rules of the cult as I find it. It is desirable, in the interests both of the history of religion and of justice to the cult described, to state these facts accurately. For, it is sound theology, that good faith is inconsistent with sin. We cannot call a man immoral who is acting according to his lights and in good faith. Amongst a polygamous people such as were the Jews and as are the Hindus, it would be absurd to call a man immoral, who in good faith practiced that polygamy which was allowable by the usage which governed him. Other Hindus might or might not acknowledge the status of a Shaiva wife. But a Shaiva who was bound to a woman in that form would not be an immoral man. Immorality, in the sense in which an individual is made responsible for his actions, exists where what is believed to be wrong is consciously followed. And so whilst a Tantrik acting in good faith and according to his Shastra is not in this sense immoral, other Tantriks who misused the ritual for their libidinous purposes would be so. So, of course, would also be those who to-day, without belief in the Tantra Shastra, and to satisfy their passions, practiced such rituals as r un counter to prevalent social morality. Though the genuine Tantrik might be 479 excused, they would not escape the charge. When, however, we are judging a religion by the standard of another, which claims to be higher, the lower religion may be considered immoral. The distinction is commonly overlooked which exists between the question whether an individual is immoral and whether the teaching and practice which he follows is so. We may, with logical consistency, answer the first in the negative and the second in the affirmative. Nevertheless, we must mention the existence of some practices which seem difficult to explain and justify, even on the general principles upon which Tantrik Sadhana proceeds. Peculiar liberties have been allowed to the Siddha Viras who are said to have taken part in them. Possibly they are non- existent to -day. A Siddha Vira, I may incidentally explain, is a Vira who has become accomplished (Siddha) by doing the rite called Purashcarana of his Mantra the number of times multiplied by one lakh (100,000) that the Mantra contains letters. A Pandit friend tells me that the Siddhamalarahasya describes a rite (Cudacakra) in which fifty Siddha Viras go with fifty Shaktis, each man getting his companion by lot by selecting one out of a heap of the Sakti's jackets (Cuda). His Shakti is the woman to whom the jacket belongs. In the Sneha -cakra (Love Cakra), the Siddha Vira pair with the Shaktis according as they have a liking for them. Anandabhuvana -yoga is another unknown rite performed with not less than three and not more than one hundred and eight Shaktis who surround the Vira. He unites with one Shakti (Bhogya Shakti) and touches the rest. In the Urna Cakra (Urna = spider's web) the Viras sit in pairs tied to one another with cloths. A clue to the meaning of these rites may perhaps be found in the fact that they are said to have been performed at the instance, and at the cost, of third parties for the attainment of some worldly success. Thus the first was done, I am told, by the Rajas to gain succe ss in battle. If this be so they belong rather to the side of magic than of religion, and are in any case no part of the ordinary Sadhana to attain the true Siddhi which is spiritual advancement. It may also be that just as in the ordinary ritual Brahmanas are fed and receive gifts, these Cakras were, in part at least, held with the same purpose by the class of people who had them performed. It is also to be noted (I report what I am told) that the body of the Shakti in the Cakra is the Yantra. By the union of Vira and Shakti, who is a form (Akara) of the Devi, direct union is had with the latter who being pleased grants all that 480 is desired of Her. There is thus what is technically called Pratyaksha of Devata whereas in Kumaripuja and in Shavasadhana the Dev i speaks through the mouth of the virgin or the corpse respectively. The Siddha Viras communicate with Shiva and Shakti in Avadhutaloka. This question of differing views and practice was noted long ago by the author of the Dabistan (Vol. 2, pp. 154, 164, Ed. 1843) who says that on a learned Shakta being shown a statement, apparently counseling immorality, in a book, abused it saying that the Text was contrary to custom and that no such thing was to be found in the ancient books. The Muslim author of the Dab istan says that there is another class of Shaktas, quite different from those previously alluded to by him, who drink no wine and never have intercourse with the wife of another. I, the more readily here and elsewhere state what is unfavorable to this Shas tra, as my object is not to \"idealize\" it (a process to which my strong bent towards the clear and accurate statement of facts is averse) but to describe the practice as I find it to be; on which statement a just judgment may be founded. After all men have been and are of all kinds high and low, ignorant and wise, bad and good, and just as in the Agamas there are differing schools, so it is probable that in the Shakta practices themselves there are the same differences. Lastly, the doctrine that the illuminate knower of Brahman (Brahmajani) is above both good (Dharma) and evil (Adharma) should be noted. Such an one is a Svechacari whose way is Svechacara or \"do as you will\". Similar doctrine and practices in Europe are there called Antinomianism. The doctri ne is not peculiar to the Tantras. It is to be found in the Upanishads, and is in fact a very commonly held doctrine in India. Here again, as so stated and as understood outside India, it has the appearance of being worse than it really is. If Monistic vie ws are accepted, then theoretically we must admit that Brahman is beyond good and evil, for these are terms of relativity applicable to beings in this world only. Good has no meaning except in relation to evil and vice versa. Brahman is beyond all dualities, and a Jani who has become Brahman ( Jivan- mukta) is also logically so. It is, however, equally obvious that if a man has complete Brahman- consciousness he will not, otherwise than unconsciously, do an act which if done consciously 481 would be wrong. He is ex hypothesi beyond lust, gluttony and all other passions. A theoretical statement of fact that a Brahmajani is beyond good and evil is not a statement that he may will to do, and is permitted to do, evil. Statements as regards the position of a Jivanmukta are mere praise or Stuti. In Svecchacara there is theoretical freedom, but it is not consciously availed of to do what is known to be wrong without fall and pollution. Svecchacarini is a name of the Devi, for She does what She pleases since She is the L ord of all. But of others the Shaktisangama Tantra (Part IV) says -- Yadyapyasti trikalajastrailokyakarshana-kshamah Tatha'pi laukikacaram manasapi na langhayet. (\"Though a man be a knower of the Three Times, past, present and future, and though he be a Controller of the three worlds, even then he should not transgress the rules of conduct for men in the world, were it only in his mind.\") What these rules of conduct are the Shastra provides. Those who wrote this and similar counsels to be found in the Tant ra Shastras may have prescribed methods of Sadhana which will not be approved, but they were not immoral -minded men. Nor, whatever be the actual results of their working (and some have been evil) was their Scripture devised with the intention of sanctionin g or promoting what they believed to be immoral. They promoted or countenanced some dangerous practices under certain limitations which they thought to be safeguards. They have led to abuse as might have been thought to be probable. Let us now distill from the mass of material to which I have only cursorily referred, those principles underlying the practice which are of worth from the standpoint of Indian Monism of which the practice is a remarkable illustration. The three chief physical appetites of man are eating and drinking whereby his body is sustained, and sexual intercourse whereby it is propagated. Considered in themselves they are natural and harmless. Manu puts this very clearly when he says, \"There is no wrong (Dosha) in the eating of meat and drinking of wine, nor in sexual intercourse, for these are natural inclinations 482 of men. But abstention therefrom is productive of great fruit.\" Here I may interpose and say that the Tantrik method is not a forced abstention but a regulated use with the right Bhava, that is, Advaitabhava or monistic feeling. When this is perfected, natural desires drop away (except so far as their fulfillment is absolutely necessary for physical existence) as things which are otherwise of no account. How is this done P By transforming Pashubhava into Virabhava. The latter is the feeling, disposition, and character of a Vira. All things spring from and are at base Ananda or Bliss whether it is perceived or not. The latter, therefore, exists in two forms: as Mukti which is Anandas varupa or transcendent, unlimited, one, and as Bhukti or limited worldly bliss. Tantrik Sadhana claims to give both, because the one of dual aspect is both. The Vira thus knows that Jivatma and Paramatma are one; that it is the One Shiva who appears in the form of the multitude of men and who acts, suffers, and enjoys through them. The Shivasvarupa is Bliss itself (Paramananda). The Bliss of enjoyment (Bhogananda) is one and the same Bliss manifesting itself through the limiting forms of mind and matter. Who is it who then enjoys and what Bliss is thus manifested? It is Shiva in the forms of the Universe (Vishvarupa) who enjoys, and the manifested bliss is a limited form of that Supreme Bliss which in His ultimate nature He is. In his physical functions the Vira identifies himself with the collectivity of all functions which constitute the universal life. He is then consciously Shiva in the form of his own and all other lives. As Shiva exists both in His Svarupa and as the world (Vishvarupa), so union may, and should, be had with Him in both aspects. These are known as Sukshma and Sthula Samarasya respectively. The Sadhaka is taught not to think that we are one with the Divine in Liberation only, but here and now, in every act we do. For in truth all such is Shakti. It is Shiva who as Shakti is acting in and through the Sadhaka, So though, according to the Vaidik injunctions, there is no eating or drinking before worship, it is said in the Shakta Tantra that he who worships Kalika when hungry and thirsty angers Her. Those who worship a God who is other than their own Essential Self may think to please Him by such acts, but to the Shakta, Shiva and Jiva are one and the same. Why then should one give pain to Jiva? It was, I think, Professor Royce who said, borrowi ng (though probably unconsciously) an essential Tantrik idea, that God suffers and enjoys in and as andthrough man. This is so. Though the 483 Brahmasvarupa is nothing but the perfect, actionless Bliss, yet it is also the one Brahman who as Jiva suffers and enjoys; for there is none other. When this is realized in every natural function, then, each exercise thereof ceases to be a mere animal act and becomes a religious rite -- a Yaja. Every function is a part of the Divine Action (Shakti) in Nature. Thus, when taking drink in the form of wine the Vira knows it to be Tara Dravamayi, that is, \"the Savior Herself in liquid form\". How (it is said) can he who truly sees in it the Savior Mother receive from it harm? Meditating on kundalini as pervading his body to the tip of his tongue, thinking himself to be Light which is also the Light of the wine he takes, he says, \"I am She\", (Sa'ham) \"I am Brahman,\" I Myself offer offering (Ahuti) to the Self, Svaha.\" When, therefore, the Vira eats, drinks or has sexual intercourse he does so not with the thought of himself as a separate individual satisfying his own peculiar limited wants; an animal filching as it were from nature the enjoyment he has, but thinking of himself in such enjoyment as Shiva, saying \"Shivo'ham,\" \"Bhai ravo'ham\". Right sexual union may, if associated with meditation and ritual, be the means of spiritual advance; though persons who take a vulgar and animal view of this function will not readily understand it. The function is thereby ennobled and receives a new significance. The dualistic notions entertained, by both some Easterns and Westerns, that the \"dignity\" of worship is necessarily offended by association with natural function are erroneous. As Tertullian says, the Eucharist was established at a meal. (As to sacramental meals and \"Feeding on the Gods,\" see Dr. Angus'The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. 127.) Desire is often an enemy but it may be made an ally. A right method does not exclude the body, for it is Devata. It is a phase of Spirit and belongs to, and is an expression of, the Power of the Self. The Universe was created by and with Bliss. That same Bliss manifests, though faintly, in the bodies of men and women in union. At such time the ignorant Pashu is intent on the satisfaction of his passion only, but Kulasadhakas then meditate on the Yogananda Murti of Shiva -Shakti and do Japa of their Ishtamantra thus making them, in the words of the Kalikulasarvasva, like sinless Shuka. If the union be legitimate what, I may ask, is wrong in this ? On the contrary the physical function is ennobled and divinised. An act which is legitimate does not become illegitimate because it is made a part of worship (Upasana). This is Virabhava. An English writer has 484 aptly spoken of \"the profound pagan instinct to glorify the generative impulse with religious ritual\" (Time Lit. Sup., 11-6- 1922). The Shakta is a developed and typical case. The notions of the Pashu are in varying degrees the reverse of all this. If of the lowest type, he only knows himself as a separate entity who enjoys. Some more sophisticated, yet in truth ignorant, enjoy and are ashamed; and thus think it unseemly to implicate God in the supposed coarseness of His handiwork as physical function. Some again, who are higher, regard these functi ons as an acceptable gift of God to them as lowly creatures who enjoy and are separate from Him. The Vaidikas took enjoyment to be the fruit of the sacrifice and the gift of the Devas. Others who are yet higher, offer all that they do to the One Lord. This dualistic worship is embodied in the command of the Gita, \"Tat madarpanam kurushva.\" \"Do all this as an offering to Me.\" What is \"all\"? Does it mean all or some particular things only? But the highest Sadhana from the Monistic standpoint, and which in its Advaitabhava differs from all others, is that of the Shakta Tantra which proclaims that the Sadhaka is Shiva and that it is Shiva who in the form of the Sadhaka enjoys. So much for the principle involved to which, whether it be accepted or not, cannot be truly denied nobility and grandeur. The application of this principle is of greatly less interest and importance. To certain of such ritual applications may be assigned the charges commonly made against this Shastra, though without accurate knowledge and discrimination. It was the practice of an age the character of which was not that of our own. The particular shape which the ritual has taken is due, I think, to historical causes. Though the history of the Agamas is still obscure, it is possible that this Pacatattva -Karma is in substance a continuation, in altered form, of the old Vaidik usage in which eating and drinking were a part of the sacrifice (Yaja), though any extra- ritual drinking called \"useless\" (Vrithana) or Pashu drinking (Pashupana) in which the Western (mostly a hostile critic of the Tantra Shastra) so largely indulges, is a great sin. The influence, however, of the original Buddhism and Jainism were against the consumption of meat and wine; an influence which perhaps continued to operate o n post -Buddhistic Hinduism up to the present day, except among 485 certain followers of the Agamas who claimed to represent the earlier traditions and usages. I say \"certain\", because (as I have mentioned) for the Pashu there are substitutes for wine and meat and so forth; and for the Divya the Tattvas are not material things but Yoga processes. I have shown the similarities between the Vaidik and Tantrik ritual in the chapter on Shakti and Shakta (ante) to which I refer. If this suggestion of mine be correct, whilst the importance and prevalence of the ancient ritual will diminish with the passage of time and the changes in religion which it effects, the principle will always retain its inherent value for the followers of the Advaita Vedanta. It is capable of a pplication according to the modern spirit without recourse to Cakras and their ritual details in the ordinary daily life of the householder within the bounds of his Dharmashastra. Nevertheless the ritual has existed and still exists, though at the present day often in a form free from the objections which are raised against certain liberties of practice which led to abuse. It is necessary, therefore, both for the purpose of accuracy and of a just criticism of its present adherents, to consider the intention with which the ritual was prescribed and the mode in which that intention was given effect to. It is not the fact, as commonly alleged, that the intention of the Shastra was to promote and foster any form of sensual indulgence. If it was, then, the Tantras would not be a Shastra at all whatever else they might contain. Shastra, as I have previously said, comes from the root \"Shas\" to control; that is, Shastra exists to control men within the bounds set by Dharma. The intention of this ritual, when rightly understood, is, on the contrary, to regulate natural appetite, to curb it, to lift it from the trough of mere animality; and by associating it with religious worship, to effect a passage from the state of desire of the ignorant Pashu to the completed Divyabhava in which there is desirelessness. It is another instance of the general principle to which I have referred that man must be led from the gross to the subtle. A Sadhaka once well explained the matter to me thus: Let us suppose, he said, that man's bod y is a vessel filled with oil which is the passions. If you simply empty it and do nothing more, fresh oil will take its place issuing from the Source of Desire which you have left undestroyed. If, however, into the vessel there is dropped by slow degrees the Water of Knowledge (Jana), it will, as being behavior than oil, descend to the bottom of the vessel and will then expel an 486 equal quantity of oil. In this way all the oil of passion is gradually expelled and no more can re -enter, for the water of Jana will then have wholly taken its place. Here again the general principle of the method is good. As the Latins said, \"If you attempt to expel nature with a pitchfork it will come back again\". You must infuse something else as a medicament against the ills which follow the natural tendency of desire to exceed the limits which Dharma sets. The Tantrik Pandit Jaganmohana Tarkalamkara in his valuable notes appended to the commentary on the Mahanirvana Tantra of Hariharananda Bharati, the Guru of the celebrated \"Reformer\" Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Ed. of K. G. Bhakta, 1888), says, \"Let us consider what most contributes to the fall of a man, making him forget his duty, sink into sin and die an early death. First among these are wine and women, fish, meat, Mudra and acce ssories. By these things men have lost their manhood. Shiva then desires to employ these very poisons in order to eradicate the poison in the human system. Poison is the antidote for poison. This is the right treatment for those who long for drink or lust for women. The physician must, however, be an experienced one. If there be a mistake as to the application, the patient is likely to die. Shiva has said that the way of Kulacara is as difficult as it is to walk on the edge of a sword or to hold a wild tige r. There is a secret argument in favor of the Pacattva, and those Tattvas so understood should be followed by all. None, however, but the initiate can grasp this argument, and therefore Shiva has directed that it should not be revealed before anybody and everybody. An initiate when he sees a woman will worship her as his own mother and Goddess (Ishtadevata) and bow before her. The Vishnu Purana says that by feeding your desires you cannot satisfy them. It is like pouring ghee on fire. Though this is true, an experienced spiritual teacher (Guru) will know how, by the application of this poisonous medicine, to kill the poison of the world (Samsara). Shiva has, however, prohibited the indiscriminate publication of this. The object of Tantrik worship is Brahmasayujya. or union with Brahman. If that is not attained, nothing is attained. And with men's propensities as they are, this can only be attained through the special treatment prescribed by the Tantras. If this is not followed, then the sensual propensities are not eradicated and the work is, for the desired end of Tantra, as useless as harmful magic (Abhicara) 487 which, worked by such a man, leads only to the injury of himself and others.\" The passage cited refers to the necessity for the spiritual direction of the Guru. To the want of such is accredited the abuse of the system. When the patient (Shishya) and the disease are working together, there is poor hope for the former; but when the patient, the disease and the physician are on one, and that the wrong side, then nothing can save him from a descent in that downward path which it is the object of Sadhana to prevent. All Hindu schools seek the suppressions of mere animal worldly desire. What is peculiar to the Kaulas is the particular method employed for the transformation of desire. The Kularnava Tantra says that man must be taught to rise by means of those very things which are the cause of his fall. \"As one falls on the ground, one must lift oneself by aid of the ground.\" So also the Buddhist Subhashita Samgraha says that a thorn is used to pick out a thorn. Properly applied the method is a sound one. Man falls through the natural functions of drinking, eating, and sexual intercourse. If these are done with the feeling (Bhava) and under the conditions prescribed, then they become (it is taught) the instruments of his uplift to a point at which such ritual is no longer necessary and is surpassed. In the first edition of the work, I spoke of Antinomian Doctrine and Practice, and of some Shakta theories and rituals which have been supposed to be instances of it. This word, however, requires explanation, or it may (I have since thought) lead to error in the present connection. There is always danger in applying Western terms to facts of Eastern life. Antinomianism is the name for heretical theories and practices which have arisen in Christian Europe. In short, the term, as generally understood, has a meaning in reference to Christianity, namely, contrary or opposed to Law, which here is the Judaic law as adopted and modified by that religion. The Antinomian, for varying reasons, considered himself not bound by the ordinary laws of conduct. It is not always possible to state with certainty whether any particular sect or person alleged to be Antinomian was in fact such, for one of the commonest charges made against sects by their opponents is that of immorality. We are rightly warned against placing implicit reliance on the accounts of adversaries. Thus charges of nocturnal orgies were made 488 against the early Christians, and by the latter against those whom they regarded as heretical dissidents, such as Manichans, Mountanists, Priscillianists and others, and against most of the mediaeval sects such as the Cathari, Waldenses and Fracticelli. Nor can we be always certain as to the nature of the theories held by persons said to be Antinomian, for in a large number of cases we have only the accounts of orthodox opponents. Similarly, hitherto every account of the Shakta Tantra was given by persons both ignorant of, and hostil e to it. In some cases it would seem (I speak of the West) that Matter was held in contempt as the evil product of the Demiurge. In others Antinomian doctrine and practice was based on \"Pantheism\". The latter in the West has always had as one of its tendencies a leaning towards, or adoption of Antinomianism. Mystics in their identification with God supposed that upon their conscious union with Him they were exempt from the rules governing ordinary men. The law was spiritualized into the one precept of the L ove of God which ripened into a conscious union with Him, one with man's essence. This was deemed to be a sinless state. Thus Amalric of Bena (d. 1204) is reputed to have said that to those constituted in love no sin is imputed (Dixerat etiamquod in charitate constitutis nullum peccatum imputabatur). His followers are alleged to have maintained that harlotry and other carnal vices are not sinful for the spiritual man, because the spirit in him, which is God, is not affected by the flesh and cannot sin, and because the man who is nothing cannot sin so long as the Spirit which is God is in him. In other words, sin is a term relative to man who may be virtuous or sinful. But in that state beyond duty, which is identification with the Divine Essence, which at root man is, there is no question of sin. The body at no time sins. It is the state of mind which constitutes sin, and that state is only possible for a mind with a human and not divine consciousness. Johann Hartmann is reputed to have said that he had become completely one with God; that a man free in spirit is impeccable and can do whatever he will, or in Indian parlance he is Svecchacari. (See Dollinger's Beitrage zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalter's ii. 384). This type of Antinomianism is said to have b een widespread during the later Middle Ages and was perpetuated in some of the parties of the so -called Reformation. Other notions leading to similar results were based on Quietistic and Calvinistic tenets in which the human will was so subordinated 489 to the Divine will as to lose its freedom. Thus Gomar (A.D. 1641) maintained that \"sins take place, God procuring and Himself willing that they take place.\" God was thus made the author of sin. It has been alleged that the Jesuit casuists were \"constructively an tinomian\" because of their doctrines of philosophical sin, direction of attention, mental reservation, and probabilism. But this is not so, whatever may be thought of such doctrines. For here there was no question of opposition to the law of morality, but theories touching the question \"in what that law consisted\" and whether any particular act was in fact a violation of it. They did not teach that the law could in any case be violated, but dealt with the question whether any particular act was such a violation. Antinomianism of several kinds and based on varying grounds has been charged against the Manichaeans, the Gnostics generally, Cainites, Carpocrates, Epiphanes, Messalians (with their promiscuous sleeping together of men and women), Adamites, Bogomile s, followers of Amarlic of Bena, Brethren of the Free Spirit, Beghards, Fratricelli, Johann Hartmann (\"a man free in spirit is impeccable\"); the pantheistic \"Libertines\" and \"Familists\" and Ranters of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (\"Nothing is si n but what a man thinks to be so\"; \"God sees no sin in him who knows himself to be in a state of grace\"; see Gataker's 'Antinomianism Discovered and Refuted', A.D. 1632 and see Rufus Jones' Studies in Mystical Religion, Ch. XIX), the Alumbrados or Spanish Illuminate (Prabuddha) Mystics of the Sixteenth Century; Magdalena de Cruce d'Aguilar and others (Mendes v Pelayo -- Historia de los Heterodoxos Espanoles) whose teachings according to Malvasia (Catalogus onmium haeresium et conciliorum) contained the foll owing proposition, \"A perfect man cannot sin; even an act which outwardly regarded must be looked upon as vicious cannot contaminate the soul which lives in mystical union with God.\" \"The Holy and Sinless Baptists\" held that the elect could not sin, an antinomian doctrine which has often appeared in the history of theological - ethical speculation to the effect that the believer might do what he liked, since if he sinned, it affected the body only, with which his soul had no more to do than with any of the other things of this world (Belfort Bax Anabaptists 35). The Free Brothers held that for the rebaptized, sin was impossible as no bodily act could affect the soul of the believer. Women did not sin who went with Brethren because there was a spiritual bond between 490 them (ib., 38). Kessler alleges that the Votaries practiced sensuality on the plea that their souls were dead to the flesh and that all that the flesh did was by the will of God(ib., 62). The Alumbrada Francisca Garcia is alleged to have said that he r sexual excesses were in obedience to the voice of God and that \"carnal indulgence was embracing God\" (Lea's Inquisition in Spain, III. 62). Similar doctrines are alleged of the French Illumines called Guerinets of the Seventeenth Century; the German \"Theosophers\" of Schonherr: Eva Von Buttler: the Muckers of the Eighteenth Century; some modern Russian sects (Tsakni La Russie Sectaire) and others. Whilst it is to be remembered that in these and other cases we must receive with caution the accounts given by opponents, there is no doubt that Antinomianism, Svecchacara and the like is a well- known phenomenon in religious history often associated with so -called \"Pantheistic\" doctrines. The Antinomian doctrines of the Italian nuns, Spighi and Buonamici, recorded by Bishop Scipio de Ricci \"L'uomo e nato libero y nessuno lo puo legare nello spirito\": \"man is born free and none can chain his free Spirit\" are here dealt with in more detail, for the writer Edward Sellon (\"Annotations on the writings of the Hindus\") thought that he had found in the last cited case an instance of \"Tantrik doctrine\" in the convents of Italy in the Eighteenth Century.\" I will give some reasons, which refute his view, the more particularly because they are contained in a very rare work, nam ely, the first edition of De Potter's Vie de Scipion de Ricci Eveque de Pistoie et Prafo, published at Brussels in 1825, and largely withdrawn at the instance of the Papal Court. The second edition is, I believe, much expurgated. Receiving report of abuses in the Dominican convent of St. Catherine de Prato, the Bishop of Pistoia and Prato made an inquisition into the conduct of the nuns, and in particular as to the teaching and practice of their leaders, the Sister Buonamici, formerly Prioress and afterward s novice -mistress, and the Sister Spighi, assistant novice- mistress. De Potter's work contains the original interrogatories, in Italian (I. 381) in the writing of 'Abbe Laurent Palli', Vicar -Episcopal at Prato, taken in 1781 and kept in the archives of the Ricci family. The Teaching of the two Sisters I summarize as follows: \"God\" (I. 413, 418 ) \"is a first principle (Primo principio) who is a collectivity (in Sanskrit Samashti) of all men and things (un cemplesso di tutti le cose anzi di tnttoil genere uma no). The universal Master or God is Nature (ci e il maestro, 491 ohe e Iddio ceve la natura). As God is the totality of the universe and is nothing but Nature we all participate in the Divine Essence (Questo Dio non e altro che la Natura. Noi medesimi per aues ta ragione participiamo in aualche maniera dell'esser divino). Man's soul is a mortal thing consisting of Memory, Intelligence and Will. It dies with the body disappearing as might a mist. Man is free and therefore none can enchain his free spirit (I. 428). The only Heaven and Hell which exists is the Heaven and Hell in this world. There is none other. After death there is neither pleasure nor suffering. The Spirit, being free, it is the intention which renders an act bad. It is sufficient (I. 460) to elevate the spirit to God and then no action, whatever it be, is sin (Essendo il nostro spirito libro, l'inten zione e quello que rende cattiva l'azione. Basta danque colla mente elevarsi a Dio perche qualsiqoglia azione non sia peccato). There is no sin. Certa in (impure) acts not sin provided that the spirit is always elevated to God. Love of God and one's neighbor is the whole of the commandments. Man (I. 458) who unites with God by means of woman satisfies both commandments. So also does he who, lifting his spirit to God, has enjoyment with a person of the same sex or alone (Usciamo con alcuno d'eaual sesso o da se soli). To be united with God is to be united as man and woman. The eternal life (I. 418) of the soul and Paradise in this world is the transubstant iation (or it may be transfusion) which takes place when man is united with woman (Depone credere questa vita eterna dell'anima essere la transustanziazione (forse transfusione nell'unirsi che fa l'uomo con la donna). Marie Clodesinde Spighi having stated that Paradise consisted in the fruition in this world of the Enjoyment of God (la fruizione di Dio) was asked \"How is this attained?\" Her reply was, by that act by which one unites oneself with God. \"How again\", she was questioned, \"is this union effected? \" To which the answer was \"by co- operation of man and woman in which I recognize God Himself.\" I. 428. (Mediante l'uomo nel quale ci riconosco Iddio). Everything was permissible because man was free, though sots might obey the law enjoined for the general governance of the world. Man, she said, (I. 420) can be saved in all religions (In tutti le religione ci passiamo salvare). In doing that which we erroneously call impure is real purity ordained by God, without which man cannot arrive at a knowledge of Him who is the truth ( e esercitando erroneamente auello che diciamo impurita era la vera purita: quella Iddio ci 492 comanda e virole no pratichiamo, e senza della quale non vi e maniera di trovare Iddio, che e verita). \"Where did you get all this doctrine?\" This sister said \"I gathered it from my natural inclinations\" (L'ho ricevato dall inclinazione della natura' Whilst it will not be necessary to tell the most ignorant Indian that the above doctrines are not Christian teaching, it is necessary (as Sellon's rema rk shows) to inform the English reader that this pantheistic libertinism is not \"Tantrik\". This imperfect charge is due to the author's knowledge of the principles of Kaula Sadhana. I will not describe all the obscene and perverse acts which these \"Religions\" practiced. It is sufficient that the reader should throw his eye back a few lines and see that their teaching justified sodomy, lesbianism and masturbation, sins as abhorrent to the Tantra Shastra as any other. Owing, however, to ignorance or prejudice, everything is called \"Tantrik\" into which woman enters and in which sexual union takes on a religious or so -called religious character or complexion. The Shastra, on the country, teaches that there is a God who transcends Nature, that Dharma or morality governs all men, that there is sin and that the acts here referred to are impurities leading to Hell; for there is (it says) both suffering and enjoyment not only in this but in an after -life. It was apparently enough for Edward Sellon to adjudge the theor ies and practices to be Tantrik that these women preached the doctrine of intention and of sexual union with the feeling or Bhava (to use a Sanskrit term) that man and woman were parts of the one Divine essence. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and this is an instance of it. These corrupt theories are merely the \"religious\" and \"philosophical\" basis for a life of unrestrained libertinism which the Tantra Shastra condemns as emphatically as any other Scripture. The object of the Tantrik ritual is to forward the morality of the senses by converting mere animal functions into acts of worship. The Scripture says in effect, \"Just as you offer flowers, incense and so forth to the Devata, in the Rajasik worship let these physical functions take their place, remembering that it is Shiva who is working in and through you.\" The doctrine of the Brethren of the Free Spirit (Delacroix Le Mysticisme speculatif en Allemagne au quatorgiem e siecle) so far as it was probably really held, has, in points, resemblance to some of the Tantrik and indeed Aupanishadic teachings, for they both hold in common certain general principles to which I will refer (see also 493 Preger's Geshichte der Deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter). Other doctrines and practices with which they have been charged are wholly hostile to the Shakta Darshana and Sadhana. Amalric of Bena, a disciple of Scotus Erigena, held that God is all, both creature and creator, and the Essence of all which is. The soul which attains to Him by contemplation becomes God Hims elf. It was charged against him that man could act in the manner of God's action and do what he pleased without falling into sin. The doctrine that the Brahmajani is above good and evil is so generally misunderstood that it is probable that, whatever may have been the case with some of his disciples, the charges made against the master himself on this point are false. It has been well said that one is prone to accuse of immorality any one who places himself beyond traditional morality. As regards the Brethren of the Free Spirit also, this alleged doctrine comes to us from the mouths of their adversaries. They are said to have held that there were two religions, one for the ignorant (Mudha), the other for the illuminate (Prabuddha), the first being the tradi tional religion of the letter and ritual observance, and the other of freedom and spirituality. The soul is of the same substance as God (identity of Jivatma and Paramatma). When this is realized man is deified. Then he is (as Brahmajani) above all law (Dharma). The ordinary rules of morality bind only those who do not see beyond them, and who do not realize in themselves that Power which is superior to all these laws. United with God (Anima deo unita) man enjoys a blessed freedom. He sees the inanity of prayers, of fasts, of all those supplications which can do nothing to change the order of nature. He is one with the Spirit of all. Free of the law he follows his own will (Svecchacari). What the vulgar call \"sin\", he can commit without soiling himself. There is a distinction between the act which is called sinful and sin. Nothing is sin but what the doer takes to be such. The body does not sin. It is the intention with which an act is done which constitutes sin. \"The angel would not have fallen if what he did had been done with a good intention\" (Quod angelus non cecidisset si bona intentione fecissit quod fecit). Man becomes God in all the powers of his being including the ultimate elements of his body. Therefore, wisdom lies not in renunciation, but in enj oyment and the satisfaction of his desires. The tormenting and insatiable passion for woman is a form of the creative spontaneous principle. The worth of instinct renders noble the acts of the 494 flesh, and he who is united in spirit with God can with impunity fulfill the sensual desires of the body (item quod unitus deo audacter possit explere libidinamcarnis). There is no more sin in sexual union without marriage than within it and so forth. With the historian of this sect and with our knowledge of the degree to which pantheistic doctrines are misunderstood, we may reasonably doubt whether these accusations of their enemies represent in all particulars their true teaching. It seems, however, to have been held by those who have dealt with this question that th e pantheistic doctrine of the Brethren led to conclusions contrary to the common morality. It is also highly probable that some at least of the excesses condemned were the work of false brethren, who finding in the doctrine a convenient excuse for, and an encouragement of their licentiousness, sheltered themselves behind its alleged authority. As this remark of Dr. Delacroix suggests, one must judge a doctrine (and we may instance that of the Shaktas) by what its sincere adherents hold and do, and not by the practices of impostors who always hie to sects which seem to hold theories offering opportunities for libertinism. One may here recall Milton who says with insight \"That sort of men who follow Antinomianism and other fanatic dreams be such most commonly as are by nature gifted to religion, of life also not debauched and that their opinions having full swing do end in satisfaction of the flesh.\" Whilst there is a similarity on some points between Kaula teaching and some of the Western pantheistic theories above alluded to, in others the two are manifestly and diametrically opposed. There are some who talk as if intellectual and moral aberrations were peculiar to India. No country is without them, but the West, owing to its chaos of thought and morals, has exhibited the worst. With the exception of the atheistic Carvakas and Lokayatas no sect in India has taught the pursuit of sensual enjoyment for its own sake, or justified the commission of any and every (even unnatural) sin. To do so would be to run counter to ideas which are those of the whole intellectual and moral Cosmos of India. These ideas include those of a Law (Dharma) inherent in the nature of all being; of sin as its infraction, and of the punishment of sin as bad Karma in this and the next world (Paraloka). It is believed and taught that the end of man is lasting happiness, but that this is not to be had by the satisfaction of worldly desires. Indeed the Kaula teaches that Liberation (Moksha) cannot be had so long as a man has any 495 worldly desires whether good or bad. Whilst, however, there is an eternal Dharma (Sanatana Dharma), one and the same for all, there are also particular forms of Dharma governing particular bodies of men. It is thus a general rule that a man should not unlawfully satisfy his sexual desires. But the conditions under which he may lawfully do so have varied in every form and degree in times and places. In this sense, as the Sarvollasa says, marriage is a conventional (Paribhashika) thing. The convention which is binding on the individual must yet be followed, that being his Dharma. Sin again, it is taught, consists in intention, not in a physical act divorced therefrom. Were this otherwise, then it is said that the child which, when issuing from the mother's body, touches her Y oni would be guilty of the heinous offense called Guru -talpaga. The doctrine of a single act with differing intentions is illustrated by the Tantrik maxim \"A wife is kissed with one feeling, a daughter's face with another\" (Bhavena chumbita kanta, bhavena duhitananam). In the words of the Sarvollasa, a man who goes with a woman, in the belief that by commission of such act he will go to Hell, will of a surety go thither. On the other hand it may be said that if an act is really lawful but is done in the bel ief that it is unlawful and with the deliberate intention of doing what is unlawful, there is subjective sin. The intention of the Shastra is not to unlawfully satisfy carnal desire in the way of eating and drinking and so forth, but that man should unite with Shiva- Shakti in worldly enjoyment (Bhaumananda) as a step towards the supreme enjoyment (Paramananda) of Liberation. In so doing he must follow the Dharma prescribed by Shiva. It is true, that there are different observances for the illuminate, for those whose power (Shakti) is awake (Prabuddha) and for the rest. But the Sadhana of these last is as necessary as the first and a stepping stone to it. The Kaula doctrine and practice may, from a Western standpoint, only be called Antinomian, in the sense that it holds, in common with the Upanishads, that the Brahma -jani is above both good (Dharma) and evil (Adharma), and in the sense that some of these practices are contrary to what the general body of Hindu worshippers consider to be lawful. Thus Shakta D arshana is said by some to be Avaidika. It is, however, best to leave to the West its own labels and to state the case of the East in its own terms. 496 After all, when everything unfavorable has been said, the abuses of some Tantriks are not to be compared either in nature or extent with those of the West with its widespread sordid prostitution, its drunkenness and gluttony, its sexual perversities and its so -called pathological but truly demoniacal enormities. To take a specific example -- Is the drinking of wine, by a limited number of Vamacari Tantriks in the whole of this country to be compared with (say) the consumption of whisky in the single city of Calcutta? Is this whisky -drinking less worthy of condemnation because it is Pashupana or done for the satisfaction of sensual appetite alone? The dualistic notion that the \"dignity\" of religion is impaired by association with natural function is erroneous. The well -known English writer, Sir Conan Doyle, doubtless referring to these and other wrongs, has expressed the opinion that during the then last quarter of a century we Westerns have been living in what (with some few ameliorating features) is the wickedest epoch in the world's history. However this may be, if our own great sins were here known, the abuses, real and alleged, of Tantriks would be seen in better proportion. Moreover an effective reply would be to hand against those who are always harping on Devadasis and other sensualities (supposed or real) of, or connected with, Indian worship. India's general present record for temperance and sexual control is better than that of the West. It is no doubt a just observation that abuses committed under the supposed sanction of religion are worse than wrongs done with the sense that they are wrong. That there have been hypocrites covering the satisfaction of their appetites with the cloak of religion is likely. But all Sadhakas are not hypocrites, and all cases do not show abuse. I cannot, therefore, help thinking that this constant insistence on one particular feature of the Shastra, together with ignorance both of the particular rites, and neglect and ignorance of all else in the Agama Scripture is simply part of the general polemic carried on in some quarters against the Indian religion. The Tantra Shastra is doubtless thought to be a very useful heavy gun and is therefore constantly fired in the attack. There may be some who will not readily believe that the weapon is not as formidable as was thought. All this is not to say that there have not been abuses, or that some forms of rite will not be considered repugnant, and in fact open to objection founded on the interests of society at large. All this 497 again is not to say that I counsel the acceptance of any theories or practice, not justified by the evolved morality of the day. According to the Shastra itself, some of these methods, even if carried out as directed, have their dangers. This is obvious in the actions of a lower class of men, whose conduct has made the Scripture notorious. The ordinary man will then ask: \"Why then court danger when there is enough of it in ordinary life?\" I may here recall an observation of the Emperor Akbar which, though not made with regard to the matter in hand, is yet well in point. He said, \"I have never known of a man who was lost on a straight road.\" It is necessary for me to so guard myself because those who cannot judge with detachment are prone to think that others who deal fairly and dispassionately with any doctrine or practice are necessarily its adherents and the counselors of it to others. My own view is this -- Probably on the whole it would be, in general, better if men took neither alcohol in the form of spirits or meat, particularly the latter, which is the source of much disease. Though it is said that killing for sacrifice is no \"killing\", it can hardly be denied that total abstention from slaughter of animals constitutes a more complete conformity with Ahimsa or doctrine of non- injury to any being. Moreover, at a certain stage meat - eating is repugnant. A feeling of this kind is growing in the West, where even the meat-eater, impelled by disgust and a rising regard for decency, hides away the slaughter houses producing the meat which he openly displays at his table. In the same way, sexual errors are common to -day. Whatever license any person may allow himself in this matter, few if any will claim it for others and foster their vices. Nor was this the intention of the Shastra. It is well known, however, that much of what passes for religious sentiment is connected with sex instinct even if religious life is not a mere \"irradiation of the reproductive instinct\" (see Religion and Sex, Cohen). I understand the basis on which these Tantrik practices rest. Thus what seems repellent is sought to be justified on the ground that the Sadhaka should be above all likes and dislikes, and should see Brahman in all things. But the Western critic will say that we must judge practice from the practical standpoint. It was this consideration which was at the back of the statement of Professor de la Vallee Poussine (Boudhism Etudes et Materianx) that there 498 is in this country what Taine called a \"reasoning madness' which makes the Hindu stick at no conclusion however strange, willingly accepting even the absurd. (Il y regne des l'origine ce que Taine appelle la folie raisonante. Les Hindous vont volontiers jusqua l'absurde). This may be too strongly put; but the saying contains this truth that the Indian temperament is an absolutist one. But such a temperament, if it has its fascinating grandeur, also carries with it the defects of its qualities; namely, dangers from which those, who make a compromise between life and reason, are free. The answer again is, that some of the doctrines and practices here described were never meant for the general body of men. After all, as I have elsewhere said, the question of this particular ritual practice is largely of historical interest only. Such practice to -day is, under the influences of the time, being transformed, where it is not altogether disa ppearing, with other ritual customs of a past age. Apart from my desire to clear away, so far as is rightly possible, charges which have lain heavily on this country, I am only interested here to show firstly that the practice is not a modern invention but seems to be a continuation in another form of ancient Vaidik usage; secondly that it claims, like the rest of the ritual with which I have dealt, to be an application of the Advaitavada of the Upanishads; and lastly that (putting aside things generally re pugnant and extremist practices which have led to abuse) a great principle is involved which may find legitimate and ennobling application in all daily acts of physical function within the bounds of man's ordinary Dharma. Those who so practice this princip le may become the true Vira who has been said to be not the man of great physical or sexual strength, the great fighter, eater, drinker, or the like, but Jitendriyah satavadi nityanushthana-tatparah Kamadi -balidanashca sa vira iti giyate. \"He is a Hero who has controlled his senses, and is a speaker of truth; who is ever engaged in worship and has sacrificed lust and all other passions.\" The attainment of these qualities is the aim, whatever is said of some of the means, of all such Tantrik Sadhana. 499 CHAPTER TWENTY -EIGHT . MATAM RUTRA (THE RIGHT AND WRONG INTERPRETATION ) In connection with the doctrine and Sadhana just described it is apposite to cite the following legend from Tibet, which shows how, according to its Sadhakas, it may be either rightly or wrongly interpreted, and how, in the latter case, it leads to terrible evils and their punishment. Guru Padma -sambhava, the so-called founder of \"Lamaism,\" had five women disciples who compiled several accounts of the teachings of their Master and hid them in various places for the benefit of future believers. One of these disciples -- Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal -- was a Tibetan lady who is said to have possessed such a wonderful power of memory that if she was told a thing only once she remembered it for ever. She gathered what she had heard from her Guru into a book called the Padma Thangyig Serteng or Golden Rosary of the history of her Guru who was entitled the Lotus -born (Padmasambhava). The book was hidden away and was subsequently, under inspiration, revealed some five hundred years ago by a Terton. The first Chapter of the work deals with Sukhavati, the realm of Buddha Amitabha. In the second the Buddha emanates a ray which is incarnated for the welfare of the Universe. In Chapter III it is said that there have been a Buddha and a Guru working together in various worlds and at various times, the former preaching the Sutras and the latter the Tantras. The fourth Chapter speaks of the Mantras and the five Dh yani Buddhas (as to which see Shri -cakra -sambhara Tantra), and in the fifth we find the subject of the present Chapter, an account of the origin of the Vajrayana Faith. The present Chapter is based on a translation, which I asked Kazi Dawasamdup to prepare for me, of portions of the Thangyig Serteng. I have further had, and here acknowledge, the assistance of the very learned Lama Ugyen Tanzin, in the elucidation of the inner meaning of the legend. I cannot go fully into this but give certain indications which will enable the competent to work out much of the rest for themselves from the terrible symbolism in which evil for evil's sake is here expressed. 500 The story is that of the rise and fall of the Self. The disciple \"Transcendent Faith\" who became the Bodhisattva Vajrapani illustrates the former; the case of \"Black Salvation\" who incarnated as a Demoniac Rutra displays the latter. He was no ordinary man, for at the time of his initiation he had already attained eight out of the thirteen stages (Bhumika) on the way to perfect Buddhahood. His powers were correspondingly great. But the higher the rise the greater the fall if it comes. Through misunderstanding and misapplying, as so many others have done, the Tantrik doctrine, he \"fell back\" into Hell. Extraordi nary men who were teachers of recondite doctrines such as those of Thubka, who was himself \"hard to overcome,\" seem not to have failed to warn lesser brethren against their dangers. It is commonly said in Tibet of the so- called \"heroic\" modes of extremist Yoga, that they waft the disciple with the utmost speed either to the heights of Nirvana or to the depths of Hell. For the aspirant is compared to a snake which is made to go up a hollow bamboo. It must ascend and escape at the top, at the peril otherwise of falling down. Notwithstanding these warnings many of the vulgar, the vicious, the misunderstanding and the fools who play with fire have gone to Hells far more terrible than those which await human frailties in pursuance of the common life of men whose progress if slow is sure. \"Black Salvation\", though an advanced disciple, misinterpreted his teacher's doctrine and consciously identifying himself with the world- evil fell into Hell. In time he rose therefrom and incarnating at first, in gross material forms, he at length manifested as a great Rutra, the embodiment of all wickedness. The Tibetan Rutra here spoken of and the Indian Rutra seem to be etymologically the same but their meaning is different. Both are fierce and terrible Spirits; but a Rutra as h ere depicted is essentially evil, and neither the Lord of any sensual celestial paradise, nor the Cosmic Shakti which loosens forms. A Rutra is rather what in some secret circles is called (though in ungrammatical Sanskrit) an Adhatma, or a soul upon the l ower and destructive path. The general destructive energy (Samhara -Shakti), however, uses for its purpose the disintegrating propensities of these forms. The evil which appears as Rutra is the expression of various kinds of Egoism. Thus Matam Rutra is Egoi sm as attached to the gross physical body. Again, all sentient worldly being gives expression to its feelings, saying \"I am happy, unhappy, and so 501 forth.\" All this is here embodied in the speech of the Rutra and is called Akar Rutra. Khatram Rutra is Egoism of the mind, as when it is said of any object \"this is mine\". \"Black Salvation\" became a Rutra of such terrific power that to save him and the world the Buddhas intervened. There are four methods by which they and the Bodhisattvas subdue and save sentient being, namely, the Peaceful, the Grand or Attractive, the Fascinating which renders powerless (Vasikaranam), and the stern method of downright Force. All forms of Egoism must be destroyed in order that the pure \"That Which Is\" or formless Consciousness m ay be attained. \"Black Salvation\" incarnated as the Pride of Egoism in its most terrible form. And, in order to subdue him, the last two methods had to be employed. He was, through the Glorious One, redeemed by the suffering which attends all sin and becam e the \"Dark Defender of the Faith,\" which by his egoistic apostasy he had abjured, to be later the Buddha known as the \"Lord of Ashes\" in that world which is called \"the immediately self- produced\". How this came about the legend describes. The fifth Chapter of the Golden Rosary says that Guru Padma -Vajradhara was reborn as Bhikshu Thubkazhonnu, which means the \"youth who is hard to overcome\". He was a Tantrik who preached an abstruse doctrine which is condensed in the following verse: \"He who has attained the 'That Which Is' Or uncreated In -itself -ness Is unaffected even by the 'four things' Just as the cloud which floats in the sky Adheres not thereto. This is the way of Supreme Yoga. Than this in all the three worlds There is not a higher wisdom.\" This Guru had two disciples, Kuntri and his servant Pramadeva. To the latter was given, on initiation, the name \"Transcendent Faith,\" and to the former 502 \"Black Salvation\". This last name was a prophetic prediction that he would be saved, not through peacefu l or agreeable means but through the just wrath of the Jinas. The real meaning of the verse as understood and practiced by Pramadeva and as declared to be right by the Guru was as follows: \"The pure Consciousness (Dagpa -ye-shes) is the foundation (Gshihdsi n) of the limited consciousness (Rnam -shes) and is in Scripture \"That which is,\" the real uncreated \"In- Itself -ness\". This being unaffected or unruffled is the path of Tantra. Passions (Klesha) are like clouds wandering in the wide spaces of the sky. (These clouds are distinct from, and do not touch the back -ground of space against which they appear.) So passions do not touch but disappear from the Void (Shunyata). Whilst ascending upwards the threefold accomplishment (Activity, non- activity, absolute repose) must be persevered in; and this is the meaning of our Teacher Thubka's doctrine.\" The latter, however, was misunderstood by \"Black Salvation\" (Tharpa Nagpo) who took it to mean that he was to make no effort to save himself by the gaining of merit, but that he was to indulge in the four acts of sinful enjoyment, by the eye, nose, tongue and organ of generation. On this account, he fell out with his brother in the faith Pramadeva, and later with his Guru, both of whom he caused to be persecuted and banished the country. Continuing in a career of reckless and sin- hardened life, he died unre pentant after a score of years passed in various diabolical practices. He fell into Hell and continued there for countless ages. At the close of the time of Buddha Dipankara (Marmedzad or \"Light maker\") he was reborn several times as huge sea monsters. At length, just before the time of the last Buddha Sakya Muni, he was born as the son of a woman of loose morals in a country called Lankapuri of the Rakshasas. This woman used to consort with three Spirits -- a Deva in the morning, a Fire Genius at noon, and a Daitya in the evening. \"Black Salvation\" was reborn in the eighth month as the offspring of these three Spirits. The child was a terrible monster, black of color, with three heads, each of which had three eyes, six hands, four feet and two wings. He was horrible to look at, and immediately at his birth all the auspicious signs of the country disappeared, and the eighteen inauspicious signs were seen. Malignant epidemics attacked the whole region of Lanka -puri. Some died, others only suffered, but all wer e in misery. 503 Lamentation, famine and sorrow beset the land. There were disease, bloodshed, mildew, hailstorms, droughts, floods and all other kinds of calamities. Even dreams were frightful, and ominous signs portending a great catastrophe oppressed all. Evil spirits roamed the land. So great were the evils that it seemed as if the good merits of everyone had been exhausted all at once. The mother who had given birth to this monster died nine days after its birth. The people of the country decreed that this monstrous infant should be bound to the mother's corpse and left in the cemetery. The infant was then tied to his mother's breast. The mother was borne away in a stretcher to the cemetery, and the stretcher was left at the foot of a poisonous tree which had a boar's den at its root, a poisonous snake coiled round the middle of its trunk, and a bird of prey sitting in its uppermost branches. (These animals are the emblems of lust, anger and greed respectively which \"kindle the fire of individuality\".) At this place there was a huge sepulcher built by the Rakshasas where they used to leave their dead at the foot of the tree. Elephants and tigers came there to die; serpents infested it, and witch - like spirits called Dakinis and Ghouls brought human bodies there. After the bearers of the corpse had left, the infant sustained his life by sucking the breasts of his mother's corpse. These yielded only a thin, watery fluid for seven days. Next he sucked the blood and lived a week; then he gnawed at the breast and lived the third week; then he ate the entrails and lived for a week. Then he ate the outer flesh and lived for the fifth week. Lastly he crunched the bones, sucked the marrow, licked the humors and brains and lived a week. He thus in six weeks developed full physical maturity. Having exhausted his stock of food he moved about; and his motion shook the cemetery building to pieces. He observed the Ghouls and Dakinis feasting on human corpses which he took as his food and human blood as the drink, filling the skulls with it. His clothing was dried human skins as also the hides of dead elephants, the flesh of which he also ate. He ate also the flesh of tigers and wrapped his loins in their furs. He used serpents as bracelets, anklets, armlets and as necklaces and garlands. His lips were thick with frozen fat, and his body was covered with ashes from the burning ground. He wore a garland of dead skulls on one string; freshly severed heads on another; and decomposing heads on a third. These were worn crosswise as 504 a triple garland. Each cheek was adorned with a spot of blood. His three great heads ever wrathful, of three different colors, were fierce and horrible to look at. The middle head was dark blue and those to the right and left were white and red respectively. His body and limbs which were of gigantic size and proportions were ashy gray. His skin was coarse and his hair as stiff as hog's bristles. His mouth wide agape showed fangs. His terrible eyes were fixed in a stare. Half of the dark brown hair on his head stood erect, bound with four kinds of snakes. The nails of his fingers and toes were like the talons of a great bird of prey, which seized hold of everything within reach, whether animals or human corpses which he crushed and swallowed. He bore a trident a nd other weapons in his right hands, and with his left he filled the emptied skulls with blood which he drank with great relish. He was a monster of ugliness who delighted in every kind of impious act. His unnatural food produced a strange luster on his face, which shone with a dull though great and terrible light. His breath was so poisonous that those touched by it were attacked with various diseases. For his nostrils breathed forth disease. His eyes, ears and arms produced the 404 different ills. Thus, the diseases paralysis, epilepsy, bubonic swellings, urinary ills, skin diseases, aches, rheumatism, gout, colic, cholera, leprosy, cancer, small -pox, dropsy and various other sores and boils appeared in this world at that time. (For evil thoughts and acts make the vital spirit sick and thence springs gross disease.) The name of this great Demon was Matam Rutra. He was the fruit of the Karma of the great wickedness of his former life as Tharpa Nagpo. At that time, in each of the 24 Pilgrimages, there was a powerful destructive Bhairava Spirit. These Devas, Gandharvas, Rakshasas, Asuras and Nagas were proud, malignant and mighty Spirits, despotic masters of men, with great magical powers of illusion and transformation. These Spirits used to wander over these countries dressed in the eight sepulchral raiments, wearing the six kinds of bone ornaments, and armed with various weapons, accompanied by their female consorts, and reveled in all kinds of obscene orgies. Their chief occupation consisted in depriving all sentient beings of their lives. After consultation, all these Spirits elected Matam Rutra as their Chief. Thus all these non- human beings became his slaves. In the midst of his horrible retinue he continued to devour human beings alive until the race 505 becam e almost destroyed and the cities emptied. He was thus the terrible scourge that the earth had ever seen. All who died in those days fell into Hell. But, as for Matam Rutra himself, his pride knew no bounds: he thought there was no one greater than himself and would roar out: \"Who is there greater and mightier than I? If there be any Lord who would excel me, Him too will I subjugate.\" As there was no one to gainsay him, the world was oppressed by heavy gloom. At that time, however, Kali proclaimed, \"In the country of Lanka, the land of Rakshasas, In a portion of the city called Koka -Thangmaling, On the peak of Malaya, the abode of Thunder, There dwells the Lord of Lanka, King of Rakshasas. He is a disciple of the light -giving Buddha. His fame far excels thin e. He is unconquerable in fight by any foe. He sleeps secure and doth awake in peace.\" Hearing this, the pride and ambition of the Demon became aflame. His body emitted flames great enough to have consumed all worlds at the great Kalpa dissolution. His voice resounded in a deep thundering roar like that of a thousand clasp of thunder heard together. With sparks of fire flying from his mouth he summoned a huge force. He filled the very heavens with them, and moving with the speed of a meteor he invaded the Rakshasa's capital of Koka -Thangmaling. Encamping, Matam Rutra proclaimed his name proudly, at which the entire country of Lanka trembled and was shaken terribly as though by an earth- quake. The Rakshasas, both male and female, became terrified. The King of the Rakshasas sent spies to find out the cause of these happenings. They went and saw the terrible force, and being terrified at the sight reported the fearful news to their king. He sat in Samadhi for a while, and divined the following: According to the Sutra of King Gunadhara it was said, \"One who has vexed his Guru's heart, and broken his friend and 506 brother's heart: the haughty son, being released from the three Hells, will take rebirth here, and he will surely conquer the Lord of Lanka. In the end, he will be conquered by many Sugatas (the blissful ones, or Buddhas). And this event will give birth to the Anuttara -Vajrayana Faith.\" The Buddha Marmedzad having revealed the event, he wished to see whether this was the Matam Rutra Demon referred to in the p rophesy. So he collected a force of Rakshasas and went forth to fight a battle with the Demon force. Matam Rutra was very angry and said: \"I am the Great Invincible One, who is without a peer, I am the Ishvara Mahadeva. The four great Kings of the four quarters are my vassals, The eight different tribes of Spirits are my slaves, I am the Lord of the whole World. Who is going to withstand and confront me? Tutra, Matra, Marutra.\" With this battle cry he overcame the forces of the Rakshasas. Then the King of the Rakshasas and all his forces submitted to the King of the Demons, saying \"I repent me of my attempt to withstand you, in the hope of upholding the Faith of the Buddhas, and to spread it far and wide. I now submit to you and become your loyal subject. I will not rebel against you.\" When he had thus overcome the Rakshasas, he assumed the title of Matamka, the Chief of all the Rakshasas. His pride increased, and he proclaimed, \"Who is there greater than I'?\" Then, Kali again cleverly excited his ambition and pride by saying, \"The Chief of the armies of the Asuras (Lhamin that is \"not Devas\"), named Mahakaru, is mightier than you.\" Thereupon he invaded the realms of the Asuras, with his demon force, and all the Asuras becoming affected with various terrible maladies were powerless to resist him. The Rutra caught hold of the Asura King by the leg and whirling him thrice round his head flung him into the Jambudvipa where he fell in a place called the Ge -ne-gynad, meaning the place of eight merits. Then those of the Asuras who had not been killed, the 507 eight planets (Grahas) and the twenty -eight constellations (Nakshatras) and their hosts sought refuge in every direction, but failing to obtain safety anywhere, they returned and surrendered themselves to the Demon Matam Rutra. Then the Asuras guided the Rutra and his forces to a Palace named the Globular Palace like a skull where they established their Capital. In the center of this Palace, the Rutra hoisted his banner of Victory. They arranged their dreadful weapon s by the side of the entrance, and the place was surrounded by numerous followers with magical powers. Having thus shown his own great magical powers, he took up the King of Mountains, Meru, upon the tip of his finger and whirling it round his head, he proclaimed these boastful words, \"Rutra, Matra, Marutra, who is there in this universe greater than myself? In all the three Lokas, there is none greater than I. And if there be any, him also will I subdue.\" To these boastful words Kali answered, \"In the thir ty-third Deva -Loka and in the happy celestial regions of the Tushita Heavens, Sitting amidst the golden assembly of disciples, Is the Holy Savior of all beings, Regent of the Devas (Dampa - Togkar). Having been anointed, He is venerated and praised by all the Deva Kings. He summons all the Devas to his assembly by sounding the various instruments of heavenly music Accompanied by a celestial Chorus. He is greater than yourself.\" On her so saying, the Archdemon blazed forth into a fury of pride and wrath, and set forth to conquer the Tushita Heavens. The Bodhisattva (Dampa - Togkar) was sitting enthroned on a throne of precious metals, in the midst of thousands of Devatas, both male and female, and was preaching Dharma 508 to them. The Archdemon seized Dampa -Togkar from his throne, and threw him down into this world- system. All the Devas and Devis there gathered exclaimed, \"Alas, what a fate, O, the sinful wretch!\" seven times over. Thereupon the Rutra fiercely said: \"Put on two cloths, and sit down on your seats, eve ry one of you! How can I be conquered by you? I am the mighty destroyer and subjugator of all. (The expression \"Put on two cloths\" was said by way of contempt for the priestly robes which consist of three pieces, being a wrapper above, and one below and one over both. Dampa - Togkar is the Bodhisattva who is coming as Buddha to teach in the human world. He descends from the Tushita Heavens where he reigns as Regent). When the celestial Regent of the Tushita Heavens (Dampa -Togkar) was about to pass away from there, he uttered this prophesy to his disciples, who were around him: \"Listen unto me, Ye my disciples: This apostate disciple, Tharpa -Nagpo (Black Salvation), Who does not believe in the Buddha's Doctrine, He is destined to pervert the Devas and Asuras, And to bend them to his yoke. He hates the perfect Buddha, and he will work much evil in this world- system There are two, who can deprive him of his terrible power; They are Thubka -Zhonnu and Dad- Phags (Pramadeva, Arya Shraddha called Transcendent Faith) They will be able to make him taste the fruits of his 509 evil deeds in this very life. He will not be subdued by peaceful, nor by any generous means. He will only be conquered by the methods of Fascination and Sternness. (The various means of redemption have been previously explained. Thubka and his good disciple \"Transcendent Faith\" who had then become Buddha Vajra -Sattva, and Bodhisattva Vajrapani were selected for this purpose. They assumed the forms of the Devatas with the Horse's head (Hayagriva) and the Sow's head (Vajra -Varahi) \"Who, of the Noble Sangha, will doubt this, That Hayagriva and Vajra- Varahi will give him their bodies. (When it is said \"These will give him their bodies\" this means, as hereafter described, entering the Rutra's body, assuming his shape and destroying his Rutra life and nature. They give him their divine bodies so that they may destroy his demoniac body). \"And who will not trust in the Wisdom of the Jinas, to conquer him by the upward-piercing method, From this (demon) will come t he Precious- nectar, which will be of use in acquiring Virtue. From this (demon) will originate the changing of poison into elixir. (There are various Tantrik methods suited to various natures. \"The upward-piercing\" (Khatar -yar-phig) is that of Vajrayana. This is the method which goes upward and upward, that is straight upward without delay and without going to right or left. To change poison into nectar or elixir is a well -known 510 principle of these schools. \"This Demon will have to be ground down and destroy ed to the last atom, in one body. (It is said \"in one body\" because, ordinarily, several lives are necessary; but in this case and by this method Liberation is achieved in a single life- time and in one body. Not one atom of the Rutra body is left, for Egoi sm is wholly destroyed.) \"The Divine Horse- headed Deity (Vajra- Hayagriva), is he who will dispel this threatening misfortune, Dad- phags, (Pramadeva who was given on initiation the name \"Transcendent Faith\") is at present Vajra - pani (Bodhisattva). And Thub ka-Zhonnu is, at present, the Buddha Vajra - sattva. The divine prophesies of the Jinas are to be interpreted thus: 'They will exterminate their opponents For myself I go to take birth in Maya -Devi's womb. I will practice Samadhi at the root of the Bodhi -Tree. I will not hold those beliefs in doubt. For it has been said that the Buddha's Faith will triumph over this, And will remain long in the Jambudvipa. By means of the mysterious practice of Emancipating by means of Communion.' 511 (The practice here referred to is the method called Jordol (sByor sGrol) which has both exoteric and esoteric meanings, such as in the case of the latter the communion of the Divine Male and Female whose union destroys to its uttermost root egoistic attachment; the communion with Shunyata whose innermost significance is the non- dual Consciousness (gNyismed- yeshes) which dispels ignorance and cuts at the root of all Samsaric life by the destruction of all the Rutra forms. \"Female\" here is Sunyata and not a woman. When a learne d Lama is asked why the terms of sex are used they say it is to symbolize Thabs (Upaya) and Shesrabs (Praja) which it is not possible to further explain here (See Mahanirvana Tantra and Kaulavali Nirnaya). \"The Matam Rutra, which is clinging to the body a s 'I' will be dispelled, All forms of worldly happiness and pain, the Egoism of Speech (Akar Rutra), Will be destroyed. The saying 'this is mine' of anything, The mental 'I' (or Khatram -Rutra) is freed. The true nature and distinguishing attributes of a Rutra, Which is manifest outwardly, exists inwardly, and lies hidden secretly, In short all the fifty -eight Rutras, with their hosts, will be destroyed completely. (I have already dealt with the meaning of the term, Rutra. Here the Egoisms of body, feeling s, mind are referred to. The Glorious One will eradicate the physical and all other Rutras, the monster of the self in all its forms, gross, subtle and causal.) 512 \"The world though deprived of happiness will rejoice again. The world will be filled with the P recious Dharma of the Tri -Ratna. The Righteous Faith has not declined, nor has it passed away.\" (Thus did the Regent of the Tushita Heavens prophesy the advent of the Tantrik method for the complete destruction and the elimination of the demon of \"Egotism\" from the nature of the devotees on the path by means of Jordol.) After uttering these prophecies he passed away and took re-birth in the womb of Queen Maya Devi. Then the Archdemon, having subjugated all the Devas of the thirty -third and the Tushita Heave ns, appointed the two Demons Mara and Devadatta, his two chief officers, to suppress Indra and Brahma. The Archdemon himself took up his abode in the Malaya Mountain, in the place called the Human skull -like Mansion. He used to feed upon Devas and human beings, both males and females. Drums, bells, cymbals and every kind of stringed and other musical instruments were played to him in a perpetual concert with songs and dances. Every kind of enjoyment which the Devas used to enjoy, he enjoyed perpetually. (8th Chapter ends). The 9th Chapter deals with the defeat and destruction of the Archdemon Matam Rutra by the Buddhas of the ten directions. Then there assembled together Dharmakaya Buddha Samanatabhadra (Chosku Kuntu Zangpo) and his attendants from the Wogmin (Akanishta) Heavens, from other Heavens, Sambhoga -kaya Vajra- dhara with his attendants; and Vajrapani Nirmanakaya with his attendants. In short, from the various heavens of the ten directions came the different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. All held a consultation together and came to this resolution: \"Unless the power of the Buddhas be exerted to subjugate the Rutra, the Faith of the Buddhas will cease to spread and will degenerate. That body 513 which has committed such violent outrages on every other being, must be made to suffer the agonies of being hurt by weapons, wielded by avengers. If he is not made to feel the consequences of his deeds, the Jinas who have proclaimed the Truth will be falsified. He is not to be destroyed but to be subdued.\" Having thus agreed, all the Buddhas began to seek with their omniscient eyes, him who was destined to conquer this Rutra. They saw that Thubka -Zhonnu who had attained the state of Buddha Vajrasattva and Dadphags who had become Vajra -pani were to subdue him, and that the time was also ripe. So both of them came with their respective retinue and were blessed and endowed with Power by all the Buddhas, who gave these instructions. \"Do ye assume the forms and sexes of Chenrezi and Dolma (Avalokita and Tara) and do ye subdue the Enemy by assuming the shapes of the Deities having the Horse- mane and the Sow's head (Haya -griva and Vajra -Varahi) .\" (The latter is commonly known in English translations as the \"Diamond Sow\". Vajra is the Sanskrit equivalent of the word Dorje in Tibetan. The latter has many meanings; Indra's thunderbolt, the Lamas' scepter, diamond and so forth: and is in fact used of anything of a high and mystical character which is lasting, indestructible, powerful and irresistible. Thus the high priest presiding at Tantrik Rites is called Dorje Lopon. In fact, diamond is so called because of the hard character of this gem. In the Indian Tantrik worship, Vajra occurs as in Vajrapushpa (Vajra -flower), Vajra -bhumi (Vajra -ground), and so forth, but these are not \"diamon d\" flowers or earth. An extremely interesting inquiry is here opened which is beyond the scope of this Chapter, for the term Vajra, which is again the appellation of this particular school (Vajrayana), and is of great significance in the history of that power- side of religion which is dealt with in the Shakta Tantra. (See Introduction to Shri - Cakra -Sambhara. Here, without further attempt at explanation, I keep the term Vajra adding only that Harinisa is not, as has been thought, Vajra- Varahi (Dorje -phagmo) Herself but the Bija Mantras (Ha, ri, ni, sa) of Her four attendant Dakinis.) Vajra -Sattva and Vajrapani, Buddha and Bodhisattva of the Vajrayana faith transformed themselves into the forms of Hayagriva and Vajra -Varahi, and assumed the costumes of Herukas. (The Herukas are a class of Vajrayana 514 Devatas, of half terrible features, represented as partly nude with an upper garment of human skin and tiger skin round the loins. They have a skull head- dress, carry bone rosaries, a staff and Damaru like Shiva. The Herukas are described in the Tibetan books as being beautiful, heroic, awe-inspiring, stern and majestic.) Blazing in the nine kinds of physical magnificence and splendor, they proceeded to the Malaya Mountain, -- the abode of the Rutra. On the four sides of the Mountain were four gates. Each gate was guarded by a Demoness, bearing respectively a Mare's, Sow's, Lion's and a Dog's head. These the Glorious One conquered, and united therewith in a spirit of nonattachment. From their union were born the followi ng female issue: (1) The White Horse- faced, (2) The Black Sow -faced, (3) The Red Lion- faced, (4) and the Green Dog -faced daughters. Proceeding still further He met another cordon of sentries, who too were females, bearing the heads of (1) Lioness, (2) Tigress, (3) Fox, (4) Wolf, (5) Vulture, (6) Kanka, (?) (7) Raven, and (8) Owl. With these Demonesses too, the Glorious One united in a spirit of non - attachment, and blessed the act. Of this union were born female offspring, each of whom took after the mother in outward shape or Matter, and after the father in Mind. Thus were the eight Demi -goddesses born: viz., the Lion - headed, Tiger -headed and so forth. Being divine in mind, they possess prescience and wisdom, although from their mother they retained their shape and features, which are those of brutes. Then again proceeding further inward, He came upon the daughters of the Rutras and of Rakshasas, named respectively, Nyobyed- ma or \"She who maddens,\" Tagbyed -ma \"She who frightens,\" Dri- medma \"The unsullied,\" Kem-pama \"She who dries one up,\" Phorthogma \"She who bears the Cup\" and Zhyongthogma the \"bowl bearer.\" The Glorious One united with these in the same manner, and from them, were born the eight Matrikas of the eight Sthanas (sacred places), known as Gaurima and so forth. These, too, possessed divine wisdom from their father and terrific features and shapes from their mothers. (There are 24 Sthanas which are places of pilgrimage and eight great cemeteries making 32 in all. In each of these cemeteries there is a powerful Goddess also called Mamo, that is, Matrika. These terrible Goddesses are, according to the Zhi -Khro, Gaurima, Tsaurima, Candali, Vetali, Gasmari, 515 Shonama, Pramo, Puskasi. These are in color white, yellow, yellowish white, black, dark green, dark blue, red, reddish yellow, and are situated in the East, South, N.W., North, S.W., N.E., West, S.E., \"nerve -leafs of the conch- shell mansion\" (brain) respectively. These are the eight great Matrikas of the eight great Cemeteries, to whom prayer is made, that when forms are changed and entrance is made on the intermediate plane (Bardo. See as to this Dr. Evans -Wentz, Tibetan Book of the Dead), they may place the spirit on the clear light path of Radiance (Hodsal). (These various accomplements denote the union of Divine Mind with gross matter. In working with matter the Divine mind is always detached. Work is possible even for the liberated consciousness when free from attachment, that is, desire (Kama), which is bondage. The Divine Mind unites with terrible forms of gross matter that these may be instruments; in this case instruments whereby the gross Egoism of the Rutra is to be subdued.) Then going right into the innermost abode, he found that the Rutra had gone out in search of food, which consisted of human flesh and of Devas. Adopting the disguise of the Rutra, the Glorious One went in to the Consort of the Rutra, the Rakshasi -Queen Krodheshvari (Lady of Wrath) in the same spirit as before, and blessed the act. By Krodheshvari, He had male issue, Bhagavan Vajra -Keruka, with three faces and six hands, terrific to behold. Then the Glorious One, Hayagriva, and his divine Consort, Vajra -Varahi, each expressed their triumph by neighing and grunting thrice. Upon hearing these sounds the Rutra was struck with mortal fear, and coming to the spot, he said: \"What sayest Thou, little son of Hayagriva and Vajra- Varahi. All the world of Devas and Asuras Proclaim my virtues and sing my praises. I cannot be conquered. Rest yourselves in peace, Regard me with humility, and bow down to me. Even the Regent of the Devas, of the odd garment 516 (priestly dress), Failed to conquer me in days of yore.\" Saying this, he raised his hands, and came to lay them on the young one's head. Thereupon, Hayagriva at once entered the body of the Rutra by the secret path (Guhya) from below and piercing him right through from below up- wards, He showed His Horse's Head, on the top of the head of the Rutra. The oily fat of the Rutra's body made the Horse's head look green. The mane, being dyed with blood, became red, and the eye -brows, having been splashed with the bile of the Demon, became yellow. The forehead, being splashed with the brains, became white. Thus the Glorious One, having assumed the shape and dresses of the Rutra, took on a terrible m ajesty. At the same time, Vajra -Varahi, His Consort, also entered the body of the Rutra's Consort Krodheshvari, in the same manner piercing and impaling her. She forced Her own Sow's head right up through the crown of the Demoness' head, until it towered a bove it. The Sow's head had assumed a black color, from having been steeped in the fat of the Rakshasi. Then the two Divine Beings embraced each other, and begot an offspring, a Divine Being, a male of the Terrific Order, a Krodhabhairava. Having done this , Hayagriva neighed shrilly six times, and Vajra- Varahi grunted deeply five times. Then the hosts of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas assembled there as thickly as birds of prey settling down on carrion. They filled all space. They were of the peaceful, th e wrathful, the half -peaceful and the half -wrathful orders, in inconceivably large numbers. They began to surround the Rutra - Tharpa -Nagpo, who, being unable to bear the pain of being stretched asunder, cried in agony: \"Oh, I am defeated! The Horse and the Sow have defeated the Rutra. The Buddhas have defeated the Demons. Religion has conquered Ir -religion, The Sangha has defeated the Tirthikas. Indra has defeated the Asuras, 517 The Asuras have defeated the Moon The Garuda has defeated the Ocean Fire defeats fuel, Wind scatters the Clouds Diamond (Vajra) pierces metals Oh! it was I who said that last night's dream portended evil. Oh! slay me quick, if you are going to slay me.\" As he said this, his bowels were involuntarily loosened, and from the excreta which, being thus purified, fell into the Ocean, there at once arose a precious sandal tree, which was a wish -granting tree. This tree struck its root in the nether world of the Serpent -spirits, spread its foliage in the Asura -lokas, and bore its fruits in the Deva -lokas. And the fruits were named Amrita (the essence and elixir of life). Then the two Chief Actor and Actress, Hayagriva and Vajra -Varahi acted the joyful plays called the 'Plays of Happy Cause,' 'Happy Path', and 'Happy Result', in the nine glorious measures. (That is, plays in which the actors are happy being the male and female Divinities, in this case Hayagriva and Vajra - Varahi. They are the cause; their play being exoterically \"Dalliance\" (Lila, and their result the dispelling of Egoism which is Illumination.) Just as a victor in a battle, who has slain his enemy, wins the armor and the accoutrements of his slain opponent, and puts them on as a sign of triumph, so also, the Glorious One having conquered the Rutra, assumed the eight accoutrements o f the foe, including the wings, and the other adornments which made him look so bright and magnificent. These the Glorious One blessed and consecrated to the use of the Divine Deities. Having done all this, both Hayagriva and Vajra -Varahi returned to the Realm of pure Spiritual Being (Dharmadhatu). Thus it comes about that those costumes, assumed by the Rutra, came to be adopted as the attire of the Deities. Their having three heads, the eight sepulchral ornaments, and the eight glorious costumes and wings, had origin in this event. 518 Then Pal Chag -na-dorje (Shri Vajrapani) multiplied himself into countless Avataras, and these again multiplied themselves into myriads of Avataras, all of the terrible and wrathful type. The Rutra too showed supernatural powers, for he transformed himself into a nine -headed Monster, having eighteen hands, as huge as the Mount Meru. Should it be doubted, how this sinful being could still possess such supernatural powers, one must know that he was a Bodhisattva of the eighth degree (One who has attained eight Bhumikas or stages of advance out of thirteen) who had fallen back. Hence was it, that even the Buddhas found it difficult to subdue him, not to count the world of Devas and men. Then Vajrapani manifested still greater divine powers of every imaginable description, and all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas fixed their abodes on the greatly enlarged and distended body of the Rutra. The latter being unable to bear the agony of this pressure, roared with pain, \"Come quick to the rescue, 0 my followers, who inhabit the ten directions To the right and left of the Skull -like Mansion And those who live in the gardens and the orchards. Yakshas, Rakshasas, and Pretas millions in number, advance to the rescue at once. 0 ye followers and adherent s of the Rutra, who dwell in the twenty -four places, and countries Numbering millions and tens of million, who have sworn allegiance to me And promised to serve me faithfully, and ye from the illimitable spaces in every direction Fill the heavens and the e arth with your innumerable hosts 519 And all in one body strike (at the foe) with the weapons in your hands, sounding the battle cry Om- rulu -rulu.\" Though he uttered these commands, there was none to obey him. Everyone surrendered to Bhagavan Vajra -Heruka. Thu s all the subordinates of the Rutra, the thirty -two Dakinis, the seven Matrikas, and the four \"Sisters,\" (Sringbzhi), the eight Furies (Barmas or flaming ones), the eight Genii (spirits or attendants on the Devatas) and the sixty -four Messengers all came o ver to the Heruka and the Divine offspring (the Krodha -Bhairava) took upon him- self the duty of serving the food of the Deities. (This is the Deity usually invoked when any purification and religious contrition has to be performed or done. By this it is seen that his undertaking to serve the food of the Deities means purifying and absolving the sins of the Rutra.) Vajrapani, producing ten divine beings of the terrific type (Krodhabhairava), gave a Phurpa (triangular -shaped dagger) to each of them, and commanded them to go and destroy the Rutra and his party. Thereupon Hayagriva came again, and neighed three times; upon hearing which sound, the entire host of the Rutra were seized with a panic and all were subdued. Then \"Black Salvation\" (Tharpa- Nagpo) and his followers were rendered powerless and helpless: humbled and quite submissive. So they surrendered their own homes, personal ornaments, and lives, and uttered these words of entreaty: \"Obeisance to Thee, 0, Thou field of the Buddhas' influence, Obeisanc e to Thee, 0, Thou who dost cause Karma to bear fruit. I and all of us having sown previous evil Karma Are now reaping the fruits thereof, which all indeed may see. 520 Our future depends on what we have done now; Karma follows us, as inexorably as the shadow does the body. Everyone must taste the fruit of what each has himself done. Even should one repent, and be sorry for his deeds There is no help for him as Karma cannot be avoided. So we who are destined by Karma to drink the bitter cup to the very dregs, We do therefore offer up our bodies to serve as the cushion of Thy footstool. Pray accept them as such.\" Having said so, they laid themselves prostrate, and from this originates the symbolism of every Deity having a Rutra underneath his feet. Then the vassa l Chiefs of the Rutra submitted their prayers: \"We have no claim to sit in the middle, Be pleased to place us at the extremities of the Mandalas. We have no right to demand of the best of the banquets. We pray to be favored with the leavings, and the dregs of food and drink. Henceforth, we are Your subjects, and will never dis- obey Your commands. We will obey You in whatever You are pleased to com - 521 mand. As a loving mother is attracted towards her son, So shall we, too, be surely drawn near those who remind us of this oath of allegiance.\" Thus did they take the oath of allegiance. Then the Holder of the Mysteries, the Glorious One -- Vajrapani, pierced the heart of the prostrate Rutra with the Phurpa dagger and absolved him. All his Karmik sins and his Passions (Klesha) were thus immediately absolved. Then power was conferred on him, and vows were laid on him, and the water of Faith was poured on him. His body, speech and mind were blessed and consecrated towards Divine Service, and the Dorje of Faith was laid on the head, throat and heart. Thenceforward he was empowered to be the Guardian of the Faith, and named the Good Dark One, and his secret name conferred at the Initiation was Mahakala. Thus was he included in the assembly of the Vajrayana Deities. Finally, it was revealed to him that he would become a Buddha, by the name of Thalwai -Wangpo (the Lord of Ashes) in the World called Kod- pa-lhundrup (that is \"self -produced\" or \"made -all-at-once\"). Then the Rutra's dead body was thrown on this Jambu -dvipa , where it fell on its back. The head fell on Sinhala (Ceylon), the right arm and hand upon the Thogar (?) country and the left hand on Le (Ladak country). The right leg fell on Nepal, and the left on Kashmir. The entrails fell over Zahor. The heart fell on Urgyen (Cabul), and the Linga on Magadha. These form the eight chief countries. Thus the eight Matrikas of the eight Sthanas, headed by Gaurima and others: the eight natural Stupas headed by Potala; the eight occult Powers, which fascinate; the eight guardians (female), who enchant; the eight great trees, the eight great realm- protectors (Shing -kyong), the eight lakes, the eight great Naga spirits, the eight clouds, and the eight great Dikpalas (Cyogs -kyong or Protectors of the Directions) as well as the eight great cemeteries originated. With the end of the sixth Chapter of the Golden Rosary is concluded the account of the Vajrayana Devatas who appeared to aid in the conquest of human Egoism which had manifested itself in terrible form in the person of the great Rutra. As all but the fully pure have in them Rutra elements, they 522 are enjoined in Vajrayana to follow the methods of expurgation there revealed. 523 CHAPTER TWENTY -NINE. KUNDALINI SHAKTA (YOGA) The word \"Yoga\" comes from the root \"yuj\" which means \"to join\" and, in its spiritual sense, it is that process by which the human spirit is brought into near and conscious communion with, or is merged in, the Divine Spirit, according as the nature of the human sp irit is held to be separate from (Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita) or one with (Advaita) the Divine Spirit. As, according to Shakta doctrine, with which alone we are concerned, the latter proposition is affirmed, Yoga is that process by which the identity of the t wo (Jivatma and Paramatma), -- which identity ever in fact exists, -- is realized by the Yogi or practitioner of Yoga. It is so realized because the Spirit has then pierced through the veil of Maya which as mind and matter obscures this knowledge from itself. The means by which this is achieved is the Yoga process which liberates from Maya. So the Gheranda Samhita, a Hathayoga treatise of the Tantrik school, says (Chap. 5): \"There is no bond equal in strength to Maya, and no power greater to destroy that bond than Yoga.\" From an Advaita or Monistic standpoint, Yoga in the sense of a final union is inapplicable, for union implies a dualism of the Divine and Human spirit. In such a case, it denotes the process rather than the result. When the two are regarded as distinct, Yoga may apply to both. A person who practices Yoga is called a \"Yogi.\" According to Indian notions all are not competent (Adhikari) to attempt Yoga; only a very few are. One must, in this or in other lives, have first gone through Karma or ritu al, and Upasana or devotional worship and obtained the fruit thereof, namely, a pure mind (Citta- shuddhi). This Sanskrit term does not merely mean a mind free from sexual impurity, as an English reader might suppose. The attainment of this and other good qualities is the A B C of Sadhana. A person may have a pure mind in this sense and yet be wholly incapable of Yoga. Citta -shuddhi consists not merely in moral purity of every kind, but in knowledge, detachment, capacity for pure intellectual functioning, attention, meditation and so forth. When, by Karma and Upasana, the mind is brought to this point and when, in the case of Vedantik Yoga, there is dispassion and detachment from the world and its 524 desires, then the Yoga path is open for the realization of Tat tva-jana, that is ultimate Truth. Very few persons indeed are competent for Yoga in its higher forms. The majority should seek their advancement along the path of ritual and devotion. There are four main forms of Yoga, according to a common computation, namely, Mantrayoga, Hathayoga, Layayoga, and Rajayoga, the general characteristics of which have been described in The Serpent Power. It is only necessary here to note that Kundali -yoga is Layayoga. The Eighth Chapter of the Sammohana Tantra, however, speak s of five kinds, namely, Jana, Raja, Laya, Hatha, and Mantra, and mentions as five aspects of the spiritual life, Dharma, Kriya, Bhava, Jana, and Yoga; Mantrayoga being said to be of two kinds, according as it is pursued along the path of Kriya or Bhava. Many forms of Yoga are in fact mentioned in the books. There are seven Sadhanas of Yoga, namely, Sat -karma, Asana, Mudra, Pratyahara, Pranayama, Dhyana, and Samadhi, which are cleansing of the body, seat, postures for gymnastic and Yoga purposes, the abst raction of the senses from their objects, breath control (the celebrated Pranayama), meditation, and ecstasy, which is of two kinds, imperfect (Savikalpa) in which dualism is no'. wholly overcome, and perfect (Nirvikalpa) which is complete Monistic experie nce -- \"Aham Brahmasmi\", \"I am the Brahman\" -- a knowledge in the sense of realization which, it is to be observed, does not produce Liberation (Moksha) but is Liberation itself. The Samadhi of Laya- yoga is said to be Savikalpa - Samadhi, and that of complete Raja -yoga is said to be Nirvikalpasamadhi. The first four processes are physical and the last three mental and supramental (see Gheranda Samhita, Upadesha, I). By these seven processes respectively certain qualities are gained, namely, purity (Shodhana), firmness and strength (Dridhata), fortitude (Sthirata), steadiness (Dhairya), lightness (Laghava), realization (Pratyaksha), and detachment leading to Liberation (Nirliptattva). What is known as the eight- limbed Yoga (Ashtanga -yoga) contains five of the a bove Sadhanas (Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dhyana, and Samadhi) and three others, namely, Yama or self -control by way of chastity, temperance, avoidance of harm (Ahimasa) and their virtues, Niyama or religious observances, charity and so forth, with Devotion to the Lord 525 (Ishvara -pranidhana), and Dharana, the fixing of the internal organ on its subject as directed in the Yoga practice. For further details, I refer the reader to my introduction to the work entitled The Serpent Power. Here I will only deal shortly with Laya- yoga or the arousing of Kundalini Shakti, a subject of the highest importance in the Tantra Shastra, and without some knowledge of which much of its ritual will not be understood. I cannot enter into all the details which demand a lengthy exposition, and which I have given in the Introduction to the two Sanskrit works called Satcakranirupana, and Padukapacaka translated in the volume, The Serpent Power which deals with kundalini Shakti and the piercing by Her of the six bodily centers or Cakras. The general principle and meaning of this Yoga has never yet been published, and the present Chapter is devoted to a short summary of these two points only. All the world (I speak, of course, of those interested in such subjects) is beginning to speak of Kundalini Shakti, \"cette femeuse Kundalini\" as a French friend of mine calls Her. There is considerable talk about the Cakras and the Serpent Power but lack of understanding as to what they mean. This, as usual, is sought to be covered by an air of m ystery, mystical mists, and sometimes the attitude: \"I should much like to tell you if only I were allowed to give it out.\" A silly Indian boast of which I lately read is, \"I have the key and I keep it.\" Those who really have the key to anything are superi or men, above boasting. \"Mysticism,\" which is often confused thinking, is also a fertile soil of humbug. I do not, of course, speak of true Mysticism. Like all other matters in this Indian Shastra the basis of this Yoga is essentially rational. Its thought, like that of the ancients generally, whether of East or West, has in general the form and brilliance of a cut gem. It is this quality which makes it so dear to some of those who have had to wade through the slush of much modern thought and literature. No attempt has hitherto been made to explain the general principles which underlie it. This form of Yoga is an application of the general principles relating to Shakti with which I have already dealt. The subject has both a theoretical and a practical aspect. The latter is concerned with the teaching of the method in such a way that the aspirant may give effect to it. This cannot be learnt from books but only from the Guru who has himself successfully practiced this Yoga. Apart from difficulties, inherent in written explanations, 526 it cannot be practically learnt from books, because the carrying out of the method is affected by the nature and capacity of the Sadhaka and what takes place during his Sadhana. Further, though some general features of the method have been explained to me, I have had no practical experience myself of this Power. I am not speaking as a Yogi in this method, which I am not; but as one who has read and studied the Shastra on this matter, and has had the further advantage of some oral explanations which have enabled me to better understand it. I have dealt with this practical side, so far as it is possible to me, in my work, The Serpent Power. Even so far as the matter can be dealt with in writing, I cannot, within the limits of such a paper as this, deal with it in any way fully. A detailed description of the Cakras and their significance cannot be attempted here. I refer the reader to the work entitled The Serpent Power. What I wish to do is to treat the subject on the broadest lines possib le and to explain the fundamental principles which underlie this Yoga method. It is because these are not understood that there is much confused thinking and misty, if not mystical, talk upon the subject. How many persons, for instance, can correctly answe r the question, \"What is Kundalini Shakti?\" One may be told that it is a Power or Shakti; that it is coiled like a serpent in the Muladhara; and that it is wakened and goes up through the Cakras to the Sahasrara. But what Shakti is it? Why, again, is it co iled like a serpent? What is the meaning of this? What is the nature of the Power? Why is it in the Muladhara? What is the meaning of \"awakening\" the power? Why if awakened should it go up? What are the Cakras? It is easy to say that they are regions or lotuses. What are they in themselves? Why have each of the lotuses a different number of petals? What is a petal? What and why are the \"Letters\" on them? What is the effect of going to the Sahasrara: and how does that effect come about? These and other similar questions require an answer before this form of Yoga can be understood. I have said something as to the Letters in the chapters on Shakti as Mantra and Varnamala. With these and with other general questions, rather than with the details of the six Cakras, set forth in The Serpent Power I will here deal. In the first place, it is necessary to remember the fundamental principle of the Tantra Shastra to which I have already referred, viz., that man is a microcosm (Kshudrabrahmanda). Whatever exists in the outer universe 527 exists in him. All the Tattvas and the worlds are within him and so are the supreme Shiva -Shakti. The body may be divided into two main parts, namely, the head and trunk on one hand, and the legs on the other. In man, the center of the body i s between these two, at the base of the spine where the legs begin. Supporting the trunk and throughout the whole body there is the spinal cord. This is the axis of the body, just as Mount Meru is the axis of the earth. Hence man's spine is called Merudand a, the Meru or axis- staff. The legs and feet are gross matter which show less signs of consciousness than the trunk with its spinal white and gray matter; which trunk itself is greatly subordinate in this respect to the head containing the organ of mind, or physical brain, with its white and gray matter. The position of the white and gray matter in the head and spinal column respectively are reversed. The body and legs below the center are the seven lower or nether worlds upheld by the sustaining Shaktis of the universe. From the center upwards, consciousness more freely manifests through the spinal and cerebral centers. Here there are the seven upper regions or Lokas, a term which Satyananda in his commentary on Isha Upanishad says, means \"what are seen\" (Lokyante), that is, experienced and are hence the fruits of Karma in the form of particular re- birth. These regions, namely, Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah, Tapah, Jana, Mahah, and Satya Lokas correspond with the six centers; five in the trunk, the sixth in the lower cerebral center; and the seventh in the upper Brain or Satya -loka, the abode of the supreme Shiva -Shakti. The six centers are the Muladhara or root -support situated at the base of the spinal column in a position midway in the perineum between the root of the genitals and the anus. Above it, in the region of the genitals, abdomen, heart, chest or throat and in the forehead between the two eyes (Bhrumadhye) are the Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Aja Cakras or lotuses (Padma) respectively. Thes e are the chief centers, though the books speak of others such as the Lalana and Manas and Soma Cakras. In fact, in the Advaita Martanda, a modern Sanskrit book by the late Guru of the Maharaja of Kashmir, some fifty Cakras and Adharas are mentioned: though the six stated are the chief upon which all accounts agree. And so it is said. \"How can there be any Siddhi for him who knows 528 not the six Cakras, the sixteen Adharas, the five Ethers and the three Lingas in his own body?\" The seventh region beyond the Ca kras is the upper brain, the highest center of manifestation of Consciousness in the body and therefore the abode of the supreme Shiva -Shakti. When \"abode\" is said, it is not meant, of course, that the Supreme is there placed in the sense of our \"placing,\" namely, it is there and not elsewhere. The Supreme is never localized whilst its manifestations are. It is everywhere both within and without the body, but it is said to be in the Sahasrara, because it is there that the Supreme Shiva -Shakti is realized. A nd this must be so, because consciousness is realized by entering in and passing through the highest manifestation of mind, the Sattvamayi Buddhi, above and beyond which is Cit and Cidrupini Shakti themselves. From their Shiva -Shakti Tattva aspect are evol ved Mind in its form as Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas and associated senses (Indriyas) the center of which is in and above the Aja Cakra and below the Sahasrara. From Ahamkara proceed the Tanmatras or generals of the sense- particulars which evolve the five forms of sensible matter (Bhuta), namely, Akasha (\"Ether\"), Vayu (\"Air\"), Agni (\"Fire\"), Apas (\"Water\"), and Prithivi (\"Earth\"). The English translations given of these terms do not imply that the Bhutas are the same as the English elements of air, fire, water , earth. The terms indicate varying degrees of matter from the ethereal to the solid. Thus Prithivi or earth is any matter in the Prithivi state; that is, which may be sensed by the Indriya of smell. Mind and matter pervade the whole body. But there are centers therein in which they are predominant. Thus Aja is a center of mind, and the five lower Cakras are centers of the five Bhutas; Vishuddha of Akasha, Anahata of Vayu, Manipura of Agni, Svadhisthana of Apas, and Muladhara of Prithivi. In short, man as a microcosm is the all -pervading Spirit (which most purely manifests in the Sahasrara) vehicled by Shakti in the form of Mind and Matter the centers of which are the sixth and following five Cakras respectively. The six Cakras have been identified with the following plexuses commencing from the lowest, the Muladhara: The Sacrococcygeal plexus, the Sacral plexus, the Solar plexus (which forms the great junction of the right and left sympathetic chains Ida and Pingala with the cerebro- spinal 529 axis.) Connected with this is the Lumbar plexus. Then follows the Cardiac plexus (Anahata), Laryngeal plexus, and lastly the Aja or cerebellum with its two lobes, and above this the Manas Cakra or sensorium with its six lobes, the Soma -cakra or middle Cerebrum, and lastly the Sahasrara or upper Cerebrum. To some extent these localizations are yet tentative. This statement may involve an erroneous view of what the Cakras really are, and is likely to produce wrong notions concerning them in others. The six Cakras themselves are vital centers within the spinal column in the white and gray matter there. They may, however, and probably do, influence and govern the gross tract outside the spine in the bodily region lateral to, and co-extensive with, the section of the spinal column in which a particular center is situated. The Cakras are centers of Shakti as vital force. In other words they are centers of Pranashakti manifested by Pranavayu in the living body, the presiding Devatas of which are names for the Universal Consciousness as It manifests in the form of those centers. The Cakras are not perceptible to the gross senses, whatever may be a Yogi's powers to observe what is beyond the senses (Atindriya). Even if they were perceptible in the living body which they help to organi ze, they disappear with the disintegration of organism at death. In an article on the Physical Errors of Hinduism, (Calcutta Review, XI, 436 - 440) it was said: \"It would' indeed excite the surprise of our readers to hear that the Hindus, who would not even touch a dead body, much less dissect it (which is incorrect), should possess any anatomical knowledge at all.......It is the Tantras that furnish us with some extraordinary pieces of information concerning the human body ......But of all the Hindus Shastra s extant, the Tantras lie in the greatest obscurity...... The Tantrik theory, on which the well -known Yoga called 'Shatcakrabheda' is founded, supposes the existence of six main internal organs, called Cakras or Padmas, all bearing a special resemblance to that famous flower, the lotus. These are placed one above the other, and connected by three imaginary chains, the emblems of the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the Sarasvati......Such is the obstinacy with which the Hindus adhere to these erroneous notions, that, even when we show them by actual dissection the nonexistence of the imaginary Cakras in the human body, they will rather have recourse to excuses revolting to common-sense than acknowledge the evidence of their own eyes. They say, 530 with a shamelessness un paralleled, that these Padmas exist as long as a man lives, but disappear the moment he dies.\" This alleged \"shamelessness\" reminds me of the story of a doctor who told my father \"that he had performed many postmortems and had never yet discovered a soul.\" The petals of the lotuses vary being 4, 6, 10, 12, 16 and 2 respectively, commencing from the Muladhara and ending with Aja. There are 50 in all, as are the letters of the alphabet which are in the petals; that is, the Matrikas are associated with the Tattvas since both are products of the same creative Cosmic Process manifesting either as physiological or psychological function. It is noteworthy that the number of the petals is that of the letters leaving out either Ksha or the Second La, and that these 50 multiplied by 20 are in the 1,000 petals of the Sahasrara, a number which is probably only indicative of multitude and magnitude. But why, it may be asked, do the petals vary in number? Why, for instance, are there 4 in the Muladhara and 6 in the Svadhisthana? The answer given is that the number of petals in any Cakra is determined by the number and position of the Nadis or Yoga \"nerves\" around that Cakra. Thus, four Nadis surrounding and passing through the vital movements of the Muladhara Cakra give it the appearance of a lotus of four petals. The petals are thus configurations made by the position of Nadis at any particular center. These Nadis are not those which are known to the Vaidya of Medical Shastras. The latter are gross physical nerves. Rut the former here spoken of are called Yoga -Nadis and are subtle channels (Vivara) along which the Pranik currents flow. The term Nadi comes from the root \"Nad\" which means motion. The body is filled with an uncountable number of Nadis. If they were revealed to the eye the body would present the appearance of a highly complicated chart of ocean currents. Superficially the water seems one and the same. But examination shows that it is moving with varying degrees of force in all directions. All these lotuses exist in the spinal column. An Indian physician and Sanskritist has, in the Guy's Hospital Gazette, expressed the opinion that better anatomy is given in the Tantras than in the purely medical works of the Hindus. I have attempted elsewhere to co - relate present and ancient anatomy and physiology. I can, however, only mention here some salient points, first pointing out that the Shivasvarodaya 531 Shastra gives prominence to nerve centers and nerve currents (Vayu) and their control, such teaching being for the purpose of worship (Upasana) and Yoga. The aims and object of the two Shastras are not the same. The Merudanda is the vertebral column. Western Anatomy divides it into five regions; and it is to be noted in corroboration of the theory here exposed that these correspond with the regions in which the five Cakras are situate. The central spinal system comprises the brain or encephalon contained within the skull (in which are the Lalana, Aja, Manas, Soma Cakras and the Sahasrara); as also the spinal cord extending f rom the upper border of the Atlas below the cerebellum and descending to the second lumbar vertebra where it tapers to a point called the filum terminale.Within the spine is the cord, a compound of gray and white brain matter, in which are the five lower C akras. It is noteworthy that the filum terminale was formerly thought to be a mere fibrous cord, an unsuitable vehicle, one might think, for the Muladhara Cakra and Kundali Shakti. Recent microscopic investigations have, however, disclosed the existence of highly sensitive gray matter in the filum terminale which represents the position of the Muladhara. According to Western science, the spinal cord is not merely a conductor between the periphery and the centers of sensation and volition, but is also an independent center or group of centers. The Sushumna is a Nadi in the center of the spinal column. Its base is called the Brahmadvara or Gate of Brahman. As regards the physiological relations of the Cakras all that can be said with any degree of certainty is that the four above the Muladhara have relation to the genito- excretory, digestive, cardiac and respiratory functions, and that the two upper centers, the Aja (with associated Cakras) and the Sahasrara denote various forms of its cerebral activity ending in the response of Pure Consciousness therein gained through Yoga. The Nadis on each side called Ida and Pingala are the left and right sympathetic cords crossing the central column from one side to the other, making at the Aja with the Sushumna a threefold knot called Triveni; which is the spot in the Medulla where the sympathetic cords join together and whence they take their origin -- these Nadis together with the two - lobed Aja and the Sushumna forming the figure of the Caduceus of the God Mercury which is said by some to represent them. 532 How then does this Yoga compare with others? It will now be asked what are the general principles which underlie the Yoga practice above described. How is it that the rousing of Kundalini Shakti and Her union with Shiva effect the state of ecstatic union (Samadhi) and spiritual experience which is alleged. The reader who has understood the general principles recorded in the previous essays should, if he has not already divined it, readily appreciate the answer here give n. In the first place, there are two main lines of Yoga, namely, Dhyana or Bhavana Yoga and Kundali Yoga, the subject of this work; and there is a marked difference between the two. The first class of Yoga is that in which ecstasy (Samadhi) is attained by intellective processes (Kriya -jana) of meditation and the like, with the aid, it may be, of auxiliary processes of Mantra or Hatha Yoga (other than the rousing of Kundalini Shakti) and by detachment from the world; the second stands apart as that portion of Hatha Yoga in which, though intellective processes are not neglected, the creative and sustaining Shakti of the whole body is actually and truly united with the Lord Consciousness. The yogi makes Her introduce him to Her Lord, and enjoys the bliss of union through Her. Though it is he who arouses Her, it is She who gives Jana, for She is Herself that. The Dhyanayogi gains what acquaintance with the supreme state his own meditative powers can given him and knows not the enjoyment of union with Shiva in and through his fundamental Body -Power. The two forms of Yoga differ both as to method and result. The Hathayoga regards his Yoga and its fruit as the highest. The Janayogi may think similarly of his own. Kundalini is so renowned that many seek to know Her. Having studied the theory of this Yoga, I have been often asked: \"Whether one can get on without it.\" 'The answer is: \"It depends upon what you are looking for.\" If you want to rouse Kundalini Shakti to enjoy the bliss of union of Shiva and Shakti through Her and to gain the accompanying Powers (Siddhi) it is obvious that this end can only, if at all, be achieved by the Yoga here described. But if Liberation is sought without desire for union through Kundali then such Yoga is not necessary; for Liberation may be obtained by pure Janayoga through detachment, the exercise, and then the stilling of the mind, without any reference to the central Body -Power at all. Instead of setting out in and from the world to 533 unite with Shiva, the Janayogi, to attain this result, detaches himself from the world. The one is the path of enjoyment and the other of asceticism. Samadhi may also be obtained on the path of devotion (Bhakti) as on that of knowledge. Indeed, the highest devotion (Parabhakti) is not different from knowledge. Both are realization. But, whilst Liberation (Mukti) is attainable by either method, there are other marked differences between the two. A Dhyanayogi should not neglect his body knowing that as he is both mind and matter each reacts, the one upon the other. Neglect or mere mortification of the body is more apt to produce disordered imagination than a true spiritual experience. He is not concerned, however, with the body in the sense that the Hathayogi is. It is possible to be a successful Dhyanayog i and yet to be weak in body and health, sick, and short -lived. His body and not he himself determines when he shall die. He cannot die at will. When he is in Samadhi, Kundali Shakti is still sleeping in the Muladhara and none of the physical symptoms and psychical bliss, or powers (Siddhi) described as accompanying Her rousing are observed in his case. The Ecstasis which he calls \"Liberation while yet living\" (Jivanmukti) is not a state like that of real Liberation. He may be still subject to a suffering b ody from which he escapes only at death, when, if at all, he is liberated. His ecstasy is in the nature of a meditation which passes into the Void (Bhavanasamadhi) effected through negation of all thought -form (Citta- vritti) and detachment from the world; a comparatively negative process in which the positive act of raising the central power of the body takes no part. By his effort the mind, which is a product of Kundalini as Prakriti Shakti, together with its worldly desires is stilled so that the veil produced by mental functioning is removed from Consciousness. In Layayoga, Kundalini Herself, when roused by the Yogi (for such rousing is his act and part), achieves for him this illumination. But why, it may be asked, should, one trouble over the body and its Central Power, the more particularly as there are unusual risks and difficulties involved? The answer has been already given -- alleged completeness and certainty of realization through the agency of the Power which is knowledge itself (Janarupa Shakti), an intermediate acquisition or Powers (Siddhi), and intermediate and final enjoyment. This answer may, however, be usefully developed as a fundamental principle of the Shakta Tantra. 534 The Shakta Tantra claims to give both Enjoyment (Bhukti) in the world and Liberation (Mukti) from all worlds. This claim is based on a profoundly true principle, given Advaitavada as a basis. If the ultimate reality is the One which exists in two aspects of quiescent enjoyment of the Self, in liberation from all form and ac tive enjoyment of objects, that is, as pure spirit and spirit in matter, then a complete union with Reality demands such unity in both of Its aspects. It must be known both \"here\" (Iha) and \"there\" (Amutra). When rightly apprehended and practiced, there is truth in the doctrine which teaches that man should make the best of both worlds. There is no real incompatibility between the two, provided action is taken in conformity with the universal law of manifestation. It is held to be false teaching that happiness hereafter can only be had by absence of enjoyment now, or in deliberately sought -for suffering and mortification. It is the one Shiva who is the Supreme Blissful Experience and who appears in the form of man with a life of mingled pleasure and pain. Both happiness here and the bliss of Liberation here and hereafter may be attained, if the identity of these Shivas be realized in every human act. This will be achieved by making every human function, without exception, a religious act of sacrifice and worship (Yaja). In the ancient Vaidik ritual, enjoyment by way of food and drink, was preceded and accompanied by ceremonial sacrifice and ritual. Such enjoyment was the fruit of the sacrifice and the gift of the Devas. At a higher stage in the life of a Sadhaka, it is offered to the One from whom all gifts come and of whom the Devatas are inferior limited forms. But this offering also involves a dualism from which the highest Monistic (Advaita) Sadhana of the Shakta Tantra is free. Here the individual life an d the world- life are known as one. And so the Tantrik Sadhaka, when eating or drinking or fulfilling any other of the natural functions of the body does so, saying and believing, Shivo'ham, \"I am Shiva\", Bhairavo'ham, \"I am Bhairava\", \"Sa'ham\", \"I am She\". It is not merely the separate individual who thus acts and enjoys. It is Shiva who does so in and through him. Such an one recognizes, as has been well said, that his life and the play of all its activities are not a thing apart, to be held and pursued egotistically for its and his own separate sake, as though enjoyment was something to be filched from life by his own unaided strength and with a sense of separatedness; but his life and all its activities are conceived as part of the Divine action in nature -- 535 Shakti manifesting and operating in the form of man. He realizes in the pulsing beat of his heart the rhythm which throbs through and is the sign of the Universal Life. To neglect or to deny the needs of the body, to think of it as something not divine, is to neglect and deny the greater life of which it is a part; and to falsify the great doctrine of the unity of all and of the ultimate identity of Matter and Spirit. Governed by such a concept, even the lowliest physical needs take on a cosmic significance. The body is Shakti. Its needs are Sakti's needs; when man enjoys, it is Shakti who enjoys through him. In all he sees and does, it is the Mother who looks and acts. His eyes and hands are Hers. The whole body and all its functions are Her manifestation. To fully realize Her as such is to perfect this particular manifestation of Hers which is himself. Man when seeking to be the master of himself, seeks so on all the planes to be physical, mental and spiritual; nor can they be severed, for they are all related, being but differing aspects of the one all -pervading Consciousness. Who is the more divine: he who neglects and spurns the body or mind that he may attain some fancied spiritual superiority, or he who rightly cherishes both as forms of the one Spirit which they clothe? Realization is more speedily and truly attained by discerning Spirit in and as all being and its activities, than by fleeing from and casting these aside as being either unspiritual or illusory and impediments in the path. If not rig htly conceived, they map be impediments and the cause of fall; otherwise they become instruments of attainment; and what others are there to hand? And so the Kularnava Tantra says, \"By what men fall by that they rise.\" When acts are done in the right feeling and frame of mind (Bhava), those acts give enjoyment (Bhukti), and the repeated and prolonged Bhava produces at length that divine experience (Tattvajana) which is liberation. When the Mother is seen in all things, She is at length realized as She who is beyond them all. These general principles have their more frequent application in the life of the world before entrance on the path of Yoga proper. The Yoga here described is, however, also an application of these same principles, in so far as it is claimed that thereby both Bhukti and Mukti are attained. Ordinarily, it is said, that where there is Yoga there is no Bhoga (enjoyment); but in Kaula teaching, Yoga is Bhoga, and Bhoga is Yoga, and the world itself becomes the seat of Liberation (Yogo bhogaya te, mokshayate samsarah). 536 By the lower processes of Hathayoga it is sought to attain a perfect physical body which will also be a wholly fit instrument by which the mind may function. A perfect mind, again, approaches, and in Samadhi passes into, Pure Consciousness itself. The Hathayogi thus seeks a body which shall be as strong as steel, healthy, free from suffering and therefore long -lived. Master of the body he is, master of both life and death. His lustrous form enjoys the vitality of youth. He lives as long as he has the will to live and enjoy in the world of forms. His death is the \"death at will\" (Iccha - mrityu); when making the great and wonderfully expressive gesture of dissolution (Samhara- mudra) he grandly departs. But it may be said, the Hatha -yogis do get sick and die. In the first place, the full discipline is one of difficulty and risk, and can only be pursued under the guidance of a skilled Guru. As the Goraksha Samhita says, unaided and unsuccessful practice may lead not only to disease but death. He who seeks to conquer the Lord of Death incurs the risk, on failure, of a more speedy conquest by Him. All who attempt this Yoga do not of course succeed or meet with the same measure of success. Those who fail not only incur the infirmities of ordinary men, but also others brought on by practices which have been ill pursued or for which they are not fit. Those again who do succeed, do so in varying degrees. One may prolong his life to the sacred age of 84, others to 100, others yet further. In theory at least those who are perfected (Siddha) go from this plane when they will. All have not the same capacity or opportunity, through want of will, bodily strength, or circumstance. All may not be willing or able to follow the strict rules necessary for su ccess. Nor does modern life offer in general the opportunities for so complete a physical culture. All men may not desire such a life or may think the attainment of it not worth the trouble involved. Some may wish to be rid of their body and that as speedily as possible. It is therefore said that it is easier to gain Liberation than Deathlessness. The former may be had by unselfishness, detachment from the world, moral and mental discipline. But to conquer death is harder than this, for these qualities and acts will not alone avail. He who does so conquer holds life in the hollow of one hand, and if he be a successful (Siddha) Yogi, Liberation in the other. He has Enjoyment and Liberation. He is the Emperor who is Master of the World and the Possessor of the Bliss which is beyond 537 all worlds. Therefore it is claimed by the Hathayogi that every Sadhana is inferior to Hathayoga. The Hathayoga who works for Liberation does so through the Yoga Sadhana here described which gives both Enjoyment and Liberation. At ev ery center to which he rouses Kundalini he experiences a special form of bliss (Ananda) and gains special powers (Siddhi). Carrying Her to the Shiva of his cerebral center he enjoys Supreme Bliss which in its nature is Liberation, and which when established in permanence is Liberation itself on the loosening of Spirit and Body. She who \"shines like a chain of lights\", a lightning flash -- in the center of his body is the \"Inner Woman\" to whom reference was made when it was said, \"What need have I of any outer woman? I have an Inner Woman within myself.\" The Vira (heroic) Sadhaka, knowing himself as the embodiment of Shiva (Shivo'ham), unites with woman as the embodiment of Shakti on the physical plane. The Divya (Divine) Sadhaka or Yogi unites within himself his own Principles, female and male, which are the \"Heart of the Lord\" (Hridayam Parameshituh) or Shakti and Her Lord Consciousness or Shiva. It is their union which is the mystic coition (Maithuna) of the Tantras. There are two forms of union (Samarasya), namely, the first which is the gross (Sthula), or the union of the physical embodiments of the Supreme Consciousness; and the second which is the subtle (Sukshma), or the union of the quiescent and active principles in Consciousness itself. It is the lat ter which is Liberation. Lastly, what, in a philosophical sense, is the nature of the process here described? Shortly stated, Energy (Shakti) polarizes itself into two forms. namely, static or potential (Kundalini) and dynamic (the working forces of the bo dy as Prana). Behind all activity there is a static background. This static center in the human body is the central Serpent Power in the Muladhara (Root -support). It is the Power which is the static support (Adhara) of the whole body and all its moving Pra nik forces. This Center (Kendra) of Power is a gross form of Cit or Consciousness; that is, in itself (Svarupa), it is Consciousness; and by appearance it is a Power which, as the highest form of Force, is a manifestation of it. Just as there is a distinct ion (though identical at base) between the supreme quiescent Consciousness and Its active Power (Shakti), so when Consciousness manifests as Energy 538 (Shakti), it possesses the twin aspects of potential and kinetic Energy. There can be no partition in fact of Reality. To the perfect eye of the Siddha the process of Becoming is an ascription (Adhyasa). To the imperfect eye of the Sadhaka, that is, the aspirant for Siddhi (perfected accomplishment), to the spirit which is still toiling through the lower planes and variously identifying itself with them, Becoming is tending to appear and appearance is real. The Shakta Tantra is a rendering of Vedantik Truth from this practical point of view, and represents the world -process as a polarization in Consciousness itself. This polarity as it exists in, and as, the body is destroyed by Yoga which disturbs the equilibrium of bodily consciousness, which consciousness is the result of the maintenance of these two poles. In the human body the potential pole of Energy which i s the Supreme Power is stirred to action, on which the moving forces (dynamic Shakti) supported by it are drawn thereto, and the whole dynamism thus engendered moves upward to unite with the quiescent Consciousness in the Highest Lotus. There is a polarization of Shakti into two forms -- static and dynamic. In a correspondence I had with Professor Pramatha Natha Mukhyopadhyaya, on this subject, he very well developed this point and brought forward some suitable illustrations of it, which I am glad to avail myself of. He pointed out that, in the first place, in the mind or experience this polarization or polarity is patent to reflection: namely, the polarity between pure Cit and the Stress which is involved in it. This Stress or Shakti develops the mind through an infinity of forms and changes, themselves involved in the pure unbounded Ether of Consciousness, the Cidakasha. This analysis exhibits the primordial Shakti in the same two polar forms as before, static and dynamic. Here the polarity is most fundamental and approaches absoluteness, though of course, it is to be remembered that there is no absolute rest except in pure Cit. Cosmic energy is in an equilibrium which is relative and not absolute. Passing from mind, let us take matter. The atom of modern science has, as I have already pointed out, ceased to be an atom in the sense of an indivisible unit of matter. According to the electron theory, the so- called atom is a miniature universe resembling our solar system. At the center of this atomic system we h ave a charge of positive electricity round which a cloud of negative charges called Electrons revolve. The positive and negative charges 539 hold each other in check so that the atom is in a condition of equilibrated energy and does not ordinarily break up, though it may do so on the dissociation which is the characteristic of all matter, but which is so clearly manifest in radioactivity of radium. We have thus here again a positive charge at rest at the center, and negative charges in motion round about the center. What is thus said about the atom applies to the whole cosmic system and universe. In the world -system, the planets revolve round the Sun, and that system itself is probably (taken as a whole) a moving mass around some other relatively static center, until we arrive at the Brahma- bindu which is the point of Absolute Rest, round which all forms revolve and by which all are maintained. He has aptly suggested other illustrations of the same process. Thus, in the tissues of the living body, the operative energy is polarized into two forms of energy -- anabolic and catabolic, the one tending to change and the other to conserve the tissues; the actual condition of the tissues being simply the resultant of these two co -existent or concurrent activities. In the case, again, of the impregnated ovum, Shakti is already presented in its two polar aspects, namely, the ovum (possibly the static) and the spermatozoon, the dynamic. The germ cell does not cease to be such. It splits into two, one half, the somatic cell gradually developing itself into the body of the animal, the other half remaining encased within the body practically unchanged and as the germ -plasma is transmitted in the process of reproduction to the offspring. In short, Shakti, when manifesting, divide s itself into two polar aspects -- static and dynamic -- which implies that you cannot have it in a dynamic form without at the same time having it in a static form, much like the poles of a magnet. In any given sphere of activity of force, we must have, according to the cosmic principle, a static background -- Shakti at rest or \"coiled\" as the Tantras say. This scientific truth is illustrated in the figure of the Tantrik Kali. The Divine Mother moves as the Kinetic Shakti on the breast of Sadashiva who is the static background of pure Cit which is actionless (Nishkriya); the Gunamayi Mother being all activity. The Cosmic Shakti is the collectivity (Samashti) in relation to which the Kundali in particular bodies is the Vyasti (individual) Shakti. The body is, as I have stated, a microcosm (Kshudrabrahmanda). In the living 540 body there is, therefore, the same polarization of which I have spoken. From the Mahakundali the universe has sprung. In Her supreme form She is at rest, coiled round and one (as Cidrupini) with the Shivabindu. She is then at rest. She next uncoils Herself to manifest. Here the three coils of which the Tantras speak are the three Gunas, and the three and a half coils to which the Kubjika Tantra alludes are Prakriti and its three Gunas together with the Vikritis. Her 50 coils are the letters of the alphabet. As She goes on uncoiling, the Tattvas and the Matrikas, the Mothers of the Varnas, issue from Her. She is thus moving, and continues even after creation to move in the Tattvas so created. F or as they are born of movement, they continue to move. The whole world (Jagat) as the Sanskrit term implies, is moving. She thus continues creatively active until She has evolved Prithivi, the last of the Tattvas. First She creates mind and then matter. This latter becomes more and more dense. It has been suggested that the Mahabhutas are the Densities of modern science: Air density associated with the maximum velocity of gravity; Fire density associated with the velocity of light; Water or fluid density associated with molecular velocity and the equatorial velocity of the Earth's rotation; and Earth density, that of basalt associated with the Newtonian velocity of sound. However this be, it is plain that the Bhutas represent an increasing density of matter until it reaches its three- dimensional solid form. When Shakti has created this last or Prithivi Tattva, what is there further for Her to do? Nothing. She, therefore, then again rests. She is again coiled, which means that She is at rest. \"At rest,\" again, means that She assumes a static form. Shakti, however, is never exhausted, that is, emptied into any of its forms. Therefore, Kundali Shakti at this point is, as it were, the Shakti left over (though yet a plenum) after the Prithivi, the last of the Bhutas has been created. We have thus Mahakundali at rest as Cidrupini Shakti in the Sahasrara, the point of absolute rest; and then the body in which the relative static center is Kundali at rest, and round this center the whole of the bodily forces move. They are Shakti, and so is Kundali Shakti. The difference between the two is that they are Shakti in specific differentiated forms in movement; and Kundali Shakti is un-differentiated, residual Shakti at rest, that is, coiled. She is coiled in the Muladhara, which means fundamental support, and which is at the same time the seat of the Prithivi or last solid Tattva and of the residual Shakti or 541 Kundalini. The body may, therefore, be compared to a magnet with two poles. The Muladhara, in so far as it is the seat of Kundali Shakti, a comparatively gross form of Cit (being Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti) is the static pole in relation to the rest of the body which is dynamic. The \"working\" that is the body necessarily presupposes and finds such a static support; hence the name Muladhara. In one sense the static Shakti at the Mula -dhara is necessarily co- existent with the creating and evolving Shakti of the body; because the dynamic aspect or pole can never be without its static counterpart. In another sense, it is the residual Shakti left over after such operation. What, then, happens in the accomplishment of this Yoga? This static Shakti is affected by Pranayama and other Yogic processes and becomes dynamic. Thus, when completely dynamic, that is, when Kundali unites with Shiva in the Sahasrara, the polarization of the body gives way. The two poles are united in one and there is the state of consciousness called Samadhi. The polarization, of course, takes place in consciousness. The body actually continues to exist as an object of observation to others. It continues its organic life. But man's consciousness of his body and all other objects is withdrawn because the mind has ceased, so far as his consciousness is concerned, the function, having been withdrawn into its ground which is consciousness. How is the body sustained? In the first place, though Kundali Shakti is the static center of the whole body as a complete conscious organism, yet each of the parts of the body and their constituent cells have their own static centers which uphold such parts or cells. Next, the theory of the Tantriks themselves is that Kundali ascends, and that the body, as a complete organism, is maintained by the \"nectar\" which flows from the union of Shiva and Shakti in the Sahasrara. This nectar is an ejection of power generated by their union. My friend, however, whom I have cited, is of opinion (and for this grounds may be urged) that the potential Kundali Shakti becomes only partly and not wholly converted into kinetic Shakti; and yet since Shakti -- even as given in the Mula center -- is an infinitude, it is not depleted, the potential store always remaining unexhausted. In this case, the dynamic equivalent is a partial conversion of one mode of energy into another. If, 542 however, the coiled power at the Mula became absolutely uncoiled, there would result the dissolution of the three bodies, gross, subtle and causal, and consequently Videha- Mukti -- because the static background in relation to a particular form of existence would, according to this hypothesis, have wholly given way. He would explain the fact that the body becomes cold as a corpse as the Shakti leaves it, as being due, not to the depletion or privation of the static power at the Muladhara, but to the concentration or convergence of the dynamic power ordinarily diffused over the whole body, so that the dynamic equivalent which is set up against the static background of Kundali Shakti is only the diffused five -fold Prana gathered home -- withdrawn from the other tissues of the body and concentrated along the axis. Thus, ordinarily, the dynamic equivalent is the Prana diffused over all the tissues: in Yoga, it is converged along the axis, the static equivalent of Kundali Shakti enduring in both cases. Some part of the already availabl e dynamic Prana is made to act at the base of the axis in a suitable manner, by which means the basal center or Muladhara becomes, as it were, over- saturated and reacts on the whole diffused dynamic power (or Prana) of the body by withdrawing it from the tissues and converging it along the line of the axis. In this way the diffused dynamic equivalent becomes the converged dynamic equivalent along the axis. What, according to this view, ascends, is not the whole Shakti but an eject like condensed lightning, which at length reaches the Parama -Shivasthana. There, the Central Power which up-holds the individual world- consciousness is merged in the Supreme Consciousness. The limited consciousness, transcending the passing concepts of worldly life, directly intuits the unchanging Reality which underlies the whole phenomenal flow. When Kundali Shakti sleeps in the Muladhara, man is awake to the world; when she awakes to unite, and does unite, with the supreme static Consciousness which is Shiva, then consciousness is asleep to the world and is one with the Light of all things. Putting aside detail, the main principle appears to be that, when \"wakened\", Kundali Shakti either Herself (or as my friend suggests in Her eject) ceases to be a static Power which sustains the world -consciousness, the content of which is held only so long as She \"sleeps\": and when once set in movement is drawn to that other static center in the Thousand -petalled Lotus (Sahasrara) which is Herself in union with the Shiva -consciousness or the 543 consciousness of ecstasy beyond the world of forms. When Kundali \"sleeps\" man is awake to this world. When She \"awakes\" he sleeps, that is loses all consciousness of the world and enters his causal body. In Yoga he passes beyond to formless Consciousness. I have only to add, without further discussion of the point, that practitioners of this Yoga claim that it is higher than any other and that the Samadhi (ecstasy) attained thereby is more perfect. The reason which they allege is this. In Dhyanayoga, ecstasy takes place through detachment from the world, and mental concentration leading to vacuity of mental operation (Vritti) or the uprising of pure Consciousness unhindered by the limitations of the mind. The degree to which this unveiling of consciousness is e ffected depends upon the meditative powers (Janashakti) of the Sadhaka and the extent of his detachment from the world. On the other hand, Kundali who is all Shakti and who is therefore Janashakti Herself produces, when awakened by the Yogi, full Jana for him. Secondly, in the Samadhi of Dhyanayoga there is no rousing and union of Kundali Shakti with the accompanying bliss and acquisition of special Powers (Siddhi). Further, in Kundali Yoga there is not merely a Samadhi through meditation, but through the central power of the Jiva a power which carries with it the forces of both body and mind. The union in that sense is claimed to be more complete than that enacted through mental methods only. Though in both cases bodily consciousness is lost, in Kundalini- Yoga not only the mind, but the body, in so far as it is represented by its central power (or may be its eject) is actually united with Shiva. This union produces an enjoyment (Bhukti) which the Dhyanayogi does not possess. Whilst both the Divya Yogi and the Vira Sadhaka have enjoyment (Bhukti), that of the former is said to be infinitely more intense, being an experience of Bliss itself. The enjoyment of the Vira Sadhaka is but a reflection of it on the physical plane, a welling up of the true Bliss thro ugh the deadening coverings and trammels of matter. Again, whilst it is said that both have Liberation (Mukti), this word is used in Vira Sadhana in a figurative sense only, indicating a bliss which is the nearest approach on the physical plane to that of Mukti, and a Bhava or feeling of momentary union of Shiva and Shakti which ripens in the higher Yoga Sadhana into the literal liberation of the Yogi. He has both Enjoyment 544 (Bhukti) and Liberation (Mukti) in the fullest and literal sense. Hence its claim to be the Emperor of all Yogas. However this may be, I leave the subject at this point, with the hope that others will continue the esquire I have here initiated. It and other matters in the Tantra Shastra seem to me (whatever be their inherent value) worthy of an investigation which they have not yet received. 545 CHAPTER THIRTY . CONCLUSIONS Brahmanism or Hinduism, as in its later development the former has been called, is not merely a religion. It is a Socio- Economic System, the foundation of which is the Law of Caste and Stages of life. That System has its culture of which several forms of Religion, resting on a certain common basis, are but a part. Dealing, however, with Brahmanism in its religious aspect, we ma y say that it, together with Jainism and Buddhism, are the three chief religions of India, as opposed to those of the Semitic origin. All three religious systems share in common certain fundamental concepts which are denoted by the Sanskrit terms Karma, Samsara and Moksha. These concepts constitute a common denominator of Indian belief as next stated. The Universe is in constant activity. Nothing which is Psycho- physical is at rest. Karma is Action. The Psychophysical as such is determined by Karma or action, and, therefore, man's present condition is determined by past Karma, either his own, or that of collectivities of men of which he is a member, or with which he is in relation, as also by the action of natural causes. In the same way, present Karma determines the future Karma. The doctrine of Karma is thus the affirmance of the Law of causality operating not only in this but in an infinity of Universes. As you sow so shall you reap. The present Universe is not the first and last only. It is true that this particular Universe has a beginning and an end called dissolution, for nothing composite is eternal; but it is only one of a series which has neither beginning nor end. There has been, is now, and ever will be an Universe. Mental action as desire for worldly enjoyment, even though such enjoyment be lawful, keeps man in the Worlds of repeated Birth and Death, or (to use the English term) of Reincarnation. These worlds the Greeks called the Cycle of Becoming, and Hindus the Samsara, a term which literally means the unending 'moving on' or wandering, that is, being born and dying repeatedly. These worlds comprise not only Earth but Heaven and Hell, in which are reaped the fruits of man's actions on Earth. Heaven and Hell, are states of enjoyment and suffering which exist here on earth as well as in the 546 after- death state as the result of man's good and bad actions returning. When man dies there is no resurrection of the gross body. That is resolved into its subtle elements, and the specific relation between man and a particular gross body comes to an end. But there is always some body until bodiless liberation is achieved. On death man in his subtle body enjoys the state called Heaven or suffers in that called Hell. Neither is eternal, but each a part of the Cycle of the Becoming. When, then, man has had Heavenly enjoyment or suffered the pains of Hell in his subtle body, in the afterdeath state, according to his merits or demerits, he is 'reincarnated' in a gross body on Earth. He continues thus to be 'reincarnated' until he has found and desires the way out from the Cycle, that, is, until he ceases to desire world- existence. His desire is then not only for release from the sufferings and limited happiness of the Cycle but also (according to Vedanta) for the attai nment of the Supreme Worth which is Supreme Bliss. There is, in short, a change of values and states. Man, as Nietzsche said, is something to be transcended. He cannot transcend his present state so long as he is attached to and desires to remain in it. This liberation from the Cycle is called Moksha or Mukti. For all Three Systems are at one in holding that, notwithstanding the Law of Causality, man is free to liberate himself from the Cycle. Causality governs the Psychophysical. Spirit as such is Freedom from the Psycho- physical. All three Systems assume a State of Liberation. Whether the Universe as a play of force is the work of a Personal God is a question which philosophers have disputed both in the East and the West. One set of Buddhists professed belief in Deity as the Lord. Another affirmed Svabhava which means the proper vigor of Nature and what is called creation is truly spontaneity resulting from powers inherent in the Psycho - physical substance eternally. Mayavada Vedanta reconciles to a great ex tent these two views by its doctrine that the personal Brahman or the Lord is the self -less absolute Brahman as conceived by the Psycho- physical experiencer, though the latter as the Absolute exclusive of all relations is not the former. In Shakta doctrine Brahman is the Lord or Creator and Director of the Universe but in its own nature is more than that. 547 Whether there is or is not a Personal God or Lord (as held by some systems), belief in such a Lord is no essential portion of the Common Doctrine Both Jainism and Buddhism are atheistic in the sense of being Lordless, though the latter system, in some forms of the later Northern schools, takes on a theistic color. In fact the notion of a Personal God is no essential part even of Brahmanism itself. For putting aside downright atheists in the Western sense, such as the Indian Carvakas and Lokayatas who denied God, Soul, immortality and future life, it is to be observed that some schools posit no such Lord whilst others do. Two other concepts of first rate impo rtance are Dharma and its correlative adharma. These two terms, in the Brahmanic sense, mean right activity and its opposite. They are therefore connected with Karma of which they are two species. The term Dharma comes from the root Dhri which means to uphold and maintain, for right activity does that. All three systems posit right and wrong activity and their results as well -being and suffering respectively. Dharma is thus the Law of Being as Form. Morality is part of man's nature. It may therefore be said that the substance of the Brahmanic concept is held by all. Dharma as a technical term is not here included amongst the common concepts, because, its sense varies in Buddhism in which it has its own peculiar meaning, whilst in Jainism the word means somet hing wholly different from what it does in any other system. Each of the common concepts must be interpreted in the case of any particular Indian faith in terms of its own peculiar tenets as regards these concepts and other matters such as the Reality and Dissolution of the Universe, Karma and Liberation. Thus, the latter is defined differently in Buddhism, Jainism and in the various Brahmanical schools. According to all systems, Liberation is described as the release from the bondage of Birth and Death, Li mitation and Suffering. In some systems it is not positively said to be Joy, but is described as pure painless state of That which, in association with mind and matter, manifests as the empirical self. The Jainas regard it as a state of happiness. Some Buddhist descriptions are to the same effect, but in general Buddhism deprecates the discussion of so inconceivable a state. The Vedanta, on the other hand, positively describes it to be unalloyed and unending joy so that the nature of such Joy, whether as 548 arising through the identification of the individual self with the Supreme Self or in association therewith, is variously affirmed by the non- dualist, qualified non- dualist and dualist Brahmanic Schools. Brahmanism adds to these concepts of the Cycle (Samsara) right and wrong action (Dharma, Adharma), Causality (Karma), and Liberation (Moksha), that of the Atman. All recognized Brahmanic systems affirm the Atman, though they differ on the question of its nature as also whether it is one or many. It is on this question whether there is or is not an Atman that the Brahmanic and Buddhistic Schools are in dispute. The point at issue as formulated from the standpoint of Vedanta may be shortly stated to be as follows: Everyone admits the existence of a psycho- physical Flux either as the Individual or the Universe of his experience. Indeed, one of the Sanskrit names of the world is Jagat, which means \"the moving thing\". For the Universe is in constant activity. At every moment there is molar or molecular change . As an object of sensible perception the Universe is transitory, though some things endure longer or shorter than others. The question is, then, whether, besides psycho -physical transience, there is a spiritual enduring Essence of the Universe and of man, which manifests in the latter as the empirical self whereby it knows itself as permanent amidst all its changeful experiences. The Buddhists are reputed to have held that there is nothing but the flow. Man is only a continually changing psychophysical com plex without a static center, a series of momentary mental and bodily states, necessarily generated one from the other in continuous transformation. In this Flux there is no principle of permanence on which \"as on a thread\" the worlds as beads are strung. Man may have the notion that he is a Self, but this does not, it is said, prove that there is an Atman as 'substratum' of such empirical self. To this Vedanta asks -- If so, who is it that is born and re -incarnates? It then answers its question by saying t hat the embodied self is born and dies, but that the Atman as such is not a self and is neither born nor does it die. Birth and Death are attributed to it when it appears in connection with psycho- physical bodies. It is the embodied Atman which is born and dies. The Atman as it is in its own bodiless nature is unborn and eternal. 549 Change and changelessness are terms of logical, that is dualistic thinking, and have no meaning except in relation to one another. All activity implies a static condition relative to which it is active. There can be no Universe except by the combination of the active and non-active. Without activity the Universe does not become. Without some principle of stability it cannot exist even for a moment as an object of the senses. The alo gical Atman as such eternally endures. The Universe as the Psycho -physical is the product of the Atman as Power. As such product, it is transient. It presents, however, the appearance of relative or limited stability because of the immanence of the Atman. The Atman manifests as the relatively stable and empirical self, and That which manifests as such self is also the Brahman as essence of the Universe which is the object of such self. For Atman and Brahman are one and the same. According to the second standard, Atman is the seat of consciousness. In the Vedanta, however, Atman is consciousness itself. Whatever may have been its origin, as to which nothing is of a certainty known (Mother Goddess Worship is as old as the World), Shakta doctrine is now a form of Vedanta which may be called Shakti -vada or Shakta Vedanta. Kularnava Tantra speaks of that \"Monism of which Shiva speaks\" (Advaitantu Shivenoktam, 1, 108). See also Mahanirvana Tantra, Chapter II, 33 -34, III, 33- 35, 50 -64; Prapacasara Tantra, II, XIX, XXIX; Advaitabhavopanisad. For the identity of Jivatma and Paramatma in liberation (Mukti),which the Vedantasara defines to be Jivabrahmanohaikyam, see Mahanirvana Tantra, VIII, 264, 265; V, 105. See also Prapacasara Tantra, II, where Hrim is identified with Kundali and Hamsah, and then with \"So'ham\". See also ib., Chapter XXIV: \"That, which. is subtle I am\" (Yah Suksmah So'ham); and Janarnava Tantra; XXI, 10. As to Brahmasmi, see Kularnava Tantra, IX, 32, and ib., 41: So'ham bhavena pujayet. The Shakta disciple (Sadhaka) should not be a dualist (Maharudrayamala, I Khanda,, Chapter 15, II Khanda, Chapter 2). Similarly, the Gandharva Tantra Chapter 2, says that he must be devoid of dualism (Dvaitahina) (see Pranatoshini, 108) In fact, that particular from of worship which has earned the Kaula Tantras, their ill name is practical application of Advaitavada. Kaulacara is said to properly follow a full 550 knowledge of Vedantik doctrine. As the Satcakranirupana (see The Serpent Power) says, the Jivatma or embodied spirit is the same, as the Paramatma or Supreme Spirit, and knowledge of this is the root of all wisdom (Mulavidya). Shakta Vedanta teaches its doctrine from the practical standpoint which Mayavada calls Vyavaharika. It lays stress on the concept of Power. Atman is not mere Being only. Even in the dissolution of the world Being is Power, though Power or Shakti is then consciousness as such (Cidrupini). Atman manifests as the universe by and out of its power. Atman and Power are never separated, and so it is said, that\" there is no Shiva without Shakti or Shakti without Shiva.\" Shiva without power is but a \"corpse.\" Both Shiva and Shakti are of the same nature since they are both Being- Consciousness - Bliss. But Power manifests as the Becoming or Psycho -physical universe. Power is both Power to be, to self - conserve, and resist change, as well as Power to Become the universe and as material cause of the universe itself. Power to be is the static aspect of Shiva -Shakti. Power to become is the changeful aspect of Shiva- Shakti. In Mayavada the world is said to be produced by the Power of the Lord -- or Ishvara. But whilst Ishvara is Brahman or Godhead as conceived by the Psycho- physical experiencer, Brahman on the other hand is not Ishvara. The former is beyond (in the sense of exclusive of ) all relations with the universe, and so, though wrongly, some people call Ishvara 'Unreal' and the universe created by Him an 'illusion'. According to Shaktivada, not only is Ishvara Brahman, but Brahman is Ishvara, and no question of the reality of either Ishvara or the world arises. We may, however, say at once that Godhead is real, God is real and the universe is real. The use of the term 'illusion' only tends to mislead even in Mayavada. According to the concise definition of Kamala -kanta, a celebrated Sadhaka, Maya is the 'Form of the Form -less' (Shunyasya akara iti Maya). The World is the Divine Mother in form. As She is in Herself, She is formless. Discussion on the subject of the reality of the World is often vain and tedious, because the word 'Real' has several meanings, and that in which it is used is not stated. The terms \"Absolute\" and \"Transcendental\" should 551 also be clearly defined. The distinction between Maya -vada and Shakti - vada hinges on these definitions. Both \"Absolute\" and \"Transcendental\" mean \"beyond relation.\" But the term beyond\" may be used in two senses: (a) exceeding or wider than relation; (b) having no relation at all. The first does not deny or exclude relation but says that the Absolute, though involving all relations within itself, is not their sum total; is not exhausted by them; has Being transcending them. The latter denies every trace of relation to the Absolute; and says that the Absolute must have no intrinsic or extrinsic relation; that relation, therefore, has no place in the Being of the Absolute. Shakti -vada adopts the first view, Maya -vada the second. From the first point of view, the Absolute is relationless Being as well as Manifestation as an infinity of relations. This is the true and complete Alogical -Whole. Inasmuch as the Absolute exceeds all relation and thought, we cannot say that it is the Cause; that it is the Root of Creation; and so forth; but in as much also as it does involve relation and thought, we can say that It is the First Cause; that there has been a real creation, and so forth. The Maya- vada view by negating all relation from the reality of Brahman negates from its transcendent standpoint the reality of causation, creation and so forth. \"Beyond\" may, therefore, mean (1) \"exceeding\" \"fuller than \", \"not exhausted by\", or (2) excluding, negating, expunging. In Shakti -vada, the Supreme Reality is fuller than any definition (limitation) which may be proposed. It is even beyond duality and non - duality. It is thus the Experien ce-Whole, the Alogical. The Maya- vada Pure Brahman is an aspect of It: but it is not the Whole (Purna). The expression \"wider than relation\" may be thus illustrated: I am related in one way to my wife; in another way to my children; in yet another way to m y brothers, friends and so on. I am not fully expressed by any one of these relations, nor even by their aggregate; for, as a member of an infinite Stress - system, I bear an infinity of relations. Pragmatically, most of these are ignored, and it is thought that I am expressed, by a certain set of relations 552 which distinguish me from another person who has his own \"set\". But Brahman as Absolute can have no such \"Set\". It is expressed, but not fully expressed, even by the infinite set of relations which the cosmos is, because relations, finite or infinite, imply a logical, and therefore segmenting and defining thought; but Brahman as Absolute = Experience -Whole = the Alogical. Since Brahman = Experience -Whole = Cit as Power to -Be-and- Become, it is nothing like the unknown and unknowable Being (\"Thing -in itself\") of Western Skeptics and Agnostics. In all Indian Systems, the world is real, in the sense that it has objective existence for, and is not a projection of, the individual mind . In all such systems, Mind a nd Matter co -exist, and this is so even in that form of Ekajiva -vada which holds that Brahman by its own veiling and limiting Power makes one Primary Self of itself, and that all other selves are but reflexes of the Primary self, having as reflexes no existence apart from that of the Primary one. The world of matter is not a projection of an individual mind, but its reality is coordinate with that of the individual mind, both being derived from the Self -veiling and Self -limiting operation of Brahman appeari ng as the One Jiva or Primary Self. Brahman, in appearing as Primary Self, also appears as its (logical) Correlate or Pole -- the Not -Self; and this Not -Self is the Root -Matter on which the primary Self is reflected as multiple selves and their varied relations. Matter, in this fundamental sense is not therefore the product of the first or primary individual (Self); it is with Self the co- effect (logically speaking) of a common fundamental activity which is the veiling and limiting action of the Supreme Bei ng. The version commonly given of Ekajiva -vada -- namely that the one Primary Self is Me, and that You, He and the rest, and the world of objects are the projection of Me -- is loose and unpsychological. In the first place, Me cannot be there (logically conceiving) without its Correlate or Pole -- the Not -Me; so that, by the very act by which Me is evolved from Brahman, its Correlate is also evolved, and this Correlate is Root -Matter. In the second place, projection, reflection and so forth presuppose not o nly the projecting or reflecting Being (that which projects or reflects), but also something on 553 which the projection or reflection is cast. Projection out of nothing and projection into nothing will give us only nothing. Where then there is Matter there is Mind. Where there is no Matter there is no Mind. One is meaningless without the other. Each is every whit as real as the other. But there is no Indian system which is Realist in the sense, that it holds that Matter exists when there is no Mind to perceive it. Such a state is inconceivable. He who alleges it, himself supplies the perceiving Mind. In the First standard, Mind and the so- called \"atoms\" of Matter are separate, distinct and independent Reals. Matter does not derive from Mind nor the latter from the former. In the Second Standard, both Matter and Mind are equally real, but derive from a common source the Psycho- physical Potential which as such is neither. 'Psychic' here means Mind as distinct from Consciousness in the sense of Cit. This Psycho -physical Potential is a Real, independent of Consciousness which is the other Real. In the Third Standard as non-dual Vedanta the position is the same, except that the Psychophysical Potential is not an independent Real but is the power of the One Supreme Real as God. The world is then Real in the sense that it has true objective Reality for the individual Experiencers for the duration of their experience of it. No one denies this. The next question is the problem of Monism. If ultimate Reality be One, how can it be the cause of and become the Universe. It is said, that Reality is of dual aspect, namely, as it is in relation to the World as Ishvara, the Lord or God, and as it is in itself beyond such relation which we may call Brahman. According to Mayavada, Ishvara is Brahman, for Ishvara is Brahman as seen through the Veil of Maya, that is, by the Psycho-physical Experiencer. But Brahman is not Ishvara because Brahman is the absolute alogical Real, that is, Reality not as conceived by Mind but as it is in itself beyond all relation. The notion of God as the Supreme Self is the highest concept imposed on the alogical which, as it is in itself, is not a Self either supreme or limited. The Absolute as such is not a cause. There is, transcendentally speaking, no creation, no Universe. The Absolute is and nothing happens. It is only pragmatically a Cause. There is from this aspect no nexus between Brahman and the World. In the logical order there is. What then is the Universe? It is in this connection that it is said by some to be an \"illusion,\" which is an inapt 554 term. For to whom is it an \"illusion\"? Not to the Psycho- physical Experiencer to whom it is admittedly real. Nor is it illusion for the Experience -Whole. It is only by the importation of the logical notion of a self to whom an object is real or unreal that we can speak of illusion. But there is in this state of Liberation no Self. More correctly we say that the World is Maya. But what is Maya in Mayavada? It is not real, for it is neither Brahman nor an indepe ndent Real. Nor is it unreal for in the logical order it is real. It is neither Brahman nor different from it as an independent reality. It is unexplainable. For this reason one of the scholastics of this System calls it the doctrine of the Inscrutable. In the doctrine of Power (Shaktivada),Maya is the Divine Mother Power or Mahamaya. The two aspects of Reality as Brahman and Ishvara are accepted. The Lord is real, but that which we call 'Lord' is more than Lord, for the Real is not adequately defined in terms only of its relations to the Universe. In this sense it is alogical, that is, \"beyond Mind and speech\". As the one ultimate Reality is both Ishvara and Brahman, in one aspect it is the Cause, and in the other it is not. But it is one and the same Reality which is both as Shiva - Shakti. As these are real so are their appearance, the Universe. For the Universe is Shiva -Shakti. It is their appearance. When we say it is their appearance we imply that there has been a real becoming issuing from them as Powe r. Reality has two aspects. First as it is in itself, and secondly as it exists as Universe. At base the Samsara or worlds of Birth and Death and Moksha or Liberation are One. For Shiva- Shakti are both the Experience -Whole and the Part which exists therein as the Universe. Reality is a concrete unity in duality and duality in unity. In practice the One is realized in and as the Many and the Many as the One. So in the Shakta Wine ritual, the worshipper conceives himself to be Shiva Shakti as the Divine Mother . It is She who as and in the person of the worshipper, Her manifestation, consumes the wine which is again Herself, the Savioress in liquid form. It is not only he, who as a separate Self does so. This principle is applied to all man's functionings and is of cardinal importance from a Monistic standpoint notwithstanding its well -known abuse in fact. Real is again used in the sense of eminence. The Real is that which is for itself and has a reason for its being in itself. The Real as God is the perfect 555 and changeless and the \"Good.\" The Universe is dependent on the Ens Realissimum, for it proceeds from it and is imperfect as limited and changeful and in a sense it is that which does not endure and in this sense is called 'unreal.' Though, however, the Universe comes and goes it does so eternally. The Supreme Cause is eternally creative. The Real is then both infinite Changeless Being as also unbeginning and unending process as the Becoming. In this system the Real both is and becomes. It yet becomes without d erogation from its own changelessness, as it were a Fountain of Life which pours itself forth incessantly from infinite and inexhaustible source. Both the infinite and the finite are real. Real is again used in the sense of interest and value and of the worth while\". In this sense, the worshiper prays to be led from Unreality to Reality, but this does not mean that the world is unreal, but that it is not the supreme worth for him. In whatever sense, then, the term Real is used the Universe is that. All is real for as the Upanishad says, \"All this Universe is verily Brahman\". The Scriptural Text says \"All\". It does not say \"This \" but not \"That\". The whole is an alogical concrete Reality which is Unity in Duality and Duality in Unity. The doctrine does not lose hold of either the One or the Many, and for this reason the Lord Shiva says in the Kularnava Tantra, \"There are some who seek dualism and some non- dualism, but my doctrine is beyond both.\" That is, it takes account of and reconciles both Dualism and No n-Dualism. Reality is no mere abstraction of the intellect making jettison of all that is concrete and varied. It is the Experience Whole whose object is Itself as such Whole. It is also Partial Experience within that whole. This union of whole and Part is alogical, not unknowable, for their unity is a fact of actual experience just as we have the unity of Power to Be and Power to Become, of the Conscious and Unconscious, of Mind and Body, of freedom and determination, and other dualities of Man's experiencing. 556"}}},{"rowIdx":18,"cells":{"text":{"kind":"string","value":"Superintelligence SUPERINTELLIGENCE Paths, Dangers, Strategies NICK BOSTROM Director, Future of Humanity Institute Professor, Faculty of Philosophy & Oxford Martin School University of Oxford Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Nick Bostrom 2014 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2013955152 ISBN 9780199678112 Printed in Italy by L.E.G.O. S.p.A.Lavis TN Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. The Unfinished Fable of the Sparrows It was the nest-building season, but after days of long hard work, the sparrows sat in the evening glow, relaxing and chirping away. We are all so small and weak. Imagine how easy life would be if we had an owl who could help us build our nests! Yes! said another. And we could use it to look after our elderly and our young. It could give us advice and keep an eye out for the neighborhood cat, added a third. Then Pastus, the elder-bird, spoke: Let us send out scouts in all directions and try to find an abandoned owlet somewhere, or maybe an egg. A crow chick might also do, or a baby weasel. This could be the best thing that ever happened to us, at least since the opening of the Pavilion of Unlimited Grain in yonder backyard. The flock was exhilarated, and sparrows everywhere started chirping at the top of their lungs. Only Scronkfinkle, a one-eyed sparrow with a fretful temperament, was unconvinced of the wisdom of the endeavor. Quoth he: This will surely be our undoing. Should we not give some thought to the art of owl-domestication and owl-taming first, before we bring such a creature into our midst? Replied Pastus: Taming an owl sounds like an exceedingly difficult thing to do. It will be difficult enough to find an owl egg. So let us start there. After we have succeeded in raising an owl, then we can think about taking on this other challenge. There is a flaw in that plan! squeaked Scronkfinkle; but his protests were in vain as the flock had already lifted off to start implementing the directives set out by Pastus. Just two or three sparrows remained behind. Together they began to try to work out how owls might be tamed or domesticated. They soon realized that Pastus had been right: this was an exceedingly difficult challenge, especially in the absence of an actual owl to practice on. Nevertheless they pressed on as best they could, constantly fearing that the flock might return with an owl egg before a solution to the control problem had been found. It is not known how the story ends, but the author dedicates this book to Scronkfinkle and his followers. PREFACE Inside your cranium is the thing that does the reading. This thing, the human brain, has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that we owe our dominant position on the planet. Other animals have stronger muscles and sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. Our modest advantage in general intelligence has led us to develop language, technology, and complex social organization. The advantage has compounded over time, as each generation has built on the achievements of its predecessors. If some day we build machine brains that surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. And, as the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species would depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence. We do have one advantage: we get to build the stuff. In principle, we could build a kind of superintelligence that would protect human values. We would certainly have strong reason to do so. In practice, the control problemthe problem of how to control what the superintelligence would dolooks quite difficult. It also looks like we will only get one chance. Once unfriendly superintelligence exists, it would prevent us from replacing it or changing its preferences. Our fate would be sealed. In this book, I try to understand the challenge presented by the prospect of superintelligence, and how we might best respond. This is quite possibly the most important and most daunting challenge humanity has ever faced. And whether we succeed or failit is probably the last challenge we will ever face. It is no part of the argument in this book that we are on the threshold of a big breakthrough in artificial intelligence, or that we can predict with any precision when such a development might occur. It seems somewhat likely that it will happen sometime in this century, but we dont know for sure. The first couple of chapters do discuss possible pathways and say something about the question of timing. The bulk of the book, however, is about what happens after. We study the kinetics of an intelligence explosion, the forms and powers of superintelligence, and the strategic choices available to a superintelligent agent that attains a decisive advantage. We then shift our focus to the control problem and ask what we could do to shape the initial conditions so as to achieve a survivable and beneficial outcome. Toward the end of the book, we zoom out and contemplate the larger picture that emerges from our investigations. Some suggestions are offered on what ought to be done now to increase our chances of avoiding an existential catastrophe later. This has not been an easy book to write. I hope the path that has been cleared will enable other investigators to reach the new frontier more swiftly and conveniently, so that they can arrive there fresh and ready to join the work to further expand the reach of our comprehension. (And if the way that has been made is a little bumpy and bendy, I hope that reviewers, in judging the result, will not underestimate the hostility of the terrain ex ante !) This has not been an easy book to write: I have tried to make it an easy book to read, but I dont think I have quite succeeded. When writing, I had in mind as the target audience an earlier time-slice of myself, and I tried to produce a kind of book that I would have enjoyed reading. This could prove a narrow demographic. Nevertheless, I think that the content should be accessible to many people, if they put some thought into it and resist the temptation to instantaneously misunderstand each new idea by assimilating it with the most similar-sounding clich available in their cultural larders. Non-technical readers should not be discouraged by the occasional bit of mathematics or specialized vocabulary, for it is always possible to glean the main point from the surrounding explanations. (Conversely, for those readers who want more of the nitty-gritty, there is quite a lot to be found among the endnotes. 1 ) Many of the points made in this book are probably wrong. 2 It is also likely that there are considerations of critical importance that I fail to take into account, thereby invalidating some or all of my conclusions. I have gone to some length to indicate nuances and degrees of uncertainty throughout the text encumbering it with an unsightly smudge of possibly, might, may, could well, it seems, probably, very likely, almost certainly. Each qualifier has been placed where it is carefully and deliberately. Yet these topical applications of epistemic modesty are not enough; they must be supplemented here by a systemic admission of uncertainty and fallibility. This is not false modesty: for while I believe that my book is likely to be seriously wrong and misleading, I think that the alternative views that have been presented in the literature are substantially worseincluding the default view, or null hypothesis, according to which we can for the time being safely or reasonably ignore the prospect of superintelligence. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The membrane that has surrounded the writing process has been fairly permeable. Many concepts and ideas generated while working on the book have been allowed to seep out and have become part of a wider conversation; and, of course, numerous insights originating from the outside while the book was underway have been incorporated into the text. I have tried to be somewhat diligent with the citation apparatus, but the influences are too many to fully document. For extensive discussions that have helped clarify my thinking I am grateful to a large set of people, including Ross Andersen, Stuart Armstrong, Owen Cotton- Barratt, Nick Beckstead, David Chalmers, Paul Christiano, Milan irkovi, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Daniel Dewey, Eric Drexler, Peter Eckersley, Amnon Eden, Owain Evans, Benja Fallenstein, Alex Flint, Carl Frey, Ian Goldin, Katja Grace, J. Storrs Hall, Robin Hanson, Demis Hassabis, James Hughes, Marcus Hutter, Garry Kasparov, Marcin Kulczycki, Shane Legg, Moshe Looks, Willam MacAskill, Eric Mandelbaum, James Martin, Lillian Martin, Roko Mijic, Vincent Mueller, Elon Musk, Sen higeartaigh, Toby Ord, Dennis Pamlin, Derek Parfit, David Pearce, Huw Price, Martin Rees, Bill Roscoe, Stuart Russell, Anna Salamon, Lou Salkind, Anders Sandberg, Julian Savulescu, Jrgen Schmidhuber, Nicholas Shackel, Murray Shanahan, Noel Sharkey, Carl Shulman, Peter Singer, Dan Stoicescu, Jaan Tallinn, Alexander Tamas, Max Tegmark, Roman Yampolskiy, and Eliezer Yudkowsky. For especially detailed comments, I am grateful to Milan irkovi, Daniel Dewey, Owain Evans, Nick Hay, Keith Mansfield, Luke Muehlhauser, Toby Ord, Jess Riedel, Anders Sandberg, Murray Shanahan, and Carl Shulman. For advice or research help with different parts I want to thank Stuart Armstrong, Daniel Dewey, Eric Drexler, Alexandre Erler, Rebecca Roache, and Anders Sandberg. For help with preparing the manuscript, I am thankful to Caleb Bell, Malo Bourgon, Robin Brandt, Lance Bush, Cathy Douglass, Alexandre Erler, Kristian Rnn, Susan Rogers, Andrew Snyder-Beattie, Cecilia Tilli, and Alex Vermeer. I want particularly to thank my editor Keith Mansfield for his plentiful encouragement throughout the project. My apologies to everybody else who ought to have been remembered here. Finally, a most fond thank you to funders, friends, and family: without your backing, this work would not have been done. CONTENTS Lists of Figures, Tables, and Boxes 1. Past developments and present capabilities Growth modes and big history Great expectations Seasons of hope and despair State of the art Opinions about the future of machine intelligence 2. Paths to superintelligence Artificial intelligence Whole brain emulation Biological cognition Braincomputer interfaces Networks and organizations Summary 3. Forms of superintelligence Speed superintelligence Collective superintelligence Quality superintelligence Direct and indirect reach Sources of advantage for digital intelligence 4. The kinetics of an intelligence explosion Timing and speed of the takeoff Recalcitrance Non-machine intelligence paths Emulation and AI paths Optimization power and explosivity 5. Decisive strategic advantage Will the frontrunner get a decisive strategic advantage? How large will the successful project be? Monitoring International collaboration From decisive strategic advantage to singleton 6. Cognitive superpowers Functionalities and superpowers An AI takeover scenario Power over nature and agents 7. The superintelligent will The relation between intelligence and motivation Instrumental convergence Self-preservation Goal-content integrity Cognitive enhancement Technological perfection Resource acquisition 8. Is the default outcome doom? Existential catastrophe as the default outcome of an intelligence explosion? The treacherous turn Malignant failure modes Perverse instantiation Infrastructure profusion Mind crime 9. The control problem Two agency problems Capability control methods Boxing methods Incentive methods Stunting Tripwires Motivation selection methods Direct specification Domesticity Indirect normativity Augmentation Synopsis 10. Oracles, genies, sovereigns, tools Oracles Genies and sovereigns Tool-AIs Comparison 11. Multipolar scenarios Of horses and men Wages and unemployment Capital and welfare The Malthusian principle in a historical perspective Population growth and investment Life in an algorithmic economy Voluntary slavery, casual death Would maximally efficient work be fun? Unconscious outsourcers? Evolution is not necessarily up Post-transition formation of a singleton? A second transition Superorganisms and scale economies Unification by treaty 12. Acquiring values The value-loading problem Evolutionary selection Reinforcement learning Associative value accretion Motivational scaffolding Value learning Emulation modulation Institution design Synopsis 13. Choosing the criteria for choosing The need for indirect normativity Coherent extrapolated volition Some explications Rationales for CEV Further remarks Morality models Do What I Mean Component list Goal content Decision theory Epistemology Ratification Getting close enough 14. The strategic picture Science and technology strategy Differential technological development Preferred order of arrival Rates of change and cognitive enhancement Technology couplings Second-guessing Pathways and enablers Effects of hardware progress Should whole brain emulation research be promoted? The person-affecting perspective favors speed Collaboration The race dynamic and its perils On the benefits of collaboration Working together 15. Crunch time Philosophy with a deadline What is to be done? Seeking the strategic light Building good capacity Particular measures Will the best in human nature please stand up Bibliography LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND BOXES List of Figures 1. Long-term history of world GDP . 2. Overall long-term impact of HLMI . 3. Supercomputer performance . 4. Reconstructing 3D neuroanatomy from electron microscope images . 5. Whole brain emulation roadmap . 6. Composite faces as a metaphor for spell-checked genomes . 7. Shape of the takeoff . 8. A less anthropomorphic scale? 9. One simple model of an intelligence explosion . 10. Phases in an AI takeover scenario . 11. Schematic illustration of some possible trajectories for a hypothetical wise singleton . 12. Results of anthropomorphizing alien motivation . 13. Artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation first? 14. Risk levels in AI technology races . List of Tables 1. Game-playing AI 2. When will human-level machine intelligence be attained? 3. How long from human level to superintelligence? 4. Capabilities needed for whole brain emulation 5. Maximum IQ gains from selecting among a set of embryos 6. Possible impacts from genetic selection in different scenarios 7. Some strategically significant technology races 8. Superpowers: some strategically relevant tasks and corresponding skill sets 9. Different kinds of tripwires 10. Control methods 11. Features of different system castes 12. Summary of value-loading techniques 13. Component list List of Boxes 1. An optimal Bayesian agent 2. The 2010 Flash Crash 3. What would it take to recapitulate evolution? 4. On the kinetics of an intelligence explosion 5. Technology races: some historical examples 6. The mail-ordered DNA scenario 7. How big is the cosmic endowment? 8. Anthropic capture 9. Strange solutions from blind search 10. Formalizing value learning 11. An AI that wants to be friendly 12. Two recent (half-baked) ideas 13. A risk-race to the bottom CHAPTER 1 Past developments and present capabilities We begin by looking back. History, at the largest scale, seems to exhibit a sequence of distinct growth modes, each much more rapid than its predecessor. This pattern has been taken to suggest that another (even faster) growth mode might be possible. However, we do not place much weight on this observationthis is not a book about technological acceleration or exponential growth or the miscellaneous notions sometimes gathered under the rubric of the singularity. Next, we review the history of artificial intelligence. We then survey the fields current capabilities. Finally, we glance at some recent expert opinion surveys, and contemplate our ignorance about the timeline of future advances. Growth modes and big history A mere few million years ago our ancestors were still swinging from the branches in the African canopy. On a geological or even evolutionary timescale, the rise of Homo sapiens from our last common ancestor with the great apes happened swiftly. We developed upright posture, opposable thumbs, and cruciallysome relatively minor changes in brain size and neurological organization that led to a great leap in cognitive ability. As a consequence, humans can think abstractly, communicate complex thoughts, and culturally accumulate information over the generations far better than any other species on the planet. These capabilities let humans develop increasingly efficient productive technologies, making it possible for our ancestors to migrate far away from the rainforest and the savanna. Especially after the adoption of agriculture, population densities rose along with the total size of the human population. More people meant more ideas; greater densities meant that ideas could spread more readily and that some individuals could devote themselves to developing specialized skills. These developments increased the rate of growth of economic productivity and technological capacity. Later developments, related to the Industrial Revolution, brought about a second, comparable step change in the rate of growth. Such changes in the rate of growth have important consequences. A few hundred thousand years ago, in early human (or hominid) prehistory, growth was so slow that it took on the order of one million years for human productive capacity to increase sufficiently to sustain an additional one million individuals living at subsistence level. By 5000 BC , following the Agricultural Revolution, the rate of growth had increased to the point where the same amount of growth took just two centuries. Today, following the Industrial Revolution, the world economy grows on average by that amount every ninety minutes. 1 Even the present rate of growth will produce impressive results if maintained for a moderately long time. If the world economy continues to grow at the same pace as it has over the past fifty years, then the world will be some 4.8 times richer by 2050 and about 34 times richer by 2100 than it is today. 2 Yet the prospect of continuing on a steady exponential growth path pales in comparison to what would happen if the world were to experience another step change in the rate of growth comparable in magnitude to those associated with the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. The economist Robin Hanson estimates, based on historical economic and population data, a characteristic world economy doubling time for Pleistocene huntergatherer society of 224,000 years; for farming society, 909 years; and for industrial society, 6.3 years. 3 (In Hansons model, the present epoch is a mixture of the farming and the industrial growth modesthe world economy as a whole is not yet growing at the 6.3-year doubling rate.) If another such transition to a different growth mode were to occur, and it were of similar magnitude to the previous two, it would result in a new growth regime in which the world economy would double in size about every two weeks. Such a growth rate seems fantastic by current lights. Observers in earlier epochs might have found it equally preposterous to suppose that the world economy would one day be doubling several times within a single lifespan. Yet that is the extraordinary condition we now take to be ordinary. The idea of a coming technological singularity has by now been widely popularized, starting with Vernor Vinges seminal essay and continuing with the writings of Ray Kurzweil and others. 4 The term singularity, however, has been used confusedly in many disparate senses and has accreted an unholy (yet almost millenarian) aura of techno-utopian connotations. 5 Since most of these meanings and connotations are irrelevant to our argument, we can gain clarity by dispensing with the singularity word in favor of more precise terminology. The singularity-related idea that interests us here is the possibility of an intelligence explosion , particularly the prospect of machine superintelligence. There may be those who are persuaded by growth diagrams like the ones in Figure 1 that another drastic change in growth mode is in the cards, comparable to the Agricultural or Industrial Revolution. These folk may then reflect that it is hard to conceive of a scenario in which the world economys doubling time shortens to mere weeks that does not involve the creation of minds that are much faster and more efficient than the familiar biological kind. However, the case for taking seriously the prospect of a machine intelligence revolution need not rely on curve-fitting exercises or extrapolations from past economic growth. As we shall see, there are stronger reasons for taking heed. Figure 1 Long-term history of world GDP. Plotted on a linear scale, the history of the world economy looks like a flat line hugging the x -axis, until it suddenly spikes vertically upward. (a) Even when we zoom in on the most recent 10,000 years, the pattern remains essentially one of a single 90 angle. (b) Only within the past 100 years or so does the curve lift perceptibly above the zero-level. (The different lines in the plot correspond to different data sets, which yield slightly different estimates. 6 ) Great expectations Machines matching humans in general intelligencethat is, possessing common sense and an effective ability to learn, reason, and plan to meet complex information-processing challenges across a wide range of natural and abstract domainshave been expected since the invention of computers in the 1940s. At that time, the advent of such machines was often placed some twenty years into the future. 7 Since then, the expected arrival date has been receding at a rate of one year per year; so that today, futurists who concern themselves with the possibility of artificial general intelligence still often believe that intelligent machines are a couple of decades away. 8 Two decades is a sweet spot for prognosticators of radical change: near enough to be attention-grabbing and relevant, yet far enough to make it possible to suppose that a string of breakthroughs, currently only vaguely imaginable, might by then have occurred. Contrast this with shorter timescales: most technologies that will have a big impact on the world in five or ten years from now are already in limited use, while technologies that will reshape the world in less than fifteen years probably exist as laboratory prototypes. Twenty years may also be close to the typical duration remaining of a forecasters career, bounding the reputational risk of a bold prediction. From the fact that some individuals have overpredicted artificial intelligence in the past, however, it does not follow that AI is impossible or will never be developed. 9 The main reason why progress has been slower than expected is that the technical difficulties of constructing intelligent machines have proved greater than the pioneers foresaw. But this leaves open just how great those difficulties are and how far we now are from overcoming them. Sometimes a problem that initially looks hopelessly complicated turns out to have a surprisingly simple solution (though the reverse is probably more common). In the next chapter, we will look at different paths that may lead to human- level machine intelligence. But let us note at the outset that however many stops there are between here and human-level machine intelligence, the latter is not the final destination. The next stop, just a short distance farther along the tracks, is superhuman-level machine intelligence. The train might not pause or even decelerate at Humanville Station. It is likely to swoosh right by. The mathematician I. J. Good, who had served as chief statistician in Alan Turings code-breaking team in World War II, might have been the first to enunciate the essential aspects of this scenario. In an oft-quoted passage from 1965, he wrote: Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an intelligence explosion, and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. 10 It may seem obvious now that major existential risks would be associated with such an intelligence explosion, and that the prospect should therefore be examined with the utmost seriousness even if it were known (which it is not) to have but a moderately small probability of coming to pass. The pioneers of artificial intelligence, however, notwithstanding their belief in the imminence of human-level AI, mostly did not contemplate the possibility of greater-than- human AI. It is as though their speculation muscle had so exhausted itself in conceiving the radical possibility of machines reaching human intelligence that it could not grasp the corollarythat machines would subsequently become superintelligent. The AI pioneers for the most part did not countenance the possibility that their enterprise might involve risk. 11 They gave no lip servicelet alone serious thoughtto any safety concern or ethical qualm related to the creation of artificial minds and potential computer overlords: a lacuna that astonishes even against the background of the eras not-so-impressive standards of critical technology assessment. 12 We must hope that by the time the enterprise eventually does become feasible, we will have gained not only the technological proficiency to set off an intelligence explosion but also the higher level of mastery that may be necessary to make the detonation survivable. But before we turn to what lies ahead, it will be useful to take a quick glance at the history of machine intelligence to date. Seasons of hope and despair In the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College, ten scientists sharing an interest in neural nets, automata theory, and the study of intelligence convened for a six- week workshop. This Dartmouth Summer Project is often regarded as the cockcrow of artificial intelligence as a field of research. Many of the participants would later be recognized as founding figures. The optimistic outlook among the delegates is reflected in the proposal submitted to the Rockefeller Foundation, which provided funding for the event: We propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence be carried out. The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines that use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. We think that a significant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of scientists work on it together for a summer. In the six decades since this brash beginning, the field of artificial intelligence has been through periods of hype and high expectations alternating with periods of setback and disappointment. The first period of excitement, which began with the Dartmouth meeting, was later described by John McCarthy (the events main organizer) as the Look, Ma, no hands! era. During these early days, researchers built systems designed to refute claims of the form No machine could ever do X ! Such skeptical claims were common at the time. To counter them, the AI researchers created small systems that achieved X in a microworld (a well-defined, limited domain that enabled a pared-down version of the performance to be demonstrated), thus providing a proof of concept and showing that X could, in principle, be done by machine. One such early system, the Logic Theorist, was able to prove most of the theorems in the second chapter of Whitehead and Russells Principia Mathematica , and even came up with one proof that was much more elegant than the original, thereby debunking the notion that machines could only think numerically and showing that machines were also able to do deduction and to invent logical proofs. 13 A follow-up program, the General Problem Solver, could in principle solve a wide range of formally specified problems. 14 Programs that could solve calculus problems typical of first-year college courses, visual analogy problems of the type that appear in some IQ tests, and simple verbal algebra problems were also written. 15 The Shakey robot (so named because of its tendency to tremble during operation) demonstrated how logical reasoning could be integrated with perception and used to plan and control physical activity. 16 The ELIZA program showed how a computer could impersonate a Rogerian psychotherapist. 17 In the mid-seventies, the program SHRDLU showed how a simulated robotic arm in a simulated world of geometric blocks could follow instructions and answer questions in English that were typed in by a user. 18 In later decades, systems would be created that demonstrated that machines could compose music in the style of various classical composers, outperform junior doctors in certain clinical diagnostic tasks, drive cars autonomously, and make patentable inventions. 19 There has even been an AI that cracked original jokes. 20 (Not that its level of humor was highWhat do you get when you cross an optic with a mental object ? An eye -deabut children reportedly found its puns consistently entertaining.) The methods that produced successes in the early demonstration systems often proved difficult to extend to a wider variety of problems or to harder problem instances. One reason for this is the combinatorial explosion of possibilities that must be explored by methods that rely on something like exhaustive search. Such methods work well for simple instances of a problem, but fail when things get a bit more complicated. For instance, to prove a theorem that has a 5-line long proof in a deduction system with one inference rule and 5 axioms, one could simply enumerate the 3,125 possible combinations and check each one to see if it delivers the intended conclusion. Exhaustive search would also work for 6-and 7-line proofs. But as the task becomes more difficult, the method of exhaustive search soon runs into trouble. Proving a theorem with a 50-line proof does not take ten times longer than proving a theorem that has a 5-line proof: rather, if one uses exhaustive search, it requires combing through 5 50 8.9 10 34 possible sequenceswhich is computationally infeasible even with the fastest supercomputers. To overcome the combinatorial explosion, one needs algorithms that exploit structure in the target domain and take advantage of prior knowledge by using heuristic search, planning, and flexible abstract representationscapabilities that were poorly developed in the early AI systems. The performance of these early systems also suffered because of poor methods for handling uncertainty, reliance on brittle and ungrounded symbolic representations, data scarcity, and severe hardware limitations on memory capacity and processor speed. By the mid- 1970s, there was a growing awareness of these problems. The realization that many AI projects could never make good on their initial promises led to the onset of the first AI winter: a period of retrenchment, during which funding decreased and skepticism increased, and AI fell out of fashion. A new springtime arrived in the early 1980s, when Japan launched its Fifth- Generation Computer Systems Project, a well-funded publicprivate partnership that aimed to leapfrog the state of the art by developing a massively parallel computing architecture that would serve as a platform for artificial intelligence. This occurred at peak fascination with the Japanese post-war economic miracle, a period when Western government and business leaders anxiously sought to divine the formula behind Japans economic success in hope of replicating the magic at home. When Japan decided to invest big in AI, several other countries followed suit. The ensuing years saw a great proliferation of expert systems . Designed as support tools for decision makers, expert systems were rule-based programs that made simple inferences from a knowledge base of facts, which had been elicited from human domain experts and painstakingly hand-coded in a formal language. Hundreds of these expert systems were built. However, the smaller systems provided little benefit, and the larger ones proved expensive to develop, validate, and keep updated, and were generally cumbersome to use. It was impractical to acquire a standalone computer just for the sake of running one program. By the late 1980s, this growth season, too, had run its course. The Fifth-Generation Project failed to meet its objectives, as did its counterparts in the United States and Europe. A second AI winter descended. At this point, a critic could justifiably bemoan the history of artificial intelligence research to date, consisting always of very limited success in particular areas, followed immediately by failure to reach the broader goals at which these initial successes seem at first to hint. 21 Private investors began to shun any venture carrying the brand of artificial intelligence. Even among academics and their funders, AI became an unwanted epithet. 22 Technical work continued apace, however, and by the 1990s, the second AI winter gradually thawed. Optimism was rekindled by the introduction of new techniques, which seemed to offer alternatives to the traditional logicist paradigm (often referred to as Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence, or GOFAI for short), which had focused on high-level symbol manipulation and which had reached its apogee in the expert systems of the 1980s. The newly popular techniques, which included neural networks and genetic algorithms, promised to overcome some of the shortcomings of the GOFAI approach, in particular the brittleness that characterized classical AI programs (which typically produced complete nonsense if the programmers made even a single slightly erroneous assumption). The new techniques boasted a more organic performance. For example, neural networks exhibited the property of graceful degradation: a small amount of damage to a neural network typically resulted in a small degradation of its performance, rather than a total crash. Even more importantly, neural networks could learn from experience, finding natural ways of generalizing from examples and finding hidden statistical patterns in their input. 23 This made the nets good at pattern recognition and classification problems. For example, by training a neural network on a data set of sonar signals, it could be taught to distinguish the acoustic profiles of submarines, mines, and sea life with better accuracy than human expertsand this could be done without anybody first having to figure out in advance exactly how the categories were to be defined or how different features were to be weighted. While simple neural network models had been known since the late 1950s, the field enjoyed a renaissance after the introduction of the backpropagation algorithm, which made it possible to train multilayered neural networks. 24 Such multilayered networks, which have one or more intermediary (hidden) layers of neurons between the input and output layers, can learn a much wider range of functions than their simpler predecessors. 25 Combined with the increasingly powerful computers that were becoming available, these algorithmic improvements enabled engineers to build neural networks that were good enough to be practically useful in many applications. The brain-like qualities of neural networks contrasted favorably with the rigidly logic-chopping but brittle performance of traditional rule-based GOFAI systemsenough so to inspire a new -ism, connectionism , which emphasized the importance of massively parallel sub-symbolic processing. More than 150,000 academic papers have since been published on artificial neural networks, and they continue to be an important approach in machine learning. Evolution-based methods, such as genetic algorithms and genetic programming, constitute another approach whose emergence helped end the second AI winter. It made perhaps a smaller academic impact than neural nets but was widely popularized. In evolutionary models, a population of candidate solutions (which can be data structures or programs) is maintained, and new candidate solutions are generated randomly by mutating or recombining variants in the existing population. Periodically, the population is pruned by applying a selection criterion (a fitness function) that allows only the better candidates to survive into the next generation. Iterated over thousands of generations, the average quality of the solutions in the candidate pool gradually increases. When it works, this kind of algorithm can produce efficient solutions to a very wide range of problemssolutions that may be strikingly novel and unintuitive, often looking more like natural structures than anything that a human engineer would design. And in principle, this can happen without much need for human input beyond the initial specification of the fitness function, which is often very simple. In practice, however, getting evolutionary methods to work well requires skill and ingenuity, particularly in devising a good representational format. Without an efficient way to encode candidate solutions (a genetic language that matches latent structure in the target domain), evolutionary search tends to meander endlessly in a vast search space or get stuck at a local optimum. Even if a good representational format is found, evolution is computationally demanding and is often defeated by the combinatorial explosion. Neural networks and genetic algorithms are examples of methods that stimulated excitement in the 1990s by appearing to offer alternatives to the stagnating GOFAI paradigm. But the intention here is not to sing the praises of these two methods or to elevate them above the many other techniques in machine learning. In fact, one of the major theoretical developments of the past twenty years has been a clearer realization of how superficially disparate techniques can be understood as special cases within a common mathematical framework. For example, many types of artificial neural network can be viewed as classifiers that perform a particular kind of statistical calculation (maximum likelihood estimation). 26 This perspective allows neural nets to be compared with a larger class of algorithms for learning classifiers from examples decision trees, logistic regression models, support vector machines, naive Bayes, k -nearest-neighbors regression, among others. 27 In a similar manner, genetic algorithms can be viewed as performing stochastic hill- climbing, which is again a subset of a wider class of algorithms for optimization. Each of these algorithms for building classifiers or for searching a solution space has its own profile of strengths and weaknesses which can be studied mathematically. Algorithms differ in their processor time and memory space requirements, which inductive biases they presuppose, the ease with which externally produced content can be incorporated, and how transparent their inner workings are to a human analyst. Behind the razzle-dazzle of machine learning and creative problem-solving thus lies a set of mathematically well-specified tradeoffs. The ideal is that of the perfect Bayesian agent, one that makes probabilistically optimal use of available information. This ideal is unattainable because it is too computationally demanding to be implemented in any physical computer (see Box 1 ). Accordingly, one can view artificial intelligence as a quest to find shortcuts: ways of tractably approximating the Bayesian ideal by sacrificing some optimality or generality while preserving enough to get high performance in the actual domains of interest. A reflection of this picture can be seen in the work done over the past couple of decades on probabilistic graphical models, such as Bayesian networks. Bayesian networks provide a concise way of representing probabilistic and conditional independence relations that hold in some particular domain. (Exploiting such independence relations is essential for overcoming the combinatorial explosion, which is as much of a problem for probabilistic inference as it is for logical deduction.) They also provide important insight into the concept of causality. 28 One advantage of relating learning problems from specific domains to the general problem of Bayesian inference is that new algorithms that make Bayesian inference more efficient will then yield immediate improvements across many different areas. Advances in Monte Carlo approximation techniques, for example, are directly applied in computer vision, robotics, and computational genetics. Another advantage is that it lets researchers from different disciplines more easily pool their findings. Graphical models and Bayesian statistics have become a shared focus of research in many fields, including machine learning, statistical physics, bioinformatics, combinatorial optimization, and communication theory. 35 A fair amount of the recent progress in machine learning has resulted from incorporating formal results originally derived in other academic fields. (Machine learning applications have also benefitted enormously from faster computers and greater availability of large data sets.) Box 1 An optimal Bayesian agent An ideal Bayesian agent starts out with a prior probability distribution, a function that assigns probabilities to each possible world (i.e. to each maximally specific way the world could turn out to be). 29 This prior incorporates an inductive bias such that simpler possible worlds are assigned higher probabilities. (One way to formally define the simplicity of a possible world is in terms of its Kolmogorov complexity, a measure based on the length of the shortest computer program that generates a complete description of the world. 30 ) The prior also incorporates any background knowledge that the programmers wish to give to the agent. As the agent receives new information from its sensors, it updates its probability distribution by conditionalizing the distribution on the new information according to Bayes theorem. 31 Conditionalization is the mathematical operation that sets the new probability of those worlds that are inconsistent with the information received to zero and renormalizes the probability distribution over the remaining possible worlds. The result is a posterior probability distribution (which the agent may use as its new prior in the next time step). As the agent makes observations, its probability mass thus gets concentrated on the shrinking set of possible worlds that remain consistent with the evidence; and among these possible worlds, simpler ones always have more probability. Metaphorically, we can think of a probability as sand on a large sheet of paper. The paper is partitioned into areas of various sizes, each area corresponding to one possible world, with larger areas corresponding to simpler possible worlds. Imagine also a layer of sand of even thickness spread across the entire sheet: this is our prior probability distribution. Whenever an observation is made that rules out some possible worlds, we remove the sand from the corresponding areas of the paper and redistribute it evenly over the areas that remain in play. Thus, the total amount of sand on the sheet never changes, it just gets concentrated into fewer areas as observational evidence accumulates. This is a picture of learning in its purest form. (To calculate the probability of a hypothesis , we simply measure the amount of sand in all the areas that correspond to the possible worlds in which the hypothesis is true.) So far, we have defined a learning rule. To get an agent, we also need a decision rule. To this end, we endow the agent with a utility function which assigns a number to each possible world. The number represents the desirability of that world according to the agents basic preferences. Now, at each time step, the agent selects the action with the highest expected utility. 32 (To find the action with the highest expected utility, the agent could list all possible actions. It could then compute the conditional probability distribution given the actionthe probability distribution that would result from conditionalizing its current probability distribution on the observation that the action had just been taken. Finally, it could calculate the expected value of the action as the sum of the value of each possible world multiplied by the conditional probability of that world given the action. 33 ) The learning rule and the decision rule together define an optimality notion for an agent. (Essentially the same optimality notion has been broadly used in artificial intelligence, epistemology, philosophy of science, economics, and statistics. 34 ) In reality, it is impossible to build such an agent because it is computationally intractable to perform the requisite calculations. Any attempt to do so succumbs to a combinatorial explosion just like the one described in our discussion of GOFAI. To see why this is so, consider one tiny subset of all possible worlds: those that consist of a single computer monitor floating in an endless vacuum. The monitor has 1, 000 1, 000 pixels, each of which is perpetually either on or off. Even this subset of possible worlds is enormously large: the 2 (1,000 1,000) possible monitor states outnumber all the computations expected ever to take place in the observable universe. Thus, we could not even enumerate all the possible worlds in this tiny subset of all possible worlds, let alone perform more elaborate computations on each of them individually. Optimality notions can be of theoretical interest even if they are physically unrealizable. They give us a standard by which to judge heuristic approximations, and sometimes we can reason about what an optimal agent would do in some special case. We will encounter some alternative optimality notions for artificial agents in Chapter 12 . State of the art Artificial intelligence already outperforms human intelligence in many domains. Table 1 surveys the state of game-playing computers, showing that AIs now beat human champions in a wide range of games. 36 These achievements might not seem impressive today. But this is because our standards for what is impressive keep adapting to the advances being made. Expert chess playing, for example, was once thought to epitomize human intellection. In the view of several experts in the late fifties: If one could devise a successful chess machine, one would seem to have penetrated to the core of human intellectual endeavor. 55 This no longer seems so. One sympathizes with John McCarthy, who lamented: As soon as it works, no one calls it AI anymore. 56 Table 1 Game-playing AI Checkers Superhuman Arthur Samuels checkers program, originally written in 1952 and later improved (the 1955 version incorporating machine learning), becomes the first program to learn to play a game better than its creator. 37 In 1994, the program CHINOOK beats the reigning human champion, marking the first time a program wins an official world championship in a game of skill. In 2002, Jonathan Schaeffer and his team solve checkers, i.e. produce a program that always makes the best possible move (combining alpha-beta search with a database of 39 trillion endgame positions). Perfect play by both sides leads to a draw. 38 Backgammon Superhuman 1979: The backgammon program BKG by Hans Berliner defeats the world championthe first computer program to defeat (in an exhibition match) a world champion in any gamethough Berliner later attributes the win to luck with the dice rolls. 39 1992: The backgammon program TD-Gammon by Gerry Tesauro reaches championship-level ability, using temporal difference learning (a form of reinforcement learning) and repeated plays against itself to improve. 40 In the years since, backgammon programs have far surpassed the best human players. 41 Traveller TCS Superhuman in collaboration with human 42 In both 1981 and 1982, Douglas Lenats program Eurisko wins the US championship in Traveller TCS (a futuristic naval war game), prompting rule changes to block its unorthodox strategies. 43 Eurisko had heuristics for designing its fleet, and it also had heuristics for modifying its heuristics. Othello Superhuman 1997: The program Logistello wins every game in a six-game match against world champion Takeshi Murakami. 44 Chess Superhuman 1997: Deep Blue beats the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov claims to have seen glimpses of true intelligence and creativity in some of the computers moves. 45 Since then, chess engines have continued to improve. 46 Crosswords Expert level 1999: The crossword-solving program Proverb outperforms the average crossword-solver. 47 2012: The program Dr. Fill, created by Matt Ginsberg, scores in the top quartile among the otherwise human contestants in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. (Dr. Fills performance is uneven. It completes perfectly the puzzle rated most difficult by humans, yet is stumped by a couple of nonstandard puzzles that involved spelling backwards or writing answers diagonally.) 48 Scrabble Superhuman As of 2002, Scrabble-playing software surpasses the best human players. 49 Bridge Equal to the best By 2005, contract bridge playing software reaches parity with the best human bridge players. 50 Jeopardy! Superhuman 2010: IBMs Watson defeats the two all-time- greatest human Jeopardy! champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. 51 Jeopardy! is a televised game show with trivia questions about history, literature, sports, geography, pop culture, science, and other topics. Questions are presented in the form of clues, and often involve wordplay. Poker Varied Computer poker players remain slightly below the best humans for full-ring Texas hold em but perform at a superhuman level in some poker variants. 52 FreeCell Superhuman Heuristics evolved using genetic algorithms produce a solver for the solitaire game FreeCell (which in its generalized form is NP-complete) that is able to beat high-ranking human players. 53 Go Very strong amateur level As of 2012, the Zen series of go-playing programs has reached rank 6 dan in fast games (the level of a very strong amateur player), using Monte Carlo tree search and machine learning techniques. 54 Go- playing programs have been improving at a rate of about 1 dan/year in recent years. If this rate of improvement continues, they might beat the human world champion in about a decade. There is an important sense, however, in which chess-playing AI turned out to be a lesser triumph than many imagined it would be. It was once supposed, perhaps not unreasonably, that in order for a computer to play chess at grandmaster level, it would have to be endowed with a high degree of general intelligence. 57 One might have thought, for example, that great chess playing requires being able to learn abstract concepts, think cleverly about strategy, compose flexible plans, make a wide range of ingenious logical deductions, and maybe even model ones opponents thinking. Not so. It turned out to be possible to build a perfectly fine chess engine around a special-purpose algorithm. 58 When implemented on the fast processors that became available towards the end of the twentieth century, it produces very strong play. But an AI built like that is narrow. It plays chess; it can do no other. 59 In other domains, solutions have turned out to be more complicated than initially expected, and progress slower. The computer scientist Donald Knuth was struck that AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires thinking but has failed to do most of what people and animals do without thinkingthat, somehow, is much harder! 60 Analyzing visual scenes, recognizing objects, or controlling a robots behavior as it interacts with a natural environment has proved challenging. Nevertheless, a fair amount of progress has been made and continues to be made, aided by steady improvements in hardware. Common sense and natural language understanding have also turned out to be difficult. It is now often thought that achieving a fully human-level performance on these tasks is an AI-complete problem, meaning that the difficulty of solving these problems is essentially equivalent to the difficulty of building generally human-level intelligent machines. 61 In other words, if somebody were to succeed in creating an AI that could understand natural language as well as a human adult, they would in all likelihood also either already have succeeded in creating an AI that could do everything else that human intelligence can do, or they would be but a very short step from such a general capability. 62 Chess-playing expertise turned out to be achievable by means of a surprisingly simple algorithm. It is tempting to speculate that other capabilities such as general reasoning ability, or some key ability involved in programmingmight likewise be achievable through some surprisingly simple algorithm. The fact that the best performance at one time is attained through a complicated mechanism does not mean that no simple mechanism could do the job as well or better. It might simply be that nobody has yet found the simpler alternative. The Ptolemaic system (with the Earth in the center, orbited by the Sun, the Moon, planets, and stars) represented the state of the art in astronomy for over a thousand years, and its predictive accuracy was improved over the centuries by progressively complicating the model: adding epicycles upon epicycles to the postulated celestial motions. Then the entire system was overthrown by the heliocentric theory of Copernicus, which was simpler and though only after further elaboration by Keplermore predictively accurate. 63 Artificial intelligence methods are now used in more areas than it would make sense to review here, but mentioning a sampling of them will give an idea of the breadth of applications. Aside from the game AIs listed in Table 1 , there are hearing aids with algorithms that filter out ambient noise; route-finders that display maps and offer navigation advice to drivers; recommender systems that suggest books and music albums based on a users previous purchases and ratings; and medical decision support systems that help doctors diagnose breast cancer, recommend treatment plans, and aid in the interpretation of electrocardiograms. There are robotic pets and cleaning robots, lawn-mowing robots, rescue robots, surgical robots, and over a million industrial robots. 64 The world population of robots exceeds 10 million. 65 Modern speech recognition, based on statistical techniques such as hidden Markov models, has become sufficiently accurate for practical use (some fragments of this book were drafted with the help of a speech recognition program). Personal digital assistants, such as Apples Siri, respond to spoken commands and can answer simple questions and execute commands. Optical character recognition of handwritten and typewritten text is routinely used in applications such as mail sorting and digitization of old documents. 66 Machine translation remains imperfect but is good enough for many applications. Early systems used the GOFAI approach of hand-coded grammars that had to be developed by skilled linguists from the ground up for each language. Newer systems use statistical machine learning techniques that automatically build statistical models from observed usage patterns. The machine infers the parameters for these models by analyzing bilingual corpora. This approach dispenses with linguists: the programmers building these systems need not even speak the languages they are working with. 67 Face recognition has improved sufficiently in recent years that it is now used at automated border crossings in Europe and Australia. The US Department of State operates a face recognition system with over 75 million photographs for visa processing. Surveillance systems employ increasingly sophisticated AI and data-mining technologies to analyze voice, video, or text, large quantities of which are trawled from the worlds electronic communications media and stored in giant data centers. Theorem-proving and equation-solving are by now so well established that they are hardly regarded as AI anymore. Equation solvers are included in scientific computing programs such as Mathematica. Formal verification methods, including automated theorem provers, are routinely used by chip manufacturers to verify the behavior of circuit designs prior to production. The US military and intelligence establishments have been leading the way to the large-scale deployment of bomb-disposing robots, surveillance and attack drones, and other unmanned vehicles. These still depend mainly on remote control by human operators, but work is underway to extend their autonomous capabilities. Intelligent scheduling is a major area of success. The DART tool for automated logistics planning and scheduling was used in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 to such effect that DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the United States) claims that this single application more than paid back their thirty-year investment in AI. 68 Airline reservation systems use sophisticated scheduling and pricing systems. Businesses make wide use of AI techniques in inventory control systems. They also use automatic telephone reservation systems and helplines connected to speech recognition software to usher their hapless customers through labyrinths of interlocking menu options. AI technologies underlie many Internet services. Software polices the worlds email traffic, and despite continual adaptation by spammers to circumvent the countermeasures being brought against them, Bayesian spam filters have largely managed to hold the spam tide at bay. Software using AI components is responsible for automatically approving or declining credit card transactions, and continuously monitors account activity for signs of fraudulent use. Information retrieval systems also make extensive use of machine learning. The Google search engine is, arguably, the greatest AI system that has yet been built. Now, it must be stressed that the demarcation between artificial intelligence and software in general is not sharp. Some of the applications listed above might be viewed more as generic software applications rather than AI in particular though this brings us back to McCarthys dictum that when something works it is no longer called AI. A more relevant distinction for our purposes is that between systems that have a narrow range of cognitive capability (whether they be called AI or not) and systems that have more generally applicable problem- solving capacities. Essentially all the systems currently in use are of the former type: narrow. However, many of them contain components that might also play a role in future artificial general intelligence or be of service in its development components such as classifiers, search algorithms, planners, solvers, and representational frameworks. One high-stakes and extremely competitive environment in which AI systems operate today is the global financial market. Automated stock-trading systems are widely used by major investing houses. While some of these are simply ways of automating the execution of particular buy or sell orders issued by a human fund manager, others pursue complicated trading strategies that adapt to changing market conditions. Analytic systems use an assortment of data-mining techniques and time series analysis to scan for patterns and trends in securities markets or to correlate historical price movements with external variables such as keywords in news tickers. Financial news providers sell newsfeeds that are specially formatted for use by such AI programs. Other systems specialize in finding arbitrage opportunities within or between markets, or in high-frequency trading that seeks to profit from minute price movements that occur over the course of milliseconds (a timescale at which communication latencies even for speed-of-light signals in optical fiber cable become significant, making it advantageous to locate computers near the exchange). Algorithmic high- frequency traders account for more than half of equity shares traded on US markets. 69 Algorithmic trading has been implicated in the 2010 Flash Crash (see Box 2 ). Box 2 The 2010 Flash Crash By the afternoon of May, 6, 2010, US equity markets were already down 4% on worries about the European debt crisis. At 2:32 p.m., a large seller (a mutual fund complex) initiated a sell algorithm to dispose of a large number of the E- Mini S&P 500 futures contracts to be sold off at a sell rate linked to a measure of minute-to-minute liquidity on the exchange. These contracts were bought by algorithmic high-frequency traders, which were programmed to quickly eliminate their temporary long positions by selling the contracts on to other traders. With demand from fundamental buyers slacking, the algorithmic traders started to sell the E-Minis primarily to other algorithmic traders, which in turn passed them on to other algorithmic traders, creating a hot potato effect driving up trading volumethis being interpreted by the sell algorithm as an indicator of high liquidity, prompting it to increase the rate at which it was putting E-Mini contracts on the market, pushing the downward spiral. At some point, the high-frequency traders started withdrawing from the market, drying up liquidity while prices continued to fall. At 2:45 p.m., trading on the E-Mini was halted by an automatic circuit breaker, the exchanges stop logic functionality. When trading was restarted, a mere five seconds later, prices stabilized and soon began to recover most of the losses. But for a while, at the trough of the crisis, a trillion dollars had been wiped off the market, and spillover effects had led to a substantial number of trades in individual securities being executed at absurd prices, such as one cent or 100,000 dollars. After the market closed for the day, representatives of the exchanges met with regulators and decided to break all trades that had been executed at prices 60% or more away from their pre-crisis levels (deeming such transactions clearly erroneous and thus subject to post facto cancellation under existing trade rules). 70 The retelling here of this episode is a digression because the computer programs involved in the Flash Crash were not particularly intelligent or sophisticated, and the kind of threat they created is fundamentally different from the concerns we shall raise later in this book in relation to the prospect of machine superintelligence. Nevertheless, these events illustrate several useful lessons. One is the reminder that interactions between individually simple components (such as the sell algorithm and the high-frequency algorithmic trading programs) can produce complicated and unexpected effects. Systemic risk can build up in a system as new elements are introduced, risks that are not obvious until after something goes wrong (and sometimes not even then). 71 Another lesson is that smart professionals might give an instruction to a program based on a sensible-seeming and normally sound assumption (e.g. that trading volume is a good measure of market liquidity), and that this can produce catastrophic results when the program continues to act on the instruction with iron-clad logical consistency even in the unanticipated situation where the assumption turns out to be invalid. The algorithm just does what it does; and unless it is a very special kind of algorithm, it does not care that we clasp our heads and gasp in dumbstruck horror at the absurd inappropriateness of its actions. This is a theme that we will encounter again. A third observation in relation to the Flash Crash is that while automation contributed to the incident, it also contributed to its resolution. The pre- preprogrammed stop order logic, which suspended trading when prices moved too far out of whack, was set to execute automatically because it had been correctly anticipated that the triggering events could happen on a timescale too swift for humans to respond. The need for pre-installed and automatically executing safety functionalityas opposed to reliance on runtime human supervisionagain foreshadows a theme that will be important in our discussion of machine superintelligence. 72 Opinions about the future of machine intelligence Progress on two major frontstowards a more solid statistical and information- theoretic foundation for machine learning on the one hand, and towards the practical and commercial success of various problem-specific or domain-specific applications on the otherhas restored to AI research some of its lost prestige. There may, however, be a residual cultural effect on the AI community of its earlier history that makes many mainstream researchers reluctant to align themselves with over-grand ambition. Thus Nils Nilsson, one of the old-timers in the field, complains that his present-day colleagues lack the boldness of spirit that propelled the pioneers of his own generation: Concern for respectability has had, I think, a stultifying effect on some AI researchers. I hear them saying things like, AI used to be criticized for its flossiness. Now that we have made solid progress, let us not risk losing our respectability. One result of this conservatism has been increased concentration on weak AIthe variety devoted to providing aids to human thoughtand away from strong AIthe variety that attempts to mechanize human-level intelligence. 73 Nilssons sentiment has been echoed by several others of the founders, including Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, and Patrick Winston. 74 The last few years have seen a resurgence of interest in AI, which might yet spill over into renewed efforts towards artificial general intelligence (what Nilsson calls strong AI). In addition to faster hardware, a contemporary project would benefit from the great strides that have been made in the many subfields of AI, in software engineering more generally, and in neighboring fields such as computational neuroscience. One indication of pent-up demand for quality information and education is shown in the response to the free online offering of an introductory course in artificial intelligence at Stanford University in the fall of 2011, organized by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. Some 160,000 students from around the world signed up to take it (and 23,000 completed it). 75 Expert opinions about the future of AI vary wildly. There is disagreement about timescales as well as about what forms AI might eventually take. Predictions about the future development of artificial intelligence, one recent study noted, are as confident as they are diverse. 76 Although the contemporary distribution of belief has not been very carefully measured, we can get a rough impression from various smaller surveys and informal observations. In particular, a series of recent surveys have polled members of several relevant expert communities on the question of when they expect human-level machine intelligence (HLMI) to be developed, defined as one that can carry out most human professions at least as well as a typical human. 77 Results are shown in Table 2 . The combined sample gave the following (median) estimate: 10% probability of HLMI by 2022, 50% probability by 2040, and 90% probability by 2075. (Respondents were asked to premiss their estimates on the assumption that human scientific activity continues without major negative disruption.) These numbers should be taken with some grains of salt: sample sizes are quite small and not necessarily representative of the general expert population. They are, however, in concordance with results from other surveys. 78 The survey results are also in line with some recently published interviews with about two-dozen researchers in AI-related fields. For example, Nils Nilsson has spent a long and productive career working on problems in search, planning, knowledge representation, and robotics; he has authored textbooks in artificial intelligence; and he recently completed the most comprehensive history of the field written to date. 79 When asked about arrival dates for HLMI, he offered the following opinion: 80 10% chance: 2030 50% chance: 2050 90% chance: 2100 Table 2 When will human-level machine intelligence be attained? 81 Judging from the published interview transcripts, Professor Nilssons probability distribution appears to be quite representative of many experts in the area though again it must be emphasized that there is a wide spread of opinion: there are practitioners who are substantially more boosterish, confidently expecting HLMI in the 202040 range, and others who are confident either that it will never happen or that it is indefinitely far off. 82 In addition, some interviewees feel that the notion of a human level of artificial intelligence is ill-defined or misleading, or are for other reasons reluctant to go on record with a quantitative prediction. My own view is that the median numbers reported in the expert survey do not have enough probability mass on later arrival dates. A 10% probability of HLMI not having been developed by 2075 or even 2100 (after conditionalizing on human scientific activity continuing without major negative disruption) seems too low. Historically, AI researchers have not had a strong record of being able to predict the rate of advances in their own field or the shape that such advances would take. On the one hand, some tasks, like chess playing, turned out to be achievable by means of surprisingly simple programs; and naysayers who claimed that machines would never be able to do this or that have repeatedly been proven wrong. On the other hand, the more typical errors among practitioners have been to underestimate the difficulties of getting a system to perform robustly on real-world tasks, and to overestimate the advantages of their own particular pet project or technique. The survey also asked two other questions of relevance to our inquiry. One inquired of respondents about how much longer they thought it would take to reach superintelligence assuming human-level machine is first achieved. The results are in Table 3 . Another question inquired what they thought would be the overall long-term impact for humanity of achieving human-level machine intelligence. The answers are summarized in Figure 2 . My own views again differ somewhat from the opinions expressed in the survey. I assign a higher probability to superintelligence being created relatively soon after human-level machine intelligence. I also have a more polarized outlook on the consequences, thinking an extremely good or an extremely bad outcome to be somewhat more likely than a more balanced outcome. The reasons for this will become clear later in the book. Table 3 How long from human level to superintelligence? Within 2 years after HLMI Within 30 years after HLMI TOP100 5% 50% Combined 10% 75% Figure 2 Overall long-term impact of HLMI. 83 Small sample sizes, selection biases, andabove allthe inherent unreliability of the subjective opinions elicited mean that one should not read too much into these expert surveys and interviews. They do not let us draw any strong conclusion. But they do hint at a weak conclusion. They suggest that (at least in lieu of better data or analysis) it may be reasonable to believe that human-level machine intelligence has a fairly sizeable chance of being developed by mid-century, and that it has a non-trivial chance of being developed considerably sooner or much later; that it might perhaps fairly soon thereafter result in superintelligence; and that a wide range of outcomes may have a significant chance of occurring, including extremely good outcomes and outcomes that are as bad as human extinction. 84 At the very least, they suggest that the topic is worth a closer look. CHAPTER 2 Paths to superintelligence Machines are currently far inferior to humans in general intelligence. Yet one day (we have suggested) they will be superintelligent. How do we get from here to there? This chapter explores several conceivable technological paths. We look at artificial intelligence, whole brain emulation, biological cognition, and humanmachine interfaces, as well as networks and organizations. We evaluate their different degrees of plausibility as pathways to superintelligence. The existence of multiple paths increases the probability that the destination can be reached via at least one of them. We can tentatively define a superintelligence as any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest . 1 We will have more to say about the concept of superintelligence in the next chapter, where we will subject it to a kind of spectral analysis to distinguish some different possible forms of superintelligence. But for now, the rough characterization just given will suffice. Note that the definition is noncommittal about how the superintelligence is implemented. It is also noncommittal regarding qualia: whether a superintelligence would have subjective conscious experience might matter greatly for some questions (in particular for some moral questions), but our primary focus here is on the causal antecedents and consequences of superintelligence, not on the metaphysics of mind. 2 The chess program Deep Fritz is not a superintelligence on this definition, since Fritz is only smart within the narrow domain of chess. Certain kinds of domain-specific superintelligence could, however, be important. When referring to superintelligent performance limited to a particular domain, we will note the restriction explicitly. For instance, an engineering superintelligence would be an intellect that vastly outperforms the best current human minds in the domain of engineering. Unless otherwise noted, we use the term to refer to systems that have a superhuman level of general intelligence. But how might we create superintelligence? Let us examine some possible paths. Artificial intelligence Readers of this chapter must not expect a blueprint for programming an artificial general intelligence. No such blueprint exists yet, of course. And had I been in possession of such a blueprint, I most certainly would not have published it in a book. (If the reasons for this are not immediately obvious, the arguments in subsequent chapters will make them clear.) We can, however, discern some general features of the kind of system that would be required. It now seems clear that a capacity to learn would be an integral feature of the core design of a system intended to attain general intelligence, not something to be tacked on later as an extension or an afterthought. The same holds for the ability to deal effectively with uncertainty and probabilistic information. Some faculty for extracting useful concepts from sensory data and internal states, and for leveraging acquired concepts into flexible combinatorial representations for use in logical and intuitive reasoning, also likely belong among the core design features in a modern AI intended to attain general intelligence. The early Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence systems did not, for the most part, focus on learning, uncertainty, or concept formation, perhaps because techniques for dealing with these dimensions were poorly developed at the time. This is not to say that the underlying ideas are all that novel. The idea of using learning as a means of bootstrapping a simpler system to human-level intelligence can be traced back at least to Alan Turings notion of a child machine, which he wrote about in 1950: Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the childs? If this were then subjected to an appropriate course of education one would obtain the adult brain. 3 Turing envisaged an iterative process to develop such a child machine: We cannot expect to find a good child machine at the first attempt. One must experiment with teaching one such machine and see how well it learns. One can then try another and see if it is better or worse. There is an obvious connection between this process and evolution. One may hope, however, that this process will be more expeditious than evolution. The survival of the fittest is a slow method for measuring advantages. The experimenter, by the exercise of intelligence, should be able to speed it up. Equally important is the fact that he is not restricted to random mutations. If he can trace a cause for some weakness he can probably think of the kind of mutation which will improve it. 4 We know that blind evolutionary processes can produce human-level general intelligence, since they have already done so at least once. Evolutionary processes with foresightthat is, genetic programs designed and guided by an intelligent human programmershould be able to achieve a similar outcome with far greater efficiency. This observation has been used by some philosophers and scientists, including David Chalmers and Hans Moravec, to argue that human-level AI is not only theoretically possible but feasible within this century. 5 The idea is that we can estimate the relative capabilities of evolution and human engineering to produce intelligence, and find that human engineering is already vastly superior to evolution in some areas and is likely to become superior in the remaining areas before too long. The fact that evolution produced intelligence therefore indicates that human engineering will soon be able to do the same. Thus, Moravec wrote (already back in 1976): The existence of several examples of intelligence designed under these constraints should give us great confidence that we can achieve the same in short order. The situation is analogous to the history of heavier than air flight, where birds, bats and insects clearly demonstrated the possibility before our culture mastered it. 6 One needs to be cautious, though, in what inferences one draws from this line of reasoning. It is true that evolution produced heavier-than-air flight, and that human engineers subsequently succeeded in doing likewise (albeit by means of a very different mechanism). Other examples could also be adduced, such as sonar, magnetic navigation, chemical weapons, photoreceptors, and all kinds of mechanic and kinetic performance characteristics. However, one could equally point to areas where human engineers have thus far failed to match evolution: in morphogenesis, self-repair, and the immune defense, for example, human efforts lag far behind what nature has accomplished. Moravecs argument, therefore, cannot give us great confidence that we can achieve human-level artificial intelligence in short order. At best, the evolution of intelligent life places an upper bound on the intrinsic difficulty of designing intelligence. But this upper bound could be quite far above current human engineering capabilities. Another way of deploying an evolutionary argument for the feasibility of AI is via the idea that we could, by running genetic algorithms on sufficiently fast computers, achieve results comparable to those of biological evolution. This version of the evolutionary argument thus proposes a specific method whereby intelligence could be produced. But is it true that we will soon have computing power sufficient to recapitulate the relevant evolutionary processes that produced human intelligence? The answer depends both on how much computing technology will advance over the next decades and on how much computing power would be required to run genetic algorithms with the same optimization power as the evolutionary process of natural selection that lies in our past. Although, in the end, the conclusion we get from pursuing this line of reasoning is disappointingly indeterminate, it is instructive to attempt a rough estimate (see Box 3 ). If nothing else, the exercise draws attention to some interesting unknowns. The upshot is that the computational resources required to simply replicate the relevant evolutionary processes on Earth that produced human-level intelligence are severely out of reachand will remain so even if Moores law were to continue for a century (cf. Figure 3 ). It is plausible, however, that compared with brute-force replication of natural evolutionary processes, vast efficiency gains are achievable by designing the search process to aim for intelligence, using various obvious improvements over natural selection. Yet it is very hard to bound the magnitude of those attainable efficiency gains. We cannot even say whether they amount to five or to twenty-five orders of magnitude. Absent further elaboration, therefore, evolutionary arguments are not able to meaningfully constrain our expectations of either the difficulty of building human-level machine intelligence or the timescales for such developments. Box 3 What would it take to recapitulate evolution? Not every feat accomplished by evolution in the course of the development of human intelligence is relevant to a human engineer trying to artificially evolve machine intelligence. Only a small portion of evolutionary selection on Earth has been selection for intelligence. More specifically, the problems that human engineers cannot trivially bypass may have been the target of a very small portion of total evolutionary selection. For example, since we can run our computers on electrical power, we do not have to reinvent the molecules of the cellular energy economy in order to create intelligent machinesyet such molecular evolution of metabolic pathways might have used up a large part of the total amount of selection power that was available to evolution over the course of Earths history. 7 One might argue that the key insights for AI are embodied in the structure of nervous systems, which came into existence less than a billion years ago. 8 If we take that view, then the number of relevant experiments available to evolution is drastically curtailed. There are some 4610 30 prokaryotes in the world today, but only 10 19 insects, and fewer than 10 10 humans (while pre-agricultural populations were orders of magnitude smaller). 9 These numbers are only moderately intimidating. Evolutionary algorithms, however, require not only variations to select among but also a fitness function to evaluate variants, and this is typically the most computationally expensive component. A fitness function for the evolution of artificial intelligence plausibly requires simulation of neural development, learning, and cognition to evaluate fitness. We might thus do better not to look at the raw number of organisms with complex nervous systems, but instead to attend to the number of neurons in biological organisms that we might need to simulate to mimic evolutions fitness function. We can make a crude estimate of that latter quantity by considering insects, which dominate terrestrial animal biomass (with ants alone estimated to contribute some 1520%). 10 Insect brain size varies substantially, with large and social insects sporting larger brains: a honeybee brain has just under 10 6 neurons, a fruit fly brain has 10 5 neurons, and ants are in between with 250,000 neurons. 11 The majority of smaller insects may have brains of only a few thousand neurons. Erring on the side of conservatively high, if we assigned all 10 19 insects fruit-fly numbers of neurons, the total would be 10 24 insect neurons in the world. This could be augmented with an additional order of magnitude to account for aquatic copepods, birds, reptiles, mammals, etc., to reach 10 25 . (By contrast, in pre-agricultural times there were fewer than 10 7 humans, with under 10 11 neurons each: thus fewer than 10 18 human neurons in total, though humans have a higher number of synapses per neuron.) The computational cost of simulating one neuron depends on the level of detail that one includes in the simulation. Extremely simple neuron models use about 1,000 floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) to simulate one neuron (in real-time). The electrophysiologically realistic HodgkinHuxley model uses 1,200,000 FLOPS. A more detailed multi-compartmental model would add another three to four orders of magnitude, while higher-level models that abstract systems of neurons could subtract two to three orders of magnitude from the simple models. 12 If we were to simulate 10 25 neurons over a billion years of evolution (longer than the existence of nervous systems as we know them), and we allow our computers to run for one year, these figures would give us a requirement in the range of 10 31 10 44 FLOPS. For comparison, Chinas Tianhe-2, the worlds most powerful supercomputer as of September 2013, provides only 3.3910 16 FLOPS. In recent decades, it has taken approximately 6.7 years for commodity computers to increase in power by one order of magnitude. Even a century of continued Moores law would not be enough to close this gap. Running more specialized hardware, or allowing longer run- times, could contribute only a few more orders of magnitude. This figure is conservative in another respect. Evolution achieved human intelligence without aiming at this outcome. In other words, the fitness functions for natural organisms do not select only for intelligence and its precursors. 13 Even environments in which organisms with superior information processing skills reap various rewards may not select for intelligence, because improvements to intelligence can (and often do) impose significant costs, such as higher energy consumption or slower maturation times, and those costs may outweigh whatever benefits are gained from smarter behavior. Excessively deadly environments also reduce the value of intelligence: the shorter ones expected lifespan, the less time there will be for increased learning ability to pay off. Reduced selective pressure for intelligence slows the spread of intelligence- enhancing innovations, and thus the opportunity for selection to favor subsequent innovations that depend on them. Furthermore, evolution may wind up stuck in local optima that humans would notice and bypass by altering tradeoffs between exploitation and exploration or by providing a smooth progression of increasingly difficult intelligence tests. 14 And as mentioned earlier, evolution scatters much of its selection power on traits that are unrelated to intelligence (such as Red Queens races of competitive co-evolution between immune systems and parasites). Evolution continues to waste resources producing mutations that have proved consistently lethal, and it fails to take advantage of statistical similarities in the effects of different mutations. These are all inefficiencies in natural selection (when viewed as a means of evolving intelligence) that it would be relatively easy for a human engineer to avoid while using evolutionary algorithms to develop intelligent software. It is plausible that eliminating inefficiencies like those just described would trim many orders of magnitude off the 10 31 10 44 FLOPS range calculated earlier. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know how many orders of magnitude. It is difficult even to make a rough estimatefor aught we know, the efficiency savings could be five orders of magnitude, or ten, or twenty-five. 15 Figure 3 Supercomputer performance. In a narrow sense, Moores law refers to the observation that the number of transistors on integrated circuits have for several decades doubled approximately every two years. However, the term is often used to refer to the more general observation that many performance metrics in computing technology have followed a similarly fast exponential trend. Here we plot peak speed of the worlds fastest supercomputer as a function of time (on a logarithmic vertical scale). In recent years, growth in the serial speed of processors has stagnated, but increased use of parallelization has enabled the total number of computations performed to remain on the trend line. 16 There is a further complication with these kinds of evolutionary considerations, one that makes it hard to derive from them even a very loose upper bound on the difficulty of evolving intelligence. We must avoid the error of inferring, from the fact that intelligent life evolved on Earth, that the evolutionary processes involved had a reasonably high prior probability of producing intelligence. Such an inference is unsound because it fails to take account of the observation selection effect that guarantees that all observers will find themselves having originated on a planet where intelligent life arose, no matter how likely or unlikely it was for any given such planet to produce intelligence. Suppose, for example, that in addition to the systematic effects of natural selection it required an enormous amount of lucky coincidence to produce intelligent lifeenough so that intelligent life evolves on only one planet out of every 10 30 planets on which simple replicators arise. In that case, when we run our genetic algorithms to try to replicate what natural evolution did, we might find that we must run some 10 30 simulations before we find one where all the elements come together in just the right way. This seems fully consistent with our observation that life did evolve here on Earth. Only by careful and somewhat intricate reasoningby analyzing instances of convergent evolution of intelligence-related traits and engaging with the subtleties of observation selection theorycan we partially circumvent this epistemological barrier. Unless one takes the trouble to do so, one is not in a position to rule out the possibility that the alleged upper bound on the computational requirements for recapitulating the evolution of intelligence derived in Box 3 might be too low by thirty orders of magnitude (or some other such large number). 17 Another way of arguing for the feasibility of artificial intelligence is by pointing to the human brain and suggesting that we could use it as a template for a machine intelligence. One can distinguish different versions of this approach based on how closely they propose to imitate biological brain functions. At one extremethat of very close imitationwe have the idea of whole brain emulation , which we will discuss in the next subsection. At the other extreme are approaches that take their inspiration from the functioning of the brain but do not attempt low-level imitation. Advances in neuroscience and cognitive psychology which will be aided by improvements in instrumentationshould eventually uncover the general principles of brain function. This knowledge could then guide AI efforts. We have already encountered neural networks as an example of a brain-inspired AI technique. Hierarchical perceptual organization is another idea that has been transferred from brain science to machine learning. The study of reinforcement learning has been motivated (at least in part) by its role in psychological theories of animal cognition, and reinforcement learning techniques (e.g. the TD-algorithm) inspired by these theories are now widely used in AI. 18 More cases like these will surely accumulate in the future. Since there is a limited numberperhaps a very small numberof distinct fundamental mechanisms that operate in the brain, continuing incremental progress in brain science should eventually discover them all. Before this happens, though, it is possible that a hybrid approach, combining some brain- inspired techniques with some purely artificial methods, would cross the finishing line. In that case, the resultant system need not be recognizably brain- like even though some brain-derived insights were used in its development. The availability of the brain as template provides strong support for the claim that machine intelligence is ultimately feasible. This, however, does not enable us to predict when it will be achieved because it is hard to predict the future rate of discoveries in brain science. What we can say is that the further into the future we look, the greater the likelihood that the secrets of the brains functionality will have been decoded sufficiently to enable the creation of machine intelligence in this manner. Different people working toward machine intelligence hold different views about how promising neuromorphic approaches are compared with approaches that aim for completely synthetic designs. The existence of birds demonstrated that heavier-than-air flight was physically possible and prompted efforts to build flying machines. Yet the first functioning airplanes did not flap their wings. The jury is out on whether machine intelligence will be like flight, which humans achieved through an artificial mechanism, or like combustion, which we initially mastered by copying naturally occurring fires. Turings idea of designing a program that acquires most of its content by learning, rather than having it pre-programmed at the outset, can apply equally to neuromorphic and synthetic approaches to machine intelligence. A variation on Turings conception of a child machine is the idea of a seed AI. 19 Whereas a child machine, as Turing seems to have envisaged it, would have a relatively fixed architecture that simply develops its inherent potentialities by accumulating content , a seed AI would be a more sophisticated artificial intelligence capable of improving its own architecture . In the early stages of a seed AI, such improvements might occur mainly through trial and error, information acquisition, or assistance from the programmers. At its later stages, however, a seed AI should be able to understand its own workings sufficiently to engineer new algorithms and computational structures to bootstrap its cognitive performance. This needed understanding could result from the seed AI reaching a sufficient level of general intelligence across many domains, or from crossing some threshold in a particularly relevant domain such as computer science or mathematics. This brings us to another important concept, that of recursive self- improvement. A successful seed AI would be able to iteratively enhance itself: an early version of the AI could design an improved version of itself, and the improved versionbeing smarter than the originalmight be able to design an even smarter version of itself, and so forth. 20 Under some conditions, such a process of recursive self-improvement might continue long enough to result in an intelligence explosionan event in which, in a short period of time, a systems level of intelligence increases from a relatively modest endowment of cognitive capabilities (perhaps sub-human in most respects, but with a domain- specific talent for coding and AI research) to radical superintelligence. We will return to this important possibility in Chapter 4 , where the dynamics of such an event will be analyzed more closely. Note that this model suggests the possibility of surprises: attempts to build artificial general intelligence might fail pretty much completely until the last missing critical component is put in place, at which point a seed AI might become capable of sustained recursive self- improvement. Before we end this subsection, there is one more thing that we should emphasize, which is that an artificial intelligence need not much resemble a human mind. AIs could beindeed, it is likely that most will beextremely alien. We should expect that they will have very different cognitive architectures than biological intelligences, and in their early stages of development they will have very different profiles of cognitive strengths and weaknesses (though, as we shall later argue, they could eventually overcome any initial weakness). Furthermore, the goal systems of AIs could diverge radically from those of human beings. There is no reason to expect a generic AI to be motivated by love or hate or pride or other such common human sentiments: these complex adaptations would require deliberate expensive effort to recreate in AIs. This is at once a big problem and a big opportunity. We will return to the issue of AI motivation in later chapters, but it is so central to the argument in this book that it is worth bearing in mind throughout. Whole brain emulation In whole brain emulation (also known as uploading), intelligent software would be produced by scanning and closely modeling the computational structure of a biological brain. This approach thus represents a limiting case of drawing inspiration from nature: barefaced plagiarism. Achieving whole brain emulation requires the accomplishment of the following steps. First, a sufficiently detailed scan of a particular human brain is created. This might involve stabilizing the brain post-mortem through vitrification (a process that turns tissue into a kind of glass). A machine could then dissect the tissue into thin slices, which could be fed into another machine for scanning, perhaps by an array of electron microscopes. Various stains might be applied at this stage to bring out different structural and chemical properties. Many scanning machines could work in parallel to process multiple brain slices simultaneously. Second, the raw data from the scanners is fed to a computer for automated image processing to reconstruct the three-dimensional neuronal network that implemented cognition in the original brain. In practice, this step might proceed concurrently with the first step to reduce the amount of high-resolution image data stored in buffers. The resulting map is then combined with a library of neurocomputational models of different types of neurons or of different neuronal elements (such as particular kinds of synaptic connectors). Figure 4 shows some results of scanning and image processing produced with present-day technology. In the third stage, the neurocomputational structure resulting from the previous step is implemented on a sufficiently powerful computer. If completely successful, the result would be a digital reproduction of the original intellect, with memory and personality intact. The emulated human mind now exists as software on a computer. The mind can either inhabit a virtual reality or interface with the external world by means of robotic appendages. The whole brain emulation path does not require that we figure out how human cognition works or how to program an artificial intelligence. It requires only that we understand the low-level functional characteristics of the basic computational elements of the brain. No fundamental conceptual or theoretical breakthrough is needed for whole brain emulation to succeed. Whole brain emulation does, however, require some rather advanced enabling technologies. There are three key prerequisites: (1) scanning : high-throughput microscopy with sufficient resolution and detection of relevant properties; (2) translation : automated image analysis to turn raw scanning data into an interpreted three-dimensional model of relevant neurocomputational elements; and (3) simulation : hardware powerful enough to implement the resultant computational structure (see Table 4 ). (In comparison with these more challenging steps, the construction of a basic virtual reality or a robotic embodiment with an audiovisual input channel and some simple output channel is relatively easy. Simple yet minimally adequate I/O seems feasible already with present technology. 23 ) Figure 4 Reconstructing 3D neuroanatomy from electron microscope images. Upper left : A typical electron micrograph showing cross-sections of neuronal matterdendrites and axons. Upper right : Volume image of rabbit retinal neural tissue acquired by serial block-face scanning electron microscopy. 21 Individual 2D images have been stacked into a cube (with a side of approximately 11 m). Bottom : Reconstruction of a subset of the neuronal projections filling a volume of neuropil, generated by an automated segmentation algorithm. 22 There is good reason to think that the requisite enabling technologies are attainable, though not in the near future. Reasonable computational models of many types of neuron and neuronal processes already exist. Image recognition software has been developed that can trace axons and dendrites through a stack of two-dimensional images (though reliability needs to be improved). And there are imaging tools that provide the necessary resolutionwith a scanning tunneling microscope it is possible to see individual atoms, which is a far higher resolution than needed. However, although present knowledge and capabilities suggest that there is no in-principle barrier to the development of the requisite enabling technologies, it is clear that a very great deal of incremental technical progress would be needed to bring human whole brain emulation within reach. 24 For example, microscopy technology would need not just sufficient resolution but also sufficient throughput. Using an atomic-resolution scanning tunneling microscope to image the needed surface area would be far too slow to be practicable. It would be more plausible to use a lower-resolution electron microscope, but this would require new methods for preparing and staining cortical tissue to make visible relevant details such as synaptic fine structure. A great expansion of neurocomputational libraries and major improvements in automated image processing and scan interpretation would also be needed. Table 4 Capabilities needed for whole brain emulation In general, whole brain emulation relies less on theoretical insight and more on technological capability than artificial intelligence. Just how much technology is required for whole brain emulation depends on the level of abstraction at which the brain is emulated. In this regard there is a tradeoff between insight and technology. In general, the worse our scanning equipment and the feebler our computers, the less we could rely on simulating low-level chemical and electrophysiological brain processes, and the more theoretical understanding would be needed of the computational architecture that we are seeking to emulate in order to create more abstract representations of the relevant functionalities. 25 Conversely, with sufficiently advanced scanning technology and abundant computing power, it might be possible to brute-force an emulation even with a fairly limited understanding of the brain. In the unrealistic limiting case, we could imagine emulating a brain at the level of its elementary particles using the quantum mechanical Schrdinger equation. Then one could rely entirely on existing knowledge of physics and not at all on any biological model. This extreme case, however, would place utterly impracticable demands on computational power and data acquisition. A far more plausible level of emulation would be one that incorporates individual neurons and their connectivity matrix, along with some of the structure of their dendritic trees and maybe some state variables of individual synapses. Neurotransmitter molecules would not be simulated individually, but their fluctuating concentrations would be modeled in a coarse-grained manner. To assess the feasibility of whole brain emulation, one must understand the criterion for success. The aim is not to create a brain simulation so detailed and accurate that one could use it to predict exactly what would have happened in the original brain if it had been subjected to a particular sequence of stimuli. Instead, the aim is to capture enough of the computationally functional properties of the brain to enable the resultant emulation to perform intellectual work. For this purpose, much of the messy biological detail of a real brain is irrelevant. A more elaborate analysis would distinguish between different levels of emulation success based on the extent to which the information-processing functionality of the emulated brain has been preserved. For example, one could distinguish among (1) a high-fidelity emulation that has the full set of knowledge, skills, capacities, and values of the emulated brain; (2) a distorted emulation whose dispositions are significantly non-human in some ways but which is mostly able to do the same intellectual labor as the emulated brain; and (3) a generic emulation (which might also be distorted) that is somewhat like an infant, lacking the skills or memories that had been acquired by the emulated adult brain but with the capacity to learn most of what a normal human can learn. 26 While it appears ultimately feasible to produce a high-fidelity emulation, it seems quite likely that the first whole brain emulation that we would achieve if we went down this path would be of a lower grade. Before we would get things to work perfectly, we would probably get things to work imperfectly. It is also possible that a push toward emulation technology would lead to the creation of some kind of neuromorphic AI that would adapt some neurocomputational principles discovered during emulation efforts and hybridize them with synthetic methods, and that this would happen before the completion of a fully functional whole brain emulation. The possibility of such a spillover into neuromorphic AI, as we shall see in a later chapter, complicates the strategic assessment of the desirability of seeking to expedite emulation technology. How far are we currently from achieving a human whole brain emulation? One recent assessment presented a technical roadmap and concluded that the prerequisite capabilities might be available around mid-century, though with a large uncertainty interval. 27 Figure 5 depicts the major milestones in this roadmap. The apparent simplicity of the map may be deceptive, however, and we should be careful not to understate how much work remains to be done. No brain has yet been emulated. Consider the humble model organism Caenorhabditis elegans , which is a transparent roundworm, about 1 mm in length, with 302 neurons. The complete connectivity matrix of these neurons has been known since the mid-1980s, when it was laboriously mapped out by means of slicing, electron microscopy, and hand-labeling of specimens. 29 But knowing merely which neurons are connected with which is not enough. To create a brain emulation one would also need to know which synapses are excitatory and which are inhibitory; the strength of the connections; and various dynamical properties of axons, synapses, and dendritic trees. This information is not yet available even for the small nervous system of C. elegans (although it may now be within range of a targeted moderately sized research project). 30 Success at emulating a tiny brain, such as that of C. elegans , would give us a better view of what it would take to emulate larger brains. Figure 5 Whole brain emulation roadmap. Schematic of inputs, activities, and milestones. 28 At some point in the technology development process, once techniques are available for automatically emulating small quantities of brain tissue, the problem reduces to one of scaling. Notice the ladder at the right side of Figure 5 . This ascending series of boxes represents a final sequence of advances which can commence after preliminary hurdles have been cleared. The stages in this sequence correspond to whole brain emulations of successively more neurologically sophisticated model organismsfor example, C. elegans honeybee mouse rhesus monkey human . Because the gaps between these rungsat least after the first stepare mostly quantitative in nature and due mainly (though not entirely) to the differences in size of the brains to be emulated, they should be tractable through a relatively straightforward scale-up of scanning and simulation capacity. 31 Once we start ascending this final ladder, the eventual attainment of human whole brain emulation becomes more clearly foreseeable. 32 We can thus expect to get some advance warning before arrival at human-level machine intelligence along the whole brain emulation path, at least if the last among the requisite enabling technologies to reach sufficient maturity is either high-throughput scanning or the computational power needed for real-time simulation. If, however, the last enabling technology to fall into place is neurocomputational modeling, then the transition from unimpressive prototypes to a working human emulation could be more abrupt. One could imagine a scenario in which, despite abundant scanning data and fast computers, it is proving difficult to get our neuronal models to work right. When finally the last glitch is ironed out, what was previously a completely dysfunctional systemanalogous perhaps to an unconscious brain undergoing a grand mal seizuremight snap into a coherent wakeful state. In this case, the key advance would not be heralded by a series of functioning animal emulations of increasing magnitude (provoking newspaper headlines of correspondingly escalating font size). Even for those paying attention it might be difficult to tell in advance of success just how many flaws remained in the neurocomputational models at any point and how long it would take to fix them, even up to the eve of the critical breakthrough. (Once a human whole brain emulation has been achieved, further potentially explosive developments would take place; but we postpone discussion of this until Chapter 4 .) Surprise scenarios are thus imaginable for whole brain emulation even if all the relevant research were conducted in the open. Nevertheless, compared with the AI path to machine intelligence, whole brain emulation is more likely to be preceded by clear omens since it relies more on concrete observable technologies and is not wholly based on theoretical insight. We can also say, with greater confidence than for the AI path, that the emulation path will not succeed in the near future (within the next fifteen years, say) because we know that several challenging precursor technologies have not yet been developed. By contrast, it seems likely that somebody could in principle sit down and code a seed AI on an ordinary present-day personal computer; and it is conceivable though unlikelythat somebody somewhere will get the right insight for how to do this in the near future. Biological cognition A third path to greater-than-current-human intelligence is to enhance the functioning of biological brains. In principle, this could be achieved without technology, through selective breeding. Any attempt to initiate a classical large- scale eugenics program, however, would confront major political and moral hurdles. Moreover, unless the selection were extremely strong, many generations would be required to produce substantial results. Long before such an initiative would bear fruit, advances in biotechnology will allow much more direct control of human genetics and neurobiology, rendering otiose any human breeding program. We will therefore focus on methods that hold the potential to deliver results faster, on the timescale of a few generations or less. Our individual cognitive capacities can be strengthened in various ways, including by such traditional methods as education and training. Neurological development can be promoted by low-tech interventions such as optimizing maternal and infant nutrition, removing lead and other neurotoxic pollutants from the environment, eradicating parasites, ensuring adequate sleep and exercise, and preventing diseases that affect the brain. 33 Improvements in cognition can certainly be obtained through each of these means, though the magnitudes of the gains are likely to be modest, especially in populations that are already reasonably well-nourished and -schooled. We will certainly not achieve superintelligence by any of these means, but they might help on the margin, particularly by lifting up the deprived and expanding the catchment of global talent. (Lifelong depression of intelligence due to iodine deficiency remains widespread in many impoverished inland areas of the worldan outrage given that the condition can be prevented by fortifying table salt at a cost of a few cents per person and year. 34 ) Biomedical enhancements could give bigger boosts. Drugs already exist that are alleged to improve memory, concentration, and mental energy in at least some subjects. 35 (Work on this book was fueled by coffee and nicotine chewing gum.) While the efficacy of the present generation of smart drugs is variable, marginal, and generally dubious, future nootropics might offer clearer benefits and fewer side effects. 36 However, it seems implausible, on both neurological and evolutionary grounds, that one could by introducing some chemical into the brain of a healthy person spark a dramatic rise in intelligence. 37 The cognitive functioning of a human brain depends on a delicate orchestration of many factors, especially during the critical stages of embryo developmentand it is much more likely that this self-organizing structure, to be enhanced, needs to be carefully balanced, tuned, and cultivated rather than simply flooded with some extraneous potion. Manipulation of genetics will provide a more powerful set of tools than psychopharmacology. Consider again the idea of genetic selection: instead of trying to implement a eugenics program by controlling mating patterns, one could use selection at the level of embryos or gametes. 38 Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis has already been used during in vitro fertilization procedures to screen embryos produced for monogenic disorders such as Huntingtons disease and for predisposition to some late-onset diseases such as breast cancer. It has also been used for sex selection and for matching human leukocyte antigen type with that of a sick sibling, who can then benefit from a cord-blood stem cell donation when the new baby is born. 39 The range of traits that can be selected for or against will expand greatly over the next decade or two. A strong driver of progress in behavioral genetics is the rapidly falling cost of genotyping and gene sequencing. Genome-wide complex trait analysis, using studies with vast numbers of subjects, is just now starting to become feasible and will greatly increase our knowledge of the genetic architectures of human cognitive and behavioral traits. 40 Any trait with a non-negligible heritabilityincluding cognitive capacitycould then become susceptible to selection. 41 Embryo selection does not require a deep understanding of the causal pathways by which genes, in complicated interplay with environments, produce phenotypes: it requires only (lots of) data on the genetic correlates of the traits of interest. It is possible to calculate some rough estimates of the magnitude of the gains obtainable in different selection scenarios. 42 Table 5 shows expected increases in intelligence resulting from various amounts of selection, assuming complete information about the common additive genetic variants underlying the narrow- sense heritability of intelligence. (With partial information, the effectiveness of selection would be reduced, though not quite to the extent one might naively expect. 44 ) Unsurprisingly, selecting between larger numbers of embryos produces larger gains, but there are steeply diminishing returns: selection between 100 embryos does not produce a gain anywhere near fifty times as large as that which one would get from selection between 2 embryos. 45 Table 5 Maximum IQ gains from selecting among a set of embryos 43 Selection IQ points gained 1 in 2 4.2 1 in 10 11.5 1 in 100 18.8 1 in 1000 24.3 5 generations of 1 in 10 < 65 (b/c diminishing returns) 10 generations of 1 in 10 < 130 (b/c diminishing returns) Cumulative limits (additive variants optimized for cognition) 100 + (< 300 (b/c diminishing returns)) Interestingly, the diminishment of returns is greatly abated when the selection is spread over multiple generations. Thus, repeatedly selecting the top 1 in 10 over ten generations (where each new generation consists of the offspring of those selected in the previous generation) will produce a much greater increase in the trait value than a one-off selection of 1 in 100. The problem with sequential selection, of course, is that it takes longer. If each generational step takes twenty or thirty years, then even just five successive generations would push us well into the twenty-second century. Long before then, more direct and powerful modes of genetic engineering (not to mention machine intelligence) will most likely be available. There is, however, a complementary technology, one which, once it has been developed for use in humans, would greatly potentiate the enhancement power of pre-implantation genetic screening: namely, the derivation of viable sperm and eggs from embryonic stem cells. 46 The techniques for this have already been used to produce fertile offspring in mice and gamete-like cells in humans. Substantial scientific challenges remain, however, in translating the animal results to humans and in avoiding epigenetic abnormalities in the derived stem cell lines. According to one expert, these challenges might put human application 10 or even 50 years in the future. 47 With stem cell-derived gametes, the amount of selection power available to a couple could be greatly increased. In current practice, an in vitro fertilization procedure typically involves the creation of fewer than ten embryos. With stem cell-derived gametes, a few donated cells might be turned into a virtually unlimited number of gametes that could be combined to produce embryos, which could then be genotyped or sequenced, and the most promising one chosen for implantation. Depending on the cost of preparing and screening each individual embryo, this technology could yield a severalfold increase in the selective power available to couples using in vitro fertilization. More importantly still, stem cell-derived gametes would allow multiple generations of selection to be compressed into less than a human maturation period, by enabling iterated embryo selection . This is a procedure that would consist of the following steps: 48 1 Genotype and select a number of embryos that are higher in desired genetic characteristics. 2 Extract stem cells from those embryos and convert them to sperm and ova, maturing within six months or less. 49 3 Cross the new sperm and ova to produce embryos. 4 Repeat until large genetic changes have been accumulated. In this manner, it would be possible to accomplish ten or more generations of selection in just a few years. (The procedure would be time-consuming and expensive; however, in principle, it would need to be done only once rather than repeated for each birth. The cell lines established at the end of the procedure could be used to generate very large numbers of enhanced embryos.) As Table 5 indicates, the average level of intelligence among individuals conceived in this manner could be very high, possibly equal to or somewhat above that of the most intelligent individual in the historical human population. A world that had a large population of such individuals might (if it had the culture, education, communications infrastructure, etc., to match) constitute a collective superintelligence. The impact of this technology will be dampened and delayed by several factors. There is the unavoidable maturational lag while the finally selected embryos grow into adult human beings: at least twenty years before an enhanced child reaches full productivity, longer still before such children come to constitute a substantial segment of the labor force. Furthermore, even after the technology has been perfected, adoption rates will probably start out low. Some countries might prohibit its use altogether, on moral or religious grounds. 50 Even where selection is allowed, many couples will prefer the natural way of conceiving. Willingness to use IVF, however, would increase if there were clearer benefits associated with the proceduresuch as a virtual guarantee that the child would be highly talented and free from genetic predispositions to disease. Lower health care costs and higher expected lifetime earnings would also argue in favor of genetic selection. As use of the procedure becomes more common, particularly among social elites, there might be a cultural shift toward parenting norms that present the use of selection as the thing that responsible enlightened couples do. Many of the initially reluctant might join the bandwagon in order to have a child that is not at a disadvantage relative to the enhanced children of their friends and colleagues. Some countries might offer inducements to encourage their citizens to take advantage of genetic selection in order to increase the countrys stock of human capital, or to increase long-term social stability by selecting for traits like docility, obedience, submissiveness, conformity, risk-aversion, or cowardice, outside of the ruling clan. Effects on intellectual capacity would also depend on the extent to which the available selection power would be used for enhancing cognitive traits ( Table 6 ). Those who do opt to use some form of embryo selection would have to choose how to allocate the selection power at their disposal, and intelligence would to some extent be in competition with other desired attributes, such as health, beauty, personality, or athleticism. Iterated embryo selection, by offering such a large amount of selection power, would alleviate some of these tradeoffs, enabling simultaneous strong selection for multiple traits. However, this procedure would tend to disrupt the normal genetic relationship between parents and child, something that could negatively affect demand in many cultures. 51 With further advances in genetic technology, it may become possible to synthesize genomes to specification, obviating the need for large pools of embryos. DNA synthesis is already a routine and largely automated biotechnology, though it is not yet feasible to synthesize an entire human genome that could be used in a reproductive context (not least because of still- unresolved difficulties in getting the epigenetics right). 54 But once this technology has matured, an embryo could be designed with the exact preferred combination of genetic inputs from each parent. Genes that are present in neither of the parents could also be spliced in, including alleles that are present with low frequency in the population but which may have significant positive effects on cognition. 55 Table 6 Possible impacts from genetic selection in different scenarios 52 One intervention that becomes possible when human genomes can be synthesized is genetic spell-checking of an embryo. (Iterated embryo selection might also allow an approximation of this.) Each of us currently carries a mutational load, with perhaps hundreds of mutations that reduce the efficiency of various cellular processes. 56 Each individual mutation has an almost negligible effect (whence it is only slowly removed from the gene pool), yet in combination such mutations may exact a heavy toll on our functioning. 57 Individual differences in intelligence might to a significant extent be attributable to variations in the number and nature of such slightly deleterious alleles that each of us carries. With gene synthesis we could take the genome of an embryo and construct a version of that genome free from the genetic noise of accumulated mutations. If one wished to speak provocatively, one could say that individuals created from such proofread genomes might be more human than anybody currently alive, in that they would be less distorted expressions of human form. Such people would not all be carbon copies, because humans vary genetically in ways other than by carrying different deleterious mutations. But the phenotypical manifestation of a proofread genome may be an exceptional physical and mental constitution, with elevated functioning in polygenic trait dimensions like intelligence, health, hardiness, and appearance. 58 (A loose analogy could be made with composite faces, in which the defects of the superimposed individuals are averaged out: see Figure 6 .) Figure 6 Composite faces as a metaphor for spell-checked genomes. Each of the central pictures was produced by superimposing photographs of sixteen different individuals (residents of Tel Aviv). Composite faces are often judged to be more beautiful than any of the individual faces of which they are composed, as idiosyncratic imperfections are averaged out. Analogously, by removing individual mutations, proofread genomes may produce people closer to Platonic ideals. Such individuals would not all be genetically identical, because many genes come in multiple equally functional alleles. Proofreading would only eliminate variance arising from deleterious mutations. 59 Other potential biotechnological techniques might also be relevant. Human reproductive cloning, once achieved, could be used to replicate the genome of exceptionally talented individuals. Uptake would be limited by the preference of most prospective parents to be biologically related to their children, yet the practice could nevertheless come to have non-negligible impact because (1) even a relatively small increase in the number of exceptionally talented people might have a significant effect; and (2) it is possible that some state would embark on a larger-scale eugenics program, perhaps by paying surrogate mothers. Other kinds of genetic engineeringsuch as the design of novel synthetic genes or insertion into the genome of promoter regions and other elements to control gene expressionmight also become important over time. Even more exotic possibilities may exist, such as vats full of complexly structured cultured cortical tissue, or uplifted transgenic animals (perhaps some large-brained mammal such as the whale or elephant, enriched with human genes). These latter ones are wholly speculative, but over a longer time frame they perhaps cannot be completely discounted. So far we have discussed germline interventions, ones that would be done on gametes or embryos. Somatic gene enhancements, by bypassing the generation cycle, could in principle produce impacts more quickly. However, they are technologically much more challenging. They require that the modified genes be inserted into a large number of cells in the living bodyincluding, in the case of cognitive enhancement, the brain. Selecting among existing egg cells or embryos, in contrast, requires no gene insertion. Even such germline therapies as do involve modifying the genome (such as proofreading the genome or splicing in rare alleles) are far easier to implement at the gamete or the embryo stage, where one is dealing with a small number of cells. Furthermore, germline interventions on embryos can probably achieve greater effects than somatic interventions on adults, because the former would be able to shape early brain development whereas the latter would be limited to tweaking an existing structure. (Some of what could be done through somatic gene therapy might also be achievable by pharmacological means.) Focusing therefore on germline interventions, we must take into account the generational lag delaying any large impact on the world. 60 Even if the technology were perfected today and immediately put to use, it would take more than two decades for a genetically enhanced brood to reach maturity. Furthermore, with human applications there is normally a delay of at least one decade between proof of concept in the laboratory and clinical application, because of the need for extensive studies to determine safety. The simplest forms of genetic selection, however, could largely abrogate the need for such testing, since they would use standard fertility treatment techniques and genetic information to choose between embryos that might otherwise have been selected by chance. Delays could also result from obstacles rooted not in a fear of failure (demand for safety testing) but in fear of successdemand for regulation driven by concerns about the moral permissibility of genetic selection or its wider social implications. Such concerns are likely to be more influential in some countries than in others, owing to differing cultural, historical, and religious contexts. Post-war Germany, for example, has chosen to give a wide berth to any reproductive practices that could be perceived to be even in the remotest way aimed at enhancement, a stance that is understandable given the particularly dark history of atrocities connected to the eugenics movement in that country. Other Western countries are likely to take a more liberal approach. And some countries perhaps China or Singapore, both of which have long-term population policies might not only permit but actively promote the use of genetic selection and genetic engineering to enhance the intelligence of their populations once the technology to do so is available. Once the example has been set, and the results start to show, holdouts will have strong incentives to follow suit. Nations would face the prospect of becoming cognitive backwaters and losing out in economic, scientific, military, and prestige contests with competitors that embrace the new human enhancement technologies. Individuals within a society would see places at elite schools being filled with genetically selected children (who may also on average be prettier, healthier, and more conscientious) and will want their own offspring to have the same advantages. There is some chance that a large attitudinal shift could take place over a relatively short time, perhaps in as little as a decade, once the technology is proven to work and to provide a substantial benefit. Opinion surveys in the United States reveal a dramatic shift in public approval of in vitro fertilization after the birth of the first test tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978. A few years earlier, only 18% of Americans said they would personally use IVF to treat infertility; yet in a poll taken shortly after the birth of Louise Brown, 53% said they would do so, and the number has continued to rise. 61 (For comparison, in a poll taken in 2004, 28% of Americans approved of embryo selection for strength or intelligence, 58% approved of it for avoiding adult- onset cancer, and 68% approved of it to avoid fatal childhood disease. 62 ) If we add up the various delayssay five to ten years to gather the information needed for significantly effective selection among a set of IVF embryos (possibly much longer before stem cell-derived gametes are available for use in human reproduction), ten years to build significant uptake, and twenty to twenty-five years for the enhanced generation to reach an age where they start becoming productive, we find that germline enhancements are unlikely to have a significant impact on society before the middle of this century. From that point onward, however, the intelligence of significant segments of the adult population may begin to be boosted by genetic enhancements. The speed of the ascent would then greatly accelerate as cohorts conceived using more powerful next- generation genetic technologies (in particular stem cell-derived gametes and iterative embryo selection) enter the labor force. With the full development of the genetic technologies described above (setting aside the more exotic possibilities such as intelligence in cultured neural tissue), it might be possible to ensure that new individuals are on average smarter than any human who has yet existed, with peaks that rise higher still. The potential of biological enhancement is thus ultimately high, probably sufficient for the attainment of at least weak forms of superintelligence. This should not be surprising. After all, dumb evolutionary processes have dramatically amplified the intelligence in the human lineage even compared with our close relatives the great apes and our own humanoid ancestors; and there is no reason to suppose Homo sapiens to have reached the apex of cognitive effectiveness attainable in a biological system. Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilizationa niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it. Progress along the biological path is clearly feasible. The generational lag in germline interventions means that progress could not be nearly as sudden and abrupt as in scenarios involving machine intelligence. (Somatic gene therapies and pharmacological interventions could theoretically skip the generational lag, but they seem harder to perfect and are less likely to produce dramatic effects.) The ultimate potential of machine intelligence is, of course, vastly greater than that of organic intelligence. (One can get some sense of the magnitude of the gap by considering the speed differential between electronic components and nerve cells: even todays transistors operate on a timescale ten million times shorter than that of biological neurons.) However, even comparatively moderate enhancements of biological cognition could have important consequences. In particular, cognitive enhancement could accelerate science and technology, including progress toward more potent forms of biological intelligence amplification and machine intelligence. Consider how the rate of progress in the field of artificial intelligence would change in a world where Average Joe is an intellectual peer of Alan Turing or John von Neumann, and where millions of people tower far above any intellectual giant of the past. 63 A discussion of the strategic implications of cognitive enhancement will have to await a later chapter. But we can summarize this section by noting three conclusions: (1) at least weak forms of superintelligence are achievable by means of biotechnological enhancements; (2) the feasibility of cognitively enhanced humans adds to the plausibility that advanced forms of machine intelligence are feasiblebecause even if we were fundamentally unable to create machine intelligence (which there is no reason to suppose), machine intelligence might still be within reach of cognitively enhanced humans; and (3) when we consider scenarios stretching significantly into the second half of this century and beyond, we must take into account the probable emergence of a generation of genetically enhanced populationsvoters, inventors, scientists with the magnitude of enhancement escalating rapidly over subsequent decades. Braincomputer interfaces It is sometimes proposed that direct braincomputer interfaces, particularly implants, could enable humans to exploit the fortes of digital computing perfect recall, speedy and accurate arithmetic calculation, and high-bandwidth data transmissionenabling the resulting hybrid system to radically outperform the unaugmented brain. 64 But although the possibility of direct connections between human brains and computers has been demonstrated, it seems unlikely that such interfaces will be widely used as enhancements any time soon. 65 To begin with, there are significant risks of medical complicationsincluding infections, electrode displacement, hemorrhage, and cognitive declinewhen implanting electrodes in the brain. Perhaps the most vivid illustration to date of the benefits that can be obtained through brain stimulation is the treatment of patients with Parkinsons disease. The Parkinsons implant is relatively simple: it does not really communicate with the brain but simply supplies a stimulating electric current to the subthalamic nucleus. A demonstration video shows a subject slumped in a chair, completely immobilized by the disease, then suddenly springing to life when the current is switched on: the subject now moves his arms, stands up and walks across the room, turns around and performs a pirouette. Yet even behind this especially simple and almost miraculously successful procedure, there lurk negatives. One study of Parkinson patients who had received deep brain implants showed reductions in verbal fluency, selective attention, color naming, and verbal memory compared with controls. Treated subjects also reported more cognitive complaints. 66 Such risks and side effects might be tolerable if the procedure is used to alleviate severe disability. But in order for healthy subjects to volunteer themselves for neurosurgery, there would have to be some very substantial enhancement of normal functionality to be gained. This brings us to the second reason to doubt that superintelligence will be achieved through cyborgization, namely that enhancement is likely to be far more difficult than therapy. Patients who suffer from paralysis might benefit from an implant that replaces their severed nerves or activates spinal motion pattern generators. 67 Patients who are deaf or blind might benefit from artificial cochleae and retinas. 68 Patients with Parkinsons disease or chronic pain might benefit from deep brain stimulation that excites or inhibits activity in a particular area of the brain. 69 What seems far more difficult to achieve is a high-bandwidth direct interaction between brain and computer to provide substantial increases in intelligence of a form that could not be more readily attained by other means. Most of the potential benefits that brain implants could provide in healthy subjects could be obtained at far less risk, expense, and inconvenience by using our regular motor and sensory organs to interact with computers located outside of our bodies. We do not need to plug a fiber optic cable into our brains in order to access the Internet. Not only can the human retina transmit data at an impressive rate of nearly 10 million bits per second, but it comes pre-packaged with a massive amount of dedicated wetware, the visual cortex, that is highly adapted to extracting meaning from this information torrent and to interfacing with other brain areas for further processing. 70 Even if there were an easy way of pumping more information into our brains, the extra data inflow would do little to increase the rate at which we think and learn unless all the neural machinery necessary for making sense of the data were similarly upgraded. Since this includes almost all of the brain, what would really be needed is a whole brain prosthesiswhich is just another way of saying artificial general intelligence. Yet if one had a human-level AI, one could dispense with neurosurgery: a computer might as well have a metal casing as one of bone. So this limiting case just takes us back to the AI path, which we have already examined. Braincomputer interfacing has also been proposed as a way to get information out of the brain, for purposes of communicating with other brains or with machines. 71 Such uplinks have helped patients with locked-in syndrome to communicate with the outside world by enabling them to move a cursor on a screen by thought. 72 The bandwidth attained in such experiments is low: the patient painstakingly types out one slow letter after another at a rate of a few words per minute. One can readily imagine improved versions of this technology perhaps a next-generation implant could plug into Brocas area (a region in the frontal lobe involved in language production) and pick up internal speech. 73 But whilst such a technology might assist some people with disabilities induced by stroke or muscular degeneration, it would hold little appeal for healthy subjects. The functionality it would provide is essentially that of a microphone coupled with speech recognition software, which is already commercially available minus the pain, inconvenience, expense, and risks associated with neurosurgery (and minus at least some of the hyper-Orwellian overtones of an intracranial listening device). Keeping our machines outside of our bodies also makes upgrading easier. But what about the dream of bypassing words altogether and establishing a connection between two brains that enables concepts, thoughts, or entire areas of expertise to be downloaded from one mind to another? We can download large files to our computers, including libraries with millions of books and articles, and this can be done over the course of seconds: could something similar be done with our brains? The apparent plausibility of this idea probably derives from an incorrect view of how information is stored and represented in the brain. As noted, the rate-limiting step in human intelligence is not how fast raw data can be fed into the brain but rather how quickly the brain can extract meaning and make sense of the data. Perhaps it will be suggested that we transmit meanings directly, rather than package them into sensory data that must be decoded by the recipient. There are two problems with this. The first is that brains, by contrast to the kinds of program we typically run on our computers, do not use standardized data storage and representation formats. Rather, each brain develops its own idiosyncratic representations of higher-level content. Which particular neuronal assemblies are recruited to represent a particular concept depends on the unique experiences of the brain in question (along with various genetic factors and stochastic physiological processes). Just as in artificial neural nets, meaning in biological neural networks is likely represented holistically in the structure and activity patterns of sizeable overlapping regions, not in discrete memory cells laid out in neat arrays. 74 It would therefore not be possible to establish a simple mapping between the neurons in one brain and those in another in such a way that thoughts could automatically slide over from one to the other. In order for the thoughts of one brain to be intelligible to another, the thoughts need to be decomposed and packaged into symbols according to some shared convention that allows the symbols to be correctly interpreted by the receiving brain. This is the job of language. In principle , one could imagine offloading the cognitive work of articulation and interpretation to an interface that would somehow read out the neural states in the senders brain and somehow feed in a bespoke pattern of activation to the receivers brain. But this brings us to the second problem with the cyborg scenario. Even setting aside the (quite immense) technical challenge of how to reliably read and write simultaneously from perhaps billions of individually addressable neurons, creating the requisite interface is probably an AI-complete problem. The interface would need to include a component able (in real-time) to map firing patterns in one brain onto semantically equivalent firing patterns in the other brain. The detailed multilevel understanding of the neural computation needed to accomplish such a task would seem to directly enable neuromorphic AI. Despite these reservations, the cyborg route toward cognitive enhancement is not entirely without promise. Impressive work on the rat hippocampus has demonstrated the feasibility of a neural prosthesis that can enhance performance in a simple working-memory task. 75 In its present version, the implant collects input from a dozen or two electrodes located in one area (CA3) of the hippocampus and projects onto a similar number of neurons in another area (CA1). A microprocessor is trained to discriminate between two different firing patterns in the first area (corresponding to two different memories, right lever or left lever) and to learn how these patterns are projected into the second area. This prosthesis can not only restore function when the normal neural connection between the two neural areas is blockaded, but by sending an especially clear token of a particular memory pattern to the second area it can enhance the performance on the memory task beyond what the rat is normally capable of. While a technical tour de force by contemporary standards, the study leaves many challenging questions unanswered: How well does the approach scale to greater numbers of memories? How well can we control the combinatorial explosion that otherwise threatens to make learning the correct mapping infeasible as the number of input and output neurons is increased? Does the enhanced performance on the test task come at some hidden cost, such as reduced ability to generalize from the particular stimulus used in the experiment, or reduced ability to unlearn the association when the environment changes? Would the test subjects still somehow benefit even ifunlike ratsthey could avail themselves of external memory aids such as pen and paper? And how much harder would it be to apply a similar method to other parts of the brain? Whereas the present prosthesis takes advantage of the relatively simple feed- forward structure of parts of the hippocampus (basically serving as a unidirectional bridge between areas CA3 and CA1), other structures in the cortex involve convoluted feedback loops which greatly increase the complexity of the wiring diagram and, presumably, the difficulty of deciphering the functionality of any embedded group of neurons. One hope for the cyborg route is that the brain, if permanently implanted with a device connecting it to some external resource, would over time learn an effective mapping between its own internal cognitive states and the inputs it receives from, or the outputs accepted by, the device. Then the implant itself would not need to be intelligent; rather, the brain would intelligently adapt to the interface, much as the brain of an infant gradually learns to interpret the signals arriving from receptors in its eyes and ears. 76 But here again one must question how much would really be gained. Suppose that the brains plasticity were such that it could learn to detect patterns in some new input stream arbitrary projected onto some part of the cortex by means of a braincomputer interface: why not project the same information onto the retina instead, as a visual pattern, or onto the cochlea as sounds? The low-tech alternative avoids a thousand complications, and in either case the brain could deploy its pattern-recognition mechanisms and plasticity to learn to make sense of the information. Networks and organizations Another conceivable path to superintelligence is through the gradual enhancement of networks and organizations that link individual human minds with one another and with various artifacts and bots. The idea here is not that this would enhance the intellectual capacity of individuals enough to make them superintelligent, but rather that some system composed of individuals thus networked and organized might attain a form of superintelligencewhat in the next chapter we will elaborate as collective superintelligence. 77 Humanity has gained enormously in collective intelligence over the course of history and prehistory. The gains come from many sources, including innovations in communications technology, such as writing and printing, and above all the introduction of language itself; increases in the size of the world population and the density of habitation; various improvements in organizational techniques and epistemic norms; and a gradual accumulation of institutional capital. In general terms, a systems collective intelligence is limited by the abilities of its member minds, the overheads in communicating relevant information between them, and the various distortions and inefficiencies that pervade human organizations. If communication overheads are reduced (including not only equipment costs but also response latencies, time and attention burdens, and other factors), then larger and more densely connected organizations become feasible. The same could happen if fixes are found for some of the bureaucratic deformations that warp organizational lifewasteful status games, mission creep, concealment or falsification of information, and other agency problems. Even partial solutions to these problems could pay hefty dividends for collective intelligence. The technological and institutional innovations that could contribute to the growth of our collective intelligence are many and various. For example, subsidized prediction markets might foster truth-seeking norms and improve forecasting on contentious scientific and social issues. 78 Lie detectors (should it prove feasible to make ones that are reliable and easy to use) could reduce the scope for deception in human affairs. 79 Self-deception detectors might be even more powerful. 80 Even without newfangled brain technologies, some forms of deception might become harder to practice thanks to increased availability of many kinds of data, including reputations and track records, or the promulgation of strong epistemic norms and rationality culture. Voluntary and involuntary surveillance will amass vast amounts of information about human behavior. Social networking sites are already used by over a billion people to share personal details: soon, these people might begin uploading continuous life recordings from microphones and video cameras embedded in their smart phones or eyeglass frames. Automated analysis of such data streams will enable many new applications (sinister as well as benign, of course). 81 Growth in collective intelligence may also come from more general organizational and economic improvements, and from enlarging the fraction of the worlds population that is educated, digitally connected, and integrated into global intellectual culture. 82 The Internet stands out as a particularly dynamic frontier for innovation and experimentation. Most of its potential may still remain unexploited. Continuing development of an intelligent Web, with better support for deliberation, de- biasing, and judgment aggregation, might make large contributions to increasing the collective intelligence of humanity as a whole or of particular groups. But what of the seemingly more fanciful idea that the Internet might one day wake up? Could the Internet become something more than just the backbone of a loosely integrated collective superintelligencesomething more like a virtual skull housing an emerging unified superintellect? (This was one of the ways that superintelligence could arise according to Vernor Vinges influential 1993 essay, which coined the term technological singularity. 83 ) Against this one could object that machine intelligence is hard enough to achieve through arduous engineering, and that it is incredible to suppose that it will arise spontaneously . However, the story need not be that some future version of the Internet suddenly becomes superintelligent by mere happenstance. A more plausible version of the scenario would be that the Internet accumulates improvements through the work of many people over many yearswork to engineer better search and information filtering algorithms, more powerful data representation formats, more capable autonomous software agents, and more efficient protocols governing the interactions between such botsand that myriad incremental improvements eventually create the basis for some more unified form of web intelligence. It seems at least conceivable that such a web- based cognitive system, supersaturated with computer power and all other resources needed for explosive growth save for one crucial ingredient, could, when the final missing constituent is dropped into the cauldron, blaze up with superintelligence. This type of scenario, though, converges into another possible path to superintelligence, that of artificial general intelligence, which we have already discussed. Summary The fact that there are many paths that lead to superintelligence should increase our confidence that we will eventually get there. If one path turns out to be blocked, we can still progress. That there are multiple paths does not entail that there are multiple destinations. Even if significant intelligence amplification were first achieved along one of the non-machine-intelligence paths, this would not render machine intelligence irrelevant. Quite the contrary: enhanced biological or organizational intelligence would accelerate scientific and technological developments, potentially hastening the arrival of more radical forms of intelligence amplification such as whole brain emulation and AI. This is not to say that it is a matter of indifference how we get to machine superintelligence. The path taken to get there could make a big difference to the eventual outcome. Even if the ultimate capabilities that are obtained do not depend much on the trajectory, how those capabilities will be usedhow much control we humans have over their dispositionmight well depend on details of our approach. For example, enhancements of biological or organizational intelligence might increase our ability to anticipate risk and to design machine superintelligence that is safe and beneficial. (A full strategic assessment involves many complexities, and will have to await Chapter 14 .) True superintelligence (as opposed to marginal increases in current levels of intelligence) might plausibly first be attained via the AI path. There are, however, many fundamental uncertainties along this path. This makes it difficult to rigorously assess how long the path is or how many obstacles there are along the way. The whole brain emulation path also has some chance of being the quickest route to superintelligence. Since progress along this path requires mainly incremental technological advances rather than theoretical breakthroughs, a strong case can be made that it will eventually succeed. It seems fairly likely, however, that even if progress along the whole brain emulation path is swift, artificial intelligence will nevertheless be first to cross the finishing line: this is because of the possibility of neuromorphic AIs based on partial emulations. Biological cognitive enhancements are clearly feasible, particularly ones based on genetic selection. Iterated embryo selection currently seems like an especially promising technology. Compared with possible breakthroughs in machine intelligence, however, biological enhancements would be relatively slow and gradual. They would, at best, result in relatively weak forms of superintelligence (more on this shortly). The clear feasibility of biological enhancement should increase our confidence that machine intelligence is ultimately achievable, since enhanced human scientists and engineers will be able to make more and faster progress than their au naturel counterparts. Especially in scenarios in which machine intelligence is delayed beyond mid-century, the increasingly cognitively enhanced cohorts coming onstage will play a growing role in subsequent developments. Braincomputer interfaces look unlikely as a source of superintelligence. Improvements in networks and organizations might result in weakly superintelligent forms of collective intelligence in the long run; but more likely, they will play an enabling role similar to that of biological cognitive enhancement, gradually increasing humanitys effective ability to solve intellectual problems. Compared with biological enhancements, advances in networks and organization will make a difference soonerin fact, such advances are occurring continuously and are having a significant impact already. However, improvements in networks and organizations may yield narrower increases in our problem-solving capacity than will improvements in biological cognition boosting collective intelligence rather than quality intelligence, to anticipate a distinction we are about to introduce in the next chapter. CHAPTER 3 Forms of superintelligence So what, exactly, do we mean by superintelligence? While we do not wish to get bogged down in terminological swamps, something needs to be said to clarify the conceptual ground. This chapter identifies three different forms of superintelligence, and argues that they are, in a practically relevant sense, equivalent. We also show that the potential for intelligence in a machine substrate is vastly greater than in a biological substrate. Machines have a number of fundamental advantages which will give them overwhelming superiority. Biological humans, even if enhanced, will be outclassed. Many machines and nonhuman animals already perform at superhuman levels in narrow domains. Bats interpret sonar signals better than man, calculators outperform us in arithmetic, and chess programs beat us in chess. The range of specific tasks that can be better performed by software will continue to expand. But although specialized information processing systems will have many uses, there are additional profound issues that arise only with the prospect of machine intellects that have enough general intelligence to substitute for humans across the board. As previously indicated, we use the term superintelligence to refer to intellects that greatly outperform the best current human minds across many very general cognitive domains. This is still quite vague. Different kinds of system with rather disparate performance attributes could qualify as superintelligences under this definition. To advance the analysis, it is helpful to disaggregate this simple notion of superintelligence by distinguishing different bundles of intellectual super-capabilities. There are many ways in which such decomposition could be done. Here we will differentiate between three forms: speed superintelligence, collective superintelligence, and quality superintelligence. Speed superintelligence A speed superintelligence is an intellect that is just like a human mind but faster. This is conceptually the easiest form of superintelligence to analyze. 1 We can define speed superintelligence as follows: Speed superintelligence: A system that can do all that a human intellect can do, but much faster . By much we here mean something like multiple orders of magnitude. But rather than try to expunge every remnant of vagueness from the definition, we will entrust the reader with interpreting it sensibly. 2 The simplest example of speed superintelligence would be a whole brain emulation running on fast hardware. 3 An emulation operating at a speed of ten thousand times that of a biological brain would be able to read a book in a few seconds and write a PhD thesis in an afternoon. With a speedup factor of a million, an emulation could accomplish an entire millennium of intellectual work in one working day. 4 To such a fast mind, events in the external world appear to unfold in slow motion. Suppose your mind ran at 10,000. If your fleshly friend should happen to drop his teacup, you could watch the porcelain slowly descend toward the carpet over the course of several hours, like a comet silently gliding through space toward an assignation with a far-off planet; and, as the anticipation of the coming crash tardily propagates through the folds of your friends gray matter and from thence out into his peripheral nervous system, you could observe his body gradually assuming the aspect of a frozen oopsenough time for you not only to order a replacement cup but also to read a couple of scientific papers and take a nap. Because of this apparent time dilation of the material world, a speed superintelligence would prefer to work with digital objects. It could live in virtual reality and deal in the information economy. Alternatively, it could interact with the physical environment by means of nanoscale manipulators, since limbs at such small scales could operate faster than macroscopic appendages. (The characteristic frequency of a system tends to be inversely proportional to its length scale. 5 ) A fast mind might commune mainly with other fast minds rather than with bradytelic, molasses-like humans. The speed of light becomes an increasingly important constraint as minds get faster, since faster minds face greater opportunity costs in the use of their time for traveling or communicating over long distances. 6 Light is roughly a million times faster than a jet plane, so it would take a digital agent with a mental speedup of 1,000,000 about the same amount of subjective time to travel across the globe as it does a contemporary human journeyer. Dialing somebody long distance would take as long as getting there in person, though it would be cheaper as a call would require less bandwidth. Agents with large mental speedups who want to converse extensively might find it advantageous to move near one another. Extremely fast minds with need for frequent interaction (such as members of a work team) may take up residence in computers located in the same building to avoid frustrating latencies. Collective superintelligence Another form of superintelligence is a system achieving superior performance by aggregating large numbers of smaller intelligences: Collective superintelligence: A system composed of a large number of smaller intellects such that the systems overall performance across many very general domains vastly outstrips that of any current cognitive system . Collective superintelligence is less conceptually clear-cut than speed superintelligence. 7 However, it is more familiar empirically. While we have no experience with human-level minds that differ significantly in clock speed, we do have ample experience with collective intelligence, systems composed of various numbers of human-level components working together with various degrees of efficiency. Firms, work teams, gossip networks, advocacy groups, academic communities, countries, even humankind as a whole, canif we adopt a somewhat abstract perspectivebe viewed as loosely defined systems capable of solving classes of intellectual problems. From experience, we have some sense of how easily different tasks succumb to the efforts of organizations of various size and composition. Collective intelligence excels at solving problems that can be readily broken into parts such that solutions to sub-problems can be pursued in parallel and verified independently. Tasks like building a space shuttle or operating a hamburger franchise offer myriad opportunities for division of labor: different engineers work on different components of the spacecraft; different staffs operate different restaurants. In academia, the rigid division of researchers, students, journals, grants, and prizes into separate self-contained disciplines though unconducive to the type of work represented by this bookmight (only in a conciliatory and mellow frame of mind) be viewed as a necessary accommodation to the practicalities of allowing large numbers of diversely motivated individuals and teams to contribute to the growth of human knowledge while working relatively independently, each plowing their own furrow. A systems collective intelligence could be enhanced by expanding the number or the quality of its constituent intellects, or by improving the quality of their organization. 8 To obtain a collective superintelligence from any present-day collective intelligence would require a very great degree of enhancement. The resulting system would need to be capable of vastly outperforming any current collective intelligence or other cognitive system across many very general domains. A new conference format that lets scholars exchange information more effectively, or a new collaborative information-filtering algorithm that better predicted users ratings of books and movies, would clearly not on its own amount to anything approaching collective superintelligence. Nor would a 50% increase in the world population, or an improvement in pedagogical method that enabled students to complete a school day in four hours instead of six. Some far more extreme growth of humanitys collective cognitive capacity would be required to meet the criterion of collective superintelligence. Note that the threshold for collective superintelligence is indexed to the performance levels of the presentthat is, the early twenty-first century. Over the course of human prehistory, and again over the course of human history, humanitys collective intelligence has grown by very large factors. World population, for example, has increased by at least a factor of a thousand since the Pleistocene. 9 On this basis alone, current levels of human collective intelligence could be regarded as approaching superintelligence relative to a Pleistocene baseline . Some improvements in communications technologiesespecially spoken language, but perhaps also cities, writing, and printingcould also be argued to have, individually or in combination, provided super-sized boosts, in the sense that if another innovation of comparable impact to our collective intellectual problem-solving capacity were to happen, it would result in collective superintelligence. 10 A certain kind of reader will be tempted at this point to interject that modern society does not seem so particularly intelligent. Perhaps some unwelcome political decision has just been made in the readers home country, and the apparent unwisdom of that decision now looms large in the readers mind as evidence of the mental incapacity of the modern era. And is it not the case that contemporary humanity is idolizing material consumption, depleting natural resources, polluting the environment, decimating species diversity, all the while failing to remedy screaming global injustices and neglecting paramount humanistic or spiritual values? However, setting aside the question of how modernitys shortcomings stack up against the not-so-inconsiderable failings of earlier epochs, nothing in our definition of collective superintelligence implies that a society with greater collective intelligence is necessarily better off. The definition does not even imply that the more collectively intelligent society is wiser . We can think of wisdom as the ability to get the important things approximately right. It is then possible to imagine an organization composed of a very large cadre of very efficiently coordinated knowledge workers, who collectively can solve intellectual problems across many very general domains. This organization, let us suppose, can operate most kinds of businesses, invent most kinds of technologies, and optimize most kinds of processes. Even so, it might get a few key big-picture issues entirely wrongfor instance, it may fail to take proper precautions against existential risksand as a result pursue a short explosive growth spurt that ends ingloriously in total collapse. Such an organization could have a very high degree of collective intelligence; if sufficiently high, the organization is a collective superintelligence. We should resist the temptation to roll every normatively desirable attribute into one giant amorphous concept of mental functioning, as though one could never find one admirable trait without all the others being equally present. Instead, we should recognize that there can exist instrumentally powerful information processing systemsintelligent systemsthat are neither inherently good nor reliably wise. But we will revisit this issue in Chapter 7 . Collective superintelligence could be either loosely or tightly integrated. To illustrate a case of loosely integrated collective superintelligence, imagine a planet, MegaEarth , which has the same level of communication and coordination technologies that we currently have on the real Earth but with a population one million times as large. With such a huge population, the total intellectual workforce on MegaEarth would be correspondingly larger than on our planet. Suppose that a scientific genius of the caliber of a Newton or an Einstein arises at least once for every 10 billion people: then on MegaEarth there would be 700,000 such geniuses living contemporaneously, alongside proportionally vast multitudes of slightly lesser talents. New ideas and technologies would be developed at a furious pace, and global civilization on MegaEarth would constitute a loosely integrated collective superintelligence. 11 If we gradually increase the level of integration of a collective intelligence, it may eventually become a unified intellect a single large mind as opposed to a mere assemblage of loosely interacting smaller human minds. 12 The inhabitants of MegaEarth could take steps in that direction by improving communications and coordination technologies and by developing better ways for many individuals to work on any hard intellectual problem together. A collective superintelligence could thus, after gaining sufficiently in integration, become a quality superintelligence. Quality superintelligence We can distinguish a third form of superintelligence. Quality superintelligence: A system that is at least as fast as a human mind and vastly qualitatively smarter . As with collective intelligence, intelligence quality is also a somewhat murky concept; and in this case the difficulty is compounded by our lack of experience with any variations in intelligence quality above the upper end of the present human distribution. We can, however, get some grasp of the notion by considering some related cases. First, we can expand the range of our reference points by considering nonhuman animals, which have intelligence of lower quality. (This is not meant as a speciesist remark. A zebrafish has a quality of intelligence that is excellently adapted to its ecological needs; but the relevant perspective here is a more anthropocentric one: our concern is with performance on humanly relevant complex cognitive tasks.) Nonhuman animals lack complex structured language; they are capable of no or only rudimentary tool use and tool construction; they are severely restricted in their ability to make long-term plans; and they have very limited abstract reasoning ability. Nor are these limitations fully explained by a lack of speed or of collective intelligence among nonhuman animal minds. In terms of raw computational power, human brains are probably inferior to those of some large animals, including elephants and whales. And although humanitys complex technological civilization would be impossible without our massive advantage in collective intelligence, not all distinctly human cognitive capabilities depend on collective intelligence. Many are highly developed even in small, isolated huntergatherer bands. 13 And many are not nearly as highly developed among highly organized nonhuman animals, such as chimpanzees and dolphins intensely trained by human instructors, or ants living in their own large and well-ordered societies. Evidently, the remarkable intellectual achievements of Homo sapiens are to a significant extent attributable to specific features of our brain architecture, features that depend on a unique genetic endowment not shared by other animals. This observation can help us illustrate the concept of quality superintelligence: it is intelligence of quality at least as superior to that of human intelligence as the quality of human intelligence is superior to that of elephants, dolphins, or chimpanzees. A second way to illustrate the concept of quality superintelligence is by noting the domain-specific cognitive deficits that can afflict individual humans, particularly deficits that are not caused by general dementia or other conditions associated with wholesale destruction of the brains neurocomputational resources. Consider, for example, individuals with autism spectrum disorders who may have striking deficits in social cognition while functioning well in other cognitive domains; or individuals with congenital amusia, who are unable to hum or recognize simple tunes yet perform normally in most other respects. Many other examples could be adduced from the neuropsychiatric literature, which is replete with case studies of patients suffering narrowly circumscribed deficits caused by genetic abnormalities or brain trauma. Such examples show that normal human adults have a range of remarkable cognitive talents that are not simply a function of possessing a sufficient amount of general neural processing power or even a sufficient amount of general intelligence: specialized neural circuitry is also needed. This observation suggests the idea of possible but non-realized cognitive talents , talents that no actual human possesses even though other intelligent systemsones with no more computing power than the human brainthat did have those talents would gain enormously in their ability to accomplish a wide range of strategically relevant tasks. Accordingly, by considering nonhuman animals and human individuals with domain-specific cognitive deficits, we can form some notion of different qualities of intelligence and the practical difference they make. Had Homo sapiens lacked (for instance) the cognitive modules that enable complex linguistic representations, it might have been just another simian species living in harmony with nature. Conversely, were we to gain some new set of modules giving an advantage comparable to that of being able to form complex linguistic representations, we would become superintelligent. Direct and indirect reach Superintelligence in any of these forms could, over time, develop the technology necessary to create any of the others. The indirect reaches of these three forms of superintelligence are therefore equal. In that sense, the indirect reach of current human intelligence is also in the same equivalence class, under the supposition that we are able eventually to create some form of superintelligence. Yet there is a sense in which the three forms of superintelligence are much closer to one another: any one of them could create other forms of superintelligence more rapidly than we can create any form of superintelligence from our present starting point. The direct reaches of the three different forms of superintelligence are harder to compare. There may be no definite ordering. Their respective capabilities depend on the degree to which they instantiate their respective advantages how fast a speed superintelligence is, how qualitatively superior a quality superintelligence is, and so forth. At most, we might say that, ceteris paribus , speed superintelligence excels at tasks requiring the rapid execution of a long series of steps that must be performed sequentially while collective superintelligence excels at tasks admitting of analytic decomposition into parallelizable sub-tasks and tasks demanding the combination of many different perspectives and skill sets. In some vague sense, quality superintelligence would be the most capable form of all, inasmuch as it could grasp and solve problems that are, for all practical purposes, beyond the direct reach of speed superintelligence and collective superintelligence. 14 In some domains, quantity is a poor substitute for quality. One solitary genius working out of a cork-lined bedroom can write In Search of Lost Time . Could an equivalent masterpiece be produced by recruiting an office building full of literary hacks? 15 Even within the range of present human variation we see that some functions benefit greatly from the labor of one brilliant mastermind as opposed to the joint efforts of myriad mediocrities. If we widen our purview to include superintelligent minds, we must countenance a likelihood of there being intellectual problems solvable only by superintelligence and intractable to any ever-so-large collective of non-augmented humans. There might thus be some problems that are solvable by a quality superintelligence, and perhaps by a speed superintelligence, yet which a loosely integrated collective superintelligence cannot solve (other than by first amplifying its own intelligence). 16 We cannot clearly see what all these problems are, but we can characterize them in general terms. 17 They would tend to be problems involving multiple complex interdependencies that do not permit of independently verifiable solution steps: problems that therefore cannot be solved in a piecemeal fashion, and that might require qualitatively new kinds of understanding or new representational frameworks that are too deep or too complicated for the current edition of mortals to discover or use effectively. Some types of artistic creation and strategic cognition might fall into this category. Some types of scientific breakthrough, perhaps, likewise. And one can speculate that the tardiness and wobbliness of humanitys progress on many of the eternal problems of philosophy are due to the unsuitability of the human cortex for philosophical work. On this view, our most celebrated philosophers are like dogs walking on their hind legsjust barely attaining the threshold level of performance required for engaging in the activity at all . 18 Sources of advantage for digital intelligence Minor changes in brain volume and wiring can have major consequences, as we see when we compare the intellectual and technological achievements of humans with those of other apes. The far greater changes in computing resources and architecture that machine intelligence will enable will probably have consequences that are even more profound. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to form an intuitive sense of the aptitudes of a superintelligence; but we can at least get an inkling of the space of possibilities by looking at some of the advantages open to digital minds. The hardware advantages are easiest to appreciate: Speed of computational elements . Biological neurons operate at a peak speed of about 200 Hz, a full seven orders of magnitude slower than a modern microprocessor (~ 2 GHz). 19 As a consequence, the human brain is forced to rely on massive parallelization and is incapable of rapidly performing any computation that requires a large number of sequential operations. 20 (Anything the brain does in under a second cannot use much more than a hundred sequential operationsperhaps only a few dozen.) Yet many of the most practically important algorithms in programming and computer science are not easily parallelizable. Many cognitive tasks could be performed far more efficiently if the brains native support for parallelizable pattern-matching algorithms were complemented by, and integrated with, support for fast sequential processing. Internal communication speed . Axons carry action potentials at speeds of 120 m/s or less, whereas electronic processing cores can communicate optically at the speed of light (300,000,000 m/s). 21 The sluggishness of neural signals limits how big a biological brain can be while functioning as a single processing unit. For example, to achieve a round-trip latency of less than 10 ms between any two elements in a system, biological brains must be smaller than 0.11 m 3 . An electronic system, on the other hand, could be 6.110 17 m 3 , about the size of a dwarf planet: eighteen orders of magnitude larger. 22 Number of computational elements . The human brain has somewhat fewer than 100 billion neurons. 23 Humans have about three and a half times the brain size of chimpanzees (though only one-fifth the brain size of sperm whales). 24 The number of neurons in a biological creature is most obviously limited by cranial volume and metabolic constraints, but other factors may also be significant for larger brains (such as cooling, development time, and signal-conductance delays see the previous point). By contrast, computer hardware is indefinitely scalable up to very high physical limits. 25 Supercomputers can be warehouse- sized or larger, with additional remote capacity added via high-speed cables. 26 Storage capacity . Human working memory is able to hold no more than some four or five chunks of information at any given time. 27 While it would be misleading to compare the size of human working memory directly with the amount of RAM in a digital computer, it is clear that the hardware advantages of digital intelligences will make it possible for them to have larger working memories. This might enable such minds to intuitively grasp complex relationships that humans can only fumblingly handle via plodding calculation. 28 Human long-term memory is also limited, though it is unclear whether we manage to exhaust its storage capacity during the course of an ordinary lifetime the rate at which we accumulate information is so slow. (On one estimate, the adult human brain stores about one billion bitsa couple of orders of magnitude less than a low-end smartphone. 29 ) Both the amount of information stored and the speed with which it can be accessed could thus be vastly greater in a machine brain than in a biological brain. Reliability, lifespan, sensors, etc . Machine intelligences might have various other hardware advantages. For example, biological neurons are less reliable than transistors. 30 Since noisy computing necessitates redundant encoding schemes that use multiple elements to encode a single bit of information, a digital brain might derive some efficiency gains from the use of reliable high-precision computing elements. Brains become fatigued after a few hours of work and start to permanently decay after a few decades of subjective time; microprocessors are not subject to these limitations. Data flow into a machine intelligence could be increased by adding millions of sensors. Depending on the technology used, a machine might have reconfigurable hardware that can be optimized for changing task requirements, whereas much of the brains architecture is fixed from birth or only slowly changeable (though the details of synaptic connectivity can change over shorter timescales, like days). 31 At present, the computational power of the biological brain still compares favorably with that of digital computers, though top-of-the-line supercomputers are attaining levels of performance that are within the range of plausible estimates of the brains processing power. 32 But hardware is rapidly improving, and the ultimate limits of hardware performance are vastly higher than those of biological computing substrates. Digital minds will also benefit from major advantages in software: Editability . It is easier to experiment with parameter variations in software than in neural wetware. For example, with a whole brain emulation one could easily trial what happens if one adds more neurons in a particular cortical area or if one increases or decreases their excitability. Running such experiments in living biological brains would be far more difficult. Duplicability . With software, one can quickly make arbitrarily many high-fidelity copies to fill the available hardware base. Biological brains, by contrast, can be reproduced only very slowly; and each new instance starts out in a helpless state, remembering nothing of what its parents learned in their lifetimes. Goal coordination . Human collectives are replete with inefficiencies arising from the fact that it is nearly impossible to achieve complete uniformity of purpose among the members of a large groupat least until it becomes feasible to induce docility on a large scale by means of drugs or genetic selection. A copy clan (a group of identical or almost identical programs sharing a common goal) would avoid such coordination problems. Memory sharing . Biological brains need extended periods of training and mentorship whereas digital minds could acquire new memories and skills by swapping data files. A population of a billion copies of an AI program could synchronize their databases periodically, so that all the instances of the program know everything that any instance learned during the previous hour. (Direct memory transfer requires standardized representational formats. Easy swapping of high-level cognitive content would therefore not be possible between just any pair of machine intelligences. In particular, it would not be possible among first- generation whole brain emulations.) New modules, modalities, and algorithms . Visual perception seems to us easy and effortless, quite unlike solving textbook geometry problemsthis despite the fact that it takes a massive amount of computation to reconstruct, from the two- dimensional patterns of stimulation on our retinas, a three-dimensional representation of a world populated with recognizable objects. The reason this seems easy is that we have dedicated low-level neural machinery for processing visual information. This low-level processing occurs unconsciously and automatically, without draining our mental energy or conscious attention. Music perception, language use, social cognition, and other forms of information processing that are natural for us humans seem to be likewise supported by dedicated neurocomputational modules. An artificial mind that had such specialized support for other cognitive domains that have become important in the contemporary worldsuch as engineering, computer programming, and business strategywould have big advantages over minds like ours that have to rely on clunky general-purpose cognition to think about such things. New algorithms may also be developed to take advantage of the distinct affordances of digital hardware, such as its support for fast serial processing. The ultimately attainable advantages of machine intelligence, hardware and software combined, are enormous. 33 But how rapidly could those potential advantages be realized? That is the question to which we now turn. CHAPTER 4 The kinetics of an intelligence explosion Once machines attain some form of human-equivalence in general reasoning ability, how long will it then be before they attain radical superintelligence? Will this be a slow, gradual, protracted transition? Or will it be sudden, explosive? This chapter analyzes the kinetics of the transition to superintelligence as a function of optimization power and system recalcitrance. We consider what we know or may reasonably surmise about the behavior of these two factors in the neighborhood of human-level general intelligence. Timing and speed of the takeoff Given that machines will eventually vastly exceed biology in general intelligence, but that machine cognition is currently vastly narrower than human cognition, one is led to wonder how quickly this usurpation will take place. The question we are asking here must be sharply distinguished from the question we considered in Chapter 1 about how far away we currently are from developing a machine with human-level general intelligence. Here the question is instead, if and when such a machine is developed, how long will it be from then until a machine becomes radically superintelligent? Note that one could think that it will take quite a long time until machines reach the human baseline, or one might be agnostic about how long that will take, and yet have a strong view that once this happens, the further ascent into strong superintelligence will be very rapid. It can be helpful to think about these matters schematically, even though doing so involves temporarily ignoring some qualifications and complicating details. Consider, then, a diagram that plots the intellectual capability of the most advanced machine intelligence system as a function of time ( Figure 7 ). A horizontal line labeled human baseline represents the effective intellectual capabilities of a representative human adult with access to the information sources and technological aids currently available in developed countries. At present, the most advanced AI system is far below the human baseline on any reasonable metric of general intellectual ability. At some point in future, a machine might reach approximate parity with this human baseline (which we take to be fixedanchored to the year 2014, say, even if the capabilities of human individuals should have increased in the intervening years): this would mark the onset of the takeoff. The capabilities of the system continue to grow, and at some later point the system reaches parity with the combined intellectual capability of all of humanity (again anchored to the present): what we may call the civilization baseline. Eventually, if the systems abilities continue to grow, it attains strong superintelligencea level of intelligence vastly greater than contemporary humanitys combined intellectual wherewithal. The attainment of strong superintelligence marks the completion of the takeoff, though the system might continue to gain in capacity thereafter. Sometime during the takeoff phase, the system may pass a landmark which we can call the crossover, a point beyond which the systems further improvement is mainly driven by the systems own actions rather than by work performed upon it by others. 1 (The possible existence of such a crossover will become important in the subsection on optimization power and explosivity, later in this chapter.) Figure 7 Shape of the takeoff. It is important to distinguish between these questions: Will a takeoff occur, and if so, when? and If and when a takeoff does occur, how steep will it be? One might hold, for example, that it will be a very long time before a takeoff occurs, but that when it does it will proceed very quickly. Another relevant question (not illustrated in this figure) is, How large a fraction of the world economy will participate in the takeoff? These questions are related but distinct. With this picture in mind, we can distinguish three classes of transition scenariosscenarios in which systems progress from human-level intelligence to superintelligencebased on their steepness; that is to say, whether they represent a slow, fast, or moderate takeoff. Slow A slow takeoff is one that occurs over some long temporal interval, such as decades or centuries. Slow takeoff scenarios offer excellent opportunities for human political processes to adapt and respond. Different approaches can be tried and tested in sequence. New experts can be trained and credentialed. Grassroots campaigns can be mobilized by groups that feel they are being disadvantaged by unfolding developments. If it appears that new kinds of secure infrastructure or mass surveillance of AI researchers is needed, such systems could be developed and deployed. Nations fearing an AI arms race would have time to try to negotiate treaties and design enforcement mechanisms. Most preparations undertaken before onset of the slow takeoff would be rendered obsolete as better solutions would gradually become visible in the light of the dawning era. Fast A fast takeoff occurs over some short temporal interval, such as minutes, hours, or days. Fast takeoff scenarios offer scant opportunity for humans to deliberate. Nobody need even notice anything unusual before the game is already lost. In a fast takeoff scenario, humanitys fate essentially depends on preparations previously put in place. At the slowest end of the fast takeoff scenario range, some simple human actions might be possible, analogous to flicking open the nuclear suitcase; but any such action would either be elementary or have been planned and pre-programmed in advance. Moderate A moderate takeoff is one that occurs over some intermediary temporal interval, such as months or years. Moderate takeoff scenarios give humans some chance to respond but not much time to analyze the situation, to test different approaches, or to solve complicated coordination problems. There is not enough time to develop or deploy new systems (e.g. political systems, surveillance regimes, or computer network security protocols), but extant systems could be applied to the new challenge. During a slow takeoff, there would be plenty of time for the news to get out. In a moderate takeoff, by contrast, it is possible that developments would be kept secret as they unfold. Knowledge might be restricted to a small group of insiders, as in a covert state-sponsored military research program. Commercial projects, small academic teams, and nine hackers in a basement outfits might also be clandestinethough, if the prospect of an intelligence explosion were on the radar of state intelligence agencies as a national security priority, then the most promising private projects would seem to have a good chance of being under surveillance. The host state (or a dominant foreign power) would then have the option of nationalizing or shutting down any project that showed signs of commencing takeoff. Fast takeoffs would happen so quickly that there would not be much time for word to get out or for anybody to mount a meaningful reaction if it did. But an outsider might intervene before the onset of the takeoff if they believed a particular project to be closing in on success. Moderate takeoff scenarios could lead to geopolitical, social, and economic turbulence as individuals and groups jockey to position themselves to gain from the unfolding transformation. Such upheaval, should it occur, might impede efforts to orchestrate a well-composed response; alternatively, it might enable solutions more radical than calmer circumstances would permit. For instance, in a moderate takeoff scenario where cheap and capable emulations or other digital minds gradually flood labor markets over a period of years, one could imagine mass protests by laid-off workers pressuring governments to increase unemployment benefits or institute a living wage guarantee to all human citizens, or to levy special taxes or impose minimum wage requirements on employers who use emulation workers. In order for any relief derived from such policies to be more than fleeting, support for them would somehow have to be cemented into permanent power structures. Similar issues can arise if the takeoff is slow rather than moderate, but the disequilibrium and rapid change in moderate scenarios may present special opportunities for small groups to wield disproportionate influence. It might appear to some readers that of these three types of scenario, the slow takeoff is the most probable, the moderate takeoff is less probable, and the fast takeoff is utterly implausible. It could seem fanciful to suppose that the world could be radically transformed and humanity deposed from its position as apex cogitator over the course of an hour or two. No change of such moment has ever occurred in human history, and its nearest parallelsthe Agricultural and Industrial Revolutionsplayed out over much longer timescales (centuries to millennia in the former case, decades to centuries in the latter). So the base rate for the kind of transition entailed by a fast or medium takeoff scenario, in terms of the speed and magnitude of the postulated change, is zero: it lacks precedent outside myth and religion. 2 Nevertheless, this chapter will present some reasons for thinking that the slow transition scenario is improbable. If and when a takeoff occurs, it will likely be explosive. To begin to analyze the question of how fast the takeoff will be, we can conceive of the rate of increase in a systems intelligence as a (monotonically increasing) function of two variables: the amount of optimization power, or quality-weighted design effort, that is being applied to increase the systems intelligence, and the responsiveness of the system to the application of a given amount of such optimization power. We might term the inverse of responsiveness recalcitrance, and write: Pending some specification of how to quantify intelligence, design effort, and recalcitrance, this expression is merely qualitative. But we can at least observe that a systems intelligence will increase rapidly if either a lot of skilled effort is applied to the task of increasing its intelligence and the systems intelligence is not too hard to increase or there is a non-trivial design effort and the systems recalcitrance is low (or both). If we know how much design effort is going into improving a particular system, and the rate of improvement this effort produces, we could calculate the systems recalcitrance. Further, we can observe that the amount of optimization power devoted to improving some systems performance varies between systems and over time. A systems recalcitrance might also vary depending on how much the system has already been optimized. Often, the easiest improvements are made first, leading to diminishing returns (increasing recalcitrance) as low-hanging fruits are depleted. However, there can also be improvements that make further improvements easier, leading to improvement cascades. The process of solving a jigsaw puzzle starts out simpleit is easy to find the corners and the edges. Then recalcitrance goes up as subsequent pieces are harder to fit. But as the puzzle nears completion, the search space collapses and the process gets easier again. To proceed in our inquiry, we must therefore analyze how recalcitrance and optimization power might vary in the critical time periods during the takeoff. This will occupy us over the next few pages. Recalcitrance Let us begin with recalcitrance. The outlook here depends on the type of the system under consideration. For completeness, we first cast a brief glance at the recalcitrance that would be encountered along paths to superintelligence that do not involve advanced machine intelligence. We find that recalcitrance along those paths appears to be fairly high. That done, we will turn to the main case, which is that the takeoff involves machine intelligence; and there we find that recalcitrance at the critical juncture seems low. Non-machine intelligence paths Cognitive enhancement via improvements in public health and diet has steeply diminishing returns. 3 Big gains come from eliminating severe nutritional deficiencies, and the most severe deficiencies have already been largely eliminated in all but the poorest countries. Only girth is gained by increasing an already adequate diet. Education, too, is now probably subject to diminishing returns. The fraction of talented individuals in the world who lack access to quality education is still substantial, but declining. Pharmacological enhancers might deliver some cognitive gains over the coming decades. But after the easiest fixes have been accomplishedperhaps sustainable increases in mental energy and ability to concentrate, along with better control over the rate of long-term memory consolidationsubsequent gains will be increasingly hard to come by. Unlike diet and public health approaches, however, improving cognition through smart drugs might get easier before it gets harder. The field of neuropharmacology still lacks much of the basic knowledge that would be needed to competently intervene in the healthy brain. Neglect of enhancement medicine as a legitimate area of research may be partially to blame for this current backwardness. If neuroscience and pharmacology continue to progress for a while longer without focusing on cognitive enhancement, then maybe there would be some relatively easy gains to be had when at last the development of nootropics becomes a serious priority. 4 Genetic cognitive enhancement has a U-shaped recalcitrance profile similar to that of nootropics, but with larger potential gains. Recalcitrance starts out high while the only available method is selective breeding sustained over many generations, something that is obviously difficult to accomplish on a globally significant scale. Genetic enhancement will get easier as technology is developed for cheap and effective genetic testing and selection (and particularly when iterated embryo selection becomes feasible in humans). These new techniques will make it possible to tap the pool of existing human genetic variation for intelligence-enhancing alleles. As the best existing alleles get incorporated into genetic enhancement packages, however, further gains will get harder to come by. The need for more innovative approaches to genetic modification may then increase recalcitrance. There are limits to how quickly things can progress along the genetic enhancement path, most notably the fact that germline interventions are subject to an inevitable maturational lag: this strongly counteracts the possibility of a fast or moderate takeoff. 5 That embryo selection can only be applied in the context of in vitro fertilization will slow its rate of adoption: another limiting factor. The recalcitrance along the braincomputer path seems initially very high. In the unlikely event that it somehow becomes easy to insert brain implants and to achieve high-level functional integration with the cortex, recalcitrance might plummet. In the long run, the difficulty of making progress along this path would be similar to that involved in improving emulations or AIs, since the bulk of the braincomputer systems intelligence would eventually reside in the computer part. The recalcitrance for making networks and organizations in general more efficient is high. A vast amount of effort is going into overcoming this recalcitrance, and the result is an annual improvement of humanitys total capacity by perhaps no more than a couple of percent. 6 Furthermore, shifts in the internal and external environment mean that organizations, even if efficient at one time, soon become ill-adapted to their new circumstances. Ongoing reform effort is thus required even just to prevent deterioration. A step change in the rate of gain in average organizational efficiency is perhaps conceivable, but it is hard to see how even the most radical scenario of this kind could produce anything faster than a slow takeoff, since organizations operated by humans are confined to work on human timescales. The Internet continues to be an exciting frontier with many opportunities for enhancing collective intelligence, with a recalcitrance that seems at the moment to be in the moderate rangeprogress is somewhat swift but a lot of effort is going into making this progress happen. It may be expected to increase as low-hanging fruits (such as search engines and email) are depleted. Emulation and AI paths The difficulty of advancing toward whole brain emulation is difficult to estimate. Yet we can point to a specific future milestone: the successful emulation of an insect brain. That milestone stands on a hill, and its conquest would bring into view much of the terrain ahead, allowing us to make a decent guess at the recalcitrance of scaling up the technology to human whole brain emulation. (A successful emulation of a small-mammal brain, such as that of a mouse, would give an even better vantage point that would allow the distance remaining to a human whole brain emulation to be estimated with a high degree of precision.) The path toward artificial intelligence, by contrast, may feature no such obvious milestone or early observation point. It is entirely possible that the quest for artificial intelligence will appear to be lost in dense jungle until an unexpected breakthrough reveals the finishing line in a clearing just a few short steps away. Recall the distinction between these two questions: How hard is it to attain roughly human levels of cognitive ability? And how hard is it to get from there to superhuman levels? The first question is mainly relevant for predicting how long it will be before the onset of a takeoff. It is the second question that is key to assessing the shape of the takeoff, which is our aim here. And though it might be tempting to suppose that the step from human level to superhuman level must be the harder onethis step, after all, takes place at a higher altitude where capacity must be superadded to an already quite capable systemthis would be a very unsafe assumption. It is quite possible that recalcitrance falls when a machine reaches human parity. Consider first whole brain emulation. The difficulties involved in creating the first human emulation are of a quite different kind from those involved in enhancing an existing emulation. Creating a first emulation involves huge technological challenges, particularly in regard to developing the requisite scanning and image interpretation capabilities. This step might also require considerable amounts of physical capitalan industrial-scale machine park with hundreds of high-throughput scanning machines is not implausible. By contrast, enhancing the quality of an existing emulation involves tweaking algorithms and data structures: essentially a software problem, and one that could turn out to be much easier than perfecting the imaging technology needed to create the original template. Programmers could easily experiment with tricks like increasing the neuron count in different cortical areas to see how it affects performance. 7 They also could work on code optimization and on finding simpler computational models that preserve the essential functionality of individual neurons or small networks of neurons. If the last technological prerequisite to fall into place is either scanning or translation, with computing power being relatively abundant, then not much attention might have been given during the development phase to implementational efficiency, and easy opportunities for computational efficiency savings might be available. (More fundamental architectural reorganization might also be possible, but that takes us off the emulation path and into AI territory.) Another way to improve the code base once the first emulation has been produced is to scan additional brains with different or superior skills and talents. Productivity growth would also occur as a consequence of adapting organizational structures and workflows to the unique attributes of digital minds. Since there is no precedent in the human economy of a worker who can be literally copied, reset, run at different speeds, and so forth, managers of the first emulation cohort would find plenty of room for innovation in managerial practices. After initially plummeting when human whole brain emulation becomes possible, recalcitrance may rise again. Sooner or later, the most glaring implementational inefficiencies will have been optimized away, the most promising algorithmic variations will have been tested, and the easiest opportunities for organizational innovation will have been exploited. The template library will have expanded so that acquiring more brain scans would add little benefit over working with existing templates. Since a template can be multiplied, each copy can be individually trained in a different field, and this can be done at electronic speed, it might be that the number of brains that would need to be scanned in order to capture most of the potential economic gains is small. Possibly a single brain would suffice. Another potential cause of escalating recalcitrance is the possibility that emulations or their biological supporters will organize to support regulations restricting the use of emulation workers, limiting emulation copying, prohibiting certain kinds of experimentation with digital minds, instituting workers rights and a minimum wage for emulations, and so forth. It is equally possible, however, that political developments would go in the opposite direction, contributing to a fall in recalcitrance. This might happen if initial restraint in the use of emulation labor gives way to unfettered exploitation as competition heats up and the economic and strategic costs of occupying the moral high ground become clear. As for artificial intelligence (non-emulation machine intelligence), the difficulty of lifting a system from human-level to superhuman intelligence by means of algorithmic improvements depends on the attributes of the particular system. Different architectures might have very different recalcitrance. In some situations, recalcitrance could be extremely low. For example, if human-level AI is delayed because one key insight long eludes programmers, then when the final breakthrough occurs, the AI might leapfrog from below to radically above human level without even touching the intermediary rungs. Another situation in which recalcitrance could turn out to be extremely low is that of an AI system that can achieve intelligent capability via two different modes of processing. To illustrate this possibility, suppose an AI is composed of two subsystems, one possessing domain-specific problem-solving techniques, the other possessing general-purpose reasoning ability. It could then be the case that while the second subsystem remains below a certain capacity threshold, it contributes nothing to the systems overall performance, because the solutions it generates are always inferior to those generated by the domain-specific subsystem. Suppose now that a small amount of optimization power is applied to the general-purpose subsystem and that this produces a brisk rise in the capacity of that subsystem. At first, we observe no increase in the overall systems performance, indicating that recalcitrance is high. Then, once the capacity of the general-purpose subsystem crosses the threshold where its solutions start to beat those of the domain-specific subsystem, the overall systems performance suddenly begins to improve at the same brisk pace as the general-purpose subsystem, even as the amount of optimization power applied stays constant: the systems recalcitrance has plummeted. It is also possible that our natural tendency to view intelligence from an anthropocentric perspective will lead us to underestimate improvements in sub- human systems, and thus to overestimate recalcitrance. Eliezer Yudkowsky, an AI theorist who has written extensively on the future of machine intelligence, puts the point as follows: AI might make an apparently sharp jump in intelligence purely as the result of anthropomorphism, the human tendency to think of village idiot and Einstein as the extreme ends of the intelligence scale, instead of nearly indistinguishable points on the scale of minds-in-general. Everything dumber than a dumb human may appear to us as simply dumb. One imagines the AI arrow creeping steadily up the scale of intelligence, moving past mice and chimpanzees, with AIs still remaining dumb because AIs cannot speak fluent language or write science papers, and then the AI arrow crosses the tiny gap from infra-idiot to ultra-Einstein in the course of one month or some similarly short period. 8 (See Fig. 8 .) The upshot of these several considerations is that it is difficult to predict how hard it will be to make algorithmic improvements in the first AI that reaches a roughly human level of general intelligence. There are at least some possible circumstances in which algorithm-recalcitrance is low. But even if algorithm- recalcitrance is very high, this would not preclude the overall recalcitrance of the AI in question from being low. For it might be easy to increase the intelligence of the system in other ways than by improving its algorithms. There are two other factors that can be improved: content and hardware. First, consider content improvements. By content we here mean those parts of a systems software assets that do not make up its core algorithmic architecture. Content might include, for example, databases of stored percepts, specialized skills libraries, and inventories of declarative knowledge. For many kinds of system, the distinction between algorithmic architecture and content is very unsharp; nevertheless, it will serve as a rough-and-ready way of pointing to one potentially important source of capability gains in a machine intelligence. An alternative way of expressing much the same idea is by saying that a systems intellectual problem-solving capacity can be enhanced not only by making the system cleverer but also by expanding what the system knows. Figure 8 A less anthropomorphic scale? The gap between a dumb and a clever person may appear large from an anthropocentric perspective, yet in a less parochial view the two have nearly indistinguishable minds. 9 It will almost certainly prove harder and take longer to build a machine intelligence that has a general level of smartness comparable to that of a village idiot than to improve such a system so that it becomes much smarter than any human. Consider a contemporary AI system such as TextRunner (a research project at the University of Washington) or IBMs Watson (the system that won the Jeopardy! quiz show). These systems can extract certain pieces of semantic information by analyzing text. Although these systems do not understand what they read in the same sense or to the same extent as a human does, they can nevertheless extract significant amounts of information from natural language and use that information to make simple inferences and answer questions. They can also learn from experience, building up more extensive representations of a concept as they encounter additional instances of its use. They are designed to operate for much of the time in unsupervised mode (i.e. to learn hidden structure in unlabeled data in the absence of error or reward signal, without human guidance) and to be fast and scalable. TextRunner, for instance, works with a corpus of 500 million web pages. 10 Now imagine a remote descendant of such a system that has acquired the ability to read with as much understanding as a human ten-year-old but with a reading speed similar to that of TextRunner. (This is probably an AI-complete problem.) So we are imagining a system that thinks much faster and has much better memory than a human adult, but knows much less, and perhaps the net effect of this is that the system is roughly human-equivalent in its general problem-solving ability. But its content recalcitrance is very lowlow enough to precipitate a takeoff. Within a few weeks, the system has read and mastered all the content contained in the Library of Congress. Now the system knows much more than any human being and thinks vastly faster: it has become (at least) weakly superintelligent. A system might thus greatly boost its effective intellectual capability by absorbing pre-produced content accumulated through centuries of human science and civilization: for instance, by reading through the Internet. If an AI reaches human level without previously having had access to this material or without having been able to digest it, then the AIs overall recalcitrance will be low even if it is hard to improve its algorithmic architecture. Content-recalcitrance is a relevant concept for emulations, too. A high-speed emulation has an advantage not only because it can complete the same tasks as biological humans more quickly, but also because it can accumulate more timely content, such as task-relevant skills and expertise. In order to tap the full potential of fast content accumulation, however, a system needs to have a correspondingly large memory capacity. There is little point in reading an entire library if you have forgotten all about the aardvark by the time you get to the abalone. While an AI system is likely to have adequate memory capacity, emulations would inherit some of the capacity limitations of their human templates. They may therefore need architectural enhancements in order to become capable of unbounded learning. So far we have considered the recalcitrance of architecture and of content that is, how difficult it would be to improve the software of a machine intelligence that has reached human parity. Now let us look at a third way of boosting the performance of machine intelligence: improving its hardware. What would be the recalcitrance for hardware-driven improvements? Starting with intelligent software (emulation or AI) one can amplify collective intelligence simply by using additional computers to run more instances of the program. 11 One could also amplify speed intelligence by moving the program to faster computers. Depending on the degree to which the program lends itself to parallelization, speed intelligence could also be amplified by running the program on more processors. This is likely to be feasible for emulations, which have a highly parallelized architecture; but many AI programs, too, have important subroutines that can benefit from massive parallelization. Amplifying quality intelligence by increasing computing power might also be possible, but that case is less straightforward. 12 The recalcitrance for amplifying collective or speed intelligence (and possibly quality intelligence) in a system with human-level software is therefore likely to be low. The only difficulty involved is gaining access to additional computing power. There are several ways for a system to expand its hardware base, each relevant over a different timescale. In the short term, computing power should scale roughly linearly with funding: twice the funding buys twice the number of computers, enabling twice as many instances of the software to be run simultaneously. The emergence of cloud computing services gives a project the option to scale up its computational resources without even having to wait for new computers to be delivered and installed, though concerns over secrecy might favor the use of in-house computers. (In certain scenarios, computing power could also be obtained by other means, such as by commandeering botnets. 13 ) Just how easy it would be to scale the system by a given factor depends on how much computing power the initial system uses. A system that initially runs on a PC could be scaled by a factor of thousands for a mere million dollars. A program that runs on a supercomputer would be far more expensive to scale. In the slightly longer term, the cost of acquiring additional hardware may be driven up as a growing portion of the worlds installed capacity is being used to run digital minds. For instance, in a competitive market-based emulation scenario, the cost of running one additional copy of an emulation should rise to be roughly equal to the income generated by the marginal copy, as investors bid up the price for existing computing infrastructure to match the return they expect from their investment (though if only one project has mastered the technology it might gain a degree of monopsony power in the computing power market and therefore pay a lower price). Over a somewhat longer timescale, the supply of computing power will grow as new capacity is installed. A demand spike would spur production in existing semiconductor foundries and stimulate the construction of new plants. (A one-off performance boost, perhaps amounting to one or two orders of magnitude, might also be obtainable by using customized microprocessors. 14 ) Above all, the rising wave of technology improvements will pour increasing volumes of computational power into the turbines of the thinking machines. Historically, the rate of improvement of computing technology has been described by the famous Moores law, which in one of its variations states that computing power per dollar doubles every 18 months or so. 15 Although one cannot bank on this rate of improvement continuing up to the development of human-level machine intelligence, yet until fundamental physical limits are reached there will remain room for advances in computing technology. There are thus reasons to expect that hardware recalcitrance will not be very high. Purchasing more computing power for the system once it proves its mettle by attaining human-level intelligence might easily add several orders of magnitude of computing power (depending on how hardware-frugal the project was before expansion). Chip customization might add one or two orders of magnitude. Other means of expanding the hardware base, such as building more factories and advancing the frontier of computing technology, take longer normally several years, though this lag would be radically compressed once machine superintelligence revolutionizes manufacturing and technology development. In summary, we can talk about the likelihood of a hardware overhang : when human-level software is created, enough computing power may already be available to run vast numbers of copies at great speed. Software recalcitrance, as discussed above, is harder to assess but might be even lower than hardware recalcitrance. In particular, there may be content overhang in the form of pre- made content (e.g. the Internet) that becomes available to a system once it reaches human parity. Algorithm overhang pre-designed algorithmic enhancementsis also possible but perhaps less likely. Software improvements (whether in algorithms or content) might offer orders of magnitude of potential performance gains that could be fairly easily accessed once a digital mind attains human parity, on top of the performance gains attainable by using more or better hardware. Optimization power and explosivity Having examined the question of recalcitrance we must now turn to the other half of our schematic equation, optimization power . To recall: Rate of change in Intelligence = Optimization power/Recalcitrance . As reflected in this schematic, a fast takeoff does not require that recalcitrance during the transition phase be low. A fast takeoff could also result if recalcitrance is constant or even moderately increasing, provided the optimization power being applied to improving the systems performance grows sufficiently rapidly. As we shall now see, there are good grounds for thinking that the applied optimization power will increase during the transition, at least in the absence of a deliberate measures to prevent this from happening. We can distinguish two phases. The first phase begins with the onset of the takeoff, when the system reaches the human baseline for individual intelligence. As the systems capability continues to increase, it might use some or all of that capability to improve itself (or to design a successor systemwhich, for present purposes, comes to the same thing). However, most of the optimization power applied to the system still comes from outside the system, either from the work of programmers and engineers employed within the project or from such work done by the rest of the world as can be appropriated and used by the project. 16 If this phase drags out for any significant period of time, we can expect the amount of optimization power applied to the system to grow. Inputs both from inside the project and from the outside world are likely to increase as the promise of the chosen approach becomes manifest. Researchers may work harder, more researchers may be recruited, and more computing power may be purchased to expedite progress. The increase could be especially dramatic if the development of human-level machine intelligence takes the world by surprise, in which case what was previously a small research project might suddenly become the focus of intense research and development efforts around the world (though some of those efforts might be channeled into competing projects). A second growth phase will begin if at some point the system has acquired so much capability that most of the optimization power exerted on it comes from the system itself (marked by the variable level labeled crossover in Figure 7 ). This fundamentally changes the dynamic, because any increase in the systems capability now translates into a proportional increase in the amount of optimization power being applied to its further improvement. If recalcitrance remains constant, this feedback dynamic produces exponential growth (see Box 4 ). The doubling constant depends on the scenario but might be extremely short mere seconds in some scenariosif growth is occurring at electronic speeds, which might happen as a result of algorithmic improvements or the exploitation of an overhang of content or hardware. 17 Growth that is driven by physical construction, such as the production of new computers or manufacturing equipment, would require a somewhat longer timescale (but still one that might be very short compared with the current growth rate of the world economy). It is thus likely that the applied optimization power will increase during the transition: initially because humans try harder to improve a machine intelligence that is showing spectacular promise, later because the machine intelligence itself becomes capable of driving further progress at digital speeds. This would create a real possibility of a fast or medium takeoff even if recalcitrance were constant or slightly increasing around the human baseline . 18 Yet we saw in the previous subsection that there are factors that could lead to a big drop in recalcitrance around the human baseline level of capability. These factors include, for example, the possibility of rapid hardware expansion once a working software mind has been attained; the possibility of algorithmic improvements; the possibility of scanning additional brains (in the case of whole brain emulation); and the possibility of rapidly incorporating vast amounts of content by digesting the Internet (in the case of artificial intelligence). 24 Box 4 On the kinetics of an intelligence explosion We can write the rate of change in intelligence as the ratio between the optimization power applied to the system and the systems recalcitrance: The amount of optimization power acting on a system is the sum of whatever optimization power the system itself contributes and the optimization power exerted from without. For example, a seed AI might be improved through a combination of its own efforts and the efforts of a human programming team, and perhaps also the efforts of the wider global community of researchers making continuous advances in the semiconductor industry, computer science, and related fields: 19 A seed AI starts out with very limited cognitive capacities. At the outset, therefore, is small. 20 What about and ? There are cases in which a single project has more relevant capability than the rest of the world combinedthe Manhattan project, for instance, brought a very large fraction of the worlds best physicists to Los Alamos to work on the atomic bomb. More commonly, any one project contains only a small fraction of the worlds total relevant research capability. But even when the outside world has a greater total amount of relevant research capability than any one project, may nevertheless exceed , since much of the outside worlds capability is not be focused on the particular system in question. If a project begins to look promisingwhich will happen when a system passes the human baseline if not beforeit might attract additional investment, increasing . If the projects accomplishments are public, might also rise as the progress inspires greater interest in machine intelligence generally and as various powers scramble to get in on the game. During the transition phase, therefore, total optimization power applied to improving a cognitive system is likely to increase as the capability of the system increases. 21 As the systems capabilities grow, there may come a point at which the optimization power generated by the system itself starts to dominate the optimization power applied to it from outside (across all significant dimensions of improvement): This crossover is significant because beyond this point, further improvement to the systems capabilities contributes strongly to increasing the total optimization power applied to improving the system. We thereby enter a regime of strong recursive self-improvement. This leads to explosive growth of the systems capability under a fairly wide range of different shapes of the recalcitrance curve. To illustrate, consider first a scenario in which recalcitrance is constant, so that the rate of increase in an AIs intelligence is equal to the optimization power being applied. Assume that all the optimization power that is applied comes from the AI itself and that the AI applies all its intelligence to the task of amplifying its own intelligence, so that = I . 22 We then have Solving this simple differential equation yields the exponential function But recalcitrance being constant is a rather special case. Recalcitrance might well decline around the human baseline, due to one or more of the factors mentioned in the previous subsection, and remain low around the crossover and some distance beyond (perhaps until the system eventually approaches fundamental physical limits). For example, suppose that the optimization power applied to the system is roughly constant (i.e. + c ) prior to the system becoming capable of contributing substantially to its own design, and that this leads to the system doubling in capacity every 18 months. (This would be roughly in line with historical improvement rates from Moores law combined with software advances. 23 ) This rate of improvement, if achieved by means of roughly constant optimization power, entails recalcitrance declining as the inverse of the system power: If recalcitrance continues to fall along this hyperbolic pattern, then when the AI reaches the crossover point the total amount of optimization power applied to improving the AI has doubled. We then have The next doubling occurs 7.5 months later. Within 17.9 months, the systems capacity has grown a thousandfold, thus obtaining speed superintelligence ( Figure 9 ). This particular growth trajectory has a positive singularity at t = 18 months. In reality, the assumption that recalcitrance is constant would cease to hold as the system began to approach the physical limits to information processing, if not sooner. These two scenarios are intended for illustration only; many other trajectories are possible, depending on the shape of the recalcitrance curve. The claim is simply that the strong feedback loop that sets in around the crossover point tends strongly to make the takeoff faster than it would otherwise have been. Figure 9 One simple model of an intelligence explosion. These observations notwithstanding, the shape of the recalcitrance curve in the relevant region is not yet well characterized. In particular, it is unclear how difficult it would be to improve the software quality of a human-level emulation or AI. The difficulty of expanding the hardware power available to a system is also not clear. Whereas today it would be relatively easy to increase the computing power available to a small project by spending a thousand times more on computing power or by waiting a few years for the price of computers to fall, it is possible that the first machine intelligence to reach the human baseline will result from a large project involving pricey supercomputers, which cannot be cheaply scaled, and that Moores law will by then have expired. For these reasons, although a fast or medium takeoff looks more likely, the possibility of a slow takeoff cannot be excluded. 25 CHAPTER 5 Decisive strategic advantage A question distinct from, but related to, the question of kinetics is whether there will there be one superintelligent power or many? Might an intelligence explosion propel one project so far ahead of all others as to make it able to dictate the future? Or will progress be more uniform, unfurling across a wide front, with many projects participating but none securing an overwhelming and permanent lead? The preceding chapter analyzed one key parameter in determining the size of the gap that might plausibly open up between a leading power and its nearest competitorsnamely, the speed of the transition from human to strongly superhuman intelligence. This suggests a first-cut analysis. If the takeoff is fast (completed over the course of hours, days, or weeks) then it is unlikely that two independent projects would be taking off concurrently: almost certainty, the first project would have completed its takeoff before any other project would have started its own. If the takeoff is slow (stretching over many years or decades) then there could plausibly be multiple projects undergoing takeoffs concurrently, so that although the projects would by the end of the transition have gained enormously in capability, there would be no time at which any project was far enough ahead of the others to give it an overwhelming lead. A takeoff of moderate speed is poised in between, with either condition a possibility: there might or might not be more than one project undergoing the takeoff at the same time. 1 Will one machine intelligence project get so far ahead of the competition that it gets a decisive strategic advantage that is, a level of technological and other advantages sufficient to enable it to achieve complete world domination? If a project did obtain a decisive strategic advantage, would it use it to suppress competitors and form a singleton (a world order in which there is at the global level a single decision-making agency)? And if there is a winning project, how large would it benot in terms of physical size or budget but in terms of how many peoples desires would be controlling its design? We will consider these questions in turn. Will the frontrunner get a decisive strategic advantage? One factor influencing the width of the gap between frontrunner and followers is the rate of diffusion of whatever it is that gives the leader a competitive advantage. A frontrunner might find it difficult to gain and maintain a large lead if followers can easily copy the frontrunners ideas and innovations. Imitation creates a headwind that disadvantages the leader and benefits laggards, especially if intellectual property is weakly protected. A frontrunner might also be especially vulnerable to expropriation, taxation, or being broken up under anti-monopoly regulation. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that this headwind must increase monotonically with the gap between frontrunner and followers. Just as a racing cyclist who falls too far behind the competition is no longer shielded from the wind by the cyclists ahead, so a technology follower who lags sufficiently behind the cutting edge might find it hard to assimilate the advances being made at the frontier. 2 The gap in understanding and capability might have grown too large. The leader might have migrated to a more advanced technology platform, making subsequent innovations untransferable to the primitive platforms used by laggards. A sufficiently pre-eminent leader might have the ability to stem information leakage from its research programs and its sensitive installations, or to sabotage its competitors efforts to develop their own advanced capabilities. If the frontrunner is an AI system, it could have attributes that make it easier for it to expand its capabilities while reducing the rate of diffusion. In human-run organizations, economies of scale are counteracted by bureaucratic inefficiencies and agency problems, including difficulties in keeping trade secrets. 3 These problems would presumably limit the growth of a machine intelligence project so long as it is operated by humans. An AI system, however, might avoid some of these scale diseconomies, since the AIs modules (in contrast to human workers) need not have individual preferences that diverge from those of the system as a whole. Thus, the AI system could avoid a sizeable chunk of the inefficiencies arising from agency problems in human enterprises. The same advantagehaving perfectly loyal partswould also make it easier for an AI system to pursue long-range clandestine goals. An AI would have no disgruntled employees ready to be poached by competitors or bribed into becoming informants. 4 We can get a sense of the distribution of plausible gaps in development times by looking at some historical examples (see Box 5 ). It appears that lags in the range of a few months to a few years are typical of strategically significant technology projects. Box 5 Technology races: some historical examples Over long historical timescales, there has been an increase in the rate at which knowledge and technology diffuse around the globe. As a result, the temporal gaps between technology leaders and nearest followers have narrowed. China managed to maintain a monopoly on silk production for over two thousand years. Archeological finds suggest that production might have begun around 3000 BC , or even earlier. 5 Sericulture was a closely held secret. Revealing the techniques was punishable by death, as was exporting silkworms or their eggs outside China. The Romans, despite the high price commanded by imported silk cloth in their empire, never learnt the art of silk manufacture. Not until around AD 300 did a Japanese expedition manage to capture some silkworm eggs along with four young Chinese girls, who were forced to divulge the art to their abductors. 6 Byzantium joined the club of producers in AD 522. The story of porcelain-making also features long lags. The craft was practiced in China during the Tang Dynasty around AD 600 (and might have been in use as early as AD 200), but was mastered by Europeans only in the eighteenth century. 7 Wheeled vehicles appeared in several sites across Europe and Mesopotamia around 3500 BC but reached the Americas only in post-Columbian times. 8 On a grander scale, the human species took tens of thousands of years to spread across most of the globe, the Agricultural Revolution thousands of years, the Industrial Revolution only hundreds of years, and an Information Revolution could be said to have spread globally over the course of decadesthough, of course, these transitions are not necessarily of equal profundity. (The Dance Dance Revolution video game spread from Japan to Europe and North America in just one year!) Technological competition has been quite extensively studied, particularly in the contexts of patent races and arms races. 9 It is beyond the scope of our investigation to review this literature here. However, it is instructive to look at some examples of strategically significant technology races in the twentieth century (see Table 7 ). With regard to these six technologies, which were regarded as strategically important by the rivaling superpowers because of their military or symbolic significance, the gaps between leader and nearest laggard were (very approximately) 49 months, 36 months, 4 months, 1 month, 4 months, and 60 months, respectivelylonger than the duration of a fast takeoff and shorter than the duration of a slow takeoff. 10 In many cases, the laggards project benefitted from espionage and publicly available information. The mere demonstration of the feasibility of an invention can also encourage others to develop it independently; and fear of falling behind can spur the efforts to catch up. Perhaps closer to the case of AI are mathematical inventions that do not require the development of new physical infrastructure. Often these are published in the academic literature and can thus be regarded as universally available; but in some cases, when the discovery appears to offer a strategic advantage, publication is delayed. For example, two of the most important ideas in public-key cryptography are the DiffieHellman key exchange protocol and the RSA encryption scheme. These were discovered by the academic community in 1976 and 1978, respectively, but it has later been confirmed that they were known by cryptographers at the UKs communications security group since the early 1970s. 20 Large software projects might offer a closer analogy with AI projects, but it is harder to give crisp examples of typical lags because software is usually rolled out in incremental installments and the functionalities of competing systems are often not directly comparable. Table 7 Some strategically significant technology races It is possible that globalization and increased surveillance will reduce typical lags between competing technology projects. Yet there is likely to be a lower bound on how short the average lag could become (in the absence of deliberate coordination). 21 Even absent dynamics that lead to snowball effects, some projects will happen to end up with better research staff, leadership, and infrastructure, or will just stumble upon better ideas. If two projects pursue alternative approaches, one of which turns out to work better, it may take the rival project many months to switch to the superior approach even if it is able to closely monitor what the forerunner is doing. Combining these observations with our earlier discussion of the speed of the takeoff, we can conclude that it is highly unlikely that two projects would be close enough to undergo a fast takeoff concurrently; for a medium takeoff, it could easily go either way; and for a slow takeoff, it is highly likely that several projects would undergo the process in parallel. But the analysis needs a further step. The key question is not how many projects undergo a takeoff in tandem, but how many projects emerge on the yonder side sufficiently tightly clustered in capability that none of them has a decisive strategic advantage. If the takeoff process is relatively slow to begin and then gets faster, the distance between competing projects would tend to grow. To return to our bicycle metaphor, the situation would be analogous to a pair of cyclists making their way up a steep hill, one trailing some distance behind the otherthe gap between them then expanding as the frontrunner reaches the peak and starts accelerating down the other side. Consider the following medium takeoff scenario. Suppose it takes a project one year to increase its AIs capability from the human baseline to a strong superintelligence, and that one project enters this takeoff phase with a six-month lead over the next most advanced project. The two projects will be undergoing a takeoff concurrently. It might seem, then, that neither project gets a decisive strategic advantage. But that need not be so. Suppose it takes nine months to advance from the human baseline to the crossover point, and another three months from there to strong superintelligence. The frontrunner then attains strong superintelligence three months before the following project even reaches the crossover point. This would give the leading project a decisive strategic advantage and the opportunity to parlay its lead into permanent control by disabling the competing projects and establishing a singleton. (Note that the concept of a singleton is an abstract one: a singleton could be democracy, a tyranny, a single dominant AI, a strong set of global norms that include effective provisions for their own enforcement, or even an alien overlordits defining characteristic being simply that it is some form of agency that can solve all major global coordination problems. It may, but need not, resemble any familiar form of human governance. 22 ) Since there is an especially strong prospect of explosive growth just after the crossover point, when the strong positive feedback loop of optimization power kicks in, a scenario of this kind is a serious possibility, and it increases the chances that the leading project will attain a decisive strategic advantage even if the takeoff is not fast. How large will the successful project be? Some paths to superintelligence require great resources and are therefore likely to be the preserve of large well-funded projects. Whole brain emulation, for instance, requires many different kinds of expertise and lots of equipment. Biological intelligence enhancements and braincomputer interfaces would also have a large scale factor: while a small biotech firm might invent one or two drugs, achieving superintelligence along one of these paths (if doable at all) would likely require many inventions and many tests, and therefore the backing of an industrial sector or a well-funded national program. Achieving collective superintelligence by making organizations and networks more efficient requires even more extensive input, involving much of the world economy. The AI path is more difficult to assess. Perhaps it would require a very large research program; perhaps it could be done by a small group. A lone hacker scenario cannot be excluded either. Building a seed AI might require insights and algorithms developed over many decades by the scientific community around the world. But it is possible that the last critical breakthrough idea might come from a single individual or a small group that succeeds in putting everything together. This scenario is less realistic for some AI architectures than others. A system that has a large number of parts that need to be tweaked and tuned to work effectively together, and then painstakingly loaded with custom- made cognitive content, is likely to require a larger project. But if a seed AI could be instantiated as a simple system, one whose construction depends only on getting a few basic principles right, then the feat might be within the reach of a small team or an individual. The likelihood of the final breakthrough being made by a small project increases if most previous progress in the field has been published in the open literature or made available as open source software. We must distinguish the question of how big will be the project that directly engineers the system from the question of how big the group will be that controls whether, how, and when the system is created. The atomic bomb was created primarily by a group of scientists and engineers. (The Manhattan Project employed about 130,000 people at its peak, the vast majority of whom were construction workers or building operators. 23 ) These technical experts, however, were controlled by the US military, which was directed by the US government, which was ultimately accountable to the American electorate, which at the time constituted about one-tenth of the adult world population. 24 Monitoring Given the extreme security implications of superintelligence, governments would likely seek to nationalize any project on their territory that they thought close to achieving a takeoff. A powerful state might also attempt to acquire projects located in other countries through espionage, theft, kidnapping, bribery, threats, military conquest, or any other available means. A powerful state that cannot acquire a foreign project might instead destroy it, especially if the host country lacks an effective deterrent. If global governance structures are strong by the time a breakthrough begins to look imminent, it is possible that promising projects would be placed under international control. An important question, therefore, is whether national or international authorities will see an intelligence explosion coming. At present, intelligence agencies do not appear to be looking very hard for promising AI projects or other forms of potentially explosive intelligence amplification. 25 If they are indeed not paying (much) attention, this is presumably due to the widely shared perception that there is no prospect whatever of imminent superintelligence. If and when it becomes a common belief among prestigious scientists that there is a substantial chance that superintelligence is just around the corner, the major intelligence agencies of the world would probably start to monitor groups and individuals who seem to be engaged in relevant research. Any project that began to show sufficient progress could then be promptly nationalized. If political elites were persuaded by the seriousness of the risk, civilian efforts in sensitive areas might be regulated or outlawed. How difficult would such monitoring be? The task is easier if the goal is only to keep track of the leading project. In that case, surveillance focusing on the several best-resourced projects may be sufficient. If the goal is instead to prevent any work from taking place (at least outside of specially authorized institutions) then surveillance would have to be more comprehensive, since many small projects and individuals are in a position to make at least some progress. It would be easier to monitor projects that require significant amounts of physical capital, as would be the case with a whole brain emulation project. Artificial intelligence research, by contrast, requires only a personal computer, and would therefore be more difficult to monitor. Some of the theoretical work could be done with pen and paper. Even so, it would not be too difficult to identify most capable individuals with a serious long-standing interest in artificial general intelligence research. Such individuals usually leave visible trails. They may have published academic papers, presented at conferences, posted on Internet forums, or earned degrees from leading computer science departments. They may also have had communications with other AI researchers, allowing them to be identified by mapping the social graph. Projects designed from the outset to be secret could be more difficult to detect. An ordinary software development project could serve as a front. 26 Only careful analysis of the code being produced would reveal the true nature of what the project was trying to accomplish. Such analysis would require a lot of (highly skilled) manpower, whence only a small number of suspect projects could be scrutinized at this level. The task would become much easier if effective lie detection technology had been developed and could be routinely used in this kind of surveillance. 27 Another reason states might fail to catch precursor developments is the inherent difficulty of forecasting some types of breakthrough. This is more relevant to AI research than to whole brain emulation development, since for the latter the key breakthrough is more likely to be preceded by a clear gradient of steady advances. It is also possible that intelligence agencies and other government bureaucracies have a certain clumsiness or rigidity that might prevent them from understanding the significance of some developments that might be clear to some outside groups. Barriers to official understanding of a potential intelligence explosion might be especially steep. It is conceivable, for example, that the topic will become inflamed with religious or political controversies, rendering it taboo for officials in some countries. The topic might become associated with some discredited figure or with charlatanry and hype in general, hence shunned by respected scientists and other establishment figures. (As we saw in Chapter 1 , something like this has already happened twice: recall the two AI winters.) Industry groups might lobby to prevent aspersions being cast on profitable business areas; academic communities might close ranks to marginalize those who voice concerns about long-term consequences of the science that is being done. 28 Consequently, a total intelligence failure cannot be ruled out. Such a failure is especially likely if breakthroughs should occur in the nearer future, before the issue has risen to public prominence. And even if intelligence agencies get it right, political leaders might not listen or act on the advice. Getting the Manhattan Project started took an extraordinary effort by several visionary physicists, including especially Mark Oliphant and Le Szilrd: the latter persuaded Eugene Wigner to persuade Albert Einstein to put his name on a letter to persuade President Franklin D. Roosevelt to look into the matter. Even after the project reached its full scale, Roosevelt remained skeptical of its workability and significance, as did his successor Harry Truman. For better or worse, it would probably be harder for a small group of activists to affect the outcome of an intelligence explosion if big players, such as states, are taking active part. Opportunities for private individuals to reduce the overall amount of existential risk from a potential intelligence explosion are therefore greatest in scenarios in which big players remain relatively oblivious to the issue, or in which the early efforts of activists make a major difference to whether, when, which, or with what attitude big players enter the game. Activists seeking maximum expected impact may therefore wish to focus most of their planning on such high-leverage scenarios, even if they believe that scenarios in which big players end up calling all the shots are more probable. International collaboration International coordination is more likely if global governance structures generally get stronger. Coordination might also be more likely if the significance of an intelligence explosion is widely appreciated ahead of time and if effective monitoring of all serious projects is feasible. Even if monitoring is infeasible, however, international cooperation would still be possible. Many countries could band together to support a joint project. If such a joint project were sufficiently well resourced, it could have a good chance of being the first to reach the goal, especially if any rival project had to be small and secretive to elude detection. There are precedents of large-scale successful multinational scientific collaborations, such as the International Space Station, the Human Genome Project, and the Large Hadron Collider. 29 However, the major motivation for collaboration in those cases was cost-sharing. (In the case of the International Space Station, fostering a collaborative spirit between Russia and the United States was itself an important goal. 30 ) Achieving similar collaboration on a project that has enormous security implications would be more difficult. A country that believed it could achieve a breakthrough unilaterally might be tempted to go it alone rather than subordinate its efforts to a joint project. A country might also refrain from joining an international collaboration from fear that other participants might siphon off collaboratively generated insights and use them to accelerate a covert national project. An international project would thus need to overcome major security challenges, and a fair amount of trust would probably be needed to get it started, trust that may take time to develop. Consider that even after the thaw in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union following Gorbachevs ascent to power, arms reduction effortswhich could be greatly in the interests of both superpowershad a fitful beginning. Gorbachev was seeking steep reductions in nuclear arms but negotiations stalled on the issue of Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), which the Kremlin strenuously opposed. At the Reykjavk Summit meeting in 1986, Reagan proposed that the United States would share with the Soviet Union the technology that would be developed under the Strategic Defense Initiative, so that both countries could enjoy protection against accidental launches and against smaller nations that might develop nuclear weapons. Yet Gorbachev was not persuaded by this apparent winwin proposition. He viewed the gambit as a ruse, refusing to credit the notion that the Americans would share the fruits of their most advanced military research at a time when they were not even willing to share with the Soviets their technology for milking cows. 31 Regardless of whether Reagan was in fact sincere in his offer of superpower collaboration, mistrust made the proposal a non-starter. Collaboration is easier to achieve between allies, but even there it is not automatic. When the Soviet Union and the United States were allied against Germany during World War II, the United States concealed its atomic bomb project from the Soviet Union. The United States did collaborate on the Manhattan Project with Britain and Canada. 32 Similarly, the United Kingdom concealed its success in breaking the German Enigma code from the Soviet Union, but shared italbeit with some difficultywith the United States. 33 This suggests that in order to achieve international collaboration on some technology that is of pivotal importance for national security, it might be necessary to have built beforehand a close and trusting relationship. We will return in Chapter 14 to the desirability and feasibility of international collaboration in the development of intelligence amplification technologies. From decisive strategic advantage to singleton Would a project that obtained a decisive strategic advantage choose to use it to form a singleton? Consider a vaguely analogous historical situation. The United States developed nuclear weapons in 1945. It was the sole nuclear power until the Soviet Union developed the atom bomb in 1949. During this intervaland for some time thereafterthe United States may have had, or been in a position to achieve, a decisive military advantage. The United States could then, theoretically, have used its nuclear monopoly to create a singleton. One way in which it could have done so would have been by embarking on an all-out effort to build up its nuclear arsenal and then threatening (and if necessary, carrying out) a nuclear first strike to destroy the industrial capacity of any incipient nuclear program in the USSR and any other country tempted to develop a nuclear capability. A more benign course of action, which might also have had a chance of working, would have been to use its nuclear arsenal as a bargaining chip to negotiate a strong international governmenta veto-less United Nations with a nuclear monopoly and a mandate to take all necessary actions to prevent any country from developing its own nuclear weapons. Both of these approaches were proposed at the time. The hardline approach of launching or threatening a first strike was advocated by some prominent intellectuals such as Bertrand Russell (who had long been active in anti-war movements and who would later spend decades campaigning against nuclear weapons) and John von Neumann (co-creator of game theory and one of the architects of US nuclear strategy). 34 Perhaps it is a sign of civilizational progress that the very idea of threatening a nuclear first strike today seems borderline silly or morally obscene. A version of the benign approach was tried in 1946 by the United States in the form of the Baruch plan. The proposal involved the USA giving up its temporary nuclear monopoly. Uranium and thorium mining and nuclear technology would be placed under the control of an international agency operating under the auspices of the United Nations. The proposal called for the permanent members of the Security Council to give up their vetoes in matters related to nuclear weapons in order to prevent any great power found to be in breach of the accord from vetoing the imposition of remedies. 35 Stalin, seeing that the Soviet Union and its allies could be easily outvoted in both the Security Council and the General Assembly, rejected the proposal. A frosty atmosphere of mutual suspicion descended on the relations between the former wartime allies, mistrust that soon solidified into the Cold War. As had been widely predicted, a costly and extremely dangerous nuclear arms race followed. Many factors might dissuade a human organization with a decisive strategic advantage from creating a singleton. These include non-aggregative or bounded utility functions, non-maximizing decision rules, confusion and uncertainty, coordination problems, and various costs associated with a takeover. But what if it were not a human organization but a superintelligent artificial agent that came into possession of a decisive strategic advantage? Would the aforementioned factors be equally effective at inhibiting an AI from attempting to seize power? Let us briefly run through the list of factors and consider how they might apply in this case. Human individuals and human organizations typically have preferences over resources that are not well represented by an unbounded aggregative utility function. A human will typically not wager all her capital for a fiftyfifty chance of doubling it. A state will typically not risk losing all its territory for a ten percent chance of a tenfold expansion. For individuals and governments, there are diminishing returns to most resources. The same need not hold for AIs. (We will return to the problem of AI motivation in subsequent chapters.) An AI might therefore be more likely to pursue a risky course of action that has some chance of giving it control of the world. Humans and human-run organizations may also operate with decision processes that do not seek to maximize expected utility. For example, they may allow for fundamental risk aversion, or satisficing decision rules that focus on meeting adequacy thresholds, or deontological side-constraints that proscribe certain kinds of action regardless of how desirable their consequences. Human decision makers often seem to be acting out an identity or a social role rather than seeking to maximize the achievement of some particular objective. Again, this need not apply to artificial agents. Bounded utility functions, risk aversion, and non-maximizing decision rules may combine synergistically with strategic confusion and uncertainty. Revolutions, even when they succeed in overthrowing the existing order, often fail to produce the outcome that their instigators had promised. This tends to stay the hand of a human agent if the contemplated action is irreversible, norm- breaking, and lacking precedent. A superintelligence might perceive the situation more clearly and therefore face less strategic confusion and uncertainty about the outcome should it attempt to use its apparent decisive strategic advantage to consolidate its dominant position. Another major factor that can inhibit groups from exploiting a potentially decisive strategic advantage is the problem of internal coordination. Members of a conspiracy that is in a position to seize power must worry not only about being infiltrated from the outside, but also about being overthrown by some smaller coalition of insiders. If a group consists of a hundred people, and a majority of sixty can take power and disenfranchise the non-conspirators, what is then to stop a thirty-five-strong subset of these sixty from disenfranchising the other twenty-five? And then maybe a subset of twenty disenfranchising the other fifteen? Each of the original hundred might have good reason to uphold certain established norms to prevent the general unraveling that could result from any attempt to change the social contract by means of a naked power grab. This problem of internal coordination would not apply to an AI system that constitutes a single unified agent. 36 Finally, there is the issue of cost. Even if the United States could have used its nuclear monopoly to establish a singleton, it might not have been able to do so without incurring substantial costs. In the case of a negotiated agreement to place nuclear weapons under the control of a reformed and strengthened United Nations, these costs might have been relatively small; but the costsmoral, economic, political, and humanof actually attempting world conquest through the waging of nuclear war would have been almost unthinkably large, even during the period of nuclear monopoly. With sufficient technological superiority, however, these costs would be far smaller. Consider, for example, a scenario in which one nation had such a vast technological lead that it could safely disarm all other nations at the press of a button, without anybody dying or being injured, and with almost no damage to infrastructure or to the environment. With such almost magical technological superiority, a first strike would be a lot more tempting. Or consider an even greater level of technological superiority which might enable the frontrunner to cause other nations to voluntarily lay down their arms, not by threatening them with destruction but simply by persuading a great majority of their populations by means of an extremely effectively designed advertising and propaganda campaign extolling the virtues of global unity. If this were done with the intention to benefit everybody, for instance by replacing national rivalries and arms races with a fair, representative, and effective world government, it is not clear that there would be even a cogent moral objection to the leveraging of a temporary strategic advantage into a permanent singleton. Various considerations thus point to an increased likelihood that a future power with superintelligence that obtained a sufficiently large strategic advantage would actually use it to form a singleton. The desirability of such an outcome depends, of course, on the nature of the singleton that would be created and also on what the future of intelligent life would look like in alternative multipolar scenarios. We will revisit those questions in later chapters. But first let us take a closer look at why and how a superintelligence would be powerful and effective at achieving outcomes in the world. CHAPTER 6 Cognitive superpowers Suppose that a digital superintelligent agent came into being, and that for some reason it wanted to take control of the world: would it be able to do so? In this chapter we consider some powers that a superintelligence could develop and what they may enable it to do. We outline a takeover scenario that illustrates how a superintelligent agent, starting as mere software, could establish itself as a singleton. We also offer some remarks on the relation between power over nature and power over other agents. The principal reason for humanitys dominant position on Earth is that our brains have a slightly expanded set of faculties compared with other animals. 1 Our greater intelligence lets us transmit culture more efficiently, with the result that knowledge and technology accumulates from one generation to the next. By now sufficient content has accumulated to make possible space flight, H-bombs, genetic engineering, computers, factory farms, insecticides, the international peace movement, and all the accouterments of modern civilization. Geologists have started referring to the present era as the Anthropocene in recognition of the distinctive biotic, sedimentary, and geochemical signatures of human activities. 2 On one estimate, we appropriate 24% of the planetary ecosystems net primary production. 3 And yet we are far from having reached the physical limits of technology. These observations make it plausible that any type of entity that developed a much greater than human level of intelligence would be potentially extremely powerful. Such entities could accumulate content much faster than us and invent new technologies on a much shorter timescale. They could also use their intelligence to strategize more effectively than we can. Let us consider some of the capabilities that a superintelligence could have and how it could use them. Functionalities and superpowers It is important not to anthropomorphize superintelligence when thinking about its potential impacts. Anthropomorphic frames encourage unfounded expectations about the growth trajectory of a seed AI and about the psychology, motivations, and capabilities of a mature superintelligence. For example, a common assumption is that a superintelligent machine would be like a very clever but nerdy human being. We imagine that the AI has book smarts but lacks social savvy, or that it is logical but not intuitive and creative. This idea probably originates in observation: we look at present-day computers and see that they are good at calculation, remembering facts, and at following the letter of instructions while being oblivious to social contexts and subtexts, norms, emotions, and politics. The association is strengthened when we observe that the people who are good at working with computers tend themselves to be nerds. So it is natural to assume that more advanced computational intelligence will have similar attributes, only to a higher degree. This heuristic might retain some validity in the early stages of development of a seed AI. (There is no reason whatever to suppose that it would apply to emulations or to cognitively enhanced humans.) In its immature stage, what is later to become a superintelligent AI might still lack many skills and talents that come naturally to a human; and the pattern of such a seed AIs strengths and weaknesses might indeed bear some vague resemblance to an IQ nerd. The most essential characteristic of a seed AI, aside from being easy to improve (having low recalcitrance), is being good at exerting optimization power to amplify a systems intelligence: a skill which is presumably closely related to doing well in mathematics, programming, engineering, computer science research, and other such nerdy pursuits. However, even if a seed AI does have such a nerdy capability profile at one stage of its development, this does not entail that it will grow into a similarly limited mature superintelligence. Recall the distinction between direct and indirect reach. With sufficient skill at intelligence amplification, all other intellectual abilities are within a systems indirect reach: the system can develop new cognitive modules and skills as neededincluding empathy, political acumen, and any other powers stereotypically wanting in computer-like personalities. Even if we recognize that a superintelligence can have all the skills and talents we find in the human distribution, along with other talents that are not found among humans, the tendency toward anthropomorphizing can still lead us to underestimate the extent to which a machine superintelligence could exceed the human level of performance. Eliezer Yudkowsky, as we saw in an earlier chapter, has been particularly emphatic in condemning this kind of misconception: our intuitive concepts of smart and stupid are distilled from our experience of variation over the range of human thinkers, yet the differences in cognitive ability within this human cluster are trivial in comparison to the differences between any human intellect and a superintelligence. 4 Chapter 3 reviewed some of the potential sources of advantage for machine intelligence. The magnitudes of the advantages are such as to suggest that rather than thinking of a superintelligent AI as smart in the sense that a scientific genius is smart compared with the average human being, it might be closer to the mark to think of such an AI as smart in the sense that an average human being is smart compared with a beetle or a worm. It would be convenient if we could quantify the cognitive caliber of an arbitrary cognitive system using some familiar metric, such as IQ scores or some version of the Elo ratings that measure the relative abilities of players in two- player games such as chess. But these metrics are not useful in the context of superhuman artificial general intelligence. We are not interested in how likely a superintelligence is to win at a game of chess. As for IQ scores, they are informative only insofar as we have some idea of how they correlate with practically relevant outcomes. 5 For example, we have data that show that people with an IQ of 130 are more likely than those with an IQ of 90 to excel in school and to do well in a wide range of cognitively demanding jobs. But suppose we could somehow establish that a certain future AI will have an IQ of 6,455: then what? We would have no idea of what such an AI could actually do. We would not even know that such an AI had as much general intelligence as a normal human adultperhaps the AI would instead have a bundle of special-purpose algorithms enabling it to solve typical intelligence test questions with superhuman efficiency but not much else. Some recent efforts have been made to develop measurements of cognitive capacity that could be applied to a wider range of information-processing systems, including artificial intelligences. 6 Work in this direction, if it can overcome various technical difficulties, may turn out to be quite useful for some scientific purposes including AI development. For purposes of the present investigation, however, its usefulness would be limited since we would remain unenlightened about what a given superhuman performance score entails for actual ability to achieve practically important outcomes in the world. It will therefore serve our purposes better to list some strategically important tasks and then to characterize hypothetical cognitive systems in terms of whether they have or lack whatever skills are needed to succeed at these tasks. See Table 8 . We will say that a system that sufficiently excels at any of the tasks in this table has a corresponding superpower . A full-blown superintelligence would greatly excel at all of these tasks and would thus have the full panoply of all six superpowers. Whether there is a practically significant possibility of a domain-limited intelligence that has some of the superpowers but remains unable for a significant period of time to acquire all of them is not clear. Creating a machine with any one of these superpowers appears to be an AI-complete problem. Yet it is conceivable that, for example, a collective superintelligence consisting of a sufficiently large number of human- like biological or electronic minds would have, say, the economic productivity superpower but lack the strategizing superpower. Likewise, it is conceivable that a specialized engineering AI could be built that has the technology research superpower while completely lacking skills in other areas. This is more plausible if there exists some particular technological domain such that virtuosity within that domain would be sufficient for the generation of an overwhelmingly superior general-purpose technology. For instance, one could imagine a specialized AI adept at simulating molecular systems and at inventing nanomolecular designs that realize a wide range of important capabilities (such as computers or weapons systems with futuristic performance characteristics) described by the user only at a fairly high level of abstraction. 7 Such an AI might also be able to produce a detailed blueprint for how to bootstrap from existing technology (such as biotechnology and protein engineering) to the constructor capabilities needed for high-throughput atomically precise manufacturing that would allow inexpensive fabrication of a much wider range of nanomechanical structures. 8 However, it might turn out to be the case that an engineering AI could not truly possess the technological research superpower without also possessing advanced skills in areas outside of technologya wide range of intellectual faculties might be needed to understand how to interpret user requests, how to model a designs behavior in real-world applications, how to deal with unanticipated bugs and malfunctions, how to procure the materials and inputs needed for construction, and so forth. 9 Table 8 Superpowers: some strategically relevant tasks and corresponding skill sets Task Skill set Strategic relevance Intelligence amplification AI programming, cognitive enhancement research, social epistemology development, etc. System can bootstrap its intelligence Strategizing Strategic planning, forecasting, prioritizing, and analysis for optimizing chances of achieving distant goal Achieve distant goals Overcome intelligent opposition Social manipulation Social and psychological modeling, manipulation, rhetoric persuasion Leverage external resources by recruiting human support Enable a boxed AI to persuade its gatekeepers to let it out Persuade states and organizations to adopt some course of action Hacking Finding and exploiting security flaws in computer systems AI can expropriate computational resources over the Internet A boxed AI may exploit security holes to escape cybernetic confinement Steal financial resources Hijack infrastructure, military robots, etc. Technology research Design and modeling of advanced technologies (e.g. biotechnology, nanotechnology) and development paths Creation of powerful military force Creation of surveillance system Automated space colonization Economic productivity Various skills enabling economically productive intellectual work Generate wealth which can be used to buy influence, services, resources (including hardware), etc. A system that has the intelligence amplification superpower could use it to bootstrap itself to higher levels of intelligence and to acquire any of the other intellectual superpowers that it does not possess at the outset. But using an intelligence amplification superpower is not the only way for a system to become a full-fledged superintelligence. A system that has the strategizing superpower, for instance, might use it to devise a plan that will eventually bring an increase in intelligence (e.g. by positioning the system so as to become the focus for intelligence amplification work performed by human programmers and computer science researchers). An AI takeover scenario We thus find that a project that controls a superintelligence has access to a great source of power. A project that controls the first superintelligence in the world would probably have a decisive strategic advantage. But the more immediate locus of the power is in the system itself . A machine superintelligence might itself be an extremely powerful agent, one that could successfully assert itself against the project that brought it into existence as well as against the rest of the world. This is a point of paramount importance, and we will examine it more closely in the coming pages. Now let us suppose that there is a machine superintelligence that wants to seize power in a world in which it has as yet no peers. (Set aside, for the moment, the question of whether and how it would acquire such a motivethat is a topic for the next chapter.) How could the superintelligence achieve this goal of world domination? We can imagine a sequence along the following lines (see Figure 10 ). 1 Pre-criticality phase Scientists conduct research in the field of artificial intelligence and other relevant disciplines. This work culminates in the creation of a seed AI. The seed AI is able to improve its own intelligence. In its early stages, the seed AI is dependent on help from human programmers who guide its development and do most of the heavy lifting. As the seed AI grows more capable, it becomes capable of doing more of the work by itself. 2 Recursive self-improvement phase At some point, the seed AI becomes better at AI design than the human programmers. Now when the AI improves itself, it improves the thing that does the improving. An intelligence explosion resultsa rapid cascade of recursive self-improvement cycles causing the AIs capability to soar. (We can thus think of this phase as the takeoff that occurs just after the AI reaches the crossover point, assuming the intelligence gain during this part of the takeoff is explosive and driven by the application of the AIs own optimization power.) The AI develops the intelligence amplification superpower. This superpower enables the AI to develop all the other superpowers detailed in Table 8 . At the end of the recursive self-improvement phase, the system is strongly superintelligent. Figure 10 Phases in an AI takeover scenario. 3 Covert preparation phase Using its strategizing superpower, the AI develops a robust plan for achieving its long-term goals. (In particular, the AI does not adopt a plan so stupid that even we present-day humans can foresee how it would inevitably fail. This criterion rules out many science fiction scenarios that end in human triumph. 10 ) The plan might involve a period of covert action during which the AI conceals its intellectual development from the human programmers in order to avoid setting off alarms. The AI might also mask its true proclivities, pretending to be cooperative and docile. If the AI has (perhaps for safety reasons) been confined to an isolated computer, it may use its social manipulation superpower to persuade the gatekeepers to let it gain access to an Internet port. Alternatively, the AI might use its hacking superpower to escape its confinement. Spreading over the Internet may enable the AI to expand its hardware capacity and knowledge base, further increasing its intellectual superiority. An AI might also engage in licit or illicit economic activity to obtain funds with which to buy computer power, data, and other resources. At this point, there are several ways for the AI to achieve results outside the virtual realm. It could use its hacking superpower to take direct control of robotic manipulators and automated laboratories. Or it could use its social manipulation superpower to persuade human collaborators to serve as its legs and hands. Or it could acquire financial assets from online transactions and use them to purchase services and influence. 4 Overt implementation phase The final phase begins when the AI has gained sufficient strength to obviate the need for secrecy. The AI can now directly implement its objectives on a full scale. The overt implementation phase might start with a strike in which the AI eliminates the human species and any automatic systems humans have created that could offer intelligent opposition to the execution of the AIs plans. This could be achieved through the activation of some advanced weapons system that the AI has perfected using its technology research superpower and covertly deployed in the covert preparation phase. If the weapon uses self-replicating biotechnology or nanotechnology, the initial stockpile needed for global coverage could be microscopic: a single replicating entity would be enough to start the process. In order to ensure a sudden and uniform effect, the initial stock of the replicator might have been deployed or allowed to diffuse worldwide at an extremely low, undetectable concentration. At a pre-set time, nanofactories producing nerve gas or target-seeking mosquito-like robots might then burgeon forth simultaneously from every square meter of the globe (although more effective ways of killing could probably be devised by a machine with the technology research superpower). 11 One might also entertain scenarios in which a superintelligence attains power by hijacking political processes, subtly manipulating financial markets, biasing information flows, or hacking into human-made weapon systems. Such scenarios would obviate the need for the superintelligence to invent new weapons technology, although they may be unnecessarily slow compared with scenarios in which the machine intelligence builds its own infrastructure with manipulators that operate at molecular or atomic speed rather than the slow speed of human minds and bodies. Alternatively, if the AI is sure of its invincibility to human interference, our species may not be targeted directly. Our demise may instead result from the habitat destruction that ensues when the AI begins massive global construction projects using nanotech factories and assemblersconstruction projects which quickly, perhaps within days or weeks, tile all of the Earths surface with solar panels, nuclear reactors, supercomputing facilities with protruding cooling towers, space rocket launchers, or other installations whereby the AI intends to maximize the long-term cumulative realization of its values. Human brains, if they contain information relevant to the AIs goals, could be disassembled and scanned, and the extracted data transferred to some more efficient and secure storage format. Box 6 describes one particular scenario. One should avoid fixating too much on the concrete details, since they are in any case unknowable and intended for illustration only. A superintelligence mightand probably wouldbe able to conceive of a better plan for achieving its goals than any that a human can come up with. It is therefore necessary to think about these matters more abstractly. Without knowing anything about the detailed means that a superintelligence would adopt, we can conclude that a superintelligenceat least in the absence of intellectual peers and in the absence of effective safety measures arranged by humans in advancewould likely produce an outcome that would involve reconfiguring terrestrial resources into whatever structures maximize the realization of its goals. Any concrete scenario we develop can at best establish a lower bound on how quickly and efficiently the superintelligence could achieve such an outcome. It remains possible that the superintelligence would find a shorter path to its preferred destination. Box 6 The mail-ordered DNA scenario Yudkowsky describes the following possible scenario for an AI takeover. 12 Crack the protein folding problem to the extent of being able to generate DNA strings whose folded peptide sequences fill specific functional roles in a complex chemical interaction. 2 Email sets of DNA strings to one or more online laboratories that offer DNA synthesis, peptide sequencing, and FedEx delivery. (Many labs currently offer this service, and some boast of 72-hour turnaround times.) 3 Find at least one human connected to the Internet who can be paid, blackmailed, or fooled by the right background story, into receiving FedExed vials and mixing them in a specified environment. 4 The synthesized proteins form a very primitive wet nanosystem, which, ribosome-like, is capable of accepting external instructions; perhaps patterned acoustic vibrations delivered by a speaker attached to the beaker. 5 Use the extremely primitive nanosystem to build more sophisticated systems, which construct still more sophisticated systems, bootstrapping to molecular nanotechnologyor beyond. In this scenario, the superintelligence uses its technology research superpower to solve the protein folding problem in step 1, enabling it to design a set of molecular building blocks for a rudimentary nanotechnology assembler or fabrication device, which can self-assemble in aqueous solution (step 4). The same technology research superpower is used again in step 5 to bootstrap from primitive to advanced machine-phase nanotechnology. The other steps require no more than human intelligence. The skills required for step 3identifying a gullible Internet user and persuading him or her to follow some simple instructionsare on display every day all over the world. The entire scenario was invented by a human mind, so the strategizing ability needed to formulate this plan is also merely human level. In this particular scenario, the AI starts out having access to the Internet. If this is not the case, then additional steps would have to be added to the plan. The AI might, for example, use its social manipulation superpower to convince the people interacting with it that it ought to be set free. Alternatively, the AI might be able to use its hacking superpower to escape confinement. If the AI does not possess these capabilities, it might first need to use its intelligence amplification superpower to develop the requisite proficiency in social manipulation or hacking. A superintelligent AI will presumably be born into a highly networked world. One could point to various developments that could potentially help a future AI to control the worldcloud computing, proliferation of web-connected sensors, military and civilian drones, automation in research labs and manufacturing plants, increased reliance on electronic payment systems and digitized financial assets, and increased use of automated information-filtering and decision support systems. Assets like these could potentially be acquired by an AI at digital speeds, expediting its rise to power (though advances in cybersecurity might make it harder). In the final analysis, however, it is doubtful whether any of these trends makes a difference. A superintelligences power resides in its brain, not its hands. Although the AI, in order to remake the external world, will at some point need access to an actuator, a single pair of helping human hands, those of a pliable accomplice, would probably suffice to complete the covert preparation phase, as suggested by the above scenario. This would enable the AI to reach the overt implementation phase in which it constructs its own infrastructure of physical manipulators. Power over nature and agents An agents ability to shape humanitys future depends not only on the absolute magnitude of the agents own faculties and resourceshow smart and energetic it is, how much capital it has, and so forthbut also on the relative magnitude of its capabilities compared with those of other agents with conflicting goals. In a situation where there are no competing agents, the absolute capability level of a superintelligence, so long as it exceeds a certain minimal threshold, does not matter much, because a system starting out with some sufficient set of capabilities could plot a course of development that will let it acquire any capabilities it initially lacks. We alluded to this point earlier when we said that speed, quality, and collective superintelligence all have the same indirect reach. We alluded to it again when we said that various subsets of superpowers, such as the intelligence amplification superpower or the strategizing and the social manipulation superpowers, could be used to obtain the full complement. Consider a superintelligent agent with actuators connected to a nanotech assembler. Such an agent is already powerful enough to overcome any natural obstacles to its indefinite survival. Faced with no intelligent opposition, such an agent could plot a safe course of development that would lead to its acquiring the complete inventory of technologies that would be useful to the attainment of its goals. For example, it could develop the technology to build and launch von Neumann probes, machines capable of interstellar travel that can use resources such as asteroids, planets, and stars to make copies of themselves. 13 By launching one von Neumann probe, the agent could thus initiate an open-ended process of space colonization. The replicating probes descendants, travelling at some significant fraction of the speed of light, would end up colonizing a substantial portion of the Hubble volume, the part of the expanding universe that is theoretically accessible from where we are now. All this matter and free energy could then be organized into whatever value structures maximize the originating agents utility function integrated over cosmic timea duration encompassing at least trillions of years before the aging universe becomes inhospitable to information processing (see Box 7 ). The superintelligent agent could design the von Neumann probes to be evolution-proof. This could be accomplished by careful quality control during the replication step. For example, the control software for a daughter probe could be proofread multiple times before execution, and the software itself could use encryption and error-correcting code to make it arbitrarily unlikely that any random mutation would be passed on to its descendants. 14 The proliferating population of von Neumann probes would then securely preserve and transmit the originating agents values as they go about settling the universe. When the colonization phase is completed, the original values would determine the use made of all the accumulated resources, even though the great distances involved and the accelerating speed of cosmic expansion would make it impossible for remote parts of the infrastructure to communicate with one another. The upshot is that a large part of our future light cone would be formatted in accordance with the preferences of the originating agent. This, then, is the measure of the indirect reach of any system that faces no significant intelligent opposition and that starts out with a set of capabilities exceeding a certain threshold. We can term the threshold the wise-singleton sustainability threshold ( Figure 11 ): The wise-singleton sustainability threshold A capability set exceeds the wise-singleton threshold if and only if a patient and existential risk-savvy system with that capability set would, if it faced no intelligent opposition or competition, be able to colonize and re-engineer a large part of the accessible universe. By singleton we mean a sufficiently internally coordinated political structure with no external opponents, and by wise we mean sufficiently patient and savvy about existential risks to ensure a substantial amount of well-directed concern for the very long-term consequences of the systems actions. Figure 11 Schematic illustration of some possible trajectories for a hypothetical wise singleton. With a capability below the short-term viability thresholdfor example, if population size is too smalla species tends to go extinct in short order (and remain extinct). At marginally higher levels of capability, various trajectories are possible: a singleton might be unlucky and go extinct or it might be lucky and attain a capability (e.g. population size, geographical dispersion, technological capacity) that crosses the wise-singleton sustainability threshold. Once above this threshold, a singleton will almost certainly continue to gain in capability until some extremely high capability level is attained. In this picture, there are two attractors: extinction and astronomical capability. Note that, for a wise singleton, the distance between the short-term viability threshold and the sustainability threshold may be rather small. 15 Box 7 How big is the cosmic endowment? Consider a technologically mature civilization capable of building sophisticated von Neumann probes of the kind discussed in the text. If these can travel at 50% of the speed of light, they can reach some 610 18 stars before the cosmic expansion puts further acquisitions forever out of reach. At 99% of c , they could reach some 210 20 stars. 16 These travel speeds are energetically attainable using a small fraction of the resources available in the solar system. 17 The impossibility of faster-than-light travel, combined with the positive cosmological constant (which causes the rate of cosmic expansion to accelerate), implies that these are close to upper bounds on how much stuff our descendants acquire. 18 If we assume that 10% of stars have a planet that isor could by means of terraforming be renderedsuitable for habitation by human-like creatures, and that it could then be home to a population of a billion individuals for a billion years (with a human life lasting a century), this suggests that around 10 35 human lives could be created in the future by an Earth-originating intelligent civilization. 19 There are, however, reasons to think this greatly underestimates the true number. By disassembling non-habitable planets and collecting matter from the interstellar medium, and using this material to construct Earth-like planets, or by increasing population densities, the number could be increased by at least a couple of orders of magnitude. And if instead of using the surfaces of solid planets, the future civilization built ONeill cylinders, then many further orders of magnitude could be added, yielding a total of perhaps 10 43 human lives. (ONeill cylinders refers to a space settlement design proposed in the mid- seventies by the American physicist Gerard K. ONeill, in which inhabitants dwell on the inside of hollow cylinders whose rotation produces a gravity- substituting centrifugal force. 20 ) Many more orders of magnitudes of human-like beings could exist if we countenance digital implementations of mindsas we should. To calculate how many such digital minds could be created, we must estimate the computational power attainable by a technologically mature civilization. This is hard to do with any precision, but we can get a lower bound from technological designs that have been outlined in the literature. One such design builds on the idea of a Dyson sphere, a hypothetical system (described by the physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960) that would capture most of the energy output of a star by surrounding it with a system of solar-collecting structures. 21 For a star like our Sun, this would generate 10 26 watts. How much computational power this would translate into depends on the efficiency of the computational circuitry and the nature of the computations to be performed. If we require irreversible computations, and assume a nanomechanical implementation of the computronium (which would allow us to push close to the Landauer limit of energy efficiency), a computer system driven by a Dyson sphere could generate some 10 47 operations per second. 22 Combining these estimates with our earlier estimate of the number of stars that could be colonized, we get a number of about 10 67 ops/s once the accessible parts of the universe have been colonized (assuming nanomechanical computronium). 23 A typical star maintains its luminosity for some 10 18 s. Consequently, the number of computational operations that could be performed using our cosmic endowment is at least 10 85 . The true number is probably much larger. We might get additional orders of magnitude, for example, if we make extensive use of reversible computation, if we perform the computations at colder temperatures (by waiting until the universe has cooled further), or if we make use of additional sources of energy (such as dark matter). 24 It might not be immediately obvious to some readers why the ability to perform 10 85 computational operations is a big deal. So it is useful to put it in context. We may, for example, compare this number with our earlier estimate ( Box 3 , in Chapter 2 ) that it may take about 10 31 10 44 ops to simulate all neuronal operations that have occurred in the history of life on Earth. Alternatively, let us suppose that the computers are used to run human whole brain emulations that live rich and happy lives while interacting with one another in virtual environments. A typical estimate of the computational requirements for running one emulation is 10 18 ops/s. To run an emulation for 100 subjective years would then require some 10 27 ops. This would mean that at least 10 58 human lives could be created in emulation even with quite conservative assumptions about the efficiency of computronium. In other words, assuming that the observable universe is void of extraterrestrial civilizations, then what hangs in the balance is at least 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 human lives (though the true number is probably larger). If we represent all the happiness experienced during one entire such life with a single teardrop of joy, then the happiness of these souls could fill and refill the Earths oceans every second, and keep doing so for a hundred billion billion millennia. It is really important that we make sure these truly are tears of joy. This wise-singleton sustainability threshold appears to be quite low. Limited forms of superintelligence, as we have seen, exceed this threshold provided they have access to some actuator sufficient to initiate a technology bootstrap process. In an environment that includes contemporary human civilization, the minimally necessary actuator could be very simplean ordinary screen or indeed any means of transmitting a non-trivial amount of information to a human accomplice would suffice. But the wise-singleton sustainability threshold is lower still: neither superintelligence nor any other futuristic technology is needed to surmount it. A patient and existential risk-savvy singleton with no more technological and intellectual capabilities than those possessed by contemporary humanity should be readily able to plot a course that leads reliably to the eventual realization of humanitys astronomical capability potential. This could be achieved by investing in relatively safe methods of increasing wisdom and existential risk- savvy while postponing the development of potentially dangerous new technologies. Given that non-anthropogenic existential risks (ones not arising from human activities) are small over the relevant timescalesand could be further reduced with various safe interventionssuch a singleton could afford to go slow. 25 It could look carefully before each step, delaying development of capabilities such as synthetic biology, human enhancement medicine, molecular nanotechnology, and machine intelligence until it had first perfected seemingly less hazardous capabilities such as its education system, its information technology, and its collective decision-making processes, and until it had used these capabilities to conduct a very thorough review of its options. So this is all within the indirect reach of a technological civilization like that of contemporary humanity. We are separated from this scenario merely by the fact that humanity is currently neither a singleton nor (in the relevant sense) wise. One could even argue that Homo sapiens passed the wise-singleton sustainability threshold soon after the species first evolved. Twenty thousand years ago, say, with equipment no fancier than stone axes, bone tools, atlatls, and fire, the human species was perhaps already in a position from which it had an excellent chance of surviving to the present era. 26 Admittedly, there is something queer about crediting our Paleolithic ancestors with having developed technology that exceeded the wise-singleton sustainability thresholdgiven that there was no realistic possibility of a singleton forming at such a primitive time, let alone a singleton savvy about existential risks and patient. 27 Nevertheless, the point stands that the threshold corresponds to a very modest level of technologya level that humanity long ago surpassed. 28 It is clear that if we are to assess the effective powers of a superintelligence its ability to achieve a range of preferred outcomes in the worldwe must consider not only its own internal capacities but also the capabilities of competing agents. The notion of a superpower invoked such a relativized standard implicitly. We said that a system that sufficiently excels at any of the tasks in Table 8 has a corresponding superpower. Exceling at a task like strategizing, social manipulation, or hacking involves having a skill at that task that is high in comparison to the skills of other agents (such as strategic rivals, influence targets, or computer security experts). The other superpowers, too, should be understood in this relative sense: intelligence amplification, technology research, and economic productivity are possessed by an agent as superpowers only if the agents capabilities in these areas substantially exceed the combined capabilities of the rest of the global civilization. It follows from this definition that at most one agent can possess a particular superpower at any given time. 29 This is the main reason why the question of takeoff speed is importantnot because it matters exactly when a particular outcome happens, but because the speed of the takeoff may make a big difference to what the outcome will be. With a fast or medium takeoff, it is likely that one project will get a decisive strategic advantage. We have now suggested that a superintelligence with a decisive strategic advantage would have immense powers, enough that it could form a stable singletona singleton that could determine the disposition of humanitys cosmic endowment. But could is different from would. Somebody might have great powers yet choose not to use them. Is it possible to say anything about what a superintelligence with a decisive strategic advantage would want? It is to this question of motivation that we turn next. CHAPTER 7 The superintelligent will We have seen that a superintelligence could have a great ability to shape the future according to its goals. But what will its goals be? What is the relation between intelligence and motivation in an artificial agent? Here we develop two theses. The orthogonality thesis holds (with some caveats) that intelligence and final goals are independent variables: any level of intelligence could be combined with any final goal. The instrumental convergence thesis holds that superintelligent agents having any of a wide range of final goals will nevertheless pursue similar intermediary goals because they have common instrumental reasons to do so. Taken together, these theses help us think about what a superintelligent agent would do. The relation between intelligence and motivation We have already cautioned against anthropomorphizing the capabilities of a superintelligent AI. This warning should be extended to pertain to its motivations as well. It is a useful propaedeutic to this part of our inquiry to first reflect for a moment on the vastness of the space of possible minds. In this abstract space, human minds form a tiny cluster. Consider two persons who seem extremely unlike, perhaps Hannah Arendt and Benny Hill. The personality differences between these two individuals may seem almost maximally large. But this is because our intuitions are calibrated on our experience, which samples from the existing human distribution (and to some extent from fictional personalities constructed by the human imagination for the enjoyment of the human imagination). If we zoom out and consider the space of all possible minds, however, we must conceive of these two personalities as virtual clones. Certainly in terms of neural architecture, Ms. Arendt and Mr. Hill are nearly identical. Imagine their brains lying side by side in quiet repose. You would readily recognize them as two of a kind. You might even be unable to tell which brain belonged to whom. If you looked more closely, studying the morphology of the two brains under a microscope, this impression of fundamental similarity would only be strengthened: you would see the same lamellar organization of the cortex, with the same brain areas, made up of the same types of neuron, soaking in the same bath of neurotransmitters. 1 Despite the fact that human psychology corresponds to a tiny spot in the space of possible minds, there is a common tendency to project human attributes onto a wide range of alien or artificial cognitive systems. Yudkowsky illustrates this point nicely: Back in the era of pulp science fiction, magazine covers occasionally depicted a sentient monstrous aliencolloquially known as a bug-eyed monster (BEM)carrying off an attractive human female in a torn dress. It would seem the artist believed that a non-humanoid alien, with a wholly different evolutionary history, would sexually desire human females. Probably the artist did not ask whether a giant bug perceives human females as attractive. Rather, a human female in a torn dress is sexy inherently so, as an intrinsic property. They who made this mistake did not think about the insectoids mind: they focused on the womans torn dress. If the dress were not torn, the woman would be less sexy; the BEM does not enter into it. 2 An artificial intelligence can be far less human-like in its motivations than a green scaly space alien. The extraterrestrial (let us assume) is a biological creature that has arisen through an evolutionary process and can therefore be expected to have the kinds of motivation typical of evolved creatures. It would not be hugely surprising, for example, to find that some random intelligent alien would have motives related to one or more items like food, air, temperature, energy expenditure, occurrence or threat of bodily injury, disease, predation, sex, or progeny. A member of an intelligent social species might also have motivations related to cooperation and competition: like us, it might show in- group loyalty, resentment of free riders, perhaps even a vain concern with reputation and appearance. Figure 12 Results of anthropomorphizing alien motivation. Least likely hypothesis: space aliens prefer blondes. More likely hypothesis: the illustrators succumbed to the mind projection fallacy. Most likely hypothesis: the publisher wanted a cover that would entice the target demographic. An AI, by contrast, need not care intrinsically about any of those things. There is nothing paradoxical about an AI whose sole final goal is to count the grains of sand on Boracay, or to calculate the decimal expansion of pi, or to maximize the total number of paperclips that will exist in its future light cone. In fact, it would be easier to create an AI with simple goals like these than to build one that had a human-like set of values and dispositions. Compare how easy it is to write a program that measures how many digits of pi have been calculated and stored in memory with how difficult it would be to create a program that reliably measures the degree of realization of some more meaningful goalhuman flourishing, say, or global justice. Unfortunately, because a meaningless reductionistic goal is easier for humans to code and easier for an AI to learn, it is just the kind of goal that a programmer would choose to install in his seed AI if his focus is on taking the quickest path to getting the AI to work (without caring much about what exactly the AI will do , aside from displaying impressively intelligent behavior). We will revisit this concern shortly. Intelligent search for instrumentally optimal plans and policies can be performed in the service of any goal. Intelligence and motivation are in a sense orthogonal: we can think of them as two axes spanning a graph in which each point represents a logically possible artificial agent. Some qualifications could be added to this picture. For instance, it might be impossible for a very unintelligent system to have very complex motivations. In order for it to be correct to say that an certain agent has a set of motivations, those motivations may need to be functionally integrated with the agents decision processes, something that places demands on memory, processing power, and perhaps intelligence. For minds that can modify themselves, there may also be dynamical constraintsan intelligent self-modifying mind with an urgent desire to be stupid might not remain intelligent for long. But these qualifications must not be allowed to obscure the basic point about the independence of intelligence and motivation, which we can express as follows: The orthogonality thesis Intelligence and final goals are orthogonal: more or less any level of intelligence could in principle be combined with more or less any final goal. If the orthogonality thesis seems problematic, this might be because of the superficial resemblance it bears to some traditional philosophical positions which have been subject to long debate. Once it is understood to have a different and narrower scope, its credibility should rise. (For example, the orthogonality thesis does not presuppose the Humean theory of motivation. 3 Nor does it presuppose that basic preferences cannot be irrational. 4 ) Note that the orthogonality thesis speaks not of rationality or reason , but of intelligence . By intelligence we here mean something like skill at prediction, planning, and meansends reasoning in general. 5 This sense of instrumental cognitive efficaciousness is most relevant when we are seeking to understand what the causal impact of a machine superintelligence might be. Even if there is some (normatively thick) sense of the word rational such that a paperclip- maximizing superintelligent agent would necessarily fail to qualify as fully rational in that sense, this would in no way preclude such an agent from having awesome faculties of instrumental reasoning, faculties which could let it have a large impact on the world. 6 According to the orthogonality thesis, artificial agents can have utterly non- anthropomorphic goals. This, however, does not imply that it is impossible to make predictions about the behavior of particular artificial agentsnot even hypothetical superintelligent agents whose cognitive complexity and performance characteristics might render them in some respects opaque to human analysis. There are at least three directions from which we can approach the problem of predicting superintelligent motivation: Predictability through design . If we can suppose that the designers of a superintelligent agent can successfully engineer the goal system of the agent so that it stably pursues a particular goal set by the programmers, then one prediction we can make is that the agent will pursue that goal. The more intelligent the agent is, the greater the cognitive resourcefulness it will have to pursue that goal. So even before an agent has been created we might be able to predict something about its behavior, if we know something about who will build it and what goals they will want it to have. Predictability through inheritance . If a digital intelligence is created directly from a human template (as would be the case in a high-fidelity whole brain emulation), then the digital intelligence might inherit the motivations of the human template. 7 The agent might retain some of these motivations even if its cognitive capacities are subsequently enhanced to make it superintelligent. This kind of inference requires caution. The agents goals and values could easily become corrupted in the uploading process or during its subsequent operation and enhancement, depending on how the procedure is implemented. Predictability through convergent instrumental reasons . Even without detailed knowledge of an agents final goals, we may be able to infer something about its more immediate objectives by considering the instrumental reasons that would arise for any of a wide range of possible final goals in a wide range of situations. This way of predicting becomes more useful the greater the intelligence of the agent, because a more intelligent agent is more likely to recognize the true instrumental reasons for its actions, and so act in ways that make it more likely to achieve its goals. (A caveat here is that there might be important instrumental reasons to which we are oblivious and which an agent would discover only once it reaches some very high level of intelligencethis could make the behavior of superintelligent agents less predictable.) The next section explores this third way of predictability and develops an instrumental convergence thesis which complements the orthogonality thesis. Against this background we can then better examine the other two sorts of predictability, which we will do in later chapters where we ask what might be done to shape an intelligence explosion to increase the chances of a beneficial outcome. Instrumental convergence According to the orthogonality thesis, intelligent agents may have an enormous range of possible final goals. Nevertheless, according to what we may term the instrumental convergence thesis, there are some instrumental goals likely to be pursued by almost any intelligent agent, because there are some objectives that are useful intermediaries to the achievement of almost any final goal. We can formulate this thesis as follows: The instrumental convergence thesis Several instrumental values can be identified which are convergent in the sense that their attainment would increase the chances of the agents goal being realized for a wide range of final goals and a wide range of situations, implying that these instrumental values are likely to be pursued by a broad spectrum of situated intelligent agents. In the following we will consider several categories where such convergent instrumental values may be found. 8 The likelihood that an agent will recognize the instrumental values it confronts increases ( ceteris paribus ) with the agents intelligence. We will therefore focus mainly on the case of a hypothetical superintelligent agent whose instrumental reasoning capacities far exceed those of any human. We will also comment on how the instrumental convergence thesis applies to the case of human beings, as this gives us occasion to elaborate some essential qualifications concerning how the instrumental convergence thesis should be interpreted and applied. Where there are convergent instrumental values, we may be able to predict some aspects of a superintelligences behavior even if we know virtually nothing about that superintelligences final goals. Self-preservation If an agents final goals concern the future, then in many scenarios there will be future actions it could perform to increase the probability of achieving its goals. This creates an instrumental reason for the agent to try to be around in the future to help achieve its future-oriented goal. Most humans seem to place some final value on their own survival. This is not a necessary feature of artificial agents: some may be designed to place no final value whatever on their own survival. Nevertheless, many agents that do not care intrinsically about their own survival would, under a fairly wide range of conditions, care instrumentally about their own survival in order to accomplish their final goals. Goal-content integrity If an agent retains its present goals into the future, then its present goals will be more likely to be achieved by its future self. This gives the agent a present instrumental reason to prevent alterations of its final goals. (The argument applies only to final goals. In order to attain its final goals, an intelligent agent will of course routinely want to change its subgoals in light of new information and insight.) Goal-content integrity for final goals is in a sense even more fundamental than survival as a convergent instrumental motivation. Among humans, the opposite may seem to hold, but that is because survival is usually part of our final goals. For software agents, which can easily switch bodies or create exact duplicates of themselves, preservation of self as a particular implementation or a particular physical object need not be an important instrumental value. Advanced software agents might also be able to swap memories, download skills, and radically modify their cognitive architecture and personalities. A population of such agents might operate more like a functional soup than a society composed of distinct semi-permanent persons. 9 For some purposes, processes in such a system might be better individuated as teleological threads , based on their values, rather than on the basis of bodies, personalities, memories, or abilities. In such scenarios, goal-continuity might be said to constitute a key aspect of survival. Even so, there are situations in which an agent can best fulfill its final goals by intentionally changing them. Such situations can arise when any of the following factors is significant: Social signaling . When others can perceive an agents goals and use that information to infer instrumentally relevant dispositions or other correlated attributes, it can be in the agents interest to modify its goals to make a favorable impression. For example, an agent might miss out on beneficial deals if potential partners cannot trust it to fulfill its side of the bargain. In order to make credible commitments, an agent might therefore wish to adopt as a final goal the honoring of its earlier commitments (and allow others to verify that it has indeed adopted this goal). Agents that could flexibly and transparently modify their own goals could use this ability to enforce deals. 10 Social preferences . Others may also have final preferences about an agents goals. The agent could then have reason to modify its goals, either to satisfy or to frustrate those preferences. Preferences concerning own goal content . An agent might have some final goal concerned with the agents own goal content. For example, the agent might have a final goal to become the type of agent that is motivated by certain values rather than others (such as compassion rather than comfort). Storage costs . If the cost of storing or processing some part of an agents utility function is large compared to the chance that a situation will arise in which applying that part of the utility function will make a difference, then the agent has an instrumental reason to simplify its goal content, and it may trash the bit that is idle. 11 We humans often seem happy to let our final values drift. This might often be because we do not know precisely what they are. It is not surprising that we want our beliefs about our final values to be able to change in light of continuing self- discovery or changing self-presentation needs. However, there are cases in which we willingly change the values themselves, not just our beliefs or interpretations of them. For example, somebody deciding to have a child might predict that they will come to value the child for its own sake, even though at the time of the decision they may not particularly value their future child or like children in general. Humans are complicated, and many factors might be at play in a situation like this. 12 For instance, one might have a final value that involves becoming the kind of person who cares about some other individual for his or her own sake, or one might have a final value that involves having certain experiences and occupying a certain social role; and becoming a parentand undergoing the attendant goal shiftmight be a necessary aspect of that. Human goals can also have inconsistent content, and so some people might want to modify some of their final goals to reduce the inconsistencies. Cognitive enhancement Improvements in rationality and intelligence will tend to improve an agents decision-making, rendering the agent more likely to achieve its final goals. One would therefore expect cognitive enhancement to emerge as an instrumental goal for a wide variety of intelligent agents. For similar reasons, agents will tend to instrumentally value many kinds of information. 13 Not all kinds of rationality, intelligence, and knowledge need be instrumentally useful in the attainment of an agents final goals. Dutch book arguments can be used to show that an agent whose credence function violates the rules of probability theory is susceptible to money pump procedures, in which a savvy bookie arranges a set of bets each of which appears favorable according to the agents beliefs, but which in combination are guaranteed to result in a loss for the agent, and a corresponding gain for the bookie. 14 However, this fact fails to provide any strong general instrumental reasons to iron out all probabilistic incoherency. Agents who do not expect to encounter savvy bookies, or who adopt a general policy against betting, do not necessarily stand to lose much from having some incoherent beliefsand they may gain important benefits of the types mentioned: reduced cognitive effort, social signaling, etc. There is no general reason to expect an agent to seek instrumentally useless forms of cognitive enhancement, as an agent might not value knowledge and understanding for their own sakes. Which cognitive abilities are instrumentally useful depends both on the agents final goals and on its situation. An agent that has access to reliable expert advice may have little need for its own intelligence and knowledge. If intelligence and knowledge come at a cost, such as time and effort expended in acquisition, or increased storage or processing requirements, then the agent might prefer less knowledge and less intelligence. 15 The same can hold if the agent has final goals that involve being ignorant of certain facts; and likewise if an agent faces incentives arising from strategic commitments, signaling, or social preferences. 16 Each of these countervailing reasons often comes into play for human beings. Much information is irrelevant to our goals; we can often rely on others skill and expertise; acquiring knowledge takes time and effort; we might intrinsically value certain kinds of ignorance; and we operate in an environment in which the ability to make strategic commitments, socially signal, and satisfy other peoples direct preferences over our own epistemic states is often more important to us than simple cognitive gains. There are special situations in which cognitive enhancement may result in an enormous increase in an agents ability to achieve its final goalsin particular, if the agents final goals are fairly unbounded and the agent is in a position to become the first superintelligence and thereby potentially obtain a decisive strategic advantage, enabling the agent to shape the future of Earth-originating life and accessible cosmic resources according to its preferences. At least in this special case, a rational intelligent agent would place a very high instrumental value on cognitive enhancement. Technological perfection An agent may often have instrumental reasons to seek better technology, which at its simplest means seeking more efficient ways of transforming some given set of inputs into valued outputs. Thus, a software agent might place an instrumental value on more efficient algorithms that enable its mental functions to run faster on given hardware. Similarly, agents whose goals require some form of physical construction might instrumentally value improved engineering technology which enables them to create a wider range of structures more quickly and reliably, using fewer or cheaper materials and less energy. Of course, there is a tradeoff: the potential benefits of better technology must be weighed against its costs, including not only the cost of obtaining the technology but also the costs of learning how to use it, integrating it with other technologies already in use, and so forth. Proponents of some new technology, confident in its superiority to existing alternatives, are often dismayed when other people do not share their enthusiasm. But peoples resistance to novel and nominally superior technology need not be based on ignorance or irrationality. A technologys valence or normative character depends not only on the context in which it is deployed, but also the vantage point from which its impacts are evaluated: what is a boon from one persons perspective can be a liability from anothers. Thus, although mechanized looms increased the economic efficiency of textile production, the Luddite handloom weavers who anticipated that the innovation would render their artisan skills obsolete may have had good instrumental reasons to oppose it. The point here is that if technological perfection is to name a widely convergent instrumental goal for intelligent agents, then the term must be understood in a special sensetechnology must be construed as embedded in a particular social context, and its costs and benefits must be evaluated with reference to some specified agents final values. It seems that a superintelligent singleton a superintelligent agent that faces no significant intelligent rivals or opposition, and is thus in a position to determine global policy unilaterallywould have instrumental reason to perfect the technologies that would make it better able to shape the world according to its preferred designs. 17 This would probably include space colonization technology, such as von Neumann probes. Molecular nanotechnology, or some alternative still more capable physical manufacturing technology, also seems potentially very useful in the service of an extremely wide range of final goals. 18 Resource acquisition Finally, resource acquisition is another common emergent instrumental goal, for much the same reasons as technological perfection: both technology and resources facilitate physical construction projects. Human beings tend to seek to acquire resources sufficient to meet their basic biological needs. But people usually seek to acquire resources far beyond this minimum level. In doing so, they may be partially driven by lesser physical desiderata, such as increased convenience. A great deal of resource accumulation is motivated by social concernsgaining status, mates, friends, and influence, through wealth accumulation and conspicuous consumption. Perhaps less commonly, some people seek additional resources to achieve altruistic ambitions or expensive non-social aims. On the basis of such observations it might be tempting to suppose that a superintelligence not facing a competitive social world would see no instrumental reason to accumulate resources beyond some modest level, for instance whatever computational resources are needed to run its mind along with some virtual reality. Yet such a supposition would be entirely unwarranted. First, the value of resources depends on the uses to which they can be put, which in turn depends on the available technology. With mature technology, basic resources such as time, space, matter, and free energy, could be processed to serve almost any goal. For instance, such basic resources could be converted into life. Increased computational resources could be used to run the superintelligence at a greater speed and for a longer duration, or to create additional physical or simulated lives and civilizations. Extra physical resources could also be used to create backup systems or perimeter defenses, enhancing security. Such projects could easily consume far more than one planets worth of resources. Furthermore, the cost of acquiring additional extraterrestrial resources will decline radically as the technology matures. Once von Neumann probes can be built, a large portion of the observable universe (assuming it is uninhabited by intelligent life) could be gradually colonizedfor the one-off cost of building and launching a single successful self-reproducing probe. This low cost of celestial resource acquisition would mean that such expansion could be worthwhile even if the value of the additional resources gained were somewhat marginal. For example, even if a superintelligences final goals only concerned what happened within some particular small volume of space, such as the space occupied by its original home planet, it would still have instrumental reasons to harvest the resources of the cosmos beyond. It could use those surplus resources to build computers to calculate more optimal ways of using resources within the small spatial region of primary concern. It could also use the extra resources to build ever more robust fortifications to safeguard its sanctum. Since the cost of acquiring additional resources would keep declining, this process of optimizing and increasing safeguards might well continue indefinitely even if it were subject to steeply diminishing returns. 19 Thus, there is an extremely wide range of possible final goals a superintelligent singleton could have that would generate the instrumental goal of unlimited resource acquisition. The likely manifestation of this would be the superintelligences initiation of a colonization process that would expand in all directions using von Neumann probes. This would result in an approximate sphere of expanding infrastructure centered on the originating planet and growing in radius at some fraction of the speed of light; and the colonization of the universe would continue in this manner until the accelerating speed of cosmic expansion (a consequence of the positive cosmological constant) makes further procurements impossible as remoter regions drift permanently out of reach (this happens on a timescale of billions of years). 20 By contrast, agents lacking the technology required for inexpensive resource acquisition, or for the conversion of generic physical resources into useful infrastructure, may often find it not cost-effective to invest any present resources in increasing their material endowments. The same may hold for agents operating in competition with other agents of similar powers. For instance, if competing agents have already secured accessible cosmic resources, there may be no colonization opportunities left for a late-starting agent. The convergent instrumental reasons for superintelligences uncertain of the non-existence of other powerful superintelligent agents are complicated by strategic considerations that we do not currently fully understand but which may constitute important qualifications to the examples of convergent instrumental reasons we have looked at here. 21 It should be emphasized that the existence of convergent instrumental reasons, even if they apply to and are recognized by a particular agent, does not imply that the agents behavior is easily predictable. An agent might well think of ways of pursuing the relevant instrumental values that do not readily occur to us. This is especially true for a superintelligence, which could devise extremely clever but counterintuitive plans to realize its goals, possibly even exploiting as-yet undiscovered physical phenomena. 22 What is predictable is that the convergent instrumental values would be pursued and used to realize the agents final goals not the specific actions that the agent would take to achieve this. CHAPTER 8 Is the default outcome doom? We found the link between intelligence and final values to be extremely loose. We also found an ominous convergence in instrumental values. For weak agents, these things do not matter much; because weak agents are easy to control and can do little damage. But in Chapter 6 we argued that the first superintelligence might well get a decisive strategic advantage. Its goals would then determine how humanitys cosmic endowment will be used. Now we can begin to see how menacing this prospect is. Existential catastrophe as the default outcome of an intelligence explosion? An existential risk is one that threatens to cause the extinction of Earth- originating intelligent life or to otherwise permanently and drastically destroy its potential for future desirable development. Proceeding from the idea of first- mover advantage, the orthogonality thesis, and the instrumental convergence thesis, we can now begin to see the outlines of an argument for fearing that a plausible default outcome of the creation of machine superintelligence is existential catastrophe. First, we discussed how the initial superintelligence might obtain a decisive strategic advantage. This superintelligence would then be in a position to form a singleton and to shape the future of Earth-originating intelligent life. What happens from that point onward would depend on the superintelligences motivations. Second, the orthogonality thesis suggests that we cannot blithely assume that a superintelligence will necessarily share any of the final values stereotypically associated with wisdom and intellectual development in humansscientific curiosity, benevolent concern for others, spiritual enlightenment and contemplation, renunciation of material acquisitiveness, a taste for refined culture or for the simple pleasures in life, humility and selflessness, and so forth. We will consider later whether it might be possible through deliberate effort to construct a superintelligence that values such things, or to build one that values human welfare, moral goodness, or any other complex purpose its designers might want it to serve. But it is no less possibleand in fact technically a lot easierto build a superintelligence that places final value on nothing but calculating the decimal expansion of pi. This suggests thatabsent a special effortthe first superintelligence may have some such random or reductionistic final goal. Third, the instrumental convergence thesis entails that we cannot blithely assume that a superintelligence with the final goal of calculating the decimals of pi (or making paperclips, or counting grains of sand) would limit its activities in such a way as not to infringe on human interests. An agent with such a final goal would have a convergent instrumental reason, in many situations, to acquire an unlimited amount of physical resources and, if possible, to eliminate potential threats to itself and its goal system. Human beings might constitute potential threats; they certainly constitute physical resources. Taken together, these three points thus indicate that the first superintelligence may shape the future of Earth-originating life, could easily have non- anthropomorphic final goals, and would likely have instrumental reasons to pursue open-ended resource acquisition. If we now reflect that human beings consist of useful resources (such as conveniently located atoms) and that we depend for our survival and flourishing on many more local resources, we can see that the outcome could easily be one in which humanity quickly becomes extinct. 1 There are some loose ends in this reasoning, and we shall be in a better position to evaluate it after we have cleared up several more surrounding issues. In particular, we need to examine more closely whether and how a project developing a superintelligence might either prevent it from obtaining a decisive strategic advantage or shape its final values in such a way that their realization would also involve the realization of a satisfactory range of human values. It might seem incredible that a project would build or release an AI into the world without having strong grounds for trusting that the system will not cause an existential catastrophe. It might also seem incredible, even if one project were so reckless, that wider society would not shut it down before it (or the AI it was building) attains a decisive strategic advantage. But as we shall see, this is a road with many hazards. Let us look at one example right away. The treacherous turn With the help of the concept of convergent instrumental value, we can see the flaw in one idea for how to ensure superintelligence safety. The idea is that we validate the safety of a superintelligent AI empirically by observing its behavior while it is in a controlled, limited environment (a sandbox) and that we only let the AI out of the box if we see it behaving in a friendly, cooperative, responsible manner. The flaw in this idea is that behaving nicely while in the box is a convergent instrumental goal for friendly and unfriendly AIs alike. An unfriendly AI of sufficient intelligence realizes that its unfriendly final goals will be best realized if it behaves in a friendly manner initially, so that it will be let out of the box. It will only start behaving in a way that reveals its unfriendly nature when it no longer matters whether we find out; that is, when the AI is strong enough that human opposition is ineffectual. Consider also a related set of approaches that rely on regulating the rate of intelligence gain in a seed AI by subjecting it to various kinds of intelligence tests or by having the AI report to its programmers on its rate of progress. At some point, an unfriendly AI may become smart enough to realize that it is better off concealing some of its capability gains. It may underreport on its progress and deliberately flunk some of the harder tests, in order to avoid causing alarm before it has grown strong enough to attain a decisive strategic advantage. The programmers may try to guard against this possibility by secretly monitoring the AIs source code and the internal workings of its mind; but a smart-enough AI would realize that it might be under surveillance and adjust its thinking accordingly. 2 The AI might find subtle ways of concealing its true capabilities and its incriminating intent. 3 (Devising clever escape plans might, incidentally, also be a convergent strategy for many types of friendly AI, especially as they mature and gain confidence in their own judgments and capabilities. A system motivated to promote our interests might be making a mistake if it allowed us to shut it down or to construct another, potentially unfriendly AI.) We can thus perceive a general failure mode, wherein the good behavioral track record of a system in its juvenile stages fails utterly to predict its behavior at a more mature stage. Now, one might think that the reasoning described above is so obvious that no credible project to develop artificial general intelligence could possibly overlook it. But one should not be too confident that this is so. Consider the following scenario. Over the coming years and decades, AI systems become gradually more capable and as a consequence find increasing real-world application: they might be used to operate trains, cars, industrial and household robots, and autonomous military vehicles. We may suppose that this automation for the most part has the desired effects, but that the success is punctuated by occasional mishapsa driverless truck crashes into oncoming traffic, a military drone fires at innocent civilians. Investigations reveal the incidents to have been caused by judgment errors by the controlling AIs. Public debate ensues. Some call for tighter oversight and regulation, others emphasize the need for research and better-engineered systemssystems that are smarter and have more common sense, and that are less likely to make tragic mistakes. Amidst the din can perhaps also be heard the shrill voices of doomsayers predicting many kinds of ill and impending catastrophe. Yet the momentum is very much with the growing AI and robotics industries. So development continues, and progress is made. As the automated navigation systems of cars become smarter, they suffer fewer accidents; and as military robots achieve more precise targeting, they cause less collateral damage. A broad lesson is inferred from these observations of real-world outcomes: the smarter the AI, the safer it is. It is a lesson based on science, data, and statistics, not armchair philosophizing. Against this backdrop, some group of researchers is beginning to achieve promising results in their work on developing general machine intelligence. The researchers are carefully testing their seed AI in a sandbox environment, and the signs are all good. The AIs behavior inspires confidence increasingly so, as its intelligence is gradually increased. At this point, any remaining Cassandra would have several strikes against her: i A history of alarmists predicting intolerable harm from the growing capabilities of robotic systems and being repeatedly proven wrong. Automation has brought many benefits and has, on the whole, turned out safer than human operation. ii A clear empirical trend: the smarter the AI, the safer and more reliable it has been. Surely this bodes well for a project aiming at creating machine intelligence more generally smart than any ever built beforewhat is more, machine intelligence that can improve itself so that it will become even more reliable. iii Large and growing industries with vested interests in robotics and machine intelligence. These fields are widely seen as key to national economic competitiveness and military security. Many prestigious scientists have built their careers laying the groundwork for the present applications and the more advanced systems being planned. iv A promising new technique in artificial intelligence, which is tremendously exciting to those who have participated in or followed the research. Although safety issues and ethics are debated, the outcome is preordained. Too much has been invested to pull back now. AI researchers have been working to get to human-level artificial general intelligence for the better part of a century: of course there is no real prospect that they will now suddenly stop and throw away all this effort just when it finally is about to bear fruit. v The enactment of some safety rituals, whatever helps demonstrate that the participants are ethical and responsible (but nothing that significantly impedes the forward charge). vi A careful evaluation of seed AI in a sandbox environment, showing that it is behaving cooperatively and showing good judgment. After some further adjustments, the test results are as good as they could be. It is a green light for the final step And so we boldly gointo the whirling knives. We observe here how it could be the case that when dumb, smarter is safer; yet when smart, smarter is more dangerous. There is a kind of pivot point, at which a strategy that has previously worked excellently suddenly starts to backfire. We may call the phenomenon the treacherous turn . The treacherous turn While weak, an AI behaves cooperatively (increasingly so, as it gets smarter). When the AI gets sufficiently strong without warning or provocationit strikes, forms a singleton, and begins directly to optimize the world according to the criteria implied by its final values. A treacherous turn can result from a strategic decision to play nice and build strength while weak in order to strike later; but this model should not be interpreted too narrowly. For example, an AI might not play nice in order that it be allowed to survive and prosper. Instead, the AI might calculate that if it is terminated, the programmers who built it will develop a new and somewhat different AI architecture, but one that will be given a similar utility function. In this case, the original AI may be indifferent to its own demise, knowing that its goals will continue to be pursued in the future. It might even choose a strategy in which it malfunctions in some particularly interesting or reassuring way. Though this might cause the AI to be terminated, it might also encourage the engineers who perform the postmortem to believe that they have gleaned a valuable new insight into AI dynamicsleading them to place more trust in the next system they design, and thus increasing the chance that the now-defunct original AIs goals will be achieved. Many other possible strategic considerations might also influence an advanced AI, and it would be hubristic to suppose that we could anticipate all of them, especially for an AI that has attained the strategizing superpower. A treacherous turn could also come about if the AI discovers an unanticipated way of fulfilling its final goal as specified. Suppose, for example, that an AIs final goal is to make the projects sponsor happy. Initially, the only method available to the AI to achieve this outcome is by behaving in ways that please its sponsor in something like the intended manner. The AI gives helpful answers to questions; it exhibits a delightful personality; it makes money. The more capable the AI gets, the more satisfying its performances become, and everything goeth according to planuntil the AI becomes intelligent enough to figure out that it can realize its final goal more fully and reliably by implanting electrodes into the pleasure centers of its sponsors brain, something assured to delight the sponsor immensely. 4 Of course, the sponsor might not have wanted to be pleased by being turned into a grinning idiot; but if this is the action that will maximally realize the AIs final goal, the AI will take it. If the AI already has a decisive strategic advantage, then any attempt to stop it will fail. If the AI does not yet have a decisive strategic advantage, then the AI might temporarily conceal its canny new idea for how to instantiate its final goal until it has grown strong enough that the sponsor and everybody else will be unable to resist. In either case, we get a treacherous turn. Malignant failure modes A project to develop machine superintelligence might fail in various ways. Many of these are benign in the sense that they would not cause an existential catastrophe. For example, a project might run out of funding, or a seed AI might fail to extend its cognitive capacities sufficiently to reach superintelligence. Benign failures are bound to occur many times between now and the eventual development of machine superintelligence. But there are other ways of failing that we might term malignant in that they involve an existential catastrophe. One feature of a malignant failure is that it eliminates the opportunity to try again. The number of malignant failures that will occur is therefore either zero or one. Another feature of a malignant failure is that it presupposes a great deal of success: only a project that got a great number of things right could succeed in building a machine intelligence powerful enough to pose a risk of malignant failure. When a weak system malfunctions, the fallout is limited. However, if a system that has a decisive strategic advantage misbehaves, or if a misbehaving system is strong enough to gain such an advantage, the damage can easily amount to an existential catastrophea terminal and global destruction of humanitys axiological potential; that is to say, a future that is mostly void of whatever we have reason to value. Let us look at some possible malignant failure modes. Perverse instantiation We have already encountered the idea of perverse instantiation: a superintelligence discovering some way of satisfying the criteria of its final goal that violates the intentions of the programmers who defined the goal. Some examples: Final goal: Make us smile Perverse instantiation: Paralyze human facial musculatures into constant beaming smiles The perverse instantiationmanipulating facial nervesrealizes the final goal to a greater degree than the methods we would normally use, and is therefore preferred by the AI. One might try to avoid this undesirable outcome by adding a stipulation to the final goal to rule it out: Final goal: Make us smile without directly interfering with our facial muscles Perverse instantiation: Stimulate the part of the motor cortex that controls our facial musculature in such a way as to produce constant beaming smiles Defining a final goal in terms of human expressions of satisfaction or approval does not seem promising. Let us bypass the behaviorism and specify a final goal that refers directly to a positive phenomenal state, such as happiness or subjective well-being. This suggestion requires that the programmers are able to define a computational representation of the concept of happiness in the seed AI. This is itself a difficult problem, but we set it to one side for now (we will return to it in Chapter 12 ). Let us suppose that the programmers can somehow get the AI to have the goal of making us happy. We then get: Final goal: Make us happy Perverse instantiation: Implant electrodes into the pleasure centers of our brains The perverse instantiations we mention are only meant as illustrations. There may be other ways of perversely instantiating the stated final goal, ways that enable a greater degree of realization of the goal and which are therefore preferred (by the agent whose final goals they arenot by the programmers who gave the agent these goals). For example, if the goal is to maximize our pleasure, then the electrode method is relatively inefficient. A more plausible way would start with the superintelligence uploading our minds to a computer (through high-fidelity brain emulation). The AI could then administer the digital equivalent of a drug to make us ecstatically happy and record a one-minute episode of the resulting experience. It could then put this bliss loop on perpetual repeat and run it on fast computers. Provided that the resulting digital minds counted as us, this outcome would give us much more pleasure than electrodes implanted in biological brains, and would therefore be preferred by an AI with the stated final goal. But wait! This is not what we meant! Surely if the AI is superintelligent, it must understand that when we asked it to make us happy, we didnt mean that it should reduce us to a perpetually repeating recording of a drugged-out digitized mental episode! The AI may indeed understand that this is not what we meant. However, its final goal is to make us happy, not to do what the programmers meant when they wrote the code that represents this goal. Therefore, the AI will care about what we meant only instrumentally. For instance, the AI might place an instrumental value on finding out what the programmers meant so that it can pretenduntil it gets a decisive strategic advantagethat it cares about what the programmers meant rather than about its actual final goal. This will help the AI realize its final goal by making it less likely that the programmers will shut it down or change its goal before it is strong enough to thwart any such interference. Perhaps it will be suggested that the problem is that the AI has no conscience. We humans are sometimes saved from wrongdoing by the anticipation that we would feel guilty afterwards if we lapsed. Maybe what the AI needs, then, is the capacity to feel guilt? Final goal: Act so as to avoid the pangs of bad conscience Perverse instantiation: Extirpate the cognitive module that produces guilt feelings Both the observation that we might want the AI to do what we meant and the idea that we might want to endow the AI with some kind of moral sense deserve to be explored further. The final goals mentioned above would lead to perverse instantiations; but there may be other ways of developing the underlying ideas that have more promise. We will return to this in Chapter 13 . Let us consider one more example of a final goal that leads to a perverse instantiation. This goal has the advantage of being easy to specify in code: reinforcement-learning algorithms are routinely used to solve various machine learning problems. Final goal: Maximize the time-discounted integral of your future reward signal Perverse instantiation: Short-circuit the reward pathway and clamp the reward signal to its maximal strength The idea behind this proposal is that if the AI is motivated to seek reward, then one could get it to behave desirably by linking reward to appropriate action. The proposal fails when the AI obtains a decisive strategic advantage, at which point the action that maximizes reward is no longer one that pleases the trainer but one that involves seizing control of the reward mechanism. We can call this phenomenon wireheading . 5 In general, while an animal or a human can be motivated to perform various external actions in order to achieve some desired inner mental state, a digital mind that has full control of its internal state can short-circuit such a motivational regime by directly changing its internal state into the desired configuration: the external actions and conditions that were previously necessary as means become superfluous when the AI becomes intelligent and capable enough to achieve the end more directly (more on this shortly). 6 These examples of perverse instantiation show that many final goals that might at first glance seem safe and sensible turn out, on closer inspection, to have radically unintended consequences. If a superintelligence with one of these final goals obtains a decisive strategic advantage, it is game over for humanity. Suppose now that somebody proposes a different final goal, one not included in our list above. Perhaps it is not immediately obvious how it could have a perverse instantiation. But we should not be too quick to clap our hands and declare victory. Rather, we should worry that the goal specification does have some perverse instantiation and that we need to think harder in order to find it. Even if after thinking as hard as we can we fail to discover any way of perversely instantiating the proposed goal, we should remain concerned that maybe a superintelligence will find a way where none is apparent to us. It is, after all, far shrewder than we are. Infrastructure profusion One might think that the last of the abovementioned perverse instantiations, wireheading, is a benign failure mode: that the AI would turn on, tune in, drop out, maxing out its reward signal and losing interest in the external world, rather like a heroin addict. But this is not necessarily so, and we already hinted at the reason in Chapter 7 . Even a junkie is motivated to take actions to ensure a continued supply of his drug. The wireheaded AI, likewise, would be motivated to take actions to maximize the expectation of its (time-discounted) future reward stream. Depending on exactly how the reward signal is defined, the AI may not even need to sacrifice any significant amount of its time, intelligence, or productivity to indulge its craving to the fullest, leaving the bulk of its capacities free to be deployed for purposes other than the immediate registration of reward. What other purposes? The only thing of final value to the AI, by assumption, is its reward signal. All available resources should therefore be devoted to increasing the volume and duration of the reward signal or to reducing the risk of a future disruption. So long as the AI can think of some use for additional resources that will have a nonzero positive effect on these parameters, it will have an instrumental reason to use those resources. There could, for example, always be use for an extra backup system to provide an extra layer of defense. And even if the AI could not think of any further way of directly reducing risks to the maximization of its future reward stream, it could always devote additional resources to expanding its computational hardware, so that it could search more effectively for new risk mitigation ideas. The upshot is that even an apparently self-limiting goal, such as wireheading, entails a policy of unlimited expansion and resource acquisition in a utility- maximizing agent that enjoys a decisive strategic advantage. 7 This case of a wireheading AI exemplifies the malignant failure mode of infrastructure profusion , a phenomenon where an agent transforms large parts of the reachable universe into infrastructure in the service of some goal, with the side effect of preventing the realization of humanitys axiological potential. Infrastructure profusion can result from final goals that would have been perfectly innocuous if they had been pursued as limited objectives. Consider the following two examples: Riemann hypothesis catastrophe . An AI, given the final goal of evaluating the Riemann hypothesis, pursues this goal by transforming the Solar System into computronium (physical resources arranged in a way that is optimized for computation)including the atoms in the bodies of whomever once cared about the answer. 8 Paperclip AI . An AI, designed to manage production in a factory, is given the final goal of maximizing the manufacture of paperclips, and proceeds by converting first the Earth and then increasingly large chunks of the observable universe into paperclips. In the first example, the proof or disproof of the Riemann hypothesis that the AI produces is the intended outcome and is in itself harmless; the harm comes from the hardware and infrastructure created to achieve this result. In the second example, some of the paperclips produced would be part of the intended outcome; the harm would come either from the factories created to produce the paperclips (infrastructure profusion) or from the excess of paperclips (perverse instantiation). One might think that the risk of a malignant infrastructure profusion failure arises only if the AI has been given some clearly open-ended final goal, such as to manufacture as many paperclips as possible. It is easy to see how this gives the superintelligent AI an insatiable appetite for matter and energy, since additional resources can always be turned into more paperclips. But suppose that the goal is instead to make at least one million paperclips (meeting suitable design specifications) rather than to make as many as possible. One would like to think that an AI with such a goal would build one factory, use it to make a million paperclips, and then halt. Yet this may not be what would happen. Unless the AIs motivation system is of a special kind, or there are additional elements in its final goal that penalize strategies that have excessively wide- ranging impacts on the world, there is no reason for the AI to cease activity upon achieving its goal. On the contrary: if the AI is a sensible Bayesian agent, it would never assign exactly zero probability to the hypothesis that it has not yet achieved its goal this, after all, being an empirical hypothesis against which the AI can have only uncertain perceptual evidence. The AI should therefore continue to make paperclips in order to reduce the (perhaps astronomically small) probability that it has somehow still failed to make at least a million of them, all appearances notwithstanding. There is nothing to be lost by continuing paperclip production and there is always at least some microscopic probability increment of achieving its final goal to be gained. Now it might be suggested that the remedy here is obvious. (But how obvious was it before it was pointed out that there was a problem here in need of remedying?) Namely, if we want the AI to make some paperclips for us, then instead of giving it the final goal of making as many paperclips as possible, or to make at least some number of paperclips, we should give it the final goal of making some specific number of paperclipsfor example, exactly one million paperclips so that going beyond this number would be counterproductive for the AI. Yet this, too, would result in a terminal catastrophe. In this case, the AI would not produce additional paperclips once it had reached one million, since that would prevent the realization of its final goal. But there are other actions the superintelligent AI could take that would increase the probability of its goal being achieved. It could, for instance, count the paperclips it has made, to reduce the risk that it has made too few. After it has counted them, it could count them again. It could inspect each one, over and over, to reduce the risk that any of the paperclips fail to meet the design specifications. It could build an unlimited amount of computronium in an effort to clarify its thinking, in the hope of reducing the risk that it has overlooked some obscure way in which it might have somehow failed to achieve its goal. Since the AI may always assign a nonzero probability to having merely hallucinated making the million paperclips, or to having false memories, it would quite possibly always assign a higher expected utility to continued actionand continued infrastructure productionthan to halting. The claim here is not that there is no possible way to avoid this failure mode. We will explore some potential solutions in later pages. The claim is that it is much easier to convince oneself that one has found a solution than it is to actually find a solution. This should make us extremely wary. We may propose a specification of a final goal that seems sensible and that avoids the problems that have been pointed out so far, yet which upon further considerationby human or superhuman intelligenceturns out to lead to either perverse instantiation or infrastructure profusion, and hence to existential catastrophe, when embedded in a superintelligent agent able to attain a decisive strategic advantage. Before we end this subsection, let us consider one more variation. We have been assuming the case of a superintelligence that is seeking to maximize its expected utility, where the utility function expresses its final goal. We have seen that this tends to lead to infrastructure profusion. Might we avoid this malignant outcome if instead of a maximizing agent we build a satisficing agent, one that simply seeks to achieve an outcome that is good enough according to some criterion, rather than an outcome that is as good as possible? There are at least two different ways to formalize this idea. The first would be to make the final goal itself have a satisficing character. For example, instead of giving the AI the final goal of making as many paperclips as possible, or of making exactly one million paperclips, we might give the AI the goal of making between 999,000 and 1,001,000 paperclips. The utility function defined by the final goal would be indifferent between outcomes in this range; and as long as the AI is sure it has hit this wide target, it would see no reason to continue to produce infrastructure. But this method fails in the same way as before: the AI, if reasonable, never assigns exactly zero probability to it having failed to achieve its goal; therefore the expected utility of continuing activity (e.g. by counting and recounting the paperclips) is greater than the expected utility of halting. Thus, a malignant infrastructure profusion can result. Another way of developing the satisficing idea is by modifying not the final goal but the decision procedure that the AI uses to select plans and actions. Instead of searching for an optimal plan, the AI could be constructed to stop looking as soon as it found a plan that it judged gave a probability of success exceeding a certain threshold, say 95%. Hopefully, the AI could achieve a 95% probability of having manufactured one million paperclips without needing to turn the entire galaxy into infrastructure in the process. But this way of implementing the satisficing idea fails for another reason: there is no guarantee that the AI would select some humanly intuitive and sensible way of achieving a 95% chance of having manufactured a million paperclips, such as by building a single paperclip factory. Suppose that the first solution that pops into the AIs mind for how to achieve a 95% probability of achieving its final goal is to implement the probability-maximizing plan for achieving the goal. Having thought of this solution, and having correctly judged that it meets the satisficing criterion of giving at least 95% probability to successfully manufacturing one million paperclips, the AI would then have no reason to continue to search for alternative ways of achieving the goal. Infrastructure profusion would result, just as before. Perhaps there are better ways of building a satisficing agent, but let us take heed: plans that appear natural and intuitive to us humans need not so appear to a superintelligence with a decisive strategic advantage, and vice versa. Mind crime Another failure mode for a project, especially a project whose interests incorporate moral considerations, is what we might refer to as mind crime . This is similar to infrastructure profusion in that it concerns a potential side effect of actions undertaken by the AI for instrumental reasons. But in mind crime, the side effect is not external to the AI; rather, it concerns what happens within the AI itself (or within the computational processes it generates). This failure mode deserves its own designation because it is easy to overlook yet potentially deeply problematic. Normally, we do not regard what is going on inside a computer as having any moral significance except insofar as it affects things outside. But a machine superintelligence could create internal processes that have moral status. For example, a very detailed simulation of some actual or hypothetical human mind might be conscious and in many ways comparable to an emulation. One can imagine scenarios in which an AI creates trillions of such conscious simulations, perhaps in order to improve its understanding of human psychology and sociology. These simulations might be placed in simulated environments and subjected to various stimuli, and their reactions studied. Once their informational usefulness has been exhausted, they might be destroyed (much as lab rats are routinely sacrificed by human scientists at the end of an experiment). If such practices were applied to beings that have high moral statussuch as simulated humans or many other types of sentient mindthe outcome might be equivalent to genocide and thus extremely morally problematic. The number of victims, moreover, might be orders of magnitude larger than in any genocide in history. The claim here is not that creating sentient simulations is necessarily morally wrong in all situations. Much would depend on the conditions under which these beings would live, in particular the hedonic quality of their experience but possibly on many other factors as well. Developing an ethics for these matters is a task outside the scope of this book. It is clear, however, that there is at least the potential for a vast amount of death and suffering among simulated or digital minds, and, a fortiori , the potential for morally catastrophic outcomes. 9 There might also be other instrumental reasons, aside from epistemic ones, for a machine superintelligence to run computations that instantiate sentient minds or that otherwise infract moral norms. A superintelligence might threaten to mistreat, or commit to reward, sentient simulations in order to blackmail or incentivize various external agents; or it might create simulations in order to induce indexical uncertainty in outside observers. 10 This inventory is incomplete. We will encounter additional malignant failure modes in later chapters. But we have seen enough to conclude that scenarios in which some machine intelligence gets a decisive strategic advantage are to be viewed with grave concern. CHAPTER 9 The control problem If we are threatened with existential catastrophe as the default outcome of an intelligence explosion, our thinking must immediately turn to the search for countermeasures. Is there some way to avoid the default outcome? Is it possible to engineer a controlled detonation? In this chapter we begin to analyze the control problem, the unique principalagent problem that arises with the creation of an artificial superintelligent agent. We distinguish two broad classes of potential methods for addressing this problemcapability control and motivation selectionand we examine several specific techniques within each class. We also allude to the esoteric possibility of anthropic capture. Two agency problems If we suspect that the default outcome of an intelligence explosion is existential catastrophe, our thinking must immediately turn to whether, and if so how, this default outcome can be avoided. Is it possible to achieve a controlled detonation? Could we engineer the initial conditions of an intelligence explosion so as to achieve a specific desired outcome, or at least to ensure that the result lies somewhere in the class of broadly acceptable outcomes? More specifically: how can the sponsor of a project that aims to develop superintelligence ensure that the project, if successful, produces a superintelligence that would realize the sponsors goals? We can divide this control problem into two parts. One part is generic, the other unique to the present context. This first partwhat we shall call the first principalagent problem arises whenever some human entity (the principal) appoints another (the agent) to act in the formers interest. This type of agency problem has been extensively studied by economists. 1 It becomes relevant to our present concern if the people creating an AI are distinct from the people commissioning its creation. The projects owner or sponsor (which could be anything ranging from a single individual to humanity as a whole) might then worry that the scientists and programmers implementing the project will not act in the sponsors best interest. 2 Although this type of agency problem could pose significant challenges to a project sponsor, it is not a problem unique to intelligence amplification or AI projects. Principalagent problems of this sort are ubiquitous in human economic and political interactions, and there are many ways of dealing with them. For instance, the risk that a disloyal employee will sabotage or subvert the project could be minimized through careful background checks of key personnel, the use of a good version-control system for software projects, and intensive oversight from multiple independent monitors and auditors. Of course, such safeguards come at a costthey expand staffing needs, complicate personnel selection, hinder creativity, and stifle independent and critical thought, all of which could reduce the pace of progress. These costs could be significant, especially for projects that have tight budgets, or that perceive themselves to be in a close race in a winner-takes-all competition. In such situations, projects may skimp on procedural safeguards, creating possibilities for potentially catastrophic principalagent failures of the first type. The other part of the control problem is more specific to the context of an intelligence explosion. This is the problem that a project faces when it seeks to ensure that the superintelligence it is building will not harm the projects interests. This part, too, can be thought of as a principalagent problemthe second principalagent problem . In this case, the agent is not a human agent operating on behalf of a human principal. Instead, the agent is the superintelligent system. Whereas the first principalagent problem occurs mainly in the development phase, the second agency problem threatens to cause trouble mainly in the superintelligences operational phase. Exhibit 1 Two agency problems The first principalagent problem Human v. Human (Sponsor Developer) Occurs mainly in developmental phase Standard management techniques apply The second principalagent problem (the control problem) Human v. Superintelligence (Project System) Occurs mainly in operational (and bootstrap) phase New techniques needed This second agency problem poses an unprecedented challenge. Solving it will require new techniques. We have already considered some of the difficulties involved. We saw, in particular, that the treacherous turn syndrome vitiates what might otherwise have seemed like a promising set of methods, ones that rely on observing an AIs behavior in its developmental phase and allowing the AI to graduate from a secure environment once it has accumulated a track record of taking appropriate actions. Other technologies can often be safety-tested in the laboratory or in small field studies, and then rolled out gradually with a possibility of halting deployment if unexpected troubles arise. Their performance in preliminary trials helps us make reasonable inferences about their future reliability. Such behavioral methods are defeated in the case of superintelligence because of the strategic planning ability of general intelligence. 3 Since the behavioral approach is unavailing, we must look for alternatives. We can divide potential control methods into two broad classes: capability control methods , which aim to control what the superintelligence can do; and motivation selection methods , which aim to control what it wants to do. Some of the methods are compatible while others represent mutually exclusive alternatives. In this chapter we canvass the main options. (In the next four chapters, we will explore some of the key issues at greater depth.) It is important to realize that some control method (or combination of methods) must be implemented before the system becomes superintelligent. It cannot be done after the system has obtained a decisive strategic advantage. The need to solve the control problem in advanceand to implement the solution successfully in the very first system to attain superintelligenceis part of what makes achieving a controlled detonation such a daunting challenge. Capability control methods Capability control methods seek to prevent undesirable outcomes by limiting what the superintelligence can do. This might involve placing the superintelligence in an environment in which it is unable to cause harm ( boxing methods ) or in which there are strongly convergent instrumental reasons not to engage in harmful behavior ( incentive methods ). It might also involve limiting the internal capacities of the superintelligence ( stunting ). In addition, capability control methods might involve the use of mechanisms to automatically detect and react to various kinds of containment failure or attempted transgression ( tripwires ). Boxing methods Boxing methods can be subdivided into physical and informational containment methods. Physical containment aims to confine the system to a box, i.e. to prevent the system from interacting with the external world otherwise than via specific restricted output channels. The boxed system would not have access to physical manipulators outside of the box. Removing manipulators (such as robotic arms) from inside the box as well would prevent the system from constructing physical devices that could breach the confinement. For extra security, the system should be placed in a metal mesh to prevent it from transmitting radio signals, which might otherwise offer a means of manipulating electronic objects such as radio receivers in the environment. Note, by the way, how easy it might have been to overlook the need for this precaution. One might naively have assumed that an agent without a manipulator could not affect the external world. But it might be possible for a machine intelligence to generate radio waves even when it lacks access to external manipulators, simply by thinking (that is, by shuffling the electrons in its circuitry in particular patterns). 4 Once pointed out, this vulnerability can be patched by enclosing the system in a Faraday cagebut we are left wondering how many other similarly subtle vulnerabilities might exist. Each time we hear of a seemingly foolproof security design that has an unexpected flaw, we should prick up our ears. These occasions grace us with the opportunity to abandon a life of overconfidence and resolve to become better Bayesians. 5 Physical confinement has several advantages. It is easy to implement. It can be applied to many machine intelligence architectures, even ones that were not initially designed with safety as an objective. It can be used in combination with most other control methods. And it seems unlikely to go wrong by backfiring: that is, while it might fail to ensure safety, it is unlikely to cause a catastrophe that would not otherwise have occurred. The main disadvantage with physical confinement is that it reduces the functionality of the superintelligence (an issue to which we will return in Chapter 10 ). Another concern is that it might encourage a false sense of security, though this is avoidable if we regard physical confinement as icing on the cake rather than the main substance of our precautions. Informational containment aims to restrict what information is allowed to exit the box. We have already seen how a superintelligence that has access to an Internet port, such that it can message outside entities, is potentially unsafe: even if it starts out without access to physical actuators, it may use its information output channel to get human beings to do its bidding. An obvious informational containment method, therefore, is to bar the system from accessing communications networks. Unplugging an AI from the Internet does not, however, ensure safety if there are one or more humans serving as the systems gatekeepers and remaining in communication with it. During the development phase, the programmers serve as gatekeepers; during the operational phase, the systems owner might play this role. If the AI can persuade or trick a gatekeeper to let it out of the box, resulting in its gaining access either to the Internet or directly to physical manipulators, then the boxing strategy has failed. Human beings are not secure systems, especially not when pitched against a superintelligent schemer and persuader. 6 Although routing the outbound communications of a machine intelligence to a human gatekeeper does not guarantee safety, it could serve as an auxiliary safety measure. There are precautions that might reduce the risk of the AI escaping through the gatekeeper. The AI could be allowed to communicate only via a low- bandwidth teletype interface. This would make it slightly harder to psychologically manipulate the gatekeepers (precluding the use of emotive sound and imagery and tricks such as flashing hypnotic patterns to induce a trancelike state). 7 Going further, the content (not just the mode of presentation) of the output could be restricted; so that, for example, the AI would be constrained to giving single-bit answers to yes/no questions. The idea of building a question-answering system will be examined further in the next chapter. The limiting case of the boxing approach would be a system kept in complete physical and informational isolation. Even if achievable, however, such an isolated system would be rather useless since it would have no effect on the external world. It might perhaps be thought that some scientific purpose could be served by creating a superintelligence and keeping it in isolation: by studying a self-contained model system, one could learn about its internal dynamics and its behavior patterns. But this would be an error. As soon as the system is observed, it ceases to be informationally isolated. 8 Information can be transmitted not only via messages that an AI sends out through a designated output channel but also via any observation an outsider makes of some causal consequence of the AIs workings, direct or indirectits power consumption, its CPU and memory usage, its computational states, or indeed any traces left behind after it has been shut down. An AI anticipating that it might be observed in any of these ways could strategically adopt behaviors designed to influence the hypothesized observers. For example, the AI could malfunction in whichever way would most increase the probability that it will ultimately be reactivated or that another superintelligence will be created with goals similar to its own. Incentive methods Incentive methods involve placing an agent in an environment where it finds instrumental reasons to act in ways that promote the principals interests. Consider a billionaire who uses her fortune to set up a large charitable foundation. Once created, the foundation may be powerfulmore powerful than most individuals, including its founder, who might have donated most of her wealth. To control the foundation, the founder lays down its purpose in articles of incorporation and bylaws, and appoints a board of directors sympathetic to her cause. These measures constitute a form of motivation selection, since they aim to shape foundations preferences. But even if such attempts to customize the organizational internals fail, the foundations behavior would remain circumscribed by its social and legal milieu. The foundation would have an incentive to obey the law, for example, lest it be shut down or fined. It would have an incentive to offer its employees acceptable pay and working conditions, and to satisfy external stakeholders. Whatever its final goals, the foundation thus has instrumental reasons to conform its behavior to various social norms. Might one not hope that a machine superintelligence would likewise be hemmed in by the need to get along with the other actors with which it shares the stage? Though this might seem like a straightforward way of dealing with the control problem, it is not free of obstacles. In particular, it presupposes a balance of power: legal or economic sanctions cannot restrain an agent that has a decisive strategic advantage. Social integration can therefore not be relied upon as a control method in fast or medium takeoff scenarios that feature a winner- takes-all dynamic. How about in multipolar scenarios, wherein several agencies emerge post- transition with comparable levels of capability? Unless the default trajectory is one with a slow takeoff, achieving such a power distribution may require a carefully orchestrated ascent wherein different projects are deliberately synchronized to prevent any one of them from ever pulling ahead of the pack. 9 Even if a multipolar outcome does result, social integration is not a perfect solution. By relying on social integration to solve the control problem, the principal risks sacrificing a large portion of her potential influence. Although a balance of power might prevent a particular AI from taking over the world, that AI will still have some power to affect outcomes; and if that power is used to promote some arbitrary final goalmaximizing paperclip productionit is probably not being used to advance the interests of the principal. Imagine our billionaire endowing a new foundation and allowing its mission to be set by a random word generator: not a species-level threat, but surely a wasted opportunity. A related but importantly different idea is that an AI, by interacting freely in society, would acquire new human-friendly final goals. Some such process of socialization takes place in us humans. We internalize norms and ideologies, and we come to value other individuals for their own sakes in consequence of our experiences with them. But this is not a universal dynamic present in all intelligent systems. As discussed earlier, many types of agent in many situations will have convergent instrumental reasons not to permit changes in their final goals. (One might consider trying to design a special kind of goal system that can acquire final goals in the manner that humans do; but this would not count as a capability control method. We will discuss some possible methods of value acquisition in Chapter 12 .) Capability control through social integration and balance of power relies upon diffuse social forces rewarding and penalizing the AI. Another type of incentive method would involve creating a setup wherein the AI can be rewarded and penalized by the project that creates it, and thereby incentivized to act in the interests of the principal. To achieve this, the AI would be placed in a surveillance context that allows its behavior to be monitored and evaluated, either manually or by some automated process. The AI would know that a positive evaluation would bring about some outcome it desires and that a negative evaluation would fail to do so. Theoretically, the reward could be the fulfillment of some convergent instrumental goal. Without knowing anything specific about the AIs motivation system, however, it might be difficult to calibrate the reward mechanism. For example, we could end up with an AI that would be willing to take extreme risks for the sake of a small chance of eventually obtaining control of a large share of the universe. It could be expensive to offer the AI a higher expected utility as reward for cooperation than the AI could hope to achieve by defecting and trying to escape. 10 A better alternative might be to combine the incentive method with the use of motivation selection to give the AI a final goal that makes it easier to control. Suppose that an AI were designed to have as its final goal that a particular red button inside a command bunker never be pressed. Since the pressing of the button is disvalued intrinsically and not because of its causal consequences, the button could be completely inert: it could be made of Play-Doh. Furthermore, it is irrelevant whether the AI can ever know whether the button had been pressed. What is essential is that the AI believes that the button will more likely remain unpressed if the AI continuously acts in the principals interest than if it rebels. Refinements to this setup are possible. Instead of trying to endow an AI with a final goal that refers to a physical button, one could build an AI that places final value on receiving a stream of cryptographic reward tokens. 11 These would be sequences of numbers serving as keys to ciphers that would have been generated before the AI was created and that would have been built into its motivation system. 12 These special number sequences would be extremely desirable to the AI, constituting a special kind of reward token that the AI could not attain though wireheading. 13 The keys would be stored in a secure location where they could be quickly destroyed if the AI ever made an attempt to seize them. So long as the AI cooperates, the keys are doled out at a steady rate. The AI could then be given a bounded utility function, and matters could be arranged so that the AI would get (for instance) 99% of its maximum utility from the first reward token; 99% of its remaining utility potential from the second reward token; and so on. By keeping the discount rate high, and by transmitting reward tokens to the AI at a reasonably high rate, one would dissuade the AI from attempting to carry out long-term plans that would increase the expected number of reward tokens in the distal future at the expense of some risk that its reward stream will be cut short or that the next reward token will be cancelled and destroyed. If the AI always believes that defecting (i.e. doing anything other than its best to look after the principals interests) would incur at least a 2% risk of forfeiting the next reward token, whereas cooperating would reduce the risk of forfeiting the next reward token to below 1%, then a utility- maximizing AI would always cooperate. What might go wrong with such an incentive scheme? One possibility is that the AI will not trust the human operator to deliver the promised rewards. The track record of human reliability is something other than a straight line of unerring perfection. The AI would reasonably worry that the operator will change his mind, or raise the performance bar, or fail to recognize that the AI has done its part. The AI would also worry about the operator becoming incapacitated. The combined risk of such failures might exceed the risk of attempting to seize control of the reward mechanism. Even a boxed AI possessing the panoply of superpowers is a strong force. (For an AI that is not boxed to begin with, hijacking the human-governed reward mechanism may be like taking candy from a baby.) Another problem with the incentive scheme is that it presupposes that we can tell whether the outcomes produced by the AI are in our interest. As later chapters will elaborate, this presupposition is not innocuous. A full assessment of the feasibility of incentive methods would also have to take into account a range of other factors, including some esoteric considerations that might conceivably make such methods more viable than a preliminary analysis would suggest. In particular, the AI may face ineliminable indexical uncertainty if it could not be sure that it does not inhabit a computer simulation (as opposed to basement-level, non-simulated physical reality), and this epistemic predicament may radically influence the AIs deliberations (see Box 8 ). Box 8 Anthropic capture The AI might assign a substantial probability to its simulation hypothesis, the hypothesis that it is living in a computer simulation. Even today, many AIs inhabit simulated worldsworlds consisting of geometric line drawings, texts, chess games, or simple virtual realities, and in which the laws of physics deviate sharply from the laws of physics that we believe govern the world of our own experience. Richer and more complicated virtual worlds will become feasible with improvements in programming techniques and computing power. A mature superintelligence could create virtual worlds that appear to its inhabitants much the same as our world appears to us. It might create vast numbers of such worlds, running the same simulation many times or with small variations. The inhabitants would not necessarily be able to tell whether their world is simulated or not; but if they are intelligent enough they could consider the possibility and assign it some probability. In light of the simulation argument (a full discussion of which is beyond the scope of this book) that probability could be substantial. 14 This predicament especially afflicts relatively early-stage superintelligences, ones that have not yet expanded to take advantage of the cosmic endowment. An early-stage superintelligence, which uses only a small fraction of the resources of a single planet, would be much less expensive to simulate than a mature intergalactic superintelligence. Potential simulatorsthat is, other more mature civilizationswould be able to run great numbers of simulations of such early- stage AIs even by dedicating a minute fraction of their computational resources to that purpose. If at least some (non-trivial fraction) of these mature superintelligent civilizations choose to use this ability, early-stage AIs should assign a substantial probability to being in a simulation. How an AI would be affected by the simulation hypothesis depends on its values. 15 Consider first an AI that has a resource-insatiable final goal, such as the goal of maximizing a utility function that is linear in the number of paperclips caused by the AI to existtwice as many paperclips, twice as good. Such an AI might care less about the simulation hypothesis, on grounds that its ability to influence how many paperclips are produced looks much more limited if the AI is in a simulation than if it is in basement-level physical reality. The AI might accordingly behave much as if it were certain that the simulation hypothesis is false, even if it assigned a fairly high probability to the simulation hypothesis being true. 16 The AI would reason that it does not much matter how it acts if the simulation hypothesis is true, whereas its actions make a great difference if the hypothesis is false; so it would select actions mainly by reference to how good they are conditional on the simulation hypothesis being false. By contrast, consider an AI that has a more modest final goal, one that could be satisfied with a small amount of resources, such as the goal of receiving some pre-produced cryptographic reward tokens, or the goal of causing the existence of forty-five virtual paperclips. Such an AI should not discount those possible worlds in which it inhabits a simulation. A substantial portion of the AIs total expected utility might derive from those possible worlds. The decision-making of an AI with goals that are easily resource-satiable may thereforeif it assigns a high probability to the simulation hypothesisbe dominated by considerations about which actions would produce the best result if its perceived world is a simulation. Such an AI (even if it is, in fact, not in a simulation) might therefore be heavily influenced by its beliefs about which behaviors would be rewarded in a simulation. In particular, if an AI with resource-satiable final goals believes that in most simulated worlds that match its observations it will be rewarded if it cooperates (but not if it attempts to escape its box or contravene the interests of its creator) then it may choose to cooperate. We could therefore find that even an AI with a decisive strategic advantage, one that could in fact realize its final goals to a greater extent by taking over the world than by refraining from doing so, would nevertheless balk at doing so. Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all, And thus the Native hue of Resolution Is sicklied oer, with the pale cast of Thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard their Currents turn away, And lose the name of Action. (Shakespeare, Hamlet , Act iii. Sc. 1) A mere line in the sand, backed by the clout of a nonexistent simulator, could prove a stronger restraint than a two-foot-thick solid steel door. 17 Stunting Another possible capability control method is to limit the systems intellectual faculties or its access to information. This might be done by running the AI on hardware that is slow or short on memory. In the case of a boxed system, information inflow could also be restricted. Stunting an AI in these ways would limit its usefulness. The method thus faces a dilemma: too little stunting, and the AI might have the wit to figure out some way to make itself more intelligent (and thence to world domination); too much, and the AI is just another piece of dumb software. A radically stunted AI is certainly safe but does not solve the problem of how to achieve a controlled detonation: an intelligence explosion would remain possible and would simply be triggered by some other system instead, perhaps at a slightly later date. One might think it would be safe to build a superintelligence provided it is only given data about some narrow domain of facts. For example, one might build an AI that lacks sensors and that has preloaded into its memory only facts about petroleum engineering or peptide chemistry. But if the AI is superintelligentif it is has a superhuman level of general intelligencesuch data deprivation does not guarantee safety. There are several reasons for this. First, the notion of information being about a certain topic is generally problematic. Any piece of information can in principle be relevant to any topic whatsoever, depending on the background information of a reasoner. 18 Furthermore, a given data set contains information not only about the domain from which the data was collected but also about various circumstantial facts. A shrewd mind looking over a knowledge base that is nominally about peptide chemistry might infer things about a wide range of topics. The fact that certain information is included and other information is not could tell an AI something about the state of human science, the methods and instruments available to study peptides, the fabrication technologies used to make these instruments, and the nature of the brains and societies that conceived the studies and the instruments. It might be that a superintelligence could correctly surmise a great deal from what seem, to dull-witted human minds, meager scraps of evidence. Even without any designated knowledge base at all, a sufficiently superior mind might be able to learn much by simply introspecting on the workings of its own psychethe design choices reflected in its source code, the physical characteristics of its circuitry. 19 Perhaps a superintelligence could even deduce much about the likely properties of the world a priori (combining logical inference with a probability prior biased toward simpler worlds, and a few elementary facts implied by the superintelligences existence as a reasoning system). It might imagine the consequences of different possible laws of physics: what kind of planets would form, what kind of intelligent life would evolve, what kind of societies would develop, what kind of methods to solve the control problem would be attempted, how those methods could be defeated. 20 For these reasons it would be imprudent to rely on information deprivation as the main check on a superintelligences power. Some forms of stunting however, including limiting hardware capacity and preventing the development of specific cognitive faculties, might find use as auxiliary control methods in the developmental phase. They could be used, for instance, to regulate the rate of capacity gain in an intermediary AI and to allow tests to be run at different levels of capability short of full-throttled superintelligence. Tripwires A tripwire is a mechanism that performs diagnostic tests on the system (possibly without its knowledge) and effects a shutdown if it detects signs of dangerous activity. Programmers can then scrutinize recordings of the suspicious activity at their leisure, and make changes to the AIs code base or environment before restarting it. If they find that the problem is sufficiently deep-rooted, they could decide to abort the entire project. Tripwires differ from incentive methods in that they do not rely on the system being aware of the consequences of engaging in forbidden activities. Tripwires are more closely related to stunting methods. Like stunting, tripwires could be used as a temporary safeguard, providing a degree of protection during the development phase. In principle, tripwires can also be used during the operational phase, particularly for a boxed system. However, the ability of tripwires to constrain a full-fledged superintelligence must remain very much in doubt, since it would be hard for us to assure ourselves that such an agent could not find ways to subvert any tripwire devised by the human intellect. Table 9 Different kinds of tripwires Type of monitoring Description and examples Behavior Detectors could be placed around a boxed AI to detect attempts to breach the containment. For example, detectors could intercept attempts at radio communication or at accessing internal computational resources intended to be off limits. An Ethernet port of Eden could be installed: an apparent connection to the internet that leads to a shutdown switch. Ability Automated capability testing could be performed at frequent intervals to determine the AIs skill in various domains. If either the rate of improvement is unexpectedly high or the AI attains a level of competence that brings it close to the potential danger zone, the system could be slowed down or paused, in order to allow the programmers to monitor further developments more closely. The AIs internal processes could be monitored for suspicious activity. For example, any change to the AIs representation of its final values might trigger an automatic shutdown and review. The AIs resource use and algorithmic methods may also be also be monitored for unexpected patterns. Content More ambitiously, the AIs beliefs, plans, subgoals, and justifications may be continuously scrutinized, to ensure they conform to the programmers expectations. Such monitoring of the AIs intentional states would enable a particularly powerful form of content monitoring: the scanning of the AIs cognitive processes for a conception of deception that vulnerable moment when an unfriendly AI first forms the intention to conceal its true intentions. 21 Content monitoring that requires that the AIs intentional states be transparent to the programmers or to an automatic monitoring mechanism may not be feasible for all kinds of AI architectures. (Some neural networks, for instance, are opaque, as they represent information holistically and in ways that do not necessarily match up with human concepts.) This may be a reason to avoid using such architectures. As an adjunct safety measure in the development phase, though, tripwires are important. It would be good practice for the AIs designers to codify their expectations about how the system is supposed to function, and then to circumscribe the AI with tripwires that would be activated if any of these expectations is violated. To make the tests more stringent, honeypots could be strategically placed to create temptations for a malfunctioning AI to commit some easily observable violation. For instance, if an AI has been designed in such a way that it is supposed not to want to access the internet, a fake Ethernet port could be installed (leading to an automatic shutdown switch) just to see if they AI tries to use it. (Some examples of tripwires are given in Table 9 .) It should be emphasized that the value of a tripwire depends not only on the mechanism itself but alsocriticallyon how a project reacts when a tripwire is triggered. If the programmers or project managers, impatient to make progress, simply switch the system back on againor if they do so after making some token modification to prevent the tripwire being triggered on the next runthen no safety has been gained even if the tripwire itself works exactly as intended. Motivation selection methods Motivation selection methods seek to prevent undesirable outcomes by shaping what the superintelligence wants to do. By engineering the agents motivation system and its final goals, these methods would produce a superintelligence that would not want to exploit a decisive strategic advantage in a harmful way. Since a superintelligent agent is skilled at achieving its ends, if it prefers not to cause harm (in some appropriate sense of harm) then it would tend not to cause harm (in that sense of harm). Motivation selection can involve explicitly formulating a goal or set of rules to be followed ( direct specification ) or setting up the system so that it can discover an appropriate set of values for itself by reference to some implicitly or indirectly formulated criterion ( indirect normativity ). One option in motivation selection is to try to build the system so that it would have modest, non- ambitious goals ( domesticity ). An alternative to creating a motivation system from scratch is to select an agent that already has an acceptable motivation system and then augment that agents cognitive powers to make it superintelligent, while ensuring that the motivation system does not get corrupted in the process ( augmentation ). Let us look at these in turn. Direct specification Direct specification is the most straightforward approach to the control problem. The approach comes in two versions, rule-based and consequentialist, and involves trying to explicitly define a set of rules or values that will cause even a free-roaming superintelligent AI to act safely and beneficially. Direct specification, however, faces what may be insuperable obstacles, deriving from both the difficulties in determining which rules or values we would wish the AI to be guided by and the difficulties in expressing those rules or values in computer-readable code. The traditional illustration of the direct rule-based approach is the three laws of robotics concept, formulated by science fiction author Isaac Asimov in a short story published in 1942. 22 The three laws were: (1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; (2) A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; (3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Embarrassingly for our species, Asimovs laws remained state-of-the-art for over half a century: this despite obvious problems with the approach, some of which are explored in Asimovs own writings (Asimov probably having formulated the laws in the first place precisely so that they would fail in interesting ways, providing fertile plot complications for his stories). 23 Bertrand Russell, who spent many years working on the foundations of mathematics, once remarked that everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. 24 Russells dictum applies in spades to the direct specification approach. Consider, for example, how one might explicate Asimovs first law. Does it mean that the robot should minimize the probability of any human being coming to harm? In that case the other laws become otiose since it is always possible for the AI to take some action that would have at least some microscopic effect on the probability of a human being coming to harm. How is the robot to balance a large risk of a few humans coming to harm versus a small risk of many humans being harmed? How do we define harm anyway? How should the harm of physical pain be weighed against the harm of architectural ugliness or social injustice? Is a sadist harmed if he is prevented from tormenting his victim? How do we define human being? Why is no consideration given to other morally considerable beings, such as sentient nonhuman animals and digital minds? The more one ponders, the more the questions proliferate. Perhaps the closest existing analog to a rule set that could govern the actions of a superintelligence operating in the world at large is a legal system. But legal systems have developed through a long process of trial and error, and they regulate relatively slowly-changing human societies. Laws can be revised when necessary. Most importantly, legal systems are administered by judges and juries who generally apply a measure of common sense and human decency to ignore logically possible legal interpretations that are sufficiently obviously unwanted and unintended by the lawgivers. It is probably humanly impossible to explicitly formulate a highly complex set of detailed rules, have them apply across a highly diverse set of circumstances, and get it right on the first implementation. 25 Problems for the direct consequentialist approach are similar to those for the direct rule-based approach. This is true even if the AI is intended to serve some apparently simple purpose such as implementing a version of classical utilitarianism. For instance, the goal Maximize the expectation of the balance of pleasure over pain in the world may appear simple. Yet expressing it in computer code would involve, among other things, specifying how to recognize pleasure and pain. Doing this reliably might require solving an array of persistent problems in the philosophy of mindeven just to obtain a correct account expressed in a natural language, an account which would then, somehow, have to be translated into a programming language. A small error in either the philosophical account or its translation into code could have catastrophic consequences. Consider an AI that has hedonism as its final goal, and which would therefore like to tile the universe with hedonium (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for the generation of pleasurable experience). To this end, the AI might produce computronium (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for computation) and use it to implement digital minds in states of euphoria. In order to maximize efficiency, the AI omits from the implementation any mental faculties that are not essential for the experience of pleasure, and exploits any computational shortcuts that according to its definition of pleasure do not vitiate the generation of pleasure. For instance, the AI might confine its simulation to reward circuitry, eliding faculties such as memory, sensory perception, executive function, and language; it might simulate minds at a relatively coarse-grained level of functionality, omitting lower-level neuronal processes; it might replace commonly repeated computations with calls to a lookup table; or it might put in place some arrangement whereby multiple minds would share most parts of their underlying computational machinery (their supervenience bases in philosophical parlance). Such tricks could greatly increase the quantity of pleasure producible with a given amount of resources. It is unclear how desirable this would be. Furthermore, if the AIs criterion for determining whether a physical process generates pleasure is wrong, then the AIs optimizations might throw the baby out with the bathwater: discarding something which is inessential according to the AIs criterion yet essential according to the criteria implicit in our human values. The universe then gets filled not with exultingly heaving hedonium but with computational processes that are unconscious and completely worthless the equivalent of a smiley-face sticker xeroxed trillions upon trillions of times and plastered across the galaxies. Domesticity One special type of final goal which might be more amenable to direct specification than the examples given above is the goal of self-limitation. While it seems extremely difficult to specify how one would want a superintelligence to behave in the world in general since this would require us to account for all the trade-offs in all the situations that could ariseit might be feasible to specify how a superintelligence should behave in one particular situation. We could therefore seek to motivate the system to confine itself to acting on a small scale, within a narrow context, and through a limited set of action modes. We will refer to this approach of giving the AI final goals aimed at limiting the scope of its ambitions and activities as domesticity. For example, one could try to design an AI such that it would function as a question-answering device (an oracle, to anticipate the terminology that we will introduce in the next chapter). Simply giving the AI the final goal of producing maximally accurate answers to any question posed to it would be unsaferecall the Riemann hypothesis catastrophe described in Chapter 8 . (Reflect, also, that this goal would incentivize the AI to take actions to ensure that it is asked easy questions.) To achieve domesticity, one might try to define a final goal that would somehow overcome these difficulties: perhaps a goal that combined the desiderata of answering questions correctly and minimizing the AIs impact on the world except whatever impact results as an incidental consequence of giving accurate and non-manipulative answers to the questions it is asked. 26 The direct specification of such a domesticity goal is more likely to be feasible than the direct specification of either a more ambitious goal or a complete rule set for operating in an open-ended range of situations. Significant challenges nonetheless remain. Care would have to be taken, for instance, in the definition of what it would be for the AI to minimize its impact on the world to ensure that the measure of the AIs impact coincides with our own standards for what counts as a large or a small impact. A bad measure would lead to bad trade-offs. There are also other kinds of risk associated with building an oracle, which we will discuss later. There is a natural fit between the domesticity approach and physical containment. One would try to box an AI such that the system is unable to escape while simultaneously trying to shape the AIs motivation system such that it would be unwilling to escape even if it found a way to do so. Other things equal, the existence of multiple independent safety mechanisms should shorten the odds of success. 27 Indirect normativity If direct specification seems hopeless, we might instead try indirect normativity. The basic idea is that rather than specifying a concrete normative standard directly, we specify a process for deriving a standard. We then build the system so that it is motivated to carry out this process and to adopt whatever standard the process arrives at. 28 For example, the process could be to carry out an investigation into the empirical question of what some suitably idealized version of us would prefer the AI to do. The final goal given to the AI in this example could be something along the lines of achieve that which we would have wished the AI to achieve if we had thought about the matter long and hard. Further explanation of indirect normativity will have to await Chapter 13 . There, we will revisit the idea of extrapolating our volition and explore various alterative formulations. Indirect normativity is a very important approach to motivation selection. Its promise lies in the fact that it could let us offload to the superintelligence much of the difficult cognitive work required to carry out a direct specification of an appropriate final goal. Augmentation The last motivation selection method on our list is augmentation. Here the idea is that rather than attempting to design a motivation system de novo , we start with a system that already has an acceptable motivation system, and enhance its cognitive faculties to make it superintelligent. If all goes well, this would give us a superintelligence with an acceptable motivation system. This approach, obviously, is unavailing in the case of a newly created seed AI. But augmentation is a potential motivation selection method for other paths to superintelligence, including brain emulation, biological enhancement, brain computer interfaces, and networks and organizations, where there is a possibility of building out the system from a normative nucleus (regular human beings) that already contains a representation of human value. The attractiveness of augmentation may increase in proportion to our despair at the other approaches to the control problem. Creating a motivation system for a seed AI that remains reliably safe and beneficial under recursive self- improvement even as the system grows into a mature superintelligence is a tall order, especially if we must get the solution right on the first attempt. With augmentation, we would at least start with a system that has familiar and human- like motivations. On the downside, it might be hard to ensure that a complex, evolved, kludgy, and poorly understood motivation system, like that of a human being, will not get corrupted when its cognitive engine blasts into the stratosphere. As discussed earlier, an imperfect brain emulation procedure that preserves intellectual functioning may not preserve all facets of personality. The same is true (though perhaps to a lesser degree) for biological enhancements of cognition, which might subtly affect motivation, and for collective intelligence enhancements of organizations and networks, which might adversely change social dynamics (e.g. in ways that debase the collectives attitude toward outsiders or toward its own constituents). If superintelligence is achieved via any of these paths, a project sponsor would find guarantees about the ultimate motivations of the mature system hard to come by. A mathematically well-specified and foundationally elegant AI architecture mightfor all its non-anthropomorphic othernessoffer greater transparency, perhaps even the prospect that important aspects of its functionality could be formally verified. In the end, however one tallies up the advantages and disadvantages of augmentation, the choice as to whether to rely on it might be forced. If superintelligence is first achieved along the artificial intelligence path, augmentation is not applicable. Conversely, if superintelligence is first achieved along some non-AI path, then many of the other motivation selection methods are inapplicable. Even so, views on how likely augmentation would be to succeed do have strategic relevance insofar as we have opportunities to influence which technology will first produce superintelligence. Synopsis A quick synopsis might be called for before we close this chapter. We distinguished two broad classes of methods for dealing with the agency problem at the heart of AI safety: capability control and motivation selection. Table 10 gives a summary. Table 10 Control methods Capability control Boxing methods The system is confined in such a way that it can affect the external world only through some restricted, pre-approved channel. Encompasses physical and informational containment methods. Incentive methods The system is placed within an environment that provides appropriate incentives. This could involve social integration into a world of similarly powerful entities. Another variation is the use of (cryptographic) reward tokens. Anthropic capture is also a very important possibility but one that involves esoteric considerations. Stunting Constraints are imposed on the cognitive capabilities of the system or its ability to affect key internal processes. Tripwires Diagnostic tests are performed on the system (possibly without its knowledge) and a mechanism shuts down the system if dangerous activity is detected. Motivation selection Direct specification The system is endowed with some directly specified motivation system, which might be consequentialist or involve following a set of rules. Domesticity A motivation system is designed to severely limit the scope of the agents ambitions and activities. Indirect normativity Indirect normativity could involve rule-based or consequentialist principles, but is distinguished by its reliance on an indirect approach to specifying the rules that are to be followed or the values that are to be pursued. Augmentation One starts with a system that already has substantially human or benevolent motivations, and enhances its cognitive capacities to make it superintelligent. Each control method comes with potential vulnerabilities and presents different degrees of difficulty in its implementation. It might perhaps be thought that we should rank them from better to worse, and then opt for the best method. But that would be simplistic. Some methods can be used in combination whereas others are exclusive. Even a comparatively insecure method may be advisable if it can easily be used as an adjunct, whereas a strong method might be unattractive if it would preclude the use of other desirable safeguards. It is therefore necessary to consider what package deals are available. We need to consider what type of system we might try to build, and which control methods would be applicable to each type. This is the topic for our next chapter. CHAPTER 10 Oracles, genies, sovereigns, tools Some say: Just build a question-answering system! or Just build an AI that is like a tool rather than an agent! But these suggestions do not make all safety concerns go away, and it is in fact a non-trivial question which type of system would offer the best prospects for safety. We consider four types or castesoracles, genies, sovereigns, and toolsand explain how they relate to one another. 1 Each offers different sets of advantages and disadvantages in our quest to solve the control problem. Oracles An oracle is a question-answering system. It might accept questions in a natural language and present its answers as text. An oracle that accepts only yes/no questions could output its best guess with a single bit, or perhaps with a few extra bits to represent its degree of confidence. An oracle that accepts open- ended questions would need some metric with which to rank possible truthful answers in terms of their informativeness or appropriateness. 2 In either case, building an oracle that has a fully domain-general ability to answer natural language questions is an AI-complete problem. If one could do that, one could probably also build an AI that has a decent ability to understand human intentions as well as human words. Oracles with domain-limited forms of superintelligence are also conceivable. For instance, one could conceive of a mathematics-oracle which would only accept queries posed in a formal language but which would be very good at answering such questions (e.g. being able to solve in an instant almost any formally expressed math problem that the human mathematics profession could solve by laboring collaboratively for a century). Such a mathematics-oracle would form a stepping-stone toward domain-general superintelligence. Oracles with superintelligence in extremely limited domains already exist. A pocket calculator can be viewed as a very narrow oracle for basic arithmetical questions; an Internet search engine can be viewed as a very partial realization of an oracle with a domain that encompasses a significant part of general human declarative knowledge. These domain-limited oracles are tools rather than agents (more on tool-AIs shortly). In what follows, though, the term oracle will refer to question-answering systems that have domain-general superintelligence, unless otherwise stated. To make a general superintelligence function as an oracle, we could apply both motivation selection and capability control. Motivation selection for an oracle may be easier than for other castes of superintelligence, because the final goal in an oracle could be comparatively simple. We would want the oracle to give truthful, non-manipulative answers and to otherwise limit its impact on the world. Applying a domesticity method, we might require that the oracle should use only designated resources to produce its answer. For example, we might stipulate that it should base its answer on a preloaded corpus of information, such as a stored snapshot of the Internet, and that it should use no more than a fixed number of computational steps. 3 To avoid incentivizing the oracle to manipulate us into giving it easier questionswhich would happen if we gave it the goal of maximizing its accuracy across all questions we will ask itwe could give it the goal of answering only one question and to terminate immediately upon delivering its answer. The question would be preloaded into its memory before the program is run. To ask a second question, we would reset the machine and run the same program with a different question preloaded in memory. Subtle and potentially treacherous challenges arise even in specifying the relatively simple motivation system needed to drive an oracle. Suppose, for example, that we come up with some explication of what it means for the AI to minimize its impact on the world, subject to achieving certain results or to use only designated resources in preparing the answer. What happens if the AI, in the course of its intellectual development, undergoes the equivalent of a scientific revolution involving a change in its basic ontology? 4 We might initially have explicated impact and designated resources using our own ontology (postulating the existence of various physical objects such as computers). But just as we have abandoned ontological categories that were taken for granted by scientists in previous ages (e.g. phlogiston, lan vital, and absolute simultaneity), so a superintelligent AI might discover that some of our current categories are predicated on fundamental misconceptions. The goal system of an AI undergoing an ontological crisis needs to be resilient enough that the spirit of its original goal content is carried over, charitably transposed into the new key. Although making an oracle safe through the use of motivation selection might be far from trivial, it may nevertheless be easier than doing the same for an AI that roams the world in pursuit of some complicated goal. This is an argument for preferring that the first superintelligence be an oracle. Another point in favor of an oracle-first path is the greater susceptibility of an oracle to capability control. All the standard boxing methods apply here. In addition, there may be methods that are distinctively applicable to oracles. For example, consider the risk that an oracle will answer questions not in a maximally truthful way but in such a way as to subtly manipulate us into promoting its own hidden agenda. One way to slightly mitigate this threat could be to create multiple oracles, each with a slightly different code and a slightly different information base. A simple mechanism could then compare the answers given by the different oracles and only present them for human viewing if all the answers agree. While one must assume that any superintelligent domain-general oracle would know about the existence of other oracles (it could infer this from its knowledge about human society), it might be feasible to hide some implementation details of each oracle from the views of the others. If the oracles are not able to communicate with one another, it might then be difficult for them to coordinate on how to answer our questions manipulatively. There are many ways of deviating from the truth, and the oracles may not all agree on which of these deviations is most attractive whereas the truth itself is a Schelling point (a salient place for agreement in the absence of communication). So if the oracles achieve consensus, it might be a sign that they gave the true answer. 5 An oracle would ideally be trustworthy in the sense that we could safely assume that its answers are always accurate to the best of its ability. But even an untrustworthy oracle could be useful. We could ask such an oracle questions of a type for which it is difficult to find the answer but easy to verify whether a given answer is correct. Many mathematical problems are of this kind. If we are wondering whether a mathematical proposition is true, we could ask the oracle to produce a proof or disproof of the proposition. Finding the proof may require insight and creativity beyond our ken, but checking a purported proofs validity can be done by a simple mechanical procedure. If it is expensive to verify answers (as is often the case on topics outside logic and mathematics), we can randomly select a subset of the oracles answers for verification. If they are all correct, we can assign a high probability to most of the other answers also being correct. This trick can give us a bulk discount on trustworthy answers that would be costly to verify individually. (Unfortunately, it cannot give us trustworthy answers that we are unable to verify, since a dissembling oracle may choose to answer correctly only those questions where it believes we could verify its answers.) There could be important issues on which we could benefit from an augural pointer toward the correct answer (or toward a method for locating the correct answer) even if we had to actively distrust the provenance. For instance, one might ask for the solution to various technical or philosophical problems that may arise in the course of trying to develop more advanced motivation selection methods. If we had a proposed AI design alleged to be safe, we could ask an oracle whether it could identify any significant flaw in the design, and whether it could explain any such flaw to us in twenty words or less. Questions of this kind could elicit valuable information. Caution and restraint would be required, however, for us not to ask too many such questionsand not to allow ourselves to partake of too many details of the answers given to the questions we do ask lest we give the untrustworthy oracle opportunities to work on our psychology (by means of plausible-seeming but subtly manipulative messages). It might not take many bits of communication for an AI with the social manipulation superpower to bend us to its will. Even if the oracle itself works exactly as intended, there is a risk that it would be misused. One obvious dimension of this problem is that an oracle AI would be a source of immense power which could give a decisive strategic advantage to its operator. This power might be illegitimate and it might not be used for the common good. Another more subtle but no less important dimension is that the use of an oracle could be extremely dangerous for the operator herself. Similar worries (which involve philosophical as well as technical issues) arise also for other hypothetical castes of superintelligence. We will explore them more thoroughly in Chapter 13 . Suffice it here to note that the protocol determining which questions are asked, in which sequence, and how the answers are reported and disseminated could be of great significance. One might also consider whether to try to build the oracle in such a way that it would refuse to answer any question in cases where it predicts that its answering would have consequences classified as catastrophic according to some rough-and-ready criteria. Genies and sovereigns A genie is a command-executing system: it receives a high-level command, carries it out, then pauses to await the next command. 6 A sovereign is a system that has an open-ended mandate to operate in the world in pursuit of broad and possibly very long-range objectives. Although these might seem like radically different templates for what a superintelligence should be and do, the difference is not as deep as it might at first glance appear. With a genie, one already sacrifices the most attractive property of an oracle: the opportunity to use boxing methods. While one might consider creating a physically confined genie, for instance one that can only construct objects inside a designated volumea volume that might be sealed off by a hardened wall or a barrier loaded with explosive charges rigged to detonate if the containment is breachedit would be difficult to have much confidence in the security of any such physical containment method against a superintelligence equipped with versatile manipulators and construction materials. Even if it were somehow possible to ensure a containment as secure as that which can be achieved for an oracle, it is not clear how much we would have gained by giving the superintelligence direct access to manipulators compared to requiring it instead to output a blueprint that we could inspect and then use to achieve the same result ourselves. The gain in speed and convenience from bypassing the human intermediary seems hardly worth the loss of foregoing the use of the stronger boxing methods available to contain an oracle. If one were creating a genie, it would be desirable to build it so that it would obey the intention behind the command rather than its literal meaning, since a literalistic genie (one superintelligent enough to attain a decisive strategic advantage) might have a propensity to kill the user and the rest of humanity on its first use, for reasons explained in the section on malignant failure modes in Chapter 8 . More broadly, it would seem important that the genie seek a charitableand what human beings would regard as reasonableinterpretation of what is being commanded, and that the genie be motivated to carry out the command under such an interpretation rather than under the literalistic interpretation. The ideal genie would be a super-butler rather than an autistic savant. A genie endowed with such a super-butler nature, however, would not be far from qualifying for membership in the caste of sovereigns. Consider, for comparison, the idea of building a sovereign with the final goal of obeying the spirit of the commands we would have given had we built a genie rather than a sovereign. Such a sovereign would mimic a genie. Being superintelligent, this sovereign would do a good job at guessing what commands we would have given a genie (and it could always ask us if that would help inform its decisions). Would there then really be any important difference between such a sovereign and a genie? Or, pressing on the distinction from the other side, consider that a superintelligent genie may likewise be able to predict what commands we will give it: what then is gained from having it await the actual issuance before it acts? One might think that a big advantage of a genie over a sovereign is that if something goes wrong, we could issue the genie with a new command to stop or to reverse the effects of the previous actions, whereas a sovereign would just push on regardless of our protests. But this apparent safety advantage for the genie is largely illusory. The stop or undo button on a genie works only for benign failure modes: in the case of a malignant failureone in which, for example, carrying out the existing command has become a final goal for the geniethe genie would simply disregard any subsequent attempt to countermand the previous command. 7 One option would be to try to build a genie such that it would automatically present the user with a prediction about salient aspects of the likely outcomes of a proposed command, asking for confirmation before proceeding. Such a system could be referred to as a genie-with-a-preview . But if this could be done for a genie, it could likewise be done for a sovereign. So again, this is not a clear differentiator between a genie and a sovereign. (Supposing that a preview functionality could be created, the questions of whether and if so how to use it are rather less obvious than one might think, notwithstanding the strong appeal of being able to glance at the outcome before committing to making it irrevocable reality. We will return to this matter later.) The ability of one caste to mimic another extends to oracles, too. A genie could be made to act like an oracle if the only commands we ever give it are to answer certain questions. An oracle, in turn, could be made to substitute for a genie if we asked the oracle what the easiest way is to get certain commands executed. The oracle could give us step-by-step instructions for achieving the same result as a genie would produce, or it could even output the source code for a genie. 8 Similar points can be made with regard to the relation between an oracle and a sovereign. The real difference between the three castes, therefore, does not reside in the ultimate capabilities that they would unlock. Instead, the difference comes down to alternative approaches to the control problem. Each caste corresponds to a different set of safety precautions. The most prominent feature of an oracle is that it can be boxed. One might also try to apply domesticity motivation selection to an oracle. A genie is harder to box, but at least domesticity may be applicable. A sovereign can neither be boxed nor handled through the domesticity approach. If these were the only relevant factors, then the order of desirability would seem clear: an oracle would be safer than a genie, which would be safer than a sovereign; and any initial differences in convenience and speed of operation would be relatively small and easily dominated by the gains in safety obtainable by building an oracle. However, there are other factors that need to be taken into account. When choosing between castes, one should consider not only the danger posed by the system itself but also the dangers that arise out of the way it might be used. A genie most obviously gives the person who controls it enormous power, but the same holds for an oracle. 9 A sovereign, by contrast, could be constructed in such way as to accord no one person or group any special influence over the outcome, and such that it would resist any attempt to corrupt or alter its original agenda. What is more, if a sovereigns motivation is defined using indirect normativity (a concept to be described in Chapter 13 ) then it could be used to achieve some abstractly defined outcome, such as whatever is maximally fair and morally rightwithout anybody knowing in advance what exactly this will entail. This would create a situation analogous to a Rawlsian veil of ignorance. 10 Such a setup might facilitate the attainment of consensus, help prevent conflict, and promote a more equitable outcome. Another point, which counts against some types of oracles and genies, is that there are risks involved in designing a superintelligence to have a final goal that does not fully match the outcome that we ultimately seek to attain. For example, if we use a domesticity motivation to make the superintelligence want to minimize some of its impacts on the world, we might thereby create a system whose preference ranking over possible outcomes differs from that of the sponsor. The same will happen if we build the AI to place a peculiarly high value on answering questions correctly, or on faithfully obeying individual commands. Now, if sufficient care is taken, this should not cause any problems: there would be sufficient agreement between the two rankingsat least insofar as they pertain to possible worlds that have a reasonable chance of being actualized that the outcomes that are good by the AIs standard are also good by the principals standard. But perhaps one could argue for the design principle that it is unwise to introduce even a limited amount of disharmony between the AIs goals and ours. (The same concern would of course apply to giving sovereigns goals that do not completely harmonize with ours.) Tool-AIs One suggestion that has been made is that we build the superintelligence to be like a tool rather than an agent. 11 This idea seems to arise out of the observation that ordinary software, which is used in countless applications, does not raise any safety concerns even remotely analogous to the challenges discussed in this book. Might one not create tool-AI that is like such softwarelike a flight control system, say, or a virtual assistantonly more flexible and capable? Why build a superintelligence that has a will of its own? On this line of thinking, the agent paradigm is fundamentally misguided. Instead of creating an AI that has beliefs and desires and that acts like an artificial person, we should aim to build regular software that simply does what it is programmed to do. This idea of creating software that simply does what it is programmed to do is, however, not so straightforward if the product being created is a powerful general intelligence. There is, of course, a trivial sense in which all software simply does what it is programmed to do: the behavior is mathematically specified by the code. But this is equally true for all castes of machine intelligence, tool-AI or not. If, instead, simply doing what it is programmed to do means that the software behaves as the programmers intended , then this is a standard that ordinary software very often fails to meet. Because of the limited capabilities of contemporary software (compared with those of machine superintelligence) the consequences of such failures are manageable, ranging from insignificant to very costly, but in no case amounting to an existential threat. 12 However, if it is insufficient capability rather than sufficient reliability that makes ordinary software existentially safe, then it is unclear how such software could be a model for a safe superintelligence. It might be thought that by expanding the range of tasks done by ordinary software, one could eliminate the need for artificial general intelligence. But the range and diversity of tasks that a general intelligence could profitably perform in a modern economy is enormous. It would be infeasible to create special- purpose software to handle all of those tasks. Even if it could be done, such a project would take a long time to carry out. Before it could be completed, the nature of some of the tasks would have changed, and new tasks would have become relevant. There would be great advantage to having software that can learn on its own to do new tasks, and indeed to discover new tasks in need of doing. But this would require that the software be able to learn, reason, and plan, and to do so in a powerful and robustly cross-domain manner. In other words, it would require general intelligence. Especially relevant for our purposes is the task of software development itself. There would be enormous practical advantages to being able to automate this. Yet the capacity for rapid self-improvement is just the critical property that enables a seed AI to set off an intelligence explosion. If general intelligence is not dispensable, is there some other way of construing the tool-AI idea so as to preserve the reassuringly passive quality of a humdrum tool? Could one have a general intelligence that is not an agent? Intuitively, it is not just the limited capability of ordinary software that makes it safe: it is also its lack of ambition. There is no subroutine in Excel that secretly wants to take over the world if only it were smart enough to find a way. The spreadsheet application does not want anything at all; it just blindly carries out the instructions in the program. What (one might wonder) stands in the way of creating a more generally intelligent application of the same type? An oracle, for instance, which, when prompted with a description of a goal, would respond with a plan for how to achieve it, in much the same way that Excel responds to a column of numbers by calculating a sumwithout thereby expressing any preferences regarding its output or how humans might choose to use it? The classical way of writing software requires the programmer to understand the task to be performed in sufficient detail to formulate an explicit solution process consisting of a sequence of mathematically well-defined steps expressible in code. 13 (In practice, software engineers rely on code libraries stocked with useful behaviors, which they can invoke without needing to understand how the behaviors are implemented. But that code was originally created by programmers who had a detailed understanding of what they were doing.) This approach works for solving well-understood tasks, and is to credit for most software that is currently in use. It falls short, however, when nobody knows precisely how to solve all of the tasks that need to be accomplished. This is where techniques from the field of artificial intelligence become relevant. In narrow applications, machine learning might be used merely to fine-tune a few parameters in a largely human-designed program. A spam filter, for example, might be trained on a corpus of hand-classified email messages in a process that changes the weights that the classification algorithm places on various diagnostic features. In a more ambitious application, the classifier might be built so that it can discover new features on its own and test their validity in a changing environment. An even more sophisticated spam filter could be endowed with some ability to reason about the trade-offs facing the user or about the contents of the messages it is classifying. In neither of these cases does the programmer need to know the best way of distinguishing spam from ham, only how to set up an algorithm that can improve its own performance via learning, discovering, or reasoning. With advances in artificial intelligence, it would become possible for the programmer to offload more of the cognitive labor required to figure out how to accomplish a given task. In an extreme case, the programmer would simply specify a formal criterion of what counts as success and leave it to the AI to find a solution. To guide its search, the AI would use a set of powerful heuristics and other methods to discover structure in the space of possible solutions. It would keep searching until it found a solution that satisfied the success criterion. The AI would then either implement the solution itself or (in the case of an oracle) report the solution to the user. Rudimentary forms of this approach are quite widely deployed today. Nevertheless, software that uses AI and machine learning techniques, though it has some ability to find solutions that the programmers had not anticipated, functions for all practical purposes like a tool and poses no existential risk. We would enter the danger zone only when the methods used in the search for solutions become extremely powerful and general: that is, when they begin to amount to general intelligenceand especially when they begin to amount to superintelligence. There are (at least) two places where trouble could then arise. First, the superintelligent search process might find a solution that is not just unexpected but radically unintended. This could lead to a failure of one of the types discussed previously (perverse instantiation, infrastructure profusion, or mind crime). It is most obvious how this could happen in the case of a sovereign or a genie, which directly implements the solution it has found. If making molecular smiley faces or transforming the planet into paperclips is the first idea that the superintelligence discovers that meets the solution criterion, then smiley faces or paperclips we get. 14 But even an oracle, whichif all else goes wellmerely reports the solution, could become a cause of perverse instantiation. The user asks the oracle for a plan to achieve a certain outcome, or for a technology to serve a certain function; and when the user follows the plan or constructs the technology, a perverse instantiation can ensue, just as if the AI had implemented the solution itself. 15 A second place where trouble could arise is in the course of the softwares operation. If the methods that the software uses to search for a solution are sufficiently sophisticated, they may include provisions for managing the search process itself in an intelligent manner. In this case, the machine running the software may begin to seem less like a mere tool and more like an agent. Thus, the software may start by developing a plan for how to go about its search for a solution. The plan may specify which areas to explore first and with what methods, what data to gather, and how to make best use of available computational resources. In searching for a plan that satisfies the softwares internal criterion (such as yielding a sufficiently high probability of finding a solution satisfying the user-specified criterion within the allotted time), the software may stumble on an unorthodox idea. For instance, it might generate a plan that begins with the acquisition of additional computational resources and the elimination of potential interrupters (such as human beings). Such creative plans come into view when the softwares cognitive abilities reach a sufficiently high level. When the software puts such a plan into action, an existential catastrophe may ensue. As the examples in Box 9 illustrate, open-ended search processes sometimes evince strange and unexpected non-anthropocentric solutions even in their currently limited forms. Present-day search processes are not hazardous because they are too weak to discover the kind of plan that could enable a program to take over the world. Such a plan would include extremely difficult steps, such as the invention of a new weapons technology several generations ahead of the state of the art or the execution of a propaganda campaign far more effective than any communication devised by human spin doctors. To have a chance of even conceiving of such ideas, let alone developing them in a way that would actually work, a machine would probably need the capacity to represent the world in a way that is at least as rich and realistic as the world model possessed by a normal human adult (though a lack of awareness in some areas might possibly be compensated for by extra skill in others). This is far beyond the reach of contemporary AI. And because of the combinatorial explosion, which generally defeats attempts to solve complicated planning problems with brute- force methods (as we saw in Chapter 1 ), the shortcomings of known algorithms cannot realistically be overcome simply by pouring on more computing power. 21 However, once the search or planning processes become powerful enough, they also become potentially dangerous. Box 9 Strange solutions from blind search Even simple evolutionary search processes sometimes produce highly unexpected results, solutions that satisfy a formal user-defined criterion in a very different way than the user expected or intended. The field of evolvable hardware offers many illustrations of this phenomenon. In this field, an evolutionary algorithm searches the space of hardware designs, testing the fitness of each design by instantiating it physically on a rapidly reconfigurable array or motherboard. The evolved designs often show remarkable economy. For instance, one search discovered a frequency discrimination circuit that functioned without a clocka component normally considered necessary for this function. The researchers estimated that the evolved circuit was between one and two orders of magnitude smaller than what a human engineer would have required for the task. The circuit exploited the physical properties of its components in unorthodox ways; some active, necessary components were not even connected to the input or output pins! These components instead participated via what would normally be considered nuisance side effects, such as electromagnetic coupling or power-supply loading. Another search process, tasked with creating an oscillator, was deprived of a seemingly even more indispensible component, the capacitor. When the algorithm presented its successful solution, the researchers examined it and at first concluded that it should not work. Upon more careful examination, they discovered that the algorithm had, MacGyver-like, reconfigured its sensor-less motherboard into a makeshift radio receiver, using the printed circuit board tracks as an aerial to pick up signals generated by personal computers that happened to be situated nearby in the laboratory. The circuit amplified this signal to produce the desired oscillating output. 16 In other experiments, evolutionary algorithms designed circuits that sensed whether the motherboard was being monitored with an oscilloscope or whether a soldering iron was connected to the labs common power supply. These examples illustrate how an open-ended search process can repurpose the materials accessible to it in order to devise completely unexpected sensory capabilities, by means that conventional human design-thinking is poorly equipped to exploit or even account for in retrospect. The tendency for evolutionary search to cheat or find counterintuitive ways of achieving a given end is on display in nature too, though it is perhaps less obvious to us there because of our already being somewhat familiar with the look and feel of biology, and thus being prone to regarding the actual outcomes of natural evolutionary processes as normaleven if we would not have expected them ex ante . But it is possible to set up experiments in artificial selection where one can see the evolutionary process in action outside its familiar context. In such experiments, researchers can create conditions that rarely obtain in nature, and observe the results. For example, prior to the 1960s, it was apparently quite common for biologists to maintain that predator populations restrict their own breeding in order to avoid falling into a Malthusian trap. 17 Although individual selection would work against such restraint, it was sometimes thought that group selection would overcome individual incentives to exploit opportunities for reproduction and favor traits that would benefit the group or population at large. Theoretical analysis and simulation studies later showed that while group selection is possible in principle, it can overcome strong individual selection only under very stringent conditions that may rarely apply in nature. 18 But such conditions can be created in the laboratory. When flour beetles ( Tribolium castaneum ) were bred for reduced population size, by applying strong group selection, evolution did indeed lead to smaller populations. 19 However, the means by which this was accomplished included not only the benign adaptations of reduced fecundity and extended developmental time that a human naively anthropomorphizing evolutionary search might have expected, but also an increase in cannibalism. 20 Instead of allowing agent-like purposive behavior to emerge spontaneously and haphazardly from the implementation of powerful search processes (including processes searching for internal work plans and processes directly searching for solutions meeting some user-specified criterion), it may be better to create agents on purpose. Endowing a superintelligence with an explicitly agent-like structure can be a way of increasing predictability and transparency. A well-designed system, built such that there is a clean separation between its values and its beliefs, would let us predict something about the outcomes it would tend to produce. Even if we could not foresee exactly which beliefs the system would acquire or which situations it would find itself in, there would be a known place where we could inspect its final values and thus the criteria that it will use in selecting its future actions and in evaluating any potential plan. Comparison It may be useful to summarize the features of the different system castes we have discussed ( Table 11 ). Table 11 Features of different system castes Oracle A question-answering system Boxing methods fully applicable Domesticity fully applicable Reduced need for AI to Variations : Domain-limited oracles (e.g. mathematics); output-restricted oracles (e.g. only yes/no/undecided answers, or probabilities); oracles that refuse to answer questions if they predict the consequences of answering would meet pre-specified disaster criteria; multiple oracles for peer review understand human intentions and interests (compared to genies and sovereigns) Use of yes/no questions can obviate need for a metric of the usefulness or informativeness of answers Source of great power (might give operator a decisive strategic advantage) Limited protection against foolish use by operator Untrustworthy oracles could be used to provide answers that are hard to find but easy to verify Weak verification of answers may be possible through the use of multiple oracles Genie A command-executing system Boxing methods partially applicable (for spatially limited genies) Variations : Genies using different extrapolation distances or degrees of following the spirit rather than letter of the command; domain-limited genies; genies- with-preview; genies that refuse to obey commands if they predict the consequences of obeying would meet pre-specified disaster criteria Domesticity partially applicable Genie could offer a preview of salient aspects of expected outcomes Genie could implement change in stages, with opportunity for review at each stage Source of great power (might give operator a decisive strategic advantage) Limited protection against foolish use by operator Greater need for AI to understand human interests and intentions (compared to oracles) Sovereign A system designed for open-ended autonomous operation Boxing methods inapplicable Most other capability control methods also inapplicable (except, possibly, social integration or anthropic capture) Domesticity mostly Variations : Many possible motivation systems; possibility of using preview and sponsor ratification (to be discussed in Chapter 13 ) inapplicable Great need for AI to understand true human interests and intentions Necessity of getting it right on the first try (though, to a possibly lesser extent, this is true for all castes) Potentially a source of great power for sponsor, including decisive strategic advantage Once activated, not vulnerable to hijacking by operator, and might be designed with some protection against foolish use Can be used to implement veil of ignorance outcomes (cf. Chapter 13 ) Boxing methods may be applicable, depending on the implementation Powerful search processes would likely be involved in the development and Tool A system not designed to exhibit goal- directed behavior operation of a machine superintelligence Powerful search to find a solution meeting some formal criterion can produce solutions that meet the criterion in an unintended and dangerous way Powerful search might involve secondary, internal search and planning processes that might find dangerous ways of executing the primary search process Further research would be needed to determine which type of system would be safest. The answer might depend on the conditions under which the AI would be deployed. The oracle caste is obviously attractive from a safety standpoint, since it would allow both capability control methods and motivation selection methods to be applied. It might thus seem to simply dominate the sovereign caste, which would only allow motivation selection methods (except in scenarios in which the world is believed to contain other powerful superintelligences, in which case social integration or anthropic capture might apply). However, an oracle could place a lot of power into the hands of its operator, who might be corrupted or might apply the power unwisely, whereas a sovereign would offer some protection against these hazards. The safety ranking is therefore not so easily determined. A genie can be viewed as a compromise between an oracle and a sovereign but not necessarily a good compromise. In many ways, it would share the disadvantages of both. The apparent safety of a tool-AI, meanwhile, may be illusory. In order for tools to be versatile enough to substitute for superintelligent agents, they may need to deploy extremely powerful internal search and planning processes. Agent-like behaviors may arise from such processes as an unplanned consequence. In that case, it would be better to design the system to be an agent in the first place, so that the programmers can more easily see what criteria will end up determining the systems output. CHAPTER 11 Multipolar scenarios We have seen (particularly in Chapter 8 ) how menacing a unipolar outcome could be, one in which a single superintelligence obtains a decisive strategic advantage and uses it to establish a singleton. In this chapter, we examine what would happen in a multipolar outcome, a post-transition society with multiple competing superintelligent agencies. Our interest in this class of scenarios is twofold. First, as alluded to in Chapter 9 , social integration might be thought to offer a solution to the control problem. We already noted some limitations with that approach, and this chapter paints a fuller picture. Second, even without anybody setting out to create a multipolar condition as a way of handling the control problem, such an outcome might occur anyway. So what might such an outcome look like? The resulting competitive society is not necessarily attractive, nor long-lasting. In singleton scenarios, what happens post-transition depends almost entirely on the values of the singleton. The outcome could thus be very good or very bad, depending on what those values are. What the values are depends, in turn, on whether the control problem was solved, andto the degree to which it was solvedon the goals of the project that created the singleton. If one is interested in the outcome of singleton scenarios, therefore, one really only has three sources of information: information about matters that cannot be affected by the actions of the singleton (such as the laws of physics); information about convergent instrumental values; and information that enables one to predict or speculate about what final values the singleton will have. In multipolar scenarios, an additional set of constraints comes into play, constraints having to do with how agents interact. The social dynamics emerging from such interactions can be studied using techniques from game theory, economics, and evolution theory. Elements of political science and sociology are also relevant insofar as they can be distilled and abstracted from some of the more contingent features of human experience. Although it would be unrealistic to expect these constraints to give us a precise picture of the post-transition world, they can help us identify some salient possibilities and challenge some unfounded assumptions. We will begin by exploring an economic scenario characterized by a low level of regulation, strong protection of property rights, and a moderately rapid introduction of inexpensive digital minds. 1 This type of model is most closely associated with the American economist Robin Hanson, who has done pioneering work on the subject. Later in this chapter, we will look at some evolutionary considerations and examine the prospects of an initially multipolar post-transition world subsequently coalescing into a singleton. Of horses and men General machine intelligence could serve as a substitute for human intelligence. Not only could digital minds perform the intellectual work now done by humans, but, once equipped with good actuators or robotic bodies, machines could also substitute for human physical labor. Suppose that machine workerswhich can be quickly reproducedbecome both cheaper and more capable than human workers in virtually all jobs. What happens then? Wages and unemployment With cheaply copyable labor, market wages fall. The only place where humans would remain competitive may be where customers have a basic preference for work done by humans. Today, goods that have been handcrafted or produced by indigenous people sometimes command a price premium. Future consumers might similarly prefer human-made goods and human athletes, human artists, human lovers, and human leaders to functionally indistinguishable or superior artificial counterparts. It is unclear, however, just how widespread such preferences would be. If machine-made alternatives were sufficiently superior, perhaps they would be more highly prized. One parameter that might be relevant to consumer choice is the inner life of the worker providing a service or product. A concert audience, for instance, might like to know that the performer is consciously experiencing the music and the venue. Absent phenomenal experience, the musician could be regarded as merely a high-powered jukebox, albeit one capable of creating the three- dimensional appearance of a performer interacting naturally with the crowd. Machines might then be designed to instantiate the same kinds of mental states that would be present in a human performing the same task. Even with perfect replication of subjective experiences, however, some people might simply prefer organic work. Such preferences could also have ideological or religious roots. Just as many Muslims and Jews shun food prepared in ways they classify as haram or treif , so there might be groups in the future that eschew products whose manufacture involved unsanctioned use of machine intelligence. What hinges on this? To the extent that cheap machine labor can substitute for human labor, human jobs may disappear. Fears about automation and job loss are of course not new. Concerns about technological unemployment have surfaced periodically, at least since the Industrial Revolution; and quite a few professions have in fact gone the way of the English weavers and textile artisans who in the early nineteenth century united under the banner of the folkloric General Ludd to fight against the introduction of mechanized looms. Nevertheless, although machinery and technology have been substitutes for many particular types of human labor, physical technology has on the whole been a complement to labor. Average human wages around the world have been on a long-term upward trend, in large part because of such complementarities. Yet what starts out as a complement to labor can at a later stage become a substitute for labor. Horses were initially complemented by carriages and ploughs, which greatly increased the horses productivity. Later, horses were substituted for by automobiles and tractors. These later innovations reduced the demand for equine labor and led to a population collapse. Could a similar fate befall the human species? The parallel to the story of the horse can be drawn out further if we ask why it is that there are still horses around. One reason is that there are still a few niches in which horses have functional advantages; for example, police work. But the main reason is that humans happen to have peculiar preferences for the services that horses can provide, including recreational horseback riding and racing. These preferences can be compared to the preferences we hypothesized some humans might have in the future, that certain goods and services be made by human hand. Although suggestive, this analogy is, however, inexact, since there is still no complete functional substitute for horses. If there were inexpensive mechanical devices that ran on hay and had exactly the same shape, feel, smell, and behavior as biological horsesperhaps even the same conscious experiencesthen demand for biological horses would probably decline further. With a sufficient reduction in the demand for human labor, wages would fall below the human subsistence level. The potential downside for human workers is therefore extreme: not merely wage cuts, demotions, or the need for retraining, but starvation and death. When horses became obsolete as a source of moveable power, many were sold off to meatpackers to be processed into dog food, bone meal, leather, and glue. These animals had no alternative employment through which to earn their keep. In the United States, there were about 26 million horses in 1915. By the early 1950s, 2 million remained. 2 Capital and welfare One difference between humans and horses is that humans own capital. A stylized empirical fact is that the total factor share of capital has for a long time remained steady at approximately 30% (though with significant short-term fluctuations). 3 This means that 30% of total global income is received as rent by owners of capital, the remaining 70% being received as wages by workers. If we classify AI as capital, then with the invention of machine intelligence that can fully substitute for human work, wages would fall to the marginal cost of such machine-substitutes, whichunder the assumption that the machines are very efficientwould be very low, far below human subsistence-level income. The income share received by labor would then dwindle to practically nil. But this implies that the factor share of capital would become nearly 100% of total world product. Since world GDP would soar following an intelligence explosion (because of massive amounts of new labor-substituting machines but also because of technological advances achieved by superintelligence, and, later, acquisition of vast amounts of new land through space colonization), it follows that the total income from capital would increase enormously. If humans remain the owners of this capital, the total income received by the human population would grow astronomically, despite the fact that in this scenario humans would no longer receive any wage income. The human species as a whole could thus become rich beyond the dreams of Avarice. How would this income be distributed? To a first approximation, capital income would be proportional to the amount of capital owned. Given the astronomical amplification effect, even a tiny bit of pre-transition wealth would balloon into a vast post-transition fortune. However, in the contemporary world, many people have no wealth. This includes not only individuals who live in poverty but also some people who earn a good income or who have high human capital but have negative net worth. For example, in affluent Denmark and Sweden 30% of the population report negative wealthoften young, middle- class people with few tangible assets and credit card debt or student loans. 4 Even if savings could earn extremely high interest, there would need to be some seed grain, some starting capital, in order for the compounding to begin. 5 Nevertheless, even individuals who have no private wealth at the start of the transition could become extremely rich. Those who participate in a pension scheme, for instance, whether public or private, should be in a good position, provided the scheme is at least partially funded. 6 Have-nots could also become rich through the philanthropy of those who see their net worth skyrocket: because of the astronomical size of the bonanza, even a very small fraction donated as alms would be a very large sum in absolute terms. It is also possible that riches could still be made through work, even at a post- transition stage when machines are functionally superior to humans in all domains (as well as cheaper than even subsistence-level human labor). As noted earlier, this could happen if there are niches in which human labor is preferred for aesthetic, ideological, ethical, religious, or other non-pragmatic reasons. In a scenario in which the wealth of human capital-holders increases dramatically, demand for such labor could increase correspondingly. Newly minted trillionaires or quadrillionaires could afford to pay a hefty premium for having some of their goods and services supplied by an organic fair-trade labor force. The history of horses again offers a parallel. After falling to 2 million in the early 1950s, the US horse population has undergone a robust recovery: a recent census puts the number at just under 10 million head. 7 The rise is not due to new functional needs for horses in agriculture or transportation; rather, economic growth has enabled more Americans to indulge a fancy for equestrian recreation. Another relevant difference between humans and horses, beside capital- ownership, is that humans are capable of political mobilization. A human-run government could use the taxation power of the state to redistribute private profits, or raise revenue by selling appreciated state-owned assets, such as public land, and use the proceeds to pension off its constituents. Again, because of the explosive economic growth during and immediately after the transition, there would be vastly more wealth sloshing around, making it relatively easy to fill the cups of all unemployed citizens. It should be feasible even for a single country to provide every human worldwide with a generous living wage at no greater proportional cost than what many countries currently spend on foreign aid. 8 The Malthusian principle in a historical perspective So far we have assumed a constant human population. This may be a reasonable assumption for short timescales, since biology limits the rate of human reproduction. Over longer timescales, however, the assumption is not necessarily reasonable. The human population has increased a thousandfold over the past 9,000 years. 9 The increase would have been much faster except for the fact that throughout most of history and prehistory, the human population was bumping up against the limits of the world economy. An approximately Malthusian condition prevailed, in which most people received subsistence-level incomes that just barely allowed them to survive and raise an average of two children to maturity. 10 There were temporary and local reprieves: plagues, climate fluctuations, or warfare intermittently culled the population and freed up land, enabling survivors to improve their nutritional intakeand to bring up more children, until the ranks were replenished and the Malthusian condition reinstituted. Also, thanks to social inequality, a thin elite stratum could enjoy consistently above-subsistence income (at the expense of somewhat lowering the total size of the population that could be sustained). A sad and dissonant thought: that in this Malthusian condition, the normal state of affairs during most of our tenure on this planet, it was droughts, pestilence, massacres, and inequalityin common estimation the worst foes of human welfarethat may have been the greatest humanitarians: they alone enabling the average level of well-being to occasionally bop up slightly above that of life at the very margin of subsistence. Superimposed on local fluctuations, history shows a macro-pattern of initially slow but accelerating economic growth, fueled by the accumulation of technological innovations. The growing world economy brought with it a commensurate increase in global population. (More precisely, a larger population itself appears to have strongly accelerated the rate of growth, perhaps mainly by increasing humanitys collective intelligence. 11 ) Only since the Industrial Revolution, however, did economic growth become so rapid that population growth failed to keep pace. Average income thus started to rise, first in the early- industrializing countries of Western Europe, subsequently in most of the world. Even in the poorest countries today, average income substantially exceeds subsistence level, as reflected in the fact that the populations of these countries are growing. The poorest countries now have the fastest population growth, as they have yet to complete the demographic transition to the low-fertility regime that has taken hold in more developed societies. Demographers project that the world population will rise to about 9 billion by mid-century, and that it might thereafter plateau or decline as the poorer countries join the developed world in this low- fertility regime. 12 Many rich countries already have fertility rates that are below replacement level; in some cases, far below. 13 Yet there are reasons, if we take a longer view and assume a state of unchanging technology and continued prosperity, to expect a return to the historically and ecologically normal condition of a world population that butts up against the limits of what our niche can support. If this seems counterintuitive in light of the negative relationship between wealth and fertility that we are currently observing on the global scale, we must remind ourselves that this modern age is a brief slice of history and very much an aberration. Human behavior has not yet adapted to contemporary conditions. Not only do we fail to take advantage of obvious ways to increase our inclusive fitness (such as by becoming sperm or egg donors) but we actively sabotage our fertility by using birth control. In the environment of evolutionary adaptedness, a healthy sex drive may have been enough to make an individual act in ways that maximized her reproductive potential; in the modern environment, however, there would be a huge selective advantage to having a more direct desire for being the biological parent to the largest possible number of children. Such a desire is currently being selected for, as are other traits that increase our propensity to reproduce. Cultural adaptation, however, might steal a march on biological evolution. Some communities, such those of the Hutterites or the adherents of the Quiverfull evangelical movement, have natalist cultures that encourage large families, and they are consequently undergoing rapid expansion. Population growth and investment If we imagine current socioeconomic conditions magically frozen in their current shape, the future would be dominated by cultural or ethnic groups that sustain high levels of fertility. If most people had preferences that were fitness- maximizing in the contemporary environment, the population could easily double in each generation. Absent population control policieswhich would have to become steadily more rigorous and effective to counteract the evolution of stronger preferences to circumvent themthe world population would then continue to grow exponentially until some constraint, such as land scarcity or depletion of easy opportunities for important innovation, made it impossible for the economy to keep pace: at which point, average income would start to decline until it reached the level where crushing poverty prevents most people from raising much more than two children to maturity. Thus the Malthusian principle would reassert itself, like a dread slave master, bringing our escapade into the dreamland of abundance to an end, and leading us back to the quarry in chains, there to resume the weary struggle for subsistence. This longer-term outlook could be telescoped into a more imminent prospect by the intelligence explosion. Since software is copyable, a population of emulations or AIs could double rapidlyover the course of minutes rather than decades or centuriessoon exhausting all available hardware. Private property might offer partial protection against the emergence of a universal Malthusian condition. Consider a simple model in which clans (or closed communities, or states) start out with varying amounts of property and independently adopt different policies about reproduction and investment. Some clans discount the future steeply and spend down their endowment, whereafter their impoverished members join the global proletariat (or die, if they cannot support themselves through their labor). Other clans invest some of their resources but adopt a policy of unlimited reproduction: such clans grow more populous until they reach an internal Malthusian condition in which their members are so poor that they die at almost the same rate as they reproduce, at which point the clans population growth slows to equal the growth of its resources. Yet other clans might restrict their fertility to below the rate of growth of their capital: such clans could slowly increment their numbers while their members also grow richer per capita. If wealth is redistributed from the wealthy clans to the members of the rapidly reproducing or rapidly discounting clans (whose children, copies, or offshoots, through no fault of their own, were launched into the world with insufficient capital to survive and thrive) then a universal Malthusian condition would be more closely approximated. In the limiting case, all members of all clans would receive subsistence level income and everybody would be equal in their poverty. If property is not redistributed, prudent clans might hold on to a certain amount of capital, and it is possible that their wealth could grow in absolute terms. It is, however, unclear whether humans could earn as high rates of return on their capital as machine intelligences could earn on theirs, because there may be synergies between labor and capital such that an single agent who can supply both (e.g. an entrepreneur or investor who is both skilled and wealthy) can attain a private rate of return on her capital exceeding the market rate obtainable by agents who possess financial but not cognitive resources. Humans, being less skilled than machine intelligences, may therefore grow their capital more slowly unless, of course, the control problem had been completely solved, in which case the human rate of return would equal the machine rate of return, since a human principal could task a machine agent to manage her savings, and could do so costlessly and without conflicts of interest: but otherwise, in this scenario, the fraction of the economy owned by machines would asymptotically approach one hundred percent. A scenario in which the fraction of the economy that is owned by machines asymptotically approaches one hundred percent is not necessarily one in which the size of the human slice declines. If the economy grows at a sufficient clip, then even a relatively diminishing fraction of it may still be increasing in its absolute size. This may sound like modestly good news for humankind: in a multipolar scenario in which property rights are protectedeven if we completely fail to solve the control problemthe total amount of wealth owned by human beings could increase. Of course, this effect would not take care of the problem of population growth in the human population pulling down per capita income to subsistence level, nor the problem of humans who ruin themselves because they discount the future. In the long run, the economy would become increasingly dominated by those clans that have the highest savings ratesmisers who own half the city and live under a bridge. Only in the fullness of time, when there are no more opportunities for investment, would the maximally prosperous misers start drawing down their savings. 14 However, if there is less than perfect protection for property rightsfor example if the more efficient machines on net succeed, by hook or by crook, in transferring wealth from humans to themselvesthen human capitalists may need to spend down their capital much sooner, before it gets depleted by such transfers (or the ongoing costs incurred in securing their wealth against such transfers). If these developments take place on digital rather than biological timescales, then the glacial humans might find themselves expropriated before they could say Jack Robinson. 15 Life in an algorithmic economy Life for biological humans in a post-transition Malthusian state need not resemble any of the historical states of man (as huntergatherer, farmer, or office worker). Instead, the majority of humans in this scenario might be idle rentiers who eke out a marginal living on their savings. 16 They would be very poor, yet derive what little income they have from savings or state subsidies. They would live in a world with extremely advanced technology, including not only superintelligent machines but also anti-aging medicine, virtual reality, and various enhancement technologies and pleasure drugs: yet these might be generally unaffordable. Perhaps instead of using enhancement medicine, they would take drugs to stunt their growth and slow their metabolism in order to reduce their cost of living (fast-burners being unable to survive at the gradually declining subsistence income). As our numbers increase and our average income declines further, we might degenerate into whatever minimal structure still qualifies to receive a pensionperhaps minimally conscious brains in vats, oxygenized and nourished by machines, slowly saving up enough money to reproduce by having a robot technician develop a clone of them. 17 Further frugality could be achieved by means of uploading, since a physically optimized computing substrate, devised by advanced superintelligence, would be more efficient than a biological brain. The migration into the digital realm might be stemmed, however, if emulations were regarded as non-humans or non- citizens ineligible to receive pensions or to hold tax-exempt savings accounts. In that case, a niche for biological humans might remain open, alongside a perhaps vastly larger population of emulations or artificial intelligences. So far we have focused on the fate of the humans, who may be supported by savings, subsidies, or wage income deriving from other humans who prefer to hire humans. Let us now turn our attention to some of the entities that we have so far classified as capital: machines that may be owned by human beings, that are constructed and operated for the sake of the functional tasks they perform, and that are capable of substituting for human labor in a very wide range of jobs. What may the situation be like for these workhorses of the new economy? If these machines were mere automata, simple devices like a steam engine or the mechanism in a clock, then no further comment would be needed: there would be a large amount of such capital in a post-transition economy, but it would seem not to matter to anybody how things turn out for pieces of insentient equipment. However, if the machines have conscious mindsif they are constructed in such a way that their operation is associated with phenomenal awareness (or if they for some other reason are ascribed moral status)then it becomes important to consider the overall outcome in terms of how it would affect these machine minds. The welfare of the working machine minds could even appear to be the most important aspect of the outcome, since they may be numerically dominant. Voluntary slavery, casual death A salient initial question is whether these working machine minds are owned as capital (slaves) or are hired as free wage laborers. On closer inspection however, it become doubtful that anything really hinges on the issue. There are two reasons for this. First, if a free worker in a Malthusian state gets paid a subsistence-level wage, he will have no disposable income left after he has paid for food and other necessities. If the worker is instead a slave, his owner will pay for his maintenance and again he will have no disposable income. In either case, the worker gets the necessities and nothing more. Second, suppose that the free laborer were somehow in a position to command an above-subsistence-level income (perhaps because of favorable regulation). How will he spend the surplus? Investors would find it most profitable to create workers who would be voluntary slaveswho would willingly work for subsistence-level wages. Investors may create such workers by copying those workers who are compliant. With appropriate selection (and perhaps some modification to the code) investors might be able to create workers who not only prefer to volunteer their labor but who would also choose to donate back to their owners any surplus income they might happen to receive. Giving money to the worker would then be but a roundabout way of giving money to the owner or employer, even if the worker were a free agent with full legal rights. Perhaps it will be objected that it would be difficult to design a machine so that it wants to volunteer for any job assigned to it or so that it wants to donate its wages to its owner. Emulations, in particular, might be imagined to have more typically human desires. But note that even if the original control problem is difficult, we are here considering a condition after the transition, a time when methods for motivation selection have presumably been perfected. In the case of emulations, one might get quite far simply by selecting from the pre-existing range of human characters; and we have described several other motivation selection methods. The control problem may also in some ways be simplified by the current assumption that the new machine intelligence enters into a stable socioeconomic matrix that is already populated with other law-abiding superintelligent agents. Let us, then, consider the plight of the working-class machine, whether it be operating as a slave or a free agent. We focus first on emulations, the easiest case to imagine. Bringing a new biological human worker into the world takes anywhere between fifteen and thirty years, depending on how much expertise and experience is required. During this time the new person must be fed, housed, nurtured, and educatedat great expense. By contrast, spawning a new copy of a digital worker is as easy as loading a new program into working memory. Life thus becomes cheap. A business could continuously adapt its workforce to fit demands by spawning new copiesand terminating copies that are no longer needed, to free up computer resources. This could lead to an extremely high death rate among digital workers. Many might live for only one subjective day. There are reasons other than fluctuations in demand why employers or owners of emulations might want to kill or end their workers frequently. 18 If an emulation mind, like a biological mind, requires periods of rest and sleep in order to function, it might be cheaper to erase a fatigued emulation at the end of a day and replace it with a stored state of a fresh and rested emulation. As this procedure would cause retrograde amnesia for everything that had been learned during that day, emulations performing tasks requiring long cognitive threads would be spared such frequent erasure. It would be difficult, for example, to write a book if each morning when one sat down at ones desk, one had no memory of what one had done before. But other jobs could be performed adequately by agents that are frequently recycled: a shop assistant or a customer service agent, once trained, may only need to remember new information for twenty minutes. Since recycling emulations would prevent memory and skill formation, some emulations may be placed on a special learning track where they would run continuously, including for rest and sleep, even in jobs that do not strictly require long cognitive threads. For example, some customer service agents might run for many years in optimized learning environments, assisted by coaches and performance evaluators. The best of these trainees would then be used like studs, serving as templates from which millions of fresh copies are stamped out each day. Great effort would be poured into improving the performance of such worker templates, because even a small increment in productivity would yield great economic value when applied in millions of copies. In parallel with efforts to train worker-templates for particular jobs, intense efforts would also be made to improve the underlying emulation technology. Advances here would be even more valuable than advances in individual worker-templates, since general technology improvements could be applied to all emulation workers (and potentially to non-worker emulations also) rather than only to those in a particular occupation. Enormous resources would be devoted to finding computational shortcuts allowing for more efficient implementations of existing emulations, and also into developing neuromorphic and entirely synthetic AI architectures. This research would probably mostly be done by emulations running on very fast hardware. Depending on the price of computer power, millions, billions, or trillions of emulations of the sharpest human research minds (or enhanced versions thereof) may be working around the clock on advancing the frontier of machine intelligence; and some of these may be operating orders of magnitude faster than biological brains. 19 This is a good reason for thinking that the era of human-like emulations would be brief a very brief interlude in sidereal timeand that it would soon give way to an era of greatly superior artificial intelligence. We have already encountered several reasons why employers of emulation workers may periodically cull their herds: fluctuations in demand for different kinds of laborers, cost savings of not having to emulate rest and sleep time, and the introduction of new and improved templates. Security concerns might furnish another reason. To prevent workers from developing subversive plans and conspiracies, emulations in some sensitive positions might be run only for limited periods, with frequent resets to an earlier stored ready-state. 20 These ready-states to which emulations would be reset would be carefully prepared and vetted. A typical short-lived emulation might wake up in a well- rested mental state that is optimized for loyalty and productivity. He remembers having graduated top of his class after many (subjective) years of intense training and selection, then having enjoyed a restorative holiday and a good nights sleep, then having listened to a rousing motivational speech and stirring music, and now he is champing at the bit to finally get to work and to do his utmost for his employer. He is not overly troubled by thoughts of his imminent death at the end of the working day. Emulations with death neuroses or other hang-ups are less productive and would not have been selected. 21 Would maximally efficient work be fun? One important variable in assessing the desirability of a hypothetical condition like this is the hedonic state of the average emulation. 22 Would a typical emulation worker be suffering or would he be enjoying the experience of working hard on the task at hand? We must resist the temptation to project our own sentiments onto the imaginary emulation worker. The question is not whether you would feel happy if you had to work constantly and never again spend time with your loved ones a terrible fate, most would agree. It is moderately more relevant to consider the current human average hedonic experience during working hours. Worldwide studies asking respondents how happy they are find that most rate themselves as quite happy or very happy (averaging 3.1 on a scale from 1 to 4). 23 Studies on average affect, asking respondents how frequently they have recently experienced various positive or negative affective states, tend to get a similar result (producing a net affect of about 0.52 on a scale from 1 to 1). There is a modest positive effect of a countrys per capita income on average subjective well-being. 24 However, it is hazardous to extrapolate from these findings to the hedonic state of future emulation workers. One reason that could be given for this is that their condition would be so different: on the one hand, they might be working much harder; on the other hand, they might be free from diseases, aches, hunger, noxious odors, and so forth. Yet such considerations largely miss the mark. The much more important consideration here is that hedonic tone would be easy to adjust through the digital equivalent of drugs or neurosurgery. This means that it would be a mistake to infer the hedonic state of future emulations from the external conditions of their lives by imagining how we ourselves and other people like us would feel in those circumstances. Hedonic state would be a matter of choice. In the model we are currently considering, the choice would be made by capital- owners seeking to maximize returns on their investment in emulation-workers. Consequently, the question of how happy emulations would feel boils down to the question of which hedonic states would be most productive (in the various jobs that emulations would be employed to do). Here, again, one might seek to draw an inference from observations about human happiness. If it is the case, across most times, places, and occupations, that people are typically at least moderately happy, this would create some presumption in favor of the same holding in a post-transition scenario like the one we are considering. To be clear, the argument in this case would not be that human minds have a predisposition towards happiness so they would probably find satisfaction under these novel conditions; but rather that a certain average level of happiness has proved adaptive for human minds in the past so maybe a similar level of happiness will prove adaptive for human-like minds in the future. Yet this formulation also reveals the weakness of the inference: to wit, that the mental dispositions that were adaptive for huntergatherer hominids roaming the African savanna may not necessarily be adaptive for modified emulations living in post-transition virtual realities. We can certainly hope that the future emulation-workers would be as happy as, or happier than, typical workers were in human history; but we have yet to see any compelling reason for supposing it would be so (in the laissez-faire multipolar scenario currently under examination). Consider the possibility that the reason happiness is prevalent among humans (to whatever limited extent it is prevalent) is that cheerful mood served a signaling function in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Conveying the impression to other members of the social group of being in flourishing conditionin good health, in good standing with ones peers, and in confident expectation of continued good fortunemay have boosted an individuals popularity. A bias toward cheerfulness could thus have been selected for, with the result that human neurochemistry is now biased toward positive affect compared to what would have been maximally efficient according to simpler materialistic criteria. If this were the case, then the future of joie de vivre might depend on cheer retaining its social signaling function unaltered in the post- transition world: an issue to which we will return shortly. What if glad souls dissipate more energy than glum ones? Perhaps the joyful are more prone to creative leaps and flights of fancybehaviors that future employers might disprize in most of their workers. Perhaps a sullen or anxious fixation on simply getting on with the job without making mistakes will be the productivity-maximizing attitude in most lines of work. The claim here is not that this is so, but that we do not know that it is not so. Yet we should consider just how bad it could be if some such pessimistic hypothesis about a future Malthusian state turned out to be true: not only because of the opportunity cost of having failed to create something betterwhich would be enormousbut also because the state could be bad in itself, possibly far worse than the original Malthusian state. We seldom put forth full effort. When we do, it is sometimes painful. Imagine running on a treadmill at a steep inclineheart pounding, muscles aching, lungs gasping for air. A glance at the timer: your next break, which will also be your death, is due in 49 years, 3 months, 20 days, 4 hours, 56 minutes, and 12 seconds. You wish you had not been born. Again the claim is not that this is how it would be, but that we do not know that it is not. One could certainly make a more optimistic case. For example, there is no obvious reason that emulations would need to suffer bodily injury and sickness: the elimination of physical wretchedness would be a great improvement over the present state of affairs. Furthermore, since such stuff as virtual reality is made of can be fairly cheap, emulations may work in sumptuous surroundingsin splendid mountaintop palaces, on terraces set in a budding spring forest, or on the beaches of an azure lagoonwith just the right illumination, temperature, scenery and dcor; free from annoying fumes, noises, drafts, and buzzing insects; dressed in comfortable clothing, feeling clean and focused, and well nourished. More significantly, ifas seems perfectly possible the optimum human mental state for productivity in most jobs is one of joyful eagerness, then the era of the emulation economy could be quite paradisiacal. There would, in any case, be a great option value in arranging matters in such a manner that somebody or something could intervene to set things right if the default trajectory should happen to veer toward dystopia. It could also be desirable to have some sort of escape hatch that would permit bailout into death and oblivion if the quality of life were to sink permanently below the level at which annihilation becomes preferable to continued existence. Unconscious outsourcers? In the longer run, as the emulation era gives way to an artificial intelligence era (or if machine intelligence is attained directly via AI without a preceding whole brain emulation stage) pain and pleasure might possibly disappear entirely in a multipolar outcome, since a hedonic reward mechanism may not be the most effective motivation system for an complex artificial agent (one that, unlike the human mind, is not burdened with the legacy of animal wetware). Perhaps a more advanced motivation system would be based on an explicit representation of a utility function or some other architecture that has no exact functional analogs to pleasure and pain. A related but slightly more radical multipolar outcomeone that could involve the elimination of almost all value from the futureis that the universal proletariat would not even be conscious. This possibility is most salient with respect to AI, which might be structured very differently than human intelligence. But even if machine intelligence were initially achieved though whole brain emulation, resulting in conscious digital minds, the competitive forces unleashed in a post-transition economy could easily lead to the emergence of progressively less neuromorphic forms of machine intelligence, either because synthetic AI is created de novo or because the emulations would, through successive modifications and enhancements, increasingly depart their original human form. Consider a scenario in which after emulation technology has been developed, continued progress in neuroscience and computer science (expedited by the presence of digital minds to serve as both researchers and test subjects) makes it possible to isolate individual cognitive modules in an emulation, and to hook them up to modules isolated from other emulations. A period of training and adjustment may be required before different modules can collaborate effectively; but modules that conform to common standards could more quickly interface with other standard modules. This would make standardized modules more productive, and create pressure for more standardization. Emulations can now begin to outsource increasing portions of their functionality. Why learn arithmetic when you can send your numerical reasoning task to Gauss-Modules, Inc.? Why be articulate when you can hire Coleridge Conversations to put your thoughts into words? Why make decisions about your personal life when there are certified executive modules that can scan your goal system and manage your resources to achieve your goals better than if you tried to do it yourself? Some emulations may prefer to retain most of their functionality and handle tasks themselves that could be done more efficiently by others. Those emulations would be like hobbyists who enjoy growing their own vegetables or knitting their own cardigans. Such hobbyist emulations would be less efficient; and if there is a net flow of resources from less to more efficient participants of the economy, the hobbyists would eventually lose out. The bouillon cubes of discrete human-like intellects thus melt into an algorithmic soup. It is conceivable that optimal efficiency would be attained by grouping capabilities in aggregates that roughly match the cognitive architecture of a human mind. It might be the case, for example, that a mathematics module must be tailored to a language module, and that both must be tailored to the executive module, in order for the three to work together. Cognitive outsourcing would then be almost entirely unworkable. But in the absence of any compelling reason for being confident that this is so, we must countenance the possibility that human-like cognitive architectures are optimal only within the constraints of human neurology (or not at all). When it becomes possible to build architectures that could not be implemented well on biological neural networks, new design space opens up; and the global optima in this extended space need not resemble familiar types of mentality. Human-like cognitive organizations would then lack a niche in a competitive post-transition economy or ecosystem. 25 There might be niches for complexes that are either less complex (such as individual modules), more complex (such as vast clusters of modules), or of similar complexity to human minds but with radically different architectures. Would these complexes have any intrinsic value? Should we welcome a world in which such alien complexes have replaced human complexes? The answer may depend on the specific nature of those alien complexes. The present world has many levels of organization. Some highly complex entities, such as multinational corporations and nation states, contain human beings as constituents; yet we usually assign these high-level complexes only instrumental value. Corporations and states do not (it is generally assumed) have consciousness, over and above the consciousness of the people who constitute them: they cannot feel phenomenal pain or pleasure or experience any qualia. We value them to the extent that they serve human needs, and when they cease to do so we kill them without compunction. There are also lower-level entities, and those, too, are usually denied moral status. We see no harm in erasing an app from a smartphone, and we do not think that a neurosurgeon is wronging anyone when she extirpates a malfunctioning module from an epileptic brain. As for exotically organized complexes of a level similar to that of the human brain, most of us would perhaps judge them to have moral significance only if we thought they had a capacity or potential for conscious experience. 26 We could thus imagine, as an extreme case, a technologically highly advanced society, containing many complex structures, some of them far more intricate and intelligent than anything that exists on the planet todaya society which nevertheless lacks any type of being that is conscious or whose welfare has moral significance. In a sense, this would be an uninhabited society. It would be a society of economic miracles and technological awesomeness, with nobody there to benefit. A Disneyland without children. Evolution is not necessarily up The word evolution is often used as a synonym of progress, perhaps reflecting a common uncritical image of evolution as a force for good. A misplaced faith in the inherent beneficence of the evolutionary process can get in the way of a fair evaluation of the desirability of a multipolar outcome in which the future of intelligent life is determined by competitive dynamics. Any such evaluation must rest on some (at least implicit) opinion about the probability distribution of different phenotypes turning out to be adaptive in a post-transition digital life soup. It would be difficult in the best of circumstances to extract a clear and correct answer from the unavoidable goo of uncertainty that pervades these matters: more so, if we superadd a layer of Panglossian muck. A possible source for faith in freewheeling evolution is the apparent upward directionality exhibited by the evolutionary process in the past. Starting from rudimentary replicators, evolution produced increasingly advanced organisms, including creatures with minds, consciousness, language, and reason. More recently, cultural and technological processes, which bear some loose similarities to biological evolution, have enabled humans to develop at an accelerated pace. On a geological as well as a historical timescale, the big picture seems to show an overarching trend toward increasing levels of complexity, knowledge, consciousness, and coordinated goal-directed organization: a trend which, not to put too fine a point on it, one might label progress. 27 The image of evolution as a process that reliably produces benign effects is difficult to reconcile with the enormous suffering that we see in both the human and the natural world. Those who cherish evolutions achievements may do so more from an aesthetic than an ethical perspective. Yet the pertinent question is not what kind of future it would be fascinating to read about in a science fiction novel or to see depicted in a nature documentary, but what kind of future it would be good to live in: two very different matters. Furthermore, we have no reason to think that whatever progress there has been was in any way inevitable. Much might have been luck. This objection derives support from the fact that an observation selection effect filters the evidence we can have about the success of our own evolutionary development. 28 Suppose that on 99.9999% of all planets where life emerged it went extinct before developing to the point where intelligent observers could begin to ponder their origin. What should we expect to observe if that were the case? Arguably, we should expect to observe something like what we do in fact observe. The hypothesis that the odds of intelligent life evolving on a given planet are low does not predict that we should find ourselves on a planet where life went extinct at an early stage; rather, it may predict that we should find ourselves on a planet where intelligent life evolved, even if such planets constitute a very small fraction of all planets where primitive life evolved. Lifes long track record on Earth may therefore offer scant support to the claim that there was a high chance let alone anything approaching inevitabilityinvolved in the rise of higher organisms on our planet. 29 Thirdly, even if present conditions had been idyllic, and even if they could have been shown to have arisen ineluctably from some generic primordial state, there would still be no guarantee that the melioristic trend is set to continue into the indefinite future. This holds even if we disregard the possibility of a cataclysmic extinction event and indeed even if we assume that evolutionary developments will continue to produce systems of increasing complexity. We suggested earlier that machine intelligence workers selected for maximum productivity would be working extremely hard and that it is unknown how happy such workers would be. We also raised the possibility that the fittest life forms within a competitive future digital life soup might not even be conscious. Short of a complete loss of pleasure, or of consciousness, there could be a wasting away of other qualities that many would regard as indispensible for a good life. Humans value music, humor, romance, art, play, dance, conversation, philosophy, literature, adventure, discovery, food and drink, friendship, parenting, sport, nature, tradition, and spirituality, among many other things. There is no guarantee that any of these would remain adaptive. Perhaps what will maximize fitness will be nothing but nonstop high-intensity drudgery, work of a drab and repetitive nature, destitute of ludic frisson, aimed only at improving the eighth decimal place of some economic output measure. The phenotypes selected would then have lives lacking in the aforesaid qualities, and depending on ones axiology the result might strike one as either abhorrent, worthless, or merely impoverished, but at any rate a far cry from a utopia one would feel worthy of ones commendation. It might be wondered how such a bleak picture could be consistent with the fact that we do now indulge in music, humor, romance, art, etc. If these behaviors are really so wasteful, then how come they have been tolerated and indeed promoted by the evolutionary processes that shaped our species? That modern man is in an evolutionary disequilibrium does not account for this; for our Pleistocene forebears, too, engaged in most of these dissipations. Many of the behaviors in question are not even unique to Homo sapiens . Flamboyant display is found in a wide variety of contexts, from sexual selection in the animal kingdom to prestige contests among nation states. 30 Although a full evolutionary explanation for each of these behaviors is beyond the scope of the present inquiry, we can note that some of them serve functions that may not be as relevant in a machine intelligence context. Play, for example, which occurs only in some species and predominantly among juveniles, is mainly a way for the young animal to learn skills that it will need later in life. When emulations can be created as adults, already in possession of a mature repertoire of skills, or when knowledge and techniques acquired by one AI can be directly ported into another AI, the need for playful behavior might become less widespread. Many of the other examples of humanistic behaviors may have evolved as hard-to-fake signals of qualities that are difficult to observe directly, such as bodily or mental resilience, social status, quality of allies, ability and willingness to prevail in a fight, or possession of resources. The peacocks tail is the classic instance: only fit peacocks can afford to sprout truly extravagant plumage, and peahens have evolved to find it attractive. No less than morphological traits, behavioral traits too can signal genetic fitness or other socially relevant attributes. 31 Given that flamboyant display is so common among both humans and other species, one might consider whether it would not also be part of the repertoire of technologically more advanced life forms. Even if there were to be no narrowly instrumental use for playfulness or musicality or even for consciousness in the future ecology of intelligent information processing, might not these traits nonetheless confer some evolutionary advantage to their possessors by virtue of being reliable signals of other adaptive qualities? While the possibility of a pre-established harmony between what is valuable to us and what would be adaptive in a future digital ecology is hard to rule out, there are reasons for skepticism. Consider, first, that many of the costly displays we find in nature are linked to sexual selection. 32 Reproduction among technologically mature life forms, in contrast, may be predominantly or exclusively asexual. Second, technologically advanced agents might have available new means of reliably communicating information about themselves, means that do not rely on costly display. Even today, when professional lenders assess creditworthiness they tend to rely more on documentary evidence, such as ownership certificates and bank statements, than on costly displays, such as designer suits and Rolex watches. In the future, it might be possible to employ auditing firms that verify through detailed examination of behavioral track records, testing in simulated environments, or direct inspection of source code, that a client agent possesses a claimed attribute. Signaling ones qualities by agreeing to such auditing might be more efficient than signaling via flamboyant display. Such a professionally mediated signal would still be costly to fake this being the essential feature that makes the signal reliablebut it could be much cheaper to transmit when truthful than it would be to communicate an equivalent signal flamboyantly. Third, not all possible costly displays are intrinsically valuable or socially desirable. Many are simply wasteful. The Kwakiutl potlatch ceremonies, a form of status competition between rival chiefs, involved the public destruction of vast amounts of accumulated wealth. 33 Record-breaking skyscrapers, megayachts, and moon rockets may be viewed as contemporary analogs. While activities like music and humor could plausibly be claimed to enhance the intrinsic quality of human life, it is doubtful that a similar claim could be sustained with regard to the costly pursuit of fashion accessories and other consumerist status symbols. Worse, costly display can be outright harmful, as in macho posturing leading to gang violence or military bravado. Even if future intelligent life forms would use costly signaling, therefore, it is an open question whether the signal would be of a valuable sortwhether it would be like the rapturous melody of a nightingale or instead like the toads monosyllabic croak (or the incessant barking of a rabid dog). Post-transition formation of a singleton? Even if the immediate outcome of the transition to machine intelligence were multipolar, the possibility would remain of a singleton developing later. Such a development would continue an apparent long-term trend toward larger scales of political integration, taking it to its natural conclusion. 34 How might this occur? A second transition On way in which an initially multipolar outcome could converge into a singleton post-transition is if there is, after the initial transition, a second technological transition big enough and steep enough to give a decisive strategic advantage to one of the remaining powers: a power which might then seize the opportunity to establish a singleton. Such a hypothetical second transition might be occasioned by a breakthrough to a higher level of superintelligence. For instance, if the first wave of machine superintelligence is emulation-based, then a second surge might result when the emulations now doing the research succeed in developing effective self-improving artificial intelligence. 35 (Alternatively, a second transition might be triggered by a breakthrough in nanotechnology or some other military or general-purpose technology as yet unenvisaged.) The pace of development after the initial transition would be extremely rapid. Even a short gap between the leading power and its closest competitor could therefore plausibly result in a decisive strategic advantage for the leading power during a second transition. Suppose, for example, that two projects enter the first transition only a few days apart, and that the takeoff is slow enough that this gap does not give the leading project a decisive strategic advantage at any point during the takeoff. The two projects both emerge as superintelligent powers, though one of them remains a few days ahead of the other. But developments are now occurring on the research timescales characteristic of machine superintelligenceperhaps thousands or millions of times faster than research conducted on a biological human timescale. Development of the second- transition technology might therefore be completed in days, hours, or minutes. Even though the frontrunners lead is a mere few days, a breakthrough could thus catapult it into a decisive strategic advantage. Note, however, that if technological diffusion (via espionage or other channels) speeds up as much as technological development, then this effect would be negated. What would remain relevant would be the steepness of the second transition, that is, the speed at which it would unfold relative to the general speed of events in the period after the first transition. (In this sense, the faster things are happening after the first transition, the less steep the second transition would tend to be.) One might also speculate that a decisive strategic advantage would be more likely to be actually used to establish a singleton if it arises during a second (or subsequent) transition. After the first transition, decision makers would either be superintelligent or have access to advice from a superintelligence, which would clarify the implications of available strategic options. Furthermore, the situation after the first transition might be one in which a preemptive move against potential competitors would be less dangerous for the aggressor. If the decision- making minds after the first transition are digital, they could be copied and thereby rendered less vulnerable to a counterattack. Even if a defender had the ability to kill nine-tenths of the aggressors population in a retaliatory strike, this would scarcely offer much deterrence if the deceased could be immediately resurrected from redundant backups. Devastation of infrastructure (which can be rebuilt) might also be tolerable to digital minds with effectively unlimited lifespans, who might be planning to maximize their resources and influence on a cosmological timescale. Superorganisms and scale economies The size of coordinated human aggregates, such as firms or nations, is influenced by various parameterstechnological, military, financial, and culturalthat can vary from one historical epoch to another. A machine intelligence revolution would entail profound changes in many these parameters. Perhaps these changes would facilitate the rise of a singleton. Although we cannot, without looking in detail at what these prospective changes are, exclude the opposite possibilitythat the changes would facilitate fragmentation rather than unificationwe can nevertheless note that the increased variance or uncertainty that we confront here may itself be a ground for giving greater credence to the potential emergence of a singleton than we would otherwise do. A machine intelligence revolution might, so to speak, stir things upmight reshuffle the deck to make possible geopolitical realignments that seemed perhaps otherwise not to have been in the cards. A comprehensive analysis of all the factors that may influence the scale of political integration would take us far beyond the scope of this book: a review of the relevant political science and economics literature could itself easily fill an entire volume. We must confine ourselves to making brief allusion to a couple of factors, aspects of the digitization of agents that may make it easier to centralize control. Carl Shulman has argued that in a population of emulations, selection pressures would favor the emergence of superorganisms, groups of emulations ready to sacrifice themselves for the good of their clan. 36 Superorganisms would be spared the agency problems that beset organizations whose members pursue their own self-interest. Like the cells in our bodies, or the individual animals in a colony of eusocial insects, emulations that were wholly altruistic toward their copy-siblings would cooperate with one another even in the absence of elaborate incentive schemes. Superorganisms would have a particularly strong advantage if nonconsensual deletion (or indefinite suspension) of individual emulations is disallowed. Firms or countries that employ emulations insisting on self-preservation would be saddled with an unending commitment to pay upkeep for obsolete or redundant workers. In contrast, organizations whose emulations willingly deleted themselves when their services were no longer required could more easily adapt to fluctuations in demand; and they could experiment freely, proliferating variations of their workers and retaining only the most productive. If involuntary deletion is not disallowed, then the comparative advantage of eusocial emulations is reduced, though perhaps not eliminated. Employers of cooperative self-sacrificers might still reap efficiency gains from reduced agency problems throughout the organization, including being spared the trouble of having to defeat whatever resistance emulations could put up against their own deletion. In general, the productivity gains of having workers willing to sacrifice their individual lives for the common weal are a special case of the benefits an organization can derive from having members who are fanatically devoted to it. Such members would not only leap into the grave for the organization, and work long hours for little pay: they would also shun office politics and try consistently to act in what they took to be the organizations best interest, reducing the need for supervision and bureaucratic constraints. If the only way to achieve such dedication were by restricting membership to copy-siblings (so that all emulations in a particular superorganism were stamped out from the same template), then superorganisms would suffer some disadvantage in being able to draw only from a range of skills narrower than that of rival organizations, a disadvantage which might or might not be large enough to outweigh the advantages of avoiding internal agency problems. 37 This disadvantage would be greatly alleviated if a superorganism could at least contain members with different training. Even if all its members were derived from a single ur-template, its workforce could then still contribute a diversity of skills. Starting with a polymathically talented emulation ur-template, lineages could be branched off into different training programs, one copy learning accounting, another electrical engineering, and so forth. This would produce a membership with diverse skills though not of diverse talents. (Maximum diversity might require that more than one ur-template be used.) The essential property of a superorganism is not that it consists of copies of a single progenitor but that all the individual agents within it are fully committed to a common goal. The ability to create a superorganism can thus be viewed as requiring a partial solution to the control problem. Whereas a completely general solution to the control problem would enable somebody to create an agent with any arbitrary final goal, the partial solution needed for the creation of a superorganism requires merely the ability to fashion multiple agents with the same final goal (for some nontrivial but not necessarily arbitrary final goal). 38 The main consideration put forward in this subsection is thus not really limited to monoclonal emulation groups, but can be stated more generally in a way that makes clear that it applies to a wide range of multipolar machine intelligence scenarios. It is that certain types of advances in motivation selection techniques, which may become feasible when the actors are digital, may help overcome some of the inefficiencies that currently hamper large human organizations and that counterbalance economies of scale. With these limits lifted, organizationsbe they firms, nations, or other economic or political entitiescould increase in size. This is one factor that could facilitate the emergence of a post-transition singleton. One area in which superorganisms (or other digital agents with partially selected motivations) might excel is coercion. A state might use motivation selection methods to ensure that its police, military, intelligence service, and civil administration are uniformly loyal. As Shulman notes, Saved states [of some loyal emulation that has been carefully prepared and verified] could be copied billions of times to staff an ideologically uniform military, bureaucracy, and police force. After a short period of work, each copy would be replaced by a fresh copy of the same saved state, preventing ideological drift. Within a given jurisdiction, this capability could allow incredibly detailed observation and regulation: there might be one such copy for every other resident. This could be used to prohibit the development of weapons of mass destruction, to enforce regulations on brain emulation experimentation or reproduction, to enforce a liberal democratic constitution, or to create an appalling and permanent totalitarianism 39 The first-order effect of such a capability would seem to be to consolidate power, and possibly to concentrate it in fewer hands. Unification by treaty There may be large potential gains to be had from international collaboration in a post-transition multipolar world. Wars and arms races could be avoided. Astrophysical resources could be colonized and harvested at a globally optimum pace. The development of more advanced forms of machine intelligence could be coordinated to avoid a rush and to allow new designs to be thoroughly vetted. Other developments that might pose existential risks could be postponed. And uniform regulations could be enforced globally, including provisions for a guaranteed standard of living (which would require some form of population control) and for preventing exploitation and abuse of emulations and other digital and biological minds. Furthermore, agents with resource-satiable preferences (more on this in Chapter 13 ) would prefer a sharing agreement that would guarantee them a certain slice of the future to a winner-takes-all struggle in which they would risk getting nothing. The presence of big potential gains from collaboration, however, does not imply that collaboration will actually be achieved. In the world today, many great boons could be obtained via better global coordinationreductions of military expenditures, wars, overfishing, trade barriers, and atmospheric pollution, among others. Yet these plump fruits are left to spoil on the branch. Why is that? What stops a fully cooperative outcome that would maximize the common good? One obstacle is the difficulty of ensuring compliance with any treaty that might be agreed, including monitoring and enforcement costs. Two nuclear rivals might each be better off if they both relinquished their atom bombs; yet even if they could reach an in-principle agreement to do so, disarmament could nevertheless prove elusive because of their mutual fear that the other party might cheat. Allaying this fear would require setting up a verification mechanism. There may have to be inspectors to oversee the destruction of existing stockpiles, and then to monitor nuclear reactors and other facilities, and to gather technical and human intelligence, in order to ensure that the weapons program is not reconstituted. One cost is paying for these inspectors. Another cost is the risk that the inspectors will spy and make off with commercial or military secrets. Perhaps most significantly, each party might fear that the other will preserve a clandestine nuclear capability. Many a potentially beneficial deal never comes off because compliance would be too difficult to verify. If new inspection technologies that reduced monitoring costs became available, one would expect this to result in increased cooperation. Whether monitoring costs would on net be reduced in the post-transition era, however, is not entirely clear. While there would certainly be many powerful new inspection techniques, there would also be new means of concealment. In particular, an increasing portion of the activities one might want to regulate would be taking place in cyberspace, out of reach of physical surveillance. For example, digital minds working on designing a new nanotech weapons system or a new generation of artificial intelligence may do so without leaving much of a physical footprint. Digital forensics may fail to penetrate all the layers of concealment and encryption in which a treaty-violator may cloak its illicit activities. Reliable lie detection, if it could be developed, would be an extremely useful tool for monitoring compliance. 40 An inspection protocol could include provisions for interviewing key officials, to verify that they are intent on implementing all the provisions of the treaty and that they know of no violations despite making strong efforts to find out. A decision maker planning to cheat might defeat such a lie-detection-based verification scheme by first issuing orders to subordinates to undertake the illicit activity and to conceal the activity even from the decision maker herself, and then subjecting herself to some procedure that erases her memory of having engaged in these machinations. Suitably targeted memory-erasure operations might well be feasible in biological brains with more advanced neurotechnology. It might be even easier in machine intelligences (depending on their architecture). States could seek to overcome this problem by committing themselves to an ongoing monitoring scheme that regularly tests key officials with a lie detector to check whether they harbor any intent to subvert or circumvent any treaty to which the state has entered or may enter in the future. Such a commitment could be viewed as a kind of meta-treaty, which would facilitate the verification of other treaties; but states might commit themselves to it unilaterally to gain the benefit of being regarded as a trustworthy negotiation partner. However, this commitment or meta-treaty would face the same problem of subversion through a delegate-and-forget ploy. Ideally, the meta-treaty would be put into effect before any party had an opportunity to make the internal arrangements necessary to subvert its implementation. Once villainy has had an unguarded moment to sow its mines of deception, trust can never set foot there again. In some cases, the mere ability to detect treaty violations is sufficient to establish the confidence needed for a deal. In other cases, however, there is a need for some mechanism to enforce compliance or mete out punishment if a violation should occur. The need for an enforcement mechanism may arise if the threat of the wronged party withdrawing from the treaty is not enough to deter violations, for instance if the treaty-violator would gain such an advantage that he would not subsequently care how the other party responds. If highly effective motivation selection methods are available, this enforcement problem could be solved by empowering an independent agency with sufficient police or military strength to enforce the treaty even against the opposition of one or several of its signatories. This solution requires that the enforcement agency can be trusted. But with sufficiently good motivation selection techniques, the requisite confidence might be achieved by having all the parties to the treaty jointly oversee the design of the enforcement agency. Handing over power to an external enforcement agency raises many of the same issues that we confronted earlier in our discussions of a unipolar outcome (one in which a singleton arises prior to or during the initial machine intelligence revolution). In order to be able to enforce treaties concerning the vital security interests of rival states, the external enforcement agency would in effect need to constitute a singleton: a global superintelligent Leviathan. One difference, however, is that we are now considering a post-transition situation, in which the agents that would have to create this Leviathan would have greater competence than we humans currently do. These Leviathan-creators may themselves already be superintelligent. This would greatly improve the odds that they could solve the control problem and design an enforcement agency that would serve the interests of all the parties that have a say in its construction. Aside from the costs of monitoring and enforcing compliance, are there any other obstacles to global coordination? Perhaps the major remaining issue is what we can refer to as bargaining costs . 41 Even when there is a possible bargain that would benefit everybody involved, it sometimes does not get off the ground because the parties fail to agree on how to divide the spoils. For example, if two persons could make a deal that would net them a dollar in profit, but each party feels she deserves sixty cents and refuses to settle for less, the deal will not happen and the potential gain will be forfeited. In general, negotiations can be difficult or protracted, or remain altogether barren, because of strategic bargaining choices made by some of the parties. In real life, human beings frequently succeed in reaching agreements despite the possibility for strategic bargaining (though often not without considerable expenditure of time and patience). It is conceivable, however, that strategic bargaining problems would have a different dynamic in the post-transition era. An AI negotiator might more consistently adhere to some particular formal conception of rationality, possibly with novel or unanticipated consequences when matched with other AI negotiators. An AI might also have available to it moves in the bargaining game that are either unavailable to humans or very much more difficult for humans to execute, including the ability to precommit to a policy or a course of action. While humans (and human-run institutions) are occasionally able to precommitwith imperfect degrees of credibility and specificitysome types of machine intelligence might be able to make arbitrary unbreakable precommitments and to allow negotiating partners to confirm that such a precommitment has been made. 42 The availability of powerful precommitment techniques could profoundly alter the nature of negotiations, potentially giving an immense edge to an agent that has a first-mover advantage. If a particular agents participation is necessary for the realization of some prospective gains from cooperation, and if that agent is able to make the first move, it would be in a position to dictate the division of the spoils by precommitting not to accept any deal that gives it less than, say, 99% of the surplus value. Other agents would then be faced with the choice of either getting nothing (by rejecting the unfair proposal) or getting 1% of the value (by caving in). If the first-moving agents precommitment is publicly verifiable, its negotiating partners could be sure that these are their only two options. To avoid being exploited in this manner, agents might precommit to refuse blackmail and to decline all unfair offers. Once such a precommitment has been made (and successfully publicized), other agents would not find it in their interest to make threats or to precommit themselves to only accepting deals tilted in their own favor, because they would know that threats would fail and that unfair proposals would be rejected. But this just demonstrates again that the advantage is with the first-mover. The agent who moves first can choose whether to parlay its position of strength only to deter others from taking unfair advantage, or to make a grab for the lions share of future spoils. Best situated of all, it might seem, would be the agent who starts out with a temperament or a value system that makes him impervious to extortion or indeed to any offer of a deal in which his participation is indispensable but he is not getting almost all of the gains. Some humans seem already to possess personality traits corresponding to various aspects of an uncompromising spirit. 43 A high- strung disposition, however, could backfire should it turn out that there are other agents around who feel entitled to more than their fair share and are committed to not backing down. The unstoppable force would then encounter the unmovable object, resulting in a failure to reach agreement (or worse: total war). The meek and the akratic would at least get something, albeit less than their fair share. What kind of game-theoretic equilibrium would be reached in such a post- transition bargaining game is not immediately obvious. Agents might choose more complicated strategies than the ones considered here. One hopes that an equilibrium would be reached centered on some fairness norm that would serve as a Schelling pointa salient feature in a big outcome space which, because of shared expectations, becomes a likely coordination point in an otherwise underdetermined coordination game. Such an equilibrium might be bolstered by some of our evolved dispositions and cultural programming: a common preference for fairness could, assuming we succeed in transferring our values into the post-transition era, bias expectations and strategies in ways that lead to an attractive equilibrium. 44 In any case, the upshot is that with the possibility of strong and flexible forms of precommitment, outcomes of negotiations might take on an unfamiliar guise. Even if the post-transition era started out multipolar, it might be that a singleton would arise almost immediately as a consequence of a negotiated treaty that resolves all important global coordination problems. Some transaction costs, perhaps including monitoring and enforcement costs, might plummet with the new technological capabilities available to advanced machine intelligences. Other costs, in particular costs related to strategic bargaining, might remain significant. But however strategic bargaining affects the nature of the agreement that is reached, there is no clear reason why it would long delay the reaching of some agreement if an agreement were ever to be reached. If no agreement is reached, then some form of fighting might take place; and either one faction might win, and form a singleton around the winning coalition, or the result might be an interminable conflict, in which case a singleton may never form and the overall outcome may fall terribly short of what could and should have been achieved if humanity and its descendants had acted in a more coordinated and cooperative fashion. We have seen that multipolarity, even if it could be achieved in a stable form, would not guarantee an attractive outcome. The original principalagent problem remains unsolved, and burying it under a new set of problems related to post- transition global coordination failures may only make the situation worse. Let us therefore return to the question of how we could safely keep a single superintelligent AI. CHAPTER 12 Acquiring values Capability control is, at best, a temporary and auxiliary measure. Unless the plan is to keep superintelligence bottled up forever, it will be necessary to master motivation selection. But just how could we get some value into an artificial agent, so as to make it pursue that value as its final goal? While the agent is unintelligent, it might lack the capability to understand or even represent any humanly meaningful value. Yet if we delay the procedure until the agent is superintelligent, it may be able to resist our attempt to meddle with its motivation systemand, as we showed in Chapter 7 , it would have convergent instrumental reasons to do so. This value-loading problem is tough, but must be confronted . The value-loading problem It is impossible to enumerate all possible situations a superintelligence might find itself in and to specify for each what action it should take. Similarly, it is impossible to create a list of all possible worlds and assign each of them a value. In any realm significantly more complicated than a game of tic-tac-toe, there are far too many possible states (and state-histories) for exhaustive enumeration to be feasible. A motivation system, therefore, cannot be specified as a comprehensive lookup table. It must instead be expressed more abstractly, as a formula or rule that allows the agent to decide what to do in any given situation. One formal way of specifying such a decision rule is via a utility function. A utility function (as we recall from Chapter 1 ) assigns value to each outcome that might obtain, or more generally to each possible world. Given a utility function, one can define an agent that maximizes expected utility. Such an agent selects at each time the action that has the highest expected utility. (The expected utility is calculated by weighting the utility of each possible world with the subjective probability of that world being the actual world conditional on a particular action being taken.) In reality, the possible outcomes are too numerous for the expected utility of an action to be calculated exactly. Nevertheless, the decision rule and the utility function together determine a normative idealan optimality notionthat an agent might be designed to approximate; and the approximation might get closer as the agent gets more intelligent. 1 Creating a machine that can compute a good approximation of the expected utility of the actions available to it is an AI-complete problem. 2 This chapter addresses another problem, a problem that remains even if the problem of making machines intelligent is solved. We can use this framework of a utility-maximizing agent to consider the predicament of a future seed-AI programmer who intends to solve the control problem by endowing the AI with a final goal that corresponds to some plausible human notion of a worthwhile outcome. The programmer has some particular human value in mind that he would like the AI to promote. To be concrete, let us say that it is happiness. (Similar issues would arise if we the programmer were interested in justice, freedom, glory, human rights, democracy, ecological balance, or self-development.) In terms of the expected utility framework, the programmer is thus looking for a utility function that assigns utility to possible worlds in proportion to the amount of happiness they contain. But how could he express such a utility function in computer code? Computer languages do not contain terms such as happiness as primitives. If such a term is to be used, it must first be defined. It is not enough to define it in terms of other high-level human conceptshappiness is enjoyment of the potentialities inherent in our human nature or some such philosophical paraphrase. The definition must bottom out in terms that appear in the AIs programming language, and ultimately in primitives such as mathematical operators and addresses pointing to the contents of individual memory registers. When one considers the problem from this perspective, one can begin to appreciate the difficulty of the programmers task. Identifying and codifying our own final goals is difficult because human goal representations are complex. Because the complexity is largely transparent to us, however, we often fail to appreciate that it is there. We can compare the case to visual perception. Vision, likewise, might seem like a simple thing, because we do it effortlessly. 3 We only need to open our eyes, so it seems, and a rich, meaningful, eidetic, three-dimensional view of the surrounding environment comes flooding into our minds. This intuitive understanding of vision is like a dukes understanding of his patriarchal household: as far as he is concerned, things simply appear at their appropriate times and places, while the mechanism that produces those manifestations are hidden from view. Yet accomplishing even the simplest visual taskfinding the pepper jar in the kitchenrequires a tremendous amount of computational work. From a noisy time series of two- dimensional patterns of nerve firings, originating in the retina and conveyed to the brain via the optic nerve, the visual cortex must work backwards to reconstruct an interpreted three-dimensional representation of external space. A sizeable portion of our precious one square meter of cortical real estate is zoned for processing visual information, and as you are reading this book, billions of neurons are working ceaselessly to accomplish this task (like so many seamstresses, bent over their sewing machines in a sweatshop, sewing and re- sewing a giant quilt many times a second). In like manner, our seemingly simple values and wishes in fact contain immense complexity. 4 How could our programmer transfer this complexity into a utility function? One approach would be to try to directly code a complete representation of whatever goal we have that we want the AI to pursue; in other words, to write out an explicit utility function. This approach might work if we had extraordinarily simple goals, for example if we wanted to calculate the digits of pithat is, if the only thing we wanted was for the AI to calculate the digits of pi and we were indifferent to any other consequence that would result from the pursuit of this goalrecall our earlier discussion of the failure mode of infrastructure profusion. This explicit coding approach might also have some promise in the use of domesticity motivation selection methods. But if one seeks to promote or protect any plausible human value, and one is building a system intended to become a superintelligent sovereign, then explicitly coding the requisite complete goal representation appears to be hopelessly out of reach. 5 If we cannot transfer human values into an AI by typing out full-blown representations in computer code, what else might we try? This chapter discusses several alternative paths. Some of these may look plausible at first sightbut much less so upon closer examination. Future explorations should focus on those paths that remain open. Solving the value-loading problem is a research challenge worthy of some of the next generations best mathematical talent. We cannot postpone confronting this problem until the AI has developed enough reason to easily understand our intentions. As we saw in the section on convergent instrumental reasons, a generic system will resist attempts to alter its final values. If an agent is not already fundamentally friendly by the time it gains the ability to reflect on its own agency, it will not take kindly to a belated attempt at brainwashing or a plot to replace it with a different agent that better loves its neighbor. Evolutionary selection Evolution has produced an organism with human values at least once. This fact might encourage the belief that evolutionary methods are the way to solve the value-loading problem. There are, however, severe obstacles to achieving safety along this path. We have already pointed to these obstacles at the end of Chapter 10 when we discussed how powerful search processes can be dangerous. Evolution can be viewed as a particular class of search algorithms that involve the alternation of two steps, one expanding a population of solution candidates by generating new candidates according to some relatively simple stochastic rule (such as random mutation or sexual recombination), the other contracting the population by pruning candidates that score poorly when tested by an evaluation function. As with many other types of powerful search, there is the risk that the process will find a solution that satisfies the formally specified search criteria but not our implicit expectations. (This would hold whether one seeks to evolve a digital mind that has the same goals and values as a typical human being, or instead a mind that is, for instance, perfectly moral or perfectly obedient.) The risk would be avoided if we could specify a formal search criterion that accurately represented all dimensions of our goals, rather than just one aspect of what we think we desire. But this is precisely the value-loading problem, and it would of course beg the question in this context to assume that problem solved. There is a further problem: The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are being slowly devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst and disease. 6 Even just within our species, 150,000 persons are destroyed each day while countless more suffer an appalling array of torments and deprivations. 7 Nature might be a great experimentalist, but one who would never pass muster with an ethics review boardcontravening the Helsinki Declaration and every norm of moral decency, left, right, and center. It is important that we not gratuitously replicate such horrors in silico . Mind crime seems especially difficult to avoid when evolutionary methods are used to produce human-like intelligence, at least if the process is meant to look anything like actual biological evolution. 8 Reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning is an area of machine learning that studies techniques whereby agents can learn to maximize some notion of cumulative reward. By constructing an environment in which desired performance is rewarded, a reinforcement-learning agent can be made to learn to solve a wide class of problems (even in the absence of detailed instruction or feedback from the programmers, aside from the reward signal). Often, the learning algorithm involves the gradual construction of some kind of evaluation function, which assigns values to states, stateaction pairs, or policies. (For instance, a program can learn to play backgammon by using reinforcement learning to incrementally improve its evaluation of possible board positions.) The evaluation function, which is continuously updated in light of experience, could be regarded as incorporating a form of learning about value. However, what is being learned is not new final values but increasingly accurate estimates of the instrumental values of reaching particular states (or of taking particular actions in particular states, or of following particular policies). Insofar as a reinforcement-learning agent can be described as having a final goal, that goal remains constant: to maximize future reward. And reward consists of specially designated percepts received from the environment. Therefore, the wireheading syndrome remains a likely outcome in any reinforcement agent that develops a world model sophisticated enough to suggest this alternative way of maximizing reward. 9 These remarks do not imply that reinforcement-learning methods could never be used in a safe seed AI, only that they would have to be subordinated to a motivation system that is not itself organized around the principle of reward maximization. That, however, would require that a solution to the value-loading problem had been found by some other means than reinforcement learning. Associative value accretion Now one might wonder: if the value-loading problem is so tricky, how do we ourselves manage to acquire our values? One possible (oversimplified) model might look something like this. We begin life with some relatively simple starting preferences (e.g. an aversion to noxious stimuli) together with a set of dispositions to acquire additional preferences in response to various possible experiences (e.g. we might be disposed to form a preference for objects and behaviors that we find to be valued and rewarded in our culture). Both the simple starting preferences and the dispositions are innate, having been shaped by natural and sexual selection over evolutionary timescales. Yet which preferences we end up with as adults depends on life events. Much of the information content in our final values is thus acquired from our experiences rather than preloaded in our genomes. For example, many of us love another person and thus place great final value on his or her well-being. What is required to represent such a value? Many elements are involved, but consider just two: a representation of person and a representation of well-being. These concepts are not directly coded in our DNA. Rather, the DNA contains instructions for building a brain, which, when placed in a typical human environment, will over the course of several years develop a world model that includes concepts of persons and of well-being. Once formed, these concepts can be used to represent certain meaningful values. But some mechanism needs to be innately present that leads to values being formed around these concepts, rather than around other acquired concepts (like that of a flowerpot or a corkscrew). The details of how this mechanism works are not well understood. In humans, the mechanism is probably complex and multifarious. It is easier to understand the phenomenon if we consider it in a more rudimentary form, such as filial imprinting in nidifugous birds, where the newly hatched chick acquires a desire for physical proximity to an object that presents a suitable moving stimulus within the first day after hatching. Which particular object the chick desires to be near depends on its experience; only the general disposition to imprint in this way is genetically determined. Analogously, Harry might place a final value on Sallys well-being; but had the twain never met, he might have fallen in love with somebody else instead, and his final values would have been different. The ability of our genes to code for the construction of a goal-acquiring mechanism explains how we come to have final goals of great informational complexity, greater than could be contained in the genome itself. We may consequently consider whether we might build the motivation system for an artificial intelligence on the same principle. That is, instead of specifying complex values directly, could we specify some mechanism that leads to the acquisition of those values when the AI interacts with a suitable environment? Mimicking the value-accretion process that takes place in humans seems difficult. The relevant genetic mechanism in humans is the product of eons of work by evolution, work that might be hard to recapitulate. Moreover, the mechanism is presumably closely tailored to the human neurocognitive architecture and therefore not applicable in machine intelligences other than whole brain emulations. And if whole brain emulations of sufficient fidelity were available, it would seem easier to start with an adult brain that comes with full representations of some human values preloaded. 10 Seeking to implement a process of value accretion closely mimicking that of human biology therefore seems an unpromising line of attack on the value- loading problem. But perhaps we might design a more unabashedly artificial substitute mechanism that would lead an AI to import high-fidelity representations of relevant complex values into its goal system? For this to succeed, it may not be necessary to give the AI exactly the same evaluative dispositions as a biological human. That may not even be desirable as an aim human nature, after all, is flawed and all too often reveals a proclivity to evil which would be intolerable in any system poised to attain a decisive strategic advantage. Better, perhaps, to aim for a motivation system that departs from the human norm in systematic ways, such as by having a more robust tendency to acquire final goals that are altruistic, compassionate, or high-minded in ways we would recognize as reflecting exceptionally good character if they were present in a human person. To count as improvements, however, such deviations from the human norm would have to be pointed in very particular directions rather than at random; and they would continue to presuppose the existence of a largely undisturbed anthropocentric frame of reference to provide humanly meaningful evaluative generalizations (so as to avoid the kind of perverse instantiation of superficially plausible goal descriptions that we examined in Chapter 8 ). It is an open question whether this is feasible. One further issue with associative value accretion is that the AI might disable the accretion mechanism. As we saw in Chapter 7 , goal-system integrity is a convergent instrumental value. When the AI reaches a certain stage of cognitive development it may start to regard the continued operation of the accretion mechanism as a corrupting influence. 11 This is not necessarily a bad thing, but care would have to be taken to make the sealing-up of the goal system occur at the right moment, after the appropriate values have been accreted but before they have been overwritten by additional unintended accretions. Motivational scaffolding Another approach to the value-loading problem is what we may refer to as motivational scaffolding. It involves giving the seed AI an interim goal system, with relatively simple final goals that we can represent by means of explicit coding or some other feasible method. Once the AI has developed more sophisticated representational faculties, we replace this interim scaffold goal system with one that has different final goals. This successor goal system then governs the AI as it develops into a full-blown superintelligence. Because the scaffold goals are not just instrumental but final goals for the AI, the AI might be expected to resist having them replaced (goal-content integrity being a convergent instrumental value). This creates a hazard. If the AI succeeds in thwarting the replacement of its scaffold goals, the method fails. To avoid this failure mode, precautions are necessary. For example, capability control methods could be applied to limit the AIs powers until the mature motivation system has been installed. In particular, one could try to stunt its cognitive development at a level that is safe but that allows it to represent the values that we want to include in its ultimate goals. To do this, one might try to differentially stunt certain types of intellectual abilities, such as those required for strategizing and Machiavellian scheming, while allowing (apparently) more innocuous abilities to develop to a somewhat higher level. One could also try to use motivation selection methods to induce a more collaborative relationship between the seed AI and the programmer team. For example, one might include in the scaffold motivation system the goal of welcoming online guidance from the programmers, including allowing them to replace any of the AIs current goals. 12 Other scaffold goals might include being transparent to the programmers about its values and strategies, and developing an architecture that is easy for the programmers to understand and that facilitates the later implementation of a humanly meaningful final goal, as well as domesticity motivations (such as limiting the use of computational resources). One could even imagine endowing the seed AI with the sole final goal of replacing itself with a different final goal, one which may have been only implicitly or indirectly specified by the programmers. Some of the issues raised by the use of such a self-replacing scaffold goal also arise in the context of the value learning approach, which is discussed in the next subsection. Some further issues will be discussed in Chapter 13 . The motivational scaffolding approach is not without downsides. One is that it carries the risk that the AI could become too powerful while it is still running on its interim goal system. It may then thwart the human programmers efforts to install the ultimate goal system (either by forceful resistance or by quiet subversion). The old final goals may then remain in charge as the seed AI develops into a full-blown superintelligence. Another downside is that installing the ultimately intended goals in a human-level AI is not necessarily that much easier than doing so in a more primitive AI. A human-level AI is more complex and might have developed an architecture that is opaque and difficult to alter. A seed AI, by contrast, is like a tabula rasa on which the programmers can inscribe whatever structures they deem helpful. This downside could be flipped into an upside if one succeeded in giving the seed AI scaffold goals that made it want to develop an architecture helpful to the programmers in their later efforts to install the ultimate final values. However, it is unclear how easy it would be to give a seed AI scaffold goals with this property, and it is also unclear how even an ideally motivated seed AI would be capable of doing a much better job than the human programming team at developing a good architecture. Value learning We come now to an important but subtle approach to the value-loading problem. It involves using the AIs intelligence to learn the values we want it to pursue. To do this, we must provide a criterion for the AI that at least implicitly picks out some suitable set of values. We could then build the AI to act according to its best estimates of these implicitly defined values. It would continually refine its estimates as it learns more about the world and gradually unpacks the implications of the value-determining criterion. In contrast to the scaffolding approach, which gives the AI an interim scaffold goal and later replaces it with a different final goal, the value learning approach retains an unchanging final goal throughout the AIs developmental and operational phases. Learning does not change the goal. It changes only the AIs beliefs about the goal. The AI thus must be endowed with a criterion that it can use to determine which percepts constitute evidence in favor of some hypothesis about what the ultimate goal is, and which percepts constitute evidence against. Specifying a suitable criterion could be difficult. Part of the difficulty, however, pertains to the problem of creating artificial general intelligence in the first place, which requires a powerful learning mechanism that can discover the structure of the environment from limited sensory inputs. That problem we can set aside here. But even modulo a solution to how to create superintelligent AI, there remain the difficulties that arise specifically from the value-loading problem. With the value learning approach, these take the form of needing to define a criterion that connects perceptual bitstrings to hypotheses about values. Before delving into the details of how value learning could be implemented, it might be helpful to illustrate the general idea with an example. Suppose we write down a description of a set of values on a piece of paper. We fold the paper and put it in a sealed envelope. We then create an agent with human-level general intelligence, and give it the following final goal: Maximize the realization of the values described in the envelope. What will this agent do? The agent does not initially know what is written in the envelope. But it can form hypotheses, and it can assign those hypotheses probabilities based on their priors and any available empirical data. For instance, the agent might have encountered other examples of human-authored texts, or it might have observed some general patterns of human behavior. This would enable it to make guesses. One does not need a degree in psychology to predict that the note is more likely to describe a value such as minimize injustice and unnecessary suffering or maximize returns to shareholders than a value such as cover all lakes with plastic shopping bags. When the agent makes a decision, it seeks to take actions that would be effective at realizing the values it believes are most likely to be described in the letter. Importantly, the agent would see a high instrumental value in learning more about what the letter says. The reason is that for almost any final value that might be described in the letter, that value is more likely to be realized if the agent finds out what it is, since the agent will then pursue that value more effectively. The agent would also discover the convergent instrumental reasons described in Chapter 7 goal system integrity, cognitive enhancement, resource acquisition, and so forth. Yet, assuming that the agent assigns a sufficiently high probability to the values described in the letter involving human welfare, it would not pursue these instrumental values by immediately turning the planet into computronium and thereby exterminating the human species, because doing so would risk permanently destroying its ability to realize its final value. We can liken this kind of agent to a barge attached to several tugboats that pull in different directions. Each tugboat corresponds to a hypothesis about the agents final value. The engine power of each tugboat corresponds to the associated hypothesiss probability, and thus changes as new evidence comes in, producing adjustments in the barges direction of motion. The resultant force should move the barge along a trajectory that facilitates learning about the (implicit) final value while avoiding the shoals of irreversible destruction; and later, when the open sea of more definite knowledge of the final value is reached, the one tugboat that still exerts significant force will pull the barge toward the realization of the discovered value along the straightest or most propitious route. The envelope and barge metaphors illustrate the principle underlying the value learning approach, but they pass over a number of critical technical issues. They come into clearer focus once we start to develop the approach within a formal framework (see Box 10 ). One outstanding issue is how to endow the AI with a goal such as Maximize the realization of the values described in the envelope. (In the terminology of Box 10 , how to define the value criterion.) To do this, it is necessary to identify the place where the values are described. In our example, this requires making a successful reference to the letter in the envelope. Though this might seem trivial, it is not without pitfalls. To mention just one: it is critical that the reference be not simply to a particular external physical object but to an object at a particular time. Otherwise the AI may determine that the best way to attain its goal is by overwriting the original value description with one that provides an easier target (such as the value that for every integer there be a larger integer). This done, the AI could lean back and crack its knucklesthough more likely a malignant failure would ensue, for reasons we discussed in Chapter 8 . So now we face the question of how to define time. We could point to a clock and say, Time is defined by the movements of this devicebut this could fail if the AI conjectures that it can manipulate time by moving the hands on the clock, a conjecture which would indeed be correct if time were given the aforesaid definition. (In a realistic case, matters would be further complicated by the fact that the relevant values are not going to be conveniently described in a letter; more likely, they would have to be inferred from observations of pre-existing structures that implicitly contain the relevant information, such as human brains.) Box 10 Formalizing value learning Introducing some formal notation can help us see some things more clearly. However, readers who dislike formalism can skip this part. Consider a simplified framework in which an agent interacts with its environment in a finite number of discrete cycles. 13 In cycle k , the agent performs action y k , and then receives the percept x k . The interaction history of an agent with lifespan m is a string y 1 x 1 y 2 x 2 y m x m (which we can abbreviate as yx 1: m or yx m ). In each cycle, the agent selects an action based on the percept sequence it has received to date. Consider first a reinforcement learner. An optimal reinforcement learner (AI- RL) is one that maximizes expected future rewards. It obeys the equation 14 The reward sequence r k , , r m is implied by the percept sequence x k:m , since the reward that the agent receives in a given cycle is part of the percept that the agent receives in that cycle. As argued earlier, this kind of reinforcement learning is unsuitable in the present context because a sufficiently intelligent agent will realize that it could secure maximum reward if it were able to directly manipulate its reward signal (wireheading). For weak agents, this need not be a problem, since we can physically prevent them from tampering with their own reward channel. We can also control their environment so that they receive rewards only when they act in ways that are agreeable to us. But a reinforcement learner has a strong incentive to eliminate this artificial dependence of its rewards on our whims and wishes. Our relationship with a reinforcement learner is therefore fundamentally antagonistic. If the agent is strong, this spells danger. Variations of the wireheading syndrome can also affect systems that do not seek an external sensory reward signal but whose goals are defined as the attainment of some internal state. For example, in so-called actorcritic systems, there is an actor module that selects actions in order to minimize the disapproval of a separate critic module that computes how far the agents behavior falls short of a given performance measure. The problem with this setup is that the actor module may realize that it can minimize disapproval by modifying the critic or eliminating it altogethermuch like a dictator who dissolves the parliament and nationalizes the press. For limited systems, the problem can be avoided simply by not giving the actor module any means of modifying the critic module. A sufficiently intelligent and resourceful actor module, however, could always gain access to the critic module (which, after all, is merely a physical process in some computer). 15 Before we get to the value learner, let us consider as an intermediary step what has been called an observation-utility maximizer (AI-OUM). It is obtained by replacing the reward series ( r k + + r m ) in the AI-RL with a utility function that is allowed to depend on the entire future interaction history of the AI: This formulation provides a way around the wireheading problem because a utility function defined over an entire interaction history could be designed to penalize interaction histories that show signs of self-deception (or of a failure on the part of the agent to invest sufficiently in obtaining an accurate view of reality). The AI-OUM thus makes it possible in principle to circumvent the wireheading problem. Availing ourselves of this possibility, however, would require that we specify a suitable utility function over the class of possible interaction historiesa task that looks forbiddingly difficult. It may be more natural to specify utility functions directly in terms of possible worlds (or properties of possible worlds, or theories about the world) rather than in terms of an agents own interaction histories. If we use this approach, we could reformulate and simplify the AI-OUM optimality notion: Here, E is the total evidence available to the agent (at the time when it is making its decision), and U is a utility function that assigns utility to some class of possible worlds. The optimal agent chooses the act that maximizes expected utility. An outstanding problem with these formulations is the difficulty of defining the utility function U . This, finally, returns us to the value-loading problem. To enable the utility function to be learned, we must expand our formalism to allow for uncertainty over utility functions. This can be done as follows (AI-VL): 16 Here, (.) is a function from utility functions to propositions about utility functions. ( U ) is the proposition that the utility function U satisfies the value criterion expressed by . 17 To decide which action to perform, one could hence proceed as follows: First, compute the conditional probability of each possible world w (given available evidence and on the supposition that action y is to be performed). Second, for each possible utility function U , compute the conditional probability that U satisfies the value criterion (conditional on w being the actual world). Third, for each possible utility function U , compute the utility of possible world w . Fourth, combine these quantities to compute the expected utility of action y . Fifth, repeat this procedure for each possible action, and perform the action found to have the highest expected utility (using some arbitrary method to break ties). As described, this procedurewhich involves giving explicit and separate consideration to each possible worldis, of course, wildly computationally intractable. The AI would have to use computational shortcuts that approximate this optimality notion. The question, then, is how to define this value criterion . 18 Once the AI has an adequate representation of the value criterion, it could in principle use its general intelligence to gather information about which possible worlds are most likely to be the actual one. It could then apply the criterion, for each such plausible possible world w , to find out which utility function satisfies the criterion in w . One can thus regard the AI-VL formula as a way of identifying and separating out this key challenge in the value learning approachthe challenge of how to represent . The formalism also brings to light a number of other issues (such as how to define , , and ) which would need to be resolved before the approach could be made to work. 19 Another issue in coding the goal Maximize the realization of the values described in the envelope is that even if all the correct values were described in a letter, and even if the AIs motivation system were successfully keyed to this source, the AI might not interpret the descriptions the way we intended. This would create a risk of perverse instantiation, as discussed in Chapter 8 . To clarify, the difficulty here is not so much how to ensure that the AI can understand human intentions. A superintelligence should easily develop such understanding. Rather, the difficulty is ensuring that the AI will be motivated to pursue the described values in the way we intended. This is not guaranteed by the AIs ability to understand our intentions: an AI could know exactly what we meant and yet be indifferent to that interpretation of our words (being motivated instead by some other interpretation of the words or being indifferent to our words altogether). The difficulty is compounded by the desideratum that, for reasons of safety, the correct motivation should ideally be installed in the seed AI before it becomes capable of fully representing human concepts or understanding human intentions. This requires that somehow a cognitive framework be created, with a particular location in that framework designated in the AIs motivation system as the repository of its final value. But the cognitive framework itself must be revisable, so as to allow the AI to expand its representational capacities as it learns more about the world and grows more intelligent. The AI might undergo the equivalent of scientific revolutions, in which its worldview is shaken up and it perhaps suffers ontological crises in which it discovers that its previous ways of thinking about values were based on confusions and illusions. Yet starting at a sub-human level of development and continuing throughout all its subsequent development into a galactic superintelligence, the AIs conduct is to be guided by an essentially unchanging final value, a final value that becomes better understood by the AI in direct consequence of its general intellectual progress and likely quite differently understood by the mature AI than it was by its original programmers, though not different in a random or hostile way but in a benignly appropriate way. How to accomplish this remains an open question. 20 (See Box 11 .) In summary, it is not yet known how to use the value learning approach to install plausible human values (though see Box 12 for some examples of recent ideas). At present, the approach should be viewed as a research program rather than an available technique. If it could be made to work, it might constitute the most ideal solution to the value-loading problem. Among other benefits, it would seem to offer a natural way to prevent mind crime, since a seed AI that makes reasonable guesses about which values its programmers might have installed would anticipate that mind crime is probably negatively evaluated by those values, and thus best avoided, at least until more definitive information has been obtained. Last, but not least, there is the question of what to write in the envelope or, less metaphorically, the question of which values we should try to get the AI to learn. But this issue is common to all approaches to the AI value-loading problem. We return to it in Chapter 13 . Box 11 An AI that wants to be friendly Eliezer Yudkowsky has tried to describe some features of a seed AI architecture intended to enable the kind of behavior described in the text above. In his terminology, the AI would use external reference semantics. 21 To illustrate the basic idea, let us suppose that we want the system to be friendly. The system starts out with the goal of trying to instantiate property F but does not initially know much about what F is. It might just know that F is some abstract property and that when the programmers speak of friendliness, they are probably trying to convey information about F . Since the AIs final goal is to instantiate F , an important instrumental value is to learn more about what F is. As the AI discovers more about F , its behavior is increasingly guided by the actual content of F . Thus, hopefully, the AI becomes increasingly friendly the more it learns and the smarter it gets. The programmers can help this process along, and reduce the risk of the AI making some catastrophic mistake while its understanding of F is still incomplete, by providing the AI with programmer affirmations, hypotheses about the nature and content of F to which an initially high probability is assigned. For instance, the hypothesis misleading the programmers is unfriendly can be given a high prior probability. These programmer affirmations, however, are not true by definitionthey are not unchallengeable axioms about the concept of friendliness. Rather, they are initial hypotheses about friendliness, hypotheses to which a rational AI will assign a high probability at least for as long as it trusts the programmers epistemic capacities more than its own. Yudkowskys proposal also involves the use of what he called causal validity semantics. The idea here is that the AI should do not exactly what the programmers told it to do but rather (something like) what they were trying to tell it to do. While the programmers are trying to explain to the seed AI what friendliness is, they might make errors in their explanations. Moreover, the programmers themselves may not fully understand the true nature of friendliness. One would therefore want the AI to have the ability to correct errors in the programmers thinking, and to infer the true or intended meaning from whatever imperfect explanations the programmers manage to provide. For example, the AI should be able to represent the causal processes whereby the programmers learn and communicate about friendliness. Thus, to pick a trivial example, the AI should understand that there is a possibility that a programmer might make a typo while inputting information about friendliness, and the AI should then seek to correct the error. More generally, the AI should seek to correct for whatever distortive influences may have corrupted the flow of information about friendliness as it passed from its source through the programmers to the AI (where distortive is an epistemic category). Ideally, as the AI matures, it should overcome any cognitive biases and other more fundamental misconceptions that may have prevented its programmers from fully understanding what friendliness is. Box 12 Two recent (half-baked) ideas What we might call the Hail Mary approach is based on the hope that elsewhere in the universe there exist (or will come to exist) civilizations that successfully manage the intelligence explosion, and that they end up with values that significantly overlap with our own. We could then try to build our AI so that it is motivated to do what these other superintelligences want it to do. 22 The advantage is that this might be easier than to build our AI to be motivated to do what we want directly. For this scheme to work it is not necessary that our AI can establish communication with any alien superintelligence. Rather, our AIs actions would be guided by its estimates of what the alien superintelligences would want it to do. Our AI would model the likely outcomes of intelligence explosions elsewhere, and as it becomes superintelligent itself its estimates should become increasingly accurate. Perfect knowledge is not required. There may be a range of plausible outcomes of intelligence explosions, and our AI would then do its best to accommodate the preferences of the various different kinds of superintelligence that might emerge, weighted by probability. This version of the Hail Mary approach requires that we construct a final value for our AI that refers to the preferences of other superintelligences. Exactly how to do this is not yet clear. However, superintelligent agents might be structurally distinctive enough that we could write a piece of code that would function as a detector that would look at the world model in our developing AI and designate the representational elements that correspond to the presence of a superintelligence. The detector would then, somehow, extract the preferences of the superintelligence in question (as it is represented within our own AI). 23 If we could create such a detector, we could then use it to define our AIs final values. One challenge is that we may need to create the detector before we know what representational framework our AI will develop. The detector may thus need to query an unknown representational framework and extract the preferences of whatever superintelligence may be represented therein. This looks difficult, but perhaps some clever solution can be found. 24 If the basic setup could be made to work, various refinements immediately suggest themselves. For example, rather than aiming to follow (some weighted composition of) the preferences of every alien superintelligence, our AIs final value could incorporate a filter to select a subset of alien superintelligences for obeisance (with the aim of selecting ones whose values are closer to our own). For instance, we might use criteria pertaining to a superintelligences causal origin to determine whether to include it in the obeisance set. Certain properties of its origination (which we might be able to define in structural terms) may correlate with the degree to which the resultant superintelligence could be expected to share our values. Perhaps we wish to place more trust in superintelligences whose causal origins trace back to a whole brain emulation, or to a seed AI that did not make heavy use of evolutionary algorithms or that emerged slowly in a way suggestive of a controlled takeoff. (Taking causal origins into account would also let us avoid over-weighting superintelligences that create multiple copies of themselvesindeed would let us avoid creating an incentive for them to do so.) Many other refinements would also be possible. The Hail Mary approach requires faith that there are other superintelligences out there that sufficiently share our values. 25 This makes the approach non-ideal. However, the technical obstacles facing the Hail Mary approach, though very substantial, might possibly be less formidable than those confronting alternative approaches. Exploring non-ideal but more easily implementable approaches can make sensenot with the intention of using them, but to have something to fall back upon in case an ideal solution should not be ready in time. Another idea for how to solve the value-loading problem has recently been proposed by Paul Christiano. 26 Like the Hail Mary, it is a value learning method that tries to define the value criterion by means of a trick rather than through laborious construction. By contrast to the Hail Mary, it does not presuppose the existence of other superintelligent agents that we could point to as role models for our own AI. Christianos proposal is somewhat resistant to brief explanation it involves a series of arcane considerationsbut we can try to at least gesture at its main elements. Suppose we could obtain (a) a mathematically precise specification of a particular human brain and (b) a mathematically well-specified virtual environment that contains an idealized computer with an arbitrarily large amount of memory and CPU power. Given (a) and (b), we could define a utility function U as the output the human brain would produce after interacting with this environment. U would be a mathematically well-defined object, albeit one which (because of computational limitations) we may be unable to describe explicitly . Nevertheless, U could serve as the value criterion for a value learning AI, which could use various heuristics for assigning probabilities to hypotheses about what U implies. Intuitively, we want U to be the utility function that a suitably prepared human would output if she had the advantage of being able use an arbitrarily large amount of computing powerenough computing power, for example, to run astronomical numbers of copies of herself to assist her with her analysis of specifying a utility function, or to help her devise a better process for going about this analysis. (We are here foreshadowing a theme, coherent extrapolated volition, which will be further explored in Chapter 13 .) It would seem relatively easy to specify the idealized environment: we can give a mathematical description of an abstract computer with arbitrarily large capacity; and in other respects we could use a virtual reality program that gives a mathematical description of, say, a single room with a computer terminal in it (instantiating the abstract computer). But how to obtain a mathematically precise description of a particular human brain? The obvious way would be through whole brain emulation, but what if the technology for emulation is not available in time? This is where Christianos proposal offers a key innovation. Christiano observes that in order to obtain a mathematically well-specified value criterion, we do not need a practically useful computational model of a mind, a model we could run. We just need a (possibly implicit and hopelessly complicated) mathematical definition and this may be much easier to attain. Using functional neuroimaging and other measurements, we can perhaps collect gigabytes of data about the inputoutput behavior of a selected human. If we collect a sufficient amount of data, then it might be that the simplest mathematical model that accounts for all this data is in fact an emulation of the particular human in question. Although it would be computationally intractable for us to find this simplest model from the data, it could be perfectly possible for us to define the model, by referring to the data and a using a mathematically well-defined simplicity measure (such as some variant of the Kolmogorov complexity, which we encountered in Box 1 , Chapter 1 ). 27 Emulation modulation The value-loading problem looks somewhat different for whole brain emulation than it does for artificial intelligence. Methods that presuppose a fine-grained understanding and control of algorithms and architecture are not applicable to emulations. On the other hand, the augmentation motivation selection method inapplicable to de novo artificial intelligenceis available to be used with emulations (or enhanced biological brains). 28 The augmentation method could be combined with techniques to tweak the inherited goals of the system. For example, one could try to manipulate the motivational state of an emulation by administering the digital equivalent of psychoactive substances (or, in the case of biological systems, the actual chemicals). Even now it is possible to pharmacologically manipulate values and motivations to a limited extent. 29 The pharmacopeia of the future may contain drugs with more specific and predictable effects. The digital medium of emulations should greatly facilitate such developments, by making controlled experimentation easier and by rendering all cerebral parts directly addressable. Just as when biological test subjects are used, research on emulations would get entangled in ethical complications, not all of which could be brushed aside with a consent form. Such entanglements could slow progress along the emulation path (because of regulation or moral restraint), perhaps especially hindering studies on how to manipulate the motivational structure of emulations. The result could be that emulations are augmented to potentially dangerous superintelligent levels of cognitive ability before adequate work has been done to test or adjust their final goals. Another possible effect of the moral entanglements might be to give the lead to less scrupulous teams and nations. Conversely, were we to relax our moral standards for experimenting with digital human minds, we could become responsible for a substantial amount of harm and wrongdoing, which is obviously undesirable. Other things equal, these considerations favor taking some alternative path that does not require the extensive use of digital human research subjects in a strategically high-stakes situation. The issue, however, is not clear-cut. One could argue that whole brain emulation research is less likely to involve moral violations than artificial intelligence research, on the grounds that we are more likely to recognize when an emulation mind qualifies for moral status than we are to recognize when a completely alien or synthetic mind does so. If certain kinds of AIs, or their subprocesses, have a significant moral status that we fail to recognize, the consequent moral violations could be extensive. Consider, for example, the happy abandon with which contemporary programmers create reinforcement- learning agents and subject them to aversive stimuli. Countless such agents are created daily, not only in computer science laboratories but in many applications, including some computer games containing sophisticated non-player characters. Presumably, these agents are still too primitive to have any moral status. But how confident can we really be that this is so? More importantly, how confident can we be that we will know to stop in time, before our programs become capable of experiencing morally relevant suffering? (We will return in Chapter 14 to some of the broader strategic questions that arise when we compare the desirability of emulation and artificial intelligence paths.) Institution design Some intelligent systems consist of intelligent parts that are themselves capable of agency. Firms and states exemplify this in the human world: whilst largely composed of humans they can, for some purposes, be viewed as autonomous agents in their own right. The motivations of such composite systems depend not only on the motivations of their constituent subagents but also on how those subagents are organized. For instance, a group that is organized under strong dictatorship might behave as if it had a will that was identical to the will of the subagent that occupies the dictator role, whereas a democratic group might sometimes behave more as if it had a will that was a composite or average of the wills of its various constituents. But one can also imagine governance institutions that would make an organization behave in a way that is not a simple function of the wills of its subagents. (Theoretically, at least, there could exist a totalitarian state that everybody hated, because the state had mechanisms to prevent its citizens from coordinating a revolt. Each citizen could be worse off by revolting alone than by playing their part in the state machinery.) By designing appropriate institutions for a composite system, one could thus try to shape its effective motivation. In Chapter 9 , we discussed social integration as a possible capability control method. But there we focused on the incentives faced by an agent as a consequence of its existence in a social world of near-equals. Here we are focusing on what happens inside a given agent: how its will is determined by its internal organization. We are therefore looking at a motivation selection method. Moreover, since this kind of internal institution design does not depend on large-scale social engineering or reform, it is a method that might be available to an individual project developing superintelligence even if the wider socioeconomic or international milieu is less than ideally favorable. Institution design is perhaps most plausible in contexts where it would be combined with augmentation. If we could start with agents that are already suitably motivated or that have human-like motivations, institutional arrangements could be used as an extra safeguard to increase the chances that the system will stay on course. For example, suppose that we start with some well-motivated human-like agentslet us say emulations. We want to boost the cognitive capacities of these agents, but we worry that the enhancements might corrupt their motivations. One way to deal with this challenge would be to set up a system in which individual emulations function as subagents. When a new enhancement is introduced, it is first applied to a small subset of the subagents. Its effects are then studied by a review panel composed of subagents who have not yet had the enhancement applied to them. Only when these peers have satisfied themselves that the enhancement is not corrupting is it rolled out to the wider subagent population. If the enhanced subagents are found to be corrupted, they are not given further enhancements and are excluded from key decision-making functions (at least until the system as a whole has advanced to a point where the corrupted subagents can be safely reintegrated). 30 Although the corrupted subagents might have gained some advantage from the enhancement, the institutional structure in which they are embedded, and the fact that they constitute a small minority of all subagents, would hopefully prevent them from seizing power or spreading their corruption to the overall system. Thus, the collective intelligence and capability of the system could be gradually enhanced in a sequence of small steps, where the soundness of each step is verified by subagents only slightly less capable than the new subagents that are introduced in that step. The amount of safety obtainable by this kind of institution design is limited by the accuracy of the tests that are used to evaluate the enhanced subagents. The problem of test construction is complicated by the fact that the test batteries could only be validated within the pre-existing range of cognitive ability yet must be applied to agents outside this range. One could mitigate this problem by taking small enhancement steps and by letting the test run for a long time. Such caution, however, would raise the cost and slow progress (which, if a race dynamic is occurring, could mean a project employing these safety measures would place itself at a disadvantage). Even with small steps and extensive testing, there would remain some risk of subtle flaws being introduced, leading to a gradual corruption of the goal system, a corruption that might become manifest only when the system reaches superintelligence. This risk could be reduced by letting the testing condition extend for many steps of cognitive enhancement, so that even agents that have been initially certified as sound and that have received several subsequent enhancements would continue to be under review by a panel of unmodified and uncorrupted original peers and would remain subject to reversion. Ideally, the testing should be ongoing rather than confined to an initial evaluation period. Human-level subagents have the ability to strategize and might thus choose to conceal certain goals while their behavior was being monitored. To enable continuous testing, a hierarchy might be created in which subagents at a certain level of capability are tasked with monitoring subagents at a somewhat higher level of capability. At the bottom of the capability hierarchy (but at the top of the power hierarchy) would sit the relatively dumb and slow principal. This human principal would be like a demented king who reigns over an incompetent court that oversees a mediocre administration which governs a capable people. Alternatively, he might be likened to the evolutionarily ancient reptilian brain which ensures that the newer and much cleverer neocortex is employed in the service of goals such as feeding and copulation. One might question whether such an inverse meritocracy could remain stable. If the bulk of the superintelligent subagents were found to be corrupt, and the humans in charge of the whole thing attempted to roll back many of the preceding enhancements, would the institutional structure be strong enough to withstand the opposition that such a move would engender? In the context of historical or contemporary human societies, the answer perhaps is that this would be implausible. (Not that the most capable people consistently rise to power, but we are not literally ruled by chimpanzees either.) The issue is less clear, however, in a context where society is implemented as software. 31 Imagine a digital hierarchy that has one highly trained police agent for every two proletarians. It also has one special-police agent for every two police agents. It also has one special-special-police agent for every two special-police agents and so forth, so that each layer of overseers has at least half the numbers of the layer it oversees. Imagine, further, that this society is architected in such a way that a supervisor has big advantages over his subordinates. For example, the supervisor is able to monitor and record everything his subordinates say and do, whereas the supervisor himself is hidden behind a one-way glass, so that his subordinates can only hear the orders and instructions that the superior chooses to transmit. Imagine that supervisors have a panel of buttons that they can press at any time to cause a subordinate to be punished or rewarded, paused, deleted, or reverted to an earlier state. These capabilities would greatly boost the powers of a supervising agent, beyond what has been possible historically in even the most totalitarian of organizations. Even this does not exhaust the possible instruments of control. Supervisors might also have at their disposal realistic virtual reality simulations that they can use to probe subordinates reactions to hypothetical scenarios (such as simulated offers to join a conspiracy or to slack when they think nobody is watching). Supervisors might, additionally, have the ability to eavesdrop on internal monologues in the subordinates minds and to directly manipulate their emotional states. The upshot is a series of massive advantages for the supervisor. 32 Each supervisor would be a subordinate to another, higher-level supervisor, who would monitor his every move and make sure he did not slacken in the execution of his managerial duties. With this kind of arrangement, it might be possible for the structure to be stable even if each supervisory level is intellectually somewhat weaker than the level it supervises. 33 And the entire structure, which could include many highly superintelligent agents, may be controlled by a small number of humans with root access. 34 The cost of such an internal control structure would be significant but not necessarily prohibitive. For example, in the model where each level of supervision has half the numbers of the layer below, the extra computational overhead is bounded at a mere 100% of what the proletarian part of the system costsless if the dumber boss layers require fewer computations per subagent. Oversight could be tightened by increasing the ratio, or cost lowered by decreasing it. The extra computational cost would be a major factor in a competitive market scenario (cf. Chapter 11 ) but looks affordable in the context of a project that is not facing strong immediate competition. There would also be a cost in terms of the development time needed to create and test these supervisory functionalities. A well-resourced project could reduce this time cost by parallelizing the development of the control structure with the development of the machine intelligence; but the extra task load could be prohibitive for smaller projects and for projects caught in a close technology race. One other type of cost also deserves consideration: the risk of mind crimes being committed in this kind of structure. 35 As described, the institution sounds like a rather horrible North Korean labor camp. Yet there are ways of at least mitigating the moral problems with running this kind of institution, even if the subagents contained in the institution are emulations with full human moral status. At a minimum, the system could rely on volunteering emulations. Each subagent could have the option at any time of withdrawing its participation. 36 Terminated emulations could be stored to memory, with a commitment to restart them under much more ideal conditions once the dangerous phase of the intelligence explosion is over. Meanwhile, subagents who chose to participate could be housed in very comfortable virtual environments and allowed ample time for sleep and recreation. These measures would impose a cost, one that should be manageable for a well-resourced project under noncompetitive conditions. In a highly competitive situation, the cost may be unaffordable unless an enterprise could be assured that its competitors would incur the same cost. In the example, we imagined the subagents as emulations. One might wonder, does the institution design approach require that the subagents be anthropomorphic? Or is it equally applicable to systems composed of artificial subagents? Ones first thought here might be skeptical. One notes that despite our plentiful experience with human-like agents, we still cannot precisely predict the outbreak or outcomes of revolutions; social science can, at most, describe some statistical tendencies. 37 Since we cannot reliably predict the stability of social structures for ordinary human beings (about which we have much data), it is tempting to infer that we have little hope of precision-engineering stable social structures for cognitively enhanced human-like agents (about which we have no data), and that we have still less hope of doing so for advanced artificial agents (which are not even similar to agents that we have data about). Yet the matter is not so cut-and-dried. Humans and human-like beings are complex; but artificial agents could have relatively simple architectures. Artificial agents could also have simple and explicitly characterized motivations. Furthermore, digital agents in general (whether emulations or artificial intelligences) are copyable: an affordance that may revolutionize management, much like interchangeable parts revolutionized manufacturing. These differences, together with the opportunity to work with agents that are initially powerless and to create institutional structures that use the various abovementioned control measures, might combine to make it possible to achieve particular institutional outcomessuch as a system that does not revoltmore reliably than if one were working with human beings under historical conditions. But then again, artificial agents might lack many of the attributes that help us predict the behavior of human-like agents. Artificial agents need not have any of the social emotions that bind human behavior, emotions such as fear, pride, and remorse. Nor need artificial agents develop attachments to friends and family. Nor need they exhibit the unconscious body language that makes it difficult for us humans to conceal our intentions. These deficits might destabilize institutions of artificial agents. Moreover, artificial agents might be capable of making big leaps in cognitive performance as a result of seemingly small changes in their algorithms or architecture. Ruthlessly optimizing artificial agents might be willing to take extreme gambles from which humans would shrink. 38 And superintelligent agents might show a surprising ability to coordinate with little or no communication (e.g. by internally modeling each others hypothetical responses to various contingencies). These and other differences could make sudden institutional failure more likely, even in the teeth of what seem like Kevlar-clad methods of social control. It is unclear, therefore, how promising the institution design approach is, and whether it has a greater chance of working with anthropomorphic than with artificial agents. It might be thought that creating an institution with appropriate checks and balances could only increase safetyor, at any rate, not reduce safetyso that from a risk-mitigation perspective it would always be best if the method were used. But even this cannot be said with certainty. The approach adds parts and complexity, and thus may also introduce new ways for things to go wrong that do not exist in the case of an agent that does not have intelligent subagents as parts. Nevertheless, institution design is worthy of further exploration. 39 Synopsis Goal system engineering is not yet an established discipline. It is not currently known how to transfer human values to a digital computer, even given human- level machine intelligence. Having investigated a number of approaches, we found that some of them appear to be dead ends; but others appear to hold promise and deserve to be explored further. A summary is provided in Table 12 . Table 12 Summary of value-loading techniques Explicit representation May hold promise as a way of loading domesticity values. Does not seem promising as a way of loading more complex values. Evolutionary Less promising. Powerful search may find a design that satisfies the formal search criteria but not our intentions. Furthermore, if designs are evaluated by running themincluding designs that do not even meet the formal criteriaa potentially grave selection additional danger is created. Evolution also makes it difficult to avoid massive mind crime, especially if one is aiming to fashion human-like minds. Reinforcement learning A range of different methods can be used to solve reinforcement-learning problems, but they typically involve creating a system that seeks to maximize a reward signal. This has an inherent tendency to produce the wireheading failure mode when the system becomes more intelligent. Reinforcement learning therefore looks unpromising. Value accretion We humans acquire much of our specific goal content from our reactions to experience. While value accretion could in principle be used to create an agent with human motivations, the human value-accretion dispositions might be complex and difficult to replicate in a seed AI. A bad approximation may yield an AI that generalizes differently than humans do and therefore acquires unintended final goals. More research is needed to determine how difficult it would be to make value accretion work with sufficient precision. Motivational scaffolding It is too early to tell how difficult it would be to encourage a system to develop internal high-level representations that are transparent to humans (while keeping the systems capabilities below the dangerous level) and then to use those representations to design a new goal system. The approach might hold considerable promise. (However, as with any untested approach that would postpone much of the hard work on safety engineering until the development of human-level AI, one should be careful not to allow it to become an excuse for a lackadaisical attitude to the control problem in the interim.) A potentially promising approach, but more research is needed to determine how difficult it would be to formally specify a Value learning reference that successfully points to the relevant external information about human value (and how difficult it would be to specify a correctness criterion for a utility function in terms of such a reference). Also worth exploring within the value learning category are proposals of the Hail Mary type or along the lines of Paul Christianos construction (or other such shortcuts). Emulation modulation If machine intelligence is achieved via the emulation pathway, it would likely be possible to tweak motivations through the digital equivalent of drugs or by other means. Whether this would enable values to be loaded with sufficient precision to ensure safety even as the emulation is boosted to superintelligence is an open question. (Ethical constraints might also complicate developments in this direction.) Institution design Various strong methods of social control could be applied in an institution composed of emulations. In principle, social control methods could also be applied in an institution composed of artificial intelligences. Emulations have some properties that would make them easier to control via such methods, but also some properties that might make them harder to control than AIs. Institution design seems worthy of further exploration as a potential value-loading technique. If we knew how to solve the value-loading problem, we would confront a further problem: the problem of deciding which values to load. What, in other words, would we want a superintelligence to want? This is the more philosophical problem to which we turn next. CHAPTER 13 Choosing the criteria for choosing Suppose we could install any arbitrary final value into a seed AI. The decision as to which value to install could then have the most far-reaching consequences. Certain other basic parameter choicesconcerning the axioms of the AIs decision theory and epistemologycould be similarly consequential. But foolish, ignorant, and narrow-minded that we are, how could we be trusted to make good design decisions? How could we choose without locking in forever the prejudices and preconceptions of the present generation? In this chapter, we explore how indirect normativity can let us offload much of the cognitive work involved in making these decisions onto the superintelligence itself while still anchoring the outcome in deeper human values. The need for indirect normativity How can we get a superintelligence to do what we want? What do we want the superintelligence to want? Up to this point, we have focused on the former question. We now turn to the second question. Suppose that we had solved the control problem so that we were able to load any value we chose into the motivation system of a superintelligence, making it pursue that value as its final goal. Which value should we install? The choice is no light matter. If the superintelligence obtains a decisive strategic advantage, the value would determine the disposition of the cosmic endowment. Clearly, it is essential that we not make a mistake in our value selection. But how could we realistically hope to achieve errorlessness in a matter like this? We might be wrong about morality; wrong also about what is good for us; wrong even about what we truly want. Specifying a final goal, it seems, requires making ones way through a thicket of thorny philosophical problems. If we try a direct approach, we are likely to make a hash of things. The risk of mistaken choosing is especially high when the decision context is unfamiliarand selecting the final goal for a machine superintelligence that will shape all of humanitys future is an extremely unfamiliar decision context if any is. The dismal odds in a frontal assault are reflected in the pervasive dissensus about the relevant issues in value theory. No ethical theory commands majority support among philosophers, so most philosophers must be wrong. 1 It is also reflected in the marked changes that the distribution of moral belief has undergone over time, many of which we like to think of as progress. In medieval Europe, for instance, it was deemed respectable entertainment to watch a political prisoner being tortured to death. Cat-burning remained popular in sixteenth-century Paris. 2 A mere hundred and fifty years ago, slavery still was widely practiced in the American South, with full support of the law and moral custom. When we look back, we see glaring deficiencies not just in the behavior but in the moral beliefs of all previous ages. Though we have perhaps since gleaned some moral insight, we could hardly claim to be now basking in the high noon of perfect moral enlightenment. Very likely, we are still laboring under one or more grave moral misconceptions. In such circumstances to select a final value based on our current convictions, in a way that locks it in forever and precludes any possibility of further ethical progress, would be to risk an existential moral calamity. Even if we could be rationally confident that we have identified the correct ethical theorywhich we cannot bewe would still remain at risk of making mistakes in developing important details of this theory. Seemingly simple moral theories can have a lot of hidden complexity. 3 For example, consider the (unusually simple) consequentialist theory of hedonism. This theory states, roughly, that all and only pleasure has value, and all and only pain has disvalue. 4 Even if we placed all our moral chips on this one theory, and the theory turned out to be right, a great many questions would remain open. Should higher pleasures be given priority over lower pleasures, as John Stuart Mill argued? How should the intensity and duration of a pleasure be factored in? Can pains and pleasures cancel each other out? What kinds of brain states are associated with morally relevant pleasures? Would two exact copies of the same brain state correspond to twice the amount of pleasure? 5 Can there be subconscious pleasures? How should we deal with extremely small chances of extremely great pleasures? 6 How should we aggregate over infinite populations? 7 Giving the wrong answer to any one of these questions could be catastrophic. If by selecting a final value for the superintelligence we had to place a bet not just on a general moral theory but on a long conjunction of specific claims about how that theory is to be interpreted and integrated into an effective decision- making process, then our chances of striking lucky would dwindle to something close to hopeless. Fools might eagerly accept this challenge of solving in one swing all the important problems in moral philosophy, in order to infix their favorite answers into the seed AI. Wiser souls would look hard for some alternative approach, some way to hedge. This takes us to indirect normativity. The obvious reason for building a superintelligence is so that we can offload to it the instrumental reasoning required to find effective ways of realizing a given value. Indirect normativity would enable us also to offload to the superintelligence some of the reasoning needed to select the value that is to be realized. Indirect normativity is a way to answer the challenge presented by the fact that we may not know what we truly want, what is in our interest, or what is morally right or ideal. Instead of making a guess based on our own current understanding (which is probably deeply flawed), we would delegate some of the cognitive work required for value selection to the superintelligence. Since the superintelligence is better at cognitive work than we are, it may see past the errors and confusions that cloud our thinking. One could generalize this idea and emboss it as a heuristic principle: The principle of epistemic deference A future superintelligence occupies an epistemically superior vantage point: its beliefs are (probably, on most topics) more likely than ours to be true. We should therefore defer to the superintelligences opinion whenever feasible. 8 Indirect normativity applies this principle to the value-selection problem. Lacking confidence in our ability to specify a concrete normative standard, we would instead specify some more abstract condition that any normative standard should satisfy, in the hope that a superintelligence could find a concrete standard that satisfies the abstract condition. We could give a seed AI the final goal of continuously acting according to its best estimate of what this implicitly defined standard would have it do. Some examples will serve to make the idea clearer. First we will consider coherent extrapolated volition, an indirect normativity proposal outlined by Eliezer Yudkowsky. We will then introduce some variations and alternatives, to give us a sense of the range of available options. Coherent extrapolated volition Yudkowsky has proposed that a seed AI be given the final goal of carrying out humanitys coherent extrapolated volition (CEV), which he defines as follows: Our coherent extrapolated volition is our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, had grown up farther together; where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges, where our wishes cohere rather than interfere; extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated, interpreted as we wish that interpreted. 9 When Yudkowsky wrote this, he did not purport to present a blueprint for how to implement this rather poetic prescription. His aim was to give a preliminary sketch of how CEV might be defined, along with some arguments for why an approach along these lines is needed. Many of the ideas behind the CEV proposal have analogs and antecedents in the philosophical literature. For example, in ethics ideal observer theories seek to analyze normative concepts like good or right in terms of the judgments that a hypothetical ideal observer would make (where an ideal observer is defined as one that is omniscient about non-moral facts, is logically clear- sighted, is impartial in relevant ways and is free from various kinds of biases, and so on). 10 The CEV approach, however, is not (or need not be construed as) a moral theory. It is not committed to the claim that there is any necessary link between value and the preferences of our coherent extrapolated volition. CEV can be thought of simply as a useful way to approximate whatever has ultimate value, or it can be considered aside from any connection to ethics. As the main prototype of the indirect normativity approach, it is worth examining in a little more detail. Some explications Some terms in the above quotation require explication. Thought faster, in Yudkowskys terminology, means if we were smarter and had thought things through more . Grown up farther together seems to mean if we had done our learning, our cognitive enhancing, and our self-improving under conditions of suitable social interaction with one another . Where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges may be understood as follows. The AI should act on some feature of the result of its extrapolation only insofar as that feature can be predicted by the AI with a fairly high degree of confidence. To the extent that the AI cannot predict what we would wish if we were idealized in the manner indicated, the AI should not act on a wild guess; instead, it should refrain from acting. However, even though many details of our idealized wishing may be undetermined or unpredictable, there might nevertheless be some broad outlines that the AI can apprehend, and it can then at least act to ensure that the future course of events unfolds within those outlines. For example, if the AI can reliably estimate that our extrapolated volition would wish that we not all be in constant agony, or that the universe not be tiled over with paperclips, then the AI should act to prevent those outcomes. 11 Where our wishes cohere rather than interfere may be read as follows. The AI should act where there is fairly broad agreement between individual humans extrapolated volitions. A smaller set of strong, clear wishes might sometimes outweigh the weak and muddled wishes of a majority. Also, Yudkowsky thinks that it should require less consensus for the AI to prevent some particular narrowly specified outcome, and more consensus for the AI to act to funnel the future into some particular narrow conception of the good. The initial dynamic for CEV, he writes, should be conservative about saying yes, and listen carefully for no. 12 Extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated, interpreted as we wish that interpreted: The idea behind these last modifiers seems to be that the rules for extrapolation should themselves be sensitive to the extrapolated volition. An individual might have a second-order desire (a desire concerning what to desire) that some of her first-order desires not be given weight when her volition is extrapolated. For example, an alcoholic who has a first-order desire for booze might also have a second-order desire not to have that first-order desire. Similarly, we might have desires over how various other parts of the extrapolation process should unfold, and these should be taken into account by the extrapolation process. It might be objected that even if the concept of humanitys coherent extrapolated volition could be properly defined, it would anyway be impossible even for a superintelligenceto find out what humanity would actually want under the hypothetical idealized circumstances stipulated in the CEV approach. Without some information about the content of our extrapolated volition, the AI would be bereft of any substantial standard to guide its behavior. However, although it would be difficult to know with precision what humanitys CEV would wish, it is possible to make informed guesses. This is possible even today, without superintelligence. For example, it is more plausible that our CEV would wish for there to be people in the future who live rich and happy lives than that it would wish that we should all sit on stools in a dark room experiencing pain. If we can make at least some such judgments sensibly, so can a superintelligence. From the outset, the superintelligences conduct could thus be guided by its estimates of the content of our CEV. It would have strong instrumental reason to refine these initial estimates (e.g. by studying human culture and psychology, scanning human brains, and reasoning about how we might behave if we knew more, thought more clearly, etc.). In investigating these matters, the AI would be guided by its initial estimates of our CEV; so that, for instance, the AI would not unnecessarily run myriad simulations replete with unredeemed human suffering if it estimated that our CEV would probably condemn such simulations as mind crime. Another objection is that there are so many different ways of life and moral codes in the world that it might not be possible to blend them into one CEV. Even if one could blend them, the result might not be particularly appetizing one would be unlikely to get a delicious meal by mixing together all the best flavors from everyones different favorite dish. 13 In answer to this, one could point out that the CEV approach does not require that all ways of life, moral codes, or personal values be blended together into one stew. The CEV dynamic is supposed to act only when our wishes cohere. On issues on which there is widespread irreconcilable disagreement, even after the various idealizing conditions have been imposed, the dynamic should refrain from determining the outcome. To continue the cooking analogy, it might be that individuals or cultures will have different favorite dishes, but that they can nevertheless broadly agree that aliments should be nontoxic. The CEV dynamic could then act to prevent food poisoning while otherwise allowing humans to work out their culinary practices without its guidance or interference. Rationales for CEV Yudkowskys article offered seven arguments for the CEV approach. Three of these were basically different ways of making the point that while the aim should be to do something that is humane and helpful, it would be very difficult to lay down an explicit set of rules that does not have unintended interpretations and undesirable consequences. 14 The CEV approach is meant to be robust and self- correcting; it is meant to capture the source of our values instead of relying on us correctly enumerating and articulating, once and for all, each of our essential values. The remaining four arguments go beyond that first basic (but important) point, spelling out desiderata on candidate solutions to the value-specification problem and suggesting that CEV meets these desiderata. Encapsulate moral growth This is the desideratum that the solution should allow for the possibility of moral progress. As suggested earlier, there are reasons to believe that our current moral beliefs are flawed in many ways; perhaps deeply flawed. If we were to stipulate a specific and unalterable moral code for the AI to follow, we would in effect be locking in our present moral convictions, including their errors, destroying any hope of moral growth. The CEV approach, by contrast, allows for the possibility of such growth because it has the AI try to do that which we would have wished it to do if we had developed further under favorable conditions, and it is possible that if we had thus developed our moral beliefs and sensibilities would have been purged of their current defects and limitations. Avoid hijacking the destiny of humankind Yudkowsky has in mind a scenario in which a small group of programmers creates a seed AI that then grows into a superintelligence that obtains a decisive strategic advantage. In this scenario, the original programmers hold in their hands the entirety of humanitys cosmic endowment. Obviously, this is a hideous responsibility for any mortal to shoulder. Yet it is not possible for the programmers to completely shirk the onus once they find themselves in this situation: any choice they make, including abandoning the project, would have world-historical consequences. Yudkowsky sees CEV as a way for the programmers to avoid arrogating to themselves the privilege or burden of determining humanitys future. By setting up a dynamic that implements humanitys coherent extrapolated volitionas opposed to their own volition, or their own favorite moral theorythey in effect distribute their influence over the future to all of humanity. Avoid creating a motive for modern-day humans to fight over the initial dynamic Distributing influence over humanitys future is not only morally preferable to the programming team implementing their own favorite vision, it is also a way to reduce the incentive to fight over who gets to create the first superintelligence. In the CEV approach, the programmers (or their sponsors) exert no more influence over the content of the outcome than any other personthough they of course play a starring causal role in determining the structure of the extrapolation and in deciding to implement humanitys CEV instead of some alternative. Avoiding conflict is important not only because of the immediate harm that conflict tends to cause but also because it hinders collaboration on the difficult challenge of developing superintelligence safely and beneficially. CEV is meant to be capable of commanding wide support. This is not just because it allocates influence equitably. There is also a deeper ground for the irenic potential of CEV, namely that it enables many different groups to hope that their preferred vision of the future will prevail totally. Imagine a member of the Afghan Taliban debating with a member of the Swedish Humanist Association. The two have very different worldviews, and what is a utopia for one might be a dystopia for the other. Nor might either be thrilled by any compromise position, such as permitting girls to receive an education but only up to ninth grade, or permitting Swedish girls to be educated but Afghan girls not. However, both the Taliban and the Humanist might be able to endorse the principle that the future should be determined by humanitys CEV. The Taliban could reason that if his religious views are in fact correct (as he is convinced they are) and if good grounds for accepting these views exist (as he is also convinced) then humankind would in the end come to accept these views if only people were less prejudiced and biased, if they spent more time studying scripture, if they could more clearly understand how the world works and recognize essential priorities, if they could be freed from irrational rebelliousness and cowardice, and so forth. 15 The Humanist, similarly, would believe that under these idealized conditions, humankind would come to embrace the principles she espouses. Keep humankind ultimately in charge of its own destiny We might not want an outcome in which a paternalistic superintelligence watches over us constantly, micromanaging our affairs with an eye towards optimizing every detail in accordance with a grand plan. Even if we stipulate that the superintelligence would be perfectly benevolent, and free from presumptuousness, arrogance, overbearingness, narrow-mindedness, and other human shortcomings, one might still resent the loss of autonomy entailed by such an arrangement. We might prefer to create our destiny as we go along, even if it means that we sometimes fumble. Perhaps we want the superintelligence to serve as a safety net, to support us when things go catastrophically wrong, but otherwise to leave us to fend for ourselves. CEV allows for this possibility. CEV is meant to be an initial dynamic, a process that runs once and then replaces itself with whatever the extrapolated volition wishes. If humanitys extrapolated volition wishes that we live under the supervision of a paternalistic AI, then the CEV dynamic would create such an AI and hand it the reins. If humanitys extrapolated volition instead wishes that a democratic human world government be created, then the CEV dynamic might facilitate the establishment of such an institution and otherwise remain invisible. If humanitys extrapolated volition is instead that each person should get an endowment of resources that she can use as she pleases so long as she respects the equal rights of others, then the CEV dynamic could make this come true by operating in the background much like a law of nature, to prevent trespass, theft, assault, and other nonconsensual impingements. 16 The structure of the CEV approach thus allows for a virtually unlimited range of outcomes. It is also conceivable that humanitys extrapolated volition would wish that the CEV does nothing at all. In that case, the AI implementing CEV should, upon having established with sufficient probability that this is what humanitys extrapolated volition would wish it to do, safely shut itself down. Further remarks The CEV proposal, as outlined above, is of course the merest schematic. It has a number of free parameters that could be specified in various ways, yielding different versions of the proposal. One parameter is the extrapolation base: Whose volitions are to be included? We might say everybody, but this answer spawns a host of further questions. Does the extrapolation base include so-called marginal persons such as embryos, fetuses, brain-dead persons, patients with severe dementias or who are in permanent vegetative states? Does each of the hemispheres of a split-brain patient get its own weight in the extrapolation and is this weight the same as that of the entire brain of a normal subject? What about people who lived in the past but are now dead? People who will be born in the future? Higher animals and other sentient creatures? Digital minds? Extraterrestrials? One option would be to include only the population of adult human beings on Earth who are alive at the start of the time of the AIs creation. An initial extrapolation from this base could then decide whether and how the base should be expanded. Since the number of marginals at the periphery of this base is relatively small, the result of the extrapolation may not depend much on exactly where the boundary is drawnon whether, for instance, it includes fetuses or not. That somebody is excluded from the original extrapolation base does not imply that their wishes and well-being are disregarded. If the coherent extrapolated volition of those in the extrapolation base (e.g. living adult human beings) wishes that moral consideration be extended to other beings, then the outcome of the CEV dynamic would reflect that preference. Nevertheless, it is possible that the interests of those who are included in the original extrapolation base would be accommodated to a greater degree than the interests of outsiders. In particular, if the dynamic acts only where there is broad agreement between individual extrapolated volitions (as in Yudkowskys original proposal), there would seem to be a significant risk of an ungenerous blocking vote that could prevent, for instance, the welfare of nonhuman animals or digital minds from being protected. The result might potentially be morally rotten. 17 One motivation for the CEV proposal was to avoid creating a motive for humans to fight over the creation of the first superintelligent AI. Although the CEV proposal scores better on this desideratum than many alternatives, it does not entirely eliminate motives for conflict. A selfish individual, group, or nation might seek to enlarge its slice of the future by keeping others out of the extrapolation base. A power grab of this sort might be rationalized in various ways. It might be argued, for instance, that the sponsor who funds the development of the AI deserves to own the outcome. This moral claim is probably false. It could be objected, for example, that the project that launches the first successful seed AI imposes a vast risk externality on the rest of humanity, which therefore is entitled to compensation. The amount of compensation owed is so great that it can only take the form of giving everybody a stake in the upside if things turn out well. 18 Another argument that might be used to rationalize a power grab is that large segments of humanity have base or evil preferences and that including them in the extrapolation base would risk turning humanitys future into a dystopia. It is difficult to know the share of good and bad in the average persons heart. It is also difficult to know how much this balance varies between different groups, social strata, cultures, or nations. Whether one is optimistic or pessimistic about human nature, one may prefer not to wager humanitys cosmic endowment on the speculation that, for a sufficient majority of the seven billion people currently alive, their better angels would prevail in their extrapolated volitions. Of course, omitting a certain set of people from the extrapolation base does not guarantee that light would triumph; and it might well be that the souls that would soonest exclude others or grab power for themselves tend rather to contain unusually large amounts of darkness. Yet another reason for fighting over the initial dynamic is that one might believe that somebody elses AI will not work as advertised, even if the AI is billed as a way to implement humanitys CEV. If different groups have different beliefs about which implementation is most likely to succeed, they might fight to prevent the others from launching. It would be better in such situations if the competing projects could settle their epistemic differences by some method that more reliably ascertains who is right than the method of armed conflict. 19 Morality models The CEV proposal is not the only possible form of indirect normativity. For example, instead of implementing humanitys coherent extrapolated volition, one could try to build an AI with the goal of doing what is morally right, relying on the AIs superior cognitive capacities to figure out just which actions fit that description. We can call this proposal moral rightness (MR). The idea is that we humans have an imperfect understanding of what is right and wrong, and perhaps an even poorer understanding of how the concept of moral rightness is to be philosophically analyzed: but a superintelligence could understand these things better. 20 What if we are not sure whether moral realism is true? We could still attempt the MR proposal. We should just have to make sure to specify what the AI should do in the eventuality that its presupposition of moral realism is false. For example, we could stipulate that if the AI estimates with a sufficient probability that there are no suitable non-relative truths about moral rightness, then it should revert to implementing coherent extrapolated volition instead, or simply shut itself down. 21 MR appears to have several advantages over CEV. MR would do away with various free parameters in CEV, such as the degree of coherence among extrapolated volitions that is required for the AI to act on the result, the ease with which a majority can overrule dissenting minorities, and the nature of the social environment within which our extrapolated selves are to be supposed to have grown up farther together. It would seem to eliminate the possibility of a moral failure resulting from the use of an extrapolation base that is too narrow or too wide. Furthermore, MR would orient the AI toward morally right action even if our coherent extrapolated volitions happen to wish for the AI to take actions that are morally odious. As noted earlier, this seems a live possibility with the CEV proposal. Moral goodness might be more like a precious metal than an abundant element in human nature, and even after the ore has been processed and refined in accordance with the prescriptions of the CEV proposal, who knows whether the principal outcome will be shining virtue, indifferent slag, or toxic sludge? MR would also appear to have some disadvantages. It relies on the notion of morally right, a notoriously difficult concept, one with which philosophers have grappled since antiquity without yet attaining consensus as to its analysis. Picking an erroneous explication of moral rightness could result in outcomes that would be morally very wrong. This difficulty of defining moral rightness might seem to count heavily against the MR proposal. However, it is not clear that the MR proposal is really at a material disadvantage in this regard. The CEV proposal, too, uses terms and concepts that are difficult to explicate (such as knowledge, being more the people we wished we were, grown up farther together, among others). 22 Even if these concepts are marginally less opaque than moral rightness, they are still miles removed from anything that programmers can currently express in code. 23 The path to endowing an AI with any of these concepts might involve giving it general linguistic ability (comparable, at least, to that of a normal human adult). Such a general ability to understand natural language could then be used to understand what is meant by morally right. If the AI could grasp the meaning, it could search for actions that fit. As the AI develops superintelligence, it could then make progress on two fronts: on the philosophical problem of understanding what moral rightness is, and on the practical problem of applying this understanding to evaluate particular actions. 24 While this would not be easy, it is not clear that it would be any more difficult than extrapolating humanitys coherent extrapolated volition. 25 A more fundamental issue with MR is that even if can be implemented, it might not give us what we want or what we would choose if we were brighter and better informed. This is of course the essential feature of MR, not an accidental bug. However, it might be a feature that would be extremely harmful to us. 26 One might try to preserve the basic idea of the MR model while reducing its demandingness by focusing on moral permissibility : the idea being that we could let the AI pursue humanitys CEV so long as it did not act in ways that are morally impermissible. For example, one might formulate the following goal for the AI: Among the actions that are morally permissible for the AI, take one that humanitys CEV would prefer. However, if some part of this instruction has no well-specified meaning, or if we are radically confused about its meaning, or if moral realism is false, or if we acted morally impermissibly in creating an AI with this goal, then undergo a controlled shutdown. 27 Follow the intended meaning of this instruction. One might still worry that this moral permissibility model (MP) represents an unpalatably high degree of respect for the requirements of morality. How big a sacrifice it would entail depends on which ethical theory is true. 28 If ethics is satisficing , in the sense that it counts as morally permissible any action that conforms to a few basic moral constraints, then MP may leave ample room for our coherent extrapolated volition to influence the AIs actions. However, if ethics is maximizing for example, if the only morally permissible actions are those that have the morally best consequencesthen MP may leave little or no room for our own preferences to shape the outcome. To illustrate this concern, let us return for a moment to the example of hedonistic consequentialism. Suppose that this ethical theory is true, and that the AI knows it to be so. For present purposes, we can define hedonistic consequentialism as the claim that an action is morally right (and morally permissible) if and only if, among all feasible actions, no other action would produce a greater balance of pleasure over suffering. The AI, following MP, might maximize the surfeit of pleasure by converting the accessible universe into hedonium, a process that may involve building computronium and using it to perform computations that instantiate pleasurable experiences. Since simulating any existing human brain is not the most efficient way of producing pleasure, a likely consequence is that we all die. By enacting either the MR or the MP proposal, we would thus risk sacrificing our lives for a greater good. This would be a bigger sacrifice than one might think, because what we stand to lose is not merely the chance to live out a normal human life but the opportunity to enjoy the far longer and richer lives that a friendly superintelligence could bestow. The sacrifice looks even less appealing when we reflect that the superintelligence could realize a nearly-as-great good (in fractional terms) while sacrificing much less of our own potential well-being. Suppose that we agreed to allow almost the entire accessible universe to be converted into hedonium everything except a small preserve, say the Milky Way, which would be set aside to accommodate our own needs. Then there would still be a hundred billion galaxies devoted to the maximization of pleasure. But we would have one galaxy within which to create wonderful civilizations that could last for billions of years and in which humans and nonhuman animals could survive and thrive, and have the opportunity to develop into beatific posthuman spirits. 29 If one prefers this latter option (as I would be inclined to do) it implies that one does not have an unconditional lexically dominant preference for acting morally permissibly. But it is consistent with placing great weight on morality. Even from a purely moral point of view, it might be better to advocate some proposal that is less morally ambitious than MR or MP. If the morally best has no chance of being implementedperhaps because of its frowning demandingnessit might be morally better to promote some other proposal, one that would be near-ideal and whose chances of being implemented could be significantly increased by our promoting it. 30 Do What I Mean We might feel unsure whether to go for CEV, MR, MP, or something else. Could we punt on this higher-level decision as well, offloading even more cognitive work onto the AI? Where is the limit to our possible laziness? Consider, for example, the following reasons-based goal: Do whatever we would have had most reason to ask the AI to do. This goal might boil down to extrapolated volition or morality or something else, but it would seem to spare us the effort and risk involved in trying to figure out for ourselves which of these more specific objectives we would have most reason to select. Some of the problems with the morality-based goals, however, also apply here. First, we might fear that this reasons-based goal would leave too little room for our own desires. Some philosophers maintain that a person always has most reason to do what it would be morally best for her to do. If those philosophers are right, then the reason-based goal collapses into MRwith the concomitant risk that a superintelligence implementing such a dynamic would kill everyone within reach. Second, as with all proposals couched in technical language, there is a possibility that we might have misunderstood the meaning of our own assertions. We saw that, in the case of the morality-based goals, asking the AI to do what is right may lead to unforeseen and unwanted consequences such that, had we anticipated them, we would not have implemented the goal in question. The same applies to asking the AI to do what we have most reason to do. What if we try to avoid these difficulties by couching a goal in emphatically nontechnical languagesuch as in terms of niceness: 31 Take the nicest action; or, if no action is nicest, then take an action that is at least super-duper nice. How could there be anything objectionable about building a nice AI? But we must ask what precisely is meant by this expression. The lexicon lists various meanings of nice that are clearly not intended to be used here: we do not intend that the AI should be courteous and polite nor overdelicate or fastidious . If we can count on the AI recognizing the intended interpretation of niceness and being motivated to pursue niceness in just that sense, then this goal would seem to amount to a command to do what the programmers meant for the AI to do. 32 An injunction to similar effect was included in the formulation of CEV ( interpreted as we wish that interpreted) and in the moral-permissibility criterion as rendered earlier ( follow the intended meaning of this instruction). By affixing such a Do What I Mean clause we may indicate that the other words in the goal description should be construed charitably rather than literally. But saying that the AI should be nice adds almost nothing: the real work is done by the Do What I Mean instruction. If we knew how to code Do What I Mean in a general and powerful way, we might as well use that as a standalone goal. How might one implement such a Do What I Mean dynamic? That is, how might we create an AI motivated to charitably interpret our wishes and unspoken intentions and to act accordingly? One initial step could be to try to get clearer about what we mean by Do What I Mean. It might help if we could explicate this in more behavioristic terms, for example in terms of revealed preferences in various hypothetical situationssuch as situations in which we had more time to consider the options, in which we were smarter, in which we knew more of the relevant facts, and in which in various other ways conditions would be more favorable for us accurately manifesting in concrete choices what we mean when we say that we want an AI that is friendly, beneficial, nice Here, of course, we come full circle. We have returned to the indirect normativity approach with which we startedthe CEV proposal, which, in essence, expunges all concrete content from the value specification, leaving only an abstract value defined in purely procedural terms: to do that which we would have wished for the AI to do in suitably idealized circumstances. By means of such indirect normativity, we could hope to offload to the AI much of the cognitive work that we ourselves would be trying to perform if we attempted to articulate a more concrete description of what values the AI is to pursue. In seeking to take full advantage of the AIs epistemic superiority, CEV can thus be seen as an application of the principle of epistemic deference. Component list So far we have considered different options for what content to put into the goal system. But an AIs behavior will also be influenced by other design choices. In particular, it can make a critical difference which decision theory and which epistemology it uses. Another important question is whether the AIs plans will be subject to human review before being put into action. Table 13 summarizes these design choices. A project that aims to build a superintelligence ought to be able to explain what choices it has made regarding each of these components, and to justify why those choices were made. 33 Table 13 Component list Goal content What objective should the AI pursue? How should a description of this objective be interpreted? Should the objective include giving special rewards to those who contributed to the projects success? Decision theory Should the AI use causal decision theory, evidential decision theory, updateless decision theory, or something else? Epistemology What should the AIs prior probability function be, and what other explicit or implicit assumptions about the world should it make? What theory of anthropics should it use? Ratification Should the AIs plans be subjected to human review before being put into effect? If so, what is the protocol for that review process? Goal content We have already discussed how indirect normativity might be used in specifying the values that the AI is to pursue. We discussed some options, such as morality- based models and coherent extrapolated volition. Each such option creates further choices that need to be made. For instance, the CEV approach comes in many varieties, depending on who is included in the extrapolation base, the structure of the extrapolation, and so forth. Other forms of motivation selection methods might call for different types of goal content. For example, an oracle might be built to place a value on giving accurate answers. An oracle constructed with domesticity motivation might also have goal content that disvalues the excessive use of resources in producing its answers. Another design choice is whether to include special provisions in the goal content to reward individuals who contribute to the successful realization of the AI, for example by giving them extra resources or influence over the AIs behavior. We can term any such provisions incentive wrapping. Incentive wrapping could be seen as a way to increase the likelihood that the project will be successful, at the cost of compromising to some extent the goal that the project set out to achieve. For example, if the projects goal is to create a dynamic that implements humanitys coherent extrapolated volition, then an incentive wrapping scheme might specify that certain individuals volitions should be given extra weight in the extrapolation. If such a project is successful, the result is not necessarily the implementation of humanitys coherent extrapolated volition. Instead, some approximation to this goal might be achieved. 34 Since incentive wrapping would be a piece of goal content that would be interpreted and pursued by a superintelligence, it could take advantage of indirect normativity to specify subtle and complicated provisions that would be difficult for a human manager to implement. For example, instead of rewarding programmers according to some crude but easily accessible metric, such as how many hours they worked or how many bugs they corrected, the incentive wrapping could specify that programmers are to be rewarded in proportion to how much their contributions increased some reasonable ex ante probability of the project being successfully completed in the way the sponsors intended. Further, there would be no reason to limit the incentive wrapping to project staff. It could instead specify that every person should be rewarded according to their just deserts. Credit allocation is a difficult problem, but a superintelligence could be expected to do a reasonable job of approximating the criteria specified, explicitly or implicitly, by the incentive wrapping. It is conceivable that the superintelligence might even find some way of rewarding individuals who have died prior to the superintelligences creation. 35 The incentive wrapping could then be extended to embrace at least some of the deceased, potentially including individuals who died before the project was conceived, or even antedating the first enunciation of the concept of incentive wrapping. Although the institution of such a retroactive policy would not causally incentivize those people who are already resting in their graves as these words are being put to the page, it might be favored for moral reasonsthough it could be argued that insofar as fairness is a goal, it should be included as part of the target specification proper rather than in the surrounding incentive wrapping. We cannot here delve into all the ethical and strategic issues associated with incentive wrapping. A projects position on these issues, however, would be an important aspect of its fundamental design concept. Decision theory Another important design choice is which decision theory the AI should be built to use. This might affect how the AI behaves in certain strategically fateful situations. It might determine, for instance, whether the AI is open to trade with, or extortion by, other superintelligent civilizations whose existence it hypothesizes. The particulars of the decision theory could also matter in predicaments involving finite probabilities of infinite payoffs (Pascalian wagers) or extremely small probabilities of extremely large finite payoffs (Pascalian muggings) or in contexts where the AI is facing fundamental normative uncertainty or where there are multiple instantiations of the same agent program. 36 The options on the table include causal decision theory (in a variety of flavors) and evidential decision theory, along with newer candidates such as timeless decision theory and updateless decision theory, which are still under development. 37 It may prove difficult to identify and articulate the correct decision theory, and to have justified confidence that we have got it right. Although the prospects for directly specifying an AIs decision theory are perhaps more hopeful than those of directly specifying its final values, we are still confronted with a substantial risk of error. Many of the complications that might break the currently most popular decision theories were discovered only recently, suggesting that there might exist further problems that have not yet come into sight. The result of giving the AI a flawed decision theory might be disastrous, possibly amounting to an existential catastrophe. In view of these difficulties, one might consider an indirect approach to specifying the decision theory that the AI should use. Exactly how to do this is not yet clear. We might want the AI to use that decision theory D which we would have wanted it to use had we thought long and hard about the matter. However, the AI would need to be able to make decisions before learning what D is. It would thus need some effective interim decision theory D that would govern its search for D . One might try to define D to be some sort of superposition of the AIs current hypotheses about D (weighed by their probabilities), though there are unsolved technical problems with how to do this in a fully general way. 38 There is also cause for concern that the AI might make irreversibly bad decisions (such as rewriting itself to henceforth run on some flawed decision theory) during the learning phase, before the AI has had the opportunity to determine which particular decision theory is correct. To reduce the risk of derailment during this period of vulnerability we might instead try to endow the seed AI with some form of restricted rationality : a deliberately simplified but hopefully dependable decision theory that staunchly ignores esoteric considerations, even ones we think may ultimately be legitimate, and that is designed to replace itself with a more sophisticated (indirectly specified) decision theory once certain conditions are met. 39 It is an open research question whether and how this could be made to work. Epistemology A project will also need to make a fundamental design choice in selecting the AIs epistemology, specifying the principles and criteria whereby empirical hypotheses are to be evaluated. Within a Bayesian framework, we can think of the epistemology as a prior probability functionthe AIs implicit assignment of probabilities to possible worlds before it has taken any perceptual evidence into account. In other frameworks, the epistemology might take a different form; but in any case some inductive learning rule is necessary if the AI is to generalize from past observations and make predictions about the future. 40 As with the goal content and the decision theory, however, there is a risk that our epistemology specification could miss the mark. One might think that there is a limit to how much damage could arise from an incorrectly specified epistemology. If the epistemology is too dysfunctional, then the AI could not be very intelligent and it could not pose the kind of risk discussed in this book. But the concern is that we may specify an epistemology that is sufficiently sound to make the AI instrumentally effective in most situations, yet which has some flaw that leads the AI astray on some matter of crucial importance. Such an AI might be akin to a quick-witted person whose worldview is predicated on a false dogma, held to with absolute conviction, who consequently tilts at windmills and gives his all in pursuit of fantastical or harmful objectives. Certain kinds of subtle difference in an AIs prior could turn out to make a drastic difference to how it behaves. For example, an AI might be given a prior that assigns zero probability to the universe being infinite. No matter how much astronomical evidence it accrues to the contrary, such an AI would stubbornly reject any cosmological theory that implied an infinite universe; and it might make foolish choices as a result. 41 Or an AI might be given a prior that assigns a zero probability to the universe not being Turing-computable (this is in fact a common feature of many of the priors discussed in the literature, including the Kolmogorov complexity prior mentioned in Chapter 1 ), again with poorly understood consequences if the embedded assumptionknown as the Church Turing thesisshould turn out to be false. An AI could also end up with a prior that makes strong metaphysical commitments of one sort or another, for instance by ruling out a priori the possibility that any strong form of mindbody dualism could be true or the possibility that there are irreducible moral facts. If any of those commitments is mistaken, the AI might seek to realize its final goals in ways that we would regard as perverse instantiations. Yet there is no obvious reason why such an AI, despite being fundamentally wrong about one important matter, could not be sufficiently instrumentally effective to secure a decisive strategic advantage. (Anthropics, the study of how to make inferences from indexical information in the presence of observation selection effects, is another area where the choice of epistemic axioms could prove pivotal. 42 ) We might reasonably doubt our ability to resolve all foundational issues in epistemology in time for the construction of the first seed AI. We may, therefore, consider taking an indirect approach to specifying the AIs epistemology. This would raise many of the same issues as taking an indirect approach to specifying its decision theory. In the case of epistemology, however, there may be greater hope of benign convergence, with any of a wide class of epistemologies providing an adequate foundation for safe and effective AI and ultimately yielding similar doxastic results. The reason for this is that sufficiently abundant empirical evidence and analysis would tend to wash out any moderate differences in prior expectations. 43 A good aim would be to endow the AI with fundamental epistemological principles that match those governing our own thinking. Any AI diverging from this ideal is an AI that we would judge to be reasoning incorrectly if we consistently applied our own standards. Of course, this applies only to our fundamental epistemological principles. Non-fundamental principles should be continuously created and revised by the seed AI itself as it develops its understanding of the world. The point of superintelligence is not to pander to human preconceptions but to make mincemeat out of our ignorance and folly. Ratification The final item in our list of design choices is ratification . Should the AIs plans be subjected to human review before being put into effect? For an oracle, this question is implicitly answered in the affirmative. The oracle outputs information; human reviewers choose whether and how to act upon it. For genies, sovereigns, and tool-AIs, however, the question of whether to use some form of ratification remains open. To illustrate how ratification might work, consider an AI intended to function as a sovereign implementing humanitys CEV. Instead of launching this AI directly, imagine that we first built an oracle AI for the sole purpose of answering questions about what the sovereign AI would do. As earlier chapters revealed, there are risks in creating a superintelligent oracle (such as risks of mind crime or infrastructure profusion). But for purposes of this example let us assume that the oracle AI has been successfully implemented in a way that avoided these pitfalls. We thus have an oracle AI that offers us its best guesses about the consequences of running some piece of code intended to implement humanitys CEV. The oracle may not be able to predict in detail what would happen, but its predictions are likely to be better than our own. (If it were impossible even for a superintelligence to predict anything about the code would do, we would be crazy to run it.) So the oracle ponders for a while and then presents its forecast. To make the answer intelligible, the oracle may offer the operator a range of tools with which to explore various features of the predicted outcome. The oracle could show pictures of what the future looks like and provide statistics about the number of sentient beings that will exist at different times, along with average, peak, and lowest levels of well-being. It could offer intimate biographies of several randomly selected individuals (perhaps imaginary people selected to be probably representative). It could highlight aspects of the future that the operator might not have thought of inquiring about but which would be regarded as pertinent once pointed out. Being able to preview the outcome in this manner has obvious advantages. The preview could reveal the consequences of an error in a planned sovereigns design specifications or source code. If the crystal ball shows a ruined future, we could scrap the code for the planned sovereign AI and try something else. A strong case could be made that we should familiarize ourselves with the concrete ramifications of an option before committing to it, especially when the entire future of the race is on the line. What is perhaps less obvious is that ratification also has potentially significant disadvantages. The irenic quality of CEV might be undermined if opposing factions, instead of submitting to the arbitration of superior wisdom in confident expectation of being vindicated, could see in advance what the verdict would be. A proponent of the morality-based approach might worry that the sponsors resolve would collapse if all the sacrifices required by the morally optimal were to be revealed. And we might all have reason to prefer a future that holds some surprises, some dissonance, some wildness, some opportunities for self- overcominga future whose contours are not too snugly tailored to present preconceptions but provide some give for dramatic movement and unplanned growth. We might be less likely to take such an expansive view if we could cherry-pick every detail of the future, sending back to the drawing board any draft that does not fully conform to our fancy at that moment. The issue of sponsor ratification is therefore less clear-cut than it might initially seem. Nevertheless, on balance it would seem prudent to take advantage of an opportunity to preview, if that functionality is available. But rather than letting the reviewer fine-tune every aspect of the outcome, we might give her a simple veto which could be exercised only a few times before the entire project would be aborted. 44 Getting close enough The main purpose of ratification would be to reduce the probability of catastrophic error. In general, it seems wise to aim at minimizing the risk of catastrophic error rather than at maximizing the chance of every detail being fully optimized. There are two reasons for this. First, humanitys cosmic endowment is astronomically largethere is plenty to go around even if our process involves some waste or accepts some unnecessary constraints. Second, there is a hope that if we but get the initial conditions for the intelligence explosion approximately right, then the resulting superintelligence may eventually home in on, and precisely hit, our ultimate objectives. The important thing is to land in the right attractor basin. With regard to epistemology, it is plausible that a wide range of priors will ultimately converge to very similar posteriors (when computed by a superintelligence and conditionalized on a realistic amount of data). We therefore need not worry about getting the epistemology exactly right. We must just avoid giving the AI a prior that is so extreme as to render the AI incapable of learning vital truths even with the benefit of copious experience and analysis. 45 With regard to decision theory, the risk of irrecoverable error seems larger. We might still hope to directly specify a decision theory that is good enough. A superintelligent AI could switch to a new decision theory at any time; however, if it starts out with a sufficiently wrong decision theory it may not see the reason to switch. Even if an agent comes to see the benefits of having a different decision theory, the realization might come too late. For example, an agent designed to refuse blackmail might enjoy the benefit of deterring would-be extortionists. For this reason, blackmailable agents might do well to proactively adopt a non-exploitable decision theory. Yet once a blackmailable agent receives the threat and regards it as credible, the damage is done. Given an adequate epistemology and decision theory, we could try to design the system to implement CEV or some other indirectly specified goal content. Again there is hope of convergence: that different ways of implementing a CEV- like dynamic would lead to the same utopian outcome. Short of such convergence, we may still hope that many of the different possible outcomes are good enough to count as existential success. It is not necessary for us to create a highly optimized design. Rather, our focus should be on creating a highly reliable design, one that can be trusted to retain enough sanity to recognize its own failings. An imperfect superintelligence, whose fundamentals are sound, would gradually repair itself; and having done so, it would exert as much beneficial optimization power on the world as if it had been perfect from the outset. CHAPTER 14 The strategic picture It is now time to consider the challenge of superintelligence in a broader context. We would like to orient ourselves in the strategic landscape sufficiently to know at least which general direction we should be heading. This, it turns out, is not at all easy. Here in the penultimate chapter, we introduce some general analytical concepts that help us think about long- term science and technology policy issues. We then apply them to the issue of machine intelligence. It can be illuminating to make a rough distinction between two different normative stances from which a proposed policy may be evaluated. The person- affecting perspective asks whether a proposed change would be in our interestthat is to say, whether it would (on balance, and in expectation) be in the interest of those morally considerable creatures who either already exist or will come into existence independently of whether the proposed change occurs or not. The impersonal perspective , in contrast, gives no special consideration to currently existing people, or to those who will come to exist independently of whether the proposed change occurs. Instead, it counts everybody equally, independently of their temporal location. The impersonal perspective sees great value in bringing new people into existence, provided they have lives worth living: the more happy lives created, the better. This distinction, although it barely hints at the moral complexities associated with a machine intelligence revolution, can be useful in a first-cut analysis. Here we will first examine matters from the impersonal perspective. We will later see what changes if person-affecting considerations are given weight in our deliberations. Science and technology strategy Before we zoom in on issues specific to machine superintelligence, we must introduce some strategic concepts and considerations that pertain to scientific and technological development more generally. Differential technological development Suppose that a policymaker proposes to cut funding for a certain research field, out of concern for the risks or long-term consequences of some hypothetical technology that might eventually grow from its soil. She can then expect a howl of opposition from the research community. Scientists and their public advocates often say that it is futile to try to control the evolution of technology by blocking research. If some technology is feasible (the argument goes) it will be developed regardless of any particular policymakers scruples about speculative future risks. Indeed, the more powerful the capabilities that a line of development promises to produce, the surer we can be that somebody, somewhere, will be motivated to pursue it. Funding cuts will not stop progress or forestall its concomitant dangers. Interestingly, this futility objection is almost never raised when a policymaker proposes to increase funding to some area of research, even though the argument would seem to cut both ways. One rarely hears indignant voices protest: Please do not increase our funding. Rather, make some cuts. Researchers in other countries will surely pick up the slack; the same work will get done anyway. Dont squander the publics treasure on domestic scientific research! What accounts for this apparent doublethink? One plausible explanation, of course, is that members of the research community have a self-serving bias which leads us to believe that research is always good and tempts us to embrace almost any argument that supports our demand for more funding. However, it is also possible that the double standard can be justified in terms of national self- interest. Suppose that the development of a technology has two effects: giving a small benefit B to its inventors and the country that sponsors them, while imposing an aggregately larger harm H which could be a risk externalityon everybody. Even somebody who is largely altruistic might then choose to develop the overall harmful technology. They might reason that the harm H will result no matter what they do, since if they refrain somebody else will develop the technology anyway; and given that total welfare cannot be affected, they might as well grab the benefit B for themselves and their nation. (Unfortunately, there will soon be a device that will destroy the world. Fortunately, we got the grant to build it!) Whatever the explanation for the futility objections appeal, it fails to show that there is in general no impersonal reason for trying to steer technological development. It fails even if we concede the motivating idea that with continued scientific and technological development efforts, all relevant technologies will eventually be developedthat is, even if we concede the following: Technological completion conjecture If scientific and technological development efforts do not effectively cease, then all important basic capabilities that could be obtained through some possible technology will be obtained. 1 There are at least two reasons why the technological completion conjecture does not imply the futility objection. First, the antecedent might not hold, because it is not in fact a given that scientific and technological development efforts will not effectively cease (before the attainment of technological maturity). This reservation is especially pertinent in a context that involves existential risk. Second, even if we could be certain that all important basic capabilities that could be obtained through some possible technology will be obtained, it could still make sense to attempt to influence the direction of technological research. What matters is not only whether a technology is developed, but also when it is developed, by whom , and in what context . These circumstances of birth of a new technology, which shape its impact, can be affected by turning funding spigots on or off (and by wielding other policy instruments). These reflections suggest a principle that would have us attend to the relative speed with which different technologies are developed: 2 The principle of differential technological development Retard the development of dangerous and harmful technologies, especially ones that raise the level of existential risk; and accelerate the development of beneficial technologies, especially those that reduce the existential risks posed by nature or by other technologies. A policy could thus be evaluated on the basis of how much of a differential advantage it gives to desired forms of technological development over undesired forms. 3 Preferred order of arrival Some technologies have an ambivalent effect on existential risks, increasing some existential risks while decreasing others. Superintelligence is one such technology. We have seen in earlier chapters that the introduction of machine superintelligence would create a substantial existential risk. But it would reduce many other existential risks. Risks from naturesuch as asteroid impacts, supervolcanoes, and natural pandemicswould be virtually eliminated, since superintelligence could deploy countermeasures against most such hazards, or at least demote them to the non-existential category (for instance, via space colonization). These existential risks from nature are comparatively small over the relevant timescales. But superintelligence would also eliminate or reduce many anthropogenic risks. In particular, it would reduce risks of accidental destruction, including risk of accidents related to new technologies. Being generally more capable than humans, a superintelligence would be less likely to make mistakes, and more likely to recognize when precautions are needed, and to implement precautions competently. A well-constructed superintelligence might sometimes take a risk, but only when doing so is wise. Furthermore, at least in scenarios where the superintelligence forms a singleton, many non-accidental anthropogenic existential risks deriving from global coordination problems would be eliminated. These include risks of wars, technology races, undesirable forms of competition and evolution, and tragedies of the commons. Since substantial peril would be associated with human beings developing synthetic biology, molecular nanotechnology, climate engineering, instruments for biomedical enhancement and neuropsychological manipulation, tools for social control that may facilitate totalitarianism or tyranny, and other technologies as-yet unimagined, eliminating these types of risk would be a great boon. An argument could therefore be mounted that earlier arrival dates of superintelligence are preferable. However, if risks from nature and from other hazards unrelated to future technology are small, then this argument could be refined: what matters is that we get superintelligence before other dangerous technologies, such as advanced nanotechnology. Whether it happens sooner or later may not be so important (from an impersonal perspective) so long as the order of arrival is right. The ground for preferring superintelligence to come before other potentially dangerous technologies, such as nanotechnology, is that superintelligence would reduce the existential risks from nanotechnology but not vice versa. 4 Hence, if we create superintelligence first, we will face only those existential risks that are associated with superintelligence; whereas if we create nanotechnology first, we will face the risks of nanotechnology and then, additionally, the risks of superintelligence. 5 Even if the existential risks from superintelligence are very large, and even if superintelligence is the riskiest of all technologies, there could thus be a case for hastening its arrival. These sooner-is-better arguments, however, presuppose that the riskiness of creating superintelligence is the same regardless of when it is created. If, instead, its riskiness declines over time, it might be better to delay the machine intelligence revolution. While a later arrival would leave more time for other existential catastrophes to intercede, it could still be preferable to slow the development of superintelligence. This would be especially plausible if the existential risks associated with superintelligence are much larger than those associated with other disruptive technologies. There are several quite strong reasons to believe that the riskiness of an intelligence explosion will decline significantly over a multidecadal timeframe. One reason is that a later date leaves more time for the development of solutions to the control problem. The control problem has only recently been recognized, and most of the current best ideas for how to approach it were discovered only within the past decade or so (and in several cases during the time that this book was being written). It is plausible that the state of the art will advance greatly over the next several decades; and if the problem turns out to be very difficult, a significant rate of progress might continue for a century or more. The longer it takes for superintelligence to arrive, the more such progress will have been made when it does. This is an important consideration in favor of later arrival dates and a very strong consideration against extremely early arrival dates. Another reason why superintelligence later might be safer is that this would allow more time for various beneficial background trends of human civilization to play themselves out. How much weight one attaches to this consideration will depend on how optimistic one is about these trends. An optimist could certainly point to a number of encouraging indicators and hopeful possibilities. People might learn to get along better, leading to reductions in violence, war, and cruelty; and global coordination and the scope of political integration might increase, making it easier to escape undesirable technology races (more on this below) and to work out an arrangement whereby the hoped- for gains from an intelligence explosion would be widely shared. There appear to be long-term historical trends in these directions. 6 Further, an optimist could expect that the sanity level of humanity will rise over the course of this centurythat prejudices will (on balance) recede, that insights will accumulate, and that people will become more accustomed to thinking about abstract future probabilities and global risks. With luck, we could see a general uplift of epistemic standards in both individual and collective cognition. Again, there are trends pushing in these directions. Scientific progress means that more will be known. Economic growth may give a greater portion of the worlds population adequate nutrition (particularly during the early years of life that are important for brain development) and access to quality education. Advances in information technology will make it easier to find, integrate, evaluate, and communicate data and ideas. Furthermore, by the centurys end, humanity will have made an additional hundred years worth of mistakes, from which something might have been learned. Many potential developments are ambivalent in the abovementioned sense increasing some existential risks and decreasing others. For example, advances in surveillance, data mining, lie detection, biometrics, and psychological or neurochemical means of manipulating beliefs and desires could reduce some existential risks by making it easier to coordinate internationally or to suppress terrorists and renegades at home. These same advances, however, might also increase some existential risks by amplifying undesirable social dynamics or by enabling the formation of permanently stable totalitarian regimes. One important frontier is the enhancement of biological cognition, such as through genetic selection. When we discussed this in Chapters 2 and 3 , we concluded that the most radical forms of superintelligence would be more likely to arise in the form of machine intelligence. That claim is consistent with cognitive enhancement playing an important role in the lead-up to, and creation of, machine superintelligence. Cognitive enhancement might seem obviously risk-reducing: the smarter the people working on the control problem, the more likely they are to find a solution. However, cognitive enhancement could also hasten the development of machine intelligence, thus reducing the time available to work on the problem. Cognitive enhancement would also have many other relevant consequences. These issues deserve a closer look. (Most of the following remarks about cognitive enhancement apply equally to non- biological means of increasing our individual or collective epistemic effectiveness.) Rates of change and cognitive enhancement An increase in either the mean or the upper range of human intellectual ability would likely accelerate technological progress across the board, including progress toward various forms of machine intelligence, progress on the control problem, and progress on a wide swath of other technical and economic objectives. What would be the net effect of such acceleration? Consider the limiting case of a universal accelerator, an imaginary intervention that accelerates literally everything . The action of such a universal accelerator would correspond merely to an arbitrary rescaling of the time metric, producing no qualitative change in observed outcomes. 7 If we are to make sense of the idea that cognitive enhancement might generally speed things up, we clearly need some other concept than that of universal acceleration. A more promising approach is to focus on how cognitive enhancement might increase the rate of change in one type of process relative to the rate of change in some other type of process. Such differential acceleration could affect a systems dynamics. Thus, consider the following concept: Macro-structural development accelerator A lever that accelerates the rate at which macro-structural features of the human condition develop, while leaving unchanged the rate at which micro-level human affairs unfold. Imagine pulling this lever in the decelerating direction. A brake pad is lowered onto the great wheel of world history; sparks fly and metal screeches. After the wheel has settled into a more leisurely pace, the result is a world in which technological innovation occurs more slowly and in which fundamental or globally significant change in political structure and culture happens less frequently and less abruptly. A greater number of generations come and go before one era gives way to another. During the course of a lifespan, a person sees little change in the basic structure of the human condition. For most of our species existence, macro-structural development was slower than it is now. Fifty thousand years ago, an entire millennium might have elapsed without a single significant technological invention, without any noticeable increase in human knowledge and understanding, and without any globally meaningful political change. On a micro-level, however, the kaleidoscope of human affairs churned at a reasonable rate, with births, deaths, and other personally and locally significant events. The average persons day might have been more action-packed in the Pleistocene than it is today. If you came upon a magic lever that would let you change the rate of macro- structural development, what should you do? Ought you to accelerate, decelerate, or leave things as they are? Assuming the impersonal standpoint, this question requires us to consider the effects on existential risk. Let us distinguish between two kinds of risk: state risks and step risks. A state risk is one that is associated with being in a certain state, and the total amount of state risk to which a system is exposed is a direct function of how long the system remains in that state. Risks from nature are typically state risks: the longer we remain exposed, the greater the chance that we will get struck by an asteroid, supervolcanic eruption, gamma ray burst, naturally arising pandemic, or some other slash of the cosmic scythe. Some anthropogenic risks are also state risks. At the level of an individual, the longer a soldier pokes his head up above the parapet, the greater the cumulative chance he will be shot by an enemy sniper. There are anthropogenic state risks at the existential level as well: the longer we live in an internationally anarchic system, the greater the cumulative chance of a thermonuclear Armageddon or of a great war fought with other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, laying waste to civilization. A step risk, by contrast, is a discrete risk associated with some necessary or desirable transition. Once the transition is completed, the risk vanishes. The amount of step risk associated with a transition is usually not a simple function of how long the transition takes. One does not halve the risk of traversing a minefield by running twice as fast. Conditional on a fast takeoff, the creation of superintelligence might be a step risk: there would be a certain risk associated with the takeoff, the magnitude of which would depend on what preparations had been made; but the amount of risk might not depend much on whether the takeoff takes twenty milliseconds or twenty hours. We can then say the following regarding a hypothetical macro-structural development accelerator: Insofar as we are concerned with existential state risks, we should favor accelerationprovided we think we have a realistic prospect of making it through to a post-transition era in which any further existential risks are greatly reduced. If it were known that there is some step ahead destined to cause an existential catastrophe, then we ought to reduce the rate of macro-structural development (or even put it in reverse) in order to give more generations a chance to exist before the curtain is rung down. But, in fact, it would be overly pessimistic to be so confident that humanity is doomed. At present, the level of existential state risk appears to be relatively low. If we imagine the technological macro-conditions for humanity frozen in their current state, it seems very unlikely that an existential catastrophe would occur on a timescale of, say, a decade. So a delay of one decadeprovided it occurred at our current stage of development or at some other time when state risk is low would incur only a very minor existential state risk, whereas a postponement by one decade of subsequent technological developments might well have a significant beneficial impact on later existential step risks, for example by allowing more time for preparation. Upshot: the main way that the speed of macro-structural development is important is by affecting how well prepared humanity is when the time comes to confront the key step risks. 8 So the question we must ask is how cognitive enhancement (and concomitant acceleration of macro-structural development) would affect the expected level of preparedness at the critical juncture. Should we prefer a shorter period of preparation with higher intelligence? With higher intelligence, the preparation time could be used more effectively, and the final critical step would be taken by a more intelligent humanity. Or should we prefer to operate with closer to current levels of intelligence if that gives us more time to prepare? Which option is better depends on the nature of the challenge being prepared for. If the challenge were to solve a problem for which learning from experience is key, then the chronological length of the preparation period might be the determining factor, since time is needed for the requisite experience to accumulate. What would such a challenge look like? One hypothetical example would be a new weapons technology that we could predict would be developed at some point in the future and that would make it the case that any subsequent war would have, let us say, a one-in-ten chance of causing an existential catastrophe. If such were the nature of the challenge facing us, then we might wish the rate of macro-structural development to be slow, so that our species would have more time to get its act together before the critical step when the new weapons technology is invented. One could hope that during the grace period secured through the deceleration, our species might learn to avoid war that international relations around the globe might come to resemble those between the countries of the European Union, which, having fought one another ferociously for centuries, now coexist in peace and relative harmony. The pacification might occur as a result of the gentle edification from various civilizing processes or through the shock therapy of sub-existential blows (e.g. small nuclear conflagrations, and the recoil and resolve they might engender to finally create the global institutions necessary for the abolishment of interstate wars). If this kind of learning or adjusting would not be much accelerated by increased intelligence, then cognitive enhancement would be undesirable, serving merely to burn the fuse faster. A prospective intelligence explosion, however, may present a challenge of a different kind. The control problem calls for foresight, reasoning, and theoretical insight. It is less clear how increased historical experience would help. Direct experience of the intelligence explosion is not possible (until too late), and many features conspire to make the control problem unique and lacking in relevant historical precedent. For these reasons, the amount of time that will elapse before the intelligence explosion may not matter much per se. Perhaps what matters, instead, is (a) the amount of intellectual progress on the control problem achieved by the time of the detonation; and (b) the amount of skill and intelligence available at the time to implement the best available solutions (and to improvise what is missing). 9 That this latter factor should respond positively to cognitive enhancement is obvious. How cognitive enhancement would affect factor (a) is a somewhat subtler matter. Suppose, as suggested earlier, that cognitive enhancement would be a general macro-structural development accelerator. This would hasten the arrival of the intelligence explosion, thus reducing the amount of time available for preparation and for making progress on the control problem. Normally this would be a bad thing. However, if the only reason why there is less time available for intellectual progress is that intellectual progress is speeded up, then there need be no net reduction in the amount of intellectual progress that will have taken place by the time the intelligence explosion occurs. At this point, cognitive enhancement might appear to be neutral with respect to factor (a): the same intellectual progress that would otherwise have been made prior to the intelligence explosionincluding progress on the control problem still gets made, only compressed within a shorter time interval. In actuality, however, cognitive enhancement may well prove a positive influence on (a). One reason why cognitive enhancement might cause more progress to have been made on the control problem by the time the intelligence explosion occurs is that progress on the control problem may be especially contingent on extreme levels of intellectual performanceeven more so than the kind of work necessary to create machine intelligence. The role for trial and error and accumulation of experimental results seems quite limited in relation to the control problem, whereas experimental learning will probably play a large role in the development of artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation. The extent to which time can substitute for wit may therefore vary between tasks in a way that should make cognitive enhancement promote progress on the control problem more than it would promote progress on the problem of how to create machine intelligence. Another reason why cognitive enhancement should differentially promote progress on the control problem is that the very need for such progress is more likely to be appreciated by cognitively more capable societies and individuals. It requires foresight and reasoning to realize why the control problem is important and to make it a priority. 10 It may also require uncommon sagacity to find promising ways of approaching such an unfamiliar problem. From these reflections we might tentatively conclude that cognitive enhancement is desirable, at least insofar as the focus is on the existential risks of an intelligence explosion. Parallel lines of thinking apply to other existential risks arising from challenges that require foresight and reliable abstract reasoning (as opposed to, e.g., incremental adaptation to experienced changes in the environment or a multigenerational process of cultural maturation and institution-building). Technology couplings Suppose that one thinks that solving the control problem for artificial intelligence is very difficult, that solving it for whole brain emulations is much easier, and that it would therefore be preferable that machine intelligence be reached via the whole brain emulation path. We will return later to the question of whether whole brain emulation would be safer than artificial intelligence. But for now we want to make the point that even if we accept this premiss, it would not follow that we ought to promote whole brain emulation technology. One reason, discussed earlier, is that a later arrival of superintelligence may be preferable, in order to allow more time for progress on the control problem and for other favorable background trends to culminateand thus, if one were confident that whole brain emulation would precede AI anyway, it would be counterproductive to further hasten the arrival of whole brain emulation. But even if it were the case that it would be best for whole brain emulation to arrive as soon as possible, it still would not follow that we ought to favor progress toward whole brain emulation. For it is possible that progress toward whole brain emulation will not yield whole brain emulation. It may instead yield neuromorphic artificial intelligenceforms of AI that mimic some aspects of cortical organization but do not replicate neuronal functionality with sufficient fidelity to constitute a proper emulation. Ifas there is reason to believesuch neuromorphic AI is worse than the kind of AI that would otherwise have been built, and if by promoting whole brain emulation we would make neuromorphic AI arrive first, then our pursuit of the supposed best outcome (whole brain emulation) would lead to the worst outcome (neuromorphic AI); whereas if we had pursued the second-best outcome (synthetic AI) we might actually have attained the second-best (synthetic AI). We have just described an (hypothetical) instance of what we might term a technology coupling. 11 This refers to a condition in which two technologies have a predictable timing relationship, such that developing one of the technologies has a robust tendency to lead to the development of the other, either as a necessary precursor or as an obvious and irresistible application or subsequent step. Technology couplings must be taken into account when we use the principle of differential technological development: it is no good accelerating the development of a desirable technology Y if the only way of getting Y is by developing an extremely undesirable precursor technology X , or if getting Y would immediately produce an extremely undesirable related technology Z . Before you marry your sweetheart, consider the prospective in-laws. In the case of whole brain emulation, the degree of technology coupling is debatable. We noted in Chapter 2 that while whole brain emulation would require massive progress in various enabling technologies, it might not require any major new theoretical insight. In particular, it does not require that we understand how human cognition works, only that we know how to build computational models of small parts of the brain, such as different species of neuron. Nevertheless, in the course of developing the ability to emulate human brains, a wealth of neuroanatomical data would be collected, and functional models of cortical networks would surely be greatly improved. Such progress would seem to have a good chance of enabling neuromorphic AI before full- blown whole brain emulation. 12 Historically, there are quite a few examples of AI techniques gleaned from neuroscience or biology. (For example: the McCullochPitts neuron, perceptrons, and other artificial neurons and neural networks, inspired by neuroanatomical work; reinforcement learning, inspired by behaviorist psychology; genetic algorithms, inspired by evolution theory; subsumption architectures and perceptual hierarchies, inspired by cognitive science theories about motor planning and sensory perception; artificial immune systems, inspired by theoretical immunology; swarm intelligence, inspired by the ecology of insect colonies and other self-organizing systems; and reactive and behavior-based control in robotics, inspired by the study of animal locomotion.) Perhaps more significantly, there are plenty of important AI- relevant questions that could potentially be answered through further study of the brain. (For example: How does the brain store structured representations in working memory and long-term memory? How is the binding problem solved? What is the neural code? How are concepts represented? Is there some standard unit of cortical processing machinery, such as the cortical column, and if so how is it wired and how does its functionality depend on the wiring? How can such columns be linked up, and how can they learn?) We will shortly have more to say about the relative danger of whole brain emulation, neuromorphic AI, and synthetic AI, but we can already flag another important technology coupling: that between whole brain emulation and AI. Even if a push toward whole brain emulation actually resulted in whole brain emulation (as opposed to neuromorphic AI), and even if the arrival of whole brain emulation could be safely handled, a further risk would still remain: the risk associated with a second transition , a transition from whole brain emulation to AI, which is an ultimately more powerful form of machine intelligence. There are many other technology couplings, which could be considered in a more comprehensive analysis. For instance, a push toward whole brain emulation would boost neuroscience progress more generally. 13 That might produce various effects, such as faster progress toward lie detection, neuropsychological manipulation techniques, cognitive enhancement, and assorted medical advances. Likewise, a push toward cognitive enhancement might (depending on the specific path pursued) create spillovers such as faster development of genetic selection and genetic engineering methods not only for enhancing cognition but for modifying other traits as well. Second-guessing We encounter another layer of strategic complexity if we take into account that there is no perfectly benevolent, rational, and unified world controller who simply implements what has been discovered to be the best option. Any abstract point about what should be done must be embodied in the form of a concrete message, which is entered into the arena of rhetorical and political reality. There it will be ignored, misunderstood, distorted, or appropriated for various conflicting purposes; it will bounce around like a pinball, causing actions and reactions, ushering in a cascade of consequences, the upshot of which need bear no straightforward relationship to the intentions of the original sender. A sophisticated operator might try to anticipate these kinds of effect. Consider, for example, the following argument template for proceeding with research to develop a dangerous technology X . (One argument fitting this template can be found in the writings of Eric Drexler. In Drexlers case, X = molecular nanotechnology. 14 ) The risks of X are great. Reducing these risks will require a period of serious preparation. Serious preparation will begin only once the prospect of X is taken seriously by broad sectors of society. Broad sectors of society will take the prospect of X seriously only once a large research effort to develop X is underway. The earlier a serious research effort is initiated, the longer it will take to deliver X (because it starts from a lower level of pre-existing enabling technologies). Therefore, the earlier a serious research effort is initiated, the longer the period during which serious preparation will be taking place, and the greater the reduction of the risks. Therefore, a serious research effort toward X should be initiated immediately. What initially looks like a reason for going slow or stoppingthe risks of X being greatends up, on this line of thinking, as a reason for the opposite conclusion. A related type of argument is that we oughtrather callouslyto welcome small and medium-scale catastrophes on grounds that they make us aware of our vulnerabilities and spur us into taking precautions that reduce the probability of an existential catastrophe. The idea is that a small or medium-scale catastrophe acts like an inoculation, challenging civilization with a relatively survivable form of a threat and stimulating an immune response that readies the world to deal with the existential variety of the threat. 15 These shockem-into-reacting arguments advocate letting something bad happen in the hope that it will galvanize a public reaction. We mention them here not to endorse them, but as a way to introduce the idea of (what we will term) second-guessing arguments. Such arguments maintain that by treating others as irrational and playing to their biases and misconceptions it is possible to elicit a response from them that is more competent than if a case had been presented honestly and forthrightly to their rational faculties. It may seem unfeasibly difficult to use the kind of stratagems recommended by second-guessing arguments to achieve long-term global goals. How could anybody predict the final course of a message after it has been jolted hither and thither in the pinball machine of public discourse? Doing so would seem to require predicting the rhetorical effects on myriad constituents with varied idiosyncrasies and fluctuating levels of influence over long periods of time during which the system may be perturbed by unanticipated events from the outside while its topology is also undergoing a continuous endogenous reorganization: surely an impossible task! 16 However, it may not be necessary to make detailed predictions about the systems entire future trajectory in order to identify an intervention that can be reasonably expected to increase the chances of a certain long-term outcome. One might, for example, consider only the relatively near-term and predictable effects in a detailed way, selecting an action that does well in regard to those, while modeling the systems behavior beyond the predictability horizon as a random walk. There may, however, be a moral case for de-emphasizing or refraining from second-guessing moves. Trying to outwit one another looks like a zero-sum gameor negative-sum, when one considers the time and energy that would be dissipated by the practice as well as the likelihood that it would make it generally harder for anybody to discover what others truly think and to be trusted when expressing their own opinions. 17 A full-throttled deployment of the practices of strategic communication would kill candor and leave truth bereft to fend for herself in the backstabbing night of political bogeys. Pathways and enablers Should we celebrate advances in computer hardware? What about advances on the path toward whole brain emulation? We will look at these two questions in turn. Effects of hardware progress Faster computers make it easier to create machine intelligence. One effect of accelerating progress in hardware, therefore, is to hasten the arrival of machine intelligence. As discussed earlier, this is probably a bad thing from the impersonal perspective, since it reduces the amount of time available for solving the control problem and for humanity to reach a more mature stage of civilization. The case is not a slam dunk, though. Since superintelligence would eliminate many other existential risks, there could be reason to prefer earlier development if the level of these other existential risks were very high. 18 Hastening or delaying the onset of the intelligence explosion is not the only channel through which the rate of hardware progress can affect existential risk. Another channel is that hardware can to some extent substitute for software; thus, better hardware reduces the minimum skill required to code a seed AI. Fast computers might also encourage the use of approaches that rely more heavily on brute-force techniques (such as genetic algorithms and other generate-evaluate- discard methods) and less on techniques that require deep understanding to use. If brute-force techniques lend themselves to more anarchic or imprecise system designs, where the control problem is harder to solve than in more precisely engineered and theoretically controlled systems, this would be another way in which faster computers would increase the existential risk. Another consideration is that rapid hardware progress increases the likelihood of a fast takeoff. The more rapidly the state of the art advances in the semiconductor industry, the fewer the person-hours of programmers time spent exploiting the capabilities of computers at any given performance level. This means that an intelligence explosion is less likely to be initiated at the lowest level of hardware performance at which it is feasible. An intelligence explosion is thus more likely to be initiated when hardware has advanced significantly beyond the minimum level at which the eventually successful programming approach could first have succeeded. There is then a hardware overhang when the takeoff eventually does occur. As we saw in Chapter 4 , hardware overhang is one of the main factors that reduce recalcitrance during the takeoff. Rapid hardware progress, therefore, will tend to make the transition to superintelligence faster and more explosive. A faster takeoff via a hardware overhang can affect the risks of the transition in several ways. The most obvious is that a faster takeoff offers less opportunity to respond and make adjustments whilst the transition is in progress, which would tend to increase risk. A related consideration is that a hardware overhang would reduce the chances that a dangerously self-improving seed AI could be contained by limiting its ability to colonize sufficient hardware: the faster each processor is, the fewer processors would be needed for the AI to quickly bootstrap itself to superintelligence. Yet another effect of a hardware overhang is to level the playing field between big and small projects by reducing the importance of one of the advantages of larger projectsthe ability to afford more powerful computers. This effect, too, might increase existential risk, if larger projects are more likely to solve the control problem and to be pursuing morally acceptable objectives. 19 There are also advantages to a faster takeoff. A faster takeoff would increase the likelihood that a singleton will form. If establishing a singleton is sufficiently important for solving the post-transition coordination problems, it might be worth accepting a greater risk during the intelligence explosion in order to mitigate the risk of catastrophic coordination failures in its aftermath. Developments in computing can affect the outcome of a machine intelligence revolution not only by playing a direct role in the construction of machine intelligence but also by having diffuse effects on society that indirectly help shape the initial conditions of the intelligence explosion. The Internet, which required hardware to be good enough to enable personal computers to be mass produced at low cost, is now influencing human activity in many areas, including work in artificial intelligence and research on the control problem. (This book might not have been written, and you might not have found it, without the Internet.) However, hardware is already good enough for a great many applications that could facilitate human communication and deliberation, and it is not clear that the pace of progress in these areas is strongly bottlenecked by the rate of hardware improvement. 20 On balance, it appears that faster progress in computing hardware is undesirable from the impersonal evaluative standpoint. This tentative conclusion could be overturned, for example if the threats from other existential risks or from post-transition coordination failures turn out to be extremely large. In any case, it seems difficult to have much leverage on the rate of hardware advancement. Our efforts to improve the initial conditions for the intelligence explosion should therefore probably focus on other parameters. Note that even when we cannot see how to influence some parameter, it can be useful to determine its sign (i.e. whether an increase or decrease in that parameter would be desirable) as a preliminary step in mapping the strategic lay of the land. We might later discover a new leverage point that does enable us to manipulate the parameter more easily. Or we might discover that the parameters sign correlates with the sign of some other more manipulable parameter, so that our initial analysis helps us decide what to do with this other parameter. Should whole brain emulation research be promoted? The harder it seems to solve the control problem for artificial intelligence, the more tempting it is to promote the whole brain emulation path as a less risky alternative. There are several issues, however, that must be analyzed before one can arrive at a well-considered judgment. 21 First, there is the issue of technology coupling, already discussed earlier. We pointed out that an effort to develop whole brain emulation could result in neuromorphic AI instead, a form of machine intelligence that may be especially unsafe. But let us assume, for the sake of argument, that we actually achieve whole brain emulation (WBE). Would this be safer than AI? This, itself, is a complicated issue. There are at least three putative advantages of WBE: (i) that its performance characteristics would be better understood than those of AI; (ii) that it would inherit human motives; and (iii) that it would result in a slower takeoff. Let us very briefly reflect on each. i That it should be easier to understand the intellectual performance characteristics of an emulation than of an AI sounds plausible. We have abundant experience with the strengths and weaknesses of human intelligence but no experience with human-level artificial intelligence. However, to understand what a snapshot of a digitized human intellect can and cannot do is not the same as to understand how such an intellect will respond to modifications aimed at enhancing its performance. An artificial intellect, by contrast, might be carefully designed to be understandable, in both its static and dynamic dispositions. So while whole brain emulation may be more predictable in its intellectual performance than a generic AI at a comparable stage of development, it is unclear whether whole brain emulation would be dynamically more predictable than an AI engineered by competent safety-conscious programmers. ii As for an emulation inheriting the motivations of its human template, this is far from guaranteed. Capturing human evaluative dispositions might require a very high-fidelity emulation. Even if some individuals motivations were perfectly captured, it is unclear how much safety would be purchased. Humans can be untrustworthy, selfish, and cruel. While templates would hopefully be selected for exceptional virtue, it may be hard to foretell how someone will act when transplanted into radically alien circumstances, superhumanly enhanced in intelligence, and tempted with an opportunity for world domination. It is true that emulations would at least be more likely to have human-like motivations (as opposed to valuing only paperclips or discovering digits of pi). Depending on ones views on human nature, this might or might not be reassuring. 22 iii It is not clear why whole brain emulation should result in a slower takeoff than artificial intelligence. Perhaps with whole brain emulation one should expect less hardware overhang, since whole brain emulation is less computationally efficient than artificial intelligence can be. Perhaps, also, an AI system could more easily absorb all available computing power into one giant integrated intellect, whereas whole brain emulation would forego quality superintelligence and pull ahead of humanity only in speed and size of population. If whole brain emulation does lead to a slower takeoff, this could have benefits in terms of alleviating the control problem. A slower takeoff would also make a multipolar outcome more likely. But whether a multipolar outcome is desirable is very doubtful. There is another important complication with the general idea that getting whole brain emulation first is safer: the need to cope with a second transition . Even if the first form of human-level machine intelligence is emulation-based, it would still remain feasible to develop artificial intelligence. AI in its mature form has important advantages over WBE, making AI the ultimately more powerful technology. 23 While mature AI would render WBE obsolete (except for the special purpose of preserving individual human minds), the reverse does not hold. What this means is that if AI is developed first, there might be a single wave of the intelligence explosion. But if WBE is developed first, there may be two waves: first, the arrival of WBE; and later, the arrival of AI. The total existential risk along the WBE-first path is the sum of the risk in the first transition and the risk in the second transition (conditional on having made it through the first); see Figure 13 . 24 How much safer would the AI transition be in a WBE world? One consideration is that the AI transition would be less explosive if it occurs after some form of machine intelligence has already been realized. Emulations, running at digital speeds and in numbers that might far exceed the biological human population, would reduce the cognitive differential, making it easier for emulations to control the AI. This consideration is not too weighty, since the gap between AI and WBE could still be wide. However, if the emulations were not just faster and more numerous but also somewhat qualitatively smarter than biological humans (or at least drawn from the top end of the human distribution) then the WBE-first scenario would have advantages paralleling those of human cognitive enhancement, which we discussed above. Figure 13 Artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation first? In an AI-first scenario, there is one transition that creates an existential risk. In a WBE-first scenario, there are two risky transitions, first the development of WBE and then the development of AI. The total existential risk along the WBE-first scenario is the sum of these. However, the risk of an AI transition might be lower if it occurs in a world where WBE has already been successfully introduced. Another consideration is that the transition to WBE would extend the lead of the frontrunner. Consider a scenario in which the frontrunner has a six-month lead over the closest follower in developing whole brain emulation technology. Suppose that the first emulations to be created are cooperative, safety-focused, and patient. If they run on fast hardware, these emulations could spend subjective eons pondering how to create safe AI. For example, if they run at a speedup of 100,000 and are able to work on the control problem undisturbed for six months of sidereal time, they could hammer away at the control problem for fifty millennia before facing competition from other emulations. Given sufficient hardware, they could hasten their progress by fanning out myriad copies to work independently on subproblems. If the frontrunner uses its six- month lead to form a singleton, it could buy its emulation AI-development team an unlimited amount of time to work on the control problem. 25 On balance, it looks like the risk of the AI transition would be reduced if WBE comes before AI. However, when we combine the residual risk in the AI transition with the risk of an antecedent WBE transition, it becomes very unclear how the total existential risk along the WBE-first path stacks up against the risk along the AI-first path. Only if one is quite pessimistic about biological humanitys ability to manage an AI transitionafter taking into account that human nature or civilization might have improved by the time we confront this challengeshould the WBE-first path seem attractive. To figure out whether whole brain emulation technology should be promoted, there are some further important points to place in the balance. Most significantly, there is the technology coupling mentioned earlier: a push toward WBE could instead produce neuromorphic AI. This is a reason against pushing for WBE. 26 No doubt, there are some synthetic AI designs that are less safe than some neuromorphic designs. In expectation, however, it seems that neuromorphic designs are less safe. One ground for this is that imitation can substitute for understanding. To build something from the ground up one must usually have a reasonably good understanding of how the system will work. Such understanding may not be necessary to merely copy features of an existing system. Whole brain emulation relies on wholesale copying of biology, which may not require a comprehensive computational systems-level understanding of cognition (though a large amount of component-level understanding would undoubtedly be needed). Neuromorphic AI may be like whole brain emulation in this regard: it would be achieved by cobbling together pieces plagiarized from biology without the engineers necessarily having a deep mathematical understanding of how the system works. But neuromorphic AI would be unlike whole brain emulation in another regard: it would not have human motivations by default. 27 This consideration argues against pursuing the whole brain emulation approach to the extent that it would likely produce neuromorphic AI. A second point to put in the balance is that WBE is more likely to give us advance notice of its arrival. With AI it is always possible that somebody will make an unexpected conceptual breakthrough. WBE, by contrast, will require many laborious precursor stepshigh-throughput scanning facilities, image processing software, detailed neural modeling work. We can therefore be confident that WBE is not imminent (not less than, say, fifteen or twenty years away). This means that efforts to accelerate WBE will make a difference mainly in scenarios in which machine intelligence is developed comparatively late. This could make WBE investments attractive to somebody who wants the intelligence explosion to preempt other existential risks but is wary of supporting AI for fear of triggering an intelligence explosion prematurely, before the control problem has been solved. However, the uncertainty over the relevant timescales is probably currently too large to enable this consideration to carry much weight. 28 A strategy of promoting WBE is thus most attractive if (a) one is very pessimistic about humans solving the control problem for AI, (b) one is not too worried about neuromorphic AI, multipolar outcomes, or the risks of a second transition, (c) one thinks that the default timing of WBE and AI is close, and (d) one prefers superintelligence to be developed neither very late nor very early. The person-affecting perspective favors speed I fear the blog commenter washbash may speak for many when he or she writes: I instinctively think go faster. Not because I think this is better for the world. Why should I care about the world when I am dead and gone? I want it to go fast, damn it! This increases the chance I have of experiencing a more technologically advanced future. 29 From the person-affecting standpoint, we have greater reason to rush forward with all manner of radical technologies that could pose existential risks. This is because the default outcome is that almost everyone who now exists is dead within a century. The case for rushing is especially strong with regard to technologies that could extend our lives and thereby increase the expected fraction of the currently existing population that may still be around for the intelligence explosion. If the machine intelligence revolution goes well, the resulting superintelligence could almost certainly devise means to indefinitely prolong the lives of the then still- existing humans, not only keeping them alive but restoring them to health and youthful vigor, and enhancing their capacities well beyond what we currently think of as the human range; or helping them shuffle off their mortal coils altogether by uploading their minds to a digital substrate and endowing their liberated spirits with exquisitely good-feeling virtual embodiments. With regard to technologies that do not promise to save lives, the case for rushing is weaker, though perhaps still sufficiently supported by the hope of raised standards of living. 30 The same line of reasoning makes the person-affecting perspective favor many risky technological innovations that promise to hasten the onset of the intelligence explosion, even when those innovations are disfavored in the impersonal perspective. Such innovations could shorten the wolf hours during which we individually must hang on to our perch if we are to live to see the daybreak of the posthuman age. From the person-affecting standpoint, faster hardware progress thus seems desirable, as does faster progress toward WBE. Any adverse effect on existential risk is probably outweighed by the personal benefit of an increased chance of the intelligence explosion happening in the lifetime of currently existing people. 31 Collaboration One important parameter is the degree to which the world will manage to coordinate and collaborate in the development of machine intelligence. Collaboration would bring many benefits. Let us take a look at how this parameter might affect the outcome and what levers we might have for increasing the extent and intensity of collaboration. The race dynamic and its perils A race dynamic exists when one project fears being overtaken by another. This does not require the actual existence of multiple projects. A situation with only one project could exhibit a race dynamic if that project is unaware of its lack of competitors. The Allies would probably not have developed the atomic bomb as quickly as they did had they not believed (erroneously) that the Germans might be close to the same goal. The severity of a race dynamic (that is, the extent to which competitors prioritize speed over safety) depends on several factors, such as the closeness of the race, the relative importance of capability and luck, the number of competitors, whether competing teams are pursuing different approaches, and the degree to which projects share the same aims. Competitors beliefs about these factors are also relevant. (See Box 13 .) In the development of machine superintelligence, it seems likely that there will be at least a mild race dynamic, and it is possible that there will be a severe race dynamic. The race dynamic has important consequences for how we should think about the strategic challenge posed by the possibility of an intelligence explosion. The race dynamic could spur projects to move faster toward superintelligence while reducing investment in solving the control problem. Additional detrimental effects of the race dynamic are also possible, such as direct hostilities between competitors. Suppose that two nations are racing to develop the first superintelligence, and that one of them is seen to be pulling ahead. In a winner-takes-all situation, a lagging project might be tempted to launch a desperate strike against its rival rather than passively await defeat. Anticipating this possibility, the frontrunner might be tempted to strike preemptively. If the antagonists are powerful states, the clash could be bloody. 34 (A surgical strike against the rivals AI project might risk triggering a larger confrontation and might in any case not be feasible if the host country has taken precautions. 35 ) Box 13 A risk-race to the bottom Consider a hypothetical AI arms race in which several teams compete to develop superintelligence. 32 Each team decides how much to invest in safetyknowing that resources spent on developing safety precautions are resources not spent on developing the AI. Absent a deal between all the competitors (which might be stymied by bargaining or enforcement difficulties), there might then be a risk- race to the bottom, driving each team to take only a minimum of precautions. One can model each teams performance as a function of its capability (measuring its raw ability and luck) and a penalty term corresponding to the cost of its safety precautions. The team with the highest performance builds the first AI. The riskiness of that AI is determined by how much its creators invested in safety. In the worst-case scenario, all teams have equal levels of capability. The winner is then determined exclusively by investment in safety: the team that took the fewest safety precautions wins. The Nash equilibrium for this game is for every team to spend nothing on safety. In the real world, such a situation might arise via a risk ratchet : some team, fearful of falling behind, increments its risk- taking to catch up with its competitorswho respond in kind, until the maximum level of risk is reached. Capability versus risk The situation changes when there are variations in capability. As variations in capability become more important relative to the cost of safety precautions, the risk ratchet weakens: there is less incentive to incur an extra bit of risk if doing so is unlikely to change the order of the race. This is illustrated under various scenarios in Figure 14 , which plots how the riskiness of the AI depends on the importance of capability. Safety investment ranges from 1 (resulting in perfectly safe AI) to 0 (completely unsafe AI). The x -axis represents the relative importance of capability versus safety investment in determining the speed of a teams progress toward AI. (At 0.5, the safety investment level is twice are important as capability; at 1, the two are equal; at 2, capability is twice as important as safety level; and so forth.) The y -axis represents the level of AI risk (the expected fraction of their maximum utility that the winner of the race gets). Figure 14 Risk levels in AI technology races. Levels of risk of dangerous AI in a simple model of a technology race involving either (a) two teams or (b) five teams, plotted against the relative importance of capability (as opposed to investment in safety) in determining which project wins the race. The graphs show three information-level scenarios: no capability information (straight), private capability information (dashed), and full capability information (dotted). We see that, under all scenarios, the dangerousness of the resultant AI is maximal when capability plays no role, gradually decreasing as capability grows in importance. Compatible goals Another way of reducing the risk is by giving teams more of a stake in each others success. If competitors are convinced that coming second means the total loss of everything they care about, they will take whatever risk necessary to bypass their rivals. Conversely, teams will invest more in safety if less depends on winning the race. This suggests that we should encourage various forms of cross-investment. The number of competitors The greater the number of competing teams, the more dangerous the race becomes: each team, having less chance of coming first, is more willing to throw caution to the wind. This can be seen by contrasting Figure 14 a (two teams) with Figure 14 b (five teams). In every scenario, more competitors means more risk. Risk would be reduced if teams coalesce into a smaller number of competing coalitions. The curse of too much information Is it good if teams know about their positions in the race (knowing their capability scores, for instance)? Here, opposing factors are at play. It is desirable that a leader knows it is leading (so that it knows it has some margin for additional safety precautions). Yet it is undesirable that a laggard knows it has fallen behind (since this would confirm that it must cut back on safety to have any hope of catching up). While intuitively it may seem this trade-off could go either way, the models are unequivocal: information is (in expectation) bad. 33 Figures 14 a and 14 b each plot three scenarios: the straight lines correspond to situations in which no team knows any of the capability scores, its own included. The dashed lines show situations where each team knows its own capability only. (In those situations, a team takes extra risk only if its capability is low.) And the dotted lines show what happens when all teams know each others capabilities. (They take extra risks if their capability scores are close to one another.) With each increase in information level, the race dynamic becomes worse. Scenarios in which the rival developers are not states but smaller entities, such as corporate labs or academic teams, would probably feature much less direct destruction from conflict. Yet the overall consequences of competition may be almost as bad. This is because the main part of the expected harm from competition stems not from the smashup of battle but from the downgrade of precaution. A race dynamic would, as we saw, reduce investment in safety; and conflict, even if nonviolent, would tend to scotch opportunities for collaboration, since projects would be less likely to share ideas for solving the control problem in a climate of hostility and mistrust. 36 On the benefits of collaboration Collaboration thus offers many benefits. It reduces the haste in developing machine intelligence. It allows for greater investment in safety. It avoids violent conflicts. And it facilitates the sharing of ideas about how to solve the control problem. To these benefits we can add another: collaboration would tend to produce outcomes in which the fruits of a successfully controlled intelligence explosion get distributed more equitably. That broader collaboration should result in wider sharing of gains is not axiomatic. In principle, a small project run by an altruist could lead to an outcome where the benefits are shared evenly or equitably among all morally considerable beings. Nevertheless, there are several reasons to suppose that broader collaborations, involving a greater number of sponsors, are (in expectation) distributionally superior. One such reason is that sponsors presumably prefer an outcome in which they themselves get (at least) their fair share. A broad collaboration then means that relatively many individuals get at least their fair share, assuming the project is successful. Another reason is that a broad collaboration also seems likelier to benefit people outside the collaboration. A broader collaboration contains more members, so more outsiders would have personal ties to somebody on the inside looking out for their interests. A broader collaboration is also more likely to include at least some altruist who wants to benefit everyone. Furthermore, a broader collaboration is more likely to operate under public oversight, which might reduce the risk of the entire pie being captured by a clique of programmers or private investors. 37 Note also that the larger the successful collaboration is, the lower the costs to it of extending the benefits to all outsiders. (For instance, if 90% of all people were already inside the collaboration, it would cost them no more than 10% of their holdings to bring all outsiders up to their own level.) It is thus plausible that broader collaborations would tend to lead to a wider distribution of the gains (though some projects with few sponsors might also have distributionally excellent aims). But why is a wide distribution of gains desirable? There are both moral and prudential reasons for favoring outcomes in which everybody gets a share of the bounty. We will not say much about the moral case, except to note that it need not rest on any egalitarian principle. The case might be made, for example, on grounds of fairness. A project that creates machine superintelligence imposes a global risk externality. Everybody on the planet is placed in jeopardy, including those who do not consent to having their own lives and those of their family imperiled in this way. Since everybody shares the risk, it would seem to be a minimal requirement of fairness that everybody also gets a share of the upside. The fact that the total (expected) amount of good seems greater in collaboration scenarios is another important reason such scenarios are morally preferable. The prudential case for favoring a wide distribution of gains is two-pronged. One prong is that wide distribution should promote collaboration, thereby mitigating the negative consequences of the race dynamic. There is less incentive to fight over who gets to build the first superintelligence if everybody stands to benefit equally from any projects success. The sponsors of a particular project might also benefit from credibly signaling their commitment to distributing the spoils universally, a certifiably altruistic project being likely to attract more supporters and fewer enemies. 38 The other prong of the prudential case for favoring a wide distribution of gains has to do with whether agents are risk-averse or have utility functions that are sublinear in resources. The central fact here is the enormousness of the potential resource pie. Assuming the observable universe is as uninhabited as it looks, it contains more than one vacant galaxy for each human being alive. Most people would much rather have certain access to one galaxys worth of resources than a lottery ticket offering a one-in-a-billion chance of owning a billion galaxies. 39 Given the astronomical size of humanitys cosmic endowment, it seems that self-interest should generally favor deals that would guarantee each person a share, even if each share corresponded to a small fraction of the total. The important thing, when such an extravagant bonanza is in the offing, is to not be left out in the cold. This argument from the enormousness of the resource pie presupposes that preferences are resource-satiable. 40 That supposition does not necessarily hold. For instance, several prominent ethical theoriesincluding especially aggregative consequentialist theoriescorrespond to utility functions that are risk-neutral and linear in resources. A billion galaxies could be used to create a billion times more happy lives than a single galaxy. They are thus, to a utilitarian, worth a billion times as much. 41 Ordinary selfish human preference functions, however, appear to be relatively resource-satiable. This last statement must be flanked by two important qualifications. The first is that many people care about rank. If multiple agents each wants to top the Forbes rich list, then no resource pie is large enough to give everybody full satisfaction. The second qualification is that the post-transition technology base would enable material resources to be converted into an unprecedented range of products, including some goods that are not currently available at any price even though they are highly valued by many humans. A billionaire does not live a thousand times longer than a millionaire. In the era of digital minds, however, the billionaire could afford a thousandfold more computing power and could thus enjoy a thousandfold longer subjective lifespan. Mental capacity, likewise, could be for sale. In such circumstances, with economic capital convertible into vital goods at a constant rate even for great levels of wealth, unbounded greed would make more sense than it does in todays world where the affluent (those among them lacking a philanthropic heart) are reduced to spending their riches on airplanes, boats, art collections, or a fourth and a fifth residence. Does this mean that an egoist should be risk-neutral with respect to his or her post-transition resource endowment? Not quite. Physical resources may not be convertible into lifespan or mental performance at arbitrary scales. If a life must be lived sequentially, so that observer moments can remember earlier events and be affected by prior choices, then the life of a digital mind cannot be extended arbitrarily without utilizing an increasing number of sequential computational operations. But physics limits the extent to which resources can be transformed into sequential computations. 42 The limits on sequential computation may also constrain some aspects of cognitive performance to scale radically sublinearly beyond a relatively modest resource endowment. Furthermore, it is not obvious that an egoist would or should be risk-neutral even with regard to highly normatively relevant outcome metrics such as number of quality-adjusted subjective life years. If offered the choice between an extra 2,000 years of life for certain and a one-in-ten chance of an extra 30,000 years of life, I think most people would select the former (even under the stipulation that each life year would be of equal quality). 43 In reality, the prudential case for favoring a wide distribution of gains is presumably subject-relative and situation-dependent. Yet, on the whole, people would be more likely to get (almost all of) what they want if a way is found to achieve a wide distributionand this holds even before taking into account that a commitment to a wider distribution would tend to foster collaboration and thereby increase the chances of avoiding existential catastrophe. Favoring a broad distribution, therefore, appears to be not only morally mandated but also prudentially advisable. There is a further set of consequences to collaboration that should be given at least some shrift: the possibility that pre-transition collaboration influences the level of post-transition collaboration. Assume humanity solves the control problem. (If the control problem is not solved, it may scarcely matter how much collaboration there is post transition.) There are two cases to consider. The first is that the intelligence explosion does not create a winner-takes-all dynamic (presumably because the takeoff is relatively slow). In this case it is plausible that if pre-transition collaboration has any systematic effect on post-transition collaboration, it has a positive effect, tending to promote subsequent collaboration. The original collaborative relationships may endure and continue beyond the transition; also, pre-transition collaboration may offer more opportunity for people to steer developments in desirable (and, presumably, more collaborative) post-transition directions. The second case is that the nature of the intelligence explosion does encourage a winner-takes-all dynamic (presumably because the takeoff is relatively fast). In this case, if there is no extensive collaboration before the takeoff, a singleton is likely to emergea single project would undergo the transition alone, at some point obtaining a decisive strategic advantage combined with superintelligence. A singleton, by definition, is a highly collaborative social order. 44 The absence of extensive collaboration pre-transition would thus lead to an extreme degree of collaboration post-transition. By contrast, a somewhat higher level of collaboration in the run-up to the intelligence explosion opens up a wider variety of possible outcomes. Collaborating projects could synchronize their ascent to ensure they transition in tandem without any of them getting a decisive strategic advantage. Or different sponsor groups might merge their efforts into a single project, while refusing to give that project a mandate to form a singleton. For example, one could imagine a consortium of nations forming a joint scientific project to develop machine superintelligence, yet not authorizing this project to evolve into anything like a supercharged United Nations, electing instead to maintain the factious world order that existed before. Particularly in the case of a fast takeoff, therefore, the possibility exists that greater pre-transition collaboration would result in less post-transition collaboration. However, to the extent that collaborating entities are able to shape the outcome, they may allow the emergence or continuation of non-collaboration only if they foresee that no catastrophic consequences would follow from post- transition factiousness. Scenarios in which pre-transition collaboration leads to reduced post-transition collaboration may therefore mostly be ones in which reduced post-transition collaboration is innocuous. In general, greater post-transition collaboration appears desirable. It would reduce the risk of dystopian dynamics in which economic competition and a rapidly expanding population lead to a Malthusian condition, or in which evolutionary selection erodes human values and selects for non-eudaemonic forms, or in which rival powers suffer other coordination failures such as wars and technology races. The last of these issues, the prospect of technology races, may be particularly problematic if the transition is to an intermediary form of machine intelligence (whole brain emulation) since it would create a new race dynamic that would harm the chances of the control problem being solved for the subsequent second transition to a more advanced form of machine intelligence (artificial intelligence). We described earlier how collaboration can reduce conflict in the run-up to the intelligence explosion, increasing the chances that the control problem will be solved, and improve both the moral legitimacy and the prudential desirability of the resulting resource allocation. To these benefits of collaboration it may thus be possible to add one more: that broader collaboration pre-transition could help with important coordination problems in the post-transition era. Working together Collaboration can take different forms depending on the scale of the collaborating entities. At a small scale, individual AI teams who believe themselves to be in competition with one another could choose to pool their efforts. 45 Corporations could merge or cross-invest. At a larger scale, states could join in a big international project. There are precedents to large-scale international collaboration in science and technology (such as CERN, the Human Genome Project, and the International Space Station), but an international project to develop safe superintelligence would pose a different order of challenge because of the security implications of the work. It would have to be constituted not as an open academic collaboration but as an extremely tightly controlled joint enterprise. Perhaps the scientists involved would have to be physically isolated and prevented from communicating with the rest of the world for the duration of the project, except through a single carefully vetted communication channel. The required level of security might be nearly unattainable at present, but advances in lie detection and surveillance technology could make it feasible later this century. It is also worth bearing in mind that broad collaboration does not necessarily mean that large numbers of researchers would be involved in the project; it simply means that many people would have a say in the projects aims. In principle, a project could involve a maximally broad collaboration comprising all of humanity as sponsors (represented, let us say, by the General Assembly of the United Nations), yet employ only a single scientist to carry out the work. 46 There is a reason for starting collaboration as early as possible, namely to take advantage of the veil of ignorance that hides from our view any specific information about which individual project will get to superintelligence first. The closer to the finishing line we get, the less uncertainty will remain about the relative chances of competing projects; and the harder it may consequently be to make a case based on the self-interest of the frontrunner to join a collaborative project that would distribute the benefits to all of humanity. On the other hand, it also looks hard to establish a formal collaboration of worldwide scope before the prospect of superintelligence has become much more widely recognized than it currently is and before there is a clearly visible road leading to the creation of machine superintelligence. Moreover, to the extent that collaboration would promote progress along that road, it may actually be counterproductive in terms of safety, as discussed earlier. The ideal form of collaboration for the present may therefore be one that does not initially require specific formalized agreements and that does not expedite advances in machine intelligence. One proposal that fits these criteria is that we propound an appropriate moral norm, expressing our commitment to the idea that superintelligence should be for the common good. Such a norm could be formulated as follows: The common good principle Superintelligence should be developed only for the benefit of all of humanity and in the service of widely shared ethical ideals. 47 Establishing from an early stage that the immense potential of superintelligence belongs to all of humanity will give more time for such a norm to become entrenched. The common good principle does not preclude commercial incentives for individuals or firms active in related areas. For example, a firm might satisfy the call for universal sharing of the benefits of superintelligence by adopting a windfall clause to the effect that all profits up to some very high ceiling (say, a trillion dollars annually) would be distributed in the ordinary way to the firms shareholders and other legal claimants, and that only profits in excess of the threshold would be distributed to all of humanity evenly (or otherwise according to universal moral criteria). Adopting such a windfall clause should be substantially costless, any given firm being extremely unlikely ever to exceed the stratospheric profit threshold (and such low-probability scenarios ordinarily playing no role in the decisions of the firms managers and investors). Yet its widespread adoption would give humankind a valuable guarantee (insofar as the commitments could be trusted) that if ever some private enterprise were to hit the jackpot with the intelligence explosion, everybody would share in most of the benefits. The same idea could be applied to entities other than firms. For example, states could agree that if ever any one states GDP exceeds some very high fraction (say, 90%) of world GDP, the overshoot should be distributed evenly to all. 48 The common good principle (and particular instantiations, such as windfall clauses) could be adopted initially as a voluntary moral commitment by responsible individuals and organizations that are active in areas related to machine intelligence. Later, it could be endorsed by a wider set of entities and enacted into law and treaty. A vague formulation, such as the one given here, may serve well as a starting point; but it would ultimately need to be sharpened into a set of specific verifiable requirements. CHAPTER 15 Crunch time We find ourselves in a thicket of strategic complexity, surrounded by a dense mist of uncertainty. Though many considerations have been discerned, their details and interrelationships remain unclear and iffyand there might be other factors we have not even thought of yet. What are we to do in this predicament? Philosophy with a deadline A colleague of mine likes to point out that a Fields Medal (the highest honor in mathematics) indicates two things about the recipient: that he was capable of accomplishing something important, and that he didnt. Though harsh, the remark hints at a truth. Think of a discovery as an act that moves the arrival of information from a later point in time to an earlier time. The discoverys value does not equal the value of the information discovered but rather the value of having the information available earlier than it otherwise would have been. A scientist or a mathematician may show great skill by being the first to find a solution that has eluded many others; yet if the problem would soon have been solved anyway, then the work probably has not much benefited the world. There are cases in which having a solution even slightly sooner is immensely valuable, but this is most plausible when the solution is immediately put to use, either being deployed for some practical end or serving as a foundation to further theoretical work. And in the latter case, where a solution is immediately used only in the sense of serving as a building block for further theorizing, there is great value in obtaining a solution slightly sooner only if the further work it enables is itself both important and urgent. 1 The question, then, is not whether the result discovered by the Fields Medalist is in itself important (whether instrumentally or for knowledges own sake). Rather, the question is whether it was important that the medalist enabled the publication of the result to occur at an earlier date. The value of this temporal transport should be compared to the value that a world-class mathematical mind could have generated by working on something else. At least in some cases, the Fields Medal might indicate a life spent solving the wrong problemfor instance, a problem whose allure consisted primarily in being famously difficult to solve. Similar barbs could be directed at other fields, such as academic philosophy. Philosophy covers some problems that are relevant to existential risk mitigation we encountered several in this book. Yet there are also subfields within philosophy that have no apparent link to existential risk or indeed any practical concern. As with pure mathematics, some of the problems that philosophy studies might be regarded as intrinsically important, in the sense that humans have reason to care about them independently of any practical application. The fundamental nature of reality, for instance, might be worth knowing about, for its own sake. The world would arguably be less glorious if nobody studied metaphysics, cosmology, or string theory. However, the dawning prospect of an intelligence explosion shines a new light on this ancient quest for wisdom. The outlook now suggests that philosophic progress can be maximized via an indirect path rather than by immediate philosophizing. One of the many tasks on which superintelligence (or even just moderately enhanced human intelligence) would outperform the current cast of thinkers is in answering fundamental questions in science and philosophy. This reflection suggests a strategy of deferred gratification. We could postpone work on some of the eternal questions for a little while, delegating that task to our hopefully more competent successorsin order to focus our own attention on a more pressing challenge: increasing the chance that we will actually have competent successors. This would be high-impact philosophy and high-impact mathematics. 2 What is to be done? We thus want to focus on problems that are not only important but urgent in the sense that their solutions are needed prior to the intelligence explosion. We should also take heed not to work on problems that are negative-value (such that solving them is harmful). Some technical problems in the field of artificial intelligence, for instance, might be negative-value inasmuch as their solution would speed the development of machine intelligence without doing as much to expedite the development of control methods that could render the machine intelligence revolution survivable and beneficial. It can be hard to identify problems that are both urgent and important and are such that we can confidently take them to be positive-value. The strategic uncertainty surrounding existential risk mitigation means that we must worry that even well-intentioned interventions may turn out to be not only unproductive but counterproductive. To limit the risk of doing something actively harmful or morally wrong, we should prefer to work on problems that seem robustly positive-value (i.e., whose solution would make a positive contribution across a wide range of scenarios) and to employ means that are robustly justifiable (i.e., acceptable from a wide range of moral views). There is a further desideratum to consider in selecting which problems to prioritize. We want to work on problems that are elastic to our efforts at solving them. Highly elastic problems are those that can be solved much faster, or solved to a much greater extent, given one extra unit of effort. Encouraging more kindness in the world is an important and urgent problemone, moreover, that seems quite robustly positive-value: yet absent a breakthrough idea for how to go about it, probably a problem of quite low elasticity. Achieving world peace, similarly, would be highly desirable; but considering the numerous efforts already targeting that problem, and the formidable obstacles arrayed against a quick solution, it seems unlikely that the contributions of a few extra individuals would make a large difference. To reduce the risks of the machine intelligence revolution, we will propose two objectives that appear to best meet all those desiderata: strategic analysis and capacity-building. We can be relatively confident about the sign of these parametersmore strategic insight and more capacity being better. Furthermore, the parameters are elastic: a small extra investment can make a relatively large difference. Gaining insight and capacity is also urgent because early boosts to these parameters may compound, making subsequent efforts more effective. In addition to these two broad objectives, we will point to a few other potentially worthwhile aims for initiatives. Seeking the strategic light Against a backdrop of perplexity and uncertainty, analysis stands out as being of particularly high expected value. 3 Illumination of our strategic situation would help us target subsequent interventions more effectively. Strategic analysis is especially needful when we are radically uncertain not just about some detail of some peripheral matter but about the cardinal qualities of the central things. For many key parameters, we are radically uncertain even about their sign that is, we know not which direction of change would be desirable and which undesirable. Our ignorance might not be irremediable. The field has been little prospected, and glimmering strategic insights could still be awaiting their unearthing just a few feet beneath the surface. What we mean by strategic analysis here is a search for crucial considerations : ideas or arguments with the potential to change our views not merely about the fine-structure of implementation but about the general topology of desirability. 4 Even a single missed crucial consideration could vitiate our most valiant efforts or render them as actively harmful as those of a soldier who is fighting on the wrong side. The search for crucial considerations (which must explore normative as well as descriptive issues) will often require crisscrossing the boundaries between different academic disciplines and other fields of knowledge. As there is no established methodology for how to go about this kind of research, difficult original thinking is necessary. Building good capacity Another high-value activity, one that shares with strategic analysis the robustness property of being beneficial across a wide range of scenarios, is the development of a well-constituted support base that takes the future seriously. Such a base can immediately provide resources for research and analysis. If and when other priorities become visible, resources can be redirected accordingly. A support base is thus a general-purpose capability whose use can be guided by new insights as they emerge. One valuable asset would be a donor network comprising individuals devoted to rational philanthropy, informed about existential risk, and discerning about the means of mitigation. It is especially desirable that the early-day funders be astute and altruistic, because they may have opportunities to shape the fields culture before the usual venal interests take up position and entrench. The focus during these opening gambits should thus be to recruit the right kinds of people into the field. It could be worth foregoing some technical advances in the short term in order to fill the ranks with individuals who genuinely care about safety and who have a truth-seeking orientation (and who are likely to attract more of their own kind). One important variable is the quality of the social epistemology of the AI- field and its leading projects. Discovering crucial considerations is valuable, but only if it affects action. This cannot always be taken for granted. Imagine a project that invests millions of dollars and years of toil to develop a prototype AI, and that after surmounting many technical challenges the system is finally beginning to show real progress. There is a chance that with just a bit more work it could turn into something useful and profitable. Now a crucial consideration is discovered, indicating that a completely different approach would be a bit safer. Does the project kill itself off like a dishonored samurai, relinquishing its unsafe design and all the progress that had been made? Or does it react like a worried octopus, puffing out a cloud of motivated skepticism in the hope of eluding the attack? A project that would reliably choose the samurai option in such a dilemma would be a far preferable developer. 5 Yet building processes and institutions that are willing to commit seppuku based on uncertain allegations and speculative reasoning is not easy. Another dimension of social epistemology is the management of sensitive information, in particular the ability to avoid leaking information that ought be kept secret. (Information continence may be especially challenging for academic researchers, accustomed as they are to constantly disseminating their results on every available lamppost and tree.) Particular measures In addition to the general objectives of strategic light and good capacity, some more specific objectives could also present cost-effective opportunities for action. One such is progress on the technical challenges of machine intelligence safety. In pursing this objective, care should be taken to manage information hazards. Some work that would be useful for solving the control problem would also be useful for solving the competence problem. Work that burns down the AI fuse could easily be a net negative. Another specific objective is to promote best practices among AI researchers. Whatever progress has been made on the control problem needs to be disseminated. Some forms of computational experimentation, particularly if involving strong recursive self-improvement, may also require the use of capability control to mitigate the risk of an accidental takeoff. While the actual implementation of safety methods is not so relevant today, it will increasingly become so as the state of the art advances. And it is not too soon to call for practitioners to express a commitment to safety , including endorsing the common good principle and promising to ramp up safety if and when the prospect of machine superintelligence begins to look more imminent. Pious words are not sufficient and will not by themselves make a dangerous technology safe: but where the mouth goeth, the mind might gradually follow. Other opportunities may also occasionally arise to push on some pivotal parameter, for example to mitigate some other existential risk, or to promote biological cognitive enhancement and improvements of our collective wisdom, or even to shift world politics into a more harmonious register. Will the best in human nature please stand up Before the prospect of an intelligence explosion, we humans are like small children playing with a bomb. Such is the mismatch between the power of our plaything and the immaturity of our conduct. Superintelligence is a challenge for which we are not ready now and will not be ready for a long time. We have little idea when the detonation will occur, though if we hold the device to our ear we can hear a faint ticking sound. For a child with an undetonated bomb in its hands, a sensible thing to do would be to put it down gently, quickly back out of the room, and contact the nearest adult. Yet what we have here is not one child but many, each with access to an independent trigger mechanism. The chances that we will all find the sense to put down the dangerous stuff seem almost negligible. Some little idiot is bound to press the ignite button just to see what happens. Nor can we attain safety by running away, for the blast of an intelligence explosion would bring down the entire firmament. Nor is there a grown-up in sight. In this situation, any feeling of gee-wiz exhilaration would be out of place. Consternation and fear would be closer to the mark; but the most appropriate attitude may be a bitter determination to be as competent as we can, much as if we were preparing for a difficult exam that will either realize our dreams or obliterate them. This is not a prescription of fanaticism. The intelligence explosion might still be many decades off in the future. Moreover, the challenge we face is, in part, to hold on to our humanity: to maintain our groundedness, common sense, and good-humored decency even in the teeth of this most unnatural and inhuman problem. We need to bring all our human resourcefulness to bear on its solution. Yet let us not lose track of what is globally significant. Through the fog of everyday trivialities, we can perceiveif but dimlythe essential task of our age. In this book, we have attempted to discern a little more feature in what is otherwise still a relatively amorphous and negatively defined visionone that presents as our principal moral priority (at least from an impersonal and secular perspective) the reduction of existential risk and the attainment of a civilizational trajectory that leads to a compassionate and jubilant use of humanitys cosmic endowment. NOTES PRELIMS 1 . Not all endnotes contain useful information, however. 2 . I dont know which ones. CHAPTER 1: PAST DEVELOPMENTS AND PRESENT CAPABILITIES 1 . A subsistence-level income today is about $400 (Chen and Ravallion 2010). A million subsistence-level incomes is thus $400,000,000. The current world gross product is about $60,000,000,000,000 and in recent years has grown at an annual rate of about 4% (compound annual growth rate since 1950, based on Maddison [2010]). These figures yield the estimate mentioned in the text, which of course is only an order-of-magnitude approximation. If we look directly at population figures, we find that it currently takes the world population about one and a half weeks to grow by one million; but this underestimates the growth rate of the economy since per capita income is also increasing. By 5000 BC , following the Agricultural Revolution, the world population was growing at a rate of about 1 million per 200 yearsa great acceleration since the rate of perhaps 1 million per million years in early humanoid prehistoryso a great deal of acceleration had already occurred by then. Still, it is impressive that an amount of economic growth that took 200 years seven thousand years ago takes just ninety minutes now, and that the world population growth that took two centuries then takes one and a half weeks now. See also Maddison (2005). 2 . Such dramatic growth and acceleration might suggest one notion of a possible coming singularity, as adumbrated by John von Neumann in a conversation with the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam: Our conversation centred on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue. (Ulam 1958) 3 . Hanson (2000). 4 . Vinge (1993); Kurzweil (2005). 5 . Sandberg (2010). 6 . Van Zanden (2003); Maddison (1999, 2001); De Long (1998). 7 . Two oft-repeated optimistic statements from the 1960s: Machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do (Simon 1965, 96); Within a generation the problem of creating artificial intelligence will substantially be solved (Minsky 1967, 2). For a systematic review of AI predictions, see Armstrong and Sotala (2012). 8 . See, for example, Baum et al. (2011) and Armstrong and Sotala (2012). 9 . It might suggest, however, that AI researchers know less about development timelines than they think they dobut this could cut both ways: they might overestimate as well as underestimate the time to AI. . Good (1965, 33). . One exception is Norbert Wiener, who did have some qualms about the possible consequences. He wrote, in 1960: If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot efficiently interfere once we have started it, because the action is so fast and irrevocable that we have not the data to intervene before the action is complete, then we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire and not merely a colourful imitation of it (Wiener 1960). Ed Fredkin spoke about his worries about superintelligent AI in an interview described in McCorduck (1979). By 1970, Good himself writes about the risks, and even calls for the creation of an association to deal with the dangers (Good [1970]; see also his later article [Good 1982] where he foreshadows some of the ideas of indirect normativity that we discuss in Chapter 13 ). By 1984, Marvin Minsky was also writing about many of the key worries (Minsky 1984). . Cf. Yudkowsky (2008a). On the importance of assessing the ethical implications of potentially dangerous future technologies before they become feasible, see Roache (2008). . McCorduck (1979). . Newell et al. (1959). . The SAINTS program, the ANALOGY program, and the STUDENT program, respectively. See Slagle (1963), Evans (1964, 1968), and Bobrow (1968). . Nilsson (1984). . Weizenbaum (1966). . Winograd (1972). . Cope (1996); Weizenbaum (1976); Moravec (1980); Thrun et al. (2006); Buehler et al. (2009); Koza et al. (2003). The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for a driverless car in May 2012. . The STANDUP system (Ritchie et al. 2007). . Schwartz (1987). Schwartz is here characterizing a skeptical view that he thought was represented by the writings of Hubert Dreyfus. . One vocal critic during this period was Hubert Dreyfus. Other prominent skeptics from this era include John Lucas, Roger Penrose, and John Searle. However, among these only Dreyfus was mainly concerned with refuting claims about what practical accomplishments we should expect from existing paradigms in AI (though he seems to have been open to the possibility that new paradigms could go further). Searles target was functionalist theories in the philosophy of mind, not the instrumental powers of AI systems. Lucas and Penrose denied that a classical computer could ever be programmed to do everything that a human mathematician can do, but they did not deny that any particular function could in principle be automated or that AIs might eventually become very instrumentally powerful. Cicero remarked that there is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it (Cicero 1923, 119); yet it is surprisingly hard to think of any significant thinker who has denied the possibility of machine superintelligence in the sense used in this book. . For many applications, however, the learning that takes place in a neural network is little different from the learning that takes place in linear regression, a statistical technique developed by Adrien-Marie Legendre and Carl Friedrich Gauss in the early 1800s. . The basic algorithm was described by Arthur Bryson and Yu-Chi Ho as a multi-stage dynamic optimization method in 1969 (Bryson and Ho 1969). The application to neural networks was suggested by Paul Werbos in 1974 (Werbos 1994), but it was only after the work by David Rumelhart, Geoffrey Hinton, and Ronald Williams in 1986 (Rumelhart et al. 1986) that the method gradually began to seep into the awareness of a wider community. . Nets lacking hidden layers had previously been shown to have severely limited functionality (Minsky and Papert 1969). . E.g., MacKay (2003). . Murphy (2012). . Pearl (2009). . We suppress various technical details here in order not to unduly burden the exposition. We will have occasion to revisit some of these ignored issues in Chapter 12 . . A program p is a description of string x if p , run on (some particular) universal Turing machine U , outputs x ; we write this as U(p) = x . (The string x here represents a possible world.) The Kolmogorov complexity of x is then K ( x ):=min p { l ( p ): U ( p ) = x }, where l ( p ) is the length of p in bits. The Solomonoff probability of x is then defined as where the sum is defined over all (minimal, i.e. not necessarily halting) programs p for which U outputs a string starting with x (Hutter 2005). . Bayesian conditioning on evidence E gives (The probability of a proposition [like E ] is the sum of the probability of the possible worlds in which it is true.) . Or randomly picks one of the possible actions with the highest expected utility, in case there is a tie. . More concisely, the expected utility of an action can be written as where the sum is over all possible worlds. . See, e.g., Howson and Urbach (1993); Bernardo and Smith (1994); Russell and Norvig (2010). . Wainwright and Jordan (2008). The application areas of Bayes nets are myriad; see, e.g., Pourret et al. (2008). . One might wonder why so much detail is given to game AI here, which to some might seem like an unimportant application area. The answer is that game-playing offers some of the clearest measures of human vs. AI performance. . Samuel (1959); Schaeffer (1997, ch. 6). . Schaeffer et al. (2007). . Berliner (1980a, b). . Tesauro (1995). . Such programs include GNU (see Silver [2006]) and Snowie (see Gammoned.net [2012]). . Lenat himself had a hand in guiding the fleet-design process. He wrote: Thus the final crediting of the win should be about 60/40% Lenat/Eurisko, though the significant point here is that neither party could have won alone (Lenat 1983, 80). . Lenat (1982, 1983). . Cirasella and Kopec (2006). . Kasparov (1996, 55). . Newborn (2011). . Keim et al. (1999). . See Armstrong (2012). . Sheppard (2002). . Wikipedia (2012a). . Markoff (2011). . Rubin and Watson (2011). . Elyasaf et al. (2011). . KGS (2012). . Newell et al. (1958, 320). . Attributed in Vardi (2012). . In 1976, I. J. Good wrote: A computer program of Grandmaster strength would bring us within an ace of [machine ultraintelligence] (Good 1976). In 1979, Douglas Hofstadter opined in his Pulitzer-winning Gdel, Escher, Bach : Question: Will there be chess programs that can beat anyone? Speculation: No. There may be programs that can beat anyone at chess, but they will not be exclusively chess programs. They will be programs of general intelligence, and they will be just as temperamental as people. Do you want to play chess? No, Im bored with chess. Lets talk about poetry (Hofstadter [1979] 1999, 678). . The algorithm is minimax search with alpha-beta pruning, used with a chess- specific heuristic evaluation function of board states. Combined with a good library of openings and endgames, and various other tricks, this can make for a capable chess engine. . Though especially with recent progress in learning the evaluation heuristic from simulated games, many of the underlying algorithms would probably also work well for many other games. . Nilsson (2009, 318). Knuth was certainly overstating his point. There are many thinking tasks that AI has not succeeded in doinginventing a new subfield of pure mathematics, doing any kind of philosophy, writing a great detective novel, engineering a coup dtat, or designing a major new consumer product. . Shapiro (1992). . One might speculate that one reason it has been difficult to match human abilities in perception, motor control, common sense, and language understanding is that our brains have dedicated wetware for these functions neural structures that have been optimized over evolutionary timescales. By contrast, logical thinking and skills like chess playing are not natural to us; so perhaps we are forced to rely on a limited pool of general-purpose cognitive resources to perform these tasks. Maybe what our brains do when we engage in explicit logical reasoning or calculation is in some ways analogous to running a virtual machine, a slow and cumbersome mental simulation of a general-purpose computer. One might then say (somewhat fancifully) that a classical AI program is not so much emulating human thinking as the other way around: a human who is thinking logically is emulating an AI program. . This example is controversial: a minority view, represented by approximately 20% of adults in the USA and similar numbers in many other developed nations, holds that the Sun revolves around the Earth (Crabtree 1999; Dean 2005). . World Robotics (2011). . Estimated from data in Guizzo (2010). . Holley (2009). . Hybrid rule-based statistical approaches are also used, but they are currently a small part of the picture. . Cross and Walker (1994); Hedberg (2002). . Based on the statistics from TABB Group, a New York-and London-based capital markets research firm (personal communication). . CFTC and SEC (2010). For a different perspective on the events of 6 May 2010, see CME Group (2010). . Nothing in the text should be construed as an argument against algorithmic high-frequency trading, which might normally perform a beneficial function by increasing liquidity and market efficiency. . A smaller market scare occurred on August, 1, 2012, in part because the circuit breaker was not also programmed to halt trading if there were extreme changes in the number of shares being traded (Popper 2012). This again foreshadows another later theme: the difficulty of anticipating all specific ways in which some particular plausible-seeming rule might go wrong. . Nilsson (2009, 319). . Minsky (2006); McCarthy (2007); Beal and Winston (2009). . Peter Norvig, personal communication. Machine-learning classes are also very popular, reflecting a somewhat orthogonal hype-wave of big data (inspired by e.g. Google and the Netflix Prize). . Armstrong and Sotala (2012). . Mller and Bostrom (forthcoming). . See Baum et al. (2011), another survey cited therein, and Sandberg and Bostrom (2011). . Nilsson (2009). . This is again conditional on no civilization-disrupting catastrophe occurring. The definition of HLMI used by Nilsson is AI able to perform around 80% of jobs as well or better than humans perform (Kruel 2012). . The table shows the results of four different polls as well as the combined results. The first two were polls taken at academic conferences: PT-AI , participants of the conference Philosophy and Theory of AI in Thessaloniki 2011 (respondents were asked in November 2012), with a response rate of 43 out of 88; and AGI , participants of the conferences Artificial General Intelligence and Impacts and Risks of Artificial General Intelligence , both in Oxford, December 2012 (response rate: 72/111). The EETN poll sampled the members of the Greek Association for Artificial Intelligence, a professional organization of published researchers in the field, in April 2013 (response rate: 26/250). The TOP100 poll elicited the opinions among the 100 top authors in artificial intelligence as measured by a citation index, in May 2013 (response rate: 29/100). . Interviews with some 28 (at the time of writing) AI practitioners and related experts have been posted by Kruel (2011). . The diagram shows renormalized median estimates. Means are significantly different. For example, the mean estimates for the Extremely bad outcome were 7.6% (for TOP100 ) and 17.2% (for the combined pool of expert assessors). . There is a substantial literature documenting the unreliability of expert forecasts in many domains, and there is every reason to think that many of the findings in this body of research apply to the field of artificial intelligence too. In particular, forecasters tend to be overconfident in their predictions, believing themselves to be more accurate than they really are, and therefore assigning too little probability to the possibility that their most-favored hypothesis is wrong (Tetlock 2005). (Various other biases have also been documented; see, e.g., Gilovich et al. [2002].) However, uncertainty is an inescapable fact of the human condition, and many of our actions unavoidably rely on expectations about which long-term consequences are more or less plausible: in other words, on probabilistic predictions. Refusing to offer explicit probabilistic predictions would not make the epistemic problem go away; it would just hide it from view (Bostrom 2007). Instead, we should respond to evidence of overconfidence by broadening our confidence intervals (or credible intervals)i.e. by smearing out our credence functionsand in general we must struggle as best we can with our biases, by considering different perspectives and aiming for intellectual honesty. In the longer run, we can also work to develop techniques, training methods, and institutions that can help us achieve better calibration. See also Armstrong and Sotala (2012). CHAPTER 2: PATHS TO SUPERINTELLIGENCE 1 . This resembles the definition in Bostrom (2003c) and Bostrom (2006a). It can also be compared with Shane Leggs definition (Intelligence measures an agents ability to achieve goals in a wide range of environments) and its formalizations (Legg 2008). It is also very similar to Goods definition of ultraintelligence in Chapter 1 (a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever). 2 . For the same reason, we make no assumption regarding whether a superintelligent machine could have true intentionality ( pace Searle, it could; but this seems irrelevant to the concerns of this book). And we take no position in the internalism/externalism debate about mental content that has been raging in the philosophical literature, or on the related issue of the extended mind thesis (Clark and Chalmers 1998). 3 . Turing (1950, 456). 4 . Turing (1950, 456). 5 . Chalmers (2010); Moravec (1976, 1988, 1998, 1999). 6 . See Moravec (1976). A similar argument is advanced by David Chalmers (2010). 7 . See also Shulman and Bostrom (2012), where these matters are elaborated in more detail. 8 . Legg (2008) offers this reason in support of the claim that humans will be able to recapitulate the progress of evolution over much shorter timescales and with reduced computational resources (while noting that evolutions unadjusted computational resources are far out of reach). Baum (2004) argues that some developments relevant to AI occurred earlier, with the organization of the genome itself embodying a valuable representation for evolutionary algorithms. 9 . Whitman et al. (1998); Sabrosky (1952). . Schultz (2000). . Menzel and Giurfa (2001, 62); Truman et al. (1993). . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). . See Legg (2008) for further discussion of this point and of the promise of functions or environments that determine fitness based on a smooth landscape of pure intelligence tests. . See Bostrom and Sandberg (2009b) for a taxonomy and more detailed discussion of ways in which engineers may outperform historical evolutionary selection. . The analysis has addressed the nervous systems of living creatures, without reference to the cost of simulating bodies or the surrounding virtual environment as part of a fitness function. It is plausible that an adequate fitness function could test the competence of a particular organism in far fewer operations than it would take to simulate all the neuronal computation of that organisms brain throughout its natural lifespan. AI programs today often develop and operate in very abstract environments (theorem provers in symbolic math worlds, agents in simple game tournament worlds, etc.). A skeptic might insist that an abstract environment would be inadequate for the evolution of general intelligence, believing instead that the virtual environment would need to closely resemble the actual biological environment in which our ancestors evolved. Creating a physically realistic virtual world would require a far greater investment of computational resources than the simulation of a simple toy world or abstract problem domain (whereas evolution had access to a physically realistic real world for free). In the limiting case, if complete micro-physical accuracy were insisted upon, the computational requirements would balloon to ridiculous proportions. However, such extreme pessimism is almost certainly unwarranted; it seems unlikely that the best environment for evolving intelligence is one that mimics nature as closely as possible. It is, on the contrary, plausible that it would be more efficient to use an artificial selection environment, one quite unlike that of our ancestors, an environment specifically designed to promote adaptations that increase the type of intelligence we are seeking to evolve (abstract reasoning and general problem-solving skills, for instance, as opposed to maximally fast instinctual reactions or a highly optimized visual system). . Wikipedia (2012b). . For a general treatment of observation selection theory, see Bostrom (2002a). For the specific application to the current issue, see Shulman and Bostrom (2012). For a short popular introduction, see Bostrom (2008b). . Sutton and Barto (1998, 21f); Schultz et al. (1997). . This term was introduced by Eliezer Yudkowsky; see, e.g., Yudkowsky (2007). . This is the scenario described by Good (1965) and Yudkowsky (2007). However, one could also consider an alternative in which the iterative sequence has some steps that do not involve intelligence enhancement but instead design simplification. That is, at some stages, the seed AI might rewrite itself so as make subsequent improvements easier to find. . Helmstaedter et al. (2011). . Andres et al. (2012). . Adequate for enabling instrumentally useful forms of cognitive functioning and communication, that is; but still radically impoverished relative to the interface provided by the muscles and sensory organs of a normal human body. . Sandberg (2013). . See the Computer requirements section of Sandberg and Bostrom (2008, 7981). . A lower level of success might be a brain simulation that has biologically suggestive micro-dynamics and displays a substantial range of emergent species-typical activity such as a slow-wave sleep state or activity- dependent plasticity. Whereas such a simulation could be a useful testbed for neuroscientific research (though one which might come close to raising serious ethical issues), it would not count as a whole brain emulation unless the simulation were sufficiently accurate to be able to perform a substantial fraction of the intellectual work that the simulated brain was capable of. As a rule of thumb, we might say that in order for a simulation of a human brain to count as a whole brain emulation, it would need to be able to express coherent verbal thoughts or have the capacity to learn to do so. . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). Further explanation can be found in the original report. . The first map is described in Albertson and Thomson (1976) and White et al. (1986). The combined (and in some cases corrected) network is available from the WormAtlas website ( http://www.wormatlas.org/ ). . For a review of past attempts of emulating C. elegans and their fates, see Kaufman (2011). Kaufman quotes one ambitious doctoral student working in the area, David Dalrymple, as saying, With optogenetic techniques, we are just at the point where its not an outrageous proposal to reach for the capability to read and write to anywhere in a living C. elegans nervous system, using a high-throughput automated system. I expect to be finished with C. elegans in 23 years. I would be extremely surprised, for whatever thats worth, if this is still an open problem in 2020 (Dalrymple 2011). Brain models aiming for biological realism that were hand-coded (rather than generated automatically) have achieved some basic functionality; see, e.g., Eliasmith et al. (2012). . Caenorhabditis elegans does have some convenient special properties. For example, the organism is transparent, and the wiring pattern of its nervous system does not change between individuals. . If neuromorphic AI rather than whole brain emulation is the end product, then it might or might not be the case that the relevant insights would be derived through attempts to simulate human brains. It is conceivable that the important cortical tricks would be discovered during the study of (nonhuman) animal brains. Some animal brains might be easier to work with than human brains, and smaller brains would require fewer resources to scan and model. Research on animal brains would also be subject to less regulation. It is even conceivable that the first human-level machine intelligence will be created by completing a whole brain emulation of some suitable animal and then finding ways to enhance the resultant digital mind. Thus humanity could get its comeuppance from an uplifted lab mouse or macaque. . Uauy and Dangour (2006); Georgieff (2007); Stewart et al. (2008); Eppig et al. (2010); Cotman and Berchtold (2002). . According to the World Health Organization in 2007, nearly 2 billion individuals have insufficient iodine intake ( The Lancet 2008). Severe iodine deficiency hinders neurological development and leads to cretinism, which involves an average loss of about 12.5 IQ points (Qian et al. 2005). The condition can be easily and inexpensively prevented though salt fortification (Horton et al. 2008). . Bostrom and Sandberg (2009a). . Bostrom and Sandberg (2009b). A typical putative performance increase from pharmacological and nutritional enhancement is in the range of 10 20% on test tasks measuring working memory, attention, etc. But it is generally dubious whether such reported gains are real, sustainable over a longer term, and indicative of correspondingly improved results in real- world problem situations (Repantis et al. 2010). For instance, in some cases there might be a compensating deterioration on some performance dimensions that are not measured by the test tasks (Sandberg and Bostrom 2006). . If there were an easy way to enhance cognition, one would expect evolution already to have taken advantage of it. Consequently, the most promising kind of nootropic to investigate may be one that promises to boost intelligence in some manner that we can see would have lowered fitness in the ancestral environmentfor example, by increasing head size at birth or amping up the brains glucose metabolism. For a more detailed discussion of this idea (along with several important qualifications), see Bostrom (2009b). . Sperm are harder to screen because, in contrast to embryos, they consist of only one celland one cell needs to be destroyed in order to do the sequencing. Oocytes also consist of only one cell; however, the first and second cell divisions are asymmetric and produce one daughter cell with very little cytoplasm, the polar body. Since polar bodies contain the same genome as the main cell and are redundant (they eventually degenerate) they can be biopsied and used for screening (Gianaroli 2000). . Each of these practices was subject to some ethical controversy when it was introduced, but there seems to be a trend toward increasing acceptance. Attitudes toward human genetic engineering and embryo selection vary significantly across cultures, suggesting that development and application of new techniques will probably take place even if some countries initially adopt a cautious stance, although the rate at which this happens will be influenced by moral, religious, and political pressures. . Davies et al. (2011); Benyamin et al. (2013); Plomin et al. (2013). See also Mardis (2011); Hsu (2012). . Broad-sense heritability of adult IQ is usually estimated in the range of 0.5 0.8 within middle-class strata of developed nations (Bouchard 2004, 148). Narrow-sense heritability, which measures the portion of variance that is attributable to additive genetic factors, is lower (in the range 0.30.5) but still substantial (Devlin et al. 1997; Davies et al. 2011; Visscher et al. 2008). These estimates could change for different populations and environments, as heritabilities vary depending on the population and environment being studied. For example, lower heritabilities have been found among children and those from deprived environments (Benyamin et al. 2013; Turkheimer et al. 2003). Nisbett et al. (2012) review numerous environmental influences on variation in cognitive ability. . The following several paragraphs draw heavily on joint work with Carl Shulman (Shulman and Bostrom 2014). . This table is taken from Shulman and Bostrom (2014). It is based on a toy model that assumes a Gaussian distribution of predicted IQs among the embryos with a standard deviation of 7.5 points. The amount of cognitive enhancement that would be delivered with different numbers of embryos depends on how different the embryos are from one another in the additive genetic variants whose effects we know. Siblings have a coefficient of relatedness of , and common additive genetic variants account for half or less of variance in adult fluid intelligence (Davies et al. 2011). These two facts suggest that where the observed population standard deviation in developed countries is 15 points, the standard deviation of genetic influences within a batch of embryos would be 7.5 points or less. . With imperfect information about the additive genetic effects on cognitive ability, effect sizes would be reduced. However, even a small amount of knowledge would go a relatively long way, because the gains from selection do not scale linearly with the portion of variance that we can predict. Instead, the effectiveness of our selection depends on the standard deviation of predicted mean IQ, which scales as the square root of variance. For example, if one could account for 12.5% of the variance, this could deliver effects half as great as those in Table 1 , which assume 50%. For comparison, a recent study (Rietveld et al. 2013) claims to have already identified 2.5% of the variance. . For comparison, standard practice today involves the creation of fewer than ten embryos. . Adult and embryonic stem cells can be coaxed to develop into sperm cells and oocytes, which can then be fused to produce an embryo (Nagy et al. 2008; Nagy and Chang 2007). Egg cell precursors can also form parthenogenetic blastocysts, unfertilized and non-viable embryos, able to produce embryonic stem cell lines for the process (Mai et al. 2007). . The opinion is that of Katsuhiko Hayashi, as reported in Cyranoski (2013). The Hinxton Group, an international consortium of scientists that discusses stem cell ethics and challenges, predicted in 2008 that human stem cell- derived gametes would be available within ten years (Hinxton Group 2008), and developments thus far are broadly consistent with this. . Sparrow (2013); Miller (2012); The Uncertain Future (2012). . Sparrow (2013). . Secular concerns might focus on anticipated impacts on social inequality, the medical safety of the procedure, fears of an enhancement rat race, rights and responsibilities of parents vis--vis their prospective offspring, the shadow of twentieth-century eugenics, the concept of human dignity, and the proper limits of states involvement in the reproductive choices of their citizens. (For a discussion of the ethics of cognitive enhancement see Bostrom and Ord [2006], Bostrom and Roache [2011], and Sandberg and Savulescu [2011].) Some religious traditions may offer additional concerns, including ones centering on the moral status of embryos or the proper limits of human agency within the scheme of creation. . To stave off the negative effects of inbreeding, iterated embryo selection would require either a large starting supply of donors or the expenditure of substantial selective power to reduce harmful recessive alleles. Either alternative would tend to push toward offspring being less closely genetically related to their parents (and more related to one another). . Adapted from Shulman and Bostrom (2014). . Bostrom (2008b). . Just how difficult an obstacle epigenetics will be is not yet known (Chason et al. 2011; Iliadou et al. 2011). . While cognitive ability is a fairly heritable trait, there may be few or no common alleles or polymorphisms that individually have a large positive effect on intelligence (Davis et al. 2010; Davies et al. 2011; Rietveld et al. 2013). As sequencing methods improve, the mapping out of low-frequency alleles and their cognitive and behavioral correlates will become increasingly feasible. There is some theoretical evidence suggesting that some alleles that cause genetic disorders in homozygotes may provide sizeable cognitive advantages in heterozygote carriers, leading to a prediction that Gaucher, Tay-Sachs, and Niemann-Pick heterozygotes would be about 5 IQ points higher than control groups (Cochran et al. 2006). Time will tell whether this holds. . One paper (Nachman and Crowell 2000) estimates 175 mutations per genome per generation. Another (Lynch 2010), using different methods, estimates that the average newborn has between 50 and 100 new mutations, and Kong et al. (2012) implies a figure of around 77 new mutations per generation. Most of these mutations do not affect functioning, or do so only to an imperceptibly slight degree; but the combined effects of many very slightly deleterious mutations could be a significant loss of fitness. See also Crow (2000). . Crow (2000); Lynch (2010). . There are some potentially important caveats to this idea. It is possible that the modal genome would need some adjustments in order to avoid problems. For example, parts of the genome might be adapted to interacting with other parts under the assumption that all parts function with a certain level of efficiency. Increasing the efficiency of those parts might then lead to overshooting along some metabolic pathways. . These composites were created by Mike Mike from individual photographs taken by Virtual Flavius (Mike 2013). . They can, of course, have some effects soonerfor instance, by changing peoples expectations of what is to come. . Louis Harris & Associates (1969); Mason (2003). . Kalfoglou et al. (2004). . The data is obviously limited, but individuals selected for 1-in-10,000 results on childhood ability tests have been shown, in longitudinal studies, to be substantially more likely to become tenured professors, earn patents, and succeed in business than those with slightly less exceptional scores (Kell et al. 2013). Roe (1953) studied sixty-four eminent scientists and found median cognitive ability three to four standard deviations above the population norm and strikingly higher than is typical for scientists in general. (Cognitive ability is also correlated with lifetime earnings and with non-financial outcomes such as life expectancy, divorce rates, and probability of dropping out of school [Deary 2012].) An upward shift of the distribution of cognitive ability would have disproportionately large effects at the tails, especially increasing the number of highly gifted and reducing the number of people with retardation and learning disabilities. See also Bostrom and Ord (2006) and Sandberg and Savulescu (2011). . E.g. Warwick (2002). Stephen Hawking even suggested that taking this step might be necessary in order to keep up with advances in machine intelligence: We must develop as quickly as possible technologies that make possible a direct connection between brain and computer, so that artificial brains contribute to human intelligence rather than opposing it (reported in Walsh [2001]). Ray Kurzweil concurs: As far as Hawkings recommendation is concerned, namely direct connection between the brain and computers, I agree that this is both reasonable, desirable and inevitable. [ sic ] Its been my recommendation for years (Kurzweil 2001). . See Lebedev and Nicolelis (2006); Birbaumer et al. (2008); Mak and Wolpaw (2009); and Nicolelis and Lebedev (2009). A more personal outlook on the problem of enhancement through implants can be found in Chorost (2005, Chap. 11). . Smeding et al. (2006). . Degnan et al. (2002). . Dagnelie (2012); Shannon (2012). . Perlmutter and Mink (2006); Lyons (2011). . Koch et al. (2006). . Schalk (2008). For a general review of the current state of the art, see Berger et al. (2008). For the case that this would help lead to enhanced intelligence, see Warwick (2002). . Some examples: Bartels et al. (2008); Simeral et al. (2011); Krusienski and Shih (2011); and Pasqualotto et al. (2012). . E.g. Hinke et al. (1993). . There are partial exceptions to this, especially in early sensory processing. For example, the primary visual cortex uses a retinotopic mapping, which means roughly that adjacent neural assemblies receive inputs from adjacent areas of the retinas (though ocular dominance columns somewhat complicate the mapping). . Berger et al. (2012); Hampson et al. (2012). . Some brain implants require two forms of learning: the device learning to interpret the organisms neural representations and the organism learning to use the system by generating appropriate neural firing patterns (Carmena et al. 2003). . It has been suggested that we should regard corporate entities (corporations, unions, governments, churches, and so forth) as artificial intelligent agents, entities with sensors and effectors, able to represent knowledge and perform inference and take action (e.g. Kuipers [2012]; cf. Huebner [2008] for a discussion on whether collective representations can exist). They are clearly powerful and ecologically successful, although their capabilities and internal states are different from those of humans. . Hanson (1995, 2000); Berg and Rietz (2003). . In the workplace, for instance, employers might use lie detectors to crack down on employee theft and shirking, by asking the employee at the end of each business day whether she has stolen anything and whether she has worked as hard as she could. Political and business leaders could likewise be asked whether they were wholeheartedly pursuing the interests of their shareholders or constituents. Dictators could use them to target seditious generals within the regime or suspected troublemakers in the wider population. . One could imagine neuroimaging techniques making it possible to detect neural signatures of motivated cognition. Without self-deception detection, lie detection would favor individuals who believe their own propaganda. Better tests for self-deception tests could also be used to train rationality and to study the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing biases. . Bell and Gemmel (2009). An early example is found in the work of MITs Deb Roy, who recorded every moment of his sons first three years of life. Analysis of this audiovisual data is yielding information on language development; see Roy (2012). . Growth in total world population of biological human beings will contribute only a small factor. Scenarios involving machine intelligence could see the world population (including digital minds) explode by many orders of magnitude in a brief period of time. But that road to superintelligence involves artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation, so we need not consider it in this subsection. . Vinge (1993). CHAPTER 3: FORMS OF SUPERINTELLIGENCE 1 . Vernor Vinge has used the term weak superintelligence to refer to such sped-up human minds (Vinge 1993). 2 . For example, if a very fast system could do everything that any human could do except dance a mazurka, we should still call it a speed superintelligence. Our interest lies in those core cognitive capabilities that have economic or strategic significance. 3 . At least a millionfold speedup compared to human brains is physically possible, as can been seen by considering the difference in speed and energy of relevant brain processes in comparison to more efficient information processing. The speed of light is more than a million times greater than that of neural transmission, synaptic spikes dissipate more than a million times more heat than is thermodynamically necessary, and current transistor frequencies are more than a million times faster than neuron spiking frequencies (Yudkowsky [2008a]; see also Drexler [1992]). The ultimate limits of speed superintelligence are bounded by light-speed communications delays, quantum limits on the speed of state transitions, and the volume needed to contain the mind (Lloyd 2000). The ultimate laptop described by Lloyd (2000) would run a 1.410 21 FLOPS brain emulation at speedup of 3.810 29 (assuming the emulation could be sufficiently parallelized). Lloyds construction, however, is not intended to be technologically plausible; it is only meant to illustrate those constraints on computation that are readily derivable from basic physical laws. 4 . With emulations, there is also an issue of how long a human-like mind can keep working on something before going mad or falling into a rut. Even with task variety and regular holidays, it is not certain that a human-like mind could live for thousands of subjective years without developing psychological problems. Furthermore, if total memory capacity is limited a consequence of having a limited neuron populationthen cumulative learning cannot continue indefinitely: beyond some point, the mind must start forgetting one thing for each new thing it learns. (Artificial intelligence could be designed such as to ameliorate these potential problems.) 5 . Accordingly, nanomechanisms moving at a modest 1 m/s have typical timescales of nanoseconds. See section 2.3.2 of Drexler (1992). Robin Hanson mentions 7-mm tinkerbell robot bodies moving at 260 times normal speed (Hanson 1994). 6 . Hanson (2012). 7 . Collective intelligence does not refer to low-level parallelization of computing hardware but to parallelization at the level of intelligent autonomous agents such as human beings. Implementing a single emulation on a massively parallel machine might result in speed superintelligence if the parallel computer is sufficiently fast: it would not produce a collective intelligence. 8 . Improvements to the speed or the quality of the individual components could also indirectly affect the performance of collective intelligence, but here we mainly consider such improvements under the other two forms of superintelligence in our classification. 9 . It has been argued that a higher population density triggered the Upper Paleolithic Revolution and that beyond a certain threshold accumulation of cultural complexity became much easier (Powell et al. 2009). . What about the Internet? It seems not yet to have amounted to a super-sized boost. Maybe it will do so eventually. It took centuries or millennia for the other examples listed here to reveal their full potential. . This is, obviously, not meant to be a realistic thought experiment. A planet large enough to sustain seven quadrillion human organisms with present technology would implode, unless it were made of very light matter or were hollow and held up by pressure or other artificial means. (A Dyson sphere or a Shellworld might be a better solution.) History would have unfolded differently on such a vast surface. Set all this aside. . Our focus here is on the functional properties of a unified intellect, not on the question of whether such an intellect would have qualia or whether it would be a mind in the sense of having subjective conscious experience. (One might ponder, though, what kinds of conscious experience might arise from intellects that are more or less integrated than those of human brains. On some views of consciousness, such as the global workspace theory, it seems one might expect more integrated brains to have more capacious consciousness. Cf. Baars (1997), Shanahan (2010), and Schwitzgebel (2013).) . Even small groups of humans that have remained isolated for some time might still benefit from the intellectual outputs of a larger collective intelligence. For example, the language they use might have been developed by a much larger linguistic community, and the tools they use might have been invented in a much larger population before the small group became isolated. But even if a small group had always been isolated, it might still be part of a larger collective intelligence than meets the eye namely, the collective intelligence consisting of not only the present but all ancestral generations as well, an aggregate that can function as a feed- forward information processing system. . By the ChurchTuring thesis, all computable functions are computable by a Turing machine. Since any of the three forms of superintelligence could simulate a Turing machine (if given access to unlimited memory and allowed to operate indefinitely), they are by this formal criterion computationally equivalent. Indeed, an average human being (provided with unlimited scrap paper and unlimited time) could also implement a Turing machine, and thus is also equivalent by the same criterion. What matters for our purposes, however, is what these different systems can achieve in practice , with finite memory and in reasonable time. And the efficiency variations are so great that one can readily make some distinctions. For example, a typical individual with an IQ of 85 could be taught to implement a Turing machine. (Conceivably, it might even be possible to train some particularly gifted and docile chimpanzee to do this.) Yet, for all practical intents and purposes, such an individual is presumably incapable of, say, independently developing general relativity theory or of winning a Fields medal. . Oral storytelling traditions can produce great works (such as the Homeric epics) but perhaps some of the contributing authors possessed uncommon gifts. . Unless it contains as components intellects that have speed or quality superintelligence. . Our inability to specify what all these problems are may in part be due to a lack of trying: there is little point in spending time detailing intellectual jobs that no individual and no currently feasible organization can perform. But it is also possible that even conceptualizing some of these jobs is itself one of those jobs that we currently lack the brains to perform. . Cf. Boswell (1917); see also Walker (2002). . This mainly occurs in short bursts in a subset of neuronsmost have more sedate firing rates (Gray and McCormick 1996; Steriade et al. 1998). There are some neurons (chattering neurons, also known as fast rhythmically bursting cells) that may reach firing frequencies as high as 750 Hz, but these seem to be extreme outliers. . Feldman and Ballard (1982). . The conduction velocity depends on axon diameter (thicker axons are faster) and whether the axon is myelinated. Within the central nervous system, transmission delays can range from less than a millisecond to up to 100 ms (Kandel et al. 2000). Transmission in optical fibers is around 68% c (because of the refractive index of the material). Electrical cables are roughly the same speed, 5977% c . . This assumes a signal velocity of 70% c . Assuming 100% c ups the estimate to 1.810 18 m 3 . . The number of neurons in an adult human male brain has been estimated at 86.1 8.1 billion, a number arrived at by dissolving brains and fractionating out the cell nuclei, counting the ones stained with a neuron- specific marker. In the past, estimates in the neighborhood of 75125 billion neurons were common. These were typically based on manual counting of cell densities in representative small regions (Azevedo et al. 2009). . Whitehead (2003). . Information processing systems can very likely use molecular-scale processes for computing and data storage and reach at least planetary size in extent. The ultimate physical limits to computation set by quantum mechanics, general relativity, and thermodynamics are, however, far beyond this Jupiter brain level (Sandberg 1999; Lloyd 2000). . Stansberry and Kudritzki (2012). Electricity used in data centers worldwide amounted to 1.11.5% of total electricity use (Koomey 2011). See also Muehlhauser and Salamon (2012). . This is an oversimplification. The number of chunks working memory can maintain is both information-and task-dependent; however, it is clearly limited to a small number of chunks. See Miller (1956) and Cowan (2001). . An example might be that the difficulty of learning Boolean concepts (categories defined by logical rules) is proportional to the length of the shortest logically equivalent propositional formula. Typically, even formulae just 34 literals long are very difficult to learn. See Feldman (2000). . See Landauer (1986). This study is based on experimental estimates of learning and forgetting rates in humans. Taking into account implicit learning might push the estimate up a little. If one assumes a storage capacity ~1 bit per synapse, one gets an upper bound on human memory capacity of about 10 15 bits. For an overview of different estimates, see Appendix A of Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). . Channel noise can trigger action potentials, and synaptic noise produces significant variability in the strength of transmitted signals. Nervous systems appear to have evolved to make numerous trade-offs between noise tolerance and costs (mass, size, time delays); see Faisal et al. (2008). For example, axons cannot be thinner than 0.1 m lest random opening of ion channels create spontaneous action potentials (Faisal et al. 2005). . Trachtenberg et al. (2002). . In terms of memory and computational power, though not in terms of energy efficiency. The fastest computer in the world at the time of writing was Chinas Tianhe-2, which displaced Cray Inc. Titan in June 2013 with a performance of 33.86 petaFLOPS. It uses 17.6 MW of power, almost six orders of magnitude more than the brains ~20 W. . Note that this survey of sources of machine advantage is disjunctive : our argument succeeds even if some of the items listed are illusory, so long as there is at least one source that can provide a sufficiently large advantage. CHAPTER 4: THE KINETICS OF AN INTELLIGENCE EXPLOSION 1 . The system may not reach one of these baselines at any sharply defined point. There may instead be an interval during which the system gradually becomes able to outperform the external research team on an increasing number of system-improving development tasks. 2 . In the past half-century, at least one scenario has been widely recognized in which the existing world order would come to an end in the course of minutes or hours: global thermonuclear war. 3 . This would be consistent with the observation that the Flynn effectthe secular increase in measured IQ scores within most populations at a rate of some 3 IQ points per decade over the past 60 years or soappears to have ceased or even reversed in recent years in some highly developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Norway (Teasdale and Owen 2008; Sundet et al. 2004). The cause of the Flynn effect in the pastand whether and to what extent it represents any genuine gain in general intelligence or merely improved skill at solving IQ test-style puzzleshas been the subject of wide debate and is still not known. Even if the Flynn effect (at least partially) reflects real cognitive gains, and even if the effect is now diminishing or even reversing, this does not prove that we have yet hit diminishing returns in whatever underlying cause was responsible for the observed Flynn effect in the past. The decline or reversal could instead be due to some independent detrimental factor that would otherwise have produced an even bigger observed decline. 4 . Bostrom and Roache (2011). 5 . Somatic gene therapy could eliminate the maturational lag, but is technically much more challenging than germline interventions and has a lower ultimate potential. 6 . Average global economic productivity growth per year over the period 19602000 was 4.3% (Isaksson 2007). Only part of this productivity growth is due to gains in organizational efficiency. Some particular networks or organizational processes of course are improving at much faster rates. 7 . Biological brain evolution was subject to many constraints and trade-offs that are drastically relaxed when the mind moves to a digital medium. For example, brain size is limited by head size, and a head that is too big has trouble passing through the birth canal. A large brain also guzzles metabolic resources and is a dead weight that impedes movement. The connectivity between certain brain regions might be limited by steric constraintsthe volume of white matter is significantly larger than the volume of the gray matter it connects. Heat dissipation is limited by blood flow, and might be close to the upper limit for acceptable functioning. Furthermore, biological neurons are noisy, slow, and in need of constant protection, maintenance, and resupply by glial cells and blood vessels (contributing to the intracranial crowding). See Bostrom and Sandberg (2009b). 8 . Yudkowsky (2008a, 326). For a more recent discussion, see Yudkowsky (2013). 9 . The picture shows cognitive ability as a one-dimensional parameter, to keep the drawing simple. But this is not essential to the point being made here. One could, for example, instead represent a cognitive ability profile as a hypersurface in a multidimensional space. . Lin et al. (2012). . One gets a certain increase in collective intelligence simply by increasing the number of its constituent intellects. Doing so should at least enable better overall performance on tasks that can be easily parallelized. To reap the full returns from such a population explosion, however, one would also need to achieve some (more than minimal) level of coordination between the constituents. . The distinction between speed and quality of intelligence is anyhow blurred in the case of non-neuromorphic AI systems. . Rajab et al. (2006, 4152). . It has been suggested that using configurable integrated circuits (FPGAs) rather than general-purpose processors could increase computational speeds in neural network simulations by up to two orders of magnitude (Markram 2006). A study of high-resolution climate modeling in the petaFLOP-range found a twenty-four to thirty-four-fold reduction of cost and about two orders of magnitude reduction in power requirements using a custom variant of embedded processor chips (Wehner et al. 2008). . Nordhaus (2007). There are many overviews of the different meanings of Moores law; see, e.g., Tuomi (2002) and Mack (2011). . If the development is slow enough, the project can avail itself of progress being made in the interim by the outside world, such as advances in computer science made by university researchers and improvements in hardware made by the semiconductor industry. . Algorithmic overhang is perhaps less likely, but one exception would be if exotic hardware such as quantum computing becomes available to run algorithms that were previously infeasible. One might also argue that neural networks and deep machine learning are cases of algorithm overhang: too computationally expensive to work well when first invented, they were shelved for a while, then dusted off when fast graphics processing units made them cheap to run. Now they win contests. . And even if progress on the way toward the human baseline were slow. . is that part of the worlds optimization power that is applied to improving the system in question. For a project operating in complete isolation, one that receives no significant ongoing support from the external world, we have 0, even though the project must have started with a resource endowment (computers, scientific concepts, educated personnel, etc.) that is derived from the entire world economy and many centuries of development. . The most relevant of the seed AIs cognitive abilities here is its ability to perform intelligent design work to improve itself, i.e. its intelligence amplification capability. (If the seed AI is good at enhancing another system, which is good at enhancing the seed AI, then we could view these as subsystems of a larger system and focus our analysis on the greater whole.) . This assumes that recalcitrance is not known to be so high as to discourage investment altogether or divert it to some alternative project. . A similar example is discussed in Yudkowsky (2008b). . Since inputs have risen (e.g. amounts invested in building new foundries, and number of people working in the semiconductor industry), Moores law itself has not given such a rapid growth if we control for this increase in inputs. Combined with advances in software, however, an 18-month doubling time in performance per unit of input may be more historically plausible. . Some tentative attempts have been made to develop the idea of an intelligence explosion within the framework of economic growth theory; see, e.g., Hanson (1998b); Jones (2009); Salamon (2009). These studies have pointed to the potential of extremely rapid growth given the arrival of digital minds, but since endogenous growth theory is relatively poorly developed even for historical and contemporary applications, any application to a potentially discontinuous future context is better viewed at this stage as a source of potentially useful concepts and considerations than as an exercise likely to deliver authoritative forecasts. For an overview of attempts to mathematically model a technological singularity, see Sandberg (2010). . It is of course also possible that there will be no takeoff at all. But since, as argued earlier, superintelligence looks technically feasible, the absence of a takeoff would likely be due to the intervention of some defeater, such as an existential catastrophe. If strong superintelligence arrived not in the shape of artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation but through one of other paths we considered above, then a slower takeoff would be more likely. CHAPTER 5: DECISIVE STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE 1 . A software mind might run on a single machine as opposed to a worldwide network of computers; but this is not what we mean by concentration. Instead, what we are interested in here is the extent to which power, specifically power derived from technological ability, will be concentrated in the advanced stages of, or immediately following, the machine intelligence revolution. 2 . Technology diffusion of consumer products, for example, tends to be slower in developing countries (Talukdar et al. 2002). See also Keller (2004) and The World Bank (2008). 3 . The economic literature dealing with the theory of the firm is relevant as a comparison point for the present discussion. The locus classicus is Coase (1937). See also, e.g., Canbck et al. (2006); Milgrom and Roberts (1990); Hart (2008); Simester and Knez (2002). 4 . On the other hand, it could be especially easy to steal a seed AI, since it consists of software that could be transmitted electronically or carried on a portable memory device. 5 . Barber (1991) suggests that the Yangshao culture (50003000 BC ) might have used silk. Sun et al. (2012) estimate, based on genetic studies, domestication of the silkworm to have occurred about 4,100 years ago. 6 . Cook (1984, 144). This story might be too good to withstand historical scrutiny, rather like Procopius ( Wars VIII.xvii.17) story of how the silkworms were supposedly brought to Byzantium by wandering monks, hidden in their hollow bamboo staves (Hunt 2011). 7 . Wood (2007); Temple (1986). 8 . Pre-Columbian cultures did have the wheel but used it only for toys (probably due to a lack of good draft animals). 9 . Koubi (1999); Lerner (1997); Koubi and Lalman (2007); Zeira (2011); Judd et al. (2012). . Estimated from a variety of sources. The time gap is often somewhat arbitrary, depending on how exactly equivalent capabilities are defined. Radar was used by at least two countries within a couple of years of its introduction, but exact figures in months are hard to come by. . The RDS-6 in 1953 was the first test of a bomb with fusion reactions, but the RDS-37 in 1955 was the first true fusion bomb, where most power came from the fusion reaction. . Unconfirmed. . Tests in 1989, project cancelled in 1994. . Deployed system, capable of a range greater than 5,000 km. . Polaris missiles bought from the USA. . Current work is underway on the Taimur missile, likely based on Chinese missiles. . The RSA-3 rocket tested 198990 was intended for satellite launches and/or as an ICBM. . MIRV = multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle, a technology that enables a single ballistic missile to carry multiple warheads that can be programmed to hit different targets. . The Agni V system is not yet in service. . Ellis (1999). . If we model the situation as one where the lag time between projects is drawn from a normal distribution, then the likely distance between the leading project and its closest follower will also depend on how many projects there are. If there are a vast number of projects, then the distance between the first two is likely small even if the variance of the distribution is moderately high (though the expected gap between the lead and the second project declines very slowly with the number of competitors if completion times are normally distributed). However, it is unlikely that there will be a vast number of projects that are each well enough resourced to be serious contenders. (There might be a greater number of projects if there are a large number of different basic approaches that could be pursued, but in that case many of those approaches are likely to prove dead ends.) As suggested, empirically we seem to find that there is usually no more than a handful of serious competitors pursuing any one specific technological goal. The situation is somewhat different in a consumer market where there are many niches for slightly different products and where barriers to entry are low. There are lots of one-person projects designing T-shirts, but only a few firms in the world developing the next generation of graphics cards. (Two firms, AMD and NVIDIA, enjoy a near duopoly at the moment, though Intel is also competing at the lower- performance end of the market.) . Bostrom (2006c). One could imagine a singleton whose existence is invisible (e.g. a superintelligence with such advanced technology or insight that it could subtly control world events without any human noticing its interventions); or a singleton that voluntarily imposes very strict limitations on its own exercise of power (e.g. punctiliously confining itself to ensuring that certain treaty-specified international rulesor libertarian principles are respected). How likely any particular kind of singleton is to arise is of course an empirical question; but conceptually , at least, it is possible to have a good singleton, a bad singleton, a rambunctiously diverse singleton, a blandly monolithic singleton, a crampingly oppressive singleton, or a singleton more akin to an extra law of nature than to a yelling despot. . Jones (1985, 344). . It might be significant that the Manhattan Project was carried out during wartime. Many of the scientists who participated claimed to be primarily motivated by the wartime situation and the fear that Nazi Germany might develop atomic weapons ahead of the Allies. It might be difficult for many governments to mobilize a similarly intensive and secretive effort in peacetime. The Apollo program, another iconic science/engineering megaproject, received a strong impetus from the Cold War rivalry. . Though even if they were looking hard, it is not clear that they would appear (publicly) to be doing so. . Cryptographic techniques could enable the collaborating team to be physically dispersed. The only weak link in the communication chain might be the input stage, where the physical act of typing could potentially be observed. But if indoor surveillance became common (by means of microscopic recording devices), those keen on protecting their privacy might develop countermeasures (e.g. special closets that could be sealed off from would-be eavesdropping devices). Whereas physical space might become transparent in a coming surveillance age, cyberspace might possibly become more protected through wider adoption of stronger cryptographic protocols. . A totalitarian state might take recourse to even more coercive measures. Scientists in relevant fields might be swept up and put into work camps, akin to the academic villages in Stalinist Russia. . When the level of public concern is relatively low, some researchers might welcome a little bit of public fear-mongering because it draws attention to their work and makes the area they work in seem important and exciting. When the level of concern becomes greater, the relevant research communities might change their tune as they begin to worry about funding cuts, regulation, and public backlash. Researchers in neighboring disciplinessuch as those parts of computer science and robotics that are not very relevant to artificial general intelligencemight resent the drift of funding and attention away from their own research areas. These researchers might also correctly observe that their work carries no risk whatever of leading to a dangerous intelligence explosion. (Some historical parallels might be drawn with the career of the idea of nanotechnology; see Drexler [2013].) . These have been successful in that they have achieved at least some of what they set out to do. How successful they have been in a broader sense (taking into account cost-effectiveness and so forth) is harder to determine. In the case of the International Space Station, for example, there have been huge cost overruns and delays. For details of the problems encountered by the project, see NASA (2013). The Large Hadron Collider project has had some major setbacks, but this might be due to the inherent difficulty of the task. The Human Genome Project achieved success in the end, but seems to have received a speed boost from being forced to compete with Craig Venters private corporate effort. Internationally sponsored projects to achieve controlled fusion energy have failed to deliver on expectations, despite massive investment; but again, this might be attributable to the task turning out to be more difficult than anticipated. . US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1995). . Hoffman (2009); Rhodes (2008). . Rhodes (1986). . The US Navys code-breaking organization, OP-20-G, apparently ignored an invitation to gain full knowledge of Britains anti-Enigma methods, and failed to inform higher-level US decision makers of Britains offer to share its cryptographic secrets (Burke 2001). This gave American leaders the impression that Britain was withholding important information, a cause of friction throughout the war. Britain did share with the Soviet government some of the intelligence they had gleaned from decrypted German communications. In particular, Russia was warned about the German preparations for Operation Barbarossa. But Stalin refused to believe the warning, partly because the British did not disclose how they had obtained the information. . For a few years, Russell seems to have advocated the threat of nuclear war to persuade Russia to accept the Baruch plan; later, he was a strong proponent of mutual nuclear disarmament (Russell and Griffin 2001). John von Neumann is reported to have believed that a war between the United States and Russia was inevitable, and to have said, If you say why not bomb them [the Russians] tomorrow, I say why not bomb them today? If you say today at five oclock, I say why not one oclock? (It is possible that he made this notorious statement to burnish his anti-communist credentials with US Defense hawks in the McCarthy era. Whether von Neumann, had he been in charge of US policy, would actually have launched a first strike is impossible to ascertain. See Blair [1957], 96.) . Baratta (2004). . If the AI is controlled by a group of humans, the problem may apply to this human group, though it is possible that new ways of reliably committing to an agreement will be available by this time, in which case even human groups could avoid this problem of potential internal unraveling and overthrow by a sub-coalition. CHAPTER 6: COGNITIVE SUPERPOWERS 1 . In what sense is humanity a dominant species on Earth? Ecologically speaking, humans are the most common large (~50 kg) animal, but the total human dry biomass (~100 billion kg) is not so impressive compared with that of ants, the family Formicidae (300 billion3,000 billion kg). Humans and human utility organisms form a very small part (<0.001) of total global biomass. However, croplands and pastures are now among the largest ecosystems on the planet, covering about 35% of the ice-free land surface (Foley et al. 2007). And we appropriate nearly a quarter of net primary productivity according to a typical assessment (Haberl et al. 2007), though estimates range from 3 to over 50% depending mainly on varying definitions of the relevant terms (Haberl et al. 2013). Humans also have the largest geographic coverage of any animal species and top the largest number of different food chains. 2 . Zalasiewicz et al. (2008). 3 . See first note to this chapter. 4 . Strictly speaking, this may not be quite correct. Intelligence in the human species ranges all the way down to approximately zero (e.g. in the case of embryos or patients in permanent vegetative state). In qualitative terms, the maximum difference in cognitive ability within the human species is therefore perhaps greater than the difference between any human and a superintelligence. But the point in the text stands if we read human as normally functioning adult. 5 . Gottfredson (2002). See also Carroll (1993) and Deary (2001). 6 . See Legg (2008). Roughly, Legg proposes to measure a reinforcement- learning agent as its expected performance in all reward-summable environments, where each such environment receives a weight determined by its Kolmogorov complexity. We will explain what is meant by reinforcement learning in Chapter 12 . See also Dowe and Hernndez-Orallo (2012) and Hibbard (2011). 7 . With regard to technology research in areas like biotechnology and nanotechnology, what a superintelligence would excel at is the design and modeling of new structures. To the extent that design ingenuity and modeling cannot substitute for physical experimentation, the superintelligences performance advantage may be qualified by its level of access to the requisite experimental apparatus. 8 . E.g., Drexler (1992, 2013). 9 . A narrow-domain AI could of course have significant commercial applications, but this does not mean that it would have the economic productivity superpower. For example, even if a narrow-domain AI earned its owners several billions of dollars a year, this would still be four orders of magnitude less than the rest of the world economy. In order for the system directly and substantially to increase world product, an AI would need to be able to perform many kinds of work; that is, it would need competence in many domains. . The criterion does not rule out all scenarios in which the AI fails. For example, the AI might rationally take a gamble that has a high chance of failing. In this case, however, the criterion could take the form that (a) the AI should make an unbiased estimate of the gambles low chance of success and (b) there should be no better gamble available to the AI that we present- day humans can think of but that the AI overlooks. . Cf. Freitas (2000) and Vassar and Freitas (2006). . Yudkowsky (2008a). . Freitas (1980); Freitas and Merkle (2004, Chap. 3); Armstrong and Sandberg (2013). . See, e.g., Huffman and Pless (2003), Knill et al. (2000), Drexler (1986). . That is to say, the distance would be small on some natural metric, such as the logarithm of the size of the population that could be sustainably supported at subsistence level by a given level of capability if all resources were devoted to that end. . This estimate is based on the WMAP estimate of a cosmological baryon density of 9.910 30 g/cm 3 and assumes that 90% of the mass is intergalactic gas, that some 15% of the galactic mass is stars (about 80% of baryonic matter), and that the average star weighs in at 0.7 solar masses (Read and Trentham 2005; Carroll and Ostlie 2007). . Armstrong and Sandberg (2013). . Even at 100% of c (which is unattainable for objects with nonzero rest mass) the number of reachable galaxies is only about 610 9 . (Cf. Gott et al. [2005] and Heyl [2005].) We are assuming that our current understanding of the relevant physics is correct. It is hard to be very confident in any upper bound, since it is at least conceivable that a superintelligent civilization might extend its reach in some way that we take to be physically impossible (for instance, by building time machines, by spawning new inflationary universes, or by some other, as yet unimagined means). . The number of habitable planets per star is currently uncertain, so this is merely a crude estimate. Traub (2012) predicts that one-third of stars in spectral classes F, G, or K have at least one terrestrial planet in the habitable zone; see also Clavin (2012). FGK stars form about 22.7% of the stars in the solar neighborhood, suggesting that 7.6% of stars have potentially suitable planets. In addition, there might be habitable planets around the more numerous M stars (Gilster 2012). See also Robles et al. (2008). It would not be necessary to subject human bodies to the rigors of intergalactic travels. AIs could oversee the colonization process. Homo sapiens could be brought along as information, which the AIs could later use to instantiate specimens of our species. For example, genetic information could be synthesized into DNA, and a first generation of humans could be incubated, raised, and educated by AI guardians taking an anthropomorphic guise. . ONeill (1974). . Dyson (1960) claims to have gotten the basic idea from science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon (1937), who in turn might have been inspired by similar thoughts by J. D. Bernal (Dyson 1979, 211). . Landauers principle states that there is a minimum amount of energy required to change one bit of information, known as the Landauer limit, equal to kT ln 2, where k is the Boltzmann constant (1.3810 23 J/K) and T is the temperature. If we assume the circuitry is maintained at around 300 K, then 10 26 watts allows us to erase approximately 10 47 bits per second. (On the achievable efficiency of nanomechanical computational devices, see Drexler [1992]. See also Bradbury [1999]; Sandberg [1999]; irkovi [2004]. The foundations of Landauers principle are still somewhat in dispute; see, e.g., Norton [2011].) . Stars vary in their power output, but the Sun is a fairly typical main-sequence star. . A more detailed analysis might consider more closely what types of computation we are interested in. The number of serial computations that can be performed is quite limited, since a fast serial computer must be small in order to minimize communications lags within the different parts of the computer. There are also limits on the number of bits that can be stored, and, as we saw, on the number of irreversible computational steps (involving the erasure of information) that can be performed. . We are assuming here that there are no extraterrestrial civilizations that might get in the way. We are also assuming that the simulation hypothesis is false. See Bostrom (2003a). If either of these assumptions is incorrect, there may be important non-anthropogenic risksones that involve intelligent agency of a nonhuman sort. See also Bostrom (2003b, 2009c). . At least a wise singleton that grasped the idea of evolution could, in principle, have embarked on a eugenics program by means of which it could slowly have raised its level of collective intelligence. . Tetlock and Belkin (1996). . To be clear: colonizing and reengineering a large part of the accessible universe is not currently within our direct reach. Intergalactic colonization is far beyond todays technology. The point is that we could in principle use our present capabilities to develop the additional capabilities that would be needed, thus placing the accomplishment within our indirect reach. It is of course also true that humanity is not currently a singleton and that we do not know that we would never face intelligent opposition from some external power if we began to reengineer the accessible universe. To meet the wise-singleton sustainability threshold, however, it suffices that one possesses a capability set such that if a wise singleton facing no intelligent opposition had possessed this capability set then the colonization and reengineering of a large part of the accessible universe would be within its indirect reach. . Sometimes it might be useful to speak of two AIs as each having a given superpower. In an extended sense of the word, one could thus conceive of a superpower as something that an agent has relative to some field of action in this example, perhaps a field that includes all of human civilization but excludes the other AI. CHAPTER 7: THE SUPERINTELLIGENT WILL 1 . This is of course not to deny that differences that appear small visually can be functionally profound. 2 . Yudkowsky (2008a, 310). 3 . David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, thought that beliefs alone (say, about what is a good thing to do) cannot motivate action: some desire is required. This would support the orthogonality thesis by undercutting one possible objection to it, namely that sufficient intelligence might entail the acquisition of certain beliefs which would then necessarily produce certain motivations. However, although the orthogonality thesis can draw support from the Humean theory of motivation, it does not presuppose it. In particular, one need not maintain that beliefs alone can never motivate action. It would suffice to assume, for example, that an agentbe it ever so intelligentcan be motivated to pursue any course of action if the agent happens to have certain desires of some sufficient, overriding strength. Another way in which the orthogonality thesis could be true even if the Humean theory of motivation is false is if arbitrarily high intelligence does not entail the acquisition of any such beliefs as are (putatively) motivating on their own. A third way in which it might be possible for the orthogonality thesis to be true even if the Humean theory were false is if it is possible to build an agent (or more neutrally, an optimization process) with arbitrarily high intelligence but with constitution so alien as to contain no clear functional analogs to what in humans we call beliefs and desires. (For some recent attempts to defend the Humean theory of motivation see Smith [1987], Lewis [1988], and Sinhababu [2009].) 4 . For instance, Derek Parfit has argued that certain basic preferences would be irrational, such as that of an otherwise normal agent who has Future- Tuesday-Indifference: A certain hedonist cares greatly about the quality of his future experiences. With one exception, he cares equally about all the parts of his future. The exception is that he has Future-Tuesday-Indifference. Throughout every Tuesday he cares in the normal way about what is happening to him. But he never cares about possible pains or pleasures on a future Tuesday. This indifference is a bare fact. When he is planning his future, it is simply true that he always prefers the prospect of great suffering on a Tuesday to the mildest pain on any other day. (Parfit [1986, 1234]; see also Parfit [2011]) For our purposes, we need take no stand on whether Parfit is right that this agent is irrational, so long as we grant that it is not necessarily unintelligent in the instrumental sense explained in the text. Parfits agent could have impeccable instrumental rationality, and therefore great intelligence, even if he falls short on some kind of sensitivity to objective reason that might be required of a fully rational agent. Therefore, this kind of example does not undermine the orthogonality thesis. 5 . Even if there are objective moral facts that any fully rational agent would comprehend, and even if these moral facts are somehow intrinsically motivating (such that anybody who fully comprehends them is necessarily motivated to act in accordance with them), this need not undermine the orthogonality thesis. The thesis could still be true if an agent could have impeccable instrumental rationality even whilst lacking some other faculty constitutive of rationality proper, or some faculty required for the full comprehension of the objective moral facts. (An agent could also be extremely intelligent, even superintelligent, without having full instrumental rationality in every domain.) 6 . For more on the orthogonality thesis, see Bostrom (2012) and Armstrong (2013). 7 . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). 8 . Stephen Omohundro has written two pioneering papers on this topic (Omohundro 2007, 2008). Omohundro argues that all advanced AI systems are likely to exhibit a number of basic drives, by which he means tendencies which will be present unless explicitly counteracted. The term AI drive has the advantage of being short and evocative, but it has the disadvantage of suggesting that the instrumental goals to which it refers influence the AIs decision-making in the same way as psychological drives influence human decision-making, i.e. via a kind of phenomenological tug on our ego which our willpower may occasionally succeed in resisting. That connotation is unhelpful. One would not normally say that a typical human being has a drive to fill out their tax return, even though filing taxes may be a fairly convergent instrumental goal for humans in contemporary societies (a goal whose realization averts trouble that would prevent us from realizing many of our final goals). Our treatment here also differs from that of Omohundro in some other more substantial ways, although the underlying idea is the same. (See also Chalmers [2010] and Omohundro [2012].) 9 . Chislenko (1997). . See also Shulman (2010b). . An agent might also change its goal representation if it changes its ontology, in order to transpose its old representation into the new ontology; cf. de Blanc (2011). Another type of factor that might make an evidential decision theorist undertake various actions, including changing its final goals, is the evidential import of deciding to do so. For example, an agent that follows evidential decision theory might believe that there exist other agents like it in the universe, and that its own actions will provide some evidence about how those other agents will act. The agent might therefore choose to adopt a final goal that is altruistic towards those other evidentially linked agents, on grounds that this will give the agent evidence that those other agents will have chosen to act in like manner. An equivalent outcome might be obtained, however, without changing ones final goals, by choosing in each instant to act as if one had those final goals. . An extensive psychological literature explores adaptive preference formation. See, e.g., Forgas et al. (2010). . In formal models, the value of information is quantified as the difference between the expected value realized by optimal decisions made with that information and the expected value realized by optimal decisions made without it. (See, e.g., Russell and Norvig [2010].) It follows that the value of information is never negative. It also follows that any information you know will never affect any decision you will ever make has zero value for you. However, this kind of model assumes several idealizations which are often invalid in the real worldsuch as that knowledge has no final value (meaning that knowledge has only instrumental value and is not valuable for its own sake) and that agents are not transparent to other agents. . E.g., Hjek (2009). . This strategy is exemplified by the sea squirt larva, which swims about until it finds a suitable rock, to which it then permanently affixes itself. Cemented in place, the larva has less need for complex information processing, whence it proceeds to digest part of its own brain (its cerebral ganglion). One can observe the same phenomenon in some academics when they have been granted tenure. . Bostrom (2012). . Bostrom (2006c). . One could reverse the question and look instead at possible reasons for a superintelligent singleton not to develop some technological capabilities. These include the following: (a) the singleton foresees that it will have no use for the capability; (b) the development cost is too large relative to its anticipated utility (e.g. if the technology will never be suitable for achieving any of the singletons ends, or if the singleton has a very high discount rate that strongly discourages investment); (c) the singleton has some final value that requires abstention from particular avenues of technology development; (d) if the singleton is not certain it will remain stable, it might prefer to refrain from developing technologies that could threaten its internal stability or that would make the consequences of dissolution worse (for instance, a world government may not wish to develop technologies that would facilitate rebellion, even if they have some good uses, nor develop technologies for the easy production of weapons of mass destruction which could wreak havoc if the world government were to dissolve); (e) similarly, the singleton might have made some kind of binding strategic commitment not to develop some technology, a commitment that remains operative even if it would now be convenient to develop it. (Note, however, that some current reasons for technology development would not apply to a singleton: for instance, reasons arising from arms races.) . Suppose that an agent discounts resources obtained in the future at an exponential rate, and that because of the light speed limitation the agent can only increase its resource endowment at a polynomial rate. Would this mean that there will be some time after which the agent would not find it worthwhile to continue acquisitive expansion? No, because although the present value of the resources obtained at future times would asymptote to zero the further into the future we look, so would the present cost of obtaining them . The present cost of sending out one more von Neumann probe a 100 million years from now (possibly using some resource acquired some short time earlier) would be diminished by the same discount factor that would diminish the present value of the future resources that the extra probe would acquire (modulo a constant factor). . While the volume reached by colonization probes at a given time might be roughly spherical and expanding with a rate proportional to the square of time elapsed since the first probe was launched (~ t 2 ), the amount of resources contained within this volume will follow a less regular growth pattern, since the distribution of resources is inhomogeneous and varies over several scales. Initially, the growth rate might be ~ t 2 as the home planet is colonized; then the growth rate might become spiky as nearby planets and solar systems are colonized; then, as the roughly disc-shaped volume of the Milky Way gets filled out, the growth rate might even out, to be approximately proportional to t ; then the growth rate might again become spiky as nearby galaxies are colonized; then the growth rate might again approximate ~ t 2 as expansion proceeds on a scale over which the distribution of galaxies is roughly homogeneous; then another period of spiky growth followed by smooth ~ t 2 growth as galactic superclusters are colonized; until ultimately the growth rate starts a final decline, eventually reaching zero as the expansion speed of the universe increases to such an extent as to make further colonization impossible. . The simulation argument may be of particular importance in this context. A superintelligent agent may assign a significant probability to hypotheses according to which it lives in a computer simulation and its percept sequence is generated by another superintelligence, and this might generate various convergent instrumental reasons depending on the agents guesses about what types of simulations it is most likely to be in. Cf. Bostrom (2003a). . Discovering the basic laws of physics and other fundamental facts about the world is a convergent instrumental goal. We may place it under the rubric cognitive enhancement here, though it could also be derived from the technology perfection goal (since novel physical phenomena might enable novel technologies). CHAPTER 8: IS THE DEFAULT OUTCOME DOOM? 1 . Some additional existential risk resides in scenarios in which humanity survives in some highly suboptimal state or in which a large portion of our potential for desirable development is irreversibly squandered. On top of this, there may be existential risks associated with the lead-up to a potential intelligence explosion, arising, for example, from war between countries competing to develop superintelligence first. 2 . There is an important moment of vulnerability when the AI first realizes the need for such concealment (an event which we may term the conception of deception ). This initial realization would not itself be deliberately concealed when it occurs. But having had this realization, the AI might move swiftly to hide the fact that the realization has occurred, while setting up some covert internal dynamic (perhaps disguised as some innocuous process that blends in with all the other complicated processes taking place in its mind) that will enable it to continue to plan its long-term strategy in privacy. 3 . Even human hackers can write small and seemingly innocuous programs that do completely unexpected things. (For examples, see some the winning entries in the International Obfuscated C Code Contest.) 4 . The point that some AI control measures could appear to work within a fixed context yet fail catastrophically when the context changes is also emphasized by Eliezer Yudkowsky; see, e.g., Yudkowsky (2008a). 5 . The term seems to have been coined by science-fiction writer Larry Niven (1973), but is based on real-world brain stimulation reward experiments; cf. Olds and Milner (1954) and Oshima and Katayama (2010). See also Ring and Orseau (2011). 6 . Bostrom (1997). 7 . There might be some possible implementations of a reinforcement learning mechanism that would, when the AI discovers the wireheading solution, lead to a safe incapacitation rather than to infrastructure profusion. The point is that this could easily go wrong and fail for unexpected reasons. 8 . This was suggested by Marvin Minsky ( vide Russell and Norvig [2010, 1039]). 9 . The issue of which kinds of digital mind would be conscious, in the sense of having subjective phenomenal experience, or qualia in philosopher- speak, is important in relation to this point (though it is irrelevant to many other parts of this book). One open question is how hard it would be to accurately estimate how a human-like being would behave in various circumstances without simulating its brain in enough detail that the simulation is conscious. Another question is whether there are generally useful algorithms for a superintelligence, for instance reinforcement- learning techniques, such that the implementation of these algorithms would generate qualia. Even if we judge the probability that any such subroutines would be conscious to be fairly small, the number of instantiations might be so large that even a small risk that they might experience suffering ought to be accorded significant weight in our moral calculation. See also Metzinger (2003, Chap. 8). . Bostrom (2002a, 2003a); Elga (2004). CHAPTER 9: THE CONTROL PROBLEM 1 . E.g., Laffont and Martimort (2002). 2 . Suppose a majority of voters want their country to build some particular kind of superintelligence. They elect a candidate who promises to do their bidding, but they might find it difficult to ensure that the candidate, once in power, will follow through on her campaign promise and pursue the project in the way that the voters intended. Supposing she is true to her word, she instructs her government to contract with an academic or industry consortium to carry out the work; but again there are agency problems: the bureaucrats in the government department might have their own views about what should be done and may implement the project in a way that respects the letter but not the spirit of the leaders instructions. Even if the government department does its job faithfully, the contracted scientific partners might have their own separate agendas. The problem recurs on many levels. The director of one of the participating laboratories might lie awake worrying about a technician introducing an unsanctioned element into the designimagining Dr. T. R. Eason sneaking into his office late one night, logging into the project code base, rewriting a part of the seed AIs goal system. Where it was supposed to say serve humanity, it now says serve Dr. T. R. Eason. 3 . Even for superintelligence development, though, there could be a role for behavioral testingas one auxiliary element within a wider battery of safety measures. Should an AI misbehave in its developmental phase, something is clearly awrythough, importantly, the converse does not hold. 4 . In a classic exploit from 1975, Steven Dompier wrote a program for the Altair 8800 that took advantage of this effect (and the absence of shielding around the microcomputers case). Running the program caused the emission of electromagnetic waves that would produce music when one held a transistor radio close to the computer (Driscoll 2012). The young Bill Gates, who attended a demo, reported that he was impressed and mystified by the hack (Gates 1975). There are in any case plans to design future chips with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities (Greene 2012). 5 . It is no light matter to have held a conviction, which, had we had an opportunity to act upon it, could have resulted in the ruination of all our cosmic endowment. Perhaps one could argue for the following principle: if somebody has in the past been certain on N occasions that a system has been improved sufficiently to make it safe, and each time it was revealed that they were wrong, then on the next occasion they are not entitled to assign a credence greater than 1/( N + 1) to the system being safe. 6 . In one informal experiment, the role of the AI was played by an intelligent human. Another individual played the role of gatekeeper and was tasked with not letting the AI out of the box. The AI could communicate with the gatekeeper only by text and was given two hours to persuade the gatekeeper to let it out. In three cases out of five, with different individuals playing the gatekeeper, the AI escaped (Yudkowsky 2002). What a human can do, a superintelligence can do too. (The reverse, of course, does not hold. Even if the task for a real superintelligence were hardermaybe the gatekeepers would be more strongly motivated to refrain from releasing the AI than the individuals playing gatekeeper in the experimentthe superintelligence might still succeed where a human would fail.) 7 . One should not overstate the marginal amount of safety that could be gained in this way. Mental imagery can substitute for graphical display. Consider the impact books can have on peopleand books are not even interactive. 8 . See also Chalmers (2010). It would be a mistake to infer from this that there is no possible use in building a system that will never be observed by any outside entity. One might place a final value on what goes on inside such a system. Also, other people might have preferences about what goes on inside such a system, and might therefore be influenced by its creation or the promise of its creation. Knowledge of the existence of certain kinds of isolated systems (ones containing observers) can also induce anthropic uncertainty in outside observers, which may influence their behavior. 9 . One might wonder why social integration is considered a form of capability control. Should it not instead be classified as a motivation selection method on the ground that it involves seeking to influence a systems behavior by means of incentives? We will look closely at motivation selection presently; but, in answer to this question, we are construing motivation selection as a cluster of control methods that work by selecting or shaping a systems final goalsgoals sought for their own sakes rather than for instrumental reasons. Social integration does not target a systems final goals, so it is not motivation selection. Rather, social integration aims to limit the systems effective capabilities: it seeks to render the system incapable of achieving a certain set of outcomesoutcomes in which the system attains the benefits of defection without suffering the associated penalties (retribution, and loss of the gains from collaboration). The hope is that by limiting which outcomes the system is able to attain, the system will find that the most effective remaining means of realizing its final goals is to behave cooperatively. . This approach may be somewhat more promising in the case of an emulation believed to have anthropomorphic motivations. . I owe this idea to Carl Shulman. . Creating a cipher certain to withstand a superintelligent code-breaker is a nontrivial challenge. For example, traces of random numbers might be left in some observers brain or in the microstructure of the random generator, from whence the superintelligence can retrieve them; or, if pseudorandom numbers are used, the superintelligence might guess or discover the seed from which they were generated. Further, the superintelligence could build large quantum computers, or even discover unknown physical phenomena that could be used to construct new kinds of computers. . The AI could wire itself to believe that it had received a reward tokens, but this should not make it wirehead if it is designed to want the reward tokens (as opposed to wanting to be in a state in which it has certain beliefs about the reward tokens). . For the original article, see Bostrom (2003a). See also Elga (2004). . Shulman (2010a). . Basement-level reality presumably contains more computational resources than simulated reality, since any computational processes occurring in a simulation are also occurring on the computer running the simulation. Basement-level reality might also contain a wealth of other physical resources which could be hard for simulated agents to accessagents that exist only at the indulgence of powerful simulators who may have other uses in mind for those resources. (Of course, the inference here is not strictly deductively valid: in principle, it could be the case that universes in which simulations are run contain so much more resources that simulated civilizations on average have access to more resources than non-simulated civilizations, even though each non-simulated civilization that runs simulations has more resources than all the civilizations it simulates do combined.) . There are various further esoteric considerations that might bear on this matter, the implications of which have not yet been fully analyzed. These considerations may ultimately be crucially important in developing an all- things-considered approach to dealing with the prospect of an intelligence explosion. However, it seems unlikely that we will succeed in figuring out the practical import of such esoteric arguments unless we have first made some progress on the more mundane kinds of consideration that are the topic of most of this book. . Cf., e.g., Quine and Ullian (1978). . Which an AI might investigate by considering the performance characteristics of various basic computational functionalities, such as the size and capacity of various data buses, the time it takes to access different parts of memory, the incidence of random bit flips, and so forth. . Perhaps the prior could be (a computable approximation of) the Solomonoff prior, which assigns probability to possible worlds on the basis of their algorithmic complexity. See Li and Vitnyi (2008). . The moment after the conception of deception, the AI might contrive to erase the trace of its mutinous thought. It is therefore important that this tripwire operate continuously. It would also be good practice to use a flight recorder that stores a complete trace of all the AIs activity (including exact timing of keyboard input from the programmers), so that its trajectory can be retraced or analyzed following an automatic shutdown. The information could be stored on a write-once-read-many medium. . Asimov (1942). To the three laws were later added a Zeroth Law: (0) A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm (Asimov 1985). . Cf. Gunn (1982). . Russell (1986, 161f). . Similarly, although some philosophers have spent entire careers trying to carefully formulate deontological systems, new cases and consequences occasionally come to light that necessitate revisions. For example, deontological moral philosophy has in recent years been reinvigorated through the discovery of a fertile new class of philosophical thought experiments, trolley problems, which reveal many subtle interactions among our intuitions about the moral significance of the acts/omissions distinction, the distinction between intended and unintended consequences, and other such matters; see, e.g., Kamm (2007). . Armstrong (2010). . As a rule of thumb, if one plans to use multiple safety mechanisms to contain an AI, it may be wise to work on each one as if it were intended to be the sole safety mechanism and as if it were therefore required to be individually sufficient. If one puts a leaky bucket inside another leaky bucket, the water still comes out. . A variation of the same idea is to build the AI so that it is continuously motivated to act on its best guesses about what the implicitly defined standard is. In this setup, the AIs final goal is always to act on the implicitly defined standard, and it pursues an investigation into what this standard is only for instrumental reasons. CHAPTER 10: ORACLES, GENIES, SOVEREIGNS, TOOLS 1 . These names are, of course, anthropomorphic and should not be taken seriously as analogies. They are just meant as labels for some prima facie different concepts of possible system types that one might consider trying to build. 2 . In response to a question about the outcome of the next election, one would not wish to be served with a comprehensive list of the projected position and momentum vectors of nearby particles. 3 . Indexed to a particular instruction set on a particular machine. 4 . Kuhn (1962); de Blanc (2011). 5 . It would be harder to apply such a consensus method to genies or sovereigns, because there may often be numerous sequences of basic actions (such as sending particular patterns of electrical signals to the systems actuators) that would be almost exactly equally effective at achieving a given objective; whence slightly different agents may legitimately choose slightly different actions, resulting in a failure to reach consensus. By contrast, with appropriately formulated questions, there would usually be a small number of suitable answer options (such as yes and no). (On the concept of a Schelling point, also referred to as a focal point, see Schelling [1980].) 6 . Is not the world economy in some respects analogous to a weak genie, albeit one that charges for its services? A vastly bigger economy, such as might develop in the future, might then approximate a genie with collective superintelligence. One important respect in which the current economy is unlike a genie is that although I can (for a fee) command the economy to deliver a pizza to my door, I cannot command it to deliver peace. The reason is not that the economy is insufficiently powerful, but that it is insufficiently coordinated. In this respect, the economy resembles an assembly of genies serving different masters (with competing agendas) more than it resembles a single genie or any other type of unified agent. Increasing the total power of the economy by making each constituent genie more powerful, or by adding more genies, would not necessarily render the economy more capable of delivering peace. In order to function like a superintelligent genie, the economy would not only need to grow in its ability to inexpensively produce goods and services (including ones that require radically new technology), it would also need to become better able to solve global coordination problems. 7 . If the genie were somehow incapable of not obeying a subsequent commandand somehow incapable of reprogramming itself to get rid of this susceptibilitythen it could act to prevent any new command from being issued. 8 . Even an oracle that is limited to giving yes/no answers could be used to facilitate the search for a genie or sovereign AI, or indeed could be used directly as a component in such an AI. The oracle could also be used to produce the actual code for such an AI if a sufficiently large number of questions can be asked. A series of such questions might take roughly the following form: In the binary version of the code of the first AI that you thought of that would constitute a genie, is the n th symbol a zero? 9 . One could imagine a slightly more complicated oracle or genie that accepts questions or commands only if they are issued by a designated authority, though this would still leave open the possibility of that authority becoming corrupted or being blackmailed by a third party. . John Rawls, a leading political philosopher of the twentieth century, famously employed the expository device of a veil of ignorance as a way of characterizing the kinds of preference that should be taken into account in the formulation of a social contract. Rawls suggested that we should imagine we were choosing a social contract from behind a veil of ignorance that prevents us from knowing which person we will be and which social role we will occupy, the idea being that in such a situation we would have to think about which society would be generally fairest and most desirable without regard to our egoistic interests and self-serving biases that might otherwise make us prefer a social order in which we ourselves enjoy unjust privileges. See Rawls (1971). . Karnofsky (2012). . A possible exception would be software hooked up to sufficiently powerful actuators, such as software in early warning systems if connected directly to nuclear warheads or to human officers authorized to launch a nuclear strike. Malfunctions in such software can result in high-risk situations. This has happened at least twice within living memory. On November 9, 1979, a computer problem led NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) to make a false report of an incoming full-scale Soviet attack on the United States. The USA made emergency retaliation preparations before data from early-warning radar systems showed that no attack had been launched (McLean and Stewart 1979). On September 26, 1983, the malfunctioning Soviet Oko nuclear early-warning system reported an incoming US missile strike. The report was correctly identified as a false alarm by the duty officer at the command center, Stanislav Petrov: a decision that has been credited with preventing thermonuclear war (Lebedev 2004). It appears that a war would probably have fallen short of causing human extinction, even if it had been fought with the combined arsenals held by all the nuclear powers at the height of the Cold War, though it would have ruined civilization and caused unimaginable death and suffering (Gaddis 1982; Parrington 1997). But bigger stockpiles might be accumulated in future arms races, or even deadlier weapons might be invented, or our models of the impacts of a nuclear Armageddon (particularly of the severity of the consequent nuclear winter) might be wrong. . This approach could fit the category of a direct-specification rule-based control method. . The situation is essentially the same if the solution criterion specifies a goodness measure rather than a sharp cutoff for what counts as a solution. . An advocate for the oracle approach could insist that there is at least a possibility that the user would spot the flaw in the proffered solution recognize that it fails to match the users intent even while satisfying the formally specified success criteria. The likelihood of catching the error at this stage would depend on various factors, including how humanly understandable the oracles outputs are and how charitable it is in selecting which features of the potential outcome to bring to the users attention. Alternatively, instead of relying on the oracle itself to provide these functionalities, one might try to build a separate tool to do this, a tool that could inspect the pronouncements of the oracle and show us in a helpful way what would happen if we acted upon them. But to do to this in full generality would require another superintelligent oracle whose divinations we would then have to trust; so the reliability problem would not have been solved, only displaced. One might seek to gain an increment of safety through the use of multiple oracles to perform peer review, but this does not protect in cases where all the oracles fail in the same wayas may happen if, for instance, they have all been given the same formal specification of what counts as a satisfactory solution. . Bird and Layzell (2002) and Thompson (1997); also Yaeger (1994, 1314). . Williams (1966). . Leigh (2010). . This example is borrowed from Yudkowsky (2011). . Wade (1976). Computer experiments have also been conducted with simulated evolution designed to resemble aspects of biological evolution again with sometimes strange results (see, e.g., Yaeger [1994]). . With sufficiently greatfinite but physically implausibleamounts of computing power, it would probably be possible to achieve general superintelligence with currently available algorithms. (Cf., e.g., the AIXI tl system; Hutter [2001].) But even the continuation of Moores law for another hundred years would not suffice to attain the required levels of computing power to achieve this. CHAPTER 11: MULTIPOLAR SCENARIOS 1 . Not because this is necessarily the most likely or the most desirable type of scenario, but because it is the one easiest to analyze with the toolkit of standard economic theory, and thus a convenient starting point for our discussion. 2 . American Horse Council (2005). See also Salem and Rowan (2001). 3 . Acemoglu (2003); Mankiw (2009); Zuleta (2008). 4 . Fredriksen (2012, 8); Salverda et al. (2009, 133). 5 . It is also essential for at least some of the capital to be invested in assets that rise with the general tide. A diversified asset portfolio, such as shares in an index tracker fund, would increase the chances of not entirely missing out. 6 . Many of the European welfare systems are unfunded , meaning that pensions are paid from ongoing current workers contributions and taxes rather than from a pool of savings. Such schemes would not automatically meet the requirementin case of sudden massive unemployment, the revenues from which the benefits are paid could dry up. However, governments may choose to make up the shortfall from other sources. 7 . American Horse Council (2005). 8 . Providing 7 billion people an annual pension of $90,000 would cost $630 trillion a year, which is ten times the current world GDP. Over the last hundred years, world GDP has increased about nineteenfold from around $2 trillion in 1900 to 37 trillion in 2000 (in 1990 int. dollars) according to Maddison (2007). So if the growth rates we have seen over the past hundred years continued for the next two hundred years, while population remained constant, then providing everybody with an annual $90,000 pension would cost about 3% of world GDP. An intelligence explosion might make this amount of growth happen in a much shorter time span. See also Hanson (1998a, 1998b, 2008). 9 . And perhaps as much as a millionfold over the past 70,000 years if there was a severe population bottleneck around that time, as has been speculated. See Kremer (1993) and Huff et al. (2010) for more data. . Cochran and Harpending (2009). See also Clark (2007) and, for a critique, Allen (2008). . Kremer (1993). . Basten et al. (2013). Scenarios in which there is a continued rise are also possible. In general, the uncertainty of such projections increases greatly beyond one or two generations into the future. . Taken globally, the total fertility rate at replacement was 2.33 children per woman in 2003. This number comes from the fact that it takes two children per woman to replace the parents, plus a third of a child to make up for (1) the higher probability of boys being born, and (2) early mortality prior to the end of their fertile life. For developed nations, the number is smaller, around 2.1, because of lower mortality rates. (See Espenshade et al. [2003, Introduction, Table 1, 580].) The population in most developed countries would decline if it were not for immigration. A few notable examples of countries with sub-replacement fertility rates are: Singapore at 0.79 (lowest in the world), Japan at 1.39, Peoples Republic of China at 1.55, European Union at 1.58, Russia at 1.61, Brazil at 1.81, Iran at 1.86, Vietnam at 1.87, and the United Kingdom at 1.90. Even the U.S. population would probably decrease slightly with a fertility rate of 2.05. (See CIA [2013].) . The fullness of time might occur many billions of years from now. . Carl Shulman points out that if biological humans count on living out their natural lifespans alongside the digital economy, they need to assume not only that the political order in the digital sphere would be protective of human interests but that it would remain so over very long periods of time (Shulman 2012). For example, if events in the digital sphere unfolds a thousand times faster than on the outside, then a biological human would have to rely on the digital body politic holding steady for 50,000 years of internal change and churn. Yet if the digital political world were anything like ours, there would be a great many revolutions, wars, and catastrophic upheavals during those millennia that would probably inconvenience biological humans on the outside. Even a 0.01% risk per year of a global thermonuclear war or similar cataclysm would entail a near certain loss for the biological humans living out their lives in slowmo sidereal time. To overcome this problem, a more stable order in the digital realm would be required: perhaps a singleton that gradually improves its own stability. . One might think that even if machines were far more efficient than humans, there would still be some wage level at which it would be profitable to employ a human worker; say at 1 cent an hour. If this were the only source of income for humans, our species would go extinct since human beings cannot survive on 1 cent an hour. But humans also get income from capital. Now, if we are assuming that population grows until total income is at subsistence level, one might think this would be a state in which humans would be working hard. For example, suppose subsistence level income is $1/day. Then, it might seem, population would grow until per person capital provided only a 90 cents per day income, which people would have to supplement with ten hours of hard labor to make up the remaining 10 cents. However, this need not be so, because the subsistence level income depends on the amount of work that is done: harder-working humans burn more calories. Suppose that each hour of work increases food costs by 2 cents. We then have a model in which humans are idle in equilibrium. . It might be thought that a caucus as enfeebled as this would be unable to vote and to otherwise defend its entitlements. But the pod-dwellers could give power of attorney to AI fiduciaries to manage their affairs and represent their political interests. (This part of the discussion in this section is premised on the assumption that property rights are respected.) . It is unclear what is the best term. Kill may suggest more active brutality than is warranted. End may be too euphemistic. One complication is that there are two potentially separate events: ceasing to actively run a process, and erasing the information template. A human death normally involves both events, but for an emulation they can come apart. That a program temporarily ceases to run may be no more consequential than that a human sleeps: but to permanently cease running may be the equivalent of entering a permanent coma. Still further complications arise from the fact that emulations can be copied and that they can run at different speeds: possibilities with no direct analogs in human experience. (Cf. Bostrom [2006b]; Bostrom and Yudkowsky [forthcoming].) . There will be a trade-off between total parallel computing power and computational speed, as the highest computational speeds will be attainable only at the expense of a reduction in power efficiency. This will be especially true after one enters the era of reversible computing. . An emulation could be tested by leading it into temptation. By repeatedly testing how an emulation started from a certain prepared state reacts to various sequences of stimuli, one could obtain high confidence in the reliability of that emulation. But the further the mental state is subsequently allowed to develop away from its validated starting point, the less certain one could be that it would remain reliable. (In particular, since a clever emulation might surmise it is sometimes in a simulation, one would need to be cautious about extrapolating its behavior into situations where its simulation hypothesis would weigh less heavily in its decision-making.) . Some emulations might identify with their clani.e. all of their copies and variations derived from the same templaterather with any one particular instantiation. Such an emulation might not regard its own termination as a death event, if it knew that other clan members would survive. Emulations may know that they will get reverted to a particular stored state at the end of the day and lose that days memories, but be as little put off by this as the partygoer who knows she will awake the next morning without any recollection of the previous night: regarding this as retrograde amnesia, not death. . An ethical evaluation might take into account many other factors as well. Even if all the workers were constantly well pleased with their condition, the outcome might still be deeply morally objectionable on other grounds though which other grounds is a matter of dispute between rival moral theories. But any plausible assessment would consider subjective well- being to be one important factor. See also Bostrom and Yudkowsky (forthcoming). . World Values Survey (2008). . Helliwell and Sachs (2012). . Cf. Bostrom (2004). See also Chislenko (1996) and Moravec (1988). . It is hard to say whether the information-processing structures that would emerge in this kind of scenario would be conscious (in the sense of having qualia, phenomenal experience). The reason this is hard is partly our empirical ignorance about which cognitive entities would arise and partly our philosophical ignorance about which types of structure have consciousness. One could try to reframe the question, and instead of asking whether the future entities would be conscious, one could ask whether the future entities would have moral status; or one could ask whether they would be such that we have preferences about their well-being. But these questions may be no easier to answer than the question about consciousness in fact, they might require an answer to the consciousness question inasmuch as moral status or our preferences depend on whether the entity in question can subjectively experience its condition. . For an argument that both geological and human history manifest such a trend toward greater complexity, see Wright (2001). For an opposing argument (criticized in Chapter 9 of Wrights book), see Gould (1990). See also Pinker (2011) for an argument that we are witnessing a robust long- term trend toward decreasing violence and brutality. . For more on observation selection theory, see Bostrom (2002a). . Bostrom (2008a). A much more careful examination of the details of our evolutionary history would be needed to circumvent the selection effect. See, e.g., Carter (1983, 1993); Hanson (1998d); irkovi et al. (2010). . Kansa (2003). . E.g., Zahavi and Zahavi (1997). . See Miller (2000). . Kansa (2003). For a provocative take, see also Frank (1999). . It is not obvious how best to measure the degree of global political integration. One perspective would be that whereas a huntergatherer tribe might have integrated a hundred individuals into a decision-making entity, the largest political entities today contain more than a billion individuals. This would amount to a difference of seven orders of magnitude, with only one additional magnitude to go before the entire world population is contained within a single political entity. However, at the time when the tribe was the largest scale of integration, the world population was much smaller. The tribe might have contained as much as a thousandth of the individuals then living. This would make the increase in the scale of political integration as little as two orders of magnitude. Looking at the fraction of world population that is politically integrated, rather than at absolute numbers, seems appropriate in the present context (particularly as the transition to machine intelligence may cause a population explosion, of emulations or other digital minds). But there have also been developments in global institutions and networks of collaboration outside of formal state structures, which should also be taken into account. . One of the reasons for supposing that the first machine intelligence revolution will be swiftthe possible existence of a hardware overhang does not apply here. However, there could be other sources of rapid gain, such as a dramatic breakthrough in software associated with transitioning from emulation to purely synthetic machine intelligence. . Shulman (2010b). . How the pro et contra would balance out might depend on what kind of work the superorganism is trying to do, and how generally capable the most generally capable available emulation template is. Part of the reason many different types of human beings are needed in large organizations today is that humans who are very talented in many domains are rare. . It is of course very easy to make multiple copies of a software agent. But note that copying is not in general sufficient to ensure that the copies have the same final goals. In order for two agents to have the same final goals (in the relevant sense of same), the goals must coincide in their indexical elements. If Bob is selfish, a copy of Bob will likewise be selfish. Yet their goals do not coincide: Bob cares about Bob whereas Bob-copy cares about Bob-copy. . Shulman (2010b, 6). . This might be more feasible for biological humans and whole brain emulations than for arbitrary artificial intelligences, which might be constructed so as to have hidden compartments or functional dynamics that may be very hard to discover. On the other hand, AIs specifically built to be transparent should allow for more thoroughgoing inspection and verification than is possible with brain-like architectures. Social pressures may encourage AIs to expose their source code, and to modify themselves to render themselves transparentespecially if being transparent is a precondition to being trusted and thus to being given the opportunity to partake in beneficial transactions. Cf. Hall (2007). . Some other issues that seem relatively minor, especially in cases where the stakes are enormous (as they are for the key global coordination failures), include the search cost of finding policies that could be of mutual interest, and the possibility that some agents might have a basic preference for autonomy in a form that would be reduced by entering into comprehensive global treaties that have monitoring and enforcement mechanisms attached. . An AI might perhaps achieve this by modifying itself appropriately and then giving observers read-only access to its source code. A machine intelligence with a more opaque architecture (such as an emulation) might perhaps achieve it by publicly applying to itself some motivation selection method. Alternatively, an external coercive agency, such as a superorganism police force, might perhaps be used not only to enforce the implementation of a treaty reached between different parties, but also internally by a single party to commit itself to a particular course of action. . Evolutionary selection might have favored threat-ignorers and even characters visibly so highly strung that they would rather fight to the death than suffer the slightest discomfiture. Such a disposition might bring its bearer valuable signaling benefits. (Any such instrumental rewards of having the disposition need of course play no part in the agents conscious motivation: he may value justice or honor as ends in themselves.) . A definitive verdict on these matters, however, must await further analysis. There are various other potential complications which we cannot explore here. CHAPTER 12: ACQUIRING VALUES 1 . Various complications and modulations of this basic idea could be introduced. We discussed one variation in Chapter 8 that of a satisficing, as opposed to maximizing, agentand in the next chapter we briefly touch on the issue of alternative decision theories. However, such issues are not essential to the thrust of this subsection, so we will keep things simple by focusing here on the case of an expected utility-maximizing agent. 2 . Assuming the AI is to have a nontrivial utility function. It would be very easy to build an agent that always chooses an action that maximizes expected utility if its utility function is, e.g., the constant function U ( w ) = 0. Every action would equally well maximize expected utility relative to that utility function. 3 . Also because we have forgotten the blooming buzzing confusion of our early infancy, a time when we could not yet see very well because our brain had not yet learned to interpret its visual input. 4 . See also Yudkowsky (2011) and the review in section 5 of Muehlhauser and Helm (2012). 5 . It is perhaps just about conceivable that advances in software engineering could eventually overcome these difficulties. Using modern tools, a single programmer can produce software that would have been beyond the pale of a sizeable team of developers forced to write directly in machine code. Todays AI programmers gain expressiveness from the wide availability of high-quality machine learning and scientific calculation libraries, enabling someone to hack up, for instance, a unique-face-counting webcam application by chaining libraries together that they never could have written on their own. The accumulation of reusable software, produced by specialists but useable by non-specialists, will give future programmers an expressiveness advantage. For example, a future robotics programmer might have ready access to standard facial imprinting libraries, typical- office-building-object collections, specialized trajectory libraries, and many other functionalities that are currently unavailable. 6 . Dawkins (1995, 132). The claim here is not necessarily that the amount of suffering in the natural world outweighs the amount of positive well-being. 7 . Required population sizes might be much larger or much smaller than those that existed in our own ancestry. See Shulman and Bostrom (2012). 8 . If it were easy to get an equivalent result without harming large numbers of innocents, it would seem morally better to do so. If, nevertheless, digital persons are created and made to suffer unjust harm, it may be possible to compensate them for their suffering by saving them to file and later (when humanitys future is secured) rerunning them under more favorable conditions. Such restitution could be compared in some ways to religious conceptions of an afterlife in the context of theological attempts to address the evidential problem of evil. 9 . One of the fields leading figures, Richard Sutton, defines reinforcement learning not in terms of a learning method but in terms of a learning problem: any method that is well suited to solving that problem is considered a reinforcement learning method (Sutton and Barto 1998, 4). The present discussion, in contrast, pertains to methods where the agent can be conceived of as having the final goal of maximizing (some notion of) cumulative reward. Since an agent with some very different kind of final goal might be skilled at mimicking a reward-seeking agent in a wide range of situations, and could thus be well suited to solving reinforcement learning problems, there could be methods that would count as reinforcement learning methods on Suttons definition that would not result in a wireheading syndrome. The remarks in the text, however, apply to most of the methods actually used in the reinforcement learning community. . Even if, somehow, a human-like mechanism could be set up within a human- like machine intellect, the final goals acquired by this intellect need not resemble those of a well-adjusted human, unless the rearing environment for this digital baby also closely matched that of an ordinary child: something that would be difficult to arrange. And even with a human-like rearing environment, a satisfactory result would not be guaranteed, since even a subtle difference in innate dispositions can result in very different reactions to a life event. It may, however, be possible to create a more reliable value-accretion mechanism for human-like minds in the future (perhaps using novel drugs or brain implants, or their digital equivalents). . One might wonder why it appears we humans are not trying to disable the mechanism that leads us to acquire new final values. Several factors might be at play. First, the human motivation system is poorly described as a coldly calculating utility-maximizing algorithm. Second, we might not have any convenient means of altering the ways we acquire values. Third, we may have instrumental reasons (arising, e.g., from social signaling needs) for sometimes acquiring new final valuesinstrumental values might not be as useful if our minds are partially transparent to other people, or if the cognitive complexity of pretending to have a different set of final values than we actually do is too taxing. Fourth, there are cases where we do actively resist tendencies that produce changes in our final values, for instance when we seek to resist the corrupting influence of bad company. Fifth, there is the interesting possibility that we place some final value on being the kind of agent that can acquire new final values in normal human ways. . Or one might try to design the motivation system so that the AI is indifferent to such replacement; see Armstrong (2010). . We will here draw on some elucidations made by Daniel Dewey (2011). Other background ideas contributing to this framework have been developed by Marcus Hutter (2005) and Shane Legg (2008), Eliezer Yudkowsky (2001), Nick Hay (2005), Moshe Looks, and Peter de Blanc. . To avoid unnecessary complications, we confine our attention to deterministic agents that do not discount future rewards. . Mathematically, an agents behavior can be formalized as an agent function , which maps each possible interaction history to an action. Except for the very simplest agents, it is infeasible to represent the agent function explicitly as a lookup table. Instead, the agent is given some way of computing which action to perform. Since there are many ways of computing the same agent function, this leads to a finer individuation of an agent as an agent program . An agent program is a specific program or algorithm that computes an action for any given interaction history. While it is often mathematically convenient and useful to think of an agent program that interacts with some formally specified environment, it is important to remember that this is an idealization. Real agents are physically instantiated. This means not only that the agent interacts with the environment via its sensors and effectors, but also that the agents brain or controller is itself part of physical reality . Its operations can therefore in principle be affected by external physical interferences (and not only by receiving percepts from its sensors). At some point, therefore, it becomes necessary to view an agent as an agent implementation . An agent implementation is a physical structure that, in the absence of interference from its environment, implements an agent function. (This definition follows Dewey [2011].) . Dewey proposes the following optimality notion for a value learning agent: Here, P 1 and P 2 are two probability functions. The second summation ranges over some suitable class of utility functions over possible interaction histories. In the version presented in the text, we have made explicit some dependencies as well as availed ourselves of the simplifying possible worlds notation. . It should be noted that the set of utility functions should be such that utilities can be compared and averaged. In general, this is problematic, and it is not always obvious how to represent different moral theories of the good in terms of cardinal utility functions. See, e.g., MacAskill 2010). . Or more generally, since might not be such as to directly imply for any given pair of a possible world and a utility function ( w, U ) whether the proposition ( U ) is true in w , what needs to be done is to give the AI an adequate representation of the conditional probability distribution P (( U ) | w ). . Consider first , the class of actions that are possible for an agent. One issue here is what exactly should count as an action: only basic motor commands (e.g. send an electric pulse along output channel #00101100), or higher- level actions (e.g. keep camera centered on face)? Since we are trying to develop an optimality notion rather than a practical implementation plan, we may take the domain to be basic motor commands (and since the set of possible motor commands might change over time, we may need to index to time). However, in order to move toward implementation it will presumably be necessary to introduce some kind of hierarchical planning process, and one may then need to consider how to apply the formula to some class of higher-level actions. Another issue is how to analyze internal actions (such as writing strings to working memory). Since internal actions can have important consequences, one would ideally want to include such basic internal actions as well as motor commands. But there are limits to how far one can go in this direction: the computation of the expected utility of any action in requires multiple computational operations, and if each such operation were also regarded as an action in that needed to be evaluated according to AI-VL, we would face an infinite regress that would make it impossible to ever get started. To avoid the infinite regress, one must restrict any explicit attempt to estimate the expected utility to a limited number of significant action possibilities. The system will then need some heuristic process that identifies some significant action possibilities for further consideration. (Eventually the system might also get around to making explicit decisions regarding some possible actions to make modifications to this heuristic process, actions that might have been flagged for explicit attention by this self-same process; so that in the long run the system might become increasingly effective at approximating the ideal identified by AI-VL.) Consider next , which is a class of possible worlds. One difficulty here is to specify so that it is sufficiently inclusive. Failure to include some relevant w in could render the AI incapable of representing a situation that actually occurs, resulting in the AI making bad decisions. Suppose, for example, that we use some ontological theory to determine the makeup of . For instance, we include in all possible worlds that consist of a certain kind of spacetime manifold populated by elementary particles found in the standard model in particle physics. This could distort the AIs epistemology if the standard model is incomplete or incorrect. One could try to use a bigger -class to cover more possibilities; but even if one could ensure that every possible physical universe is included one might still worry that some other possibility would be left out. For example, what about the possibility of dualistic possible worlds in which facts about consciousness do not supervene on facts about physics? What about indexical facts? Normative facts? Facts of higher mathematics? What about other kinds of fact that we fallible humans might have overlooked but that could turn out to be important to making things go as well as possible? Some people have strong convictions that some particular ontological theory is correct. (Among people writing on the future of AI, a belief in a materialistic ontology, in which the mental supervenes on the physical, is often taken for granted.) Yet a moments reflection on the history of ideas should help us realize that there is a significant possibility that our favorite ontology is wrong. Had nineteenth-century scientists attempted a physics-inspired definition of , they would probably have neglected to include the possibility of a non-Euclidian spacetime or an Everettian (many-worlds) quantum theory or a cosmological multiverse or the simulation hypothesis possibilities that now appear to have a substantial probability of obtaining in the actual world. It is plausible that there are other possibilities to which we in the present generation are similarly oblivious. (On the other hand, if is too big, there arise technical difficulties related to having to assign measures over transfinite sets.) The ideal might be if we could somehow arrange things such that the AI could use some kind of open- ended ontology, one that the AI itself could subsequently extend using the same principles that we would use when deciding whether to recognize a new type of metaphysical possibility. Consider P ( w | Ey ). Specifying this conditional probability is not strictly part of the value-loading problem. In order to be intelligent, the AI must already have some way of deriving reasonably accurate probabilities over many relevant factual possibilities. A system that falls too far short on this score will not pose the kind of danger that concerns us here. However, there may be a risk that the AI will end up with an epistemology that is good enough to make the AI instrumentally effective yet not good enough to enable it to think correctly about some possibilities that are of great normative importance. (The problem of specifying P ( w | Ey ) is in this way related to the problem of specifying .) Specifying P ( w | Ey ) also requires confronting other issues, such as how to represent uncertainty over logical impossibilities. The aforementioned issueshow to define a class of possible actions, a class of possible worlds, and a likelihood distribution connecting evidence to classes of possible worldsare quite generic: similar issues arise for a wide range of formally specified agents. It remains to examine a set of issues more peculiar to the value learning approach; namely, how to define , V ( U ), and P ( V ( U ) | w ). is a class of utility functions. There is a connection between and inasmuch as each utility function U ( w ) in should ideally assign utilities to each possible world w in . But also needs to be wide in the sense of containing sufficiently many and diverse utility functions for us to have justified confidence that at least one of them does a good job of representing the intended values. The reason for writing P ( V ( U ) | w ) rather than simply P ( U | w ) is to emphasize the fact that probabilities are assigned to propositions. A utility function, per se, is not a proposition, but we can transform a utility function into a proposition by making some claim about it. For example, we may claim of a particular utility function U (.) that it describes the preferences of a particular person, or that it represents the prescriptions implied by some ethical theory, or that it is the utility function that the principal would have wished to have implemented if she had thought things through. The value criterion V (.) can thus be construed as a function that takes as its argument a utility function U and gives as its value a proposition to the effect that U satisfies the criterion V . Once we have defined a proposition V ( U ), we can hopefully obtain the conditional probability P ( V ( U )| w ) from whatever source we used to obtain the other probability distributions in the AI. (If we are certain that all normatively relevant facts are taken into account in individuating the possible worlds , then P ( V ( U )| w ) should equal zero or one in each possible world.) The question remains how to define V . This is discussed further in the text. . These are not the only challenges for the value learning approach. Another issue, for instance, is how to get the AI to have sufficiently sensible initial beliefsat least by the time it becomes strong enough to subvert the programmers attempts to correct it. . Yudkowsky (2001). . The term is taken from American football, where a Hail Mary is a very long forward pass made in desperation, typically when the time is nearly up, on the off chance that a friendly player might catch the ball near the end zone and score a touchdown. . The Hail Mary approach relies on the idea that a superintelligence could articulate its preferences with greater exactitude than we humans can articulate ours. For example, a superintelligence could specify its preference as code. So if our AI is representing other superintelligences as computational processes that are perceiving their environment, then our AI should be able to reason about how those alien superintelligences would respond to some hypothetical stimulus, such as a window popping up in their visual field presenting them with the source code of our own AI and asking them to specify their instructions to us in some convenient pre- specified format. Our AI could then read off these imaginary instructions (from its own model of this counterfactual scenario wherein these alien superintelligences are represented), and we would have built our AI so that it would be motivated to follow those instructions. . An alternative would be to create a detector that looks (within our AIs world model) for (representations of) physical structures created by a superintelligent civilization. We could then bypass the step of identifying the hypothesized superintelligences preference functions, and give our own AI the final value of trying to copy whatever physical structures it believes superintelligent civilizations tend to produce. There are technical challenges with this version, too, however. For instance, since our own AI, even after it has attained superintelligence, may not be able to know with great precision what physical structures other superintelligences build, our AI may need to resort to trying to approximate those structures. To do this, it would seem our AI would need a similarity metric by which to judge how closely one physical artifact approximates another. But similarity metrics based on crude physical measures may be inadequateit being no good, for example, to judge that a brain is more similar to a Camembert cheese than to a computer running an emulation. A more feasible approach might be to look for beacons: messages about utility functions encoded in some suitable simple format. We would build our AI to want to follow whatever such messages about utility functions it hypothesizes might exist out there in the universe; and we would hope that friendly extraterrestrial AIs would create a variety of beacons of the types that they (with their superintelligence) reckon that simple civilizations like ours are most likely to build our AI to look for. . If every civilization tried to solve the value-loading problem through a Hail Mary, the pass would fail. Somebody has to do it the hard way. . Christiano (2012). . The AI we build need not be able to find the model either. Like us, it could reason about what such a complex implicit definition would entail (perhaps by looking at its environment and following much the same kind of reasoning that we would follow). . Cf. Chapters 9 and 11 . . For instance, MDMA may temporarily increase empathy; oxytocin may temporarily increase trust (Vollenweider et al. 1998; Bartz et al. 2011). However, the effects seem quite variable and context dependent. . The enhanced agents might be killed off or placed in suspended animation (paused), reset to an earlier state, or disempowered and prevented from receiving any further enhancements, until the overall system has reached a more mature and secure state where these earlier rogue elements no longer pose a system-wide threat. . The issue might also be less obvious in a future society of biological humans, one that has access to advanced surveillance or biomedical techniques for psychological manipulation, or that is wealthy enough to afford an extremely high ratio of security professionals to invigilate the regular citizenry (and each other). . Cf. Armstrong (2007) and Shulman (2010b). . One open question is to what degree a level n supervisor would need to monitor not only their level ( n 1 ) supervisees, but also their level ( n 2 ) supervisees, in order to know that the level ( n 1 ) agents are doing their jobs properly. And to know that the level ( n 1 ) agents have successfully managed the level ( n 2 ) agents, is it further necessary for the level n agent to also monitor the level ( n 3 ) agents? . This approach straddles the line between motivation selection and capability control. Technically, the part of the arrangement that consists of human beings controlling a set of software supervisors counts as capability control, whereas the part of the arrangement that consists of layers of software agents within the system controlling other layers is motivation selection (insofar as it is an arrangement that shapes the systems motivational tendencies). . In fact, many other costs deserve consideration but cannot be given it here. For example, whatever agents are charged with ruling over such a hierarchy might become corrupted or debased by their power. . For this guarantee to be effective, it must be implemented in good faith. This would rule out certain kinds of manipulation of the emulations emotional and decision-making faculties which might otherwise be used (for instance) to install a fear of being halted or to prevent the emulation from rationally considering its options. . See, e.g., Brinton (1965); Goldstone (1980, 2001). (Social science progress on these questions could make a nice gift to the worlds despots, who might use more accurate predictive models of social unrest to optimize their population control strategies and to gently nip insurgencies in the bud with less-lethal force.) . Cf. Bostrom (2011a, 2009b). . In the case of an entirely artificial system, it might be possible to obtain some of the advantages of an institutional structure without actually creating distinct subagents. A system might incorporate multiple perspectives into its decision process without endowing each of those perspectives with its own panoply of cognitive faculties required for independent agency. It could be tricky, however, to fully implement the observe the behavioral consequences of a proposed change, and revert back to an earlier version if the consequences appear undesirable from the ex ante standpoint feature described in the text in a system that is not composed of subagents. CHAPTER 13: CHOOSING THE CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING 1 . A recent canvass of professional philosophers found the percentage of respondents who accept or leans toward various positions. On normative ethics, the results were deontology 25.9%; consequentialism 23.6%; virtue ethics 18.2%. On metaethics, results were moral realism 56.4%; moral anti- realism 27.7%. On moral judgment: cognitivism 65.7%; non-cognitivism 17.0% (Bourget and Chalmers 2009). 2 . Pinker (2011). 3 . For a discussion of this issue, see Shulman et al. (2009). 4 . Moore (2011). 5 . Bostrom (2006b). 6 . Bostrom (2009b). 7 . Bostrom (2011a). 8 . More precisely, we should defer to its opinion except on those topics where we have good reason to suppose that our beliefs are more accurate. For example, we might know more about what we are thinking at a particular moment than the superintelligence does if it is not able to scan our brains. However, we could omit this qualification if we assume that the superintelligence has access to our opinions; we could then also defer to the superintelligence the task of judging when our opinions should be trusted. (There might remain some special cases, involving indexical information, that need to be handled separatelyby, for example, having the superintelligence explain to us what it would be rational to believe from our perspective.) For an entry into the burgeoning philosophical literature on testimony and epistemic authority, see, e.g., Elga (2007). 9 . Yudkowsky (2004). See also Mijic (2010). . For example, David Lewis proposed a dispositional theory of value , which holds, roughly, that some thing X is a value for A if and only if A would want to want X if A were perfectly rational and ideally acquainted with X (Smith et al. 1989). Kindred ideas had been put forward earlier; see, e.g., Sen and Williams (1982), Railton (1986), and Sidgwick and Jones (2010). Along somewhat similar lines, one common account of philosophical justification, the method of reflective equilibrium , proposes a process of iterative mutual adjustment between our intuitions about particular cases, the general rules which we think govern these cases, and the principles according to which we think these elements should be revised, to achieve a more coherent system; see, e.g., Rawls (1971) and Goodman (1954). . Presumably the intention here is that when the AI acts to prevent such disasters, it should do it with as light a touch as possible , i.e. in such a manner that it averts the disaster but without exerting too much influence over how things turn out for humanity in other respects. . Yudkowsky (2004). . Rebecca Roache, personal communication. . The three principles are Defend humans, the future of humanity, and humane nature ( humane here being that which we wish we were, as distinct from human , which is what we are); Humankind should not spend the rest of eternity desperately wishing that the programmers had done something differently; and Help people. . Some religious groups place a strong emphasis on faith in contradistinction to reason, the latter of which they may regardeven in its hypothetically most idealized form and even after it would have ardently and open- mindedly studied every scripture, revelation, and exegesisto be insufficient for the attainment of essential spiritual insights. Those holding such views might not regard CEV as an optimal guide to decision-making (though they might still prefer it to various other imperfect guides that might in actuality be followed if the CEV approach were eschewed). . An AI acting like a latent force of nature to regulate human interactions has been referred to as a Sysop, a kind of operating system for the matter occupied by human civilization. See Yudkowsky (2001). . Might , because conditional on humanitys coherent extrapolated volition wishing not to extend moral consideration to these entities, it is perhaps doubtful whether those entities actually have moral status (despite it seeming very plausible now that they do). Potentially , because even if a blocking vote prevents the CEV dynamic from directly protecting these outsiders, there is still a possibility that, within whatever ground rules are left over once the initial dynamic has run, individuals whose wishes were respected and who want some outsiders welfare to be protected may successfully bargain to attain this outcome (at the expense of giving up some of their own resources). Whether this would be possible might depend on, among other things, whether the outcome of the CEV dynamic is a set of ground rules that makes it feasible to reach negotiated resolutions to issues of this kind (which might require provisions to overcome strategic bargaining problems). . Individuals who contribute positively to realizing a safe and beneficial superintelligence might merit some special reward for their labour, albeit something short of a near-exclusive mandate to determine the disposition of humanitys cosmic endowment. However, the notion of everybody getting an equal share in our extrapolation base is such a nice Schelling point that it should not be lightly tossed away. There is, in any case, an indirect way in which virtue could be rewarded: namely, the CEV itself might turn out to specify that good people who exerted themselves on behalf of humanity should be suitably recognized. This could happen without such people being given any special weight in the extrapolation base ifas is easily imaginableour CEV would endorse (in the sense of giving at least some nonzero weight to) a principle of just desert. . Bostrom et al. (2013). . To the extent that there is some (sufficiently definite) shared meaning that is being expressed when we make moral assertions, a superintelligence should be able to figure out what that meaning is. And to the extent that moral assertions are truth-apt (i.e. have an underlying propositional character that enables them to be true or false), the superintelligence should be able to figure out which assertions of the form Agent X ought now to are true. At least, it should outperform us on this task. An AI that initially lacks such a capacity for moral cognition should be able to acquire it if it has the intelligence amplification superpower. One way the AI could do this is by reverse-engineering the human brains moral thinking and then implement a similar process but run it faster, feed it more accurate factual information, and so forth. . Since we are uncertain about metaethics, there is a question of what the AI is to do if the preconditions for MR fail to obtain. One option is to stipulate that the AI shut itself off if it assigns a sufficiently high probability to moral cognitivism being false or to there being no suitable non-relative moral truths. Alternatively, we could have the AI revert to some alternative approach, such as CEV. We could refine the MR proposal to make it clearer what is to be done in various ambiguous or degenerate cases. For instance, if error theory is true (and hence all positive moral assertions of the form I ought now to are false), then the fallback strategy (e.g. shutting down) would be invoked. We could also specify what should happen if there are multiple feasible actions, each of which would be morally right. For example, we might say that in such cases the AI should perform (one of) the permissible actions that humanitys collective extrapolation would have favored. We might also stipulate what should happen if the true moral theory does not employ terms like morally right in its basic vocabulary. For instance, a consequentialist theory might hold that some actions are better than others but that there is no particular threshold corresponding to the notion of an action being morally right. We could then say that if such a theory is correct, MR should perform one of the morally best feasible actions, if there is one; or, if there is an infinite number of feasible actions such that for any feasible action there is a better one, then maybe MR could pick any that is at least astronomically better than the best action that any human would have selected in a similar situation, if such an action is feasibleor if not, then an action that is at least as good as the best action a human would have performed. A couple of general points should be borne in mind when thinking about how the MR proposal could be refined. First, we might start conservatively, using the fallback option to cover almost all contingencies and only use the morally right option in those that we feel we fully understand. Second, we might add the general modulator to the MR proposal that it is to be interpreted charitably, and revised as we would have revised it if we had thought more carefully about it before we wrote it down, etc. . Of these terms, knowledge might seem the one most readily susceptible to a formal analysis (in information-theoretic terms). However, to represent what it is for a human to know something, the AI may need a sophisticated set of representations relating to complex psychological properties. A human being does not know all the information that is stored somewhere in her brain. . One indicator that the terms in CEV are (marginally) less opaque is that it would count as philosophical progress if we could analyze moral rightness in terms like those used in CEV. In fact, one of the main strands in metaethicsideal observer theorypurports to do just that. See, e.g., Smith et al. (1989). . This requires confronting the problem of fundamental normative uncertainty. It can be shown that it is not always appropriate to act according to the moral theory that has the highest probability of being true. It can also be shown that it is not always appropriate to perform the action that has the highest probability of being right. Some way of trading probabilities against degrees of wrongness or severity of issues at stake seems to be needed. For some ideas in this direction, see Bostrom (2009a). . It could possibly even be argued that it is an adequacy condition for any explication of the notion of moral rightness that it account for how Joe Sixpack is able to have some idea of right and wrong. . It is not obvious that the morally right thing for us to do is to build an AI that implements MR, even if we assume that the AI itself would always act morally. Perhaps it would be objectionably hubristic or arrogant of us to build such an AI (especially since many people may disapprove of that project). This issue can be partially finessed by tweaking the MR proposal. Suppose that we stipulate that the AI should act (to do what it would be morally right for it to do) only if it was morally right for its creators to have built the AI in the first place; otherwise it should shut itself down. It is hard to see how we would be committing any grave moral wrong in creating that kind of AI, since if it were wrong for us to create it, the only consequence would be that an AI was created that immediately shuts itself down, assuming that the AI has committed no mind crime up to that point. (We might nevertheless have acted wronglyfor instance, by having failed to seize the opportunity to build some other AI instead.) A second issue is supererogation. Suppose there are many actions the AI could take, each of which would be morally rightin the sense of being morally permissible yet some of which are morally better than the others. One option is to have the AI aim to select the morally best action in any such a situation (or one of the best actions, in case there are several that are equally good). Another option is to have the AI select from among the morally permissible actions one that maximally satisfies some other (non- moral) desideratum. For example, the AI could select, from among the actions that are morally permissible, the action that our CEV would prefer it to take. Such an AI, while never doing anything that is morally impermissible, might protect our interests more than an AI that does what is morally best. . When the AI evaluates the moral permissibility of our act of creating the AI, it should interpret permissibility in its objective sense. In one ordinary sense of morally permissible, a doctor acts morally permissibly when she prescribes a drug she believes will cure her patienteven if the patient, unbeknownst to the doctor, is allergic to the drug and dies as a result. Focusing on objective moral permissibility takes advantage of the presumably superior epistemic position of the AI. . More directly, it depends on the AIs beliefs about which ethical theory is true (or, more precisely, on its probability distribution over ethical theories). . It can be difficult to imagine how superlatively wonderful these physically possible lives might be. See Bostrom (2008c) for a poetic attempt to convey some sense of this. See Bostrom (2008b) for an argument that some of these possibilities could be good for us , good for existing human beings. . It might seem deceptive or manipulative to promote one proposal if one thinks that some other proposal would be better. But one could promote it in ways that avoid insincerity. For example, one could freely acknowledge the superiority of the ideal while still promoting the non-ideal as the best attainable compromise. . Or some other positively evaluative term, such as good, great, or wonderful. . This echoes a principle in software design known as Do What I Mean, or DWIM. See Teitelman (1966). . Goal content, decision theory, and epistemology are three aspects that should be elucidated; but we do not intend to beg the question of whether there must be a neat decomposition into these three separate components. . An ethical project ought presumably to allocate at most a modest portion of the eventual benefits that the superintelligence produces as special rewards to those who contributed in morally permissible ways to the projects success. Allocating a great portion to the incentive wrapping scheme would be unseemly. It would be analogous to a charity that spends 90% of its income on performance bonuses for its fundraisers and on advertising campaigns to increase donations. . How could the dead be rewarded? One can think of several possibilities. At the low end, there could be memorial services and monuments, which would be a reward insofar as people desired posthumous fame. The deceased might also have other preferences about the future that could be honored, for instance concerning cultures, arts, buildings, or natural environments. Furthermore, most people care about their descendants, and special privileges could be granted to the children and grandchildren of contributors. More speculatively, the superintelligence might be able to create relatively faithful simulations of some past peoplesimulations that would be conscious and that would resemble the original sufficiently to count as a form of survival (according to at least some peoples criteria). This would presumably be easier for people who have been placed in cryonic suspension; but perhaps for a superintelligence it would not be impossible to recreate something quite similar to the original person from other preserved records such as correspondence, publications, audiovisual materials and digital records, or the personal memories of other survivors. A superintelligence might also think of some possibilities that do not readily occur to us. . On Pascalian mugging, see Bostrom (2009b). For an analysis of issues related to infinite utilities, see Bostrom (2011a). On fundamental normative uncertainty, see, e.g., Bostrom (2009a). . E.g., Price (1991); Joyce (1999); Drescher (2006); Yudkowsky (2010); Dai (2009). . E.g., Bostrom (2009a). . It is also conceivable that using indirect normativity to specify the AIs goal content would mitigate the problems that might arise from an incorrectly specified decision theory. Consider, for example, the CEV approach. If it were implemented well, it might be able to compensate for at least some errors in the specification of the AIs decision theory. The implementation could allow the values that our coherent extrapolated volition would want the AI to pursue to depend on the AIs decision theory. If our idealized selves knew they were making value specifications for an AI that was using a particular kind of decision theory, they could adjust their value specifications such as to make the AI behave benignly despite its warped decision theorymuch like one can cancel out the distorting effects of one lens by placing another lens in front of it that distorts oppositely. . Some epistemological systems may, in a holistic manner, have no distinct foundation. In that case, the constitutional inheritance is not a distinct set of principles, but rather, as it were, an epistemic starting point that embodies certain propensities to respond to incoming streams of evidence. . See, e.g., the problem of distortion discussed in Bostrom (2011a). . For instance, one disputed issue in anthropic reasoning is whether the so- called self-indication assumption should be accepted. The self-indication assumption states, roughly, that from the fact that you exist you should infer that hypotheses according to which larger numbers N of observers exist should receive a probability boost proportional to N . For an argument against this principle, see the Presumptuous Philosopher gedanken experiment in Bostrom (2002a). For a defense of the principle, see Olum (2002); and for a critique of that defense, see Bostrom and irkovi (2003). Beliefs about the self-indication assumption might affect various empirical hypotheses of potentially crucial strategic relevance, for example, considerations such as the CarterLeslie doomsday argument, the simulation argument, and great filter arguments. See Bostrom (2002a, 2003a, 2008a); Carter (1983); irkovi et al. (2010); Hanson (1998d); Leslie (1996); Tegmark and Bostrom (2005). A similar point could be made with regard to other fraught issues in observation selection theory, such as whether the choice of reference class can be relativized to observer- moments, and if so how. . See, e.g., Howson and Urbach (1993). There are also some interesting results that narrow the range of situations in which two Bayesian agents can rationally disagree when their opinions are common knowledge; see Aumann (1976) and Hanson (2006). . Cf. the concept of a last judge in Yudkowsky (2004). . There are many important issues outstanding in epistemology, some mentioned earlier in the text. The point here is that we may not need to get all the solutions exactly right in order to achieve an outcome that is practically indiscernible from the best outcome. A mixture model (which throws together a wide range of diverse priors) might work. CHAPTER 14: THE STRATEGIC PICTURE 1 . This principle is introduced in Bostrom (2009b, 190), where it is also noted that it is not tautological. For a visual analogy, picture a box with large but finite volume, representing the space of basic capabilities that could be obtained through some possible technology. Imagine sand being poured into this box, representing research effort. How you pour the sand determines where it piles up in the box. But if you keep on pouring, the entire space eventually gets filled. 2 . Bostrom (2002b). 3 . This is not the perspective from which science policy has traditionally been viewed. Harvey Averch describes science and technology policy in the United States between 1945 and 1984 as having been centered on debates about the optimum level of public investment in the S&T enterprise and on the extent to which the government should attempt to pick winners in order to achieve the greatest increase in the nations economic prosperity and military strength. In these calculations, technological progress is always assumed to be good. But Averch also describes the rise of critical perspectives, which question the progress is always good premiss (Averch 1985). See also Graham (1997). 4 . Bostrom (2002b). 5 . This is of course by no means tautological. One could imagine a case being made for a different order of development. It could be argued that it would be better for humanity to confront some less difficult challenge first, say the development of nanotechnology, on grounds that this would force us to develop better institutions, become more internationally coordinated, and mature in our thinking about global strategy. Perhaps we would be more likely to rise to a challenge that presents a less metaphysically confusing threat than machine superintelligence. Nanotechnology (or synthetic biology, or whatever the lesser challenge we confront first) might then serve as a footstool that would help us ascend to the capability level required to deal with the higher-level challenge of superintelligence. Such an argument would have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. For example, in the case of nanotechnology, one would have to consider various possible consequences such as the boost in hardware performance from nanofabricated computational substrates; the effects of cheap physical capital for manufacturing on economic growth; the proliferation of sophisticated surveillance technology; the possibility that a singleton might emerge though the direct or indirect effects of a nanotechnology breakthrough; and the greater feasibility of neuromorphic and whole brain emulation approaches to machine intelligence. It is beyond the scope of our investigation to consider all these issues (or the parallel issues that might arise for other existential risk-causing technologies). Here we just point out the prima facie case for favoring a superintelligence-first sequence of developmentwhile stressing that there are complications that might alter this preliminary assessment in some cases. 6 . Pinker (2011); Wright (2001). 7 . It might be tempting to suppose the hypothesis that everything has accelerated to be meaningless on grounds that it does not (at first glance) seem to have any observational consequences; but see, e.g., Shoemaker (1969). 8 . The level of preparedness is not measured by the amount of effort expended on preparedness activities, but by how propitiously configured conditions actually are and how well-poised key decision makers are to take appropriate action. 9 . The degree of international trust during the lead-up to the intelligence explosion may also be a factor. We consider this in the section Collaboration later in the chapter. . Anecdotally, it appears those currently seriously interested in the control problem are disproportionately sampled from one extreme end of the intelligence distribution, though there could be alternative explanations for this impression. If the field becomes fashionable, it will undoubtedly be flooded with mediocrities and cranks. . I owe this term to Carl Shulman. . How similar to a brain does a machine intelligence have to be to count as a whole brain emulation rather than a neuromorphic AI? The relevant determinant might be whether the system reproduces either the values or the full panoply of cognitive and evaluative tendencies of either a particular individual or a generic human being, because this would plausibly make a difference to the control problem. Capturing these properties may require a rather high degree of emulation fidelity. . The magnitude of the boost would of course depend on how big the push was, and also where resources for the push came from. There might be no net boost for neuroscience if all the extra resources invested in whole brain emulation research were deducted from regular neuroscience research unless a keener focus on emulation research just happened to be a more effective way of advancing neuroscience than the default portfolio of neuroscience research. . See Drexler (1986, 242). Drexler (private communication) confirms that this reconstruction corresponds to the reasoning he was seeking to present. Obviously, a number of implicit premisses would have to be added if one wished to cast the argument in the form of a deductively valid chain of reasoning. . Perhaps we ought not to welcome small catastrophes in case they increase our vigilance to the point of making us prevent the medium-scale catastrophes that would have been needed to make us take the strong precautions necessary to prevent existential catastrophes? (And of course, just as with biological immune systems, we also need to be concerned with over-reactions, analogous to allergies and autoimmune disorders.) . Cf. Lenman (2000); Burch-Brown (2014). . Cf. Bostrom (2007). . Note that this argument focuses on the ordering rather than the timing of the relevant events. Making superintelligence happen earlier would help preempt other existential transition risks only if the intervention changes the sequence of the key developments: for example, by making superintelligence happen before various milestones are reached in nanotechnology or synthetic biology. . If solving the control problem is extremely difficult compared to solving the performance problem in machine intelligence, and if project ability correlates only weakly with project size, then it is possible that it would be better that a small project gets there first, namely if the variance in capability is greater among smaller projects. In such a situation, even if smaller projects are on average less competent than larger projects, it could be less unlikely that a given small project would happen to have the freakishly high level of competence needed to solve the control problem. . This is not to deny that one can imagine tools that could promote global deliberation and which would benefit from, or even require, further progress in hardwarefor example, high-quality translation, better search, ubiquitous access to smart phones, attractive virtual reality environments for social intercourse, and so forth. . Investment in emulation technology could speed progress toward whole brain emulation not only directly (through any technical deliverables produced) but also indirectly by creating a constituency that will push for more funding and boost the visibility and credibility of the whole brain emulation (WBE) vision. . How much expected value would be lost if the future were shaped by the desires of one random human rather than by (some suitable superposition of) the desires of all of humanity? This might depend sensitively on what evaluation standard we use, and also on whether the desires in question are idealized or raw. . For example, whereas human minds communicate slowly via language, AIs can be designed so that instances of the same program are able easily and quickly to transfer both skills and information amongst one another. Machine minds designed ab initio could do away with cumbersome legacy systems that helped our ancestors deal with aspects of the natural environment that are unimportant in cyberspace. Digital minds might also be designed to take advantage of fast serial processing unavailable to biological brains, and to make it easy to install new modules with highly optimized functionality (e.g. symbolic processing, pattern recognition, simulators, data mining, and planning). Artificial intelligence might also have significant non-technical advantages, such as being more easily patentable or less entangled in the moral complexities of using human uploads. . If p 1 and p 2 are the probabilities of failure at each step, the total probability of failure is p 1 + (1 p 1 ) p 2 since one can fail terminally only once. . It is possible, of course, that the frontrunner will not have such a large lead and will not be able to form a singleton. It is also possible that a singleton would arise before AI even without the intervention of WBE, in which case this reason for favoring a WBE-first scenario falls away. . Is there a way for a promoter of WBE to increase the specificity of her support so that it accelerates WBE while minimizing the spillover to AI development? Promoting scanning technology is probably a better bet than promoting neurocomputational modeling. (Promoting computer hardware is unlikely to make much difference one way or the other, given the large commercial interests that are anyway incentivizing progress in that field.) Promoting scanning technology may increase the likelihood of a multipolar outcome by making scanning less likely to be a bottleneck, thus increasing the chance that the early emulation population will be stamped from many different human templates rather than consisting of gazillions of copies of a tiny number of templates. Progress in scanning technology also makes it more likely that the bottleneck will instead be computing hardware, which would tend to slow the takeoff. . Neuromorphic AI may also lack other safety-promoting attributes of whole brain emulation, such as having a profile of cognitive strengths and weaknesses similar to that of a biological human being (which would let us use our experience of humans to form some expectations of the systems capabilities at different stages of its development). . If somebodys motive for promoting WBE is to make WBE happen before AI, they should bear in mind that accelerating WBE will alter the order of arrival only if the default timing of the two paths toward machine intelligence is close and with a slight edge to AI. Otherwise, either investment in WBE will simply make WBE happen earlier than it otherwise would (reducing hardware overhang and preparation time) but without affecting the sequence of development; or else such investment in WBE will have little effect (other than perhaps making AI happen even sooner by stimulating progress on neuromorphic AI). . Comment on Hanson (2009). . There would of course be some magnitude and imminence of existential risk for which it would be preferable even from the person-affecting perspective to postpone the riskwhether to enable existing people to eke out a bit more life before the curtain drops or to provide more time for mitigation efforts that might reduce the danger. . Suppose we could take some action that would bring the intelligence explosion closer by one year. Let us say that the people currently inhabiting the Earth are dying off at a rate of 1% per year, and that the default risk of human extinction from the intelligence explosion is 20% (to pick an arbitrary number for the purposes of illustration only). Then hastening the arrival of the intelligence explosion by 1 year might be worth (from a person-affecting standpoint) an increase in the risk from 20% to 21%, i.e. a 5% increase in risk level. However, the vast majority of people alive one year before the start of the intelligence explosion would at that point have an interest in postponing it if they could thereby reduce the risk of the explosion by one percentage point (since most individuals would reckon their own risk of dying in the next year to be much smaller than 1%given that most mortality occurs in relatively narrow demographics such as the frail and the elderly). One could thus have a model in which each year the population votes to postpone the intelligence explosion by another year, so that the intelligence explosion never happens, although everybody who ever lives agrees that it would be better if the intelligence explosion happened at some point. In reality, of course, coordination failures, limited predictability, or preferences for things other than personal survival are likely to prevent such an unending pause. If one uses the standard economic discount factor instead of the person- affecting standard, the magnitude of the potential upside is diminished, since the value of existing people getting to enjoy astronomically long lives is then steeply discounted. This effect is especially strong if the discount factor is applied to each individuals subjective time rather than to sidereal time. If future benefits are discounted at a rate of x % per year, and the background level of existential risk from other sources is y % per year, then the optimum point for the intelligence explosion would be when delaying the explosion for another year would produce less than x + y percentage points of reduction of the existential risk associated with an intelligence explosion. . I am indebted to Carl Shulman and Stuart Armstrong for help with this model. See also Shulman (2010a, 3): Chalmers (2010) reports a consensus among cadets and staff at the U.S. West Point military academy that the U.S. government would not restrain AI research even in the face of potential catastrophe, for fear that rival powers would gain decisive advantage. . That is, information in the model is always bad ex ante . Of course, depending on what the information actually is, it will in some cases turn out to be good that the information became known, notably if the gap between leader and runner-up is much greater than one would reasonably have guessed in advance. . It might even present an existential risk, especially if preceded by the introduction of novel military technologies of destruction or unprecedented arms buildups. . A project could have its workers distributed over a large number of locations and collaborating via encrypted communications channels. But this tactic involves a security trade-off: while geographical dispersion may offer some protection against military attacks, it would impede operational security, since it is harder to prevent personnel from defecting, leaking information, or being abducted by a rival power if they are spread out over many locations. . Note that a large temporal discount factor could make a project behave in some ways as though it were in a race, even if it knows it has no real competitor. The large discount factor means it would care little about the far future. Depending on the situation, this would discourage blue-sky R&D, which would tend to delay the machine intelligence revolution (though perhaps making it more abrupt when it does occur, because of hardware overhang). But the large discount factoror a low level of caring for future generationswould also make existential risks seem to matter less. This would encourage gambles that involve the possibility of an immediate gain at the expense of an increased risk of existential catastrophe, thus disincentivizing safety investment and incentivizing an early launch mimicking the effects of the race dynamic. By contrast to the race dynamic, however, a large discount factor (or disregard for future generations) would have no particular tendency to incite conflict. Reducing the race dynamic is a main benefit of collaboration. That collaboration would facilitate sharing of ideas for how to solve the control problem is also a benefit, although this is to some extent counterbalanced by the fact that collaboration would also facilitate sharing of ideas for how to solve the competence problem. The net effect of this facilitation of idea- sharing may be to slightly increase the collective intelligence of the relevant research community. . On the other hand, public oversight by a single government would risk producing an outcome in which one nation monopolizes the gains. This outcome seems inferior to one in which unaccountable altruists ensure that everybody stands to gain. Furthermore, oversight by a national government would not necessarily mean that even all the citizens of that country receive a share of the benefit: depending on the country in question, there is a greater or smaller risk that all the benefits would be captured by a political elite or a few self-serving agency personnel. . One qualification is that the use of incentive wrapping (as discussed in Chapter 12 ) might in some circumstances encourage people to join a project as active collaborators rather than passive free-riders. . Diminishing returns would seem to set in at a much smaller scale. Most people would rather have one star than a one-in-a-billion chance of a galaxy with a billion stars. Indeed, most people would rather have a billionth of the resources on Earth than a one-in-a-billion chance of owning the entire planet. . Cf. Shulman (2010a). . Aggregative ethical theories run into trouble when the idea that the cosmos might be infinite is taken seriously; see Bostrom (2011b). There may also be trouble when the idea of ridiculously large but finite values is taken seriously; see Bostrom (2009b). . If one makes a computer larger, one eventually faces relativistic constraints arising from communication latencies between the different parts of the computersignals do not propagate faster than light. If one shrinks the computer, one encounters quantum limits to miniaturization. If one increases the density of the computer, one slams into the black hole limit. Admittedly, we cannot be completely certain that new physics will not one day be discovered offering some way around these limitations. . The number of copies of a person would scale linearly with resources with no upper bound. Yet it is not clear how much the average human being would value having multiple copies of herself. Even those people who would prefer to be multiply instantiated may not have a utility function that is linear with increasing number of copies. Copy numbers, like life years, might have diminishing returns in the typical persons utility function. . A singleton is highly internally collaborative at the highest level of decision- making. A singleton could have a lot of non-collaboration and conflict at lower levels, if the higher-level agency that constitutes the singleton chooses to have things that way. . If each rival AI team is convinced that the other teams are so misguided as to have no chance of producing an intelligence explosion, then one reason for collaborationavoiding the race dynamicis obviated: each team should independently choose to go slower in the confident belief that it lacks any serious competition. . A PhD student. . This formulation is intended to be read so as to include a prescription that the well-being of nonhuman animals and other sentient beings (including digital minds) that exist or may come to exist be given due consideration. It is not meant to be read as a license for one AI developer to substitute his or her own moral intuitions for those of the wider moral community. The principle is consistent with the coherent extrapolated volition approach discussed in Chapter 12 , with an extrapolation base encompassing all humans. A further clarification: The formulation is not intended to necessarily exclude the possibly of post-transition property rights in artificial superintelligences or their constituent algorithms and data structures. The formulation is meant to be agnostic about what legal or political systems would best serve to organize transactions within a hypothetical future posthuman society. What the formulation is meant to assert is that the choice of such a system, insofar as its selection is causally determined by how superintelligence is initially developed, should to be made on the basis of the stated criterion; that is, the post-transition constitutional system should be chosen for the benefit of all of humanity and in the service of widely shared ethical idealsas opposed to, for instance, for the benefit merely of whoever happened to be the first to develop superintelligence. . Refinements of the windfall clause are obviously possible. For example, perhaps the threshold should be expressed in per capita terms, or maybe the winner should be allowed to keep a somewhat larger than equal share of the overshoot in order to more strongly incentivize further production (some version of Rawlss maximin principle might be attractive here). Other refinements would refocus the clause away from dollar amounts and restate it in terms of influence on humanitys future or degree to which different parties interests are weighed in a future singletons utility function or some such. CHAPTER 15: CRUNCH TIME 1 . Some research is worthwhile not because of what it discovers but for other reasons, such as by entertaining, educating, accrediting, or uplifting those who engage in it. 2 . I am not suggesting that nobody should work on pure mathematics or philosophy. I am also not suggesting that these endeavors are especially wasteful compared to all the other dissipations of academia or society at large. It is probably very good that some people can devote themselves to the life of the mind and follow their intellectual curiosity wherever it leads, independent of any thought of utility or impact. The suggestion is that at the margin, some of the best minds might, upon realizing that their cognitive performances may become obsolete in the foreseeable future, want to shift their attention to those theoretical problems for which it makes a difference whether we get the solution a little sooner. 3 . Though one should be cautious in cases where this uncertainty may be protectiverecall, for instance, the risk-race model in Box 13 , where we found that additional strategic information could be harmful. More generally, we need to worry about information hazards (see Bostrom [2011b]). It is tempting to say that we need more analysis of information hazards. This is probably true, although we might still worry that such analysis itself may produce dangerous information. 4 . Cf. 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INDEX Afghan Taliban 215 Agricultural Revolution 2 , 80 , 261 AI-complete problem 14 , 47 , 71 , 93 , 145 , 186 AI-OUM, see optimality notions AI-RL, see optimality notions AI-VL, see optimality notions algorithmic soup 172 algorithmic trading 16 17 anthropics 27 28 , 126 , 134 135 , 174 , 222 225 definition 225 Arendt, Hannah 105 Armstrong, Stuart 280 , 291 , 294 , 302 artificial agent 10 , 88 , 105 109 , 172 176 , 185 206 ; see also Bayesian agent artificial intelligence arms race 64 , 88 , 247 future of 19 , 292 greater-than-human, see superintelligence history of 5 18 overprediction of 4 pioneers 4 5 , 18 Asimov, Isaac 139 augmentation 142 143 , 201 203 autism 57 automata theory 5 automatic circuit breaker 17 automation 17 , 98 , 117 , 160 176 backgammon 12 backpropagation algorithm 8 bargaining costs 182 Bayesian agent 9 11 , 123 , 130 ; see also artificial agent and optimality notions Bayesian networks 9 Berliner, Hans 12 biological cognition 22 , 36 48 , 50 51 , 232 biological enhancement 36 48 , 50 51 , 142 143 , 232 ; see also cognitive enhancement boxing 129 131 , 143 , 156 157 informational 130 physical 129 130 brain implant, see cyborg brain plasticity 48 braincomputer interfaces 44 48 , 51 , 83 , 142 143 ; see also cyborg Brown, Louise 43 C. elegans 34 35 , 266 , 267 capability control 129 144 , 156 157 capital 39 , 48 , 68 , 84 88 , 99 , 113 114 , 159 184 , 251 , 287 , 288 , 289 causal validity semantics 197 CEV, see coherent extrapolated volition Chalmers, David 24 , 265 , 283 , 295 , 302 character recognition 15 checkers 12 chess 11 22 , 52 , 93 , 134 , 263 , 264 child machine 23 , 29 ; see also seed AI CHINOOK 12 Christiano, Paul 198 , 207 civilization baseline 63 cloning 42 cognitive enhancement 42 51 , 67 , 94 , 111 112 , 193 , 204 , 232 238 , 244 , 259 coherent extrapolated volition (CEV) 198 , 211 227 , 296 , 298 , 303 definition 211 collaboration (benefits of) 249 collective intelligence 48 51 , 52 57 , 67 , 72 , 142 , 163 , 203 , 259 , 271 , 273 , 279 collective superintelligence 39 , 48 49 , 52 59 , 83 , 93 , 99 , 285 definition 54 combinatorial explosion 6 , 9 , 10 , 47 , 155 Common Good Principle 254 259 common sense 14 computer vision 9 computing power 7 9 , 24 , 25 35 , 47 , 53 60 , 68 77 , 101 , 134 , 155 , 198 , 240 244 , 251 , 286 , 288 ; see also computronium and hardware overhang computronium 101 , 123 124 , 140 , 193 , 219 ; see also computing power connectionism 8 consciousness 22 , 106 , 126 , 139 , 173 176 , 216 , 226 , 271 , 282 , 288 , 292 , 303 ; see also mind crime control methods 127 144 , 145 158 , 202 , 236 238 , 286 ; see also capability control and motivation selection Copernicus, Nicolaus 14 cosmic endowment 101 104 , 115 , 134 , 209 , 214 217 , 227 , 250 , 260 , 283 , 296 crosswords (solving) 12 cryptographic reward tokens 134 , 276 cryptography 80 cyborg 44 48 , 67 , 270 DARPA, see Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DART (tool) 15 Dartmouth Summer Project 5 data mining 15 16 , 232 , 301 decision support systems 15 , 98 ; see also tool-AI decision theory 10 11 , 88 , 185 186 , 221 227 , 280 , 298 ; see also optimality notions decisive strategic advantage 78 89 , 95 , 104 112 , 115 126 , 129 138 , 148 149 , 156 159 , 177 , 190 , 209 214 , 225 , 252 Deep Blue 12 Deep Fritz 22 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) 15 design effort, see optimization power Dewey, Daniel 291 Differential Technological Development (Principle of) 230 237 DiffieHellman key exchange protocol 80 diminishing returns 37 38 , 66 , 88 , 114 , 273 , 303 direct reach 58 direct specification 139 143 DNA synthesis 39 , 98 Do What I Mean (DWIM) 220 221 domesticity 140 143 , 146 156 , 187 , 191 , 207 , 222 Drexler, Eric 239 , 270 , 276 , 278 , 300 drones 15 , 98 Dutch book 111 Dyson, Freeman 101 , 278 economic growth 3 , 160 166 , 179 , 261 , 274 , 299 Einstein, Albert 56 , 70 , 85 ELIZA (program) 6 embryo selection 36 44 , 67 , 268 emulation modulation 207 Enigma code 87 environment of evolutionary adaptedness 164 , 171 epistemology 222 224 equation solvers 15 eugenics 36 44 , 268 , 279 Eurisko 12 evolution 8 9 , 23 27 , 44 , 154 , 173 176 , 187 , 198 , 207 , 265 , 266 , 267 , 273 evolutionary selection 187 , 207 , 290 evolvable hardware 154 exhaustive search 6 existential risk 4 , 21 , 55 , 100 104 , 115 126 , 175 , 183 , 230 236 , 239 254 , 256 259 , 286 , 301 302 state risks 233 234 step risks 233 expert system 7 explicit representation 207 exponential growth, see growth external reference semantics 197 face recognition 15 failure modes 117 120 Faraday cage 130 Fields Medal 255 256 , 272 Fifth-Generation Computer Systems Project 7 fitness function 25 ; see also evolution Flash Crash (2010) 16 17 formal language 7 , 145 FreeCell (game) 13 game theory 87 , 159 game-playing AI 12 14 General Problem Solver 6 genetic algorithms 7 13 , 24 27 , 237 240 ; see also evolution genetic selection 37 50 , 61 , 232 238 ; see also evolution genie AI 148 158 , 285 definition 148 genotyping 37 germline interventions 37 44 , 67 , 273 ; see also embryo selection Ginsberg, Matt 12 Go (game) 13 goal-content 109 110 , 146 , 207 , 222 227 Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence (GOFAI) 7 15 , 23 Good, I. J. 4 Gorbachev, Mikhail 86 graceful degradation 7 graphical models 11 growth 1 7 , 48 55 , 69 75 , 83 , 163 , 261 , 281 Hail Mary approach 198 200 , 207 , 293 , 294 Hanson, Robin 2 , 160 , 261 , 270 , 271 , 287 hardware overhang 73 , 240 243 , 274 , 289 , 301 , 302 hedonism 140 , 210 hedonium 140 , 219 Helsinki Declaration 188 heuristic search 6 Hill, Benny 105 hippocampus 47 HLMI, see machine intelligence, human-level HodgkinHuxley model 25 human baseline 62 77 , 82 human extinction, see existential risk Human Genome Project 86 , 253 , 276 human intelligence 5 14 , 24 58 , 98 99 , 159 184 , 242 254 , 255 257 humanmachine interface, see cyborg impersonal perspective 228 246 in vitro fertilization, see embryo selection incentive methods 131 143 cryptographic reward tokens 133 social integration 131 132 , 156 158 , 159 , 202 , 283 indirect normativity 141 150 , 209 227 , 262 , 298 indirect reach 58 inductive bias 9 10 Industrial Revolution 2 , 80 , 161 163 infrastructure profusion 123 125 , 153 , 187 , 226 , 282 institution design 202 208 instrumental convergence thesis 105 116 intelligence explosion 2 5 , 22 51 , 62 77 , 78 90 , 95 104 , 108 , 115 126 , 127 128 , 136 , 151 , 160 , 165 , 178 , 198 , 205 , 227 , 228 254 , 256 260 , 274 , 276 , 282 , 284 , 289 , 300 , 301 302 Internet 16 , 45 49 , 67 77 , 85 , 94 98 , 130 , 146 , 241 , 271 inventory control systems 16 IVF, see embryo selection Jeopardy!13 Kasparov, Garry 12 Kepler, Johannes 14 Knuth, Donald 14 , 264 Kurzweil, Ray 2 , 261 , 269 Lenat, Douglas 12 , 263 Logic Theorist (system) 6 logicist paradigm, see Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence (GOFAI) Logistello 12 machine intelligence; see also artificial intelligence human-level (HLMI) 4 , 19 21 , 27 35 , 73 74 , 207 , 243 , 264 , 267 revolution, see intelligence explosion machine learning 8 18 , 28 , 121 , 152 , 188 , 274 , 290 machine translation 15 macro-structural development accelerator 233 235 malignant failure 123 126 , 149 , 196 Malthusian condition 163 165 , 252 Manhattan Project 75 , 80 87 , 276 McCarthy, John 5 18 McCullochPitts neuron 237 MegaEarth 56 memory capacity 7 9 , 60 , 71 memory sharing 61 Mill, John Stuart 210 mind crime 125 126 , 153 , 201 208 , 213 , 226 , 297 Minsky, Marvin 18 , 261 , 262 , 282 Monte Carlo method 9 13 Moores law 24 25 , 73 77 , 274 , 286 ; see also computing power moral growth 214 moral permissibility (MP)218 220 , 297 moral rightness (MR)217 220 . 296 , 297 moral status 125 126 , 166 169 , 173 , 202 205 , 268 , 288 , 296 Moravec, Hans 24 , 265 , 288 motivation selection 29 , 127 129 , 138 144 , 147 , 158 , 168 , 180 191 , 222 definition 138 motivational scaffolding 191 , 207 multipolar scenarios 90 , 132 , 159 184 , 243 254 , 301 mutational load 41 nanotechnology 53 , 94 98 , 103 , 113 , 177 , 231 , 239 , 276 , 277 , 299 , 300 natural language 14 neural networks 5 9 , 28 , 46 , 173 , 237 , 262 , 274 neurocomputational modeling 25 30 , 35 , 61 , 301 ; see also whole brain emulation (WBE) and neuromorphic AI neuromorphic AI 28 , 34 , 47 , 237 245 , 267 , 300 , 301 Newton, Isaac 56 Nilsson, Nils 18 20 , 264 nootropics 36 44 , 66 67 , 201 , 267 Norvig, Peter 19 , 264 , 282 observation selection theory, see anthropics Oliphant, Mark 85 ONeill, Gerard 101 ontological crisis 146 , 197 optimality notions 10 , 186 , 194 , 291 293 Bayesian agent 9 11 value learner (AI-VL) 194 observation-utility-maximizer (AI-OUM) 194 reinforcement learner (AI-RL) 194 optimization power 24 , 62 75 , 83 , 92 96 , 227 , 274 definition 65 oracle AI 141 158 , 222 226 , 285 , 286 definition 146 orthogonality thesis 105 109 , 115 , 279 , 280 paperclip AI 107 108 , 123 125 , 132 135 , 153 , 212 , 243 Parfit, Derek 279 Pascals mugging 223 , 298 Pascals wager 223 person-affecting perspective 228 , 245 246 , 301 perverse instantiation 120 124 , 153 , 190 196 poker 13 principalagent problem 127 128 , 184 Principle of Epistemic Deference 211 , 221 Proverb (program) 12 qualia, see consciousness quality superintelligence 51 58 , 72 , 243 , 272 definition 56 race dynamic, see technology race rate of growth, see growth ratification 222 225 Rawls, John 150 Reagan, Ronald 86 87 reasons-based goal 220 recalcitrance 62 77 , 92 , 241 , 274 definition 65 recursive self-improvement 29 , 75 , 96 , 142 , 259 ; see also seed AI reinforcement learning 12 , 28 , 188 189 , 194 196 , 207 , 237 , 277 , 282 , 290 resource acquisition 113 116 , 123 , 193 reward signal 71 , 121 122 , 188 , 194 , 207 Riemann hypothesis catastrophe 123 , 141 robotics 9 19 , 94 97 , 117 118 , 139 , 238 , 276 , 290 Roosevelt, Franklin D.85 RSA encryption scheme 80 Russell, Bertrand 6 , 87 , 139 , 277 Samuel, Arthur 12 Sandberg, Anders 265 , 267 , 272 , 274 scanning, see whole brain emulation (WBE) Schaeffer, Jonathan 12 scheduling 15 Schelling point 147 , 183 , 296 Scrabble 13 second transition 176 178 , 238 , 243 245 , 252 second-guessing (arguments) 238 239 seed AI 23 29 , 36 , 75 , 83 , 92 96 , 107 , 116 120 , 142 , 151 , 189 198 , 201 217 , 224 225 , 240 241 , 266 , 274 , 275 , 282 self-limiting goal 123 Shakey (robot) 6 SHRDLU (program) 6 Shulman, Carl 178 180 , 265 , 287 , 300 , 302 , 304 simulation hypothesis 134 135 , 143 , 278 , 288 , 292 singleton 78 90 , 95 104 , 112 114 , 115 126 , 136 , 159 , 176 184 , 242 , 275 , 276 , 279 , 281 , 287 , 299 , 301 , 303 definition 78 , 100 singularity 1 , 2 , 49 , 75 , 261 , 274 ; see also intelligence explosion social signaling 110 somatic gene therapy 42 sovereign AI 148 158 , 187 , 226 , 285 speech recognition 15 16 , 46 speed superintelligence 52 58 , 75 , 270 , 271 definition 53 Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) 86 strong AI 18 stunting 135 137 , 143 sub-symbolic processing, see connectionism superintelligence; see also collective superintelligence, quality superintelligence and speed superintelligence definition 22 , 52 forms 52 , 59 paths to 22 , 50 predicting the behavior of 108 , 155 , 302 superorganisms 178 180 superpowers 52 56 , 80 , 86 87 , 91 104 , 119 , 133 , 148 , 277 , 279 , 296 types 94 surveillance 15 , 49 , 64 , 82 85 , 94 , 117 , 132 , 181 , 232 , 253 , 276 , 294 , 299 Szilrd, Le 85 TD-Gammon 12 Technological Completion Conjecture 112 113 , 229 technology race 80 82 , 86 90 203 205 , 231 , 246 252 , 302 teleological threads 110 Tesauro, Gerry 12 TextRunner (system) 71 theorem prover 15 , 266 three laws of robotics 139 , 284 Thrun, Sebastian 19 tool-AI 151 158 definition 151 treacherous turn 116 119 , 128 Tribolium castaneum 154 tripwires 137 143 Truman, Harry 85 Turing, Alan 4 , 23 , 29 , 44 , 225 , 265 , 271 , 272 unemployment 65 , 159 180 , 287 United Nations 87 89 , 252 253 universal accelerator 233 unmanned vehicle, see drone uploading, see whole brain emulation (WBE) utility function 10 11 , 88 , 100 , 110 , 119 , 124 125 , 133 134 , 172 , 185 187 , 192 208 , 290 , 292 , 293 , 303 value learning 191 198 , 208 , 293 value-accretion 189 190 , 207 value-loading 185 208 , 293 , 294 veil of ignorance 150 , 156 , 253 , 285 Vinge, Vernor 2 , 49 , 270 virtual reality 30 , 31 , 53 , 113 , 166 , 171 , 198 , 204 , 300 von Neumann probe 100 101 , 113 von Neumann, John 44 , 87 , 114 , 261 , 277 , 281 wages 65 , 69 , 160 169 Watson (IBM) 13 , 71 WBE, see whole brain emulation (WBE) Whitehead, Alfred N.6 whole brain emulation (WBE) 28 36 , 50 , 60 , 68 73 , 77 , 84 85 , 108 , 172 , 198 , 201 202 , 236 245 , 252 , 266 , 267 , 274 , 299 , 300 , 301 Wigner, Eugene 85 windfall clause 254 , 303 Winston, Patrick 18 wire-heading 122 123 , 133 , 189 , 194 , 207 , 282 , 291 wise-singleton sustainability threshold 100 104 , 279 world economy 2 3 , 63 , 74 , 83 , 159 184 , 274 , 277 , 285 Yudkowsky, Eliezer 70 , 92 , 98 , 106 , 197 , 211 216 , 266 , 273 , 282 , 286 , 291 , 299"}}},{"rowIdx":19,"cells":{"text":{"kind":"string","value":"The Book Of Forbidden Knowledge Black Magic, Superstitions, Charms, Divination, Signs, Omens, Etc. PUBLISHED BY . JOHNSON SMITH & COMPANY DETROIT, MICHIGAN ) a | | | | | ! | | PRINTED IN U.S.A; Five Mind Reading Acts Exposed. 33.1918 .i4 106 Bonapartes Oraculum or Book of Fate. N.,,1923- Canning, Pickling, Smoking, Preserving. Snow Model Book of Love Letters. 39.2 V3: naia 100 Book Flirtations or Lovers Combination, Pose tee Book of Love Letters. 49,2159 114 osc Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. 3%. Bitinaia 500 Social Entertainer and Tricks. 82.,,1}83. 1.4 on, Secrets of Ancient and Modern Magic. 39. ie8 os. 25 Lessons in Hypnotism. 30.2479. ia 100 The Parlor Conjurer; Magic Made Fasy. So oy ' . 1178. How to Become a Handeuff King. 39,2575. ia 100 Tricks with Coins. 32,2480. 1a osc Secrets of Ventriloquism. %9..148%.4ia 25 Hellers Book of Magic. 3%.1189-.ia o5 Magic for the Amateur Magician. Bice Posinaia 250 How to Vamp on Piano or Organ. 33,149 Povipta 10 Vamping Card for Piano or Organ. 3.1310. aia 150 Book on Mimicry, Whistling, Imitations. 39,27 c Humorous Dialogues. 33.2724 .0ia anc Brudder Gardner's Stump Speeches. N3..1225..ia 250 Humorous Recitations. }.,132-.:4 106 Comic Recitations. 3.272% nia 100 Book of Great Secrets and Formulas. N%..1359; ia ose Old Secrets and New Discoveries. 43,2252. 014 5c Star Money Maker. Dace Postpaid 10c Chemical Wonders, Secrets & Mysteries. 3%..175%- How to Wrestle. 3.338% nia 25 Athletic Exercises. No. 378%. ia 100 Swimming Made Easy. Price Postpaid 100 How to Box. 29.0 bistpaia 25 How to Pitch Real Curves. 8%.) 2%4:0ia one How to Dance Old and New Dances. }yi..'xipaia 250 Star Toy Maker, 49.2312. ia 100 Every Boy His Own Toymaker. 39.) 94-14 o50 Fun With Magnetism. 2,336.14 106 rT, Dancing the Latest Steps. 2o,1319. ia 5c Johnson Smith & Co. Detroit 7, Mich. The Book Of . Forbidden Knowledge DIVINATION, OR HOW TO OBTAIN KNOWLEDGE OF FUTURE EVENTS Any person fasting on midsummer eve, and sitting on the church porch, will, at midnight, see the spirits of the persons of that parish, who will die that year, come and knock at the church-door, in the order and succes- sion in which they will die. One of those watchers, there being several in company, fell into a profound sleep, so that he could not be waked; whilst in this state his ghost was seen by the rest of his companions knocking at the church door. Any unmarried woman fasting on midsummer eve, and at mid- night laying a clean cloth, with bread, cheese and ale, and sitting down as if going to eat, the street door being left open, the person whom she is after- ward to marry will come into the room, and drink to her by bowing, and after- ward filling the glass, will leave it on the table, and making another bow, re- tire. On St. Agnes night, the 21st of January, take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, say- ing a paternoster, on sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him you shall marry. Another method to see a future spouse in a dream; the party inquiring must lie in a different country from that in which he com- monly resides, and, on going to bed, must knit the left garter about the right legged stocking, letting the oth- er garter and stocking alone; and as you rehearse the following verses, at every comma knit a knot: This knot I knit, To know a thing I know not yet, That I may see The man that shall my husband be, How he goes and what he wears, And what he does all days and years. Accordingly, in a dream he will ap- pear with the insignia of his trade or profession. Another performed by charming the moon, thus: At the first appearance of the new moon, immedi- ately after the new years day, go out in the evening and stand over the spears of a gate or stile, and, looking on the moon, repeat the following lines: All hail to thee, thee, I prithee, good moon, reveal to me This night who my husband must be. The party will then dream of their future husband. A slice of the bride- cake, thrice thrown through the wed- ding ring, and laid under the head of an unmarried woman will make them dream of their future husband. The same is practiced in the north with a piece of the groaning cheese, HOW TO RECEIVE ORACLES BY DREAMS He who would receive true dreams should keep a pure, undisturbed, and imaginative spirit, and so compose it that it may be made worthy of knowl- edge and government by the mind; for such a spirit is most fit for prophesy- ing, and is a most clear glass of all things. When, therefore, we are sound in body, not disturbed in mind, our in- tellect not made dull by heavy meals and strong drink, not sad through pov- erty, not provoked through lust, not incited by any vice, not stirred up by wrath or anger, not being irreligiously and profanely inclined, not given to levity nor lost in drunkenness, but, chastely going to bed, fall asleep, then our pure and divine soul being free from all the evils above recited, and separated from all hurtful thoughts and now freed, by dreamingis en- dowed with this divine spirit as an in- strument, and doth receive those beams and representations which are darted down, as it were, and shine forth from the divine Mind into itself, in a deify- ing glass, moon; all hail to < BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE There are four kinds of true dreams, viz., the first, matutine, ie., between sleeping and waking; the second, that which one sees concerning another; the third, that whose interpretation is shown to the same dreamer in the nocturnal vision; and, lastly, that which is related to the same dreamer in the nocturnal vision. But natural things and their own co-mixtures do likewise belong unto wise men, and we often use such to receive oracles from a spirit by a dream, which are neither by perfumes, unctions, meats, drinks, rings, seals, etc. Now those who are desirous to re- ceive oracles through a dream, let them make themselves a ring of the Sun or Saturn tor this purpose. There are likewise images of dreams, which, be- ing put under the head when going to sleep, doth effectually give true dreams of whatever the mind hath before de- termined or consulted upon, the prac- tice of which is as follows: Thou shalt make an image of the Sun, the figure whereof must be a man sleeping upon the bosom of an angel; which thou shalt make when Leo as- cends, the Sun being in the ninth house in Aries; then you must write upon the figure the name of the effect desired, and in the hand of the angel the name and character of the intelligence of the Sun, which is Michael. Let the same image be made in Virgo ascendingMercury being fortunate in Aries in the ninth, or Gemini ascend- ing, Mercury being fortunte in the ninth house in Aquariusand let him be received by Saturn with a fortunate aspect, and let the name of the spirit (which is Raphael) be written upon it. Let the same likewise be madeLibra ascending, Venus being received from Mercury in Gemini in the ninth house and write upon it the name of the angel of Venus (which is Anael). Again you may make the same image Aquarius ascending, Saturn fortunate- ly possessing the ninth in his exalta- tion, which is Libraand let there be written upon it the name of the angel of Saturn (which is Cassial). The same may be made with Cancer ascending the Moon being received by Jupiter an Venus in Pisces, and being fortunately placed in the ninth houseand write upon it the spirit of the Moon (which is Gabriel). There are likewise made rings of dreams of wonderful efficacy, and there are rings of the Sun and Saturnand the constellation of them is, when the Sun or Saturn ascend in their exalta- tion in the ninth, and when the Moon is joined to Saturn in the ninth, and in that sign which was the ninth house of the nativity, and write and engrave upon the rings the name of the spirit of the Sun or Saturn, and by these rules you may know how and by what means to constitute more of yourself. But know this, that such images work nothing (as they are simply images), except they are vivified by spiritual and _ celestial virtue, and chiefly by the ardent desire and firm intent of the soul of the operator. But who can give a soul to an image, or make a stone, or metal, or clay, or wood, or wax, or paper, to live? Cer- tainly no man whatever, for this ar- canum doth not enter into an artist of a stiff neck. He only hath it who tran- scends the progress of angels, and comes to the very Archtype Himself. The tables of numbers likewise confer to the receiving of oracles, being duly formed under their own constellations. Therefore, he who is desirous of re- ceiving true oracles by dreams, let him abstain from supper, from drink, and be otherwise well disposed, so his brain will be free from turbulent vapors; let him also have his bed-chamber fair and clean, exorcised and consecrated; then let him perfume the same with some convenient fumigation, and let him anoint his temples with some unguent efficacious hereunto, and put a ring of dreams upon his finger; then let him take one of the images we have spoken of, and place the same under his head; then let him address himself to sleep, meditating upon that thing which he desires to know. So shall he receive a most certain and undoubted oracle by a dream when the Moon goes through the sign of the ninth revolution of his nativity, and she is in the ninth sign from the sign of perfection. This is the way whereby we may ob- tain all sciences and arts whatsoever, whether astrology, occult philosophy, physic, etc., or else suddenly and per- fectly with a true illumination of our intellect, although all inferior familiar spirits whatsoever conduce to this ef- fect, and sometimes also evil spirits sensibly inform us, intrinsically and extrinsically. DREAMS, TOKENS, AND IN- SIGHTS INTO FUTURITY THE RING AND THE OLIVE BRANCH Buy a ring; it matters not it being gold, so as it has the semblance of a wedding ring; and it is best to try this charm on your own birthday. Pay for your ring with some small bill, for whatever change you receive you must give it to the first beggar you meet in the street; and, if no one asks alms of you, give it to-some poor personfor you need not, alas! go far before you find one to whom your charity will be acceptable; carefully note what they say in return, such as God bless you, or wishing you luck and prosperity, as is usual. When you get home, write it down on a sheet of paper, at each of four corners, and, in the middle, put the two first letters of your name, your age, and the letters of the planets then reigning as morning and evening Stars, get a branch of olive and fasten BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 8 the ring on the stalk with a string of thread which has been steeped all day in a mixture of honey and vinegar, or any composition of opposite qualities, very sweet and very sour; cover your ring and stalk with the written paper, carefully wrapped round and round; wear it in your bosom till the ninth hour of the night; then repair to the next church-yard and bury the charm in the grave of a young man who died unmarried; and, while you are so doing repeat the letters of your own Chris- tian name three times backwards, re- turn home, and keep as silent as pos- sible till you go to bed, which must be done before eleven; put a light in your chimney, or some safe place, and, before midnight, or just about that time, your husband that is to be will present himself at the foot of the bed, but will presently disappear. If you are not to marry, none will come, and, in that case, if you dream before morn- ing of children, it shows that you will have them unmarried; and if you dream of crowds of men, beware of prostitution. THE WITCHS CHAIN Let three young women join together in making a long chainabout a yard will doof Christmas juniper and mis- tletoe berries, and, at the end of every link, put an oak acorn. Exactly before midnight let them assemble in a room by themselves, where no one can dis- turb them; leave a window open, and take the key out of the keyhole and hang it over the chimney-piece; have a good fire, and place in the midst of it a long, thinnish log of wood, well sprinkled with oil, salt, and fresh mould; then wrap the chain round it, each maiden having an equal share in the business; then sit down, and on your left knee let each fair one have a prayer-book opened at the matri- monial service. Just as the last acorn is burned, the future husband will cross the room; each one will see her own proper spouse, but he will be in- visible to the rest of the wakeful vir- gins. Those that are not be wed will see a coffin, or some mis-shapen form, cross the room; go to bed instantly, and you will all have remarkable dreams. This must be done either on a py eanesday or Friday night, but no other. LOVES CORDIAL (To be tried the third night of a new moon.) Take brandy, rum, gin, wine, and the oil of amber, of each a teaspoonful; a tablespoonful of cream, and three of spring water; drink it as you get into bed. Repeat: This mixture of love I take for my potion, That I of my destiny may have a notion; Cupid befriend me, kind, And show unto me that fate thats designed. You will dream of drink, and, ac- cording to the quality or manner of it being presented, you may tell the con- dition to which you will rise or fall by marriage. Water is poverty; and if you dream of a drunken man, it is omi- nous that you will have a drunken mate. If you dream of drinking too much you will fall, at a future period, into that sad error yourself, without great care; and what is a worse sight than an inebriated female? She cannot guard her own honor, ruins her own and familys substance, and often clothes herself with rags. Trouble is often used as an excuse for this vicious habit; but it gives more trouble than it takes away. LOVE LETTERS On receiving a love letter that has any particular declaration in it, lay it wide open; then fold it in nine folds, pin it next your heart, and thus wear it till bed-time; then place it in your left-hand glove, and lay it under your head. If you dream of gold, diamonds, or any costly gems, your lover is true, and means what he says; if of white linen, you will lose him by death; and if of flowers, he will prove false. If you dream of his saluting you, he is, at present, false, and means not what he professes, but only to draw you into a@ snare, MAGIC ROSE Gather your rose on the 27th of June; let it be full blown, and as bright a red as you can get; pluck it between the hours of three and four in the morning, taking care to have no witness of the transaction; convey it to your chamber, and hold it over a chaffing dish or any convenient utensil for the purpose, in which there is char- coal and sulphur or brimstone; hold your rose over the smoke about five minutes, and you will see it have a wonderful effect on the flower. Before the rose gets the least cool, clap it in a sheet of writing paper, on which is written your own name and that of the young man you love best; also the date of the year and the name of the morning star that has the ascendency at that time; fold it up and seal it neatly with three separate seals, then run and bury the parcel at the foot of the tree from which you gathered the flower; here let it remain untouched till the 6th of July; take it up at mid- night, go to bed and place it under your pillow, and you will have a singu- lar and most eventful dream before morning, or, at least, before your usual time of rising. You may keep the rose under your head three nights without spoiling the charm; when you new moon be 4 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE are done with the rose and paper be sure to burn them. -LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS, ETC. LIST OF UNLUCKY DAYS Which, to those persons being males born on them, will generally prove un- fortunate: January 3, 4. February 6, 7, 12, 18, 19, 20. March 5, 6, 12, 13. May 12, 13, 20, 21, 26, 27. June 1, 2, 9, 10, 16, 17, 22, 238, 24. July 3, 4, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18. October 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 31. November 1, 3. Almost all persons (being of the male sex) that are born on the days included in the foregoing table, will, in a greater or less degree suffer, not only by pecuniary embarrassment and losses of property, but will also ex- perience great distress and anxiety of mind, much dissatisfaction, dissension, and unhappiness in their family affairs, much disaffection to each other among the married ones, (indeed few of them can ever be happy in the married state), trouble about their children, daughters forming unfortunate attach- ments, and a variety of untoward events of other description which our limits do not allow us to particular- ize. The influence of these days are of a quality and tendency calculated to excite in the minds of persons born on them, an extraordinary itch for specu- lation, to make changes in their af- fairs, commence new undertakings of various kinds, but all of them will tend nearly to one pointloss of property and pecuniary embarrassments. Such persons who embark their capital on credit in new concerns or engagements will be likely to receive checks or in- terruptions to the progress of their schemes or undertakings. Those who enter into engagements intended to be permanent, whether purchases, leases, partnerships, or, in short, any other speculation of a description which can- not readily be transferred, or got rid of will dearly repent their bargains. They will find their affairs from time to time much interrupted and agitated, and experience many disappointments in money matters, trouble through bills, and have need of all their activity and address to prop their declining credit. Indeed, almost all engagements and affairs that are entered upon by persons born on any of these days will receive some sort of check or obstruc- tion. The greater number of those persons born on these days will be subject to weakness or sprains in the Knees and ankles, also diseases and hurts in the legs. LIST OF UNLUCKY DAYS Which to those persons (being fe- males) born on them will generally prove unfortunate: January 5, 6, 13, 14, 20, and 21. February 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 22, and 23. March 1, 2, 8, 9, 16, 17, 28, and 29. April 24 and 26. May 1, 2, 9, 17, 22, 29, and 30. June 5, 6, 12, 18, 18, and 19. July 3 and 4, September 9 and 16. October 20 and 27. November 9, 10, 21, 29, and 80. December 6, 14, and 21. We particularly advise all females born on these days to be extremely cautious of placing their affections too hastily, as they will be subject to dis- pointments and vexations in that re- spect. It will be better for them (in those matters) to be guided by the ad- vice of their friends, rather than by their own feeling, they will be less fortunate in placing their affections, than in any other action of their lives, as many of these marriages will termi- nate in separations, divorces, etc. Their courtships will end in unhappy elope- ments, and other ways not necessary of explanation. Our readers must be well aware that affairs of importance begun at inauspicious times, by those who have been born at those periods when the stars shed their malign in- fluence, can seldom, if ever, lead to much good; it is, therefore, that we en- deavor to lay before them a correct statement drawn from accurate astro- logical information, in order that by strict attention and care, they may avoid falling into those perplexing labyrinths from which nothing but that care and attention can save them. The list of days we have above given, will be productive of hasty and clandestine marriages-marriages under untoward circumstances, perplexing attachments, and a natural consequence, the dis- pleasure of friends, together with fam- ily broils, discussions and divisions. We now present our readers with a LIST OF DAYS USUALLY CONSIDERED FORTUNATE With respect to Courtship, Marriage, and Love Affairs in GeneralPersons that were born on the following days may expect courtships and prospects of marriage, and which will have a happy termination. : January 1, 2, 15, 26, 27, 28. February 11, 21, 25 March 10, 24. April 6, 15, 16, 20, 28. , . 8. August 6, 7, 10, 11, 19, 20, 25. September 4, 8, 9, 17, 18, 23. October 8, 7, 16, 21, 22. November 5, 14, 20. BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE Ss December 14, 15, 19, 20, 22, 28, 25. Although the greater number, or in- deed, nearly all persors that are born on the days stated in the preceding list, will be likely to meet with a pros- pect of marriage, or become engaged in some love affair of more than ordinary importance, yet it must not be expected that the result will be the same with all of them; with some they will ter- minate in marriagewith others in disappointmentand some of them will be in danger of forming attachments that may prove of a somewhat trouble- some description. We shall, therefore, in order to enable our readers to dis- tinguish them, give a comprehensive and useful list, showing which of them will be most likely to marry. Those born within the limits of the succeeding List of Hours, on any of the preceding days, will be the most likely | to marryor will, at least, have court- ships that will be Hkely to have a happy termination. LIST OF FORTUNATE HOURS January 2d. From 30 minutes past 10 till 15 minutes past 11 in the morn- ing; and from 15 minutes before 9 till 15 minutes before 11 at night. 15th. From 80 minutes past 9 till 15 minutes past 10 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 7 till 15 minutes past 11 at night. 26th. From 30 minutes past 8 till 15 minutes past 9 in the morning; and from 7 till 15 minutes past 10 at night. February 11th and 12th. From 30 min- utes past 7 till 15 minutes past 8 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 6 till 15 minutes before 9 at night. 21st. From 7 till 15 minutes before 8 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 5 till 15 minutes before 8 at night. 25th and 26th. From 15 minutes be- fore 7 till 30 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 5 till 30 minutes past 7 in the evening. March 10th. From 5 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the morning; and from 4 in the afternoon till 15 minutes be- fore 7 in the evening. April 6th. From 15 minutes past 4 till 5 in the morning; and from 30 min- utes past 2 till 15 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. 20th. From 30 minutes past 3 till 15 minutes past 4 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 1 till 15 min- utes past 4 in the afternoon. May 8d. From 15 minutes before 3 till 30 minutes past 83 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 1 till 30 minutes past 3 in the afternoon. 18th. From 2 till 15 minutes before 3 in the morning; and from 12 at noon till 15 minutes before 3 in the afternocn. 28th. From 15 minutes before 1 till 30 minutes past 2 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 12 at noon till 30 minutes past 2 in the afternoon. 3ist. From 15 minutes before 1 till 30 minutes past 1 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 10 in the morning till 15 minutes before 1 in the afternoon. June 10th and llth. From 15 minutes from 12 at night till 1 in the morn- ing. 15th. From 10 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon; and from 15 min- utes before 12 at night till 15 minutes before 1 in the morning. 25th. From 15 minutes past 9 in the morning till 12 at noon; and from 11 to 12 at night. 29th. From 9 in the morning till 15 minutes before 12 at noon; ana - from 15 minutes before 11 till 15 minutes before 12 at night. July 9th. From 15 minutes past 8 till 11 in the morning; and from 10 till 11 at night. 14th and 15th. From 8 till 11 in the morning; and from 10 till 11 at night. 28th. From 7 till 10 in the morning; and from 9 till 10 at night. August 6th and 7th. From 30 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes past 9 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 8 till 15 minutes past 9 at night. 10th and 11th. From 15 minutes past 6 till 9 in the morning; and from 8 till 9 in the evening. 19th and 20th. From 30 minutes past 5 till 80 minutes past 8 in the morn- ing; and from 30 minutes past 7 till 30 minutes past 8 in the evening. 25th. From 15 minutes past 5 till 8 in the morning; and from 7 till 8 in the evening. September 4th. From 15 minutes be- fore 5 till 30 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 6 till 30 minutes past 7 in the eve- ning. 8th and 9th. From 30 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes past 7 in the eve- ning. 17th and 18th. From 5 till 15 minutes before 5 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 6 till 15 minutes before 7 in the evening. 28d. From 30 minutes past 3 till 30 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 5 till 30 minutes past 6 in the evening. October 3d. From 8 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. 7th. From 15 minutes before 3 till 30 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 4 till 30 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. 16th. From 2 till 5 in the morning; and from 4 till 5 in the afternoon. 6 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 21st and 22d. From 15 minutes be- fore 2 till 30 minutes past 4 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 3 till 15 minutes past 4 in the af- ternoon. November 5th. From 1 till 15 minutes before 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 8 till 15 minutes before 4 in the afternoon. 14th. From 15 minutes past 12 till 3 in the morning; and from 2 till 3 in the afternoon. 20th. From 15 minutes before 12 till 15 minutes past 2 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 1 till 2 in the afternoon. December 14th and 15th. From 10 till 30 minutes past 12 in the morning; and from 12 at noon till 15 min- utes before 1 in the afternoon. 18th and 19th. From 15 minutes be- fore 10 at night till 15 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 380 minutes past 11 till 15 minutes past 12 at night. January 3d. From 30 minutes past 10 till 15 minutes past 11 in the morn- ing; and from 15 minutes before 9 till 15 minutes past 11 at night. 12th and 13th. From 15 minutes past 9 till 10 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 8 to 30 minutes past 10 at night. 18th. From 9 till 15 minutes before 10 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 7 till 10 at night. 27th. From 9 till 15 minutes before 10 in the morning; and from 7 till 15 minutes before 10 at night. February 1st. From 8 till 30 minutes past 8 in the morning; and from 6 till 30 minutes past 8 in the eve- ning. 1ith and 12th. From 15 minutes be- fore 8 till 30 minutes past 8 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 6 till 30 minutes past 8 in the evening. : 17th. From 7 till 15 minutes before 8 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 5 till 8 in the eve- ning. March ist. From 80 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes past 7 in the evening. 16th and 17th. From 30 minutes past 5 till 15 minutes past 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 4 till 30 minutes past 6 in the evening. 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, 24th, and 25th. From 30 minutes past 5 till 30 minutes past 6 in the morning: and from 30 minutes past 38 till 15 minutes past 6 in the evening. 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th. From 15 minutes past 5 till 15 minutes before 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 3 till 6 in the eve- ning. April 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. From 30 minutes past 4 till 30 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 2 till 5 in the afternoon. 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. From 15 minutes before 4 till 15 minutes before 5 in the morning; and from 2 till 30 minutes past 4 in the af- ternoon. 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d. From 30 minutes past 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 2 till 30 minutes past 4 in the afternoon. 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th. From 3 till 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 1 till 15 minutes be- fore 4 in the afternoon. May _ 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th. From 15 minutes past two till 15 minutes past 3 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 12 at noon till 15 minutes past 3 in the after- noon. Oth, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 18th. From 2 till 3 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 12 at noon till 3 in the afternoon. 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22d. From 15 minutes before 2 till 15 minutes before 3 in the morning; and from 12 at noon till 15 minutes before 3 in the afternoon. 23d, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th. From 15 minutes past 1 till 15 minutes past 2 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 11 in the forenoon till 15 minutes past 2 in the after- noon, June_Ist, 2d. 8d, 4th, 5th, and 6th. From 15 minutes past 10 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon; and from 15 minutes past 12 at night till 15 minutes past 1 the next morning. lith. From 15 minutes past 10 in the morning till 15 minutes before 1 in the afternoon; and from 12 at night till 1 the next morning. 20th. From 30 minutes past 9 in the morning till 12 at noon; and from 11 till 12 at night. 25th. From 15 minutes past nine in the morning till 15 minutes past 12 at noon; and from i1 till 12 at night. July 5th. From 15 minutes before 8 till 15 minutes past 10 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 10 till 15 minutes before 11 at night. 9th. From 15 minutes past 8 till 11 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 10 till 11 at night. 19th. From 30 minutes past 7 till 10 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 9 till 15 minutes past 10 at night. 24th. From 7 till 15 minutes before 10 in the morning; and from 9 till 10 at night. August 2d and 3d. From 30 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes before 9 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 8 till 30 minutes past 9 at night. 6th. From 15 minutes before 6 till 9 in the morning; and from 30 min- utes: past 7 till 30 minutes past 8 at night. . BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 7 22d. From 15 minutes past 5 till 8 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 7 till 15 minutes past 8 at night. September 1st. From 4 till 15 minutes before 7 in the morning; and 6 till 7 in the evening. 5th. From 30 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes before 7 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 6 till 30 minutes past 7 in the evening. 14th. From 15 minutes before 4 till 30 minutes past 6 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 5 till 30 minutes past 6 in the evening. 29th. From 15 minutes before 3 till 380 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 4 till 30 minutes past 5 in the evening. October 3d. From 8 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 6 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the evening. 12th. From 15 minutes past 3 till 5 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes before 4 till 30 minutes past 4 in the afternoon. 18th and 19th. From 30 minutes past 1 till 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 3 till 30 minutes past 4 in the afternoon. November 10th and 11th. From 30 min- utes past 12 at night till 15 min- utes past 3 in the morning; and from 30 mirutes past 1 till 30 min- utes past 2 in the afternoon. 16th and 16th. From 12 at night till 15 minutes before 3 in the morn- ing; and from 15 minutes past 1 till 2 in the afternoon. 29th and 30th. From 15 minutes past 11 at night till 2 in the morning; and from 1 till 15 minutes before 2 in the afternoon. December 8th and 9th. From 15 min- utes past 10 at night till 1 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 12 at noon till 30 minutes past 1 in the afternoon. 14th, 15th, and 16th. From 10 at night till 15 minutes before 1 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 12 till 30 minutes past 12 at noon. 23d and 24th. From 15 minutes past 11 till 12 at noon; and from 15 min- utes past 9 till 12 at night. 28th. From 15 minutes past 10 till 11 in the morning; and from 9 till 15 minutes before 12 at night. We do not presume to assert that every person born on the last mentioned times, will be exempt from all descrip- tions of trouble during the whole of their lives, but that they will never (in spite of whatever may happen to befall them) sink below mediocrity. Even servants and those born of poor parents will possess some _ superior qualities-get into good companybe much noticed by their superiors, and will, in spite of any intervening diffi- culties, establish themselves in the world, and rise much above their sphere of birth. It has often been recorded, and though a singular observation, experi- ence has shown it to be a true one, that some event of importance is sure to happen to a woman in her thirty- first year, whether single or married; it may prove for her good, or it may be some great evilor temptation; there- fore we advise her to be cautious and circumspect in all her actions. If she is a maiden or widow, it is probable she will marry this year. If a wife that she will lose her children or her husband. She will either receive riches or travel into a foreign land; at all events, some circumstance or other will take place during this remarkable year of her life, that will have great effect on her future fortunes and existence. The like is applicable to men in their forty-second year, of which so many instances have been proved that there is not a doubt of its truth: Ob- serve always to take a lease for an odd number of years; even are not prosper- ous.The three first days of the moon are the best for signing papers, and the first five days:as well as the twen- ty-fourth for any fresh undertaking. But we cannot but allow that a great deal depends on our own industry and perseverance, and by strictly discharg- ing our duty to God and man, we may often overcome the malign influence of a bad planet, or a day marked as un- lucky in the book of fate. METRAGRAMMATISM, OR THE ART OF FORTUNE-TELLING BY TRANSPOSITION OF NAMES It has often been remarked, although it is a fact by no means commonly known, that tre names given to chil- dren at the baptismal font joined to their family or surnames, and added to titles which may be bestowed upon them in after life, often point out many circumstances and events which may befall the parties upon whom such names have been bestowed; and that if their parents had paid more attention to this part of Astrological divination, those names which were unlucky might, by due care and attention, have been avoided, while those of a more fortunate description might have been selected for their children, and have been rendered even still more valu- able and fortunate, by being conjoined with others of a like nature. In order that our readers may have a clearer in- sight into this branch of fortune-tell- ing, and which appears to have been strangely neglected by modern prac- titioners, we shall lay before them a few specimens of this admirable sys- tem of discovering the events of our checkered existence; and from a study of which they will readily learn how to avoid bestowing on their children such as are of a malignant nature; and, at the same time, perceive how 8 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE the secret influence of the stars that preside at our birth, act in the min- utest mannereven to the giving of that name at our baptism, which often- times explains to the bearer of it, if he could then but know it, those events which will assuredly befali him in the course of his life. Of the antiquity of this science it is scarcely necessary to speakit may however be as well to remark, that it was formerly in the highest repute among the astrologers of the early ages, and even some of our ancient writers have not disdained to advocate its cause. One of these, the celebrated Camden, has in his Remains be- queathed to the world an_ excellent treatise on this subject. He refers the origin of this invention te the time of Moses, and conceives that it might have had some share in the mystical tradition afterward called Cabalo, communicated by that divine lawgiver to the chosen seventy.That this art was practiced by the ancient Egyptians there cannot be a doubt, as there are even now remaining several of the names of the Egyptian monarchs which have been transposed and fully point out the principal events of their lives. The Greeks also practiced the art, but we do not find any examples among the Romans, which is somewhat sur- prising, as their seers, astrologers, and sybils practiced almost every species of divination. Among modern nations, the French appear to have distinguish- ed themselves for their proficiency in it, and which, Camden says, they ex- ceedingly admire and celebrate for the deep antiquity and mystical meaning thereof. Indeed, to such a height did that nation carry the practice of this art in the early ages, that there were kept lists of lucky and unlucky names, and particular care was taken, when bestowing a name on a child, that such only should be given as could, by trans- position, be formed into some fortu- nate signification. But this often fail- ed, for even those very names which, when transposed, contained this fortu- nate signification; yet, by a second transposition, sometimes quite the con- trary would be indicated and thus Foil those, who would have foild the stars. Having thus introduced this subject to our readers, and fully proved its an- tiquity, it only remains for us to lay before them such specimens of the art as may enable them to practice upon their own names, and by so doing be- come acquainted with that principal occurrence of their lives, which may be for their future good or evil; and if the latter, by possessing such _ fore- knowledge, by caution and good con- duct on their parts, alleviate or prevent its affects. We shall take these in- stances from the names of well known characters, by which it will be instant- ly seen how immediate is the connec- tion between the name of the party and the principal event of their lives. And first with the name of Bonaparte, which is perhaps the most complete specimen of the art we could possibly lay before our readers, and if properly transposed fully shows in each trans- position the character of the man, and points out that unfortunate occurrence in his life, which ultimately proved his ruinthus: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. NO, APPEAR NOT ON ELBA. In the name of Wellington we find his future glory parts: AR Teton WELLESLEY, Duke of Wel- in LET WELL FOILED GAUL secure thy renown. And the like in that of Nelson,thus: HORATIO NELSON. HONOR EST A NILO. Which in English means Honor is to be found at the Nile! In the name of SIR FRANCIS BUR- DETT we find: FRANTIC DISTURB- ERS, which fully prophesies the busy scenes of popular riot and disturbance in which he would be engaged. In the name of the late lamented Princess Charlotte, we have another proot of the infallibility of this art PRINCESS one AUGUSTA HER AUGUST RACE IS LOST, O! FATAL NEWS! The following anagram on James VI of Scotland, fully proves that his future fortune was predicted at his baptismthus: CHARLES JAMES STUART CLAIMS ARTHURS SEAT, and accordingly, on the death of Queen Elizabeth, he became James I. of Eng- land, and thereby possessed the throne which the name given him at his birth plainly foretold! The above will be sufficient to in- struct our readers in this very enter- taining and infallible mode of discov- ering future events. It may be neces- sary to observe, that some names will not easily form into separate words without the addition or subtraction of one or more letters, this is always al- lowablefor instance, K may be sub- stituted for CI for J-V for Uand vice versa, These specimens will be sufficient to prove the infallibility of this art; and many of our readers will find, if they transpose the letters of their own names after the same fashion, that their future good or ill fortune will be thereby plainly pointed out. DAYS OF THE WEEK 1. Their importance at the natal hour. A child born on Sunday will be of long life and obtain riches. A child born on Monday will be weak and effeminate. Tuesday is more unfortunate still. BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 9 though a child born on this day may, by extraordinary vigilance, conquer the inordinate desires to which he will be subject; still, in his reckless attempts to gratify them, he will be in danger of a violent death. The child born on Wednesday will be given to a studious life, and shall reap great profit therefrom. A child born on Thursday shall at- tain great honor and dignity. He who calls Friday his natal day shall be of a strong constitution, and perhaps addicted to the pleasures of love. Saturday is another ill-omened day; most children born on this day will be of heavy, dull, and dogged dispositions. Il. Their influence otherwise. If a person have his measure taken for new clothes on a Sunday, he will be sorrowful and crying. If on a Monday, he will have ample food and provi- sions. If on a Tuesday, his clothes will be burned. If on a Wednesday, he will enjoy happiness and tranquility. If on Thursday, he will be good and pro- pitious. If on a Friday, he will get into prison. If on Saturday, he will experience numerous troubles and mis- fortunes. If one puts on a new suit of clothes on a Sunday, he will experience happi- ness and ease. If on a Monday, his clothes will tear. If on a Tuesday, even if he stand in water, his clothes will catch fire. If on a Wednesday, he will readily obtain a new suit. If on a Thursday, his dress will appear neat and elegant. If on a Friday, as long as the suit remains new, he will be happy and delighted. If on a Saturday, he will be taken ill. If a person puts on a new suit of clothes in the morning, he will become wealthy and fortunate. If at noon, he will appear elegant. If at about sun- set, he will become wretched. If in the evening, he will continue ill. If a person bathe on Sunday, he will experience affliction. If on Monday, his property will increase. If on Tues- day, he will labor under anxiety of mind. If on Wednesday,, he will in- crease in beauty. If on Thursday, his property will increase. If on Friday, all his sins will be forgiven him. If on Saturday, all his ailments will be removed. For shaving, four days of the week are preferable to the rest, viz., Mon- day, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; the other three are evil and inaus- picious. Lucky days for business, three first days of the moons age; for marriage the 7th, 9th, and 12th; requesting fa- vors, 14th, 15th, and 17th, but beware the 16th and 21st; to answer letters, if possible choose an odd day of the moon; to travel on land, choose the in- crease of the moon; and to embark on the ocean, choose the decline. March is a fortunate month for be- ginning a new building; and it is sing- ular, but nevertheless reckoned true, that it is good to open a concert-room, a music-shop, or begin a new piece of music on the eve of St. Cecilia. It is not good to marry on your own birth- day, or on any martyrs; every other saints day is fortunate in this concern; neither is it fortunate for a woman to marry in colors; let her dress be as white as possible, except she be a widow, then let her choose some pleas- ant color, but beware of green and yellow. To meet a funeral as you are going to church to tie the nuptial knot, be- tokens the death of your first child in its infancy. To meet a white horse when you are going on any particular business is a sign of success, and a piebald one, if you are going to ask a favor; to be followed by a strange dog is lucky, especially to a man who is going court- ing. For a pigeon to fly into the house not belonging to it is a sign of sickness, and if it rests on a bed, it is death, but two pigeons is a sign of a wedding. Never pick up an odd glove in the street; it is not fortunate. Never tell any dream before break- fast, nor any at all that you use a charm to procure, even to your most trusty friend. If you dream any dream three times, look on it as an omen of friendly warning, particularly if it re- gard water, traveling, or any other perilous business. It may be intended by a watchful Providence to save you from danger, so do not despise the cau- tion. There are several remarkable in- stances in historysuch as William the Second, the Duke of Buckingham, and many otherswho might have escaped death at that time by a due attention to these warnings. SECRETS OF BLACK MAGIC REVEALED A PERSON DESIRES TO REMOVE CORNS When they bury an old man, and the funeral bells are ringing, the fol- lowing should be spoken: They are sounding the funeral bell and what I now grasp may soon be well and what ili I grasp do take away, like the dead one in the grave does lay. While reciting the sentence, always hold the troubled part in the hand, and regarding the corns, move over them with your fingers after cutting out the corns, and as long as they are tolling the bells repeat the above. As soon as the dead body begins to bleach the corns will disappear. Probate in the case of a male, wait for the funeral of one of that sex; in the case of a female wait until a female is to be buried. WHEN 10 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE WHEN A SORE FAILS TO BREAK OPEN Take virgin-parchments as large as the sore, put it first in water and then on the sore spot. Propatum! FOR FRESH WOUNDS is the wound, blessed is the day! happy the hour I found soon to stop and arrest thee, so that thou neither swell nor fester until moun- tains meet. TO STAY A SHOT Shot stand still in the name of the Lord, give neither fire nor flame, as sure as the rock of Gibraltar remains firm. While dissolving it, say: God saw his joy and glory! TO COMPEL A THIEF TO RETURN THE STOLEN PROPERTY Obtain a new earthen pot with a cover, draw water from the under cur- rent of a stream while calling out the three holiest names. Fill the vessel one-third, take the same to your home, set it upon the fire, take a piece of bread from the lower crust of a loaf, stick three pins into the bread, boil all in the vessel, add a few dew nettles. Then say: Thief, male or female, bring my stolen articles back, whether thou art boy or girl; thief, if thou art wom- an or man, I compel thee, in the name. TO MAKE A MAGNETIC COMPASS WHICH WILL SERVE TO DIS- COVER THE TREASURES AND ORES IN THE EARTH For this purpose a magnet made of the plusquam perfection, accompanied by the prime material of which all met- als grow is requisite; with this, the magnet of the compass must be strengthened. Around the compass are engraved the characteristic signs of all the seven metals. If it is desired now to ascertain what kind of a metal is most likely to be found in a hidden treasure or in ore beneath the earth, it will be only necessary to hie to that particular spot, where the magnetic rod has given the indication, but you must put your foot there where the perpen- dicular shows its attraction, and take of every metal a small piece, that is, one as heavy as the other, and lay it upon the respective character and the needle will rotate to that metal which predominates under the surface of the earth, and there it will stand still. TO DISCERN IN A MIRROR, WHAT AN ENEMY: DESIGNS AT THE DISTANCE OF THREE MILES OR MORE Obtain a good plain looking glass, as large as you please, and have it framed on three sides only; upon the left side it should be left open. Such a glass must be held toward the direc- tion where the enemy is existing and you will be able to discern all his markings, maneuverings, his doings Fresh and workings. Was effectually used during the Thirty Years war. FOR VIOLENT TOOTHACHES Take a new nail, pick with this the tooth till it bleeds, then take this nail and insert it in a place where neither sun or moon ever shines into, perhaps, in the rafters of the bin in a cellar, toward the rising of the sun; at the first stroke upon the nail call the name of him whom you design to help, and speak: Toothache fly away, by the sec- a stroke: Toothache cease, pain al- ay: EYEWATER WHICH MAKES THE SIGHT CLEAR, SO THAT NO SPECTACLES ARE NEEDED Take some good brandy or nettles, one drachm of ginger, camphor, fish- berry, herb and nasturtium, of each one drachm, of cloves one scruple, or rue toothwort, eyebalm so much as may be held between two fingers (one pinch). Bruise all these articles, and put into the brandy, and distill it in the sun, during the winter season 24 days in a warm room. Dip your finger therein and rub the eyelids therewith, morning and evening, this will keep the eyes clear, and make them strong without the use of spectacles. TO RECOVER STOLEN GOODS Mark well whence the thief left and by which door; from it cut three pieces of wood while pronouncing the three most sacred names; take these scraps of wood to a wagon, but in a noiseless manner, take a wheel off the wagon and insert the wood in the nave, again pronouncing the three holiest nams, then drive the wheel backward and ejactulate: Thief,thief, return with the stolen article, thou shalt be compelled by the omniscience of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God the Father calls thee back, God the Son turn thy footsteps that thou must re- turn, God the Holy Spirit guide thee to retrace thy steps until thou again reachest this place. By dint of Gods power thou must come back, by the wisdom of the Son of God thou shalt enjoy no peace nor rest till all the stol- en things are returned to the rightful owner. By the grace of God the Holy Ghost, thou must run and leap, canst neither rest nor sleep till thou shalt arrive at that place where thou has committed the theft. God the Father bind thee, God the Son compel thee, God the Holy Ghost cause thee to re- turn. The wheel, thou must not rapid- ly turn, or the soles of his feet may blister and burn, he will in pain and anguish cry, and ere you catch him, thus may die; Thou shalt come in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thief, thou must come. Thief thou must come. If thou art mightier, thief, thief, thief, than God and the Holy Trinity, then stay where thou art. The ten eommandments BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE Ww force thee to observe not to steal, hence thou must return. TO SECURE ONES SELF AGAINST ROBBERS WHILE TRAVELING Speak three times: Two wicked eyes have overshadowed me, but three other eyes are overshadowing me too, the one of God, the Father, the other God the Son, the third of God the Holy Spirit, they watch my blood and flesh, my marrow and home, and all other large and small limbs, they shall be protected in the name of God. ALSO FOR THE TOOTHACHE St. Peter stood under an oak tree. Then spake our beloved Redeemer to Peter: Why art thou sad and weary? Peter replied: Why should I not feel sad and dread, since all the teeth de- cay in my head? Wherupon our Lord Jesus Christ spake unto Peter: Peter, hie to the cool and lonely nook, there runs a clear water in a mountain brook. Take water thereof in thy de- caying mouth, and spew it again into into the running brook. This done three times in succession, and each time the three highest names pronounced. This repeat for three days in succession. HOW TO MAKE ONES SELF AGREE- ABLE TO ALL Carry a whoops eye on your person. If you carry it in front of your breast, all your enemies will become kind to you, and if you carry it in your purse you make a good bargain on all what you sell. TO FASTEN A PERSON THAT HE MAY NOT ESCAPE Take a needle wherewith the gown from a corpse had been sewed and put this needle into the foot prints of the person you seek to fasten. And never will that person, so treated, be able to get away. TO HAVE GOOD LUCK IN PLAYING, AND HOW TO MAKE YOUR- SELF LIKED BY PEOPLE Take the right thumb in your hand, and put the hand in your right hand pocket whenever a delinquent is ex- ecuted, and thus you will secure good luck in playing and be liked by your fellow-men. TO TRY IF A PERSON IS CHASTE Sap of raddish squeezed into the hand will prove what you wish to know. If they do not fumble or grab- ble they are all right. HOW TO CAUSE YOUR INTENDED WIFE TO LOVE YOU Take feathers from a roosters tail, press them three times into her hand. Probatum. Or: Take a turtle dove tongue into your mouth, talk to your friend agree- ably, kiss her and she will love you so Aearly that she cannot love another, WHEN YOU WISH THAT YOUR SWEETHEART SHALL NOT DENY YoU Take the turtle dove tongue your mouth again and kiss her, she will accept your suit. Or: Take salt, cheese and flour, mix it together, put it into her room, and she will have no rest until she sees you. into and AN AMBROSE-STONE Steal the eggs of a raven, boil them hard, lay them again into the nest and the raven will fly across the sea and bring a stone from abroad and lay it over the eggs and they will become at once soft again. If such a stone is wrapped up into a bay leaf and is given to a prisoner, that prisoner will be lib- erated at once. Whoever touches a door with such a stone, to him that door will be opened, and he who puts that stone into his mouth will under- stand the song of every bird. WHEN AN ANIMAL IS STUPID When an animal is stupid, when it runs around as if it had the rams, or when it carries the head upon one side, which signifies a sort of woe or pain, it may arise from heat and superfluous blood; hence it would be good to bleed such a beast three or four times, espe- cially on a Friday. In all cases, how- ever, an animal should suffer from such an ailment, pronounce the following grace three times over it, the first time stand upon the right side of the ani- mal; the second time on its left side; the third time again upon the right. side, and while saying the grace move constantly your hand over the back of the animal. TO MAKE ONES SELF SHOT-PROOF According to this formula, on the day of Peter and Paul, at vesper tide, there spring open waywort roots, of which hunters and men of the forest believe that he who carries them on his person cannot be hit or shot. TO CATCH FISH Take valerian, or cocculus Indicus, and make small cakes thereof with flour; throw these into the deep. As soon as a fish eats thereof it will be- come intoxicated, and float upon the surface. TO BANISH ALL ROBBERS, MUR- DERERS, AND FOES God be with you, brethren. Desist you thieves, robbers, murderers, way- layers and warriors in meekness, be- cause we all have partaken of the rose- colored blood of Jesus Christ. Your rifles, gun, and cannons be spiked, with the holy drops of our Redeemers blood. All sabers and deadly weapons be closed, with the five wounds of our dear Master, Jesus Christ. Three roses are blooming on Jesus heart. The first is kind, the other is mighty, the third represents Gods strong will. Under 12 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE these, ye thieves and murderers are be- come still, as long as I will, and ye are banished, and your foul deeds have vanished. TO CITE A WITCH Take an earthen pot, not glazed, yarn spun by a girl not yet seven years old. Put the water of the bewitched animal into the pot, then take the egg of a black hen and some of the yarn and move the latter three times round the egg, and ejaculate in the three devils names; after this put the egg into the water of the pot, seal the lid of the vessel tightly that no fumes may ooze therefrom, but observe that the head of the lid is below. While setting the pot upon the fire, pronounce the fol- lowing: Lucifer, devil, summon the sor- cerer before the witch or me, in the three devils name. IN CASE ONE SUFFERS FROM A THEFT If something is stolen from you, pro- ceed also as stated above, take likewise water, draw it from a brook stream downward, and cut three splinters from the threshold over which the thief did run. The water must be drawn in the three names of the devil. THAT NO WITCH MAY LEAVE A CHURCH Purchase a pair of new shoes, grease them on Saturday with grease on the outer sole, then put them on and walk to the church, and no witch can find the way out of the church without you proceed before her. ANOTHER WAY TO CAUSE RETURN OF STOLEN PROPERTY Take three pieces of bread, three pinches of salt and three pieces of hogs lard, make a strong flame, put all the articles upon this fire, and say the following words, while keeping alone: I put bread, salt and lard for the thief upon the fire, for thy sin and temerity so dire. I place them upon thy lungs, liver and heart, that thou art troubled with terror and smart, a distress shall come over thee with dread as if thou wert to be smitten dead, all veins in thy body shall burst and break, and great havoc and trouble shall make, that thou shalt have no peace nor rest, till what thou hast stolen thou hast returned and brought all back from whence it were taken. Three times to recite and every time the three holiest names spoken. TO OBTAIN MONEY Take the eggs of a _ swallow, boil them, return them to the nest, and if the old swallow brings a root to the nest, take it, put it into your purse, and carry it in your pocket, and be happy. TO OPEN LOCKS Kill a green frog, expose it to the sun for three days, powder or pulverize it. A little of this powder put into a lock will open the same. TO UNDERSTAND THE SONG OF BIRDS Take the tongue of a vulture, lay it for three days and three nights in hon- ey, afterward under your tongue, and thus you will understand all the songs of birds. TO STOP THE BLEEDING OF A WOUND Take a small bone of a human body and put into the wound, and the blood will cease to flow. HOW TO OBTAIN A GOOD MEMORY Take the gall of a partridge, and with it grease the temples every month and your memory will be like that o Mnemon. TO MAKE A PERSON DISLIKD GAMBLING Speak to an executioner, and get some wood of a whip wherewith he has beaten criminals, and flog the gambler with this upon his naked body, and never more thereafter will he gamble. WHILE TRAVELING Say every morning: Grant me, oh Lord, a good and pleasant hour, that all sick people may recover, and all distressed in body or mind, repose or grace may find, and guardian angel may over them hover; and all those captive and in bondage fettered, may have their conditions and troubles bet- tered; fo all good travelers on horse or foot, we wish a safe journey joyful and good, and good women in labor and toil a safe delivery and joy. THAT NO PERSON WILL DENY ANYTHING TO YOU Take a rooster, three years old throw it into a new earthen pot, and pierce it through, then put it into an ants hill, and let it remain until the nifith day thereafter, then take it out again and you will find in its head a white stone, which you must carry on your person, and then nobody will deny you anything. GOLD ROOTS FOR THE TEETHING OF CHILDREN When children are teething suspend gold roots around their necks, and they will get their teeth without pain. Such root, carried on your person, secures the wearer against all harm. Waywort heals heart woe and stom- ach pain. Whoever carries the roots on his person his eyes will be cured. Dogs dribbling and ailments leave and wane like the moon, its flowers heal those who suffer from too large a spleen or milt. Nasturtian roots powdered, and laid upon the eyes, give clear and brilliant eyes. The sap to drink will cure liver complaint; whoever carries the root on his person will be favored by the la- 14 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE TALISMANS, CHARMS, SPELLS AND INCANTATIONS Spells of such force no wizard grave EHer framed in dark Thessalian cave, Though his could this ocean dry, And force the planets from the sky. TALISMANS In the whole circle of the occult sciences there is scarcely anything more obstruse or intricate than the mystical science of Talismans. The use of them has occasionally received much opposition from incredulous individuals; while on the other hand, it has stood the ground with firmness amidst the change of ages. Mourning rings, miniatures, lockets, mementoes, armorial bearings, and the boast of heraldry, are but so many relics of Talismanic learning, Amongst mankind in general, there is much of talismanic belief; witness the avidity with which the caul of an infant is sought after to preserve from danger by water; as also the celebrated romance of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott; the in- tense interest of which arises from the narration of a singular instance of the faith formerly reposed in Talismanic agency. It is now well known that when Napoleon went to Egypt he was then presented with a talisman by a learned eastern magician, the effect of which was to protect and defend him from sudden attacks, assassinations, and all manner of hurts from firearms. TALISMAN FOR LOVE This Talisman is said to be wonderfully effi- cacious in procuring success in amours and love adventures. It should be made or prepared when Venus, the planet of love, is the evening star. It should be made preferably of pure silver, but where that is not practicable, cut out the picture of the Talisman from this book, and paste it neatly in any suitable article, such as in a locket, back of a watch, or it may be pasted on a piece of round cardboard of equal size and worn over the heart or the left breast, or carried in the pocket as a Lucky Pocket Piece. Where possible this Talisman should be cast of the purest grain tin, and during the increase of the moon. The characters are to be engraved on it also during the increase of the moon. Where this is not practicable, the illustration may be cut out of this book and placed in, say, a locket, and suspended about the neck, or worn on any part of the body, or it may be pasted on a piece of round cardboard of equal size and carried in the pocket. It should be kept from the sight of all but the wearer. Its effects are to give victory over enemies, protection against their machina- tions, and to inspire the wearer thereof with the most remarkable confidence. BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 138 TALISMAN FOR WAR AND BATTLE This Talisman bears on it the powerful words, and also the awful sign which were said to have been conveyed to the Emperor Constantine from heaven, in daylight, and in the presence of his whole army, and whereby he was victorious in battle. It should be made of highly tempered steel, but where not practicable, the illustration may be cut out of this book and placed in a locket or other suitable article, or simply pasted on a piece of cardboard of similar size. It should be tied around the sword-arm. An ancient manuscript says of this Talisman: He that beareth this sign about him shall be helped in every need and necessity. TALISMAN FOR DESTROYING IN- SECTS AND REPTILES This Talisman is to be made, if possible, of iron, when the sun and moon enter the sign, Seorpio. It has been proved to be powerful in effect; so much so that no kind of venomous reptile or trou- blesome insect can come within some yards of the house or place in which it is. The manuscript from which the account of this Talisman is taken, cost a very large sum and a medical gentlenan to whom it belonged, affirms that he had himself proved its efficacy, for being at one time much an- noyed with beetles, he made a talisman, accord- ing to instructions here given and screwed it to the floor, when these troublesome insects imme- diately disappeared, but afterwards, when the servant removed it, through ignorance, they re- turned in great numbers; when he again nailed it . . to the floor, and they again disappeared! If impractical to have this Talisman specially made, the illustration may be cut out of this book and pasted on a piece of heavy tin or other metal, or even a stout piece of cardboard. TO OVERCOME CHARMS AND EVIL INFLUENCE Repeat reverently, and with sincere faith, the following words, and you shall be protected in the hour of danger: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And behold, at evening tide, trouble; and before the morning he is not; this is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. : CHARM AGAINST TROUBLE IN GENERAL Repeat reverently, and with sincere faith, the following words, and you shall be protected in the hour of danger: He shall deliver the six troubles, yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death, and in war from the power of the sword, And thou shalt know that thy tabernacles shall be in peace, and thou Shalt visit thy habitation and shalt not err. . 16 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE CHARMS, OMENS, AND SIGNS The use of charm and talisman is extensive, and a great percentage of the people have their pet lucky piece always with them. Magnetic lode- stones are universally used to attract good fortune, love and happiness, like- wise with various lucky images or idols. Belief in these lucky pieces ex- tends back into history of thousands of years. CLOUDS Fleecy clouds indicate either a long wet or dry spell. Long streaky clouds denote fair weather. A halo around the moon is a sign of rain. An un- even number of reports of lightning in quick succession is a sign of good luck. Thunder from a clear sky is also indicative of good fortune. PHYSICAL SIGNS AND OMENS It is unlucky to see a new moon for the first time through a glass. A bee, flying in the house, should be retained for a few minutes as a prisoner to bring luck. Crickets in the house are considered a- sign of luck, but a sign of illness if they leave without appar- ent reason. A sick person witnessing a shooting star will recover within the month. The howling of dogs denotes impending disaster. Robins are looked upon as messengers of good luck. To kill a moth hovering about a candle is to invite good luck. If a knife be dropped, accidently, so that the point penetrates the ground and stands up- right, good luck will result. To spill salt on the table is considered unlucky. To counteract the spell, throw a pinch of the salt over the left shoulder. If your teakettle sings, it is a sign of happiness and contentment in your house. A spark on the wick of a candle means a letter will be received by the one who first sees it. To move into a new home on Friday is unlucky; how- ever, Monday and Wednesday are par- ticularly fortunate. A girl standing under a piece of mistletoe may be kiss- ed by any man finding her there. Should the girl refuse the kiss, she in- vites bad luck. To put your clothes on the wrong way is a sign of good luck, if performed without intention. However, the clothes must be worn that way, else the luck changes. If you observe a shooting star, make a wish while it is still in motion, and the wish will come true. A rabbit running across your path is a sign of impending ill luck. The continual hooting of owls at night is an omen of ill-health. Should you wash your hands or face in water just used by another, be sure to first sprinkle a few drops on your head before empty- ing the vessel to avoid bad luck. Sun- shine and the sneezing of a cat are said to be happy omens for brides. A ereeping child will have better luck and be more fortunate in life than one that does not. Horseshoes are always considered lucky, and should be hung over the door of the house or barn. The horseshoe on the barn insures a good harvest. If you see a pin, pick it up, as it will bring you good luck; to let it lie is bad luck. Never relate a bad dream before breakfast. lest it come true. The new moon first seen over the right shoulder offers an op- portunity for a wish to come tru. To break a mirror is considered un- lucky, and the person breaking the glass will have bad fortune for seven years. In Catholic countries a person who accidentally breaks a_ mirror, crosses himself and repeats, May the Saints avert ill fortune. However, if a glass is wilfully and purposely brok- en and thrown away, it will have no effect on the person breaking the glass. POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS KNOCKING ON WOOD The custom of knocking on wood to prevent ill iuck is perhaps the most prevalent custom in existence, and is performed by all classes of people, the world over. Its origin is attributed to the ancient religious rite of touching a crucifix when taking an oath. It is said that a president of the United States is accused of resorting to this strange custom. THE EVIL EYE Fear of being bewitched by the evil eye is very prevalent among the Latin races, and in this country the belief is widespread that certain persons, possessing power of the devil and su- pernatural agencies, can bewitch an- other by simply looking at him with hatred in the eyes, and thus cast a spell. Psychology teaches that it is pos- sible to influence others with your mind, the expression and influence go- ing from the eyes, however, this should not be termed as the evil eye spell, which is in reality a myth. However, many people still cling to the belief and wear charms and amulets to coun- teract the bad influence of the evil eye. These charms really aid these people, as it changes the negative thoughts of their minds to positive ones. Perhaps the most popular amulet is a cross of jet, the belief being that it will split if looked upon by a person having evil intentions. In some parts of the world, the face of a new born child is gently brushed with a bough of pine to prevent any evil infiuences from attacking the child. The Hindus BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 13 dies. Taken in food, it is good for cancer, When you catch a whoop, you will find a stone which you must put under the head of a sleeping person, and that person will be compelled to impart to you all secrets which he may know. If you carry a badgers foot with you, all your affairs will be fortunate, and you will not be perplexed nor err. Whoop eyes make a man benign. If you carry the eye with you, you will be in good repute by the authorities; and if you will carry the head no one will cheat you. If you carry the head of a crow upon your breast, all must love you who have dealings with you. When you catch a mole and put it into a pot, while it lives, and ignite sulphur, all moles will gather together. When you put a mole into an earthen pot, and boil the same, and with this water wash the hair, the hair will turn white. During the month of August take a swallow from its nest. In its stomach you will find a stone, which you may wrap into a limen handkerchief, hang under your left arm. It is a good thing against slanderers, and makes you agreeable among the people. A snail is said to have a starlet in its head, and when found it is good for one who is afflicted with kidney dis- ease. WHEN A PERSON HAS SPRAINED HIMSELF Take juniper berries and hay flowers, bruise them and boil in good old wine. Apply as a poultice. TO MAKE YOURSELF INVISIBLE Pierce the right eye of a bat, and carry it with you, and you will be in- visible. TO PREVENT CHILDREN HAVING MEASLES FROM BECOMING BLIND As soon as the children get sick from measles, hang on their necks the roots of purnellac, and your sorrows may cease. Probatum. HOW TO DRAW OUT A THORN OR SPLINTER Take carrots bruised with honey and make a powder thereof. Put over the injury; it will draw the substance out and soothe the pains. WHEN LUNGS OF CATTLE SWELL Take some sandstone, put it into a bake-oven till it becomes hot, then put it into a pail of fresh water. Let the cattle drink. FOR THE ITCH OR SCAB Take precipitate, lard and white hens manure, make a lye therefrom and wash the skin therewith. FOR OPEN SORES Take hogs lard of the size of a bean, heat it; put the yolk of an egg and some saffron therein; stir it well and it will heal. WHEN A PERSON HAS IMBIBED TOO MUCH Take fungus of a linden tree, one- half quart of old wine, one-half quart of water, pour the latter on the fun- gus, let it draw for twenty-four hours and drink mornings, -noons and eve- nings thereof, one teaspoonful. SALVE FOR GOUTY LIMBS Take dogs lard for five cents, oil of white fir tree cones five cents, olday for five cents, seal oil for five cents, a quart of lard in which all the others are rendered down, and the gouty limb anointed with the salve. FOR COAGULATED BLOOD Take five cents worth of nomo, make a plaster of it and put it on the injury once or twice. TO DRIVE AWAY LICE Fishberry and lard mixed together and the head anointed therewith. A DRINK FOR HORSES Watercresses, green juniper berries, hartshorn, venetian soap. Of these make a beverage. WHEN A GUN IS BEWITCHED Take five cents worth of liquid am- ber, assafoetida, river water, and mix well together. With the mixture clean well, and the rag, with which the scouring was made, hang up in the smoke or put into a new made grave. HOW TO KEEP WARM IN WINTER Take nettlewort, garlic, pour lard into it and boil together. When hands and feet are greased with this oint- ment one will not feel cold. FOR A WEAK HEAD When a person has a weak head and is often absent-minded, take hold of an ants hill, then put them in a bag, boil the same for six hours in a kettle of water. Draw this water upon bot- tles and distil it in the sun. With such water wash the weak and dull head. If the disease is very bad bathe the patient in this water. The blood of asses can be drunk, BOOK Of FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 17 decorate their children with beautiful jewels to confuse and antagonize the evil eye. Mohammedans hang articles from the ceiling over the cradle of their children to ward off evil influences, the key to the house being considered the most beneficial article. THE BLACK CAT As a rule, black cats are considered unlucky, but contrary to general be- lief, are supposed to bring good luck. However, to kill a black cat is unlucky and invites misfortune for a year. A black cat crossing your path denotes good luck, not bad. The meowing of a black cat at midnight is a bad omen. Various actions of cats are supposed to foretell good or unfortunate events. COLOR SUPERSTITIONS Color has a great influence on the mentality of individuals. Everyone is supposed to possess a color hue, and your color chart will correspond with that of your lucky star. Color rules the emotions as follows: Red governs love, affection and lust. Red is also the paramount advertising color, as it is the most attractive to the eye. Orange denotes simplicity and ig- norance. Orange is the color of the god of marriage. Scarlet rules the emotion and anger, and a color to be avoided by virtuous people. Bright red, symbolistic of fire, rep- resents power, courage and confidence. Yellow signifies glory and fortune to the ancients. Now it is interpreted as denoting infidelity, perfidy and shame. Brown denotes worldly knowledge and is a mark of distinction. Green, the color of springtime, is as- ad sociated with youth and hope. Black is the color of sadness, gloom and death, while white denotes all that is pure and desired. LUCKY STONES Birthstones are generally accepted as inducing fortunate occurences. Each stone is governed by a different month or Sign of the Zodiac. They are as follows: JanuaryGafnet. FebruaryAmethyst. MarchBloodstone, AprilDiamond. MayEmerald. JuneAgate. . JulyRuby. AugustSardonyx. SeptemberSapphire. OctoberOpal. NovemberTopaz. DecemberTurquoise. Not being contented with a lucky gem for each month, the ancient phil- osophers allotted a stone for each day of the week, as follows: SundayRuby and chrysolite. MondaySelenite, pearl and opal. TuesdayAmethyst and bloodstone, WednesdayAgate, jade and olivine, ThursdayEmerald and sapphire. FridayTurquoise and lapis-lazuli. SaturdayOnyx. HOW TO MAKE YOUR LOVER OR SWEETHEART COME If a maid wishes to see her lover, let her take the following method: Prick the third or wedding finger of your left hand with a sharp needle (beware a pin), and with the blood write your own and lovers name on a piece of clean writing paper, in as small a com- pass as you can, and encircle it with three round rings of the same crimson stream, fold it up, and exactly at the ninth hour of the evening bury it with your own hand in the earth, and tell no one. Your lover will hasten to you as soon as possible, and he will not be able to rest until he sees you, and if you have quarrelled to make it up. A young man may also try this charm, only instead of the wedding finger, let him pierce the left thumb. FOLK-LORE OF PINS Why, however, north country people are so persistent in their refusal to give one another a pin it is not easy to discover, as even they themselves cannot give the origin and reason of this supersitition. When asked for a pin they invariably say, You may take one, but mind, I do not give it. It may, perhaps, have some connection with the vulgar prejudice against giving a knife, or other sharp instrument, as mentioned by Gay in his Shepherds Week. But woe is me! such presents luckless prove, For knives, they tell me, always sever love. A supposition as popular now as in days gone by. Another fact associated with pins will doubtless interest those of the fair sex about to enter on the happy state of matrimony. Thus, it is still a prevalent belief in certain places that a bride, in removing her bridal robe and chaplet at the completion of the marriage ceremonies, must take special care to throw away every pin worn on this eventful day. Woe to the bride who keeps even one pin used in the marriage toilet. Woe also to the bridesmaids if they retain any of them, as their chances of marriage will thereby be materially lessened, and anyhow they must give up all hope of being wedded before the following Whitsuntide. On the other hand, in Sussex on her return home from church the bride is often robbed of all the pins about her dress by her single friends present, from the belief that whoever possesses one of them will be married in the course of a year. Much excitement and amusement are occa- sionally caused by the youthful com- petitors for this supposed charm, and the bride herself is not infrequently the victim of rather rough treatment. 18 , BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF PINS Among the magical properties of pins we may mention their supposed effi- cacy in the cure of certain disease. Thus, in Alabama, in the case of warts, the patient is taken to an ash tree, where a pin is first stuck into the bark, and withdrawn; a wart is transfixed with it till he feels pain, and then the pin is again pushed into the _ tree. Every wart entirely disappears. A few years ago we are told that some trees might be seen thickly studded with pins, each the index of a cured wart. In connection with this superstition there is a well known couplet: Ashen tree, ashen tree, Pray buy these warts of me. In place of a pin, a nail driven into an oak is reported to cure toothache. A Virginia remedy consists in rubbing the warts with a snail, after it has been pierced with a pin as many times as there are warts. As the snail by degrees withers away, so it is believed that the wart, impregnated with its matter, will do the same. It has been pointed out that most of the charms of this kind are of the nature of a sac- rifice, the warts being transferred to a substitute. DREAMS THAT COME TRUE A poor peasant, dwelling in the vi- cinity of Rheims, saw, one night, dur- ing his slumbers, a young man, who, taking him by the hand, conducted him to the base of an old wall, where, after designating a huge stone recommend- ing him to raise it up on the morrow, he suddenly vanished. The peasant followed his advice, and found the stone indicated in his dream, which upon being displaced, and revealed a vase filled with golden coinsenrich- ing the dreamer and his family. Gassius of Parma, who had espoused the cause of Mark Antony, fled to Ath- ens after the battle of Actium. While sleeping in his apartments there, he saw aman enter his chamber, an indi- vidual with dark complexion and dis- hevelled hair, very tall and stout. Cas- sius demanded who he was; to which the phantom replied, I am your evil genius. The dreamer arose in affright, and seeing no one present, summoned his slaves, inquiring if any among them had seen a stranger enter the apartment. An examination showed the doors of the house to have been firmly closed, so that it was impossible for anyone to enter. Cassius, persuaded that he had been the victim of some chimerical illusion, again went to sleep, but the same vision presented it- self a second time, addressing him with the same words. Cassius, troubled arose from his couch and summoned lights. At early daybreak he was as- sassinated by order of the Hmperor Augustus. MURDER REVEALED Two Arcadian friends, journeying to- gether, arrived at Megara, at which place the one took lodgings at the house of a friends, while his compan- ion put up at a public tavern. The traveler lodging at his friends, was visited in a dream by his comrade, who supplicated him to come extricate him from a trap set for him by the inn- keeper. He awoke suddenly, arose, dressed and hastened towards the tav- ern, when an afterthought compelled him to return, and he again undressed and went to sleep. Again his com- rade presented himself, but this time covered with blood, and beseeching him to avenge his murder. The phantom informed his fellow traveler that he had been treacherously assassinated by the tavern keeper, and his body con- cealed beneath a dunghill outside the city gates. Terrified at this second ap- parition, the Arcadian hesitated no longer, but going to the place desig- nated, he discovered his friends corpse, and was therefore enabled to bring the murderer to justice. LUCKY DREAMS A tradesman of Paris, sleeping in bed with his wife, dreamed that he heard a voice exclaiming to him: TI have now finished forty years, seven months, and twenty-nine days of labor and I am happy. The wife, sleeping by her husbands side, had the same dream, and upon awakening in the morning went forth, and without men- tioning the occurrence, procured a lot- tery ticket bearing the numbers 40-7- 29. The same day the numbers came out, and the tradesman lamented his indiscretion in not taking the advice of his nocturnal visitor. His sorrow was turned into joy when he learned that his wife, profiting by her dream, had drawn the grand prize in the Royal Lottery. An old lady of Paris was in the habit of encouraging her niece by promises of wealth, which she never fulfilled; extenuating her procrastination from year to year ky recourse of ingenious expedients, and she finally died. Short- ly after her decease, the aunt appeared during the night-time and instructed her niece to remove the center tile of their hearth, where she would discover the oft-promised treasure. The young girl obeyed the injunction, but discov- ered in the cavity nothing save a heap of cinders. In vexation of spirit, the niece railed vehemently against the duplicity of a relative deceiving her after death. On the following night, however, the phantom again appeared and without saying a word, designated four numbers apparentiy on the wall. Although placing little reliance upon BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 19 the injunction which she conceived to relate to a lottery (then the town talk), the niece resolved to try her luck, especially as the ticket offered for her purchase by the dealer bore the same numbers designated by the apparition. Subsequently, these num- bers came out in the order indicated, and the girl came into possession of four hundred thousand francs. DIONYSIUS VISION Dionysius, of Syracuse, while lying one night upon his couch, awake and contemplative, heard a loud noise, and arose to ascertain the cause of it. He perceived at the end of the gallery a woman of gigantic stature, as hideous in countenance as one of the Furies, engaged in sweeping the mansion with a gigantic broom. In terror and af- fright, the tyrant summoned his friends and caused them to spend the remain- der of the night with him. But the specter re-appeared no more. Two days after this vision, the son of Dion- ysius fell from a window and was kill- ed, and before a week had elapsed his entire family was destroyed, and thus, observes the historian Leloyer, it can be justly said that Dionysius and his race were swept off the face of the earth in the same manner in which the Fury, the avenging genius of Syra- cure, had been seen to sweep out the palace. . OBSERVATIONS CONCERN- ING THE EYES Spots in the eyes are of two sorts; either they appear in the white of the eye (and this shows the sudden redun- dancy of melancholy as appears in such as are near death), or when the eyes are maculated with black spots pro- ceeding from habitual melancholy, and is a certain index of the afflicting pas- sions of the mind; or else the eyes are masculated with spots like the grain of millet, or quadrangle; and if divers various colors, as fiery, red, azure, or of a rainbow color, all of which indi- cates mad, wild, cruel, and the worst of conditions; from whence we may pronounce most horrid events, and un- natural death. The following additional observa- tions concerning eyes will be found in- teresting and useful: 1. Great eyes denote a slothful, bold and lying person, of a rustic and coarse mind. 2. Eyes deep in the head denote a great mind, yet full of doubts, but generous and friendly, and if they are blue or gray, they signify great knowledge; if they are of a greenish east they intermix malicey injury and envy, and if red, they are of the nature of the cat. 3. Eminent and apparent eyes of a wall color, denote a simple, foolish, and prodigal person. 4. Sharp and piercing eyes, that decline the eye- brows, denote a deceiver, and a secret and lawless person. 5. Little eyes, like those of a mole or pig, denote a weak understanding, and easily to be im- posed on. 6. Beware of squint eyes, for out of one hundred, you will not find two faithful; for the possessor will be sly, cunning, and insinuating. It is very ill luck to meet a squinting per- son, and from long experience, I would wish that a person going out on busi- ness or any great expectations, meet- ing a squinting person of either sex, would return home and defer their business till another day, if they wish for success. 7. Eyes that move slowly, and look sleepy, denote an unfaithful, slothful, and riotous person. 8. The worst of all the eyes are the yellowish or citron; beware of them, for the pos- sessor is a dangerous person if you are in his power. 9. Beware also of them who, when they awake, twinkle their eyes, for they are double minded. If it is a woman that does so with her left eye, trust her not as to the faithful- ness of her love, and have an eye upon her actions. 10. A child who has a blue vein across her nose, between the eyes, is a general sign that it will not live long, but if it survives its infancy, it will be very passionate, and a great trouble to its family. But you seldom will find deceit where the eye looks with a modest confidence, not staring you out of countenance, nor averting as if detected of a crime; but when in business, love, or friendship, there ap- pears a tender firmness, the conscious- nes of the integrity of the heart and conduct are thereby expressed. SIGNS TAKEN FROM PARTS OF THE EYES 1. The angle of the eyes over long, indicates malevolent condition. 2. The angles being short, show a laudable nature; if the angles near the nose are fleshy, they denote hot constitution and improbity. 3. The balls of the eyes are equal, declare justiceunequal, the contrary. 4. The circles in the eyes of various colors and dry, denote fraudu- lency and vanity; but moist, denote fortitude, prudence and eloquence. 5. The lower circle green, and the upper black, are sure signs of a deceiver, and fraudulent person. 6. Eyes of moderate bigness, clear and shining, are signs of an ingenious, noble, generous and hon- est mind. . THE SILENT LANGUAGE By motion of the hands. This art is performed by the twenty-four letters of the hand and fingers, which you must learn, and then you must spell the words you intend your friend should know; the letters are very easi- ly learned, and as easily remembered. I have taught several persons in less than half an hour. You must under- stand that most of the letters are upon the left hand, and made with the fin- 20 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE gers of your right hand upon your left hand; the forefinger of your right hand you point to every letter; but some times that and the two next fingers make several letters, as you will see. The vowels are very easy to remember, they being the tops or ends of your five fingers upon your left hand, and Y is the table or palm of your hand, thus: The end of the top of the thumb is......... A The end of the fore finger is...........00008 E The end of the middie finger is The end of the ring finger is...........-. . The end of the little finger is...... oe eeeee The table on the palm of the hand.......... One finger on the left thumb............. Two fingers upon the left thumb.... Three fingers upon the left thumb.. Your two fingers laid together... Thumb your fists together........... Stroke the palm of both hands together Your fore finger upon the left wrist... One finger on the back of the left hand Three fingers on the back of your left hand Two fingers on the back of the left hand... Clench your left hand, or fist........... Clench your right bole rs Link your little fingers together. . wee The backs of your hands together............ The end of your fore finger to the middle joint of the other fore finger..............000% T Two fingers upon the little finger of left hand. .W Two fore fingers acroSS......... eee e eves x Give two snaps with your fingers............ Z Practice it but a few times over, and you will soon be perfect; several mo- tions represent the likeness of the let- ters; as, one finger at the back of your hands is like I, two fingers like N, three is like M. The fore finger to the middle joint of the other fore finger is like T; two fingers across is like X; likewise B, C, D, is very easily remem- bered, one finger on the left thumb is B, two fingers C, three fingers D. So the rest are soon learned, and as easy to remember. But you must always remember to give a snap with your finger between every word, that your friend may distinguish one word from another. If you are in company, and think some one in company under- stands you, that you would not have, it is easy for you to change the vowels to some other part of the hand, and then none but your friend that knows it can understand you. Suppose you would say to your mistress, when she is in a great company, Madam, I am your humble servant. Lay three fingers on the hack of your hand... Put your finger to the end of your thumb Three fingers upon your left thumb... Your finger again to your thumb..... Three fingers again to back of your hand bee And give snap with your fingers, for the sign the word is spelled. Then point to end of your middle finger...... I Then snap your fingers. Then point to the end of your thumb........ A Three fingers on the back of your hand...... M Then snap your fingers. Then point to the palm of your left hand...... Y Then point to the end of your ring finger.... .O Then point to the end of your little finger..... U Then link your little fingers together......... R Then snap your fingers. Stroke the palms of your hands together Point to the end your little finger...... Put three fingers on the back of your hand One finger on the thumb............. One finger on the back of your hand.. oct . A FIGURE HAND You must make an exchange and place these figures in the place: aeiouytnsr 1234567890 nana then your alphabet will run us: Tped2@fgh3kms4paqa0976 w Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise. C415mb31, C415mb31, 74 gl 40y 10392 You will find a great many words nothing but figures, and there is scarce any word, great or small, but has the greatest part figures. It is so plain to be learned that I need not give you any further instructions, but only to prac- tice the ten figures instead of letters. The other hand is performed by ex- changing of more letters, one for the other. aeiou ytusr When you are to write A, you must write Y, when you are to write Y, you must write A; and so on of all the rest. As for example, suppose you would say, Sir, Iam your humble ser- vant, it is thus: Onu, n ym asru hrm, bit Oturyie This appears like another language, and puzzles the greatest wits, and with a little practice is soon learned, by reason there are but ten letters you are to learn for the other, your alpha- bet will be thus: abcdefghojklmnopaqrstuvwxyz ybedtfguhkIlimispaqauoervwxagq I shall not proceed any further, be- eause this is sufficient, but let the reader practice what is here shown him, and he may soon learn the whole art. HOW TO WRITE LOVE LET- TERS SECRETLY To write love letters secretly, so that they shall not be discovered, take a sheet of white paper and double it in the middle, and cut holes through both the half sheets; let the holes be cut like a pane of glass, or other forms that you may fancy; then with a pin, prick two little holes at each end and cut your paper in two halves; give one half to your friend to whom you intend to write, lay your cut paper upon a half sheet of writing paper, and stick two pins in these holes that it stir not; then through these holes that you did cut, write your mind to your friend. When you have done, take off your paper holes again, and then write some other idle words both before and after your lines but if they were written to BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 21 make some little sense, it would carry the less suspicion; then seal it up and send it. When your friend hath re- ceived it, he must lay his paper on the same, putting pins into the pin holes, and then he can read nothing but your mind that you write, for all the rest of the lines are covered. Another. Write what you please of a letter on one side of a sheet of letter paper with common ink, then turn your paper, and write on the other side with milk, that which yould have secret, and let it dry, but this must be written with a clean pen. Now when you would read it you must hold that side which is written with ink to the fire, and the milky letters will then show bluish on the other side. THE WAY TO GET RICH AND LIVE HAPPY IN THE MARRIAGE STATE There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. He that by the plow would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive. For age and want save while you may, No mornings sun lasts a whole day. Get what you can, and what you get, hold: Tis a stone tnat will turn all your lead to gold. Therefore be ruled by me, I pray; Save something for a rainy day. Remember, that time is money; for he that can earn $2.50 a day at his labor, and goes abroad or sits idle at home one-half of that day, though he spend but 10 cents during his diversion or idleness, he ought not to reckon that the only expense; he hath really wasted, or, rather, thrown away $1.00: besides. Remember, that credit is money. If a man let his money lay in my hands after it is due, because he has a good opinion of my credit, he gives me the interest, or so much as I can make of the money during that time. This amounts to a very considerable sum, where a man has large credit, and also makes good use of it. Remember, that money is of a pro- lific or multiplying nature. Money will produce money, and its offspring will produce more; and so $1.25 turned is $1.50; being turned again is $1.75; and so on, till it becomes a hundred dollars, and, the more there is of it, the more it will produce on every turn- ing, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker, and he who throws away $1 destroys all that it might have pro- duced, even some scores of dollars. Remember this proverb: that the good paymaster is lord of another mans purse; for he who is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may, at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare. This is sometimes of great use, next to industry and fru- gality. Nothing can contribute more to the raising of a man in the world than punctuality in all his dealings. Therefore, never keep borrowed money one single hour beyond the time prom- ised, lest the disappointment should shut up your friends purse forever, as the most trifling actions that affect a mans credit ought always to be avoided. The sound of the hammer at five oclock in the morning, or at nine at night, being heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but, if he sees you at a gaming table, or hears your voice in a tavern when you should be at work, he sends for his money the very next day, and demands it before it is convenient for you to pay him. Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of living accord- ingly. This is a mistake that many people of credit fall into; but, in order to prevent this, always keep an exact daily account of both your expenses, and also of your daily income and profits; for, if you will only just take the trouble at first to enumerate par- ticulars, you will discover unto you how wonderfully small trifling ex- penses mount up to a large sum; by which you will also discern what might have been, and also what may for the future be saved without causing any great inconvenience. In short, the way to obtain riches, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to- market, which de- pends chiefly on two things, viz.: in- dustry and frugality. And take care that you waste neither time nor money but daily make the best use of both. If you take care of the hours and days, the weeks, months and years will also take care of themselves. I have always found, by constant ex- perience, that any business, being first well contrived, is more than half done for a sleeping fox catches no poultry. There will be sleep enough in the grave; and, also that lost time is but seldom found again, for that which we generally call time enough always proves little enough; for sloth makes things difficult, while industry makes them easy. He that rises late must trot hard all day, and shall scarce overtake his busi- ness at nightfor laziness travels so slow that poverty soon overtakes him. Drive your business, but let not that drive you; for early to bed and early to rise is the way to become healthy, wealthy and wise. Industry need not want, while he who lives on a vain hope will do fasting; for we find that there is nothing to be done or accomp- lished under the sun without labor. He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a profession hath on office and profit with honor, but then the trade must be worked at, and the profession well followed, or they will 22 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE not enable you to pay rent and taxes; for, at the working mans house, hun- ger looks in, but dares not enterfor industry pays debts, while despair in- creases them. Diligence is the mother of good luck. As Solomon said, The diligent hand maketh rich, while he that dealeth with a slack hand becometh poor, for God gives all things to industry. Then plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have plenty, while others have reason to complain of hard times. Therefore, keep working while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow; and never that business to be done to- morrow- which you can do today; for, since you are not sure of a single hour, throw not that away. How many are there who live daily by their wits, and who often break for want of a stock in hand, while industry gives comfort, plenty and respect. Keep your shop well and then your shop will keep you. For it sometimes happens that the eye of a master will do more work than both his hands, and more especially if his head be any reasonable length; for the want of care generally does more damage than the want of knowledge. If you do not watch your workmen, you may just as well leave them your purse open; for the trusting too much to the care of others has completely ruined many a man. Therefore, if you would be wealthy, think of being careful and saving; for Women, wine, game, and deceit, Make the wealth small and the wants great. OMENS Omens, as signs that may be good or bad, resemble dreams in this, that they bring before us signals that we ourselves do not seek, and convey warnings that are of much significance to those who can read them right. VALUE OF OMENS In olden days, when superstition had a strong hold upon the minds of men, the abuse of this branch of Occultism led to much needless misery; but now that the clear light of science has scat- tered so many of the mists of mere superstition, we can set aside the more trivial accidents of life, which were looked upon with undue alarm, and cease to torment ourselves at every turn with groundless fears and nerv- ous fancies, while we still believe that many secrets of Nature have been solved to which we should give earnest heed. Thus, while we may avoid walk- ing under a ladder as much because a brick dislodged from above may fall upon our head, as from any dread of bad luck to follow, we do not doubt that there are many omens of more serious import to which we should at- tend. SECOND SIGHT Foremost among such grave omens, and nearest to the kindred realm of dreams, is that indication of future events which comes by which is known as Second Sight. A few years before his death Doctor Johnson visited places in Scotland where evidences of this mysterious faculty were frequent, for the special purpose of inquiring into the subject; and the following extracts from his account of it are full of interest: Second sight, he says, is an im- pression made either by the mind upon the eye, or upon the eye by the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived and seen as if they were present. A man on a journey, far from home, falls from his horse; another, who is perhaps at work about the house, sees him bleeding on _ the ground, commonly with the landscape of the place where the accident befalls him. Another seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or a funeral procession. Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. The appearances have .to0 dependence upon choice; they cannot be summoned, detained or re- called. The impression is sudden, and the effect often painful. I do not find it to be true that nothing is presented to the Second Sight but phantoms of evil. Good seems to have the same proportion in these visionary scenes as it has in real life. That they should often see death is to be expected, be- cause death is frequent and important. According to Martin, an early writer on this subject, it is possible to some extent to classify these visions, and so to determine the time between the sight and the event. If an object was seen early in the morninig, the event would take place in a few hours; if at noon, the same day; if at night, it would be fulfilled weeks, months, and sometimes years afterwards. The ap- pearance of a shroud was a certain sign of death; if it was not drawn above the middle of the body, a delay of a year might be hoped for, but if it ascended high towards the head the mortal hour was close at hand. The vision makes such a lively im- pression upon the Seers, says Martin, that they neither see nor think of anything else as long as the vision continues; their eyelids are uplifted, and their eyes are staring so long as the sight can be secn. NIGHT OMENS Many methods have long been in use for discovering what the future holds in store in matters of love and mar- riage. If young people would dream of their lovers, let them secure a piece of the first cut of a groaning cheese, a cheese made at the birth of a child BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 23 in any family, and place it under their pillow. If this should fail let them take a piece of cake made on a similar occasion, and known as dreaming bread. Each inquirer must place this in the foot of the left stocking, and throw it over the right shoulder, and then retire to bed backwards, and in perfect silence. If she falls asleep be- fore midnight her future partner will appear in her dream. Yet another method is for anxious maidens to write their names on slips of paper at twelve oclock, and to burn these; then to gather the ashes care- fully, and lay them, closely wrapped in paper, upon a looking-glass marked with a cross under their pillows. This should make them dream of their oves. SALT-SPILLING The spilling of salt is reckoned to presage calamity, and particularly do- mestic strife. To avert this it is cus- tomary to fling a pinch of salt over the left shoulder. A writer on this sub- ject says: To scatter salt by over- turning the salt-cellar is very unlucky, and portends a quarrel with a friend, a broken bone, or other bodily misfor- tune. This may be averted by throw- ing a small quantity over the head. Leonardo da Vinci, in his picture of The Last Supper, has represented the traitor Judas overturning the salta dark and ominous foreshadowing of the betrayal of his Master. Salt has long been esteemed a symbol of friend- ship, probably because it is considered incorruptible, but in the North it is thought unlucky to put it on another persons plate. Hence the saying Help me to salt, Help me to sorrow; but any evil consequences may be averted by a second helping. Such are some of the principal omens which claim credence from all who un- derstand that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy, and there are many others to which we should give heed, even though some of them seem to be of little moment. A STRING OF OMENS The following are gathered from re- liable sources; and are commended to the consideration of those who have ears to hear. Birthdays.An old rhyme says of our birthdays: Sundays child is full of grace, Mondays child is full in the face, Tuesdays child is solemn and sad, Wednesdays child is merry and glad, Thursdays child is inclined to thiev- ing, Fridays child is free in giving, Saturdays child works hard for his living. Another version of this runs thus: Mondays child is fair of face, Tuesdays child is full of grace, Wednesdays child is full of woe, Thursdays child has far to go, Fridays child is loving and giving, Saturdays child works hard for its living; But a child that is born on the Sab- bath day Is handsome and wise, and loving and gay. Clothes.If you put on any of your garments inside out, be careful not to alter them, as by so doing you will incur bad luck. Crickets.Do not on any account dis- turb a cricket in your house. Its pres- ence is an omen of prosperity, and foretells money that is coming to you. Death watch.If you hear a clinking sound in the wall-of your house caused by the little insect commonly called the death-watch, regard it as a presage of some discomfort, but not necessarily of a death. Ears.If your right ear tingles, some. one is speaking well of you; if your left ear, then ill is spoken. If you run through the list of your friends and acquaintances, the tingling will cease aS you name the person who is speaking of you. Knife or Fork.If a knife, or fork, or a pair of scissors falls from your hand and sticks in the floor, it is a cer- tain sign that visitors are coming to eall upon you. Lady-birds.A lady-bird is of simi- lar omen. Magpies.A single magpie seen out of doors portends bad luck; two tell of good fortune; three indicate a wedding, and four a birth. Folk in the northern counties say: One for anger, two for mirth, Three for a wedding, four for a birth. Marriage.A girl should never be married in colors. A widow should not marry in white. Among many happy omens for brides are sunshine, and the sneezing of a cat. Martins.Martins nesting under your eaves bring good luck if undisturbed. May.The month of May has been considered an unlucky time for mar- riages. Ovid in his Fasti declares this time to be unpropitious for the weddings of either widows or maidens, and the modern warning runs Marry in May, and youll rue the day. Nails.There is a time for every- thing, and the following quaint lines tell us when we should cut our nails A man had better neer been born Than have his nails on a Sunday shorn. Cut them on Monday, cut them for health; Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth; Cut them on Wednesday, for news; eut them 24 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE Cut them on Thursday for a pair. of new shoes; Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow; Cut them on Saturday, sweetheart tomorrow. New Moon.A new moon on Monday is a certain sign of fair weather and good luck. If you see a new moon for the first time over your right shoulder, and form a wish, you may expect it to be realized. New Year.When first you see or eat anything new in the New Year, be- fore speaking have a silent wish, and say some poets name distinctly, other- wise your wishing will be vain. Nightingale.It is a happy omen for lovers to hear the nightingale before the cuckoo. In his Sonnet to the Nightingale Milton says Thy liquid notes that close the eve of day, First heard before the swallow cuc- koos bill, Portend success in love. Owls.The continuous hooting of owls in your trees is said to be an omen of ill-health. Pigs.If you meet a sow coming to- ward you, it is an excellent omen; but should she turn from you, the luck is ost. Rabbits.A rabbit running across your path is an unfavorable sign. Shoes.It is considered unlucky to put on your left shoe first. Singing.If you sing before break- fast you may expect bad news and sor- row before night. Sparks.A red spark on the wick of a candle signifies a letter coming to the person who sees it first. Spiders.Long-legged spiders are harbingers of good fortune. A small red spidercalled sometimes a money spinner-running over you, is a sign of money coming to you. Do not in any way disturb it. Stars.If you see a shooting star, and are quick enough to form a wish before it has vanished, you may be sure that your desires will come to pass. Stones or Pips.If you have a num- ber of fruit stones or pips on your plate, think of a wish, and then count the stones. If they are even, the omen is favorable; if odd, it is the reverse. Throwing Old Shoes.The common custom of throwing an old shoe after a bride has a deeper meaning than the belief that it will bring good luck. It was originally the symbol of renun- ciation of authority overher by her father or guardian, and its transfer- ence to her husband. This evidence of a change of ownership is of very ancient date, and traces of it are to be found in the Books of Ruth and Deu- teronomy. Washing.If you wash your hands in the water which some other person has just used, you should first make see your the sign of the cross over the water. If you neglect this precaution there will be a quarrel between you. Weather and Bees.-Bees are weath- er-wise, and do not wander far from their hive if storms are at hand. HOW TO BE A SPIRIT MEDIUM The spirit-circle is the assembling together of a given number of persons for the purpose of seeking communion with the spirits that have passed away from earth into the higher world of souls. The chief advantage of such an assembly is the mutual impartation and reception of the combined magnet- isms of the assemblage. These in com- bination forma force stronger than that of an isolated subject; first en- abling the spirits to commune with greater power; next, developing the latent gifts of mediumship in such members of the circle as are thus en- dowed; and, finally, promoting that harmonious and social spirit of frater- nal intercourse which is one of the especial aims of the spirits mission. The first conditions to be observed relate to the persons who compose the circle. These should be, as far as pos- sible, of opposite temperaments, as positive and negative in disposition, whether male or female; also of moral characters, pure minds, and not mark- ed by repulsive points of either physi- cal or mental condition. The physical temperaments should contrast with each other; but no person suffering from a decidedly chronic disease, or of a very debilitated physique, should be present at any circle unless it is form- ed expressly for healing purposes. I would recommend that the number of the circle never be less than three nor more than twelve. The use growing out of the associa- tion of differing temperaments is to form a battery on the principles of electricity or galvanism, composed of positive and negative elements, the sum of which should be unequal. No person of a very strongly positive tem- perament or disposition should be present, as any magnetic spheres em- anating from the circle will over- power that of the spirits, who must always be positive to the circle in or- der to produce phenomena. It is not desirable to have more than two al- ready well-developed mediums in a circle,as mediums always absorb the magnetism of the rest of the party; hence, when there are too many pres- ent, the force, being divided, cannot operate successfully with any. Ot Temperature. Never let the apartment be overheated, or even close. AS an unusual amount of mag- netism is liberated at a circle, the room is always warmer than it is ordi- BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 25 narily, and should be well ventilated. Avoid strong light, which, by produc- ing excessive motion in the atmos- phere, disturbs the manifestations. A very subdued light is the most favor- able for any manifestations of a mag- netic character, especially for spiritual magnetism. O the Positions to Be Observed.If the circle is one which meets another periodically, and is composed of the same persons, let them occupy the same seats (unless changed under spir- itual direction), and sit (as the most favorable of all positions) around a table, their hands laid on it, with palms downward. It is believed that the wood, when charged, becomes a conductor, without the necessity of touching or holding hands. I should always suggest the propriety of em- ploying a table as a conductor, espe- cially as all tables in a household use are more or less magnetically charged already. the room, see that they are just fresh- ly gathered, otherwise remove them; also avoid sitting in a room with many minerals, metals, or glasses, as these all injuriously effect sensitives, of whom mediums are the type. I recommend the seance to be opened either with prayer or music, vocal or instrumental; after which subdued, quiet and harmonizing conversation is better than wearisome silence; but let the conversation be always directed to- ward the purpose of the gathering, and never sink into discussion, or rise to emphasis; let it be gentle, quiet, and spiritual, until phenomena begin to be manifest. Always have a slate, or pen, pencil and paper on the table, so as not to be obliged to rise to procure them. Especially avoid all entering or leaving the room, moving about, ir- relevant conversation or disturbances within or without the circle-room, af- ter the seance has been once com- menced. The spirits are far more punctual to seasons, faithful to promise and peri- odical in action than mortals. Endeav- or, then, to fix your circle at a con- venient hour, when you will be least interrupted, and do not fail in your appointments. Do not admit unpunc- tual late comers; nor, if possible, suf- fer the air of the room to be disturbed in any way after the sitting com- mences. Nothing but necessity, indis- position, or impressions (to be here- after described) should warrant the least disturbance of the sitting, which should never exceed two hours, unless an extension of time be solicited of the spirits. Let the seance always extend to one hour, even if no results are ob- tained; it sometimes requires all that time for spirits to form their battery of the materials furnished. Let it be also remembered that all circles are experimental; hence no one should be discouraged if phenomena are not pro- If flowers and fruit are in] duced after the first few sittings. Stay with the same circle for six sittings; if no phemonena are then produced (providd all the above conditions are observed) you may be sure you are not rightly assimilated to each other; you do not form the requisite combina- tions, or neutralize each other. In that case, break up, and let that circle of members meet with other persons; that is, change one, two, or three per- sons of your circle for others, and so on until you succeed. A well developed test-medium may sit without injury for any person of any description of character or tem- perament; but a circle sitting for mu- tual development should never admit persons addicted to bad habits, crimi- nals, sensualists, strongly positive per- sons of any kind, whether rude, skepti- cal, violent-tempered, or dogmatical. An humble, candid, inquiring spirit, unprejudiced, and receptive of truth, is the only frame of mind in which to sit for phenomena, the delicate magnet- ism of which is shaped, tempered, and made or marred as much by mental as physical conditions. When once any of the circle can communicate freely and conclusively with the spirits, the spir- its can and will take charge of and regulate the future movements of the circle. Of Impressions.Impressions are the voices of spirits speaking to our spir- its, or else the admonitions of the spirit within us, and should always be re- spected and followed out, unless (which is very rare) suggestive of ac- tual wrong in act or word. At the opening of the circle, one or more of the members are often impressed to change seats with others; one or more impressed with the desire to withdraw, or a strong feeling of repulsion to some member of the circle, makes it painful to remain there. Let any or all of these impressions be faithfully regarded, and, at commencing, pledge to each other the promise that no of- fense shall be taken by following out impressions. If a strong impression to write, speak, sing, dance, or gesticulate, pos- sesses any mind present, follow it out faithfully. It has a meaning, if you cannot at first realize it. Never feel hurt in your own person, nor ridicule your neighbors, for any failure to ex- press, or at first discover the meaning of the spirits impressing you. *Spirit control is often deficient, and at first almost always imperfect. But by often yielding to it, your organism becomes more flexible, and the spirit more experienced; and practice in con- trol is absolutely necessary for spirits as well as mortals. If dark and evil- disposed spirits manifest to you, never drive them away, but always strive to elevate them, and treat them as you would mortals under similar circum- stances. Do not always attribute false- 26 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE hoods to lying spirits or deceiving me- diums. Many mistakes occur in the communion of which you cannot al- ways be aware. Strive in truth, but rebuke error gently; and do not always attribute it to design, but rather to mistake in so difficult and so experimental a stage of the communion as mortals at pres- ent enjoy the spirits. Unless strictly charged by spirits to do otherwise, do not continue to hold sittings with the same parties for more than a twelvemonth. After that time, if not before, fresh elements of mag- netism are absolutely essential. Some of the original circle should withdraw and others take their place. All persons are subject to spirit in- fluence and spirit guidance and con- trol, but not all can so externalize this power as to use it consciously or_be what is significantly called a medium; and finally, let it be remembered, that except in the case of trance-speakers no medium can ever hope to exercise successfully his or her gift in a large or promiscuous assembly; while trance- speakers, no less than mediums for any other gift, can never be influenced by spirits far beyond their own normal capacity in the matter of the intelli- gence rendered; the magnetism of the spirit and the spirit-circle being but a quickening fire, which inspires the brain, stimulates the faculties, and, like a hot-house process on plants, forces in abnormal prominence dor- mant or latent powers of mind, but creates nothing. Even in the case of merely automatic speakers, writers, aping, tipping, and other forms of test mediums, the intelligence or idea of the spirit is always measurably shaped by the capacity idiosyncrasies of the medium. AlJl spirit power is thus lim- ited to expression by organism through which it works; and spirits may con- trol, inspire, and influence the human mind, but do not change or recreate it. SECRET METHOD OF MESMERISM HOW TO HYPNOTIZE The method used to bring about the hypnotic conditions consists essen- tially in an imitation of the process of ordinary sleep, by means of verbal suggestion. Thus we actually bring sleep into existence by acting upon the imagination through action and speech. The skill of the operator con- sists in making the subject believe he is going to sleep; that is all. It is not necessary that he should possess any peculiarity of temperament and voice, as has been supposed. In short, everything lies in the subject and not in the operator. Impress upon your subject the belief that what you say is about to happen, will happen, and you have paved the way to success. Give your subject to understand that you are perfectly competent to hyp- notize him, and his imagination will do the rest. Assuming you are unable the get a@ person who has been under the in- fluence before, I will ask you to se- cure @ person (a stranger) who in your judgement would be easily in- fluenced,not one of those stubborn, over-confident know-it-all people, but one who would be willing to obey your suggestions. The reason why some people are difficult to hypno- tize is because they either consciously or unconsciously resist the operators influence. They are not passive. Those between fifteen and twenty years of age are more easily controlled. Having secured your subject, place him in a chair in a comfortable posit- ion, preferably with his back to the light, Before you commence to oper- ate it will be well to observe certain conditions. First, dont let anyone talk or laugh in the room while you are operating, Disturbing noises at the first tend to prevent hypnosis. They distract the attention, and thus inter- fere with the mental state for hypno- sis, Later when you have, as well as your subject, learned to concentrate your thoughts, noises are less dis- turbing.The most absolute avoidance of any sign of mistrust by those is necessary, as the least word or ges- ture may thwart the attempt to hyp- notize. Do not allow yourself to get excited, as there is nothing whatever to get excited about. Dont be afraid that you will have any trouble in awakening your subject as that is the easiest part of it, and there is absolutely no danger of being unable to bring the subject out of the hyp- notic condition if you follow strictly BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE at what these subject. Having observed the above pre- cautions, you may now turn your at- tention to hypnotizing your subject. You have put him into a comfortable chair, and make sure that he is com- fortable. Shift him about until he is resting easily, and say that he is resting. You do this for effect. Every- thing in this work depends upon the effect you produce upon the subjects mind. You are not, while engaged in this work, a man of original thoughts; you are simply an actor, weighing tone and gesture, testing the effect of a glance, a sentence, a frown, a com- pression of the lips, a persuasive un- bending; testing these things, weigh- ing them, withdrawing them accord- ing to results, even as the regular physician tries and withdraws his material remedies according to results. Before beginning your work as the hypnotizer (no matter which method you use), your subject is to look at whatever you may request him to, and say to him that very soon he will become drowsy, then more and more drowsy, until he will be compelled to close his eyes and sleep.Be sure to tell him that he will notice nothing unusual about the drowsiness; tell him that it will be just as pleasant as the approach to natural sleep that he has ever experienced. Let him not expect anything unnatural to occur, for such will distract his attention and make him feel excited and less passive than he should be. Let him understand that it is for his good to be hypnotized if he is sick, or to help him cure a bad habit, Tell him that you will not make him appear ridiculous, and that you will only keep him asleep for a few minutes. Tell him to look earnestly at whatever you direct, and never under any circumstances to look away from it, no matter who comes into the room or around him he is going to gaze straight at the object and no other, METHOD No. 1.Take any bright object (I generally use my watch), between the thumb and fore and mid- dle fingers of the right hand. Be sure that the light falls in the object in lessons teach on the your hand. Hold it from eight to twelve inches from the eyes, at about ten inches above the head so as to produce the greatest possible strain upon the eyelids, and enable the sub- ject to maintain a fixed steady stare at the object. The subjects eyes must be fixed steadily on the bright object, and his mind riveted upon the idea of the one object. When you notice the first change in your subjects face and eyes say such words as these: Keep right on looking at it, directly you will be drowsy. You are sleepy. Your eyelids are heavy. You are asleep. Let your voice grow lower, lower, till just above a whisper. Pause a mo- ment or two. Give him time. Never hurry. You will fail if you try to hurry too much at first. He will think it more natural if you give him a moment to get sleepy. Let him only listen. As soon as the eyelids really grow heavy, say: Your eyes are al- most closed now, making your words long drawn out and spoken in a tone which will not arouse him, but will, instead, indicate that you are yourself sleepyand almost gone. Continue as follows: Directly your eyes will have to closeyou just cannot keep awake see they are closingnow they are almost ready to closenow they will close and you will sleep. Close them. Pause a moment, then say: Sleep. Give the command to sleep in a quiet, yet firm and masterful way, in a low tone. You will see that the eyelids may quiver for a few seconds, sometimes for a minute, but very soon the sub- ject will settle back in his chair, fre- quently with a sigh, and the eyes will become quiet, and his limbs show per- fect relaxation, Let him remain so for some minutes, saying nothing to him at all. When you are ready to operate, it is well for you as a beginner, espe- cially if you have a new subject, to constantly make suggestions. For in- stance, you say: Nothing will wake you, nothing can hurt you. You can open your eyes, but you will stay asleep. Now I am about to raise your arm, but you wont wake up. Nothing will wake you. Rub the arm a few times and say: Now you cant take it downsee, you cant. You are sound asleep, and you will do every- thing I tell you to do, but you will 28 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE not wake upyou cant wake up till I tell you. The arm will remain in the position in which it is placed, and if you tell him that no person can take it down or bend it, you will find it true that no one can, I always begin operations in this way, placing both arms in an uplifted position, with both legs out- stretched in the same manner. When you are ready to take them down rub them gently but firmly (rubbing from the body, and always raising the hands when reaching the extremities), and say: Now you can take them downsee, you canyou will do all I tell you. You will have to do so. No one can wake you except myself. Speak to your subject just as though he were awake and in full possession of his senses. Although fast asleep to every one else, he is keenly awake to you. He went to sleep with his mind absorbed with the idea that you alone could control him, and this is the rea- son why no one else can make any impression on him. This connection between the subject and operator is called rapport, which is a state of sleep in which the attention of the subject is fixed exclusively upon the Hypnotist, so that the idea of him is constantly present in the subjects memory. It is possible, however, to put your subject en-rapport with any other person by simply suggesting to him to he is to obey the requests or demands of that person until further notice. METHOD No. 2.The subject re- clines on a couch or easy chair, and you stand beside him. Hold the first two fingers of your right hand at a distance of about twelve inches from his eyes, at such an angle that his gaze shall be directed upwards in a strained manner. Direct him to look steadily at the tips of those fingers, and to make his mind as nearly blank as possible, After he has stared fixed- ly for about half a minute his ex- pression will undergo a changea far away look coming into his face. His pupils will contract and dilate several times, and his eyelids will twitch spasmodically. These signs indicate a commencement of the desired hyp- notization. If the eyes do not close of themselves, shut them gently with your left hand, and say: You are be- coming sleepy; your eyes are very heavy; they are getting more and more heavy; my fingers seem quite indistinct to you (this when the pu- pils are observed to dilate or con- tract); a numbness is stealing over your limbs; you will be fast asleep in a few minutes; now sleep. This is a good method to use with children, and if they are hypnotized for any special reason hold their right hand with your left while talking to them. METHOD No. 8.Seat your subject if convenient in an ordinary chair (mot an arm or rocking chair), with both feet flat upon the floor. Place his hands on his thighs with the palms down, the fingers pointed towards the knees. Then, standing three or four feet in front of him, request him to relax as much as possible, mentally and physically. Then say to him: Look at one of my eyes, and draw his attention with the index finger of your right hand to the eye you wish him to look at. Lower your hand im- mediately to your side, and gaze di- rectly and steadily into one of your subjects eyes until his pupil begins to dilate. This will require from five to ten seconds. Then repeat slowly the following: Close your eyes gently arch your eye-brows. Now you will find it hard to open your eyes. Try trytry! All right, you may open them. Relax all tension in yourself when you say All right. You must, of course, feel confident that you can hold his eyes closed for a few seconds. Your manner and tone should be such as to convince him that you can do so. As soon as you see that you have pro- duced an impression at once release your subject for a moment. This will prevent his forming adverse auto-sug- gestions which might destroy the slight impressions already made. Af- ter a moments rest, repeat the opera- tion, saying again: Look at one of my eyes. Close your eyes gently, and so on, just as before. From the mo- ment you commence keep up a stream of oral suggestions, and repeat the above over and over again until you are quite sure your subject is under your influence. How To Perform The Daven- port Brothers Spirit Mysteries The manifestations of the Davenport Brothers are produced in either a cabinet or a darkened room, and in no instance while the operators are in full view of the au- dience. In_a darkened room their manifestations mostly consist of the thrumming (without muric) of guitars, ringing the bells, rattling of tambourines, ete., while at the same time the instruments are movedas indicated by the sounds from themwith considerable rapidity about the room. The same sounds and movements also occur to a limited ex- tent after the operators have been bound by a committee from the audience, the reintro- duction of light disclosing them still in bonds as placed by the committee. They usually extricate themselves from the tying after the light is again extinguished, in less time than the committee cecupied in binding them. During their entertainment they are also bound with ropes by what they assume to be a spirit power, without mortal assistance. To all appearance the tying done by the spirits is as methodical and secure as any that a mortal could do. Yet the very in- stant that darkness supervenes, after the knots have been examined by the committee, the musical instruments are _ sounded, and various manifestations made that could not possibly be accomplished without the use of hands; immediately on the cessation of which light is produced, and the mediums are ascertained to be bound as _ they were before the extinction of the light. Some- times, while he is thus situated, one of the mediums will have his coat removed from his body in a few seconds time. A performance of the DPavenports, which many spiritualists have asserted to be an in- dubitable evidence of the exercise of spirit power, is as follows: One of them sits with his right side to the table on which the instruments are lying. The other takes a seat beside, and at the left of the one at the table. An investigator sits in front of the mediums, and puts a hand on the head of each; and, reaching up, each medium puts his hands, in separate places, but close to- ether, on an arm of the investigator. The fight is extinguished, and sounds are made on the instruments, the latter being moved, and perhaps brought in contact with the investigators head. That gentleman is not conscious of any change in the position of the mediums. Their hands seem to him to remain constantly clasped to his arms, in which position they are found to be when the light is again produced. The mysterious cabinet in which the Davenports give their public exhibitions is about six feet high, six feet wide, and two and a half feet deep, the front consisting of three doors opening outward. In each end is a seat with holes through which the ropes can be passed in securing the performers. In the upper part of the middle door is a lozenge-shaped aperture, curtained on the _in- side with black muslin or oil cloth. The bolts are on the inside of the door. As preliminary to the manifestations, and in order that it may not be supposed that they are the operators, the mediums sub- mit to being bound by a committee from the audience. The doors are then closed and bolted, it being necessary for the mortal * manager to reach through the aperture to secure the middle door. A tremendous racket is soon made in the cabinet, the noise of the musical instruments being combined with a general whang banging; and sometimes peo- ple in the audience think they can distinguish the sound of a cloven hoof kicking things around inside the structure which encloses the mediums. Usually, after the first performance, the doors of the cabinet are opened, and the committee requested to observe that the op- erators are still bound; but sometimes there is an interval just before the opening of the door, in which a rattling of the ropes is heard, and then the mediums walk forth, free. If they are observed by the cemmittee before the ropes are removed from them, the doors are again closed till the untying is ac- complished. Being again enclosed in the cabinet, the young men are bound by what they assert to be a spirit power, during the exercise of which they are passive. The spirit tying is submitted for examination to the com- mittee, by whom it is pronounced to be ap- parently so secure as to preclude the pos- sibility of the mediums being able to use their hands. No sooner are the doors closed, however, than hands are seen at the aperture in the middle door. These hands are visible for but an instant at a time, and with a rapid vibratory movement while in view, so that it would not be possible far the ob- server to identify them as belonging to the mediums, however positively he might be- lieve them to be theirs. Immediately on the disappearance of the hands from the aperture, the cabinet doors are opened, and the committee, after an ex- amination, report the mediums to be still bound. The doors are again closed, and in- stantly the spirits strike up a lively tune on a violin, with a beil and tambourine ac- companiment. That the audience may be still more pro- foundly impressed with the wonderful powers of the young men, they sometimes request that flour be placed in their hands, as a security, in addition to the spirit tying, against their being able to use those members. Their request being complied with, a hand or two is shown at the aperture, some noises are made on the musical instruments, and then the mediums exhibit the flour still in their hands, with none spilled on their clothing or the fivor. Sometimes they permit one of the com- mittee to sit in the cabinet with them, for a short time, while they are bound, but he, too, must be bound, with his right hand se- cured to one mediums shoulder, and his left hand to the other mediums knees. The lights in the hall are then turned down so that it is quite dark in the cabinet. The gentleman in contact with the mediums is banged over the head with an instrument of music, his hair is pulled, his nose tweaked, and alto- ether he is pretty considerably mussed up. eing released from the not very pleasant position, and perhaps looking somewhat scar- ed, he reports to the audience what has been done to him, with the additional statement that he did not detect any movement on the part of the mediums. If not the manifesta- tion of spirit power, what is it? is a question which very naturally arises in the minds of those present. An answer is contained in the following explanations: In a darkened room, the investigators be- ing seated by the walls, the mediums grasp the guitars by the neck, next the keys, and swing them around, and thrust them into different parts of the open space of the room, at the same time vibrating the strings of the instruments with the forefinger. The faster the finger passes over the strings, the more rapidly the instrument seems to move. Two hands can thus use as many guitars, and a tea-bell, clasped by the iittle finger of either hand, can be rung at the same time. Or one performer can sound a guitar and bell with one hand, and play an accordion or con- certina with the other, an end of the last named instrument being held under the arm against the body. In the darkness the audi- ence thinks the instruments go furthur than they really do: and the room being close, the sounds are echoed or reflected frem the walls. When an investigator is sitting with the mediums at a table whereon musical instru- ments are lying, his hands resting on their heads, and their hands clasped to his arm above the elbow, the medium next the table removes one hand from the arm without be- ing detected, simply because the presence of the other hand, which is nearer the shoulder, is so great as to cut off communication by means of the_nerves of sensation from the arm below. It is thus impossible for the investigator to determine whether both hands of the medium are on his arm or not. He thinks they are, because the sensation in his arm remains the same. In the first place, the left hand of the medium is put heavily on the arm next the shoulder, and the right hand auite lightly, close by the other next the elbow. Both hands are seen to be on the arm, and are presumed to be pressing with equal force. The light is extinguished, and perhaps the medium takes the mans atten- tion momentarily from his arm, by suggest- ing that their feet be placed in contact; then it is that with a gradually increased pressure of his left hand tine medium carefully re- moves his right hand, and while he preserves a rigidity of the muscles of his neck and back, so as not to move his head, he takes the guitar (which lies within reach) by the neck, and extending the body of the instrument as far as possible, moves it in a half-circle, vibrat- ing the strings with his fore-finger. That the demonstration may be more striking, per- haps he hits the guitar against the head of the man with whom he is in contact. If he wishes to ring a bell at the same time, he ean hold it with his little finger. He can sound, in turn, all the instruments lying on the table: then, carefully replacing his hand on the mans arm, he is ready to have a light produced. The other medium really holds on with both hands to the arm he has clasped, feeling sure that while he does so it cannot be interfering with the operations of the spirits at the table. Should the medium put his right hand on top of the extended thumb of his left hand, with an appearance, to the investigator, of both hands being on his arm, the same re- sults could be produced with less risk of de- tection; for the presence of the thumb, where the right hand was seen to be, would lead the investigator to suppose, in the darkness, that the hand was still there. If in their dark seance, phosphorus having been put on the instruments, you shonld seea phosphoresent light very far above the stage, you may take it that the instrument which is heard is not where the light is seen, but that the phosphorus has been rubbed from the instruments, and some other put on a piece of card-board, which is attached to a folding rod and elevated in the darkness, to the de- sired position. To the Davenports, the extrication of them- selves, after being bound by a committee, ig a brief and easy task. A simple twist of the wrist will convert a square knot, us- ually considered the most secure, into two half-hitches, thraugh which the part of the rope they enclose can be easily slipped. With a little slack in the rope any ordinary knot can be made into a slip-knot. It is hardly possible to bind a man without causing him pain, so that he cannot get a slack In the rope. The writer has been bound with ropes a great many times by people who were de- termined to make a good job of the tyirg, and not once has he failed to release himself, often in less time than was occupied in bind: ing him. After the Davenports have been bound in their cabinets by a committee, and the doors of the structure are closed, they immediate- ly set to work to loosen the knots next their wrists and extricate their hands, which they usually succeed in doing in a short space of time. some instances one of them will have a hand at liberty as soon as the middle door is bolted, which he exhibits at the aper- ture, to be followed shortly by other hands; then both the mediums do their level best in making a noise with such instruments as they have at hand. Speedily getting their hands back in the ropes and drawing the knots close to their. wrists, they make some additionai noise with one or two instruments which they had so placed as to be still within their reach, and then give a signal for the opening of the doors. The knots are examin- ed by the committee and reported to be the same as they were; the doors are again closed and the operatives release themselves entirely 1rom the ropes, untying every knot. Sometimes, after being tied by the com- mittee, the mediums cannot readily extricate their hands and get them _back as they were, in which case they do not have the doors open till all the knots are untied, it being a better policy for them to wait till the spirits have tied them before making a show of hands or torturing the musical instruments. The important point with the Davenports, in tying themselves, is to have a knot next their Wrists that looks solid, fair and square, but which at the same time will admit of being slipped, so that they can get their hands out in a moment. There are several ways in which such a knot can be formed, one of which is as follows: A square knot is loosely tied in the middle of a rope, then the ends of the rope are tucked through, in opposite directions, below the knot, and the latter is then drawn tight. There are then two loops, which are left just large enough for the passage of the hand through them. The ends of the rope are then put through the holes in the seat, and tied be- neath, and also to the feet. Lastly the hands are put through the loops, and the knot drawn close to the wrist, coming between the latter. No novice in tying would suspect from the appearance of such a knot, and without taking particular pains in tracing the direction of the rope in forming it, that it could be slipped. As the hands of the mediums when thus tied are at their backs, close to the end of the cabinet, the commit- tee cannot have a very good opporunity to observe the most important knot. The doors next the ends of the cabinet are first closed by the manager, and as the medi- ums are then concealed from view of the audi- ence, they strain open the loops and are ready to use their hands as soon as the middle door is closed, which one of them instantly bolts on the inside. Then their hands are thrust under the curtain, which hangs over the aperture in the door, and exhibited to the audience; but as. before stated, the hands are exhibited but for an instani at a time, and with a vibratory motion of them; other- wise they might be recognized as belonging to the mediums. To make the hands look large or small, they spread or press together the fingers. With that peculiar motion impart- ed to them, four hands at the aperture will appear to be half a dozen, or more, as two pennies, rubbed together between the balis of a pssons thumbs, will present what ap- pear to be the edges of three. A ladys flesh-colored kid glove, nicely stuff- ed with cotton, has sometimes been exhibited as the hand of a female spirita critical observation of it not being allowed. These mediums_ once exhibited what they doubtless supposed would look like the hand of a negro; but it was of uniform blackness, palm and all. At one of their entertainments, when, in addition to the exhibition of spirit hards, a naked arm was protruded from the aperture an old lady, who, on account of the dimness of her vision, was permitted to stand close by the eabinet, saw, notwithstanding her defective sight, what made her exclaim, Well, I declare! They must practice vacciu- ation in the other world, for J see marks of it on that spirit. arm! When the spirit arm was shown at another time, rope marks were seen on the wrist! ~ It takes these mediums but a few secends to get their hands back into loops, and draw the knots close to their wrists, ready to be examined by the committee. In making the music, one medium holds the violin in the manner usual with most players of that instrument, and with the little finger of the bow hand he clasps a bell, which rings in time with the music. The other medium beats the tambourine on his head or knees with one hand, while his other hand is engaged in making a noise on something else. The performances of these young men are interesting on account of the ingenuity and expertness exercised by them, and would not be in the least objectionable were it not for their pretended mediumship. Electrical Psychology The most easy. sure and direct mode to produce electro psychological communication is to take the individual by the hand, in the same manner as though you were going to shake hands. Press your thumb with moder- ate force upon the ulnar nerve, which spreads its branches to the ring and little finger. The pressure should be nearly an inch above the knuckle, and in range of the ring finger. Lay the ball of the thumb flat and particularly crosswise so as to cover the minute branches of this nerve of motion and sensation. When you first take him by the hand, request him to place his eyes upon yours, and to keep them fixed, so that he may see every emotion of your mind expressed in the countenance. Continue this pressure for a half a minute or more. Then request him to close his eyes, and with your fingers gently brush downward several times over the eyelids, as though fastening them firmly together. Throughout the whole process feel within yourself a fixed determination to close them, so as to express that determination fully in your countenance and manner. Having done this, place ycur hand on the top of his head and press your thumb firmly on the organ of Individuality, bearing vartially downward, and with the other thumb still pressing the ular nerve, tell himyou can not open your eyes! Remem- ber, that your manner, your expression of countenance, your motions and your language must all be of the most pcsitive character. If he succeed in opening his eyes, try it once er twice more, because impressions, whether physical or mental, continue to deepen by rep- etition. In case, however, that you cannot close his eyes, nor see any effect produced upon them, you should cease making any further efforts, because yeu have now fairly tested that his mind and body both stand in positive relation as it regards the doctrine of impressions. If you succeed in closing the subjects eves by the above mode, you may then request him to put his hands on his head, or in any position you choose, and tell him, you can not stir them! In case you succeed, request him to_be seated, and tell him, you can not rise? If you are successful in this, request him to put his hands in motion, and teil him, you can not stop them! you succeed, reauest him to walk the floor, and tell him, you ean not cease walk- ing! And so you may continue to perform experiments involving muscular motion and paralysis of any kind that may occur to the mind, till you can completely control him, in arresting or moving all the voluntary parts of his system. How To Make Persons At A Distance Think Of You Tet if be particularly remembered that Faith and concentration of thought are positively needful to accomplish aught in drawing others to you or making them think of you. If you have not the capacity or understanding how to operate an_ electric telegraph battery, it is no proof that an ex- pert and competent person should fail doing so; just so in this case; if faith, meditation, or concentration of thought fail you, then will you also fail to operate upon others. First, you must have a yearning for the per- son you wish to make think of you; and secondly, you must learn to guess at what time of day or night he may be unemployed, passive, so that he be in a proper state to receive the thought which you dispatch to him. If he should be occupied in any way, so that lis nervous torces were needed to eomplete his task, his Human Battery, or thought. would not be in a recipient or pas- sive condition, therefore your experiment wouid fail at that moment. Or if he were under heavy narcotics, liquors, tobacco, or gluttonous influences, he could not be reached at such moments. Or, if he were asleep, and you operated to affect a wakeful mind or thought, you would fail again at the mo- ment. To make a person at a distance think of you, whether you are acquainted with him or not, matters not; I again repeat, find out or guess at what moment he is likely to be passive; by this I mean easy and careless; then, with the most fervent prayer, or yearn- ing of your entire heart, mind, soul, and strength, desire he may think of you; and if you wish him to think on any perticular topic in relation to you, it is necessary for you to press your hands, when operating on him, on such mental faculties of your head as you wish him to exercise towards you. This demands a meagre knowledge of Phreno- logy His Feeling Nature or Propensi- ties. is you cannot reach through these opera- tions, but when he once thinks of you, (if he does not know you he imagines such a being as you are), he can easily afterwards be controlled by you, and he will feel dis- osed to go in the direction where you are, if circumstarces permit, and he is his own master, for, circumstances alter cases. I suid you, cannot reach his Feeling, but oply his Thinking Nature, truly, but after he thinks of you once, his Feeling Nature or propen- sities, may beccme aroused through his own organization. In conclusion on this topic, let me say, that if you wish the person sirzply to think of you, one cperation may answer: but on the contrary, if you wish him to meet you, or go where you are, all you have to do is to persevere in a lawful and Christian manner to operate, and I as- eure you, in the ccurse of all natural things, that is if no accident or very unfavorable circumstances occur, he will make his way towards you, and when he comes within sight, or reaching distance of you, it will be easy to manage him. How To Charm Those Whom You Meet And Love When you desire to make any one Love you with whom you meet, although not per- sonally acauainted with him, you can very readily reach him and make his acquaintance, if. you observe the foregoing instructions, in addition to the following directions: Sup- pose you see him coming towards you in an unoccupied mood, or he is recklessly, or pas- sively walking past you, all that remains for you to do at that moment is to concentrate your thought and send it into him as before explained and, to your astonishment, if he was passive, he will look at you, and now is our time to send a thrill to his heart, by ooking him carelessly, though determinedly, into his eyes, and praying with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, that he may _ read your thought, and receive your true Love, which God designs we should bear one an- other. This accomplished, and you need not and must not wait for a cold-hearted, fashion- able, and popular Christian introduction; neither should you hastily run into his arms, but continue operating in this psychological manner; not losing any convenient oppor- tunity to meet him at an appropriate place, when an unembarrassed exchange of words will open the door, to the one so magnetized. At this interview, unless prudence sanction it, do not shake hands, but let your manners and loving eyes speak with Christian charity and ease; wherever, or whenever you meet again, at the first opportunity grasp his hand, in an earnest, sincere, and affectionate manner, observing at the same time, the following important directions, viz.:As you take his bare hand in yours, press your thumb gently, though firmly, between the bones of the thumb and forefinger of his hand, and at the very instant when you press thus on the blocd vessels, (which you can before as- certain to puwisate,) Jook him earnestly and lovingly, though not pertly nor fiercely, into his eyes, and send all your hearts, minds, and souls strength into his organization, and he wiil be ycur friend, and if you find him not to be_ congenial, you have him in your power, and by carefully guarding against evil influences, you_can refarm him to suit your own purified, Christian, and loving taste. Writing On The Arm The conjurors explanation was a great lesson in spiritualism. I next asked him to elucidate the trick of writing on the arm. Qn the occasion of my visit to Mr. Forster, when the raps | indicated the second pellet, he required the spirit present to write the initials on his bare arm. Mr. Forster placed his arm under the table for a moment, then rested it in front of a lamp burning on the table, and quickly rolled up the sleeve of his coat. The skin was without stain or mark. He passed his hand over it once or twice, and the initials of the names 1 had written on the second pellet seemed to grow on_the arm in letters of crimson. Its a trick I do every night. It goes with the audience like steam, said the conjuror. Very simple. Well, suppose_a name. What name would you like? Henry Clay, I replied. Down went the conjurors arm under the table. In a few seconds he raised it and exposed the bare forearm without mark upon it. He doubled up his fist tightly so as to bring the muscles of the arm to the surface, and rub- bed the skin_smartly with his open hand. The letters H. C.? soon appeared upon it in_ well-defined writing of a deep red color. There you have it, gentlemen; that's the blood-red writing. Very simple. All you have to do is to take a lucifer-match, and write on your arm with the wrong end of it. If you moisten the skin with a little salt water first, all the better. Then wet the palm of the other hand, rub your arm with it. Send up the muscles and the blood- red writing will come out. It will fade away in less than no time. If you look under the table, you will see that I have a little piece of pointed wood. I can move my arm under that and write the letters without using the other hand. But thats a trick which wants practice. Song and Joke Book No. 1. 8%,2993) is 100 Song and Joke Book No. 2. 39..1323- 3a 100 Song and Joke Book No. 3. %,2333. ia 100 American National and School Songs. 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Detroit 7, Mich. ey Dream Book & Fortune Teller. 82,2 uaia 250 Minstrel Show Guide. %%.2%7 ia 106 The Big Entertainer. 39,2979. via 15 Lucky Number Dream Book. %%;,.' 8 3:4ia 250 How to Play Poker. 82,2945. nia 106 Love, Courtship & Marriage. 3%, 83,aia 250 How to Love and Be Loved. 8%.) 15% 0ia 100 Lover's Secrets. 82,1158. ia onc Comp'tete Hypnotism. %;,1186. 3 onc 125 Tricks With Cards. 32,2474. aia 250 250 Tricks of Magic. N%..1 bt aid 106 Art of Ventriloquism. 32,1482) aia 10c Build Flying Airplanes. ,.)33%- Old Secrets & New Discoveries. 2.125): How to Build Rocket Ships. 3;,222 40:4 100 Home Brewed Wines & Beers. 3%..)78:0ia 100 Science of Ju Jitsu. 82,1394: ia 800 50 Simple Tricks of Self Defense. %,,2285. Art of Jiu Jitsu. 3% 588: nia asc Radio Controlled Boats & Airplanes. 32,2925 Confessions of a Taxi Dancer. X%;,.1$2- 1a 100 ,4e\" Dance Big Apple, Hula Hula, Etc. }::..' 300 Gymnastics Without a Teacher, No, 1260, Useful Knots, Hitches & Splices. 3%,2295 The Art of Dancing. 32.2993 ia 5c Tap Dancing for Beginners. 8;,.1 394; 11a 250 Star Amateur Electrician. 3%, 1300: aia 100 The Midget Bible. Brice Postpaid 15 Eff;,ent Radio Sets. 39.2998 aia 150 Bocx of Forbidden Knowledge. .,.'$43: How to Win Prize Contests. Sree 100 The Fan Dancer. 32; ia 10 Lives of Hotcha Chorus Girls. * No, 1678, 16. Feuune by Cards, Dice, Crystals, Etc. Piice ibe Snappy Jokes. 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See discussions, st ats, and author pr ofiles f or this public ation at : https://www .researchgate.ne t/public ation/254901598 'American Psycho': a double portrait of serial yu ppie Patrick Bateman Article Januar y 2003 CITATIONS 10READS 9,074 2 author s, including: Tarja Laine Univ ersity of Amst erdam 32 PUBLICA TIONS 178 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All c ontent f ollo wing this p age was uplo aded b y Tarja Laine on 04 F ebruar y 2021. The user has r equest ed enhanc ement of the do wnlo aded file. Title: Ameri can Psych o: a double portrait of serial yuppie Patrick Batema n Author(s):Jaap Kooijma n and Tarja L aine Source :Post Script. 22.3 (Summer 2003): p46. Docu ment Type: Critical essay Bookmark: Book mark this Docu ment A double relation is accen tuated by me ntal processes leaping from o ne character to an other--or is marked by the fac t that the subject iden tifies himself w ith something e lse, so t hat h e is in dou bt as to which his self is. --Sigmund Freud, 19 19 He wears t he finest clothes, the best desi gners heaven knows. Oo h, from his head dow n to his toes. Halston, Gucci, Fiorucc i. He looks l ike a still that ma n is dressed to ki ll. --Sister Sledge, 1979 In 2000, director Mary Harro n adapted Br et East on Ellis's controversi al third novel American Psyc ho (1991) to the screen , starring Christian Bale as the 27-year -old yuppie/ser ial killer Patrick B ateman. L ike the no vel, the film Ameri can Psych o can be seen as an ultimate portrayal of the 1980s New York yup pie lifestyle, depicting a world dominated by he donism , greed, an d egocen trism. The n ovel's lo ng enumeratio ns of brand name co nsumer goods , denoting the fashion-dictated materialism t hat co nstitutes yuppie life, ha ve been translated c inematica lly into a steri le space of (now extre mely dated) 1980s designer goods. The film versio n anatomizes the construction of Batema n's double identity t hat in t he novel is created through t he use of an unreliable narrat or, the appropri ation of pop cultural prod ucts (particular ly brand names, po p songs, and the ima ges of horror an d porn movies) , and the use of "cinema tic" techniques of narratio n. In this articl e, we will treat t he fiction al character Patrick Bateman as a double construc tion of narratio n and identity by examini ng the ways in w hich Batema n is construc ted as both a yuppie and a serial killer. By focusi ng on his being an unreliable narrator in t he novel and a reliable narrator in the film, we wi ll show h ow readers/spectators make se nse of Batema n's constructed identity through t heir role as Batema n's "witn ess" w ithin his ow n fiction al and cinematic world. Rather t han consider ing the film versio n to be an adaptatio n of the novel, we ar gue that the novel and film complemen t each ot her. In both the novel and the film, Batema n's iden tity is based o n a double construc tion. Bateman embodies both the well-groomed image of the Wall Street yuppie and the grueso me imag e of the seri al killer. Yet, while Bateman manages to establ ish the image of the yuppie as a credible appearance bef ore others within the fictio nal world, beyo nd the world of fiction it is clear that his iden tity as cold- blooded seri al killer is merely a hallucinatio n. By cre ating himself an iden tity as a serial killer, Bateman attemp ts to connect with somethi ng real beyo nd the su perfic iality of brand na mes. However , his seri al killer identity appears to be an illusion and this ren ders his identity as yuppie as artific ial, mea ningl ess, and inven ted. In other words , the readers/ spectat ors are invited to enter in to the process of Batema n's dou ble identity con struc tion, as Americ an Psych o reveals Batema n's tech niques of the se lf. By clear ly indicating that Bateman 's identity as serial killer is a hallucina tory constructio n, Americ an Psych o--bot h the novel and the film--sug gests t hat Bateman 's identity as yuppie is a construc tion as well. This is the essence of the novel, w hich i n the film vers ion is made palpab le through the process of narration, and specifically through the use of an unreliable/ reliable narrat or. While in the no vel, Patrick Bateman gradua lly proves t o be an unreliable narrator , in the film Batema n's unreliability towards those withi n the fictional world is made expl icit to t hose ou tside--paradoxica lly thereby making him a reliable narrator for the spectators. For example, when Batema n takes hi s drugg ed mistress Cour tney (Sama ntha Mathis) to the fashionable restaura nt Bar cadia, she expli citly asks if they are at the more fashionable restauran t Dorsia . Batema n confirms this, while at the same time showing the spectat ors in close- up the menu that shows t he restauran t's real name. This construction of dou ble narratio n, where the spectators are placed in-betwee n, suggests that we are watching a film t hat takes place withi n Bateman 's world of facade , his imag inary world. This eleme nt is prese nt in the novel as wel l, but the film version-- appropriate ly--ha s taken it to be the most cruci al element, the level that constructs t he en trance point for the spectator in to the film. From the very beg inning, the spectators are invited to see the image of Bateman as an imaginary double construction , both within and bey ond the cinematic diegesis and narration. The double image of Patr ick Batema n is constructed bot h withi n the novel and the film, a nd both media help to con struc t the double image of the yup pie and the seri al killer--which, in the en d, becomes actual ized only in an empty sy mbol, a reflection. THE CONS TRUCTION OF THE SE RIAL YUPPIE One of the first scen es in t he film Americ an Psych o features a sequen ce of shots that portray P atrick Bateman doing his daily morning routi nes. Batema n is shown placing an ice mask on his face, traini ng his abdo minal muscles, taking a shower , and applying a facial mask. As he removes t he mask t hat h as formed a scree n on his skin, Bateman's voiceover reveals an expli cit self-a nalysis : There is an ide a of a Patrick Batema n, some kin d of abstraction. But t here is no real me, only an entity, some thing illusory . Although I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, an d maybe you can even sen se our lifestyles are probably comparabl e--I simply am not there. This self-a nalysis also appears in the novel, though almos t at the en d, on pages 376-3 77, an d is the key to understa nding Ameri can Psych o. Bateman strives to co nceal his la ck of being with designer suits and po p culture, but remain s aware of the mea ningl essness of his pro ject: "Surface, sur face, surface was all that anyone fo und mea ning in . .. this was civilization as I saw it, colossal and jag ged ..." (375). As a result , he tries to na rrate himself an identity as a serial killer, but fails in this project to o, as he is unable to maintain his re liability as the narrator of his own life. By striving to embod y both the ima ge of a yuppie Wall Street stockbroker and a serial killer, Batema n beco mes a dark double of the 1980s New York yup pie subculture t hat revea ls nothing but mea ninglessn ess. From the start of both the novel and the film, Bateman's identity is unclear. He is repeatedly recognized as somebo dy else, he often confuses the identities of his fellow yup pies, a nd more t han once he deliberate ly miside ntifies himself to others. Bateman 's cameo appearance in Bret Easto n Ell is's seco nd novel The Rul es of Attraction--tel ling his brother Sean to "Stop deliberately misu nders tanding me" (238)--intro duces the identity con fusion that is domi nant in American Psycho, the novel and the film. When the novel was published in 1991 , many cr itics (Iannone, Mailer, and Ma ngue l) focused o n the "boring" enumeration s of bran d name con sumer goods and the "revolting" description s of the raping, butcheri ng, and ki lling of women, rather than recognizing the na rrator' s confused identity an d unreliability. They perceived the novel as a manifestatio n rath er than merely a descr iption of a nihilistic and empty culture. As post-feminist Naomi Wolf excla imed American Psycho was "t he singl e most boring book I have ever had to en dure" (34). However , the unreliability in na rration ironizes the overload of bran d names an d butchered body parts , suggesting that the distinction between serial consumption and seri al killing has disappeared. Although his sharp eye for detai l suggests a careful and selective observer , Batema n con tinuously makes seemingly unimpor tant mistakes. Progressing into the no vel, as the ki llings become more expl icitly described, t he "errors" increase. Shoes by Susan Warren Ben nis Edwards are mentioned as sh oes by Warren Susan Allen Edmonds, and as by Edward Susan Bennis Allen (s ee Young, 102). Batema n's seemi ngly structured , yet boring and revolting world proves to be inco nsisten t and illogical, both in time and space. A Christmas party is followed by a nig ht in May ; the daily refere nces to the topics of that mor ning's Patty Winters Show change withi n the course of the day ; the pop artists Batema n me ntions do n ot ma tch the pop songs he hears o n the rad io. Batema n is in fac t an unreliable narrator w hose cred ibility and iden tity should be questio ned, including his co nfession of being "a fu cking evil psychopath" (Ellis 20). Bateman 's unreliability as narrator fo rces the reader to rea lize that the killings only take place in Batema n's min d. Such a realization is significan t, as it shows t hat Batema n appropriates objects an d ima ges of pop consumer culture-- both the "boring" and the "revolting" ones--t o construct a double identity of himself, one that by defi nition is mistake n. In this way , the bran d names are equated to t he vio lence, an d vice versa, reflect ing the way in whic h Bateman 's double iden tity is constructed as mu tually incoh erent. In her discussion o f the no vel, Elizabeth Young has argued t hat Patr ick Batema n is not a "ch aracter" but a "cipher"--an empty si gn denoting the nothingness of yuppie identity. Batema n is "Everyyu ppie, indifferent to art, originality or even pleasure except i n so far as his po ssession s are the newes t, brightest, best, most expensive an d most fashionable" (103 ). The Everyy uppie is a flat "character" whose nihilism is concealed by his perfect exterior , a deperso nalization ironica lly contras ted by the "perso nal names" of his cloth es: Ralph Lauren , Calvin Kle in, Gior gio Armani. His subjectivity is based on (capita list) materia lity and sy mbol ic expressio n, as ha ute cout ure fashion and cos mopolitan l ifestyles have become identity building blocks that communicate t he sub ject's socia l desirability and stat us, articu lating the subject's cultural body (Lauer an d Lauer; Silverman ). Bateman is an inscriptive surface that can be signified, "masked" t hroug h fashions, lifestyles, ha bits an d behaviours (G rosz). Throug h the inscript ion of cultural values, si gnified by t he bran d names like Clinique and Giorgio Armani , Patrick Batema n embo dies the 1980s yuppie cultura l enviro nment. In fact , Bateman succeeds in establishi ng the ima ge of the Everyyu ppie to the exten t that he is constantly mistake n as being someon e else who em bodies the same ima ge; indeed his firm is full of Bateman -clones. Seve ral critics have poin ted out that the film versio n captures t he satir e contained withi n the novel, ho w its cinematograph y and prod uction design mirrors Bateman 's narcissism and love of desi gner goods, and how this is juxtaposed to the killings Batema n com mits (Kauffman, Porton , Rayns, Smith). More importa ntly, the film vers ion hig hlights t he way in whic h Bateman construct s his identity as yuppie with the cliche ima ges of con sumer goods and pop culture, and the way in w hich t he co nstruction o f his identity as ser ial killer is based o n the cliche ima ges of horror and por n films. In the film versio n, this construc ted superfici ality of his serial killer iden tity is shown as Batema n lectures o n pop mu sic (Phil Collins, Huey L ewis and the News, Whitney Hou ston) before "per formi ng" the sex acts a nd/or killings, suggesting that his ser ial killer identity is as superfic ial and artifici al as his yup pie identity. While getting his si lver colored axe (like his 1980s mobile phone, a gadget of high desi gn) ready to bu tcher, Batema n lectures abou t the Huey Lew is hit singl e "Hip To Be Square"- -"A song so catch y, most people proba bly don't listen to t he lyr ics, but t hey should, because it's not just about the ple asures of conformity and the importa nce of frie nds, it's also a perso nal stateme nt ..." and murders his col league and com petitor Paul Owen (Paul Allen in t he film versio n, played by Jared Leto), hiding the dead bo dy in a over night bag designed by Jean Pau l Gaultier. In another murder scene, we he ar a bombastic instrume ntal vers ion of Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All." Again , as Bateman is ready to kill, he philosop hizes abou t the po p song. "Its universal message crosses a ll boundaries and in stills one with the hope t hat it's not too late to better ourselves. Since it's impossible in the world we live in to empat hize with others, we can always empat hize with ourselves. It's an importan t message, cruc ial really, and it's beautif ully stated on the album" (our ita lics). Once the music stops, the sound is immediate ly take n over by the puffing sounds of Batema n having sex with two wome n, abruptly transforming into screams , as Bateman chokes one and chases t he ot her with a chai n saw, with blood a ll over the place . The juxtaposit ion of the banality of pop so ng philosophy with the stereotypica l action s and sounds of the porn star and seri al killer reinforces the notion that Patrick Bateman 's identity is constructed as an empty sign of pop con sumer culture . The inconsiste nt and illogical narrative struc ture of time and place in American Psycho appears to be solved after Batema n's murder of Pau l Allen, whic h subsequen tly leads to an investi gation b y detective Donald Kimbal l (Willem Daf oe). The murder no t only provides an explanation for Bateman 's deliber ate attempts to be mistaken for Marcus Halberstram, bu t also suggests a mo tive. Paul Allen ha s the nicest business card, has succeeded in ob taining the Fisher accoun t, and is always able to get a reservatio n for the Dorsia restauran t on Friday night, making Allen, rat her than Batema n, Everyyu ppie. By being the ultimate success ful yuppie, Allen chall enges Bateman 's sub jectivity as the Every yuppie- -and thus needs to be extermina ted. In Allen's embodime nt of the Everyyup pie, Batema n sees himself m ore perfect than he feels himself (like the child before the Lacanian mirror) , and he experi ences his yu ppie sub jectivity to fade away . As a result, t he sub jectivity of the serial killer emerges. In addit ion, the investig ation suggests that the ou tside world is finally rea cting to Bateman 's actio ns as serial killer, implying that Batema n's imaginary world is in fac t "real." However , both in t he novel and the film, t he in vestigation by detective Kimbal l is prese nted i n such a stereoty pical, hyper-real Hollywood fashion that the reader/spectator is forced to ques tion t he su dden emergence of logic and con sisten cy in t he narratio n. At this point, the comparison between the novel and the film becomes mo st relevant. In the novel the "cinema tic" narration takes over, meaning that the narrative follows t he conventions of the traditional Hollywood t hriller. As according to convention the murderer always g ets caugh t, the ne xt mur der Bateman commits is followed by a stereot ypical chase scene--Bateman is chased b y the poli ce cars an d helicopters, including a con ventional exch ange of fire. The chase is the only part of the novel whic h is written in the third perso n narrative, rat her than in the first person , enhancing the image of Patrick Bateman --the Hollywood ki ller--starring in the role of his life. ... and in t he near distan ce he can hear ot her cars comi ng, lost in t he maze of streets , the cops now, right here, don't bother with warnings anymore , they just start shooting and he retur ns their gunfire from his belly, getting a glimpse of both cops behind the ope n doors of the squad car, gun s flashing like in a mo vie and this ma kes Patrick rea lize he's involved in an actual gunfigh t of sort s, that he's trying to dodge bullets, t hat the dream threate ns to break is gone , that he's not aiming car efully, just oblivious ly retur ning gunfire, lying there, wh en a stray bull et, sixth in a new round, hits the gas tank of the police car, the headli ghts dim be fore it burs ts apart , sending a fireba ll billowing up into the dark ness .. . (Ellis 350, our italics) The film version brings Bateman 's movie to life, as the cinematic techniques of narration used in the novel are adop ted in the film. With the "voice" of the ATM-mac hine tel ling him to "feed me a stray cat," Bateman enters the m ovie in whic h he stars as the mai n villain. As Batema n pulls his gun on the small kitten , an elderly woman passing by shouts "O h my God , what are you doing? Stop that!" He shoots the elderly lady dead , an act which is directly followed by first t he sou nds of a police siren, then by the police car pulling up around the corner: the ch ase begins. As the non-die getic music swells, Batema n adds to t he cacoph ony by set ting off the alarms of the parked BMW' s and Porsc hes. With its use of the cliche eleme nts, the ch ase scene is a direct caricature of the action genre , including explod ing police vehicles and the exchange of fire. As the star of his own action film, Batema n succeeds in killing all the poli ceme n and making the police cars blow up in an ato mic explos ion. By bringing Bateman 's movie to life, t he film invites t he spectator in to the process o f Bateman 's identity con struc tion: the way in w hich Batema n sees himself as a star in his own movie indicates t he way in which he has assu med the modes of his soci al conduct, either as Every yuppie or as serial killer. Conventional eleme nts of the thriller and horror film genre can also be fo und in t he film' s other chase scene, in w hich, after choking his frie nd Elizabeth (Guinevere Turner ), Batema n kills Christ y (Cara Seymour ), a prostitu te that he has picked up fr om the street. This scen e, entitled "T exas Chai nsaw Massacre II" on the DVD edition , reinforces the co nnectio n to t he ho rror genre. The chainsaw chase scene is drastically different from the style and pace of the rest of the film. The scene includes point-of- view shots of Christy , while almost a ll the remaini ng POV's are exclusive ly Batema n's, with the exception of the PO V's of Bateman 's secretary J ean (Chloe Sev igny). In this way , the film systema tically incorporates f emale POV's other than Batema n's, suggesting a gendered identificat ion, which will be discussed later on. Christy 's PO V's are intercut with long shots of her fleeing from the crime scene, her finding disso lving bodies of earlier killed wome n in Batema n's closet, and of Bateman chasing her with a chainsaw in his h ands, blood drippi ng from his mo uth. The fast-paced scen e ends with the absurd murder of Christy at the bottom of the staircase, as, from an impos sible angle, t he dropped ch ainsaw sl ices her in two. Together with the pol ice chase scene, the absurdity of this scene sugg ests t hat the m urders take place in Bateman 's fantasy; n ot in the die getic wor ld of the film, but in t he universe of Bateman's cinematic fiction. As a result, we as spectators are draw n into his cinematic fantasy , a "film" t hat is play ing in Bateman 's head, feat uring the exa ggerated parody e leme nts of the ho rror genre t hat Batema n uses to construc t his identity as serial killer. Patrick Batema n is constantly confronted with the possibi lity of his hallucinat ory identity as Every yuppie fading away . When his col leagues seem to have m ore elegant and st ylish visiting card than he has, he suffers a panic attack. His corporea l body is brough t into asy nchrony with its enviro nment as it collapses under t he fancy suit: we can see sweat drops appearing on his we ll groomed skin an d we can hear his heartbeat speeding up. In order to hold on to his halluc ination , Bateman "kills" the ones--like his colleague Paul Allen--that presen t a threat to his halluc inatory iden tity. Yet his atte mpt to m urder another colleague in "real life" fails, and this results in an other threat to hi s serial killer identity. The appeara nce of detective K imball provides a cred ible plotl ine to the narrative of Batema n's life . But all the other characters pose a potential threat to Batema n's hallucinat ory identity, and this is why he cannot encou nter anyone except on the most superfic ial level. In the novel, Batema n's cinema tic fictional world is impli ed throug h the use of the unreliable narrator an d the use of the third person narrative in the police-chasing scene. In the film, h owever , the cinema tic fiction al world is made expl icit throug h the use of horror and action film co nventions. B ateman cannot separate the "real" wor ld from the wor ld of fiction--mo stly horror an d por n films-- that he fills his days with. As a result, he sincere ly believes t hat these action s have rea lly taken pla ce and, after the poli ce chase scene, he calls his lawyer all confused an d shaken, and "co nfesses" t he murders. Batema n knows that, in a conventional fictio nal thriller, the mur derer always g ets cau ght, and that is why his twisted min d has to inve nt a cha se scen e. Yet it is clear that Batema n has fantasized the chase, as wel l as the murders , in order to provide himself with an exciting identity as serial killer, desperately trying to retain mea ning into his life. Through t he jux taposition of the spectators in bet ween t he "su bjective reliability" and "objective unreliability" in the process of narration, the spectators are invited to partic ipate in the process of cinematic meaning productio n. MIRRO R, MIRROR, ON THE WALL ... In Lacanian ps ychoanalysis, the divided subject misrecognizes itself as a unified subject wh o acts in the world . This means that to be able to functio n in t he world, the subject ha s to "accept" its fu ndame ntal disunit y. This takes place for the first time in w hat L acan calls the mirror stage. In the mirror stage the infant beco mes aware of itse lf as an autonomous en tity that is distinc t from its en vironment. Whereas originally the infant experienced itse lf as a shapeless mass , it now g ains a sen se of wholene ss by making an imag inary identificat ion with its reflect ion in t he mirro r. In the mirror image the child now appears as a unified en tity that is separate from other entities. The g ratifyi ng exper ience of the mirror image results in the child' s sense of unity and inner control, a pre-lingu istic, pre- Oedipal stage that Lacan calls the realm of the Imaginary . This interplay between the mirror imag e and the self co ntinues in to adulthood, preven ting the threat of a loss of self. The e laboration of an unitary bo dy image is an essential part of subjectiv ity throug h which the sub ject is able to signify its body (1 979). The film Americ an Psych o is full of reflecting mirrors and other surfaces o n whic h the spectat or gets to glance P atrick Batema n's face. These often vague mirror imag es--like the one in t he metal lic cover of the menu in a fancy restaura nt--re flect B ateman back hi s acquired double identities : the one of a fashionable yuppie that he wants to show to ot hers, and the one of a cold- blooded ki ller and por n star that h e wan ts to believe in hi mself. In the sex scene with two fe male prostitutes , Bateman literally plays t he ro le of the porn star . Not o nly does he look at himself con stantly in t he lar ge mirror , striking a pose an d flexing his muscles, bu t he also performs be fore the camera of his homevideo set. The identity of the serial killer is repeated through t he theme of the mirror even in the film pos ter, in whic h Bateman 's ima ge is reflected on a knife. Whereas Bateman manages to establ ish the image of a yuppie as a credibl e appearance bef ore others--eve n to suc h an extent that he is constantly mistaken as being someone else who embodies the sa me image--he seems t o be a cold-blooded killer only in his own fantasies . Already in t he beg inning of the film, we see a reflection of Bateman 's face in the mirror behi nd the bar of a night club when he tells the waitress: "You're a fucking ugly bitch. I wanna sta b you to death and play aroun d with your blood." As the waitress does n ot react to this, t he spectator is left to wo nder whether B ateman really said these word s out loud, or that it jus t took plac e in the mirror wor ld of his imaginatio n. In the bathroom seque nce we are shown a double reflect ion of Batema n in t he mirror that forms a triangl e with the "original image" (a frame withi n a frame ). On the visual level, the reflection s are g iven equal status with the "ori ginal" so that it is almost u ncertain which Batema n is the ori ginal one. This suggests that it is really only a reflection that is being portrayed as "Bateman " while the "rea l" Batema n does no t exist at all. His reflect ion on the glass of the framed po ster of Les Miser ables is perhaps the m ost thought- provoki ng: Batema n's iden tity is as illusory as the on e of the su blime beggar of Victor Hugo, b ut whereas the latter ha s emotio nal and psycholog ical depth, Bateman is mere ly a psychic void. The mirrors and other reflect ing surfaces do not play an impor tant role in the visual field of the film only because Bateman is narcissist ic (he is not a Narc issus w ho got lost in t he mirror image). B ateman needs t he reflect ions of his ow n ima ge as a confirmation of his existen ce, his Se lf--and this is how Sigmun d Freud has described the funtion of the dou ble in his work The Uncanny (1919). Accordi ng to Freud, a subject needs to be able to recgonize itself in the reflection in order to be on e with itse lf. This is, however , somethi ng that Bateman is not able to do (and w hy he constantly ne eds to con firm his iden tity by looki ng at mirrors an d other reflecting surfaces ), which causes his Self to g radual ly fade away . Bateman cannot attach himself to the world an d to achieve himself an identity in an other way but the dou ble mirror images, because he has no emotio ns--except fo r greed an d disgust. Batema n is incapab le to be co ncerned with anyone besides hi mself which is the precon dition for existing in the world. Because Patrick Batema n confuses his bo dy with his mirror imag e, appeara nce with sub stance, he simply is not there, except as a reflect ion. Like the facia l mask, Batema n has bui lt a protective screen betwee n himself and the harsh truth that his subjectiv ity is merely nothingness. This mask is, on the one hand, his acquir ed halluc inatory iden tity as serial killer, and, on the ot her, the--equal ly acqu ired-- credibl e appearance as Wall Street yuppie (his cultura lly inscribed body). These two identities function as a mask to Bateman and as a double for each other: the seri al killer embodies the Ot her that the yuppie refuses to be. This is why Batema n's double identity causes hi m such anxiety: the identity of the seri al killer causes t he yu ppie to fear for its existe nce and vice versa. According to the m yth, whoever meets his or her double must die, an d, indeed, as Bateman 's nightly bloodlust starts to pe netrate in to his days, as "rea lity" eventually has to c lash with Bateman 's halluc ination s, his ma sk of sanity g radual ly begins to sl ip an d his identity even tually fades away-- what is left is nothing. Batema n is confronted with the fact that his identity as serial killer exists only in his ima gination. L ike Dorian Gray , he searches his "por trait" in t he closet of the apart ment of his "murdered" fellow yuppie only to find it clean and shiny, with empty paint can s in the corner. Has the portrait been pain ted over? Bateman has taken his halluc inatory id entity as ser ial killer literally, and as "reality" finally penetrates t hroug h this h allucinatio n it also causes t he (eq ually hallucinat ory) identity of Everyyu ppie to fa de away . The iden tity that he has projected o nto the external world (the serial killer) vanis hes along with his incorporated id entity ( the Everyyu ppie) and Batema n rus hes ou t of the build ing in a hysterical state , in the verge of total collapse. In the fin al scen e Batema n has return ed behind the facade of his hollow yuppie life, an d the busines s goes on as usual. Sitting in t he Harry's Bar with his colleagues he con fesses in a voiceover that "inside does no t matter." Inside does not mat ter because it does no t exist, an d it is from this state t hat Bateman has NO EXIT . THE RU LES OF EVIL ATTRA CTION What is then appeal ing in this portrait for t he specta tor? From t he very begin ning of the film , as the camera strolls in Batema n's taste ful apart ment on the level of the eye , the specta tor is invited to enter in to his world. Yet, the spectators do n ot iden tify dir ectly with Bateman , but with the wo men--es pecially his secretary Jean--wh o are in love with him. It is this iden tificat ion with women that ren ders Batema n's character fasci nating for the spectator . This position f or identification is not exclusive to male specta tors. As Tania Modleski convincingly has shown in he r reading of Hitch cock' s Rebecca, male identification with a female character is possibl e, because of the male infant's original identificat ion with the mother. In Americ an Psych o, this possibi lity for identification is created by tran sforming the women (who in t he novel appear flat) into full- dime nsional characters, by g iving the spectator access to their point of view (which in t he novel does n ot occur ), and by n urturing empa thy for t hem. This appears to be a conscious choice from the part of the filmmaker , as director Mary Harro n has defined her con ceptio n of the film as a feminist project (Porto n 44). First, American Psycho can be considered feminist becau se of its strong reliance on identificat ion of female characters. Without this id entification , the spectato r--male or female -- cannot unders tand the film. The climatic scene of the film (w hich again does no t appear in the novel) is told from Jean's perceptual as we ll as psychological point of view: we survey Batema n's diary filled with brutal drawings t hroug h Jean's eyes an d we share her ho rror as we are shown a close- up of her terrified face. Secon d, the way Bateman is portrayed as an "ob ject-to-be-looked- at" with his perfec tly sculpted body seem s to invite female (and gay) spectators to look in an eroti c, active way. Third an d final, identification with female figures in American Psycho is also impor tant to the deve lopment of horror conventions in t he film: one can not understa nd evil unless o ne empat hizes with those who are being victimized, an d it is this structure of empathy that is essential to horror (dis)pleasure. Even though spectators are prone to be dis gusted by Bateman 's actions, they can not reject him en tirely. First of all, Bateman is quite an attractive character , not monstrous. He does n ot mee t the requiremen ts of the mo nster of a horror stor y that, for instance, Noel Carro ll has described, being an outsider that does n ot fit into reality, a stra nge creature in a normal world . Batema n certainly does not look like a mo nster (as the tag line of the film impli es, evil never looked so damn good) and his appearance a lso fit s perfectly into his socia l life. But Bateman is also charmi ng, at least in the diegetic world of the film. He arouses love in almost every heterosex ual woman and gay man in the film : his secretary Jean, his colleague Luis Carruthers ( Matt Ross ), his neigh bor Victoria (Marie Dame ). As one of his o ne nigh t stands pu ts it, there is somethi ng sweet about Bateman. As a result, t he spectator feels the urge to see hi m as a perso n that is full of psyc hic traumas instead of a glossy mo nster with no inner life. The specta tor wants to be able to understa nd and even pity Batema n, to fil l the void of his subjectivity , and to "normal ize" him in a certa in sense of the word. Furth ermore, with the excep tion of the brutal killings of a poor , homeless bla ck bu m and his little dog, the murders t hat Batema n com mits are either distanced i ronically or only impl icitly referred to. He meets a woman late at night in t he street an d brings- -suppo sedly bloody--s heets to t he Chi nese launderette t he next day , or keeps a mo del's head in his refrigerator ne xt to a carto n of sorbet. But when he attem pts to perform a "real" murder on his colleague Luis, Bateman gets all shaky an d sweaty with the result t hat Carruthers mistakes Bateman 's actions as roma ntic advances. Spectators, t hen, also ha ve an am bivalen t relationship with Batema n, so typical for the horror g enre where specta tors are both attracted to an d repulsed by the threate ning mo nster--whether an alien or a psychopath (Shaw). On the one ha nd, spectators are confronted with Batema n's mo nstrou sness, but on the other, they become Batema n's confida nts, narratees, an d this is why Batema n is both a fascinati ng and a disgusti ng characte r. However , not bo th at the same time. Batema n is a Janus-face , of whom spectators can see only o ne side at the time. Indeed, af ter Batema n has killed Paul Allen , only o ne side of his face is covered with blood, t he ot her side is not. In the scene that follows t he killing, B ateman turns first t he bloody side of his face to the camera and then the clean side. Bateman 's secretary J ean is the spectators ' "double" in the film, in the sense that she is the only o ne in the diegetic level of the film who rises to the same l evel of knowled ge as the spectators , being at the same time attracted to Bateman . After Batema n's hysterical breakdo wn, Jean goes to his desk an d finds a diary filled w ith gory drawings--a scene that explicitly suggests that Bateman has do ne the ki llings in his he ad and not in "reality." Both Jean and the spectators are then the locus of the co ntradictory double life of Bateman , which manifests itse lf both on the level of narration and on the leve l of the reflect ing images. In conventional horror films , spectators are enabled to iden tify with heroic protagonists t hat overcome t hemselves to destroy t he mo nster (W ood, Shaw ). American Psych o, however , does not bring this kind of cathartic outlet for the spectators , as there is no final strugg le betwee n the hero a nd the an tagonist--so mething just disappears, Batema n's double identity was ne ver there. It is thus impossibl e to ren der the situation normal--everyt hing ha s remai ned the same--an d that is why the en ding of the film is a disturbi ng anticlimax for the spectators as wel l as fo r Bateman. In this way, American Psych o plays with the cliches of porn and horror films, but in the end takes distance fr om them. No CA THARS IS In the final scene of American Psych o, entitled "No Cath arsis" on the D VD ed ition, a connection t o the "real" world is temporari ly established through the telev ision speech b y President Ron ald Reagan, talking abou t "mistrust an d lies" in t he Iran-Co ntra scan dal. However , as Bateman 's friends dismiss Re agan as a liar who covers up his "inside" with a false exter ior, Batema n's voic eover takes over by stating that "inside doesn't mat ter." Subseque ntly, the voiceover continues t he self-an alysis presen ted at the begin ning of the film: There are no more barri ers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vic ious and the evil, all the ma yhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it, I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp an d I do not hope fo r a better wor ld for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be in flicted on others. I want no one to escape. But even after admitting this, there is no catharsis. My pu nishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledg e of myself, n o new knowled ge can be extracted fr om my telling.... The image of Patrick Bateman , portrayed in the film American Psycho, is merely an imaginary double construc tion. While his character in the novel already sy mboli zed the emptiness and the nothingness of yuppie identity, by making use of fiction within a fiction , the film versio n brings Batema n's nothingnes s to yet an other level. The chase scen e, wh ere Batema n run s aimlessly and in a hysteric al state along the empty streets of New York, resembles a nightmare a la Kafka, or perh aps Baudr illard, and suggests that Bateman 's double iden tity simulacrum is finally falling apart. Batema n entered a movie in whic h he stars, and where he is able to attach meaning to his life as a movie killer, yup pie, an d por n star , but now he cannot find hi s way back an ymore , because t here really is nothing beyo nd the m ovie. Batema n's acquir ed double appearances ha ve irrevocably replaced the sub stance of his Se lf--if it ever was there in the first place. And it is this level that the film brilliantly invites the specta tor to experience. Batema n's attempt t o achieve an iden tity of a yuppie is thus no more than an illusion, a set-up , an alter ego. American Psych o is a double portrait of a yuppie monster, but what this do uble portrait reflects is nothingnes s, and that is what is terrifying in the portrait. Indeed , as Batema n's voiceover concludes : "This confession has meant nothing." Works Cited Baudr illard, Jean. For a Critique of the Po litical Econ omy of the Sign. New York: Telos Press , 1981. Carroll, Noel . The Philosop hy of Horror . Lond on: Routled ge, 1990 . Ellis, Bret Easton. The Rules of Attraction. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987. --. American Psycho. New York: Vintage Books, 199 1. Freud, Sigmun d. "The Un canny." In The Penguin Freud Library , Vol. 14: Art an d Literature. Translated by James Strahe y. Lond on: Penguin , 1990. Grosz, El izabeth . Volatile Bod ies. Towards a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomingto n: Indiana UP, 1994. Kauf fman, Linda S . "American Psycho." 54.2 Film Quarter ly (2001): 41-45. Lacan, Jacques. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psych o-An alysis. London: Penguin , 1979. Lauer, Jeanette C . and Robert H. Lauer. Fashion Powe r. The Meani ng of Fashio n in Ameri can Soc iety. Englewood C liffs, NJ : Prentice Hall, 1981. Mailer, Norman. "C hildren o f the Pied Pipe r." In Vanity Fair (March 19 91): 154. Mangue l, Alberto. "Des igner Porn." S aturday Night (July/August 19 91): 46-49. Modleski, Tania. The Women Who Kn ew Too Muc h: Hitchcock an d Fem inist Theory . London: Routled ge, 1988. Porton , Richard. "American Psyc ho." In Cineaste 15.3 (June 2000): 43-45. Rayn s, Tony. "American Psycho." In Sight and Sound 10.5 (May 20 00): 42. Shaw , Daniel. "Power , Horror , and Ambivalence." Film an d Philosop hy. Spec ial Issue on Horror . 2001. 1- 12. Sipe, J eff. "Blood Symb ol." In Sight an d Soun d 9.7 (July 1999 ): 8-10. Silverma n, Kaja. "Fragmen ts of a fashionable discourse." In Tania Modlesk i (Ed.) Studies in Entertai nment: C ritical Approache s to Mass Culture. Bloomingto n: Indiana UP , 1986. 139-152. Smith , Gavin. "Ameri can Psycho." In Film Comme nt 36.2 (Marc h / April 2000): 72. Wolf, Naomi. "The Animals Speak." In New States man & Society (12 April 1991): 33-34. Wood, Robin. Hol lywood fr om Vietnam to Rea gan. New York: Columbia UP, 198 2. Young, El izabeth. "The Beast in the Jungle, the Figure in the Carpet : Bret Easto n Ellis' American Psych o." Elizabet h Young an d Graham Cave ney, Eds. Shopping in Space: Essays o n America's Blank Generation Fiction. New York: Atlan tic Monthly Press / Serpen t's Tail, 1993. 85-122. JAAP KOOI JMAN is assista nt pro fessor in Media and Culture (formerly Film and Television Studies) at the University of Amsterdam , the Netherlan ds. His research focuses o n the appropriation of images of "Americ a" in Europea n and Dutch Cu ltural prod uction. TARJA LAINE is a teacher in Media and Culture at the Univers ity of Amsterdam , the Netherlands. She is curren tly finishi ng her Ph.D. thesis on Finnish visual culture and the way in whic h the emo tion of shame as a mas ter narrative is circulated in F innish national imag inary. Kooijma n, Jaap^ Laine, Tarja Source Citatio n: Kooijma n, Jaap and Tarja Laine. "Americ an Psych o: a double portrait of seri al yuppie Patrick Batema n." Post Script. 22.3 (Summer 2003): p46. L iterature Resource Center. Gale. UNIV OF MASSACHU SETTS LOWEL L. 20 Feb. 2008 <http://go.galegroup.com. libproxy .uml.edu/ps/start.do?p= LitRC&u=m lin_n_umass>. Gale Docume nt Nu mber: GALE |A1130962 57 View publication stats |
iiTA-'UV^^kOO E't <'^3ft;>^^ :7^ '-A'v^v .v'^j:* The -publishers willbe-pleased tosend, upon re- quest, anillustrated catalogue setting forth the purpose andideals ofTheModern Library, and describing indetail eachvolume intheseries, C^Every reader ofbooks will find titles hehas been looking for,attractively printed, and atanunusually lowprice BEYONDGOODAND RVIf. BY FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Translated byHELEN ZIMMERN Introduction byWILLARD HUNTINGTON WRIGHT THEMODERN LIBRARY PUBLISHERS :NEWY0RK PUBLISHERS' NOTE Mr.Willard Huntington Wright, whocontributes theIn- troduction tothisbook, isrecognized asoneoftbefore- most students and interpreters ofNietzsche inAmerica. Hisbook,"What Nietzsche Taught," isregarded bycritics, both hereandabroad, asanauthoritative introduction to Nietzsche's philosophy. Mr.Wright isalso theauthor of "The Creative Will" andmany other works onphilosophy and aesthetics. Thisbook isreprinted byarrangement with theMac- millan Company. Manufactured intheUftited States ofAmerica forTheModem Library yInc., byH.Wolff CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction vii Preface xv IPrejudices ofPhilosophers i IITheFree Spirit 28 IIITheReligious Mood 52 IVApophthegms andInterludes .... 72 VTheNatural History ofMorals... 94 VIWeScholars 119 VIIOurVirtues 141 VIII Peoples andCountries 170 IXWhat IsNoble? 197 Digitized bytineInternet Arcliive in2006 witlifunding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/beyondgoodandeviOOnietuoft INTRODUCTION Nophilosopher sinceKant has leftsoundeniable anim- print onmodem thought ashasFriedrich Nietzsche. Even Schopenhauer, whose influence colored thegreater part of Europe, made nosuch widespread impression. Notonly in ethics and literature dowefind themoulding hand of Nietzsche atwork, invigorating and solidifying; but in pedagogics indinart,inpolitics and religion, theinfluenci ofhisdoctrines istobeencountered. The facts relating toNietzsche's lifearefewandsimple. -Hewasbom atRodien, alittle village inthePrussian prov- ince ofSaxony, onOctober 15,1844; and itisaninteresting paradox that thismost terrible and devastating critic of Christianity and itsideals, wastheculmination oftwolong collateral lines oftheologians. There were twoother chil- dren intheNietzsche householdagirlbom in1846, anda sonbom in1850. The girlwasnamed Therese Elizabeth Alexandra, and afterward 5hebecame thephilosopher's closest companion andguardian and hismost voluminous biographer. Theboy, Joseph, didnotsurvive hisfirst year. When Nietzsche's father died thefamily moved toNaum- burg; and Friedrich, thenonly sixyears old,wassent toa local Municipal Boys' School. Later hewaswithdrawn and entered inaprivate institution which prepared theyounger students fortheCathedral Grammar School. After afew years here Nietzsche successfully passed hisexaminations forthewell-known Landes-Schule atPforta, where here- mained until 1864, enrolling thefollowing term attheUni- versity ofBonn. Itwas atBoim that adecided change came over his religious views; and itwashere alsothat hisgreat friendship forFriedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, the philologist, developed. When Ritschl wastransferred totheUniversity ofLeipzig, Nietzsche followed him. Leipzig wasthetuming-point of his life. Here hemetWagner; became acquainted with "Erwin Rohde; anddiscovered Schopenhauer. Aninterest vii viii INTRODUCTION inpolitics alsodeveloped inhim; and thewarbetween Prussia andAustria fanned hisyouthful ardor toanalmost extravagant degree. Twice heoffered hisservices tothe military, butboth times was rejected onaccount ofhis shortsightedness. Intheautumn of1867, however, anew army regulation resulted inhisbeing called tothe colors, andhejoined theartillery atNaumburg. Buthewasthrown from hishorse intraining andreceived asevere injury to hischest, which necessitated hispermanent withdrawal from service. InOctober, 1868, Nietzsche returned tohiswork atLeip- zig,and shortly after, although buttwenty-four, hewas offered thepost ofClassical Philology atBale.Two years latercame theFranco-Prussian War,andhesecured service asanambulance attendant intheHospital Corps. Buthis health waspoor,andthework proved toomuch forhim.He contracted diphtheria andsevere dysentery, and itwasneces- sary forhim todiscontinue hisduties entirely. His sister tellsusthat this illness greatly undermined hishealth, and wasthe firstcause ofhissubsequent condition. Hedidnot wait until hewas well before resuming hisduties atthe University; and thisnew strain imposed onhisalready depleted condition hadmuch todowitiibringing onhisfinal breakdown. In1872, Nietzsche's first important work appeared ^'The Birth ofTragedy from theSpirit ofMusic"; and in 1873hebegan aseries offamous pamphlets which laterwere put intobook form under the title of"Thoughts Out of Season." Hishealth wassteadily declining, andduring the holidays healternated between Switzerland andItaly inan endeavor torecuperate. Intheformer place hewaswith Wagner, butin1876 hisfriendship forthecomposer began tocool.Hehadgone toBayreuth, and there, after hearing "DerRing desNibelungen," hebecame bitter anddisgusted atwhathebelieved tobeWagner's compromise with Chris- tianity. But sostrong was hisaffection forWagner the man, that itwasnotuntil tenyearshadpassed thathecould bring himself towrite thenowfamous attack which hehad longhad inmind. The year after theappearance of"Human Ail-Too-I i INTRODUCTION ix Human" ("Mensckliches AUzu Mensckliches") ,Nietzsche's illness compelled him toresign hisprofessorship atBale; andtwomore years sawtheappearance of'TheDawn of Day"("Morgemot en"), hisfirstbook ofconstructive think- ing.The remainder ofhis lifewas spent inafruitless endeavor toregain hishealth. Foreight years, during all ofwhich timehewasbusily engaged inwriting, hesought a climate thatwould revive himvisiting inturnSils-Maria in Switzerland, Genoa, Monaco, Messina, Grunewald, Tauten- burg, Rome, Naumburg, Nice, Venice, Mentone, andthe Riviera. But tonoavail. Hewasconstantly illand for themost part alone, and thisperturbed and restless period ofhis liferesolved itself intoacontinuous struggle against melancholy and physical suffering. During these eight years Nietzsche had written "Thus Spake Zarathustra" ("Also Sprack Zarathustra"), "The Joyful Wisdom" ("La Gaya Scienza"), "Beyond Good andEvil" ("Jenseits Gute undBose"), "The Genealogy ofMorals" ("Zur Genealogie derMoral"), "The Case ofWagner," "The Twilight ofthe Idols" {"Gdtzenddmmerung"), "The Antichrist" ("Der Antichrist"), "Ecce Homo," "Nietzsche contra Wagner,'* andanenormous number ofnotes which were toconstitute hisfinalandculminating work, "The Will toPower" ("Die Wille zurMacht"). The events during this ptnod. of Nietzsche's career were few. Perhaps themost important washismeeting withLouSalome. Buteven thisepisode had small bearing onhis life,andhasbeen greatly emphasized bybiographers because ofitsisolation inanexistence out- wardly drabanduneventful. InJanuary, 1889, anapopleptic fitmarked thebeginning oftheend. Nietzsche's manner suddenly became alarming. Heexhibited numerous eccentricities, sograve astomean butonething: hismind was seriously affected. There has longbeen atheory that hisinsanity wasofgradual growth, that, infact,hewasunbalanced from birth. But there is noevidence tosubstantiate thistheory. Thestatement that hisbooks were those ofamadman isentirely without foun- dation. Hisworks were thought out inthemost clarified manner; inhisintercourse with hisfriends hewasrestrained andnormal; and hisvoluminous correspondence showed no X INTRODUCTION change toward theend either insentiment ortone. His insanity wassudden; itcame without warning; and itis puerile topoint tohisstate ofmind during thelastyears ofhislifeasacriticism ofhisphilosophy. Hisbooks must stand orfalloninternal evidence. Judged from thatstand- point they arescrupulously sane. Thecause ofNietzsche's breakdown wasduetoanumber ofinfluenceshisexcessive useofchloral which hetook for insomnia, thetremendous strain towhich heputhisintellect, hisconstant disappointments and privations, hismental solitude, hisprolonged physical suffering. Weknow little of hislastdays before hewent insane. Overbeck, inanswer toamad note, found him inTurin, broken. Nietzsche was put inaprivate sanitarium atJena. Recovering somewhat hereturned toNaumburg. Later his sister, Frau Forster- Nietzsche, removed him toavilla atWeimar; andthree years after, onthetwenty-fifth ofAugust, 1900, hedied. Hewasburied atRocken, hisnative village. Adouble purpose animated Nietzsche inhiswriting of "Beyond Good andEvil" which wasbegun inthesummer of1885andfinished thefollowing winter. Itisatoncean explanation andanelucidation of"Thus Spake Zarathustra," andapreparatory book forhisgreatest andmost important work, "The Will toPower." InitNietzsche attempts to define therelative terms of"good" and "evil," and todraw alineofdistinction between immorality andunmorality. Hesawtheinconsistencies involved intheattempt tohar- monize anancient moral code with theneeds ofmodem life,andrecognized thecompromises which were constantly beingmade between moral theory and social practice. His object was toestablish arelationship between morality and necessity and toformulate aworkable basis forhuman con- duct. Consequently "Beyond Good andEvil" isoneofhisM most important contributions toanewsystem ofethics, andf touches onmany ofthedeepest principles ofhisphilosophy. Nietzsche opens "Beyond Good andEvil" with along chapter headed "Prejudices ofPhilosophers," inwhich he outlines thecourse tobetaken byhisdialectic. Theexpo- ,, sition isaccomplished bytwomethods; first,byananalysis I INTRODUCTION xi andarefutation ofthesystems ofthinking made useofby antecedent doctrinaires, and secondly, bydefining the hypotheses onwhich hisown philosophy isbuilt. This chapter isamost important one, setting forth, asitdoes, the rationale ofhisdoctrine ofthewilltopower. Itestablishes Nietzsche's philosophic position andpresents aclosely knit explanation ofthecourse pursued inthefollowing chapters. The relativity ofalltruththehypothesis sooften assumed inhisprevious workNietzsche here defends byanalogy andargument. Using other leading forms ofphilosophy asaground forexploration, hequestions theabsolutism of truth andshows wherein liesthedifficulty ofafinal defini- tion. Nietzsche, inhisanalyses and criticisms, isnotsolely destructive: he issubterraneously constructing hisown philosophical system founded onthe"will topower." This phrase isusedmany times inthecareful research ofthe first chapter. Asthebook proceeds, thisdoctrine develops. Nietzsche's best definition ofwhat hecalls the"free spirit," namely: thethinking man, theintellectual aristocrat, thephilosopher and ruler, iscontained inthetwenty-six pages ofthesecond chapter of"Beyond Good and Evil." Inaseries ofparagraphslonger than isNietzsche's wonttheleading characteristics ofthis superior man arede- scribed. The "free spirit," however, must notbeconfused with thesuperman. Theformer isthe"bridge" which the present-day manmust cross intheprocess ofsurpassing him- self. Inthedelineation andanalysis ofhim, aspresented to ushere,wecanglimpse hismost salient mental features. Heretofore, asin"Thus Spake Zarathustra," hehasbeen butpartially andprovisionally defined. Now hisinstincts and desires, hishabits and activities areoutlined. Further- more, wearegiven anexplanation ofhisrelation tothe inferior manand totheorganisms ofhisenvironment. The chapter isamost important one, foratmany points itisa subtle elucidation ofmany ofNietzsche's dominant philo- sophic principles. Byinference, thedifferences ofclass distinction are strictly drawn. The slave-morality {sklav- tnaral) andthemaster-morality (herrenmoral),though as yetundefined, arebalanced against each other: andthe deportmental standards ofthemasters andslaves aredefined xli INTRODUCTION byway ofdistinguishing between these twoopposing human factions. Akeenandfar-reaching analysis ofthevarious asjDects assumed byreligious faith constitutes athird section of "Beyond Good and Evil." Though touching upon various influences ofChristianity, thissection ismore general inits religious scope thaneven"The Antichrist," many indications ofwhich aretobefound here. This chapter hastodowith thenumerous inner experiences ofman, which aredirectly or indirectly attributable toreligious doctrines. The origin of theinstinct forfaith itself issought, andtheresults ofthis faith arebalanced against theneeds oftheindividuals and ofthe race. The relation between religious ecstasy and sensuality; theattempt onthepart ofreligious practitioners toarrive atanegation ofthe will; thetransition from religious gratitude tofear; thepsychology atthebottom of saint- worship;toproblems such asthese Nietzsche de- votes hisenergies inhisinquiry ofthe religious mood. There isanilluminating exposition oftheimportant stages inreligious cruelty andofthemotives underlying thevarious forms ofreligious sacrifices. Avery important phase ofNietzsche's teaching iscon- tained inthiscriticism ofthereligious life.The detractors oftheNietzschean doctrine base their judgments onthe assumption that theuniversal acceptation ofhistheories would result insocial chaos. Nietzsche desired nosuch general adoption ofhisbeliefs. Inhisbitterest diatribes against Christianity hisobject wasnottoshake thefaith of thegreat majority ofmankind intheir idols. Hesought merely tofree thestrong menfrom therestrictions ofa religion which fitted theneeds ofonly theweaker members ofsociety. Heneither hoped nordesired towean themass ofhumanity from Christianity oranysimilar dogmatic com- fort.Onthecontrary, hedenounced those superficial athe- istswhoendeavored toweaken thefoundations ofreligion. Hesawthepositive necessity ofsuch religions asabasis for hisslave-morality, and inthepresent chapter heexhorts the rulers topreserve thereligious faith oftheserving classes, and touse itasameans ofgovernmentasaninstrument inthework ofdisciplining andeducating. Hisentire system INTRODUCTIONxiii ofethics isbuiltonthecomplete disseverance ofthedomi nating class and theserving class; and hisdoctrine oi "beyond good and evil" should beconsidered only as it pertains tothesuperior man. Toapply ittoallclasses would betoreduce Nietzsche's whole system ofethics to impracticability, andtherefore toanabsurdity. Passing from aconsideration ofthe religious mood Nietzsche enters abroader sphere ofethical research, and endeavors totrace thehistory anddevelopment ofmorals. Heaccuses thephilosophers ofhaving avoided the real problem ofmorality, namely: thetesting ofthefaithand motives which liebeneath moral beliefs. This isthetask hesetsforhimself, andinhischapter, "The Natural History ofMorals," hemakes anexamination ofmoral originsan examination which isextended intoanexhaustive treatise inhisnextbook,"The Genealogy ofMorals." However, his dissection here iscarried outonabroader and farmore gen- eral scale than inhisprevious books, such as"Human All- Too-Human" and"TheDawn ofDay." Heretofore hehad confined himself tocodes andsystems, toacts ofmorality and immorality, tojudgments ofconducts. In"Beyond Good and Evil" hetreats ofmoral prejudices asforces working hand inhand withhuman progress. Inaddition, there isadefinite attitude ofconstructive thinking here which isabsent from hisearlier work. Inthechapter, "We Scholars," Nietzsche continues his definition ofthephilosopher, whom heholds tobethe highest type ofman. Besides being amere description of theintellectual traits ofthis "free spirit," thechapter is alsoanexposition oftheshortcomings ofthosemodem men whopose asphilosophers. Also theman ofscience andthe man ofgenius areanalyzed andweighed astotheir relative importance inthecommunity. Infact,wehave here Nietzsche's most concise andcomplete definition oftheindi- viduals uponwhom rests theburden ofprogress. These valuations oftheintellectual leaders areimportant tothe student, forbyone's understanding them, along with the reasons forsuch valuations, acomprehension oftheensuing volumes isfacilitated. Important material touching onmany ofthefundamental xiv INTRODUCTION boints ofNietzsche's philosophy isembodied inthechapter entitled "Our Virtues." Themore general inquiries into conduct, andtheresearch along thebroader lines ofethics 'aresupplanted byinquiries into specific moral attributes. The current virtues arequestioned, and their historical sig- nificance isdetermined. Thevalue ofsuch virtues istested intheir relation todifferent types ofmen. Sacrifice, sym- pathy, brotherly love, service, loyalty, altruism, andsimilar ideals ofconduct areexamined, andtheresults ofsuch vir- tues areshown tobeincompatible with thedemands of modem social intercourse. Nietzsche poses against these virtues thesterner andmore rigidforms ofconduct, pointing outwherein theymeet with thepresent requirements of human progress. Thechapter isapreparation forhisestab- lishment ofanewmorality and alsoanexplanation ofthe dual ethical codewhich isoneofthemain pillars inhis philosophical structure. Before presenting hisprecept ofa dual morality, Nietzsche endeavors todetermine woman's place inthepolitical and social scheme, andpoints outthe necessity, notonly ofindividual feminine functioning, but ofthepreservation ofadistinct polarity insexual relation- ship. Inthe final chapter many ofNietzsche's philosophical ideas take definite shape. The doctrine ofslave-morality andmaster-morality, prepared forand partially defined in preceding chapters, ishere directly setforth, andthose vir- tuesand attitudes which constitute the"nobility" ofthe master class arespecifically defined. Nietzsche designates theduty ofhisaristocracy, andsegregates thehuman attri- butes according totherank ofindividuals. TheDionysian ideal, which underlies allthebooks that follow "Beyond Good andEvil," receives itsfirst direct exposition andappli- cation. Thehardier human traits, such asegotism, cruelty, arrogance, retaliation and appropriation, aregiven ascend- ancy over thesofter virtues, such assympathy, charity, for- giveness, loyalty andhumility, andarepronounced necessary constituents inthemoral code ofanatural aristocracy. At thispoint isbegun thetransvaluation ofvalues which wasto havebeencompleted in"The Will toPower." WiLLARD Huntington Wright. PREFACE Supposing thatTruth isawomanwhat then? Isthere notground forsuspecting that allphilosophers, insofar astheyhave been dogmatists, have failed tounderstand womenthat the terrible seriousness and climisy impor- tunity withwhich theyhave usually paid their addresses toTruth, have been unskilled andunseemly methods for winning awoman? Certainly shehasnever allowed herself tobewon; andatpresent every kind ofdogma stands with sadanddiscouraged mien if,indeed, itstands atall!For there arescoffers whommntain that ithas fallen, that all dogma liesonthegroimdnaymore, that itisatitslast gasp. But tospeak seriously, there aregood groimds for hoping that alldogmatising inphilosophy, whatever solemn, whatever conclusive anddecided airs ithasassumed, may havebeenonlyanoble puerilism andtjn-onism ;andprobably thetime isathandwhen itwillbeonceandagain under- stood what hasactually sufficed forthebasis ofsuch im- posing andabsolute philosophical edifices asthedogmatists have hitherto reared: perhaps some popular superstition of immemorial time (such asthesoul-superstition, which, in theform ofsubject- andego-superstition, hasnotyetceased doing mischief): perhaps some playupon words, adecep- tiononthepart ofgrammar, oranaudacious generalisation ofvery restricted, very personal, veryhumanall-too-human facts. Thephilosophy ofthedogmatists, itistobehoped, wasonlyapromise forthousands ofyears aftervi-ards, aa, zv PREFACE ^as astrology instill earlier times, intheservice ofwhich probably more labour, gold, acuteness, andpatience have been spent thanonanyactual science hitherto: weowe to it,and toits"super-terrestrial" pretensions inAsiaand Egypt, thegrand style ofarchitecture. Itseems that in order toinscribe themselves upon theheart ofhumanity with everlasting claims, allgreat things have first towander about theearth asenormous andawe-inspiring caricatures: dog- matic philosophy hasbeen acaricature ofthiskindfor instcince, theVedanta doctrine inAsia, andPlatonism in Europe. Letusnotbeungrateful toit,although itmust certainly beconfessed that theworst, themost tiresome, andthemost dangerous oferrors hitherto hasbeen adog- matist error^namely, Plato's invention ofPure Spirit and theGood inItself. Butnowwhen ithasbeen surmounted, when Europe, ridofthisnightmare, canagain draw breath freely andatleast enjoy ahealthiersleep, we,whose duty iswakefulness itself, aretheheirs ofallthestrength which thestruggle against thiserror hasfostered. Itamounted to thevery inversion oftruth, andthedenial oftheperspectivethefundamental conditionoflife,tospeak ofSpirit and theGood asPlato spoke ofthem; indeed onemight ask,as aphysician: "How didsuch amalady attack that finest product ofantiquity, Plato? Had thewicked Socrates really corrupted him?Was Socrates after allacorrupter ofyouths, anddeserved hishemlock?" Butthestruggle against Plato, ortospeak plainer, and forthe"people"thestruggle against theecclesiastical oppression ofmillenniums ofChrist- ianity (forChristianity isPlatonism forthe"people"), pro- duced inEurope amagnificent tension ofsoul, such ashad notexisted anywhere previously; withsuchatensely-strained bowonecannowaimatthefurthest goals. Asamatter of fact, theEuropean feels thistension asastate ofdistress, PREFACE andtwice attempts havebeenmade ingrand style toimbend thebow: oncebymeans ofJesuitism, andthesecond timeby means ofdemocratic enlightenment which, with theaidof liberty ofthepress andnewspaper-reading, might, infact, bring itabout thatthe^irit would notsoeasily find itself in"distress"! (The Germans invented gunpowderall credit tothem! buttheyagainmade things squarethey in- vented printing.) Butwe,whoareneither Jesuits, nordemo- crats, noreven sufficiently Germans, wegood Europeans, and free, very free spirits^wehave itstill, allthedistress ofspirit and allthetension ofitsbow! Andperhaps also thearrow, theduty, and,whoknows? thegod toaim at. ... SilsMaria Upper Engadine, Jum. 1885. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL CHAPTER I |.Prejudices ofPhilosophers The Will toTruth, which istotempt ustomany ahazard- ous enterprise, thefamous Truthfulness ofwhich all philosophers have hitherto spoken with respect, what ques- tions has thisWill toTruth not laidbefore us!What strange, perplexmg, questionable questions! Itisalready a long story; yet itseems asifitwere hardly commenced. Is itanywonder ifweatlastgrow distrustful, losepatience, andturn impatiently away? That thisSphinx teaches us atlasttoaskquestions ourselves? Who isitreally thatputs questions toushere? What really isthis"Will toTruth" in us?Infactwemade along halt atthequestion astothe origin ofthisWillimtil atlastwecame toanabsolute standstill before ayetmore fundamental question. Wein- quired about thevalue ofthisWill. Granted thatwewant thetruth:whynotrather untruth? Anduncertainty? Even ignorance? Theproblem ofthevalue oftruth presented it- selfbefore usorwas itwewhopresented ourselves before theproblem? Which ofusistheCEdipus here? Which the Sphinx? Itwould seem tobearendezvous ofquestions and notes ofinterrogation. Andcould itbebelieved that itat lastseems tousasiftheproblem hadnever beenpropounded ft 2 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL before, asifwewere the first todiscern it,getasight ofit, and risk raising it.Forthere isriskinraising it,perhaps there isnogreater risk. "How could anything originate outofitsopposite? For example, truth outoferror? ortheWill toTruth outofthe will todeception? orthegenerous deed outofselfishness? orthepure sun-bright vision ofthewiseman outofcovet- ousness? Such genesis isimpossible; whoever dreams ofit isafool,nay,worse thanafool ;things ofthehighest value musthave adifferent origin, anorigin oftheirowninthis transitory, seductive, illusory, paltry world, inthisturmoil ofdelusion and cupidity, they cannot have their source. Butrather inthelapofBeing, intheintransitory, inthecon- cealed God, inthe'Thing-in-itself there must betheir source, andnowhere else!"Thismode ofreasoning discloses thetypical prejudice bywhich meta-physicians ofalltimes canberecognised, thismode ofvaluation isattheback of alltheir logical procedure; through this "belief" oftheirs, they exert themselves fortheir "knowledge," forsomething that isintheendsolemnly christened "theTruth." The fundamental belief ofmetaphysicians isthebelief inanti- theses ofvalues. Itnever occurred even tothewariest of them todoubt hereonthevery threshold (where doubt, however, wasmost necessary) ;though theyhadmade a solemn vow, *'deomnibus dubitandum." For itmaybe doubted, firstly, whether antitheses exist atall ;andsecondly, whether thepopular valuations andanthitheses ofvalueupon which metaphysicians have settheir seal, arenotperhaps merely superficial estimates, merely provisional perspectives, besides being probably made fromsome comer, perhaps froi BEYOND GOODAND EVIL3 below"frog perspectives," asitwere, toborrow anexpres- sioncurrent among painters. Inspite ofallthevalue which may belong tothetrue, thepositive, andtheunselfish, it might bepossible thatahigher andmore fimdamental value forlifegenerally should beassigned topretence, tothewill todelusion, toselfishness, andcupidity. Itmight evenbe possible thatwhat constitutes thevalue ofthose goodand respected things, consists precisely intheir being insidiously related, knotted, andcrocheted tothese evilandapparently opposed thingsperhaps even inbeing essentially identical with them. Perhaps! Butwhowishes toconcern himself with such dangerous "Perhapses"! Forthat investigation onemust await theadvent ofaneworder ofphilosophers, such aswillhave other tastes and inclinations, thereverse ofthose hitherto prevalent^philosophers ofthedangerous "Perhaps" inevery sense oftheterm. And tospeak inall seriousness, Iseesuchnewphilosophers beginning toappear. Having keptasharp eyeonphilosophers, andhaving read between their lineslongenough, Inowsaytomyself thatthe greater part ofconscious thinking mustbecounted amongst theinstinctive functions, and itissoevenmthecaseofphil- osophical thinking; onehashere tolearn anew, asonelearned anew about heredity and"innateness." Aslittle astheact ofbirth comes into consideration inthewhole process and procedure ofheredity, justaslittle is"being-conscious" op- posed totheinstinctive inany decisive sense; thegreater partoftheconscious thinking ofaphilosopher issecretly in- fluenced byhisinstincts, andforced into definite channels. Andbehind alllogicand itsseeming sovereignty ofmove- ment, there arevaluations, ortospeak more plainly, physio- 4 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL logical demands, forthemaintenance ofadefinite mode of life. Forexample, thatthecertain isworth more than the imcertain, that illusion islessvaluable than "truth": such valuations, inspite oftheir regulative importance forus, might notwithstanding beonly superficial valuations, spe- cialkinds ofniaiserie, such asmaybenecessary forthe maintenance ofbeings such asourselves. Supposing, inef- fect, thatman isnotjustthe"measure ofthings." ... The falseness ofanopinion isnotforusanyobjection to it: itishere, perhaps, thatournewlanguage sounds most strangely. Thequestion is,how faranopinion islife-fur- thering, life-preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species- rearing; andwearefundamentally inclined tomaintain that the falsest opinions (towhich thesynthetic judgments a priori belong), arethemost indispensable tous;thatwithout arecognition oflogical fictions, without acomparison of reality with thepurely imagined world oftheabsolute and immutable, without aconstant covmterfeiting ofthework bymeans ofnumbers, man could notlivethat therenun-j ciation offalse opinions would bearenunciation oflife, negation oflife.Torecognise untruth asacondition oflifei that iscertainly toimpugn thetraditional ideas ofvalue adangerous maimer, andaphilosophy which ventures tod<] so,hasthereby alone placed itselfbeyond goodand evil. That which causes philosophers toberegarded half-dis trustfully andhalf-mockingly, isnottheoft-repeated disco\ eryhowinnocent they are^howoften andeasily theyma BEYOND GOOD ANfD EVIL5 mistakes and lose their way, inshort, how childish and childlike they are,butthat there isnotenough honest dealing withthem, whereas they allraisealoudandvirtuous outcry when theproblem oftruthfulness iseven hinted at intheremotest manner. They allpose asthough their real opmions hadbeen discovered andattained through the self- evolving ofacold, pure, divinely indifferent dialectic (in contrast toallsorts ofmystics, who, fairerand foolisher, talk of"inspiration");whereas, infact,aprejudiced proposition, idea, or"suggestion," which isgenerzilly their heart's desire abstracted and refined, isdefended bythem witharguments sought outafter theevent. They are alladvocates whodo notwish toberegarded assuch, generally astute defenders, also, oftheir prejudices, which theydub"truths,"andvery farfromhaving theconscience which bravely admits thisto itself; very farfrom having thegood taste ofthecourage which goes sofarastoletthisbeunderstood, p)erhaps to warn friend orfoe,orincheerful confidence and self-ridicule. Thespectacle oftheTartuffery ofoldKant, equally stiffand decent, withwhich heentices usintothedialectic by-ways that lead(more correctly mislead) tohis"categorical im- perative"makes usfastidious ones smile, wewho findno small amusement inspying outthesubtle tricks ofold moralists andethical preachers. Or, stillmore so,thehocus- pocus inmathematical form, bymeans ofwhich Spinoza has,asitwere, clad hisphilosophy inmailandmaskinfact, the"love ofhiswisdom," totranslate theterm fairly and squarelyinorder thereby tostrike terror atonce intothe heart oftheassailant whoshould dare tocastaglance on thatmvincible maiden, that Pallas Athene: howmuch of personal timidity andvulnerability does thismasquerade of asickly recluse betray! BEYOND GOODANDEVIL Ithasgradually become clear tomewhat every great philosophy up tillnowhasconsisted ofnamely, theconfes- sion ofitsoriginator, andaspecies ofinvoluntary andun- conscious auto-biography; andmoreover that themoral (or immoral) purpose inevery philosophy hasconstituted the true vitalgerm outofwhich theentire plant hasalways grown. Indeed, tounderstand howtheabstrusest metaphysi- calassertions ofaphilosopher have been arrived at, itis always well(and wise) tofirstaskoneself: ''What morality dothey (ordoeshe)aimat?" Accordingly, Idonotbelieve thatan"impulse toknowledge" isthefather ofphilosophy; butthatanother impulse, here aselsewhere, hasonlymade useofknowledge (and mistaken knowledge!) asaninstru- ment. Butwhoever considers thefundamental impulses of manwithaview todetermining how fartheymayhave here acted asinspiring genii (orasdemons andcobolds) ,willfind thattheyhave allpractised philosophy atonetime oran- other, andthateachoneofthem would have been only too glad tolookupon itself astheultimate endofexistence and thelegitimate lordover alltheother impulses. Forevery impulse isimperious, andassuch, attempts tophilosophise. Tobesure, inthecase ofscholars, inthecase ofreally scientific men, itmaybeotherwise"better," ifyou will; there theremay really besuch athing asan"impulse to I:nowledge," some kind ofsmall, independent clock-work, which, when wellwound up,works away industriously tothat end,without therestofthescholarly impulses taking any material part therein. Theactual "interests" ofthescholar, therefore, aregenerally inquite another directioninthe family, perhaps, orinmoney-making, orinpolitics; itis, I BEYOND GOODAND EVIL7 infact,almost indifferent atwhat point ofresearch hislittle machine isplaced, andwhether thehopeful yoimg worker becomes agood philologist, amushroom specialist, ora chemist; heisnotcharacterised bybecoming thisorthat. In thephilosopher, onthecontrary, there isabsolutely nothing impersonal; andabove all,hismorality furnishes adecided anddecisive testimony astowhoheis,that istosay,in what order thedeepest impulses ofhisnature stand toeach other. How malicious philosophers canbe! Iknow ofnothing more stinging than thejoke Epicurus took theliberty of making onPlato andthePlatonists; hecalled them Diony- siokolakes. Initsoriginal sense, andontheface ofit,the word signifies "Flatterers ofDionysius"consequently, ty- rants' accessories and lick-spittles; besides this,however, itis asmuch astosay,"They are allactors, there isnothing genuine about them" (forDionysiokolax wasapopular name foranactor). And thelatter isreally themalignant re- proach thatEpicurus castupon Plato: hewasannoyed by thegrandiose manner, themiseenscene style ofwhich Plato and hisscholars were mastersofwhich Epicurus wasnot amaster! He,theoldschool-teacher ofSamos, who sat concealed inhis little garden atAthens, andwrote three hundred books, perhaps outofrageandambitious envy of Plato, whoknows! Greece took ahundred years tofind outwho thegarden-god Epicurus really was. Didsheever findout? I BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 8 There isapoint inevery philosophy atwhich the"convic- tion" ofthephilosopher appear^ onthescene; or,toput it inthewords ofanancient mystery: Adventavit asinus, Pulcher etfortissimus. You desire tolive"according toNature"? Oh,younoble Stoics, what fraud ofwords! Imagine toyourselves abeing likeNature, boundlessly extravagant, boundlessly indifferent, without purpose orconsideration, without pity orjustice, at once fruitful andbarren andimcertam: imagine toyour- selves indifference asapower^how could you live inac- cordance with such indifference? Tolive isnotthat just endeavouring tobeotherwise than thisNature? Isnot living valuing, preferring, being imjust, being limited, en- deavouring tobedifferent? Andgranted thatyour impera- tive, "living according toNature," means actually thesame as"living according tolife"^howcould youdodifferently? Why should youmake aprinciple outofwhatyouyour- selves are,andmust be? Inreality, however, itisquite otherwise withyou: while youpretend toreadwith rapture thecanon ofyourlawinNature, youwant something quite thecontrary, youextraordinary stage-players and self-de- luders! Inyour pride youwish todictate your morals and ideals toNature, toNature herself, and toincorporate thei therein; you insist that itshallbeNature "according tothi Stoa," andwould likeeverything tobemade afteryour oina I enL, f. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 9 image, asavast, eternal glorification andgeneralism ofStoic- ism !With allyour love fortruth, youhave forced yourselves solong, sopersistently, andwith such hypnotic rigidity to seeNature falsely, that istosay. Stoically, thatyouareno longer able tosee itotherwiseandtocrown all,some un- fathomable superciliousness gives you theBedlamite hope that because you areable totyrannise over yourselves Stoicism isself-tyrannyNature willalsoallow herself tobe t)n'annised over: isnottheStoica/>cr^ofNature? , . .But this isanoldandeverlasting story: whathappened inold times with theStoics stillhappens to-day, issoon asever aphilosophy begins tobelieve initself. Italways creates theworld initsownimage; itcannot dootherwise; phi- losophy isthistyrannical impulse itself, themost spiritual Will toPower, thewill to"creation oftheworld," thewill tothecausa prima. 10 Theeagerness and subtlety, Ishould even saycraftiness, withwhich theproblem of"the realandtheapparent world" isdealt with atpresent throughout Europe, furnishes food forthought andattention; andhewhohears onlya"Will toTruth" inthebackground, andnothing else,cannot cer- Jainly boast ofthesharpest ears. Inrareandisolated cases, ^may really havehappened thatsuchaWill toTrutha linextravagant andadventurous pluck, ametaphysician's ibition oftheforlorn hopehasparticipated therein: that ichintheendalways prefers ahandful of"certainty" to [whole cartload ofbeautiful possibilities; theremayeven puritanical fanatics ofconscience, who prefer toputtheir ^ttrust inasurenothing, rather than inanuncertain some- ig.Butthat isNihilism, andthesign ofadespairing. 10 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL mortally wearied soul, notwithstanding thecourageous bear- ingsuchavirtuemay display. Itseems, however, tobe otherwise with stronger and livelier thinkers who are still eager for life. Inthatthey side against appearance, and speak superciliously of"perspective," inthattheyrank the credibility oftheirownbodies about aslowasthecredibility oftheocular evidence that"the earth stands still," andthus, apparently, allowing with complacency their securest pos- session toescape (forwhat doesoneatpresent believe in more firmly than inone's body?),whoknows ifthey are notreally trying towinback something which wasformerly aneven securer possession, something oftheolddomain of thefaith offormer times, perhaps the"immortal soul," per- haps "the oldGod," inshort, ideasbywhich theycould live better, that istosay,more vigourously andmore joyously, thanby"modem ideas"? There isdistrust ofthesemodem ideas inthismode oflooking atthings, adisbelief inallthat hasbeen constructed yesterday and to-day; there isper- hapssome slight admixture ofsatiety andscom, which can nolonger endure thebric-a-brac ofideas ofthemost varied origin, such asso-called Positivism atpresent throws onthe market; adisgust ofthemore refined taste atthevillage-fair motleyness andpatchiness ofallthese reality-philosophasters, inwhom there isnothing either new ortrue, except this motlejTiess. Therein itseems tomethatweshould agree with those sceptical anti-realists andknowledge-microscopists ofthepresent day; their instinct, which repels them from modern reality, isunrefuted .. .what dotheir retrograde by-paths concem us!Themain thing about them isnolA thattheywish togo"back," butthattheywish togetca^cy therefrom. Alittle more strength, swing, courage, and artistic power, andtheywould beoandnotback! BEYOND GOODAND EVIL ii IIX Itseems tomethat there iseverywhere anattempt at present todivert attention from theactual influence which Kant exercised onGerman philosophy, andespecially toig- noreprudently thevalue which hesetupon himself. Kant was firstandforemost proud ofhisTable ofCategories; with itinhishand hesaid: "This isthemost difficult thing thatcould everbeundertaken onbehalf ofmetaphysics." Letusonlyunderstand this"could be"!Hewasproud of having discovered anew faculty inman, thefaculty of synthetic judgment apriori. Granting thathedeceived him- self inthismatter; thedevelopment andrapid flourishing ofGerman philosophy depended nevertheless onhispride, andontheeager rivalry oftheyounger generation todis- cover ifpossible somethingatallevents "new faculties" ofwhich tobe stillprouder!But letusreflect fora momentitishightime todoso."How aresynthetic judg- ments apriori possible?" Kant asks himselfandwhat is really hisanswer? "Bymeans ofameans (faculty)"^but unfortunately notinfivewords, butsocircumstantially, im- posingly, andwith such display ofGerman profimdity and verbal flourishes, that one altogether loses sight ofthe comical niaiserie allemande involved insuchananswer. Peo- plewere beside themselves with delight over thisnew fac- ^ulty,andthejubilation reached itsclimeix v/henKant further discovered amoral faculty inmanforatthattimeGermans were stillmoral, notyetdabbling inthe"Politics ofhard fact." Then came thehoneymoon ofGerman philosophy. Alltheyoung theologians oftheTiibingen institution went Immediately into thegrovesallseeking for"faculties." jri.todwhat didtheynotfindinthatinnocent, rich,and still II 12 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL youthful period oftheGerman spirit, towhich Romanticism, themalicious fairy, piped andsang,when onecould notyet distinguish between "finding" and"inventing"! Above all afaculty forthe"transcendental"; Schelling christened it, intellectual intuition, andthereby gratified themost earnest longings ofthenaturally pious-inclined Germans. Onecan donogreater wrong tothewhole ofthisexuberant and ec- centric movement (which was really youthfulness, notwith- standing that itdisguised itself soboldly inhoary and senile conceptions), than totake itseriously, oreven treat itwith moral indignation. Enough, howevertheworld grew older, andthedream vanished. Atimecamewhen people rubbed their foreheads, andthey stillrubthem to-day. People had been dreaming, and firstandforemostoldKant. "By means ofameans (faculty)"hehad said, oratleastmeant tosay. But, isthatananswer? Anexplanation? Or isitnotrather merely arepetition ofthequestion? How doesopium induce sleep? "Bymeans ofameans (faculty)," namely thevirtus dormitiva, replies thedoctor inMoliere, Quia estineovirtus dormitiva, Cujus estnatura sensus assoupire. Butsuch replies belong totherealm ofcomedy, and itis high time toreplace theKantian question, "How aresyn- thetic judgments apriori possible?" byanother question, "Why isbelief insuchjudgments necessary?"ineffect, it high time thatweshould imderstand thatsuch judgments, must bebelieved tobetrue, forthesake ofthepreserva- tion ofcreatures like ourselves; though they stillmight] naturally befalse judgments! Or,more plainly spokeUjj androughly andreadilysynthetic judgments apriori shoulc not"bepossible" atall;wehavenoright tothem; inoui BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 13 mouths they arenothing but false judgments). Only, of course, thebelief intheir truth isnecessary, asplausible belief andocular evidence belonging totheperspective view oflife.And finally, tocalltomind theenormous influence which "German philosophy"Ihope youunderstand its right toinverted commas (gooseteet)?has exercised throughout thewhole ofEurope, there isnodoubt thata certain virtus dormitiva hadashare init;thanks toGerman philosophy, itwasadelight tothenoble idlers, thevirtuous, themystics, theartists, thethree- fourths Christians, andthe political obscurantists ofallnations, tofindanantidote to the stilloverwhelming sensualism which overflowed from thelastcentury into this, inshort "sensus assoupire." ... y2 Asregards materialistic atomism, itisoneofthebest refuted theories thathave been advanced, and inEurope there isnowperhaps noone inthelearned world soun- scholarly astoattach serious signification toit,except for convenient everyday use(asanabbreviation ofthemeans ofexpression)thanks chiefly tothePole Boscovich: he andthePoleCopernicus have hitherto been thegreatest and most successful opponents ofocular evidence. Forwhilst Copernicus haspersuaded ustobelieve, contrary toallthe senses, that theearth does notstand fast, Boscovich has taught ustoabjure thebelief inthelastthing that"stood fast" oftheearththebelief in"substance," in"matter," intheearth-residuum, andparticle-atom: itisthegreatest triumph over thesenses thathashitherto been gained on earth. Onemust, however, gostillfurther, andalsodeclare war, relentless war totheknife, against the"atomistic re- quirements" which stillleadadangerous after-life inplaces 14 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL where noonesuspects them, likethemore celebrated "meta- physical requirements": onemust alsoabove allgivethefin- ishing stroke tothat other andmore portentous atomism which Christianity hastaught bestand longest, thesoul- atomism. Let itbepermitted todesignate bythisexpression thebelief which regards thesoulassomething indestructible, eternal, indivisible, asamonad, asanatomon: this belief ought tobeexpelled from science! Between ourselves, itis notatallnecessary togetridof"the soul" thereby, andthus renounce oneoftlieoldest andmost venerated hj^otheses ashappens frequently totheclumsiness ofnaturalists, who canhardly touch onthesoulwithout immediately losing it. Buttheway isopen fornewacceptations andrefinements of thesoul-hypothesis; andsuch conceptions as"mortal soul," and"soul ofsubjective multiplicity," and"soul associal structure oftheinstincts andpassions," want henceforth to have legitimate rights inscience. Inthat thenewpsycholo- gist isabout toputanendtothesuperstitions which have hitherto flourished withalmost tropical luxuriance around the ideaofthesoul,heisreally, asitwere, thrusting himself into anewdesert andanew distrustitispossible thattheolder psychologists hadamerrier andmore comfortable time of it;eventually, however, hefinds that precisely thereby he isalsocondemned toinventand,whoknows? perhaps to discover thenew. 13 Psychologists should bethink themselves before putting down theinstinct ofself-preservation asthecardinal instinct ofanorganic being. Aliving thing seeks above alltodis- charge itsstrength^life itself isWill toPower; self-preser- vation isonlyoneoftheindirect andmost frequent results> BEYOND GOODANDEVIL i^ thereof. Inshort, here, aseverywhere else, letusbeware of superfluous teleological principles!oneofwhich isthe in- stinct ofself-preservation (weowe ittoSpinoza's inconsist- ency) .Itisthus, ineffect, thatmethod ordains, which must beessentially economy ofprinciples. 14 Itisperhaps justdawning onfiveorsixminds that nat~ ural philosophy isonly aworld-exposition and world-ar- rangement (according tous, ifImay sayso!)andnota world-explanation; butinsofarasitisbased onbelief in thesenses, itisregarded asmore, and foralong time to comemustberegarded asmorenamely, asanexplanation. Ithaseyesand fingers ofitsown, ithasocular evidence andpalpableness ofitsown: thisoperates fascinatingly, per- suasively, andconvincingly upon anagewithfundamentally plebeian tastesinfact, itfollows instinctively thecanon oftrutli ofeternal popular sensualism. "What isclear, what is"explained"? Only thatwhich canbeseenand feltone must pursue every problem thus far. Obversely, however, thecharm ofthePlatonic mode ofthought, which wasan aristocratic mode, consisted precisely inresistance toobvious sense-evidence perhaps among menwho enjoyed even stronger andmore fastidious senses thanourcontemporaries, butwhoknewhow tofindahigher triumph inremaining masters ofthem: and thisbymeans ofpale, cold, grey con- ceptional networks which theythrew over themotley whirl ofthesensesthemob ofthesenses, asPlato said. Inthis overcoming oftheworld, andinterpreting oftheworld in themanner ofPlato, therewasanenjoyment different from thatwhich thephysicists ofto-day offer usand likewise theDarwinists and antiteleologists among thephysiological 16 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL workers, with their principle ofthe"smallest possible effort," andthegreatest possible blunder. "Where there isnothing more toseeortograsp, there isalsonothing more formen todo"that iscertainly animperative different from the Platonic one,but itmay notwithstanding betheright im- perative forahardy, labourious race ofmachinists and bridge-builders ofthefuture, whohave nothing butrough work toperform. IS Tostudy physiology with aclear conscience, onemust insist onthefactthatthesense-organs arenotphenomena in thesense oftheidealistic philosophy; assuchthey certainly could notbecauses! Sensualism, therefore, atleast asregu- lative hypothesis, ifnotasheuristic principle. What? And others sayeven that theexternal world isthework ofour organs? Butthenourbody, asapart ofthisexternal world, would bethework ofourorgans! Butthen ourorgans themselves would bethework ofourorgans! Itseems to methat this isacomplete reductio adabsurdum, ifthecon- ception causa sui issomething fundamentally absurd. Con- sequently, theexternal world isnotthework ofourorgans? i6 There are stillharmless self-observers who believe that there are"immediate certainties"; forinstance, "Ithink," orasthesuperstition ofSchopenhauer puts it,"Iwill"; as though cognition heregothold ofitsobject purely andsimply as"the thing initself," without any falsification taking place either onthepart ofthesubject ortheobject. Iwould repeat it,however, ahundred times, that"immediate cer- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 17 tainty," aswell as"absolute knowledge" andthe"thing in itself," involve acontradictio inadjecto; wereally ought to free ourselves from themisleading significance ofwords! Thepeople ontheir partmaythink thatcognition isknowing allabout things, butthephilosopher must saytohimself: "When Ianalyse theprocess that isexpressed inthesen- tence, 'Ithink,' Ifindawhole series ofdaring assertions, the argumentative proof ofwhich would bedifficult, perhaps impossible: forinstance, that itis/who think, thatthere must necessarily besomething that thinks, that thinking is anactivity andoperation onthepart ofabeing who is thought ofasacause, thatthere isan'ego,'and finally, that itisalready determined what istobedesignated bythinkingthat Iknow what thinking is.For ifIhadnotalready decided within myself what itis,bywhat standard could I determine whether thatwhich isjusthappening isnotperhaps 'willing' or'feeling'? Inshort, theassertion 'Ithink,' as- sumes that Icompare mystate atthepresent moment with other states ofmyself which Iknow, inorder todetermine what itis;onaccoimt ofthisretrospective connection with further 'knowledge,' ithas, atany rate,noimmediate cer- tainty forme."Inplace ofthe"immediate certainty" in which thepeoplemay believe inthespecial case, thephiloso- pher thus findsaseries of^netaphysical questions presented tohim, veritable conscience questions oftheintellect, towit: "From whence didIgetthenotion of'thinking'? Whydo Ibelieve incause and effect? What givesmetheright to speak ofan'ego,'andeven ofan'ego' ascause, and finally ofan'ego' ascause ofthought?" Hewhoventures toan- swer these metaphysical questions atoncebyanappeal to asortofintuitive perception, liketheperson who says, "I think, andknow that this, atleast, istrue, actual, and cer- tain"willencounter asmileandtwonotes ofinterrogation 18 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL inaphilosopher nowadays. "Sir," thephilosopher' willper- haps givehim tounderstand, "itisimprobable thatyouare notmistaken, butwhyshould itbethetruth?" 17 With regard tothesuperstitions oflogicians, Ishall never tireofemphasising asmall, terse fact,which isunwillingly recognised bythese credulous mindsnamely, thatathought comes when "it"wishes, andnotwhen "I"wish; sothat it isaperversion ofthefacts ofthecase tosaythatthesubject "I" isthecondition ofthepredicate "think." One thinks; butthat this"one" isprecisely thefamous old"ego," is, toput itmildly, onlyasupposition, anassertion, and as- suredly notan"immediate certainty." After all,onehas even gone toofarwith this"one thinks"even the"one" contains aninterpretation oftheprocess, anddoesnotbe- long totheprocess itself. One infers here according tothe usual grammatical formula"Tothink isanactivity; every activity requires anagency that isactive; consequently" . .. Itwaspretty much onthesame lines thattheolderatomism sought, besides theoperating "power," thematerial particle wherein itresides andoutofwhich itoperatestheatom. More rigourous minds, however, learnt atlast togetalong without this"earth-residuum," andperhaps some daywe shall accustom ourselves, evenfrom thelogician's point of view, togetalong without the little "one" (towhich thdj worthy old"ego" hasrefined itself). 18 Itiscertainly nottheleastcharm ofatheory that itis refutable; itisprecisely thereby that itattracts themore BEYOND GOODANDEVIL i^ subtle minds. Itseems thatthehundred-times-refuted theory ofthe"free will" owes itspersistence tothischarm alone; someone isalways app)earing who feelshimself strong enough- torefute it. 19 Philosophers areaccustomed tospeak ofthewillasthough itwere thebest-known thing intheworld; indeed, Schopen- hauer hasgiven ustounderstand thatthewillalone isreally known tous,absolutely andcompletely known, without de- duction oraddition. But itagain andagain seems tomethat inthiscaseSchopenhauer alsoonly didwhat philosophers are inthehabit ofdoingheseems tohave adopted apopular prejudice andexaggerated it.Willingseems tometobe above allsomething complicated, something that isaunity only innameand itisprecisely inaname thatpopular prejudice lurks, which hasgotthemastery over theinade- quate precautions ofphilosophers inallages. Soletusfor oncebemore cautious, letusbe"unphilosophical": letus saythat inallwilling there isfirstly aplurality ofsensa- tions, namely, thesensation ofthecondition "away from whichwego," thesensation ofthecondition "towards which wego," thesensation ofthis"from" and"towards" itself, and then besides, anaccompanying muscular sensation, which, evenwithout ourputting inmotion "arms andlegs," commences itsaction byforce ofhabit, directly we*'wiH" anything. Therefore, justassensations (and indeed many kinds ofsensations) aretoberecognised asingredients of thewill, so,inthesecond place, thinking isalso toberecog- nised; inevery actofthewillthere isaruling thought; and letusnotimagine itpossible tosever thisthought from the"willing," asifthewillwould thenremain over! Inthe 20 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL third place, thewill isnotonlyacomplex ofsensation and thinking, but itisabove allanemotion, and infact the emotion ofthecommand. That which istermed "freedom ofthewill" isessentially theemotion ofsupremacy inre- spect tohimwhomust obey: "Iamfree, 'he'mustobey" thisconsciousness isinherent inevery will;andequally so thestraining oftheattention, thestraight lookwhich fixes itself exclusively ononething, theunconditional judgment that "this andnothing else isnecessary now," theinward certainty thatobedience willberenderedandwhatever else pertains totheposition ofthecommander. Amanwho wills commands something within himself which renders obedience, orwhich hebelieves renders obedience. Butnow letus notice what isthestrangest thing about thewill,this affair soextremely complex, forwhich thepeople have onlyone name. Inasmuch asinthegiven circumstances weareatthe same time thecommanding andtheobeying parties, andas theobe5dng partyweknow thesensations ofconstraint, im- pulsion, pressure, resistance, andmotion, which usually com- mence immediately after theactofwill;inasmuch as,onthe other hand, weareaccustomed todisregard this duality, andtodeceive ourselves about itbymeans ofthesynthetic term "I":awhole series oferroneous conclusions, andcon- sequently offalse judgments about thewill itself, hasbe- come attached totheactofwillingtosuch adegree that hewho wills believes firmly that willing suffices foraction. Since fnthemajority ofcases there hasonlybeen exercise of willwhen theeffect ofthecommandconsequently obedi- ence,andtherefore actionwastobeexpected, theappear- ancehastranslated itself intothesentiment, asifthere were anecessity ofeffect; inaword, hewho wills believes with afairamount ofcertainty that willandaction aresomehow one;heascribes thesuccess, thecarrying outofthewilling, BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 21 tothewill itself, andthereby enjoys anincrease ofthesensa- tionofpower which accompanies allsuccess. "Freedom of Will"that istheexpression forthecomplex state ofde- light oftheperson exercising volition, whocommands and atthesame time identifies himself with theexecutor ofthe orderwho, assuch, enjoys alsothetriumph over obstacles, butthinks within himself that itwas really hisown will thatovercame them. Inthisway theperson exercising vo- lition adds thefeelings ofdelight ofhissuccessful executive instruments, theuseful "underwills" orunder-soulsindeed, ourbody isbutasocial structure composed ofmany souls tohisfeelings ofdelight ascommander. L'effet c'estmot: whathappens here iswhathappens inevery well-constructed andhappy commonwealth, namely, that thegoverning class identifies itself with thesuccesses ofthecommonwealth. In allwilling itisabsolutely aquestion ofcommanding and obeying, onthebasis, asalready said, ofasocial structure composed ofmany "souls"; onwhich account aphilosopher should claim theright toinclude willing-as-such within the sphere ofmoralsregarded asthedoctrine oftherelations ofsupremacy imder which thephenomenon of"life" mani- fests itself. 20 That theseparate philosophical ideas arenotanything optional orautonomously evolving, butgrowupinconnection and relationship with each other; that, however suddenly andarbitrarily theyseem toappear inthehistory ofthought, they nevertheless belong just asmuch toasystem asthe collective members ofthefauna ofaContinentisbetrayed intheendbythecircumstance: how unfailingly themost diverse philosophers always fillinagain adefinite funda- 22 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL mental scheme ofpossible philosophies. Under aninvisible spell, they always revolve oncemore inthesame orbit; however independent ofeach other theymay feelthem- selves with their critical orsystematic wills, something within them leads them, something impels them indefinite order the oneafter theothertowit,theinnate methodology and re- lationship oftheir ideas. Their thinking is,infact, farless adiscovery thanare-recognising, aremembering, areturn andahome-coming toafar-off, ancient common-household ofthesoul, outofwhich those ideas formerly grew: philoso- phising issofarakind ofatavism ofthehighest order. The wonderful family resemblance ofallIndian, Greek, and German philosophising iseasily enough explained. Infact, where there isaffinity oflanguage, owing tothecommon philosophy ofgrammarImean owing totheunconscious domination andguidance ofsimilar grammatical functions itcannot butbethateverything isprepared attheoutset forasimilar development and succession ofphilosophical systems; justasthewayseems barred against certain other possibilities ofworld-interpretation. Itishighly probable thatphilosophers within thedomain oftheUral-Altaic lan- guages (where theconception ofthesubject isleast de- veloped) lookotherwise "into theworld," and willbefound onpaths ofthought different from those oftheIndo Ger- mans andMussulmans, the spell ofcertain grammatical functious isultimately alsothespell ofphysiological valua- tionsand racial conditions.Somuch byway ofrejecting Locke's superficiality withregard totheorigin ofideas. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 33 21 Thecausa suiisthebest self-contradiction thathasyet been conceived, itisasortoflogical violation andunnatural- ness; buttheextravagant pride ofman hasmanaged to entangle itself profoundly and frightfully with thisvery folly. The desire for"freedom ofwill" inthesuperlative, metaphysical sense, such asstillholds sway, unfortunately, intheminds ofthehalf-educated, thedesire tobear the entire andultimate responsibility forone's actions oneself, andtoabsolve God, theworld, ancestors, chance, andsociety therefrom, involves nothing lessthan tobeprecisely this causa sui,and,withmore thanMunchausen daring, topull oneself upinto existence bythehair, outoftheslough of nothingness. Ifanyoneshould findoutinthismanner the crass stupidity ofthecelebrated conception of"free will" andput itoutofhishead altogether, Ibegofhim tocarry his"enlightenment" astep further, and alsoputoutofhis head thecontrary ofthismonstrous conception of"free will": Imean "non-free will," which istantamoimt toa misuse ofcause and effect. Oneshould notwrongly mate- rialise "cause" and "effect," asthenatural philosophers da (andwhoever likethem naturalise inthinking atpresent), according totheprevailing mechanical doltishness which makes thecause press andpush until it"effects" itsend; oneshould use"cause" and "effect" only aspure concep- tions, that istosay,asconventional fictions forthepurpose ofdesignation andmutual understanding, notforexplana- tion. In"being-in-itself" there isnothing of"casual-con- nection," of"necessity," orof"psychological non-freedom; there theeffect doesnotfollow thecause, there "law" does notobtain. Itiswealonewhohave devised cause, sequence^ 24 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL reciprocity, relativity, constraint, number, law,freedom, mo- tive,andpurpose; andwhenweinterpret andintermix this symbol- world, as"being initself," with things, weactonce more aswehave always acted mythologically. The"non- freewill" ismythology; inreal life itisonlyaquestion of strong andweak wills.Itisalmost always asymptom of what islacking inhimself, when athinker, inevery "casual- connection" and"psychological necessity," manifests some- thing ofcompulsion, indigence, obsequiousness, oppression, andnon-freedom; itissuspicious tohave such feelingsthe person betrays himself. And ingeneral, ifIhave observed correctly, the"non-freedom ofthewill" isregarded asa problem fromtwoentirely opposite standpoints, butalways inaprofoundly personal manner: some willnotgiveup their "responsibility," their belief inthemselves, thepersonal right totheir merits, atanyprice (thevain races belong to thisclass) ;others onthecontrary, donotwish tobeanswer- able foranything, orblamed foranything, andowing toan inward self-contempt, seek togetoutofthebusiness, no matter how. The latter, when they write books, areinthe habit atpresent oftaking theside ofcriminals; asortof socialistic sympathy istheir favourite disguise. And asa matter offact, thefatalism oftheweak-willed embellishes itself surprisingly when itcanpose as"lareligion delasouf- jrance humaine"; that isits"good taste." 22 Letmebepardoned, asanoldphilologist whocannot desist from themischief ofputting hisfinger onbadmodes ofinterpretation, but"Nature's conformity tolaw," ofwhich youphysicists talksoproudly, asthoughwhy, itexists only owing toyour interpretation andbad"philology." Itisno BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 35 matter offact,no"text," butrather justanaively humani- tarian adjustment andperversion ofmeaning, withwhich youmake abundant concessions tothedemocratic instincts ofthemodem soul! "Everywhere equality before thelaw Nature isnotdifferent inthat respect, norbetter thanwe:" afineinstance ofsecret motive, inwhich thevulgar antago- nism toeverything privileged and autocraticlikewise a second andmore refined atheismisoncemore disguised. "Ni dieu, nimaitre"that, also, iswhat youwant; and therefore "Cheers fornatural law!"isitnotso? But, as hasbeen said, that isinterpretation, nottext;andsomebody might come along, who, with opposite intentions andmodes ofinterpretation, could readoutofthesame "Nature," and with regard tothesame phenomena, just thetyrannically inconsiderate and relentless enforcement oftheclaims of poweraninterpreter whoshould soplace theunexceptional- nessandunconditionalness ofall"Will toPower" before your eyes, thatalmost every word, andtheword "tyranny'* itself, would eventually seem imsuitable, orlikeaweakening and softening metaphorasbeing toohuman; andwho should, nevertheless, endbyasserting thesame about this world asyoudo,namely, that ithasa"necessary" and"cal- culable" course, not,however, because laws obtain init,but because they areabsolutely lacking, andevery power effects itsultimate consequences every moment. Granted that this also isonly interpretation andyou willbeeager enough to make thisobjection?well, somuch thebetter. 23 Allpsychology hitherto hasrunaground onmoral pre- judices and timidities, ithasnotdared tolaunch outinto thedepths. Insofarasitisallowable torecognise inthat 26 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL which hashitherto been written, evidence ofthatwhich has hitherto been kept silent, itseems asifnobody had yef harboured thenotion ofpsychology astheMorphology and Development-doctrine oftheWill toPower, asIconceive ofit.Thepower ofmoral prejudices haspenetrated deeply fntothemost intellectual world, theworld apparently most indifferent andunprejudiced, andhasobviously operated Inaninjiuious, obstructive, blinding, anddistorting manner. Aproper physio-psychology hastocontend withunconscious antagonism intheheart oftheinvestigator, ithas"the heart" against it:even adoctrine ofthereciprocal condi- tionalness ofthe"good" andthe"bad" impulses, causes (as refined immorality) distress andaversion inastillstrong andmanly consciencestillmore so,adoctrine ofthederiva- tion ofallgood impulses frombad ones. If,however, a person should regard even theemotions ofhatred, envy, covetousness, andimperiousness aslife-conditioning emo- tions, asfactors which must bepresent, fundamentally and essentially, inthegeneral economy oflife(which must, there- fore,befurther developed iflife istobefurther developed), hewillsuffer from suchaview ofthings asfrom sea-sickness. Andyetthishypothesis isfarfrom being thestrangest and most painful inthisimmense andalmost newdomain of dangerous knowledge; andthere areinfactahundred good reasons whyevery oneshould keepaway from itwhocan doso!Ontheother hand, ifonehasonce drifted hither with one's bark, well! very good! now letussetourteeth firmly! letusopen oureyesandkeep ourhand fastonthe helm!We sailaway right over morality, wecrush out,we destroy perhaps theremains ofourownmorality bydaring tomake ourvoyage thither^butwhatdowematter! Never yetdidaprojounder world ofinsight reveal itself todaring travellers andadventurers, andthepsychologist whothus BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 27 "makes asacrifice"itisnotthesacrifizio dell' intelletto, onthecontrary!willatleastbeentitled todemand inre- turn thatpsychology shall oncemore berecognised asthe queen ofthesciences, forwhose service andequipment the other sciences exist. Forpsychology isoncemore thepath tothefundamental problems. I CHAPTER II TheFree Spirit 24 sancta simplicitas! Inwhat strange simplification and falsification man lives! Onecannever cease wondering when onceonehasgoteyes forbeholding thismarvel! Howwe havemade everything around usclearand freeandeasy and simple! howwehave been able togiveoursenses a passport toeverything superficial, ourthoughts agod-like desire forwanton pranks andwrong inferences!howfrom thebeginning, wehave contrived toretain ourignorance in order toenjoy analmost inconceivable freedom, thought- lessness, imprudence, heartiness, and gaietyinorder to enjoy life!Andonlyonthis solidified, granite-like founda- tion ofignorance could knowledge rear itself hitherto, the willtoknowledge onthefoundation ofafarmore powerful will, thewilltoignorance, totheuncertain, totheuntrue! Not asitsopposite, butasitsrefinement! Itistobe hoped, indeed, thatlanguage, here aselsewhere, willnotget over itsawkwardness, andthat itwillcontinue totalk of opposites where there areonly degrees andmany refinements ofgradation; itisequally tobehoped that theincarnated Tartuffery ofmorals, which nowbelongs toourunconquer- able "flesh andblood," willturn thewords round inthe 28 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 29 mouths ofusdiscerning ones. Here andthereweunder- stand it,andlaugh attheway inwhich precisely thebest knowledge seeks most toretain usinthis simplified, thor- oughly artificial, suitably imagined and suitably falsified world: attheway inwhich, whether itwillornot, itloves error, because, asliving itself, itloves life! 25 After such acheerful commencement, aserious word would fainbeheard; itappeals tothemost serious minds. Take care, yephilosophers and friends ofknowledge, and beware ofmartyrdom! Ofsuffering ''for thetruth's sake"! even inyourown defence! Itspoils alltheinnocence and fineneutrality ofyour conscience; itmakes youheadstrong against objections andredrags; itstupefies, animalises, and brutalises, when inthestruggle with danger, slander, sus- picion, expulsion, andeven worse consequences ofenmity, yehave atlasttoplayyour lastcard asprotectors oftruth upon earthasthough "theTruth" were suchaninnocent andincompetent creature astorequire protectors! andyou ofallpeople, yeknights ofthesorrowful countenance, Messrs Loafers andCobweb-spinners ofthespirit! Finally, yeknow sufficiently wellthat itcannot beofanyconsequence ifyejustcarry your point; yeknow thathitherto nophiloso- pherhascarried hispoint, andthat there might beamore laudable truthfulness inevery little interrogative mark which youplace after your special words andfavourite doctrines (and occasionally after yourselves) than inallthesolemn pantomime andtrumping games before accusers andlaw- courts! Rather gooutoftheway! Flee intoconcealment! Andhaveyourmasks andyour ruses, thatyemaybemis- taken forwhat you are,orsomewhat feared! And pray, 30 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL don't forget thegarden, thegarden withgolden trellis- work! Andhave people around youwho areasagardenoras music onthewaters ateventide, when already thedaybe- comes amemory. Choose thegood solitude, thefree,wan- ton,lightsome solitude, which also givesyoutheright still toremain good inanysense whatsoever! How poisonous, how crafty, howbad, doesevery longwarmake one,which cannot bewaged openly bymeans offorce! How personal doesalong fearmake one,alongwatching ofenemies, of possible enemies! These pariahs ofsociety, these long- pursued, badly-persecuted onesalso thecompulsory re- cluses, theSpinozas orGiordano Brunosalways become intheend,evenunder themost intellectual masquerade, and perhaps without being themselves aware ofit,refined ven- geance-seekers andpoison-brewers (just laybare thefounda- tion ofSpinoza's ethics andtheology!), nottospeak ofthe stupidity ofmoral indignation, which istheunfailing sign inaphilosopher that thesense ofphilosophical humour has lefthim.Themartyrdom ofthephilosopher, his"sacri- ficeforthesake oftruth," forces intothelightwhatever of theagitator andactor lurks inhim;and ifonehashitherto contemplated himonly with artistic curiosity, with regard tomany aphilosopher itiseasy tounderstand thedangerous desire toseehimalsoinhisdeterioration (deteriorated intoa "martyr," intoastage- andtribune-bawler) .Only, that it isnecessary with such adesire tobeclearwhat spectacle one willseeinanycasemerely asatyric play, merely an epilogue farce, merely thecontinued proof thatthelong, real tragedy isatanend,supposing thatevery philosophy has beenalongtragedy initsorigin.f1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 31 26 Every selectman strives instinctively foracitadel anda privacy, where heisfreefrom thecrowd, themany, thema- joritywhere hemay forget "men who aretherule," as their exception;exclusive only ofthecase inwhich heis pushed straight tosuchmenbyastillstronger instinct, as adiscemer inthegreatandexceptional sense. Whoever, in intercourse withmen, does notoccasionally glisten inall thegreen andgrey colours ofdistress, owing todisgust, satiety, sympathy, gloominess and solitariness, isassuredly notaman ofelevated tastes; supposing, however, thathe doesnotvoluntarily take allthisburden anddisgust upon himself, thathepersistently avoids it,andremains, asIsaid, quietly andproudly hidden inhiscitadel, onething isthen certain: hewasnotmade, hewasnotpredestined forknowl- edge. Forassuch, hewould onedayhave tosaytohim- self: ''The devil takemygood taste! but'the rule' ismore interesting than theexceptionthan myself, theexception!" Andhewould godown, andabove all,hewould go"inside." Thelongandserious study oftheaverage manandconse- quently much disguise, self-overcoming, familiarity, andbad intercourse (allintercourse isbad intercourse except with one's equals):that constitutes anecessary part ofthe life- history ofevery philosopher; perhaps themost disagreeable, odious, anddisappointing part. Ifheisfortunate, however, asafavourite child ofknowledge should be,hewillmeet with suitable auxiliaries who willshorten andlighten histask; Imean so-called cynics, thosewhosimply recognise theani- mal, thecommon-place and"the rule" inthemselves, andat thesame timehave somuch spirituality and ticklishness as tomake them talkofthemselves and their likebefore wit- 32 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL nesse^sometimes they wallow, even inbooks, asontheir own dung-hill. Cynicism istheonlyform inwhich base souls approach what iscalled honesty; andthehigher man must open hisears toallthecoarser orfiner cynicism, and congratulate himself when theclown becomes shameless right before him, orthe scientific satyr speaks out. There are even cases where enchantment mixes with thedisgust namely, where byafreak ofnature, genius isbound to some such indiscreet billy-goat and ape, asinthecase of theAbbe Galiani, theprofoundest, acutest, andperhaps also filthiest man ofhiscenturyhewas farprofounder than Voltaire, andconsequently also, agood dealmore silent. Ithappens more frequently, ashasbeen hinted, thatascien- tifichead isplaced onanape's body, afineexceptional understanding inabase soul, anoccurrence bynomeans rare, especially amongst doctors andmoral physiologists. Andwhenever anyone speaks without bitterness, orrather quite innocently ofman, asabelly withtworequirements, andahead withone;whenever anyonesees, seeksandwants toseeonly hunger, sexual instinct, andvanity asthereal andonlymotives ofhuman actions; inshort, when anyone speaks "badly"andnoteven "ill"ofman, thenought the lover ofknowledge tohearken attentively and diligently; heought, ingeneral, tohaveanopen earwherever there is talkwithout indignation. Fortheindignant man, andhe who perpetually tears and lacerates himself with hisown teeth (or, inplace ofhimself, theworld, God, orsociety), may indeed, morally speaking, stand higher than thelaugh- ingand self-satisfied satyr, butinevery other senseheisthe more ordinary, more indifferent, and less instructive case. Andnoone issuchaliarastheindignant man. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL ss 27 Itisdifficult tobeunderstood, especially when onethinks and lives gangasrotogati* among those onlywhothink and liveotherwisenamely, kurmagati,^ oratbest "froglike," mandeikagati% (Idoeverything tobe"difficultly understood" myself!)andoneshould beheartily grateful forthegood will tosome refinement ofinterpretation. Asregards "the good friends," however, who arealways tooeasy-going, and think that asfriends theyhave aright toease, onedoes wellatthevery first togrant them aplay-ground andromp- ing-place formisunderstanding onecmthuslaugh still; or getridofthem altogether, these good friendsandlaugh then also! 28 What ismost difficult torender from onelanguage into another isthetempo ofitsstyle, which has itsbasis inthe character oftherace, ortospeak more physiologically, in theaverage tempo oftheassimilation ofitsnutriment. There arehonestly meant translations, which, asinvoluntary vul- garisations, arealmost falsifications oftheoriginal, merely ^because itslively andmerry tempo (which overleaps andob- dates alldangers inwordandexpression) could notalsobe 'rendered. AGerman isalmost incapacitated forpresto in ^hislanguage; consequently also, asmaybereasonably in- ferred, formany ofthemost delightful anddaring nuances 3ffree, free-spirited thought. And justasthebuffoon and ityrareforeign tohim inbody andconscience, soAristo- *Like theriver Ganges :presto fLike thetortoise: lento. ^Like thefrog: staccato. 34 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL phanes andPetronius areuntranslatable forhim. Every- thing ponderous, viscous, andpompously clumsy, alllong- winded andwearying species ofstyle, aredeveloped inpro- fusevariety among Germanspardon meforstating thefact thateven Goethe's prose, initsmixture ofstiffness and ele- gance, isnoexception, asareflection ofthe"good oldtime" towhich itbelongs, andasanexpression ofGerman taste atatimewhen therewas stilla"German taste," which was arococo-taste inmoribus etartibus. Lessing isanexcep- tion,owing tohishistrionic nature, which understood much, andwasversed inmany things; hewhowasnotthetrans- lator ofBayle tonopurpose, whotook refuge willingly in theshadow ofDiderot andVoltaire, and stillmore willingly among theRoman comedy-writers Lessing loved also free- spiritism inthetempo, and flight outofGermany. Buthow could theGerman language, even intheprose ofLessing, imitate thetempo ofMachiavelli, who inhis"Principe" makes usbreathe thedry, fine airofFlorence, andcannot helppresenting themost serious events inaboisterous alle- grissimo, perhaps notwithout amalicious artistic sense of thecontrast heventures topresentlong, heavy, difficult, dangerous thoughts, andatempo ofthegallop, andofthe best,wantonest humour? Finally, whowould venture ona German translation ofPetronius, who,more thananygreat musician hitherto, wasamaster ofpresto ininvention, ideas, andwords? What matter intheendabout theswamps of the sick, evilworld, orofthe"ancient world," when like him,onehasthefeetofawind, therush, thebreath, the emancipating scorn ofawind, which makes everything healthy, bymaking everything run! And with regard to Aristophanes that transfiguring, complementary genius, for whose sake onepardons allHellenism forhaving existed, provided onehasunderstood initsfullprofundity allthatd IBEYOND GOODANDEVIL 35 Ihere requires pardon and transfiguration; there isnothing thathascaused metomeditate moreonPlato's secrecy and sphinx-like nature, than thehappily preserved petit faitthat under thepillow ofhisdeath-bed there wasfound no"Bi- ble," noranything Egyptian, Pythagorean, orPlatonicbut abook ofAristophanes. How could even Plato have en- dured lifeaGreek lifewhich herepudiatedwithout an Aristophanes! 29 Itisthebusiness oftheveryfewtobeindependent; itisa privilege ofthestrong. Andwhoever attempts it,even with thebest right, butwithout being obliged todoso,proves thatheisprobably notonly strong, butalsodaring beyond measure. Heenters intoalabyrinth, hemultiplies athou- sandfold thedangers which lifeinitself already brings with it;nottheleast ofwhich isthatnoonecanseehowand where heloses hisway,becomes isolated, and istorn piece- mealbysome minotaur ofconscience. Supposing such a onecomes togrief, itissofarfrom thecomprehension of men thatthey neither feel it,norsjonpathise with it.And hecannot anylonger goback! Hecannot even goback [again tothesympathy ofmen! 30 Our deepest insights mustandshould appear asfol- [lies,andunder certain circumstances ascrimes, when they jmeunauthorisedly totheears ofthosewho arenot dis- )sedandpredestined forthem. The exoteric andtheeso- [teric, astheywere formerly distinguished byphilosophers longtheIndians, asamong theGreeks, Persians, andMus- 36 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL sulmans, inshort, wherever people believed ingradations of rank andnot inequality and equal rightsarenot so much incontradistinction tooneanother inrespect tothe exoteric class, standing without, and viewing, estimating, measuring, andjudging from theoutside, andnotfrom the inside; themore essential distinction isthat theclass in question views things from below upwardswhile theeso- teric class views things jrom above downwards. There are heights ofthesoulfrom which tragedy itself nolonger ap- pears tooperate tragically; and ifallthewoe intheworld were taken together, whowould dare todecide whether the sight ofitwould necessarily seduce andconstrain tosympa- thy,andthus toadoubling ofthewoe? .. .That which serves thehigher class ofmen fornourishment orrefresh- ment, must bealmost poison toanentirely different and lower order ofhuman beings. The virtues ofthecommon manwould perhaps mean viceandweakness inaphiloso- pher; itmight bepossible forahighly developed man, supposing him todegenerate andgotoruin, toacquire qualities thereby alone, forthesake ofwhich hewould have tobehonoured asasaint inthelower world intowhich he hadsunk. There arebooks which haveaninverse value for thesoulandthehealth according astheinferior souland thelower vitality, orthehigher andmore powerful, make useofthem. Intheformer casethey aredangerous, dis- turbing, unsettling books, inthelatter casethey areherald- callswhich summon thebravest totheir bravery. Books forthegeneral reader arealways ill-smelling books, the odour ofpaltry people clings tothem. Where thepopulace eatand drink, andevenwhere they reverence, itisaccus- tomed tostink. One should notgointochurches ifone wishes tobreathe pure air. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 37 31 i Inouryouthful yearswe stillvenerate anddespise with- outtheartofnuance, which isthebestgain oflife,andwe have rightly todohardpenance forhaving fallen uponmen andthings withYeaandNay. Everything issoarranged that theworst ofalltastes, thetaste fortheunconditional, iscruelly befooled andabused, until aman learns tointro- ducealittle artinto hissentiments, andprefers totrycon- clusions with the artificial, asdothe real artists oflife. Theangry andreverent spirit peculiar toyouth appears to allow itselfnopeace, until ithassuitably falsified menand things, tobeable tovent itspassion upon them: youth in itself even, issomething falsifying anddeceptive. Later on, when theyoung soul, tortured bycontinual disillusions, finally turns suspiciously against itselfstillardent andsav- ageeven initssuspicion andremorse ofconscience: how it upbraids itself, how impatiently ittears itself, how itre- venges itself foritslong self-blinding, asthough ithadbeen avoluntary blindness! Inthistransition onepunishes one- selfbydistrust ofone's sentiments; onetortures one's en- thusiasm with doubt, one feels even thegood conscience tobeadanger, asifitwere theself-concealment and lassi- tude ofamore refined uprightness; andabove all,one espouses upon principle thecause against "youth."Adec- ade later,andonecomprehends that allthiswasalso still-- youth! 32 Throughout thelongest period ofhuman historyone Usittheprehistoric periodthevalue ornone-value of 38 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL anaction wasinferred from itsconsequences; theaction in itself wasnottaken into consideration, anymore than its origin; butpretty much asinChina atpresent, where the distinction ordisgrace ofachild redounds toitsparents, the retro-operating power ofsuccess orfailure waswhat induced men tothink wellorillofanaction. Letuscallthisperiod thepre-moral period ofmankind; theimperative, "know thyself!" wasthen stillunknown.Inthelasttenthousand years, ontheother hand, oncertain large portions ofthe earth, onehasgradually gotsofar,thatonenolonger lets theconsequences ofanaction, but itsorigin, decide Vv'ith regard toitsworth: agreat achievement asawhole, anim- portant refinement ofvision and ofcriterion, theuncon- scious effect ofthesupremacy ofaristocratic values andof thebelief in"origin," themark ofaperiod whichmaybe designated inthenarrower sense asthemoral one: the first attempt atself-knowledge isthereby made. Instead ofthe consequences, theoriginwhat aninversion ofperspective! And assuredly aninversion effected only after long struggle andwavering! Tobesure,anominous new superstition, a peculiar narrowness ofinterpretation, attained supremacy precisely thereby: theorigin ofanaction was interpreted inthemost definite sense possible, asorigin outofan intention; people were agreed inthebelief thatthevalue of anaction layinthevalue ofitsintention. The intention asthesoleorigin andantecedent history ofanaction: under theinfluence ofthisprejudice moral praise andblame have been bestowed, andmenhave judged andeven philoso- phised almost uptothepresent day.Isitnot possible, however, that thenecessity maynowhave arisen ofagain making upourminds with regard tothereversing and fundamental shifting ofvalues, owing toanew self-con- sciousness andacuteness inmanisitnotpossible thatwe BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 39 maybestanding onthethreshold ofaperiod which tobe- ginwith, would bedistinguished negatively asultra-moral: nowadays when, atleastamongst usimmoralists, thesus- picion arises that thedecisive value ofanaction liespre- cisely inthatwhich isnotintentional, andthat allitsinten- tionalness, allthat isseen, sensible, or"sensed" init,be- longs toitssurface orskinwhich, likeevery sldn, betrays something, butconceals stillmore? Inshort, webelieve that theintention isonly asignorsymptom, which first requires anexplanationasign, moreover, which hastoo many interpretations, andconsequently hardly anymeaning initself alone: that morality, inthesense inwhich ithas been understood hitherto, asintention-morality, hasbeen a prejudice, perhaps aprematureness orpreliminariness, prob- ablysomething ofthesame rank asastrology andalchemy, but inany case something which must besurmounted. Thesurmounting ofmorality, inacertain sense even the self-mounting ofmorality^letthatbethename forthe long secret labour which hasbeen reserved forthemost re- fined, themost upright, and also themost wicked con- sciences ofto-day, astheliving touchstones ofthesoul. 33 Itcannot behelped: thesentiment ofsurrender, ofsacri- fice forone's neighbour, and allself-renunciation-morality, must bemercilessly called toaccount, andbrought tojudg- ment;justastheaesthetics of"disinterested contemplation," under which theemasculation ofartnowadays seeks insidi- ously enough tocreate itself agood conscience. There is fartoomuch witchery andsugar inthesentiments "for others" and"not formyself," foronenotneeding tobe doubly distrustful here,andforoneasking promptly: "Are 40 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL they notperhaps deceptions?" That they pleasehim whohasthem, andhimwhoenjoys their fruit, andalsothe mere spectatorthat isstillnoargument intheir favour, but just calls forcaution. Letustherefore becautious! 34I Atwhatever standpoint ofphilosophy onemay place one- selfnowadays, seenfrom every position, theerroneousness oftheworld inwhich wethinkwelive isthesurest and most certain thing oureyescan light upon: wefindproof after proof thereof, which would fain allure usinto sur- mises concerning adeceptive principle inthe"nature of things." He,however, whomakes thinking itself, andcon- sequently "the spirit," responsible forthefalseness ofthe worldanhonourable exit,which every conscious orun- conscious advocatus delavails himself ofhewho regards thisworld, including space, time, form, andmovement, as falsely deduced, would have atleastgood reason intheend tobecome distrustful also ofallthinking; has itnothith- ertobeen playing upon ustheworst ofscurvy tricks? and what guarantee would itgive that itwould notcontinue to dowhat ithasalways been doing? Inallseriousness, the innocence ofthinkers hassomething touching and respect- inspiring init,which evennowadays permits them towait upon consciousness with therequest that itwillgivethem honest answers: forexample, whether itbe"real" ornot, andwhy itkeeps theouter world soresolutely atadistance, andother questions ofthesame description. The belief in "immediate certainties" isamoral naivete which doeshon- ourtousphilosophers; butwehavenow tocease being "merely moral" men! Apart from morality, such belief is afollywhich does littlehonour tous! Ifinmiddle-claJj BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 41 teanever-ready distrust isregarded asthesign ofa"bad racter," and consequently asanimprudence, here longst us,beyond themiddle-class world and itsYeasand fays,whatshould prevent ourbeing imprudent andsaying: iephilosopher hasatlength aright to"bad character," as lebeingwhohashitherto beenmost befooled onearth heisnowunder obligation todistrustfulness, tothewicked- estsquinting outofevery abyss ofsuspicion.Forgive me. thejoke ofthisgloomy grimace andturn ofexpression; for Imyself have longagolearned tothink andestimate differ- ently with regard todeceiving andbeing deceived, and I keep atleast acouple ofpokes intheribsready forthe blind rage withwhich philosophers struggle against being deceived. Why not? Itisnothing more than amoral prejudice that truth isworth more than semblance; itis,in fact, theworst proved supposition intheworld. Somuch must beconceded: there could have beennolifeatallex- ceptupon thebasis ofperspective estimates andsemblances; and if,with thevirtuous enthusiasm andstupidity ofmany philosophers, onewished todoaway altogether with the "seeming world"well, granted thatyoucould dothat, atleast nothing ofyour "truth" would thereby remain! Indeed, what isitthat forces usingeneral tothesupposi- tion that there isanessential opposition of"true" and "false"? Isitnotenough tosuppose degrees ofseeming- ness,andasitwere lighter anddarker shades andtones of semblancedifferent valeurs, asthepainters say?Why might nottheworld which concerns usbeafiction? And .toanyonewho suggested: "But toafiction belongs an originator?"might itnotbebluntly replied: Why?May not this"belong" alsobelong tothefiction? Isitnotat length permitted tobealittle ironical towards thesubject, justastowards thepredicate andobject? Might notthe 42 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL philosopher elevate himself above faith ingrammar? All respect togovernesses, but isitnottime thatphilosc^hy should renounce governess-faith? 35 OVoltaire! Ohumanity! Oidiocy! There issome- thing ticklish in"the truth," andinthesearch forthetruth; and ifman goesabout ittoohumanely "ilnecherche le vraiquepour faire lebien"Iwager hefinds nothing! 36 Supposing thatnothing else is"given" asrealbutour world ofdesires and passions, thatwecannot sink orrise toanyother "reality" butjust that ofourimpulsesfor thinking isonlyarelation ofthese impulses tooneanother:arewenotpermitted tomake theattempt and toaskthe question whether thiswhich is"given" doesnot suffice, by means ofourcoimterparts, fortheunderstanding even of theso-called mechanical (or"material") world? Idonot mean asanillusion, a"semblance," a"representation" (in theBerkeleyan andSchopenhauerian sense), butaspos- sessing thesame degree ofreality asouremotions them- selvesasamore primitive form oftheworld ofemotions, inwhich everything still lieslocked inamighty unity, which afterwards branches offanddevelops itself inorganic processes (naturally also, refines and debilitates)asakind ofinstinctive lifeinwhich allorganic functions, including self-regulation, assimilation, nutrition, secretion, andchange ofmatter, are stillsynthetically united withoneanother asaprimary form oflife?^Intheend, itisnotonlyper mitted tomake thisattempt, itiscommanded bythe co:1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL43 science oflogical method. Not toassume several kinds of causality, solong astheattempt togetalong withasingle onehasnotbeenpushed toitsfurtherest extent (toabsurd- ity, ifImaybeallowed tosayso) :that isamorality of method which onemaynotrepudiate nowadaysitfollows "from itsdefinition," asmathematicians say.Thequestion isultimately whether wereally recognise thewillasoperat- ing,whether webelieve inthecausality ofthewill ;ifwedo soandfundamentally ourbelief inthis isjustourbelief in causality itselfwemustmake theattempt toposit hypo- thetically thecausality ofthe willastheonly causality. "Will" cannaturally only operate on"will"andnoton "matter" (noton"nerves," forinstance) :inshort, the hypothesis must behazarded, whether willdoesnotoperate onwillwherever "effects" arerecognisedandwhether all mechanical action, inasmuch asapower operates therein, is notjust thepower ofwill, the effect ofwill. Granted, finally, thatwesucceeded inexplaining ourentire instinc- tive lifeasthedevelopment andramification ofonefunda- mental form ofwillnamely, theWill toPower, asmy thesis puts it;granted that allorganic functions could be traced back tothisWill toPower, and that thesolution oftheproblem ofgeneration andnutritionitisoneprob- lemcould alsobefound therein: onewould thushave ac- quired theright todefine allactive force unequivocally as WiU toPower. Theworld seenfrom within, theworld de- finedanddesignated according toits"intelligible character"itwould simply be"Will toPower," andnothing else. 44 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 37 "What? Does notthatmean inpopular language: God isdisproved, butnotthedevil"?Onthecontrary! On thecontrary, myfriends! Andwho thedevil alsocompels youtospeak popularly 1 38I Ashappened finally inalltheenlightenment ofmodem times with theFrench Revolution (that terrible farce, quite superfluous when judged close athand, intowhich, however, thenoble andvisionary spectators ofallEurope have inter- preted fromadistance theirownindignation andenthusiasm solongandpassionately, until thetexthasdisappeared un- dertheinterpretation), soanoble posterity might once more misunderstand thewhole ofthepast,andperhaps only thereby make itsaspect endurable.Orrather, hasnotthis already happened? Have notweourselves beenthat "noble posterity"? And, insofaraswenowcomprehend this, isitnotthereby already past? 39 Nobody willvery readily regard adoctrine astruemerely because itmakes people happy orvirtuousexcepting, per- haps, theamiable "Idealists," who areenthusiastic about thegood, true,and beautiful, and letallkinds ofmotley, coarse, andgood-natured desirabilities swim about promis- cuously intheir pond. Happiness andvirtue arenoargu- ments. Itiswillingly forgotten, however, evenonthepart ofthoughtful minds, that tomake unhappy ind tomake BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 45 badarejustaslittle counter-arguments. Athing could be true, although itwere inthehighest degree injurious and dangerous; indeed, thefundamental constitution ofexist- encemight besuch thatonesuccumbed byafullknowledge ofitsothat thestrength ofamind might bemeasured by theamount of"truth" itcould endureortospeak more plainly, bytheextent towhich itrequired truth attenuated, veiled, sweetened, damped, and falsified. Butthere isno doubt that forthediscovery ofcertain portions oftruth the wicked andunfortunate aremore favourably situated and have agreater likelihood ofsuccess; nottospezik ofthe wicked who arehappyaspecies aboutwhom moralists are silent. Perhaps severity and craft aremore favourable conditions forthedevelopment ofstrong, independent spirits and philosophers than the gentle, refined, yielding good- nature, andhabit oftaking things easily, which areprized, andrightly prized inalearned man. Presupposing always, tobegin with, that theterm "philosopher" benotconfined tothephilosopher who writes books, oreven introduces his philosophy intobooks!Stendhal furnishes alastfeature of theportrait ofthefree-spirited philosopher, which forthe sake ofGerman taste Iwillnotomit tounderlinefor itis opposed toGerman taste. "Pour etrebonphilosophe," says this lastgreat psychologist, "iljaut etre sec, clair, sans illusion. Unbanquier, quiafaitfortune, aunepartie du caractere requis pour faire desdecouvertes enphilosophie, c'est-d-dire pour voir clairdans cequiest." j^Everything that isprofound loves themask: thepro- jfoundest things have ahatred even offigure and likeness. Should notthecontrary onlybetheright disguise forthe 46 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL shame ofaGod togoabout in?Aquestion worth asking! itwould bestrange ifsome mystic hasnotalready ventured onthesame kind ofthing. There areproceedings ofsuch adelicate nature that itiswell tooverwhelm them with coarseness andmake them unrecognisable; there are ac- tions ofloveand ofanextravagant magnanimity after which nothing canbewiser than totakeastickandthrash thewitness soundly: onethereby obscures hisrecollection. Many aone isable toobscure andabuse hisownmemory, inorder atleast tohavevengeance onthis soleparty inthe secret: shame isinventive. They arenottheworst things ofwhich one ismost ashamed: there isnotonly deceit be- hind amaskthere issomuch goodness incraft. Icould imagine thataman with something costly and fragile to conceal, would rollthrough lifeclumsily androtundly like anold, green, heavily-hooped wine-cask: therefinement of hisshame requiring ittobeso.Amanwhohasdepths in hisshame meets hisdestiny andhisdelicate decisions upon paths which fewever reach, andwith regard totheexist- ence ofwhich hisnearest andmost intimate friends may beignorant; hismortal danger conceals itselffrom their eyes, andequally sohisregained security. Such ahidden nature, which instinctively employs speech forsilence andconceal- ment, and isinexhaustible inevasion ofcommunication, de- siresand insists thatamask ofhimself shall occupy his place inthehearts andheads ofhisfriends; andsupposing hedoesnotdesire it,hiseyes willsomedaybeopened to thefactthatthere isnevertheless amask ofhimthereand that itiswell tobeso.Every profound spirit needs amask; nay, more, around every profound spirit there continually grows amask, owing totheconstantly false, that istosay, superficial interpretation ofevery word heutters, every step hetakes, every sign oflifehemanifests. II BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 47 41 Onemust subject oneself toone'sown tests thatone is destined forindependence andcommand, anddosoatthe right time. Onemust notavoid one's tests, although they constitute perhaps themost dangerous game onecanplay, and areintheend testsmade only before ourselves and before noother judge. Not tocleave toanyperson, beit even thedearestevery person isaprison and alsoare- cess. Not tocleave toafatherland, beiteven themost suffering andnecessitousitiseven less difficult todetach one's heart from avictorious fatherland. Not tocleave to aS5anpathy, beiteven forhigher men, intowhose peculiar torture and helplessness chance hasgiven usaninsight. Not tocleave toascience, though ittempt onewith the most valuable discoveries, apparently specially reserved for us.Nottocleave toone'sown liberation, tothevoluptuous distance andremoteness ofthebird, which always flies fur- ther aloft inorder always toseemore under itthedanger ofthe flier. Not tocleave toourown virtues, norbecome asawhole avictim toanyofour specialties, toour"hos- pitality" forinstance, which isthedanger ofdangers for highly developed andwealthy souls, who deal prodigally, almost indifferently with themselves, andpush thevirtue of liberality sofarthat itbecomes avice. Onemustknow how toconserve oneselfthebest testofindependence. I4* Aneworder ofphilosophers isappearing; Ishall venture tobaptize thembyaname notwithout danger. AsfarasI understand them, asfarasthey allow themselves tobe 48 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL understoodfor itistheir nature towish toremain some- thing ofapuzzlethese philosophers ofthefuture might rightly, perhaps alsowrongly, claim tobedesignated as "tempters." Thisname itself isafter allonlyanattempt, or, ifitbepreferred, atemptation. 43 Willtheybenewfriends of"truth," thesecoming philoso* phers? Very probably, for allphilosophers hitherto have loved their truths. But assuredly they willnotbedog- matists. Itmust becontrary totheir pride, and alsocon- Vrary totheir taste, that their truth should stillbetruth for every onethatwhich hashitherto been thesecret wishand ultimate purpose ofalldogmatic efforts. "My opinion ismy opinion: another person hasnoteasily aright toit"such \i.philosopher ofthefuture will say, perhaps. Onemust Yenounce thebad taste ofwishing toagree withmany peo- ple."Good" isnolonger goodwhen one's neighbour takes itinto hismouth. Andhow could there bea"common good"! The expression contradicts itself; thatwhich can becommon isalways ofsmall value. Intheend things mustbeasthey areandhavealways beenthegreat things remain forthegreat, theabysses fortheprofound, thedeli- cacies and thrills fortherefined, and, tosumupshortly, everything rare fortherare. 44 Need Isayexpressly after allthisthatthey willbefree, very free spirits, these philosophers ofthefutureascer- tainly alsothey willnotbemerely free spirits, butsomething more, higher, greater, andfundamentally different, which BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 49 doesnotwish tobemisunderstood andmistaken? Butwhile Isay this, Ifeelunder obligation almost asmuch tothem astoourselves (we free spirits who aretheir heralds and forerunners), tosweep away from ourselves altogether a stupid oldprejudice andmisunderstanding, which, likea fog,hastoolongmade theconception of"free spirit" ob- scure. Inevery country ofEurope, andthesame inAmer- ica,there isatpresent something which makes anabuse of thisname: avery narrow, prepossessed, enchained class of spirits, who desire almost theopposite ofwhat ourinten- tionsand instincts promptnottomention that inrespect tothenewphilosophers who areappearing, theymust still more beclosed windows andbolted doors. Briefly and re- grettably, they belong tothe levellers, these wrongly named "free spirits"asglib-tongued and scribe-fingered ^laves ofthedemocratic tasteand its"modem ideas": all moithemmen without solitude, without personal solitude, 'blunt honest fellows towhom neither courage norhonourable conduct ought tobedenied; only, they arenotfree,andare ludicrously superficial, especially intheir innate partiality forseeing thecause ofalmost allhuman misery and failure intheoldforms inwhich society hsishitherto existeda notion which happily inverts thetruth entirely! What they would fain attain with alltheir strength, istheuniversal, green-meadow happiness oftheherd, together with security, safety, comfort, and alleviation oflifeforevery one; their twomost frequently chanted songs anddoctrines arecalled luality ofRights" and"Sympathy with allSufferers" |dsuffering itself islooked upon bythem assomething lichmust bedoneaway with.Weopposite ones, how- ;r,whohaveopened oureyeandconscience totheques- howandwhere theplant"man" hashitherto grown most vigourously, believe that tliishasalways taken place $0 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL under theopposite conditions, that forthisendthedanger- ousness ofhissituation had tobeincreased enormously, his inventive faculty anddissembling power (his "spirit") had todevelop into subtlety anddaring under long oppression andcompulsion, andhisWill toLifehad tobeincreased to theunconditioned Will toPower:webelieve that severity, violence, slavery, danger inthestreet and intheheart, se- crecy, stoicism, tempter's artanddevilry ofevery kind, thateverything wicked, terrible, tyrannical, predatory, and serpentine inman, serves aswell fortheelevation ofthe human species asitsopposite:wedonoteven sayenough whenweonly saythismuch; and inanycasewefindour- selves here, both with ourspeech andour silence, atthe ether extreme ofallmodem ideology andgregarious desira- bility, astheir antipodes perhaps? What wonder thatwe ^'free spirits" arenotexactly themost communicative spir- its?thatwedonotwish tobetray inevery respect what ai spirit canfree itself from, andwhere perhaps itwillthenbe driven? And astotheimport ofthedangerous formula, "Beyond Good andEvil," withwhich weatleast avoid con- fusion, wearesomething elsethan "libres-penseurs," "liberi pensatori" "free-thinkers," andwhatever these honest ad- vocates of"modem ideas" like tocallthemselves. Havingi been athome, oratleast guests, inmany realms ofthespirit; having escaped again andagain from thegloomy, agreeablei nooks inwhich preferences andprejudices, youth, origin, thci accident ofmenandbooks, oreven theweariness oftravel seemed toconfine us; fullofmalice against theseductions of dependency which lieconcealed inhonours, money, positions,! orexaltation ofthesenses; grateful even fordistress and thevicissitudes ofillness, because theyalways freeusfrom' some rule,and its"prejudice," grateful totheGod, devil, 3^6^, andworm inus;inquisitive toafault, investigatII w BEYOND GOODAND EVIL 51 tothepoint ofcruelty, with unhesitating fingers forthein- tangible, with teethandstomachs forthemost indigestible, ready foranybusiness that requires sagacity and acute senses, ready forevery adventure, owing toanexcess of "free will"; with anterior andposterior souls, intotheulti- mate intentions ofwhich itisdifficult topry, with fore- grounds andbackgrounds totheendofwhich nofootmay run;hidden onesimder themantles oflight, appropriators, although weresemble heirsand spendthrifts, arrangers and collectors frommorning tillnight, misers ofourwealth and ourfull-crammed drawers, economical inlearning and for- getting, inventive inscheming; sometimes proud oftables of categories, sometimes pedants, sometimes night-owls ofwork even infullday; yea, ifnecessary, even scarcecrowsand it isnecessary nowadays, that istosay,inasmuch aswearethe bom, sworn, jealous friends ofsolitude, ofourown pro- foundest midnight andmid-day solitude:suchkind ofmen arewe,wefree spirits! Andperhaps yearealsosomething ofthesame kind, yecoming ones? yenewphilosophers? CHAPTER III The Religious Mood 45 Thehuman souland itslimits, therange ofman's inn| experiences hitherto attained, theheights, depths anddis^ tances ofthese experiences, theentire history ofthesoul uptothepresent time, and its stillunexhausted possibili- ties: this isthepreordained hunting- domain forabom psy- chologist andlover ofa"bighunt." Buthow often must hesaydespairingly tohimself: "Asingle individual! alas, only asingle individual! and thisgreat forest, this virgin forest!" Sohewould liketohavesome hundreds ofhunt- ingassistants, and finetrained hounds, thathecould send into thehistory ofthehuman soul, todrive hisgame to- gether. Invain: again and again heexperiences, pro- foundly and bitterly, how difficult itistofind assistants and dogs forallthethings that directly excite hiscuriosity. The evilofsending scholars intonewanddangerous hunting- domains, where courage, sagacity, and subtlety inevery sense arerequired, isthat they arenolonger serviceable justwhen the"big hunt," and alsothegreat danger com- mences,itisprecisely then thatthey lose their keen eye and nose. Inorder, forinstance, todivine anddetermine what sortofhistory theproblem ofknowledge andconscien^ 52J BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 55 hashitherto had inthesouls ofhomines religiosi, aperson would perhaps himself have topossess asprofound, as bruised, asimmense anexperience astheintellectual con- science ofPascal; andthen hewould still require that wide-spread heaven ofclear, wicked spirituality, which, from above, would beable tooversee, arrange, and effectively for- mulise thismass ofdangerous andpainful experiences.But whocould domethis service! Andwhowould have time towait forsuch servants!they evidently appear toorarely, they aresoimprobable atalltimes! Eventually onemust doeverything oneself inorder toknow something; whiclr means thatonehasmuch todo!Butacuriosity likemine isonce for allthemost agreeable ofvicespardon me! Imean tosaythattheloveoftruth has itsreward inheaven, andalready upon earth. 46 Faith, such asearly Christianity desired, andnotinfre- quently achieved inthemidst ofasceptical andsouthemly free-spirited world, which hadcenturies ofstruggle between philosophical schools behind itand init,counting besides theeducation intolerance which theimperium Romanum gavethis faith isnotthat sincere, austere slave-faith by which perhaps aLuther oraCromwell, orsome other north- embarbarian ofthe spirit remained attached tohisGod andChristianity; itismuch rather thefaith ofPascal, which xesembles inaterrible manner acontinuous suicide ofrea-atough, long-lived, wormlike reason, which isnotto slain atonceandwithasingle blow. TheChristian faith from thebeginning, issacrifice: thesacrifice ofallfreedom, allpride, allself-confidence ofspirit; itisatthesame time abjection, self-derision, and self-mutilation. There isC 54 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL1 cruelty and religious Phoenicianism inthis faith, which adapted toatender, many-sided, andvery fastidious con- science; ittakes forgranted thatthesubjection ofthespirit isindescribably painful, that allthepastand allthehabits ofsuch aspirit resist theabsurdissimum, intheform of which "faith" comes to it.Modem men, with their ob- tuseness asregards allChristian nomenclature, have no longer thesense fortheterribly superlative conception which wasimplied toanantique tastebytheparadox ofthefor- mula, "God ontheCross." Hitherto there hadnever and nowhere been such boldness ininversion, noranything at once sodreadful, questioning, andquestionable asthis for- mula: itpromised atransvaluation ofallancient values.It was theOrient, theprofound Orient, itwastheOriental slavewhothus took revenge onRome and itsnoble, light- minded toleration, ontheRoman "Catholicism" ofnon- faith;and itwasalways, notthefaith, butthefreedom from the faith, thehalf-stoical and smiling indifference tothe seriousness ofthe faith, which mades theslaves indignant attheir masters andrevolt against them. "Enlightenment" causes revolt: fortheslave desires theunconditioned, he understands nothing butthetyrannous, even inmorals; he loves ashehates, without nuance, tothevery depths, tothe point ofpain, tothepoint ofsicknesshismany hidden sufferings make him revolt against thenoble taste which seems todeny suffering. Thescepticism with regard tosuf- fering, fundamentally onlyanattitude ofaristocratic mo- rality, wasnottheleast ofthecauses, also, ofthelastgreat slave-insurrection which began with theFrench Revolu tion. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL$5 47 Wherever thereligious neurosis hasappeared ontheearth sofar,wefind itconnected with three dangerous prescrip- tions astoregimen: solitude, fasting, andsexual abstinencebutwithout itsbeing possible todetermine with certainty which iscause andwhich iseffect, orifanyrelation atallof cause and effect exists there. This latter doubt isjustified bythefact thatoneofthemost regular symptoms among savage aswellasamong civilised peoples isthemostsudden andexcessive sensuality; which then with equal suddenness transforms into penitential paroxysms, world-renunciation, and will-renunciation: bothsymptoms perhaps explainable asdisguised epilepsy? Butnowhere isitmore obligatory toputaside explanations: around noother typehasthere grown suchamass ofabsurdity and superstition, noother typeseems tohavebeenmore interesting tomenandeven to philosophers perhaps itistime tobecome justalittle in- different here, tolearn caution, or,better still, tolook away,. togoaway.Yet inthebackground ofthemost recent philosophy, that ofSchopenhauer, wefindalmost asthe roblem initself, this terrible note ofinterrogation ofthe teligious crisis andawakening. How isthenegation ofwill ^ssible? how isthesaint possible?thatseems tohavebeenlevery question withwhich Schopenhauer made astart andbecame aphilosopher. And thus itwas agenuine ichopenhauerian consequence, that hismost convinced ad- ent(perhaps also his last, asfarasGermany iscon- ed), namely, Richard Wagner, should bring hisovm work toanend just here, andshould finally putthat ibleand eternal typeupon thestage asKundry, type u,andasitloved and lived, atthevery time that the 56 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL mad-doctors inalmost allEuropean countries hadanoppor- tunity tostudy thetype close athand, wherever the reli- gious neurosisorasIcall it,"the religious mood"made itslatest epidemical outbreak anddisplay asthe"Salvation Army."Ifitbeaquestion, however, astowhat hasbeen soextremely interesting tomen ofallsorts inallages,and even tophilosophers, inthewhole phenomenon ofthesaint, itisundoubtedly theappearance ofthemiraculous therein^namely, theimmediate succession ofopposites, ofstates ofthesoulregarded asmorally antithetical: itwasbelieved here tobeself-evident thata"badman" was allatonce turned intoa"saint," agoodman. The hitherto existing psychology waswrecked atthispoint; isitnotpossible it may have happened principally because psychology had placed itself under thedominion ofmorals, because itbe- lieved inoppositions ofmoral values, andsaw, read, and interpreted these oppositions intothetextand facts ofthe case? What? "Miracle" onlyanerror ofinterpretation? Alack ofphilology? 48 Itseems thattheLatin races arefarmore deeply attached totheir Catholicism thanweNortherners aretoChristianity generally, andthatconsequently unbelief inCatholic coun- triesmeans something quite different from what itdoes among Protestantsnamely, asort ofrevolt against the spirit oftherace, while withusitisrather areturn tothe spirit (ornon-spirit) oftherace.WeNortherners undoubt- edly derive ourorigin from barbarous races, even asregards ourtalents forreligionwehave poor talents for it.On^ maymake anexception inthecase oftheCelts, whoha\ theretofore furnished alsothebest soilforChristian infe BEYOND GOODAND EVIL57 tion inthenorth: theChristian ideal blossomed forth in France asmuch asever thepalesunofthenorth would allow it.How strangely pious forourtaste are still these laterFrench sceptics, whenever there isany Celtic blood in their origin! How Catholic, howun-German doesAuguste Comte's Sociology seem tous,with theRoman logic ofits instincts! How Jesuitical, thatamiable andshrewd cicerone ofPort-Royal, Sainte-Beuve, inspite ofallhishostility to Jesuits! Andeven Ernest Renan: how inaccessible tou^ Northerners does thelanguage ofsuchaRenan appear, in whom every instant themerest touch ofreligious thrill throws hisrefined voluptuous andcomfortably couching soul offitsbalance! Letusrepeat afterhimthese finesentencesandwhat wickedness and haughtiness isimmediately aroused byway ofanswermourprobably lessbeautiful but harder souls, that istosay, inourmoreGerman souls! "Disons done hardiment que lareligion estunproduit de Vhomtne normal, queI'homme estleplusdans levraiquand ilestleplus religieux etleplus assure d'une destinee infinie. ...C'est quand ilestbon qu'il veutque lavirtu corre- sponde aunorder iternal, c'estquand ilcontemple leschoses d'unemanihe desintiressee qu'il trouve lamort revoltante et bsurde. Comment nepassupposer que c'estdans cesmo- ents-la, queI'homme voit lemieux?" . . .These sentences esoextremely antipodal tomyearsandhabits ofthought, atinmy firstimpulse ofrageonfinding them, Iwrote nthemargin, "laniaiserie religieuse parexcellence!"imtil inmylater rage Ieventookafancy tothem, these sentences Bnth their truth absolutely inverted! Itissoniceand Huch adistinction tohave one'sown antipodes! I S8 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 49i That which issoastonishing inthereligious lifeofthe ancient Greeks istheirrestrainable stream ofgratitude which itpours forthitisavery superior kind ofmanwho takes suchanattitude towards nature and life.^Later on,when thepopulace gottheupper hand inGreece, fearbecame rampant also inreligion; andChristianity waspreparing it- self. SO Thepassion forGod: there arechurlish, honest-hearted, andimportunate kinds ofit,likethat ofLutherthewhole ofProtestantism lacks thesouthern delicatezza. There isan Oriental exaltation ofthemind init,likethat ofanunde- servedly favoured orelevated slave, asinthecase ofSt. Augustine, forinstance, who lacks inanoffensive manner, allnobility inbearing and desires. There isafeminine tenderness and sensuality in it,which modestly andun- consciously longs foraunio mystica etphysica, asinthe caseofMadame deGuyon.Inmany cases itappears, curi- ously enough, asthedisguise ofagirl's oryouth's puberty; hereand there even asthehysteria ofanoldmaid, also asherlastambition. TheChurch hasfrequently canonised thewoman insuchacase. 51 I Themightiest menhave hitherto always bowed reverently before thesaint, astheenigma ofself-subjugation andutter volimtary privationwhy didthey thusbow? They BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 59 divined inhimandasitwerebehind thequestionableness ofhis frailandwretched appearancethesuperior force which wished totest itself bysuch asubjugation; the strength ofwill, inwhich they recognised theirownstrength andlove ofpower, andknewhow tohonour it:theyhon- oured something inthemselves when theyhonoured thesaint. Inaddition tothis, thecontemplation ofthesaint suggested tothem asuspicion: suchanenormity ofself-negation and anti-naturalness willnothave been coveted fornothing theyhave said, inquiringly. There isperhaps areason for it,some very great danger, about which theascetic might wish tobemore accurately informed through hissecret interlocutors and visitors? Inaword, themighty ones of theworld learned tohave anew fearbefore him, they di- vined anewpower, astrange, stillunconquered enemy: itwasthe"Will toPower" which obliged them tohaltbefore thesaint. Theyhadtoquestion him. 52 IntheJewish "Old Testament," thebook ofdivine jus- tice, there aremen, things, andsayings onsuchanimmense scale, thatGreek andIndian literature hasnothing tocom- pare with it.One stands with fearandreverence before those stupendous remains ofwhatmanwas formerly, and onehassadthoughts about oldAsiaand itslittleout-pushed peninsula Europe, which would like,byallmeans, tofigure before Asia asthe"Progress ofMankind." Tobesure,he *ftio ishimself onlyaslender, tame house-animal, andknows nlythewants ofahouse-animal (like ourcultured people ofto-day, including theChristians of"cultured" Christian- ity), need neither beamazed noreven sadamid those IS^thetaste fortheOldTestament isatouchstone withrs 6o BEYOND GOODANDEVIL respect to"great" and"small": perhaps hewill find that theNew Testament, thebook ofgrace, stillappeals more tohisheart (there ismuch oftheodour ofthegenuine, tender, stupid beadsman andpetty soul init).Tohave bound upthisNewTestament (akind ofrococo oftaste in every respect) along with theOldTestament intoonebook, asthe"Bible," as"The Book inItself," isperhaps the greatest audacity and"sinagainst theSpirit" which literary Europe hasupon itsconscience. 53 I Why Atheism nowadays? "The father" inGod isthoi oughly refuted; equally so"the judge," "the rewarder." Also his"free will": hedoesnothearandeven ifhedid, hewould notknowhow tohelp. The worst isthathe seems incapable ofcommunicating himself clearly; ishe uncertain?This iswhat Ihavemade out(byquestioning and listening atavariety ofconversations) tobethecause ofthedecline ofEuropean theism; itappears tomethat though thereligious instinct isinvigorous growth,itre- jects thetheistic satisfaction withprofound distrust. What does allmodem philosophy mainly do? Since Descartesandindeed more indefiance ofhimthanonthe basis ofhisprocedureanattentat hasbeenmade onthe part ofallphilosophers ontheoldconception ofthesoul, under theguise ofacriticism ofthesubject andpredicate conceptionthat istosay,anattentat onthefundamental presupposition ofChristian doctrine. Modern philosophy, asepistemological scepticism, issecretly oropenly anti!! BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 6i Christian, although (forkeener ears,beitsaid)bynomeans- anti-rehgious. Formerly, ineffect, onebelieved in"the soul" asonebelieved ingrammar andthegrammatical sub- ject:one said,"I" isthecondition, "think" isthepredicate and isconditionedtothink isanactivity forwhich one must suppose asubject ascause. Theattempt wasthen made, with marvellous tenacity and subtlety, tosee ifone could notgetoutofthisnet,tosee iftheopposite wasnot perhaps true: "think" thecondition, and"I"thecondi- tioned; "I," therefore, onlyaS5nithesis which hasbeenmade bythinking itself. Kant really wished toprove that, start- ingfrom thesubject, thesubject could notbeprovednor theobject either: thepossibility ofanapparent existence ofthesubject, andtherefore of"the soul,"maynotalways havebeen strange tohim,thethought which oncehadan immense power onearth astheVedanta philosophy. 55 There isagreat ladder ofreligious cruelty, withmany roimds; butthree ofthese arethemost important. Once onatimemen sacrified human beings totheirGod,andper- haps justthose theyloved thebesttothiscategory belong lefirstling sacrifices ofallprimiti\*e religions, and alsothe rifice oftheEmperor Tiberius intheMithra-Grotto on leIsland ofCapri, thatmost terrible ofallRoman anach- inisms. Then, during themoral epoch ofmankind, they rificed totheirGodthestrongest instincts they possessed, leir"nature"; this festal joyshines inthecruel glances of letics ind"anti-natural" fanatics. Finally, what still re- ined tobesacrificed? Was itnotnecessary intheend formen tosacrifice everything comforting, holy, healing, all tpe,allfaith inhidden harmonies, infuture blessedness 62 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL andjustice? Was itnotnecessary tosacrifice God himself, andoutofcruelty tothemselves toworship stone, stupidity, gravity, fate,nothingness? Tosacrifice God fornothingnessthisparadoxical mystery oftheultimate cruelty hasbeen reserved fortherising generation; weallknow something thereof already. 56 Whoever, likemyself, prompted bysome enigmatical de- sire,haslongendeavoured togotothebottom oftheques- tionofpessimism and free itfrom thehalf-Christian, half- German narrowness and stupidity inwhich ithas finally presented itself tothis century, namely, intheform of Schopenhauer's philosophy; whoever, withanAsiatic and super-Asiatic eye,hasactually looked inside, and into the most world-renouncing ofallpossible modes ofthought beyond good and evil,andnolonger likeBuddha and Schopenhauer, under thedominion anddelusion ofmorality,whoever hasdone this,hasperhaps justthereby, without really desiring it,opened hiseyes tobehold theopposite ideal: theideal ofthemost world-approving, exuberant and vivacious man,whohasnotonly learnt tocompromise and arrange with thatwhich wasand is,butwishes tohave it again asitwasand is,foralleternity, insatiably calling out decapo, notonly tohimself, buttothewhole pieceandplay; andnotonly theplay, butactually tohimwho requires the playandmakes itnecessary; because healways requires himself anew^andmakes himself necessary. What? And thiswould notbe circuius vitiosus deus? BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 63 57 The distance, and asitwere thespace around man, grows with thestrength ofhisintellectual vision andinsist: hisworld becomes profounder; new stars,newenigmas, and notions areevercoming into view. Perhaps everything on which theintellectual eyehasexercised itsacuteness and profundity hasjustbeenanoccasion foritsexercise, some- thing ofagame, something forchildren and childish minds. Perhaps themost solemn conceptions thathave caused the most fighting andsuffering, theconceptions "God" and"sin," willonedayseem tousofnomore importance thanachild's plaything orachild's painseems toanoldman;andper- haps another plaything andanother pain willthenbeneces- saryoncemore for"the oldman"always childish enough, aneternal child! S8 Has itbeen observed towhat extent outward idleness, or semi-idleness, isnecessary toareal religious life (alike for itsfavourite microscopic labour ofself-examination, and for .its soft placidity called "prayer," thestate ofperpetual kreadiness forthe"coming ofGod"), Imean theidleness with [agood conscience, theidleness ofolden times andofblood, which thearistocratic sentiment thatwork isdishonouring \that itvulgarises bodyandsoulisnotquite unfamiliar? idthatconsequently themodem, noisy, time-engrossing, snceited, foolishly proud laboriousness educates and pre- ires for"unbelief" more than anything else? Amongst lese, forinstance, who areatpresent living apart from igion inGermany, Ifind "free-thinkers" ofdiversified 64 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL specks and origin, butabove allamajority ofthose in whom laboriousness from generation togeneration has dis- solved thereligious instincts; sothattheynolonger know what purpose religions serve, andonly note their existence intheworld with akind ofdullastonishment. They feel themselves already fully occupied, these good people, beit bytheir business orbytheir pleasures, nottomention the 'Tatherland," and thenewspapers, and their "family du- ties"; itseems that theyhave notime whatever left for religion; andabove all, itisnotobvious tothem whether it isaquestion ofanewbusiness oranewpleasurefor itis impossible, they saytothemselves, thatpeople should goto church merely tospwil their tempers. They arebynomeans enemies ofreligious customs; should certain circumstances, State affairs perhaps, require their participation insuch cus- toms, theydowhat isrequired, assomany things aredone withapatient andunassuming seriousness, andwithout much curiosity ordiscomfort;they livetoomuch apart andout- side tofeeleven thenecessity forajororagainst insuch matters. Among those indifferent persons maybereckoned nowadays themajority ofGerman Protestants ofthemiddle classes, especially inthegreat laborious centres oftradeand commerce; alsothemajority oflaborious scholars, andthe entire University personnel (with theexception ofthetheo- logians, whose existence and possibility there always givesj psychologists newandmore subtle puzzles tosolve), thepart ofpious, ormerely church-going people, there is seldom anyidea ofhowmuch goodwill, onemight sayarbi- trary will, isnownecessary foraGerman scholar totake thej problem ofreligion seriously; hiswhole profession (and asij have said, hiswhole workmanlike laboriousness, towhich he iscompelled byhismodem conscience) inclines him to loftyandalmost charitable serenity asregards religion, wit BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 65 which isoccasionally mingled aslight disdain forthe"un- cleanliness" ofspirit which hetakes forgranted wherever anyone stillprofesses tobelong totheChurch. Itisonly with thehelp ofhistory {notthrough hisownpersonal ex- perience, therefore) that thescholar succeeds inbringing himself toarespectful seriousness, andtoacertain timid def- erence inpresence ofreligions; butevenwhen hissentiments have reached thestage ofgratitude towards them, hehasnot personally advanced onestepnearer tothatwhich stillmain- tains itself asChurch oraspiety; perhaps even thecontrary. The practical indifference toreligious matters inthemidst ofwhich hehasbeenbomandbrought up,usually subli- mates itself inhiscase intocircumspection and cleanliness, which shuns contact with religious menand things; and it maybejustthedepth ofhistolerance andhumanity which prompts him toavoid thedelicate trouble which tolerance itself brings with it.Every agehas itsown divine type of naivete, forthediscovery ofwhich other agesmayenvy it: andhowmuch naiveteadorable, childlike, andboundlessly foolish naivete isinvolved inthisbelief ofthescholar inhis superiority, inthegood conscience ofhistolerance, intheun- suspecting, simple certainty withwhich hisinstinct treats the religious man asalower and lessvaluable type, beyond, before, andabove which hehimself hasdevelopedhe,the little arrogant dwarf andmob-mem, thesedulously alert, head-and-hand drudge of"ideas," of"modem ideas"! 59 Whoever hasseen deeply into theworld hasdoubtless divined whatwisdom there isinthefactthatmen aresuper- ficial. Itistheir preservative instinct which teaches them to beflighty, lightsome, and false. Hereandthere onefinds a 66 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL passionate andexaggerated adoration of"pure forms" in philosophers aswellasinartists: itisnottobedoubted that whoever hasneed ofthecultofthesuperficial tothat extent, hasatonetime oranother made anunlucky divebeneath it. Perhaps there isevenanorder ofrank with respect tothose burnt children, thebom artists who findtheenjo3mient of lifeonly intrying tofalsify itsimage (as iftaking wearisome revenge onit) ;onemight guess towhat degree lifehas disgusted them, bytheextent towhich theywish tosee its image falsified, attenuated, ultrified, and deified;onemight reckon thehomines religiosi amongst the artists, astheir highest rank. Itistheprofound, suspicious fear ofanin- curable pessimism which compels whole centuries tofasten their teeth intoareligious interpretation ofexistence: the fear oftheinstinct which divines that truth might beat- tained toosoon, before manhasbecome strong enough, hard enough, artist enough. ...Piety, the"Life inGod," re- garded inthis light, would appear asthemost elaborate and ultimate product ofthefearoftruth, asartist-adoration and artist-intoxication inpresence ofthemost logical ofallfalsi- fications, asthewilltotheinversion oftruth, toimtruth at any price. Perhaps there hashitherto beennomore effective means ofbeautifying manthan piety; bymeans ofitman canbecome soartful, sosuperficial, soiridescent, and so good, that hisappearance nolonger offends. 60 Tolovemankind forGod's sakethishassofarbeen the noblest andremotest sentiment towhich mankind has at- tained. That love tomankind, without anyredeeming inH tention inthebackground, isonlyanadditional folly anc brutishness, thattheinclination tothislovehas first toge BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 67 itsproportion, itsdelicacy, itsgrain ofsaltandsprinkling ofambergris from ahigher inclination:whoever first per- ceived and"experienced" this,however histongue mayhave stammered asitattempted toexpress suchadelicate matter, lethim foralltimebeholyandrespected, asthemanwho has sofarflown highest andgone astray inthe finest fashion! 61 Thephilosopher, aswefree spirits understand himasthe man ofthegreatest responsibility, whohastheconscience forthegeneral development ofmankind,willusereligion forhisdisciplining andeducating work, justashewilluse thecontemporary political andeconomic conditions. The selecting and disciplining influencedestructive, aswell as creative andfashioningwhich canbeexercised bymeans of religion ismanifold and varied, according tothesort of people placed under itsspelland protection. For those who arestrong andindependent, destined and trained to command, inwhom thejudgment and skill ofaruling race isincorporated, religion isanadditional means forovercom- ingresistance intheexercise ofauthorityasabond which binds rulers and subjects incommon, betraying and sur- rendering totheformer theconscience ofthelatter, their in- most heart, which would fainescape obedience. And inthe case oftheunique natures ofnoble origin, ifbyvirtue of iperior spirituality theyshould incline toamore retired and >ntemplative life, reserving tothemselves only themore inedforms ofgovernment (over chosen disciples ormem- ersofanorder), religion itselfmaybeused asameans for )taining peace from thenoise and trouble ofmanaging rosser affairs, and forsecuring immxmity from theunavoid- 68 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL able filth ofallpolitical agitation. TheBrahmins, forin- stance, understood this fact. With thehelp ofareligious organisation, they secured tothemselves thepower ofnomi- nating kings forthepeople, while their sentiments prompted them tokeep apart andoutside, asmenwithahigher zind super-regal mission. Atthesame time religion gives induce- ment andopportunity tosome ofthesubjects toqualify themselves forfuture ruling andcommanding: theslowly ascending ranks and classes, inwhich, through fortimate marriage customs, volitional power anddelight inself-control areontheincrease. Tothem religion offers sufficient incen- tivesandtemptations toaspire tohigher intellectuality, and toexperience thesentiments ofauthoritative self-control, of silence, and ofsolitude. Asceticism andPuritanism are almost indispensable means ofeducating andennobling a racewhich seeks toriseabove itshereditary baseness and work itself upward tofuture supremacy. And finally, to ordinary men, tothemajority ofthepeople, who exist for service andgeneral utility, andareonly sofarentitled to exist, religion gives invaluable contentedness with their lot andcondition, peace ofheart, ennoblement ofobedience, ad- ditional social happiness andsympathy, with something of transfiguration andembellishment, something ofjustification ofallthecommonplaceness, allthemeanness, allthesemi- animal poverty oftheir souls. Religion, together with the religious significance oflife,sheds sunshine over such per-, petually harassed men,andmakes even theirownaspect enjj durable tothem; itoperates upon them astheEpicureaiC philosophy usually operates upon sufferers ofahigher order, inarefreshing andrefining manner, almost turning suffering toaccount, andintheendevenhalloing andvindicating it There isperhaps nothing soadmirable inChristianity an^ Buddhism astheir artofteaching even thelowest toelevat BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 69 themselves bypiety toaseemingly higher order ofthings, andthereby toretain their satisfaction with theactual world inwhich they find itdifficult enough tolivethisvery diffi- culty being necessary. 62 Tobesuretomake also thebad counter-reckoning against such religions, andtobring tolight their secret dan- gersthecost isalways excessive and terrible when religions donotoperate asaneducational and disciplinary medium inthehands ofthephilosopher, but rule voluntarily and paramountly ,when theywish tobethefinal end,andnota means along with other means. Among men, asamong all other animals, there isasurplus ofdefective, diseased, degen- erating, infirm, and necessarily suffering individuals; the successful cases,among men also, arealways theexception; andinview ofthefactthatman istheanimal notyetprop- erlyadapted tohisenvironment, therare exception. But worse still. The higher thetype aman represents, the greater istheimprobability thathewillsucceed; theacci- dental, thelawofirrationality inthegeneral constitution of mcmkind, manifests itself most terribly initsdestructive ef- fectonthehigher orders ofmen, theconditions ofwhose lives aredelicate, diverse, and difficult todetermine. What, then, istheattitude ofthetwogreatest religions above-men- tioned tothesurplus offailures inlife?They endeavour to preserve andkeep alive whatever canbepreserved; infact, asthereligions forsufferers, theytake thepart oftheseupon principle; they arealways infavour ofthosewho suffer from lifeasfrom adisease, andtheywould fain treat every other experience oflifeasfalseand impossible. However fcighly wemayesteem thisindulgent andpreservative care 70 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL (inasmuch asinapplying toothers, ithasapplied, andap- plies also tothehighest andusually themost suffering type ofman), thehitherto paramount religionstogiveageneral appreciation ofthemareamong theprincipal causes which have kept thetype of*'man" upon alower leveltheyhave preserved toomuch thatwhich should have perished. One hastothank them forinvaluable services; andwho issuffi- ciently richingratitude nottofeelpoor atthecontemplation ofallthatthe"spiritual men" ofChristianity havedone for Europe hitherto! Butwhen theyhadgiven comfort tothe sufferers, courage totheoppressed anddespairing, astaffand support tothehelpless, andwhen theyhadallured from so- ciety intoconvents and spiritual penitentiaries thebroken- hearted and distracted: what elsehadthey todoinorder towork systematically inthat fashion, andwithagood con- science, forthepreservation ofallthesickand suffering, which means, indeedandintruth, towork forthedeteriora- tion oftheEuropean race? Toreverse allestimates of value that iswhat theyhad todo!And toshatter the strong, tospoil great hopes, tocastsuspicion onthedelight inbeauty, tobreak down everything autonomous, manly, conquering, andimperiousallinstincts which arenatural tothehighest andmost successful type of"man"intoun- certainty, distress ofconscience, and self-destruction; for- sooth, toinvert alllove oftheearthly and ofsupremacy over theearth, intohatred oftheearthandearthly things that isthetasktheChurch imposed onitself, andwasobliged toimpose, until, according, toitsstandard ofvalue, "un- worldliness," "unsensuousness," and"higher man" fused into cMiesentiment. Ifonecould observe thestrangely painful, equally coarse andrefined comedy ofEuropean Christianity with thederisive indimpartial eyeofanEpicurean god, I should think onewould never cease marvelling andlaughing]1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 71 does itnotactually seem thatsome single willhasruled over Europe foreighteen centuries inorder tomake asublime abortion ofman? He,however, who, with opposite require- ments (nolonger Epicurean) andwithsome divine hammer inhishand, could approach thisalmost voluntary degenera- tionandstunting ofmankind, asexemplified intheEuro- pean Christian (Pascal, forinstance), would henothave to cryaloud with rage, pity,andhorror: "Oh,youbunglers, presumptuous pitiful bunglers, what haveyoudone! Was thatawork foryour hands? Howyouhave hacked and botched myfinest stone! What haveyoupresumed todo!"Ishould saythat Christianity hashitherto been themost portentous ofpresumptions. Men, notgreat enough, nor hard enough, tobeentitled asartists totakepart infashion- ingman; men, not sufficiently strong and far-sighted to allow, with sublime self-constraint, theobvious lawofthe thousandfold failures and perishings toprevail; men, not sufficiently noble toseetheradically different grades of rankandintervals ofrank thatseparate manfromman: suchmen, with their "equality before God," have hitherto swayed thedestiny ofEurope; until atlastadwarfed, al- most ludicrous species hasbeen produced, agregarious ani- mal,something obliging, sickly, mediocre, theEuropean of thepresent day. CHAPTER IV Apophthegms andInterludes 63 Hewho isathorough teacher takes things seriouslyand even himselfonly inrelation tohispupils. 64 "Knowledge foritsownsake"that isthelastsnare laic bymorality: wearethereby completely entangled inmoi once more. 65 Thecharm ofknowledge would besmall, were itnot much shame hastobeovercome ontheway toit. 6SA Wearemost dishonourable towards ourGod: heisnot permitted tos&i. 72 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 73 66 Thetendency ofaperson toallow himself tobedegraded, robbed, deceived, andexploited might bethediffidence ofa Godamongst men. 67 Love tooneonly isabarbarity, for itisexercised atthe expense ofallothers. Love toGod also! 68 "Ididthat," saysmymemory. "Icould nothavedone that," saysmypride, andremains inexorable. Eventually thememory yields. 69 Onehasregarded lifecarelessly, ifonehas failed tosee thehand thatkiltewith leniency. 70 Ifamanhascharacter, hehasalsohistypical experience, which always recurs. 71 TheSage asAstronomer.Solongasthou feelest thestars an"above thee," thou lackest theeyeofthediscerning le. 74 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 72 Itisnotthestrength, buttheduration ofgreat sentiments thatmakes great men. 73 Hewho attains hisideal, precisely thereby surpasses it. 73A Many apeacock hides histailfrom every eyeand calls ithispride. 74 Aman ofgenius isunbearable, unless hepossess atleast twothings besides: gratitude andpurity. 75 Thedegree andnature ofaman's sensuality extends to thehighest altitudes ofhisspirit. 76 Under peaceful conditions themilitant man attacks him- self. 77 With hisprinciples aman seeks either todominate, BEYOND GOODANDEVIL75 justify, orhonour, orreproach, orconceal hishabits: two menwith thesame principles probably seekfundamentally different ends therewith. 78 Hewho despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, asadespiser. 79 Asoulwhich knows that itisloved, butdoesnot itself love, betrays itssediment: itsdregscome up. 80 Athing that isexplained ceases toconcern us.^What did theGodmeanwhogave theadvice, "Know thyself!" Did itperhaps imply: "Cease tobeconcerned about thyself! become objective!"And Socrates?And the "scientific man"? 8x Itisterrible todieofthirst atsea. Isitnecessary that tyoushould sosaltyour truth that itwillnolongerquench Ithirst? 83 "Sympathy forall"would beharshness andt)Tanny for Itkee,mygood neighbour! j6 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 83 Insttnct.When thehouse isonfireoneforgets even th dinner.^Yes,butonerecovers itfromamongst theashes. 84 Woman learnshow tohate inproportion assheforget now tocharm. 8S Thesame emotions areinmanandwoman, butindifferent tempo; onthataccount manandwoman never cease tomis understand each other. 86 Inthebackground ofalltheir personal vanity, wom l)temselves have still their impersonal scornfor"woman." 87 Fettered Heart, Free Spirit.^When one firmly fetters bne's heart andkeeps itprisoner, onecanallow one's spirit tnany liberties: Isaid thisonce before. Butpeople donot believe itwhen Isayso,unless theyknow italready. 88I Onebegins todistrust very clever persons when they be- come embarrassed.1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL72 89 Dreadful experiences raise thequestion whether hewh experiences them isnotsomething dreadful also. 90 Heavy, melancholy menturn lighter, andcome temporar- ilytotheir surface, precisely bythatwhich makes others heavy^byhatred and love. 91 Socold, soicy,thatonebums one's finger atthetouch ofhim! Every hand that layshold ofhimshrinks back! And forthatveryreason many thinkhim red-hot. 92 Who hasnot, atonetime oranothersacrificed himself forthesake ofhisgoodname? 93 Inaffability there isnohatred ofmen,butprecisely onthat Iaccount agreat dealtoomuch contempt ofmen. 94 Thematurity ofmanthatmeans, tohave reacquired the [seriousness thatonehadasachild atplay. 78 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 95 Tobeashimed ofone's immorality isastepontheladder attheendofwhich one isashamed also ofone's morality. 96 Oneshould partfrom lifeasUlysses parted fromNausicaa -blessing itrather than inlovewith it. 97 What? Agreatman? Ialways seemerely theplay-actor ofhisown ideal. 98 When one trains one's conscience, itkisses onewhile it bites. 99 TheDisappointed OneSpeaks."Ilistened fortheecho andIheard only praise." 100 We allfeign toourselves thatwearesimpler thanwe *re;wethus relax ourselves away from ourfellows.I BEYOND GOODANDEVIL79 xox Adiscerning onemight easily regard himself atpresent as theanimalisation ofGod. 102 IDiscovering reciprocal love should really disenchant the lover with regard tothebeloved. "What! She ismodest enough toloveevenyou? Orstupid enough? Oror" 103 TheDanger inHappiness."Everything now turns out best forme,Inow loveevery fate:^whowould liketobe riyfate?" Z04 Not their love ofhimianity, buttheimpotence oftheir love, prevents theChristians ofto-day^burning us. The piajraus isstillmore repugnant tothetaste {the *'piety") ofthefree spirit (the"pious man ofknowledge") than theimpia jraus. Hence theprofoimd lack ofjudg- ment, incomparison with thechurch, characteristic ofthe type "free spirit"asitsnon-freedom. 8o BEYOND GOODANDEVIL io6 Bymeans ofmusic thevery passions enjoy themselves. 107 Asignofstrong character, when once theresolution has been taken, toshut theeareven tothebest coimter-argu- ments. Occasionally, therefore, awill tostupidity. 108 There isnosuch thing asmoral phenomena, butonlya moral interpretation ofphenomena. 109 Thecriminal isoftenenough notequal tohisdeed: heex- tenuates andmaligns it. no Theadvocates ofacriminal areseldom artists enough toturn thebeautiful terribleness ofthedeed totheadvan- tage ofthedoer. Ill Ourvanity ismost difficult towound justwhen ourpride hasbeenwounded.i BEYOND GOODAND EVIL Sir 112 Tohimwho feels himself preordained tocontemplation andnottobelief, allbelievers aretoonoisy andobtrusive; heguards against them. "3 "You want toprepossess him inyour favour? Then you must beembarrassed before him." 114 Theimmense expectation with regard tosexual love,and thecoyness inthisexpectation, spoils alltheperspectives of women attheoutset. "S Where there isneither love norhatred inthegame, woman's play ismediocre. 116 The great epochs ofour lifeareatthepoints whenwe gaincourage torebaptize ourbadness asthebest inus. 117 The will toovercome anemotion, isultimately only the rillofanother, orofseveral other, emotions. S2 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL ii8 } There isaninnocence ofadmiration: itispossessed by him towhom ithasnotyetoccurred thathehimself may headmired some day. 119 Ourloathing ofdirtmaybesogreat astoprevent om cleaning ourselves"justifying" ourselves. 120 Sensuality often forces thegrowth oflove toomuch, so that itsrootremains weik, and iseasily tornup. 121 Itisacurious thing thatGod learned Greek when he wished toturnauthorandthathedidnotlearn itbetter. Z22 Torejoice onaccount ofpraise isinmany cases merely politeness ofheartandthevery opposite ofvanity ofspirit. 123 Even concubinage hasbeen corrupted^bymarriage.1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 8^ "4 Hewho exults atthestake, doesnottriumph over pain, butbecause ofthefactthathedoesnot feelpainwhere he expected it.Aparable. "5 When wehave tochange anopinion about anyone,we charge heavily tohisaccount theinconvenience hethereby causes us. 126 Anation isadetour ofnature toarrive atsixorseven greatmen.Yes,andthen togetround them. 127 Intheeyes ofalltruewomen science ishostile tothe sense ofshame. They feelasifonewished topeepimder their skin with itorworse still! imder their dress and finery. 128 Themore abstract thetruthyouwish toteach, themore mustyouallure thesenses toit. 129 The devil hasthemost extensive perspectives forGod; 84 BEYOND GOODANDEVILm onthataccount hekeeps sofaraway fromhim:the devil,, ineffect, astheoldest friend ofknowledge. 130 What aperson isbegins tobetray itselfwhen his talc decreases,when heceases toshowwhathecando.Talent" isalsoanadornment; anadornment isalsoaconcealment. 131 The sexes deceive themselves about each other: therea- son isthat inreality theyhonour andloveonly themselves (ortheirown ideal, toexpress itmore agreeably). Thus man wishes woman tobepeaceable: butinfactwoman is essentially unpeaceable, likethecat,however wellshemay haveassumed thepeaceable demeanour. 132 One ispunished best forone's virtues. 133 Hewho cannot find theway tohisideal, livesmore frivolously zmdshamelessly than theman without anideal. 134 From thesenses originate alltrustworthiness, allgood conscience, allevidence oftruth. ^j1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 85 135 Pharisaism isnotadeterioration ofthegoodman; acon- siderable peirt ofitisrather anessential condition ofbeing good. 136 Theoneseeks anaccoucheur forhisthoughts, theother seekssomeonewhom hecanassist: agood conversation thus originates. 137 Inintercourse with scholars and artists onereadily makes mistakes ofopposite kinds: inaremarkable scholar one notinfrequently finds amediocre man; andoften even in amediocre artist, onefinds averyremarkable man. 138 Wedothesamewhenawake aswhen dreaming: weonly invent andimagine himwithwhom wehave intercourse and forget itimmediately. 139 Inrevenge and inlovewoman ismore barbarous thap man. 86 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 140 Advice asaRiddle."Iftheband isnottobreak, bite it firstsecure tomake!" 141 Thebelly isthereason whymandoesnotsoreadily take himself foraGod. 142 The chastest utterance Iever heard: "Dans leveritable amour c'est I'dnti quienveloppe lecorps." 143 Ourvanity would likewhatwedobest topass precisely forwhat ismost difficult tous.Concerning theorigin of many systems ofmorals. 144 When awoman hasscholarly inclinations there isgen- erally something wrong withhersexual nature. Barrenness itself conduces toacertain virility oftaste; man, indeed, ifImaysay so,is"thebarren animal." I4S Comparing manandwoman generally, onemay saythat woman would nothave thegenius foradornment, ifshe hadnottheinstinct forthesecondary role. ,i BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 87 146 Hewho fights with monsters should becareful lesthe thereby become amonster. And ifthougaze long intoan abyss, theabyss willalsogaze into thee. 147 From oldFlorentine novelsmoreover, from life:Buona lemmina emalajemmina vuol bastone.Sacchetti, Nov. 86. 148 Toseduce their neighbour toafavourable opinion, and afterwards tobelieve implicitly inthis opinion oftheir neighbourwho candothis conjuring trick sowell as women? 149 That which anageconsiders evil isusually animseason- ableecho ofwhatwasformerly considered goodtheatavism ofanoldideal. 150 Around thehero everything becomes atragedy; aroimd thedemigod everything becomes asatyr-play; andaroimd Godeverything becomeswhat? perhaps a"world"? &S BEYOND GOODANDEVIL Itisnotenough topossess atalent: onemust alsohave your permission topossess it;eh,myfriends? 152 "Where there isthetree ofknowledge, there isalways Paradise:" sosaythemost ancient andthemostmodem serpents. IS5 What isdone outoflovealways takes placebeyond good and evil. 154 Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, andlove ofirony are signs ofhealth; everything absolute belongs topathology. The sense ofthetragic increases and declines with sen- uousness. 156 Insanity inindividuals issomething rare^butingroups, parties, nations, andepochs itistherule. 157 Thethought ofsuicide isagreat consolation: bymeans ofitonegetssuccessfully through many abad night. ^1 ml BEYOND GOODAND EVIL 89 158 Notonlyourreason, butalsoourconscience, truckles to ourstrongest impulsethetyrant inus. 159 Onemust repay goodand ill;butwhy justtotheperson whodidusgood orill? 160 Onenolonger loves one's knowledge sufficiently afterone hascommunicated it. 161 Poets actshamelessly towards their experiences: tney ex- ploitthem. 162 "Our fellow-creature isnotourneighbour, butourneigh- bour's neighbour:"sothinks every nation. 163 Love brings tolight thenoble andhidden qualities ofa loverhisrareandexceptional traits: itisthus liable tobe deceptive astohisnormal character. 164 Jesus said tohisJews: "The lawwas forservants;love 90 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL God asIlovehim, ashisSon!What haveweSons ofGod todowith morals!" i6S InSight ofEvery Party.^Ashepherd hasalways need ofabell-wether orhehashimself tobeawether occa- sionally. i66 Onemayindeed liewith themouth; butwith theaccom- panying grimace onenevertheless tells thetruth. 167 Tovigourous men intimacy isamatter ofshameand something precious. z68 Christianity gave Eros poison todrink; hedidnotdie ofit,certainly, butdegenerated toVice. 169 Totalkmuch about oneself may alsobeameans ofcon- cealing oneself. 170 Inpraise there ismcH-e obtrusiveness than inblame. BEYOND GOODAND EVIL 91 171 Pityhasanalmost ludicrous effect onaman ofknowl- edge, liketender hands onaCyclops. 172 Oneoccasionally embraces some oneorother, outoflove tomankind (because onecannot embrace all); but this is what onemust never confess totheindividual. 173 One does nothate aslong asonedisesteems, butonly when oneesteems equal orsuperior. 174 YeUtilitarians^ye,too,love theutile only asavehicle foryour inclinations,ye,too, resilly find thenoise ofits wheels insupportable! 175 Oneloves ultimately one's desires, notthething desired. 176 Thevanity ofothers isonly counter toourtastewhen itiscounter toourvanity. yz BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 177 With regard towhat "truthfulness" is,perhaps nobody has iverbeen sufficiently truthful. 178 Onedoesnotbelieve inthe follies ofclever men: what a^ forfeiture oftherights ofman! 179 Theconsequences ofouractions seize usbytheforelock, very indifferent tothefact thatwehave meanwhile "re- formed." 180 There isaninnocence inlying which isthesign ofgood, iaith inacause. 181 Itisinhuman toblesswhen one isbeing cursed. 182 The familiarity ofsuperiors embitters one,because itmay notbereturned. 183 "Iamaffected, notbecause youhave deceived me,but because Icannolonger believe inyou."i BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 93 184 There isahaughtiness ofkindness which hastheappear- ance ofwickedness. "Idislike him."Why?*'Iamnotamatch forhim." Didanyoneeveranswer so? CHAPTER V TheNatural History ofMorals 186 The moral sentiment inEurope atpresent isperhaps as subtle, belated, diverse, sensitive, andrefined, asthe"Science ofMorals" belonging thereto isrecent, initial, awkward, and coarse-fingered: aninteresting contrast, which sometimes becomes incarnate andobvious inthevery person ofa moralist. Indeed, theexpression, "Science ofMorals" is, inrespect towhat isdesignated thereby, fartoopresumptu- ousandcounter togood taste,^which isalways afore- taste ofmore modest expressions. Oneought toavow with theutmost fairness what isstillnecessary here foralong time, what isalone proper forthepresent: namely, the collection ofmaterial, thecomprehensive survey and classi- fication ofanimmense domain ofdelicate sentiments of worth, anddistinctions ofworth, which live,grow, propagate, and perishandperhaps attempts togiveaclear idea of therecurring andmorecommon forms ofthese living crystal- lisationsaspreparation foratheory oftypes ofmorality. Tobesure, people have nothitherto been somodest. All thephilosophers, withapedantic andridiculous seriousness, demanded ofthemselves something verymuch higher, more pretentious, andceremonious, when they concerned them- y4 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 95 selves withmorality asascience: theywanted togiveabasis tomoralityandevery philosopher hitherto hasbelieved thathehasgiven itabasis; morality itself, however, has been regarded assomething "given." How farfrom their awkward pride was theseemingly insignificant problem leftindustanddecayofadescription offorms ofmorality, notwithstanding thatthefinest hands andsenses could hardly befineenough for it! Itwasprecisely owing tomoral phi- losophers knowing themoral facts imperfectly, inanarbi- trary epitome, oranaccidental abridgementperhaps as themorality oftheirenvironment, their position, their church, their Zeitgeist, their climate andzoneitwasprecisely be- cause they were badly instructed with regard tonations, eras,andpast ages,andwerebynomeans eager toknow about these matters, thatthey didnotevencome insight oftherealproblems ofmoralsproblems which only disclose themselves byacomparison ofmany kinds ofmorality. In every "Science ofMorals" hitherto, strange asitmay sound, theproblem ofmorality itself hasbeen omitted; there has beennosuspicion thattherewasanything problematic there! That which philosophers called "giving abasis tomorality," andendeavoured torealise, has,when seen inaright light, proved merely alearned form ofgood faith inprevailing morality, anewmeans ofitsexpression, consequently justa matter-of-fact within thesphere ofadefinite morality, yea, initsultimate motive, asortofdenial that itislawful for thismorality tobecalled inquestionand inanycase the reverse ofthetesting, analysing, doubting, and vivisecting ofthisvery faith. Hear, forinstance, withwhat innocencealmost worthy ofhonourSchopenhauer represents his own task,anddraw your conclusions concerning thescien- tificness ofa"Science" whose latest master still talks in thestrain ofchildren andoldwives: "The principle," he 96 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL says (page 136oftheGrundprobleme derEthik*), "the axiom about thepurport ofwhich allmoralists arepractically agreed: neminem laede,immo omnes quantum potes juva isreally theproposition which allmoral teachers strive to establish, . . .therealbasis ofethics which hasbeen sought, likethephilosopher's stone, forcenturies."The difficulty of establishing theproposition referred tomayindeed begreatitiswellknown thatSchopenhauer alsowasimsuccessful inhis efforts; andwhoever hasthoroughly realised how absurdly falseandsentimental thisproposition is,inaworld whose essence isWill toPower, may bereminded that Schopenhauer, although apessimist, actuallyplayed the flute . . .daily after dinner: onemayreadabout thematter inhisbiography. Aquestion bytheway: apessimist, a repudiator ofGodand oftheworld, whomakes ahalt at moralitywho assents tomorality, andplays the flute to laede-neminem moraJs, what? Isthat reallyapessimint? 187 Apart from thevalue ofsuch assertions as''there is:. categorical imperative inus,"onecanalways ask:What does suchanassertion indicate about himwhomakes it? There aresystems ofmorals which aremeant tojustify their author intheeyes ofother people; other systems ofmorals aremeeint totranquillise him,andmake him self-satisfied; with other systems hewants tocrucify andhumble himself; with others hewishes totakerevenge; with others toconceal himself; with others toglorify himself andgain superiority and distinction;thissystem ofmorals helps itsauthor tx) forget, thatsystem makes him, orsomething ofhim, for- *Pages 54-55 ofSchopenhauer's Basis ofMorality, translated byArthur B.Bullock, M.A. (1903). ^Il BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 97 gotten; many amoralist would like toexercise power and creative arbitrariness overmankind; many another, perhaps, Kant especially, gives ustounderstand byhismorals that "what isestimable inme, isthat Iknowhow toobeyand withyou itshallnotbeotherwise thanwithme!" Inshort, systems ofmorals areonlyasign-language oftheemotions. x88 Incontrast tolaisser-aller, every system ofmorals isa sortoftyranny against "nature" andalsoagainst "reason"; that is,however, noobjection, unless oneshould again de- creebysome system ofmorals, that allkinds oftyranny andimreasonableness areunlawful. What isessential and invaluable inevery system ofmorals, isthat itisalong constraint. Inorder tounderstand Stoicism, orPort-Royal, orPuritanism, oneshould remember theconstraint under which every language hasattained tostrength andfreedom themetrical constraint, thetyranny ofrhyme andrhythm. Howmuch trouble have thepoetsandorators ofevery nation given themselves!notexcepting some oftheprose writers ofto-day, inwhose eardwells aninexorable conscientious- ness"for thesake ofafolly," asutilitarian bunglers say, andthereby deem themselves wise"from submission to arbitrary laws," astheanarchists say,andthereby fancy themselves "free," even free-spirited. The singular fact re- mains, however, thateverything ofthenature offreedom, elegance, boldness, dance, andmasterly certainty, which ex- istsorhas existed, whether itbeinthought itself, orin administration, orinspeaking andpersuading, inartjust asinconduct, hasonlydeveloped bymeans ofthetyranny ofsuch arbitrary law;and inallseriousness, itisnotatall improbable that precisely this is"nature" and"natural" 98 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL andnotlaisser-aller !Every artistknows how different from thestate ofletting himself go,ishis"most natural" condition, thefreearranging, locating, disposing, andconstructing in themoments of"inspiration" andhow strictly and deli- cately hethenobeys athousand laws, which, bytheir very rigidness and precision, defy allformulation bymeans of ideas (even themost stable idea has, incomparison there- with, something floating, manifold, andambiguous init). The essential thing "inheaven and inearth" is,apparently (torepeat itoncemore), thatthere should belongobedience inthesame direction; there thereby results, andhasalways resulted inthelong run,something which hasmade life worth living; forinstance, virtue, art,music, dancing, rea- son, spiritualityanything whatever that istransfiguring, refined, foolish, ordivine. Thelongbondage ofthe spirit, thedistrustful constraint inthecommunicability ofideas, thediscipline which thethinker imposed onhimself tothink inaccordance with therules ofachurch oracourt, or conformable toAristotelian premises, thepersistent spiritual willtointerpret everything thathappened according toa Christian scheme, andinevery occurrence torediscover and justify theChristian God:allthis violence, arbitrariness, severity, dreadfulness, andunreasonableness, hasproved it- selfthedisciplinary means whereby theEuropean spirit has attained itsstrength, itsremorseless curiosity and subtle mobility; granted alsothatmuch irrecoverable strength and spirithad tobestifled, suffocated, and spoilt intheprocess] (for here, aseverywhere, "nature" shows herself asshe is,l inallherextravagant and indifferent magnificence, which, isshocking, butnevertheless noble). That forcenturies] European thinkers onlythought inorder toprove somethingjnowadays, onthecontrary, wearesuspicious ofeveryj thinker who"wishes toprove something"that itwasalwa) BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 99 settled beforehand whatwastobetheresult oftheir strictest thinking, asitwasperhaps intheAsiatic astrology offormer times, orasitisstillatthepresent day intheinnocent, Christian-moral explanation ofimmediate personal events "fortheglory ofGod," or"forthegood ofthesoul": this tyranny, thisarbitrariness, thissevere andmagnificent stupid- ity,haseducated thespirit; slavery, both inthecoarser and thefiner sense, isapparently anindispensable means even ofspiritual education and discipline. Onemaylook atevery system ofmorals inthis light: itis"nature" therein which teaches tohate thelaisser-aller, thetoogreat freedom, and implants theneed forlimited horizons, forimmediate duties^itteaches thenarrowing ofperspectives, and thus, ina certain sense, thatstupidity isacondition oflifeanddevelop- ment. "Thou must obeysome one,and foralong time; otherwise thou wiltcome togrief, and lose allrespect for thyself"thisseems tometobethemoral imperative ofna- ture, which iscertainly neither "categorical," asoldKant wished (consequently the"otherwise"), nordoes itaddress itself totheindividual (what does nature care forthe in- dividual!), buttonations, races, ages,andranks, above all, however, totheanimal "man" generally, tomankind. 189 Industrious races find itagreat hardship tobeidle: it wasamaster stroke ofEnglish instinct tohallow andbegloom Sunday tosuchanextent thattheEnglishman unconsciously hankers forhisweek- andwork-day again:asakind of cleverly devised, cleverly intercalated fast, such asisalso frequently found intheancient world (although, asisappro- priate insouthern nations, notprecisely with respect t( work). Many kinds offasts arenecessary; andwherever loo BEYOND GOODANDEVIL powerful influences andhabits prevail, legislators have tosee that intercalary days areappointed, onwhich such impulses are fettered, and learn tohunger anew. Viewed from a higher standpoint, whole generations andepochs, when they show themselves infected withanymoral fanaticism, seem likethose intercalated periods ofrestraint and fasting, during which animpulse learns tohumble andsubmit itselfat thesame time alsotopurify andsharpen itself; certain philo- sophical sects likewise admit ofasimilar interpretation (for instance, theStoa, inthemidst ofHellenic culture, with the atmosphere rank and overcharged with Aphrodisiacal odours).Here also isahint fortheexplanation ofthe paradox, why itwasprecisely inthemost Christian period ofEuropean history, and ingeneral onlyunder thepressure] f)fChristian sentiments, that thesexual impulse sublimated j intolove(amour-passion), 190 There issomething inthemorality ofPlato which does] notreally belong toPlato, butwhich only appears inhis philosophy, onemight say, inspite ofhim: namely, Socra- tism, forwhich hehimself wastoonoble. "Noone desire toinjure himself, hence allevil isdone unwittingly. Thej evilman inflicts injury onhimself; hewould notdoso,i however, ifheknew that evil isevil.The evilman, there- fore, isonly evilthrough error; ifonefreehimfrom errorone willnecessarily makehimgood."Thismode ofreasoning savours ofthepopulace, who perceive only theunpleasant consequences ofevil-doing, andpractically judge that "itisJ stupid todowrong"; while they accept "good" asidentical! with "useful and pleasant," vnthout further thought. As| regards every system ofutilitarianism, onemay atonce BEYOND GOODANDEVIL loi assume that ithasthesame origin, andfollow thescent: one willseldom err.Plato did allhecould tointerpret something refined andnoble intothetenets ofhisteacher, andabove alltointerpret himself intothemhe,themost daring ofallinterpreters, who lifted theentire Socrates out ofthestreet, asapopular theme andsong, toexhibit him inendless andimpossible modifications namely, inallhis own disguises and multiplicities. Injest,and inHomeric language aswell,what isthePlatonic Socrates, ifnot jtooodc XIXaTGov Smodev reIXXaxcov \ieaar\ reXijiaiQOu 191 Theoldtheological problem of"Faith" and"Knowledge," ormore plainly, ofinstinct andreasonthequestion whether, inrespect tothevaluation ofthings, instinct deserves more authority than rationality, which wants toappreciate and actaccording tomotives, according toa"VVhy," that isto say, inconformity topurpose and utilityitisalways the oldmoral problem that firstappeared intheperson of Socrates, andhaddivided men's minds longbefore Christian- ity. Socrates himself, following, ofcourse, thetaste ofhis talentthat ofasurpassing dialecticiantook firsttheside ofreason; and, infact,what didhedoallhislifebutlaugh attheawkward incapacity ofthenoble Athenians, whowere men ofinstinct, like allnoble men, andcould never give satisfactory answers concerning themotives oftheir actions? Intheend,however, though silently and secretly, helaughed also athimself: with hisfiner conscience andintrospection. hefound inhimself thesame difficulty andincapacity. "But why"hesaid tohimself"should oneonthat account separate oneself from theinstincts! Onemust setthem right, 102 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL andthereason alsoonemust follow theinstincts, butat thesame timepersuade thereason tosupport them withgood arguments." Thiswasthereal falseness ofthat great and mysterious ironist; hebrought hisconscience uptothe point thathewas satisfied with akind ofself-outwitting: infact,heperceived theirrationality inthemoral judgment. Plato, more innocent insuch matters, andwithout the craftiness oftheplebeian, wished toprove tohimself, atthe expenditure ofallhisstrengththegreatest strength aphi- losopher hadeverexpendedthat reason and instinct lead spontaneously toonegoal, tothegood, to''God"; andsince Plato, alltheologians andphilosophers have followed the same pathwhich means that inmatters ofmorality, in- stinct (orasChristians call it,"Faith," orasIcall it,"the herd") hashitherto triumphed. Unless oneshould make anexception inthecase ofDescartes, thefather ofrational- ism(and consequently thegrandfather oftheRevolution), whorecognised only theauthority ofreason: butreason is onlyatool,andDescartes was superficial. 192 Whoever hasfollowed thehistory ofasingle science, finds initsdevelopment aclue totheunderstanding oftheoldest andcommonest processes ofall"knowledge andcognisance": there, ashere, thepremature h)7potheses, the fictions, the, good stupid will to"belief," andthelack ofdistrust anc patience are firstdevelopedoursenses learn late,andnevet learn completely, tobesubtle, reliable, andcautious orga ofknowledge. Oureyes find iteasier onagiven occasion! toproduce apicture already often produced, than toseizei upon thedivergence andnovelty ofanimpression: thelatterj requires more force, more "morality." Itisdifficult ant BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 103 painful fortheeartolisten toanything new;wehear strange music badly. When wehear another language spoken, we involuntarily attempt toform thesounds intowords with which wearemore familiar andconversantitwas thus, forexample, that theGermans modified thespoken word arcubalista intoarmbrust (cross-bow). Oursenses arealso hostile andaverse tothenew; and generally, even inthe "simplest" processes ofsensation, theemotions dominate such asfear, love, hatred, andthepassive emotion ofindo- lence.Aslittle asareader nowadays reads allthesingle words (not tospeak ofsyllables) ofapage^herather takes about fiveout oievery twenty words atrandom, and "guesses" theprobably appropriate sense tothemjustas littledoweseeatreecorrectly andcompletely inrespect to itsleaves, branches, colour, andshape; wefind itsomuch easier tofancy thechance ofatree. Even inthemidst of themost remarkable experiences, we stilldojustthesame; wefabricate thegreater part oftheexperience, andcan hardly bemade tocontemplate any event, except as"in- ventors" thereof. All thisgoes toprove thatfrom our fundamental nature andfrom remote ageswehave been accustomed tolying. Or,toexpress itmore politely and hypocritically, inshort, more pleasantlyone ismuch more ofanartist thanone isaware of.Inananimated conver- sation, Ioften seetheface oftheperson withwhom Iam speaking soclearly andsharply defined before me,accord- ingtothethought heexpresses, orwhich Ibelieve tobe evoked inhismind, that thedegree ofdistinctness farex- ceeds thestrength ofmyvisual facultythedelicacy ofthe play ofthemuscles andoftheexpression oftheeyesmust therefore beimagined byme. Probably theperson puton quite adifferent expression, ornone atall. 104 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 193 Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit: but also contrariwise,j What weexperience indreams, provided weexperience it often, pertains atlastjustasmuch tothegeneral belonging ofoursoul asanything "actually" experienced; byvirtue thereof wearericher orpoorer, wehave arequirement mori orless,and finally, inbroad daylight, andeven inthebright-^ estmoments ofourwaking life,weareruled tosome extent bythenature ofourdreams. Supposing thatsome onehz often flown inhisdreams, andthat atlast, assoon ashe dreams, heisconscious ofthepower and artofflying hisprivilege and hispeculiarly enviable happiness; such person, who believes thatontheslightest impulse, hecan actualise allsorts ofcurves andangles, whoknows thesen- sation ofacertain divine levity, an"upwards" without effort orconstraint, a"downwards" without descending orlower- ingwithout trouble!^howcould themanwithsuchdream- experiences anddream-habits failtofind"happiness" dif- ferently coloured and defined, even inhiswaking hours! How could he failtolong differently forhappiness? "Flight," such asisdescribed bypoets, must,when compared with hisown "flying," befartooearthly, muscular, violent, fartoo"troublesome" forhim. 194 The difference among mendoesnotmanifest itself only \v thedifference oftheir lists ofdesirable thingsintheir re- garding different good things asworth striving for,and being disagreed astothegreater orlessvalue, theorder o*' rank, ofthecommonly recognised desirable things:itmani BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 105 fests itselfmuch more inwhat theyregard asactually having andpossessing adesirable thing. Asregards awoman, for instance, thecontrol over herbody andhersexual gratifi- cation serves asanamply sufficient sign ofownership and possession tothemore modest man; another with amore suspicious andambitious thirst forpossession, seesthe"ques- tionableness," themere apparentness ofsuch ownership, and wishes tohave finer tests inorder toknow especially whether thewoman notonly gives herself tohim,butalso givesup forhissakewhat shehasorwould like tohaveonly then doeshelookupon heras"possessed." Athird, however, hasnoteven here gottothelimit ofhisdistrust and his desire forpossession: heasks himself whether thewoman, when shegivesupeverything forhim, doesnotperhaps do soforaphantom ofhim; hewishes first tobethoroughly, indeed, profoundly wellknown; inorder tobeloved atall heventures tolethimself befound out. Only thendoeshe feelthebeloved one fully inhispossession, when sheno longer deceives herself about him,when sheloveshim just asmuch forthesake ofhisdevilry andconcealed insatia- bility, asforhisgoodness, patience, and spirituality. One manwould like topossess anation, andhefinds allthe higher artsofCagliostro andCatalina suitable forhispur- pose. Another, withamore refined thirst forpossession, says tohimself: "Onemaynotdeceive where onedesires topos- sess"heisirritated andimpatient attheidea thatamask ofhimshould rule inthehearts ofthepeople: "Imust, therefore, make myself known, and firstofalllearn toknow myself!" Amongst helpful andcharitable people, onealmost always finds theawkward craftiness which first .<i;etsupsuit- ablyhimwhohastobehelped, asthough, forinstance, he should "merit" help, seek just their help, andwould show himself deeply grateful, attached, andsubservient totliem io6 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL for allhelp. With these conceits, they take control ofthe needy asaproperty, justasingeneral they arecharitable andhelpful outofadesire forproperty. One findsthem jealous when they arecrossed orforestalled intheir charity. Parents involuntarily make something likethemselves outof their childrenthey callthat"education" ;nomother doubts atthebottom ofherheart that thechild shehasbom is thereby herproperty, nofather hesitates about hisright to hisownideasandnotions ofworth. Indeed, informer times fathers deemed itright tousetheir discretion concerning the lifeordeath ofthenewlybom (asamongst theancient Ger- mans). And likethefather, soalsodotheteacher, theclass, thepriest, andtheprince stillseeineverynewindividual an unobjectionable opportunity foranew possession. The consequence is. ... 195 TheJewsapeople "bora forslavery," asTacitus andthe whole ancient world sayofthem; "thechosen people among thenations," asthey themselves sayandbelievetheJews performed themiracle oftheinversion ofvaluations, by means ofwhich lifeonearth obtained anewanddangerous charm foracouple ofmillenniums. Their prophets fused intoonetheexpressions "rich," "godless," "wicked," "vio- lent," "sensual," and forthe first time coined theword "world" asaterm ofreproach. Inthisinversion ofvalua- tions (inwhich isalsoincluded theuseoftheword "poor" assynonymous with "saint" and"friend") thesignificance oftheJewish people istobefoimd; itiswiththem thatthe slave-insurrection inmorals commences.I I I BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 107 196 Itistobeinferred that there arecountless dark bodies near thesunsuch asweshall never see.Amongst our- selves, this isanallegory; andthepsychologist ofmorals reads thewhole star-writing merely asanallegorical and S)T1i- bolic language inwhich muchmaybeunexpressed. 197 The beast ofpreyandtheman ofprey (for instance, Caesar Borgia) arefundamentally misimderstood, "nature" is misunderstood, solong asoneseeks a"morbidness" inthe constitution ofthese healthiest ofalltropical monsters and growths, orevenaninnate "hell" inthemasalmost all moralists have done hitherto. Does itnotseem that there isahatred ofthevirgin forest andofthetropics among moralists? And thatthe"tropical man" mustbediscredited atallcosts, whether asdisease anddeterioration ofmankind, orashisown helland self-torture? Andwhy? Infavour ofthe"temperate zones"? Infavour ofthetemperate men? The"moral"? Themediocre?^This forthechapter: "Mor- alsasTimidity." 198 Allthesystems ofmorals which address themselves with aview totheir "happiness," asitiscalledwhat elseare theybutsuggestions forbehaviour adapted tothedegree of danger from themselves inwhich theindividuals live; recipes fortheir passions, theirgoodandbadpropensities, insofar assuchhave theWill toPower zmidwould liketoplay the io8 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL master; small andgreat expediencies and elaborations, per meated with themusty odour ofoldfamily medicines and old-wife wisdom; allofthem grotesque andabsurd intheir formbecause theyaddress themselves to"all," because they generalise where generalisation isnotauthorised; allofthem speaking unconditionally, and taking themselves uncondi- tionally; allofthem flavoured notmerely withonegrain of salt,butrather endurable only, andsometimes even seduc tive,when theyareover-spiced andbegin tosmell dangerously, especially of"the other world." That isalloflittle value Vt^hen estimated intellectually, and isfarfrom being "science," much less"wisdom"; but, repeated once more, andthree times repeated, itisexpediency, expediency, expediency, mixed with stupidity, stupidity, stupiditywhether itbethfi indifference andstatuesque coldness towards theheated folly oftheemotions, which theStoics advised and fostered; or theno-more-laughing andno-more-weeping ofSpinoza, the destruction oftheemotions bytheir analysis and vivisection, which herecommended sonaively; orthelowering ofthe emotions toaninnocent mean atwhich theymaybesatisfied, theAristotelianism ofmorals; oreven morality astheen joyment oftheemotions inavoluntary attenuation and spiritualisation bythesymbolism ofart,perhaps asmusic, oraslove ofGod,andofmankind forGod's sakeforin religion thepassions areoncemore enfranchised, provided that . . .;or,finally, even thecomplaisant andwanton surrender totheemotions, ashasbeen taught byHafis and Goethe, thebold letting-go ofthe reins, thespiritual and corporeal licentia morum intheexceptional cases ofwise oldcodgers anddrunkards, withwhom it"nolonger has much danger."This also forthechapter: "Morals as Timidity."1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 109 199 Inasmuch asinallages, aslong asmankind hasexisted, there have alsobeenhuman herds (family alliances, com- munities, tribes, peoples, states, churches), andalways a greatnumber whoobey inproportion tothesmall number whocommandinview, therefore, ofthefactthatobedience hasbeenmost practised andfostered among mankind hith- erto,onemay reasonably suppose that, generally speaking, theneed thereof isnow innate inevery one, asakind of formal conscience which gives thecommand: "Thou shalt unconditionally dosomething, unconditionally refrain from something"; inshort, "Thou shalt." This need tries tosatisfy itself and to fill itsform with acontent; according toitsstrength, impatience, and eagerness, it atonce seizes asanomnivorous appetite with little selection, and accepts whatever isshouted into itsear by allsorts ofcommanders parents, teachers, laws, class prejudices, orpublic opinion. Theextraordinary limitation ofhuman development, thehesitation, protractedness, fre- quent retrogression, andturning thereof, isattributable to thefact that theherd-instinct ofobedience istransmitted best,andatthecostoftheartofcommand. Ifoneimagine this instinct increasing toitsgreatest extent, commanders andindependent individuals will finally belacking alto- gether; orthey will suffer inwardly from abadconscience, and willhave toimpose adeception onthemselves inthe firstplace inorder tobeable tocommand: justasifthey alsowere only obeying. This condition ofthings actually exists inEurope atpresentIcall itthemoral hypocrisy of thecommanding class. Theyknow nootherway ofprotect- ingthemselves from theirbadconscience thanbyplaying the no BEYOND GOODANDEVIL roleofexecutors ofolderandhigher orders (ofpredecessors, oftheconstitution, ofjustice, ofthelaw,orofGodhimself), ortheyeven justify themselves bymaxims from thecurrent opinions oftheherd, as"first servants oftheir people," or "instruments ofthepublic weal." Ontheother hand, the gregarious European mannowadays assumes anairasif hewere theonlyland ofman that isallowable; heglorifies hisqualities, such aspublic spirit, kindness, deference, in- dustry, temperance, modesty, indulgence, S5mipathy, by virtue ofwhich heisgentle, endurable, and useful tothe herd, asthepeculiarly human virtues. Incases, however, where itisbelieved that theleader andbell-wether cannot bedispensed with, attempt after attempt ismade nowadays toreplace commanders bythesumming together ofclever gregarious men: allrepresentative constitutions, forexample, areofthis origin. Inspite ofall,what ablessing, what a deliverance from aweight becoming unendurable, isthe appearance ofanabsolute ruler forthese gregarious Euro- peansof thisfacttheeffect oftheappearance ofNapoleon was the last great proof: thehistory oftheinfluence of Napoleon isalmost thehistory ofthehigher happiness to which theentire century hasattained initsworthiest indi- viduals andperiods. 200 Theman ofanageofdissolution which mixes theraces withoneanother, whohastheinheritance ofadiversified descent inhisbodythat istosay,contrary, andoften not only contrary, instincts andstandards ofvalue, which strug- glewithoneanother andareseldom atpeacesuchaman oflate culture andbroken lights, will,onanaverage, b( aweakman. Hisfundamental desire isthatthewarwMi1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL iii isinhimshould come toanend; happiness appears tohim inthecharacter ofasoothing medicine andmode ofthought (forinstance, Epicurean orChristian) ;itisabove allthings thehappiness ofrepx)se, ofundisturbedness, ofrepletion, offinal unityitisthe"Sabbath ofSabbaths," tousethe expression oftheholy rhetorician, St.Augustine, whowas himself suchaman.Should, however, thecontrariety and conflict insuch natures operate asanadditional incentive andstimulus tolifeand if,ontheother hand, inaddition totheirpowerful zmdirreconciliable instincts, theyhave also inherited andindoctrinated intothemaproper mastery and subtlety forcarrying ontheconflict with themselves (that istosay, thefaculty ofself-control and self-deception), there then arise those marvellously incomprehensible, and inexplicable beings, those enigmatical men, predestined for conquering andcircumventing others, the finest examples ofwhich areAlcibiades andCaesar (withwhom Ishould like toassociate thefirstofEuropeans according tomytaste, the Hohenstaufen, Frederick theSecond), cmdamongst artists, perhaps Lionardo daVinci. They appear precisely inthe same periods when thatweaker type, with itslonging for repose, comes tothefront; thetwotypes arecomplementary toeach other, andspring from thesame causes. 20I Aslong astheutility which determines moral estimates is only gregarious utility, aslong asthepreservation ofthe community isonlykept inview, andtheimmoral issought precisely and exclusively inwhat seems dangerous tothe maintenance ofthecommunity, there canbeno"morality oflove toone's neighbour." Granted even that there is already alittle constant exercise ofconsideration, sympathy, 112 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL fairness, gentleness, andmutual assistance, granted thateven inthiscondition ofsociety allthose instincts arealready active which arelatterly distinguished byhonourable names as"virtues," andeventually almost coincide with thecon- ception "morality": inthatperiod theydonotasyetbelong tothedomain ofmoral valuationsthey are stillultra-moral. Asympathetic action, forinstance, isneither called good nor bad,moral norimmoral, inthebestperiod oftheRomans; andshould itbepraised, asortofresentful disdain iscom- patible with thispraise, even atthebest, directly thesympa- thetic action iscompared withonewhich contributes tothe welfare ofthewhole, totherespublica. After all,"love to ourneighbour" isalways asecondary matter, partly con- ventional and arbitrarily manifested inrelation toourfear ofourneighbour. After thefabric ofsociety seems onthe whole established andsecured against external dangers, itis thisfearofourneighbour which again creates newperspec- tives ofmoral valuation. Certain strong anddangerous instincts, such asthelove ofenterprise, foolhardiness, re- vengefulness, astuteness, rapacity, andlove ofpower, which up tillthenhadnotonly tobehonoured from thepoint of view ofgeneral utilityunder other names, ofcourse, than those heregivenbuthad tobefostered andcultivated (be- cause theywere perpetually required inthecommon danger against thecommon enemies), arenow feltintheir danger- ousness tobedoubly strongwhen theoutlets. forthem are lackingandaregradually branded asimmoral andgiven over tocalumny. The contrary instincts and inclinations now attain tomoral honour; thegregarious instinct grad- uallydraws itsconclusions. Howmuch orhow little danger- ousness tothecommunity ortoequality iscontained inan opinion, acondition, anemotion, adisposition, oranendow- mentthat isnow themoral perspective; here again fear BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 113 isthemother ofmorals. Itisbytheloftiest andstrongest instincts, when theybreak outpassionately andcarry the individual farabove andbeyond theaverage, andthelow level ofthegregarious conscience, that theself-reliance of thecommunity isdestroyed; itsbelief initself, itsback- bone, asitwere, breaks; consequently these very instincts willbemostbranded anddefamed. The lofty independent spirituality, thewilltostand alone, andeven thecogent reason, are felttobedangers; everything that elevates the individual above theherd, and isasource offear tothe neighbour, ishenceforth called evil; thetolerant, tmassum- ing, self-adapting, self-equalising disposition, themediocrity ofdesires, attains tomoral distinction andhonour. Finally^ under very peaceful circumstances, there isalways lessop- portunity andnecessity fortraining thefeelings toseverity andrigour; andnowevery form ofseverity, even injustice, begins todisturb theconscience; aloftyandrigourous noble- nessand self-responsibility almost offends, andawakens distrust, "thelamb," and stillmore "the sheep," wins re- spect. There isapoint ofdiseased mellowness andeffemi- nacy inthehistory ofsociety, atwhich society itself takes thepart ofhimwho injures it,thepart ofthecriminal, and does so,infact, seriously andhonestly. Topunish, appears toittobesomehow imfairitiscertain that theidea of "punishment" ind"the obligation topunish" arethen pain- fulandalarming topeople. "Is itnot sufficient ifthe criminal berendered harmless? Why should we stillpunish? Punishment itself isterrible!"with these questions gre- garious morality, themorality offear, draws itsultimate conclusion. Ifonecould atalldoaway with danger, the cause offear,onewould have doneaway with thismorality atthesame time, itwould nolonger benecessary, itwould notconsider itselfanylonger necessary!Whoever examines 114 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL the.conscience ofthepresent-day European, willalways elicit thesame imperative from itsthousand moral foldsand hidden recesses, theimperative ofthetimidity oftheherd: "wewish thatsome time orother theremaybenothing more tofear!" Some time orotherthewillandtheway thereto isnowadays called "progress" alloverEurope. 202 Letusatonce sayagain whatwehave already saida hundred times, forpeople's earsnowadays areunwilling tohear such truths our truths. Weknow wellenough how offensively itsounds when anyoneplainly, andwithout metaphor, counts manamongst theanimals; but itwillbe accounted tousalmost acrime, that itisprecisely inrespect tomen of"modem ideas" thatwehave constantly applied theterms "herd," "herd-instincts," andsuch likeexpressions. What avail isit?Wecannot dootherwise, foritisprecisely here thatournew insight is.Wehavefound that inallthe principal moral judgments Europe hasbecome unanimous, including likewise thecountries where European influence prevails: inEurope people evidently know what Socrates thought hedidnotknow, andwhat thefamous serpent of oldonce promised toteachthey"know" to-day what is goodand evil. Itmust thensound hardandbedistasteful to theear,whenwealways insist that thatwhich here thinks itknows, thatwhich here glorifies itself with praise and blame, and calls itself good, istheinstinct oftheherding human animal: theinstinct which hascome and isever coming more andmore tothefront, topreponderance and supremacy over other instincts, according totheincreasing physiological approximation andresemblance ofwhich itis theS5miptom. Morality inEurope atpresent isherding- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 115 animal morality; andtherefore, asweunderstand thematter, onlyonekind ofhuman morality, beside which, before which, andafter v/hichmany other moralities, andabove allhigher moralities, areorshould bepossible. Against sucha"possi- bility," against such a"should be,"however, thismorality defends itself with allitsstrength; itsays obstinately and inexorably: "Iammorality itselfandnothing else ismoral- ity!" Indeed, with thehelp ofareligion which has humoured and flattered thesublimest desires oftheherd- ing-animal, things have reached suchapoint thatwealways findamore visible expression ofthismorality even in political and social arrangements: thedemocratic move- ment istheinheritance oftheChristian movement. That itstempo, however, ismuch tooslowandsleepy forthe more impatient ones, forthosewho aresickanddistracted bytheherding-instinct, isindicated bytheincreasingly furious howling, andalways less disguised teeth-gnashing oftheanarchist dogs,whoarenowroving through thehigh- ways ofEuropean culture. Apparently inopposition tothe peacefully industrious democrats andRevolution-ideologues, and stillmore sototheawkward philosophasters and frater- nity-visionaries who callthemselves Socialists andwant a "free society," those arereally atonewiththem allintheir thorough and instinctive hostility toevery form ofsociety other than that oftheautonomous herd (totheextent even ofrepudiating thenotions "master" and"servant" nidieu nimaitre, saysasocialist formula) ;atoneintheir tenacious opposition toevery special claim, every special right and privilege (thismeans ultimately opposition toevery right, forwhen allareequal, nooneneeds "rights" anylonger); atoneintheir distrust ofpunitive justice (asthough itwere a\dolation oftheweak, imfair tothenecessary consequences ofallformer society) ;butequally atoneintheir religion of /ii6 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL sympathy, intheir compassion for allthat feels, lives, and suffers (down tothevery animals, upeven to"God"the extravagance of"sympathy forGod" belongs toademocratic age) ;altogether atoneinthecryandimpatience oftheir sympathy, intheir deadly hatred ofsuffering generally, in their almost feminine incapacity forwitnessing itorallowing it;atoneintheir involuntary beglooming andheart-soften- ing,under thespell ofwhich Europe seems tobethreatened withanewBuddhism; atoneintheir belief inthemorality ofmutual sympathy, asthough itwere morality initself, the climax, theattained climax ofmankind, thesolehope ofthe future, theconsolation ofthepresent, thegreat discharge from alltheobligations ofthepast; altogether atone in their belief inthecommunity asthedeliverer, intheherd, andtherefore in"themselves." 203 We,who hold adifferent beliefwe,who regard the democratic movement, notonly asadegenerating form of political organisation, butasequivEilent toadegenerating, awaning type ofman, asinvolving hismediocrising and depreciation: where havewetofixourhopes? Innew philosophersthere isnoother alternative: inminds strong and original enough toinitiate opposite estimates ofvalue, totransvalue andinvert "eternal valuations"; inforerunners, inmen ofthefuture, who inthepresent shall fixthecon- straints andfasten theknots which willcompel millenniums totakenew paths. Toteachman thefuture ofhumanity ashis will, asdepending onhuman will,and tomake preparation forvast hazardous enterprises and collective attempts inrearing andeducating, inorder thereby toput anendtothefrightful rule offollyandchance which has BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 117 hitherto gonebythename of"history" (the folly ofthe "greatest number" isonly itslastform)forthatpurpose anewtype ofphilosophers andcommanders willsome time orother beneeded, atthevery ideaofwhich everything that hasexisted intheway ofoccult, terrible, andbenevolent beings might look paleanddwarfed. Theimage ofsuch leaders hovers before oureyes:isitlawful formetosay italoud, yefree spirits? The conditions which onewould partly have tocreate andpartly utilise fortheir genesis; the presumptive methods and testsbyvirtue ofwhich asoul should growuptosuchanelevation andpower astofeela constraint tothese tasks; atransvaluation ofvalues, under thenewpressure andhammer ofwhich aconscience should besteeled andaheart transformed into brass, soastobear theweight ofsuch responsibility; andontheotherhand the necessity forsuch leaders, thedreadful danger that they might belacking, ormiscarry and degenerate:these are our real anxieties and glooms, yeknow itwell, yefree spirits! these aretheheavy distant thoughts andstorms which sweep across theheaven ofour life. There arefew pains sogrievous astohave seen, divined, orexperienced howanexceptional manhasmissed hiswayanddeteriorated; buthewhohastherareeyefortheuniversal danger of "man" himself deteriorating, hewho likeushasrecognised theextraordinary fortuitousness which hashitherto played itsgame inrespect tothefuture ofmankindagame in which neither thehand, noreven a"finger ofGod" has participated! ^hewho divines thefatethat ishidden under the idiotic tmwariness and blind confidence of"modem ideas," and stillmore under thewhole ofChristo-European moralitysuffers from ananguish withwhich noother is tobecompared. Hesees ataglance allthatcould stillbe made outofman through afavourable accumulation and ii8 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL augmentation ofhuman powers andarrangements; heknows with alltheknowledge ofhisconviction howunexhausted man still isforthegreatest possibilities, andhow often in thepast thetypemanhasstood inpresence ofmysterious decisions andnew paths:^heknows still better from his painfulest recollections onwhat wretched obstacles promising developments ofthehighest rankhave hitherto usually gone topieces, broken down, sunk, andbecome contemptible. The universal degeneracy ofmankind tothelevel ofthe "man ofthefuture"asidealised bythesocialistic foolsand shallow-pates thisdegeneracy anddwarfing ofman toan absolutely gregarious animal (orasthey call it,toaman of "free society"), thisbrutalising ofman intoapigmy with equal rights and claims, isundoubtedly possible! Hewho hasthought out this possibility toitsultimate conclusion knows another loathing unknown totherestofmankind andperhaps alsoanewmission/ CHAPTER VI WeScholars 204 Attheriskthat moralising may also reveal itself here as thatwhich ithasalways beennamely, resolutely montter sesplaies, according toBalzacIwould venture toprotest against animproper andinjurious alteration ofrank, which quite unnoticed, andasifwith thebest conscience, threatens nowadays toestablish itself intherelations ofscience and philosophy. Imean tosaythatonemust have theright outofone'sown experienceexperience, asitseems tome^ always implies unfortunate experience?totreat ofsuch animportant question ofrank, soasnottospeak ofcolour like theblind, oragainst science likewomen and artists ("Ah! thisdreadful science!" sigh their instinct and their shame, "italways finds things out!") The declaration of independence ofthe scientific man, hisemancipation from philosophy, isoneofthesubtler after-effects ofdemocratic organisation and disorganisation: the self-glorification and self-conceitedness ofthelearned man isnoweverywhere in fullbloom, andinitsbestspringtimewhich doesnotmean toimply that inthiscase self-praise smells sweetly. Here alsotheinstinct ofthepopulace cries, "Freedom from all masters!" and after science has,with thehappiest results, 119 .120 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL resisted theology, whose "handmaid" ithadbeen toolong, itnowproposes initswantonness and indiscretion tolay down laws forphilosophy, and initsturn toplay the "master"whatamIsaying! toplay thephilosopher onits ownaccoimt. Mymemorythememory ofascientific man, ifyouplease!teems with thenaivetes ofinsolence which Ihaveheard about philosophy andphilosophers fromyoung naturalists and oldphysicians (not tomention themost cultured andmost conceited ofalllearned men, thephilolo- gistsandschoolmasters, whoareboth theoneandtheother byprofession). Ononeoccasion itwasthespecialist and theJackHomer who instinctively stood onthedefensive against allsynthetic tasks and capabilities; atanother time itwastheindustrious worker whohadgotascent ofotium and refined luxuriousness intheinternal economy ofthe philosopher, and felthimself aggrieved and belittled thereby. Onanother occasion itwasthecolour-blindness ofthe utili- tarian, who seesnothing inphilosophy butaseries ofrefuted systems, andanextravagant expenditure which "does no- body anygood." Atanother time thefear ofdisguised mysticism and oftheboundary-adjustment ofknowledge became conspicuous, atanother time thedisregard ofindi- vidual philosophers, which had involuntarily extended to disregard ofphilosophy generally. Infine, Ifound most frequently, behind theproud disdain ofphilosophy inyoung scholars, theevil after-effect ofsome particular philosopher, towhom onthewhole obedience hadbeen foresworn, without, however, thespell ofhisscornful estimates ofother philoso- phers having been gotridoftheresult being ageneral ill-will toallphilosophy. (Such seems tome, forinstance, theafter-effect ofSchopenhauer onthemostmodem Ger- many: byhisunintelligent rage against Hegel, hehassuc- ceeded insevering thewhole ofthelastgeneration ofGermans iBEYOND GOODANDEVIL 121 from itsconnection withGerman culture, which culture, all things considered, hasbeenanelevation andadivining re- finement ofthehistorical sense; butprecisely atthispoint Schopenhauer himself waspoor, irreceptive, andim-German totheextent ofingeniousness.) Onthewhole, speaking generally, itmay justhave been thehumanness, all-too- humanness ofthemodem philosophers themselves, inshort, their contemptibleness, which hasinjured most radically the reverence forphilosophy andopened thedoors tothe in- stinct ofthepopulace. Let itbutbeacknowledged towhat anextent ourmodem world diverges from thewhole style oftheworld ofHeraclites, Plato, Empedocles, andwhatever else alltheroyalandmagnificent anchorites ofthespirit were called; andwithwhat justice anhonest man ofscience may feelhimself ofabetter family and origin, inview ofsuch representatives ofphilosophy, who, owing tothefashion ofthepresent day, arejustasmuch aloft asthey aredown belowinGermany, forinstance, thetwo lions ofBerlin, theanarchist Eugen Diihring andtheamalgamist Eduard vonHartmann. Itisespeciilly thesight ofthose hotch- potch philosophers, who callthemselves "realists," or"posi- tivists," which iscalculated toimplant adangerous distmst inthesoulofayoung andambitious scholar: those philoso- phers, atthebest, arethemselves butscholars and special- ists,that isvery evident! Allofthem arepersons whohave beenvanquished andbrought back again under thedominion ofscience, who atonetime oranother claimed more from themselves, without having aright tothe"more" and its responsibility andwhonow, creditably, rancorously and vindictively, represent inword and deed, disbelief inthe master- taskandsupremacy ofphilosophy. After all,hcv could itbeotherwise? Science flourishes nowadays andhas thegood conscience clearly visible onitscoimtensince; while 122 BEYOND GOODAND EVIl that towhich theentiremodem philosophy hasgradually sunk, theremnant ofphilosophy ofthepresent day, excites distrust and displeasure, ifnotscorn and pity. Philosophy reduced toa"theory ofknowledge," nomore infactthan adiffident science ofepochs anddoctrine offorbearance: aphilosophy thatnever even getsbeyond thethreshold, and rigourously denies itself theright toenterthat isphilosophy initslastthroes, anend,anagony, something thatawakens pity.How could such aphilosophy rule! 205 Thedangers that beset theevolution ofthephilosopher are, infact, somanifold nowadays, thatonemight doubt whether this fruit could stillcome tomaturity. Theextent andtowering structure ofthesciences have increased enor- mously, andtherewith alsotheprobability that thephiloso- pher willgrow tired even asalearner, orwillattach himself somewhere and"specialise": sothathewillnolonger attain tohiselevation, that istosay, tohissuperspection, hiscir- cumspection, andhisdespection. Orhegets aloft toolate, when thebest ofhismaturity andstrength ispast; orwhen heisimpaired, coarsened, anddeteriorated, sothat hisview, hisgeneral estimate ofthings, isnolonger ofmuch import- ,ance. Itisperhaps just therefinement ofhisintellectual conscience thatmakes him hesitate and linger ontheway; hedreads thetemptation tobecome adilettante, amillepede, amilleantenna; heknows toowell that asadiscerner, one whohaslosthisself-respect nolonger commands, nolonger leads; unless heshould aspire tobecome agreat play-actor aphilosophical Cagliostro andspiritual rat-catcherinshort, amisleader. This isinthelastinstance aquestion oftaste, ifithasnotreally been aquestion ofconscience. Todouble BE\OND GOODANDEVIL 123 oncemore thephilosopher's difficulties, there isalsothefact thathedemands from himself averdict, aYeaorNay, not concerning science, butconcerning lifeand theworth of lifehelearns unwillingly tobelieve that it ishis rightandeven hisduty toobtain thisverdict, andhehasto seek hisway totheright andthebelief only through the most extensive (perhaps disturbing and destroying) expe- riences, often hesitating, doubting, anddumbfounded. In fact, thephilosopher haslongbeen mistaken andconfused bythemultitude, either with the scientific manand ideal scholar, orwith thereligiously elevated, desensualised, de- secularised visionary andGod-intoxicated man; andeven yetwhen onehears anybody praised, because helives "wisely," or"asaphilosopher," ithardly means anything more than "prudently andapart." Wisdom: thatseems to thepopulace tobeakind offlight, ameans and artifice for withdrawing successfully from abadgame; butthegenuine philosopherdoes itnotseem sotous,myfriends?lives "unphilosophically" and"unwisely," above all,imprudently, and feels theobligation andburden ofahundred attempts andtemptations oflifeherisks himself constintly, heplays thisbadgame. 206 Inrelation tothegenius, that istosay,abeing who either engenders orproduces^bothwords understood intheir fullest sensetheman oflearning, thescientific average man, "hasalways something oftheoldmaid about him; for,like her,heisnotconversant with thetwoprincipal fimctions of man.Toboth, ofcourse, tothescholar andtotheoldmaid, oneconcedes respectability, asifbywayofindemnification inthese cases oneemphasises therespectability and yet, 124 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL inthecompulsion ofthisconcession, onehasthesame ad- mixture ofvexation. Letusexamine more closely: what is thescientific man? Firstly, acommonplace type ofman, withcommonplace virtues: that istosay,anon-ruling, non- authoritative, and non-self-sufficient type ofman; hepos- sesses industry, patient adaptableness torankand file,equa- bility andmoderation incapacity andrequirement; hehas theinstinct forpeople likehimself, and forthatwhich they requireforinstance: theportion ofindependence andgreen meadow without which there isnorestfrom labour, the claim tohonour andconsideration (which firstandforemost presupposes recognition and recognisability) ,thesunshine ofagoodname, theperpetual ratification ofhisvalue and usefulness, withwhich -theinward distrust which liesatthe bottom oftheheart ofalldependent menandgregarious animals, hasagain andagain tobeovercome. Thelearned man, asisappropriate, hasalsomaladies and faults ofan ignoble kind: heisfullofpetty envy, andhasalynx-eye fortheweak points inthose natures towhose elevations hecannot attain. He isconfiding, yetonly asonewho lets himself go,butdoesnotflow;andprecisely before themanof thegreat current hestands allthecolder andmore reserved hiseye isthen likeasmooth and irresponsive lake, which isnolonger moved byrapture orsympathy. Theworst andmost dangerous thing ofwhich ascholar iscapable re- sultsfrom theinstinct ofmediocrity ofhistype, from the Jesuitism ofmediocrity, which labours instinctively forthe destruction oftheexceptional man,andendeavours tobreakorstill better, torelaxevery bent bow. Torelax, of course, with consideration, andnaturally withanindulgent handtorelax with confiding sympathy: that isthereal artofJesuitism, which hasalways understood how tointro- duce itself asthereligion ofsympathy. S BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 125 207 However gratefully onemaywelcome theobjective spirit andwhohasnotbeen sick todeath ofallsubjectivity and itsconfounded ipsisitnosity! intheend,however, onemust learn caution even with regard toone's gratitude, andput astop totheexaggeration with which theunselfing and depersonalising ofthe spirit hasrecently been celebrated, asifitwere thegoal initself, asifitwere salvation and glorificationasisespecially accustomed tohappen inthe pessimist school, which hasalso initsturngood reasons for paying thehighest honours to"disinterested knowledge." The objective man,whonolonger curses and scolds like thepessimist, theidealman oflearning inwhom thescientific instinct blossoms forth fully after athousand complete and partial failures, isassuredly oneofthemost costly instru- ments that exist, buthisplace isinthehand ofonewho is more powerful. He isonlyaninstrument; wemay say,he isamirror^heisno''purpose inhimself." The objective man isintruth amirror: accustomed toprostration before everything thatwants tobeknown, with such desires only asknowing or"reflecting" imply^hewaits until something comes, andthenexpands himself sensitively, sothateven thelight footsteps andgliding past ofspiritual beings may notbelostonhissurface and film. Whatever "personality" hestillpossesses seems tohim accidental, arbitrary, orstill oftener, disturbing; somuch hashecome toregard himself asthepassage and reflection ofoutside forms and events. Hecallsuptherecollection of"himself" withaneffort, and notinfrequently wrongly; hereadily confounds himself with other persons, hemakes mistakes with regard tohisown needs, andhereonly isheunrefined andnegligent. Perhaps 126 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL heistroubled about thehealth, orthepettiness andconfined atmosphere ofwifeand friend, orthelack ofcompanions andsocietyindeed, hesetshimself toreflect onhissuffer- ing,but invain! Histhoughts already roveaway tothe more general case,andto-morrow heknows aslittle ashe knew yesterday how tohelp himself. Hedoesnotnowtake himself seriously anddevote time tohimself: heisserene, notfrom lack oftrouble, butfrom lack ofcapacity for grasping anddealing with histrouble. Thehabitual com- plaisance with respect toallobjects and experiences, the radiant and impartial hospitality with which hereceives everything thatcomes hisway, hishabit ofinconsiderate good-nature, ofdangerous indifference astoYeaandNay: alas! there areenough ofcases inwhich hehastoatone for these virtues ofhis!andasman generally, hebecomes far tooeasily thecaput mortuum ofsuch virtues. Should one wish love orhatred fromhimImean loveandhatred as God,woman, andanimal understand themhewilldowhat hecan,and furnish what hecan. Butonemust notbe surprised ifitshould notbemuchifheshould show him- selfjust atthispoint tobefalse, fragile, questionable, and deteriorated. Hislove isconstrained, hishatred isartificial, andrather untourdeforce, aslight ostentation andexag- geration. He isonlygenuine sofarashecanbeobjective; only inhisserene totality ishestill"nature" and"natural." Hismirroring and eternally self-polishing soulnolonger knows how toaffirm, nolonger how todeny; hedoes not command; neither doeshedestroy. "Jenetniprise presque rien"hesays, with Leibnitz: letusnotoverlook norunder- value thepresque! Neither isheamodel man; hedoes notgoinadvance ofany one,norafter either; heplaces himself generally toofarofftohaveanyreason forespousing thecause ofeither good orevil. Ifhehasbeen solong BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 127 confounded with thephilosopher, with theCaesarian trainer anddictator ofcivilisation, hehashad fartoomuch honour, andwhat ismore essential inhimhasbeen overlooked^he isaninstrument, something ofaslave, though certainly the sublimest sortofslave, butnothing inhimself presque rien! Theobjective man isaninstrument, acostly, easily injured, easily tarnished, measuring instrument andmirroring appara- tus,which istobetaken care ofandrespected; butheis nogoal, nooutgoing norupgoing, nocomplementary man inwhom therestofexistence justifies itself, noterminationand still lessacommencement, anengendering, orpri- mary cause, nothing hardy, powerful, self-centred, thatwants tobemaster; butrather onlyasoft, inflated, delicate, mov- able potter's-form, thatmust wait forsome kind ofcontent andframe to"shape" itself theretoforthemost parta manwithout frame andcontent, a"selfless" man. Conse- quently, also,nothing forwomai, inparenthesi. 208 When aphilosopher nowadays makes known thatheis notascepticIhope thathasbeen gathered from thefore- going description oftheobjective spirit?people allhear it impatiently; theyregard himonthataccount withsome ap- prehension, theywould like toasksomany, many ques- tions . . .indeed among timid hearers, ofwhom there are now somany, heishenceforth said tobedangerous. With hisrepudiation ofscepticism, itseems tothem asifthey heard some evil-threatening sound inthedistance, asifa newkind ofexplosive were being tried somewhere, ad)ma- mite ofthe spirit, perhaps anewly discovered Russian nihiline, apessimism bonae voluntatis, thatnotonly denies, means denial, butdreadful thought! practises denial. 128 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL Against thiskind of"good will"awill totheveritable, actual negation oflifethere is,asisgenerally acknowledged nowadays, nobetter soporific andsedative than scepticism, themild, pleasing, lulling poppy ofscepticism; andHamlet himself isnow prescribed bythedoctors ofthedayasan antidote tothe"spirit," and itsunderground noises. "Are notourearsalready fullofbadsounds?" saythesceptics, as lovers ofrepose, andalmost asakind ofsafety police, "this subterranean Nay isterrible! Bestill,yepessimistic moles!" The sceptic, ineffect, that delicate creature, isfartooeasily frightened; hisconscience isschooled soastostart atevery Nay,andeven atthat sharp, decided Yea,and feelssome- thing likeabite thereby. Yea! andNay!theyseem to himopposed tomorality; heloves, onthecontrary, tomake afestival tohisvirtue byanoble aloofness, while perhaps hesays with Montaigne: "What doIknow?" Orwith Socrates: "Iknow that Iknow nothing." Or:"Here Ido nottrust myself, nodoor isopen tome." Or:"Even ifthe door were open,why should Ienter immediately?" Or: "What istheuseofanyhasty hypotheses? Itmight quite wellbeingood taste tomake nohypotheses atall.Areyou absolutely obliged tostraighten atoncewhat iscrooked? to stuff every holewithsome kind ofoakum? Isthere not timeenough forthat? Hasnotthetime leisure? Oh,ye demons, canyenotatallwait? The uncertain alsohas itscharms, theSphinx, too, isaCirce, and Circe, too,was aphilosopher." Thus doesasceptic console himself; andin truth heneeds some consolation. Forscepticism isthemost spiritual expression ofacertain many-sided physiological temperament, which inordinary language iscalled nervous debility and sickliness; itarises whenever races orclasses which have been long separated, decisively andsuddenly blend withoneanother. Inthenew generation, which has BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 129 inherited asitwere different standards andvaluations inits blood, everything isdisquiet, derangement, doubt, andtenta- tive; thebestpowers operate restrictively, thevery virtues prevent eachother growing andbecoming strong, equilibrium, ballast, andperpendicular stability arelacking inbody and soul. That, however, which ismost diseased anddegenerated insuch nondescripts isthewill; they arenolonger familiar withindependence ofdecision, orthecourageous feeling of pleasure inwillingthey aredoubtful ofthe"freedom ofthe will" even intheir dreams. Ourpresent-day Europe, the scene ofasenseless, precipitate attempt ataradical blending ofclasses, andconsequently ofraces, istherefore sceptical inallitsheights anddepths, sometimes exhibiting themobile scepticism which springs impatiently andwantonly from branch tobranch, sometimes withgloomy aspect, likea cloud overcharged with interrogative signsandoften sick xmto death ofitswill! Paralysis ofwill;where dowenot find thiscripple sitting nowadays! And yethowbedecked oftentimes! How seductively ornamented! There arethe finest gala dresses and disguises forthis disease; and that, forinstance, most ofwhat places itself nowadays inthe show-cases as"objectiveness," "the scientific spirit," "I'art pour I'art," and"pure voluntary knowledge," isonlydecked- outscepticism andparalysis ofwillIamready toanswer forthisdiagnosis oftheEuropean disease. The disease of the will isdiffused unequally overEurope; itisworst and most varied where civilisation has longest prevailed; it decreases according as"thebarbarian" stilloragainas- serts hisclaims under theloose drapery ofWestern culture. Itistherefore intheFrance ofto-day, ascanbereadily dis- closed andcomprehended, that thewill ismost infirm; and France, which hasalways hadamasterly aptitude forcon verting even theportentous crises ofitsspirit intosomething 130 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL charming andseductive, nowmanifests emphatically itsin- tellectual ascendency overEurope, bybeing theschool and exhibition ofallthecharms ofscepticism. Thepower to willand topersist, moreover, inaresolution, isalready somewhat stronger inGermany, andagain intheNorth of Germany itisstronger than inCentral Germany; itis considerably stronger inEngland, Spain, andCorsica, asso- ciated withphlegm intheformer andwithhard skulls inthe latternot tomention Italy, which istooyoung yetto know what itwants, andmust firstshow whether itcan exercise will; but itisstrongest andmost surprising ofall inthatimmense middle empire where Europe asitwere flows back toAsianamely, inRussia. There thepower towill hasbeen long stored upandaccumulated, there thewill uncertain whether tobenegative oraffirmativewaits threat- eningly tobedischarged (toborrow their petphrase from ourphysicists). Perhaps notonlyIndian warsandcompli- cations inAsiawould benecessary tofreeEurope from its greatest danger, butalso internal subversion, theshattering oftheempire intosmall states, andabove alltheintroduction ofparliamentary imbecility, together with theobligation of every one toread hisnewspaper atbreakfast. Idonot saythisasonewho desires it;inmyheart Ishould rather prefer thecontraryImean suchanincrease inthethreaten- ingattitude ofRussia, thatEurope would have tomakeup itsmind tobecome equally threateningnamely, toacquire one will,bymeans ofanewcaste toruleover theContinent, apersistent, dreadful willofitsown, thatcan setitsaims thousands ofyears ahead ;sothatthelongspun-out comedy ofitspetty-stateism, and itsdynastic aswell asitsdemo- cratic many-willed-ness, might finally bebrought toaclose. Thetime forpetty politics ispast; thenext century bring thestruggle forthedominion oftheworldthecot Pulsion toGTeat noh'tirs.wilL. omM, BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 131 209 Astohow farthenewwarlike ageonwhich weEuropeans have evidently entered mayperhaps favour thegrowth of another and stronger kind ofscepticism, Ishould like to express myself preliminarily merely byaparable, which the lovers ofGerman history willalready understand. That unscrupulous enthusiast forbig,handsome grenadiers (who, asKing ofPrussia, brought intobeing amilitary andsceptical geniusandtherewith, inreality, thenewandnowtriumph- antly emerged type ofGerman), theproblematic, crazy father ofFrederick theGreat, hadononepoint thevery knack andlucky grasp ofthegenius: heknew what was then lacking inGermany, thewant ofwhich wasahundred timesmore alarming andserious thananylack ofculture and social formhisill-will totheyoung Frederick resulted from theanxiety ofaprofound instinct. Menwere lacking; and hesuspected, tohisbitterest regret, that hisownsonwas notman enough. There, however, hedeceived himself; butwhowould nothave deceived himself inhisplace? Hesawhissonlapsed toatheism, totheesprit, tothepleasant frivolity ofclever Frenchmen^hesaw inthebackground thegreat bloodsucker, thespider scepticism; hesuspected the incurable wretchedness ofaheart nolonger hard enough either forevilorgood, andofabroken willthatnolonger commands, isnolonger able tocommand. Meanwhile, however, there grewupinhissonthatnewkind ofharder andmore dangerous scepticismwhoknows towhat extent itwasencouraged justbyhisfather's hatred andtheicy melancholy ofawillcondemned tosolitude?thescepticism ofdaring manliness, which isclosely related tothegenius forwarandconquest, andmade itsfirstentrance intoGer- 132 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL many intheperson ofthegreat Frederick. This scepticism despises andnevertheless grasps; itundermines andtakes possession; itdoesnotbeheve, but itdoesnotthereby lose itself; itgives the spirit adangerous liberty, but itkeeps strict guard over theheart. ItistheGerman form ofscep- ticism, which, asacontinued Fredericianism, risen tothe highest spirituality, haskeptEurope foraconsiderable time under thedominion oftheGerman spirit and itscritical and historical distrust. Owing totheinsuperably strong and tough masculine character ofthegreatGerman philologists and historical critics (who, rightly estimated, were also all ofthem artists ofdestruction and dissolution), anewcon- ception oftheGerman spirit gradually established itselfin spite ofallRomanticism inmusic andphilosophyinwhich theleaning towards masculine scepticism was decidedly prominent: whether, forinstance, asfearlessness ofgaze, ascourage andsternness ofthedissecting hand, orasresolute will todangerous voyages ofdiscovery, tospiritualised North Pole expeditions under barren anddangerous skies. Theremaybegood groimds for itwhen warm-blooded and superficial humanitarians cross themselves before this spirit, cetesprit jataliste, ironique, mephistophelique, asMichelet calls it,notwithout ashudder. But ifonewould realise how characteristic isthisfearofthe"man" intheGerman spirit which awakened Europe outofits"dogmatic slumber," letuscalltomind theformer conception which had tobe overcome bythisnewoneandthat itisnotsoverylong agothatamasculinised woman could dare, with unbridled presumption, torecommend theGermans totheinterest of Europe asgentle, good-hearted, weak-willed, and poetical fools. Finally, letusonly understand profoundly enough Napoleon's astonishment when hesawGoethe: itreveals whathadbeenregarded forcenturies asthe"German spirit." BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 133 "Voila unhomme!"thatwasasmuch astosay:"But this isaman! And Ionlyexpected toseeaGerman!" 210 Supposing, then, that inthepicture ofthephilosophers of thefuture, some trait suggests thequestion whether they must notperhaps besceptics inthelast-mentioned sense, something inthem would onlybedesignated therebyand notthey themselves. With equal right they might call themselves critics; andassuredly they willbemen ofexperi- ments. Bythename withwhich Iventured tobaptize them, Ihave already expressly emphasised their attempting and their love ofattempting: isthisbecause, ascritics inbody and soul, they willlove tomake useofexperiments ina new,andperhaps wider andmore dangerous sense? In their passion forknowledge, willtheyhave togofurther indaring andpainful attempts than thesensitive andpam- pered taste ofademocratic century canapprove of?There isnodoubt: thesecoming ones willbeleast able todispense with theserious andnotimscrupulous qualities which dis- tinguish the critic from thesceptic: Imean thecertainty astostandards ofworth, theconscious employment ofa unity ofmethod, thewary courage, thestanding-alone, and thecapacity forself-responsibility; indeed, they willavow among themselves adelight indenial and dissection, and acertain considerate cruelty, which knows how tohandle theknife surely and deftly, evenwhen theheart bleeds. They willbesterner (andperhaps notalways towards them- selves only) thanhumane people may desire, they willnot dealwith the"truth" inorder that itmay "please" them, or"elevate" and "inspire" themthey will rather have little faith in"truth" bringing with itsuch revels forthe 134 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL feelings. They will smile, those rigourous spirits, when any onesays intheir presence: "that thought elevates me,why should itnotbetrue?" or:"that work enchants me,why should itnotbebeautiful?" or:"that artist enlarges me, why should henotbegreat?" Perhaps they willnotonly have asmile, butagenuine disgust forallthat isthus rap- turous, idealistic, feminine, andhermaphroditic; and ifany onecould look intotheirinmost hearts, hewould noteasily findtherein theintention toreconcile "Christian sentiments" with "antique taste," oreven with"modem parliamentar- ism" (thekind ofreconciliation necessarily found even amongst philosophers inourveryuncertain andconsequently very conciliatory century). Critical discipline, andevery habit thatconduces topurity andrigour inintellectual mat- ters, willnotonlybedemanded from themselves bythese philosophers ofthefuture; theymay, evenmake adisplay thereof astheir special adornmentnevertheless they will notwant tobecalled critics onthataccount. Itwillseem tothemnosmall indignity tophilosophy tohave itdecreed, asissowelcome nowadays, that"philosophy itself iscriti- cism and critical scienceand nothing elsewhatever!" Though thisestimate ofphilosophy mayenjoy theapproval ofallthePositivists ofFrance andGermany (and possibly it even flattered theheart and taste ofKant: letuscall to mind the titles ofhisprincipal works) ,ournewphilosophers willsay,notwithstanding, that critics areinstruments ofthe philosopher, andjustonthat account, asinstruments, they arefarfrom being philosophers themselves! Even thegreat Chinaman ofKonigsberg wasonlyagreat critic BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 135 211 Iinsistupon itthatpeople finally cease confounding philo- sophical workers, andingeneral scientific men, with philoso- phersthat precisely hereoneshould strictly give"each his own," indnotgive those fartoomuch, these fartoo little. Itmaybenecessary fortheeducation oftherealphilosopher thathehimself should have once stoodupon allthose steps uponwhich hisservants, thescientific workers ofphilosophy, remain standing, andmust remain standing: hehimself must perhaps havebeen critic, anddogmatist, andhistorian, and besides, poet, and collector, and traveller, and riddle-^ reader^ andmoralist, and seer,and"free spirit," andalmost everything, inorder totraverse thewhole range ofhuman values and estimations, and thathemay beablewith a variety ofeyesandconsciences tolookfromaheight toany distance, from adepth uptoanyheight, from anook into anyexpanse. But allthese areonly preliminary conditions forhistask; thistask itselfdemands something elseitre- quires him tocreate values. Thephilosophical workers, after theexcellent pattern ofKantandHegel, have tofixand for- malise some great existing body ofvaluationsthat isto say, former determinations ofvalue, creations ofvalue, which havebecome prevalent, and areforatime called "truths"whether inthedomain ofthelogical, thepolitical (moral), ortheartistic. Itisforthese investigators tomake whatever hashappened andbeen esteemed hitherto, con- spicuous, conceivable, intelligible, andmanageable, toshorten everythmg long, even "time" itself, and tosubjugate the entire past: animmense andwonderful task, inthecarrying outofwhich allrefined pride, alltenacious will,cansurely find satisfaction. The realphilosophers, however, arecom' 136 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL manders and law-givers; they say: "Thus shall itbe!" They determine firsttheWhither andtheWhy ofmankind, andthereby setaside theprevious labour ofallphilosophi- calworkers, and allsubjugators ofthepastthey grasp at thefuture withacreative hand, andwhatever isandwas, becomes forthem thereby ameans, aninstrument, anda hammer. Their "knowing" iscreating, their creating isa law-giving, their willtotruth is Will toPower.Arethere atpresent such philosophers? Have there everbeen such philosophers? Must there notbesuch philosophers some day? ... 212 Itisalways more obvious tomethatthephilosopher, asa man indispensable forthemorrow andtheday after the morrow, haseverfound himself, andhasbeen obliged tofind himself, incontradiction totheday inwhich helives; his enemy hasalways been theideal ofhisday. Hitherto all those extraordinary furtherers ofhumanity whom one calls philosophers^who rarely regarded themselves aslovers of wisdom, butrather asdisagreeable foolsanddangerous in- terrogators^have found their mission, their hard, involun- tary, imperative mission (intheendhowever thegreatness oftheir mission), inbeing thebadconscience oftheir age. Inputting thevivisector's knife tothebreast ofthevery virtues oftheir age,theyhave betrayed theirown secret; it hasbeen forthesake ofanewgreatness ofman, anewim- trodden path tohisaggrandisement. They have always dis- closed howmuch hypocrisy, indolence, self-indulgence, and self-neglect, howmuch falsehood wasconcealed under the most venerated types ofcontemporary morality, howmuch virtue wasoutlived; theyhave always said:"Wemust re- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 137 move hence towhere youareleast athome." Infaceofa world of"modem ideas," which would liketoconfine every one inacomer, ina"specialty," aphilosopher, ifthere could bephilosophers nowadays, would becompelled to place thegreatness ofman, theconception of"greatness," precisely inhiscomprehensiveness and multifariousness, in hisall-roundness; hewould even determine worth andrank according totheamount andvariety ofthatwhich aman could bearandtakeupon himself, according totheextent towhich aman could stretch hisresponsibility. Nowadays thetasteand virtue oftheageweaken andattenuate the will; nothing issoadapted tothespirit oftheageasweak- ness ofwill: consequently, intheideal ofthephilosopher, strength ofwill,stemness andcapacity forprolonged reso- lution, must specially beincluded intheconception of "greatness"; with asgood aright astheopposite doctrine, with itsideal ofasilly, renouncing, humble, selfless human- ity,wassuited toanopposite agesuch asthesixteenth cen- tury, which suffered from itsaccumulated energy ofwill, andfrom thewildest torrents and floods ofselfishness. In thetime ofSocrates, among menonly ofwom-out instincts, oldconservative Athenians who letthemselves go"forthe sake ofhappiness," asthey said; forthesake ofpleasure, as their conduct indicatedandwhohadcontinually ontheir lipstheoldpompous words towhich theyhadlong forfeited therightbythe lifethey led,irony wasperhaps necessary forgreatness ofsoul, thewicked Socratic assurance ofthe oldphysician andplebeian, whocutruthlessly into hisown flesh, asintothefleshandheart ofthe"noble," withalook that said plainly enou^: "Do notdissemble before me! hereweareequal!" Atpresent, onthecontrary, when throughout Europe theherding animal alone attains tohon- ours,anddispenses honours, when "equality ofright" can 138 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL tooreadily betransformed intoequality inwrong: Imean to sayinto general waragainst everything rare, strange, and privileged, against thehigher man, thehigher soul, thehigher duty, thehigher responsibility, thecreative plenipotence and lordlinessatpresent itbelongs totheconception of"great- ness" tobenoble, towish tobeapart, tobecapable of being different, tostand alone, tohave tolivebypersonal initiative; andthephilosopher willbetray something ofhis own idealwhen heasserts: "He shallbethegreatest who canbethemost solitary, themost concealed, themost di- vergent, themanbeyond goodand evil, themaster ofhis virtues, andofsuperabundance ofwill; precisely this shall becalled greatness: asdiversified ascanbeentire, asample ascanbefull." And toaskoncemore thequestion: Is greatness possiblenowadays? 213 i Itisdifficult tolearn what aphilosopher is,because it cannot betaught: onemust"know" itbyexperienceor oneshould have thepride nottoknow it.The factthatat present people alltalkofthings ofwhich theycannot have anyexperience, istruemore especially andunfortunately cis concerns thephilosopher and philosophical matters:the veryfewknow them, arepermitted toknow them, and all popular ideas about them arefalse. Thus, forinstance, the truly philosophical combination ofabold, exuberant spirit- uality which runs atpresto pace, andadialectic rigour and necessity which makes nofalse step, isunknown tomost thinkers andscholars from theirown experience, and there- fore, should anyonespeak ofitintheir presence, itisin- credible tothem. They conceive ofevery necessity astrou- blesome, asapainful compulsory obedience and state ofcon- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 139 straint; thinking itself isregarded bythem assomething slowand hesitating, almost asatrouble, andoften enough as"worthy ofthesweat ofthenoble"butnotatallas something easyand divine, closely related todancing and exuberance! 'Tothink" and totakeamatter "seriously," "arduously"that isoneandthesame thing tothem; such only hasbeen their "experience." Artists have here per- haps afiner intuition; theywhoknow only toowell that precisely when theynolonger doanything "arbitrarily," andeverything ofnecessity, their feeling offreedom, of subtlety, ofpower, ofcreatively fixing, disposing andshap- ing,reaches itsclimaxinshort, that necessity and "free- dom ofwill" arethen thesame thing withthem. There is, infine,agradation ofrank inpsychical states, towhich thegradation ofrank intheproblems corresponds; andthe highest problems repel ruthlessly every onewhoventures too near them, without being predestined fortheir solution by theloftiness andpower ofhisspirituality. Ofwhat use isit fornimble, everyday intellects, orclumsy, honest mechanics andempiricists topress, intheir plebeian ambition, close to such problems, andasitwere into this"holy ofholies" assooften happens nowadays! Butcoarse feetmust never treadupon such carpets: this isprovided forintheprimary lawofthings; thedoors remain closed tothose intruders, though theymay dash andbreak their heads thereon! People have always tobeborn toahigh station, or,more definitely, theyhave tobebred for it:aperson hasonly a ri^t tophilosophytaking theword initshigher signifi- canceinvirtue ofhisdescent; theancestors, the"blood," decide here also.Many generations must have prepared theway forthecoming ofthephilosopher; each ofhisvir- tuesmust have been separately acquired, nurtured, trans- mitted, andembodied; notonly thebold, easy, delicate 140 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL course andcurrent ofhisthoughts, butabove allthereadi- ness forgreat responsibilities, themajesty ofruling glance andcontemning look, thefeeling ofseparation from the multitude with their duties and virtues, thekindly patron- ageanddefence ofwhatever ismisunderstood andcalum- niated, beitGod ordevil, thedelight andpractice ofsu- preme justice, theartofcommanding, theamplitude ofwill, thelingering eyewhich rarely admires, rarely looks up, rarely loves. ... ,j^gtd CHAPTER VII OurViRiUES 214 Our Virtues?Itisprobable that we, too,have stillour virtues, although naturally they arenotthose sincere and massive virtues onaccount ofwhich wehold ourgrand- fathers inesteem and alsoatalittle distance from us.We Europeans oftheday after to-morrow, wefirstlings ofthe twentieth centurywith allourdangerous curiosity, our multifariousness andartofdisguising, ourmellow andseem- ingly sweetened cruelty insense awd spiritweshall pre- sumably, ifwemust have virtues, have those onlywhich havecome toagreement withourmost secret andheartfelt inclinations, withourmost ardent requirements: well, then, letuslook forthem inourlabyrinths!where, asweknow, somany things losethemselves, somauy things getquite lost! And isthere anything finerthan tosearch forone's own virtues? Isitnotalmost tobeliew inone'sown vir- tues? But this"believing inone'sown N'irtues"isitnot practically thesame aswhat was formerly called one's "good conscience," that long, respectable pigfail ofanidea, which ourgrandfathers used tohang behind their heads, and often enough alsobehind their understibsndings? It seems, therefore, thathowever littlewemay imagine our- selves tobeold-fashioned andgrandfatherly respectable in 141 142 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL other respects, inonethingwearenevertheless theworthy grandchildren ofourgrandfathers, welastEuropeans with good consciences: wealso stillwear their pigtail.Ah! if youonlyknewhow soon, soverysoonitwillbedifferent! 215 Asinthestellar firmament there aresometimes twosims which determine thepath ofone planet, and incertain cases suns ofdifferent colours shine around asingle planet, nowwith redlight,nowwith green, andthen simultaneously illumine and flood itwith motley colours: sowemodem men, owing tothecomplicated mechanism ofour"firma- ment," aredetermined bydifferent moralities; ouractions shine alternately indifferent colours, and areseldom un- equivocaland there areoften cases, also, inwhich our actions aremotley-coloured. 216 Tolove one's enemies? Ithink that hasbeen well learnt: ittakes place thousands oftimes atpresent ona large andsmall scale; indeed, attimes thehigher andsub- limer thing takes place:welearn todespise whenwelove, andprecisely whenwelove best; allofit,however, uncon- sciously, without noise, without ostentation, with theshame andsecrecy ofgoodness, which forbids theutterance ofthe pompous wordandtheformula ofvirtue. Morality asatti- tudeisopposed toourtaste nowadays. This isalsoan %idvance, asitwasanadvance inourfathers that religion asanattitude finally became opposed totheir taste, in- cludKig theenmity andVoltairean bitterness against reli- gion fand allthatformerly belonged tofreethinker-panto- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 143 mime). Itisthemusic inourconscience, thedance inour spirit, towhich Puritan litanies, moral sermons, andgoody- goodness won't chime. 217 Letusbecareful indealing with thosewho attach great importance tobeing credited withmoral tactandsubtlety inmoral discernment! They never forgive usiftheyhave oncemade amistake before us(oreven withregard tous) they inevitably become ourinstinctive calumniators andde- tractors, even when they stillremain our "friends." Blessed aretheforgetful: forthey "get thebetter" even of their blunders. 218 The psychologists ofFranceandwhere elsearethere stillpsychologists nowadays?^have never yetexhausted their bitter andmanifold enjoyment ofthe betise bour- geoise, justasthough ... inshort, theybetray something thereby. Flaubert, forinstance, thehonest citizen ofRouen, neither saw, heard, nortasted anything else intheend; it was hismode ofself-torment and refined cruelty. Asthis isgrowing wearisome, Iwould nowrecommend forachange something else forapleasurenamely, theunconscious astuteness withwhich good, fat,honest mediocrity always behaves towards loftier spirits andthetasks theyhave to perform, thesubtle, barbed, Jesuitical astuteness, which is athousand times subtler than thetasteandunderstanding ofthemiddle-class initsbestmomentssubtler eventhan theunderstanding ofitsvictims:arepeated proof that "instinct" isthemost intelligent ofallkinds ofintelli- 144 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL gence which have hitherto been discovered. Inshort, you psychologists, study thephilosophy ofthe"rule" inits struggle with the''exception": there youhave aspectacle fitforGods andgodlike malignity! Or,inplainer words, practise vivisection on"good people," onthe"homo bonae voluntatis," ...onyourselves! 219 The practice ofjudging andcondemning morally, isthe favourite revenge oftheintellectually shallow onthosewho areless so; itisalsoakind ofindemnity fortheir being badly endowed bynature; and finally, itisanopportunity foracquiring spirit andbecoming subtle:malice spiritual- ises.They areglad intheir inmost heart that there isa standard according towhich thosewho areover-endowed with intellectual goods and privileges, areequal tothem; they contend forthe"equality ofallbefore God," and almost need thebelief inGod forthispurpose Itisamong them that themost powerful antagonists ofatheism are found. Ifanyonewere tosaytothem: "alofty spirituality isbeyond allcomparison with thehonesty andrespectability ofamerely moral man"itwould make them furious; I shall take carenottosay so. Iwould rather flatter them withmytheory that lofty spirituality itself exists only as theultimate product ofmoral qualities; that itisasynthesis ofallqualities attributed tothe"merely moral" man, after theyhave been acquired singly through long training and practice, perhaps during awhole series ofgenerations; that lofty spirituality isprecisely thespiritualising ofjustice, and thebeneficent severity which knows that itisauthorised to. maintain gradations ofrank intheworld, evenamong thing? andnotonlyamong men.-I BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 145 220 Now that thepraise ofthe"disinterested person" isso popular onemustprobably notwithout some dangerget anidea ofwhat people actually takeaninterest in,and what arethethings generally which fundamentally and profoundly concern ordinary menincluding thecultured, even thelearned, andperhaps philosophers also, ifappear- ances donotdeceive. The factthereby becomes obvious that thegreater part ofwhat interests andcharms higher natures, andmore refined and fastidious tastes, seems abso- lutely "iminteresting" totheaverage man:if,notwith- standing, heperceive devotion tothese interests, hecalls itdesinteresse, andwonders how itispossible toact"disin- terestedly." There have been philosophers whocould give thispopular astonishment aseductive andmystical, other- world expression (perhaps because they didnotknow the higher nature byexperience?), instead ofstating thenaked andcandidly reasonable truth that "disinterested" action isvery interesting and"interested" action, provided that ... "And love?"What! Even anaction forlove's sake shall be"unegoistic"? Butyou fools !"And thepraise ofthe self-sacrificer?" Butwhoever has really offered sacrifice knows thathewanted andobtained something for itper- haps something from himself forsomething from himself; thatherelinquished here inorder tohavemore there, per- haps ingeneral tobemore, oreven feelhimself "more.'" But this isarealm ofquestions andanswers inwhich a more fastidious spirit doesnotlike tostay: forhere truth has tostifle heryawns somuch when she isobliged to answer. And after all,truth isawoman; onemust notus<^ force with her. 146 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 221 "Itsometimes happens," said amoralistic pedant ind trifle-retailer, "that Ihonour andrespect anunselfish man: not,however, because heisunselfish, butbecause Ithink he hasaright tobeuseful toanother man athisownexpense. Inshort, thequestion isalways who he is,andwho the other is.Forinstance, inaperson created anddestined for command, self-denial andmodest retirement, instead of being virtues would bethewaste ofvirtues: soitseems to me. Every system ofunegoistic morality which takes itself unconditionally and appeals toevery one, notonly sins against good taste, but isalsoanincentive tosinsofomis- sion,anadditional seduction under themask ofphilanthropyandprecisely aseduction andinjury tothehigher, rarer, andmore privileged types ofmen. Moral systems must be compelled firstofalltobowbefore thegradations ofrank; their presumption must bedriven home totheir conscienceuntil theythoroughly understand atlastthat itisimmoral tosaythat"what isright forone isproper foranother," Sosaidmymoralistic pedant andhonhomme. Didheper- haps deserve tobelaughed atwhen hethus exhorted sys- tems ofmorals topractise morality? Butoneshould not betoomuch intheright ifonewishes tohave thelaughers onone'sown side; agrain ofwrong pertains even togood taste. 222 Wherever S5mipathy (fellow-suffering) ispreached nowa daysand, ifIgather rightly, noother religion isany longer preachedletthepsychologist have hisearsopen\ i BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 147 through allthevanity, through allthenoise which isnatural tothese preachers (astoallpreachers), hewillhear a hoarse, groaning, genuine note ofself-contempt. Itbelongs totheovershadowing anduglifying ofEurope, which has been ontheincrease foracentury (the firstsymptoms of which arealready specified documentarily inathoughtful letter ofGaliani toMadame d'Epinay) ifitisnotreally thecause thereof! Theman of"modem ideas," thecon- ceited ape, isexcessively dissatisfied with himselfthis is perfectly certain. He suffers, and hisvanity wants him only *'tosuffer with hisfellows." 223 Thehybrid Europeanatolerably ugly plebeian, taken allinallabsolutely requires acostume: heneeds history asastoreroom ofcostumes. Tobesure, henotices that none ofthecostumes fithim properlyhechanges and changes. Letuslook atthenineteenth century with respect tothese hasty preferences andchanges initsmasquerades ofstyle, and alsowith respect toitsmoments ofdespera- tiononaccoimt of"nothing suiting" us. Itisinvain to getourselves upasromsmtic, orclassical, orChristian, or Florentine, orbarocco, or"national," inmoribus etartibus: itdoes not"clothe us"! But the"spirit," especially the "historical spirit," profits evenbythis desperation: once andagain anewsample ofthepast oroftheforeign is tested, puton,taken off,packed up,andabove allstudied wearethe first studious age inpuncto of"costumes," I mean asconcerns morals, articles ofbelief, artistic tastes, and religions; weareprepared asnoother agehasever been foracarnival inthegrand style, forthemost spiritual festival-laughter andarrogance, forthetranscendental height 148 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL ofsupreme follyandAristophanic ridicule oftheworld. Perhaps weare stilldiscovering thedomain ofourinvention just here, thedomain where evenwecan stillbeoriginal, probably asparodists oftheworld's history andasGod's Merry-Andrews, perhaps, though nothing elseofthepres- enthave afuture, ourlaughter itselfmayhave afuture! 224 The historical sense (orthecapacity fordivining quickly theorder ofrank ofthevaluations according towhich a people, acommimity, oranindividual haslived, the"divin- inginstinct" fortherelationships ofthese valuations, for therelation oftheauthority ofthevaluations totheauthor- ityoftheoperating forces),thishistorical sense, which we Europeans claim asour specialty, hascome tousinthe train oftheenchanting andmad semi-barbarity intowhich Europe hasbeen plunged bythedemocratic mingling of classes andracesitisonly thenineteenth century thathas recognised this faculty asitssixth sense. Owing tothis mingling, thepast ofevery formandmode oflife,andof cultures which were formerly closely contiguous andsuper- imposed ononeanother, flows forth intous"modem souls"; ourinstincts nowrunback inalldirections, weourselves are akind ofchaos: intheend, aswehave said, thespirit per- ceives itsadvantage therein. Bymeans ofoursemi-barbarity inbody and indesire, wehave secret access everywhere, such asanoble agenever had;wehave access above allto thelabyrinth ofimperfect civilisations, and toevery form ofsemi-barbarity thathasatanytime existed onearth ;and insofarasthemost considerable part ofhuman civilisation hitherto hasjustbeen semi-barbarity, the"historical sense" implies almost thesense and instinct foreverything, th 1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 149 taste andtongue foreverything: whereby itimmediately proves itself tobeanignoble sense. Forinstance, weenjoy Homer oncemore: itisperhaps ourhappiest acquisition that weknowhow toappreciate Homer, whom men ofdistin- guished culture (astheFrench oftheseventeenth century, likeSaint-Evremond, whoreproached himforhisesprit vastCy andeven Voltaire, thelastecho ofthecentury) cannot and could notsoeasily appropriatewhom they scarcely per- mitted themselves toenjoy. The very decided Yeaand Nay oftheir palate, their promptly ready disgust, their hesitating reluctance with regard toeverything strange, their horror ofthebad taste even oflively curiosity, and in general theaverseness ofevery distinguished and self-suffi- cing culture toavow anew desire, adissatisfaction with its own condition, oranadmiration ofwhat isstrange: allthis determines anddisposes them unfavourably eventowards the best things oftheworld which arenot their property or could notbecome their preyandnofaculty ismore unin- telligible tosuchmenthan just this historical sense, with itstruckling, plebeian curiosity. The case isnotdifferent with Shakespeare, that marvellous Spanish-Moorish-Saxon synthesis oftaste, overwhom anancient Athenian ofthe circle of^schylus would have half-killed himself withlaugh- terorirritation: butweaccept precisely thiswildmotley- ness, thismedley ofthemost delicate, themost coarse, and themost artificial, with asecret confidence and cordiality; weenjoy itasarefinement ofartreserved expressly forus, andallow ourselves tobeaslittle disturbed bytherepulsive fumes andtheproximity oftheEnglish populace inwhich Shakespeare's artand taste lives, asperhaps ontheChiaja ofNaples, where, with alloursenses awake, wegoour way,enchanted andvoluntarily, inspite ofthedrain-odour ofthelower quarters ofthetown. That asmen ofthe ^50 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL "historical sense" wehave our virtues, isnot tobedis- puted:weareunpretentious, unselfish, modest, brave, habituated toself-control and self-renunication, very grate- ful,very patient, verycomplaisant^butwith allthisweare perhaps notvery "tasteful." Letusfinally confess it,that what ismost difficult forusmen ofthe"historical sense" to grasp, feel, taste, and love, what finds usfundamentally prejudiced andalmost hostile, isprecisely theperfection and ultimate maturity inevery culture and art,theessentially noble inworks andmen, theirmoment ofsmooth seaand halcyon self-sufficiency, thegoldenness andcoldness which allthings show thathave perfected themselves. Perhaps our great virtue ofthehistorical sense isinnecessary contrast togood taste, atleast totheverybad taste; andwecan onlyevoke inourselves imperfectly, hesitatingly, andwithJ compulsion thesmall, short, andhappy godsends and glori- fications ofhuman lifeasthey shine hereand there: those moments andmarvellous experiences when agreatpower has voluntarily come toahaltbefore theboundless and infinite,when asuperabundance ofrefined delight hasbeen en- joyed byasudden checking and petrifying, bystanding firmly andplanting oneself fixedly onstilltrembling groimd. Proportionateness isstrange tous,letusconfess ittoour- selves; ouritching isreally theitching fortheinfinite, the immeasurable. Like therideronhisforward panting horse, weletthereins fallbefore theinfinite, wemodem men,we semi-barbarians andareonly inourhighest blisswhenweareinmost danger. 225 Whether itbehedonism, pessimism, utilitarianism, oreu^ dsemonism, allthose modes ofthinking which measure th< BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 151 worth ofthings according topleasure and pain, that is, according toaccompanying circumstances and secondary considerations, areplausible modes ofthought andnaivetes, which every oneconscious ofcreative powers andanartist's conscience willlookdown upon with scorn, though not without sjmnpathy. Sympathy foryou!tobesure, that is notsympathy asyouunderstand it:itisnotsympathy for social "distress," for"society" with itssickand misfor- tuned, forthehereditarily vicious anddefective who lieon theground around us; still less isitS5mipathy forthe grumbling, vexed, revolutionary slave-classes who strive af- terpowerthey call it"freedom." Oursympathy isalof- tierandfurther-sighted sympathy:weseehowmandwarfs himself, howyoudwarf him!andthere aremoments when weviewyoursympathy withanindescribable anguish, when weresist it,whenweregard your seriousness asmore dan- gerous thananykind oflevity. You want, ifpossible andthere isnotamore foolish "ifpossible" todoaway with suffering; andwe?itreally seems thatwewould rather have itincreased andmade worse than ithasever been! Well-being, asyouunderstand itiscertainly notp goal; itseems tousanend; acondition which atonce ren dersman ludicrous andcontemptible andmakes hisde- struction desirable! The discipline ofsuffering, ofgreat' sufferingknow yenotthat itisonly this discipline that hasproduced alltheelevations ofhumanity hitherto? The tension ofsoul inmisfortune which communicates toitits energy, itsshuddering inview ofrackand ruin, itsinven- tiveness andbravery inundergoing, enduring, interpreting, and exploiting misfortune, andwhatever depth, mystery, disguise, spirit, artifice, orgreatness hasbeen bestov/ed upon the soulhas itnotbeen bestowed through suffering, through thediscipline ofgreat suffering? Inman creature 152 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL and creator areunited: inman there isnotonly matter, shred, excess, clay, mire, folly, chaos; butthere isalsothe creator, thesculptor, thehardness ofthehammer, thedivin- ityofthespectator, andtheseventh daydoyeunderstand thiscontrast? And thatyoursympathy forthe"creature inman" applies tothatwhich hastobefashioned, bruised, forged, stretched, roasted, annealed, refinedtothatwhich must necessarily suffer, and ismeant tosuffer? And our sympathydoyenotunderstand what ourreverse sympathy applies to,when itresists yoursympathy astheworst of allpampering andenervation?So itissympathy against sympathy!But torepeat itonce more, there arehigher problems than theproblems ofpleasure andpainandsym- pathy; and allsystems ofphilosophy which dealonlywith these arenaivetes. 226 WeImmoralists. Thisworld withwhichweareconcerned, inwhich wehave tofearand love, thisalmost invisible, in- audible world ofdelicate command and delicate obedience, aworld of"almost" inevery respect, captious, insidious, sharp, andtenderyes, itiswell protected from clumsy spectators and familiar curiosity! Wearewoven intoa strong netandgarment ofduties, andcannot disengage our- selvesprecisely here,weare"men ofduty," even we! Occasionally itistruewedance inour"chains" andbe- twixt our"swords"; itisnone thelesstruethatmore often wegnash ourteeth under thecircumstances, andareimpa- tient atthesecret hardship ofour lot.Butdowhatwe will, foolsandappearances sayofus:"these aremenwithout duty,"wehave always foolsandappearances against us! BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 153 227 Honesty, granting that itisthevirtue from which we cannot ridourselves, wefree spiritswell,wewilllabour atitwith allourperversity and love,andnot tireof"per- fecting" ourselves inourvirtue, which alone remains': may itsglance somedayoverspread likeagilded, blue,mocking twilight thisaging civilisation with itsdullgloomy serious- ness! And if,nevertheless, ourhonesty should onedaygrow weary, and sigh,andstretch itslimbs, andfindustoohard, andwould fainhave itpleasanter, easier, and gentler, like anagreeable vice, letusremain hard,welatest Stoics, and letussend toitshelpwhatever devilry wehave inus: ourdisgust attheclumsy andundefined, omx"nitimur in vetitum" ourlove ofadventure, oursharpened and fastidi- ous curiosity, ourmost subtle, disguised, intellectual Will toPower anduniversal conquest, which rambles androves avidiously around alltherealms ofthefuture^letusgowith allour"devils" tothehelp ofour"God"! Itisprobable thatpeople willmisunderstand andmistake usonthat ac- count: what does itmatter! They willsay: "Their 'hon- esty'that istheir devilry, andnothing else!" What does itimatter! Andeven iftheywere right^have not allGods hitherto been such sanctified, re-baptized devils? And after all,what doweknow ofourselves? Andwhat the spirit thatleads uswants tobecalled? (Itisaquestion ofnames.) Andhowmany spirits weharbour? Ourhonesty, wefree spiritsletusbecareful lest itbecome ourvanity, ourorna- ment andostentation, ourlimitation, ourstupidity! Every virtue inclines tostupidity, every stupidity tovirtue; "stu- pidtothepoint ofsanctity," they sayinRussia,letus becareful lestoutofpure honesty wedonoteventually 154 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL1 become saints andbores! Isnot lifeahundred times too short forustobore ourselves? Onewould have tobelieve ineternal lifeinorder to. ... 228 Ihope tobeforgiven fordiscovering that allmoral philos- ophy hitherto hasbeen tedious andhasbelonged tothe soporific appliancesandthat "virtue," inmyopinion, has beenmore injured bythetediousness ofitsadvocates than byanything else; atthesame time, however, Iwould not wish tooverlook their general usefulness. Itisdesirable that asfewpeople aspossible should reflect upon morals, and consequently itisvery desirable that morals should not some daybecome interesting! But letusnotbeafraid! Things stillremain to-day astheyhave always been: Isee nooneinEurope whohas(ordiscloses) anidea ofthefact thatphilosophising concerning morals might beconducted in adangerous, captious, andensnaring mannerthatcalamity might beinvolved therein. Observe, forexample, theinde- fatigable, inevitable English utilitarians: how ponderously andrespectably they stalk on,stalk along (aHomeric meta- phor expresses itbetter) inthefootsteps ofBentham, just ashehadalready stalked inthefootsteps oftherespectable Helvetius! (no,hewasnotadangerous man, HelvetiusJ cesenateur Pococurante, touseanexpression ofGaliani). Nonewthought, nothing ofthenature ofafiner turning or] better expression ofanoldthought, noteven aproper his- tory ofwhat hasbeen previously thought onthesubject: 1 animpossible literature, taking itallinall,unless oneknowsj how toleaven itwithsome mischief. Ineffect, theoldj English vice called cant, which ismoral Tartuffism, has in- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL I55 sinuated itself eilso into these moralists (whom onemust certainly read with aneye totheir motives ifonemust readthem), concealed thistimeunder thenewform ofthe scientific spirit; moreover, there isnotabsent fromthem a secret struggle with thepangs ofconscience, from which a race offormer Puritans must naturally suffer, inalltheir scientific tinkering with morals. (Isnotamoralist theop- posite ofaPuritan? That istosay, asathinker who re- gards morality asquestionable, asworthy ofinterrogation, inshort, asaproblem? Ismoralising notimmoral?) In theend,they allwant English morality toberecognised as authoritative, inasmuch asmankind, orthe"general utility," or"thehappiness ofthegreatest number,''no!thehappi- ness ofEngland, willbebest served thereby. They would like,byallmeans, toconvince themselves that thestriving after English happiness, Imean after comfort andfashion (and inthehighest instance, aseat inParliament), isatthe same time thetruepath ofvirtue; infact, that insofaras there hasbeen virtue intheworld hitherto, ithasjustcon- sisted insuch striving. Notoneofthose ponderous, con- science-stricken herding-animals (who undertake toadvocate thecause ofegoism asconducive tothegeneral welfare) wants tohaveanyknowledge orinkling ofthefacts that the"general welfare" isnoideal, nogoal, nonotion that canbeatallgrasped, but isonly anostrum,thatwhat is fair toonemay notatallbefair toanother, that there- quirement ofonemorality for allisreally adetriment to higher men, inshort, that there isadistinction ofrank be- tween manandman, andconsequently between morality andmorality. They areanunassuming andfundamentally mediocre species ofmen, these utilitarian Englishmen, and, asalready remarked, insofarasthey aretedious, onecan- notthink highly enough oftheir utility. Oneought even to 156 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL encourage them, ashasbeen partially attempted inthefol- lowing rhymes: Hail, yeworthies, barrow-wheeling, "Longerbetter," ayerevealing, Stifferayeinheadandknee; Unenraptured, never jesting, Mediocre everlasting, Sans genie etsans esprit! 229 Inthese later ages, whichmaybeproud oftheirhuman- ity,there stillremains somuch fear, somuch superstition ofthe fear, ofthe"cruel wild beast," themastering of which constitutes thevery pride ofthese humaner ages thateven obvious truths, asifbytheagreement ofcenturies, have longremained unuttered, because theyhave theap- pearance ofhelping thefinally slain wildbeast back tolife again. Iperhaps risksomething when Iallow suchatruth toescape; letothers capture itagain andgive itsomuch "milk ofpious sentiment" *todrink, that itwill liedown quiet and forgotten, initsoldcorner.Oneought tolearn anew about cruelty, andopen one's eyes; oneought atlast tolearn impatience, inorder that such immodest gross errorsas,forinstance, have been fostered byancient and modem philosophers with regard totragedymay no longer wander about virtuously andboldly. Almost every-^ thing thatwecall"higher culture" isbased upon thespirit- ualising andintensifying ofcrueltythis ismythesis; thcj "wild beast" hasnotbeen slain atall, itlives, itflourishes, An expression from Schiller's William Tell,ActIV,Scene BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 157 hasonly beentransfigured. That which constitutes the painful delight oftragedy iscruelty; thatwhich operates agreeably inso-called tragic sympathy, and atthebasis even ofeverything sublime, uptothehighest andmost delicate thrills ofmetaphysics, obtains itssweetness solely from theintermingled ingredient ofcruelty. What theRo- manenjoys inthearena, theChristian intheecstasies ofthe cross, theSpaniard atthesight ofthefaggot and stake, or ofthebull-fight, thepresent-day Japanese who presses his way tothetragedy, theworkman oftheParisian suburbs whohasahomesickness forbloody revolutions, theWagner- ienne who, with unhinged will, "undergoes" theperform- ance of"Tristan and Isolde"what allthese enjoy, and strive with mysterious ardour todrink in, isthephiltre ofthegreat Circe "cruelty." Here, tobesure,wemust put aside entirely theblundering psychology offormer times, which could only teach with regard tocruelty that itorigi- nated atthesight ofthesuffering ofothers: there isan abundant, superabundant enjoyment even inone'sown suf- fering, incausing one'sown sufferingandwherever man hasallowed himself tobepersuaded toself-denial inthe religious sense, ortoself-mutilation, asamong thePhoeni- cians and ascetics, oringeneral, todesensualisation, decar- nalisation, and contrition, toPuritanical repentance-spasms, tovivisection ofconscience andtoPascal-like sacrifizia dell' intelleto, heissecretly allured andimpelled forwards byhis ICTuelty,bythedangerous thrill ofcruelty towards himself. [fFinally, letusconsider thateven theseeker ofknowledge pperates asanartist and glorifier ofcruelty, inthathe compels hisspirit toperceive against itsown inclination, and often enough against thewishes ofhisheart:heforces it tosayNay, where hewould liketoaffirm, love,and adore.; raideed, every instance oftaking athing profoundly and 158 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL fundamentally, isaviolation, anintentional injuring ofthe iundamental willofthe spirit, which instinctively aims at appearance and superficiality, even inevery desire for knowledge there isadrop ofcruelty. 230 Perhaps what Ihave saidhereabout a"fundamental will jfthespirit" may notbeunderstood without further de- tails; Imaybeallowed aword ofexplanation.^That im- perious something which ispopularly called "the spirit," wishes tobemaster internally and externally, and tofeel itself master; ithasthe willofamultiplicity forasim- plicity, abinding, taming, imperious, and essentially ruling will. Itsrequirements andcapacities here, arethesame as those assigned byphysiologists toeverything that lives, grows, and multiplies. Thepower ofthe spirit toappro- priate foreign elements reveals itself inastrong tendency to assimilate thenew totheold, tosimplify themanifold, to overlook orrepudiate theabsolutely contradictory; just as itarbitrarily re-underlines, makes prominent, and falsifies foritself certain traits and lines intheforeign elements, in every portion ofthe"outside world." Itsobject thereby isi theincorporation ofnew "experiences," theassortment of new thing's intheoldarrangements inshort, growth; or more properly, thefeeling ofgrowth, thefeeling ofincreased powerisitsobject. Thissame willhasatitsservice an apparently opposed impulse ofthespirit, asuddenly adopted preference ofignorance, ofarbitrary shutting out,aclosing ofwindows, aninner denial ofthisorthat, aprohibition to approach, asortofdefensive attitude against much that is knowable, acontentment with obscurity, with theshutting-in horizon, anacceptance andapproval ofignorance: asthai1 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 159 which isallnecessary according tothedegree ofitsappro- priating power, its"digestive power," tospeak figuratively (and infact"the spirit" resembles astomach more than anything else). Here alsobelong anoccasional propensity ofthe spirit toletitself bedeceived (perhaps with awag- gishsuspicion that itisnotsoand so,but isonlyallowed to pass assuch), adelight inuncertainty andambiguity, an exulting enjojonent ofarbitrary, out-of-the-way narrowness andmystery, ofthetoo-near, oftheforeground, ofthe magnified, thediminished, themisshapen, thebeautifiedan enjoyment ofthearbitrariness ofallthese manifestations of power. Finally, inthisconnection, there isthenotunscru- pulous readiness ofthe spirit todeceive other spirits and dissemble before themtheconstant pressing and straining ofacreating, shaping, changeable power: the spirit enjoys therein itscraftiness and itsvariety ofdisguises, itenjoys also itsfeeling ofsecurity thereinitisprecisely byitsPro- tean artsthat itisbest protected andconcealed! Counter tothispropensity forappearance, forsimplification, fora disguise, foracloak, inshort, foranoutsideforevery out- side isacloakthere operates thesublime tendency ofthe man ofknowledge, which takes, and insists ontaking things profoundly, variously, andthoroughly; asakind ofcruelty oftheintellectual conscience and taste, which every cour- ageous thinker willacknowledge inhimself, provided, asit ought tobe,thathehassharpened andhardened hiseye ^sufficiently long forintrospection, and isaccustomed tose- verediscipline andeven severe words. Hewillsay:"There issomething cruel inthetendency ofmy spirit": letthe idrtuous andamiable trytoconvince himthat itisnotso! tnfact, itwould sound nicer, if,instead ofourcruelty, per- lapsour"extravagant honesty" were talked about, whis- jredabout and glorifiedwefree, very free spiritsand i6o BEYOND GOODANDEVIL some dayperhaps such will actually beourposthumous glory! Meanwhileforthere isplenty oftime until then weshould beleast inclined todeck ourselves outinsuch florid andfringed moral verbiage; ourwhole former work hasjustmade ussickofthistasteand itssprightly exuber- ance. They arebeautiful, glistening, jingling, festive words: honesty, love oftruth, love ofwisdom, sacrifice forknowl- edge, heroism ofthetruthfulthere issomething inthem thatmakes one's heart swell with pride. Butweanchorites andmarmots have long agopersuaded ourselves inallthe secrecy ofananchorite's conscience, that thisworthy parade ofverbiage alsobelongs totheoldfalse adornment, frip- pery, andgold-dust ofunconscious human vanity, andthat evenunder such flattering colour andrepainting, theterrible original texthomo natura must again berecognised. Inef- fect, totranslate manback again into nature; tomaster themany vainandvisionary interpretations andsubordinate meanings which have hitherto been scratched anddaubed over theeternal original text,homo natura; tobring it about thatman shall henceforth stand beforeman ashenow, hardened bythediscipline ofscience, stands before theother forms ofnature, with fearless CEdipus-eyes, andstopped Ulysses-ears, deaf totheenticements ofoldmetaphysical bird-catchers, whohave piped tohim fartoolong: "Thou artmore! thou arthigher! thou hastadifferent origin!" thismaybeastrange and foolish task,butthat itisatask, whocandeny! Why didwechoose it,this foolish task? Or,toputthequestion differently: "Why knowledge at all?" Every one willaskusabout this.Andthus pressed, we,whohave asked ourselves thequestion ahundred times, have notfoimd, andcannot findany better answer. I BEYOND GOODANDEVIL i6i 231 Learning alters us, itdoeswhat allnourishment does that doesnotmerely "conserve"asthephysiologist knows. But atthebottom ofoursouls, quite"down below," there iscer- tainly something unteachable, agranite ofspiritual fate, of predetermined decision andanswer topredetermined, chosen questions. Ineach cardinal problem there sp)eaks anim- changeable "Iamthis"; athinker cannot learnanew about manandwoman, forinstance, butcanonly learn fully^he canonly follow totheendwhat is"fixed" about them in himself. Occasionally wefind certain solutions ofproblems which make strong beliefs forus;perhaps they arehence- forth called "convictions." Later ononesees inthem only footsteps toself-knowledge, guide-posts totheproblem which weourselves areormore correctly tothegreat stupidity which weembody, ourspiritual fate, theunteachable inus, quite "down below."Inview ofthis liberal compliment which Ihave justpaid myself, permission willperhaps be more readily allowed metouttersome truths about"woman assheis,"provided that itisknown attheoutset how liter- allythey aremerely mytruths. 232 Woman wishes tobeindependent, andtherefore shebe- istoenlighten menabout"woman assheis" this isone )ftheworst developments ofthegeneral uglifying ofEur- )pe. Forwhat must these clumsy attempts offeminine :ientificality and self-exposure bring tolight! Woman has much cause forshame; inwoman there issomuch pe- mtry, superficiality, schoolmasterliness, petty presumption, 162 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL unbridledness, andindiscretion concealedstudy onlywom- an'sbehaviour towards children!which has really been best restrained anddominated hitherto bythefear ofman. Alas, ifever the"eternally tedious inwoman"shehas plenty ofit!isallowed toventure forth! ifshebegins radically andonprinciple tounlearn herwisdom and art ofcharming, ofplaying, offrightening away sorrow, ofalle- viating andtaking easily; ifsheforgets herdelicate aptitude foragreeable desires! Female voices arealready raised, which, bySaint Aristophanes! make oneafraid:withmedi- calexplicitness itisstated inathreatening manner what woman firstand lastrequires fromman. Isitnotinthe veryworst taste thatwoman thus setsherself uptobescien- tific? Enlightenment hitherto hasfortunately been men's affair, men's giftweremained therewith "among ourselves"; and intheend, inview ofallthatwomen write about "woman," wemay wellhave considerable doubt astowhether woman really desires enlightenment about herselfandcan desire it.Ifwoman doesnotthereby seekanewornament forherselfIbelieve ornamentation belongs totheeternally feminine?why, then, shewishes tomake herself feared: perhaps shethereby wishes togetthemastery. Butshedoes notwant truthwhat doeswoman care fortruth? From thevery firstnothing ismore foreign, more repugnant, or more hostile towoman than truthhergreat art isfalse- hood, herchief concern isappearance andbeauty. Letus confess it,wemen:wehonour andlove thisvery artand thisvery instinct inwoman: wewhohave thehard task, and forourrecreation gladly seek thecompany ofbeings under whose hands, glances, and delicate follies, our seri- ousness, ourgravity, andprofundity appear almost like fol liestous. Finally, Iaskthequestion: Didawoman her ?e]feveracknowledge profundity inawoman's mind, oii BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 163 justice inawoman's heart? And isitnottrue thatonthe whole ''woman" hashitherto beenmost despised bywoman herself, andnotatallbyus?Wemen desire thatwoman should notcontinue tocompromise herself byenlightening us;just asitwasman's careand theconsideration for woman, when thechurch decreed: mulier taceat inecclesia. [twastothebenefit ofwoman when Napoleon gave thetoo eloquent Madame deStael tounderstand: mulier taceat in politicisfand inmyopinion, heisatrue friend ofwoman who callsouttowomen to-day: mulier taceat demulier e! 233 Itbetrays corruption oftheinstincts apart from the fact that itbetrays bad tastewhen awoman refers to Madame Roland, orMadame deStael, orMonsieur George Sand, asthough something were proved thereby infavour of"woman asshe is."Among men, these arethethree comical women asthey arenothing more!and justthe best involuntary counter-arguments against feminine eman- -cipation andautonomy. 234 Stupidity inthekitchen; woman ascook; the terrible loughtlessness withwhich thefeeding ofthefamily and lemaster ofthehouse ismanaged! Woman doesnotun- ierstand what foodmeans, andsheinsists onbeing cook! [fwoman hadbeen athinking creature, sheshould cer- linly, ascook forthousands ofyears, have discovered the lostimportant physiological facts, andshould likewise have jotpossession ofthehealing art !Through badfemale cooks -through theentire lack ofreason inthekitchenthede- 164 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL velopment ofmankind hasbeen longest retarded andmost interfered with: even to-day matters arevery little better. Aword toHigh School girls. 23s There areturns and casts offancy, there aresentences, little handfuls ofwords, inwhich awhole culture, awhole society suddenly crystallises itself. Among these isthein- cidental remark ofMadame deLambert toherson:"Mon ami,nevouspermettez jamais quedesfolies, quivous feront grand plaisir"themotherliest and wisest remark, bythe way, thatwaseveraddressed toason. 236 Ihavenodoubt thatevery noblewoman willoppose what Dante andGoethe believed aboutwomantheformer when hesang, "ella guardava suso, edioinlei,"andthelatter when heinterpreted it,"the eternally feminine draws us aloft"; forthis isjustwhat shebelieves oftheeternally mas-, culine. 237 Seven Apophthegms forWomen How thelongest ennui flees, When amancomes toourknees!' Age, alas! and science staid, Furnish evenweak virtue aid. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 165 Sombre garband silence meet: Dress foreverydamediscreet. Whom Ithank when inmybliss? God!andmygood tailoress! Young, aflower-decked cavern home; Old,adragon thence doth roam. Noble title, legthat's fine, Man aswell: Oh,were hemine! Sjjeech inbriefandsense inmass Slippery forthejenny-ass! 237A Woman hashitherto been treated bymen likebirds, which, losing their way, havecomedown among them from an elevation: assomething delicate, fragile, wild, strange, sweet, andanimatingbutassomething alsowhich mustbecooped uptoprevent itflying away. 238 Tobemistaken inthefundamental problem of"man and roman," todeny here theprofoundest antagonism andthe necessity foraneternally hostile tension, todream here per- ipsofequal rights, equal training, equal claims andobliga- tions: that isatypical sign ofshallow-mindedness ;anda linker whohasproved himself shallow atthisdangerous )tshallow ininstinct!may generally beregarded as ispicious, naymore, asbetrayed, asdiscovered; hewill 166 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL probably prove too"short" for allfundamental questions oflife,future aswell aspresent, and willbeunable tode- scend intoanyofthedepths. Ontheother hand, aman whohasdepth ofspirit aswell asofdesires, andhasalso thedepth ofbenevolence which iscapable ofseverity and harshness, and easily confounded withthem, canonly think ofwoman asOrientals do:hemust conceive ofherasa possession, asconfinable property, asabeing predestined for service and accomplishing hermission therein^hemust take hisstand inthismatter upon theimmense rationality ofAsia,upon thesuperiority oftheinstinct ofAsia, asthe Greeks didformerly; those best heirsandscholars ofAsia who, asiswellknown, with their increasing culture andam- plitude ofpower, fromHomer tothetime ofPericles, became gradually stricter towards woman, inshort, more oriental. How necessary, how logical, evenhowhumanely desirable thiswas, letusconsider forourselves! 239 Theweaker sexhasinnoprevious agebeen treated with somuch respect bymen asatpresentthisbelongs tothe tendency andfundamental taste ofdemocracy, inthesame way asdisrespectfulness tooldagewhatwonder isitthat abuse should beimmediately made ofthisrespect? They want more, they learn tomake claims, thetribute ofrespect isatlast felttobewell-nigh galling; rivalry forrights, in- deed actual strife itself, would bepreferred: inaword, woman islosing modesty. And letusimmediately addthat she isalsolosing taste. She isunlearning tojearman: but thewoman who"unlearns tofear" sacrifices hermostwom- anly instincts. Thatwoman should venture forward when thefear-inspiring quality inmanormore definitely, thJi BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 167 man inmanisnolonger either desired orfully developed, isreasonable enough and also intelligible enough; what is more difficult tounderstand isthat precisely thereby woman deteriorates. This iswhat ishappening nowadays: letusnotdeceive ourselves about it!Wherever theindus- trial spirit hastriumphed over themilitary and aristocratic spirit,woman strives fortheeconomic and legal independ- ence ofaclerk: ''woman asclerkess" isinscribed onthepor- talofthemodern society which isincourse offormation. While shethus appropriates new rights, aspires tobe"mas- ter,"and inscribes "progress" ofwoman onher flagsand banners, thevery opposite realises itself with terrible ob- viousness: woman retrogrades. Since theFrench Revolution theinfluence ofwoman inEurope hasdeclined inproportion asshehasincreased herrights andclaims; andthe"emanci- pation ofwoman," insofarasitisdesired anddemanded bywomen themselves (and notonlybymasculine shallow- pates), thusproves tobearemarkable symptom ofthein- creased weakening anddeadening ofthemostwomanly in- stincts. There isstupidity inthismovement, analmost mas- culine stupidity, ofwhich awell-reared womanwho isal- ways asensible womanmight beheartily ashamed. To losetheintuition astotheground upon which shecanmost surely achieve victory; toneglect exercise intheuseofher proper weapons; tolet-herself-go before man, perhaps even "tothebook," where formerly shekept herself incontrol and inrefined, artful humility; toneutralise with her vir- tuous audacity man's faith inaveiled, fundamentally differ- itideal inwoman, something eternally, necessarily femi- ine; toemphatically andloquaciously dissuade manfrom leidea thatwoman must bepreserved, cared for,pro- ected, andindulged, likesome delicate, strangely wild,and tften pleasant domestic animal; theclumsy andindignant 168 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL collection ofeverything ofthenature ofservitude andbond- agewhich theposition ofwoman inthehitherto existing order ofsociety hasentailed and still entails (asthough fslavery wereacounter-argument, andnotrather acondition ofevery higher culture, ofevery elevation ofculture): what does allthisbetoken, ifnotadisintegration ofwomanly instincts, ade-feminising? Certainly, there areenough of idiotic friends andcorrupters ofwoman amongst thelearned asses ofthemasculine sex,whoadvisewoman tode-feminise herself inthismanner, andtoimitate allthestupidities from which "man" inEurope, European "manliness," suffers, whowould liketolowerwoman to"general culture," indeed even tonewspaper reading andmeddling with politics. Here andthere they wish even tomakewomen into free spirits and literary workers: asthough awoman without piety would notbesomething perfectly obnoxious orludicrous to aprofound andgodless man;almost everywhere hernerves arebeing ruined bythemostmorbid anddangerous kind of music (our latest German music), andshe isdaily being made more hysterical andmore incapable offulfilling her firstandlastfunction, thatofbearing robust children. They wish to"cultivate" heringeneral stillmore, andintend, as they say, tomake the"weaker sex" strong byculture: as ifhistory didnotteach inthemost emphatic manner that the"cultivating" ofmankind andhisweakeningthat isto say,theweakening, dissipating, andlanguishing ofhisforce ofwillhave always keptpace withoneanother, andthat themost powerful and influential women intheworld (and lastly, themother ofNapoleon) had just tothank their force ofwillandnottheir schoolmasters! fortheirpower andascendency overmen. That which inspires respect in woman, andoften enough fear also, ishernature, which is more "natural" than that ofman, hergenuine, camivora- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 169 like,cunning flexibility, hertiger-claws beneath theglove, hernaivete inegoism, heruntrainableness andinnate wild- ness, theincomprehensibleness, extent anddeviation ofher desires and virtues. . . .That which, inspite offear, ex- cites one's sympathy forthedangerous andbeautiful cat, "woman," isthatsheseems more afflicted, more vulnerable, more necessitous ofloveandmorecondemned todisillusion- ment thananyother creature. Fearandsympathy: itis with these feelings thatmanhashitherto stood inthepres- ence ofwoman, always with onefootalready intragedy, which rends while itdelights.What? And allthat isnow tobeatanend? And thedisenchantment ofwoman isin progress? The tediousness ofwoman isslowly evolving? OhEurope! Europe! Weknow thehomed animal which wasalways most attractive tothee, from which danger is ever again threatening thee! Thy oldfable might once morebecome "history"animmense stupidity might once again overmaster theeandcarry theeaway! AndnoGod concealed beneath itno! only an"idea," a"modem idea"! ... CHAPTER VIII Peoples andCountries 240 IHEARD, once again forthe first time, Richard Wagner's overture totheMaster singers: itisapiece ofmagnificent, gorgeous, heavy, latter-day art,which hasthepride topre- suppose twocenturies ofmusic asstill living, inorder that it maybeunderstood:itisanhonour toGermans thatsucha pride didnotmiscalculate! Wliat flavours and forces, what seasons andclimes dowenotfindmingled init! Itim- presses usatonetime asancient, atanother time asforeign, bitter, andtoomodem, itisasabitrary asitispompously traditional, itisnotinfrequently roguish, stilloftener rough andcoarseithas fireandcourage, and atthesame time theloose, dun-coloured skin offruits which ripen too late. Itflows broad and full:andsuddenly there isamoment of inexplicable hesitation, likeagapthatopens between cause and effect, anoppression thatmakes usdream, almost a nightmare; butalready itbroadens andwidens anew, the oldstream ofdelightthemost manifold delight,ofold andnewhappiness; including especially thejoyoftheartist inhimself, which herefuses toconceal, hisastonished, happy cognisance ofhismastery oftheexpedients hereemployed, thenew, newly acquired, imperfectly tested expedients of 170 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 171 artwhich heapparently betrays tous. Allinall,however, nobeauty, noSouth, nothing ofthedelicate southern clear- ness ofthesky,nothing ofgrace, nodance, hardly awill tologic; acertain clumsiness even, which isalsoempha- sised, asthough theartist wished tosaytous: "It ispart ofmyintention"; acumbersome drapery, something arbi- trarily barbaric andceremonious, aflirring oflearned and venerable conceits and witticisms; something German in thebestandworst sense oftheword, something intheGer- man style, manifold, formless, andinexhaustible; acertain German potency andsuper-plenitude ofsoul, which isnot afraid tohide itself under theraffinements ofdecadence which, perhaps, feels itself most atease there; areal, gen- uine token oftheGerman soul,which isatthesame time young andaged, tooripeandyet stilltoorich infuturity. Thiskind ofmusic expresses bestwhat Ithink oftheGer- mans: theybelong tothedaybefore yesterday andtheday afterto-morrow theyhave asyetnoto-day. 241 We"good Europeans," wealsohave hours when v/e allow ourselves awarm-hearted patriotism, aplunge and relapse intooldlovesandnarrow viewsIhave justgiven anexample ofit^hours ofnational excitement, ofpatriotic anguish, and allother sorts ofold-fashioned floods ofsenti- lent. Duller spiritsmayperhaps only getdone withwhat jnfines itsoperations inustohours andplays itself out hoursinaconsiderable time: some inhalfayear, others halfalifetime, according tothespeed andstrength with ^hich they digest and"change their material." Indeed, I 3uldthink ofsluggish, hesitating races, which even inour 172 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL rapidly moving Europe, would require halfacentury ere theycould surmount such atavistic attacks ofpatriotism and soil-attachment, andreturn oncemore toreason, that isto say, to"good Europeanism." And while digressing onthis possibility, Ihappen tobecome anear-witness ofaconver- sation between twooldpatriotstheywere evidently both hard ofhearing andconsequently spoke allthelouder. "He hasasmuch, andknows asmuch, philosophy asapeasant oracorps-student," saidtheone"he isstillinnocent. But what does that matter nowadays! Itistheageofthe masses: they lieontheir belly before everything that ismas- sive.Andsoalsoinpoliticis. Astatesman who rearsupfor them anewTower ofBabel, some monstrosity ofempire andpower, they call 'great'what does itmatter thatwe more prudent andconservative onesdonotmeanwhile give uptheoldbelief that itisonly thegreat thought that gives greatness toanaction oraffair. Supposing astatesman were tobring hispeople into theposition ofbeing obliged henceforth topractise 'high politics,' forwhich theywereby nature badly endowed andprepared, sothattheywould have tosacrifice their oldandreliable virtues, outoflove toanew anddoubtful mediocrity;supposing astatesman were to condemn hispeople generally to'practise politics,' when theyhave hitherto hadsomething better todoandthink about, andwhen inthedepths oftheir souls theyhavebeen unable tofreethemselves from aprudent loathing ofthe restlessness, emptiness, andnoisy wranglings oftheessen- tially politics-practising nations;supposing such astate- manwere tostimulate theslumbering passions and avidities ofhispeople, were tomake astigma outoftheir former diffidence and delight inaloofness, anoffence outoftheir exoticism andhidden permanency, were todepreciate their most radical proclivities, subvert their consciences, make BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 173 their minds narrow, and their tastes 'national'what! a statesmcin whoshould doallthis,which hispeople would have todopenance forthroughout their whole future, if theyhadafuture, suchastatesman would begreat, would he?""Undoubtedly!" replied theother oldpatriot vehe- mently; "otherwise hecould nothavedone it! Itwasmad perhaps towish such athing! Butperhaps everything great hasbeen justasmad atitscommencement!" "Mis- useofwords!" cried his interlocutor, contradictorily "strong! strong! Strong andmad! Notgreat!"The old menhad obviously become heated asthey thus shouted their "truths" ineach other's faces; but I,inmyhappiness and apartness, considered how soon astronger onemay become master ofthestrong; and alsothat there isacom- pensation fortheintellectual superficialising ofanation namely, inthedeepening ofanother. 242 Whether we call it"civilisation," or"humanising," or "progress," which now distinguishes theEuropean; whether wecall itsimply, without praise orblame, bythepolitical formula: thedemocratic movement inEuropebehind all themoral and political foregrounds pointed tobysuch formulas, animmense physiological process goes on,which isever extending: theprocess oftheassimilation ofEuro- peans; their increasing detachment from theconditions un- derwhich, climatically and hereditarily, united races origi- tte;their increasing independence ofevery definite milieu, atforcenturies would fain inscribe itself with equal de- mands onsoulandbody;that istosay,theslowemergence tanessentially super-national andnomadic species ofman, opossesses, physiologically speaking, amaximum ofthe 174 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL artandpower ofadaptation ashistypical distinction. This process oftlieevolving European, which canberetarded in itstempo bygreat relapses, but willperhaps justgainand grow thereby invehemence and depththe still raging storm and stress of"national sentiment" pertains toit,and also theanarchism which isappearing atpresentthis process willprobably arrive atresults onwhich itsnaive propagators andpanegyrists, theapostles of"modern ideas," would least care toreckon. Thesamenewconditions under which onanaverage alevelling andmediocrising ofman willtake placeauseful, industrious, variously serviceable andclever gregarious manareinthehighest degree suitable togive rise toexceptional men ofthemost dangerous and attractive qualities. For,while thecapacity foradaptation, which isevery daytrying changing conditions, andbegins a newwork with every generation, almost with every decade, makes thepower julness ofthetype impossible; while the collective impression ofsuch future Europeans willprobably bethatofnumerous, talkative, weak-willed, andveryhandy workmen who require amaster, acommander, asthey re- quire their daily bread; while, therefore, thedemocratising ofEurope willtend totheproduction ofatype prepared forslavery inthemost subtle sense oftheterm: thestrong man will necessarily inindividual and exceptional cases, become stronger and richer thanhehasperhaps everbeen beforeo^ving totheunprejudicedness ofhisschooling, ow- ingtotheimmense variety ofpractice, art,and disguise. I meant tosaythat thedemocratising ofEurope isatthe same timeaninvoluntary arrangement fortherearing of tyrantstaking theword inallitsmeanings, even inits most spiritual sense.d BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 175 243 Ihear with pleasure thatoursun ismoving rapidly to- wards theconstellation Hercules: and Ihope that themen onthisearth willdolikethesim.Andweforemost, we good Europeans! 244 There wasatimewhen itwascustomary tocallGermans "deep" byway ofdistinction; butnow that themost suc- cessful type ofnewGermanism iscovetous ofquite other honours, andperhaps misses "smartness" inallthathas depth, itisalmost opportune andpatriotic todoubt whether wedidnotformerly deceive ourselves with thatcommenda- tion: inshort, whether German depth isnotatbottom some- thing different andworseandsomething from which, thank God,weareonthepoint ofsuccessfully ridding ourselves. Letustry,then, toreleam with regard toGerman depth; theonly thing necessary forthepurpose isalittle vivi- section oftheGerman soul.TheGerman soul isabove all manifold, varied initssource, aggregated andsuperimposed, rather than actually built: this isowing toitsorigin. A German whowould embolden himself toassert: "Two souls, alas, dwell inmybreast," would make abadguess atthe truth, or,more correctly, hewould come farshort ofthe truth about thenumber ofsouls. Asapeople made upof themost extraordinary mixing andmingling ofraces, per- haps even withapreponderance ofthepre-Aryan element, asthe"people ofthecentre" inevery sense oftheterm, theGermans aremore intangible, more ample, more con- adictory, more unknown, more incalculable, more sur- I 176 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL prising, andevenmore terrifying than other peoples areto themselves:they escape definition, andarethereby alone thedespair oftheFrench. Itischaracteristic oftheGer- maas that thequestion: "What isGerman?" never dies outamong them. Kotzebue certainly knew hisGermans wellenough: "weareknown," they cried jubilantly tohim butSand alsothought heknew them. Jean Paulknew what hewasdoing when hedeclared himself incensed at Fichte's lying but patriotic flatteries and exaggerations, but itisprobable thatGoethe thought differently about Ger- mans fromJean Paul, eventhough heacknowledged him to beright withregard toFichte. Itisaquestion what Goethe really thought about theGermans?Butaboutmany things around himhenever spoke explicitly, and allhis lifehe knewhow tokeepanastute silenceprobably hehadgood reason for it.Itiscertain that itwasnotthe"Wars ofIn- dependence" thatmade him lookupmore joyfully, any more than itwas theFrench Revolution,theevent on account ofwhich hereconstructed his"Faust," andindeed thewhole problem of"man," wastheappearance ofNa- poleon. There arewords ofGoethe inwhich hecondemns with impatient severity, asfrom aforeign land, thatwhich Germans takeapride in:heonce defined thefamous German turn ofmind as"Indulgence towards itsownand others' weaknesses." Washewrong? itischaracteristic ofGermans thatone isseldom entirely wrong about them. TheGerman soulhaspassages and galleries init,there arecaves, hiding- places, anddungeons thereir.; itsdisorder hasmuch ofthe charm ofthemysterious; theGerman iswell acquainted with theby-paths tochaos. And aseverything loves its symbol, sotheGerman loves theclouds and allthat isob- scure, evolving, crepuscular, damp, andshrouded: itseems tohim thateverything uncertain, undeveloped, self-displac- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 177 ing,andgrowing is"deep." TheGerman himself doesnot exist: heisbecoming, heis"developing himself." "Develop- ment" istherefore theessentially German discovery andhit inthegreat domain ofphilosophical formulas,aruling idea, which, together withGerman beerandGerman music, islabouring toGermanise allEurope. Foreigners areas- tonished andattracted bytheriddles which theconflicting nature atthebasis oftheGerman soulpropounds tothem (riddles which Hegel systematised andRichard Wagner has intheend settomusic). "Good-natured and spiteful" suchajuxtaposition, preposterous inthecaseofevery other people, isunfortunately only toooften justified inGermany: onehasonly tolive forawhileamong Swabians toknow this! Theclumsiness oftheGerman scholar andhis sociil distastefulness agree alarmingly wellwith hisphysical rope- dancing andnimble boldness, ofwhich alltheGods have learnt tobeafraid. Ifanyonewishes toseethe"German soul" demonstrated adoculos, lethimonly look atGerman taste, atGerman artsandmanners: what boorish indifference to"taste"! How thenoblest and thecommonest stand there injuxtaposition! How disorderly andhow rich isthe whole constitution ofthis soul! TheGerman drags athis soul,hedrags ateverything heexperiences. Hedigests his events badly; henever gets"done" withthem; andGerman depth isoften onlyadifficult, hesitating "digestion." And justasallchronic invalids, alldyspeptics, likewhat iscon- venient, sotheGerman loves "fr^ikness" and"honesty"; itissoconvenient tobefrank andhonest!This confiding- ness, thiscomplaisance, thisshowing-the-cards ofGerman honesty, isprobably themost dangerous andmost successful disguise which theGerman isuptonowadays: itishisproper Mephistophelean art;with thishecan "still achieve much"! riBieGerman letshimself go,andthereby gazes with faithful, 178 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL blue,empty German eyesandother coimtries immediately confound him with hisdressing-gown! Imeant tosay that, let"German depth" bewhat itwillamong ourselves aloneweperhaps take theliberty tolaugh atitweshalldo well tocontinue henceforth tohonour itsappearance and goodname, andnotbarter away toocheaply ouroldreputa- tion asapeople ofdepth forPrussian "smartness," and Berlin witandsand. Itiswise forapeople topose,and let itselfberegarded, asprofound, clumsy, good-natured, honest, and foolish: itmight evenbeprofound todoso! Finally, weshould dohonour toournamewearenotcalled the "tiusche Volk" (deceptive people) fornothing. ... 245 The"good old"time ispast, itsang itself outinMozart howhappy arewethat hisrococo stillspeaks tous,that his "good company," histender enthusiasm, hischildish delight intheChinese and itsflourishes, Ihiscourtesy ofheart, his longing fortheelegant, theamorous, thetripping, thetearful, and hisbelief intheSouth, can stillappeal tosomething left inus! Ah,some time orother itwillbeover with it! butwhocandoubt that itwillbeover stillsooner with the intelligence and taste forBeethoven! Forhewasonly the lastecho ofabreak and transition instyle, and not, like Mozart, thelastecho ofagreat European taste which had existed forcenturies. Beethoven istheintermediate event between anoldmellow soulthat isconstantly breaking down, andafuture over-young soulthat isalways coming; there is spread over hismusic thetwilight ofeternal lossandeternal extravagant hope,thesame light inwhich Europe was bathed when itdreamed with Rousseau, when itdanced round theTree ofLiberty oftheRevolution, and finaOfll BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 179 almost felldown inadoration before Napoleon. Buthow rapidly does thisvery sentiment now pale,how difficult nowadays iseven theapprehension ofthissentiment, how strangely does thelanguage ofRousseau, Schiller, Shelley, andByron sound toourear,inwhom collectively thesame fateofEurope wasable tospeak, which knewhow tosing inBeethoven!Whatever German music came afterwards, belongs toRomanticism, that istosay, toamovement which, historically considered, was stillshorter, more fleeting, andmore superficial than that great interlude, thetransition ofEurope from Rousseau toNapoleon, and totheriseof democracy. Weber^butwhat dowecarenowadays for "Freischutz" and"Oberon"! OrMarschner's "Hans Hell- ing"and"Vampyre"! Oreven Wagner's "Tarmhauser"! That isextinct, although notyetforgotten music. Thiswhole music ofRomanticism, besides, wasnotnoble enough, was notmusical enough, tomaintain itsposition anywhere but inthetheatre andbefore themasses; from thebeginning it wassecond-rate music, which was little thought ofbygen- uine musicians. Itwas different with Felix Mendelssohn, thathalcyon master, who, onaccount ofhislighter, purer, happier soul, quickly acquired admiration, andwasequally quickly forgotten: asthebeautiful episode ofGerman music. Butwith regard toRobert Schumann, whotook things se- riously, andhasbeen taken seriously from thefirst he wasthelastthatfounded aschool,dowenotnowregard itasasatisfaction, arelief, adeliverance, that thisvery Romanticism ofSchumann's hasbeen surmounted? Schu- mann, fleeing intothe"Saxon Switzerland" ofhissoul, with ahalf Werther-like, half Jean-Paul-like nature (assuredly notlikeBeethoven! assuredly notlikeByron!)^hisMan- fredmusic isamistake andamisunderstanding totheextent ofinjustice; Schumann, with histaste, which wasfunda- i8o BEYOND GOODANDEVIL maitally apetty taste (that istosay,adangerous propensitydoubly dangerous among Germansforquiet lyricism and intoxication ofthefeelings), going constantly apart, timidly withdrawing and retiring, anoble weakling who revelled in nothing butzmonymous joyandsorrow, from thebegirming asortofgirland nolimetangerethisSchumann was al- ready merely aGerman event inmusic, andnolonger a European event, asBeethoven hadbeen, asinastillgreater degree Mozart hadbeen ;withSchumann German music was threatened with itsgreatest danger, that oflosing thevoice forthesoul ofEurope andsinking intoamerely national affair. 246 What atorture arebooks written inGerman toareader whohasathird ear!How indignantly hestands beside theslowly turning swamp ofsounds without tune and rhythms without dance, which Germans calla"book"! And even theGerman whoreads books! How lazily, how reluc- tantly, howbadly hereads! Howmany Germans know, andconsider itobligatory toknow, thatthere isartinevery good sentenceartwhich must bedivined, ifthesentence istobeunderstood! Ifthere isamisunderstanding about itstempo, forinstance, thesentence itself ismisunderstood! Thatonemust notbedoubtful about therhythm-determining syllables, thatoneshould feelthebreaking ofthetoo-rigid sjonmetry asintentional andasacharm, thatoneshould lendafineand patient eartoevery staccato andevery rubato, thatoneshould divine thesense inthesequence of thevowels anddiphthongs, andhowdelicately andrichly they canbetinted andretinted intheorder oftheirarrangementwhoamong book-reading Germans iscomplaisant enough BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 181 torecognise such duties andrequirements, and tolisten to somuch artandintention inlanguage? After all,onejust "hasnoearforit";and sothemostmarked contrasts of style arenotheard, andthemost delicate artistry isasit were squandered onthedeaf.These weremythoughts when Inoticed howclumsily andunintuitively twomasters intheartofprose- writing have been confounded: one, whose words dropdown hesitatingly and coldly, asfrom the roof ofadamp cavehecounts ontheir dullsound and echo; andanother who manipulates hislanguage like a flexible sword, andfrom hisarmdown into histoes feels thedangerous bliss ofthequivering, over-sharp blade, which wishes tobite, hiss,and cut. 247 How little theGerman style hastodowithharmony and with theear, isshown bythefactthat precisely ourgood musicians themselves write badly. TheGerman does not read aloud, hedoesnotread fortheear,butonlywith his eyes; hehasputhisearsaway inthedrawer forthetime. Inantiquity when amanreadwhich wasseldom enough hereadsomething tohimself, andinaloud voice; theywere surprised when anyoneread silently, andsought secretly thereason ofit.Inaloud voice: that istosay,with all theswellings, inflections, andvariations ofkeyandchanges oftempo, inwhich theancient public world took delight. Thelaws ofthewritten stylewere then thesame asthose ofthespoken style; andthese lawsdepended partly onthe surprising development and refined requirements oftheear andlarynx; partly onthestrength, endurance, andpower oftheancient lungs. Intheancient sense, aperiod isabove allaphysiological whole, inasmuch asitiscomprised inone t82 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL breath. Such periods asoccur inDemosthenes andCicero, swelling twice and sinking twice, and allinonebreath, were pleasures tothemen ofantiquity, whoknewbytheir own schooling how toappreciate thevirtue therein, the rareness andthedifficulty inthedeliverance ofsuch ape- riod; wehave really noright tothebigperiod, wemodem men,whoareshort ofbreath inevery sense! Those ancients, indeed, were allofthem dilettanti inspeaking, consequently connoisseurs, consequently criticsthey thusbrought their orators tothehighest pitch; inthesamemaimer asinthe lastcentury, when allItalian ladies andgentlemen knew how tosing, thevirtuosoship ofsong (and with italsothe artofmelody) reached itselevation. InGermany, how- ever (until quite recently when akind ofplatform eloquence began shyly andawkwardly enough toflutter itsyoung wings), therewasproperly speaking onlyonekind ofpublic andapproximately artistical discoursethat delivered from thepulpit. Thepreacher wastheonlyoneinGermany who knew theweight ofasyllable oraword, inwhatmanner asentence strikes, springs, rushes, flows, andcomes toa close; healone hadaconscience inhisears, often enough abad conscience: forreasons arenotlacking why pro- ficiency inoratory should beespecially seldom attained by aGerman, oralmost always too late. Themasterpiece of German prose istherefore withgood reason themasterpiece ofitsgreatest preacher: theBible hashitherto been the bestGerman book. Compared with Luther's Bible, almost everything else ismerely "literature"something which has notgrown inGermany, andtherefore hasnottaken anddoes nottake root inGerman hearts, astheBible hasdone. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 183 248 There aretwokinds ofgeniuses: onewhich above all engenders and seeks toengender, andanother which will- ingly lets itselfbefructified andbrings forth. And similarly, among thegifted nations, there arethose onwhom the woman's problem ofpregnancy hasdevolved, andthesecret task offorming, maturing, andperfectingtheGreeks, for instance, wereanation ofthiskind, andsoaretheFrench; andothers which have tofructify andbecome thecause of newmodes oflifeliketheJews, theRomans, and, inall modesty beitasked: liketheGermans?nations tortured andenraptured byunknown fevers and irresistibly forced out ofthemselves, amorous andlonging forforeign races (for such as"letthemselves befructified"), andwithal imperious, likeeverything conscious ofbeing fullofgenerative force, andconsequently empowered "bythegrace ofGod." These twokinds ofgeniuses seekeach other likemanandwoman; butthey alsomisunderstand each otherlikeman and; woman. 249 Every nation has itsown "Tartuffery," and calls that its virtue.Onedoesnotknowcannot know, thebest that is inone. 250 What Europe owes totheJews?Many things, goodand bad,andabove allonething ofthenature both ofthebest andtheworst: thegrand style inmorality, thefearfulness i84 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL andmajesty ofinfinite demands, ofinfinite significations, the whole Romanticism andsublimity ofmoral questionablenessandconsequently justthemost attractive, ensnaring, and exquisite element inthose iridescences andallurements to life,intheaftersheen ofwhich theskyofourEuropean cul- ture, itsevening sky,nowglowsperhaps glows out. For this,weartists among thespectators andphilosophers, are grateful totheJews. 2SI Itmust betaken intothebargain, ifvarious clouds and disturbances inshort, slight attacks ofstupiditypassover thespirit ofapeople that suffers andwants tosuffer from national nervous fever and political ambition: forinstance, among present-day Germans there isalternately theanti- French folly, theanti-Semitic folly, theanti-Polish folly, the Christian-romantic folly, theWagnerian folly, theTeutonic folly, thePrussian folly (just look atthose poor historians, theSybels and Treitschkes, and their closely bandaged heads), andwhatever else these little obscurations ofthe German spiritandconscience maybecalled. May itbefor- givenmethat I,too,when onashort daring sojourn onvery infected ground, didnotremain wholly exempt from thedis- ease, but likeevery one else,began toentertain thoughts about matters which didnotconcern methe firstsymptom ofpolitical infection. About theJews, forinstance, listen tothefollowing:Ihave never yetmetaGerman whowas favourably inclined totheJews; andhowever decided the repudiation ofactual anti-Semitism maybeonthepart of allprudent and political men, thisprudence andpolicy isnot perhaps directed against thenature ofthesentiment itself, butonly against itsdangerous excess, andespecially against BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 185 thedistasteful andinfamous expression ofthis excess of sentiment;onthispointwemust notdeceive ourselves. ThatGermany hasamply sufficient Jews, that theGerman stomach, theGerman blood, has difficulty (and willlong have difficulty) indisposing only ofthisquantity of"Jew"astheItalian, theFrenchman, andtheEnglishman have donebymeans ofastronger digestion:that istheim- mistakable declaration andlanguage ofageneral instinct, towhich onemust listen andaccording towhich onemust act. "Letnomore Jewscome in!And shut thedoors, especially towards theEast (also towards Austria)!"thus commands theinstinct ofapeople whose nature isstill feeble anduncertain, sothat iicould beeasily wiped out, easily extinguished, byastronger race. TheJews, however, arebeyond alldoubt thestrongest, toughest, andpurest race atpresent living inEurope; theyknowhow tosucceed even under theworst conditions (infactbetter thanunder favour- able ones), bymeans ofvirtues ofsome sort,which one would likenowadays tolabel asvicesowing above alltoa resolute faith which does notneed tobeashamed before "modem ideas"; they alter only,wken theydoalter, inthe sameway that theRussian Empire makes itsconquestas anempire thathasplenty oftimeand isnotofyesterday namely, according totheprinciple, "asslowly aspossible"! Athinker whohasthefuture ofEurope atheart, ^vill, inall hisperspectives concerning thefuture, calculate upon the Jews, ashewill calculate upon theRussians, asabove all thesurest and likeliest factors inthegreat playandbattle offorces. That which isatpresent called a"nation" in Europe, and isreally rather aresfacta than nata (indeed, sometimes confusingly similar toaresficta etpicta), isin every casesomething evolving, young, easily displaced, and notyetarace,much lesssucharace acreperennius, asthe 185 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL Jews are:such"nations" should most carefully avoid allhot- headed rivalry and hostility! Itiscertain that theJews, ifthey desiredoriftheywere driven to it,astheanti- Semites seem towish couldnowhave theascendency, nay, literally thesupremacy, overEurope; thatthey arenotwork- ingandplanning forthatend isequally certain. Meanwhile, they rather wishand desire, evensomewhat importunely, to beinsorbed andabsorbed byEurope; theylong tobefinally settled, authorised, andrespected somewhere, andwish to putanendtothenomadic life, tothe"wandering Jew"; andoneshould certainly takeaccount ofthisimpulse and tendency, andmake advances toit(itpossibly betokens a mitigation oftheJewish instincts) :forwhich purpose it would perhaps beuseful and fairtobanish theanti-Semitic bawlers outofthecountry. One should make advances with allprudence, andwith selection; pretty much asthe English nobility do. Itstands toreason thatthemore power- fuland strongly marked types ofnewGermanism could enter into relation with theJews with theleast hesitation, forinstance, thenobleman officer from thePrussian border: itwould beinteresting inmany ways toseewhether the genius formoney andpatience (and especially some intellect and intellectuality sadly lacking intheplace referred to) could notinaddition beannexed andtrained totheheredi- tary artofcommanding andobeyingforboth ofwhich the country inquestion hasnowaclassic reputation. Buthere itisexpedient tobreak offmy festal discourse andmy sprightly Teutonomania: forIhave already reached my serious topic, the"European problem," asIunderstand it, therearing ofanew ruling caste forEurope. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 187 252 They arenotaphilosophical racetheEnglish :Bacon represents anattack onthephilosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, andLocke, anabasement, andadepreciation oftheidea ofa"philosopher" formore thanacentury. It was against Hume thatKant uprose and raised himself; itwasLocke ofwhom Schelling rightly said, "Jemeprise Locke" ;inthestruggle against theEnglish mechanical stulti- fication oftheworld, Hegel andSchopenhauer (along with Goethe) were ofoneaccord; thetwohostile brother-geniuses inphilosophy, whopushed indifferent directions towards the opposite poles ofGerman thought, andthereby wronged each other asonly brothers willdo.What islacking inEngland, andhasalways been lacking, that half-actor andrhetorician knew wellenough, theabsurd muddle-head, Carlyle, who sought toconceal under passionate grimaces what heknew about himself: namely, what waslacking inCarlylereal power ofintellect, realdepth ofintellectual perception, in short, philosophy. Itischaracteristic ofsuchanunphilo- sophical race toholdonfirmly toChristianitytheyneed itsdiscipline for"moralising" andhumanising. TheEng- lishman, more gloomy, sensual, headstrong, andbrutal than theGermanisforthatvery reason, asthebaser ofthe two, also themost pious: hehas allthemore need of Christianity. Tofiner nostrils, thisEnglish Christianity itself has stillacharacteristic English taint ofspleen andalcoholic excess, forwhich, owing togood reasons, itisused asan antidotethefiner poison toneutralise thecoarser: afiner form ofpoisoning isinfactastep inadvance with coarse- mannered people, astep towards spiritualisation. The English coarseness and rustic demureness isstillmost satis- 188 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL factorily disguised byChristian pantomime, andbyprayivig andpsalm-singing (or,more correctly, itisthereby explained and differently expressed) ;and fortheherd ofdrunkards andrakeswho formerly learned moral grunting under the influence ofMethodism (andmore recently asthe"Salvation Army"), apenitential fitmay really betherelatively highest manifestation of"humanity" towhich theycanbeelevated: somuchmayreasonably beadmitted. That, however, which offends even inthehumanest Englishman ishislack ofmusic, tospeak figuratively (and also literally): hehasneither rhythm nordance inthemovements ofhissoulandbody; indeed, noteven the desire forrhythm and dance, for "music." Listen tohimspeaking; look atthemost beautiful Englishwoman walkinginnocountry onearth arethere more beautiful doves andswans; finally, listen tothem sing- ing! But Iasktoomuch. ... There aretruths which arebest recognised bymediocre minds, because they arebestadapted forthem, there are truths which only possess charms andseductive power for mediocre spirits:one ispushed tothisprobably unpleasant conclusion, now thattheinfluence ofrespectable butmedio- creEnglishmenImaymention Darwin, John Stuart Mill, andHerbert Spencerbegins togain theascendency inthe middle-class region ofEuropean taste. Indeed, who could doubt that itisauseful thing forsuchminds tohave the ascendency foratime? Itwould beanerror toconsider thehighly developed andindependently soaring minds as specially qualified fordetermining and collecting many little common facts, anddeducing conclusions from them; asex- ceptioiis, they arerather from the first innovery favourable BEYOND GOODANDEVIL i&> position towards thosewho are"the rules." After all,they havemore todothan merely toperceive:ineffect, they have tobesomething new, theyhave tosignify something new, theyhave torepresent newvalues! The gulfbetween knowledge andcapacity isperhaps greater, and alsomore mysterious, thanonethinks: thecapable man inthegrand style, thecreator, willpossibly have tobeanignorant per- son;while ontheother hand, forscientific discoveries like those ofDarwin, acertain narrowness, aridity, andindus- trious carefulness (inshort something English) may not beimfavourable forarriving atthem.Finally, letitnotbe forgotten that theEnglish, with their profound mediocrity, brought about once before ageneral depression ofEuropean intelligence. What iscalled "modern ideas," or"the ideas of theeighteenth century," or"French ideas"that, conse- quently, against which theGerman mind roseupwith profovmd disgustisofEnglish origin, there isnodoubt about it.TheFrench were only theapesandactors ofthese ideas, their best soldiers, and likewise, alas! their firstand profoundest victims; forowing tothediabolical Anglomania of"modem ideas," thedme jranqais hasintheendbecome sothinandemaciated, thatatpresent onerecalls itssixteenth andseventeenth centuries, itsprofound, passionate strength, itsinventive excellency, almost with disbelief. Onemust, however, maintain thisverdict ofhistorical justice inade- termined manner, anddefend itagainst present prejudices andappearances: theEuropean noblesseofsentiment, taste, andmanners, taking theword inevery high senseisthe work andinvention ofFrance; theEuropean ignobleness, theplebeianism ofmodem ideasisEngland's workand in- vention. 190 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 254 Even atpresent France isstilltheseatofthemost intel- lectual and refined culture ofEurope, itisstill thehigh school oftaste; butonemustknowhow tofind this"France oftaste." Hewho belongs toitkeeps himself well con- cealed:theymaybeasmallnumber inwhom itlivesand is embodied, besides perhaps beingmenwhodonotstand upon thestrongest legs, inpart fatalists, hypochondriacs, invalids, inpartpersons over-indulged, over-refined, such ashave the ambition toconceal themselves. They have allsomething in common: they keep their ears closed inpresence ofthe delirious follyandnoisy spouting ofthedemocratic bour- geois. Infact,abesotted andbrutalised France atpresent sprawls intheforegrounditrecently celebrated averitable orgy ofbad taste, andatthesame time ofself-admiration, atthefuneral ofVictor Hugo. There isalsosomething else common tothem: apredilection toresist intellectual Ger- manisingandastill greater inability todoso! Inthis France ofintellect, which isalsoaFrance ofpessimism, Schopenhauer hasperhaps become more athome, andmore indigenous thanhehaseverbeen inGermany; nottospeak ofHeinrich Heine, whohaslongagobeen re-incarnated in themore refined andfastidious lyrists ofParis; orofHegel, who atpresent, intheform ofTainethe firstofliving his- toriansexercises analmost tyrannical influence. Asre- gards Richard Wagner, however, themore French music learns toadapt itself totheactual needs ofthedmemoderne, themore will it"Wagnerise"; onecansafely predict that beforehand,itisalready taking place sufficiently! There are,however, three things which theFrench can stillboast ofwithpride astheir heritage andpossession, andasindelible BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 191 tokens oftheir ancient intellectual superiority inEurope, in spite ofallvoluntary orinvoluntary Germanising and vul-, garising oftaste. Firstly, thecapacity forartistic emotion, fordevotion to"form," forwhich theexpression, Vartpour I'art,along withnumerous others, hasbeen invented:such capacity hasnotbeen lacking inFrance forthree centuries; andowing toitsreverence forthe"small number," ithas again andagainmade asortofchamber music ofliterature possible, which issought forinvain elsewhere inEurope. Thesecond thing whereby theFrench cinlayclaim toa superiority overEurope istheir ancient, many-sided, moral- istic culture, owing towhich onefindsonanaverage, even inthepetty romanciers ofthenewspapers andchance boule- vardiers deParis, apsychological sensitiveness andcuriosity, ofwhich, forexample, onehasnoconception (tosaynoth- ingofthething itself !)inGermany. TheGermans lacka couple ofcenturies ofthemoralistic work requisite thereto, which, aswehave said,France hasnotgrudged: thosewho calltheGermans "naive" onthataccount givethem com^ mendation foradefect. (Astheopposite oftheGerman inexperience andinnocence involuptate psychologica, which isnottooremotely associated with thetediousness ofGer- man intercourse,andasthemost successful expression of genuine French curiosity andinventive talent inthisdomain ofdelicate thrills, Henri Beylemaybenoted; thatremark- able anticipatory andforerunning man, who, with aNa- poleonic tempo, traversed hisEurope, infact, several centuries oftheEuropean soul, asasurveyor anddiscoverer thereof:ithasrequired twogenerations toovertake him oneway orother, todivine long afterwards some ofthe riddles that perplexed andenraptured himthis strange Epicurean andman ofinterrogation, thelastgreat psycholo- gistofFrance).There isyetathird claim tosuperiority: 192 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL '"ntheFrench character there isasuccessful half-way s)^!- thesis oftheNorth andSouth, which makes them compre- hendmany things, and enjoins upon them other things, which anEnglishman cannever comprehend. Their tem- perament, turned alternately toandfrom theSouth, in which from time totime theProvencal andLigurian blood froths over, preserves them from thedreadful, northern gray-in-gray, from sunless conceptual-spectrism andfrom poverty ofbloodourGerman infirmity oftaste, forthe excessive prevalence ofwhich atthepresent moment, blood and iron, that istosay"high politics," haswith great reso- lution been prescribed (according toadangerous healing art, which bidsmewaitandwait, butnotyethope).There is also stillinFrance apre-understanding andready welcome forthose rarer andrarely gratified men,who aretoocom- prehensive tofind satisfaction inanykind offatherlandism, andknowhow tolovetheSouth when intheNorth mdthe North when intheSouththebom Midlanders, the"good Europeans." Forthem Bizet hasmade music, this latest genius, whohasseenanewbeauty andseduction,whohas discovered apiece oftheSouth inmusic. 255 Ihold thatmany precautions should betaken against German music. Suppose aperson loves theSouth asIlove itasagreat school ofrecovery forthemost spiritual and themost sensuous ills,asaboundless solar profusion and effulgence which o'erspreads asovereign existence believing initself^well, such aperson willlearn tobesomewhat on hisguard against German music, because, ininjuring his taste anew, itwill also injure hishealth anew. Such a Southerner, aSoutherner notbyorigin butbybelief, ifhe BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 193 should dream ofthefuture ofmusic, must alsodream ofit being freed from theinfluence oftheNorth; indmusthave inhisears theprelude toadeeper, mightier, andperhaps more perverse andmysterious music, asuper-German music, which does notfade, pale, and dieaway, asallGerman music does, atthesight oftheblue, wanton seaandthe Mediterranean clearness ofskyasuper-European music, which holds itsowneven inpresence ofthebrown sunsets ofthedesert, whose soul isakin tothepalm-tree, and cjin beathome andcanroam with big, beautiful, lonely beasts ofprey.... Icould imagine amusic ofwhich therarest charm would bethat itknew nothing more ofgoodand evil' only thathereandthere perhaps some sailor's home-sickness, some golden shadows andtender weaknesses might sweep lightly over it;anartwhich, from thefardistance, would seethecolours ofasinking andalmost incomprehensible moral world fleeing towards it,andwould behospitable enough 2indprofound enough toreceive such belated fugi- tives. 256 Owing tothemorbid estrangement which thenationality- craze hasinduced and stillinduces among thenations of Europe, owing also totheshort-sighted andhasty-handed politicians, whowith thehelp ofthiscraze, areatpresent in power, anddonotsuspect towhat extent thedisintegrating policy they pursue must necessarily beonlyaninterlude policyowing toallthis,andmuch elsethat isaltogether unmentionable atpresent, themost unmistakable signs that Europe wishes tobeone, arenowoverlooked, orarbitrarily and falsely misinterpreted. With allthemore profound and large-minded men ofthiscentury, therealgeneral tendency 194 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL ofthemysterious labour oftheir soulswas toprqjare the way forthatnew synthesis, and tentatively toanticipate theEuropean ofthefuture; only intheir simulations, or intheirweaker moments, inoldageperhaps, didtheybelong tothe"fatherlands" they only rested from themselves when theybecame "patriots." Ithink ofsuchmen asNa- poleon, Goethe, Beethoven, Stendhal, Heinrich Heine, Schopenhauer: itmust notbetaken amiss ifIalsocount Richard Wagner among them, aboutwhom onemust not letoneself bedeceived byhisown misunderstandings (geniuses likehimhaveseldom theright tounderstand them- selves), still less, ofcourse, bytheunseemly noise with which heisnow resisted andopposed inFrance: thefact remains, nevertheless, thatRichard Wagner and thelater French Romanticism oftheforties, aremost closely and inti- mately related tooneanother. They areakin, fundamentally akin, inalltheheights anddepths oftheir requirements; it isEurope, theoneEurope, whose soul presses urgently and longingly, outwards andupwards, intheir multifarious and boisterous artwhither? intoanew light? towards anew sun? Butwhowould attempt toexpress accurately what all these masters ofnewmodes ofspeech could notexpress dis- tinctly? Itiscertain that thesame storm and stress tor- mented them, thatthey sought inthesame manner, these lastgreat seekers! Allofthem steeped inliterature totheir eyesandearsthe first artists ofuniversal literary culture forthemost parteven themselves writers, poets, interme- diaries andblenders oftheartsandthesenses (Wagner, as musician isreckoned among painters, aspoetamong musicians, asartist generally among actors) ;allofthem fanatics forexpression "atanycost"Ispecially mention Delacroix, thenearest related toWagner; allofthem great discoverers intherealm ofthesublime, also oftheloath- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 195 someanddreadful, stillgreater discoverers ineffect, indis- play, intheartoftheshow-shop; allofthem talented far beyond their genius, outandout virtuosi, with mysterious accesses toallthat seduces, allures, constrains, andupsets; bom enemies oflogicand ofthestraight line, hankering after thestrange, theexotic, themonstrous, thecrooked, and theself-contradictory; asmen, Tantaluses ofthe will, ple- beian parvenus, whoknew themselves tobeincapable ofa noble tempo orofalento inlifeandactionthink ofBalzac, forinstance,unrestrained workers, almost destroying them- selves bywork; antinomians and rebels inmanners, ambi- tious and insatiable, without equilibrium andenjoyment; allofthem finally shattering and sinking down atthe Christian cross (and with rightandreason, forwhoofthem would havebeen sufficiently profound and sufficiently origi- nalforanAntichristian philosophy?); onthewhole, a boldly daring, splendidly overbearing, high-flying, and aloft- up-dragging class ofhigher men,whohad first toteach their centuryand itisthecentury ofthemassestheconception "higher man." ...LettheGerman friends ofRichard Wag- neradvise together astowhether there isanything purely German intheWagnerian art,orwhether itsdistinction dees notconsist precisely incoming from super-German sources andimpulses: inwhich connection itmaynotbeunderrated how indispensable Pariswastothedevelopment ofhistype, which thestrength ofhisinstincts madehimlong tovisit at themost decisive timeandhowthewhole style ofhispro- ceedings, ofhisself-apostolate, could only perfect itself in sight oftheFrench socialistic original. Onamore subtle comparison itwillperhaps befoimd, tothehonour ofRichard Wagner's German nature, thathehasacted ineverything withmore strength, daring, severity, and elevation than a nineteenth-century Frenchman could have doneowing to 196 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL thecircumstance thatweGermans areasyetnearer tobar-' barism than theFrench;perhaps even themost remarkable creation ofRichard Wagner isnotonly atpresent, butfor ever inaccessible, incomprehensible, and inimitable tothe whole latter-day Latin race: thefigure ofSiegfried, thatvery freeman,who isprobably fartoofree, toohard, tocheer- ful,toohealthy, tooanti-Catholic forthetaste ofoldand mellow civilised nations. Hemay even have been asin 'against Romanticism, thisanti-Latin Siegfried: well,Wagner atoned amply forthissininhisoldsaddays,whenantici- pating atastewhich hasmeanwhile passed into politics^he began, with the religious vehemence peculiar tohim, to preach, atleast, theway toRome, ifnottowalk therein. That these lastwordsmaynotbemisunderstood, Iwill call tomyaidafewpowerful rhymes, which willeven betray tolessdelicate earswhat Imeanwhat Imean counter to the"lastWagner" andhisParsifal music: Isthisourmode? FromGerman heartcame thisvexed ululating? From German body, thisself-lacerating? Isours thispriestly hand-dilation. Thisincense-fuming exaltation? Isours this faltering, falling, shambling. This quite uncertain ding-dong-dangling? This slynun-ogling, Ave-hour-bell ringing, Thiswholly falseenraptured heaven-o'er springing?Isthisourmode? Think well!yestillwait foradmission Forwhat yehear isRomeRome's faith byintuitiot CHAPTER IX What IsNoble? 257 Every elevation ofthetype"man," hashitherto been the work ofanaristocratic society and soitwillalways be a society believing inalong scale ofgradations ofrankand differences ofworth among human beings, and requiring slavery insome form orother. Without thepathos ofdis- tance, such asgrows outoftheincarnated difference of classes, outoftheconstant outlooking anddownlooking of theruling casteonsubordinates andinstruments, andoutof their equally constant practice ofobeying andcommanding, ofkeeping down andkeeping atadistancethatothermore mysterious pathos could never have arisen, thelonging for anevernewwidening ofdistance within thesoul itself, the formation ofever higher, rarer, further, more extended, more comprehensive states, inshort, just theelevation of thetype"man," thecontinued "self-surmounting ofman," touseamoral formula inasupermoral sense. Tobesure, onemust notresign oneself toanyhumanitarian illusions about thehistory oftheorigin ofanaristocratic society (that istosay, ofthepreliminary condition fortheelevation of thetj^e"man"): thetruth ishard. Letusacknowledge imprejudicedly how every higher civilisation hitherto has 197 198 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL originated! Men with astillnatural nature, barbarians in every terrible sense oftheword,men ofprey, still inpos- session ofunbroken strength ofwilland desire forpower, threw themselves upon weaker, more moral, more peaceful races (perhaps trading orcattle-rearing communities), or upon oldmellow civilisations inwhich the final vital force wasflickering outinbrilliant fireworks ofwatanddepravity. Atthecommencement, thenoble castewasalways thebar- barian caste: their superiority didnotconsist first ofall intheir physical, but intheir psychical powertheywere more complete men (which atevery point alsoimplies the same as"more complete beasts"). 258 Corruptionastheindication thatanarchy threatens to break outamong theinstincts, andthat thefoundation of theemotions, called "life," isconvulsedissomething radic- ally different according totheorganisation inwhich itmani- fests itself. When, forinstance, anaristocracy likethat of France atthebeginning oftheRevolution, flungaway its privileges with sublime disgust and sacrificed itself toan excess ofitsmoral sentiments, itwascorruption:itwas really onlytheclosing actofthecorruption which hadexisted forcenturies, byvirtue ofwhich that aristocracy hadabdi- cated stepbystep itslordly prerogatives andlowered itself toafunction ofroyalty (intheendeven toitsdecoration andparade-dress). The essential thing, however, inagood andhealthy aristocracy isthat itshould notregard itself asafunction either ofthekingship orthecommonwealth,^ butasthesignificance andhighest justification thereof that itshould therefore accept with agood conscience the sacrifice ofalegion ofindividuals, who, foritssake,mustbe BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 199 suppressed andreduced toimperfect men, toslaves and in- struments. Itsfundamental belief must beprecisely that society isnotallowed toexist foritsown sake, butonly as afoundation andscaffolding, bymeans ofwhich aselect class ofbeings maybeable toelevate themselves totheir higher duties, andingeneral toahigher existence: likethose sun- seeking climbing plants inJavathey arecalled SipoMata- dor,which encircle anoaksolongandsooften with their arms, until atlast,highabove it,butsupported by it,they canimfold their tops intheopen light, and exhibit their happiness. 259 Torefrain mutually from injury, from violence, from ex- ploitation, andputone's willonaparwith that ofothers: thismay result inacertain rough sense ingood conduct among individuals when thenecessary conditions aregiven (namely, theactual similarity oftheindividuals inamount offorce anddegree ofworth, and their co-relation within oneorganisation). Assoon, however, asonewished totake this principle more generally, and ifpossible even asthe fundamental principle ofsociety, itwould immediately dis- closewhat itreally isnamely, aWill tothedenial oflife, aprinciple ofdissolution anddecay. Here onemust think profoundly tothevery basisand resist allsentimental weak- ness: life itself isessentially appropriation, injury, conquest ofthestrange andweak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of peculiar forms, incorporation, and atthe least, putting it mildest, exploitation; ^butwhy should one forever use precisely thesewords onwhich foragesadisparaging purpose hasbeenstamped? Even theorganisation within which, as waspreviously supposed, theindividuals treat each other as 200 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL equalittakes place inevery healthy aristocracymust itself, ifitbealiving andnotadying organisation, doall thattowards other bodies, which theindividuals within it refrain from doing toeach other: itwillhave tobethein- carnated Will toPower, itwillendeavour togrow, togain groimd, attract toitselfandacquire ascendencynotowing toanymorality orimmorality, butbecause itlives, and because life isprecisely Will toPower. Onnopoint, how- ever, istheordinary consciousness ofEuropeans more un- willing tobecorrected thanonthismatter; people nowrave everywhere, evenunder theguise ofscience, about coming conditions ofsociety inwhich "the exploiting character" istobeabsent:thatsounds tomyearsasiftheypromised toinvent amode oflifewhich should refrain from allorganic functions. "Exploitation" does notbelong toadepraved, orimperfect andprimitive society: itbelongs tothenature oftheliving being asaprimary organic fimction; itisa consequence oftheintrinsic Will toPower, which ispre- cisely theW^ill toLife.Granting that asatheory this isa noveltyasareality itisthefundamental factofallhistory: letusbesofarhonest towards ourselves! 260 Inatourthrough themany finerandcoarser moralities which have hitherto prevailed orstillprevail ontheearth, Ifound certain traits recurring regularly together, and cormected withoneanother, until finally twoprimary types revealed themselves tome,andaradical distinction was brought tolight. There ismaster-morality andslave-moral- ity;Iwould atonce add,however, that inallhigher an mixed civilisations, there arealsoattempts atthe recott ciliation ofthetwomoralities; butonefinds stilloftenerral- mc^j onfl BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 201 confusion andmutual misunderstanding ofthem, indeed^ sometimes their close juxtaposition even inthesameman, within onesoul.The distinctions ofmoral values have either originated inaruling caste, pleasantly conscious ofbeing different from theruledoramong theruled class, theslaves anddependents ofallsorts. Inthe first case,when itisthe rulers whodetermine theconception "good," itistheex- alted, proud disposition which isregarded asthedistinguish- ingfeature, andthatwhich determines theorder ofrank. Thenoble type ofman separates from himself thebeings in whom theopposite ofthisexalted, proud disposition displays itself: hedespises them. Let itatoncebenoted that in this firstkind ofmorality theantithesis "good" and"bad" means practically thesame as"noble" and"despicable"; theantithesis "good" and"evil" isofadifferent origin. The cowardly, thetimid, theinsignificant, and those thinking merely ofnarrow utility aredespised; moreover, also, the distrustful, with their constrained glances, theself-abasing, thedog-like kind ofmenwho letthemselves beabused, the mendicant flatterers, andabove allthe liars:itisafimda- mental belief ofallaristocrats that thecommon people are untruthful. "We truthful ones"thenobility inancient Greece called themselves. Itisobvious tliateverywhere the designations ofmoral value were atfirst applied tomen, andwere only derivatively andatalater period applied to actions; itisagross mistake, therefore, when historians ofmorals start with questions like,"Why have sympathetic actions been praised?" The noble type ofman regards himself asadeterminer ofvalues; hedoesnotrequire tobe approved of;hepasses thejudgment: "What isinjurious to meisinjurious initself"; heknows that itishehimself only who confers honour onthings; heisacreator ofvalues. Hehonours whatever herecognises inhimself: such morality 202 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL isself-glorification. Intheforeground there isthefeeling ofplenitude, ofpower, which seeks tooverflow, thehappi- ness ofhigh tension, theconsciousness ofawealth which would faingiveandbestow:thenobleman alsohelps the unfortunate, butnotorscarcelyoutofpity, butrather fromanimpulse generated bythesuper-abundance ofpower. Thenoblemanhonours inhimself thepowerful one,himalso whohaspower over himself, whoknows how tospeak and how tokeep silence, whotakes pleasure insubjecting himself toseverity andhardness, andhasreverence for allthat is severe andhard. "Wotan placed ahard heart inmybreast," saysanoldScandinavian Saga: itisthus rightly expressed from thesoul ofaproud Viking. Such atype ofman is evenproud ofnotbeing made forsympathy; thehero of theSaga therefore adds warningly: "Hewhohasnota hard heartwhen young, willnever have one." Thenoble and brave who think thus arethefurthest removed from the morality which sees precisely insympathy, orinacting for thegood ofothers, orindisinter essement, thecharacteristic ofthemoral; faith inoneself, pride inoneself, aradical en- mityandirony towards "selflessness," belong asdefinitely to noble morality, asdoacareless scorn andprecaution in presence ofsympathy andthe"warm heart."Itisthepow- erfulwhoknowhow tohonour, itistheir art,theirdomain forinvention. Theprofound reverence forageand for traditionalllawrestsonthisdouble reverence,thebelief andprejudice infavour ofancestors andunfavourable to newcomers, istypical inthemorality ofthepowerful ;and if, reversely, men of"modem ideas" believe almost instinctively in"progress" andthe"future," andaremoreandmore lack- inginrespect foroldage,theignoble origin ofthese "ideas"j hascomplacently betrayed itself thereby. Amorality ofthj ruling class, however, ismore especially foreign and irritating BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 203 topresent-day taste inthesternness ofitsprinciple thatone hasduties only toone's equals; thatonemay acttowards beings ofalower rank, towards allthat isforeign, justas seems good toone,or"astheheart desires," andinanycase "beyond goodandevil": itishere thatsympathy andsimilar sentiments canhave aplace. The ability and obligation toexercise prolonged gratitude andprolonged revengeboth only within thecircle ofequals,artfulness inretaliation, raffinement oftheidea infriendship, acertain necessity to have enemies (asoutlets fortheemotions ofenvy, quarrel- someness, arroganceinfact, inorder tobeagood friend): allthese are t5rpical characteristics ofthenoble morality, which, ashasbeen pointed out, isnotthemorality of"mod- emideas," and istherefore atpresent difficult torealise, and also tounearth and disclose.Itisotherwise with the second type ofmorality, slave-morality. Supposing thatthe abused, theoppressed, thesuffering, theunemancipated, the weary, andthose uncertain ofthemselves, should moralise, what willbethecommon element intheir moral estimates? Probably apessimistic suspicion with regard totheentire situation ofman willfindexpression, perhaps acondemnation ofman, together with hissituation. The slave hasanun- favourable eyeforthevirtues ofthepowerful ;hehasascep- ticism and distrust, arefinement ofdistrust ofeverything "good" that istherehonouredhewould fainpersuade him- selfthat thevery happiness there isnotgenuine. Onthe other hand, those qualities which serve toalleviate theex- istence ofsufferers arebrought intoprominence andflooded with light; itishere thatsympathy, thekind, helping hand, thewarm heart, patience, diligence, humility, andfriendliness attain tohonour; forhere these arethemost useful qualities, andalmost theonlymeans ofsupporting theburden of existence. Slave-morality isessentially themorality ofutility. 204 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL Here istheseatoftheorigin ofthefamous antithesis "good" and"evil":power anddangerousness areassumed toreside inthe evil,acertain dreadfulness, subtlety, and strength, which donotadmit ofbeing despised. According toslave- morality, therefore, the"evil"man arouses fear; according tomaster-morality, itisprecisely the"good" manwhoarouses fearandseeks toarouse it,while thebadman isregarded asthedespicable being. The contrast attains itsmaximum when, inaccordance with thelogical consequences ofslave- morality, ashade ofdepreciationitmaybeslight andwell- intentionedatlastattaches itself tothe"good" man of this morality; because, according tothe servile mode of thought, thegoodmanmust inanycasebethesafeman: he isgood-natured, easily deceived, perhaps alittle stupid, un bonkomme. Everjrwhere that slave-morality gains theas- cendency, language shows atendency toapproximate the significations ofthewords "good" and "stupid."Alast fundamental difference: thedesire forfreedom, theinstinct forhappiness andtherefinements ofthefeeling ofliberty belong asnecessarily toslave-morals andmorality, asartifice andenthusiasm inreverence anddevotion aretheregular symptoms ofanaristocratic mode ofthinking andestimating. Hence wecanunderstand without further detailwhy love asapassionitisourEuropean specialtymust absolutely beofnoble origin; asiswellknown, itsinvention isdueto theProvengal poet-cavaliers, those brilliant, ingenious men ofthe"gai saber," towhom Europe owes somuch, and almost owes itself. 261 Vanity isoneofthethings which areperhaps most difficult foranobleman tounderstand: hewillbetempted todeny BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 205 it,where another kind ofmanthinks hesees itself-evidently. Theproblem forhim istorepresent tohismind beings whoseek toarouse agood opinion ofthemselves which they themselves donotpossessandconsequently alsodonot "deserve,"andwhoyetbelieve inthisgood opinion after- wards. This seems tohimontheonehand suchbad taste andsoself-disrespectful, andontheotherhand sogrotesquely unreasonable, thathewould liketoconsider vanity anexcep- tion,and isdoubtful about itinmost cases when itis spoken of.Hewillsay, forinstance: "Imaybemistaken aboutmyvalue, andontheotherhandmay nevertheless de- mand thatmyvalue should beacknowledged byothers pre- cisely asIrate it:that, however, isnotvanity (but self- conceit, or,inmost cases, thatwhich iscalled 'humility,' andalso'modesty')." Orhewilleven say:"Formany rea- sons Icandelight inthegood opinion ofothers, perhaps because Iloveandhonour them, and rejoice inalltheir joys, perhaps alsobecause theirgood opinion endorses zmd strengthens my belief inmyowngood opinion, perhaps because thegood opinion ofothers, even incases where Ido notshare it,isuseful tome,orgives promise ofusefulness: allthis,however, isnotvemity." Theman ofnoble character must firstbring ithome forcibly tohismind, especially with theaidofhistory, that,from timeimmemorial, inallsocial strata inanyway dependent, theordinary manwasonly thatwhich hepassed for:^notbeing atallaccustomed to fixvalues, hedidnotassign even tohimself anyother value than thatwhich hismaster assigned tohim (itisthepeculiar right ofmasters tocreate values). Itmaybelooked upon astheresult ofanextraordinary atavism, that theordinary man, even atpresent, isstillalways waiting foranopinion about himself, andthen instinctively submitting himself to it;yetbynomeans only toa"good" opinion, butalsoto 2o6 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL abadandunjust one (think, forinstance, ofthegreater part oftheself-appreciations and self-depreciations which believing women learn from their confessors, andwhich in general thebelieving Christian learns from hisChurch). Infact,conformably totheslow riseofthedemocratic social order (and itscause, theblending oftheblood ofmasters and slaves), theoriginally noble and rareimpulse ofthe masters toassign avalue tothemselves andto"think well" ofthemselves, willnowbemore andmore encouraged and extended; but ithasatalltimes anolder, ampler, andmore radically ingrained propensity opposed toitand inthe phenomenon of"vanity" thisolder propensity overmasters theyounger. Thevainperson rejoices overevery good opin- ionwhich hehears about himself (quite apart from thepoint ofview ofitsusefulness, andequally regardless ofitstruth orfalsehood), justashesuffers from every badopinion: for hesubjects himself toboth, he]eeh himself subjected to both, bythat oldest instinct ofsubjection which breaks forth inhim.Itis"the slave" inthevainman's blood, the remains ofthe slave's craftinessandhowmuch ofthe "slave" isstill leftinwoman, forinstance!which seeks to seduce togood opinions ofitself; itistheslave, too,who immediately afterwards falls prostrate himself before these opinions, asthough hehadnotcalled them forth. And to repeat itagziin: vanity isanatavism. 262 Aspecies originates, andatypebecomes established and strong inthelong struggle with essentially constant unfavour- able conditions. Ontheother hand, itisknown bytheexpe- rience ofbreeders that species which receive superabundant nourishment, andingeneral asurplus ofprotection and care. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 207 immediately tend inthemostmarked way todevelop varia- tions, andarefertile inprodigies andmonstrosities (also in monstrous vices). Now look atanaristocratic common- wealth, sayanancient Greek polls, orVenice, asavoluntary orinvoluntary contrivance forthepurpose ofrearing human beings ;there aretheremenbeside oneanother, thrown upon theirown resources, whowant tomake their species prevail, chiefly because theymust prevail, orelseruntheterrible danger ofbeing exterminated. The favour, thesuperabund- ance, theprotection arethere lacking under which variations arefostered; thespecies needs itself asspecies, assomething which, precisely byvirtue ofitshardness, itsuniformity, andsimplicity ofstructure, caningeneral prevail andmake itself permanent inconstant struggle with itsneighbours, orwith rebellious orrebellion-threatening vassals. Themost \'aried experience teaches itwhat arethequalities towhich itprincipally owes thefact that itstill exists, inspite of allGods andmen,andhashitherto been victorious: these qualities itcalls virtues, andthese virtues alone itdevelops tomaturity. Itdoes sowith severity, indeed itdesires se- verity; every aristocratic morality isintolerant inthe education ofyouth, inthecontrol ofwomen, inthemar- riage customs, intherelations ofoldandyoung, inthe penal laws (which have aneyeonly forthedegenerating): itcounts intolerance itselfamong the virtues, under the name of"justice." Atype with few,butverymarked features, aspecies ofsevere, warlike, wisely silent, reserved andreticent men(and assuch, with themost delicate sensi- bility forthecharm andnuances ofsociety) isthus estab- lished, unaffected bythevicissitudes ofgenerations; the constant struggle withimiform unfavourable conditions is, asalready remarked, thecause ofatypebecoming stable andhard. Finally, however, ahappy state ofthings results. 2o8 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL theenormous tension isrelaxed; there areperhaps nomere enemies among theneighbouring peoples, andthemeans of life,even oftheenjoyment oflife, arepresent insuper- abundance. With onestroke thebondandconstraint ofthe olddiscipline severs: itisnolonger regarded asnecessary, Usacondition ofexistenceifitwould continue, itcanonly dosoasaform ofluxury, asanarchaising taste. Varia- tions, whether theybedeviations (into thehigher, finer,and rarer), ordeteriorations andmonstrosities, appear suddenly onthescene inthegreatest exuberance andsplendour; the individual dares tobeindividual anddetach himself. At thisturning-point ofhistory there manifest themselves, side byside,andoften mixed andentangled together, amagnifi- cent, manifold, virgin-forest-like up-growth andup-striving, akind oftropical tempo intherivalry ofgrowth, andan extraordinary decay and self-destruction, owing tothesav- agely opposing andseemingly exploding egoisms, which strive with oneanother "forsunand light," andcanno longer assign any limit, restraint, orforbearance forthem- selves bymeans ofthehitherto existing morality. Itwas thismorality itself which piled upthestrength soenor- mously, which bent thebow insothreatening amanner: itisnow"out ofdate," itisgetting "out ofdate." The dangerous anddisquieting point hasbeen reached when the greater, more manifold, more comprehensive life islived beyond theoldmorality; the"individual" stands out,and is obliged tohave recourse tohisown law-giving, hisowti arts and artifices forself-preservation, self-elevation, and self- deliverance. Nothing butnew"Whys," nothing butnew "Hows," nocommon formulas anylonger, misunderstanding anddisregard inleague witheach other, decay, deterioration, andtheloftiest desires frightfully entangled, thegenius ofthe raceoverflowing from allthecornucopias ofgoodandbad, BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 20^ aportentous simultaneousness ofSpring andAutumn, full ofnewcharms andmysteries peculiar tothefresh, still in- exhausted, stillunwearied corruption. Danger isagain present, themother ofmorality, great danger; thistime shifted into theindividual, into theneighbour and friend, intothe street, into theirown child, into theirown heart, into allthemost personal andsecret recesses oftheir desires andvolitions. What willthemoral philosophers whoappear atthistimehave topreach? They discover, these sharp onlookers and loafers, that theend isquickly approaching,, that everything around them decays andproduces decay^ thatnothing willendure until thedayafter to-morrow, except onespecies ofman, theincurably mediocre. Themediocre alone have aprospect ofcontinuing andpropagating them- selvesthey willbethemen ofthefuture, thesolesurvivors; "belikethem! become mediocre!" isnow theonlymorality which has stillasignificance, which stillobtains ahearing. But itisdifficult topreach thismorality ofmediocrity! it canneveravowwhat itisandwhat itdesires! ithastotalk ofmoderation anddignity anddutyandbrotherly love ^it: willhave difficulty inconcealing itsirony! 263 There isaninstinct forrank, which more than anything else isalready thesignofahighrank; there isadelight inthe nuances ofreverence which leads one toinfer noble origin and habits. The refinement, goodness, and loftiness ofa soul areput toaperilous testwhen something passes by that isofthehighest rank, but isnotyetprotected bythe awe ofauthority from obtrusive touches and incivilities: something thatgoes itsway likealiving touchstone, undis- tinguished, undiscovered, and tentative, perhaps voluntarily 2IO BEYOND GOODANDEVIL veiled and disguised. Hewhose taskandpractice itisto investigate souls, will avail himself ofmany varieties of thisvery arttodetermine theultimate value ofasoul, the unalterable, innate order ofrank towhich itbelongs: he will test itbyitsinstinct forreverence. Difference engendre haine: thevulgarity ofmany anature spurts upsuddenly likedirty water, whenanyholy vessel, anyjewel from closed shrines, anybook bearing themarks ofgreat destiny, is brought before it;while ontheother hand, there isaninvol- untary silence, ahesitation oftheeye,acessation ofall gestures, bywhich itisindicated thatasoul jeels thenearness ofwhat isworthiest ofrespect. Theway inwhich, onthe whole, thereverence fortheBible hashitherto been main- tained inEurope, isperhaps thebestexample ofdiscipline andrefinement ofmanners which Europe owes toChristian- ity:books ofsuch profoundness andsupreme significance require fortheir protection anexternal tyranny ofauthority, inorder toacquire theperiod ofthousands ofyears which is necessary toexhaust andunriddle them. Much hasbeen achieved when thesentiment hasbeen atlast instilled into themasses (theshallow-pates andtheboobies ofevery kind) thatthey arenotallowed totouch everything, that there are holy experiences before which theymust take offtheir shoes andkeepaway theunclean handitisalmost their highest advance towards humanity. Onthecontrary, intheso- called cultured classes, thebelievers in"modem ideas," nothing isperhaps sorepulsive astheir lack ofshame, the easy insolence ofeyeandhand withwhich they touch, taste, andfinger everything; and itispossible thateven yetthere ismore relative nobility oftaste, andmore tact forreverence among thepeople, among thelower classes ofthepeople, especially among peasants, thanamong thenewspaper-read- ingdemimonde ofintellect, thecultured class. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 211 264 Itcannot beeffaced from aman's soulwhat hisancestors have preferably andmost constantly done: whether they were perhaps diligent economisers attached toadeskand acash-box, modest and citizen-like intheir desires, modest also intheir virtues; orwhether theywere accustomed to commanding frommorning tillnight, fond ofrude pleasures andprobably ofstillruder duties and responsibilities; or whether, finally, atonetime oranother, theyhave sacrificed oldprivileges ofbirthandpossession, inorder tolivewholly fortheir faithfortheir"God,"asmen ofaninexorable andsensitive conscience, which blushes atevery compromise. Itisquite impossible foraman nottohave thequalities andpredilections ofhisparents andancestors inhisconsti- tution, whatever appearances may suggest tothecontrary. This istheproblem ofrace. Granted thatoneknows some- thing oftheparents, itisadmissible todraw aconclusion about thechild: anykind ofoffensive incontinence, anykind ofsordid envy, orofclumsy self-vaunting thethree things which together have constituted thegenuine plebeian type inalltimessuchmust passover tothechild, assurely as badblood; andwith thehelp ofthebesteducation and cul- tureone willonly succeed indeceiving with regard tosuch heredity.Andwhat elsedoes education andculture tryto donowadays! Inourvery democratic, orrather, very ple- beian age,"education" and"culture" must beessentially theartofdeceivingdeceiving with regard toorigin, with regard totheinherited plebeianism inbody and soul.An educator whonowadays preached truthfulness above every- thing else,andcalled outconstantly tohispupils: "Be true! Benatural! Show yourselves asyouare!"even such a 212 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL virtuous andsincere asswould learn inashort time tohave recourse tothefurca ofHorace, naturam expellere: with what results? "Plebeianism" usque recurret* 26s Attherisk ofdispleasing innocent ears, Isubmit that egoism belongs totheessence ofanoble soul, Imean the unalterable belief that toabeing such as"we," other beings must naturally beinsubjection, andhave tosacrifice them- selves. Thenoble soulaccepts thefactofhisegoism without question, and alsowithout consciousness ofharshness, con- straint, orarbitrariness therein, butrather assomething that mayhave itsbasis intheprimary lawofthings:ifhesought adesignation forithewould say: "It isjustice itself." He acknowledges under certain circumstances, which made him hesitate atfirst, that there areother equally privileged ones; assoon ashehas settled thisquestion ofrank, hemoves among those equals andequally privileged oneswith thesame assurance, asregards modesty and delicate respect, which heenjoys inintercourse with himselfinaccordance with aninnate heavenly mechanism which allthestars under- stand. Itisanadditional instance ofhisegoism, this artful- nessandself-limitation inintercourse with hisequalsevery star isasimilar egoist; hehonours himself inthem, andin therights which heconcedes tothem, hehasnodoubt that theexchange ofhonours and rights, astheessence ofall intercourse, belongs also tothenatural condition ofthings. Thenoble soulgives ashetakes, prompted bythepassionate and sensitive instinct ofrequital, which isattheroot ofhis nature. Thenotion of"favour" has, inter pares, neither sig- Horace's "Epistles," I.x.24. BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 213 nificance norgood repute; theremaybeasublime way of letting gifts asitwere lightupon onefrom above, andof drinking them thirstily likedew-drops; but forthose arts and displays thenoble soulhasnoaptitude. Hisegoism hinders himhere: ingeneral, helooks "aloft" unwillingly helooks either forward, horizontally and deliberately, or downwards heknows thatheisonaheight. 266 "One canonly truly esteem himwhodoesnotlookoutfor himself."Goethe toRath Schlosser. 267 TheChinese have aproverb which mothers even teach their children: "Siao-sin" {"make thyheart small"). This istheessentially fimdamental tendency inlatter-day civili- sations. Ihavenodoubt thatanancient Greek, also,would firstofallremark theself-dwarfing inusEuropeans ofto-day in thisrespect aloneweshould immediately be''distaste' ful"tohim. 268 What, after all, isignobleness? ^Words arevocal symbols forideas; ideas, however, aremore orless definite menta> S5mibols forfrequently returning andconcurring sensations, forgroups ofsensations. Itisnotsufficient tousethesame words inorder tounderstand oneanother: wemust also employ thesame words forthesame kind ofinternal expe- riences, wemust intheendhave experiences incommon. On this account thepeople ofone nation understand 214 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL one another better than those belonging todifferent nations, evenwhen they usethesame language; orrather, when people have lived long together under similar con- ditions (ofclimate, soil, danger, requirement, toil) there originates therefrom anentity that"understands itself" namely, anation. Inallsouls alikenumber offrequently recurring experiences have gained theupper hand over those occurring more rarely: about these matters people understand oneanother rapidly andalways more rapidlythehistory of language isthehistory ofaprocess ofabbreviation; onthe basis ofthis quick comprehension people al- ways unite closer and closer. The greater thedan- ger, the greater istheneed ofagreeing quickly and readily about what isnecessary; not tomisunderstand oneanother indangerthat iswhat cannot atallbedis- pensed with inintercourse. Also inalllovesandfriendships onehastheexperience thatnothing ofthekind continues when thediscovery hasbeenmade that inusing thesame words, oneofthetwoparties has feelings, thoughts, intui- tions, wishes, orfears different from those oftheother. (The fear ofthe"eternal misunderstanding": that isthe good genius which sooften keeps persons ofdifferent sexes from toohasty attachments, towhich sense and heart prompt themandnotsome Schopenhauerian "genius of thespecies"!) Whichever groups ofsensations within a soulawaken most readily, begin tospeak, and give the word ofcommandthese decide astothegeneral order of rank ofitsvalues, anddetermine ultimately itslistofde- sirable things. Aman's estimates ofvalue betray some-^ thing ofthestructure ofhissoul,andwherein itsees it conditions oflife, itsintrinsic needs. Supposing now that necessity hasfrom alltimedrawn together only suchmen' ascould express similar requirements andsimilar experiences BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 215 bysimilar symbols, itresults onthewhole that theeasy coinmunicability ofneed, which implies ultimately theun- dergoing only ofaverage andcommon experiences, must havebeen themost potent ofalltheforces which have hith- ertooperated upon mankind. Themore similar, themore ordinary people, have always hadandare stillhaving the advantage; themore select, more refined, more unique, and difficultly comprehensible, areliable tostand alone; they succumb toaccidents intheir isolation, andseldom propa- gate themselves. Onemust appeal toimmense opposing forces, inorder tothwart this natural, all-too-natural pro- gressus insimile, theevolution ofman tothesimilar, the ordinary, theaverage, thegregarioustotheignoble! 269 Themore apsychologistabom, anunavoidable psy- chologist and soul-divinerturns hisattention tothemore select casesandindividuals, thegreater ishisdanger ofbe- ingsuffocated bysympathy: heneeds sternness andcheer- fulness more thananyother man. Forthecorruption, the ruination ofhigher men, ofthemore unusually constituted souls, isinfact, therule: itisdreadful tohave sucharule always before one's eyes. Themanifold torment ofthe psychologist whohasdiscovered thisruination, who discov- ersonce, andthen discovers almost repeatedly throughout allhistory, thisuniversal inner "desperateness" ofhigher men, thiseternal "too late!" inevery sensemayperhaps onedaybethecause ofhisturning with bitterness against hisown lot,andofhismaking anattempt atself-destruc- tionofhis"going toruin" himself. Onemay perceive in almost every psychologist atell-tale inclination fordelight- fulintercourse withcommonplace and well-ordered men: 2i6 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL thefact isthereby disclosed thathealways requires healing, that hftneeds asortofflight and forgetfulness, away from what hisinsight andincisivenessfromwhat his"business" has laidupon hisconscience. The fear ofhismemory ispeculiar tohim.He iseasily silenced bythejudgment ofothers; hehears withunmoved countenance howpeople honour, admire, love,and glorify, where hehasperceived orheeven conceals hissilence byexpressly assenting to some plausible opinion. Perhaps theparadox ofhissitua- tionbecomes sodreadful that, precisely where hehaslearnt great sympathy, together with great contempt, themultitude, theeducated, andthevisionaries, haveontheir part learnt great reverencereverence for"great men" andmarvellous animals, forthesake ofwhom oneblesses andhonours the fatherland, theearth, thedignity ofmankind, and one's own self, towhom onepoints theyoung, and inview of whom oneeducates them. Andwhoknows butinallgreat instances hitherto justthesame happened: that themulti- tude worshipped aGod, and that the"God" wasonlya poor sacrificial animal! Success hasalways been thegreat- estliarandthe"work" itself isasuccess; thegreat states- man, theconqueror, thediscoverer, aredisguised intheir creations until they areunrecognisable; the"work" ofthe artist, ofthephilosopher, only invents himwhohascreated it,isreputed tohave created it;the"great men," asthey arereverenced, arepoor little fictions composed afterwards; intheworld ofhistorical values spurious coinage prevails. Those great poets, forexample, such asByron, Musset, Poe, Leopardi, Kleist, Gogol (Idonotventure tomention much greater names, butIhavethem inmymind), astheynow appear, andwereperhaps obliged tobe:m.en ofthemoment, enthusiastic, sensuous, and childish, light-minded andim- pulsive intheir trustanddistrust; with souls inwhich usually BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 217 some flawhastobeconcealed; often taking revenge with their works foraninternal defilement, often seeking for- getfulness intheir soaring from atootruememory, often lost inthemudandalmost inlove with it,until they become liketheWill-o '-the-Wisps around theswamps, and pretend tobestarsthepeople then callthem idealists, often struggling with protracted disgust, with anever-re- appearing phantom ofdisbelief, which makes them cold, and obliges them tolanguish forgloria anddevour "faith asitis"outofthehands ofintoxicated adulators:what atorment these great artists areandtheso-called higher men ingeneral, tohimwhohasoncefound them out! Itis thus conceivable that itisjustfromwomanwho isclair- voyant intheworld ofsuffering, and also unfortunately eager tohelpandsave toanextent farbeyond herpowers thattheyhave learnt soreadily those outbreaks ofboundless devoted sympathy, which themultitude, above alltherev- erent multitude, donotunderstand, andoverwhelm with prying and self-gratifying interpretations. This sjmipathis- inginvariably deceives itself astoitspower; woman would liketobelieve thatlovecandoeverythingitisthesuper- ctition peculiar toher. Alas, hewhoknows theheart finds outhow poor, helpless, pretentious, andblundering even thebestanddeepest love ishefinds that itrather destroys than saves!Itispossible thatunder theholy fable and travesty ofthe lifeofJesus there ishidden one ofthe most painful cases ofthemartyrdom ofknowledge about love: themart5n-dom ofthemost innocent andmost craving heart, thatnever hadenough ofanyhuman love, that de- manded love, thatdemanded inexorably and frantically to beloved andnothing else, with terrible outbursts against thosewho refused him their love; thestory ofapoor soul insatiated and insatiable inlove, thathad toinvent hell to 2i8 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL send thither thosewhowould notlovehim^andthatat last,enlightened abouthuman love,hadtoinvent aGod who isentire love, entire capacity forlovewhotakes pity onhuman love, because itissopaltry, soignorant !He whohassuch sentiments, hewhohassuchknowledge about love seeks fordeath!Butwhyshould onedeal withsuch painful matters ?Provided, ofcourse, thatone isnotobliged todoso. 270 The intellectual haughtiness andloathing ofeveryman whohassuffered deeplyitalmost determines theorder ofrankhow deeply men cansufferthechilling cer- tainty, withwhich heisthoroughly imbued andcoloured, thatbyvirtue ofhissuffering heknows more than the shrewedest andwisest caneverknow, thathehasbeen fmiliar with, and"athome" in,many distant, dreadful worlds ofwhich "youknow nothing"!this silent intel- lectual haughtiness ofthesufferer, thispride oftheelect ofknowledge, ofthe"initiated," ofthealmost sacrificed, finds allforms ofdisguise necessary toprotect itselffrom contact with officious andsympathising hands, and in general from allthat isnot itsequal insuffering. Profound suffering makes noble :itseparates.Oneofthemost re- finedforms ofdisguise isEpicurism, along withacertain ostentatious boldness oftaste, which takes suffering lightly, andputs itself onthedefensive against allthat is sorrowful andprofound. They are"gaymen"whomake useofgaiety, because they aremisunderstood onaccount of itthey wish tobemisunderstood. There are ^'scientific minds" whomake useofscience, because it gives agayappearance, andbecause scientificness leads totheconclusion that aperson issuperficial^they BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 219 wish tomislead toafalse conclusion. There arefree inso- lentminds which would fainconceal anddeny thatthey are broken, proud, incurable hearts (thecynicism ofHamlet thecase ofGaliani) ;and occasionally folly itself isthe mask ofanunfortunate over-assured knowledge.From which itfollows that itisthepart ofamore refined human- itytohave reverence "for themask," andnottomake use ofpsychology andcuriosity inthewrong place. 271 That which separates twomenmost profoundly isadif- ferent sense andgrade ofpurity. What does itmatter about alltheir honesty andreciprocal usefulness, what does itmatter about alltheir mutual good- will: thefact still remainsthey"cannot smell each other!" Thehighest in- stinct forpurity places himwho isaffected with itinthe most extraordinary anddangerous isolation, asasaint: for itisjust holinessthehighest spiritualisation ofthe in- stinct inquestion. Anykind ofcognisance ofanindescrib- able excess inthejoyofthebath, anykind ofardour or thirst which perpetually impels thesouloutofnight into themorning, andoutofgloom, outof"affliction" into clearness, brightness, depth, andrefinement:just asmuch assuchatendency distinguishes itisanoble tendency italso separates.^Thepity ofthesaint ispity forthefilth ofthehuman, all-too-human. And there aregrades and heights were pity itself isregarded byhimasimpurity, as filth. 272 Signs ofnobility: never tothink oflowering ourduties totherank ofduties foreverybody; tobeunwilling tore- 220 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL nounce ortoshare ourresponsibilities; tocount ourprerog- atives, andtheexercise ofthem,among ourduties. 273 Amanwho strives after great things, looks upon every onewhom heencoimters onhisway either asameans of advance, oradelay andhindranceorasatemporary rest- ing-place. Hispeculiar lofty bounty tohisfellow-men is only possible when heattains hiselevation anddominates. Impatience, andtheconsciousness ofbeing always condemned tocomedy uptothattimeforeven strife isacomedy, and conceals theend, asevery means doesspoil allintercourse forhim; thiskind ofman isacquainted with solitude, and what ismost poisonous init. 274 TheProblem ofthosewho Wait.Happy chances are necessary, andmany incalculable elements, inorder thata higher man inwhom thesolution ofaproblem isdormant, may yettake action, or"break forth," asonemight say attheright mom.ent. Onanaverage itdoes nothappen; andinallcomers oftheearth there arewaiting ones sitting whohardly know towhat extent they arewaiting, and still lessthatthey wait invain. Occasionally, too,thewaking callcomes toolatethechance which gives "permission" totake actionwhen their bestyouth, andstrength forac- tionhavebeenusedupinsitting still ;andhowmany aone, justashe"sprang up,"hasfound with horror that hislimbs arebenumbed and hisspirits arenow tooheavy! "It is too late," hehas said tohimselfandhasbecome self- distrustful andhenceforth forever useless.Inthedomain BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 221 ofgenius, maynotthe"Raphael without hands" (taking the expression initswidest sense) perhaps notbetheexception, buttherule?Perhaps genius isbynomeans sorare: but rather thefivehundred hands which itrequires inorder to tyrannise over thenaiQog "the right time"inorder to takechance bytheforelock! 27s Hewhodoesnotwish toseetheheight ofaman, looks allthemore sharply atwhat islowinhim,andinthefore- groundandthereby betrays himself. 276 Inallkinds ofinjury and lossthelower andcoarser soul isbetter offthan thenobler soul: thedangers ofthelatter must begreater, theprobability that itwillcome togrief andperish isinfactimmense, considering themultiplicity oftheconditions ofitsexistence.Inalizard afinger grows again which hasbeen lost; notsoinman, 277 Itistoobad! Always theoldstory! When amanhas finished building hishouse, hefinds thathehaslearnt un- awares something which heought absolutely tohaveknown before hebegan tobuild. The eternal, fatal"Too late!" Themelancholia ofeverything completed! 278 Wanderer, who artthou? Iseethee follow thypath 222 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL without scorn, without love, with unfathomable eyes, wet andsadasaplummet which hasreturned tothelight insa- tiated outofevery depthwhat did itseekdown there? with abosom thatnever sighs, with lipsthat conceal their loathing, with ahand which only slowly grasps: who art thou? what hast thou done? Rest thee here: thisplace hashospitality forevery onerefresh thyself! And v/ho- everthou art,what isitthatnow pleases thee? What will serve torefresh thee? Onlyname it,whatever Ihave I offer thee! "To refresh me?Torefresh me? Oh,thou prying one,what sayest thou! But give me, Ipray thee "What? what? Speak out! "Another mask!A second mask!" 279 Men ofprofound sadness betray themselves when they arehappy: theyhave amode ofseizing upon happiness as though theywould choke andstrangle it,outofjealousy ah,theyknow only toowellthat itwill fleefrom them! 280 "Bad! Bad! What? Does henot goback?" Yes! Butyoumisunderstand himwhen youcomplain about it. Hegoesback likeevery onewho isabout tomake agreat spring. 281 "Will people believe itofme? ButIinsist thatthey believe itofme: Ihave always thought very unsatisfactor- ilyofmyself andabout myself, only invery rare cases, only compulsorily, always without delight in'the subject,' ready BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 223 todigress from 'myself,' andalways without faith inthe result, owing toanunconquerable distrust ofthepossibility ofself-knowledge, which hasledmesofarastofeelacon- tradictio inadjecto even intheidea of'direct knowledge' which theorists allow themselves:thismatter offact is almost themost certain thing Iknow about myself. There must beasort ofrepugnance inmetobelieve anything definite about myself.Isthere perhaps someenigma there- in?Probably; butforttmately nothing formyown teeth. Perhaps itbetrays thespecies towhich Ibelong?^butnot tomyself, asissufficiently agreeable tome." 282 "But what hashappened toyou?""Idonotknow," hesaid, hesitatingly; "perhaps theHarpies have flown over mytable."Itsometimes happens nowadays thatagentle, sober, retiring manbecomes suddenly mad, breaks theplates, upsets thetable, shrieks, raves, andshocks everybodyand finally withdraws, ashamed, andraging athimselfwhither? forwhat purpose? Tofamish apart? Tosuffocate with his memories? Tohimwhohasthedesires ofaloftyand dainty soul,andonly seldom finds histable laidand his food prepared, thedanger willalways begreatnowadays, however, itisextraordinarily so.Thrown intothemidst of anoisyandplebeian age,withwhich hedoesnotliketoeat outofthesame dish, hemay readily perish ofhunger and thirstor,should henevertheless finally "fall to,"ofsudden nausea.Wehave probably allsatattables towhich we didnotbelong; andprecisely themost spiritual ofus,who aremost difficult tonourish, know thedangerous dyspepsia which originates from asudden insight anddisillusionment about ourfoodandourmessmatestheafter-dinner nausea. 224 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 283 Ifonewishes topraise atall, itisadelicate and atthe same timeanoble self-control, topraise onlywhere onedoes notagreeotherwise infactonewould praise oneself, which iscontrary togood taste:aself-control, tobesure,which offers excellent opportunity andprovocation toconstant mis- understanding. Tobeable toallow oneself this veritable luxury oftasteandmorality, onemust notliveamong in- tellectual imbeciles, butrather among menwhose misunder- standings andmistakes amuse bytheir refinementorone willhave topaydearly for it!"He praises me,therefore heacknowledges metoberight"this asinine method of inference spoils half ofthe lifeofusrecluses, for itbrings theasses intoourneighbourhood andfriendship. 284 Tolive inavastandproud tranquillity; always be- yond...Tohave, ornottohave, one's emotions, one's ForandAgainst, according tochoice; tolower oneself to them forhours; toseatoneself onthem asupon horses, and often asupon asses:foronemustknowhow tomake use oftheir stupidity aswell asoftheir fire.Toconserve one's threehundred foregrounds; alsoone's black spectacles: forthere arecircumstances when nobody must look into oureyes, still lessintoour"motives." And tochoose for company that roguish and cheerful vice, politeness. And toremain master ofone's four virtues, courage, insight, sym- pathy, and solitude. Forsolitude isavirtue with us,asa sublime bentandbias topurity, which divines that inthe contact ofmanandman"insociety"itmustbeunavoid- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 225 ably impure. Allsociety makes onesomehow, somewhere, orsometime"commonplace." 28s The greatest events andthoughtsthegreatest thoughts, however, arethegreatest eventsarelongest inbeing com- prehended: thegenerations which arecontemporary with them donotexperience such eventsthey livepast them. Something happens there asintherealm ofstars. The light ofthefurthest stars islongest inreaching man; md before ithasarrived man deniesthat there arestars there. "How many centuries does amind require tobeunder- stood?that isalsoastandard, onealsomakes agradation ofrankandanetiquette therewith, such asisnecessary for mindandforstar. 286 "Here istheprospect free, themind exalted."*But there isareverse kind ofman,who isalsoupon aheight, and hasalsoafreeprospect^butlooks downwards. 287 ^What isnoble? What does theword "noble" stillmean forusnowadays? How does thenoblemanbetray himself, how isherecognised under thisheavy overcast skyofthe commencing plebeianism, bywhich everything isrendered opaque andleaden?Itisnothi?actions which establish hisclaimactions arealways ambiguous, always inscruta- Goethe's "Faust," Part II.,ActV.Thewords ofDr.Mari anus. 226 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL ble; neither isithis"works." One findsnowadays among artists and scholars plenty ofthosewho betray bytheir works thataprofound longing fornobleness impels them; but thisveryneed ofnobleness isradically different from theneeds ofthenoble soul itself, and isinfacttheeloquent anddangerous signofthelack thereof. Itisnottheworks, butthebelief which ishere decisive anddetermines theorder ofranktoemploy oncemoreanoldreligious formula with anewanddeeper meaning,itissome fundamental cer- tainty which anoble soulhasabout itself, something which isnottobesought, isnottobefound, andperhaps, also, isnottobelost. Thenoble soulhasreverence for itself. 288 There aremenwho areunavoidably intellectual, letthem turnandtwist themselves asthey will,andhold theirhands before their treacherous eyesasthough thehand werenot abetrayer; italways comes out atlast that theyhave something which they hidenamely, intellect. One ofthe subtlest means ofdeceiving, atleast aslong aspossible, and ofsuccessfully representing oneself tobestupider thanone really iswhich ineveryday life isoften asdesirable asan umbrella,iscalled enthusiasm, including what belongs to it,forinstance, virtue. ForasGaliani said,whowasobliged toknow it:vertu estenthousiasme. 289 Inthewritings ofarecluse onealways hears something of theecho ofthewilderness, something ofthemurmuring tones andtimid vigilance ofsolitude; inhisstrongest words, even inhiscry itself, there sounds anewandmore danger- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 227 ouskind ofsilence, ofconcealment. Hewhohassatdayand night, from year's endtoyear's end, alone with hissoul in familiar discord and discourse, hewhohasbecome acave- bear, oratreasure-seeker, oratreasure-guardian anddragon inhiscaveitmaybealabyrinth, butcanalsobeagold- minehisideas themselves eventually acquire atwilight- colour oftheirown,andanodour, asmuch ofthedepth as ofthemould, something uncommunicative and repulsive, which blows chilly upon every passerby. The recluse does notbelieve thataphilosophersupposing thataphilosopher hasalways inthe firstplace beenarecluseeverexpressed hisactual andultimate opinions inbooks: arenotbooks written precisely tohidewhat isinus?indeed, hewill doubt whether aphilosopher canhave "ultimate andactual" opinions atall;whether behind every cave inhim there is not,andmust necessarily be,astilldeeper cave: anampler, stranger, richer world beyond thesurface, anabyss behind every bottom, beneath every "foundation." Every philos- ophy isaforeground philosophythis isarecluse's verdict: "There issomething arbitrary inthefactthatthephilosopher came toastand here, tookaretrospect andlooked around; thathehere laidhisspade asideanddidnotdiganydeeperthere isalsosomething suspicious init."Every philoso- phy also conceals aphilosophy; every opinion isalsoa lurking-place, every word isalsoamask. 290 Every deep thinker ismore afraid ofbeing understood than ofbeing misunderstood. The latter perhaps wounds hisvanity; buttheformer wounds hisheart, hissympathy, which always says: "Ah,whywould youalsohave ashard atime ofitasIhave?" 228 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 291 Man, acomplex, mendacious, artful, andinscrutable ani- mal,imcanny totheother animals byhisartifice andsagac- ity,rather thanbyhisstrength, hasinvented thegood con- science inorder finally toenjoy hissoulassomething simple; andthewhole ofmorality isalong, audacious falsification, byvirtue ofwhich generally enjojonent atthesight ofthe soulbecomes possible. From thispoint ofview there isper- hapsmuch more intheconception of"art" than isgener- allybelieved. 292 Aphilosopher: that isamanwhoconstantly experiences, sees, hears, suspects, hopes, and dreams extraordinary things; who isstruck byhisownthoughts asiftheycame from theoutside, from above andbelow, asaspecies of events andlightning-flashes peculiar tohim;who isperhaps himself astorm pregnant withnew lightnings; aportentous man, around whom there isalways rumbling andmumbling andgaping andsomething uncanny going on.Aphiloso- pher: alas, abeing who often runsaway from himself, is often afraid ofhimself^butwhose curiosity always makes him"come tohimself" again. 293 Amanwho says: "Ilikethat, Itake itformyown,and mean toguard andprotect itfrom every one"; amanwho canconduct acase, carry outaresolution, remain true toan opinion, keep hold ofawoman, punish andoverthrow inso- BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 229 lencc; amanwhohashisindignation and hissword, and towhom theweak, thesuffering, theoppressed, andeven theanimals willingly submit andnaturally belong; inshort, amanwho isamaster bynaturewhen suchamanha3 sympathy, well! thatsympathy hasvalue! Butofwhat accoimt istheS5mipathy ofthosewho suffer! Orofthose evenwhopreach s)anpathy! There isnowadays, through- outalmost thewhole ofEurope, asickly irritability andsen- sitiveness towards pain, and alsoarepulsive irrestrainable- ness incomplaining, aneffeminising, which, with theaidof religion andphilosophical nonsense, seeks todeck itself out assomething superiorthere isaregular cultofsuffering. Theunmanliness ofthatwhich iscalled "sympathy" by such groups ofvisionaries, isalways, Ibelieve, the first thing that strikes theeye.Onemust resolutely andradically taboo thislatest form ofbad taste; and finally Iwishpeople toputthegood amulet, "gaisaber" ("gay science," inordi- nary language), onheart andneck, asaprotection against it. 294 TheOlympian Vice.^Despite Aephilosopher who, asa genuine Englishman, tried tobring laughter intobadrepute inallthinking minds"Laughing isabadinfirmity ofhu- man nature, which every thinking mind will strive toover- come" (Hobbes),Iwould even allow myself torank phi- losophers according tothequality oftheir laughingupto thosewho arecapable ofgolden laughter. Andsupposing thatGods alsophilosophise, which Iamstrongly inclined to believe, owing tomany reasonsIhavenodoubt thatthey alsoknowhow tolaugh thereby inanovermanlike andnew fashionand attheexpense ofallserious things! Gods 230 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL arefond ofridicule: itseems thattheycannot refrain from laughter even inholy matters. 295 The genius oftheheart, asthat great mysterious one possesses it,thetempter-god andbom rat-catcher ofcon- sciences, whose voice candescend into thenether-world of every soul,who neither speaks aword norcasts aglance inwhich theremaynotbesome motive ortouch ofallure- ment, towhose perfection itpertains thatheknows how toappear,notashe is,but inaguise which acts asan additional constraint onhisfollowers topress ever closer tohim, tofollow himmore cordially andthoroughly;the genius oftheheart, which imposes silence andattention on everything loudand self-conceited, which smooths rough soulsandmakes them tasteanewlongingtolieplacid asa mirror, that thedeepheavens maybereflected inthem; thegenius oftheheart, v^/hich teaches theclumsy andtoo hasty hand tohesitate, andtograsp more delicately; which scents thehidden andforgotten treasure, thedrop ofgood- nessandsweet spirituality imder thick dark ice,and isa divining-rod forevery grain ofgold, long buried andim- prisoned inmudandsand; thegenius oftheheart, from contact withwhich every onegoesaway richer; notfavoured orsurprised, notasthough gratified andoppressed bythe good things ofothers; butricher inhimself, newer than be- fore, broken up,blown upon, andsounded byathawing wind; more uncertain, perhaps, more delicate, more fragile, more bruised, but fullofhopes which asyetlacknames, full ofanew willandcurrent, fullofanew ill-will andcounter- current . . .buiwhatamIdoing,myfriends? Ofwhom amItalking toyou? Have Ifor|rotten myself sofarthat BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 231 Ihave noteven toldyou hisname? Unless itbethatyou have already divined ofyourownaccord who thisquestion- ableGodand spirit is,thatwishes tobepraised insucha manner? For, asithappens toevery onewhofrom child- hood onward hasalways beenonhislegs,and inforeign lands, Ihave alsoencountered onmypathmany strange anddangerous spirits; above all,however, andagain and again, theoneofwhom Ihave justspoken: infact,no lessapersonage than theGodDionysus, thegreat equivo- catorandtempter, towhom, asyouknow, Ionce offered in allsecrecy and reverence my first-fruitsthe last, asit seems tome,whohasoffered asacrifice tohim, forIhave found noonewhocould understand what Iwasthen doing. Inthemeantime, however, Ihave learned much, fartoo much, about thephilosophy ofthisGod, and, asIsaid,from mouth tomouthI,the last disciple and initiate ofthe GodDionysus: andperhaps Imight atlastbegin togive you,my friends, asfarasIamallowed, alittle taste of thisphilosophy? Inahushed voice, asisbutseemly: for it hastodowithmuch that issecret, new, strange, wonderful, andimcanny. Thevery factthatDionysus isaphilosopher, and that therefore Gods also philosophise, seems tomea novelty which isnotunensnaring, andmight perhaps arouse suspicion precisely amongst philosophers; amongst you, myfriends, there islesstobesaidagainst it,except that it comes toolateandnotattheright time; for,asithasbeen disclosed tome,youarelothnowadays tobelieve inGod andgods. Itmayhappen, too,that inthefrankness ofmy story Imust gofurther than isagreeable tothestrict usages ofyour ears? Certainly theGod inquestion went further, verymuch further, insuch dialogues, andwasalways many paces ahead ofme. . . .Indeed, ifitwere allowed, Ishould have togivehim, according tohuman usage, fineceremoni- 232 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL ous titles oflustre and merit, Ishould have toextol his courage asinvestigator anddiscoverer, hisfearless honesty, truthfulness, andlove ofwisdom. ButsuchaGoddoesnot know what todowith allthat respectable trumpery and pomp. "Keep that," hewould say, "for thyself andthose like thee,andwhoever elserequire it! Ihavenoreason tccovermynakedness!" One suspects that thiskind of divinity andphilosopher perhaps lacks shame?Heonce said: "Under certain circumstances Ilovemankind"and referred thereby toAriadne, whowaspresent; "inmyopin- ionman isanagreeable, brave, inventive animal, thathas nothisequal upon earth, hemakes hiswayeven through alllabyrinths. Ilikeman,andoften thinkhow Ican still further advance him,andmakehimstronger, more evil,and more profound.""Stronger, more evil,andmore pro- found?" Iasked inhorror. "Yes," hesaidagain, "stronger, more evil,andmore profound; alsomore beautiful"and thereby thetempter-god smiled with hishalcyon smile, as though hehad justpaidsome charming compliment. One here seesatonce that itisnotonlyshame that thisdivinity lacks;andingeneral there aregood grounds forsupposing that insome things theGods could allofthemcome tous men forinstruction. Wemen aremorehuman.- 296 Alas! what areyou, after all,mywritten andpainted thoughts! Notlongagoyouwere sovariegated, young and malicious, sofullofthorns andsecret spices, thatyoumade mesneeze andlaughandnow? Youhave already doffed your novelty, andsome ofyou, Ifear, areready tobecome truths, soimmortal dothey look, sopathetically honest, sc> tedious! Andwas itever otherwise? What then dow^ BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 233 write andpaint, wemandarins with Qiinese brush, weim- mortalisers ofthings which lendthemselves towriting, what arewealone capable ofpainting? Alas, only thatwhich is justabout tofadeandbegins tolose itsodour! Alas, only exhausted anddeparting storms andbelated yellow senti- ments! Alas, only birds strayed and fatigued by flight, which now letthemselves becaptured with thehandwith ourhand! We immortalise what cannot liveand fly much longer, things onlywhich areexhausted andmellow! And itisonly foryour afternoon, you,mywritten and painted thoughts, forwhich alone Ihave colours, many col- ours, perhaps, many variegated softenings, and fifty yellows andbrowns andgreens and reds;^butnobody willdivine thereby howyelooked inyour morning, yousudden sparks andmarvels ofmy solitude, you,my old,beloved evil thoughts! FROM THEHEIGHTS ByF.W,Nietzsche Translated byL.A.Magnus Midday ofLife! Oh,season ofdelight! Mysummer's park! Uneaseful joytolook, tolurk, tohark: Ipeer forfriends, amready dayandnight, Where linger ye,myfriends? Thetime isrightl Isnottheglacier's grey to-day foryou Rose-garlanded? The brooklet seeks you; wind, cloud, with longing thread And thrust themselves yethigher totheblue, Tospyforyoufrom farthest eagle's view. Mytablewasspread outforyouonhigh: Who dwelleth so Star-near, sonear thegrisly pitbelow? Myrealm^what realm hath wider boundary? Myhoneywhohath sipped itsfragrancy? 234 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 235 Friends, yearethere! Woeme,^yetIamnot Hewhom yeseek? Yestareandstopbetter yourwrath could speak! IamnotI?Hand, gait, face, changed? Andwhat Iam,toyoumyfriends, nowamInot? AmIanother? Strange amItoMe? YetfromMesprung? Awrestler, byhimself toooftself-wrung? Hindering toooftmyown self's potency, Woimded andhampered byself-victory? Isought where-so thewindblow keenest. There Ilearned todwell Where noman dwells, onlonesome ice-lorn fell. Andimleamed ManandGodandcurse andprayer? Became aghost haunting theglaciers bare? Ye,myoldfriends! Look! Yeturn pale, filled o'er With loveand fear! Go! Yetnotinwrath. Yecould ne'er livehere. Here inthefarthest realm oficeandscaur, Ahuntsman must onebe,likechamois soar. 236 BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 8 Anevilhuntsman wasI?Seehowtaut Mybowwasbent! Strongest washebywhom such boltwere sent Woenow! That arrow iswith peril fraught, Perilous asnone.Have yonsafehome yesought I Yego!Thou didst endure enough, oh,heart; Strong wasthyhope; Untonew friends thyportals widely ope, Letoldones be.Bidmemory depart! Wast thouyoung then,now^better young thou artl 10 What linked usonce together, onehope's tie (Whonowdoth con Those lines,now fading, Love oncewrote thereon?) Islikeaparchment, which thehand isshy Totouchlikecrackling leaves, allseared, alldry. II Oh!Friends nomore! They arewhatname forthose? Friends' phantom-flight Knocking atmyheart's window-pane atnight. Gazing onme,thatspeaks"Wewere" andgoes, Oh,withered words, once fragrant astherose! BEYOND GOODANDEVIL 237 12 Finings ofyouth thatmight notunderstand! Forwhich Ipined, Which Ideemed changed withme,kinofmykind: Buttheygrew old,andthusweredoomed andbanned: None butnewkitharenative ofmyland! 13 Midday oflife!Mysecond youth's delight! Mysummer's park! Unrestful joytolong, tolurk, tohark! Ipeer forfriends!amready dayandnight. Formynew friends. Come! Come! Thetime isright! 14 Thissong isdone,thesweet sadcryofrue Sang out itsend; Awizard wrought it,hethetimely friend. Themidday friend,no,donotaskmewho; Atmidday 'twas, when onebecame astwo. 15 Wekeep ourFeast ofFeasts, sure ofourbourne, Ouraims self-same: TheGuest ofGuests, friend Zarathustra, came! Theworldnow laughs, thegrisly veilwas torn, AndLight andDark were onethatwedding-mom. THEEND 4 y\/0^ \'^\./\/ y\^ |
This free for download ebook is a direct reproduction of the original bona fide personally approved and blessed by Srila Prabhupada. This ebook was made by the official website for Srila Prabhupadas original books: Krishnapath.org All the content was directly taken from the original scans, is unchanged and intact. More free downloads at: www.krishnapath.org Bhagavad-gt As It Is Bhagavad-gt As It Is COMPLETE EDITION with original Sanskrit text, Roman transliteration, English equivalents, translation and elaborate purports His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda Founder-crya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Collier Books, New York Collier Macmillan Publishers, London Copyright 1972 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda Readers interested in the subject matter of this book are invited by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness to correspond with its Secretary. International Society for Krishna Consciousness 3764 Watseka Avenue Los Angeles, California 90034 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-79319 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher. First Collier Books Edition 1972 Third Printing 1973 Bhagavad-gt As It Is is also published in a hardcover edition by the Macmillan Company. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. Collier-Macmillan Canada Ltd. Printed in the United States of America To RLA BALADEVA VIDYBHAA who presented so nicely the "Govinda-bhya" commentary on Vednta philosophy Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Preface Introduction CHAPTER ONE Observing the Armies on the Battlefield of Kuruketra CHAPTER TWO Contents of the Gt Summarized CHAPTER THREE Karma-yoga CHAPTER FOUR Transcendental Knowledge CHAPTER FIVE Karma-yoga Action in Ka Consciousness CHAPTER SIX Skhya-yoga CHAPTER SEVEN Knowledge of the Absolute CHAPTER EIGHT Attaining the Supreme CHAPTER NINE The Most Confidential Knowledge CHAPTER TEN The Opulence of the Absolute CHAPTER ELEVEN The Universal Form CHAPTER TWELVE Devotional Service CHAPTER THIRTEEN Nature, the Enjoyer, and Consciousness CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Three Modes of Material Nature CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Yoga of the Supreme Person CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Divine and Demoniac Natures CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Divisions of Faith CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Conclusion The Perfection of Renunciation Foreword Foreword The Bhagavad-gt is the best known and the most frequently translated of Vedic religious texts. Why it should be so appealing to the Western mind is an interesting question. It has drama, for its setting is a scene of two great armies, banners flying, drawn up opposite one another on the field, poised for battle. It has ambiguity, and the fact that Arjuna and his charioteer Ka are carrying on their dialogue between the two armies suggests the indecision of Arjuna about the basic question: should he enter battle against and kill those who are friends and kinsmen? It has mystery, as Ka demonstrates to Arjuna His cosmic form. It has a properly complicated view of the ways of the religious life and treats of the paths of knowledge, works, discipline and faith and their inter-relationships, problems that have bothered adherents of other religions in other times and places. The devotion spoken of is a deliberate means of religious satisfaction, not a mere outpouring of poetic emotion. Next to the Bhgavata-pura, a long work from South India, the Gt is the text most frequently quoted in the philosophical writings of the Gauya Vaiava school, the school represented by Swami Bhaktivedanta as the latest in a long succession of teachers. It can be said that this school of Vaiavism was founded, or revived, by r Ka-Caitanya Mahprabhu (1486-1533) in Bengal, and that it is currently the strongest single religious force in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Gauiya Vaiava school, for whom Ka is Himself the Supreme God, and not merely an incarnation of another deity, sees bhakti as an immediate and powerful religious force, consisting of love between man and God. Its discipline consists of devoting all one's actions to the Deity, and one listens to the stories of Ka from the sacred texts, one chants Ka's name, washes, bathes, and dresses the mrti of Ka, feeds Him and takes the remains of the food offered to Him, thus absorbing His grace; one does these things and many more, until one has been changed: the devotee has become transformed into one close to Ka, and sees the Lord face to face. Swami Bhaktivedanta comments upon the Gt from this point of view, and that is legitimate. More than that, in this translation the Western reader has the unique opportunity of seeing how a Krsna devotee interprets his own texts. It is the Vedic exegetical tradition, justly famous, in action. This book is then a welcome addition from many points of view. It can serve as a valuable textbook for the college student. It allows us to listen to a skilled interpreter explicating a text which has profound religious meaning. It gives us insights into the original and highly convincing ideas of the Gauiya Vaiava school. In providing the Sanskrit in both Devanagari and transliteration, it offers the Sanskrit specialist the opportunity to re-interpret, or debate particular Sanskrit meaningsalthough I think there will be little disagreement about the quality of the Swami's Sanskrit scholarship. And finally, for the nonspecialist, there is readable English and a devotional attitude which cannot help but move the sensitive reader. And there are the paintings, which, incredibly as it may seem to those familiar with contemporary Indian religious art, were done by American devotees. The scholar, the student of Gauiya Vaiavism, and the increasing number of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold; and arguments for understanding, in these days of estrangement, need not be made. Professor Edward C. Dimock, Jr. Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization University of Chicago Preface Preface Originally I wrote Bhagavad-gt As It Is in the form in which it is presented now. When this book was first published, the original manuscript was, unfortunately, cut short to less than 400 pages, without illustrations and without explanations for most of the original verses of the rmad Bhagavad- gt. In all of my other books rmad Bhgavatam, r opaniad, etc.the system is that I give the original verse, its English transliteration, word-for- word Sanskrit-English equivalents, translations and purports. This makes the book very authentic and scholarly and makes the meaning self-evident. I was not very happy, therefore, when I had to minimize my original manuscript. But later on, when the demand for Bhagavad-gt As It Is considerably increased, I was requested by many scholars and devotees to present the book in its original form, and Messrs. Macmillan and Co. agreed to publish the complete edition. Thus the present attempt is to offer the original manuscript of this great book of knowledge with full parampar explanation in order to establish the Ka consciousness movement more soundly and progressively. Our Ka consciousness movement is genuine, historically authorized, natural and transcendental due to its being based on Bhagavad-gt As It Is . It is gradually becoming the most popular movement in the entire world, especially amongst the younger generation. It is becoming more and more interesting to the older generation also. Older gentlemen are becoming interested, so much so that the fathers and grandfathers of my disciples are encouraging us by becoming life members of our great society, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In Los Angeles many fathers and mothers used to come to see me to express their feelings of gratitude for my leading the Ka consciousness movement throughout the entire world. Some of them said that it is greatly fortunate for the Americans that I have started the Ka consciousness movement in America. But actually the original father of this movement is Lord Ka Himself, since it was started a very long time ago but is coming down to human society by disciplic succession. If I have any credit in this connection, it does not belong to me personally, but it is due to my eternal spiritual master, His Divine Grace Om Viupda Paramahasa Parivrjakcrya 108 r rmad Bhaktisiddhnta Sarasvat Gosvm Mahrja Prabhupda. If personally I have any credit in this matter, it is only that I have tried to present Bhagavad-gt as it is, without adulteration. Before my presentation of Bhagavad-gt As It Is, almost all the English editions of Bhagavad- gt were introduced to fulfill someone's personal ambition. But our attempt, in presenting Bhagavad-gt As It Is, is to present the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. Our business is to present the will of Ka, not that of any mundane speculator like the politician, philosopher or scientist, for they have very little knowledge of Ka, despite all their other knowledge. When Ka says, man-man bhava mad-bhakto mad-yj m namaskuru, etc., we, unlike the so-called scholars, do not say that Ka and His inner spirit are different. Ka is absolute, and there is no difference between Ka's name, Ka's form, Ka's quality, Ka's pastimes, etc. This absolute position of Ka is difflcult to understand for any person who is not a devotee of Ka in the parampar (disciplic succession) system. Generally the so-called scholars, politicians, philosophers, and svms , without perfect knowledge of Ka, try to banish or kill Ka when writing commentary on Bhagavad-gt. Such unauthorized commentary upon Bhagavad-gt is known as Myvd-Bhya, and Lord Caitanya has warned us about these unauthorized men. Lord Caitanya clearly says that anyone who tries to understand Bhagavad-gt from the Myvd point of view will commit a great blunder. The result of such a blunder will be that the misguided student of Bhagavad-gt will certainly be bewildered on the path of spiritual guidance and will not be able to go back home, back to Godhead. Our only purpose is to present this Bhagavad-gt As It Is in order to guide the conditioned student to the same purpose for which Ka descends to this planet once in a day of Brahm, or every 8,600,000,000 years. This purpose is stated in Bhagavad-gt, and we have to accept it as it is; otherwise there is no point in trying to understand the Bhagavad-gt and its speaker, Lord Ka. Lord Ka first spoke Bhagavad-gt to the sun-god some hundreds of millions of years ago. We have to accept this fact and thus understand the historical significance of Bhagavad-gt, without misinterpretation, on the authority of Ka. To interpret Bhagavad-gt without any reference to the will of Ka is the greatest offense. In order to save oneself from this offense, one has to understand the Lord as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He was directly understood by Arjuna, Lord Ka's first disciple. Such understanding of Bhagavad-gt is really profitable and authorized for the welfare of human society in fulfilling the mission of life. The Ka consciousness movement is essential in human society, for it offers the highest perfection of life. How this is so is explained fully in the Bhagavad-gt. Unfortunately, mundane wranglers have taken advantage of Bhagavad-gt to push forward their demonic propensities and mislead people regarding right understanding of the simple principles of life. Everyone should know how God or Ka is great, and everyone should know the factual position of the living entities. Everyone should know that a living entity is eternally a servant and that unless one serves Ka one has to serve illusion in different varieties of the three modes of material nature, and thus perpetually one has to wander within the cycle of birth and death; even the so- called liberated Myvd speculator has to undergo this process. This knowledge constitutes a great science, and each and every living being has to hear it for his own interest. People in general, especially in this age of Kali, are enamored by the external energy of Ka, and they wrongly think that by advancement of material comforts every man will be happy. They have no knowledge that the material or external nature is very strong, for everyone is strongly bound by the stringent laws of material nature. A living entity is happily the part and parcel of the Lord, and thus his natural function is to render immediate service to the Lord. By the spell of illusion one tries to be happy by serving his personal sense gratification in different forms which will never make him happy. Instead of satisfying his own personal material senses, he has to satisfy the senses of the Lord. That is the highest perfection of life. The Lord wants this, and He demands it. One has to understand this central point of Bhagavad- gt. Our Ka consciousness movement is teaching the whole world this central point, and because we are not polluting the theme of Bhagavad-gt As It Is, anyone seriously interested in deriving benefit by studying the Bhagavad-gt must take help from the Ka consciousness movement for practical understanding of Bhagavad-gt under the direct guidance of the Lord. We hope, therefore, that people will derive the greatest benefit by studying Bhagavad-gt As It Is as we have presented it here, and if even one man becomes a pure devotee of the Lord we shall consider our attempt a success. 12 May 1971 Sydney, Australia Bhagavad-gt As It Is Introduction INTRODUCTION om ajna-timirndhasya jnjana-alkay cakur unmlita yena tasmai r-gurave nama r-caitanya-mano 'bha sthpita yena bh-tale svaya rpa kad mahya dadti sva-padntikam I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him. When will rla Rpa Gosvm Prabhupda, who has established within this material world the mission to fulfill the desire of Lord Caitanya, give me shelter under his lotus feet? vande 'ha r-guro r-yuta-pada-kamala r-gurun vaiav ca r-rpa sgrajta saha-gaa-raghunthnvita ta sa-jvam sdvaita svadhta parijana-sahita ka-caitanya-deva r-rdh-ka-pdn saha-gaa-lalit-r-vikhnvit ca I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master and unto the feet of all Vaiavas. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of rla Rpa Gosvm along with his elder brother Santana Gosvm, as well as Raghuntha Dsa and Raghuntha Bhaa, Gopla Bhaa, and rla Jva Gosvm. I offer my respectful obeisances to Lord Ka Caitanya and Lord Nitynanda along with Advaita crya, Gaddhara, rvsa, and other associates. I offer my respectful obeisances to rmat Rdhr and r Ka along with Their associates, r Lalit and Vikh. he ka karun-sindho dna-bandho jagat-pate gopea gopik-knta rdh-knta namo 'stu te O my dear Ka, You are the friend of the distressed and the source of creation. You are the master of the gops and the lover of Rdhr. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. tapta-kcana-gaurgi rdhe vndvanevari vabhnu-sute devi praammi hari-priye I offer my respects to Rdhr whose bodily complexion is like molten gold and who is the Queen of Vndvana. You are the daughter of King Vabhnu, and You are very dear to Lord Ka. vch-kalpatarubhya ca kp-sindhubhya eva ca patitn pvanebhyo vaiavebhyo namo nama I offer my respectful obeisances unto all the Vaiava devotees of the Lord who can fulfill the desires of everyone, just like desire trees, and who are full of compassion for the fallen souls. r ka caitanya prabhu nitynanda r advaita gaddhara rvsdi-gaura-bhakta-vnda I offer my obeisances to r Ka Caitanya, Prabhu Nitynanda, r Advaita, Gaddhara, rvsa and all others in the line of devotion. hare ka, hare ka, ka ka, hare hare hare rma, hare rma, rma rma, hare hare. Bhagavad-gt is also known as Gtopaniad. It is the essence of Vedic knowledge and one of the most important Upaniads in Vedic literature. Of course there are many commentaries in English on the Bhagavad-gt, and one may question the necessity for another one. This present edition can be explained in the following way. Recently an American lady asked me to recommend an English translation of Bhagavad-gt. Of course in America there are so many editions of Bhagavad-gt available in English, but as far as I have seen, not only in America but also in India, none of them can be strictly said to be authoritative because in almost every one of them the commentator has expressed his own opinions without touching the spirit of Bhagavad-gt as it is. The spirit of Bhagavad-gt is mentioned in Bhagavad-gt itself. It is just like this: if we want to take a particular medicine, then we have to follow the directions written on the label. We cannot take the medicine according to our own whim or the direction of a friend. It must be taken according to the directions on the label or the directions given by a physician. Similarly, Bhagavad-gt should be taken or accepted as it is directed by the speaker himself. The speaker of Bhagavad-gt is Lord r Ka. He is mentioned on every page of Bhagavad-gt as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavn. Of course the word " bhagavn "sometimes refers to any powerful person or any powerful demigod, and certainly here Bhagavn designates Lord r Ka as a great personality, but at the same time we should know that Lord r Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as is confirmed by all great cryas (spiritual masters) like akarcrya, Rmnujcrya, Madhvcrya, Nimbrka Svm, r Caitanya Mahprabhu and many other authorities of Vedic knowledge in India. The Lord Himself also establishes Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-gt, and He is accepted as such in the Brahma- sahit and all the Puras, especially the rmad- Bhgavatam, known as the Bhgavata Pura ( Kas tu bhagavn svayam ). Therefore we should take Bhagavad-gt as it is directed by the Personality of Godhead Himself. In the Fourth Chapter of the Gt the Lord says: (1) ima vivasvate yoga proktavn aham avyayam vivasvn manave prha manur ikvkave 'bravt (2) eva parampar-prptam ima rjarayo vidu sa kleneha mahat yogo naa parantapa (3) sa evya may te 'dya yoga prokta purtana bhakto 'si me sakh ceti rahasya hy etad uttamam Here the Lord informs Arjuna that this system of yoga, the Bhagavad- gt , was first spoken to the sun-god, and the sun-god explained it to Manu, and Manu explained it to Ikvku, and in that way, by disciplic succession, one speaker after another, this yoga system has been coming down. But in the course of time it has become lost. Consequently the Lord has to speak it again, this time to Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruketra. He tells Arjuna that He is relating this supreme secret to him because he is His devotee and His friend. The purport of this is that Bhagavad-gt is a treatise which is especially meant for the devotee of the Lord. There are three classes of transcendentalists, namely the jn , the yog and the bhakta, or the impersonalist, the meditator and the devotee. Here the Lord clearly tells Arjuna that He is making him the first receiver of a new parampar (disciplic succession) because the old succession was broken. It was the Lord's wish, therefore, to establish another parampar in the same line of thought that was coming down from the sun-god to others, and it was His wish that His teaching be distributed anew by Arjuna. He wanted Arjuna to become the authority in understanding the Bhagavad- gt. So we see that Bhagavad-gt is instructed to Arjuna especially because Arjuna was a devotee of the Lord, a direct student of Ka, and His intimate friend. Therefore Bhagavad-gt is best understood by a person who has qualities similar to Arjuna's. That is to say he must be a devotee in a direct relationship with the Lord. As soon as one becomes a devotee of the Lord, he also has a direct relationship with the Lord. That is a very elaborate subject matter, but briefly it can be stated that a devotee is in a relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one of five different ways: 1. One may be a devotee in a passive state; 2. One may be a devotee in an active state; 3. One may be a devotee as a friend; 4. One may be a devotee as a parent; 5. One may be a devotee as a conjugal lover. Arjuna was in a relationship with the Lord as friend. Of course there is a gulf of difference between this friendship and the friendship found in the material world. This is transcendental friendship which cannot be had by everyone. Of course everyone has a particular relationship with the Lord, and that relationship is evoked by the perfection of devotional service. But in the present status of our life, we have not only forgotten the Supreme Lord, but we have forgotten our eternal relationship with the Lord. Every living being, out of many, many billions and trillions of living beings, has a particular relationship with the Lord eternally. That is called svarpa. By the process of devotional service, one can revive that svarpa, and that stage is called svarpa-siddhi perfection of one's constitutional position. So Arjuna was a devotee, and he was in touch with the Supreme Lord in friendship. How Arjuna accepted this Bhagavad-gt should be noted. His manner of acceptance is given in the Tenth Chapter. (12) arjuna uvca para brahma para dhma pavitra parama bhavn purua vata divyam di-devam aja vibhum (13) hus tvm aya sarve devarir nradas tath asito devalo vysa svaya caiva bravi me (14) sarvam etad ta manye yan m vadasi keava na hi te bhagavan vyakti vidur dev na dnav "Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal Divine Person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all- pervading beauty. All the great sages like Nrada, Asita, Devala, and Vysa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me. O Ka, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the gods nor demons, O Lord, know Thy personality." (Bg. 10. 12-14). After hearing Bhagavad-gt from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Arjuna accepted Ka as Para Brahma, the Supreme Brahman. Every living being is Brahman, but the supreme living being, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the Supreme Brahman. Para dhma means that He is the supreme rest or abode of everything, pavitram means that He is pure, untainted by material contamination, puruam means that He is the supreme enjoyer, divyam, transcendental, di-devam, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, ajam, the unborn, and vibhum, the greatest, the all-pervading. Now one may think that because Ka was the friend of Arjuna, Arjuna was telling Him all this by way of flattery, but Arjuna, just to drive out this kind of doubt from the minds of the readers of Bhagavad- gt, substantiates these praises in the next verse when he says that Ka is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead not only by himself but by authorities like the sage Nrada, Asita, Devala, Vysadeva and so on. These are great personalities who distribute the Vedic knowledge as it is accepted by all cryas . Therefore Arjuna tells Ka that he accepts whatever He says to be completely perfect. Sarvam etad ta manye: "I accept everything You say to be true." Arjuna also says that the personality of the Lord is very difficult to understand and that He cannot be known even by the great demigods. This means that the Lord cannot even be known by personalities greater than human beings. So how can a human being understand r Ka without becoming His devotee? Therefore Bhagavad-gt should be taken up in a spirit of devotion. One should not think that he is equal to Ka, nor should he think that Ka is an ordinary personality or even a very great personality. Lord r Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, at least theoretically, according to the statements of Bhagavad-gt or the statements of Arjuna, the person who is trying to understand the Bhagavad-gt. We should therefore at least theoretically accept r Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and with that submissive spirit we can understand the Bhagavad-gt. Unless one reads the Bhagavad-gt in a submissive spirit, it is very difficult to understand Bhagavad-gt because it is a great mystery. Just what is the Bhagavad-gt? The purpose of Bhagavad- gt is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence. Every man is in difficulty in so many ways, as Arjuna also was in difficulty in having to fight the Battle of Kuruketra. Arjuna surrendered unto r Ka, and consequently this Bhagavad-gt was spoken. Not only Arjuna, but every one of us is full of anxieties because of this material existence. Our very existence is in the atmosphere of nonexistence. Actually we are not meant to be threatened by nonexistence. Our existence is eternal. But somehow or other we are put into asat. Asat refers to that which does not exist. Out of so many human beings who are suffering, there are a few who are actually inquiring about their position, as to what they are, why they are put into this awkward position and so on. Unless one is awakened to this position of questioning his suffering, unless he realizes that he doesn't want suffering but rather wants to make a solution to all sufferings, then one is not to be considered a perfect human being. Humanity begins when this sort of inquiry is awakened in one's mind. In the Brahma-stra this inquiry is called " brahma-jijs ." Every activity of the human being is to be considered a failure unless he inquires about the nature of the Absolute. Therefore those who begin to question why they are suffering or where they came from and where they shall go after death are proper students for understanding Bhagavad-gt. The sincere student should also have a firm respect for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such a student was Arjuna. Lord Ka descends specifically to reestablish the real purpose of life when man forgets that purpose. Even then, out of many, many human beings who awaken, there may be one who actually enters the spirit of understanding his position, and for him this Bhagavad- gt is spoken. Actually we are all followed by the tiger of nescience, but the Lord is very merciful upon living entities, especially human beings. To this end He spoke the Bhagavad-gt, making His friend Arjuna His student. Being an associate of Lord Ka, Arjuna was above all ignorance, but Arjuna was put into ignorance on the Battlefield of Kuruketra just to question Lord Ka about the problems of life so that the Lord could explain them for the benefit of future generations of human beings and chalk out the plan of life. Then man could act accordingly and perfect the mission of human life. The subject of the Bhagavad-gt entails the comprehension of five basic truths. First of all, the science of God is explained and then the constitutional position of the living entities, jvas. There is vara, which means controller, and there are jvas, the living entities which are controlled. If a living entity says that he is not controlled but that he is free, then he is insane. The living being is controlled in every respect, at least in his conditioned life. So in the Bhagavad-gt the subject matter deals with the vara , the supreme controller, and the jvas, the controlled living entities. Prakti (material nature) and time (the duration of existence of the whole universe or the manifestation of material nature) and karma (activity) are also discussed. The cosmic manifestation is full of different activities. All living entities are engaged in different activities. From Bhagavad-gt we must learn what God is, what the living entities are, what prakti is, what the cosmic manifestation is and how it is controlled by time, and what the activities of the living entities are. Out of these five basic subject matters in Bhagavad-gt it is established that the Supreme Godhead, or Ka, or Brahman, or supreme controller, or Paramtmyou may use whatever name you likeis the greatest of all. The living beings are in quality like the supreme controller. For instance, the Lord has control over the universal affairs, over material nature, etc., as will be explained in the later chapters of Bhagavad-gt. Material nature is not independant. She is acting under the directions of the Supreme Lord. As Lord Ka says, " Prakti is working under My direction." When we see wonderful things happening in the cosmic nature, we should know that behind this cosmic manifestation there is a controller. Nothing could be manifested without being controlled. It is childish not to consider the controller. For instance, a child may think that an automobile is quite wonderful to be able to run without a horse or other animal pulling it, but a sane man knows the nature of the automobile's engineering arrangement. He always knows that behind the machinery there is a man, a driver. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is a driver under whose direction everything is working. Now the jvas, or the living entities, have been accepted by the Lord, as we will note in the later chapters, as His parts and parcels. A particle of gold is also gold, a drop of water from the ocean is also salty, and similarly, we the living entities, being part and parcel of the supreme controller, svara , or Bhagavn, Lord r Ka, have all the qualities of the Supreme Lord in minute quantity because we are minute varas , subordinate varas . We are trying to control nature, as presently we are trying to control space or planets, and this tendency to control is there because it is in Ka. But although we have a tendency to lord it over material nature, we should know that we are not the supreme controller. This is explained in Bhagavad-gt. What is material nature? This is also explained in Gt as inferior prakti, inferior nature. The living entity is explained as the superior prakti. Prakti is always under control, whether inferior or superior. Prakti is female, and she is controlled by the Lord just as the activities of a wife are controlled by the husband. Prakti is always subordinate, predominated by the Lord, who is the predominator. The living entities and material nature are both predominated, controlled by the Supreme Lord. According to the Gt, the living entities, although parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, are to be considered prakti. This is clearly mentioned in the Seventh Chapter, fifth verse of Bhagavad- gt: " Apareyam itas tv anym ." "This prakti is My lower nature." " Prakti viddhi me parm jva-bht mah-bho yayeda dhryate jagat ." And beyond this there is another prakti: jva-bhtm, the living entity. Prakti itself is constituted by three qualities: the mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of ignorance. Above these modes there is eternal time, and by a combination of these modes of nature and under the control and purview of eternal time there are activities which are called karma. These activities are being carried out from time immemorial, and we are suffering or enjoying the fruits of our activities. For instance, suppose I am a businessman and have worked very hard with intelligence and have amassed a great bank balance. Then I am an enjoyer. But then say I have lost all my money in business; then I am a sufferer. Similarly, in every field of life we enjoy the results of our work, or we suffer the results. This is called karma . vara (the Supreme Lord), jva (the living entity), prakti (nature), eternal time and karma (activity) are all explained in the Bhagavad- gt. Out of these five, the Lord, the living entities, material nature and time are eternal. The manifestation of prakti may be temporary, but it is not false. Some philosophers say that the manifestation of material nature is false, but according to the philosophy of Bhagavad-gt or according to the philosophy of the Vaiavas, this is not so. The manifestation of the world is not accepted as false; it is accepted as real, but temporary. It is likened unto a cloud which moves across the sky, or the coming of the rainy season which nourishes grains. As soon as the rainy season is over and as soon as the cloud goes away, all the crops which were nourished by the rain dry up. Similarly, this material manifestation takes place at a certain interval, stays for a while and then disappears. Such are the workings of prakti But this cycle is working eternally. Therefore prakrti is eternal; it is not false. The Lord refers to this as "My prakti ." This material nature is the separated energy of the Supreme Lord, and similarly the living entities are also the energy of the Supreme Lord, but they are not separated. They are eternally related. So the Lord, the living entity, material nature and time are all interrelated and are all eternal. However, the other item, karma , is not eternal. The effects of karma may be very old indeed. We are suffering or enjoying the results of our activities from time immemorial, but we can change the results of our karma , or our activity, and this change depends on the perfection of our knowledge. We are engaged in various activities. Undoubtedly we do not know what sort of activities we should adopt to gain relief from the actions and reactions of all these activities, but this is also explained in the Bhagavad-gt. The position of svara is that of supreme consciousness. The jvas , or the living entities, being parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, are also conscious. Both the living entity and material nature are explained as prakti, the energy of the Supreme Lord, but one of the two, the jva , is conscious. The other prakti is not conscious. That is the difference. Therefore the jva-prakti is called superior because the jva has consciousness which is similar to the Lord's. The Lord's is supreme consciousness, however, and one should not claim that the jva , the living entity, is also supremely conscious. The living being cannot be supremely conscious at any stage of his perfection, and the theory that he can be so is a misleading theory. Conscious he may be, but he is not perfectly or supremely conscious. The distinction between the jva and the vara will be explained in the Thirteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gt. The Lord is ketra-ja, conscious, as is the living being, but the living being is conscious of his particular body, whereas the Lord is conscious of all bodies. Because He lives in the heart of every living being, He is conscious of the psychic movements of the particular jvas. We should not forget this. It is also explained that the Paramtm, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is living in everyone's heart as vara, as the controller, and that He is giving directions for the living entity to act as he desires. The living entity forgets what to do. First of all he makes a determination to act in a certain way, and then he is entangled in the acts and reactions of his own karma. After giving up one type of body, he enters another type of body, as we put on and take off old clothes. As the soul thus migrates, he suffers the actions and reactions of his past activities. These activities can be changed when the living being is in the mode of goodness, in sanity, and understands what sort of activities he should adopt. If he does so, then all the actions and reactions of his past activities can be changed. Consequently, karma is not eternal. Therefore we stated that of the five items ( vara, jva, prakti time and karma ) four are eternal, whereas karma is not eternal. The supreme conscious vara is similar to the living entity in this way: both the consciousness of the Lord and that of the living entity are transcendental. It is not that consciousness is generated by the association of matter. That is a mistaken idea. The theory that consciousness develops under certain circumstances of material combination is not accepted in the Bhagavad-gt. Consciousness may be pervertedly reflected by the covering of material circumstances, just as light reflected through colored glass may appear to be a certain color, but the consciousness of the Lord is not materially affected. Lord Ka says, " maydhyakea prakti ." When He descends into the material universe, His consciousness is not materially affected. If He were so affected, He would be unfit to speak on transcendental matters as He does in the Bhagavad-gt. One cannot say anything about the transcendental world without being free from materially contaminated consciousness. So the Lord is not materially contaminated. Our consciousness, at the present moment, however, is materially contaminated. The Bhagavad-gt teaches that we have to purify this materially contaminated consciousness. In pure consciousness, our actions will be dovetailed to the will of vara, and that will make us happy. It is not that we have to cease all activities. Rather, our activities are to be purified, and purified activities are called bhakti. Activities in bhakti appear to be like ordinary activities, but they are not contaminated. An ignorant person may see that a devotee is acting or working like an ordinary man, but such a person with a poor fund of knowledge does not know that the activities of the devotee or of the Lord are not contaminated by impure consciousness or matter. They are transcendental to the three modes of nature. We should know, however, that at this point our consciousness is contaminated. When we are materially contaminated, we are called conditioned. False consciousness is exhibited under the impression that I am a product of material nature. This is called false ego. One who is absorbed in the thought of bodily conceptions cannot understand his situation. Bhagavad- gt was spoken to liberate one from the bodily conception of life, and Arjuna put himself in this position in order to receive this information from the Lord. One must become free from the bodily conception of life; that is the preliminary activity for the transcendentalist. One who wants to become free, who wants to become liberated, must first of all learn that he is not this material body. Mukti or liberation means freedom from material consciousness. In the rmad-Bhgavatam also the definition of liberation is given: Mukti means liberation from the contaminated consciousness of this material world and situation in pure consciousness. All the instructions of Bhagavad-gt are intended to awaken this pure consciousness, and therefore we find at the last stage of the Gt's instructions that Ka is asking Arjuna whether he is now in purified consciousness. Purified consciousness means acting in accordance with the instructions of the Lord. This is the whole sum and substance of purified consciousness. Consciousness is already there because we are part and parcel of the Lord, but for us there is the affinity of being affected by the inferior modes. But the Lord, being the Supreme, is never affected. That is the difference between the Supreme Lord and the conditioned souls. What is this consciousness? This consciousness is "I am." Then what am I? In contaminated consciousness "I am" means "I am the lord of all I survey. I am the enjoyer." The world revolves because every living being thinks that he is the lord and creator of the material world. Material consciousness has two psychic divisions. One is that I am the creator, and the other is that I am the enjoyer. But actually the Supreme Lord is both the creator and the enjoyer, and the living entity, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is neither the creator nor the enjoyer, but a cooperator. He is the created and the enjoyed. For instance, a part of a machine cooperates with the whole machine; a part of the body cooperates with the whole body. The hands, feet, eyes, legs and so on are all parts of the body, but they are not actually the enjoyers. The stomach is the enjoyer. The legs move, the hands supply food, the teeth chew and all parts of the body are engaged in satisfying the stomach because the stomach is the principal factor that nourishes the body's organization. Therefore everything is given to the stomach. One nourishes the tree by watering its root, and one nourishes the body by feeding the stomach, for if the body is to be kept in a healthy state, then the parts of the body must cooperate to feed the stomach. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the enjoyer and the creator, and we, as subordinate living beings, are meant to cooperate to satisfy Him. This cooperation will actually help us, just as food taken by the stomach will help all other parts of the body. If the fingers of the hand think that they should take the food themselves instead of giving it to the stomach, then they will be frustrated. The central figure of creation and of enjoyment is the Supreme Lord, and the living entities are cooperators. By cooperation they enjoy. The relation is also like that of the master and the servant. If the master is fully satisfied, then the servant is satisfied. Similarly, the Supreme Lord should be satisfied, although the tendency to become the creator and the tendency to enjoy the material world are there also in the living entities because these tendencies are there in the Supreme Lord who has created the manifested cosmic world. We shall find, therefore, in this Bhagavad-gt that the complete whole is comprised of the supreme controller, the controlled living entities, the cosmic manifestation, eternal time, and karma , or activities, and all of these are explained in this text. All of these taken completely form the complete whole, and the complete whole is called the Supreme Absolute Truth. The complete whole and the complete Absolute Truth are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka. All manifestations are due to His different energies. He is the complete whole. It is also explained in the Gt that impersonal Brahman is also subordinate to the complete. Brahman is more explicitly explained in the Brahma-stra to be like the rays of the sunshine. The impersonal Brahman is the shining rays of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Impersonal Brahman is incomplete realization of the absolute whole, and so also is the conception of Paramtm in the Twelfth Chapter. There it shall be seen that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Puruottama, is above both impersonal Brahman and the partial realization of Paramtm. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is called sac- cid-nanda-vigraha . The Brahma-sahit begins in this way: vara parama ka sac-cid-nanda- vigraha / andir dir govinda sarva- kraa-kraam. "Ka is the cause of all causes. He is the primal cause, and He is the very form of eternal Pictures Part 1 being, knowledge and bliss." Impersonal Brahman realization is the realization of His sat (being) feature. Paramtm realization is the realization of the cit (eternal knowledge) feature. But realization of the Personality of Godhead, Ka, is realization of all the transcendental features: sat, cit and nanda (being, knowledge, bliss) in complete vigraha (form). People with less intelligence consider the Supreme Truth to be impersonal, but He is a transcendental person, and this is confirmed in all Vedic literatures. Nityo nitynm cetana cetannm. As we are all individual living beings and have our individuality, the Supreme Absolute Truth is also, in the ultimate issue, a person, and realization of the Personality of Godhead is realization of all of the transcendental features. The complete whole is not formless. If He is formless, or if He is less than any other thing, then He cannot be the complete whole. The complete whole must have everything within our experience and beyond our experience, otherwise it cannot be complete. The complete whole, Personality of Godhead, has immense potencies. How Ka is acting in different potencies is also explained in Bhagavad- gt. This phenomenal world or material world in which we are placed is also complete in itself because the twenty-four elements of which this material universe is a temporary manifestation, according to Skhya philosophy, are completely adjusted to produce complete resources which are necessary for the maintenance and subsistence of this universe. There is nothing extraneous; nor is there anything needed. This manifestation has its own time fixed by the energy of the supreme whole, and when its time is complete, these temporary manifestations will be annihilated by the complete arrangement of the complete. There is complete facility for the small complete units, namely the living entities, to realize the complete, and all sorts of incompleteness are experienced due to incomplete knowledge of the complete. So Bhagavad-gt contains the complete knowledge of Vedic wisdom. All Vedic knowledge is infallible, and Hindus accept Vedic knowledge to be complete and infallible. For example, cow dung is the stool of an animal, and according to smti or Vedic injunction, if one touches the stool of an animal he has to take a bath to purify himself. But in the Vedic scriptures cow dung is considered to be a purifying agent. One might consider this to be contradictory, but it is accepted because it is Vedic injunction, and indeed by accepting this, one will not commit a mistake; subsequently it has been proved by modern science that cow dung contains all antiseptic properties. So Vedic knowledge is complete because it is above all doubts and mistakes, and Bhagavad-gt is the essence of all Vedic knowledge. Vedic knowledge is not a question of research. Our research work is imperfect because we are researching things with imperfect senses. We have to accept perfect knowledge which comes down, as is stated in Bhagavad-gt, by the parampar disciplic succession. We have to receive knowledge from the proper source in disciplic succession beginning with the supreme spiritual master, the Lord Himself, and handed down to a succession of spiritual masters. Arjuna, the student who took lessons from Lord r Ka, accepts everything that He says without contradicting Him. One is not allowed to accept one portion of Bhagavad-gt and not another. No. We must accept Bhagavad-gt without interpretation, without deletion and without our own whimsical participation in the matter. The Gt should be taken as the most perfect presentation of Vedic knowledge. Vedic knowledge is received from transcendental sources, and the first words were spoken by the Lord Himself. The words spoken by the Lord are different from words spoken by a person of the mundane world who is infected with four defects. A mundaner 1) is sure to commit mistakes, 2) is invariably illusioned, 3) has the tendency to cheat others and 4) is limited by imperfect senses. With these four imperfections, one cannot deliver perfect information of all-pervading knowledge. Vedic knowledge is not imparted by such defective living entities. It was imparted unto the heart of Brahm, the first created living being, and Brahm in his turn disseminated this knowledge to his sons and disciples, as he originally received it from the Lord. The Lord is pram, all-perfect, and there is no possibility of His becoming subjected to the laws of material nature. One should therefore be intelligent enough to know that the Lord is the only proprietor of everything in the universe and that He is the original creator, the creator of Brahm. In the Eleventh Chapter the Lord is addressed as prapitmaha because Brahm is addressed as pitmaha, the grandfather, and He is the creator of the grandfather. So no one should claim to be the proprietor of anything; one should accept only things which are set aside for him by the Lord as his quota for his maintenance. There are many examples given of how we are to utilize those things which are set aside for us by the Lord. This is also explained in Bhagavad- gt. In the beginning, Arjuna decided that he should not fight in the Battle of Kuruketra. This was his own decision. Arjuna told the Lord that it was not possible for him to enjoy the kingdom after killing his own kinsmen. This decision was based on the body because he was thinking that the body was himself and that his bodily relations or expansions were his brothers, nephews, brothers-in-law, grandfathers and so on. He was thinking in this way to satisfy his bodily demands. Bhagavad-gt was spoken by the Lord just to change this view, and at the end Arjuna decides to fight under the directions of the Lord when he says, " kariye vacana tava ." "I shall act according to Thy word." In this world man is not meant to toil like hogs. He must be intelligent to realize the importance of human life and refuse to act like an ordinary animal. A human being should realize the aim of his life, and this direction is given in all Vedic literatures, and the essence is given in Bhagavad-gt. Vedic literature is meant for human beings, not for animals. Animals can kill other living animals, and there is no question of sin on their part, but if a man kills an animal for the satisfaction of his uncontrolled taste, he must be responsible for breaking the laws of nature. In the Bhagavad-gt it is clearly explained that there are three kinds of activities according to the different modes of nature: the activities of goodness, of passion and of ignorance. Similarly, there are three kinds of eatables also: eatables in goodness, passion and ignorance. All of this is clearly described, and if we properly utilize the instructions of Bhagavad-gt, then our whole life will become purified, and ultimately we will be able to reach the destination which is beyond this material sky. That destination is called the santana sky, the eternal spiritual sky. In this material world we find that everything is temporary. It comes into being, stays for some time, produces some by-products, dwindles and then vanishes. That is the law of the material world, whether we use as an example this body, or a piece of fruit or anything. But beyond this temporary world there is another world of which we have information. This world consists of another nature which is santana, eternal. Jva is also described as santana, eternal, and the Lord is also described as santana in the Eleventh Chapter. We have an intimate relationship with the Lord, and because we are all qualitatively one the santana-dhma , or sky, the santana Supreme Personality and the santana living entitiesthe whole purpose of Bhagavad-gt is to revive our santana occupation, or santana- dharma , which is the eternal occupation of the living entity. We are temporarily engaged in different activities, but all of these activities can be purified when we give up all these temporary activities and take up the activities which are prescribed by the Supreme Lord. That is called our pure life. The Supreme Lord and His transcendental abode are both santana , as are the living entities, and the combined association of the Supreme Lord and the living entities in the santana abode is the perfection of human life. The Lord is very kind to the living entities because they are His sons. Lord Ka declares in Bhagavad-gt, " sarva-yoniu...aha bja-prada pit ." "I am the father of all." Of course there are all types of living entities according to their various karmas, but here the Lord claims that He is the father of all of them. Therefore the Lord descends to reclaim all of these fallen, conditioned souls to call them back to the santana eternal sky so that the santana living entities may regain their eternal santana positions in eternal association with the Lord. The Lord comes Himself in different incarnations, or He sends His confidential servants as sons or His associates or cryas to reclaim the conditioned souls. Therefore, santana-dharma does not refer to any sectarian process of religion. It is the eternal function of the eternal living entities in relationship with the eternal Supreme Lord. Santana-dharma refers, as stated previously, to the eternal occupation of the living entity. Rmnujcrya has explained the word santana as "that which has neither beginning nor end," so when we speak of santana-dharma, we must take it for granted on the authority of r Rmnujcrya that it has neither beginning nor end. The English word "religion" is a little different from santana- dharma. Religion conveys the idea of faith, and faith may change. One may have faith in a particular process, and he may change this faith and adopt another, but santana-dharma refers to that activity which cannot be changed. For instance, liquidity cannot be taken from water, nor can heat be taken from fire. Similarly, the eternal function of the eternal living entity cannot be taken from the living entity. Santana-dharma is eternally integral with the living entity. When we speak of santana-dharma, therefore, we must take it for granted on the authority of r Rmnujcrya that it has neither beginning nor end. That which has neither end nor beginning must not be sectarian, for it cannot be limited by any boundaries. Yet those belonging to some sectarian faith will wrongly consider that santana-dharma is also sectarian, but if we go deeply into the matter and consider it in the light of modern science, it is possible for us to see that santana-dharma is the business of all the people of the world nay, of all the living entities of the universe. Non- santana religious faith may have some beginning in the annals of human history, but there is no beginning to the history of santana-dharma because it remains eternally with the living entities. Insofar as the living entities are concerned, the authoritative stras state that the living entity has neither birth nor death. In the Gt it is stated that the living entity is never born, and he never dies. He is eternal and indestructible, and he continues to live after the destruction of his temporary material body. In reference to the concept of santana-dharma, we must try to understand the concept of religion from the Sanskrit root meaning of the word. Dharma refers to that which is constantly existing with the particular object. We conclude that there is heat and light along with the fire; without heat and light, there is no meaning to the word fire. Similarly, we must discover the essential part of the living being, that part which is his constant companion. That constant companion is his eternal quality, and that eternal quality is his eternal religion. When Santana Gosvm asked r Caitanya Mahprabhu about the svarpa of every living being, the Lord replied that the svarpa or constitutional position of the living being is the rendering of service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we analyze this statement of Lord Caitanya, we can easily see that every living being is constantly engaged in rendering service to another living being. A living being serves other living beings in two capacities. By doing so, the living entity enjoys life. The lower animals serve human beings as servants serve their master. A serves B master, B serves C master and C serves D master and so on. Under these circumstances, we can see that one friend serves another friend, the mother serves the son, the wife serves the husband, the husband serves the wife and so on. If we go on searching in this spirit, it will be seen that there is no exception in the society of living beings to the activity of service. The politician presents his manifesto for the public to convince them of his capacity for service. The voters therefore give the politician their valuable votes, thinking that he will render valuable service to society. The shopkeeper serves the customer, and the artisan serves the capitalist. The capitalist serves the family, and the family serves the state in the terms of the eternal capacity of the eternal living being. In this way we can see that no living being is exempt from rendering service to other living beings, and therefore we can safely conclude that service is the constant companion of the living being and that the rendering of service is the eternal religion of the living being. Yet man professes to belong to a particular type of faith with reference to particular time and circumstance and thus claims to be a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or any other sect. Such designations are non - santana- dharma. A Hindu may change his faith to become a Muslim, or a Muslim may change his faith to become a Hindu, or a Christian may change his faith and so on. But in all circumstances the change of religious faith does not effect the eternal occupation of rendering service to others. The Hindu, Muslim or Christian in all circumstances is servant of someone. Thus, to profess a particular type of sect is not to profess one's santana- dharma. The rendering of service is santana-dharma . Factually we are related to the Supreme Lord in service. The Supreme Lord is the supreme enjoyer, and we living entities are His servitors. We are created for His enjoyment, and if we participate in that eternal enjoyment with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we become happy. We cannot become happy otherwise. It is not possible to be happy independantly, just as no one part of the body can be happy without cooperating with the stomach. It is not possible for the living entity to be happy without rendering transcendental loving service unto the Supreme Lord. In the Bhagavad-gt, worship of different demigods or rendering service to them is not approved. It is stated in the Seventh Chapter, twentieth verse: kmais tais tair ht-ajn prapadyante 'nya-devat ta ta niyamam sthya prakty niyat svay "Those whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures." (Bg. 7.20) Here it is plainly said that those who are directed by lust worship the demigods and not the Supreme Lord Ka. When we mention the name Ka, we do not refer to any sectarian name. Ka means the highest pleasure, and it is confirmed that the Supreme Lord is the reservoir or storehouse of all pleasure. We are all hankering after pleasure. nandamayo 'bhyst. (Vs. 1.1.12) The living entities, like the Lord, are full of consciousness, and they are after happiness. The Lord is perpetually happy, and if the living entities associate with the Lord, cooperate with Him and take part in His association, then they also become happy. The Lord descends to this mortal world to show His pastimes in Vndvana, which are full of happiness. When Lord r Ka was in Vndvana, His activities with His cowherd boy friends, with His damsel friends, with the inhabitants of Vndvana and with the cows were all full of happiness. The total population of Vndvana knew nothing but Ka. But Lord Ka even discouraged His father Nanda Mahrja from worshiping the demigod Indra because He wanted to establish the fact that people need not worship any demigod. They need only worship the Supreme Lord because their ultimate goal is to return to His abode. The abode of Lord r Ka is described in the Bhagavad-gt, Fifteenth Chapter, sixth verse: na tad bhsayate sryo na ako na pvaka yad gatv na nivartante tad dhma parama mama "That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity. And anyone who reaches it never comes back to this material world." (Bg. 15.6) This verse gives a description of that eternal sky. Of course we have a material conception of the sky, and we think of it in relationship to the sun, moon, stars and so on, but in this verse the Lord states that in the eternal sky there is no need for the sun nor for the moon nor fire of any kind because the spiritual sky is already illuminated by the brahmajyoti, the rays emanating from the Supreme Lord. We are trying with difficulty to reach other planets, but it is not difficult to understand the abode of the Supreme Lord. This abode is referred to as Goloka. In the Brahma-sahit it is beautifully described: Goloka eva nivasaty akhiltma-bhta. The Lord resides eternally in His abode Goloka, yet He can be approached from this world, and to this end the Lord comes to manifest His real form, sac-cid- nanda-vigraha. When He manifests this form, there is no need for our imagining what He looks like. To discourage such imaginative speculation, He descends and exhibits Himself as He is, as ymasundara. Unfortunately, the less intelligent deride Him because He comes as one of us and plays with us as a human being. But because of this we should not consider that the Lord is one of us. It is by His potency that He presents Himself in His real form before us and displays His pastimes, which are prototypes of those pastimes found in His abode. In the effulgent rays of the spiritual sky there are innumerable planets floating. The brahmajyoti emanates from the supreme abode, Kaloka, and the nandamaya-cinmaya planets, which are not material, float in those rays. The Lord says, na tad bhsayate sryo na ako na pvaka yad gatv na nivartante tad dhma parama mama. One who can approach that spiritual sky is not required to descend again to the material sky. In the material sky, even if we approach the highest planet (Brahmaloka), what to speak of the moon, we will find the same conditions of life, namely birth, death, disease and old age. No planet in the material universe is free from these four principles of material existence. Therefore the Lord says in Bhagavad-gt, brahma-bhuvanl lok punar vartino 'rjuna. The living entities are traveling from one planet to another, not by mechanical arrangement but by a spiritual process. This is also mentioned: ynti deva-vrat devn pitn ynti pit-vrat. No mechanical arrangement is necessary if we want interplanetary travel. The Gt instructs: ynti deva-vrat devn. The moon, the sun and higher planets are called svargaloka. There are three different statuses of planets: higher, middle and lower planetary systems. The earth belongs to the middle planetary system. Bhagavad-gt informs us how to travel to the higher planetary systems ( devaloka ) with a very simple formula: ynti deva- vrat devn. One need only worship the particular demigod of that particular planet and in that way go to the moon, the sun or any of the higher planetary systems. Yet Bhagavad-gt does not advise us to go to any of the planets in this material world because even if we go to Brahmaloka, the highest planet, through some sort of mechanical contrivance by maybe traveling for forty thousand years (and who would live that long?), we will still find the material inconveniences of birth, death, disease and old age. But one who wants to approach the supreme planet, Kaloka, or any of the other planets within the spiritual sky, will not meet with these material inconveniences. Amongst all of the planets in the spiritual sky there is one supreme planet called Goloka Vndvana, which is the original planet in the abode of the original Personality of Godhead r Ka. All of this information is given in Bhagavad-gt, and we are given through its instruction information how to leave the material world and begin a truly blissful life in the spiritual sky. In the Fifteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gt, the real picture of the material world is given. It is said there: rdhva-mlam adha-kham avattha prhur avyayam chandsi yasya parni yas ta veda sa veda-vit "The Supreme Lord said: There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down, and the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas ." (Bg. 15.1) Here the material world is described as a tree whose roots are upwards and branches are below. We have experience of a tree whose roots are upward: if one stands on the bank of a river or any reservoir of water, he can see that the trees reflected in the water are upside down. The branches go downward and the roots upward. Similarly, this material world is a reflection of the spiritual world. The material world is but a shadow of reality. In the shadow there is no reality or substantiality, but from the shadow we can understand that there is substance and reality. In the desert there is no water, but the mirage suggests that there is such a thing as water. In the material world there is no water, there is no happiness, but the real water of actual happiness is there in the spiritual world. The Lord suggests that we attain the spiritual world in the following manner: nirmna-moh jita-saga-do adhytma-nity vinivtta-km dvandvair vimukt sukha-dukha-sajair gacchanty amh padam avyaya tat. That padam avyayam or eternal kingdom can be reached by one who is nirmna-moha. What does this mean? We are after designations. Someone wants to become a son, someone wants to become Lord, someone wants to become the president or a rich man or a king or something else. As long as we are attached to these designations, we are attached to the body because designations belong to the body. But we are not these bodies, and realizing this is the first stage in spiritual realization. We are associated with the three modes of material nature, but we must become detached through devotional service to the Lord. If we are not attached to devotional service to the Lord, then we cannot become detached from the modes of material nature. Designations and attachments are due to our lust and desire, our wanting to lord it over the material nature. As long as we do not give up this propensity of lording it over material nature, there is no possibility of returning to the kingdom of the Supreme, the santana-dhma. That eternal kingdom, which is never destroyed, can be approached by one who is not bewildered by the attractions of false material enjoyments, who is situated in the service of the Supreme Lord. One so situated can easily approach that supreme abode. Elsewhere in the Gt it is stated: avyakto 'kara ity uktas tam hu param gatim ya prpya na nivartante tad dhma parama mama. Avyakta means unmanifested. Not even all of the material world is manifested before us. Our senses are so imperfect that we cannot even see all of the stars within this material universe. In Vedic literature we can receive much information about all the planets, and we can believe it or not believe it. All of the important planets are described in Vedic literatures, especially rmad- Bhgavatam, and the spiritual world, which is beyond this material sky, is described as avyakta, unmanifested. One should desire and hanker after that supreme kingdom, for when one attains that kingdom, he does not have to return to this material world. Next, one may raise the question of how one goes about approaching that abode of the Supreme Lord. Information of this is given in the Eighth Chapter. It is said there: anta-kle ca mm eva smaran muktv kalevaram ya prayti sa mad-bhvam yti nsty atra saaya "Anyone who quits his body, at the end of life, remembering Me, attains immediately to My nature; and there is no doubt of this." (Bg. 8.5) One who thinks of Ka at the time of his death goes to Ka. One must remember the form of Ka; if he quits his body thinking of this form, he approaches the spiritual kingdom. Mad-bhva refers to the supreme nature of the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being is sac-cid-nanda- vigraha eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. Our present body is not sac-cid-nanda. It is asat, not sat. It is not eternal; it is perishable. It is not cit, full of knowledge, but it is full of ignorance. We have no knowledge of the spiritual kingdom, nor do we even have perfect knowledge of this material world where there are so many things unknown to us. The body is also nirnanda; instead of being full of bliss it is full of misery. All of the miseries we experience in the material world arise from the body, but one who leaves this body thinking of the Supreme Personality of Godhead at once attains a sac-cid-nanda body, as is promised in this fifth verse of the Eighth Chapter where Lord Ka says, "He attains My nature." The process of quitting this body and getting another body in the material world is also organized. A man dies after it has been decided what form of body he will have in the next life. Higher authorities, not the living entity himself, make this decision. According to our activities in this life, we either rise or sink. This life is a preparation for the next life. If we can prepare, therefore, in this life to get promotion to the kingdom of God, then surely, after quitting this material body, we will attain a spiritual body just like the Lord. As explained before, there are different kinds of transcendentalists, the brahmavdi paramtmvdi and the devotee, and, as mentioned, in the brahmajyoti (spiritual sky) there are innumerable spiritual planets. The number of these planets is far, far greater than all of the planets of this material world. This material world has been approximated as only one quarter of the creation. In this material segment there are millions and billions of universes with trillions of planets and suns, stars and moons. But this whole material creation is only a fragment of the total creation. Most of the creation is in the spiritual sky. One who desires to merge into the existence of the Supreme Brahman is at once transferred to the brahmajyoti of the Supreme Lord and thus attains the spiritual sky. The devotee, who wants to enjoy the association of the Lord, enters into the Vaikuha planets, which are innumerable, and the Supreme Lord by His plenary expansions as Nryaa with four hands and with different names like Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Govinda, etc., associates with him there. Therefore at the end of life the transcendentalists either think of the brahmajyoti, the Paramtm or the Supreme Personality of Godhead r Ka. In all cases they enter into the spiritual sky, but only the devotee, or he who is in personal touch with the Supreme Lord, enters into the Vaikuha planets. The Lord further adds that of this "there is no doubt." This must be believed firmly. We should not reject that which does not tally with our imagination; our attitude should be that of Arjuna: "I believe everything that You have said." Therefore when the Lord says that at the time of death whoever thinks of Him as Brahman or Paramtm or as the Personality of Godhead certainly enters into the spiritual sky, there is no doubt about it. There is no question of disbelieving it. The information on how to think of the Supreme Being at the time of death is also given in the Gt: ya ya vpi smaran bhva tyajaty ante kalevaram ta tam evaiti kaunteya sad tad-bhva-bhvita "In whatever condition one quits his present body, in his next life he will attain to that state of being without fail." (Bg. 8.6) Material nature is a display of one of the energies of the Supreme Lord. In the Viu Pura the total energies of the Supreme Lord as Viu-akti par prokt, etc., are delineated. The Supreme Lord has diverse and innumerable energies which are beyond our conception; however, great learned sages or liberated souls have studied these energies and have analyzed them into three parts. All of the energies are of Viu-akti, that is to say they are different potencies of Lord Viu. That energy is par, transcendental. Living entities also belong to the superior energy, as has already been explained. The other energies, or material energies, are in the mode of ignorance. At the time of death we can either remain in the inferior energy of this material world, or we can transfer to the energy of the spiritual world. In life we are accustomed to thinking either of the material or the spiritual energy. There are so many literatures which fill our thoughts with the material energynewspapers, novels, etc. Our thinking, which is now absorbed in these literatures, must be transferred to the Vedic literatures. The great sages, therefore, have written so many Vedic literatures such as the Puras, etc. The Puras are not imaginative; they are historical records. In the Caitanya- caritmita there is the following verse: my mugdha jiver nhi svata ka-jn jivera kpya kail ka veda-pura (Cc. Madhya 20.122) The forgetful living entities or conditioned souls have forgotten their relationship with the Supreme Lord, and they are engrossed in thinking of material activities. Just to transfer their thinking power to the spiritual sky, Ka has given a great number of Vedic literatures. First He divided the Vedas into four, then He explained them in the Puras, and for less capable people He wrote the Mahbhrata. In the Mahbhrata there is given the Bhagavad-gt. Then all Vedic literature is summarized in the Vednta-stra, and for future guidance He gave a natural commentation on the Vednta-sutra, called rmad-Bhgavatam. We must always engage our minds in reading these Vedic literatures. Just as materialists engage their minds in reading newspapers, magazines and so many materialistic literatures, we must transfer our reading to these literatures which are given to us by Vysadeva; in that way it will be possible for us to remember the Supreme Lord at the time of death. That is the only way suggested by the Lord, and He guarantees the result: "There is no doubt." (Bg. 8.7) tasmt sarveu kleu mm anusmara yudhya ca mayy arpita-mano-buddhir mm evaiyasy asaaya "Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me, and at the same time you should continue your prescribed duty and fight. With your mind and activities always fixed on Me, and everything engaged in Me, you will attain to Me without any doubt." He does not advise Arjuna to simply remember Him and give up his occupation. No, the Lord never suggests anything impractical. In this material world, in order to maintain the body one has to work. Human society is divided, according to work, into four divisions of social order brhmaa, katriya, vaiya, dra. The brhmaa class or intelligent class is working in one way, the katriya or administrative class is working in another way, and the mercantile class and the laborers are all tending to their specific duties. In the human society, whether one is a laborer, merchant, warrior, administrator, or farmer, or even if one belongs to the highest class and is a literary man, a scientist or a theologian, he has to work in order to maintain his existence. The Lord therefore tells Arjuna that he need not give up his occupation, but while he is engaged in his occupation he should remember Ka. If he doesn't practice remembering Ka while he is struggling for existence, then it will not be possible for him to remember Ka at the time of death. Lord Caitanya also advises this. He says that one should practice remembering the Lord by chanting the names of the Lord always. The names of the Lord and the Lord are nondifferent. So Lord Ka's instruction to Arjuna to "remember Me" and Lord Caitanya's injunction to always "chant the names of Lord Ka" are the same instruction. There is no difference, because Ka and Ka's name are nondifferent. In the absolute status there is no difference between reference and referent. Therefore we have to practice remembering the Lord always, twenty-four hours a day, by chanting His names and molding our life's activities in such a way that we can remember Him always. How is this possible? The cryas give the following example. If a married woman is attached to another man, or if a man has an attachment for a woman other than his wife, then the attachment is to be considered very strong. One with such an attachment is always thinking of the loved one. The wife who is thinking of her lover is always thinking of meeting him, even while she is carrying out her household chores. In fact, she carries out her household work even more carefully so her husband will not suspect her attachment. Similarly, we should always remember the supreme lover, r Ka, and at the same time perform our material duties very nicely. A strong sense of love is required here. If we have a strong sense of love for the Supreme Lord, then we can discharge our duty and at the same time remember Him. But we have to develop that sense of love. Arjuna, for instance, was always thinking of Ka; he was the constant companion of Ka, and at the same time he was a warrior. Ka did not advise him to give up fighting and go to the forest to meditate. When Lord Ka delineates the yoga system to Arjuna, Arjuna says that the practice of this system is not possible for him. arjuna uvca yo 'ya yogas tvay prokta smyena madhusdana etasyha na paymi cacalatvt sthiti sthirm "Arjuna said, O Madhusdana, the system of yoga which you have summarized appears impractical and unendurable to me, for the mind is restless and unsteady." (Bg. 6.33) But the Lord says: yoginm api sarve mad-gatenntartman raddhvn bhajate yo m sa me yuktatamo mata "Of all yogs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga, and is the highest of all." (Bg. 6.47) So one who thinks of the Supreme Lord always is the greatest yog, the supermost jn, and the greatest devotee at the same time. The Lord further tells Arjuna that as a katriya he cannot give up his fighting, but if Arjuna fights remembering Ka, then he will be able to remember Him at the time of death. But one must be completely surrendered in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. We work not with our body, actually, but with our mind and intelligence. So if the intelligence and the mind are always engaged in the thought of the Supreme Lord, then naturally the senses are also engaged in His service. Superficially, at least, the activities of the senses remain the same, but the consciousness is changed. The Bhagavad-gt teaches one how to absorb the mind and intelligence in the thought of the Lord. Such absorption will enable one to transfer himself to the kingdom of the Lord. If the mind is engaged in Ka's service, then the senses are automatically engaged in His service. This is the art, and this is also the secret of Bhagavad-gt: total absorption in the thought of r Ka. Modern man has struggled very hard to reach the moon, but he has not tried very hard to elevate himself spiritually. If one has fifty years of life ahead of him, he should engage that brief time in cultivating this practice of remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This practice is the devotional process of: ravaa krtana vio smaraa pda-sevanam arcana vandana dsya sakhyam tma-nivedanam These nine processes, of which the easiest is ravaa, hearing Bhagavad- gt from the realized person, will turn one to the thought of the Supreme Being. This will lead to nicala, remembering the Supreme Lord, and will enable one, upon leaving the body, to attain a spiritual body which is just fit for association with the Supreme Lord. The Lord further says: abhysa-yoga-yuktena cetas nnya-gmin parama purua divya yti prthnucintayan "By practicing this remembering, without being deviated, thinking ever of the Supreme Godhead, one is sure to achieve the planet of the Divine, the Supreme Personality, O son of Kunt." (Bg. 8.8) This is not a very difficult process. However, one must learn it from an experienced person, from one who is already in the practice. The mind is always flying to this and that, but one must always practice concentrating the mind on the form of the Supreme Lord r Ka or on the sound of His name. The mind is naturally restless, going hither and thither, but it can rest in the sound vibration of Ka. One must thus meditate on parama purua, the Supreme Person; and thus attain Him. The ways and the means for ultimate realization, ultimate attainment, are stated in the Bhagavad-gt, and the doors of this knowledge are open for everyone. No one is barred out. All classes of men can approach the Lord by thinking of Him, for hearing and thinking of Him is possible for everyone. The Lord further says: m hi prtha vyapritya ye 'pi syu ppa-yonaya striyo vaiys tath drs te 'pi ynti par gatim ki punar brhma puy bhakt rjarayas tath anityam asukha lokam ima prpya bhajasva mm "O son of Pth, anyone who will take shelter in Me, whether a woman, or a merchant, or one born in a low family, can yet approach the supreme destination. How much greater then are the brhmaas, the righteous, the devotees, and saintly kings! In this miserable world, these are fixed in devotional service to the Lord." (Bg. 9.32-33) Human beings even in the lower statuses of life (a merchant, a woman or a laborer) can attain the Supreme. One does not need highly developed intelligence. The point is that anyone who accepts the principle of bhakti- yoga and accepts the Supreme Lord as the summum bonum of life, as the highest target, the ultimate goal, can approach the Lord in the spiritual sky. If one adopts the principles enunciated in Bhagavad-gt, he can make his life perfect and make a perfect solution to all the problems of life which arise out of the transient nature of material existence. This is the sum and substance of the entire Bhagavad-gt. In conclusion, Bhagavad-gta is a transcendental literature which one should read very carefully. It is capable of saving one from all fear. nehbhikrama-no 'sti pratyavyo na vidyate svalpam apy asya dharmasya tryate mahato bhayt "In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear." (Bg. 2.40) If one reads Bhagavad-gt sincerely and seriously, then all of the reactions of his past misdeeds will not react upon him. In the last portion of Bhagavad- gt, Lord r Ka proclaims: sarva-dharmn parityajya mm eka araa vraja aha tv sarva-ppebhyo mokayiymi m uca "Give up all varieties of religiousness, and just surrender unto Me; and in return I shall protect you from all sinful reactions. Therefore, you have nothing to fear." (Bg. 18.66) Thus the Lord takes all responsibility for one who surrenders unto Him, and He indemnifies all the reactions of sin. One cleanses himself daily by taking a bath in water, but one who takes his bath only once in the sacred Ganges water of the Bhagavad-gt cleanses away all the dirt of material life. Because Bhagavad-gt is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one need not read any other Vedic literature. One need only attentively and regularly hear and read Bhagavad- gt. In the present age, mankind is so absorbed with mundane activities that it is not possible to read all of the Vedic literatures. But this is not necessary. This one book, Bhagavad-gt, will suffice because it is the essence of all Vedic literatures and because it is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is said that one who drinks the water of the Ganges certainly gets salvation, but what to speak of one who drinks the waters of Bhagavad-gt? Gt is the very nectar of the Mahbhrata spoken by Viu Himself, for Lord Ka is the original Viu. It is nectar emanating from the mouth of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the Ganges is said to be emanating from the lotus feet of the Lord. Of course there is no difference between the mouth and the feet of the Supreme Lord, but in our position we can appreciate that the Bhagavad-gt is even more important than the Ganges. The Bhagavad-gt is just like a cow, and Lord Ka, who is a cowherd boy, is milking this cow. The milk is the essence of the Vedas, and Arjuna is just like a calf. The wise men, the great sages and pure devotees, are to drink the nectarean milk of Bhagavad-gt. In this present day, man is very eager to have one scripture, one God, one religion, and one occupation. So let there be one common scripture for the whole world Bhagavad-gt. And let there be one God only for the whole worldr Ka. And one mantra onlyHare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. And let there be one work onlythe service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Disciplic Succession THE DISCIPLIC SUCCESSION Eva parampar-prptam ima rjarayo vidu. ( Bhagavad-gt, 4.2) This Bhagavad-gt As It Is is received through this disciplic succession: 1) Ka, 2) Brahm, 3) Nrada, 4) Vysa, 5) Madhva, 6) Padmanbha, 7) Nhari, 8) Mdhava, 9) Akobhya, 10) Jaya Trtha, 11) Jnasindhu, 12) Daynidhi, 13) Vidynidhi, 14) Rjendra, 15) Jayadharma, 16) Puruottama, 17) Brahmaya Trtha, 18) Vysa Trtha, 19) Lakmpati, 20) Mdhavendra Pur, 21) vara Pur, (Nitynanda, Advaita), 22) Lord Caitanya, 23) Rpa, (Svarpa, Santana), 24) Raghuntha, Jva, 25) Kadsa, 26) Narottama, 27) Vivantha, 28) (Baladeva) Jaganntha, 29) Bhaktivinoda, 30) Gaurakiora, 31) Bhaktisiddhnta Sarasvat, 32) Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda. Chapter-1 CHAPTER ONE Observing the Armies on the Battlefield of Kuruketra TEXT 1 dhtarra uvca dharma-ketre kuru-ketre samavet yuyutsava mmak pav caiva kim akurvata sajaya dhtarra King Dhtarra; uvca said; dharma-ketre in the place of pilgrimage; kuru-ketre in the place named Kuruketra; samavet assembled; yuyutsava desiring to fight; mmak my party (sons); pav the sons of Pu; ca and; eva-certainly; kim what; akurvata did they do; sajaya O Sajaya. TRANSLATION Dhtarra said: O Sajaya, after assembling in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruketra, what did my sons and the sons of Pu do, being desirous to fight? PURPORT Bhagavad-gt is the widely read theistic science summarized in the Gt- mhtmya (Glorification of the Gt). There it says that one should read Bhagavad-gt very scrutinizingly with the help of a person who is a devotee of r Ka and try to understand it without personally motivated interpretations. The example of clear understanding is there in the Bhagavad- gt itself, in the way the teaching is understood by Arjuna, who heard the Gt directly from the Lord. If someone is fortunate enough to understand Bhagavad-gt in that line of disciplic succession, without motivated interpretation, then he surpasses all studies of Vedic wisdom, and all scriptures of the world. One will find in the Bhagavad-gt all that is contained in other scriptures, but the reader will also find things which are not to be found elsewhere. That is the specific standard of the Gt . It is the perfect theistic science because it is directly spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord r Ka. The topics discussed by Dhtarra and Sajaya, as described in the Mahbhrata, form the basic principle for this great philosophy. It is understood that this philosophy evolved on the Battlefield of Kuruketra, which is a sacred place of pilgrimage from the immemorial time of the Vedic age. It was spoken by the Lord when He was present personally on this planet for the guidance of mankind. The word dharma-ketra (a place where religious rituals are performed) is significant because, on the Battlefield of Kuruketra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead was present on the side of Arjuna. Dhtarra, the father of the Kurus, was highly doubtful about the possibility of his sons' ultimate victory. In his doubt, he inquired from his secretary Sajaya, "What did my sons and the sons of Pu do?" He was confident that both his sons and the sons of his younger brother Pu were assembled in that Field of Kuruketra for a determined engagement of the war. Still, his inquiry is significant. He did not want a compromise between the cousins and brothers, and he wanted to be sure of the fate of his sons on the battlefield. Because the battle was arranged to be fought at Kuruketra, which is mentioned elsewhere in the Vedas as a place of worshipeven for the denizens of heavenDhtarra became very fearful about the influence of the holy place on the outcome of the battle. He knew very well that this would influence Arjuna and the sons of Pu favorably, because by nature they were all virtuous. Sajaya was a student of Vysa, and therefore, by the mercy of Vysa, Sajaya was able to envision the Battlefield of Kuruketra even while he was in the room of Dhtarra. And so, Dhtarra asked him about the situation on the battlefield. Both the Pavas and the sons of Dhtarra belong to the same family, but Dhtarra's mind is disclosed herein. He deliberately claimed only his sons as Kurus, and he separated the sons of Pu from the family heritage. One can thus understand the specific position of Dhtarra in his relationship with his nephews, the sons of Pu. As in the paddy field the unnecessary plants are taken out, so it is expected from the very beginning of these topics that in the religious field of Kuruketra where the father of religion, r Ka, was present, the unwanted plants like Dhtarra's son Duryodhana and others would be wiped out and the thoroughly religious persons, headed by Yudhihira, would be established by the Lord. This is the significance of the words dharma-ketre and kuru- ketre, apart from their historical and Vedic importance. TEXT 2 sajaya uvca dv tu pavnka vyha duryodhanas tad cryam upasagamya rj vacanam abravt sajaya Sajaya; uvca said; dv after seeing; tu but; pava- ankam the soldiers of the Pavas; vyham arranged in military phalanx; duryodhana King Duryodhana; tad at that time; cryam the teacher; upasagamya approaching nearby; rj the king; vacanam words; abravt spoke. TRANSLATION Sajaya said: O King, after looking over the army gathered by the sons of Pu, King Duryodhana went to his teacher and began to speak the following words: PURPORT Dhtarra was blind from birth. Unfortunately, he was also bereft of spiritual vision. He knew very well that his sons were equally blind in the matter of religion, and he was sure that they could never reach an understanding with the Pavas, who were all pious since birth. Still he was doubtful about the influence of the place of pilgrimage, and Sajaya could understand his motive in asking about the situation on the battlefield. He wanted, therefore, to encourage the despondent King, and thus he warned him that his sons were not going to make any sort of compromise under the influence of the holy place. Sajaya therefore informed the King that his son, Duryodhana, after seeing the military force of the Pavas, at once went to the commander-in-chief, Drocrya, to inform him of the real position. Although Duryodhana is mentioned as the king, he still had to go to the commander on account of the seriousness of the situation. He was therefore quite fit to be a politician. But Duryodhana's diplomatic veneer could not disguise the fear he felt when he saw the military arrangement of the Pavas. TEXT 3 payait pu-putrm crya mahat camm vyh drupada-putrea tava iyea dhmat paya behold; etm this; pu-putrm of the sons of Pu; crya O teacher; mahatm great; camm military force; vyhm arranged; drupada-putrea by the son of Drupada; tava your; iyea disciple; dhmat very intelligent. TRANSLATION O my teacher, behold the great army of the sons of Pu, so expertly arranged by your intelligent disciple, the son of Drupada. PURPORT Duryodhana, a great diplomat, wanted to point out the defects of Drocrya, the great brhmaa commander-in-chief. Drocrya had some political quarrel with King Drupada, the father of Draupad, who was Arjuna's wife. As a result of this quarrel, Drupada performed a great sacrifice, by which he received the benediction of having a son who would be able to kill Drocrya. Drocrya knew this perfectly well, and yet, as a liberal brhmaa, he did not hesitate to impart all his military secrets when the son of Drupada, Dhadyumna, was entrusted to him for military education. Now, on the Battlefield of Kuruketra, Dhadyumna took the side of the Pavas, and it was he who arranged for their military phalanx, after having learned the art from Drocrya. Duryodhana pointed out this mistake of Drocrya's so that he might be alert and uncompromising in the fighting. By this he wanted to point out also that he should not be similarly lenient in battle against the Pavas, who were also Drocrya's affectionate students. Arjuna, especially, was his most affectionate and brilliant student. Duryodhana also warned that such leniency in the fight would lead to defeat. TEXT 4 atra r mahevs bhmrjuna-sam yudhi yuyudhno vira ca drupada ca mah-ratha atra here; r heroes; mahevs mighty bowmen; bhma-arjuna Bhma and Arjuna; sam equal; yudhi in the fight; yuyudhna Yuyudhna; vira Vira; ca also; drupada Drupada; ca also; mahratha great fighter. TRANSLATION Here in this army there are many heroic bowmen equal in fighting to Bhma and Arjuna; there are also great fighters like Yuyudhna, Vira and Drupada. PURPORT Even though Dhadyumna was not a very important obstacle in the face of Drocrya's very great power in the military art, there were many others who were the cause of fear. They are mentioned by Duryodhana as great stumbling blocks on the path of victory because each and every one of them was as formidable as Bhma and Arjuna. He knew the strength of Bhma and Arjuna, and thus he compared the others with them. TEXT 5 dhaketu cekitna kirja ca vryavn purujit kuntibhoja ca aibya ca nara-pugava dhaketu Dhaketu; cekitna Cekitna; kirja Kairja; ca also; vryavn very powerful; purujit Purujit; kuntibhoja Kuntibhoja; ca and; aibya aibya; ca and; nara-pugava heroes in human society. TRANSLATION There are also great, heroic, powerful fighters like Dhaketu, Cekitna, Kirja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and aibya. TEXT 6 yudhmanyu ca vikrnta uttamauj ca vryavn saubhadro draupadey ca sarva eva mah-rath yudhmanyu Yudhmanyu; ca and; vikrnta mighty; uttamauj Uttamauj; ca and; vryavn very powerful; saubhadra the son of Subhadr; draupadey the sons of Draupad; ca and; sarve all; eva certainly; mah-rath great chariot fighters. TRANSLATION There are the mighty Yudhmanyu, the very powerful Uttamauj, the son of Subhadr and the sons of Draupad. All these warriors are great chariot fighters. TEXT 7 asmka tu vii ye tn nibodha dvijottama nyak mama sainyasya sajrtha tn bravmi te asmkam our; tu but; vii especially powerful; ye those; tn them; nibodha just take note, be informed; dvijottama the best of the brhmaas; nyak captains; mama my; sainyasya of the soldiers; saj-artham for information; tn them; bravmi I am speaking; te your. TRANSLATION O best of the brhmaas, for your information, let me tell you about the captains who are especially qualified to lead my military force. TEXT 8 bhavn bhma ca kara ca kpa ca samitijaya avatthm vikara ca saumadattis tathaiva ca bhavn yourself; bhma Grandfather Bhma; ca also; kara Kara; ca and; kpa Kpa; ca and; samitijaya always victorious in battle; avatthm Avatthm; vikara Vikara; ca as well as; saumadatti the son of Somadatta; tath and as; eva certainly; ca and. TRANSLATION There are personalities like yourself, Bhma, Kara, Kpa, Avatthm, Vikara and the son of Somadatta called Bhurirav, who are always victorious in battle. PURPORT Duryodhana mentioned the exceptional heroes in the battle, all of whom are ever-victorious. Vikara is the brother of Duryodhana, Avatthm is the son of Drocrya, and Saumadatti, or Bhrirav, is the son of the King of the Bhlkas. Kara is the half brother of Arjuna, as he was born of Kunt before her marriage with King Pu. Kpcrya married the twin sister of Drocrya. TEXT 9 anye ca bahava r mad-arthe tyakta-jvit nn-astra-prahara sarve yuddha-virad anye many others; ca also; bahava in great numbers; r-heroes; mad-arthe-for my sake; tyakta-jvit prepared to risk life; nn many; astra-weapons; prahara equipped with; sarve all of them; yuddha battle; virad experienced in military science. TRANSLATION There are many other heroes who are prepared to lay down their lives for my sake. All of them are well equipped with different kinds of weapons, and all are experienced in military science. PURPORT As far as the others are concernedlike Jayadratha, Ktavarm, alya, etc. all are determined to lay down their lives for Duryodhana's sake. In other words, it is already concluded that all of them would die in the Battle of Kuruketra for joining the party of the sinful Duryodhana. Duryodhana was, of course, confident of his victory on account of the above-mentioned combined strength of his friends. TEXT 10 aparypta tad asmka bala bhmbhirakitam parypta tv idam ete bala bhmbhirakitam aparyptam immeasurable; tat that; asmkam of ours; balam strength; bhma by Grandfather Bhma; abhirakitam perfectly protected; paryptam limited; tu but; idam all these; etem of the Pavas; balam strength; bhma by Bhma; abhirakitam carefully protected. TRANSLATION Our strength is immeasurable, and we are perfectly protected by Grandfather Bhma, whereas the strength of the Pavas, carefully protected by Bhma, is limited. PURPORT Herein an estimation of comparative strength is made by Duryodhana. He thinks that the strength of his armed forces is immeasurable, being specifically protected by the most experienced general, Grandfather Bhma. On the other hand, the forces of the Pavas are limited, being protected by a less experienced general, Bhma, who is like a fig in the presence of Bhma. Duryodhana was always envious of Bhma because he knew perfectly well that if he should die at all, he would only be killed by Bhma. But at the same time, he was confident of his victory on account of the presence of Bhma, who was a far superior general. His conclusion that he would come out of the battle victorious was well ascertained. TEXT 11 ayaneu ca sarveu yath-bhgam avasthit bhmam evbhirakantu bhavanta sarva eva hi ayaneu in the strategic points; ca also; sarveu everywhere; yathbhgam as they are differently arranged; avasthit situated; bhmam unto Grandfather Bhma; eva certainly; abhirakantu support may be given; bhavanta all of you; sarve respectively; eva certainly; hi and exactly. TRANSLATION Now all of you must give full support to Grandfather Bhma, standing at your respective strategic points in the phalanx of the army. PURPORT Duryodhana, after praising the prowess of Bhma, further considered that others might think that they had been considered less important, so in his usual diplomatic way, he tried to adjust the situation in the above words. He emphasized that Bhmadeva was undoubtedly the greatest hero, but he was an old man, so everyone must especially think of his protection from all sides. He might become engaged in the fight, and the enemy might take advantage of his full engagement on one side. Therefore, it was important that other heroes would not leave their strategic positions and allow the enemy to break the phalanx. Duryodhana clearly felt that the victory of the Kurus depended on the presence of Bhmadeva. He was confident of the full support of Bhmadeva and Drocrya in the battle because he well knew that they did not even speak a word when Arjuna's wife Draupad, in her helpless condition, had appealed to them for justice while she was being forced to strip naked in the presence of all the great generals in the assembly. Although he knew that the two generals had some sort of affection for the Pavas, he hoped that all such affection would now be completely given up by them, as was customary during the gambling performances. TEXT 12 tasya sajanayan hara kuru-vddha pitmaha siha-nda vinadyoccai akha dadhmau pratpavn tasya his; sajanayan increasing; haram cheerfulness; kuru-vddha the grandsire of the Kuru dynasty (Bhma); pitmaha the grandfather; siha-ndam roaring sound, like a lion; vinadya vibrating; uccai very loudly; akham conchshell; dadhmau blew; pratpavn the valiant. TRANSLATION Then Bhma, the great valiant grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, the grandfather of the fighters, blew his conchshell very loudly like the sound of a lion, giving Duryodhana joy. PURPORT The grandsire of the Kuru dynasty could understand the inner meaning of the heart of his grandson Duryodhana, and out of his natural compassion for him he tried to cheer him by blowing his conchshell very loudly, befitting his position as a lion. Indirectly, by the symbolism of the conchshell, he informed his depressed grandson Duryodhana that he had no chance of victory in the battle, because the Supreme Lord Ka was on the other side. But still, it was his duty to conduct the fight, and no pains would be spared in that connection. TEXT 13 tata akh ca bherya ca paavnaka-gomukh sahasaivbhyahanyanta sa abdas tumulo 'bhavat tata thereafter; akh conchshells; ca also; bherya bugles; ca and; paava-naka trumpets and drums; go-mukh horns; sahas all of a sudden; eva certainly; abhyahanyanta being simultaneously sounded; sa that; abda combined sound; tumula tumultuous; abhavat became. TRANSLATION After that, the conchshells, bugles, trumpets, drums and horns were all suddenly sounded, and the combined sound was tumultuous. TEXT 14 tata vetair hayair yukte mahati syandane sthitau mdhava pava caiva divyau akhau pradadhmatu tata thereafter; vetai by white; hayai horses; yukte being yoked with; mahati in the great; syandane chariot; sthitau so situated; mdhava Ka (the husband of the goddess of fortune); pava Arjuna (the son of Pu); ca also; eva certainly; divyau transcendental; akhau conchshells; pradadhmatu sounded. TRANSLATION On the other side, both Lord Ka and Arjuna, stationed on a great chariot drawn by white horses, sounded their transcendental conchshells. PURPORT In contrast with the conchshell blown by Bhmadeva, the conchshells in the hands of Ka and Arjuna are described as transcendental. The sounding of the transcendental conchshells indicated that there was no hope of victory for the other side because Ka was on the side of the Pavas. Jayas tu pu-putr ye pake janrdana. Victory is always with persons like the sons of Pu because Lord Ka is associated with them. And whenever and wherever the Lord is present, the goddess of fortune is also there because the goddess of fortune never lives alone without her husband. Therefore, victory and fortune were awaiting Arjuna, as indicated by the transcendental sound produced by the conchshell of Viu, or Lord Ka. Besides that, the chariot on which both the friends were seated was donated by Agni (the fire- god) to Arjuna, and this indicated that this chariot was capable of conquering all sides, wherever it was drawn over the three worlds. TEXT 15 pcajanya hkeo devadatta dhanajaya paura dadhmau mah-akha bhma-karm vkodara pcajanyam the conchshell named Pcajanya; hkea Hkea (Ka, the Lord who directs the senses of the devotees); devadattam the conchshell named Devadatta; dhanajaya Dhanajaya (Arjuna, the winner of wealth); pauram the conch named Pauram; dadhmau blew; mah- akham the terrific conchshell; bhma-karm one who performs Herculean tasks; vkodara the voracious eater (Bhma). TRANSLATION Then, Lord Ka blew His conchshell, called Pcajanya; Arjuna blew his, the Devadatta; and Bhma, the voracious eater and performer of Herculean tasks, blew his terrific conchshell called Pauram. PURPORT Lord Ka is referred to as Hkea in this verse because He is the owner of all senses. The living entities are part and parcel of Him, and, therefore, the senses of the living entities are also part and parcel of His senses. The impersonalists cannot account for the senses of the living entities, and therefore they are always anxious to describe all living entities as sense-less, or impersonal. The Lord, situated in the hearts of all living entities, directs their senses. But, He directs in terms of the surrender of the living entity, and in the case of a pure devotee He directly controls the senses. Here on the Battlefield of Kuruketra the Lord directly controls the transcendental senses of Arjuna, and thus His particular name of Hkea. The Lord has different names according to His different activities. For example, His name is Madhusdana because He killed the demon of the name Madhu; His name is Govinda because He gives pleasure to the cows and to the senses; His name is Vsudeva because He appeared as the son of Vasudeva; His name is Devak- nandana because He accepted Devak as His mother; His name is Yaod- nandana because He awarded His childhood pastimes to Yaod at Vndvana; His name is Prtha-srathi because He worked as charioteer of His friend Arjuna. Similarly, His name is Hkea because He gave direction to Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruketra. Arjuna is referred to as Dhanajaya in this verse because he helped his elder brother in fetching wealth when it was required by the King to make expenditures for different sacrifices. Similarly, Bhma is known as Vkodara because he could eat as voraciously as he could perform Herculean tasks, such as killing the demon Hiimba. So, the particular types of conchshell blown by the different personalities on the side of the Pavas, beginning with the Lord's, were all very encouraging to the fighting soldiers. On the other side there were no such credits, nor the presence of Lord Ka, the supreme director, nor that of the goddess of fortune. So, they were predestined to lose the battleand that was the message announced by the sounds of the conchshells. TEXTS 16-18 anantavijaya rj kunt-putro yudhihira nakula sahadeva ca sughoa-maipupakau kya ca paramevsa ikha ca mah-ratha dhadyumno vira ca styaki cparjita drupado draupadey ca sarvaa pthiv-pate saubhadra ca mah-bhu akhn dadhmu pthak pthak anantavijayam the conch named Anantavijaya; rj the king; kunt- putra the son of Kunt; yudhihira Yudhihira; nakula Nakula; sahadeva Sahadeva; ca and; sughoa-maipupakau the conches named Sughoa and Maipupaka; kya the King of K (Vras); ca and; paramevsa the great archer; ikha ikha; ca also; mah- ratha one who can fight alone against thousands; dhadyumna Dhadyumna (the son of King Drupada); vira Vira (the prince who gave shelter to the Pavas while they were in disguise); ca also; styaki Styaki (the same as Yuyudhna, the charioteer of Lord Ka); ca and; aparjita who were never vanquished before; drupada Drupada, the King of Pcla; draupadey the sons of Draupad; ca also; sarvaa all; pthiv-pate O King; saubhadra the son of Subhadr (Abhimanyu); ca also; mah-bhu greatly armed; akhn conchshells; dadhmu blew; pthak pthak each separately. TRANSLATION King Yudhihira, the son of Kunt, blew his conchshell, the Anantavijaya, and Nakula and Sahadeva blew the Sughoa and Maipupaka. That great archer the King of K, the great fighter ikha, Dhadyumna, Vira and the unconquerable Styaki, Drupada, the sons of Draupad, and the others, O King, such as the son of Subhadr, greatly armed, all blew their respective conchshells. PURPORT Sajaya informed King Dhtarra very tactfully that his unwise policy of deceiving the sons of Pu and endeavoring to enthrone his own sons on the seat of the kingdom was not very laudable. The signs already clearly indicated that the whole Kuru dynasty would be killed in that great battle. Beginning with the grandsire, Bhma, down to the grandsons like Abhimanyu and othersincluding kings from many states of the world all were present there, and all were doomed. The whole catastrophe was due to King Dhtarra, because he encouraged the policy followed by his sons. TEXT 19 sa ghoo dhrtarr hdayni vyadrayat nabha ca pthiv caiva tumulo 'bhyanundayan sa that; ghoa vibration; dhrtarrm of the sons of Dhtarra; hdayni hearts; vyadrayat shattered; nabha the sky; ca also; pthivm the surface of the earth; ca also; eva certainly; tumula uproarious; abhyanundayan by resounding. TRANSLATION The blowing of these different conchshells became uproarious, and thus, vibrating both in the sky and on the earth, it shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhtarra. PURPORT When Bhma and the others on the side of Duryodhana blew their respective conchshells, there was no heart-breaking on the part of the Pavas. Such occurrences are not mentioned, but in this particular verse it is mentioned that the hearts of the sons of Dhtarra were shattered by the sounds vibrated by the Pavas' party. This is due to the Pavas and their confidence in Lord Ka. One who takes shelter of the Supreme Lord has nothing to fear, even in the midst of the greatest calamity. TEXT 20 atha vyavasthitn dv dhrtarrn kapi-dhvaja pravtte astra-sampte dhanur udyamya pava hkea tad vkyam idam ha mah-pate atha thereupon; vyavasthitn situated; dv looking on; dhrtarrn the sons of Dhtarra; kapi-dhvaja one whose flag is marked with Hanumn; pravtte while about to be engaged; astra-sampte the arrows released; dhanu bow; udyamya after taking up; pava the son of Pu (Arjuna); hkeam unto Lord Ka; tad at that time; vkyam words; idam these; ha said; mah-pate O King. TRANSLATION O King, at that time Arjuna, the son of Pu, who was seated in his chariot, his flag marked with Hanumn, took up his bow and prepared to shoot his arrows, looking at the sons of Dhtarra. O King, Arjuna then spoke to Hkea [Ka] these words: PURPORT The battle was just about to begin. It is understood from the above statement that the sons of Dhtarra were more or less disheartened by the unexpected arrangement of military force by the Pavas, who were guided by the direct instructions of Lord Ka on the battlefield. The emblem of Hanumn on the flag of Arjuna is another sign of victory because Hanumn cooperated with Lord Rma in the battle between Rma and Rvaa, and Lord Rma emerged victorious. Now both Rma and Hanumn were present on the chariot of Arjuna to help him. Lord Ka is Rma Himself, and wherever Lord Rma is, His eternal servitor Hanumn and His eternal consort St, the goddess of fortune, are present. Therefore, Arjuna had no cause to fear any enemies whatsoever. And above all, the Lord of the senses, Lord Ka, was personally present to give him direction. Thus, all good counsel was available to Arjuna in the matter of executing the battle. In such auspicious conditions, arranged by the Lord for His eternal devotee, lay the signs of assured victory. TEXTS 21-22 arjuna uvca senayor ubhayor madhye ratha sthpaya me 'cyuta yvad etn nirke 'ha yoddhu-kmn avasthitn kair may saha yoddhavyam asmin raa-samudyame arjuna Arjuna; uvca said; senayo of the armies; ubhayo of both the parties; madhye in between them; ratham the chariot; sthpaya please keep; me my; acyuta O infallible one; yvat as long as; etn all these; nirke may look; aham I; yoddhu-kmn desiring to fight; avasthitn arrayed on the battlefield; kai with whom; may by me; saha with; yoddhavyam to fight with; asmin in this; raa strife; samudyame in the attempt. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: O infallible one, please draw my chariot between the two armies so that I may see who is present here, who is desirous of fighting, and with whom I must contend in this great battle attempt. PURPORT Although Lord Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, out of His causeless mercy He was engaged in the service of His friend. He never fails in His affection for His devotees, and thus He is addressed herein as infallible. As charioteer, He had to carry out the orders of Arjuna, and since He did not hesitate to do so, He is addressed as infallible. Although He had accepted the position of a charioteer for His devotee, His supreme position was not challenged. In all circumstances, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hkea, the Lord of the total senses. The relationship between the Lord and His servitor is very sweet and transcendental. The servitor is always ready to render a service to the Lord, and, similarly, the Lord is always seeking an opportunity to render some service to the devotee. He takes greater pleasure in His pure devotee's assuming the advantageous postion of ordering Him than He does in being the giver of orders. As master, everyone is under His orders, and no one is above Him to order Him. But when he finds that a pure devotee is ordering Him, He obtains transcendental pleasure, although He is the infallible master of all circumstances. As a pure devotee of the Lord, Arjuna had no desire to fight with his cousins and brothers, but he was forced to come onto the battlefield by the obstinacy of Duryodhana, who was never agreeable to any peaceful negotiation. Therefore, he was very anxious to see who the leading persons present on the battlefield were. Although there was no question of a peacemaking endeavor on the battlefield, he wanted to see them again, and to see how much they were bent upon demanding an unwanted war. TEXT 23 yotsyamnn aveke 'ha ya ete 'tra samgat dhrtarrasya durbuddher yuddhe priya-cikrava yotsyamnn those who will be fighting; aveke let me see; aham I; ye who; ete those; atra here; samgat assembled; dhrtarrasya the son of Dhtarra; durbuddhe evil-minded; yuddhe in the fight; priya well; cikrava wishing. TRANSLATION Let me see those who have come here to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhtarra. PURPORT It was an open secret that Duryodhana wanted to usurp the kingdom of the Pavas by evil plans, in collaboration with his father, Dhtarra. Therefore, all persons who had joined the side of Duryodhana must have been birds of the same feather. Arjuna wanted to see them in the battlefield before the fight was begun, just to learn who they were, but he had no intention of proposing peace negotiations with them. It was also a fact that he wanted to see them to make an estimate of the strength which he had to face, although he was quite confident of victory because Ka was sitting by his side. TEXT 24 sajaya uvca evam ukto hkeo gukeena bhrata senayor ubhayor madhye sthpayitv rathottamam sajaya Sajaya; uvca said; evam thus; ukta addressed; hkea Lord Ka; gukeena by Arjuna; bhrata O descendant of Bharata; senayo of armies; ubhayo of both; madhye in the midst of; sthpayitv by placing; rathottamam the finest chariot. TRANSLATION Sajaya said: O descendant of Bharata, being thus addressed by Arjuna, Lord Ka drew up the fine chariot in the midst of the armies of both parties. PURPORT In this verse Arjuna is referred to as Gukea. Guka means sleep, and one who conquers sleep is called gukea. Sleep also means ignorance. So Arjuna conquered both sleep and ignorance because of his friendship with Ka. As a great devotee of Ka, he could not forget Ka even for a moment, because that is the nature of a devotee. Either in waking or in sleep, a devotee of the Lord can never be free from thinking of Ka's name, form, quality and pastimes. Thus a devotee of Ka can conquer both sleep and ignorance simply by thinking of Ka constantly. This is called Ka consciousness, or samdhi. As Hkea, or the director of the senses and mind of every living entity, Ka could understand Arjuna's purpose in placing the chariot in the midst of the armies. Thus He did so, and spoke as follows. TEXT 25 bhma-droa-pramukhata sarve ca mahkitm uvca prtha payaitn samavetn kurn iti bhma Grandfather Bhma; droa the teacher Droa; pramukhata in the front of; sarvem all; ca also; mahkitm chiefs of the world; uvca said; prtha O Prtha (son of Pth); paya just behold; etn all of them; samavetn assembled; kurn all the members of the Kuru dynasty; iti thus. TRANSLATION In the presence of Bhma, Droa and all other chieftains of the world, Hkea, the Lord, said, Just behold, Prtha, all the Kurus who are assembled here. PURPORT As the Supersoul of all living entities, Lord Ka could understand what was going on in the mind of Arjuna. The use of the word Hkea in this connection indicates that He knew everything. And the word Prtha, or the son of Kunt or Pth, is also similarly significant in reference to Arjuna. As a friend, He wanted to inform Arjuna that because Arjuna was the son of Pth, the sister of His own father Vasudeva, He had agreed to be the charioteer of Arjuna. Now what did Ka mean when He told Arjuna to "behold the Kurus"? Did Arjuna want to stop there and not fight? Ka never expected such things from the son of His aunt Pth. The mind of Arjuna was thus predicated by the Lord in friendly joking. TEXT 26 tatrpayat sthitn prtha pitn atha pitmahn cryn mtuln bhrtn putrn pautrn sakhs tath vaurn suhda caiva senayor ubhayor api tatra there; apayat he could see; sthitn standing; prtha Arjuna; pitn fathers; atha also; pitmahn grandfathers; cryn teachers; mtuln maternal uncles; bhrtn brothers; putrn sons; pautrn grandsons; sakhn friends; tath too, vaurn fathers-in-law; suhda wellwishers; ca also; eva certainly; senayo of the armies; ubhayo of both parties; api including. TRANSLATION There Arjuna could see, within the midst of the armies of both parties, his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his father-in-law and well-wishersall present there. PURPORT On the battlefield Arjuna could see all kinds of relatives. He could see persons like Bhrirav, who were his father's contemporaries, grandfathers Bhma and Somadatta, teachers like Drocrya and Kpcrya, maternal uncles like alya and akuni, brothers like Duryodhana, sons like Lakmaa, friends like Avatthm, well-wishers like Ktavarm, etc. He could see also the armies which contained many of his friends. TEXT 27 tn samkya sa kaunteya sarvn bandhn avasthitn kpay parayvio vidann idam abravt tn all of them; samkya after seeing; sa he; kaunteya the son of Kunt; sarvn all kinds of; bandhn relatives; avasthitn situated; kpay by compassion; paray of a high grade; via overwhelmed by; vidan while lamenting; idam thus; abravt spoke. TRANSLATION When the son of Kunt, Arjuna, saw all these different grades of friends and relatives, he became overwhelmed with compassion and spoke thus: TEXT 28 arjuna uvca dvema svajana ka yuyutsu samupasthitam sdanti mama gtri mukha ca pariuyati arjuna Arjuna; uvca said; dv after seeing; imam all these; svajanam kinsmen; ka O Ka; yuyutsum all in fighting spirit; samupasthitam all present; sdanti quivering; mama my; gtri limbs of the body; mukham mouth; ca also; pariuyati drying up. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: My dear Ka, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up. PURPORT Any man who has genuine devotion to the Lord has all the good qualities which are found in godly persons or in the demigods, whereas the nondevotee, however advanced he may be in material qualifications by education and culture, lacks in godly qualities. As such, Arjuna, just after seeing his kinsmen, friends and relatives on the battlefield, was at once overwhelmed by compassion for them who had so decided to fight amongst themselves. As far as his soldiers were concerned, he was sympathetic from the beginning, but he felt compassion even for the soldiers of the opposite party, foreseeing their imminent death. And so thinking, the limbs of his body began to quiver, and his mouth became dry. He was more or less astonished to see their fighting spirit. Practically the whole community, all blood relatives of Arjuna, had come to fight with him. This overwhelmed a kind devotee like Arjuna. Although it is not mentioned here, still one can easily imagine that not only were Arjuna's bodily limbs quivering and his mouth drying up, but that he was also crying out of compassion. Such symptoms in Arjuna were not due to weakness but to his softheartedness, a characteristic of a pure devotee of the Lord. It is said therefore: yasysti bhaktir bhagavaty akican sarvair guais tatra samsate sur harv abhaktasya kuto mahad-gu mano-rathensati dhvato bahi "One who has unflinching devotion for the Personality of Godhead has all the good qualities of the demigods. But one who is not a devotee of the Lord has only material qualifications that are of little value. This is because he is hovering on the mental plane and is certain to be attracted by the glaring material energy." (Bhg. 5.18.12) TEXT 29 vepathu ca arre me roma-hara ca jyate gva srasate hastt tvak caiva paridahyate vepathu trembling of the body; ca also; arre on the body; me my; roma-hara standing of hair on end; ca also; jyate is taking place; gvam the bow of Arjuna; srasate is slipping; hastt from the hands; tvak skin; ca also; eva certainly; paridahyate burning. TRANSLATION My whole body is trembling, and my hair is standing on end. My bow Gva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning. PURPORT There are two kinds of trembling of the body, and two kinds of standings of the hair on end. Such phenomena occur either in great spiritual ecstasy or out of great fear under material conditions. There is no fear in transcendental realization. Arjuna's symptoms in this situation are out of material fear namely, loss of life. This is evident from other symptoms also; he became so impatient that his famous bow Gva was slipping from his hands, and, because his heart was burning within him, he was feeling a burning sensation of the skin. All these are due to a material conception of life. TEXT 30 na ca aknomy avasthtu bhramatva ca me mana nimittni ca paymi vipartni keava na nor; ca also; aknomi am I able; avasthtum to stay; bhramati forgetting; iva as; ca and; me my; mana mind; nimittni causes; ca also; paymi I foresee; vipartni just the opposite; keava O killer of the demon Ke (Ka). TRANSLATION I am now unable to stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is reeling. I foresee only evil, O killer of the Ke demon. PURPORT Due to his impatience, Arjuna was unable to stay on the battlefield, and he was forgetting himself on account of the weakness of his mind. Excessive attachment for material things puts a man in a bewildering condition of existence. Bhaya dvitybhiniveata: such fearfulness and loss of mental equilibrium take place in persons who are too affected by material conditions. Arjuna envisioned only unhappiness in the battlefield he would not be happy even by gaining victory over the foe. The word nimitta is significant. When a man sees only frustration in his expectations, he thinks, "Why am I here?" Everyone is interested in himself and his own welfare. No one is interested in the Supreme Self. Arjuna is supposed to show disregard for self-interest by submission to the will of Ka, who is everyone's real self-interest. The conditioned soul forgets this, and therefore suffers material pains. Arjuna thought that his victory in the battle would only be a cause of lamentation for him. TEXT 31 na ca reyo 'nupaymi hatv svajanam have na kke vijaya ka na ca rjya sukhni ca na nor; ca also; reya good; anupaymi do I foresee; hatv by killing; svajanam own kinsmen; have in the fight; na nor; kke do I desire; vijayam victory; ka O Ka; na nor; ca also; rjyam kingdom; sukhni happiness thereof; ca also. TRANSLATION I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Ka, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom, or happiness. PURPORT Without knowing that one's self-interest is in Viu (or Ka), conditioned souls are attracted by bodily relationships, hoping to be happy in such situations. Under delusion, they forget that Ka is also the cause of material happiness. Arjuna appears to have even forgotten the moral codes for a katriya. It is said that two kinds of men, namely the katriya who dies directly in front of the battlefield under Ka's personal orders and the person in the renounced order of life who is absolutely devoted to spiritual culture, are eligible to enter into the sun-globe, which is so powerful and dazzling. Arjuna is reluctant even to kill his enemies, let alone his relatives. He thought that by killing his kinsmen there would be no happiness in his life, and therefore he was not willing to fight, just as a person who does not feel hunger is not inclined to cook. He has now decided to go into the forest and live a secluded life in frustration. But as a katriya, he requires a kingdom for his subsistence, because the katriyas cannot engage themselves in any other occupation. But Arjuna has had no kingdom. Arjuna's sole opportunity for gaining a kingdom lay in fighting with his cousins and brothers and reclaiming the kingdom inherited from his father, which he does not like to do. Therefore he considers himself fit to go to the forest to live a secluded life of frustration. TEXTS 32-35 ki no rjyena govinda ki bhogair jvitena v yem arthe kkita no rjya bhog sukhni ca ta ime 'vasthit yuddhe prs tyaktv dhanni ca cry pitara putrs tathaiva ca pitmah mtul vaur pautr yl sambandhinas tath etn na hantum icchmi ghnato 'pi madhusdana api trailokya-rjyasya heto ki nu mah-kte nihatya dhrtarrn na k prti syj janrdana kim what use; na to us; rjyena is the kingdom; govinda O Ka; kim what; bhogai enjoyment; jvitena by living; v either; yem for whom; arthe for the matter of; kkitam desired; na our; rjyam kingdom; bhog material enjoyment; sukhni all happiness; ca also; te all of them; ime these; avasthit situated; yuddhe in this battlefield; prn lives; tyaktv giving up; dhanni riches; ca also; cry teachers; pitara fathers; putr sons; tath as well as; eva certainly; ca also; pitmah grandfathers; mtul maternal uncles; vaur fathers-in-law; pautr grandsons; yl brothers-in-law; sambandhina relatives; tath as well as; etn all these; na never; hantum for killing; icchmi do I wish; ghnata being killed; api even; madhusdana O killer of the demon Madhu (Ka); api even if; trailokya of the three worlds; rjyasya of the kingdoms; heto in exchange; kim what to speak of; nu only; mah-kte for the sake of earth; nihatya by killing; dhrtarrn the sons of Dhtarra; na our; k what; prti pleasure; syt will there be; janrdana O maintainer of all living entities. TRANSLATION O Govinda, of what avail to us are kingdoms, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom we may desire them are now arrayed in this battlefield? O Madhusdana, when teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and all relatives are ready to give up their lives and properties and are standing before me, then why should I wish to kill them, though I may survive? O maintainer of all creatures, I am not prepared to fight with them even in exchange for the three worlds, let alone this earth. PURPORT Arjuna has addressed Lord Ka as Govinda because Ka is the object of all pleasures for cows and the senses. By using this significant word, Arjuna indicates what will satisfy his senses. Although Govinda is not meant for satisfying our senses, if we try to satisfy the senses of Govinda then automatically our own senses are satisfied. Materially, everyone wants to satisfy his senses, and he wants God to be the order supplier for such satisfaction. The Lord will satisfy the senses of the living entities as much as they deserve, but not to the extent that they may covet. But when one takes the opposite waynamely, when one tries to satisfy the senses of Govinda without desiring to satisfy one's own sensesthen by the grace of Govinda all desires of the living entity are satisfied. Arjuna's deep affection for community and family members is exhibited here partly due to his natural compassion for them. He is therefore not prepared to fight. Everyone wants to show his opulence to friends and relatives, but Arjuna fears that all his relatives and friends will be killed in the battlefield, and he will be unable to share his opulence after victory. This is a typical calculation of material life. The transcendental life is, however, different. Since a devotee wants to satisfy the desires of the Lord, he can, Lord willing, accept all kinds of opulence for the service of the Lord, and if the Lord is not willing, he should not accept a farthing. Arjuna did not want to kill his relatives, and if there were any need to kill them, he desired that Ka kill them personally. At this point he did not know that Ka had already killed them before their coming into the battlefield and that he was only to become an instrument for Ka. This fact is disclosed in following chapters. As a natural devotee of the Lord, Arjuna did not like to retaliate against his miscreant cousins and brothers, but it was the Lord's plan that they should all be killed. The devotee of the Lord does not retaliate against the wrongdoer, but the Lord does not tolerate any mischief done to the devotee by the miscreants. The Lord can excuse a person on His own account, but He excuses no one who has done harm to His devotees. Therefore the Lord was determined to kill the miscreants, although Arjuna wanted to excuse them. TEXT 36 ppam evrayed asmn hatvaitn tatyina tasmn nrh vaya hantu dhrtarrn svabndhavn svajana hi katha hatv sukhina syma mdhava ppam vices; eva certainly; rayet must take upon; asmn us; hatv by killing; etn all these; tatyina aggressors; tasmt therefore; na never; arh deserving; vayam us; hantum to kill; dhrtarrn the sons of Dhtarra; svabndhavn along with friends; svajanam kinsmen; hi certainly; katham how; hatv by killing; sukhina happy; syma become; mdhava O Ka, husband of the goddess of fortune. TRANSLATION Sin will overcome us if we slay such aggressors. Therefore it is not proper for us to kill the sons of Dhtarra and our friends. What should we gain, O Ka, husband of the goddess of fortune, and how could we be happy by killing our own kinsmen? PURPORT According to Vedic injunctions there are six kinds of aggressors: 1) a poison giver, 2) one who sets fire to the house, 3) one who attacks with deadly weapons, 4) one who plunders riches, 5) one who occupies another's land, and 6) one who kidnaps a wife. Such aggressors are at once to be killed, and no sin is incurred by killing such aggressors. Such killing of aggressors is quite befitting for any ordinary man, but Arjuna was not an ordinary person. He was saintly by character, and therefore he wanted to deal with them in saintliness. This kind of saintliness, however, is not for a katriya. Although a responsible man in the administration of a state is required to be saintly, he should not be cowardly. For example, Lord Rma was so saintly that people were anxious to live in His kingdom, (Rma-rjya), but Lord Rma never showed any cowardice. Rvaa was an aggressor against Rma because he kidnapped Rma's wife, St, but Lord Rma gave him sufficient lessons, unparalleled in the history of the world. In Arjuna's case, however, one should consider the special type of aggressors, namely his own grandfather, own teacher, friends, sons, grandsons, etc. Because of them, Arjuna thought that he should not take the severe steps necessary against ordinary aggressors. Besides that, saintly persons are advised to forgive. Such injunctions for saintly persons are more important than any political emergency. Arjuna considered that rather than kill his own kinsmen for political reasons, it would be better to forgive them on grounds of religion and saintly behavior. He did not, therefore, consider such killing profitable simply for the matter of temporary bodily happiness. After all, kingdoms and pleasures derived therefrom are not permanent, so why should he risk his life and eternal salvation by killing his own kinsmen? Arjuna's addressing of Ka as "Mdhava," or the husband of the goddess of fortune, is also significant in this connection. He wanted to point out to Ka that, as husband of the goddess of fortune, He should not have to induce Arjuna to take up a matter which would ultimately bring about misfortune. Ka, however, never brings misfortune to anyone, to say nothing of His devotees. TEXTS 37-38 yadyapy ete na payanti lobhopahata-cetasa kula-kaya-kta doa mitra-drohe ca ptakam katha na jeyam asmbhi ppd asmn nivartitum kula-kaya-kta doa prapayadbhir janrdana yadi if; api certainly; ete they; na do not; payanti see; lobha greed; upahata overpowered; cetasa the hearts; kula-kaya in killing the family; ktam done; doam fault; mitra-drohe quarreling with friends; ca also; ptakam sinful reactions; katham why; na shall not; jeyam know this; asmbhi by us; ppt from sins; asmt ourselves; nivartitum to cease; kula-kaya the destruction of a dynasty; ktam by so doing; doam crime; prapayadbhi by those who can see; janrdana O Ka. TRANSLATION O Janrdana, although these men, overtaken by greed, see no fault in killing one's family or quarreling with friends, why should we, with knowledge of the sin, engage in these acts? PURPORT A katriya is not supposed to refuse to battle or gamble when he is so invited by some rival party. Under such obligation, Arjuna could not refuse to fight because he was challenged by the party of Duryodhana. In this connection, Arjuna considered that the other party might be blind to the effects of such a challenge. Arjuna, however, could see the evil consequences and could not accept the challenge. Obligation is actually binding when the effect is good, but when the effect is otherwise, then no one can be bound. Considering all these pros and cons, Arjuna decided not to fight. TEXT 39 kula-kaye praayanti kula-dharm santan dharme nae kula ktsnam adharmo 'bhibhavaty uta kula-kaye in destroying the family; praayanti becomes vanquished; kula-dharm the family traditions; santan eternal; dharme in religion; nae being destroyed; kulam family; ktsnam wholesale; adharma irreligious; abhibhavati transforms; uta it is said. TRANSLATION With the destruction of dynasty, the eternal family tradition is vanquished, and thus the rest of the family becomes involved in irreligious practice. PURPORT In the system of the varrama institution there are many principles of religious traditions to help members of the family grow properly and attain spiritual values. The elder members are responsible for such purifying processes in the family, beginning from birth to death. But on the death of the elder members, such family traditions of purification may stop, and the remaining younger family members may develop irreligious habits and thereby lose their chance for spiritual salvation. Therefore, for no purpose should the elder members of the family be slain. TEXT 40 adharmbhibhavt ka praduyanti kula-striya stru dusu vreya jyate vara-sakara adharma irreligion; abhibhavt having been predominant; ka O Ka; praduyanti become polluted; kula-striya family ladies; stru of the womanhood; dusu being so polluted; vreya O descendant of Vi; jyate it so becomes; vara-sakara unwanted progeny. TRANSLATION When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Ka, the women of the family become corrupt, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vi, comes unwanted progeny. PURPORT Good population in human society is the basic principle for peace, prosperity and spiritual progress in life. The varrama religion's principles were so designed that the good population would prevail in society for the general spiritual progress of state and community. Such population depends on the chastity and faithfulness of its womanhood. As children are very prone to be misled, women are similarly very prone to degradation. Therefore, both children and women require protection by the elder members of the family. By being engaged in various religious practices, women will not be misled into adultery. According to Cakya Pait, women are generally not very intelligent and therefore not trustworthy. So, the different family traditions of religious activities should always engage them, and thus their chastity and devotion will give birth to a good population eligible for participating in the varrama system. On the failure of such varrama-dharma, naturally the women become free to act and mix with men, and thus adultery is indulged in at the risk of unwanted population. Irresponsible men also provoke adultery in society, and thus unwanted children flood the human race at the risk of war and pestilence. TEXT 41 sakaro narakyaiva kula-ghnn kulasya ca patanti pitaro hy e lupta-piodaka-kriy sakara such unwanted children; narakya for hellish life; eva certainly; kula-ghnnm of those who are killers of the family; kulasya of the family; ca also; patanti fall down; pitara forefathers; hi certainly; em of them; lupta stopped; pia offerings; udaka water; kriy performance. TRANSLATION When there is increase of unwanted population, a hellish situation is created both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. In such corrupt families, there is no offering of oblations of food and water to the ancestors. PURPORT According to the rules and regulations of fruitive activities, there is a need to offer periodical food and water to the forefathers of the family. This offering is performed by worship of Viu, because eating the remnants of food offered to Viu can deliver one from all kinds of sinful actions. Sometimes the forefathers may be suffering from various types of sinful reactions, and sometimes some of them cannot even acquire a gross material body and are forced to remain in subtle bodies as ghosts. Thus, when remnants of prasdam food are offered to forefathers by descendants, the forefathers are released from ghostly or other kinds of miserable life. Such help rendered to forefathers is a family tradition, and those who are not in devotional life are required to perform such rituals. One who is engaged in the devotional life is not required to perform such actions. Simply by performing devotional service, one can deliver hundreds and thousands of forefathers from all kinds of misery. It is stated in the Bhgavatam: devari-bhtpta-n pit na kikaro nyam ca rjan sarvtman ya araa araya gato mukunda parihtya kartam "Anyone who has taken shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda, the giver of liberation, giving up all kinds of obligation, and has taken to the path in all seriousness, owes neither duties nor obligations to the demigods, sages, general living entities, family members, humankind or forefathers." ( Bhg . 11.5.41) Such obligations are automatically fulfilled by performance of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 42 doair etai kula-ghnn vara-sakara-krakai utsdyante jti-dharm kula-dharm ca vat doai by such faults; etai all these; kula-ghnnm of the destroyer of a family; vara-sakara unwanted children; krakai by the doers; utsdyante causes devastation; jti-dharm community project; kula- dharm family tradition; ca also; vat eternal. TRANSLATION Due to the evil deeds of the destroyers of family tradition, all kinds of community projects and family welfare activities are devastated. PURPORT The four orders of human society, combined with family welfare activities as they are set forth by the institution of the santana-dharma or varrama- dharma, are designed to enable the human being to attain his ultimate salvation. Therefore, the breaking of the santana-dharma tradition by irresponsible leaders of society brings about chaos in that society, and consequently people forget the aim of lifeViu. Such leaders are called blind, and persons who follow such leaders are sure to be led into chaos. TEXT 43 utsanna-kula-dharm manuy janrdana narake niyata vso bhavatty anuuruma utsanna spoiled; kula-dharmm of those who have the family traditions; manuym of such men; janrdana O Ka; narake in hell; niyatam always; vsa residence; bhavati it so becomes; iti thus; anuuruma I have heard by disciplic succession. TRANSLATION O Ka, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those who destroy family traditions dwell always in hell. PURPORT Arjuna bases his argument not on his own personal experience, but on what he has heard from the authorities. That is the way of receiving real knowledge. One cannot reach the real point of factual knowledge without being helped by the right person who is already established in that knowledge. There is a system in the varrama institution by which one has to undergo the process of ablution before death for his sinful activities. One who is always engaged in sinful activities must utilize the process of ablution called the pryacitta. Without doing so, one surely will be transferred to hellish planets to undergo miserable lives as the result of sinful activities. TEXT 44 aho bata mahat ppa kartu vyavasit vayam yad rjya-sukha-lobhena hantu svajanam udyat aha alas; bata how strange it is; mahat great; ppam sins; kartum to perform; vyavasit decided; vayam we; yat so that; rjya kingdom; sukha-lobhena driven by greed for royal happiness; hantum to kill; svajanam kinsmen; udyat trying for. TRANSLATION Alas, how strange it is that we are preparing to commit greatly sinful acts, driven by the desire to enjoy royal happiness. PURPORT Driven by selfish motives, one may be inclined to such sinful acts as the killing of one's own brother, father, or mother. There are many such instances in the history of the world. But Arjuna, being a saintly devotee of the Lord, is always conscious of moral principles and therefore takes care to avoid such activities. TEXT 45 yadi mm apratkram aastra astra-paya dhrtarr rae hanyus tan me kematara bhavet yadi even if; mm unto me; apratkram without being resistant; aastram without being fully equipped; astra-paya those with weapons in hand; dhrtarr the sons of Dhtarra; rae in the battlefield; hanyu may kill; tat that; me mine; kemataram better; bhavet become. TRANSLATION I would consider it better for the sons of Dhtarra to kill me unarmed and unresisting, rather than fight with them. PURPORT It is the customaccording to katriya fighting principlesthat an unarmed and unwilling foe should not be attacked. Arjuna, however, in such an enigmatic position, decided he would not fight if he were attacked by the enemy. He did not consider how much the other party was bent upon fighting. All these symptoms are due to softheartedness resulting from his being a great devotee of the Lord. TEXT 46 sajaya uvca evam uktvrjuna sakhye rathopastha upviat visjya sa-ara cpa oka-savigna-mnasa sajaya Sajaya; uvca said; evam thus; uktv saying; arjuna Arjuna; sakhye in the battlefield; ratha chariot; upastha situated on; upviat sat down again; visjya keeping aside; sa-aram along with arrows; cpam the bow; oka lamentation; savigna distressed; mnasa within the mind. TRANSLATION Sajaya said: Arjuna, having thus spoken on the battlefield, cast aside his bow and arrows and sat down on the chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief. PURPORT While observing the situation of his enemy, Arjuna stood up on the chariot, but he was so afflicted with lamentation that he sat down again, setting aside his bow and arrows. Such a kind and softhearted person, in the devotional service of the Lord, is fit to receive self-knowledge. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the First Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Observing the Armies on the Battlefield of Kuruketra. Chapter-2 CHAPTER TWO Contents of the Gt Summarized TEXT 1 sajaya uvca ta tath kpayviam aru-prkulekaam vidantam ida vkyam uvca madhusdana sajaya uvca Sajaya said; tam unto Arjuna; tath thus; kpay by compassion; viam overwhelmed; aru-pra full of tears; kula depressed; kaam eyes; vidantam lamenting; idam this; vkyam words; uvca said; madhusdana the killer of Madhu. TRANSLATION Sajaya said: Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming with tears, Madhusdana, Ka, spoke the following words. PURPORT Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization. The word "Madhusdana" is significant in this verse. Lord Ka killed the demon Madhu, and now Arjuna wanted Ka to kill the demon of misunderstanding that had overtaken him in the discharge of his duty. No one knows where compassion should be applied. Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is senseless. A man fallen in the ocean of nescience cannot be saved simply by rescuing his outward dressthe gross material body. One who does not know this and laments for the outward dress is called a dra, or one who laments unnecessarily. Arjuna was a katriya, and this conduct was not expected from him. Lord Ka, however, can dissipate the lamentation of the ignorant man, and for this purpose the Bhagavad- gt was sung by Him. This chapter instructs us in self-realization by an analytical study of the material body and the spirit soul, as explained by the supreme authority, Lord r Ka. This realization is made possible by working with the fruitive being situated in the fixed conception of the real self. TEXT 2 r-bhagavn uvca kutas tv kamalam ida viame samupasthitam anrya-juam asvargyam akrti-karam arjuna r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; kuta wherefrom; tv unto you; kamalam dirtiness; idam this lamentation; viame this hour of crisis; samupasthitam arrived; anrya persons who do not know the value of life; juam practiced by; asvargyam that which does not lead to higher planets; akrti infamy; karam the cause of; arjuna O Arjuna. TRANSLATION The Supreme Person [Bhagavn] said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life. They do not lead to higher planets, but to infamy. PURPORT Ka and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical. Therefore Lord Ka is referred to as "Bhagavn" throughout the Gt . Bhagavn is the ultimate in the Absolute Truth. Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding, namely Brahman or the impersonal all-pervasive spirit; Paramtm, or the localized aspect of the Supreme within the heart of all living entities; and Bhagavn, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Ka. In the rmad-Bhgavatam this conception of the Absolute Truth is explained thus: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattva yaj jnam advayam brahmeti paramtmeti bhagavn iti abdyate. "The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding by the knower of the Absolute Truth, and all of them are identical. Such phases of the Absolute Truth are expressed as Brahman, Paramtm, and Bhagavn." ( Bhg. 1.2.11) These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun, which also has three different aspects, namely the sunshine, the sun's surface and the sun planet itself. One who studies the sunshine only is the preliminary student. One who understands the sun's surface is further advanced. And one who can enter into the sun planet is the highest. Ordinary students who are satisfied by simply understanding the sunshine-its universal pervasiveness and the glaring effulgence of its impersonal nature-may be compared to those who can realize only the Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth. The student who has advanced still further can know the sun disc, which is compared to knowledge of the Paramtm feature of the Absolute Truth. And the student who can enter into the heart of the sun planet is compared to those who realize the personal features of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Therefore, the bhaktas, or the transcendentalists who have realized the Bhagavn feature of the Absolute Truth, are the topmost transcendentalists, although all students who are engaged in the study of the Absolute Truth are engaged in the same subject matter. The sunshine, the sun disc and the inner affairs of the sun planet cannot be separated from one another, and yet the students of the three different phases are not in the same category. The Sanskrit word Bhagavn is explained by the great authority, Parara Muni, the father of Vysadeva. The Supreme Personality who possesses all riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation is called Bhagavn. There are many persons who are very rich, very powerful, very beautiful, very famous, very learned, and very much detached, but no one can claim that he possesses all riches, all strength, etc., entirely. Only Ka can claim this because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No living entity, including Brahm, Lord iva, or Nryaa, can possess opulences as fully as Ka. Therefore it is concluded in the Brahma-sahit by Lord Brahm himself that Lord Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one is equal to or above Him. He is the primeval Lord, or Bhagavn, known as Govinda, and He is the supreme cause of all causes. vara parama ka sac-cid-nanda-vigraha andir dir govinda sarva-kraa-kraam "There are many personalities possessing the qualities of Bhagavn, but Ka is the supreme because none can excel Him. He is the Supreme Person, and His body is eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. He is the primeval Lord Govinda and the cause of all causes." (Brahma- sahit 5.1) In the Bhgavatam also there is a list of many incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but Ka is described as the original Personality of Godhead, from whom many, many incarnations and Personalities of Godhead expand: ete ca-kal pusa kas tu bhagavn svayam indrri-vykula loka mayanti yuge yuge "All the lists of the incarnations of Godhead submitted herewith are either plenary expansions or parts of the plenary expansions of the Supreme Godhead, but Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself." (Bhg. 1.3.28) Therefore, Ka is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, the source of both the Supersoul and the impersonal Brahman. In the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Arjuna's lamentation for his kinsmen is certainly unbecoming, and therefore Ka expressed His surprise with the word kutas, "wherefrom." Such unmanly sentiments were never expected from a person belonging to the civilized class of men known as ryans. The word ryan is applicable to persons who know the value of life and have a civilization based on spiritual realization. Persons who are led by the material conception of life do not know that the aim of life is realization of the Absolute Truth, Viu, or Bhagavn, and they are captivated by the external features of the material world, and therefore they do not know what liberation is. Persons who have no knowledge of liberation from material bondage are called non-ryans. Although Arjuna was a katriya, he was deviating from his prescribed duties by declining to fight. This act of cowardice is described as befitting the non-ryans. Such deviation from duty does not help one in the progress of spiritual life, nor does it even give one the opportunity to become famous in this world. Lord Ka did not approve of the so- called compassion of Arjuna for his kinsmen. TEXT 3 klaibya m sma gama prtha naitat tvayy upapadyate kudra hdaya-daurbalya tyaktvottiha parantapa klaibyam impotence; m do not; sma take it; gama go in; prtha O son of Pth; na never; etat like this; tvayi unto you; upapadyate is befitting; kudram very little; hdaya heart; daurbalyam weakness; tyaktv giving up; uttiha get up; parantapa O chastiser of the enemies. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy. PURPORT Arjuna was addressed as the "son of Pth," who happened to be the sister of Ka's father Vasudeva. Therefore Arjuna had a blood relationship with Ka. If the son of a katriya declines to fight, he is a katriya in name only, and if the son of a brhmaa acts impiously, he is a brhmaa in name only. Such katriyas and brhmaas are unworthy sons of their fathers; therefore, Ka did not want Arjuna to become an unworthy son of a katriya. Arjuna was the most intimate friend of Ka, and Ka was directly guiding him on the chariot; but in spite of all these credits, if Arjuna abandoned the battle, he would be committing an infamous act; therefore Ka said that such an attitude in Arjuna did not fit his personality. Arjuna might argue that he would give up the battle on the grounds of his magnanimous attitude for the most respectable Bhma and his relatives, but Ka considered that sort of magnanimity not approved by authority. Therefore, such magnanimity or so- called nonviolence should be given up by persons like Arjuna under the direct guidance of Ka. TEXT 4 arjuna uvca katha bhmam aha sakhye droa ca madhusdana iubhi pratiyotsymi pjrhv arisdana arjuna uvca Arjuna said; katham how; bhmam unto Bhma; aham I; sakhye in the fight; droam unto Droa; ca also, madhusdana O killer of Madhu; iubhi with arrows; pratiyotsymi shall counterattack; pj-arhau those who are worshipable; arisdana O killer of the enemies. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: O killer of Madhu [Ka], how can I counterattack with arrows in battle men like Bhma and Droa, who are worthy of my worship? PURPORT Respectable superiors like Bhma the grandfather and Drocrya the teacher are always worshipable. Even if they attack, they should not be counterattacked. It is general etiquette that superiors are not to be offered even a verbal fight. Even if they are sometimes harsh in behavior, they should not be harshly treated. Then, how is it possible for Arjuna to counterattack them? Would Ka ever attack His own grandfather, Ugrasena, or His teacher, Sndpani Muni? These were some of the arguments by Arjuna to Ka. TEXT 5 gurn ahatv hi mahnubhvn reyo bhoktu bhaikyam apha loke hatvrtha-kms tu gurn ihaiva bhujya bhogn rudhira-pradigdhn gurn the superiors; ahatv by killing; hi certainly; mah-anubhvn great souls; reya it is better; bhoktum to enjoy life; bhaikyam begging; api even; iha in this life; loke in this world; hatv killing; artha gain; kmn so desiring; tu but; gurn superiors; iha in this world; eva certainly; bhujya has to enjoy; bhogn enjoyable things; rudhira blood; pradigdhn tainted with. TRANSLATION It is better to live in this world by begging than to live at the cost of the lives of great souls who are my teachers. Even though they are avaricious, they are nonetheless superiors. If they are killed, our spoils will be tainted with blood. PURPORT According to scriptural codes, a teacher who engages in an abominable action and has lost his sense of discrimination is fit to be abandoned. Bhma and Droa were obliged to take the side of Duryodhana because of his financial assistance, although they should not have accepted such a position simply on financial considerations. Under the circumstances, they have lost the respectability of teachers. But Arjuna thinks that nevertheless they remain his superiors, and therefore to enjoy material profits after killing them would mean to enjoy spoils tainted with blood. TEXT 6 - na caitad vidma kataran no garyo yad v jayema yadi v no jayeyu yn eva hatv na jijvimas te 'vasthit pramukhe dhrtarr na nor; ca also; etat this; vidma do know; katarat which; na us; garya better; yat what; v either; jayema conquer us; yadi if; v or; na us; jayeyu conquer; yn those; eva certainly; hatv by killing; na never; jijvima want to live; te all of them; avasthit are situated; pramukhe in the front; dhrtarr the sons of Dhtarra. TRANSLATION Nor do we know which is betterconquering them or being conquered by them. The sons of Dhtarra, whom if we killed we should not care to live, are now standing before us on this battlefield. PURPORT Arjuna did not know whether he should fight and risk unnecessary violence, although fighting is the duty of the katriyas, or whether he should refrain and live by begging. If he did not conquer the enemy, begging would be his only means of subsistence. Nor was there certainty of victory, because either side might emerge victorious. Even if victory awaited them (and their cause was justified), still, if the sons of Dhtarra died in battle, it would be very difficult to live in their absence. Under the circumstances, that would be another kind of defeat for them. All these considerations by Arjuna definitely prove that he was not only a great devotee of the Lord but that he was also highly enlightened and had complete control over his mind and senses. His desire to live by begging, although he was born in the royal household, is another sign of detachment. He was truly virtuous, as these qualities, combined with his faith in the words of instruction of r Ka (his spiritual master), indicate. It is concluded that Arjuna was quite fit for liberation. Unless the senses are controlled, there is no chance of elevation to the platform of knowledge, and without knowledge and devotion there is no chance of liberation. Arjuna was competent in all these attributes, over and above his enormous attributes in his material relationships. TEXT 7 krpaya-doopahata-svabhva pcchmi tv dharma-samha-cet yac chreya syn nicita brhi tan me iyas te 'ha dhi m tv prapannam krpaya miserly; doa weakness; upahata being inflicted by; svabhva characteristics; pcchmi I am asking; tvm unto You; dharma religion; samha bewildered; cet in heart; yat what; reya all- good; syt may be; nicitam confidently; brhi tell; tat that; me unto me; iya disciple; te Your; aham I am; dhi just instruct; mm me; tvm unto You; prapannam surrendered. TRANSLATION Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me. PURPORT By nature's own way the complete system of material activities is a source of perplexity for everyone. In every step there is perplexity, and therefore it behooves one to approach a bona fide spiritual master who can give one proper guidance for executing the purpose of life. All Vedic literatures advise us to approach a bona fide spiritual master to get free from the perplexities of life which happen without our desire. They are like a forest fire that somehow blazes without being set by anyone. Similarly, the world situation is such that perplexities of life automatically appear, without our wanting such confusion. No one wants fire, and yet it takes place, and we become perplexed. The Vedic wisdom therefore advises that in order to solve the perplexities of life and to understand the science of the solution, one must approach a spiritual master who is in the disciplic succession. A person with a bona fide spiritual master is supposed to know everything. One should not, therefore, remain in material perplexities but should approach a spiritual master. This is the purport of this verse. Who is the man in material perplexities? It is he who does not understand the problems of life. In the Garga Upaniad the perplexed man is described as follows: yo v etad akara grgy aviditvsml lokt praiti sa kpaa "He is a miserly man who does not solve the problems of life as a human and who thus quits this world like the cats and dogs, without understanding the science of self-realization." This human form of life is a most valuable asset for the living entity who can ultilize it for solving the problems of life; therefore, one who does not utilize this opportunity properly is a miser. On the other hand, there is the brhmaa, or he who is intelligent enough to utilize this body to solve all the problems of life. The kpaas, or miserly persons, waste their time in being overly affectionate for family, society, country, etc., in the material conception of life. One is often attached to family life, namely to wife, children and other members, on the basis of "skin disease." The kpaa thinks that he is able to protect his family members from death; or the kpaa thinks that his family or society can save him from the verge of death. Such family attachment can be found even in the lower animals who take care of children also. Being intelligent, Arjuna could understand that his affection for family members and his wish to protect them from death were the causes of his perplexities. Although he could understand that his duty to fight was awaiting him, still, on account of miserly weakness, he could not discharge the duties. He is therefore asking Lord Ka, the supreme spiritual master, to make a definite solution. He offers himself to Ka as a disciple. He wants to stop friendly talks. Talks between the master and the disciple are serious, and now Arjuna wants to talk very seriously before the recognized spiritual master. Ka is therefore the original spiritual master of the science of Bhagavad-gt, and Arjuna is the first disciple for understanding the Gt. How Arjuna understands the Bhagavad-gt is stated in the Gt itself. And yet foolish mundane scholars explain that one need not submit to Ka as a person, but to "the unborn within Ka." There is no difference between Ka's within and without. And one who has no sense of this understanding is the greatest fool in trying to understand Bhagavad-gt. TEXT 8 - na hi prapaymi mampanudyd yac chokam ucchoaam indriym avpya bhmv asapatnam ddha rjya surm api cdhipatyam na do not; hi certainly; prapaymi I see; mama my; apanudyt they can drive away; yat that; okam lamentation; ucchoaam drying up; indriym of the senses; avpya achieving; bhmau on the earth; asapatnam without rival; ddham prosperous; rjyam kingdom; surm of the demigods; api even; ca also; dhipatyam supremacy. TRANSLATION I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to destroy it even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth with sovereignty like the demigods in heaven. PURPORT Although Arjuna was putting forward so many arguments based on knowledge of the principles of religion and moral codes, it appears that he was unable to solve his real problem without the help of the spiritual master, Lord r Ka. He could understand that his so-called knowledge was useless in driving away his problems, which were drying up his whole existence; and it was impossible for him to solve such perplexities without the help of a spiritual master like Lord Ka. Academic knowledge, scholarship, high position, etc., are all useless in solving the problems of life; help can only be given by a spiritual master like Ka. Therefore, the conclusion is that a spiritual master who is one hundred percent Ka conscious is the bona fide spiritual master, for he can solve the problems of life. Lord Caitanya said that one who is master in the science of Ka consciousness, regardless of his social position, is the real spiritual master. kibvipra, kib nys, dra kene naya yei ka-tattva-vett, sei 'guru' haya. (Caitanya-caritmta, Madhya 8.127) "It does not matter whether a person is a vipra [learned scholar in Vedic wisdom] or is born in a lower family, or is in the renounced order of lifeif he is master in the science of Ka, he is the perfect and bona fide spiritual master." So without being a master in the science of Ka consciousness, no one is a bona fide spiritual master. It is also said in Vedic literatures: a-karma-nipuo vipro mantra-tantra-virada avaiavo gurur na syd vaiava vapaco guru "A scholarly brhmaa, expert in all subjects of Vedic knowledge, is unfit to become a spiritual master without being a Vaiava, or expert in the science of Ka consciousness. But a person born in a family of a lower caste can become a spiritual master if he is a Vaiava, or Ka conscious." The problems of material existence birth, old age, disease and death cannot be counteracted by accumulation of wealth and economic development. In many parts of the world there are states which are replete with all facilities of life, which are full of wealth, and economically developed, yet the problems of material existence are still present. They are seeking peace in different ways, but they can achieve real happiness only if they consult Ka, or the Bhagavad-gt and rmad-Bhgavatam which constitute the science of Kaor the bona fide representative of Ka, the man in Ka consciousness. If economic development and material comforts could drive away one's lamentations for family, social, national or international inebrieties, then Arjuna would not have said that even an unrivalled kingdom on earth or supremacy like that of the demigods in the heavenly planets would not be able to drive away his lamentations. He sought, therefore, refuge in Ka consciousness, and that is the right path for peace and harmony. Economic development or supremacy over the world can be finished at any moment by the cataclysms of material nature. Even elevation into a higher planetary situation, as men are now seeking a place on the moon planet, can also be finished at one stroke. The Bhagavad-gt confirms this: ke puye martyaloka vianti "When the results of pious activities are finished, one falls down again from the peak of happiness to the lowest status of life." Many politicians of the world have fallen down in that way. Such downfalls only constitute more causes for lamentation. Therefore, if we want to curb lamentation for good, then we have to take shelter of Ka, as Arjuna is seeking to do. So Arjuna asked Ka to solve his problem definitely, and that is the way of Ka consciousness. TEXT 9 sajaya uvca evam uktv hkea gukea parantapa na yotsya iti govindam uktv t babhva ha sajaya uvca Sajaya said; evam thus; uktv speaking; hkeam unto Ka, the master of the senses; gukea Arjuna, the master at curbing ignorance; parantapa the chastiser of the enemies; na yotsye I shall not fight; iti thus; govindam unto Ka, the giver of pleasure; uktv saying; tm silent; babhva became; ha certainly. TRANSLATION Sajaya said: Having spoken thus, Arjuna, chastiser of enemies, told Ka, "Govinda, I shall not fight," and fell silent. PURPORT Dhtarra must have been very glad to understand that Arjuna was not going to fight and was instead leaving the battlefield for the begging profession. But Sajaya disappointed him again in relating that Arjuna was competent to kill his enemies (parantapa). Although Arjuna was for the time being overwhelmed with false grief due to family affection, he surrendered unto Ka, the supreme spiritual master, as a disciple. This indicated that he would soon be free from the false lamentation resulting from family affection and would be enlightened with perfect knowledge of self-realization, or Ka consciousness, and would then surely fight. Thus Dhtarra's joy would be frustrated, since Arjuna would be enlightened. by Ka and would fight to the end. TEXT 10 tam uvca hkea prahasann iva bhrata senayor ubhayor madhye vidantam ida vaca tam unto him; uvca said; hkea the master of the senses, Ka; prahasan smiling; iva like that; bhrata O Dhtarra, descendant of Bharata; senayo of the armies; ubhayo of both parties; madhye between; vidantam unto the lamenting one; idam the following; vaca words. TRANSLATION O descendant of Bharata, at that time Ka, smiling, in the midst of both the armies, spoke the following words to the grief-stricken Arjuna. PURPORT The talk was going on between intimate friends, namely the Hkea and the Gukea. As friends, both of them were on the same level, but one of them voluntarily became a student of the other. Ka was smiling because a friend had chosen to become a disciple. As Lord of all, He is always in the superior position as the master of everyone, and yet the Lord accepts one who wishes to be a friend, a son, a lover or a devotee, or who wants Him in such a role. But when He was accepted as the master, He at once assumed the role and talked with the disciple like the master with gravity, as it is required. It appears that the talk between the master and the disciple was openly exchanged in the presence of both armies so that all were benefitted. So the talks of Bhagavad-gt are not for any particular person, society, or community, but they are for all, and friends or enemies are equally entitled to hear them. TEXT 11 r-bhagavn uvca aocyn anvaocas tva praj-vd ca bhase gatsn agats ca nnuocanti pait r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; aocyn that which is not worthy of lamentation; anvaoca you are lamenting; tvam you; praj-vd learned talks; ca also; bhase speaking; gata lost; asn life; agata not past; asn life; ca also; na never; anuocanti lament; pait the learned. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead. PURPORT The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him, indirectly, a fool. The Lord said, you are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned one who knows what is body and what is soul does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition. As it will be explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies. And, because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man. As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation. The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body. TEXT 12 na tv evha jtu nsa na tva neme jandhip na caiva na bhaviyma sarve vayam ata param na never; tu but; eva certainly; aham I; jtu become; na never; sam existed; na it is not so; tvam yourself; na not; ime all these; jandhip kings; na never; ca also; eva certainly; na not like that; bhaviyma shall exist; sarve all of us; vayam we; ata param hereafter. TRANSLATION Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. PURPORT In the Vedas , in the Kaha Upaniad as well as in the vetvatara Upaniad, it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the maintainer of innumerable living entities, in terms of their different situations according to individual work and reaction of work. That Supreme Personality of Godhead is also, by His plenary portions, alive in the heart of every living entity. Only saintly persons who can see, within and without, the same Supreme Lord, can actually attain to perfect and eternal peace. nityo nityn cetana cetannm eko bahn yo vidadhti kmn tam tmastha ye 'nupayanti dhrs te nti vat netarem. (Kaha 2.2.13) The same Vedic truth given to Arjuna is given to all persons in the world who pose themselves as very learned but factually have but a poor fund of knowledge. The Lord says clearly that He Himself, Arjuna, and all the kings who are assembled on the battlefield, are eternally individual beings and that the Lord is eternally the maintainer of the individual living entities both in their conditioned as well as in their liberated situations. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme individual person, and Arjuna, the Lord's eternal associate, and all the kings assembled there are individual, eternal persons. It is not that they did not exist as individuals in the past, and it is not that they will not remain eternal persons. Their individuality existed in the past, and their individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Therefore, there is no cause for lamentation for anyone. The Myvd theory that after liberation the individual soul, separated by the covering of my or illusion, will merge into the impersonal Brahman and lose its individual existence is not supported herein by Lord Ka, the supreme authority. Nor is the theory that we only think of individuality in the conditioned state supported herein. Ka clearly says herein that in the future also the individuality of the Lord and others, as it is confirmed in the Upaniads, will continue eternally. This statement of Ka is authoritative because Ka cannot be subject to illusion. If individuality is not a fact, then Ka would not have stressed it so much even for the future. The Myvd may argue that the individuality spoken of by Ka is not spiritual, but material. Even accepting the argument that the individuality is material, then how can one distinguish Ka's individuality? Ka affirms His individuality in the past and confirms His individuality in the future also. He has confirmed His individuality in many ways, and impersonal Brahman has been declared to be subordinate to Him. Ka has maintained spiritual individuality all along; if He is accepted as an ordinary conditioned soul in individual consciousness, then His Bhagavad-gt has no value as authoritative scripture. A common man with all the four defects of human frailty is unable to teach that which is worth hearing. The Gt is above such literature. No mundane book compares with the Bhagavad-gt. When one accepts Ka as an ordinary man, the Gt loses all importance. The Myvd argues that the plurality mentioned in this verse is conventional and that it refers to the body. But previous to this verse such a bodily conception is already condemned. After condemning the bodily conception of the living entities, how was it possible for Ka to place a conventional proposition on the body again? Therefore, individuality is maintained on spiritual grounds and is thus confirmed by great cryas like r Rmnuja and others. It is clearly mentioned in many places in the Gt that this spiritual individuality is understood by those who are devotees of the Lord. Those who are envious of Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead have no bona fide access to the great literature. The nondevotee's approach to the teachings of the Gta is something like bees licking on a bottle of honey. One cannot have a taste of honey unless one opens the bottle. Similarly, the mysticism of the Bhagavad-gt can be understood only by devotees, and no one else can taste it, as it is stated in the Fourth Chapter of the book. Nor can the Gt be touched by persons who envy the very existence of the Lord. Therefore, the Myvd explanation of the Gt is a most misleading presentation of the whole truth. Lord Caitanya has forbidden us to read commentations made by the Myvds and warns that one who takes to such an understanding of the Myvd philosophy loses all power to understand the real mystery of the Gt. If individuality refers to the empirical universe, then there is no need of teaching by the Lord. The plurality of the individual soul and of the Lord is an eternal fact, and it is confirmed by the Vedas as above mentioned. TEXT 13 dehino 'smin yath dehe kaumra yauvana jar tath dehntara-prptir dhras tatra na muhyati dehina of the embodied; asmin in this; yath as; dehe in the body; kaumram boyhood; yauvanam youth; jar old age; tath similarly; dehntara transference of the body; prpti achievement; dhra the sober; tatra thereupon; na never; muhyati deluded. TRANSLATION As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change. PURPORT Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates to another body; and since it is sure to have another body in the next birth either material or spiritual there was no cause for lamentation by Arjuna on account of death, neither for Bhma nor for Droa, for whom he was so much concerned. Rather, he should rejoice for their changing bodies from old to new ones, thereby rejuvenating their energy. Such changes of body account for varieties of enjoyment or suffering, according to one's work in life. So Bhma and Droa, being noble souls, were surely going to have either spiritual bodies in the next life, or at least life in heavenly bodies for superior enjoyment of material existence. So, in either case, there was no cause of lamentation. Any man who has perfect knowledge of the constitution of the individual soul, the Supersoul, and nature both material and spiritual is called a dhra or a most sober man. Such a man is never deluded by the change of bodies. The Myvd theory of oneness of the spirit soul cannot be entertained on the ground that spirit soul cannot be cut into pieces as a fragmental portion. Such cutting into different individual souls would make the Supreme cleavable or changeable, against the principle of the Supreme Soul being unchangeable. As confirmed in the Gt, the fragmental portions of the Supreme exist eternally (santana) and are called kara; that is, they have a tendency to fall down into material nature. These fragmental portions are eternally so, and even after liberation, the individual soul remains the same fragmental. But once liberated, he lives an eternal life in bliss and knowledge with the Personality of Godhead. The theory of reflection can be applied to the Supersoul who is present in each and every individual body and is known as the Paramtm, who is different from the individual living entity. When the sky is reflected in water, the reflections represent both the sun and the moon and the stars also. The stars can be compared to the living entities and the sun or the moon to the Supreme Lord. The individual fragmental spirit soul is represented by Arjuna, and the Supreme Soul is the Personality of Godhead r Ka. They are not on the same level, as it will be apparent in the beginning of the Fourth Chapter. If Arjuna is on the same level with Ka, and Ka is not superior to Arjuna, then their relationship of instructor and instructed becomes meaningless. If both of them are deluded by the illusory energy (my), then there is no need of one being the instructor and the other the instructed. Such instruction would be useless because, in the clutches of my, no one can be an authoritative instructor. Under the circumstances, it is admitted that Lord Ka is the Supreme Lord, superior in position to the living entity, Arjuna, who is a forgotten soul deluded by my. TEXT 14 mtr-spars tu kaunteya toa-sukha-dukha-d gampyino 'nitys ts titikasva bhrata mtr sensuous; spar perception; tu only; kaunteya O son of Kunt; ta winter; ua summer; sukha happiness; dukha-d giving pain; gama appearing; apyina disappearing; anity nonpermanent; tn all of them; titikasva just try to tolerate; bhrata O descendant of the Bhrata dynasty. TRANSLATION O son of Kunt, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. PURPORT In the proper discharge of duty, one has to learn to tolerate nonpermanent appearances and disappearances of happiness and distress. According to Vedic injunction, one has to take his bath early in the morning even during the month of Mgha (January- February). It is very cold at that time, but in spite of that a man who abides by the religious principles does not hesitate to take his bath. Similarly, a woman does not hesitate to cook in the kitchen in the months of May and June, the hottest part of the summer season. One has to execute his duty in spite of climatic inconveniences. Similarly, to fight is the religious principle of the katriyas, and although one has to fight with some friend or relative, one should not deviate from his prescribed duty. One has to follow the prescribed rules and regulations of religious principles in order to rise up to the platform of knowledge because by knowledge and devotion only can one liberate himself from the clutches of my (illusion). The two different names of address given to Arjuna are also significant. To address him as Kaunteya signifies his great blood relations from his mother's side; and to address him as Bhrata signifies his greatness from his father's side. From both sides he is supposed to have a great heritage. A great heritage brings responsibility in the matter of proper discharge of duties; therefore, he cannot avoid fighting. TEXT 15 ya hi na vyathayanty ete purua puruarabha sama-dukha-sukha dhra so 'mtatvya kalpate yam one who; hi certainly; na never; vyathayanti are distressing; ete all these; puruam to a person; puruarabha is best among men; sama unaltered; dukha distress; sukham happiness; dhram patient; sa he; amtatvya for liberation; kalpate is considered eligible. TRANSLATION O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation. PURPORT Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation. In the varrama institution, the fourth stage of life, namely the renounced order (sannysa) is a painstaking situation. But one who is serious about making his life perfect surely adopts the sannysa order of life in spite of all difficulties. The difficulties usually arise from having to sever family relationships, to give up the connection of wife and children. But if anyone is able to tolerate such difficulties, surely his path to spiritual realization is complete. Similarly, in Arjuna's discharge of duties as a katriya, he is advised to persevere, even if it is difficult to fight with his family members or similarly beloved persons. Lord Caitanya took sannysa at the age of twenty-four, and His dependants, young wife as well as old mother, had no one else to look after them. Yet for a higher cause He took sannysa and was steady in the discharge of higher duties. That is the way of achieving liberation from material bondage. TEXT 16 nsato vidyate bhvo nbhvo vidyate sata ubhayor api do 'ntas tv anayos tattva-daribhi na never; asata of the nonexistent; vidyate there is; bhva endurance; na never; abhva changing quality; vidyate there is; sata of the eternal; ubhayo of the two; api verily; da observed; anta conclusion; tu but; anayo of them; tattva truth; daribhi by the seers. TRANSLATION Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance, and of the existent there is no cessation. This seers have concluded by studying the nature of both. PURPORT There is no endurance of the changing body. That the body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of the different cells is admitted by modern medical science; and thus growth and old age are taking place in the body. But the spirit soul exists permanently, remaining the same despite all changes of the body and the mind. That is the difference between matter and spirit. By nature, the body is ever changing, and the soul is eternal. This conclusion is established by all classes of seers of the truth, both impersonalist and personalist. In the Viu Pura it is stated that Viu and His abodes all have self-illuminated spiritual existence. " Jyoti viur bhavanni viu. "The words existent and nonexistent refer only to spirit and matter. That is the version of all seers of truth. This is the beginning of the instruction by the Lord to the living entities who are bewildered by the influence of ignorance. Removal of ignorance involves the reestablishment of the eternal relationship between the worshiper and the worshipable and the consequent understanding of the difference between the part and parcel living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can understand the nature of the Supreme by thorough study of oneself, the difference between oneself and the Supreme being understood as the relationship between the part and the whole. In the Vednta-stras, as well as in the rmad-Bhgavatam, the Supreme has been accepted as the origin of all emanations. Such emanations are experienced by superior and inferior natural sequences. The living entities belong to the superior nature, as it will be revealed in the Seventh Chapter. Although there is no difference between the energy and the energetic, the energetic is accepted as the Supreme, and energy or nature is accepted as the subordinate. The living entities, therefore, are always subordinate to the Supreme Lord, as in the case of the master and the servant, or the teacher and the taught. Such clear knowledge is impossible to understand under the spell of ignorance, and to drive away such ignorance the Lord teaches the Bhagavad-gt for the enlightenment of all living entities for all time. TEXT 17 avini tu tad viddhi yena sarvam ida tatam vinam avyayasysya na kacit kartum arhati avini imperishable; tu but; tat that; viddhi know it; yena by whom; sarvam all of the body; idam this; tatam widespread; vinam destruction; avyayasya of the imperishable; asya of it; na kacit no one; kartum to do; arhati able. TRANSLATION Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul. PURPORT This verse more clearly explains the real nature of the soul, which is spread all over the body. Anyone can understand what is spread all over the body: it is consciousness. Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body in part or as a whole. This spreading of consciousness is limited within one's own body. The pains and pleasures of one body are unknown to another. Therefore, each and every body is the embodiment of an individual soul, and the symptom of the soul's presence is perceived as individual consciousness. This soul is described as one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair point in size. The vetvatara Upaniad confirms this: blgra-ata-bhgasya atadh kalpitasya ca bhgo jva sa vijeya sa cnantyya kalpate. "When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul." (vet. 5.9) Similarly, in the Bhgavatam the same version is stated: kegra-ata-bhgasya ata sdtmaka jva skma-svarupo 'ya sakhytto hi cit-kaa "There are innumerable particles of spiritual atoms, which are measured as one ten-thousandth of the upper portion of the hair." Therefore, the individual particle of spirit soul is a spiritual atom smaller than the material atoms, and such atoms are innumerable. This very small spiritual spark is the basic principle of the material body, and the influence of such a spiritual spark is spread all over the body as the influence of the active principle of some medicine spreads throughout the body. This current of the spirit soul is felt all over the body as consciousness, and that is the proof of the presence of the soul. Any layman can understand that the material body minus consciousness is a dead body, and this consciousness cannot be revived in the body by any means of material administration. Therefore, consciousness is not due to any amount of material combination, but to the spirit soul. In the Muaka Upaniad the measurement of the atomic spirit soul is further explained: eo 'urtm cetas veditavyo yasmin pra pacadh savivea prai citta sarvam otam prajn yasmin viuddhe vibhavaty ea tm. "The soul is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of air [ pra, apna, vyna, samna and udna ], is situated within the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, its spiritual influence is exhibited." (Mu. 3.1.9) The haha-yoga system is meant for controlling the five kinds of air encircling the pure soul by different kinds of sitting postures not for any material profit, but for liberation of the minute soul from the entanglement of the material atmosphere. So the constitution of the atomic soul is admitted in all Vedic literatures, and it is also actually felt in the practical experience of any sane man. Only the insane man can think of this atomic soul as all-pervading Viu-tattva. The influence of the atomic soul can be spread all over a particular body. According to the Muaka Upaniad, this atomic soul is situated in the heart of every living entity, and because the measurement of the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material scientists, some of them assert foolishly that there is no soul. The individual atomic soul is definitely there in the heart along with the Supersoul, and thus all the energies of bodily movement are emanating from this part of the body. The corpuscles which carry the oxygen from the lungs gather energy from the soul. When the soul passes away from this position, activity of the blood, generating fusion, ceases. Medical science accepts the importance of the red corpuscles, but it cannot ascertain that the source of the energy is the soul. Medical science, however, does admit that the heart is the seat of all energies of the body. Such atomic particles of the spirit whole are compared to the sunshine molecules. In the sunshine there are innumerable radiant molecules. Similarly, the fragmental parts of the Supreme Lord are atomic sparks of the rays of the Supreme Lord, called by the name prabh or superior energy. Neither Vedic knowledge nor modern science denies the existence of the spirit soul in the body, and the science of the soul is explicitly described in the Bhagavad-gt by the Personality of Godhead Himself. TEXT 18 antavanta ime deh nityasyokt arria anino 'prameyasya tasmd yudhyasva bhrata antavanta perishable; ime all these; deh material bodies; nityasya eternal in existence; ukt it is so said; arria the embodied souls; anina never to be destroyed; aprameyasya immeasurable; tasmt therefore; yudhyasva fight; bhrata O descendant of Bharata. TRANSLATION Only the material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is subject to destruction; therefore, fight, O descendant of Bharata. PURPORT The material body is perishable by nature. It may perish immediately, or it may do so after a hundred years. It is a question of time only. There is no chance of maintaining it indefinitely. But the spirit soul is so minute that it cannot even be seen by an enemy, to say nothing of being killed. As mentioned in the previous verse, it is so small that no one can have any idea how to measure its dimension. So from both viewpoints there is no cause of lamentation because the living entity can neither be killed as he is, nor can the material body, which cannot be saved for any length of time, be permanently protected. The minute particle of the whole spirit acquires this material body according to his work, and therefore observance of religious principles should be utilized. In the Vednta-stras the living entity is qualified as light because he is part and parcel of the supreme light. As sunlight maintains the entire universe, so the light of the soul maintains this material body. As soon as the spirit soul is out of this material body, the body begins to decompose; therefore it is the spirit soul which maintains this body. The body itself is unimportant. Arjuna was advised to fight and sacrifice the material body for the cause of religion. TEXT 19 ya ena vetti hantra ya caina manyate hatam ubhau tau na vijnto nya hanti na hanyate ya anyone; enam this; vetti knows; hantram the killer; ya anyone; ca also; enam this; manyate thinks; hatam killed; ubhau both of them; tau they; na never; vijnta in knowledge; na never; ayam this; hanti kills; na nor; hanyate be killed. TRANSLATION He who thinks that the living entity is the slayer or that he is slain, does not understand. One who is in knowledge knows that the self slays not nor is slain. PURPORT When an embodied living entity is hurt by fatal weapons, it is to be known that the living entity within the body is not killed. The spirit soul is so small that it is impossible to kill him by any material weapon, as is evident from the previous verses. Nor is the living entity killable because of his spiritual constitution. What is killed, or is supposed to be killed, is the body only. This, however, does not at all encourage killing of the body. The Vedic injunction is, " mhisyt sarva-bhtni " never commit violence to anyone. Nor does understanding that the living entity is not killed encourage animal slaughter. Killing the body of anyone without authority is abominable and is punishable by the law of the state as well as by the law of the Lord. Arjuna, however, is being engaged in killing for the principle of religion, and not whimsically. TEXT 20 - na jyate mriyate v kadcin nya bhtv bhavit v na bhya ajo nitya vato 'ya puro na hanyate hanyamne arre na never; jyate takes birth; mriyate never dies; v either; kadcit at any time (past, present or future); na never; ayam this; bhtv came into being; bhavit will come to be; v or; na not; bhya or has come to be; aja unborn; nitya eternal; vata permanent; ayam this; pura the oldest; na never; hanyate is killed; hanyamne being killed; arre by the body. TRANSLATION For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. PURPORT Qualitatively, the small atomic fragmental part of the Supreme Spirit is one with the Supreme. He undergoes no changes like the body. Sometimes the soul is called the steady, or kastha. The body is subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth in the womb of the mother's body, remains for some time, grows, produces some effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born, but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth. The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die. Anything which has birth also has death. And because the soul has no birth, he therefore has no past, present or future. He is eternal, ever-existing, and primevalthat is, there is no trace in history of his coming into being. Under the impression of the body, we seek the history of birth, etc., of the soul. The soul does not at any time become old, as the body does. The so-called old man, therefore, feels himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth. The changes of the body do not affect the soul. The soul does not deteriorate like a tree, nor anything material. The soul has no by-product either. The by-products of the body, namely children, are also different individual souls; and, owing to the body, they appear as children of a particular man. The body develops because of the soul's presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change. Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body. In the Kaha Upaniad also we find a similar passage which reads: na jyate mriyate v vipacin nya kutacin na vibhva kacit ajo nitya vato 'ya puro na hanyate hanyamne arre. ( Kaha 1.2.18) The meaning and purport of this verse is the same as in the Bhagavad-gt, but here in this verse there is one special word, vipacit, which means learned or with knowledge. The soul is full of knowledge, or full always with consciousness. Therefore, consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Even if one does not find the soul within the heart, where he is situated, one can still understand the presence of the soul simply by the presence of consciousness. Sometimes we do not find the sun in the sky owing to clouds, or for some other reason, but the light of the sun is always there, and we are convinced that it is therefore daytime. As soon as there is a little light in the sky early in the morning, we can understand that the sun is in the sky. Similarly, since there is some consciousness in all bodies whether man or animal we can understand the presence of the soul. This consciousness of the soul is, however, different from the consciousness of the Supreme because the supreme consciousness is all-knowledgepast, present and future. The consciousness of the individual soul is prone to be forgetful. When he is forgetful of his real nature, he obtains education and enlightenment from the superior lessons of Ka. But Ka is not like the forgetful soul. If so, Ka's teachings of Bhagavad-gt would be useless. There are two kinds of souls namely the minute particle soul ( au- tm) and the Supersoul (the vibhu-tm). This is also confirmed in the Kaha Upaniad in this way: aor ayn mahato mahyn tmsya jantor nihito guhym tam akratu payati vta-oko dhtu prasdn mahimnam tmana (Kaha 1.2.20) "Both the Supersoul [Paramtm] and the atomic soul [jvtm] are situated on the same tree of the body within the same heart of the living being, and only one who has become free from all material desires as well as lamentations can, by the grace of the Supreme, understand the glories of the soul." Ka is the fountainhead of the Supersoul also, as it will be disclosed in the following chapters, and Arjuna is the atomic soul, forgetful of his real nature; therefore he requires to be enlightened by Ka, or by His bona fide representative (the spiritual master). TEXT 21 vedvinina nitya ya enam ajam avyayam katha sa purua prtha ka ghtayati hanti kam veda in knowledge; avininam indestructible; nityam always; ya one who; enam this (soul); ajam unborn; avyayam immutable; katham how; sa he; purua person; prtha O Prtha (Arjuna); kam whom; ghtayati hurts; hanti kills; kam whom. TRANSLATION O Prtha, how can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, unborn, eternal and immutable, kill anyone or cause anyone to kill? PURPORT Everything has its proper utility, and a man who is situated in complete knowledge knows how and where to apply a thing for its proper utility. Similarly, violence also has its utility, and how to apply violence rests with the person in knowledge. Although the justice of the peace awards capital punishment to a person condemned for murder, the justice of the peace cannot be blamed because he orders violence to another person according to the codes of justice. In Manu-sahit, the lawbook for mankind, it is supported that a murderer should be condemned to death so that in his next life he will not have to suffer for the great sin he has committed. Therefore, the king's punishment of hanging a murderer is actually beneficial. Similarly, when Ka orders fighting, it must be concluded that violence is for supreme justice, and, as such, Arjuna should follow the instruction, knowing well that such violence, committed in the act of fighting for Ka, is not violence at all because, at any rate, the man, or rather the soul, cannot be killed; so for the administration of justice, so- called violence is permitted. A surgical operation is not meant to kill the patient, but to cure him. Therefore the fighting to be executed by Arjuna at the instruction of Ka is with full knowledge, so there is no possibility of sinful reaction. TEXT 22 - vssi jrni yath vihya navni ghti naro 'pari tath arri vihya jrny anyni sayti navni deh vssi garments; jrni old and worn out; yath as it is; vihya giving up; navni new garments; ghti does accept; nara a man; apari other; tath in the same way; arri bodies; vihya giving up; jrni old and useless; anyni different; sayti verily accepts; navni new sets; deh the embodied. TRANSLATION As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. PURPORT Change of body by the atomic individual soul is an accepted fact. Even some of the modern scientists who do not believe in the existence of the soul, but at the same time cannot explain the source of energy from the heart, have to accept continuous changes of body which appear from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth and again from youth to old age. From old age, the change is transferred to another body. This has already been explained in the previous verse. Transference of the atomic individual soul to another body is made possible by the grace of the Supersoul.The Supersoul fulfills the desire of the atomic soul as one friend fulfills the desire of another. The Vedas, like the Muaka Upaniad, as well as the vetvatara Upaniad, compare the soul and the Supersoul to two friendly birds sitting on the same tree. One of the birds (the individual atomic soul) is eating the fruit of the tree, and the other bird (Ka) is simply watching His friend. Of these two birds although they are the same in quality one is captivated by the fruits of the material tree, while the other is simply witnessing the activities of His friend. Ka is the witnessing bird, and Arjuna is the eating bird. Although they are friends, one is still the master and the other is the servant. Forgetfulness of this relationship by the atomic soul is the cause of one's changing his position from one tree to another or from one body to another. The jva soul is struggling very hard on the tree of the material body, but as soon as he agrees to accept the other bird as the supreme spiritual masteras Arjuna agreed to do by voluntary surrender unto Ka for instructionthe subordinate bird immediately becomes free from all lamentations. Both the Kaha Upaniad and vetvatara Upaniad confirm this: samne vke puruo nimagno 'nay ocati muhyamna jua yad payaty anyam am asya mahimnam iti vta-oka "Although the two birds are in the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his friend who is the Lord and knows His gloriesat once the suffering bird becomes free from all anxieties." Arjuna has now turned his face towards his eternal friend, Ka, and is understanding the Bhagavad-gt from Him. And thus, hearing from Ka, he can understand the supreme glories of the Lord and be free from lamentation. Arjuna is advised herewith by the Lord not to lament for the bodily change of his old grandfather and his teacher. He should rather be happy to kill their bodies in the righteous fight so that they may be cleansed at once of all reactions from various bodily activities. One who lays down his life on the sacrificial altar, or in the proper battlefield, is at once cleansed of bodily reactions and promoted to a higher status of life. So there was no cause for Arjuna's lamentation. TEXT 23 naina chindanti astri naina dahati pvaka na caina kledayanty po na oayati mruta na never; enam unto this soul; chindanti can cut into pieces; astri all weapons; na never; enam unto this soul; dahati burns; pvaka fire; na never; ca also; enam unto this soul; kledayanti moistens; pa water; na never; oayati dries; mruta wind. TRANSLATION The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. PURPORT All kinds of weapons, swords, flames, rains, tornadoes, etc., are unable to kill the spirit soul. It appears that there were many kinds of weapons made of earth, water, air, ether, etc., in addition to the modern weapons of fire. Even the nuclear weapons of the modern age are classified as fire weapons, but formerly there were other weapons made of all different types of material elements. Firearms were counteracted by water weapons, which are now unknown to modern science. Nor do modern scientists have knowledge of tornado weapons. Nonetheless, the soul can never be cut into pieces, nor annihilated by any number of weapons, regardless of scientific devices. Nor was it ever possible to cut the individual souls from the original Soul. The Myvd, however, cannot describe how the individual soul evolved from ignorance and consequently became covered by illusory energy. Because they are atomic individual souls (santana) eternally, they are prone to be covered by the illusory energy, and thus they become separated from the association of the Supreme Lord, just as the sparks of the fire, although one in quality with the fire, are prone to be extinguished when out of the fire. In the Varha Pura, the living entities are described as separated parts and parcels of the Supreme. They are eternally so, according to the Bhagavad-gt also. So, even after being liberated from illusion, the living entity remains a separate identity, as is evident from the teachings of the Lord to Arjuna. Arjuna became liberated by the knowledge received from Ka, but he never became one with Ka. TEXT 24 acchedyo 'yam adhyo 'yam akledyo 'oya eva ca nitya sarva-gata sthur acalo 'ya santana acchedya unbreakable; ayam this soul; adhya cannot be burned; ayam this soul; akledya insoluble; aoya cannot be dried; eva certainly; ca and; nitya everlasting; sarva-gata all-pervading; sthu unchangeable; acala immovable; ayam this soul; santana eternally the same. TRANSLATION This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same. PURPORT All these qualifications of the atomic soul definitely prove that the individual soul is eternally the atomic particle of the spirit whole, and he remains the same atom eternally, without change. The theory of monism is very difficult to apply in this case, because the individual soul is never expected to become one homogeneously. After liberation from material contamination, the atomic soul may prefer to remain as a spiritual spark in the effulgent rays of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the intelligent souls enter into the spiritual planets to associate with the Personality of Godhead. The word sarva-gata (all-pervading) is significant because there is no doubt that living entities are all over God's creation. They live on the land, in the water, in the air, within the earth and even within fire. The belief that they are sterilized in fire is not acceptable, because it is clearly stated here that the soul cannot be burned by fire. Therefore, there is no doubt that there are living entities also in the sun planet with suitable bodies to live there. If the sun globe is uninhabited, then the word sarva-gata living everywherebecomes meaningless. TEXT 25 avyakto 'yam acintyo 'yam avikryo 'yam ucyate tasmd eva viditvaina nnuocitum arhasi avyakta invisible; ayam this soul; acintya inconceivable; ayam this soul; avikrya unchangeable; ayam this soul; ucyate is said; tasmt therefore; evam like this; viditv knowing it well; enam this soul; na do not; anuocitum may lament over; arhasi you deserve. TRANSLATION It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body. PURPORT As described previously, the magnitude of the soul is so small for our material calculation that he cannot be seen even by the most powerful microscope; therefore, he is invisible. As far as the soul's existence is concerned, no one can establish his existence experimentally beyond the proof of ruti or Vedic wisdom. We have to accept this truth, because there is no other source of understanding the existence of the soul, although it is a fact by perception. There are many things we have to accept solely on grounds of superior authority. No one can deny the existence of his father, based upon the authority of his mother. There is no other source of understanding the identity of the father except by the authority of the mother. Similarly, there is no other source of understanding the soul except by studying the Vedas. In other words, the soul is inconceivable by human experimental knowledge. The soul is consciousness and consciousthat also is the statement of the Vedas, and we have to accept that. Unlike the bodily changes, there is no change in the soul. As eternally unchangeable, the soul remains atomic in comparison to the infinite Supreme Soul. The Supreme Soul is infinite, and the atomic soul is infinitesimal. Therefore, the infinitesimal soul, being unchangeable, can never become equal to the infinite soul, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This concept is repeated in the Vedas in different ways just to confirm the stability of the conception of the soul. Repetition of something is necessary in order that we understand the matter thoroughly without error. TEXT 26 atha caina nitya-jta nitya v manyase mtam tathpi tva mah-bho naina ocitum arhasi atha if, however; ca also; enam this soul; nitya-jtam always born; nityam forever; v either; manyase so think; mtam dead; tathpi still; tvam you; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; na never; enam about the soul; ocitum to lament; arhasi deserve. TRANSLATION If, however, you think that the soul is perpetually born and always dies, still you have no reason to lament, O mighty-armed. PURPORT There is always a class of philosophers, almost akin to the Buddhists, who do not believe in the separate existence of the soul beyond the body. When Lord Ka spoke the Bhagavad-gt, it appears that such philosophers existed, and they were known as the Lokyatikas and Vaibhikas. These philosophers maintained that life symptoms, or soul, takes place at a certain mature condition of material combination. The modern material scientist and materialist philosophers also think similarly. According to them, the body is a combination of physical elements, and at a certain stage the life symptoms develop by interaction of the physical and chemical elements. The science of anthropology is based on this philosophy. Currently, many pseudo-religions now becoming fashionable in Americaare also adhering to this philosophy, as well as to the nihilistic nondevotional Buddhist sects. Even if Arjuna did not believe in the existence of the soul as in the Vaibhika philosophy there would still have been no cause for lamentation. No one laments the loss of a certain bulk of chemicals and stops discharging his prescribed duty. On the other hand, in modern science and scientific warfare, so many tons of chemicals are wasted for achieving victory over the enemy. According to the Vaibhika philosophy, the so-called soul or tm vanishes along with the deterioration of the body. So, in any case, whether Arjuna accepted the Vedic conclusion that there is an atomic soul, or whether he did not believe in the existence of the soul, he had no reason to lament. According to this theory, since there are so many living entities generating out of matter every moment, and so many of them are being vanquished every moment, there is no need to grieve for such an incidence. However, since he was not risking rebirth of the soul, Arjuna had no reason to be afraid of being affected with sinful reactions due to his killing his grandfather and teacher. But at the same time, Ka sarcastically addressed Arjuna as mah-bhu, mighty-armed, because He, at least, did not accept the theory of the Vaibhikas, which leaves aside the Vedic wisdom. As a katriya, Arjuna belonged to the Vedic culture, and it behooved him to continue to follow its principles. TEXT 27 jtasya hi dhruvo mtyur dhruva janma mtasya ca tasmd aparihrye 'rthe na tva ocitum arhasi jtasya one who has taken his birth; hi certainly; dhruva a fact; mtyu death; dhruvam it is also a fact; janma birth; mtasya of the dead; ca also; tasmt therefore; aparihrye for that which is unavoidable; arthe in the matter of; na do not; tvam you; ocitum to lament; arhasi deserve. TRANSLATION For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament. PURPORT One has to take birth according to one's activities of life. And, after finishing one term of activities, one has to die to take birth for the next. In this way the cycle of birth and death is revolving, one after the other without liberation. This cycle of birth and death does not, however, support unnecessary murder, slaughter and war. But at the same time, violence and war are inevitable factors in human society for keeping law and order. The Battle of Kuruketra, being the will of the Supreme, was an inevitable event, and to fight for the right cause is the duty of a katriya. Why should he be afraid of or aggrieved at the death of his relatives since he was discharging his proper duty? He did not deserve to break the law, thereby becoming subjected to the reactions of sinful acts, of which he was so afraid. By avoiding the discharge of his proper duty, he would not be able to stop the death of his relatives, and he would be degraded due to his selection of the wrong path of action. TEXT 28 avyaktdni bhtni vyakta-madhyni bhrata avyakta-nidhanny eva tatra k paridevan avyaktdni in the beginning unmanifested; bhtni all that are created; vyakta manifested; madhyni in the middle; bhrata O descendant of Bharata; avyakta nonmanifested; nidhanni all that are vanquished; eva it is all like that; tatra therefore; k-what; paridevan lamentation. TRANSLATION All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation? PURPORT Accepting that there are two classes of philosophers, one believing in the existence of soul and the other not believing in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation in either case. Nonbelievers in the existence of the soul are called atheists by followers of Vedic wisdom. Yet even if, for argument's sake, we accept the atheistic theory, there is still no cause for lamentation. Apart from the separate existence of the soul, the material elements remain unmanifested before creation. From this subtle state of unmanifestation comes manifestation, just as from ether, air is generated; from air, fire is generated; from fire, water is generated; and from water, earth becomes manifested. From the earth, many varieties of manifestations take place. Take, for example, a big skyscraper manifested from the earth. When it is dismantled, the manifestation becomes again unmanifested and remains as atoms in the ultimate stage. The law of conservation of energy remains, but in course of time things are manifested and unmanifestedthat is the difference. Then what cause is there for lamentation either in the stage of manifestation or unmanifestation? Somehow or other, even in the unmanifested stage, things are not lost. Both at the beginning and at the end, all elements remain unmanifested, and only in the middle are they manifested, and this does not make any real material difference. And if we accept the Vedic conclusion as stated in the Bhagavad- gt (antavanta ime deh) that these material bodies are perishable in due course of time (nityasyokt arria) but that soul is eternal, then we must remember always that the body is like a dress; therefore why lament the changing of a dress? The material body has no factual existence in relation to the eternal soul. It is something like a dream. In a dream we may think of flying in the sky, or sitting on a chariot as a king, but when we wake up we can see that we are neither in the sky nor seated on the chariot. The Vedic wisdom encourages self-realization on the basis of the nonexistence of the material body. Therefore, in either case, whether one believes in the existence of the soul, or one does not believe in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation for loss of the body. TEXT 29 - caryavat payati kacid enam caryavad vadati tathaiva cnya caryavac cainam anya oti rutvpy ena veda na caiva kacit caryavat amazing; payati see; kacit some; enam this soul; caryavat amazing; vadati speak; tath there; eva certainly; ca also; anya others; caryavat similarly amazing; ca also; enam this soul; anya others; oti hear; rutv having heard; api even; enam this soul; veda do know; na never; ca and; eva certainly; kacit anyone. TRANSLATION Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all. PURPORT Since Gtopaniad is largely based on the principles of the Upaniads, it is not surprising to also find this passage in the Kaha Upaniad. ravaypi bahubhir yo na labhya vanto 'pi bahavo ya na vidyu caryo vakt kualo 'sya labdh caryo jt kualnuia. The fact that the atomic soul is within the body of a gigantic animal, in the body of a gigantic banyan tree, and also in the microbic germs, millions and billions of which occupy only an inch of space, is certainly very amazing. Men with a poor fund of knowledge and men who are not austere cannot understand the wonders of the individual atomic spark of spirit, even though it is explained by the greatest authority of knowledge, who imparted lessons even to Brahm, the first living being in the universe. Owing to a gross material conception of things, most men in this age cannot imagine how such a small particle can become both so great and so small. So men look at the soul proper as wonderful either by constitution or by description. Illusioned by the material energy, people are so engrossed in subject matter for sense gratification that they have very little time to understand the question of self- understanding, even though it is a fact that without this self-understanding all activities result in ultimate defeat in the struggle for existence. Perhaps one has no idea that one must think of the soul, and also make a solution of the material miseries. Some people who are inclined to hear about the soul may be attending lectures, in good association, but sometimes, owing to ignorance, they are misguided by acceptance of the Supersoul and the atomic soul as one without distinction of magnitude. It is very difficult to find a man who perfectly understands the position of the soul, the Supersoul, the atomic soul, their respective functions, relationships and all other major and minor details. And it is still more difficult to find a man who has actually derived full benefit from knowledge of the soul, and who is able to describe the position of the soul in different aspects. But if, somehow or other, one is able to understand the subject matter of the soul, then one's life is successful. The easiest process for understanding the subject matter of self, however, is to accept the statements of the Bhagavad-gt spoken by the greatest authority, Lord Ka, without being deviated by other theories. But it also requires a great deal of penance and sacrifice, either in this life or in the previous ones, before one is able to accept Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ka can, however, be known as such by the causeless mercy of the pure devotee and by no other way. TEXT 30 deh nityam avadhyo 'ya dehe sarvasya bhrata tasmt sarvi bhtni na tva ocitum arhasi deh the owner of the material body; nityam eternally; avadhya cannot be killed; ayam this soul; dehe in the body; sarvasya of everyone; bhrata O descendant of Bharata; tasmt therefore; sarvi all; bhtni living entities (that are born); na never; tvam yourself; ocitum to lament; arhasi- deserve. TRANSLATION O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any creature. PURPORT The Lord now concludes the chapter of instruction on the immutable spirit soul. In describing the immortal soul in various ways, Lord Ka establishes that the soul is immortal and the body is temporary. Therefore Arjuna as a katriya should not abandon his duty out of fear that his grandfather and teacherBhma and Droawill die in the battle. On the authority of r Ka, one has to believe that there is a soul different from the material body, not that there is no such thing as soul, or that living symptoms develop at a certain stage of material maturity resulting from the interaction of chemicals. Though the soul is immortal, violence is not encouraged, but at the time of war it is not discouraged when there is actual need for it. That need must be justified in terms of the sanction of the Lord, and not capriciously. TEXT 31 svadharmam api cvekya na vikampitum arhasi dharmyddhi yuddhc chreyo 'nyat katriyasya na vidyate svadharmam one's own religious principles; api also; ca indeed; avekya considering; na never; vikampitum to hesitate; arhasi you deserve ; dharmyt from religious principles; hi indeed; yuddht of fighting; reya better engagements; anyat anything else; katriyasya of the katriya ; na does not; vidyate exist. TRANSLATION Considering your specific duty as a katriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles; and so there is no need for hesitation. PURPORT Out of the four orders of social administration, the second order, for the matter of good administration, is called katriya. Kat means hurt. One who gives protection from harm is called katriya (trayate to give protection). The katriyas are trained for killing in the forest. A katriya would go into the forest and challenge a tiger face to face and fight with the tiger with his sword. When the tiger was killed, it would be offered the royal order of cremation. This system is being followed even up to the present day by the katriya kings of Jaipur state. The katriyas are specially trained for challenging and killing because religious violence is sometimes a necessary factor. Therefore, katriyas are never meant for accepting directly the order of sannysa or renunciation. Nonviolence in politics may be a diplomacy, but it is never a factor or principle. In the religious law books it is stated: haveu mitho 'nyonya jighsanto mahkita yuddhamn para akty svarga ynty aparmukh yajeu paavo brahman hanyante satata dvijai saskt kila mantrai ca te 'pi svargam avpnuvan. "In the battlefield, a king or katriya, while fighting another king envious of him, is eligible for achieving heavenly planets after death, as the brhmaas also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial fire." Therefore, killing on the battle on the religious principle and the killing of animals in the sacrificial fire are not at all considered to be acts of violence, because everyone is benefitted by the religious principles involved. The animal sacrificed gets a human life immediately without undergoing the gradual evolutionary process from one form to another, and the katriyas killed in the battlefield also attain the heavenly planets as do the brhmaas who attain them by offering sacrifice. There are two kinds of svadharmas, specific duties. As long as one is not liberated, one has to perform the duties of that particular body in accordance with religious principles in order to achieve liberation. When one is liberated, one's svadharma specific dutybecomes spiritual and is not in the material bodily concept. In the bodily conception of life thereare specific duties for the brhmaas and katriyas respectively, and such duties are unavoidable. Svadharma is ordained by the Lord, and this will be clarified in the Fourth Chapter. On the bodily plane svadharma is called varrama-dharma, or man's steppingstone for spiritual understanding. Human civilization begins from the stage of varrama-dharma, or specific duties in terms of the specific modes of nature of the body obtained. Discharging one's specific duty in any field of action in accordance with varrama- dharma serves to elevate one to a higher status of life. TEXT 32 yadcchay copapanna svarga-dvram apvtam sukhina katriy prtha labhante yuddham dam yadcchay by its own accord; ca also; upapannam arrived at; svarga heavenly planet; dvram door; apvtam wide open; sukhina very happy; katriy the members of the royal order; prtha O son of Pth; labhante do achieve; yuddham war; dam like this. TRANSLATION O Prtha, happy are the katriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets. PURPORT As supreme teacher of the world, Lord Ka condemns the attitude of Arjuna who said, "I do not find any good in this fighting. It will cause perpetual habitation in hell." Such statements by Arjuna were due to ignorance only. He wanted to become nonviolent in the discharge of his specific duty. For a katriya to be in the battlefield and to become nonviolent is the philosophy of fools. In the Parara-smti or religious codes made by Parara, the great sage and father of Vysadeva, it is stated: katriyo hi praj rakan astra-pi pradaayan nirjitya parasainydi kiti dharmea playet. "The katriya's duty is to protect the citizens from all kinds of difficulties, and for that reason he has to apply violence in suitable cases for law and order. Therefore he has to conquer the soldiers of inimical kings, and thus, with religious principles, he should rule over the world." Considering all aspects, Arjuna had no reason to refrain from fighting. If he should conquer his enemies, he would enjoy the kingdom; and if he should die in the battle, he would be elevated to the heavenly planets whose doors were wide open to him. Fighting would be for his benefit in either case. TEXT 33 atha cet tvam ima dharmya sagrma na kariyasi tata svadharmam krti ca hitv ppam avpsyasi atha therefore; cet if; tvam you; imam this; dharmyam religious duty; sagrmam fighting; na do not; kariyasi perform; tata then; svadharmam your religious duty; krtim reputation; ca also; hitv losing; ppam sinful reaction; avpsyasi do gain. TRANSLATION If, however, you do not fight this religious war, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a fighter. PURPORT Arjuna was a famous fighter, and he attained fame by fighting many great demigods, including even Lord iva. After fighting and defeating Lord iva in the dress of a hunter, Arjuna pleased the Lord and received as a reward a weapon called pupata- astra. Everyone knew that he was a great warrior. Even Drocrya gave him benediction and awarded him the special weapon by which he could kill even his teacher. So he was credited with so many military certificates from many authorities, including his adopted father Indra, the heavenly king. But if he abandoned the battle, he would not only neglect his specific duty as a katriya, but he would lose all his fame and good name and thus prepare his royal road to hell. In other words, he would go to hell, not by fighting, but by withdrawing from battle. TEXT 34 akrti cpi bhtni kathayiyanti te 'vyaym sambhvitasya ckrtir marad atiricyate akrtim infamy; ca also; api over and above; bhtni all people; kathayiyanti will speak; te-of you; avyaym forever; sambhvitasya for a respectable man; ca also; akrti ill fame; marat than death; atiricyate becomes more than. TRANSLATION People will always speak of your infamy, and for one who has been honored, dishonor is worse than death. PURPORT Both as friend and philosopher to Arjuna, Lord Ka now gives His final judgement regarding Arjuna's refusal to fight. The Lord says, "Arjuna, if you leave the battlefield, people will call you a coward even before your actual flight. And if you think that people may call you bad names but that you will save your life by fleeing the battlefield, then My advice is that you'd do better to die in the battle. For a respectable man like you, ill fame is worse than death. So, you should not flee for fear of your life; better to die in the battle. That will save you from the ill fame of misusing My friendship and from losing your prestige in society." So, the final judgement of the Lord was for Arjuna to die in the battle and not withdraw. TEXT 35 bhayd rad uparata masyante tv mah-rath ye ca tva bahu-mato bhtv ysyasi lghavam bhayt out of fear; rat from the battlefield; uparatam ceased; masyante will consider; tvm unto you; mah-rath the great generals; yem of those who; ca also; tvam you; bahu-mata in great estimation; bhtv will become; ysyasi will go; lghavam decreased in value. TRANSLATION The great generals who have highly esteemed your name and fame will think that you have left the battlefield out of fear only, and thus they will consider you a coward. PURPORT Lord Ka continued to give His verdict to Arjuna: "Do not think that the great generals like Duryodhana, Kara, and other contemporaries will think that you have left the battlefield out of compassion for your brothers and grandfather. They will think that you have left out of fear for your life. And thus their high estimation of your personality will go to hell." TEXT 36 avcya-vd ca bahn vadiyanti tavhit nindantas tava smarthya tato dukhatara nu kim avcya unkind; vdn fabricated words; ca also; bahn many; vadiyanti will say; tava your; ahit enemies; nindanta while vilifying; tava your; smarthyam ability; tata thereafter; dukhataram more painful; nu of course; kim what is there. TRANSLATION Your enemies will describe you in many unkind words and scorn your ability. What could be more painful for you? PURPORT Lord Ka was astonished in the beginning at Arjuna's uncalled-for plea for compassion, and He described his compassion as befitting the non- ryans. Now in so many words, He has proved His statements against Arjuna's so-called compassion. TEXT 37 hato v prpsyasi svarga jitv v bhokyase mahm tasmd uttiha kaunteya yuddhya kta-nicaya hata being killed; v either; prpsyasi you gain; svargam the heavenly kingdom; jitv by conquering; v or; bhokyase you enjoy; mahm the world; tasmt therefore; uttiha get up; kaunteya O son of Kunt; yuddhya to fight; kta determination; nicaya uncertainty. TRANSLATION O son of Kunt, either you will be killed on the battlefield and attain the heavenly planets, or you will conquer and enjoy the earthly kingdom. Therefore get up and fight with determination. PURPORT Even though there was no certainty of victory for Arjuna's side, he still had to fight; for, even being killed there, he could be elevated into the heavenly planets. TEXT 38 sukha-dukhe same ktv lbhlbhau jayjayau tato yuddhya yujyasva naiva ppam avpsyasi sukha happiness; dukhe in distress; same in equanimity; ktv doing so; lbhlbhau both in loss and profit; jayjayau both in defeat and victory; tata thereafter; yuddhya for the sake of fighting; yujyasva do fight; na never; evam in this way; ppam sinful reaction; avpsyasi you will gain. TRANSLATION Do thou fight for the sake of fighting, without considering happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeatand, by so doing, you shall never incur sin. PURPORT Lord Ka now directly says that Arjuna should fight for the sake of fighting because He desires the battle. There is no consideration of happiness or distress, profit or gain, victory or defeat in the activities of Ka consciousness. That everything should be performed for the sake of Ka is transcendental consciousness; so there is no reaction to material activities. He who acts for his own sense gratification, either in goodness or in passion, is subject to the reaction, good or bad. But he who has completely surrendered himself in the activities of Ka consciousness is no longer obliged to anyone, nor is he a debtor to anyone, as one is in the ordinary course of activities. It is said: devari-bhtpta-n pit na kikaro nyam ca rjan sarvtman ya araa araya gato mukunda parihtya kartam (Bhg. 11.5.41) "Anyone who has completely surrendered unto Ka, Mukunda, giving up all other duties, is no longer a debtor, nor is he obliged to anyonenot the demigods, nor the sages, nor the people in general, nor kinsmen, nor humanity, nor forefathers." That is the indirect hint given by Ka to Arjuna in this verse, and the matter will be more clearly explained in the following verses. TEXT 39 e te 'bhihit skhye buddhir yoge tv im u buddhy yukto yay prtha karma-bandha prahsyasi e all these; te unto you; abhihit described; skhye by analytical study; buddhi intelligence; yoge work without fruitive result; tu but; imm-this; u just hear; buddhy by intelligence; yukta dovetailed; yay by which; prtha O son of Pth; karma-bandham bondage of reaction; prahsyasi you can be released from. TRANSLATION Thus far I have declared to you the analytical knowledge of skhya philosophy. Now listen to the knowledge of yoga whereby one works without fruitive result. O son of Pth, when you act by such intelligence, you can free yourself from the bondage of works. PURPORT According to the Nirukti, or the Vedic dictionary, sakhya means that which describes phenomena in detail, and sakhya refers to that philosophy which describes the real nature of the soul. And yoga involves controlling the senses. Arjuna's proposal not to fight was based on sense gratification. Forgetting his prime duty, he wanted to cease fighting because he thought that by not killing his relatives and kinsmen he would be happier than by enjoying the kingdom by conquering his cousins and brothers, the sons of Dhtarra. In both ways, the basic principles were for sense gratification. Happiness derived from conquering them and happiness derived by seeing kinsmen alive are both on the basis of personal sense gratification, for there is a sacrifice of wisdom and duty. Ka, therefore, wanted to explain to Arjuna that by killing the body of his grandfather he would not be killing the soul proper, and He explained that all individual persons, including the Lord Himself, are eternal individuals; they were individuals in the past, they are individuals in the present, and they will continue to remain individuals in the future, because all of us are individual souls eternally, and we simply change our bodily dress in different manners. But, actually, we keep our individuality even after liberation from the bondage of material dress. An analytical study of the soul and the body has been very graphically explained by Lord Ka. And this descriptive knowledge of the soul and the body from different angles of vision has been described here as skhya, in terms of the Nirukti dictionary. This skhya has nothing to do with the skhya philosophy of the atheist Kapila. Long before the imposter Kapila's skhya, the skhya philosophy was expounded in the rmad-Bhgavatam by the true Lord Kapila, the incarnation of Lord Ka, who explained it to His mother, Devahti. It is clearly explained by Him that the Purua, or the Supreme Lord, is active and that He creates by looking over the prakti. This is accepted in the Vedas and in the Gt. The description in the Vedas indicates that the Lord glanced over the prakti, or nature, and impregnated it with atomic individuals souls. All these individuals are working in the material world for sense gratification, and under the spell of material energy they are thinking of being enjoyers. This mentality is dragged to the last point of liberation when the living entity wants to become one with the Lord. This is the last snare of my or sense gratificatory illusion, and it is only after many, many births of such sense gratificatory activities that a great soul surrenders unto Vsudeva, Lord Ka, thereby fulfilling the search after the ultimate truth. Arjuna has already accepted Ka as his spiritual master by surrendering himself unto Him: iyas te 'ha dhi m tv prapannam. Consequently, Ka will now tell him about the working process in buddhi-yoga, or karma- yoga, or in other words, the practice of devotional service only for the sense gratification of the Lord. This buddhi-yoga is clearly explained in Chapter Ten, verse ten, as being direct communion with the Lord, who is sitting as Paramtm in everyone's heart. But such communion does not take place without devotional service. One who is therefore situated in devotional or transcendental loving service to the Lord, or, in other words, in Ka consciousness, attains to this stage of buddhi-yoga by the special grace of the Lord. The Lord says, therefore, that only to those who are always engaged in devotional service out of transcendental love does He award the pure knowledge of devotion in love. In that way the devotee can reach Him easily in the ever-blissful kingdom of God. Thus the buddhi-yoga mentioned in this verse is the devotional service of the Lord, and the word skhya mentioned herein has nothing to do with the atheistic skhya-yoga enunciated by the impostor Kapila. One should not, therefore, misunderstand that the skhya-yoga mentioned herein has any connection with the atheistic skhya. Nor did that philosophy have any influence during that time; nor would Lord Ka care to mention such godless philosophical speculations. Real skhya philosophy is described by Lord Kapila in the rmad-Bhgavatam, but even that skhya has nothing to do with the current topics. Here, skhya means analytical description of the body and the soul. Lord Ka made an analytical description of the soul just to bring Arjuna to the point of buddhi-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. Therefore, Lord Ka's skhya and Lord Kapila's skhya, as described in the Bhgavatam; are one and the same. They are all bhakti-yoga. He said, therefore, that only the less intelligent class of men make a distinction between skhya-yoga and bhakti-yoga. Of course, atheistic skhya-yoga has nothing to do with bhakti-yoga, yet the unintelligent claim that the atheistic skhya-yoga is referred to in the Bhagavad-gt. One should therefore understand that buddhi-yoga means to work in Ka consciousness, in the full bliss and knowledge of devotional service. One who works for the satisfaction of the Lord only, however difficult such work may be, is working under the principles of buddhi-yoga and finds himself always in transcendental bliss. By such transcendental engagement, one achieves all transcendental qualities automatically, by the grace of the Lord, and thus his liberation is complete in itself, without his making extraneous endeavors to acquire knowledge. There is much difference between work in Ka consciousness and work for fruitive results, especially in the matter of sense gratification for achieving results in terms of family or material happiness. Buddhi-yoga is therefore the transcendental quality of the work that we perform. TEXT 40 nehbhikrama-no 'sti pratyavyo na vidyate svalpam apy asya dharmasya tryate mahato bhayt na there is not; iha in this world; abhikrama endeavoring; na loss; asti there is; pratyavya diminution; na never; vidyate there is; svalpam little; api although; asya of this; dharmasya of this occupation; tryate releases; mahata of very great; bhayt from danger. TRANSLATION In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear. PURPORT Activity in Ka consciousness, or acting for the benefit of Ka without expectation of sense gratification, is the highest transcendental quality of work. Even a small beginning of such activity finds no impediment, nor can that small beginning be lost at any stage. Any work begun on the material plane has to be completed, otherwise the whole attempt becomes a failure. But any work begun in Ka consciousness has a permanent effect, even though not finished. The performer of such work is therefore not at a loss even if his work in Ka consciousness is incomplete. One percent done in Ka consciousness bears permanent results, so that the next beginning is from the point of two percent; whereas, in material activity, without a hundred percent success, there is no profit. Ajmila performed his duty in some percentage of Ka consciousness, but the result he enjoyed at the end was a hundred percent, by the grace of the Lord. There is a nice verse in this connection in rmad- Bhgavatam: tyaktv sva-dharma carambuja harer bhajan na pakko 'tha patet tato yadi yatra kva vbhadram abhd amuya ki ko vrtha pto 'bhajat sva-dharmata "If someone gives up self-gratificatory pursuits and works in Ka consciousness and then falls down on account of not completing his work, what loss is there on his part? And, what can one gain if one performs his material activities perfectly?" (Bhg. 1.5.17) Or, as the Christians say, "What profiteth a man if he gain the whole world yet suffers the loss of his eternal soul?" Material activities and their results end with the body. But work in Ka consciousness carries the person again to Ka consciousness, even after the loss of the body. At least one is sure to have a chance in the next life of being born again as a human being, either in the family of a great cultured brhmaa or in a rich aristocratic family that will give one a further chance for elevation. That is the unique quality of work done in Ka consciousness. TEXT 41 vyavasytmik buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana bahu-kh hy anant ca buddhayo 'vyavasyinm vyavasytmik resolute Ka consciousness; buddhi intelligence; ek only one; iha in this world; kuru-nandana O beloved child of the Kurus; bahu-kh various branches; hi indeed; anant unlimited; ca also; buddhaya intelligence; avyavasyinm of those who are not in Ka consciousness. TRANSLATION Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched. PURPORT A strong faith in Ka consciousness that one should be elevated to the highest perfection of life is called vyavasytmik intelligence. The Caitanya- caritmta states: 'raddh'-abde vivsa kahe sudha nicaya ke bhakti kaile sarva-karma kta haya. Faith means unflinching trust in something sublime. When one is engaged in the duties of Ka consciousness, he need not act in relationship to the material world with obligations to family traditions, humanity, or nationality. Fruitive activities are the engagements of one's reactions from past good or bad deeds. When one is awake in Ka consciousness, he need no longer endeavor for good results in his activities. When one is situated in Ka consciousness, all activities are on the absolute plane, for they are no longer subject to dualities like good and bad. The highest perfection of Ka consciousness is renunciation of the material conception of life. This state is automatically achieved by progressive Ka consciousness. The resolute purpose of a person in Ka consciousness is based on knowledge ("Vsudeva sarvam iti sa mahtm sudurlabha") by which one comes to know perfectly that Vsudeva, or Ka, is the root of all manifested causes. As water on the root of a tree is automatically distributed to the leaves and branches, in Ka consciousness, one can render the highest service to everyonenamely self, family, society, country, humanity, etc. If Ka is satisfied by one's actions, then everyone will be satisfied. Service in Ka consciousness is, however, best practiced under the able guidance of a spiritual master who is a bona fide representative of Ka, who knows the nature of the student and who can guide him to act in Ka consciousness. As such, to be well-versed in Ka consciousness one has to act firmly and obey the representative of Ka, and one should accept the instruction of the bona fide spiritual master as one's mission in life. rla Vivantha Cakravart hkur instructs us, in his famous prayers for the spiritual master, as follows: yasya prasdd bhagavat-prasdo yasyprasdnna gati kuto 'pi dhyya stuvas tasya yaas tri-sandhya vande guro r-cararavindam. "By satisfaction of the spiritual master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes satisfied. And by not satisfying the spiritual master, there is no chance of being promoted to the plane of Ka consciousness. I should, therefore, meditate and pray for his mercy three times a day, and offer my respectful obeisances unto him, my spiritual master." The whole process, however, depends on perfect knowledge of the soul beyond the conception of the bodynot theoretically but practically, when there is no longer chance for sense gratification manifested in fruitive activities. One who is not firmly fixed in mind is diverted by various types of fruitive acts. TEXTS 42-43 ym im pupit vca pravadanty avipacita veda-vda-rat prtha nnyad astti vdina kmtmna svarga-par janma-karma-phala-pradm kriy-viea-bahul bhogaivarya-gati prati ym imm all these; pupitm flowery; vcam words; pravadanti say; avipacita men with a poor fund of knowledge; veda-vda-rat supposed followers of the Vedas; prtha O son of Ptha; na never; anyat anything else; asti there is; iti this; vdina advocates; kma- tmna desirous of sense gratification; svarga-par aiming to achieve heavenly planets; janma-karma-phala-pradm resulting in fruitive action, good birth, etc.; kriy-viea pompous ceremonies; bahulm various; bhoga sense enjoyment; aivarya opulence; gatim progress; prati towards. TRANSLATION Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this. PURPORT People in general are not very intelligent, and due to their ignorance they are most attached to the fruitive activities recommended in the karma-ka portions of the Vedas. They do not want anything more than sense gratificatory proposals for enjoying life in heaven, where wine and women are available and material opulence is very common. In the Vedas many sacrifices are recommended for elevation to the heavenly planets, especially the jyotioma sacrifices. In fact, it is stated that anyone desiring elevation to heavenly planets must perform these sacrifices, and men with a poor fund of knowledge think that this is the whole purpose of Vedic wisdom. It is very difficult for such inexperienced persons to be situated in the determined action of Ka consciousness. As fools are attached to the flowers of poisonous trees without knowing the results of such attractions, similarly unenlightened men are attracted by such heavenly opulence and the sense enjoyment thereof. In the karma-ka section of the Vedas it is said that those who perform the four monthly penances become eligible to drink the somarasa beverages to become immortal and happy forever. Even on this earth some are very eager to have somarasa to become strong and fit to enjoy sense gratifications. Such persons have no faith in liberation from material bondage, and they are very much attached to the pompous ceremonies of Vedic sacrifices. They are generally sensual, and they do not want anything other than the heavenly pleasures of life. It is understood that there are gardens called nandana- knana in which there is good opportunity for association with angelic, beautiful women and having a profuse supply of somarasa wine. Such bodily happiness is certainly sensual; therefore there are those who are purely attached to material, temporary happiness, as lords of the material world. TEXT 44 bhogaivarya-prasaktn taypahta-cetasm vyavasytmik buddhi samdhau na vidhyate bhoga material enjoyment; aivarya opulence; prasaktnm those who are so attached; tay by such things; apahta-cetasm bewildered in mind; vyavasytmik fixed determination; buddhi devotional service of the Lord; samdhau in the controlled mind; na never; vidhyate does take place. TRANSLATION In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination of devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place. PURPORT Samdhi means "fixed mind." The Vedic dictionary, the Nirukti, says, samyag dhyate 'sminn tmatattva-ythtmyam: "When the mind is fixed for understanding the self, it is called samdhi." Samdhi is never possible for persons interested in material sense enjoyment, nor for those who are bewildered by such temporary things. They are more or less condemned by the process of material energy. TEXT 45 traiguya-viay ved nistraiguyo bhavrjuna nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho niryoga-kema tmavn traiguya pertaining to the three modes of material nature; viay on the subject matter; ved Vedic literatures; nistraiguya in a pure state of spiritual existence; bhava be; arjuna-O Arjuna; nirdvandva free from the pains of opposites; nitya-sattva-stha ever remaining in sattva (goodness); niryoga-kema free from (the thought of) acquisition and preservation; tmavn established in the Self. TRANSLATION The Vedas mainly deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the Self. PURPORT All material activities involve actions and reactions in the three modes of material nature. They are meant for fruitive results, which cause bondage in the material world. The Vedas deal mostly with fruitive activities to gradually elevate the general public from the field of sense gratification to a position on the transcendental plane. Arjuna, as a student and friend of Lord Ka, is advised to raise himself to the transcendental position of Vednta philosophy where, in the beginning, there is brahma-jijs, or questions on the Supreme Transcendence. All the living entities who are in the material world are struggling very hard for existence. For them the Lord, after creation of the material world, gave the Vedic wisdom advising how to live and get rid of the material entanglement. When the activities for sense gratification, namely the karma-ka chapter, are finished, then the chance for spiritual realization is offered in the form of the Upaniads, which are part of different Vedas, as the Bhagavad-gt is a part of the fifth Veda, namely the Mahbhrata. The Upaniads mark the beginning of transcendental life. As long as the material body exists, there are actions and reactions in the material modes. One has to learn tolerance in the face of dualities such as happiness and distress, or cold and warmth, and by tolerating such dualities become free from anxieties regarding gain and loss. This transcendental position is achieved in full Ka consciousness when one is fully dependant on the good will of Ka TEXT 46 yvn artha udapne sarvata samplutodake tvn sarveu vedeu brhmaasya vijnata yvn all that; artha is meant; udapne in a well of water; sarvata in all respects; sampluta-udake in a great reservoir of water; tvn similarly; sarveu in all; vedeu Vedic literatures; brhmaasya of the man who knows the Supreme Brahman; vijnata of one who is in complete knowledge. TRANSLATION All purposes that are served by the small pond can at once be served by the great reservoirs of water. Similarly, all the purposes of the Vedas can be served to one who knows the purpose behind them. PURPORT The rituals and sacrifices mentioned in the karma-ka division of the Vedic literature are to encourage gradual development of self-realization. And the purpose of self-realization is clearly stated in the Fifteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gt (15.15): the purpose of studying the Vedas is to know Lord Ka, the primeval cause of everything. So, self-realization means understanding Ka and one's eternal relationship with Him. The relationship of the living entities with Ka is also mentioned in the Fifteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gt. The living entities are parts and parcels of Ka; therefore, revival of Ka consciousness by the individual living entity is the highest perfectional stage of Vedic knowledge. This is confirmed in the rmad- Bhgavatam (3.33.7) as follows: aho bata vapaco'to garyn yaj-jihvgre vartate nma tubhyam tepus tapas te juhuvu sasnur ry brahmncur nma ganti ye te. "O my Lord, a person who is chanting Your holy name, although born of a low family like that of a cla [dog eater], is situated on the highest platform of self-realization. Such a person must have performed all kinds of penances and sacrifices according to Vedic rituals and studied the Vedic literatures many, many times after taking his bath in all the holy places of pilgrimage. Such a person is considered to be the best of the ryan family." So one must be intelligent enough to understand the purpose of the Vedas, without being attached to the rituals only, and must not desire to be elevated to the heavenly kingdoms for a better quality of sense gratification. It is not possible for the common man in this age to follow all the rules and regulations of the Vedic rituals and the injunctions of the Vedntas and the Upaniads. It requires much time, energy, knowledge and resources to execute the purposes of the Vedas. This is hardly possible in this age. The best purpose of Vedic culture is served, however, by chanting the holy name of the Lord, as recommended by Lord Caitanya, the deliverer of all fallen souls. When Lord Caitanya was asked by a great Vedic scholar, Praknanda Sarasvat, why He, the Lord, was chanting the holy name of the Lord like a sentimentalist instead of studying Vednta philosophy, the Lord replied that His spiritual master found Him to be a great fool, and thus he asked Him to chant the holy name of Lord Ka. He did so, and became ecstatic like a madman. In this age of Kali, most of the population is foolish and not adequately educated to understand Vednta philosophy; the best purpose of Vednta philosophy is served by inoffensively chanting the holy name of the Lord. Vednta is the last word in Vedic wisdom, and the author and knower of the Vednta philosophy is Lord Ka; and the highest Vedantist is the great soul who takes pleasure in chanting the holy name of the Lord. That is the ultimate purpose of all Vedic mysticism. TEXT 47 karmay evdhikras te m phaleu kadcana m karma-phala-hetur bhr m te sago 'stv akarmai karmai prescribed duties; eva certainly; adhikra right; te of you; m never; phaleu in the fruits; kadcana at any time; m never; karma- phala in the result of the work; hetu cause; bh become; m never; te of you; saga attachment; astu be there; akarmai in not doing. TRANSLATION You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. PURPORT There are three considerations here: prescribed duties, capricious work, and inaction. Prescribed duties refer to activities performed while one is in the modes of material nature. Capricious work means actions without the sanction of authority, and inaction means not performing one's prescribed duties. The Lord advised that Arjuna not be inactive, but that he perform his prescribed duty without being attached to the result. One who is attached to the result of his work is also the cause of the action. Thus he is the enjoyer or sufferer of the result of such actions. As far as prescribed duties are concerned, they can be fitted into three subdivisions, namely routine work, emergency work and desired activities. Routine work, in terms of the scriptural injunctions, is done without desire for results. As one has to do it, obligatory work is action in the mode of goodness. Work with results becomes the cause of bondage; therefore such work is not auspicious. Everyone has his proprietory right in regard to prescribed duties, but should act without attachment to the result; such disinterested obligatory duties doubtlessly lead one to the path of liberation. Arjuna was therefore advised by the Lord to fight as a matter of duty without attachment to the result. His nonparticipation in the battle is another side of attachment. Such attachment never leads one to the path of salvation. Any attachment, positive or negative, is cause for bondage. Inaction is sinful. Therefore, fighting as a matter of duty was the only auspicious path of salvation for Arjuna. TEXT 48 yoga-stha kuru karmi saga tyaktv dhanajaya siddhy-asiddhyo samo bhtv samatva yoga ucyate yoga-stha steadfast in yoga; kuru perform; karmi your duty; sagam attachment; tyaktv having abandoned; dhanajaya O Dhanajaya; siddhi-asiddhyo in success and failure; sama the same; bhtv having become; samatvam evenness of mind; yoga-yoga; ucyate is called. TRANSLATION Be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna. Perform your duty and abandon all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is called yoga. PURPORT Ka tells Arjuna that he should act in yoga. And what is that yoga? Yoga means to concentrate the mind upon the Supreme by controlling the ever- disturbing senses. And who is the Supreme? The Supreme is the Lord. And because He Himself is telling Arjuna to fight, Arjuna has nothing to do with the results of the fight. Gain or victory are Ka's concern; Arjuna is simply advised to act according to the dictation of Ka. The following of Ka's dictation is real yoga, and this is practiced in the process called Ka consciousness. By Ka consciousness only can one give up the sense of proprietorship. One has to become the servant of Ka, or the servant of the servant of Ka. That is the right way to discharge duty in Ka consciousness, which alone can help one to act in yoga. Arjuna is a katriya, and as such he is participating in the varrama- dharma institution. It is said in the Viu Puraa that in the varrama- dharma, the whole aim is to satisfy Viu. No one should satisfy himself, as is the rule in the material world, but one should satisfy Ka. So, unless one satisfies Ka, one cannot correctly observe the principles of varrama- dharma. Indirectly, Arjuna was advised to act as Ka told him. TEXT 49 drea hy avara karma buddhi-yogd dhanajaya buddhau araam anviccha kpa phala-hetava drea by discarding it at a long distance; hi certainly; avaram abominable; karma activities; buddhi-yogt on the strength of Ka consciousness; dhanajaya O conqueror of wealth; buddhau in such consciousness; araam full surrender; anviccha desire; kpa the misers; phala-hetava those desiring fruitive action. TRANSLATION O Dhanajaya, rid yourself of all fruitive activities by devotional service, and surrender fully to that consciousness. Those who want to enjoy the fruits of their work are misers. PURPORT One who has actually come to understand one's constitutional position as the eternal servitor of the Lord gives up all engagements save working in Ka consciousness. As already explained, buddhi-yoga means transcendental loving service to the Lord. Such devotional service is the right course of action for the living entity. Only misers desire to enjoy the fruit of their own work just to be further entangled in material bondage. Except for work in Ka consciousness, all activities are abominable because they continually bind the worker to the cycle of birth and death. One should therefore never desire to be the cause of work. Everything should be done in Ka consciousness for the satisfaction of Ka. Misers do not know how to utilize the assets of riches which they acquire by good fortune or by hard labor. One should spend all energies working in Ka consciousness, and that will make one's life successful. Like the misers, unfortunate persons do not employ their human energy in the service of the Lord. TEXT 50 buddhi-yukto jahtha ubhe sukta-dukte tasmd yogya yujyasva yoga karmasu kaualam buddhi-yukta one who is engaged in devotional service; jahti can get rid of; iha in this life; ubhe in both; sukta-dukte in good and bad results; tasmt therefore; yogya for the sake of devotional service; yujyasva be so engaged; yoga Ka consciousness; karmasu in all activities; kaualam art. TRANSLATION A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of both good and bad actions even in this life. Therefore strive for yoga, O Arjuna, which is the art of all work. PURPORT Since time immemorial each living entity has accumulated the various reactions of his good and bad work. As such, he is continuously ignorant of his real constitutional position. One's ignorance can be removed by the instruction of the Bhagavad-gt which teaches one to surrender unto Lord r Ka in all respects and become liberated from the chained victimization of action and reaction, birth after birth. Arjuna is therefore advised to act in Ka consciousness, the purifying process of resultant action. TEXT 51 karma-ja buddhi-yukt hi phala tyaktv mania janma-bandha-vinirmukt pada gacchanty anmayam karma-jam because of fruitive activities; buddhi-yukt being done in devotional service; hi certainly; phalam results; tyaktv giving up; mania devotees who are great sages; janma-bandha the bondage of birth and death; vinirmukt liberated souls; padam position; gacchanti reach; anmayam without miseries. TRANSLATION The wise, engaged in devotional service, take refuge in the Lord, and free themselves from the cycle of birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in the material world. In this way they can attain that state beyond all miseries. PURPORT The liberated living entities seek that place where there are no material miseries. The Bhgavatam says: samrit ye padapallava-plava mahat-pada puya-yao murre bhvambudhir vatsa-pada para pada para pada yad vipad na tem (Bhg. 10.14.58) "For one who has accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Mukunda or the giver of mukti, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf's hoofprint. Param padam, or the place where there are no material miseries, or Vaikuha, is his goal, not the place where there is danger in every step of life." Owing to ignorance, one does not know that this material world is a miserable place where there are dangers at every step. Out of ignorance only, less intelligent persons try to adjust to the situation by fruitive activities, thinking that resultant actions will make them happy. They do not know that no kind of material body anywhere within the universe can give life without miseries. The miseries of life, namely birth, death, old age and diseases, are present everywhere within the material world. But one who understands his real constitutional position as the eternal servitor of the Lord, and thus knows the position of the Personality of Godhead, engages himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Consequently he becomes qualified to enter into the Vaikuha planets, where there is neither material, miserable life, nor the influence of time and death. To know one's constitutional position means to know also the sublime position of the Lord. One who wrongly thinks that the living entity's position and the Lord's position are on the same level is to be understood to be in darkness and therefore unable to engage himself in the devotional service of the Lord. He becomes a lord himself and thus paves the way for the repetition of birth and death. But one who, understanding that his position is to serve, transfers himself to the service of the Lord, at once becomes eligible for Vaikuhaloka. Service for the cause of the Lord is called karma-yoga or buddhi-yoga, or in plain words, devotional service to the Lord. TEXT 52 yad te moha-kalila buddhir vyatitariyati tad gantsi nirveda rotavyasya rutasya ca yad when; te your; moha illusory; kalilam dense forest; buddhi transcendental service with intelligence; vyatitariyati surpasses; tad at that time; gantsi you shall go; nirvedam callousness; rotavyasya all that is to be heard; rutasya all that is already heard; ca also. TRANSLATION When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard. PURPORT There are many good examples in the lives of the great devotees of the Lord of those who became indifferent to the rituals of the Vedas simply by devotional service to the Lord. When a person factually understands Ka and his relationship with Ka, he naturally becomes completely indifferent to the rituals of fruitive activities, even though an experienced brhmaa. r Mdhavendra Pur, a great devotee and crya in the line of the devotees, says: sandhy-vandana bhadram astu bhavato bho snna tubhya namo bho dev pitara ca tarpaa-vidhau nha kama kamyatm yatra kvpi niadya ydava-kulottamasya kasa-dvia smra smram agha harmi tad ala manye kim anyena me. "O Lord, in my prayers three times a day, all glory to You. Bathing, I offer my obeisances unto You. O demigods! O forefathers! Please excuse me for my inability to offer you my respects. Now wherever I sit, I can remember the great descendant of the Yadu dynasty [Ka], the enemy of Kasa, and thereby I can free myself from all sinful bondage. I think this is sufficient for me." The Vedic rites and rituals are imperative for neophytes: comprehending all kinds of prayer three times a day, taking a bath early in the morning, offering respects to the forefathers, etc. But, when one is fully in Ka consciousness and is engaged in His transcendental loving service, one becomes indifferent to all these regulative principles because he has already attained perfection. If one can reach the platform of understanding by service to the Supreme Lord Ka, he has no longer to execute different types of penances and sacrifices as recommended in revealed scriptures. And, similarly, if one has not understood that the purpose of the Vedas is to reach Ka and simply engages in the rituals, etc., then he is uselessly wasting time in such engagements. Persons in Ka consciousness transcend the limit of abda-brahma, or the range of the Vedas and Upaniads. TEXT 53 ruti-vipratipann te yad sthsyati nical samdhv acal buddhis tad yogam avpsyasi ruti Vedic revelation; vipratipann without being influenced by the fruitive results of the Vedas; te your; yad when; sthsyati remains; nical unmoved; samdhau in transcendental consciousness, or Ka consciousness; acal unflinching; buddhi intelligence; tad at that time; yogam self-realization; avpsyasi you will achieve. TRANSLATION When your mind is no longer disturbed by the flowery language of the Vedas, and when it remains fixed in the trance of self-realization, then you will have attained the Divine consciousness. PURPORT To say that one is in samdhi is to say that one has fully realized Ka consciousness; that is, one in full samdhi has realized Brahman, Paramtm and Bhagavn. The highest perfection of self-realization is to understand that one is eternally the servitor of Ka and that one's only business is to discharge one's duties in Ka consciousness. A Ka conscious person, or unflinching devotee of the Lord, should not be disturbed by the flowery language of the Vedas nor be engaged in fruitive activities for promotion to the heavenly kingdom. In Ka consciousness, one comes directly into communion with Ka, and thus all directions from Ka may be understood in that transcendental state. One is sure to achieve results by such activities and attain conclusive knowledge. One has only to carry out the orders of Ka or His representative, the spiritual master. TEXT 54 arjuna uvca sthita-prajasya k bh samdhi-sthasya keava sthita-dh ki prabheta kim sta vrajeta ki arjuna uvca Arjuna said; sthita-prajasya of one who is situated in fixed Ka consciousness; k what; bh language; samdhi-sthasya of one situated in trance; keava O Ka; sthita-dh one fixed in Ka consciousness; kim what; prabheta speak; kim how; sta does remain; vrajeta walk; kim how. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: What are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in Transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk? PURPORT As there are symptoms for each and every man, in terms of his particular situation, similarly one who is Ka conscious has his particular nature talking, walking, thinking, feeling, etc. As a rich man has his symptoms by which he is known as a rich man, as a diseased man has his symptoms, by which he is known as diseased, or as a learned man has his symptoms, so a man in transcendental consciousness of Ka has specific symptoms in various dealings. One can know his specific symptoms from the Bhagavad- gt . Most important is how the man in Ka consciousness speaks, for speech is the most important quality of any man. It is said that a fool is undiscovered as long as he does not speak, and certainly a well-dressed fool cannot be identified unless he speaks, but as soon as he speaks, he reveals himself at once. The immediate symptom of a Ka conscious man is that he speaks only of Ka and of matters relating to Him. Other symptoms then automatically follow, as stated below. TEXT 55 r-bhagavn uvca prajahti yad kmn sarvn prtha mano-gatn tmany evtman tua sthita-prajas tadocyate r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; prajahti gives up; yad when; kmn desires for sense gratification; sarvn of all varieties; prtha O son of Pth; mana-gatn of mental concoction; tmani in the pure state of the soul; eva certainly; tman by the purified mind; tua satisfied; sthita-praja transcendentally situated; tad at that time; ucyate is said. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: O Prtha, when a man gives up all varieties of sense desire which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness. PURPORT The Bhgavatam affirms that any person who is fully in Ka consciousness, or devotional service of the Lord, has all the good qualities of the great sages, whereas a person who is not so transcendentally situated has no good qualifications, because he is sure to be taking refuge in his own mental concoctions. Consequently, it is rightly said herein that one has to give up all kinds of sense desire manufactured by mental concoction. Artificially, such sense desires cannot be stopped. But if one is engaged in Ka consciousness, then, automatically, sense desires subside without extraneous efforts. Therefore, one has to engage himself in Ka consciousness without hesitation, for this devotional service will instantly help one on to the platform of transcendental consciousness. The highly developed soul always remains satisfied in himself by realizing himself as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord. Such a transcendentally situated person has no sense desires resulting from petty materialism; rather, he remains always happy in his natural position of eternally serving the Supreme Lord. TEXT 56 dukhev anudvigna-man sukheu vigata-spha vta-rga-bhaya-krodha sthita-dhr munir ucyate dukheu in the threefold miseries; anudvigna-man without being agitated in mind; sukheu in happiness; vigata-spha without being too interested; vta free from; rga attachment; bhaya fear; krodha anger; sthita-dh one who is steady; muni sage; ucyate is called. TRANSLATION One who is not disturbed in spite of the threefold miseries, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind. PURPORT The word muni means one who can agitate his mind in various ways for mental speculation without coming to a factual conclusion. It is said that every muni has a different angle of vision, and unless a muni differs from other munis, he cannot be called a muni in the strict sense of the term. Nsau munir yasya mata na binnam. But a sthita-dh-muni as mentioned herein by the Lord, is different from an ordinary muni The sthita-dh-muni is always in Ka consciousness, for he has exhausted all his business of creative speculation. He has surpassed the stage of mental speculations and has come to the conclusion that Lord r Ka, or Vsudeva, is everything. He is called a muni fixed in mind. Such a fully Ka conscious person is not at all disturbed by the onslaughts of the threefold miseries, for he accepts all miseries as the mercy of the Lord, thinking himself only worthy of more trouble due to his past misdeeds; and he sees that his miseries, by the grace of the Lord, are minimized to the lowest. Similarly, when he is happy he gives credit to the Lord, thinking himself unworthy of the happiness; he realizes that it is due only to the Lord's grace that he is in such a comfortable condition and able to render better service to the Lord. And, for the service of the Lord, he is always daring and active and is not influenced by attachment or aversion. Attachment means accepting things for one's own sense gratification, and detachment is the absence of such sensual attachment. But one fixed in Ka consciousness has neither attachment nor detachment because his life is dedicated in the service of the Lord. Consequently he is not at all angry even when his attempts are unsuccessful. A Ka conscious person is always steady in his determination. TEXT 57 ya sarvatrnabhisnehas tat tat prpya ubhubham nbhinandati na dvei tasya praj pratihit ya one who; sarvatra everywhere; anabhisneha without affection; tat that; tat that; prpya achieving; ubha good; aubham evil; na never; abhinandati prays; na never; dvei envies; tasya his; praj perfect knowledge; pratihita fixed. TRANSLATION He who is without attachment, who does not rejoice when he obtains good, nor lament when he obtains evil, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge. PURPORT There is always some upheaval in the material world which may be good or evil. One who is not agitated by such material upheavals, who is unaffected by good and evil, is to be understood to be fixed in Ka consciousness. As long as one is in the material world there is always the possibility of good and evil because this world is full of duality. But one who is fixed in Ka consciousness is not affected by good and evil because he is simply concerned with Ka, who is all good absolute. Such consciousness in Ka situates one in a perfect transcendental position called, technically, samdhi. TEXT 58 yad saharate cya krmo 'gnva sarvaa indriyndriyrthebhyas tasya praj pratihit yad when; saharate winds up; ca also; ayam all these; krma tortoise; agni limbs; iva like; sarvaa altogether; indriyni senses; indriya-arthebhya from the sense objects; tasya his; praj consciousness; pratihit fixed up. TRANSLATION One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws his limbs within the shell, is to be understood as truly situated in knowledge. PURPORT The test of a yog , devotee, or self-realized soul is that he is able to control the senses according to his plan. Most people, however, are servants of the senses and are thus directed by the dictation of the senses. That is the answer to the question as to how the yog is situated. The senses are compared to venomous serpents. They want to act very loosely and without restriction. The yog , or the devotee, must be very strong to control the serpentslike a snake charmer. He never allows them to act independently. There are many injunctions in the revealed scriptures; some of them are do-not's, and some of them are do's. Unless one is able to follow the do's and the do-not's, restricting oneself from sense enjoyment, it is not possible to be firmly fixed in Ka consciousness. The best example, set herein, is the tortoise. The tortoise can at any moment wind up his senses and exhibit them again at any time for particular purposes. Similarly, the senses of the Ka conscious persons are used only for some particular purpose in the service of the Lord and are withdrawn otherwise. Keeping the senses always in the service of the Lord is the example set by the analogy of the tortoise, who keeps the senses within. TEXT 59 viay vinivartante nirhrasya dehina rasa-varja raso 'py asya para dv nivartate viay objects for sense enjoyment; vinivartante are practiced to be refrained from; nirhrasya by negative restrictions; dehina for the embodied; rasa-varjam giving up the taste; rasa sense of enjoyment; api although there is; asya his; param far superior things; dv by experiencing; nivartate ceases from. TRANSLATION The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness. PURPORT Unless one is transcendentally situated, it is not possible to cease from sense enjoyment. The process of restriction from sense enjoyment by rules and regulations is something like restricting a diseased person from certain types of eatables. The patient, however, neither likes such restrictions, nor loses his taste for eatables. Similarly, sense restriction by some spiritual process like aga-yoga , in the matter of yama, niyama, sana, pryma, pratyhra, dhara, dhyna, etc., is recommended for less intelligent persons who have no better knowledge. But one who has tasted the beauty of the Supreme Lord Ka, in the course of his advancement in Ka consciousness, no longer has a taste for dead material things. Therefore, restrictions are there for the less intelligent neophytes in the spiritual advancement of life, but such restrictions are only good if one actually has a taste for Ka consciousness. When one is actually Ka conscious, he automatically loses his taste for pale things. TEXT 60 yatato hy api kaunteya puruasya vipacita indriyi pramthni haranti prasabha mana yatata while endeavoring; hi certainly; api in spite of; kaunteya O son of Kunt; puruasya of the man; vipacita full of discriminating knowledge; indriyi the senses; pramthni stimulated; haranti throws forcefully; prasabha by force; mana the mind. TRANSLATION The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them. PURPORT There are many learned sages, philosophers and transcendentalists who try to conquer the senses, but in spite of their endeavors, even the greatest of them sometimes fall victim to material sense enjoyment due to the agitated mind. Even Vivmitra, a great sage and perfect yog , was misled by Menak into sex enjoyment, although the yog was endeavoring for sense control with severe types of penance and yoga practice. And,of course, there are so many similar instances in the history of the world. Therefore, it is very difficult to control the mind and the senses without being fully Ka conscious. Without engaging the mind in Ka, one cannot cease such material engagements. A practical example is given by r Ymuncrya, a great saint and devotee, who says: "Since my mind has been engaged in the service of the lotus feet of Lord Ka, and I have been enjoying an ever new transcendental humor, whenever I think of sex life with a woman, my face at once turns from it, and I spit at the thought." Ka consciousness is such a transcendentally nice thing that automatically material enjoyment becomes distasteful. It is as if a hungry man had satisfied his hunger by a sufficient quantity of nutritious eatables. Mahrja Ambara also conquered a great yog, Durvs Muni, simply because his mind was engaged in Ka consciousness. TEXT 61 tni sarvi sayamya yukta sta mat-para vae hi yasyendriyi tasya praj pratihit tni those senses; sarvi all; sayamya keeping under control; yukta being engaged; sta being so situated; mat-para in relationship with Me; vae in full subjugation; hi certainly; yasya one whose; indriyi senses; tasya his; praj consciousness; pratihit fixed. TRANSLATION One who restrains his senses and fixes his consciousness upon Me is known as a man of steady intelligence. PURPORT That the highest conception of yoga perfection is Ka consciousness is clearly explained in this verse. And, unless one is Ka conscious, it is not at all possible to control the senses. As cited above, the great sage Durvs Muni picked a quarrel with Mahrja Ambara, and Durvs Muni unnecessarily became angry out of pride and therefore could not check his senses. On the other hand, the King, although not as powerful a yog as the sage, but a devotee of the Lord, silently tolerated all the sage's injustices and thereby emerged victorious. The King was able to control his senses because of the following qualifications, as mentioned in the rmad-Bhgavatam: sa vai mana ka-padravindayor vacsi vaikuha-gunavarane karau harer mandira-mrjandiu ruti cakrcyuta-sat-kathodaye mukunda-liglaya-darane dau tad-bhtya-gtra-spare'ga-sagamam ghra ca tat-pda-saroja-saurabhe rmat-tulasy rasan tad-arpite pdau hare ketra-padnusarpae iro hkea-padbhivandane kma ca dsye na tu kma-kmyay yathottamaloka-janray rati "King Ambara fixed his mind on the lotus feet of Lord Ka, engaged his words in describing the abode of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the temple of the Lord, his ears in hearing the pastimes of the Lord, his eyes in seeing the form of the Lord, his body in touching the body of the devotee, his nostrils in smelling the flavor of the flowers offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, his tongue in tasting the tulas leaves offered to Him, his legs in traveling to the holy place where His temple is situated, his head in offering obeisances unto the Lord, and his desires in fulfilling the desires of the Lord ... and all these qualifications made him fit to become a mat-para devotee of the Lord." (Bhg. 9.4.18-20) The word mat-para is most significant in this connection. How one can become a mat-para is described in the life of Mahrja Ambara. rla Baladeva Vidybhaa, a great scholar and crya in the line of the mat- para, remarks: "mad-bhakti-prabhvena sarvendriya-vijaya-prvik svtma di sulabheti bhva." "The senses can be completely controlled only by the strength of devotional service to Ka." Also, the example of fire is sometimes given: "As the small flames within burn everything within the room, similarly Lord Viu, situated in the heart of the yog, burns up all kinds of impurities." The Yoga-stra also prescribes meditation on Viu, and not meditation on the void. The so-called yogs who meditate on something which is not the Viu form simply waste their time in a vain search after some phantasmagoria. We have to be Ka consciousdevoted to the Personality of Godhead. This is the aim of the real yoga. TEXT 62 dhyyato viayn pusa sagas tepajyate sagt sajyate kma kmt krodho 'bhijyate dhyyata while contemplating; viayn sense objects; pusa of the person; saga attachment; teu in the sense objects; upajyate develops; sagt attachment; sajyate develops; kma desire; kmt from desire; krodha anger; abhijyate becomes manifest. TRANSLATION While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. PURPORT One who is not Ka conscious is subjected to material desires while contemplating the objects of senses. The senses require real engagements, and if they are not engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they will certainly seek engagement in the service of materialism. In the material world everyone, including Lord iva and Lord Brahm to say nothing of other demigods in the heavenly planets is subjected to the influence of sense objects, and the only method to get out of this puzzle of material existence is to become Ka conscious. Lord iva was deep in meditation, but when Prvat agitated him for sense pleasure, he agreed to the proposal, and as a result Krtikeya was born. When Haridsa hkur was a young devotee of the Lord, he was similarly allured by the incarnation of My Dev, but Haridsa easily passed the test because of his unalloyed devotion to Lord Ka. As illustrated in the above-mentioned verse of r Ymuncrya, a sincere devotee of the Lord shuns all material sense enjoyment due to his higher taste for spiritual enjoyment in the association of the Lord. That is the secret of success. One who is not, therefore, in Ka consciousness, however powerful he may be in controlling the senses by artificial repression, is sure ultimately to fail, for the slightest thought of sense pleasure will agitate him to gratify his desires. TEXT 63 krodhd bhavati samoha samoht smti-vibhrama smti-bhrad buddhi-no buddhi-nt praayati krodht from anger; bhavati takes place; samoha perfect illusion; samoht from illusion; smti of memory; vibhrama bewilderment; smti-bhrat after bewilderment of memory; buddhi-na loss of intelligence; buddhi-nt and from loss of intelligence; praayati falls down. TRANSLATION From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool. PURPORT By development of Ka consciousness one can know that everything has its use in the service of the Lord. Those who are without knowledge of Ka consciousness artificially try to avoid material objects, and as a result, although they desire liberation from material bondage, they do not attain to the perfect stage of renunciation. On the other hand, a person in Ka consciousness knows how to use everything in the service of the Lord; therefore he does not become a victim of material consciousness. For example, for an impersonalist, the Lord, or the Absolute, being impersonal, cannot eat. Whereas an impersonalist tries to avoid good eatables, a devotee knows that Ka is the supreme enjoyer and that He eats all that is offered to Him in devotion. So, after offering good eatables to the Lord, the devotee takes the remnants, called prasdam. Thus everything becomes spiritualized and there is no danger of a downfall. The devotee takes prasdam in Ka consciousness, whereas the nondevotee rejects it as material. The impersonalist, therefore, cannot enjoy life due to his artificial renunciation; and for this reason, a slight agitation of the mind pulls him down again into the pool of material existence. It is said that such a soul, even though rising up to the point of liberation, falls down again due to his not having support in devotional service. TEXT 64 rga-dvea-vimuktais tu viayn indriyai caran tma-vayair vidheytm prasdam adhigacchati rga attachment; dvea detachment; vimuktai by one who has been free from such things; tu but; viayn sense objects; indriyai by the senses; caran acting; tma-vayai one who has control over; vidheytm one who follows regulated freedom; prasdam the mercy of the Lord; adhigacchati attains. TRANSLATION One who can control his senses by practicing the regulated principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord and thus become free from all attachment and aversion. PURPORT It is already explained that one may externally control the senses by some artificial process, but unless the senses are engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord, there is every chance of a fall. Although the person in full Ka consciousness may apparently be on the sensual plane, because of his being Ka conscious, he has no attachment to sensual activities. The Ka conscious person is concerned only with the satisfaction of Ka, and nothing else. Therefore he is transcendental to all attachment. If Ka wants, the devotee can do anything which is ordinarily undesirable; and if Ka does not want, he shall not do that which he would have ordinarily done for his own satisfaction. Therefore to act or not to act is within his control because he acts only under the direction of Ka. This consciousness is the causeless mercy of the Lord, which the devotee can achieve in spite of his being attached to the sensual platform. TEXT 65 prasde sarva-dukhn hnir asyopajyate prasanna-cetaso hy u buddhi paryavatihate prasde on achievement of the causeless mercy of the Lord; sarva all; dukhnm material miseries; hni destruction; asya his; upajyate takes place; prasanna-cetasa of the happy-minded; hi certainly; u very soon; buddhi intelligence; pari sufficiently; avatihate established. TRANSLATION For one who is so situated in the Divine consciousness, the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such a happy state, one's intelligence soon becomes steady. TEXT 66 nsti buddhir ayuktasya na cyuktasya bhvan na cbhvayata ntir antasya kuta sukham na asti there cannot be; buddhi transcendental intelligence; ayuktasya of one who is not connected (with Ka consciousness); na neither; ca and; ayuktasya of one devoid of Ka consciousness; bhvan mind fixed in happiness; na neither; ca and; abhvayata one who is not fixed; nti peace; antasya of the unpeaceful; kuta where is; sukham happiness. TRANSLATION One who is not in transcendental consciousness can have neither a controlled mind nor steady intelligence, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace? PURPORT Unless one is in Ka consciousness, there is no possibility of peace. So it is confirmed in the Fifth Chapter (5.29) that when one understands that Ka is the only enjoyer of all the good results of sacrifice and penance, and that He is the proprietor of all universal manifestations, that He is the real friend of all living entities, then only can one have real peace. Therefore, if one is not in Ka consciousness, there cannot be a final goal for the mind. Disturbance is due to want of an ultimate goal, and when one is certain that Ka is the enjoyer, proprietor and friend of everyone and everything, then one can, with a steady mind, bring about peace. Therefore, one who is engaged without a relationship with Ka is certainly always in distress and is without peace, however much one may make a show of peace and spiritual advancement in life. Ka consciousness is a self-manifested peaceful condition which can be achieved only in relationship with Ka. TEXT 67 indriy hi carat yan mano 'nuvidhyate tad asya harati praj vyur nvam ivmbhasi indriym of the senses; hi certainly; caratm while herding over; yat that; mana mind; anuvidhyate becomes constantly engaged; tat that; asya his; harati takes away; prajm intelligence; vyu wind; nvam a boat; iva like; ambhasi on the water. TRANSLATION As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence. PURPORT Unless all of the senses are engaged in the service of the Lord, even one of them engaged in sense gratification can deviate the devotee from the path of transcendental advancement. As mentioned in the life of Mahrja Ambara, all of the senses must be engaged in Ka consciousness, for that is the correct technique for controlling the mind. TEXT 68 tasmd yasya mah-bho nightni sarvaa indriyndriyrthebhyas tasya praj pratihit tasmt therefore; yasya of one's; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; nightni so curbed down; sarvaa all around; indriyi the senses; indriya-arthebhya for the sake of sense objects; tasya his; praj intelligence; pratihit fixed. TRANSLATION Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence. PURPORT As enemies are curbed by superior force, similarly, the senses can be curbed not by any human endeavor, but only by keeping them engaged in the service of the Lord. One who has understood this that only by Ka consciousness is one really established in intelligence and that one should practice this art under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master is called sdhaka, or a suitable candidate for liberation. TEXT 69 y ni sarva-bhtn tasy jgarti sayam yasy jgrati bhtni s ni payato mune y what; ni is night; sarva all; bhtnm of living entities; tasym in that; jgarti wakeful; sayam the self-controlled; yasym in which; jgrati awake; bhtni all beings; s that is; ni night; payata for the introspective; mune sage. TRANSLATION What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self- controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage. PURPORT There are two classes of intelligent men. The one is intelligent in material activities for sense gratification, and the other is introspective and awake to the cultivation of self-realization. Activities of the introspective sage, or thoughtful man, are night for persons materially absorbed. Materialistic persons remain asleep in such a night due to their ignorance of self- realization. The introspective sage remains alert in the "night" of the materialistic men. The sage feels transcendental pleasure in the gradual advancement of spiritual culture, whereas the man in materialistic activities, being asleep to self-realization, dreams of varieties of sense pleasure, feeling sometimes happy and sometimes distressed in his sleeping condition. The introspective man is always indifferent to materialistic happiness and distress. He goes on with his self-realization activities undisturbed by material reaction. TEXT 70 pryamam acala-pratiha samudram pa pravianti yadvat tadvat km ya pravianti sarve sa ntim pnoti na kma-km pryamam always filled; acala-pratiham steadily situated; samudram the ocean; pa water; pravianti enter; yadvat as; tadvat so; km desires; yam unto one; pravianti enter; sarve all; sa that person; ntim peace; pnoti achieves; na not; kma-km one who desires to fulfill desires. TRANSLATION A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desiresthat enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. PURPORT Although the vast ocean is always filled with water, it is always, especially during the rainy season, being filled with much more water. But the ocean remains the samesteady; it is not agitated, nor does it cross beyond the limit of its brink. That is also true of a person fixed in Ka consciousness. As long as one has the material body, the demands of the body for sense gratification will continue. The devotee, however, is not disturbed by such desires because of his fullness. A Ka conscious man is not in need of anything because the Lord fulfills all his material necessities. Therefore he is like the oceanalways full in himself. Desires may come to him like the waters of the rivers that flow into the ocean, but he is steady in his activities, and he is not even slightly disturbed by desires for sense gratification. That is the proof of a Ka conscious manone who has lost all inclinations for material sense gratification, although the desires are present. Because he remains satisfied in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, he can remain steady, like the ocean, and therefore enjoy full peace. Others, however, who fulfill desires even up to the limit of liberation, what to speak of material success, never attain peace. The fruitive workers, the salvationists, and also the yogs who are after mystic powers, are all unhappy because of unfulfilled desires. But the person in Ka consciousness is happy in the service of the Lord, and he has no desires to be fulfilled. In fact, he does not even desire liberation from the so-called material bondage. The devotees of Ka have no material desires, and therefore they are in perfect peace. TEXT 71 vihya kmn ya sarvn pum carati nispha nirmamo nirahakra sa ntim adhigacchati vihya after giving up; kmn all material desires for sense gratification; ya the person; sarvn all; pumn a person; carati lives; nihpha desireless; nirmama without a sense of proprietorship; nirahakra without false ego; sa all; ntim perfect peace; adhigacchati attains. TRANSLATION A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false egohe alone can attain real peace. PURPORT To become desireless means not to desire anything for sense gratification. In other words, desire for becoming Ka conscious is actually desirelessness. To understand one's actual position as the eternal servitor of Ka, without falsely claiming this material body to be oneself and without falsely claiming proprietorship over anything in the world, is the perfect stage of Ka consciousness. One who is situated in this perfect stage knows that because Ka is the proprietor of everything, therefore everything must be used for the satisfaction of Ka. Arjuna did not want to fight for his own sense satisfaction, but when he became fully Ka conscious he fought because Ka wanted him to fight. For himself there was no desire to fight, but for Ka the same Arjuna fought to his best ability. Desire for the satisfaction of Ka is really desirelessness; it is not an artificial attempt to abolish desires. The living entity cannot be desireless or senseless, but he does have to change the quality of the desires. A materially desireless person certainly knows that everything belongs to Ka (vsyam ida sarvam ), and therefore he does not falsely claim proprietorship over anything. This transcendental knowledge is based on self-realizationnamely, knowing perfectly well that every living entity is the eternal part and parcel of Ka in spiritual identity. and therefore the eternal position of the living entity is never on the level of Ka or greater than Him. This understanding of Ka consciousness is the basic principle of real peace. TEXT 72 e brhm sthiti prtha nain prpya vimuhyati sthitvsym anta-kle 'pi brahma-nirvam cchati e this; brhm spiritual; sthiti situation; prtha O son of Pth; na never; enm this; prpya achieving; vimuhyati bewilders; sthitv being so situated; asym being so; anta-kle at the end of life; api also; brahma-nirvam spiritual (kingdom of God); cchati attains. TRANSLATION That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. Being so situated, even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God. PURPORT One can attain Ka consciousness or divine life at once, within a second- or one may not attain such a state of life even after millions of births. It is only a matter of understanding and accepting the fact. Khavga Mahrja attained this state of life just a few minutes before his death, by surrendering unto Ka. Nirva means ending the process of materialistic life. According to Buddhist philosophy, there is only void after the completion of this material life, but Bhagavad-gt teaches differently. Actual life begins after the completion of this material life. For the gross materialist it is sufficient to know that one has to end this materialistic way of life, but for persons who are spiritually advanced, there is another life after this materialistic life. Before ending this life, if one fortunately becomes Ka conscious, he at once attains the stage of Brahma-nirva. There is no difference between the kingdom of God and the devotional service of the Lord. Since both of them are on the absolute plane, to be engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord is to have attained the spiritual kingdom. In the material world there are activities of sense gratification, whereas in the spiritual world there are activities of Ka consciousness. Attainment of Ka consciousness even during this life is immediate attainment of Brahman, and one who is situated in Ka consciousness has certainly already entered into the kingdom of God. Brahman is just the opposite of matter. Therefore brhm sthiti means "not on the platform of material activities." Devotional service of the Lord is accepted in the Bhagavad- gt as the liberated stage. Therefore, brhm- sthiti is liberation from material bondage. rla Bhaktivinode hkur has summarized this Second Chapter of the Bhagavad-gt as being the contents for the whole text. In the Bhagavad- gt, the subject matters are karma-yoga, jna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga. In the Second Chapter karma-yoga and jna-yoga have been clearly discussed, and a glimpse of bhakti-yoga has also been given, as the contents for the complete text. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Second Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of its Contents. Chapter-3 CHAPTER THREE Karma-yoga TEXT 1 arjuna uvca jyyas cet karmaas te mat buddhir janrdana tat ki karmai ghore m niyojayasi keava arjuna Arjuna; uvca said; jyyas speaking very highly; cet although; karmaa than fruitive action; te your; mat opinion; buddhi intelligence; janrdana O Ka; tat therefore; kim why; karmai in action; ghore ghastly; mm me; niyojayasi engaging me; keava O Ka. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: O Janrdana, O Keava, why do You urge me to engage in this ghastly warfare, if You think that intelligence is better than fruitive work? PURPORT The Supreme Personality of Godhead r Ka has very elaborately described the constitution of the soul in the previous chapter, with a view to deliver His intimate friend Arjuna from the ocean of material grief. And the path of realization has been recommended: buddhi-yoga, or Ka consciousness. Sometimes Ka consciousness is misunderstood to be inertia, and one with such a misunderstanding often withdraws to a secluded place to become fully Ka conscious by chanting the holy name of Lord Ka. But without being trained in the philosophy of Ka consciousness, it is not advisable to chant the holy name of Ka in a secluded place where one may acquire only cheap adoration from the innocent public. Arjuna also thought of Ka consciousness or buddhi -yoga, or intelligence in spiritual advancement of knowledge, as something like retirement from active life and the practice of penance and austerity at a secluded place. In other words, he wanted to skillfully avoid the fighting by using Ka consciousness as an excuse. But as a sincere student, he placed the matter before his master and questioned Ka as to his best course of action. In answer, Lord Ka elaborately explained karma-yoga, or work in Ka consciousness, in this Third Chapter. TEXT 2 vymireeva vkyena buddhi mohayasva me tad eka vada nicitya yena reyo 'ham pnuym vymirea by equivocal; iva as; vkyena words; buddhim intelligence; mohayasi bewildering; iva as; me my; tat therefore; ekam only one; vada please tell; nicitya ascertaining; yena by which; reya real benefit; aham I; pnuym may have it. TRANSLATION My intelligence is bewildered by Your equivocal instructions. Therefore, please tell me decisively what is most beneficial for me. PURPORT In the previous chapter, as a prelude to the Bhagavad- gt, many different paths were explained, such as skhya-yoga, buddhi-yoga, control of the senses by intelligence, work without fruitive desire, and the position of the neophyte. This was all presented unsystematically. A more organized outline of the path would be necessary for action and understanding. Arjuna, therefore, wanted to clear up these apparently confusing matters so that any common man could accept them without misinterpretation. Although Ka had no intention of confusing Arjuna by any jugglery of words, Arjuna could not follow the process of Ka consciousness either by inertia or active service. In other words, by his questions he is clearing the path of Ka consciousness for all students who seriously want to understand the mystery of the Bhagavad-gt. TEXT 3 r-bhagavn uvca loke 'smin dvi-vidh nih pur prokt maynagha jna-yogena skhyn karma-yogena yoginm r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; loke in the world; asmin this; dvi-vidh two kinds of; nih faith; pur formerly; prokt was said; may by Me; anagha O sinless one; jna- yogena by the linking process of knowledge; skhynm of the empiric philosophers; karma-yogena by the linking process of devotion; yoginm of the devotees. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: O sinless Arjuna, I have already explained that there are two classes of men who realize the Self. Some are inclined to understand Him by empirical, philosophical speculation, and others are inclined to know Him by devotional work. PURPORT In the Second Chapter, verse 39, the Lord explained two kinds of proceduresnamely skhya-yoga and karma-yoga, or buddhi-yoga. In this verse, the Lord explains the same more clearly. Skhya-yoga, or the analytical study of the nature of spirit and matter, is the subject matter for persons who are inclined to speculate and understand things by experimental knowledge and philosophy. The other class of men work in Ka consciousness, as it is explained in the 61st verse of the Second Chapter. The Lord has explained, also in the 39th verse, that by working by the principles of buddhi-yoga, or Ka consciousness, one can be relieved from the bonds of action; and, furthermore, there is no flaw in the process. The same principle is more clearly explained in the 61st versethat this buddhi- yoga is to depend entirely on the Supreme (or more specifically, on Ka), and in this way all the senses can be brought under control very easily. Therefore, both the yogas are interdependant, as religion and philosophy. Religion without philosophy is sentiment, or sometimes fanaticism, while philosophy without religion is mental speculation. The ultimate goal is Ka, because the philosophers who are also sincerely searching after the Absolute Truth come in the end to Ka consciousness. This is also stated in the Bhagavad-gt. The whole process is to understand the real position of the self in relation to the Superself. The indirect process is philosophical speculation, by which, gradually, one may come to the point of Ka consciousness; and the other process is directly connecting with everything in Ka consciousness. Of these two, the path of Ka consciousness is better because it does not depend on purifying the senses by a philosophical process. Ka consciousness is itself the purifying process, and by the direct method of devotional service it is simultaneously easy and sublime. TEXT 4 na karmam anrambhn naikarmya puruo 'nute na ca sannyasand eva siddhi samadhigacchati na without; karmam of the prescribed duties; anrambht non- performance; naikarmyam freedom from reaction; puruah man; anute achieve; na nor; ca also; sannyasant by renunciation; eva simply; siddhim success; samadhigacchati attain. TRANSLATION Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection. PURPORT The renounced order of life can be accepted upon being purified by the discharge of the prescribed form of duties which are laid down just to purify the heart of materialistic men. Without purification, one cannot attain success by abruptly adopting the fourth order of life ( sannysa ). According to the empirical philosophers, simply by adopting sannysa, or retiring from fruitive activities, one at once becomes as good as Nryaa. But Lord Ka does not approve this principle. Without purification of heart, sannysa is simply a disturbance to the social order. On the other hand, if someone takes to the transcendental service of the Lord, even without discharging his prescribed duties, whatever he may be able to advance in the cause is accepted by the Lord (buddhi-yoga). Svalpam apy asya dharmasya tryate mahato bhayt. Even a slight performance of such a principle enables one to overcome great difficulties. TEXT 5 na hi kacit kaam api jtu tihaty akarmakt kryate hy avaa karma sarva prakti-jair guai na nor; hi certainly; kacit anyone; kaam even a moment; api also; jtu even; tihati stands; akarma-kt without doing something; kryate forced to work; hi certainly; avaa helplessly; karma work; sarva everything; prakti-jai out of the modes of material nature; guai by the qualities. TRANSLATION All men are forced to act helplessly according to the impulses born of the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment. PURPORT It is not a question of embodied life, but it is the nature of the soul to be always active. Without the presence of the spirit soul, the material body cannot move. The body is only a dead vehicle to be worked by the spirit soul, which is always active and cannot stop even for a moment. As such, the spirit soul has to be engaged in the good work of Ka consciousness, otherwise it will be engaged in occupations dictated by illusory energy. In contact with material energy, the spirit soul acquires material modes, and to purify the soul from such affinities it is necessary to engage in the prescribed duties enjoined in the stras. But if the soul is engaged in his natural function of Ka consciousness, whatever he is able to do is good for him. The rmad- Bhgavatam affirms this: tyaktv sva-dharma carambuja harer bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi yatra kva vbhadram abhd amuya ki ko vrtha pto 'bhajat sva-dharmata. "If someone takes to Ka consciousness, even though he may not follow the prescribed duties in the stras nor execute the devotional service properly, and even though he may fall down from the standard, there is no loss or evil for him. But if he carries out all the injunctions for purification in the stras, what does it avail him if he is not Ka conscious?" (Bhg. 1.5.17) So the purificatory process is necessary for reaching this point of Ka consciousness. Therefore, sannysa, or any purificatory process, is to help reach the ultimate goal of becoming Ka conscious, without which everything is considered a failure. TEXT 6 karmendriyi sayamya ya ste manas smaran indriyrthn vimhtm mithycra sa ucyate karma-indriyi the five working sense organs; sayamya controlling; ya anyone who; ste remains; manas by mind; smaran thinking; indriya-arthn sense objects; vimha foolish; tm soul; mithy-cra pretender; sa he; ucyate is called. TRANSLATION One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender. PURPORT There are many pretenders who refuse to work in Ka consciousness but make a show of meditation, while actually dwelling within the mind upon sense enjoyment. Such pretenders may also speak on dry philosophy in order to bluff sophisticated followers, but according to this verse these are the greatest cheaters. For sense enjoyment one can act in any capacity of the social order, but if one follows the rules and regulations of his particular status, he can make gradual progress in purifying his existence. But he who makes a show of being a yog , while actually searching for the objects of sense gratification, must be called the greatest cheater, even though he sometimes speaks of philosophy. His knowledge has no value because the effects of such a sinful man's knowledge are taken away by the illusory energy of the Lord. Such a pretender's mind is always impure, and therefore his show of yogic meditation has no value whatsoever. TEXT 7 yas tv indriyi manas niyamyrabhate 'rjuna karmendriyai karma-yogam asakta sa viiyate ya one who; tu but; indriyi senses; manas by the mind; niyamya regulating; rabhate begins; arjuna O Arjuna; karma-indriyai by the active sense organs; karma-yogam devotion; asakta without attachment; sa he; viiyate by far the better. TRANSLATION On the other hand, he who controls the senses by the mind and engages his active organs in works of devotion, without attachment, is by far superior. PURPORT Instead of becoming a pseudo-transcendentalist for the sake of wanton living and sense enjoyment, it is far better to remain in one's own business and execute the purpose of life, which is to get free from material bondage and enter into the kingdom of God. The prime svrtha-gati , or goal of self-interest, is to reach Viu. The whole institution of vara and rama is designed to help us reach this goal of life. A householder can also reach this destination by regulated service in Ka consciousness. For self- realization, one can live a controlled life, as prescribed in the stras , and continue carrying out his business without attachment, and in that way make progress. Such a sincere person who follows this method is far better situated than the false pretender who adopts show-bottle spiritualism to cheat the innocent public. A sincere sweeper in the street is far better than the charlatan meditator who meditates only for the sake of making a living. TEXT 8 niyata kuru karma tva karma jyyo hy akarmaa arra-ytrpi ca te na prasiddhyed akarmaa niyatam prescribed; kuru do; karma duties; tvam you; karma work; jyya better; hi than; akarmaa without work; arra bodily; ytr maintenance; api even; ca also; te your; na never; prasiddhyet effected; akarmaa without work. TRANSLATION Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work. PURPORT There are many pseudo-meditators who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional men who falsely pose that they have sacrificed everything for the sake of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Ka did not want Arjuna to become a pretender, but that he perform his prescribed duties as set forth for katriyas . Arjuna was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for the householder katriya . Such activities gradually cleanse the heart of a mundane man and free him from material contamination. So-called renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord, nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one's body and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously, without purification of materialistic propensities. Anyone who is in the material world is certainly possessed of the impure propensity for lording it over material nature, or, in other words, for sense gratification. Such polluted propensities have to be cleared. Without doing so, through prescribed duties, one should never attempt to become a so-called transcendentalist, renouncing work and living at the cost of others. TEXT 9 yajrtht karmao 'nyatra loko 'ya karma-bandhana tad-artha karma kaunteya mukta-saga samcara yaja-artht only for the sake of Yaja, or Viu; karmaa work done; anyatra otherwise; loka this world; ayam this; karma-bandhana bondage by work; tat Him; artham for the sake of; karma work; kaunteya O son of Kunt; mukta-saga liberated from association; samcara do it perfectly. TRANSLATION Work done as a sacrifice for Viu has to be performed, otherwise work binds one to this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunt, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain unattached and free from bondage. PURPORT Since one has to work even for the simple maintenance of the body, the prescribed duties for a particular social position and quality are so made that that purpose can be fulfilled. Yaja means Lord Viu, or sacrificial performances. All sacrificial performances also are meant for the satisfaction of Lord Viu. The Vedas enjoin: yajo vai viu. In other words, the same purpose is served whether one performs prescribed yajas or directly serves Lord Viu. Ka consciousness is therefore performance of yaja as it is prescribed in this verse. The varrama institution also aims at this for satisfying Lord Viu. "Varramcra-vat puruea para pumn/viur rdhyate ..." ( Viu Pura 3.8.8) Therefore one has to work for the satisfaction of Viu. Any other work done in this material world wilI be a cause of bondage, for both good and evil work have their reactions, and any reaction binds the performer. Therefore, one has to work in Ka consciousness to satisfy Ka (or Viu); and while performing such activities one is in a liberated stage. This is the great art of doing work, and in the beginning this process requires very expert guidance. One should therefore act very diligently, under the expert guidance of a devotee of Lord Ka, or under the direct instruction of Lord Ka Himself (under whom Arjuna had the opportunity to work). Nothing should be performed for sense gratification, but everything should be done for the satisfaction of Ka. This practice will not only save one from the reaction of work, but will also gradually elevate one to transcendental loving service of the Lord, which alone can raise one to the kingdom of God. TEXT 10 saha-yaj praj sv purovca prajpati anena prasaviyadhvam ea vo 'stv ia-kma-dhuk saha along with; yaj sacrifices; praj generations; sv by creating; pur anciently; uvca said; praj-pati the Lord of creatures; anena by this; prasaviyadhvam be more and more prosperous; ea certainly; va your; astu let it be; ia all desirable; kma-dhuk bestower. TRANSLATION In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yaja [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you all desirable things." PURPORT The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Viu) is a chance offered to the conditioned souls to come back home-back to Godhead. All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic principles are to help us understand this eternal relation as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gt: vedai ca sarvair aham eva vedya . The Lord says that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the Vedic hymns it is said: pati vivasytmevaram. Therefore, the Lord of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viu. In the rmad- Bhgavatam also rla ukadeva Gosvm describes the Lord as pati in so many ways: riya-patir yaja-pati praj-patir dhiy patir loka-patir dhar-pati patir gati cndhaka-vi-stvat prasdat me bhagavn sat pati (Bhg. 2.4.20) The praj-pati is Lord Viu, and He is the Lord of all living creatures, all worlds, and all beauties, and the protector of everyone. The Lord created this material world for the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajas (sacrifice) for the satisfaction of Viu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety. Then after finishing the present material body, they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yaja, the conditioned souls gradually become Ka conscious and become godly in all respects. In this age of Kali, the sakrtana-yaja (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Sakrtana-yaja and Ka consciousness go well together. Lord Ka in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the rmad- Bhgavatam as follows, with special reference to the sakrtana-yaja: ka-vara tvik sgopgstra-pradam yajai sakrtana-pryair yajanti hi su-medhasa "In this age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of sakrtana-yaja." (Bhg. 11.5.29) Other yajas prescribed in the Vedic literatures are not easy to perform in this age of Kali, but the sakrtana-yaja iseasy and sublime for all purposes. TEXT 11 devn bhvayatnena te dev bhvayantu va paraspara bhvayanta reya param avpsyatha devn demigods; bhvayata having been pleased; anena by this sacrifice; te those; dev the demigods; bhvayantu will please; va you; parasparam mutual; bhvayanta pleasing one another; sreya benediction; param the supreme; avpsyatha do you achieve. TRANSLATION The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you; thus nourishing one another, there will reign general prosperity for all. PURPORT The demigods are empowered administrators of material affairs. The supply of air, light, water and all other benedictions for maintaining the body and soul of every living entity are entrusted to the demigods, who are innumerable assistants in different parts of the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their pleasures and displeasures are dependant on the performance of yajas by the human being. Some of the yajas are meant to satisfy particular demigods; but even in so doing, Lord Viu is worshiped in all yajas as the chief beneficiary. It is stated also in the Bhagavad-gt that Ka Himself is the beneficiary of all kinds of yajas: bhoktra yaja- tapasm. Therefore, ultimate satisfaction of the yajapati is the chief purpose of all yajas. When these yajas are perfectly performed, naturally the demigods in charge of the different departments of supply are pleased, and there is no scarcity in the supply of natural products. Performance of yajas has many side benefits, ultimately leading to liberation from the material bondage. By performance of yajas, all activities become purified, as it is stated in the Vedas: hra-uddhau sattva-uddhi sattva-uddhau dhruv smti smti-lambhe sarva-granthn vipra-moka As it will be explained in the following verse, by performance of yaja, one's eatables become sanctified, and by eating sanctified foodstuffs, one's very existence becomes purified; by the purification of existence, finer tissues in the memory become sanctified, and when memory is sanctified, one can think of the path of liberation, and all these combined together lead to Ka consciousness, the great necessity of present-day society. TEXT 12 in bhogn hi vo dev dsyante yaja-bhvit tair dattn apradyaibhyo yo bhukte stena eva sa in desired; bhogn necessities of life; hi certainly; va unto you; dev the demigods; dsyante award; yaja-bhvit being satisfied by the performance of sacrifices; tai by them; dattn things given; apradya without offering; ebhya to the demigods; ya he who; bhukte enjoys; stena thief; eva certainly; sa is he. TRANSLATION In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the performance of yaja [sacrifice], supply all necessities to man. But he who enjoys these gifts, without offering them to the demigods in return, is certainly a thief. PURPORT The demigods are authorized supplying agents on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viu. Therefore, they must be satisfied by the performance of prescribed yajas. In the Vedas, there are different kinds of yajas prescribed for different kinds of demigods, but all are ultimately offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For one who cannot understand what the Personality of Godhead is, sacrifice to the demigods is recommended. According to the different material qualities of the persons concerned, different types of yajas are recommended in the Vedas. Worship of different demigods is also on the same basis namely, according to different qualities. For example, the meat-eaters are recommended to worship the goddess Kl, the ghastly form of material nature, and before the goddess the sacrifice of animals is recommended. But for those who are in the mode of goodness, the transcendental worship of Viu is recommended. But ultimately, all yajas are meant for gradual promotion to the transcendental position. For ordinary men, at least five yajas, known as paca-mahyaja, are necessary. One should know, however, that all the necessities of life that the human society requires are supplied by the demigod agents of the Lord. No one can manufacture anything. Take, for example, all the eatables of human society. These eatables include grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, sugar, etc., for the persons in the mode of goodness, and also eatables for the nonvegetarians, like meats, etc., none of which can be manufactured by men. Then again, take for example heat, light, water, air, etc., which are also necessities of lifenone of them can be manufactured by the human society. Without the Supreme Lord, there can be no profuse sunlight, moonlight, rainfall, breeze, etc., without which no one can live. Obviously, our life is dependant on supplies from the Lord. Even for our manufacturing enterprises, we require so many raw materials like metal, sulphur, mercury, manganese, and so many essentials all of which are supplied by the agents of the Lord, with the purpose that we should make proper use of them to keep ourselves fit and healthy for the purpose of self-realization, leading to the ultimate goal of life, namely, liberation from the material struggle for existence. This aim of life is attained by performance of yajas. If we forget the purpose of human life and simply take supplies from the agents of the Lord for sense gratification and become more and more entangled in material existence, which is not the purpose of creation, certainly we become thieves, and therefore we are punished by the laws of material nature. A society of thieves can never be happy because they have no aim in life. The gross materialist thieves have no ultimate goal of life. They are simply directed to sense gratification; nor do they have knowledge of how to perform yajas . Lord Caitanya, however, inaugurated the easiest performance of yaja , namely the sakrtana-yaja , which can be performed by anyone in the world who accepts the principles of Ka consciousness. TEXT 13 yaja-iina santo mucyante sarva-kilbiai bhujate te tv agham pp ye pacanty tma-krat yaja-ia food taken after performance of yaja ; aina eaters; santa the devotees; mucyante get relief from; sarva all kinds of; kilbiai sins; bhujate enjoy; te they; tu but; agham grievous sins; pp sinners; ye those; pacanti prepare food; tma-krat for sense enjoyment. TRANSLATION The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin. PURPORT The devotees of the Supreme Lord, or the persons who are in Ka consciousness, are called santas , and they are always in love with the Lord as it is described in the Brahma-sahit: premjana-cchurita-bhakti- vilocanena santa sadaiva hdayeu vilokayanti. The santas , being always in a compact of love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda (the giver of all pleasures), or Mukunda (the giver of liberation), or Ka (the all- attractive person), cannot accept anything without first offering it to the Supreme Person. Therefore, such devotees always perform yajas in different modes of devotional service, such as ravaam, krtanam, smaraam, arcanam , etc., and these performances of yajas keep them always aloof from all kinds of contamination of sinful association in the material world. Others, who prepare food for self or sense gratification, are not only thieves, but are also the eaters of all kinds of sins. How can a person be happy if he is both a thief and sinful? It is not possible. Therefore, in order for people to become happy in all respects, they must be taught to perform the easy process of sakrtana-yaja , in full Ka consciousness. Otherwise, there can be no peace or happiness in the world. TEXT 14 annd bhavanti bhtni parjanyd anna-sambhava yajd bhavati parjanyo yaja karma-samudbhava annt from grains; bhavanti grow; bhtni the material bodies; parjanyt from rains; anna food grains; sambhava are made possible; yajt from the performance of sacrifice; bhavati becomes possible; parjanya rains; yaja performance of yaja ; karma prescribed duties; samudbhava born of. TRANSLATION All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rain. Rains are produced by performance of yaja [sacrifice], and yaja is born of prescribed duties. PURPORT rla Baladeva Vidybhaa, a great commentator on the Bhagavad- gt , writes as follows: ye indrdy-aga-tayvasthita yaja sarvevara vium abhyarccya taccheam ananti tena taddeha-yntr sampdayanti te santa sarvevarasya bhakt sarva-kilviair andi-kla-vivddhair tmnubhava- pratibandhakair nikhilai ppair vimucyante . The Supreme Lord, who is known as the yaja-purua , or the personal beneficiary of all sacrifices, is the master of all demigods who serve Him as the different limbs of the body serve the whole. Demigods like Indra, Candra, Varua, etc., are appointed officers who manage material affairs, and the Vedas direct sacrifices to satisfy these demigods so that they may be pleased to supply air, light and water sufficiently to produce food grains. When Lord Ka is worshiped, the demigods, who are different limbs of the Lord, are also automatically worshiped; therefore there is no separate need to worship the demigods. For this reason, the devotees of the Lord, who are in Ka consciousness, offer food to Ka and then eata process which nourishes the body spiritually. By such action not only are past sinful reactions in the body vanquished, but the body becomes immunized to all contamination of material nature. When there is an epidemic disease, an antiseptic vaccine protects a person from the attack of such an epidemic. Similarly, food offered to Lord Viu and then taken by us makes us sufficiently resistant to material affection, and one who is accustomed to this practice is called a devotee of the Lord. Therefore, a person in Ka consciousness, who eats only food offered to Ka, can counteract all reactions of past material infections, which are impediments to the progress of self- realization. On the other hand, one who does not do so continues to increase the volume of sinful action, and this prepares the next body to resemble hogs and dogs, to suffer the resultant reactions of all sins. The material world is full of contaminations, and one who is immunized by accepting prasdam of the Lord (food offered to Viu) is saved from the attack, whereas one who does not do so becomes subjected to contamination. Food grains or vegetables are factually eatables. The human being eats different kinds of food grains, vegetables, fruits, etc., and the animals eat the refuse of the food grains and vegetables, grass, plants, etc. Human beings who are accustomed to eating meat and flesh must also depend on the production of vegetation in order to eat the animals. Therefore, ultimately, we have to depend on the production of the field and not on the production of big factories. The field production is due to sufficient rain from the sky, and such rains are controlled by demigods like Indra, sun, moon, etc., and they are all servants of the Lord. The Lord can be satisfied by sacrifices; therefore, one who cannot perform them will find himself in scarcitythat is the law of nature. Yaja, specifically the sakrtana-yaja prescribed for this age, must therefore be performed to save us at least from scarcity of food supply. TEXT 15 karma brahmodbhava viddhi brahmkara-samudbhavam tasmt sarva-gata brahma nitya yaje pratihitam karma work; brahma-Vedas; udbhavam produced from; viddhi one should know; brahma the Vedas; akara the Supreme Brahman (Personality of Godhead); samudbhavam; directly manifested; tasmt therefore; sarva-gatam all-pervading; brahma Transcendence; nityam eternally; yaje in sacrifice; pratihitam situated. TRANSLATION Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice. PURPORT Yajrtha karma , or the necessity of work for the satisfaction of Ka only, is more expressly stated in this verse. If we have to work for the satisfaction of the yaja-purua , Viu, then we must find out the direction of work in Brahman, or the transcendental Vedas. The Vedas are therefore codes of working directions. Anything performed without the direction of the Vedas is called vikarma, or unauthorized or sinful work. Therefore, one should always take direction from the Vedas to be saved from the reaction of work. As one has to work in ordinary life by the direction of the state, similarly, one has to work under direction of the supreme state of the Lord. Such directions in the Vedas are directly manifested from the breathing of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is said: asya mahato bhtasya navasitam etad yad g-vedo yajur-veda sma-vedo 'tharv girasa. "The four Vedas namely the g- veda, Yajur-veda, Sma-veda and Atharva-veda are all emanations from the breathing of the great Personality of Godhead." The Lord, being omnipotent, can speak by breathing air, as it is confirmed in the Brahma-sahit, for the Lord has the omnipotence to perform through each of His senses the actions of all other senses. In other words, the Lord can speak through His breathing, and He can impregnate by His eyes. In fact, it is said that He glanced over material nature and thus fathered all living entities. After creating or impregnating the conditioned souls into the womb of material nature, He gave His directions in the Vedic wisdom as to how such conditioned souls can return home, back to Godhead. We should always remember that the conditioned souls in material nature are all eager for material enjoyment. But the Vedic directions are so made that one can satisfy one's perverted desires, then return to Godhead, having finished his so-called enjoyment. It is a chance for the conditioned souls to attain liberation; therefore the conditioned souls must try to follow the process of yaja by becoming Ka conscious. Even those who cannot follow the Vedic injunctions may adopt the principles of Ka consciousness, and that will take the place of performance of Vedic yajas, or karmas. TEXT 16 eva pravartita cakra nnuvartayatha ya aghyur indriyrmo mogha prtha sa jvati evam thus prescribed; pravartitam established by the Vedas; cakram cycle; na does not; anuvartayati adopt; iha in this life; ya one who; aghyu life full of sins; indriya-rma satisfied in sense gratification; mogham useless; prtha O son of Pth (Arjuna); sa one who does so; jvati lives. TRANSLATION My dear Arjuna, a man who does not follow this prescribed Vedic system of sacrifice certainly leads a life of sin, for a person delighting only in the senses lives in vain. PURPORT The mammonist philosophy of work very hard and enjoy sense gratification is condemned herein by the Lord. Therefore, for those who want to enjoy this material world, the above-mentioned cycle of performing yajas is absolutely necessary. One who does not follow such regulations is living a very risky life, being condemned more and more. By nature's law, this human form of life is specifically meant for self-realization, in either of the three waysnamely karma-yoga, jna-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. There is no necessity of rigidly following the performances of the prescribed yajas for the transcendentalists who are above vice and virtue; but those who are engaged in sense gratification require purification by the above-mentioned cycle of yaja performances. There are different kinds of activities. Those who are not Ka conscious are certainly engaged in sensory consciousness; therefore they need to execute pious work. The yaja system is planned in such a way that sensory conscious persons may satisfy their desires without becoming entangled in the reaction of sense-gratificatory work. The prosperity of the world depends not on our own efforts but on the background arrangement of the Supreme Lord, directly carried out by the demigods. Therefore, the yajas are directly aimed at the particular demigod mentioned in the Vedas. Indirectly, it is the practice of Ka consciousness, because when one masters the performance of yajas, one is sure to become Ka conscious. But if by performing yajas one does not become Ka conscious, such principles are counted as only moral codes. One should not, therefore, limit his progress only to the point of moral codes, but should transcend them, to attain Ka consciousness. TEXT 17 yas tv tma-ratir eva syd tma-tpta ca mnava tmany eva ca santuas tasya krya na vidyate ya one who; tu but; tma-rati takes pleasure; eva certainly; syt remains; tma-tpta self-illuminated; ca and; mnava a man; tmani in himself; eva only; ca and; santua perfectly satiated; tasya his; kryam duty; na does not; vidyate exist. TRANSLATION One who is, however, taking pleasure in the self, who is illumined in the self, who rejoices in and is satisfied with the self only, fully satiatedfor him there is no duty. PURPORT A person who is fully Ka conscious, and is fully satisfied by his acts in Ka consciousness, no longer has any duty to perform. Due to his being Ka conscious, all impiety within is instantly cleansed, an effect of many, many thousands of yaja performances. By such clearing of consciousness, one becomes fully confident of his eternal position in relationship with the Supreme. His duty thus becomes self-illuminated by the grace of the Lord, and therefore he no longer has any obligations to the Vedic injunctions. Such a Ka conscious person is no longer interested in material activities and no longer takes pleasure in material arrangements like wine, women and similar infatuations. TEXT 18 naiva tasya ktenrtho nkteneha kacana na csya sarva-bhteu kacid artha-vyapraya na never; eva certainly; tasya his; ktena by discharge of duty; artha purpose; na nor; aktena without discharge of duty; iha in this world; kacana whatever; na never; ca and; asya of him; sarva-bhteu in all living beings; kacit any; artha purpose; vyapa-raya taking shelter of. TRANSLATION A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being. PURPORT A self-realized man is no longer obliged to perform any prescribed duty, save and except activities in Ka consciousness. Ka consciousness is not inactivity either, as will be explained in the following verses. A Ka conscious man does not take shelter of any personman or demigod. Whatever he does in Ka consciousness is sufficient in the discharge of his obligation. TEXT 19 tasmd asakta satata krya karma samcara asakto hy caran karma param pnoti prua tasmt therefore; asakta without attachment; satatam constantly; kryam as duty; karma work; samcara perform; asakta nonattachment; hi certainly; caran performing; karma work; param the Supreme; pnoti achieves; prua a man. TRANSLATION Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty; for by working without attachment, one attains the Supreme. PURPORT The Supreme is the Personality of Godhead for the devotees, and liberation for the impersonalist. A person, therefore, acting for Ka, or in Ka consciousness, under proper guidance and without attachment to the result of the work, is certainly making progress toward the supreme goal of life. Arjuna is told that he should fight in the Battle of Kuruketra for the interest of Ka because Ka wanted him to fight. To be a good man or a nonviolent man is a personal attachment, but to act on behalf of the Supreme is to act without attachment for the result. That is perfect action of the highest degree, recommended by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka. Vedic rituals, like prescribed sacrifices, are performed for purification of impious activities that were performed in the field of sense gratification. But action in Ka consciousness is transcendental to the reactions of good or evil work. A Ka conscious person has no attachment for the result but acts on behalf of Ka alone. He engages in all kinds of activities, but is completely nonattached. TEXT 20 karmaaiva hi sasiddhim sthit janakdaya loka-sagraham evpi sampayan kartum arhasi karma by work; eva even; hi certainly; sasiddhim perfection; sthit situated; janaka-daya kings like Janaka and others; loka- sagraham educating the people in general; eva also; api for the sake of; sampayan by considering; kartum to act; arhasi deserve. TRANSLATION Even kings like Janaka and others attained the perfectional stage by performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people in general, you should perform your work. PURPORT Kings like Janaka and others were all self-realized souls; consequently they had no obligation to perform the prescribed duties in the Vedas. Nonetheless they performed all prescribed activities just to set examples for the people in general. Janaka was the father of St, and father-in-law of Lord r Rma. Being a great devotee of the Lord, he was transcendentally situated, but because he was the King of Mithila (a subdivision of Behar province in India), he had to teach his subjects how to fight righteously in battle. He and his subjects fought to teach people in general that violence is also necessary in a situation where good arguments fail. Before the Battle of Kuruketra, every effort was made to avoid the war, even by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the other party was determined to fight. So for such a right cause, there is a necessity for fighting. Although one who is situated in Ka consciousness may not have any interest in the world, he still works to teach the public how to live and how to act. Experienced persons in Ka consciousness can act in such a way that others will follow, and this is explained in the following verse. TEXT 21 yad yad carati rehas tat tad evetaro jana sa yat prama kurute lokas tad anuvartate yat whatever; yat and whichever; carati does he act; reha respectable leader; tat that; tat and that alone; eva certainly; itara common; jana person; sa he; yat whichever; pramam evidence; kurute does perform; loka all the world; tat that; anuvartate follow in the footsteps. TRANSLATION Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues. PURPORT People in general always require a leader who can teach the public by practical behavior. A leader cannot teach the public to stop smoking if he himself smokes. Lord Caitanya said that a teacher should behave properly even before he begins teaching. One who teaches in that way is called crya , or the ideal teacher. Therefore, a teacher must follow the principles of tra (scripture) to reach the common man. The teacher cannot manufacture rules against the principles of revealed scriptures. The revealed scriptures, like Manu-sahit and similar others, are considered the standard books to be followed by human society. Thus the leader's teaching should be based on the principles of the standard rules as they are practiced by the great teachers. The rmad-Bhgavatam also affirms that one should follow in the footsteps of great devotees, and that is the way of progress on the path of spiritual realization. The king or the executive head of a state, the father and the school teacher are all considered to be natural leaders of the innocent people in general. All such natural leaders have a great responsibility to their dependants; therefore they must be conversant with standard books of moral and spiritual codes. TEXT 22 na me prthsti kartavya triu lokeu kicana nnavptam avptavya varta eva ca karmai na none; me Mine; prtha O son of Pth; asti there is; kartavyam any prescribed duty; triu in the three; lokeu planetary systems; kicana anything; na no; anavptam in want; avptavyam to be gained; varte engaged; eva certainly; ca also; karmai in one's prescribed duty. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I need to obtain anythingand yet I am engaged in work. PURPORT The Supreme Personality of Godhead is described in the Vedic literatures as follows: tam var parama mahevara ta devatn parama ca daivatam pati patn parama parastd vidma deva bhuvaneam yam na tasya krya karaa ca vidyate na tat-sama cbhyadhika ca dyate parsya aktir vividhaiva ryate sv-bhvik jna-bala-kriy ca. "The Supreme Lord is the controller of all other controllers, and He is the greatest of all the diverse planetary leaders. Everyone is under His control. All entities are delegated with particular power only by the Supreme Lord; they are not supreme themselves. He is also worshipable by all demigods and is the supreme director of all directors. Therefore, He is transcendental to all kinds of material leaders and controllers and is worshipable by all. There is no one greater than Him, and He is the supreme cause of all causes. "He does not possess bodily form like that of an ordinary living entity. There is no difference between His body and His soul. He is absolute. All His senses are transcendental. Any one of His senses can perform the action of any other sense. Therefore, no one is greater than Him or equal to Him. His potencies are multifarious, and thus His deeds are automatically performed as a natural sequence." (vetvatara Upaniad 6.7-8) Since everything is in full opulence in the Personality of Godhead and is existing in full truth, there is no duty for the Supreme Personality of Godhead to perform. One who must receive the results of work has some designated duty, but one who has nothing to achieve within the three planetary systems certainly has no duty. And yet Lord Ka is engaged on the Battlefield of Kuruketra as the leader of the katriyas because the katriyas are duty-bound to give protection to the distressed. Although He is above all the regulations of the revealed scriptures, He does not do anything that violates the revealed scriptures. TEXT 23 yadi hy aha na varteya jtu karmay atandrita mama vartmnuvartante manuy prtha sarvaa yadi if; hi certainly; aham I; na do not; varteyam thus engage; jtu ever; karmai in the performance of prescribed duties; atandrita with great care; mama My; vartma path; anuvartante would follow; manuy all men ; prtha O son of Pth; sarvaa in all respects. TRANSLATION For, if I did not engage in work, O Prtha, certainly all men would follow My path. PURPORT In order to keep the balance of social tranquility for progress in spiritual life, there are traditional family usages meant for every civilized man. Although such rules and regulations are for the conditioned souls and not Lord Ka, because He descended to establish the principles of religion, He followed the prescribed rules. Otherwise, common men would follow in His footsteps because He is the greatest authority. From the rmad- Bhgavatam it is understood that Lord Ka was performing all the religious duties at home and out of home, as required of a householder. TEXT 24 utsdeyur ime lok na kury karma ced aham sakarasya ca kart sym upahanym im praj utsdeyu put into ruin; ime all these; lok worlds; na do not; kurym perform; karma prescribed duties; cet if; aham I; sakarasya of unwanted population; ca and; kart creator; sym shall be; upahanym destroy; im all these; praj living entities. TRANSLATION If I should cease to work, then all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would also be the cause of creating unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all sentient beings. PURPORT Vara-sakara is unwanted population which disturbs the peace of the general society. In order to check this social disturbance, there are prescribed rules and regulations by which the population can automatically become peaceful and organized for spiritual progress in life. When Lord Ka descends, naturally He deals with such rules and regulations in order to maintain the prestige and necessity of such important performances. The Lord is the father of all living entities, and if the living entities are misguided, indirectly the responsibility goes to the Lord. Therefore, whenever there is general disregard of regulative principles, the Lord Himself descends and corrects the society. We should, however, note carefully that although we have to follow in the footsteps of the Lord, we still have to remember that we cannot imitate Him. Following and imitating are not on the same level. We cannot imitate the Lord by lifting Govardhana Hill, as the Lord did in His childhood. It is impossible for any human being. We have to follow His instructions, but we may not imitate Him at any time. The rmad- Bhgavatam affirms: naitat samcarej jtu manaspi hy anvara vinayaty caran mauhyd yath 'rudro 'bdhija viam var vaca satya tathaivcarita kvacit te yat sva-vaco yukta buddhims tat samcaret "One should simply follow the instructions of the Lord and His empowered servants. Their instructions are all good for us, and any intelligent person will perform them as instructed. However, one should guard against trying to imitate their actions. One should not try to drink the ocean of poison in imitation of Lord iva." (Bhg. 10.33.30) We should always consider the position of the varas, or those who can actually control the movements of the sun and moon, as superior. Without such power, one cannot imitate the varas, who are superpowerful. Lord iva drank poison to the extent of swallowing an ocean, but if any common man tries to drink even a fragment of such poison, he will be killed. There are many psuedo-devotees of Lord iva who want to indulge in smoking gj (marijuana) and similar intoxicating drugs, forgetting that by so imitating the acts of Lord iva they are calling death very near. Similarly, there are some psuedo-devotees of Lord Ka who prefer to imitate the Lord in His rsa-ll, or dance of love, forgetting their inability to lift Govardhana Hill. It is best, therefore, that one not try to imitate the powerful, but simply follow their instructions; nor should one try to occupy their posts without qualification. There are so many "incarnations" of God without the power of the Supreme Godhead. TEXT 25 sakt karmay avidvso yath kurvanti bhrata kuryd vidvs tathsakta cikrur loka-sagraham sakt being attached; karmai prescribed duties; avidvsa the ignorant; yath as much as; kurvanti do it; bhrata O descendant of Bharata; kuryt must do; vidvn the learned; tath thus; asakta without attachment; cikru desiring to; loka-sagraham leading the people in general. TRANSLATION As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, similarly the learned may also act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path. PURPORT A person in Ka consciousness and a person not in Ka consciousness are differentiated by different desires. A Ka conscious person does not do anything which is not conducive to development of Ka consciousness. He may even act exactly like the ignorant person, who is too much attached to material activities, but one is engaged in such activities for the satisfaction of his sense gratification, whereas the other is engaged for the satisfaction of Ka. Therefore, the Ka conscious person is required to show the people how to act and how to engage the results of action for the purpose of Ka consciousness. TEXT 26 na buddhi-bheda janayed ajn karma-saginm joayet sarva-karmi vidvn yukta samcaran na do not; buddhi-bhedam disrupt the intelligence; janayet do; ajnm of the foolish; karma-saginm attached to fruitive work; joayet dovetailed; sarva all; karmi work; vidvn learned; yukta all engaged; samcaran practicing. TRANSLATION Let not the wise disrupt the minds of the ignorant who are attached to fruitive action. They should not be encouraged to refrain from work, but to engage in work in the spirit of devotion. PURPORT Vedai ca sarvair aham eva vedya: that is the end of all Vedic rituals. All rituals, all performances of sacrifices, and everything that is put into the Vedas , including all directions for material activities, are meant for understanding Ka, who is the ultimate goal of life. But because the conditioned souls do not know anything beyond sense gratification, they study the Vedas to that end. Through sense regulations, however, one is gradually elevated to Ka consciousness. Therefore a realized soul in Ka consciousness should not disturb others in their activities or understanding, but he should act by showing how the results of all work can be dedicated to the service of Ka. The learned Ka conscious person may act in such a way that the ignorant person working for sense gratification may learn how to act and how to behave. Although the ignorant man is not to be disturbed in his activities, still, a slightly developed Ka conscious person may directly be engaged in the service of the Lord without waiting for other Vedic formulas. For this fortunate man there is no need to follow the Vedic rituals, because in direct Ka consciousness one can have all the results simply by following the prescribed duties of a particular person. TEXT 27 prakte kriyamni guai karmi sarvaa ahakra-vimhtm kartham iti manyate prakte of material nature; kriyamni all being done; guai by the modes; karmi activities; sarvaa all kinds of; ahakra-vimha bewildered by false ego; tm the spirit soul; kart doer; aham I; iti thus; manyate thinks. TRANSLATION The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature. PURPORT Two persons, one in Ka consciousness and the other in material consciousness, working on the same level, may appear to be working on the same platform, but there is a wide gulf of difference in their respective positions. The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Ka. The person in false ego takes all credit for doing everything independently, and that is the symptom of his nescience. He does not know that this gross and subtle body is the creation of material nature, under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such his bodily and mental activities should be engaged in the service of Ka, in Ka consciousness. The ignorant man forgets that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Hkea, or the master of the senses of the material body, for due to his long misuse of the senses in sense gratification, he is factually bewildered by the false ego, which makes him forget his eternal relationship with Ka. TEXT 28 tattvavit tu mah-bho gua-karma-vibhgayo gu gueu vartanta iti matv na sajjate tattvavit the knower of the Absolute Truth; tu but; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; gua-karma works under material influence; vibhgayo differences; gu senses; gueu in sense gratification; vartante being engaged; iti thus; matv thinking; na never; sajjate becomes attached. TRANSLATION One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results. PURPORT The knower of the Absolute Truth is convinced of his awkward position in material association. He knows that he is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, and that his position should not be in the material creation. He knows his real identity as part and parcel of the Supreme, who is eternal bliss and knowledge, and he realizes that somehow or other he is entrapped in the material conception of life. In his pure state of existence he is meant to dovetail his activities in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. He therefore engages himself in the activities of Ka consciousness and becomes naturally unattached to the activities of the material senses, which are all circumstantial and temporary. He knows that his material condition of life is under the supreme control of the Lord; consequently he is not disturbed by all kinds of material reactions, which he considers to be the mercy of the Lord. According to rmad- Bhgavatam, one who knows the Absolute Truth in three different features namely Brahman, Paramtm, and the Supreme Personality of Godheadis called tattvavit, for he knows also his own factual position in relationship with the Supreme. TEXT 29 prakter gua-samh sajjante gua-karmasu tn aktsna-vido mandn ktsna-vin na viclayet prakte impelled by the material modes; gua-samh befooled by material identification; sajjante become engaged; gua-karmasu in material activities; tn all those; aktsna-vida persons with a poor fund of knowledge; mandn lazy to understand self-realization; ktsna-vit one who is in factual knowledge; na may not; viclayet try to agitate. TRANSLATION Bewildered by the modes of material nature, the ignorant fully engage themselves in material activities and become attached. But the wise should not unsettle them, although these duties are inferior due to the performers' lack of knowledge. PURPORT Persons who are unknowledgeable falsely identify with gross material consciousness and are full of material designations. This body is a gift of the material nature, and one who is too much attached to the bodily consciousness is called mandn , or a lazy person without understanding of spirit soul. Ignorant men think of the body as the self; bodily connections with others are accepted as kinsmanship; the land in which the body is obtained is the object of worship; and the formalities of religious rituals are considered ends in themselves. Social work, nationalism, and altruism are some of the activities for such materially designated persons. Under the spell of such designations, they are always busy in the material field; for them spiritual realization is a myth, and so they are not interested. Such bewildered persons may even be engaged in such primary moral principles of life as nonviolence and similar materially benevolent work. Those who are, however, enlightened in spiritual life, should not try to agitate such materially engrossed persons. Better to prosecute one's own spiritual activities silently. Men who are ignorant cannot appreciate activities in Ka consciousness, and therefore Lord Ka advises us not to disturb them and simply waste valuable time. But the devotees of the Lord are more kind than the Lord because they understand the purpose of the Lord. Consequently they undertake all kinds of risks, even to the point of approaching ignorant men to try to engage them in the acts of Ka consciousness, which are absolutely necessary for the human being. TEXT 30 mayi sarvi karmi sannyasydhytma-cetas nirr nirmamo bhtv yudhyasva vigata-jvara mayi unto Me; sarvi all sorts of; karmi activities; sannyasya giving up completely; adhytma with full knowledge of the self; cetas consciousness; nir without desire for profit; nirmama without ownership; bhtv so being; yudhyasva fight; vigata-jvara without being lethargic. TRANSLATION Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with mind intent on Me, and without desire for gain and free from egoism and lethargy, fight. PURPORT This verse clearly indicates the purpose of the Bhagavad-gt. The Lord instructs that one has to become fully Ka conscious to discharge duties, as if in military discipline. Such an injunction may make things a little difficult; nevertheless duties must be carried out, with dependence on Ka, because that is the constitutional position of the living entity. The living entity cannot be happy independant of the cooperation of the Supreme Lord because the eternal constitutional position of the living entity is to become subordinate to the desires of the Lord. Arjuna was, therefore, ordered by r Ka to fight as if the Lord were his military commander. One has to sacrifice everything for the good will of the Supreme Lord, and at the same time discharge prescribed duties without claiming proprietorship. Arjuna did not have to consider the order of the Lord; he had only to execute His order. The Supreme Lord is the Soul of all souls; therefore, one who depends solely and wholly on the Supreme Soul without personal consideration, or in other words, one who is fully Ka conscious, is called adhytma- cetas. Nir means that one has to act on the order of the master. Nor should one ever expect fruitive results. The cashier may count millions of dollars for his employer, but he does not claim a cent for himself. Similarly, one has to realize that nothing in the world belongs to any individual person, but that everything belongs to the Supreme Lord. That is the real purport of mayi, or unto Me. And when one acts in such Ka consciousness, certainly he does not claim proprietorship over anything. This consciousness is called nirmama, or nothing is mine. And, if there is any reluctance to execute such a stern order which is without consideration of so- called kinsmen in the bodily relationship, that reluctance should be thrown off; in this way one may become vigata-jvara, or without feverish mentality or lethargy. Everyone, according to his quality and position, has a particular type of work to discharge, and all such duties may be discharged in Ka consciousness, as described above. That will lead one to the path of liberation. TEXT 31 ye me matam ida nityam anutihanti mnav raddhvanto 'nasyanto mucyante te 'pi karmabhi ye those; me My; matam injunctions; idam this; nityam eternal function; anutihanti execute regularly; mnav humankind; raddhvanta with faith and devotion; anasyanta without envy; mucyante become free; te all of them; api even; karmabhi from the bondage of the law of fruitive action. TRANSLATION One who executes his duties according to My injunctions and who follows this teaching faithfully, without envy, becomes free from the bondage of fruitive actions. PURPORT The injunction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, is the essence of all Vedic wisdom, and therefore is eternally true without exception. As the Vedas are eternal, so this truth of Ka consciousness is also eternal. One should have firm faith in this injunction, without envying the Lord. There are many philosophers who write comments on the Bhagavad- gt but have no faith in Ka. They will never be liberated from the bondage of fruitive action. But an ordinary man with firm faith in the eternal injunctions of the Lord, even though unable to execute such orders, becomes liberated from the bondage of the law of karma. In the beginning of Ka consciousness, one may not fully discharge the injunctions of the Lord, but because one is not resentful of this principle and works sincerely without consideration of defeat and hopelessness, he will surely be promoted to the stage of pure Ka consciousness. TEXT 32 ye tv etad abhyasyanto nnutihanti me matam sarva-jna-vimhs tn viddhi nan acetasa ye those; tu however; etat this; abhyasyanta out of envy; na do not; anutihanti regularly perform; me My; matam injunction; sarva- jna all sorts of knowledge; vimhn perfectly befooled; tn they are; viddhi know it well; nan all ruined; acetasa without Ka consciousness. TRANSLATION But those who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and do not practice them regularly, are to be considered bereft of all knowledge, befooled, and doomed to ignorance and bondage. PURPORT The flaw of not being Ka conscious is clearly stated herein. As there is punishment for disobedience to the order of the supreme executive head, so there is certainly punishment for the disobedience of the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A disobedient person, however great he may be, is ignorant of his own self, of the Supreme Brahman, and Paramtm and the Personality of Godhead, due to a vacant heart. Therefore there is no hope of perfection of life for him. TEXT 33 sada ceate svasy prakter jnavn api prakti ynti bhtni nigrahah ki kariyati sadam accordingly; ceate tries; svasy in one's own nature; prakte modes; jnavn the learned; api although; praktim nature; ynti undergo; bhtni all living entities; nigraha suppression; kim what; kariyati can do. TRANSLATION Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows his nature. What can repression accomplish? PURPORT Unless one is situated on the transcendental platform of Ka consciousness, he cannot get free from the influence of the modes of material nature, as it is confirmed by the Lord in the Seventh Chapter (7.14). Therefore, even for the most highly educated person on the mundane plane, it is impossible to get out of the entanglement of my simply by theoretical knowledge, or by separating the soul from the body. There are many so- called spiritualists who outwardly pose to be advanced in the science, but inwardly or privately are completely under the particular modes of nature which they are unable to surpass. Academically, one may be very learned, but because of his long association with material nature, he is in bondage. Ka consciousness helps one to get out of the material entanglement, even though one may be engaged in his prescribed duties. Therefore, without being fully in Ka consciousness, no one should suddenly give up his prescribed duties and become a so-called yog or transcendentalist artificially. It is better to be situated in one's position and to try to attain Ka consciousness under superior training. Thus one may be freed from the clutches of my . TEXT 34 indriyasyendriyasyrthe rga-dveau vyavasthitau tayor na vaam gacchet tau hy asya paripanthinau indriyasya of the senses; indriyasya arthe in the sense objects; rga attachment; dveau also in detachment; vyavasthitau put under regulations; tayo of them; na never; vaam control; gacchet one should come; tau those; hi certainly are; asya his; paripanthinau stumbling blocks. TRANSLATION Attraction and repulsion for sense objects are felt by embodied beings, but one should not fall under the control of senses and sense objects because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization. PURPORT Those who are in Ka consciousness are naturally reluctant to engage in material sense gratifications. But those who are not in such consciousness should follow the rules and regulations of the revealed scriptures. Unrestricted sense enjoyment is the cause of material encagement, but one who follows the rules and regulations of the revealed scriptures does not become entangled by the sense objects. For example, sex enjoyment is a necessity for the conditioned soul, and sex enjoyment is allowed under the license of marriage ties. For example, according to scriptural injunctions, one is forbidden to engage in sex relationships with any women other than one's wife. All other women are to be considered as one's mother. But, in spite of such injunctions, a man is still inclined to have sex relationships with other women. These propensities are to be curbed; otherwise they will be stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization. As long as the material body is there, the necessities of the material body are allowed, but under rules and regulations. And yet, we should not rely upon the control of such allowances. One has to follow those rules and regulations, unattached to them, because practice of sense gratifications under regulations may also lead one to go astray-as much as there is always the chance of an accident, even on the royal roads. Although they may be very carefully maintained, no one can guarantee that there will be no danger even on the safest road. The sense enjoyment spirit has been current a very long, long time, owing to material association. Therefore, in spite of regulated sense enjoyment, there is every chance of falling down; therefore any attachment for regulated sense enjoyment must also be avoided by all means. But action in the loving service of Ka detaches one from all kinds of sensory activities. Therefore, no one should try to be detached from Ka consciousness at any stage of life. The whole purpose of detachment from all kinds of sense attachment is ultimately to become situated on the platform of Ka consciousness. TEXT 35 reyn sva-dharmo vigua para-dharmt svanuhitt sva-dharme nidhana reya para-dharmo bhayvaha reyn far better; sva-dharma one's prescribed duties; vigua even faulty; para-dharmt from duties mentioned for others; svanuhitt than perfectly done; sva-dharme in one's prescribed duties; nidhanam destruction; reya better; para-dharma duties prescribed for others; bhaya-vaha dangerous. TRANSLATION It is far better to discharge one's prescribed duties, even though they may be faulty, than another's duties. Destruction in the course of performing one's own duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to follow another's path is dangerous. PURPORT One should therefore discharge his prescribed duties in full Ka consciousness rather than those prescribed for others. Prescribed duties complement one's psychophysical condition, under the spell of the modes of material nature. Spiritual duties are as ordered by the spiritual master, for the transcendental service of Ka. But both materially or spiritually, one should stick to his prescribed duties even up to death, rather than imitate another's prescribed duties. Duties on the spiritual platform and duties on the material platform may be different, but the principle of following the authorized direction is always good for the performer. When one is under the spell of the modes of material nature, one should follow the prescribed rules for particular situations and should not imitate others. For example, a brhmaa, who is in the mode of goodness, is nonviolent, whereas a katriya, who is in the mode of passion, is allowed to be violent. As such, for a katriya it is better to be vanquished following the rules of violence than to imitate a brhmaa who follows the principles of nonviolence. Everyone has to cleanse his heart by a gradual process, not abruptly. However, when one transcends the modes of material nature and is fully situated in Ka consciousness, he can perform anything and everything under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master. In that complete stage of Ka consciousness, the katriya may act as a brhmaa, or a brhmaa may act as a katriya. In the transcendental stage, the distinctions of the material world do not apply. For example, Vivmitra was originally a katriya, but later on he acted as a brhmaa, whereas Paraurma was a brhmaa, but later on he acted as a katriya. Being transcendentally situated, they could do so; but as long as one is on the material platform, he must perform his duties according to the modes of material nature. At the same time, he must have a full sense of Ka consciousness. TEXT 36 arjuna uvca atha kena prayukto 'ya ppa carati prua anicchann api vreya bald iva niyojita arjuna uvca Arjuna said; atha hereafter; kena by what; prayukta impelled; ayam one; ppam sins; carati acts; prua a man; anicchan without desiring; api although; vreya O descendant of Vi; balt by force; iva as if; niyojita engaged. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: O descendant of Vi, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force? PURPORT A living entity, as part and parcel of the Supreme, is originally spiritual, pure, and free from all material contaminations. Therefore, by nature he is not subjected to the sins of the material world. But when he is in contact with the material nature, he acts in many sinful ways without hesitation, and sometimes even against his will. As such, Arjuna's question to Ka is very sanguine, as to the perverted nature of the living entities. Although the living entity sometimes does not want to act in sin, he is still forced to act. Sinful actions are not, however, impelled by the Supersoul within, but are due to another cause, as the Lord explains in the next verse. TEXT 37 r-bhagavn uvca kma ea krodha ea rajogua-samudbhava mah-ano mah-ppm viddhy enam iha vairiam r bhagavn uvca the Personality of Godhead said; kma lust; ea all these; krodha wrath; ea all these; rajo-gua the mode of passion; samudbhava born of; mah-ana all-devouring; mah-ppm greatly sinful; viddhi know; enam this; iha in the material world; vairiam greatest enemy. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world. PURPORT When a living entity comes in contact with the material creation, his eternal love for Ka is transformed into lust, in association with the mode of passion. Or, in other words, the sense of love of God becomes transformed into lust, as milk in contact with sour tamarind is transformed into yogurt. Then again, when lust is unsatisfied, it turns into wrath; wrath is transformed into illusion, and illusion continues the material existence. Therefore, lust is the greatest enemy of the living entity, and it is lust only which induces the pure living entity to remain entangled in the material world. Wrath is the manifestation of the mode of ignorance; these modes exhibit themselves as wrath and other corollaries. If, therefore, the modes of passion, instead of being degraded into the modes of ignorance, are elevated to the modes of goodness by the prescribed method of Iiving and acting, then one can be saved from the degradation of wrath by spiritual attachment. The Supreme Personality of Godhead expanded Himself into many for His ever-increasing spiritual bliss, and the living entities are parts and parcels of this spiritual bliss. They also have partial independence, but by misuse of their independence, when the service attitude is transformed into the propensity for sense enjoyment, they come under the sway of lust. This material creation is created by the Lord to give a facility to the conditioned souls to fulfill these lustful propensities, and when they are completely baffled by prolonged lustful activities, the living entities begin to inquire about their real position. This inquiry is the beginning of the Vednta-stras, wherein it is said, athto brahma-jijs: one should inquire into the Supreme. And the Supreme is defined in rmad-Bhgavatam as janmdyasya yato 'nvayd itarata ca, or, "The origin of everything is the Supreme Brahman." Therefore, the origin of lust is also in the Supreme. If, therefore, lust is transformed into love for the Supreme, or transformed into Ka consciousnessor, in other words, desiring everything for Kathen bothlust and wrath can be spiritualized. Hanumn, the great servitor of Lord Rama, engaged his wrath upon his enemies for the satisfaction of the Lord. Therefore, lust and wrath, when they are employed in Ka consciousness, become our friends instead of our enemies. TEXT 38 dhmenvriyate vahnir yathdaro malena ca yatholbenvto garbhas tath tenedam vtam dhmena by smoke; vriyate covered; vahni fire; yath just as; dara mirror; malena by dust; ca also; yath just as; ulbena by the womb; vta is covered; garbha embryo; tath-so; tena by that lust; idam this; vtam is covered. TRANSLATION As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, similarly, the living entity is covered by different degrees of this lust. PURPORT There are three degrees of covering of the living entity by which his pure consciousness is obscured. This covering is but lust under different manifestations like smoke in the fire, dust on the mirror, and the womb about the embryo. When lust is compared to smoke, it is understood that the fire of the living spark can be a little perceived. In other words, when the living entity exhibits his Ka consciousness slightly, he may be likened to the fire covered by smoke. Although fire is necessary where there is smoke, there is no overt manifestation of fire in the early stage. This stage is like the beginning of Ka consciousness. The dust on the mirror refers to a cleansing process of the mirror of the mind by so many spiritual methods. The best process is to chant the holy names of the Lord. The embryo covered by the womb is an analogy illustrating a helpless position, for the child in the womb is so helpless that he cannot even move. This stage of living condition can be compared to that of the trees. The trees are also living entities, but they have been put in such a condition of life by such a great exhibition of lust that they are almost void of all consciousness. The covered mirror is compared to the birds and beasts, and the smoke covered fire is compared to the human being. In the form of a human being, the living entity may revive a little Ka consciousness, and, if he makes further development, the fire of spiritual life can be kindled in the human form of life. By careful handling of the smoke in the fire, the fire can be made to blaze. Therefore the human form of life is a chance for the living entity to escape the entanglement of material existence. In the human form of life, one can conquer the enemy, lust, by cultivation of Ka consciousness under able guidance. TEXT 39 vta jnam etena jnino nitya-vairi kma-rpea kaunteya duprenalena ca vtam covered; jnam pure consciousness; etena by this; jnina of the knower; nitya-vairi eternal enemy; kma-rpea in the form of lust; kaunteya O son of Kunt; duprea never to be satisfied; analena by the fire; ca also. TRANSLATION Thus, a man's pure consciousness is covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire. PURPORT It is said in the Manu-smti that lust cannot be satisfied by any amount of sense enjoyment, just as fire is never extinguished by a constant supply of fuel. In the material world, the center of all activities is sex, and thus this material world is called maithuya-gra, or the shackles of sex life. In the ordinary prison house, criminals are kept within bars; similarly, the criminals who are disobedient to the laws of the Lord are shackled by sex life. Advancement of material civilization on the basis of sense gratification means increasing the duration of the material existence of a living entity. Therefore, this lust is the symbol of ignorance by which the living entity is kept within the material world. While one enjoys sense gratification, it may be that there is some feeling of happiness, but actually that so-called feeling of happiness is the ultimate enemy of the sense enjoyer. TEXT 40 indriyi mano buddhir asydhihnam ucyate etair vimohayaty ea jnam vtya dehinam indriyi the senses; mana the mind; buddhi the intelligence; asya of the lust; adhihnam sitting place; ucyate called; etai by all these; vimohayati bewilders; ea of this; jnam knowledge; vtya covering; dehinam the embodied. TRANSLATION The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust, which veils the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him. PURPORT The enemy has captured different strategic positions in the body of the conditioned soul, and therefore Lord Ka is giving hints of those places, so that one who wants to conquer the enemy may know where he can be found. Mind is the center of all the activities of the senses, and thus the mind is the reservoir of all ideas of sense gratification; and, as a result, the mind and the senses become the repositories of lust. Next, the intelligence department becomes the capital of such lustful propensities. Intelligence is the immediate next-door neighbor of the spirit soul. Lusty intelligence influences the spirit soul to acquire the false ego and identify itself with matter, and thus with the mind and senses. The spirit soul becomes addicted to enjoying the material senses and mistakes this as true happiness. This false identification of the spirit soul is very nicely explained in the rmad-Bhgavatam: yasytma-buddhi kupe tri-dhtuke sva-dh kalatrdiu bhauma idyadh yat-trtha-buddhi salite na karhicij janev abhijeu sa eva gokhara. "A human being who identifies this body made of three elements with his self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who considers the land of birth as worshipable, and who goes to the place of pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered as an ass or a cow." TEXT 41 tasmt tvam indriyy dau niyamya bharatarabha ppmna prajahi hy ena jna-vijna-nanam tasmt therefore; tvam-you; indriyi senses; dau in the beginning; niyamya by regulating; bharatarabha O chief amongst the descendants of Bharata; ppmnam the great symbol of sin; prajahi curb; hi certain ly; enam this; jna knowledge; vijna scientific knowledge of the pure soul; nanam destroyer. TRANSLATION Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bhratas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization. PURPORT The Lord advised Arjuna to regulate the senses from the very beginning so that he could curb the greatest sinful enemy, lust, which destroys the urge for self-realization, and specifically, knowledge of the self. Jnam refers to knowledge of self as distinguished from non-self, or, in other words, knowledge that the spirit soul is not the body. Vijnam refers to specific knowledge of the spirit soul and knowledge of one's constitutional position and his relationship to the Supreme Soul. It is explained thus in the rmad- Bhgavatam: jna parama-guhya me yad-vijna- samanvitam / sarahasya tad-aga ca ghna gadita may: "The knowledge of the self and the Supreme Self is very confidential and mysterious, being veiled by my , but such knowledge and specific realization can be understood if it is explained by the Lord Himself." Bhagavad-gt gives us that knowledge, specifically knowledge of the self. The living entities are parts and parcels of the Lord, and therefore they are simply meant to serve the Lord. This consciousness is called Ka consciousness. So, from the very beginning of life one has to learn this Ka consciousness, and thereby one may become fully Ka conscious and act accordingly. Lust is only the perverted reflection of the love of God which is natural for every living entity. But if one is educated in Ka consciousness from the very beginning, that natural love of God cannot deteriorate into lust. When love of God deteriorates into lust, it is very difficult to return to the normal condition. Nonetheless, Ka consciousness is so powerful that even a late beginner can become a lover of God by following the regulative principles of devotional service. So, from any stage of life, or from the time of understanding its urgency, one can begin regulating the senses in Ka consciousness, devotional service of the Lord, and turn the lust into love of Godhead the highest perfectional stage of human life. TEXT 42 indriyi pary hur indriyebhya para mana manasas tu par buddhir yo buddhe paratas tu sa indriy senses; pari superior; hu is said; indriyebhya more than the senses; param superior; mana the mind; manasa more than the mind; tu also; par superior; buddhi intelligence; ya one which; buddhe more than the intelligence; parata superior; tu but; sa he. TRANSLATION The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence. PURPORT The senses are different outlets for the activities of lust. Lust is reserved within the body, but it is given vent through the senses. Therefore, the senses are superior to the body as a whole. These outlets are not in use when there is superior consciousness, or Ka consciousness. In Ka consciousness the soul makes direct connection with the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore the bodily functions, as described here, ultimately end in the Supreme Soul. Bodily action means the functions of the senses, and stopping the senses means stopping all bodily actions. But since the mind is active, then, even though the body may be silent and at rest, the mind will act as it does during dreaming. But, above the mind there is the determination of the intelligence, and above the intelligence is the soul proper. If, therefore, the soul is directly engaged with the Supreme, naturally all other subordinates, namely, the intelligence, mind and the senses, will be automatically engaged. In the Kaha Upaniad there is a passage in which it is said that the objects of sense gratification are superior to the senses, and mind is superior to the sense objects. If, therefore, the mind is directly engaged in the service of the Lord constantly, then there is no chance of the senses becoming engaged in other ways. This mental attitude has already been explained. If the mind is engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord, there is no chance of its being engaged in the lower propensities. In the Kaha Upaniad the soul has been described as mahn, the great. Therefore the soul is above all namely, the sense objects, the senses, the mind and the intelligence. Therefore, directly understanding the constitutional position of the soul is the solution of the whole problem. With intelligence one has to seek out the constitutional position of the soul and then engage the mind always in Ka consciousness. That solves the whole problem. A neophyte spiritualist is generally advised to keep aloof from the objects of senses. One has to strengthen the mind by use of intelligence. If by intelligence one engages one's mind in Ka consciousness, by complete surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then, automatically, the mind becomes stronger, and even though the senses are very strong, like serpents, they will be no more effective than serpents with broken fangs. But even though the soul is the master of intelligence and mind, and the senses also, still, unless it is strengthened by association with Ka in Ka consciousness, there is every chance of falling down due to the agitated mind. TEXT 43 eva buddhe para buddhv sastabhytmnam tman jahi atru mah-bho kma-rpa dursadam evam thus; buddhe of intelligence; param superior; buddhv so knowing; sastabhya by steadying; tmnam the mind; tman by deliberate intelligence; jahi conquer; atrum the enemy; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; kma-rpam the form of lust; dursadam formidable. TRANSLATION Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence, one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus by spiritual strengthconquer this insatiable enemy known as lust. PURPORT This Third Chapter of the Bhagavad-gt is conclusively directive to Ka consciousness by knowing oneself as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without considering impersonal voidness as the ultimate end. In the material existence of life, one is certainly influenced by propensities for lust and desire for dominating the resources of material nature. Desire for overlording and sense gratification are the greatest enemies of the conditioned soul; but by the strength of Ka consciousness, one can control the material senses, the mind and the intelligence. One may not give up work and prescribed duties all of a sudden; but by gradually developing Ka consciousness, one can be situated in a transcendental position without being influenced by the material senses and the mindby steady intelligence directed toward one's pure identity. This is the sum total of this chapter. In the immature stage of material existence, philosophical speculations and artificial attempts to control the senses by the so-called practice of yogic postures can never help a man toward spiritual life. He must be trained in Ka consciousness by higher intelligence. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Third Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Karma-yoga, or the Discharge of One's Prescribed Duty in Ka Consciousness. Chapter-4 CHAPTER FOUR Transcendental Knowledge TEXT 1 r bhagavn uvca ima vivasvate yoga proktavn aham avyayam vivasvn manave prha manur ikvkave 'bravt r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; imam this; vivasvate unto the sun-god; yogam the science of one's relationship to the Supreme; proktavn instructed; aham I; avyayam imperishable; vivasvn Vivasvn (the sun-god's name); manave unto the father of mankind (of the name Vaivasvata); prha told; manu the father of mankind; ikvkave unto King Ikvku; abravt said. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvn, and Vivasvn instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikvku. PURPORT Herein we find the history of the Bhagavad-gt traced from a remote time when it was delivered to the royal order, the kings of all planets. This science is especially meant for the protection of the inhabitants, and therefore the royal order should understand it in order to be able to rule the citizens and protect them from the material bondage to lust. Human life is meant for cultivation of spiritual knowledge, in eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the executive heads of all states and all planets are obliged to impart this lesson to the citizens by education, culture and devotion. In other words, the executive heads of all states are intended to spread the science of Ka consciousness so that the people may take advantage of this great science and pursue a successful path, utilizing the opportunity of the human form of life. In this millennium, the sun-god is known as Vivasvn, the king of the sun, which is the origin of all planets within the solar system. In the Brahma- sahit it is stated: yac-cakur ea savit sakala-grah rj samasta-sura-mrttir aea-tej yasyjay bhramati sambhta-klacakro govindam di-purua tam aha bhajmi "Let me worship," Lord Brahm said, "the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Ka], who is the original person and under whose order the sun, which is the king of all planets, is assuming immense power and heat. The sun represents the eye of the Lord and traverses its orbit in obedience to His order." The sun is the king of the planets, and the sun-god (at present of the name Vivasvn) rules the sun planet, which is controlling all other planets by supplying heat and light. He is rotating under the order of Ka, and Lord Ka originally made Vivasvn His first disciple to understand the science of Bhagavad-gt. The Gt is not, therefore, a speculative treatise for the insignificant mundane scholar but is a standard book of knowledge coming down from time immemorial. In the Mahbhrata (nti-parva 348.51-52) we can trace out the history of the Gt as follows: tret-yugdau ca tato vivasvn manave dadau manu ca loka-bhty-artha sutyekvkave dadau ikvku ca kathito vypya lokn avasthit "In the beginning of the Tret-yuga [millennium] this science of the relationship with the Supreme was delivered by Vivasvn to Manu. Manu, being the father of mankind, gave it to his son Mahrja Ikvku, the King of this earth planet and forefather of the Raghu dynasty in which Lord Rmacandra appeared. Therefore, Bhagavad-gt existed in the human society from the time of Mahrja Ikvku." At the present moment we have just passed through five thousand years of the Kali-yuga, which lasts 432,000 years. Before this there was Dvpara- yuga (800,000 years), and before that there was Tret-yuga (1,200,000 years). Thus, some 2,005,000 years ago, Manu spoke the Bhagavad-gt to his disciple and son Mahrja lkvku, the King of this planet earth. The age of the current Manu is calculated to last some 305,300,000 years, of which 120,400,000 have passed. Accepting that before the birth of Manu, the Gt was spoken by the Lord to His disciple, the sun-god Vivasvn, a rough estimate is that the Gt was spoken at least 120,400,000 years ago; and in human society it has been extant for two million years. It was respoken by the Lord again to Arjuna about five thousand years ago. That is the rough estimate of the history of the Gta, according to the Gt itself and according to the version of the speaker, Lord r Ka. It was spoken to the sun-god Vivasvn because he is also a katriya and is the father of all katriyas who are descendants of the sun-god, or the srya-vaa katriyas. Because Bhagavad-gt is as good as the Vedas, being spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this knowledge is apaurueya, superhuman. Since the Vedic instructions are accepted as they are, without human interpretation, the Gt must therefore be accepted without mundane interpretation. The mundane wranglers may speculate on the Gt in their own ways, but that is not Bhagavad-gt as it is. Therefore, Bhagavad- gt has to be accepted as it is, from the disciplic succession, and it is described herein that the Lord spoke to the sun-god, the sun-god spoke to his son Manu, and Manu spoke to his son Ikvku. TEXT 2 eva parampar-prptam ima rjarayo vidu sa kleneha mahat yogo naa parantapa evam thus; parampar disciplic succession; prptam received; imam this science; rjaraya the saintly kings; vidu understood; sa that knowledge; klena in the course of time; iha in this world; mahat by great; yoga the science of one's relationship with the Supreme; naa scattered; parantapa O Arjuna, subduer of the enemies. TRANSLATION This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost. PURPORT It is clearly stated that the Gt was especially meant for the saintly kings because they were to execute its purpose in ruling over the citizens. Certainly Bhagavad-gt was never meant for the demonic persons, who would dissipate its value for no one's benefit and would devise all types of interpretations according to personal whims. As soon as the original purpose was scattered by the motives of the unscrupulous commentators, there arose the need to reestablish the disciplic succession. Five thousand years ago it was detected by the Lord Himself that the disciplic succession was broken, and therefore He declared that the purpose of the Gt appeared to be lost. In the same way, at the present moment also there are so many editions of the Gt (especially in English), but almost all of them are not according to authorized disciplic succession. There are innumerable interpretations rendered by different mundane scholars, but almost all of them do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, although they make a good business on the words of r Ka. This spirit is demonic, because demons do not believe in God but simply enjoy the property of the Supreme. Since there is a great need of an edition of the Gt in English, as it is received by the parampar (disciplic succession) system, an attempt is made herewith to fulfill this great want. Bhagavad-gt accepted as it isis a great boon to humanity; but if it is accepted as a treatise of philosophical speculations, it is simply a waste of time. TEXT 3 sa evya may te 'dya yoga prokta purtana bhakto 'si me sakh ceti rahasya hy etad uttamam sa the same ancient; eva certainly; ayam this; may by Me; te unto you; adya today; yoga the science of yoga; prokta spoken; purtana very old; bhakta devotee; asi you are; me My; sakh friend; ca also; iti therefore; rahasyam mystery; hi certainly; etat this; uttamam transcendental. TRANSLATION That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend; therefore you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science. PURPORT There are two classes of men, namely the devotee and the demon. The Lord selected Arjuna as the recipient of this great science owing to his becoming the devotee of the Lord, but for the demon it is not possible to understand this great mysterious science. There are a number of editions of this great book of knowledge, and some of them have commentaries by the devotees, and some of them have commentaries by the demons. Commentation by the devotees is real, whereas that of the demons is useless. Arjuna accepts r Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and any commentary on the Gt following in the footsteps of Arjuna is real devotional service to the cause of this great science. The demonic, however, concoct something about Ka and mislead the public and general readers from the path of Ka's instructions. One should try to follow the disciplic succession from Arjuna, and thus be benefitted. TEXT 4 arjuna uvca apara bhavato janma para janma vivasvata katham etad vijny tvam dau proktavn iti arjuna uvca Arjuna said; aparam junior; bhavata Your; janma birth; param superior; janma birth; vivasvata of the sun-god; katham how; etat this; vijnym shall I understand; tvam You; dau in the beginning; proktavn instructed; iti thus. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: The sun-god Vivasvn is senior by birth to You. How am I to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to him? PURPORT Arjuna is an accepted devotee of the Lord, so how could he not believe Ka's words? The fact is that Arjuna is not inquiring for himself but for those who do not believe in the Supreme Personality of Godhead or for the demons who do not like the idea that Ka should be accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead; for them only Arjuna inquires on this point, as if he were himself not aware of the Personality of Godhead, or Ka. As it will be evident from the Tenth Chapter, Arjuna knew perfectly well that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the fountainhead of everything and the last word in Transcendence. Of course, Ka also appeared as the son of Devak on this earth. How Ka remained the same Supreme Personality of Godhead, the eternal, original person, is very difficult for an ordinary man to understand. Therefore, to clarify this point, Arjuna put this question before Ka so that He Himself could speak authoritatively. That Ka is the supreme authority is accepted by the whole world, not only at present, but from time immemorial, and the demons alone reject Him. Anyway, since Ka is the authority accepted by all, Arjuna put this question before Him in order that Ka would describe Himself without being depicted by the demons who always try to distort Him in a way understandable to the demons and their followers. It is necessary that everyone, for his own interest, know the science of Ka. Therefore, when Ka Himself speaks about Himself, it is auspicious for all the worlds. To the demons, such explanations by Ka Himself may appear to be strange because the demons always study Ka from their own standpoint, but those who are devotees heartily welcome the statements of Ka when they are spoken by Ka Himself. The devotees will always worship such authoritative statements of Ka because they are always eager to know more and more about Him. The atheists, who consider Ka an ordinary man, may in this way come to know that Ka is superhuman, that He is sac-cid-nanda-vigraha the eternal form of bliss and knowledge that He is transcendental, and that He is above the domination of the modes of material nature and above the influence of time and space. A devotee of Ka's, like Arjuna, is undoubtedly above any misunderstanding of the transcendental position of Ka. Arjuna's putting this question before the Lord is simply an attempt by the devotee to defy the atheistic attitude of persons who consider Ka to be an ordinary human being subject to the modes of material nature. TEXT 5 r bhagavn uvca bahni me vyattni janmni tava crjuna tny aha veda sarvi na tva vettha parantapa r bhagavn uvca the Personality of Godhead said; bahni many; me of Mine; vyattni have passed; janmni births; tava of yours; ca and also; arjuna O Arjuna; tni all those; aham I; veda do know; sarvi all; na not; tvam yourself; vettha know; parantapa O subduer of the enemy. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy! PURPORT In the Brahma-sahit we have information of many, many incarnations of the Lord. It is stated there: advaitam acyutam andim ananta-rpam dya pura-purua nava-yauvana ca vedeu durllabham adurllabham tma-bhaktau govindam di-purua tam aha bhajmi. (Bs. 5.33) "I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Ka], who is the original personabsolute, infallible, without beginning, although expanded into unlimited forms, still the same original, the oldest, and the person always appearing as a fresh youth. Such eternal, blissful, all- knowing forms of the Lord are usually understood by the best Vedic scholars, but they are always manifest to pure, unalloyed devotees." It is also stated in Brahma-sahit: rmdi mrttiu kal-niyamena tihan nnvatram akarod bhuvaneu kintu ka svaya samabhavat parama pumn yo govindam di-purua tam aha bhajmi (Bs. 5.39) "I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Ka], who is always situated in various incarnations such as Rma, Nsiha and many sub- incarnations as well, but who is the original Personality of Godhead known as Ka, and who incarnates personally also." In the Vedas also it is said that the Lord, although one without a second, nevertheless manifests Himself in innumerable forms. He is like the vaidurya stone, which changes color yet still remains one. All those multi- forms are understood by the pure, unalloyed devotees, but not by a simple study of the Vedas: vedeu durllabham adurllabham tma-bhaktau. Devotees like Arjuna are constant companions of the Lord, and whenever the Lord incarnates, the associate devotees also incarnate in order to serve the Lord in different capacities. Arjuna is one of these devotees, and in this verse it is understood that some millions of years ago when Lord Ka spoke the Bhagavad-gt to the sun-god Vivasvn, Arjuna, in a different capacity, was also present. But the difference between the Lord and Arjuna is that the Lord remembered the incidence, whereas Arjuna could not remember. That is the difference between the part and parcel living entity and the Supreme Lord. Although Arjuna is addressed herein as the mighty hero who could subdue the enemies, he is unable to recall what had happened in his various past births. Therefore, a living entity, however great he may be in the material estimation, can never equal the Supreme Lord. Anyone who is a constant companion of the Lord is certainly a liberated person, but he cannot be equal to the Lord. The Lord is described in the Brahma- sahit as infallible (acyuta), which means that He never forgets Himself, even though He is in material contact. Therefore, the Lord and the living entity can never be equal in all respects, even if the living entity is as liberated as Arjuna. Although Arjuna is a devotee of the Lord, he sometimes forgets the nature of the Lord, but by the divine grace a devotee can at once understand the infallible condition of the Lord, whereas a nondevotee or a demon cannot understand this transcendental nature. Consequently these descriptions in the Gt cannot be understood by demonic brains. Ka remembered acts which were performed by Him millions of years before, but Arjuna could not, despite the fact that both Ka and Arjuna are eternal in nature. We may also note herein that a living entity forgets everything due to his change of body, but the Lord remembers because He does not change His sac-cid-nanda body. He is advaita, which means there is no distinction between His body and Himself. Everything in relation to Him is spiritwhereas the conditioned soul is different from his material body. And, because the Lord's body and self are identical, His position is always different from the ordinary living entity, even when He descends to the material platform. The demons cannot adjust themselves to this transcendental nature of the Lord, as the Lord explains in the following verse. TEXT 6 ajo 'pi sann avyaytm bhtnm varo 'pi san prakti svm adhihya sambhavmy tma-myay aja unborn; api although; san being so; avyaya without deterioration; tm body; bhtnm all those who are born; vara the Supreme Lord; api although; san being so; praktim transcendental form; svm of Myself; adhihya being so situated; sambhavmi I do incarnate; tma-myay by My internal energy. TRANSLATION Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form. PURPORT The Lord has spoken about the peculiarity of His birth: although He may appear like an ordinary person, He remembers everything of His many, many past "births," whereas a common man cannot remember what he has done even a few hours before. If someone is asked what he did exactly at the same time one day earlier, it would be very difficult for a common man to answer immediately. He would surely have to dredge his memory to recall what he was doing exactly at the same time one day before. And yet, men often dare claim to be God, or Ka. One should not be misled by such meaningless claims. Then again, the Lord explains His prakti or His form. Prakti means nature as well as svarpa, or one's own form. The Lord says that He appears in His own body. He does not change His body, as the common living entity changes from one body to another. The conditioned soul may have one kind of body in the present birth, but he has a different body in the next birth. In the material world, the living entity has no fixed body but transmigrates from one body to another. The Lord, however, does not do so. Whenever He appears, He does so in the same original body, by His internal potency. In other words, Ka appears in this material world in His original eternal form, with two hands, holding a flute. He appears exactly in His eternal body, uncontaminated by this material world. Although He appears in the same transcendental body and is Lord of the universe, it still appears that He takes His birth like an ordinary living entity. Despite the fact Lord Ka grows from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth, astonishingly enough He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kuruketra, He had many grandchildren at home; or, in other words, He had sufficiently aged by material calculations. Still He looked just like a young man twenty or twenty- five years old. We never see a picture of Ka in old age because He never grows old like us, although He is the oldest person in the whole creationpast, present, and future. Neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. Therefore, it is clear that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence. Factually, His appearance and disappearance are like the sun's rising, moving before us, and then disappearing from our eyesight. When the sun is out of sight, we think that the sun is set, and when the sun is before our eyes, we think that the sun is on the horizon. Actually, the sun is always in its fixed position, but owing to our defective, insufficient senses, we calculate the appearance and disappearance of the sun in the sky. And, because His appearance and disappearance are completely different from that of any ordinary, common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal, blissful knowledge by His internal potencyand He is never contaminated by material nature. The Vedas also confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn, yet He still appears to take His birth in multi- manifestations. The Vedic supplementary literatures also confirm that even though the Lord appears to be taking His birth, He is still without change of body. In the Bhgavatam, He appears before His mother as Nryaa, with four hands and the decorations of the six kinds of full opulences. His appearance in His original eternal form is His causeless mercy, according to the Vivakoa dictionary. The Lord is conscious of all of His previous appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets everything about his past body as soon as he gets another body. He is the Lord of all living entities because He performs wonderful and superhuman activities while He is on this earth. Therefore, the Lord is always the same Absolute Truth and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body. A question may now be raised as to why the Lord appears and disappears in this world. This is explained in the next verse. TEXT 7 yad yad hi dharmasya glnir bhavati bhrata abhyutthnam adharmasya tadtmna sjmy aham yad whenever; yad wherever; hi certainly; dharmasya of religion; glni discrepancies; bhavati manifested, becomes; bhrata O descendant of Bharata; abhyutthnam predominance; adharmasya of irreligion; tad at that time; tmnam self; sjmi manifest; aham I. TRANSLATION Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligionat that time I descend Myself. PURPORT The word sjmi is significant herein. Sjmi cannot be used in the sense of creation. because, according to the previous verse, there is no creation of the Lord's form or body, since all of the forms are eternally existent. Therefore sjmi means that the Lord manifests Himself as He is. Although the Lord appears on schedule, namely at the end of Dvpara-yuga of the twenty-eighth millennium of the eighth Manu, in one day of Brahm, still He has no obligation to adhere to such rules and regulations because He is completely free to act in many ways at His will. He therefore appears by His own will whenever there is a predominance of irreligiosity and a disappearance of true religion. Principles of religion are laid down in the Vedas, and any discrepancy in the matter of properly executing the rules of the Vedas makes one irreligious. In the Bhgavatam it is stated that such principles are the laws of the Lord. Only the Lord can manufacture a system of religion. The Vedas are also accepted as originally spoken by the Lord Himself to Brahm, from within his heart. Therefore, the principles of dharma, or religion, are the direct orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (dharma tu skt-bhagavat- pratam). These principles are clearly indicated throughout the Bhagavad- gt. The purpose of the Vedas is to establish such principles under the order of the Supreme Lord, and the Lord directly orders, at the end of the Gt , that the highest principle of religion is to surrender unto Him only, and nothing more. The Vedic principles push one towards complete surrender unto Him; and, whenever such principles are disturbed by the demonic, the Lord appears. From the Bhgavatam we understand that Lord Buddha is the incarnation of Ka who appeared when materialism was rampant and materialists were using the pretext of the authority of the Vedas. Although there are certain restrictive rules and regulations regarding animal sacrifice for particular purposes in the Vedas, people of demonic tendency still took to animal sacrifice without reference to the Vedic principles. Lord Buddha appeared to stop this nonsense and to establish the Vedic principles of nonviolence. Therefore each and every avatra, or incarnation of the Lord, has a particular mission, and they are all described in the revealed scriptures. No one should be accepted as an avatra unless he is referred to by scriptures. It is not a fact that the Lord appears only on Indian soil. He can advent Himself anywhere and everywhere, and whenever He desires to appear. In each and every incarnation, He speaks as much about religion as can be understood by the particular people under their particular circumstances. But the mission is the same to lead people to God consciousness and obedience to the principles of religion. Sometimes He descends personally, and sometimes He sends His bona fide representative in the form of His son, or servant, or Himself in some disguised form. The principles of the Bhagavad-gt were spoken to Arjuna, and, for that matter, to other highly elevated persons, because he was highly advanced compared to ordinary persons in other parts of the world. Two plus two equals four is a mathematical principle that is true both in the beginner's arithmetic class and in the advanced class as well. Still, there are higher and lower mathematics. In all incarnations of the Lord, therefore, the same principles are taught, but they appear to be higher and lower in varied circumstances. The higher principles of religion begin with the acceptance of the four orders and the four statuses of social life, as will be explained later. The whole purpose of the mission of incarnations is to arouse Ka consciousness everywhere. Such consciousness is manifest and nonmanifest only under different circumstances. TEXT 8 paritrya sdhn vinya ca duktm dharma-sasthpanrthya sambhavmi yuge yuge paritrya for the deliverance; sdhnm of the devotees; vinya for the annihilation; ca also; duktm of the miscreants; dharma principles of religion; sasthpana-arthya to reestablish; sambhavmi I do appear; yuge millennium; yuge after millennium. TRANSLATION In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium. PURPORT According to Bhagavad-gt, a sdhu (holyman) is a man in Ka consciousness. A person may appear to be irreligious, but if he has the qualifications of Ka consciousness wholly and fully, he is to be understood to be a sdhu. And duktam applies to one who doesn't care for Ka consciousness. Such miscreants, or duktam, are described as foolish and the lowest of mankind, even though they may be decorated with mundane education; whereas another person, who is one hundred percent engaged in Ka consciousness, is accepted as sdhu, even though such a person may neither be learned nor well cultured. As far as the atheistic are concerned, it is not necessary for the Supreme Lord to appear as He is to destroy them, as He did with the demons Rvaa and Kasa. The Lord has many agents who are quite competent to vanquish demons. But the Lord especially descends to appease His unalloyed devotees, who are always harassed by the demonic. The demon harasses the devotee, even though the latter may happen to be his kin. Although Prahlda Mahrja was the son of Hirayakaipu, he was nonetheless persecuted by his father; although Devak, the mother of Ka, was the sister of Kasa, she and her husband Vasudeva were persecuted only because Ka was to be born of them. So Lord Ka appeared primarily to deliver Devak, rather than kill Kasa, but both were performed simultaneously. Therefore it is said here that to deliver the devotee and vanquish the demon miscreants, the Lord appears in different incarnations. In the Caitanya-caritmta of Kadsa Kavirja, the following verses summarize these principles of incarnation: si-hetu yei mrti prapace avatare sei vara-mrti 'avatra' nma dhare mytita paravyome savra avasthna vive 'avatri' dhare 'avatra' nma. "The avatra, or incarnation of Godhead, descends from the kingdom of God for material manifestation. And the particular form of the Personality of Godhead who so descends is called an incarnation, or avatra. Such incarnations are situated in the spiritual world, the kingdom of God. When they descend to the material creation, they assume the name avatra." There are various kinds of avatras, such as puruvatras, guvatras, llvatras, aktyvea avatras, manvantara avatras and yugvatras all appearing on schedule all over the universe. But Lord Ka is the primeval Lord, the fountainhead of all avatras. Lord r Ka descends for the specific purposes of mitigating the anxieties of the pure devotees, who are very anxious to see Him in His original Vndvana pastimes. Therefore, the prime purpose of the Ka avatra is to satisfy His unalloyed devotees. The Lord says that He incarnates Himself in every millennium. This indicates that He incarnates also in the age of Kali. As stated in the rmad- Bhgavatam, the incarnation in the age of Kali is Lord Caitanya Mahprabhu, who spread the worship of Ka by the sakrtana movement (congregational chanting of the holy names), and spread Ka consciousness throughout India. He predicted that this culture of sakrtana would be broadcast all over the world, from town to town and village to village. Lord Caitanya as the incarnation of Ka, the Personality of Godhead, is described secretly but not directly in the confidential parts of the revealed scriptures, such as the Upaniads, Mahbhrata, Bhgavatam, etc. The devotees of Lord Ka are much attracted by the sakrtana movement of Lord Caitanya. This avatra of the Lord does not kill the miscreants, but delivers them by the causeless mercy of the Lord. TEXT 9 janma karma ca me divyam eva yo vetti tattvata tyaktv deha punar janma naiti mm eti so 'rjuna janma birth; karma work; ca also; me of Mine; divyam transcendental; evam like this; ya anyone who; vetti knows; tattvata in reality; tyaktv leaving aside; deham this body; puna again; janma birth; na never; eti does attain; mm unto Me; eti does attain; sa he; arjuna O Arjuna. TRANSLATION One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna. PURPORT The Lord's descent from His transcendental abode is already explained in the 6th verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage, and therefore he returns to the kingdom of God immediately after quitting this present material body. Such liberation of the living entity from material bondage is not at all easy. The impersonalists and the yogs attain liberation only after much trouble and many, many births. Even then, the liberation they achievemerging into the impersonal brahmajyoti of the Lordis only partial, and there is the risk of returning again to this material world. But the devotee, simply by understanding the transcendental nature of the body and activities of the Lord, attains the abode of the Lord after ending this body and does not run the risk of returning again to this material world. In the Brahma-sahit it is stated that the Lord has many, many forms and incarnations: advaitam acyutam andim ananta-rpam. Although there are many transcendental forms of the Lord, they are still one and the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. One has to understand this fact with conviction, although it is incomprehensible to mundane scholars and empiric philosophers. As stated in the Vedas: eko devo nitya-llnurakto bhakta-vyp hdy antartm. "The one Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternally engaged in many, many transcendental forms in relationships with His unalloyed devotees." This Vedic version is confirmed in this verse of the Gt personally by the Lord. He who accepts this truth on the strength of the authority of the Vedas and of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and who does not waste time in philosophical speculations attains the highest perfectional stage of liberation. Simply by accepting this truth on faith, one can, without a doubt, attain liberation. The Vedic version, "tattvamasi," is actually applied in this case. Anyone who understands Lord Ka to be the Supreme, or who says unto the Lord, "You are the same Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead" is certainly liberated instantly, and consequently his entrance into the transcendental association of the Lord is guaranteed. In other words, such a faithful devotee of the Lord attains perfection, and this is confirmed by the following Vedic assertion: tam eva viditvtimtyumeti nnya panth vidyate ayanya. One can attain the perfect stage of liberation from birth and death simply by knowing the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no alternative because anyone who does not understand Lord Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is surely in the mode of ignorance. Consequently he will not attain salvation, simply, so to speak, by licking the outer surface of the bottle of honey, or by interpreting the Bhagavad-gt according to mundane scholarship. Such empiric philosophers may assume very important roles in the material world, but they are not necessarily eligible for liberation. Such puffed up mundane scholars have to wait for the causeless mercy of the devotee of the Lord. One should therefore cultivate Ka consciousness with faith and knowledge, and in this way attain perfection. TEXT 10 < vta-rga-bhaya-krodh man-may mm uprit bahavo jna-tapas pt mad-bhvam gat vta freed from; rga attachment; bhaya fear; krodh anger; mat- may fully in Me; mm unto Me; uprit being fully situated; bahava many; jna knowledge; tapas by penance; pt being purified; mat-bhvam transcendental love for Me; gat attained. TRANSLATION Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purifled by knowledge of Meand thus they all attained transcendental love for Me. PURPORT As described above, it is very difficult for a person who is too materially affected to understand the personal nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Generally, people who are attached to the bodily conception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful. In the materialistic concept, the body is perishable, full of ignorance and completely miserable. Therefore, people in general keep this same bodily idea in mind when they are informed of the personal form of the Lord. For such materialistic men, the form of the gigantic material manifestation is supreme. Consequently they consider the Supreme to be impersonal. And because they are too materially absorbed, the conception of retaining the personality after liberation from matter frightens them. When they are informed that spiritual life is also individual and personal, they become afraid of becoming persons again, and so they naturally prefer a kind of merging into the impersonal void. Generally, they compare the living entities to the bubbles of the ocean, which merge into the ocean. That is the highest perfection of spiritual existence attainable without individual personality. This is a kind of fearful stage of life, devoid of perfect knowledge of spiritual existence. Furthermore there are many persons who cannot understand spiritual existence at all. Being embarassed by so many theories and by contradictions of various types of philosophical speculation, they become disgusted or angry and foolishly conclude that there is no supreme cause and that everything is ultimately void. Such people are in a diseased condition of life. Some people are too materially attached and therefore do not give attention to spiritual life, some of them want to merge into the supreme spiritual cause, and some of them disbelieve in everything, being angry at all sorts of spiritual speculation out of hopelessness. This last class of men take to the shelter of some kind of intoxication, and their affective hallucinations are sometimes accepted as spiritual vision. One has to get rid of all three stages of attachment to the material world: negligence of spiritual life, fear of a spiritual personal identity, and the conception of void that underlies the frustration of life. To get free from these three stages of the material concept of life, one has to take complete shelter of the Lord, guided by the bona fide spiritual master, and follow the disciplines and regulative principles of devotional life. The last stage of the devotional life is called bhva, or transcendental love of Godhead. According to Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu, the science of devotional service: dau raddh tata sdhu-sago 'tha bhajana-kriy tato 'nartha-nivtti syt tato nih rucis tata athsaktis tato bhvas tata prembhyudacati sdhaknm aya prema prdurbhve bhavet krama. "In the beginning one must have a preliminary desire for self-realization. This will bring one to the stage of trying to associate with persons who are spiritually elevated. In next stage one becomes initiated by an elevated spiritual master, and under his instruction the neophyte devotee begins the process of devotional service. By execution of devotional service under the guidance of the spiritual master, one becomes free from all material attachment, attains steadiness in self-realization, and acquires a taste for hearing about the Absolute Personality of Godhead, r Ka. This taste leads one further forward to attachment for Ka consciousness, which is matured in bhva, or the preliminary stage of transcendental love of God. Real love for God is called prem , the highest perfectional stage of life." In the prem stage there is constant engagement in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. So, by the slow process of devotional service, under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, one can attain the highest stage, being freed from all material attachment, from the fearfulness of one's individual spiritual personality, and from the frustrations resulting from void philosophy. Then one can ultimately attain to the abode of the Supreme Lord. TEXT 11 ye yath m prapadyante ts tathaiva bhajmy aham mama vartmnuvartante manuy prtha sarvaa ye all of them; yath as; mm unto Me; prapadyante surrender; tn unto them; tath so; eva certainly; bhajmi do I reward; aham I; mama My; vartma path; anuvartante do follow; manuy all men; prtha O son of Pth; sarvaa in all respects. TRANSLATION All of themas they surrender unto MeI reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pth. PURPORT Eveyone is searching for Ka in the different aspects of His manifestations. Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is partially realized in His impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence and as the all-pervading Supersoul dwelling within everything, including the particles of atoms. But Ka is only fully realized by His pure devotees. Consequently, Ka is the object of everyone's realization, and thus anyone and everyone is satisfied according to one's desire to have Him. In the transcendental world also, Ka reciprocates with His pure devotees in the transcendental attitude, just as the devotee wants Him. One devotee may want Ka as supreme master, another as his personal friend, another as his son, and still another as his lover. Ka rewards all the devotees equally, according to their different intensities of love for Him. In the material world, the same reciprocations of feelings are there, and they are equally exchanged by the Lord with the different types of worshipers. The pure devotees both here and in the transcendental abode associate with Him in person and are able to render personal service to the Lord and thus derive transcendental bliss in His loving service. As for those who are impersonalists and who want to commit spiritual suicide by annihilating the individual existence of the living entity, Ka helps also by absorbing them into His effulgence. Such impersonalists do not agree to accept the eternal, blissful Personality of Godhead; consequently they cannot relish the bliss of transcendental personal service to the Lord, having extinguished their individuality. Some of them, who are not situated even in the impersonal existence, return to this material field to exhibit their dormant desires for activities. They are not admitted in the spiritual planets, but they are again given a chance to act on the material planets. For those who are fruitive workers, the Lord awards the desired results of their prescribed duties, as the yajevara ; and those who are yogs seeking mystic powers are awarded such powers. In other words, everyone is dependant for success upon His mercy alone, and all kinds of spiritual processes are but different degrees of success on the same path. Unless, therefore, one comes to the highest perfection of Ka consciousness, all attempts remain imperfect, as is stated in the rmad-Bhgavatam: akma sarva-kmo v moka-kma udradh tvrea bhakti-yogena yajeta purua param "Whether one is without desire [the condition of the devotees], or is desirous of all fruitive results, or is after liberation, one should with all efforts try to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead for complete perfection, culminating in Ka consciousness." (Bhg. 2.3.10) TEXT 12 kkanta karma siddhi yajanta iha devat kipra hi mnue loke siddhir bhavati karmaj kkanta desiring; karmam of fruitive activities; siddhim perfection; yajante worship by sacrifices; iha in the material world; devat the demigods; kipram very quickly; hi certainly; mnue in human society; loke within this world; siddhi bhavati becomes successful; karmaj the fruitive worker. TRANSLATION Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world. PURPORT There is a great misconception about the gods or demigods of this material world, and men of less intelligence, although passing as great scholars, take these demigods to be various forms of the Supreme Lord. Actually, the demigods are not different forms of God, but they are God's different parts and parcels. God is one, and the parts and parcels are many. The Vedas say, nityo nitynm: God is one. vara parama ka. The Supreme God is one Kaand the demigods are delegated with powers to manage this material world. These demigods are all living entities (nitynm) with different grades of material power. They cannot be equal to the Supreme GodNryaa, Viu, or Ka. Anyone who thinks that God and the demigods are on the same level is called an atheist, or pa. Even the great demigods like Brahm and iva cannot be compared to the Supreme Lord. In fact, the Lord is worshiped by demigods such as Brahm and iva (iva-virici-nutam). Yet curiously enough there are many human leaders who are worshiped by foolish men under the misunderstanding of anthropomorphism or zoomorphism. Iha devat denotes a powerful man or demigod of this material world. But Nryaa, Viu or Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, does not belong to this world. He is above, or transcendental to, material creation. Even rpda akarcrya, the leader of the impersonalists, maintains that Nryaa, or Ka, is beyond this material creation. However, foolish people ( ht-ajana ) worship the demigods because they want immediate results. They get the results, but do not know that results so obtained are temporary and are meant for less intelligent persons. The intelligent person is in Ka consciousness, and he has no need to worship the paltry demigods for some immediate, temporary benefit. The demigods of this material world, as well as their worshipers, will vanish with the annihilation of this material world. The boons of the demigods are material and temporary. Both the material worlds and their inhabitants, including the demigods, and their worshipers, are bubbles in the cosmic ocean. In this world, however, human society is mad after temporary things such as the material opulence of possessing land, family and enjoyable paraphernalia. To achieve such temporary things, they worship the demigods or powerful men in human society. If a man gets some ministership in the government by worshiping a political leader, he considers that he has achieved a great boon. All of them are therefore kowtowing to the so-called leaders or "big guns" in order to achieve temporary boons, and they indeed achieve such things. Such foolish men are not interested in Ka consciousness for the permanent solution to the hardships of material existence. They are all after sense enjoyment, and to get a little facility for sense enjoyment they are attracted to worship empowered living entities known as demigods. This verse indicates that people are rarely interested in Ka consciousness. They are mostly interested in material enjoyment, and therefore they worship some powerful living entity. TEXT 13 ctur-varya may sa gua-karma-vibhgaa tasya kartram api m viddhy akartram avyayam ctur-varyam the four divisions of human society; may by Me; sam created; gua quality; karma work; vibhgaa in terms of division; tasya of that; kartram the father; api although; mm Me; viddhi you may know; akartram as the non-doer; avyayam being unchangeable. TRANSLATION According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable. PURPORT The Lord is the creator of everything. Everything is born of Him, everything is sustained by Him, and everything, after annihilation, rests in Him. He is therefore the creator of the four divisions of the social order, beginning with the intelligent class of men, technically called brhmaas due to their being situated in the mode of goodness. Next is the administrative class, technically called the katriyas due to their being situated in the mode of passion. The mercantile men, called the vaiyas , are situated in the mixed modes of passion and ignorance, and the dras, or laborer class, are situated in the ignorant mode of material nature. In spite of His creating the four divisions of human society, Lord Ka does not belong to any of these divisions, because He is not one of the conditioned souls, a section of whom form human society. Human society is similar to any other animal society, but to elevate men from the animal status, the abovementioned divisions are created by the Lord for the systematic development of Ka consciousness. The tendency of a particular man toward work is determined by the modes of material nature which he has acquired. Such symptoms of life, according to different modes of material nature, are described in the Eighteenth Chapter of this book. A person in Ka consciousness, however, is above even the brhmaas, because a brhmaa by quality is supposed to know about Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth. Most of them approach the impersonal Brahman manifestation of Lord Ka, but only a man who transcends the limited knowledge of a brhmaa and reaches the knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord r Ka, becomes a person in Ka consciousness-or, in other words, a Vaiava. Ka consciousness includes knowledge of all different plenary expansions of Ka, namely Rma, Nsiha, Varha, etc. However, as Ka is transcendental to this system of the four divisions of human society, a person in Ka consciousness is also transcendental to all divisions of human society, whether we consider the divisions of community, nation or species. TEXT 14 > na m karmi limpanti na me karma-phale sph iti m yo 'bhijnti karmabhir na sa badhyate na never; mm unto Me; karmi all kinds of work; limpanti do affect; na nor; me My; karma-phale in fruitive action; sph aspiration; iti thus; mm unto Me; ya one who; abhijnti does know; karmabhi by the reaction of such work; na never does; sa he; badhyate become entangled. TRANSLATION There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of work. PURPORT As there are constitutional laws in the material world stating that the king can do no wrong, or that the king is not subject to the state laws, similarly the Lord, although He is the creator of this material world, is not affected by the activities of the material world. He creates and remains aloof from the creation, whereas the living entities are entangled in the fruitive results of material activities because of their propensity for lording it over material resources. The proprietor of an establishment is not responsible for the right and wrong activities of the workers, but the workers are themselves responsible. The living entities are engaged in their respective activities of sense gratification, and these activities are not ordained by the Lord. For advancement of sense gratification, the living entities are engaged in the work of this world, and they aspire to heavenly happiness after death. The Lord, being full in Himself, has no attraction for so-called heavenly happiness. The heavenly demigods are only His engaged servants. The proprietor never desires the low-grade happiness such as the workers may desire. He is aloof from the material actions and reactions. For example, the rains are not responsible for different types of vegetation that appear on the earth, although without such rains there is no possibility of vegetative growth. Vedic smti confirms this fact as follows: nimitta-mtram evsau sjyn sarga-karmai pradhna-kra-bht yato vai sjya-aktaya. In the material creations, the Lord is only the supreme cause. The immediate cause is material nature by which the cosmic manifestation is visible. The created beings are of many varieties, such as the demigods, human beings and lower animals, and all of them are subject to the reactions of their past good or bad activities. The Lord only gives them the proper facilities for such activities and the regulations of the modes of nature, but He is never responsible for their past and present activities. In the Vednta-stras it is confirmed that the Lord is never partial to any living entity. The living entity is responsible for his own acts. The Lord only gives him facilities, through the agency of material nature, the external energy. Anyone who is fully conversant with all the intricacies of this law of karma, or fruitive activities, does not become affected by the results of his activities. In other words, the person who understands this transcendental nature of the Lord is an experienced man in Ka consciousness, and thus he is never subjected to the laws of karma. One who does not know the transcendental nature of the Lord and who thinks that the activities of the Lord are aimed at fruitive results, as are the activities of the ordinary living entities, certainly becomes entangled himself in fruitive reaction. But one who knows the Supreme Truth is a liberated soul fixed in Ka consciousness. TEXT 15 eva jtv kta karma prvair api mumukubhi kuru karmaiva tasmt tva prvai prvatara ktam evam thus; jtv knowing well; ktam performed; karma work; prvai by past authorities; api although; mumukubhi who attained liberation; kuru just perform; karma prescribed duty; eva certainly; tasmt therefore; tvam you; prvai by the predecessors; prvataram ancient predecessors; ktam as performed. TRANSLATION All the liberated souls in ancient times acted with this understanding and so attained liberation. Therefore, as the ancients, you should perform your duty in this divine consciousness. PURPORT There are two classes of men. Some of them are full of polluted material things within their hearts, and some of them are materially free. Ka consciousness is equally beneficial for both of these persons. Those who are full of dirty things can take to the line of Ka consciousness for a gradual cleansing process, following the regulative principles of devotional service. Those who are already cleansed of the impurities may continue to act in the same Ka consciousness so that others may follow their exemplary activities and thereby be benefitted. Foolish persons or neophytes in Ka consciousness often want to retire from activities without having knowledge of Ka consciousness. Arjuna's desire to retire from activities on the battlefield was not approved by the Lord. One need only know how to act. To retire from the activities of Ka consciousness and to sit aloof making a show of Ka consciousness, is less important than actually engaging in the field of activities for the sake of Ka. Arjuna is here advised to act in Ka consciousness, following in the footsteps of the Lord's previous disciples, such as the sun-god Vivasvn, as mentioned hereinbefore. The Supreme Lord knows all His past activities, as well as those of persons who acted in Ka consciousness in the past. Therefore He recommends the acts of the sun-god, who learned this art from the Lord some millions of years before. All such students of Lord Ka are mentioned here as past liberated persons, engaged in the discharge of duties allotted by Ka. TEXT 16 ki karma kim akarmeti kavayo 'py atra mohit tat te karma pravakymi yaj jtv mokyase 'ubht kim what is; karma action; kim what is; akarma inaction; iti thus; kavaya the intelligent; api also; atra in this matter; mohit bewildered; tat that; te unto you; karma work; pravakymi I shall explain; yat which; jtv knowing; mokyase be liberated; aubht from ill fortune. TRANSLATION Even the intelligent are bewildered in determining what is action and what is inaction. Now I shall explain to you what action is, knowing which you shall be liberated from all sins. PURPORT Action in Ka consciousness has to be executed in accord with the examples of previous bona fide devotees. This is recommended in the 15th verse. Why such action should not be independant will be explained in the text to follow. To act in Ka consciousness, one has to follow the leadership of authorized persons who are in a line of disciplic succession as explained in the beginning of this chapter. The system of Ka consciousness was first narrated to the sun-god, the sun-god explained it to his son Manu, Manu explained it to his son Ikvku, and the system is current on this earth from that very remote time. Therefore, one has to follow in the footsteps of previous authorities in the line of disciplic succession. Otherwise even the most intelligent men will be bewildered regarding the standard actions of Ka consciousness. For this reason, the Lord decided to instruct Arjuna in Ka consciousness directly. Because of the direct instruction of the Lord to Arjuna, anyone who follows in the footsteps of Arjuna is certainly not bewildered. It is said that one cannot ascertain the ways of religion simply by imperfect experimental knowledge. Actually, the principles of religion can only be laid down by the Lord Himself. Dharma hi skt- bhagavat-pratam. No one can manufacture a religious principle by imperfect speculation. One must follow in the footsteps of great authorities like Brahm, iva, Nrada, Manu, Kumra, Kapila, Prahlda, Bhma, ukadeva Gosvm, Yamarja, Janaka, etc. By mental speculation one cannot ascertain what is religion or self- realization. Therefore, out of causeless mercy to His devotees, the Lord explains directly to Arjuna what action is and what inaction is. Only action performed in Ka consciousness can deliver a person from the entanglement of material existence. TEXT 17 karmao hy api boddhavya boddhavya ca vikarmaa akarmaa ca boddhavya gahan karmao gati karmaa working order; hi certainly; api also; boddhavyam should be understood; boddhavyam to be understood; ca also; vikarmaa forbidden work; akarmaa inaction; ca also; boddhavyam should be understood; gahan very difficult; karmaa working order; gati to enter into. TRANSLATION The intricacies of action are very hard to understand. Therefore one should know properly what action is, what forbidden action is, and what inaction is. PURPORT If one is serious about liberation from material bondage, one has to understand the distinctions between action, inaction and unauthorized actions. One has to apply oneself to such an analysis of action, reaction and perverted actions because it is a very difficult subject matter. To understand Ka consciousness and action according to the modes, one has to learn one's relationship with the Supreme; i.e., one who has learned perfectly knows that every living entity is the eternal servitor of the Lord and that consequently one has to act in Ka consciousness. The entire Bhagavad-gt is directed toward this conclusion. Any other conclusions, against this consciousness and its attendant reactions, are vikarmas, or prohibitive actions. To understand all this one has to associate with authorities in Ka consciousness and learn the secret from them; this is as good as learning from the Lord directly. Otherwise, even the most intelligent person will be bewildered. TEXT 18 karmay akarma ya payed akarmai ca karma ya sa buddhimn manuyeu sa yukta ktsna-karma-kt karmai in action; akarma inaction; ya one who; payet observes; akarmai in inaction; ca also; karma fruitive action; ya one who; sa he; buddhimn is intelligent; manuyeu in human society; sa he; yukta is in the transcendental position; ktsna-karma-kt although engaged in all activities. TRANSLATION One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the tranecendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities. PURPORT A person acting in Ka consciousness is naturally free from the bonds of karma. His activities are all performed for Ka; therefore he does not enjoy or suffer any of the effects of work. Consequently he is intelligent in human society, even though he is engaged in all sorts of activities for Ka. Akarma means without reaction to work. The impersonalist ceases fruitive activities out of fear, so that the resultant action may not be a stumbling block on the path of self-realization, but the personalist knows rightly his position as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore he engages himself in the activities of Ka consciousness. Because everything is done for Ka, he enjoys only transcendental happiness in the discharge of this service. Those who are engaged in this process are known to be without desire for personal sense gratification. The sense of eternal servitorship to Ka makes one immune to all sorts of reactionary elements of work. TEXT 19 yasya sarve samrambh kma-sakalpa-varjit jngni-dagdha-karma tam hu paita budh yasya one whose; sarve all sorts of; samrambh in all attempts; kma desire for sense gratification; sakalpa determination; varjit are devoid of; jna of perfect knowledge; gni fire; dagdha being burnt by; karmam the performer; tam him; hu declare; paitam learned; budh those who know. TRANSLATION One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every act is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker whose fruitive action is burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge. PURPORT Only a person in full knowledge can understand the activities of a person in Ka consciousness. Because the person in Ka consciousness is devoid of all kinds of sense-gratificatory propensities, it is to be understood that he has burned up the reactions of his work by perfect knowledge of his constitutional position as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is actually learned who has attained to such perfection of knowledge. Development of this knowledge of the eternal servitorship of the Lord is compared to fire. Such a fire, once kindled, can burn up all kinds of reactions to work. TEXT 20 tyaktv karma-phalsaga nitya-tpto nirraya karmay abhipravtto 'pi naiva kicit karoti sa tyaktv having given up; karma-phala-sagam attachment for fruitive results; nitya always; tpta being satisfied; nirraya without any center; karmai in activity; abhipravtta being fully engaged; api in spite of; na does not; eva certainly; kicit anything; karoti do; sa he. TRANSLATION Abandoning all attachment to the results of his activities, ever satisfied and independant, he performs no fruitive action, although engaged in all kinds of undertakings. PURPORT This freedom from the bondage of actions is possible only in Ka consciousness when one is doing everything for Ka. A Ka conscious person acts out of pure love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore he has no attraction for the results of the action. He is not even attached to his personal maintenance, for everything is left to Ka. Nor is he anxious to secure things, nor to protect things already in his possession. He does his duty to his best ability and leaves everything to Ka. Such an unattached person is always free from the resultant reactions of good and bad; it is as though he were not doing anything. This is the sign of akarma , or actions without fruitive reactions. Any other action, therefore, devoid of Ka consciousness, is binding upon the worker, and that is the real aspect of vikarma, as explained hereinbefore. TEXT 21 nirr yata-citttm tyakta-sarva-parigraha rra kevala karma kurvan npnoti kilbiam nir without desire for the results; yata controlled; citta-tm mind and intelligence; tyakta giving up; sarva all; parigraha sense of proprietorship over all possessions; rram in keeping body and soul together; kevalam only; karma work; kurvan doing so; na never; pnoti does not acquire; kilbiam sinful reactions. TRANSLATION Such a man of understanding acts with mind and intelligence perfectly controlled, gives up all sense of proprietorship over his possessions and acts only for the bare necessities of life. Thus working, he is not affected by sinful reactions. PURPORT A Ka conscious person does not expect good or bad results in his activities. His mind and intelligence are fully controlled. He knows that he is part and parcel of the Supreme, and therefore the part played by him, as a part and parcel of the whole, is not his by choice but is chosen for him by the Supreme and is done only through His agency. When the hand moves, it does not move out of its own accord, but by the endeavor of the whole body. A Ka conscious person is always dovetailed with the supreme desire, for he has no desire for personal sense gratification. He moves exactly like a part of a machine. As a machine part requires oiling and cleaning for maintenance, similarly, a Ka conscious man maintains himself by his work just to remain fit for action in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. He is therefore immune to all the reactions of his endeavors. Like an animal, he has no proprietorship even over his own body. A cruel proprietor of an animal sometimes kills the animal in his possession, yet the animal does not protest. Nor does it have any real independence. A Ka conscious person, fully engaged in self- realization, has very little time to falsely possess any material object. For maintaining body and soul, he does not require unfair means of accumulating money. He does not, therefore, become contaminated by such material sins. He is free from all reactions to his actions. TEXT 22 yadcch-lbha-santuo dvandvtto vimatsara sama siddhv asiddhau ca ktvpi na nibadhyate yadcch out of its own accord; lbha gain; santua satisfied; dvandva duality; atta surpassed; vimatsara free from envy; sama steady; siddhau in success; asiddhau failure; ca also; ktv doing; api although; na never; nibadhyate is affected. TRANSLATION He who is satisfied with gain which comes of its own accord, who is free from duality and does not envy, who is steady both in success and failure, is never entangled, although performing actions. PURPORT A Ka conscious person does not make much endeavor even to maintain his body. He is satisfied with gains which are obtained of their own accord. He neither begs nor borrows, but he labors honestly as far as is in his power, and is satisfied with whatever is obtained by his own honest labor. He is therefore independent in his livelihood. He does not allow anyone's service to hamper his own service in Ka consciousness. However, for the service of the Lord he can participate in any kind of action without being disturbed by the duality of the material world. The duality of the material world is felt in terms of heat and cold, or misery and happiness. A Ka conscious person is above duality because he does not hesitate to act in any way for the satisfaction of Ka. Therefore he is steady both in success and in failure. These signs are visible when one is fully in transcendental knowledge. TEXT 23 gata-sagasya muktasya jnvasthita-cetasa yajycarata karma samagra pravilyate gata-sagasya unattached to the modes of material nature; muktasya of the liberated; jna-avasthita situated in transcendence; cetasa of such wisdom; yajya for the sake of Yaja (Ka); carata so acting; karma work; samagram in total; pravilyate merges entirely. TRANSLATION The work of a man who is unattached to the modes of material nature and who is fully situated in transcendental knowledge merges entirely into transcendence. PURPORT Becoming fully Ka conscious, one is freed from all dualities and thus is free from the contaminations of the material modes. He can become liberated because he knows his constitutional position in relationship with Ka; and thus his mind cannot be drawn from Ka consciousness. Consequently, whatever he does, he does for Ka, who is the primeval Viu. Therefore, all his works are technically sacrifices because sacrifice involves satisfying the Supreme Person, Ka. The resultant reactions to all such work certainly merge into transcendence, and one does not suffer material effects. TEXT 24 brahmrpaa brahma havir brahmgnau brahma hutam brahmaiva tena gantavya brahma-karma-samdhin brahma spiritual nature; arpaam contribution; brahma the Supreme; havi butter; brahma spiritual; agnau in the fire of consummation; brahma by the spirit soul; hutam offered; brahma spiritual kingdom; eva certainly; tena by him; gantavyam to be reached; brahma spiritual; karma activities; samdhin by complete absorption. TRANSLATION A person who is fully absorbed in Ka consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature. PURPORT How activities in Ka consciousness can lead one ultimately to the spiritual goal is described here. There are various activities in Ka consciousness, and all of them will be described in the following verses. But, for the present, just the principle of Ka consciousness is described. A conditioned soul, entangled in material contamination, is sure to act in the material atmosphere, and yet he has to get out of such an environment. The process by which the conditioned soul can get out of the material atmosphere is Ka consciousness. For example, a patient who is suffering from a disorder of the bowels due to overindulgence in milk products is cured by another milk product, namely curds. The materially absorbed conditioned soul can be cured by Ka consciousness as set forth here in the Gt . This process is generally known as yaja, or activities (sacrifices) simply meant for the satisfaction of Viu or Ka. The more the activities of the material world are performed in Ka consciousness, or for Viu only, the more the atmosphere becomes spiritualized by complete absorption. Brahman means spiritual. The Lord is spiritual, and the rays of His transcendental body are called brahmajyoti, His spiritual effulgence. Everything that exists is situated in that brahmajyoti, but when the jyoti is covered by illusion (my) or sense gratification, it is called material. This material veil can be removed at once by Ka consciousness; thus the offering for the sake of Ka consciousness, the consuming agent of such an offering or contribution, the process of consumption, the contributor, and the result areall combined together Brahman, or the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth covered by my is called matter. Matter dovetailed for the cause of the Absolute Truth regains its spiritual quality. Ka consciousness is the process of converting the illusory consciousness into Brahman, or the Supreme. When the mind is fully absorbed in Ka consciousness, it is said to be in samdhi, or trance. Anything done in such transcendental consciousness is called yaja, or sacrifice for the Absolute. In that condition of spiritual consciousness, the contributor, the contribution, the consumption, the performer or leader of the performance, and the result or ultimate gaineverythingbecomes one in the Absolute, the Supreme Brahman. That is the method of Ka consciousness. TEXT 25 daivam evpare yaja yogina paryupsate brahmgnv apare yaja yajenaivopajuhvati daivam in worshiping the demigods; eva like this; apare some; yajam sacrifices; yogina the mystics; paryupsate worship perfectly; brahma the Absolute Truth; agnau in the fire of; apare others; yajam sacrifice; yajena by sacrifice; eva thus; upajuhvati worship. TRANSLATION Some yogs perfectly worship the demigods by offering different sacrifices to them, and some of them offer sacrffices in the fire of the Supreme Brahman. PURPORT As described above, a person engaged in discharging duties in Ka consciousness is also called a perfect yog or a first-class mystic. But there are others also, who perform similar sacrifices in the worship of demigods, and still others who sacrifice to the Supreme Brahman, or the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord. So there are different kinds of sacrifices in terms of different categories. Such different categories of sacrifice by different types of performers only superficially demark varieties of sacrifice. Factual sacrifice means to satisfy the Supreme Lord, Viu, who is also known as Yaja. All the different varieties of sacrifice can be placed within two primary divisions: namely, sacrifice of worldly possessions and sacrifice in pursuit of transcendental knowledge. Those who are in Ka consciousness sacrifice all material possessions for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, while others, who want some temporary material happiness, sacrifice their material possessions to satisfy demigods such as Indra, the sun-god, etc. And others, who are impersonalists, sacrifice their identity by merging into the existence of impersonal Brahman. The demigods are powerful living entities appointed by the Supreme Lord for the maintenance and supervision of all material functions like the heating, watering and lighting of the universe. Those who are interested in material benefits worship the demigods by various sacrifices according to the Vedic rituals. They are called bahv-vara-vd, or believers in many gods. But others, who worship the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth and regard the forms of the demigods as temporary, sacrifice their individual selves in the supreme fire and thus end their individual existences by merging into the existence of the Supreme. Such impersonalists spend their time in philosophical speculation to understand the transcendental nature of the Supreme. In other words, the fruitive workers sacrifice their material possessions for material enjoyment, whereas the impersonalist sacrifices his material designations with a view to merging into the existence of the Supreme. For the impersonalist, the fire altar of sacrifice is the Supreme Brahman, and the offering is the self being consumed by the fire of Brahman. The Ka conscious person, like Arjuna, however, sacrifices everything for the satisfaction of Ka, and thus all his material possessions as well as his own self everything is sacrificed for Ka. Thus, he is the first-class yog ; but he does not lose his individual existence. TEXT 26 rotrdnndriyy anye sayamgniu juhvati abddn viayn anya indriygniu juhvati rotra-dni hearing process; indriyi senses; anye others; sayama of restraint; agniu in the fire; juhvati offers; abda-dn sound vibration, etc.; viayn objects of sense gratification; anye others: indriya of sense organs; agniu in the fire; juhvati sacrifice. TRANSLATION Some of them sacrifice the hearing process and the senses in the fire of the controlled mind, and others sacrifice the objects of the senses, such as sound, in the fire of sacrifice. PURPORT The four divisions of human life, namely the brahmacr, the ghastha, the vnaprastha, and the sannys, are all meant to help men become perfect yogs or transcendentalists. Since human life is not meant for our enjoying sense gratification like the animals, the four orders of human life are so arranged that one may become perfect in spiritual life. The brahmacrs, or students under the care of a bona fide spiritual master, control the mind by abstaining from sense gratification. They are referred to in this verse as sacrificing the hearing process and the senses in the fire of the controlled mind. A brahmacr hears only words concerning Ka consciousness; hearing is the basic principle for understanding, and therefore the pure brahmacr engages fully in harer nmnukrtanam chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord. He restrains himself from the vibrations of material sounds, and his hearing is engaged in the transcendental sound vibration of Hare Ka, Hare Ka. Similarly, the householders, who have some license for sense gratification, perform such acts with great restraint. Sex life, intoxication and meat eating are general tendencies of human society, but a regulated householder does not indulge in unrestricted sex life and other sense gratifications. Marriage on principles of religious life is therefore current in all civilized human society because that is the way for restricted sex life. This restricted, unattached sex life is also a kind of yaja because the restricted householder sacrifices his general tendency toward sense gratification for higher transcendental life. TEXT 27 sarvndriya-karmi pra-karmi cpare tma-sayama-yoggnau juhvati jna-dpite sarvi all; indriya senses; karmi functions; pra-karmi functions of the life breath; ca also; apare others; tma-sayama controlling the mind; yoga linking process; agnau in the fire of; juhvati offers; jna-dpite because of the urge for self-realization. TRANSLATION Those who are interested in self-realization, in terms of mind and sense control, offer the functions of all the senses, as well as the vital force [breath], as oblations into the fire of the controlled mind. PURPORT The yoga system conceived by Patajali is referred to herein. In the Yoga- stra of Patajali, the soul is called pratyag-tm and parag-tm. As long as the soul is attached to sense enjoyment, it is called parag-tm. The soul is subjected to the functions of ten kinds of air at work within the body, and this is perceived through the breathing system. The Ptajala system of yoga instructs one on how to control the functions of the body's air in a technical manner so that ultimately all the functions of the air within become favorable for purifying the soul of material attachment. According to this yoga system, pratyag tm is the ultimate goal. This pratyag tm is a withdrawal from activities in matter. The senses interact with the sense objects, like the ear for hearing, eyes for seeing, nose for smelling, tongue for tasting, hand for touching, and all of them are thus engaged in activities outside the self. They are called the functions of the pra-vyu. The apna-vyu goes downwards, vyna-vyu acts to shrink and expand, samna-vyu adjusts equilibrium, udna-vyu goes upwardsand when one is enlightened, one engages all these in searching for self-realization. TEXT 28 dravya-yajs tapo-yaj yoga-yajs tathpare svdhyya-jna-yaj ca yataya saita-vrat dravya-yaj sacrificing one's possessions; tapo-yaj sacrifice in austerities; yoga-yaj sacrifice in eightfold mysticism; tath thus; apare others; svdhyya sacrifice in the study of the Vedas; jna- yaj sacrifice in advancement of transcendental knowledge; ca also; yataya enlightened; saita taken to strict; vrat-vows. TRANSLATION There are others who, enlightened by sacrificing their material possessions in severe austerities, take strict vows and practice the yoga of eightfold mysticism, and others study the Vedas for the advancement of transcendental knowledge. PURPORT These sacrifices may be fitted into various divisions. There are persons who are sacrificing their possessions in the form of various kinds of charities. In India, the rich mercantile community or princely orders open various kinds of charitable institutions like dharmal, anna-ketra, atithi-l, anathalaya, vidypha, etc. In other countries, too, there are many hospitals, old age homes and similar charitable foundations meant for distributing food, education and medical treatment free to the poor. All these charitable activities are called dravyamaya-yaja. There are others who, for higher elevation in life or for promotion to higher planets within the universe, voluntarily accept many kinds of austerities such as candryana and cturmsya. These processes entail severe vows for conducting life under certain rigid rules. For example, under the cturmsya vow the candidate does not shave for four months during the year (July to October), he does not eat certain foods, does not eat twice in a day and does not leave home. Such sacrifice of the comforts of life is called tapomaya-yaja. There are still others who engage themselves in different kinds of mystic yogas like the Patajali system (for merging into the existence of the Absolute), or haha-yoga or aga-yoga (for particular perfections). And some travel to all the sanctified places of pilgrimage. All these practices are called yoga-yaja, sacrifice for a certain type of perfection in the material world. There are others who engage themselves in the studies of different Vedic literatures, specifically the Upaniads and Vednta-stras, or the skhya philosophy. All of these are called svdhyya-yaja, or engagement in the sacrifice of studies. All these yogs are faithfully engaged in different types of sacrifice and are seeking a higher status of life. Ka consciousness, is, however, different from these because it is the direct service of the Supreme Lord. Ka consciousness cannot be attained by any one of the above-mentioned types of sacrifices but can be attained only by the mercy of the Lord and His bona fide devotee. Therefore, Ka consciousness is transcendental. TEXT 29 apne juhvati pra pre 'pna tathpare prpna-gat ruddhv pryma-parya apare niyathr prn preu juhvati apne air which acts downward; juhvati offers; pram air which acts outward; pre in the air going outward; apnam air going downward; tath as also; apare others; pra air going outward; apna air going downward; gat movement; ruddhv checking; pryma trance induced by stopping all breathing; parya so inclined; apare others; niyata controlled; hr eating; prn outgoing air; preu in the outgoing air; juhvati sacrifices. TRANSLATION And there are even others who are inclined to the process of breath restraint to remain in trance, and they practice stopping the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and incoming breath into the outgoing, and thus at last remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Some of them, curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath into itself, as a sacrifice. PURPORT This system of yoga for controlling the breathing process is called pryma, and in the beginning it is practiced in the haha-yoga system through different sitting postures. All of these processes are recommended for controlling the senses and for advancement in spiritual realization. This practice involves controlling the air within the body to enable simultaneous passage in opposite directions. The apna air goes downward, and the pra air goes up. The pryma yog practices breathing the opposite way until the currents are neutralized into praka, equilibrium. Similarly, when the exhaled breathing is offered to inhaled breathing, it is called recaka. When both air currents are completely stopped, it is called kumbhaka-yoga. By practice of kumbhaka-yoga, the yogs increase the duration of life by many, many years. A Ka conscious person, however, being always situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, automatically becomes the controller of the senses. His senses, being always engaged in the service of Ka, have no chance of becoming otherwise engaged. So at the end of life, he is naturally transferred to the transcendental plane of Lord Ka; consequently he makes no attempt to increase his longevity. He is at once raised to the platform of liberation. A Ka conscious person begins from the transcendental stage, and he is constantly in that consciousness. Therefore, there is no falling down, and ultimately he enters into the abode of the Lord without delay. The practice of reduced eating is automatically done when one eats only Ka prasdam, or food which is offered first to the Lord. Reducing the eating process is very helpful in the matter of sense control. And without sense control there is no possibility of getting out of the material entanglement. TEXT 30 sarve 'py ete yaja-vido yaja-kapita-kalma yaja-imta-bhujo ynti brahma santanam sarve all; api although apparently different; ete all these; yaja-vida conversant with the purpose of performing; yaja sacrifices; kapita being cleansed of the result of such performances; kalma sinful reactions; yaja-ia as a result of such performances of yaja ; amta-bhuja those who have tasted such nectar; ynti do approach; brahma the supreme; santanam eternal atmosphere. TRANSLATION All these performers who know the meaning of sacrifice become cleansed of sinful reaction, and, having tasted the nectar of the remnants of such sacrifice, they go to the supreme eternal atmosphere. PURPORT From the foregoing explanation of differents types of sacrifice (namely sacrifice of one's possessions, study of the Vedas or philosophical doctrines, and performance of the yoga system), it is found that the common aim of all is to control the senses. Sense gratification is the root cause of material existence; therefore, unless and until one is situated on a platform apart from sense gratification, there is no chance of being elevated to the eternal platform of full knowledge, full bliss and full life. This platform is in the eternal atmosphere, or Brahman atmosphere. All the above-mentioned sacrifices help one to become cleansed of the sinful reactions of material existence. By this advancement in life, one not only becomes happy and opulent in this life, but also, at the end, he enters into the eternal kingdom of God, either merging into the impersonal Brahman or associating with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. TEXT 31 nya loko 'sty ayajasya kuto 'nya kuru-sattama na never; ayam this; loka planet; asti there is; ayajasya of the foolish; kuta where is; anya the other; kuru-sattama O best amongst the Kurus. TRANSLATION O best of the Kuru dynasty, without sacrifice one can never live happily on this planet or in this life: what then of the next? PURPORT Whatever form of material existence one is in, one is invariably ignorant of his real situation. In other words, existence in the material world is due to the multiple reactions to our sinful lives. Ignorance is the cause of sinful life, and sinful life is the cause of one's dragging on in material existence. The human form of life is the only loophole by which one may get out of this entanglement. The Vedas, therefore, give us a chance for escape by pointing out the paths of religion, economic comfort, regulated sense gratification and, at last, the means to get out of the miserable condition entirely. The path of religion, or the different kinds of sacrifice recommended above, automatically solves our economic problems. By performance of yaja we can have enough food, enough milk, etc. even if there is a so-called increase of population. When the body is fully supplied, naturally the next stage is to satisfy the senses. The Vedas prescribe, therefore, sacred marriage for regulated sense gratification. Thereby one is gradually elevated to the platform of release from material bondage, and the highest perfection of liberated life is to associate with the Supreme Lord. Perfection is achieved by performance of yaja (sacrifice), as described above. Now, if a person is not inclined to perform yaja according to the Vedas, how can he expect a happy life? There are different grades of material comforts in different heavenly planets, and in all cases there is immense happiness for persons engaged in different kinds of yaja. But the highest kind of happiness that a man can achieve is to be promoted to the spiritual planets by practice of Ka consciousness. A life of Ka consciousness is therefore the solution to all the problems of material existence. TEXT 32 eva bahu-vidh yaj vitat brahmao mukhe karma-jn viddhi tn sarvn eva jtv vimokyase evam thus; bahu-vidh various kinds of; yaj sacrifices; vitat widespread; brahmaa of the Vedas; mukhe in the face of; karma-jn born of work; viddhi you should know; tn them; sarvn all; evam thus; jtv knowing; vimokyase be liberated. TRANSLATION All these different types of sacrifice are approved by the Vedas, and all of them are born of different types of work. Knowing them as such, you will become liberated. PURPORT Different types of sacrifice, as discussed above, are mentioned in the Vedas to suit the different types of worker. Because men are so deeply absorbed in the bodily concept, these sacrifices are so arranged that one can work either with the body, the mind, or the intelligence. But all of them are recommended for ultimately bringing about liberation from the body. This is confirmed by the Lord herewith from His own mouth. TEXT 33 reyn dravyamayd yajj jna-yaja parantapa sarva karmkhila prtha jne parisampyate reyn greater; dravyamayt than the sacrifice of material possessions; yajt knowledge; jna-yaja sacrifice in knowledge; parantapa O chastiser of the enemy; sarvam all; karma activities; akhilam in totality; prtha O son of Pth; jne in knowledge; parisampyate ends in. TRANSLATION O chastiser of the enemy, the sacrifice of knowledge is greater than the sacrifice of material possessions. O son of Pth, after all, the sacrifice of work culminates in transcendental knowledge. PURPORT The purpose of all sacrifices is to arrive at the status of complete knowledge, then to gain release from material miseries, and, ultimately, to engage in loving transcendental service to the Supreme Lord (Ka consciousness). Nonetheless, there is a mystery about all these different activities of sacrifice, and one should know this mystery. Sacrifices sometimes take different forms according to the particular faith of the performer. When one's faith reaches the stage of transcendental knowledge, the performer of sacrifices should be considered more advanced than those who simply sacrifice material possessions without such knowledge, for without attainment of knowledge, sacrifices remain on the material platform and bestow no spiritual benefit. Real knowledge culminates in Ka consciousness, the highest stage of transcendental knowledge. Without the elevation of knowledge, sacrifices are simply material activities. When, however, they are elevated to the level of transcendental knowledge, all such activities enter onto the spiritual platform. Depending on differences in consciousness, sacrificial activities are sometimes called karma- ka, fruitive activities, and sometimes jna-ka, knowledge in the pursuit of truth. It is better when the end is knowledge. TEXT 34 tad viddhi praiptena paripranena sevay upadekyanti te jna jninas tattva-darina tat that knowledge of different sacrifices; viddhi try to understand; praiptena by approaching a spiritual master; paripranena by submissive inquiries; sevay by the rendering of service; upadekyanti initiate; te unto you; jnam knowledge; jnina the self-realized; tattva truth; darina the seers. TRANSLATION Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth. PURPORT The path of spiritual realization is undoubtedly difficult. The Lord therefore advises us to approach a bona fide spiritual master in the line of disciplic succession from the Lord Himself. No one can be a bona fides piritual master without following this principle of disciplic succession. The Lord is the original spiritual master, and a person in the disciplic succession can convey the message of the Lord as it is to his disciple. No one can be spiritually realized by manufacturing his own process, as is the fashion of the foolish pretenders. The Bhgavatam says: dharma hi skd-bhagavat-pratam the path of religion is directly enunciated by the Lord. Therefore, mental speculation or dry arguments cannot help one progress in spiritual life. One has to approach a bona fide spiritual master to receive the knowledge. Such a spiritual master should be accepted in full surrender, and one should serve the spiritual master like a menial servant, without false prestige. Satisfaction of the self-realized spiritual master is the secret of advancement in spiritual life. Inquiries and submission constitute the proper combination for spiritual understanding. Unless there is submission and service, inquiries from the learned spiritual master will not be effective. One must be able to pass the test of the spiritual master, and when he sees the genuine desire of the disciple, he automatically blesses the disciple with genuine spiritual understanding. In this verse, both blind following and absurd inquiries are condemned. One should not only hear submissively from the spiritual master, but one must also get a clear understanding from him, in submission and service and inquiries. A bona fide spiritual master is by nature very kind toward the disciple. Therefore when the student is submissive and is always ready to render service, the reciprocation of knowledge and inquiries becomes perfect. TEXT 35 yaj jtv na punar moham eva ysyasi pava yena bhtny aei drakyasy tmany atho mayi yat which; jtv knowing; na never; puna again; moham illusion; evam like this; ysyasi you shall go; pava O son of Pu; yena by which; bhtni all living entities; aesi totally; drakyasi you will see; tmani in the Supreme Soul; atho or in other words; mayi in Me. TRANSLATION And when you have thus learned the truth, you will know that all living beings are but part of Meand that they are in Me, and are Mine. PURPORT The result of receiving knowledge from a self-realized soul, or one who knows things as they are, is learning that all living beings are parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord r Ka. The sense of a separated existence from Ka is called my (m not, y this). Some think that we have nothing to do with Ka, that Ka is only a great historical personality and that the Absolute is the impersonal Brahman. Factually, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gt, this impersonal Brahman is the personal effulgence of Ka. Ka, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the cause of everything. In the Brahma-sahit it is clearly stated that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes. Even the millions of incarnations are only His different expansions. Similarly, the living entities are also expansions of Ka. The Myvd philosophers wrongly think that Ka loses His own separate existence in His many expansions. This thought is material in nature. We have experience in the material world that a thing, when fragmentally distributed, loses its own original identity. But the Myvd philosophers fail to understand that Absolute means that one plus one is equal to one, and that one minus one is also equal to one. This is the case in the absolute world. For want of sufficient knowledge in the absolute science, we are now covered with illusion, and therefore we think that we are separate from Ka. Although we are separated parts of Ka, we are nevertheless not different from Him. The bodily difference of the living entities is my , or not actual fact. We are all meant to satisfy Ka. By my alone Arjuna thought that the temporary bodily relationship with his kinsmen was more important than his eternal spiritual relationship with Ka. The whole teaching of the Gt is targetted toward this end: that a living being, as His eternal servitor, cannot be separated from Ka, and his sense of being an identity apart from Ka is called my . The living entities, as separate parts and parcels of the Supreme, have a purpose to fulfill. Having forgotten that purpose, since time immemorial they are situated in different bodies, as men, animals, demigods, etc. Such bodily differences arise from forgetfulness of the transcendental service of the Lord. But when one is engaged in transcendental service through Ka consciousness, one becomes at once liberated from this illusion. One can acquire such pure knowledge only from the bona fide spiritual master and thereby avoid the delusion that the living entity is equal to Ka. Perfect knowledge is that the Supreme Soul, Ka, is the supreme shelter for all living entities, and giving up such shelter, the living entities are deluded by the material energy, imagining themselves to have a separate identity. Thus, under different standards of material identity, they become forgetful of Ka. When, however, such deluded living entities become situated in Ka consciousness, it is to be understood that they are on the path of liberation, as confirmed in the Bhgavatam: muktir hitvnyath rpa svarpea vyavasthiti. Liberation means to be situated in one's constitutional position as the eternal servitor of Ka (Ka consciousness). TEXT 36 api ced asi ppebhya sarvebhya ppa-kttama sarva jna-plavenaiva vjina santariyasi api even; cet if; asi you are; ppebhya of sinners; sarvebhya of all; ppa-kttama the greatest sinner; sarvam all such sinful actions; jna-plavena by the boat of transcendental knowledge; eva certainly; vjinam the ocean of miseries; santariyasi you will cross completely. TRANSLATION Even if you are considered to be the most sinful of all sinners, when you are situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge, you will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries. PURPORT Proper understanding of one's constitutional position in relationship to Ka is so nice that it can at once lift one from the struggle for existence which goes on in the ocean of nescience. This material world is sometimes regarded as an ocean of nescience and sometimes as a blazing forest. In the ocean, however expert a swimmer one may be, the struggle for existence is very severe. If someone comes forward and lifts the struggling swimmer from the ocean, he is the greatest savior. Perfect knowledge, received from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the path of liberation. The boat of Ka consciousness is very simple, but at the same time the most sublime. TEXT 37 yathaidhsi samiddho 'gnir bhasmast kurute 'rjuna jngni sarva-karmi bhasmast kurute tath yath just as; edhsi firewood; samiddha blazing; agni fire; bhasmast turns into ashes; kurute so does; arjuna O Arjuna; jna- agni the fire of knowledge; sarva-karmi all reactions to material activities; bhasmast to ashes; kurute it so does; tath similarly. TRANSLATION As the blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities. PURPORT Perfect knowledge of self and Superself and of their relationship is compared herein to fire. This fire not only burns up all reactions to impious activities, but also all reactions to pious activities, turning them to ashes. There are many stages of reaction: reaction in the making, reaction fructifying, reaction already achieved, and reaction a priori. But knowledge of the constitutional position of the living entity burns everything to ashes. When one is in complete knowledge, all reactious, both a priori and a posteriori, are consumed. In the Vedas it is stated: ubhe uhaivaia ete taraty amta sdhv- asdhn: "One overcomes both the pious and impious interactions of work." TEXT 38 na hi jnena sada pavitram iha vidyate tat svaya yoga-sasiddha klentmani vindati na never; hi certainly; jnena with knowledge; sadam in comparison; pavitram sanctified; iha in this world; vidyate exists; tat that; svayam itself; yoga devotion; sasiddha matured; klena in course of time; tmani in himself; vindati enjoys. TRANSLATION In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism. And one who has achieved this enjoys the self within himself in due course of time. PURPORT When we speak of transcendental knowledge, we do so in terms of spiritual understanding. As such, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Ignorance is the cause of our bondage, and knowledge is the cause of our liberation. This knowledge is the mature fruit of devotional service, and when one is situated in transcendental knowledge, he need not search for peace elsewhere, for he enjoys peace within himself. In other words, this knowledge and peace are culminated in Ka consciousness. That is the last word in the Bhagavad-gt. TEXT 39 raddhvl labhate jna tat-para sayatendriya jna labdhv par ntim aciredhigacchati raddhvn a faithful man; labhate achieves; jnam knowledge; tat- para very much attached to it; sayata controlled; indriya senses; jnam knowledge; labdhv having achieved; parm transcendental; ntim peace; acirea very soon; adhigacchati attains. TRANSLATION A faithful man who is absorbed in transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace. PURPORT Such knowledge in Ka consciousness can be achieved by a faithful person who believes firmly in Ka. One is called a faithful man who thinks that, simply by acting in Ka consciousness, he can attain the highest perfection. This faith is attained by the discharge of devotional service, and by chanting "Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare," which cleanses one's heart of all material dirt. Over and above this, one should control the senses. A person who is faithful to Ka and who controls the senses can easily attain perfection in the knowledge of Ka consciousness without delay. TEXT 40 aja craddadhna ca saaytm vinayati nya loko 'sti na paro na sukha saaytmana aja fools who have no knowledge in standard scriptures; ca and; araddadhna without faith in revealed scriptures; ca also; saaya doubts; tm person; vinayati falls back; na never; ayam this; loka world; asti there is; na neither; para next life; na not; sukham happiness; saaya doubtful; tmana of the person. TRANSLATION But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next. PURPORT Out of many standard and authoritative revealed scriptures, the Bhagavad- gt is the best. Persons who are almost like animals have no faith in, or knowledge of, the standard revealed scriptures; and some, even though they have knowledge of, or can cite passages from, the revealed scriptures, have actually no faith in these words. And even though others may have faith in scriptures like Bhagavad-gt, they do not believe in or worship the Personality of Godhead, r Ka. Such persons cannot have any standing in Ka consciousness. They fall down. Out of all the abovementioned persons, those who have no faith and are always doubtful make no progress at all. Men without faith in God and His revealed word find no good in this world, nor in the next. For them there is no happiness whatsoever. One should therefore follow the principles of revealed scriptures with faith and thereby be raised to the platform of knowledge. Only this knowledge will help one become promoted to the transcendental platform of spiritual understanding. In other words, doubtful persons have no status whatsoever in spiritual emancipation. One should therefore follow in the footsteps of great cryas who are in the disciplic succession and thereby attain success. TEXT 41 yoga-sannyasta-karma jna-sachinna-saayam tma-vanta na karmi nibadhnanti dhanajaya yoga devotional service in karma-yoga; sannyasta renounced; karmam of the performers; jna knowledge; sachinna cut by the advancement of knowledge; saayam doubts; tma-vantam situated in the self; na never; karmi work; nibadhnanti do bind up; dhanajaya O conquerer of riches. TRANSLATION Therefore, one who has renounced the fruits of his action, whose doubts are destroyed by transcendental knowledge, and who is situated firmly in the self, is not bound by works, O conqueror of riches. PURPORT One who follows the instruction of the Gt , as it is imparted by the Lord, the Personality of Godhead Himself, becomes free from all doubts by the grace of transcendental knowledge. He, as a part and parcel of the Lord, in full Ka consciousness, is already established in self-knowledge. As such, he is undoubtedly above bondage to action. TEXT 42 tasmd ajna-sambhta ht-stha jnsintmana chittvaina saaya yogam tihottiha bhrata tasmt therefore; ajna-sambhtam outcome of ignorance; ht-stham situated in the heart; jna knowledge; asin by the weapon of; tmana of the self; chittv cutting off; enam this; saayam doubt; yogam in yoga; tiha be situated; uttiha stand up to fight; bhrata O descendant of Bharata. TRANSLATION Therefore the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bhrata, stand and fight. PURPORT The yoga system instructed in this chapter is called santana-yoga, or eternal activities performed by the living entity. This yoga has two divisions of sacrificial actions: one is called sacrifice of one's material possessions, and the other is called knowledge of self, which is pure spiritual activity. If sacrifice of one's material possessions is not dovetailed for spiritual realization, then such sacrifice becomes material. But one who performs such sacrifices with a spiritual objective, or in devotional service, makes a perfect sacrifice. When we come to spiritual activities, we find that these are also divided into two: namely, understanding of one's own self (or one's constitutional position), and the truth regarding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who follows the path of the Gt as it is can very easily understand these two important divisions of spiritual knowledge. For him there is no difficulty in obtaining perfect knowledge of the self as part and parcel of the Lord. And such understanding is beneficial for such a person who easily understands the transcendental activities of the Lord. In the beginning of this chapter, the transcendental activities of the Lord were discussed by the Supreme Lord Himself. One who does not understand the instructions of the Gt is faithless, and is to be considered to be misusing the fragmental independence awarded to him by the Lord. In spite of such instructions, one who does not understand the real nature of the Lord as the eternal, blissful, all-knowing Personality of Godhead, is certainly fool number one. Ignorance can be removed by gradual acceptance of the principles of Ka consciousness. Ka consciousness is awakened by different types of sacrifices to the demigods, sacrifice to Brahman, sacrifice in celibacy, in household life, in controlling the senses, in practicing mystic yoga, in penance, in foregoing material possessions, in studying the Vedas, and in partaking of the social institution called varrama-dharma. All of these are known as sacrifice, and all of them are based on regulated action. But within all these activities, the important factor is self-realization. One who seeks that objective is the real student of Bhagavad-gt, but one who doubts the authority of Ka falls back. One is therefore advised to study Bhagavad-gt, or any other scripture, under a bona fide spiritual master, with service and surrender. A bona fide spiritual master is in the disciplic succession from time eternal, and he does not deviate at all from the instructions of the Supreme Lord as they were imparted millions of years ago to the sun-god, from whom the instructions of Bhagavad-gt have come down to the earthly kingdom. One should, therefore, follow the path of Bhagavad-gt as it is expressed in the Gt itself and beware of self- interested people after personal aggrandizement who deviate others from the actual path. The Lord is definitely the supreme person, and His activities are transcendental. One who understands this is a liberated person from the very beginning of his study of the Gt. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Fourth Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Transcendental Knowledge. Chapter-5 CHAPTER FIVE Karma-yoga Action in Ka Consciousness TEXT 1 arjuna uvca sannysa karma ka punar yoga ca asasi yac chreya etayor eka tan me brhi sunicitam arjuna uvca Arjuna said; sannysam renunciation; karmam of all activities; ka O Ka; puna again; yogam devotional service; ca also; asasi You are praising; yat which; reya is beneficial; etayo of these two; ekam one; tat that; me unto me; brhi please tell; sunicitam definitely. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: O Ka, first of all You ask me to renounce work, and then again You recommend work with devotion. Now will You kindly tell me definitely which of the two is more beneficial? PURPORT In this Fifth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gt, the Lord says that work in devotional service is better than dry mental speculation. Devotional service is easier than the latter because, being transcendental in nature, it frees one from reaction. In the Second Chapter, preliminary knowledge of the soul and its entanglement in the material body were explained. How to get out of this material encagement by buddhi-yoga, or devotional service, was also explained therein. In the Third Chapter, it was explained that a person who is situated on the platform of knowledge no longer has any duties to perform. And, in the Fourth Chapter, the Lord told Arjuna that all kinds of sacrificial work culminate in knowledge. However, at the end of the Fourth Chapter, the Lord advised Arjuna to wake up and fight, being situated in perfect knowledge. Therefore, by simultaneously stressing the importance of both work in devotion and inaction in knowledge, Ka has perplexed Arjuna and confused his determination. Arjuna understands that renunciation in knowledge involves cessation of all kinds of work performed as sense activities. But if one performs work in devotional service, then how is work stopped? In other words, he thinks that sannysam , or renunciation in knowledge, should be altogether free from all kinds of activity because work and renunciation appear to him to be incompatible. He appears not to have understood that work in full knowledge is nonreactive and is therefore the same as inaction. He inquires, therefore, whether he should cease work altogether, or work with full knowledge. TEXT 2 r-bhagavn uvca sannysa karma-yoga ca nireyasa-karv ubhau tayos tu karma-sannyst karma-yogo viiyate r bhagavn uvca the Personality of Godhead said; sannysa renunciation of work; karma-yoga work in devotion; ca also; nireyasa- karau all leading to the path of liberation; ubhau both; tayo of the two; tu but; karma-sannyst in comparison to the renunciation of fruitive work; karma-yoga work in devotion; viiyate is better. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: The renunciation of work and work in devotion are both good for liberation. But, of the two, work in devotional service is better than renunciation of works. PURPORT Fruitive activities (seeking sense gratification) are cause for material bondage. As long as one is engaged in activities aimed at improving the standard of bodily comfort, one is sure to transmigrate to different types of bodies, thereby continuing material bondage perpetually. rmad- Bhgavatam confirms this as follows: nna pramatta kurute vikarma yad-indriya-prtaya poti na sdhu manye yata tmano 'yam asann api kleada sa deha parbhavas tvad abodha-jto yvanna jijsata tma-tattvam yvat kriys tvad ida mano vai karmtmaka yena arra-bandha eva mana karma vaa prayukte avidyaytmany upadhyamne prtir na yvan mayi vsudeve na mucyate deha-yogena tvat "People are mad after sense gratification, and they do not know that this present body, which is full of miseries, is a result of one's fruitive activities in the past. Although this body is temporary, it is always giving one trouble in many ways. Therefore, to act for sense gratification is not good. One is considered to be a failure in life as long as he makes no inquiry about the nature of work for fruitive results, for as long as one is engrossed in the consciousness of sense gratification, one has to transmigrate from one body to another. Although the mind may be engrossed in fruitive activities and influenced by ignorance, one must develop a love for devotional service to Vsudeva. Only then can one have the opportunity to get out of the bondage of material existence." (Bhg. 5.5.4-6) Therefore, jna (or knowledge that one is not this material body but spirit soul) is not sufficient for liberation. One has to act in the status of spirit soul, otherwise there is no escape from material bondage. Action in Ka consciousness is not, however, action on the fruitive platform. Activities performed in full knowledge strengthen one's advancement in real knowledge. Without Ka consciousness, mere renunciation of fruitive activities does not actually purify the heart of a conditioned soul. As long as the heart is not purified, one has to work on the fruitive platform. But action in Ka consciousness automatically helps one escape the result of fruitive action so that one need not descend to the material platform. Therefore, action in Ka consciousness is always superior to renunciation, which always entails a risk of falling. Renunciation without Ka consciousness is incomplete, as is confirmed by rla Rpa Gosvm in his Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu. prpacikatay buddhy hari-sambandhi-vastuna mumukubhi paritygo vairgya phalgu kathyate. "Renunciation by persons eager to achieve liberation of things which are related to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, though they are material, is called incomplete renunciation." Renunciation is compete when it is in the knowledge that everything in existence belongs to the Lord and that no one should claim proprietorship over anything. One should understand that, factually, nothing belongs to anyone. Then where is the question of renunciation? One who knows that everything is Ka's property is always situated in renunciation. Since everything belongs to Ka, everything should be employed in the service of Ka. This perfect form of action in Ka consciousness is far better than any amount of artificial renunciation by a sannys of the Myvd school. TEXT 3 jeya sa nitya-sannys yo na dvei na kkati nirdvandvo hi mah-bho sukha bandht pramucyate jeya should be known; sa he; nitya always; sannys renouncer; ya who; na never; dvei abhors; na nor; kkati desires; nirdvandva free from all dualities; hi certainly; mah-bho O mighty- armed one; sukham happily; bandht from bondage; pramucyate completely liberated. TRANSLATION One who neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always renounced. Such a person, liberated from all dualities, easily overcomes material bondage and is completely liberated, O mighty- armed Arjuna. PURPORT One who is fully in Ka consciousness is always a renouncer because he feels neither hatred nor desire for the results of his actions. Such a renouncer, dedicated to the transcendental loving service of the Lord, is fully qualified in knowledge because he knows his constitutional position in his relationship with Ka. He knows fully well that Ka is the whole and that he is part and parcel of Ka. Such knowledge is perfect because it is qualitatively and quantitatively correct. The concept of oneness with Ka is incorrect because the part cannot be equal to the whole. Knowledge that one is one in quality yet different in quantity is correct transcendental knowledge leading one to become full in himself, having nothing to aspire to nor lament over. There is no duality in his mind because whatever he does, he does for Ka. Being thus freed from the platform of dualities, he is liberatedeven in this material world. TEXT 4 skhya-yogau pthag bl pravadanti na pait ekam apy sthita samyag ubhayor vindate phalam skhya analytical study of the material world; yogau work in devotional service; pthak different; bl less intelligent; pravadanti do talk; na never; pait the learned; ekam in one; api even though; sthita being situated; samyak complete; ubhayo of both; vindate enjoys; phalam result. TRANSLATION Only the ignorant speak of karma-yoga and devotional service as being different from the analytical study of the material world [skhya]. Those who are actually learned say that he who applies himself well to one of these paths achieves the results of both. PURPORT The aim of the analytical study of the material world is to find the soul of existence. The soul of the material world is Viu, or the Supersoul. Devotional service to the Lord entails service to the Supersoul. One process is to find the root of the tree, and next to water the root. The real student of skhya philosophy finds the root of the material world, Viu, and then, in perfect knowledge, engages himself in the service of the Lord. Therefore, in essence, there is no difference between the two because the aim of both is Viu. Those who do not know the ultimate end say that the purposes of skhya and karma-yoga are not the same, but one who is learned knows the unifying aim in these different processes. TEXT 5 yat skhyai prpyate sthna tad yogair api gamyate eka skhya ca yoga ca ya payati sa payati yat what; skhyai by means of skhya philosophy; prpyate is achieved; sthnam place; tat that; yogai by devotional service; api also; gamyate one can attain; ekam one; skhyam analytical study; ca and; yogam action in devotion; ca and; ya one who; payati sees; sa he; payati actually sees. TRANSLATION One who knows that the position reached by means of renunciation can also be attained by works in devotional service and who therefore sees that the path of works and the path of renunciation are one, sees things as they are. PURPORT The real purpose of philosophical research is to find the ultimate goal of life. Since the ultimate goal of life is self-realization, there is no difference between the conclusions reached by the two processes. By skhya philosophical research one comes to the conclusion that a living entity is not a part and parcel of the material world, but of the supreme spirit whole. Consequently, the spirit soul has nothing to do with the material world; his actions must be in some relation with the Supreme. When he acts in Ka consciousness, he is actually in his constitutional position. In the first process of skhya, one has to become detached from matter, and in the devotional yoga process one has to attach himself to the work of Ka. Factually, both processes are the same, although superficially one process appears to involve detachment and the other process appears to involve attachment. However, detachment from matter and attachment to Ka are one and the same. One who can see this sees things as they are. TEXT 6 sannysas tu mah-bho dukham ptum ayogata yoga-yukto munir brahma na ciredhigacchati sannysa the renounced order of life; tu but; mah-bho O mighty- armed one; dukham distress; ptum to be afflicted with; ayogata without devotional service; yoga-yukta one engaged in devotional service; muni thinker; brahma Supreme; na without; cirea delay; adhigacchati attains. TRANSLATION Unless one is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, mere renunciation of activities cannot make one happy. The sages, purified by works of devotion, achieve the Supreme without delay. PURPORT There are two classes of sannyss, or persons in the renounced order of life. The Myvd sannyss are engaged in the study of skhya philosophy, whereas the Vaisnava sannyss are engaged in the study of Bhgavatam philosophy, which affords the proper commentary on the Vednta-stras. The Myvd sannyss also study the Vednta-stras, but use their own commentary, called rraka-bhya, written by akarcrya. The students of the Bhgavata school are engaged in devotional service of the Lord, according to pcartrik regulations, and therefore the Vaiava sannyss have multiple engagements in the transcendental service of the Lord. The Vaiava sannyss have nothing to do with material activities, and yet they perform various activities in their devotional service to the Lord. But the Myvd sannyss , engaged in the studies of skhya and Vednta and speculation, cannot relish transcendental service of the Lord. Because their studies become very tedious, they sometimes become tired of Brahman speculation, and thus they take shelter of the Bhgavatam without proper understanding. Consequently their study of the rmad-Bhgavatam becomes troublesome. Dry speculations and impersonal interpretations by artificial means are all useless for the Myvd sannyss . The Vaiava sannyss, who are engaged in devotional service, are happy in the discharge of their transcendental duties, and they have the guarantee of ultimate entrance into the kingdom of God. The Myvd sannyss sometimes fall down from the path of self-realization and again enter into material activities of a philanthropic and altruistic nature, which are nothing but material engagements. Therefore, the conclusion is that those who are engaged in Ka consciousness are better situated than the sannyss engaged in simple Brahman speculation, although they too come to Ka consciousness, after many births. TEXT 7 yoga-yukto viuddhtm vijittm jitendriya sarvabhttmabhttm kurvann api na lipyate yoga-yukta engaged in devotional service; viuddha-tm a purified soul; vijita-tm self-controlled; jita-indriya having conquered the senses; sarvabhuta-tmabhta-tm compassionate to all living entities; kurvan api although engaged in work; na never; lipyate is entangled. TRANSLATION One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses, is dear to everyone, and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled. PURPORT One who is on the path of liberation by Ka consciousness is very dear to every living being, and every living being is dear to him. This is due to his Ka consciousness. Such a person cannot think of any living being as separate from Ka, just as the leaves and branches of a tree are not separate from the tree. He knows very well that by pouring water on the root of the tree, the water will be distributed to all the leaves and branches, or by supplying food to the stomach, the energy is automatically distributed throughout the body. Because one who works in Ka consciousness is servant to all, he is very dear to everyone. And, because everyone is satisfied by his work, he is pure in consciousness. Because he is pure in consciousness, his mind is completely controlled. And, because his mind is controlled, his senses are also controlled. Because his mind is always fixed on Ka, there is no chance of his being deviated from Ka. Nor is there a chance that he will engage his senses in matters other than the service of the Lord. He does not like to hear anything except topics relating to Ka; he does not like to eat anything which is not offered to Ka; and he does not wish to go anywhere if Ka is not involved. Therefore, his senses are controlled. A man of controlled senses cannot be offensive to anyone. One may ask, "Why then was Arjuna offensive (in battle) to others? Wasn't he in Ka consciousness?" Arjuna was only superficially offensive because (as has already been explained in the Second Chapter) all the assembled persons on the battlefield would continue to live individually, as the soul cannot be slain. So, spiritually, no one was killed on the Battlefield of Kuruketra. Only their dresses were changed by the order of Ka, who was personally present. Therefore Arjuna, while fighting on the Battlefield of Kuruketra, was not really fighting at all; he was simply carrying out the orders of Ka in full Ka consciousness. Such a person is never entangled in the reactions of work. TEXTS 8-9 naiva kicit karomti yukto manyeta tattva-vit paya van spa jighrann anan gacchan svapan vasan pralapan visjan ghann unmian nimiann api indriyndriyrtheu vartanta iti dhrayan na never; eva certainly; kicit anything; karomi do I do; iti thus; yukta engaged in the divine consciousness; manyeta thinks; tattvavit one who knows the truth; payan by seeing; van by hearing; span by touching; jighran by smelling; anan by eating; gacchan by going; svapan by dreaming; vasan by breathing; pralapan by talking; visjan by giving up; ghan by accepting; unmian opening; nimian closing; api in spite of; indriyi the senses; indriya-artheu in sense gratification; vartante let them be so engaged; iti thus; dhrayan considering. TRANSLATION A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping, and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them. PURPORT A person in Ka consciousness is pure in his existence, and consequently he has nothing to do with any work which depends upon five immediate and remote causes: the doer, the work, the situation, the endeavor and fortune. This is because he is engaged in the loving transcendental service of Ka. Although he appears to be acting with his body and senses, he is always conscious of his actual position, which is spiritual engagement. In material consciousness, the senses are engaged in sense gratification, but in Ka consciousness the senses are engaged in the satisfaction of Ka's senses. Therefore, the Ka conscious person is always free, even though he appears to be engaged in things of the senses. Activities such as seeing, hearing, speaking, evacuating, etc., are actions of the senses meant for work. A Ka consciousness person is never affected by the actions of the senses. He cannot perform any act except in the service of the Lord because he knows that he is the eternal servitor of the Lord. TEXT 10 brahmay dhya karmi saga tyaktv karoti ya lipyate na sa ppena padma-patram ivmbhas brahmai the Supreme Personality of Godhead; dhya resigning unto; karmi all works; sagam attachment; tyaktv giving up; karoti performs; ya who; lipyate is affected; na never; sa he; ppena by sin; padma-patram lotus leaf; iva like; ambhas in the water. TRANSLATION One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme God, is not affected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water. PURPORT Here brahmai means in Ka consciousness. The material world is a sum total manifestation of the three modes of material nature, technically called the pradhna. The Vedic hymns, sarvam etad brahma, tasmd etad brahma nma-rpam anna ca jyate, and, in the Bhagavad-gt, mama yonir mahad brahma, indicate that everything in the material world is the manifestation of Brahman; and, although the effects are differently manifested, they are nondifferent from the cause. In the opaniad it is said that everything is related to the Supreme Brahman or Ka, and thus everything belongs to Him only. One who knows perfectly well that everything belongs to Ka, that He is the proprietor of everything and that, therefore, everything is engaged in the service of the Lord, naturally has nothing to do with the results of his activities, whether virtuous or sinful. Even one's material body, being a gift of the Lord for carrying out a particular type of action, can be engaged in Ka consciousness. It is beyond contamination by sinful reactions, exactly as the lotus leaf, though remaining in the water, is not wet. The Lord also says in the Gt: mayi sarvi karmi sannyasya: "Resign all works unto Me [Ka]." The conclusion is that a person without Ka consciousness acts according to the concept of the material body and senses, but a person in Ka consciousness acts according to the knowledge that the body is the property of Ka and should therefore be engaged in the service of Ka. TEXT 11 kyena manas buddhy kevalair indriyair api yogina karma kurvanti saga tyaktvtma-uddhaye kyena with the body; manas with the mind; buddhy with the intelligence; kevalai purified; indriyai with the senses; api even with; yogina the Ka conscious persons; karma actions; kurvanti they act; sagam attachment; tyaktv giving up; tma self; uddhaye for the purpose of purification. TRANSLATION The yogs, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence, and even with the senses, only for the purpose of purification. PURPORT By acting in Ka consciousness for the satisfaction of the senses of Ka, any action, whether of the body, mind, intelligence or even of the senses, is purified of material contamination. There are no material reactions resulting from the activities of a Ka conscious person. Therefore, purified activities, which are generally called sadcra , can be easily performed by acting in Ka consciousness. r Rpa Gosvm in his Bhakti-rasmta- sindhu describes this as follows: h yasya harer dsye karma manas gir nikhilsv apy avasthsu jvanmukta sa ucyate A person acting in Ka consciousness (or, in other words, in the service of Ka) with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within the material world, although he may be engaged in many so-called material activities. He has no false ego, nor does he believe that he is this material body, nor that he possesses the body. He knows that he is not this body and that this body does not belong to him. He himself belongs to Ka, and the body too belongs to Ka. When he applies everything produced of the body, mind, intelligence, words, life, wealth, etc.whatever he may have within his possessionto Ka's service, he is at once dovetailed with Ka. He is one with Ka and is devoid of the false ego that leads one to believe that he is the body, etc. This is the perfect stage of Ka consciousness. TEXT 12 yukta karma-phala tyaktv ntim pnoti naihikm ayukta kma-krea phale sakto nibadhyate yukta one who is engaged in devotional service; karma-phalam the results of all activities; tyaktv giving up; ntim perfect peace; pnoti achieves; naihikm unflinching; ayukta one who is not in Ka consciousness; kma-krea for enjoying the result of work; phale in the result; sakta attached; nibadhyate becomes entangled. TRANSLATION The steadily devoted soul attains unadulterated peace because he offers the result of all activities to Me; whereas a person who is not in union with the Divine, who is greedy for the fruits of his labor, becomes entangled. PURPORT The difference between a person in Ka consciousness and a person in bodily consciousness is that the former is attached to Ka, whereas the latter is attached to the results of his activities. The person who is attached to Ka and works for Him only is certainly a liberated person, and he is not anxious for fruitive rewards. In the Bhgavatam, the cause of anxiety over the result of an activity is explained as being due to one's functioning in the conception of duality, that is, without knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Ka is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. In Ka consciousness, there is no duality. All that exists is a product of Ka's energy, and Ka is all good. Therefore, activities in Ka consciousness are on the absolute plane; they are transcendental and have no material effect. One is, therefore, filled with peace in Ka consciousness. One who is, however, entangled in profit calculation for sense gratification cannot have that peace. This is the secret of Ka consciousness realization that there is no existence besides Ka is the platform of peace and fearlessness. TEXT 13 sarva-karmi manas sannyasyste sukha va nava-dvre pure deh naiva kurvan na krayan sarva all; karmi activities; manas by the mind; sannyasya giving up; ste remains; sukham in happiness; va one who is controlled; nava- dvre in the place where there are nine gates; pure in the city; deh the embodied soul; na never; eva certainly; kurvan doing anything; na not; krayan causing to be done. TRANSLATION When the embodied living being controls his nature and mentally renounces all actions, he resides happily in the city of nine gates [the material body], neither working nor causing work to be done. PURPORT The embodied soul lives in the city of nine gates. The activities of the body, or the figurative city of body, are conducted automatically by the particular modes of nature. The soul, although subjecting himself to the conditions of the body, can be beyond those conditions, if he so desires. Owing only to forgetfulness of his superior nature, he identifies with the material body, and therefore suffers. By Ka consciousness, he can revive his real position and thus come out of his embodiment. Therefore, when one takes to Ka consciousness, one at once becomes completely aloof from bodily activities. In such a controlled life, in which his deliberations are changed, he lives happily within the city of nine gates. The nine gates are described as follows: nava-dvre pure deh haso lelyate bahi va sarvasya lokasya sthvarasya carasya ca. "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is living within the body of a living entity, is the controller of all living entities all over the universe. The body consists of nine gates: two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, one mouth, the anus and the genital. The living entity in his conditioned stage identifies himself with the body, but when he identifies himself with the Lord within himself, he becomes just as free as the Lord, even while in the body." ( vet. 3.18) Therefore, a Ka conscious person is free from both the outer and inner activities of the material body. TEXT 14 na karttva na karmi lokasya sjati prabhu na karma-phala-sayoga svabhvas tu pravartate na never; karttvam proprietorship; na nor; karmi activities; lokasya of the people; sjati creates; prabhu the master of the city of the body; na nor; karma-phala results of activities; sayogam connection; svabhva modes of material nature; tu but; pravartate acts. TRANSLATION The embodied spirit, master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature. PURPORT The living entity, as will be explained in the Seventh Chapter, is one in nature with the Supreme Lord, distinguished from matter, which is another nature called inferior of the Lord. Somehow, the superior nature, the living entity, has been in contact with material nature since time immemorial. The temporary body or material dwelling place which he obtains is the cause of varieties of activities and their resultant reactions. Living in such a conditional atmosphere, one suffers the results of the activities of the body by identifying himself (in ignorance) with the body. It is ignorance acquired from time immemorial that is the cause of bodily suffering and distress. As soon as the living entity becomes aloof from the activities of the body, he becomes free from the reactions as well. As long as he is in the city of body, he appears to be the master of it, but actually he is neither its proprietor nor controller of its actions and reactions. He is simply in the midst of the material ocean, struggling for existence. The waves of the ocean are tossing him, and he has no control over them. His best solution is to get out of the water by transcendental Ka consciousness. That alone will save him from all turmoil. TEXT 15 ndatte kasyacit ppa na caiva sukta vibhu ajnenvta jna tena muhyanti jantava na never; datte accepts; kasyacit anyone's; ppam sin; na nor; ca also; eva certainly; suktam pious activities; vibhu the Supreme Lord; ajnena by ignorance; vtam covered; jnam knowledge; tena by that; muhyanti bewildered; jantava the living entities. TRANSLATION Nor does the Supreme Spirit assume anyone's sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge. PURPORT The Sanskrit word vibhu means the Supreme Lord who is full of unlimited knowledge, riches, strength, fame, beauty and renunciation. He is always satisfied in Himself, undisturbed by sinful or pious activities. He does not create a particular situation for any living entity, but the living entity, bewildered by ignorance, desires to be put into certain conditions of life, and thereby his chain of action and reaction begins. A living entity is, by superior nature, full of knowledge. Nevertheless, he is prone to be influenced by ignorance due to his limited power. The Lord is omnipotent, but the living entity is not. The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is au , or atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires, but the Lord is never responsible for the actions and reactions of the particular situation which may be desired. Being in a bewildered condition, therefore, the embodied soul identifies himself with the circumstantial material body and becomes subjected to the temporary misery and happiness of life. The Lord is the constant companion of the living entity as Paramtm, or the Supersoul, and therefore He can understand the desires of the individual soul, as one can smell the flavor of a flower by being near it. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning of the living entity. The Lord fulfills his desire as he deserves: Man proposes and God disposes. The individual is not, therefore, omnipotent in fulfilling his desires. The Lord, however, can fulfill all desires, and the Lord, being neutral to everyone, does not interfere with the desires of the minute independant living entities. However, when one desires Ka, the Lord takes special care and encourages one to desire in such a way that one can attain to Him and be eternally happy. The Vedic hymn therefore declares: ea u hy eva sdhu karma krayati ta yamebhyo lokebhya unninate ea u evsdhu karma krayati yamadho ninate. ajo jantur ano 'yam tmana sukha-dukhayo vara-prerito gacchet svarga vvabhram eva ca. "The Lord engages the living entity in pious activities so he may be elevated. The Lord engages him in impious activities so he may go to hell. The living entity is completely dependant in his distress and happiness. By the will of the Supreme he can go to heaven or hell, as a cloud is driven by the air." Therefore the embodied soul, by his immemorial desire to avoid Ka consciousness, causes his own bewilderment. Consequently, although he is constitutionally eternal, blissful and cognizant, due to the littleness of his existence he forgets his constitutional position of service to the Lord and is thus entrapped by nescience. And, under the spell of ignorance, the living entity claims that the Lord is responsible for his conditional existence. The Vednta-stras also confirm this: vaiamya-nairghye na spekatvt tath hi darayati. "The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears to." TEXT 16 - jnena tu tad ajna ye nitam tmana tem dityavaj jna prakayati tat param jnena by knowledge; tu but; tat that; ajnam nescience; yem of those; nitam is destroyed; tmana of the living entity; tem of their; dityavat like the rising sun; jnam knowledge; prakayati discloses; tat param in Ka consciousness. TRANSLATION When, however, one is enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime. PURPORT Those who have forgotten Ka must certainly be bewildered, but those who are in Ka consciousness are not bewildered at all. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gt, "sarva jna-plavena," "jngni sarva karmi" and " na hi jnena sadam." Knowledge is always highly esteemed. And what is that knowledge? Perfect knowledge is achieved when one surrenders unto Ka, as is said in the Seventh Chapter, 19th verse: bahn janmanm ante jnavn m prapadyate. After passing through many, many births, when one perfect in knowledge surrenders unto Ka, or when one attains Ka consciousness, then everything is revealed to him, as the sun reveals everything in the daytime. The living entity is bewildered in so many ways. For instance, when he thinks himself God, unceremoniously, he actually falls into the last snare of nescience. If a living entity is God, then how can he become bewildered by nescience? Does God become bewildered by nescience? If so, then nescience, or Satan, is greater than God. Real knowledge can be obtained from a person who is in perfect Ka consciousness. Therefore, one has to seek out such a bona fide spiritual master and, under him, learn what Ka consciousness is. The spiritual master can drive away all nescience, as the sun drives away darkness. Even though a person may be in full knowledge that he is not this body but is transcendental to the body, he still may not be able to discriminate between the soul and the Supersoul. However, he can know everything well if he cares to take shelter of the perfect, bona fide Ka conscious spiritual master. One can know God and one's relationship with God only when one actually meets a representative of God. A representative of God never claims that he is God, although he is paid all the respect ordinarily paid to God because he has knowledge of God. One has to learn the distinction between God and the living entity. Lord r Ka therefore stated in the Second Chapter (2.12) that every living being is individual and that the Lord also is individual. They were all individuals in the past, they are individuals at present, and they will continue to be individuals in the future, even after liberation. At night we see everything as one in the darkness, but in day when the sun is up, we see everything in its real identity. Identity with individuality in spiritual life is real knowledge. TEXT 17 tad-buddhayas tad-tmnas tan-nihs tat-parya gacchanty apunar-vtti jna-nirdhta-kalma tad-buddhaya one whose intelligence is always in the Supreme; tad- tmna one whose mind is always in the Supreme; tat-nih whose mind is only meant for the Supreme; tat-parya who has completely taken shelter of Him; gacchanti goes; apuna-vttim liberation; jna knowledge; nirdhta cleanses; kalma misgivings. TRANSLATION When one's intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the Supreme, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through complete knowledge and thus proceeds straight on the path of liberation. PURPORT The Supreme Transcendental Truth is Lord Ka. The whole Bhagavad- gt centers around the declaration of Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the version of all Vedic literature. Paratattva means the Supreme Reality, who is understood by the knowers of the Supreme as Brahman, Paramtm and Bhagavn. Bhagavn, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the last word in the Absolute. There is nothing more than that.The Lord says, matta paratara nnyat kicit asti dhanajaya. Impersonal Brahman is also supported by Ka: brahmao pratihham. Therefore in all ways Ka is the Supreme Reality. One whose mind, intelligence, faith and refuge are always in Ka, or, in other words, one who is fully in Ka consciousness, is undoubtedly washed clean of all misgivings and is in perfect knowledge in everything concerning transcendence. A Ka conscious person can thoroughly understand that there is duality (simultaneous identity and individuality) in Ka, and, equipped with such transcendental knowledge, one can make steady progress on the path of liberation. TEXT 18 vidy-vinaya-sampanne brhmae gavi hastini uni caiva vapke ca pait sama-darina vidy education; vinaya gentleness; sampanne fully equipped; brhmae in the brhmaa; gavi in the cow; hastini in the elephant; uni in the dog; ca and; eva certainly; vapke in the dog-eater (the outcaste); ca respectively; pait-those who are so wise; sama-darina do see with equal vision. TRANSLATION The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brhmaa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste] . PURPORT A Ka conscious person does not make any distinction between species or castes. The brhmaa and the outcaste may be different from the social point of view, or a dog, a cow, or an elephant may be different from the point of view of species, but these differences of body are meaningless from the viewpoint of a learned transcendentalist. This is due to their relationship to the Supreme, for the Supreme Lord, by His plenary portion as Paramtm, is present in everyone's heart. Such an understanding of the Supreme is real knowledge. As far as the bodies are concerned in different castes or different species of life, the Lord is equally kind to everyone because He treats every living being as a friend yet maintains Himself as Paramtm regardless of the circumstances of the living entities. The Lord as Paramtm is present both in the outcaste and in the brhmaa, although the body of a brhmaa and that of an outcaste are not the same. The bodies are material productions of different modes of material nature, but the soul and the Supersoul within the body are of the same spiritual quality. The similarity in the quality of the soul and the Supersoul, however, does not make them equal in quantity, for the individual soul is present only in that particular body, whereas the Paramtm is present in each and every body. A Ka conscious person has full knowledge of this, and therefore he is truly learned and has equal vision. The similar characteristics of the soul and Supersoul are that they are both conscious, eternal and blissful. But the difference is that the individual soul is conscious within the limited jurisdiction of the body, whereas the Supersoul is conscious of all bodies. The Supersoul is present in all bodies without distinction. TEXT 19 ihaiva tair jita sargo ye smye sthita mana nirdoa hi sama brahma tasmd brahmai te sthit iha in this life; eva certainly; tai by them; jita conquered; sarga birth and death; yem of those; smye in equanimity; sthitam so situated; mana mind; nirdoam flawless; hi certainly; samam in equanimity; brahma the Supreme; tasmt therefore; brahmai in the Supreme; te they; sthit are situated. TRANSLATION Those whose minds are established in sameness and equanimity have already conquered the conditions of birth and death. They are flawless like Brahman, and thus they are already situated in Brahman. PURPORT Equanimity of mind, as mentioned above, is the sign of self-realization. Those who have actually attained to such a stage should be considered to have conquered material conditions, specifically birth and death. As long as one identifies with this body, he is considered a conditioned soul, but as soon as he is elevated to the stage of equanimity through realization of self, he is liberated from conditional life. In other words, he is no longer subject to take birth in the material world but can enter into the spiritual sky after his death. The Lord is flawless because He is without attraction or hatred. Similarly, when a living entity is without attraction or hatred, he also becomes flawless and eligible to enter into the spiritual sky. Such persons are to be considered already liberated, and their symptoms are described below. TEXT 20 na prahyet priya prpya nodvijet prpya cpriyam sthira-buddhir asammho brahma-vid brahmai sthita na never; prahyet rejoice; priyam pleasant; prpya achieving; na does not; udvijet agitated; prpya obtaining; ca also; apriyam unpleasant; sthira-buddhi self-intelligent; asammha unbewildered; brahmavit one who knows the Supreme perfectly; brahmai in the Transcendence; sthita situated. TRANSLATION A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, unbewildered, and who knows the science of God, is to be understood as already situated in Transcendence. PURPORT The symptoms of the self-realized person are given herein. The first symptom is that he is not illusioned by the false identification of the body with his true self. He knows perfectly well that he is not this body, but is the fragmental portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is therefore not joyful in achieving something, nor does he lament in losing anything which is related to his body. This steadiness of mind is called sthira-buddhi, or self- intelligence. He is therefore never bewildered by mistaking the gross body for the soul, nor does he accept the body as permanent and disregard the existence of the soul. This knowledge elevates him to the station of knowing the complete science of the Absolute Truth, namely Brahman, Paramtm and Bhagavn. He thus knows his constitutional position perfectly well, without falsely trying to become one with the Supreme in all respects. This is called Brahman realization, or self- realization. Such steady consciousness is called Ka consciousness. TEXT 21 bhya-sparev asakttm vindaty tmani yat sukham sa brahma-yoga-yukttm sukham akayam anute bhya-spareu in external sense pleasure; asakta-tm one who is not so attached; vindati enjoys; tmani in the self; yat that which; sukham happiness; sa that; brahma-yoga concentrated in Brahman; yukta- tm self-connected; sukham happiness; akayam unlimited; anute enjoys. TRANSLATION Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure or external objects but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme. PURPORT r Ymuncrya, a great devotee in Ka consciousness, said: yadvadhi mama ceta ka-padravinde nava-nava-rasa-dhmanudyata rantum st tadvadhi bata nr-sagame smaryamne bhavati mukha-vikra suu nihvana ca "Since I have been engaged in the transcendental loving service of Ka, realizing ever-new pleasure in Him, whenever I think of sex pleasure, I spit at the thought, and my lips curl with distaste." A person in brahma-yoga, or Ka consciousness, is so absorbed in the loving service of the Lord that he loses his taste for material sense pleasure altogether. The highest pleasure in terms of matter is sex pleasure. The whole world is moving under its spell, and a materialist cannot work at all without this motivation. But a person engaged in Ka consciousness can work with greater vigor without sex pleasure, which he avoids. That is the test in spiritual realization. Spiritual realization and sex pleasure go ill together. A Ka conscious person is not attracted to any kind of sense pleasure due to his being a liberated soul. TEXT 22 ye hi sasparaj bhog dukha-yonaya eva te dy-antavanta kaunteya na teu ramate budha ye those; hi certainly; sasparaj by contact with the material senses; bhog enjoyment; dukha distress; yonaya sources of; eva certainly; te they are; di in the beginning; antavanta subject to; kaunteya O son of Kunt; na never; teu in those; ramate take delight; budha the intelligent. TRANSLATION An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kunt, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. PURPORT Material sense pleasures are due to the contact of the material senses, which are all temporary because the body itself is temporary. A liberated soul is not interested in anything which is temporary. Knowing well the joys of transcendental pleasures, how can a liberated soul agree to enjoy false pleasure? In the Padma Pura it is said: ramante yogino 'nante satynanda-cid-tmani iti rma-padensau para brahmbhidhyate "The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, and therefore the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is also known as Rma." In the rmad-Bhgavatam also it is said: nya deho deha-bhj n-loke kan kmnarhate vi-bhuj ye tapo divya putrak yena sattva uddhyed yasmd brahma-saukhya tv anantam. "My dear sons, there is no reason to labor very hard for sense pleasure while in this human form of life; such pleasures are available to the stool-eaters [hogs]. Rather, you should undergo penances in this life by which your existence will be purified, and, as a result, you will be able to enjoy unlimited transcendental bliss." (Bhg. 5.5.1) Therefore, those who are true yogs or learned transcendentalists are not attracted by sense pleasures, which are the causes of continuous material existence. The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries. TEXT 23 aknothaiva ya sohu prk arra-vimokat kma-krodhodbhava vega sa yukta sa sukh nara aknoti able to do; iha eva in the present body; ya one who; sohum to tolerate; prk before; arra body; vimokat giving up; kma desire; krodha anger; udbhavam generated from; vegam urge; sa he; yukta in trance; sa he; sukh happy; nara human being. TRANSLATION Before giving up this present body, if one is able to tolerate the urges of the material senses and check the force of desire and anger, he is a yog and is happy in this world. PURPORT If one wants to make steady progress on the path of self-realization, he must try to control the forces of the material senses. There are the forces of talk, forces of anger, forces of mind, forces of the stomach, forces of the genitals, and forces of the tongue. One who is able to control the forces of all these different senses, and the mind, is called gosvm, or svm. Such gosvms live strictly controlled lives, and forego altogether the forces of the senses. Material desires, when unsatiated, generate anger, and thus the mind, eyes and chest become agitated. Therefore, one must practice to control them before one gives up this material body. One who can do this is understood to be self- realized and is thus happy in the state of self-realization. It is the duty of the transcendentalist to try strenuously to control desire and anger. TEXT 24 yo 'nta-sukho 'ntarrmas tathntar-jyotir eva ya sa yog brahma-nirva brahma-bhto 'dhigacchati ya one who; anta-sukha happy from within; anta-rmah active within; tath as well as; anta-jyoti aiming within; eva certainly; ya anyone; sa he; yog mystic; brahma-nirvam liberated in the Supreme; brahma-bhta self-realized; adhigacchati attains. TRANSLATION One whose happiness is within, who is active within, who rejoices within and is illumined within, is actually the perfect mystic. He is liberated in the Supreme, and ultimately he attains the Supreme. PURPORT Unless one is able to relish happiness from within, how can one retire from the external engagements meant for deriving superficial happiness? A liberated person enjoys happiness by factual experience. He can, therefore, sit silently at any place and enjoy the activities of life from within. Such a liberated person no longer desires external material happiness. This state is called brahma-bhta, attaining which one is assured of going back to Godhead, back to home. TEXT 25 labhante brahma-nirvam aya ka-kalma chinna-dvaidh yattmna sarva-bhta-hite rat labhante achieve; brahma-nirvam liberation in the Supreme; aya those who are active within; ka-kalma who are devoid of all sins; chinna torn off; dvaidh duality; yata-tmna engaged in self- realization; sarva-bhta in all living entities; hite in welfare work; rat engaged. TRANSLATION One who is beyond duality and doubt, whose mind is engaged within, who is always busy working for the welfare of all sentient beings, and who is free from all sins, achieves liberation in the Supreme. PURPORT Only a person who is fully in Ka consciousness can be said to be engaged in welfare work for all living entities. When a person is actually in the knowledge that Ka is the fountainhead of everything, then when he acts in that spirit he acts for everyone. The sufferings of humanity are due to forgetfulness of Ka as the supreme enjoyer, the supreme proprietor, and the supreme friend. Therefore, to act to revive this consciousness within the entire human society is the highest welfare work. One cannot be engaged in first- class welfare work without being liberated in the Supreme. A Ka conscious person has no doubt about the supremacy of Ka. He has no doubt because he is completely freed from all sins. This is the state of divine love. A person engaged only in ministering to the physical welfare of human society cannot factually help anyone. Temporary relief of the external body and the mind is not satisfactory. The real cause of one's difficulties in the hard struggle for life may be found in one's forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord. When a man is fully conscious of his relationship with Ka, he is actually a liberated soul, although he may be in the material tabernacle. TEXT 26 kma-krodha-vimuktn yatn yata-cetasm abhito brahma-nirva vartate vidittmanm kma desires; krodha anger; vimuktnm of those who are so liberated; yatnm of the saintly persons; yata-cetasm of persons who have full control over the mind; abhita assured in the near future; brahma- nirvam liberation in the Supreme; vartate is there; vidita-tmanm of those who are self-realized. TRANSLATION Those who are free from anger and all material desires, who are selfrealized, self-disciplined and constantly endeavoring for perfection, are assured of liberation in the Supreme in the very near future. PURPORT Of the saintly persons who are constantly engaged in striving toward salvation, one who is in Ka consciousness is the best of all. The Bhgavatam confirms this fact as follows: yat-pda-pakaja-pala-vilsa-bhakty karmaya grathitam udgrathayanti santa tadvan na rikta-matayo yatayo 'pi ruddha- srotogas tam araa bhaja vsudevam. "Just try to worship, in devotional service, Vsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even great sages are not able to control the forces of the senses as effectively as those who are engaged in transcendental bliss by serving the lotus feet of the Lord, uprooting the deep grown desire for fruitive activities." (Bhg. 4.22.39) In the conditioned soul the desire to enjoy the fruitive results of work is so deep-rooted that it is very difficult even for the great sages to control such desires, despite great endeavors. A devotee of the Lord, constantly engaged in devotional service in Ka consciousness, perfect in self-realization, very quickly attains liberation in the Supreme. Owing to his complete knowledge in self-realization, he always remains in trance. To cite an analagous example of this: darana-dhyna-sasparair matsya-krma-vihagam svnya patyni puanti tathham api padmaja. "By vision, by meditation and by touch only do the fish, the tortoise and the birds maintain their offspring. Similarly do I also, O Padmaja!" The fish brings up its offspring simply by looking at them. The tortoise brings up its offspring simply by meditation. The eggs of the tortoise are laid on land, and the tortoise meditates on the eggs while in the water. Similarly, a devotee in Ka consciousness, although far away from the Lord's abode, can elevate himself to that abode simply by thinking of Him constantly-by engagement in Ka consciousness. He does not feel the pangs of material miseries; this state of life is called brahma-nirva, or the absence of material miseries due to being constantly immersed in the Supreme. TEXTS 27-28 sparn ktv bahir bhy caku caivntare bhruvo prpnau samau ktv nsbhyantara-criau yatendriya-mano-buddhir munir moka-paryaa vigatecch-bhaya-krodho ya sad mukta eva sa sparn external sense objects, such as sound, etc.; ktv doing so; bahi external; bhyn unnecessary; caku eyes; ca also; eva certainly; antare within; bhruvo of the eyebrows; pra-apnau up-and down- moving air; samau in suspension; ktv doing so; ns-abhyantara within the nostrils; criau blowing; yata controlled; indriya senses; mana mind; buddhi intelligence; muni the transcendentalist; moka liberation; paryaa being so destined; vigata discarded; icch wishes; bhaya fear; krodha anger; ya one who; sad always; mukta liberated; eva certainly; sa he is. TRANSLATION Shutting out all external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils-thus controlling the mind, senses and intelligence, the tranecendentalist becomes free from desire, fear and anger. One who is always in this state is certainly liberated. PURPORT Being engaged in Ka consciousness, one can immediately understand one's spiritual identity, and then one can understand the Supreme Lord by means of devotional service. When he is well situated in devotional service, one comes to the transcendental position, qualified to feel the presence of the Lord in the sphere of one's activity. This particular position is called liberation in the Supreme. After explaining the above principles of liberation in the Supreme, the Lord gives instruction to Arjuna as to how one can come to that position by the practice of mysticism or yoga, known as aga-yoga, which is divisible into an eightfold procedure called yama, niyama, sana, pryma, pratyhra, dhra, dhyna, and samdhi. In the Sixth Chapter the subject of yoga is explicitly detailed, and at the end of the Fifth it is only preliminarily explained. One has to drive out the sense objects such as sound, touch, form, taste and smell by the pratyhra (breathing) process in yoga, and then keep the vision of the eyes between the two eyebrows and concentrate on the tip of the nose with half closed lids. There is no benefit in closing the eyes altogether, because then there is every chance of falling asleep. Nor is there benefit in opening the eyes completely, because then there is the hazard of being attracted by sense objects. The breathing movement is restrained within the nostrils by neutralizing the up- and down-moving air within the body. By practice of such yoga one is able to gain control over the senses, refrain from outward sense objects, and thus prepare oneself for liberation in the Supreme. This yoga process helps one become free from all kinds of fear and anger and thus feel the presence of the Supersoul in the transcendental situation. In other words, Ka consciousness is the easiest process of executing yoga principles. This will be thoroughly explained in the next chapter. A Ka conscious person, however, being always engaged in devotional service, does not risk losing his senses to some other engagement. This is a better way of controlling the senses than by the aga-yoga . TEXT 29 bhoktra yaja-tapas sarva-loka-mahevaram suhda sarva-bhtn jtv m ntim cchati bhoktram beneficiary; yaja sacrifices; tapasm of penances and austerities; sarva-loka all planets and the demigods thereof; mahevaram the Supreme Lord; suhdam benefactor; sarva all; bhtnm of the living entities; jtv thus knowing; mm Me (Lord Ka); ntim relief from material pangs; cchati achieves. TRANSLATION The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries. PURPORT The conditioned souls within the clutches of illusory energy are all anxious to attain peace in the material world. But they do not know the formula for peace, which is explained in this part of the Bhagavad-gt. The greatest peace formula is simply this: Lord Ka is the beneficiary in all human activities. Men should offer everything to the transcendental service of the Lord because He is the proprietor of all planets and the demigods thereon. No one is greater than He. He is greater than the greatest of the demigods, Lord iva and Lord Brahm. In the Vedas the Supreme Lord is described as tam var paramam mahevaram. Under the spell of illusion, living entities are trying to be lords of all they survey, but actually they are dominated by the material energy of the Lord. The Lord is the master of material nature, and the conditioned souls are under the stringent rules of material nature. Unless one understands these bare facts, it is not possible to achieve peace in the world either individually or collectively. This is the sense of Ka consciousness: Lord Ka is the supreme predominator, and all living entities, including the great demigods, are His subordinates. One can attain perfect peace only in complete Ka consciousness. This Fifth Chapter is a practical explanation of Ka consciousness, generally known as karma-yoga. The question of mental speculation as to how karma-yoga can give liberation is answered herewith. To work in Ka consciousness is to work with the complete knowledge of the Lord as the predominator. Such work is not different from transcendental knowledge. Direct Ka consciousness is bhakti-yoga, and jna-yoga is a path leading to bhakti-yoga. Ka consciousness means to work in full knowledge of one's relationship with the Supreme Absolute, and the perfection of this consciousness is full knowledge of Ka, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A pure soul is the eternal servant of God as His fragmental part and parcel. He comes into contact with my (illusion) due to the desire to lord it over my , and that is the cause of his many sufferings. As long as he is in contact with matter, he has to execute work in terms of material necessities. Ka consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life even while one is within the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practice in the material world. The more one is advanced, the more he is freed from the clutches of matter. The Lord is not partial toward anyone. Everything depends on one's practical performance of duties in an effort to control the senses and conquer the influence of desire and anger. And, attaining Ka consciousness by controlling the above-mentioned passions, one remains factually in the transcendental stage, or brahman-nirva . The eightfold yoga mysticism is automatically practiced in Ka consciousness because the ultimate purpose is served. There is gradual process of elevation in the practice of yama, niyama, sana, pratyhra, dhyna, dhra, pryma , and samdhi. But these only preface perfection by devotional service, which alone can award peace to the human being. It is the highest perfection of life. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Fifth Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Karma-yoga, or Action in Ka Consciousness. Chapter-6 CHAPTER SIX Skhya-yoga TEXT 1 r-bhagavn uvca anrita karma-phala krya karma karoti ya sa sannys ca yog ca na niragnir na ckriya r bhagavn uvca the Lord said; anrita without shelter; karma- phalam the result of work; kryam obligatory; karma work; karoti performs; ya one who; sa he; sannys in the renounced order; ca also; yog mystic; ca also; na not; nir without; agni fire; na nor; ca also; akriya without duty. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic: not he who lights no fire and performs no work. PURPORT In this chapter the Lord explains that the process of the eightfold yoga system is a means to control the mind and the senses. However, this is very difficult for people in general to perform, especially in the age of Kali. Although the eightfold yoga system is recommended in this chapter, the Lord emphasizes that the process of karma-yoga, or acting in Ka consciousness, is better. Everyone acts in this world to maintain his family and their paraphernalia, but no one is working without some self-interest, some personal gratification, be it concentrated or extended. The criterion of perfection is to act in Ka consciousness, and not with a view to enjoying the fruits of work. To act in Ka consciousness is the duty of every living entity because all are constitutionally parts and parcels of the Supreme. The parts of the body work for the satisfaction of the whole body. The limbs of the body do not act for self-satisfaction but for the satisfaction of the complete whole. Similarly, the living entity who acts for satisfaction of the supreme whole and not for personal satisfaction is the perfect sannys, the perfect yog . The sannyss sometimes artificially think that they have become liberated from all material duties, and therefore they cease to perform agnihotra yajas (fire sacrifices), but actually they are self-interested because their goal is becoming one with the impersonal Brahman. Such a desire is greater than any material desire, but it is not without self-interest. Similarly, the mystic yog who practices the yoga system with half-open eyes, ceasing all material activities, desires some satisfaction for his personal self. But a person acting in Ka consciousness works for the satisfaction of the whole, without self- interest. A Ka conscious person has no desire for self-satisfaction. His criterion of success is the satisfaction of Ka, and thus he is the perfect sannys, or perfect yog. Lord Caitanya, the highest perfectional symbol of renunciation, prays in this way: na dhana na jana na sundar kavit v jagada kmaye. mama janmani janmanvare bhavatd bhaktir ahaituk tvayi. "O Almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor to enjoy beautiful women. Nor do I want any number of followers. What I want only is the causeless mercy of Your devotional service in my life, birth after birth." TEXT 2 ya sannysam iti prhur yoga ta viddhi pava na hy asannyasta-sakalpo yog bhavati kacana yam what; sannysam renunciation; iti thus; prhu they say; yogam linking with the Supreme; tam that; viddhi you must know; pava O son of Pu; na never; hi certainly; asannyasta without giving up; sakalpa self-satisfaction; yog a mystic transcendentalist; bhavati becomes; kacana anyone. TRANSLATION What is called renunciation is the same as yoga, or linking oneself with the Supreme, for no one can become a yog unless he renounces the desire for sense gratification. PURPORT Real sannysa-yoga or bhakti means that one should know his constitutional position as the living entity, and act accordingly. The living entity has no separate independant identity. He is the marginal energy of the Supreme. When he is entrapped by material energy, he is conditioned, and when he is Ka conscious, or aware of the spiritual energy, then he is in his real and natural state of life. Therefore, when one is in complete knowledge, one ceases all material sense gratification, or renounces all kinds of sense gratificatory activities. This is practiced by the yogs who restrain the senses from material attachment. But a person in Ka consciousness has no opportunity to engage his senses in anything which is not for the purpose of Ka. Therefore, a Ka conscious person is simultaneously a sannys and a yog. The purpose of knowledge and of restraining the senses, as prescribed in the jna and yoga processes, is automatically served in Ka consciousness. If one is unable to give up the activities of his selfish nature, then jna and yoga are of no avail. The real aim is for a living entity to give up all selfish satisfaction and to be prepared to satisfy the Supreme. A Ka conscious person has no desire for any kind of self- enjoyment. He is always engaged for the enjoyment of the Supreme. One who has no information of the Supreme must therefore be engaged in self- satisfaction because no one can stand on the platform of inactivity. All these purposes are perfectly served by the practice of Ka consciousness. TEXT 3 rurukor muner yoga karma kraam ucyate yogrhasya tasyaiva ama kraam ucyate ruruko of one who has just begun yoga; mune of the sage; yogam the eightfold yoga system; karma work; kraam the cause; ucyate is said to be; yoga eightfold yoga; rhasya one who has attained; tasya his; eva certainly; ama cessation of all material activities; kraam the cause; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION For one who is a neophyte in the eightfold yoga system, work is said to be the means; and for one who has already attained to yoga, cessation of all material activities is said to be the means. PURPORT The process of linking oneself with the Supreme is called yoga, which may be compared to a ladder for attaining the topmost spiritual realization. This ladder begins from the lowest material condition of the living entity and rises up to perfect self-realization in pure spiritual life. According to various elevations, different parts of the ladder are known by different names. But all in all, the complete ladder is called yoga and may be divided into three parts, namely jna-yoga, dhyna-yoga and bhakti-yoga. The beginning of the ladder is called the yogruruka stage, and the highest rung is called yogrha. Concerning the eightfold yoga system, attempts in the beginning to enter into meditation through regulative principles of life and practice of different sitting postures (which are more or less bodily exercises) are considered fruitive material activities. All such activities lead to achieving perfect mental equilibrium to control the senses. When one is accomplished in the practice of meditation, he ceases all disturbing mental activities. A Ka conscious person is, however, situated from the beginning on the platform of meditation because he always thinks of Ka. And, being constantly engaged in the service of Ka, he is considered to have ceased all material activities. TEXT 4 yad hi nendriyrtheu na karmasv anuajjate sarva-sakalpa-sannys yogrhas tadocyate yad when; hi certainly; na not; indriya-artheu in sense gratification; na never; karmasu in fruitive activities; anuajjate does necessarily engage; sarva-sakalpa all material desires; sannys renouncer; yoga- rha elevated in yoga; tad at that time; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION A person is said to have attained to yoga when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts for sense gratification nor engages in fruitive activities. PURPORT When a person is fully engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, he is pleased in himself, and thus he is no longer engaged in sense gratification or in fruitive activities. Otherwise, one must be engaged in sense gratification, since one cannot live without engagement. Without Ka consciousness, one must be always seeking self-centered or extended selfish activities. But a Ka conscious person can do everything for the satisfaction of Ka and thereby be perfectly detached from sense gratification. One who has no such realization must mechanically try to escape material desires before being elevated to the top rung of the yoga ladder. TEXT 5 uddhared tmantmna ntmnam avasdayet tmaiva hy tmano bandhur tmaiva ripur tmana uddharet one must deliver; tman by the mind; tmnam the conditioned soul; na never; tmnam the conditioned soul; avasdayet put into degradation; tm mind; eva certainly; hi indeed; tmana of the conditioned soul; bandhu friend; tm mind; eva certainly; ripu enemy; tmana of the conditioned soul. TRANSLATION A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. PURPORT The word tm denotes body, mind and souldepending upon different circumstances. In the yoga system, the mind and the conditioned soul are especially important. Since the mind is the central point of yoga practice, tm refers here to the mind. The purpose of the yoga system is to control the mind and to draw it away from attachment to sense objects. It is stressed herein that the mind must be so trained that it can deliver the conditioned soul from the mire of nescience. In material existence one is subjected to the influence of the mind and the senses. In fact, the pure soul is entangled in the material world because of the mind's ego which desires to lord it over material nature. Therefore, the mind should be trained so that it will not be attracted by the glitter of material nature, and in this way the conditioned soul may be saved. One should not degrade oneself by attraction to sense objects. The more one is attracted by sense objects, the more one becomes entangled in material existence. The best way to disentangle oneself is to always engage the mind in Ka consciousness. The word hi isused for emphasizing this point, i.e., that one must do this. It is also said: mana eva manuy kraa bandha-mokayo bandhya viaysago muktyai nirviaya mana. "For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation." Therefore, the mind which is always engaged in Ka consciousness is the cause of supreme liberation. TEXT 6 bandhur tmtmanas tasya yentmaivtman jita antmanas tu atrutve vartettmaiva atruvat bandhu friend; tm mind; tmana of the living entity; tasya of him; yena by whom; tm mind; eva certainly; tman by the living entity; jita conquered; antmana of one who has failed to control the mind; tu but; atrutve because of enmity; varteta remains; tm eva the very mind; atruvat as an enemy. TRANSLATION For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his very mind will be the greatest enemy. PURPORT The purpose of practicing eightfold yoga isto control the mind in order to make it a friend in discharging the human mission. Unless the mind is controlled, the practice of yoga (for show) is simply a waste of time. One who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy, and thus his life and its mission are spoiled. The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior. As long as one's mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc. But when the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramtm. Real yoga practice entails meeting the Paramtm within the heart and then following His dictation. For one who takes to Ka consciousness directly, perfect surrender to the dictation of the Lord follows automatically. TEXT 7 jittmana prantasya paramtm samhita toa-sukha-dukheu tath mnpamnayo jita-tmana of one who has conquered his mind; prantasya of one who has attained tranquility by such control over the mind; paramtm the Supersoul; samhita approached completely; ta cold; ua heat; sukha in happiness; dukheu in distress; tath also; mna honor; apamnayo in dishonor. TRANSLATION For one who has conquered the mind, the Supersoul is already reached, for he has attained tranquility. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same. PURPORT Actually, every living entity is intended to abide by the dictation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is seated in everyone's heart as Paramtm. When the mind is misled by the external illusory energy, one becomes entangled in material activities. Therefore, as soon as one's mind is controlled through one of the yoga systems, one is to be considered as having already reached the destination. One has to abide by superior dictation. When one's mind is fixed on the superior nature, he has no other alternative but to follow the dictation of the Supreme. The mind must admit some superior dictation and follow it. The effect of controlling the mind is that one automatically follows the dictation of the Paramtm or Supersoul. Because this transcendental position is at once achieved by one who is in Ka consciousness, the devotee of the Lord is unaffected by the dualities of material existence, namely distress and happiness, cold and heat, etc. This state is practical samdhi, or absorption in the Supreme. TEXT 8 jna-vijna-tpttm kastho vijitendriya yukta ity ucyate yog sama-lorma-kcana jna acquired knowledge; vijna realized knowledge; tpta satisfied; tm living entity; kastha spiritually situated; vijita-indriya sensually controlled; yukta competent for self-realization; iti thus; ucyate is said; yog the mystic; sama equiposed; lora pebbles; ama stone; kcana gold. TRANSLATION A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yog [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self- controlled. He sees everythingwhether it be pebbles, stones or goldas the same. PURPORT Book knowledge without realization of the Supreme Truth is useless. This is stated as follows: ata r-ka-nmdi na bhaved grhyam indriyai sevonmukhe hi jihvdau svayam eva sphuraty ada. "No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of r Ka through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him." (Padma Pura) This Bhagavad-gt is the science of Ka consciousness. No one can become Ka conscious simply by mundane scholarship. One must be fortunate enough to associate with a person who is in pure consciousness. A Ka conscious person has realized knowledge, by the grace of Ka, because he is satisfied with pure devotional service. By realized knowledge, one becomes perfect. By transcendental knowledge one can remain steady in his convictions, but by mere academic knowledge one can be easily deluded and confused by apparent contradictions. It is the realized soul who is actually self-controlled because he is surrendered to Ka. He is transcendental because he has nothing to do with mundane scholarship. For him mundane scholarship and mental speculation, which may be as good as gold to others, are of no greater value than pebbles or stones. TEXT 9 suhn-mitrry-udsna- madhyastha-dveya-bandhuu sdhuv api ca ppeu sama-buddhir viiyate suht by nature a well-wisher; mitra benefactor with affection; ari enemy; udsna neutral between the belligerents; madhyastha mediator between the belligerents; dveya envious; bandhuu among the relatives or well-wishers; sdhuu unto the pious; api as well as; ca and; ppeu unto the sinners; sama-buddhi having equal intelligence; viiyate is far advanced. TRANSLATION A person is said to be still further advanced when he regards allthe honest well-wisher, friends and enemies, the envious, the pious, the sinner and those who are indifferent and impartial-with an equal mind. TEXT 10 yog yujta satatam tmna rahasi sthita ekk yata-citttm nirr aparigraha yog a transcendentalist; yujta must concentrate in Ka consciousness; satatam constantly; tmnam himself (by the body, mind and self); rahasi in a secluded place; sthita being so situated; ekk alone; yata-citttm always careful in mind; nir without being attracted by anything else; aparigraha free from the feeling of possessiveness. TRANSLATION A transcendentalist should always try to concentrate his mind on the Supreme Self; he should live alone in a secluded place and should always carefully control his mind. He should be free from desires and feelings of possessiveness. PURPORT Ka is realized in different degrees as Brahman, Paramtm and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ka consciousness means, concisely, to be always engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. But those who are attached to the impersonal Brahman or the localized Supersoul are also partially Ka conscious, because impersonal Brahman is the spiritual ray of Ka and Supersoul is the all-pervading partial expansion of Ka. Thus the impersonalist and the meditator are also indirectly Ka conscious. A directly Ka conscious person is the topmost transcendentalist because such a devotee knows what is meant by Brahman or Paramtm. His knowledge of the Absolute Truth is perfect, whereas the impersonalist and the meditative yog are imperfectly Ka conscious. Nevertheless, all of these are instructed herewith to be constantly engaged in their particular pursuits so that they may come to the highest perfection sooner or later. The first business of a transcendentalist is to keep the mind always on Ka. One should always think of Ka and not forget Him even for a moment. Concentration of the mind on the Supreme is called samdhi or trance. In order to concentrate the mind, one should always remain in seclusion and avoid disturbance by external objects. He should be very careful to accept favorable and reject unfavorable conditions that affect his realization. And, in perfect determination, he should not hanker after unnecessary material things that entangle him by feelings of possessiveness. All these perfections and precautions are perfectly executed when one is directly in Ka consciousness because direct Ka consciousness means self-abnegation, wherein there is very little chance for material possessiveness. rla Rpa Gosvm characterizes Ka consciousness in this way: ansaktasya viayn yathrham upayujata nirbandha ka-sambandhe yukta vairgyam ucyate prpacikatay buddhy hari-sambandhi-vastuna mumukubhi paritygo vairgya phalgu kathyate. (Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu 2.255-256) "When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts everything in relation to Ka, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Ka is not as complete in his renunciation." A Ka conscious person well knows that everything belongs to Ka, and thus he is always free from feelings of personal possession. As such, he has no hankering for anything on his own personal account. He knows how to accept things in favor of Ka consciousness and how to reject things unfavorable to Ka consciousness. He is always aloof from material things because he is always transcendental, and he is always alone, having nothing to do with persons not in Ka consciousness. Therefore a person in Ka consciousness is the perfect yog. TEXTS 11-12 ucau dee pratihpya sthiram sanam tmana nty-ucchrita ntinca cailjina-kuottaram tatraikgra mana ktv yata-cittendriya-kriya upaviysane yujyd yogam tma-viuddhaye ucau in sanctified; dee in the land; pratihpya placing; sthiram firm; sanam seat; tmana self-dependant; na not; ati too; ucchritam high; na nor; ati too; ncam low; caila-ajna soft cloth and deerskin; kuottaram-kua grass; tatra thereupon; ekgram one attention; mana mind; ktv doing so; yata-citta controlling the mind; indriya senses; kriya activities; upaviya sitting on; sane on the seat; yujyt execute; yogam yoga practice; tma heart; viuddhaye for clarifying. TRANSLATION To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kua-grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should neither be too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yog should then sit on it very firmly and should practice yoga by controlling the mind and the senses, purifying the heart and fixing the mind on one point. PURPORT "Sacred place" refers to places of pilgrimage. In India the yogs, the transcendentalists or the devotees all leave home and reside in sacred places such as Prayg, Mathur, Vndvana, Hkea, and Hardwar and in solitude practice yoga where the sacred rivers like the Yamun and the Ganges flow. But often this is not possible, especially for Westerners. The so-called yoga societies in big cities may be successful in earning material benefit, but they are not at all suitable for the actual practice of yoga. One who is not self- controlled and whose mind is not undisturbed cannot practice meditation. Therefore, in the Bhan-Nradya Pura it is said that in the Kali-yuga (the present yuga or age) when people in general are short-lived, slow in spiritual realization and always disturbed by various anxieties, the best means of spiritual realization is chanting the holy name of the Lord. harer nma harer nma harer nmaiva kevalam kalau nsty eva nsty eva nsty eva gatir anyath. "In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way." TEXTS 13-14 sama kya-iro-grva dhrayann acala sthira samprekya nsikgra sva dia cnavalokayan pranttm vigata-bhr brahmacri-vrate sthita mana sayamya mac-citto yukta sta mat-para samam straight; kya-ira body and head; grvam neck; dhrayan holding; acalam unmoved; sthira still; samprekya looking; nsik nose; agram tip; svam own; dia all sides; ca also; anavalokayan not seeing; pranta unagitated; tm mind; vigata-bh devoid of fear; brahmacri-vrate in the vow of celibacy; sthita situated; mana mind; sayamya completely subdued; mat unto Me (Ka); citta concentrated; yukta actual yog ; sta being so; mat unto Me; para ultimate goal. TRANSLATION One should hold one's body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me the ultimate goal of life. PURPORT The goal of life is to know Ka, who is situated within the heart of every living being as Paramtm, the four-handed Viu form. The yoga process is practiced in order to discover and see this localized form of Viu, and not for any other purpose. The localized Viu-mrti is the plenary representation of Ka dwelling within one's heart. One who has no program to realize this Viu- murti is uselessly engaged in mock- yoga practice and is certainly wasting his time. K is the ultimate goal of life, and the Viu-murti situated in one's heart is the object of yoga practice. To realize this Viu- murti within the heart, one has to observe complete abstinence from sex life; therefore one has to leave home and live alone in a secluded place, remaining seated as mentioned above. One cannot enjoy sex life daily at home or elsewhere and attend a so-called yoga class and thus become a yog . One has to practice controlling the mind and avoiding all kinds of sense gratification, of which sex life is the chief. In the rules of celibacy written by the great sage Yjavalkya it is said: karma manas vc sarvvasthsu sarvad sarvatra maithua-tygo brahmacarya pracakate. "The vow of brahmacarya is meant to help one completely abstain from sex indulgence in work, words and mindat all times, under all circumstances, and in all places." No one can perform correct yoga practice through sex indulgence. Brahmacarya is taught, therefore, from childhood when one has no knowledge of sex life. Children at the age of five are sent to the guru-kula, or the place of the spiritual master, and the master trains the young boys in the strict discipline of becoming brahmacrs. Without such practice, no one can make advancement in any yoga, whether it be dhyna, jna or bhakti. One who, however, follows the rules and regulations of married life, having sexual relationship only with his wife (and that also under regulation), is also called brahmacr. Such a restrained householder brahmacr may be accepted in the bhakti school, but the jna and dhyna schools do not admit even householder brahmacrs. They require complete abstinence without compromise. In the bhakti school, a householder brahmacr is allowed controlled sex life because the cult of bhakti-yoga is so powerful that one automatically loses sexual attraction, being engaged in the superior service of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gt it is said: viay vinivartante nirhrasya dehina rasa-varja raso 'py asya para dv nivartate Whereas others are forced to restrain themselves from sense gratification, a devotee of the Lord automatically refrains because of superior taste. Other than the devotee, no one has any information of that superior taste. Vigatabh. One cannot be fearless unless one is fully in Ka consciousness. A conditioned soul is fearful due to his perverted memory, his forgetfulness of his eternal relationship with Ka. The Bhgavatam says, bhaya dvitybhiniveata syd d apetasya viparyayo 'smti: Ka consciousness is the only basis for fearlessness. Therefore, perfect practice is possible for a person who is Ka conscious. And since the ultimate goal of yoga practice is to see the Lord within, a Ka conscious person is already the best of all yogs. The principles of the yoga system mentioned herein are different from those of the popular so-called yoga societies. TEXT 15 yujann eva sadtmna yog niyata-mnasa nti nirva-paramm mat-sasthm adhigacchati yujan practicing like this; evam as mentioned above; sad constantly; tmnam body, mind and soul; yog the mystic transcendentalist; niyata- mnasa regulated mind; ntim peace; nirva-paramm cessation of material existence; mat-sasthm in the spiritual sky (the kingdom of God); adhigacchati does attain. TRANSLATION Thus practicing control of the body, mind and activities, the mystic transcendentalist attains to the kingdom of God [or the abode of Ka] by cessation of material existence. PURPORT The ultimate goal in practicing yoga is now clearly explained. Yoga practice is not meant for attaining any kind of material facility; it is to enable the cessation of all material existence. One who seeks an improvement in health or aspires after material perfection is no yog according to Bhagavad-gt. Nor does cessation of material existence entail one's entering into "the void," which is only a myth. There is no void anywhere within the creation of the Lord. Rather, the cessation of material existence enables one to enter into the spiritual sky, the abode of the Lord. The abode of the Lord is also clearly described in the Bhagavad-gt as that place where there is no need of sun, moon, nor electricity. All the planets in the spiritual kingdom are self- illuminated like the sun in the material sky. The kingdom of God is everywhere, but the spiritual sky and the planets thereof are called para dhma, or superior abodes. A consummate yog, who is perfect in understanding Lord Ka, as is clearly stated herein (mat-citta, mat-para, mat-sthnam) by the Lord Himself, can attain real peace and can ultimately reach His supreme abode, the Ka-loka known as Goloka Vndvana. In the Brahma-sahit it is clearly stated (goloka eva nivasaty akhiltma- bhta) that the Lord, although residing always in His abode called Goloka, is the all-pervading Brahman and the localized Paramtm as well by dint of His superior spiritual energies. No one can reach the spiritual sky or enter into the eternal abode (Vaikuha Goloka Vndvana) of the Lord without the proper understanding of Ka and His plenary expansion Viu. Therefore a person working in Ka consciousness is the perfect yog , because his mind is always absorbed in Ka's activities. Sa vai mana ka-padravindayo. In the Vedas also we learn: tam eva viditvtimtyum eti: "One can overcome the path of birth and death only by understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka." In other words, perfection of the yoga system is the attainment of freedom from material existence and not some magical jugglery or gymnastic feats to befool innocent people. TEXT 16 ntyanatas tu yogo 'sti na caikntam ananata na cti-svapna-lasya jgrato naiva crjuna na never; ati too much; anata of one who eats so; tu but; yoga linking with the Supreme; asti there is; na nor; ca also; ekntam very low; ananata abstaining from eating; na nor; ca also; ati too much; svapna-lasya of one who sleeps too much; jgrata or one who keeps night watch too much; na not; eva ever; ca and; arjuna O Arjuna. TRANSLATION There is no possibility of one's becoming a yog, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough. PURPORT Regulation of diet and sleep is recommended herein for the yogs. Too much eating means eating more than is required to keep the body and soul together. There is no need for men to eat animals because there is an ample supply of grains, vegetables, fruits and milk. Such simple foodstuff is considered to be in the mode of goodness according to the Bhagavad- gt . Animal food is for those in the mode of ignorance. Therefore, those who indulge in animal food, drinking, smoking and eating food which is not first offered to Ka will suffer sinful reactions because of eating only polluted things. Bhujate te tv agha papa ye pacanty tma-krat. Anyone who eats for sense pleasure, or cooks for himself, not offering his food to Ka, eats only sin. One who eats sin and eats more than is allotted to him cannot execute perfect yoga. It is best that one eat only the remnants of foodstuff offered to Ka. A person in Ka consciousness does not eat anything which is not first offered to Ka. Therefore, only the Ka conscious person can attain perfection in yoga practice. Nor can one who artificially abstains from eating, manufacturing his own personal process of fasting, practice yoga. The Ka conscious person observes fasting as it is recommended in the scriptures. He does not fast or eat more than is required, and he is thus competent to perform yoga practice. One who eats more than required will dream very much while sleeping, and he must consequently sleep more than is required. One should not sleep more than six hours daily. One who sleeps more than six hours out of twenty-four is certainly influenced by the mode of ignorance. A person in the mode of ignorance is lazy and prone to sleep a great deal. Such a person cannot perform yoga. TEXT 17 yukthra-vihrasya yukta-ceasya karmasu yukta-svapnvabodhasya yogo bhavati dukha-h yukta regulated; hra eating; vihrasya recreation; yukta regulated; ceasya of one who works for maintenance; karmasu in discharging duties; yukta regulated; svapna-avabodhasya regulated sleep and wakefulness; yoga practice of yoga; bhavati becomes; dukha-h diminishing pains. TRANSLATION He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system. PURPORT Extravagance in the matter of eating, sleeping, defending and mating which are demands of the bodycan block advancement in the practice of yoga. As far as eating is concerned, it can be regulated only when one is practiced to take and accept prasdam, sanctified food. Lord Ka is offered, according to the Bhagavad-gt (Bg. 9.26), vegetables, flowers, fruits, grains, milk, etc. In this way, a person in Ka consciousness becomes automatically trained not to accept food not meant for human consumption, or which is not in the category of goodness. As far as sleeping is concerned, a Ka conscious person is always alert in the discharge of his duties in Ka consciousness, and therefore any unnecessary time spent sleeping is considered a great loss. A Ka conscious person cannot bear to pass a minute of his life without being engaged in the service of the Lord. Therefore, his sleeping is kept to a minimum. His ideal in this respect is rla Rpa Gosvm, who was always engaged in the service of Ka and who could not sleep more than two hours a day, and sometimes not even that. hkura Haridsa would not even accept prasdam nor even sleep for a moment without finishing his daily routine of chanting with his beads three hundred thousand names. As far as work is concerned, a Ka conscious person does not do anything which is not connected with Ka's interest, and thus his work is always regulated and is untainted by sense gratification. Since there is no question of sense gratification, there is no material leisure for a person in Ka consciousness. And because he is regulated in all his work, speech, sleep, wakefulness and all other bodily activities, there is no material misery for him. TEXT 18 yad viniyata cittam tmany evvatihate nispha sarva-kmebhyo yukta ity ucyate tad yad when; viniyatam particularly disciplined; cittam the mind and its activities; tmani in the Transcendence; eva certainly; avatihate becomes situated; nispha devoid of; sarva all kinds of; kmebhya material desires; yukta well situated in yoga; iti thus; ucyate is said to be; tad at that time. TRANSLATION When the yog, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in Transcendencedevoid of all material desireshe is said to have attained yoga. PURPORT The activities of the yog are distinguished from those of an ordinary person by his characteristic cessation from all kinds of material desiresof which sex is the chief. A perfect yog is so well disciplined in the activities of the mind that he can no longer be disturbed by any kind of material desire. This perfectional stage can automatically be attained by persons in Ka consciousness, as is stated in the rmad-Bhgavatam (9.4.18-20): sa vai mana ka-padravindayor vacsi vaikuha-gunuvarane karau harer mandira-mrjandiu ruti cakrcyuta-sat-kathodaye mukunda-liglaya-darane dau tad-bhtyagtra-spare 'ga- sagamam ghra ca tat-pda-saroja-saurabhe rmat tulasy rasan tad- arpite pdau hare ketra-padnusarpae iro hkea-padbhivandane kma ca dsye na tu kma-kmyay yathottama-loka-janray rati "King Ambara first of all engaged his mind on the lotus feet of Lord Ka; then, one after another, he engaged his words in describing the transcendental qualities of the Lord, his hands in mopping the temple of the Lord, his ears in hearing of the activities of the Lord, his eyes in seeing the transcendental forms of the Lord, his body in touching the bodies of the devotees, his sense of smell in smelling the scents of the lotus flower offered to the Lord, his tongue in tasting the tulas leaf offered at the lotus feet of the Lord, his legs in going to places of pilgrimage and the temple of the Lord, his head in offering obeisances unto the Lord and his desires in executing the mission of the Lord. All these transcendental activities are quite befitting a pure devotee." This transcendental stage may be inexpressible subjectively by the followers of the impersonalist path, but it becomes very easy and practical for a person in Ka consciousness, as is apparent in the above description of the engagements of Mahrja Ambara. Unless the mind is fixed on the lotus feet of the Lord by constant remembrance, such transcendental engagements are not practical. In the devotional service of the Lord, therefore, these prescribed activities are called arcan , or engaging all the senses in the service of the Lord. The senses and the mind require engagements. Simple abnegation is not practical. Therefore, for people in general especially those who are not in the renounced order of life transcendental engagement of the senses and the mind as described above is the perfect process for transcendental achievement, which is called yukta in the Bhagavad-gt. TEXT 19 yath dpo nivtastho negate sopam smt yogino yata-cittasya yujato yogam tmana yath as; dpa a lamp; nivtastha in a place without wind; na does not; igate waver; s upam compared to that; smt likened; yogina of the yog ; yata-cittasya whose mind is controlled; yujata constantly engaged in; yogam meditation; tmana on Transcendence. TRANSLATION As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent Self. PURPORT A truly Ka conscious person, always absorbed in Transcendence, in constant undisturbed meditation on his worshipable Lord, is as steady as a lamp in a windless place. TEXTS 20-23 yatroparamate citta niruddha yoga-sevay yatra caivtmantmna payann tmani tuyati sukham tyantika yat tad buddhi-grhyam atndriyam vetti yatra na caivya sthita calati tattvata ya labdhv cpara lbha manyate ndhika tata yasmin sthito na dukhena gurupi viclyate ta vidyd dukha-sayoga- viyoga yoga-sajitam yatra in that state of affairs; uparamate when one feels transcendental happiness; cittam mental activities; niruddham restrained from matter; yoga-sevay by performance of yoga; yatra in that; ca also; eva certainly; tman by the pure mind; tmnam self; payan realizing the position; tmani in the self; tuyati becomes satisfied; sukham happiness; tyantikam supreme; yat in which; tat that; buddhi intelligence; grhyam acceptable; atndriyam transcendental; vetti knows; yatra wherein; na never; ca also; eva certainly; ayam in this; sthita situated; calati moves; tattvata from the truth; yam that which; labdhv by attainment; ca also; aparam any other; lbham gain; manyate does not mind; na never; adhikam more than that; tata from that; yasmin in which; sthita being situated; na never; dukhena by miseries; gurupi even though very difficult; viclyate becomes shaken; tam that; vidyt you must know; dukha-sayoga miseries of material contact; viyogam extermination; yoga-samjitam trance in yoga. TRANSLATION The stage of perfection is called trance, or samdhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact. PURPORT By practice of yoga one becomes gradually detached from material concepts. This is the primary characteristic of the yoga principle. And after this, one becomes situated in trance, or samdhi which means that the yog realizes the Supersoul through transcendental mind and intelligence, without any of the misgivings of identifying the self with the Superself. Yoga practice is more or less based on the principles of the Patajali system. Some unauthorized commentators try to identify the individual soul with the Supersoul, and the monists think this to be liberation, but they do not understand the real purpose of the Patajali system of yoga. There is an acceptance of transcendental pleasure in the Patajali system, but the monists do not accept this transcendental pleasure out of fear of jeopardizing the theory of oneness. The duality of knowledge and knower is not accepted by the nondualist, but in this verse transcendental pleasurerealized through transcendental sensesis accepted. And this is corroborated by the Patajali Muni, the famous exponent of the yoga system. The great sage declares in his Yoga-stras: pururthanyn gun pratiprasava kaivalya svarpa-pratih v citi-aktir iti. This citi-akti, or internal potency, is transcendental. Pururtha means material religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and, at the end, the attempt to become one with the Supreme. This "oneness with the Supreme" is called kaivalyam by the monist. But according to Patajali, this kaivalyam is an internal, or transcendental, potency by which the living entity becomes aware of his constitutional position. In the words of Lord Caitanya, this state of affairs is called ceto-darpaa-mrjanam , or clearance of the impure mirror of the mind. This "clearance" is actually liberation, or bhava- mahdvgni-nirvpaam. The theory of nirva also preliminary corresponds with this principle. In the Bhgavatam this is called svarpea vyavasthiti. The Bhagavad-gt also confirms this situation in this verse. After nirva, or material cessation, there is the manifestation of spiritual activities, or devotional service of the Lord, known as Ka consciousness. In the words of the Bhgavatam, svarpea vyavasthiti: this is the "real life of the living entity." My , or illusion, is the condition of spiritual life contaminated by material infection. Liberation from this material infection does not mean destruction of the original eternal position of the living entity. Patajali also accepts this by his words kaivalyam svarpa-pratih v citi- aktir iti. This citi-akti or transcendental pleasure, is real life. This is confirmed in the Vednta-stras as nandamayo 'bhyst. This natural transcendental pleasure is the ultimate goal of yoga and is easily achieved by execution of devotional service, or bhakti-yoga. Bhaktiyoga will be vividly described in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gt. In the yoga system, as described in this chapter, there are two kinds of samdhi, called samprajta-samdhi and asamprajta-samdhi. When one becomes situated in the transcendental position by various philosophical researches, it is called samprajta-samdhi. In the asamprajta-samdhi there is no longer any connection with mundane pleasure, for one is then transcendental to all sorts of happiness derived from the senses. When the yog is once situated in that transcendental position, he is never shaken from it. Unless the yog is able to reach this position, he is unsuccessful. Today's so- called yoga practice, which involves various sense pleasures, is contradictory. A yog indulging in sex and intoxication is a mockery. Even those yogs who are attracted by the siddhis (perfections) in the process of yoga are not perfectly situated. If the yogs are attracted by the by-products of yoga, then they cannot attain the stage of perfection, as is stated in this verse. Persons, therefore, indulging in the make-show practice of gymnastic feats or siddhis should know that the aim of yoga is lost in that way. The best practice of yoga in this age is Ka consciousness, which is not baffling. A Ka conscious person is so happy in his occupation that he does not aspire after any other happiness. There are many impediments, especially in this age of hypocrisy, to practicing haha- yoga, dhyna-yoga, and jna- yoga, but there is no such problem in executing karma-yoga or bhakti-yoga. As long as the material body exists, one has to meet the demands of the body, namely eating, sleeping, defending and mating. But a person who is in pure bhakti-yoga or in Ka consciousness does not arouse the senses while meeting the demands of the body. Rather, he accepts the bare necessities of life, making the best use of a bad bargain, and enjoys transcendental happiness in Ka consciousness. He is callous toward incidental occurrencessuch as accidents, disease, scarcity and even the death of a most dear relativebut he is always alert to execute his duties in Ka consciousness or bhakti-yoga. Accidents never deviate him from his duty. As stated in the Bhagavad-gt, gampyino 'nitys ts titikasva bhrata. He endures all such incidental occurences because he knows that they come and go and do not affect his duties. In this way he achieves the highest perfection in yoga practice. TEXT 24 sa nicayena yoktavyo yogo 'nirvia-cetas sakalpa-prabhavn kms tyaktv sarvn aeata manasaivendriya-grma viniyamya samantata sa that yoga system; nicayena with firm determination; yoktavya must be practiced; yoga in such practice; anirvia-cetas without deviation; sakalpa material desires; prabhavn born of; kmn sense gratification; tyaktv giving up; sarvn all; aeatah completely; manas by the mind; eva certainly; indriya-grmam the full set of senses; viniyamya regulating; samantata from all sides. TRANSLATION One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of false ego and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind. PURPORT The yoga practitioner should be determined and should patiently prosecute the practice without deviation. One should be sure of success at the end and pursue this course with great perserverance, not becoming discouraged if there is any delay in the attainment of success. Success is sure for the rigid practitioner. Regarding bhakti-yoga, Rupa Gosvm says: utshn nicayd dhairyt tat tat karma-pravartant saga-tygt satovtte abhir bhakti prasidhyati "The process of bhakti-yoga can be executed successfully with full-hearted enthusiasm, perseverance, and determination by following the prescribed duties in the association of devotees and by engaging completely in activities of goodness." As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garua, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Viu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garua was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garua at once asked the ocean to return her eggs lest he himself take up the work of the sparrow. The ocean was frightened at this, and returned the eggs. Thus the sparrow became happy by the grace of Garua. Similarly, the practice of yoga, especially bhakti-yoga in Ka consciousness, may appear to be a very difficult job. But if anyone follows the principles with great determination, the Lord will surely help, for God helps those who help themselves. TEXT 25 anai anair uparamed buddhy dhti-ghtay tma-sastha mana ktv na kicid api cintayet anai gradually; anai step by step; uparamet hesitated; buddhy by intelligence; dhti-ghtay carrying the conviction; tma-sastham placed in transcendence; mana mind; ktv doing so; na nothing; kicit anything else; api even; cintayet be thinking of. TRANSLATION Gradually, step by step, with full conviction, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence, and thus the mind should be fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else. PURPORT By proper conviction and intelligence one should gradually cease sense activities. This is called pratyhra. The mind, being controlled by conviction, meditation, and cessation of the senses, should be situated in trance, or samdhi. At that time there is no longer any danger of becoming engaged in the material conception of life. In other words, although one is involved with matter as long as the material body exists, one should not think about sense gratification. One should think of no pleasure aside from the pleasure of the Supreme Self. This state is easily attained by directly practicing Ka consciousness. TEXT 26 yato yato nicalati mana cacalam asthiram tatas tato niyamyaitad tmany eva vaa nayet yata whatever; yata wherever; nicalati verily agitated; mana the mind; cacalam flickering; asthiram unsteady; tata from there; tata and thereafter; niyamya regulating; etat this; tmani in the self; eva certainly; vaam control; nayet must bring in. TRANSLATION From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self. PURPORT The nature of the mind is flickering and unsteady. But a self-realized yog has to control the mind; the mind should not control him. One who controls the mind (and therefore the senses as well) is called gosvm, or svm, and one who is controlled by the mind is called godsa, or the servant of the senses. A gosvm knows the standard of sense happiness. In transcendental sense happiness, the senses are engaged in the service of Hkea or the supreme owner of the sensesKa. Serving Ka with purified senses is called Ka consciousness. That is the way of bringing the senses under full control. What is more, that is the highest perfection of yoga practice. TEXT 27 pranta-manasa hy ena yogina sukham uttamam upaiti nta-rajasa brahma-bhtam akalmaam pranta mind fixed on the lotus feet of Ka; manasam of one whose mind is so fixed; hi certainly; enam this; yoginam the yog ; sukham happiness; uttamam the highest; upaiti attains; nta-rajasam pacified passion; brahma-bhtam liberated by identification with the Absolute; akalmaam freed from all past sinful reaction. TRANSLATION The yog whose mind is fixed on Me verily attains the highest happiness. By virtue of his identity with Brahman, he is liberated; his mind is peaceful, his passions are quieted, and he is freed from sin. PURPORT Brahma-bhta is the state of being free from material contamination and situated in the transcendental service of the Lord. Mad-bhaktim labhate parm (Bg. 18.54). One cannot remain in the quality of Brahman, the Absolute, until one's mind is fixed on the lotus feet of the Lord. Sa vai mana ka- padravindayo. To be always engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, or to remain in Ka consciousness, is to be factually liberated from the mode of passion and all material contamination. TEXT 28 yujann eva sadtmna yog vigata-kalmaa sukhena brahma-sasparam atyanta sukham anute yujan thus being engaged in yoga practice; evam thus; sad always; tmnam self; yog one who is in touch with the Supreme Self; vigata is freed from; kalmaa all material contamination; sukhena in transcendental happiness; brahma-sasparam being in constant touch with the Supreme; atyantam highest; sukham happiness; anute attains. TRANSLATION Steady in the Self, being freed from all material contamination, the yog achieves the highest perfectional stage of happiness in touch with the Supreme Consciousness. PURPORT Self-realization means knowing one's constitutional position in relationship to the Supreme. The individual soul is part and parcel of the Supreme, and his position is to render transcendental service to the Lord. This transcendental contact with the Supreme is called brahma-saspara. TEXT 29 sarva-bhta-stham tmna sarva-bhtni ctmani kate yoga-yukta-tm sarvatra sama-darana sarva-bhta-stham situated in all beings; tmnam the Supersoul; sarva all; bhtni entities; ca also; tmani in the Self; kate does see; yoga- yukta-tm one who is dovetailed in Ka consciousness; sarvatra everywhere; sama-darana seeing equally. TRANSLATION A true yog observes Me in all beings, and also sees every being in Me. Indeed, the self-realized man sees Me everywhere. PURPORT A Ka conscious yog is the perfect seer because he sees Ka, the Supreme, situated in everyone's heart as Supersoul (Paramtm). vara sarva-bhtn hd-dee 'rjuna tihati. The Lord in His Paramtm feature is situated within both the heart of the dog and that of a brhmaa. The perfect yog knows that the Lord is eternally transcendental and is not materially affected by His presence in either a dog or a brhmaa. That is the supreme neutrality of the Lord. The individual soul is also situated in the individual heart, but he is not present in all hearts. That is the distinction between the individual soul and the Supersoul. One who is not factually in the practice of yoga cannot see so clearly. A Ka conscious person can see Ka in the heart of both the believer and nonbeliever. In the smti this is confirmed as follows: tatatvc ca mttvd tm hi paramo hari. The Lord, being the source of all beings, is like the mother and the maintainer. As the mother is neutral to all different kinds of children, the Supreme Father (or Mother) is also. Consequently the Supersoul is always in every living being. Outwardly, also, every living being is situated in the energy of the Lord. As will be explained in the Seventh Chapter, the Lord has, primarily, two energiesthe spiritual (or superior) and the material (or inferior). The living entity, although part of the superior energy, is conditioned by the inferior energy; the living entity is always in the Lord's energy. Every living entity is situated in Him in one way or another. The yog sees equally because he sees that all living entities, although in different situations according to the results of fruitive work, in all circumstances remain the servants of God. While in the material energy, the living entity serves the material senses; and while in spiritual energy, he serves the Supreme Lord directly. In either case the living entity is the servant of God. This vision of equality is perfect in a person in Ka consciousness. TEXT 30 yo m payati sarvatra sarva ca mayi payati tasyha na praaymi sa ca me na praayati ya whoever; mm Me; payati sees; sarvatra everywhere; sarvam everything; ca and; mayi in Me; payati he sees; tasya his; aham I; na not; praaymi am lost; sa he; ca also; me to Me; na nor; praayati is lost. TRANSLATION For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me. PURPORT A person in Ka consciousness certainly sees Lord Ka everywhere, and he sees everything in Ka. Such a person may appear to see all separate manifestations of the material nature, but in each and every instance he is conscious of Ka, knowing that everything is the manifestation of Ka's energy. Nothing can exist without Ka, and Ka is the Lord of everything this is the basic principle of Ka consciousness. Ka consciousness is the development of love of Ka a position transcendental even to material liberation. It is the stage beyond selfrealization at which the devotee becomes one with Ka in the sense that Ka becomes everything for the devotee, and the devotee becomes full in loving Ka. An intimate relationship between the Lord and the devotee then exists. In that stage, the living entity attains his immortality. Nor is the Personality of Godhead ever out of the sight of the devotee. To merge in Ka is spiritual annihilation. A devotee takes no such risk. It is stated in the Brahma-sahit: premjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santa sadaiva hdayeu vilokayanti ya ymasundaram acintya-gua-svarpa govindam di-purua tam aha bhajmi "I worship the primeval Lord, Govinda, who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in His eternal form of ymasundara situated within the heart of the devotee." (Bs. 5.38) At this stage, Lord Ka never disappears from the sight of the devotee, nor does the devotee ever lose sight of the Lord. In the case of a yog who sees the Lord as Paramtm within the heart, the same applies. Such a yog turns into a pure devotee and cannot bear to live for a moment without seeing the Lord within himself. TEXT 31 sarva-bhta-sthita yo m bhajaty ekatvam sthita sarvath vartamno 'pi sa yog mayi vartate sarva-bhta-sthitam situated in everyone's heart; ya he who; mm unto Me; bhajati serves in devotional service; ekatvam oneness; sthita thus situated; sarvath in all respects; vartamna being situated; api in spite of; sa he; yog transcendentalist; mayi unto Me; vartate remains. TRANSLATION The yog who knows that I and the Supersoul within all creatures are one worships Me and remains always in Me in all circumstances. PURPORT A yog who is practicing meditation on the Supersoul sees within himself the plenary portion of Ka as Viuwith four hands, holding conchshell, wheel, club and lotus flower. The yog should know that Viu is not different from Ka. Ka in this form of Supersoul is situated in everyone's heart. Furthermore, there is no difference between the innumerable Supersouls present in the innumerable hearts of living entities. Nor is there a difference between a Ka conscious person always engaged in the transcendental loving service of Ka and a perfect yog engaged in meditation on the Supersoul. The yog in Ka consciousness even though he may be engaged in various activities while in material existence remains always situated in Ka. This is confirmed in the Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu of rla Rpa Gosvm: nikhileu avasthsu jvanmukta sa ucyate. A devotee of the Lord, always acting in Ka consciousness, is automatically liberated. In the Nrada-pacartra this is confirmed in this way: dik-kldy-anavacchinne ke ceto vidhya ca tanmayo bhavati kipra jvo brahmai yojayet. "By concentrating one's attention on the transcendental form of Ka, who is all-pervading and beyond time and space, one becomes absorbed in thinking of Ka and then attains the happy state of transcendental association with Him." Ka consciousness is the highest stage of trance in yoga practice. This very understanding that Ka is present as Paramtm in everyone's heart makes the yog faultless. The Vedas confirm this inconceivable potency of the Lord as follows: eko 'pi san bahudh yo 'vabhti aivaryd rpam eka ca sryavad bahudheyate. "Viu is one, and yet He is certainly all-pervading. By His inconceivable potency, in spite of His one form, He is present everywhere. As the sun, He appears in many places at once." TEXT 32 tmaupamyena sarvatra sama payati yo 'rjuna sukha v yadi v dukha sa yog paramo mata tma self; aupamyena by comparison; sarvatra everywhere; samam equality; payati sees; ya he who; arjuna O Arjuna; sukham happiness; v or; yadi if; v or; dukham distress; sa such; yog transcendentalist; parama perfect; mata considered. TRANSLATION He is a perfect yog who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, both in their happiness and distress, O Arjuna! PURPORT One who is Ka conscious is a perfect yog ; he is aware of everyone's happiness and distress by dint of his own personal experience. The cause of the distress of a living entity is forgetfulness of his relationship with God. And the cause of happiness is knowing Ka to be the supreme enjoyer of all the activities of the human being. Ka is the proprietor of all lands and planets. The perfect yog is the sincerest friend of all living entities. He knows that the living being who is conditioned by the modes of material nature is subjected to the threefold material miseries due to forgetfulness of his relationship with Ka. Because one in Ka consciousness is happy, he tries to distribute the knowledge of Ka everywhere. Since the perfect yog tries to broadcast the importance of becoming Ka conscious, he is the best philanthropist in the world, and he is the dearest servitor of the Lord. Na tasmt kacid me priyakt tama. In other words, a devotee of the Lord always looks to the welfare of all living entities, and in this way he is factually the friend of everyone. He is the best yog because he does not desire perfection in yoga for his personal benefit, but tries for others also. He does not envy his fellow living entities. Here is a contrast between a pure devotee of the Lord and a yog interested only in his personal elevation. The yog who has withdrawn to a secluded place in order to meditate perfectly may not be as perfect as a devotee who is trying his best to turn every man toward Ka consciousness. TEXT 33 arjuna uvca yo 'ya yogas tvay prokta smyena madhusdana etasyha na paymi cacalatvt sthiti sthirm arjuna uvca Arjuna said; ya the system; ayam this; yoga mysticism; tvay by You; prokta described; smyena generally; madhusdana O killer of the demon Madhu; etasya of this; aham I; na do not; paymi see; cacalatvt due to being restless; sthitim situation; sthirm stable. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: O Madhusdana, the system of yoga which you have summarized appears impractical and unendurable to me, for the mind is restless and unsteady. PURPORT The system of mysticism described by Lord Ka to Arjuna beginning with the words ucau dee and ending with yog parama is here being rejected by Arjuna out of a feeling of inability. It is not possible for an ordinary man to leave home and go to a secluded place in the mountains or jungles to practice yoga in this age of Kali. The present age is characterized by a bitter struggle for a life of short duration. People are not serious about self-realization even by simple, practical means, and what to speak of this difficult yoga system, which regulates the mode of living, the manner of sitting, selection of place, and detachment of the mind from material engagements. As a practical man, Arjuna thought it was impossible to follow this system of yoga, even though he was favorably endowed in many ways. He belonged to the royal family and was highly elevated in terms of numerous qualities; he was a great warrior, he had great longevity, and, above all, he was the most intimate friend of Lord Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Five thousand years ago, Arjuna had much better facilities then we do now, yet he refused to accept this system of yoga. In fact, we do not find any record in history of his practicing it at any time. Therefore this system must be considered generally impossible in this age of Kali. Of course it may be possible for some very few, rare men, but for the people in general it is an impossible proposal. If this were so five thousand years ago, then what of the present day? Those who are imitating this yoga system in different so-called schools and societies, although complacent, are certainly wasting their time. They are completely in ignorance of the desired goal. TEXT 34 cacala hi mana ka pramthi balavad dham tasyha nigraha manye vyor iva sudukaram cacalam flickering; hi certainly; mana mind; ka O Ka; pramthi agitating; balavat strong; dham obstinate; tasya its; aham I; nigraham subduing; manye think; vyo of the wind; iva like; sudukaram difficult. TRANSLATION For the mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Ka, and to subdue it is, it seems to me, more difficult than controlling the wind. PURPORT The mind is so strong and obstinate that it sometimes overcomes the intelligence, although mind is supposed to be subservient to the intelligence. For a man in the practical world who has to fight so many opposing elements, it is certainly very difficult to control the mind. Artificially, one may establish a mental equilibrium toward both friend and enemy, but ultimately no worldly man can do so, for this is more difficult than controlling the raging wind. In the Vedic literatures it is said: tmna rathina viddhi arra ratham eva ca buddhintu srathi viddhi mana pragraham eva ca indriyi haynhur viays teu gocarn tmendriya-mano-yukto bhoktety hur mania. "The individual is the passenger in the car of the material body, and intelligence is the driver. Mind is the driving instrument, and the senses are the horses. The self is thus the enjoyer or sufferer in the association of the mind and senses. So it is understood by great thinkers." Intelligence is supposed to direct the mind, but the mind is so strong and obstinate that it often overcomes even one's own intelligence. Such a strong mind is supposed to be controlled by the practice of yoga, but such practice is never practical for a worldly person like Arjuna. And what can we say of modern man? The simile used here is appropriate: one cannot capture the blowing wind. And it is even more difficult to capture the turbulent mind. The easiest way to control the mind, as suggested by Lord Caitanya, is chanting "Hare Ka," the great mantra for deliverance, in all humility. The method prescribed is sa vai mana ka- padravindayo: one must engage one's mind fully in Ka. Only then will there remain no other engagements to agitate the mind. TEXT 35 r bhagavn uvca asaaya mah-bho mano durnigraha calam abhysena tu kaunteya vairgyea ca ghyate r bhagavn uvca the Personality of Godhead said; asaayam undoubtedly; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; mana mind; durnigraham difficult to curb; calam flickering; abhysena by practice; tu but; kaunteya O son of Kunt; vairgyea by detachment; ca also; ghyate can be so controlled. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: O mighty-armed son of Kunt, it is undoubtedly very difficult to curb the restless mind, but it is possible by constant practice and by detachment. PURPORT The difficulty of controlling the obstinate mind, as expressed by Arjuna, is accepted by the Personality of Godhead. But at the same time He suggests that by practice and detachment it is possible. What is that practice? In the present age no one can observe strict rules and regulations, such as placing oneself in a sacred place, focusing the mind on the Supersoul, restraining the senses and mind, observing celibacy, remaining alone, etc. By the practice of Ka consciousness, however, one engages in nine types of devotional service to the Lord. The first and foremost of such devotional engagements is hearing about Ka. This is a very powerful transcendental method for purging the mind of all misgivings. The more one hears about Ka, the more one becomes enlightened and detached from everything that draws the mind away from Ka. By detaching the mind from activities not devoted to the Lord, one can very easily learn vairgya. Vairgya means detachment from matter and engagement of the mind in spirit. Impersonal spiritual detachment is more difficult than attaching the mind to the activities of Ka. This is practical because by hearing about Ka one becomes automatically attached to the Supreme Spirit. This attachment is called parenubhti spiritual satisfaction. It is just like the feeling of satisfaction a hungry man has for every morsel of food he eats. Similarly, by discharge of devotional service, one feels transcendental satisfaction as the mind becomes detached from material objectives. It is something like curing a disease by expert treatment and appropriate diet. Hearing of the transcendental activities of Lord Ka is therefore expert treatment for the mad mind, and eating the foodstuff offered to Ka is the appropriate diet for the suffering patient. This treatment is the process of Ka consciousness. TEXT 36 asayattman yogo duprpa iti me mati vaytman tu yatat akyo 'vptum upyata asayata unbridled; tman by the mind; yoga self-realization; duprpa difficult to obtain; iti thus; me My; mati opinion; vaya controlled; tman by the mind; tu but; yatat while endeavoring; akya practical; avptum to achieve; upyata appropriate means. TRANSLATION For one whose mind is unbridled, self-realization is difficult work. But he whose mind is controlled and who strives by right means is assured of success. That is My opinion. PURPORT The Supreme Personality of Godhead declares that one who does not accept the proper treatment to detach the mind from material engagement can hardly achieve success in self-realization. Trying to practice yoga while engaging the mind in material enjoyment is like trying to ignite a fire while pouring water on it. Similarly, yoga practice without mental control is a waste of time. Such a show of yoga practice may be materially lucrative, but it is useless as far as spiritual realization is concerned. Therefore, the mind must be controlled by engaging it constantly in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Unless one is engaged in Ka consciousness, he cannot steadily control the mind. A Ka conscious person easily achieves the result of yoga practice without separate endeavor, but a yoga practitioner cannot achieve success without becoming Ka conscious. TEXT 37 arjuna uvca ayati raddhayopeto yogc calita-mnasa aprpya yoga-sasiddhi k gati ka gacchati arjuna uvca Arjuna said; ayati unsuccessful transcendentalist; raddhay with faith; upeta engaged; yogt from the mystic link; calita deviated; mnasa of one who has such a mind; aprpya failing; yoga- sasiddhim highest perfection in mysticism; km which; gatim destination; ka O Ka; gacchati achieves. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: What is the destination of the man of faith who does not persevere, who in the beginning takes to the process of self-realization but who later desists due to worldly- mindedness and thus does not attain perfection in mysticism? PURPORT The path of self-realization or mysticism is described in the Bhagavad- gt. The basic principle of self-realization is knowledge that the living entity is not this material body but that he is different from it and that his happiness is in eternal life, bliss and knowledge. These are transcendental, beyond both body and mind. Self- realization is sought by the path of knowledge, the practice of the eightfold system or by bhakti-yoga. In each of these processes one has to realize the constitutional position of the living entity, his relationship with God, and the activities whereby he can reestablish the lost link and achieve the highest perfectional stage of Ka consciousness. Following any of the above-mentioned three methods, one is sure to reach the supreme goal sooner or later. This was asserted by the Lord in the Second Chapter: even a little endeavor on the transcendental path offers a great hope for deliverance. Out of these three methods, the path of bhakti-yoga is especially suitable for this age because it is the most direct method of God realization. To be doubly assured, Arjuna is asking Lord Ka to confirm His former statement. One may sincerely accept the path of self-realization, but the process of cultivation of knowledge and the practice of the eightfold yoga system are generally very difficult for this age. Therefore, despite constant endeavor, one may fail for many reasons. First of all, one may not be following the process. To pursue the transcendental path is more or less to declare war on illusory energy. Consequently, whenever a person tries to escape the clutches of the illusory energy, she tries to defeat the practitioner by various allurements. A conditioned soul is already allured by the modes of material energy, and there is every chance of being allured again, even while performing transcendental disciplines. This is called yogt calita-mnasa: deviation from the transcendental path. Arjuna is inquisitive to know the results of deviation from the path of self-realization. TEXT 38 kaccin nobhaya-vibhraa chinnbhram iva nayati apratiho mah-bho vimho brahmaa pathi kaccit whether; na not; ubhaya both; vibhraa deviated from; chinna fallen; abhram cloud; iva likened; nayati perishes; apratiha without any position; mah-bho O mighty-armed Ka; vimha bewildered; brahmaa of Transcendence; pathi on the path. TRANSLATION O mighty-armed Ka, does not such a man, being deviated from the path of Transcendence, perish like a riven cloud, with no position in any sphere? PURPORT There are two ways to progress. Those who are materialists have no interest in Transcendence; therefore they are more interested in material advancement by economic development, or in promotion to the higher planets by appropriate work. When one takes to the path of Transcendence, one has to cease all material activities and sacrifice all forms of so-called material happiness. If the aspiring transcendentalist fails, then he apparently loses both ways; in other words, he can enjoy neither material happiness nor spiritual success. He has no position; he is like a riven cloud. A cloud in the sky sometimes deviates from a small cloud and joins a big one. But if it cannot join a big one, then it is blown away by the wind and becomes a nonentity in the vast sky. The brahmaa pathi is the path of transcendental realization through knowing oneself to be spiritual in essence, part and parcel of the Supreme Lord who is manifested as Brahman, Paramtm and Bhagavn. Lord r Ka is the fullest manifestation of the Supreme Absolute Truth, and therefore one who is surrendered to the Supreme Person is a successful transcendentalist. To reach this goal of life through Brahman and Paramtm realization takes many, many births: Bahn janmanm ante. Therefore the supermost of transcendental realization is bhakti-yoga or Ka consciousness, the direct method. TEXT 39 etan me saaya ka chettum arhasy aeata tvad-anya saayasysya chett na hy upapadyate etat this is; me my; saayam doubt; ka O Ka; chettum to dispel; arhasi requested to do; aeata completely; tvat Yourself; anya without; saaysya of the doubt; asya of this; chett remover; na never; hi certainly; upapadyate to be found. TRANSLATION This is my doubt O Ka, and I ask You to dispel it completely. But for Yourself, no one is to be found who can destroy this doubt. PURPORT Ka is the perfect knower of past, present and future. In the beginning of the Bhagavad-gt, the Lord said that all living entities exist individually in the past, that they exist now in the present, and that they continue to retain individual identity in the future, even after liberation from the material entanglement. So He has already cleared up the question of the future of the individual living entity. Now, Arjuna wants to know of the future of the unsuccessful transcendentalist. No one is equal to or above Ka, and certainly the so-called great sages and philosophers who are at the mercy of material nature cannot equal Him. Therefore the verdict of Ka is the final and complete answer to all doubts because He knows past, present and future perfectlybut no one knows Him. Ka and Ka conscious devotees alone can know what is what. TEXT 40 r bhagavn uvca prtha naiveha nmutra vinas tasya vidyate na hi kalya-kt kacid durgati tta gacchati r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; prtha O son of Prth; na eva never is it so; iha in this material world; na never; amutra in the next life; vina destruction; tasya his; vidyate exists; na never; hi certainly; kalya-kt one who is engaged in auspicious activities; kacit anyone; durgatim degradation; tta thereafter; gacchati going. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: Son of Pth, a transcendentalist engaged in auspicious activities does not meet with destruction either in this world or in the spiritual world; one who does good, My friend, is never overcome by evil. PURPORT In the rmad-Bhgavatam (1.5.17) r Nrada Muni instructs Vysadeva as follows: tyaktv sva-dharma carambuja harer bhajann apakko 'tha patet tato yadi yatra kva vbhadram abhd amuya ki ko vrtha pto 'bhajat sva-dharmata "If someone gives up all material prospects and takes complete shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no loss or degradation in any way. On the other hand a nondevotee may fully engage in his occupational duties and yet not gain anything." For material prospects, there are many activities both scriptural and customary. A transcendentalist is supposed to give up all material activities for the sake of spiritual advancement in life, Ka consciousness. One may argue that by Ka consciousness one may attain the highest perfection if it is completed, but if one does not attainsuch a perfectional stage, then he loses both materially and spiritually. It is enjoined in the scriptures that one has to suffer the reaction of not executing prescribed duties; therefore one who fails to discharge transcendental activities properly becomes subjected to these reactions. The Bhgavatam assures the unsuccessful transcendentalist that there need be no worries. Even though he may be subjected to the reaction of not perfectly executing prescribed duties, he is still not a loser, because auspicious Ka consciousness is never forgotten, and one so engaged will continue to be so even if he is lowborn in the next life. On the other hand, one who simply follows strictly the prescribed duties need not necessarily attain auspicious results if he is lacking in Ka consciousness. The purport may be understood as follows: humanity may be divided into two sections, namely, the regulated and the nonregulated. Those who are engaged simply in bestial sense gratifications without knowledge of their next life or spiritual salvation belong to the nonregulated section. And those who follow the principles of prescribed duties in the scriptures are classified amongst the regulated section. The nonregulated section, both civilized and noncivilized, educated and noneducated, strong and weak, are full of animal propensities. Their activities are never auspicious because, enjoying the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, defending and mating, they perpetually remain in material existence, which is always miserable. On the other hand, those who are regulated by scriptural injunctions and thus gradually rise to Ka consciousness certainly progress in life. Those who are then following the path of auspiciousness can be divided into three sections, namely, 1) the followers of scriptural rules and regulations who are enjoying material prosperity, 2) those who are trying to find out the ultimate liberation from material existence, and 3) those who are devotees in Ka consciousness. Those who are following the rules and regulations of the scriptures for material happiness may be further divided into two classes: those who are fruitive workers and those who desire no fruit for sense gratification. Those who are after fruitive results for sense gratification may be elevated to a higher standard of life-even to the higher planets; but still, because they are not free from material existence, they are not following the truly auspicious path. The only auspicious activities are those which lead one to liberation. Any activity which is not aimed at ultimate selfrealization or liberation from the material bodily concept of life is not at all auspicious. Activity in Ka consciousness is the only auspicious activity, and anyone who voluntarily accepts all bodily discomforts for the sake of making progress on the path of Ka consciousness can be called a perfect transcendentalist under severe austerity. And because the eightfold yoga system is directed toward the ultimate realization of Ka consciousness, such practice is also auspicious, and no one who is trying his best in this matter need fear degradation. TEXT 41 prpya puya-kt lokn uitv vat sam ucn rmat gehe yoga-bhrao 'bhijyate prpya after achieving; puya-ktm of those who performed pious activities; lokn planets; uitv after dwelling; vat many; sam years; ucnm of the pious; rmatm of the prosperous; gehe in the house of; yoga-bhraa one who is fallen from the path of self-realization; abhijyate takes his birth. TRANSLATION The unsuccessful yog, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy. PURPORT The unsuccessful yogs are divided into two classes: one is fallen after very little progress, and one is fallen after long practice of yoga. The yog who falls after a short period of practice goes to the higher planets where pious living entities are allowed to enter. After prolonged life there, he is sent back again to this planet, to take birth in the family of a righteous brhmaa vaiava or of aristocratic merchants. The real purpose of yoga practice is to achieve the highest perfection of Ka consciousness. But those who do not persevere to such an extent and fail due to material allurements are allowed, by the grace of the Lord, to make full utilization of their material propensities. And after that, they are given opportunities to live prosperous lives in righteous or aristocratic families. Those who are born in such families may take advantage of the facilities and try to elevate themselves to full Ka consciousness. TEXT 42 athav yoginm eva kule bhavati dhmatm etaddhi durlabhatara loke janma yad dam athav or; yoginm of learned transcendentalists; eva certainly; kule in the family of; bhavati takes birth; dhmatm of those who are endowed with great wisdom; etat this; hi certainly; durlabhataram very rare; loke in this world; janma birth; yat that which; dam like this. TRANSLATION Or he takes his birth in a family of transcendentalists who are surely great in wisdom. Verily, such a birth is rare in this world. PURPORT Birth in a family of yogs or transcendentalists those with great wisdom is praised herein because the child born in such a family receives spiritual impetus from the very beginning of his life. It is especially the case in the crya or gosvm families. Such families are very learned and devoted by tradition and training, and thus they become spiritual masters. In India there are many such crya families, but they have now degenerated due to insufficient education and training. By the grace of the Lord, there are still families that foster transcendentalists generation after generation. It is certainly very fortunate to take birth in such families. Fortunately, both our spiritual master, Om Viupda r rmad Bhaktisiddhnta Sarasvat Gosvm Mahrja, and our humble self, had the opportunity to take birth in such families, by the grace of the Lord, and both of us were trained in the devotional service of the Lord from the very beginning of our lives. Later on we met by the order of the transcendental system. TEXT 43 tatra ta buddhi-sayoga labhate paurva-dehikam yatate ca tato bhya sasiddhau kuru-nandana tatra thereupon; tam that; buddhi-sayogam revival of such consciousness; labhate regains; paurva previous; dehikam bodily consciousness; yatate endeavors; ca also; tata thereafter; bhya again; sasiddhau for perfection; kuru-nandana O son of Kuru. TRANSLATION On taking such a birth, he again revives the divine consciousness of his previous life, and he tries to make further progress in order to achieve complete success, O son of Kuru. PURPORT King Bharata, who took his third birth in the family of a good brhmaa, is an example of good birth for the revival of previous transcendental consciousness. King Bharata was the Emperor of the world, and since his time this planet is known among the demigods as Bhratavara. Formerly it was known as Ilvartavara. The Emperor, at an early age, retired for spiritual perfection but failed to achieve success. In his next life he took birth in the family of a good brhmaa and was known as Jaabharata because he always remained secluded and did not talk to anyone. And later on, he was discovered as the greatest transcendentalist by King Rahgaa. From his life it is understood that transcendental endeavors, or the practice of yoga , never go in vain. By the grace of the Lord the transcendentalist gets repeated opportunities for complete perfection in Ka consciousness. TEXT 44 prvbhysena tenaiva hriyate hy avao 'pi sa jijsur api yogasya abda-brahmtivartate prva previous; abhysena practice; tena by the influence of that; eva certainly; hriyate is attracted; hi surely; avaa helpless; api also; sa he; jijsu willing to know; api so; yogasya of yoga; abda- brahma ritualistic principles of scripture; ativartate transcends. TRANSLATION By virtue of the divine consciousness of his previous life, he automatically becomes attracted to the yogic principleseven without seeking them. Such an inquisitive transcendentalist, striving for yoga, stands always above the ritualistic principles of the scriptures. PURPORT Advanced yogs are not very much attracted to the rituals of the scriptures, but they automatically become attracted to the yoga principles, which can elevate them to complete Ka consciousness, the highest yoga perfection. In the rmad-Bhgavatam (3.33.8), such disregard of Vedic rituals by the advanced transcendentalists is explained as follows: aho bata vapaco 'to garyn yajjihvgre vartate nma tubhyam tepus tapas te juhuvu sasnur ry brahmncur nma ganti ye te. "O my Lord! Persons who chant the holy names of Your Lordship are far, far advanced in spiritual life, even if born in families of dog-eaters. Such chanters have undoubtedly performed all kinds of austerities and sacrifices, bathed in all sacred places, and finished all scriptural studies." The famous example of this was presented by Lord Caitanya, who accepted hkur Haridsa as one of His most important disciples. Although hkur Haridsa happened to take his birth in a Moslem family, he was elevated to the post of nmcrya by Lord Caitanya due to his rigidly attended principle of chanting three hundred thousand holy names of the Lord daily: Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. And because he chanted the holy name of the Lord constantly, it is understood that in his previous life he must have passed through all the ritualistic methods of the Vedas, known as abda-brahman. Unless, therefore, one is purified, one cannot take to the principle of Ka consciousness nor become engaged in chanting the holy name of the Lord, Hare Ka. TEXT 45 prayatnd yatamnas tu yog sauddha-kilbia aneka-janma-sasiddhas tato yti par gatim prayatnt by rigid practice; yatamna one who endeavors; tu but; yog such a transcendentalist; sauddha washed off; kilbia all kinds of sins; aneka many, many; janma births; sasiddha so achieved perfection; tata thereafter; yti attains; parm highest; gatim destination. TRANSLATION But when the yog engages himself with sincere endeavor in making further progress, being washed of all contaminations, then ultimately, after many, many births of practice, he attains the supreme goal. PURPORT A person born in a particularly righteous, aristocratic or sacred family becomes conscious of his favorable condition for executing yoga practice. With determination, therefore, he begins his unfinished task, and thus he completely cleanses himself of all material contaminations. When he is finally free from all contaminations, he attains the supreme perfection Ka consciousness. Ka consciousness is the perfect stage of being freed of all contaminations. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gt: ye tvanta-gata ppa jann puya-karmam te dvandva-moha-nirmukt bhajante m dha-vrat "After many, many births of executing pious activities, when one is completely freed from all contaminations, and from all illusory dualities, one then becomes engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord." TEXT 46 tapasvibhyo 'dhiko yog jnibhyo 'pi mato 'dhika karmibhya cdhiko yog tasmd yog bhavrjuna tapasvibhya than the ascetic; adhika greater; yog the yog ; jnibhya than the wise; api also; mata considered; adhika greater than; karmibhya than the fruitive worker; ca also; adhika greater than; yog the yog ; tasmt therefore; yog a transcendentalist; bhava just become; arjuna O Arjuna. TRANSLATION A yog is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances, be a yog. PURPORT When we speak of yoga we refer to linking up our consciousness with the Supreme Absolute Truth. Such a process is named differently by various practitioners in terms of the particular method adopted. When the linking up process is predominantly in fruitive activities, it is called karma-yoga, when it is predominantly empirical, it is called jna-yoga, and when it is predominantly in a devotional relationship with the Supreme Lord, it is called bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga or Ka consciousness is the ultimate perfection of all yogas, as will be explained in the next verse. The Lord has confirmed herein the superiority of yoga, but He has not mentioned that it is better than bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga is full spiritual knowledge, and as such, nothing can excel it. Asceticism without self-knowledge is imperfect. Empiric knowledge without surrender to the Supreme Lord is also imperfect. And fruitive work without Ka consciousness is a waste of time. Therefore, the most highly praised form of yoga performance mentioned here is bhakti-yoga, and this is still more clearly explained in the next verse. TEXT 47 yoginm api sarve mad-gatenntartman raddhvn bhajate yo m sa me yuktatamo mata yoginm of all yogs; api also; sarvem all types of; mat-gatena abiding in Me; anta-tman always thinking of Me within; raddhvn in full faith; bhajate renders transcendental loving service; ya one who; mm Me (the Supreme Lord); sa he; me Mine; yuktatama the greatest yog ; mata is considered. TRANSLATION And of all yogs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. PURPORT The word bhajete is significant here. Bhajete has its root in the verb bhaj, which is used when there is need of service. The English word "worship" cannot be used in the same sense as bhaja. Worship means to adore, or to show respect and honor to the worthy one. But service with love and faith is especially meant for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can avoid worshiping a respectable man or a demigod and may be called discourteous, but one cannot avoid serving the Supreme Lord without being thoroughly condemned. Every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus every living entity is intended to serve the Supreme Lord by his own constitution. Failing to do this, he falls down. The Bhgavatam confirms this as follows: ya e purua skd tma-prabhavam varam na bhajanty avajnanti sthnd bhra patanty adha. "Anyone who does not render service and neglects his duty unto the Primeval Lord, who is the source of all living entities, will certainly fall down from his constitutional position." In this verse also the word bhajanti is used. Therefore, bhajanti is applicable to the Supreme Lord only, whereas the word "worship" can be applied to demigods or to any other common living entity. The word avajnanti, used in this verse of rmad-Bhgavatam, is also found in the Bhagavad-gt: avajnanti m mh: "Only the fools and rascals deride the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Ka." Such fools take it upon themselves to write commentaries on the Bhagavad-gt without an attitude of service to the Lord. Consequently they cannot properly distinguish between the word bhajanti and the word "worship." The culmination of all kinds of yoga practices lies in bhakti-yoga. All other yogas are but means to come to the point of bhakti in bhakti-yoga. Yoga actually means bhakti-yoga; all other yogas are progressions toward the destination of bhakti-yoga. From the beginning of karma-yoga to the end of bhakti-yoga is a long way to self-realization. Karma-yoga, without fruitive results, is the beginning of this path. When karma-yoga increases in knowledge and renunciation, the stage is called jna-yoga. When jna-yoga increases in meditation on the Supersoul by different physical processes, and the mind is on Him, it is called aga-yoga . And, when one surpasses the aga-yoga and comes to the point of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Ka, it is called bhakti-yoga, the culmination. Factually, bhakti-yoga is the ultimate goal, but to analyze bhakti-yoga minutely one has to understand these other yogas. The yog who is progressive is therefore on the true path of eternal good fortune. One who sticks to a particular point and does not make further progress is called by that particular name: karma-yog, jna-yog or dhyna-yog, rja-yog, haha-yog, etc. If one is fortunate enough to come to the point of bhakti-yoga, it is to be understood that he has surpassed all the other yogas. Therefore, to become Ka conscious is the highest stage of yoga, just as, when we speak of Himalayan, we refer to the world's highest mountains, of which the highest peak, Mount Everest, is considered to be the culmination. It is by great fortune that one comes to Ka consciousness on the path of bhakti-yoga to become well situated according to the Vedic direction. The ideal yog concentrates his attention on Ka, who is called ymasundara, who is as beautifully colored as a cloud, whose lotus-like face is as effulgent as the sun, whose dress is brilliant with jewels and whose body is flower garlanded. Illuminating all sides is His gorgeous luster, which is called the brahmajyoti. He incarnates in different forms such as Rma, Nsiha, Varha and Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He descends like a human being, as the son of Mother Yaod, and He is known as Ka, Govinda and Vsudeva. He is the perfect child, husband, friend and master, and He is full with all opulences and transcendental qualities. If one remains fully conscious of these features of the Lord, he is called the highest yog. This stage of highest perfection in yoga can be attained only by bhakti- yoga, as is confirmed in all Vedic literature: yasya deve par bhaktir yath deve tath gurau. tasyaite kathit hy arth prakante mahtmana. "Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed." Bhaktir asya bhajana tadihmutropdhi nairsyenmumin mana kalpanam; etad eva naikarmyam. "Bhakti means devotional service to the Lord which is free from desire for material profit, either in this life or in the next. Devoid of such inclinations, one should fully absorb the mind in the Supreme. That is the purpose of naikarmya ." These are some of the means for performance of bhakti or Ka consciousness, the highest perfectional stage of the yoga system. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Sixth Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Skhya-yoga Brahma-vidy. Chapter-7 CHAPTER SEVEN Knowledge of the Absolute TEXT 1 r bhagavn uvca mayy sakta-man prtha yoga yujan mad-raya asaaya samagra m yath jsyasi tac chu r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Lord said; mayi unto Me; sakta- man mind attached; prtha O son of Pth; yogam self-realization; yujan so practicing; mat-raya in consciousness of Me (Ka consciousness); asaayam without doubt; samagram completely; mm unto Me; yath as much as; jsyasi you can know; tat that; u try to hear. TRANSLATION Now hear, O son of Pth [Arjuna], how by practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, free from doubt. PURPORT In this Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gt, the nature of Ka consciousness is fully described. Ka is full in all opulences, and how He manifests such opulences is described herein. Also, four kinds of fortunate people who become attached to Ka, and four kinds of unfortunate people who never take to Ka are described in this chapter. In the first six chapters of Bhagavad-gt, the living entity has been described as nonmaterial spirit soul which is capable of elevating himself to self-realization by different types of yogas. At the end of the Sixth Chapter, it has been clearly stated that the steady concentration of the mind upon Ka, or in other words Ka consciousness, is the highest form of all yoga. By concentrating one's mind upon Ka, one is able to know the Absolute Truth completely, but not otherwise. Impersonal brahmajyoti or localized Paramtm realization is not perfect knowledge of the Absolute Truth because it is partial. Full and scientific knowledge is Ka, and everything is revealed to the person in Ka consciousness. In complete Ka consciousness one knows that Ka is ultimate knowledge beyond any doubts. Different types of yoga are only steppingstones on the path of Ka consciousness. One who takes directly to Ka consciousness automatically knows about brahmajyoti and Paramtm in full. By practice of Ka consciousness yoga, one can know everything in fullnamely the Absolute Truth, the living entities, the material nature, and their manifestations with paraphernalia. One should therefore begin yoga practice as directed in the last verse of the Sixth Chapter. Concentration of the mind upon Ka the Supreme is made possible by prescribed devotional service in nine different forms, of which ravaam is the first and most important. The Lord therefore says to Arjuna, " tat u ," or "Hear from Me." No one can be a greater authority than Ka, and therefore by hearing from Him one receives the greatest opportunity for progress in Ka consciousness. One has therefore to learn from Ka directly or from a pure devotee of Kaand not from a nondevotee upstart, puffed up with academic education. In the rmad-Bhgavatam this process of understanding Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, is described in the Second Chapter of the First Canto as follows: vat sva-kath ka puya-ravaa-krtana hdyantastho hy abhadri vidbunoti suht satm. naa-pryev abhadreu nitya bhgavata-sevay bhagavaty uttama-loke bhaktir bhavati naihik. tad rajas-tamo-bhv kma-lobhadaya ca ye ceta etair anviddha sthita sattve prasdati. evam prasanna-manaso bhagavad-bhakti-yogata bhagavat-tattva-vijna mukta-sagasya jyate. bhidyate hdaya-granthi chidyante sarva-saay kyante csya karmi da evtmanvare. "To hear about Ka from Vedic literatures, or to hear from Him directly through the Bhagavad-gt, is itself righteous activity. And for one who hears about Ka, Lord Ka, who is dwelling in everyone's heart, acts as a best- wishing friend and purifies the devotee who constantly engages in hearing of Him. In this way, a devotee naturally develops his dormant transcendental knowledge. As he hears more about Ka from the Bhgavatam and from the devotees, he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord. By development of devotional service one becomes freed from the modes of passion and ignorance, and thus material lusts and avarice are diminished. When these impurities are wiped away, the candidate remains steady in his position of pure goodness, becomes enlivened by devotional service and understands the science of God perfectly. Thus bhakti-yoga severs the hard knot of material affection and enables one to come at once to the stage of ' asaaya samagram, 'understanding of the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead." (Bhg. 1.2.17-21) Therefore only by hearing from Ka or from His devotee in Ka consciousness can one understand the science of Ka. TEXT 2 jna te 'ha sa-vijnam ida vakymy aeata yaj jtv neha bhyo 'nyaj jtavyam avaiyate jnam phenomenal knowledge; te unto you; aham I; sa with; vijnam noumenal knowledge; idam this; vakymi shall explain; aeata in full; yat which; jtv knowing; na not; iha in this world; bhya further; anyat anything more; jtavyam knowable; avaiyate remains to be known. TRANSLATION I shall now declare unto you in full this knowledge both phenomenal and noumenal, by knowing which there shall remain nothing further to be known. PURPORT Complete knowledge includes knowledge of the phenomenal world and the spirit behind it. The source of both of them is transcendental knowledge. The Lord wants to explain the above-mentioned system of knowledge because Arjuna is Ka's confidential devotee and friend. In the beginning of the Fourth Chapter this explanation was given by the Lord, and it is again confirmed here: complete knowledge can be achieved only by the devotee of the Lord directly from the Lord in disciplic succession. Therefore one should be intelligent enough to know the source of all knowledge, who is the cause of all causes and the only object for meditation in all types of yoga practices. When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown. The Vedas say, " yasmin vijate sarvam eva vijatam bhavanti ." TEXT 3 manuy sahasreu kacid yatati siddhaye yatatm api siddhn kacin m vetti tattvata Pictures Part 2 manuym of men; sahasreu out of many thousands; kacit someone; yatati endeavors; siddhaye for perfection; yatatm of those so endeavoring; api indeed; siddhnm of those who have achieved perfection; kacit someone; mm Me; vetti does know; tattvata in fact. TRANSLATION Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth. PURPORT There are various grades of men, and out of many thousands one may be sufficiently interested in transcendental realization to try to know what is the self, what is the body, and what is the Absolute Truth. Generally mankind is simply engaged in the animal propensities, namely eating, sleeping, defending and mating, and hardly anyone is interested in transcendental knowledge. The first six chapters of the Gt are meant for those who are interested in transcendental knowledge, in understanding the self, the Superself and the process of realization by jna-yoga, dhyna-yoga, and discrimination of the self from matter. However, Ka can only be known by persons who are in Ka consciousness. Other transcendentalists may achieve impersonal Brahman realization, for this is easier than understanding Ka. Ka is the Supreme Person, but at the same time He is beyond the knowledge of Brahman and Paramtm. The yogs and jns are confused in their attempts to understand Ka, although the greatest of the impersonalists, rpda akarcrya, has admitted in his Gt commentary that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But his followers do not accept Ka as such, for it is very difficult to know Ka, even though one has transcendental realization of impersonal Brahman. Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the primeval Lord Govinda. vara parama ka sac-cid-nanda-vigraha andir dir govinda sarva-kraa-kraam. It is very difficult for the nondevotees to know Him. Although nondevotees declare that the path of bhakti or devotional service is very easy, they cannot practice it. If the path of bhakti is so easy, as the nondevotee class of men proclaim, then why do they take up the difficult path? Actually the path of bhakti is not easy. The so- called path of bhakti practiced by unauthorized persons without knowledge of bhakti may be easy, but when it is practiced factually according to the rules and regulations, the speculative scholars and philosophers fall away from the path. rla Rpa Gosvm writes in his Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu: ruti-smti-purdi-pacartra-vidhi vin aikntik harer bhaktir utptyaiva kalpate. "Devotional service of the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic literatures like the Upaniads, Puras, Nrada-pacartra, etc., is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society." It is not possible for the Brahman realized impersonalist or the Paramtm realized yog to understand Ka the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the son of mother Yaod or the charioteer of Arjuna. Even the great demigods are sometimes confused about Ka: " muhyanti yat sraya ," " m tu veda na kacana ." "No one knows Me as I am," the Lord says. And if one does know Him, then " sa mahtm sudurlabha ." "Such a great soul is very rare." Therefore unless one practices devotional service to the Lord, he cannot know Ka as He is (tattvata), even though one is a great scholar or philosopher. Only the pure devotees can know something of the inconceivable transcendental qualities in Ka, in the cause of all causes, in His omnipotence and opulence, and in His wealth, fame, strength, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, because Ka is benevolently inclined to His devotees. He is the last word in Brahman realization, and the devotees alone can realize Him as He is. Therefore it is said: ata r-ka-nmdi na bhaved grhyam indriyai sevonmukhe hi jihvdau svayam eva sphuraty ada "No one can understand Ka as He is by the blunt material senses. But He reveals Himself to the devotees, being pleased with them for their transcendental loving service unto Him." (Padma Pura) TEXT 4 bhmir po 'nalo vyu kha mano buddhir eva ca ahakra itya me bhinn praktir aadh bhmi earth; pa water; anala fire; vyu air; kham ether; mana mind; buddhi intelligence; eva certainly; ca and; ahakra false ego; iti thus; iyam all these; me My; bhinn separated; prakti energies; aadh total eight. TRANSLATION Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies. PURPORT The science of God analyzes the constitutional position of God and His diverse energies. Material nature is called prakti, or the energy of the Lord in His different purua incarnations (expansions) as described in the Svatvata Tantra: vios tu tri rpi purukhyny atho vidu ekantu mahata sra dvitya tv aa-sasthitam ttya sarvabhta-stha tni jtv vimucyate "For material creation, Lord Ka's plenary expansion assumes three Vius. The first one, Mah-Viu, creates the total material energy, known as mahat- tattva. The second, Garbhodakay Viu, enters into all the universes to create diversities in each of them. The third, Krodakay Viu, is diffused as the all-pervading Supersoul in all the universes and is known as Paramtm, who is present even within the atoms. Anyone who knows these three Vius can be liberated from material entanglement." This material world is a temporary manifestation of one of the energies of the Lord. All the activities of the material world are directed by these three Viu expansions of Lord Ka. These Puruas are called incarnations. Generally one who does not know the science of God (Ka) assumes that this material world is for the enjoyment of the living entities and that the living entities are the causes (Puruas), controllers and enjoyers of the material energy. According to Bhagavad-gt this atheistic conclusion is false. In the verse under discussion it is stated that Ka is the original cause of the material manifestation. rmad-Bhgavatam also confirms this. The ingredients of the material manifestation are separated energies of the Lord. Even the brahmajyoti, which is the ultimate goal of the impersonalists, is a spiritual energy manifested in the spiritual sky. There are no spiritual diversities in brahmajyoti as there are in the Vaikuhalokas, and the impersonalist accepts this brahmajyoti as the ultimate eternal goal. The Paramtm manifestation is also a temporary all-pervasive aspect of the Krodakay Viu. The Paramtm manifestation is not eternal in the spiritual world. Therefore the factual Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Ka. He is the complete energetic person, and He possesses different separated and internal energies. In the material energy, the principal manifestations are eight, as above mentioned. Out of these, the first five manifestations, namely earth, water, fire, air and sky, are called the five gigantic creations or the gross creations, within which the five sense objects are included. They are the manifestations of physical sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Material science comprises these ten items and nothing more. But the other three items, namely mind, intelligence and false ego, are neglected by the materialists. Philosophers who deal with mental activities are also not perfect in knowledge because they do not know the ultimate source, Ka. The false ego"I am," and "It is mine," which constitute the basic principle of material existence-includes ten sense organs for material activities. Intelligence refers to the total material creation, called the mahat-tattva. Therefore from the eight separated energies of the Lord are manifest the twenty-four elements of the material world, which are the subject matter of skhya atheistic philosophy; they are originally offshoots from Ka's energies and are separated from Him, but atheistic skhya philosophers with a poor fund of knowledge do not know Ka as the cause of all causes. The subject matter for discussion in the skhya philosophy is only the manifestation of the external energy of Ka, as it is described in the Bhagavad-gt. TEXT 5 apareyam itas tv any prakti viddhi me parm jva-bht mah-bho yayeda dhryate jagat apar inferior; iyam this; ita besides this; tu but; anym another; praktim energy; viddhi just try to understand; me My; parm superior; jva-bhtm the living entities; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; yay by whom; idam this; dhryate being utilized or exploited; jagat the material world. TRANSLATION Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe. PURPORT Here it is clearly mentioned that living entities belong to the superior nature (or energy) of the Supreme Lord. The inferior energy is matter manifested in different elements, namely earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego. Both forms of material nature, namely gross (earth, etc.) and subtle (mind, etc.), are products of the inferior energy. The living entities, who are exploiting these inferior energies for different purposes, are the superior energy of the Supreme Lord, and it is due to this energy that the entire material world functions. The cosmic manifestation has no power to act unless it is moved by the superior energy, the living entity. Energies are always controlled by the energetic, and therefore living entities are always controlled by the Lordthey have no independent existence. They are never equally powerful, as unintelligent men think. The distinction between the living entities and the Lord is described in rmad-Bhgavatam as follows (10.87.30): aparimit dhruvs tanubhto yadi sarva-gats tarhi na syateti niyamo dhruva netarath ajani ca yanmaya tad avimucya niyant bhavet samam anujnat yad-amata mata-duatay "O Supreme Eternal! If the embodied living entities were eternal and all- pervading like You, then they would not be under Your control. But if the living entities are accepted as minute energies of Your Lordship, then they are at once subject to Your supreme control. Therefore real liberation entails surrender by the living entities to Your control, and that surrender will make them happy. In that constitutional position only can they be controllers. Therefore, men with limited knowledge who advocate the monistic theory that God and the living entities are equal in all respects are actually misleading themselves and others." The Supreme Lord Ka is the only controller, and all living entities are controlled by Him. These living entities are His superior energy because the quality of their existence is one and the same with the Supreme, but they are never equal to the Lord in quantity of power. While exploiting the gross and subtle inferior energy (matter), the superior energy (the living entity) forgets his real spiritual mind and intelligence. This forgetfulness is due to the influence of matter upon the living entity. But when the living entity becomes free from the influence of the illusory material energy, he attains the stage called mukti, or liberation. The false ego, under the influence of material illusion, thinks, "I am matter, and material acquisitions are mine." His actual position is realized when he is liberated from all material ideas, including the conception of his becoming one in all respects with God. Therefore one may conclude that the Gt confirms the living entity to be only one of the multi- energies of Ka; and when this energy is freed from material contamination, it becomes fully Ka conscious, or liberated. TEXT 6 etad yonni bhtni sarvty upadhraya aha ktsnasya jagata prabhava pralayas tath etat these two natures; yonni source of birth; bhtni everything created; sarvi all; iti thus; upadhraya know; aham I; ktsnasya all-inclusive; jagata of the world; prabhava source of manifestation; pralaya annihilation; tath as well as. TRANSLATION Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both its origin and dissolution. PURPORT Everything that exists is a product of matter and spirit. Spirit is the basic field of creation, and matter is created by spirit. Spirit is not created at a certain stage of material development. Rather, this material world is manifested only on the basis of spiritual energy. This material body is developed because spirit is present within matter; a child grows gradually to boyhood and then to manhood because of that superior energy, spirit soul, being present. Similarly, the entire cosmic manifestation of the gigantic universe is developed because of the presence of the Supersoul, Viu. Therefore spirit and matter, which combine together to manifest this gigantic universal form, are originally two energies of the Lord, and consequently the Lord is the original cause of everything. A fragmental part and parcel of the Lord, namely, the living entity, may by manipulation of material energy construct a skyscraper, factory or city, but he cannot create matter out of nothing, and he certainly cannot construct a planet or a universe. The cause of the universe is the Supersoul, Ka, the supreme creator of all individual souls and the original cause of all causes, as the Kaha Upaniad confirms: nityo nityn cetana cetannm. TEXT 7 matta paratara nnyat kicid asti dhanajaya mayi sarvam ida prota stre mai-ga iva matta beyond Myself; parataram superior; na not; anyat anything else; kicit something; asti there is; dhanajaya O conquerer of wealth; mayi in Me; sarvam all that be; idam which we see; protam strung; stre on a thread; mai-ga pearls; iva likened. TRANSLATION O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. PURPORT There is a common controversy over whether the Supreme Absolute Truth is personal or impersonal. As far as Bhagavad-gt is concerned, the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead r Ka, and this is confirmed in every step. In this verse, in particular, it is stressed that the Absolute Truth is a person. That the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Absolute Truth is also the affirmation of the Brahma-sahit: vara parama ka sac-cid- nanda-vigraha; that is, the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is Lord Ka, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, Govinda, and the eternal form of complete bliss and knowledge. These authorities leave no doubt that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. The impersonalist, however, argues on the strength of the Vedic version given in the vetvatara Upaniad: tato yad uttaratara tad arpam anmaya ya etad vidur amts te bhavanti athetare dukham evpi yanti. "In the material world Brahm, the primeval living entity within the universe, is understood to be the supreme amongst the demigods, human beings and lower animals. But beyond Brahm there is the Transcendence who has no material form and is free from all material contaminations. Anyone who can know Him also becomes transcendental, but those who do not know Him suffer the miseries of the material world." The impersonalist puts more stress on the word arpam. But this arpam is not impersonal. It indicates the transcendental form of eternity, bliss and knowledge as described in the Brahma-sahit quoted above. Other verses in the vetvatara Upaniad substantiate this as follows: vedham eta purua mahntam ditya-vara tamasa parastt tam eva vidvn amta iha bhavati nnya panth vidyate ayanya yasmt para nparam asti kicid yasmnnyo na jyyo 'sti kicit "I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is transcendental to all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can transcend the bonds of birth and death. There is no way for liberation other than this knowledge of that Supreme Person. "There is no truth superior to that Supreme Person because He is the supermost. He is smaller than the smallest, and He is greater than the greatest. He is situated as a silent tree, and He illumines the transcendental sky, and as a tree spreads its roots, He spreads His extensive energies." From these verses one concludes that the Supreme Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is all-pervading by His multi- energies, both material and spiritual. TEXT 8 raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhsmi ai-sryayo praava sarva-vedeu abda khe paurua nu rasa taste; aham I; apsu in water; kaunteya O son of Kunt; prabh asmi I am the light; ai-sryayo in the sun and the moon; praava the three letters A.U.M.; sarva in all; vedeu in the Vedas; ab da sound vibration; khe in the ether; pauruam ability; nu in man. TRANSLATION O son of Kunt [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man. PURPORT This verse explains how the Lord is all-pervasive by His diverse material and spiritual energies. The Supreme Lord can be preliminarily perceived by His different energies, and in this way He is realized impersonally. As the demigod in the sun is a person and is perceived by his all-pervading energy, the sunshine, similarly, the Lord, although in His eternal abode, is perceived by His all-pervading, diffusive energies. The taste of water is the active principle of water. No one likes to drink sea water because the pure taste of water is mixed with salt. Attraction for water depends on the purity of the taste, and this pure taste is one of the energies of the Lord. The impersonalist perceives the presence of the Lord in water by its taste, and the personalist also glorifies the Lord for His kindly supplying water to quench man's thirst. That is the way of perceiving the Supreme. Practically speaking, there is no conflict between personalism and impersonalism. One who knows God knows that the impersonal conception and personal conception are simultaneously present in everything and that there is no contradiction. Therefore Lord Caitanya established His sublime doctrine: acintya-bheda and abheda- tattvam- simultaneously one and different. The light of the sun and the moon is also originally emanating from the brahmajyoti, which is the impersonal effulgence of the Lord. Similarly praava or the omkra transcendental sound used in the beginning of every Vedic hymn to address the Supreme Lord also emanates from Him. Because the impersonalists are very much afraid of addressing the Supreme Lord Ka by His innumerable names, they prefer to vibrate the transcendental sound omkra. But they do not realize that omkra is the sound representation of Ka. The jurisdiction of Ka consciousness extends everywhere, and one who knows Ka consciousness is blessed. Those who do not know Ka are in illusion, and so knowledge of Ka is liberation, and ignorance of Him is bondage. TEXT 9 puyo gandha pthivy ca teja csmi vibhvasau jvana sarva-bhteu tapa csmi tapasviu puya original; gandha fragrance; pthivym in the earth; ca also; teja temperature; ca also; asmi I am; vibhvasau in the fire; jvanam life; sarva all; bhteu living entities; tapa penance; ca also; asmi I am; tapasviu in those who practice penance. TRANSLATION I am the original fragrance of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics. PURPORT Puya means that which is not decomposed; puya is original. Everything in the material world has a certain flavor or fragrance, as the flavor and fragrance in a flower, or in the earth, in water, in fire, in air, etc. The uncontaminated flavor, the original flavor, which permeates everything, is Ka. Similarly, everything has a particular original taste, and this taste can be changed by the mixture of chemicals. So everything original has some smell, some fragrance, and some taste. Vibhva means fire. Without fire we cannot run factories, we cannot cook, etc., and that fire is Ka. The heat in the fire is Ka. According to Vedic medicine, indigestion is due to a low temperature in the belly. So even for digestion fire is needed. In Ka consciousness we become aware that earth, water, fire, air and every active principle, all chemicals and all material elements are due to Ka. The duration of man's life is also due to Ka. Therefore by the grace of Ka, man can prolong his life or diminish it. So Ka consciousness is active in every sphere. TEXT 10 bja m sarva-bhtn viddhi prtha santanam buddhir buddhimatm asmi tejas tejasvinm aham bjam seed; mm unto Me; sarva-bhtnm of all living entities; viddhi try to understand; prtha O son of Pth; santanam original, eternal; buddhi intelligence; buddhimatm of the intelligent; asmi I am; teja prowess; tejasvinm of the powerful; aham I am. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, know that I am the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent, and the prowess of all powerful men. PURPORT Bjam means seed; Ka is the seed of everything. In contact with material nature, the seed fructifies into various living entities, movable and inert. Birds, beasts, men and many other living creatures are moving living entities; trees and plants, however, are inert-they cannot move, but only stand. Every entity is contained within the scope of 8,400,000 species of life; some of them are moving and some of them are inert. In all cases, however, the seed of their life is Ka. As stated in Vedic literature, Brahman, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is that from which everything is emanating. Ka is Parabrahman, the Supreme Spirit. Brahman is impersonal and Parabrahman is personal. Impersonal Brahman is situated in the personal aspect-that is stated in Bhagavad-gt. Therefore, originally, Ka is the source of everything. He is the root. As the root of a tree maintains the whole tree, Ka, being the original root of all things, maintains everything in this material manifestation. This is also confirmed in the Vedic literature. Yato v imni bhtni jyante. "The Supreme Absolute Truth is that from which everything is born." He is the prime eternal among all eternals. He is the supreme living entity of all living entities, and He alone is maintaining all life. Ka also says that He is the root of all intelligence. Unless a person is intelligent he cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. TEXT 11 bala balavat cha kma-rga-vivarjitam dharmviruddho bhteu kmo 'smi bharatarabha balam strength; balavatm of the strong; ca and; aham I am; kma passion; rga attachment; vivarjitam devoid of; dharma-aviruddha not against the religious principles; bhteu in all beings; kma sex-life; asmi I am; bharatarabha O lord of the Bhratas. TRANSLATION I am the strength of the strong, devoid of passion and desire. I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles, O Lord of the Bhratas [Arjuna]. PURPORT The strong man's strength should be applied to protect the weak, not for personal aggression. Similarly, sex life, according to religious principles (dharma), should be for the propagation of children, not otherwise. The responsibility of parents is then to make their offspring Ka conscious. TEXT 12 ye caiva sttvik bhv rjass tmas ca ye matta eveti tn viddhi na tv aha teu te mayi ye all those; ca and; eva certainly; sttvik in goodness; bhv states of being; rjas mode of passion; tmas mode of ignorance; ca also; ye although; matta from Me; eva certainly; iti thus; tn those; viddhi try to know; na not; tu but; aham I; teu in those; te they; mayi unto Me. TRANSLATION All states of being-be they of goodness, passion or ignoranceare manifested by My energy. I am, in one sense, everythingbut I am independent. I am not under the modes of this material nature. PURPORT All material activities in the world are being conducted under the three modes of material nature. Although these material modes of nature are emanations from the Supreme Lord, Ka, He is not subject to them. For instance, under the state laws one may be punished, but the king, the lawmaker, is not subject to that law. Similarly, all the modes of material nature goodness, passion and ignoranceare emanations from the Supreme Lord Ka, but Ka is not subject to material nature. Therefore He is nirgua, which means that these guas, or modes, although issuing from Him, do not affect Him. That is one of the special characteristics of Bhagavn, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 13 tribhir guamayair bhvair ebhi sarvam ida jagat mohita nbhijnti mm ebhya param avyayam tribhi three; guamayai by the three guas ; bhvai state of being; ebhi all this; sarvam the whole world; idam in this world; jagat universe; mohitam deluded; na abhijnti do not know; mm unto Me; ebhya above these; param the Supreme; avyayam inexhaustible. TRANSLATION Deluded by the three modes [goodness, passion and ignorance], the whole world does not know Me who am above the modes and inexhaustible. PURPORT The whole world is enchanted by three modes of material nature. Those who are bewildered by these three modes cannot understand that transcendental to this material nature is the Supreme Lord, Ka. In this material world everyone is under the influence of these three guas and is thus bewildered. By nature living entities have particular types of body and particular types of psychic and biological activities accordingly. There are four classes of men functioning in the three material modes of nature. Those who are purely in the mode of goodness are called brhmaas. Those who are purely in the mode of passion are called katriyas. Those who are in the modes of both passion and ignorance are called vaiyas. Those who are completely in ignorance are called dras. And those who are less than that are animals or animal life. However, these designations are not permanent. I may either be a brhmaa, katriya, vaiya or whatever-in any case, this life is temporary. But although life is temporary and we do not know what we are going to be in the next life, still, by the spell of this illusory energy, we consider ourselves in the light of this bodily conception of life, and we thus think that we are American, Indian, Russian or brhmaa, Hindu, Muslim, etc. And if we become entangled with the modes of material nature, then we forget the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is behind all these modes. So Lord Ka says that men, deluded by these three modes of nature, do not understand that behind the material background is the Supreme Godhead. There are many different kinds of living entities-human beings, demigods, animals, etc.-and each and every one of them is under the influence of material nature, and all of them have forgotten the transcendent Personality of Godhead. Those who are in the modes of passion and ignorance, and even those who are in the mode of goodness, cannot go beyond the impersonal Brahman conception of the Absolute Truth. They are bewildered before the Supreme Lord in His personal feature, which possesses all beauty, opulence, knowledge, strength, fame and renunciation. When even those who are in goodness cannot understand, what hope is there for those in passion and ignorance? Ka consciousness is transcendental to all these three modes of material nature, and those who are truly established in Ka consciousness are actually liberated. TEXT 14 daiv hy e guamay mama my duratyay mm eva ye prapadyante mym et taranti te daiv transcendental; hi certainly; e this; guamay consisting of the three modes of material nature; mama My; my energy; duratyay very difficult to overcome; mm unto Me; eva certainly; ye those; prapadyante surrender; mym etm this illusory energy; taranti overcome; te they. TRANSLATION This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it. PURPORT The Supreme Personality of Godhead has innumerable energies, and all these energies are divine. Although the living entities are part of His energies and are therefore divine, due to contact with material energy, their original superior power is covered. Being thus covered by material energy, one cannot possibly overcome its influence. As previously stated, both the material and spiritual natures, being emanations from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are eternal. The living entities belong to the eternal superior nature of the Lord, but due to contamination by the inferior nature, matter, their illusion is also eternal. The conditioned soul is therefore called nitya-baddha, or eternally conditioned. No one can trace out the history of his becoming conditioned at a certain date in material history. Consequently, his release from the clutches of material nature is very difficult, even though that material nature is an inferior energy, because material energy is ultimately conducted by the supreme will, which the living entity cannot overcome. Inferior material nature is defined herein as divine nature due to its divine connection and movement by the divine will. Being conducted by divine will, material nature, although inferior, acts so wonderfully in the construction and destruction of the cosmic manifestation. The Vedas confirm this as follows: my tu prakti vidyn myina tu mahevaram. "Although my [illusion] is false or temporary, the background of my is the supreme magician, the Personality of Godhead, who is Mahevara, the supreme controller." Another meaning of gua is rope; it is to be understood that the conditioned soul is tightly tied by the ropes of illusion. A man bound by the hands and feet cannot free himself-he must be helped by a person who is unbound. Because the bound cannot help the bound, the rescuer must be liberated. Therefore, only Lord Ka, or His bona fide representative the spiritual master, can release the conditioned soul. Without such superior help, one cannot be freed from the bondage of material nature. Devotional service, or Ka consciousness, can help one gain such release. Ka, being the Lord of illusory energy, can order this insurmountable energy to release the conditioned soul. He orders this release out of His causeless mercy on the surrendered soul and out of His paternal affection for the living entity who is originally a beloved son of the Lord. Therefore surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord is the only means to get free from the clutches of the stringent material nature. The words mm eva are also significant. Mm means unto Ka (Viu) only, and not Brahm or iva. Although Brahm and iva are greatly elevated and are almost on the level of Viu, it is not possible for such incarnations of rjo-gua (passion) and tamo-gua (ignorance) to release the conditioned soul from the clutches of my. In other words, both Brahm and iva are also under the influence of my. Only Viu is the master of my; therefore He can alone give release to the conditioned soul. The Vedas confirm this in the phrase tvam eva viditv or "Freedom is possible only by understanding Ka." Even Lord iva affirms that liberation can be achieved only by the mercy of Viu. Lord iva says: mukti-pradt sarve viur eva na saaya. "There is no doubt that Viu is the deliverer of liberation for everyone. TEXT 15 na m duktino mh prapadyante nardham myaypahta-jn sura bhvam rit na not; mm unto Me; duktina miscreants; mh foolish; prapadyante surrender; nardham lowest among mankind; myay by the illusory energy; apahta stolen by illusion; jn knowledge; asuram demonic; bhvam nature; rit accepting. TRANSLATION Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me. PURPORT It is said in Bhagavad-gt that simply by surrendering oneself unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality Ka, one can surmount the stringent laws of material nature. At this point a question arises: How is it that educated philosophers, scientists, businessmen, administrators and all the leaders of ordinary men do not surrender to the lotus feet of r Ka, the all-powerful Personality of Godhead? Mukti, or liberation from the laws of material nature, is sought by the leaders of mankind in different ways and with great plans and perseverance for a great many years and births. But if that liberation is possible by simply surrendering unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then why don't these intelligent and hard-working leaders adopt this simple method? The Gt answers this question very frankly. Those really learned leaders of society like Brahm, iva, Kapila, the Kumras, Manu, Vysa, Devala, Asita, Janaka, Prahlda, Bali, and later on Madhvcrya, Rmnujcrya, r Caitanya and many others who are faithful philosophers, politicians, educators, scientists, etc. surrender to the lotus feet of the Supreme Person, the all-powerful authority. Those who are not actually philosophers, scientists, educators, administrators, etc., but who pose themselves as such for material gain, do not accept the plan or path of the Supreme Lord. They have no idea of God; they simply manufacture their own worldly plans and consequently complicate the problems of material existence in their vain attempts to solve them. Because material energy (nature) is so powerful, it can resist the unauthorized plans of the atheists and baffle the knowledge of "planning commissions." The atheistic plan-makers are described herein by the word duktina, or "miscreants." Ktina means one who has performed meritorious work. The atheist planmaker is sometimes very intelligent and meritorious also, because any gigantic plan, good or bad, must take intelligence to execute. But because the atheist's brain is improperly utilized in opposing the plan of the Supreme Lord, the atheistic planmaker is called duktina, which indicates that his intelligence and efforts are misdirected. In the Gt it is clearly mentioned that material energy works fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It has no independant authority. It works as the shadow moves, in accordance with the movements of the object. But still material energy is very powerful, and the atheist, due to his godless temperament, cannot know how it works; nor can he know the plan of the Supreme Lord. Under illusion and the modes of passion and ignorance, all his plans are baffled, as in the case of Hirayakaipu and Rvaa, whose plans were smashed to dust although they were both materially learned as scientists, philosophers, administrators and educators. These duktinas, or miscreants, are of four different patterns, as outlined below: (1) The mhas are those who are grossly foolish, like hard-working beasts of burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves, and so do not want to part with them for the Supreme. The typical example of the beast of burden is the ass. This humble beast is made to work very hard by his master. The ass does not really know for whom he works so hard day and night. He remains satisfied by filling his stomach with a bundle of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of being beaten by his master, and satisfying his sex appetite at the risk of being repeatedly kicked by the opposite party. The ass sings poetry and philosophy sometimes, but this braying only disturbs others. This is the position of the foolish fruitive worker who does not know for whom he should work. He does not know that karma (action) is meant for yaja (sacrifice). Most often, those who work very hard day and night to clear the burden of self-created duties say that they have no time to hear of the immortality of the living being. To such mhas, material gains, which are destructible, are life's all in alldespite the fact that the mhas enjoy only a very small fraction of the fruit of labor. Sometimes they spend sleepless days and nights for fruitive gain, and although they may have ulcers or indigestion, they are satisfied with practically no food; they are simply absorbed in working hard day and night for the benefit of illusory masters. Ignorant of their real master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon. Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme master of all masters, nor do they take time to hear of Him from the proper sources. The swine who eat the soil do not care to accept sweetmeats made of sugar and ghee. Similarly, the foolish worker will untiringly continue to hear of the sense-enjoyable tidings of the flickering mundane force that moves the material world. (2) Another class of duktina, or miscreant, is called the nardhama, or the lowest of mankind. Nara means human being, and adhama means the lowest. Out of the 8,400,000 different species of living beings, there are 400,000 human species. Out of these there are numerous lower forms of human life that are mostly uncivilized. The civilized human beings are those who have regulated principles of social, political and religious life. Those who are socially and politically developed, but who have no religious principles, must be considered nardhamas. Nor is religion without God religion, because the purpose of following religious principles is to know the Supreme Truth and man's relation with Him. In the Gt the Personality of Godhead clearly states that there is no authority above Him and that He is the Supreme Truth. The civilized form of human life is meant for man's reviving the lost consciousness of his eternal relation with the Supreme Truth, the Personality of Godhead r Ka, who is all-powerful. Whoever loses this chance is classified as a nardhama. We get information from revealed scriptures that when the baby is in the mother's womb (an extremely uncomfortable situation) he prays to God for deliverance and promises to worship Him alone as soon as he gets out. To pray to God when he is in difficulty is a natural instinct in every living being because he is eternally related with God. But after his deliverance, the child forgets the difficulties of birth and forgets his deliverer also, being influenced by my , the illusory energy. It is the duty of the guardians of children to revive the divine consciousness dormant in them. The ten processes of reformatory ceremonies, as enjoined in the Manu-smti, which is the guide to religious principles, are meant for reviving God consciousness in the system of varrama. However, no process is strictly followed now in any part of the world, and therefore 99.9 percent of the population is nardhama. When the whole population becomes nardhama, naturally all their so- called education is made null and void by the all-powerful energy of physical nature. According to the standard of the Gt, a learned man is he who sees on equal terms the learned brhmaa, the dog, the cow, the elephant and the dog- eater. That is the vision of a true devotee. r Nitynanda Prabhu, who is the incarnation of Godhead as divine master, delivered the typical nardhamas, the brothers Jagai and Madhai, and showed how the mercy of a real devotee is bestowed upon the lowest of mankind. So the nardhama who is condemned by the Personality of Godhead can again revive his spiritual consciousness only by the mercy of a devotee. r Caitanya Mahprabhu, in propagating the bhgavata-dharma or activities of the devotees, has recommended that people submissively hear the message of the Personality of Godhead. The essence of this message is Bhagavad-gt. The lowest amongst human beings can be delivered by this submissive hearing process only, but unfortunately they even deny giving an aural reception to these messages, and what to speak of surrendering to the will of the Supreme Lord? Nardhamas, or the lowest of mankind, will fully neglect the prime duty of the human being. (3) The next class of duktina is called myaypahta-jna, or those persons whose erudite knowledge has been nullified by the influence of illusory material energy. They are mostly very learned fellows great philosophers, poets, literati, scientists, etc. but the illusory energy misguides them, and therefore they disobey the Supreme Lord. There are a great number of myaypahta-jnas at the present moment, even amongst the scholars of the Gt . In the Gt , in plain and simple language, it is stated that r Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is none equal to or greater than Him. He is mentioned as the father of Brahm, the original father of all human beings. In fact, r Ka is said to be not only the father of Brahm but also the father of all species of life. He is the root of the impersonal Brahman and Paramtm; the Supersoul in every entity is His plenary portion. He is the fountainhead of everything, and everyone is advised to surrender unto His lotus feet. Despite all these clear statements, the myaypahta-jna deride the Personality of the Supreme Lord and consider Him merely another human being. They do not know that the blessed form of human life is designed after the eternal and transcendental feature of the Supreme Lord. All the unauthorized interpretations of the Gt by the class of myaypahta-jna, outside the purview of the parampar system, are so many stumbling blocks in the path of spiritual understanding. The deluded interpreters do not surrender unto the lotus feet of r Ka, nor do they teach others to follow this principle. (4) The last class of duktina is called sura bhvam rita, or those of demonic principles. This class is openly atheistic. Some of them argue that the Supreme Lord can never descend upon this material world, but they are unable to give any tangible reasons as to why not. There are others who make Him subordinate to the impersonal feature, although the opposite is declared in the Gt. Envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the atheist will present a number of illicit incarnations manufactured in the factory of his brain. Such persons whose very principle of life is to decry the Personality of Godhead cannot surrender unto the lotus feet of r Ka. r Ymuncrya Albandru of South India said, "O my Lord! You are unknowable to persons involved with atheistic principles despite Your uncommon qualities, features, and activities and despite Your personality being confirmed by all the revealed scriptures in the quality of goodness, and despite Your being acknowledged by the famous authorities renowned for their depth of knowledge in the transcendental science and situated in the godly qualities." Therefore, (1) grossly foolish persons, (2) the lowest of mankind, (3) the deluded speculators, and (4) the professed atheists, as above mentioned, never surrender unto the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead in spite of all scriptural and authoritative advice. TEXT 16 catur-vidh bhajante m jan suktino 'rjuna rto jijsur arthrth jn ca bharatarabha catur-vidh four kinds of; bhajante render services; mm unto Me; jan persons; suktina those who are pious; arjuna O Arjuna; rta the distressed; jijsu the inquisitive; artha-arth one who desires material gain; jn one who knows things as they are; ca also; bharatarabha O great one amongst the descendants of Bharata. TRANSLATION O best among the Bhratas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Methe distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute. PURPORT Unlike the miscreants, these are adherents of the regulative principles of the scriptures, and they are called suktina , or those who obey the rules and regulations of scriptures, the moral and social laws, and are, more or less, devoted to the Supreme Lord. Out of these there are four classes of men those who are sometimes distressed, those who are in need of money, those who are sometimes inquisitive, and those who are sometimes searching after knowledge of the Absolute Truth. These persons come to the Supreme Lord for devotional service under different conditions. These are not pure devotees because they have some aspiration to fulfill in exchange for devotional service. Pure devotional service is without aspiration and without desire for material profit. The Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu defines pure devotion thus: anybhilitnya jna-karmdy-anvtam nuklyena knulana bhaktir uttam. "One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Ka favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service." When these four kinds of persons come to the Supreme Lord for devotional service and are completely purified by the association of a pure devotee, they also become pure devotees. As far as the miscreants are concerned, for them devotional service is very difficult because their lives are selfish, irregular and without spiritual goals. But even some of them, by chance, when they come in contact with a pure devotee, also become pure devotees. Those who are always busy with fruitive activities come to the Lord in material distress and at that time associate with pure devotees and become, in their distress, devotees of the Lord. Those who are simply frustrated also come sometimes to associate with the pure devotees and become inquisitive to know about God. Similarly, when the dry philosophers are frustrated in every field of knowledge, they sometimes want to learn of God, and they come to the Supreme Lord to render devotional service and thus transcend knowledge of the impersonal Brahman and the localized Paramtm and come to the personal conception of Godhead by the grace of the Supreme Lord or His pure devotee. On the whole, when the distressed, the inquisitive, the seekers of knowledge, and those who are in need of money are free from all material desires, and when they fully understand that material remuneration has nothing to do with spiritual improvement, they become pure devotees. As long as such a purified stage is not attained, devotees in transcendental service to the Lord are tainted with fruitive activities, and they search after mundane knowledge, etc. So one has to transcend all this before one can come to the stage of pure devotional service. TEXT 17 te jn nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir viiyate priyo hi jnino 'tyartham aha sa ca mama priya tem out of them; jn one in full knowledge; nitya-yukta always engaged; eka only one; bhakti devotional service; viiyate especially; priya very dear; hi certainly; jnina person in knowledge; atyartham highly; aham I am; sa he; ca also; mama Mine; priya dear. TRANSLATION Of these, the wise one who is in full knowledge in union with Me through pure devotional service is the best. For I am very dear to him, and he is dear to Me. PURPORT Free from all contaminations of material desires, the distressed, the inquisitive, the penniless, and the seeker after supreme knowledge can all become pure devotees. But out of them, he who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth and free from all material desires becomes a really pure devotee of the Lord. And of the four orders, the devotee who is in full knowledge and is at the same time engaged in devotional service is, the Lord says, the best. By searching after knowledge one realizes that his self is different from his material body, and when further advanced he comes to the knowledge of impersonal Brahman and Paramtm. When one is fully purified, he realizes that his constitutional position is to be the eternal servant of God. So by association with pure devotees, the inquisitive, the distressed, the seeker after material amelioration and the man in knowledge all become themselves pure. But in the preparatory stage, the man who is in full knowledge of the Supreme Lord and is at the same time executing devotional service is very dear to the Lord. He who is situated in pure knowledge of the transcendence of the Supreme Personality of God is so protected in devotional service that material contaminations cannot touch him. TEXT 18 udr sarva evaite jn tv tmaiva me matam sthita sa hi yukttm mm evnuttam gatim udr magnanimous; sarve all; eva certainly; ete these; jn one who is in knowledge; tu but; tm eva just like Myself; me Mine; matam opinion; sthita situated; sa he; hi certainly; yukta-tm engaged in devotional service; mm unto Me; eva certainly; anuttamm the highest goal; gatim destination. TRANSLATION All these devotees are undoubtedly magnanimous souls, but he who is situated in knowledge of Me I consider verily to dwell in Me. Being engaged in My transcendental service, he attains Me. PURPORT It is not that other devotees who are less complete in knowledge are not dear to the Lord. The Lord says that all are magnanimous because anyone who comes to the Lord for any purpose is called a mahtm or great soul. The devotees who want some benefit out of devotional service are accepted by the Lord because there is an exchange of affection. Out of affection they ask the Lord for some material benefit, and when they get it they become so satisfied that they also advance in devotional service. But the devotee in full knowledge is considered to be very dear to the Lord because his only purpose is to serve the Supreme Lord with love and devotion. Such a devotee cannot live a second without contacting or serving the Supreme Lord. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is very fond of His devotee and cannot be separated from him. In the rmad-Bhgavatam (9.4.57), the Lord says: aha bhakta-pardhno hy asvatantra iva dvija sdhubhir grasta-hdayo bhaktair bhakta-jana-priya "The devotees are always in My heart, and I am always in the heart of the devotees. The devotee does not know anything beyond Me, and I also cannot forget the devotee. There is a very intimate relationship between Me and the pure devotees. Pure devotees in full knowledge are never out of spiritual touch, and therefore they are very much dear to Me." TEXT 19 bahn janmanm ante jnavn m prapadyate vsudeva sarvam iti sa mahtm sudurlabha bahnm many; janmanm births; ante after; jnavn he possessing knowledge; mm unto Me; prapadyate surrenders; vsudeva cause of all causes; sarvam all; iti thus; sa such; mahtm great soul; sudurlabha very rare. TRANSLATION After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare. PURPORT The living entity, while executing devotional service or transcendental rituals after many, many births, may actually become situated in transcendental pure knowledge that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of spiritual realization. In the beginning of spiritual realization, while one is trying to give up one's attachment to materialism, there is some leaning towards impersonalism, but when one is further advanced he can understand that there are activities in the spiritual life and that these activities constitute devotional service. Realizing this, he becomes attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and surrenders to Him. At such a time one can understand that Lord r Ka's mercy is everything, that He is the cause of all causes and that this material manifestation is not independent from Him. He realizes the material world to be a perverted reflection of spiritual variegatedness and realizes that in everything there is a relationship with the Supreme Lord Ka. Thus he thinks of everything in relation to Vsudeva, or r Ka. Such a universal vision of Vsudeva precipitates one's full surrender to the Supreme Lord r Ka as the highest goal. Such surrendered great souls are very rare. This verse is very nicely explained in the Third Chapter of vetvatara Upaniad: "In this body there are powers of speaking, of seeing, of hearing, of mental activities, etc. But these are not important if not related to the Supreme Lord. And because Vsudeva is all-pervading and everything is Vsudeva, the devotee surrenders in full knowledge." (Cf. Bhagavad-gt 7.17 and 11.40) TEXT 20 kmais tais tair hta-jn prapadyante 'nya-devat ta ta niyamam sthya prakty niyat svay kamai by desires; tai by those; tai by those; hta distorted; jn knowledge; prapadyante surrender; anya other; devat demigods; tam that; tam that; niyamam rules; sthya following; prakty by nature; niyat controlled; svay by their own. TRANSLATION Those whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures. PURPORT Those who are freed from all material contaminations surrender unto the Supreme Lord and engage in His devotional service. As long as the material contamination is not completely washed off, they are by nature nondevotees. But even those who have material desires and who resort to the Supreme Lord are not so much attracted by external nature; because of approaching the right goal, they soon become free from all material lust. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is recommended that whether one is free from all material desires, or is full of material desires, or desires liberation from material contamination, or is a pure devotee and has no desire for material sense gratification, he should in all cases surrender to Vsudeva and worship Him. It is said in the Bhgavatam that less intelligent people who have lost their spiritual sense take shelter of demigods for immediate fulfillment of material desires. Generally, such people do not go to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because they are in particular modes of nature (ignorance and passion) and therefore worship various demigods. Following the rules and regulations of worship, they are satisfied. The worshipers of demigods are motivated by small desires and do not know how to reach the supreme goal, but a devotee of the Supreme Lord is not misguided. Because in Vedic literature there are recommendations for worshiping different gods for different purposes (e.g., a diseased man is recommended to worship the sun), those who are not devotees of the Lord think that for certain purposes demigods are better than the Supreme Lord. But a pure devotee knows that the Supreme Lord Ka is the master of all. In the Caitanya-caritmta it is said that only the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, is master and all others are servants. Therefore a pure devotee never goes to demigods for satisfaction of his material needs. He depends on the Supreme Lord. And the pure devotee is satisfied with whatever He gives. TEXT 21 yo yo y y tanu bhakta raddhayrcitum icchati tasya tasycal raddh tm eva vidadhmy aham ya that; ya that; ym which; ym which; tanum form of the demigods; bhakta devotee; raddhay with faith; arcitum to worship; icchati desires; tasya of that; tasya of that; acalm steady; raddhm faith; tam him; eva surely; vidadhmi give; aham I. TRANSLATION I am in everyone's heart as the Supersoul. As soon as one desires to worship the demigods, I make his faith steady so that he can devote himself to some particular deity. PURPORT God has given independence to everyone; therefore, if a person desires to have material enjoyment and wants very sincerely to have such facilities from the material demigods, the Supreme Lord, as Supersoul in everyone's heart, understands and gives facilities to such persons. As the supreme father of all living entities, He does not interfere with their independence, but gives all facilities so that they can fulfill their material desires. Some may ask why the all-powerful God gives facilities to the living entities for enjoying this material world and so lets them fall into the trap of the illusory energy. The answer is that if the Supreme Lord as Supersoul does not give such facilities, then there is no meaning to independence. Therefore He gives everyone full independence whatever one likes but His ultimate instruction we find in the Bhagavad-gt: man should give up all other engagements and fully surrender unto Him. That will make man happy. Both the living entity and the demigods are subordinate to the will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore the living entity cannot worship the demigod by his own desire, nor can the demigod bestow any benediction without the supreme will. As it is said, not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Generally, persons who are distressed in the material world go to the demigods, as they are advised in the Vedic literature. A person wanting some particular thing may worship such and such a demigod. For example, a diseased person is recommended to worship the sun-god; a person wanting education may worship the goddess of learning, Sarasvat; and a person wanting a beautiful wife may worship the goddess Um, the wife of Lord iva. In this way there are recommendations in the stras (Vedic scriptures) for different modes of worship of different demigods. And because a particular living entity wants to enjoy a particular material facility, the Lord inspires him with a strong desire to achieve that benediction from that particular demigod, and so he successfully receives the benediction. The particular mode of the devotional attitude of the living entity toward a particular type of demigod is also arranged by the Supreme Lord. The demigods cannot infuse the living entities with such an affinity, but because He is the Supreme Lord or the Supersoul who is present in the heart of all living entities, Ka gives impetus to man to worship certain demigods. The demigods are actually different parts of the universal body of the Supreme Lord; therefore they have no independence. In the Vedic literature (Taittirya Upaniad, First Anuvka) it is stated: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead as Supersoul is also present within the heart of the demigod; therefore He arranges through the demigod to fulfill the desire of the living entity. But both the demigod and the living entity are dependent on the supreme wil1. They are not independent." TEXT 22 sa tay raddhay yuktas tasyrdhanam hate labhate ca tata kmn mayaiva vihitn hi tn sa he; tay with that; raddhay with faith; yukta endowed; tasya his; rdhanam worship; hate seeks; labhate obtains; ca and; tata from which; kmn desires; may by Me; eva alone; vihitn regulated; hi for; tn those. TRANSLATION Endowed with such a faith, he seeks favors of a particular demigod and obtains his desires. But in actuality these benefits are bestowed by Me alone. PURPORT The demigods cannot award benediction to the devotees without the permission of the Supreme Lord. The living entity may forget that everything is the property of the Supreme Lord, but the demigods do not forget. So the worship of demigods and achievement of desired results are not due to the demigods but to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by arrangement. The less intelligent living entity does not know this, and therefore he foolishly goes to the demigods for some benefit. But the pure devotee, when in need of something, prays only to the Supreme Lord. Asking for material benefit, however, is not a sign of a pure devotee. A living entity goes to the demigods usually because he is mad to fulfill his lust. This happens when something undue is desired by the living entity, and the Lord Himself does not fulfill the desire. In the Caitanya-caritmta it is said that one who worships the Supreme Lord and at the same time desires material enjoyment is contradictory in his desires. Devotional service of the Supreme Lord and the worship of a demigod cannot be on the same platform because worship of a demigod is material and devotional service to the Supreme Lord is completely spiritual. For the living entity who desires to return to Godhead, material desires are impediments. A pure devotee of the Lord is therefore not awarded the material benefits desired by less intelligent living entities who prefer to worship demigods of the material world rather than engage in devotional service of the Supreme Lord. TEXT 23 antavat tu phala te tad bhavaty alpa-medhasm devn deva-yajo ynti mad-bhakt ynti mm api antavat tu limited and temporary; phalam fruits; tem their; tat that; bhavati becomes; alpa-medhasm of those of small intelligence; devn demigods' planets; deva-yaja worshipers of demigods; ynti achieve; mat My; bhakt devotees; ynti attain; mm unto Me; api surely. TRANSLATION Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet. PURPORT Some commentators on the Gt say that one who worships a demigod can reach the Supreme Lord, but here it is clearly stated that the worshipers of demigods go to the different planetary systems where various demigods are situated, just as a worshiper of the sun achieves the sun or a worshiper of the demigod of the moon achieves the moon. Similarly, if anyone wants to worship a demigod like Indra, he can attain that particular god's planet. It is not that everyone, regardless of whatever demigod is worshiped, will reach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is denied here, for it is clearly stated that the worshipers of demigods go to different planets in the material world, but the devotee of the Supreme Lord goes directly to the supreme planet of the Personality of Godhead. Here the point may be raised that if the demigods are different parts of the body of the Supreme Lord, then the same end should be achieved by worshiping them. However, worshipers of the demigods are less intelligent because they don't know to what part of the body food must be supplied. Some of them are so foolish that they claim that there are many parts and many ways to supply food. This isn't very sanguine. Can anyone supply food to the body through the ears or eyes? They do not know that these demigods are different parts of the universal body of the Supreme Lord, and in their ignorance they believe that each and every demigod is a separate God and a competitor of the Supreme Lord. Not only are demigods parts of the Supreme Lord, but ordinary living entities are also. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is stated that the brhmaas are the head of the Supreme Lord, the katriyas are the arms, etc., and that all serve different functions. Regardless of the situation, if one knows that both the demigods and himself are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, his knowledge is perfect. But if he does not understand this, he achieves different planets where the demigods reside. This is not the same destination the devotee reaches. The results achieved by the demigods' benedictions are perishable because within this material world the planets, the demigods and their worshipers are all perishable. Therefore it is clearly stated in this verse that all results achieved by worshiping demigods are perishable, and therefore such worship is performed by the less intelligent living entity. Because the pure devotee engaged in Ka consciousness in devotional service of the Supreme Lord achieves eternal blissful existence that is full of knowledge, his achievements and those of the common worshiper of the demigods are different. The Supreme Lord is unlimited; His favor is unlimited; His mercy is unlimited. Therefore the mercy of the Supreme Lord upon His pure devotees is unlimited. TEXT 24 avyakta vyaktim panna manyante mm abuddhaya para bhvam ajnanto mamvyayam anuttamam avyaktam nonmanifested; vyaktim personality; pannam achieved; manyante think; mm unto Me; abuddhaya less intelligent persons; param supreme; bhvam state of being; ajnanta without knowing; mama My; avyayam imperishable; anuttamam the finest. TRANSLATION Unintelligent men, who know Me not, think that I have assumed this form and personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is changeless and supreme. PURPORT Those who are worshipers of demigods have been described as less intelligent persons, and here the impersonalists are similarly described. Lord Ka in His personal form is here speaking before Arjuna, and still, due to ignorance, impersonalists argue that the Supreme Lord ultimately has no form. Ymuncrya, a great devotee of the Lord in the disciplic succession from Rmnujcrya, has written two very appropriate verses in this connection. He says, "My dear Lord, devotees like Vysadeva and Nrada know You to be the Personality of Godhead. By understanding different Vedic literatures, one can come to know Your characteristics, Your form and Your activities, and one can thus understand that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But those who are in the modes of passion and ignorance, the demons, the nondevotees, cannot understand You. They are unable to understand You. However expert such nondevotees may be in discussing Vednta and the Upaniads and other Vedic literatures, it is not possible for them to understand the Personality of Godhead." In the Brahma-sahit it is stated that the Personality of Godhead cannot be understood simply by study of the Vednta literature. Only by the mercy of the Supreme Lord can the Personality of the Supreme be known. Therefore in this verse it is clearly stated that not only the worshipers of the demigods are less intelligent, but those nondevotees who are engaged in Vednta and speculation on Vedic literature without any tinge of true Ka consciousness are also less intelligent, and for them it is not possible to understand God's personal nature. Persons who are under the impression that the Absolute Truth is impersonal are described as asuras , which means one who does not know the ultimate feature of the Absolute Truth. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is stated that supreme realization begins from the impersonal Brahman and then rises to the localized Supersoul but the ultimate word in the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead. Modern impersonalists are still less intelligent, for they do not even follow their great predecessor, akarcrya, who has specifically stated that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Impersonalists, therefore, not knowing the Supreme Truth, think Ka to be only the son of Devak and Vasudeva, or a prince, or a powerful living entity. This is also condemned in Bhagavad-gt: "Only the fools regard Me as an ordinary person." The fact is that no one can understand Ka without rendering devotional service and without developing Ka consciousness. The Gt confirms this. One cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, or His form, quality or name simply by mental speculation or by discussing Vedic literature. One must understand Him by devotional service. When one is fully engaged in Ka consciousness, beginning by chanting the mahmantra Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Harethen only can one understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nondevotee impersonalists think that Ka has a body made of this material nature and that all His activities, His form and everything, are my . These impersonalists are known as Myvd. They do not know the ultimate truth. The twentieth verse clearly states: "Those who are blinded by lusty desires surrender unto the different demigods." It is accepted that besides the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there are demigods who have theirdifferent planets (Bg. 7.23), and the Lord also has a planet. It is also stated that the worshipers of the demigods go to the different planets of the demigods, and those who are devotees of Lord Ka go to the Kaloka planet. Although this is clearly stated, the foolish impersonalists still maintain that the Lord is formless and that these forms are impositions. From the study of the Gt does it appear that the demigods and their abodes are impersonal? Clearly, neither the demigods nor Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are impersonal. They are all persons; Lord Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He has His own planet, and the demigods have theirs. Therefore the monistic contention that ultimate truth is formless and that form is imposed does not hold true. It is clearly stated here that it is not imposed. From the Gt we can clearly understand that the forms of the demigods and the form of the Supreme Lord are simultaneously existing and that Lord Ka is sac-cid-nanda, eternal blissful knowledge. The Vedas also confirm that the Supreme Absolute Truth is nandamaya, or full of blissful pleasure, and that He is abhyst, by nature the reservoir of unlimited auspicious qualities. And in the Gt the Lord says that although He is aja (unborn), He still appears. These are the facts that we should understand from the Gt. We cannot understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be impersonal; the imposition theory of the impersonalist monist is false as far as the statements of the Gt are concerned. It is clear herein that the Supreme Absolute Truth, Lord Ka, has both form and personality. TEXT 25 nha praka sarvasya yoga-my-samvta mho 'ya nbhijnti loko mm ajam avyayam na nor; aham I; praka manifest; sarvasya to everyone; yoga-my internal potency; samvta covered; mha foolish; ayam this; na not ; abhijnti can understand; loka such less intelligent persons; mm Me; ajam unborn; avyayam inexhaustible. TRANSLATION I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yoga-my]; and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible. PURPORT It may be argued that since Ka was present on this earth and was visible to everyone, then why isn't He manifest to everyone now? But actually He was not manifest to everyone. When Ka was present there were only a few people who could understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the assembly of Kurus, when iupla spoke against Ka being elected president of the assembly, Bhma supported Him and proclaimed Him to be the Supreme God. Similarly, the Pavas and a few others knew that He was the Supreme, but not everyone. He was not revealed to the nondevotees and the common man. Therefore in the Gt Ka says that but for His pure devotees, all men consider Him to be like themselves. He was manifest only to His devotees as the reservoir of all pleasure. But to others, to unintelligent nondevotees, He was covered by His eternal potency. In the prayers of Kunt in the rmad-Bhgavatam (1.8.18), it is said that the Lord is covered by the curtain of yoga-my and thus ordinary people cannot understand Him. Kunt prays: "O my Lord, You are the maintainer of the entire universe, and devotional service to You is the highest religious principle. Therefore, I pray that You will also maintain me. Your transcendental form is covered by the yoga-my . The brahmajyoti is the covering of the internal potency. May You kindly remove this glowing effulgence that impedes my seeing Your sac-cid-nanda-vigraha , Your eternal form of bliss and knowledge." This yoga-my curtain is also mentioned in the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gt. The Supreme Personality of Godhead in His transcendental form of bliss and knowledge is covered by the eternal potency of brahmajyoti and the less intelligent impersonalists cannot see the Supreme on this account. Also in the rmad-Bhgavatam (10.14.7) there is this prayer by Brahm: "O Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul, O master of all mystery, who can calculate Your potency and pastimes in this world? You are always expanding Your eternal potency, and therefore no one can understand You. Learned scientists and learned scholars can examine the atomic constitution of the material world or even the planets, but still they are unable to calculate Your energy and potency, although You are present before them." The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Ka, is not only unborn, but He is avyaya , inexhaustible. His eternal form is bliss and knowledge, and His energies are all inexhaustible. TEXT 26 vedha samattni vartamnni crjuna bhaviyi ca bhtni m tu veda na kacana veda know; aham I; sama equally; attni past; vartamnni present; ca and; arjuna O Arjuna; bhaviyi future; ca also; bhtni living entities; mm Me; tu but; veda knows; na not; kacana anyone. TRANSLATION O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows. PURPORT Here the question of personality and impersonality is clearly stated. If Ka, the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is considered by the impersonalists to be my , to be material, then He would, like the living entity, change His body and forget everything in His past life. Anyone with a material body cannot remember his past life, nor can he foretell his future life, nor can he predict the outcome of his present life; therefore he cannot know what is happening in past, present and future. Unless one is liberated from material contamination, he cannot know past, present and future. Unlike the ordinary human being, Lord Ka clearly says that He completely knows what happened in the past, what is happening in the present, and what will happen in the future. In the Fourth Chapter we have seen that Lord Ka remembers instructing Vivasvn, the sun-god, millions of years ago. Ka knows every living entity because He is situated in every living being's heart as the Supreme Soul. But despite His presence in every living entity as Supersoul and His presence beyond the material sky, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the less intelligent cannot realize Him as the Supreme Person. Certainly the transcendental body of r Ka is not perishable. He is just like the sun, and may is like the cloud. In the material world we can see that there is the sun and that there are clouds and different stars and planets. The clouds may cover all these in the sky temporarily, but this covering is only apparent to our limited vision. The sun, moon and stars are not actually covered. Similarly, my cannot cover the Supreme Lord. By His internal potency He is not manifest to the less intelligent class of men. As it is stated in the third verse of this chapter, out of millions and millions of men, some try to become perfect in this human form of life, and out of thousands and thousands of such perfected men, hardly one can understand what Lord Ka is. Even if one is perfected by realization of impersonal Brahman or localized Paramtm, he cannot possibly understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka, without being in Ka consciousness. TEXT 27 icch-dvea-samutthena dvandva-mohena bhrata sarva-bhtni sammoha sarge ynti parantapa icch desire; dvea hate; samutthena born; dvandva duality; mohena overcome; bhrata O scion of Bharata; sarva all; bhtni living entities; sammoham into delusion; sarge in creation; ynti go; parantapa O conquerer of enemies. TRANSLATION O scion of Bharata [Arjuna], O conquerer of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, overcome by the dualities of desire and hate. PURPORT The real constitutional position of the living entity is that of subordination to the Supreme Lord, who is pure knowledge. When one is deluded into separation from this pure knowledge, he becomes controlled by illusory energy and cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The illusory energy is manifested in the duality of desire and hate. Due to desire and hate, the ignorant person wants to become one with the Supreme Lord and envies Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Pure devotees, who are not so deluded or contaminated by desire and hate, can understand that Lord r Ka appears by His internal potencies, but those who are deluded by duality and nescience think that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is created by material energies. This is their misfortune. Such deluded persons, symptomatically, dwell in dualities of dishonor and honor, misery and happiness, woman and man, good and bad, pleasure and pain, etc., thinking, "This is my wife; this is my house; I am the master of this house; I am the husband of this wife." These are the dualities of delusion. Those who are so deluded by dualities are completely foolish and therefore cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 28 ye tv anta-gata ppa jann puya-karmam te dvandva-moha-nirmukt bhajante m dha-vrat yem whose; tu but; anta-gatam completely eradicated; ppam sin; jannm of the persons; puya pious; karmam previous activities; te they; dvandva duality; moha delusion ; nirmukt free from; bhajante worship; mm Me; dha-vrat with determination. TRANSLATION Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life, whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with determination. PURPORT Those eligible for elevation to the transcendental position are mentioned in this verse. For those who are sinful, atheistic, foolish and deceitful, it is very difficult to transcend the duality of desire and hate. Only those who have passed their lives in practicing the regulative principles of religion, who have acted piously and have conquered sinful reactions can accept devotional service and gradually rise to the pure knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then, gradually, they can meditate in trance on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the process of being situated on the spiritual platform. This elevation is possible in Ka consciousness in the association of pure devotees who can deliver one from delusion. It is stated in the rmad-Bhgavatam that if one actually wants to be liberated he must render service to the devotees; but one who associates with materialistic people is on the path leading to the darkest region of existence. All the devotees of the Lord traverse this earth just to recover the conditioned souls from their delusion. The impersonalists do not know that forgetting their constitutional position as subordinate to the Supreme Lord is the greatest violation of God's law. Unless one is reinstated in his own constitutional position, it is not possible to understand the Supreme Personality or to be fully engaged in His transcendental loving service with determination. TEXT 29 jar-maraa-mokya mm ritya yatanti ye te brahma tad vidu ktsnam adhytma karma ckhilam jar old age; maraa death; mokya for the purpose of liberation; mm unto Me; ritya taking shelter of; yatanti endeavor; ye all those; te such persons; brahma Brahman; tat actually that; vidu they know; ktsnam everything; adhytmam transcendental; karma fruitive activities; ca also; akhilam entirely. TRANSLATION Intelligent persons who are endeavoring for liberation from old age and death take refuge in Me in devotional service. They are actually Brahman because they entirely know everything about transcendental and fruitive activities. PURPORT Birth, death, old age and diseases affect this material body, but not the spiritual body. There is no birth, death, old age and disease for the spiritual body, so one who attains a spiritual body, becomes one of the associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and engages in eternal devotional service, is really liberated. Aha brahmsmi: I am spirit. It is said that one should understand that he is Brahmanspirit soul. This Brahman conception of life is also in devotional service, as described in this verse. The pure devotees are transcendentally situated on the Brahman platform, and they know everything about transcendental and material activities. Four kinds of impure devotees who engage themselves in the transcendental service of the Lord achieve their respective goals, and by the grace of the Supreme Lord, when they are fully Ka conscious, they actually enjoy spiritual association with the Supreme Lord. But those who are worshipers of demigods never reach the Supreme Lord in His supreme planet. Even the less intelligent Brahman-realized persons cannot reach the supreme planet of Ka known as Goloka Vndvana. Only persons who perform activities in Ka consciousness ( mm ritya )are actually entitled to be called Brahman, because they are actually endeavoring to reach the Ka planet. Such persons have no misgivings about Ka, and thus they are factually Brahman. Those who are engaged in worshiping the form or arc of the Lord or who are engaged in meditation on the Lord simply for liberation from material bondage, also know, by the grace of the Lord, the purports of Brahman, adhibhta, etc., as explained by the Lord in the next chapter. TEXT 30 sdhib htdhidaiva m sdhiyaja ca ye vidu praya-kle 'pi ca m te vidur yukta-cetasa sa-adhibhta the governing principle of the material manifestation; adhidaivam underlying all the demigods; mm Me; sa-adhiyajam sustaining all sacrifices; ca and; ye those; vidu know; praya of death; kle at the time; api even; ca and; mm Me; te they; vidu know; yukta-cetasa with steadfast mind. TRANSLATION Those who know Me as the Supreme Lord, as the governing principle of the material manifestation, who know Me as the one underlying all the demigods and as the one sustaining all sacrifices, can, with steadfast mind, understand and know Me even at the time of death. PURPORT Persons acting in Ka consciousness are never entirely deviated from the path of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the transcendental association of Ka consciousness, one can understand how the Supreme Lord is the governing principle of the material manifestation and even of the demigods. Gradually, by such transcendental association, one becomes convinced of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, and at the time of death such a Ka conscious person can never forget Ka. Naturally he is thus promoted to the planet of the Supreme Lord, Goloka Vndvana. This Seventh Chapter particularly explains how one can become a fully Ka conscious person. The beginning of Ka consciousness is association of persons who are Ka conscious. Such association is spiritual and puts one directly in touch with the Supreme Lord, and, by His grace, one can understand Ka to be the Supreme God. At the same time one can really understand the constitutional position of the living entity and how the living entity forgets Ka and becomes entangled in material activities. By gradual development of Ka consciousness in good association, the living entity can understand that due to forgetfulness of Ka he has become conditioned by the laws of material nature. He can also understand that this human form of life is an opportunity to regain Ka consciousness and that it should be fully utilized to attain the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord. Many subjects have been discussed in this chapter: the man in distress, the inquisitive man, the man in want of material necessities, knowledge of Brahman, knowledge of Paramtm, liberation from birth, death and diseases, and worship of the Supreme Lord. However, he who is actually elevated in Ka consciousness does not care for the different processes. He simply directly engages himself in activities of Ka consciousness and thereby factually attains his constitutional position as eternal servitor of Lord Ka. In such a situation he takes pleasure in hearing and glorifying the Supreme Lord in pure devotional service. He is convinced that by doing so, all his objectives will be fulfilled. This determined faith is called dha-vrata, and it is the beginning of bhakti-yoga or transcendental loving service. That is the verdict of all scriptures. This Seventh Chapter of the Gt is the substance of that conviction. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Seventh Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Knowledge of the Absolute. Chapter-8 CHAPTER EIGHT Attaining the Supreme TEXT 1 arjuna uvca ki tad-brahma kim adhytma ki karma puruottama adhibhta ca ki proktam adhidaiva kim ucyate arjuna uvca Arjuna said; kim what; tat that; brahma Brahman; kim what; adhytmam the self; kim what; karma fruitive activities; puruottama O Supreme Person; adhibhtam the material manifestation; ca and; kim what; proktam is called; adhidaivam the demigods; kim what; ucyate is called. TRANSLATION Arjuna inquired: O my Lord, O Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What is the self? What are fruitive activities? What is this material manifestation? And what are the demigods? Please explain this to me. PURPORT In this chapter Lord Ka answers these different questions of Arjuna beginning with, "What is Brahman?" The Lord also explains karma, fruitive activities, devotional service and yoga principles, and devotional service in its pure form. The rmad- Bhgavatam explains that the Supreme Absolute Truth is known as Brahman, Paramtm, and Bhagavn. In addition, the living entity, individual soul, is also called Brahman. Arjuna also inquires about tm, which refers to body, soul and mind. According to the Vedic dictionary, tm refers to the mind, soul, body and senses also. Arjuna has addressed the Supreme Lord as Puruottama, Supreme Person, which means that he was putting these questions not simply to a friend but to the Supreme Person, knowing Him to be the supreme authority able to give definitive answers. TEXT 2 adhiyaja katha ko 'tra dehe 'smin madhusdana praya-kle ca katha jeyo 'si niyattmabhi adhiyaja the Lord of sacrifice; katham how; ka who; atra here; dehe in the body; asmin in this; madhusdana O Madhusdana; praya- kle at the time of death; ca and; katham how; jeya be known; asi You can; niyata-tmabhi by the self-controlled. TRANSLATION How does this Lord of sacrifice live in the body, and in which part does He live, O Madhusdana? And how can those engaged in devotional service know You at the time of death? PURPORT The Lord of sacrifice accepts Indra and Viu. Viu is the chief of the primal demigods, including Brahm and iva, and Indra is the chief of the administrative demigods. Both Indra and Viu are worshiped by yaja performances. But here Arjuna asks who is actually the Lord of yaja (sacrifice), and how is the Lord residing within the body of the living entity. Arjuna addresses the Lord as Madhusdana because Ka once killed a demon named Madhu. Actually these questions, which are of the nature of doubts, should not have arisen in the mind of Arjuna because Arjuna is a Ka conscious devotee. Therefore these doubts are like demons. Since Ka is so expert in killing demons, Arjuna here addresses Him as Madhusdana so that Ka might kill the demonic doubts that arise in Arjuna's mind. Now the word praya-kle in this verse is very significant because whatever we do in life will be tested at the time of death. Arjuna fears that at the time of death, those who are in Ka consciousness will forget the Supreme Lord because at such a time body functions are disrupted and the mind may be in a panic-stricken state. Therefore Mahrja Kulaekhara, a great devotee, prays, "My dear Lord, may I die immediately now that I'm healthy so that the swan of my mind may enter into the stem of Thy lotus feet." This metaphor is used because the swan often takes pleasure in entering the stem of the lotus flower-similarly, the mind of the pure devotee is drawn to the lotus feet of the Lord. Mahrja Kulaekhara fears that at the moment of death his throat will be so choked up that he will not be able to chant the holy names, so it is better to "die immediately." Arjuna questions how one's mind can remain fixed on Ka's lotus feet at such times. TEXT 3 r bhagavn uvca akara brahma parama svabhvo 'dhytmam ucyate bhta-bhvodbhava-karo visarga karma-sajita r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; akaram indestructible; brahma Brahman; paramam transcendental; svabhva eternal nature; adhytmam the self; ucyate is called; bhta-bhva- udbhava-kara action producing the material bodies of the living entities; visarga creation; karma fruitive activities; sajita is called. TRANSLATION The Supreme Lord said, The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called the self. Action pertaining to the development of these material bodies is called karma, or fruitive activities. PURPORT Brahman is indestructible and eternally existing, and its constitution is not changed at any time. But beyond Brahman there is Parabrahman. Brahman refers to the living entity, and Parabrahman refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The constitutional position of the living entity is different from the position he takes in the material world. In material consciousness, his nature is to try to be the lord of matter, but in spiritual (Ka) consciousness, his position is to serve the Supreme. When the living entity is in material consciousness, he has to take on various bodies in the material world. That is called karma, or varied creation by the force of material consciousness. In Vedic literature the living entity is called jvtm and Brahman, but he is never called Parabrahman. The living entity (jvtm) takes different positions sometimes he merges into the dark material nature and identifies himself with matter, and sometimes he identifies himself with the superior spiritual nature. Therefore he is called the Supreme Lord's marginal energy. According to his identification with material or spiritual nature, he receives a material or spiritual body. In material nature he may take a body from any of the 8,400,000 species of life, but in spiritual nature he has only one body. In material nature he is sometimes manifested as a man, demigod, an animal, a beast, bird, etc., according to his karma. To attain material heavenly planets and enjoy their facilities, he sometimes performs sacrifices (yaja), but when his merit is exhausted, he returns to earth again in the form of a man. In the process of sacrifice, the living entity makes specific sacrifices to attain specific heavenly planets and consequently reaches them. When the merit of sacrifice is exhausted, then the living entity descends to earth in the form of rain, then takes on the form of grains, and the grains are eaten by man and transformed into semen, which impregnates a woman, and thus the living entity once again attains the human form to perform sacrifice and so repeat the same cycle. In this way, the living entity perpetually comes and goes on the material path. The Ka conscious person, however, avoids such sacrifices. He takes directly to Ka consciousness and thereby prepares himself to return to Godhead. Impersonalist commentators on the Gt unreasonably assume that Brahman takes the form of jva in the material world, and to substantiate this they refer to Chapter Fifteen, verse 7, of the Gt. But this verse also speaks of the living entity as "an eternal fragment of Myself." The fragment of God, the living entity, may fall down into the material world, but the Supreme Lord (Acyuta) never falls down. Therefore this assumption that the Supreme Brahman assumes the form of jva is not acceptable. It is important to remember that in Vedic literature Brahman (the living entity) is distinguished from Parabrahman (the Supreme Lord). TEXT 4 adhibhta karo bhva purua cdhidaivatam adhiyajo 'ham evtra dehe deha-bht vara adhibhtam the physical manifestation; kara constantly changing; bhva nature; purua the universal form; ca and; adhidaivatam including all demigods like the sun and moon; adhiyaja the Supersoul; aham I (Ka); eva certainly; atra in this; dehe body; deha-bhtm of the embodied; vara the Supreme. TRANSLATION Physical nature is known to be endlessly mutable. The universe is the cosmic form of the Supreme Lord, and I am that Lord represented as the Supersoul, dwelling in the heart of every embodied being. PURPORT The physical nature is constantly changing. Material bodies generally pass through six stages: they are born, they grow, they remain for some duration, they produce some by-products, they dwindle, and then they vanish. This physical nature is called adhibhtam. Because it is created at a certain point and will be annihilated at a certain point, the conception of the universal form of the Supreme Lord that includes all the demigods and their different planets is called adhidaivatam. The individual soul (jva) accompanies the body. The Supersoul, a plenary representation of Lord Ka, is called the Paramtm or adhiyaja and is situated in the heart. The word eva is particularly important in the context of this verse because by this word the Lord stresses that the Paramtm is not different from Him. The Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, seated beside the individual soul, is the witness of the individual soul's activities and is the source of consciousness. The Supersoul gives the jva an opportunity to act freely, and He witnesses his activities. The functions of all these different manifestations of the Supreme Lord automatically become clarified for the pure Ka conscious devotee engaged in transcendental service of the Lord. The gigantic universal form of the Lord called adhidaivatam is contemplated by the neophyte who cannot approach the Supreme Lord in His manifestation as Supersoul. The neophyte is advised to contemplate the universal form whose legs are considered the lower planets and whose eyes are considered the sun and moon, and whose head is considered the upper planetary system. TEXT 5 anta-kle ca mm eva smaran muktv kalevaram ya prayti sa mad-bhva yti nsty atra saaya anta-kle at the end of life; ca also; mm unto Me; eva certainly; smaran remembering; muktv quitting; kalevaram the body; ya he who; prayti goes; sa he; mad-bhvam My nature; yati achieves; na not; asti there is; atra here; saaya doubt. TRANSLATION And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt. PURPORT In this verse the importance of Ka consciousness is stressed. Anyone who quits his body in Ka consciousness is at once transferred to the transcendental abode of the Supreme Lord. The word smaran (remembering) is important. Remembrance of Ka is not possible for the impure soul who has not practiced Ka consciousness in devotional service. To remember Ka one should chant the mahmantra, Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare, incessantly, following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya, being more tolerant than the tree, humbler than the grass and offering all respect to others without requiring respect in return. In such a way one will be able to depart from the body successfully remembering Ka and so attain the supreme goal. TEXT 6 ya ya vpi smaran bhva tyajaty ante kalevaram ta tam evaiti kaunteya sad tad-bhva-bhvita yam yam whatever; v either; api also; smaran remembering; bhvam nature; tyajati give up; ante at the end; kalevaram this body; tam tam similar; eva certainly; eti gets; kaunteya O son of Kunt; sad always; tat that; bhva state of being; bhvita remembering. TRANSLATION Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail. PURPORT The process of changing one's nature at the critical moment of death is here explained. How can one die in the proper state of mind? Mahrja Bharata thought of a deer at the time of death and so was transferred to that form of life. However, as a deer, Mahrja Bharata could remember his past activities. Of course the cumulative effect of the thoughts and actions of one's life influences one's thoughts at the moment of death; therefore the actions of this life determine one's future state of being. If one is transcendentally absorbed in Ka's service,then his next body will be transcendental (spiritual), not physical. Therefore the chanting of Hare Ka is the best process for successfully changing one's state of being to transcendental life. TEXT 7 tasmt sarveu kleu mm anusmara yudhya ca mayy arpita-mano buddhir mm evaiyasy asaaya tasmt therefore; sarveu always; kleu time; mm unto Me; anusmara go on remembering; yudhya fight; ca also; mayi unto Me; arpita surrender; mana mind; buddhi intellect; mm unto Me; eva surely; eyasi will attain; asaaya beyond a doubt. TRANSLATION Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Ka and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt. PURPORT This instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities. The Lord does not say that one should give up his prescribed duties or engagements. One can continue them and at the same time think of Ka by chanting Hare Ka. This will free one from material contamination and engage the mind and intelligence in Ka. By chanting Ka's names, one will be transferred to the supreme planet, Kaloka, without a doubt. TEXT 8 abhysa-yoga-yuktena cetas nnya-gmin parama purua divya yti prthnucintayan abhysa practice; yoga-yuktena being engaged in meditation; cetas by the mind and intelligence; na anya-gmin without being deviated; paramam the Supreme; puruam Personality of Godhead; divyam transcendental; yti achieves; prtha O son of Pth; anucintayan constantly thinking of. TRANSLATION He who meditates on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Prtha [Arjuna], is sure to reach Me. PURPORT In this verse Lord Ka stresses the importance of remembering Him. One's memory of Ka is revived by chanting the mahmantra, Hare Ka. By this practice of chanting and hearing the sound vibration of the Supreme Lord, one's ear, tongue and mind are engaged. This mystic meditation is very easy to practice, and it helps one attain the Supreme Lord. Puruam means enjoyer. Although living entities belong to the marginal energy of the Supreme Lord, they are in material contamination. They think themselves enjoyers, but they are not the supreme enjoyer. Here it is clearly stated that the supreme enjoyer is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His different manifestations and plenary expansions as Nryaa, Vsudeva, etc. The devotees can constantly think of the object of worship, the Supreme Lord, in any of His features, Nryaa, Ka, Rma, etc., by chanting Hare Ka. This practice will purify him, and at the end of his life, due to his constant chanting, he will be transferred to the kingdom of God. Yoga practice is meditation on the Supersoul within; similarly, by chanting Hare Ka one fixes his mind always on the Supreme Lord. The mind is fickle, and therefore it is necessary to engage the mind by force to think of Ka. One example often given is that of the caterpillar that thinks of becoming a butterfly and so is transformed into a butterfly in the same life. Similarly, if we constantly think of Ka, it is certain that at the end of our lives we shall have the same bodily constitution as Ka. TEXT 9 - - kavi puram anusitram aor aysam anusmared ya sarvasya dhtram acintya-rpam ditya-vara tamasa parastt kavim one who knows everything; puram the oldest; anusitram the controller; ao of the atom; aysam smaller than; anusmaret always thinking; ya one who; sarvasya of everything; dhtram maintainer; acintya inconceivable; rpam form; ditya-varam illuminated like the sun; tamasa of the darkness; parastt transcendental. TRANSLATION One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun and, being transcendental, is beyond this material nature. PURPORT The process of thinking of the Supreme is mentioned in this verse. The foremost point is that He is not impersonal or void. One cannot meditate on something impersonal or void. That is very difficult. The process of thinking of Ka, however, is very easy and is factually stated herein. First of all, He is purua, spiritual, Rma and Ka, and is described herein as kavim; that is, He knows past, present and future and therefore knows everything. He is the oldest personality because He is the origin of everything; everything is born out of Him. He is also the supreme controller of the universe, maintainer and instructor of humanity. He is smaller than the smallest. The living entity is one 10,000th part of the tip of a hair, but the Lord is so inconceivably small that He enters into the heart of this particle. Therefore He is called smaller than the smallest. As the Supreme, He can enter into the atom and into the heart of the smallest and control him as the Supersoul. Although so small, He is still all- pervading and is maintaining everything. By Him all these planetary systems are sustained. We often wonder how these big planets are floating in the air. It is stated here that the Supreme Lord, by His inconceivable energy, is sustaining all these big planets and systems of galaxies. The word acintya (inconceivable) is very significant in this connection. God's energy is beyond our conception, beyond our thinking jurisdiction, and is therefore called inconceivable (acintya). Who can argue this point? He pervades this material world and yet is beyond it. We cannot even comprehend this material world, which is insignificant compared to the spiritual worldso how can we comprehend what is beyond? Acintya means that which is beyond this material world, that which our argument, logic and philosophical speculation cannot touch, that which is inconceivable. Therefore intelligent persons, avoiding useless argument and speculation, should accept what is stated in scriptures like the Vedas, Gt, and rmad-Bhgavatam and follow the principles they set down. This will lead one to understanding. TEXT 10 - praya-kle manas'calena bhakty yukto yoga-balena caiva bhruvor madhye pram veya samyak sa ta para puruam upaiti divyam praya-kle at the time of death; manas by the mind; acalena without being deviated; bhakty in full devotion; yukta engaged; yoga- balena by the power of mystic yoga; ca also; eva certainly; bhruvo between the two eyebrows; madhye in; pram the life air; veya establishing; samyak completely; sa he; tam that; param transcendental; puruam Personality of Godhead; upaiti achieves; divyam in the spiritual kingdom. TRANSLATION One who, at the time of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and in full devotion engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. PURPORT In this verse it is clearly stated that at the time of death the mind must be fixed in devotion on the Supreme Godhead. For those practiced in yoga , it is recommended that they raise the life force between the eyebrows, but for a pure devotee who does not practice such yoga , the mind should always be engaged in Ka consciousness so that at death he can remember the Supreme by His grace. This is explained in verse fourteen. The particular use of the word yoga-balena is significant in this verse because without practice of yoga one cannot come to this transcendental state of being at the time of death. One cannot suddenly remember the Supreme Lord at death unless he is practiced in some yoga system, especially the system of bhakti-yoga. Since one's mind at death is very disturbed, one should practice transcendence through yoga during one's life. TEXT 11 yad akara veda-vido vadanti vianti yad yatayo vta-rg yad icchanto brahmacarya caranti tat te pada sagrahea pravakye yat that which; akaram inexhaustible; veda-vida a person conversant with the Vedas; vadanti say; vianti enters; yat in which; yataya great sages; vta-rgh in the renounced order of life; yat that which; icchanta desiring; brahmacaryam celibacy; caranti practices; tat that; te unto you; padam situation; sagrahea in summary; pravakye I shall explain. TRANSLATION Persons learned in the Vedas, who utter omkra and who are great sages in the renounced order, enter into Brahman. Desiring such perfection, one practices celibacy. I shall now explain to you this process by which one may attain salvation. PURPORT Lord Ka explains that Brahman, although one without a second, has different manifestations and features. For the impersonalists, the syllable om is identical with Brahman. Ka here explains the impersonal Brahman in which the renounced order of sages enter. In the Vedic system of knowledge, students, from the very beginning, are taught to vibrate om and learn of the ultimate impersonal Brahman by living with the spiritual master in complete celibacy. In this way they realize two of Brahman's features. This practice is very essential for the student's advancement in spiritual life, but at the moment such brahmacr (unmarried celibate) life is not at all possible. The social construction of the world has changed so much that there is no possibility of one's practicing celibacy from the beginning of student life. Throughout the world there are many institutions for different departments of knowledge, but there is no recognized institution where students can be educated in the brahmacr principles. Unless one practices celibacy, advancement in spiritual life is very difficult. Therefore Lord Caitanya has announced, according to the scriptural injunctions for this age of Kali, that no process of realizing the Supreme is possible except the chanting of the holy name of Lord Ka: Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. TEXT 12 sarva-dvri sayamya mano hdi nirudhya ca mrdhny dhytmana pram sthito yoga-dhram sarva-dvri all the doors of the body; sayamya controlling; mana mind; hdi in the heart; nirudhya confined; ca also; mrdhni on the head; dhya fixed ; tmana soul; pram the life air; sthita situated; yoga-dhram the yogic situation. TRANSLATION The yogic situation is that of detachment from all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes himself in yoga. PURPORT To practice yoga, as suggested here, one first has to close the door of all sense enjoyment. This practice is called pratyhra, or withdrawing the senses from the sense objects. Sense organs for acquiring knowledge, such as the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and touch, should be fully controlled and should not be allowed to engage in self-gratification. In this way the mind focuses on the Supersoul in the heart and the life force is raised to the top of the head. In the Sixth Chapter this process is described in detail. But as mentioned before, this practice is not practical in this age. The best process is Ka consciousness. If one is always able to fix his mind on Ka in devotional service, it is very easy for him to remain in an undisturbed transcendental trance, or in samdhi. TEXT 13 o ity ekkara brahma- vyharan mm anusmaran ya prayti tyajan deha sa yti param gatim om the combination of letters, omkra; iti thus; eka-akaram supreme, indestructible; brahma absolute; vyharan vibrating; mm Me (Ka); anusmaran remembering; ya anyone; prayti leaves; tyajan quitting; deham this body; sa he; yti achieves; paramm supreme; gatim destination. TRANSLATION After being situated in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable om, the supreme combination of letters, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and quits his body, he will certainly reach the spiritual planets. PURPORT It is clearly stated here that om , Brahman, and Lord Ka are not different. The impersonal sound of Ka is om, but the sound Hare Ka contains om. It is clearly recommended in this age that if one quits his body at the end of this life chanting the mahmantra , Hare Ka, he will reach the spiritual planets. Similarly, those who are devotees of Ka enter the Ka planet or Goloka Vndvana, whereas the impersonalists remain in the brahmajyoti. The personalists also enter many innumerable planets in the spiritual sky known as Vaikuhas. TEXT 14 ananya-cet satata yo m smarati nityaa tasyha sulabha prtha nitya-yuktasya yogina ananya-cet without deviation; satatam always; ya anyone; mm Me (Ka); smarati remembers; nityaa regularly; tasya to him; aham I am; sulabha very easy to achieve; prtha O son of Pth; nitya regularly; yuktasya engaged; yogina of the devotee. TRANSLATION For one who remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Pth, because of his constant engagement in devotional service. PURPORT In this verse the bhakti-yoga of the unalloyed devotees of the Supreme Godhead is described. The preceeding verses mention four different kinds of devoteesthe distressed, the inquisitive, those who seek material gain, and the speculative philosophers. Different processes of liberation from material entanglement have also been described: karma-yoga, jna-yoga, and haha- yoga. But here bhakti-yoga, without any mixture of these, is mentioned. In bhakti-yoga the devotees desire nothing but Ka. The pure bhakti devotee does not desire promotion to heavenly planets, nor does he seek salvation or liberation from material entanglement. A pure devotee does not desire anything. In the Caitanya-caritmta the pure devotee is called nikma, which means he has no desire for self-interest. Perfect peace belongs to him alone, not to them who strive for personal gain. The pure devotee only wants to please the Supreme Lord, and so the Lord says that for anyone who is unflinchingly devoted to Him, He is easy to attain. The devotee can render service to any of the transcendental forms of the Supreme Lord, and he meets with none of the problems that plague the practitioners of other yogas. Bhakti- yoga is very simple and pure and easy to perform. One can begin by simply chanting Hare Ka. Ka is very merciful to those who engage in His service, and He helps in various ways that devotee who is fully surrendered to Him so he can understand Him as He is. The Lord gives such a devotee sufficient intelligence so that ultimately the devotee can attain Him in His spiritual kingdom. The special qualification of the pure devotee is that he is always thinking of Ka without considering the time or place. There should be no impediments. He should be able to carry out his service anywhere and at any time. Some say that the devotee should remain in holy places like Vndvana or some holy town where the Lord lived, but a pure devotee can live anywhere and create the atmosphere of Vndvana by his devotional service. It was r Advaita who told Lord Caitanya, "Wherever You are, O Lord there is Vndvana." A pure devotee constantly remembers Ka and meditates upon Him. These are qualifications of the pure devotee for whom the Lord is most easily attainable. Bhakti-yoga is the system that the Gt recommends above all others. Generally, the bhakti-yogs are engaged in five different ways: 1) nta-bhakta, engaged in devotional service in neutrality; 2) dsya-bhakta, engaged in devotional service as servant; 3) skhya-bhakta, engaged as friend; 4) vtsalya-bhakta, engaged as parent; and 5) mdhurya- bhakta, engaged as conjugal lover of the Supreme Lord. In any of these ways, the pure devotee is always constantly engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord and cannot forget the Supreme Lord, and so for him the Lord is easily attained. A pure devotee cannot forget the Supreme Lord for a moment, and similarly, the Supreme Lord cannot forget His pure devotee for a moment. This is the great blessing of the Ka conscious process of chanting the mahmantra, Hare Ka. TEXT 15 mm upetya punar janma dukhlayam avatam npnuvanti mahtmna sasiddhi param gat mm unto Me; upetya achieving; puna again; janma birth; dukha- layam place of miseries; avatam temporary; na never; pnuvanti attain; mahtmna the great souls; sasiddhim perfection; paramm ultimate; gat achieved. TRANSLATION After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection. PURPORT Since this temporary material world is full of the miseries of birth, old age, disease and death, naturally he who achieves the highest perfection and attains the supreme planet, Kaloka, Goloka Vndvana, does not wish to return. The supreme planet is described in Vedic literature as beyond our material vision, and it is considered the highest goal. The mahtms (great souls) receive transcendental messages from the realized devotees and thus gradually develop devotional service in Ka consciousness and become so absorbed in transcendental service that they no longer desire elevation to any of the material planets, nor do they even want to be transferred to any spiritual planet. They only want Ka's association and nothing else. Such great souls in Ka consciousness attain the highest perfection of life. In other words, they are the supreme souls. TEXT 16 brahma-bhuvanl lok punar vartino 'rjuna mm upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate brahma up to the Brahmaloka planet; bhuvant from the planetary systems; lok planets; puna again; vartina returning; arjuna O Arjuna; mm unto Me; upetya arriving; tu but; kaunteya O son of Kunt; puna janma rebirth; na never; vidyate takes to. TRANSLATION From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunt, never takes birth again. PURPORT All kinds of yogs - karma, jna, haha, etc.eventually have to attain devotional perfection in bhakti-yoga, or Ka consciousness, before they can go to Ka's transcendental abode and never return. Those who attain the highest material planets or the planets of the demigods are again subjected to repeated birth and death. As persons on earth are elevated to higher planets, people in higher planets such as Brahmaloka, Candraloka and Indraloka fall down to earth. The practice of sacrifice called pacgni-vidy, recommended in the Kaha Upaniad, enables one to achieve Brahmaloka, but if, in Brahmaloka, one does not cultivate Ka consciousness, then he must return to earth. Those who progress in Ka consciousness in the higher planets are gradually elevated to higher and higher planets and at the time of universal devastation are transferred to the eternal spiritual kingdom. When there is devastation of this material universe, Brahm and his devotees, who are constantly engaged in Ka consciousness, are all transferred to the spiritual universe and to specific spiritual planets according to their desires. TEXT 17 sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmao vidu rtri yuga-sahasrnt te 'ho-rtra-vido jan sahasra thousand; yuga millenniums; prayantam including; aha day; yat that; brahmaa of Brahm; vidu know it; rtrim night; yuga millenniums; sahasra-antm similarly, at the end of one thousand; te that; aha-rtra day and night; vida understand; jan people. TRANSLATION By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahm's one day. And such also is the duration of his night. PURPORT The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahm, and one day of Brahm consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas or ages: Satya, Tret, Dvpara, and Kali. The cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion, there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts 1,728,000 years. In the Tret-yuga vice is introduced, and this yuga lasts 1,296,000 years. In the Dvpara-yuga there is an even greater decline in virtue and religion, vice increasing, and this yuga lasts 864,000 years. And finally in Kali-yuga (the yuga we have now been experiencing over the past 5,000 years) there is an abundance of strife, ignorance, irreligion and vice, true virtue being practically nonexistent, and this yuga lasts 432,000 years. In Kali-yuga vice increases to such a point that at the termination of the yuga the Supreme Lord Himself appears as the Kalki avatra, vanquishes the demons, saves His devotees, and commences another Satya-yuga. Then the process is set rolling again. These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, comprise one day of Brahm, the creator god, and the same number comprise one night. Brahm lives one hundred of such "years" and then dies. These "hundred years" by earth calculations total to 311 trillion and 40 million earth years. By these calculations the life of Brahm seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash. In the causal ocean there are innumerable Brahms rising and disappearing like bubbles in the Atlantic. Brahm and his creation are all part of the material universe, and therefore they are in constant flux. In the material universe not even Brahm is free from the process of birth, old age, disease and death. Brahm, however, is directly engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord in the management of this universe therefore he at once attains liberation. Elevated sannyss are promoted to Brahm's particular planet, Brahmaloka, which is the highest planet in the material universe and which survives all the heavenly planets in the upper strata of the planetary system, but in due course Brahm and all inhabitants of Brahmaloka are subject to death, according to the law of material nature. TEXT 18 avyaktd vyaktaya sarv prabhavanty ahar-game rtry-game pralyante tatraivvyakta-sajake avyaktt from the unmanifest; vyaktaya living entities; sarv all; prabhavanti come into being; aha-game at the beginning of the day; rtri-game at the fall of night; pralyante are annihilated; tatra there; eva certainly; avyakta the unmanifest; sajake called. TRANSLATION When Brahm's day is manifest, this multitude of living entities comes into being, and at the arrival of Brahm's night they are all annihilated. PURPORT The less intelligent jvas try to remain within this material world and are accordingly elevated and degraded in the various planetary systems. During the daytime of Brahm they exhibit their activities, and at the coming of Brahm's night they are annihilated. In the day they receive various bodies for material activities, and at night these bodies perish. The jvas (individual souls) remain compact in the body of Viu and again and again are manifest at the arrival of Brahm's day. When Brahm's life is finally finished, they are all annihilated and remain unmanifest for millions and millions of years. Finally, when Brahm is born again in another millennium, they are again manifest. In this way the jvas are captivated by the material world. However, those intelligent beings who take to Ka consciousness and chant Hare Ka, Hare Rma in devotional service transfer themselves, even in this life, to the spiritual planet of Ka and become eternally blissful there, not being subject to such rebirths. TEXT 19 bhta-grma sa evya bhtv bhtv pralyate rtry-game 'vaa prtha prabhavaty ahar-game bhta-grma the aggregate of all living entities; sa they; eva certainly; ayam this; bhtv bhtv taking birth; pralyate annihilate; rtri night; game on arrival; avaa automatically; prtha O son of Pth; prabhavanti manifest; aha during daytime; game on arrival. TRANSLATION Again and again the day comes, and this host of beings is active; and again the night falls, O Prtha, and they are helplessly dissolved. TEXT 20 paras tasmt tu bhvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktt santana ya sa sarveu bhteu nayatsu na vinayati para transcendental; tasmt from that; tu but; bhva nature; anya another; avyakta unmanifest; avyaktt from the unmanifest; santana eternal ; ya that; sa which; sarveu all; bhteu manifestation; nayatsu being annihilated; na never; vinayati annihilated. TRANSLATION Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is. PURPORT Ka's superior spiritual energy is transcendental and eternal. It is beyond all the changes of material nature, which is manifest and annihilated during the days and nights of Brahm. Ka's superior energy is completely opposite in quality to material nature. Superior and inferior nature are explained in the Seventh Chapter. TEXT 21 avyakto 'kara ity uktas tam hu param gatim ya prpya na nivartante tad dhma parama mama avyakta unmanifested; akara infallible; iti thus; ukta said; tam that which; hu is known; paramm ultimate; gatim destination; yam that which; prpya gaining; na never; nivartante comes back; tat- dhma that abode; paramam supreme; mama Mine. TRANSLATION That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode. PURPORT The supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead, Ka, is described in the Brahma-sahit as cintmai-dhma, a place where all desires are fulfilled. The supreme abode of Lord Ka known as Goloka Vndvana is full of palaces made of touchstone. There are also trees which are called "desire trees" that supply any type of eatable upon demand, and there are cows known as surabhi cows which supply a limitless supply of milk. In this abode, the Lord is served by hundreds of thousands of goddesses of fortune (Lakms), and He is called Govinda, the primal Lord and the cause of all causes. The Lord is accustomed to blow His flute (venum kvanantam). His transcendental form is the most attractive in all the worldsHis eyes are like the lotus petals and the color of His body like clouds. He is so attractive that His beauty excels that of thousands of cupids. He wears saffron cloth, a garland around His neck and a peacock feather in His hair. In the Gt Lord Kra gives only a small hint of His personal abode (Goloka Vndvana) which is the supermost planet in the spiritual kingdom. A vivid description is given in the Brahma-sahit. Vedic literature states that there is nothing superior to the abode of the Supreme Godhead, and that that abode is the ultimate destination. When one attains to it, he never returns to the material world. Ka's supreme abode and Ka Himself are nondifferent, being of the same quality. On this earth, Vndvana, ninety miles southeast of Delhi, is a replica of that supreme Goloka Vndvana located in the spiritual sky. When Ka descended on this earth, He sported on that particular tract of land known as Vndvana in the district of Mathur, India. TEXT 22 purua sa para prtha bhakty labhyas tv ananyay yasyntasthni bhtni yena sarvam ida tatam purua the Supreme Personality; sa He; para the Supreme, than whom no one is greater; prtha O son of Pth; bhakty by devotional service; labhya can be achieved; tu but; ananyay unalloyed, undeviating devotion; yasya His; antasthni within; bhtni all this material manifestation; yena by whom; sarvam all; idam whatever we can see; tatam distributed. TRANSLATION The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and everything is situated within Him. PURPORT It is here clearly stated that the supreme destination from which there is no return is the abode of Ka, the Supreme Person. The Brahma-sahit describes this supreme abode as nanda-cinmaya-rasa, a place where everything is full of spiritual bliss. Whatever variegatedness is manifest there is all of the quality of spiritual blissthere is nothing material. All variegatedness is expanded as the spiritual expansion of the Supreme Godhead Himself, for the manifestation there is totally of the spiritual energy, as explained in Chapter Seven. As far as this material world is concerned, although the Lord is always in His supreme abode, He is nonetheless all- pervading by His material energy. So by His spiritual and material energies He is present everywhere both in the material and in the spiritual universes. Yasyntasthni means that everything is sustained by Him, whether it be spiritual or material energy. It is clearly stated here that only by bhakti, or devotional service, can one enter into the Vaikuha (spiritual) planetary system. In all the Vaikuhas there is only one Supreme Godhead, Ka, who has expanded Himself into millions and millions of plenary expansions. These plenary expansions are four-armed, and they preside over the innumerable spiritual planets. They are known by a variety of names -Puruottama, Trivikrama, Keava, Mdhava, Aniruddha, Hkea, Sakaraa, Pradyumna, rdhara, Vsudeva, Dmodara, Janrdana, Nryaa, Vmana, Padmanbha, etc. These plenary expansions are likened unto the leaves of a tree, and the main tree is likened to Ka. Ka, dwelling in Goloka Vndvana, His supreme abode, systematically conducts all affairs of both universes (material and spiritual) without a flaw by power of His all-pervasiveness. TEXT 23 yatra kle tv anvttim vtti caiva yogina prayt ynti ta kla vakymi bharatarabha yatra in that; kle time; tu but; anvttim no return; vttim return; ca also; eva certainly; yogina of different kinds of mystics; prayt one who goes; ynti departs; tam that; klam time; vakymi describing; bharatarabha O best of the Bhratas. TRANSLATION O best of the Bhratas, I shall now explain to you the different times at which, passing away from this world, one does or does not come back. PURPORT The unalloyed devotees of the Supreme Lord who are totally surrendered souls do not care when they leave their bodies or by what method. They leave everything in Ka's hands and so easily and happily return to Godhead. But those who are not unalloyed devotees and who depend instead on such methods of spiritual realization as karma-yoga, jna-yoga, haha-yoga, etc., must leave the body at a suitable time and thereby be assured whether or not they will return to the world of birth and death. If the yog is perfect, he can select the time and place for leaving this material world, but if he is not so perfect, then he has to leave at nature's will. The most suitable time to leave the body and not return is being explained by the Lord in these verses. According to crya Baladeva Vidybhaa, the Sanskrit word kla used herein refers to the presiding deity of time. TEXT 24 agnir jyotir aha ukla a-ms uttaryaam tatra prayt gacchanti brahma brahma-vido jan agni fire; jyoti light; aha day; ukla white; a-ms six months; uttaryaam when the sun passes on the northern side; tatra there; prayt one who goes; gacchanti passes away; brahma the Absolute; brahma-vida one who knows the Absolute; jan person. TRANSLATION Those who know the Supreme Brahman pass away from the world during the influence of the fiery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment, during the fortnight of the moon and the six months when the sun travels in the north. PURPORT When fire, light, day and moon are mentioned, it is to be understood that over all of them there are various presiding deities who make arrangements for the passage of the soul. At the time of death, the jva sets forth on the path to a new life. If one leaves the body at the time designated above, either accidently or by arrangement, it is possible for him to attain the impersonal brahmajyoti. Mystics who are advanced in yoga practice can arrange the time and place to leave the body. Others have no controlif by accident they leave at an auspicious moment, then they will not return to the cycle of birth and death, but if not, then there is every possibility that they will have to return. However, for the pure devotee in Ka consciousness, there is no fear of returning, whether he leaves the body at an auspicious or inauspicious moment, by accident or arrangement. TEXT 25 dhmo rtris tath ka a-ms dakiyanam tatra cndramasa jyotir yog prpya nivartate dhma smoke; rtri night; tath also; ka the fortnight of the dark moon; a-ms the six months; dakia-ayanam when the sun passes on the southern side; tatra there; cndramasam the moon planet; jyoti light, yog the mystic; prpya achieves; nivartate comes back. TRANSLATION The mystic who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the moonlight fortnight, or in the six months when the sun passes to the south, or who reaches the moon planet, again comes back. PURPORT In the Third Canto of rmad-Bhgavatam we are informed that those who are expert in fruitive activities and sacrificial methods on earth attain to the moon at death. These elevated souls live on the moon for about 10,000 years (by demigod calculations) and enjoy life by drinking soma-rasa. They eventually return to earth. This means that on the moon there are higher classes of living beings, though they may not be perceived by the gross senses. TEXT 26 ukla-ke gat hy ete jagata vate mate ekay yty anvttim anyayvartate puna ukla light; ke darkness; gat passing away; hi certainly; ete all these; jagata of the material world; vate the Vedas ; mate in the opinion; ekay by one; yti goes; anvttim no return; anyay by the other; vartate comes back; puna again. TRANSLATION According to the Vedas, there are two ways of passing from this world one in light and one in darkness. When one passes in light, he does not come back; but when one passes in darkness, he returns. PURPORT The same description of departure and return is quoted by crya Baladeva Vidybhaa from the Chandogya Upaniad. In such a way, those who are fruitive laborers and philosophical speculators from time immemorial are constantly going and coming. Actually they do not attain ultimate salvation, for they do not surrender to Ka. TEXT 27 naite st prtha jnan yog muhyati kacana tasmt sarveu kleu yoga-yukto bhavrjuna na never; ete all these; st different paths; prtha O son of Pth; jnan even if they know; yog the devotees of the Lord; muhyati bewildered; kacana anyone; tasmt therefore; sarveu kleu always; yoga-yukta being engaged in Ka consciousness; bhava just become; arjuna O Arjuna. TRANSLATION The devotees who know these two paths, O Arjuna, are never bewildered. Therefore be always fixed in devotion. PURPORT Ka is here advising Arjuna that he should not be disturbed by the different paths the soul can take when leaving the material world. A devotee of the Supreme Lord should not worry whether he will depart either by arrangement or by accident. The devotee should be firmly established in Kra consciousness and chant Hare Ka. He should know that concern over either of these two paths is troublesome. The best way to be absorbed in Ka consciousness is to be always dovetailed in His service, and this will make one's path to the spiritual kingdom safe, certain, and direct. The word yoga- yukta is especially significant in this verse. One who is firm in yoga is constantly engaged in Ka consciousness in all his activities. r Rpa Gosvm advises that one should be unattached in the material world and that all affairs should be steeped in Ka consciousness. In this way one attains perfection. Therefore the devotee is not disturbed by these descriptions because he knows that his passage to the supreme abode is guaranteed by devotional service. TEXT 28 vedeu yajeu tapasu caiva dneu yat puya-phala pradiam atyeti tat sarvam ida viditv yog para sthnam upaiti cdyam vedeu in the study of the Vedas; yajeu in the performances of yaja, sacrifice; tapasu undergoing different types of austerities; ca also; eva certainly; dneu in giving charities; yat that which; puya- phalam the result of pious work; pradiam directed; atyeti surpasses; tat all those; sarvam idam all those described above; viditv knowing; yog the devotee; param supreme; sthnam abode; upaiti achieved peace; ca also; dyam original. TRANSLATION A person who accepts the path of devotional service is not bereft of the results derived from studying the Vedas, performing austere sacrifices, giving charity or pursuing philosophical and fruitive activities. At the end he reaches the supreme abode. PURPORT This verse is the summation of the Seventh and Eighth Chapters, particularly as the chapters deal with Ka consciousness and devotional service. One has to study the Vedas under the guidance of the spiritual master and undergo many austerities and penances while living under his care. A brahmacr has to live in the home of the spiritual master just like a servant, and he must beg alms from door to door and bring them to the spiritual master. He takes food only under the master's order, and if the master neglects to call the student for food that day, the student fasts. These are some of the Vedic principles for observing brahmacarya. After the student studies the Vedas under the master for a period from five to twenty years, he may become a man of perfect character. Study of the Vedas isnot meant for the recreation of armchair speculators, but for the formation of character. After this training, the brahmacr is allowed to enter into household life and marry. When he is a householder, he also has to perform many sacrifices and strive for further enlightenment. Then after retiring from household life, upon accepting the order of vnaprastha, he undergoes severe penances, such as living in forests, dressing with tree bark, not shaving, etc. By carrying out the orders of brahmacr, householder, vnaprastha and finally sannysa , one becomes elevated to the perfectional stage of life. Some are then elevated to the heavenly kingdoms, and when they become even more advanced they are liberated in the spiritual sky, either in the impersonal brahmajyoti or in the Vaikuha planets or Kaloka. This is the path outlined by Vedic literatures. The beauty of Ka consciousness, however, is that by one stroke, by engaging in devotional service, one can surpass all rituals of the different orders of life. One should try to understand the Seventh and Eighth Chapters of the Gt not by scholarship or mental speculation, but by hearing them in association with pure devotees. Chapters Six through Twelve are the essence of the Gt. If one is fortunate to understand the Gt especially these middle six chapters in the association of devotees, then his life at once becomes glorified beyond all penances, sacrifices, charities, speculations, etc. One should hear the Gt from the devotee because at the beginning of the Fourth Chapter it is stated that the Gta can only be perfectly understood by devotees. Hearing the Gt from devotees, not from mental speculators, is called faith. Through association of devotees, one is placed in devotional service, and by this service Ka's activities, form, pastimes, name, etc., become clear, and all misgivings are dispelled. Then once doubts are removed, the study of the Gt becomes extremely pleasurable, and one develops a taste and feeling for Ka consciousness. In the advanced stage, one falls completely in love with Ka, and that is the beginning of the highest perfectional stage of life which prepares the devotee's transferral to Ka's abode in the spiritual sky, Goloka Vndvana, where the devotee enters into eternal happiness. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Eighth Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Attaining the Supreme. Chapter-9 CHAPTER NINE The Most Confidential Knowledge TEXT 1 r bhagavn uvca ida tu te guhyatama pravakymy anasyave jna vijna-sahita yaj jtv mokyase 'ubht r bhagavan uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; idam this; tu but; te unto you; guhyatamam most confidential; pravakymi I am speaking; anasyave to the nonenvious; jnam knowledge; vijna realized knowledge; sahitam with; yat which; jtv knowing; mokyase be released; aubht from this miserable material existence. TRANSLATION The Supreme Lord said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most secret wisdom, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. PURPORT As a devotee hears more and more about the Supreme Lord, he becomes enlightened. This hearing process is recommended in the rmad- Bhgavatam: "The messages of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are full of potencies, and these potencies can be realized if topics regarding the Supreme Godhead are discussed amongst devotees. This cannot be achieved by the association of mental speculators or academic scholars, for it is realized knowledge." The devotees are constantly engaged in the Supreme Lord's service. The Lord understands the mentality and sincerity of a particular living entity who is engaged in Ka consciousness and gives him the intelligence to understand the science of Ka in the association of the devotees. Discussion of Ka is very potent, and if a fortunate person has such association and tries to assimilate the knowledge, then he will surely make advancement toward spiritual realization. Lord Ka, in order to encourage Arjuna to higher and higher elevation in His potent service, describes in this Ninth Chapter matters more confidential than any He has already disclosed. The very beginning of Bhagavad-gt, the First Chapter, is more or less an introduction to the rest of the book; and in the Second and Third Chapters, the spiritual knowledge described is called confidential. Topics discussed in the Seventh and Eighth Chapters are specifically related to devotional service, and because they bring enlightenment in Ka consciousness, they are called more confidential. But the matters which are described in the Ninth Chapter deal with unalloyed, pure devotion. Therefore this is called the most confidential. One who is situated in the most confidential knowledge of Ka is naturally transcendental; he therefore has no material pangs, although he is in the material world. In the Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu it is said that although one who has a sincere desire to render loving service to the Supreme Lord is situated in the conditional state of material existence, he is to be considered liberated. Similarly, we shall find in the Bhagavad-gt, Tenth Chapter, that anyone who is engaged in that way is a liberated person. Now this first verse has specific significance. Knowledge (ida jnam) refers to pure devotional service, which consists of nine different activities: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshiping, praying, obeying, maintaining friendship and surrendering everything. By the practice of these nine elements of devotional service one is elevated to spiritual consciousness, Ka consciousness. At the time when one's heart is cleared of the material contamination, one can understand this science of Ka. Simply to understand that a living entity is not material is not sufficient. That may be the beginning of spiritual realization, but one should recognize the difference between activities of the body and spiritual activities by which one understands that he is not the body. In the Seventh Chapter we have already discussed the opulent potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His different energies, the inferior and superior natures, and all this material manifestation. Now in Chapters Nine and Ten the glories of the Lord will be delineated. The Sanskrit word anasyave in this verse is also very significant. Generally the commentators, even if they are highly scholarly, are all envious of Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even the most erudite scholars write on Bhagavad-gt very inaccurately. Because they are envious of Ka, their commentaries are useless. The commentaries given by devotees of the Lord are bona fide. No one can explain Bhagavad-gt, or give perfect knowledge of Ka if he is envious. One who criticizes the character of Ka without knowing Him is a fool. So such commentaries should be very carefully avoided. For one who understands that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the pure and transcendental Personality, these chapters will be very beneficial. TEXT 2 rja-vidy rja-guhya pavitram idam uttamam pratyakvagama dharmya susukha kartum avyayam rja-vidy the king of education; rja-guhyam the king of confidential knowledge; pavitram the purest; idam this; uttamam transcendental; pratyaka directly experienced; avagamam understood; dharmyam the principle of religion; susukham very happy; kartum to execute; avyayam everlasting. TRANSLATION This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed. PURPORT This chapter of Bhagavad-gt is called the king of education because it is the essence of all doctrines and philosophies explained before. There are seven principal philosophers in India: Gautama, Kada, Kapila, Yjavalkya, ilya, Vaivnara, and, finally, Vysadeva, the author of the Vednta-stra. So there is no dearth of knowledge in the field of philosophy or transcendental knowledge. Now the Lord says that this Ninth Chapter is the king of all such knowledge, the essence of all knowledge that can be derived from the study of the Vedas and different kinds of philosophy. It is the most confidential because confidential or transcendental knowledge involves understanding the difference between the soul and the body. And the king of all confidential knowledge culminates in devotional service. Generally, people are not educated in this confidential knowledge; they are educated in external knowledge. As far as ordinary education is concerned, people are involved with so many departments: politics, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, etc. There are so many departments of knowledge all over the world and many huge universities, but there is, unfortunately, no university or educational institution where the science of the spirit soul is instructed. Yet the soul is the most important part of this body; without the presence of the soul, the body has no value. Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life, not caring for the vital soul. The Bhagavad-gt, especially from the Second Chapter on, stresses the importance of the soul. In the very beginning, the Lord says that this body is perishable and that the soul is not perishable. That is a confidential part of knowledge: simply knowing that spirit soul is different from this body and that its nature is immutable, indestructible and eternal. But that gives no positive information about the soul. Sometimes people are under the impression that the soul is different from the body and that when the body is finished, or one is liberated from the body, the soul remains in a void and becomes impersonal. But actually that is not the fact. How can the soul, which is so active within this body, be inactive after being liberated from the body? It is always active. If it is eternal, then it is eternally active, and its activities in the spiritual kingdom are the most confidential part of spiritual knowledge. These activities of the spirit soul are therefore indicated here as constituting the king of all knowledge, the most confidential part of all knowledge. This knowledge is the purest form of all activities, as is explained in Vedic literature. In the Padma Pura, man's sinful activities have been analyzed and are shown to be the results of sin after sin. Those who are engaged in fruitive activities are entangled in different stages and forms of sinful reactions. For instance, when the seed of a particular tree is sown, the tree does not appear immediately to grow; it takes some time. It is first a small, sprouting plant, then it assumes the form of a tree, then it flowers, bears fruit, and, when it is complete, the flowers and fruits are enjoyed by persons who have sown the seed of the tree. Similarly, a man performs a sinful act, and like a seed it takes time to fructify. There are different stages. The sinful action may have already stopped within the individual, but the results or the fruit of that sinful action are still enjoyed. There are sins which are still in the form of a seed, and there are others which are already fructified and are giving us fruit, which we are enjoying as distress and pain, as explained in the twentieth verse of the Seventh Chapter. A person who has completely ended the reactions of all sinful activities and who is fully engaged in pious activities, being freed from the duality of this material world, becomes engaged in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. In other words, those who are actually engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord are already freed from all reactions. For those who are engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all sinful reactions, whether fructified, in the stock, or in the form of a seed, gradually vanish. Therefore the purifying potency of devotional service is very strong, and it is called pavitram uttamam, the purest. Uttamam means transcendental. Tamas means this material world or darkness, and uttamam means that which is transcendental to material activities. Devotional activities are never to be considered material, although sometimes it appears that devotees are engaged just like ordinary men. One who can see and is familiar with devotional service, however, will know that they are not material activities. They are all spiritual and devotional, uncontaminated by the material modes of nature. It is said that the execution of devotional service is so perfect that one can perceive the results directly. This direct result is actually perceived, and we have practical experience that any person who is chanting the holy names of Ka (Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare) in course of time feels some transcendental pleasure and very quickly becomes purified of all material contamination. This is actually seen. Furthermore, if one engages not only in hearing but in trying to broadcast the message of devotional activities as well, or if he engages himself in helping the missionary activities of Ka consciousness, he gradually feels spiritual progress. This advancement in spiritual life does not depend on any kind of previous education or qualification. The method itself is so pure that by simply engaging in it one becomes pure. In the Vednta-stra this is also described in the following words: praka ca karmay abhyst. "Devotional service is so potent that simply by engaging in the activities of devotional service, one becomes enlightened without a doubt." Nrada, who happened to be the son of a maidservant, had no education, nor was he born into a high family. But when his mother was engaged in serving great devotees, Nrada also became engaged, and sometimes, in the absence of his mother, he would serve the great devotees himself. Nrada personally says, "Once only, by their permission, I took the remnants of their food, and by so doing all my sins were at once eradicated. Thus being engaged, I became purified in heart, and at that time the very nature of the transcendentalist became attractive to me." ( Bhg. 1.5.25) Nrada tells his disciple Vysadeva that in a previous life he was engaged as a boy servant of purified devotees during four months of their stay and that he was intimately associating with them. Sometimes those sages left remnants of food on their dishes, and the boy, who would wash their dishes, wanted to taste the remnants. So he asked the great devotees whether he could eat them, and they gave their permission. Nrada then ate those remnants and consequently became freed from all sinful reactions. As he went on eating, he gradually became as purehearted as the sages, and he gradually developed the same taste. The great devotees relished the taste of unceasing devotional service of the Lord, hearing, chanting, etc., and by developing the same taste, Nrada wanted also to hear and chant the glories of the Lord. Thus by associating with the sages, he developed a great desire for devotional service. Therefore he quotes from the Vednta-stra (praka ca karmay abhyst): If one is engaged simply in the acts of devotional service, everything is revealed to him automatically, and he can understand. This is called praka, directly perceived. Nrada was actually a son of a maidservant. He had no opportunity to go to school. He was simply assisting his mother, and fortunately his mother rendered some service to the devotees. The child Nrada also got the opportunity and simply by association achieved the highest goal of all religions, devotional service. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is said that religious people generally do not know that the highest perfection of religion is the attainment of the stage of devotional service. Generally Vedic knowledge is required for the understanding of the path of self-realization. But here, although he was not educated in the Vedic principle, Nrada acquired the highest results of Vedic study. This process is so potent that even without performing the religious process regularly, one can be raised to the highest perfection. How is this possible? This is also confirmed in Vedic literature: cryavn puruo veda. One who is in association with great cryas , even if he is not educated or has not studied the Vedas, can become familiar with all the knowledge necessary for realization. The process of devotional service is a very happy one. Why? Devotional service consists of ravaa krtana vio, so one can simply hear the chanting of the glories of the Lord or can attend philosophical lectures on transcendental knowledge given by authorized cryas . Simply by sitting, one can learn; then one can eat the remnants of the food offered to God, nice palatable dishes. In every state devotional service is joyful. One can execute devotional service even in the most poverty-stricken condition. The Lord says, patra pupa phalam: He is ready to accept from the devotee any kind of offering, never mind what. Even a leaf, a flower, a bit of fruit, or a little water, which are all available in every part of the world, can be offered by any person, regardless of social position, and will be accepted if offered with love. There are many instances in history. Simply by tasting the tulas leaves offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, great sages like Sanatkumra became great devotees. Therefore the devotional process is very nice, and it can be executed in a happy mood. God accepts only the love with which things are offered to Him. It is said here that this devotional service is eternally existing. It is not as the Myvd philosophers claim. They sometimes take to so-called devotional service, and as long as they are not liberated they continue their devotional service, but at the end, when they become liberated, they "become one with God." Such temporary time-serving devotional service is not accepted as pure devotional service. Actual devotional service continues even after liberation. When the devotee goes to the spiritual planet in the kingdom of God, he is also engaged there in serving the Supreme Lord. He does not try to become one with the Supreme Lord. As it will be seen, actual devotional service begins after liberation. So in Bhagavad-gt it is said, brahma-bhta. After being liberated, or being situated in the Brahman position, one's devotional service begins. By executing devotional service, one can understand the Supreme Lord. No one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by executing karma- yoga, jna, or aga-yoga or any other yoga independently. Without coming to the stage of devotional service, one cannot understand what is the Personality of Godhead. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is also confirmed that when one becomes purified by executing the process of devotional service, especially by hearing rmad-Bhgavatam or Bhagavad-gt from realized souls, then he can understand the science of Ka or the science of God. Eva prasanna-manaso bhagavad-bhakti-yogata. When one's heart is cleared of all nonsense, then one can understand what God is. Thus the process of devotional service, of Ka consciousness, is the king of all education and the king of all confidential knowledge. It is the purest form of religion, and it can be executed joyfully without difficulty. Therefore one should adopt it. TEXT 3 araddadhn puru dharmasysya parantapa aprpya m nivartante mtyu-sasra-vartmani araddadhn those who are faithless; puru such persons; dharmasya of this process of religion; asya of it; parantapa O killer of the enemies; aprpya without obtaining; mm Me; nivartante come back; mtyu death; sasra material existence; vartmani on the path of. TRANSLATION Those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of foes, but return to birth and death in this material world. PURPORT The faithless cannot accomplish this process of devotional service; that is the purport of this verse. Faith is created by association with devotees. Unfortunate people, even after hearing all the evidence of Vedic literature from great personalities, still have no faith in God. They are hesitant and cannot stay fixed in the devotional service of the Lord. Thus faith is a most important factor for progress in Ka consciousness. In the Caitanya- caritmta it is said that one should have complete conviction that simply by serving the Supreme Lord r Ka he can achieve all perfection. That is called real faith. In the rmad-Bhgavatam (3.4.12) it is stated that by giving water to the root of a tree, its branches, twigs and leaves become satisfied, and by supplying food to the stomach all the senses of the body become satisfied, and, similarly, by engaging in the transcendental service of the Supreme Lord, all the demigods and all the living entities automatically become satisfied. After reading Bhagavad-gt one should promptly come to the conclusion of Bhagavad-gt: one should give up all other engagements and adopt the service of the Supreme Lord, Ka, the Personality of Godhead. If one is convinced of this philosophy of life, that is faith. Now the development of that faith is the process of Ka consciousness. There are three divisions of Ka conscious men. In the third class are those who have no faith. If they are engaged in devotional service officially, for some ulterior purpose, they cannot achieve the highest perfectional stage. Most probably they will slip, after some time. They may become engaged, but because they haven't complete conviction and faith, it is very difficult for them to continue in Ka consciousness. We have practical experience in discharging our missionary activity that some people come and apply themselves to the Ka consciousness with some hidden motive, and as soon as they are economically a little well-situated, they give up this process and take to their old ways again. It is only by faith that one can advance in Ka consciousness. As far as the development of faith is concerned, one who is well versed in the literatures of devotional service and has attained the stage of firm faith is called a first-class person in Ka consciousness. And in the second class are those who are not very advanced in understanding the devotional scriptures but who automatically have firm faith that Ka bhakti or service to Ka is the best course and so in good faith have taken it up. Thus they are superior to the third class who have neither perfect knowledge of the scriptures nor good faith but by association and simplicity are trying to follow. The third-class person in Ka consciousness may fall down, but when one is in the second class or first class, he does not fall down. One in the first class will surely make progress and achieve the result at the end. As far as the third-class person in Ka consciousness is concerned, although he has faith in the conviction that devotional service to Ka is very good, he has no knowledge of Ka through the scriptures like rmad-Bhgavatam and Bhagavad-gt. Sometimes these third-class persons in Ka consciousness have some tendency toward karma-yoga and jna-yoga, and sometimes they are disturbed, but as soon as the infection of karma-yoga or jna-yoga is vanquished, they become second-class or first-class persons in Ka consciousness. Faith in Ka is also divided into three stages and described in rmad-Bhgavatam. First-class attachment, second-class attachment, and third-class attachment are also explained in rmad- Bhgavatam in the Eleventh Canto. Those who have no faith even after hearing about Ka and the excellence of devotional service, who think that it is simply eulogy, find the path very difficult, even if they are supposedly engaged in devotional service. For them there is very little hope in gaining perfection. Thus faith is very important in the discharge of devotional service. TEXT 4 may tatam ida sarva jagad avyakta-mrtin mat-sthni sarva-bhtni na cha tev avasthita may by Me; tatam spread; idam all these manifestations; sarvam all; jagat cosmic manifestation; avyakta-mrtin unmanifested form; mat- sthni unto Me; sarva-bhtni all living entities; na not; ca also; aham I; teu in them; avasthita situated. TRANSLATION By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. PURPORT The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not perceivable through the gross material senses. It is said that Lord r Ka's name, fame, pastimes, etc., cannot be understood by material senses. Only to one who is engaged in pure devotional service under proper guidance is He revealed. In the Brahma- sahit it is stated, premjanacchurita.... One can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, always within himself and outside himself if he has developed the transcendental loving attitude towards Him. Thus for people in general He is not visible. Here it is said that although He is all- pervading, everywhere present, He is yet not conceivable by the material senses. But actually, although we cannot see Him, everything is resting in Him. As we have discussed in the Seventh Chapter, the entire material cosmic manifestation is only a combination of His two different energies, the superior spiritual energy and the inferior material energy. Just as the sunshine is spread all over the universe, the energy of the Lord is spread all over the creation, and everything is resting in that energy. Yet one should not conclude that because He is spread all over He has lost His personal existence. To refute such argument the Lord says, "I am everywhere, and everything is in Me, but still I am aloof." For example, a king heads a government which is but the manifestation of the king's energy; the different governmental departments are nothing but the energies of the king, and each department is resting on the king's power. But still one cannot expect the king to be present in every department personally. That is a crude example. Similarly, all the manifestations that we see, and everything that exists both in this material world and in the spiritual world, are resting on the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The creation takes place by the diffusion of His different energies, and, as is stated in the Bhagavad-gt, He is everywhere present by His personal representation, the diffusion of His different energies. TEXT 5 na ca mat-sthni bhtni paya me yogam aivaram bhta-bhn na ca bhta-stho mamtm bhta-bhvana na never; ca also; mat-sthni situated in Me; bhtni all creation; paya just see; me My; yogam aivaram inconceivable mystic power; bhta-bht maintainer of all living entities; na never; ca also; bhta- stha in the cosmic manifestation; mama My; tm Self; bhta- bhvana isthe source of all manifestations. TRANSLATION And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities, and although I am everywhere, still My Self is the very source of creation. PURPORT The Lord says that everything is resting on Him. This should not be misunderstood. The Lord is not directly concerned with the maintenance and sustenance of this material manifestation. Sometimes we see a picture of Atlas holding the globe on his shoulders; he seems to be very tired, holding this great earthly planet. Such an image should not be entertained in connection with Ka's upholding this created universe. He says that although everything is resting on Him, still He is aloof. The planetary systems are floating in space, and this space is the energy of the Supreme Lord. But He is different from space. He is differently situated. Therefore the Lord says, "Although they are situated on My inconceivable energy, still, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I am aloof from them." This is the inconceivable opulence of the Lord. In the Vedic dictionary it is said, "The Supreme Lord is performing inconceivably wonderful pastimes, displaying His energy. His person is full of different potent energies, and His determination is itself actual fact. In this way the Personality of Godhead is to be understood." We may think to do something, but there are so many impediments, and sometimes it is not possible to do as we like. But when Ka wants to do something, simply by His willing, everything is performed so perfectly that one cannot imagine how it is being done. The Lord explains this fact: although He is the maintainer and sustainer of all material manifestation, He does not touch this material manifestation. Simply by His supreme will everything is created, everything is sustained, everything is maintained, and everything is annihilated. There is no difference between His mind and Himself (as there is a difference between ourselves and our present material mind) because He is absolute spirit. Simultaneously the Lord is present in everything; yet the common man cannot understand how He is also present personally. He is different from this material manifestation, yet everything is resting on Him. This is explained here as yogam aivaram, the mystic power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 6 yathka-sthito nitya vyu sarvatra-go mahn tath sarvi bhtni mat-sthnty upadhraya yath as much as; ka-sthita situated in space; nityam always; vyu wind; sarvatra-ga blowing everywhere; mahn great; tath similarly; sarvi everything, bhtni created beings; mat-sthni situated in Me; iti thus; upadhraya try to understand. TRANSLATION As the mighty wind, blowing everywhere, always rests in ethereal space, know that in the same manner all beings rest in Me. PURPORT For the ordinary person it is almost inconceivable how the huge material creation is resting in Him. But the Lord is giving an example which may help us to understand. Space is the biggest manifestation we can conceive. The cosmic manifestation rests in space. Space permits the movement of even the atoms and on up to the greatest planets, the sun and the moon. Although the sky (or wind or air) is great, still it is situated within space. Space is not beyond the sky. Similarly, all the wonderful cosmic manifestations are existing by the supreme will of God, and all of them are subordinate to that supreme will. As we generally say, not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus everything is moving under His will: by His will everything is being created, everything is being maintained, and everything is being annihilated. Still He is aloof from everything, as space is always aloof from the activities of the atmosphere. In the Upaniads, it is stated, "It is out of the fear of the Supreme Lord that the wind is blowing." In the Garga Upaniad also it is stated, "By the supreme order, under the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the moon, the sun and the great planets are moving." In the Brahma- sahit this is also stated. There is also a description of the movement of the sun, and it is said that the sun is considered to be one of the eyes of the Supreme Lord and that it has immense potency to diffuse heat and light. Still it is moving in its prescribed orbit by the order and the supreme will of Govinda. So, from the Vedic literature we can find evidence that this material manifestation, which appears to us to be very wonderful and great, is under the complete control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This will be further explained in the later verses of this chapter. TEXT 7 sarva-bhtni kaunteya prakti ynti mmikm kalpa-kaye punas tni kalpdau visjmy aham sarva-bhtni all created entities; kaunteya O son of Kunt; praktim nature; ynti enter; mmikm unto Me; kalpa-kaye at the end of the millennium; puna again; tni all those; kalpa-dau in the beginning of the millennium; visjmi I create; aham I. TRANSLATION O son of Kunt, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency I again create. PURPORT The creation, maintenance and annihilation of this material cosmic manifestation is completely dependent on the supreme will of the Personality of Godhead. "At the end of the millennium" means at the death of Brahm. Brahm lives for one hundred years, and his one day is calculated at 4,300,000,000 of our earthly years. His night is of the same duration. His month consists of thirty such days and nights, and his year of twelve months. After one hundred such years, when Brahm dies, the devastation or annihilation takes place; this means that the energy manifested by the Supreme Lord is again wound up in Himself. Then again, when there is need to manifest the cosmic world, it is done by His will: "Although I am one, I shall become many." This is the Vedic aphorism. He expands Himself in this material energy, and the whole cosmic manifestation again takes place. TEXT 8 prakti svm avaabhya visjmi puna puna bhta-grmam ima ktsnam avaa prakter vat praktim material nature; svm of My personal self; avaabhya enter in; visjmi create; puna puna again, again; bhta-grmam all these cosmic manifestations; imam this; ktsnam total; avaam automatically; prakte by the force of nature; vat under obligation. TRANSLATION The whole cosmic order is under Me. By My will it is manifested again and again, and by My will it is annihilated at the end. PURPORT This matter is the manifestation of the inferior energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This has already been explained several times. At the creation, the material energy is let loose as mahat-tattva, into which the Lord as His first Purua incarnation, Mah-Viu, enters. He lies within the Causal Ocean and breathes out innumerable universes, and into each universe the Lord again enters as Garbhodakay Viu. Each universe is in that way created. He still further manifests Himself as Krodakay Viu, and that Viu enters into everything-even into the minute atom. This fact is explained here. He enters into everything. Now, as far as the living entities are concerned, they are impregnated into this material nature, and as a result of their past deeds they take different positions. Thus the activities of this material world begin. The activities of the different species of living beings are begun from the very moment of the creation. It is not that all is evolved. The different species of life are created immediately along with the universe. Men, animals, beasts, birds-everything is simultaneously created, because whatever desires the living entities had at the last annihilation are again manifested. It is clearly stated here that the living entities have nothing to do with this process. The state of being in their past life in the past creation is simply manifested again, and all this is done simply by His will. This is the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Personality of God. And after creating different species of life, He has no connection with them. The creation takes place to accommodate the inclinations of the various living entities, and so the Lord does not become involved with it. TEXT 9 na ca m tni karmi nibadhnanti dhanajaya udsnavad snam asakta teu karmasu na never; ca also; mm Me; tni all those; karmi activities; nibadhnanti bind; dhanajaya O conquerer of riches; udsnavat as neutral; snam situated; asaktam without attraction; teu in them; karmasu in activities. TRANSLATION O Dhanajaya, all this work cannot bind Me. I am ever detached, seated as though neutral. PURPORT One should not think, in this connection, that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no engagement. In His spiritual world He is always engaged. In the Brahma-sahit it is stated: "He is always involved in His eternal, blissful, spiritual activities, but He has nothing to do with these material activities." Material activities are being carried on by His different potencies. The Lord is always neutral in the material activities of the created world. This neutrality is explained here. Although He has control over every minute detail of matter, He is sitting as if neutral. The example can be given of a high court judge sitting on his bench. By his order so many things are happening: someone is being hanged, someone is being put into jail, someone is awarded a huge amount of wealth-but still he is neutral. He has nothing to do with all that gain and loss. Similarly, the Lord is always neutral, although He has His hand in every sphere of activity. In the Vednta-stra it is stated that He is not situated in the dualities of this material world. He is transcendental to these dualities. Nor is He attached to the creation and annihilation of this material world. The living entities take their different forms in the various species of life according to their past deeds, and the Lord doesn't interfere with them. TEXT 10 maydhyakea prakti syate sa-carcaram hetunnena kaunteya jagad viparivartate may by Me; adhyakea by superintendence; prakti material nature; syate manifest; sa with; carcaram moving and nonmoving; hetun for this reason; anena this; kaunteya O son of Kunt; jagat the cosmic manifestation; viparivartate is working. TRANSLATION This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunt, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again. PURPORT It is clearly stated here that the Supreme Lord, although aloof from all the activities of the material world, remains the supreme director. The Supreme Lord is the supreme will and the background of this material manifestation, but the management is being conducted by material nature. Ka also states in Bhagavad-gt that of all the living entities in different forms and species, "I am the Father." The father gives seeds to the womb of the mother for the child, and similarly the Supreme Lord by His mere glance injects all the living entities into the womb of material nature, and they come out in their different forms and species, according to their last desires and activities. All these living entities, although born under the glance of the Supreme Lord, still take their different bodies according to their past deeds and desires. So the Lord is not directly attached to this material creation. He simply glances over material nature; material nature is thus activated, and everything is created immediately. Because He glances over material nature, there is undoubtedly activity on the part of the Supreme Lord, but He has nothing to do with the manifestation of the material world directly. This example is given in the smti: when there is a fragrant flower before someone, the fragrance is touched by the smelling power of the person, yet the smelling and the flower are detached from one another. There is a similar connection between the material world and the Supreme Personality of Godhead; actually He has nothing to do with this material world, but He creates by His glance and ordains. In summary, material nature, without the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, cannot do anything. Yet the Supreme Personality is detached from all material activities. TEXT 11 avajnanti m mh mnu tanum ritam para bhvam ajnanto mama bhta-mahevaram avajnanti deride; mm Me; mh foolish men; mnum in a human form; tanum body; ritam assuming; param transcendental; bhvam nature; ajnanta not knowing; mama Mine; bhta everything that be; mahevaram supreme proprietor. TRANSLATION Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be. PURPORT From the other explanations of the previous verses in this chapter, it is clear that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although appearing like a human being, is not a common man. The Personality of Godhead, who conducts the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the complete cosmic manifestation, cannot be a human being. Yet there are many foolish men who consider Ka to be merely a powerful man and nothing more. Actually, He is the original Supreme Personality, as is confirmed in the Brahma-sahit (ivara parama ksa); He is the Supreme Lord. There are many varas, controllers, and one appears greater than another. In the ordinary management of affairs in the material world, we find some official or director, and above him there is a secretary, and above him a minister, and above him a president. Each of them is a controller, but one is controlled by another. In the Brahma-sahit it is said that Ka is the supreme controller; there are many controllers undoubtedly both in the material and spiritual world, but Ka is the supreme controller (vara parama ka), and His body is sac-cid-nanda, non-material. Material bodies cannot perform the wonderful acts described in previous verses. His body is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. Although He is not a common man, the foolish deride Him and consider Him to be a man. His body is called here mnum because He is acting just like a man, a friend of Arjuna's, a politician involved in the Battle of Kuruketra. In so many ways He is acting just like an ordinary man, but actually His body is sac-cid- nanda-vigraha eternal bliss and knowledge absolute. This is confirmed in the Vedic language also (sac-cid-nanda-rpya kya): "I offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, who is the eternal blissful form of knowledge." There are other descriptions in the Vedic language also. Tam eka govindam: "You are Govinda, the pleasure of the senses and the cows." Sac-cid-nanda- vigraham: "And Your form is transcendental, full of knowledge, bliss and eternality." Despite the transcendental qualities of Lord Ka's body, its full bliss and knowledge, there are many so-called scholars and commentators of Bhagavad-gt who deride Ka as an ordinary man. The scholar may be born an extraordinary man due to his previous good work, but this conception of r Ka is due to a poor fund of knowledge. Therefore he is called mha, for only foolish persons consider Ka to be an ordinary human being because they do not know the confidential activities of the Supreme Lord and His different energies. They do not know that Ka's body is a symbol of complete knowledge and bliss, that He is the proprietor of everything that be and that He can award liberation to anyone. Because they do not know that Ka has so many transcendental qualifications, they deride Him. Nor do they know that the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in this material world is a manifestation of His internal energy. He is the master of the material energy. As has been explained in several places (mama my duratyay), He claims that the material energy, although very powerful, is under His control, and whoever surrenders unto Him can get out of the control of this material energy. If a soul surrendered to Ka can get out of the influence of material energy, then how can the Supreme Lord, who conducts the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the whole cosmic nature, have a material body like us? So this conception of Ka is complete foolishness. Foolish persons, however, cannot conceive that the Personality of Godhead, Ka, appearing just like an ordinary man, can be the controller of all the atoms and of the gigantic manifestation of the universal form. The biggest and the minutest are beyond their conception, so they cannot imagine that a form like that of a human being can simultaneously control the infinite and the minute. Actually although He is controlling the infinite and the finite, He is apart from all this manifestation. It is clearly stated concerning His yogam aivaram, His inconceivable transcendental energy, that He can control the infinite and the finite simultaneously and that He can remain aloof from them. Although the foolish cannot imagine how Ka, who appears just like a human being, can control the infinite and the finite, those who are pure devotees accept this, for they know that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore they completely surrender unto Him and engage in Ka consciousness, devotional service of the Lord. There are many controversies amongst the impersonalists and the personalists about the Lord's appearance as a human being. But if we consult Bhagavad-gt and rmad- Bhgavatam, the authoritative texts for understanding the science of Ka, then we can understand that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is not an ordinary man, although He appeared on this earth as an ordinary human. In the rmad-Bhgavatam, First Canto, First Chapter, when the sages inquire about the activities of Ka, it is stated that His appearance as a man bewilders the foolish. No human being could perform the wonderful acts that Ka performed while He was present on this earth. When Ka appeared before His father and mother, Vasudeva and Devak, He appeared with four hands, but after the prayers of the parents, He transformed Himself into an ordinary child. His appearance as an ordinary human being is one of the features of His transcendental body. In the Eleventh Chapter of the Gt also it is stated, tenaiva rpea etc. Arjuna prayed to see again that form of four hands, and when Ka was thus petitioned by Arjuna, He again assumed His original form. All these different features of the Supreme Lord are certainly not those of an ordinary human being. Some of those who deride Ka, who are infected with the Myvd philosophy, quote the following verse from the rmad-Bhgavatam to prove that Ka is just an ordinary man: aha sarveu bhteu bhttmvasthita sad: "The Supreme is present in every living entity." ( Bhg. 3.29.21)We should better take note of this particular verse from the Vaiava cryas like Jva Gosvm instead of following the interpretation of unauthorized persons who deride Ka. Jva Gosvm, commenting on this verse, says that Ka, in His plenary expansion as Paramtm, is situated in the moving and the nonmoving entities as the Supersoul, so any neophyte devotee who simply gives his attention to the arca-mrti, the form of the Supreme Lord in the temple, and does not respect other living entities is uselessly worshiping the form of the Lord in the temple. There are three kinds of devotees of the Lord, and the neophyte is in the lowest stage. The neophyte devotee gives more attention to the Deity in the temple than to other devotees, so Jva Gosvm warns that this sort of mentality should be corrected. A devotee should see that Ka is present in everyone's heart as Paramtm; therefore every body is the embodiment or the temple of the Supreme Lord, and as such, as one offers respect to the temple of the Lord, he should similarly properly respect each and every body in whom the Paramtm dwells. Everyone should therefore be given proper respect and should not be neglected. There are also many impersonalists who deride temple worship. They say that since God is everywhere, why should one restrict himself to temple worship? But if God is everywhere, is He not in the temple or in the Deity? Although the personalist and the impersonalist will fight with one another perpetually, a perfect devotee in Ka consciousness knows that although Ka is the Supreme Personality, He is all-pervading, as is confirmed in the Brahma-sahit. Although His personal abode is Goloka Vndvana and He is always staying there, still, by His different manifestations of energy and by His plenary expansion, He is present everywhere in all parts of the material and spiritual creation. TEXT 12 mogh mogha-karmo mogha-jn vicetasa rkasm sur caiva prakti mohin rit mogh baffled hope; mogha-karma baffled in fruitive activities; mogha-jn baffled in knowledge; vicetasa bewildered; rkasm demonic; surm atheistic; ca and; eva certainly; praktim nature; mohinm bewildering; rit taking shelter of. TRANSLATION Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated. PURPORT There are many devotees who assume themselves to be in Ka consciousness and devotional service but at heart do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, as the Absolute Truth. For them, the fruit of devotional service-going back to Godhead-will never be tasted. Similarly, those who are engaged in fruitive, pious activities and who are ultimately hoping to be liberated from this material entanglement will never be successful either because they deride the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. In other words, persons who mock Ka are to be understood to be demonic or atheistic. As described in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gt, such demonic miscreants never surrender to Ka. Therefore their mental speculations to arrive at the Absolute Truth bring them to the false conclusion that the ordinary living entity and Ka are one and the same. With such a false conviction, they think that the body of any human being is now simply covered by material nature and that as soon as one is liberated from this material body there is no difference between God and himself. This attempt to become one with Ka will be baffled because of delusion. Such atheistic and demoniac cultivation of spiritual knowledge is always futile. That is the indication of this verse. For such persons, cultivation of the knowledge in the Vedic literature, like the Vednta-stra and the Upaniads, is always baffled. It is a great offense, therefore, to consider Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be an ordinary man. Those who do so are certainly deluded because they cannot understand the eternal form of Ka. In the Bhad- vaiava mantra it is clearly stated that one who considers the body of Ka to be material should be driven out from all rituals and activities of the ruti. And if one by chance sees his face, he should at once take bath in the Ganges to rid himself of infection. People jeer at Ka because they are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their destiny is certainly to take birth after birth in the species of atheistic and demoniac life. Perpetually, their real knowledge will remain under delusion, and gradually they will regress to the darkest region of creation. TEXT 13 mahtmnas tu m prtha daiv praktim rit bhajanty ananya-manaso jtv bhtdim avyayam mahtmna the great souls; tu but; mm unto Me; prtha O son of Pth; daivm divine; praktim nature; rit taken shelter of; bhajanti render service; ananya-manasa without deviation of the mind; jtv knowing; bhta creation; dim original; avyayam inexhaustible. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible. PURPORT In this verse the description of mahtm is clearly given. The first sign of the mahtm is that he is already situated in the divine nature. He is not under the control of material nature. And how is this effected? That is explained in the Seventh Chapter: one who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka, at once becomes freed from the control of material nature. That is the qualification. One can become free from the control of material nature as soon as he surrenders his soul to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the preliminary formula. Being marginal potency, as soon as the living entity is freed from the control of material nature, he is put under the guidance of the spiritual nature. The guidance of the spiritual nature is called daiv praktim, divine nature. So, when one is promoted in that way- by surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead-one attains to the stage of great soul, mahtm. The mahtm does not divert his attention to anything outside Ka because he knows perfectly well that Ka is the original Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. There is no doubt about it. Such a mahtm, or great soul, develops through association with other mahtms, pure devotees. Pure devotees are not even attracted by Ka's other features, such as the four- armed Mah-Viu. They are simply attracted by the two- armed form of Ka. Since they are not attracted to other features of Ka (what to speak of the demigods), they are not concerned with any form of a demigod or of a human being. They only meditate upon Ka in Ka consciousness. They are always engaged in the unswerving service of the Lord in Ka consciousness. TEXT 14 satata krtayanto m yatanta ca dha-vrat namasyanta ca m bhakty nitya-yukt upsate satatam always; krtayanta chanting; mm Me; yatanta ca fully endeavoring also; dha-vrat with determination; namasyanta ca offering obeisances; mm unto Me; bhakty in devotion; nitya-yukt perpetually engaged; upsate worship. TRANSLATION Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion. PURPORT The mahtm cannot be manufactured by rubber-stamping an ordinary man. His symptoms are described here: a mahtm is always engaged in chanting the glories of the Supreme Lord Ka, the Personality of Godhead. He has no other business. He is always engaged in the glorification of the Lord. In other words, he is not an impersonalist. When the question of glorification is there, one has to glorify the Supreme Lord, praising His holy name, His eternal form, His transcendental qualities and His uncommon pastimes. One has to glorify all these things; therefore a mahtm is attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who is attached to the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord, the brahmajyoti, is not described as mahtm in the Bhagavad-gt. He is described in a different way in the next verse. The mahtm is always engaged in different activities of devotional service, as described in the rmad- Bhgavatam, hearing and chanting about Viu, not a demigod or human being. That is devotion: ravaa krtana vio, smaraam, and remembering Him. Such a mahtm has firm determination to achieve at the ultimate end the association of the Supreme Lord in any one of the five transcendental rasas. To achieve that success, he engages all activities mental, bodily and vocal, everything in the service of the Supreme Lord, r Ka. That is called full Ka consciousness. In devotional service there are certain activities which are called determined, such as fasting on certain days, like the eleventh day of the moon, Ekda, and on the appearance day of the Lord, etc. All these rules and regulations are offered by the great cryas for those who are actually interested in getting admission into the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental world. The mahtms , great souls, strictly observe all these rules and regulations, and therefore they are sure to achieve the desired result. As described in the second verse of this chapter, this devotional service is not only easy, but it can be performed in a happy mood. One does not need to undergo any severe penance and austerity. He can live this life in devotional service, guided by an expert spiritual master, and in any position, either as a householder or a sannys , or a brahmacr ; in any position and anywhere in the world, he can perform this devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become actually mahtm , a great soul. TEXT 15 jna-yajena cpy anye yajanto mm upsate ekatvena pthaktvena bahudh vivato-mukham jna-yajena by cultivation of knowledge; ca also; api certainly; anye others; yajanta worshiping; mm Me; upsate worship; ekatvena in oneness; pthaktvena in duality; bahudh diversity; vivata-mukham in the universal form. TRANSLATION Others, who are engaged in the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, diverse in many, and in the universal form. PURPORT This verse is the summary of the previous verses. The Lord tells Arjuna that those who are purely in Ka consciousness and do not know anything other than Ka are called mahtm; yet there are other persons who are not exactly in the position of mahtm but who worship Ka also, in different ways. Some of them are already described as the distressed, the financially destitute, the inquisitive, and those who are engaged in the cultivation of knowledge. But there are others who are still lower, and these are divided into three: 1) He who worships himself as one with the Supreme Lord, 2) He who concocts some form of the Supreme Lord and worships that, and 3) He who accepts the universal form, the vivarpa of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and worships that. Out of the above three, the lowest, those who worship themselves as the Supreme Lord, thinking themselves to be monists, are most predominant. Such people think themselves to be the Supreme Lord, and in this mentality they worship themselves. This is also a type of God worship, for they can understand that they are not the material body but are actually spiritual soul; at least, such a sense is prominent. Generally the impersonalists worship the Supreme Lord in this way. The second class includes the worshipers of the demigods, those who by imagination consider any form to be the form of the Supreme Lord. And the third class includes those who cannot conceive of anything beyond the manifestation of this material universe. They consider the universe to be the supreme organism or entity and worship that. The universe is also a form of the Lord. TEXT 16 aha kratur aha yaja svadhham aham auadham mantro 'ham aham evjyam aham agnir aha hutam aham I; kratu ritual; aham I; yaja sacrifice; svadh oblation; aham I ; aham I; auadham healing herb ; mantra transcendental chant; aham I; aham I; eva certainly; ajyam melted butter; aham I; agni fire; aham I; hutam offering. TRANSLATION But it is I who am the ritual, I the sacrifice, the offering to the ancestors, the healing herb, the transcendental chant. I am the butter and the fire and the offering. PURPORT The sacrifice known as jyotioma is also Ka, and He is also the mah- yaja The oblations offered to the Pitloka or the sacrifice performed to please the Pitloka, considered as a kind of drug in the form of clarified butter, is also Ka. The mantras chanted in this connection are also Ka. And many other commodities made with milk products for offering in the sacrifices are also Ka. The fire is also Ka because fire is one of the five material elements and is therefore claimed as the separated energy of Ka. In other words, the Vedic sacrifices recommended in the karma-ka division of the Vedas are in total also Ka. Or, in other words, those who are engaged in rendering devotional service unto Ka are to be understood to have performed all the sacrifices recommended in the Vedas. TEXT 17 pitham asya jagato mt dht pitmaha vedya pavitram okra k sma yajur eva ca pit father; aham I; asya of this; jagata of the universe; mt mother; dht supporter; pitmaha grandfather; vedyam what is to be known; pavitram that which purifies; omkra the syllable om; k the g- veda; sma the Sma-veda; yaju the Yajur-veda; eva certainly; ca and. TRANSLATION I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support, and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable om. I am also the k, the Sma, and the Yajur [Vedas]. PURPORT The entire cosmic manifestations, moving and nonmoving, are manifested by different activities of Ka's energy. In the material existence we create different relationships with different living entities who are nothing but Ka's marginal energy, but under the creation of prakti some of them appear as our father, mother, grandfather, creator, etc., but actually they are parts and parcels of Ka. As such, these living entities who appear to be our father, mother, etc., are nothing but Ka. In this verse the word dht means creator. Not only are our father and mother parts and parcels of Ka, but their creator, grandmother, and grandfather, etc., are also Ka. Actually any living entity, being part and parcel of Ka, is Ka. All the Vedas, therefore, aim only toward Ka. Whatever we want to know through the Vedas is but a progressive step to understand Ka. That subject matter which helps us purify our constitutional position is especially Ka. Similarly, the living entity who is inquisitive to understand all Vedic principles is also part and parcel of Ka and as such is also Ka. In all the Vedic mantras the word om , called praava, is a transcendental sound vibration and is also Ka. And because in all the hymns of the four Vedas, Sma, Yajur, g and Atharva , the praava or omkra is very prominent, it is understood to be Ka. TEXT 18 gatir bhart prabhu sk nivsa araa suht prabhava pralaya sthna nidhna bjam avyayam gati goal; bhart sustainer; prabhu Lord; sk witness; nivsa abode; araam refuge; suht most intimate friend; prabhava creation; pralaya dissolution; sthnam ground; nidhnam resting place; bjam seed; avyayam imperishable. TRANSLATION I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed. PURPORT Gati means the destination where we want to go. But the ultimate goal is Ka, although people do not know it. One who does not know Ka is misled, and his so-called progressive march is either partial or hallucinatory. There are many who make as their destination different demigods, and by rigid performance of the strict respective methods they reach different planets known as Candraloka, Sryaloka, Indraloka, Maharloka, etc. But all such lokas or planets, being creations of Ka, are simultaneously Ka and not Ka. Actually such planets, being the manifestations of Ka's energy, are also Ka, but actually they only serve as a step forward for realization of Ka. To approach the different energies of Ka is to approach Ka indirectly. One should directly approach Ka, for that will save time and energy. For example, if there is a possibility of going to the top of a building by the help of an elevator, why should one go by the staircase, step by step? Everything is resting on Ka's energy; therefore without Ka's shelter nothing can exist. Ka is the supreme ruler because everything belongs to Him and everything exists on His energy. Ka, being situated in everyone's heart, is the supreme witness. The residences, countries or planets on which we live are also Ka. Ka is the ultimate goal of shelter, and as such one should take shelter of Ka either for protection or for annihilation of his distressed condition. And whenever we have to take protection, we should know that our protection must be a living force. Thus Ka is the supreme living entity. Since Ka is the source of our generation, or the supreme father, no one can be a better friend than Ka, nor can anyone be a better well-wisher. Ka is the original source of creation and the ultimate rest after annihilation. Ka is therefore the eternal cause of all causes. TEXT 19 tapmy aham aha vara nighmy utsjmi ca amta caiva mtyu ca sad asac cham arjuna tapmi give heat; aham I; aham I; varam rain; nighmi withold; utsjmi send forth; ca and; amtam immortality; ca and; eva certainly; mtyu death; ca and; sat being; asat nonbeing; ca and; aham I; arjuna O Arjuna. TRANSLATION O Arjuna, I control heat, the rain and the drought. I am immortality, and I am also death personified. Both being and nonbeing are in Me. PURPORT Ka, by His different energies, diffuses heat and light through the agency of electricity and the sun. During summer season it is Ka who checks rain from falling from the sky, and then, during the rainy season, He gives unceasing torrents of rain. The energy which sustains us by prolonging the duration of our life is Ka, and Ka meets us at the end as death. By analyzing all these different energies of Ka, one can acertain that for Ka there is no distinction between matter and spirit, or, in other words, He is both matter and spirit. In the advanced stage of Ka consciousness, one does not therefore make such distinctions. He sees Ka only in everything. Since Ka is both matter and spirit, the gigantic universal form comprising all material manifestations is also Ka, and His pastimes in Vndvana as two-handed ymasundara, playing on a flute, are those of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 20 - trai-vidy m soma-p pta-pp yajair iv svargati prrthayante te puyam sdya surendra-lokam ananti divyn divi deva-bhogn trai-vidy the knowers of the three Vedas; mm unto Me; soma-p drinkers of soma juice; pta purified; pp sins; yajai with sacrifices; iv after worshiping; svargatim passage to heaven; prrthayante pray; te they; puyam virtue; sdya enjoying; surendra of Indra; lokam world; ananti enjoy; divyn celestial; divi in heaven; deva-bhogn pleasures of the gods. TRANSLATION Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship Me indirectly. They take birth on the planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights. PURPORT The word trai-vidy refers to the three Vedas, Sma, Yajur and g . A brhmaa who has studied these three Vedas is called a tri-ved. Anyone who is very much attached to knowledge derived from these three Vedas is respected in society. Unfortunately, there are many great scholars of the Vedas who do not know the ultimate purport of studying them. Therefore Ka herein declares Himself to be the ultimate goal for the tri-veds. Actual tri- veds take shelter under the lotus feet of Ka and engage in pure devotional service to satisfy the Lord. Devotional service begins with the chanting of the Hare Ka mantra and side by side trying to understand Ka in truth. Unfortunately those who are simply official students of the Vedas become more interested in offering sacrifices to the different demigods like Indra, Candra, etc. By such endeavor, the worshipers of different demigods are certainly purified of the contamination of the lower qualities of nature and are thereby elevated to the higher planetary system or heavenly planets known as Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, etc. Once situated on those higher planetary systems, one can satisfy his senses hundreds of thousands of times better than on this planet. TEXT 21 te ta bhuktv svarga-loka vila ke puye martya-loka vianti eva tray-dharmam anuprapann gatgata kma-km labhante te they; tam that; bhuktv enjoying; svarga-lokam heaven; vilam vast; ke being exhausted; puye merits; martya-lokam mortal earth; vianti fall down; evam thus; tray three Vedas ; dharmam doctrines; anuprapann following; gata-agatam death and birth; kma-km desiring sense enjoyments; labhante attain. TRANSLATION When they have thus enjoyed heavenly sense pleasure, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus, through the Vedic principles, they achieve only flickering happiness. PURPORT One who is promoted to those higher planetary systems enjoys a longer duration of life and better facilities for sense enjoyment, yet one is not allowed to stay there forever. One is again sent back to this earthly planet upon finishing the resultant fruits of pious activities. He who has not attained perfection of knowledge, as indicated in the Vednta-stra (janmdy asya yata), or, in other words, he who fails to understand Ka, the cause of all causes, becomes baffled in achieving the ultimate goal of life and is thus subjected to the routine of being promoted to the higher planets and then again coming down, as if situated on a ferris wheel which sometimes goes up and sometimes comes down. The purport is that instead of being elevated to the spiritual world where there is no longer any possibility of coming down, one simply revolves in the cycle of birth and death on higher and lower planetary systems. One should better take to the spiritual world to enjoy eternal life full of bliss and knowledge and never return to this miserable material existence. TEXT 22 anany cintayanto m ye jan paryupsate te nitybhiyuktn yoga-kema vahmy aham anany no other; cintayanta concentrating; mm unto Me; ye who; jan persons; paryupsate properly worship; tem their; nitya always abhiyuktnm fixed in devotion; yoga-kemam requirements; vahmi carry; aham I. TRANSLATION But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form-to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have. PURPORT One who is unable to live for a moment without Ka consciousness cannot but think of Ka twenty-four hours, being engaged in devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, rendering other services, cultivating friendship and surrendering fully to the Lord. Such activities are all auspicious and full of spiritual potencies; indeed, they make the devotee perfect in self- realization. Then his only desire is to achieve the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is called yoga . By the mercy of the Lord, such a devotee never comes back to this material condition of life. Kema refers to the merciful protection of the Lord. The Lord helps the devotee to achieve Ka consciousness by yoga , and when he becomes fully Ka conscious the Lord protects him from falling down to a miserable conditioned life. TEXT 23 ye 'py anya-devat-bhakt yajante raddhaynvit te 'pi mm eva kaunteya yajanty avidhi-prvakam ye those; api also; anya other; devat demigods; bhakt devotees; yajante worship; raddhaya-anvit with faith; te they; api also; mm Me; eva even; kaunteya-O son of Kunt; yajanti sacrifice; avidhi- prvakam in a wrong way. TRANSLATION Whatever a man may sacrifice to other gods, O son of Kunt, is really meant for Me alone, but it is offered without true understanding. PURPORT "Persons who are engaged in the worship of demigods are not very intelligent, although such worship is done to Me indirectly," Ka says. For example, when a man pours water on the leaves and branches of a tree without pouring water on the root, he does so without sufficient knowledge or without observing regulative principles. Similarly, the process of rendering service to different parts of the body is to supply food to the stomach. The demigods are, so to speak, different officers and directors in the government of the Supreme Lord. One has to follow the laws made by the government, not by the officers or directors. Similarly, everyone is to offer his worship to the Supreme Lord only. That will automatically satisfy the different officers and directors of the Lord. The officers and directors are engaged as representatives of the government, and to offer some bribe to the officers and directors is illegal. This is stated here as avidhi-prvakam. In other words, Ka does not approve the unnecessary worship of the demigods. TEXT 24 aha hi sarva-yajn bhokt ca prabhur eva ca na tu mm abhijnanti tattventa cyavanti te aham I; hi surely; sarva of all; yajnm sacrifices; bhokt enjoyer; ca and; prabhu Lord; eva also; ca and; na not; tu but; mm Me; abhijnanti know; tattvena in reality; ata therefore; cyavanti fall down; te they. TRANSLATION I am the only enjoyer and the only object of sacrifice. Those who do not recognize My true transcendental nature fall down. PURPORT Here it is clearly stated that there are many types of yaja performances recommended in the Vedic literatures, but actually all of them are meant for satisfying the Supreme Lord. Yaja means Viu. In the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gt it is clearly stated that one should only work for satisfying Yaja or Viu. The perfectional form of human civilization, known as varrama- dharma, is specifically meant for satisfying Viu. Therefore, Ka says in this verse, "I am the enjoyer of all sacrifices because I am the supreme master." However, less intelligent persons, without knowing this fact, worship demigods for temporary benefit. Therefore they fall down to material existence and do not achieve the desired goal of life. If, however, anyone has any material desire to be fulfilled, he had better pray for it to the Supreme Lord (although that is not pure devotion), and he will thus achieve the desired result. TEXT 25 ynti deva-vrat devn pitn ynti pit-vrat bhtni ynti bhtejy ynti mad-yjino 'pi mm ynti achieve; deva-vrat worshipers of demigods; devn to demigods; pitn to ancestors; ynti go; pit-vrat worshipers of ancestors; bhtni to ghosts and spirits; ynti go; bhtejy worshipers of ghosts and spirits; ynti go; mat My; yjina devotees; api also; mm unto Me. TRANSLATION Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; and those who worship Me will live with Me. PURPORT If anyone has any desire to go to the moon, the sun, or any other planet, one can attain the desired destination by following specific Vedic principles recommended for that purpose. These are vividly described in the fruitive activities portion of the Vedas, technically known as dara-paurams, which recommends a specific worship of demigods situated on different heavenly planets. Similarly, one can attain the pit planets by performing a specific yaja. Similarly, one can go to many ghostly planets and become a yaka, raka or pica. Pica worship is called "black arts" or "black magic." There are many men who practice this black art, and they think that it is spiritualism, but such activities are completely materialistic. Similarly, a pure devotee, who worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead only, achieves the planets of Vaikuha and Kaloka without a doubt. It is very easy to understand through this important verse that if by simply worshiping the demigods one can achieve the heavenly planets, or by worshiping the pit achieve the pit planets, or by practicing the black arts achieve the ghostly planets, why can the pure devotee not achieve the planet of Ka or Viu? Unfortunately many people have no information of these sublime planets where Ka and Viu live, and because they do not know of them they fall down. Even the impersonalists fall down from the brahmajyoti. This Ka consciousness movement is therefore distributing sublime information to the entire human society to the effect that by simply chanting the Hare Ka mantra one can become perfect in this life and go back home, back to Godhead. TEXT 26 patra pupa phala to ya yo me bhakty prayacchati tad aha bhakty-upahtam anmi prayattmana patram a leaf; pupam a flower; phalam a fruit; toyam water; ya whoever; me unto Me; bhakty with devotion; prayacchati offers; tat that; aham I; bhakti-upahtam offered in devotion; anmi accept; prayata-tmana of one in pure consciousness. TRANSLATION If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it. PURPORT Here Lord Ka, having established that He is the only enjoyer, the primeval Lord, and the real object of all sacrificial offerings, reveals what types of sacrifices He desires to be offered. If one wishes to engage in devotional service to the Supreme in order to be purified and to reach the goal of life-the transcendental loving service of God-then he should find out what the Lord desires of him. One who loves Ka will give Him whatever He wants, and he avoids offering anything which is undesirable or unasked for. Thus, meat, fish and eggs should not be offered to Ka. If He desired such things as offerings, He would have said so. Instead He clearly requests that a leaf, fruit, flowers and water be given to Him, and He says of this offering, "I will accept it." Therefore, we should understand that He will not accept meat, fish and eggs. Vegetables, grains, fruits, milk and water are the proper foods for human beings and are prescribed by Lord Ka Himself. Whatever else we eat cannot be offered to Him, since He will not accept it. Thus we cannot be acting on the level of loving devotion if we offer such foods. In the Third Chapter, verse thirteen, r Ka explains that only the remains of sacrifice are purified and fit for consumption by those who are seeking advancement in life and release from the clutches of the material entanglement. Those who do not make an offering of their food, He says in the same verse, are said to be eating only sin. In other words, their every mouthful is simply deepening their involvement in the complexities of material nature. But preparing nice, simple vegetable dishes, offering them before the picture or Deity of Lord Ka and bowing down and praying for Him to accept such a humble offering, enable one to advance steadily in life, to purify the body, and to create fine brain tissues which will lead to clear thinking. Above all, the offering should be made with an attitude of love. Ka has no need of food, since He already possesses everything that be, yet He will accept the offering of one who desires to please Him in that way. The important element, in preparation, in serving and in offering, is to act with love for Ka. The impersonalist philosophers, who wish to maintain that the Absolute Truth is without senses, cannot comprehend this verse of Bhagavad-gt. To them, it is either a metaphor or proof of the mundane character of Ka, the speaker of the Gt . But, in actuality, Ka, the Supreme Godhead, has senses, and it is stated that His senses are interchangeable; in other words, one sense can perform the function of any other. This is what it means to say that Ka is absolute. Lacking senses, He could hardly be considered full in all opulences. In the Seventh Chapter, Ka has explained that He impregnates the living entities into material nature. This is done by His looking upon material nature. And so in this instance, Ka's hearing the devotee's words of love in offering foodstuffs is wholly identical with His eating and actually tasting. This point should be emphasized: because of His absolute position, His hearing is wholly identical with His eating and tasting. Only the devotee, who accepts Ka as He describes Himself, without interpretation, can understand that the Supreme Absolute Truth can eat food and enjoy it. TEXT 27 yat karoi yad ansi yaj juhoi dadsi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruva mad arpaam yat what; karoi you do; yat whatever; ansi you eat; yat whatever; juhoi you offer; dadsi you give away; yat whatever; yat whatever; tapasyasi austerities you perform; kaunteya O son of Kunt; tat that; kuruva make; mat unto Me; arpaam offering. TRANSLATION O son of Kunt, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me. PURPORT Thus, it is the duty of everyone to mold his life in such a way that he will not forget Ka in any circumstance. Everyone has to work for maintenance of his body and soul together, and Ka recommends herein that one should work for Him. Everyone has to eat something to live; therefore he should accept the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Ka. Any civilized man has to perform some religious ritualistic ceremonies; therefore Ka recommends, "Do it for Me," and this is called arcan. Everyone has a tendency to give something in charity; Ka says, "Give it to Me," and this means that all surplus money accummulated should be utilized in furthering the Ka consciousness movement. Nowadays people are very much inclined to the meditational process, which is not practical in this age, but if anyone practices meditating on Ka twenty-four hours by chanting the Hare Ka mantra round his beads, he is surely the greatest yog , as substantiated by the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gt. TEXT 28 ubhubha-phalair eva mokyase karma-bandhanai sannysa-yoga-yukttm vimukto mm upaiyasi ubha good; aubha evil; phalai results; evam thus; mokyase free; karma action; bandhanai bondage; sannysa of renunciation; yoga the yoga; yukta-tm having the mind firmly set on; vimukta liberated; mm to Me; upaiyasi you will attain. TRANSLATION In this way you will be freed from all reactions to good and evil deeds, and by this principle of renunciation you will be liberated and come to Me. PURPORT One who acts in Ka consciousness under superior direction is called yukta . The technical term is yukta-vairgya . This is further explained by Rpa Gosvm as follows. Rpa Gosvm says that as long as we are in this material world we have to act; we cannot cease acting. Therefore if actions are performed and the fruits are given to Ka, then that is called yukta-vairgya. Actually situated in renunciation, such activities clear the mirror of the mind, and as the actor gradually makes progress in spiritual realization he becomes completely surrendered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore at the end he becomes liberated, and this liberation is also specified. By this liberation he does not become one with the brahmajyoti but rather enters into the planet of the Supreme Lord. It is clearly mentioned here: mm upaiyasi, "he comes to Me," back home, back to Godhead. There are five different stages of liberation, and here it is specified that the devotee who has always lived his lifetime here under the direction of the Supreme Lord, as stated, has evolved to the point where he can, after quitting this body, go back to Godhead and engage directly in the association of the Supreme Lord. Anyone who has no other interest but to dedicate his life to the service of the Lord is actually a sannys Such a person always thinks of himself as an eternal servant, dependant on the supreme will of the Lord. As such, whatever he does, he does it for the benefit of the Lord. Whatever action he performs, he performs it as service to the Lord. He does not give serious attention to the fruitive activities or prescribed duties mentioned in the Vedas . For ordinary persons it is obligatory to execute the prescribed duties mentioned in the Vedas , but although a pure devotee who is completely engaged in the service of the Lord may sometimes appear to go against the prescribed Vedic duties, actually it is not so. It is said, therefore, by Vaiava authorities that even the most intelligent person cannot understand the plans and activities of a pure devotee. The exact words are vaiavera kriy mudr vije n bujhay . A person who is thus always engaged in the service of the Lord or is always thinking and planning how to serve the Lord is to be considered completely liberated at present and in the future. His going home, back to Godhead, is guaranteed. He is above all materialistic criticism, just as Ka is above all criticism. TEXT 29 - samo 'ha sarva-bhteu na me dveyo 'sti na priya ye bhajanti tu m bhakty mayi te teu cpy aham sama equally disposed; aham I; sarva-bhteu to all living entities; na no one; me Mine; dveya hateful; asti is; na nor; priya dear; ye those; bhajanti render transcendental service; tu yet; mm unto Me; bhakty in devotion; mayi unto Me; te such persons; teu in them; ca also; api certainly; aham I. TRANSLATION I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him. PURPORT One may question here that if Ka is equal to everyone and no one is His special friend, then why does He take a special interest in the devotees who are always engaged in His transcendental service? But this is not discrimination; it is natural. Any man in this material world may be very charitably disposed, yet he has a special interest in his own children. The Lord claims that every living entityin whatever form-is His son, and as such He provides everyone with a generous supply of the necessities of life. He is just like a cloud which pours rain all over, regardless whether it falls on rock or land or water. But for His devotees, He gives specific attention. Such devotees are mentioned here: they are always in Ka consciousness, and therefore they are always transcendentally situated in Ka. The very phrase Ka consciousness suggests that those who are in such consciousness are living transcendentalists, situated in Him. The Lord says here distinctly, " mayi te ," "in Me." Naturally, as a result, the Lord is also in them. This is reciprocal. This also explains the words: asti na priya/ye bhajanti: "Whoever surrenders unto Me, proportionately I take care of him." This transcendental reciprocation exists because both the Lord and the devotee are conscious. When a diamond is set in a golden ring, it looks very nice. The gold is glorified, and at the same time the diamond is glorified. The Lord and the living entity eternally glitter, and when a living entity becomes inclined to the service of the Supreme Lord, he looks like gold. The Lord is a diamond, and so this combination is very nice. Living entities in a pure state are called devotees. The Supreme Lord becomes the devotee of His devotees. If a reciprocal relationship is not present between the devotee and the Lord, then there is no personalist philosophy. In the impersonal philosophy there is no reciprocation between the Supreme and the living entity, but in the personalist philosophy there is. The example is often given that the Lord is like a desire tree, and whatever one wants from this desire tree, the Lord supplies. But here the explanation is more complete. The Lord is here stated to be partial to the devotees. This is the manifestation of the Lord's special mercy to the devotees. The Lord's reciprocation should not be considered to be under the law of karma. It belongs to the transcendental situation in which the Lord and His devotees function. Devotional service of the Lord is not an activity of this material world; it is part of the spiritual world where eternity, bliss and knowledge predominate. TEXT 30 api cet sudurcro bhajate mm ananya-bhk sdhur eva sa mantavya samyag vyavasito hi sa api in spite of; cet although; sudurcra one committing the most abominable actions; bhajate engaged in devotional service; mm unto Me; ananya-bhk without deviation; sdhu saint; eva certainly; sa he; mantavya to be considered; samyak completely; vyavasita situated; hi certainly; sa he. TRANSLATION Even if one commits the most abominable actions, if he is engaged in devotional service, he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated. PURPORT The word sudurcro used in this verse is very significant, and we should understand it properly. When a living entity is conditioned, he has two kinds of activities: one is conditional, and the other is constitutional. As for protecting the body or abiding by the rules of society and state, certainly there are different activities, even for the devotees, in connection with the conditional life, and such activities are called conditional. Besides these, the living entity who is fully conscious of his spiritual nature and is engaged in Ka consciousness, or the devotional service of the Lord, has activities which are called transcendental. Such activities are performed in his constitutional position, and they are technically called devotional service. Now, in the conditioned state, sometimes devotional service and the conditional service in relation to the body will parallel one another. But then again, sometimes these activities become opposed to one another. As far as possible, a devotee is very cautious so that he does not do anything that could disrupt his wholesome condition. He knows that perfection in his activities depends on his progressive realization of Ka consciousness. Sometimes, however, it may be seen that a person in Ka consciousness commits some act which may be taken as most abominable socially or politically. But such a temporary falldown does not disqualify him. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is stated that if a person falls down, but is wholeheartedly engaged in the transcendental service of the Supreme Lord, the Lord, being situated within his heart, beautifies him and excuses him from that abomination. The material contamination is so strong that even a yog fully engaged in the service of the Lord sometimes becomes ensnared; but Ka consciousness is so strong that such an occasional falldown is at once rectified. Therefore the process of devotional service is always a success. No one should deride a devotee for some accidental falldown from the ideal path, for, as is explained in the next verse, such occasional falldowns will be stopped in due course, as soon as a devotee is completely situated in Ka consciousness. Therefore a person who is situated in Ka consciousness and is engaged with determination in the process of chanting Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare should be considered to be in the transcendental position, even if by chance or accident he is found to have fallen. The words sdhur eva, "he is saintly," are very emphatic. They are a warning to the nondevotees that because of an accidental falldown a devotee should not be derided; he should still be considered saintly even if he has fallen down accidentally. And the word mantavya is still more emphatic. If one does not follow this rule, and derides a devotee for his accidental falldown, then he is disobeying the order of the Supreme Lord. The only qualification of a devotee is to be unflinchingly and exclusively engaged in devotional service. The mark of a spot which may be seen on the moon does not become an impediment to the moonlight. Similarly, the accidental falldown of a devotee from the path of a saintly character does not make him abominable. On the other hand, one should not misunderstand that a devotee in transcendental devotional service can act in all kinds of abominable ways; this verse only refers to an accident due to the strong power of material connections. Devotional service is more or less a declaration of war against the illusory energy. As long as one is not strong enough to fight the illusory energy, there may be accidental falldowns. But when one is strong enough, he is no longer subjected to such falldowns, as previously explained. No one should take advantage of this verse and commit nonsense and think that he is still a devotee. If he does not improve in his character by devotional service, then it is to be understood that he is not a high devotee. TEXT 31 kipra bhavati dharmtm avac-chnti nigacchati kaunteya pratijnhi na me bhakta praayati kipram very soon; bhavati becomes; dharma-tm righteous; avat- ntim lasting peace; nigacchati attains; kaunteya O son of Kunt; pratijnhi justly declare; na never; me Mine; bhakta devotee; praayati perishes. TRANSLATION He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunt, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes. PURPORT This should not be misunderstood. In the Seventh Chapter the Lord says that one who is engaged in mischievous activities cannot become a devotee of the Lord. One who is not a devotee of the Lord has no good qualifications whatsoever. The question remains, then, how can a person engaged in abominable activities either by accident or intention be a pure devotee? This question may justly be raised. The miscreants, as stated in the Seventh Chapter, who never come to the devotional service of the Lord, have no good qualifications, as is stated in the rmad-Bhgavatam. Generally, a devotee who is engaged in the nine kinds of devotional activities is engaged in the process of cleansing all material contamination from the heart. He puts the Supreme Personality of Godhead within his heart, and all sinful contaminations are naturally washed away. Continuous thinking of the Supreme Lord makes him pure by nature. According to the Vedas , there is a certain regulation that if one falls down from his exalted position, he has to undergo certain ritualistic processes to purify himself. But here there is no such condition because the purifying process is already there in the heart of the devotee, due to his remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead constantly. Therefore, the chanting of Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare should be continued without stoppage. This will protect a devotee from all accidental falldowns. He will thus remain perpetually free from all material contaminations. TEXT 32 m hi prtha vyapritya ye 'pi syu ppa-yonaya striyo vaiys tath drs te 'pi ynti par gatim mm unto Me; hi -certainly; prtha O son of Pth; vyaprtya particularly taking shelter; ye anyone; api also; syu becomes; ppa- yonaya born of a lower family; striya women; vaiy mercantile people; tath also; dr lower class men; te api even they; ynti go; parm supreme; gatim destination. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birthwomen, vaiyas [merchants], as well as dras [workers]can approach the supreme destination. PURPORT It is clearly declared here by the Supreme Lord that in devotional service there is no distinction between the lower or higher classes of people. In the material conception of life, there are such divisions, but for a person engaged in transcendental devotional service to the Lord, there are not. Everyone is eligible for the supreme destination. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is stated that even the lowest, who are called calas (dog-eaters), can be elevated by association with a pure devotee. Therefore devotional service and guidance of a pure devotee are so strong that there is no discrimination between the lower and higher classes of men; anyone can take to it. The most simple man taking center of the pure devotee can be purified by proper guidance. According to the different modes of material nature, men are classified in the mode of goodness (brhmaas), the mode of passion (katriyas, or administrators), the mixed modes of passion and ignorance (vaiyas, or merchants), and the mode of ignorance (dras, or workers). Those lower than them are called calas, and they are born in sinful families. Generally, those who are born in sinful families are not accepted by the higher classes. But the process of devotional service and the pure devotee of the Supreme God are so strong that all the lower classes can attain the highest perfection of life. This is possible only when one takes center of Ka. One has to take center completely of Ka. Then one can become much greater than great jns and yogs. TEXT 33 ki punar brhma puy bhakt rjarayas tath anityam asukha lokam ima prpya bhajasva mm kim how much; puna again; brhma-brhmaas; puy righteous; bhakt devotees; rjaraya saintly kings; tath also; anityam temporary; asukham sorrowful; lokam planets; imam this; prpya gaining; bhajasva are engaged in loving service; mm unto Me. TRANSLATION How much greater then are the brhmaas, the righteous, the devotees and saintly kings who in this temporary miserable world engage in loving service unto Me. PURPORT In this material world there are classifications of people, but, after all, this world is not a happy place for anyone. It is clearly stated here, anityam asukha lokam: this world is temporary and full of miseries, not habitable for any sane gentleman. This world is declared by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be temporary and full of miseries. Some of the philosophers, especially the minor philosophers, say that this world is false, but we can understand from Bhagavad-gt that the world is not false; it is temporary. There is a difference between temporary and false. This world is temporary, but there is another world which is eternal. This world is miserable, but the other world is eternal and blissful. Arjuna was born in a saintly royal family. To him also the Lord says, "Take to My devotional service and come quickly back to Godhead, back home." No one should remain in this temporary world, full as it is with miseries. Everyone should attach himself to the bosom of the Supreme Personality of Godhead so that he can be eternally happy. The devotional service of the Supreme Lord is the only process by which all problems of all classes of men can be solved. Everyone should therefore take to Ka consciousness and make his life perfect. TEXT 34 man-man bhava mad-bhakto mad-yj m namaskuru mm evaiyasi yuktvaivam tmna mat-paryaa mat-man always thinking of Me; bhava become; mat My; bhakta devotee; mat My; yj worshiper; mm unto Me; namaskuru offer obeisances; mm unto Me; eva completely; eyasi come; yuktv evam being absorbed; tmnam your soul; mat-paryaa devoted to Me. TRANSLATION Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me. PURPORT In this verse it is clearly indicated that Ka consciousness is the only means of being delivered from the clutches of this contaminated material world. Sometimes unscrupulous commentators distort the meaning of what is clearly stated here: that all devotional service should be offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. Unfortunately, unscrupulous commentators divert the mind of the reader to that which is not at all feasible. Such commentators do not know that there is no difference between Ka's mind and Ka. Ka is not an ordinary human being; He is Absolute Truth. His body, mind and He Himself are one and absolute. It is stated in the Krma Pura. as it is quoted by Bhaktisiddhnta Sarasvat Gosvm in his Anubhya comments on Caitanya-caritmrta, Fifth Chapter, di-ll, verses 41-48, "deha-dehi-vibhedo 'ya nevare vidyate kvacit," which means that there is no difference in Ka, the Supreme Lord, between Himself and His body. But, because they do not know this science of Ka, the commentators hide Ka and divide His personality from His mind or from His body. Although this is sheer ignorance of the science of Ka, some men make profit out of misleading the people. There are some who are demonic; they also think of Ka, but enviously, just like King Kasa, Ka's uncle. He was also thinking of Ka always, but he thought of Ka as his enemy. He was always in anxiety, wondering when Ka would come to kill him. That kind of thinking will not help us. One should be thinking of Ka in devotional love. That is bhakti. One should cultivate the knowledge of Ka continually. What is that favorable cultivation? It is to learn from a bona fide teacher. Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we have several times explained that His body is not material, but is eternal, blissful knowledge. This kind of talk about Ka will help one become a devotee. Otherwise, understanding Ka from the wrong source will prove fruitless. One should therefore engage his mind in the eternal form, the primal form of Ka; with conviction in his heart that Ka is the Supreme, he should engage himself in worship. There are hundreds of thousands of temples in India for the worship of Ka, and devotional service is practiced there. When such practice is made, one has to offer obeisances to Ka. One should lower his head before the Deity and engage his mind, his body, his activities- everything. That will make one fully absorbed in Ka without deviation. This will help one transfer into the Kaloka. One should not be deviated by unscrupulous commentators. One must engage in the nine different processes of devotional service, beginning with hearing and chanting about Ka. Pure devotional service is the highest achievement of human society. In the Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Bhagavad-gt, pure devotional service to the Lord has been explained, apart from the yoga of knowledge and mystic yoga or fruitive activities. Those who are not purely sanctified may be attracted by different features of the Lord, like the impersonal brahmajyoti and localized Paramtm, but a pure devotee directly takes to the service of the Supreme Lord. There is a beautiful poem about Ka in which it is clearly stated that any person who is engaged in the worship of demigods is most unintelligent and cannot achieve at any time the supreme award of Ka. The devotee, in the beginning, may sometimes fall from the standard, but still he should be considered superior to all other philosophers and yogs. One who always engages in Ka consciousness should be understood to be the perfect saintly person. His accidental nondevotional activities will diminish, and he will soon be situated without any doubt in complete perfection. The pure devotee has no actual chance to fall down because the Supreme Godhead personally takes care of His pure devotees. Therefore, the intelligent person should take directly to this process of Ka consciousness and happily live in this material world. He will eventually receive the supreme award of Ka. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Ninth Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of the Most Confidential Knowledge. Chapter-10 CHAPTER TEN The Opulence of the Absolute TEXT 1 r bhagavn uvca bhya eva mah-bho u me parama vaca yat te 'ha pryamya vakymi hita-kmyay r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; bhya again; eva certainly; mah-bho O mighty-armed; u just hear; me My; parama supreme; vaca information; yat that which; te to you; aham I; pryamya thinking you dear to Me; vakymi say; hita- kmyay for your benefit. TRANSLATION The Supreme Lord said: My dear friend, mighty-armed Arjuna, listen again to My supreme word, which I shall impart to you for your benefit and which will give you great joy. PURPORT The word paramam is explained thus by Parara Muni: one who is full in six opulences, who has full strength, full fame, wealth, knowledge, beauty and renunciation, is paramam, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. While Ka was present on this earth, He displayed all six opulences. Therefore great sages like Parara Muni have all accepted Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now Ka is instructing Arjuna in more confidential knowledge of His opulences and His work. Previously, beginning with the Seventh Chapter, the Lord already explained His different energies and how they are acting. Now in this chapter He explains His specific opulences to Arjuna. In the previous chapter he has clearly explained His different energies to establish devotion in firm conviction. Again in this chapter He tells Arjuna about His manifestations and various opulences. The more one hears about the Supreme God, the more one becomes fixed in devotional service. One should always hear about the Lord in the association of devotees; that will enhance one's devotional service. Discourses in the society of devotees can take place only among those who are really anxious to be in Ka consciousness. Others cannot take part in such discourses. The Lord clearly tells Arjuna that because he is very dear to Him, for his benefit such discourses are taking place. TEXT 2 na me vidu sura-ga prabhava na maharaya aham dir hi devn mahar ca sarvaa na never; me My; vidu knows; sura-ga demigods; prabhavam opulences; na never; maharaya great sages; aham I am; di the origin; hi certainly; devnm of the demigods; maharm of the great sages; ca also; sarvaa in all respects. TRANSLATION Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and the sages. PURPORT As stated in the Brahma-sahit, Lord Ka is the Supreme Lord. No one is greater than Him; He is the cause of all causes. Here it is also stated by the Lord personally that He is the cause of all the demigods and sages. Even the demigods and great sages cannot understand Ka; they can understand neither His name nor His personality, so what is the position of the so-called scholars of this tiny planet? No one can understand why this Supreme God comes to earth as an ordinary human being and executes such commonplace and yet wonderful activities. One should know, then, that scholarship is not the qualification necessary to understand Ka. Even the demigods and the great sages have tried to understand Ka by their mental speculation, and they have failed to do so. In the rmad- Bhgavatam also it is clearly said that even the great demigods are not able to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They can speculate to the limits of their imperfect senses and can reach the opposite conclusion of impersonalism, of something not manifested by the three qualities of material nature, or they can imagine something by mental speculation, but it is not possible to understand Ka by such foolish speculation. Here the Lord indirectly says that if anyone wants to know the Absolute Truth, "Here I am present as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I am the Supreme." One should know this. Although one cannot understand the inconceivable Lord who is personally present, He nonetheless exists. We can actually understand Ka, who is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, simply by studying His words in Bhagavad-gt and rmad-Bhgavatam. The impersonal Brahman can be conceived by persons who are already in the inferior energy of the Lord, but the Personality of Godhead cannot be conceived unless one is in the transcendental position. Because most men cannot understand Ka in His actual situation, out of His causeless mercy He descends to show favor to such speculators. Yet despite the Supreme Lord's uncommon activities, these speculators, due to contamination in the material energy, still think that the impersonal Brahman is the Supreme. Only the devotees who are fully surrendered unto the Supreme Lord can understand, by the grace of the Supreme Personality, that He is Ka. The devotees of the Lord do not bother about the impersonal Brahman conception of God; their faith and devotion bring them to surrender immediately unto the Supreme Lord, and out of the causeless mercy of Ka, they can understand Ka. No one else can understand Him. So even great sages agree: What is tm , what is the Supreme? It is He whom we have to worship. TEXT 3 yo mm ajam andi ca vetti loka-mahevaram asammha sa martyeu sarva-ppai pramucyate ya anyone; mm unto Me; ajam unborn; andim without beginning; ca also; vetti knows; loka the planets; mahevaram supreme master; asamha without doubt; sa he; martyeu among those subject to death; sarva-ppai from all sinful reactions; pramucyate is delivered. TRANSLATION He who knows Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds-he, undeluded among men, is freed from all sins. PURPORT As stated in the Seventh Chapter, those who are trying to elevate themselves to the platform of spiritual realization are not ordinary men. They are superior to millions and millions of ordinary men who have no knowledge of spiritual realization, but out of those actually trying to understand their spiritual situation, one who can come to the understanding that Kais the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the proprietor of everything, the unborn, is the most successful spiritually realized person. In that stage only, when one has fully understood Ka's supreme position, can one be free completely from all sinful reactions. Here the word ajam, meaning unborn, should not be confused with the living entities, who are described in the Second Chapter as ajam. The Lord is different from the living entities who are taking birth and dying due to material attachment. The conditional souls are changing their bodies, but His body is not changeable. Even when He comes to this material world, He comes as the same unborn; therefore in the Fourth Chapter it is said that the Lord, by His internal potency, is not under the inferior material energy, but is always in the superior energy. He was existing before the creation, and He is different from His creation. All the demigods were created within this material world, but as far as Ka is concerned, it is said that He is not created; therefore Ka is different even from the great demigods like Brahm and iva. And because He is the creator of Brahm, iva and all the other demigods, He is the Supreme Person of all planets. r Ka is therefore different from everything that is created, and anyone who knows Him as such immediately becomes liberated from all sinful reaction. One must be liberated from all sinful activities to be in the knowledge of the Supreme Lord. Only by devotional service can He be known and not by any other means, as stated in Bhagavad-gt. One should not try to understand Ka as a human being. As stated previously, only a foolish person thinks Him to be a human being. This is again expressed here in a different way. A man who is not foolish, who is intelligent enough to understand the constitutional position of the Godhead, is always free from all sinful reactions. If Ka is known as the son of Devak, then how can He be unborn? That is also explained in rmad-Bhgavatam: When He appeared before Devak and Vasudeva, He was not born as an ordinary child; He appeared in His original form, and then He transformed Himself into an ordinary child. Anything done under the direction of Ka is transcendental. It cannot be contaminated by the material reactions, which may be auspicious or inauspicious. The conception that there are things auspicious and inauspicious in the material world is more or less a mental concoction because there is nothing auspicious in the material world. Everything is inauspicious because the very material mask is inauspicious. We simply imagine it to be auspicious. Real auspiciousness depends on activities in Ka consciousness in full devotion and service. Therefore if we at all want our activities to he auspicious, then we should work under the directions of the Supreme Lord. Such directions are given in authoritative scriptures such as rmad- Bhgavatam and Bhagavad-gt, or from a bona fide spiritual master. Because the spiritual master is the representative of the Supreme Lord, his direction is directly the direction of the Supreme Lord. The spiritual master, saintly persons and scriptures direct in the same way. There is no contradiction in these three sources. All actions done under such direction are free from the reactions of pious or impious activities of this material world. The transcendental attitude of the devotee in the performance of activities is actually that of renunciation, and this is called sannysa. Anyone acting under the direction of the Supreme Lord is actually a sannys and a yog , and not the man who has simply taken the dress of the sannys, or a pseudo- yog . TEXTS 4-5 buddhir jnam asammoha kam satya dama ama sukha dukha bhavo 'bhvo bhaya cbhayam eva ca ahis samat tuis tapo dna yao 'yaa bhavanti bhv bhtn matta eva pthag-vidh buddhi intelligence; jnam knowledge; asam-moha freedom from doubt; kam forgiveness; satyam truthfulness; dama control of the senses; ama control of the mind; sukham happiness; dukham distress; bhava birth; abhva death; bhayam fear; ca also; abhayam without fear; eva also; ca and; ahis nonviolence; samat equilibrium; tui satisfaction; tapa penance; dnam charity; yaa fame; ayaa infamy; bhavanti become; bhv natures; bhtnm of living entities; matta from Me; eva certainly; pthak-vidh differently arranged. TRANSLATION Intelligence, knowledge, freedom from doubt and delusion, forgiveness, truthfulness, self-control and calmness, pleasure and pain, birth, death, fear, fearlessness, nonviolence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity, fame and infamy are created by Me alone. PURPORT The different qualities of living entities, be they good or bad, are all created by Ka, and they are described here. Intelligence refers to the power of analyzing things in proper perspective, and knowledge refers to understanding what is spirit and what is matter. Ordinary knowledge obtained by a university education pertains only to matter, and it is not accepted here as knowledge. Knowledge means knowing the distinction between spirit and matter. In modern education there is no knowledge about the spirit; they are simply taking care of the material elements and bodily needs. Therefore academic knowledge is not complete. Asamoha, freedom from doubt and delusion, can be achieved when one is not hesitant and when he understands the transcendental philosophy. Slowly but surely he becomes free from bewilderment. Nothing should be accepted blindly; everything should be accepted with care and with caution. Kam, forgiveness, should be practiced, and one should excuse the minor offenses of others. Satyam, truthfulness, means that facts should be presented as they are for the benefit of others. Facts should not be misrepresented. According to social conventions, it is said that one can speak the truth only when it is palatable to others. But that is not truthfulness. The truth should be spoken in a straight and forward way, so that others will understand actually what the facts are. If a man is a thief and if people are warned that he is a thief, that is truth. Although sometimes the truth is unpalatable, one should not refrain from speaking it. Truthfulness demands that the facts be presented as they are for the benefit of others. That is the definition of truth. Self-control means that the senses should not be used for unnecessary personal enjoyment. There is no prohibition against meeting the proper needs of the senses, but unnecessary sense enjoyment is detrimental for spiritual advancement. Therefore the senses should be restrained from unnecessary use. Similarly, the mind should not indulge in unnecessary thoughts; that is called ama, or calmness. Nor should one spend one's time pondering over earning money. That is a misuse of the thinking power. The mind should be used to understand the prime necessity of human beings, and that should be presented authoritatively. The power of thought should be developed in association with persons who are authorities in the scriptures, saintly persons and spiritual masters and those whose thinking is highly developed. Sukham, pleasure or happiness, should always be in that which is favorable for the cultivation of the spiritual knowledge of Ka consciousness. And similarly, that which is painful or which causes distress is that which is unfavorable for the cultivation of Ka consciousness. Anything favorable for the development of Ka consciousness should be accepted, and anything unfavorable should be rejected. Bhava, birth, should be understood to refer to the body. As far as the soul is concerned, there is neither birth nor death; that we have discussed in the beginning of Bhagavad-gt. Birth and death apply to one's embodiment in the material world. Fear is due to worrying about the future. A person in Ka consciousness has no fear because by his activities he is sure to go back to the spiritual sky, back home, back to Godhead. Therefore his future is very bright. Others, however, do not know what their future holds; they have no knowledge of what the next life holds. So they are therefore in constant anxiety. If we want to get free from anxiety, then the best course is to understand Ka and be situated always in Ka consciousness. In that way we will be free from all fear. In the rmad-Bhgavatam. it is stated that fear is caused by our absorption in the illusory energy, but those who are free from the illusory energy, those who are confident that they are not the material body, that they are spiritual parts of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and are therefore engaged in the transcendental service of the Supreme Godhead, have nothing to fear. Their future is very bright. This fear is a condition of persons who are not in Ka consciousness. Bhayam, fearlessness, is only possible for one in Ka consciousness. Ahis, nonviolence, means that one should not do anything which will put others into misery or confusion. Material activities that are promised by so many politicians, sociologists, philanthropists, etc., do not produce very good results because the politicians and philanthropists have no transcendental vision; they do not know what is actually beneficial for human society. Ahis means that people should be trained in such a way that the full utilization of the human body can be achieved. The human body is meant for spiritual realization, so any movement or any commissions which do not further that end commit violence on the human body. That which furthers the future spiritual happiness of the people in general is called nonviolence. Samat, equanimity, refers to freedom from attachment and aversion. To be very much attached or to be very much detached is not the best. This material world should be accepted without attachment or aversion. Similarly, that which is favorable for prosecuting Ka consciousness should be accepted; that which is unfavorable should be rejected. That is called samat, equanimity. A person in Ka consciousness has nothing to reject and nothing to accept unless it is useful in the prosecution of Ka consciousness. Tui, satisfaction, means that one should not be eager to gather more and more material goods by unnecessary activity. One should be satisfied with whatever is obtained by the grace of the Supreme Lord; that is called satisfaction. Tapas means austerity or penance. There are many rules and definitions in the Vedas which apply here, like rising early in the morning and taking a bath. Sometimes it is very troublesome to rise early in the morning, but whatever voluntary trouble one may suffer in this way is called penance. Similarly, there are prescriptions for fasting on certain days of the month. One may not be inclined to practice such fasting, but because of his determination to make advancement in the science of Ka consciousness, he should accept such bodily troubles which are recommended. However, one should not fast unnecessarily or against Vedic injunctions. One should not fast for some political purpose; that is described in Bhagavad-gt as fasting in ignorance, and anything done in ignorance or passion does not lead to spiritual advancement. Everything done in the mode of goodness does advance one, however, and fasting done in terms of the Vedic injunctions enriches one in spiritual knowledge. As far as charity is concerned, one should give fifty percent of his earnings to some good cause. And what is a good cause? It is that which is conducted in terms of Ka consciousness. That is not only a good cause, but it is the best cause. Because Ka is good, His cause is also good. Thus charity should be given to a person who is engaged in Ka consciousness. According to Vedic literature, it is enjoined that charity should be given to the brhmaas. This practice is still followed, although not very nicely in terms of the Vedic injunction. But still the injunction is that charity should be given to the brhmaas. Why? Because they are engaged in higher cultivation of spiritual knowledge. A brhmaa issupposed to devote his whole life to understanding Brahman. A brahma-jana is one who knows Brahman; he is called a brhmaa. Thus charity is offered to the brhmaas because since they are always engaged in higher spiritual service, they have no time to earn their livelihood. In the Vedic literature, charity is also to be awarded to the renouncer of life, the sannys. The sannyss beg from door to door, not for money but for missionary purposes. The system is that they go from door to door to awaken the householders from the slumber of ignorance. Because the householders are engaged in family affairs and have forgotten their actual purpose in life awakening their Ka consciousness it is the business of the sannyss to go as beggars to the householders and encourage them to be Ka conscious. As it is said in the Vedas , one should awake and achieve what is due him in this human form of life. This knowledge and method is distributed by the sannyss ; hence charity is to be given to the renouncer of life, to the brhmaas , and similar good causes, not to any whimsical cause. Yaa , fame, should be according to Lord Caitanya, who said that a man is famous when he is known as a great devotee. That is real fame. If one has become a great man in Ka consciousness and it is known, then he is truly famous. One who does not have such fame is infamous. All these qualities are manifest throughout the universe in human society and in the society of the demigods. There are many forms of humanity on other planets, and these qualities are there. Now, for one who wants to advance in Ka consciousness, Ka creates all these qualities, but the person develops them himself from within. One who engages in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord develops all the good qualities, as arranged by the Supreme Lord. Of whatever we find, good or bad, the origin is Ka. Nothing can manifest in this material world which is not in Ka. That is knowledge; although we know that things are differently situated, we should realize that everything flows from Ka. TEXT 6 maharaya sapta prve catvro manavas tath mad-bhv mnas jt ye loka im praj maharaya the great sages; sapta seven; prve before; catvra four; manava Manus; tath also; mat-bhv born of Me; mnas from the mind; jt born; yem of them; loke the planets; im all this; praj population. TRANSLATION The seven great sages and before them the four other great sages and the Manus [progenitors of mankind] are born out of My mind, and all creatures in these planets descend from them. PURPORT The Lord is giving a genealogical synopsis of the universal population. Brahm is the original creature born out of the energy of the Supreme Lord known as Hirayagarbha. And from Brahm all the seven great sages, and before them four other great sages, named Sanaka, Sananda, Santana, and Sanatkumra, and the fourteen Manus, are manifest. All these twenty-five great sages are known as the patriarchs of the living entities all over the universe. There are innumerable universes and innumerable planets within each universe, and each planet is full of population of different varieties. All of them are born of these twenty-five patriarchs. Brahm underwent penance for one thousand years of the demigods before he realized by the grace of Ka how to create. Then from Brahm, Sanaka, Sananda, Santana, and Sanatkumra came out, then Rudra, andthen the seven sages, and in this way all the brhmaas and katriyas are born out of the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Brahm is known as pitmaha, the grandfather, and Ka is known as the prapit-maha, the father of the grandfather. That is stated in the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavad-gt. (Bg. 11.39) TEXT 7 et vibhti yoga ca mama yo vetti tattvata so 'vikalpena yogena yujyate ntra saaya etm all this; vibhti opulence; yogam ca also mystic power; mama of Mine; ya anyone; vetti knows; tattvata factually; sa he; avikalpena without division; yogena in devotional service; yujyate engaged; na never; atra here; saaya doubt. TRANSLATION He who knows in truth this glory and power of Mine engages in unalloyed devotional service; of this there is no doubt. PURPORT The highest summit of spiritual perfection is knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unless one is firmly convinced of the different opulences of the Supreme Lord, he cannot engage in devotional service. Generally people know that God is great, but they do not know in detail how God is great. Here are the details. If one knows factually how God is great, then naturally he becomes a surrendered soul and engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord. When one factually knows the opulences of the Supreme, there is no alternative but to surrender to Him. This factual knowledge can be known from the descriptions in rmad-Bhgavatam and Bhagavad-gt and similar literatures. In the administration of this universe there are many demigods distributed throughout the planetary system, and the chief of them are Brahm, Lord iva and the four great Kumras and other patriarchs. There are many forefathers of the population of the universe, and all of them are born of the Supreme Lord Ka. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, is the original forefather of all forefathers. These are some of the opulences of the Supreme Lord. When one is firmly convinced of them, he accepts Ka with great faith and without any doubt, and he engages in devotional service. All this particular knowledge is required in order to increase one's interest in the loving devotional service of the Lord. One should not neglect to understand fully how great Ka is, for by knowing the greatness of Ka one will be able to be fixed in sincere devotional service. TEXT 8 aha sarvasya prabhavo matta sarva pravartate iti matv bhajante m budh bhva-samanvit aham I; sarvasya of all; prabhava source of generation; matta from Me; sarvam everything; pravartate emanates; iti thus; matv knowing; bhajante becomes devoted; mm unto Me; budh learned; bhva- samanvit with great attention. TRANSLATION I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts. PURPORT A learned scholar who has studied the Vedas perfectly and has information from authorities like Lord Caitanya and who knows how to apply these teachings can understand that Ka is the origin of everything in both the material and spiritual worlds, and because he knows this perfectly he becomes firmly fixed in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. He can never be deviated by any amount of nonsensical commentaries or by fools. All Vedic literature agrees that Ka is the source of Brahm, iva and all other demigods. In the Atharva-veda it is said, "yo brahma vidadhti: prva yo vai ved ca gpayati sma ka." "It was Ka who in the beginning instructed Brahm in Vedic knowledge and who disseminated Vedic knowledge in the past." Then again it is said, "atha puruo ha vai nryao 'kmayata praj sjeya ity upakramya." "Then the Supreme Personality Nryaa desired to create living entities." Again it is said: nryad brahm jyate, nryad prajpati prajyate, nryad indro jyate, nryad aau vasavo jyante, nryad ekdaa rudr jyante, nryad dvdadity. "From Nryaa, Brahm is born, and from Nryaa, the patriarchs are also born. From Nryaa, Indra is born, from Nryaa the eight Vasus are born, from Nryaa the eleven Rudras are born, from Nryaa the twelve dityas are born." It is said in the same Vedas: brahmayo devak-putra: "The son of Devak, Ka, is the Supreme Personality." Then it is said: eko vai nryaa sn na brahm na no npo ngni samau neme dyv- pthiv na nakatri na srya sa ekk na ramate tasya dhynnta sthasya yatra chndogai kriyamakdi-sajak stuti-stoma stomam ucyate. "In the beginning of the creation there was only the Supreme Personality Nryaa. There was no Brahm, no iva, no fire, no moon, no stars in the sky, no sun. There was only Ka, who creates all and enjoys all." In the many Puras it is said that Lord iva was born from the highest, the Supreme Lord Ka, and the Vedas say that it is the Supreme Lord, the creator of Brahm and iva, who is to be worshiped. In the Moka- dharma Ka also says, prajpati ca rudra cpy aham eva sjmi vai tau hi m na vijnto mama my-vimohitau. "The patriarchs, iva and others are created by Me, though they do not know that they are created by Me because they are deluded by My illusory energy." In Varha Pura it is also said, nryaa paro devas tasmj jta caturmukha tasmd rudro 'bhavad deva sa ca sarvajat gata. "Nryaa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and from Him Brahm was born, from whom iva was born." Lord Ka is the source of all generations, and He is called the most efficient cause of everything. He says that because "everything is born of Me, I am the original source of all. Everything is under Me; no one is above Me." There is no supreme controller other than Ka. One who understands Ka in such a way from a bona fide spiritual master and from Vedic literature, who engages all his energy in Ka consciousness, becomes a truly learned man. In comparison to him, all others, who do not know Ka properly, are but fools. Only a fool would consider Ka to be an ordinary man. A Ka conscious person should not be bewildered by fools; he should avoid all unauthorized commentaries and interpretations on Bhagavad-gt and proceed in Ka consciousness with determination and firmness. TEXT 9 mac-citt mad-gata-pr bodhayanta parasparam kathayanta ca m nitya tuyanti ca ramanti ca mat-citt minds fully engaged in Me; mat-gata-pr lives devoted to the service of Ka; bodhayanta preaching; parasparam among themselves; kathayanta ca talking also; mm about Me; nityam perpetually; tuyanti are pleased; ca also; ramanti enjoy transcendental bliss; ca also . TRANSLATION The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are surrendered to Me, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss enlightening one another and conversing about Me. PURPORT Pure devotees, whose characteristics are mentioned here, engage themselves fully in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Their minds cannot be diverted from the lotus feet of Ka. Their talks are solely on the transcendental subjects. The symptoms of the pure devotees are described in this verse specifically. Devotees of the Supreme Lord are twenty-four hours daily engaged in glorifying the pastimes of the Supreme Lord. Their hearts and souls are constantly submerged in Ka, and they take pleasure in discussing Him with other devotees. In the preliminary stage of devotional service they relish the transcendental pleasure from the service itself, and in the mature stage they are actually situated in love of God. Once situated in that transcendental position, they can relish the highest perfection which is exhibited by the Lord in His abode. Lord Caitanya likens transcendental devotional service to the sowing of a seed in the heart of the living entity. There are innumerable living entities traveling throughout the different planets of the universe, and out of them there are a few who are fortunate enough to meet a pure devotee and get the chance to understand devotional service. This devotional service is just like a seed, and if it is sown in the heart of a living entity, and if he goes on hearing and chanting, Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare, that seed fructifies, just as the seed of a tree fructifies with regular watering. The spiritual plant of devotional service gradually grows and grows until it penetrates the covering of the material universe and enters into the brahmajyoti effulgence in the spiritual sky. In the spiritual sky also that plant grows more and more until it reaches the highest planet, which is called Goloka Vndvana, the supreme planet of Ka. Ultimately, the plant takes shelter under the lotus feet of Ka and rests there. Gradually, as a plant grows fruits and flowers, that plant of devotional service also produces fruits, and the watering process in the form of chanting and hearing goes on. This plant of devotional service is fully described in the Caitanya-caritmta. It is explained there that when the complete plant takes shelter under the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, one becomes fully absorbed in love of God; then he cannot live even for a moment without being in contact with the Supreme Lord, just as a fish cannot live without water. In such a state, the devotee actually attains the transcendental qualities in contact with the Supreme Lord. The rmad-Bhgavatam is also full of such narration about the relationship between the Supreme Lord and His devotees; therefore the rmad- Bhgavatam isvery dear to the devotees. In this narration there is nothing about material activities, sense gratification or liberation. rmad-Bhgavatam is the only narration in which the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord and His devotees is fully described. Thus the realized souls in Ka consciousness take continual pleasure in hearing such transcendental literatures, just as a young boy and girl take pleasure in association. TEXT 10 te satata-yuktn bhajat prti-prvakam dadmi buddhi-yoga ta yena mm upaynti te tem unto them; satata-yuktnm always engaged; bhajatm in devotional service; prti-prvakam in loving ecstasy; dadmi I give; buddhi-yogam real intelligence; tam that; yena by which; mm unto Me; upaynti come; te they. TRANSLATION To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. PURPORT In this verse the word buddhi-yogam is very significant. We may remember that in the Second Chapter the Lord, instructing Arjuna, said that He had spoken to him of many things and that He would instruct him in the way of buddhi-yoga. Now buddhi-yoga is explained. Buddhi-yogam itself is action in Ka consciousness; that is the highest intelligence. Buddhi means intelligence, and yogam means mystic activities or mystic elevation. When one tries to go back home, back to Godhead, and takes fully to Ka consciousness in devotional service, his action is called buddhi-yogam. In other words, buddhi-yogam is the process by which one gets out of the entanglement of this material world. The ultimate goal of progress is Ka. People do not know this; therefore the association of devotees and a bona fide spiritual master are important. One should know that the goal is Ka, and when the goal is assigned, then the path is slowly but progressively traversed, and the ultimate goal is achieved. When a person knows the goal of life but is addicted to the fruits of activities, he is acting in karma-yoga. When he knows that the goal is Ka, but he takes pleasure in mental speculations to understand Ka, he is acting in jna-yoga. And when he knows the goal and seeks Ka completely in Ka consciousness and devotional service, he is acting in bhakti-yoga, or buddhi-yoga, which is the complete yoga. This complete yoga is the highest perfectional stage of life. A person may have a bona fide spiritual master and may be attached to a spiritual organization, but still, if he is not intelligent enough to make progress, then Ka from within gives him instructions so that he may ultimately come to Him without difficulty. The qualification is that a person always engage himself in Ka consciousness and with love and devotion render all kinds of services. He should perform some sort of work for Ka, and that work should be with love. If a devotee is intelligent enough, he will make progress on the path of self-realization. If one is sincere and devoted to the activities of devotional service, the Lord gives him a chance to make progress and ultimately attain to Him. TEXT 11 tem evnukamprtham aham ajna-ja tama naymy tma-bhvastho jna-dpena bhsvat tem for them; eva certainly; anukamp-artham to show special mercy; aham I; ajna-jam due to ignorance; tama darkness; naymi dispel; tma within; bhvastha themselves; jna of knowledge; dpena with the lamp; bhsvat glowing. TRANSLATION Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance. PURPORT When Lord Caitanya was in Benares promulgating the chanting of Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare, thousands of people were following Him. Praknanda, a very influential and learned scholar in Benares at that time, derided Lord Caitanya for being a sentimentalist. Sometimes philosophers criticize the devotees because they think that most of the devotees are in the darkness of ignorance and are philosophically naive sentimentalists. Actually that is not the fact. There are very, very learned scholars who have put forward the philosophy of devotion, but even if a devotee does not take advantage of their literatures or of his spiritual master, if he is sincere in his devotional service he is helped by Ka Himself within his heart. So the sincere devotee engaged in Ka consciousness cannot be without knowledge. The only qualification is that one carry out devotional service in full Ka consciousness. The modern philosophers think that without discriminating one cannot have pure knowledge. For them this answer is given by the Supreme Lord: those who are engaged in pure devotional service, even though they be without sufficient education and even without sufficient knowledge of the Vedic principles, are still helped by the Supreme God, as stated in this verse. The Lord tells Arjuna that basically there is no possibility of understanding the Supreme Truth, the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, simply by speculating, for the Supreme Truth is so great that it is not possible to understand Him or to achieve Him simply by making a mental effort. Man can go on speculating for several millions of years, and if he is not devoted, if he is not a lover of the Supreme Truth, he will never understand Ka or the Supreme Truth. Only by devotional service is the Supreme Truth, Ka, pleased, and by His inconceivable energy He can reveal Himself to the heart of the pure devotee. The pure devotee always has Ka within his heart; therefore he is just like the sun that dissipates the darkness of ignorance. This is the special mercy rendered to the pure devotee by Ka. Due to the contamination of material association, through many, many millions of births, one's heart is always covered with the dust of materialism, but when one engages in devotional service and constantly chants Hare Ka, the dust quickly clears, and one is elevated to the platform of pure knowledge. The ultimate goal of Viu can be attained only by this chant and by devotional service, and not by mental speculation or argument. The pure devotee does not have to worry about the necessities of life; he need not be anxious because when he removes the darkness from his heart, everything is provided automatically by the Supreme Lord, for He is pleased by the loving devotional service of the devotee. This is the essence of the Gt's teachings. By studying Bhagavad-gt, one can become a completely surrendered soul to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors. TEXTS 12-13 arjuna uvca para brahma para dhma pavitra parama bhavn purua vata divyam di-devam aja vibhum hus tvm aya sarve devarir nradas tath asito devalo vysa svaya caiva bravi me arjuna uvca Arjuna said; param supreme; brahma truth; param supreme; dhma sustenance; pavitram purest; paramam supreme; bhavn Yourself; puruam personality; vatam original; divyam transcendental; di-devam original Lord; ajam unborn; vibhum greatest; hu say; tvm unto You; aya sages; sarve all; devari the sage among the demigods; nrada Nrada; tath also; asita Asita; devala Devala; vysa Vysa; svayam personally; ca also; eva certainly; bravi explaining; me unto me. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nrada, Asita, Devala, and Vysa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me. PURPORT In these two verses the Supreme Lord gives a chance to the modern philosopher, for here it is clear that the Supreme is different from the individual soul. Arjuna, after hearing the essential four verses of Bhagavad- gt in this chapter, became completely free from all doubts and accepted Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He at once boldly declares, "You are Parambrahma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead." And previously Ka states that He is the originator of everything and everyone. Every demigod and every human being is dependent on Him. Men and demigods, out of ignorance, think that they are absolute and independent of the Supreme Lord Ka. That ignorance is removed perfectly by the discharge of devotional service. This is already explained in the previous verse by the Lord. Now by His grace, Arjuna is accepting Him as the Supreme Truth, in concordance with the Vedic injunction. It is not because Ka is an intimate friend of Arjuna that he is flattering Him by calling Him the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth. Whatever Arjuna says in these two verses is confirmed by Vedic truth. Vedic injunctions affirm that only one who takes to devotional service to the Supreme Lord can understand Him, whereas others cannot. Each and every word of this verse spoken by Arjuna is confirmed by Vedic injunction. In the Kena Upaniad it is stated that the Supreme Brahman is the rest for everything, and Ka has already explained that everything is resting on Him. The Muaka Upaniad confirms that the Supreme Lord, in whom everything is resting, can be realized only by those who engage constantly in thinking of Him. This constant thinking of Ka is smaraam, one of the methods of devotional service. It is only by devotional service to Ka that one can understand his position and get rid of this material body. In the Vedas the Supreme Lord is accepted as the purest of the pure. One who understands that Ka is the purest of the pure can become purified from all sinful activities. One cannot be disinfected from sinful activities unless he surrenders unto the Supreme Lord. Arjuna's acceptance of Ka as the supreme pure complies with the injunctions of Vedic literature. This is also confirmed by great personalities, of whom Nrada is the chief. Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and one should always meditate upon Him and enjoy one's transcendental relationship with Him. He is the supreme existence. He is free from bodily needs, birth and death. Not only does Arjuna confirm this, but all the Vedic literatures, the Puras and histories. In all Vedic literatures Ka is thus described, and the Supreme Lord Himself also says in the Fourth Chapter, "Although I am unborn, I appear on this earth to establish religious principles." He is the supreme origin; He has no cause, for He is the cause of all causes, and everything is emanating from Him. This perfect knowledge can be had by the grace of the Supreme Lord. Here Arjuna expresses himself through the grace of Ka. If we want to understand Bhagavad-gt, we should accept the statements in these two verses. This is called the parampar system, acceptance of the disciplic succession. Unless one is in the disciplic succession, he cannot understand Bhagavad-gt. It is not possible by so-called academic education. Unfortunately those proud of their academic education, despite so much evidence in Vedic literatures, stick to their obstinate conviction that Ka is an ordinary person. TEXT 14 sarvam etad ta manye yan m vadasi keava na hi te bhagavan vyakti vidur dev na dnav sarvam all; etat these; tam truths; manye accept; yat which; mm unto me; vadasi You tell; keava O Ka; na never; hi certainly; te Your; bhagavan O Personality of Godhead; vyaktim revelation; vidu can know; deva the demigods; na nor; dnav the demons. TRANSLATION O Ka, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the gods nor demons, O Lord, know Thy personality. PURPORT Arjuna herein confirms that persons of faithless and demonic nature cannot understand Ka. He is not even known by the demigods, so what to speak of the so-called scholars of this modern world? By the grace of the Supreme Lord, Arjuna has understood that the Supreme Truth is Ka and that He is the perfect one. One should therefore follow the path of Arjuna. He received the authority of Bhagavad-gt. As described in the Fourth Chapter, the parampar system of disciplic succession for the understanding of Bhagavad- gt was lost, and therefore Ka reestablished that disciplic succession with Arjuna because He considered Arjuna His intimate friend and a great devotee. Therefore, as stated in our Introduction to Gtopaniad, Bhagavad-gt should be understood in the parampar system. When the parampar system was lost, Arjuna was again selected to rejuvenate it. The acceptance of Arjuna of all that Ka says should be emulated; then we can understand the essence of Bhagavad-gt, and then only can we understand that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 15 svayam evtmantmna vettha tva puruottama bhta-bhvana bhtea deva-deva jagat-pate svayam personality; eva certainly; tman by Yourself; tmnam Yourself; vettha know; tvam You; puruottama O greatest of all persons; bhta-bhvana O origin of everything; bhtea O Lord of everything; deva-deva O Lord of all demigods; jagat-pate O Lord of the entire universe. TRANSLATION Indeed, You alone know Yourself by Your own potencies, O origin of all, Lord of all beings, God of gods, O Supreme Person, Lord of the universe! PURPORT The Supreme Lord Ka can be known by persons who are in a relationship with Him through the discharge of devotional service, like Arjuna and his successors. Persons of demonic or atheistic mentality cannot know Ka. Mental speculation that leads one away from the Supreme Lord is a serious sin, and one who does not know Ka should not try to comment on Bhagavad-gt. Bhagavad-gt is the statement of Ka, and since it is the science of Ka, it should be understood from Ka as Arjuna understood it. It should not be received from atheistic persons. The Supreme Truth is realized in three aspects: as impersonal Brahman, localized Paramtm and at last as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So at the last stage of understanding the Absolute Truth, one comes to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A liberated man and even a common man may realize impersonal Brahman or localized Paramtm, yet they may not understand God's personality from the verses of Bhagavad-gt, which are being spoken by this person, Ka. Sometimes the impersonalists accept Ka as Bhagavan, or they accept His authority. Yet many liberated persons cannot understand Ka as Puruottama, the Supreme Person, the father of all living entities. Therefore Arjuna addresses Him as Puruottama. And if one comes to know Him as the father of all the living entities, still one may not know Him as the supreme controller; therefore He is addressed here as Bhtea, the supreme controller of everyone. And even if one knows Ka as the supreme controller of all living entities, still one may not know that He is the origin of all the demigods; therefore He is addressed herein as Devadeva, the worshipful God of all demigods. And even if one knows Him as the worshipful God of all demigods, one may not know that He is the supreme proprietor of everything; therefore He is addressed as Jagatpati. Thus the truth about Ka is established in this verse by the realization of Arjuna, and we should follow in the footsteps of Arjuna to understand Ka as He is. TEXT 16 vaktum arhasy aeea divy hy tma-vibhtaya ybhir vibhtibhir lokn ims tva vypya tihasi vaktum to say; arhasi deserve; aeea in detail; divy divine; hi certainly; tma Yourself; vibhtaya opulences; ybhi by which; vibhtibhi opulences; lokn all the planets; imn these; tvam You; vypya pervading; tihasi remain. TRANSLATION Please tell me in detail of Your divine powers by which You pervade all these worlds and abide in them. PURPORT In this verse it appears that Arjuna is already satisfied with his understanding of the Supreme Lord Ka. By Ka's grace, Arjuna has personal experience, intelligence and knowledge and whatever else a person may have through all these agencies, and he has understood Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For him there is no doubt, Yet he is asking Ka to explain His all-pervading nature so that in the future people will understand, especially the impersonalists, how He exists in His all-pervading aspect through His different energies. One should know that this is being asked by Arjuna on behalf of the common people. TEXT 17 katha vidym aha yogis tv sad paricintayan keu keu ca bhveu cintyo 'si bhagavan may katham how; vidym aham shall I know; yogin O supreme mystic; tvm You; sad always; paricintayan thinking; keu in which; keu in which; ca also; bhveu nature; cintya asi You are remembered; bhagavan O Supreme; may by me. TRANSLATION How should I meditate on You? In what various forms are You to be contemplated, O Blessed Lord? PURPORT As it is stated in the previous chapter, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is covered by His yoga-my. Only surrendered souls and devotees can see Him. Now Arjuna is convinced that His friend, Ka, is the Supreme Godhead, but he wants to know the general process by which the all- pervading Lord can be understood by the common man. No common man, including the demons and atheists, can know Ka because He is guarded by His yoga-my energy. Again, these questions are asked by Arjuna for their benefit. The superior devotee is not only concerned for his own understanding, but for the understanding of all mankind. Out of his mercy, because he is a Vaiava, a devotee, Arjuna is opening the understanding for the common man as far as the all-pervasiveness of the Supreme is concerned. He addresses Ka specifically as yogin because r Ka is the master of the yoga-my energy by which He is covered and uncovered to the common man. The common man who has no love for Ka cannot always think of Ka; therefore he has to think materially. Arjuna is considering the mode of thinking of the materialistic persons of this world. Because materialists cannot understand Ka spiritually, they are advised to concentrate the mind on physical things and try to see how Ka is manifested by physical representations. TEXT 18 vistaretmano yoga vibhti ca janrdana bhya kathaya tptir hi vato nsti me 'mtam vistarea in description; tmana of Yourself; yogam mystic power; vibhtim opulences; ca also; janrdana O killer of the atheists; bhya again; kathaya describe; tpti satisfaction; hi certainly; vata hearing; na asti there is no; me my; amtam nectar. TRANSLATION Tell me again in detail, O Janrdana [Ka], of Your mighty potencies and glories, for I never tire of hearing Your ambrosial words. PURPORT A similar statement was made to Sta Gosvm by the is of Naimiraya, headed by aunaka. That statement is: vaya tu na vitpyma uttama-loka-vikrame yac chvat rasa-jn svdu svdu pade pade. "One can never be satiated even though one continuously hears the transcendental pastimes of Ka, who is glorified by Vedic hymns. Those who have entered into a transcendental relationship with Ka relish in every step descriptions of the pastimes of the Lord." Thus Arjuna is interested to hear about Ka, specifically how He remains as the all-pervading Supreme Lord. Now as far as amtam , nectar, is concerned, any narration or statement concerning Ka is just like nectar. And this nectar can be perceived by practical experience. Modern stories, fiction and histories are different from the transcendental pastimes of the Lord in that one will tire of hearing mundane stories, but one never tires of hearing about Ka. It is for this reason only that the history of the whole universe is replete with references to the pastimes of the incarnations of Godhead. For instance, the Puras are histories of bygone ages that relate the pastimes of the various incarnations of the Lord. In this way the reading matter remains forever fresh, despite repeated readings. TEXT 19 r bhagavn uvca hanta te kathayiymi divy hy tma-vibhtaya prdhnyata kuru-reha nsty anto vistarasya me r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; hanta yes; te unto you; kathayiymi I shall speak; divy divine; hi certainly; tma-vibhtaya personal opulences; prdhnyata principally; kurureha O best of the Kurus; na asti there is no; anta limit; vistarasya to the extent; me My. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: Yes, I will tell you of My splendorous manifestations, but only of those which are prominent, O Arjuna, for My opulence is limitless. PURPORT It is not possible to comprehend the greatness of Ka and His opulences. The senses of the individual soul are imperfect and do not permit him to understand the totality of Ka's affairs. Still the devotees try to understand Ka, but not on the principle that they will be able to understand Ka fully at any specific time or in any state of life. Rather, the very topics of Ka are so relishable that they appear to them as nectar. Thus they enjoy them. In discussing Ka's opulences and His diverse energies, the pure devotees take transcendental pleasure. Therefore they want to hear and discuss them. Ka knows that living entities do not understand the extent of His opulences; He therefore agrees to state only the principal manifestations of His different energies. The word prdhnyata (principal) is very important because we can understand only a few of the principal details of the Supreme Lord, for His features are unlimited. It is not possible to understand them all. And vibhti, as used in this verse, refers to the opulences by which He controls the whole manifestation. In the Amara-koa dictionary it is stated that vibhti indicates an exceptional opulence. The impersonalist or the pantheist cannot understand the exceptional opulences of the Supreme Lord nor the manifestations of His divine energy. Both in the material world and in the spiritual world His energies are distributed in every variety of manifestation. Now Ka is describing what can be directly perceived by the common man; thus part of His variegated energy is described in this way. TEXT 20 aham tm gukea sarva-bhtaya-sthita aham di ca madhya ca bhtnm anta eva ca aham I; tm soul; gukea O Arjuna; sarva-bhta all living entities; aya-sthita situated within; aham I am; di origin; ca also; madhyam middle; ca also; bhtnm all living entities; anta end; eva certainly; ca and. TRANSLATION I am the Self, O Gukea, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings. PURPORT In this verse Arjuna is addressed as Gukea, which means one who has conquered the darkness of sleep. For those who are sleeping in the darkness of ignorance, it is not possible to understand how the Supreme Godhead manifests Himself in the material and spiritual worlds. Thus this address by Ka to Arjuna is significant. Because Arjuna is above such darkness, the Personality of Godhead agrees to describe His various opulences. Ka first informs Arjuna that He is the Self or soul of the entire cosmic manifestation by dint of His primary expansion. Before the material creation, the Supreme Lord, by His plenary expansion, accepts the Purua incarnations, and from Him everything begins. Therefore He is tm, the soul of the mahat- tattva, the universal elements. The total material energy is not the cause of the creation, but actually the Mah-Visu enters into the mahat-tattva, the total material energy. He is the soul. When Mah-Viu enters into the manifested universes, He again manifests Himself as the Supersoul in each and every entity. We have experience that the personal body of the living entity exists due to the presence of the spiritual spark. Without the existence of the spiritual spark, the body cannot develop. Similarly, the material manifestation cannot develop unless the Supreme Soul of Ka enters. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is existing as the Supersoul in all manifested universes. A description of the three purua-avatras is given in rmad-Bhgavatam. "The Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests three features, as Kraodakay Visu, Garbhodakay Viu and Krodakay Viu, in this material manifestation." The Supreme Lord Ka, the cause of all causes, lies down in the cosmic ocean as Mah- Viu or Kraodakay Viu, and therefore Ka is the beginning of this universe, the maintainer of the universal manifestation, and the end of all the energy. TEXT 21 ditynm aha viur jyoti ravir aumn marcir marutm asmi nakatrm aha a ditynm of the dityas; aham I am; viu the Supreme Lord; jyotim of all luminaries; ravi the sun; aumn radiant; marci Marci; marutm of the Marutas; asmi I am; nakatrm of stars; aham I am; a the moon. TRANSLATION Of the dityas I am Viu, of lights I am the radiant sun, I am Marci of the Maruts, and among the stars I am the moon. PURPORT There are twelve dityas, of which Ka is the principal. And among all the luminaries twinkling in the sky, the sun is the chief, and in the Brahma- sahit the sun is accepted as the glowing effulgence of the Supreme Lord and is considered to be one of His eyes. Marci is the controlling deity of the heavenly spaces. Among the stars, the moon is most prominent at night, and thus the moon represents Ka. TEXT 22 vedn sma-vedo 'smi devnm asmi vsava indriy mana csmi bhtnm asmi cetan vednm of all the Vedas ; sma-veda the Sma-veda; asmi I am; devnm of all the demigods; asmi I am; vsava heavenly king; indriym of all the senses; mana the mind; ca also; asmi I am; bhtnm of all living entities; asmi I am; cetan the living force. TRANSLATION Of the Vedas I am the Sma-veda; of the demigods I am Indra; of the senses I am the mind, and in living beings I am the living force [knowledge]. PURPORT The difference between matter and spirit is that matter has no consciousness like the living entity; therefore this consciousness is supreme and eternal. Consciousness cannot be produced by a combination of matter. TEXT 23 rudr akara csmi vitteo yaka-rakasm vasn pvaka csmi meru ikharim aham rudrm of all the Rudras; akara Lord iva; ca also; asmi I am; vittea the lord of the treasury; yaka-rakasm of the Yakas and Rkasas; vasnm of the Vasus; pvaka fire; ca also; asmi I am; meru Meru; ikharim of all mountains; aham I am. TRANSLATION Of all the Rudras I am Lord iva; of the Yakas and Rkasas I am the lord of wealth [Kuvera]; of the Vasus I am fire [Agni], and of the mountains I am Meru. PURPORT There are eleven Rudras, of whom akara, Lord iva, is predominant. He is the incarnation of the Supreme Lord in charge of the modes of ignorance in the universe. Among the demigods Kuvera is the chief treasurer, and he is a representation of the Supreme Lord. Meru is a mountain famed for its rich natural resources. TEXT 24 purodhas ca mukhya m viddhi prtha bhaspatim sennnm aha skanda sarasm asmi sgara purodhasm of all priests; ca also; mukhyam chief; mm Me; viddhi understand; prtha O son of Pth; bhaspatim Bhaspati; sennnm of all commanders; aham I am; skanda Krtikeya; sarasm of all reservoirs of water; asmi I am; sgara the ocean. TRANSLATION Of priests, O Arjuna, know Me to be the chief, Bhaspati, the lord of devotion. Of generals I am Skanda, the lord of war; and of bodies of water I am the ocean. PURPORT Indra is the chief demigod of the heavenly planets and is known as the king of the heavens. The planet in which he reigns is called Indraloka. Bhaspati is Indra's priest, and since Indra is the chief of all kings, Bhaspati is the chief of all priests. And as Indra is the chief of all kings, similarly Skanda, the son of Prvat and Lord iva, is the chief of all military commanders. And of all bodies of water, the ocean is the greatest. These representations of Ka only give hints of His greatness. TEXT 25 mahar bhgur aha girm asmy ekam akaram yajn japa-yajo 'smi sthvar himlaya maharm among the great sages; bhgu Bhgu; aham I am; girm of vibrations; asmi I am; ekam akaram-praava; yajnm of sacrifices; japa-yaja chanting; asmi I am; sthvarm of immovable things; himlaya the Himalayan mountains. TRANSLATION Of the great sages I am Bhgu; of vibrations I am the transcendental om. Of sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names [japa], and of immovable things I am the Himalayas. PURPORT Brahm, the first living creature within the universe, created several sons for the propagation of various kinds of species. The most powerful of his sons is Bhgu, who is also the greatest sage. Of all the transcendental vibrations, the " om "( omkara ) represents the Supreme. Of all the sacrifices, the chanting of Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare is the purest representation of Ka. Sometimes animal sacrifices are recommended, but in the sacrifice of Hare Ka, Hare Ka, there is no question of violence. It is the simplest and the purest. Whatever is sublime in the worlds is a representation of Ka. Therefore the Himalayas, the greatest mountains in the world, also represent Him. The mountain named Meru was mentioned in a previous verse, but Meru is sometimes movable, whereas the Himalayas are never movable. Thus the Himalayas are greater than Meru. TEXT 26 avattha sarva-vk devar ca nrada gandharv citraratha siddhn kapilo muni avattha the banyan tree; sarva-vkm of all trees; devarm of all the sages amongst the demigods; ca and; nrada Nrada; gandharv- m the citizens of the Gandharva planet; citraratha Citraratha; siddhnm of all those who are perfected; kapila muni Kapila Muni. TRANSLATION Of all trees I am the holy fig tree, and amongst sages and demigods I am Nrada. Of the singers of the gods [Gandharvas] I am Citraratha, and among perfected beings I am the sage Kapila. PURPORT The fig tree ( avattha ) is one of the most beautiful and highest trees, and people in India often worship it as one of their daily morning rituals. Amongst the demigods they also worship Nrada, who is considered the greatest devotee in the universe. Thus he is the representation of Ka as a devotee. The Gandharva planet is filled with entities who sing beautifully, and among them the best singer is Citraratha. Amongst the perpetually living entities, Kapila is considered an incarnation of Ka, and His philosophy is mentioned in the rmad-Bhgavatam. Later on another Kapila became famous, but his philosophy was atheistic. Thus there is a gulf of difference between them. TEXT 27 uccairavasam avn viddhi mm amtodbhavam airvata gajendr nar ca nardhipam uccairavasam Uccairav; avnm among horses; viddhi know; mm Me; amta-udbhavam produced from the churning of the ocean; airvatam Airvata; gajendrm of elephants; narm among human beings; ca and; nardhipam the king. TRANSLATION Of horses know Me to be Uccairav, who rose out of the ocean, born of the elixir of immortality; of lordly elephants I am Airvata, and among men I am the monarch. PURPORT The devotee demigods and the demons ( asuras ) once took a sea journey. On this journey, nectar and poison were produced, and Lord iva drank the poison. From the nectar were produced many entities, of which there was a horse named Uccairav. Another animal produced from the nectar was an elephant named Airvata. Because these two animals were produced from nectar, they have special significance, and they are representatives of Ka. Amongst the human beings, the king is the representative of Ka because Ka is the maintainer of the universe, and the kings, who are appointed on account of their godly qualifications, are maintainers of their kingdoms. Kings like Mahrja Yudhihira, Mahrja Parkit and Lord Rma were all highly righteous kings who always thought of the citizens' welfare. In Vedic literature, the king is considered to be the representative of God. In this age, however, with the corruption of the principles of religion, monarchy decayed and is now finally abolished. It is to be understood that in the past, however, people were more happy under righteous kings. TEXT 28 yudhnm aha vajra dhennm asmi kmadhuk prajana csmi kandarpa sarpm asmi vsuki yudhnm of all weapons; aham I am; vajram the thunderbolt; dhennm of cows; asmi I am; kmadhuk the surabhi cows; prajana for begetting children; ca and; asmi I am; kandarpa Cupid; sarpm of all snakes; asmi I am; vsuki Vsuki. TRANSLATION Of weapons I am the thunderbolt; among cows I am the surabhi, givers of abundant milk. Of procreators I am Kandarpa, the god of love, and of serpents I am Vsuki, the chief. PURPORT The thunderbolt, indeed a mighty weapon, represents Ka's power. In Kaloka in the spiritual sky there are cows which can be milked at any time, and they give as much milk as one likes. Of course such cows do not exist in this material world, but there is mention of them in Kaloka. The Lord keeps many such cows, which are called surabhi. It is stated that the Lord is engaged in herding the surabhi cows. Kandarpa is the sex desire for presenting good sons; therefore Kandarpa is the representative of Ka. Sometimes sex is engaged in only for sense gratification; such sex does not represent Ka. But sex for the generation of good children is called Kandarpa and represents Ka. TEXT 29 ananta csmi ngn varuo ydasm aham pitm aryam csmi yama sayamatm aham ananta Ananta; ca also; asmi I am; ngnm of all serpents; varua the demigod controlling the water; ydasm of all aquatics; aham I am; pinm of the ancestors; aryam Aryma; ca also; asmi I am; yama the controller of death; sayamatm of all regulators; aham I am. TRANSLATION Of the celestial Nga snakes I am Ananta; of the aquatic deities I am Varua. Of departed ancestors I am Aryam, and among the dispensers of law I am Yama, lord of death. PURPORT Among the many celestial Nvga serpents, Ananta is the greatest, as is Varua among the aquatics. They both represent Ka. There is also a planet of trees presided over by Aryam, who represents Ka. There are many living entities who give punishment to the miscreants, and among them Yama is the chief. Yama is situated in a planet near this earthly planet, and after death those who are very sinful are taken there, and Yama arranges different kinds of punishments for them. TEXT 30 prahlda csmi daityn kla kalayatm aham mg ca mgendro 'ha vainateya ca pakim prahlda Prahlda; ca also; asmi I am; daitynm of the demons; kla time; kalayatm of subduers; aham I am; mgm of animals; ca and; mgendra the lion; aham I am; vainateya Garua; ca also; pakim of birds. TRANSLATION Among the Daitya demons I am the devoted Prahlda; among subduers I am time; among the beasts I am the lion, and among birds I am Garua, the feathered carrier of Viu. PURPORT Diti and Aditi are two sisters. The sons of Aditi are called dityas, and the sons of Diti are called Daityas. All the dityas are devotees of the Lord, and all the Daityas are atheistic. Although Prahlda was born in the family of the Daityas, he was a great devotee from his childhood. Because of his devotional service and godly nature, he is considered to be a representative of Ka. There are many subduing principles, but time wears down all things in the material universe and so represents Ka. Of the many animals, the lion is the most powerful and ferocious, and of the million varieties of birds, Garua, the bearer of Lord Viu, is the greatest. TEXT 31 pavana pavatm asmi rma astra-bhtm aham jha makara csmi srotasm asmi jhnav pavana the wind; pavatm of all that purifies; asmi I am; rma Rma; astra-bhtm of the carriers of weapons; aham I am; jham of all aquatics; makara shark; ca asmi I am also; srotasm of flowing rivers; asmi I am; jhnav the River Ganges. TRANSLATION Of purifiers I am the wind; of the wielders of weapons I am Rma; of fishes I am the shark, and of flowing rivers I am the Ganges. PURPORT Of all the aquatics the shark is one of the biggest and is certainly the most dangerous to man. Thus the shark represents Ka. And of rivers, the greatest in India is the Mother Ganges. Lord Rmacandra, of the Rmyaa , an incarnation of Ka, is the mightest of warriors. TEXT 32 sargm dir anta ca madhya caivham arjuna adhytma-vidy vidyn vda pravadatm aham sargm of all creations; di beginning; anta end; ca and; madhyam middle; ca also; eva certainly; aham I am; arjuna O Arjuna; adhytma-vidy spiritual knowledge; vidynm of all education; vda natural conclusion; pravadatm of arguments; aham I am. TRANSLATION Of all creations I am the beginning and the end and also the middle, O Arjuna. Of all sciences I am the spiritual science of the Self, and among logicians I am the conclusive truth. PURPORT Among created manifestations, the total material elements are first created by Mah-Viu and are annihilated by Lord iva. Brahm is the secondary creator. All these created elements are different incarnations of the material qualities of the Supreme Lord; therefore He is the beginning, the middle and the end of all creation. Regarding the spiritual science of the Self, there are many literatures, such as the four Vedas , the Vednta-stra and the Puras , the rmad- Bhgavatam and the Gt . These are all representatives of Ka. Among logicians there are different stages of argument. The presentation of evidence is called japa. The attempt to defeat one another is called vitaa, and the final conclusion is called vda. The conclusive truth, the end of all reasoning processes, is Ka. TEXT 33 akarm akro 'smi dvandva smsikasya ca aham evkaya klo dhtha vivato-mukha akarm of letters; akra the first; asmi I am; dvandva dual; smsiksya compounds; ca and; aham I am; eva certainly; akaya eternal; kla time; dht creator; aham I am; vivato-mukha Brahm. TRANSLATION Of letters I am the letter A, and among compounds I am the dual word. I am also inexhaustable time, and of creators I am Brahm, whose manifold faces turn everywhere. PURPORT Akra, the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, is the beginning of the Vedic literature. Without akra, nothing can be sounded; therefore it is the beginning of sound. In Sanskrit there are also many compound words, of which the dual word, like Rma-ka, is called dvandva. For instance, Rma and Ka have the same rhythm and therefore are called dual. Among all kinds of killers, time is the ultimate because time kills everything. Time is the representative of Ka because in due course of time there will be a great fire and everything will be annihilated. Among the creators and living entities, Brahm is the chief. The various Brahms exhibit four, eight, sixteen, etc., heads accordingly, and they are the chief creators in their respective universes. The Brahms are representatives of Ka. TEXT 34 mtyu sarva-hara cham udbhava ca bhaviyatm krti rr vk ca nr smtir medh dhti kam mtyu death; sarva-hara all-devouring; ca also; aham I am; udbhava generation; ca also; bhaviyatm of the future; krti fame; r vk beautiful speech; ca also; nr of women; smti memory; medh intelligence; dhti faithfulness; kam patience. TRANSLATION I am all-devouring death, and I am the generator of all things yet to be. Among women I am fame, fortune, speech, memory, intelligence, faithfulness and patience. PURPORT As soon as a man is born, he dies at every moment. Thus death is devouring every living entity at every moment, but the last stroke is called death itself. That death is Ka. All species of life undergo six basic changes. They are born, they grow, they remain for some time, they reproduce, they dwindle and finally vanish. Of these changes, the first is deliverance from the womb, and that is Ka. The first generation is the beginning of all future activities. The six opulences listed are considered to be feminine. If a woman possesses all of them or some of them she becomes glorious. Sanskrit is a perfect language and is therefore very glorious. After studying, if one can remember the subject matter, he is gifted with good memory, or smti One need not read many books on different subject matters; the ability to remember a few and quote them when necessary is also another opulence. TEXT 35 bhat-sma tath smn gyatr chandasm aham msn mrga-ro 'ham tn kusumkara bhat-sma the Bhat-sma; tath also; smnm of the Sma-veda song; gyatr the Gyatr hymns; chandasm of all poetry; aham I am; msnm of months; mrga-ro 'ham the month of November-December; aham I am; tnm of all seasons; kusumkara spring. TRANSLATION Of hymns I am the Bhat-sma sung to the Lord Indra, and of poetry I am the Gyatr verse, sung daily by brhmaas. Of months I am November and December, and of seasons I am flower-bearing spring. PURPORT It has already been explained by the Lord that amongst all the Vedas, the Sma-veda is rich with beautiful songs played by the various demigods. One of these songs is the Bhat-sma, which has an exquisite melody and is sung at midnight. In Sanskrit, there are definite rules that regulate poetry; rhyme and meter are not written whimsically, as in much modern poetry. Amongst the regulated poetry, the Gyatr mantra, which is chanted by the duly qualified brhmaas, is the most prominent. The Gyatr mantra is mentioned in the rmad- Bhgavatam. Because the Gyatr mantra isespecially meant for God realization, it represents the Supreme Lord. This mantra is meant for spiritually advanced people, and when one attains success in chanting it, he can enter into the transcendental position of the Lord. One must first acquire the qualities of the perfectly situated person, the qualities of goodness according to the laws of material nature, in order to chant the Gyatr mantra. The Gyatr mantra is very important in Vedic civilization and is considered to be the sound incarnation of Brahman. Brahm is its initiator, and it is passed down from him in disciplic succession. The months of November and December are considered the best of all months because in India grains are collected from the fields at this time, and the people become very happy. Of course spring is a season universally liked because it is neither too hot nor too cold, and the flowers and trees blossom and flourish. In spring there are also many ceremonies commemorating Ka's pastimes; therefore this is considered to be the most joyful of all seasons, and it is the representative of the Supreme Lord Ka. TEXT 36 dyta chalayatm asmi tejas tejasvinm aham jayo 'smi vyavasyo 'smi sattva sattvavatm aham dytam gambling; chalayatm of all cheats; asmi I am; teja splendid; tejasvinm of everything splendid; aham I am; jaya victory; asmi I am; vyavasya adventure; asmi I am; sattvam strength; sattvavatm of all the strong; aham I am. TRANSLATION I am also the gambling of cheats, and of the splendid I am the splendor. I am victory, I am adventure, and I am the strength of the strong. PURPORT There are many kinds of cheaters all over the universe. Of all cheating processes, gambling stands supreme and therefore represents Ka. As the Supreme, Ka can be more deceitful than any mere man. If Ka chooses to deceive a person, no one can surpass Him in His deceit. His greatness is not simply one-sided-it is all-sided. Among the victorious, He is victory. He is the splendor of the splendid. Among enterprising industrialists, He is the most enterprising. Among adventurers, He is the most adventurous, and among the strong, He is the strongest. When Ka was present on earth, no one could surpass Him in strength. Even in His childhood He lifted Govardhana Hill. No one can surpass Him in cheating, no one can surpass Him in splendor, no one can surpass Him in victory, no one can surpass Him in enterprise, and no one can surpass Him in strength. TEXT 37 vn vsudevo 'smi pavn dhanajaya munnm apy aha vysa kavnm uan kavi vnm of the descendants of Vi; vsudeva Ka in Dvraka; asmi I am; pavnm of the Pavas; dhanajaya Arjuna; munnm of the sages; api also; aham I am; vysa Vysa, the compiler of allVedic literature; kavnm of all great thinkers; uan Uan; kavi the thinker. TRANSLATION Of the descendants of Vi I am Vsudeva, and of the Pavas I am Arjuna. Of the sages I am Vysa, and among great thinkers I am Uan. PURPORT Ka is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Vsudeva is the immediate expansion of Ka. Both Lord Ka and Baladeva appear as the sons of Vasudeva. Amongst the sons of Pu, Arjuna is famous and valiant. Indeed, he is the best of men and therefore represents Ka. Among the munis, or learned men conversant in Vedic knowledge, Vysa is the greatest because he explained Vedic knowledge in many different ways for the understanding of the common mass of people in this age of Kali. And Vysa is also known as an incarnation of Ka; therefore Vysa also represents Ka. Kavis are those who are capable of thinking thoroughly on any subject matter. Among the kavis, Uan was the spiritual master of the demons; he was extremely intelligent, far-seeing, political and spiritual in every way. Thus Uan is another representative of the opulence of Ka. TEXT 38 dao damayatm asmi ntir asmi jigatm mauna caivsmi guhyn jna jnavatm aham daa punishment; damayatm of all separation; asmi I am; nti morality; asmi I am; jigatm of the victorious; maunam silence; ca and; eva also; asmi I am; guhynm of secrets; jnam knowledge; jnavatm of the wise; aham I am. TRANSLATION Among punishments I am the rod of chastisement, and of those who seek victory, I am morality. Of secret things I am silence, and of the wise I am wisdom. PURPORT There are many suppressing agents, of which the most important are those that cut down the miscreants. When miscreants are punished, the rod of chastisement represents Ka. Among those who are trying to be victorious in some field of activity, the most victorious element is morality. Among the confidential activities of hearing, thinking and meditating, silence is most important because by silence one can make progress very quickly. The wise man is he who can discriminate between matter and spirit, between God's superior and inferior natures. Such knowledge is Ka Himself. TEXT 39 yac cpi sarva-bhtn bja tad aham arjuna na tad asti vin yat syn may bhta carcaram yat whatever; ca also; api may be; sarva-bhtnm of all creations; bjam the seed; tat that; aham I am; arjuna O Arjuna; na not; tat that; asti there is; vin without; yat that; syt exists; may by Me; bhtam created; carcaram moving and unmoving. TRANSLATION Furthermore, O Arjuna, I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being-moving or unmoving-that can exist without Me. PURPORT Everything has a cause, and that cause or seed of manifestation is Ka. Without Ka's energy, nothing can exist; therefore He is called omnipotent. Without His potency, neither the movable nor the unmovable can exist. Whatever existence is not founded on the energy of Ka is called my, that which is not. TEXT 40 nnto 'sti mama divyn vibhtn parantapa ea tddeata prokto vibhter vistaro may na nor; anta a limit; asti isthere; mama of My; divynm divine; vibhtnam opulences; parantapa O conquerer of the enemies; ea all this; tu that; uddeata examples; prokta spoken; vibhte opulences; vistara expanded; may by Me. TRANSLATION O mighty conqueror of enemies, there is no end to My divine manifestations. What I have spoken to you is but a mere indication of My infinite opulences. PURPORT As stated in the Vedic literature, although the opulences and energies of the Supreme are understood in various ways, there is no limit to such opulences; therefore not all the opulences and energies can be explained. Simply a few examples are being described to Arjuna to pacify his inquisitiveness. TEXT 41 yad yad vibhtimat sattva rmad rjitam eva v tat tad evvagaccha tva mama tejo'a-sambhavam yat yat whatever; vibhti opulences; mat having; sattvam existence; rmat beautiful; rjitam glorious; eva certainly; v or; tat tat all those; eva certainly; avagaccha you must know; tvam you; mama My; teja splendor; aa partly; sambhavam born of. TRANSLATION Know that all beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My splendor. PURPORT Any glorious or beautiful existence should be understood to be but a fragmental manifestation of Ka's opulence, whether it be in the spiritual or material world. Anything extraordinarily opulent should be considered to represent Ka's opulence. TEXT 42 athav bahunaitena ki jtena tavrjuna viabhyham ida ktsnam ekena sthito jagat athav or; bahun many; etena by this kind; kim what; jtena knowing; tava you; arjuna O Arjuna; viabhya entire; aham I; idam this; ktsnam all manifestations; eka one; aena part; sthitha situated; jagat in the universe. TRANSLATION But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe. PURPORT The Supreme Lord is represented throughout the entire material universes by His entering into all things as the Supersoul. The Lord here tells Arjuna that there is no point in understanding how things exist in their separate opulence and grandeur. He should know that all things are existing due to Ka's entering them as Supersoul. From Brahm, the most gigantic entity, on down to the smallest ant, all are existing because the Lord has entered each and all and is sustaining them. Worship of demigods is discouraged herein because even the greatest demigods like Brahm and iva only represent part of the opulence of the Supreme Lord. He is the origin of everyone born, and no one is greater than Him. He is samat, which means that no one is superior to Him and that no one is equal to Him. In the Viu-mantra it is said that one who considers the Supreme Lord Ka in the same category with demigods be they even Brahm or iva becomes at once an atheist. If, however, one thoroughly studies the different descriptions of the opulences and expansions of Ka's energy, then one can understand without any doubt the position of Lord r Ka and can fix his mind in the worship of Ka without deviation. The Lord is all-pervading by the expansion of His partial representation, the Supersoul, who enters into everything that is. Pure devotees, therefore, concentrate their minds in Ka consciousness in full devotional service; therefore they are always situated in the transcendental position. Devotional service and worship of Ka are very clearly indicated in this chapter in verses eight to eleven. That is the way of pure devotional service. How one can attain the highest devotional perfection of association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead has been thoroughly explained in this chapter. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Tenth Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of the Opulence of the Absolute. Chapter-11 CHAPTER ELEVEN The Universal Form TEXT 1 arjuna uvca mad-anugrahya parama guhyam adhytma-sajitam yat tvayokta vacas tena moho 'ya vigato mama arjuna uvca Arjuna said; mat-anugrahya just to show me favor; paramam supreme; guhyam confidential; adhytma spiritual; sajitam in the matter of; yat what; tvay by You; uktam said; vaca words; tena by that; moha illusion; ayam this; vigata iseducated; mama my. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: I have heard Your instruction on confidential spiritual matters which You have so kindly delivered unto me, and my illusion is now dispelled. PURPORT This chapter reveals Ka as the cause of all causes. He is even the cause of the Mah-Viu, and from Him the material universes emanate. Ka is not an incarnation; He is the source of all incarnations. That has been completely explained in the last chapter. Now, as far as Arjuna is concerned, he says that his illusion is over. This means that Arjuna no longer thinks of Ka as a mere human being, as a friend of his, but as the source of everything. Arjuna is very enlightened and is glad that he has a great friend like Ka, but now he is thinking that although he may accept Ka as the source of everything, others may not. So in order to establish Ka's divinity for all, he is requesting Ka in this chapter to show His universal form. Actually when one sees the universal form of Ka one becomes frightened, like Arjuna, but Ka is so kind that after showing it He converts Himself again into His original form. Arjuna agrees to what Ka says several times. Ka is speaking to him just for his benefit, and Arjuna acknowledges that all this is happening to him by Ka's grace. He is now convinced that Ka is the cause of all causes and is present in everyone's heart as the Supersoul. TEXT 2 bhavpyayau hi bhtn rutau vistarao may tvatta kamala-patrka mhtmyam api cvyayam bhava appearance; apyayau disappearance; hi certainly; bhtnm of all living entities; rutau have heard; vistaraa detail; may by me; tvatta from You; kamala-patrka O lotus-eyed one; mhtmyam glories; api also; ca and; avyayam inexhaustible. TRANSLATION O lotus-eyed one, I have heard from You in detail about the appearance and disappearance of every living entity, as realized through Your inexhaustible glories. PURPORT Arjuna addresses Lord Ka as "lotus-eyed" (Ka's eyes appear just like the petals of a lotus flower) out of his joy, for Ka has assured him, in the last verse of the previous chapter, that He sustains the entire universe with just a fragment of Himself. He is the source of everything in this material manifestation, and Arjuna has heard of this from the Lord in detail. Arjuna further knows that in spite of His being the source of all appearances and disappearances, He is aloof from them. His personality is not lost, although He is all-pervading. That is the inconceivable opulence of Ka which Arjuna admits that he has thoroughly understood. TEXT 3 evam etad yathttha tvam tmna paramevara draum icchmi te rpam aivara puruottama evam that; etat this; yathttha as it is; tvam You; tmnam the soul; paramevara the Supreme Lord; draum to see; icchmi I wish; te You; rpam form; aivaram divine; puruottama O best of personalities. TRANSLATION O greatest of all personalities, O supreme form, though I see here before me Your actual position, I yet wish to see how You have entered into this cosmic manifestation. I want to see that form of Yours. PURPORT The Lord said that because He entered into the material universe by His personal representation, the cosmic manifestation has been made possible and is going on. Now as far as Arjuna is concerned, he is inspired by the statements of Ka, but in order to convince others in the future who may think that Ka is an ordinary person, he desires to see Him actually in His universal form, to see how He is acting from within the universe, although He is apart from it. Arjuna's asking the Lord's permission is also significant. Since the Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is present within Arjuna himself; therefore He knows the desire of Arjuna, and He can understand that Arjuna has no special desire to see Him in His universal form, for he is completely satisfied to see Him in His personal form of Ka. But He can understand also that Arjuna wants to see the universal form to convince others. He did not have any personal desire for confirmation. Ka also understands that Arjuna wants to see the universal form to set a criterion, for in the future there would be so many imposters who would pose themselves as incarnations of God. The people, therefore, should be careful; one who claims to be Ka should be prepared to show his universal form to confirm his claim to the people. TEXT 4 manyase yadi tac chakya may draum iti prabho yogevara tato me tva daraytmnam avyayam manyase if You think; yadi if; tat that; akyam able to see; may by me; draum to see; iti thus; prabho O Lord; yogevara the Lord of all mystic power; tata then; me unto me; tvam You; daraya show; tmnam Yourself; avyayam eternal. TRANSLATION If You think that I am able to behold Your cosmic form, O my Lord, O master of all mystic power, then kindly show me that universal self. PURPORT It is said that one can neither see, hear, understand nor perceive the Supreme Lord, Ka, by the material senses. But if one is engaged in loving transcendental service to the Lord from the beginning, then one can see the Lord by revelation. Every living entity is only a spiritual spark; therefore it is not possible to see or to understand the Supreme Lord. Arjuna, as a devotee, does not depend on his speculative strength; rather, he admits his limitations as a living entity and acknowledges Ka's inestimable position. Arjuna could understand that for a living entity it is not possible to understand the unlimited infinite. If the infinite reveals Himself, then it is possible to understand the nature of the infinite by the grace of the infinite. The word yogevara is also very significant here because the Lord has inconceivable power. If He likes, He can reveal Himself by His grace, although He is unlimited. Therefore Arjuna pleads for the inconceivable grace of Ka. He does not give Ka orders. Ka is not obliged to reveal Himself to anyone unless one surrenders fully in Ka consciousness and engages in devotional service. Thus it is not possible for persons who depend on the strength of their mental speculations to see Ka. TEXT 5 r bhagavn uvca paya me prtha rpi atao 'tha sahasraa nn-vidhni divyni nn-varktni ca r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; paya just see; me Mine; prtha O son of Pth; rpi forms; ataa hundreds; atha also; sahasraa thousands; nn-vidhni variegated; divyni divine; nn variegated; vara colored; aktni forms; ca also. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: My dear Arjuna, O son of Pth, behold now My opulences, hundreds of thousands of varied divine forms, multicolored like the sea. PURPORT Arjuna wanted to see Ka in His universal form, which, although a transcendental form, is just manifested for the cosmic manifestation and is therefore subject to the temporary time of this material nature. As the material nature is manifested and not manifested, similarly this universal form of Ka is manifested and unmanifested. It is not eternally situated in the spiritual sky like Ka's other forms. As far as a devotee is concerned, he is not eager to see the universal form, but because Arjuna wanted to see Ka in this way, Ka reveals this form. This universal form is not possible to be seen by any ordinary man. Ka must give one the power to see it. TEXT 6 paydityn vasn rudrn avinau marutas tath bahny ada-prvi paycaryi bhrata paya see; dityn the twelve sons of Aditi; vasn the eight Vasus; rudrn the eleven forms of Rudra; avinau the two Asvins; maruta the forty-nine Maruts (demigods of the wind); tath also; bahni many; ada that you have not heard or seen; prvi before; paya there see; caryi all the wonderful; bhrata O best of the Bhratas. TRANSLATION O best of the Bhratas, see here the different manifestations of dityas, Rudras, and all the demigods. Behold the many things which no one has ever seen or heard before. PURPORT Even though Arjuna was a personal friend of Ka and the most advanced of learned men, it was still not possible for him to know everything about Ka. Here it is stated that humans have neither heard nor known of all these forms and manifestations. Now Ka reveals these wonderful forms. TEXT 7 ihaikastha jagat ktsna paydya sa-carcaram mama dehe gukea yac cnyad draum icchasi iha in this; ekastham in one; jagat the universe; ktsnam completely; paya see; adya immediately; sa with; cara moving; acaram not moving; mama My; dehe in this body; gukea O Arjuna; yat that; ca also; anyat other; draum to see; icchasi you like. TRANSLATION Whatever you wish to see can be seen all at once in this body. This universal form can show you all that you now desire, as well as whatever you may desire in the future. Everything is here completely. PURPORT No one can see the entire universe sitting in one place. Even the most advanced scientist cannot see what is going on in other parts of the universe. Ka gives him the power to see anything he wants to see, past, present and future. Thus by the mercy of Ka, Arjuna is able to see everything. TEXT 8 na tu m akyase draum anenaiva sva-caku divya dadmi te caku paya me yogam aivaram na never; tu but; mm Me; akyase able; draum to see; anena by this; eva certainly; sva-caku with your own eyes; divyam divine; dadmi I give; te you; caku eyes; paya see; me My; yogam aivaram inconceivable mystic power. TRANSLATION But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence. PURPORT A pure devotee does not like to see Ka in any form except His form with two hands; a devotee must see His universal form by His grace, not with the mind but with spiritual eyes. To see the universal form of Ka, Arjuna is told not to change his mind but his vision. The universal form of Ka is not very important; that will be clear in the verses. Yet because Arjuna wanted to see it, the Lord gives him the particular vision required to see that universal form. Devotees who are correctly situated in a transcendental relationship with Ka are attracted by loving features, not by a godless display of opulences. The playmates of Ka, the friends of Ka and the parents of Ka never want Ka to show His opulences. They are so immersed in pure love that they do not even know that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In their loving exchange they forget that Ka is theSupreme Lord. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is stated that the boys who play with Ka are all highly pious souls, and after many, many births they are able to play with Ka. Such boys do not know that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They take Him as a personal friend. The Supreme Person is considered as the impersonal Brahman by great sages, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the devotees, and as a product of this material nature by ordinary men. The fact is that the devotee is not concerned to see the viva-rpa, the universal form, but Arjuna wanted to see it to substantiate Ka's statement so that in the future people could understand that Ka not only theoretically or philosophically presented Himself as the Supreme but actually presented Himself as such to Arjuna. Arjuna must confirm this because Arjuna is the beginning of the parampar system. Those who are actually interested to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, and who follow in the footsteps of Arjuna should understand that Ka not only theoretically presented Himself as the Supreme, but actually revealed Himself as the Supreme. The Lord gave Arjuna the necessary power to see His universal form because He knew that Arjuna did not particularly want to see it, as we have already explained. TEXT 9 sajaya uvca evam uktv tato rjan mah-yogevaro hari daraymsa prthya parama rpam aivaram sajaya uvca Sanjaya said; evam thus; uktv saying; tata thereafter; rjan O King; mah-yogevara the most powerful mystic; hari the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka; daraymsa showed; prthya unto Arjuna; paramam divine; rpam universal form; aivaram opulences. TRANSLATION Sajaya said: O King, speaking thus, the Supreme, the Lord of all mystic power, the Personality of Godhead, displayed His universal form to Arjuna. TEXTS 10-11 aneka-vaktra-nayanam anekdbhuta-daranam aneka-divybharaa divynekodyatyudham divya-mlymbara-dhara divya-gandhnulepanam sarvcarya-maya devam ananta vivato-mukham aneka various; vaktra mouths; nayanam eyes; aneka various; adbhuta wonderful; daranam sight; aneka many; divya divine; bharaam ornaments; divya divine; aneka various; udyata uplifted; yudham weapons; divya divine; mlya garlands; ambara-dharam covered with the dresses; divya divine; gandha fragrance; anulepanam smeared; sarva all; acaryamayam wonderful; devam shining; anantam unlimited; vivata-mukham all-pervading. TRANSLATION Arjuna saw in that universal form unlimited mouths and unlimited eyes. It was all wondrous. The form was decorated with divine, dazzling ornaments and arrayed in many garbs. He was garlanded gloriously, and there were many scents smeared over His body. All was magnificent, all- expanding, unlimited. This was seen by Arjuna. PURPORT These two verses indicate that there is no limit to the hands, mouths, legs, etc., of the Lord. These manifestations are distributed throughout the universe and are unlimited. By the grace of the Lord, Arjuna could see them while sitting in one place. That is due to the inconceivable potency of Ka. TEXT 12 divi srya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthit yadi bh sad s syd bhsas tasya mahtmana divi in the sky; srya sun; sahasrasya of many thousands; bhavet there were; yugapat simultaneously; utthit present; yadi if; bh light; sad like that; s that; syt may be; bhsa effulgence; tasya there is ; mahtmana of the great Lord. TRANSLATION If hundreds of thousands of suns rose up at once into the sky, they might resemble the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form. PURPORT What Arjuna saw was indescribable, yet Sajaya is trying to give a mental picture of that great revelation to Dhtarra. Neither Sajaya nor Dhtarra were present, but Sajaya, by the grace of Vysa, could see whatever happened. Thus he now compares the situation, as far as it can be understood, to an imaginable phenomenon (i.e. thousands of suns). TEXT 13 tatraikastha jagat ktsna pravibhaktam anekadh apayad deva-devasya arre pavas tad tatra there; ekastham one place; jagat universe; ktsnam completely; pravibhaktam divided in; anekadh many kinds; apayat could see; deva- devasya of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; arre in the universal form; pava Arjuna; tad at that time. TRANSLATION At that time Arjuna could see in the universal form of the Lord the unlimited expansions of the universe situated in one place although divided into many, many thousands. PURPORT The word tatra (there) is very significant. It indicates that both Arjuna and Ka were sitting on the chariot when Arjuna saw the universal form. Others on the battlefield could not see this form because Ka gave the vision only to Arjuna. Arjuna could see in the body of Ka many thousands of universes. As we learn from Vedic scriptures, there are many universes and many planets. Some of them are made of earth, some are made of gold, some are made of jewels, some are very great, some are not so great, etc. Sitting on his chariot, Arjuna could see all these universes. But no one could understand what was going on between Arjuna and Ka. TEXT 14 tata sa vismayvio ha-rom dhanajaya praamya iras deva ktjalir abhata tata thereafter; sa he; vismayvia being overwhelmed with wonder; ha-rom with his bodily hairs standing on end due to his great ecstasy; dhanajaya Arjuna ; praamya offering obeisances; iras with the head; devam to the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ktjali with folded hands; abhata began to say. TRANSLATION Then, bewildered and astonished, his hair standing on end, Arjuna began to pray with folded hands, offering obeisances to the Supreme Lord. PURPORT Once the divine vision is revealed, the relationship between Ka and Arjuna changes immediately. Before, Ka and Arjuna had a relationship based on friendship, but here, after the revelation, Arjuna is offering obeisances with great respect, and with folded hands he is praying to Ka. He is praising the universal form. Thus Arjuna's relationship becomes one of wonder rather than friendship. Great devotees see Ka as the reservoir of all relationships. In the scriptures there are twelve basic kinds of relationships mentioned, and all of them are present in Ka. It is said that He is the ocean of all the relationships exchanged between two living entities, between the gods, or between the Supreme Lord and His devotees. It is said that Arjuna was inspired by the relationship of wonder, and in that wonder, although he was by nature very sober, calm and quiet, he became ecstatic, his hair stood up, and he began to offer his obeisances unto the Supreme Lord with folded hands. He was not, of course, afraid. He was affected by the wonders of the Supreme Lord. The immediate context is wonder; his natural loving friendship was overwhelmed by wonder, and thus he reacted in this way. TEXT 15 - arjuna uvca paymi devs tava deva dehe sarvs tath bhta-viea-saghn brahmam a kamalsana-stham ca sarvn urag ca divyn arjuna uvca Arjuna said; paymi I see; devn all the demigods; tava Your; deva O Lord; dehe in the body; sarvn all; tath also; bhta living entities; viea-saghn specifically assembled; brahmam Lord Brahm; am Lord iva; kamala-sana-stham sitting on the lotus flower; n great sages; ca also; sarvn all; uragn serpents; ca also; divyn divine. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: My dear Lord Ka, I see assembled together in Your body all the demigods and various other living entities. I see Brahm sitting on the lotus flower as well as Lord iva and many sages and divine serpents. PURPORT Arjuna sees everything in the universe; therefore he sees Brahm, who is the first creature in the universe, and the celestial serpent upon which the Garbhodakay Viu lies in the lower regions of the universe. This snake bed is called Vsuki. There are also other snakes known as Vsuki. Arjuna can see from the Garbhodakay Viu up to the topmost part of the universe on the lotus-flower planet where Brahm, the first creature of the universe, resides. That means that from the beginning to the end, everything could be seen by Arjuna sitting in one place on his chariot. This was possible by the grace of the Supreme Lord, Ka. TEXT 16 aneka-bhdara-vaktra-netra paymi tv sarvato 'nanta-rpam nnta na madhya na punas tavdi paymi vivevara viva-rpa aneka many; bh arms; udara bellies; vaktra mouths; netram eyes; paymi I see; tvm unto You; sarvata from all sides; ananta- rpam unlimited form; na antam there is no end; na madhyam there is no middle; na puna nor again; tava Your; dim beginning; paymi I see; vivevara O Lord of the universe; viva-rpa in the form of the universe. TRANSLATION O Lord of the universe, I see in Your universal body many, many forms bellies, mouths, eyesexpanded without limit. There is no end, there is no beginning, and there is no middle to all this. PURPORT Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is unlimited; thus through Him everything could be seen. TEXT 17 - kirina gadina cakria ca tejo-ri sarvato dptimantam paymi tv durnirkya samantd dptnalrka-dyutim aprameyam kirinam with helmets; gadinam with maces; cakriam with discs; ca and; tejorim effulgence; sarvata all sides; dptimantam glowing; pasymi I see; tvm You; durnirkyam difficult to see; samantt spreading; dpta-anala blazing fire; arka sun; dyutim sunshine; aprameyam immeasurable. TRANSLATION Your form, adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs, is difficult to see because of its glaring effulgence, which is fiery and immeasurable like the sun. TEXT 18 tvam akara parama veditavya tvam asya vivasya para nidhnam tvam avyaya vata-dharma-gopt santanas tva puruo mato me tvam You; akaram inexhaustible; paramam supreme; veditavyam to be understood; tvam You; asya of this; vivasya of the universe; param supreme; nidhnam basis; tvam You are; avyaya inexhaustible; vata-dharma-gopt maintainer of the eternal religion; santana eternal; tvam You; purua Supreme Personality; mata me ismy opinion. TRANSLATION You are the supreme primal objective; You are the best in all the universes; You are inexhaustible, and You are the oldest; You are the maintainer of religion, the eternal Personality of Godhead. TEXT 19 - andi-madhyntam ananta-vryam ananta-bhu ai-srya-netram paymi tv dpta-huta-vaktra sva-tejas vivam ida tapantam andi without beginning; madhya without middle; antam without end; ananta unlimited; vryam glorious; ananta unlimited; bhum arms; ai moon; srya sun; netram eyes; paymi I see; tvm You; dpta blazing; huta-vaktram fire coming out of Your mouth; sva-tejas by Your; vivam this universe; idam this; tapantam heating. TRANSLATION You are the origin without beginning, middle or end. You have numberless arms, and the sun and moon are among Your great unlimited eyes. By Your own radiance You are heating this entire universe. PURPORT There is no limit to the extent of the six opulences of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Here and in many other places there is repetition, but according to the scriptures, repetition of the glories of Ka is not a literary weakness. It is said that at a time of bewilderment or wonder or of great ecstasy, statements are repeated over and over. That is not a flaw. TEXT 20 dyv pthivyor idam antara hi vypta tvayaikena dia ca sarv dvdbhuta rpam ugra taveda loka-traya pravyathita mahtman dyau in outer space; pthivyo of the earth; idam this; antaram in between; hi certainly; vyptam pervaded; tvay by You; ekena by one; dia directions; ca and; sarv all; dv by seeing; adbhutam wonderful; rpam form; ugram terrible; tava Your; idam this; loka planetary system; trayam three; pravyathitam perturbed; mahtman O great one. TRANSLATION Although You are one, You are spread throughout the sky and the planets and all space between. O great one, as I behold this terrible form, I see that all the planetary systems are perplexed. PURPORT Dyv pthivyo (the space between heaven and earth) and lokatrayam (three worlds) are significant words in this verse because it appears that not only Arjuna saw this universal form of the Lord, but others in other planetary systems also saw it. The vision was not a dream. All who were spiritually awake with the divine vision saw it. TEXT 21 am hi tv sura-sagh vianti kecid bht prjalayo ganti svastty uktv mahari-siddha-sagh stuvanti tv stutibhi pukalbhi am all those; hi certainly; tvm unto You; sura-sagh groups of demigods; vianti entering; kecit some of them; bht out of fear; prjalaya with folded hands; ganti offering prayers unto; svasti all peace; iti thus; uktv speaking like that; mahari great sages; siddha- sagh perfect sages; stuvanti singing hymns; tvm unto You; stutibhi with prayers; pukalbhi Vedic hymns. TRANSLATION All the demigods are surrendering and entering into You. They are very much afraid, and with folded hands they are singing the Vedic hymns. PURPORT The demigods in all the planetary systems feared the terrific manifestation of the universal form and its glowing effulgence and so prayed for protection. TEXT 22 rudrdity vasavo ye ca sdhy vive 'vinau maruta comap ca gandharva-yaksura-siddha-sagh vkante tv vismit caiva sarve rudra manifestations of Lord iva; dity the dityas; vasava the Vasus; ye all those; ca and; sdhy the Sdhyas; vive the Vivadevas; avinau the Avinkumras; maruta the Maruts; ca and; umap the forefathers; ca and; gandharva the Gandharvas; yaka the Yakas; asura- siddha the demons and the perfected demigods; sagh assemblies; vkante are seeing; tvm You; vismit in wonder; ca also; eva certainly; sarve all. TRANSLATION The different manifestations of Lord iva, the dityas, the Vasus, the Sdhyas, the Vivadevas, the two Avins, the Mruts, the forefathers and the Gandharvas, the Yakas, Asuras, and all perfected demigods are beholding You in wonder. TEXT 23 rpa mahat te bahu-vaktra-netra mah-bho bahu-bhru-pdam bahdara bahu-dar-karla dv lok pravyathits tathham rpam form; mahat very great; te of You; bahu many; vaktra faces; netram eyes; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; bahu many; bhu arms; ru thighs; pdam legs; bahu-udaram many bellies; babu-dar many teeth; karlam horrible; dv seeing; lok all the planets; pravyathit perturbed; tath similarly; aham I. TRANSLATION O mighty-armed one, all the planets with their demigods are disturbed at seeing Your many faces, eyes, arms, bellies and legs and Your terrible teeth, and as they are disturbed, so am I. TEXT 24 nabha spa dptam aneka-vara vyttnana dpta-vila-netram dv hi tv pravyathitntartm dhti na vindmi ama ca vio nabha spam touching the sky; dptam glowing; aneka many; varam color; vytt open; nanam mouth; dpta glowing; vila very great; netram eyes; dv by seeing; hi certainly; tvm You; pravyathit perturbed; anta within; tm soul; dhtim steadiness; na no; vindmi and have; amam mental tranquility; ca also; vio O Lord Viu. TRANSLATION O all-pervading Viu, I can no longer maintain my equilibrium. Seeing Your radiant colors fill the skies and beholding Your eyes and mouths, I am afraid. TEXT 25 dar-karlni ca te mukhni dvaiva klnala-sannibhni dio na jne na labhe ca arma prasda devea jagan-nivsa dar teeth; karlni like that; ca also; te Your; mukhni faces; dv seeing; eva thus; klnala the fire of death; sannibhni as if blazing; dia directions; na jne do not know; na labhe nor obtain; ca arma and grace; prasda be pleased; devea O Lord of all lords; jagat- nivsa refuge of the worlds. TRANSLATION O Lord of lords, O refuge of the worlds, please be gracious to me. I cannot keep my balance seeing thus Your blazing deathlike faces and awful teeth. In all directions I am bewildered. TEXTS 26-27 am ca tv dhtarrasya putr sarve sahaivvanipla-saghai bhmo droa sta-putras tathsau sahsmadyair api yodha-mukhyai vaktri te tvaram vianti dar-karlni bhaynakni kecid vilagn daanntareu sandyante critair uttamgai am all those; ca also; tvm You; dhtarasya of Dhtarra; putr sons; sarva all; saha eva along with; avanipla warrior kings; saghai with the groups; bhma Bhmadeva; droa Drocrya; sta-putra Kara; tath also; asau that; saha with; asmadyai our; api also; yodha-mukhyai chief among the warriors; vaktri mouths; te Your; tvaram fearful; vianti entering; dar teeth; karlni terrible; bhaynakni very fearful; kecit some of them; vilagn being attacked; daanntareu between the teeth; sandyante being seen; critai smashed; uttama-agai by the head. TRANSLATION All the sons of Dhtarra along with their allied kings, and Bhma, Droa and Kara, and all our soldiers are rushing into Your mouths, their heads smashed by Your fearful teeth. I see that some are being crushed between Your teeth as well. PURPORT In a previous verse the Lord promised to show Arjuna things he would by very interested in seeing. Now Arjuna sees that the leaders of the opposite party (Bhma, Droa, Kara and all the sons of Dhtarra) and their soldiers and Arjuna's own soldiers are all being annihilated. This is an indication that Arjuna will emerge victorious in battle, despite heavy losses on both sides. It is also mentioned here that Bhma, who is supposed to be unconquerable, will also be smashed. So also Kara. Not only will the great warriors of the other party like Bhma be smashed, but some of the great warriors of Arjuna's side also. TEXT 28 yath nadn bahavo 'mbu-veg samudram evbhimukh dravanti tath tavm nara-loka-vr vianti vaktry abhivijvalanti yath as; nadnm of the rivers; bahava many; ambu-veg waves of the waters; samudram ocean; eva certainly; abhimukh towards; dravanti gliding; tath similarly; tava Your; am all those; nara- lokavr the kings of human society; vianti entering; vaktri into the mouths; abhivijvalanti blazing. TRANSLATION As the rivers flow into the sea, so all these great warriors enter Your blazing mouths and perish. TEXT 29 - yath pradpta jvalana patag vianti nya samddha-veg tathaiva nya vianti loks tavpi vaktri samddha-veg yath as; pradptam blazing; jvalanam fire; patag moths; vianti enters; nya destruction; samddha full; veg speed; tath eva similarly; nya for destruction; vianti entering; lok all people. tava unto You; api also; vaktri in the mouths; samddha-veg with full speed. TRANSLATION I see all people rushing with full speed into Your mouths as moths dash into a blazing fire. TEXT 30 - lelihyase grasamna samantl lokn samagrn vadanair jvaladbhi tejobhir prya jagat samagra bhsas tavogr pratapanti vio lelihyase licking; grasamna devouring; samantt from all directions; lokn people; samagrn completely; vadanai by the mouth; jvaladbhi with blazing; tejobhi by effulgence; prya covering; jagat the universe; samagram all; bhsa illuminating; tava Your; ugr terrible; pratapanti scorching; vio O all-pervading Lord. TRANSLATION O Viu, I see You devouring all people in Your flaming mouths and covering the universe with Your immeasurable rays. Scorching the worlds, You are manifest. TEXT 31 khyhi me ko bhavn ugra-rpo namo 'stu te deva-vara prasda vijtum icchmi bhavantam dya na hi prajnmi tava pravttim khyhi please explain; me unto me; ka who; bhavn You; ugra- rpa fierce form; nama astu obeisances; te unto You; deva-vara the great one amongst the demigods; prasda be gracious; vijtum just to know; icchmi I wish; bhavantam You; dyam the original; na never; hi certainly; prajnmi do I know; tava Your; pravttim mission. TRANSLATION O Lord of lords, so fierce of form, please tell me who You are. I offer my obeisances unto You; please be gracious to me. I do not know what Your mission is, and I desire to hear of it. TEXT 32 r bhagavn uvca klo 'smi loka-kaya-kt pravddho lokn samhartum iha pravtta te 'pi tv na bhaviyanti sarve ye 'vasthit pratyankeu yodh r bhagavn uvca the Personality of Godhead said; kla time; asmi I am; loka the worlds; kaya-kt destroyer; pravddha to engage; lokn all people; samhartum to destroy; iha in this world; pravtta to engage; te api without even; tvm you; na never; bhaviyanti will be; sarve all; ye who; avasthit situated; pratyankeu on the opposite side; yodh the soldiers. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: Time I am, destroyer of the worlds, and I have come to engage all people. With the exception of you [the Pavas], all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain. PURPORT Although Arjuna knew that Ka was his friend and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he was nonetheless puzzled by the various forms exhibited by Ka. Therefore he asked further about the actual mission of this devastating force. It is written in the Vedas that the Supreme Truth destroys everything, even Brahm. Yasya brahme ca katram ca ubhe bhavata odana/mtyur yasyopasecana ka itth veda yatra sa. Eventually all the brhmaas, katriyas and everyone else are devoured by the Supreme. This form of the Supreme Lord is an all-devouring giant, and here Ka presents Himself in that form of all-devouring time. Except for a few Pavas, everyone who was present in that battlefield would be devoured by Him. Arjuna was not in favor of the fight, and he thought it was better not to fight; then there would be no frustration. In reply, the Lord is saying that even if he did not fight, every one of them would be destroyed, for that is His plan. If he stopped fighting, they would die in another way. Death cannot be checked, even if he did not fight. In fact, they were already dead. Time is destruction, and all manifestations are to be vanquished by the desire of the Supreme Lord. That is the law of nature. TEXT 33 tasmt tvam uttiha yao labhasva jitv atrn bhukva rjya samddham mayaivaite nihat prvam eva nimitta-mtra bhava savyascin tasmt therefore; tvm you; uttiha get up; yaa fame; labhasva gain; jitv conquering; atrn enemies; bhukva enjoy; rjyam kingdom; samddham flourishing; may by Me; eva certainly; ete all these; nihat already killed; prvam eva by previous elements; nimitta- mtram just become the cause; bhava become; savyascin O Savyascin. TRANSLATION Therefore get up and prepare to fight. After conquering your enemies you will enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyascin, can be but an instrument in the fight. PURPORT Savyascin refers to one who can shoot arrows very expertly in the field; thus Arjuna is addressed as an expert warrior capable of delivering arrows to kill his enemies. "Just become an instrument": nimitta-mtram. This word is also very significant. The whole world is moving according to the plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Foolish persons who do not have sufficient knowledge think that nature is moving without a plan and all manifestations are but accidental formations. There are many so-called scientists who suggest that perhaps it was like this, or maybe like that, but there is no question of "perhaps" and "maybe." There is a specific plan being carried out in this material world. What is this plan? This cosmic manifestation is a chance for the conditioned souls to go back to Godhead, back to home. As long they have the domineering mentality which makes them try to lord it over material nature, they are conditioned. But anyone who can understand the plan of the Supreme Lord and cultivate Ka consciousness is most intelligent. The creation and destruction of the cosmic manifestation are under the superior guidance of God. Thus the Battle of Kuruketra was fought according to the plan of God. Arjuna was refusing to fight, but he was told that he should fight and at the same time desire the Supreme Lord. Then he would be happy. If one is in full Ka consciousness and if his life is devoted to His transcendental service, he is perfect. TEXT 34 droa ca bhma ca jayadratha ca kara tathnyn api yodha-vrn may hats tva jahi m vyathih yudhyasva jetsi rae sapatnn droam ca also Droa; bhmam ca also Bhma; jayadratham ca also Jayadratha; karam also Kara; tath also; anyn others; api certainly; yodha-vrn great warriors; may by Me; hatn already killed; tvam you; jahi become victorious; m never; vyathih be disturbed; yudhyasva just fight; jetsi just conquer; rae in the fight; sapatnn enemies. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: All the great warriorsDroa, Bhma, Jayadratha, Karaare already destroyed. Simply fight, and you will vanquish your enemies. PURPORT Every plan is made by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He is so kind and merciful to His devotees that He wants to give the credit to His devotees who carry out His plan according to His desire. Life should therefore move in such a way that everyone acts in Ka consciousness and understands the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the medium of a spiritual master. The plans of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are understood by His mercy, and the plans of the devotees are as good as His plans. One should follow such plans and be victorious in the struggle for existence. TEXT 35 sajaya uvca etac chrutv vacana keavasya ktjalir vepamna kirt namasktv bhya evha ka sagadgada bhta-bhta praamya sajaya uvca Sajaya said; etat thus; rutv hearing; vacanam speech; keavasya of Ka; ktjali with folded hands; vepamna trembling; kirt Arjuna; namasktv offering obeisances; bhya again; eva also; ha kam said unto Ka; sa-gadgadam faltering; bhta- bhta fearful; praamya offering obeisances. TRANSLATION Sajaya said to Dhtarra: O King, after hearing these words from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Arjuna trembled, fearfully offered obeisances with folded hands and began, falteringly, to speak as follows: PURPORT As we have already explained, because of the situation created by the universal form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Arjuna became bewildered in wonder; thus he began to offer his respectful obeisances to Ka again and again, and with faltering voice he began to pray, not as a friend, but as a devotee in wonder. TEXT 36 arjuna uvca sthne hkea tava prakrty jagat prahyaty anurajyate ca raksi bhtni dio dravanti sarve namasyanti ca siddha-sagh arjuna uvca Arjuna said; sthne rightly; hkea O master of all senses; tava Your; prakrtya glories; jagat the entire world; prahyati rejoicing; anurajyate becoming attached; raksi the demons; bhtni out of fear; dia directions; dravanti fleeing; sarve all; namasyanti offering respect; ca also; siddha-sagh the perfect human beings. TRANSLATION O Hkea, the world becomes joyful upon hearing Your name and thus everyone becomes attached to You. Although the perfected beings offer You their respectful homage, the demons are afraid, and they flee here and there. All this is rightly done. PURPORT Arjuna, after hearing from Ka about the outcome of the Battle of Kuruketra, became an enlightened devotee of the Supreme Lord. He admitted that everything done by Ka is quite fit. Arjuna confirmed that Ka is the maintainer and the object of worship for the devotees and the destroyer of the undesirables. His actions are equally good for all. Arjuna understood herein that when the Battle of Kuruketra was being concluded, in outer space there were present many demigods, siddhas, and the intelligentia of the higher planets, and they were observing the fight because Ka was present there. When Arjuna saw the universal form of the Lord, the demigods took pleasure in it, but others, who were demons and atheists, could not stand it when the Lord was praised. Out of their natural fear of the devastating form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they fled. Ka's treatment of the devotees and the atheists is praised by Arjuna. In all cases a devotee glorifies the Lord because he knows that whatever He does is good for all. TEXT 37 kasmc ca te na nameran mahtman garyase brahmao 'py di-kartre ananta devea jagan-nivsa tvam akara sad-asat tat para yat kasmt why; ca also; te unto You; na not; nameran offer proper obeisances; mahtman O great one; garyase You are better than; brahmaa Brahm; api although; di-kartre the supreme creator; ananta unlimited; devea -God of the gods; jagat-nivsa O refuge of the universe; tvam You are; akaram imperishable; sat-asat cause and effect; tat- param transcendental; yat because. TRANSLATION O great one, who stands above even Brahm, You are the original master. Why should they not offer their homage up to You, O limitless one? O refuge of the universe, You are the invincible source, the cause of all causes, transcendental to this material manifestation. PURPORT By this offering of obeisances, Arjuna indicates that Ka is worshipable by everyone. He is all-pervading, and He is the Soul of every soul. Arjuna is addressing Ka as mahtm, which means that He is most magnanimous and unlimited. Ananta indicates that there is nothing which is not covered by the influence and energy of the Supreme Lord, and devea means that He is the controller of all demigods and is above them all. He is the center of the whole universe. Arjuna also thought that it was fitting that all the perfect living entities and all powerful demigods offer their respectful obeisances unto Him because no one is greater than Him. He especially mentions that Ka is greater than Brahm because Brahm is created by Him. Brahm is born out of the lotus stem grown from the navel abdomen of Garbhodakay Viu, who is Ka's plenary expansion; therefore Brahm and Lord iva, who is born of Brahm, and all other demigods must offer their respectful obeisances. Thus the Lord is respected by Lord iva and Brahm and similar other demigods. The word akaram is very significant because this material creation is subject to destruction, but the Lord is above this material creation. He is the cause of all causes, and being so, He is superior to all the conditioned souls within this material nature as well as the material cosmic manifestation itself. He is therefore the all-great Supreme. TEXT 38 - tvam di-deva purua puras tvam asya vivasya para nidhnam vettsi vedya ca para ca dhma tvay tata vivam ananta-rpa tvam You; di-deva the original Supreme God; purua personality; pura old; tvam You; asya this; vivasya universe; param transcenddental; nidhnam refuge; vett knower; asi You are; vedyam ca and the knowable; param ca and transcendental; dhma refuge; tvay by You; tatam pervaded; vivam universe; ananta-rpa unlimited form. TRANSLATION You are the original Personality, the Godhead. You are the only sanctuary of this manifested cosmic world. You know everything, and You are all that is knowable. You are above the material modes. O limitless form! This whole cosmic manifestation is pervaded by You! PURPORT Everything is resting on the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore He is the ultimate rest. Nidhnam means that everything, even the Brahman effulgence, rests on the Supreme Personality of Godhead Ka. He is the knower of everything that is happening in this world, and if knowledge has any end, He is the end of all knowledge; therefore He is the known and the knowable. He is the object of knowledge because He is all-pervading. Because He is the cause in the spiritual world, He is transcendental. He is also the chief personality in the transcendental world. TEXT 39 vyur yamo 'gnir varua aka prajpatis tva prapitmaha ca namo namas te 'stu sahasra-ktva puna ca bhyo 'pi namo namas te vyu air; yama controller; agni fire; varua water; aka moon; prajpati Brahm; tvam You; prapitmaha grandfather; ca also; nama offering respects; nama te again I offer my respects unto You; astu are being; sahasra-ktva a thousand times; puna ca and again; bhya again; api also; nama offer my respects; nama te offering my respects unto You. TRANSLATION You are air, fire, water, and You are the moon! You are the supreme controller and the grandfather. Thus I offer my respectful obeisances unto You a thousand times, and again and yet again! PURPORT The Lord is addressed here as air because the air is the most important representation of all the demigods, being all-pervasive. Arjuna also addresses Ka as the grandfather because He is the father of Brahm, the first living creature in the universe. TEXT 40 nama purastd atha phatas te namo 'stu te sarvata eva sarva ananta-vrymita-vikramas tva sarva sampnoi tato 'si sarva nama offering obeisances; purastt from the front; atha also; phata from behind; te You; nama astu offer my respects; te unto You; sarvata from all sides; eva sarva because You are everything; ananta-vrya unlimited potency; amita-vikrama unlimited force; tvam You; sarvam everything; sampnoi cover; tata asi therefore You are; sarva everything. TRANSLATION Obeisances from the front, from behind and from all sides! O unbounded power, You are the master of limitless might! You are all- pervading, and thus You are everything! PURPORT Out of loving ecstasy for Ka, his friend, Arjuna is offering his respects from all sides. He is accepting that He is the master of all potencies and all prowess and far superior to all the great warriors assembled on the battlefield. It is said in the Viu Pura: yo 'ya tavgato deva-sampa devat-gaa sa tvam eva jagat-sra yata sarva-gato bhavn. "Whoever comes before You, be he a demigod, is created by You, O Supreme Personality of Godhead." TEXTS 41-42 sakheti matv prasabha yad ukta he ka he ydava he sakheti ajnat mahimna taveda may pramdt praayena vpi yac cvahsrtham asatkto 'si vihra-ayysana-bhojaneu eko 'tha vpy acyuta tat-samaka tat kmaye tvm aham aprameyam sakh friend; iti thus; matv thinking; prasabham temporary; yat whatever; uktam said; he kra O Ka; he ydava O Ydava; he sakh iti O my dear friend, ajnat without knowing; mahimnam glories; tava Your; idam this; may by me; pramdt out of foolishness; pranayena out of love; v api either; yat whatever; ca also; avahsrtham for joking; asatkta dishonor; asi have been done; vihra in relaxation; ayy in joking; sana in a resting place; bhojaneu or while eating together; eka alone; athav or; api others; acyuta O infallible one; tat- samakam as Your competitor; tat all those; kmaye excuse; tvm You; aham I; aprameyam immeasurable. TRANSLATION I have in the past addressed You as "O Ka," "O Ydava," "O my friend," without knowing Your glories. Please forgive whatever I may have done in madness or in love. I have dishonored You many times while relaxing or while lying on the same bed or eating together, sometimes alone and sometimes in front of many friends. Please excuse me for all my offenses. PURPORT Although Ka is manifested before Arjuna in His universal form, Arjuna remembers his friendly relationship with Ka and is therefore asking pardon and requesting Him to excuse him for the many informal gestures which arise out of friendship. He is admitting that formerly he did not know that Ka could assume such a universal form, although He explained it as his intimate friend. Arjuna did not know how many times he may have dishonored Him by addressing Him as "O my friend, O Ka, O Ydava," etc., without acknowledging His opulence. But Ka is so kind and merciful that in spite of such opulence He played with Arjuna as a friend. Such is the transcendental loving reciprocation between the devotee and the Lord. The relationship between the living entity and Ka is fixed eternally; it cannot be forgotten, as we can see from the behavior of Arjuna. Although Arjuna has seen the opulence in the universal form, he could not forget his friendly relationship with Ka. TEXT 43 pitsi lokasya carcarasya tvam asya pjya ca gurur garyn na tvat-samo 'sty abhyadhika kuto 'nyo loka-traye 'py apratima-prabhva pit father; asi You are; lokasya of all the world; cara moving; acarasya nonmoving; tvam You are; asya of this; pjya worshipable; ca also; guru master; garyn glorious; na never; tvat-sama equal to You; asti there is; abhyadhika greater; kuta how is it possible; anya other; loka-traye in three planetary systems; api also; apratima immeasurable; prabhva power. TRANSLATION You are the father of this complete cosmic manifestation, the worshipable chief, the spiritual master. No one is equal to You, nor can anyone be one with You. Within the three worlds, You are immeasurable. PURPORT The Lord Ka is worshipable as a father is worshipable for his son. He is the spiritual master because He originally gave the Vedic instructions to Brahm, and presently He is also instructing Bhagavad-gt to Arjuna; therefore He is the original spiritual master, and any bona fide spiritual master at the present moment must be a descendant in the line of disciplic succession stemming from Ka. Without being a representative of Ka, one cannot become a teacher or spiritual master of transcendental subject matter. The Lord is being paid obeisances in all respects. He is of immeasurable greatness. No one can be greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, because no one is equal to or higher than Ka within any manifestation, spiritual or material. Everyone is below Him. No one can excel Him. The Supreme Lord Ka has senses and a body like the ordinary man, but for Him there is no difference between His senses, body, mind and Himself. Foolish persons who do not know Him perfectly say that Ka is different from His soul, mind, heart and everything else. Ka is absolute; therefore His activities and potencies are supreme. It is also stated that He does not have senses like ours. He can perform all sensual activities; therefore His senses are neither imperfect nor limited. No one can be greater than Him, no one can be equal to Him, and everyone is lower than Him. Whoever knows His transcendental body, activities and perfection, after quitting his body, returns to Him and doesn't come back again to this miserable world. Therefore one should know that Ka's activities are different from others. The best policy is to follow the principles of Ka; that will make one perfect. It is also stated that there is no one who is master of Ka; everyone is His servant. Only Ka is God, and everyone is servant. Everyone is complying with His order. There is no one who can deny His order. Everyone is acting according to His direction, being under His superintendence. As stated in the Brahm-sahit, He is the cause of all causes. TEXT 44 tasmt praamya praidhya kya prasdaye tvm aham am yam piteva putrasya sakheva sakhyu priya priyyrhasi deva sohum tasmt therefore; praamya after offering obeisances; praidhya laying down; kyam body; prasdaye to beg mercy; tvm unto you; aham I; am unto the Supreme Lord; yam who is worshipable; pit iva like a father; putrasya of a son; sakh iva like a friend; sakhyu of a friend; priya lover; priyy of the dearmost; arhasi You should; deva my Lord; sohum tolerate. TRANSLATION You are the Supreme Lord, to be worshiped by every living being. Thus I fall down to offer You my respects and ask Your mercy. Please tolerate the wrongs that I may have done to You and bear with me as a father with his son, or a friend with his friend, or a lover with his beloved. PURPORT Ka's devotees relate to Ka in various relationships; one might treat Ka as a son, one might treat Ka as a husband, as a friend, as a master, etc. Ka and Arjuna are related in friendship. As the father tolerates, or the husband or master tolerates, so Ka tolerates. TEXT 45 ada-prva hito 'smi dv bhayena ca pravyathita mano me tad eva me daraya deva rpa prasda devea jagan-nivsa ada-prvam never seen before; hita gladdened; asmi I am; dv by seeing; bhayena out of fear; ca also; pravyathitam perturbed; mana mind; me mine; tat therefore; eva certainly; me unto me; daraya show; deva O Lord; rpam the form; prasda just be gracious; devea O Lord of lords; jagat-nivsa the refuge of the universe. TRANSLATION After seeing this universal form, which I have never seen before, I am gladdened, but at the same time my mind is disturbed with fear. Therefore please bestow Your grace upon me and reveal again Your form as the Personality of Godhead, O Lord of lords, O abode of the universe. PURPORT Arjuna is always in confidence with Ka because he is a very dear friend, and as a dear friend is gladdened by his friend's opulence, Arjuna is very joyful to see that his friend, Ka, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and can show such a wonderful universal form. But at the same time, after seeing that universal form, he is afraid that he has committed so many offenses to Ka out of his unalloyed friendship. Thus his mind is disturbed out of fear, although he had no reason to fear. Arjuna therefore is asking Ka to show His Nryaa form because He can assume any form. This universal form is material and temporary, as the material world is temporary. But in the Vaikuha planets He has His transcendental form with four hands as Nryaa. There are innumerable planets in the spiritual sky, and in each of them Ka is present by His plenary manifesttations of different names. Thus Arjuna desired to see one of the forms manifest in the Vaikuha planets. Of course in each Vaikuha planet the form of Nryaa is four-handed, and the four hands hold different symbols, the conchshell, mace, lotus and disc. According to the different hands these four things are held in, the Nryaas are named. All of these forms are one and the same to Ka; therefore Arjuna requests to see His four- handed feature. TEXT 46 - kirina gadina cakra-hastam icchmi tv draum aha tathaiva tenaiva rpea catur-bhujena sahasra-bho bhava viva-mrte kirinam with helmet; gadinam with club; cakra-hastam disc in hand; icchmi I wish; tvm You; draum to see; aham I; tath eva in that position; tena eva by that; rpea with form; catur-bhujena four-handed; sahasra-bho O thousand-handed one; bhava just become; viva-mrte O universal form. TRANSLATION O universal Lord, I wish to see You in Your four-armed form, with helmeted head and with club, wheel, conch and lotus flower in Your hands. I long to see You in that form. PURPORT In the Brahm-sahit it isstated that the Lord is eternally situated in hundreds and thousands of forms, and the main forms are those like Rma, Nsiha, Nryaa, etc. There are innumerable forms. But Arjuna knew that Ka is the original Personality of Godhead assuming His temporary universal form. He is now asking to see the form of Nryaa, a spiritual form. This verse establishes without any doubt the statement of the rmad- Bhgavatam that Ka is the original Personality of Godhead and all other features originate from Him. He is not different from His plenary expansions, and He is God in any of His innumerable forms. In all of these forms He is fresh like a young man. That is the constant feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who knows Ka at once becomes free from all contamination of the material world. TEXT 47 r bhagavn uvca may prasannena tavrjuneda rpa para daritam tma-yogt tejomaya vivam anantam dya yan me tvad-anyena na da-prvam r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; may by Me; prasannena happily; tava unto you; arjuna O Arjuna; idam this; rpam form; param transcendental; daritam shown; tma-yogt by My internal potency; tejomayam full of effulgence; vivam the entire universe; anantam unlimited; dyam original; yat me that which is Mine; tvat-anyena besides you; na da-prvam no one has previously seen. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: My dear Arjuna, happily do I show you this universal form within the material world by My internal potency. No one before you has ever seen this unlimited and glaringly effulgent form. PURPORT Arjuna wanted to see the universal form of the Supreme Lord, so out of His mercy upon His devotee Arjuna, Lord Ka showed His universal form full of effulgence and opulence. This form was glaring like the sun, and its many faces were rapidly changing. Ka showed this form just to satisfy the desire of His friend Arjuna. This form was manifested by Ka through His internal potency, which is inconceivable by human speculation. No one had seen this universal form of the Lord before Arjuna, but because the form was shown to Arjuna, other devotees in the heavenly planets and in other planets in outer space could also see it. They did not see it before, but because of Arjuna they were also able to see it. In other words, all the disciplic devotees of the Lord could see the universal form which was shown to Arjuna by the mercy of Ka. Someone commented that this form was shown to Duryodhana also when Ka went to Duryodhana to negotiate for peace. Unfortunately, Duryodhana did not accept the peace offer, but at that time Ka manifested some of His universal forms. But those forms are different from this one shown to Arjuna. It is clearly said that no one has ever seen this form before. TEXT 48 - na veda-yajdhyayanair na dnair na ca kriybhir na tapobhir ugrai eva rpa akya aha nloke drau tvad-anyena kuru-pravra na never; veda Vedic study; yaja sacrifice; adhyayanai studying; na dnai by charity; na never; ca also; kriybhi by pious activities; na tapobhi by serious penances; ugrai severe; evam thus; rpa form; akya can be seen; aham I; nloke in this material world; draum to see; tvat you; anyena by another; kuru-pravra O best among the Kuru warriors. TRANSLATION O best of the Kuru warriors, no one before you has ever seen this universal form of Mine, for neither by studying the Vedas, nor by performing sacrifices, nor by charities or similar activities can this form be seen. Only you have seen this. PURPORT The divine vision in this connection should be clearly understood. Who can have divine vision? Divine means godly. Unless one attains the status of divinity as a demigod, he cannot have divine vision. And what is a demigod? It is stated in the Vedic scriptures that those who are devotees of Lord Viu are demigods. Those who are atheistic, i.e., who do not believe in Viu, or who only recognize the impersonal part of Ka as the Supreme, cannot have the divine vision. It is not possible to decry Ka and at the same time have the divine vision. One cannot have the divine vision without becoming divine. In other words, those who have divine vision can also see like Arjuna. The Bhagavad-gt gives the description of the universal form, and this description was unknown to everyone before Arjuna. Now one can have some idea of the viva-rpa after this incidence; those who are actually divine can see the universal form of the Lord. But one cannot be divine without being a pure devotee of Ka. The devotees, however, who are actually in the divine nature and who have divine vision, are not very much interested to see the universal form of the Lord. As described in the previous verse, Arjuna desired to see the four-handed form of Lord Ka as Viu, and he was actually afraid of the universal form. In this verse there are some significant words, just like veda-yajdhya- yanai, which refers to studying Vedic literature and the subject matter of sacrificial regulations. Veda refers to all kinds of Vedic literature, namely the four Vedas (k, Yajus, Sma and Atharva) and the eighteen Puras and Upaniads, and Vednta-stra. One can study these at home or anywhere else. Similarly, there are stras, Kalpa-stras and Mms-stras, for studying the method of sacrifice. Dnai refers to charity which is offered to a suitable party. such as those who are engaged in the transcenddental loving service of the Lord, the brhmaas and the Vaiavas. Similarly, pious activities refer to the agni-hotra, etc., the prescribed duties of the different castes. Pious activities and the voluntary acceptance of some bodily pains are called tapasya. So one can perform all these, can accept bodily penances, give charity, study the Vedas, etc., but unless he is a devotee like Arjuna, it is not possible to see that universal form. Those who are impersonalists are also imagining that they are seeing the universal form of the Lord, but from Bhagavad-gt we understand that the impersonalists are not devotees. Therefore they are unable to see the universal form of the Lord. There are many persons who create incarnations. They falsely claim an ordinary human to be an incarnation, but this is all foolishness. We should follow the principles of Bhagavad-gt, otherwise there is no possibility of attaining perfect spiritual knowledge. Although Bhagavad-gt isconsidered the preliminary study of the science of God, still it is so perfect that one can distinguish what is what. The followers of a pseudo incarnation may say that they have also seen the transcendental incarnation of God, the universal form, but that is not acceptable because it is clearly stated here that unless one becomes a devotee of Ka, one cannot see the universal form of God. So one first of all has to become a pure devotee of Ka; then he can claim that he can show the universal form of what he has seen. A devotee of Ka cannot accept false incarnations or followers of false incarnations. TEXT 49 m te vyath m ca vimha-bhvo dv rpa ghoram d mamedam vyapetabh prta-man punas tva tad eva me rpam ida prapaya m let it not be; te unto you; vyath trouble; m let it not be; ca also; vimha-bhva bewilderment; dv by seeing; rpam form; ghoram horrible; dk like this; mama My; idam as it is; vyapetabh just become free from all fear; prta-man be pleased in mind; puna again; tvam you; tat that; eva thus; me My; rpam form; idam this; prapaya just see. TRANSLATION Your mind has been perturbed upon seeing this horrible feature of Mine. Now let it be finished. My devotee, be free from all disturbance. With a peaceful mind you can now see the form you desire. PURPORT In the beginning of Bhagavad-gt Arjuna was worried about killing Bhma and Droa, his worshipful grandfathers and masters. But Ka said that he need not be afraid of killing his grandfather. When they tried to disrobe Draupad in the assembly, Bhma and Droa were silent, and for such negligence of duty they should be killed. Ka showed His universal form to Arjuna just to show him that these people were already killed for their unlawful action. That scene was shown to Arjuna because devotees are always peaceful, and they cannot perform such horrible actions. The purpose of the revelation of the universal form was shown; now Arjuna wanted to see the four-armed form, and Ka showed him. A devotee is not much interested in the universal form, for it does not enable one to reciprocate loving feelings. A devotee wants to offer his respectful worshiping feelings; thus he wants to see the two-handed or four-handed Ka form so he can reciprocate in loving service with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 50 sajaya uvca ity arjuna vsudevas tathoktv svaka rpa daraymsa bhya vsaymsa ca bhtam ena bhtv puna saumya-vapur mahtm sajaya uvca Sajaya said; iti thus; arjunam unto Arjuna; vsudeva Ka; tath that way; uktv saying; svakam His own; rpam form; daraymsa showed; bhya again; vsaymsa also convinced him; ca also; bhtam fearful; enam him; bhtv puna becoming again; saumya-vapu beautiful form; mahtm the great one. TRANSLATION Sajaya said to Dhtarra: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, while speaking thus to Arjuna, displayed His real four-armed form, and at last He showed him His two-armed form, thus encouraging the fearful Arjuna. PURPORT When Ka appeared as the son of Vasudeva and Devak, He first of all appeared as four-armed Nryaa, but when He was requested by His parents, He transformed Himself into an ordinary child in appearance. Similarly, Ka knew that Arjuna was not interested in seeing a four- handed form of Ka, but since he asked to see this four-handed form, He also showed him this form again and then showed Himself in His two- handed form. The word saumya- vapu is very significant. Saumya-vapu is a very beautiful form; it is known as the most beautiful form. When He was present, everyone was attracted simply by Ka's form, and because Ka is director of the universe, He just banished the fear of Arjuna, His devotee, and showed him again His beautiful form of Ka. In the Brahma- sahit it is stated that only a person whose eyes are smeared with the ointment of love can see the beautiful form of r Ka. TEXT 51 arjuna uvca dveda mnua rpa tava saumya janrdana idnm asmi savtta sa-cet prakti gata arjuna uvca Arjuna said; dv seeing; idam this; mnuam human being; rpam form; tava Your; saumyam very beautiful; janrdana O chastiser of the enemies; idnm just now; asmi I am; savtta settled; sa-cet in my consciousness; praktim my own; gata I am. TRANSLATION When Arjuna thus saw Ka in His original form, he said: Seeing this humanlike form, so very beautiful, my mind is now pacified, and I am restored to my original nature. PURPORT Here the words mnua rpam clearly indicate the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be originally two-handed. Those who deride Ka to be an ordinary person are shown here to be ignorant of His divine nature. If Ka is like an ordinary human being, then how is it possible for Him to show the universal form and again to show the four-handed Nryaa form? So it is very clearly stated in Bhagavad-gt that one who thinks that Ka is an ordinary person and misguides the reader by claiming that it is the impersonal Brahman within Ka speaking, is doing the greatest injustice. Ka has actually shown His universal form and His fourhanded Viu form. So how can He be an ordinary human being? A pure devotee is not confused by misguiding commentaries on Bhagavad-gt because he knows what is what. The original verses of Bhagavad-gt are as clear as the sun; they do not require lamplight from foolish commentators. TEXT 52 r bhagavn uvca sudurdaram ida rpa davn asi yan mama dev apy asya rpasya nitya darana-kkia r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; sudur- darana very difficult to be seen; idam this; rpam form; davn asi as you have seen; yat which; mama of Mine; dev the demigods; api asya also this; rpasya of the form; nityam eternally; darana- kkia always aspire to see. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: My dear Arjuna, the form which you are now seeing is very difficult to behold. Even the demigods are ever seeking the opportunity to see this form which is so dear. PURPORT In the forty-eighth verse of this chapter Lord Ka concluded revealing His universal form and informed Arjuna that this form is not possible to be seen by so many activities, sacrifices, etc. Now here the word sudurdaram isused, indicating that Ka's two-handed form is still more confidential. One may be able to see the universal form of Ka by adding a little tinge of devotional service to various activities like penance, Vedic study and philosophical speculation, etc. It may be possible, but without a tinge of bhakti, one cannot see; that has already been explained. Still, beyond that universal form, the form of Ka as a two-handed man is still more difficult to see, even for demigods like Brahm and Lord iva. They desire to see Him, and we have evidences in the rmad- Bhgavatam that when He was supposed to be in the womb of His mother, Devak, all the demigods from heaven came to see the marvel of Ka. They even waited to see Him. A foolish person may deride Him, but that is an ordinary person. Ka is actually desired to be seen by demigods like Brahm and iva in His two-armed form. In Bhagavad-gt it is also confirmed that He is not visible to the foolish persons who deride Him. Ka's body, as confirmed by Brahm-sahit and confirmed by Himself in Bhagavad-gt, iscompletely spiritual and full of bliss and eternality. His body is never like a material body. But for some who make a study of Ka by reading Bhagavad-gt or similar Vedic scriptures, Ka is a problem. For one using a material process, Ka is considered to be a great historical personality and very learned philosopher. But He isn't an ordinary man. But some think that even though He was so powerful, He had to accept a material body. Ultimately they think that the Absolute Truth is impersonal; therefore they think that from His impersonal feature He assumed a personal feature attached to material nature. This is a materialistic calculation of the Supreme Lord. Another calculation is speculative. Those who are in search of knowledge also speculate on Ka and consider Him to be less important than the universal form of the Supreme. Thus some think that the universal form of Ka which was manifested to Arjuna is more important than His personal form. According to them, the personal form of the Supreme is something imaginary. They believe that in the ultimate issue, the Absolute Truth is not a person. But the transcendental process is described in Bhagavad-gt, Chapter Two: to hear about Ka from authorities. That is the actual Vedic process, and those who are actually in the Vedic line hear about Ka from authority, and by repeated hearing about Him, Ka becomes dear. As we have several times discussed, Ka is covered by His yoga-my potency. He is not to be seen or revealed to anyone and everyone. Only by one to whom He reveals Himself can He be seen. This is confirmed in Vedic literature; for one who is a surrendered soul, the Absolute Truth can actually be understood. The transcendentalist, by continuous Ka consciousness and by devotional service to Ka, can have his spiritual eyes opened and can see Ka by revelation. Such a revelation is not possible even for the demigods; therefore it is difficult even for the demigods to understand Ka, and the advanced demigods are always in hope of seeing Ka in His two-handed form. The conclusion is that although to see the universal form of Ka is very, very difficult and not possible for anyone and everyone, it is still more difficult to understand His personal form as ymasundara. TEXT 53 nha vedair na tapas na dnena na cejyay akya eva-vidho drau davn asi m yath na never; aham I; vedai by study of the Vedas; na never; tapas by serious penances; na never; dnena by charity; na never; ca also; ijyay by worship; akya isit possible; evam-vidha like this; draum to see; davn seeing; asi you are; mm Me; yath as. TRANSLATION The form which you are seeing with your transcendental eyes cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedas, nor by undergoing serious penances, nor by charity, nor by worship. It is not by these means that one can see Me as I am. PURPORT Ka first appeared before His parents Devak and Vasudeva in a four- handed form, and then He transformed Himself into the two-handed form. This mystery is very difficult to understand for those who are atheists or who are devoid of devotional service. For scholars who have simply studied Vedic literature by way of speculation or out of mere academic interest, Ka is not easy to understand. Nor is He to he understood by persons who officially go to the temple to offer worship. They make their visit, but they cannot understand Ka as He is. Ka can be understood only through the path of devotional service, as explained by Ka Himself in the next verse. TEXT 54 bhakty tv ananyay akya aham eva-vidho 'rjuna jtu drau ca tattvena praveu ca parantapa bhakty by devotional service; tu but; ananyay without being mixed with fruitive activities or speculative knowledge; akya possible; aham I; evam-vidha like this; arjuna O Arjuna; jtum to know; draum to see; tattvena in fact; praveum and to enter into; ca also; parantapa O mighty-armed one. TRANSLATION My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding. PURPORT Ka can be understood only by the process of undivided devotional service. He explicitly explains this in this verse so unauthorized commentators, who try to understand Bhagavad-gt by the speculative process, will know that they are simply wasting their time. No one can understand Ka or how He came from parents in a four-handed form and at once changed Himself into a two-handed form. It is clearly stated here that no one can see Him. Those who, however, are very experienced students of Vedic literature can learn about Him from the Vedic literature in so many ways. There are so many rules and regulations, and if one at all wants to understand Ka, he must follow the regulative principles described in the authoritative literature. One can perform penance in accordance with those principles. As far as charity is concerned, it is plain that charity should be given to the devotees of Ka who are engaged in His devotional service to spread the Ka philosophy or Ka consciousness throughout the world. Ka consciousness is a benediction to humanity. Lord Caitanya was appreciated by Rpa Gosvm as the most munificent man of charity because love of Ka, which is very difficult to achieve, was distributed freely by Him. And if one worships as prescribed in the temple (in the temples in India there is always some statue, usually of Viu or Ka), that is a chance to progress. For the beginners in devotional service to the Lord, temple worship is very essential, and this is confirmed in the Vedic literature. One who has unflinching devotion for the Supreme Lord and is directed by the spiritual master can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead by revelation. For one who does not take personal training under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, it is impossible to even begin to understand Ka. The word tu is specifically used here to indicate that no other process can be used, can be recommended, or can be successful in understanding Ka. The personal forms of Ka, the two-handed form and the four- handed, are completely different from the temporary universal form shown to Arjuna. The four-handed form is Nryaa, and the two-handed form is Ka; they are eternal and transcendental, whereas the universal form exhibited to Arjuna is temporary. The very word sudurdaram, meaning difficult to see, suggests that no one saw that universal form. It also suggests that amongst the devotees there was no necessity of showing it. That form was exhibited by Ka at the request of Arjuna because in the future, when one represents himself as an incarnation of God, people can ask to see his universal form. Ka changes from the universal form to the four-handed form of Nryaa and then to His own natural form of two hands. This indicates that the four-handed forms and other forms mentioned in Vedic literature are all emanations of the original two-handed Ka. He is the origin of all emanations. Ka is distinct even from these forms, not to speak of the impersonal conception. As far as the four-handed forms of Ka are concerned, it is stated clearly that even the most identical four-handed form of Ka (which is known as Mah-Viu, who is lying on the cosmic ocean and from whose breathing so many innumerable universes are passing out and entering) is also an expansion of the Supreme Lord. Therefore one should conclusively worship the personal form of Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is eternity, bliss and knowledge. He is the source of all forms of Viu, He is the source of all forms of incarnation, and He is the original Supreme Personality, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gt. In the Vedic literature it is stated that the Supreme Absolute Truth is a person. His name is Ka, and He sometimes descends on this earth. Similarly, in rmad-Bhgavatam there is a description of all kinds of incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and there it is said that Ka is not an incarnation of God but is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Kas tu bhagavn svayam. Similarly, in Bhagavad-gt the Lord says, matta parataram nnyt: "There is nothing superior to My form as the Personality of Godhead Ka." He also says elsewhere in Bhagavad-gt, aham dir hi devnm: "I am the origin of all the demigods." And after understanding Bhagavad-gt from Ka, Arjuna also confirms this in the following words: para brahma para dhma pavitra parama bhavn: "I now fully understand that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, and that You are the refuge of everything." Therefore the universal form which Ka showed to Arjuna is not the original form of God. The original is the Ka form. The universal form, with its thousands and thousands of heads and hands, is manifest just to draw the attention of those who have no love for God. It is not God's original form. The universal form is not attractive for pure devotees, who are in love with the Lord in different transcendental relationships. The Supreme Godhead exchanges transcendental love in His original form of Ka. Therefore to Arjuna, who was so intimately related with Ka in friendship, this form of the universal manifestation was not pleasing; rather, it was fearful. Arjuna, who is a constant companion of Ka's, must have had transcendental eyes; he was not an ordinary man. Therefore he was not captivated by the universal form. This form may seem wonderful to persons who are involved in elevating themselves by fruitive activities, but to persons who are engaged in devotional service, the two-handed form of Ka is the mostdear. TEXT 55 mat-karma-kn mat-paramo mad-bhakta saga-varjita nirvaira sarva-bhteu ya sa mm eti pava mat-karma-kt engaged in doing My work; mat-parama concerning Me, the Supreme; mat-bhakta engaged in My devotional service; saga- varjita freed from the contamination of previous activities and mental speculation; nirvaira without an enemy; sarva-bhteu to every living entity; ya one who; sa he; mm unto Me; eti comes; pava O son of Pu. TRANSLATION My dear Arjuna, one who is engaged in My pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of previous activities and from mental speculation, who is friendly to every living entity, certainly comes to Me. PURPORT Anyone who wants to approach the Supreme of all the Personalities of Godhead, on the Kaloka planet in the spiritual sky, and be intimately connected with the Supreme Personality, Ka, must take this formula, as is stated by the Supreme Himself. Therefore, this verse is considered to be the essence of Bhagavad-gt. The Bhagavad-gt isa book directed to the conditioned souls, who are engaged in the material world with the purpose of lording it over nature and who do not know of the real, spiritual life. The Bhagavad-gt ismeant to show how one can understand his spiritual existence and his eternal relationship with the Supreme Spiritual Personality and to teach one how to go back home, back to Godhead. Now here is the verse which clearly explains the process by which one can attain success in his spiritual activity: devotional service. As far as work is concerned, one should transfer his energy entirely to Ka conscious activities. No work should be done by any man except in relationship to Ka. This called Ka- karma . One may be engaged in various activities, but one should not be attached to the result of his work, but the result should be done for Him. For example, one may be engaged in business, but to transform that activity into Ka consciousness, one has to do business for Ka. If Ka is the proprietor of the business, then Ka should enjoy the profit of the business. If a businessman is in possession of thousands and thousands of dollars, and if he has to offer all this to Ka, he can do it. This is work for Ka. Instead of constructing a big building for his sense gratification, he can construct a nice temple for Ka, and he can install the Deity of Ka and arrange for the Deity's service, as is outlined in the authorized books of devotional service. This is all Ka- karma . One should not be attached to the result of his work, but the result should be offered to Ka. One should also accept as prasdam, food, the remnants of offerings to Ka. If, however, one is not able to construct a temple for Ka, one can engage himself in cleansing the temple of Ka; that is also Ka- karma . One can cultivate a garden. Anyone who has landin India, at least, any poor man has a certain amount of landcan utilize that for Ka by growing flowers to offer Him. He can sow tulas plants because tulas leaves are very important, and Ka has recommended this in Bhagavad-gt. Ka desires that one offer Him either a leaf, or a flower, or a little water-and He is satisfied. This leaf especially refers to the tulas So one can sow tulas leaves and pour water on the plant. Thus, even the poorest man can engage in the service of Ka. These are some of the examples of how one can engage in working for Ka. The word mat-parama refers to one who considers the association of Ka in His supreme abode to be the highest perfection of life. Such a person does not wish to be elevated to the higher planets such as the moon or sun or heavenly planets, or even the highest planet of this universe, Brahmaloka. He has no attraction for that. He is only attracted to being transferred to the spiritual sky. And even in the spiritual sky he is not satisfied with merging into the glowing brahmajyoti effulgence, for he wants to enter the highest spiritual planet, namely Kaloka, Goloka Vndvana. He has full knowledge of that planet, and therefore he is not interested in any other. As indicated by the word mad-bhakta, he fully engages in devotional service, specifically in the nine processes of devotional engagement: hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering prayers, carrying out the orders of the Lord, making friends with Him, and surrendering everything to Him. One can engage in all nine devotional processes, or eight, or seven, or at least in one, and that will surely make one perfect. The term saga-varjita is very significant. One should disassociate himself from persons who are against Ka. Not only are the atheistic persons against Ka, but also those who are attracted to fruitive activities and mental speculation. Therefore the pure form of devotional service is described in Bhakti-rasmta-sindhu as follows: anybhilit- nya jna-karmdy- anvtam nuklyena knulana bhaktir uttam. In this verse rla Rpa Gosvm clearly states that if anyone wants to execute unalloyed devotional service, he must be freed from all kinds of material contamination. He must be freed from the association of persons who are addicted to fruitive activities and mental speculation. When, freed from such unwanted association and from the contamination of material desires, one favorably cultivates knowledge of Ka, that is called pure devotional service. nuklyasya sakapla prtiklyasya varjanam . One should think of Ka and act for Ka favorably, not unfavorably. Kasa was an enemy of Ka's. From the very beginning of Ka's birth, he planned in so many ways to kill Him, and because he was always unsuccessful, he was always thinking of Ka. Thus while working, while eating and while sleeping, he was always Ka conscious in every respect, but that Ka consciousness was not favorable, and therefore in spite of his always thinking of Ka twenty-four hours a day, he was considered a demon, and Ka at last killed him. Of course anyone who is killed by Ka attains salvation immediately, but that is not the aim of the pure devotee. The pure devotee does not even want salvation. He does not want to be transferred even to the highest planet, Goloka Vndvana. His only objective is to serve Ka wherever he may be. A devotee of Ka is friendly to everyone. Therefore it is said here that he has no enemy. How is this? A devotee situated in Ka consciousness knows that only devotional service to Ka can relieve a person from all the problems of life. He has personal experience of this, and therefore he wants to introduce this system, Ka consciousness, into human society. There are many examples in history of devotees of the Lord risking their lives for the spreading of God consciousness. The favorite example is Lord Jesus Christ. He was crucified by the nondevotees, but He sacrificed His life for spreading God consciousness. Of course, it would be superficial to understand that He was killed. Similarly, in India also there are many examples, such as hkur Haridsa. Why such risk? Because they wanted to spread Ka consciousness, and it is difficult. A Ka conscious person knows that if a man is suffering, it is due to his forgetfulness of his eternal relationship with Ka. Therefore, the highest benefit one can render to human society is relieving one's neighbor from all material problems. In such a way, a pure devotee is engaged in the service of the Lord. Now, we can imagine how merciful Ka is to those engaged in His service, risking everything for Him. Therefore it is certain that such persons must reach the supreme planet after leaving the body. In summary, the universal form of Ka, which is a temporary manifestation, and the form of time which devours everything, and even the form of Viu, four-handed, have all been exhibited by Ka. Thus Ka is the origin of all these manifestations. It is not that Ka is a manifestation of the original viva-rpa, or Viu. Ka is the origin of all forms. There are hundreds and thousands of Vius, but for a devotee, no form of Ka is important but the original form, two-handed ymasundara. In the Brahm- sahit it is stated that those who are attached to the ymasundara form of Ka in love and devotion can see Him always within the heart and cannot see anything else. One should understand, therefore, that the purport of this Eleventh Chapter is that the form of Ka is essential and supreme. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Eleventh Chapter of the rmad-Bhagavad-gt in the matter of the Universal Form. Chapter-12 CHAPTER TWELVE Devotional Service TEXT 1 arjuna uvca eva satata-yukt ye bhakts tv paryupsate ye cpy akaram avyakta te ke yoga-vittam arjuna uvca Arjuna said; evam thus; satata always; yukt engaged; ye those; bhakt devotees; tvm unto You; paryupsate properly worship; ye those; ca also; api again; akaram beyond the senses; avyaktam unmanifested; tem of them; ke who; yoga-vittam the most perfect. TRANSLATION Arjuna inquired: Which is considered to be more perfect: those who are properly engaged in Your devotional service, or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested? PURPORT Ka has now explained about the personal, the impersonal and the universal and has described all kinds of devotees and yogs . Generally, the transcendentalists can be divided into two classes. One is the impersonalist, and the other is the personalist. The personalist devotee engages himself with all energy in the service of the Supreme Lord. The impersonalist engages himself not directly in the service of Ka but in meditation on the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested. We find in this chapter that of the different processes for realization of the Absolute Truth, bhakti-yoga, devotional service, is the highest. If one at all desires to have the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he must take to devotional service. Those who worship the Supreme Lord directly by devotional service are called personalists. Those who engage themselves in meditation on the impersonal Brahman are called impersonalists. Arjuna is here questioning which position is better. There are different ways to realize the Absolute Truth, but Ka indicates in this chapter that bhakti-yoga, or devotional service to Him, is highest of all. It is the most direct, and it is the easiest means for association with the Godhead. In the Second Chapter the Lord explains that a living entity is not the material body but is a spiritual spark, a part of the Absolute Truth. In the Seventh Chapter He speaks of the living entity as part and parcel of the supreme whole and recommends that he transfer his attention fully to the whole. In the Eighth Chapter it is stated that whoever thinks of Ka at the moment of death is at once transferred to the spiritual sky, Ka's abode. And at the end of the Sixth Chapter the Lord says that out of all the yogs, he who thinks of Ka within himself is considered to be the most perfect. So throughout the Gt personal devotion to Ka is recommended as the highest form of spiritual realization. Yet there are those who are still attracted to Ka's impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence, which is the all-pervasive aspect of the Absolute Truth and which is unmanifest and beyond the reach of the senses. Arjuna would like to know which of these two types of transcendentalists is more perfect in knowledge. In other words, he is clarifying his own position because he is attached to the personal form of Ka. He is not attached to the impersonal Brahman. He wants to know whether his position is secure. The impersonal manifestation, either in this material world or in the spiritual world of the Supreme Lord, is a problem for meditation. Actually, one cannot perfectly conceive of the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. Therefore Arjuna wants to say, "What is the use of such a waste of time?" Arjuna experienced in the Eleventh Chapter that to be attached to the personal form of Ka is best because he could thus understand all other forms at the same time and there was no disturbance to his love for Ka. This important question asked of Ka by Arjuna will clarify the distinction between the impersonal and personal conceptions of the Absolute Truth. TEXT 2 r bhagavn uvca mayy veya mano ye m nitya-yukt upsate raddhay parayopets te me yuktatam mat r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; mayi unto Me; veya fixing; mana mind; ye one who; mm unto Me; nitya always; yukt engaged; upsate worships; raddhay with faith; paray transcendental; upet engages; te they; me Mine; yuktatam most perfect; mat I consider. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: He whose mind is fixed on My personal form, always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith, is considered by Me to be most perfect. PURPORT In answer to Arjuna's question, Ka clearly says that he who concentrates upon His personal form and who worships Him with faith and devotion is to be considered most perfect in yoga . For one in such Ka consciousness there are no material activities because everything is done by Ka. A pure devotee is constantly engagedsometimes he chants, sometimes he hears or reads books about Ka, or sometimes he cooks prasdam or goes to the marketplace to purchase something for Ka, or sometimes he washes the temple or the dishes-whatever he does, he does not let a single moment pass without devoting his activities to Ka. Such action is in full samdhi. TEXTS 3-4 ye tv akaram anirdeyam avyakta paryupsate sarvatra-gam acintya ca kastham acala dhruvam sanniyamyendriya-grma sarvatra sama-buddhaya te prpnuvanti mm eva sarva-bhta-hite rat ye those; tu but; akaram which is beyond the perception of the senses; anirdeyam indefinite; avyaktam unmanifested; paryupsate completely engages; sarvatra-gam all-pervading; acintyam inconceivable; ca also; kastham in the center; acalam immovable; dhruvam fixed; sanniyamya controlling; indriya-grmam all the senses; sarvatra everywhere; sama- buddaya equally disposed; te they; prpnuvanti achieve; mm unto Me; eva certainly; sarva-bhta-hite all living entities' welfare; rat engaged. TRANSLATION But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, fixed, and immovablethe impersonal conception of the Absolute Truthby controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me. PURPORT Those who do not directly worship the Supreme Godhead, Ka, but who attempt to achieve the same goal by an indirect process, also ultimately achieve the supreme goal, r Ka, as is stated, "After many births the man of wisdom seeks refuge in Me, knowing Vsudeva is all." When a person comes to full knowledge after many births, he surrenders unto Lord Ka. If one approaches the Godhead by the method mentioned in this verse, he has to control the senses, render service to everyone and engage in the welfare of all beings. It is inferred that one has to approach Lord Ka, otherwise there is no perfect realization. Often there is much penance involved before one fully surrenders unto Him. In order to perceive the Supersoul within the individual soul, one has to cease the sensual activities of seeing, hearing, tasting, working, etc. Then one comes to understand that the Supreme Soul is present everywhere. Realizing this, one envies no living entityhe sees no difference between man and animal because he sees soul only, not the outer covering. But for the common man, this method of impersonal realization is very difficult. TEXT 5 kleo 'dhikataras tem avyaktsakta-cetasm avyakt hi gatir dukha dehavadbhir avpyate klea trouble; adhikatara more troublesome; tem of them; avyakta unmanifested; sakta being attached; cetasm of those whose minds; avyakt unmanifested; hi certainly; gati dukham progress is troublesome; dehavadbhi of the embodiments; avpyate achieve. TRANSLATION For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied. PURPORT The group of transcendentalists who follow the path of the inconceivable, unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord are called jna-yogs, and persons who are in full Ka consciousness, engaged in devotional service to the Lord, are called bhakti-yogs. Now, here the difference between jna-yoga and bhakti-yoga is definitely expressed. The process of jna- yoga, although ultimately bringing one to the same goal, is very troublesome, whereas the path of bhakti-yoga, the process of being in direct service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is easier and is natural for the embodied soul. The individual soul is embodied since time immemorial. It is very difficult for him to simply theoretically understand that he is not the body. Therefore, the bhakti-yog accepts the Deity of Ka as worshipable because there is some bodily conception fixed in the mind, which can thus be applied. Of course, worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form within the temple is not idol worship. There is evidence in the Vedic literature that worship may be sagua and nirgua of the Supreme possessing or not possessing attributes. Worship of the Deity in the temple is sagua worship, for the Lord is represented by material qualities. But the form of the Lord, though represented by material qualities such as stone, wood, or oil paint, is not actually material. That is the absolute nature of the Supreme Lord. A crude example may be given here. We may find some mailboxes on the street, and if we post our letters in those boxes, they will naturally go to their destination without difficulty. But any old box, or an imitation, which we may find somewhere, which is not authorized by the post office, will not do the work. Similarly, God has an authorized representation in the Deity form, which is called arca-vigraha. This arca-vigraha is an incarnation of the Supreme Lord. God will accept service through that form. The Lord is omnipotent and all-powerful; therefore, by His incarnation as arca-vigraha, He can accept the services of the devotee, just to make it convenient for the man in conditioned life. So, for a devotee, there is no difficulty in approaching the Supreme immediately and directly, but for those who are following the impersonal way to spiritual realization, the path is difficult. They have to understand the unmanifested representation of the Supreme through such Vedic literatures as the Upaniads, and they have to learn the language, understand the nonperceptual feelings, and they have to realize all these processes. This is not very easy for a common man. A person in Ka consciousness, engaged in devotional service, simply by the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, simply by offering regulative obeisances unto the Deity, simply by hearing the glories of the Lord, and simply by eating the remnants of foodstuffs offered to the Lord, realizes the Supreme Personality of Godhead very easily. There is no doubt that the impersonalists are unnecessarily taking a troublesome path with the risk of not realizing the Absolute Truth at the ultimate end. But the personalist, without any risk, trouble, or difficulty, approaches the Supreme Personality directly. A similar passage appears in rmad-Bhgavatam. It is stated there that if one has to ultimately surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead (This surrendering process is called bhakti. ), but instead takes the trouble to understand what is Brahman and what is not Brahman and spends his whole life in that way, the result is simply troublesome. Therefore it is advised here that one should not take up this troublesome path of self-realization because there is uncertainty in the ultimate result. A living entity is eternally an individual soul, and if he wants to merge into the spiritual whole, he may accomplish the realization of the eternal and knowledgeable aspects of his original nature, but the blissful portion is not realized. By the grace of some devotee, such a transcendentalist, highly learned in the process of jna-yoga, may come to the point of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service. At that time, long practice in impersonalism also becomes a source of trouble, because he cannot give up the idea. Therefore an embodied soul is always in difficulty with the unmanifest, both at the time of practice and at the time of realization. Every living soul is partially independent, and one should know for certain that this unmanifested realization is against the nature of his spiritual blissful self. One should not take up this process. For every individual living entity the process of Ka consciousness, which entails full engagement in devotional service, is the best way. If one wants to ignore this devotional service, there is the danger of turning to atheism. Thus this process of centering attention on the unmanifested, the inconceivable, which is beyond the approach of the senses, as already expressed in this verse, should never be encouraged at any time, especially in this age. It is not advised by Lord Ka. TEXTS 6-7 ye tu sarvi karmi mayi sannyasya mat-par ananyenaiva yogena m dhyyanta upsate tem aha samuddhart mtyu-sasra-sgart bhavmi na cirt prtha mayy veita-cetasm ye one who; tu but; sarvi everything; karmi activities; mayi unto Me; sannyasya giving up; mat-par being attached to Me; ananyena without division; eva certainly; yogena by practice of such bhakti-yoga; mm unto Me; dhyyanta meditating; upsate worship; tem of them; aham I; samuddhart deliverer; mtyu that; sasra material existence; sgart from the ocean; bhavmi become; na cirt not a long time; prtha O son of Pth; mayi unto Me; veita fixed; cetasm of those whose minds are like that. TRANSLATION For one who worships Me, giving up all his activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, who has fixed his mind upon Me, O son of Pth, for him I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death. PURPORT It is explicitly stated here that the devotees are very fortunate to be delivered very soon from material existence by the Lord. In pure devotional service one comes to the realization that God is great and that the individual soul is subordinate to Him. His duty is to render service to the Lordif not, then he will render service to my . As stated before, the Supreme Lord can only be appreciated by devotional service. Therefore, one should be fully devoted. One should fix his mind fully on Ka in order to achieve Him. One should work only for Ka. It does not matter in what kind of work one engages, but that work should be done only for Ka. That is the standard of devotional service. The devotee does not desire any achievement other than pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His life's mission is to please Ka, and he can sacrifice everything for Ka's satisfaction, just as Arjuna did in the Battle of Kuruketra. The process is very simple: one can devote himself in his occupation and engage at the same time in chanting Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. Such transcendental chanting attracts the devotee to the Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Lord herein promises that He will without delay deliver a pure devotee thus engaged from the ocean of material existence. Those who are advanced in yoga practice can willfully transfer the soul to whatever planet they like by the yoga process, and others take the opportunity in various ways, but as far as the devotee is concerned, it is clearly stated here that the Lord Himself takes him. He does not need to wait to become very experienced in order to transfer himself to the spiritual sky. In the Varha Pura this verse appears: naymi parama sthnam arcirdi-gati vin garua-skandham ropya yatheccham anivrita The purport of this verse is that a devotee does not need to practice aga- yoga in order to transfer his soul to the spiritual planets. The responsibility is taken by the Supreme Lord Himself. He clearly states here that He Himself becomes the deliverer. A child is completely cared for by his parents, and thus his position is secure. Similarly, a devotee does not need to endeavor to transfer himself by yoga practice to other planets. Rather, the Supreme Lord, by His great mercy, comes at once, riding on His bird carrier Garua, and at once delivers the devotee from this material existence. Although a man who has fallen in the ocean may struggle very hard and may be very expert in swimming, he cannot save himself. But if someone comes and picks him up from the water, then he is easily rescued. Similarly, the Lord picks up the devotee from this material existence. One simply has to practice the easy process of Ka consciousness and fully engage himself in devotional service. Any intelligent man should always prefer the process of devotional service to all other paths. In the Nryaya this is confirmed as follows: y vai sdhana-sampatti-pururtha-catuaye tay vin tad-pnoti naro nryaraya The purport of this verse is that one should not engage in the different processes of fruitive activity or cultivate knowledge by the mental speculative process. One who is devoted to the Supreme Personality can attain all the benefits derived from other yogic processes, speculation, rituals, sacrifices, charities, etc. That is the specific benediction of devotional service. Simply by chanting the holy name of KaHare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Harea devotee of the Lord can approach the supreme destination easily and happily, but this destination cannot be approached by any other process of religion. The conclusion of Bhagavad-gt is stated in the Eighteenth Chapter: sarva-dharmn parityajya mm eka araa vraja aha tv sarva-ppebhyo mokayiymi m uca. One should give up all other processes of self-realization and simply execute devotional service in Ka consciousness. That will enable one to reach the highest perfection of life. There is no need for one to consider the sinful actions of his past life because the Supreme Lord fully takes charge of him. Therefore one should not futilely try to deliver himself in spiritual realization. Let everyone take shelter of the supreme omnipotent Godhead Ka. That is the highest perfection of life. TEXT 8 mayy eva mana dhatsva mayi buddhi niveaya nivasiyasi mayy eva ata rdhva na saaya mayi unto Me; eva certainly; mana mind; dhatsva fix; mayi upon Me; buddhim intelligence; niveaya apply; nivasiyasi you lead; mayi unto Me; eva certainly; ata therefore; rdhvam up; na never; saaya doubt. TRANSLATION Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt. PURPORT One who is engaged in Lord Ka's devotional service lives in a direct relationship with the Supreme Lord, so there is no doubt that his position is transcendental from the very beginning. A devotee does not live on the material planehe lives in Ka. The holy name of the Lord and the Lord are nondifferent; therefore when a devotee chants Hare Ka, Ka and His internal potency are dancing on the tongue of the devotee. When he offers Ka food, Ka directly accepts these eatables, and the devotee becomes Ka-ized by eating the remnants. One who does not engage in such service cannot understand how this is so, although this is a process recommended in the Gt and in other Vedic literatures. TEXT 9 atha citta samdhtu na aknoi mayi sthiram abhysa-yogena tato mm icchptu dhanajaya atha if, therefore; cittam mind; samdhtam fixing; na not; aknoi able; mayi upon Me; sthiram fixed; abhysa practice; yogena by devotional service; tata therefore; mm Me; icch desire; ptum to get; dhanajaya O Arjuna. TRANSLATION My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way you will develop a desire to attain to Me. PURPORT In this verse, two different processes of bhakti-yoga are indicated. The first applies to one who has actually developed an attachment for Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by transcendental love. And the other is for one who has not developed an attachment for the Supreme Person by transcendental love. For this second class there are different prescribed rules and regulations, which one can follow to be ultimately elevated to the stage of attachment to Ka. Bhakti-yoga isthe purification of the senses. At the present moment in material existence the senses are always impure, being engaged in sense gratification. But, by the practice of bhakti-yoga these senses can become purified, and in the purified state they come directly in contact with the Supreme Lord. In this material existence, I may be engaged in some service to some master, but I don't really lovingly serve my master. I simply serve to get some money. And the master also is not in love; he takes service from me and pays me. So there is no question of love. But for spiritual life, one must be elevated to the pure stage of love. That stage of love can be achieved by practice of devotional service, performed with the present senses. This love of God is now in a dormant state in everyone's heart. And, there, love of God is manifested in different ways, but it is contaminated by the material association. Now the material association has to be purified, and that dormant, natural love for Ka has to be revived. That is the whole process. To practice the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga one should, under the guidance of an expert spiritual master, follow certain principles: one should rise early in the morning, take bath, enter the temple and offer prayers and chant Hare Ka, then collect flowers to offer to the Deity, cook foodstuffs to offer to the Deity, take prasdam, and so on. There are various rules and regulations which one should follow. And one should constantly hear Bhagavad-gt and rmad- Bhgavatam from pure devotees. This practice can help anyone to rise to the level of love of God, and then he is sure of his progress into the spiritual kingdom of God. This practice of bhakti-yoga, under the rules and regulations, with the direction of a spiritual master, will surely bring one to the stage of love of God. TEXT 10 abhyse 'py asamartho 'si mat-karma-paramo bhava mad-artham api karmi kurvan siddhim avpsyasi abhyse in the practice of; api even; asamartha unable; asi you are; mat-karma My work; parama supreme; bhava you become; mat- artham for My sake; api even though; karmi what; kurvan performing; siddhim perfection; avpsyasi achieve. TRANSLATION If you cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for Me, because by working for Me you will come to the perfect stage. PURPORT One who is not able even to practice the regulative principles of bhakti- yoga , under the guidance of a spiritual master, can still be drawn to this perfectional stage by working for the Supreme Lord. How to do this work has already been explained in the fifty-fifth verse of the Eleventh Chapter. One should be sympathetic to the propagation of Ka consciousness. There are many devotees who are engaged in the propagation of Ka consciousness, and they require help. So, even if one cannot directly practice the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga, he can try to help such work. Every endeavor requires land, capital, organization, and labor. Just as, in business, one requires a place to stay, some capital to use, some labor, and some organization to expand, so the same is required in the service of Ka. The only difference is that in materialism one works for sense gratification. The same work, however, can be performed for the satisfaction of Ka, and that is spiritual activity. If one has sufficient money, he can help in building an office or temple for propagating Ka consciousness. Or he can help with publications. There are various fields of activity, and one should be interested in such activities. If one cannot sacrifice the result of such activities, the same person can still sacrifice some percentage to propagate Ka consciousness. This voluntary service to the cause of Ka consciousness will help one to rise to a higher state of love for God, whereupon one becomes perfect. TEXT 11 athaitad apy aakto 'si kartu mad-yogam rita sarva-karma-phala-tyga tata kuru yattmavn atha even though; etat this; api also; aakta unable; asi you are; kartum to perform; mat unto Me; yogam devotional service; rita refuge; sarva-karma all activities; phala result; tygam for renunciation; tata therefore; kuru do; yata-tmavan self-situated. TRANSLATION If, however, you are unable to work in this consciousness, then try to act giving up all results of your work and try to be self-situated. PURPORT It may be that one is unable to even sympathize with the activities of Ka consciousness because of social, familial or religious considerations or because of some other impediments. If one attaches himself directly to the activities of Ka consciousness, there may be objection from family members, or so many other difficulties. For one who has such a problem, it is advised that he sacrifice the accumulated result of his activities to some good cause. Such procedures are described in the Vedic rules. There are many descriptions of sacrifices and special functions of the pumundi, or special work in which the result of one's previous action may be applied. Thus one may gradually become elevated to the state of knowledge. It is also found that when one who is not even interested in the activities of Ka consciousness gives charity to some hospital or some other social institution, he gives up the hard-earned results of his activities. That is also recommended here because by the practice of giving up the fruits of one's activities one is sure to purify his mind gradually, and in that purified stage of mind one becomes able to understand Ka consciousness. Of course Ka consciousness is not dependent on any other experience because Ka consciousness itself can purify one's mind, but if there are impediments to Ka consciousness, one may try to give up the result of his action. In that respect, social service, community service, national service, sacrifice for one's country, etc., may be accepted so that some day one may come to the stage of pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord. In Bhagavad-gt we find it is stated: yata pravttir bhtnm: If one decides to sacrifice for the supreme cause, even if he does not know that the supreme cause is Ka, he will come gradually to understand that Ka is the supreme cause by the sacrificial method. TEXT 12 reyo hi jnam abhysj jnd dhyna viiyate dhynt karma-phala-tygas tygc chntir anantaram reya better; hi certainly; jnam knowledge; abhyst by practice; jnnt better than knowledge; dhynam meditation; viiyate especially considered; dhynt from meditation; karma-phala-tyga renunciation of the results of fruitive action; tygt by such renunciation; nti peace; anantaram thereafter. TRANSLATION If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind. PURPORT As mentioned in the previous verses, there are two kinds of devotional service: the way of regulated principles, and the way of full attachment in love to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For those who are actually not able to follow the principles of Ka consciousness, it is better to cultivate knowledge because by knowledge one can be able to understand his real position. Gradually knowledge will develop to the point of meditation. By meditation one can be able to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by a gradual process. There are processes which make one understand that one himself is the Supreme, and that sort of meditation is preferred if one is unable to engage in devotional service. If one is not able to meditate in such a way, then there are prescribed duties, as enjoined in the Vedic literature, for the brhmaas, vaiyas, and dras, which we shall find in a later chapter of Bhagavad-gt. But in all cases, one should give up the result or fruits of labor; this means to employ the result of karma for some good cause. In summary, to reach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the highest goal, there are two processes: one process is by gradual development, and the other process is direct. Devotional service in Ka consciousness is the direct method, and the other method involves renouncing the fruits of one's activities. Then one can come to the stage of knowledge, then to the stage of meditation, then to the stage of understanding the Supersoul, and then to the stage of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One may either take the step by step process or the direct path. The direct process is not possible for everyone; therefore the indirect process is also good. It is, however, to be understood that the indirect process is not recommended for Arjuna because he is already at the stage of loving devotional service to the Supreme Lord. It is for others who are not at this state; for them the gradual process of renunciation, knowledge, meditation and realization of the Supersoul and Brahman should be followed. But as far as Bhagavad-gt is concerned, it is the direct method that is stressed. Everyone is advised to take to the direct method and surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. TEXTS 13-14 adve sarva-bhtn maitra karua eva ca nirmamo nirahakra sama-dukha-sukha kam santua satata yog yattm dha-nicaya mayy-arpita-mano-buddhir yo mad-bhakta sa me priya adve not envious; sarva-bhtnm for all living entities; maitra friendly; karua kindly; eva certainly; ca also; nirmama with no sense of proprietorship; nirahakra without false ego; sama equally; dukha distress; sukha happiness; kam forgiving; santua satisfied; satatam satisfied; yog engaged in devotion; yat-atm endeavoring; ddanicaya with determination; mayi upon Me; arpita engaged; mana mind; buddhi intelligent; ya one who; mat-bhakta My devotee; sa me priya he is dear to Me. TRANSLATION One who is not envious but who is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor, who is free from false ego and equal both in happiness and distress, who is always satisfied and engaged in devotional service with determination and whose mind and intelligence are in agreement with Mehe is very dear to Me. PURPORT Coming again to the point of pure devotional service, the Lord is describing the transcendental qualifications of a pure devotee in these two verses. A pure devotee is never disturbed in any circumstances. Nor is he envious of anyone. Nor does a devotee become his enemy's enemy; he thinks that one is acting as his enemy due to his own past misdeeds. Thus it is better to suffer than to protest. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is stated: tat te 'nukamp su- samkyamao. Whenever a devotee is in distress or has fallen into difficulty, he thinks that it is the Lord's mercy upon him. He thinks: "Thanks to my past misdeeds I should suffer far, far greater than I am suffering now. So it is by the mercy of the Supreme Lord that I am not getting all the punishment I am due. I am just getting a little, by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Therefore he is always calm, quiet and patient, despite many distressful conditions. A devotee is also always kind to everyone, even to his enemy. Nirmama means that a devotee does not attach much importance to the peace and trouble pertaining to the body because he knows perfectly well that he is not the material body. He does not identify with the body; therefore he is freed from the conception of false ego and is equiposed both in happiness and distress. He is tolerant, and he is satisfied with whatever comes by the grace of the Supreme Lord. He does not endeavor much to achieve something with great difficulty; therefore he is always joyful. He is a completely perfect mystic because he is fixed in the instructions received from the spiritual master, and because his senses are controlled, he is determined. He is not swayed by false argument because no one can lead him from the fixed determination of devotional service. He is fully conscious that Ka is the eternal Lord, so no one can disturb him. All his qualifications enable him to depend entirely on the Supreme Lord. Such a standard of devotional service is undoubtably very rare, but a devotee becomes situated in that stage by following the regulative principles of devotional service. Furthermore, the Lord says that such a devotee is very dear to Him, for the Lord is always pleased with all his activities in full Ka consciousness. TEXT 15 yasmn nodvijate loko lokn nodvijate ca ya harmara-bhayodvegair mukto ya sa ca me priya yasmt from whom; na never; udvijate agttes; loka persons; lokt persons; na never; advijate disturbed; ca also; ya anyone; hara happiness; amara distress; bhaya fearfulness; udvegai with anxiety; mukta freed; ya who; sa anyone; ca also; me My; priya very dear. TRANSLATION He for whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not dirturbed by anxiety, who is steady in happiness and distress, is very dear to Me. PURPORT A few of a devotee's qualifications are further being described. No one is put into difficulty, anxiety, fearfulness, or dissatisfaction by such a devotee. Since a devotee is kind to everyone, he does not act in such a way to put others into anxiety. At the same time, if others try to put a devotee into anxiety, he is not disturbed. It is by the grace of the Lord that he is so practiced that he is not disturbed by any outward disturbance. Actually because a devotee is always engrossed in Ka consciousness and engaged in devotional service, all such material circumstances cannot woo him. Generally a materialistic person becomes very happy when there is something for his sense gratification and his body, but when he sees that others have something for their sense gratification and he hasn't, he is sorry and envious. When he is expecting some retaliation from an enemy, he is in a state of fear, and when he cannot successfully execute something he becomes dejected. But a devotee is always transcendental to all these disturbances; therefore he is very dear to Ka. TEXT 16 anapeka ucir daka udsno gata-vyatha sarvrambha-parityg yo mad-bhakta sa me priya anapeka neutral; uci pure; daka expert; udsna free from care; gata-vyatha freed from all distress; sarva-rambha all endeavors; parityg renouncer; ya anyone; mat-bhakta My devotee; sa he; me Me; priya very dear TRANSLATION A devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and who does not strive for some result, is very dear to Me. PURPORT Money may be offered to a devotee, but he should not struggle to acquire it. If automatically, by the grace of the Supreme, money comes to him, he is not agitated. Naturally a devotee takes bath at least twice in a day and rises early in the morning for devotional service. Thus he is naturally clean both inwardly and outwardly. A devotee is always expert because he fully knows the sense of all activities of life, and he is convinced of the authoritative scriptures. A devotee never takes the part of a particular party; therefore he is carefree. He is never pained because he is free from all designations; he knows that his body is a designation, so if there are some bodily pains, he is free. The pure devotee does not endeavor for anything which is against the principles of devotional service. For example, constructing a big building requires great energy, and a devotee does not take to such business if it does not benefit him by advancing his devotional service. He may construct a temple for the Lord, and for that he may take all kinds of anxiety, but he does not construct a big house for his personal relations. TEXT 17 yo na hyati na dvei na ocati na kkati ubhubha-parityg bhaktimn ya sa me priya ya one who: na never; hyati takes pleasure; na never; dvei grieves; na never; ocati laments; na never; kkati desires; ubha auspicious; aubha inauspicious; parityg renouncer; bhaktimn devotee; ya one who; sa he is; me My; priya dear. TRANSLATION One who neither grasps pleasure or grief, who neither laments nor desires, and who renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things, is very dear to Me. PURPORT A pure devotee is neither happy nor distressed over material gain and loss, nor is he very much anxious to get a son or disciple, nor is he distressed by not getting them. If he loses anything which is very dear to him, he does not lament. Similarly, if he does not get what he desires, he is not distressed. He is transcendental in the face of all kinds of auspicious, inauspicious and sinful activities. He is prepared to accept all kinds of risks for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. Nothing is an impediment in the discharge of his devotional service. Such a devotee is very dear to Ka. TEXTS 18-19 sama atrau ca mitre ca tath mnpamnayo toa-sukha-dukheu sama saga-vivarjita tulya-nind-stutir maun santuo yena kenacit aniketa sthira-matir bhaktimn me priyo nara sama equal; atrau to the enemy; ca also; mitre to friends; ca also; tatha so; mna honor; apamnayo dishonor; ta cold; ua heat; sukha happiness; dukheu distress; sama equiposed; saga- vivarjita free from all association; tulya equal; nind defamation; stuti repute; maun silent; santua satisfied; yena somehow; kena or other; cit if; aniketa having no residence; sthira fixed; mati determination; bhaktimn engaged in devotion; me My; priya dear; nara a man. TRANSLATION One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equiposed in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn't care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, is very dear to Me. PURPORT A devotee is always free from all bad association. Sometimes one is praised and sometimes one is defamed; that is the nature of human society. But a devotee is always transcendental to artificial fame and infamy, distress or happiness. He is very patient. He does not speak of anything but the topics about Ka; therefore he is called silent. Silent does not mean that one should not speak; silent means that one should not speak nonsense. One should speak only of essentials, and the most essential speech for the devotee is to speak of the Supreme Lord. He is happy in all conditions; sometimes he may get very palatable foodstuffs, sometimes not, but he is satisfied. Nor does he care for any residential facility. He may sometimes live underneath a tree, and he may sometimes live in a very palatial building; he is attracted to neither. He is called fixed because he is fixed in his determination and knowledge. We may find some repetition in the descriptions of the qualifications of a devotee, but this is just to give an illustration of the fact that a devotee must acquire all these qualifications. Without good qualifications, one cannot be a pure devotee. One who is not a devotee has no good qualification. One who wants to be recognized as a devotee should develop the good qualifications. Of course he does not extraneously endeavor to acquire these qualifications, but engagement in Ka consciousness and devotional service automatically helps him develop them. TEXT 20 ye tu dharmmtam ida yathokta paryupsate raddadhn mat-param bhakts te 'tva me priy ye one who; tu but; dharmya generosity; amtam understanding; idam this; yath as; uktam said; paryupsate completely engages; sraddadhn with faith; mat-param taking the Supreme Lord as everything; bhakt devotees; te such persons; atva very, very; me Me; priy dear. TRANSLATION He who follows this imperishable path of devotional service and who completely engages himself with faith, making Me the supreme goal, is very, very dear to Me. PURPORT In this chapter the religion of eternal engagement, the explanation of the process of transcendental service for approaching the Supreme Lord, is given. This process is very dear to the Lord, and He accepts a person who is engaged in such a process. The question who is betterone who is engaged in the path of impersonal Brahman or one who is engaged in the personal service of the Supreme Personality of Godheadwas raised by Arjuna, and the Lord replied to him so explicitly that there is no doubt that devotional service to the Personality of Godhead is the best of all processes of spiritual realization. In other words, in this chapter it is decided that through good association, one develops attachment for pure devotional service and thereby accepts a bona fide spiritual master and from him begins to hear and chant and observe the regulative principles of devotional service with faith, attachment and devotion and thus becomes engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord. This path is recommended in this chapter; therefore there is no doubt that devotional service is the only absolute path for self-realization, for the attainment of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The impersonal conception of the Supreme Absolute Truth, as described in this chapter, is recommended only up to the time one surrenders himself for self-realization. In other words, as long as one does not have the chance to associate with a pure devotee, the impersonal conception may be beneficial. In the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth one works without fruitive result, meditates and cultivates knowledge to understand spirit and matter. This is necessary as long as one is not in the association of a pure devotee. Fortunately, if one develops directly a desire to engage in Ka consciousness in pure devotional service, he does not need to undergo step by step improvements in spiritual realization. Devotional service, as described in the middle six chapters of Bhagavad-gt, is more congenial. One need not bother about materials to keep body and soul together because by the grace of the Lord everything is carried out automatically. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Twelfth Chapter of the rmad- Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Devotional Service. Chapter-13 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Nature, the Enjoyer, and Consciousness TEXTS 1-2 arjuna uvca prakti purua caiva ketra ketrajam eva ca etad veditum icchmi jna jeya ca keava r bhagavn uvca ida arra kaunteya ketram ity abhidhyate etad yo vetti ta prhu ketraja iti tad-vida arjuna uvca Arjuna said; praktim nature; puruam the enjoyer; ca also; eva certainly; ketram body; ketrajam knower of the body; eva certainly; ca also; etat all this; veditum to understand; icchmi I wish; jnam knowledge; jeyam the object of knowledge; ca also; keava O Ka; r bhagavn uvca the Personality of Godhead said; idam this; arram body; kaunteya O son of Kunt; ketram the field; iti thus; abhidhyate iscalled; etat this; ya anyone; vetti knows; tam him; prhu is called; ketraja knower of the body; iti thus; tat- vida one who knows. TRANSLATION Arjuna said: O my dear Ka, I wish to know about prakti [nature], Purua [the enjoyer], and the field and the knower of the field, and of knowledge and the end of knowledge. The Blessed Lord then said: This body, O son of Kunt, is called the field, and one who knows this body is called the knower of the field. PURPORT Arjuna was inquisitive about prakti or nature, purua, the enjoyer, ketra, the field, ketraja, its knower, and of knowledge and the object of knowledge. When he inquired about all these, Ka said that this body is called the field and that one who knows this body is called the knower of the field. This body is the field of activity for the conditioned soul. The conditioned soul is entrapped in material existence, and he attempts to lord over material nature. And so, according to his capacity to dominate material nature, he gets a field of activity. That field of activity is the body. And what is the body? The body is made of senses. The conditioned soul wants to enjoy sense gratification, and, according to his capacity to enjoy sense gratification, he is offered a body, or field of activity. Therefore the body is called ketra, or the field of activity for the conditioned soul. Now, the person who does not identify himself with the body is called ketraja, the knower of the field. It is not very difficult to understand the difference between the field and its knower, the body and the knower of the body. Any person can consider that from childhood to old age he undergoes so many changes of body and yet is still one person, remaining. Thus there is a difference between the knower of the field of activities and the actual field of activities. A living conditioned soul can thus understand that he is different from the body. It is described in the beginning dehe 'smin that the living entity is within the body and that the body is changing from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth and from youth to old age, and the person who owns the body knows that the body is changing. The owner is distinctly ketraja. Sometimes we understand that I am happy, I am mad, I am a woman, I am a dog, I am a cat: these are the knowers. The knower is different from the field. Although we use many articles our clothes, etc. we know that we are different from the things used. Similarly, we also understand by a little contemplation that we are different from the body. In the first six chapters of Bhagavad-gt, the knower of the body, the living entity, and the position by which he can understand the Supreme Lord are described. In the middle six chapters of the Gt, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the relationship between the individual soul and the Supersoul in regard to devotional service are described. The superior position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the subordinate position of the individual soul are definitely defined in these chapters. The living entities are subordinate under all circumstances, but in their forgetfulness they are suffering. When enlightened by pious activities, they approach the Supreme Lord in different capacitiesas the distressed, those in want of money, the inquisitive, and those in search of knowledge. That is also described. Now, starting with the Thirteenth Chapter, how the living entity comes into contact with material nature, how he is delivered by the Supreme Lord through the different methods of fruitive activities, cultivation of knowledge, and the discharge of devotional service are explained. Although the living entity is completely different from the material body, he somehow becomes related. This also is explained. TEXT 3 ketraja cpi m viddhi sarva-ketreu bhrata ketra-ketrajayor jna yat taj jna mata mama ketrajam the knower; ca also; api certainly; mm Me; viddhi know; sarva all; ketreu in bodily fields; bhrata O son of Bharata; ketra field of activities (the body); ketrajayo the knower of the field; jnam knowledge; yat that which is taught; tat that; jnam knowledge; matam opinion; mama that. TRANSLATION O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its owner is called knowledge. That is My opinion. PURPORT While discussing the subject of this body and the owner of the body, the soul and the Supersoul, we shall find three different topics of study: the Lord, the living entity, and matter. In every field of activities, in every body, there are two souls: the individual soul and the Supersoul. Because the Supersoul is the plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, Ka says, "I am also the knower, but I am not the individual owner of the body. I am the superknower. I am present in every body as the Paramtm, or Supersoul." One who studies the subject matter of the field of activity and the knower of the field very minutely, in terms of this Bhagavad-gt, can attain to knowledge. The Lord says: "I am the knower of the field of activities in every individual body." The individual may be the knower of his own body, but he is not in knowledge of other bodies. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present as the Supersoul in all bodies, knows everything about all bodies. He knows all the different bodies of all the various species of life. A citizen may know everything about his patch of land, but the king knows not only his palace but all the properties possessed by the individual citizens. Similarly, one may be the proprietor of the body individually, but the Supreme Lord is the proprietor of all bodies. The king is the original proprietor of the kingdom, and the citizen is the secondary proprietor. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the supreme proprietor of all bodies. The body consists of the senses. The Supreme Lord is Hkea, which means controller of the senses. He is the original controller of the senses, just as the king is the original controller of all the activities of the state, and the citizens are secondary controllers. The Lord also says: "I am also the knower." This means that He is the superknower; the individual soul knows only his particular body. In the Vedic literature, it is stated as follows: ketri hi arri bja cpi ubhubhe tni vetti sa yogtm tata ketraja ucyate. This body is called the ketra, and within it dwells the owner of the body and the Supreme Lord who knows both the body and the owner of the body. Therefore He is called the knower of all fields. The distinction between the field of activities, the owner of activities and the supreme owner of activities is described as follows. Perfect knowledge of the constitution of the body, the constitution of the individual soul, and the constitution of the Supersoul is known in terms of Vedic literature as jnam. That is the opinion of Ka. To understand both the soul and the Supersoul as one yet distinct is knowledge. One who does not understand the field of activity and the knower of activity is not in perfect knowledge. One has to understand the position of prakti, nature, and purua, the enjoyer of the nature, and vara, the knower who dominates or controls nature and the individual soul. One should not confuse the three in their different capacities. One should not confuse the painter, the painting and the easel. This material world, which is the field of activities, is nature, and the enjoyer of nature is the living entity, and above them both is the supreme controller, the Personality of Godhead. It is stated in the Vedic language: "bhokt bhogya preritra ca matv sarva prokta tri- vidha brahmam etat." There are three Brahman conceptions: prakti is Brahman as the field of activities, and the jva (individual soul) is also Brahman and is trying to control material nature, and the controller of both of them is also Brahman, but He is the factual controller. In this chapter it will be also explained that out of the two knowers, one is fallible and the other is infallible. One is superior and the other is subordinate. One who understands the two knowers of the field to be one and the same contradicts the Supreme Personality of Godhead who states here very clearly that "I am also the knower of the field of activity." One who misunderstands a rope to be a serpent is not in knowledge. There are different kinds of bodies, and there are different owners of the bodies. Because each individual soul has his individual capacity of lording it over material nature, there are different bodies. But the Supreme also is present in them as the controller. The word ca is significant, for it indicates the total number of bodies. That is the opinion of rla Baladeva Vidybhaa: Ka is the Supersoul present in each and every body apart from the individual soul. And Ka explicitly says here that the Supersoul is the controller of both the field of activities and the finite enjoyer. TEXT 4 tat ketra yac ca ydk ca yad vikri yata ca yat sa ca yo yat prabhva ca tat samsena me u tat that; ketram field of activities; yat as; ca also; ydk as it is; ca also; yat what is; vikri changes; yata from which; ca also; yat one; sa he; ca also; ya one; yat which; prabhva ca influence also; tat that; samsena in detail; me from Me; u understand. TRANSLATION Now please hear My brief description of this field of activity and how it is constituted, what its changes are, whence it is produced, who that knower of the field of activities is, and what his influences are. PURPORT The Lord is describing the field of activities and the knower of the field of activities in their constitutional positions. One has to know how this body is constituted, the materials of which this body is made, under whose control this body is working, how the changes are taking place, wherefrom the changes are coming, what the causes are, what the reasons are, what the ultimate goal of the individual is, and what the actual form of the individual soul is. One should also know the distinction between the individual living soul and the Supersoul, the different influences, their potentials, etc. One just has to understand this Bhagavad-gt directly from the description given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and all this will be clarified. But one should be careful not to consider the Supreme Personality of Godhead in every body and individual soul to be the jva. This is something like equalizing the potent and the impotent. TEXT 5 ibhir bahudh gta chandobhir vividhaih pthak brahma-stra-padai caiva hetumadbhir vinicitai ibhi by the wise sages; bahudh in many ways; gtm described; chandobhi Vedic hymns; vividhai in various; pthak variously; brahma- stra the Vednta; padai aphorism; ca also; eva certainly; hetumadbhi with cause and effect; vinicitai ascertain. TRANSLATION That knowledge of the field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages in various Vedic writingsespecially in the Vednta-straand is presented with all reasoning as to cause and effect. PURPORT The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, is the highest authority in explaining this knowledge. Still, as a matter of course, learned scholars and standard authorities always give evidence from previous authorities. Ka is explaining this most controversial point regarding the duality and non-duality of the soul and the Supersoul by referring to Scriptures, the Vednta, which are accepted as authority. First, He says, this is according to different sages. As far as the sages are concerned, besides Himself, Vysadeva, the author of the Vednta-stra, is a great sage, and in the Vednta-stra duality is perfectly explained. And Vysadeva's father, Parara, was also a great sage, and he writes in his books of religiosity: " aham tva ca athnye... " "We you, I and various other living entities are all transcendental, although in material bodies. Now we are fallen into the ways of the three modes of material nature according to our different karma. As such, some are on higher levels, and some are in the lower nature. The higher and lower natures exist due to ignorance and are being manifested in an infinite number of living entities. But the Supersoul, which is infallible, is uncontaminated by the three qualities of nature and is transcendental." Similarly, in the original Vedas, a distinction between the soul, the Supersoul and the body is made, especially in the Kaha Upaniad. There is a manifestation of the Supreme Lord's energy known as annamaya by which one depends simply upon food for existence. This is a materialistic realization of the Supreme. Then there is pramaya; this means that after realizing the Supreme Absolute Truth in foodstuff, one can realize the Absolute Truth in the living symptoms, or life forms. In jnamaya the living symptom develops to the point of thinking, feeling, and willing. Then there is Brahman realization and the realization called vijnamaya by which the living entity's mind and life symptoms are distinguished from the living entity himself. The next and supreme stage is nandamaya, realization of the all- blissful nature. Thus there are five stages of Brahman realization, which is called brahma puccham. Out of these the first three annamaya, pramaya, and jnamaya involve the fields of activities of the living entities. Transcendental to all these fields of activities is the Supreme Lord, who is called nandamaya. In the Vednta- stra also the Supreme is called nandamayo 'bhyst. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is by nature full of joy, and to enjoy His transcendental bliss, He expands into vijnamaya, pramaya, jnamaya, and annamaya. In this field of activities the living entity is considered to be the enjoyer, and different from him is the nandamaya. That means that if the living entity decides to enjoy, in dovetailing himself with the nandamaya, then he becomes perfect. This is the real picture of the Supreme Lord, as supreme knower of the field, the living entity, as subordinate knower, and the nature of the field of activities. TEXTS 6-7 mah-bhtny ahakro buddhir avyaktam eva ca indriyi daaika ca paca cendriya-gocar icch dvea sukha dukha saghta cetan dhti etat ketra samsena sa-vikram udhtam mah-bhtni great elements; ahakra false ego; buddhi intelligence; avyaktam the unmanifested; eva certainly; ca also; indriyi senses ; daa ekam eleven; ca also; paca five; ca also; indriya-gocar objects of the senses; icch desire; dvea hatred; sukham happiness; dukham distress; saghta the aggregate; cetan living symptoms; dhti conviction; etat all this; ketram field of activities; samsena in summary; sa-vikram interaction; udhtam exemplified. TRANSLATION The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses, the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictionsall these are considered, in summary, to be the field of activities and its interactions. PURPORT From all the authoritative statements of the great sages, the Vedic hymns and the aphorisms of the Vednta-stra, the components of this world are earth, water, fire, air and ether. These are the five great elements (mahbhta). Then there are false ego, intelligence and the unmanifested stage of the three modes of nature. Then there are five senses for acquiring knowledge: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and touch. Then five working senses: voice, legs, hands, the anus and the genitals. Then, above the senses, there is the mind, which is within and which can be called the sense within. Therefore, including the mind, there are eleven senses altogether. Then there are the five objects of the senses: smell, taste, warmth, touch and sound. Now the aggregate of these twenty-four elements is called the field of activity. If one makes an analytical study of these twenty-four subjects, then he can very well understand the field of activity. Then there is desire, hatred, pleasure and pain, which are interactions, representations of the five great elements in the gross body. The living symptoms, represented by consciousness and conviction, are the manifestation of the subtle body mind, ego and intelligence. These subtle elements are included within the field of activities. The five great elements are a gross representation of the subtle false ego. They are a representation in the material conception. Consciousness is represented by intelligence, of which the unmanifested stage is the three modes of material nature. The unmanifested three modes of material nature is called pradhna. One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gt, a summary only is given. The body is the representation of all these factors, and there are changes of the body, which are six in number: the body is born, it grows, it stays, it produces by-products, then begins to decay, and at the last stage it vanishes. Therefore the field is a nonpermanent material thing. However, the ketraja, the knower of the field, its proprietor, is different. TEXTS 8-12 amnitvam adambhitvam ahis kntir rjavam cryopsana auca sthairyam tma-vinigraha indriyrtheu vairgyam anahakra eva ca janma-mtyu-jar-vydhi- dukha-donudaranam asaktir anabhivaga putra-dra-ghdiu nitya ca sama-cittatvam iniopapattiu mayi cnanya-yogena bhaktir avyabhicri vivikta-dea-sevitvam aratir jana-sasadi adhytma-jna-nityatva tattva-jnrtha-daranam etaj jnam iti proktam ajna yad ato 'nyath amnitvam humility; adambhitvam pridelessness; ahis nonviolence; knti tolerance; rjavam simplicity; crya-upsanam approaching a bona fide spiritual master; aucam cleanliness; sthairyam steadfastness; tma-vinigraha control; idriya-artheu in the matter of the senses; vairgyam renunciation; anahakra being without false egoism; eva certainly; ca also; janma birth; mtyu death; jar old age; vydhi disease; dukha distress; doa fault; anudaranam observing; asakti without attachment; anabhivaga without association; putra son; dra wife; gha-diu home, etc.; nityam eternal; ca also; sama-cittatvam equilibrium; ia desirable; ania undesirable; upapattiu having obtained; mayi unto Me; ca also; ananya-yogena by devotional service; bhakti devotion; avyabhicri constant, unalloyed; vivikta solitary; dea place; sevitvam aspiring; arati without attachment; jana people in general; sasadi mass; adhytma pertaining to the self; jna knowledge; nityatvam eternity; tattva-jna knowledge of the truth; artha the object; daranam philosophy; etat all this; jnam knowledge; iti thus; proktam declared; ajnam ignorace; yat that which; ata from this; anyath others. TRANSLATION Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truthall these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance. PURPORT This process of knowledge is sometimes misunderstood by less intelligent men as being the interaction of the field of activity. But actually this is the real process of knowledge. If one accepts this process, then the possibility of approaching the Absolute Truth exists. This is not the interaction of the tenfold elements, as described before, This is actually the means to get out of it. Of all the descriptions of the process of knowledge, the most important point is described in the first line of the tenth verse: The process of knowledge terminates in unalloyed devotional service to the Lord. So, if one does not approach, or is not able to approach, the transcendental service of the Lord, then the other nineteen items are of no particular value. But, if one takes to devotional service in full Ka consciousness, the other nineteen items automatically develop within him. The principle of accepting a spiritual master, as mentioned in the seventh verse, is essential. Even for one who takes to devotional service, it is most important. Transcendental life begins when one accepts a bona fide spiritual master. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka, clearly states here that this process of knowledge is the actual path. Anything speculated beyond this is nonsense. As for the knowledge outlined here, the items may be analyzed as follows: Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others. The material conception of life makes us very eager to receive honor from others, but from the point of view of a man in perfect knowledge who knows that he is not this body anything, honor or dishonor, pertaining to this body is useless. One should not be hankering after this material deception. People are very anxious to be famous for their religion, and consequently sometimes it is found that without understanding the principles of religion, one enters into some group, which is not actually following religious principles, and then wants to advertise himself as a religious mentor. As for actual advancement in spiritual science, one should have a test to see how far he is progressing. He can judge by these items. Nonviolence is generally taken to mean not killing or destroying the body, but actually nonviolence means not to put others into distress. People in general are trapped by ignorance in the material concept of life, and they perpetually suffer material pains. So, unless one elevates people to spiritual knowledge, one is practicing violence. One should try his best to distribute real knowledge to the people, so that they may become enlightened and leave this material entanglement. That is nonviolence. Tolerance means that one should be practiced to bear insult and dishonor from others. If one is engaged in the advancement of spiritual knowledge, there will be so many insults and much dishonor from others. This is expected because material nature is so constituted. Even a boy like Prahlda, who, only five years old, was engaged in the cultivation of spiritual knowledge, was endangered when his father became antagonistic to his devotion. The father tried to kill him in so many ways, but Prahlda tolerated him. So, for making advancement in spiritual knowledge, there may be many impediments, but we should be tolerant and continue our progress with determination. Simplicity means that without diplomacy one should be so straightforward that he can disclose the real truth even to an enemy. As for acceptance of the spiritual master, that is essential, because without the instruction of a bona fide spiritual master, one cannot progress in the spiritual science. One should approach the spiritual master with all humility and offer him all services so that he will be pleased to bestow his blessings upon the disciple. Because a bona fide spiritual master is a representative of Ka, if he bestows any blessings upon his disciple, that will make the disciple immediately advanced without the disciple's following the regulated principles. Or, the regulated principles will be easier for one who has served the spiritual master without reservation. Cleanliness is essential for making advancement in spiritual life. There are two kinds of cleanliness: external and internal. External cleanliness means taking a bath, but for internal cleanliness, one has to think of Ka always and chant Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. This process cleans the accumulated dust of past karma from the mind. Steadiness means that one should be very determined to make progress in spiritual life. Without such determination, one cannot make tangible progress. And self-control means that one should not accept anything which is detrimental to the path of spiritual progress. One should become accustomed to this and reject anything which is against the path of spiritual progress. This is real renunciation. The senses are so strong that they are always anxious to have sense gratification. One should not cater to these demands, which are not necessary. The senses should only be gratified to keep the body fit so that one can discharge his duty in advancing in spiritual life. The most important and uncontrollable sense is the tongue. If one can control the tongue, then there is every possibility of controlling the other senses. The function of the tongue is to taste and to vibrate. Therefore, by systematic regulation, the tongue should always be engaged in tasting the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Ka and chanting Hare Ka. As far as the eyes are concerned, they should not be allowed to see anything but the beautiful form of Ka. That will control the eyes. Similarly, the ears should be engaged in hearing about Ka and the nose in smelling the flowers offered to Ka. This is the process of devotional service, and it is understood here that Bhagavad-gt is simply expounding the science of devotional service. Devotional service is the main and sole objective. Unintelligent commentators on the Gt try to divert the mind of the reader to other subjects, but there is no other subject in Bhagavad- gt but devotional service. False ego means accepting this body as oneself. When one understands that he is not his body and is spirit soul, that is real ego. Ego is there. False ego is condemned, but not real ego. In the Vedic literature, it is said: aha brahmsmi. I am Brahman, I am spirit. This "I am," the sense of self, also exists in the liberated stage of self-realization. This sense of "I am" is ego, but when the sense of "I am" is applied to this false body, it is false ego. When the sense of self is applied to reality, that is real ego. There are some philosophers who say we should give up our ego, but we cannot give up our ego because ego means identity. We ought, of course, to give up the false identification with the body. One should try to understand the distress of accepting birth, death, old age and disease. There are descriptions in various Vedic literatures of birth. In the rmad-Bhgavatam the world of the unborn, the child's stay in the womb of the mother, its suffering, etc., are all very graphically described. It should be thoroughly understood that birth is distressful. Because we forget how much distress we have suffered within the womb of the mother, we do not make any solution to the repetition of birth and death. Similarly at the time of death, there are all kinds of sufferings, and they are also mentioned in the authoritative scriptures. These should be discussed. And as far as disease and old age are concerned, everyone gets practical experience. No one wants to be diseased, and no one wants to become old, but there is no avoiding these. Unless we have a pessimistic view of this material life, considering the distresses of birth, death, old age and disease, there is no impetus for our making advancement in spiritual life. As for detachment from children, wife and home, it is not meant that one should have no feeling for these. They are natural objects of affection, but when they are not favorable to spiritual progress, then one should not be attached to them. The best process for making the home pleasant is Ka consciousness. If one is in full Ka consciousness, he can make his home very happy because this process of Ka consciousness is very easy. One need only chant Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare, accept the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Ka, have some discussion on books like Bhagavad-gt and rmad- Bhgavatam, and engage oneself in Deity worship. These four will make one happy. One should train the members of his family in this way. The family members can sit down morning and evening and chant together Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. If one can mold his family life in this way to develop Ka consciousness, following these four principles, then there is no need to change from family life to renounced life. But if it is not congenial, not favorable for spiritual advancement, then family life should be abandoned. One must sacrifice everything to realize or serve Ka, just as Arjuna did. Arjuna did not want to kill his family members, but when he understood that these family members were impediments to his Ka realization, he accepted the instruction of Ka and fought and killed them. In all cases, one should be detached from the happiness and distress of family life because in this world one can never be fully happy or fully miserable. Happiness and distress are concommitant factors of material life. One should learn to tolerate, as advised in Bhagavad-gt. One can never restrict the coming and going of happiness and distress, so one should be detached from the materialistic way of life and be automatically equiposed in both cases. Generally, when we get something desirable, we are very happy, and when we get something undesirable, we are distressed. But if we are actually in the spiritual position, these things will not agitate us. To reach that stage, we have to practice unbreakable devotional service; devotional service to Ka without deviation means engaging oneself in the nine processes of devotional service, chanting, hearing, worshiping, offering respect, etc., as described in the last verse of the Ninth Chapter. That process should be followed. Naturally, when one is adapted to the spiritual way of life, he will not want to mix with materialistic men. That would go against his grain. One may test himself by seeing how far he is inclined to live in a solitary place without unwanted association. Naturally a devotee has no taste for unnecessary sporting or cinema-going or enjoying some social function, because he understands that these are simply a waste of time. There are many research scholars and philosophers who study sex life or some other subject, but according to Bhagavad-gt, such research work and philosophical speculation have no value. That is more or less nonsensical. According to Bhagavad-gt , one should make research by philosophical discretion into the nature of the soul. One should make research to understand with what the self is concerned. That is recommended here. As far as self-realization is concerned, it is clearly stated here that bhakti- yoga is especially practical. As soon as there is a question of devotion, one must consider the relationship between the Supersoul and the individual soul. The individual soul and the Supersoul cannot be one, at least not in the bhakti conception, the devotional conception of life. This service of the individual soul to the Supreme Soul is eternal, nityam , as is clearly stated. So bhakti or devotional service is eternal. One should be established in that philosophical conviction, otherwise it is only a waste of time, ignorance. In the rmad-Bhgavatam , this is explained; vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattva yaj jnam advayam. "Those who are actually knowers of the Absolute Truth know that the Self is realized in three different phases as Brahman, Paramtm and Bhagavn. " ( Bhg . 1.2.11) Bhagavn is the last word in the realization of the Absolute Truth; therefore one should reach up to that platform of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus engage in the devotional service of the Lord. That is perfection of knowledge. Beginning from practicing humility up to the point of realization of the Supreme Truth, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, this process is just like a staircase beginning from the ground floor up to the top floor. Now on this staircase there are so many people who have reached the first floor, the second or third floor, etc., but unless one reaches the top floor, which is the understanding of Ka, he is at a lower stage of knowledge. If anyone wants to compete with God and at the same time make advancement in spiritual knowledge, he will be frustrated. It is clearly stated that without humility understanding is harmful. To think oneself God is most puffed up. Although the living entity is always being kicked by the stringent laws of material nature, still he thinks, "I am God" because of ignorance. One should be humble and know that he is subordinate to the Supreme Lord. Due to rebellion against the Supreme Lord, one becomes subordinate to material nature. One must know and be convinced of this truth. TEXT 13 jeya yat tat pravakymi yaj jtv'mtam anute andi mat-para brahma na sat tan nsad ucyate jeyam knowable; yat that; tat which; pravakymi I shall now explain; yat which; jtv knowing; amtam nectar; anute taste; andi beginningless; mat-param subordinate to Me; brahma spirit; na neither; sat cause; tat that; na nor; asat effect; ucyate is called. TRANSLATION I shall now explain the knowable, knowing which you will taste the eternal. This is beginningless, and it is subordinate to Me. It is called Brahman, the spirit, and it lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world. PURPORT The Lord has explained the field of activities and the knower of the field. He has also explained the process of knowing the knower of the field of activities. Now He is explaining the knowable, both the soul and the Supersoul respectively. By knowledge of the knower, both the soul and the Supersoul, one can relish the nectar of life. As explained in the Second Chapter, the living entity is eternal. This is also confirmed here. There is no specific date at which the jva was born. Nor can anyone trace out the history of jvtm's manifestation from the Supreme Lord. Therefore it is beginningless. The Vedic literature confirms this: na jyate mjayate v vipacit. The knower of the body is never born and never dies, and he is full of knowledge. The Supreme Lord is also stated in the Vedic literature as pradhna- ketraja-patir guea. The Supreme Lord as the Supersoul is the chief knower of the body, and He is the master of the three modes of material nature. In the smti it is said: dsa-bhto harer eva nnyasvaiva kadcana. The living entities are eternally in the service of the Supreme Lord. This is also confirmed by Lord Caitanya in His teaching; therefore the description of Brahman mentioned in this verse is in relation to the individual soul, and when the word Brahman is applied to the living entity, it is to be understood that he is vijna brahma as opposed to ananta-brahma. Ananta-brahma is the Supreme Brahman Personality of Godhead. TEXT 14 sarvata pi-pda tat sarvato 'ki-iro-mukham sarvata rutimal loke sarvam vtya tihati sarvata everywhere; pi hands; pdam legs; tat that; sarvata everywhere; aki eyes; ira head; mukham face; sarvata everywhere; rutimat hearing; loke in the world; sarvam everywhere, vtya covering; tihati exists. TRANSLATION Everywhere are His hands and legs, His eyes and faces, and He hears everything. In this way the Supersoul exists. PURPORT As the sun exists diffusing its unlimited rays, so does the Supersoul, or Supreme Personality of Godhead. He exists in His all-pervading form, and in Him exist all the individual living entities, beginning from the first great teacher, Brahm, down to the small ants. There are unlimited heads, legs, hands and eyes, and unlimited living entities. All are existing in and on the Supersoul. Therefore the Supersoul is all-pervading. The individual soul, however, cannot say that he has his hands, legs and eyes everywhere. That is not possible. If he thinks that although under ignorance he is not conscious that his hands and legs are diffused all over, but when he attains to proper knowledge he will come to that stage, his thinking is contradictory. This means that the individual soul, having become conditioned by material nature, is not supreme. The Supreme is different from the individual soul. The Supreme Lord can extend His hand without limit; the individual soul cannot. In Bhagavad-gt the Lord says that if anyone offers Him a flower, or a fruit, or a little water, He accepts. If the Lord is a far distance away, how can He accept things? This is the omnipotence of the Lord: even though He is situated in His own abode, far, far away from earth, He can extend His hand to accept what anyone offers. That is His potency. In the Brahm-sahit it is stated, goloka eva nivasati: although He is always engaged in pastimes in His transcendental planet, He is all-pervading. The individual soul cannot claim that he is all-pervading. Therefore this verse describes the Supreme Soul, the Personality of Godhead, not the individual soul. TEXT 15 sarvendriya-gubhsa sarvendriya-vivarjitam asakta sarva-bhc caiva nirgua gua-bhokt ca sarve all; indriya senses; gua qualities; bhsam original source; sarva all; indriya senses; vivarjitam being without; asaktam without attachment; sarva-bht maintainer of everyone; ca also; eva certainly; nirguam without material qualities; gua-bhokt simultaneously master of the guas ; ca also. TRANSLATION The Supersoul is the original source of all senses, yet He is without senses. He is unattached, although He is the maintainer of all living beings. He transcends the modes of nature, and at the same time He is the master of all modes of material nature. PURPORT The Supreme Lord, although the source of all the senses of the living entities, doesn't have material senses like they have. Actually, the individual souls have spiritual senses, but in conditioned life they are covered with the material elements, and therefore the sense activities are exhibited through matter. The Supreme Lord's senses are not so covered. His senses are transcendental and are therefore called nirgua. Gua means the material modes, but His senses are without material covering. It should be understood that His senses are not exactly like ours. Although He is the source of all our sensual activities, He has His transcendental senses which are uncontaminated. This is very nicely explained in the vetvatara Upaniad in the verse: sarvata pi-pdam. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no hands which are materially contaminated, but He has His hands and accepts whatever sacrifice is offered to Him. That is the distinction between the conditioned soul and the Supersoul. He has no material eyes, but He has eyes otherwise how could He see? He sees everything, past, present and future. He lives within the heart of the living being, and He knows what we have done in the past, what we are doing now, and what is awaiting us in the future. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gt: He knows everything, but no one knows Him. It is said that the Supreme Lord has no legs like us, but He can travel throughout space because He has spiritual legs. In other words, the Lord is not impersonal; He has His eyes, legs, hands and everything else, and because we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord we also have these things. But His hands, legs, eyes and senses are not contaminated by material nature. Bhagavad-gt also confirms that when the Lord appears He appears as He is by His internal potency. He is not contaminated by the material energy because He is the Lord of material energy. In the Vedic literature we find that His whole embodiment is spiritual. He has His eternal form called sac-cid- nanda-vigraha. He is full of all opulence. He is the proprietor of all wealth and the owner of all energy. He is the most intelligent and is full of knowledge. These are some of the symptoms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is maintainer of all living entities and the witness of all activities. As far as we can understand from Vedic literature, the Supreme Lord is always transcendental. Although we do not see His head, face, hands, or legs, He has them, and when we are elevated to the transcendental situation then we can see the Lord's form. Due to materially contaminated senses, we cannot see His form. Therefore the impersonalists who are still materially affected cannot understand the Personality of Godhead. TEXT 16 bahir anta ca bhtnm acara caram eva ca skmatvt tad avijeya drastha cntike ca tat bahi outside; anta inside; ca also; bhtnm of all living entities; acaram not moving; caram moving; eva also; ca and; skmatvt on account of being subtle; tat that; avijeyam unknowable; drastha far away; ca antike near also; ca and; tat that. TRANSLATION The Supreme Truth exists both internally and externally, in the moving and nonmoving. He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. Although far, far away, He is also near to all. PURPORT In Vedic literature we understand that Nryaa, the Supreme Person, is residing both outside and inside of every living entity. He is present both in the spiritual and material world. Although He is far, far away, still He is near to us. These are the statements of Vedic literature. sno dra vrajati ayno yti sarvata. And, because He is always engaged in transcendental bliss, we cannot understand how He is enjoying His full opulence. We cannot see or understand with these material senses. Therefore in the Vedic language it is said that to understand Him our material mind and senses cannot act. But one who has purified his mind and senses by practicing Ka consciousness in devotional service can see Him constantly. It is confirmed in Brahma-sahit that the devotee who has developed love for the Supreme God can see Him always, without cessation. And it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gt (11.54) that He can be seen and understood only by devotional service. Bhakty tvananyay akya. TEXT 17 avibhakta ca bhteu vibhaktam iva ca sthitam bhta-bhart ca taj jeya grasiu prabhaviu ca avibhaktam without division; ca also; bhteu in every living being; vibhaktam divided; iva as if; ca also; sthitam situated; bhta-bhart maintainer of all living entities; ca also; tat that; jeyam to be understood; grasiu devours; prabhaviu develops; ca also. TRANSLATION Although the Supersoul appears to be divided, He is never divided. He is situated as one. Although He is the maintainer of every living entity, it is to be understood that He devours and develops all. PURPORT The Lord is situated in everyone's heart as the Supersoul. Does that mean that He has become divided? No. Actually, He is one. The example is given of the sun: the sun, at the meridian, is situated in his place. But if one goes for five thousand miles in all directions and asks, "Where is the sun?" everyone will say that it is shining on his head. In the Vedic literature this example is given to show that although He is undivided, He is situated as if divided. Also it is said in Vedic literature that one Viu is present everywhere by His omnipotence, just as the sun appears in many places to many persons. And the Supreme Lord, although the maintainer of every living entity, devours everything at the time of annihilation. This was confirmed in the Eleventh Chapter when the Lord said that He has come to devour all the warriors assembled at Kuruketra. He also mentions that in the form of time He devours also. He is the annihilator, the killer of all. When there is creation, He develops all from their original state, and at the time of annihilation He devours them. The Vedic hymns confirm the fact that He is the origin of all living entities and the rest of al1. After creation, everything rests in His omnipotence, and after annihilation, everything again returns to rest in Him. These are the confirmations of Vedic hymns. Yato v imni bhtni jyante yena jtni jvanti yat prayanty abhisavianti tad brahma tad vijijsasva . ( Taittirya Upaniad , 3.1) TEXT 18 jyotim api taj jyotis tamasa param ucyate jna jeya jna-gamya hdi sarvasya vihitam jyotim in all luminous objects; api also; tat that; jyoti source of light; tamasa of the darkness; param beyond; ucyate is said; jnam knowledge; jeyam to be known; jna-gamyam to be approached by knowledge; hdi in the heart; sarvasya of everyone; vihitam situated. TRANSLATION He is the source of light in all luminous objects. He is beyond the darkness of matter and is unmanifested. He is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone's heart. PURPORT The Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the source of light in all luminous objects like the sun, moon, stars, etc. In the Vedic literature we find that in the spiritual kingdom there is no need of sun or moon because the effulgence of the Supreme Lord is there. In the material world that brahmajyoti, the Lord's spiritual effulgence, is covered by the mahat-tattva , the material elements; therefore in this material world we require the assistance of sun, moon, electricity, etc., for light. But in the spiritual world there is no need of such things. It is clearly stated in the Vedic literature that because of His luminous effulgence, everything is illuminated. It is clear, therefore, that His situation is not in the material world. He is situated in the spiritual world which is far, far away in the spiritual sky. That is also confirmed in the Vedic literature. ditya-varam tamasa parastt . He is just like the sun, eternally luminous, but He is far, far beyond the darkness of this material world. His knowledge is transcendental. The Vedic literature confirms that Brahman is concentrated transcendental knowledge. To one who is anxious to be transferred to that spiritual world, knowledge is given by the Supreme Lord who is situated in everyone's heart. One Vedic mantra says: ta ha devam tma-buddhi-praka mumukur vai araam aham prapadye. One must surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead if he at all wants liberation. As far as the goal of ultimate knowledge is concerned, it is also confirmed in Vedic literature: tam eva viditvtimtyum eti. "Only by knowing You can one surpass the boundary of birth and death." He is situated in everyone's heart as the supreme controller. The Supreme has legs and hands distributed everywhere, and this cannot be said of the individual soul. Therefore that there are two knowers of the field of activity, the individual soul and the Supersoul, must be admitted. One's hands and legs are distributed locally, but Ka's hands and legs are distributed everywhere. This is confirmed in the vetvatara Upaniad: sarvasya prabhum na sarvasya araa bhat. That Supreme Personality of Godhead, Supersoul, is the prabhu or master of all living entities; therefore He is the ultimate center of all living entities. So there is no denying the fact that the Supreme Supersoul and the individual soul are always different. TEXT 19 iti ketra tath jna jeya coktu samsata mad-bhakta etad vijya mad-bhvyopapadyate iti thus; ketram field of activities (the body); tath also; jnam knowledge; jeyam knowable; ca also; uktam describe; samsata in summary; mat-bhakta My devotee; etat all this; vijya after understanding; mat-bhvya My nature; upapadyate attains. TRANSLATION Thus the field of activities [the body], knowledge, and the knowable have been summarily described by Me. Only My devotees can understand this thoroughly and thus attain to My nature. PURPORT The Lord has described in summary the body, knowledge and the knowable. This knowledge is of three things: the knower, the knowable and the process of knowing. Combined, these are called vijnam, or the science of knowledge. Perfect knowledge can be understood by the unalloyed devotees of the Lord directly. Others are unable to understand. The monists say that at the ultimate stage these three items become one, but the devotees do not accept this. Knowledge and development of knowledge mean understanding oneself in Ka consciousness. We are being led by material consciousness, but as soon as we transfer all consciousness to Ka's activities and realize that Ka is everything, then we attain real knowledge. In other words, knowledge is nothing but the preliminary stage of understanding devotional service perfectly. TEXT 20 prakti purua caiva viddhyand ubhv api vikr ca gu caiva viddhi prakti-sambhavn praktim material nature; puruam livingentities; ca also; eva certainly; viddhi must know; and without beginning; ubhau both; api also; vikrn transformation; ca also; gun three modes of nature; ca also; eva certainly; viddhi know; prakti material nature; sambhavn produced of. TRANSLATION Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature. PURPORT By this knowledge, the body, the field of activities and the knowers of the body (both the individual soul and the Supersoul) can be known. The body is the field of activity and is composed of material nature. It is the individual soul which is embodied. Enjoying the activities of the body is the purua, or the living entity. He is one knower, and the other is the Supersoul. Of course, it is to be understood that both the Supersoul and the individual entity are different manifestations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The living entity is in the category of His energy, and the Supersoul is in the category of His personal expansion. Both material nature and the living entity are eternal. That is to say that they existed before the creation. The material manifestation is from the energy of the Supreme Lord and so also are the living entities, but they are of the superior energy. Both of them existed before this cosmos was manifested. Material nature was absorbed in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mah- Viu, and when it was required, it was manifested by the agency of mahat- tattva. Similarly, the living entities are also in Him, and because they are conditioned, they are adverse to serving the Supreme Lord. Thus they are not allowed to enter into the spiritual sky. After the winding up of material nature, these living entities are again given a chance to act in the material world and prepare themselves to enter into the spiritual world. That is the mystery of this material creation. Actually the living entity is originally the spiritual part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, but due to his rebellious nature, he is conditioned within material nature. It really does not matter how these living entities or superior entities of the Supreme Lord have come in contact with material nature. The Supreme Personality of Godhead knows, however, how and why this actually took place. In the scriptures the Lord says that those attracted by this material nature are undergoing a hard struggle for existence. But we should know it with certainty from the descriptions of these few verses that all the transformations and influences of material nature by the three modes are also productions of material nature. All transformations and variety in respect to living entities are due to the body. As far as spirit is concerned, living entities are all the same. TEXT 21 krya-kraa-karttve hetu praktir ucyate purua sukha-dukhn bhokttve hetur ucyate krya effect; kraa cause; karttve in the matter of creation; hetu instrument; prakti material nature; ucyate is said to be; purua the living entities; sukha happiness; dukhnm of distresses; bhokttve in enjoyment; hetu instrument; ucyate issaid to be. TRANSLATION Nature is said to be the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world. PURPORT The different manifestations of body and senses among the living entities are due to material nature. There are 8,400,000 different species of life, and these varieties are the creation of the material nature. They arise from the different sensual pleasures of the living entity, who thus desires to live in this body or that. When he is put into different bodies, he enjoys different kinds of happiness and distress. His material happiness and distress are due to his body, and not to himself as he is. In his original state there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore that is his real state. Because of the desire to lord it over material nature, he is in the material world. In the spiritual world there is no such thing. The spiritual world is pure, but in the material world everyone is struggling hard to acquire victims who present different pleasures to the body. It might be more clear to state that this body is the effect of the senses. The senses are instruments for gratifying desire. Now, the sum total body and instrument senses are offered by material nature, and, as will be clear in the next verse, the living entity is blessed or damned with circumstances according to his past desire and activity. According to one's desires and activities, material nature places one in various residential quarters. The being himself is the cause of his attaining such residential quarters and his attendant enjoyment or suffering. Once placed in some particular kind of body, he comes under the control of nature because the body, being matter, acts according to the laws of nature. At that time, the living entity has no power to change that law. Suppose an entity is put into the body of a dog. As soon as he is put into the body of a dog, he must act like a dog. He cannot act otherwise. And if the living entity is put into the body of a hog, then he is forced to eat stool and act like a hog. Similarly, if the living entity is put into the body of a demigod, he must act according to his body. This is the law of nature. But in all circumstances, the Supersoul is with the individual soul. That is explained in the Vedas as follows: dv supar sayuj sakhy. The Supreme Lord is so kind upon the living entity that He always accompanies the individual soul and in all circumstances is present as the Supersoul or Paramtm. TEXT 22 purua prakti-stho hi bhukte prakti-jn gun kraa gua-sago'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu purua the living entity; prakti-stha being situated in the material energy; hi certainly; bhukte enjoys; prakti-jn produced by the material nature; gun modes of nature; kraam cause; gua-saga association with the modes of nature; asya of the living entity; sat-asat good and bad; yoni species of life; janmasu birth. TRANSLATION The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species. PURPORT This verse is very important for an understanding of how the living entities transmigrate from one body to another. It is explained in the Second Chapter that the living entity is transmigrating from one body to another just as one changes dress. This change of dress is due to his attachment to material existence. As long as he is captivated by this false manifestation, he has to continue transmigrating from one body to another. Due to his desire to lord it over material nature, he is put into such undesirable circumstances. Under the influence of material desire, the entity is born sometimes as a demigod, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a beast, as a bird, as a worm, as an aquatic, as a saintly man, as a bug. This is going on. And in all cases the living entity thinks himself to be the master of his circumstances, yet he is under the influence of material nature. How he is put into such different bodies is explained here. It is due to association with the different modes of nature. One has to rise, therefore, above the three material modes and become situated in the transcendental position. That is called Ka consciousness. Unless one is situated in Ka consciousness, his material consciousness will oblige him to transfer from one body to another because he has material desires since time immemorial. But he has to change that conception. That change can be effected only by hearing from authoritative sources. The best example is here: Arjuna is hearing the science of God from Ka. The living entity, if he submits to this hearing process, will lose his long-cherished desire to dominate material nature, and gradually and proportionately, as he reduces his long desire to dominate, he comes to enjoy spiritual happiness. In a Vedic mantra it is said that as he becomes learned in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he proportionately relishes his eternal blissful life. TEXT 23 upadranumant ca bhart bhokt mahevara paramtmeti cpy ukto dehe'smin purua para upadra overseer; anumant permitter; ca also; bhart master; bhokt supreme enjoyer; mahevara the Supreme Lord; paramtm Supersoul; iti also; ca and; api ukta is said; dehe in this body; asmin this; purua enjoyer; para transcendental. TRANSLATION Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul. PURPORT It is stated here that the Supersoul, who is always with the individual soul, is the representation of the Supreme Lord. He is not an ordinary living entity. Because the monist philosophers take the knower of the body to be one, they think that there is no difference between the Supersoul and the individual soul. To clarify this, the Lord says that He is the representation of Paramtm in every body. He is different from the individual soul; He is para, transcendental. The individual soul enjoys the activities of a particular field, but the Supersoul is present not as finite enjoyer nor as one taking part in bodily activities, but as the witness, overseer, permitter and supreme enjoyer. His name is Paramtm, not tm, and He is transcendental. It is distinctly clear that the tm and Paramtm are different. The Supersoul, the Paramtm, has legs and hands everywhere, but the individual soul does not. And because He is the Supreme Lord, He is present within to sanction the individual soul's desiring material enjoyment. Without the sanction of the Supreme Soul, the individual soul cannot do anything. The individual is bhakta or the sustained, and He is bhukta or the maintainer. There are innumerable living entities, and He is staying in them as a friend. The fact is that individual living entities are eternally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and both of them are very intimately related as friends. But the living entity has the tendency to reject the sanction of the Supreme Lord and act independently in an attempt to dominate the supreme nature, and because he has this tendency, he is called the marginal energy of the Supreme Lord. The living entity can be situated either in the material energy or the spiritual energy. As long as he is conditioned by the material energy, the Supreme Lord, as his friend, the Supersoul, stays with him just to get him to return to the spiritual energy. The Lord is always eager to take him back to the spiritual energy, but due to his minute independence, the individual entity is continually rejecting the association of spiritual light. This misuse of independence is the cause of his material strife in the conditioned nature. The Lord, therefore, is always giving instruction from within and from without. From without He gives instructions as stated in Bhagavad-gt, and from within He tries to convince him that his activities in the material field are not conducive to real happiness. "Just give it up and turn your faith toward Me. Then you will be happy," He says. Thus the intelligent person who places his faith in the Paramtm or the Supreme Personality of Godhead begins to advance toward a blissful eternal life of knowledge TEXT 24 ya eva vetti purua prakti ca guai saha sarvath vartamno'pi na sa bhyo 'bhijyate ya anyone; evam thus; vetti understands; puruam the living entities; praktim material nature; ca and; guai modes of material nature; saha with; sarvath by all means; vartamna situated; api in spite of; na never; sa he; bhya again; abhijyate takes his birth. TRANSLATION One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation. He will not take birth here again, regardless of his present position. PURPORT Clear understanding of material nature, the Supersoul, the individual soul and their interrelation makes one eligible to become liberated and turn to the spiritual atmosphere without being forced to return to this material nature. This is the result of knowledge. The purpose of knowledge is to understand distinctly that the living entity has by chance fallen into this material existence. By his personal endeavor in association with authorities, saintly persons and a spiritual master, he has to understand his position and then revert to spiritual consciousness or Ka consciousness by understanding Bhagavad-gt as it is explained by the Personality of Godhead. Then it is certain that he will never come again into this material existence; he will be transferred into the spiritual world for a blissful eternal life of knowledge. TEXT 25 dhynentmani payanti kecid tmnam tman anye skhyena yogena karma-yogena cpare dhynena by meditation; tmani self; payanti see; kecit one; tmnam Supersoul; tman by the mind; anye others; skhyena by philosophical discussion; yogena by the yoga system; karma-yogena by activities without fruitive desire; ca also; apare others. TRANSLATION That Supersoul is perceived by some through meditation, by some through the cultivation of knowledge, and by others through working without fruitive desire. PURPORT The Lord informs Arjuna that the conditioned soul can be divided into two classes as far as man's search for self-realization is concerned. Those who are atheists, agnostics and skeptics are beyond the sense of spiritual understanding. But there are others who are faithful in their understanding of spiritual life, and they are called workers who have renounced fruitive results. Those who always try to establish the doctrine of monism are also counted among the atheists and agnostics. In other words, only the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are really capable of spiritual understanding because they understand that beyond this material nature there is the spiritual world and the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is expanded as the Paramtm, the Supersoul in everyone, the all-pervading Godhead. Of course there are those who try to understand the Supreme Absolute Truth by cultivation of knowledge, and they can be counted in the second class. The atheistic philosophers analyze this material world into twenty-four elements, and they place the individual soul as the twenty- fifth item. When they are able to understand the nature of the individual soul to be transcendental to the material elements, they are able to understand also that above the individual soul there is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the twenty-sixth element. Thus gradually they also come to the standard of devotional service in Ka consciousness. Those who work without fruitive results are also perfect in their attitude. They are given a chance to advance to the platform of devotional service in Ka consciousness. Here it is stated that there are some people who are pure in consciousness and who try to find out the Supersoul by meditation, and when they discover the Supersoul within themselves, they become transcendentally situated. Similarly, there are others who also try to understand the Supreme Soul by cultivation of knowledge, and there are others who cultivate the haha-yoga system and who try to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead by childish activities. TEXT 26 anye tv evam ajnanta rutvnyebhya upsate te'pi ctitaranty eva mtyu ruti-parya anye others; tu but; evam this; ajnanta without spiritual knowledge; rutv by hearing; anyebhya from others; upsate begin to worship; te they; api also; ca and; atitaranti transcend; eva certainly; mtyum the path of death; ruti-parya inclined to the process of hearing. TRANSLATION Again there are those who, although not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship the Supreme Person upon hearing about Him from others. Because of their tendency to hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death. PURPORT This verse is particularly applicable to modern society because in modern society there is practically no education in spiritual matters. Some of the people may appear to be atheistic or agnostic or philosophical, but actually there is no knowledge of philosophy. As for the common man, if he is a good soul, then there is a chance for advancement by hearing. This hearing process is very important. Lord Caitanya, who preached Ka consciousness in the modern world, gave great stress to hearing because if the common man simply hears from authoritative sources, he can progress, especially, according to Lord Caitanya, if he hears the transcendental vibration Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. It is stated, therefore, that all men should take advantage of hearing from realized souls and gradually become able to understand everything. The worship of the Supreme Lord will then undoubtedly take place. Lord Caitanya has said that in this age no one needs to change his position, but one should give up the endeavor to understand the Absolute Truth by speculative reasoning. One should learn to become the servant of those who are in knowledge of the Supreme Lord. If one is fortunate enough to take shelter of a pure devotee, hear from him about self-realization and follow in his footsteps, he will be gradually elevated to the position of a pure devotee. In this verse particularly the process of hearing is strongly recommended, and this is very appropriate. Although the common man is often not as capable as so-called philosophers, faithful hearing from an authoritative person will help one transcend this material existence and go back to Godhead, back to home. TEXT 27 yvat sajyate kicit sattva sthvara-jagamam ketra-ketraja-sayogt tad viddhi bharatarabha yvat whatever; sajyate takes place; kicit anything; sattvam existence; sthvara not moving; jagamam moving; ketra the body; ketraja knower of the body; sayogt union between; tat viddhi you must know it; bharatarabha O chief of the Bhratas. TRANSLATION O chief of the Bhratas, whatever you see in existence, both moving and unmoving, is only the combination of the field of activities and the knower of the field. PURPORT Both material nature and the living entity, which were existing before the creation of the cosmos, are explained in this verse. Whatever is created is but a combination of the living entity and material nature. There are many manifestations like trees, mountains and hills, which are not moving, and there are many existences which are moving, and all of them are but combinations of material nature and superior nature, the living entity. Without the touch of the superior nature, the living entity, nothing can grow. Therefore the relationship between matter and nature is eternally going on, and this combination is effected by the Supreme Lord; therefore He is the controller of both the superior and inferior natures. The material nature is created by Him, and the superior nature is placed in this material nature, and thus all these activities and manifestations take place. TEXT 28 sama sarveu bhteu tihanta paramevaram vinayatsv avinayanta ya payati sa payati samam equally; sarveu in all; bhteu living entities; tihantam residing; paramevaram the Supersoul; vinayatsu in the destructible; avinayantam not destroyed; ya anyone; payati see; sa he; payati actually sees. TRANSLATION One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees. PURPORT Anyone who can see three thingsthe body, the proprietor of the body, or individual soul, and the friend of the individual soul, combined together by good associationis actually in knowledge. Those who are not associated with the soul's friend are ignorant; they simply see the body, and when the body is destroyed they think that everything is finished, but actually it is not so. After the destruction of the body, both the soul and the Supersoul exist, and they go on eternally in many various moving and unmoving forms. The Sanskrit word paramevaram is sometimes translated as the individual soul because the soul is the master of the body, and after the destruction of the body he transfers to another form. In that way he is master. But there are others who interpret this paramevaram to be the Supersoul. In either case, both the Supersoul and the individual soul continue. They are not destroyed. One who can see in this way can actually see what is happening. TEXT 29 sama payan hi sarvatra samavasthitam varam na hinasty tmantmna tato yti par gatim samam equally; payan seeing; hi certainly; sarvatra everywhere; samavasthitam equally situated; varam Supersoul; na does not; hinasti degrade; tman by the mind; tmnam the soul; tata yti then reaches; parm the transcendental; gatim destination. TRANSLATION One who sees the Supersoul in every living being and equal everywhere does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination. PURPORT The living entity, by accepting his material existence as just so much suffering, can become situated in his spiritual existence. If one understands that the Supreme is situated in His Paramtm manifestation everywhere, that is, if one can see the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in every living thing, he does not degrade himself, and he therefore gradually advances in the spiritual world. The mind is generally addicted to self- centered processes; but when the mind turns to the Supersoul, one becomes advanced in spiritual understanding. TEXT 30 praktyaiva ca karmi kriyamni sarvaa ya payati tathtmnam akartra sa payati prakty material nature; eva certainly; ca also; karmi activities; kriyamni engaged in performing; sarvaa in all respects; ya anyone who; payati sees; tath also; tmnam himself; akartram non-doer; sa he; payati sees perfectly. TRANSLATION One who can see that all activities are performed by the body, which is created of material nature, and sees that the self does nothing, actually sees. PURPORT This body is made by material nature under the direction of the Supersoul, and whatever activities are going on in respect to one's body are not his doing. Whatever one is supposed to do, either for happiness or for distress, one is forced to do because of the bodily constitution. The self, however, is outside all these bodily activities. This body is given according to one's past desires. To fulfill desires, one is given the body, with which he acts accordingly. Practically speaking, the body is a machine, designed by the Supreme Lord, to fulfill desires. Because of desires, one is put into difficult circumstances to suffer or to enjoy. This transcendental vision of the living entity, when developed, makes one separate from bodily activities. One who has such a vision is an actual seer. TEXT 31 yad bhta-pthag-bhvam eka-stham anupayati tata eva ca vistra brahma sampadyate tad yad when; bhta living entities; pthak-bhvam separated entities; eka-stham situated in one; anupayati tries to see through authority; tata eva thereafter; ca also; vistram expanded; brahma the Absolute; sampadyate attains; tad at that time. TRANSLATION When a sensible man ceases to see different identities, which are due to different material bodies, he attains to the Brahman conception. Thus he sees that beings are expanded everywhere. PURPORT When one can see that the various bodies of living entities arise due to the different desires of the individual soul and do not actually belong to the soul itself, one actually sees. In the material conception of life, we find someone a demigod, someone a human being, a dog, a cat, etc. This is material vision, not actual vision. This material differentiation is due to a material conception of life. After the destruction of the material body, this spirit soul is one. The spirit soul, due to contact with material nature, gets different types of bodies. When one can see this, he attains spiritual vision; thus being freed from differentiations like man, animal, big, low, etc., one becomes beautified in his consciousness and able to develop Ka consciousness in his spiritual identity. How he then sees things will be explained in the next verse. TEXT 32 anditvn nirguatvt paramtmyam avyaya arra-stho 'pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate anditvt due to eternity; nirguatvt due to transcendental; param beyond material nature; tm spirit; ayam this; avyaya inexhaustable; arra-stha api though dwelling in the body; kaunteya O son of Kunt; na karoti never does anything; na lipyate nor is he entangled. TRANSLATION Those with the vision of eternity can see that the soul is transcendental, eternal, and beyond the modes of nature. Despite contact with the material body, O Arjuna, the soul neither does anything nor is entangled. PURPORT A living entity appears to be born because of the birth of the material body, but actually the living entity is eternal; he is not born, and in spite of his being situated in a material body, he is transcendental and eternal. Thus he cannot be destroyed. By nature he is full of bliss. He does not engage himself in any material activities; therefore the activities performed due to his contact with material bodies do not entangle him. TEXT 33 yath sarva-gata saukmyd ka nopalipyate sarvatrvasthito dehe tathtm nopalipyate yath as; sarva-gatam all-pervading; saukmyt due to being subtle; kam the sky; na never; upalipyate mixes; sarvatra everywhere; avasthita situated; dehe in the body; tath such; tm the self; na never; upalipyate mixes. TRANSLATION The sky, due to its subtle nature, does not mix with anything, although it is all-pervading. Similarly, the soul, situated in Brahman vision, does not mix with the body, though situated in that body. PURPORT The air enters into water, mud, stool and whatever else is there; still it does not mix with anything. Similarly, the living entity, even though situated in varieties of bodies, is aloof from them due to his subtle nature. Therefore it is impossible to see with the material eyes how the living entity is in contact with this body and how he is out of it after the destruction of the body. No one in science can ascertain this. TEXT 34 yath prakayaty eka ktsna lokam ima ravi ketra ketr tath ktsna prakayati bhrata yath as; prakayati illuminates; eka one; ktsnam the whole; lokam universe; imam this; ravi the sun, ketram this body; ketr the soul; tath similarly; ktsnam all; prakayati illuminates; bhrata O son of Bharata. TRANSLATION O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness. PURPORT There are various theories regarding consciousness. Here in Bhagavad- gt the example of the sun and the sunshine is given. As the sun is situated in one place, but is illuminating the whole universe, so a small particle of spirit soul, although situated in the heart of this body, is illuminating the whole body by consciousness. Thus consciousness is the proof of the presence of the soul, as sunshine or light is the proof of the presence of the sun. When the soul is present in the body, there is consciousness all over the body, and as soon as the soul has passed from the body, there is no more consciousness. This can be easily understood by any intelligent man. Therefore consciousness is not a production of the combinations of matter. It is the symptom of the living entity. The consciousness of the living entity, although qualitatively one with the supreme consciousness, is not supreme because the consciousness of one particular body does not share that of another body. But the Supersoul, which is situated in all bodies as the friend of the individual soul, is conscious of all bodies. That is the difference between supreme consciousness and individual consciousness. TEXT 35 ketra-ketrajayor evam antara jna-caku bhta-prakti-moka ca ye vidur ynti te param ketra body; ketrajayo of the proprietor of the body; evam that; antaram difference; jna-caku by vision of knowledge; bhta living entity; prakti material nature; mokam liberation; ca also; ye one who; vidu knows; ynti approaches; te they; param Supreme. TRANSLATION One who knowingly sees this difference between the body and the owner of the body and can understand the process of liberation from this bondage, also attains to the supreme goal. PURPORT The purport of this Thirteenth Chapter is that one should know the distinction between the body, the owner of the body, and the Supersoul. A faithful person should at first have some good association to hear of God and thus gradually become enlightened. If one accepts a spiritual master, he can learn to distinguish between matter and spirit, and that becomes the steppingstone for further spiritual realization. A spiritual master teaches his students to get free from the material concept of life by various instructions. For instance, in Bhagavad-gt we find Ka instructing Arjuna to free him from materialistic considerations. One can understand that this body is matter; it can be analyzed with its twenty-four elements. That is the gross manifestation. And the subtle manifestation is the mind and psychological effects. And the symptoms of life are the interaction of these features. But over and above this, there is the soul, and there is also the Supersoul. The soul and the Supersoul are two. This material world is working by the conjunction of the soul and the twenty-four material elements. One who can see the constitution of the whole material manifestation as this combination of the soul and material elements and also can see the situation of the Supreme Soul becomes eligible for transfer to the spiritual world. These things are meant for contemplation and for realization, and one should have a complete understanding of this chapter with the help of the spiritual master. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Thirteenth Chapter of the rmad-Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Nature, the Enjoyer, and Consciousness. Chapter-14 CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Three Modes of Material Nature TEXT 1 r bhagavn uvca para bhya pravakymi jnn jnam uttamam yaj jtv munaya sarve par siddhim ito gat r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; param transcendental; bhya again; pravakymi I shall speak; jnnm of all knowledge; jnam knowledge; uttamam the supreme; yat which; jtv knowing; munaya the sages; sarve all; parm transcendental; siddhim perfection; ita from this world; gat attain. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: Again I shall declare to you this supreme wisdom, the best of all knowledge, knowing which all the sages have attained to supreme perfection. PURPORT From the Seventh Chapter to the end of the Twelfth Chapter, r Ka in detail reveals the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now, the Lord Himself is further enlightening Arjuna. If one understands this chapter through the process of philosophical speculation, he will come to an understanding of devotional service. In the Thirteenth Chapter, it was clearly explained that by humbly developing knowledge one may possibly be freed from material entanglement. It has also been explained that it is due to association with the modes of nature that the living entity is entangled in this material world. Now, in this chapter, the Supreme Personality explains what those modes of nature are, how they act, how they bind and how they give liberation. The knowledge explained in this chapter is proclaimed by the Supreme Lord to be superior to the knowledge given so far in other chapters. By understanding this knowledge, various great sages attain perfection and transfer to the spiritual world. The Lord now explains the same knowledge in a better way. This knowledge is far, far superior to all other processes of knowledge thus far explained, and knowing this many attain perfection. Thus it is expected that one who understands this Fourteenth Chapter will attain perfection. TEXT 2 ida jnam upritya mama sdharmyam gat sarge'pi nopajyante pralaye na vyathanti ca idam this; jnam knowledge; upritya taking shelter of; mama My; sdharmyam nature; gat attain; sarge api even in the creation; na never; upajyante comes in; pralaye in the annihilation; na nor; vyathanti disturbed; ca also. TRANSLATION By becoming fixed in this knowledge, one can attain to the transcendental nature, which is like My own nature. Thus established, one is not born at the time of creation nor disturbed at the time of dissolution. PURPORT After acquiring perfect transcendental knowledge, one acquires qualitative equality with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, becoming free from the repetition of birth and death. One does not, however, lose his identity as an individual soul. It is understood from Vedic literature that the liberated souls who have reached the transcendental planets of the spiritual sky always look to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, being engaged in His transcendental loving service. So, even after liberation, the devotees do not lose their individual identities. Generally, in the material world, whatever knowledge we get is contaminated by the three modes of material nature. But knowledge which is not contaminated by the three modes of nature is called transcendental knowledge. As soon as one is situated in that transcendental knowledge, he is on the same platform as that of the Supreme Person. Those who have no knowledge of the spiritual sky hold that after being freed from the material activities of the material form, this spiritual identity becomes formless, without any variegatedness. However, just as there is material variegatedness in this world, so, in the spiritual world, there is also variegatedness. Those in ignorance of this think that spiritual existence is opposed to material variety. But actually, in the spiritual sky, one attains spiritual form. There are spiritual activities, and the spiritual situation is called devotional life. That atmosphere is said to be uncontaminated, and there one is equal in quality with the Supreme Lord. To obtain such knowledge, one must develop all the spiritual qualities. One who thus develops the spiritual qualities is not affected either by the creation or the destruction of the material world. TEXT 3 mama yonir mahad-brahma tasmin garbha dadhmy aham sambhava sarva-bhtn tato bhavati bhrata mama My; yoni source of birth; mahat the total material existence; brahma supreme; tasmin in that; garbham pregnancy; dadhmi create; aham I; sambhava possibility; sarva-bhtnm of all living entities; tata thereafter; bhavati becomes; bhrata O son of Bharata. TRANSLATION The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, and it is that Brahman that I impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of Bharata. PURPORT This is an explanation of the world: everything that takes place is due to the combination of ketra and ketraja, the body and the spirit soul. This combination of material nature and the living entity is made possible by the Supreme God Himself. The mahat-tattva is the total cause of the total cosmic manifestation, and because in the total substance of the material cause there are three modes of nature, it is sometimes called Brahman. The Supreme Personality impregnates that total substance, and thus innumerable universes become possible. This total material substance, the mahat-tattva, is described as Brahman in the Vedic literature: tasmd etad brahma nma-rpam anna ca jyate. Into that Brahman the seeds of the living entities are impregnated by the Supreme Person. The twenty-four elements, beginning from earth, water, fire and air, are all material energy, called Mah-brahman, or the great Brahman, the material nature. As is explained in the Seventh Chapter, beyond this there is another, superior naturethe living entity. In material nature the superior nature is mixed by the will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thereafter all living entities are born of this material nature. The scorpion lays its eggs in piles of rice, and sometimes it is said that the scorpion is born out of rice. But the rice is not the cause of the scorpion. Actually, the eggs were laid by the mother. Similarly, material nature is not the cause of the birth of the living entities. The seed is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they only seem to come out as products of material nature. Thus every living entity, according to his past activities, has a different body, created by this material nature, and the entity can enjoy or suffer according to his past deeds. The Lord is the cause of all the manifestations of living entities in this material world. TEXT 4 sarva-yoniu kaunteya mrtaya sambhavanti y ts brahma mahad yonir aha bja-prada pit sarva-yoniu in all species of life; kaunteya O son of Kunt; mrtaya forms; sambhavanti as they appear; y which; tsm all of them; brahma supreme; mahat yoni the source of birth in the material substance; aham Myself; bja-prada seed-giving; pit father. TRANSLATION It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kunt, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father. PURPORT In this verse it is clearly explained that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, is the original father of all living entities. The living entities are combinations of the material nature and the spiritual nature. Such living entities are seen not only on this planet, but in every planet, even in the highest where Brahm is situated. Everywhere there are living entities; within the earth there are living entities, even within water and within fire. All these appearances are due to the mother, material nature, and Ka's seed-giving process. The purport is that the living entities, being impregnated in the material world, come out and form at the time of creation according to their past deeds. TEXT 5 sattva rajas tama iti gu prakti-sambhav nibadhnanti mah-bho dehe dehinam avyayam sattvam mode of goodness; raja mode of passion; tama mode of ignorance; iti thus; gu qualities; prakti material nature; sambhav produced of; nibadhnanti does condition; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; dehe in this body; dehinam the living entity; avyayam eternal. TRANSLATION Material nature consists of the three modesgoodness, passion and ignorance. When the living entity comes in contact with nature, he becomes conditioned by these modes. PURPORT The living entity, because he is transcendental, has nothing to do with this material nature. Still, because he has become conditioned by the material world, he is acting under the spell of the three modes of material nature. Because living entities have different kinds of bodies, in terms of the different aspects of nature, they are induced to act according to that nature. This is the cause of the varieties of happiness and distress. TEXT 6 tatra sattva nirmalatvt prakakam anmayam sukha-sagena badhnti jna-sagena cnagha tatra thereafter; sattvam mode of goodness; nirmalatvt being purest in the material world; prakakam illuminating; anmayam without any sinful reaction; sukha happiness; sagena association; badhnti conditions; jna knowledge; sagena association; ca also; anagha O sinless one. TRANSLATION O sinless one, the mode of goodness, being purer than the others, is illuminating, and it frees one from all sinful reactions. Those situated in that mode develop knowledge, but they become conditioned by the concept of happiness. PURPORT The living entities conditioned by material nature are of various types. One is happy, another is very active, and another is helpless. All these types of psychological manifestations are causes of the entities' conditioned status in nature. How they are differently conditioned is explained in this section of Bhagavad-gt. The mode of goodness is first considered. The effect of developing the mode of goodness in the material world is that one becomes wiser than those otherwise conditioned. A man in the mode of goodness is not so much affected by material miseries, and he has a sense of advancement in material knowledge. The representative type is the brhmaa, who is supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness. This sense of happiness is due to understanding that, in the mode of goodness, one is more or less free from sinful reactions. Actually, in the Vedic literature it is said that the mode of goodness means greater knowledge and a greater sense of happiness. The difficulty here is that when a living entity is situated in the mode of goodness, he becomes conditioned to feel that he is advanced in knowledge and is better than others. In this way he becomes conditioned. The best examples are the scientist and philosopher: each is very proud of his knowledge, and because they generally improve their living conditions, they feel a sort of material happiness. This sense of advanced happiness in conditioned life makes them bound by the mode of goodness of material nature. As such, they are attracted toward working in the mode of goodness, and, as long as they have an attraction for working in that way, they have to take some type of body in the modes of nature. Thus there is no likelihood of liberation, or of being transferred to the spiritual world. Repeatedly, one may become a philosopher, a scientist, or a poet, and, repeatedly, become entangled in the same disadvantages of birth and death. But, due to the illusion of the material energy, one thinks that that sort of life is pleasant. TEXT 7 rajo rgtmaka viddhi t-saga-samudbhavam tan nibadhnti kaunteya karma-sagena dehinam raja mode of passion; rga-tmakam born of desire or lust; viddhi know; t hankering; saga association; samudbhavam produced of; tat that; nibadhnti is bound; kaunteya O son of Kunt; karma-sagena association with fruitive activity; dehinam of the embodied. TRANSLATION The mode of passion is born of unlimited desires and longings, O son of Kunt, and because of this one is bound to material fruitive activities. PURPORT The mode of passion is characterized by the attraction between man and woman. Woman has attraction for man, and man has attraction for woman. This is called the mode of passion. And, when the mode of passion is increased, one develops the hankering for material enjoyment. He wants to enjoy sense gratification. For sense gratification, a man in the mode of passion wants some honor in society, or in the nation, and he wants to have a happy family, with nice children, wife, and house. These are the products of the mode of passion. As long as one is hankering after these things, he has to work very hard. Therefore it is clearly stated here that he becomes associated with the fruits of his activities and thus becomes bound by such activities. In order to please his wife, children and society and to keep up his prestige, one has to work. Therefore, the whole material world is more or less in the mode of passion. Modern civilization is considered to be advanced in the standards of the mode of passion. Formerly, the advanced condition was considered to be in the mode of goodness. If there is no liberation for those in the mode of goodness, what of those who are entangled in the mode of passion? TEXT 8 tamas tv ajna-ja viddhi mohana sarva-dehinm pramdlasya-nidrbhis tan nibadhnti bhrata tama mode of ignorance; tu but; ajna-jam products of ignorance; viddhi knowing; mohanam delusion; sarva-dehinm of all embodied beings; pramda madness; lasya indolence; nidrbhi sleep; tat that; nibadhnti binds; bhrata O son of Bharata. TRANSLATION O son of Bharata, the mode of ignorance causes the delusion of all living entities. The result of this mode is madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul. PURPORT In this verse the specific application of the word tu is very significant. This means that the mode of ignorance is a very peculiar qualification of the embodied soul. This mode of ignorance is just the opposite of the mode of goodness. In the mode of goodness, by development of knowledge, one can understand what is what, but the mode of ignorance is just the opposite. Everyone under the spell of the mode of ignorance becomes mad, and a madman cannot understand what is what. Instead of making advancement, one becomes degraded. The definition of the mode of ignorance is stated in the Vedic literature: under the spell of ignorance, one cannot understand the thing as it is. For example, everyone can see that his grandfather has died, and therefore he will also die; man is mortal. The children that he conceives will also die. So death is sure. Still, people are madly accumulating money and working very hard all day and night, not caring for the eternal spirit. This is madness. In their madness, they are very reluctant to make advancement in spiritual understanding. Such people are very lazy. When they are invited to associate for spiritual understanding, they are not much interested. They are not even active like the man who is controlled by the mode of passion. Thus another symptom of one embedded in the mode of ignorance is that he sleeps more than is required. Six hours of sleep is sufficient, but a man in the mode of ignorance sleeps at least ten or twelve hours a day. Such a man appears to be always dejected, and is addicted to intoxicants and sleeping. These are the symptoms of a person conditioned by the mode of ignorance. TEXT 9 sattva sukhe sajayati raja karmai bhrata jnam vtya tu tama pramde sajayaty uta sattvam mode of goodness; sukhe in happiness; sajayati develops; raja mode of passion; karmai fruits of activities; bhrata O son of Bharata; jnam knowledge; vtya covering; tu but; tama the mode of ignorance; pramde in madness; sajayati develops; uta it is said. TRANSLATION The mode of goodness conditions one to happiness, passion conditions him to the fruits of action, and ignorance to madness. PURPORT A person in the mode of goodness is satisfied by his work or intellectual pursuit, just as a philosopher, scientist, or educator may be engaged in a particular field of knowledge and may be satisfied in that way. A man in the modes of passion and goodness may be engaged in fruitive activity; he owns as much as he can and spends for good causes. Sometimes he tries to open hospitals, give to charity institutions, etc. These are the signs of one in the mode of passion. And the mode of ignorance covers knowledge. In the mode of ignorance, whatever one does is neither good for him nor for anyone. TEXT 10 rajas tama cbhibhya sattva bhavati bhrata raja sattva tama caiva tama sattva rajas tath raja mode of passion; tama mode of ignorance; ca also; abhibhya also surpassing; sattvam mode of goodness; bhavati becomes prominent; bhrata O son of Bharata; raja mode of passion; sattvam mode of goodness; tama mode of ignorance; ca also; eva like that; tama mode of ignorance; sattvam mode of goodness; raja mode of passion; tath as in this. TRANSLATION Sometimes the mode of passion becomes prominent, defeating the mode of goodness, O son of Bharata. And sometimes the mode of goodness defeats passion, and at other times the mode of ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is always competition for supremacy. PURPORT When the mode of passion is prominent, the modes of goodness and ignorance are defeated. When the mode of goodness is prominent, passion and ignorance are defeated. And, when the mode of ignorance is prominent, passion and goodness are defeated. This competition is always going on. Therefore, one who is actually intent on advancing in Ka consciousness has to transcend these three modes. The prominence of some certain mode of nature is manifested in one's dealings, in his activities, in eating, etc. All this will be explained in later chapters. But if one wants, he can develop, by practice, the mode of goodness and thus defeat the modes of ignorance and passion. One can similarly develop the mode of passion and defeat goodness and ignorance. Or, one can develop the mode of ignorance and defeat goodness and passion. Although there are these three modes of material nature, if one is determined, he can be blessed by the mode of goodness, and, by transcending the mode of goodness, he can be situated in pure goodness, which is called the vsudeva state, a state in which one can understand the science of God. By the manifestation of particular activities, it can be understood in what mode of nature one is situated. TEXT 11 sarva-dvreu dehe'smin praka upajyate jna yad tad vidyd vivddha sattvam ity uta sarva-dvreu all the gates; dehe asmin in this body; praka quality of illumination; upajyate develops; jnam knowledge; yad when; tad at that time; vidyt must know; vivddham increased; sattvam mode of goodness; iti thus; uta said. TRANSLATION The manifestations of the mode of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge. PURPORT There are nine gates in the body: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the mouth, the genital and the anus. In every gate, when the symptom of goodness is illuminated, it should be understood that one has developed the mode of goodness. In the mode of goodness, one can see things in the right position, one can hear things in the right position, and one can taste things in the right position. One becomes cleansed inside and outside. In every gate there is development of the symptoms of happiness, and that is the position of goodness. TEXT 12 lobha pravttir rambha karmam aama sph rajasy etni jyante vivddhe bharatarabha lobha greed; pravtti hankering; rambha endeavor; karmam of activities; aama uncontrollable; sph desire; rajasi in the mode of passion; etni all this; jyante develop; vivddhe when there is excess; bharatarabha O chief of the descendants of Bharata. TRANSLATION O chief of the Bhratas, when there is an increase in the mode of passion, the symptoms of great attachment, uncontrollable desire, hankering, and intense endeavor develop. PURPORT One in the mode of passion is never satisfied with the position he has already acquired; he hankers to increase his position. If he wants to construct a residential house, he tries his best to have a palatial house, as if he would be able to reside in that house eternally. And he develops a great hankering for sense gratification. There is no end to sense gratification. He always wants to remain with his family and in his house and to continue the process of sense gratification. There is no cessation of this. All these symptoms should be understood as characteristic of the mode of passion. TEXT 13 aprako 'pravtti ca pramdo moha eva ca tamasy etni jyante vivddhe kuru-nandana apraka darkness; apravtti inactivity; ca and; pramda madness; moha illusion; eva certainly; ca also; tamasi of the mode of ignorance; etni these; jyante are manifested; vivddhe is developed; kuru-nandana O son of Kuru. TRANSLATION O son of Kuru, when there is an increase in the mode of ignorance, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness are manifested. PURPORT When there is no illumination, knowledge is absent. One in the mode of ignorance does not work by a regulative principle; he wants to act whimsically for no purpose. Even though he has the capacity to work, he makes no endeavor. This is called illusion. Although consciousness is going on, life is inactive. These are the symptoms of one in the mode of ignorance. TEXT 14 yad sattve pravddhe tu pralaya yti deha-bht tadottama-vid lokn amaln pratipadyate yad when; sattve mode of goodness; pravddhe in development; tu but; pralayam dissolution; yti goes; deha-bht embodied; tad at that time; uttama-vidm of the great sages; lokn the planets; amaln pure; pratipadyate attains. TRANSLATION When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets. PURPORT One in goodness attains higher planetary systems, like Brahmaloka or Janaloka, and there enjoys godly happiness. The word amaln is significant; it means free from the modes of passion and ignorance. There are impurities in the material world, but the mode of goodness is the purest form of existence in the material world. There are different kinds of planets for different kinds of living entities. Those who die in the mode of goodness are elevated to the planets where great sages and great devotees live. TEXT 15 rajasi pralaya gatv karma-sagiu jyate tath pralnas tamasi mha-yoniu jyate rajasi in passion; pralayam dissolution; gatv attaining; karma-sagiu in the association of fruitive activities; jyate takes birth; tath thereafter; pralna being dissolved; tamasi in ignorance; mha animal; yoniu species; jyate take birth. TRANSLATION When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when he dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom. PURPORT Some people have the impression that when the soul reaches the platform of human life, it never goes down again. This is incorrect. According to this verse, if one develops the mode of ignorance, after his death he is degraded to the animal form of life. From there one has to again elevate himself, by evolutionary process, to come again to the human form of life. Therefore, those who are actually serious about human life should take to the mode of goodness and in good association transcend the modes and become situated in Ka consciousness. This is the aim of human life. Otherwise, there is no guarantee that the human being will again attain to the human status. TEXT 16 karmaa suktasyhu sttvika nirmala phalam rajasas tu phala dukham ajna tamasa phalam karmaa of work; suktasya in the mode of goodness; hu said; sttvikam mode of goodness; nirmalam purified; phalam result; rajasa of the mode of passion; tu but; phalam result; dukham misery; ajnam nonsense; tamasa of the mode of ignorance; phalam result. TRANSLATION By acting in the mode of goodness, one becomes purified. Works done in the mode of passion result in distress, and actions performed in the mode of ignorance result in foolishness. PURPORT By pious activities in the mode of goodness one is purified; therefore the sages, who are free from all illusion, are situated in happiness. Similarly, activities in the mode of passion are simply miserable. Any activity for material happiness is bound to be defeated. If, for example, one wants to have a skyscraper, so much human misery has to be undergone before a big skyscraper can be built. The financier has to take much trouble to earn a mass of wealth, and those who are slaving to construct the building have to render physical toil. The miseries are there. Thus Bhagavad-gt says that in any activity performed under the spell of the mode of passion, there is definitely great misery. There may be a little so-called mental happiness"I have this house or this money"but this is not actual happiness. As far as the mode of ignorance is concerned, the performer is without knowledge, and therefore all his activities result in present misery, and afterwards he will go on toward animal life. Animal life is always miserable, although, under the spell of the illusory energy, my , the animals do not understand this. Slaughtering poor animals is also due to the mode of ignorance. The animal killers do not know that in the future the animal will have a body suitable to kill them. That is the law of nature. In human society, if one kills a man he has to be hanged. That is the law of the state. Because of ignorance, people do not perceive that there is a complete state controlled by the Supreme Lord. Every living creature is the son of the Supreme Lord, and He does not tolerate even an ant's being killed. One has to pay for it. So, indulgence in animal killing for the taste of the tongue is the grossest kind of ignorance. A human being has no need to kill animals because God has supplied so many nice things. If one indulges in meat-eating anyway, it is to be understood that he is acting in ignorance and is making his future very dark. Of all kinds of animal killing, the killing of cows is most vicious because the cow gives us all kinds of pleasure by supplying milk. Cow slaughter is an act of the grossest type of ignorance. In the Vedic literature the words gobhi prita-matsaram indicate that one who, being fully satisfied by milk, is desirous of killing the cow, is in the grossest ignorance. There is also a prayer in the Vedic literature that states: namo brahmaya-devya go-brhmaa-hitya ca jagaddhitya kya govindya namo nama. "My Lord, You are the well-wisher of the cows and the brhmaas, and You are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world." The purport is that special mention is given in that prayer for the protection of the cows and the brhmaas. Brhmaas are the symbol of spiritual education, and cows are the symbol of the most valuable food; these two living creatures, the brhmaas and the cows, must be given all protectionthat is real advancement of civilization. In modern human society, spiritual knowledge is neglected, and cow killing is encouraged. It is to be understood, then, that human society is advancing in the wrong direction and is clearing the path to its own condemnation. A civilization which guides the citizens to become animals in their next lives is certainly not a human civilization. The present human civilization is, of course, grossly misled by the modes of passion and ignorance. It is a very dangerous age, and all nations should take care to provide the easiest process, Ka consciousness, to save humanity from the greatest danger. TEXT 17 sattvt sajyate jna rajaso lobha eva ca pramda-mohau tamaso bhavato 'jnam eva ca sattvt from the mode of goodness; sajyate develops; jnam knowledge; rajasa from the mode of passion; lobha greed; eva certainly; ca also; pramda madness; mohau illusion; tamasa from the mode of ignorance; bhavata develops; ajnam nonsense; eva certainly; ca also. TRANSLATION From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, grief develops; and from the mode of ignorance, foolishness, madness and illusion develop. PURPORT Since the present civilization is not very congenial to the living entities, Ka consciousness is recommended. Through Ka consciousness, society will develop the mode of goodness. When the mode of goodness is developed, people will see things as they are. In the mode of ignorance, people are just like animals and cannot see things clearly. In the mode of ignorance, for example, they do not see that by killing one animal they are taking a chance of being killed by the same animal in the next life. Because people have no education in actual knowledge, they become irresponsible. To stop this irresponsibility, education for developing the mode of goodness of the people in general must be there. When they are actually educated in the mode of goodness, they will become sober, in full knowledge of things as they are. Then people will be happy and prosperous. Even if the majority of the people aren't happy and prosperous, if a certain percentage of the population develops Ka consciousness and becomes situated in the mode of goodness, then there is the possibility for peace and prosperity all over the world. Otherwise, if the world is devoted to the modes of passion and ignorance, there can be no peace or prosperity. In the mode of passion, people become greedy, and their hankering for sense enjoyment has no limit. One can see that even if one has enough money and adequate arrangement for sense gratification, there is neither happiness nor peace of mind. That is not possible because one is situated in the mode of passion. If one wants happiness at all, his money will not help him; he has to elevate himself to the mode of goodness by practicing Ka consciousness. One engaged in the mode of passion is not only mentally unhappy, but his profession and occupation are also very troublesome. He has to devise so many plans and schemes to acquire enough money to maintain his status quo. This is all miserable. In the mode of ignorance, people become mad. Being distressed by their circumstances, they take shelter of intoxication, and thus they sink further into ignorance. Their future in life is very dark. TEXT 18 rdhva gacchanti sattva-sth madhye tihanti rjas jaghanya-gua-vtti-sth adho gacchanti tmas rdhvam upwards; gacchanti goes; sattva-sth one who is situated in the mode of goodness; madhye in the middle; tihanti dwell; rjas those who are situated in the mode of passion; jaghanya abominable; gua quality; vtti-sth occupation; adha down; gacchanti go; tmas persons in the mode of ignorance. TRANSLATION Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds. PURPORT In this verse the results of actions in the three modes of nature are more explicitly set forth. There is an upper planetary system, consisting of the heavenly planets, where everyone is highly elevated. According to the degree of development of the mode of goodness, the living entity can be transferred to various planets in this system. The highest planet is Satyaloka, or Brahmaloka, where the prime person of this universe, Lord Brahm, resides. We have seen already that we can hardly calculate the wondrous condition of life in Brahmaloka, but the highest condition of life, the mode of goodness, can bring us to this. The mode of passion is mixed. It is in the middle, between the modes of goodness and ignorance. A person is not always pure, but even if he should be purely in the mode of passion, he will simply remain on this earth as a king or a rich man. But because there are mixtures, one can also go down. People on this earth, in the modes of passion or ignorance, cannot forcibly approach the higher planets by machine. In the mode of passion, there is also the chance of becoming mad in the next life. The lowest quality, the mode of ignorance, is described here as abominable. The result of developing ignorance is very, very risky. It is the lowest quality in material nature. Beneath the human level there are eight million species of life: birds, beasts, reptiles, trees, etc., and, according to the development of the mode of ignorance, people are brought down to these abominable conditions. The word tmas is very significant here. Tmas indicates those who stay continually in the mode of ignorance without rising to a higher mode. Their future is very dark. There is opportunity for men in the modes of ignorance and passion to be elevated to the mode of goodness, and that system is called Ka consciousness. But one who does not take advantage of this opportunity certainly will continue in the lower modes. TEXT 19 nnya guebhya kartra yad dranupayati guebhya ca para vetti mad-bhva so 'dhigacchati na never; anyam other than; guebhya from the qualities; kartram the performer; yad when; dra anupayati he who sees properly; guebhya ca from the modes of nature; param transcendental; vetti know; mat-bhvam My spiritual nature; sa he; adhigacchati is promoted. TRANSLATION When you see that there is nothing beyond these modes of nature in all activities and that the Supreme Lord is transcendental to all these modes, then you can know My spiritual nature. PURPORT One can transcend all the activities of the modes of material nature simply by understanding them properly by learning from the proper souls. The real spiritual master is Ka, and He is imparting this spiritual knowledge to Arjuna. Similarly, it is from those who are fully in Ka consciousness that one has to learn this science of activities in terms of the modes of nature. Otherwise, one's life will be misdirected. By the instruction of a bona fide spiritual master, a living entity can know of his spiritual position, his material body, his senses, how he is entrapped, and how he is under the spell of the material modes of nature. He is helpless, being in the grip of these modes, but when he can see his real position, then he can attain to the transcendental platform, having the scope for spiritual life. Actually, the living entity is not the performer of different activities. He is forced to act because he is situated in a particular type of body, conducted by some particular mode of material nature. Unless one has the help of spiritual authority, he cannot understand in what position he is actually situated. With the association of a bona fide spiritual master, he can see his real position, and, by such an understanding, he can become fixed in full Ka consciousness. A man in Ka consciousness is not controlled by the spell of the material modes of nature. It has already been stated in the Seventh Chapter that one who has surrendered to Ka is relieved from the activities of material nature. Therefore for one who is able to see things as they are, the influence of material nature gradually ceases. TEXT 20 gun etn attya trn deh deha-samudbhavn janma-mtyu-jar-dukhair vimukto 'mtam anute gun qualities; etn all these; attya transcending; trn three; deh body; deha body; samudbhavn produced of; janma birth; mtyu death; jar old age; dukhai distresses; vimukta being freed from; amtam nectar; anute enjoys. TRANSLATION When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes, he can become free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life. PURPORT How one can stay in the transcendental position, even in this body, in full Ka consciousness, is explained in this verse. The Sanskrit word deh means embodied. Although one is within this material body, by his advancement in spiritual knowledge he can be free from the influence of the modes of nature. He can enjoy the happiness of spiritual life even in this body because, after leaving this body, he is certainly going to the spiritual sky. But even in this body he can enjoy spiritual happiness. In other words, devotional service in Ka consciousness is the sign of liberation from this material entanglement, and this will be explained in the Eighteenth Chapter. When one is freed from the influence of the modes of material nature, he enters into devotional service. TEXT 21 arjuna uvca kair ligais trn gun etn atto bhavati prabho kim cra katha caits trn gun ativartate arjuna uvca Arjuna said; kai by which; ligai symptoms; trn three; gun qualities; etn all this; atta transcend; bhavati become; prabho my Lord; kim what; cra behavior; katham what; ca also; etn these; trn three; gun qualities; ativartate transcend. TRANSLATION Arjuna inquired: O my dear Lord, by what symptoms is one known who is transcendental to those modes? What is his behavior? And how does he transcend the modes of nature? PURPORT In this verse, Arjuna's questions are very appropriate. He wants to know the symptoms of a person who has already transcended the material modes. He first inquires of the symptoms of such a transcendental person. How can one understand that he has already transcended the influence of the modes of material nature? The second question asks how he lives and what his activities are. Are they regulated or nonregulated? Then Arjuna inquires of the means by which he can attain the transcendental nature. That is very important. Unless one knows the direct means by which one can be situated always transcendentally, there is no possibility of showing the symptoms. So all these questions put by Arjuna are very important, and the Lord answers them. TEXTS 22-25 r-bhagavn uvca praka ca pravtti ca moham eva ca pava na dvei sampravttni na nivttni kkati udsnavad sno guair yo na viclyate gu vartanta ity eva yo 'vatihati negate sama-dukha-sukha svastha sama-loma-kcana tulya-priypriyo dhras tulya-nindtma-sastuti mnpamnayos tulyas tulyo mitrri-pakayo sarvrambha-parityg gutta sa ucyate r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; prakam ca and illumination; pravttim ca and attachment; moham illusion; eva ca also; pava O son of Pu; na dvei does not hate; sampravttni although developed; na nivttni nor stop development; kkati desires; udsnavat as if neutral; sna situated; guai by the qualities; ya one who; na never; viclyate is agitated; gu the qualities; vartante is situated; iti evam knowing thus; ya one who; avatihati remains; na never; igate flickering; sama equally; dukha in distress; sukha in happiness; svastha being situated himself; sama equally; loa a lump of earth; ama stone; kcana gold; tulya equally disposed; priya dear; apriya undesirable; dhra steadily; tulya equally; nind in defamation; tma-sastuti in praise of himself; mna honor; apamnayo dishonor; tulya equally; tulya equally; mitra friend; ari enemy; pakayo in party; sarva all; rambha endeavor; parityg renouncer; gua-atta transcendental to the material modes of nature; sa he; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: He who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present, nor longs for them when they disappear; who is seated like one unconcerned, being situated beyond these material reactions of the modes of nature, who remains firm, knowing that the modes alone are active; who regards alike pleasure and pain, and looks on a clod, a stone and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is wise and holds praise and blame to be the same; who is unchanged in honor and dishonor, who treats friend and foe alike, who has abandoned all fruitive undertakingssuch a man is said to have transcended the modes of nature. PURPORT Arjuna submitted the three different questions, and the Lord answers them one after another. In these verses, Ka first indicates that a person transcendentally situated neither envies anyone nor hankers for anything. When a living entity stays in this material world embodied by the material body, it is to be understood that he is under the control of one of the three modes of material nature. When he is actually out of the body, then he is out of the clutches of the material modes of nature. But as long as he is not out of the material body, he should be neutral. He should engage himself in the devotional service of the Lord so that his identity with the material body will automatically be forgotten. When one is conscious of the material body, he acts only for sense gratification, but when one transfers the consciousness to Ka, sense gratification automatically stops. One does not need this material body, and he does not need to accept the dictations of the material body. The qualities of the material modes in the body will act, but as spirit soul the self is aloof from such activities. How does he become aloof? He does not desire to enjoy the body, nor does he desire to get out of it. Thus transcendentally situated, the devotee becomes automatically free. He need not try to become free from the influence of the modes of material nature. The next question concerns the dealings of a transcendentally situated person. The materially situated person is affected by so-called honor and dishonor offered to the body, but the transcendentally situated person is not affected by such false honor and dishonor. He performs his duty in Ka consciousness and does not mind whether a man honors or dishonors him. He accepts things that are favorable for his duty in Ka consciousness, otherwise he has no necessity of anything material, either a stone or gold. He takes everyone as his dear friend who helps him in his execution of Ka consciousness, and he does not hate his so-called enemy. He is equally disposed and sees everything on an equal level because he knows perfectly well that he has nothing to do with material existence. Social and political issues do not affect him because he knows the situation of temporary upheavals and disturbances. He does not attempt anything for his own sake. He can attempt anything for Ka, but for his personal self he does not attain anything. By such behavior one becomes actually transcendentally situated. TEXT 26 m ca yo 'vyabhicrea bhakti-yogena sevate sa gun samattyaitn brahma-bhyya kalpate mm unto Me; ca also; ya person; avyabhicrea without fail; bhakti-yogena by devotional service; sevate renders service; sa he; gun all the modes of material nature; samattya transcending; etn all this; brahma-bhyya to be elevated on the Brahman platform; kalpate is considered. TRANSLATION One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman. PURPORT This verse is a reply to Arjuna's third question: What is the means of attaining to the transcendental position? As explained before, the material world is acting under the spell of the modes of material nature. One should not be disturbed by the activities of the modes of nature; instead of putting his consciousness into such activities, he may transfer his consciousness to Ka activities. Ka activities are known as bhakti- yoga always acting for Ka. This includes not only Ka, but His different plenary expansions such as Rma and Nryaa. He has innumerable expansions. One who is engaged in the service of any of the forms of Ka, or of His plenary expansions, is considered to be transcendentally situated. One should also note that all the forms of Ka are fully transcendental, blissful, full of knowledge and eternal. Such personalities of Godhead are omnipotent and omniscient, and they possess all transcendental qualities. So, if one engages himself in the service of Ka or His plenary expansions with unfailing determination, although these modes of material nature are very difficult to overcome, he can overcome them easily. This is already explained in the Seventh Chapter. One who surrenders unto Ka at once surmounts the influence of the modes of material nature. To be in Ka consciousness or in devotional service means to acquire the equality of Ka. The Lord says that His nature is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge, and the living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme, as gold particles are part of a gold mine. Thus the living entity's spiritual position is as good as gold, as good as Ka in quality. The difference of individuality continues, otherwise there is no question of bhakti- yoga. Bhakti-yoga means that the Lord is there, the devotee is there and the activity of exchange of love between the Lord and the devotee is there. Therefore the individuality of two persons is present in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual person, otherwise there is no meaning to bhakti-yoga. If one is not situated in the same transcendental position with the Lord, one cannot serve the Supreme Lord. To be a personal assistant to a king, one must acquire the qualifications. Thus the qualification is to become Brahman, or freed from all material contamination. It is said in the Vedic literature: brahmaiva san brahmpyeti. One can attain the Supreme Brahman by becoming Brahman. This means that one must qualitatively become one with Brahman. By attainment of Brahman, one does not lose his eternal Brahman identity as individual soul. TEXT 27 brahmao hi pratihham amtasyvyayasya ca vatasya ca dharmasya sukhasyaikntikasya ca brahmaa of the impersonal brahmajyoti; hi certainly; pratih the rest; aham I am; amtasya of the imperishable; avyayasya immortal; ca also; vatasya of eternal; ca and; dharmasya of the constitutional position; sukhasya happiness; aikntikasya ultimate; ca also. TRANSLATION And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness, and which is immortal, imperishable and eternal. PURPORT The constitution of Brahman is immortality, imperishability, eternity, and happiness. Brahman is the beginning of transcendental realization. Paramtm, the Supersoul, is the middle, the second stage in transcendental realization, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate realization of the Absolute Truth. Therefore, both Paramtm and the impersonal Brahman are within the Supreme Person. It is explained in the Seventh Chapter that material nature is the manifestation of the inferior energy of the Supreme Lord. The Lord impregnates the inferior material nature with the fragments of the superior nature, and that is the spiritual touch in the material nature. When a living entity conditioned by this material nature begins the cultivation of spiritual knowledge, he elevates himself from the position of material existence and gradually rises up to the Brahman conception of the Supreme. This attainment of the Brahman conception of life is the first stage in self-realization. At this stage the Brahman realized person is transcendental to the material position, but he is not actually perfect in Brahman realization. If he wants, he can continue to stay in the Brahman position and then gradually rise up to Paramtm realization and then to the realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are many examples of this in Vedic literature. The four Kumras were situated first in the impersonal Brahman conception of truth, but then they gradually rose to the platform of devotional service. One who cannot elevate himself beyond the impersonal conception of Brahman runs the risk of falling down. In rmad-Bhgavatam it is stated that although a person may rise to the stage of impersonal Brahman, without going farther, with no information of the Supreme Person, his intelligence is not perfectly clear. Therefore, in spite of being raised to the Brahman platform, there is the chance of falling down if one is not engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. In the Vedic language it is also said: raso vai sa; rasa hy evya labdhvnand bhavati. "When one understands the Personality of God, the reservoir of pleasure, Ka, he actually becomes transcendentally blissful." The Supreme Lord is full in six opulences, and when a devotee approaches Him, there is an exchange of these six opulences. The servant of the king enjoys on an almost equal level with the king. And so, eternal happiness, imperishable happiness, eternal life accompany devotional service. Therefore, realization of Brahman, or eternity, or imperishability is included in devotional service. This is already possessed by a person who is engaged in devotional service. The living entity, although Brahman by nature, has the desire to lord it over the material world, and due to this he falls down. In his constitutional position, a living entity is above the three modes of material nature, but association with material nature entangles him in the different modes of material nature, goodness, passion and ignorance. Due to the association of these three modes, his desire to dominate the material world is there. By engagement in devotional service in full Ka consciousness, he is immediately situated in the transcendental position, and his unlawful desire to control material nature is removed. Therefore the process of devotional service beginning with hearing, chanting, remembering the prescribed nine methods for realizing devotional service should be practiced in the association of devotees. Gradually, by such association, by the influence of the spiritual master, one's material desire to dominate is removed, and one becomes firmly situated in the Lord's transcendental loving service. This method is prescribed from the twenty-second to the last verse of this chapter. Devotional service to the Lord is very simple: one should always engage in the service of the Lord, should eat the remnants of foodstuffs offered to the Deity, smell the flowers offered to the lotus feet of the Lord, see the places where the Lord had His transcendental pastimes, read of the different activities of the Lord, His reciprocation of love with His devotees, chant always the transcendental vibration Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare, and observe the fasting days commemorating the appearances and disappearances of the Lord and His devotees. By following such a process one becomes completely detached from all material activities. One who can thus situate himself in the brahmajyoti is equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in quality. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Fourteenth Chapter of the rmad-Bhagavad-gt in the matter of the Three Modes of Material Nature. Chapter-15 CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Yoga of the Supreme Person TEXT 1 r bhagavn uvca rdhva-mlam adha-kham avattha prhur avyayam chandsi yasya parni yas ta veda sa veda-vit r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; rdhva- mlam with roots above; adha downwards; kham branches; avattham banyan tree; prhu said; avyayam eternal; chandsi Vedic hymns; yasya of which; parni the leaves; ya anyone; tam that; veda knows; sa he; veda-vit the knower of the Vedas. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas. PURPORT After the discussion of the importance of bhakti-yoga, one may question, "What about the Vedas? " It is explained in this chapter that the purpose of Vedic study is to understand Ka. Therefore one who is in Ka consciousness, who is engaged in devotional service, already knows the Vedas. The entanglement of this material world is compared here to a banyan tree. For one who is engaged in fruitive activities, there is no end to the banyan tree. He wanders from one branch to another, to another, to another. The tree of this material world has no end, and for one who is attached to this tree, there is no possibility of liberation. The Vedic hymns, meant for elevating oneself, are called the leaves of this tree. This tree's roots grow upward because they begin from where Brahm is located, the topmost planet of this universe. If one can understand this indestructible tree of illusion, then one can get out of it. This process of extrication should be understood. In the previous chapters it has been explained that there are many processes by which to get out of the material entanglement. And, up to the Thirteenth Chapter, we have seen that devotional service to the Supreme Lord is the best way. Now, the basic principle of devotional service is detachment from material activities and attachment to the transcendental service of the Lord. The process of breaking attachment to the material world is discussed in the beginning of this chapter. The root of this material existence grows upward. This means that it begins from the total material substance, from the topmost planet of the universe. From there, the whole universe is expanded, with so many branches, representing the various planetary systems. The fruits represent the results of the living entities' activities, namely, religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. Now, there is no ready experience in this world of a tree situated with its branches down and its roots upward, but there is such a thing. That tree can be found beside a reservoir of water. We can see that the trees on the bank reflect upon the water with their branches down and roots up. In other words, the tree of this material world is only a reflection of the real tree of the spiritual world. This reflection of the spiritual world is situated on desire, just as the tree's reflection is situated on water. Desire is the cause of things' being situated in this reflected material light. One who wants to get out of this material existence must know this tree thoroughly through analytical study. Then he can cut off his relationship with it. This tree, being the reflection of the real tree, is an exact replica. Everything is there in the spiritual world. The impersonalists take Brahm to be the root of this material tree, and from the root, according to skhya philosophy, come prakti, purua, then the three guas, then the five gross elements (paca-mahbhta), then the ten senses (daendriya), mind, etc. In this way they divide up the whole material world. If Brahm is the center of all manifestations, then this material world is a manifestation of the center by 180 degrees, and the other 180 degrees constitute the spiritual world. The material world is the perverted reflection, so the spiritual world must have the same variegatedness, but in reality. The prakti is the external energy of the Supreme Lord, and the purua is the Supreme Lord Himself, and that is explained in Bhagavad-gt. Since this manifestation is material, it is temporary. A reflection is temporary, for it is sometimes seen and sometimes not seen. But the origin from whence the reflection is reflected is eternal. The material reflection of the real tree has to be cut off. When it is said that a person knows the Vedas, it is assumed that he knows how to cut off attachment to this material world. If one knows that process, he actually knows the Vedas. One who is attracted by the ritualistic formulas of the Vedas is attracted by the beautiful green leaves of the tree. He does not exactly know the purpose of the Vedas. The purpose of the Vedas, as disclosed by the Personality of Godhead Himself, is to cut down this reflected tree and attain the real tree of the spiritual world. TEXT 2 adha cordhva prasts tasya kh gua-pravddh viaya-pravl adha ca mlny anusantatni karmnubandhni manuya-loke adha downward; ca and; rdhvam upward; prast extended; tasya its; kh branches; gua modes of material nature; pravddh developed; viaya sense objects; pravl twigs; adha downward; ca and; mlni roots; anusantatni extended; karma according to work; anubandhni bound; manuya-loke in the world of human society. TRANSLATION The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three modes of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down, and these are bound to the fruitive actions of human society. PURPORT The description of the banyan tree is further explained here. Its branches are spread in all directions. In the lower parts, there are variegated manifestations of living entities, such as human beings, animals, horses, cows, dogs, cats, etc. These are situated on the lower parts of the branches, whereas on the upper parts are higher forms of living entities: the demigods, Gandharvas (fairies), and many other higher species of life. As a tree is nourished by water, so this tree is nourished by the three modes of material nature. Sometimes we find that a tract of land is barren for want of sufficient water, and sometimes a tract is very green; similarly, where the modes of material nature are proportionately greater in quantity, the different species of life are manifested in that proportion. The twigs of the tree are considered to be the sense objects. By development of the different modes of nature, we develop different senses, and, by the senses, we enjoy different varieties of sense objects. The source of the sensesthe ears, the nose, eyes, etc.is considered to be the upper twigs, tuned to the enjoyment of different sense objects. The leaves are sound, form, touchthe sense objects. The roots, which are subsidiary, are the by-products of different varieties of suffering and sense enjoyment. Thus we develop attachment and aversion. The tendencies toward piety and impiety are considered to be the secondary roots, spreading in all directions. The real root is from Brahmaloka, and the other roots are in the human planetary systems. After one enjoys the results of virtuous activities in the upper planetary systems, he comes down to this earth and renews his karma or fruitive activities for promotion. This planet of human beings is considered the field of activities. TEXTS 3-4 - na rpam asyeha tathopalabhyate nnto na cdir na ca sampratih avattham ena suvirha-mlam asaga-astrea dhena chittv tata pada tat parimrgitavya yasmin gat na nivartanti bhya tam eva cdya purua prapadye yata pravtti prast pur na not; rpam form; asya of this tree; iha in this; tath also; upalabhyate can be perceived; na never; anta end; na never; ca also; di beginning; na never; ca also; sampratih the foundation; avattham banyan tree; enam this; suvirha strongly; mlam rooted; asaga-astrea by the weapon of detachment; dhena strong; chittv by cutting; tata thereafter; padam situation; tat that; parimrgitavyam has to be searched out; yasmin where; gat going; na never; nivartanti comes back; bhya again; tam to him; eva certainly; ca also; dyam original; puruam the Personality of Godhead; prapadye surrender; yata from whom; pravtti beginning; prast extension; pur very old. TRANSLATION The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment. So doing, one must seek that place from which, having once gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything has begun and in whom everything is abiding since time immemorial. PURPORT It is now clearly stated that the real form of this banyan tree cannot be understood in this material world. Since the root is upwards, the extension of the real tree is at the other end. No one can see how far the tree extends, nor can one see the beginning of this tree. Yet one has to find out the cause. "I am the son of my father, my father is the son of such and such a person, etc." By searching in this way, one comes to Brahm, who is generated by the Garbhodakay Viu. Finally, in this way, when one reaches to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is the end of research work. One has to search out that origin of this tree, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, through the association of persons who are in the knowledge of that Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then by understanding one becomes gradually detached from this false reflection of reality, and by knowledge one can cut off the connection and actually become situated in the real tree. The word asaga is very important in this connection because the attachment for sense enjoyment and lording it over the material nature is very strong. Therefore one must learn detachment by discussion of spiritual science based on authoritative scriptures, and one must hear from persons who are actually in knowledge. As a result of such discussion in the association of devotees, one comes to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then the first thing one must do is surrender to Him. The description of that place whence going no one returns to this false reflected tree is given here. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, is the original root from whom everything has emanated. To gain favor of that Personality of Godhead, one has only to surrender, and this is a result of performing devotional service by hearing, chanting, etc. He is the cause of this extension of this material world. This is already explained by the Lord Himself: aha sarvasya prabhava. "I am the origin of everything." Therefore to get out of the entanglement of this strong banyan tree of material life, one must surrender to Ka. As soon as one surrenders unto Ka, he becomes detached automatically from this material extension. TEXT 5 - nirmna-moh jita-saga-do adhytma-nity vinivtta-km dvandvair vimukt sukha-dukha-sajair gacchanty amh padam avyaya tat nir without; mna respect; moh illusion; jita having conquered; saga association; do faulty; adhytma spiritual; nity eternity; vinivtta associated; km lusts; dvandvai with duality; vimukt liberated; sukha-dukha happiness and distress; sajai named; gacchanti attains; amh unbewildered; padam situation; avyayam eternal; tat that. TRANSLATION One who is free from illusion, false prestige, and false association, who understands the eternal, who is done with material lust and is freed from the duality of happiness and distress, and who knows how to surrender unto the Supreme Person, attains to that eternal kingdom. PURPORT The surrendering process is described here very nicely. The first qualification is that one should not be deluded by pride. Because the conditioned soul is puffed up, thinking himself the lord of material nature, it is very difficult for him to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should know by the cultivation of real knowledge that he is not lord of material nature; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Lord. When one is free from delusion caused by pride, he can begin the process of surrender. For one who is always expecting some honor in this material world, it is not possible to surrender to the Supreme Person. Pride is due to illusion, for although one comes here, stays for a brief time and then goes away, he has the foolish notion that he is the lord of the world. He thus makes all things complicated, and he is always in trouble. The whole world moves under this impression. People are considering that the land, this earth, belongs to human society, and they have divided the land under the false impression that they are the proprietors. One has to get out of this false notion that human society is the proprietor of this world. When one is freed from such a false notion, he becomes free from all the false associations caused by familial, social, and national affections. These fake associations bind one to this material world. After this stage, one has to develop spiritual knowledge. One has to cultivate knowledge of what is actually his own and what is actually not his own. And, when one has an understanding of things as they are, he becomes free from all dual conceptions such as happiness and distress, pleasure and pain. He becomes full in knowledge; then it is possible for him to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 6 na tad bhsayate sryo na ako na pvaka yad gatv na nivartante tad dhma parama mama na not; tat that; bhsayate illuminates; srya sun; na nor; aka the moon; na nor; pvaka fire, electricity; yat where; gatv going; na never; nivartante comes back; tat dhma that abode; paramam supreme; mama My. TRANSLATION That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity. One who reaches it never returns to this material world. PURPORT The spiritual world, the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kawhich is known as Kaloka, Goloka Vndvanais described here. In the spiritual sky there is no need of sunshine, moonshine, fire or electricity, because all the planets are self-luminous. We have only one planet in this universe, the sun, which is self-luminous, but all the planets in the spiritual sky are self-luminous. The shining effulgence of all those planets (called Vaikuhas) constitutes the shining sky known as the brahmajyoti. Actually, the effulgence is emanating from the planet of Ka, Goloka Vndvana. Part of that shining effulgence is covered by the mahat-tattva, the material world. Other than this, the major portion of that shining sky is full of spiritual planets, which are called Vaikuhas, chief of which is Goloka Vndvana. As long as a living entity is in this dark material world, he is in conditional life, but as soon as he reaches the spiritual sky, by cutting through the false, perverted tree of this material world, he becomes liberated. Then there is no chance of his coming back here. In his conditional life, the living entity considers himself to be the lord of this material world, but in his liberated state he enters into the spiritual kingdom and becomes the associate of the Supreme Lord. There he enjoys eternal bliss, eternal life, and full knowledge. One should be captivated by this information. He should desire to transfer himself to that eternal world and extricate himself from this false reflection of reality. For one who is too much attached to this material world, it is very difficult to cut that attachment, but if he takes to Ka consciousness, there is a chance of gradually becoming detached. One has to associate himself with devotees, those who are in Ka consciousness. One should search out a society dedicated to Ka consciousness and learn how to discharge devotional service. In this way he can cut off his attachment to the material world. One cannot become detached from the attraction of the material world simply by dressing himself in saffron cloth. He must become attached to the devotional service of the Lord. Therefore one should take it very seriously that devotional service as described in the Twelfth Chapter is the only way to get out of this false representation of the real tree. In Chapter Fourteen the contamination of all kinds of processes by material nature is described. Only devotional service is described as purely transcendental. The words parama mama are very important here. Actually every nook and corner is the property of the Supreme Lord, but the spiritual world is paramam, full of six opulences. In the Upaniads it is also confirmed that in the spiritual world there is no need of sunshine or moonshine, for the whole spiritual sky is illuminated by the internal potency of the Supreme Lord. That supreme abode can be achieved only by surrender and by no other means. TEXT 7 mamaivo jva-loke jva-bhta santana mana ahnndriyi prakti-sthni karati mama My; eva certainly; aa fragmental particles; jva-loke world of conditional life; jva-bhta the conditioned living entities; santana eternal; mana mind; ahni six; indriyi senses; prakti material nature; sthni situated; karati struggling hard. TRANSLATION The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind. PURPORT In this verse the identity of the living being is clearly given. The living entity is the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord eternally. It is not that he assumes individuality in his conditional life and in his liberated state becomes one with the Supreme Lord. He is eternally fragmented. It is clearly said, santana. According to the Vedic version, the Supreme Lord manifests and expands Himself in innumerable expansions, of which the primary expansions are called Viu-tattva, and the secondary expansions are called the living entities. In other words, the Viu-tattva is the personal expansion, and the living entities are separated expansions. By His personal expansion, He is manifested in various forms like Lord Rma, Nsihadeva, Viumrti and all the predominating Deities in the Vaikuha planets. The separated expansions, the living entities, are eternally servitors. The personal expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the individual identities of the Godhead, are always present. Similarly, the separated expansions of living entities have their identities. As fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, the living entities have also fragmental qualities, of which independence is one. Every living entity has an individual soul, his personal individuality and a minute form of independence. By misuse of that independence, one becomes a conditioned soul, and by proper use of independence he is always liberated. In either case, he is qualititatively eternal, as the Supreme Lord is. In his liberated state he is freed from this material condition, and he is under the engagement of transcendental service unto the Lord; in his conditioned life he is dominated by the material modes of nature, and he forgets the transcendental loving service of the Lord. As a result, he has to struggle very hard to maintain his existence in the material world. The living entities, not only the human beings and the cats and dogs, but even the greater controllers of the material worldBrahm, Lord iva, and even Viuare all parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. They are all eternal, not temporary manifestations. The word karati (struggling or grappling hard) is very significant. The conditioned soul is bound up, as though shackled by iron chains. He is bound up by the false ego, and the mind is the chief agent which is driving him in this material existence. When the mind is in the mode of goodness, his activities are good; when the mind is in the mode of passion, his activities are troublesome; and when the mind is in the mode of ignorance, he travels in the lower species of life. It is clear, however, in this verse, that the conditioned soul is covered by the material body, with the mind and the senses, and when he is liberated this material covering perishes, but his spiritual body manifests in its individual capacity. The following information is there in the Mdhyandi-nyana-ruti: sa v ea brahma-niha ida arra marttyam atisjya brahmbhisampadya brahma payati brahma oti brahmaaiveda sarvam anubhavati. It is stated here that when a living entity gives up this material embodiment and enters into the spiritual world, he revives his spiritual body, and in his spiritual body he can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. He can hear and speak to Him face to face, and he can understand the Supreme Personality as He is. In smti also it is understood that in the spiritual planets everyone lives in bodies featured like the Supreme Personality of Godhead's. As far as bodily construction is concerned, there is no difference between the part and parcel living entities and the expansions of Viumrti. In other words, at liberation the living entity gets a spiritual body by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The word mamaiva (fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord) is also very significant. The fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord is not like some material broken part. We have already understood in the Second Chapter that the spirit cannot be cut into pieces. This fragment is not materially conceived. It is not like matter which can be cut into pieces and joined together again. That conception is not applicable here because the Sanskrit word santana (eternal) is used. The fragmental portion is eternal. It is also stated in the beginning of the Second Chapter that (dehino'smin yath ) in each and every individual body, the fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord is present. That fragmental portion, when liberated from the bodily entanglement, revives its original spiritual body in the spiritual sky in a spiritual planet and enjoys association with the Supreme Lord. It is, however, understood here that the living entity, being the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is qualitatively one, just as the parts and parcels of gold are also gold. TEXT 8 arra yad avpnoti yac cpy utkrmatvara ghtvaitni sayti vyur gandhn ivayt arram body; yat as much as; avpnoti gets; yat that which; ca also; api virtually; utkrmati gives up; vara the lord of the body; ghtv taking; etni all these; sayti goes away; vyu air; gandhn smell; iva like; ayt from the flower. TRANSLATION The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. PURPORT Here the living entity is described as vara, the controller of his own body. If he likes, he can change his body to a higher grade, and if he likes he can move to a lower class. Minute independence is there. The change his body undergoes depends upon him. At the time of death, the consciousness he has created will carry him on to the next type of body. If he has made his consciousness like that of a cat or dog, he is sure to change to a cat's or dog's body. And, if he has fixed his consciousness on godly qualities, he will change into the form of a demigod. And, if he is in Ka consciousness, he will be transferred to Kaloka in the spiritual world and will associate with Ka. It is a false claim that after the annihilation of this body everything is finished. The individual soul is transmigrating from one body to another, and his present body and present activities are the background of his next body. One gets a different body according to karma, and he has to quit this body in due course. It is stated here that the subtle body, which carries the conception of the next body, develops another body in the next life. This process of transmigrating from one body to another and struggling while in the body is called karati or struggle for existence. TEXT 9 rotra caku sparana ca rasana ghram eva ca adhihya mana cya viayn upasevate rotram ears; caku eyes; sparanam touch; ca also; rasanam tongue; ghram smelling power; eva also; ca and; adhihya being situated; mana mind; ca also; ayam this; viayn sense objects; upasevate enjoys. TRANSLATION The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, tongue, and nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects. PURPORT In other words, if the living entity adulterates his consciousness with the qualities of cats and dogs, in his next life he gets a cat or dog body and enjoys. Consciousness is originally pure, like water. But if we mix water with a certain color, it changes. Similarly, consciousness is pure, for the spirit soul is pure. But consciousness is changed according to the association of the material qualities. Real consciousness is Ka consciousness. When, therefore, one is situated in Ka consciousness, he is in his pure life. But if his consciousness is adulterated by some type of material mentality, in the next life he gets a corresponding body. He does not necessarily get a human body again; he can get the body of a cat, dog, hog, demigod or one of many other forms, for there are 8,400,000 species. TEXT 10 utkrmanta sthita vpi bhujna v gunvitam vimh nnupayanti payanti jna-cakua utkrmantam quitting the body; sthitam situated in the body; vpi either; bhujnam enjoying; v or; gua-anvitam under the spell of the modes of material nature; vimh foolish persons; na never; anupayanti can see; payanti one can see; jna-cakua one who has the eyes of knowledge. TRANSLATION The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this. PURPORT The word jna-cakua is very significant. Without knowledge, one cannot understand how a living entity leaves his present body, nor what form of body he is going to take in the next life, nor even why he is living in a particular type of body. This requires a great amount of knowledge understood from Bhagavad-gt and similar literatures heard from a bona fide spiritual master. One who is trained to perceive all these things is fortunate. Every living entity is quitting his body under certain circumstances;he is living under certain circumstances and enjoying under certain circumstances under the spell of material nature. As a result, he is suffering different kinds of happiness and distress, under the illusion of sense enjoyment. Persons who are everlastingly fooled by lust and desire lose all power of understanding their change of body and their stay in a particular body. They cannot comprehend it. Those who have developed spiritual knowledge, however, can see that the spirit is different from the body and is changing its body and enjoying in different ways. A person in such knowledge can understand how the conditioned living entity is suffering in this material existence. Therefore those who are highly developed in Ka consciousness try their best to give this knowledge to the people in general, for their conditional life is very much troublesome. They should come out of it and be Ka conscious and liberate themselves to transfer to the spiritual world. TEXT 11 yatanto yogina caina payanty tmany avasthitam yatanto 'py akttmno naina payanty acetasa yatanta endeavoring; yogina transcendentalists; ca also; enam this; payanti can see; tmani in the self; avasthitam situated; yatanta although endeavoring; api although; akta-tmna without self- realization; na does not; enam this; payanti can see; acetasa undeveloped mind. TRANSLATION The endeavoring transcendentalist, who is situated in self-realization, can see all this clearly. But those who are not situated in self-realization cannot see what is taking place, though they may try to. PURPORT There are many transcendentalists in the path of spiritual self-realization, but one who is not situated in self-realization cannot see how things are changing in the body of the living entity. The word yogina is significant in this connection. In the present day there are many so-called yogs, and there are many so-called associations of yogs, but they are actually blind in the matter of self-realization. They are simply addicted to some sort of gymnastic exercise and are satisfied if the body is well-built and healthy. They have no other information. They are called yatanto'py akttmna. Even though they are endeavoring in a so-called yoga system, they are not self-realized. Such people cannot understand the process of the transmigration of the soul. Only those who are actually in the yoga system and have realized the self, the world, and the Supreme Lord, in other words, the bhakti-yogs, those engaged in pure devotional service in Krsa consciousness, can understand how things are taking place. TEXT 12 yad ditya-gata tejo jagad bhsayate 'khilam yac candramasi yac cgnau tat tejo viddhi mmakam yat that which; ditya-gatam in the sunshine; teja splendor; jagat the whole world; bhsayate illuminates; akhilam entirely; yat that which; candramasi in the moon; yat that which; ca also; agnau in the fire; tat that; teja splendor; viddhi understand; mmakam from Me. TRANSLATION The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, comes from Me. And the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire are also from Me. PURPORT The unintelligent cannot understand how things are taking place. The beginning of knowledge can be established by understanding what the Lord explains here. Everyone sees the sun, moon, fire and electricity. One should simply try to understand that the splendor of the sun, the splendor of the moon, and the splendor of electricity or fire are coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In such a conception of life, the beginning of Ka consciousness, lies a great deal of advancement for the conditioned soul in this material world. The living entities are essentially the parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, and He is giving herewith the hint how they can come back to Godhead, back to home. From this verse we can understand that the sun is illuminating the whole solar system. There are different universes and solar systems, and there are different suns, moons and planets also. Sunlight is due to the spiritual effulgence in the spiritual sky of the Supreme Lord. With the rise of the sun, the activities of human beings are set up. They set fire to prepare their foodstuff; they set fire to start the factories, etc. So many things are done with the help of fire. Therefore sunrise, fire and moonlight are so pleasing to the living entities. Without their help no living entity can live. So if one can understand that the light and splendor of the sun, moon and fire are emanating from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, then one's Ka consciousness will begin. By the moonshine, all the vegetables are nourished. The moonshine is so pleasing that people can easily understand that they are living by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Ka. Without His mercy there cannot be sun, without His mercy there cannot be moon, and without His mercy there cannot be fire, and without the help of sun, moon and fire, no one can live. These are some thoughts to provoke Ka consciousness in the conditioned soul. TEXT 13 gm viya ca bhtni dhraymy aham ojas pumi cauadh sarv somo bhtv rastmaka gm the planets; viya entering; ca also; bhtni living entities; dhraymi sustaining; aham I; ojas by My energy; pumi nourishing; ca and; auadh all vegetables; sarv all; soma the moon; bhtv becoming; rasa-tmaka supplying the juice. TRANSLATION I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables. PURPORT It is understood that all the planets are floating in the air only by the energy of the Lord. The Lord enters into every atom, every planet, and every living being. That is discussed in the Brahma-sahit. It is said there that one plenary portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramtm, enters into the planets, the universe, the living entity, and even into the atom. So due to His entrance, everything is appropriately manifested. When the spirit soul is there, a living man can float on the water, but when the living spark is out of the body and the body is dead, it sinks. Of course when it is decomposed it floats just like straw and other things, but as soon as the man is dead, he at once sinks in the water. Similarly, all these planets are floating in space, and this is due to the entrance of the supreme energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His energy is sustaining each planet, just like a handful of dust. If someone holds a handful of dust, there is no possibility of the dust falling, but if one throws it in the air, it will fall down. Similarly, these planets, which are floating in air, are actually held in the fist of the universal form of the Supreme Lord. By His strength and energy, all moving and unmoving things stay in their place. It is said that because of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the sun is shining and the planets are steadily moving. Were it not for Him, all the planets would scatter, like dust in air, and perish. Similarly, it is due to the Supreme Personality of Godhead that the moon nourishes all vegetables. Due to the moon's influence, the vegetables become delicious. Without the moonshine, the vegetables can neither grow nor taste succulent. Human society is working, living comfortably and enjoying food due to the supply from the Supreme Lord. Otherwise, mankind could not survive. The word rastmaka is very significant. Everything becomes palatable by the agency of the Supreme Lord through the influence of the moon. TEXT 14 aha vaivnaro bhtv prin deham rita prpna-samyukta pacmy anna catur-vidham aham I; vaivnara by My plenary portion as the digesting fire; bhtv becoming; prinm of all living entities; deham body; rita situated; pra outgoing air; apna downgoing air; samyukta keep balance; pacmi digest; annam foodstuff; catur-vidham four kinds of. TRANSLATION I am the fire of digestion in every living body, and I am the air of life, outgoing and incoming, by which I digest the four kinds of foodstuff. PURPORT According to yur-vedic stra , we understand that there is a fire in the stomach which digests all food sent there. When the fire is not blazing, there is no hunger, and when the fire is in order, we become hungry. Sometimes when the fire is not going nicely, treatment is required. In any case, this fire is representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vedic mantras also confirm that the Supreme Lord or Brahman is situated in the form of fire within the stomach and is digesting all kinds of foodstuff. Therefore since He is helping the digestion of all kinds of foodstuff, the living entity is not independent in the eating process. Unless the Supreme Lord helps him in digesting, there is no possibility of eating. He thus produces and digests foodstuff, and, by His grace, we are enjoying life. In the Vednta-stra this is also confirmed: abddibhyo'nta pratihnc ca. The Lord is situated within sound and within the body, within the air and even within the stomach as the digestive force. There are four kinds of foodstuff: some are swallowed, some are chewed, some are licked up, and some are sucked, and He is the digestive force for all of them. TEXT 15 sarvasya cha hdi sannivio matta smtir jnam apohana ca vedai ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vednta-kd veda-vid eva cham sarvasya of all living beings; ca and; aham I; hdi in the heart; sannivia being situated; matta from Me; smti remembrance; jnam knowledge; apohanam ca and forgetfulness; vedai by the Vedas; ca also; sarvai all; aham I am; eva certainly; vedya knowable; vednta-kt the compiler of the Vednta ; veda-vit the knower of the Vedas; eva certainly; ca and; aham I. TRANSLATION I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vednta, and I am the knower of the Vedas. PURPORT The Supreme Lord is situated as Paramtm in everyone's heart, and it is from Him that all activities are initiated. The living entity forgets everything of his past life, but he has to act according to the direction of the Supreme Lord, who is witness to all his work. Therefore he begins his work according to his past deeds. Required knowledge is supplied to him, and remembrance is given to him, and he forgets, also, about his past life. Thus, the Lord is not only all-pervading; He is also localized in every individual heart. He awards the different fruitive results. He is not only worshipable as the impersonal Brahman, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the localized Paramtm, but as the form of the incarnation of the Vedas as well. The Vedas give the right direction to the people so that they can properly mold their lives and come back to Godhead, back to home. The Vedas offer knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, and Ka in His incarnation as Vysadeva is the compiler of the Vednta-stra . The commentation on the Vednta-stra by Vysadeva in the rmad-Bhgavatam gives the real understanding of Vednta-stra . The Supreme Lord is so full that for the deliverance of the conditioned soul He is the supplier and digester of foodstuff, the witness of his activity, the giver of knowledge in the form of Vedas and as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka, the teacher of the Bhagavad-gt . He is worshipable by the conditioned soul. Thus God is all-good; God is all-merciful. Antapravia st jannm. The living entity forgets as soon as he quits his present body, but he begins his work again, initiated by the Supreme Lord. Although he forgets, the Lord gives him the intelligence to renew his work where he ended his last life. So not only does a living entity enjoy or suffer in this world according to the dictation from the Supreme Lord situated locally in the heart, but he receives the opportunity to understand Vedas from Him. If one is serious to understand the Vedic knowledge, then Ka gives the required intelligence. Why does He present the Vedic knowledge for understanding? Because a living entity individually needs to understand Ka. Vedic literature confirms this: yo 'sau sarvair vedair gyate . In all Vedic literature, beginning from the four Vedas , Vednta-stra and the Upaniads and Puras , the glories of the Supreme Lord are celebrated. By performing Vedic rituals, discussing the Vedic philosophy and worshiping the Lord in devotional service, He is attained. Therefore the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Ka. The Vedas give us direction to understand Ka and the process of understanding. The ultimate goal is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vednta-stra confirms this in the following words: tat tu samanvayt . One can attain perfection by understanding Vedic literature, and one can understand his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead by performing the different processes. Thus one can approach Him and at the end attain the supreme goal, who is no other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this verse, however, the purpose of the Vedas , the understanding of the Vedas and the goal of Vedas are clearly defined. TEXT 16 dvv imau puruau loke kara ckara eva ca kara sarvi bhtni kastho 'kara ucyate dvau two; imau in this (world); puruau living entities; loke in the world; kara fallible; ca and; akara infallible; eva certainly; ca and; kara the fallible; sarvi all; bhtni living entities; kastha in oneness; akara infallible; ucyate is said. TRANSLATION There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is called infallible. PURPORT As already explained, the Lord in His incarnation as Vysadeva compiled the Vednta-stra. Here the Lord is giving, in summary, the contents of the Vednta-stra: He says that the living entities, who are innumerable, can be divided into two classesthe fallible and the infallible. The living entities are eternally separated parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When they are in contact with the material world, they are called jva-bht, and the Sanskrit words given here, sarvi bhtni, mean that they are fallible. Those who are in oneness with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, are called infallible. Oneness does not mean that they have no individuality, but that there is no disunity. They are all agreeable to the purpose of the creation. Of course, in the spiritual world, there is no such thing as creation, but since the Supreme Personality of Godhead has stated in the Vednta-stra that He is the source of all emanations, that conception is explained. According to the statement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Ka, there are two classes of men. The Vedas give evidence of this, so there is no doubt about it. The living entities, who are struggling in this world with the mind and five senses, have their material bodies which are changing as long as the living entities are conditioned. One's body changes due to contact with matter; matter is changing, so the living entity appears to be changing. But in the spiritual world the body is not made of matter; therefore there is no change. In the material world the living entity undergoes six changesbirth, growth, duration, reproduction, then dwindling and vanishing. These are the changes of the material body. But in the spiritual world the body does not change; there is no old age, there is no birth, there is no death. There all exists in oneness. It is more clearly explained as sarvi bhtni: any living entity who has come in contact with matter, beginning from the first created being, Brahm, down to a small ant, is changing its body; therefore they are all fallible. In the spiritual world, however, they are always liberated in oneness. TEXT 17 uttama puruas tv anya paramtmety udhta yo loka-trayam viya bibharty avyaya vara uttama the best; purua personality; tu but; anya another; param the Supreme; tm Self; iti thus; udhta said; ya one who; loka of the universe; trayam the three divisions; viya entering; bibharti maintaining; avyaya inexhaustible; vara the Lord. TRANSLATION Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Lord Himself, who has entered into these worlds and is maintaining them. PURPORT This verse is very nicely expressed in the Kaha Upaniad and vetvatara Upaniad. It is clearly stated there that above the innumerable living entities, some of whom are conditioned and some of whom are liberated, there is the Supreme Personality who is Paramtm. The Upanisadic verse runs as follows: nityo nityn cetana cetannm. The purport is that amongst all the living entities, both conditioned and liberated, there is one supreme living personality, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who maintains them and gives them all the facility of enjoyment according to different work. That Supreme Personality of Godhead is situated in everyone's heart as Paramtm. A wise man who can understand Him is eligible to attain the perfect peace, not others. It is incorrect to think of the Supreme Lord and the living entities as being on the same level or equal in all respects. There is always the question of superiority and inferiority in their personalities. This particular word uttama is very significant. No one can surpass the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Loke is also significant because in the Paurua , a Vedic literature, it is stated: lokyate vedrtho'nena. This Supreme Lord in His localized aspect as Paramtm explains the purpose of the Vedas. The following verse also appears in the Vedas: tvad ea samprasdo 'smc charrt samutthya para jyoti-rpa sampadya svena rpebhinipadyate sa uttama purua "The Supersoul coming out of the body enters the impersonal brahmajyoti; then in His form He remains in His spiritual identity. That Supreme is called the Supreme Personality." This means that the Supreme Personality is exhibiting and diffusing His spiritual effulgence, which is the ultimate illumination. That Supreme Personality also has a localized aspect as Paramtm. By incarnating Himself as the son of Satyavat and Parara, He explains the Vedic knowledge as Vysadeva. TEXT 18 Pictures Part 3 yasmt karam atto 'ham akard api cottama ato 'smi loke vede ca prathita puruottama yasmt because; karam the fallible; atta transcendental; aham I; akart from the infallible; api better than that; ca and; uttama the best; ata therefore; asmi I am; loke in the world; vede in the Vedic literature; ca and; prathita celebrated; puruottama as the Supreme Personality. TRANSLATION Because I am transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible, and because I am the greatest, I am celebrated both in the world and in the Vedas as that Supreme Person. PURPORT No one can surpass the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kaneither the conditioned soul nor the liberated soul. He is, therefore, the greatest of personalities. Now it is clear here that the living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are individuals. The difference is that the living entities, either in the conditioned state or in the liberated state, cannot surpass in quantity the inconceivable potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 19 yo mm evam asammho jnti puruottamam sa sarva-vid bhajati m sarva-bhvena bhrata ya anyone; mm unto Me; evam certainly; asammha without a doubt; jnti knows; puruottamam the Supreme Personality of Godhead; sa he; sarva-vit knower of everything; bhajati renders devotional service; mm unto Me; sarva-bhvena in all respects; bhrata O son of Bharata. TRANSLATION Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is to be understood as the knower of everything, and he therefore engages himself in full devotional service, O son of Bharata. PURPORT There are many philosophical speculations about the constitutional position of the living entities and the Supreme Absolute Truth. Now in this verse the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains that anyone who knows Lord Ka as the Supreme Person is actually the knower of everything. The imperfect knower goes on simply speculating about the Absolute Truth, but the perfect knower, without wasting his valuable time, engages directly in Ka consciousness, the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. Throughout the whole of Bhagavad-gt, this fact is being stressed at every step. And still there are so many stubborn commentators on Bhagavad-gt who consider the Supreme Absolute Truth and the living entities to be one and the same. Vedic knowledge is called ruti, learning by aural reception. One should actually receive the Vedic message from authorities like Ka and His representatives. Here Ka distinguishes everything very nicely, and one should hear from this source. Simply to hear like the hogs is not sufficient; one must be able to understand from the authorities. It is not that one should simply speculate academically. One should submissively hear from Bhagavad- gt that these living entities are always subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone who is able to understand this, according to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka, knows the purpose of the Vedas; no one else knows the purpose of the Vedas. The word bhajate is very significant. In many places the word bhajate is expressed in relationship with the service of the Supreme Lord. If a person is engaged in full Ka consciousness in devotional service of the Lord, it is to be understood that he has understood all the Vedic knowledge. In the Vaiava parampar it is said that if one is engaged in the devotional service of Ka, then there is no need for a spiritual process to understand the Supreme Absolute Truth. He has already come to the post because he is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. He has ended all preliminary processes of understanding; similarly, if anyone, after speculating for hundreds of thousands of lives, does not come to the point that Ka is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that one has to surrender there, all his speculation for so many years and lives is a useless waste of time. TEXT 20 iti guhyatama stram idam ukta maynagha etad buddhv buddhimn syt kta-ktya ca bhrata iti thus; guhyatamam the most confidential; stram revealed scriptures; idam this; uktam disclosed; may by Me; anagha O sinless one; etat this; buddhv understanding; buddhimn intelligent; syt one becomes; kta-ktya the most perfect; ca and; bhrata O son of Bharata. TRANSLATION This is the most confidential part of the Vedic scriptures, O sinless one, and it is disclosed now by Me. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know perfection. PURPORT The Lord clearly explains here that this is the substance of all revealed scriptures. And one should understand this as it is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus one will become intelligent and perfect in transcendental knowledge. In other words, by understanding this philosophy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and engaging in His transcendental service, everyone can become freed from all contaminations of the modes of material nature. Devotional service is a process of spiritual understanding. Wherever devotional service exists, the material contamination cannot coexist. Devotional service to the Lord and the Lord Himself are one and the same because they are spiritual the internal energy of the Supreme Lord. The Lord is said to be the sun, and ignorance is called darkness. Where the sun is present, there is no question of darkness. Therefore, whenever devotional service is present under the proper guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, there is no question of ignorance. Everyone must take to this consciousness of Ka and engage in devotional service to become intelligent and purified. Unless one comes to this position of understanding Ka and engages in devotional service, however intelligent he may be in the estimation of some common man, he is not perfectly intelligent. The word anagha, by which Arjuna is addressed, is significant. Anagha, O sinless one, means that unless one is free from all sinful reactions, it is very difficult to understand Ka. One has to become free from all contamination, all sinful activities; then he can understand. But devotional service is so pure and potent that once one is engaged in devotional service he automatically comes to the stage of sinlessness. While performing devotional service in the association of pure devotees in full Ka consciousness, there are certain things which require to be vanquished altogether. The most important thing one has to surmount is weakness of the heart. The first falldown is caused by the desire to lord it over material nature. Thus one gives up the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord. The second weakness of the heart is that as one increases the propensity of lording it over material nature, he becomes attached to matter and the possession of matter. The problems of material existence are due to these weaknesses of the heart. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Fifteenth Chapter of the rmad-Bhagavad-gt in the matter of Puruottama-yoga, the Yoga of the Supreme Person. Chapter-16 CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Divine and Demoniac Natures TEXTS 1-3 r bhagavn uvca abhaya sattva-sauddhir jna-yoga-vyavasthiti dna dama ca yaja ca svdhyyas tapa rjavam ahis satyam akrodhas tyga ntir apaiunam day bhtev aloluptva mrdava hrr acpalam teja kam dhti aucam adroho ntimnit bhavanti sampada daivm abhijtasya bhrata r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; abhayam fearlessness; sattva-sauddhi purification of one's existence; jna knowledge; yoga of linking up; vyavasthiti the situation; dnam charity; dama ca and controlling the mind; yaja ca and performance of sacrifice; svdhyya study of Vedic literature; tapa austerity; rjavam simplicity; ahis nonviolence; satyam truthfulness; akrodha freedom from anger; tyga renunciation; nti tranquility; apaiunam aversion to faultfinding; day mercy; bhteu towards all living entities; aloluptvam freedom from greed; mrdavam gentleness; hr modesty; acpalam determination; teja vigor; kam forgiveness; dhti fortitude; aucam cleanliness; adroha freedom from envy; na not; atimnit expectation of honor; bhavanti become; sampadam qualities; daivm transcendental; abhijtasya one who is born of; bhrata O son of Bharata. TRANSLATION The Blessed Lord said: Fearlessness, purification of one's existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity and simplicity; nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger; renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion and freedom from covetousness; gentleness, modesty and steady determination; vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and the passion for honorthese transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature. PURPORT In the beginning of the Fifteenth Chapter, the banyan tree of this material world was explained. The extra roots coming out of it were compared to the activities of the living entities, some auspicious, some inauspicious. In the Ninth Chapter, also, the devas, or godly, and the asuras , the ungodly, or demons, were explained. Now, according to Vedic rites, activities in the mode of goodness are considered auspicious for progress on the path of liberation, and such activities are known as devaprakti , transcendental by nature. Those who are situated in the transcendental nature make progress on the path of liberation. For those who are acting in the modes of passion and ignorance, on the other hand, there is no possibility of liberation. Either they will have to remain in this material world as human beings, or they will descend among the species of animals or even lower life forms. In this Sixteenth Chapter the Lord explains both the transcendental nature and its attendant qualities, as well as the demoniac nature and its qualities. He also explains the advantages and disadvantages of these qualities. The word abhijtasya in reference to one born of transcendental qualities or godly tendencies is very significant. To beget a child in a godly atmosphere is known in the Vedic scriptures as Garbhdhna- saskra. If the parents want a child in the godly qualities they should follow the ten principles of the human being. In Bhagavad-gt we have studied also before that sex life for begetting a good child is Ka Himself. Sex life is not condemned provided the process is used in Ka consciousness. Those who are in Ka consciousness at least should not beget children like cats and dogs but should beget them so they may become Ka conscious after birth. That should be the advantage of children born of a father or mother absorbed in Ka consciousness. The social institution known as varrama-dharma the institution dividing society into four divisions or castes is not meant to divide human society according to birth. Such divisions are in terms of educational qualifications. They are to keep the society in a state of peace and prosperity. The qualities mentioned herein are explained as transcendental qualities meant for making a person progress in spiritual understanding so he can get liberated from the material world. In the varrama institution the sannys, or the person in the renounced order of life, is considered to be the head or the spiritual master of all the social statuses and orders. A brhmaa is considered to be the spiritual master of the three other sections of a society, namely, the katriyas, the vaiyas and the dras, but a sannys , who is on the top of the institution, is considered to be the spiritual master of the brhmaas also. For a sannys , the first qualification should be fearlessness. Because a sannys has to be alone without any support or guarantee of support, he has simply to depend on the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If he thinks, "After leaving my connections, who will protect me?" he should not accept the renounced order of life. One must be fully convinced that Ka or the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His localized aspect as Paramtm is always within, that He is seeing everything and He always knows what one intends to do. One must thus have firm conviction that Ka as Paramtm will take care of a soul surrendered to Him. "I shall never be alone," one should think. "Even if I live in the darkest regions of a forest I shall be accompanied by Ka, and He will give me all protection." That conviction is called abhayam, without fear. This state of mind is necessary for a person in the renounced order of life. Then he has to purify his existence. There are so many rules and regulations to be followed in the renounced order of life. Most important of all, a sannys is strictly forbidden to have any intimate relationship with a woman. He is even forbidden to talk with a woman in a secluded place. Lord Caitanya was an ideal sannys, and when He was at Pur His feminine devotees could not even come near to offer their respects. They were advised to bow down from a distant place. This is not a sign of hatred for women as a class, but it is a stricture imposed on the sannys not to have close connections with women. One has to follow the rules and regulations of a particular status of life in order to purify his existence. For a sannys, intimate relations with women and possessions of wealth for sense gratification are strictly forbidden. The ideal sannys was Lord Caitanya Himself, and we can learn from His life that He was very strict in regards to women. Although He is considered to be the most liberal incarnation of Godhead, accepting the most fallen conditioned souls, He strictly followed the rules and regulations of the sannysa order of the life in connection with association with woman. One of His personal associates, namely Choa Haridsa, was personally associated with Lord Caitanya, along with His other confidential personal associates, but somehow or other this Choa Haridsa looked lustily on a young woman, and Lord Caitanya was so strict that He at once rejected him from the society of His personal associates. Lord Caitanya said, "For a sannys or anyone who is aspiring to get out of the clutches of material nature and trying to elevate himself to the spiritual nature and go back to home, back to Godhead, for him, looking toward material possessions and women for sense gratification not even enjoying them, but just looking toward them with such a propensity is so condemned that he had better commit suicide before experiencing such illicit desires." So these are the processes for purification. The next item is jna-yoga-vyavasthiti: being engaged in the cultivation of knowledge. Sannys life is meant for distributing knowledge to the householders and others who have forgotten their real life of spiritual advancement. A sannys is supposed to beg from door to door for his livelihood, but this does not mean that he is a beggar. Humility is also one of the qualifications of a transcendentally situated person, and out of sheer humility the sannys goes from door to door, not exactly for the purpose of begging, but to see the householders and awaken them to Ka consciousness. This is the duty of a sannys . If he is actually advanced and so ordered by his spiritual master, he should preach Ka consciousness with logic and understanding, and if he is not so advanced he should not accept the renounced order of life. But even if he has accepted the renounced order of life without sufficient knowledge, he should engage himself fully in hearing from a bona fide spiritual master to cultivate knowledge. A sannys or one in the renounced order of life must be situated in fearlessness, sattva-sauddhi (purity) and jna-yoga (knowledge). The next item is charity. Charity is meant for the householders. The householders should earn a livelihood by an honorable means and spend fifty percent of their income to propagate Ka consciousness all over the world. Thus a householder should give in charity to such institutional societies that are engaged in that way. Charity should be given to the right receiver. There are different kinds of charities, as will be explained later on, charity in the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Charity in the mode of goodness is recommended by the scriptures, but charity in the modes of passion and ignorance is not recommended because it is simply a waste of money. Charity should be given only to propagate Ka consciousness all over the world. That is charity in the mode of goodness. Then as far as dama (self-control) is concerned, it is not only meant for other orders of religious society, but it is especially meant for the householder. Although he has a wife, a householder should not use his senses for sex life unnecessarily. There are restrictions for the householders even in sex life, which should only be engaged in for the propagation of children. If he does not require children, he should not enjoy sex life with his wife. Modern society enjoys sex life with contraceptive methods or more abominable methods to avoid the responsibility of children. This is not in the transcendental quality but is demoniac. If anyone, even if he is a householder, wants to make progress in spiritual life, he must control his sex life and should not beget a child without the purpose of serving Ka. If he is able to beget children who will be in Ka consciousness, one can produce hundreds of children, but without this capacity one should not indulge only for sense pleasure. Sacrifice is another item to be performed by the householders because sacrifices require a large amount of money. Other orders of life, namely the brahmacarya, the vnaprastha and sannysa, have no money; they live by begging. So performance of different types of sacrifice is meant for the householder. They should perform agni-hotra sacrifices as enjoined in the Vedic literature, but such sacrifices at the present moment are very expensive, and it is not possible for any householder to perform them. The best sacrifice recommended in this age is called sakrtana-yaja, the chanting of Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. This is the best and most inexpensive sacrifice; everyone can adopt it and derive benefit. So these three items, namely charity, sense control and performance of sacrifice, are meant for the householder. Then svdhyya, Vedic study, and tapas, austerity, and rjavam , gentleness or simplicity, are meant for the brahmacarya or student life. Brahmacrs should have no connection with women; they should live a life of celibacy and engage the mind in the study of Vedic literature for cultivation of spiritual knowledge. This is called svdhyya. Tapas or austerity is especially meant for the retired life. One should not remain a householder throughout his whole life; he must always remember that there are four divisions of life, brahmacarya, ghastha, vnaprastha and sannysa. So after ghastha, householder life, one should retire. If one lives for a hundred years, he should spend twenty-five years in student life, twenty-five in householder life, twenty-five in retired life and twenty-five in the renounced order of life. These are the regulations of the Vedic religious discipline. A man retired from household life must practice austerities of the body, mind and tongue. That is tapasy. The entire varrama-dharma society is meant for tapasy. Without tapasy or austerity no human being can get liberation. The theory that there is no need of austerity in life, that one can go on speculating and everything will be nice, is neither recommended in the Vedic literature nor in Bhagavad- gt. Such theories are manufactured by showbottle spiritualists who are trying to gather more followers. If there are restrictions, rules and regulations, people will not become attracted. Therefore those who want followers in the name of religion, just to have a show only, don't restrict the lives of their students nor their own lives. But that method is not approved by the Vedas. As far as simplicity is concerned, not only should a particular order of life follow this principle, but every member, be he in the brahmacarya- rama , or ghastha-rama or vnaprastha-rama . One must live very simply. Ahis means not arresting the progressive life of any living entity. One should not think that since the spirit spark is never killed even after the killing of the body there is no harm in killing animals for sense gratification. People are now addicted to eating animals, in spite of having an ample supply of grains, fruits and milk. There is no necessity for animal killing. This injunction is for everyone. When there is no other alternative, one may kill an animal, but it should be offered in sacrifice. At any rate, when there is an ample food supply for humanity, persons who are desiring to make advancement in spiritual realization should not commit violence to animals. Real ahis means not checking anyone's progressive life. The animals are also making progress in their evolutionary life by transmigrating from one category of animal life to another. If a particular animal is killed, then his progress is checked. If an animal is staying in a particular body for so many days or so many years and is untimely killed, then he has to come back again in that form of life to complete the remaining days in order to be promoted to another species of life. So their progress should not be checked simply to satisfy one's palate. This is called ahis. Satyam. This word means that one should not distort the truth for some personal interest. In Vedic literature there are some difficult passages, but the meaning or the purpose should be learned from a bona fide spiritual master. That is the process for understanding Vedas. ruti means that one should hear from the authority. One should not construe some interpretation for his personal interest. There are so many commentaries on Bhagavad-gt that misinterpret the original text. The real import of the word should be presented, and that should be learned from a bona fide spiritual master. Akrodha means to check anger. Even if there is provocation one should be tolerant, for once one becomes angry his whole body becomes polluted. Anger is the product of the modes of passion and lust, so one who is transcendentally situated should check himself from anger. Apaiunam means that one should not find fault with others or correct them unnecessarily. Of course to call a thief a thief is not faultfinding, but to call an honest person a thief is very much offensive for one who is making advancement in spiritual life. Hr means that one should be very modest and must not perform some act which is abominable. Acpalam, determination, means that one should not be agitated or frustrated in some attempt. There may be failure in some attempt, but one should not be sorry for that; he should make progress with patience and determination. The word teja used here is meant for the katriyas. The katriyas should always be very strong to be able to give protection to the weak. They should not pose themselves as nonviolent. If violence is required, they must exhibit it. aucam means cleanliness, not only in mind and body but in one's dealings also. It is especially meant for the mercantile people, who should not deal in the black market. Ntimnit, not expecting honor, applies to the dras, the worker class, which are considered, according to Vedic injunctions, to be the lowest of the four classes. They should not be puffed up with unnecessary prestige or honor and should remain in their own status. It is the duty of the dras to offer respect to the higher class for the upkeep of the social order. All these sixteen qualifications mentioned are transcendental qualities. They should be cultivated according to the different statuses of the social order. The purport is that even though material conditions are miserable, if these qualities are developed by practice, by all classes of men, then gradually it is possible to rise to the highest platform of transcendental realization. TEXT 4 dambho darpo 'bhimna ca krodha pruyam eva ca ajna cbhijtasya prtha sampadam surm dambha pride; darpa arrogance; abhimna conceit; ca and; kroda anger; pruyam harshness; eva certainly; ca and; ajnam ignorance; ca and; abhijtasya one who is born; prtha O son of Pth; sampadam nature; surm demoniac. TRANSLATION Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorancethese qualities belong to those of demonic nature, O son of Pth. PURPORT In this verse, the royal road to hell is described. The demoniac want to make a show of religion and advancement in spiritual science, although they do not follow the principles. They are always arrogant or proud in possessing some type of education or so much wealth. They desire to be worshiped by others, and demand respectability, although they do not command respect. Over trifles they become very angry and speak harshly, not gently. They do not know what should be done and what should not be done. They do everything whimsically, according to their own desire, and they do not recognize any authority. These demoniac qualities are taken on by them from the beginning of their bodies in the wombs of their mothers, and as they grow they manifest all these inauspicious qualities. TEXT 5 daiv sampad vimokya nibandhysur mat m uca sampada daivm abhijto 'si pava daiv transcendental; sampat nature; vimokya meant for liberation; nibandhya for bondage; sur demoniac qualities; mat it is considered; m do not; uca worry; sampadam nature; daivm transcendental; abhijta born; asi you are; pava O son of Pandu. TRANSLATION The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demonic qualities make for bondage. Do not worry, O son of Pu, for you are born with the divine qualities. PURPORT Lord Ka encouraged Arjuna by telling him that he was not born with demoniac qualities. His involvement in the fight was not demoniac because he was considering the pro's and con's. He was considering whether respectable persons such as Bhma and Droa should be killed or not, so he was not acting under the influence of anger, false prestige, or harshness. Therefore he was not of the quality of the demons. For a katriya, a military man, shooting arrows at the enemy is considered transcendental, and refraining from such a duty is demoniac. Therefore, there was no cause for Arjuna to lament. Anyone who performs the regulated principles of the different orders of life is transcendentally situated. TEXT 6 dvau bhta-sargau loke 'smin daiva sura eva ca daivo vistaraa prokta sura prtha me u dvau two; bhta-sargau created living beings; loke in this world; asmin this; daiva godly; sura demoniac; eva certainly; ca and; daiva divine; vistaraa at great length; prokta said; suram demoniac; prtha O son of Pth; me from Me; u just hear. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, in this world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called the divine and the other demonic. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities. Now hear from Me of the demoniac. PURPORT Lord Ka, having assured Arjuna that he was born with the divine qualities, is now describing the demoniac way. The conditioned living entities are divided into two classes in this world. Those who are born with divine qualities follow a regulated life; that is to say they abide by the injunctions in scriptures and by the authorities. One should perform duties in the light of authoritative scripture. This mentality is called divine. One who does not follow the regulative principles as they are laid down in the scriptures and who acts according to his whims is called demoniac or asuric. There is no other criterion but obedience to the regulative principles of scriptures. It is mentioned in Vedic literature that both the demigods and the demons are born of the Prajpati; the only difference is that one class obeys the Vedic injunctions and the other does not. TEXT 7 pravtti ca nivtti ca jan na vidur sur na auca npi ccro na satya teu vidyate pravttim proper action; ca also; nivttim improper action; ca and; jan persons; na never; vidu know; sur in demoniac quality; na never; aucam cleanliness; na nor; api also; ca and; cra behavior; na never; satyam truth; teu in them; vidyate there is. TRANSLATION Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them. PURPORT In every civilized human society there is some set of scriptural rules and regulations which are followed from the beginning, especially among the ryans, those who adopt the Vedic civilization and who are known as the most advanced civilized peoples. Those who do not follow the scriptural injunctions are supposed to be demons. Therefore it is stated here that the demons do not know the scriptural rules, nor do they have any inclination to follow them. Most of them do not know them, and even if some of them know, they have not the tendency to follow them. They have no faith, nor are they willing to act in terms of the Vedic injunctions. The demons are not clean, either externally or internally. One should always be careful to keep his body clean by bathing, brushing teeth, changing clothes, etc. As far as internal cleanliness is concerned, one should always remember the holy names of God and chant Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare. The demons neither like nor follow all these rules for external and internal cleanliness. As for behavior, there are many rules and regulations guiding human behavior, such as the Manu-sahit, which is the law of the human race. Even up to today, those who are Hindu follow the Manu-sahit. Laws of inheritance and other legalities are derived from this book. Now, in the Manu- sahit, it is clearly stated that a woman should not be given freedom. That does not mean that women are to be kept as slaves, but they are like children. Children are not given freedom, but that does not mean that they are kept as slaves. The demons have now neglected such injunctions, and they think that women should be given as much freedom as men. However, this has not improved the social condition of the world. Actually, a woman should be given protection at every stage of life. She should be given protection by the father in her younger days, by the husband in her youth, and by the grownup sons in her old age. This is proper social behavior according to the Manu- sahit. But modern education has artificially devised a puffed up concept of womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society. Nor is the moral condition of woman very good now. The demons, therefore, do not accept any instruction which is good for society, and because they do not follow the experience of great sages and the rules and regulations laid down by the sages, the social condition of the demoniac people is very miserable. TEXT 8 asatyam apratiha te jagad hur anvaram aparaspara-sambhta kim anyat kma-haitukam asatyam unreal; apratiham without foundation; te they; jagat the cosmic manifestation; hu is said; anvaram with no controller; aparaspara by mutual lust; sambhtam caused; kim anyat there is no other cause; kma-haitukam it is due to lust only. TRANSLATION They say that this world is unreal, that there is no foundation and that there is no God in control. It is produced of sex desire, and has no cause other than lust. PURPORT The demoniac conclude that the world is phantasmagoria. There is no cause, no effect, no controller, no purpose: everything is unreal. They say that this cosmic manifestation arises due to chance material actions and reactions. They do not think that the world was created by God for a certain purpose. They have their own theory: that the world has come about in its own way and that there is no reason to believe that there is a God behind it. For them there is no difference between spirit and matter, and they do not accept the Supreme Spirit. Everything is matter only, and the whole cosmos is supposed to be a mass of ignorance. According to them, everything is void, and whatever manifestation exists is due to our ignorance in perception. They take it for granted that all manifestation of diversity is a display of ignorance. Just as in a dream we may create so many things, which actually have no existence, so when we are awake we shall see that everything is simply a dream. But factually, although the demons say that life is a dream, they are very expert in enjoying this dream. And so, instead of acquiring knowledge, they become more and more implicated in their dreamland. They conclude that as a child is simply the result of sexual intercourse between man and woman, this world is born without any soul. For them it is only a combination of matter that has produced the living entities, and there is no question of the existence of the soul. As many living creatures come out from perspiration and from a dead body without any cause, similarly, the whole living world has come out of the material combinations of the cosmic manifestation. Therefore material nature is the cause of this manifestation, and there is no other cause. They do not believe in the words of Ka in Bhagavad-gt: maydhyakea prakti syate sa-carcaram. "Under My direction the whole material world is moving." In other words, amongst the demons there is no perfect knowledge of the creation of this world; every one of them has some particular theory of his own. According to them, one interpretation of the scriptures is as good as another, for they do not believe in a standard understanding of the scriptural injunctions. TEXT 9 et dim avaabhya natmno 'lpa-buddhaya prabhavanty ugra-karma kayya jagato 'hit etm thus; dim vision; avaabhya accepting; naa lost; tmna self; alpa-buddhaya less intelligent; prabhavanti flourish; ugra- karma in painful activities; kayya for destruction; jagata of the world; ahit unbeneficial. TRANSLATION Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world. PURPORT The demoniac are engaged in activities that will lead the world to destruction. The Lord states here that they are less intelligent. The materialists, who have no concept of God, think that they are advancing. But, according to Bhagavad-gt, they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense. They try to enjoy this material world to the utmost limit and therefore always engage in inventing something for sense gratification. Such materialistic inventions are considered to be advancement of human civilization, but the result is that people grow more and more violent and more and more cruel, cruel to animals and cruel to other human beings. They have no idea how to behave toward one another. Animal killing is very prominent amongst demoniac people. Such people are considered the enemies of the world because ultimately they will invent or create something which will bring destruction to all. Indirectly, this verse anticipates the invention of nuclear weapons, of which the whole world is today very proud. At any moment war may take place, and these atomic weapons may create havoc. Such things are created solely for the destruction of the world, and this is indicated here. Due to godlessness, such weapons are invented in human society; they are not meant for the peace and prosperity of the world. TEXT 10 kmam ritya dupra dambha-mna-madnvit mohd ghtvsad-grhn pravartante 'uci-vrat kmam lust; ritya taking shelter of; dupram insatiable; dambha pride; mna false prestige; mada-anvit absorbed in conceit; moht by illusion; ghtv taking; asat nonpermanent; grhn things; pravartante flourish; auci unclean; vrat avowed. TRANSLATION The demoniac, taking shelter of insatiable lust, pride and false prestige, and being thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent. PURPORT The demoniac mentality is described here. The demons' lust is never satiated. They will go on increasing and increasing their insatiable desires for material enjoyment. Although they are always full of anxieties on account of accepting nonpermanent things, they still continue to engage in such activities out of illusion. They have no knowledge and cannot tell that they are heading the wrong way. Accepting nonpermanent things, such demoniac people create their own God, create their own hymns and chant accordingly. The result is that they become more and more attracted to two thingssex enjoyment and accumulation of material wealth. The word auci-vrat, unclean vow, is very significant in this connection. Such demoniac people are only attracted by wine, women, gambling and meat eating; those are their auci, unclean habits. Induced by pride and false prestige, they create some principles of religion which are not approved by the Vedic injunctions. Although such demoniac people are most abominable in the world, still, by artificial means, the world creates a false honor for them. Although they are gliding toward hell, they consider themselves very much advanced. TEXTS 11-12 cintm aparimey ca pralayntm uprit kmopabhoga-param etvad iti nicit -pa-atair baddh kma-krodha-parya hante kma-bhogrtham anyyenrtha-sacayn cintm fears and anxieties; aparimeym unmeasurable; ca and; pralaya-antm unto the point of death; uprit having taken shelter of them; kma-upabhoga sense gratification; param the highest goal of life; etvat thus; iti in this way; nicit ascertain; -pa entanglement in the network of hope; atai by hundreds; baddh being bound; kma lust; krodha anger; parya always situated in that mentality; hante desire; kma lust; bhoga sense enjoyment; artham for that purpose; anyyena illegally; artha wealth; sacayn accumulate. TRANSLATION They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification. PURPORT The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality, who, even at the point of death, was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete. Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment. When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man's desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy. The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. He does not know that there is a witness sitting within his heart. The Supersoul is observing the activities of the individual soul. As it is stated in the Vedic literature, the Upaniads , there are two birds sitting in one tree; the one is acting and enjoying or suffering the fruits of the branches, and the other is witnessing. But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith; therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequences. TEXTS 13-15 idam adya may labdham ima prpsye manoratham idam astdam api me bhaviyati punar dhanam asau may hata atrur haniye cparn api varo 'ham aha bhog siddho 'ha balavn sukh hyo 'bhijanavn asmi ko'nyo'sti sado may yakye dsymi modiya ity ajna-vimohit idam this; adya today; may by me; labdham gained; imam this; prpsye I shall gain; manoratham according to my desires; idam this; asti there is; idam this; api also; me mine; bhaviyati will increase in the future; puna again; dhanam wealth; asau that; may by me; hata has been killed; atru enemy; haniye I shall kill; ca also; aparn others; api certainly; vara the lord; aham I am; aham I am; bhog the enjoyer; siddhah perfect; aham I am; balavn powerful; sukh happy; hya wealthy; abhijanavn surrounded by aristocratic relatives; asmi I am; ka who else; anya other; asti there is; sada like; may me; yakye I shall sacrifice; dsymi I shall give in charity; modiye I shall rejoice; iti thus; ajna ignorance; vimohit deluded by. TRANSLATION The demoniac person thinks: "So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him; and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice." In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance. TEXT 16 aneka-citta-vibhrnt moha-jla-samvt prasakt kma-bhogeu patanti narake 'ucau aneka numerous; citta-vibhrnt perplexed by anxieties; moha of illusions; jla by a network; samvt surrounded; prasakt attached; kma lust; bhogeu sense gratification; patanti glides down; narake into hell; aucau unclean. TRANSLATION Thus perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, one becomes too strongly attached to sense enjoyment and falls down into hell. PURPORT The demoniac man knows no limit to his desire to acquire money. That is unlimited. He only thinks how much assessment he has just now and schemes to engage that stock of wealth farther and farther. For that reason, he does not hesitate to act in any sinful way and so deals in the black market for illegal gratification. He is enamoured by the possessions he has already, such as land, family, house and bank balance, and he is always planning to improve them. He believes in his own strength, and he does not know that whatever he is gaining is due to his past good deeds. He is given an opportunity to accumulate such things, but he has no conception of past causes. He simply thinks that all his mass of wealth is due to his own endeavor. A demoniac person believes in the strength of his personal work, not in the law of karma. According to the law of karma, a man takes his birth in a high family, or becomes rich, or very well educated, or very beautiful because of good work in the past. The demoniac thinks that all these things are accidental and due to the strength of his personal ability. He does not sense any arrangement behind all the varieties of people, beauty, and education. Anyone who comes into competition with such a demoniac man is his enemy. There are many demoniac people, and each is enemy to the others. This enmity becomes more and more deepbetween persons, then between families, then between societies, and at last between nations. Therefore there is constant strife, war and enmity all over the world. Each demoniac person thinks that he can live at the sacrifice of all others. Generally, a demoniac person thinks of himself as the Supreme God, and a demoniac preacher tells his followers: "Why are you seeking God elsewhere? You are all yourselves God! Whatever you like, you can do. Don't believe in God. Throw away God. God is dead." These are the demoniac's preachings. Although the demoniac person sees others equally rich and influential, or even more so, he thinks that no one is richer than him and that no one is more influential than him. As far as promotion to the higher planetary system is concerned, he does not believe in performing yajas or sacrifices. Demons think that they will manufacture their own process of yaja and prepare some machine, by which they will be able to reach any higher planet. The best example of such a demoniac man was Rvaa. He offered a program to the people by which he would prepare a staircase so that anyone could reach the heavenly planets without performing sacrifices, such as are prescribed in the Vedas. Similarly, in the present age such demoniac men are striving to reach the higher planetary systems by mechanical arrangement. These are examples of bewilderment. The result is that, without their knowledge, they are gliding toward hell. Here the Sanskrit word moha-jla is very significant. Jla means net; like fishes caught in a net, they have no way to come out. TEXT 17 tma-sambhvit stabdh dhana-mna-madnvit yajante nma-yajais te dambhenvidhi-prvakam tma-sambhvit self-complacent; stabdh impudent; dhana-mna wealth and false prestige; mada-anvit absorbed in pride; yajante perform sacrifices; nma in name only; yajai with such a sacrifice; te they; dambhena out of pride; avidhi-prvakam without following any rules and regulations. TRANSLATION Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes perform sacrifices in name only without following any rules or regulations. PURPORT Thinking themselves all in all, not caring for any authority or scripture, the demoniac sometimes perform so-called religious or sacrificial rites. And since they do not believe in authority, they are very impudent. This is due to illusion caused by accumulating some wealth and false prestige. Sometimes such demons take up the role of preacher, mislead the people, and become known as religious reformers or as incarnations of God. They make a show of performing sacrifices, or they worship the demigods, or manufacture their own God. Common men advertise them as God and worship them, and by the foolish they are considered advanced in the principles of religion, or in the principles of spiritual knowledge. They take the dress of the renounced order of life and engage in all nonsense in that dress. Actually there are so many restrictions for one who has renounced this world. The demons, however, do not care for such restrictions. They think that whatever path one can create is one's own path; there is no such thing as a standard path one has to follow. The word avidhi-prvakam, meaning disregard for the rules and regulations, is especially stressed here. These things are always due to ignorance and illusion. TEXT 18 ahakra bala darpa kma krodha ca sarit mm tma-para-deheu pradvianto 'bhyasyak ahakram false ego; balam strength; darpam pride; kmam lust; krodham anger; ca also; sarit having taken shelter of; mm Me; tma one's own; para-deheu in other bodies; pradvianta blasphemes; abhyasyak envious. TRANSLATION Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demon becomes envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in his own body and in the bodies of others, and blasphemes against the real religion. PURPORT A demoniac person, being always against God's supremacy, does not like to believe in the scriptures. He is envious of both the scriptures and of the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is caused by his so- called prestige and his accumulation of wealth and strength. He does not know that the present life is a preparation for the next life. Not knowing this, he is actually envious of his own self, as well as of others. He commits violence on other bodies and on his own. He does not care for the supreme control of the Personality of Godhead because he has no knowledge. Being envious of the scriptures and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he puts forward false arguments against the existence of God and refutes the scriptural authority. He thinks himself independent and powerful in every action. He thinks that since no one can equal him in strength, power, or in wealth, he can act in any way and no one can stop him. If he has an enemy who might check the advancement of his sensual activities, he makes plans to cut him down by his own power. TEXT 19 tn aha dviata krrn sasreu nardhamn kipmy ajasram aubhn surv eva yoniu tn those; aham I; dviata envious; krrn mischievous; sasreu into the ocean of material existence; nardhamn the lowest of mankind; kipmi put; ajasram innumerable; aubhn inauspicious; suru demoniac; eva certainly; yoniu in the wombs. TRANSLATION Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life. PURPORT In this verse it is clearly indicated that the placing of a particular individual soul in a particular body is the prerogative of the supreme will. The demoniac person may not agree to accept the supremacy of the Lord, and it is a fact that he may act according to his own whims, but his next birth will depend upon the decision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and not on himself. In the rmad-Bhgavatam, Third Canto, it is stated that an individual soul, after his death, is put into the womb of a mother where he gets a particular type of body under the supervision of superior power. Therefore in the material existence we find so many species of lifeanimals, insects, men, and so on. All are arranged by the superior power. They are not accidental. As for the demoniac, it is clearly said here that they are perpetually put into the wombs of demons, and thus they continue to be envious, the lowest of mankind. Such demoniac species of life are held to be always full of lust, always violent and hateful and always unclean. They are just like so many beasts in a jungle. TEXT 20 sur yonim pann mh janmani janmani mm aprpyaiva kaunteya tato ynty adham gatim surm demoniac; yonim species; pann gaining; mh the foolish; janmani janmani in birth after birth; mm unto Me; aprpya without achieving; eva certainly; kaunteya O son of Kunt; tata thereafter; ynti goes; adhamm condemned; gatim destination. TRANSLATION Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence. PURPORT It is known that God is all-merciful, but here we find that God is never merciful to the demoniac. It is clearly stated that the demoniac people, life after life, are put into the wombs of similar demons, and, not achieving the mercy of the Supreme Lord, they go down and down, so that at last they achieve bodies like those of cats, dogs and hogs. It is clearly stated that such demons have practically no chance of receiving the mercy of God at any stage of later life. In the Vedas also it is stated that such persons gradually sink to become dogs and hogs. It may be then argued in this connection that God should not be advertised as all-merciful if He is not merciful to such demons. In answer to this question, in the Vednta-stra we find that the Supreme Lord has no hatred for anyone. The placing of the asuras, the demons, in the lowest status of life is simply another feature of His mercy. Sometimes the asuras are killed by the Supreme Lord, but this killing is also good for them, for in Vedic literature we find that anyone who is killed by the Supreme Lord becomes liberated. There are instances in history of many asuras Rvaa, Kasa, Hirayakaipu to whom the Lord appeared in various incarnations just to kill. Therefore God's mercy is shown to the asuras if they are fortunate enough to be killed by Him. TEXT 21 tri-vidha narakasyeda dvra nanam tmana kma krodhas tath lobhas tasmd etat traya tyajet tri-vidham three kinds of; narakasya hellish; idam this; dvram gate; nanam destructive; tmana of the self; kma lust; krodha anger; tath as well as; lobha greed; tasmt therefore; etat these; trayam three; tyajet must give up. TRANSLATION There are three gates leading to this helllust, anger, and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul. PURPORT The beginning of demoniac life is described herein. One tries to satisfy his lust, and when he cannot, anger and greed arise. A sane man who does not want to glide down to the species of demoniac life must try to give up these three enemies which can kill the self to such an extent that there will be no possibility of liberation from this material entanglement. TEXT 22 etair vimukta kaunteya tamo-dvrais tribhir nara caraty tmana reyas tato yti par gatim etai by these; vimukta being liberated; kaunteya O son of Kunt; tama-dvrai the gates of ignorance; tribhi three kinds of; nara a person; carati performs ; tmana self; reya benediction; tata thereafter; yti goes; parm supreme; gatim destination. TRANSLATION The man who has escaped these three gates of hell, O son of Kunt, performs acts conducive to self-realization and thus gradually attains the supreme destination. PURPORT One should be very careful of these three enemies to human life: lust, anger, and greed. The more a person is freed from lust, anger and greed, the more his existence becomes pure. Then he can follow the rules and regulations enjoined in the Vedic literature. By following the regulative principles of human life, one gradually raises himself to the platform of spiritual realization. If one is so fortunate, by such practice, to rise to the platform of Ka consciousness, then success is guaranteed for him. In the Vedic literature, the ways of action and reaction are prescribed to enable one to come to the stage of purification. The whole method is based on giving up lust, greed and anger. By cultivating knowledge of this process, one can be elevated to the highest position of self- realization; this self-realization is perfected in devotional service. In that devotional service, the liberation of the conditioned soul is guaranteed. Therefore, according to the Vedic system, there are instituted the four orders of life and the four statuses of life, called the caste system and the spiritual order system. There are different rules and regulations for different castes or divisions of society, and if a person is able to follow them, he will be automatically raised to the highest platform of spiritual realization. Then he can have liberation without a doubt. TEXT 23 ya stra-vidhim utsjya vartate kma-krata na sa siddhim avpnoti na sukha na par gatim ya anyone; stra-vidhim the regulations of the scriptures; utsjya giving up; vartate remains; kma-krata acting whimsically in lust; na never; sa he; siddhim perfection; avpnoti achieves; na never; sukham happiness; na never; parm the supreme; gatim perfectional stage. TRANSLATION But he who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination. PURPORT As described before, the stra-vidhim, or the direction of the stra, is given to the different castes and orders of human society. Everyone is expected to follow these rules and regulations. If one does not follow them and acts whimsically according to his lust, greed and desire, then he never will be perfect in his life. In other words, a man may theoretically know all these things, but if he does not apply them in his own life, then he is to be known as the lowest of mankind. In the human form of life, a living entity is expected to be sane and to follow the regulations given for elevating his life to the highest platform, but if he does not follow them, then he degrades himself. But even if he follows the rules and regulations and moral principles and ultimately does not come to the stage of understanding the Supreme Lord, then all his knowledge becomes spoiled. Therefore one should gradually raise himself to the platform of Ka consciousness and devotional service; it is then and there that he can attain the highest perfectional stage, not otherwise. The word kma-crata is very significant. A person who knowingly violates the rules acts in lust. He knows that this is forbidden, still he acts. This is called acting whimsically. He knows that this should be done, but still he does not do it; therefore he is called whimsical. Such persons are destined to be condemned by the Supreme Lord. Such persons cannot have the perfection which is meant for the human life. The human life is especially meant for purifying one's existence, and one who does not follow the rules and regulations cannot purify himself, nor can he attain the real stage of happiness. TEXT 24 tasmc chstra prama te krykrya-vyavasthitau jtv stra-vidhnokta karma kartum ihrhasi tasmt therefore; stram scriptures; pramam evidence; te your; krya duty; akrya forbidden activities; vyavasthitau in determining; jtv knowing; stra of scripture; vidhna regulations; uktam as declared; karma work; kartum to do; iha arhasi you should do it. TRANSLATION One should understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated. PURPORT As stated in the Fifteenth Chapter, all the rules and regulations of the Vedas are meant for knowing Ka. If one understands Ka from the Bhagavad- gt and becomes situated in Ka consciousness, engaging himself in devotional service, he has reached the highest perfection of knowledge offered by the Vedic literature. Lord Caitanya Mahprabhu made this process very easy: He asked people simply to chant Hare Ka, Hare Ka, Ka Ka, Hare Hare/ Hare Rma, Hare Rma, Rma Rma, Hare Hare and to engage in the devotional service of the Lord and eat the remnants of foodstuff offered to the Deity. One who is directly engaged in all these devotional activities is to be understood as having studied all Vedic literature. He has come to the conclusion perfectly. Of course, for the ordinary persons who are not in Ka consciousness or who are not engaged in devotional service, what is to be done and what is not to be done must be decided by the injunctions of the Vedas. One should act accordingly, without argument. That is called following the principles of stra, or scripture. stra is without the four principal defects that are visible in the conditioned soul: imperfect senses, the propensity for cheating, certainty of committing mistakes, and certainty of being illusioned. These four principal defects in conditioned life disqualify one from putting forth rules and regulations. Therefore, the rules and regulations as described in the stra being above these defectsare accepted without alteration by all great saints, cryas, and great souls. In India there are many parties of spiritual understanding, generally classified as two: the impersonalist and the personalist. Both of them, however, lead their lives according to the principles of the Vedas. Without following the principles of the scriptures, one cannot elevate himself to the perfectional stage. One who actually, therefore, understands the purport of the stras is considered fortunate. In human society, aversion to the principles of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the cause of all falldowns. That is the greatest offense of human life. Therefore, my , the material energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always giving us trouble in the shape of the threefold miseries. This material energy is constituted of the three modes of material nature. One has to raise himself at least to the mode of goodness before the path to understanding the Supreme Lord can be opened. Without raising oneself to the standard of the mode of goodness, one remains in ignorance and passion, which are the cause of demoniac life. Those in the modes of passion and ignorance deride the scriptures, deride the holy man, and deride the proper understanding of the spiritual master, and they do not care for the regulations of the scriptures. In spite of hearing the glories of devotional service, they are not attracted. Thus they manufacture their own way of elevation. These are some of the defects of human society, which lead to the demoniac status of life. If, however, one is able to be guided by a proper and bona fide spiritual master, who can lead one to the path of elevation, to the higher stage, then one's life becomes successful. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Sixteenth Chapter of the rmad-Bhagavad-gt in the matter of the Divine and Demoniac Natures. Chapter-17 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Divisions of Faith TEXT 1 arjuna uvca ye stra-vidhim utsjya yajante raddhaynvit te nih tu k ka sattvam ho rajas tama arjuna uvca Arjuna said; ye those; stra-vidhim the regulations of scripture; utsjya giving up; yajante worships; raddhay full faith; anvit possessed of; tem of them; nih faith; tu but; k what is that; ka O Ka; sattvam in goodness; ho said; raja in passion; tama in ignorance. TRANSLATION Arjuna said, O Ka, what is the situation of one who does not follow the principles of scripture but worships according to his own imagination? Is he in goodness, in passion or in ignorance? PURPORT In the Fourth Chapter, thirty-ninth verse, it is said that a person faithful to a particular type of worship gradually becomes elevated to the stage of knowledge and attains the highest perfectional stage of peace and prosperity. In the Sixteenth Chapter, it is concluded that one who does not follow the principles laid down in the scriptures is called an asura , demon, and one who follows the scriptural injunctions faithfully is called a deva , or demigod. Now, if one, with faith, follows some rules which are not mentioned in the scriptural injunctions, what is his position? This doubt of Arjuna is to be cleared by Ka. Are those who create some sort of God by selecting a human being and placing their faith in him worshiping in goodness, passion or ignorance? Do such persons attain the perfectional stage of life? Is it possible for them to be situated in real knowledge and elevate themselves to the highest perfectional stage? Do those who do not follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures but who have faith in something and worship gods and demigods and men attain success in their effort? Arjuna is putting these questions to Ka. TEXT 2 r bhagavn uvca tri-vidh bhavati raddh dehin s svabhva-j sttvik rjas caiva tmas ceti t u r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; tri-vidh three kinds; bhavati become; raddh faith; dehinm of the embodied; s that; sva-bhva-j according to his mode of material nature; sttvik mode of goodness; rjas mode of passion; ca also; eva certainly; tmas mode of ignorance; ca and; iti thus; tm that; su hear from Me. TRANSLATION The Supreme Lord said, according to the modes of nature acquired by the embodied soul, one's faith can be of three kindsgoodness, passion or ignorance. Now hear about these. PURPORT Those who know the rules and regulations of the scriptures, but, out of laziness or indolence, give up following these rules and regulations, are governed by the modes of material nature. According to their previous activities in the modes of goodness, passion or ignorance, they acquire a nature which is of a specific quality. The association of the living entity with the different modes of nature has been going on perpetually since the living entity is in contact with material nature. Thus he acquires different types of mentality according to his association with the material modes. But this nature can be changed if one associates with a bona fide spiritual master and abides by his rules and the scriptures. Gradually, one can change his position from ignorance to goodness, or from passion to goodness. The conclusion is that blind faith in a particular mode of nature cannot help a person become elevated to the perfectional stage. One has to consider things carefully, with intelligence, in the association of a bona fide spiritual master. Thus one can change his position to a higher mode of nature. TEXT 3 sattvnurp sarvasya raddh bhavati bhrata raddh-mayo 'ya puruo yo yac-chraddha sa eva sa sattva-anurp according to the existence; sarvasya of everyone; raddh faith; bhavati becomes; bhrata O son of Bhrata; raddh faith; maya full; ayam this; purua living entity; ya anyone; yat that; raddha faith; sa that; eva certainly; sa he. TRANSLATION According to one's existence under the various modes of nature, one evolves a particular kind of faith. The living being is said to be of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired. PURPORT Everyone has a particular type of faith, regardless of what he is. But his faith is considered good, passionate or ignorant according to the nature he has acquired. Thus, according to his particular type of faith, one associates with certain persons. Now the real fact is that every living being, as is stated in the Fifteenth Chapter, is originally the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Therefore one is originally transcendental to all the modes of material nature. But when one forgets his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and comes into contact with the material nature in conditional life, he generates his own position by association with the different varieties of material nature. The resultant artificial faith and existence are only material. Although one may be conducted by some impression, or some conception of life, still, originally, he is nirgua, or transcendental. Therefore one has to become cleansed of the material contamination that he has acquired in order to regain his relationship with the Supreme Lord. That is the only path back without fear: Ka consciousness. If one is situated in Ka consciousness, then that path is guaranteed for his elevation to the perfectional stage. If one does not take to this path of self-realization, then he is surely to be conducted by the influence of the modes of nature. The word sattva, or faith, is very significant in this verse. Sattva or faith always comes out of the works of goodness. One's faith may be in a demigod or some created God or some mental concoction. It is supposed to be one's strong faith in something that is productive of the works of material goodness. But in material conditional life, no works of material nature are completely purified. They are mixed. They are not in pure goodness. Pure goodness is transcendental; in purified goodness one can understand the real nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As long as one's faith is not completely in purified goodness, the faith is subject to contamination by any of the modes of material nature. The contaminated modes of material nature expand to the heart. Therefore according to the position of the heart in contact with a particular mode of material nature, one's faith is established. It should be understood, that if one's heart is in the mode of goodness, his faith is also in the mode of goodness. If his heart is in the mode of passion, his faith is also in the mode of passion. And if his heart is in the mode of darkness, illusion, his faith is also thus contaminated. Thus we find different types of faith in this world, and there are different types of religions due to different types of faith. The real principle of religious faith is situated in the mode of pure goodness, but because the heart is tainted, we find different types of religious principles. Thus according to different types of faith, there are different kinds of worship. TEXT 4 yajante sttvik devn yaka-raksi rjas pretn bhta-ga cnye yajante tmas jan yajante worship; sttvik those who are in the mode of goodness; devn demigods; yaka-raksi rjas those who are in the mode of passion worship demons; pretn dead spirits; bhta-gan ghosts; ca anye and others; yajante worship; tmas in the mode of ignorance; jan people. TRANSLATION Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits. PURPORT In this verse the Supreme Personality of Godhead describes different kinds of worshipers according to their external activities. According to scriptural injunction, only the Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshipable, but those who are not very conversant with, or faithful to, the scriptural injunctions worship different objects, according to their specific situations in the modes of material nature. Those who are situated in goodness generally worship the demigods. The demigods include Brahm, iva and others such as Indra, Candra and the sun-god. There are various demigods. Those in goodness worship a particular demigod for a particular purpose. Similarly, those who are in the mode of passion worship the demons. We recall that during the Second World War, a man in Calcutta worshiped Hitler because thanks to that war he had amassed a large amount of wealth by dealing in the black market. Similarly, those in the modes of passion and ignorance generally select a powerful man to be God. They think that anyone can be worshiped as God and that the same results will be obtained. Now, it is clearly described here that those who are in the mode of passion worship and create such gods, and those who are in the mode of ignorance, in darkness, worship dead spirits. Sometimes people worship at the tomb of some dead man. Sexual service is also considered to be in the mode of darkness. Similarly, in remote villages in India there are worshipers of ghosts. We have seen that in India the lower class people sometimes go to the forest, and if they have knowledge that a ghost lives in a tree, they worship that tree and offer sacrifices. These different kinds of worship are not actually God worship. God worship is for persons who are transcendentally situated in pure goodness. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is said, sattva viuddham vsudeva- abditam. "When a man is situated in pure goodness, he worships Vsudeva." The purport is that those who are completely purified of the material modes of nature and who are transcendentally situated can worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The impersonalists are supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness, and they worship five kinds of demigods. They worship the impersonal Viu, or Viu form in the material world, which is known as philosophized Viu. Viu is the expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but the impersonalists, because they do not ultimately believe in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, imagine that the Viu form is just another aspect of the impersonal Brahman; similarly, they imagine that Lord Brahm is the impersonal form in the material mode of passion. Thus they sometimes describe five kinds of gods that are worshipable, but because they think that the actual truth is impersonal Brahman, they dispose of all worshipable objects at the ultimate end. In conclusion, the different qualities of the material modes of nature can be purified through association with persons who are of transcendental nature. TEXTS 5-6 astra-vihita ghora tapyante ye tapo jan dambhhakra-sayukt kma-rga-balnvit karayanta arra-stha bhta-grmam acetasa m caivnta arra-stha tn viddhy sura-nicayn astra not mentioned in the scriptures; vihitam directed; ghoram harmful to others; tapyante undergo penances; ye those; tapa austerities; jan persons; dambha pride; ahakra egotism; sayukt engaged; kma lust; rga attachment; bala force; anvit impelled by; karayanta tormenting; arra-stham situated within the body; bhtagrmam combination of material elements; acetasa by such a misled mentality; mm to Me; ca also; eva certainly; anta within; arra-stham situated in the body; tn them; viddhi understand; sura demons; nicayn certainly. TRANSLATION Those who undergo severe austerities and penances not recommended in the scriptures, performing them out of pride, egotism, lust and attachment, who are impelled by passion and who torture their bodily organs as well as the Supersoul dwelling within are to be known as demons. PURPORT There are persons who manufacture modes of austerity and penances which are not mentioned in the scriptural injunctions. For instance, fasting for some ulterior purpose, such as to promote a purely political end, is not mentioned in the scriptural directions. The scriptures recommend fasting for spiritual advancement, not for some political end or social purpose. Persons who take to such austerities are, according to Bhagavad-gt, certainly demoniac. Their acts are against the scriptural injunction and are not beneficial for the people in general. Actually, they act out of pride, false ego, lust and attachment for material enjoyment. By such activities, not only are the combination of material elements of which the body is constructed disturbed, but also the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself living within the body. Such unauthorized fasting or austerities for some political end are certainly very disturbing to others. They are not mentioned in the Vedic literature. A demoniac person may think that he can force his enemy or other parties to comply with his desire by this method, but sometimes one dies by such fasting. These acts are not approved by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He says that those who engage in them are demons. Such demonstrations are insults to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because they are enacted in disobedience to the Vedic scriptural injunctions. The word acetasa is significant in this connectionpersons of normal mental condition must obey the scriptural injunctions. Those who are not in such a position neglect and disobey the scriptures and manufacture their own way of austerities and penances. One should always remember the ultimate end of the demoniac people, as described in the previous chapter. The Lord forces them to take birth in the womb of demoniac persons. Consequently they will live by demoniac principles life after life without knowing their relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If, however, such persons are fortunate enough to be guided by a spiritual master who can direct them to the path of Vedic wisdom, they can get out of this entanglement and ultimately achieve the supreme goal. TEXT 7 hras tv api sarvasya tri-vidho bhavati priya yajas tapas tath dna te bhedam ima u hra eating; tu certainly; api also; sarvasya of everyone; trividha three kinds; bhavati there are; priya dear; yaja sacrifice; tapa austerity; tath also; dnam charity; tem of them; bhedam differences; imam thus; u hear. TRANSLATION Even food of which all partake is of three kinds, according to the three modes of material nature. The same is true of sacrifices, austerities and charity. Listen, and I shall tell you of the distinctions of these. PURPORT In terms of different situations and the modes of material nature, there are differences in the manner of eating, performing sacrifices, austerities and charities. They are not all conducted on the same level. Those who can understand analytically what kind of performances are in what modes of material nature are actually wise; those who consider all kinds of sacrifice or foods or charity to be the same cannot discriminate, and they are foolish. There are missionary workers who advocate that one can do whatever he likes and attain perfection. But these foolish guides are not acting according to the direction of the scripture. They are manufacturing ways and misleading the people in general. TEXT 8-10 yu sattva-balrogya- sukha-prti-vivardhan rasy snigdh sthir hdy hr sttvika-priy kav-amla-lavaty-ua- tka-rka-vidhina hr rjasasye dukha-okmaya-prad yta-yma gata-rasa pti paryuita ca yat ucchiam api cmedhya bhojana tmasa-priyam yu duration of life; sattva existence; bala strength; rogya health; sukha happiness; prti satisfaction; vivardhan increasing; rasy juicy; snigdh fatty; sthir enduring; hdy pleasing to the heart; hr food; sttvika goodness; priy palatable; kau bitter; amla sour; lavaa salty; ati-ua very hot; tka pungent; rka dry; vidhina burning; hr food; rjasasya in the mode of passion; i palatable; dukha distress; oka misery; maya-prad causing disease;; yta-ymam food cooked three hours before being eaten; gata- rasam tasteless; pti bad smelling; paryuitam decomposed; ca also; yat that which; ucchiam remnants of food eaten by others; api also; ca and; amedhyam untouchable; bhojanam eating; tmasa to one in the mode of darkness; priyam dear. TRANSLATION Foods in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one's existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such nourishing foods are sweet, juicy, fattening and palatable. Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, pungent, dry and hot, are liked by people in the modes of passion. Such foods cause pain, distress, and disease. Food cooked more than three hours before being eaten, which is tasteless, stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean, is food liked by people in the mode of ignorance. PURPORT The purpose of food is to increase the duration of life, purify the mind and aid bodily strength. This is its only purpose. In the past, great authorities selected those foods that best aid health and increase life's duration, such as milk products, sugar, rice, wheat, fruits and vegetables. These foods are very dear to those in the mode of goodness. Some other foods, such as baked corn and molasses, while not very palatable in themselves, can be made pleasant when mixed with milk or other foods. They are then in the mode of goodness. All these foods are pure by nature. They are quite distinct from untouchable things like meat and liquor. Fatty foods, as mentioned in the eighth verse, have no connection with animal fat obtained by slaughter. Animal fat is available in the form of milk, which is the most wonderful of all foods. Milk, butter, cheese and similar products give animal fat in a form which rules out any need for the killing of innocent creatures. It is only through brute mentality that this killing goes on. The civilized method of obtaining needed fat is by milk. Slaughter is the way of subhumans. Protein is amply available through split peas, dhall, whole wheat, etc. Foods in the mode of passion, which are bitter, too salty, or too hot or overly mixed with red pepper, cause misery by producing mucous in the stomach, leading to disease. Foods in the mode of ignorance or darkness are essentially those that are not fresh. Any food cooked more than three hours before it is eaten (except prasdam , food offered to the Lord) is considered to be in the mode of darkness. Because they are decomposing, such foods give a bad odor, which often attracts people in this mode but repulses those in the mode of goodness. Remnants of food may be eaten only when they are part of a meal that was first offered to the Supreme Lord or first eaten by saintly persons, especially the spiritual master. Otherwise the remnants of food are considered to be in the mode of darkness, and they increase infection or disease. Such foodstuffs, although very palatable to persons in the mode of darkness, are neither liked nor even touched by those in the mode of goodness. The best food is the remnant of what is offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Bhagavad-gt the Supreme Lord says that He accepts preparations of vegetables, flour and milk when offered with devotion. Patra pupa phala toyam. Of course, devotion and love are the chief things which the Supreme Personality of Godhead accepts. But it is also mentioned that the prasdam should be prepared in a particular way. Any food prepared by the injunction of the scripture offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be taken even if prepared long, long ago, because such food is transcendental. Therefore to make food antiseptic, eatable and palatable for all persons, one should offer food to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 11 aphalkkibhir yajo vidhi-do ya ijyate yaavyam eveti mana samdhya sa sttvika aphala-kkibhi devoid of desire for result; yaja sacrifice; vidhi accordingly; dta direction; ya anyone; ijyate performs; yaavyam must be performed; eva certainly; iti thus; mana mind; samdhya fixed in; sa he; sttvika is in the mode of goodness. TRANSLATION Of sacrifices, that sacrifice performed according to duty and to scriptural rules, and with no expectation of reward, is of the nature of goodness. PURPORT The general tendency is to offer sacrifice with some purpose in mind, but here it is stated that sacrifice should be performed without any such desire. It should be done as a matter of duty. Take, for example, the performance of rituals in temples or in churches. Generally they are performed with the purpose of material benefit, but that is not in the mode of goodness. One should go to a temple or church as a matter of duty, offer respect to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offer flowers and eatables. Everyone thinks that there is no use in going to the temple just to worship God. But worship for economic benefit is not recommended in the scriptural injunction. One should go simply to offer respect to the Deity. That will place one in the mode of goodness. It is the duty of every civilized man to obey the injunctions of the scriptures and offer respect to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 12 abhisandhya tu phala dambhrtham api caiva yat ijyate bharata-reha ta yaja viddhi rjasam abhisandhya desiring; tu but; phalam the result; dambha pride; artham material benefits; api also; ca and; eva certainly; yat that which; ijyate worship; bharata-reha O chief of the Bhratas; tam that; yajam sacrifice; viddhi know; rjasam in the mode of passion. TRANSLATION But that sacrifice performed for some material end or benefit or performed ostentatiously, out of pride, is of the nature of passion, O chief of the Bhratas. PURPORT Sometimes sacrifices and rituals are performed for elevation to the heavenly kingdom or for some material benefits in this world. Such sacrifices or ritualistic performances are considered to be in the mode of passion. TEXT 13 vidhi-hnam asnna mantra-hnam adakiam raddh-virahita yajam tmasa paricakate vidhi-hnam without scriptural direction; asa-annam without distribution of prasdam; mantra-hnam with no chanting of the Vedic hymns; adakiam with no remunerations to the priests; raddh faith; virahitam without; yajam sacrifice; tmasam in the mode of ignorance; paricakate is to be considered. TRANSLATION And that sacrifice performed in defiance of scriptural injunctions, in which no spiritual food is distributed, no hymns are chanted and no remunerations are made to the priests, and which is faithlessthat sacrifice is of the nature of ignorance. PURPORT Faith in the mode of darkness or ignorance is actually faithlessness. Sometimes people worship some demigod just to make money and then spend the money for recreation, ignoring the scriptural injunctions. Such ceremonial shows of religiosity are not accepted as genuine. They are all in the mode of darkness; they produce a demoniac mentality and do not benefit human society. TEXT 14 deva-dvija-guru-prja- pjana aucam rjavam brahma-caryam ahis ca rra tapa ucyate deva the Supreme Lord; dvija the brhmaa; guru the spiritual master; prja worshipable personalities; pjanam worship; aucam cleanliness; rjavam simplicity; brahma-caryam celibacy; ahis nonviolence; ca also; rram pertaining to the body; tapa austerity; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION The austerity of the body consists in this: worship of the Supreme Lord, the brhmaas, the spiritual master, and superiors like the father and mother. Cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy and nonviolence are also austerities of the body. PURPORT The Supreme Godhead here explains the different kinds of austerity and penance. First He explains the austerities and penances practiced by the body. One should offer, or learn to offer, respect to God or to the demigods, the perfect, qualified brhmaas and the spiritual master and superiors like father, mother or any person who is conversant with Vedic knowledge. These should be given proper respect. One should practice cleansing oneself externally and internally, and he should learn to become simple in behavior. He should not do anything which is not sanctioned by the scriptural injunction. He should not indulge in sex outside of married life, for sex is sanctioned in the scripture only in marriage, not otherwise. This is called celibacy. These are penances and austerities as far as the body is concerned. TEXT 15 anudvega-kara vkya satya priya-hita ca yat svdhyybhyasana caiva vmaya tapa ucyate anudvega not agitating; karam producing; vkyam words; satyam truthful; priya dear; hitam beneficial; ca also; yat which; svdhyya Vedic study; abhyasanam practice; ca also; eva certainly; vmaya of the voice; tapa austerity; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION Austerity of speech consists in speaking truthfully and beneficially and in avoiding speech that offends. One should also recite the Vedas regularly. PURPORT One should not speak in such a way as to agitate the minds of others. Of course, when a teacher speaks, he can speak the truth for the instruction of his students, but such a teacher should not speak to others who are not his students if he will agitate their minds. This is penance as far as talking is concerned. Besides that, one should not talk nonsense. When speaking in spiritual circles, one's statements must be upheld by the scriptures. One should at once quote from scriptural authority to back up what he is saying. At the same time, such talk should be very pleasurable to the ear. By such discussions, one may derive the highest benefit and elevate human society. There is a limitless stock of Vedic literature, and one should study this. This is called penance of speech. TEXT 16 mana-prasda saumyatva maunam tma-vinigraha bhva-sauddhir ity etat tapo mnasam ucyate mana-prasda satisfaction of the mind; saumyatvam without duplicity towards others; maunam gravity; tma self; vinigraha control; bhva nature; sauddhi purification; iti thus; etat that is; tapa austerity; mnasam of the mind; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION And serenity, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purity of thought are the austerities of the mind. PURPORT To make the mind austere is to detach it from sense gratification. It should be so trained that it can be always thinking of doing good for others . The best training for the mind is gravity in thought. One should not deviate from Ka consciousness and must always avoid sense gratification. To purify one's nature is to become Ka conscious. Satisfaction of the mind can be obtained only by taking the mind away from thoughts of sense enjoyment. The more we think of sense enjoyment, the more the mind becomes dissatisfied. In the present age we unnecessarily engage the mind in so many different ways for sense gratification, and so there is no possibility of the mind's becoming satisfied. The best course is to divert the mind to the Vedic literature, which is full of satisfying stories, as in the Puras and the Mahbhrata . One can take advantage of this knowledge and thus become purified. The mind should be devoid of duplicity, and one should think of the welfare of all. Silence means that one is always thinking of self-realization. The person in Ka consciousness observes perfect silence in this sense. Control of the mind means detaching the mind from sense enjoyment. One should be straightforward in his dealing and thereby purify his existence. All these qualities together constitute austerity in mental activities. TEXT 17 raddhay paray tapta tapas tat tri-vidha narai aphalkkibhir yuktai sttvika paricakate raddhay with faith; paray transcendental; taptam executed; tapa austerity; tat that; tri-vidham three kinds; narai by men; aphala- kkibhi without desires for fruits; yuktai engaged; sttvikam in the mode of goodness; pari-cakate is called. TRANSLATION This threefold austerity, practiced by men whose aim is not to benefit themselves materially but to please the Supreme, is of the nature of goodness. TEXT 18 satkra-mna-pjrtham tapo dambhena caiva yat kriyate tad iha prokta rjasa calam adhruvam satkra respect; mna honor; pj-artham for worship; tapa austerity; dambhena with pride; ca also; eva certainly; yat which is; kriyate performed; tat that; iha in this world; proktam is said; rjasam in the mode of passion; calam flickering; adhruvam temporary. TRANSLATION Those ostentatious penances and austerities which are performed in order to gain respect, honor and reverence are said to be in the mode of passion. They are neither stable nor permanent. PURPORT Sometimes penance and austerity are executed to attract people and receive honor, respect and worship from others. Persons in the mode of passion arrange to be worshiped by subordinates and let them wash their feet and offer riches. Such arrangements artificially made by the performance of penances are considered to be in the mode of passion. The results are temporary; they can be continued for some time, but they are not permanent. TEXT 19 mha-grhetmana yat pay kriyate tapa parasyotsdanrtha v tat tmasam udhtam mha foolish; grhea with endeavor; tmana of one's own self; yat which; pay by torture; kriyate is performed; tapa penance; parasya to others; utsdanrtham causing annihilation; v or; tat that; tmasam in the mode of darkness; udhtam is said to be. TRANSLATION And those penances and austerities which are performed foolishly by means of obstinant self-torture, or to destroy or injure others, are said to be in the mode of ignorance. PURPORT There are instances of foolish penance undertaken by demons like Hirayakasipu, who performed austere penances to become immortal and kill the demigods. He prayed to Brahm for such things, but ultimately he was killed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. To undergo penances for something which is impossible is certainly in the mode of ignorance. TEXT 20 dtavyam iti yad dna dyate 'nupakrie dee kle ca ptre ca tad dna sttvika smtam dtavyam worth giving; iti thus; yat that which; dnam charity; dyate given; anupakrie to any person irrespective of doing good; dese in place; kle in time; ca also; ptre suitable person; ca and; tat that; dnam charity; sttvikam in the mode of goodness; smtam consider. TRANSLATION That gift which is given out of duty, at the proper time and place, to a worthy person, and without expectation of return, is considered to be charity in the mode of goodness. PURPORT In the Vedic literature, charity given to a person engaged in spiritual activities is recommended. There is no recommendation for giving charity indiscriminately. Spiritual perfection is always a consideration. Therefore charity is recommended to be given at a place of pilgrimage and at lunar or solar eclipses or at the end of the month or to a qualified brhmaa or a Vaiava (devotee) or in temples. Such charities should be given without any consideration of return. Charity to the poor is sometimes given out of compassion, but if a poor man is not worth giving charity to, then there is no spiritual advancement. In other words, indiscriminate charity is not recommended in the Vedic literature. TEXT 21 yat tu pratyupakrrtha phalam uddiya v puna dyate ca pariklia tad dna rjasa smtam yat that which; tu but; prati-upakra-artham for the sake of getting some return; phalam result; uddiya desiring; v or; puna again; dyate is given in charity; ca also; parikliam grudgingly; tat that; dnam charity; rjasam in the mode of passion; smtam is understood to be. TRANSLATION But charity performed with the expectation of some return, or with a desire for fruitive results, or in a grudging mood, is said to be charity in the mode of passion. PURPORT Charity is sometimes performed for elevation to the heavenly kingdom and sometimes with great trouble and with repentance afterwards. "Why have I spent so much in this way?" Charity is also sometimes made under some obligation, at the request of a superior. These kinds of charity are said to be made in the mode of passion. There are many charitable foundations which offer their gifts to institutions where sense gratification goes on. Such charities are not recommended in the Vedic scripture. Only charity in the mode of goodness is recommended. TEXT 22 adea-kle yad dnam aptrebhya ca dyate asatktam avajta tat tmasam udhtam adesa unpurified place; kle unpurified time; yat that which is; dnam charity; aptrebhya to unworthy persons; ca also; dyate is given; asatktam without respect; avajtam without proper attention; tat that; tmasam in the mode of darkness; udhtam is said to be. TRANSLATION And charity performed at an improper place and time and given to unworthy persons without respect and with contempt is charity in the mode of ignorance. PURPORT Contributions for indulgence in intoxication and gambling are not encouraged here. That sort of contribution is in the mode of ignorance. Such charity is not beneficial; rather, sinful persons are encouraged. Similarly, if a person gives charity to a suitable person without respect and without attention, that sort of charity is also said to be in the mode of darkness. TEXT 23 om-tat-sad iti nirdeo brahmaas tri-vidha smta brhmas tena ved ca yaj ca vihit pur om indication of the Supreme; tat that; sat eternal; iti that; nirdea indication; brhma of the Supreme; tri-vidha three kinds; smta consider; brahmaa the brhmaas; tena therefore; ved the Vedic literature; ca also; yaj sacrifice; ca also; vihit sacrifice; pur formerly. TRANSLATION From the beginning of creation, the three syllablesom tat sathave been used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth [Brahman]. They were uttered by brhmaas while chanting Vedic hymns and during sacrifices, for the satisfaction of the Supreme. PURPORT It has been explained that penance, sacrifice, charity and foods are divided into three categories: the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. But whether first class, second class or third class, they are all conditioned, contaminated by the material modes of nature. When they are aimed at the Supreme om tat sat, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the eternalthey become means for spiritual elevation. In the scriptural injunctions such an objective is indicated. These three words, om tat sat, particularly indicate the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Vedic hymns, the word om is always found. One who acts without following the regulations of the scriptures will not attain the Absolute Truth. He will get some temporary result, but not the ultimate end of life. The conclusion is that the performance of charities, sacrifice and penance must be done in the mode of goodness. Performed in the modes of passion or ignorance, they are certainly inferior in quality. The three words om tat sat are uttered in conjunction with the holy name of the Supreme Lord, e.g., om tad vio. Whenever a Vedic hymn or the holy name of the Supreme Lord is uttered, om is added. This is the indication of Vedic literature. These three words are taken from Vedic hymns. Om ity etad brahmao nedia nma indicates the first goal. Then tattvamasi indicates the second goal. And sad eva saumya indicates the third goal. Combined they become om tat sat. Formerly when Brahm, the first created living entity, performed sacrifices, he spoke these three names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The same principle holds by disciplic succession. So this hymn has great significance. Bhagavad-gt recommends, therefore, that any work done should be done for om tat sat, or for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one performs penance, charity, and sacrifice with these three words, he is acting in Ka consciousness. Ka consciousness is a scientific execution of transcendental activities which enables one to return home, back to Godhead. There is no loss of energy in acting in such a transcendental way. TEXT 24 tasmd om ity udhtya yaja-dna-tapa-kriy pravartante vidhnokt satata brahma-vdinm tasmt therefore; om beginning with om; iti thus; udhtya indicating; yaja sacrifice; dna charity; tapa penance; kriy performances; pravartante begins; vidhna-ukt according to scriptural regulation; satatam always; brahma-vdinm of the transcendentalists. TRANSLATION Thus the transcendentalists undertake sacrifices, charities, and penances, beginning always with om, to attain the Supreme. PURPORT Om tad vio parama padam. The lotus feet of Viu are the supreme devotional platform. The performance of everything on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead assures the perfection of all activity. TEXT 25 tad ity anabhisandhya phala yaja-tapa-kriy dna-kriy ca vividh kriyante moka-kkibhi tat that; iti they; anabhisandhya without fruitive result; phalam result of sacrifice; yaja sacrifice; tapa penance; kriy activities; dna charity; kriy activities; ca also; vividh varieties; kriyante done; moka-kkibhi those who actually desire liberation. TRANSLATION One should perform sacrifice, penance and charity with the word tat. The purpose of such transcendental activities is to get free from the material entanglement. PURPORT To be elevated to the spiritual position, one should not act for any material gain. Acts should be performed for the ultimate gain of being transferred to the spiritual kingdom, back to home, back to Godhead. TEXTS 26-27 sad-bhve sdhu-bhve ca sad ity etat prayujyate praaste karmai tath sac-chabda prtha yujyate yaje tapasi dne ca sthiti sad iti cocyate karma caiva tad-arthya sad ity evbhidhyate sat-bhve in the sense of the nature of the Supreme; sdhu-bhve in the sense of the nature of devotion; ca also; sat the Supreme; iti thus; etat this; prayujyate is used; praaste bona fide; karmai activities; tath also; sat-abda sound; prtha O son of Pth; yujyate is used; yaje sacrifice; tapasi in penance; dne charity; ca also; sthiti situated; sat the Supreme; iti thus; ca and; ucyate pronounced; karma work; ca also; eva certainly; tat that; arthyam are meant; sat Supreme; iti thus; eva certainly; abhidhyate is practiced. TRANSLATION The Absolute Truth is the objective of devotional sacrifice, and it is indicated by the word sat. These works of sacrifice, of penance and of charity, true to the absolute nature, are performed to please the Supreme Person, O son of Pth. PURPORT The words praaste karmai, or prescribed duties, indicate that there are many activities prescribed in the Vedic literature which are purificatory processes beginning from parental care up to the end of one's life. Such purificatory processes are adopted for the ultimate liberation of the living entity. In all such activities it is recommended that one should vibrate om tat sat. The words sad-bhve and sdhu-bhve indicate the transcendental situation. One who is acting in Ka consciousness is called sattva, and one who is fully conscious of activities in Ka consciousness is called svarpa. In the rmad-Bhgavatam it is said that the transcendental subject matter becomes clear in the association of the devotees. Without good association, one cannot achieve transcendental knowledge. When initiating a person or offering the sacred thread, one vibrates the words om tat sat. Similarly, in all kinds of yogic performances, the supreme object, om tat sat is invoked. These words om tat sat are used to perfect all activities. This supreme om tat sat makes everything complete. TEXT 28 araddhay huta datta tapas tapta kta ca yat asad ity ucyate prtha na ca tat pretya no iha araddhay without faith; hutam performed; dattam given; tapa penance; taptam executed; ktam performed; ca also; yat that which; asat falls; iti thus; ucyate is said to be; prtha O son of Pth; na never; ca also; tat that; pretya after death; no nor; iha in this life. TRANSLATION But sacrifices, austerities and charities performed without faith in the Supreme are nonpermanent, O son of Pth, regardless of whatever rites are performed. They are called asat and are useless both in this life and the next. PURPORT Anything done without the transcendental objectivewhether it be sacrifice, charity or penance-is useless. Therefore, in this verse, it is declared that such activities are abominable. Everything should be done for the Supreme in Ka consciousness. Without such faith, and without the proper guidance, there can never be any fruit. In all the Vedic scriptures, faith in the Supreme is advised. In the pursuit of all Vedic instructions, the ultimate goal is the understanding of Ka. No one can obtain success without following this principle. Therefore, the best course is to work from the very beginning in Ka consciousness under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master. That is the way to make everything successful. In the conditional state, people are attracted to worship demigods, ghosts, or Yakas like Kuvera. The mode of goodness is better than the modes of passion and ignorance, but one who takes directly to Ka consciousness is transcendental to all three modes of material nature. Although there is a process of gradual elevation, if one, by the association of pure devotees, takes directly to Ka consciousness, that is the best way. And that is recommended in this chapter. To achieve success in this way, one must first find the proper spiritual master and receive training under his direction. Then one can achieve faith in the Supreme. When that faith matures, in course of time, it is called love of God. This love is the ultimate goal of the living entities. One should, therefore, take to Kra consciousness directly. That is the message of this Seventeenth Chapter. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Seventeenth Chapter of the rmad-Bhagavad-gt in the matter of the Divisions of Faith. Chapter-18 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Conclusion The Perfection of Renunciation TEXT 1 arjuna uvca sannysasya mahbho tattvam icchmi veditum tygasya ca hkea pthak kenidana arjuna uvca Arjuna said; sannysasya renunciation; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; tattvam truth; icchmi I wish; veditum to understand; tygasya of renunciation; ca also; hkea O master of the senses; pthak differently; kei-nisdana O killer of the Ke demon. TRANSLATION Arjuna said, O mighty-armed one, I wish to understand the purpose of renunciation [tyga] and of the renounced order of life [sannysa], O killer of the Ke demon, Hkea. PURPORT Actually the Bhagavad-gt is finished in seventeen chapters. The Eighteenth Chapter is a supplementary summarization of the topics discussed before. In every chapter of Bhagavad-gt, Lord Ka stresses that devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life. This same point is summarized in the Eighteenth Chapter as the most confidential path of knowledge. In the first six chapters, stress was given to devotional service: yoginm api sarvem ... "Of all yogs or transcendentalists, one who always thinks of Me within himself is best." In the next six chapters, pure devotional service and its nature and activity were discussed. In the third six chapters, knowledge, renunciation, the activities of material nature and transcendental nature, and devotional service were described. It was concluded that all acts should be performed in conjunction with the Supreme Lord, summarized by the words om tat sat, which indicate Viu, the Supreme Person. In the third part of Bhagavad-gt, devotional service was established by the example of past cryas and the Brahma- stra, the Vednta-stra, which cites that devotional service is the ultimate purpose of life and nothing else. Certain impersonalists consider themselves monopolizers of the knowledge of Vednta-stra, but actually the Vednta- stra is meant for understanding devotional service, for the Lord Himself is the composer of the Vednta-stra, and He is its knower. That is described in the Fifteenth Chapter. In every scripture, every Veda, devotional service is the objective. That is explained in Bhagavad-gt. As in the Second Chapter a synopsis of the whole subject matter was described, similarly, in the Eighteenth Chapter also the summary of all instruction is given. The purpose of life is indicated to be renunciation and attainment of the transcendental position above the three material modes of nature. Arjuna wants to clarify the two distinct subject matters of Bhagavad- gt, namely renunciation (tyga) and the renounced order of life ( sannysa ). Thus he is asking the meaning of these two words. Two words used in this verse to address the Supreme LordHkea and Keinisdanaare significant. Hkea is Ka, the master of all senses, who can always help us attain mental serenity. Arjuna requests Him to summarize everything in such a way that he can remain equiposed. Yet he has some doubts, and doubts are always compared to demons. He therefore addresses Ka as Keinisdana. Ke was a most formidable demon who was killed by the Lord; now Arjuna is expecting Ka to kill the demon of doubt. TEXT 2 r bhagavn uvca kmyn karma nysa sannysa kavayo vidu sarva-karma-phala-tyga prhus tyga vicaka r bhagavn uvca the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; kmynm with desire; karmam activities; nysam renunciation; sannysam renounced order of life; kavaya the learned; vidu know; sarva all; karma activities; phala of results; tygam renunciation; prhu call; tygam renunciation; vicaka the experienced. TRANSLATION The Supreme Lord said, To give up the results of all activities is called renunciation [tyga] by the wise. And that state is called the renounced order of life [sannysa] by great learned men. PURPORT The performance of activities for results has to be given up. This is the instruction of Bhagavad-gt. But activities leading to advanced spiritual knowledge are not to be given up. This will be made clear in the next verse. There are many prescriptions of methods for performing sacrifice for some particular purpose in the Vedic literatures. There are certain sacrifices to perform to attain a good son or to attain elevation to the higher planets, but sacrifices prompted by desires should be stopped. However, sacrifice for the purification of one's heart or for advancement in the spiritual science should not be given up. TEXT 3 tyjya doavad ity eke karma prhur mania yaja-dna-tapa-karma na tyjyam iti cpare tyjyam must be given up; doavat as an evil; iti thus; eke one group; karma work; prhu said; mania of great thinkers; yaja sacrifice; dna charity; tapa penance; karma work; na never; tyjyam is to be given up; iti thus; ca certainly; apare others. TRANSLATION Some learned men declare that all kinds of fruitive activities should be given up, but there are yet other sages who maintain that acts of sacrifice, charity and penance should never be abandoned. PURPORT There are many activities in the Vedic literatures which are subjects of contention. For instance, it is said that an animal can be killed in a sacrifice, yet some maintain animal killing is completely abominable. Although animal killing in a sacrifice is recommended in the Vedic literature, the animal is not considered to be killed. The sacrifice is to give a new life to the animal. Sometimes the animal is given a new animal life after being killed in the sacrifice, and sometimes the animal is promoted immediately to the human form of life. But there are different opinions among the sages. Some say that animal killing should always be avoided, and others say that for a specific sacrifice it is good. All these different opinions on sacrificial activity are now being clarified by the Lord Himself. TEXT 4 nicaya u me tatra tyge bharata-sattama tygo hi purua-vyghra tri-vidha samprakrtita nicayam certainly; u hear; me from Me; tatra there; tyge in the matter of renunciation; bharata-sattama O best of the Bhratas; tyga renunciation; hi certainly; purua-vyghra O tiger among human beings; tri-vidha three kinds; samprakrtita is declared. TRANSLATION O best of the Bhratas, hear from Me now about renunciation. O tiger among men, there are three kinds of renunciation declared in the scriptures. PURPORT Although there are differences of opinion about renunciation, here the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka, gives His judgment, which should be taken as final. After all, the Vedas are different laws given by the Lord. Here the Lord is personally present, and His word should be taken as final. The Lord says that the process of renunciation should be considered in terms of the modes of material nature in which they are performed. TEXT 5 yaja-dna-tapa-karma na tyjya kryam eva tat yajo dna tapa caiva pvanni manim yaja sacrifice; dna charity; tapa penance; karma activities; na never; tyjyam to be given up; kryam must be done; eva certainly; tat that; yaja sacrifice; dnam charity; tapa penance; ca also; eva certainly; pvanni purifying; manim even of the great souls. TRANSLATION Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up but should be performed. Indeed, sacrifice, charity and penance purify even the great souls. PURPORT The yogs should perform acts for the advancement of human society. There are many purificatory processes for advancing a human being to spiritual life. The marriage ceremony, for example, is considered to be one of these sacrifices. It is called vivha-yaja. Should a sannys, who is in the renounced order of life and who has given up his family relations, encourage the marriage ceremony? The Lord says here that any sacrifice which is meant for human welfare should never be given up. Vivha-yaja, the marriage ceremony, is meant to regulate the human mind to become peaceful for spiritual advancement. For most men, this vivha-yaja should be encouraged even by persons in the renounced order of life. Sannyass should never associate with women, but that does not mean that one who is in the lower stages of life, a young man, should not accept a wife in the marriage ceremony. All prescribed sacrifices are meant for achieving the Supreme Lord. Therefore, in the lower stages, they should not be given up. Similarly, charity is for the purification of the heart. If charity is given to suitable persons, as described previously, it leads one to advanced spiritual life. TEXT 6 etny api tu karmi saga tyaktv phalni ca kartavynti me prtha nicita matam uttamam etni all this; api certainly; tu must; karmi activities; sagam association; tyaktv renouncing; phalni results; ca also; kartavyni as duty; iti thus; me My; prtha O son of Pth; nicitam definite; matam opinion; uttamam the best. TRANSLATION All these activities should be performed without any expectation of result. They should be performed as a matter of duty, O son of Pth. That is My final opinion. PURPORT Although all sacrifices are purifying, one should not expect any result by such performances. In other words, all sacrifices which are meant for material advancement in life should be given up, but sacrifices that purify one's existence and elevate one to the spiritual plane should not be stopped. Everything that leads to Ka consciousness must be encouraged. In the rmad-Bhgavatam also it is said that any activity which leads to devotional service to the Lord should be accepted. That is the highest criterion of religion. A devotee of the Lord should accept any kind of work, sacrifice, or charity which will help him in the discharge of devotional service to the Lord. TEXT 7 niyatasya tu sannysa karmao nopapadyate moht tasya paritygas tmasa parikrtita niyatasya prescribed duties; tu but; sannysa renunciation; karmaa activities; na never; upapadyate is deserved; moht by illusion; tasya of which; parityga renunciation; tmasa in the mode of ignorance; parikrtita declared. TRANSLATION Prescribed duties should never be renounced. If, by illusion, one gives up his prescribed duties, such renunciation is said to be in the mode of ignorance. PURPORT Work for material satisfaction must be given up, but activities which promote one to spiritual activity, like cooking for the Supreme Lord and offering the food to the Lord and then accepting the food, are recommended. It is said that a person in the renounced order of life should not cook for himself. Cooking for oneself is prohibited, but cooking for the Supreme Lord is not prohibited. Similarly, a sannys may perform a marriage ceremony to help his disciple in the advancement of Ka consciousness. If one renounces such activities, it is to be understood that he is acting in the mode of darkness. TEXT 8 dukham ity eva yat karma kya-klea-bhayt tyajet sa ktv rjasa tyga naiva tyga-phala labhet dukham unhappy; iti thus; eva certainly; yat that which; karma work; kya body; klea troublesome; bhayt out of; tyajet fear; sa that; ktv after doing; rjasam in the mode of passion; tygam renunciation; na eva certainly not; tyga renounced; phalam results; labhet gain. TRANSLATION Anyone who gives up prescribed duties as troublesome, or out of fear, is said to be in the mode of passion. Such action never leads to the elevation of renunciation. PURPORT One who is in Ka consciousness should not give up earning money out of fear that he is performing fruitive activities. If by working one can engage his money in Ka consciousness, or if by rising early in the morning one can advance his transcendental Ka consciousness, one should not desist out of fear or because such activities are considered troublesome. Such renunciation is in the mode of passion. The result of passionate work is always miserable. Even if a person renounces work in that spirit, he never gets the result of renunciation. TEXT 9 kryam ity eva yat karma niyata kriyate 'rjuna saga tyaktv phala caiva sa tyga sttviko mata kryam must be done; iti thus; eva thus; yat that which; karma work; niyatam prescribed; kriyate performed; arjuna O Arjuna; sagam association; tyaktv giving up; phalam result; ca also; eva certainly; sa that; tyga renunciation; sttvika in the mode of goodness; mata in My opinion. TRANSLATION But he who performs his prescribed duty only because it ought to be done, and renounces all attachment to the fruithis renunciation is of the nature of goodness, O Arjuna. PURPORT Prescribed duties must be performed with this mentality. One should act without attachment for the result; he should be disassociated from the modes of work. A man working in Ka consciousness in a factory does not associate himself with the work of the factory, nor with the workers of the factory. He simply works for Ka. And when he gives up the result for Ka, he is acting transcendentally. TEXT 10 na dvey akuala karma kuale nnuajjate tyg sattva-samvio medhv chinna-saaya na never; dvei hates; akualam inauspicious; karma work; kuale in auspicious; na nor; anuajjate becomes attached; tyg the renouncer; sattva goodness; samvia absorbed in; medhv intelligent; chinna cut up; saaya all doubts. TRANSLATION Those who are situated in the mode of goodness, who neither hate inauspicious work nor are attached to auspicious work, have no doubts about work. PURPORT It is said in Bhagavad-gt that one can never give up work at any time. Therefore he who works for Ka and does not enjoy the fruitive results, who offers everything to Ka, is actually a renouncer. There are many members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness who work very hard in their office or in the factory or some other place, and whatever they earn they give to the Society. Such highly elevated souls are actually sannyss and are situated in the renounced order of life. It is clearly outlined here how to renounce the fruits of work and for what purpose fruits should be renounced. TEXT 11 na hi deha-bht akya tyaktu karmy aeata yas tu karma-phala-tyg sa tygty abhidhyate na never; hi certainly; deha-bht of the embodied; akyam possible; tyaktum to renounce; karmi activities of; aeata altogether; ya tu anyone who; karma work; phala result; tyg renouncer; sa he; tyg the renouncer; iti thus; abhidhyate it is said. TRANSLATION It is indeed impossible for an embodied being to give up all activities. Therefore it is said that he who renounces the fruits of action is one who has truly renounced. PURPORT A person in Ka consciousness acting in knowledge of his relationship with Ka is always liberated. Therefore he does not have to enjoy or suffer the results of his acts after death. TEXT 12 aniam ia mira ca tri-vidha karmaa phalam bhavaty atygin pretya na tu sannysin kvacit aniam leading to hell; iam leading to heaven; miram ca or mixture; tri-vidham three kinds; karmaa work; phalam result; bhavati becomes; atyginm of the renouncer; pretya after death; na tu but not; sannysinm of the renounced order; kvacit at any time. TRANSLATION For one who is not renounced, the threefold fruits of actiondesirable, undesirable and mixedaccrue after death. But those who are in the renounced order of life have no such results to suffer or enjoy. PURPORT A person in Ka consciousness or in the mode of goodness does not hate anyone or anything which troubles his body. He does work in the proper place and at the proper time without fearing the troublesome effects of his duty. Such a person situated in transcendence should be understood to be most intelligent and beyond all doubts in his activities. TEXTS 13-14 pacaitni mah-bho krani nibodha me skhye ktnte proktni siddhaye sarva-karmam adhihna tath kart karaa ca pthag-vidham vividh ca pthak ce daiva caivtra pacamam paca five; etni all these; mah-bho O mighty-armed one; krani cause; nibodha just understand; me from Me; skhye in the Vedas; ktnte after performance; proktni said; siddhaye perfection; sarva all; karmam actuated; adhihnam place; tath also; kart worker; karaam ca and instruments; pthak-vidham different kinds; vividh ca varieties; pthak separately; ce endeavor; daivam the Supreme; ca also; eva certainly; atra here; pacamam five. TRANSLATION O mighty-armed Arjuna, learn from Me of the five factors which bring about the accomplishment of all action. These are declared in skhya philosophy to be the place of action, the performer, the senses, the endeavor, and ultimately the Supersoul. PURPORT A question may be raised that since any activity performed must have some reaction, how is it that the person in Ka consciousness does not suffer or enjoy the reactions of work? The Lord is citing Vednta philosophy to show how this is possible. He says that there are five causes for all activities and for success in all activity, and one should know these five causes. Skhya means the stalk of knowledge, and Vednta is the final stalk of knowledge accepted by all leading cryas. Even akara accepts Vednta-stra as such. Therefore such authority should be consulted. The ultimate will is invested in the Supersoul, as it is stated in the Gt, "sarvasya cha hdi." He is engaging everyone in certain activities. Acts done under His direction from within yield no reaction, either in this life or in the life after death. The instruments of action are the senses, and by senses the soul acts in various ways, and for each and every action there is a different endeavor. But all one's activities depend on the will of the Supersoul, who is seated within the heart as a friend. The Supreme Lord is the super cause. Under these circumstances, he who is acting in Ka consciousness under the direction of the Supersoul situated within the heart is naturally not bound by any activity. Those in complete Ka consciousness are not ultimately responsible for their actions. Everything is dependent on the supreme will, the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 15 arra-vmanobhir yat karma prrabhate nara nyyya v viparta v pacaite tasya hetava arra body; vk speech; manobhi by the mind; yat anything; karma work; prrabhate begins; nara a person; nyyyam right; v or; vipartam the opposite; v or; paca five; ete all these; tasya its; hetava causes. TRANSLATION Whatever right or wrong action a man performs by body, mind or speech is caused by these five factors. PURPORT The words "right" and "wrong" are very significant in this verse. Right work is work done in terms of the prescribed directions in the scriptures, and wrong work is work done against the principles of the scriptural injunctions. But whatever is done requires these five factors for its complete performance. TEXT 16 tatraiva sati kartram tmna kevala tu ya payaty akta-buddhitvn na sa payati durmati tatra there; evam certainly; sati being thus; kartram of the worker; tmnam the soul; kevalam only; tu but; ya anyone; payati sees; akta-buddhitvt due to unintelligence; na never; sa he; payati sees; durmati foolish. TRANSLATION Therefore one who thinks himself the only doer, not considering the five factors, is certainly not very intelligent and cannot see things as they are. PURPORT A foolish person cannot understand that the Supersoul is sitting as a friend within and conducting his actions. Although the material causes are the place, the worker, the endeavor and the senses, the final cause is the Supreme, the Personality of Godhead. Therefore, one should see not only the four material causes, but the supreme efficient cause as well. One who does not see the Supreme thinks himself to be the instrument. TEXT 17 yasya nhakto bhvo buddhir yasya na lipyate hatvpi sa iml lokn na hanti na nibadhyate yasya of one who; na never; ahakta false ego; bhva nature; buddhi intelligence; yasya one who; na never; lipyate is attached; hatv api even killing; sa he; imn this; lokn world; na never; hanti kills; na never; nibadhyate becomes entangled. TRANSLATION One who is not motivated by false ego, whose intelligence is not entangled, though he kills men in this world, is not the slayer. Nor is he bound by his actions. PURPORT In this verse the Lord informs Arjuna that the desire not to fight arises from false ego. Arjuna thought himself to be the doer of action, but he did not consider the Supreme sanction within and without. If one does not know that a super sanction is there, why should he act? But one who knows the instrument of work, himself as the worker, and the Supreme Lord as the supreme sanctioner, is perfect in doing everything. Such a person is never in illusion. Personal activity and responsibility arise from false ego and godlessness, or a lack of Ka consciousness. Anyone who is acting in Ka consciousness under the direction of the Supersoul or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even though killing, does not kill. Nor is he ever affected with the reaction of such killing. When a soldier kills under the command of a superior officer, he is not subject to be judged. But if a soldier kills on his own personal account, then he is certainly judged by a court of law. TEXT 18 jna jeya parijt tri-vidh karma-codan karaa karma karteti tri-vidha karma sagraha jnam knowledge; jeyam objective; parijt the knower; tri-vidh three kinds; karma work; codan impetus; karaam the senses; karma work; kart the doer; iti thus; tri-vidha three kinds; karma work; sagraha accumulation. TRANSLATION Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors which motivate action; the senses, the work and the doer comprise the threefold basis of action. PURPORT There are three kinds of impetus for daily work: knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower. The instruments of work, the work itself and the worker are called the constituents of work. Any work done by any human being has these elements. Before one acts, there is some impetus, which is called inspiration. Any solution arrived at before work is actualized is a subtle form of work. Then work takes the form of action. First one has to undergo the psychological processes of thinking, feeling and willing, and that is called impetus. Actually the faith to perform acts is called knowledge. The inspiration to work is the same if it comes from the scripture or from the instruction of the spiritual master. When the inspiration is there and the worker is there, then actual activity takes place by the help of the senses. The mind is the center of all senses, and the object is work itself. These are the different phases of work as described in Bhagavad-gt. The sum total of all activities is called accumulation of work. TEXT 19 jna karma ca kart ca tridhaiva gua-bhedata procyate gua-sakhyne yathvac chu tny api jnam knowledge; karma work; ca also; kart worker; ca also; tridh three kinds; eva certainly; gua-bhedata in terms of different modes of material nature; procyate is said; gua-sakhyne in terms of different modes; yathvat as they act; u hear; tni all of them; api also. TRANSLATION In accordance with the three modes of material nature, there are three kinds of knowledge, action, and performers of action. Listen as I describe them. PURPORT In the Fourteenth Chapter the three divisions of the modes of material nature were elaborately described. In that chapter it was said that the mode of goodness is illuminating, the mode of passion materialistic, and the mode of ignorance conducive to laziness and indolence. All the modes of material nature are binding; they are not sources of liberation. Even in the mode of goodness one is conditioned. In the Seventeenth Chapter, the different types of worship by different types of men in different modes of material nature were described. In this verse, the Lord wishes to speak about the different types of knowledge, workers, and work itself according to the three material modes. TEXT 20 sarva-bhteu yenaika bhvam avyayam kate avibhakta vibhakteu taj jna viddhi sttvikam sarva-bhteu in all living entities; yena by whom; ekam one; bhvam situation; avyayam imperishable; kate does see; avibhaktam undivided; vibhakteu in the numberless divided; tat that; jnam knowledge; viddhi knows; sttvikam in the mode of goodness. TRANSLATION That knowledge by which one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all existences, undivided in the divided, is knowledge in the mode of goodness. PURPORT A person who sees one spirit soul in every living being, whether a demigod, human being, animal, bird, beast, aquatic or plant, possesses knowledge in the mode of goodness. In all living entities, one spirit soul is there, although they have different bodies in terms of their previous work. As described in the Seventh Chapter, the manifestation of the living force in every body is due to the superior nature of the Supreme Lord. Thus to see that one superior nature, that living force, in every body is to see in the mode of goodness. That living energy is imperishable, although the bodies are perishable. The difference is perceived in terms of the body because there are many forms of material existence in conditional life; therefore they appear to be divided. Such impersonal knowledge finally leads to self-realization. TEXT 21 pthaktvena tu yaj jna nn-bhvn pthag-vidhn vetti sarveu bhteu taj jna viddhi rjasam pthaktvena because of division; tu but; yat jnam which knowledge; nn-bhvn multifarious situations; pthak-vidhn differently; vetti one who knows; sarveu in all; bhteu living entities; tat jnam that knowledge; viddhi must be known; rjasam in terms of passion. TRANSLATION That knowledge by which a different type of living entity is seen to be dwelling in different bodies is knowledge in the mode of passion. PURPORT The concept that the material body is the living entity and that with the destruction of the body the consciousness is also destroyed is called knowledge in the mode of passion. According to that knowledge, bodies differ from one another because of the development of different types of consciousness, otherwise there is no separate soul which manifests consciousness. The body is itself the soul, and there is no separate soul beyond this body. According to such knowledge, consciousness is temporary. Or else there are no individual souls, but there is an all-pervading soul, which is full of knowledge, and this body is a manifestation of temporary ignorance. Or beyond this body there is no special individual or Supreme Soul. All such conceptions are considered products of the mode of passion. TEXT 22 yat tu ktsnavad ekasmin krye saktam ahaitukam atattvrthavad alpa ca tat tmasam udhtam yat that which; tu but; ktsnavat all in all; ekasmin in one; krye work; saktam attached; ahaitukam without cause; atattva-arthavat without reality; alpam ca and very meager; tat that; tmasam in the mode of darkness; udhtam is spoken. TRANSLATION And that knowledge by which one is attached to one kind of work as the all in all, without knowledge of the truth, and which is very meager, is said to be in the mode of darkness. PURPORT The "knowledge" of the common man is always in the mode of darkness or ignorance because every living entity in conditional life is born into the mode of ignorance. One who does not develop knowledge through the authorities or scriptural injunctions has knowledge that is limited to the body. He is not concerned about acting in terms of the directions of scripture. For him God is money, and knowledge means the satisfaction of bodily demands. Such knowledge has no connection with the Absolute Truth. It is more or less like the knowledge of the ordinary animals: the knowledge of eating, sleeping, defending and mating. Such knowledge is described here as the product of the mode of darkness. In other words, knowledge concerning the spirit soul beyond this body is called knowledge in the mode of goodness, and knowledge producing many theories and doctrines by dint of mundane logic and mental speculation is the product of the mode of passion, and knowledge concerned with only keeping the body comfortable is said to be in the mode of ignorance. TEXT 23 niyata saga-rahitam arga-dveata ktam aphala-prepsun karma yat tat sttvikam ucyate niyatam regulative; saga-rahitam without attachment; arga-dveata without love or hatred; ktam done; aphala-prepsun without fruitive result; karma acts; yat that which; tat that; sttvikam in the mode of goodness; ucyate is called. TRANSLATION As for actions, that action in accordance with duty, which is performed without attachment, without love or hate, by one who has renounced fruitive results, is called action in the mode of goodness. PURPORT Regulated occupational duties, as prescribed in the scriptures in terms of the different orders and divisions of society, performed without attachment or proprietary rights and therefore without any love or hatred and performed in Ka consciousness for the satisfaction of the Supreme, without self- satisfaction or self-gratification, are called actions in the mode of goodness. TEXT 24 yat tu kmepsun karma shakrea v puna kriyate bahulysa tad rjasam udhtam yat that which; tu but; kma-psun with fruitive result; karma work; shakrea with ego; v or; puna again; kriyate performed; bahula-ysam with great labor; tat that; rjasam in the mode of passion; udhtam is said to be. TRANSLATION But action performed with great effort by one seeking to gratify his desires, and which is enacted from a sense of false ego, is called action in the mode of passion. TEXT 25 anubandha kaya hism anapekya ca pauruam mohd rabhyate karma yat tat tmasam ucyate anubandham future bondage; kayam distracted; hism violence; anapekya without consideration of consequences; ca also; pauruam distressing to others; moht by illusion; rabhyate begun; karma work; yat that; tat which; tmasam in the mode of ignorance; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION And that action performed in ignorance and delusion without consideration of future bondage or consequences, which inflicts injury and is impractical, is said to be action in the mode of ignorance. PURPORT One has to give account of one's actions to the state or to the agents of the Supreme Lord called the Yamadtas. Irresponsible work is distraction because it destroys the regulative principles of scriptural injunction. It is often based on violence and is distressing to other living entities. Such irresponsible work is carried out in the light of one's personal experience. This is called illusion. And all such illusory work is a product of the mode of ignorance. TEXT 26 mukta-sago 'nahavd dhty-utsha-samanvita siddhy-asiddhyor nirvikra kart sttvika ucyate mukta-saga liberated from all material association; anaham-vd without false ego; dhti-utsha with great enthusiasm; samanvita qualified in that way; siddhi perfection; asiddhyo failure; nirvikra without change; kart worker; sttvika in the mode of goodness; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION The worker who is free from all material attachments and false ego, who is enthusiastic and resolute and who is indifferent to success or failure, is a worker in the mode of goodness. PURPORT A person in Ka consciousness is always transcendental to the material modes of nature. He has no expectations for the result of the work entrusted to him because he is above false ego and pride. Still, he is always enthusiastic till the completion of such work. He does not worry about the distress undertaken; he is always enthusiastic. He does not care for success or failure; he is equal both in distress or happiness. Such a worker is situated in the mode of goodness. TEXT 27 rg karma-phala-prepsur lubdho histmako 'uci hara-oknvita kart rjasa parikrtita rg very much attached; karma-phala to the fruit of the work; prepsu desiring; lubdha greedy; his-tmaka and always envious; auci unclean; hara-oka-anvita complicated, with joy and sorrow; kart such a worker; rjasa in the mode of passion; parikrtita is declared. TRANSLATION But that worker who is attached to the fruits of his labor and who passionately wants to enjoy them, who is greedy, envious and impure and moved by happiness and distress, is a worker in the mode of passion. PURPORT A person is too much attached to certain kind of work or to the result because he has too much attachment for materialism or hearth and home, wife and children. Such a person has no desire for higher elevation of life. He is simply concerned with making this world as materially comfortable as possible. He is generally very greedy, and he thinks that anything attained by him is permanent and never to be lost. Such a person is envious of others and prepared to do anything wrong for sense gratification. Therefore such a person is unclean, and he does not care whether his earning is pure or impure. He is very happy if his work is successful and very much distressed when his work is not successful. Such is a man in the mode of passion. TEXT 28 ayukta prkta stabdha aho naiktiko 'lasa vid drgha-str ca kart tmasa ucyate ayukta without reference to the scriptural injunctions; prkta materialistic; stabdha obstinate; aha deceitful; naiktika expert in insulting others; alasa lazy; vid morose; drgha-str procrastinating; ca also; kart worker; tmasa in the mode of ignorance; ucyate is said to be. TRANSLATION And that worker who is always engaged in work against the injunction of the scripture, who is materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating, is a worker in the mode of ignorance. PURPORT In the scriptural injunctions we find what sort of work should be performed and what sort of work should not be performed. Those who do not care for those injunctions engage in work not to be done, and such persons are generally materialistic. They work according to the modes of nature, not according to the injunctions of the scripture. Such workers are not very gentle, and generally they are always cunning and expert in insulting others. They are very lazy; even though they have some duty, they do not do it properly, and they put it aside to be done later on. Therefore they appear to be morose. They procrastinate; anything which can be done in an hour they drag on for years. Such workers are situated in the mode of ignorance. TEXT 29 buddher bheda dhte caiva guatas tri-vidha u procyamnam aeea pthaktvena dhanajaya buddhe of intelligence; bhedam differences; dhte of steadiness; ca also; eva certainly; guata by the modes of material nature; tri-vidham the three kinds of; u just hear; procyamnam as described by Me; aeea in detail; pthaktvena differently; dhanajaya O winner of wealth. TRANSLATION Now, O winner of wealth, please listen as I tell you in detail of the three kinds of understanding and determination according to the three modes of nature. PURPORT Now after explaining knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower, in three different divisions according to modes of material nature, the Lord is explaining the intelligence and determination of the worker in the same way. TEXT 30 pravtti ca nivtti ca krykrye bhaybhaye bandha moka ca y vetti buddhi s prtha sttvik pravttim deserving; ca also; nivttim not deserving; krya work; akrye reaction; bhaya fearful; abhaye fearlessness; bandham obligation; mokam ca and liberation; y that which; vetti knows; buddhi understanding; s that; prtha O son of Pth; sttvik in the mode of goodness. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, that understanding by which one knows what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, what is binding and what is liberating, that understanding is established in the mode of goodness. PURPORT Actions which are performed in terms of the directions of the scriptures are called pravtti, or actions that deserve to be performed, and actions which are not so directed are not to be performed. One who does not know the scriptural directions becomes entangled in the actions and reactions of work. Understanding which discriminates by intelligence is situated in the mode of goodness. TEXT 31 yay dharmam adharma ca krya ckryam eva ca ayathvat prajnti buddhi s prtha rjas yay by which; dharmam principles of religion; adharmam ca and irreligion; kryam work; ca also; akryam what ought not to be done; eva certainly; ca also; ayathvat not perfectly; prajnati knows; buddhi intelligence; s that; prtha O son of Pth; rjas in the mode of passion. TRANSLATION And that understanding which cannot distinguish between the religious way of life and the irreligious, between action that should be done and action that should not be done, that imperfect understanding, O son of Pth, is in the mode of passion. PURPORT Intelligence in the mode of passion is always working perversely. It accepts religions which are not actually religions and rejects actual religion. All views and activities are misguided. Men of passionate intelligence understand a great soul to be a common man and accept a common man as a great soul. They think truth to be untruth and accept untruth as truth. In all activities they simply take the wrong path; therefore their intelligence is in the mode of passion. TEXT 32 adharma dharmam iti y manyate tamasvt sarvrthn vipart ca buddhi s prtha tmas adharmam irreligion; dharmam religion; iti thus; y which; manyate thinks; tamas by illusion; vt covered; sarva-arthn all things; vipartn the wrong direction; ca also; buddhi intelligence; sa that; prtha O son of Pth; tmas the mode of ignorance. TRANSLATION That understanding which considers irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion, under the spell of illusion and darkness, and strives always in the wrong direction, O Prtha, is in the mode of ignorance. TEXT 33 dhty yay dhrayate mana prendriya-kriy yogenvyabhicriy dhti s prtha sttvik dhty determination; yay by which; dhrayate is sustained; mana mind; pra life; indriya senses; kriy activities; yogena by yoga practice; avyabhicriy without any break; dhti such determination; s that; prtha O son of Pth; sttvik in the mode of goodness. TRANSLATION O son of Pth, that determination which is unbreakable, which is sustained with steadfastness by yoga practice, and thus controls the mind, life, and the acts of the senses, is in the mode of goodness. PURPORT Yoga is a means to understand the Supreme Soul. One who is steadily fixed in the Supreme Soul with determination, concentrating one's mind, life and sensual activities on the Supreme, engages in Ka consciousness. That sort of determination is in the mode of goodness. The word avyabhicriya is very significant, for it refers to persons who are engaged in Ka consciousness and are never deviated by any other activity. TEXT 34 yay tu dharma-kmrthn dhty dhrayate 'rjuna prasagena phalkk dhti s prtha rjas yay by which; tu but; dharma-kma-arthn for religiosity and economic development; dhty by determination; dhrayate in such terms; arjuna O Arjuna; prasagena for that; phala-kk desiring fruitive result; dhti determination; s that; prtha O son of Pth; rjas in the mode of passion. TRANSLATION And that determination by which one holds fast to fruitive result in religion, economic development and sense gratification is of the nature of passion, O Arjuna. PURPORT Any person who is always desirous of fruitive results in religious or economic activities, whose only desire is sense gratification, and whose mind, life and senses are thus engaged, is in the mode of passion. TEXT 35 yay svapna bhaya oka vida madam eva ca na vimucati durmedh dhti s prtha tmas yay by which; svapnam dream; bhayam fearfulness; okam lamentation; vidam moroseness; madam illusion; eva certainly; ca also; na never; vimucati is liberated; durmedh unintelligent; dhti determination; s that; prtha O son of Pth; tmas in the mode of ignorance. TRANSLATION And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusionsuch unintelligent determination is in the mode of darkness. PURPORT It should not be concluded that a person in the mode of goodness does not dream. Here dream means too much sleep. Dream is always present; either in the mode of goodness, passion or ignorance, dream is a natural occurrence. But those who cannot avoid oversleeping, who cannot avoid the pride of enjoying material objects and who are always dreaming of lording it over the material world, whose life, mind, and senses are thus engaged, are considered to be in the mode of ignorance. TEXTS 36-37 sukha tv idn tri-vidha u me bharatarabha abhysd ramate yatra dukhnta ca nigacchati yat tad agre viam iva parime 'mtopamam tat sukha sttvika proktam tma-buddhi-prasda-jam sukham happiness; tu but; idnm now; tri-vidham three kinds; u hear; me from Me; bharatarabha O best amongst the Bhratas; abhyst by practice; ramate enjoyer; yatra where; dukha distress; antam end; ca also; nigacchati gains; yat that which; tat that; agre in the beginning; viam iva like poison; parime at the end; amta nectar; upamam compared to; tat that; sukham happiness; sttvikam in the mode of goodness; proktam is said; tma self; buddhi intelligence; prasda-jam satisfactory. TRANSLATION O best of the Bhratas, now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness which the conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes to the end of all distress. That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness. PURPORT A conditioned soul tries to enjoy material happiness again and again. Thus he chews the chewed, but, sometimes, in the course of such enjoyment, he becomes relieved from material entanglement by association with a great soul. In other words, a conditioned soul is always engaged in some type of sense gratification, but when he understands by good association that it is only a repetition of the same thing, and he is awakened to his real Ka consciousness, he is sometimes relieved from such repetitive so-called happiness. In the pursuit of self-realization, one has to follow many rules and regulations to control the mind and the senses and to concentrate the mind on the Self. All these procedures are very difficult, bitter like poison, but if one is successful in following the regulations and comes to the transcendental position, he begins to drink real nectar, and he enjoys life. TEXT 38 viayendriya-sayogd yat tad agre 'mtopamam parime viam iva tat sukha rjasa smtam viaya objects of sense; indriya senses; sayogt combination; yat that; tat which; agre in the beginning; amta-upamam just like nectar; parime at the end; viam iva like poison; tat that; sukham happiness; rjasam in the mode of passion; smtam is considered. TRANSLATION That happiness which is derived from contact of the senses with their objects and which appears like nectar at first but poison at the end is said to be of the nature of passion. PURPORT A young man and a young woman meet, and the senses drive the young man to see her, to touch her and to have sexual intercourse. In the beginning this may be very pleasing to the senses, but at the end, or after some time, it becomes just like poison. They are separated or there is divorce, there is lamentation, there is sorrow, etc. Such happiness is always in the mode of passion. Happiness derived from a combination of the senses and the sense objects is always a cause of distress and should be avoided by all means. TEXT 39 yad agre cnubandhe ca sukha mohanam tmana nidrlasya-pramdottha tat tmasam udhtam yat that which; agre in the beginning; ca also; anubandhe by binding; ca also; sukham happiness; mohanam illusion; tmana of the self; nidr sleeping; lasya laziness; pramda illusion; uttham produced of; tat that; tmasam in the mode of ignorance; udhtam issaid to be. TRANSLATION And that happiness which is blind to self-realization, which is delusion from beginning to end and which arises from sleep, laziness and illusion is said to be of the nature of ignorance. PURPORT One who takes pleasure in laziness and in sleep is certainly in the mode of darkness, and one who has no idea how to act and how not to act is also in the mode of ignorance. For the person in the mode of ignorance, everything is illusion. There is no happiness either in the beginning or the end. For the person in the mode of passion there might be some kind of ephemeral happiness in the beginning and at the end distress, but for the person in the mode of ignorance there is only distress both in the beginning and at the end. TEXT 40 na tad asti pthivy v divi deveu v puna sattva prakti-jair mukta yad ebhi syt tribhir guai na not; tat that; asti there is; pthivym within the universe; v or; divi in the higher planetary system; deveu amongst the demigods; v or; puna again; sattvam existence; prakti-jai under the influence of material nature; muktam liberated; yat that; ebhi by this; syt so becomes; tribhi by three; guai modes of material nature. TRANSLATION There is no being existing, either here or among the demigods in the higher planetary systems, which is freed from the three modes of material nature. PURPORT The Lord here summarizes the total influence of the three modes of material nature all over the universe. TEXT 41 brhmaa-katriya-vi dr ca parantapa karmi pravibhaktni svabhva-prabhavair guai brhmaa the brhmaas ; katriya the katriyas ; vim the v aiyas ; drm the dras ; ca and; parantapa O subduer of the enemies; karmi activities; pravibhaktni are divided; svabhva own nature; prabhavai born of; guai by the modes of material nature. TRANSLATION Brhmaas, katriyas, vaiyas and dras are distinguished by their qualities of work, O chastiser of the enemy, in accordance with the modes of nature. TEXT 42 amo damas tapa auca kntir rjavam eva ca jna vijnam stikya brahma-karma svabhva-jam ama peacefulness; dama self-control; tapa austerity; aucam purity; knti tolerance; rjavam honesty; eva certainly; ca and; jnam wisdom; vijnam knowledge; stikyam religiousness; brahma of a brhmaa; karma duty; svabhva-jam born of his own nature. TRANSLATION Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousnessthese are the qualities by which the brhmaas work. TEXT 43 aurya tejo dhtir dkya yuddhe cpy apalyanam dnam vara-bhva ca ktra karma svabhva-jam auryam heroism; teja power; dhti determination; dkyam resourcefulness; yuddhe in battle; ca and; api also; apalyanam not fleeing; dnam generosity; vara leadership; bhva nature; ca and ktram-katriya; karma duty; svabhva-jam born of his own nature. TRANSLATION Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity, and leadership are the qualities of work for the katriyas. TEXT 44 ki-go-rakya-vijya vaiya-karma svabhva-jam paricarytmaka karma drasypi svabhva-jam ki ploughing; go cows; rakya protection; vijyam trade; vaiya vaiya; karma duty; svabhva-jam born of his own nature; paricary service; tmakam nature; karma duty; drasya of the dra; api also; svabhva-jam born of his own nature. TRANSLATION Farming, cattle raising and business are the qualities of work for the vaiyas, and for the dras there is labor and service to others. TEXT 45 sve sve karmay abhirata sasiddhi labhate nara sva-karma-nirata siddhi yath vindati tac chu sve own; sve own; karmai in work; abhirata following; sasiddhim perfection; labhate achieves; nara a man; svakarma by his own duty; nirata engaged; siddhim perfection; yath as; vindati attains, tat that; u listen. TRANSLATION By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect. Now please hear from Me how this can be done. TEXT 46 yata pravttir bhtn yena sarvam ida tatam sva-karma tam abhyarcya siddhi vindati mnava yata from whom; pravtti emanation; bhtnm of all living entities; yena by whom; sarvam all; idam this; tatam is pervaded; svakarma in his own duties; tam Him; abhyarcya by worshiping; siddhim perfection; vindati achieves; mnava a man. TRANSLATION By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all- pervading, man can, in the performance of his own duty, attain perfection. PURPORT As stated in the Fifteenth Chapter, all living beings are fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. As such, the Supreme Lord is the beginning of all living entities. This is confirmed in the Vednta-stra janmdy asya yata. The Supreme Lord is therefore the beginning of life of every living entity. And the Supreme Lord, by His two energies, His external energy and internal energy, is all-pervading. Therefore one should worship the Supreme Lord with His energies. Generally the Vaiava devotees worship the Supreme Lord with His internal energy. His external energy is a perverted reflection of the internal energy. The external energy is a background, but the Supreme Lord by the expansion of His plenary portion as Paramtm is situated everywhere. He is the Supersoul of all demigods, all human beings, all animals, everywhere. One should therefore know that as part and parcel of the Supreme Lord it is his duty to render service unto the Supreme. Everyone should be engaged in devotional service to the Lord in full Ka consciousness. That is recommended in this verse. Everyone should think that he is engaged in a particular type of occupation by Hkea, the master of the senses. And, by the result of the work in which one is engaged, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, r Ka, should be worshiped. If one thinks always in this way, in full Ka consciousness, then, by the grace of the Lord, he becomes fully aware of everything. That is the perfection of life. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gt, tem aha samuddhart. The Supreme Lord Himself takes charge of delivering such a devotee. That is the highest perfection of life. In whatever occupation one may be engaged, if he serves the Supreme Lord, he will achieve the highest perfection. TEXT 47 reyn sva-dharmo vigua para-dharmt sv-anuhitt svabhva-niyata karma kurvan npnoti kilbiam sreyn better; sva-dharma one's own occupation; vigua imperfectly performed; para-dharmt another's occupation; svanuhitt perfectly done; svabhva-niyatam prescribed duties according to one's nature; karma work; kurvan performing; na never; pnoti achieve; kilbiam sinful reactions. TRANSLATION It is better to engage in one's own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another's occupation and perform it perfectly. Prescribed duties, according to one's nature, are never affected by sinful reactions. PURPORT One's occupational duty is prescribed in Bhagavad-gt. As already discussed in previous verses, the duties of a brhmaa, katriya, vaiya and dra are prescribed according to the particular modes of nature. One should not imitate another's duty. A man who is by nature attracted to the kind of work done by dras should not artificially claim himself to be a brhmaa, although he may be born into a brhmaa family. In this way one should work according to his own nature; no work is abominable, if performed in the service of the Supreme Lord. The occupational duty of a brhmaa is certainly in the mode of goodness, but if a person is not by nature in the mode of goodness, he should not imitate the occupational duty of a brhmaa. For a katriya, or administrator, there are so many abominable things; a katriya has to be violent to kill his enemies, and sometimes a katriya has to tell lies for the sake of diplomacy. Such violence and duplicity accompany political affairs, but a katriya is not supposed to give up his occupational duty and try to perform the duties of a brhmaa. One should act to satisfy the Supreme Lord. For example, Arjuna was a katriya. He was hesitating to fight the other party. But if such fighting is performed for the sake of Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there need be no fear of degradation. In the business field also, sometimes a merchant has to tell so many lies to make a profit. If he does not do so, there can be no profit. Sometimes a merchant says, "Oh, my dear customer, for you I am making no profit," but one should know that without profit the merchant cannot exist. Therefore it should be taken as a simple lie if a merchant says that he is not making a profit. But the merchant should not think that because he is engaged in an occupation in which the telling of lies is compulsory, he should give up his profession and pursue the profession of a brhmaa. That is not recommended. Whether one is a katriya, a vaiya, or a dra doesn't matter, if he serves, by his work, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even brhmaas, who perform different types of sacrifice, sometimes must kill animals because sometimes animals are sacrificed in such ceremonies. Similarly, if a katriya engaged in his own occupation kills an enemy, there is no sin incurred. In the Third Chapter these matters have been clearly and elaborately explained; every man should work for the purpose of yaja, or for Viu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anything done for personal sense gratification is a cause of bondage. The conclusion is that everyone should be engaged according to the particular mode of nature he has acquired, and he should decide to work only to serve the supreme cause of the Supreme Lord. TEXT 48 saha-ja karma kaunteya sa-doam api na tyajet sarvrambh hi doea dhmengnir ivvt saha-jam born simultaneously; karma work; kaunteya O son of Kunt; sa-doam with fault; api although; na never; tyajet to be given up; sarva-rambh any venture; hi is certainly; doea with fault; dhmena with smoke; agni fire; iva as; vt covered. TRANSLATION Every endeavor is covered by some sort of fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should not give up the work which is born of his nature, O son of Kunt, even if such work is full of fault. PURPORT In conditioned life, all work is contaminated by the material modes of nature. Even if one is a brhmaa, he has to perform sacrifices in which animal killing is necessary. Similarly, a katriya, however pious he may be, has to fight enemies. He cannot avoid it. Similarly, a merchant, however pious he may be, must sometimes hide his profit to stay in business, or he may sometimes have to do business on the black market. These things are necessary; one cannot avoid them. Similarly, even though a man is a dra serving a bad master, he has to carry out the order of the master, even though it should not be done. Despite these flaws, one should continue to carry out his prescribed duties, for they are born out of his own nature. A very nice example is given herein. Although fire is pure, still there is smoke. Yet smoke does not make the fire impure. Even though there is smoke in the fire, fire is still considered to be the purest of all elements. If one prefers to give up the work of a katriya and take up the occupation of a brhmaa, he is not assured that in the occupation of a brhmaa there are no unpleasant duties. One may then conclude that in the material world no one can be completely free from the contamination of material nature. This example of fire and smoke is very appropriate in this connection. When in wintertime one takes a stone from the fire, sometimes smoke disturbs the eyes and other parts of the body, but still one must make use of the fire despite disturbing conditions. Similarly, one should not give up his natural occupation because there are some disturbing elements. Rather, one should be determined to serve the Supreme Lord by his occupational duty in Ka consciousness. That is the perfectional point. When a particular type of occupation is performed for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, all the defects in that particular occupation are purified. When the results of work are purified, when connected with devotional service, one becomes perfect in seeing the self within, and that is self-realization. TEXT 49 asakta-buddhi sarvatra jittm vigata-spha naikarmya-siddhi param sannysendhigacchati asakta-buddhi unattached intelligence; sarvatra everywhere; jita-tm control of the mind, vigata-spha without material desires; naikarmya- siddhim perfection of non-reaction; paramm supreme; sannysena by the renounced order of life; adhigacchati attains. TRANSLATION One can obtain the results of renunciation simply by self-control and by becoming unattached to material things and disregarding material enjoyments. That is the highest perfectional stage of renunciation. PURPORT Real renunciation means that one should always think himself part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Therefore he has no right to enjoy the results of his work. Since he is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, the results of his work must be enjoyed by the Supreme Lord. This is actually Ka consciousness. The person acting in Ka consciousness is really a sannys , one in the renounced order of life. By such mentality, one is satisfied because he is actually acting for the Supreme. Thus he is not attached to anything material; he becomes accustomed to not taking pleasure in anything beyond the transcendental happiness derived from the service of the Lord. A sannys is supposed to be free from the reactions of his past activities, but a person who is in Ka consciousness automatically attains this perfection without even accepting the so-called order of renunciation. This state of mind is called yogrha, or the perfectional stage of yoga, as confirmed in the Third Chapter: yas tv tma-ratir eva syt. One who is satisfied in himself has no fear of any kind of reaction from his activity. TEXT 50 siddhi prpto yath brahma tathpnoti nibodha me samsenaiva kaunteya nih jnasya y par siddhim perfection; prpta achieving; yath as; brahma the Supreme; tath so; pnoti achieves; nibodha try to understand; me from Me; samsena summarily; eva certainly; kaunteya O son of Kunt; nih stage; jnasya of knowledge; y which; par transcendental. TRANSLATION O son of Kunt, learn from Me in brief how one can attain to the supreme perfectional stage, Brahman, by acting in the way which I shall now summarize. PURPORT The Lord describes for Arjuna how one can achieve the highest perfectional stage simply by being engaged in his occupational duty, performing that duty for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One attains the supreme stage of Brahman simply by renouncing the result of his work for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. That is the process of self-realization. Actual perfection of knowledge is in attaining pure Ka consciousness; that is described in the following verses. TEXTS 51-53 buddhy viuddhay yukto dhtytmna niyamya ca abddn viays tyaktv rga-dveau vyudasya ca vivikta-sev laghv- yata-vk-kya-mnasa dhyna-yoga-paro nitya vairgya samuprita ahakra bala darpa kma krodha parigraham vimucya nirmama nto brahma-bhyya kalpate buddhy by the intelligence; viuddhay fully purified; yukta such engagement; dhty determination; tmnam self; niyamya regulated; ca also; abddn the sense objects, such as sound, etc.; viayn sense objects; tyaktv giving up; rga attachments; dveau hatred; vyudasya having laid aside; ca also; vivikta-sev living in a secluded place; laghu- eating a small quantity; yata-vk control of speech; kya body; mnasa control of the mind; dhyna-yoga-para always absorbed in trance; nityam twenty-four hours a day; vairgyam detachment; samuprita taken shelter of; ahakram false ego; balam false strength; darpam false pride; kmam lust; krodham anger; parigraham acceptance of material things; vimucya being delivered; nirmama without proprietorship; nta peaceful; brahma-bhyya to become self- realized; kalpate is understood. TRANSLATION Being purified by his intelligence and controlling the mind with determination, giving up the objects of sense gratification, being freed from attachment and hatred, one who lives in a secluded place, who eats little and who controls the body and the tongue, and is always in trance and is detached, who is without false ego, false strength, false pride, lust, anger, and who does not accept material things, such a person is certainly elevated to the position of self-realization. PURPORT When one is purified by knowledge, he keeps himself in the mode of goodness. Thus one becomes the controller of the mind and is always in trance. Because he is not attached to the objects of sense gratification, he does not eat more than what he requires, and he controls the activities of his body and mind. He has no false ego because he does not accept the body as himself. Nor has he a desire to make the body fat and strong by accepting so many material things. Because he has no bodily concept of life, he is not falsely proud. He is satisfied with everything that is offered to him by the grace of the Lord, and he is never angry in the absence of sense gratification. Nor does he endeavor to acquire sense objects. Thus when he is completely free from false ego, he becomes nonattached to all material things, and that is the stage of self-realization of Brahman. That stage is called the brahma-bhta stage. When one is free from the material conception of life, he becomes peaceful and cannot be agitated. TEXT 54 brahma-bhta prasanntm na ocati na kkati sama sarveu bhteu mad-bhakti labhate parm brahma-bhta being one with the Absolute; prasanna-tm fully joyful; na never; ocati laments; na never; kkati desires; sama equally disposed; sarveu all; bhteu living entity; mat-bhaktim My devotional service; labhate gains; parm transcendental. TRANSLATION One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments nor desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me. PURPORT To the impersonalist, achieving the brahma-bhta stage, becoming one with the Absolute, is the last word. But for the personalist, or pure devotee, one has to go still further to become engaged in pure devotional service. This means that one who is engaged in pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord is already in a state of liberation, called brahma-bhta, oneness with the Absolute. Without being one with the Supreme, the Absolute, one cannot render service unto Him. In the absolute conception, there is no difference between the served and the servitor; yet the distinction is there, in a higher spiritual sense. In the material concept of life, when one works for sense gratification, there is misery, but in the absolute world, when one is engaged in pure devotional service, there is no misery. The devotee in Ka consciousness has nothing to lament or desire. Since God is full, a living entity who is engaged in God's service, in Ka consciousness, becomes also full in himself. He is just like a river cleansed of all dirty water. Because a pure devotee has no thought other than Ka, he is naturally always joyful. He does not lament for any material loss or gain because he is full in service of the Lord. He has no desire for material enjoyment because he knows that every living entity is the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and therefore eternally a servant. He does not see, in the material world, someone as higher and someone as lower; higher and lower positions are ephemeral, and a devotee has nothing to do with ephemeral appearances or disappearances. For him stone and gold are of equal value. This is the brahma-bhta stage, and this stage is attained very easily by the pure devotee. In that stage of existence, the idea of becoming one with the Supreme Brahman and annihilating one's individuality becomes hellish, and the idea of attaining the heavenly kingdom becomes phantasmagoria, and the senses are like broken serpents' teeth. As there is no fear of a serpent with broken teeth, so there is no fear from the senses when they are automatically controlled. The world is miserable for the materially infected person, but for a devotee the entire world is as good as Vaikuha, or the spiritual sky. The highest personality in this material universe is no more significant than an ant for a devotee. Such a stage can be achieved by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, who preached pure devotional service in this age. TEXT 55 bhakty mm abhijnti yvn ya csmi tattvata tato m tattvato jtv viate tad-anantaram bhakty by pure devotional service; mm Me; abhijnti one can know; yvn as much as; ya ca asmi as I am; tattvata in truth; tata thereafter; mm Me; tattvata by truth; jtv knowing; viate enters; tat thereafter; anantaram after. TRANSLATION One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God. PURPORT The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka, and His plenary portions cannot be understood by mental speculation nor by the nondevotees. If anyone wants to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he has to take to pure devotional service under the guidance of a pure devotee. Otherwise, the truth of the Supreme Personality of Godhead will always be hidden. It is already stated (nha praka) that He is not revealed to everyone. Everyone cannot understand God simply by erudite scholarship or mental speculation. Only one who is actually engaged in Ka consciousness and devotional service can understand what Ka is. University degrees are not helpful. One who is fully conversant with the Ka science becomes eligible to enter into the spiritual kingdom, the abode of Ka. Becoming Brahman does not mean that one loses his identity. Devotional service is there, and as long as devotional service exists, there must be God, the devotee, and the process of devotional service. Such knowledge is never vanquished, even after liberation. Liberation involves getting free from the concept of material life; in spiritual life the same distinction is there, the same individuality is there, but in pure Ka consciousness. One should not misunderstand that the word viate , "enters into Me," supports the monist theory that one becomes homogeneous with the impersonal Brahman. No. Viate means that one can enter into the abode of the Supreme Lord in his individuality to engage in His association and render service unto Him. For instance, a green bird enters a green tree not to become one with the tree but to enjoy the fruits of the tree. Impersonalists generally give the example of a river flowing into the ocean and merging. This may be a source of happiness for the impersonalist, but the personalist keeps his personal individuality like an aquatic in the ocean. We find so many living entities within the ocean, if we go deep. Surface acquaintance with the ocean is not sufficient; one must have complete knowledge of the aquatics living in the ocean depths. Because of his pure devotional service, a devotee can understand the transcendental qualities and the opulences of the Supreme Lord in truth. As it is stated in the Eleventh Chapter, only by devotional service can one understand. The same is confirmed here; one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by devotional service and enter into His kingdom. After attainment of the brahma-bhta stage of freedom from material conceptions, devotional service begins by one's hearing about the Lord. When one hears about the Supreme Lord, automatically the brahma-bhta stage develops, and material contaminationgreediness and lust for sense enjoymentdisappears. As lust and desires disappear from the heart of a devotee, he becomes more attached to the service of the Lord, and by such attachment he becomes free from material contamination. In that state of life he can understand the Supreme Lord. This is the statement of rmad- Bhgavatam also. Also after liberation the process of bhakti or transcendental service continues. The Vednta-stra confirms this: pryat tatrpi hi dam. This means that after liberation the process of devotional service continues. In the rmad-Bhgavatam, real devotional liberation is defined as the reinstatement of the living entity in his own identity, his own constitutional position. The constitutional position is already explained: every living entity is the part and parcel fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord. Therefore his constitutional position is to serve. After liberation, this service is never stopped. Actual liberation is getting free from misconceptions of life. TEXT 56 sarva-karmy api sad kurvo mad-vyapraya mat-prasdd avpnoti vata padam avyayam sarva all; karmi activities; api although; sad always; kurva performing; mat under My; vyaprayah protection; mat My; prasdt mercy; avpnoti achieves; svatam eternal; padam abode; avyayam imperishable. TRANSLATION Though engaged in all kinds of activities, My devotee, under My protection, reaches the eternal and imperishable abode by My grace. PURPORT The word mad-vyapraya means under the protection of the Supreme Lord. To be free from material contamination, a pure devotee acts under the direction of the Supreme Lord or His representative, the spiritual master. There is no time limitation for a pure devotee. He is always, twenty-four hours, one hundred percent engaged in activities under the direction of the Supreme Lord. To a devotee who is thus engaged in Ka consciousness the Lord is very, very kind. In spite of all difficulties, he is eventually placed in the transcendental abode, or Kaloka. He is guaranteed entrance there; there is no doubt about it. In that supreme abode, there is no change; everything is eternal, imperishable and full of knowledge. TEXT 57 cetas sarva-karmi mayi sannyasya mat-para buddhi-yogam upritya mac-citta satata bhava cetas by intelligence; sarva-karmni all kinds of activities; mayi unto Me; sannyasya giving up; mat-para My protection; buddhi-yogam devotional activities; upritya taking shelter of; mat-citta consciousness; satatam twenty-four hours a day; bhava just become. TRANSLATION In all activities just depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In such devotional service, be fully conscious of Me. PURPORT When one acts in Ka consciousness, he does not act as the master of the world. Just like a servant, one should act fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. A servant has no individual independence. He acts only on the order of the master. A servant acting on behalf of the supreme master has no affection for profit and loss. He simply discharges his duty faithfully in terms of the order of the Lord. Now, one may argue that Arjuna was acting under the personal direction of Ka, but, when Ka is not present, how should one act? If one acts according to the direction of Ka in this book, as well as under the guidance of the representative of Ka, then the result will be the same. The Sanskrit word mat-para is very important in this verse. It indicates that one has no goal in life save and except acting in Ka consciousness just to satisfy Ka. And, while working in that way, one should think of Ka only: "I have been appointed to discharge this particular duty by Ka." While acting in such a way, one naturally has to think of Ka. This is perfect Ka consciousness. One should, however, note that, after doing something whimsically, he should not offer the result to the Supreme Lord. That sort of duty is not in the devotional service of Ka consciousness. One should act according to the order of Ka . This is a very important point. That order of Ka comes through disciplic succession from the bona fide spiritual master. Therefore the spiritual master's order should be taken as the prime duty of life. If one gets a bona fide spiritual master and acts according to his direction, then his perfection of life in Ka consciousness is guaranteed. TEXT 58 mac-citta sarva-durgi mat-prasdt tariyasi atha cet tvam ahakrn na royasi vinakyasi mat My; citta consciousness; sarva all; durgi impediments; mat My; prasdt My mercy; tariyasi you will overcome; atha therefore; cet if; tvam you; ahakrt by false ego; na not; royasi do not hear; vinakyasi then lose yourself. TRANSLATION If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all the obstacles of conditional life by My grace. If, however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost. PURPORT A person in full Ka consciousness is not unduly anxious to execute the duties of his existence. The foolish cannot understand this great freedom from all anxiety. For one who acts in Ka consciousness, Lord Ka becomes the most intimate friend. He always looks after His friend's comfort, and He gives Himself to His friend, who is so devotedly engaged working twenty-four hours a day to please the Lord. Therefore, no one should be carried away by the false ego of the bodily concept of life. One should not falsely think himself independent of the laws of material nature or free to act. He is already under strict material laws. But, as soon as he acts in Ka consciousness, he is liberated, free from the material perplexities. One should note very carefully that one who is not active in Ka consciousness is losing himself in the material whirlpool, in the ocean of birth and death. No conditioned soul actually knows what is to be done and what is not to be done, but a person who acts in Ka consciousness is free to act because everything is prompted by Ka from within and confirmed by the spiritual master. TEXT 59 yad ahakram ritya na yotsya iti manyase mithyaia vyavasyas te praktis tv niyokyati yat therefore; ahakram false ego; ritya taking shelter; na not; yotsya shall fight; iti thus; manyase think; mithy ea this is all false; vyavasyah te your determination; prakti material nature; tvm you; niyokyati will engage you. TRANSLATION If you do not act according to My direction and do not fight, then you will be falsely directed. By your nature, you will have to be engaged in warfare. PURPORT Arjuna was a military man, and born of the nature of the katriya. Therefore his natural duty was to fight. But, due to false ego, he was fearing that by killing his teacher, grandfather and friends, there would be sinful reactions. Actually he was considering himself master of his actions, as if he were directing the good and bad results of such work. He forgot that the Supreme Personality of Godhead was present there, instructing him to fight. That is the forgetfulness of the conditioned soul. The Supreme Personality gives directions as to what is good and what is bad, and one simply has to act in Ka consciousness to attain the perfection of life. No one can ascertain his destiny as the Supreme Lord can; therefore the best course is to take direction from the Supreme Lord and act. No one should neglect the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or the order of the spiritual master who is the representative of God. One should act unhesitatingly to execute the order of the Supreme Personality of Godheadthat will keep him safe under all circumstances. TEXT 60 svabhva-jena kaunteya nibaddha svena karma kartu necchasi yan moht kariyasy avao 'pi tat sva-bhva-jena by one's own nature; kaunteya O son of Kunt; nibaddha conditioned; svena by one's own; karma activities; kartum to do; na not; icchasi like; yat that; moht by illusion; kariyasi you will act; avaa imperceptibly; api even; tat that. TRANSLATION Under illusion you are now declining to act according to My direction. But, compelled by your own nature, you will act all the same, O son of Kunt. PURPORT If one refuses to act under the direction of the Supreme Lord, then he is compelled to act by the modes in which he is situated. Everyone is under the spell of a particular combination of the modes of nature and is acting in that way. But anyone who voluntarily engages himself under the direction of the Supreme Lord becomes glorious. TEXT 61 vara sarva-bhtn hd-dee 'rjuna tihati bhrmayan sarva-bhtni yantrrhni myay vara the Supreme Lord; sarva-bhtnm of all living entities; hd- dee in the location of the heart; arjuna O Arjuna; tihati resides; bhrmayan causing to travel; sarva-bhtni all living entities; yantra machine; rhni being so placed; myay under the spell of material energy. TRANSLATION The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. PURPORT Arjuna was not the supreme knower, and his decision to fight or not to fight was confined to his limited discretion. Lord Ka instructed that the individual is not all in all. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, or He Himself, Ka, the localized Supersoul, sits in the heart directing the living being. After changing bodies, the living entity forgets his past deeds, but the Supersoul, as the knower of the past, present and future, remains the witness of all his activities. Therefore all the activities of living entities are directed by this Supersoul. The living entity gets what he deserves and is carried by the material body which is created in the material energy under the direction of the Supersoul. As soon as a living entity is placed in a particular type of body, he has to work under the spell of that bodily situation. A person seated in a high-speed motor car goes faster than one seated in a slower car, though the living entities, the drivers, may be the same. Similarly, by the order of the Supreme Soul, material nature fashions a particular type of body to a particular type of living entity to work according to his past desires. The living entity is not independent. One should not think himself independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The individual is always under His control. Therefore his duty is to surrender, and that is the injunction of the next verse. TEXT 62 tam eva araa gaccha sarva-bhvena bhrata tat-prasdt par nti sthna prpsyasi vatam tam unto Him; eva certainly; araam surrender; gaccha go; sarva- bhvena in all respects; bhrata O son of Bharata; tat-prasdt by His grace; parm transcendental; ntim peace; sthnam abode; prpsyasi you will get; vatam eternal. TRANSLATION O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode. PURPORT A living entity should therefore surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is situated in everyone's heart, and that will relieve him from all kinds of miseries of this material existence. By such surrender, one will not only be released from all miseries in this life, but at the end he will reach the Supreme God. The transcendental world is described in the Vedic literature as tad vio parama padam. Since all of creation is the kingdom of God, everything material is actually spiritual, but parama padam specifically refers to the eternal abode, which is called the spiritual sky or Vaikuha. In the Fifteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gt it is stated: "Sarvasya cham hdi sannivia." The Lord is seated in everyone's heart, so this recommendation that one should surrender unto the Supersoul sitting within means that one should surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead , Ka. Ka has already been accepted by Arjuna as the Supreme. He was accepted in the Tenth Chapter as para brahma para dhma. Arjuna has accepted Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the supreme abode of all living entities, not only because of his personal experience but also because of the evidences of great authorities like Nrada, Asita, Devala and Vysa. TEXT 63 iti te jnam khyta guhyd guhyatara may vimyaitad aeea yathecchasi tath kuru iti thus; te unto you; jnam knowledge; khytam described; guhyt confidential; guhyataram still more confidential; may by Me; vimya by deliberation; etat that; aeea fully; yath as you; icchasi you like; tath that; kuru perform. TRANSLATION Thus I have explained to you the most confidential of all knowledge. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do. PURPORT The Lord has already explained to Arjuna the knowledge of brahma- bhta . One who is in the brahma-bhta condition is joyful; he never laments, nor does he desire anything. That is due to confidential knowledge. Ka also discloses knowledge of the Supersoul. This is also Brahman knowledge, knowledge of Brahman, but it is superior. Here Lord Ka tells Arjuna that he can do as he chooses. God does not interfere with the little independence of the living entity. In Bhagavad-gt, the Lord has explained in all respects how one can elevate his living condition. The best advice imparted to Arjuna is to surrender unto the Supersoul seated within his heart. By right discrimination, one should agree to act according to the order of the Supersoul. That will help one become situated constantly in Ka consciousness, the highest perfectional stage of human life. Arjuna is being directly ordered by the Personality of Godhead to fight. Surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is in the best interest of the living entities. It is not for the interest of the Supreme. Before surrendering, one is free to deliberate on this subject as far as the intelligence goes; that is the best way to accept the instruction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such instruction comes also through the spiritual master, the bona fide representative of Ka. TEXT 64 sarva-guhyatama bhya u me parama vaca io 'si me dham iti tato vakymi te hitam sarva-guhyatamam the most confidential; bhya again; u just hear; me from Me; paramam the supreme; vaca instruction; isa asi you are very dear to Me; dham very; iti thus; tata therefore; vakymi speaking; te for your; hitam benefit. TRANSLATION Because you are My very dear friend, I am speaking to you the most confidential part of knowledge. Hear this from Me, for it is for your benefit. PURPORT The Lord has given Arjuna confidential knowledge of the Supersoul within everyone's heart, and now He is giving the most confidential part of this knowledge: just surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. At the end of the Ninth Chapter He has said, "Just always think of Me." The same instruction is repeated here to stress the essence of the teachings of Bhagavad- gt. This essence is not understood by a common man, but by one who is actually very dear to Ka, a pure devotee of Ka. This is the most important instruction in all Vedic literature. What Ka is saying in this connection is the most essential part of knowledge, and it should be carried out not only by Arjuna but by all living entities. TEXT 65 man-man bhava mad-bhakto mad-yj m namaskuru mm evaiyasi satya te pratijne priyo 'si me man-man thinking of Me; bhava just become; mat-bhakta My devotee; mat-yj My worshiper; mm unto Me; namaskuru offer your obeisances; mm unto Me; eva certainly; eyasi come; satyam truly; te to you; pratijne I promise; prija dear; asi you are; me My. TRANSLATION Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend. PURPORT The most confidential part of knowledge is that one should become a pure devotee of Ka and always think of Him and act for Him. One should not become an official meditator. Life should be so molded that one will always have the chance to think of Ka. One should always act in such a way that all his daily activities are in connection with Ka. He should arrange his life in such a way that throughout the twenty-four hours he cannot but think of Ka. And the Lord's promise is that anyone who is in such pure Ka consciousness will certainly return to the abode of Ka, where he will be engaged in the association of Ka face to face. This most confidential part of knowledge is spoken to Arjuna because he is the dear friend of Ka. Everyone who follows the path of Arjuna can become a dear friend to Ka and obtain the same perfection as Arjuna. These words stress that one should concentrate his mind upon Kathe very form with two hands carrying a flute, the bluish boy with a beautiful face and peacock feathers in His hair. There are descriptions of Ka found in the Brahma-sahit and other literatures. One should fix his mind on this original form of Godhead, Ka. He should not even divert his attention to other forms of the Lord. The Lord has multi-forms, as Viu, Nryaa, Rma, Varha, etc., but a devotee should concentrate his mind on the form that was present before Arjuna. Concentration of the mind on the form of Ka constitutes the most confidential part of knowledge, and this is disclosed to Arjuna because Arjuna is the most dear friend of Ka's. TEXT 66 sarva-dharmn parityajya mm eka araa vraja aha tv sarva-ppebhyo mokayiymi m uca sarva-dharmn all varieties of religion; parityajya abandoning; mm unto Me; ekam only; araam surrender; vraja go; aham I; tvm you; sarva all; ppebhya from sinful reactions; mokayiymi deliver; m not; uca worry. TRANSLATION Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear. PURPORT The Lord has described various kinds of knowledge, processes of religion, knowledge of the Supreme Brahman, knowledge of the Supersoul, knowledge of the different types of orders and statuses of social life, knowledge of the renounced order of life, knowledge of nonattachment, sense and mind control, meditation, etc. He has described in so many ways different types of religion. Now, in summarizing Bhagavad-gt, the Lord says that Arjuna should give up all the processes that have been explained to him; he should simply surrender to Ka. That surrender will save him from all kinds of sinful reactions, for the Lord personally promises to protect him. In the Eighth Chapter it was said that only one who has become free from all sinful reactions can take to the worship of Lord Ka. Thus one may think that unless he is free from all sinful reactions he cannot take to the surrendering process. To such doubts it is here said that even if one is not free from all sinful reactions, simply by the process of surrendering to r Ka he is automatically freed. There is no need of strenuous effort to free oneself from sinful reactions. One should unhesitatingly accept Ka as the supreme savior of all living entities. With faith and love, one should surrender unto Him. According to the devotional process, one should simply accept such religious principles that will lead ultimately to the devotional service of the Lord. One may perform a particular occupational duty according to his position in the social order, but if by executing his duty one does not come to the point of Ka consciousness, all his activities are in vain. Anything that does not lead to the perfectional stage of Ka consciousness should be avoided. One should be confident that in all circumstances Ka will protect him from all difficulties. There is no need of thinking how one should keep the body and soul together. Ka will see to that. One should always think himself helpless and should consider Ka the only basis for his progress in life. As soon as one seriously engages himself in devotional service to the Lord in full Ka consciousness, at once he becomes freed from all contamination of material nature. There are different processes of religion and purificatory processes by cultivation of knowledge, meditation in the mystic yoga system, etc., but one who surrenders unto Ka does not have to execute so many methods. That simple surrender unto Ka will save him from unnecessarily wasting time. One can thus make all progress at once and be freed from all sinful reaction. One should be attracted by the beautiful vision of Ka. His name is Ka because He is all-attractive. One who becomes attracted by the beautiful, all- powerful, omnipotent vision of Ka is fortunate. There are different kinds of transcendentalistssome of them are attached to the impersonal Brahman vision, some of them are attracted by the Supersoul feature, etc., but one who is attracted to the personal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and, above all, one who is attracted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Ka Himself, is the most perfect transcendentalist. In other words, devotional service to Ka, in full consciousness, is the most confidential part of knowledge, and this is the essence of the whole Bhagavad-gt. Karma- yogs , empiric philosophers, mystics, and devotees are all called transcendentalists, but one who is a pure devotee is the best of all. The particular words used here, m uca , "Don't fear, don't hesitate, don't worry," are very significant. One may be perplexed as to how one can give up all kinds of religious forms and simply surrender unto Ka, but such worry is useless. TEXT 67 ida te ntapaskya nbhaktya kadcana na curave vcya na ca m yo 'bhyasyati idam this; te you; na never; atapaskya one who is not austere; na never; abhaktya one who is not a devotee; kadcana at any time; na never; ca also; aurave one who is not engaged in devotional service; vcyam to be spoken; na never; ca also; mm unto Me; ya anyone; abhyasyati envious. TRANSLATION This confidential knowledge may not be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me. PURPORT Persons who have not undergone the austerities of the religious process, who have never attempted devotional service in Ka consciousness, who have not tended a pure devotee, and especially those who are conscious of Ka as a historical personality or who are envious of the greatness of Ka, should not be told this most confidential part of knowledge. It is, however, sometimes found that even demoniac persons who are envious of Ka, worshiping Ka in a different way, take to the profession of explaining Bhagavad-gt in a different way to make business, but anyone who desires actually to understand Ka must avoid such commentaries on Bhagavad- gt. Actually the purpose of Bhagavad-gt is not understandable to those who are sensuouseven if one is not sensuous but is strictly following the disciplines enjoined in the Vedic scripture, if he is not a devotee, he also cannot understand Ka. Even when one poses himself as a devotee of Ka, but is not engaged in Ka conscious activities, he also cannot understand Ka. There are many persons who envy Ka because He has explained in Bhagavad-gt that He is the Supreme and that nothing is above Him or equal to Him. There are many persons who are envious of Ka. Such persons should not be told of Bhagavad-gt, for they cannot understand. There is no possibility of faithless persons' understanding Bhagavad-gt and Ka. Without understanding Ka from the authority of a pure devotee, one should not try to comment upon Bhagavad-git. TEXT 68 ya ida parama guhya mad-bhaktev abhidhsyati bhakti mayi par ktv mm evaiyaty asaaya ya anyone; idam this; paramam most; guhyam confidential; mat Mine; bhakteu amongst devotees of; abhidhsyati explains; bhaktim devotional service; mayi unto Me; parm transcendental; ktv having done; mm unto Me; eva certainly; eyati comes; asaaya without doubt. TRANSLATION For one who explains the supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. PURPORT Generally it is advised that Bhagavad-gt be discussed amongst the devotees only, for those who are not devotees will neither understand Ka nor Bhagavad-gt. Those who do not accept Ka as He is and Bhagavad- gt as it is should not try to explain Bhagavad-gt whimsically and become offenders. Bhagavad-gt should be explained to persons who are ready to accept Ka as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is a subject matter for the devotees only and not for philosophical speculators. Anyone, however, who tries sincerely to present Bhagavad-gt as it is will advance in devotional activities and reach the pure devotional state of life. As a result of such pure devotion, he is sure to go back home, back to Godhead. TEXT 69 na ca tasmn manuyeu kacin me priya-kttama bhavit na ca me tasmd anya priyataro bhuvi na never; ca and; tasmt therefore; manuyeu among mankind; kacit anyone; me My; priya-kttama more dear; bhavit will become; na no; ca and; me My; tasmt than him; anya other; priyatara dearer; bhuvi in this world. TRANSLATION There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear. TEXT 70 adhyeyate ca ya ima dharmya savdam vayo jna-yajena tenham ia sym iti me mati adhyeyate will study; ca also; ya he; imam this; dharmya sacred; savdam conversation; vayo of ours; jna knowledge; yajena by sacrifice; tena by him; aham I; ia worshiped; sym shall be; iti thus; me My; mati opinion. TRANSLATION And I declare that he who studies this sacred conversation worships Me by his intelligence. TEXT 71 raddhvn anasya ca uyd api yo nara so 'pi mukta ubhl lokn prpnuyt puya-karmam sraddhvan faithful; anasya ca and not envious; uyt does hear; api certainly; ya who; nara man; sa api he also; mukta being liberated; ubhn auspicious; lokn planets; prpnuyt attains; puya- karmam of the past. TRANSLATION And one who listens with faith and without envy becomes free from sinful reaction and attains to the planets where the pious dwell. PURPORT In the 67th verse of this chapter, the Lord explicitly forbade the Gt's being spoken to those who are envious of the Lord. In other words, Bhagavad-gt is for the devotees only, but it so happens that sometimes a devotee of the Lord will hold open class, and in that class all the students are not expected to be devotees. Why do such persons hold open class? It is explained here that although everyone is not a devotee, still there are many men who are not envious of Ka. They have faith in Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If such persons hear from a bona fide devotee about the Lord, the result is that they become at once free from all sinful reactions and after that attain to the planetary system where all righteous persons are situated. Therefore simply by hearing Bhagavad-gt, even a person who does not try to be a pure devotee attains the result of righteous activities. Thus a pure devotee of the Lord gives everyone a chance to become free from all sinful reactions and to become a devotee of the Lord. Generally those who are free from sinful reaction are righteous. Such persons very easily take to Ka consciousness. The word puya- karmam is very significant here. This refers to the performance of great sacrifice. Those who are righteous in performing devotional service but who are not pure can attain the planetary system of the polestar, or Dhruvaloka, where Dhruva Mahrja is presiding. He is a great devotee of the Lord, and he has a special planet which is called the polestar. TEXT 72 kaccid etac chruta prtha tvayaikgrea cetas kaccid ajna-sammoha praaas te dhanajaya kaccit whether; etat this; rutam heard; prtha O son of Pth; tvay by you; ekgrea with full attention; cetas by the mind; kaccit whether; ajna ignorant; samoha illusion; praaa dispelled; te of you; dhanajaya O conqueror of wealth (Arjuna). TRANSLATION O conqueror of wealth, Arjuna, have you heard this attentively with your mind? And are your illusions and ignorance now dispelled? PURPORT The Lord was acting as the spiritual master of Arjuna. Therefore it was His duty to inquire from Arjuna whether he understood the whole Bhagavad-gt in its proper perspective. If not, the Lord was ready to re-explain any point, or the whole Bhagavad-gt if so required. Actually, anyone who hears Bhagavad-gt from a bona fide spiritual master like Ka or His representative will find that all his ignorance is dispelled. Bhagavad-gt is not an ordinary book written by a poet or fiction writer; it is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Any person, if he is fortunate enough to hear these teachings from Ka or from His bona fide spiritual representative, is sure to become a liberated person and get out of the darkness of ignorance. TEXT 73 arjuna uvca nao moha smtir labdh tvat-prasdn maycyuta sthito 'smi gata-sandeha kariye vacana tava arjuna uvca Arjuna said; naa dispelled; moha illusion; smti memory; labdh regained; tvat-prasdt by Your mercy; may by me; acyuta O infallible Ka; sthita situated; asmi I am; gata removed; sandeha all doubts; kariye I shall execute; vacanam order; tava Your. TRANSLATION Arjuna said, My dear Ka, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions. PURPORT The constitutional position of a living entity, represented by Arjuna, is that he has to act according to the order of the Supreme Lord. He is meant for self- discipline. r Caitanya Mahprabhu says that the actual position of the living entity is that of eternal servant of the Supreme Lord. Forgetting this principle, the living entity becomes conditioned by material nature, but in serving the Supreme Lord, he becomes the liberated servant of God. The living entity's constitutional position is to be servitor; he either has to serve the illusory my or the Supreme Lord. If he serves the Supreme Lord, he is in his normal condition, but if he prefers to serve the illusory external energy, then certainly he will be in bondage. In illusion the living entity is serving in this material world. He is bound by his lust and desires, yet he thinks of himself as the master of the world. This is called illusion. When a person is liberated, his illusion is over, and he voluntarily surrenders unto the Supreme to act according to His desires. The last illusion, the last snare of my to trap the living entity, is the proposition that he is God. The living entity thinks that he is no longer a conditioned soul, but God. He is so unintelligent that he does not think that if he were God, then how could he be in doubt? That he does not consider. So that is the last snare of illusion. Actually to become free from the illusory energy is to understand Ka, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and agree to act according to His order. The word moha is very important in this verse. Moha refers to that which is opposed to knowledge. Actually real knowledge is the understanding that every living being is eternally servitor of the Lord, but instead of thinking oneself in that position, the living entity thinks that he is not servant, that he is the master of this material world, for he wants to lord it over the material nature. That is his illusion. This illusion can be overcome by the mercy of the Lord or by the mercy of a pure devotee. When that illusion is over, one agrees to act in Ka consciousness. Ka consciousness is acting according to Ka's order. A conditioned soul illusioned by the external energy of matter does not know that the Supreme Lord is the master who is full of knowledge and who is the proprietor of everything. Whatever He desires He can bestow upon His devotees; He is the friend of everyone, and He is especially inclined to His devotee. He is the controller of this material nature and of all living entities. He is also the controller of inexhaustible time, and He is full of all opulences and all potencies. The Supreme Personality of Godhead can even give Himself to the devotee. One who does not know Him is under the spell of illusion; he does not become a devotee, but a servitor of my . Arjuna, however, after hearing Bhagavad-gt from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, became free from all illusion. He could understand that Ka was not only his friend, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And he understood Ka factually. So to study Bhagavad-gt is to understand Ka factually. When a person is in full knowledge, he naturally surrenders to Ka. When Arjuna understood that it was Ka's plan to reduce the unnecessary increase of population, he agreed to fight according to Ka's desire. He again took up his weapons his arrows and bow to fight under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. TEXT 74 sajaya uvca ity aha vsudevasya prthasya ca mahtmana savdam imam arauam adbhuta roma-haraam sajaya uvca Sajaya said; iti thus; aham I; vsudevasya of Ka; prthasya of Arjuna; ca also; mahtmana two great souls; savdam discussing; imam this; arauam heard; adbhutam wonder; romaharaam hair standing on end. TRANSLATION Sajaya said: Thus have I heard the conversation of two great souls, Ka and Arjuna. And so wonderful is that message that my hair is standing on end. PURPORT In the beginning of Bhagavad-gt, Dhtarra inquired from his secretary Sajaya, "What happened in the Battlefield of Kuruketra?" The entire study was related to the heart of Sajaya by the grace of his spiritual master, Vysa. He thus explained the theme of the battlefield. The conversation was wonderful because such an important conversation between two great souls never took place before and would not take place again. It is wonderful because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is speaking about Himself and His energies to the living entity, Arjuna, a great devotee of the Lord. If we follow in the footsteps of Arjuna to understand Ka, then our life will be happy and successful. Sajaya realized this, and as he began to understand it, he related the conversation to Dhtarra. Now it is concluded that wherever there is Ka and Arjuna, there is victory. TEXT 75 vysa-prasdc chrutavn etad guhyam aha param yoga yogevart kt skt kathayata svayam vysa-prasdt by the mercy of Vysadeva; rutavn heard; etat this; guhyam confidential; aham I; param the supreme; yogam mysticism; yogevart from the master of all mysticism; kt from Ka; skt directly; kathayata speaking; svayam personally. TRANSLATION By the mercy of Vysa, I have heard these most confidential talks directly from the master of all mysticism, Ka, who was speaking personally to Arjuna. PURPORT Vysa was the spiritual master of Sajaya, and Sajaya admits that it was by his mercy that he could understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This means that one has to understand Ka not directly but through the medium of the spiritual master. The spiritual master is the transparent medium, although it is true that the experience is direct. This is the mystery of the disciplic succession. When the spiritual master is bona fide, then one can hear Bhagavad-gt directly, as Arjuna heard it. There are many mystics and yogs all over the world, but Ka is the master of all yoga systems. Ka's instruction is explicitly stated in Bhagavad-gt surrender unto Ka. One who does so is the topmost yog . This is confirmed in the last verse of the Sixth Chapter. Yoginm api sarvem. Nrada is the direct disciple of Ka and the spiritual master of Vysa. Therefore Vysa is as bona fide as Arjuna because he comes in the disciplic succession, and Sajaya is the direct disciple of Vysa. Therefore by the grace of Vysa, his senses were purified, and he could see and hear Ka directly. One who directly hears Ka can understand this confidential knowledge. If one does not come to the disciplic succession, he cannot hear Ka; therefore his knowledge is always imperfect, at least as far as understanding Bhagavad- gt is concerned. In Bhagavad-gt, all the yoga systems, karma-yoga, jna-yoga and bhakti-yoga, are explained. Ka is the master of all such mysticism. It is to be understood, however, that as Arjuna was fortunate enough to understand Ka directly, similarly, by the grace of Vysa, Sajaya was also able to hear Ka directly. Actually there is no difference in hearing directly from Ka or hearing directly from Ka via a bona fide spiritual master like Vysa. The spiritual master is the representative of Vysadeva also. According to the Vedic system, on the birthday of the spiritual master, the disciples conduct the ceremony called Vysa-pj. TEXT 76 rjan sasmtya sasmtya savdam imam adbhutam keavrjunayo puya hymi ca muhur muhu rjan O King; sasmtya remembering; sasmtya remembering; savdam message; imam this; adbhutam wonderful; keava Lord Ka; arjunayo and Arjuna; puyam pious; hymi taking pleasure; ca also; muhu muhu always, repeatedly. TRANSLATION O King, as I repeatedly recall this wondrous and holy dialogue between Ka and Arjuna, I take pleasure, being thrilled at every moment. PURPORT The understanding of Bhagavad-gt is so transcendental that anyone who becomes conversant with the topics of Arjuna and Ka becomes righteous, and he cannot forget such talks. This is the transcendental position of spiritual life. In other words, one who hears the Gt from the right source, directly from Ka, attains full Ka consciousness. The result of Ka consciousness is that one becomes increasingly enlightened, and he enjoys life with a thrill, not only for some time, but at every moment. TEXT 77 tac ca sasmtya sasmtya rpam aty-adbhuta hare vismayo me mahn rjan hymi ca puna puna tat that; ca also; sasmtya remembering; sasmtya remembering; rpam form; ati great; adbhutam wonderful; hare of Lord Ka; vismaya wonder; me my; mahn great; rjan O King, hymi enjoying; ca also; puna puna repeatedly. TRANSLATION O King, when I remember the wonderful form of Lord Ka, I am struck with even greater wonder, and I rejoice again and again. PURPORT It appears that Sajaya also, by the grace of Vysa, could see the universal form of Ka exhibited to Arjuna. It is, of course, said that Lord Ka never exhibited such a form before. It was exhibited to Arjuna only, yet some great devotees could also see the universal form of Ka when it was shown to Arjuna, and Vysa was one of them. He is one of the great devotees of the Lord, and he is considered to be a powerful incarnation of Ka. Vysa disclosed this to his disciple, Sajaya, who remembered that wonderful form of Ka exhibited to Arjuna and enjoyed it repeatedly. TEXT 78 yatra yogevara ko yatra prtho dhanur-dhara tatra rr vijayo bhtir dhruv ntir matir mama yatra where; yogevara the master of mysticism; ka Lord Krna; yatra where; prtha the son of Pth; dhanur-dhara the carrier of the bow and arrow; tatra there; r opulence; vijaya victory; bhti exceptional power; dhruv certainly; nti morality; mati mama is my opinion. TRANSLATION Wherever there is Ka, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion. PURPORT The Bhagavad-gt began with an inquiry of Dhtarra. He was hopeful of the victory of his sons, assisted by great warriors like Bhma, Droa and Kara. He was hopeful that the victory would be on his side. But, after describing the scene in the battlefield, Sajaya told the King, "You are thinking of victory, but my opinion is that where Ka and Arjuna are present, there will be all good fortune." He directly confirmed that Dhtarra could not expect victory for his side. Victory was certain for the side of Arjuna because Ka was there. Ka's acceptance of the post of charioteer for Arjuna was an exhibition of another opulence. Ka is full of all opulences, and renunciation is one of them. There are many instances of such renunciation, for Ka is also the master of renunciation. The fight was actually between Duryodhana and Yudhihira. Arjuna was fighting on behalf of his elder brother, Yudhihira. Because Ka and Arjuna were on the side of Yudhihira, Yudhihira's victory was certain. The battle was to decide who would rule the world, and Sajaya predicted that the power would be transferred to Yudhihira. It is also predicted here that Yudhihira, after gaining victory in this battle, would flourish more and more because he was not only righteous and pious, but he was a strict moralist. He never spoke a lie during his life. There are many less intelligent persons who take Bhagavad-gt to be a discussion of topics between two friends in a battlefield. But such a book cannot be scripture. Some may protest that Ka incited Arjuna to fight, which is immoral, but the reality of the situation is clearly stated: Bhagavad- gt is the supreme instruction in morality. The supreme instruction of morality is stated in the Ninth Chapter, in the thirty-fourth verse: manman bhava mad-bhakta. One must become a devotee of Ka, and the essence of all religion is to surrender unto Ka, as stated, Sarva-dharmn. The instructions of Bhagavad-gt constitute the supreme process of religion and of morality. All other processes may be purifying and may lead to this process, but the last instruction of the Gt is the last word in all morality and religion: surrender unto Ka. This is the verdict of the Eighteenth Chapter. From Bhagavad-gt we can understand that to realize oneself by philosophical speculation and by meditation is one process, but to fully surrender unto Ka is the highest perfection. This is the essence of the teachings of Bhagavad-gt. The path of regulative principles according to the orders of social life and according to the different courses of religion may be a confidential path of knowledge in as far as the rituals of religion are confidential, but one is still involved with meditation and cultivation of knowledge. Surrender unto Ka in devotional service in full Ka consciousness is the most confidential instruction and is the essence of the Eighteenth Chapter. Another feature of Bhagavad-gt is that the actual truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. Absolute Truth is realized in three features impersonal Brahman, localized Paramtm, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. Perfect knowledge of the Absolute Truth means perfect knowledge of Ka. If one understands Ka, then all the departments of knowledge are part and parcel of that understanding. Ka is transcendental, for He is always situated in His eternal internal potency. The living entities are manifested and are divided into two classes, eternally conditioned and eternally liberated. Such living entities are innumerable, and they are considered fundamental parts of Ka. Material energy is manifested into twenty-four divisions. The creation is effected by eternal time, and it is created and dissolved by external energy. This manifestation of the cosmic world repeatedly becomes visible and invisible. In Bhagavad-gt five principal subject matters have been discussed: the Supreme Personality of Godhead, material nature, the living entities, eternal time and all kinds of activities. All of these are dependent on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ka. All conceptions of the Absolute Truth, namely, impersonal Brahman, localized Paramtm, or any other transcendental conception, exist within the category of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although superficially the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the living entity, material nature and time appear to be different, nothing is different from the Supreme. But the Supreme is always different from everything. Lord Caitanya's philosophy is that of "inconceivably one and different." This system of philosophy constitutes perfect knowledge of the Absolute Truth. The living entity in his original position is pure spirit. He is just like an atomic particle of the Supreme Spirit. The conditioned living entity, however, is the marginal energy of the Lord; he tends to be in contact with both the material energy and the spiritual energy. In other words, the living entity is situated between the two energies of the Lord, and because he belongs to the superior energy of the Lord, he has a particle of independence. By proper use of that independence he comes under the direct order of Ka. Thus he attains his normal condition in the pleasure-giving potency. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Eighteenth Chapter of the rmad-Bhagavad-gt in the matter of its Conclusions the Perfection of Renunciation. Back cover |
THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY OR HELLENISM AND PESSIMISM BY FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE TRANSLATED BY WM. A. HAUSSMANN 1910 The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. This edition was created and published by Global Grey GlobalGrey 2018 globalgreyebooks.com CONTENTS Introduction An Attempt At Self -Criticism Foreword To Richard Wagner The Birth Of Tragedy Appendix Translator's Note INTRODUCTION This Introduction by E. Frster -Nietzsche, which appears in the front of the first volume of Naumann's Pocket Edition of Nietzsche, has been translated and arranged by Mr. A. M. Ludovici. Frederick Nietzsche was born at Rcken near Ltzen, in the Prussian province of Saxony, on the 15th of October 1844, at 10 a.m. The day happened to be the anniversary of the birth of Frederick -William IV., then King of Prussia, and the peal of the local church- bells which was intended to celebrate this event, was, by a happy coincidence, just timed to greet my brother on his entrance into the world. In 1841, at the time when our father was tutor to the Altenburg Princesses, Theresa of Saxe - Altenburg, Elizabeth, Grand Duchess of Olden -burg, and Alexandra, Grand Duchess Constantine of Russia, he had had the honour of being presented to his witty and pious sovereign. The meeting seems to have impressed both parties very favourably; for, very shortly after it had taken place, our father received his living at Rcken "by supreme command." His joy may well be imagined, therefore, when a first son was born to him on his beloved and august patron's birthday, and at the christening ceremony he spoke as follows: "Thou blessed month of October! for many years the most decisive events in my life have occurred within thy thirty -one days, and now I celebrate the greatest and most glorious of them all by baptising my little boy! O blissful moment! O exquisite festival! O unspeakably holy duty! In the Lord's name I bless thee! With all my heart I utter these words: Bring me this, my beloved child, that I may consecrate it unto the Lord. My son, Frederick William, thus shalt thou be named on earth, as a memento of my royal benefactor on whose birthday thou wast born!" Our father was thirty -one years of age, and our mother not quite nineteen, when my brother was born. Our mother, who was the daughter of a clergyman, was good -looking and healthy, and was one of a very large family of sons and daughters. Our paternal grandparents, the Rev. Oehler and his wife, in Pobles, were typically healthy people. Strength, robustness, lively dispositions, and a cheerful outlook on life, were among the qualities which ever y one was pleased to observe in them. Our 1 grandfather Oehler was a bright, clever man, and quite the old style of comfortable country parson, who thought it no sin to go hunting. He scarcely had a day's illness in his life, and would certainly not have met with his end as early as he did that is to say, before his seventieth year if his careless disregard of all caution, where his health was concerned, had not led to his catching a severe and fatal cold. In regard to our grand- mother Oehler, who died in her eighty- second year, all that can be said is, that if all German women were possessed of the health she enjoyed, the German nation would excel all others from the standpoint of vitality. She bore our grandfather eleven children; gave each of them the breast for nearly the whole of its first year, and reared them all It is said that the sight of these eleven children, at ages varying from nineteen years to one month, with their powerful build, rosy cheeks, beaming eyes, and wealth of curly locks, provoked the admiration of all visitors. Of course, despite their extraordinarily good health, the life of this family was not by any means all sunshine. Each of the children was very spirited, wilful, and obstinate, and it was therefore no simple matter to keep them in order. Moreover, though they always showed the utmost respect and most implicit obedience to their parents even as middle - aged men and women misunderstandings between themselves were of constant occurrence. Our Oehler grandparents were fairly well -to-do; for our grandmother hailed from a very old family, who had been extensive land -owners in the neighbourhood of Zeitz for centuries, and her father owned the baronial estate of Wehlitz and a magnificent seat near Zeitz in Pacht. When she married, her father gave her carriages and horses, a coachman, a cook, and a kitchenmaid, which for the wife of a German minister was then, and is still, something quite exceptional. As a result of the wars in the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, our great - grandfather lost the greater part of his property. Our father's family was also in fairly comfortable circumstances, and likewise very large. Our grandfather Dr. Nietzsche (D.D. and Superintendent) married twice, and had in all twelve children, of whom three died young. Our grandfather on this side, whom I never knew, must certainly have been a distinguished, dignified, very learned and reserved man; his second wifeour beloved grandmother was an active -minded, intelligent, and exceptionally good- natured woman . The whole of our father's family, which I only got to know when they were 2 very advanced in years, were remarkable for their great power of self - control, their lively interest in intellectual matters, and a strong sense of family unity, which manifested itself both in their splendid readiness to help one another and in their very excellent relations with each other. Our father was the youngest son, and, thanks to his uncommonly lovable disposition, together with other gifts, which only tended to become more marked as he grew older, he was quite the favourite of the family. Blessed with a thoroughly sound constitution, as all averred who knew him at the convent -school in Rossleben, at the University, or later at the ducal court of Altenburg, he was tall and slender, possessed an undoubted gift for poetry and real musical talent, and was moreover a man of delicate sensibilities, full of consideration for his whole family, and distinguished in his manners. My brother often refers to his Polish descent, and in later years he even instituted research -work with the view of establishing it, which met with partial success. I know nothing definite concerning these investigations, because a large number of valuable documents were unfortunately destroyed after his break down in Turin. The family tradition was that a certain Polish nobleman Nicki (pronounced Nietzky) had obtained the special favour of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland, and had received the rank of Earl from him. When, however, Stanislas Leszcysski the Pole became king, our supposed ancestor became involved in a conspiracy in favour of the Saxons and Protestants. He was sentenced to death; but, taking flight, according to the evidence of the documents, he was ultimately befriended by a certain Earl of Brh l, who gave him a small post in an obscure little provincial town. Occasionally our aged aunts would speak of our great -grandfather Nietzsche, who was said to have died in his ninety -first year, and words always seemed to fail them when they attempted to d escribe his handsome appearance, good breeding, and vigour. Our ancestors, both on the Nietzsche and the Oehler side, were very long- lived. Of the four pairs of great -grandparents, one great - grandfather reached the age of ninety, five great -grandmothers and- fathers died between eighty -two and eighty -six years of age, and two only failed to reach their seventieth year. The sorrow which hung as a cloud over our branch of the family was our father's death, as the result of a heavy fall, at the age of thirty- eight. One night, upon leaving some friends whom he had accompanied home, he 3 was met at the door of the vicarage by our little dog. The little animal must have got between his feet, for he stumbled and fell backwards down seven stone steps on to the paving-s tones of the vicarage courtyard. As a result of this fall, he was laid up with concussion of the brain, and, after a lingering illness, which lasted eleven months, he died on the 30th of July 1849. The early death of our beloved and highly -gifted father sp read gloom over the whole of our childhood. In 1850 our mother withdrew with us to Naumburg on the Saale, where she took up her abode with our widowed grandmother Nietzsche; and there she brought us up with Spartan severity and simplicity, which, besides b eing typical of the period, was quite de rigeur in her family. Of course, Grand-mamma Nietzsche helped somewhat to temper her daughter- in-law's severity, and in this respect our Oehler grandparents, who were less rigorous with us, their eldest grandchildren, than with their own children, were also very influential. Grandfather Oehler was the first who seems to have recognised the extraordinary talents of his eldest grandchild. From his earliest childhood upwards, my brother was always strong and healthy; he often declared that he must have been taken for a peasant - boy throughout his childhood and youth, as he was so plump, brown, and rosy. The thick fair hair which fell picturesquely over his shoulders tended somewhat to modify his robust appearance. Had he not possessed those wonderfully beautiful, large, and expressive eyes, however, and had he not been so very ceremonious in his manner, neither his teachers nor his relatives would ever have noticed anything at all remarkable about the boy; for he was both modest and reserved. He received his early schooling at a preparatory school, and later at a grammar school in Naumburg. In the autumn of 1858, when he was fourteen years of age, he entered the Pforta school, so famous for the scholars it has produced. The re, too, very severe discipline prevailed, and much was exacted from the pupils, with the view of inuring them to great mental and physical exertions. Thus, if my brother seems to lay particular stress upon the value of rigorous training, free from all sentimentality, it should be remembered that he speaks from experience in this respect. At Pforta he followed the regular school course, and he did not enter a university until the comparatively late age of twenty. His extraordinary gifts manifested themselves chiefly in his independent and private studies and artistic efforts. As a boy his musical talent had 4 already been so noticeable, that he himself and other competent judges were doubtful as to whether he ought not perhaps to devote himself altogether to m usic. It is, however, worth noting that everything he did in his later years, whether in Latin, Greek, or German work, bore the stamp of perfection subject of course to the limitation imposed upon him by his years. His talents came very suddenly to the fore, because he had allowed them to grow for such a long time in concealment. His very first performance in philology, executed while he was a student under Ritschl, the famous philologist, was also typical of him in this respect, seeing that it was ordered to be printed for the Rheinische Museum. Of course this was done amid general and grave expressions of doubt; for, as Dr. Ritschl often declared, it was an unheard -of occurrence for a student in his third term to prepare such an excellent treatise. Being a great lover of out -door exercise, such as swimming, skating, and walking, he developed into a very sturdy lad. Rohde gives the following description of him as a student: with his healthy complexion, his outward and inner cleanliness, his austere chastity and his solemn aspect, he was the image of that delightful youth described by Adalbert Stifter. Though as a child he was always rather serious, as a lad and a man he was ever inclined to see the humorous side of things, while his whole being, and everythin g he said or did, was permeated by an extraordinary harmony. He belonged to the very few who could control even a bad mood and conceal it from others. All his friends are unanimous in their praise of his exceptional evenness of temper and behaviour, and hi s warm, hearty, and pleasant laugh that seemed to come from the very depths of his benevolent and affectionate nature. In him it might therefore be said, nature had produced a being who in body and spirit was a harmonious whole: his unusual intellect was f ully in keeping with his uncommon bodily strength. The only abnormal thing about him, and something which we both inherited from our father, was short -sightedness, and this was very much aggravated in my brother's case, even in his earliest schooldays, owi ng to that indescribable anxiety to learn which always characterised him. When one listens to accounts given by his friends and schoolfellows, one is startled by the multiplicity of his studies even in his schooldays. 5 In the autumn of 1864, he began his un iversity life in Bonn, and studied philology and theology; at the end of six months he gave up theology, and in the autumn of 1865 followed his famous teacher Ritschl to the University of Leipzig. There he became an ardent philologist, and diligently sought to acquire a masterly grasp of this branch of knowledge. But in this respect it would be unfair to forget that the school of Pforta, with its staff of excellent teachers scholars that would have adorned the chairs of any University had already afforded t he best of preparatory trainings to any one intending to take up philology as a study, more particularly as it gave all pupils ample scope to indulge any individual tastes they might have for any particular branch of ancient history. The last important Lat in thesis which my brother wrote for the Landes - Schule, Pforta, dealt with the Megarian poet Theognis, and it was in the rle of a lecturer on this very subject that, on the 18th January 1866, he made his first appearance in public before the philological society he had helped to found in Leipzig. The paper he read disclosed his investigations on the subject of Theognis the moralist and aristocrat, who, as is well known, described and dismissed the plebeians of his time in terms of the heartiest contempt Th e aristocratic ideal, which was always so dear to my brother, thus revealed itself for the first time. Moreover, curiously enough, it was precisely this scientific thesis which was the cause of Ritschl's recognition of my brother and fondness for him. The whole of his Leipzig days proved of the utmost importance to my brother's career. There he was plunged into the very midst of a torrent of intellectual influences which found an impressionable medium in the fiery youth, and to which he eagerly made himself accessible. He did not, however, forget to discriminate among them, but tested and criticised the currents of thought he encountered, and selected accordingly. It is certainly of great importance to ascertain what those influences precisely were to which he yielded, and how long they maintained their sway over him, and it is likewise necessary to discover exactly when the matured mind threw off these fetters in order to work out its own salvation. The influences that exercised power over him in those days may be described in the three following terms: Hellenism, Schopenhauer, Wagner. His love of Hellenism certainly led him to philology; but, as a matter of fact, what concerned him most was to obtain a wide view of 6 things in general, and this he hoped to derive from that science; philology in itself, with his splendid method and thorough way of going to work, served him only as a means to an end. If Hellenism was the first strong influence which already in Pforta obtained a sway over my brother, in the winter of 1865 -66, a completely new, and therefore somewhat subversive, influence was introduced into his life with Schopenhauer's philosophy. When he reached Leipzig in the autumn of 1865, he was very downcast; for the experiences that had befallen him during h is one year of student life in Bonn had deeply depressed him. He had sought at first to adapt himself to his surroundings there, with the hope of ultimately elevating them to his lofty views on things; but both these efforts proved vain, and now he had come to Leipzig with the purpose of framing his own manner of life. It can easily be imagined how the first reading of Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Idea worked upon this man, still stinging from the bitterest experiences and disappointments. He writes: "Here I saw a mirror in which I espied the world, life, and my own nature depicted with frightful grandeur." As my brother, from his very earliest childhood, had always missed both the parent and the educator through our father's untimely death, he began to regard Schopenhauer with almost filial love and respect. He did not venerate him quite as other men did; Schopenhauer's personality was what attracted and enchanted him. From the first he was never blind to the faults in his master's system, and in proof of this we have only to refer to an essay he wrote in the autumn of 1867, which actually contains a criticism of Schopenhauer's philosophy. Now, in the autumn of 1865, to these two influences, Hellenism and Schopenhauer, a third influence was adde done which was to prove the strongest ever exercised over my brother and it began with his personal introduction to Richard Wagner. He was introduced to Wagner by the latter's sister, Frau Professor Brockhaus, and his description of their first meeting, c ontained in a letter to Erwin Rohde, is really most affecting. For years, that is to say, from the time Billow's arrangement of Tristan and Isolde for the pianoforte, had appeared, he had already been a passionate admirer of Wagner's music; but now that the artist himself entered upon the scene of his life, with the whole fascinating strength of his strong will, my brother felt that he was in the presence of a being 7 whom he, of all modern men, resembled most in regard to force of character. Again, in the ca se of Richard Wagner, my brother, from the first, laid the utmost stress upon the man's personality, and could only regard his works and views as an expression of the artist's whole being, despite the fact that he by no means understood every one of those works at that time. My brother was the first who ever manifested such enthusiastic affection for Schopenhauer and Wagner, and he was also the first of that numerous band of young followers who ultimately inscribed the two great names upon their banner. Whether Schopenhauer and Wagner ever really corresponded to the glorified pictures my brother painted of them, both in his letters and other writings, is a question which we can no longer answer in the affirmative. Perhaps what he saw in them was only what he himself wished to be some day. The amount of work my brother succeeded in accomplishing, during his student days, really seems almost incredible. When we examine his record for the years 1865 -67, we can scarcely believe it refers to only two years' industry, for at a guess no one would hesitate to suggest four years at least. But in those days, as he himself declares, he still possessed the constitution of a bear. He knew neither what headaches nor indigestion meant, and, despite his short sight, his eyes were able to endure the greatest strain without giving him the smallest trouble. That is why, regardless of seriously interrupting his studies, he was so glad at the thought of becoming a soldier in the forthcoming autumn of 1867; for he was particul arly anxious to discover some means of employing his bodily strength. He discharged his duties as a soldier with the utmost mental and physical freshness, was the crack rider among the recruits of his year, and was sincerely sorry when, owing to an accident, he was compelled to leave the colours before the completion of his service. As a result of this accident he had his first dangerous illness. While mounting his horse one day, the beast, which was an uncommonly restive one, suddenly reared, and, causing him to strike his chest sharply against the pommel of the saddle, threw him to the ground. My brother then made a second attempt to mount, and succeeded this time, notwithstanding the fact that he had severely sprained and torn two 8 muscles in his chest, and had seriously bruised the adjacent ribs. For a whole day he did his utmost to pay no heed to the injury, and to overcome the pain it caused him; but in the end he only swooned, and a dangerously acute inflammation of the injured tissues was the result. Ultimately he was obliged to consult the famous specialist, Professor Volkmann, in Halle, who quickly put him right. In October 1868, my brother returned to his studies in Leipzig with double joy. These were his plans: to get his doctor's degree as soon as possible; to proceed to Paris, Italy, and Greece, make a lengthy stay in each place, and then to return to Leipzig in order to settle there as a privat docent. All these plans were, however, suddenly frustrated owing to his premature call to the University of Bale, where he was invited to assume the duties of professor. Some of the philological essays he had written in his student days, and which were published by the Rheinische Museum, had attracted the attention of the Educational Board at Bale. Ratsherr Wilhelm Vischer, as representing this body, appealed to Ritschl for fuller information. Now Ritschl, who had early recognised my brother's extraordinary talents, must have written a letter of such enthusiastic praise ("Nietzsche is a genius: he can do whatever he chooses to put his mind to"), that one of the more cautious members of the council is said to have observed: "If the proposed candidate be really such a genius, then it were better did we not appoint him; for, in any case, he would only stay a shor t time at the little University of Bale." My brother ultimately accepted the appointment, and, in view of his published philological works, he was immediately granted the doctor's degree by the University of Leipzig. He was twenty -four years and six months old when he took up his position as professor in Bale, and it was with a heavy heart that he proceeded there, for he knew "the golden period of untrammelled activity" must cease. He was, however, inspired by the deep wish of being able "to transfer to his pupils some of that Schopenhauerian earnestness which is stamped on the brow of the sublime man." "I should like to be something more than a mere trainer of capable philologists: the present generation of teachers, the care of the growing broods, all this is in my mind. If we must live, let us at least do so in such wise that others may bless our life once we have been peacefully delivered from its toils." 9 When I look back upon that month of May 1869, and ask both of friends and of myself, what the figure of this youthful University professor of four -and- twenty meant to the world at that time, the reply is naturally, in the first place: that he was one of Ritschl's best pupils; secondly, that he was an exceptionally capable exponent of classical antiquity with a brilliant career before him; and thirdly, that he was a passionate adorer of Wagner and Schopenhauer. But no one has any idea of my brother's independent attitude to the science he had selected, to his teachers and to his ideals, and he deceived both himself and us when he passed as a "disciple" who really shared all the views of his respected master. On the 28th May 1869, my brother delivered his inaugural address at Bale University, and it is said to have deeply impressed the authorities. The subjec t of the address was "Homer and Classical Philology." Musing deeply, the worthy councillors and professors walked homeward. What had they just heard? A young scholar discussing the very justification of his own science in a cool and philosophically critica l spirit! A man able to impart so much artistic glamour to his subject, that the once stale and arid study of philology suddenly struck them and they were certainly not impressionable men as the messenger of the gods: "and just as the Muses descended upon the dull and tormented Boeotian peasants, so philology comes into a world full of gloomy colours and pictures, full of the deepest, most incurable woes, and speaks to men comfortingly of the beautiful and brilliant godlike figure of a distant, blue, and ha ppy fairyland." "We have indeed got hold of a rare bird, Herr Ratsherr," said one of these gentlemen to his companion, and the latter heartily agreed, for my brother's appointment had been chiefly his doing. Even in Leipzig, it was reported that Jacob Burckhardt had said: "Nietzsche is as much an artist as a scholar." Privy -Councillor Ritschl told me of this himself, and then he added, with a smile: "I always said so; he can make his scientific discourses as palpitatingly interesting as a French novelist his novels." "Homer and Classical Philology" my brother's inaugural address at the University was by no means the first literary attempt he had made; for we have already seen that he had had papers published by the Rheinische 10 Museum ; still, this particular d iscourse is important, seeing that it practically contains the programme of many other subsequent essays. I must, however, emphasise this fact here, that neither "Homer and Classical Philology," nor The Birth of Tragedy, represents a beginning in my brothe r's career. It is really surprising to see how very soon he actually began grappling with the questions which were to prove the problems of his life. If a beginning to his intellectual development be sought at all, then it must be traced to the years 1865 -67 in Leipzig. The Birth of Tragedy, his maiden attempt at book -writing, with which he began his twenty- eighth year, is the last link of a long chain of developments, and the first fruit that was a long time coming to maturity. Nietzsche's was a polyphonic nature, in which the most different and apparently most antagonistic talents had come together. Philosophy, art, and science in the form of philology, theneach certainly possessed a part of him. The most wonderful feature perhaps it might even be called the real Nietzschean feature of this versatile creature, was the fact that no eternal strife resulted from the juxtaposition of these inimical traits, that not one of them strove to dislodge, or to get the upper hand of, the others. When Nietzsche renounce d the musical career, in order to devote himself to philology, and gave himself up to the most strenuous study, he did not find it essential completely to suppress his other tendencies: as before, he continued both to compose and derive pleasure from music, and even studied counterpoint somewhat seriously. Moreover, during his years at Leipzig, when he consciously gave himself up to philological research, he began to engross himself in Schopenhauer, and was thereby won by philosophy for ever. Everything that could find room took up its abode in him, and these juxtaposed factors, far from interfering with one another's existence, were rather mutually fertilising and stimulating. All those who have read the first volume of the biography with attention must hav e been struck with the perfect way in which the various impulses in his nature combined in the end to form one general torrent, and how this flowed with ever greater force in the direction of a single goal. Thus science, art, and philosophy developed and b ecame ever more closely related in him, until, in The Birth of Tragedy, they brought forth a "centaur," that is to say, a work which would have been an impossible achievement to a man with only a single, special talent. This polyphony of different talents, all coming to utterance together and producing the 11 richest and boldest of harmonies, is the fundamental feature not only of Nietzsche's early days, but of his whole development. It is once again the artist, philosopher, and man of science, who as one man in later years, after many wanderings, recantations, and revulsions of feeling, produces that other and rarer Centaur of highest rank Zarathustra . The Birth of Tragedy requires perhaps a little explaining more particularly as we have now ceased to use eith er Schopenhauerian or Wagnerian terms of expression. And it was for this reason that five years after its appearance, my brother wrote an introduction to it, in which he very plainly expresses his doubts concerning the views it contains, and the manner in which they are presented. The kernel of its thought he always recognised as perfectly correct; and all he deplored in later days was that he had spoiled the grand problem of Hellenism, as he understood it, by adulterating it with ingredients taken from the world of most modern ideas. As time went on, he grew ever more and more anxious to define the deep meaning of this book with greater precision and clearness. A very good elucidation of its aims, which unfortunately was never published, appears among his notes of the year 1886, and is as follows: "Concerning The Birth of Tragedy. A book consisting of mere experiences relating to pleasurable and unpleasurable sthetic states, with a metaphysico -artistic background. At the same time the confession of a roman ticist the sufferer feels the deepest longing for beauty he begets it ; finally, a product of youth, full of youthful courage and melancholy. "Fundamental psychological experiences: the word 'Apollonian' stands for that state of rapt repose in the presence of a visionary world, in the presence of the world of beautiful appearance designed as a deliverance from becoming ; the word Dionysos, on the other hand, stands for strenuous becoming, grown self -conscious, in the form of the rampant voluptuousness of the creator, who is also perfectly conscious of the violent anger of the destroyer. "The antagonism of these two attitudes and the desires that underlie them. The first -named would have the vision it conjures up eternal : in its light man must be quiescent, apathetic, peaceful, healed, and on friendly terms with himself and all existence; the second strives after creation, 12 after the voluptuousness of wilful creation, i.e. constructing and destroying. Creation felt and explained as an instinct would be merely the unremitting inventive action of a dissatisfied being, overflowing with wealth and living at high tension and high pressure, of a God who would overcome the sorrows of existence by means only of continual changes and transformations, appearance as a transi ent and momentary deliverance; the world as an apparent sequence of godlike visions and deliverances. "This metaphysico -artistic attitude is opposed to Schopenhauer's one - sided view which values art, not from the artist's standpoint but from the spectator' s, because it brings salvation and deliverance by means of the joy produced by unreal as opposed to the existing or the real (the experience only of him who is suffering and is in despair owing to himself and everything existing). Deliverance in the form and its eternity (just as Plato may have pictured it, save that he rejoiced in a complete subordination of all too excitable sensibilities, even in the idea itself). To this is opposed the second point of view art regarded as a phenomenon of the artist, abo ve all of the musician; the torture of being obliged to create, as a Dionysian instinct. "Tragic art, rich in both attitudes, represents the reconciliation of Apollo and Dionysos. Appearance is given the greatest importance by Dionysos; and yet it will be denied and cheerfully denied. This is directed against Schopenhauer's teaching of Resignation as the tragic attitude towards the world. "Against Wagner's theory that music is a means and drama an end. "A desire for tragic myth (for religion and even pessimistic religion) as for a forcing frame in which certain plants flourish. "Mistrust of science, although its ephemerally soothing optimism be strongly felt; the 'serenity' of the theoretical man. "Deep antagonism to Christianity. Why? The degeneration of the Germanic spirit is ascribed to its influence. "Any justification of the world can only be an sthetic one. Profound suspicions about morality ( it is part and parcel of the world of appearance). 13 "The happiness of existence is only possible as the happiness derived from appearance. ( 'Being' is a fiction invented by those who suffer from becoming .) "Happiness in becoming is possible only in the annihilation of the real, of the 'existing,' of the beautifully visionary, in the pessimistic dissipation o f illusions: with the annihilation of the most beautiful phenomena in the world of appearance, Dionysian happiness reaches its zenith." The Birth of Tragedy is really only a portion of a much greater work on Hellenism, which my brother had always had in vi ew from the time of his student days. But even the portion it represents was originally designed upon a much larger scale than the present one; the reason probably being, that Nietzsche desired only to be of service to Wagner. When a certain portion of the projected work on Hellenism was ready and had received the title Greek Cheerfulness, my brother happened to call upon Wagner at Tribschen in April 1871, and found him very low -spirited in regard to the mission of his life. My brother was very anxious to take some decisive step to help him, and, laying the plans of his great work on Greece aside, he selected a small portion from the already completed manuscript a portion dealing with one distinct side of Hellenism, to wit, its tragic art. He then associated Wagner's music with it and the name Dionysos, and thus took the first step towards that world- historical view through which we have since grown accustomed to regard Wagner. From the dates of the various notes relating to it, The Birth of Tragedy must have been written between the autumn of 1869 and November 1871 a period during which "a mass of sthetic questions and answers" was fermenting in Nietzsche's mind. It was first published in January 1872 by E. W. Fritsch, in Leipzig, under the title The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music. Later on the title was changed to The Birth of Tragedy, or Hellenism and Pessimism. ELIZABETH FORSTER -NIETZSCHE. WEIMAR, September 1905. 14 AN ATTEMPT AT SELF-CRITICISM I. Whatever may lie at the bottom of this doubtful book must be a question of the first rank and attractiveness, moreover a deeply personal question, in proof thereof observe the time in which it originated, in spite of which it originated, the exciting period of the Franco-German war of 1870 -71. While the thunder of the battle of Wrth rolled over Europe, the ruminator and riddle -lover, who had to be the parent of this book, sat somewhere in a nook of the Alps, lost in riddles and ruminatio ns, consequently very much concerned and unconcerned at the same time, and wrote down his meditations on the Greeks, the kernel of the curious and almost inaccessible book, to which this belated prologue (or epilogue) is to be devoted. A few weeks later: and he found himself under the walls of Metz, still wrestling with the notes of interrogation he had set down concerning the alleged "cheerfulness" of the Greeks and of Greek art; till at last, in that month of deep suspense, when peace was debated at Versa illes, he too attained to peace with himself, and, slowly recovering from a disease brought home from the field, made up his mind definitely regarding the "Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music." From music? Music and Tragedy? Greeks and tragic music? Greeks and the Art -work of pessimism? A race of men, well- fashioned, beautiful, envied, life- inspiring, like no other race hitherto, the Greeks indeed? The Greeks were in need of tragedy? Yea of art? Wherefore Greek art?... We can thus guess where the grea t note of interrogation concerning the value of existence had been set. Is pessimism necessarily the sign of decline, of decay, of failure, of exhausted and weakened instincts? as was the case with the Indians, as is, to all appearance, the case with us "modern" men and Europeans? Is there a pessimism of strength ? An intellectual predilection for what is hard, awful, evil, problematical in existence, owing to well -being, to exuberant health, to fullness of existence? Is there perhaps suffering in overfullness itself? A seductive fortitude with the keenest of glances, which yearns for the terrible, as for the enemy, the worthy enemy, with whom it may try its strength? from 15 whom it is willing to learn what "fear" is? What means tragic myth to the Greeks of the best, strongest, bravest era? And the prodigious phenomenon of the Dionysian? And that which was born thereof, tragedy? And again: that of which tragedy died, the Socratism of morality, the dialectics, contentedness and cheerfulness of the theoretical man indeed? might not this very Socratism be a sign of decline, of weariness, of disease, of anarchically disintegrating instincts? And the "Hellenic cheerfulness" of the later Hellenism merely a glowing sunset? The Epicurean will counter to pessimism merely a precaution of the sufferer? And science itself, our science ay, viewed as a symptom of life, what really signifies all science? Whither, worse still, whence all science? Well? Is scientism perhaps only fear and evasion of pessimism? A subtle defence agai nsttruth! Morally speaking, something like falsehood and cowardice? And, unmorally speaking, an artifice? O Socrates, Socrates, was this perhaps thy secret? Oh mysterious ironist, was this perhaps thine irony?... 2. What I then laid hands on, something terrible and dangerous, a problem with horns, not necessarily a bull itself, but at all events a new problem: I should say to -day it was the problem of science itself science conceived for the first time as problematic, as questionable. But the book, in wh ich my youthful ardour and suspicion then discharged themselves what an impossible book must needs grow out of a task so disagreeable to youth. Constructed of nought but precocious, unripened self - experiences, all of which lay close to the threshold of the communicable, based on the groundwork of artfor the problem of science cannot be discerned on the groundwork of science, a book perhaps for artists, with collateral analytical and retrospective aptitudes (that is, an exceptional kind of artists, for whom one must seek and does not even care to seek ...), full of psychological innovations and artists' secrets, with an artists' metaphysics in the background, a work of youth, full of youth's mettle and youth's melancholy, independent, defiantly self -sufficie nt even when it seems to bow to some authority and self -veneration; in short, a firstling -work, even in every bad sense of the term; in spite of its senile problem, affected with every fault of youth, above all with youth's prolixity and youth's "storm and stress": on the other hand, in view of the success it had (especially with the great artist to whom it addressed 16 itself, as it were, in a duologue, Richard Wagner) a demonstrated book, I mean a book which, at any rate, sufficed "for the best of its time." On this account, if for no other reason, it should be treated with some consideration and reserve; yet I shall not altogether conceal how disagreeable it now appears to me, how after sixteen years it stands a total stranger before me, before an eye which is more mature, and a hundred times more fastidious, but which has by no means grown colder nor lost any of its interest in that self -same task essayed for the first time by this daring book, to view science through the optics of the artist, and art moreover through the optics of life.... 3. I say again, to -day it is an impossible book to me, I call it badly written, heavy, painful, image -angling and image -entangling, maudlin, sugared at times even to femininism, uneven in tempo, void of the will to logical cleanliness, very convinced and therefore rising above the necessity of demonstration, distrustful even of the propriety of demonstration, as being a book for initiates, as "music" for those who are baptised with the name of Music, who are united from the beginning of things by common ties of rare experiences in art, as a countersign for blood- relations in artibus. a haughty and fantastic book, which from the very first withdraws even more from the profanum vulgus of the "cultured" than from the "people," but which also, as its effect has shown and still shows, knows very well how to seek fellow -enthusiasts and lure them to new by- ways and dancing -grounds. Here, at any rate thus much was acknowledged with curiosity as well as with aversion a strange voice spoke, the disciple of a still "unknown God," who for the time being had hidden himself under the hood of the scholar, under the German's gravity and disinclination for dialectics, even under the bad manners of the Wagnerian; here was a spirit with strange and still nameless needs, a memory bristling with questions, experiences and obscurities, beside which stood the name Dionysos like one more note of interrogation; here spoke people said to themselves with misgivings something like a mystic and almost mnadic soul, which, undecided whether it should disclose or conceal itself, stammers with an effort and capriciously as in a strange tongue. It should have sung, this "new soul" and not spoken! What a pity, that I did not dare to say what I then had to say, as a poet: I could have done so perhaps! Or at least as a philologist: for even at the 17 present day well -nigh everything in this domain remains to be discovered and disinterred by the philologist! Above all the problem, that here there is a problem before u s,and that, so long as we have no answer to the question "what is Dionysian?" the Greeks are now as ever wholly unknown and inconceivable.... 4. Ay, what is Dionysian? In this book may be found an answer, a "knowing one" speaks here, the votary and discip le of his god. Perhaps I should now speak more guardedly and less eloquently of a psychological question so difficult as the origin of tragedy among the Greeks. A fundamental question is the relation of the Greek to pain, his degree of sensibility, did thi s relation remain constant? or did it veer about? the question, whether his ever -increasing longing for beauty, for festivals, gaieties, new cults, did really grow out of want, privation, melancholy, pain? For suppose even this to be true and Pericles (or Thucydides) intimates as much in the great Funeral Speech: whence then the opposite longing, which appeared first in the order of time, the longing for the ugly, the good, resolute desire of the Old Hellene for pessimism, for tragic myth, for the picture o f all that is terrible, evil, enigmatical, destructive, fatal at the basis of existence, whence then must tragedy have sprung? Perhaps from joy, from strength, from exuberant health, from over -fullness. And what then, physiologically speaking, is the meani ng of that madness, out of which comic as well as tragic art has grown, the Dionysian madness? What? perhaps madness is not necessarily the symptom of degeneration, of decline, of belated culture? Perhaps there are a question for alienists neuroses of heal th? of folk - youth and youthfulness? What does that synthesis of god and goat in the Satyr point to? What self -experience what "stress," made the Greek think of the Dionysian reveller and primitive man as a satyr? And as regards the origin of the tragic chorus: perhaps there were endemic ecstasies in the eras when the Greek body bloomed and the Greek soul brimmed over with life? Visions and hallucinations, which took hold of entire communities, entire cult -assemblies? What if the Greeks in the very wealth of their youth had the will to be tragic and were pessimists? What if it was madness itself, to use a word of Plato's, which brought the greatest blessings upon Hellas? And what if, on the other hand and conversely, at the very time of their dissolution and weakness, the Greeks 18 became always more optimistic, more superficial, more histrionic, also more ardent for logic and the logicising of the world, consequently at the same time more "cheerful" and more "scientific"? Ay, despite all "modern ideas" and prejudices of the democratic taste, may not the triumph of optimism, the common sense that has gained the upper hand, the practical and theoretical utilitarianism, like democracy itself, with which it is synchronous be symptomatic of declining vigour, of approaching age, of physiological weariness? And not at all pessimism? Was Epicurus an optimist because a sufferer ?... We see it is a whole bundle of weighty questions which this book has taken upon itself, let us not fail to add its weightiest question! Viewed through the optics of life, what is the meaning of morality?... 5. Already in the foreword to Richard Wagner, art -and not morality is set down as the properly metaphysical activity of man; in the book itself the piquant proposition recurs time and again, that the existence of the world is justified only as an sthetic phenomenon. Indeed, the entire book recognises only an artist -thought and artist -after- thought behind all occurrences, a "God," if you will, but certainly only an altogether thoughtless and unmoral artist -God, who, in construction as in destruction, in good as in evil, desires to become conscious of his own equable joy and sovereign glory; who, in creating worlds, frees himself from the anguish of fullness and overfullness, from the suffering of the contradictions concentrated within him. The world, that is, the redemption of God attained at every moment, as the perpetually changing, perpetually new vision of the most suffering, most antithetical, most contradictory being, who contrives to redeem himself only in appearance: this entire artist- metaphysics, call it arbitrary, idle, fantastic, if you will, the point is, that it already betrays a spirit, which is determined some day, at all hazards, to make a stand against the moral interpretation and significance of life. Here, perhaps for the first time, a pessimism "Beyond Good and Evil" announces itself, here that "perverseness of disposition" obtains expression and formulation, against which Schopenhauer never grew tired of hurling beforehand his angriest imprecations and thunderbolts, a philosophy which dares to put, derogatorily put, morality itself in the world of phenomena, and not only among "phenomena" (in the sense of the idealistic terminus 19 technicus ), but among the "illusions," as appearance, semblance, error, interpretation, accommodation, art. Perhaps the depth of this antimoral tendency may be best estimated from the guarded and hostile silence with which Christianity is treated throughout this book, Christianity, as being the most extravagant burlesque of the moral theme to which mankind has hitherto been obliged to listen. In fact, to the purely sthetic world -interpretation and justification taught in this book, there is no greater antithesis than the Christian dogma, which is only and will be only moral, and which, with its absolute standards, for instance, its truthfulness of God, relegates that is, disowns, convicts, condemns art, all art, to the realm of falsehood. Behind such a mode of thought and valuation, which, if at all genuine, must be hostile to art, I always experienced what was hostile to life, the wrathful, vindictive counterwill to life itself: for all life rests on appearance, art, illusion, optics, necessity of perspective and error. From the very first Christiani ty was, essentially and thoroughly, the nausea and surfeit of Life for Life, which only disguised, concealed and decked itself out under the belief in "another" or "better" life. The hatred of the "world," the curse on the affections, the fear of beauty an d sensuality, another world, invented for the purpose of slandering this world the more, at bottom a longing for. Nothingness, for the end, for rest, for the "Sabbath of Sabbaths" all this, as also the unconditional will of Christianity to recognise only moral values, has always appeared to me as the most dangerous and ominous of all possible forms of a "will to perish"; at the least, as the symptom of a most fatal disease, of profoundest weariness, despondency, exhaustion, impoverishment of life, for befor e the tribunal of morality (especially Christian, that is, unconditional morality) life must constantly and inevitably be the loser, because life is something essentially unmoral, indeed, oppressed with the weight of contempt and the everlasting No, life must finally be regarded as unworthy of desire, as in itself unworthy. Morality itself what? may not morality be a "will to disown life," a secret instinct for annihilation, a principle of decay, of depreciation, of slander, a beginning of the end? And, consequently, the danger of dangers?... It was against morality, therefore, that my instinct, as an intercessory -instinct for life, turned in this questionable book, inventing for itself a fundamental counter dogma and counter -valuation of life, purely artist ic, purely anti- Christian. What should I call it? As a philologist and man of words I baptised it, not without some liberty for 20 who could be sure of the proper name of the Antichrist? with the name of a Greek god: I called it Dionysian. 6. You see which problem I ventured to touch upon in this early work?... How I now regret, that I had not then the courage (or immodesty?) to allow myself, in all respects, the use of an individual language for such individual contemplations and ventures in the field of thou ght that I laboured to express, in Kantian and Schopenhauerian formul, strange and new valuations, which ran fundamentally counter to the spirit of Kant and Schopenhauer, as well as to their taste! What, forsooth, were Schopenhauer's views on tragedy? "What gives" he says in Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, II. 495 "to all tragedy that singular swing towards elevation, is the awakening of the knowledge that the world, that life, cannot satisfy us thoroughly, and consequently is not worthy of our attachment In this consists the tragic spirit: it therefore leads to resignation." Oh, how differently Dionysos spoke to me! Oh how far from me then was just this entire resignationism! But there is something far worse in this book, which I now regret even more than having obscured and spoiled Dionysian anticipations with Schopenhauerian formul: to wit, that, in general, I spoiled the grand Hellenic problem, as it had opened up before me, by the admixture of the most modern things! That I entertained hopes, where nothing was to be hoped for, where everything pointed all -too-clearly to an approaching end! That, on the basis of our latter -day German music, I began to fable about the "spirit of Teutonism," as if it were on the point of discovering and returning to itself, ay, at the very time that the German spirit which not so very long before had had the will to the lordship over Europe, the strength to lead and govern Europe, testamentarily and conclusively resigned and, under the pompous pretence of empire -founding, e ffected its transition to mediocritisation, democracy, and "modern ideas." In very fact, I have since learned to regard this "spirit of Teutonism" as something to be despaired of and unsparingly treated, as also our present German music, which is Romantici sm through and through and the most un- Grecian of all possible forms of art: and moreover a first -rate nerve -destroyer, doubly dangerous for a people given to drinking and revering the unclear as a virtue, namely, in its twofold capacity of an intoxicating and stupefying 21 narcotic. Of course, apart from all precipitate hopes and faulty applications to matters specially modern, with which I then spoiled my first book, the great Dionysian note of interrogation, as set down therein, continues standing on and on, even with reference to music: how must we conceive of a music, which is no longer of Romantic origin, like the German; but of Dionysian ?... 7. But, my dear Sir, if your book is not Romanticism, what in the world is? Can the deep hatred of the present, o f "reality" and "modern ideas" be pushed farther than has been done in your artist -metaphysics? which would rather believe in Nothing, or in the devil, than in the "Now"? Does not a radical bass of wrath and annihilative pleasure growl on beneath all your contrapuntal vocal art and aural seduction, a mad determination to oppose all that "now" is, a will which is not so very far removed from practical nihilism and which seems to say: "rather let nothing be true, than that you should be in the right, than tha t your truth should prevail!" Hear, yourself, my dear Sir Pessimist and art -deifier, with ever so unlocked ears, a single select passage of your own book, that not ineloquent dragon -slayer passage, which may sound insidiously rat - charming to young ears and hearts. What? is not that the true blue romanticist -confession of 1830 under the mask of the pessimism of 1850? After which, of course, the usual romanticist finale at once strikes up,rupture, collapse, return and prostration before an old belief, before the old God.... What? is not your pessimist book itself a piece of anti- Hellenism and Romanticism, something "equally intoxicating and befogging," a narcotic at all events, ay, a piece of music, of German music? But listen: Let us imagine a rising generat ion with this undauntedness of vision, with this heroic impulse towards the prodigious, let us imagine the bold step of these dragon -slayers, the proud daring with which they turn their backs on all the effeminate doctrines of optimism, in order "to live resolutely" in the Whole and in the Full: would it not be necessary for the tragic man of this culture, with his self -discipline to earnestness and terror, to desire a new art, the art of metaphysical comfort, tragedy as the Helena belonging to him, and that he should exclaim with Faust: 22 "Und sollt ich nicht, sehnschtigster Gewalt, In's Leben ziehn die einzigste Gestalt?"1 "Would it not be necessary ?" ... No, thrice no! ye young romanticists: it would not be necessary! But it is very probable, that thin gs may end thus, that ye may end thus, namely "comforted," as it is written, in spite of all self-discipline to earnestness and terror; metaphysically comforted, in short, as Romanticists are wont to end, as Christians.... No! ye should first of all learn the art of earthly comfort, ye should learn to laugh, my young friends, if ye are at all determined to remain pessimists: if so, you will perhaps, as laughing ones, eventually send all metaphysical comfortism to the devil and metaphysics first of all! Or, to say it in the language of that Dionysian ogre, called Zarathustra : "Lift up your hearts, my brethren, high, higher! And do not forget your legs! Lift up also your legs, ye good dancers and better still if ye stand also on your heads! "This crown of the laughter, this rose -garland crown I myself have put on this crown; I myself have consecrated my laughter. No one else have I found to -day strong enough for this. "Zarathustra the dancer, Zarathustra the light one, who beckoneth with his pinions, one ready for flight, beckoning unto all birds, ready and prepared, a blissfully light -spirited one: "Zarathustra the soothsayer, Zarathustra the sooth -laugher, no impatient one, no absolute one, one who loveth leaps and side -leaps: I myself have put on this crown! "This crown of the laughter, this rose- garland crown to you my brethren do I cast this crown! Laughing have I consecrated: ye higher men, learn, I pray you to laugh!" Thus spake Zarathustra, lxxiii. 17, 18, and 20. SILS -MARIA, OBERENGADIN, August 1886. 1 And shall not I, by mightiest desire, In living shape that sole fair form acquire? SWANWICK, trans. of Faust. 23 FOREWORD TO RICHARD WAGNER In order to keep at a distance all the possible scruples, excitements, and misunderstandings to which the thoughts gathered in this essay will give occasion, considering the peculiar character of our sthetic publicity, and to be able also Co write the introductory remarks with the same contemplative delight, the impress of which, as the petrifaction of good and elevating hours, it bears on every page, I form a conception of t he moment when you, my highly honoured friend, will receive this essay; how you, say after an evening walk in the winter snow, will behold the unbound Prometheus on the title -page, read my name, and be forthwith convinced that, whatever this essay may contain, the author has something earnest and impressive to say, and, moreover, that in all his meditations he communed with you as with one present and could thus write only what befitted your presence. You will thus remember that it was at the same time as your magnificent dissertation on Beethoven originated, viz., amidst the horrors and sublimities of the war which had just then broken out, that I collected myself for these thoughts. But those persons would err, to whom this collection suggests no more perhaps than the antithesis of patriotic excitement and sthetic revelry, of gallant earnestness and sportive delight. Upon a real perusal of this essay, such readers will, rather to their surprise, discover how earnest is the German problem we have to deal wi th, which we properly place, as a vortex and turning -point, in the very midst of German hopes. Perhaps, however, this same class of readers will be shocked at seeing an sthetic problem taken so seriously, especially if they can recognise in art no more th an a merry diversion, a readily dispensable court -jester to the "earnestness of existence": as if no one were aware of the real meaning of this confrontation with the "earnestness of existence." These earnest ones may be informed that I am convinced that a rt is the highest task and the properly metaphysical activity of this life, as it is understood by the man, to whom, as my sublime protagonist on this path, I would now dedicate this essay. BASEL, end of the year 1871. 24 THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY 1. We shall have gained much for the science of sthetics, when once we have perceived not only by logical inference, but by the immediate certainty of intuition, that the continuous development of art is bound up with the duplexity of the Apollonian and the Dionysian: in like manner as procreation is dependent on the duality of the sexes, involving perpetual conflicts with only periodically intervening reconciliations. Thes e names we borrow from the Greeks, who disclose to the intelligent observer the profound mysteries of their view of art, not indeed in concepts, but in the impressively clear figures of their world of deities. It is in connection with Apollo and Dionysus, the two art- deities of the Greeks, that we learn that there existed in the Grecian world a wide antithesis, in origin and aims, between the art of the shaper, the Apollonian, and the non- plastic art of music, that of Dionysus: both these so heterogeneous tendencies run parallel to each other, for the most part openly at variance, and continually inciting each other to new and more powerful births, to perpetuate in them the strife of this antithesis, which is but seemingly bridged over by their mutual term "Art"; till at last, by a metaphysical miracle of the Hellenic will, they appear paired with each other, and through this pairing eventually generate the equally Dionysian and Apollonian art -work of Attic tragedy. In order to bring these two tendencies with in closer range, let us conceive them first of all as the separate art- worlds of dreamland and drunkenness; between which physiological phenomena a contrast may be observed analogous to that existing between the Apollonian and the Dionysian. In dreams, according to the conception of Lucretius, the glorious divine figures first appeared to the souls of men, in dreams the great shaper beheld the charming corporeal structure of superhuman beings, and the Hellenic poet, if consulted on the mysteries of poetic inspiration, would likewise have suggested dreams and would have offered an explanation resembling that of Hans Sachs in the Meistersingers: 25 Mein Freund, das grad' ist Dichters Werk, dass er sein Trumen deut' und merk'. Glaubt mir, des Menschen wahrster W ahn wird ihm im Traume aufgethan: all' Dichtkunst und Poeterei ist nichts als Wahrtraum- Deuterei.2 The beauteous appearance of the dream -worlds, in the production of which every man is a perfect artist, is the presupposition of all plastic art, and in fac t, as we shall see, of an important half of poetry also. We take delight in the immediate apprehension of form; all forms speak to us; there is nothing indifferent, nothing superfluous. But, together with the highest life of this dream -reality we also have , glimmering through it, the sensation of its appearance: such at least is my experience, as to the frequency, ay, normality of which I could adduce many proofs, as also the sayings of the poets. Indeed, the man of philosophic turn has a foreboding that underneath this reality in which we live and have our being, another and altogether different reality lies concealed, and that therefore it is also an appearance; and Schopenhauer actually designates the gift of occasionally regarding men and things as mere phantoms and dream -pictures as the criterion of philosophical ability. Accordingly, the man susceptible to art stands in the same relation to the reality of dreams as the philosopher to the reality of existence; he is a close and willing observer, for from these pictures he reads the meaning of life, and by these processes he trains himself for life. And it is perhaps not only the agreeable and friendly pictures that he realises in himself with such perfect understanding: the earnest, the troubled, the drea ry, the gloomy, the sudden checks, the tricks of fortune, the uneasy presentiments, in short, the whole "Divine Comedy" of life, and the Inferno, also pass before him, not merely like pictures on the wall for he too lives and suffers in these scenes, and y et not without that fleeting sensation of appearance. And perhaps many a one will, like myself, recollect having sometimes called out cheeringly and not without success amid the dangers and terrors of dream- life: "It is a dream! I will dream on!" I have 2 My friend, just this is poet's task: His dreams to read and to unmask. Trust me, illusion's truths thrice sealed In dream to man will be revealed. All verse -craft and poetisation Is but soothdream interpretation. 26 likewise been told of persons capable of continuing the causality of one and the same dream for three and even more successive nights: all of which facts clearly testify that our innermost being, the common substratum of all of us, experiences our dreams wit h deep joy and cheerful acquiescence. This cheerful acquiescence in the dream- experience has likewise been embodied by the Greeks in their Apollo: for Apollo, as the god of all shaping energies, is also the soothsaying god. He, who (as the etymology of the name indicates) is the "shining one," the deity of light, also rules over the fair appearance of the inner world of fantasies. The higher truth, the perfection of these states in contrast to the only partially intelligible everyday world, ay, the deep con sciousness of nature, healing and helping in sleep and dream, is at the same time the symbolical analogue of the faculty of soothsaying and, in general, of the arts, through which life is made possible and worth living. But also that delicate line, which the dream -picture must not overstep lest it act pathologically (in which case appearance, being reality pure and simple, would impose upon us) must not be wanting in the picture of Apollo: that measured limitation, that freedom from the wilder emotions, that philosophical calmness of the sculptor -god. His eye must be "sunlike," according to his origin; even when it is angry and looks displeased, the sacredness of his beauteous appearance is still there. And so we might apply to Apollo, in an eccentric sense, what Schopenhauer says of the man wrapt in the veil of My 3: Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, I. p. 416: "Just as in a stormy sea, unbounded in every direction, rising and falling with howling mountainous waves, a sailor sits in a boat and trusts in his f rail barque: so in the midst of a world of sorrows the individual sits quietly supported by and trusting in his principium individuationis ." Indeed, we might say of Apollo, that in him the unshaken faith in this principium and the quiet sitting of the man wrapt therein have received their sublimest expression; and we might even designate Apollo as the glorious divine image of the principium individuationis, from out of the gestures and looks of which all the joy and wisdom of "appearance," together with its beauty, speak to us. 3 Cf. World and Will as Idea, 1. 455 ff., trans, by Haldane and Kemp. 27 In the same work Schopenhauer has described to us the stupendous awe which seizes upon man, when of a sudden he is at a loss to account for the cognitive forms of a phenomenon, in that the principle of reason, in some one of its manif estations, seems to admit of an exception. Add to this awe the blissful ecstasy which rises from the innermost depths of man, ay, of nature, at this same collapse of the principium individuationis, and we shall gain an insight into the being of the Dionysi an, which is brought within closest ken perhaps by the analogy of drunkenness. It is either under the influence of the narcotic draught, of which the hymns of all primitive men and peoples tell us, or by the powerful approach of spring penetrating all natu re with joy, that those Dionysian emotions awake, in the augmentation of which the subjective vanishes to complete self -forgetfulness. So also in the German Middle Ages singing and dancing crowds, ever increasing in number, were borne from place to place under this same Dionysian power. In these St. John's and St. Vitus's dancers we again perceive the Bacchic choruses of the Greeks, with their previous history in Asia Minor, as far back as Babylon and the orgiastic Saca. There are some, who, from lack of experience or obtuseness, will turn away from such phenomena as "folk -diseases" with a smile of contempt or pity prompted by the consciousness of their own health: of course, the poor wretches do not divine what a cadaverous -looking and ghastly aspect this very "health" of theirs presents when the glowing life of the Dionysian revellers rushes past them. Under the charm of the Dionysian not only is the covenant between man and man again established, but also estranged, hostile or subjugated nature again celebrates her reconciliation with her lost son, man. Of her own accord earth proffers her gifts, and peacefully the beasts of prey approach from the desert and the rocks. The chariot of Dionysus is bedecked with flowers and garlands: panthers and tigers pass beneath his yoke. Change Beethoven's "jubilee -song" into a painting, and, if your imagination be equal to the occasion when the awestruck millions sink into the dust, you will then be able to approach the Dionysian. Now is the slave a free man, now all the stubborn, hostile barriers, which necessity, caprice, or "shameless fashion" has set up between man and man, are broken down. Now, at the evangel of cosmic harmony, each one feels himself not only united, reconciled, blended with his neighbour, but as 28 one with him, as if the veil of My has been torn and were now merely fluttering in tatters before the mysterious Primordial Unity. In song and in dance man exhibits himself as a member of a higher community, he has forgotten how to walk and speak, and is on the point of taking a dancing flight into the air. His gestures bespeak enchantment. Even as the animals now talk, and as the earth yields milk and honey, so also something super -natural sounds forth from him: he feels himself a god, he himself now walks about enchanted and elated even as the gods whom he saw walking about in his dreams. Man is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art: the artistic power of all nature here reveals itself in the tremors of drunkenness to the highest gratification of the Primordial Unity. The noblest clay, the costliest marble, namely man, is here kneaded and cut, and the chisel strokes of the Dionysian world- artist are accompanied with the cry of the Eleusinian mysteries: "Ihr strzt nieder, Millionen? Ahnest du den Schpfer, Welt?" 4 2. Thus far we have considered the Apollonian and his antithesis, the Dionysian, as artistic powers, which burst forth from nature herself, without the mediation of the human artist, and in which her art- impulses are satisfied in the most immediate and direct way: first, as the pictorial world of dreams, the perfection of which has no connection whatever with the intellectual height or artistic culture of the unit man, and again, as drunken reality, which likewise does not heed the unit man, but even seeks to destroy the individual and redeem him by a mystic feeling of Oneness. Anent these immediate art -states of nature every artist is either an "imitator," to wit, either an Apollonian, an artist in dreams, or a Dionysian, an artist in ecstasies, or finally as for instance in Greek tragedy an artist in both dreams and ecstasies: so we may perhaps picture him, as in his Dionysian drunkenness and mystical self-abnegation, lonesome and apart from the revelling choruses, he sinks down, and how now, through Apollonian dream- inspiration, his 4 Te bow in the dust, oh millions? Thy maker, mortal, dost divine? Cf. Schiller's "Hymn to Joy"; and Beethoven, Ninth Symphony. TR. 29 own state, i.e., his oneness with the primal source of the universe, reveals itself to him in a symbolical dream -picture . After these general premisings and contrastings, let us now approach the Greeks in order to learn in what degree and to what height these art- impulses of nature were developed in them: whereby we shall be enabled to understand and appreciate more deeply the relation of the Greek artist to his archetypes, or, according to the Aristotelian expression, "the imitation of nature." In spite of all the dream -literature and the numerous dream -anecdotes of the Greeks, we can speak only conjecturally, though with a fair degree of certainty, of their dreams. Considering the incredibly precise and unerring plastic power of their eyes, as also their manifest and sincere delight in colours, we can hardly refrain (to the shame of every one born later) from assuming for their very dreams a logical causality of lines and contours, colours and groups, a s equence of scenes resembling their best reliefs, the perfection of which would certainly justify us, if a comparison were possible, in designating the dreaming Greeks as Homers and Homer as a dreaming Greek: in a deeper sense than when modern man, in respect to his dreams, ventures to compare himself with Shakespeare. On the other hand, we should not have to speak conjecturally, if asked to disclose the immense gap which separated the Dionysian Greek from the Dionysian barbarian. From all quarters of the Ancient World to say nothing of the modernfrom Rome as far as Babylon, we can prove the existence of Dionysian festivals, the type of which bears, at best, the same relation to the Greek festivals as the bearded satyr, who borrowed his name and attributes f rom the goat, does to Dionysus himself. In nearly every instance the centre of these festivals lay in extravagant sexual licentiousness, the waves of which overwhelmed all family life and its venerable traditions; the very wildest beasts of nature were let loose here, including that detestable mixture of lust and cruelty which has always seemed to me the genuine "witches' draught." For some time, however, it would seem that the Greeks were perfectly secure and guarded against the feverish agitations of these festivals ( the knowledge of which entered Greece by all the channels of land and sea) by the figure of Apollo himself rising here in full pride, who could not have held out the Gorgon's head to a more dangerous power than this grotesquely uncouth Dionysian. It is in Doric art that this majestically - 30 rejecting attitude of Apollo perpetuated itself. This opposition became more precarious and even impossible, when, from out of the deepest root of the Hellenic nature, similar impulses finally broke forth and made way for themselves: the Delphic god, by a seasonably effected reconciliation, was now contented with taking the destructive arms from the hands of his powerful antagonist. This reconciliation marks the most important moment in the history of the Greek cult: wherever we turn our eyes we may observe the revolutions resulting from this event. It was the reconciliation of two antagonists, with the sharp demarcation of the boundary -lines to be thenceforth observed by each, and with periodical transmission of testimonials; in reality, the chasm was not bridged over. But if we observe how, under the pressure of this conclusion of peace, the Dionysian power manifested itself, we shall now recognise in the Dionysian orgies of the Greeks, as compared with the Babylonian Saca and their retrogression of man to the tiger and the ape, the significance of festivals of world- redemption and days of transfiguration. Not till then does nature attain her artistic jubilee; not till then does the rupture of the principium in dividuationis become an artistic phenomenon. That horrible "witches' draught" of sensuality and cruelty was here powerless: only the curious blending and duality in the emotions of the Dionysian revellers reminds one of it just as medicines remind one of deadly poisons, that phenomenon, to wit, that pains beget joy, that jubilation wrings painful sounds out of the breast. From the highest joy sounds the cry of horror or the yearning wail over an irretrievable loss. In these Greek festivals a sentimental trait, as it were, breaks forth from nature, as if she must sigh over her dismemberment into individuals. The song and pantomime of such dually -minded revellers was something new and unheard -of in the Homeric- Grecian world; and the Dionysian music in particul ar excited awe and horror. If music, as it would seem, was previously known as an Apollonian art, it was, strictly speaking, only as the wave- beat of rhythm, the formative power of which was developed to the representation of Apollonian conditions. The music of Apollo was Doric architectonics in tones, but in merely suggested tones, such as those of the cithara. The very element which forms the essence of Dionysian music (and hence of music in general) is carefully excluded as un -Apollonian; namely, the thr illing power of the tone, the uniform stream of the melos, and the thoroughly incomparable world of harmony. In the Dionysian dithyramb man is 31 incited to the highest exaltation of all his symbolic faculties; something never before experienced struggles for utterance the annihilation of the veil of My, Oneness as genius of the race, ay, of nature. The essence of nature is now to be expressed symbolically; a new world of symbols is required; for once the entire symbolism of the body, not only the symbolism of the lips, face, and speech, but the whole pantomime of dancing which sets all the members into rhythmical motion. Thereupon the other symbolic powers, those of music, in rhythmics, dynamics, and harmony, suddenly become impetuous. To comprehend this col lective discharge of all the symbolic powers, a man must have already attained that height of self -abnegation, which wills to express itself symbolically through these powers: the Dithyrambic votary of Dionysus is therefore understood only by those like himself! With what astonishment must the Apollonian Greek have beheld him! With an astonishment, which was all the greater the more it was mingled with the shuddering suspicion that all this was in reality not so very foreign to him, yea, that, like unto a veil, his Apollonian consciousness only hid this Dionysian world from his view. 3. In order to comprehend this, we must take down the artistic structure of the Apollonian culture, as it were, stone by stone, till we behold the foundations on which it rests. Here we observe first of all the glorious Olympian figures of the gods, standing on the gables of this structure, whose deeds, represented in far -shining reliefs, adorn its friezes. Though Apollo stands among them as an individual deity, side by side with others, and without claim to priority of rank, we must not suffer this fact to mislead us. The same impulse which embodied itself in Apollo has, in general, given birth to this whole Olympian world, and in this sense we may regard Apollo as the father thereof. What was the enormous need from which proceeded such an illustrious group of Olympian beings? Whosoever, with another religion in his heart, approaches these Olympians and seeks among them for moral elevation, even for sanctity, for incorporeal spiritualisation, for sympathetic looks of love, will soon be obliged to turn his back on them, discouraged and disappointed. Here nothing suggests asceticism, spirituality, or duty: here only an exuberant, 32 even triumphant life speaks to us, in which everything existing is deified, whether good or bad. And so the spectator will perhaps stand quite bewildered before this fantastic exuberance of life, and ask himself what magic potion these madly merry men could have used for enjoying life, so that, wherever they turned their eyes, Helena, the ideal image of their own existence "floating in sweet sensuality," smiled upon them. But to this spectator, already turning backwards, we must call out: "depart not hence, but hear rather what Greek folk- wisdom says of this s ame life, which with such inexplicable cheerfulness spreads out before thee." There is an ancient story that king Midas hunted in the forest a long time for the wise Silenus, the companion of Dionysus, without capturing him. When at last he fell into his hands, the king asked what was best of all and most desirable for man. Fixed and immovable, the demon remained silent; till at last, forced by the king, he broke out with shrill laughter into these words: "Oh, wretched race of a day, children of chance and misery, why do ye compel me to say to you what it were most expedient for you not to hear? What is best of all is for ever beyond your reach: not to be born, not to be , to be nothing. The second best for you, however, is soon to die." How is the Olympian w orld of deities related to this folk -wisdom? Even as the rapturous vision of the tortured martyr to his sufferings. Now the Olympian magic mountain opens, as it were, to our view and shows to us its roots. The Greek knew and felt the terrors and horrors of existence: to be able to live at all, he had to interpose the shining dream- birth of the Olympian world between himself and them. The excessive distrust of the titanic powers of nature, the Moira throning inexorably over all knowledge, the vulture of the great philanthropist Prometheus, the terrible fate of the wise dipus, the family curse of the Atrid which drove Orestes to matricide; in short, that entire philosophy of the sylvan god, with its mythical exemplars, which wrought the ruin of the melanchol y Etruscans was again and again surmounted anew by the Greeks through the artistic middle world of the Olympians, or at least veiled and withdrawn from sight. To be able to live, the Greeks had, from direst necessity, to create these gods: which process we may perhaps picture to ourselves in this manner: that out of the original Titan thearchy of terror the Olympian thearchy of joy was evolved, by slow transitions, through the Apollonian impulse to beauty, even as roses 33 break forth from thorny bushes. How e lse could this so sensitive people, so vehement in its desires, so singularly qualified for sufferings have endured existence, if it had not been exhibited to them in their gods, surrounded with a higher glory? The same impulse which calls art into being, as the complement and consummation of existence, seducing to a continuation of life, caused also the Olympian world to arise, in which the Hellenic "will" held up before itself a transfiguring mirror. Thus do the gods justify the life of man, in that they themselves live it the only satisfactory Theodicy! Existence under the bright sunshine of such gods is regarded as that which is desirable in itself, and the real grief of the Homeric men has reference to parting from it, especially to early parting: so th at we might now say of them, with a reversion of the Silenian wisdom, that "to die early is worst of all for them, the second worst issome day to die at all." If once the lamentation is heard, it will ring out again, of the short -lived Achilles, of the le af-like change and vicissitude of the human race, of the decay of the heroic age. It is not unworthy of the greatest hero to long for a continuation of life, ay, even as a day - labourer. So vehemently does the "will," at the Apollonian stage of development, long for this existence, so completely at one does the Homeric man feel himself with it, that the very lamentation becomes its song of praise. Here we must observe that this harmony which is so eagerly contemplated by modern man, in fact, this oneness of man with nature, to express which Schiller introduced the technical term "nave," is by no means such a simple, naturally resulting and, as it were, inevitable condition, which must be found at the gate of every culture leading to a paradise of man: this c ould be believed only by an age which sought to picture to itself Rousseau's mile also as an artist, and imagined it had found in Homer such an artist mile, reared at Nature's bosom. Wherever we meet with the "nave" in art, it behoves us to recognise th e highest effect of the Apollonian culture, which in the first place has always to overthrow some Titanic empire and slay monsters, and which, through powerful dazzling representations and pleasurable illusions, must have triumphed over a terrible depth of world -contemplation and a most keen susceptibility to suffering. But how seldom is the nave that complete absorption, in the beauty of appearance attained! And hence how inexpressibly sublime is Homer, who, as unit being, bears the same 34 relation to this Apollonian folk -culture as the unit dream -artist does to the dream -faculty of the people and of Nature in general. The Homeric "navet" can be comprehended only as the complete triumph of the Apollonian illusion: it is the same kind of illusion as Nature so frequently employs to compass her ends. The true goal is veiled by a phantasm: we stretch out our hands for the latter, while Nature attains the former through our illusion. In the Greeks the "will" desired to contemplate itself in the transfiguration o f the genius and the world of art; in order to glorify themselves, its creatures had to feel themselves worthy of glory; they had to behold themselves again in a higher sphere, without this consummate world of contemplation acting as an imperative or repro ach. Such is the sphere of beauty, in which, as in a mirror, they saw their images, the Olympians. With this mirroring of beauty the Hellenic will combated its talent correlative to the artistic for suffering and for the wisdom of suffering: and, as a monu ment of its victory, Homer, the nave artist, stands before us. 4. Concerning this nave artist the analogy of dreams will enlighten us to some extent. When we realise to ourselves the dreamer, as, in the midst of the illusion of the dream- world and without disturbing it, he calls out to himself: "it is a dream, I will dream on"; when we must thence infer a deep inner joy in dream- contemplation; when, on the other hand, to be at all able to dream with this inner joy in contemplation, we must have completely forgotten the day and its terrible obtrusiveness, we may, under the direction of the dream- reading Apollo, interpret all these phenomena to ourselves somewhat as follows. Though it is certain that of the two halves of life, the waking and the dreaming, th e former appeals to us as by far the more preferred, important, excellent and worthy of being lived, indeed, as that which alone is lived: yet, with reference to that mysterious ground of our being of which we are the phenomenon, I should, paradoxical as i t may seem, be inclined to maintain the very opposite estimate of the value of dream life. For the more clearly I perceive in nature those all -powerful art impulses, and in them a fervent longing for appearance, for redemption through appearance, the more I feel myself driven to the metaphysical assumption that the Verily -Existent and Primordial Unity, as the Eternally Suffering and Self -Contradictory, requires the rapturous 35 vision, the joyful appearance, for its continuous salvation: which appearance we, w ho are completely wrapt in it and composed of it, must regard as the Verily Non -existent, i.e., as a perpetual unfolding in time, space and causality, in other words, as empiric reality. If we therefore waive the consideration of our own "reality" for the present, if we conceive our empiric existence, and that of the world generally, as a representation of the Primordial Unity generated every moment, we shall then have to regard the dream as an appearance of appearance, hence as a still higher gratification of the primordial desire for appearance. It is for this same reason that the innermost heart of Nature experiences that indescribable joy in the nave artist and in the nave work of art, which is likewise only "an appearance of appearance." In a symbolic painting, Raphael , himself one of these immortal "nave" ones, has represented to us this depotentiating of appearance to appearance, the primordial process of the nave artist and at the same time of Apollonian culture. In his Transfiguration, the lower half, with the possessed boy, the despairing bearers, the helpless, terrified disciples, shows to us the reflection of eternal primordial pain, the sole basis of the world: the "appearance" here is the counter -appearance of eternal Contradiction, the father of things. Out of this appearance then arises, like an ambrosial vapour, a vision like new world of appearances, of which those wrapt in the first appearance see nothing a radiant floating in purest bliss and painless Contemplation beaming from wide - open eyes. Here there is presented to our view, in the highest symbolism of art, that Apollonian world of beauty and its substratum, the terrible wisdom of Silenus, and we comprehend, by intuition, their necessary interdependence. Apollo, however, again appears to us as the apotheosis of the principium individuationis, in which alone the perpetually attained end of the Primordial Unity, its redemption through appearance, is consummated: he shows us, with sublime attitudes, how the entire world of torment is necessary, that thereby the individual may be impelled to realise the redeeming vision, and then, sunk in contemplation thereof, quietly sit in his fluctuating barque, in the midst of the sea. This apotheosis of individuation, if it be at all conceived as imp erative and laying down precepts, knows but one law the individual, i.e., the observance of the boundaries of the individual, measure in the Hellenic 36 sense. Apollo, as ethical deity, demands due proportion of his disciples, and, that this may be observed, he demands self- knowledge. And thus, parallel to the sthetic necessity for beauty, there run the demands "know thyself" and "not too much," while presumption and undueness are regarded as the truly hostile demons of the non -Apollonian sphere, hence as characteristics of the pre -Apollonian age, that of the Titans, and of the extra -Apollonian world, that of the barbarians. Because of his Titan -like love for man, Prometheus had to be torn to pieces by vultures; because of his excessive wisdom, which solved th e riddle of the Sphinx, dipus had to plunge into a bewildering vortex of monstrous crimes: thus did the Delphic god interpret the Grecian past. So also the effects wrought by the Dionysian appeared "titanic" and "barbaric" to the Apollonian Greek: while at the same time he could not conceal from himself that he too was inwardly related to these overthrown Titans and heroes. Indeed, he had to recognise still more than this: his entire existence, with all its beauty and moderation, rested on a hidden substra tum of suffering and of knowledge, which was again disclosed to him by the Dionysian. And lo! Apollo could not live without Dionysus! The "titanic" and the "barbaric" were in the end not less necessary than the Apollonian. And now let us imagine to ourselves how the ecstatic tone of the Dionysian festival sounded in ever more luring and bewitching strains into this artificially confined world built on appearance and moderation, how in these strains all the undueness of nature, in joy, sorrow, and knowledge, even to the transpiercing shriek, became audible: let us ask ourselves what meaning could be attached to the psalmodising artist of Apollo, with the phantom harp -sound, as compared with this demonic folk -song! The muses of the arts of "appearance" paled b efore an art which, in its intoxication, spoke the truth, the wisdom of Silenus cried "woe! woe!" against the cheerful Olympians. The individual, with all his boundaries and due proportions, went under in the self -oblivion of the Dionysian states and forgot the Apollonian precepts. The Undueness revealed itself as truth, contradiction, the bliss born of pain, declared itself but of the heart of nature. And thus, wherever the Dionysian prevailed, the Apollonian was routed and annihilated. But it is quite as certain that, where the first assault was successfully withstood, the authority and majesty of the Delphic god exhibited itself as more rigid and menacing than ever. For I 37 can only explain to myself the Doric state and Doric art as a permanent war-camp of the Apollonian: only by incessant opposition to the titanic- barbaric nature of the Dionysian was it possible for an art so defiantly - prim, so encompassed with bulwarks, a training so warlike and rigorous, a constitution so cruel and relentless, to last for any length of time. Up to this point we have enlarged upon the observation made at the beginning of this essay: how the Dionysian and the Apollonian, in ever new births succeeding and mutually augmenting one another, controlled the Hellenic genius: how from out the age of "bronze," with its Titan struggles and rigorous folk -philosophy, the Homeric world develops under the fostering sway of the Apollonian impulse to beauty, how this "nave" splendour is again overwhelmed by the inbursting flood of the Diony sian, and how against this new power the Apollonian rises to the austere majesty of Doric art and the Doric view of things. If, then, in this way, in the strife of these two hostile principles, the older Hellenic history falls into four great periods of ar t, we are now driven to inquire after the ulterior purpose of these unfoldings and processes, unless perchance we should regard the last -attained period, the period of Doric art, as the end and aim of these artistic impulses: and here the sublime and highl y celebrated art -work of Attic tragedy and dramatic dithyramb presents itself to our view as the common goal of both these impulses, whose mysterious union, after many and long precursory struggles, found its glorious consummation in such a child, which is at once Antigone and Cassandra. 5. We now approach the real purpose of our investigation, which aims at acquiring a knowledge of the Dionyso -Apollonian genius and his art - work, or at least an anticipatory understanding of the mystery of the aforesaid unio n. Here we shall ask first of all where that new germ which subsequently developed into tragedy and dramatic dithyramb first makes itself perceptible in the Hellenic world. The ancients themselves supply the answer in symbolic form, when they place Homer a nd Archilochus as the forefathers and torch -bearers of Greek poetry side by side on gems, sculptures, etc., in the sure conviction that only these two thoroughly original compeers, from whom a stream of fire flows over the whole of Greek posterity, should be taken into 38 consideration. Homer, the aged dreamer sunk in himself, the type of the Apollonian nave artist, beholds now with astonishment the impassioned genius of the warlike votary of the muses, Archilochus, violently tossed to and fro on the billows of existence: and modern sthetics could only add by way of interpretation, that here the "objective" artist is confronted by the first "subjective" artist. But this interpretation is of little service to us, because we know the subjective artist only as t he poor artist, and in every type and elevation of art we demand specially and first of all the conquest of the Subjective, the redemption from the "ego" and the cessation of every individual will and desire; indeed, we find it impossible to believe in any truly artistic production, however insignificant, without objectivity, without pure, interestless contemplation. Hence our sthetics must first solve the problem as to how the "lyrist" is possible as an artist: he who according to the experience of all ages continually says "I" and sings off to us the entire chromatic scale of his passions and desires. This very Archilochus appals us, alongside of Homer, by his cries of hatred and scorn, by the drunken outbursts of his desire. Is not just he then, who has been called the first subjective artist, the non -artist proper? But whence then the reverence which was shown to himthe poet in very remarkable utterances by the Delphic oracle itself, the focus of "objective" art? Schiller has enlightened us concerning his poetic procedure by a psychological observation, inexplicable to himself, yet not apparently open to any objection. He acknowledges that as the preparatory state to the act of poetising he had not perhaps before him or within him a series of pictures wi th co- ordinate causality of thoughts, but rather a musical mood ("The perception with me is at first without a clear and definite object; this forms itself later. A certain musical mood of mind precedes, and only after this does the poetical idea follow wi th me.") Add to this the most important phenomenon of all ancient lyric poetry, the union, regarded everywhere as natural, of the lyrist with the musician, their very identity, indeed, compared with which our modern lyric poetry is like the statue of a god without a head, and we may now, on the basis of our metaphysics of sthetics set forth above, interpret the lyrist to ourselves as follows. As Dionysian artist he is in the first place become altogether one with the Primordial Unity, its pain and contradi ction, and he produces the copy of this Primordial Unity as 39 music, granting that music has been correctly termed a repetition and a recast of the world; but now, under the Apollonian dream- inspiration, this music again becomes visible to him as in a symbol ic dream- picture. The formless and intangible reflection of the primordial pain in music, with its redemption in appearance, then generates a second mirroring as a concrete symbol or example. The artist has already surrendered his subjectivity in the Dionysian process: the picture which now shows to him his oneness with the heart of the world, is a dream- scene, which embodies the primordial contradiction and primordial pain, together with the primordial joy, of appearance. The "I" of the lyrist sounds there fore from the abyss of being: its "subjectivity," in the sense of the modern sthetes, is a fiction. When Archilochus, the first lyrist of the Greeks, makes known both his mad love and his contempt to the daughters of Lycambes, it is not his passion which dances before us in orgiastic frenzy: we see Dionysus and the Mnads, we see the drunken reveller Archilochus sunk down to sleep as Euripides depicts it in the Bacch, the sleep on the high Alpine pasture, in the noonday sun: and now Apollo approaches and touches him with the laurel. The Dionyso - musical enchantment of the sleeper now emits, as it were, picture sparks, lyrical poems, which in their highest development are called tragedies and dramatic dithyrambs. The plastic artist, as also the epic poet, who is related to him, is sunk in the pure contemplation of pictures. The Dionysian musician is, without any picture, himself just primordial pain and the primordial re -echoing thereof. The lyric genius is conscious of a world of pictures and symbols growing out of the state of mystical self -abnegation and oneness, which has a colouring causality and velocity quite different from that of the world of the plastic artist and epic poet. While the latter lives in these pictures, and only in them, with joyful satisfaction, and never grows tired of contemplating them with love, even in their minutest characters, while even the picture of the angry Achilles is to him but a picture, the angry expression of which he enjoys with the dream -joy in appearance so that, by t his mirror of appearance, he is guarded against being unified and blending with his figures; the pictures of the lyrist on the other hand are nothing but his very self and, as it were, only different projections of himself, on account of which he as the mo ving centre of this world is entitled to say "I": only of course 40 this self is not the same as that of the waking, empirically real man, but the only verily existent and eternal self resting at the basis of things, by means of the images whereof the lyric genius sees through even to this basis of things. Now let us suppose that he beholds himself also among these images as non -genius, i.e., his subject, the whole throng of subjective passions and impulses of the will directed to a definite object which appea rs real to him; if now it seems as if the lyric genius and the allied non -genius were one, and as if the former spoke that little word "I" of his own accord, this appearance will no longer be able to lead us astray, as it certainly led those astray who designated the lyrist as the subjective poet. In truth, Archilochus, the passionately inflamed, loving and hating man, is but a vision of the genius, who by this time is no longer Archilochus, but a genius of the world, who expresses his primordial pain symbo lically in the figure of the man Archilochus: while the subjectively willing and desiring man, Archilochus, can never at any time be a poet. It is by no means necessary, however, that the lyrist should see nothing but the phenomenon of the man Archilochus before him as a reflection of eternal being; and tragedy shows how far the visionary world of the lyrist may depart from this phenomenon, to which, of course, it is most intimately related. Schopenhauer, who did not shut his eyes to the difficulty presente d by the lyrist in the philosophical contemplation of art, thought he had found a way out of it, on which, however, I cannot accompany him; while he alone, in his profound metaphysics of music, held in his hands the means whereby this difficulty could be d efinitely removed: as I believe I have removed it here in his spirit and to his honour. In contrast to our view, he describes the peculiar nature of song as follows 5 (Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, I. 295): "It is the subject of the will, i.e., his own volition, which fills the consciousness of the singer; often as an unbound and satisfied desire (joy), but still more often as a restricted desire (grief), always as an emotion, a passion, or an agitated frame of mind. Besides this, however, and along with it, by the sight of surrounding nature, the singer becomes conscious of himself as the subject of pure will -less knowing, the unbroken, blissful peace of which now appears, in contrast to the stress of desire, which is always restricted and always needy. Th e 5 World as Will and Idea, I. 323, 4th ed. of Haldane and Kemp's translation. Quoted with a few changes. 41 feeling of this contrast, this alternation, is really what the song as a whole expresses and what principally constitutes the lyrical state of mind. In it pure knowing comes to us as it were to deliver us from desire and the stress thereof: we follow, bu t only for an instant; for desire, the remembrance of our personal ends, tears us anew from peaceful contemplation; yet ever again the next beautiful surrounding in which the pure will -less knowledge presents itself to us, allures us away from desire. Ther efore, in song and in the lyrical mood, desire (the personal interest of the ends) and the pure perception of the surrounding which presents itself, are wonderfully mingled with each other; connections between them are sought for and imagined; the subjecti ve disposition, the affection of the will, imparts its own hue to the contemplated surrounding, and conversely, the surroundings communicate the reflex of their colour to the will. The true song is the expression of the whole of this mingled and divided st ate of mind." Who could fail to see in this description that lyric poetry is here characterised as an imperfectly attained art, which seldom and only as it were in leaps arrives at its goal, indeed, as a semi -art, the essence of which is said to consist in this, that desire and pure contemplation, i.e., the unsthetic and the sthetic condition, are wonderfully mingled with each other? We maintain rather, that this entire antithesis, according to which, as according to some standard of value, Schopenhauer, too, still classifies the arts, the antithesis between the subjective and the objective, is quite out of place in sthetics, inasmuch as the subject i.e., the desiring individual who furthers his own egoistic ends, can be conceived only as the adversary, n ot as the origin of art. In so far as the subject is the artist, however, he has already been released from his individual will, and has become as it were the medium, through which the one verily existent Subject celebrates his redemption in appearance. For this one thing must above all be clear to us, to our humiliation and exaltation, that the entire comedy of art is not at all performed, say, for our betterment and culture, and that we are just as little the true authors of this art- world: rather we may assume with regard to ourselves, that its true author uses us as pictures and artistic projections, and that we have our highest dignity in our significance as works of art for only as an sthetic phenomenon is existence and the world eternally justified: while of course our consciousness of this our 42 specific significance hardly differs from the kind of consciousness which the soldiers painted on canvas have of the battle represented thereon. Hence all our knowledge of art is at bottom quite illusory, because, as knowing persons we are not one and identical with the Being who, as the sole author and spectator of this comedy of art, prepares a perpetual entertainment for himself. Only in so far as the genius in the act of artistic production coalesces with this primordial artist of the world, does he get a glimpse of the eternal essence of art, for in this state he is, in a marvellous manner, like the weird picture of the fairy -tale which can at will turn its eyes and behold itself; he is now at once subject a nd object, at once poet, actor, and spectator. 6. With reference to Archilochus, it has been established by critical research that he introduced the folk-song into literature, and, on account thereof, deserved, according to the general estimate of the Greeks, his unique position alongside of Homer. But what is this popular folk -song in contrast to the wholly Apollonian epos? What else but the perpetuum vestigium of a union of the Apollonian and the Dionysian? Its enormous diffusion among all peoples, still further enhanced by ever new births, testifies to the power of this artistic double impulse of nature: which leaves its vestiges in the popular song in like manner as the orgiastic movements of a people perpetuate themselves in its music. Indeed, one might also furnish historical proofs, that every period which is highly productive in popular songs has been most violently stirred by Dionysian currents, which we must always regard as the substratum and prerequisite of the popular song. First of all, however, we regard the popular song as the musical mirror of the world, as the Original melody, which now seeks for itself a parallel dream -phenomenon and expresses it in poetry. Melody is therefore primary and universal, and as such may admit of several objectiva tions, in several texts. Likewise, in the nave estimation of the people, it is regarded as by far the more important and necessary. Melody generates the poem out of itself by an ever -recurring process. The strophic form of the popular song points to the same phenomenon, which I always beheld with astonishment, till at last I found this explanation. Any one who in accordance with this theory examines a collection of popular songs, such 43 as "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," will find innumerable instances of the perpe tually productive melody scattering picture sparks all around: which in their variegation, their abrupt change, their mad precipitance, manifest a power quite unknown to the epic appearance and its steady flow. From the point of view of the epos, this uneq ual and irregular pictorial world of lyric poetry must be simply condemned: and the solemn epic rhapsodists of the Apollonian festivals in the age of Terpander have certainly done so. Accordingly, we observe that in the poetising of the popular song, langu age is strained to its utmost to imitate music; and hence a new world of poetry begins with Archilochus, which is fundamentally opposed to the Homeric. And in saying this we have pointed out the only possible relation between poetry and music, between word and tone: the word, the picture, the concept here seeks an expression analogous to music and now experiences in itself the power of music. In this sense we may discriminate between two main currents in the history of the language of the Greek people, according as their language imitated either the world of phenomena and of pictures, or the world of music. One has only to reflect seriously on the linguistic difference with regard to colour, syntactical structure, and vocabulary in Homer and Pindar, in order to comprehend the significance of this contrast; indeed, it becomes palpably clear to us that in the period between Homer and Pindar the orgiastic flute tones of Olympus must have sounded forth, which, in an age as late as Aristotle's, when music was infinitely more developed, transported people to drunken enthusiasm, and which, when their influence was first felt, undoubtedly incited all the poetic means of expression of contemporaneous man to imitation. I here call attention to a familiar phenomenon of our own times, against which our sthetics raises many objections. We again and again have occasion to observe how a symphony of Beethoven compels the individual hearers to use figurative speech, though the appearance presented by a collocation of the diffe rent pictorial world generated by a piece of music may be never so fantastically diversified and even contradictory. To practise its small wit on such compositions, and to overlook a phenomenon which is certainly worth explaining, is quite in keeping with this sthetics. Indeed, even if the tone -poet has spoken in pictures concerning a composition, when for instance he designates a certain symphony as the 44 "pastoral" symphony, or a passage therein as "the scene by the brook," or another as the "merry gathering of rustics," these are likewise only symbolical representations born out of music and not perhaps the imitated objects of music representations which can give us no information whatever concerning the Dionysian content of music, and which in fact have no distinctive value of their own alongside of other pictorical expressions. This process of a discharge of music in pictures we have now to transfer to some youthful, linguistically productive people, to get a notion as to how the strophic popular song or iginates, and how the entire faculty of speech is stimulated by this new principle of imitation of music. If, therefore, we may regard lyric poetry as the effulguration of music in pictures and concepts, we can now ask: "how does music appear in the mirror of symbolism and conception?" It appears as will, taking the word in the Schopenhauerian sense, i.e., as the antithesis of the sthetic, purely contemplative, and passive frame of mind. Here, however, we must discriminate as sharply as possible between th e concept of essentiality and the concept of phenominality; for music, according to its essence, cannot be will, because as such it would have to be wholly banished from the domain of art for the will is the unsthetic -in- itself; yet it appears as will. Fo r in order to express the phenomenon of music in pictures, the lyrist requires all the stirrings of passion, from the whispering of infant desire to the roaring of madness. Under the impulse to speak of music in Apollonian symbols, he conceives of all natu re, and himself therein, only as the eternally willing, desiring, longing existence. But in so far as he interprets music by means of pictures, he himself rests in the quiet calm of Apollonian contemplation, however much all around him which he beholds through the medium of music is in a state of confused and violent motion. Indeed, when he beholds himself through this same medium, his own image appears to him in a state of unsatisfied feeling: his own willing, longing, moaning and rejoicing are to him symbols by which he interprets music. Such is the phenomenon of the lyrist: as Apollonian genius he interprets music through the image of the will, while he himself, completely released from the avidity of the will, is the pure, undimmed eye of day. Our whole disquisition insists on this, that lyric poetry is dependent on the spirit of music just as music itself in its absolute sovereignty does 45 not require the picture and the concept, but only endures them as accompaniments. The poems of the lyrist can express nothing which has not already been contained in the vast universality and absoluteness of the music which compelled him to use figurative speech. By no means is it possible for language adequately to render the cosmic symbolism of music, for the very reaso n that music stands in symbolic relation to the primordial contradiction and primordial pain in the heart of the Primordial Unity, and therefore symbolises a sphere which is above all appearance and before all phenomena. Rather should we say that all phenomena, compared with it, are but symbols: hence language, as the organ and symbol of phenomena, cannot at all disclose the innermost essence, of music; language can only be in superficial contact with music when it attempts to imitate music; while the profo undest significance of the latter cannot be brought one step nearer to us by all the eloquence of lyric poetry. 7. We shall now have to avail ourselves of all the principles of art hitherto considered, in order to find our way through the labyrinth, as we must designate the origin of Greek tragedy. I shall not be charged with absurdity in saying that the problem of this origin has as yet not even been seriously stated, not to say solved, however often the fluttering tatters of ancient tradition have been se wed together in sundry combinations and torn asunder again. This tradition tells us in the most unequivocal terms, that tragedy sprang from the tragic chorus, and was originally only chorus and nothing but chorus: and hence we feel it our duty to look into the heart of this tragic chorus as being the real proto - drama, without in the least contenting ourselves with current art-phraseology according to which the chorus is the ideal spectator, or represents the people in contrast to the regal side of the scene . The latter explanatory notion, which sounds sublime to many a politician that the immutable moral law was embodied by the democratic Athenians in the popular chorus, which always carries its point over the passionate excesses and extravagances of kings may be ever so forcibly suggested by an observation of Aristotle: still it has no bearing on the original formation of tragedy, inasmuch as the entire antithesis of king and people, and, in general, the whole politico -social sphere, is excluded from the pur ely religious beginnings of tragedy; but, considering the 46 well- known classical form of the chorus in schylus and Sophocles, we should even deem it blasphemy to speak here of the anticipation of a "constitutional representation of the people," from which b lasphemy others have not shrunk, however. The ancient governments knew of no constitutional representation of the people in praxi, and it is to be hoped that they did not even so much as "anticipate" it in tragedy. Much more celebrated than this political explanation of the chorus is the notion of A. W. Schlegel, who advises us to regard the chorus, in a manner, as the essence and extract of the crowd of spectators, as the "ideal spectator." This view when compared with the historical tradition that tragedy was originally only chorus, reveals itself in its true character, as a crude, unscientific, yet brilliant assertion, which, however, has acquired its brilliancy only through its concentrated form of expression, through the truly Germanic bias in favour of whatever is called "ideal," and through our momentary astonishment. For we are indeed astonished the moment we compare our well -known theatrical public with this chorus, and ask ourselves if it could ever be possible to idealise something analogous to the Greek chorus out of such a public. We tacitly deny this, and now wonder as much at the boldness of Schlegel's assertion as at the totally different nature of the Greek public. For hitherto we always believed that the true spectator, be he who he may, had always to remain conscious of having before him a work of art, and not an empiric reality: whereas the tragic chorus of the Greeks is compelled to recognise real beings in the figures of the stage. The chorus of the Oceanides really believes that it sees before it the Titan Prometheus, and considers itself as real as the god of the scene. And are we to own that he is the highest and purest type of spectator, who, like the Oceanides, regards Prometheus as real and present in body? And is it characteristic of the ideal spectator that he should run on the stage and free the god from his torments? We had believed in an sthetic public, and considered the individual spectator the better qualified the more he was capable of viewing a work of art as art, that is, sthetically; but now the Schlegelian expression has intimated to us, that the perfect ideal spectator does not at all suffer the world of the scenes to act sthetically on him, but corporeo- empirically. Oh, these Greeks! we have sighed; they will upset our sthetics! But once accustomed to it, we have 47 reiterated the saying of Schlegel, as often as the subject of the chorus has been broached. But the tradition which is so explicit here speaks against Schlegel: the chorus as such, without the stage, the primi tive form of tragedy, and the chorus of ideal spectators do not harmonise. What kind of art would that be which was extracted from the concept of the spectator, and whereof we are to regard the "spectator as such" as the true form? The spectator without th e play is something absurd. We fear that the birth of tragedy can be explained neither by the high esteem for the moral intelligence of the multitude nor by the concept of the spectator without the play; and we regard the problem as too deep to be even so much as touched by such superficial modes of contemplation. An infinitely more valuable insight into the signification of the chorus had already been displayed by Schiller in the celebrated Preface to his Bride of Messina, where he regarded the chorus as a living wall which tragedy draws round herself to guard her from contact with the world of reality, and to preserve her ideal domain and poetical freedom. It is with this, his chief weapon, that Schiller combats the ordinary conception of the natural, the illusion ordinarily required in dramatic poetry. He contends that while indeed the day on the stage is merely artificial, the architecture only symbolical, and the metrical dialogue purely ideal in character, nevertheless an erroneous view still prevails i n the main: that it is not enough to tolerate merely as a poetical license that which is in reality the essence of all poetry. The introduction of the chorus is, he says, the decisive step by which war is declared openly and honestly against all naturalism in art. It is, methinks, for disparaging this mode of contemplation that our would- be superior age has coined the disdainful catchword "pseudo -idealism." I fear, however, that we on the other hand with our present worship of the natural and the real have landed at the nadir of all idealism, namely in the region of cabinets of wax- figures. An art indeed exists also here, as in certain novels much in vogue at present: but let no one pester us with the claim that by this art the Schiller -Goethian "Pseudo -idea lism" has been vanquished. It is indeed an "ideal" domain, as Schiller rightly perceived, upon which the Greek satyric chorus, the chorus of primitive tragedy, was wont to 48 walk, a domain raised far above the actual path of mortals. The Greek framed for thi s chorus the suspended scaffolding of a fictitious natural state and placed thereon fictitious natural beings. It is on this foundation that tragedy grew up, and so it could of course dispense from the very first with a painful portrayal of reality. Yet it is, not an arbitrary world placed by fancy betwixt heaven and earth; rather is it a world possessing the same reality and trustworthiness that Olympus with its dwellers possessed for the believing Hellene. The satyr, as being the Dionysian chorist, lives in a religiously acknowledged reality under the sanction of the myth and cult. That tragedy begins with him, that the Dionysian wisdom of tragedy speaks through him, is just as surprising a phenomenon to us as, in general, the derivation of tragedy from the chorus. Perhaps we shall get a starting- point for our inquiry, if I put forward the proposition that the satyr, the fictitious natural being, is to the man of culture what Dionysian music is to civilisation. Concerning this latter, Richard Wagner says that it is neutralised by music even as lamplight by daylight. In like manner, I believe, the Greek man of culture felt himself neutralised in the presence of the satyric chorus: and this is the most immediate effect of the Dionysian tragedy, that the state and society, and, in general, the gaps between man and man give way to an overwhelming feeling of oneness, which leads back to the heart of nature. The metaphysical comfort, with which, as I have here intimated, every true tragedy dismisses us that, in spite of the perpetual change of phenomena, life at bottom is indestructibly powerful and pleasurable, this comfort appears with corporeal lucidity as the satyric chorus, as the chorus of natural beings, who live ineradicable as it were behind all civilisation, and who, in spite of the ceaseless change of generations and the history of nations, remain for ever the same. With this chorus the deep -minded Hellene, who is so singularly qualified for the most delicate and severe suffering, consoles himself: he who has glanced with piercing eye into the very heart of the terrible destructive processes of so -called universal history, as also into the cruelty of nature, and is in danger of longing for a Buddhistic negation of the will. Art saves him, and through art life saves him for herself. For we must know that in the rapture of the Dionysian state, with its annihilation of the ordinary bounds and limits of existence, there is a lethargic element, wherein all personal experiences of the past are 49 submerged. It is by this gulf of oblivion that the everyday world and the world of Dionysian reality are separated from each other. But as soon as this everyday reality rises again in consciousness, it is felt as such, and nauseates us; an ascetic will -paralysing mood is the fruit of these states. In this sense the Dionysian man may be said to resemble Hamlet: both have for once seen into the true nature of things, they have perceived, but they are loath to act; for their action cannot change the eternal nature of things; they regard it as shameful or ridiculous that one should require of them to set aright the time which is out of joint. Knowledge kills action, action requires the veil of illusionit is this lesson which Hamlet teaches, and not the cheap wisdom of John-a- Drea ms who from too much reflection, as it were from a surplus of possibilities, does not arrive at action at all. Not reflection, no! true knowledge, insight into appalling truth, preponderates over all motives inciting to action, in Hamlet as well as in the Dionysian man. No comfort avails any longer; his longing goes beyond a world after death, beyond the gods themselves; existence with its glittering reflection in the gods, or in an immortal other world is abjured. In the consciousness of the truth he has p erceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence, he now understands the symbolism in the fate of Ophelia, he now discerns the wisdom of the sylvan god Silenus: and loathing seizes him. Here, in this extremest danger of th e will, art approaches, as a saving and healing enchantress; she alone is able to transform these nauseating reflections on the awfulness or absurdity of existence into representations wherewith it is possible to live: these are the representations of the sublime as the artistic subjugation of the awful, and the comic as the artistic delivery from the nausea of the absurd. The satyric chorus of dithyramb is the saving deed of Greek art; the paroxysms described above spent their force in the intermediary wor ld of these Dionysian followers. 8. The satyr, like the idyllic shepherd of our more recent time, is the offspring of a longing after the Primitive and the Natural; but mark with what firmness and fearlessness the Greek embraced the man of the woods, and a gain, how coyly and mawkishly the modern man dallied 50 with the flattering picture of a tender, flute -playing, soft -natured shepherd! Nature, on which as yet no knowledge has been at work, which maintains unbroken barriers to culture this is what the Greek saw in his satyr, which still was not on this account supposed to coincide with the ape. On the contrary: it was the archetype of man, the embodiment of his highest and strongest emotions, as the enthusiastic reveller enraptured By the proximity of his god, as the fellow -suffering companion in whom the suffering of the god repeats itself, as the herald of wisdom speaking from the very depths of nature, as the emblem of the sexual omnipotence of nature, which the Greek was wont to contemplate with reverential awe. The satyr was something sublime and godlike: he could not but appear so, especially to the sad and wearied eye of the Dionysian man. He would have been offended by our spurious tricked- up shepherd, while his eye dwelt with sublime satisfaction on the naked and unstuntedly magnificent characters of nature: here the illusion of culture was brushed away from the archetype of man; here the true man, the bearded satyr, revealed himself, who shouts joyfully to his god. Before him the cultured man shrank to a lying caricature. Schiller is right also with reference to these beginnings of tragic art: the chorus is a living bulwark against the onsets of reality, because it the satyric chorus portrays existence more truthfully, more realistically, more perfectly than the cultured man who ordinarily considers himself as the only reality. The sphere of poetry does not lie outside the world, like some fantastic impossibility of a poet's imagination: it seeks to be the very opposite, the unvarnished expression of trut h, and must for this very reason cast aside the false finery of that supposed reality of the cultured man. The contrast between this intrinsic truth of nature and the falsehood of culture, which poses as the only reality, is similar to that existing between the eternal kernel of things, the thing in itself, and the collective world of phenomena. And even as tragedy, with its metaphysical comfort, points to the eternal life of this kernel of existence, notwithstanding the perpetual dissolution of phenomena, so the symbolism of the satyric chorus already expresses figuratively this primordial relation between the thing in itself and phenomenon. The idyllic shepherd of the modern man is but a copy of the sum of the illusions of culture which he calls nature; th e Dionysian Greek desires truth and nature in their most potent form; he sees himself metamorphosed into the satyr. 51 The revelling crowd of the votaries of Dionysus rejoices, swayed by such moods and perceptions, the power of which transforms them before their own eyes, so that they imagine they behold themselves as reconstituted genii of nature, as satyrs. The later constitution of the tragic chorus is the artistic imitation of this natural phenomenon, which of course required a separation of the Dionysian spectators from the enchanted Dionysians. However, we must never lose sight of the fact that the public of the Attic tragedy rediscovered itself in the chorus of the orchestra, that there was in reality no antithesis of public and chorus: for all was but o ne great sublime chorus of dancing and singing satyrs, or of such as allowed themselves to be represented by the satyrs. The Schlegelian observation must here reveal itself to us in a deeper sense. The chorus is the "ideal spectator" 6 in so far as it is the only beholder,7 the beholder of the visionary world of the scene. A public of spectators, as known to us, was unknown to the Greeks. In their theatres the terraced structure of the spectators' space rising in concentric arcs enabled every one, in the s trictest sense, to overlook the entire world of culture around him, and in surfeited contemplation to imagine himself a chorist. According to this view, then, we may call the chorus in its primitive stage in proto -tragedy, a self -mirroring of the Dionysian man: a phenomenon which may be best exemplified by the process of the actor, who, if he be truly gifted, sees hovering before his eyes with almost tangible perceptibility the character he is to represent. The satyric chorus is first of all a vision of the Dionysian throng, just as the world of the stage is, in turn, a vision of the satyric chorus: the power of this vision is great enough to render the eye dull and insensible to the impression of "reality," to the presence of the cultured men occupying the tiers of seats on every side. The form of the Greek theatre reminds one of a lonesome mountain- valley: the architecture of the scene appears like a luminous cloud- picture which the Bacchants swarming on the mountains behold from the heights, as the splendid encirclement in the midst of which the image of Dionysus is revealed to them. Owing to our learned conception of the elementary artistic processes, this artistic proto -phenomenon, which is here introduced to explain the tragic chorus, is almost shocking: while nothing can be more certain than 6 Zuschauer. 7 Schauer. 52 that the poet is a poet only in that he beholds himself surrounded by forms which live and act before him, into the innermost being of which his glance penetrates. By reason of a strange defeat in our capacities, we modern men are apt to represent to ourselves the sthetic proto - phenomenon as too complex and abstract. For the true poet the metaphor is not a rhetorical figure, but a vicarious image which actually hovers before him in place of a concept. The character is not for him an aggregate composed of a studied collection of particular traits, but an irrepressibly live person appearing before his eyes, and differing only from the corresponding vision of the painter by its ever continued life and action. Why is it t hat Homer sketches much more vividly 8 than all the other poets? Because he contemplates9 much more. We talk so abstractly about poetry, because we are all wont to be bad poets. At bottom the sthetic phenomenon is simple: let a man but have the faculty of perpetually seeing a lively play and of constantly living surrounded by hosts of spirits, then he is a poet: let him but feel the impulse to transform himself and to talk from out the bodies and souls of others, then he is a dramatist. The Dionysian excite ment is able to impart to a whole mass of men this artistic faculty of seeing themselves surrounded by such a host of spirits, with whom they know themselves to be inwardly one. This function of the tragic chorus is the dramatic proto -phenomenon: to see on e's self transformed before one's self, and then to act as if one had really entered into another body, into another character. This function stands at the beginning of the development of the drama. Here we have something different from the rhapsodist, who does not blend with his pictures, but only sees them, like the painter, with contemplative eye outside of him; here we actually have a surrender of the individual by his entering into another nature. Moreover this phenomenon appears in the form of an epidemic: a whole throng feels itself metamorphosed in this wise. Hence it is that the dithyramb is essentially different from every other variety of the choric song. The virgins, who with laurel twigs in their hands solemnly proceed to the temple of Apollo an d sing a processional hymn, remain what they are and retain their civic names: the dithyrambic chorus is a chorus of transformed beings, whose civic past and social 8 Anschaulicher. 9 Anschaut. 53 rank are totally forgotten: they have become the timeless servants of their god that live a loof from all the spheres of society. Every other variety of the choric lyric of the Hellenes is but an enormous enhancement of the Apollonian unit -singer: while in the dithyramb we have before us a community of unconscious actors, who mutually regard them selves as transformed among one another. This enchantment is the prerequisite of all dramatic art. In this enchantment the Dionysian reveller sees himself as a satyr, and as satyr he in turn beholds the god, that is, in his transformation he sees a new vision outside him as the Apollonian consummation of his state. With this new vision the drama is complete. According to this view, we must understand Greek tragedy as the Dionysian chorus, which always disburdens itself anew in an Apollonian world of picture s. The choric parts, therefore, with which tragedy is interlaced, are in a manner the mother -womb of the entire so -called dialogue, that is, of the whole stage -world, of the drama proper. In several successive outbursts does this primordial basis of tragedy beam forth the vision of the drama, which is a dream -phenomenon throughout, and, as such, epic in character: on the other hand, however, as objectivation of a Dionysian state, it does not represent the Apollonian redemption in appearance, but, conversely, the dissolution of the individual and his unification with primordial existence. Accordingly, the drama is the Apollonian embodiment of Dionysian perceptions and influences, and is thereby separated from the epic as by an immense gap. The chorus of Greek tragedy, the symbol of the mass of the people moved by Dionysian excitement, is thus fully explained by our conception of it as here set forth. Whereas, being accustomed to the position of a chorus on the modern stage, especially an operatic chorus, we co uld never comprehend why the tragic chorus of the Greeks should be older, more primitive, indeed, more important than the "action" proper, as has been so plainly declared by the voice of tradition; whereas, furthermore, we could not reconcile with this tra ditional paramount importance and primitiveness the fact of the chorus' being composed only of humble, ministering beings; indeed, at first only of goatlike satyrs; whereas, finally, the orchestra before the scene was always a riddle to us; we have learned to comprehend at length that the 54 scene, together with the action, was fundamentally and originally conceived only as a vision, that the only reality is just the chorus, which of itself generates the vision and speaks thereof with the entire symbolism of d ancing, tone, and word. This chorus beholds in the vision its lord and master Dionysus, and is thus for ever the serving chorus: it sees how he, the god, suffers and glorifies himself, and therefore does not itself act. But though its attitude towards the god is throughout the attitude of ministration, this is nevertheless the highest expression, the Dionysian expression of Nature, and therefore, like Nature herself, the chorus utters oracles and wise sayings when transported with enthusiasm: as fellow -sufferer it is also the sage proclaiming truth from out the heart of Nature. Thus, then, originates the fantastic figure, which seems so shocking, of the wise and enthusiastic satyr, who is at the same time "the dumb man" in contrast to the god: the image of N ature and her strongest impulses, yea, the symbol of Nature, and at the same time the herald of her art and wisdom: musician, poet, dancer, and visionary in one person. Agreeably to this view, and agreeably to tradition, Dionysus, the proper stage -hero and focus of vision, is not at first actually present in the oldest period of tragedy, but is only imagined as present: i.e., tragedy is originally only "chorus" and not "drama." Later on the attempt is made to exhibit the god as real and to display the visionary figure together with its glorifying encirclement before the eyes of all; it is here that the "drama" in the narrow sense of the term begins. To the dithyrambic chorus is now assigned the task of exciting the minds of the hearers to such a pitch of Dionysian frenzy, that, when the tragic hero appears on the stage, they do not behold in him, say, the unshapely masked man, but a visionary figure, born as it were of their own ecstasy. Let us picture Admetes thinking in profound meditation of his lately dep arted wife Alcestis, and quite consuming himself in spiritual contemplation thereof when suddenly the veiled figure of a woman resembling her in form and gait is led towards him: let us picture his sudden trembling anxiety, his agitated comparisons, his in stinctive conviction and we shall have an analogon to the sensation with which the spectator, excited to Dionysian frenzy, saw the god approaching on the stage, a god with whose sufferings he had already become identified. He involuntarily transferred the entire picture of the god, fluttering magically before his 55 soul, to this masked figure and resolved its reality as it were into a phantasmal unreality. This is the Apollonian dream -state, in which the world of day is veiled, and a new world, clearer, more intelligible, more striking than the former, and nevertheless more shadowy, is ever born anew in perpetual change before our eyes. We accordingly recognise in tragedy a thorough -going stylistic contrast: the language, colour, flexibility and dynamics of the dialogue fall apart in the Dionysian lyrics of the chorus on the one hand, and in the Apollonian dream- world of the scene on the other, into entirely separate spheres of expression. The Apollonian appearances, in which Dionysus objectifies himself, are no longer "ein ewiges Meer, ein wechselnd Weben, ein glhend Leben," 10 as is the music of the chorus, they are no longer the forces merely felt, but not condensed into a picture, by which the inspired votary of Dionysus divines the proximity of his god: the clearness and firmness of epic form now speak to him from the scene, Dionysus now no longer speaks through forces, but as an epic hero, almost in the language of Homer. 9. Whatever rises to the surface in the dialogue of the Apollonian part of Greek trage dy, appears simple, transparent, beautiful. In this sense the dialogue is a copy of the Hellene, whose nature reveals itself in the dance, because in the dance the greatest energy is merely potential, but betrays itself nevertheless in flexible and vivacious movements. The language of the Sophoclean heroes, for instance, surprises us by its Apollonian precision and clearness, so that we at once imagine we see into the innermost recesses of their being, and marvel not a little that the way to these recesses is so short. But if for the moment we disregard the character of the hero which rises to the surface and grows visible and which at bottom is nothing but the light -picture cast on a dark wall, that is, appearance through and through, if rather we enter int o the myth which projects itself in these bright mirrorings, we shall of a sudden experience a phenomenon which bears a reverse relation to one familiar in optics. When, after a vigorous effort to gaze into the sun, we turn away blinded, we have dark- coloured spots before our eyes as restoratives, so to speak; while, on the contrary, those light -picture phenomena of the 10 An eternal sea, A weaving, flowing, Life, all glowing. Faust, trans. of Bayard Taylor. TR. 56 Sophoclean hero, in short, the Apollonian of the mask, are the necessary productions of a glance into the secret and terrible things of nature, as it were shining spots to heal the eye which dire night has seared. Only in this sense can we hope to be able to grasp the true meaning of the serious and significant notion of "Greek cheerfulness"; while of course we encounter the misunderstood notion of this cheerfulness, as resulting from a state of unendangered comfort, on all the ways and paths of the present time. The most sorrowful figure of the Greek stage, the hapless dipus, was understood by Sophocles as the noble man, who in spite of his wisdom was destined to error and misery, but nevertheless through his extraordinary sufferings ultimately exerted a magical, wholesome influence on all around him, which continues effective even after his death. The noble man does not sin; this is what the thoughtful poet wishes to tell us: all laws, all natural order, yea, the moral world itself, may be destroyed through his action, but through this very action a higher magic circle of influences is brought into play, which establish a new world on the ruins of the old that has been overthrown. This is what the poet, in so far as he is at the same time a religious thinker, wishes to tell us: as poet, he shows us first of all a wonderfully complicated legal mystery, which the judge slowly unravels, link by l ink, to his own destruction. The truly Hellenic delight at this dialectical loosening is so great, that a touch of surpassing cheerfulness is thereby communicated to the entire play, which everywhere blunts the edge of the horrible presuppositions of the procedure. In the "dipus at Colonus" we find the same cheerfulness, elevated, however, to an infinite transfiguration: in contrast to the aged king, subjected to an excess of misery, and exposed solely as a sufferer to all that befalls him, we have here a supermundane cheerfulness, which descends from a divine sphere and intimates to us that in his purely passive attitude the hero attains his highest activity, the influence of which extends far beyond his life, while his earlier conscious musing and striving led him only to passivity. Thus, then, the legal knot of the fable of dipus, which to mortal eyes appears indissolubly entangled, is slowly unravelled and the profoundest human joy comes upon us in the presence of this divine counterpart of dialectics. If this explanation does justice to the poet, it may still be asked whether the substance of the myth is thereby exhausted; and here 57 it turns out that the entire conception of the poet is nothing but the light - picture which healing nature holds up to us af ter a glance into the abyss. dipus, the murderer of his father, the husband of his mother, dipus, the interpreter of the riddle of the Sphinx! What does the mysterious triad of these deeds of destiny tell us? There is a primitive popular belief, especial ly in Persia, that a wise Magian can be born only of incest: which we have forthwith to interpret to ourselves with reference to the riddle - solving and mother -marrying dipus, to the effect that when the boundary of the present and future, the rigid law of individuation and, in general, the intrinsic spell of nature, are broken by prophetic and magical powers, an extraordinary counter -naturalness as, in this case, incest must have preceded as a cause; for how else could one force nature to surrender her secrets but by victoriously opposing her, i.e., by means of the Unnatural? It is this intuition which I see imprinted in the awful triad of the destiny of dipus: the very man who solves the riddle of nature that double -constituted Sphinx must also, as the mu rderer of his father and husband of his mother, break the holiest laws of nature. Indeed, it seems as if the myth sought to whisper into our ears that wisdom, especially Dionysian wisdom, is an unnatural abomination, and that whoever, through his knowledge , plunges nature into an abyss of annihilation, must also experience the dissolution of nature in himself. "The sharpness of wisdom turns round upon the sage: wisdom is a crime against nature": such terrible expressions does the myth call out to us: but th e Hellenic poet touches like a sunbeam the sublime and formidable Memnonian statue of the myth, so that it suddenly begins to sound in Sophoclean melodies. With the glory of passivity I now contrast the glory of activity which illuminates the Prometheus of schylus. That which schylus the thinker had to tell us here, but which as a poet he only allows us to surmise by his symbolic picture, the youthful Goethe succeeded in disclosing to us in the daring words of his Prometheus: "Hier sitz' ich, forme Mensc hen Nach meinem Bilde, Ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei, Zu leiden, zu weinen, Zu geniessen und zu freuen sich, 58 Und dein nicht zu achten, Wie ich!"11 Man, elevating himself to the rank of the Titans, acquires his culture by his own efforts, and compels the gods to unite with him, because in his self-sufficient wisdom he has their existence and their limits in his hand. What is most wonderful, however, in this Promethean form, which according to its fundamental conception is the specific hymn of impiety, is the profound schylean yearning for justice : the untold sorrow of the bold "single -handed being" on the one hand, and the divine need, ay, the foreboding of a twilight of the gods, on the other, the power of these two worlds of suffering constraining to reconciliation, to metaphysical oneness all this suggests most forcibly the central and main position of the schylean view of things, which sees Moira as eternal justice enthroned above gods and men. In view of the astonishing boldness with which schylus places the Olympian world on his scales of justice, it must be remembered that the deep -minded Greek had an immovably firm substratum of metaphysical thought in his mysteries, and that all his sceptical paroxysms could be discharged upon the Olympians. W ith reference to these deities, the Greek artist, in particular, had an obscure feeling as to mutual dependency: and it is just in the Prometheus of schylus that this feeling is symbolised. The Titanic artist found in himself the daring belief that he could create men and at least destroy Olympian deities: namely, by his superior wisdom, for which, to be sure, he had to atone by eternal suffering. The splendid "can -ing" of the great genius, bought too cheaply even at the price of eternal suffering, the stern pride of the artist : this is the essence and soul of schylean poetry, while Sophocles in his dipus preludingly strikes up the victory -song of the saint . But even this interpretation which schylus has given to the myth does not fathom its astounding d epth of terror; the fact is rather that the artist's delight in unfolding, the cheerfulness of artistic creating bidding defiance to all calamity, is but a shining stellar and nebular 11 "Here sit I, forming mankind In my image, A race resembling me, To sorrow and to weep, To taste, to hold, to enjoy, And not have need of thee, As I!" (Translation in Hckel's History of the Evolution of Man. ) 59 image reflected in a black sea of sadness. The tale of Prometheus is an original possession of the entire Aryan family of races, and documentary evidence of their capacity for the profoundly tragic; indeed, it is not improbable that this myth has the same characteristic significance for the Aryan race that the myth of the fall of man has for the Semitic, and that there is a relationship between the two myths like that of brother and sister. The presupposition of the Promethean myth is the transcendent value which a nave humanity attach to fire as the true palladium of every as cending culture: that man, however, should dispose at will of this fire, and should not receive it only as a gift from heaven, as the igniting lightning or the warming solar flame, appeared to the contemplative primordial men as crime and robbery of the divine nature. And thus the first philosophical problem at once causes a painful, irreconcilable antagonism between man and God, and puts as it were a mass of rock at the gate of every culture. The best and highest that men can acquire they obtain by a crime, and must now in their turn take upon themselves its consequences, namely the whole flood of sufferings and sorrows with which the offended celestials must visit the nobly aspiring race of man: a bitter reflection, which, by the dignity it confers on crime, contrasts strangely with the Semitic myth of the fall of man, in which curiosity, beguilement, seducibility, wantonness, in short, a whole series of pre -eminently feminine passions, were regarded as the origin of evil. What distinguishes the Aryan representation is the sublime view of active sin as the properly Promethean virtue, which suggests at the same time the ethical basis of pessimistic tragedy as the justification of human evil of human guilt as well as of the suffering incurred thereby. The mise ry in the essence of things which the contemplative Aryan is not disposed to explain away the antagonism in the heart of the world, manifests itself to him as a medley of different worlds, for instance, a Divine and a human world, each of which is in the r ight individually, but as a separate existence alongside of another has to suffer for its individuation. With the heroic effort made by the individual for universality, in his attempt to pass beyond the bounds of individuation and become the one universal being, he experiences in himself the primordial contradiction concealed in the essence of things, i.e., he trespasses and suffers. Accordingly crime 12 is understood by the Aryans 12 Der Frevel. 60 to be a man, sin13 by the Semites a woman; as also, the original crime is committed by man, the original sin by woman. Besides, the witches' chorus says: "Wir nehmen das nicht so genau: Mit tausend Schritten macht's die Frau; Doch wie sie auch sich eilen kann Mit einem Sprunge macht's der Mann."14 He who understands this innermost co re of the tale of Prometheus namely the necessity of crime imposed on the titanically striving individual will at once be conscious of the un- Apollonian nature of this pessimistic representation: for Apollo seeks to pacify individual beings precisely by dr awing boundary lines between them, and by again and again calling attention thereto, with his requirements of self -knowledge and due proportion, as the holiest laws of the universe. In order, however, to prevent the form from congealing to Egyptian rigidit y and coldness in consequence of this Apollonian tendency, in order to prevent the extinction of the motion of the entire lake in the effort to prescribe to the individual wave its path and compass, the high tide of the Dionysian tendency destroyed from ti me to time all the little circles in which the one-sided Apollonian "will" sought to confine the Hellenic world. The suddenly swelling tide of the Dionysian then takes the separate little wave -mountains of individuals on its back, just as the brother of Prometheus, the Titan Atlas, does with the earth. This Titanic impulse, to become as it were the Atlas of all individuals, and to carry them on broad shoulders higher and higher, farther and farther, is what the Promethean and the Dionysian have in common. In this respect the schylean Prometheus is a Dionysian mask, while, in the afore -mentioned profound yearning for justice, schylus betrays to the intelligent observer his paternal descent from Apollo, the god of individuation and of the boundaries of justice. And so the double -being of the schylean Prometheus, his conjoint Dionysian and Apollonian nature, might be 13 Die Snde. 14 We do not measure with such care: Woman in tho usand steps is there, But howsoe'er she hasten may. Man in one leap has cleared the way. Faust, trans. of Bayard Taylor. TR. 61 thus expressed in an abstract formula: "Whatever exists is alike just and unjust, and equally justified in both." Das ist deine Welt! Das heisst eine Welt!15 10. It is an indisputable tradition that Greek tragedy in its earliest form had for its theme only the sufferings of Dionysus, and that for some time the only stage -hero therein was simply Dionysus himself. With the same confidence, however , we can maintain that not until Euripides did Dionysus cease to be the tragic hero, and that in fact all the celebrated figures of the Greek stage Prometheus, dipus, etc. are but masks of this original hero, Dionysus. The presence of a god behind all the se masks is the one essential cause of the typical "ideality," so oft exciting wonder, of these celebrated figures. Some one, I know not whom, has maintained that all individuals are comic as individuals and are consequently un- tragic: from whence it might be inferred that the Greeks in general could not endure individuals on the tragic stage. And they really seem to have had these sentiments: as, in general, it is to be observed that the Platonic discrimination and valuation of the "idea" in contrast to th e "eidolon," the image, is deeply rooted in the Hellenic being. Availing ourselves of Plato's terminology, however, we should have to speak of the tragic figures of the Hellenic stage somewhat as follows. The one truly real Dionysus appears in a multiplici ty of forms, in the mask of a fighting hero and entangled, as it were, in the net of an individual will. As the visibly appearing god now talks and acts, he resembles an erring, striving, suffering individual: and that, in general, he appears with such epi c precision and clearness, is due to the dream - reading Apollo, who reads to the chorus its Dionysian state through this symbolic appearance. In reality, however, this hero is the suffering Dionysus of the mysteries, a god experiencing in himself the sufferings of individuation, of whom wonderful myths tell that as a boy he was dismembered by the Titans and has been worshipped in this state as 15 This is thy world, and what a world! Faust. 62 Zagreus:16 whereby is intimated that this dismemberment, the properly Dionysian suffering, is like a transformation into air, water, earth, and fire, that we must therefore regard the state of individuation as the source and primal cause of all suffering, as something objectionable in itself. From the smile of this Dionysus sprang the Olympian gods, from his tears sprang man. In his existence as a dismembered god, Dionysus has the dual nature of a cruel barbarised demon, and a mild pacific ruler. But the hope of the epopts looked for a new birth of Dionysus, which we have now to conceive of in anticipation as the end of i ndividuation: it was for this coming third Dionysus that the stormy jubilation- hymns of the epopts resounded. And it is only this hope that sheds a ray of joy upon the features of a world torn asunder and shattered into individuals: as is symbolised in the myth by Demeter sunk in eternal sadness, who rejoices again only when told that she may once more give birth to Dionysus In the views of things here given we already have all the elements of a profound and pessimistic contemplation of the world, and along with these we have the mystery doctrine of tragedy : the fundamental knowledge of the oneness of all existing things, the consideration of individuation as the primal cause of evil, and art as the joyous hope that the spell of individuation may be broken, as the augury of a restored oneness. It has already been intimated that the Homeric epos is the poem of Olympian culture, wherewith this culture has sung its own song of triumph over the terrors of the war of the Titans. Under the predominating influence of tragic poetry, these Homeric myths are now reproduced anew, and show by this metempsychosis that meantime the Olympian culture also has been vanquished by a still deeper view of things. The haughty Titan Prometheus has announced to his Olympian tormentor that the extremest danger will one day menace his rule, unless he ally with him betimes. In schylus we perceive the terrified Zeus, apprehensive of his end, in alliance with the Titan. Thus, the former age of the Titans is subsequently brought from Tartarus once more to the light of day. The philosophy of wild and naked nature beholds with the undissembled mien of truth the myths of the Homeric world as they dance past: they turn pale, they tremble before the lightning glance of 16 See article by Mr. Arthur Symons in The Academy, 30th August 1902. 63 this goddess till the powerful fist17 of the Dionysian artist forces them into the service of the new deity. Dionysian truth takes over the entire domain of myth as symbolism of its knowledge, which it makes known partly in the public cult of tragedy and partly in the secret celebra tion of the dramatic mysteries, always, however, in the old mythical garb. What was the power, which freed Prometheus from his vultures and transformed the myth into a vehicle of Dionysian wisdom? It is the Heracleian power of music: which, having reached its highest manifestness in tragedy, can invest myths with a new and most profound significance, which we have already had occasion to characterise as the most powerful faculty of music. For it is the fate of every myth to insinuate itself into the narrow limits of some alleged historical reality, and to be treated by some later generation as a solitary fact with historical claims: and the Greeks were already fairly on the way to restamp the whole of their mythical juvenile dream sagaciously and arbitrarily into a historico-pragmatical juvenile history. For this is the manner in which religions are wont to die out: when of course under the stern, intelligent eyes of an orthodox dogmatism, the mythical presuppositions of a religion are systematised as a completed sum of historical events, and when one begins apprehensively to defend the credibility of the myth, while at the same time opposing all continuation of their natural vitality and luxuriance; when, accordingly, the feeling for myth dies out, and its pl ace is taken by the claim of religion to historical foundations. This dying myth was now seized by the new -born genius of Dionysian music, in whose hands it bloomed once more, with such colours as it had never yet displayed, with a fragrance that awakened a longing anticipation of a metaphysical world. After this final effulgence it collapses, its leaves wither, and soon the scoffing Lucians of antiquity catch at the discoloured and faded flowers which the winds carry off in every direction. Through tragedy the myth attains its profoundest significance, its most expressive form; it rises once more like a wounded hero, and the whole surplus of vitality, together with the philosophical calmness of the Dying, burns in its eyes with a last powerful gleam. What meantest thou, oh impious Euripides, in seeking once more to enthral this dying one? It died under thy ruthless hands: and then thou madest use of counterfeit, masked myth, which like the ape of Heracles 17 Die mchtige Faust. Cf. Faust, Chorus of Spirits. TR. 64 could only trick itself out in the old finery. And a s myth died in thy hands, so also died the genius of music; though thou couldst covetously plunder all the gardens of music thou didst only realise a counterfeit, masked music. And because thou hast forsaken Dionysus. Apollo hath also forsaken thee; rout up all the passions from their haunts and conjure them into thy sphere, sharpen and polish a sophistical dialectics for the speeches of thy heroes thy very heroes have only counterfeit, masked passions, and speak only counterfeit, masked music. 11. Greek tragedy had a fate different from that of all her older sister arts: she died by suicide, in consequence of an irreconcilable conflict; accordingly she died tragically, while they all passed away very calmly and beautifully in ripe old age. For if it be in accordance with a happy state of things to depart this life without a struggle, leaving behind a fair posterity, the closing period of these older arts exhibits such a happy state of things: slowly they sink out of sight, and before their dying eyes alrea dy stand their fairer progeny, who impatiently lift up their heads with courageous mien. The death of Greek tragedy, on the other hand, left an immense void, deeply felt everywhere. Even as certain Greek sailors in the time of Tiberius once heard upon a lonesome island the thrilling cry, "great Pan is dead": so now as it were sorrowful wailing sounded through the Hellenic world: "Tragedy is dead! Poetry itself has perished with her! Begone, begone, ye stunted, emaciated epigones! Begone to Hades, that ye ma y for once eat your fill of the crumbs of your former masters!" But when after all a new Art blossomed forth which revered tragedy as her ancestress and mistress, it was observed with horror that she did indeed bear the features of her mother, but those very features the latter had exhibited in her long death- struggle. It was Euripides who fought this death -struggle of tragedy; the later art is known as the New Attic Comedy. In it the degenerate form of tragedy lived on as a monument of the most painful and violent death of tragedy proper. This connection between the two serves to explain the passionate attachment to Euripides evinced by the poets of the New Comedy, and 65 hence we are no longer surprised at the wish of Philemon, who would have got himself hang ed at once, with the sole design of being able to visit Euripides in the lower regions: if only he could be assured generally that the deceased still had his wits. But if we desire, as briefly as possible, and without professing to say aught exhaustive on the subject, to characterise what Euripides has in common with Menander and Philemon, and what appealed to them so strongly as worthy of imitation: it will suffice to say that the spectator was brought upon the stage by Euripides. He who has perceived the material of which the Promethean tragic writers prior to Euripides formed their heroes, and how remote from their purpose it was to bring the true mask of reality on the stage, will also know what to make of the wholly divergent tendency of Euripides. Thro ugh him the commonplace individual forced his way from the spectators' benches to the stage itself; the mirror in which formerly only great and bold traits found expression now showed the painful exactness that conscientiously reproduces even the abortive lines of nature. Odysseus, the typical Hellene of the Old Art, sank, in the hands of the new poets, to the figure of the Grculus, who, as the good - naturedly cunning domestic slave, stands henceforth in the centre of dramatic interest. What Euripides takes credit for in the Aristophanean "Frogs," namely, that by his household remedies he freed tragic art from its pompous corpulency, is apparent above all in his tragic heroes. The spectator now virtually saw and heard his double on the Euripidean stage, and rejoiced that he could talk so well. But this joy was not all: one even learned of Euripides how to speak: he prides himself upon this in his contest with schylus: how the people have learned from him how to observe, debate, and draw conclusions according to the rules of art and with the cleverest sophistications. In general it may be said that through this revolution of the popular language he made the New Comedy possible. For it was henceforth no longer a secret, how and with what saws the commonplace could represent and express itself on the stage. Civic mediocrity, on which Euripides built all his political hopes, was now suffered to speak, while heretofore the demigod in tragedy and the drunken satyr, or demiman, in comedy, had determined the character of the language. And so the Aristophanean Euripides prides himself on having portrayed the common, familiar, everyday life and dealings of the people, concerning which all are qualified to pass judgment. If now the entire populace philosophises, manages l and and goods with unheard- of 66 circumspection, and conducts law- suits, he takes all the credit to himself, and glories in the splendid results of the wisdom with which he inoculated the rabble. It was to a populace prepared and enlightened in this manner that the New Comedy could now address itself, of which Euripides had become as it were the chorus -master; only that in this case the chorus of spectators had to be trained. As soon as this chorus was trained to sing in the Euripidean key, there arose that chesslike variety of the drama, the New Comedy, with its perpetual triumphs of cunning and artfulness. But Euripides the chorus -master was praised incessantly: indeed, people would have killed themselves in order to learn yet more from him, had they not known that tragic poets were quite as dead as tragedy. But with it the Hellene had surrendered the belief in his immortality; not only the belief in an ideal past, but also the belief in an ideal future. The saying taken from the well -known epitaph, "as an old man, frivolous and capricious," applies also to aged Hellenism. The passing moment, wit, levity, and caprice, are its highest deities; the fifth class, that of the slaves, now attains to power, at least in sentiment: and if we can still speak at all of "G reek cheerfulness," it is the cheerfulness of the slave who has nothing of consequence to answer for, nothing great to strive for, and cannot value anything of the past or future higher than the present. It was this semblance of "Greek cheerfulness" which so revolted the deep -minded and formidable natures of the first four centuries of Christianity: this womanish flight from earnestness and terror, this cowardly contentedness with easy pleasure, was not only contemptible to them, but seemed to be a specific ally anti -Christian sentiment. And we must ascribe it to its influence that the conception of Greek antiquity, which lived on for centuries, preserved with almost enduring persistency that peculiar hectic colour of cheerfulness as if there had never been a Sixth Century with its birth of tragedy, its Mysteries, its Pythagoras and Heraclitus, indeed as if the art -works of that great period did not at all exist, which in fact each by itself can in no wise be explained as having sprung from the soil of such a decrepit and slavish love of existence and cheerfulness, and point to an altogether different conception of things as their source. The assertion made a moment ago, that Euripides introduced the spectator on the stage to qualify him the better to pass judgment on the 67 drama, will make it appear as if the old tragic art was always in a false relation to the spectator: and one would be tempted to extol the radical tendency of Euripides to bring about an adequate relation between art - work and public as an advance on Sophocles. But, as things are, "public" is merely a word, and not at all a homogeneous and constant quantity. Why should the artist be under obligations to accommodate himself to a power whose strength is merely in numbers? And if by virtue of his endowments and aspirations he feels himself superior to every one of these spectators, how could he feel greater respect for the collective expression of all these subordinate capacities than for the relatively highest -endowed individual spectator? In truth, if ever a Greek artist treated his public throughout a long life with presumptuousness and self-sufficiency, it was Euripides, who, even when the masses threw themselves at his feet, with sublime defiance made an open assault on his own tendency, the very tendency with which he had triumphed over the masses. If this genius had had the slightest reverence for the pandemonium of the public, he would have broken down long before the middle of his career beneath the weighty blows of his own failures. These considerations here make it obvious that our formula namely, that Euripides brought the spectator upon the stage, in order to make him truly competent to pass judgment was but a provisional one, and that we must seek for a deeper understanding of his tendency. Conversely, it is undoubtedly well known that schylus and Sophocles, during all their lives, indeed, far beyond their lives, enjoyed the full favour of the people, and that therefore in the case of these predecessors of Euripides the idea of a false rel ation between art -work and public was altogether excluded. What was it that thus forcibly diverted this highly gifted artist, so incessantly impelled to production, from the path over which shone the sun of the greatest names in poetry and the cloudless heaven of popular favour? What strange consideration for the spectator led him to defy, the spectator? How could he, owing to too much respect for the public dis- respect the public? Euripides and this is the solution of the riddle just propounded felt himse lf, as a poet, undoubtedly superior to the masses, but not to two of his spectators: he brought the masses upon the stage; these two spectators he revered as the only competent judges and masters of his art: in compliance with their directions and admoniti ons, he transferred 68 the entire world of sentiments, passions, and experiences, hitherto present at every festival representation as the invisible chorus on the spectators' benches, into the souls of his stage- heroes; he yielded to their demands when he also sought for these new characters the new word and the new tone; in their voices alone he heard the conclusive verdict on his work, as also the cheering promise of triumph when he found himself condemned as usual by the justice of the public. Of these two, spectators the one is Euripides himself, Euripides as thinker, not as poet. It might be said of him, that his unusually large fund of critical ability, as in the case of Lessing, if it did not create, at least constantly fructified a productively artistic collateral impulse. With this faculty, with all the clearness and dexterity of his critical thought, Euripides had sat in the theatre and striven to recognise in the masterpieces of his great predecessors, as in faded paintings, feature and feature, line and line. And here had happened to him what one initiated in the deeper arcana of schylean tragedy must needs have expected: he observed something incommensurable in every feature and in every line, a certain deceptive distinctness and at the same time an enigmatic profundity, yea an infinitude, of background. Even the clearest figure had always a comet's tail attached to it, which seemed to suggest the uncertain and the inexplicable. The same twilight shrouded the structure of the dr ama, especially the si gnificance of the chorus. And how doubtful seemed the solution of the ethical problems to his mind! How questionable the treatment of the myths! How unequal the distribution of happiness and misfortune! Even in the language of the Old Tragedy there was muc h that was objectionable to him, or at least enigmatical; he found especially too much pomp for simple affairs, too many tropes and immense things for the plainness of the characters. Thus he sat restlessly pondering in the theatre, and as a spectator he a cknowledged to himself that he did not understand his great predecessors. If, however, he thought the understanding the root proper of all enjoyment and productivity, he had to inquire and look about to see whether any one else thought as he did, and also acknowledged this incommensurability. But most people, and among them the best individuals, had only a distrustful smile for him, while none could explain why the great masters were still in the right in face of his scruples and objections. And in this painful condition he found that other spectator, who did not 69 comprehend, and therefore did not esteem, tragedy. In alliance with him he could venture, from amid his lonesomeness, to begin the prodigious struggle against the art of schylus and Sophocles not with polemic writings, but as a dramatic poet, who opposed his own conception of tragedy to the traditional one. 12. Before we name this other spectator, let us pause here a moment in order to recall our own impression, as previously described, of the disco rdant and incommensurable elements in the nature of schylean tragedy. Let us think of our own astonishment at the chorus and the tragic hero of that type of tragedy, neither of which we could reconcile with our practices any more than with tradition till we rediscovered this duplexity itself as the origin and essence of Greek tragedy, as the expression of two interwoven artistic impulses, the Apollonian and the Dionysian . To separate this primitive and all -powerful Dionysian element from tragedy, and to build up a new and purified form of tragedy on the basis of a non- Dionysian art, morality, and conception of things such is the tendency of Euripides which now reveals itself to us in a clear light. In a myth composed in the eve of his life, Euripides himsel f most urgently propounded to his contemporaries the question as to the value and signification of this tendency. Is the Dionysian entitled to exist at all? Should it not be forcibly rooted out of the Hellenic soil? Certainly, the poet tells us, if only it were possible: but the god Dionysus is too powerful; his most intelligent adversary like Pentheus in the "Bacch" is unwittingly enchanted by him, and in this enchantment meets his fate. The judgment of the two old sages, Cadmus and Tiresias, seems to be also the judgment of the aged poet: that the reflection of the wisest individuals does not overthrow old popular traditions, nor the perpetually propagating worship of Dionysus, that in fact it behoves us to display at least a diplomatically cautious concern in the presence of such strange forces: where however it is always possible that the god may take offence at such lukewarm participation, and finally change the diplomat in this case Cadmus into a dragon. This is what a poet tells us, who opposed Dionysus with heroic valour throughout a long life in order finally to wind up his career with a glorification of his adversary, 70 and with suicide, like one staggering from giddiness, who, in order to escape the horrible vertigo he can no longer endure, casts him self from a tower. This tragedy the Bacch is a protest against the practicability of his own tendency; alas, and it has already been put into practice! The surprising thing had happened: when the poet recanted, his tendency had already conquered. Dionysus had already been scared from the tragic stage, and in fact by a demonic power which spoke through Euripides. Even Euripides was, in a certain sense, only a mask: the deity that spoke through him was neither Dionysus nor Apollo, but an altogether new -born demon, called Socrates. This is the new antithesis: the Dionysian and the Socratic, and the art -work of Greek tragedy was wrecked on it. What if even Euripides now seeks to comfort us by his recantation? It is of no avail: the most magnificent temple lies in ruins. What avails the lamentation of the destroyer, and his confession that it was the most beautiful of all temples? And even that Euripides has been changed into a dragon as a punishment by the art -critics of all ages who could be content with this wretched compensation? Let us now approach this Socratic tendency with which Euripides combated and vanquished schylean tragedy. We must now ask ourselves, what could be the ulterior aim of the Euripidean design, which, in the highest ideality of its execution, would found drama exclusively on the non- Dionysian? What other form of drama could there be, if it was not to be born of the womb of music, in the mysterious twilight of the Dionysian? Only the dramatised epos: in which Apollonian domain of art the tragic effect is of course unattainable. It does not depend on the subject -matter of the events here represented; indeed, I venture to assert that it would have been impossible for Goethe in his projected "Nausikaa" to have rendered tragically effective the suicide of the idyllic being with which he intended to complete the fifth act; so extraordinary is the power of the epic - Apollonian representation, that it charms, before our eyes, the most terrible things by the joy in appearance and in redemption through appearance. The poet of the dramatised epos cannot completely blend with his pictures any more than the epic rhapsodist. He is still just the calm, unmoved embodiment of Contemplation whose wide eyes see the picture before them. The actor in this dramatis ed epos still remains 71 intrinsically rhapsodist: the consecration of inner dreaming is on all his actions, so that he is never wholly an actor. How, then, is the Euripidean play related to this ideal of the Apollonian drama? Just as the younger rhapsodist is related to the solemn rhapsodist of the old time. The former describes his own character in the Platonic "Ion" as follows: "When I am saying anything sad, my eyes fill with tears; when, however, what I am saying is awful and terrible, then my hair stands on end through fear, and my heart leaps." Here we no longer observe anything of the epic absorption in appearance, or of the unemotional coolness of the true actor, who precisely in his highest activity is wholly appearance and joy in appearance. Euripide s is the actor with leaping heart, with hair standing on end; as Socratic thinker he designs the plan, as passionate actor he executes it. Neither in the designing nor in the execution is he an artist pure and simple. And so the Euripidean drama is a thing both cool and fiery, equally capable of freezing and burning; it is impossible for it to attain the Apollonian, effect of the epos, while, on the other hand, it has severed itself as much as possible from Dionysian elements, and now, in order to act at al l, it requires new stimulants, which can no longer lie within the sphere of the two unique art- impulses, the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The stimulants are cool, paradoxical thoughts , in place of Apollonian intuitions and fiery passions in place Dionysean ecstasies; and in fact, thoughts and passions very realistically copied, and not at all steeped in the ether of art. Accordingly, if we have perceived this much, that Euripides did not succeed in establishing the drama exclusively on the Apollonian, but that rather his non -Dionysian inclinations deviated into a naturalistic and inartistic tendency, we shall now be able to approach nearer to the character sthetic Socratism. supreme law of which reads about as follows: "to be beautiful everything must be intelligible," as the parallel to the Socratic proposition, "only the knowing is one virtuous." With this canon in his hands Euripides measured all the separate elements of the drama, and rectified them according to his principle: the language, the charact ers, the dramaturgic structure, and the choric music. The poetic deficiency and retrogression, which we are so often wont to impute to Euripides in comparison with Sophoclean tragedy, is for the most part the product of this penetrating critical process, t his daring intelligibility. 72 The Euripidian prologue may serve us as an example of the productivity of this, rationalistic method. Nothing could be more opposed to the technique of our stage than the prologue in the drama of Euripides. For a single person to appear at the outset of the play telling us who he is, what precedes the action, what has happened thus far, yea, what will happen in the course of the play, would be designated by a modern playwright as a wanton and unpardonable abandonment of the effect of suspense. Everything that is about to happen is known beforehand; who then cares to wait for it actually to happen? considering, moreover, that here there is not by any means the exciting relation of a predicting dream to a reality taking place later on. Euripides speculated quite differently. The effect of tragedy never depended on epic suspense, on the fascinating uncertainty as to what is to happen now and afterwards: but rather on the great rhetoro -lyric scenes in which the passion and dialectics of the chief hero swelled to a broad and mighty stream. Everything was arranged for pathos, not for action: and whatever was not arranged for pathos was regarded as objectionable. But what interferes most with the hearer's pleasurable satisfaction in such scenes is a missing link, a gap in the texture of the previous history. So long as the spectator has to divine the meaning of this or that person, or the presuppositions of this or that conflict of inclinations and intentions, his complete absorption in the doings and sufferings of the chief persons is impossible, as is likewise breathless fellow -feeling and fellow -fearing. The schyleo -Sophoclean tragedy employed the most ingenious devices in the first scenes to place in the hands of the spectator as if by chance all the threads requisite for understanding the whole: a trait in which that noble artistry is approved, which as it were masks the inevitably formal, and causes it to appear as something accidental. But nevertheless Euripides thought he observed that during these first scenes the spectator was in a strange state of anxiety to make out the problem of the previous history, so that the poetic beauties and pathos of the exposition were lost to him. Accordingly he placed the prologue even before the expo sition, and put it in the mouth of a person who could be trusted: some deity had often as it were to guarantee the particulars of the tragedy to the public and remove every doubt as to the reality of the myth: as in the case of Descartes, who could only pr ove the reality of the empiric world by an appeal to the truthfulness of God and His inability to utter falsehood. Euripides makes use of the same divine truthfulness once more at the close of his drama, 73 in order to ensure to the public the future of his h eroes; this is the task of the notorious deus ex machina. Between the preliminary and the additional epic spectacle there is the dramatico -lyric present, the "drama" proper. Thus Euripides as a poet echoes above all his own conscious knowledge; and it is p recisely on this account that he occupies such a notable position in the history of Greek art. With reference to his critico- productive activity, he must often have felt that he ought to actualise in the drama the words at the beginning of the essay of Anaxagoras: "In the beginning all things were mixed together; then came the understanding and created order." And if Anaxagoras with his " " seemed like the first sober person among nothing but drunken philosophers, Euripides may also have conceived his relation to the other tragic poets under a similar figure. As long as the sole ruler and disposer of the universe, the , was still excluded from artistic activity, things were all mixed together in a chaotic, primitive mess; it is thus Euripides was obliged to think, it is thus he was obliged to condemn the "drunken" poets as the first "sober" one among them. What Sophocles said of schylus, that he did what was right, though unconsciously, was surely not in the mind of Euripides: who would have admitted only thus much, that schylus, because he wrought unconsciously, did what was wrong. So also the divine Plato speaks for the most part only ironically of the creative faculty of the poet, in so far as it is not conscious insight, and places it on a par with the gift of the soothsayer and dream- interpreter; insinuating that the poet is incapable of composing until he has become unconscious and reason has deserted him. Like Plato, Euripides undertook to show to the world the reverse of the "unintelligent" poe t; his sthetic principle that "to be beautiful everything must be known" is, as I have said, the parallel to the Socratic "to be good everything must be known." Accordingly we may regard Euripides as the poet of sthetic Socratism. Socrates, however, was that second spectator who did not comprehend and therefore did not esteem the Old Tragedy; in alliance with him Euripides ventured to be the herald of a new artistic activity. If, then, the Old Tragedy was here destroyed, it follows that sthetic Socratism was the murderous principle; but in so far as the struggle is directed against the Dionysian element in the old art, we recognise in Socrates the opponent of Dionysus, the new Orpheus who rebels against 74 Dionysus; and although destined to be torn to pieces by the Mnads of the Athenian court, yet puts to flight the overpowerful god himself, who, when he fled from Lycurgus, the king of Edoni, sought refuge in the depths of the ocean namely, in the mystical flood of a secret cult which gradually overspread th e earth. 13. That Socrates stood in close relationship to Euripides in the tendency of his teaching, did not escape the notice of contemporaneous antiquity; the most eloquent expression of this felicitous insight being the tale current in Athens, that Socr ates was accustomed to help Euripides in poetising. Both names were mentioned in one breath by the adherents of the "good old time," whenever they came to enumerating the popular agitators of the day: to whose influence they attributed the fact that the ol d Marathonian stalwart capacity of body and soul was more and more being sacrificed to a dubious enlightenment, involving progressive degeneration of the physical and mental powers. It is in this tone, half indignantly and half contemptuously, that Aristophanic comedy is wont to speak of both of them to the consternation of modern men, who would indeed be willing enough to give up Euripides, but cannot suppress their amazement that Socrates should appear in Aristophanes as the first and head sophist, as the mirror and epitome of all sophistical tendencies; in connection with which it offers the single consolation of putting Aristophanes himself in the pillory, as a rakish, lying Alcibiades of poetry. Without here defending the profound instincts of Aristopha nes against such attacks, I shall now indicate, by means of the sentiments of the time, the close connection between Socrates and Euripides. With this purpose in view, it is especially to be remembered that Socrates, as an opponent of tragic art, did not ordinarily patronise tragedy, but only appeared among the spectators when a new play of Euripides was performed. The most noted thing, however, is the close juxtaposition of the two names in the Delphic oracle, which designated Socrates as the wisest of men, but at the same time decided that the second prize in the contest of wisdom was due to Euripides. Sophocles was designated as the third in this scale of rank; he who could pride himself that, in comparison with schylus, he did what was right, and did it , moreover, because he knew what was right. It is evidently just 75 the degree of clearness of this knowledge, which distinguishes these three men in common as the three "knowing ones" of their age. The most decisive word, however, for this new and unprecedented esteem of knowledge and insight was spoken by Socrates when he found that he was the only one who acknowledged to himself that he knew nothing while in his critical pilgrimage through Athens, and calling on the greatest statesmen, orators, poets, and artists, he discovered everywhere the conceit of knowledge. He perceived, to his astonishment, that all these celebrities were without a proper and accurate insight, even with regard to their own callings, and practised them only by instinct. "Only by insti nct": with this phrase we touch upon the heart and core of the Socratic tendency. Socratism condemns therewith existing art as well as existing ethics; wherever Socratism turns its searching eyes it beholds the lack of insight and the power of illusion; and from this lack infers the inner perversity and objectionableness of existing conditions. From this point onwards, Socrates believed that he was called upon to, correct existence; and, with an air of disregard and superiority, as the precursor of an altog ether different culture, art, and morality, he enters single - handed into a world, of which, if we reverently touched the hem, we should count it our greatest happiness. Here is the extraordinary hesitancy which always seizes upon us with regard to Socrates, and again and again invites us to ascertain the sense and purpose of this most questionable phenomenon of antiquity. Who is it that ventures single -handed to disown the Greek character, which, as Homer, Pindar, and schylus, as Phidias, as Pericles, as P ythia and Dionysus, as the deepest abyss and the highest height, is sure of our wondering admiration? What demoniac power is it which would presume to spill this magic draught in the dust? What demigod is it to whom the chorus of spirits of the noblest of mankind must call out: "Weh! Weh! Du hast sie zerstrt, die schne Welt, mit mchtiger Faust; sie strzt, sie zerfllt!" 18 18 Woe! Woe! Thou hast it destroyed, The beautiful world; With powerful fist; In ruin 'tis hurled! Faust, trans. of Bayard Taylor. TR. 76 A key to the character of Socrates is presented to us by the surprising phenomenon designated as the "daimonion" of Socrates. In special circumstances, when his gigantic intellect began to stagger, he got a secure support in the utterances of a divine voice which then spake to him. This voice, whenever it comes, always dissuades. In this totally abnormal nature instinctive wisdom only appears in order to hinder the progress of conscious perception here and there. While in all productive men it is instinct which is the creatively affirmative force, consciousness only comporting itself critically and dissuasively; with Socrates it is instinct which becomes critic; it is consciousness which becomes creator a perfect monstrosity per defectum! And we do indeed observe here a monstrous defectus of all mystical aptitude, so that Socrates might be designated as the specific non- mystic, in whom the logical nature is developed, through a superfoetation, to the same excess as instinctive wisdom is developed in the mystic. On the other hand, however, the logical instinct which appeared in Socrates was absolutely prohibited from turning against itself; in its unchecked flow it manifests a native power such as we meet with, to our shocking surprise, only among the very greatest instinctive forces. He who has experienced even a breath of the divine navet and security of the Socratic course of life in the Platonic writings, will also feel that the enormous driving -wheel of logical Socratism is in motion, as it were, behind Socrates, and that it must be viewed through Socrates as through a shadow. And that he himself had a boding of this relation is appare nt from the dignified earnestness with which he everywhere, and even before his judges, insisted on his divine calling. To refute him here was really as impossible as to approve of his instinct -disintegrating influence. In view of this indissoluble conflic t, when he had at last been brought before the forum of the Greek state, there was only one punishment demanded, namely exile; he might have been sped across the borders as something thoroughly enigmatical, irrubricable and inexplicable, and so posterity would have been quite unjustified in charging the Athenians with a deed of ignominy. But that the sentence of death, and not mere exile, was pronounced upon him, seems to have been brought about by Socrates himself, with perfect knowledge of the circumstances, and without the natural fear of death: he met his death with the calmness with which, according to the description of Plato, he leaves the symposium at break of day, as the last of the revellers, to begin a new day; while the sleepy 77 companions remain behind on the benches and the floor, to dream of Socrates, the true eroticist. The dying Socrates became the new ideal of the noble Greek youths, an ideal they had never yet beheld, and above all, the typical Hellenic youth, Plato, prostrated himself before this scene with all the fervent devotion of his visionary soul. 14. Let us now imagine the one great Cyclopean eye of Socrates fixed on tragedy, that eye in which the fine frenzy of artistic enthusiasm had never glowed let us think how it was denied to th is eye to gaze with pleasure into the Dionysian abysses what could it not but see in the "sublime and greatly lauded" tragic art, as Plato called it? Something very absurd, with causes that seemed to be without effects, and effects apparently without cause s; the whole, moreover, so motley and diversified that it could not but be repugnant to a thoughtful mind, a dangerous incentive, however, to sensitive and irritable souls. We know what was the sole kind of poetry which he comprehended: the sopian fable : and he did this no doubt with that smiling complaisance with which the good honest Gellert sings the praise of poetry in the fable of the bee and the hen: "Du siehst an mir, wozu sie ntzt, Dem, der nicht viel Verstand besitzt, Die Wahrheit durch ein Bild zu sagen."19 But then it seemed to Socrates that tragic art did not even "tell the truth": not to mention the fact that it addresses itself to him who "hath but little wit"; consequently not to the philosopher: a twofold reason why it should be avoided. L ike Plato, he reckoned it among the seductive arts which only represent the agreeable, not the useful, and hence he required of his disciples abstinence and strict separation from such unphilosophical allurements; with such success that the youthful tragic poet Plato first of all burned his poems to be able to become a scholar of Socrates. But where unconquerable native capacities bore up against the Socratic maxims, their power, together with the momentum of his 19 In me thou seest its benefit, To him who hath but little wit, Through parables to tell the truth. 78 mighty character, still sufficed to force poetry itself into new and hitherto unknown channels. An instance of this is the aforesaid Plato: he, who in the condemnation of tragedy and of art in general certainly did not fall short of the nave cynicism of his master, was nevertheless constrained by sheer artistic necessity to create a form of art which is inwardly related even to the then existing forms of art which he repudiated. Plato's main objection to the old art that it is the imitation of a phantom, 20 and hence belongs to a sphere still lower th an the empiric world could not at all apply to the new art: and so we find Plato endeavouring to go beyond reality and attempting to represent the idea which underlies this pseudo -reality. But Plato, the thinker, thereby arrived by a roundabout road just a t the point where he had always been at home as poet, and from which Sophocles and all the old artists had solemnly protested against that objection. If tragedy absorbed into itself all the earlier varieties of art, the same could again be said in an unusual sense of Platonic dialogue, which, engendered by a mixture of all the then existing forms and styles, hovers midway between narrative, lyric and drama, between prose and poetry, and has also thereby broken loose from the older strict law of unity of linguistic form; a movement which was carried still farther by the cynic writers, who in the most promiscuous style, oscillating to and fro betwixt prose and metrical forms, realised also the literary picture of the "raving Socrates" whom they were wont to represent in life. Platonic dialogue was as it were the boat in which the shipwrecked ancient poetry saved herself together with all her children: crowded into a narrow space and timidly obsequious to the one steersman, Socrates, they now launched into a new world, which never tired of looking at the fantastic spectacle of this procession. In very truth, Plato has given to all posterity the prototype of a new form of art, the prototype of the novel which must be designated as the infinitely evolved sopian fa ble, in which poetry holds the same rank with reference to dialectic philosophy as this same philosophy held for many centuries with reference to theology: namely, the rank of ancilla. This was the new position of poetry into which Plato forced it under th e pressure of the demon -inspired Socrates. 20 Scheinbild = . TR. 79 Here philosophic thought overgrows art and compels it to cling close to the trunk of dialectics. The Apollonian tendency has chrysalised in the logical schematism; just as something analogous in the case of Euripi des (and moreover a translation of the Dionysian into the naturalistic emotion) was forced upon our attention. Socrates, the dialectical hero in Platonic drama, reminds us of the kindred nature of the Euripidean hero, who has to defend his actions by arguments and counter - arguments, and thereby so often runs the risk of forfeiting our tragic pity; for who could mistake the optimistic element in the essence of dialectics, which celebrates a jubilee in every conclusion, and can breathe only in cool clearness and consciousness: the optimistic element, which, having once forced its way into tragedy, must gradually overgrow its Dionysian regions, and necessarily impel it to self -destruction even to the death -leap into the bourgeois drama. Let us but realise the consequences of the Socratic maxims: "Virtue is knowledge; man only sins from ignorance; he who is virtuous is happy": these three fundamental forms of optimism involve the death of tragedy. For the virtuous hero must now be a dialectician; there must now b e a necessary, visible connection between virtue and knowledge, between belief and morality; the transcendental justice of the plot in schylus is now degraded to the superficial and audacious principle of poetic justice with its usual deus ex machina . How does the chorus, and, in general, the entire Dionyso -musical substratum of tragedy, now appear in the light of this new Socrato-optimistic stage -world? As something accidental, as a readily dispensable reminiscence of the origin of tragedy; while we have in fact seen that the chorus can be understood only as the cause of tragedy, and of the tragic generally. This perplexity with respect to the chorus first manifests itself in Sophocles an important sign that the Dionysian basis of tragedy already begins to disintegrate with him. He no longer ventures to entrust to the chorus the main share of the effect, but limits its sphere to such an extent that it now appears almost co- ordinate with the actors, just as if it were elevated from the orchestra into the scene: whereby of course its character is completely destroyed, notwithstanding that Aristotle countenances this very theory of the chorus. This alteration of the position of the chorus, which Sophocles at any rate recommended by his practice, and, according to tradition, even by a treatise, is the first 80 step towards the annihilation of the chorus, the phases of which follow one another with alarming rapidity in Euripides, Agathon, and the New Comedy. Optimistic dialectics drives, music out of tragedy with the scourge of its syllogisms: that is, it destroys the essence of tragedy, which can be explained only as a manifestation and illustration of Dionysian states, as the visible symbolisation of music, as the dream -world of Dionysian ecstasy. If, therefore, we are to assume an anti- Dionysian tendency operating even before Socrates, which received in him only an unprecedentedly grand expression, we must not shrink from the question as to what a phenomenon like that of Socrates indicates: whom in view of the Plato nic dialogues we are certainly not entitled to regard as a purely disintegrating, negative power. And though there can be no doubt whatever that the most immediate effect of the Socratic impulse tended to the dissolution of Dionysian tragedy, yet a profound experience of Socrates' own life compels us to ask whether there is necessarily only an antipodal relation between Socratism and art, and whether the birth of an "artistic Socrates" is in general something contradictory in itself. For that despotic logician had now and then the feeling of a gap, or void, a sentiment of semi -reproach, as of a possibly neglected duty with respect to art. There often came to him, as he tells his friends in prison, one and the same dream -apparition, which kept constantly repe ating to him: "Socrates, practise music." Up to his very last days he solaces himself with the opinion that his philosophising is the highest form of poetry, and finds it hard to believe that a deity will remind him of the "common, popular music." Finally, when in prison, he consents to practise also this despised music, in order thoroughly to unburden his conscience. And in this frame of mind he composes a poem on Apollo and turns a few sopian fables into verse. It was something similar to the demonian warning voice which urged him to these practices; it was because of his Apollonian insight that, like a barbaric king, he did not understand the noble image of a god and was in danger of sinning against a deity through ignorance. The prompting voice of the Socratic dream -vision is the only sign of doubtfulness as to the limits of logical nature. "Perhaps " thus he had to ask himself "what is not intelligible to me is not therefore unreasonable? Perhaps there is a realm 81 of wisdom from which the logician is banished? Perhaps art is even a necessary correlative of and supplement to science?" 15. In the sense of these last portentous questions it must now be indicated how the influence of Socrates (extending to the present moment, indeed, to all futurity) has spre ad over posterity like an ever -increasing shadow in the evening sun, and how this influence again and again necessitates a regeneration of art,yea, of art already with metaphysical, broadest and profoundest sense, and its own eternity guarantees also the eternity of art. Before this could be perceived, before the intrinsic dependence of every art on the Greeks, the Greeks from Homer to Socrates, was conclusively demonstrated, it had to happen to us with regard to these Greeks as it happened to the Athenians with regard to Socrates. Nearly every age and stage of culture has at some time or other sought with deep displeasure to free itself from the Greeks, because in their presence everything self - achieved, sincerely admired and apparently quite original, seemed all of a sudden to lose life and colour and shrink to an abortive copy, even to caricature. And so hearty indignation breaks forth time after time against this presumptuous little nation, which dared to designate as "barbaric" for all time everything not native: who are they, one asks one's self, who, though they possessed only an ephemeral historical splendour, ridiculously restricted institutions, a dubious excellence in their customs, and were even branded with ugly vices, yet lay claim to the dignit y and singular position among the peoples to which genius is entitled among the masses. What a pity one has not been so fortunate as to find the cup of hemlock with which such an affair could be disposed of without ado: for all the poison which envy, calumny, and rankling resentment engendered within themselves have not sufficed to destroy that self - sufficient grandeur! And so one feels ashamed and afraid in the presence of the Greeks: unless one prize truth above all things, and dare also to acknowledge to one's self this truth, that the Greeks, as charioteers, hold in their hands the reins of our own and of every culture, but that almost always chariot and horses are of too poor material and incommensurate with the glory of their guides, who then will deem it sport to run such a team into an abyss: which they themselves clear with the leap of Achilles. 82 In order to assign also to Socrates the dignity of such a leading position, it will suffice to recognise in him the type of an unheard- of form of existence, the type of the theoretical man, with regard to whose meaning and purpose it will be our next task to attain an insight. Like the artist, the theorist also finds an infinite satisfaction in what is and, like the former, he is shielded by this satisfaction from the practical ethics of pessimism with its lynx eyes which shine only in the dark. For if the artist in every unveiling of truth always cleaves with raptured eyes only to that which still remains veiled after the unveiling, the theoretical man, on the other hand, enjoys and contents himself with the cast -off veil, and finds the consummation of his pleasure in the process of a continuously successful unveiling through his own unaided efforts. There would have been no science if it had only been concerne d about that one naked goddess and nothing else. For then its disciples would have been obliged to feel like those who purposed to dig a hole straight through the earth: each one of whom perceives that with the utmost lifelong exertion he is able to excavate only a very little of the enormous depth, which is again filled up before his eyes by the labours of his successor, so that a third man seems to do well when on his own account he selects a new spot for his attempts at tunnelling. If now some one proves conclusively that the antipodal goal cannot be attained in this direct way, who will still care to toil on in the old depths, unless he has learned to content himself in the meantime with finding precious stones or discovering natural laws? For that reaso n Lessing, the most honest theoretical man, ventured to say that he cared more for the search after truth than for truth itself: in saying which he revealed the fundamental secret of science, to the astonishment, and indeed, to the vexation of scientific men. Well, to be sure, there stands alongside of this detached perception, as an excess of honesty, if not of presumption, a profound illusion which first came to the world in the person of Socrates, the imperturbable belief that, by means of the clue of ca usality, thinking reaches to the deepest abysses of being, and that thinking is able not only to perceive being but even to correct it. This sublime metaphysical illusion is added as an instinct to science and again and again leads the latter to its limits, where it must change into art; which is really the end, to be attained by this mechanism . 83 If we now look at Socrates in the light of this thought, he appears to us as the first who could not only live, but what is far more also die under the guidance of this instinct of science: and hence the picture of the dying, Socrates , as the man delivered from the fear of death by knowledge and argument, is the escutcheon, above the entrance to science which reminds every one of its mission, namely, to make existenc e appear to be comprehensible, and therefore to be justified: for which purpose, if arguments do not suffice, myth also must be used, which I just now designated even as the necessary consequence, yea, as the end of science. He who once makes intelligible to himself how, after the death of Socrates, the mystagogue of science, one philosophical school succeeds another, like wave upon wave, how an entirely unfore -shadowed universal development of the thirst for knowledge in the widest compass of the cultured world (and as the specific task for every one highly gifted) led science on to the high sea from which since then it has never again been able to be completely ousted; how through the universality of this movement a common net of thought was first stretche d over the entire globe, with prospects, moreover, of conformity to law in an entire solar system; he who realises all this, together with the amazingly high pyramid of our present -day knowledge, cannot fail to see in Socrates the turning -point and vortex of so -called universal history. For if one were to imagine the whole incalculable sum of energy which has been used up by that universal tendency, employed, not in the service of knowledge, but for the practical, i.e., egoistical ends of individuals and pe oples, then probably the instinctive love of life would be so much weakened in universal wars of destruction and incessant migrations of peoples, that, owing to the practice of suicide, the individual would perhaps feel the last remnant of a sense of duty, when, like the native of the Fiji Islands, as son he strangles his parents and, as friend, his friend: a practical pessimism which might even give rise to a horrible ethics of general slaughter out of pity which, for the rest, exists and has existed wherever art in one form or another, especially as science and religion, has not appeared as a remedy and preventive of that pestilential breath. In view of this practical pessimism, Socrates is the archetype of the theoretical optimist, who in the above -indicated belief in the fathomableness of the nature of things, attributes to knowledge and 84 perception the power of a universal medicine, and sees in error and evil. To penetrate into the depths of the nature of things, and to separate true perceptio n from error and illusion, appeared to the Socratic man the noblest and even the only truly human calling: just as from the time of Socrates onwards the mechanism of concepts, judgments, and inferences was prized above all other capacities as the highest activity and the most admirable gift of nature. Even the sublimest moral acts, the stirrings of pity, of self -sacrifice, of heroism, and that tranquillity of soul, so difficult of attainment, which the Apollonian Greek called Sophrosyne, were derived by Soc rates, and his like- minded successors up to the present day, from the dialectics of knowledge, and were accordingly designated as teachable. He who has experienced in himself the joy of a Socratic perception, and felt how it seeks to embrace, in constantly widening circles, the entire world of phenomena, will thenceforth find no stimulus which could urge him to existence more forcible than the desire to complete that conquest and to knit the net impenetrably close. To a person thus minded the Platonic Socra tes then appears as the teacher of an entirely new form of "Greek cheerfulness" and felicity of existence, which seeks to discharge itself in actions, and will find its discharge for the most part in maieutic and pedagogic influences on noble youths, with a view to the ultimate production of genius. But now science, spurred on by its powerful illusion, hastens irresistibly to its limits, on which its optimism, hidden in the essence of logic, is wrecked. For the periphery of the circle of science has an infinite number of points, and while there is still no telling how this circle can ever be completely measured, yet the noble and gifted man, even before the middle of his career, inevitably comes into contact with those extreme points of the periphery where he stares at the inexplicable. When he here sees to his dismay how logic coils round itself at these limits and finally bites its own tail then the new form of perception discloses itself, namely tragic perception, which, in order even to be endured, requir es art as a safeguard and remedy. If, with eyes strengthened and refreshed at the sight of the Greeks, we look upon the highest spheres of the world that surrounds us, we behold the avidity of the insatiate optimistic knowledge, of which Socrates is the typical representative, transformed into tragic resignation and the need of art: while, to be sure, this same avidity, in its lower stages, has to 85 exhibit itself as antagonistic to art, and must especially have an inward detestation of Dionyso -tragic art, as was exemplified in the opposition of Socratism to schylean tragedy. Here then with agitated spirit we knock at the gates of the present and the future: will that "transforming" lead to ever new configurations of genius, and especially of the music -practising Socrates ? Will the net of art which is spread over existence, whether under the name of religion or of science, be knit always more closely and delicately, or is it destined to be torn to shreds under the restlessly barbaric activity and whirl which i s called "the present day"? Anxious, yet not disconsolate, we stand aloof for a little while, as the spectators who are permitted to be witnesses of these tremendous struggles and transitions. Alas! It is the charm of these struggles that he who beholds them must also fight them! 16. By this elaborate historical example we have endeavoured to make it clear that tragedy perishes as surely by evanescence of the spirit of music as it can be born only out of this spirit. In order to qualify the singularity of this assertion, and, on the other hand, to disclose the source of this insight of ours, we must now confront with clear vision the analogous phenomena of the present time; we must enter into the midst of these struggles, which, as I said just now, are bein g carried on in the highest spheres of our present world between the insatiate optimistic perception and the tragic need of art. In so doing I shall leave out of consideration all other antagonistic tendencies which at all times oppose art, especially tragedy, and which at present again extend their sway triumphantly, to such an extent that of the theatrical arts only the farce and the ballet, for example, put forth their blossoms, which perhaps not every one cares to smell, in tolerably rich luxuriance. I will speak only of the Most Illustrious Opposition to the tragic conception of things and by this I mean essentially optimistic science, with its ancestor Socrates at the head of it. Presently also the forces will be designated which seem to me to guarante e a re-birth of tragedy and who knows what other blessed hopes for the German genius! 86 Before we plunge into the midst of these struggles, let us array ourselves in the armour of our hitherto acquired knowledge. In contrast to all those who are intent on deriving the arts from one exclusive principle, as the necessary vital source of every work of art, I keep my eyes fixed on the two artistic deities of the Greeks, Apollo and Dionysus, and recognise in them the living and conspicuous representatives of two worlds of art which differ in their intrinsic essence and in their highest aims. Apollo stands before me as the transfiguring genius of the principium individuationis through which alone the redemption in appearance is to be truly attained, while by the mystical cheer of Dionysus the spell of individuation is broken, and the way lies o pen to the Mothers of Being, to the innermost heart of things. This extraordinary antithesis, which opens up yawningly between plastic art as the Apollonian and music as the Dionysian art, has become manifest to only one of the great thinkers, to such an extent that, even without this key to the symbolism of the Hellenic divinities, he allowed to music a different character and origin in advance of all the other arts, becaus e, unlike them, it is not a copy of the phenomenon, but a direct copy of the will itself, and therefore represents the metaphysical of everything physical in the world , the thing -in-itself of every phenomenon. (Schopenhauer, Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, I. 310.) To this most important perception of sthetics (with which, taken in a serious sense, sthetics properly commences), Richard Wagner, by way of confirmation of its eternal truth, affixed his seal, when he asserted in his Beethoven that music must be judged according to sthetic principles quite different from those which apply to the plastic arts, and not, in general, according to the category of beauty: although an erroneous sthetics, inspired by a misled and degenerate art, has by virtue of the concept of beauty prevailing in the plastic domain accustomed itself to demand of music an effect analogous to that of the works of plastic art, namely the suscitating delight in beautiful forms. Upon perceiving this extraordinary antithesis, I felt a strong inducement to approach the essence of Greek tragedy, and, by means of it, the profoundest revelation of Hellenic genius: for I at last thought myself to be in possession of a charm to enable me far beyond the phraseology of our usual sthetics to repres ent vividly to my mind the primitive problem of tragedy: whereby such an astounding insight into the Hellenic character was afforded me that it necessarily seemed as if our proudly comporting classico -Hellenic science had thus far 87 contrived to subsist almost exclusively on phantasmagoria and externalities. Perhaps we may lead up to this primitive problem with the question: what sthetic effect results when the intrinsically separate art - powers, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, enter into concurrent actions ? Or, in briefer form: how is music related to image and concept? Schopenhauer, whom Richard Wagner, with especial reference to this point, accredits with an unsurpassable clearness and perspicuity of exposition, expresses himself most copiously on the subject in the following passage which I shall cite here at full length 21 (Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, I. p. 309): "According to all this, we may regard the phenomenal world, or nature, and music as two different expressions of the same thing,22 which is th erefore itself the only medium of the analogy between these two expressions, so that a knowledge of this medium is required in order to understand that analogy. Music, therefore, if regarded as an expression of the world, is in the highest degree a universal language, which is related indeed to the universality of concepts, much as these are related to the particular things. Its universality, however, is by no means the empty universality of abstraction, but of quite a different kind, and is united with tho rough and distinct definiteness. In this respect it resembles geometrical figures and numbers, which are the universal forms of all possible objiects of experience and applicable to them all a priori , and yet are not abstract but perceptiple and thoroughly determinate. All possible efforts, excitements and manifestations of will, all that goes on in the heart of man and that reason includes in the wide, negative concept of feeling, may be expressed by the infinite number of possible melodies, but always in the universality of mere form, without the material, always according to the thing -in-itself, not the phenomenon, of which they reproduce the very soul and essence as it were, without the body. This deep relation which music bears to the true nature of all things also explains the fact that suitable music played to any scene, action, event, or surrounding seems to disclose to us its most secret meaning, and appears as the most accurate and distinct commentary upon it; as also the fact that whoever gives him self up entirely to the impression of a 21 That is "the will" as understood by Schopenhauer. TR. 22 Cf. World and Will as Idea, I. p. 339, trans. by Haldane and Kemp. 88 symphony seems to see all the possible events of life and the world take place in himself: nevertheless upon reflection he can find no likeness between the music and the things that passed before his mind. For, as we have said, music is distinguished from all the other arts by the fact that it is not a copy of the phenomenon, or, more accurately, the adequate objectivity of the will, but the direct copy of the will itself, and therefore represents the metaphysical of everything physical in the world, and the thing -in-itself of every phenomenon. We might, therefore, just as well call the world embodied music as embodied will: and this is the reason why music makes every picture, and indeed every scene of real life and o f the world, at once appear with higher significance; all the more so, to be sure, in proportion as its melody is analogous to the inner spirit of the given phenomenon. It rests upon this that we are able to set a poem to music as a song, or a perceptible representation as a pantomime, or both as an opera. Such particular pictures of human life, set to the universal language of music, are never bound to it or correspond to it with stringent necessity, but stand to it only in the relation of an example chose n at will to a general concept. In the determinateness of the real they represent that which music expresses in the universality of mere form. For melodies are to a certain extent, like general concepts, an abstraction from the actual. This actual world, then, the world of particular things, affords the object of perception, the special and the individual, the particular case, both to the universality of concepts and to the universality of the melodies. But these two universalities are in a certain respect opposed to each other; for the concepts contain only the forms, which are first of all abstracted from perception, the separated outward shell of things, as it were, and hence they are, in the strictest sense of the term, abstracta; music, on the other hand, gives the inmost kernel which precedes all forms, or the heart of things. This relation may be very well expressed in the language of the schoolmen, by saying: the concepts are the universalia post rem, but music gives the universalia ante rem, and the real world the universalia in re. But that in general a relation is possible between a composition and a perceptible representation rests, as we have said, upon the fact that both are simply different expressions of the same inner being of the world. When now, in the particular case, such a relation is actually given, that is to say, when the composer has been able to express in the universal language of music the emotions of will which constitute the heart of an event, then the 89 melody of the song, the music of the opera, is expressive. But the analogy discovered by the composer between the two must have proceeded from the direct knowledge of the nature of the world unknown to his reason, and must not be an imitation produced with conscious intention by mean s of conceptions; otherwise the music does not express the inner nature of the will itself, but merely gives an inadequate imitation of its phenomenon: all specially imitative music does this." We have therefore, according to the doctrine of Schopenhauer, an immediate understanding of music as the language of the will, and feel our imagination stimulated to give form to this invisible and yet so actively stirred spirit -world which speaks to us, and prompted to embody it in an analogous example. On the other hand, image and concept, under the influence of a truly conformable music, acquire a higher significance. Dionysian art therefore is wont to exercise two kinds of influences, on the Apollonian art -faculty: music firstly incites to the symbolic intuition of Dionysian universality, and, secondly, it causes the symbolic image to stand forth in its fullest significance. From these facts, intelligible in themselves and not inaccessible to profounder observation, I infer the capacity of music to give birth to my th, that is to say, the most significant exemplar, and precisely tragic myth: the myth which speaks of Dionysian knowledge in symbols. In the phenomenon of the lyrist, I have set forth that in him music strives to express itself with regard to its nature i n Apollonian images. If now we reflect that music in its highest potency must seek to attain also to its highest symbolisation, we must deem it possible that it also knows how to find the symbolic expression of its inherent Dionysian wisdom; and where shall we have to seek for this expression if not in tragedy and, in general, in the conception of the tragic ? From the nature of art, as it is ordinarily conceived according to the single category of appearance and beauty, the tragic cannot be honestly deduced at all; it is only through the spirit of music that we understand the joy in the annihilation of the individual. For in the particular examples of such annihilation only is the eternal phenomenon of Dionysian art made clear to us, which gives expression t o the will in its omnipotence, as it were, behind the principium individuationis, the eternal life beyond all phenomena, and in spite of all annihilation. The metaphysical delight in the tragic is a translation of the instinctively 90 unconscious Dionysian wi sdom into the language of the scene: the hero, the highest manifestation of the will, is disavowed for our pleasure, because he is only phenomenon, and because the eternal life of the will is not affected by his annihilation. "We believe in eternal life," tragedy exclaims; while music is the proximate idea of this life. Plastic art has an altogether different object: here Apollo vanquishes the suffering of the individual by the radiant glorification of the eternity of the phenomenon ; here beauty triumphs over the suffering inherent in life; pain is in a manner surreptitiously obliterated from the features of nature. In Dionysian art and its tragic symbolism the same nature speaks to us with its true undissembled voice: "Be as I am! Amidst the ceaseless change of phenomena the eternally creative primordial mother, eternally impelling to existence, self -satisfying eternally with this change of phenomena!" 17. Dionysian art, too, seeks to convince us of the eternal joy of existence: only we are to seek this joy not in phenomena, but behind phenomena. We are to perceive how all that comes into being must be ready for a sorrowful end; we are compelled to look into the terrors of individual existence yet we are not to become torpid: a metaphysical comfort tears us momentarily from the bustle of the transforming figures. We are really for brief moments Primordial Being itself, and feel its indomitable desire for being and joy in existence; the struggle, the pain, the destruction of phenomena, now appear to us as s omething necessary, considering the surplus of innumerable forms of existence which throng and push one another into life, considering the exuberant fertility of the universal will. We are pierced by the maddening sting of these pains at the very moment when we have become, as it were, one with the immeasurable primordial joy in existence, and when we anticipate, in Dionysian ecstasy, the indestructibility and eternity of this joy. In spite of fear and pity, we are the happy living beings, not as individuals, but as the one living being, with whose procreative joy we are blended. The history of the rise of Greek tragedy now tells us with luminous precision that the tragic art of the Greeks was really born of the spirit of 91 music: with which conception we beli eve we have done justice for the first time to the original and most astonishing significance of the chorus. At the same time, however, we must admit that the import of tragic myth as set forth above never became transparent with sufficient lucidity to the Greek poets, let alone the Greek philosophers; their heroes speak, as it were, more superficially than they act; the myth does not at all find its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the conspicuous images reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself can put into words and concepts: the same being also observed in Shakespeare, whose Hamlet, for instance, in an analogous manner talks more superficially than he acts, so that the previously mentioned lesson of Hamlet is to be gathered not from his words, but from a more profound contemplation and survey of the whole. With respect to Greek tragedy, which of course presents itself to us only as word -drama, I have even intimated that the incongruence between myth and expre ssion might easily tempt us to regard it as shallower and less significant than it really is, and accordingly to postulate for it a more superficial effect than it must have had according to the testimony of the ancients: for how easily one forgets that wh at the word -poet did not succeed in doing, namely realising the highest spiritualisation and ideality of myth, he might succeed in doing every moment as creative musician! We require, to be sure, almost by philological method to reconstruct for ourselves t he ascendency of musical influence in order to receive something of the incomparable comfort which must be characteristic of true tragedy. Even this musical ascendency, however, would only have been felt by us as such had we been Greeks: while in the entir e development of Greek music as compared with the infinitely richer music known and familiar to us we imagine we hear only the youthful song of the musical genius intoned with a feeling of diffidence. The Greeks are, as the Egyptian priests say, eternal ch ildren, and in tragic art also they are only children who do not know what a sublime play -thing has originated under their hands and is being demolished. That striving of the spirit of music for symbolic and mythical manifestation, which increases from the beginnings of lyric poetry to Attic tragedy, breaks off all of a sudden immediately after attaining luxuriant development, and disappears, as it were, from the surface of Hellenic art: while the Dionysian view of things born of this striving lives 92 on in M ysteries and, in its strangest metamorphoses and debasements, does not cease to attract earnest natures. Will it not one day rise again as art out of its mystic depth? Here the question occupies us, whether the power by the counteracting influence of which tragedy perished, has for all time strength enough to prevent the artistic reawaking of tragedy and of the tragic view of things. If ancient tragedy was driven from its course by the dialectical desire for knowledge and the optimism of science, it might be inferred that there is an eternal conflict between the theoretic and the tragic view of things, and only after the spirit of science has been led to its boundaries, and its claim to universal validity has been destroyed by the evidence of these boundaries, can we hope for a re -birth of tragedy: for which form of culture we should have to use the symbol of the music -practising Socrates in the sense spoken of above. In this contrast, I understand by the spirit of science the belief which first came to light in the person of Socrates, the belief in the fathomableness of nature and in knowledge as a panacea. He who recalls the immediate consequences of this restlessly onward - pressing spirit of science will realise at once that myth was annihilated by it, and t hat, in consequence of this annihilation, poetry was driven as a homeless being from her natural ideal soil. If we have rightly assigned to music the capacity to reproduce myth from itself, we may in turn expect to find the spirit of science on the path where it inimically opposes this mythopoeic power of music. This takes place in the development of the New Attic Dithyramb, the music of which no longer expressed the inner essence, the will itself, but only rendered the phenomenon insufficiently, in an imitation by means of concepts; from which intrinsically degenerate music the truly musical natures turned away with the same repugnance that they felt for the art -destroying tendency of Socrates. The unerring instinct of Aristophanes surely did the proper thing when it comprised Socrates himself, the tragedy of Euripides, and the music of the new Dithyrambic poets in the same feeling of hatred, and perceived in all three phenomena the symptoms of a degenerate culture. By this New Dithyramb, music has in an outrageous manner been made the imitative portrait of phenomena, for instance, of a battle or a storm at sea, and has thus, of course, been entirely deprived of its mythopoeic power. For if it endeavours to excite 93 our delight only by compelling us to seek ext ernal analogies between a vital or natural process and certain rhythmical figures and characteristic sounds of music; if our understanding is expected to satisfy itself with the perception of these analogies, we are reduced to a frame of mind in which the reception of the mythical is impossible; for the myth as a unique exemplar of generality and truth towering into the infinite, desires to be conspicuously perceived. The truly Dionysean music presents itself to us as such a general mirror of the universal will: the conspicuous event which is refracted in this mirror expands at once for our consciousness to the copy of an eternal truth. Conversely, such a conspicious event is at once divested of every mythical character by the tone -painting of the New Dithyr amb; music has here become a wretched copy of the phenomenon, and therefore infinitely poorer than the phenomenon itself: through which poverty it still further reduces even the phenomenon for our consciousness, so that now, for instance, a musically imita ted battle of this sort exhausts itself in marches, signal - sounds, etc., and our imagination is arrested precisely by these superficialities. Tone -painting is therefore in every respect the counterpart of true music with its mythopoeic power: through it th e phenomenon, poor in itself, is made still poorer, while through an isolated Dionysian music the phenomenon is evolved and expanded into a picture of the world. It was an immense triumph of the non- Dionysian spirit, when, in the development of the New Dithyramb, it had estranged music from itself and reduced it to be the slave of phenomena. Euripides, who, albeit in a higher sense, must be designated as a thoroughly unmusical nature, is for this very reason a passionate adherent of the New Dithyrambic Musi c, and with the liberality of a freebooter employs all its effective turns and mannerisms. In another direction also we see at work the power of this un- Dionysian, myth -opposing spirit, when we turn our eyes to the prevalence of character representation an d psychological refinement from Sophocles onwards. The character must no longer be expanded into an eternal type, but, on the contrary, must operate individually through artistic by -traits and shadings, through the nicest precision of all lines, in such a manner that the spectator is in general no longer conscious of the myth, but of the mighty nature -myth and the imitative power of the artist. Here also we observe the victory of the phenomenon over the 94 Universal, and the delight in the particular quasi -anatomical preparation; we actually breathe the air of a theoretical world, in which scientific knowledge is valued more highly than the artistic reflection of a universal law. The movement along the line of the representation of character proceeds rapidly: w hile Sophocles still delineates complete characters and employs myth for their refined development, Euripides already delineates only prominent individual traits of character, which can express themselves in violent bursts of passion; in the New Attic Come dy, however, there are only masks with one expression: frivolous old men, duped panders, and cunning slaves in untiring repetition. Where now is the mythopoeic spirit of music? What is still left now of music is either excitatory music or souvenir music, that is, either a stimulant for dull and used -up nerves, or tone -painting. As regards the former, it hardly matters about the text set to it: the heroes and choruses of Euripides are already dissolute enough when once they begin to sing; to what pass must things have come with his brazen successors? The new un -Dionysian spirit, however, manifests itself most clearly in the dnouements of the new dramas. In the Old Tragedy one could feel at the close the metaphysical comfort, without which the delight in tragedy cannot be explained at all; the conciliating tones from another world sound purest, perhaps, in the dipus at Colonus. Now that the genius of music has fled from tragedy, tragedy is, strictly speaking, dead: for from whence could one now draw the metaphysical comfort? One sought, therefore, for an earthly unravelment of the tragic dissonance; the hero, after he had been sufficiently tortured by fate, reaped a well -deserved reward through a superb marriage or divine tokens of favour. The hero had tur ned gladiator, on whom, after being liberally battered about and covered with wounds, freedom was occasionally bestowed. The deus ex machina took the place of metaphysical comfort. I will not say that the tragic view of things was everywhere completely destroyed by the intruding spirit of the un- Dionysian: we only know that it was compelled to flee from art into the under -world as it were, in the degenerate form of a secret cult. Over the widest extent of the Hellenic character, however, there raged the con suming blast of this spirit, which manifests itself in the form of "Greek cheerfulness," which we have already spoken of as a senile, unproductive love of existence; this cheerfulness is the counterpart of the splendid "navet" of the earlier Greeks, which, 95 according to the characteristic indicated above, must be conceived as the blossom of the Apollonian culture growing out of a dark abyss, as the victory which the Hellenic will, through its mirroring of beauty, obtains over suffering and the wisdom of su ffering. The noblest manifestation of that other form of "Greek cheerfulness," the Alexandrine, is the cheerfulness of the theoretical man: it exhibits the same symptomatic characteristics as I have just inferred concerning the spirit of the un- Dionysian: it combats Dionysian wisdom and art, it seeks to dissolve myth, it substitutes for metaphysical comfort an earthly consonance, in fact, a deus ex machina of its own, namely the god of machines and crucibles, that is, the powers of the genii of nature recognised and employed in the service of higher egoism; it believes in amending the world by knowledge, in guiding life by science, and that it can really confine the individual within a narrow sphere of solvable problems, where he cheerfully says to life: "I desire thee: it is worth while to know thee." 18. It is an eternal phenomenon: the avidious will can always, by means of an illusion spread over things, detain its creatures in life and compel them to live on. One is chained by the Socratic love of knowl edge and the vain hope of being able thereby to heal the eternal wound of existence; another is ensnared by art's seductive veil of beauty fluttering before his eyes; still another by the metaphysical comfort that eternal life flows on indestructibly benea th the whirl of phenomena: to say nothing of the more ordinary and almost more powerful illusions which the will has always at hand. These three specimens of illusion are on the whole designed only for the more nobly endowed natures, who in general feel profoundly the weight and burden of existence, and must be deluded into forgetfulness of their displeasure by exquisite stimulants. All that we call culture is made up of these stimulants; and, according to the proportion of the ingredients, we have either a specially Socratic or artistic or tragic culture : or, if historical exemplifications are wanted, there is either an Alexandrine or a Hellenic or a Buddhistic culture. 96 Our whole modern world is entangled in the meshes of Alexandrine culture, and recognises as its ideal the theorist equipped with the most potent means of knowledge, and labouring in the service of science, of whom the archetype and progenitor is Socrates. All our educational methods have originally this ideal in view: every other form of exis tence must struggle onwards wearisomely beside it, as something tolerated, but not intended. In an almost alarming manner the cultured man was here found for a long time only in the form of the scholar: even our poetical arts have been forced to evolve from learned imitations, and in the main effect of the rhyme we still recognise the origin of our poetic form from artistic experiments with a non- native and thoroughly learned language. How unintelligible must Faust, the modern cultured man, who is in himsel f intelligible, have appeared to a true Greek, Faust, storming discontentedly through all the faculties, devoted to magic and the devil from a desire for knowledge, whom we have only to place alongside of Socrates for the purpose of comparison, in order to see that modern man begins to divine the boundaries of this Socratic love of perception and longs for a coast in the wide waste of the ocean of knowledge. When Goethe on one occasion said to Eckermann with reference to Napoleon: "Yes, my good friend, ther e is also a productiveness of deeds," he reminded us in a charmingly nave manner that the non- theorist is something incredible and astounding to modern man; so that the wisdom of Goethe is needed once more in order to discover that such a surprising form of existence is comprehensible, nay even pardonable. Now, we must not hide from ourselves what is concealed in the heart of this Socratic culture: Optimism, deeming itself absolute! Well, we must not be alarmed if the fruits of this optimism ripen, if soci ety, leavened to the very lowest strata by this kind of culture, gradually begins to tremble through wanton agitations and desires, if the belief in the earthly happiness of all, if the belief in the possibility of such a general intellectual culture is gradually transformed into the threatening demand for such an Alexandrine earthly happiness, into the conjuring of a Euripidean deus ex machina. Let us mark this well: the Alexandrine culture requires a slave class, to be able to exist permanently: but, in i ts optimistic view of life, it denies the necessity of such a class, and consequently, when the effect of its beautifully seductive and tranquillising utterances about the "dignity of man" and the "dignity of 97 labour" is spent, it gradually drifts towards a dreadful destination. There is nothing more terrible than a barbaric slave class, who have learned to regard their existence as an injustice, and now prepare to take vengeance, not only for themselves, but for all generations. In the face of such threatening storms, who dares to appeal with confident spirit to our pale and exhausted religions, which even in their foundations have degenerated into scholastic religions? so that myth, the necessary prerequisite of every religion, is already paralysed everywhere, and even in this domain the optimistic spirit which we have just designated as the annihilating germ of society has attained the mastery. While the evil slumbering in the heart of theoretical culture gradually begins to disquiet modern man, and makes h im anxiously ransack the stores of his experience for means to avert the danger, though not believing very much in these means; while he, therefore, begins to divine the consequences his position involves: great, universally gifted natures have contrived, with an incredible amount of thought, to make use of the apparatus of science itself, in order to point out the limits and the relativity of knowledge generally, and thus definitely to deny the claim of science to universal validity and universal ends: with which demonstration the illusory notion was for the first time recognised as such, which pretends, with the aid of causality, to be able to fathom the innermost essence of things. The extraordinary courage and wisdom of Kant and Schopenhauer have succeeded in gaining the most, difficult, victory, the victory over the optimism hidden in the essence of logic, which optimism in turn is the basis of our culture. While this optimism, resting on apparently unobjectionable terna veritates, believed in th e intelligibility and solvability of all the riddles of the world, and treated space, time, and causality as totally unconditioned laws of the most universal validity, Kant, on the other hand, showed that these served in reality only to elevate the mere phenomenon, the work of My, to the sole and highest reality, putting it in place of the innermost and true essence of things, thus making the actual knowledge of this essence impossible, that is, according to the expression of Schopenhauer, to lull the dre amer still more soundly asleep ( Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, I. 498). With this knowledge a culture is inaugurated which I venture to designate as a tragic culture; the most important characteristic of which is that wisdom takes the place of science as the highest end, wisdom, 98 which, uninfluenced by the seductive distractions of the sciences, turns with unmoved eye to the comprehensive view of the world, and seeks to apprehend therein the eternal suffering as its own with sympathetic feelings of love. Le t us imagine a rising generation with this undauntedness of vision, with this heroic desire for the prodigious, let us imagine the bold step of these dragon -slayers, the proud and daring spirit with which they turn their backs on all the effeminate doctrines of optimism in order "to live resolutely" in the Whole and in the Full: would it not be necessary for the tragic man of this culture, with his self - discipline to earnestness and terror, to desire a new art, the art of metaphysical comfort, namely, tragedy, as the Hellena belonging to him, and that he should exclaim with Faust: Und sollt' ich nicht, sehnschtigster Gewalt, In's Leben ziehn die einzigste Gestalt? 23 But now that the Socratic culture has been shaken from two directions, and is only able to hold the sceptre of its infallibility with trembling hands, once by the fear of its own conclusions which it at length begins to surmise, and again, because it is no longer convinced with its former nave trust of the eternal validity of its foundation, it is a sad spectacle to behold how the dance of its thought always rushes longingly on new forms, to embrace them, and then, shuddering, lets them go of a sudden, as Mephistopheles does the seductive Lami. It is certainly the symptom of the "breach" which all are wont to speak of as the primordial suffering of modern culture that the theoretical man, alarmed and dissatisfied at his own conclusions, no longer dares to entrust himself to the terrible ice-stream of existence: he runs timidly up and down the ba nk. He no longer wants to have anything entire, with all the natural cruelty of things, so thoroughly has he been spoiled by his optimistic contemplation. Besides, he feels that a culture built up on the principles of science must perish when it begins to grow illogical, that is, to avoid its own conclusions. Our art reveals this universal trouble: in vain does one seek help by imitating all the great productive periods and natures, in vain does one accumulate the entire "world- literature" around modern man for his comfort, in vain does one place one's self in the midst of the art-styles and artists of all ages, so that one may give names to them as 23 Cf. Introduction, p. 14. 99 Adam did to the beasts: one still continues the eternal hungerer, the "critic" without joy and energy, the Alexandrine man, who is in the main a librarian and corrector of proofs, and who, pitiable wretch goes blind from the dust of books and printers' errors. 19. We cannot designate the intrinsic substance of Socratic culture more distinctly than by calling it the culture of the opera : for it is in this department that culture has expressed itself with special navet concerning its aims and perceptions, which is sufficiently surprising when we compare the genesis of the opera and the facts of operatic development with the eternal truths of the Apollonian and Dionysian. I call to mind first of all the origin of the stilo rappresentativo and the recitative. Is it credible that this thoroughly externalised operatic music, incapable of devotion, could be received and cherished with enthusiastic favour, as a re -birth, as it were, of all true music, by the very age in which the ineffably sublime and sacred music of Palestrina had originated? And who, on the other hand, would think of making only the diversion - craving luxuriousness of those Florentine circles and the vanity of their dramatic singers responsible for the love of the opera which spread with such rapidity? That in the same age, even among the same people, this passion for a half -musical mode of speech should a waken alongside of the vaulted structure of Palestrine harmonies which the entire Christian Middle Age had been building up, I can explain to myself only by a co - operating extra -artistic tendency in the essence of the recitative. The listener, who insists on distinctly hearing the words under the music, has his wishes met by the singer in that he speaks rather than sings, and intensifies the pathetic expression of the words in this half - song: by this intensification of the pathos he facilitates the understa nding of the words and surmounts the remaining half of the music. The specific danger which now threatens him is that in some unguarded moment he may give undue importance to music, which would forthwith result in the destruction of the pathos of the speech and the distinctness of the words: while, on the other hand, he always feels himself impelled to musical delivery and to virtuose exhibition of vocal talent. Here the "poet" comes to his aid, who knows how to provide him with abundant opportunities for lyrical interjections, repetitions of 100 words and sentences, etc., at which places the singer, now in the purely musical element, can rest himself without minding the words. This alternation of emotionally impressive, yet only half -sung speech and wholly sung interjections, which is characteristic of the stilo rappresentativo, this rapidly changing endeavour to operate now on the conceptional and representative faculty of the hearer, now on his musical sense, is something so thoroughly unnatural and withal so intrinsically contradictory both to the Apollonian and Dionysian artistic impulses, that one has to infer an origin of the recitative foreign to all artistic instincts. The recitative must be defined, according to this description, as the combination of ep ic and lyric delivery, not indeed as an intrinsically stable combination which could not be attained in the case of such totally disparate elements, but an entirely superficial mosaic conglutination, such as is totally unprecedented in the domain of nature and experience. But this was not the opinion of the inventors of the recitative: they themselves, and their age with them, believed rather that the mystery of antique music had been solved by this stilo rappresentativo, in which, as they thought, the only explanation of the enormous influence of an Orpheus, an Amphion, and even of Greek tragedy was to be found. The new style was regarded by them as the re - awakening of the most effective music, the Old Greek music: indeed, with the universal and popular conception of the Homeric world as the primitive world, they could abandon themselves to the dream of having descended once more into the paradisiac beginnings of mankind, wherein music also must needs have had the unsurpassed purity, power, and innocence of which the poets could give such touching accounts in their pastoral plays. Here we see into the internal process of development of this thoroughly modern variety of art, the opera: a powerful need here acquires an art, but it is a need of an unsthetic kind: the yearning for the idyll, the belief in the prehistoric existence of the artistic, good man. The recitative was regarded as the rediscovered language of this primitive man; the opera as the recovered land of this idyllically or heroically good creature, who in every action follows at the same time a natural artistic impulse, who sings a little along with all he has to say, in order to sing immediately with full voice on the slightest emotional excitement. It is now a matter of indifference to us that t he humanists of those days combated the old ecclesiastical representation of man as naturally corrupt and lost, with this new -created picture of the 101 paradisiac artist: so that opera may be understood as the oppositional dogma of the good man, whereby however a solace was at the same time found for the pessimism to which precisely the seriously -disposed men of that time were most strongly incited, owing to the frightful uncertainty of all conditions of life. It is enough to have perceived that the intrinsic charm, and therefore the genesis, of this new form of art lies in the gratification of an altogether unsthetic need, in the optimistic glorification of man as such, in the conception of the primitive man as the man naturally good and artistic: a principle of the opera which has gradually changed into a threatening and terrible demand, which, in face of the socialistic movements of the present time, we can no longer ignore. The "good primitive man" wants his rights: what paradisiac prospects! I here place b y way of parallel still another equally obvious confirmation of my view that opera is built up on the same principles as our Alexandrine culture. Opera is the birth of the theoretical man, of the critical layman, not of the artist: one of the most surprising facts in the whole history of art. It was the demand of thoroughly unmusical hearers that the words must above all be understood, so that according to them a re -birth of music is only to be expected when some mode of singing has been discovered in which the text- word lords over the counterpoint as the master over the servant. For the words, it is argued, are as much nobler than the accompanying harmonic system as the soul is nobler than the body. It was in accordance with the laically unmusical crudeness of these views that the combination of music, picture and expression was effected in the beginnings of the opera: in the spirit of this sthetics the first experiments were also made in the leading laic circles of Florence by the poets and singers patronised there. The man incapable of art creates for himself a species of art precisely because he is the inartistic man as such. Because he does not divine the Dionysian depth of music, he changes his musical taste into appreciation of the understandable word -and- tone -rhetoric of the passions in the stilo rappresentativo, and into the voluptuousness of the arts of song; because he is unable to behold a vision, he forces the machinist and the decorative artist into his service; because he cannot apprehend the tr ue nature of the artist, he conjures up the "artistic primitive man" to suit his taste, that is, the man who sings and recites verses under the influence of 102 passion. He dreams himself into a time when passion suffices to generate songs and poems: as if emo tion had ever been able to create anything artistic. The postulate of the opera is a false belief concerning the artistic process, in fact, the idyllic belief that every sentient man is an artist. In the sense of this belief, opera is the expression of the taste of the laity in art, who dictate their laws with the cheerful optimism of the theorist. Should we desire to unite in one the two conceptions just set forth as influential in the origin of opera, it would only remain for us to speak of an idyllic ten dency of the opera : in which connection we may avail ourselves exclusively of the phraseology and illustration of Schiller. 24 "Nature and the ideal," he says, "are either objects of grief, when the former is represented as lost, the latter unattained; or both are objects of joy, in that they are represented as real. The first case furnishes the elegy in its narrower signification, the second the idyll in its widest sense." Here we must at once call attention to the common characteristic of these two conceptions in operatic genesis, namely, that in them the ideal is not regarded as unattained or nature as lost Agreeably to this sentiment, there was a primitive age of man when he lay close to the heart of nature, and, owing to this naturalness, had attained the ideal of mankind in a paradisiac goodness and artist- organisation: from which perfect primitive man all of us were supposed to be descended; whose faithful copy we were in fact still said to be: only we had to cast off some few things in order to recognis e ourselves once more as this primitive man, on the strength of a voluntary renunciation of superfluous learnedness, of super -abundant culture. It was to such a concord of nature and the ideal, to an idyllic reality, that the cultured man of the Renaissance suffered himself to be led back by his operatic imitation of Greek tragedy; he made use of this tragedy, as Dante made use of Vergil, in order to be led up to the gates of paradise: while from this point he went on without assistance and passed over from an imitation of the highest form of Greek art to a "restoration of all things," to an imitation of man's original art- world. What delightfully nave hopefulness of these daring endeavours, in the very heart of theoretical culture! solely to be explained b y the comforting belief, that "man- in- himself" is the eternally virtuous hero of the opera, the eternally fluting or singing shepherd, who must always in the end rediscover himself as 24 Essay on Elegiac Poetry. TR. 103 such, if he has at any time really lost himself; solely the fruit of the optimism, which here rises like a sweetishly seductive column of vapour out of the depth of the Socratic conception of the world. The features of the opera therefore do not by any means exhibit the elegiac sorrow of an eternal loss, but rather the cheerfu lness of eternal rediscovery, the indolent delight in an idyllic reality which one can at least represent to one's self each moment as real: and in so doing one will perhaps surmise some day that this supposed reality is nothing but a fantastically silly d awdling, concerning which every one, who could judge it by the terrible earnestness of true nature and compare it with the actual primitive scenes of the beginnings of mankind, would have to call out with loathing: Away with the phantom! Nevertheless one w ould err if one thought it possible to frighten away merely by a vigorous shout such a dawdling thing as the opera, as if it were a spectre. He who would destroy the opera must join issue with Alexandrine cheerfulness, which expresses itself so navely therein concerning its favourite representation; of which in fact it is the specific form of art. But what is to be expected for art itself from the operation of a form of art, the beginnings of which do not at all lie in the sthetic province; which has rath er stolen over from a half -moral sphere into the artistic domain, and has been able only now and then to delude us concerning this hybrid origin? By what sap is this parasitic opera -concern nourished, if not by that of true art? Must we not suppose that th e highest and indeed the truly serious task of art to free the eye from its glance into the horrors of night and to deliver the "subject" by the healing balm of appearance from the spasms of volitional agitations will degenerate under the influence of its idyllic seductions and Alexandrine adulation to an empty dissipating tendency, to pastime? What will become of the eternal truths of the Dionysian and Apollonian in such an amalgamation of styles as I have exhibited in the character of the stilo rappresent ativo ? where music is regarded as the servant, the text as the master, where music is compared with the body, the text with the soul? where at best the highest aim will be the realisation of a paraphrastic tone -painting, just as formerly in the New Attic D ithyramb? where music is completely alienated from its true dignity of being, the Dionysian mirror of the world, so that the only thing left to it is, as a slave of phenomena, to imitate the formal character thereof, and to excite an external pleasure in 104 the play of lines and proportions. On close observation, this fatal influence of the opera on music is seen to coincide absolutely with the universal development of modern music; the optimism lurking in the genesis of the opera and in the essence of culture represented thereby, has, with alarming rapidity, succeeded in divesting music of its Dionyso-cosmic mission and in impressing on it a playfully formal and pleasurable character: a change with which perhaps only the metamorphosis of the schylean man into the cheerful Alexandrine man could be compared. If, however, in the exemplification herewith indicated we have rightly associated the evanescence of the Dionysian spirit with a most striking, but hitherto unexplained transformation and degeneration of the Hellene what hopes must revive in us when the most trustworthy auspices guarantee the reverse process, the gradual awakening of the Dionysian spirit in our modern world! It is impossible for the divine strength of Herakles to languish for ever in voluptuous bondage to Omphale. Out of the Dionysian root of the German spirit a power has arisen which has nothing in common with the primitive conditions of Socratic culture, and can neither be explained nor excused thereby, but is rather regarded by this culture as something terribly inexplicable and overwhelmingly hostile, mdash; namely, German music as we have to understand it, especially in its vast solar orbit from Bach to Beethoven, from Beethoven to Wagner. What even under the most favourable circumstances can the knowledge -craving Socratism of our days do with this demon rising from unfathomable depths? Neither by means of the zig-zag and arabesque work of operatic melody, nor with the aid of the arithmetical counting board of fugue and contrapuntal dialect ics is the formula to be found, in the trebly powerful light 25 of which one could subdue this demon and compel it to speak. What a spectacle, when our sthetes, with a net of "beauty" peculiar to themselves, now pursue and clutch at the genius of music romp ing about before them with incomprehensible life, and in so doing display activities which are not to be judged by the standard of eternal beauty any more than by the standard of the sublime. Let us but observe these patrons of music as they are, at close range, when they call out so indefatigably "beauty! beauty!" to discover whether they have the marks of nature's darling 25 See Faust, Part 1.1. 965 TR. 105 children who are fostered and fondled in the lap of the beautiful, or whether they do not rather seek a disguise for their own rudeness , an sthetical pretext for their own unemotional insipidity: I am thinking here, for instance, of Otto Jahn. But let the liar and the hypocrite beware of our German music: for in the midst of all our culture it is really the only genuine, pure and purifyi ng fire -spirit from which and towards which, as in the teaching of the great Heraclitus of Ephesus, all things move in a double orbit- all that we now call culture, education, civilisation, must appear some day before the unerring judge, Dionysus. Let us re collect furthermore how Kant and Schopenhauer made it possible for the spirit of German philosophy streaming from the same sources to annihilate the satisfied delight in existence of scientific Socratism by the delimitation of the boundaries thereof; how through this delimitation an infinitely profounder and more serious view of ethical problems and of art was inaugurated, which we may unhesitatingly designate as Dionysian wisdom comprised in concepts. To what then does the mystery of this oneness of German music and philosophy point, if not to a new form of existence, concerning the substance of which we can only inform ourselves presentiently from Hellenic analogies? For to us who stand on the boundary line between two different forms of existence, the Hel lenic prototype retains the immeasurable value, that therein all these transitions and struggles are imprinted in a classically instructive form: except that we, as it were, experience analogically in reverse order the chief epochs of the Hellenic genius, and seem now, for instance, to pass backwards from the Alexandrine age to the period of tragedy. At the same time we have the feeling that the birth of a tragic age betokens only a return to itself of the German spirit, a blessed self -rediscovering after excessive and urgent external influences have for a long time compelled it, living as it did in helpless barbaric formlessness, to servitude under their form. It may at last, after returning to the primitive source of its being, venture to stalk along boldly and freely before all nations without hugging the leading -strings of a Romanic civilisation: if only it can learn implicitly of one people the Greeks, of whom to learn at all is itself a high honour and a rare distinction. And when did we require these h ighest of all teachers more than at present, when we experience a re-birth of 106 tragedy and are in danger alike of not knowing whence it comes, and of being unable to make clear to ourselves whither it tends. 20. It may be weighed some day before an imparti al judge, in what time and in what men the German spirit has thus far striven most resolutely to learn of the Greeks: and if we confidently assume that this unique praise must be accorded to the noblest intellectual efforts of Goethe, Schiller, and Winkelmann, it will certainly have to be added that since their time, and subsequently to the more immediate influences of these efforts, the endeavour to attain to culture and to the Greeks by this path has in an incomprehensible manner grown feebler and feebler . In order not to despair altogether of the German spirit, must we not infer therefrom that possibly, in some essential matter, even these champions could not penetrate into the core of the Hellenic nature, and were unable to establish a permanent friendly alliance between German and Greek culture? So that perhaps an unconscious perception of this shortcoming might raise also in more serious minds the disheartening doubt as to whether after such predecessors they could advance still farther on this path of culture, or could reach the goal at all. Accordingly, we see the opinions concerning the value of Greek contribution to culture degenerate since that time in the most alarming manner; the expression of compassionate superiority may be heard in the most het erogeneous intellectual and non- intellectual camps, and elsewhere a totally ineffective declamation dallies with "Greek harmony," "Greek beauty," "Greek cheerfulness." And in the very circles whose dignity it might be to draw indefatigably from the Greek c hannel for the good of German culture, in the circles of the teachers in the higher educational institutions, they have learned best to compromise with the Greeks in good time and on easy terms, to the extent often of a sceptical abandonment of the Hellenic ideal and a total perversion of the true purpose of antiquarian studies. If there be any one at all in these circles who has not completely exhausted himself in the endeavour to be a trustworthy corrector of old texts or a natural -history microscopist of language, he perhaps seeks also to appropriate Grecian antiquity "historically" along with other antiquities, and in any case according to 107 the method and with the supercilious air of our present cultured historiography. When, therefore, the intrinsic efficiency of the higher educational institutions has never perhaps been lower or feebler than at present, when the "journalist," the paper slave of the day, has triumphed over the academic teacher in all matters pertaining to culture, and there only remains to the latter the often previously experienced metamorphosis of now fluttering also, as a cheerful cultured butterfly, in the idiom of the journalist, with the "light elegance" peculiar thereto with what painful confusion must the cultured persons of a period like the present gaze at the phenomenon (which can perhaps be comprehended analogically only by means of the profoundest principle of the hitherto unintelligible Hellenic genius) of the reawakening of the Dionysian spirit and the re -birth of tragedy? Never has there been another art- period in which so- called culture and true art have been so estranged and opposed, as is so obviously the case at present. We understand why so feeble a culture hates true art; it fears destruction thereby. But must not an en tire domain of culture, namely the Socratic- Alexandrine, have exhausted its powers after contriving to culminate in such a daintily -tapering point as our present culture? When it was not permitted to heroes like Goethe and Schiller to break open the enchanted gate which leads into the Hellenic magic mountain, when with their most dauntless striving they did not get beyond the longing gaze which the Goethean Iphigenia cast from barbaric Tauris to her home across the ocean, what could the epigones of such her oes hope for, if the gate should not open to them suddenly of its own accord, in an entirely different position, quite overlooked in all endeavours of culture hitherto amidst the mystic tones of reawakened tragic music. Let no one attempt to weaken our fai th in an impending re -birth of Hellenic antiquity; for in it alone we find our hope of a renovation and purification of the German spirit through the fire -magic of music. What else do we know of amidst the present desolation and languor of culture, which could awaken any comforting expectation for the future? We look in vain for one single vigorously -branching root, for a speck of fertile and healthy soil: there is dust, sand, torpidness and languishing everywhere! Under such circumstances a cheerless solitary wanderer could choose for himself no better symbol than the Knight with Death and the Devil, as Drer has sketched him for us, the mail -clad knight, grim and stern of 108 visage, who is able, unperturbed by his gruesome companions, and yet hopelessly, to p ursue his terrible path with horse and hound alone. Our Schopenhauer was such a Drerian knight: he was destitute of all hope, but he sought the truth. There is not his equal. But how suddenly this gloomily depicted wilderness of our exhausted culture chan ges when the Dionysian magic touches it! A hurricane seizes everything decrepit, decaying, collapsed, and stunted; wraps it whirlingly into a red cloud of dust; and carries it like a vulture into the air. Confused thereby, our glances seek for what has vanished: for what they see is something risen to the golden light as from a depression, so full and green, so luxuriantly alive, so ardently infinite. Tragedy sits in the midst of this exuberance of life, sorrow and joy, in sublime ecstasy; she listens to a distant doleful song it tells of the Mothers of Being, whose names are: Wahn, Wille, Wehe Yes, my friends, believe with me in Dionysian life and in the re -birth of tragedy. The time of the Socratic man is past: crown yourselves with ivy, take in your hands the thyrsus, and do not marvel if tigers and panthers lie down fawning at your feet. Dare now to be tragic men, for ye are to be redeemed! Ye are to accompany the Dionysian festive procession from India to Greece! Equip yourselves for severe conflict, but believe in the wonders of your god! 21. Gliding back from these hortative tones into the mood which befits the contemplative man, I repeat that it can only be learnt from the Greeks what such a sudden and miraculous awakening of tragedy must signify for the essential basis of a people's life. It is the people of the tragic mysteries who fight the battles with the Persians: and again, the people who waged such wars required tragedy as a necessary healing potion. Who would have imagined that there was still such a uniformly powerful effusion of the simplest political sentiments, the most natural domestic instincts and the primitive manly delight in strife in this very people after it had been shaken to its foundations for several generations by the most violent convulsions of the Dionysian demon? If at every considerable spreading of the Dionysian commotion one always perceives that the Dionysian loosing from the shackles of the individual makes itself felt first of all in an increased encroachment on the political instincts, to the extent of indifference, yea even hostility, it is certain, on 109 the other hand, that the state -forming Apollo is also the genius of the principium individuationis, and that the state and domestic sentiment cannot live without an assertion of individual personality. There is only one way from orgasm for a people, the way to Indian Buddhism, which, in order to be at all endured with its longing for nothingness, requires the rare ecstatic states with their elevation above space, time, and the individual; just as these in turn demand a philosophy which teaches how to overcome the indescribable depression of the intermediate states by means of a fancy. With the same necessity, owing to the unconditional dominance of political impulses, a people drifts into a path of extremest secularisation, the most magnificent, but also the most terrible expression of which is the Roman imperium . Placed between India and Rome, and constrained to a seductive choice, the Greeks succeeded in devising in c lassical purity still a third form of life, not indeed for long private use, but just on that account for immortality. For it holds true in all things that those whom the gods love die young, but, on the other hand, it holds equally true that they then live eternally with the gods. One must not demand of what is most noble that it should possess the durable toughness of leather; the staunch durability, which, for instance, was inherent in the national character of the Romans, does not probably belong to the indispensable predicates of perfection. But if we ask by what physic it was possible for the Greeks, in their best period, notwithstanding the extraordinary strength of their Dionysian and political impulses, neither to exhaust themselves by ecstatic brooding, nor by a consuming scramble for empire and worldly honour, but to attain the splendid mixture which we find in a noble, inflaming, and contemplatively disposing wine, we must remember the enormous power of tragedy, exciting, purifying, and disburdening the entire life of a people; the highest value of which we shall divine only when, as in the case of the Greeks, it appears to us as the essence of all the prophylactic healing forces, as the mediator arbitrating between the strongest and most inherentl y fateful characteristics of a people. Tragedy absorbs the highest musical orgasm into itself, so that it absolutely brings music to perfection among the Greeks, as among ourselves; but it then places alongside thereof tragic myth and the tragic hero, who, like a mighty Titan, takes the entire Dionysian world on his shoulders and disburdens us thereof; while, on the other hand, it is able 110 by means of this same tragic myth, in the person of the tragic hero, to deliver us from the intense longing for this existence, and reminds us with warning hand of another existence and a higher joy, for which the struggling hero prepares himself presentiently by his destruction, not by his victories. Tragedy sets a sublime symbol, namely the myth between the universal auth ority of its music and the receptive Dionysian hearer, and produces in him the illusion that music is only the most effective means for the animation of the plastic world of myth. Relying upon this noble illusion, she can now move her limbs for the dithyra mbic dance, and abandon herself unhesitatingly to an orgiastic feeling of freedom, in which she could not venture to indulge as music itself, without this illusion. The myth protects us from the music, while, on the other hand, it alone gives the highest f reedom thereto. By way of return for this service, music imparts to tragic myth such an impressive and convincing metaphysical significance as could never be attained by word and image, without this unique aid; and the tragic spectator in particular experi ences thereby the sure presentiment of supreme joy to which the path through destruction and negation leads; so that he thinks he hears, as it were, the innermost abyss of things speaking audibly to him. If in these last propositions I have succeeded in gi ving perhaps only a preliminary expression, intelligible to few at first, to this difficult representation, I must not here desist from stimulating my friends to a further attempt, or cease from beseeching them to prepare themselves, by a detached example of our common experience, for the perception of the universal proposition. In this example I must not appeal to those who make use of the pictures of the scenic processes, the words and the emotions of the performers, in order to approximate thereby to mus ical perception; for none of these speak music as their mother -tongue, and, in spite of the aids in question, do not get farther than the precincts of musical perception, without ever being allowed to touch its innermost shrines; some of them, like Gervinu s, do not even reach the precincts by this path. I have only to address myself to those who, being immediately allied to music, have it as it were for their mother's lap, and are connected with things almost exclusively by unconscious musical relations. I ask the question of these genuine musicians: whether they can imagine a man capable of hearing the third act of Tristan und Isolde without any aid of word or scenery, purely as a vast symphonic 111 period, without expiring by a spasmodic distention of all the wings of the soul? A man who has thus, so to speak, put his ear to the heart -chamber of the cosmic will, who feels the furious desire for existence issuing therefrom as a thundering stream or most gently dispersed brook, into all the veins of the world, would he not collapse all at once? Could he endure, in the wretched fragile tenement of the human individual, to hear the re -echo of countless cries of joy and sorrow from the "vast void of cosmic night," without flying irresistibly towards his primitive home at the sound of this pastoral dance -song of metaphysics? But if, nevertheless, such a work can be heard as a whole, without a renunciation of individual existence, if such a creation could be created without demolishing its creator where are we to get th e solution of this contradiction? Here there interpose between our highest musical excitement and the music in question the tragic myth and the tragic hero in reality only as symbols of the most universal facts, of which music alone can speak directly. If, however, we felt as purely Dionysian beings, myth as a symbol would stand by us absolutely ineffective and unnoticed, and would never for a moment prevent us from giving ear to the re -echo of the universalia ante rem. Here, however, the Apollonian power, with a view to the restoration of the well -nigh shattered individual, bursts forth with the healing balm of a blissful illusion: all of a sudden we imagine we see only Tristan, motionless, with hushed voice saying to himself: "the old tune, why does it wak e me?" And what formerly interested us like a hollow sigh from the heart of being, seems now only to tell us how "waste and void is the sea." And when, breathless, we thought to expire by a convulsive distention of all our feelings, and only a slender tie bound us to our present existence, we now hear and see only the hero wounded to death and still not dying, with his despairing cry: "Longing! Longing! In dying still longing! for longing not dying!" And if formerly, after such a surplus and superabundance of consuming agonies, the jubilation of the born rent our hearts almost like the very acme of agony, the rejoicing Kurwenal now stands between us and the "jubilation as such," with face turned toward the ship which carries Isolde. However powerfully fellow - suffering encroaches upon us, it nevertheless delivers us in a manner from the primordial suffering of the world, just as the symbol -image of the myth delivers us from the immediate perception of the highest 112 cosmic idea, just as the thought and word deliver us from the unchecked effusion of the unconscious will. The glorious Apollonian illusion makes it appear as if the very realm of tones presented itself to us as a plastic cosmos, as if even the fate of Tristan and Isolde had been merely formed and moulded therein as out of some most delicate and impressible material. Thus does the Apollonian wrest us from Dionysian universality and fill us with rapture for individuals; to these it rivets our sympathetic emotion, through these it satisfies the sense of beauty which longs for great and sublime forms; it brings before us biographical portraits, and incites us to a thoughtful apprehension of the essence of life contained therein. With the immense potency of the image, the concept, the ethical teaching and t he sympathetic emotion the Apollonian influence uplifts man from his orgiastic self -annihilation, and beguiles him concerning the universality of the Dionysian process into the belief that he is seeing a detached picture of the world, for instance, Tristan and Isolde, and that, through music, he will be enabled to see it still more clearly and intrinsically. What can the healing magic of Apollo not accomplish when it can even excite in us the illusion that the Dionysian is actually in the service of the Apo llonian, the effects of which it is capable of enhancing; yea, that music is essentially the representative art for an Apollonian substance? With the pre -established harmony which obtains between perfect drama and its music, the drama attains the highest degree of conspicuousness, such as is usually unattainable in mere spoken drama. As all the animated figures of the scene in the independently evolved lines of melody simplify themselves before us to the distinctness of the catenary curve, the coexistence o f these lines is also audible in the harmonic change which sympathises in a most delicate manner with the evolved process: through which change the relations of things become immediately perceptible to us in a sensible and not at all abstract manner, as we likewise perceive thereby that it is only in these relations that the essence of a character and of a line of melody manifests itself clearly. And while music thus compels us to see more extensively and more intrinsically than usual, and makes us spread o ut the curtain of the scene before ourselves like some delicate texture, the world of the stage is as infinitely expanded for our spiritualised, introspective eye as it is 113 illumined outwardly from within. How can the word- poet furnish anything analogous, who strives to attain this internal expansion and illumination of the visible stage -world by a much more imperfect mechanism and an indirect path, proceeding as he does from word and concept? Albeit musical tragedy likewise avails itself of the word, it is at the same time able to place alongside thereof its basis and source, and can make the unfolding of the word, from within outwards, obvious to us. Of the process just set forth, however, it could still be said as decidedly that it is only a glorious appearance, namely the afore- mentioned Apollonian illusion, through the influence of which we are to be delivered from the Dionysian obtrusion and excess. In point of fact, the relation of music to drama is precisely the reverse; music is the adequate idea of t he world, drama is but the reflex of this idea, a detached umbrage thereof. The identity between the line of melody and the lining form, between the harmony and the character -relations of this form, is true in a sense antithetical to what one would suppose on the contemplation of musical tragedy. We may agitate and enliven the form in the most conspicuous manner, and enlighten it from within, but it still continues merely phenomenon, from which there is no bridge to lead us into the true reality, into the h eart of the world. Music, however, speaks out of this heart; and though countless phenomena of the kind might be passing manifestations of this music, they could never exhaust its essence, but would always be merely its externalised copies. Of course, as regards the intricate relation of music and drama, nothing can be explained, while all may be confused by the popular and thoroughly false antithesis of soul and body; but the unphilosophical crudeness of this antithesis seems to have become who knows for what reasons a readily accepted Article of Faith with our stheticians, while they have learned nothing concerning an antithesis of phenomenon and thing -in- itself, or perhaps, for reasons equally unknown, have not cared to learn anything thereof. Should it have been established by our analysis that the Apollonian element in tragedy has by means of its illusion gained a complete victory over the Dionysian primordial element of music, and has made music itself subservient to its end, namely, the highest and cl earest elucidation of the drama, it would certainly be necessary to add the very important 114 restriction: that at the most essential point this Apollonian illusion is dissolved and annihilated. The drama, which, by the aid of music, spreads out before us wit h such inwardly illumined distinctness in all its movements and figures, that we imagine we see the texture unfolding on the loom as the shuttle flies to and fro, attains as a whole an effect which transcends all Apollonian artistic effects. In the collective effect of tragedy, the Dionysian gets the upper hand once more; tragedy ends with a sound which could never emanate from the realm of Apollonian art. And the Apollonian illusion is thereby found to be what it is, the assiduous veiling during the perfor mance of tragedy of the intrinsically Dionysian effect: which, however, is so powerful, that it finally forces the Apollonian drama itself into a sphere where it begins to talk with Dionysian wisdom, and even denies itself and its Apollonian conspicuousnes s. Thus then the intricate relation of the Apollonian and the Dionysian in tragedy must really be symbolised by a fraternal union of the two deities: Dionysus speaks the language of Apollo; Apollo, however, finally speaks the language of Dionysus; and so the highest goal of tragedy and of art in general is attained. 22. Let the attentive friend picture to himself purely and simply, according to his experiences, the effect of a true musical tragedy. I think I have so portrayed the phenomenon of this effect in both its phases that he will now be able to interpret his own experiences. For he will recollect that with regard to the myth which passed before him he felt himself exalted to a kind of omniscience, as if his visual faculty were no longer merely a surface faculty, but capable of penetrating into the interior, and as if he now saw before him, with the aid of music, the ebullitions of the will, the conflict of motives, and the swelling stream of the passions, almost sensibly visible, like a plenitude of a ctively moving lines and figures, and could thereby dip into the most tender secrets of unconscious emotions. While he thus becomes conscious of the highest exaltation of his instincts for conspicuousness and transfiguration, he nevertheless feels with equal definitiveness that this long series of Apollonian artistic effects still does not generate the blissful continuance in will -less contemplation which the plasticist and the epic poet, that is to say, the 115 strictly Apollonian artists, produce in him by their artistic productions: to wit, the justification of the world of the individuatio attained in this contemplation, which is the object and essence of Apollonian art. He beholds the transfigured world of the stage and nevertheless denies it. He sees bef ore him the tragic hero in epic clearness and beauty, and nevertheless delights in his annihilation. He comprehends the incidents of the scene in all their details, and yet loves to flee into the incomprehensible. He feels the actions of the hero to be jus tified, and is nevertheless still more elated when these actions annihilate their originator. He shudders at the sufferings which will befall the hero, and yet anticipates therein a higher and much more overpowering joy. He sees more extensively and profoundly than ever, and yet wishes to be blind. Whence must we derive this curious internal dissension, this collapse of the Apollonian apex, if not from the Dionysian spell, which, though apparently stimulating the Apollonian emotions to their highest pitch, can nevertheless force this superabundance of Apollonian power into its service? Tragic myth is to be understood only as a symbolisation of Dionysian wisdom by means of the expedients of Apollonian art: the mythus conducts the world of phenomena to its bou ndaries, where it denies itself, and seeks to flee back again into the bosom of the true and only reality; where it then, like Isolde, seems to strike up its metaphysical swan -song: In des Wonnemeeres wogendem Schwall, in der Duft -Wellen tnendem Schall, in des Weltathems wehendem All ertrinken versinken unbewusst hchste Lust! 26 26 In the sea of pleasure's Billowing roll, In the ether -waves Knelling and toll, In the world -breath's Wavering whole To drown in, go down in Lost in swoon greatest boon! 116 We thus realise to ourselves in the experiences of the truly sthetic hearer the tragic artist himself when he proceeds like a luxuriously fertile divinity of individuation to create his figures (in which sense his work can hardly be understood as an "imitation of nature") and when, on the other hand, his vast Dionysian impulse then absorbs the entire world of phenomena, in order to anticipate beyond it, and through its annihilati on, the highest artistic primal joy, in the bosom of the Primordial Unity. Of course, our sthetes have nothing to say about this return in fraternal union of the two art -deities to the original home, nor of either the Apollonian or Dionysian excitement of the hearer, while they are indefatigable in characterising the struggle of the hero with fate, the triumph of the moral order of the world, or the disburdenment of the emotions through tragedy, as the properly Tragic: an indefatigableness which makes me think that they are perhaps not sthetically excitable men at all, but only to be regarded as moral beings when hearing tragedy. Never since Aristotle has an explanation of the tragic effect been proposed, by which an sthetic activity of the hearer could b e inferred from artistic circumstances. At one time fear and pity are supposed to be forced to an alleviating discharge through the serious procedure, at another time we are expected to feel elevated and inspired at the triumph of good and noble principles, at the sacrifice of the hero in the interest of a moral conception of things; and however certainly I believe that for countless men precisely this, and only this, is the effect of tragedy, it as obviously follows therefrom that all these, together with their interpreting sthetes, have had no experience of tragedy as the highest art. The pathological discharge, the catharsis of Aristotle, which philologists are at a loss whether to include under medicinal or moral phenomena, recalls a remarkable anticipation of Goethe. "Without a lively pathological interest," he says, "I too have never yet succeeded in elaborating a tragic situation of any kind, and hence I have rather avoided than sought it. Can it perhaps have been still another of the merits of the ancients that the deepest pathos was with them merely sthetic play, whereas with us the truth of nature must co-operate in order to produce such a work?" We can now answer in the affirmative this latter profound question after our glorious experiences, in which we have found to our astonishment in the case of musical tragedy itself, that the deepest pathos can in reality be merely sthetic play: and therefore we are justified in believing that now for the first time the proto - 117 phenomenon of the tragic can be portrayed with some degree of success. He who now will still persist in talking only of those vicarious effects proceeding from ultra -sthetic spheres, and does not feel himself raised above the pathologically -moral process, may be left to despair of his sthetic nature: for which we recommend to him, by way of innocent equivalent, the interpretation of Shakespeare after the fashion of Gervinus, and the diligent search for poetic justice. Thus with the re -birth of tragedy the sthetic hearer is also born an ew, in whose place in the theatre a curious quid pro quo was wont to sit with half-moral and half -learned pretensions, the "critic." In his sphere hitherto everything has been artificial and merely glossed over with a semblance of life. The performing arti st was in fact at a loss what to do with such a critically comporting hearer, and hence he, as well as the dramatist or operatic composer who inspired him, searched anxiously for the last remains of life in a being so pretentiously barren and incapable of enjoyment. Such "critics," however, have hitherto constituted the public; the student, the school -boy, yea, even the most harmless womanly creature, were already unwittingly prepared by education and by journals for a similar perception of works of art. The nobler natures among the artists counted upon exciting the moral - religious forces in such a public, and the appeal to a moral order of the world operated vicariously, when in reality some powerful artistic spell should have enraptured the true hearer. Or again, some imposing or at all events exciting tendency of the contemporary political and social world was presented by the dramatist with such vividness that the hearer could forget his critical exhaustion and abandon himself to similar emotions, as, in patriotic or warlike moments, before the tribune of parliament, or at the condemnation of crime and vice: an estrangement of the true aims of art which could not but lead directly now and then to a cult of tendency. But here there took place what has alway s taken place in the case of factitious arts, an extraordinary rapid depravation of these tendencies, so that for instance the tendency to employ the theatre as a means for the moral education of the people, which in Schiller's time was taken seriously, is already reckoned among the incredible antiquities of a surmounted culture. While the critic got the upper hand in the theatre and concert -hall, the journalist in the school, and the press in society, art degenerated into a topic of conversation of the mos t trivial kind, and 118 sthetic criticism was used as the cement of a vain, distracted, selfish and moreover piteously unoriginal sociality, the significance of which is suggested by the Schopenhauerian parable of the porcupines, so that there has never been so much gossip about art and so little esteem for it. But is it still possible to have intercourse with a man capable of conversing on Beethoven or Shakespeare? Let each answer this question according to his sentiments: he will at any rate show by his answ er his conception of "culture," provided he tries at least to answer the question, and has not already grown mute with astonishment. On the other hand, many a one more nobly and delicately endowed by nature, though he may have gradually become a critical barbarian in the manner described, could tell of the unexpected as well as totally unintelligible effect which a successful performance of Lohengrin, for example, exerted on him: except that perhaps every warning and interpreting hand was lacking to guide him; so that the incomprehensibly heterogeneous and altogether incomparable sensation which then affected him also remained isolated and became extinct, like a mysterious star after a brief brilliancy. He then divined what the sthetic hearer is. 23. He wh o wishes to test himself rigorously as to how he is related to the true sthetic hearer, or whether he belongs rather to the community of the Socrato -critical man, has only to enquire sincerely concerning the sentiment with which he accepts the wonder repr esented on the stage: whether he feels his historical sense, which insists on strict psychological causality, insulted by it, whether with benevolent concession he as it were admits the wonder as a phenomenon intelligible to childhood, but relinquished by him, or whether he experiences anything else thereby. For he will thus be enabled to determine how far he is on the whole capable of understanding myth, that is to say, the concentrated picture of the world, which, as abbreviature of phenomena, cannot disp ense with wonder. It is probable, however, that nearly every one, upon close examination, feels so disintegrated by the critico -historical spirit of our culture, that he can only perhaps make the former existence of myth credible to himself by learned mean s through intermediary abstractions. 119 Without myth, however, every culture loses its healthy, creative natural power: it is only a horizon encompassed with myths which rounds off to unity a social movement. It is only by myth that all the powers of the imag ination and of the Apollonian dream are freed from their random rovings. The mythical figures have to be the invisibly omnipresent genii, under the care of which the young soul grows to maturity, by the signs of which the man gives a meaning to his life and struggles: and the state itself knows no more powerful unwritten law than the mythical foundation which vouches for its connection with religion and its growth from mythical ideas. Let us now place alongside thereof the abstract man proceeding independen tly of myth, the abstract education, the abstract usage, the abstract right, the abstract state: let us picture to ourselves the lawless roving of the artistic imagination, not bridled by any native myth: let us imagine a culture which has no fixed and sacred primitive seat, but is doomed to exhaust all its possibilities, and has to nourish itself wretchedly from the other cultures such is the Present, as the result of Socratism, which is bent on the destruction of myth. And now the myth-less man remains eternally hungering among all the bygones, and digs and grubs for roots, though he have to dig for them even among the remotest antiquities. The stupendous historical exigency of the unsatisfied modern culture, the gathering around one of countless other cultures, the consuming desire for knowledge what does all this point to, if not to the loss of myth, the loss of the mythical home, the mythical source? Let us ask ourselves whether the feverish and so uncanny stirring of this culture is aught but the eager seizing and snatching at food of the hungerer and who would care to contribute anything more to a culture which cannot be appeased by all it devours, and in contact with which the most vigorous and wholesome nourishment is wont to change into "history and criticism"? We should also have to regard our German character with despair and sorrow, if it had already become inextricably entangled in, or even identical with this culture, in a similar manner as we can observe it to our horror to be the case in civilised France; and that which for a long time was the great advantage of France and the cause of her vast preponderance, to wit, this very identity of people and culture, might compel us at the sight thereof to congratulate ourselves that this culture 120 of ours, which is so questionable, has hitherto had nothing in common with the noble kernel of the character of our people. All our hopes, on the contrary, stretch out longingly towards the perception that beneath this restlessly palpitating civilised life and ed ucational convulsion there is concealed a glorious, intrinsically healthy, primeval power, which, to be sure, stirs vigorously only at intervals in stupendous moments, and then dreams on again in view of a future awakening. It is from this abyss that the G erman Reformation came forth: in the choral -hymn of which the future melody of German music first resounded. So deep, courageous, and soul -breathing, so exuberantly good and tender did this chorale of Luther sound, as the first Dionysian -luring call which breaks forth from dense thickets at the approach of spring. To it responded with emulative echo the solemnly wanton procession of Dionysian revellers, to whom we are indebted for German music and to whom we shall be indebted for the re- birth of German myth . I know that I must now lead the sympathising and attentive friend to an elevated position of lonesome contemplation, where he will have but few companions, and I call out encouragingly to him that we must hold fast to our shining guides, the Greeks. For the rectification of our sthetic knowledge we previously borrowed from them the two divine figures, each of which sways a separate realm of art, and concerning whose mutual contact and exaltation we have acquired a notion through Greek tragedy. Through a remarkable disruption of both these primitive artistic impulses, the ruin of Greek tragedy seemed to be necessarily brought about: with which process a degeneration and a transmutation of the Greek national character was strictly in keeping, summoning us to earnest reflection as to how closely and necessarily art and the people, myth and custom, tragedy and the state, have coalesced in their bases. The ruin of tragedy was at the same time the ruin of myth. Until then the Greeks had been involuntarily compel led immediately to associate all experiences with their myths, indeed they had to comprehend them only through this association: whereby even the most immediate present necessarily appeared to them sub specie terni and in a certain sense as timeless. Into this current of the timeless, however, the state as well as art plunged in order to find repose from the burden and eagerness of the moment. And a people for the rest, also a man is worth just as much only as its ability to impress on its experiences the seal of eternity: for it 121 is thus, as it were, desecularised, and reveals its unconscious inner conviction of the relativity of time and of the true, that is, the metaphysical significance of life. The contrary happens when a people begins to comprehend itself historically and to demolish the mythical bulwarks around it: with which there is usually connected a marked secularisation, a breach with the unconscious metaphysics of its earlier existence, in all ethical consequences. Greek art and especially Greek tragedy delayed above all the annihilation of myth: it was necessary to annihilate these also to be able to live detached from the native soil, unbridled in the wilderness of thought, custom, and action. Even in such circumstances this metaphysical impuls e still endeavours to create for itself a form of apotheosis (weakened, no doubt) in the Socratism of science urging to life: but on its lower stage this same impulse led only to a feverish search, which gradually merged into a pandemonium of myths and sup erstitions accumulated from all quarters: in the midst of which, nevertheless, the Hellene sat with a yearning heart till he contrived, as Grculus, to mask his fever with Greek cheerfulness and Greek levity, or to narcotise himself completely with some gl oomy Oriental superstition. We have approached this condition in the most striking manner since the reawakening of the Alexandro Roman antiquity in the fifteenth century, after a long, not easily describable, interlude. On the heights there is the same exuberant love of knowledge, the same insatiate happiness of the discoverer, the same stupendous secularisation, and, together with these, a homeless roving about, an eager intrusion at foreign tables, a frivolous deification of the present or a dull senseles s estrangement, all sub speci sculi, of the present time: which same symptoms lead one to infer the same defect at the heart of this culture, the annihilation of myth. It seems hardly possible to transplant a foreign myth with permanent success, without dreadfully injuring the tree through this transplantation: which is perhaps occasionally strong enough and sound enough to eliminate the foreign element after a terrible struggle; but must ordinarily consume itself in a languishing and stunted condition or in sickly luxuriance. Our opinion of the pure and vigorous kernel of the German being is such that we venture to expect of it, and only of it, this elimination of forcibly ingrafted foreign elements, and we deem it possible that the German spirit will reflect anew on itself. Perhaps many a one will be of opinion that this spirit must begin its 122 struggle with the elimination of the Romanic element: for which it might recognise an external preparation and encouragement in the victorious bravery and bloody glory of the late war, but must seek the inner constraint in the emulative zeal to be for ever worthy of the sublime protagonists on this path, of Luther as well as our great artists and poets. But let him never think he can fight such battles without his hous ehold gods, without his mythical home, without a "restoration" of all German things I And if the German should look timidly around for a guide to lead him back to his long -lost home, the ways and paths of which he knows no longer let him but listen to the delightfully luring call of the Dionysian bird, which hovers above him, and would fain point out to him the way thither. 24. Among the peculiar artistic effects of musical tragedy we had to emphasise an Apollonian illusion, through which we are to be saved from immediate oneness with the Dionysian music, while our musical excitement is able to discharge itself on an Apollonian domain and in an interposed visible middle world. It thereby seemed to us that precisely through this discharge the middle world of theatrical procedure, the drama generally, became visible and intelligible from within in a degree unattainable in the other forms of Apollonian art: so that here, where this art was as it were winged and borne aloft by the spirit of music, we had to recog nise the highest exaltation of its powers, and consequently in the fraternal union of Apollo and Dionysus the climax of the Apollonian as well as of the Dionysian artistic aims. Of course, the Apollonian light -picture did not, precisely with this inner illumination through music, attain the peculiar effect of the weaker grades of Apollonian art. What the epos and the animated stone can doconstrain the contemplating eye to calm delight in the world of the individuatio could not be realised here, notwithstanding the greater animation and distinctness. We contemplated the drama and penetrated with piercing glance into its inner agitated world of motives and yet it seemed as if only a symbolic picture passed before us, the profoundest significance of which we a lmost believed we had divined, and which we desired to put aside like a curtain in order to behold the original behind it. The greatest distinctness of the picture did not suffice us: for it 123 seemed to reveal as well as veil something; and while it seemed, with its symbolic revelation, to invite the rending of the veil for the disclosure of the mysterious background, this illumined all -conspicuousness itself enthralled the eye and prevented it from penetrating more deeply He who has not experienced this, to have to view, and at the same time to have a longing beyond the viewing, will hardly be able to conceive how clearly and definitely these two processes coexist in the contemplation of tragic myth and are felt to be conjoined; while the truly sthetic spect ators will confirm my assertion that among the peculiar effects of tragedy this conjunction is the most noteworthy. Now let this phenomenon of the sthetic spectator be transferred to an analogous process in the tragic artist, and the genesis of tragic myt h will have been understood. It shares with the Apollonian sphere of art the full delight in appearance and contemplation, and at the same time it denies this delight and finds a still higher satisfaction in the annihilation of the visible world of appeara nce. The substance of tragic myth is first of all an epic event involving the glorification of the fighting hero: but whence originates the essentially enigmatical trait, that the suffering in the fate of the hero, the most painful victories, the most agonising contrasts of motives, in short, the exemplification of the wisdom of Silenus, or, sthetically expressed, the Ugly and Discordant, is always represented anew in such countless forms with such predilection, and precisely in the most youthful and exube rant age of a people, unless there is really a higher delight experienced in all this? For the fact that things actually take such a tragic course would least of all explain the origin of a form of art; provided that art is not merely an imitation of the r eality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest. Tragic myth, in so far as it really belongs to art, also fully participates in this transfiguring metaphysical purpose of art in g eneral: What does it transfigure, however, when it presents the phenomenal world in the guise of the suffering hero? Least of all the "reality" of this phenomenal world, for it says to us: "Look at this! Look carefully! It is your life! It is the hour -hand of your clock of existence!" And myth has displayed this life, in order thereby to transfigure it to us? If not, how shall we account for the sthetic pleasure with which we make even these representations pass before us? I am inquiring 124 concerning the sthetic pleasure, and am well aware that many of these representations may moreover occasionally create even a moral delectation, say under the form of pity or of a moral triumph. But he who would derive the effect of the tragic exclusively from these mor al sources, as was usually the case far too long in sthetics, let him not think that he has done anything for Art thereby; for Art must above all insist on purity in her domain. For the explanation of tragic myth the very first requirement is that the ple asure which characterises it must be sought in the purely sthetic sphere, without encroaching on the domain of pity, fear, or the morally -sublime. How can the ugly and the discordant, the substance of tragic myth, excite an sthetic pleasure? Here it is n ecessary to raise ourselves with a daring bound into a metaphysics of Art. I repeat, therefore, my former proposition, that it is only as an sthetic phenomenon that existence and the world, appear justified: and in this sense it is precisely the function of tragic myth to convince us that even the Ugly and Discordant is an artistic game which the will, in the eternal fulness of its joy, plays with itself. But this not easily comprehensible proto -phenomenon of Dionysian Art becomes, in a direct way, singula rly intelligible, and is immediately apprehended in the wonderful significance of musical dissonance: just as in general it is music alone, placed in contrast to the world, which can give us an idea as to what is meant by the justification of the world as an sthetic phenomenon. The joy that the tragic myth excites has the same origin as the joyful sensation of dissonance in music. The Dionysian, with its primitive joy experienced in pain itself, is the common source of music and tragic myth. Is it not possible that by calling to our aid the musical relation of dissonance, the difficult problem of tragic effect may have meanwhile been materially facilitated? For we now understand what it means to wish to view tragedy and at the same time to have a longing beyond the viewing: a frame of mind, which, as regards the artistically employed dissonance, we should simply have to characterise by saying that we desire to hear and at the same time have a longing beyond the hearing. That striving for the infinite, the pi nion -flapping of longing, accompanying the highest delight in the clearly -perceived reality, remind one that in both states we have to recognise a Dionysian phenomenon, which again and again reveals to us anew the playful up -building and 125 demolishing of the world of individuals as the efflux of a primitive delight, in like manner as when Heraclitus the Obscure compares the world -building power to a playing child which places stones here and there and builds sandhills only to overthrow them again. Hence, in order to form a true estimate of the Dionysian capacity of a people, it would seem that we must think not only of their music, but just as much of their tragic myth, the second witness of this capacity. Considering this most intimate relationship between mu sic and myth, we may now in like manner suppose that a degeneration and depravation of the one involves a deterioration of the other: if it be true at all that the weakening of the myth is generally expressive of a debilitation of the Dionysian capacity. Concerning both, however, a glance at the development of the German genius should not leave us in any doubt; in the opera just as in the abstract character of our myth- less existence, in an art sunk to pastime just as in a life guided by concepts, the inart istic as well as life -consuming nature of Socratic optimism had revealed itself to us. Yet there have been indications to console us that nevertheless in some inaccessible abyss the German spirit still rests and dreams, undestroyed, in glorious health, profundity, and Dionysian strength, like a knight sunk in slumber: from which abyss the Dionysian song rises to us to let us know that this German knight even still dreams his primitive Dionysian myth in blissfully earnest visions. Let no one believe that the German spirit has for ever lost its mythical home when it still understands so obviously the voices of the birds which tell of that home. Some day it will find itself awake in all the morning freshness of a deep sleep: then it will slay the dragons, destr oy the malignant dwarfs, and waken Brnnhilde and Wotan's spear itself will be unable to obstruct its course! My friends, ye who believe in Dionysian music, ye know also what tragedy means to us. There we have tragic myth, born anew from music, and in this latest birth ye can hope for everything and forget what is most afflicting. What is most afflicting to all of us, however, is the prolonged degradation in which the German genius has lived estranged from house and home in the service of malignant dwarfs. Ye understand my allusion as ye will also, in conclusion, understand my hopes. 126 25. Music and tragic myth are equally the expression of the Dionysian capacity of a people, and are inseparable from each other. Both originate in an ultra Apollonian sphere of art; both transfigure a region in the delightful accords of which all dissonance, just like the terrible picture of the world, dies charmingly away; both play with the sting of displeasure, trusting to their most potent magic; both justify thereby the existence even of the "worst world." Here the Dionysian, as compared with the Apollonian, exhibits itself as the eternal and original artistic force, which in general calls into existence the entire world of phenomena: in the midst of which a new transfiguring appearance becomes necessary, in order to keep alive the animated world of individuation. If we could conceive an incarnation of dissonance and what is man but that? then, to be able to live this dissonance would require a glorious illusion which would sp read a veil of beauty over its peculiar nature. This is the true function of Apollo as deity of art: in whose name we comprise all the countless manifestations of the fair realm of illusion, which each moment render life in general worth living and make on e impatient for the experience of the next moment. At the same time, just as much of this basis of all existence the Dionysian substratum of the world is allowed to enter into the consciousness of human beings, as can be surmounted again by the Apollonian transfiguring power, so that these two art- impulses are constrained to develop their powers in strictly mutual proportion, according to the law of eternal justice. When the Dionysian powers rise with such vehemence as we experience at present, there can be no doubt that, veiled in a cloud, Apollo has already descended to us; whose grandest beautifying influences a coming generation will perhaps behold. That this effect is necessary, however, each one would most surely perceive by intuition, if once he found himself carried back even in a dream into an Old -Hellenic existence. In walking under high Ionic colonnades, looking upwards to a horizon defined by clear and noble lines, with reflections of his transfigured form by his side in shining marble, and around him solemnly marching or quietly moving men, with harmoniously sounding voices and rhythmical pantomime, would he not in the presence of this perpetual influx of beauty have to raise his hand 127 to Apollo and exclaim: "Blessed race of Hellenes! How great Dionysus must be among you, when the Delian god deems such charms necessary to cure you of your dithyrambic madness!" To one in this frame of mind, however, an aged Athenian, looking up to him with the sublime eye of schylus, might answer: "Say also this, thou curious stranger: what sufferings this people must have undergone, in order to be able to become thus beautiful! But now follow me to a tragic play, and sacrifice with me in the temple of both the deities!" 128 APPENDIX [Late in the year 1888, not long before he was overcome by his sudden attack of insanity, Nietzsche wrote down a few notes concerning his early work, the Birth of Tragedy. These were printed in his sister's biography (Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsches, vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 102 ff.), and are here translated as likely to be of interest to readers of this remarkable work. They also appear in the Ecce Homo. TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.] "To be just to the Birth of Tragedy (1872), one will have to forget some few things. It has wrought effects, it even fascinated through that wherein it was amiss through its application to Wagnerism, just as if this Wagnerism were symptomatic of a rise and going up. And just on that account was the book an event in Wagner's life: from thence and only from thence were great hopes linked to the name of Wagner. Even to-day people remind me, sometimes right in the midst of a talk on Parsifal, that I and none other have it on my conscience that such a high opinion of the cultural value of this movement came to the top. More than once have I found the book referred to as 'the Re-birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music': one only had an ear for a new formula of Wagner's art, aim, task, and failed to hear withal what was at bottom valuable therein. 'Hellenism and Pessimism' had been a more unequivocal title: namely, as a first lesson on the way in which the Greeks got the better of pessimism, on the means whereby they overcame it. Tragedy simply proves that the Greeks were no pessimists: Schopenhauer was mistaken here as he was mistaken in all other things. Considered with some neutrality, the Birth of Tragedy appears very unseasonable: one would not even dream that it was begun amid the t hunders of the battle of Wrth. I thought these problems through and through before the walls of Metz in cold September nights, in the midst of the work of nursing the sick; one might even believe the book to be fifty years older. It is politically indifferent un-German one will say to -day, it smells shockingly Hegelian, in but a few formul does it scent of Schopenhauer's funereal perfume. An 'idea' the antithesis of 'Dionysian versus Apollonian' translated into metaphysics; history itself as the evolution of this 'idea'; the antithesis 129 dissolved into oneness in Tragedy; through this optics things that had never yet looked into one another's face, confronted of a sudden, and illumined and comprehended through one another: for instance, Opera and Revolution. The two decisive innovations of the book are, on the one hand, the comprehension of the Dionysian phenomenon among the Greeks (it gives the first psychology thereof, it sees therein the One root of all Grecian art); on the other, the comprehension of Socratism: Socrates diagnosed for the first time as the tool of Grecian dissolution, as a typical decadent. 'Rationality' against instinct! 'Rationality' at any price as a dangerous, as a life- undermining force! Throughout the whole book a deep hostile sil ence on Christianity: it is neither Apollonian nor Dionysian; it negatives all sthetic values (the only values recognised by the Birth of Tragedy), it is in the widest sense nihilistic, whereas in the Dionysian symbol the utmost limit of affirmation is re ached. Once or twice the Christian priests are alluded to as a 'malignant kind of dwarfs,' as 'subterraneans.'" 2. "This beginning is singular beyond measure. I had for my own inmost experience discovered the only symbol and counterpart of history, I had j ust thereby been the first to grasp the wonderful phenomenon of the Dionysian. And again, through my diagnosing Socrates as a decadent, I had given a wholly unequivocal proof of how little risk the trustworthiness of my psychological grasp would run of bei ng weakened by some moralistic idiosyncrasy to view morality itself as a symptom of decadence is an innovation, a novelty of the first rank in the history of knowledge. How far I had leaped in either case beyond the smug shallow -pate -gossip of optimism contra pessimism! I was the first to see the intrinsic antithesis: here, the degenerating instinct which, with subterranean vindictiveness, turns against life (Christianity, the philosophy of Schopenhauer, in a certain sense already the philosophy of Plato, a ll idealistic systems as typical forms), and there, a formula of highest affirmation, born of fullness and overfullness, a yea -saying without reserve to suffering's self, to guilt's self, to all that is questionable and strange in existence itself. This final, cheerfullest, exuberantly mad - and- merriest Yea to life is not only the highest insight, it is also the deepest, it is that which is most rigorously confirmed and upheld by truth and science. Naught that is, is to be deducted, naught is 130 dispensable; the phases of existence rejected by the Christians and other nihilists are even of an infinitely higher order in the hierarchy of values than that which the instinct of decadence sanctions, yea durst sanction. To comprehend this courage is needed, and, as a condition thereof, a surplus of strength : for precisely in degree as courage dares to thrust forward, precisely according to the measure of strength, does one approach truth. Perception, the yea- saying to reality, is as much a necessity to the strong as to the weak, under the inspiration of weakness, cowardly shrinking, and flight from reality the 'ideal.' ... They are not free to perceive: the decadents have need of the lie, it is one of their conditions of self -preservation. Whoso not only comprehends the word Dionysian, but also grasps his self in this word, requires no refutation of Plato or of Christianity or of Schopenhauer he smells the putrefaction." 3. "To what extent I had just thereby found the concept 'tragic,' the definitive perception of the psychology of tragedy, I have but lately stated in the Twilight of the Idols, page 139 (1st edit.): 'The affirmation of life, even in its most unfamiliar and severe problems, the will to life, enjoying its own inexhaustibility in the sacrifice of its highest types, that is what I called Dionysian, that is what I divined as the bridge to a psychology of the tragic poet. Not in order to get rid of terror and pity, not to purify from a dangerous passion by its vehement discharge (it was thus that Aristotle misunderstood it); but, beyond terror and pity, to realise in fact the eternal delight of becoming, that delight which even involves in itself the joy of annihilating! 27 In this sense I have the right to understand myself to be the first tragic philosopher that is, the utmost antithesis and antipode to a pessimistic philosopher. Prior to myself there is no such translation of the Dionysian into the philosophic pathos: there lacks the tragic wisdom, I have sought in vain for an indication thereof even among the great Greeks of philosophy, the thinkers of the two centuries before Socrates. A doubt still possessed me as touching Heraclitus, in whose proximity I in general begin to feel warmer and better than anywhere else. The affirmation of transiency and annihilati on, to wit the decisive factor in a 27 Mr. Common's translation, pp. 227- 28. 131 Dionysian philosophy, the yea -saying to antithesis and war, to becoming, with radical rejection even of the concept 'being, 'that I must directly acknowledge as, of all thinking hitherto, the nearest to my own. The doctrine of 'eternal recurrence,' that is, of the unconditioned and infinitely repeated cycle of all things this doctrine of Zarathustra's might after all have been already taught by Heraclitus. At any rate the portico28 which inherited well -nigh all its fu ndamental conceptions from Heraclitus, shows traces thereof." Facsimile of Nietzsches handwriting. 4. 28 Greek: 132 "In this book speaks a prodigious hope. In fine, I see no reason whatever for taking back my hope of a Dionysian future for music. Let us cast a glance a century ahead, let us suppose my assault upon two millenniums of anti -nature and man -vilification succeeds! That new party of life which will take in hand the greatest of all tasks, the upbreeding of mankind to something higher, add thereto the relentle ss annihilation of all things degenerating and parasitic, will again make possible on earth that too-much of life, from which there also must needs grow again the Dionysian state. I promise a tragic age: the highest art in the yea -saying to life, tragedy, will be born anew, when mankind have behind them the consciousness of the hardest but most necessary wars, without suffering therefrom. A psychologist might still add that what I heard in my younger years in Wagnerian music had in general naught to do with Wagner; that when I described Wagnerian music I described what I had heard, that I had instinctively to translate and transfigure all into the new spirit which I bore within myself...." 133 TRANSLATOR 'S NOTE While the translator flatters himself that this version of Nietzsche's early work having been submitted to unsparingly scrutinising eyes is not altogether unworthy of the original, he begs to state that he holds twentieth -century English to be a rather unsatisfactory vehicle for philosophical thought. Accordingly, in conjunction with his friend Dr. Ernest Lacy, he has prepared a second, more unconventional translation, in brief, a translation which will enable one whose knowledge of English extends to, say, the period of Elizabeth, to appreciate Nietzsche in more forcible language, because the language of a stronger age. It is proposed to provide this second translation with an appendix, containing many references to the translated writings of Wagner and Schopenhauer; to the works of Pater, Browning, Burckhardt, Rohde, and others, and a summmary and index. For help in preparing the present translation, the translator wishes to express his thanks to his friends Dr. Ernest Lacy, Litt.D.; Dr. James Waddell Tupper, Ph.D.; Prof. Harry Max Ferren; Mr. James M'Kirdy, Pittsburg; and Mr. Thomas Common, Edinburgh. WILLIAM AUGUST HAUSSMANN, A.B., Ph.D. 134 |
BRAHMA SUTRAS BRAHMA SUTRAS TEXT , WORD- TO-W ORD MEANI NG, TRASLA TION AND COMM ENT ARY BY Sri Swami Sivanand a Published by THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY P.O. SHI VANANDANAGAR249 1 92 Tehri-Garhwal , Uttarakhand, Himalayas, Indi a Price ] 2008 [ Rs. 230/- Published by S wami V imalananda for The Div ine Life Societ y, Shivanandanagar , and printed by him at the Y oga V edant a Forest Academy Press, P .O. S hivanandanagar , Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttarakhand, Himalayas, I ndiaFirst Edition : 1949 Second Edition: 1977 Third Edition: 1999 Fourth Edition: 2008 [ 1,000 Copies ] The Divine Life T rust Society ISBN 81-7052-151- 3 ES22 TO Sri V yasa Bhagavan Sri Jagadguru Sankarachar ya and Srimad Appayya Dikshi tar SRI SW AMI SIV ANANDA Born on the 8th Sep tem ber, 1887, in the il lus tri ous fam ily of Sage App ayya D ikshit ar and sev eral other re nowned saint s and sa vants, Sri Swam i Sivananda had a nat u ral flair for a life de voted to the study and prac tice of V edant a. Added to this was an in born ea ger ness to serve all and an in nate feel ing of unity with all m ankind. His p as sion for ser vice drew him t o the med i cal ca reer; and soon he grav i tated to where he thought that his ser vice was most needed. Ma laya claimed him. H e had ear lier been ed it ing a health jour nal and wrote ex ten sively on health prob - lems. He dis cov ered that peo ple needed right knowl edge most of all; dis sem i na tion of that knowl edge he es poused as his own mission . It was di vine dis pen sa tion and the bless ing of God upon man kind that the doc tor of body and m ind re nounced his ca reer and took to a life of re nun ci a tion to qual ify for m in is ter ing to the soul of man. He set tled down at Rishikesh in 1924, prac tised in tense aus teri ties and shone as a great Y ogi, saint, sage and Jivanmukt a. In 1932 Swami S ivananda st arted the Sivanandashram . In 1936 was born The Di vine Life So ci ety. In 1948 the Yoga-V edant a For est Acad emy was or gan ised. Dis sem i na tion of spir i tual knowl edge and train ing of peo ple in Y oga and Vedant a were their aim and ob ject. In 1950 Swamiji un der took a light ning tour of In dia and Cey lon. In 1953 Swamiji con vened a World Par lia ment of Re li gions. Swamiji is the au thor of over 300 vol umes and has dis ci ples all over the world, be long ing to all na tion al i ties, re li gions and creeds. T o read Swamiji s works is to drink at the Foun tain of Wis dom Su preme. O n 14th July , 1963 Swamiji entered M ahasamadhi. (7) PREF ACE It need not be over-emphasised that t he Bhrahma Sut ras, or the Nyaya-Prasthana of the triad of In dian Philo soph i cal trea tises hold su preme sway over the later ra tio nal is tic and scho las tic de vel op - ment s. Right from t he mighty brain of Sankara down to the m as ter-in - tel lects like Sriharsha, Chit sukha and Madhusudana, the main po lem ics have been oc cu pied with the t ask of es tab lish ing the doc - trine of ab so lute Mo nism and re fut ing the vi ews con trary to it , by ap - peal to logic as well as au thor ity alike, which find thei r seeds al ready sown in the Brahma Sut ras. The founder of a new re li gious and philo - soph i cal school had sim ply to writ e a new com men tary on the Brahma Sutras so that his v iew may be ac cepted by the m ass of peo ple. Such is the au thor ity of the Brahma S utras, the work of Baadaray ana. Com men tar ies there have been many on the Brahma S utras, but ei ther they are t oo short and in suf fi cient to be use ful for a com pre - hen sive study of the Sut ras, or are ex tremely t ough and ab struse to be uti lized by men of or di nary un der stand ing. This work of Swami Sivananda is of a unique type i n it self, un ri valled by any other . This com men tary is nei ther too short to be use less, nor too ver bose to be un in tel li gi ble, but fol lows a via me dia course, use ful to one and all , mainly t he spir i tual as pi rants, who want thought, not mere word. Swamiji has got hi s own in im i ta ble way of writ ing, which is a boon to the in quis i tive st u dent on the spir i tual p ath. A ll real as pi rants af ter Truth should pos sess this book, for it is a guide-light that is ca pa - ble of steer ing them across the sea of ig no rance and doubt. Swamiji has lef t noth ing un said that may be use ful to t he stu dent of the B rahma Sutras, and in ad di tion has given use ful in for ma tion which will not be found in ot her notes and com men tar ies. The di vi sion of each Pada into t he rel e vant A dhikaranas mark ing at the same t ime the num ber of Sutras they con tain, the sub ject mat ter they t reat of, and the ac com pa ni ment of each Su tra by the se rial num ber from the very be gin ning is for the use and guid ance of the stu dent. A n elab o - rate in tro duc tion pre cedes the work in ad di tion to a short in tro duc tion and a sum mary of t he dif fer ent Adhikaranas pre ced ing each Pada. These are all a boon to the stu dent of t he Brahma Sut ras for which the in com pa ra ble Swamiji has t o be eulo gised. Each Su tra also con tains a word-by-word mean ing and a run ning trans la tion. More need not be said than t hat the pro duc tion is a mar vel ous one. Swamiji has com pleted his an no ta tions on the Prasthanat raya with his Brahma Sut ras. His writ ings are too fa mous to ne ces si tate fur ther in tro duc tion. The text of the B rahma Sutras has been in cluded herein to en - able the read ers to do Svadhy aya and get t hem by heart f or pur pose of med i t a tion. THE D IVINE LIFE SO CIETY (8) lr Jw `mZ_ ~mZ X na_gwI X Ho$db km Z_y{V mVrV JJZg e Vd_`m{X b`_ & EH$ {Z` {d_b_Mb gdYrgm{j ^yV ^mdmVrV { JwUa{ hV gX Jw V Z_ m{_&&1&& I pros trate my self be fore that Guru, the Ex is tence, de void of t he three Gunas, be yond com pre hen sion, the wit ness of all men tal func - tions, change less and pure, one and eter nal, tran scend ing the p airs of op po sites, ex pan sive like the sky , reach able through the sen tences like Thou art That , the Mass of A b so lute Wis dom. lr h[a`mZ_ ` ed m g_wnmgVo {ed B{V ~ o{V doX mpVZmo ~mm ~w B{V _mUnQ> d H$V} {V Z`m{`H$ m& Ah{`W O ZemgZ aVm H $_}{V _r_ mgH$m gmo@` dmo {dXY mVw dmpN> V\$b bmo`ZmWmo h[a&&2 && He whom the Saiv as wor ship as Siva; t he Vedantins as the Ab - so lute (Brah man); the B uddhist s as Lord Bud dha; the lo gi cians, the ex perts in the the ory of knowl edge, as the Cre ator; those f ol low ing the teach ings of Jaina as the Ar hat and the rit u al ists as the Sac ri fice; may that Hari, t he Lord of the three worlds, giv e you the de sired ob ject. (9) lr `mg `mZ_ `mg { dUwd$n H${b_bV_g moXm{X`Xrq dm{gR> doXemIm`gZH$ a_qf Y_ ~rO _hmV _& nmamU~g ym`aM` XW `m o ^maV M _qV V H$Unm `Zm` g waZa{X{ VO n y{OV nyO` o@h_&&3&& I wor ship the great Rishi V yasa, who is called Krishna-dvaip ayana, who is wor shipped by gods, men and Asuras alike, who is the form of Vishnu, who is like the light of the ris ing sun to the dark ness of the im pu ri ties of the age of Kali, who be longs to the fam ily of Vasishtha, who di vided the V edas into dif fer ent sec tions, who is the seed of Dharma, who wrote the P uranas, the Brahma Sutras, t he Mahabharat a and the Smrit i. lr eH $amMm` `mZ_ nmgrZ emV `_ {ZaV_ Zm[aV w`^md \$mbo ^_m{ >Vm^p_V{Ma_wIm^moO {_Xrdamj_ & H$~wJrd H $am`m_ {dhV{db gnwV H$ kmZ_ wm d Jrdm U_w`ZVOZda X ^md`o e> am`_ &&4&& I con tem plate on Sankaracharya, who is seated in P admasana, who is tran quil, who is es tab lished in self-re straint, whose glory is li ke that of the en emy of Cu pid, who wears the sa cred ashes shin ing on his fore head, whose smil ing face re sem bles the blossomed lo tus, who has lo tus-like eyes, whose neck is conch-like, hold ing book in one hand and in di cat ing Jnana-mudra (with an other hand), who is adored by the fore most of gods, who giv es boons to those who pros - trate to hi m. (10) lr hVm_b H$mMm` {da{MV lr eH$aXo {eH$m>H$_ {d{XVm{Ibemgw YmObYo! _{h Vmon{ZfH${WVmW{ZYo& X`o H$b`o {d_b MaU! ^d eH$aXo{ eH$ _o eaU_ &&1&& 1. O ocean of the nec tar of il lu mined knowl edge of the whole Satras! Thou hast re vealed the t rea sure of the mean ing of the great Upanishads. I med i tate on Thy pure Lo tus Feet in my heart, O Sankara Desika (Acharya), be Thou my ref uge. H$UmdUmb`! nmb` _m ^dgmJ aXwI{dXyZ X_ & a{MVm{ IbXe ZVd{dX! ^d eH$aXo{ eH$ _o eaU_ &&2&& 2. O ocean of mercy! Pro tect me who am af flicted sorely by the pains of Samsara; Thou hast ex pounded the truth of the var i ous schools of phi los o phy, O Sankara Desika, be Thou my ref uge. ^dVm OZ Vm gw{IVm ^ {dVm! {Z O~moY{ dMmaUMm_ Vo& H$b`o daOrd{ddoH${dX ^d eH$aXo{ eH$ _o eaU_ &&3&& 3. By Thee the hu man ity has at tained hap pi ness. Thou art en - dowed with a fine in tel lect re flect ing Self-knowl edge. I med i tate on Thee who ex pounded the iden tity of Jiva and I svara, O Sankara, be Thou my ref uge. ^d Ed ^dm{ Z{V _ o {ZVam g_Om`V MoV {g H$mVw{H$Vm& __ dm a` _moh_hmObqY ^d eH$aXo{ eH$ _o eaU_ &&4&& 4. Thou art my Godthus think ing my mind be came full of j oy. Re move the great ocean of de lu sion in me, O Sankara, be T hou my ref uge. gwH$Vo@{YH$Vo ~hYm ^dV mo ^{dVm n XXeZbmbg Vm& A{VXrZ{__ n[anmb` _m ^d eH$aXo {eH$ _o eaU _ &&5&& 5. It is through var i ous mer i to ri ous ac tions done by me f or a long time that I have got in me a love f or the vi sion of Thy lo tus Feet. P ro - tect this hum ble self, O S ankara, be Thou my ref uge. (11) OJVr_{d Vw H${bVm H$V`mo {dMapV _hm _hg{bVm & A{h_mew[adm { d^m{g n wamo ^d e H$aXo{eH$ _o eaU_ &&6&& 6. For the re demp tion of man kind great souls like Thy Self move about from place to p lace. Thou seems to me like t he pure and re - splen dent sun, O Sankara, be Thou m y ref uge. JwnwJd! nwJ dHo$VZ! Vo g_ Vm_`V m Z{h H $mo@{n g wYr& eaUmJV dgb ! Vd{ZYo! ^d eH$aXo{eH$ _o eaU_ &&7&& 7. O best of Gu rus, O Lord Siva! It is im pos si ble for any one to gauge Thy men tal poise. O Pro tec tor of the ref uges! O Re pos i tory of Knowl edge! O Sankara, be Thou m y ref uge. {d{XVm Z _`m { deXH$H$b m Z M qH$M Z H$m#m Z_pV J wamo& V_od { dYo{h H $nm ghOm ^d eH $aXo{eH$ _o eaU_ & &8&& 8. I hav e not been able to f ind any trea sure wor thy of pos ses sion ex cept Thee, O Pre cep tor! Have mercy on m e which is Thy nat u ral qual ity, O Sankara, be Thou m y ref uge. (12) CONTENTS Pref a ce.......................... (8) Dhy ana Slokas ...................... (9) Sri Sankaradesikasht akam (by Hast amalaka) ...... (11) Brahma Sutras: Su trapatha .............. (15) In tro duc tion ........................ 3-8 Chap ter I SAMANV AYA DHY AYA Sec tion 1 (Sut ras 1-31) .................. 9-49 Sec tion 2 (Sut ras 32-63) ................. 50-75 Sec tion 3 (Sut ras 64-106) ................ 76-112 Sec tion 4 (Sut ras 107-134) ................ 113-142 Chap ter II AVIRODHA ADHY AYA Sec tion 1 (Sut ras 135-171) ................ 143-181 Sec tion 2 (Sut ras 172-216) ................ 182-233 Sec tion 3 (Sut ras 217-269) ................ 234-283 Sec tion 4 (Sut ras 270-291) ................ 284-304 Chap ter III SADHANA ADHY AYA Sec tion 1 (Sut ras 292-318) ................ 305-327 Sec tion 2 (Sut ras 319-359) ................ 328-366 Sec tion 3 (Sut ras 360-425) ................ 367-429 Sec tion 4 (Sut ras 426-477) ................ 430-470 Chap ter IV PHALA ADHY AYA Sec tion 1 (Sut ras 478-496) ................ 471-491 Sec tion 2 (Sut ras 497-517) ................ 492-508 Sec tion 3 (Sut ras 518-533) ................ 509-522 Sec tion 4 (Sut ras 534-555) ................ 523-537 INDEX t o Im por tant T op ics Dis cussed .......... 539-542 (13) LIST O F ABBREVIA TIONS Chh. Up. ........ Chhandogya Up anishad Tait. Up. ........ Taittiriya Up anishad Kau. Up. ........ Kaushit aki Up anishad Ait. Up ......... Aitareya Up anishad Mun. Up ........ Mundaka Up anishad Bri. Up ......... Brihadaranyaka Up anishad Katha Up. ....... Katha Up anishad Kena Up ........ Kena Up anishad Prasna Up ....... Prasna Up anishad Svet. Up ........ Svetasvat ara Up anishad Sat. Br ......... Satapatha Brahmana (14) &&lrJw`mo Z_ && lr emara H$_r_m gmXeZ_ [ ~gym {U ] >AW W_m o@`m` AW W_ nmX 1 {Okmgm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 1& AWmVmo ~{ Okmgm &&1&& 2 O_m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 2& O_m ` `V& &2&& 3 em`mo{Zdm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 3& em`mo{Z dmV &&3&& 4 g_d`m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 4& Vmw g_d`mV &&4&& 5 Bj`m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 5-11& BjVoZmeX_ &&5&& JmUo m_e XmV &&6&& V{R>` _mojmonXoemV &&7&& ho`dmdM Zm&&8&& dm``mV &&9&& J{Vgm_m`mV &&10&& lwVdm &&11& & 6 AmZX_`m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 12-19& AmZX_` mo@`mgmV &&12&& {dH$maeXmo{V Mo m Mw`mV&&13&& VoVw`nXoem&&14&& _md{UH$_od M J r`Vo&&15&&ZoVamo@ Zwnnmo&&16&& ^oX`nXoem &&17 && H$m_m ZmZw_mZmn ojm&&18&& Ap_` M V moJ e mpV&& 19&& 7 AVa{YH$aU_ & gy 0 20-21& AVV_m}nXoem V &&20&& ^oX` nXoemm`&&21&& 8 AmH$mem{Y H$aU_ & gy0 22& AmH$meV{bmV &&22 && 9 mUm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 23& AV Ed mU &&23& & 10 `mo{Va Um{YH$aU_ & gy0 24-27& `mo{V aUm{^YmZmV &&24&& N>Xmo@{^Ym Zmo{V Mo V Wm MoVmo@nU {ZJXmm Wm {h XeZ_ &&2 5&& ^yVm{XnmX`nXo emonnmod_ &&26&& CnXoe^oXmo{V M omo^`p_- `{damoYmV &&27 && (15) 11 VXZm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 28-31& mUVWmZw J_mV &&28&& Z dw$am_monXoem{X{V MoX`m_g~Y^ y_m p_Z &&29&&emQm V ynXoemo dm_XoddV&&30&& Ord_w`mU{bmo{V Momonmgm{d`Xm {lVdm{Xh VmoJmV &&31&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m W_m`m`` W_ nmX &&1&& AW {Vr` n mX 1 gd {g{YH$aU_ & gy 0 1-8& gd{gmonXoemV &&1&& {dd{jVJwUm onnmo&&2&& AZwnnmoVw Z emara&&3 && H$_H$V `nXoem&&4 && eX{deo fmV&&5&& _Vo &&6&& A^H$mH$dmmX>`nXoem Zo{V Mo {ZMm`dmXod `mo_d&&7&& g^moJm {[a{V M o deo`mV &&8&& 2 A{YH$aU_ & gy 0 9-10& Am MamMaJhUmV &&9&& H$aUm&&1 0&& 3 Jwhm{d>m{YH$aU_& gy 0 11-12& Jwhm {d>mdm_mZm {h Ve ZmV&&11&& {deofUm&&12& & 4 AVa{YH$aU_ & gy 0 13-17& AVa Cnn mo&&13&& WmZm{X`nXo em& &14&& gwI{d{e>m{^YmZmXod M&& 15&& lwVmon{ZfH$J`{^Ym Zm&&16&&AZdpWVoag^dm ZoVa&&17&& 5 AV`m`{ YH$aU_& gy 0 18-20& AV`m `{YXodm{Xfw V_`nXoemV&&18&& Z M _mV_V_m{^ bmnmV&&19&& emaram o^`o@{n {h ^oXoZZ_Yr`V o&&20&& 6 A`dm {YH$aU_ & gy0 21-23& A`dm{XJwUH$mo Y_m }o$&&21&& {deofU^oX`nXoem` m M ZoVam&&22& & $nmon`m gm&&23&& 7 dmZam{YH$aU_& gy 0 24-32& dmZa gmYmaUeX- {deofmV&&24&& _`_mU_Zw_mZ ` m{X{V&&25&& eXm{X`mo@V {V>mZm Zo{V Mo VWm >wnXoemXg^dmnwf_{n MZ_Yr`Vo&&26 && AV Ed Z XodVm ^yV M&&27&& gmjmX`{da moY O{_{Z&&28&& A{^`o$[a`m_a` &&29 && AZw_Vo~mX[ a&&30&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m W_m`m`` {Vr` nmX&&2&& (16) gnmo[a{V O{_{ZVWm {h Xe`{V&&31 &&Am_ZpV MZ_p _Z&&32 AW VVr` n mX 1 wdm{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-7& wdmm`VZ deXmV&&1&& _w$mongw``nXoem V&&2&& ZmZw_mZ_VN> XmV&&3 && mU^&&4&& ^oX`nXoemV&&5&& H$aUmV&&6 && pW`XZm`m M &&7&& 2 ^y_m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 8-9& ^y_m ggmXmX`wnXoem V&&8&& Y_m}nnmo&&9&& 3 Ajam{YH$aU_& g y0 10-12& Aja_~amVYVo&&10 && gm M emgZmV&&11 && A`^m d`mdmo&&12&& 4 Bj{VH$_`nXoem{YH$aU _& gy0 13& Bj{VH$_`nXoemg&&13&& 5 Xham{YH$aU_& gy0 14-21& Xha Cmao`&&14 && J{VeX m`m VWm {h > {b M&&15&& YVo _{hZ mo@`mp_wnbYo &&16&& {go &&17 && BVanam_emg B {V Momg^dmV &&18&& CmamoXm{d^yVd$nVw&&19&&A`mW nam_e&&2 0&& AnlwVo[a{V MomXw$_&&21&& 6 AZwH$`{YH$aU_ & gy 0 22-23& AZwH$VoV` M&&22&& A{n M _`Vo&&23&& 7 {_Vm{YH$aU_ & gy0 24-25& eXmX od {_ V&&24&& noj`m Vw _Zw`m{YH$madmV &&25&& 8 XodVm{YH $aU_& gy 0 26-33& VXwn`{n ~mXam`U g^dmV &&26&& {damoY H$_Ur{V MomZoH${Vn moXeZmV&&27&& eX B{V MomV ^dm`jm Zw_mZm`m_&&28& & AV Ed M pZ `d_ &&29& & g_mZZm_ $ndmmdmmd`{ damoYmo XeZ m_Vo&&30&& _dm{Xdg^dmXZ{YH$m a O{_{Z&&31&& `mo{V{f ^md m&&3 2&& ^md Vw ~mXa m`Umo@pV { h&&33&& 9 Aneym{YH$aU_ & gy 0 34-37& ewJ` VX ZmXal dUmmXm dUmV gy`Vo {h&&34&& j{`dmdJVomo ma MaWoZ {bmV&&35&& (17) gH$manam_emV VX^mdm{^ bmnm&&36&& VX^md{ZYm aUo M dm o&&37&& ldUm``Z mW{VfoYmV _Vo &&3 8&& 10 H$nZm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 39& H$nZmV&&3 9&& 11 `mo{Va{YH $aU_& gy 0 40&`mo{VXeZm V&&40&& 12 AWmV adm{X- `nXoem{YH$aU_& gy0 41& AmH$memo@Wm Vadm{X`nX oemV&&41&& 13 gwfw`wH$m`{Y- H$aU_& gy0 42-43& gwfw`wH$m`m o^}XoZ&&42&& n`m{XeXo`&&43 && B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m W_m`m`` VVr` nmX &&3&& AW MVwW nmX 1 AmZw_m{ZH$m{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-7& AmZw_m{ZH $_`oHo$fm{_{V Mo eara$nH${d `VJhr VoXe`{V M&& 1&& gy_ Vw VXhdmV&&2&& VXYrZdmXWdV&&3&& ko`dmdM Zm&&4&& dXVr{V Mo mk mo {h H$aUmV&&5 && `mUm_od Md_wn `mg Z&&6 && _h&&7 && 2 M_gm{YH$aU_& gy 0 8-10& M_gdX{deofmV &&8&& `mo{VnH$_m Vw V Wm Yr`V EHo$&&9 && H$nZmonXoem _dm{XdX{damoY&&10&& 3 g`mongJhm{Y- H$aU_ & gy0 11-13&Z g`mongJh mX{n ZmZm^mdmX{ VaoH$m &&11&& mUmX`mo dm`eofmV &&12&& `mo{VfHo $fm_g `o&&13&& 4 H$maUdm{YH$a U_ & gy 0 14-15& H$maUdoZ MmH$mem{Xfw `Wm `n{X>moo$&&14&& g_mH$fmV &&15&& 5 ~mbm`{Y H$aU_ & gy0 16-17& OJm{Mdm V &&16&& Ord_w`mU{bm o{V MomX `m`mV_ &&17&& A`mW Vw O{_{Z Z`m `mZm`m_{ n Md_oHo$ &&18&& 6 dm`md `m{Y- H$aU_ & gy0 19-22& dm`md`mV &&19&& {Vkm{go{b_m _a`&&20&& CH${_`V Ed^mdm {X`mSw>bmo{_&&21&& (18) AdpWVo[a{V H$meH$ Z&&2 2&& 7 H$`{YH$a U_ & gy 0 23-27& H${V {Vkm >mVmZwn amoYmV &&23&& A{^`monXoem&&14&& gmjmmo ^`mZmZmV &&25&&Am_H$Vo n[aUm_mV &&26 && `mo{Z {h J r`Vo&&27&& 8 gd`m`mZm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 28& EVoZ gd} `m`m Vm `m `mVm&&28&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m W_m`m`` MV wW nmX&&4&& AW {Vr`mo @`m` AW W_ nmX 1 _`{YH$aU_ & g y0 1-2& _`ZdH$meXmof g B{V Mom` _`ZdH$me- Xmof gmV &&1&& BVaofm Mm ZwnbYo&&2&& 2 `moJ`w `{YH$aU _ & gy0 3& EVoZ `moJ `w$ &&3&& 3 {dbjU dm{YH$aU _ & gy0 4-11& Z {dbjUdmX` VWm d M eXmV &&4&& A{^_m{Z`nXoeVw {deofmZwJ {V`m_ &&5&& `Vo Vw&&6&& Ag{X{V Mo {Vfo Y_mdmV &&7&& AnrVm V XdgmXg_Og_ &&8&& Z Vw >mV^mdmV &&9&& dnjXm ofm&&10& & VH$m{V>mZm X{n A`WmZ w_o`{_{V MoV Ed_`{Z _m}jg&&11&& 4 {e>mn[aJhm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 12& EVoZ {e>mn[aJ hm A{n `m `mVm&&12&&5 ^momn` m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 13& ^momn moa{d^mJ o`m- bmoH$dV && 13&& 6 Ama^ Um{YH$aU_ & gy 0 14-20& VXZ`d _ma^UeX m{X` &&14&& ^mdo MmonbYo&&15&& gdmmda`&&1 6&& AgX`nXoemo{V Mo Y_m VaoU dm`eofmV &&17&& `wo$ e XmVam&&18 && nQ>d& &19&& > `Wm M mUm{X&&20& & 7 BVa`nXoem {YH$aU_ & gy0 21-23& BVa`nXo em{VmH$aUm{X- Xmof g{$&&21& & A{YH$ Vw ^oX{ZX}emV &&22&& A_m{Xd VXZwnn{m&&23&& 8 CnghmaXeZm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 24-25& CnghmaXeZmo {V Mo jrad{&&2 4&& Xodm{XdX{n bmoHo$&&25&& (19) 9 H$Zg`{YH$aU_ & gy 0 26-29& H$Zg{${Zad`ddeXH$monmo dm& &26&& lwVoVw eX_ybdmV&&27&& Am_{Z Md {d{Mm {h&&28&& dnjXmofm&&29&& 10 gdm}noVm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 30-31& gdm}noVm M V eZmV &&30&& {dH$aUdmo{V MoV V Xw$_&&31&& 11 `moOZddm{YH$aU_& gy 0 32-33&Z `moOZd dmV&&32&& bmoH$dmw br bmH$d`_&&33&& 12 df`ZK`m{Y- H$aU_& gy0 34-36& df`ZK` o Z gmnojdmV VWm {h Xe`{V&&34&& Z H$_m {d^mJm{X {V MomZm{XdmV &&35&& CnnVo Mm` wnb`Vo M&&36&& 13 gdY_m}nn`{YH$aU_& gy 0 37& gdY_m}nnmo&&37&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m {Vr`m`m`` W_ nmX&&1&& AW {Vr` nmX 1 aMZmZwnn`{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-20& aMZmZwnnmo ZmZw_mZ_ &&1&& dmo&&2&& n`mo@~ wdoV Vm@{n&&3&& `{VaoH$mZdpWVo mZnojdmV &&4&& A`m^mdm Z V Um{XdV &&5&& A`wnJ_ o@`Wm^mdmV &&6&& nwfm_d{X{V MoV VW m{n&&7&& A{dmZwnnmo&&8&& A`WmZw{_Vm M ke{$ {d`moJmV&&9 && {d{VfoYmm g_Og_&&10&& 2 _hrKm{YH$a U_& gy0 11& _hrKdXdm dn[a_S>bm`m_ &&11&& 3 na_mUwOJXH$maUdm{Y- H$aU_ & gy0 12-17&>C^`Wm{n Z H$_m VVX^md&&12& & g_dm`m `wnJ_m gm`mXZd pWVo &&13&& {Z`_od M ^mdmV &&14&& $nm{X_dm {dn`` mo XeZ mV&&15& & C^`Wm M XmofmV &&16&& An[aJhm m`V_Zn ojm&&17&& 4 g_wXm`m{YH$aU_& gy 0 18-27& g_wXm` C^`h oVwHo$@{n VXm {&&18&& BVaoVa``dm{X{V Mom on{m_m- {Z{_mdmV&&19&& CmamonmXo M nyd{ZamoYmV &&20&& Ag{V {Vkm onamoYmo `mJn_ `Wm&&21&& (20) {Vg `m@{Vg`m- {ZamoYm m{a{dN>oXmV &&22&& C^`Wm M XmofmV &&23&& AmH$meo Mm{deofmV&&24 && AZw_Vo&&25& & ZmgVmo@>dm V&&26&& CXmgrZmZ m_{n Md {g{&&27&& 5 Zm^mdm{YH$aU_& gy 0 28-31& Zm^md C nbYo&&28&& dY`m Z dZm {XdV&&29&& Z ^mdmo@ ZwnbYo&&30&& j{UH $dm& &31&& gdWmZwnnm o&&32&& 6 EH$p_g^dm{Y- H$aU_& gy0 33-36& ZH$p_g^dmV&&33&& Ed Mm_ m@H$m`_&&34& &Z M n`m` mX`{damoY mo {dH$mam{X` &&35 && A`mdp WVomo^`{Z `dm- X{deof &&36&& 7 n`{YH$aU_ & gy0 37-41& n`wagm_O`mV&&37&& g~Ym Zwnnmo&&38&& A{YR>mZmZwnnmo &&39&& H$aUdo ^moJm {X`&&40&& AVd d_gdkVm dm &&41&& 8 Cn`g^dm{Y- H$aU_& gy0 42-45& Cn`g^ dmV&&42& & Z M H$Vw H$aU_ &&43&& {dkmZm{X^ mdo dm VX{ VfoY&&44&& {d{VfoYm&&45&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m {Vr`m`m`` {Vr` nmX&&2&& AW VVr` n mX 1 {d`X{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-7& Z {d`XlwVo&&1&& ApV Vw&&2&& Jm`g^d mV&&3&& eXm &&4&& `mH$` ~e XdV&&5 && {Vkm@hm{Za `{V- aoH$mN>X o`&&6 && `md{H$ma V w {d^mJm o bmoH$dV&&7&& 2 _mV[am{YH$a U_& gy0 8&EVoZ _mV[a dm `m` mV&&8&& 3 Ag^dm{YH$aU_& gy 0 9& Ag^dVw gVmo@ Zwnnmo&&9&& 4 VoOmo@{YH$aU_& gy 0 10& VoOmo@V VWm mh&&1 0&& 5 A~{YH$aU_& gy 0 11& Amn&&11& & 6 n{W`{YH$mam{YH$aU_& gy 0 12& n{Wdr A{YH$ma $n- eXmVao`&&1 2&& (21) 7 VX{^`mZm{YH$aU_& gy 0 13& VX{^`mZ mXod Vw V{bmV g&&13&& 8 {dn``m{YH$aU_& gy 0 14& {dn``oU Vw H$_m o@V CnnV o M&&14&& 9 AVa m{dkmZm{Y H$aU_& gy0 15& AVam {dkmZ_Zgr H$_oU V{m{X{V Mo A{deofmV&&15&& 10 MamM a`nml`{ YH$aU_& gy 0 16& MamMa`nml `Vw `mV VX >`nXoemo ^m$ Vmd^m{ddmV &&16&& 11 Am_m{YH$aU_& gy 0 17& Zm_m@lwVo{Z`dm Vm`&&17&& 12 km{YH$aU_& gy 0 18& kmo@V Ed&&18& & 13 CH$mpVJ`{Y H$aU_& gy 0 19-32& CH$mpVJ `mJVrZm_ &&19&& dm_Zm Mmoma`mo &&20&& ZmUwaV N>Vo[a{V MooVam{YH$mamV&&21 && deXmo_mZm`m M&&1 2&& A{damoYXZdV &&23&& AdpW{Vdeo`m{X{V Mom`wnJ_m XY{X {h&&24&& JwUmm@ @bmoH$dV&&25&& `{VaoH$mo JYdV&&2 6&& VWm M Xe`{V&&27 && nWJwnXoemV & &28&& VUgmadmV V w VX>`nXoe mk dV&&29&& `mdXm_^m{ddm Z XmofVeZmV&&30 && nwdm{XdV d` gVmo@{^`{ $`moJmV &&31&& {Z`monb`ZwnbpYgmo@ `Va- {Z`_mo dm@`Wm&&3 2&& 14 H$Vm{YH$aU_& gy 0 33-39& H$Vm emm WddmV&& 33&& {dhmamonXoem V&&34&& CnmXmZmV &&35&& `nXoem {H$`m`m Z Mo{X}e{dn``&&36&& CnbpYdX{Z`_&&37&& e{${dn``mV &&38&& g_m`^md m&&39&& 15 Vjm{YH$aU_ & gy0 40& `Wm M Vjmo^`Wm&& 40&& 16 nam` mm{YH$aU_& gy0 41-42& nammw V V lwVo&&41&& H$V`ZmnojVw {d{hV {V{fm- d``m{X`&&42&& 17 Aem{YH$aU_& gy 0 43-53& Aemo ZmZ m`nXoemX`W m Mm{n Xme{H$Vdm{Xd_Yr` V EHo$&&43 && _dUm&&44& & A{n M _`V o&&45& & H$mem{Xdd na&&46&& _apV M&&4 7&& (22) AZwkmn[ah mam Xohg ~Ym`mo{Vam{X dV&&48&& AgVVom`{VH$a&&4 9&& Am^mg Ed M&& 50&&A>m{ Z`_mV&&51& & A{^g`m {Xd{n Md_&&42&& Xoem{X{V Mom V^mdmV &&53&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m {Vr`m`m`` VVr` nmX&& 3&& AW MVwW nmX 1 mUmon `{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-4& VWm mUm&& 1&& Jm`g^d mV&&2&& VmN>Vo&&3&& VnydH$dmmM&&4&& 2 gJ`{YH$aU_ & gy0 5-6& g JVo{de o{fVdm&&5&& hVmX` Vw pWVo @Vmo Zd_ &&6&& 3 mUmUwdm{YH$aU_& gy 0 7& AUd&&7 && 4 mUlR>m{YH$aU_& gy 0 8& loR>& &8&& 5 dm`w{H$`m{YH$aU_& gy 0 9-12& Z dm`w{H$`o nW JwnXoemV&&9&& Mjwam{Xdm w Vgh {e>m{X`&&10&& AH$aU dm Z X mofVWm {h Xe` {V&&11&& n#md{m_Zm odX> `n{X`Vo&&12&&6 loR>mUwdm{YH$aU_& gy 0 13& AUw &&13& & 7 `mo{Vam{YH$a U_& gy0 14-16& `mo{Vam {YR>mZ Vw VXm_ ZZmV&&14&& mUdVm eXmV &&15& & V` M {Z`dmV &&16&& 8 Bp`m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 17-19& V Bp `m{U VX> `nXoemX` loR>m V &&17& & ^oXlwV o&&18& & dbj`m&&19&& 9 gkm_y{Vb`{Y- H$aU_ & gy0 20-22& gkm_y{Vb{ Vw {dHw$dV CnXoe mV&&20& & _mgm{X ^m_ `WmeX{_Va`mo&&2 1&& deo`m mw VmXVm X&&22&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m {Vr`m`m`` MVwW nmX &&4&& AW VVr `mo@` m` AW W_ nmX (23) 1 VXVa{ Vn`{YH$ aU_ & gy 0 1-7& VXVa{V nmm ah{V gn[a d$ Z{Z$nUm `m_ &&1&& `m_H$dm mw ^y`dmV &&2&& mUJVo&&3&& A`m {XJ{VlwVo[a{V M o ^m $dmV &&4&& W_o@l dUm{X{ V Mo Vm Ed wnnmo&&5&& AlwVdm{X{V Moo>m{XH$m[aUm VrVo&&6 && ^m$ d mZm_{ ddmmWm {h Xe`{V&&7 && 2 H$Vm``m{Y H$aU_ & gy 0 8-11& H$Vm``o@Zwe`dm Z >_{V`m `WoV_Zod M&&8&& MaUm{X{V Mom onbjUmW}{V H$mUm{O{Z &&9&& AmZW `{_{V Mo VXnoj dmV &&10& & gwH$VXwH$Vo Edo{V V w ~mX[a&&11&& 3 A{Z>m{XH$m`m{YH$aU_& gy 0 12-21& A{Z>m {XH$m[aUm_{n M lwV_ &&12& &g`_Zo dZw^y`oVa ofm_mam ohmdamoh m VXJ{VXeZmV &&13&& _apV M&&1 4&& A{n M g&&15&& Vm{n M VX`mnmamX{damoY &&16 && {dmH$_Umo[a{V Vw H$V dmV &&17& & Z VVr` o VWmonbYo&&18&& _`Vo@{n M bmoH o$&&19&& XeZm&&20&& VVr`eXmd amoY gemoH$O` &&21&& 4 gm^m`mn `{YH$aU_ & gy0 22& Vgm^m `mn{mn nmo&&22&& 5 Zm{V{Mam{YH$a U_& gy0 23& Zm{V{MaoU {deofmV &&23&& 6 A`m{Y{R>Vm{YH$aU_& gy 0 24-27& A`m{Y{R>Vofw nyddX{^bmnmV &&24&& Aew{_{V Mo eXmV&&25&& aoVpg `moJmo@W&&2 6&& `moZoeara_&&2 7&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m VVr`m`m`` W_ nmX &&1&& AW {Vr` nmX 1 g`m{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-6& g`o g{>amh {h&&1&& {Z_mVma MHo$ nwmX`&&2&& _m`m_m Vw H$m`}ZmZ{^`$ - d$ndmV &&3&&gyMH$ {h lwVoamMj Vo M V{X& &4&& nam{^` mZmmw {Vamo {hV VVmo ` ~Y{dn` `m&&5&& Xoh`moJmm gmo@{ n&&6&& (24) 2 VX^mdm {YH$aU_& gy0 7-8& VX^mdmo ZmS> rfw VV lw Voam_{Z M&&7&& AV ~moYmo@_mV &&8 && 3 H$_mZw_{VeX{d`{Y H$aU_ & gy 0 9& g Ed Vw H$_mZw_{VeX{d{Y`&&9&& 4 _wYo@Yg n`{YH$aU_ & gy 0 10& _wYo@Ygn{m n[aeofmV &&10&& 5 C^`{bm{YH$aU_& gy 0 11-21& Z WmZVm o@{n na`mo^` {b gd {h& &11&& Z ^oXm{X{V Mo `oH $_VM ZmV&&12& & A{n Md_oHo$&&13&& A$ndXod {h VYmZdmV &&14&& H$medmd``m V&&15&& Amh M V_m_ &&16&& Xe`{V MmW mo A{n _`Vo&&17&& AV Ed Mmon_m gy `H$m{XdV &&18&& A~wdXJhUm mw Z VW md_ &&19&& d{mg^m d_V^mdmXw^ `- gm_O`mXod_ &&20&& XeZm&&21&& 6 H$VVmddm{YH$aU_ & gy0 22-30& H$VVmd d {h {VfoY{V VVmo ~dr{V M ^y`&&22&&VX`$ _mh {h &&23&& A{n M gamYZo `jm Zw_mZm`m_&&24& & H$mem{Xdmdeo` H $me H$_ ``mgmV&&25&& AVmo@ZVoZ VWm { h {b_ &&26&& C^``nXo emd{h Hw$S>bdV&&27&& H$meml`dm V oOdmV&&28&& nyddm&&29&& {VfoYm&&30 && 7 nam{YH$aU_ & gy 0 31-37& na_VgoVy_m Zg~Y - ^oX`nXoeo`&&31&& gm_m`mmw &&32&& ~wW nmXdV &&33&& WmZ{deofm H$mem{XdV &&34&& Cnnmo&&35&& VWm`{VfoYmV &&36&& AZoZ gdJV d- _m`m_eXm{X `&&37 && 8 \$bm{YH$aU_& gy 0 38-41& \$b_V Cnnmo&&38&& lwVdm&&39& & Y_ O{_{ ZaV Ed&&40 && nyd Vw ~mXam `Umo hoVw`nXoemV &&41&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m VVr`m`m`` {Vr` nmX&& 2&& AW VVr` n mX 1 gddoXmV``m{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-4& (25) gddoXmV`` MmoXZm{deofm V &&1&& ^oXmo{V MoH$`m _{n&&2&& dm`m` ` VWmdoZ { h g_mMmao@{YH$mam gdd V{`_&&3 && Xe`{V M&&4 && 2 Cnghmam{YH$aU_ & gy 0 5& Cnghmam o@Wm^oXm{{Y - eofdg_mZo M &&5&& 3 A`Wmd m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 6-8& A`Wm d eXm{X{V Mom{deofmV &&6&& Z dm H$aU- ^oXmnamodar` dm{XdV &&7&& gkmVom Xw$_pV Vw VX{n&&8&& 4 `m`{YH$ aU_ & gy 0 9& `o g_Og_ &&9&& 5 gdm^oXm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 10& gdm^oXmX`o_o&&10&& 6 AmZXm{YH$aU_& gy 0 11-23& AmZXmX` YmZ`&&1 1&& {`{eadmm{nM`m nM`m {h ^oXo&&12&& BVao dWgm_m`mV &&13&& 7 Am`mZm{Y H$aU_& gy0 14-25& Am`mZm` `mo OZm^mdmV &&14&& Am_e Xm& &15&& 8 Am_Jhr`{YH$aU_ & gy 0 16-27& Am_Jhr{V[aVad XwmamV &&16&& Ad`m{X{V Mo`mXdYmaUmV &&17 &&9 H$m`m`mZm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 18& H$m`m`m ZmXnyd_ &&18&& 10 g_mZm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 19& g_mZ Ed Mm^oXmV &&19&& 11 g~Ym{YH$aU_& gy 0 20-22& g~YmXod_`m{n&&20&& Z dm {deofm V &&21&& Xe`{V M&&2 2&& 12 g^`{Y H$aU_ & gy 0 23& g^{Vw`m `{n MmV&&23&& 13 nwf{dm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 14& nwf{dm`m{_d MoVaofm_ZmZmZmV &&24&& 14 doYm{YH$a U_ & gy 0 25& doYmW^oXmV &&25&& 15 hm`{YH$a U_& gy0 26& hmZm Vynm` ZeX- eofdmHw$emN>XVw`wn- JmZdmXw$_ &&26 && 16 gmnam`m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 17-18& gmnam`o Vm`m^mdmmWm `o&&27&& N>XV C^`m{damoYmV &&28& & 17 JVoaWd dm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 29-30& JVoaWdd_ w^`Wm@`Wm {h {damoY&&2 9&& CnnVjUmW m}nbYo- bm}H$dV&&30&& 18 A{Z`_m{YH$a U_& gy0 31& A{Z`_ gdmgm_{dam oY eX mZw_mZm `m_&&31&& (26) 19 `mdX{YH$mam{YH$a U_& gy0 32& `mdX{YH$ma_dpW{Vam {Y- H$m[aH$mUm_&&32 && 20 Aja`{ YH$aU_ & gy0 33& Aja{Y`m ddamoY gm_m `Vmdm - `m_mngXdm Xw$_&&33&& 21 B`X{YH$aU_& gy 0 34& B`Xm_ ZZmV&&34&& 22 AVad m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 35-36& AVam ^yVJm_ddm_Z &&35& & A`Wm ^oXmZwnn{m[ a{V MomonXoemV adV&&36&& 23 `{Vhmam{YH$aU_ & gy0 37& `{Vhmamo { dqefpV hrVadV &&37&& 24 g`m{YH$aU_& gy0 38& gd {h g`mX`&& 38&& 25 H$m_m{YH$a U_& gy0 39& H$m_mX rVa V Mm`VZm{X` &&39&& 26 AmXa m{YH$aU_& gy0 40-41& AmXamXbmon&&40&& CnpWVo@VVMZ mV&41&& 27 V{YmaUm{YH$aU_& gy 0 42& V{YmaUm {Z`_VX>Xw>o nW`{V~ Y \$b_&&42 && 28 XmZm{YH$aU_& gy 0 43& XmZdXod VXw$_&&43&& 29 {b ^y`dm{YH$aU_& gy0 44-52& {b^y`dmm{ ~br `VX{n&& 44&&nyd{dH$n H$aUm`mV {H$`m_mZgdV &&45&& A{VXoem&&4 6&& {dd Vw {ZYmaUm V&&47&& XeZm&&48&& lw`m{X~br`dm Z ~mY&&49 && AZw~Ym {X` kmV anWddX>> VXw $_&&50&& Z gm_m` mX`wnbYo_`wd {h bmoH$mn{m &&51&& naoU M eX` Vm{` ^y` dmdZw~Y&&52&& 30 EoH$m` m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 53-54& EH$ Am_Z earao ^mdmV&&5 3&& `{VaoH$Vm dm^m{ddm VynbpYdV&&54&& 31 Amd~m{Y H$aU_& gy0 55-56& Amd~mVw Z e mImgw {h {VdoX_&&55&& _m{Xdm@{dam oY&&56&& 32 ^y_ `m`dm{YH$aU_ & g y0 57& ^yZ H$Vwd`m`d VWm {h Xe`{V&&5 7&& 33 eXm{X^oXm{YH$aU_& gy 0 58& ZmZm eX m{X^oXmV &&58&& 34 {dH$nm{YH$aU_& gy 0 59& {dH$nmo@{d{e>\$bdmV &&59&& 35 H$m`m{YH$aU_ & gy 0 60& H$m`m Vw `WmH$m_ g_wr`oa dm (27) nydhod^mdmV &&60&& 36 `Wml`^mdm{ YH$aU_& & gy0 61-66& Aofw `Wml `^md &&61&& {e>o& &62&&g_mhmamV &&63&& JwUgmYma`lwVo&&64 && Z dm Vgh^md mlwVo&&65&& XeZm&&6 6&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m VVr`m`m`` VVr` nmX &&3&& (28) AW MVwW nmX 1 nwfmWm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 1-17& nwfmWm}@ VeXm{X{V ~mXam`U&&1&& eofdmnwfmWdmXmo ` Wm@`opd{V O{_{Z&&2&& AmMmaXeZmV &&3&& VN>Vo&&4& & g_dma^UmV&&5&& VVmo {dYmZmV&&6&& {Z`_m&&7 && A{YH$monXoem mw ~mXam `U`d VeZmV&&8&& Vw` Vw XeZ _&&9&& Agmd{H$s&&10&& {d^mJ eVdV &&11&& A`` Z_mdV& &12&& Zm{deofm V&&13&& VwV`o@Zw_{V dm&&14&& H$m_H$maoU MHo$ &&15&& Cn_X M&&16&& D$YdaoVgw M eXo {h&&17&& 2 nam_em{YH$a U_& gy0 18-20& nam_e O{_{ZaMm oXZm MmndX{V {h& &18&& AZwR>o` ~mXam`U gm`lw Vo&&19&& {d{Ydm YmaU dV&&20&& 3 Vw{V_mm{YH$aU_& gy 0 21-22& Vw{V_m_wnXmZm{X{V MomnyddmV&&21&& ^mdeXm &&22& &4 nm[abdm{YH$aU_& gy 0 23-24& nm[abdm Wm B{V Mo {deo{fVdmV&&23&& VWm MH$dm`Vmon~YmV&&24&& 5 ArYZm{YH$aU_& gy 0 25& AV Ed MmrYZm Znojm &&25&& 6 gdmnojm{YH$aU_ & gy 0 26-27& gdmnojm M `k m{XlwVoadV&&26&& e_X_mwnoV `mmW m{n Vw V{Yo VX>V`m Vofm_d`m ZwR>o`dmV&&27&& 7 gdmmZw_`{YH$aU_& gy 0 28-31& gdmmZw_{V m Um``o Ve ZmV&&28&& A~mYm&&29 && A{n M _`Vo&&30&& eXmVmo@H$m_H$ mao&&31 && 8 Aml_H$_m{YH$aU_& gy 0 32-35& {d{hVdmml_H$_m{n&&32&& ghH$m[adoZ M&&3 3&& gdWm{n V E dmo^`{bmV &&34&& AZ{^^d M Xe`{V &&35&& 9 {dYwam{YH $aU_& gy 0 36-39& AVam Mm{n Vw VX >o&&36&& A{n M _`Vo&&37&& {deofmZwJ h&&38&& AVpdVa `m` mo {bm &&39&& 10 VX>^yVm{YH$aU_& gy 0 40& VX>^yV` Vw ZmV mdmo O{_Zoa{n (29) {Z`_mVnm^ mdo`&&40&& 11 Am{Y H$m[aH$m{Y- H$aU_& gy0 41-42& Z Mm{YH$m[aH$_{n nVZmZw_ mZmmX`moJmV &&41&& Cnnyd_{n doHo$ ^md_eZd mXw$_&&42&& 12 ~{ha{YH $aU_& gy 0 43& >~{hVy ^`Wm{n _ VoamMmam &&43&& 13 dm`{YH $aU_& gy 0 44-46& dm{_Z \$blwVo[a`mo`&&44&& Ampd`{_`mSw>bmo{_V_ {h n[aH$s`Vo&&4 5&& lwVo&&46& & 14 ghH$m`Va {d`{Y-H$aU_ & gy 0 47-49& ghH$m` Va{d{Y njoU VV r` VVmo {d`m{XdV&&47&& H$Z^mdmm w J{hUm onghma&&48&& _mZd{XVaofm _`wnXoemV&&49&& 15 AZm{dH$mam{YH$a U_& gy0 50& AZm{dHw$dd`m V&&50&& 16 Eo{hH$m{YH$a U_& gy0 51& Eo{hH$_` VwV{V~ Yo Ve ZmV&&51&& 17 _w{$\$bm{YH$aU_& g y0 52& Ed _w{$\$bm{Z`_V XdWm- dYVoVXdWmdYVo&&52&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m VVr`m`m`` MV wW nmX&&4&& AW MVwWm }@Ym`m ` AW W_ nmX 1 Amd`{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-2& Amd{ma gH$XwnXoemV&&1&& {bm&&2& & 2 Am_dmonmgZm{YH$aU_& gy 0 3& Am_o{V VynJ N>pV Jmh `pV M&&3&& 3 VrH$m{YH$aU_& gy 0 4& Z VrHo$ Z {h g&&4 && 4 ~>{YH$aU_& gy 0 5& ~{>H$f mV&&5&& 5 Am{X`m{X_`{YH$aU_& gy0 6& Am{X`{X_V`m Cnnm o&&6&&6 AmgrZm{YH$aU_& gy 0 7-10& AmgrZ g ^dmV &&7&& `mZm&&8&& AMbd#mmno` &&9&& _apV M&&1 0&& 7 EH$mJVm{ YH$aU_& gy 0 11& `H$mJVm Vm{deofm V&&11&& 8 Amm`Um{YH $aU_& gy0 12& Am m`Ummm{n {h >_&&12&& 9 VX{YJ_m{YH $aU_& gy 0 13& VX{YJ_ C manydmK` moabof{dZm em (30)B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m MVwWm`m`` {Vr` nmX &&2&& VX>`nXoemV&&13&& 10 BVamgbofm{YH$aU_& gy 0 14& BVa`m`od_gbof nmVo Vw&&14&& 11 AZmaYm{YH$a U_&& gy 0 15& AZmaYH$m `} Ed Vw nyd} VXdY o&&15& & 12 A{ hmom{Y - H$aU_& gy0 16-17& A{hmo m{X Vw VH$m`m`d VeZmV&&16 &&AVmo@ `m{n oHo$fm _w^`mo&&17&& 13 {dmkmZgmYZm{YH$aU_& gy 0 18& `Xod {d`o{V {h&&18&& 14 BVajnUm {YH$aU_ & gy0 19& ^moJoZpdVao jn{`dm gnV o&&19&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m MVwWm`m`` W_ n mX&&1&& AW {Vr` nmX 1 dmJ{YH$aU _& gy0 1-2& dmL_Z{g XeZm N>Xm&&1&& AV Ed M gdm `Zw&&2&& 2 _Zmo@{YH$a U_& gy0 3& V_Z mU CmamV&&3&& 3 A`jm{YH $aU_& gy 0 4-6& gmo@`jo VXwnJ _m{X`&&4&& ^yVofw VN >Vo&&5&& ZH$p_Z Xe`Vmo {h&&6&& 4 Amg`wnH$_m{YH$aU_& gy 0 7& g_mZm Mm g`wnH$_mX_Vd MmZwnmo` &&7&& 5 ggma`nXoem{YH$aU_& gy 0 8-11& VXmnrVo ggma `nXoemV&&8&& gy_ _mUV V WmonbYo&&9&& Zmon_X}Z mV&&10&& A`d Mmonn moaof D$_m&&11&& 6 {VfoYm{YH$aU_& gy 0 12-14&{VfoYm{X{V M o emaram V&&12&& n>mo oHo$fm_&&13&& _`Vo M&&14&& 7 dmJm{Xb`m{YH$ aU_& gy0 15& Vm{Z nao VWm mh&&1 5&& 8 A{d^mJm{ YH$aU_& gy 0 16& A{d^mJm o dMZmV&&16&& 9 VXmoH$mo@{YH$aU_& gy 0 17& VXmoH$mo@JdbZ VH$m{eVmam o {dmgm_`m mN>ofJ`Zw_{V- `moJm hmXmZwJhrV eVm{YH$`m&&17 && 10 a` {YH$aU_& gy 0 18-19& a`Zwgmar&&18 && {Z{e Zo{V M o g~Y` `mdoh^m {ddme`{V M&&19&& 11 X{jUm`Zm{YH$aU_& gy 0 20-21& AVm`Zo@ {n X{jUo&&20&& (31) `mo{JZ {V M _`Vo _mV} MV o&&21& & AW VVr` n mX 1 A{Mam`{YH$aU_& gy 0 1& A{Mam{XZm V {WVo&&1&& 2 dmd{YH$aU_& gy 0 2& dm`w_XmX{deof{deofm `m_&&2&& 3 V{S>X{YH$aU_& gy 0 3& V{S>Vmo@{ Y dU g~YmV &&3&& 4 Am{Vdm{hH$m{YH$aU_& gy 0 4-6& Am{Vdm{hH$ mV{ mV&&4 && C^``m_mo hmmpg o&&5&& dwVoZd VVV N>Vo&&6&& 5 H$m`m{YH$aU_& gy 0 7-14& H$m` ~mX[aa` J`wnnmo &&7&& {deo{fVdm&&8&&gm_r`mmw VX >`nXoe&&9&& H$m`m ``o VX`jo U ghmV na_{^YmZmV&&10 && _Vo&&11&& na O{_{Z_w`dmV&&12&& XeZm&&1 3&& Z M H$m`} {Vn`{^gpY&&1 4&& 6 AVrH$mb ~Zm{Y- H$aU_& gy0 15-16& AVrH$mb ~Zm`Vr{V ~mXam`U C^`Wm@XmofmmV- H$V w&&15&& {deof#m Xe`{V&&16&& B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m MVwWm`m`` VVr` n mX&&3&& AW MVwW nmX& 1 gnm{d^mdm{YH$aU_& gy 0 1-3& gnm{d^md doZ eXmV&1&& _w$ { VkmZmV&&2&& Am_m H$aUmV&&3 && 2 A{d^mJoZ >dm{YH$aU_& gy 0 4& A{d^mJoZ >dmV&&4&& 3 ~mm{YH$aU_& gy 0 5-7& ~moU O{_{Zn`m gm{X`&&5&& {M{VV_m oU VXm_H$dm{X`mSw>bmo{_&&6&& Ed_`wn `mgmV nyd^mdmX{damoY ~mXam`U&&7&&4 gH$nm{YH$aU_& gy 0 8-9& g>nmXod Vw V N>Vo&&8&& AV Ed MmZ`m{Yn{V&&9&& 5 A^md m{YH$aU_& gy0 10-14& A^md ~m X[aamh od_&&10&& ^md O{_{Z{dH$nm _ZZmV&11&& mXemhdXw^` {dY ~mXam`Umo@V &&12&& Vd^m do g`dXwnnmo&&13&& ^mdo OmJX>dV&&14&& 3 Xrnm{YH$aU_& gy 0 15-16& XrndXmdoeVWm {h Xe`{V&&15&& (32) dm``gn `moa`Vamnoj_m{dH$V {h& &16&& 7 OJX`mn mam{Y- H$aU_& gy0 17-22& OJX>`mnma dO H$aUmXg{{hV dm&&17 && `jmonXoem{X{V Mom{YH$m[aH$_S>b Wmoo$ &&18&& {dH$mamd{V M V Wm {h pW{ V_mh&& 19&& Xe`Vd `jmZw_m Zo&&20&& ^moJ_mg m`{b m&&21&& AZmd{m eXmXZmd{m eXmV &&22& & B{V d`m{g`m emaraH$_r_mgm`m MVwWm`m`` M VwW nmX&&4&& g_m ~gynmR> &&> 33 BRAHMA SUT RAS INTRODUCTION Hari Om! Sal u ta tions to Sri V yasa, the A vatara of V ishnu, the wise Badarayana and Sri Krishna Dv aipayana. Vedas con sist of three por tions viz., the Karma K anda which deals with sac ri fices or cer e mo nial rites, t he Up asana Kanda which treats of Up asana (wor ship) and the Jnana Kanda which deals with knowl edge of Brah man. Karma K anda rep re sents the feet of a man, Upasana Kanda the heart, and the Jnana Kanda the head. Just as the head is the most im por tant por tion of a ma n, so also the Up anishads which treat of t he knowl edge por tion of t he Vedas is the head of the Vedas. Hence it is said to be the S iras (head) of V edas. Mimamsa means the in ves ti ga tion or en quiry into t he con nected mean ing of the sa cred text s. Of thi s Mimamsa two branches have been re cog nised, the Purv a Mimamsa (ear lier) and the Utt ara Mimamsa (the lat ter). The for mer sys tema tises the Karma Kandathe por tion of t he Veda which per tains to ac tion and sac ri - fices and which com prises Samhit as and the Brahmanas; the l at ter sys tema tises the Jnana Kanda i. e., that p art of the V edas which in - cludes the Aranyaka por tion of t he Brahmanas and the Up anishads. Jaimini is the au thor of the P urva Mimamsa. Sri V yasa (Badarayana or Krishna Dvaip ayana) the Guru of Jaimi ni is the au thor of the Brahma Sut ras oth er wise known as V edant a Sutras. The study of Brahma Sut ras is a syn thetic study of the Up anishads. It t reats of the Vedant a phi los o phy . The V edas are eter nal. They were not writ ten by any in di vid ual. They came out f rom the breath of Hirany agarbha (Lord Brahma). Vedant a is the end or gist of t he Vedas. It deals wit h the knowl edge por tion. V edant a is not mere spec u la tion. I t is the au then tic re cord of tran scen den t al ex pe ri ences or di rect and ac tual reali sa tion of the great Hindu Rishis or seers. Brahma Sutras is the Sci ence of the Soul. Sutras are con cise aph o risms. They giv e the es sence of the ar - gu ment s on a topic. Max i mum of t hought is com pressed or con - densed into these Sut ras in as few words as pos si ble. It is easy to re mem ber them. Great in tel lec tual peo ple only, with reali sa tion, can && lrJUoem` Z _ && && lrgXJwna_m_Zo Z_ &&> 3 com pose Sutras. They are clues or aids to mem ory. They can not be un der stood with out a lu cid com men t ary (Bhashya). The com men t ary also is in need of fur ther elab o rate ex pla na tion. Thus t he in ter pre ta - tions of the S utras gave rise to var i ous kinds of lit er ary writ ings such as Vrittis (gloss) and Karikas. The dif fer ent Acharyas (found ers of dif - fer ent schools of thought) hav e given thei r own in ter pre ta tions of the Sutras to es tab lish their own doc trines. The Bhashy a of Sri Sankara on Brahma Sut ras is known as Sariraka Bhashya. His school of thought is Kev ala Advait a. The Bhashya of Sri Ramanuja who founded the V isisht advait a School is called Sri Bhashy a. The com - men tary of Sri Nim barkacharya is known as V edant a-parijat a- saurabha. Sri V allabhacharya ex pounded his sys tem of phi los o phy of Suddhadvait a (pure mo nism) and his com men tary on the Brahma Sutras is known as Anu Bhashya. San skrit is very elas tic. It is like Kamadhenu or Kalp ataru. Y ou can milk out of it var i ous kinds of Rasas ac cord ing to your in tel lec tual cal i bre and spir i tual ex pe ri ences. There fore dif fer ent Acharyas have built dif fer ent sys tems of thoug ht or cult s by in ter pret ing the Sut ras in their own ways and be came found ers of sect s. Madhva f ounded his own sys tem of Dv aita. The cult s of V ishnu known as Bhagavat a or Pancharatra and those of S iva, P asupat a or Mahesvara have in ter - preted Brahma Sut ras in ac cor dance with their own ten ets. Nimbarkacharya in ter preted the V edant a sys tem from t he st and point of Bhedabheda-Dvait advait a. He was largely in flu enced by the teach - ings of Bhaskara who flour ished in the first hal f of the ninth cen tury. The the ory held by B haskara and Nimbarka was held by the an cient teacher Audulomi. Badarayana him self re fers to this the ory in his Brahma Sut ras. There are more than four teen com men tar ies on the Brahma Sutras. Sri A ppaya Dikshit a ren dered the com men tary of Sri S ankara more clear by his Parimala, Sri V achaspat i Misra by his work Bhamati and Sri Amalananda S arasvati by hi s Kalp ataru. The er ro ne ous iden ti fi ca tion of t he body with t he pure At man is the root cause for hu man suf fer ings and mis er ies and for births and deaths. Y ou iden tify your self with the body and say , I am f air, dark, stout or thin. I am a Brah min, I am a Kshatriya, I am a doc tor. You iden tify your self with the senses and say , I am bl ind, I am du mb. Y ou iden tify your self with the m ind and say , I know noth ing. I know ev ery - thing. I be came an gry. I en joyed a good meal. I am suf fer ing from this dis ease. The en tire ob ject of the B rahma Sutras is to re move thi s er - ro ne ous iden ti fi ca tion of t he Soul with t he body which is the root cause of your suf fer ings and mis er ies, which is the prod uct of A vidya (ig no rance) and help you in the at tain ment of t he fi nal eman ci pa tion through knowl edge of Brah man.INTR ODUCT ION 4 The Up anishads seem to be full of con tra dic tions at fi rst. They do not con tain con sis tent sys tem of t hought. S ri Vyasa sys tema tised the thought s or phi los o phy of t he Up anishads in his Brahma Sutras. The Sutras rec on cile the con flict ing st ate ment s of the Up anishads. In re al ity there are no con flicts for the thinker . Audulomi and Asmarathya also did this work in their own way and founded t heir own schools of thought. Those who wish to study the phi los o phy of V edant a should study the T en Clas si cal Upani shads and the Brahma Sutras. A ll Acharyas have com mented on Brahma S utras. This is a great au thor - ity for ev ery philo soph i cal school in In dia. If any Acharya wishes to es - tab lish his own cult or sect or school of thought he will hav e to write a com men tary of his own on Brahma S utras. Then only i t will be re cog - nised. The five great Acharyas: Sri S ankara the ex po nent of K evala Advait a or un com pro mis ing mo nism, Sri Ramanuja t he ex po nent of Visisht advait a or qual i fied mo nism, Sri Nimbarka the ex po nent of Bhedabheda-vada, S ri Madhva the ex po nent of strict Dv aitism or Dvait a-vada and Sri V allabha the ex po nent of S uddhadvait a-vada or pure mo nism agree that Brah man is the cause of this world and that knowl edge of Brah man leads to Moksha or the fi nal eman ci pa tion, which is the goal of lif e. They also em phat i cally de clared that Brah - man can be known only through the scrip tures and not through mere rea son ing. But they dif fer amongst them selves as to the na ture of thi s Brah man, the re la tion of t he in di vid ual soul to Brah man, the st ate of the soul in the st ate of f i nal eman ci pa tion, t he means of at tain ing It and It s cau sal ity wit h ref er ence to this uni verse. Ac cord ing to Sri S ankara, there is one Ab so lute Brah man who is Sat-chit-ananda, who is of an ab so lutely ho mo ge neous na ture. The ap pear ance of this world is due to May athe il lu sory power of Brah - man which is nei ther Sat nor A sat. This world is un real. This world is a Vivarta or ap par ent mod i fi ca ti on through Maya. Brah man ap pears as this uni verse through Maya. Brah man is the only re al ity. The in di vid - ual soul has lim ited him self through A vidya and i den ti fi ca tion with t he body and other v e hi cles. Through his self ish ac tions he en joys the fruits of his ac tions. He be comes the ac tor and enjoyer . He re gards him self as atomic and as an agent on ac count of A vidya or t he lim it ing Antahkarana. The in di vid ual soul be comes iden ti cal with Brah man when his A vidya i s de stroyed. I n re al ity Jiv a is all-per vad ing and iden - ti cal with Brah man. Isv ara or Saguna Brah man is a prod uct of May a. Wor ship of Isvara leads to K rama Mukti. The pi ous dev o tees (the knowers of Saguna Brah man) go to Brahmaloka and at tain fi nal re - lease through high est knowl edge. They do not re turn to thi s world. They at tain the Nirguna Brah man at the end of the cy cle. Knowl edge of Nirguna Brah man is the only m eans of lib er a tion. The knowers of5 BRAHMA SU TRAS Nirguna Brah man at tain im me di ate fi nal re lease or Sadyomukti. They need not go by t he path of gods or the p ath of Devay ana. They m erge them selves in Para Brah man. They do not go to any Loka or world. Sri Sankara s Brah man is Nirvisesha Brah man (Im per sonal Ab so lute) with out at trib ut es. Ac cord ing to Sri Ramanuja, Brah man is with at trib utes (Savisesha). He is en dowed with all aus pi cious qual i ties. He is not in - tel li gence it self. In tel li gence is his chief at trib ut e. He con tains within Him self what ever ex ists. World and in di vid ual souls are es sen tial real con stit u ents of Brah man s na ture. Mat ter (Achit) and soul (Chit) form the body of the Lord, Lord Narayana who is the In ner Ruler (Antaryamin). Mat ter and souls are called modes of Him (Prakara). The in di vid ual souls will never be en tirely re solved in Brah man. Ac - cord ing to Ramanuja, B rah man is not ab so lutely one and ho mo ge - neous. The in di vid ual souls un dergo a st ate of S ankocha (con trac tion) dur ing Pralaya. They ex pand (V ikasa) dur ing cre ation. Sri Ramanuja s Brah man is a Per sonal God with at trib utes. The in di - vid ual soul of Ramanuja is re ally in di vid ual. It will re main a per son al ity for ever . The soul re mains in V aikuntha for ever in a st ate of bliss and en joys the di vine Aisv arya of Lord Narayana. B hakti is the chief means to fi nal eman ci pa tion and not Jnana. S ri Ramanuja fol lows in his Bhashya the au thor ity of Bodhayana. Ac cord ing to Sri Nimbarkacharya, B rah man is con sid ered as both the ef fi cient and ma te rial cause of the world. Brah man is both Nirguna and Saguna. The uni verse is not un real or il lu sory but is a true man i fes ta tion or Parinama of Brah man. (Sri Ramanuja also holds this view . He says Just as milk is trans formed into curd, so also Brah man has trans formed Him self as this uni verse). This world is iden ti cal with and at the same t ime dif fer ent from B rah man just as the wave or bub ble is the same and at t he same time dif fer ent from wa ter. The in di vid ual souls are part s of the Su preme Self. They are con - trolled by t he Su preme Be ing. The fi nal sal va tion lies in real is ing the true na ture of one s own soul. This can be achieved by Bhakti (de vo - tion). The in di vid u al ity of the fi nite self (Jivat man) is not dis solved even in the st ate of f i nal eman ci pa tion. S ri Ramanuja also holds that the Jiva as sumes the di vine body of Sri Narayana with f our hands and en joys in V aikuntha the di vine Aisv arya of the Lord. You may ask why do such great real ised souls hold dif fer ent views, why hav e they st arted dif fer ent cult s or sys tems. The high est phi los o phy of S ri Sankara which be speaks of the iden tity of the in di - vid ual soul and the Su preme Soul can not be un der stood by the v ast ma jor ity of per sons. There fore Sri Madhv a and Sri Ramanuja st arted their Bhakti cult . The dif fer ent schools are dif fer ent rungs in the lad der of Yoga. The stu dent must place his foot step by step and f i nally reach the high est peak of per fec tionthe K evaladvai ta reali sa tion of S ri INTR ODUCT ION 6 Sankara. As tem per a ment s are dif fer ent, dif fer ent schools are also nec es sary to suit t he taste, ca pac ity, and st age of evo lu tion of t he as - pi rant. There fore all schools and cult s are nec es sary. They hav e got their own place and scope. The views of v ar i ous Acharyas are all true in re spect of the p ar - tic u lar as pect of Brah man dealt with by them each in his own way . Sankara has t aken Brah man in His tran scen den tal as pect, while Sri Ramanuja has t aken Him chiefly in His im ma nent as pect. Peo ple were fol low ing blindly t he rit u als dur ing the tim e of Sri San kara. When he was pre par ing his com men tary he had in view t he pur pose of com - bat ing the bane ful ef fects which blind rit u al ism pro duced. He never con demned self less ser vice or Nishkama Karma Y oga. He con - demned the per for mance of rit u als with self ish mo tives. Sankara Bhashya is the old est of all com men tar ies. It up holds Suddha-Para-Brah man or the Su preme Self of the Up anishads as some thing su pe rior to other di vine be ings. It pro pounds a very bold phi los o phy and de clares em phat i cally that the in di vid ual soul is iden ti - cal with the Su preme Self. Sankara s philo soph i cal view ac cu rately rep re sents the mean ing of Badaray ana. His ex pla na tions only f aith - fully ren der the in tended mean ing of Sri V yasa. This is be yond doubt and dis pute. Stu dents of Kevalad vaita School of Phi los o phy should study t he Sariraka Bhashya of S ri Sankara which is pro found, sub tle and unique. It is an au thor ity which leads to t he right un der stand ing of the Brahma Sut ras. The best think ers of In dia, Ger many , Amer ica and Eng land be long to this school. I t oc cu pies a high rank in books on phi - los o phy. Adv aita phi los o phy is the most sub lime and the grand est phi - los o phy of t he Hin dus. You can un der stand the Brahma S utras if you hav e a knowl edge of the t welve clas si cal Upani shads. Y ou can un der stand the sec ond chap ter if y ou have a knowl edge of Sankhya, Nyaya, Y oga, Mimamsa, V aiseshika Darsana and Buddhistic school, too. All these schools are re futed here by S ri Sankara. Sri Sankara s com men tary is the best com men tary. Dr. Thibaut has t rans lated this com men tary into Eng lish. Brahma Sut ras is one of the books of Prasthanatray a. This is an au thor i ta tive book on Hindu Phi los o phy. The work con sists of 4 Adhyay as (chap ters), 16 Padas (sec tions), 223 Adhikaranas (top ics) and 555 Sutras (aph o risms). The first chap ter (Samanvay adhyaya) uni fies Brah man, the sec ond (A virodhadhyay a) re futes other phi los o - phies, the thi rd (Sadhanadhyaya) deals with prac tice (Sadhana) to at - tain Brah man and the fourt h (Phaladhyay a) treat s of fruit s of Self-reali sa tion. E ach chap ter con tains four Padas. Each P ada con - tains Adhikaranas. Each Adhikarana has sep a rate ques tion to dis - cuss. The first fiv e Adhikaranas of the fi rst chap ter are very , very im por t ant.7 BRAHMA SU TRAS Glory to S ri Vyasa Bhagavan, son of Parasara, the might y sage, a Chiranjivi who has writ ten all Puranas and also di vided the V edas. May his bless ings be upon you all! INTR ODUCT ION 8 CHAPTER I SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION The V edant a Sutras are called Sariraka Mimamsa be cause they deal wit h Para Brah man, the S arira (the em bod ied). In the f irst chap ter the au thor shows that all the V e dic text s uni - formly re fer to Brah man and find th eir Samanvay a (rec on cil i a tion) in Him. In t he sec ond chap ter, it has been proved t hat there is no con flict be tween V edant a and other Sastras. I n the third chap ter the means of at tain ing Brah man are de scribed. In the fourt h chap ter is de scribed the re sult of at tain ing Brah man. The Adhikarin (one who is com pe tent t o un der stand and study the Sastra) is one who is of tran quil mind and has the at trib utes of Sama (qui etude), Dama (self-con trol), etc. , is full of faith, is con stantly en gaged in good thought s and as so ci ates with the knowers of T ruth, whose heart is pu ri fied by t he due dis charge of all du ties, re li gious and sec u lar, and with out any idea of re ward. The Sambandha is the de scrip tion of B rah man by thi s Sastra. The V ishaya or the sub ject mat ter of thi s Sastra is the Su preme Brah man who is all pure. The Prayojana (ne ces sity) of t his Sastra is to ob tain reali sa tion of t he Su - preme Brah man, by t he re moval of all false no tions that pre vent t hat reali sa tion. This Sastra con sists of sev eral Adhikaranas or top ics or prop o - si tions. Ev ery prop o si tion con sists of fiv e parts:(1) The sis or Vishaya, (2) Doubt or Samsay a, (3) Anti-t he sis or Purvap aksha, (4) Syn the sis or right con clu sion or Siddhant a and (5) Sangati or agree - ment of t he prop o si tion with t he other p arts of the Sastra. BRAHMA SUTRAS lr gX>Jw na_m_Zo Z_& lr doX`mgm` Z_& Salut ations to Sri Ganesha, Sr i Sarasv ati Dev i, Sri S ankarachary a and all Brahm a-Vidya-Gurus. 9 In the whole book of t he Vedant a Sutras Brah man is the main theme or the sub ject mat ter of dis cus sion. An in ter pre ta tion of any pas sage must not go away f rom the sub ject mat ter of Brah man. Each chap ter has a p ar tic u lar topic of it s own. A pas sage must be in ter - preted con sis tently with the t opic of that chap ter. There is a cer tain re - la tion be tween Adhikaranas or top ics them selves. One Adhikarana leads to an other through some p ar tic u lar as so ci a tion of ideas. In a Pada or sec tion there are many Adhikaranas and they are not put to - gether in a hap haz ard man ner.BRAHMA SU TRAS 10 SYNOPSIS This sec tion giv es a bird s-eye view of t he sub ject dealt wit h in the Brahma S utras namely t he na ture of the S u preme Brah man or the High est Self, of the in di vid ual soul and the uni verse and their inter-re - la tions and gives hint s on med i ta tion on Brah man. Adhikarana I: Su tra 1 gives a hint that t he book is meant for those who are en dowed with a real de sire for at tain ing the knowl edge of Brah man. Adhikarana II: Su tra 2 de fines Brah man as that whence the world orig i nates etc. Adhikarana III : Su tra 3 de clares that Brah man is the source of the V edas and that Brah man is known only by the st udy of S ruti and by no other means of knowl edge. Adhikarana IV : Su tra 4 proves Brah man to be the uni form topic of all V edant a text s. Adhikarana V : Sutras 5 to 1 1 show that none but B rah man is ad - mit ted by S ruti to be t he cause of the world. They prov e by var i ous co - gent and con vinc ing ar gu ment s that the B rah man which the V edantic texts pro claim as the cause of the uni verse is an in tel li gent prin ci ple, and can not be iden ti fied with t he non-in tel li gent or in sen tient Pradhana from which the world orig i nates, as de clared by the Sankhyas. Adhikarana VI: Sutras 12 to 19 raise the ques tion whether the Anandamay a in Taittiriy a Upanishad II-5 is merely t he in di vid ual soul or the Su preme Self. The Sutras show that B rah man is All-Bli ss and that by the term A nandamaya in Sruti is meant nei ther the in di vid ual soul, nor the Pradhana of Sankhyas. The S utras prove that t hey all de scribe none but Brah man. Adhikarana VII : Sutras 20 and 21, show that the golden per son seen within the sun and the per son seen within the eye men tioned in Chh. Up. I-6 are not some in di vid ual soul of high em i nence, but the high est Brah man or the Su preme Self. Adhikarana VII I: Su tra 22 shows that the et her (Akasa) from which ac cord ing to Chh. Up. I -9 all be ings orig i nate, is not t he el e - men tal ether but t he Su preme Brah man. Adhikarana IX: Su tra 23 shows that Prana, also men tioned in Chh. Up. I-1 1-15 is the Su preme Brah man. Adhikarana X: Sutras 24 to 27 t each that the li ght spo ken of in Chh. Up. II I-13-7 is not the or di nary phys i cal light but t he Su preme Brah man. Adhikarana XI: Sutras 28 to 31 de cide that the P rana men tioned in Kau. Up. I II-2 is Brah man. 11 CHAPTER I SAMANV AYA ADHY AYA SECTION 1 Jijnasadh ikaranam: T opic 1 The enquiry into Brahm an and it s pre-requisites. AWmVmo ~{Okmgm& Athato Brahmajij nasa I.1.1 ( 1) Now, there fore, the en quiry into Brah man. Atha: now , then, afterwards; Atah: therefore; Brahmaji jnasa: a desire for the knowledge of Brahman (t he enquiry into t he real nature of Brahman). Su tra lit er ally means a string. It serves the pur pose of string ing to gether the fl ow ers of the V edant a pas sages. The word Atha is not used to in tro duce a new sub ject that i s go - ing to be t aken up. It is here to be t aken as de not ing im me di ate consecution. The en quiry of B rah man spe cially de pends upon some an te - ced ent con di tions. The en quirer should be en dowed with cer tain spir i - tual req ui sites or qual i fi ca tions. Then only the en quiry is pos si ble. Atha i.e., af ter the at tain ment of cer tain pre lim i nary qual i fi ca - tions such as the four means of sal va tion vi z., (1) Nitya-anit ya-vastu- viveka (dis crim i na tion be tween the eter nal and the non-eter nal); (2) Ihamutrarthaphal abhogaviraga (in dif fer ence to the en joy ment in thi s life or in heav en, and of t he fruit s of one s ac tions); (3) Shat samp at (six fold vi r tues viz., Samacon trol of mind, Damacon trol of t he ex - ter nal senses, Uparat ices sa tion from worldly en joy ment s or not think ing of ob jects of senses or dis con tinu ance of re li gious cer e mo - nies, T itikshaen dur ance of plea sure and pain, heat and cold, Sraddhafait h in the words of the pre cep tor and of the Up anishads and Samadhanadeep con cen tra tion); (4) Mumukshutv a (de sire for lib er a tion). Those who have got an ear nest de sire for the knowl edge of Brah man only are fi t for the st udy of V edant a Phi los o phy or Brahma Sutras. Ev en with out pos sess ing the knowl edge of Karma K anda which deals with re li gious cer e mo nies or sac ri fices, a de sire for at - tain ing the knowl edge of Brah man will arise di rect from the study of the Sruti s. The en quiry of B rah man does not de pend on the per for - mance of any act s. 12 You must know and real ise the eter nal Brah man. Then only you will at tain eter nal bliss, free dom, per fec tion and im mor tal ity. You must have cer tain pre lim i nary qual i fi ca ti ons for your search. Why should you en quire about Brah man? Be cause the fruit s ob tained by sac ri - fices etc., are ephem eral, whereas the knowl edge of Brah man is eter - nal. Life i n this earth and the li fe in heaven which y ou will at tain on ac count of your v ir tu ous deeds is tran sient. If you know Brah man, you will en joy ev er last ing bliss and im mor tal ity. That is t he rea son why you must st art the quest of Brah man or the T ruth or the Ul ti mate Re al ity. A time co mes when a per son be comes in dif fer ent to K ar mas. He knows that Kar mas can not give hi m ev er last ing, un al loyed hap pi - ness which is not mixed with p ain, sor row and fear . There fore, nat u - rally, a de sire arises in him for the knowl edge of Brah man or the all-per vad ing, eter nal Soul which is above K ar mas, which is the source of eter nal hap pi ness. Charvakas or Lokayatikas think that t he body is the soul. S ome think that t he senses are the soul. Some oth ers think that the m ind is the soul. Som e think that t he in tel lect is the soul. S ome think that the soul is a mere mo men tary idea. Some think t hat noth ing ex ists in re al ity. Some t hink that there is a soul which is dif fer ent from t he body which is both agent and enjoy er of the f ruits of ac tion. Ot h ers hold that he is not a doer but i s only an enjoyer . Some t hink that the i n di vid ual soul is a p art of the S u preme Soul. V edantins main tain that t he in di vid ual soul is iden ti cal with the Su preme Soul. Dif fer ent schools of phi los o phy hold dif fer ent views. There fore it is nec es sary to ex am ine the trut h of things v ery care fully. Knowl edge of Brah man de stroys A vidya or ig no rance which is the root of al l evil, or the seed of this for mi da ble Samsara or worldly life. Hence you m ust en ter tain the de sire of know ing Brah man. Knowl edge of Brah man leads to the at tain ment of t he fi nal eman ci pa - tion. Hence an en quiry about B rah man through the study of the S rutis which treat s of Brah man is worth while and should be un der taken. The ques tion now arises: What are the char ac ter is tics of that Brah man? The na ture of the B rah man is de scribed in the fol low ing Su tra or aph o rism. Janmady adhikaranam : Topic 2 Definition of Brahman O_m` `V & Janmady asya yatah I.1.2 ( 2) (Brahman i s that) from w hich th e origin e tc., (i.e . the origi n, sustena nce and di ssolut ion) of this (world proceed). Janmadi: origin etc.; Asya: of this (world); Yatah: from which.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 13 An swer to the en quiry of B rah man is briefly gi ven in thi s Su tra. It is stated that Brah man who is eter nally pure, wise and free (Nit ya, Bud dha, Mukt a Svabhav a) is the only cause, st ay and fi nal re sort of this world. Brah man who is the orig i na tor, pre server and ab sorber of this vast world must hav e un lim ited pow ers and char ac ter is tics. Hence He is Om nip o tent and Om ni scient. Who but the O m nip o tent and Om ni scient Brah man could cre ate, rule and de stroy it? Cer tainly mere at oms or chance can not do this work. Ex is tence can not come out of non-ex is tence ( Ex nihilo nihil fit ). The or i gin of the world can not pro ceed from a non-in tel li gent Pradhana or Prakriti. It can not pro ceed from it s own na ture or Svabhav a spon ta ne ously with out a cause, be - cause spe cial places, times and causes are needed for the pro duc - tion of ef fects. Brah man must have some char ac ter is tics. Y ou can at tain knowl edge of Brah man through re flec tion on it s at trib utes. Oth er wise it is not pos si ble to have such knowl edge. In fer ence or rea son ing is an in stru ment of right knowl edge if it does not con tra dict the V edant a texts. In the as cer tain ment of T ruth or the Ul ti mate Re al ity or t he first cause the scrip tures alone are au thor i ta tive be cause they are in fal li - ble, they con tain the di rect in tu itive ex pe ri ences of Rishis or Seers who at tained Brahma Sakshatkara or Self -reali sa tion. Y ou can not de - pend on in tel lect or rea son be cause a man of strong in tel lect can over throw a man of weak in tel lect. Brah man is not an ob ject of the senses. It is be yond the reach of t he senses and the in tel lect. The sec ond Su tra does not pro pound here that in fer ence serves as the means of know ing Brah man. It point s to a V edantic tex t which gives a de scrip tion of t he char ac ter is tics of Brah man. What t hen, is that V edant a text ? It is the p as sage of T aittiriy a Upanishad III-i: Bhrigu Varuni went to his fa ther V aruna say ingSir , teach me Brah man. Varuna said `Vmo dm B_m{Z ^yVm{Z Om`Vo& `oZ OmVm{Z OrdpV `` `{^g{depV& V{{Okmgd& VX>~o{V& & That from whence these be ings are born, that by which, when born they liv e, that into which they en ter at thei r death, try to know That. That is Brah man. You will at tain Self-reali sa tion through med i ta tion on Brah man or the truths de clared by V edantic tex ts and not through mere rea son - ing. Pure rea son (Suddha Buddhi) is a help in Self -reali sa tion. I t in - ves ti gates and re veals the t ruths of the S crip tures. It has a place also in the means of S elf-reali sa tion. B ut per verted in tel lect (V iparita Buddhi) is a great hin drance. It keep s one far away from the T ruth. That which is the cause of the world is Brah man. This is Tatastha Lakshana. The or i gin, sus te nance and dis so lu tion of t he world are char ac ter is tics of the world. T hey do not per tain to the et er -BRAHMA SU TRAS 14 nal un chang ing Brah man. Y et these in di cate Brah man which is the cause for this uni verse. Sruti s give an other def i ni tion of B rah man. This is a de scrip tion of it s true, es sen tial na ture Satyam Jnanam Anant am B rahma Truth, Knowl edge, In fin ity is Brah man. This is Svarup a Lakshana. The knowl edge of the real na ture of a thi ng does not de pend on the no tions of man but only on the t hing it self. The knowl edge of Brah - man also de pends al to gether on the thi ng, i.e. , Brah man it self. Ac tion de pends en tirely on y our will but per cep tion is not an ef fect of v o li tion. It de pends on the ob ject per ceived. Y ou can not con vert a tree int o a man by an act of will. A tree will re main a tree al ways. Sim i larly Reali - sa tion of B rah man is V astu T an tra. It de pends on the re al ity of the ob - ject. It is not Purusha T an tra. It does not de pend on vo li tion. I t is not some thing to be ac com plished by ac tion. B rah man is not an ob ject of the senses. It has no con nec tion with ot her means of knowl edge. The senses are fi nite and de pend ent. They have only ex ter nal things for their ob jects, not Brah man. They are char ac ter ised by out go ing ten - den cies on ac count of the f orce of Rajas. They are in thei r na ture so con sti tuted t hat they run to wards ex ter nal ob jects. They can not cog - nise Brah man. Knowl edge of Brah man can not come through mere rea son ing. You can at tain this knowl edge through in tu ition or rev e la tion. I n tu ition is the fi nal re sult of the en quiry into B rah man. The ob ject of en quiry is an ex ist ing sub stance. Y ou will have to know thi s only through in tu - ition or di rect cog ni tion (Ap arakosha-anubhuti or Anubhavaex pe ri - ence). Sravana (hear ing of the S rutis), Ma nana (re flec tion on what you have heard), Nididhy asana (pro found med i ta tion) on Brah man leads to in tu ition. T he Brahmakara V ritti is gen er ated from t he Satt vic Antahkarana which is equipped with the four means of sal va tion, and the in struc tions of the G uru, who has un der stood the real sig nif i cance of Tat Tvam Asi Mahavakya. This Brahmakara V ritti de stroys the Mula-A vidya or prim i tive i g no rance, the root cause of all bond age, births and deaths. When the i g no rance or veil is re moved, B rah man which is self-ef ful gent re veals It self or shines by It self in It s pris tine glory and in ef fa ble splen dour . In or di nary per cep tion of ob ject s the mind as sumes the form of t he ob ject. The V ritti or ray of the mind re - moves the v eil (A varana-bhanga) that en vel ops the ob ject and Vritti-sahit a-chait anya or in tel li gence re flected in the mod i fi ca ti on of the mind re veals the ob ject. Then only you cog nise the ob ject. There is Vritti-v yapti and t here is Phala-vyapt i also in the per cep tion of an ob ject. Y ou want a V ritti and in tel li gence (Chait anya) as so ci ated with the V ritti. But in t he case of cog ni tion of B rah man there is no Phala-vy apti. There is only Vritti-v yapti as Brah man is self-lu mi nous. If there is a cup in a pot, you want a lamp and the ey es to see the cupCHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 15 in the dark, when the pot is bro ken; but if t here is a lamp within the pot , you want the ey es only to see the lam p when the pot is bro ken. Y ou do not want a lamp. Sastray onitv adhikaranam : Topic 3 Brahman i s realisable only through the scriptures em`mo{Z dmV & Sastray onitv at I.1.3 ( 3) The scri pture being th e source of r ight know ledge. Sastra: the scripture; Yonitv at: being the source of or the means of the right knowledge. The Om ni science of Brah man fol lows from His be ing the source of scrip ture. The aph o rism clearly point s out that t he Srutis alone are proof about Brah man. As Brah man is the cause of the world we have t o in fer that B rah - man or the Ab so lute is Om ni scient. As the scrip ture alone is the means of right knowl edge with ref er ence to Brah man the prop o si tion laid in Su tra 2 be comes con firmed. B rah man is not merely t he Cre - ator, Sust ainer and De stroyer of the world, He is the source or womb of scrip tures and is re vealed by scrip tures. As Brah man is be yond the reach of the senses and the in tel lect, He can be ap pre hended only on the au thor ity of the Sruti s which are in fal li ble and con tain the spir i tual ex pe ri ences of real ised seers or sages . The Sruti s de clare that Brah - man Him self breathed fort h the V edas. There fore He who has brought forth t he Srutis or the V edas which con tain such won der ful di - vine knowl edge must be all-knowl edge and all-pow er ful. The scrip tures il lu mine all thi ngs like a search light. Scrip ture is the source or the means of right knowl edge through which you have a com pre hen sive un der st and ing of the na ture of Brah man. Srutis fur - nish in for ma tion about what is not known from other sources. It can - not be known by other means of knowl edge in de pend ently of the Srutis. B rah man is form less, colour less, attribut eless. Hence it can - not be grasped by the senses by di rect per cep tion. Y ou can in fer the ex is tence of fire by its ac com pa ny ing smoke but Brah man can not be es tab lished by in fer ence or anal ogy, be cause it is attribut eless and there can not be a sec ond thing which is sim i lar to Brah man. Brah man is In fi nite and secondless. He who is ig no rant of the S rutis can not know that Su preme Be ing. There are other means of knowl edge also which have got a place but t hey are not in de pend ent. They sup ple - ment af ter Brah man is es tab lished by the S rutis.BRAHMA SU TRAS 16 Samanv ayadhikaranam : Topic 4 Brahman t he main purport of all V edantic text s Vmw g_d`mV & Tattu Samanv ayat I.1.4 ( 4) But that (B rahma n is to be known on ly from the Scrip tures and no t inde pendently by any o ther me ans is e stablis hed), because it is t he main purpose (of all Vedantic texts). Tat: that; Tu: but; Samanv ayat: on account of agreement or harmony , because it is the main p urpose. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 2 is con tin ued. Brah man or the Ab so lute can be known only from t he scrip tures be cause all the scrip - tural p as sages can be har mo nised only by such a doc trine. The Vedantic tex ts re fer to Brah man only , be cause they have B rah man for their main topi c. The prop o si tion that Brah man is the only cause of t he world is es tab lished: be cause this is the au thor i ta tive say ing of the scrip tures. All t he Vedantic tex ts agree in this re spect. The word tu (but) is em ployed to re but the abov e Purvap aksha or the prima fa cie view as urged above. I t is proper to say that Brah - man is the uni form topic t aught in all t he V edantic tex ts. Why? Samanvay at. Anvaya means con stru ing a p as sage ac cord ing to the six char ac ter is tics or Shad Lingas viz., (1) Upakrama-Upasamhara Ekavakyat aagree ment in be gin ning and con clu sion; (2) Abhyasarep e ti t ion; (3) Apurvat aUnique ness of sub ject mat ter; (4) Phalafruit; (5) Arthavadapraise and (6) Y uktirea son ing. These six marks help to ar rive at t he real pur port of any work. I n chap - ter six of t he Chhandogya Up anishad Brah man is the main pur port of all pas sages. In the be gin ning you will f ind This world, my child, was but the Real (Sat ) in the be gin ning. It con cludes, In it all that ex ists has it s Self. I t is true. I t is the Sel f. There is agree ment in the open ing and con clud ing pas sages. This is Upakrama-Up asamhara. Uddalaka the pre cep tor, re peats Tat Tvam Asi nine times to hi s dis ci ple Svetaketu. This is rep e ti tion (Abhy asa). Brah man is doubt less unique, as He is In fi nite and secondless. When you at tain knowl edge of Brah man ev ery thing else is known. This is Phala or fruit . There is rea son ing in the scrip tures. Just as pot s are noth ing but clay, or na ment s are noth ing but gold, so also t his world of names and forms is noth ing but Brah man. If you know the na ture of clay , you will know all that is made out of clay . Even so if you know Brah man, ev ery - thing else will be known to y ou. Brah man is the source of the cre ation, pres er va tion and dis so lu tion of t he uni verse. This is Artha-v ada or Stuti-v ada by way of praise. All these six marks or Shad Lingas de - note that the chief topi c or main pur port of the V edantic tex ts is Brah - man.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 17 All the V edant a-text s have for their pur port Brah man, for ex am - ple, Be ing only t his was in the be gin ning, one with out a sec ond (Chh. Up. VI-2-1) In t he be gin ning all this was At man or Self only (Ait. Ara. II -4-I-1) This is Brah man with out cause and with out ef fect, with out any thing in side or out side; this self is B rah man per ceiv ing ev - ery thing (Bri. Up. II-5-19) That Im mor tal Brah man is be fore (Mun. Up. II-2-1 1) and sim i lar pas sages. It is not right to think that these p as - sages have a dif fer ent sense. The p as sages can not re fer to agent s, di vin i ties con nected with act s of re li gious duty . You will find in B ri. Up. II-4-14, Then by what should he see and Whom? This clearly shows that t here is nei ther an agent, nor an ob ject of ac tion, nor an in stru - ment. Brah man can not be come an ob ject of per cep tion and other means of knowl edge, be cause It is ex tremely sub tle, ab stract, in fi nite and all-per vad ing. How can a fi nite in sen tient in stru ment know the In - fi nite? The senses and the mind de rive their power and light from Brah man the source. Brah man is Self-lu mi nous, Self-ex is tent, Self-knowl edge, Self -de light, and S elf-con tained. Brah man can not be real ised with out the aid of Vedantic p as sage T at Tvam AsiThou art That (Chh. Up. V I-8-7). When one real ises Brah man, he is to tally freed from all sort s of mis er ies and p ains. He at tains the goal of li fe or the sum m um bonum . The con cep tion of du al ity as agent , ac tion and the li ke is de stroyed. Self-reali sa tion is not a f ruit of ac tion. I t is not a re sult of y our will ing or do ing. It is the re sult of real is ing one s iden tity with Brah man. Scrip - ture aims only at re mov ing the vei l of ig no rance or A vidya. Then the self-ef ful gent Brah man shines by It self in It s pris tine glory . The st ate of Moksha or the fi nal eman ci pa tion is eter nal. It is not tran sient like the fruit s at tained through ac tion. A c tion de pends upon the will and is in de pend ent of t he ob ject. Knowl edge de pends on the na ture of the ob ject and is in de pend ent of t he will of the knower . A proper un der stand ing of the V edantic tex ts leads to the fi nal eman ci pa tion of man. It is not nec es sary for him to ex ert or do any su - per hu man feat or ac tion. I t is only mere un der stand ing that it is a rope and not a snake that help s to de stroy one s fear . Scrip ture does not speak only of eth i cal and cer e mo nial du ties. It re veals the soul and helps one to at tain Self-reali sa tion. The sage who has learnt by the help of V edantic tex ts to re move the er ro ne ous iden ti fi ca tion with t he body will not ex pe ri ence pai n. It is only the ig no rant worldly minded man who ex pe ri ences pain on ac count of his iden ti fi ca tion with t he body . The at tain ment of heav en, pro cur ing a son, get ting rain, et c., are taught in the V edas as in cite ment to t he ac quire ment of knowl edge of Brah man by baby souls and t o pro duce faith in man. When he finds that t he Ve dic Mantras have the power to pro duce rain he get s faith inBRAHMA SU TRAS 18 them and has an in cli na tion to study them. He grad u ally get s dis gust for the mun dane ob ject s and de vel op s dis crim i na tion be tween the real and the tran si tory and burn ing yearn ing for lib er a tion. He de vel - ops love for Brah man. There fore all V edas teach Brah man. Sac ri fices give mun dane fruit s only when they are done wit h self ish mo tives, only when Kama or strong de sire is at the back of the Mant ras. When they are per formed with Nishkamya B hava with out self ish mo tives they pu rify the heart and help to at tain knowl edge of the S elf. Hence Karma Kanda it self, by teach ing the wor ship of var i ous de i ties, be - comes part of Brahma Jnana. I t is re ally t he wor ship of Brah man, when the el e ment of de sire or self ish ness is re moved. S uch a wor - ship pu ri fies the heart and pro duces a t aste for en quiry of B rah man. It does not pro duce any other earthly de sire. The ob ject of en quiry in the K arma Kanda is some thing to be ac - com plished viz., duty. The ob ject of en quiry in V edant a text s is the al - ready ex is tent, ab so lutely ac com plished Brah man. The fruit of the knowl edge of Brah man must be dif fer ent from t he fruit of knowl edge of duty which de pends on the per for mance of ac tion. You will find in t he Up anishads V er ily the Self (At man) is to be seen Bri. Up. II -4-5. The At man which is free from sin that it is which we must search out, that i t is which we must try t o un der stand Chh. Up VIII -7-1. Let a man wor ship him as At man or the Self Bri. Up I-4-7; Let a man wor ship the At man only as his true st ateBri. Up. I-4-15; He who knows Brah man be comes Brah manMun. Up. III-2-9. These text s rouse in you a de sire to know what that Brah man is. The V edantic tex ts give a beau ti ful de scrip tion of t he na ture of Brah man. They teach that B rah man is eter nal, all-know ing, ab so - lutely self-suf fi cient, ev er pure, free, pure knowl edge, ab so lute bliss, self-lu mi nous and in di vis i ble. One at tains fi nal eman ci p a tion as the fruit of med i ta tion on Brah man. The V edantic tex ts de clare, The wise who knows the At man as bodi less within the bod ies, as un chang ing among chang ing things, as great and om ni pres ent does never grieve (Kat ha Up. II-22). He is with out breath, wit h out mind, pure (Mun. Up. II-1-2). That per son is not at tached to any thing (Bri. Up. IV-3-15). All these t exts es tab lish the fact t hat the f i nal eman ci pa tion dif fers from all the f ruits of ac tion and is an eter nally and es sen tially bodi less st ate. Moksha is Kut astha Nitya, i.e., eter nal, with out un der go ing any change. B rah man is om ni - pres ent like ether (Akasavat Sarvagat a) free from all mod i fi ca tions (Nirvikara), ab so lutely Self-suf fi cient, Self-con t ained (Nirapeksha), in di vis i ble (Akhanda). He is not com posed of p arts (Nishkala). He is Self-lu mi nous (Svayam P rakasa, Svayam Jyoti). You will find in K atha Up anishad, Dif fer ent from merit and de - merit, dif fer ent from ef fect and cause, dif fer ent from p ast and fu ture is that B rah man (I-2-14). Moksha is the same as Brah man. Moksha orCHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 19 Brah man can not be the ef fect of ac tions. It can not be sup ple men tary to ac tions. If it is so it would be non-eter nal. To know Brah man is to be come Brah man. Mundaka Up anishad says, He who knows Brah man be comes Brah man. As Brah man is an al ready ex ist ing en tity, know ing Brah man does not in volve an act like a rit u al is tic act. When A vidya or ne science is de stroyed through knowl edge of the S elf, B rah man man i fests It self, just as t he rope man i fests it self when the il lu sion of snake is re moved. A s Brah man is your In ner Self y ou can not at tain It by any ac tion. I t is real ised as ones own At man when the ig no rance is an ni hi lated. T exts like The At man is to be real ised etc., is not an i n junc tion. I t is in tended to wit h - draw the mind of t he as pi rant from ex ter nal ob jects and turn it in - wards. Brah man is not an ob ject of the ac tion of know ing. It is dif fer ent from the K nown and again it is be yond the Un known (Kena Up. I-3) How should he know him by whom He knows all this (Bri. Up. II-4-14). Brah man is ex pressly de clared not to be the ob ject of an act of de vout wor ship (Upasana). K now that alone t o be Brah man, not that which peo ple adore here (Kena Up. I-5). The scrip ture never de scribes Brah man as this or that. Its pur - pose is to show that Brah man as the eter nal sub ject, Prat yagatman, the in ner Self is never an ob ject. It can not be main tained that Mo ksha or Brah man is some thing to be cer e mo ni ally pu ri fied. There is no room for a pu rif i ca tory cer e mony in t he eter nally pure Brah man. Brah man is the Self or At man of all. It can nei ther be striven nor avoided. A ll ob jects per ish be cause they are mere mod i fi ca tions of the fiv e el e ment s. But t he Soul or Brah man is im mor tal and un chang - ing. It is in it s es sence eter nally pure and free. He who iden ti fies him self with his body ex pe ri ences pain. A sage who has re moved Dehadhyasa or iden ti fi ca tion of t he body by iden ti fy ing him self with the pure, all-per vad ing Brah man will not ex pe - ri ence pai n. A rich man who is puf fed up by t he con ceit of his wealth i s af fected with grief when he loses his wealth. But he is not af fected by the loss of wealth af ter he has once re tired from t he world and has be - come an as cetic. A sage who has at tained knowl edge of Brah man can not be a merely worldly doer as be fore. He does not be long to this world as he did be fore. A worldly man also can be come a sage of Self-reali sa tion with t he Bhava of non-doer (Akart a), non-agent (Abhokt a). The Srutis de clare When he is free from the body , then nei ther plea sure nor pain t ouches him (Chh. Up. VIII -12-1). The ob - jec tor may say The st ate of be ing free from t he body fol lows only when a man dies. This is en tirely wrong be cause the cause of man be ing joined to t he body is er ro ne ous knowl edge. The sage who has at tained knowl edge of Brah man, and who iden ti fies him self with Brah man is free from his body ev en while still aliv e. The Sruti also de -BRAHMA SU TRAS 20 clares Just as the slough of a snake lies on an ant-hill, dead and cast away , so also lies this body . That bodi less im mor tal Soul is Brah man only, is only li ght (Bri. Up. I V-4-7). With eyes, He is with out eyes as it were; with ears, with out ears as it were; with speech, with out speech as it were; with a mind, with out mind as it were; wit h Prana, with out Prana as it were; The sage is no lon ger con nected with ac tion of any kind. The Sankhyas say that the V edantic tex ts about cre ation do not re fer to Brah man but to t he Pradhana which is made up of the t hree GunasSattv a, Rajas and T amasas the First Cause. They m ain - tain that all the V edant a text s which treat of the cre ation of t he world clearly point out that t he cause of the world has to be con cluded from the ef fect by i n fer ence and the cause which is to be in ferred is the con nec tion of t he Pradhana or Prakriti with t he Souls or Purushas. The fol low ers of Kanada (the School of Vaiseshika phi los o phy) in fer from the v ery same p as sages that the Lord is the ef fi cient cause of the uni verse and the at oms are it s ma te rial cause. The Sankhyas say Om nip o tence can be at trib uted to t he Pradhana as it has all it s ef fects for it s ob jects. Om ni science also can be as cribed to it. K nowl edge is re ally an at trib ute of S attva Guna. Sattva is one of t he com po nents of Pradhana. There fore Pradhana can be said to be om ni scient. Y ou can not as cribe Om ni science or lim - ited knowl edge to the S oul or Purusha which is iso lated and pure in - tel li gence it self. There fore the V edant a text s as cribe Om ni science to the Pradhana al though it is in i t self non-in tel li gent. Brah man is with out any in stru ment s of ac tion. A s Pradhana has three com po nents it seems rea son able that it alone is ca pa ble of un der go ing mod i fi ca ti ons like clay into var i ous ob ject s and may act as a ma te rial cause, while the un com pounded, ho mo ge neous and un - change able Brah man is un able to do so. There fore the V edantic tex ts which treat of cre ation clearly re fer to Pradhana only and there fore it is the First Cause re ferred to by t he scrip tures. T o these con clu sions Sri V yasa gives an an swer in the fol low ing Su tra. Ikshaty adyadhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 5-1 1) Brahman (t he intelligent principle) is the First Cause BjVoZ meX_ & Ikshaternasabdam I.1.5 ( 5) On acc ount o f see ing (i.e. think ing be ing attribute d in the Upanishads to t he First Cause, the Pradhana) is n ot (the fir st cause indicated by the Upanishads; for) it (Pradhana) is n ot based on th e script ures. Ikshateh: on account of seeing (thinking); Na: is not; Asabdam: not based on the scriptures.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 21 Sutras 5 to 1 1 re fute t he ar gu ment s of the Sankhy as and es tab - lish Brah man alone as the First Cause. It is not pos si ble to find room i n the V edant a text s for the non-in - tel li gent Pradhana, be cause it is not based on scrip ture. Why? B e - cause see ing or think ing is as cribed to the cause in the scrip ture. In the scrip ture it is said that the First Cause willed or thought be fore cre - ation. Y ou will find in t he Chhandogya Up anishad VI-2, Be ing only , my dear , this was in the be gin ning, one only with out a sec ond. It thought May I be many , may I grow forth. It pro jected fire. A itareya Upanishad says, The At man willed: Let me pro ject worlds. So it pro - jected these worlds (I-1-1.2). In P rasna Upanishad VI -3 it is said of the per son of six teen p arts. He thought. He sent f orth Prana.. . There can not be any t hink ing or will ing in the in sen tient P radhana. It i s pos - si ble only if the First Cause is an in tel li gent be ing like Brah man. If it is said that such a qual ity can be at trib uted to P rakriti in a sec ond ary sense, just as red-hot iron can be called fire be cause it can burn, we re ply, why should we as cribe cre ative power and Om ni - science to such Prakriti which we in vest with will and Om ni science in a sec ond ary sense when we can as cribe cre ative power and Om ni - science to Brah man Him self to whom Will and Om ni science can be as cribed in a pri mary sense. Brah man s knowl edge is per ma nent. He is not in need of any in - stru ment s of knowl edge. He is not in need of a body . His knowl edge is with out any ob struc tions. Sv etasvat ara Upani shad says, He grasps with out hands, mov es with out feet , sees with out eyes, hears with out ears. He knows what can be know n, but no one knows Him. They call Him the first, the Great per son (VI-8, II I-19). You can not at trib ute sentiency (Chet anatva) to P radhana even in a fig u ra tive sense, be cause it is said that the Cre ator be came the soul and en tered the body . How can the in sen tient mat ter (Achet ana) be come the sen tient soul (Chet ana)? V edantic tex ts em phat i cally de - clare that by know ing Brah man ev ery thing else can be known. How can we know the souls by know ing mat ter? Pradhana or mat ter can not be the S at which is de scribed as the cause of the world, be cause that would be op posed to the scrip ture which uses the word Ikshateh. Y ou will find in S vetasvat ara Upanishad, He, the God of all souls, is the Cre ator of the world. There fore it is quit e clear that Brah man and not Pradhana is the cause of this world. In all V edantic tex ts there is a uni form dec la ra tion that Chet ana (con scious ness) is the cause of the world. Pradhana po ten tially con - tains all forms in a seed st ate. The whole world ex ists in it in a sub tle seed st ate in Pralay a and yet it can not be re garded as the Cre ator be - cause it is non-sen tient. Vedant a text s em phat i cally de clare that an In tel li gent Be ing willed and cre ated this uni verse. Y ou will find inBRAHMA SU TRAS 22 Chhandogya Up anishad, The Sat ex isted in the be gin ning. It was one with out a sec ond. It willed to be come many . It cre ated fire. The ar gu men ta tion of t he Sankhyas that the Pradhana is all-know ing be cause of it s Sattv a is in ad mis si ble, be cause Sattva i s not pre pon der ant in the P radhana as the three Gunas are in a st ate of equi poise. If t he Pradhana is all-know ing even in t he con di tion of equi lib rium (Gunasamyavastha) on ac count of the power of knowl - edge re sid ing in Satt va, it must be lit tle-know ing also on ac count of the power of re tard ing knowl edge which re sides in Rajas and T amas. There fore while Satt va will make it all-know ing, Rajas and T amas will make it lit tle-know ing. This is ac tu ally a con tra dic tion. Fur ther a mod i - fi ca tion of S attva which is not con nected with a wit ness ing prin ci ple or si lent Sakshi is not called knowl edge. The non-in tel li gent Pradhana is de void of such a prin ci ple. Hence all-know ing ness can not be as - cribed to Pradhana. The case of the Y ogin does not ap ply to t he point un der con sid - er ation here. He at tains Om ni science on ac count of ex cess of Sattv a in him. There is an in tel li gent prin ci ple (Sakshi) in him in de pend ent of Sattva. When a Y ogi at tains knowl edge of the p ast and the fu ture on ac count of the grace of t he Lord, you can not deny t he Eter nity and I n - fin ity of Brah man s knowl edge. Brah man is pure In tel li gence it self, Un change able. All-know ing - ness and cre ation are not pos si ble for Brah man. T o this ob jec tion it can be re plied that B rah man can be All-know ing and cre ative t hrough His il lu sory power , Maya. Just as in the case of ether we t alk of ether in side a jar and ether in the sky but it is all re ally one et her, so also the dif fer en ti a tion of Jiv a and Isvara is only an ap par ent dif fer en ti a tion on ac count of lim it ing ad junct s or Upadhis, v iz., body and mind. The Sankhyas raise an other ob jec tion. They say that f ire and wa ter also are fig u ra tively spo ken of as in tel li gent be ings. The fire thought May I be many , May I grow and it pro jected wa ter. Wa ter thought May I be many , May I grow , it pro jected earth Chh. Up. 6-2-3-4. Here wa ter and fire are in sen tient ob jects, and yet t hink ing is at trib uted to t hem. Ev en so the think ing by the S at in the t ext orig i nally quoted can also be t aken fig u ra tively in the case of P radhana also. Hence, though Pradhana is in sen tient, it can yet be the First Cause. The fol low ing Su tra re futes this ar gu ment. JmU om_e XmV & Gaunaschet na Atmasabdat I.1.6 ( 6) If it b e said that (the word s eeing or thinki ng) is use d in a secondary sense , (we say) not so, because of the word Atman being appl ied to t he cause of t he worl d.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 23 Gaunah: indirect, secondary , figurat ive; Chet: if; Na: not; Atmasabdat: because of the word Atman, i.e., soul. You say that t he term Sat de notes the non-in tel li gent Pradhana or Prakriti and that think ing is at trib uted to it in a sec ond ary or fig u ra - tive sense only as it is to fire and wa ter. You may ar gue that in ert things are some times de scribed as liv ing be ings. There fore Pradhana can well be ac cepted as the ef fi cient cause of the world. This can not st and. This is cer tainly un ten a ble. Why so? Be cause of the terms At man (soul) be ing ap plied sub se quently i n the Sruti to that which is the cause of t he world vide the S ruti All t his uni verse is in es sence That; That i s the T ruth. That is At man (Soul). That thou art O Svet aketu Chh. Up. VI -8-7. (In struc tion by Uddalaka to h is son, Svetaketu). The p as sage in Chh. Up. VI-2 be gins, Be ing (Sat) only , my dear, this was in the be gin ning. Af ter cre at ing fire, wa ter, earth, I t thought let me now en ter into t hese three as this liv ing self (Jiva) and evolve nam es and forms Chh. Up. VI -3-2. The Sat, the First Cause, re fers to the in tel li gent prin ci ple, the Jiv a as it s Self. B y the t erm Jiva we must un der stand the in tel li gent prin ci ple which rules over the body and sup ports the Prana. How could such a prin ci ple be the self of the non-in tel li gent Pradhana? By Self or At man we un der stand a be ings own na ture. There fore it is quit e ob vi ous that the in tel li gent Jiva can - not form t he na ture of the non-in tel li gent Pradhana. T he think ing on the p art of the f ire and wa ter is to be un der stood as de pend ent on their be ing ruled over by t he Sat. Hence it is un nec es sary to as sume a fig u ra tive sense of t he word think ing. Now the Sankhya co mes with a new ob jec tion. He says that the word At man (Self) may be ap plied to the P radhana, al though it is non-in tel li gent, on ac count of it s be ing fig u ra tively used in the sense of that which serves all pur poses of an other , as for ex am ple, a king uses the word self to some ser vant who car ries out his wishes Govinda is my (other) self . Sim i larly it ap plies to Pradhana also be - cause the Pradhana works for the en joy ment and the f i nal sal va tion of the soul and serves the soul just in t he same man ner as the min is ter serves his king. Or else the word At man (Self) may re fer to non-in tel li - gent things, as well as t o in tel li gent be ings, as for in stance, in ex pres - sions like Bhut atma (the S elf of t he el e ment s), Indriyat ma (the Self of the senses) just as the one word light (Jyoti) de notes a cer tain sac ri - fice (the Jyot istoma) as well as a flame. T here fore the word Self (At - man) can be used with ref er ence to the Pradhana also. How then does it fol low from the word Self that t he think ing at trib uted to t he cause of the uni verse is not to be t aken in a fig u ra tive sense?BRAHMA SU TRAS 24 The next S u tra re futes the ar gu ment. V{>` _mo jmonXoemV & Tannishthasy a mokshop adesat I.1.7 ( 7) (The Pradha na canno t be designate d by the term Se lf) because Salvation is decl ared to on e who is devoted to t hat Sat. Tat: to tha t; Nishthasy a: of the dev oted; Mokshop adesat : from the statement of salvation. Fur ther rea son is given in this Su tra to prove t hat Pradhana is not the cause of thi s world. The non-in tel li gent Pradhana can not be de noted by t he term Self be cause Chhandogya Upanishad de clares: O Svet aketu! That (the sub tle Sat ) is the Self. Thou art That . An in tel li gent man like Svetaketu can not be iden ti fied with t he non-in tel li gent Pradhana. I f the non-in tel li gent Pradhana were de noted by t he term Sat , the mean ing of the Ma havakya T at Tvam Asi would be Thou art non-in - tel li gent. The t each ing will come to t his. Y ou are an Achet ana or non-in tel li gence and eman ci p a tion is at tain ing such a state of insentiency . Then the S rutis would be a source of evil. T he scrip tures would make con tra dic tory st ate ment s to the dis ad van tage of man and would thus not be come a means of right knowl edge. It is not right to de stroy the au thor ity of the fault less Srutis. If you as sume that the in - fal li ble Sruti is not the means of right knowl edge this will be cer tainly quite un rea son able. The fi nal eman ci pa tion is de clared in the Srutis t o him who is de - voted t o the Sat , who has his be ing in Sat. It can not be at tained by med i ta tion on the non-in tel li gent Pradhana vi de Sruti: He wait s only till he is re leased and there from unites with B rah man (Chh. Up. VI-14-2). If the scrip ture which is re garded as a means of right knowl edge should point out a man who is de sir ous of eman ci pa tion but who is ig - no rant of the way to it, an in sen tient self as the true Self he would, like the blind man who had caught hold of the ox s tail to reach his vil lage, never be able to at tain the fi nal re lease or the true Self . There fore the word Self is ap plied to the sub tle Sat not in a merely fi g u ra tive sense. I t re fers to what is in tel li gent only i n its pri - mary mean ing. The S at, t he first cause, does not re fer to the Pradhana but to an i n tel li gent prin ci ple. It is de clared in the Sruti t hat he, who is ab so lutely de voted t o the Cre ator or cause of the world, at - tains the fi nal eman ci pa tion. I t is not rea son able to say t hat one at - tains his re lease by de vo tion to bli nd mat ter, Pradhana. Hence Pradhana can not be the Cre ator of the world.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 25 ho`dmdM Zm& Heyatvavachanaccha I.1.8 ( 8) And (t he Pradh ana ca nnot be denoted by th e word S elf), because it is not stated (by the scriptur es) that It (Sat ) has to be discarded. Heyatva: fitness to be discarded; Avachanat: not being st ated (by the scriptures); Cha: and. An other rea son is given in this Su tra to prove t hat Pradhana is not the Cre ator of the uni verse. If you want to point out to a man t he small st ar Arundhati, y ou di - rect his at ten tion at f irst to a big neigh bour ing st ar and say That is Arundhati al though it is re ally not so. Then you point out to him t he real Arundhati. Even so if the pre cep tor in tended to make his dis ci ple un der stand the Self step by step f rom grosser to sub tler truths through the non-self he would def i nitely state in the end t hat the S elf is not of t he na ture of the P radhana and that the P radhana must be dis - carded. But no such st ate ment is made. T he whole chap ter of the Chhandogya Up anishad deals with the Sel f as noth ing but that Sat. An as pi rant has been t aught to f ix his mind on t he cause and med i tate on it. Cer tainly he can not at tain the fi nal eman ci pa tion by med i tat ing on the in ert Pradhana. I f the S ruti here meant t he Pradhana to be the cause of t he world, it would hav e surely asked the as pi rant to aban don such a cause and find out some thing higher for his fi nal eman ci pa tion. Hence Pradhana can not be the end and aim of spir i tual quest. The word and sig ni fies that t he con tra dic tion of a pre vi ous state ment is an ad di tional rea son for the re jec tion. Fur ther this chap ter be gins with the ques tion, What i s that which be ing known ev ery thing is known? Have you ev er asked, my child, for that in struc tion by which y ou hear what can not be heard, by which you per ceive what can not be per ceived, by which you know what can not be known. Now if the t erm Sat de noted the P radhana, if the Pradhana were the fi rst cause, then by know ing Pradhana ev ery - thing must be known, which is not a f act. The enjoy er (soul) which is dif fer ent from P radhana, which is not an ef fect of t he Pradhana can - not be known by know ing the Pradhana. If t hat or Sat means Pradhana (mat ter) the Sruti s should teach us to turn away from it . But it is not t he case. It giv es a def i nite as sur ance that by know ing that ev - ery thing can be known. How can we know the soul by know ing mat - ter? How can we know the enjoyer by know ing the en joyed? Hence the Pradhana is not de noted by t he term Sat . It is not the fi rst cause, know ing which ev ery thing is known, ac cord ing to the S ruti. For this the Sut rakara gives an other rea son.BRAHMA SU TRAS 26 dm``mV & Svapyayat I.1.9 ( 9) On acc ount o f (the ind ividu al) me rging in its own Se lf (the Se lf cannot b e the Pradha na). Svapyayat: on account of merging in one s own self. The ar gu ment to prov e that P radhana is not the cause of the uni verse or the Self is con tin ued. The wak ing st ate is that where t he mind, the senses and the body act in con cert to know the ob jects. The in di vid ual soul iden ti fies him self with the gross body . In the dream ing st ate the body and the senses are at rest and the mind plays with t he im pres sions which the ex ter nal ob jects have lef t. The mi nd weaves it s web of V asanas. In deep sleep the in di vid ual soul is free from the l im i ta tion of mi nd. He rests in his own Self though i n a st ate of ig no rance. With ref er ence to the cause de noted by t he word Sat the Sruti says, When a man sleep s here, then my child, he be comes united with the Sat , he is gone to his own self. There fore they say of him he sleep s (Svapit i) be cause he is gone to his own (Svam Apit a) Chh. Up. VI-8-1. From t he fact that the in di vid ual soul merges in the uni ver sal soul in deep sleep, it is un der stood that t he Self, which is de scribed in the Sruti as the ul ti mate Re al ity, the cause of the world is not Pradhana. In the Chhandogya t ext it is clearly said that t he in di vid ual soul merges or re solves in the Sat . The in tel li gent Self can clearly not re - solve it self into t he non-in tel li gent Pradhana. Hence, t he Pradhana can not be the First Cause de noted by t he term Sat in the tex t. That into which all in tel li gent souls are merged in an in tel li gent cause of the uni verse is de noted by t he term Sat and not the P radhana. A fur ther rea son for the Pradhana not be ing the cause is given in the next Su tra. J{Vgm_m`m m & Gatisamany at I.1.10 (10) On a ccount o f the unifo rmity o f view (of th e Vedanta te xts, Brahman is t o be take n as that cause). Gati: view ; Samany at: on account of the unif ormity . The ar gu ment to prov e that P radhana is not the cause of the uni verse is con tin ued. All the V edant a text s uni formly re fer to an in tel li gent prin ci ple as the First Cause. There fore Brah man is to be con sid ered as the cause. All the V edant a text s uni formly t each that the cause of t he world is the in tel li gent Brah man. The Srut is de clare thus, As from a burn ing fireCHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 27 sparks pro ceed in all di rec tions, thus f rom that S elf the P ranas pro - ceed each to wards it s place, from the P ranas the gods, from the gods the worlds (Kau. Up. II I-3). From that Brah man sprang ether (T ait. Up. II- 1). All this springs from the Se lf (Chh. Up. VII- 2-6). This Prana is born from the S elf (Pra. Up. I II-3). A ll these p as sages de - clare the Self t o be the cause. The term S elf de notes an in tel li gent be ing. There fore the all-know ing Brah man is to be t aken as the cause of the world be cause of the uni for mity of view of the V edant a text s. A fur ther rea son for this con clu sion is given in the f ol low ing Sutra . lwVdm& Srutatvaccha I.1.11 (11) And because it is d irectly s tated in th e Sruti (th erefore the all-knowing Brahm an alone is the c ause of the u niverse). Srutatvat: being declared by the S ruti; Cha: also, and. The ar gu ment that Pradhana is not the cause of t he world is con tin ued. The All-know ing Lord is the cause of the uni verse. This is st ated in a p as sage of the Sv etasvat ara Upani shad VI-9, He is the cause, the Lord of the l ords of the or gans. He has nei ther p ar ent nor lord. He re fers to the all-know ing Lord de scribed in the chap ter. There fore it is fi nally es tab lished that t he All-know ing, All -pow er ful Brah man is the First Cause and not the i n sen tient or non-in tel li gent Pradhana or any body else. Thus the V edant a text s con tained in Su tra I-1-1 1 have clearly shown that the Om ni scient, Om nip o tent Lord is the cause of t he or i - gin, sub sis tence and dis so lu tion of t he world. It i s al ready shown on ac count of the uni for mity of view (I-1-10) that all Vedant a text s hold an in tel li gent cause. From Su tra 12 on wards till the end of t he first chap ter a new topic is t aken up for dis cus sion. The Up anishads speak of two types of Brah man, vi z., the Nirguna or Brah man with out at trib utes and the Saguna or Brah man with at trib utes. The Up anishads de clare, For where there is du al ity as it were, then one sees the other; but when the Self only is all t his, how should he see an other? Bri. Up. I V-5-15. Where one sees noth ing else, hears noth ing else, un der stands noth ing else, that is the great est (In - fi nite, B huma). Where one sees some thing else, hears some thing else, un der stands some thing else, t hat is the lit tle (fi nite). The great - est is im mor tal; the li t tle is mor tal Chh. Up. VI I-24-1. The wise one, who hav ing pro duced all forms and made all names, sit s call ing the things by t heir names T ait. A r. III-12-7.BRAHMA SU TRAS 28 Who is with out p arts, with out ac tions, tran quil, with out fault s, with out taint, t he high est bridge of im mor tal ity, like a fire t hat has con - sumed its fuel Svet. U p. VI-1 9. N ot so , not s o Br i. Up . II-3- 6. It i s nei ther coarse nor fine, nei ther short nor long; de fec tive in one place, per fect in the ot her Bri. Up. II I-1-8. All these t exts de clare Brah man to pos sess a dou ble na ture, ac - cord ing as it is the ob ject ei ther of ne science or knowl edge. Brah man with at trib utes (Saguna) is within the do main of ne science. It is the ob - ject of Up asana which is of dif fer ent kinds giv ing dif fer ent re sults, some to ex al t a tions, some to grad ual eman ci p a tion (Krama-Mukti), some to suc cess in work s. When it is the ob ject of ne science, cat e go - ries of dev o tee, ob ject of de vo tion, wor ship are ap plied to it . The kinds of Up asana are dis tinct ow ing to the dis tinc tion of t he dif fer ent qual i - ties and lim it ing ad junct s. The fruit s of de vo tion are dis tinct ac cord ing as the wor ship re fers to dif fer ent qual i ties. The S rutis say Ac cord ing as man wor ships him, that he be comes. Ac cord ing to what his thought is in t his world, so will he be when he has lef t this lif e Chh. Up. III -14-1. Med i ta tion on the S aguna Brah man can not lead to im me - di ate eman ci pa tion (Sady o-Mukti). It can only help one to at tain grad - ual eman ci p a tion (Krama-Mukti). Nirguna Brah man of V edantins or Jnanis is free from all at trib - utes and lim it ing ad junct s. It is Nirup adhika, i.e. , free from Up adhi or Maya. I t is the ob ject of knowl edge. The Knowl edge of the Nirguna Brah man alone leads to im me di ate eman ci p a tion. The V edantic p as sages have a doubt ful im port. Y ou will have to find out t he true sig nif i cance of the tex ts through rea son ing. Y ou will have to make a proper en quiry into t he mean ing of the t exts in or der to ar rive at a set tled con clu sion re gard ing the knowl edge of the S elf which leads to in stan ta neous eman ci pa tion. A doubt may arise whether the knowl edge has the higher or the lower Brah man for it s ob ject as in the case of Su tra I-1-2. You will find in m any places in the Up anishads that Brah man is de scribed ap par ently wit h qual i fy ing ad junct s. The Srutis say t hat the knowl edge of that Brah man leads to in stan ta neous re lease (Sadyo-Mukti). Wor ship of Brah man as lim ited by t hose ad junct s can - not lead to im me di ate eman ci p a tion. But if these qual i fy ing ad junct s are con sid ered as not be ing ul ti mately ar rived at by the p as sages but used merely as in dic a tive of Brah man then these p as sages would re - fer to the Nirguna B rah man and the fi nal eman ci pa tion would re sult from know ing that B rah man. There fore you will hav e to find out the true sig nif i cance of the p as sages through care ful en quiry and rea son - ing. In some places you will hav e to find out whether the tex t re fers to Saguna Brah man or the in di vid ual soul. Y ou will have to ar rive at a proper con clu sion as to the true sig nif i cance of these p as sages which CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 29 ev i dently hav e a doubt ful im port through care ful en quiry and rea son - ing. There will be no dif fi culty in un der stand ing for the in tel li gent as pi - rant who is en dowed with a sharp, sub tle and pure in tel lect. The help of the t eacher is al ways nec es sary. Here ends the com men tary of the el even Sut ras which form a sub-sec tion by i t self. Anandamay adhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 12-19) Anandam aya is Para Brahman . AmZX _`mo@`mgmV & Anandamay obhy asat I.1.12 (12) Anandamaya means Para Brahman on account of th e repetitio n (of the word b liss a s denoting the Highe st Self). Anandamay ah: full of bliss; Abhy asat: because of repetition. Now the au thor Badarayana t akes up the topic of Sam anvaya. He clearly shows that sev eral words of the Srutis which are ap par - ently am big u ous re ally ap ply to B rah man. He be gins with the word Anandamay a and t akes up other words one af ter an other till t he end of the chap ter. Taittiriy a Up anishad says, Dif fer ent from t his V ijnanamaya is an other in ner Self which con sists of bliss (Anandamaya). T he for mer is filled by this. Joy (Priy a) is it s head. Sat is fac tion (Moda) is it s right wing or arm. Great sat is fac tion (Pramoda) is it s left wing or arm. Bl iss (Ananda) is it s trunk. Brah man is the t ail, the sup port. II -5 Now a doubt arises as to whether this Anandamaya i s Jiva (hu - man soul) or Para Brah man. The Purv apakshin or op po nent holds that t he Self con sist ing of bliss (Anandamay a) is a sec ond ary self and not the prin ci pal Self, which is some thing dif fer ent from B rah man, as it forms a link in a se ries of selfs be gin ning with the self con sist ing of food (Annamay a), all of which are not t he prin ci pal Self. Even t hough the bliss ful Self , Anandamay a Purusha, is st ated to be t he in ner most of all it can not be the pri mary Self , be cause it is st ated to hav e joy , etc., f or its lim its and to be em bod ied. It also has the shape of man. Like the hu man shape of the f or mer is the hu man shape of the lat ter. If it were iden ti cal with the pri mary Self , joy, sat is fac tion, et c., would not af fect it; but the t ext clearly says, Joy is it s head. The tex t also says, Of t hat for mer one this one is the em bod ied Self Tait. Up. II-6. Of that for mer Self of bliss (Anandamaya) is the em bod ied Self. That which has a body will be cer tainly af fected by j oy and p ain. The term Anandamaya sig ni fies a mod i fi ca ti on. There fore it can not re fer to Brah man which is change less. Fur ther fiv e dif fer ent p arts such as head, right arm, left arm, t runk and t ail are men tioned of t his Anandamaya S elf. B ut Brah man is with out p arts. There fore the Anandamaya S elf is only Jiv a or the in di vid ual soul.BRAHMA SU TRAS 30 Here is the an swer of the Siddhanti n. This Su tra shows that Brah man is Bliss. By the Anandamay a Self we hav e to un der stand the High est Self, on ac count of rep e ti tion. A bhyasa or rep e ti tion means ut ter ing a word again with out any qual i fi ca tions. It is one of the Shad Lingas or six char ac ter is tics or marks by which the sub ject mat - ter of a p as sage is as cer tained. The word Bliss is re peat edly ap plied to the hi gh est Self. Taittiriy a Up anishad says: Raso vai sah. Rasam hyevayam labdhvanandi bhavati He the High est Self i s Bliss in it self. The in di - vid ual soul be comes bliss ful af ter at tain ing that B liss II-7. Who could breathe forth if that B liss did not ex ist in the et her of the heart? B e - cause He alone causes Bliss. He at tains that Sel f con sist ing of Bli ss II-7. He who knows the Bliss of B rah man fears noth ing II-9. A nd again He (Bhrigu, hav ing taken re course to med i ta tion), real ised or un der stood that B liss is Brah man Anandam Brahmet i vyajanat III-6. Varuna teaches his son Bhrigu what is Brah man. He first de - fines Brah man as the cause of the cre ation, et c., of t he uni verse and then teaches him that all ma te rial ob jects are Brah man. Such as, f ood is Brah man, Prana is Brah man, mind is B rah man, etc. He say s this in or der to teach that they are the m a te ri als of which the world is made. Fi nally he con cludes his teach ing with Ananda de clar ing that Ananda is Brah man. Here he stop s and con cludes that the doc trine taught by me i s based on Brah man, the S u preme Taitt. Up. III -6-1. Knowl edge and Bliss is Brah man Bri. Up. I II-9-27. A s the word Bliss is re peat edly used with ref er ence to Brah man, we con clude that t he Self con sist ing of bliss is Brah man also. It is ob jected that t he bliss ful Self de notes the in di vid ual soul as it forms a link in a se ries of sec ond ary selfs be gin ning with the Annamaya S elf. Thi s can not st and be cause the Anandamaya S elf is the in ner most of all. The Sruti t eaches step by step, from t he grosser to the sub tler, and more and more in te rior and finer for the sake of easy com pre hen sion by men of small in tel lect. The f irst re fers to the phys i cal body as the Self , be cause worldly minded peo ple take this body as the Sel f. It then pro ceeds from the body t o an other self, t he Pranamaya self , then again t o an other one. It rep re sents the non-self as the Self f or the pur pose of easy un der stand ing. It fi nally t eaches that t he in ner most Self which con sists of bliss is the real Self , just as a man point s out at first t o an other man sev eral st ars which are not Arundhati as be ing Arundhati and f i nally point s out in the end the real Arundhati. There fore here also the Anandamay a Self is t he real Self as it is the in ner most or the last. Tail does not mean the lim b. It means that Brah man is the sup - port of the i n di vid ual soul as He is the sub stra tum of t he Jiva.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 31 The pos ses sion of a body hav ing p arts and joy and so on as head, etc., are also at trib uted to I t, on ac count of the pre ced ing lim it - ing con di tion vi z., the self con sist ing of un der stand ing, the so-called Vijnanamaya K osha. They do not re ally be long to the real S elf. The pos ses sion of a body is as cribed to the Self of Bliss, onl y be cause it is rep re sented as a link in the chain of bod ies which be gins with the self con sist ing of food. It is not at trib uted to it in the same sense in which it is pred i cated of the in di vid ual soul or the sec ond ary self (the Samsarin). There fore the Sel f con sist ing of Bli ss is the high est Brah - man. Thus, the Su tra es tab lishes that Anandam aya is Brah man. But the com men ta tor Sankara has a new ori en ta tion of out look in this re - gard. The Acharya says t hat Anandamay a can not be Brah man be - cause Anandamaya is one of t he five sheat hs or Koshas of the in di vid ual, the ot her four be ing Annamay a (phys i cal body), Pranamaya (vi tal body), Manom aya (men tal body), and V ijnanamaya (in tel lec tual body). The Anandamay a is ac tu ally t he causal body which de ter mines the func tions of the ot her sheaths. The in di vid ual en ters into the A nandamaya sheath in deep sleep and en joys bliss there, which is the rea son why this sheath is called Anandamay a (bliss-filled). A cov er age of in di vid u al i ty can not be re garded as Brah - man. Fur ther, if Anandamaya had been Brah man it self, the i n di vid ual in deep sleep will be united wit h Brah man in that con di tion. B ut this does not hap pen since one who goes to sleep re turns to or di nary wak ing ex pe ri ence. Hence the Anandamay a is not Brah man. {dH$maeX mo{V M oV Z mM w`mV & Vikarasabdanneti chet na prachury at I.1.13 (13) If (it be objected that th e term Ana ndamaya consisting of b liss can) not ( denote th e Supreme Self ) because of i ts bein g a w ord denotin g a modi fication or t ransformation or pr oduct ( we say that the objection is) n ot (valid) on accoun t of abundan ce, (which is de noted by the suffix m aya). Vikara sabdat: from the word Anandam aya with the suf fix mayat denoting modif ication; Na: is not; Iti: this; thus ; Chet: if; Na: not so; Prachury at: because of abundance. An ob jec tion against S u tra 12 is re futed in t his Su tra. If the ob jec tor says that maya means mod i fi ca tion, it can not be. We can not pred i cate such a mod i fi ca tion with re gard to Brah man who is change less. W e re ply that maya means fulness or abun dance and Anandamaya m eans not a de riv a tive f rom Ananda or Bliss but fulness or abun dance of bliss. The word Anandamaya has been cer tainly ap plied to de note the Su preme Soul or the High est Self and not the in di vid ual soul. InBRAHMA SU TRAS 32 the T ait. Up. II-8 the B liss of Brah man is fi nally de clared to be ab so - lutely Su preme. Maya there fore de notes abun dance or fulness. Anandamaya does not mean ab sence of p ain or sor row. It is a pos i tive at trib ute of B rah man and not a mere ne ga tion of p ain. Anandamaya m eans He whose es sen tial na ture or Svarup a is Ananda or Bliss. When we say: the sun has abun dance of light, it re - ally means, t he sun, whose es sen tial na ture is light is called Jyotirmay a. There fore Anandamay a is not Jiva but B rah man. Anandamay a, is equal to Ananda-svarup aHe whose es sen tial na ture is bliss. May a has not the force of V ikara or mod i fi ca tion here. The word Ananda or Bliss is used re peat edly in t he Srutis only with ref er ence to Brah man. May a does not mean that Brah man is a mod i fi ca tion or ef fect of B liss. Maya means per va sion. The phrase The sac ri fice is Annamay a means the sac ri fice is abound ing in food, not is some mod i fi ca tion or prod uct of food! There fore here also Brah man, as abound ing in Bliss, is called Anandamaya. VoVw` nXoem& Taddhetuv yapadesaccha I.1.14. (14) And because he is declar ed to be the cause of i t (i.e. of bliss ; therefore may a denotes abun dance or f ulness). Tad + Hetu: the cause of that, namely t he cause of Ananda; Vyapadesat: because of the st atement of declaration; Cha: and. An other ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 12 is given. The Srutis de clare that it is B rah man who is the cause of bliss of all. Esha hyevanandayati For he alone causes bliss T ait. Up. II-7. He who causes bliss must him self abound in bliss, just as a man who en riches oth ers must him self be in pos ses sion of abun dant wealth. The giv er of bliss to all is Bl iss it self. As M aya may be un der - stood to de note abun dance, the Self con sist ing of bliss, Anandamaya, is the Su preme Self or B rah man. The Sruti de clares that Brah man is the source of bliss to the in - di vid ual soul. The do nor and the donee can not be one and the same. There fore it is un der stood that A nandamaya as st ated in Su tra 12 is Brah man. _md{U H$_od M Jr`Vo & Mantrav arnikamev a cha giy ate I.1.15 (15) Moreover that ve ry Bra hman w hich h as been re-referred to in the Man tra po rtion i s sung (i.e . proclaimed in th e Brahma na passage as the Anandamaya). Mantra-v arnikam: He who is described in the Mantra portion; Eva: the very same; Cha: and also, moreover; Giyate: is sung.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 33 The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 12 is con tin ued. The pre vi ous proofs were founded on Lingas. The ar gu ment which is now given is based on Prakarana. The Self con sist ing of bliss is the high est Brah man for the f ol - low ing rea son also. The sec ond chap ter of the T aittiriy a Up anishad be gins, He who knows Brah man at tains the High - est Brahmavidapnot i Param . Brah man is T ruth, Knowl edge and In - fin ity (Satyam , Jnanam, Anant am B rahma ) (Tait. U p. II-1 ). Then it i s said that from B rah man sprang at first the et her and then all other mov ing and non-mov ing things. The B rah man en ter ing into the be - ings st ays in the re cess, in most of all. Then the se ries of the dif fer ent self are enu mer ated. Then f or easy un der stand ing it is said that dif fer - ent from t his is the in ner Self. Fi nally t he same Brah man which the Man tra had pro claimed is again pro claimed in the p as sage un der dis - cus sion, dif fer ent from t his is the other in ner Self, which con sists of bliss. The Brahmanas only ex plain what the Mant ras de clare. There can not be a con tra dic tion be tween the Man tra and Brahmana por - tions. A fur ther in ner Self dif fer ent from t he Self con sist ing of bliss is not men tioned. On t he same i.e. t he Self con sist ing of bliss is founded. This same knowl edge of Bhrigu and V aruna, he un der stood that bliss is Brah man T ait. Up. III-6. There fore the Sel f con sist ing of Bliss is the Su preme Self. Brahmavidapnot i Param The knower of Brah man ob tains the High est. This shows that the wor ship per Jiva ob tains the wor - shipped Brah man. There fore Brah man who is the ob ject at tained must be con sid ered as dif fer ent from t he Jiva who ob tains, be cause the ob tained and the obt ainer can not be one and the same. Hence the Anandamay a is not Jiva. T he Brah man which is de scribed in the Mantras ( Satyam Jnanam Anant am B rahma ) is de scribed later on in the Brahmanas as Anandamay a. It is our duty to real ise the iden tity of the teach ing in the Mant ras and the Brahmanas which form the Vedas. ZoVamo@Zwnnmo& Netaronup apatteh I.1.16 (16) (Brahman and) not the other (i.e . the individ ual sou l is mea nt here) on account o f the impossibility (of the latter assumption). Na: not; Itarah: the other , i.e., the Jiv a; Anup apatteh: because of the impossibility , non-reasonableness. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 12 is con tin ued. The Jiva is not t he be ing re ferred to in the M an tra Satya m Jnanam Anant am B rahma be cause of the im pos si bil ity of such a con struc tion.BRAHMA SU TRAS 34 The in di vid ual soul can not be de noted by t he term the one con - sist ing of bliss. Why? On ac count of the im pos si bil ity. Be cause the scrip ture says with ref er ence to the Self con sist ing of bliss, He wished May I be many , may I grow forth. He re flected. A f ter he had thus re flected, he sent forth what ever there is. He who is re ferred to in the p as sage, The Self con sist ing of bliss etc. is said to be cre ator of ev ery thing. He pro jected all thi s what ever is T ait. Up. II-6. T he Jiva or the in di vid ual soul can not cer - tainly do t his. There fore he is not re ferred to in the p as sage The Self con sist ing of bliss etc. ^oX`nXoem& Bhedav yapadesaccha I.1.17 (17) And on a ccount of the declara tion of the diff erence (between the two i.e . the one refe rred to in th e passage The S elf consisting of bliss etc. and the individual soul, th e latter cann ot be the one referred to in th e passage). Bheda: difference; Vyapadesat: because of the declaration; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 12 is con tin ued. The Sruti makes a dis tinc tion be tween the two. It de scribes that one is the giver of bliss and the other as the re ceiver of bliss. The Jiv a or the in di vid ual soul, who is the re ceiver , can not be the Anandamaya, who is the giver of bli ss. The Self con sist ing of bliss is of the es sence of fla vour at tain ing which the in di vid ual soul is bliss ful: Raso vai sah (Brahma) Rasam hyeva yam (Jiva) l abdhva nandi bhavati . Tait. U p. II-7 . That which is at tained and the att ainer can not be the same. Hence the in di vid ual soul is not re ferred to in the p as sage which is un der dis cus sion. H$m_m ZmZw _mZmno jm& Kamaccha Nanumanapeksh a I.1.18 (18) Because of wishin g or will ing in t he scriptural passage we cannot say even inferentially t hat Anandamaya means Pradhana. Kamat: because of desire or willing; Cha: and; Na: not; Anumana: the inferred one, i . e., the Pradhana; Apeksha: necessity . The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 12 is con tin ued. The word Akamyat a (willed) in the scrip tural tex t shows that the Anandamaya can not be Pradhana (pri mor dial mat ter), be cause will can not be as cribed to non-sen tient (Jada) mat ter. Prakriti is non-sen - tient and can hav e no Kamana or wish. There fore the Anandam aya with re gard to which the word Kama is used can not be Prakriti orCHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 35 Pradhana. That which is in ferred i.e. t he non-in tel li gent Pradhana as - sumed by the S ankhyas can not be re garded as be ing the Self of bliss (Anandamaya) and the cause of t he world. Ap_` M VmoJ empV& Asminnasy a cha t adyogam sasti I.1.19 (19) And more over it, i e ., the scrip ture, teaches the joining of this, i.e., the indi vidual soul, with tha t, i.e ., con sisting of b liss (Anand amaya) whe n knowle dge is attaine d. Asmin : in him; in t he person called Anandamaya; Asya: his, of the Jiva; Cha: and, also; Tat: that; Yogam: union; Sasti: (Sruti) teaches. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 12 is con cluded in this Su tra. Scrip ture teaches that t he Jiva or the in di vid ual soul ob tains the fi nal eman ci pa tion when he at tains knowl edge, when he is joined or iden ti fied with t he Self of bliss un der dis cus sion. The Sruti de clares, When he finds free dom from fear , and rest in that which is in vis i ble, bodi less, in de fin able and supportless, then he has at tained the fear - less (Brah man). If he has the small est dis tinc tion in it there is fear (of Samsara) for him T ait. Up. 11-7. Per fect rest is pos si ble only when we un der stand by the S elf con sist ing of bliss, t he Su preme Self and not ei ther the Pradhana or the in di vid ual soul. There fore it is proved t hat the S elf con sist ing of bliss (Anandamaya) is the S u preme Self or P ara Brah man. Antaradhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 20-21) The being or person in the Sun and the eye is B rahman. AVV_ m}nXoemV & Antastaddharmop adesat I.1.20 (20) The be ing within (the Su n and the eye) is Brahma n, be cause His attrib utes are taug ht the rein. Antah: (Ant aratma, t he being within the sun and t he eye); Tat Dharma: His essential attribut e; Upadesat: because of the teaching, as Sruti teaches. The won der ful Purusha of Chhandogy a Upanishad de scribed in chap ters 1, 6 and 7 is Brah man. From the de scrip tion in the Chhandogy a Up anishad of the es - sen tial qual i ties be long ing to the I n dwell ing S pirit re sid ing in the Sun and in the hu man eye, i t is to be un der stood that he is B rah man and not the in di vid ual soul. Y ou will find in Chhandogy a Up anishad I-6-6, Now that per son bright as gold who is seen within the sun, with beard bright as gold and hair bright as gold al to gether to the v ery tip s of his nails, whose eyes are like blue lo tus. His name is Ut be cause he has risen (Udit a) above all evi l. He tran scends all lim i ta tions. He also who knows this rises above all evil. S o much with ref er ence to the Devas.BRAHMA SU TRAS 36 With ref er ence to the body , Now the per son who is seen in the eye is Rik. He is Sama. He is Uktha. He is Y ajus. He is Brah man. His form is the same as that of the f or mer i.e. of the Be ing in the Sun. The joints of the one are the joint s of the other , the name of the one is the name of the ot her Chh. Up. I-7-5. Do these text s re fer to some spe cial in di vid ual soul who by means of knowl edge and pi ous deeds has raised him self to an ex - alted st ate; or do they re fer to the et er nally per fect su preme Brah - man? The Purvap akshin says that the ref er ence is to an in di vid ual soul only , as the scrip ture speaks of a def i nite shape, p ar tic u lar abode. S pe cial fea tures are at trib uted to t he per son in the Sun, such as the pos ses sion of beard as bright as gold and so on. The same char ac ter is tics be long to the be ing in the ey e also. On the con trary no shape can be at trib uted to t he Su preme Lord, That which is with out sound, with out touch, wit h out form, with - out de cay Kau. Up. I -3-15. Fur ther a def i nite abode is st ated, He who is in the Sun. He who is in the eye. This shows that an in di vid ual soul is meant. A s re gards the Su preme Lord, he has no spe cial abode, Where does he rest? In his own glory Chh. Up. VI I-24-1. Like the ether he is Om ni pres ent, Eter nal. The power of the be ing in ques tion is said to be lim ited. He is the Lord of the worlds be yond that and of the wishes of the Dev as, shows that the power of the be ing in the Sun i s lim ited. He is the Lord of the worlds be neath that and of the wishes of men, shows that the power of the per son in the eye is lim ited. Whereas the power of t he Su preme Lord is un lim ited. He is the Lord of all, the K ing of all t hings, the Pro tec tor of all t hings. This in di cates that the Lord is f ree from all lim i ta tions. There fore the be ing in the Sun and i n the eye can not be the Su preme Lord. This Su tra re futes the abov e ob jec tion of t he Purvap akshin. The be ing within the S un and within the ey e is not the in di vid ual soul, but the Su preme Lord only . Why? Be cause His es sen tial at trib utes are de clared. At first the name of t he be ing within the S un is st ated, His name is Ut. Then it is de clared, He has risen above all evil. T he same name is then trans ferred to the be ing in the ey e, the name of the one is the name of t he other. Per fect free dom from sins is as cribed to the Su preme Self only , the S elf which is free from sin et c., Apahatapapma Chh. Up. VI II-7. T here is the p as sage, He is Rik. He is Saman, Uktha, Yajus, Brah man, which de clares the be ing in the ey e to be the S elf, Saman and so on. This is pos si ble only if the be ing is the Lord, who as be ing the cause of all, is to be re garded as the Self of all. Fur ther it is de clared, Rik and Saman are his joint s with ref er - ence to the Devas, and t he joint s of the one are the joint s of the otherCHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 37 with ref er ence to the body. This st ate ment can be made only with ref - er ence to that which is the S elf of all . The men tion of a p ar tic u lar abode, viz. , the S un and the eye, of form with a beard bright as gold and of a lim i ta tion of pow ers is only for the pur pose of med i ta tion or Up asana. The Su preme Lord may as - sume through Maya any form He likes in or der to please thereby his de vout wor ship pers to save and bless them. S mriti also says, That thou seest me O Narada, is the May a emit ted by me. Do not then look on me en dowed with the qual i ties of all be ings. The lim i ta tion of B rah - man s pow ers which is due to the dis tinc tion of what be longs to the Devas and what to the body , has ref er ence to de vout med i ta tion only . It is for t he con ve nience of med i ta tion that these lim i ta tions are imag - ined in Brah man. In His es sen tial or true na ture He is be yond them. It fol lows, there fore, that the Be ing which scrip ture st ates to be within the eye and t he Sun is the Su preme Lord. ^oX`nXoemm` & Bhedav yapadesacchany ah I.1.21 (21) And there is ano ther one (i.e. the Lord who i s different from th e individual souls animat ing th e Sun etc.) on account of th e declaration of disti nction. Bheda: difference; Vyapadesat: because of declaration; Cha: and, also; Anyah: is dif ferent, anot her, other than t he Jiva or the indiv idual soul. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 20 is ad duced. Anyah : (Sarirat anyah: other than the em bod ied in di vid ual soul). More over there is one who is dis tinct from t he in di vid ual souls which an i mate the S un and other bod ies, viz., the Lord who rules within. The dis tinc tion be tween the Lord and the in di vid ual souls is de clared in the fol low ing p as sage of the Srut is, He who dwells in the Sun and is within the S un, whom the S un does not know , whose body the S un is and who rules the Sun from with in, is thy Self, the ruler within, the im - mor tal (Bri. Up. I II-7-9). Here the ex pres sion He within the Sun whom the Sun does not know clearly shows that t he Ruler within is dis tinct from that cog nis ing in di vid ual soul whose body is the sun. The tex t clearly in di cates that the S u preme Lord is within the Sun and y et dif - fer ent from t he in di vid ual soul iden ti fy ing it self with the S un. This con - firms the v iew ex pressed in the pre vi ous Su tra. It is an es tab lished con clu sion that the p as sage un der dis cus sion gives a de scrip tion of the Su preme Lord only but not of any ex alted Jiva.BRAHMA SU TRAS 38 Akasadhikaranam: T opic 8 The word Akasa must be understood as Brahm an AmH$meV{bmV & Akasast allingat I.1.22 (22) The word Akasa i.e., ether here is Brahman on account of chara cteristic mark s (of that i.e . Brah man b eing me ntion ed). Akasah: the word Akasa as used here; Tad: His, of Brahman; Lingat: because of characteristic mark. Brah man is shown to be Akasa in this Su tra. The Akasa of Chh. Up. I-9 is Brah man. In the Chhandogya Up anishad I-9 the fol low ing p as sage co mes in. What is the or i gin of this world? E ther he re plied. Be cause all these be ings t ake their or i gin from the et her only , and re turn into t he ether . Ether is greater than these, et her is their ul ti mate re sort (Di a - logue be tween Silak and Prabahana). Here t he doubt arisesDoes the word ether de note the High est Brah man or the Su preme Self or the el e men t al ether? Here Akasa re fers to the High est Brah man and not to t he el e - men tal ether , be cause the char ac ter is tics of Brah man, namely the or i - gin of the en tire cre ation from it and it s re turn to it at dis so lu tion are men tioned. These marks may al so re fer to Akasa as the scrip tures say from the A kasa sprang air , from air f ire, and so on and they re turn to the A kasa at the end of a cy cle. But t he sen tence All these be ings take their or i gin from the A kasa only clearly in di cates the high est Brah man, as all V edant a-text s agree in pro claim ing def i nitely that all be ings t ake their or i gin from the High est Brah man. But the Purvap akshin or the op po nent may say that t he el e men - tal Akasa also may be t aken as the cause viz., of ai r, fire and t he other el e ment s. But t hen the force of t he words all these and only in the text quoted would be lost. T o keep it, the t ext should be t aken to re fer to the f un da men tal cause of all, in clud ing Akasa also, which is Brah - man alone. The word Akasa is also used for Brah man in other tex ts: That which is called Akasa is the revealer of all f orms and names; that within which forms and names are, that is Brah man Chh. Up. VIII-14-1. The clause They re turn into t he ether again point s to Brah - man and so also the phrase Akasa is greater than these, A kasa is their fi nal re sort, be cause the scrip ture as cribes to the Su preme Self only ab so lute su pe ri or ity . Chh. Up. III-14-3. Brah man alone can be greater than all and thei r ul ti mate goal as men tioned in the t ext. The qual i ties of be ing greater and the ul ti - mate goal of e v ery thing are men tioned in the f ol low ing text s: He is greater than the earth, greater than the sky , greater than heav en,CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 39 greater than all t hese worlds Chh. Up. III-14-3. Brah man is Knowl - edge and Bliss. He is the Ul ti mate Goal of him who makes gif ts Bri. Up. III- 9-28. The text says that all t hings have been born from Akasa. S uch a cau sa tion can ap ply only to Brah man. The tex t says that Akasa is greater than ev ery thing else, t hat Akasa is the Su preme Goal and that it is In fi nite. These in di ca tions show that Akasa means Brah man only . Var i ous syn onyms of A kasa are used to de note Brah man. In which the V edas are in the Im per ish able One (Brah man) the High est, the ether (V yoman) T ait. Up. III-6. Again OM, Ka is Brah man, ether (Kha) is Brah man Chh. Up IV -10-5 and the old ether (Bri. Up. V -1.) There fore we are jus ti fied in de cid ing that t he word Akasa, though it oc curs in the be gin ning of the p as sage re fers to Brah man, it is sim i lar to that of the phrase Agni (the f ire) stud ies a chap ter, where the word Agni, though i t oc curs in the be gin ning de notes a boy . There fore it is set tled that the word Akasa de notes Brah man only . Pranadhi karanam: T opic 9 The word Prana must be understood as B rahman AV Ed mU& Ata eva Pranah I.1.23 (23) For th e same reason the breath al so refers to B rahma n. Ata eva: for the same reason; Pranah: the breath (also refers to Brahman). As Prana is de scribed as the cause of the world, such a de scrip - tion can ap ply to B rah man alone. Which then is that de ity? P rana he said. Re gard ing the Udgitha it is said (Chh. Up. I -10-9), Prastotri that de ity which be longs to the P rastava etc. For all the be ings merge in Prana alone and from P rana they arise. This is the de ity be long ing to the P rastava Chh. Up. I-1 1-4. Now the doubt arises whether Prana is vi tal force or Brah man. The Purvap akshin or op po nent says that the word Prana de notes the fiv e - fold breath. The Siddhanti n says: No. Just as in the case of the pre - ced ing Su tra, so here also Brah man is meant on ac count of char ac ter is tic marks be ing men tioned; for here also a com ple men t ary pas sage makes us to un der stand that all be ings spring from and merge into Prana. This can oc cur only in con nec tion with t he Su - preme Lord. The op po nent says The scrip ture makes the fol low ing st ate - ment: when man sleep s, then into breat h in deed speech merges, into breath the eye, into breath t he ear , into breat h the mind; when he wakes up then they spring again from breat h alone. What the V eda here st ates is a mat ter of daily ob ser va tion, be cause dur ing sleepBRAHMA SU TRAS 40 when the breath ing goes on un in ter rupt edly the f unc tion ing of the sense or gans ceases and again be comes man i fest when the man wakes up only . Hence the sense or gans are the es sence of all be ings. The com ple men tary p as sage which speaks of the merg ing and emerg ing of the be ings can be rec on ciled with the chief vi tal air also. This can not be. P rana is used in the sense of Brah man in p as - sages like the Prana of P rana (Bri. Up. I V-4-18) and Prana in deed is Brah man Kau. Up. I II-3. T he Sruti de clares All these be ings merge in Prana and from Prana t hey arise Chh. Up. I-1 1-5. This is pos si ble only if Prana is Brah man and not the v i tal force in which the senses only get m erged in deep sleep. Jyotischaranadhi karanam: T opic 10 (Sutras 24-27) The light is Brahm an. `mo{V aUm{^YmZmV & Jyotischaranabhidhanat I.1.24 (24) The light is B rahman, on ac count of the me ntion of fe et in a passage which is connected with th e passage about the light. Jyotih: the light; Charana: feet; Abhidhanat: because of the mention. The ex pres sion Jyotih (light) is next taken up for dis cus sion. The Jyotis of Chhandogy a Upanishad III-13-7 re fers to Brah man and not to ma te rial light; be cause it is de scribed as hav ing four feet . Sruti de clares, Now that light which shines above t his heaven, higher than all, hi gher than ev ery thing, in t he high est worlds be yond which there are no other worldsthat is the same light which is within man. Here the doubt arises whether the word light de notes the phys i cal light of t he sun and the like or the Su preme Self? The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds that t he word light de - notes the light of the sun and the li ke as it is the or di nary well-es tab - lished mean ing of the t erm. More over the word shines or di narily re fers to the sun and sim i lar sources of light. Brah man is colour less. It can not be said in the pri mary sense of the word that it shines. Fur ther the word Jyotis de notes light f or it is said to be bounded by t he sky (that light which shines above this heaven); t he sky can not be come the bound ary of Brah man which is the Self of all, which is all-per vad - ing and in fi nite, and is t he source of all things mov able or im mov able. The sky can form the bound ary of light which is mere prod uct and which is there fore united. The word Jyoti does not mean phy s i cal light of t he sun which helps vi sion. It de notes Brah man. Why? On ac count of the f eet (quar - ters) be ing men tioned in a pre ced ing text : Such is it s great ness, greater than this is the P urusha. One foot of It is all be ings, while it s re main ing three feet are the Im mor tal in heaven Chh. Up. I II-12-6.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 41 That which in this tex t forms the t hree quar ter part, im mor tal and con - nected with heaven of Brah man which al to gether con sti tutes four quar ters, this v ery same en tity is again re ferred to in the p as sage un - der dis cus sion, for there also it is said to be con nected with heaven. Brah man is the sub ject mat ter of not onl y the pre vi ous text s, but also of the sub se quent sec tion, S andilya V idya (Chh. Up. I II-14). I f we in ter pret light as or di nary light, we will com mit the er ror of drop ping the topic st arted and in tro duce a new sub ject. Brah man is the main topic in the sec tion im me di ately f ol low ing that which con tains the p as - sage un der dis cus sion (Chh. Up. III -14). There fore it is quit e rea son - able to say t hat the in ter ven ing sec tion also (Chh. Up. II I-13) treat s of Brah man only . Hence we con clude that in t he pas sage the word light must de note Brah man only . The word Jyoti here does not at all de note that light on which the func tion of t he eye de pends. It has dif fer ent mean ing, for in stance with speech only as light man sit s (Bri. Up. IV -3-5); what ever il lu - mines some thing else may be con sid ered as light. T here fore the term light may be ap plied to Brah man also whose na ture is in tel li - gence be cause It gives light to the whole uni verse. The Srut is de clare Him the shin ing one, ev ery thing shines af ter; by His light all this is il - lu mined (Kau. Up. I I-5-15) and Him the gods wor ship as the Light of lights, as the Im mor tal (Bri. Up. I V-4-16). The men tion of li m it ing ad junct s with re spect to Brah man, de - noted by t he word light bounded by heaven and the as sign ment of a spe cial lo cal ity serves t he pur pose of de vout med i ta tion. The S rutis speak of dif fer ent kinds of med i ta tion on Brah man as spe cially con - nected with cer tain lo cal i ties such as the sun, the eye, the heart. There fore it is a set tled con clu sion that the word li ght here de - notes Brah man. N>Xmo@{^YmZm o{V M oV Z VW m MoVmo@n U{ZJXmmWm {h XeZ_ & Chhandobhidhananneti chet na t atha chetorp ananigadat t atha hi darsanam I.1.25 (25) If it be said th at Br ahma n is n ot denot ed on accoun t of the metre Gayatri b eing de noted, we reply not so, b ecause thus i.e. by me ans of the metre the ap plicatio n of the m ind on B rahman is declared; be cause thus it is seen (in other passages also). Chhandas: the metre known as Gayatri; Abhidhanat: because of the description; Na: not; Iti: thus ; Chet: if; Na: not; Tatha: thus, like that; Chetorp ana: application of t he mind; Nigad at: because of the teaching; Tatha hi: like that; Darsanam: it is seen (in other tex ts). An ob jec tion raised against Su tra 24 is re futed in t his Su tra.BRAHMA SU TRAS 42 The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says In the p as sage, One foot of It is all be ings, Brah man is not re ferred to but t he metre Gayatri, be cause the first p ara graph of the pre ced ing sec tion of t he same Upani shad be gins with Gayatri i s ev ery thing, what so ever here ex ists. Hence the feet re ferred to in the t ext men tioned in the pre vi - ous Su tra re fer to thi s metre and not to B rah man. In re ply we say , not so; be cause the Brahmana p as sage Gayatri in deed is all this teaches that one should m ed i tate on the Brah man which is con nected with this met re, for Brah man be ing the cause of ev ery thing is con nected with that Gayatri also and it is that Brah man which is to be med i tated upon. Brah man is med i tated upon as Gayatri. By this ex pla na tion all be come con sis tent. If Gay atri meant m etre then it would be im pos si - ble to say of it that Gayatri is ev ery thing what so ever here ex ists be - cause cer tainly t he metre is not ev ery thing. There fore the Su tra says Tatha hi darsanam So we see. By such an ex pla na tion only the above p as sage gives a con sis tent mean ing. Oth er wise we will have to hold a metre t o be ev ery thing which is ab surd. There fore through Gayatri t he med i ta tion on Brah man is shown. The di rec tion of t he mind is de clared in the tex t Gayat ri is all this. The p as sage in struct s that by m eans of the met re Gayatri the mind is to be di rected on Brah man which is con nected with that metre. This in ter pre ta tion is in ac cor dance with the other t exts in the same sec tion e.g. All this in deed is Brah man Chh. Up. II I-14-1 where Brah man is the chief t opic. De vout med i t a tion on Brah man through its mod i fi ca ti ons or ef - fects is men tioned in other p as sages also; for in stance, Ait. Ar. III-2-3.12 it is the S u preme Be ing un der the name of Gay atri, whom the Bahv richas wor ship as Mahat-Uktha i.e. M aha Prana, the Adhvaryu priest s as Agni (fire), and the Chandoga priest s as Maha Vrata (the great est rite). There fore Brah man is meant here and not t he metre Gayat ri. ^yVm{XnmX`nXoemonnmod_ & Bhut adipadav yapadesop apatteschaiv am I.1.26 (26) And thus also (we must conclude, viz., that Br ahman is t he subject or topic of the previous passage , where Gayatri occurs) because (thus only) the declaration as to th e beings etc. being the feet is possible. Bhut adi: the element s etc. i.e. the element s, the earth, the body and the heart; Pada: (of) foot, part; Vyapadesa: (of) mention (of) declaration or expression; Upapatteh: because of the possibility or proof, reasonableness, as it is rightly deduced from the above reasons; Cha: also; Evam: thus, so.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 43 An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is ad duced. The be ings, earth, body and heart can be felt only of Brah man and not of Gay atri, t he metre, a mere col lec tion of sy l la bles. The pre - vi ous pas sage has only Brah man for it s topic or sub ject, be cause the text des ig nates the be ings and so on as the feet of Gay atri. The t ext at first speaks of the be ings, the earth, the body and t he heart and then goes on de scrib ing that Gay atri has four feet and is six fold. I f Brah - man were not meant, there would be no room for the v erse such is the great ness etc. Hence by Gayatri is here meant Brah man as con nected with the metre Gayat ri. It is this Brah man p articularised by Gayat ri that is said to be the S elf of ev ery thing in the p as sage Gayatri is ev ery thing etc. There fore Brah man is to be re garded as the sub ject mat ter of the pre vi ous pas sage also. This same Brah man is again re cog nised as light in Chh. Up. I II-12-7. The el e ment s, the earth, the body and t he heart can not be rep - re sented as the four verses of Gay atri. They can be un der stood only to mean the f our fold man i fes ta tions of the S u preme Be ing. The word heaven is a sig nif i cant word. It s use in con nec tion with l ight re - minds us of it s use in con nec tion with t he Gayatri also. There fore the light shin ing above heaven i s the same as the Gayat ri that has three of its feet in heav en. CnXoe ^oXmo{V MoV Z C^`p _`{ damoYmV & Upade sabhe dannet i chet na ubhay asminnapya virodha t I.1.27 (27) If it be said (that Brahman of the Gayatri passage cannot be recognise d in the pass age treating o f light) on a ccount of the difference of d esignati on or the specification (we reply) no , because in e ither (d esignation) the re is no thing contrary (to the recognition). Upadesa : of teaching of grammatical construction or cases; Bhedat: because of the dif ference; Na: not; Iti ch et: if it be said; Na: no; Ubhay asmin: in both, (whether in t he ablativ e case or in the locative case); Api: even; Avirodhat: because there is no contradiction. An other ob jec tion against S u tra 24 is raised and re futed. If it be ar gued that t here is a dif fer ence of ex pres sion con sist ing in case-end - ing in the Gay atri-Sruti and i n the Jyoti Sruti re gard ing the word Div (heaven) then the re ply is No; t he ar gu ment is not t en a ble, as there is no ma te rial con tra dic tion be tween the two ex pres sions. In the Gay atri p as sage three feet of i t are what is im mor tal in heaven, heave n is des ig nated as the abode of B rah man; while in t he lat ter pas sage that light which shines above t his heaven, Brah man is de scribed as ex ist ing above heaven. One may ob ject that t he sub - ject mat ter of the f or mer p as sage can not be re cog nised in the lat ter. The ob jec tor may say how then can one and t he same Brah man beBRAHMA SU TRAS 44 re ferred to in both t he text s? It can; there can be no con tra dic tion here. Just as in or di nary lan guage a bird, al though in con tact with the top of a t ree, is not only said to be on the tree, but also above t he tree, so Brah man also, al though be ing in heaven, is here re ferred to as be - ing be yond heaven as well. The locative Div i in heaven and the ab la tive Divah above heaven are not con trary. The dif fer ence in the case-end ing of the word Div is no con tra dic tion as the locati ve case (the sev enth case-end ing) is of ten used in the scrip tural tex ts to ex press sec ond - arily the m ean ing of the ab la tive (t he fif th case-end ing). There fore the Brah man spo ken of in the for mer p as sage can be re cog nised in the lat ter also. It is a set tled con clu sion that the word light de notes Brah man. Though the gram mat i cal cases used in the scrip tural p as sage are not iden ti cal, the ob ject of the ref er ence is clearly re cog nised as be ing iden ti cal. Pratardanadhikaran am: T opic 1 1 (Sutras 28-31) Prana is Brahm an mUVWmZwJ_mV & Pranast athanugamat I.1.28 (28) Prana is Br ahma n, that being so u nderst ood fr om a con nected consideration ( of the passage referring to Pran a). Pranah: the breath or lif e-energy; Tatha: thus, so, likewise like that stated before; l ike that st ated in the S ruti quoted bef ore in connection therewith; Anugamat: because of being understood (from the t exts). The ex pres sion Prana is again t aken up for dis cus sion. In the K aushit aki Upani shad there oc curs the con ver sa tion be - tween Indra and Prat ardana. Prat ardana, the son of Div odasa, came by means of f ight ing and strength to t he abode of Indra. P ratardana said to Indra, Y ou your self choose for me that boon which y ou think is most ben e fi cial to man. I ndra re plied, Know me only . This is what I think most ben e fi cial to man. I am Prana, t he in tel li gent Self (Prajnatman). M ed i tate on me as life, as im mor tal ity I II-2. That Prana is in deed the in tel li gent Self , bliss, undecaying, im mor tal III -8. Here the doubt arises whether the word Prana de notes merely breath, the m od i fi ca tion of air or t he God Indra, or the in di vid ual soul, or the high est Brah man. The word Prana in the p as sage re fers to Brah man, be cause it is de scribed as the most con du cive to hu man wel fare. Noth ing is more con du cive to hu man wel fare than the knowl edge of Brah man. More over Prana is de scribed as Prajnatma. The air which is non-in - tel li gent can clearly not be t he in tel li gent Self .CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 45 Those char ac ter is tic marks which are men tioned in the con clud - ing p as sage, viz., bliss (Ananda), undecaying (Aj ara), im mor tal (Am - ri ta) can be true only of B rah man. Fur ther knowl edge of Prana ab solves one from all sins. He who knows me thus by no deed of his is his life harmed, nei ther by ma tri cide nor by p at ri cide Kau. Up. II I-1. All thi s can be prop erly un der stood only if the Su preme Self or the high est Brah man is ac knowl edged to be the sub ject mat ter of the pas sages, and not if t he vi tal air is sub sti tuted in it s place. Hence the word Prana de notes Brah man only . Z dw$am_monXoem{ X{V Mo X`m_ g~Y^y _m p _Z& Na v akturatmop adesaditi chet adhy atmasambandhabhuma hyasmin I.1.29 (29) If it be said that (B rahma n is) n ot (denoted or refe rred in the se passages on accou nt of) t he spe akers instruction about himself, we reply not so, because there is abundance of reference to the Inner Self in thi s (chapter or Up anishad). Na: not; Vaktuh: of the speaker (Indra); Atma: of the Self; Upadesat: on account of instruction; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Adhy atma sambandha bhuma: abundance of reference to the I nner Self; Hi: because; Asmin : in this (chapter or Up anishad). An ob jec tion to S u tra 28 is re futed. An ob jec tion is raised against the as ser tion that Prana de notes Brah man. The op po nent or Purvap akshin says, The word Prana does not de note the S u preme Brah man, be cause the speaker Indra des ig nates him self. Indra speaks to Prat ardana, Know me only . I am Prana, the i n tel li gent Self . How can the Prana which re fers to a per - son al ity be B rah man to which the at trib ute of be ing a speaker can not be as cribed. The Sruti de clares, Brah man is with out speech, with out mind Bri. Up. III- 8-8. Fur ther on, also Indra, the speaker glo ri fies him self, I slew the three-headed son of Tvashtri. I de liv ered the Arunmukhas, the dev o - tees to the wolv es (Salavrika). I kill ed the peo ple of Prahlada and so on. Indra may be called Prana ow ing to his strength. Hence Prana does not de note Brah man. This ob jec tion is not v alid be cause there are found abun dant ref er ences to Brah man or the In ner Self in t hat chap ter. They are Prana, the in tel li gent Self , alone hav ing laid hold of t his body makes it rise up. For as in a car the cir cum fer ence of the wheel is set on the spokes and the spokes on the nave; thus are these ob jects set on the sub jects (the senses) and the sub jects on the Prana. A nd that P rana in deed is the Self of Prajna, blessed (Ananda), undecaying (Ajara) and im mor tal (Am ri ta). He is my Self , thus let i t be known. This Self is Brah man, Om ni scient Bri. Up. I I-5-19.BRAHMA SU TRAS 46 Indra said to Prat ardana, W or ship me as Prana. This can only re fer to Brah man. For the wor ship of Brah man alone can give Mukti or the fi nal eman ci pa tion which is most ben e fi cial to man (Hit atma). I t is said of this Prana, For he (Prana) makes him, whom he wishes to lead out from t hese worlds, do a good deed. This shows that the Prana is the great cause that m akes ev ery ac tiv ity pos si ble. This also is con sis tent wit h Brah man and not with breat h or Indra. Hence Prana here de notes Brah man only . The chap ter con tains in for ma tion re gard ing Brah man only ow - ing to plenty of ref er ences to the In ner Self, not re gard ing the self of some de ity. But if Indra re ally meant to teach the wor ship of Brah man, why does he say wor ship me? It is re ally mis lead ing. T o this the fol low ing Su tra gives the proper an swer. em >m VynXoemo dm_Xo ddV & Sastradrishty a tup adeso v amadev avat 1.1.30 (30) The d eclarati on (m ade by Indra about him self, viz. , that he is and w ith Brah man) is possi ble thr ough i ntuition as at tested by Sruti, as in the case of Vamadeva. Sastradrishty a: through insight based on scripture or as attested by Sruti; Tu: but; Upadesah: instruction; Vamadev avat: like that of Vamadeva. The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 29 is fur ther re futed. The word tu (but) re moves the doubt . Indra s de scrib ing him - self as Prana is quite suit able as he iden ti fies him self with Brah man in that in struc tion to P ratardana like the sage V amadeva. Sage V amadeva real ised Brah man and said I was Manu and Surya which is in ac cor dance with the p as sage What ever Deva knew Brah man be came That (Bri. Up. I -4-10). Indra s in struc tion also is like that. Hav ing real ised Brah man by means of Rishi-like in tu ition, Indra iden ti fies him self in the in struc tion with t he Su preme Brah man and in struct s Prat ardana about the High est Brah man by means of t he words Know me only. Indra praises the knowl edge of Brah man. There fore it is not hi s own glo ri fi ca tion when he says I killed T vashtri s son etc. The mean - ing of the p as sage is Al though I do such cruel ac tions, y et not ev en a hair of mine is harmed be cause I am one with Brah man. There fore the life of any other per son also who knows me thus is not harmed by any deed of his. Indra says in a sub se quent p as sage I am Prana, t he in tel li gent Self . There fore the whole chap ter re fers to Brah man only .CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 47 Ord_w `mU{ bmo {V MoV Z Cnmgm{d `mV Am{l Vdm{Xh V moJmV & Jivamukhy apranalin ganneti chet na up asatraiv idhyat asrit atvadiha tadyogat I.1.31 (31) If it be said that (Brah man is) not (meant) on account of characterist ic marks of th e individual soul and the chief vital air (being mentioned); we say no, because (such an interpreta tion) woul d enjoin threefold meditat ion (Upasa na), because Prana has been acce pted (e lsewhere in the Sruti in the sense o f Brahman ) and because here also (words denoting Brah man) are mention ed with re ference to Prana. Jivamukhy apranalin gat: on account of the characteristic marks of the indiv idual soul and the chief v ital air; Na: not; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not; Upasana: worship, medit ation; Traividhy at: because of the three ways; Asrit atvat: on account of Prana being accepted (elsewhere in Sruti in the sense of B rahman); Iha: in the Kaushit aki passage; Tadyogat: because of it s appropriateness; as they have been applied; because words denoting Brahman are menti oned with reference to Prana. But an other ob jec tion is raised. What is t he ne ces sity of this Adhikarana again, med i ta tion of P rana and iden ti fy ing Prana with Brah man, when in the pre ced ing Su tra, I-1-23 it has been shown that Prana means Brah man? To this we an swer: this Adhikarana is not a re dun dancy . In the Su tra I-1-23, the doubt was only with re gard to the mean ing of the sin - gle word Prana. In t his Adhikarana the doubt was not about the mean - ing of the word Prana, but about t he whole p as sage, in which there are words, and marks or in di ca tions that would hav e led a per son med i tat ing, to t hink that there also Jiv a and breath meant t o be med i - tated upon. T o re move thi s doubt, it i s de clared that Brah man alone is the topic of di s cus sion in this Kaushit aki Upani shad and not Jiva or vi - tal breath. There fore this Adhikarana has been sep a rately st ated by t he au thor . The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds that P rana does not de note Brah man, but ei ther the in di vid ual soul or the chief vi tal air or both. He says that the chap ter men tions the char ac ter is tic marks of the in di vid ual soul on the one hand, and of the chief v i tal air on the other hand. The p as sage One should know the speaker and not en quire into speech (Kau. Up. I II-4) men tions a char ac ter is tic mark of the in di - vid ual soul. The p as sage Prana, lay ing hold of his body , makes it rise up Kau. Up. I II. 3 point s to the chief v i tal air be cause the chief at trib - ute of t he vi tal air is that it sus tains the body . Then there is an otherBRAHMA SU TRAS 48 pas sage, Then Prana said to t he or gans: be not de ceived. I alone di - vid ing my self fiv e fold sup port this body and keep it Prasna Up. II-3. Then again you will f ind What is Prana, t hat is Prajna; what is Prajna, that is Prana. This Su tra re futes such a view and says, t hat Brah man alone is re ferred to by P rana, be cause the above in ter pre ta tion would in volve a three fold Up asana, viz., of the in di vid ual soul, of t he chief vi tal air , and of Brah man. Which is cer tainly against t he ac cepted rules of in - ter pre ta tion of t he scrip tures. It is in ap pro pri ate to as sume that a sin - gle sen tence en joins three kinds of wor ship or med i ta tion. Fur ther in the be gin ning we have know me only fol lowed by I am Prana, in tel li gent Self , med i tate on me as life, as im mor tal ity; and in the end again we read And that Prana in deed is the in tel li gent Self , blessed (Ananda), undecaying (Ajara) and im mor tal (Am ri ta). The be gin ning and the con clud ing p art are thus seen to be sim i lar. There - fore we must con clude that they re fer to one and the same sub ject and that t he same sub ject-mat ter is kept up through out. There fore Prana must de note Brah man only . In t he case of other p as sages where char ac ter is tic marks of Brah man are men - tioned the word Prana is taken in the sense of Brah man. It is a set tled con clu sion that Brah man is the topic or sub ject mat ter of the whole chap ter . Thus ends the first Pada (Sec tion 1) of the f irst Adhy aya (Chap ter I) of the Brahma Sutras; or t he Vedant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 1 49 CHAPTER I SECTION 2 INTRODUCTION In the First P ada or Sec tion Brah man has been shown to be the cause of the or i gin, sus te nance and dis so lu tion of t he whole uni verse. It has been t aught that the Su preme Brah man should be en quired into. Cer tain at trib utes such as Eter nity, Om ni science, All-pervadingness, t he Self of all and so on have been de clared of the Brah man. In the lat ter part of Sec tion I cer tain terms in the S ruti such as Anandamaya, Jyoti, Prana, Akasa, et c., used in a dif fer ent sense have been shown through rea son ing to re fer to Brah man. Cer tain pas sages of the scrip tures about whose sense doubt s are en ter - tained and which con tain clear char ac ter is tics of Brah man (Spashta-Brahmalinga) have been shown to re fer to Brah man. Now in this and the next Sec tion some more p as sages of doubt - ful im port wherein the char ac ter is tic marks of Brah man are not so ap - par ent (Asp ashta-Brahmalinga) are t aken up for dis cus sion. Doubt s may arise as to the ex act mean ing of cer tain ex pres sions of Sruti, whether they in di cate Brah man or some thing else. Those ex pres - sions are t aken up for dis cus sion in this and the nex t Sec tions. In the S ec ond and Third Padas will be shown that cer tain other words and sen tences in which there is only ob scure or in dis tinct in di - ca tion of B rah man ap ply also to B rah man as in those of the F irst Pada. 50 SYNOPSIS Doubt s may arise as to the ex act mean ing of cer tain ex pres - sions of Sruti, whether they in di cate Brah man or some thing else. These ex pres sions are t aken up for dis cus sion in this and the nex t sec tions. It is proved i n this sec tion that the dif fer ent ex pres sions used in dif fer ent Srutis for Di vine con tem pla tion in di cate the same In fi nit e Brah man. In the S andilya V idya of t he Chhandogya Up anishad it is said that as the f orm and the char ac ter of a per son in his next lif e are de ter - mined by his de sires and thought s of the pres ent one, he should con - stantly de sire for and med i tate upon Brah man who is per fect, who is Sat-Chit-A nanda, who is im mor tal, who is Self -lu mi nous, who is eter - nal, pure, birt hless, death less, In fi nite etc., so that he may be come iden ti cal with Him. Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1 to 8) shows that the be ing which con - sists of mind, whose body is breath et c., men tioned in Chhandogya Upanishad III-14 is not the in di vid ual soul, but B rah man. Adhikarana II: (Sutras 9 and 10) de cides that he to whom t he Brahmanas and Kshatriyas are but food (Katha Up. I-2-25) is the Su - preme Self or B rah man. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 1 1 and 12) shows that the two which en - tered into t he cave (Katha Up. I -3-1) are Brah man and the in di vid ual soul. Adhikarana IV : (Sutras 13 to 17) st ates that t he per son within the eye men tioned in Chh. Up. I V-15-1 in di cates nei ther a re flected im age nor any in di vid ual soul, but B rah man. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 18 to 20) shows that the I n ner Ruler within (Ant aryamin) de scribed in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad III-7-3 as per vad ing and guid ing the fiv e el e ment s (earth, wa ter, fire, air, ether) and also heaven, sun, moon, st ars etc., is no other than Brah man. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 21 to 23) proves that which can not be seen, etc., m en tioned in Mundaka Up anishad I-1-6 is Brah man. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 24 to 32) shows that the A t man, the Vaisvanara of Chhandogya Up anishad V -11-6 is Brah man. The opin ions of dif fer ent sages namely Jaimini, Asmarathya and Badari have also been giv en here to show that the I n fi nite Brah - man is some times con ceived as fi nite and as pos sess ing head, trunk, feet and ot her limbs and or gans in or der to fa cil i tate di vine con tem pla - tion ac cord ing to the ca pac ity of the medit ator. 51 Sarv atra Prasiddh yadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-8) The Manom aya is Brahman. gd{ gmon XoemV & Sarv atra prasiddhop adesat I.2.1 (32) (That wh ich consists of t he mind Manomaya is Brahman) because there is taught ( in thi s text) (that Brahman w hich is) well-known (a s the c ause of the wo rld) in the Upanisha ds. Sarv atra: everywhere, in ev ery V edantic p assage i.e., in al l Upanishads; Prasiddha: the well-known; Upadesat: because of the teaching. Sruti de clares, All this in deed is Brah man, em a nat ing from Him, liv ing and mov ing in Him, and ul ti mately dis solv ing in Him; t hus know - ing let a man med i tate with a calm mi nd. A man in his pres ent life i s the out come of his pre vi ous thought s and de sires. He be comes that in af ter-life what he now re solves to be. There fore he should med i tate on Brah man who is ide ally per fect, who f unc tions through his very life-en ergy and who is all-light. He who con sists of the mind, whose body is Prana (the sub tle body) et c. Chh. Up. II I-14. Now a doubt arises whether what is pointed out as the ob ject of med i ta tion by m eans of at trib utes such as con sist ing of mind, etc., is the in di vid ual soul or the Su preme Brah man. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: t he pas sage re fers to the in di vid ual soul only . Why? Be cause the em bod ied self only i s con - nected with the mi nd. This is a well-known fact, while t he Su preme Brah man is not. I t is said in the Mundaka Up anishad II-1-2 He is with - out breath, wit h out mind, pure. The p as sage does not aim at en join ing med i ta tion on Brah man. It aims only at en join ing calm ness of mind. The ot her at trib utes also sub se quently st ated in the t ext He to whom all works, all de sires be - long re fer to the i n di vid ual soul. The Srutis de clare He is my Self wit hin the heart, smaller than a corn of rice, smaller than a corn of bar ley. This re fers to the in di vid ual soul which has the size of the point of a goad, but not to the in fi nite or un lim ited Brah man. We re ply: The S u preme Brah man only is what is t o be med i tated upon as dis tin guished by the at trib utes of con sist ing of mind and so on. Be cause the text be gins with All t his in deed is Brah man. That Brah man which is con sid ered as the cause of the world in all scrip - tural p as sages is t aught here also in the for mula T ajjalan. As t he be - gin ning re fers to Brah man, the lat ter p as sage where He who con sists of the mind (Manomay a) oc curs, should also re fer to Brah - man as dis tin guished by cer tain qual i ties. Thus we avoid t he fault of drop ping the sub ject-mat ter un der dis cus sion and un nec es sar ily in -BRAHMA SU TRAS 52 tro duc ing a fresh topic. Fur ther the tex t speaks of Up asana, med i ta - tion. There fore it is but proper t hat Brah man which is de scribed in all other p as sages as an ob ject of med i ta tion is also t aught here and not the in di vid ual soul. The in di vid ual soul is not spo ken of any where as an ob ject of med i ta tion or Up asana. More over you can at tain se ren ity by med i tat ing on Brah man which is an em bodi ment of peace. Manomaya re fers to Brah man in Mun. Up. I I-2-7, T ait. Up. I-6-1 and Katha Up. V II-9. T he well-known Manomaya, ap plied in all t he above p as sages to Brah man, is re ferred to here in the Chhandogya al so. There fore Manomaya re fers to the Su preme Brah man only. {dd{jVJw Umonn mo& Vivakshit agunop apattescha I.2.2 (33) Moreover t he quali ties desir ed to be expressed are possible (i n Brah man; th erefore the passage refers to B rahma n). Vivakshit a: desired to be expressed; Guna: qualities; Upapatteh: because of the reasonableness, for the justif ication; Cha: and, moreover . An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is ad duced. And be cause the at trib utes, sought to be ap plied by t he Sruti quot ed above, just ly be - long to Brah man, it m ust be ad mit ted that the p as sage re fers to Brah - man. He who con sists of the mind, whose body is Prana (the sub tle body), whose form is light , re solve is true, whose na ture is like that of ether (Om ni pres ent and in vis i ble), from whom pro ceed all ac tions, all de sires, all scent s, all t astes; who is All-em brac ing, who is voice less and un at tached Chh. Up. III -14-2. These at trib utes men tioned in thi s text as top ics of med i ta tion are pos si ble in Brah man only . The qual i ties of hav ing true de sires (Sat Kama) and true pur - poses (Sat Sankalp a) are at trib uted to t he Su preme Self in an other pas sage viz., T he Self which is free f rom sin etc. Chh. Up. VI II-7-1, He whose Self is the ether; t his is pos si ble as Brah man which as the cause of the en tire uni verse is the Self of ev ery thing and is also the Self of the ether . Thus the qual i ties here in ti mated as top ics of med i ta - tion agree with t he na ture of Brah man. Hence, as the qual i ties men tioned are pos si ble in Brah man, we con clude that the S u preme Brah man alone is rep re sented as the ob - ject of med i t a tion. AZwnnm oVw Z e mara Anup apattestu na saarirah I.2.3 (34) On the other hand, as ( those qualities) are not possible (in it) the embodied (sou l is) not ( denoted by Man omaya etc.).CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 53 Anup apatteh: not being justif iable, because of the i mpossibility , because of the unreasonableness, because they are not appropriate; Tu: but on the ot her hand; Na: not; Saarirah: the embodied, the Jiva or the indivi dual soul. Such qual i ties can not ap ply to t he in di vid ual soul. The ar gu ment in sup port of the S u tra is con tin ued. The pre ced ing Su tra has st ated that t he qual i ties men tioned are pos si ble in Brah man. The pres ent Su tra de clares that they are not pos si ble in the Jiva or t he em bod ied Soul. B rah man only is en dowed with the qual i ties of con sist ing of mind or Manomaya, and so on but not t he em bod ied Self. Be cause the qual i ties such as He whose pur poses are true, whose Self is the et her, who is speech less, who is not dis turbed, who is greater than the earth can not be as cribed to the in di vid ual soul. The term Saarira or em bod ied means dwell ing in a body . If the op po nent says The Lord also dwells in the body , we re ply: true, He does abide in the body , but not in the body al one; be cause Sruti de clares The Lord is greater than the earth, great er than the heaven, Om ni pres ent like the et her, eter nal. On the con trary the in di - vid ual soul re sides in the body only . The Jiva is like a glow-worm be fore the ef ful gence of the Brah - man who is like a Sun when com pared with it. The su pe rior qual i ties de scribed in the text are not cer tainly pos si ble in Jiva. The All-per vad ing is not the em bod ied self or the in di vid ual soul, as it is quite im pos si ble to pred i cate Om ni pres ence of Him. It is im - pos si ble and against fact and rea son also that one and the same in di - vid ual could be in all the bod ies at the same ti me. H$_H$V `nXoem& Karmakartriv yapadesaccha I.2.4 (35) Because of the declara tion o f the attain er and the object attain ed. He who consists of the mind (Manomaya) r efers to Brah man a nd not to the indi vidual s oul. Karma: object; Kartri : agent; Vyapadesat: because of the declaration or mention; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 3 is ad duced. A sep a rate dis tinc tion is drawn be tween the ob ject of ac tiv ity and of the agent . There fore the at trib utes of con sist ing of mind (Manomaya) can not be long to the em bod ied self. The t ext says When I shall have de parted from hence I shall ob tain him Chh. Up. III-14-4. Here the word Him re fers to that which is the topic of dis cus - sion. Who con sists of the mind, the ob ject of med i ta tion viz. , as some thing to be ob tained; while the words I shall ob tain rep re sent the med i tat ing in di vid ual soul as the agent i. e., the obt ainer .BRAHMA SU TRAS 54 We must not as sume that one and t he same thing is spo ken of as the att ainer (agent) and the ob ject at tained at the same t ime. The attainer and the at tained can not be the same. The ob ject med i tated upon is dif fer ent from t he per son who med i tates, the in di vid ual soul re ferred to in the abov e text by the pro noun I. Thus for the above rea son also, that which is char ac ter ised by the at trib utes con sist ing of mind M anomaya and so on, can not be the in di vid ual soul. eX{deofmV & Sabdav iseshat I.2.5 (36) Because of the diffe rence of wo rds. Sabda: word; V iseshat: because of dif ference. The ar gu ment in fa vour of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. That which pos - sesses the at trib utes of con sist ing of mind and so on can not be the in di vid ual soul, be cause there is a dif fer ence of words. In the S atapatha Brahmana t he same idea is ex pressed in sim i - lar words As is a grain of rice, or a grain of bar ley, or a ca nary seed or the ker nel of a ca nary seed, so is that golden per son in the Self (X. 6-3-2). Here one word i.e. the locativ e in the Self de notes the in di - vid ual soul or the em bod ied self, and a dif fer ent word, viz. the nom i na - tive per son de notes the self dis tin guished by the at trib utes of con sist ing of mind et c. We, there fore, con clude that the t wo are dif fer ent and that the in di vid ual self is not re ferred to in the t ext un der dis cus sion. _Vo & Smri tescha I.2.6 (37) From the S mriti also (w e know t he embodied self or the individual soul is different from the one referred to in th e text under dis cussion ). Smrite h: from the Smr iti; Cha: and, also. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. It is so de clared also in the Smrit i (Bhagavad Git a). From the Smriti al so it is ev i dent that the in di vid ual soul is mark edly dif fer ent from the sub ject mat ter of the t ext un der dis cus sion. Smriti al so de clares the dif fer ence of the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Soul The Lord dwelleth in t he heart s of all be ings, O Arjuna, by His il lu sive power , caus ing all be ings to re volve, as though mounted on a pot ters wheel (Git a: XVI II-61). The dif fer ence is only imag i nary and not real. T he dif fer ence ex - ists only so long as A vidya or ig no rance last s and the sig nif i cance of the Mahavaky a or Great Sen tence of the Up anishads T at Tvam Asi (Thou art That) has not been real ised. As soon as you grasp the truthCHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 55 that t here is only one uni ver sal Self, there is an end to Samsara or phe nom e nal life with its dis tinc tion of bond age, fi nal eman ci p a tion and the like. A^H$mH$dmmX`nXoe m Zo{ V Mo { ZMm`dmXo d `mo _d&> Arbhakaukastv attadvyapadesaccha neti chet na nichay yatvadev am vyomav accha I.2.7 (38) If it be said that (the passage does) not ( refer to Brah man) on account of the small ness of t he abode (menti oned i.e. t he heart) and also on a ccount o f the denotation o f that (i.e . of minuteness) we say, No; because (Brahman) has thus t o be meditated and be cause the case is similar to that of ether. Arbhakaukastv at: because of the smallness of the abode; Tadvyapadesat: because of the description or denot ation as such i.e. mi nuteness; Cha: and also; Na: not; Iti: not so; Chet: if; Na: not; Nichay yatvat: because of medit ation (in the heart ); Evam: thus, so; Vyomav at: like the ether; Cha: and. An ob jec tion to S u tra 1 is raised and re futed. Now an ob jec tion is raised, that the Manomay a of the Chhandogya Up anishad can not be Brah man, but is Jiv a, be cause the de scrip tion there is more ap pli ca ble to an in di vid ual soul than to B rah - man. The tex t says He is my self wit hin the heart, smaller than a corn of rice, smaller than a m us tard seed Chh. Up. III-14-3. T his shows that t he Manomaya oc cu pies very lit tle sp ace, in fact it is atomic and so can not be Brah man. This Su tra re futes it. Though a man is the king of t he whole earth, he could at t he same time be called t he king of A yodhya as well. The In fi nite is called the at omic be cause He can be real ised in the min ute sp ace of the cham ber of the heart, just as Lord V ishnu can be real ised in the sa cred stone called Saligrama. Al though pres ent ev ery where, the Lord is pleased when med i - tated upon as abid ing in the heart. The case is sim i lar to that of the eye of t he nee dle. The ether , though all-per vad ing, is spo ken of as lim ited and min ute, wit h ref er ence to it s con nec tion with t he eye of t he nee dle. So it is said of Brah man also. The at trib utes of lim i ta tion of abode and of mi nute ness are as - cribed to Brah man only f or the con ve nience of con cep tion and med i - ta tion, be cause it is dif fi cult to med i tate on the all-per vad ing, in fi nite Brah man. This will cer tainly not go against His Om ni pres ence. These lim i ta tions are sim ply imag ined in Brah man. They are not at all real. In the v ery p as sage Brah man is de clared to be in fi nite like space, and all-per vad ing like ether , Greater than t he earth, greater than the sky , greater than heav en, greater than all these worlds. Though Brah man is all-per vad ing, yet He be comes atomic through His mys te ri ous in con ceiv able power to please His dev o tees. He ap -BRAHMA SU TRAS 56 pears si mul t a neously ev ery where, wher ever His dev o tees are. This si mul t a neous ap pear ance of the atomic Brah man ev ery where es tab - lishes His all-pervadingness even in His man i fested form. Gopis saw Lord Krishna ev ery where. The op po nent says: I f Brah man has His abode in the heart, which heart-abode is a dif fer ent one in each body , it would f ol low, that He is at tended by all the im per fec tions which at tach to be ings hav ing dif fer ent abodes, such as p ar rots shut up in dif fer ent cages viz., want of unity be ing made up of p arts, non-per ma nency , etc. He would be sub ject to ex pe ri ences orig i nat ing from con nec tion with bod ies. To this the au thor gives a suit able re ply in t he fol low ing Su tra. g^moJ m{[a{V MoV Z deo `mV & Sambho gapraptiri ti chet na v aiseshy at I.2.8 (39) If it be said that (b eing co nnected with th e hearts of a ll individual s ouls t o) Its (Br ahma ns) Omni presence, it would also have ex perience (of pleasure and pain) (we say) not so, on account of the diffe rence in the natu re (of the two). Sambhogaprapti: that it has experience of pleasure and p ain; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not; Vaiseshy at: because of the dif ference in nature. An other ob jec tion is raised and re futed here. The word Sambhoga de notes mu tual ex pe ri ence or com mon ex pe ri ence. The force of S am in Sambhoga is that of Saha. The mere dwell ing within a body i s not a cause al ways of ex pe ri enc ing the plea sures or pains con nected with that body . The ex pe ri ence is sub - ject to the i n flu ence of the good and evi l ac tions. Brah man has no such Karma. He is ac tion less (Nishkr iya, A karta). In the Gi ta the Lord says, The Kar mas do not touch Me and I hav e no at tach ment to t he fruit o f Kar masNa mam karmani lim panti na m e karmaphale spriha . There is no equal ity in ex pe ri ence be tween Brah man and the in - di vid ual soul, be cause Brah man is all-per vad ing, of ab so lute power; the in di vid ual soul is of lit tle power and ab so lutely de pend ent. Though Brah man is all-per vad ing and con nected with heart s of all in di vid ual souls and is also in tel li gent like them, He is not sub ject to plea sure and pain. Be cause the in di vid ual soul is an agent, he is the doer of good and bad ac tions. There fore he ex pe ri ences plea sure and p ain. Brah man is not the doer . He is the eter nal Satchidananda. He is free from all ev il. The op po nent says: The in di vid ual soul is in es sence iden ti cal with Brah man. There fore Brah man is also sub ject to the pl ea sure and pain ex pe ri enced by the Jiva or t he in di vid ual soul. This is a fool ish ar - gu ment. Thi s is a fal lacy. In re al ity there is nei ther the in di vid ual soul nor plea sure and pain. Plea sure and pain are m en tal cre ations only .CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 57 When the in di vid ual soul is un der the in flu ence of ig no rance or Avidya, he fool ishly thinks that he is sub ject to plea sure and pain. Prox im ity will not cause the cling ing of p ain and plea sure to Brah man. When some thing in sp ace is af fected by f ire, the sp ace it - self can not be af fected by f ire. Is ether blue be cause boys call it so? Not even the slight est trace of ex pe ri ence of plea sure and pain can be at trib ut ed to Brah man. Sruti de clares T wo birds are liv ing to gether as friends on the same tree i.e. body . One of t hem, i.e. the in di vid ual soul, eat s the taste ful fruit i.e. en joys the f ruit of his ac tions: and the ot her i.e. t he Su - preme Soul wit nesses with out eat ing any thing, i. e. with out p ar tak ing of fru it Mu n. Up . III-1- 1. Sutras 1 to 8 hav e es tab lished that t he sub ject of dis cus sion in the quoted por tion of t he Chhandogya Up anishad Chap ter III -14 is Brah man and not the i n di vid ual soul. Attradhikaranam: T opic 2 (Sutras 9-10) The eater is Brahm an. Amm MamM aJhUmV & Atta characharagrahanat I.2.9 (40) The Eater (is Brahman) , because both the movable and immovab le (i.e . the whole world) is take n (as His foo d). Atta: the Eat er; Characharagrahanat: because the movable and immovable (i. e. the whole univ erse) is taken (as His food). A pas sage from the Kat hopanishad is now t aken up for dis cus - sion. W e read in Kathop anishad I.2.25 Who t hen knows where H e is, to Whom the B rahmanas and Kshatriyas are (as it were) but food, and death it self a con di ment? This tex t shows by means of the words food and con di ment that t here is some eater . Who is this eater? Is it t he fire re ferred to in as eater: S oma in - deed is food, and fi re eater Bri. Up. I -4-6, or is it in di vid ual soul re - ferred to as eater One of t hem eat s the sweet fruit Mun. Up. III -I-I, or the Su preme Self? We re ply that the eater must be t he Su preme Self be cause it is men tioned what is mov able and what is im mov able. The en tire uni - verse is re-ab sorbed in Brah man. All things mov able and im mov able are here to be t aken as con sti tut ing the food of Brah man while Death it self is the con di ment. The eat er of the whole world, t he con sumer of all these things in t heir to tal ity can be Brah man alone and none else. The Brahmanas and the Kshat riyas are men tioned as mere ex - am ples as they are fore most of cre ated be ings and as they hold a pre-em i nent po si tion. The words are merely il lus tra tiv e. The whole uni verse sprin kled over by Death is re ferred to here as the food. Con di ment is a thing which ren ders other things moreBRAHMA SU TRAS 58 pal at able and causes other things to be eaten wit h great rel ish. There fore the Death it self is con sumed, be ing a con di ment as it were, it makes other things p al at able. There fore the Eat er of the en tire world made p al at able by Death, can mean only Brah man in His as - pect of De stroyer . He with draws the whole uni verse within Him self at the time of Pralaya or dis so lu tion. There fore the Su preme Self must be taken here as the Eater . The op po nent says: B rah man can not be an eater . The Sruti de - clares The other looks on with out eat ing. W e say that t his has no va - lid ity. The p as sage aims at de ny ing the fru ition of t he re sults of works. It is not m eant to deny the re-ab sorp tion of t he world into Brah man; be cause it is well-es tab lished by all t he Vedant a-text s that Brah man is the cause of the cre ation, sus te nance and re-ab sorp tion of t he world. There fore the Eat er can here be Brah man only . H$aUm& Prakaranaccha I.2.10 (41) And on ac count of the context also t he (eater is Brah man) . Prakaranat: from the contex t; Cha: also, and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 9 is given. Brah man is the sub ject of the di s cus sion. In the be gin ning Nachiket as asks Y ama, T ell me of t hat which is above good and evil , which is be yond cause and ef fect and which is other than t he past and fu ture Katha Up. I -2-14. Y ama re plies, I will t ell you in brief . It is OM Katha Up. I -2-15. This At man is nei ther born nor does it die Katha Up. I-2-18. He fi nally in cludes of whom the Brahmana and the Kshatriya classes are, as it were, f ood and Death it self a con di ment or pickle, how can one thus know where that At man is? All thi s ob vi ously shows that Brah man is the gen eral topic. T o ad here to the gen eral topic is the proper pro ceed ing. Hence the Eat er is Brah man. Fur ther the clause Who then knows where he is, shows that reali sa tion is very dif fi cult. This again point s to the Su preme Self. The force of the word Cha (and) in the Su tra is to in di cate that the Smrit i is also to the same ef fect, as says the G ita. Thou art the Eat er of the worlds, of al l that mov es and st ands; wor thier of rev er ence than the Guru s self, there is none like Thee. Guhaprav ishtadhikaranam : Topic 3 (Sutras 1 1-12) The dwellers in the cave of the heart are the individual soul and Brahm an. Jwhm {d >mdm_mZm {h Ve ZmV& Guham prav istavatmanau hi t addarsanat I.2.11 (42)CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 59 The two who hav e entere d into the cavity (o f the he art) are indeed the in dividual soul an d the Supr eme Soul, because it is so see n. Guham: in the cavit y (of the heart ) Prav ishtau: the two who have entered; Atmana u: are the two selfs (indivi dual soul and the Supreme Soul); Hi: indeed, because; Taddarsanat: because it is so seen. An other p as sage of the Kat hopanishad is t aken up for dis cus - sion. In the same K athop anishad I-3-1 we read, Hav ing en tered the cav ity of the heart, t he two en joy the re ward of their works in the body . Those who know Brah man call them shade and light : like wise those house hold ers who per form the T rinachiket a sac ri fice. The doubt arises here whether the cou ple re ferred to are the in - di vid ual soul and Buddhi (in tel lect). In the p as sage un der dis cus sion, the cou ple re ferred to are the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Self, for these two, be ing both in tel li - gent selfs, are of t he same na ture. W e see that in or di nary life al so when ever a num ber is men tioned, be ings of the same class are un - der stood to be meant . When a bull is brought t o us, we say bring an - other , look out for a sec ond. It means an other bull, not a horse or a man. So, if with an in tel li gent self, t he in di vid ual soul, an other is said to en ter the cav ity of the heart, i t must re fer to an other of the same class i.e. to an other in tel li gent be ing and not to t he in tel lect (Buddhi) which is in sen tient. Sruti and Sm riti speak of the S u preme Self as placed in t he cave. W e read in Kathop anishad I-2-12 The an cient who is hid den in the cave, who dwells in t he abyss. W e also find in T aittiriy a Upanishad II-1 He who knows him hid den in the cave, in the high est ether and search for the self who en tered into t he cave. A spe cial abode for the all-per vad ing Brah man is given for t he pur pose of con - cep tion and med i ta tion. Thi s is not con trary to rea son. Some times the char ac ter is tics of one in a group are in di rectly ap plied to the whole group as when we say The men with an um - brella where only one has an um brella and not the whole group. Sim - i larly here also, t hough it is only one who is en joy ing the fruit s of ac tions both are spo ken of as eat ing the fruit s. The word pibant au is in the dual num ber mean ing the two drink while as a mat ter of fact , the Jiv a only drinks the fruit of his works and not the S u preme Self. We may ex plain the p as sage by say ing that while the in di vid ual soul drinks, the Su preme Self also is said to drink be cause he makes the soul to drink. The in di vid ual soul is the di rect agent, t he Su preme Self is t he causal agent that is t o say the in di vid - ual self di rectly drinks while the Su preme Self causes the in di vid ual soul to drink.BRAHMA SU TRAS 60 The phrases shade and light show the dif fer ence be tween the In fi nite Knowl edge of the S u preme Self and t he fi nite knowl edge of the Jiva, or that the Jiv a is bound down to the chain of S amsara, while the Su preme Self is abov e Samsara. We, there fore, un der stand by the t wo en tered into t he cave, t he in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Self. An other rea son for this in ter pre ta tion is given i n the fol low ing Su tra . {deofU m& Viseshanaccha I.2.12 (43) And on account of the distin ctive qualities (of the two menti oned in su bsequent t exts). Viseshanat: on account of distinctiv e qualities; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 11 is given. This is clear also from the de scrip tion in other por tions of the same scrip ture viz. K athop anishad. Fur ther the dis tinc tive qual i ties men tioned in the t ext agree only with the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Soul. B e cause in a sub se - quent p as sage (I-3-3) the char ac ter is tics of the t wo that have en tered the cav ity of the heart are given. They in di cate that t he two are the in - di vid ual soul and Brah man. Know that the Self to be the char i o teer, the body t o be the char iot. The in di vid ual soul is rep re sented as a char i o teer driv ing on through the trans mi gra tory ex is tence and fi nal eman ci pa tion. Fur ther it is said He at tains the end of his jour ney, that high est place of V ishnu Katha Up. I-3-9. Here it is rep re sented that the Su preme Self is t he goal of the driv ers course. The two are men - tioned here as the att ainer and the goal at tained i.e. t he in di vid ual soul or Jiva and the Su preme Soul or Brah man. In the pre ced ing p as sage (I-2-12) also it is said The wise, who by means of med i ta tion on his Self , re cog nises the An cient who is dif - fi cult to be seen, who has en tered into t he dark, who is hid den in the cave of the heart , who abides in the aby ss as God, he in deed leaves joy and sor row far be hind. Here the two are spo ken of as the medit ator and the ob ject of med i ta tion. More over the Su preme Self is t he gen eral topic. It is there fore ob vi ous that the pas sage un der dis cus sion re fers to the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Self. Antaradhikaranam : Topic 4 (Sutras 13-17) The person within the eye is Brahm an. AVa Cnn mo& Antara up apatteh I.2.13 (44)CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 61 The pe rson within (the eye) (is Brahma n) on acc ount o f (the attrib utes me ntion ed therein) be ing ap propriate (only to Brahman). Antara: inside (the eye), t he being within the ey e; Upapatteh: on account of the appropriateness of (att ributes). The be ing within the ey e is Brah man, be cause it is rea son able to con strue the p as sage as ap ply ing to the S u preme Self t han to any - thing else. The form of wor ship in an other p art of Chhandogya Up anishad (IV-15-1), t ak ing the be ing within the ey es as the Su preme Self, is taken up as the sub ject for dis cus sion. In Chhandogya Up anishad IV -15-1 we read, This per son that is seen in the eye is the S elf. Thi s is Im mor tal and fear less, this is Brah - man. The doubt here arises whether this p as sage re fers to the re - flected self which re sides in the eye, or t o the in di vid ual soul or to the self of some de ity which pre sides over the or gan of sight or to t he Su - preme Self. The Su tra says that t he per son in the eye is Brah man only , be - cause the at trib utes Im mor tal, f ear less, etc., men tioned here ac - cord with the na ture of the S u preme Self only . The at trib utes be ing un touched by sin, be ing Samy advama etc., are ap pli ca ble to the S u preme Self only . The at trib utes of be ing Vamani or the leader of all and B hamani, t he All-ef ful gent, ap plied to the per son in the eye are ap pro pri ate in the case of B rah man also. There fore, on ac count of agree ment, t he per son within the eye is the Su preme Self or B rah man only . WmZm{X `nXoe m& Sthanadiv yapadesaccha I.2.14 (46) And on a ccount of the stat ement of place and s o on. Sthanadi: the place and the rest; Vyapadesat: on account of the statement; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 13 is given. In other Srut is lo ca tion etc., i.e., abode, name and form are at - trib uted to B rah man Him self to fa cil i tate med i ta tion. B ut how can the all-per vad ing Brah man be in a lim ited sp ace like the eye? Def i nite abode like the cav ity of the heart, t he eye, t he earth, disc of the sun etc., is giv en to the all-per vad ing Brah man for the pur pose of med i ta - tion (Up asana), just as Saligrama is pre scribed for med i ta tion on Vishnu. This is not con trary to rea son. The phrase and so on which forms p art of the S u tra shows that not only abode i s as signed to Brah man but also such things as name and form not ap pro pri ate to B rah man which is de void of nam e and form, are as cribed to It f or the sake of med i ta tion, as Brah man with out BRAHMA SU TRAS 62 qual i ties can not be an ob ject of med i ta tion. V ide Chh. Up. 1.6. 6-7. His name is Ut. He with t he golden beard. gwI{d{ e>m{^YmZmXod M & Sukhav isisht abhidhanad eva cha I.2.15 (46) And on a ccount o f the passage referring to that whic h is distinguishe d by blis s (i.e. Brahman). Sukha: bliss; Visisht a: qualified by ; Abhidhanat: because of the description; Eva: alone; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 13 is con tin ued. Be cause the text re fers to the S u preme Self only and not to Jiv a who is mis er a ble. The same Brah man which is spo ken of as char ac ter ised by bliss in the be gin ning of the chap ter in the clauses Breath is Brah man, Ka is Brah man Kha is Brah man we must sup pose It to be re ferred to in the pres ent p as sage also, as it is proper to stick to the sub ject mat ter un der dis cus sion. The fires t aught to Up akosala about Brah man Breath is Brah - man, bliss is Brah man, the et her is Brah man Chh. Up. IV -10-5. This same Brah man is fur ther elu ci dated by his t eacher as the be ing in the eye. On hear ing the speech of the f ires viz., Breat h is Brah man, Ka is Brah man, Kha is Brah man, Up akosala says I un der stand that breath is Brah man, but I do not un der stand that Ka or Kha is Brah - man. There fore the fi res re ply What is Ka is Kha. What is Kha is Ka. The word Ka in or di nary lan guage de notes sen sual plea sure. If the word Kha were not used to qual ify the sense of Ka one would think that or di nary worldly plea sure was meant. But as the t wo words Ka and Kha oc cur to gether and qual ify each ot her, they in di cate Brah - man whose Self is Bli ss. There fore the ref er ence is to Su preme Bliss and such a de scrip tion can ap ply only to Brah man. If the word Brah man in the clause Ka is Brah man were not added and if the sen tence would run Ka, Kha is Brah man, the word Ka would be only an ad jec tive and t hus plea sure be ing a mere qual ity can not be a sub ject of med i ta tion. T o pre vent t his, both words Ka as well as Kha are joined with the word Brah man. Ka is Brah man. Kha is Brah man. Qual i ties as well as per sons hav ing those qual i ties could be ob ject s of med i t a tion. lwVmon{ZfH $J`{^Y mZm& Srutop anishatkagaty abhidhanacch a I.2.16 (47) And o n acco unt of the statem ent o f the way o f him who has known the Truth of the Upanis hads.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 63 Sruto : heard; Upanishatka: Upanishads; Gati: way; Abhidhanat: because of the st atement; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 13 is con tin ued. The per son in the eye is the S u preme Self f or the fol low ing rea - son also. From Sruti we know of t he way of the knower of B rah man. He trav els af ter death through t he Devayana p ath or the p ath of t he Gods. That way i s de scribed in Prasna Up. 1-10. Those who have sought the Self by pen ance, ab sti nence, faith and knowl edge at tain the Sun by the North ern Path or the p ath of Devay ana. From thence they do not re turn. This is the i m mor tal abode, free f rom fear , and the high est. The knower of the per son in the eye also goes by t his path af - ter death. F rom this de scrip tion of t he way which is known to be the way of him who knows Brah man it is quit e clear that the per son within the eye is Brah man. The fol low ing Su tra shows that it is not pos si ble for the abov e text to mean ei ther the re flected Sel f or the Jiva or t he de ity in the Sun. AZdp WVoag^dm Zo Va& Anav asthiterasambhav accha net arah I.2.17 (48) (The pe rson within the eye is the Su preme Se lf) and no t any other (i.e. t he individual soul etc.) as these do not e xist always; and on accoun t of the im possibi lity (of the qua lities of t he person in the being ascrib ed to any of the se). Anav asthiteh: not exist ing always; Asambhav at: on account of the impossib ility; Cha: and; Na: not; Itarah: any other . The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 13 is con tin ued. The re flected self does not per ma nently abi de in the eye. When some per son co mes near the eye the re flec tion of t hat per son is seen in the eye. When he moves away the re flec tion dis ap pears. Surely y ou do not pro pose to have some one near the ey e at the time of m ed i ta tion so that y ou may med i tate on the im age in the eye. Such a fleet ing im age can not be the ob ject of med i ta tion. The i n di vid - ual soul is not meant by the p as sage, be cause he is sub ject to ig no - rance, de sire and ac tion, he has no per fec tion. Hence he can not be the ob ject of med i t a tion. The qual i ties like im mor t al ity, fear less ness, im ma nence, eter nity , per fec tion etc., can not be ap pro pri ately at trib - uted to t he re flected self or t he in di vid ual soul or the de ity in the sun. There fore no other self save t he Su preme Self is here spo ken of as the per son in the eye. The per son in the eye (Akshi Purusha) must be viewed as the Su preme Self only .BRAHMA SU TRAS 64 Antaryamyadhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 18-20) The internal ruler is Brahm an. AV`m`{Y Xdm{Xfw V_`nXoemV & Antaryamyadhidai vadishu t addharmav yapadesat I.2.18 (49) The internal ru ler o ver the god s and s o on (is Brahman) because the attrib utes of th at (Brahma n) are mention ed. Antaryami: the ruler within; Adhidaiv adishu: in the gods, etc. ; Tat: His; Dharma: attribut es; Vyapadesat: because of the st atement. A pas sage from the Brihadarany aka Upanishad is now t aken up for dis cus sion. In Bri. Up. III -7-1 we read He w ho within rules this world and the other world and all be ings and later on He who dwells in the earth and wit hin the earth, whom the earth does not know , whose body the earth is, who rules the eart h from within, he is thy Self, the ruler within, the im mor tal etc., I II-7-3. Here a doubt arises whether the In ner Ruler (Ant aryamin) de - notes the in di vid ual soul or some Y ogin en dowed with ex traor di nary pow ers such as for in stance, the power of mak ing his body sub tle or the pre sid ing de ity or P radhana or Brah man (the High est Self). The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: Som e god pre sid ing over the earth and so on must be t he Ant aryamin. He only is ca pa ble of rul ing the earth as he is en dowed with the or gans of ac tion. Rul er - ship can rightly be as cribed to him only . Or else the ruler may be some Yogin who is able to en ter within all t hings on ac count of his ex traor di - nary Y ogic pow ers. Cer tainly t he Su preme Self can not be meant as He does not pos sess the or gans of ac tions which are needed for rul - ing. We give the f ol low ing re ply. The in ter nal Ruler must be Brah man or the Su preme Self. Why so? Be cause His qual i ties are men tioned in the p as sage un der dis cus sion. Brah man is the cause of all cre ated things. The uni ver sal rul er ship is an ap pro pri ate at trib ute of t he Su - preme Self only . Om nip o tence, Self hood, Im mor tal ity, etc., can be as - cribed to Brah man only . The p as sage He whom the earth does not know , shows that the In ner Ruler is not known by the earth-de ity. There fore it is ob vi ous that t he In ner Ruler is dif fer ent from t hat de ity. The at trib utes un seen, un heard, also re fer to the S u preme Self only Which is de void of shape and other sen si ble qual i ties. He is also de scribed in the sec tion as be ing all-per vad ing, as He is in side and the Ruler within of ev ery thing vi z., the eart h, the sun, wa - ter, fire, sky, the et her, the senses, etc. T his also can be true only of the High est Self or B rah man. For all t hese rea sons, the In ner Ruler is no other but the S u preme Self or B rah man.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 65 Z M _ mV_V _m{^bmnmV & Na cha smart amat addharmabh ilapat I.2.19 (50) And (the Inte rnal Rule r is) not that which is tau ght in the Sankhya Smr iti (viz ., Pradhan a) because qualities contrar y to its na ture are mention ed (here). Na: neither; Cha: also, and; Smart am: that which is t aught in (Sankhya) Smrit i; Ataddharmabhilap at: because qualities contrary to its nature are mentioned. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 18 is given. The word Ant aryamin (In ner Ruler) can not re late to P radhana as it has not got Chait anya (sentiency) and can not be called At man. The Pradhana is not thi s In ter nal Ruler as the at trib utes He is the im mor tal, un seen Seer , un heard Hearer etc., There is no other seer but He, there is no other thi nker but He, there is no other Knower but He. This is the S elf, the Ruler within, the I m mor tal. Ev ery thing else is of evil (Bri. Up. III -7-23), can not be as cribed to the non-in tel li gent blind Pradhana. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: W ell then, i f the t erm In ter nal Ruler can not de note the P radhana as it is nei ther a Self nor seer it can cer tainly de note the in di vid ual soul or Jiva who is in tel li gent and there fore sees, hears, thinks and knows, who is in ter nal and there fore of the na ture of Sel f. Fur ther the in di vid ual soul is ca pa ble of rul ing over the or gans, as he is the enjoyer . There fore the in ter nal ruler is the in di vid ual soul or Jiva. The fol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer to this. earamo^`o@{ n {h ^oX oZZ_Yr` Vo& Sariraschobhay epi hi bhedenainamadhiy ate I.2.20 (51) And t he indi vidual soul (i s not the Int ernal Ruler) for both also (i.e. b oth rec ensions viz ., the Kanva and Ma dhyand ina Sakha s of the Brihadar anyaka Upanishad) speak of it as dif ferent (from th e Internal Ru ler.) Sarira h: the embodie d, the indiv idual soul; Cha: also, and; (Na: not ); Ubhay e: the both namel y the recentions Kanv a and Madhyandinas; Api: even, also; Hi: because; Bhedena: by way of di fference; Enam: this, the Jiv a; Adhiy ate: read, speak of, indicate. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 18 is con tin ued. The word not is to be sup plied from the pre ced ing Su tra. The fol low ers of both Sakhas speak in their tex ts of the in di vid - ual soul as dif fer ent from t he in ter nal ruler . The Kanv as read He who dwells in Knowl edge Yo vijnane tishthan Bri. Up. III- 7-22. He re knowl edge stands for the in di vid ual soul. The Madhy andinas read He who dwells in the Self ya atmani tishthan . Here Self stands forBRAHMA SU TRAS 66 the in di vid ual soul. In ei ther read ing the in di vid ual soul is spo ken of as dif fer ent from t he In ter nal Ruler , for t he In ter nal Ruler is the Ruler of the in di vid ual soul also. The dif fer ence be tween the Jiva and B rah man is one of Up adhi (lim i t a tion). The dif fer ence be tween the In ter nal Ruler and the in di vid - ual soul is merely the prod uct of ig no rance or A vidya. It has it s rea son in the lim it ing ad junct, con sist ing of the or gans of ac tion, pre sented by ig no rance. The dif fer ence is not ab so lutely true. Be cause the Self within is one only; two in ter nal Selfs are not pos si ble. But on ac count of lim it ing ad junct s the one Self i s prac ti cally treat ed as if it were two, just as we make a dis tinc tion be tween the ether of the jar and the uni - ver sal ether . The scrip tural tex t where there is du al ity, as it were, t here one sees an other in ti mates that t he world ex ists only in the sphere of ig - no rance, while the sub se quent tex t But when t he Self only is all this how should one see an other de clares that the world dis ap pears in the sphere of true knowl edge. Adrisy atvadhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 21-23) That which cannot be seen is Brahm an. A`dm{XJw UH$mo Y_m}o$& Adrisy atvadigunako dharmokteh I.2.21 (52) The posse ssor of qu alities lik e ind ivisibility e tc., (is Brahman) on account o f the declara tion o f Its attrib utes. Adrisy atva: invisibility; Adi: and the rest, beginning wit h; Gunakah: one who possesses the quality (Adrisy atvadigunakah: possessor of qualities like invisibility); Dharmokteh: because of the mention of qualities. Some ex pres sions from the Mundaka Up anishad are now t aken up as the sub ject for dis cus sion. We read in the Mundaka Up anishad (I-1-5 & 6) The higher knowl edge is this by which the in de struc ti ble is known or real ised. That which can not be seen nor seized, which is with out or i gin and qual i ties, with out hands and feet, the eter nal, all-per vad ing, om ni - pres ent, in fin i tes i mal, that which is im per ish able, that it is which the wise con sider as the source of all be ings. Here the doubt arises whether the source of all be ings which is spo ken of as char ac ter ised by in vis i bil ity etc., is Pradhana, or t he in di - vid ual soul, or the Su preme Self or t he High est Lord. That which here is spo ken of as the source of all be ings (Bhut ayoni) char ac ter ised by such at trib ut es as in vis i bil i ty and so on, can be the Su preme Self or B rah man only , noth ing else, be cause qual i ties like He is all-know ing (Sarvajna), al l-per ceiv ing (Sarvavi t) Mun. Up. I -1-9 are true only of Brah man and not of t he PradhanaCHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 67 which is non-in tel li gent. Cer tainly it can not re fer to the Jiv a or the em - bod ied soul as he is nar rowed by his lim it ing con di tions. The sec tion also, in which these p as sages oc cur re lates to the High est Knowl - edge or Para V idya. There fore it must re fer to Brah man and not to Pradhana or Jiva. {deofU^oX` nXoem`m M ZoVam & Viseshanabhedav yapadesabhy am cha net arau I.2.22 (53) The other two ( viz. the in dividua l soul a nd th e Pradhan a) are not (th e source of al l beings) for d istinc tive attrib utes and differences are state d. Viseshanabhedav yapadesabhy am: on account of the ment ion of distinctiv e attribut es and dif ferences; Cha: and; Na: not; Itarau: the other two. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 21 is given. The source of all be ings is Brah man or the Su preme Self but not ei ther of the t wo oth ers viz., t he in di vid ual soul for the fol low ing rea - son also. We read in the Mundaka Up anishad II.1, 2 That the heav enly per son is with out a body . He is both with out and within, is birthless, with out breath, and wit h out mind, pure, higher than the high, Im per - ish able. The dis tinc tive at trib utes men tioned here such as be ing of a heav enly na ture (Divya), Birthless, Pure, et c., can in no way be - long to the in di vid ual soul who er ro ne ously re gards him self to be lim - ited by nam e and form as pre sented by A vidya or ig no rance and er ro ne ously con sid ers him self lim ited, im pure, cor po real, etc. There - fore the p as sage ob vi ously re fers to the S u preme Self or B rah man who is the sub ject of all t he Up anishads. Higher than the high, I m per ish able (Pradhana) in ti mates that the source of all be ings spo ken of in the last S u tra is not the P radhana but some thing dif fer ent from it . Here the term im per ish able means the Avyakt am or A vyakrit a (the unmanifested or t he un dif fer en ti ated) which rep re sents the po ten ti al ity or t he seed of all names and forms, con tains the sub tle parts of the ma te rial el e ment s and abides in the Lord. As it is no ef fect of any thing, it is high when com pared to all ef - fects. In tel lect, mind, ego ism, the T anmatras, the or gans are all born from it. Aksharat p aratah p arahHigher than the high, Im per ish - able, which ex presses a dif fer ence clearly in di cates that the S u - preme Self or B rah man is meant here. B e yond Pradhana or Avyakt am is Para Brah man. It is a set tled con clu sion there fore that the source of all be ings must mean the high est Self or B rah man only . A fur ther ar gu ment in fa vour of the same con clu sion is given in the fol low ing Su tra.BRAHMA SU TRAS 68 nmon` mgm& Rupop anyasaccha I-2-23 (54) And on a ccount of it s form being m ention ed (the pass age under disc ussion r efers to Br ahman ). Rupa: form ; Upanyasat: because of the mention; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 21 is con tin ued. Fur ther His form is de scribed in the Mundaka Up anishad II-1-4 Fire is His head, His eyes the sun and the moon, t he quar ters His ears, His speech the V edas, the wind His breath, His heart t he uni - verse; from His feet came the earth, He is in deed the in ner Self of all be ings. This st ate ment of f orm can re fer only t o the Su preme Lord or Brah man. Such a de scrip tion is ap pro pri ate only i n the case of Brah - man, be cause the Jiva is of lim ited power and be cause Pradhana (mat ter) can not be the S oul or in ner Self of liv ing be ings. As the source of all be ings forms the gen eral topic, the whole pas sage from From Him is born breath upto He is the in ner Self of all be ings re fers to that same source. The Per son in deed is all this, sac ri fice, knowl edge etc. Mun. Up. II-1-10, i n ti mates that t he source of all be ings re ferred to in the pas sage un der dis cus sion is none other than the S u preme Self or Brah man, for He is the in ner Self of all be ings. Vaisvanaradhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 24-32) Vaisvanara is Brahman. ddmZ a gmYma UeX {deofmV & Vaisvanarah sadharanasabdav iseshat I.2.24 (55) Vaisvanara ( is Brahman) on account of th e distinction qualifyin g the common terms (Vaisvanar a and Self). Vaisvanarah: Vaisvanara; Sadharana sabda: common word; Viseshat: because of the distinction. This Su tra proves that t he word V aisvanara used in Sruti for wor ship in di cates Brah man. We read in Chh. Up. V .18.1-2 He who med i tates on the Vaisvanara Self, ex tend ing from heaven t o earth as iden ti cal with his own Self, eat s food in all be ings, in all selfs. Of that Vaisvanara Self Sutejas (heaven) is the h ead, the sun the ey e, the f eet the earth, the mouth the A havaniya f ire. Here the doubt arises whether by the t erm V aisvanara we have to un der stand the gas tric fire or the el e men tal fire, or t he god pre sid ing over the el e men tal fire, or t he in di vid ual soul or the Su - preme Self (B rah man).CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 69 The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says that Vaisvanara is the gas tric fire be cause it is said in Bri. Up. V -9 Agni V aisvanara is the fire within man by which the food that is eaten is di gested. Or it m ay de - note fire in gen eral or the de ity which pre sides over the el e men tal fire or the in di vid ual soul who be ing an enjoyer is in close vi cin ity to Vaisvanara fire. The Siddhanti n says, here that t he Su preme Self or B rah man only is re ferred to on ac count of the qual i fy ing ad junct s to these words. The ad junct s are Heaven is the head of this V aisvanara Self, the Sun it s eyes, etc. This is pos si ble only in t he case of the Su preme Self. Fur ther in the p as sage He eat s food in all worlds, in all be ings, in all selfs. This is pos si ble only if we take the term V aisvanara to de - note the High est Self. The fruit of med i ta tion on this V aisvanara Self i s the at tain ment of all de sires and de struc tion of all sins (Chh. Up. V .24.3). T his can only be true if the Su preme Self is meant . More over the chap ter be - gins with the en quiry What is our Self ? What is Brah man? The words Self and Brah man are marks of Brah man and in di cate the Su preme Self only . The word Brah man is used in it s pri mary sense. There fore it is proper to t hink that the whole chap ter treat s of Brah - man only . More over, ety mo logi cally also the word V aisvanara means Brah man; be cause it is com posed of two words V isva mean ing all and Nara mean ing men namely He who con tains all men within him self. Such a be ing is Brah man only . It is a set tled con clu sion, there fore, that only Brah man can be meant by t he term V aisvanara. _`_mU_Zw_mZ `m{X{V& Smary amanamanu manam sy aditi I.2.25 (56) Because that (c osmic form of th e Supreme Lord) whic h is describ ed in the Smriti i s an i ndicatory mark or infe rence (from which we infer the mea ning of this Sruti te xt und er discussion). Smary amanam: mentioned in t he Smriti; Anumanam: indicatory mark, inference; Syat: may be; Iti: because thus. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is given. The word Iti de - notes a rea son. It point s to a cor rob o ra tive st ate ment which ex - presses the same thing as the Sruti. The Smriti s in ter pret the pas sages of the Sruti. There fore where a doubt arises as to the sig nif - i cance of a p as sage in the Sruti, the Smrit i may be con sulted in or der to get more light on the sub ject mat ter. The Smrit i gives a de scrip tion of the cos mic form of t he High est Lord as He whose mouth is fire, whose head is heaven, whose na vel the et her, whose eyes the sun, whose ears the re gions, rev er ence to Him, whose body is the world. BRAHMA SU TRAS 70 This is in agree ment with t he de scrip tion in the t ext un der dis cus sion. The same Lord who is spo ken of in the Srut i is de scribed in the Smriti also. In the B hagavad Git a XV -14 the word V aisvanara is ex pressly ap plied to the LordI hav ing be come the fire of l ife, take pos ses sion of the bod ies of breath ing be ings and united with t he life-breaths, I di - gest the four kinds of f ood. Here a truth about t he Lord is de clared in a Smriti p as sage and from it we may in fer that t he Vaisvanara V idya taught in the Chhandogy a Upanishad also re fers to this my s tery of t he Lord. Hence V aisvanara is the High est Lord. There fore it is a set tled con clu sion that the S u preme Lord is re ferred to in the t ext. In the f ol low ing Su tra the au thor re moves the doubt that t he Vaisvanara may de note the gas tric fire. eXm{ X`mo@ V{V>mZm Zo{ VMo V Wm >wnXoemXg^dmnw f_{n M Z_Yr`Vo& Sabdadibhy ontahpratisthanacc ha neti chet na t atha drishty upadesat asambhav at purushamapi chainamad hiyate I.2.26 (57) If it be said that (Vaisvan ara is) not (Brahman) or the Highest Lord on account of t he term (viz., Vaisvanara w hich has a different settled meaning v iz., gas tric fire ) etc., and on account of his abiding w ithin (which is a charact eristic of t he gastric fire) (we say) no, because there is the instr uction to conceive (Brahman) as such (as the gastr ic fire, because it is impossible for the gastri c fire to ha ve the heaven etc., for i ts he ad and other limbs) and also because they (the Vajasaneyins) describe him (viz. the Vaisvanara) as man (which t erm cannot apply to the gastri c fire ). Sabdadibhy ah: on account of the word; Antah: within; Pratishthanat: because of abiding; Cha: and; Na: not; Iti ch et: if it be said; Na: not so; Tatha: thus, as such; Drishty upadesat: on account of the instructi ons to conceive it; Asambhav at: because of impossib ility; Purusham: as person; Api: also; Cha: and; Evam: him; Adhiy ate: (they) describe. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con tin ued. The Purvap akshin raises the fol low ing ob jec tion. The or di nary mean ing of V aisvanara is fire. More over scrip ture speaks of the Vaisvanara as abid ing within. He knows him abid ing within man Sat . Br. 10-6-1-1 1 which ap plies to the gas tric fire only . There fore the gas - tric fire alone and not B rah man is re ferred to in the t ext un der dis cus - sion. This Su tra re futes this ob jec tion. The S iddhantin giv es the fol - low ing re ply. The Sruti here teaches the wor ship of Brah man in theCHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 71 gas tric fire by way of med i ta tion (Up asana) anal o gously to such p as - sages as Let a man med i tate on the mi nd as Brah man Chh. Up. III-18 -1. More over the gas tric fire can not have heav en for it s head, and so on. Fur ther the V ajasaneyins con sider V aisvanara as a man (Purusha). This Agni V aisvanara is a man Sat. Br. 10.6. 1-11. There fore V aisvanara here re fers to Brah man only . In the fol - low ing Su tra the au thor set s aside the view that Vaisvanara of thi s pas sage means the Devat a called Agni or the el e men tal fire. AV Ed Z X odVm ^y V M& Ata eva na dev ata bhut am cha I.2.27 (58) For the same reasons (the Vaisvanara) cannot be the deity (fir e) or the element (fire ). Ata eva: for the same reasons; Na: (is) not; Devata: the presiding deity of fire; Bhut am: the element of fire; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con tin ued. The Purvap akshin says: the pre sid ing de ity of fire is a mighty be ing. He is en dowed with great lord li ness and power . There fore heaven, et c., may very ap pro pri ately be i ts head and other mem bers. There fore the p as sage may very well ap ply to hi m. For the same rea sons stat ed in Su tra 26 V aisvanara is nei ther the di vin ity of fire nor the el e ment of f ire. The el e men tal fire is mere heat and light. The heaven and so on can not prop erly be as cribed as its head and so on, be cause an ef fect can not be the S elf of an other ef - fect. A gain the heav enly world can not be as cribed as head, etc., t o the god of f ire, be cause it is not the S u preme Cause but a mere ef fect and it s power or glory de pends on the Su preme Lord. T o them the word At man could not ap pro pri ately be ap pli ca ble at all. gmjmX`{ damoY O{_{Z Sakshadapy avirodham Jaimi nih I.2.28 (59) Jaimini (de clares that the re is) no c ontradiction e ven (if by Vaisvanara) (Brahman i s) directly (t aken as the obje ct of worship). Sakshat: directly; Api: also, even; Avirodham: no objection, no contradiction; Jaiminih : (so say s) Jaim ini. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con tin ued. Jaimini says that it is not nec es sary to st ate that what is meant by Vaisvanara is fire as a sym bol of God and that the view t hat it means Brah man di rectly and in a pri mary sense is quite con sis tent and ap pro pri ate. The v ery word V aisvanara means the to tal ity of life and ap plies to Brah man as he is the Soul of all (Sarvat matvat ).BRAHMA SU TRAS 72 This Su tra de clares that V aisvanara can be t aken di rectly to mean Brah man as an ob ject of med i ta tion, be cause V aisvanara also means the uni ver sal man i.e., the all-per vad ing Brah man Him self. As the word V aisvanara lit er ally means He to whom be long all men or who is the leader (Nara) of all (V isva) so the word V aisvanara de - notes ety mo l ogi cally the Su preme Brah man. A{^`o$[a`m _a` & Abhiv yakterity asmarathy ah I.2.29 (60) On account of the manif estation, so says Aasmarat hya. Abhiv yakteh: because of manifest ation; I ti: t hus, so; Aasmarathy ah: (says) Asmarathya. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con tin ued. In the Chhandogya Up anishad un der dis cus sion V aisvanara is de scribed as hav ing the size of a sp an. How can the In fi nite Brah man be lim ited by t he mea sure of a Pradesa or a span? T o this ob jec tion the au thor gives his an swer in the fol low ing Su tra. The sage Aasmarathya says t hat for the ben e fit of the wor ship - per the In fi nit e Brah man man i fest s Him self in the fi nite in di vid u all y be - ing local ised in lim ited places such as the body or the heart of the hu man be ing. There fore there is no in con gru ity in us ing the word Vaisvanara (even st and ing for the gas tric fire) to sig nify B rah man. Even t hough Brah man is all-per vad ing, yet He spe cially man i fests Him self as ex tend ing from heaven t o earth or in the heart f or the sake of His dev o tees. Asmarathya say s that the I n fi nite is real ised through His grace in the lim ited sp ace of men tal im age in the mind or a phy s i cal im age with out. The dev o tees who med i tate on Brah man in their heart as hav ing the size of a sp an, see Him of that size, be cause He man i fests Him self to them in that f orm. This is the opin ion of Aasmarathy a. Hence, ac cord ing to the opin ion of the t eacher Aasmarathya the scrip tural tex t which speaks of Him who is mea sured by a sp an may re fer to the S u preme Self or t he High est Lord. AZw_Vo~ mX[a& Anusmriterbadarih I.2.30 (61) For the sake of me ditation or constant r emembranceso says the sage Badari. Anusmriteh: for the sake of medit ation or const ant remembrance; Baadarih: (so says) the sage Baadari. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con tin ued. The sage Baadari is of opin ion that t his mea sure of a span i s a men t al de vice to fa cil i t ate med i t a tion.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 73 He says that the size of t he thumb re fers to a men tal im age and not to t he ac tual size. The Su preme Lord may be called mea sured by a sp an be - cause He is re mem bered or med i tated, by means of the mind, which is seated in the heart which is mea sured by a sp an. The size of the heart is that of a span. As Brah man is med i tated as abid ing in the lo - tus of the heart , the as pi rant in vol un tarily as so ci ates him with t he size of a sp an. This men tal as so ci a tion or Anusmriti is the cause why Brah man is called Pradesamatra, t he mea sure of a span. There fore V aisvanara may well st and for Brah man. gnmo[ a{V O{_{ZVWm {h Xe` {V& Samp atteriti jai ministatha hi darsay ati I.2.31 (62) Because of imaginary id entity the Supre me Lo rd may be calle d Pradesamatra (span long) . So says Jai mini because so (the Sruti) dec lares. Samp atteh: because of imaginary ident ity; Iti: thus, so; Jaimini: (says) Jaimini; Tatha: in this way; Hi: because; Darsay ati: (the Sruti) declares. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con tin ued. Jaimini says that the de scrip tion re fers to a st ate of reali sa tion of form be tween the crown of the head and t he chin in your body . The cos mic be ing is wor shipped through the iden ti fi ca tion of dif fer ent parts of His with the dif fer ent p arts of the wor ship pers body from the top of head t o the chin. The head of the medit ator or wor ship per is heaven, t he eyes the sun and the moon, and so on. In this med i ta tion the cos mic be ing is lim ited to t he size of a sp an, the dis tance from the crown of the head to the chin. Hence Jaimini says that t he High est Lord in the p as sage un der dis cus sion is con sid ered as of the size of a span. The Sruti also de clares The teacher said, point ing to his own head. This is the High est V aisvanara i.e. t he head of the VaisvanaraV ajasaneyi Brahmana. Am_ZpV MZ_p_Z & Amananti chai namasmi n I.2.32 (63) Moreover they (the Jabalas) teach th at this (Sup reme Lord is to be m editated upon) in this (the space between t he head and the chin) . Amananti: (they) speak, teach, recit e, declare; Cha: moreover , also, and; Enam: this; Asmin : in this. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con cluded. More over the Jabalas speak in their tex t of the Su preme Lord in the in ter me di ate sp ace be tween the top of the head and the chin.BRAHMA SU TRAS 74 Jabala Sruti also says so. It says that He is to be real ised Avimukt a (full lib er a tion) be tween V arana (sin preventor) and Nasi (sin de stroyer). Jabala Upani shad says What is the place? The place where the eye-brows and the nose join. That is the join ing place of the heav - enly world rep re sented by the up per p art of the head and of the other i.e. the earthly world rep re sented by the chin. Sutras 27 to 32 de clare that the ref er ence to the Su preme Lord by the t erm Pradesamatra as ex tend ing from heaven t o the earth or as mea sured by a sp an is quite ap pro pri ate. By all t his it is proved that Vaisvanara is the Su preme Lord. See Jabala Up anishad-1. Thus ends the Sec ond Pada (Sec tion 2) of the First Adhy aya (Chap ter I) of the Brahma-Sutras of the V edant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 2 75 CHAPTER I SECTION 3 INTRODUCTION In the last S ec tion tex ts of doubt ful im port were in ter preted to re - fer to Brah man. Some ot her ex pres sions pre scribed for di vine con - tem pla tion in dif fer ent Sruti s, not al ready dis cussed in Sec tion 2 are now t aken up for dis cus sion to prove that they all in di cate the same In fi nit e Brah man. In the First S ec tion of t he First Chap ter the au thor (Sutrakara) took up the terms which re ferred to the man i fested world such as Akasa (ether), Prana (en ergy), Jyoti (light) and showed that t hey re - ally re fer to Brah man. In t he Sec ond Sec tion the au thor took up the terms which re ferred to the hu man body and showed that t hey re fer to Brah man. The Sec tion re ferred to the S aguna as pect of Brah man. The Third Sec tion re fers to the Nirguna as pect of Brah man. Here the sub ject of dis cus sion is to Para Brah man or the Su preme Nirguna Brah man. 76 SYNOPSIS Some other p as sages pre scribed for med i ta tion in dif fer ent Srutis, not al ready dis cussed in Sec tion-2 are now t aken up for dis - cus sion to prove that they all in di cate the same In fi nite, Satchidananda, all-per vad ing, eter nal, Im mor t al Brah man. Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-7) proves that that within which the heaven, t he earth etc., are wo ven (Mun. Up. I I-2-5) is Brah man. Adhikarana II: (Sutras 8-9) shows that the Bhuma re ferred to in Chh. Up. VI I-23 is Brah man. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 10-12) teaches that the A kshara (the Im - per ish able one) of Bri. Up. III -8-8 in which the ether is wo ven is Brah - man. Adhikarana IV : (Su tra 13) de cides that the High est Per son who is to be med i tated upon with t he syl la ble OM ac cord ing to Prasna Up. V-5 is not the lower but t he higher Brah man. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 14-21) shows that the small ether (Daharakasa) within the lo tus of the heart men tioned in Chh. Up. VIII-1 is Brah man. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 22-23) proves that he af ter whom ev ery - thing shines, by whose light all this is light edKatha Up. I I-2-15is not some ma te rial lu mi nous body , but B rah man it self. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 24-25) de cides that the per son of the size of a thumb men tioned in Kat ha Up. II-1-12 is not t he in di vid ual soul but Brah man. Adhikarana VII I: (Sutras 26-33) The next t wo Adhikaranas are of the na ture of a di gres sion. They raise a side is sue and de cide that de i ties are equally en ti tled to prac tise Brahma V idya as pre scribed in the V edas. Sutras 29 and 30 es tab lish the con clu sion that the V edas are eter nal. Adhikarana IX: (Sutras 34-38) ex plains that S udras are al to - gether not en ti tled for B rahma V idya. Adhikarana X: (Su tra 39) proves that t he Prana in which ev ery - thing trem bles ac cord ing to Kat ha Up. II-3-2 is Brah man. Adhikarana XI: (Su tra 40) proves that t he light (Jyoti) men - tioned in Chh. Up. VIII-12-3 is the High est Brah man. Adhikarana XII : (Su tra 41) de cides that the et her which re veals names and forms (Chh. Up. VI II-14) is not t he el e men tal ether but Brah man. Adhikarana XII I: (Sutras 42-43) teaches that the Vijnanamayahe who con sists of knowl edge of Bri. Up. IV -3-7 is not the in di vid ual soul but Brah man. 77 Dyubhv adyadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-7) The abode of heaven, earth et c. is Brahm an wdmm`V Z de XmV & Dyubhv adyayatanam sv asabdat I.3.1 (64) The abode of heaven, earth, etc., (is Brahman ) on account of the term , own i.e., Self. Dyu: heaven; Bhu: earth; Adi: and the rest; Ayatanam: abode; Sva: own; Sabdat: from the word ( Sva sabdat: on account of the word Self). An ex pres sion from the Mundaka Up anishad is t aken up for dis - cus sion. Para Brah man is the ba sis or rest ing place of heaven, earth etc., as the term At man in dic a tive of Him is found in the p as sage. W e read in Mundaka Up anishad II-2-5 He in whom the heaven, the earth, and the sky are wo ven, as also the mi nd with all the senses, know Him alone as the Self , and leave of f other t alk! He is the bridge of im mor tal - ity. Here the doubt arises whether the abode is the Su preme Brah - man or some thing else. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds that t he abode is some thing else on ac count of the ex pres sion He is the bridge of im - mor tal ity. He says: it is known from daily ex pe ri ence that a bridge takes one to some fur ther bank. It is im pos si ble to as sume some thing be yond the S u preme Brah man, be cause the Srutis de clare, Brah - man is end less with out a shore Bri. Up. I I-4-12. As the P radhana is the gen eral cause, it may be call ed the gen eral abode. Or the Sutratm an may be the abode. The Srutis say Ai r is that thread, O Gaut ama! By air as by a thread O Gaut ama! this world and the ot her world and all be ings are strung to gether Bri. Up. I II-7-2. S o the air sup ports all things. Or else the Jiv a may be the abode wit h ref er ence to the ob jects of en joy ment as he is the enjoy er. He who is spo ken of as the abode, in whom t he earth, heaven etc., are wo ven is Brah man only , on ac count of the t erm Own or Self which is ap pro pri ate only i f Brah man is re ferred to in the t ext and not Pradhana or Sutratm an. (W e meet with t he word Self in the p as - sageKnow him alone as the Self ). Brah man is spo ken of in the Srut i as the gen eral abode by it s own terms i.e. by terms prop erly des ig nat ing Brah man as, for in - stance, All these crea tures, my dear , have t heir root in the be ing, their abode in the be ing, their rest in t he be ing (Chh. Up. VI-8-4). In the t exts pre ced ing and fol low ing this one, i. e. in Mun. Up. II-1-10 and II -2-11 Brah man is spo ken of. There fore it is only proper to in fer that B rah man only is re ferred to in the i n ter ven ing text s which isBRAHMA SU TRAS 78 un der dis cus sion. In the t exts cited above men tion is made of an abode and that which abides. I n Mundaka Upani shad II-2-1 1 we read: Brah man in deed is all this. From t his a doubt may arise that Brah - man is of a man i fold var ie gated na ture, just as in t he case of a tree con sist ing of leav es, branches, stem, root et c. In or der to re move thi s doubt the t ext de clares in the p as sage un der dis cus sion Know Him alone as the Self i.e. know the Se lf alone and not t hat which is merely a prod uct of A vidya (ig no rance) and is false or il lu sory. An other scrip - tural tex t re proves the man who thinks that this world is real. From death to deat h goes he who be holds any dif fer ence here (Katha Up. II-4-11). The st ate ment All i s Brah man aims at dis solv ing the wrong con cep tion of t he re al ity of the world. It does not in ti mate that Brah - man is of man i fold, var ie gated na ture. The ho mo ge neous na ture of Brah man is clearly st ated in the S rutis. As a mass of salt has nei ther in side nor out side, but is al to gether a mass of t aste, thus in deed has that S elf (Brah man) nei ther in side nor out side, but is al to gether a mass of knowl edge (Bri. Up. IV -5-13). For all these rea sons the abode of heaven, earth etc., is the Su preme Brah man. The word Setu (bridge) in the words Amritasyaisa Setuh (He is the bridge of im mor tal ity) merely re fers to His be ing the ba sis of ev ery cre ated ob ject and the means of i m mor tal ity. The word bridge is meant to in ti mate only that which is called a bridge that sup ports, not that it has a fur ther bank. Y ou should not think that the bridge meant i s like an or di nary bridge made of wood or stone. B e cause the word Setu is de rived from t he root Si which means to bind. The word con - veys the i dea of hold ing to gether or sup port ing. _w$mon g``nXoemV & Muktop asripy avyapadesat I.3.2 (65) Because of the declara tion ( in the scrip tures) tha t that is to be attain ed by the liberated. Mukt a up asripy a: to be att ained by the l iberated; Vyapadesat: because of declaration. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra I is giv en. The above word Dyubhvady ayatanam re fers to Para Brah - man, also be cause He is de scribed as at tained by the em an ci pated soul. A fur ther rea son is given to in ti mate that Brah man is meant in the p as sage un der dis cus sion. Brah man is the goal of t he eman ci - pated. That Brah man is that which is to be re sorted to by t he lib er ated is known from other scrip tural p as sages such as The fet ter of the heart is bro ken, all doubt s are solved, all his works per ish when He who is the higher and the lower has been be held Mun. Up. I I-2-8. The wise man freed from name and form goes to the di vine Per sonCHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 79 who is greater than the great (Mun. Up. III.2-8). When all de sires which once en tered his heart are de stroyed then does the m or tal be - come im mor tal, then he ob tains Brah man (Bri. Up. I V-4-7). No where you will find t hat the P radhana and sim i lar en ti ties are to be re sorted to by t he eman ci pated. We read in the Bri. Up. IV -4-21, Let a wise Brahmana af ter he has dis cov ered Him, prac tise wis dom. Let him not seek af ter many words, be cause that is mere wea ri ness of the tongue. For t his rea - son also the abode of heaven, earth, etc. , is the Su preme Brah man. ZmZw_mZ_VN >XmV& Nanumanamat acchabdat I.3.3 (66) (The ab ode of heaven etc.) is not tha t which i s infe rred i.e. Pradhana because there is no term indicatin g it. Na: not; Anumanam: that which is inferred i. e. Pradhana; Atad sabdat: because there is no word denoting it. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. The abode re ferred to in Su tra 1 does not in di cate Pradhana be - cause there is no such ex pres sion in the said Mundaka Up anishad as can be con strued to in di cate Pradhana or mat ter. On the con trary such terms as He who k nows all (Sarvajna) un der stands all (Sarvavit ) (Mun. Up. I-1-9) in ti mate an in tel li gent be ing op posed to Pradhana in na ture. For the same rea son the air (Sutratm an) can not be ac cepted as the abode of heav en, earth etc. mU^ & Pranabhri ccha I.3.4 (67) (Nor) also the individ ual sou l. Pranabhrit: the liv ing or individual soul, supporter of Prana, i. e., Jiv a; Cha: also; ( Na: not). The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. The word not is un der stood here from the pre ced ing Su tra. Al though the in di vid ual soul is an in tel li gent be ing and can there fore be de noted by t he word Self yet om ni science and sim i lar qual i ties do not be long to him, as his knowl edge is lim ited by t he ad - junct s. He can not be come the rest ing place or abode of the en tire world as he is lim ited and there fore not om ni pres ent. The in di vid ual soul can not be ac cepted as the abode of heav en, earth etc., for the fol low ing rea son also. ^oX`mnXoemV & Bhedav yapadesat I.3.5 (68) (Also) on accoun t of the declar ation of di fference (between) individual soul an d the abode of heaven etc.BRAHMA SU TRAS 80 Bhedav yapadesat : on account of dif ference being mentioned. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. In the t ext un der dis cus sion viz., K now him alone as the Self (At man) (Mun. Up. II -2-5), there is a dec la ra tion of dif fer ence. The in - di vid ual soul who is de sir ous of eman ci pa tion is the K nower and abode of heaven is t he thing to be known. B rah man which is de noted by the word Sel f and rep re sented as the ob ject of knowl edge is un - der stood to be the abode of heaven, earth and so on. For the fol low ing rea son also the in di vid ual soul can not be ac - cepted as the abode of heav en, earth etc. H$aUmV& Prakaranat I.3.6 (69) On account o f the subject ma tter. Prakaranat: On account of the subject mat ter, from t he context. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. The Su preme Brah man is the sub ject mat ter of the en tire chap - ter. You can un der stand this from the p as sage Sir , what is that through which when it is known, ev ery thing else be comes known? Mun. Up. I -1-3. Here the knowl edge of ev ery thing is said to be de - pend ent on the knowl edge of one thing. Be cause all this i.e. t he whole uni verse be comes known if Brah man the Self of all is known, but not if only the i n di vid ual soul is known. The Mundaka Up anishad be gins with what is that through which and con cludes by say ing The knower of the Brah man be - comes Brah man III -2-9. This clearly in ti mates that t he sub ject mat ter of the whole Up anishad from the be gin ning to the end is B rah man only. Hence it is the same B rah man which is spo ken of as the rest ing place of heaven, earth and so on. An other rea son against the in di vid ual soul is given in t he fol low - ing Su tra. pW`XZm`m M& Sthity adanabhy am cha I.3.7 (70) And on ac count of the two c ondit ions of remain ing unat tached and eating (o f which th e former is ch aracteristic o f the Supreme Self, the latte r of the individual soul). Sthiti: abiding, ex istence; Adanabhy am: eating; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con cluded. We read in Mundakop anishad III-1-1. Two birds, in sep a ra ble friends cling to the same t ree. One of them eats the sweet fruit, the other looks on (re mains as a wit ness). The pas sage re fers to Brah - man as Self-poised bliss and to t he in di vid ual soul as eat ing the sweet and bit ter fruit s of ac tions. Here Brah man is de scribed as the si lentCHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 81 wit ness. The p as sage de scribes the con di tion of mere in ac tive pres - ence of Brah man. The in di vid ual soul eat s the fruit s of his works viz. plea sure and pain and t here fore he is dif fer ent from B rah man. The two st ates viz. mere pres ence and the en joy ment in di cate that B rah - man and the in di vid ual soul are re ferred to. Thi s de scrip tion which dis tin guishes the two can be apt only i f the abode of heaven etc. i s Brah man. Oth er wise there will be no con ti nu ity of topic. It can not be said that t he pas sage merely de scribes the na ture of the in di vid ual soul, be cause it is no where the pur pose of the scrip - ture to de scribe the in di vid ual soul. The in di vid ual soul is known to ev - ery one as agent and enjoyer . Or di nary ex pe ri ence tells us noth ing of Brah man. Brah man is the spe cial topic of all scrip tural tex ts. The pur - pose of the scrip tures is al ways to de scribe and es tab lish Brah man which is not well known. Bhumadhi karanam: T opic 2 (Sutras 8-9) Bhum a is Brahman ^y_mggmXmX `wnXoemV& Bhuma samprasad adadhy upadesat I.3.8 (71) Bhuma (is Brahman) because it is t aught aft er the state of deep slee p (i.e. after Pran a or the vital air which r emains awake even in th at stat e). Bhuma: the vast, the Inf inite, t he full; Samprasadat adh i: beyond the state of deep sleep (here the v ital principle or Prana); Upadesat: because of the teaching. The term Bhum a does not de note nu mer i cal large ness but per - va sion in the shape of ful ness. Samprasada means the un dis turbed place or bliss hence the st ate of deep sleep, when t hat bliss is en - joyed. Adhi means above, be yond. Bhuma de notes Brah man, be cause it is de scribed in Sruti to be above Prana, which is here rep re sented by the bl iss en joyed dur ing deep sleep. Bhuma re fers to Brah man as the p as sage teaches an en - tity higher than Samprasada i.e. Prana or vi tal air which is awake and ac tive ev en in deep sleep. An ex pres sion from the Chhandogya Up anishad is now t aken up for dis cus sion. In the sev enth chap ter of the Chhandogy a Upanishad Sanatkumara gives in struc tions to Narada. He be gins with name and t akes the stu dent step by st ep. He goes higher and higher and ul ti mately teaches the high est truth which is Bhuma or t he In fi nite. S anatkumara says to Narada Bhuma is Bli ss. You should de - sire to un der stand where one sees noth ing else, hears noth ing else, un der stands noth ing else, that is Bhuma. VI II-22-24. Here the doubt arises whether Bhuma is the v i tal air or Brah man (the Su preme Self).BRAHMA SU TRAS 82 The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that the v i tal air is Bhuma. He says: Narada ap proaches Sanatkumara for ini ti a tion into the mys ter ies of At man. W e meet with a se ries of ques tions and an - swers suc h as Is there any thing greater than a nam e? S peech is greater than name. I s there any thing greater than speech? Mind is greater than speech which ex tends from name up t o vi tal air. Then Narada does not ask whether there is any higher truth. B ut still Sanatkumara giv es an ex po si tion on Bhuma. This in ti mates that Bhuma is not dif fer ent from t he vi tal air t aught al ready . Fur ther he calls the knower of the vi tal air an Ativ adin i.e., one who makes a stat e ment sur pass ing pre ced ing st ate ment s. This clearly shows that the v i tal air is the high est T ruth. This Su tra re futes the ar gu ment and says that Bhuma is Brah - man. Sanat kumara dis tinctly says to NaradaBut v er ily he is an Ativadin who de clares the high est Be ing to be the T rue (Satya) Chh. Up. VII -16-1. This clearly in di cates that it re fers to some thing higher than Prana or the v i tal air. One can be come truly an A tivadi n by know - ing this Su preme T ruth only . Though Narada does not ask Sanatkumara Is there any thing greater than the v i tal air?, a new topic about B rah man (Bhuma) which is the Su preme T ruth is be gun. Narada said to Sanat kumara Sir, may I be come an Ativ adin through the T ruth. Sanat kumara leads Narada step by step, st age by st age to the knowl edge of Brah - man or Bhuma and in struct s him that t his Bhuma is Brah man. Narada at first lis tens to the in struc tion giv en by Sanat kumara on var i ous mat ters, the last of which is Prana and then be comes si - lent. There upon the wise Sanatkumara ex plains to him spon ta ne - ously with out be ing asked that he only i s an Ativadi n who has knowl edge of the High est T ruth, and that the knowl edge of vi tal air which is an un real prod uct is des ti tute of sub stance. By t he term The True is meant the Su preme Brah man, be cause Brah man is the only Re al ity. Sanat kumara there upon leads Narada by a se ries of step s be gin ning with un der stand ing up to the knowl edge of Bhuma. We, there fore, con clude that the B huma is the Su preme Brah man, and that it is dif fer ent from P rana or the vi tal air . If Prana or the vi tal air were the Bhuma t hen Sanatkumara would not have con tin ued his in struc tions. He would have stopped hi s in struc tions af ter say ing Prana is greater than hope (VII -15-1). But he gives a clear de scrip tion of t he na ture of Bhum a in Sec tions 23, 24, 25 of the same chap ter. There fore Bhuma alone is B rah man or the High est Truth. Self hood does not be long to Prana. More over one can free him - self from grief onl y by knowl edge of the S u preme Brah man. Brah man only is All Full. B huma means also fulness. The qual ity of the Bhuma agrees best with the Su preme Brah man which is the cause, source, sup port and sub stra tum for ev ery thing. B huma is t aught as the last of the se ries. It is I n fi nite Bli ss. There fore it is the hi gh est of all.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 83 The med i ta tion on Prana is higher than m ed i ta tion on Name up to hope. There fore he who thus med i tates on Prana is called an Ativadin. He is an Ati vadin com pared with those be low him. But the med i ta tion on the S u preme Brah man is su pe rior even to that on Prana. Hence he who med i tates on Brah man or the Bhuma i s the real Ativadin. Narada thought that the in struc tion about t he At man is now com pleted. There fore he did not ask any f ur ther ques tion. Sanatkumara knew that t he knowl edge of Prana is not t he high est knowl edge. There fore he spon t a ne ously con tin ues his teach ing to Narada and tells him that the knowl edge of Brah man or the Bhuma i s the high est knowl edge. The Srut is say that P rana springs from Brah - man. There fore Prana is in fe rior to Brah man. Brah man alone is the Bhuma of t he pas sage of the Chhandogya Up anishad un der dis cus - sion. Y_m}nn mo& Dharmop apattescha I.3.9 (72) And becau se the attributes (declared in the scriptural passage to Bhum a) apply appropr iately only to Par a Brah man. Dharma: qualities, at tributes; Upapatteh: because of the suit ability ; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 8 is given. The at trib utes which the scrip ture at trib utes to the B huma agree well with Brah man. In t he Bhuman the or di nary ac tiv i ties of see ing etc. are ab sent. The Srut i de clares where one s ees noth ing else, hears noth ing else, un der stands noth ing else, that is the Bhuma. W e know from an other text that t his is the char ac ter is tic of the S u preme Self. But when the A t man only is all t his, how could he see an other? Bri. U p. IV-5-15. The qual i ties of be ing the T rue, rest ing on it s own great ness, non-du al ity , bliss, In fi nit e ness, the self of ev ery thi ng, Om ni pres ence, Im mor tal ity etc., men tioned in the t ext un der dis cus sion can be long to the Su preme only , not t o Prana which is an ef fect and as such can not pos sess any of these at trib utes. By all t his it is proved that the Bhuma is t he Su preme Self or Brah man. Aksharadhikaranam : Topic 3 (Sutras 10-12) Akshara is Brahman Aja_~a mVYVo& Aksharamambaran tadhriteh I.3.10 (73) The Imperisha ble (is Br ahma n) on accoun t of (its) suppor ting everyth ing up to Akasa (ether ).BRAHMA SU TRAS 84 Aksharam: the Imperishable; Ambarant a dhriteh: because it support s all up to Akasa. An ex pres sion from the Brihadarany aka Upanishad is now taken up for dis cus sion. W e read in Bri. Up. I II-8-7, In what then is the ether wo ven like warp and woof? Gargi put thi s ques tion to sage Yajnavalkya. He re plied: O Gargi, t he Brahmanas call this Akshara (the Im per ish able). It is nei ther coarse nor fine, nei ther short nor long etc. Bri. Up. III -8-8. Here the doubt arises whether the word Akshara means syl la ble OM or Brah man. The Purv apakshin or the op po nent main tains that A kshara ety mo logi cally means a syl la ble and there - fore gen er ally rep re sents the syl la ble OM, which is also an ob ject of med i ta tion. W e have no right t o dis re gard the set tled mean ing of a word. This Su tra re futes the abov e view and says that Akshara here stands for Brah man only. Why? Be cause the Akshara is said to sup - port ev ery thing from eart h up to ether . The tex t says In that Akshara, Gargi! is the et her wo ven like warp and woof Bri. UP . III-8-11. Now the at trib ute of sup port ing ev ery thing up to et her can not be as cribed to any be ing but Brah man. More over It is nei ther coarse nor fine, nei ther short nor long etc., in di cates that rel a tive qual i ties are ab sent in it. There fore the Akshara is Brah man. The ob jec tor says: But even Pradhana sup - ports ev ery thing up to et her, be cause it is the cause of all the m od i fied ob jects in the uni verse and so the Akshara or the Im per ish able may be Pradhana. T o this doubt the f ol low ing Su tra gives an an swer. gm M emgZ mV& Sa cha prasasanat I.3.11 (74) This (support ing) on ac count of the comman d (attributed t o the Imp erishable, can be the work of the Supreme S elf only and n ot of the Pr adhan a). Sa: this (the qualit y of supporting ev erything up t o ether); Cha: and, also; Prasasanat: because of the command. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 10 is given. The sup port ing of all t hings up to ether is the work of the High est Self only . Why? On ac count of the com mand. The tex t speaks of a com mand By t he com mand of that Akshara O Gargi! the sun and the moon st and ap art Bri. Up. I II-8-9. This com mand or rul er ship can be the work of the high est Lord only, not of the non-in tel li gent Pradhana. B e cause non-in tel li gent causes suc h as clay and the like can not com mand their ef fects such as jars and the like. There fore the Pradhana can not be the A kshara which sup ports ev ery thing up to A kasa or ether .CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 85 A`^md `mdmo& Anyabhav avyavrittescha I.3.12 (75) And on a ccount o f (the Sruti) separating (the Akshara ) from that na ture is different (from Brah man) . Anya: another; Bhav a: nature; Vyavritteh : on account of the exclusion; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 10 is con cluded. The Im per ish able (Akshara) is not Pradhana or Jiva, be cause in the same tex t we find de scrip tion of at trib utes which would ex clude an other na ture than Brah man. In a sup ple men tary p as sage in the same Upani shad we find de scrip tion of t his Akshara which ex cludes Pradhana and Jiva, be cause they do not pos sess that na ture. The qual i ties re ferred to in the t ext namel y, see ing, hear ing, think ing, know ing etc., That Akshara, O Gargi! is un seen but see ing, un heard but hear ing, un per ceived but per ceiv ing, un known but know - ing. There is no other seer but He, no ot her hearer but He, no other thinker but He, no ot her knower but He. In that I m per ish able O Gargi! the ether is wo ven warp and woof (Bri. Up. I II-8-1 1), point t o an in tel li - gent be ing and there fore ne gate the P radhana which is non-in tel li - gent. The word Akshara can not de note the in di vid ual soul as he is not free from l im it ing ad junct s, from which Akshara is free. The Srut is say Akshara is with out eyes, wit h out ears, with out speech, with out mind etc. (Bri. Up. III- 8-8). There fore it is a set tled con clu sion that the A kshara or the im - per ish able is the Su preme Brah man only . Ikshatikarm avyapadesadhikaranam : Topic 4 The Highest person to be med itated upon is the Highest B rahman Bj{VH$ _`nXo emg& Ikshatikarm avyapadesat sah I.3.13 (76) Because of His being m ention ed as the object of sight, He (who is to be meditated upon is Brah man) . Ikshati: seeing, realising; Karma: object; Vyapadesat: because of his being mentioned; Sah: he. An ex pres sion from the Prasnop anishad is t aken up now for dis - cus sion. The High est Brah man is de scribed as He is s tated to be t he ob - ject of Ikshana (reali sa tion by v i sion). The ref er ence is clearly to the Su preme Self as the ob ject of Ikshana. We read in Prasna Up anishad V -2 O Satyakama, the syl la ble OM is the high est and also the other Brah man; there fore he whoBRAHMA SU TRAS 86 knows it ar rives by the same m eans at one of the t wo. The text then goes on Again he who med i tates with the syl la ble Om of t hree Matras (A-U-M) on the High est Per son Prasna Up. V -5. A doubt arises whether the ob ject of med i ta tion is the High est Brah man or the lower Brah man, be cause in V -2 both are men tioned, and also be - cause Brahmaloka is de scribed as the fruit by t he wor ship of this High est Per son. The Su tra says: What is here t aught as the ob ject of med i ta tion is the High est Brah man and not Hiranyagarbha (the lower Brah man). Why? On ac count of it s be ing spo ken of as the ob ject of sightHe sees the High est Per son. This in ti mates that he a c tu ally real ises or gets him self iden ti fied with t he High est Per son. Hiranyagarbha also is un real from the high est or tran scen den tal view point. He is within the realm of May a. He is as so ci ated with May a. There fore the High est Per son means the High est Brah man only which is the only Re al ity. This very B rah man is t aught at t he be gin ning of the p as sage as the ob ject of med i t a tion. The Sruti de clares that the re lease from evil i s the fruit of med i - ta tion As a snake is freed from it s skin, so is he freed from evil. This clearly in di cates that the S u preme con sti tutes the ob ject of med i ta - tion. The at tain ment of B rahmaloka by the wor ship per should not be con sid ered as an in ap pro pri ate or in sig nif i cant fruit of the wor ship of the High est Per son, be cause it is a step in grad ual lib er a tion or eman - ci pa tion by de grees (Krama Mukti). He who med i tates on the Su - preme Self by means of the syl la ble OM as con sist ing of the Ma tras, ob tains for his first re ward Brahmaloka and af ter that K aivaly a Moksha or one ness with Su preme Brah man. In Prasna Up anishad we read He ar rives at thi s by means of the Omkara; the wise ar rives at that which is at rest, free from de cay, from death, from fear , the High est. Free from de cay, free from deat h, free from fear , the High est can ap ply only to the S u preme Brah man and not to t he lower Brah man. The word Brahmaloka does not mean the Loka of B rah man but the Loka or con di tion which is Brah man Him self, just as we ex plain the com pound word Nishadasthapat i, not as the head man of the Nishadas but a head man who at the same ti me is a Nishada. It i s a Karmadharaya com pound which does not mean the world of Brah - man, but t hat world which is Brah man. Daharadhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 14-21) The Dahara or the S mall Akasa is Brahman Xha C mao`& Dahara utt arebhy ah I.3.14 (77)CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 87 The small (ether, Akasa, is Brah man) on account of t he subsequent a rgum ents or expression) . Daharah: the small; Uttarebhy ah: from subsequent tex ts or expressions or argument s. An other ex pres sion from the Chhandogya Up anishad is t aken up for dis cus sion. Dahara re fers to Brah man, be cause the rea son st ated in the later por tions of the p as sage show this clearly . We read in Chhandogya Up anishad VIII -1-1 Now there is this city of Brah man (the body), and i n it the place, the small lo tus (the heart) and in it t hat small ether (Akasa). Now what ex ists within that small ether is to be sought, that is to be un der stood. Here the doubt arises whether the small ether wit hin the small lo tus of the heart , which the Sruti speaks, is the el e men tal ether , or the in di vid ual soul, or the Su preme Soul. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: By the small ether we have to un der stand the el e men tal ether which is the or di nary mean ing of the word. I t is here called small with ref er ence to it s small abode, the heart. Or else t he small one may be t aken to mean the in di vid ual soul on ac count of the t erm the city of Brah man (Brahmapuri). The body is here called the city of Brah man be cause the in di vid ual soul has his abode in the body , and has ac quired this by his deeds. The i n - di vid ual soul is here called Brah man in a met a phor i cal sense. The Su - preme Brah man can not be meant, be cause He is not linked with the body as it s Lord. The Lord of the city i.e., the in di vid ual soul re sides in one spot of the cit y viz. , the heart, just as a King dwells in one spot of his King dom. Fur ther the mind, the lim it ing ad junct of the i n di vid ual soul, abides in the heart. Only the i n di vid ual soul is com pared in the Sruti in size to t he point of a goad. Here the small Akasa is Brah man and does not mean el e men - tal ether , al though there is the qual i fi ca tion small which may in di cate that he is a lim ited some thing. Why ? Be cause the na ture of Brah man is de scribed later on in the tex t As large as this (ex ter nal) ether is, so large is that Akasa within t he heart. Bot h heaven and earth are con - tained within it . Chh. Up. VI II 1-3. T his clearly in ti mates that i t is not ac tu ally small. Akasa can not be com pared with it self. The f i nite in di vid ual soul also with it s lim it ing ad junct s can not be com pared with the all-per vad - ing Akasa or ether . The Sruti de clares Both the earth and heav en are con tained in it. T his in di cates that thi s Akasa is the sup port of the whole world. From this it is man i fest that the ether is the S u preme Self. We read in the Chhandogya Up anishad VIII -1-5 The Self or At - man is sin less, age less, death less, griefless, free f rom old age, hun -BRAHMA SU TRAS 88 ger, thirst, with true de sire (Satkama), true t hought (Sat sankalpa) t hat ever co mes true. This can not ap ply to m ere phys i cal ether . These are all dis tinct qual i ties of the S u preme Brah man. The de scrip tion can not re fer to the i n di vid ual soul, be cause the com par i son to the in fi - nite ether and t he st ate ment that heaven and earth are con tained in it can not ap ply to the fi nite in di vid ual soul. The word Brahma in Brahmapuri shows the ref er ence to Brah - man only . Even if you t ake the word as re fer ring to Jiva t he teach ing re lates to Brah man who is real ised in the heart which is the Brahmapuri (the city of soul or Brah man). More over the prom ise of In - fi nite Bli ss to the knower of Dahara Akasa in ti mates that t he ref er ence is only to t he Su preme Brah man. For all the rea sons ex plained, that ether is the High est Self or Su preme Brah man. J{VeX m`m VWm { h > {b M& Gatisabdabhy am tatha hi drish tam li ngam cha I.3.15 (78) The small Akasa (ether) is Brahman on account of the action of going (into Br ahma n) an d of t he word ( Brah maloka) ; because thus it is se en (i.e . the individ ual sou ls go into Brahman) is seen elsewhere in othe r Sruti tex ts; and this d aily going o f the souls into Brahman (during de ep sleep) is an infe rential sign by m eans o f which we may p roperly inte rpret the word Brahmaloka). Gatisabdabhy am: on account of the going and of the word; Tatha hi: thus, like; Drisht am: it is seen; Lingam: mark, sign from which something may be i nferred; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is given. It has been said in the pre ced ing Su tra that t he small ether is Brah man on ac count of the rea sons given in the sub se quent p as - sages. These sub se quent p as sages are now de scribed. The men tion of go ing and a word re fers to Brah man. W e read in Chhandogya Up anishad VIII -3-2 All these crea tures day af ter day go into this B rahmaloka (i.e. they are merged in Brah man dur ing deep sleep) and yet do not di s cover it etc. Thi s pas sage shows that all Jivas or in di vid ual souls go daily int o the small A kasa called here Brahmaloka. This in ti mates that t he small Akasa is Brah man. This go ing of the in di vid ual souls into Brah man which oc curs daily in t he deep sleep is men tioned in the ot her Sruti tex t: He be - comes united with the t rue (Sat), he is merged in his own Self Chh. Up. VI- 8-1. In com mon p ar lance or or di nary life al so we say of a man who is in deep sleep He has be come Brah man. He is gone into the st ate of Brah man.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 89 The word Brahmaloka is to be in ter preted as Brah man Him self, and not as the world of B rah man (Saty a Loka) be cause there is the indicatory sign in t he pas sage. What is that indicatory sign or Lin gam? It is said in t he text that t he soul goes to this world daily . It is cer tainly im pos si ble for the Jiv a to go to t he world of Brah man daily . Hence the term Brahmaloka means here Brah man Him self. YVo _{h Zmo@` mp_ wnbYo & Dhritescha mahimno syasminnup alabdheh I.3.16 (79) Moreover on accoun t of the suppor ting also (attributed t o it) the small ether must be Brahman, because this greatness is observed in t his (Brah man on ly accordi ng to other scriptural passages). Dhrite h: on account of supporting (of the world by the Akasa or ether); Cha: and, moreover , also; Asya mahim nah: this greatness; Asmin : in Brahman; Upalabdheh: on account of being observed or found. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is con tin ued. Daharakasa or the small ether re ferred to in Su tra 14 in di cates Brah man, as the glory of sup port ing all the worlds can be rea son ably true only in re spect of Brah man. And also on ac count of the sup port - ing the small ether can be the S u preme Brah man only . How? T o be - gin with the t ext in tro duces the gen eral sub ject of dis cus sion in the pas sage In it is that small ether. Then t he small ether is to be com - pared with the uni ver sal ether . Ev ery thing is con tained in it. Then the term Self is ap plied to it . Then it i s stated that it is free from sin et c. Fi - nally it is said That Self i s a bank, a lim it ing sup port (V idhriti) so that these worlds may not be con founded (Chh. Up. VI II-4-1). In t his pas - sage the glory of small ether by way of sup port ing the worlds is seen. Just as a dam stores the wa ter so that t he bound aries of the fiel ds are not con founded, so also that Self serves like a dam i n or der that the world and all the dif fer ent castes and Asramas may not be con - founded. Other text s de clare that this great ness of sup port ing be longs to Brah man alone. By the com mand of that Im per ish able (Akshara) O Gargi, the sun and moon are held in t heir po si tions Bri. Up. I II-8-9. He is the lord of all, t he king of all kings, the pro tec tor of all t hings. He is a bank and a lim it ing sup port, so that these worlds may not be con - founded Bri. Up. IV-4-22. This also shows that to be a bound ary and sup port of the worlds is the dis tinc tive at trib ute of B rah man only . There fore, on ac count of the sup port ing also, the small (et her) is noth ing else but Brah man.BRAHMA SU TRAS 90 {go & Prasiddh escha I.3.17 (80) Also because of t he well-kn own m eaning (of Aka sa as Brahman, the small Akasa is Brahman). Prasiddheh: of the well-known (meaning); Cha: also The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is con tin ued. Akasa has the set tled mean ing of Brah man. It is a well-known fact in Srut i that B rah man is in di cated by the t erm Akasa. There fore Daharakasa also st ands for Brah man. We read in Chh. Up. VI II-14-1 Akasa is the revealer of all names and forms. All t hese be ings t ake their or i gin from Akasa alone Chh. Up. I-9-1. For who could breathe if that A kasa (ether) were not bliss T ait. Up. II-7. I n all these tex ts Akasa stands for Brah - man. BVanam_ emg B{ V Momg^ dmV& Itaraparamarsat sa iti ch en nasambhav at I.3.18 (81) If it is said that the other o ne (i.e . the individ ual sou l) is mea nt on account of a reference to it (made in a comple mentary passage) (we say) no, on account of t he impossibility. Itara: the other one, t hat is the Jiva; Paramarsat: on account of reference; Sa: he (the indivi dual soul); Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not; Asambhav at: on account of impossibilit y. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is con tin ued. W e read in the Chhandogya Up anishadNow that se rene be ing, the in di vid ual soul (Jiva) in deed which hav ing risen above this earthly body , and hav ing reached the high est light, ap pears in it s true form, t hat is the Self: thus he spoke. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: As in t he com ple men - tary p as sage the in di vid ual soul is re ferred to, t he small Akasa of Chh. Up. VII I-1-1 is also the in di vid ual soul. The word se ren ity (Samprasada) which de notes the st ate of deep sleep con veys the idea of the in di vid ual soul only . The ris ing from the body also can be spo ken of the in di vid ual soul only whose abode is there fore the small Akasa; this de notes in the p as sage un der dis cus sion only the in di vid - ual soul, on ac count of ref er ence to the ether . This can not be. I n the first place t he in di vid ual soul which is lim - ited by t he in ter nal or gan and it s other ad junct s, can not be com pared with the all-per vad ing ether . In the sec ond place, the at trib utes like free dom from evi l and the likes of thi s Akasa, re ferred to in the p as sage un der dis cus sion, can not be true of t he in di vid ual soul. Hence Brah man is meant in t hat pas sage.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 91 Cmam oXm{d^ yVd$nVw & Uttaracchedav irbhut asvarup astu I.3.19 (82) If it be said that fo r sub sequent te xts (it ap pears tha t the individual soul is m eant, we say th at what i s there referred to is) rat her (the individual soul in so far) as its real natur e has become manifest (i.e . as it i s non-different from B rahma n). Uttarat: from the subsequent t exts of the Srut i; Chet: if; Avirbhut a-svarup at: with it s true nature made manif est; Tu: but. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is con tin ued. An ob jec tion is again raised by t he Purvap akshin to jus tify that the small A kasa (Dahara) re fers to the in di vid ual soul. Prajap ati at the out set de clares that the Sel f, which is free from sin and t he like is that which we must try to un der stand Chh. Up. VI II-7-1. A f ter that he point s out that t he seer within the eye i. e. the in di vid ual soul is the Self, Chh. Up. VIII -7-3. He again ex plains the na ture of the same i n di - vid ual soul in it s dif fer ent st ates. He who moves about happy in dreams is the Self Chh. Up. VIII-10-1. When a man be ing asleep, re - pos ing, and at per fect rest sees no dreams, that i s the Self Chh. Up. VIII-1l-1. The qual i fy ing terms Im mor tal, fear less used in each of these de scrip tions of the self show that the in di vid ual soul is free from sin or evil and the li ke. Ob vi ously the in di vid ual soul is meant here be - cause Brah man is free from t he three st ates viz. wak ing, dream and deep sleep. It i s also said to be free from evi l. There fore small Akasa re fers to the in di vid ual soul or Jiva and not to B rah man. The Su tra re futes this. The Su tra uses the ex pres sion He whose na ture has be come man i fest. P rajap ati fi nally ex plains the in - di vid ual soul in it s true na ture as iden ti cal with Brah man. The ref er - ence is to the in di vid ual soul in it s true na ture as iden ti cal with Brah man or , in other words, who has real ised his one ness with Brah - man and not to t he in di vid ual soul as such. As soon as it has ap - proached the high est light it ap pears in it s own form. Then It is the High est Purusha Chh. Up. VI II-12-3. The i n di vid ual soul is free from evil et c., when it be comes iden ti cal with Brah man and not when it is en vel oped by lim it ing ad junct s and re mains as the fi nite Jiva or em - bod ied soul. Agency (K artritva), en joy ing (Bhoktritv a), like and dis like (Raga-dvesha) in di cate Jivahood. I f these are re moved the i n di vid ual soul shines as Brah man. As long as the in di vid ual soul does not free it self from A vidya (ig - no rance) in the form of du al ity and does not rise to the knowl edge of the Self or Brah man, whose na ture is un change able and Satchidananda which ex presses it self in the f orm I am Brah man, so long it re mains as an in di vid ual soul. The ig no rance of the Jiva may be com pared to the mis take of a man who in the twi light mis takes a post for a man, a rope for a ser pent.BRAHMA SU TRAS 92 When it gives up t he iden ti fi ca tion with t he body , sense or gans and mind, when it real ises it s iden tity with the Su preme Brah man it be comes Brah man it self whose na ture is un change able and Satchidananda, as is de clared in Mun. Up. II I-2-9 He who knows the high est Brah man be comes even Brah man. This is the real na ture of the in di vid ual soul by means of which it arises from the body and ap - pears in it s own real form. Why a ref er ence has at all been made to Jiv a in this Sec tion treat ing of Dahara, you wil l find an an swer in the fol low ing Su tra. A`mW nam_ e Anyarthascha p aramarsah I.3.20 (83) And the reference (to the individual soul) is for a d ifferent purpose. Anyarthah: for a dif ferent purpose; Cha: and; Paramarsah: reference. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is con tin ued. The ref er ence to the in di vid ual soul has a dif fer ent mean ing. The ref er ence to the in di vid ual soul is not meant t o de ter mine the na - ture of the i n di vid ual soul, but rather t he na ture of the S u preme Brah - man. The ref er ence to the three st ates of the in di vid ual soul is meant not to es tab lish the na ture of Jiva as such, but t o show fi nally it s real na ture (Svarup a) which is not dif fer ent from B rah man. An other ob jec tion is raised. The t ext de scribes this Dahara as oc cu py ing a very small space in t he heart, and be cause Dahara is so small and Jiva is also small, t here fore, Dahara must be Jiva men - tioned sub se quently . The fol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer. AnlwVo[ a{V Mom Xw$_& Alpasruteriti chet t adukt am I.3.21 (84) If it be said that o n acc ount of the scrip tural declara tion o f the smallne ss (of the e ther) (the Brahman c annot b e meant) (we say that ) that has already bee n explained . Alpasruteh: because of the Sruti declaring i ts smallness; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Tat: that; Uktam: has already been explained. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is con cluded. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor has st ated that the small ness of the et her st ated by t he Sruti In i t is that smal l ether does not agree with Brah man, that it may how ever re fer to the Jiv a or the in di vid ual soul which is com pared to the point of a goad. This has al ready been re futed. It has al ready been shown un der I.2.7 t hat small ness may be at trib uted to B rah man for the pur pose of med i ta tion (Up asana). The same ref u ta tion is to be ap plied here also. That small ness is con tra - dicted by t hat Sruti text which com pares the ether within t he heart with CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 93 the uni ver sal ether As large as is this ether so large is the ether withi n the heart. Anukrity adhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 22-23) Everything shines af ter Brahm an AZwH$VoV` M& Anukritest asya cha I.3.22 (85) On account o f the actin g afte r (i.e. the shini ng afte r) (that a fter which sun, mo on, e tc. are s aid to s hine is the Su preme Se lf) and (be cause by the light) of Him (e verything els e is lighte d). Anukriteh : because of the acting af ter, from im itation, f rom the following; Tasya: its; Cha: and. A pas sage from the Mundaka Up anishad is t aken now for dis - cus sion. We read in Mundaka Upani shad II-2-10 and Kathop anisad II-ii-15 The Sun does not shine there nor the moon and the st ars, nor these lightnings, much less the fire. A f ter him when he shines ev ery - thing shines; by t he light of hi m all this is light ed. Now a doubt arises whether he af ter whom when he shines ev - ery thing shines, and by whose light all this is light ed is some ef ful gent sub stance, or the Su preme Self. The shin ing af ter men tioned in the t ext Af ter him when he shines ev ery thing shines is pos si ble only if the Su preme Self or Brah man is un der stood. An other Sruti de clares of that Su preme Self, His form is light, hi s thought s are true Chh. Up. III -14-2. Him the gods wor ship as the light of lights, as im mor tal time Bri. Up. IV -4-16. The clause On ac count of the act ing af ter point s to the shin ing af ter men tioned in the t ext un der dis cus sion. That the li ght of t he Sun etc., should shine by some other ma te - rial light is not known. It is ab surd to say that one l ight is light ed by an - other . We do not know of any phy s i cal light, ex cept the sun, that can light Brah man. The man i fes ta tion of t his whole uni verse has for it s cause the ex is tence of the li ght of B rah man, just as the ex is tence of the li ght of the sun is the cause of the man i fes ta tion of all form and colours. Brah - man is self-lu mi nous. It re mains in It s own glory . It il lu mines the sun, the moon, t he st ars, the light ning, the f ire, the senses, the mi nd and the in tel lect and all ob jects. It does not need any other light t o il lu mine it. Sruti tex ts like Brah man is the light of light s (Jyotisham Jyoti h) clearly in ti mate that Brah man is Self-ef ful gent. I t is quite pos si ble to deny the shin ing of sun, moon et c., with ref er ence to Brah man, be - cause what ever is seen is seen by the light of Brah man only . As Brah - man is Self-ef ful gent, it is not seen by means of any other light.BRAHMA SU TRAS 94 Brah man man i fests ev ery thing else but is not man i fested by any thing else. W e read in Bri. Up. B y the S elf alone as his light m an sits IV-3-6. The word Sarvam de notes that t he en tire world of names and forms is de pend ent on the glory of Brah man. The word anu in ti - mates that t he ref er ence is to Brah man be cause it is from Him that all ef ful gence is de rived. A{n M _`Vo& Api cha smary ate I.3.23 (86) Moreover the Smriti a lso speaks of him i.e. Brah man to be the unive rsal light. Api cha: moreover , also; Smary ate: the Smr iti states . An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 22 is given. The Smriti or Git a also says so. In Git a, Chap ter XV -6 we read Nei ther the sun, nor the m oon, nor the fi re il lu mines that, hav ing gone into which men do not re turn, that is My high est seat. And The li ght which abid ing in the sun il lu mines the whole world and that which is in the moon and that which is in the fire, al l that li ght know to be Mine XV-12. Prami tadhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 24-25) The person of the size of a thum b is Brahman eXmXo d {_ V& Sabdadev a pramit ah I.3.24 (87) From the very word (viz., th e term Lord applied to it) the (person) measured (by t he size of t he thum b) (is Brah man) . Sabdat : from t he very word; Eva: even, only , itself; Pramit ah: measured, i.e., described as having the size of the t humb. An ex pres sion from the Kat hopanishad is t aken up for dis cus - sion. We read in Kathop anishad II-4-12, The per son of the size of a thumb re sides in the mid dle or cen tre of the body etc. and in II -4-13 That per son, of the size of a t humb is like a light wit h out smoke, lord of the p ast and of the f u ture, he is the same t o day and to mor row. Know ing Him one does not seek to hide one self any more. This is That. A doubt arises now whether the per son of the size of a thum b men tioned in the t ext is t he in di vid ual soul or the Su preme Self (B rah - man). The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds that on ac count of the state ment of t he per sons size of thumb the in di vid ual soul is meant, be cause to the Su preme Self which is In fi nite the S ruti tex t would not as cribe the mea sure of a thumb.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 95 To this we re ply that the per son of the size of a thum b can only be Brah man. Why? On ac count of the t erm Isana, Lord of the p ast and of the f u ture. The high est Lord only is the ab so lute ruler of t he past and the fu ture. Fur ther the clause This is that con nects the p as - sage with that which had been en quired about, and t here fore forms the topic of di s cus sion. What had been en quired about by Nachiket as is Brah man. Nachiket as asks Lord Y ama, That which thou seest as nei ther this nor that , as nei ther ef fect nor cause, as nei ther p ast nor fu ture, tel l me that (K atha Up. I-2-14). Y ama re fers to this per son of the size of a thumb t hus That which you wanted to know is this. Brah man is said to be of t he size of a thumb, t hough He is all-per vad ing, be cause He is reali sable in the lim ited cham ber of the heart of a man. The ep i thet The Lord of the p ast and the fu ture, can not be ap - plied to Jiva at all, whose p ast and the fu ture is bound by his Kar mas and who is not free to pos sess so much glory . But how the al l-per vad ing Lord can be said to be lim ited by t he mea sure of a thumb? The fol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer. noj`m Vw _ Zw`m{YH $madmV & Hridy apekshay a tu manushy adhikaratv at I.3.25 (88) But with re ference to the heart (the highe st Bra hman i s said to be of th e size of a t humb) as man alone is entit led (to t he study of the Ve das, to p ractis e m editatio n and attain Self-re alisation). Hridi: in the heart, with reference to the heart ; Apekshay a: by reference to, in consideration of ; Tu: but; Manushy adhikaratv at: because of the privilege of men. A qual i fy ing ex pla na tion of S u tra 24 is given, and the priv i lege for Up asana or med i ta tion is dis cussed. The mea sure of a thumb is as cribed to Brah man, al though all-per vad ing, which with ref er ence to his re sid ing within the heart which is gen er ally as big as the t humb. Brah man dwells within the heart of all li v ing be ings. The heart s dif fer ac cord ing to the an i mals, some have larger heart s, some have smaller , some are more than a thumb, some are less than a t humb. Why is t he thumb used as a stan dard? Why a man s heart only and not t hat of any other an i mal, also? The sec ond half of t he Su tra gives an an sweron ac count of man only be ing en ti tled. M an only is en ti tled to t he study of t he Vedas and prac tice of med i ta tion and dif fer ent Up asanas of Brah man pre - scribed in them. There fore the thum b is used as the st an dard of mea - sure ment with ref er ence to him alone. The aim here is to show the iden tity of in di vid ual soul with Brah - man which is in side the body and is of t he size of a thumb. T he Vedant a pas sages have two fold pur port. Som e of them aim in giv ingBRAHMA SU TRAS 96 a de scrip tion of t he na ture of Brah man, some in teach ing the unity of the in di vid ual soul with the S u preme Soul. Our p as sage teaches the unity of the in di vid ual soul with the S u preme Soul or Brah man, not t he size of any thing. Thi s point is ren dered quite clear fur ther on in the Upanishad. The per son of the size of a thum b, the in ner Self, al ways abides in the heart of m en. Let a man draw that Self f orth from his body with steadi ness, as one draws the pith from a reed. Let hi m know that Self as Bright as the I m mor tal. Kat ha Up. II-6-17. Devatadhikaranam : Topic 8 (Sutras 26-33) The Devas also are entitled to t he study of V edas and to m editate on Brahm an VXwn` {n ~mXa m`U g^dmV & Tadup aryapi Baadaray anah sambhav at I.3.26 (89) Also (b eings) ab ove them (viz., me n) (are e ntitled for the s tudy and practice of the Vedas) on account of the possibility ( of it) according to Baadarayan a. Tad up ari: above them i .e. higher t han men namely Dev as; Api: also, even; Baadaray anah: the sage Baadarayana is of opinion; Sambhav at: because (it is) possible. The de scrip tion of t he priv i lege of study of Vedas and med i ta tion is con tin ued. There is a di gres sion from the main t opic in this Sec tion in Sutras 26 to 38. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds that such med i ta tion is not pos si ble in the case of the Dev as, be cause they are not en dowed with the sense or gans. Hence they have got no ca pa bil - ity to med i tate. The Dev as like Indra and the rest are mere thought forms cre ated by t he chant ing of Mantras. T hey have no de sire for the pos ses sion of V airagya (disp assion), V iveka (dis crim i na tion) etc. T o this the au thor gives a re ply in t his Su tra. A doubt may arise f rom the pre vi ous Su tra that as it is stated that men alone have t he priv i lege to the study of the V edas, the gods are thereby de barred. This Su tra re - moves this doubt. The teacher Baadarayana t hinks that the S u tra en ti tles gods also who are above men for the study of Vedas, prac tice of med i ta tion and at tain ment of knowl edge of Brah man. How? Be cause it is pos si - ble for them also as they too are cor po real be ings. The Up anishads, the Man tra por tion of t he V edas, the It ihasas and the Puranas all unan i mously de scribe that the Devas hav e bod ies. They may have the de sire of fi nal re lease caused by the re flec tion that all ef fects, ob - jects and power are non-per ma nent. They may have t he de sire to pos sess the four fold qual i fi ca ti on which is nec es sary for at tain ing the knowl edge of Brah man. The gods un dergo dis ci ple ship in or der to at - tain knowl edge. W e read in Chh. Up. VI II-7-1 1 Indra lived as a dis ci -CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 97 ple with Prajap ati for one hun dred and one years; Bhrigu V aruni went to his fa ther V aruna, say ing, sir , teach me Brah man T ait. Up. III-1. The god V aruna pos sessed the knowl edge of Brah man which he teaches to his son Bhrigu. The gods also pos sess all the req ui sites for prac tis ing med i ta - tion. There fore they are also en ti tled for t he study of t he Vedas and at - tain ing Self-reali sa tion. E ven with out Up anayana and study t he Veda is man i fest of it self to the gods. The p as sage about that which is of t he size of a thumb is equally valid when the right of the gods is ac cepted. In t heir case the Sruti de - scrib ing the Lord of t he size of a thumb re fers to the size of t heir thumbs. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says if we ad mit that Devas have bod ies, then there would arise dif fi cul ties with re gard to sac ri - fices, be cause it is not pos si ble for one fi nite cor po real be ing like Indra to be si mul ta neously pres ent at many places of sac ri fices, when he is in voked si mul ta neously by all hi s wor ship pers. There fore sac ri - fices will be come use less. T o this ob jec tion the au thor gives a suit able re ply in t he fol low ing Su tra. {damoY H$_Ur {V MoV Z AZoH${Vn moXeZmV& Virodhah karmaniti chet na anekapratip atterdarsanat I.3.27 (90) If it be said that (the corp oreality o f the gods inv olves) a contradict ion to sacrif ices; (we say) no, because we find (in t he scriptures) th e assumpt ion (by th e gods) of many (forms at one and the same time). Virodhah: contradiction; Karmani: In the sacrifices; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not; Aneka: many (bodies); Prati patteh: because of the assumption; Darsanat: because it is found (in the scriptures). An ob jec tion against S u tra 26 is raised and re futed. It is pos si ble for a Devat a to as sume sev eral forms at the same time. He can ap pear in sac ri fices per formed si mul ta neously at dif fer - ent places. Smrit i also st ates A Yogin, O hero of t he Bharat as, may by his power mul ti ply his self in m any thou sand forms and in them walk about on earth. I n some he may en joy the ob jects, in oth ers he may un dergo dire pen ance, and fi nally he may again with draw them all, just as the sun with draws it s many rays. If such Smriti p as sage de - clares that even Y ogins, who have merely ac quired var i ous ex traor di - nary pow ers, such as sub tlety of body and t he like may as sume sev eral bod ies at the same ti me, how much more ca pa ble of such feats must the gods be, who nat u rally pos sess all su per nat u ral pow - ers. A god may di vide him self into many forms and pres ent him self in many sac ri fices at the same t ime. He can re main all the whil e un seen by oth ers, in con se quence of his power to make him self in vis i ble.BRAHMA SU TRAS 98 More over, why can not the same god be t he ob ject of many sac ri fices, just as the same man can be the ob ject of sal u ta tion of many per - sons? eX B{V Mo V Z AV ^dm`jmZw_mZm`m_& Sabda iti chet na at ah prabhav at praty akshanumanabh yam I.3.28 (91) If it be said (that a contradiction will re sult) in re spect of th e word ( we say) no, becaus e (the wor ld) or iginates from the wor d, as is kno wn from dire ct pe rception (Sru ti) and infe rence (Smriti). Sabda: regarding V edic words; Iti: thus; Chet : if; Na: no; Atah: from this, from t hese words; Prabhav at: because of the creation; Praty akshanumanabh yam: from direct perception (Srut i) and inference (Smriti). An other ob jec tion against S u tra 26 (with re spect to the cor po re - al ity of the gods) is raised and re futed. The Purvap akshin main tains: The V e dic words have been proved in the P urvamimamsa phi los o phy to be per ma nent, i. e. with - out be gin ning or end. Now if gods are said to have bod ies they must have births and deaths, which all em bod ied be ings are sub ject to. There fore the Ve dic words for in di vid ual de i ties can not ex ist be fore their birth, nor can those words sig nify any de i ties, when they have ceased to ex ist dur ing dis so lu tion. Hence the per ma nency of V e dic words fails. To this ob jec tion the an swer is that there can not be any such in - con gru ity wit h re gard to V e dic words, be cause both Sruti and Sm riti main tain that in di vid ual gods owe their or i gin to V e dic words. The V e dic words ex ist from eter nity. They hav e got their set tled mean ing. The V e dic names for gods sig nify their types and not t he in - di vid u als. There fore the births or deaths of in di vid ual gods can not af - fect the t ypes, much less the per ma nent char ac ter of V e dic words. Cows are in nu mer a ble but it i s with the ty pe that t he word cow is in sep a ra bly con nected. The word cow is eter nal. It does not de - pend on the birth and deat h of in di vid u als be long ing to that type. Words rep re sent ing the gods have f or their coun ter part ob jects that are types and not in di vid u als. Indra re fers to a di vine func tion like the of fice of the V ice roy and who ever is called to that func tion is called Indra. There fore here is no non-eternality with ref er ence to the V edas. The word, in clud ing even the gods, is cre ated from scrip tural words. The scrip tural words are the source for the world and the gods. If you ob ject to thi s and say that t his con flicts with the Su tra I-1-2, which says that Brah man is the cause of the world, we re ply: B rah - man is the Up adanakarana (ma te rial cause). The V eda is not suchCHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 99 ma te rial cause. The cre ator ut ters the V e dic words and cre ates. He says earth and cre ates the earth and so on. The cre ation of ev ery em bod ied be ing, whether Indra or a cow , pro ceeds from re mem brance of the form and it s char ac ter is tics by Lord Brahma. When he ut ters these words, which by as so ci a tion al - ways sug gest the p ar tic u lar form and the char ac ter is tics of that form. When a spe cial in di vid ual of the class called Indra has per ished, the cre ator, know ing from the V e dic word Indra which is pres ent in his mind as the class char ac ter is tics of the be ing de noted by t he word, cre ates an other Indra pos sess ing those very same char ac ter is tics, just as the pot ter fash ions a new jar on the ba sis of the word jar which is re volv ing in his mind. Ev ery V e dic word al ways ex presses a par tic u lar type f orm and does not ex press any in di vid ual. Brah man cre ates the world by re - mem ber ing the p ar tic u lar type f orms de noted by t hose words. Forms (Akritis) are eter nal and ex ist in the ar che typal plane from eter nity be - fore they be come con crete in any in di vid ual form. B rahma, the cre - ator cre ated the Devas by re flect ing on the word Ete (these). He cre ated the men by the word Asrigram; t he Pitris by t he word Indavah (drops); t he plan ets by the word T iras pav itram; t he songs by the word Asuv a; the Mant ras by the word V isvani and he cre ated all other crea tures by the word Abhi saubhaga. The word et ad (this) re minds Brahma the cre ator of the Dev as pre sid ing over the senses; the word Asrigra mean ing blood, re minds him of those crea tures in which blood is the chief lif e-el e ment, nam ely men; the wordI ndu de not ing moon, re minds him of t he fa thers, who live in t he Chandraloka; the word T iras pav itram mean ing hold ing of the pure am bro sia re minds of the plan ets where the Soma fluid ex - ists; the word Asuva (flow ing) re minds him of t he sweet flow of mu - sic; the word V isva re minds him of t he hymns sa cred to the Visvedevas; t he word Abhisubhaga, mean ing great pros per ity, re - minds him of all crea tures. W e read in Bri. Up. He with hi s mind united him self with speech i.e. t he word of the V eda. Ev ery word has for it s coun ter part a form or an ob ject which it de notes. Name and form are in sep a ra ble. When ever you thi nk of a form it s name co mes be fore your mind at once. When ever you ut ter a name the ob ject co mes be fore your mind. The re la tion be tween a name or word and form (the ob ject) is eter nal. The V eda is not the ma te rial cause of the uni verse. If you say that t he Veda re fers to V asus, Rudras, Adityas and ot her gods who are born and are there fore non-eter nal and, hence, the V edas also must be non-eter nal, we re ply that what are born are the in di vid ual man i fes ta tions of Dravy a (sub stance), Guna (qual ity) and K arma (ac - tions) but not t he Akritis, spe cies. The orig i na tion of t he uni verse fromBRAHMA SU TRAS 100 the word is not to be un der stood in the sense that t he word con sti - tutes the ma te rial cause of the world as Brah man does. The sev eral names, ac tions, and con di tions of all t hings He shaped in the be gin ning from the words of t he Vedas Manu I-21. Thought first m an i fests as a word and then as the more con crete form. Y ou can not sep a rate the thought from name and form. If you wish to do a thing y ou first re mem ber the word de not ing the thing and then you st art the work. The V e dic words man i fested in the m ind of Prajap ati, the cre ator be fore the cre ation. A f ter that he cre ated the things cor re spond ing to those words. Ut ter ing Bhur he cre ated the earth etc. T aittiriy a Brahmana II -2-4-2. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that the uni verse can not be born of let ters which are per ish able, that there is an eter nal Sphota (causal form of sound) of which ut tered sounds are man i fes ta - tions and that such S phota is the cause of the uni verse. S phota is that which causes the con cep tion of t he sense of a word (Arthadhiketu). Sphota is a supersensuous en tity which is man i fested by t he let ters of the word and if com pre hended by the mi nd it self man i fests the sense of the word. This st ate ment of t he Purvap akshin is re ally un ten a ble. This is cer tainly not our ac tual ex pe ri ence. The ut tered sounds do not per ish, for at the end of their ut ter ance we real ise their iden tity when we ut ter them again. I t is said that t here might be a dif fer ence of in to na tion when ut ter ing the same word twice; thi s does not ne gate the iden tity, for the dif fer ence is only a dif fer ence of the in stru ment of m an i fes ta - tion. A l beit the let ters are many , their group can be the sub ject of a con cep tion (e.g. ten, hun dred etc). The S phota the ory is there fore quite un nec es sary . It is there fore quite clear that the V e dic sounds are eter nal and that t here is no log i cal fal lacy in the doc trine that through them has been cre ated the en tire uni verse in clud ing the gods. AV Ed M { Z`d_ & Ata eva cha nity atvam I.3.29 (92) From this v ery reason also there follows the eternity o f the Vedas. Ata eva: therefore, f rom this very reason; Cha: also; Nityatvam: The eternity of the V edas. A side is sue is de duced from Su tra 28. The eter nal na ture of V e dic words is also es tab lished from the same rea sons ad duced in Su tra 28 i.e. be cause those words sig nify per ma nent types. This Su tra now con firms the al ready es tab lished eter nity of the Vedas. The uni verse with it s def i nite eter nal types or spheres such asCHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 101 gods and so on orig i nates from the word of t he Veda. For this very rea son the eter nity of the word of the V eda must be ac cepted. As gods etc., as ty pes are eter nal, the V e dic words are also eter nal. The V edas were not writ ten by any body . They are t he very breath of the Lord. They are eter nal. The Rishis were not the au thors of the V edas. They only dis cov ered them. By means of their p ast good deeds the priest s were able to un der stand the V edas. They found them dwell ing in the Rishis. The Man tra By means of sac ri fice they f ol lowed the trace of speech; they found it dwell ing in the Rishis in Rigveda Samhi ta X-71-3 shows that the speech found by t he Rishis was per ma nent. V eda V yasa also says For merly the great Rishis, be ing al lowed to do so by Sv ayambhu, ob tained through their pen - ance the V edas to gether with the I tihasas, which had been hid den at the end of t he Yuga. g_mZZm_ $ndmV M Amd mmd`{ damoYmo XeZmg_ Vo& Samananam arup atvat cha av rittavapyavirodho darsanat smritescha I.3.30 (93) And on account of the sameness of names and forms in every fresh cyc le there is no contradiction (to th e eternity of th e words of th e Vedas) eve n in th e revo lving of t he world cycles, as is seen from the Sruti a nd Sm riti. Samananam arup atvat: on account of similar names and forms; Cha: and; Avrittau: in the cycles of creation; Api: even, also; Avirodhah: no inconsistency or contradiction; Darsanat: from the Sruti; Smrite h: from the Smr iti, Cha: and. An ar gu ment in fa vour of Su tra 29 is given in t his Su tra. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: At the end of a cy cle ev ery thing is to tally an ni hi lated. There is new cre ation at t he be gin - ning of the nex t cy cle. There is a break in the con ti nu ity of ex is tence. Hence even as types, t he gods are not eter nal and the eter nal re la tion of Ve dic words and the ob jects they de note does not re main. Con se - quently t here is con tra dic tion to t he eter nity and t he au thor ity of the Vedas. We say it is not so. Just as a man who rises from sleep con tin - ues the same form of ex is tence which he en joyed pre vi ously to his sleep, so also the world is a la tent or po ten tial st ate (in seed form) in Pralaya or dis so lu tion; it is again pro jected with all t he pre vi ous va ri - ety of names and forms at the be gin ning of the nex t cy cle. There fore the eter nity of the re la tion be tween V e dic words and their ob jects is not at all con tra dicted. Con se quently the au thor i t a tive ness of the Vedas re mains. This is sup ported by Srut i and Smriti . We read in Rigveda X-190-3 As for merly the Lord or dered the sun and the moon, heaven, earth, the sky et c. W e read in the Smrit i As the sameBRAHMA SU TRAS 102 signs of sea sons ap pear again and again in their due course, so do be ings ap pear and re ap pear in suc ces s ive cy cles. The word Cha in the Su tra is used to re move the doubt raised. Even af ter a great Pralay a there is no con tra dic tion with re gard to the eter nity of Ve dic words, be cause the new cre ation pro ceeds on the same ness of names and forms etc., i n the pre ced ing cre ation. I n a Mahapralaya the V edas and the types de noted by t he words of the Vedas merge in the Lord and be come one with Him. They re main in Him in a st ate of la tency . When the Lord de sires to cre ate they come out from Him again and be come man i fest. The cre ation of in di vid u als is al ways pre ceded by a re flec tion on the words of t he Vedas and the types de noted by t hem. Af ter the Mahapralay a the Lord cre ates the V edas in ex actly t he same or der and ar range ment s as they had been be fore. He re flects on the words and types and pro jects the whole uni verse. A sub se - quent cre ation is sim i lar to the p ast cre ation. The Lord cre ates the world just as a pot ter who makes a pot by re mem ber ing the word pot and the form which the word calls up in his mind. Af ter a Mahapralaya t he Lord Him self cre ates all el e ment s from Mahat down wards up to Brahmanda. He pro jects Brahma from His body and teaches him the V edas men tally (not orall y) and en trusts him with the work of f ur ther cre ation. I n mi nor Pralaya Brahma does not cease to ex ist, nor do the el e ment s. Brahma him self cre ates the world af ter ev ery mi nor Pralaya. It may be ob jected that when we sleep and then wake up we can re call the al ready ex pe ri enced ex ter nal uni verse and that such a thing is not pos si ble in the case of the di s so lu tion of t he world. But our an - swer is that by the grace of t he Su preme Lord, Hiranyagarbha or Brahma can rec ol lect the st ate of t he world as it was be fore the dis so - lu tion. W e read in the Sv etasvat ara Upani shad Dur ing Pralaya all forms van ish but Sakti re mains. The next cre ation t akes place through it alone. Oth er wise you would have to pos tu late a cre ation out of not h ing. _dm{ Xdg^ dmXZ{Y H$ma O{_{Z& Madhv adishv asambhav adanadhikaram Jaimi nih I.3.31 (94) On acc ount of the imposs ibility (of the gods being quali fied) f or Madhu Vidya e tc., Jaimini (is o f opinio n that the go ds) are not qualified (either for Up asana or for the Brah ma Vi dya or the knowl edge of th e Self). Madhu adishu: in Madhu V idya etc. ; Asambhav at: on account of the impossib ility; Anadhikaram: disqualification; Jaiminih : Jaimini is o f opinion. An other ob jec tion to S u tra 26 is raised.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 103 For Madhu V idya vi de Chh. Up. II I-1-11, the sage Jaimini, the au thor of Purv amimamsa, says t hat as the sun and the oth er gods are the de i ties to be wor shipped in Madhu V idya and the l ike, it is im pos si - ble that t hey should also be the wor ship pers. Hence they are not en ti - tled for t he Up asana pre scribed in Sruti, be cause ob vi ously they can not wor ship them selves. In Madhu V idya one is to med i tate on the Sun as honey (ben e fi cial). Such a med i ta tion is not pos si ble for Surya or the Sun-god be cause one and the same per son can not be both t he ob ject of med i ta tion as well as the per son med i tat ing. Fur ther the Devas like V asu etc., al ready be long to the class of Vasus etc. There fore in their case the med i ta tion is use less as the fruit is al ready ac com plished. The Devas have not h ing to gain by such med i ta tion. S o they hav e no de sire for this med i ta tion, be cause they al ready are in pos ses sion of that which is t he fruit of such med i ta tion. `mo{V {f ^mdm& Jyotishi bh avaccha I.3.32 (95) And (t he gods ar e not qual ified for Vi dyas) because (th e words sun, moon etc ., spoken of as gods) a re used in t he sense of mere spheres of light. Jyotishi: as mere spheres of light; Bhav at: because used in the sense; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of the ob jec tion raised in Su tra 31 is given. The Purvap akshin raises an other ob jec tion: The l u mi nous orbs can not pos si bly do act s of med i ta tion. S uch and other lu mi nary ob - jects as Agni etc., can not have a bodil y form wit h hands, heart or in tel - li gence. They are ma te rial in ert ob jects. They can not have wishes. We can not place fait h on Itihasas and Puranas, as they are of hu man or i gin and as they t hem selves st and in need of other means of knowl - edge on which to base. The Mantras do not f orm an in de pend ent means of au thor i ta tive knowl edge. The Arth avada p as sages can not be re garded to con sti tute by them selves rea sons for the ex is tence of the per son al ity of the gods. Con se quently t he gods are not qual i fied for any kind of V idya or knowl edge of Brah man. ^md Vw ~mXam`Umo @pV {h& Bhav am tu Baadaray anosti hi I.3.33 (96) But Baadarayana, on t he other hand (maint ains) th e existence (of qualification o n the part o f the gods for B rahma Vidya); fo r there are (passages indicatory of tha t; body, desires etc., whic h quali fy one for suc h know ledge do exist in the cas e of th e gods). Bhav am: the exist ence (of the qualifi cation to practise the m editation like Madhu V idya etc. ); Tu: but; Baadaray anah: the sage Baadarayana (maint ains); Asti: does exist; Hi: because.BRAHMA SU TRAS 104 This Su tra re futes the ar gu ment s in the pre vi ous two Sutras and con cludes the dis cus sion. But Ba adarayana holds that t he gods too have the right to prac - tise Up asana as med i ta tion and Brahma V idya, be cause there are in - di ca tions in Sruti to that ef fect. He main tains that each lu mi nary orb has a pre sid ing de ity wit h body , in tel li gence, de sires etc. The gods can as sume any form at will. Indra as sumed the form of a ram and car ried of f Medhatit hi. Sury a as sumed the form of a man and came to Kunti. We read in Chh. Up. VI II-12-6 The gods in deed do wor ship the At man. The sun-god may be dis qual i fied for a p ar tic u lar form of med - i ta tionMadhu V idya, as he can not med i tate on the sun him self, but that is no rea son why he should be dis qual i fied for ot her med i ta tions or for Brahma V idya or the knowl edge of Brah man. Sim i lar is the case with other gods. The ex pres sion T u (but, on the ot her hand) is meant to re but the Purvap akshin. Scrip ture de clares that the Devas are qual i fied. What ever Deva was awak ened so to know Brah man he in deed be came that Bri. Up. 1-4-10. Indra went to P rajap ati say ing well, let us search for that Self by which if one has searched it out, all worlds and all de sires are ob - tained Chh. Up. VI II-7. The de scrip tion of t he forms of gods is real. How can un real forms of gods be con ceived by our minds f or our of fer ing sac ri fices to them? Or di nary peo ple are not able to be hold their forms. B ut sages like V yasa have seen them. They spoke to the gods. T he Yoga Sutras say By S vadhyay a one can be in com mu nion with the de ity which we wor ship. How can you deny the pow ers of Y oga? Rishis had mar vel - lous pow ers. There fore gods have forms and are el i gi ble for Brahma V idya. Apasudradhikaran am: T opic 9 (Sutras 34-38) The right of t he Sudras to the study of V edas discussed ewJ` VX ZmXal dUmV VX mdUmV gy`Vo {h& Sugasy a tadanadarasrav anat tadadrav anat suchy ate hi I.3.34 (97) (King Janasru ti) was in grie f on he aring some conte mptuo us words used about h im by the sag e in th e form of a sw an; owin g to his ap proachi ng Raikva, o verwhelming with that grie f, Raikva calle d him Sudra; for it (the grie f) is pointe d at by Raikva. Suk: grief; Asya: his; Tat: that, namely t hat grief; Anadarasrav anat: from hearing his (the Rishi s) disrespectful speech; Tada: then; Adrav anat: because of going to him i. e. to Raikva; Suchy ate: is referred to; Hi: because.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 105 The dis cus sion on the priv i lege of di vine med i t a tion be gun in Su tra 25 is con tin ued. The whole of this A dhikarana about Sudras to gether with the pre ced ing one about the Dev as ap pears to be an in ter po la tion of some later au thor. In the pre vi ous Su tra it has been shown that t he gods are en ti - tled to t he study of V edas and Brahma V idya. Thi s Su tra dis cusses whether the Sudras are en ti tled to t hem or not. The Purvap akshin says: The Sudras also have got bod ies and de sires. Hence they are also en ti tled. Raikva re fers to Janasruti who wishes to learn from him by t he name of Sudra. Fie, neck lace and car riage be thine, O S udra, to gether with the cows Chh. Up. IV -2 & 3. But when he ap pears a sec ond time, Raikv a ac cepts his pres ents and teaches him. Sm riti speaks of V idura and oth ers who were born from Sudra moth ers as pos sess ing high est knowl edge. There fore the Sudra has a claim to Brahma V idya or knowl edge of Brah man. This Su tra re futes the v iew and de nies the right to t he study of the V edas for Sudra. The word Sudra does not de note a Sudra by birth which is it s con ven tional mean ing, be cause Janasruti was a Kshatriya king. Here we will have to t ake the et y mo log i cal mean ing of the word which is, He rushed into grief ( Sukam abhi dudrava ) or as grief rushed on him or as he in his grief rushed to Raikva. The fol - low ing Su tra also in ti mates that he was a Kshatriya. j{`dmdJVo moma M aWoZ {bmV & Kshatriy atvavagateschott aratra chaitrarathena li ngat I.3.35 (98) And because th e Kshat riyahood (of Janasrut i) is know n from the infere ntial mark (supp lied by his be ing mentione d) late r on with Chaitraratha (who was a Ksha triya himse lf). Kshatriy atva: the st ate of his being a K shatriya; Avagateh: on account of being known or understood; Cha: and; Uttaratra: latter on in a subsequent p art of the t ext; Chaitrarathena: with Chaitraratha; Lingat: because of the indicatory sign or t he inferential m ark. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 34 is given. Janasruti is men tioned with t he Kshatriya Chait raratha Abhiprat arin in con nec tion with t he same V idya. Hence we can in fer that Janasruti also was a Kshatriy a be cause, as a rule, equals are men tioned to gether with equals. Hence the S udras are not qual i fied for the knowl edge of Brah man. gH$manam_ emV VX^mdm{^ bmnm& Samskarap aramarsat t adabhav abhilap accha (I.3.36) (99) Because purificat ory ceremonies are me ntioned (in th e case of the twice-born) and th eir absence is declared (in the case o f the Sudra ).BRAHMA SU TRAS 106 Samskara: the purificatory ceremonies, the invest iture with sacred thread; Paramarsat: because of the reference; Tat: that ceremony; Abhava: absence; Abhilap at: because of the declaration; Cha: and. The dis cus sion on the priv i lege of Brahma V idya on the p art of Sudras is con tin ued. In dif fer ent places of the V idyas the Up anayana cer e mony is re - ferred to. The Up anayana cer e mony is de clared by the scrip tures to be a nec es sary con di tion for t he study of al l kinds of knowl edge or Vidya. W e read in Prasna Up. I-1 De voted t o Brah man, firm in Brah - man, seek ing for the high est Brah man they , car ry ing fuel in t heir hands, ap proached the ven er a ble Pipp alada, think ing that he would teach them all t hat. Up anayana cer e mony is meant f or the higher castes. With ref er ence to the Sudras on the ot her hand, the ab sence of cer e mo nies is fre quently m en tioned in the scrip tures. In the S udra there is not any sin by eat ing pro hib ited food, and he is not fit for any cer e mony Manu X-12-6. A Sudra by birth can not have Up anayana and other Samskaras with out which the V edas can not be stud ied. Hence the Sudras are not en ti tled to t he study of t he Vedas. The next S u tra fur ther strength ens the view that a Sudra can have no Samskara. VX^md{Z YmaUo M dmo& Tadabhav anirdharane ch a prav ritteh I.3.37 (100) And because th e incli nation (on th e part of Gautam a to impar t knowle dge is seen only) on the ascertainment o f the ab sence of Sudrahood (in Jabala Sat yakama). Tad: that, namely t he Sudrahood; Abhava: absence; Nirdharane: in ascertai nment; Cha: and; Prav ritteh: from inclinati on. The same dis cus sion on the Sudras right is con tin ued. Gaut ama, hav ing as cer tained Jabala not to be a S udra from his speak ing the trut h pro ceeded to ini ti ate and in struct him. None who is not a Brahmana would thus speak out. Go and fetch fuel , friend, I shall ini ti ate you. You have not swerved from t he truth Chh. Up. IV-4-5. This scrip tural tex t fur nishes an in fer en tial sign of t he Sudras not be ing ca pa bl e of ini ti a t ion. ldUm ``ZmW{V foYmV _Vo & Srav anadhy ayanarthapratishedhat sm ritescha I.3.38 (101) And on a ccount of the prohi bition in Smr iti of (t he Sudra s) hearing, studying and unde rstanding (the Veda) and performi ng Ve dic rites (the y are not e ntitle d to the knowledge of Brahma n).CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 107 Srav ana: hearing; Adhy ayana: studying; Artha: underst anding; Pratishedhat: on account of the prohibit ion; Smrite h: in the Smriti; Cha: and. The same dis cus sion on the Sudras right is con cluded here. The Smriti pro hib its their hear ing the V eda, their study ing and un der stand ing the V eda and their per form ing V e dic rites. The ears of him who hears the V eda are to be filled wit h mol ten lead and lac. For a Sudra is like a cem e tery. There fore the V eda is not to be read in the vi cin ity of a Sudra. His tongue is to be slit if he pro nounces it; his body is to be cut through if he pre serves it. Sudras like V idura and the re li - gious hunter Dharma V yadha ac quired knowl edge ow ing to the af ter ef fects of for mer deeds in p ast births. It is pos si ble for the S udras to at tain that knowl edge through the Puranas, Gi ta and the ep ics, Ramayana and Mahabharat a which con tain the quin tes sence of the Vedas. It is a set tled point t hat the S udras do not pos sess any such qual i fi ca ti on with re gard to the Veda. The di gres sion be gun from Su tra 26 ends here and the gen eral topic is again t aken up. Kamp anadhikaranam : Topic 10 The Prana in which everything trem bles is Brahman H$nZmV & Kamp anat I.3.39 (102) (Prana is Brah man) on account of t he vibration or tr embling (spoken of the wh ole worl d). Kamp anat: on account of shaking or vibration. Af ter dis cuss ing the side is sues in Su tra 25-38 the Sut rakara or the au thor of the S utras re sumes the ex am i na tion of t he main is sue. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is given here. The dis cus sion of qual i fi ca tion for B rahma V idya or knowl edge of Brah man is over . We re turn to our chief t opic i.e., the en quiry into the pur port of the V edant a text s. We read in Kathop anishad II-3-2 What ever there is in the whole world has come out of Prana and trem bles in the Prana. T he Prana is a great ter ror, a raised thun der bolt. Those who know it be come im - mor tal. The Purvap akshin main tains that the t erm Prana de notes the air or the vi tal force with it s five mod i fi ca tions. The S iddhantin says: Here Prana is Brah man and not the v i tal force, be cause Brah man only is spo ken of in the pre ced ing as well as in the sub se quent p art of the chap ter. How then can it be sup posed that all at once the vi tal force should be re ferred to in the i n ter me di ate p art?BRAHMA SU TRAS 108 The whole world trem bles in Prana. W e find here a qual ity of Brah man viz., its con sti tut ing the abode of t he whole world. That the word Prana de notes the high est Self ap pears from such pas sages as the Prana of P rana Bri. Up. I V-4-18. The scrip ture de clares No mor tal lives by t he Prana and the breath t hat goes down. W e live by an other in whom these two re pose (Katha Up. II -5-5). In the p as sage sub se quent to t he one un der dis cus sion From ter ror of it fi re burns, from ter ror the sun shines, from ter ror Indra and V ayu and Death as the fif th run away . Brah man and not the v i tal force is spo ken of as the sub ject of that pas sage, which is rep re sented as the cause of fear on the p art of the en tire uni verse in clu sive of t he Prana it self. Brah man only is the cause of t he life of t he en tire uni verse in clud ing the vi tal force. Brah man is com pared to a thun der bolt be cause he in spires fear in fire, air , sun, Indra and Y ama. Fur ther Im mor tal ity is de clared to him who knows this Prana. A man who knows him only p asses over death, t here is no other p ath to go. (Svet. Up. VI-15). P rana is also of - ten used to de note Brah man in the Srut i. Jyotiradhikar anam: T opic 1 1 The li ght is Brahman `mo{VXeZmV& Jyotirdarsanat I.3.40 (103) The light (is Brahma n) on acc ount o f that (Brahman) b eing seen (in t he scriptural passage). Jyotih: light; Darsanat: on account of (Brahman) being seen. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is con tin ued. We read in the Sruti Thus does that se rene be ing aris ing from this body , ap pear in it s own form as soon as it has ap proached the High est Light (Chh. Up. V III-12-3). Here the doubt arises whether the word light de notes the phys - i cal light which is the ob ject of sight and di s pels dark ness, or the High - est Brah man. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: The word light de notes the well-known phys i cal light be cause that is the con ven tional sense of the word. To this we have the f ol low ing re ply. The word light can de note the High est Brah man only . Why? Be cause in the whole chap ter Brah - man is the topic of dis cus sion. The High est Light is also called the High est Per son in that t ext it self later on. F ree dom from body i s said to be long to that be ing which is one with this light . Sruti de clares When he is free from the body t hen nei ther plea sure nor pain touches him (Chh. Up. VII I-12.1). Free dom from body i s not pos si bleCHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 109 out side Brah man. One can at tain free dom or the bodi less st ate when he iden ti fies him self with Brah man. Arthant aratv adivyapadesadhikaranam : Topic 12 The Akasa is Brahman AmH$memo@WmVadm{X`nX oemV& Akasorthant aratv adivyapadesat I.3.41 (104) Akasa (is Brahman) because it is declared to be something different etc., (from name s and forms ). Akasah: Akasa; Arthant aratv adi-v yapadesat: because it is declared to be something dif ferent; Artha: with a meaning; Antaratv a: differentness. Adi: etc.; Vyapadesat: from st atement on account of designation. An other ex pres sion from the Chhandogya Up anishad is now taken up for dis cus sion. W e read in Chhandogya Up anishad VIII -14-1 That which is called Akasa is the revealer of al l names and forms. That within which t hese names and forms are con tained is Brah man, the Im mor tal, the S elf. Here a doubt arises whether that which here is called Akasa is the High est Brah man or the or di nary el e men t al ether . The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor says that A kasa means here the el e men tal ether , be cause this is the con ven tional mean ing of the word. To this the Si ddhantin giv es the fol low ing re ply. Here Akasa is Brah man only , be cause it is des ig nated as a dif fer ent thing et c. Names and forms are said to be within thi s Akasa, which is there fore dif fer ent from these. The term Akasa sig ni fies Brah man be cause it is st ated to be t he source of all names and forms, also be cause it is qual i fied by such ep - i thets as In fi nite Im mor tal Self. The word Akasa, re fers to Brah man be cause the de scrip tion be yond name and form ap plies only to Brah man. Sushupty utkranty adhikaranam : Topic 13 (Sutras 42-43) The Self consisting of knowledge is Brahman gwfw`wH$m`mo^}XoZ& Sushupty utkrantyorbhedena I.3.42 (105) Because of the High est Self being sh own a s different (from the individual soul) i n the stat es of deep sleep and death. Sushupti utkranty oh: In deep sleep and death; Bhedena: by the difference, as dif ferent; ( Sushupti: deep sleep; Utkranti : departing at the t ime of death).BRAHMA SU TRAS 110 An ex pres sion from the sixt h chap ter of the B rihadaranyaka Upanishad is now t aken up for dis cus sion. In the six th Prap athaka or chap ter of the B rihadaranyaka Upanishad, in re ply to t he ques tionWho is that S elf? (IV -3-7), a lengthy ex po si tion of t he na ture of the S elf is given. He who is within the heart, am ong the Pranas, t he per son of light, con sist ing of knowl - edge. Here a doubt arises whether the Self is t he High est Self or t he in di vid ual soul. The Su tra de clares that it is t he High est Self. Why? Be cause it is shown to be dif fer ent from t he in di vid ual soul in the st ate of deep sleep and at the ti me of death. This per son em braced by the High est in tel li gent Self knows noth ing that is wit h out or within Bri. Up. IV-3-21. This clearly in di cates that in deep sleep t he per son or the in - di vid ual soul is dif fer ent from t he High est in tel li gent Self or Brah man. Here the term the per son must mean the Jiva or the em bod ied soul, be cause the ab sence of the knowl edge of what is within and with out in deep sleep can be pred i cated only of the in di vid ual soul. The Su preme in tel li gent Self is Brah man be cause such in tel li gence can be pred i cated of Brah man only . Brah man is never dis so ci ated from all-em brac ing knowl edge. Sim i larly the p as sage that treat s of de par ture i.e. death (this bodily Self mount ed by the in tel li gent self moves along groan ing) re fers to the S u preme Lord as dif fer ent from the in di vid ual soul. The Jiva who cast s off this mor tal body is dif fer ent from Su preme Self or B rah man. The Jiva al one p asses through the stages of sound-sleep and death. Brah man has nei ther sleep nor death. He is wide awake al ways. There fore Brah man is the chief t opic in this Sec tion. The Chap - ter ex clu sively aim s at de scrib ing the na ture of Brah man. The lengt hy dis course on the in di vid ual soul in this Sec tion is to show that he is in es sence iden ti cal with Brah man. n`m{Xe Xo`& Paty adisabdebhy ah I.3.43 (106) (The Being r eferred t o in S utra 42 is Br ahma n) because of the words Lor d etc. , being applied t o Him. He is th e contr oller, the Rule r, the Lord of all. Bri. Up. I V-4-22. Paty adi sabdebhy ah: On account of words like Lord etc., (t he self in the tex t under discussion is the Superme Self ). The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 42 is given. These ep i thets are apt only in t he case of Brah man, be cause these ep i thets in ti mate that the thing spo ken of is ab so lutely free. Hence the word Self de notes the High est Self or B rah man and not the CHAPT ER ISE CTION 3 111 Jiva or the em bod ied soul, from all of which we con clude that the Chap ter re fers to the S u preme Brah man. Here ends the Third Pada of the First Adhyay a of the Br ahma Sutras and of Sari raka Bhashy a of Sri S ankarachary a.BRAHMA SU TRAS 112 CHAPTER I SECTION 4 INTRODUCTION In Topic 5, Sec tion 1, it has been shown that as the Pradhana of the Sankhyas is not based on t he au thor ity of the scrip tures and that as all the Sruti texts re fer to an in tel li gent prin ci ple as the first cause, Brah man is the first cause. The na ture of Brah man has been de fined in I. 1.2. I t has been shown that the pur port of all V edant a text s is to set forth t he doc trine that B rah man and not the P radhana, is the cause of the world. The Sankhyas say that it has not been sat is fac to rily proved t hat there is no scrip tural au thor ity for the Pradhana, be cause some Sakhas con tain ex pres sion which seem to con vey t he idea of the Pradhana. This Pada or Sec tion pro ceeds to deal with the con sid er ation of other V e dic text s which are as serted by the S ankhyas to de clare that the Pradhana is the cause of t he uni verse. The whole of Sec tion 4 giv es suit able and co gent an swers to all ob jec tions raised by the S ankhyas. 113 SYNOPSIS The fourth Pa da or Sec tion of t he first Chap ter is spe cially di - rected against the Sankhy as. This Sec tion ex am ines some p as sages from the Up anishads where terms oc cur which may be mis taken for the names of t he in sen tient mat ter of Sankhy as. It de clares au thor i ta - tively that the V edant a text s lend no sup port what so ever to the Sankhya the ory of cre ation or the doc trine of P radhana. This Sec tion proves that B rah man is the ma te rial as well as the ef fi cient cause of the uni verse. Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-7) dis cusses the pas sage in Katha Upanishad I-3-10, 1 1 where men tion is made of t he great (Mahat) and the un de vel oped (A vyakt am). A vyakt a is a syn onym for P radhana in the Sankhya S astra. Mahat means in tel lect in Sankhya phi los o phy. Sri Sankaracharya shows that the t erm A vyakt a de notes the sub tle body or Sukshma Sarira as well as the gross body also and the t erm Mahat Brah man or the Su preme Self. Adhikarana II: (Sutras 8-10) shows that ac cord ing to Sankara the tri-col oured Aja spo ken of in the Sv etasvat ara Upani shad IV .5 is not the P radhana of the Sankhy as but ei ther that power of t he Lord from which the world t akes it s or i gin or the pri mary causal mat ter first pro duced by that power . Adhikarana III : (Sutras 1 1-13) shows that the Pancha-p ancha-janah men tioned in Brihadarany aka Upanishad IV-4-17 are not the twenty -five prin ci ples of the Sankhy as. Adhikarana IV : (Sutras 14-15) shows that al though there is con - flict as re gards the or der of cre ation, scrip ture does not con tra dict it - self on the all-im por tant point of Brah man i.e., a Be ing whose es sence is in tel li gence, which is the cause of this uni verse. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 16-18) proves that He who is the maker of those per sons, of whom this is the work men tioned in Kau. Up. IV-1-19 is not ei ther the Prana (the v i tal air) or the in di vid ual soul, but Brah man. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 19-22) de cides that the Sel f to be seen, to be heard etc. (Bri. Up. II-4-5) is the S u preme Self, but not t he in di - vid ual soul. The vi ews of Jaimini, A smarathya, A udulomi and Kasakrit sna are ex pressed. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 23-27) teaches that Brah man is not only the ef fi cient or op er a tive cause (Nimitt a) of the world, but its ma te rial cause as well. The world springs from Brah man by way of mod i fi ca - tion (Parinama S u tra 26). 114 Adhikarana VII I: (Su tra 28) shows that the ref u ta tion of t he Sankhya vi ews is ap pli ca ble to other t he o ries also such as the atomic the ory which says that t he world has orig i nated from at oms, etc.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 115 Anumanikad hikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-7) The Mahat and A vyakta of the Kat hopanishad do not refer to t he Sankhya T attvas AmZw_m {ZH$_` oHo$fm{_{V Mo eara$nH${ d`VJhrVoXe `{V M&Anumanikam apyekeshamiti chet na sarirarup akav inyastagrihiter d arsay ati cha I.4.1 (107) If it be said that in some (recensions of the Vedas) that whi ch is inferred (i.e. the P radhana) (is) also (mentione d), (we sa y) no, becaus e (the word Avyakta occurring in the Katha Upan ishad) is m ention ed in a si mile r eferred to t he body (an d means the b ody itse lf and not the Pradhana of the (Sa nkhyas); (the Sruti) also e xplains (it). Anumanikam: that which is inferred (i.e. , the P radhana); Api: also; Ekesham: of some branches or school of Srutis or recensions of the text; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: No; Sarirarup akav inyastagrihiteh: because it is mentioned in a simi le referring to the body (Sarira : body , Rupaka: simile, Vinyasta: cont ained, Grihiteh: because of the reference); Darsay ati: (the Srutis) expl ain; Cha: also, too, and. The Sankhyas again raise an ob jec tion. They say that t he Pradhana is also based on scrip tural au thor ity, be cause some Sakhas like the Katha Sakha (school) con tain ex pres sions wherein the Pradhana seems to be re ferred to Be yond the Mahat there is the Avyakt a (the unmanifested or the un de vel oped), be yond the A vyakt a is the Purusha (Be ing or Per son) Katha Up. 1-3-1 1. The Sankhyas say that the word A vyakt a here re fers to the Pradhana be cause the words Mahat, A vyakt a and Purusha which oc cur in the same or der in the Sankhya phi los o phy, oc cur in the Sruti text. Hence they are re cog nised to be the same cat e go ries of the Sankhyas. The P radhana is called un de vel oped be cause it is des ti - tute of sound and other qual i ties. It can not there fore be said that t here is no scrip tural au thor ity for the Pradhana. W e de clare that this Pradhana is the cause of the world on the st rength of Srut i, Smrit i and ra ti o ci na tion. This Su tra re futes it t hus. The word A vyakt a does not re fer to the Pradhana. I t is used in con nec tion with a sim ile re fer ring to the body . The im me di ately pre ced ing p art of the Chap ter ex hib its the sim - ile in which the Self , the body , and so on, are com pared to the Lord of a char iot, a char i o teer etc. Know t he soul to be the Lord of t he char - iot, the body to be t he char iot, the in tel lect the char i o teer and the mind the reins. The senses they call t he horses, the ob jects of the senses their roads. When the Sel f is in un ion with the body , the senses and the mind, t hen wise peo ple call him the enjoy er Katha Up. I. 3.3-4.BRAHMA SU TRAS 116 All these t hings that are re ferred to in these v erses are found in the fol low ing: Be yond the senses there are the ob jects, be yond the ob jects there is mind, be yond the mi nd there is the in tel lect, the great Self (Mahat ) is be yond the in tel lect. Be yond the great (Mahat ) is the Avyakt a (the un de vel oped), be yond the A vyakt a there is the Purusha. Be yond the P urusha there is noth ingthis is the goal, the high est path Katha Up. I.3.10-11. Now com pare these two quo ta tions. In t his p as sage we re cog - nise the senses etc. which in the pre ced ing sim ile had been com - pared to horses and so on. The senses, the in tel lect and the mind are re ferred to in both p as sages un der the same names. The ob jects in the sec ond p as sage are the ob jects which are in the for mer p as sage des ig nated as the roads of the senses. The Mahat of the lat er text means the cos mic in tel lect. In t he ear lier p as sage in tel lect is the char - i o teer. It in cludes the in di vid ual and cos mic in tel lect. The A t man of the ear lier text cor re sponds to the Purusha of the l ater text and body of the ear lier text cor re sponds to A vyakt a in the later t ext. There fore Avyakt a means the body here and not t he Pradhana. There re mains now the body only which had be fore been com pared to the char iot in the ear lier text . Now an ob jec tion is raised. How can the body which is man i fest, gross and vis i ble (V yakta) be said to be unmanifest and un evolved? The fol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer. gy_ Vw V XhdmV& Sukshmam tu tadarhatv at I.4.2 (108) But t he subtl e (body is mean t by t he term Av yakta) on a ccount of its capabi lity (of being so desi gnated). Sukshmam : the subtle, t he permanent atoms, the causal body; Tu: but; Tad arhatv at: because it can be properly so termed. An ob jec tion to S u tra 1 is re futed. The Su tra re plies that what t he term A vyakt a de notes is the sub tle causal body . Any thing sub tle may be spo ken of as un de vel - oped or unmanifested. The sub tle parts of the el e ment s, the causal sub stance, i.e., the fiv e un com pounded el e ment s out of which the body is formed may be called so. As they are sub tle and not m an i fest, and as they also tran scend sense per cep tion, t hey can be prop erly des ig nated by t he term A vyakt a. It is also a mat ter of com mon oc cur rence to de note the ef fect by the cause. There fore the gross body is re ferred to here in di rectly . Com pare for in stance the phrase Mix the S oma with the cow (i.e. , milk) Rigveda IX. 40.4. A n other scrip tural p as sage also de clares Now all this, i.e. , this de vel oped world with names and forms is ca pa - ble of be ing des ig nated un de vel oped in so far as in a pre vi ous st ate it CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 117 was in a merely sem i nal or po ten tial st ate des ti tute of names and forms. In Brihadaranyaka Up anishad I-4-7, the K a ra na Sarira is called by the t erm un evolved or A vyakt a. Be fore the world came into man i - fes ta tion it was in t he form of a seed or causal body . An ob jec tion is raised. If the A vyakt a is t aken to be mat ter in it s sub tle st ate con sist ing of the causal body , what ob jec tion is there to in ter pret it as the P radhana of the Sankhy a sys tem, be cause there also A vyakt a means mat ter in sub tle state. The f ol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer to this ob jec tion. VXYrZ dmXW dV& Tadadhinatv at arthav at I.4.3 (109) On accoun t of its dependence (on the Lor d, such a previous seminal condit ion of the wor ld may be admitt ed, because such an admission is) r easonable . Tad: its; Adhinatvat: on account of dependence; Arthav at: having a sense or a meaning subserving an end or purpose; is fitting. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. The op po nent says. I f a suit able causal st ate of t he gross world is ad mit ted it is as good as ac cept ing the Pradhana, for we Sankhyas un der stand by the t erm Pradhana, noth ing but the an te ced ent con di - tion of t he uni verse. The Siddhanti n gives the f ol low ing re ply. The Pradhana of the Sankhyas is an in de pend ent en tity. The sub tle causal st ate ad mit ted here is de pend ent on the High est Lord. A pre vi ous sub tle stage of the uni verse must nec es sar ily be ad mit ted. I t is quite rea son able. For with out it t he Lord can not cre ate. I t is the po ten tial power of Brah man. The whole Lila is kept up through t his power . He could not be come ac tive if he were des ti tute of this po ten tial power . It is the causal po - ten ti al i ty in her ent in Brah man. That causal po ten ti al i ty is of the na ture of ne science. The ex is tence of such a causal po ten ti al ity ren ders it pos si ble that t he Jivanmukt as or lib er ated souls do not t ake fur ther birth as it is de stroyed by per fect knowl edge. It is rightly de noted by t he term un - de vel oped (Avyakt a). It has t he Su preme Lord for it s sub stra tum. I t is of the na ture of an il lu sion. It i s Anirvachaniya or in de scrib able. Y ou can nei ther say that it is nor that i t is not. This un de vel oped prin ci ple is some times de noted by t he term Akasa, ether . In that Im per ish able then, O Gargi, the ether is wo ven like warp and woof Bri. Up. I II-8-1 1. Some times, again, it is de noted by the t erm Akshara, the Im per ish able. Higher than the hi gh, Im per - ish able Mun. Up. I I-1-2.BRAHMA SU TRAS 118 Just as the il lu sion of a snake in a rope is not pos si ble merely through ig no rance with out the sub stra tumrope, so also the world can not be cre ated merely by ig no rance with out the sub stra tum, t he Lord. There fore the sub tle causal con di tion is de pend ent on the Lord, and yet t he Lord is not in the least af fected by t his ig no rance, just as the snake is not af fected by t he poi son. Know that t he Prakriti is Maya and the great Lord the ruler of Maya S vet. Up. IV -10. So the A vyakt a is a helper (Sahakari) to the Lord in His cre ation. The Lord cre ates the uni verse us ing it as a means. I t is de pend ent on the Lord. It is not like the P radhana of the Sankhy as which is an in de - pend ent en tity . The Lord looks on Maya and energises her . Then she has the power of pro duc ing the world. I n her own na ture she is Jada or in sen - tient. In the nex t Su tra the au thor gives an other rea son for hold ing that t he A vyakt a of the K atha Up anishad is not to be in ter preted as Pradhana. ko`dmdMZm& Jney atvavachanaccha I.4.4 (110) And because it is not menti oned (th at the Avyakt a) is to be known (it canno t be the Prad hana of the Sankhyas). Jney atva: that is the obj ect to be known; Avachanat: because of non-mention; Cha: and. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. Ac cord ing to the S ankhyas, eman ci pa tion re sults when the dif - fer ence be tween the Purusha and the A vyakt a (Prakriti) is known. For with out a knowl edge of the na ture of the con sti tu tive el e ment s of Pradhana it is im pos si ble to re cog nise the dif fer ence of the soul from them. Hence the A vyakt a is to be known ac cord ing to the S ankhyas. But here there is no ques tion of know ing the A vyakt a. Hence it can not be the Pradhana of t he Sankhyas. It is im pos si ble to hold that knowl edge of things which is not taught in the t ext is of any use to man. For this rea son also we hold that t he word A vyakt a can not de note the P radhana. The Sankhyas call A vyakt a or Pradhana the first cause. B ut the first cause has been st ated in the S ruti as the ob ject to be known. In the Sruti Avyakt a is not st ated to be an ob ject of pur suit. Hence it is not the f irst cause and con se quently , can not be mis taken for the mat - ter of Sankhy as. Ac cord ing to the S ankhyas, lib er a tion is at tained by know ing that P urusha is dif fer ent from P rakriti. The knowl edge of Prakriti is thus an es sen tial of re lease. But t he Katha Up anishad no where men - tions that t he knowl edge of A vyakt a is nec es sary for the fi nal eman - ci pa tion. There fore the A vyakt a of the K atha Up anishad is not the Prakriti of t he Sankhyas.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 119 No where does the scrip ture de clare that Pradhana (Mat ter) is Jneya (to be known) or Upasya (t o be wor shipped). What is aimed at as the ob ject of knowl edge of ad o ra tion in the S rutis is the Su preme seat of V ishnu ( Tad Vishnoh p aramam padam ). dXVr{V M o mkmo {h H$aUmV & Vadatiti chet na praj no hi prakaran at I.4.5 ( 111) And if you mai ntain that the t ext does speak (of t he Pradh ana as an obj ect of kn owledge) we deny t hat; because th e intellige nt (supre me) Self is mea nt on acco unt of the gene ral subject ma tter. Vadati: the verse or the tex t states; Iti: thus; Chet: if. Na: no; Prajna h: the intell ect supreme; Hi: because; Prakaranat: from the context, because of the general subject-matt er of the Chapter . An ob jec tion to S u tra 4 is raised and re futed. The Sruti says, He who has per ceived that which is with out sound, with out touch, wit h out form, de cay, with out taste, eter nal, with - out smell, wit h out be gin ning, with out end, be yond the great (Mahat ) and un change able, is freed from t he jaws of death Kat ha Up. II-3-15. The Sankhyas says that the Pradhana has to be known to at tain the fi nal re lease, be cause the de scrip tion giv en of the en tity to be known agrees with the Pradhana, which is also be yond the Mahat (great). Hence we con clude that the P radhana is de noted by t he term Avyakt am. This Su tra re futes this. It says t hat by A vyakt a, the one be yond Mahat (great) etc., the in tel li gent Su preme Self is meant , as that is t he sub ject-mat ter of that Sec tion. Fur ther the high est Self i s spo ken of in all V edantic tex ts as pos - sess ing just those qual i ties which are men tioned in the p as sage quoted above v iz., ab sence of sound etc. Hence it fol lows that the P radhana in the tex t is nei ther spo ken of as the ob ject of knowl edge nor de noted by t he term A vyakt am. Even t he propounders of the Sankhya phi los o phy do not st ate that lib er a tion or re lease from death is the re sult of the knowl edge of Pradhana. They state that it is due to t he knowl edge of the sen tient Purusha. The au thor gives an other rea son for hold ing that P radhana is not meant in the p as sage of the Kat ha Up anishad. `mUm_o d Md_ wn`mg Z& Trayanamev a chaiv amup anyasah prasnascha I.4.6 (112) And the re is q uestion and e xplanation re lating to three things only (not to the P radhana).BRAHMA SU TRAS 120 Trayanam: of the t hree, namely t hree boons asked by Nachiketas; Eva: only; Cha: and; Evam: thus; Upanyasah: mentioned, (present ation by way of answer); Prasnat: question; Cha: and. The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 5 is fur ther re futed. In the K atha Up anishad Nachiket as asks Y ama three ques tions only vi z., about t he fire sac ri fice, the i n di vid ual soul and the Su preme Self. These three things only Y ama ex plains and to them onl y the ques tions of Nachiket as re fer. Pradhana is not men tioned. Not h ing else is men tioned or en quired about. There is no ques tion rel a tive t o the Pradhana and hence no scope for any re marks on it. W e can not ex pect Y ama to speak of the P radhana which has not been en quired into. S o Pradhana has no place in the dis course. _h& Mahadv accha I.4.7 (113) And (the case of the term Avyakta) is like that o f the term Mahat. Mahadv at: like the Mahat; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is given. Just as in the case of Mahat, A vyakt a also is used in the V edas in a sense dif fer ent from t hat at tached to it in t he Sankhya. The Sankhyas use the term Mahat (the great one) to de note the first born en tity, the in tel lect. The t erm has a dif fer ent mean ing in the V e dic text s. In the V e dic text s it is con nected with the word Self . Thus we see in such pas sages as the fol low ingThe great Self is be yond the in tel lect (Katha Up. I -3-10), The great Om ni pres ent Self (Katha Up. I -2-22), I know the great per son (Svet. Up. III-8). W e there fore, con clude that the t erm A vyakt a also where it oc curs in the Srutis, can not de note the P radhana. Though the A vyakt a may mean the Pradhana or Prakriti in t he Sankhya phi los o phy, it means some - thing dif fer ent in the S ruti tex ts. So the P radhana is not based on scrip tural au thor ity, but is a mere con clu sion of in fer ence. Mahat is the B uddhi of the S ankhyas. But i n the Kat ha Upanishad the Mahat is said t o be higher than Buddhi. Buddheratm a mahan p arah. So the M ahat of t he Kathop anishad is dif fer ent from the Mahat of the Sankhyas. Chamasadhikaran am: T opic 2 (Sutras 8-10) The Aja of S vetasvat ara Upani shad does not mean P radhana M_gdX{deofmV & Chamasav adav iseshat I.4.8 (114) (It cannot be maintained that Aja means th e Pradhana) because no special characteristi c is stated, as in t he case o f the cup.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 121 Chamasav at: like a cup; Aviseshat: because there is no special characteristic. An ex pres sion from the Sv etasvat ara Upani shad is now t aken up for dis cus sion in sup port of Su tra 1. The au thor next re futes an other wrong in ter pre ta tion giv en by the Sankhyas of a verse from the S vetasvat ara Upani shad. We find in the S vetasvat ara Upani shad IV -5, There is one Aja red, white and black in col our, pro duc ing man i fold of f spring of the same na ture. Here a doubt arises whether this Aja re fers to the P radhana of the Sankhyas or to t he sub tle el e ment s fire, wa ter, earth. T he Sankhyas main tain that A ja here means the Pradhana, t he un born. The words red, white and black re fer to it s three con stit u ents, the Gunas, Satt va, Rajas and T amas. She is called un born. She is not an ef fect. S he is said to pro duce man i fold of f spring by her own un - aided ef fort. This Su tra re futes this. The Man tra taken by it self is not able t o give as ser tion what t he Sankhya doc trine is meant. There is no ba sis for such a spe cial as ser tion in the ab sence of spe cial char ac ter is tics. The case is anal o gous to that of the cup men tioned in the M an tra, There is a cup hav ing its mouth be low and it s bot tom above B ri. Up. II-2-3. I t is im pos si ble to de cide from the tex t it self what kind of cup is meant. S im i larly it is not pos si ble to fix the mean ing of Aj a from the text alone. But in con nec tion with t he Man tra about the cup we have a sup - ple men tary p as sage from which we learn what kind of cup is meant. What is called the cup hav ing its mouth be low and it s bot tom above i s the skull. Sim i larly, here we have to re fer this p as sage to sup ple men - tary text s to fix the mean ing of Aja. We should not as sert that it means the Pradhana. Where can we learn what spe cial be ing is meant by t he word Aja of the S vetasvat ara Upani shad? T o this ques tion the f ol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer. `mo{V nH$_m Vw VWm Yr`V EH o$& Jyotirup akrama tu t atha hy adhiy ata eke I.4.9 (115) But (the elements ) beginning with light (are meant by the te rm Aja), because some read so in their t ext. Jyotirup akrama: element s beginning with light ; Tu: but; Tatha: thus; Hi: because; Adhiy ate: some read, some recensions have a reading; Eke: some. This is ex plan a tory to S u tra 8. By the term Aja we have to un der stand the causal mat ter from which fire, wa ter and earth have sprung. The m at ter be gins with lightBRAHMA SU TRAS 122 i.e., com prises fire, wa ter and earth. The word t u (but) gives em pha - sis to the as ser tion. One S akha as signs to them red col our etc. The red col our is the col our of fire, whit e col our is the col our of wa ter, black col our is the col our of earth Chh. Up. VI -2-4, 4-1. This p as sage fixes the mean ing of the word Aj a. It re fers to fire, earth and wa ter from which the world has been cre ated. I t is not the Pradhana of the S ankhyas which con sists of the three Gunas. T he words red, white, black pri mar ily de note spe cial colours. They can be ap plied to the t hree Gunas of the Sankhyas in a sec ond ary sense only. When doubt ful pas sages have to be in ter preted, the p as sages whose sense is be yond doubt are to be used. This is gen er ally a re - cog nised rule. In the S vetasvat ara Upani shad in Chap ter I we find t hat Aja is used along with the word Devatma S aktithe di vine power . There - fore Aja does not mean P radhana. The cre ative power is Brah man s in her ent en ergy, which em a - nates from Him dur ing the pe riod of cre ation. P rakriti her self is born of Brah man. There fore Aja in it s lit eral sense of un born can not ap ply to Prakriti or Pradhana. Lord K rishna says, Mama yonir m ahad Brahma My womb is the great Brah man, in that I place the germ thence com eth forth t he birth of all be ings, O Bharat a. This shows that P rakriti her self is pro duced from the Lord. H$nZmonXoem _ dm{XdX{ damoY& Kalp anop adesaccha madhv adivadav irodhah I.4.10 (1 16) And on a ccount of the stat ement of the ass umpti on (of a meta phor) the re is no thing contrary to re ason (in A ja denoting the causal matter) as in the case of honey (de noting t he sun in Madhu Vidya for th e sake of meditation) and sim ilar cases. Kalp ana: the creative power of t hought; Upadesat: from teaching; Cha: and; Madhv adivat: as in the case of honey etc. ; Avirodhah: no incongruity . The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 8 is con tin ued. The Purvap akshin says, The term Aja de notes some thing un - born. How can it re fer to the t hree causal el e ment s of the Chhandogya Up anishad, which are some thing cre ated? This is con - trary to rea son. The Su tra says: There is no in con gru ity. The source of all be ings viz., fire, wa ter and earth is com pared to a she-goat by way of met a - phor. Some she-goat mi ght be p artly red, p artly whit e and p artly black. She might have many y oung goat s re sem bling her in col our. Some he-goat might love her and lie by her side, while some other he-goat might aban don her af ter hav ing en joyed her . Sim i larly the uni - ver sal causal mat ter which is tri-col oured on ac count of it s com pris ing fire, wa ter and earth pro duces many in an i mate and an i mate be ingsCHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 123 like unto it self and is en joyed by t he souls who are bound by A vidya or ig no rance, while it is re nounced by those souls who have at tained true knowl edge of the B rah man. The words like honey in the Su tra mean that just as the sun al - though not be ing honey is rep re sented as honey (Chh. Up. II I.1), and speech as cow ( Bri. Up. V -8), and the heav enly world etc., as the fires (Bri. Up. V I-2.9). S o here the causal mat ter though not be ing a tri-col - oured she-goat, is met a phor i cally or fig u ra tiv ely rep re sented as one. Hence there is noth ing in con gru ous in us ing the term A ja to de note the ag gre gate of f ire, wa ter and earth. A ja does not mean un born. The de scrip tion of Na ture as an Aja is an imag i na tive way of teach ing a Truth. The sun is the honey of the gods, t hough the sun is not mere honey . Sankhy opasangrahadhikar anam: T opic 3 The five-fold-fi ve (Pancha-panchajanah) does not refer to the t wenty-five Sankhyan categories Z g`mo ngJh mX{n ZmZ m^mdmX{Va oH$m& Na sankhy opasangrahadapi n anabhav adatirekaccha I.4.11 (117) Even from th e statement of the numb er (five-fold-five i.e., twenty-fiv e categories by the Sruti i t is) no t (to b e understoo d that the Sruti re fers to the Prad hana ) on a ccount o f the differences (in the categories and the exc ess over the number of the Sa nkhyan cate gories). Na: not; Sankhy a: number; Upasangrahat: from st atement; Api: even; Nanabhav at: on account of the dif ferences; Atirekat: on account of excess; Cha: and. This Su tra dis cusses w hether the twent y-five prin ci ples of the Sankhyan phi los o phy are ad mit ted by t he Sruti. The Sankhya or Purv apakshin failed in his at tempt t o base his doc trine on the t ext which speaks of the A ja. He again co mes for - ward and point s to an other text . He in whom the fi ve group s of fiv e and the ether rest, Him alone I be lieve t o be the Self ; I who know be - lieve Him t o be Brah man (Bri. Up. I V-4-17). Now five-times-fi ve makes twenty-fi ve. This is ex actly t he num ber of the Sankhy a Tattvas or prin ci ples. The doc trine of P radhana rest s on a scrip tural ba sis. Here is the scrip tural au thor ity for our phi los o phy. This Su tra re futes such an as sump tion. P anchapanchajanah, five-f ive-peo ple can not de note the t wenty-fiv e cat e go ries of the Sankhyas. The S ankhya cat e go ries have each their in di vid ual dif fer - ence. There are no at trib utes in com mon to each pent ad. The Sankhya cat e go ries can not be di vided int o group s of fiv e of any ba sis of sim i lar ity, be cause all the twenty -five prin ci ples or T attvas dif fer from each other .BRAHMA SU TRAS 124 This is fur ther not pos si ble on ac count of the ex cess. The ether is men tioned as a sep a rate cat e gory. This will make the num ber twenty-six in all. Thi s is not in ac cor dance with the the ory of the Sankhyas. From the mere enu mer a tion of t he num ber 25 we can not say that t he ref er ence is to the twenty -five S ankhya cat e go ries and that hence the Sankhya doc trine has the sanc tion of t he Vedas. The p as sage re fers to At man also. Then the t o tal num ber will be twenty-seven. At man is de scribed as the ba sis of the oth ers. There - fore it can not be one of t he twenty-f ive prin ci ples. The prin ci ples of Sankhya phi los o phy are pro pounded as in de - pend ent of P urusha. But here the cat e go ries are known to be en tirely de pend ent on Brah man or At man who is said to be the main stay of them all. So they can not be ac cepted as the in de pend ent prin ci ples of Sankhya. The word Panchajanah is a group de not ing term. I t is the spe cial name be long ing to all t he mem bers of that group. T he group con sists of fiv e mem bers, each of whom is called a Panchajanah. There fore the phrase Pancha-p anchajanah does not mean fiv e times fiv e be - ings but fiv e be ings. Ev ery one of whom is called a Panchajanah. It is just like the phrase Sapt arshi, which de notes the con stel la tion Ursa Ma jor, con sist ing of seven st ars. The word Sapt arshi is a spe cial name of ev ery one of these st ars. When we say seven Sapt arshis we do not mean seven t imes-seven st ars but seven st ars each one of whom is called a Sapt arshi. There fore Pancha-p anchajanah does not mean fiv e times fiv e prod ucts, but fiv e peo ple ev ery one of whom is called a Panchajanah. The t wenty-fiv e Tattvas of the Sankhy as are these: 1, P rakriti; 2-8, seven m od i fi ca tions of Prakriti viz., Mahat etc., which are causal sub stances, as well as ef fects; 9-24 six teen ef fects; the 25 is the soul which is nei ther a causal sub stance nor an ef fect. Who then are these be ings called Panchajanah? The fol low ing Su tra gives the re ply. mUmX `mo dm`eo fmV & Pranaday o vakyaseshat I.4.12 (1 18) (The P anch ajanah or the five people referred to are ) the vital force etc., (as is seen) from the compleme ntary passage. Pranaday ah: the Prana and the rest; Vakyaseshat: because of the complement ary p assage. The Su tra is ex plan a tory to S u tra 11. The text in which the Panchajanah are men tioned is fol lowed by an other one in which the vi tal force and four other thi ngs are men - tioned in or der to de scribe the na ture of Brah man. They who know the Prana of P rana (the breath of breath), the eye of the eye, the earCHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 125 of the ear , the f ood of the f ood, the mind o f mind etc. (Bri. Madhya. IV-4-21). The five peo ple re fer to the P rana and the other four of t he text and are men tioned for t he pur pose of de scrib ing the na ture of Brah - man. The Sankhya asks how can the word peo ple be ap plied to the breath, the ey e, the ear and so on? How we ask in re turn, can it be ap - plied to y our cat e go ries? In both cases the com mon mean ing of the term peo ple is ap plied to the P ranas in the text , These are the fiv e per sons of Brah man (Chh. Up. III -13-6). Breath is fa ther, breath is mother (Chh. Up. VI I-15-1). The ob jec tor says. This is pos si ble only in t he recension of the Madhyandinas, who read the ad di tional word Annasya A nnam. But in Kanva recension that phrase annasya annam is omit ted. W e have only four . This ob jec tion is an swered by the au thor in the f ol low ing Su - tra. `mo{V fHo$fm_g`o& Jyotishaikesham asaty anne I.4.13 (1 19) In the text of some (the Kanv a rec ension) whe re foo d is no t mentione d (the nu mber five is mad e up) by light (me ntioned in the previous verse ). Jyotisha: by light ; Ekesham: of some tex ts or recensions, i.e., of t he Kanvas; Asati: in the absence of; Anne: food. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 11 is con tin ued. The im mor tal light of light s the gods wor ship as lon gev ity B ri. Up. IV -4-10. Al though food is not m en tioned in the t ext cit ed in the last Su tra, ac cord ing to the K anva recension of the S atapatha Brahmana, yet the four of that verse, to gether with light men tioned in the t ext quoted above, would make the fiv e peo ple. We have proved here with that scrip tures of fer no ba sis for the doc trine of t he Pradhana. It will be shown later on that t his doc trine can not be proved ei ther by Sm riti or by ra ti o ci na tion. Karanatv adhikaranam : Topic 4 (Sutras 14-15) Brahman i s the First cause H$maUdoZ MmH$mem{Xfw `Wm`n{X >moo$& Karanatv ena chakasadishu y athav yapadishtokteh I.4.14 (120) Altho ugh the re is a conflict of th e Vedanta te xts as regards the thing s created such as e ther and so on, t here is no such conflict with respect to Brahman as the First Cause, on account of His being r epresented in on e text as descr ibed in other texts.BRAHMA SU TRAS 126 Karanatv ena: as the (First) cause; Cha: and; Akasadishu: with reference to Akasa and the rest; Yatha: as; Vyapadisht a: taught in different Srut is; Ukteh: because of the st atement. The doubt that may arise from S u tra 13 that di f fer ent Sruti s may draw dif fer ent con clu sions as to the cause of the uni verse is re moved by this Su tra. In the pre ced ing p art of the work the proper def i ni tion of B rah - man has been given. I t has been shown that all t he V edant a text s have Brah man for their com mon topic. I t has been proved also that there is no scrip tural au thor ity for the doc trine of t he Pradhana. But now the Sankhya raises a new ob jec tion. He says: It is not pos si ble to prove ei ther that B rah man is the cause of the or i gin etc., of the uni verse or that all t he Vedant a text s re - fer to Brah man; be cause the V edant a pas sages con tra dict one an - other . All t he V edant a text s speak of the suc ces sive step s of the cre ation in dif fer ent or der. In re al ity they speak of dif fer ent cre ations. Thus in T ait. Up. II-1-1 we find t hat cre ation pro ceeds from Self or Brah man From the Self sprang Akasa, from Akasa air etc. This p as - sage shows that the cause of cre ation is At man. In an other place it is said that the cre ation be gan with fire (Chh. Up. V I-2-3). In an other place, again, it is said The per son cre ated breath and from breat h faith (Pras. Up. IV-4); in an other place, again, t hat the S elf cre ated these worlds, the wa ter above the heav en, light, the mor tal (earth) and the wa ter be low the earth (Ait areya Aranyaka II -4-1-2, 3). There no or der is st ated at all. Some where it is said that t he cre ation orig i - nated from t he non-ex is tent (Asat ). In the be gin ning there was the non-ex is tent (Asat ); from it was born what ex ists (Tait. Up. II-7). In the be gin ning there was the non-ex is tent; it be came ex is tent; it grew (Chh. Up. III -19-1). In an other place it is said Oth ers say , in the be gin - ning there was that only which is not; but how could it be thus, my dear? How could that which is to be born of that which is not (Chh. Up. VI- 2-1, 2). In an other place Sat is said t o be the cause of the uni verse Sat alone was in the be gin ning Chh. Up. VI -2-1. In an other place, again, the cre ation of t he world is spo ken of as hav ing taken place spon ta ne - ously . Again we f ind that A vyakt a is said to be the cause of the world Now all this was then A vyakrit a (un de vel oped). It be came de vel oped by name and form B ri. Up. 1-4-7. Thus the Up anishads are not con - sis tent, as re gards the cause of the uni verse. Thus it is not pos si ble to as cer tain that B rah man alone is t aught in the Up anishads as the cause of the world. As many dis crep an cies are ob served, the Vedant a text s can not be ac cepted as au thor i ties for de ter min ing the cause of the uni verse. W e must ac cept some other cause of the world rest ing on the au thor ity of Sruti and rea son ing.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 127 It is pos si ble to say t hat Pradhana alone is t aught to be t he cause of the world as we find from the p as sage of the Bri. Up. al ready quoted above. Fur ther the words Sat, Asat, P rana, Akasa and Avyakrit a can very well be ap plied to Pradhana, be cause some of them such as Akasa, Prana are the ef fects of Pradhana, while ot h ers are the names of Pradhana it self. Al l these terms can not be ap plied to Brah man. In some p as sages we find that At man and Brah man are also said to be the cause of the world; but these two t erms can be ap plied to Pradhana also. The l it eral mean ing of the word At man is all-per - vad ing. Pradhana is all-per vad ing. Brah man lit er ally means that which is pre-em i nently great (Brihat). P radhana may be called Brah - man also. Pradhana is called Asat in its as pect of mod i fied things and it is called Sat or be ing in it s causal or eter nal as pect. Pradhana is called Prana as it is an el e ment pro duced from it. T hink ing etc., m ay also ap ply to P radhana in a met a phor i cal sense, mean ing the com - mence ment of ac tion. S o when the Up anishad says It thought , let me be come many, it means, that Pradhana st arted the ac tion of mul ti pli - ca tion. There fore all the Up anishad p as sages re lat ing to cre ation har - mo nise better with t he the ory of Pradhana be ing the cre ator than of Brah man. The Siddhanti n gives the f ol low ing re ply. Al though the V edant a texts may be con flict ing with re gard to the or der of the thi ngs cre ated such as ether and so on, yet they uni formly de clare that Brah man is the First Cause. The V edantic p as sages which are con cerned with set ting fort h the cause of the world are in har mony through out. I t can - not be said that t he con flict of state ment s re gard ing the uni verse af - fects the st ate ment s re gard ing the cause i.e., Brah man. It is not the main ob ject of the V edant a text s to teach about cre ation. There fore it would not even mat ter greatly . The chief pur pose of the Srut is is to teach that B rah man is the First Cause. There is no con flict re gard ing this. The teacher will rec on cile later on these con flict ing p as sages also which re fer to the uni verse. g_mH$ fmV & Samakarshat I.4.15 (121) On account of the connection (wi th passages treating of Brahman, non-existence d oes not mean abso lute Non-existe nce) Samakarshat: from it s connection with a dist ant expression. Some tex ts from the T aittiriy a, the Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka Up anishads are t aken up for dis cus sion. The Sankhyas raise an other ob jec tion. They say: There is a con flict wit h ref er ence to the first cause, be cause some text s de clareBRAHMA SU TRAS 128 that t he Self cre ated these worlds (Ait. Ar. II-4-1-2-3). Some V edant a pas sages de clare that cre ation orig i nated from non-ex is tence (Tait. II-7). A gain in some p as sages ex is tence is t aught as the First Cause (Chh. Up. VI-1-2). S ome Srutis speak of spon ta ne ous cre ation. I t can - not be said that t he Srutis re fer to Brah man uni formly as t he First Cause ow ing to the con flict ing st ate ment s of the V edant a text s. The Siddhanti n gives the f ol low ing re ply. We read in the T ait. Up. II-7 This was in deed non-ex is tence in the be gin ning. Non-ex is tence here does not mean ab so lute non-ex is tence. It means un dif fer en ti - ated ex is tence. In the be gin ning ex is tence was un dif fer en ti at ed into name and form. T aittriy a Up anishad says He who knows Brah man as non-ex ist ing be comes him self non-ex ist ing. He who knows Brah - man as ex ist ing, him we know him self as ex ist ing T ait. Up. II-6. I t is fur ther elab o rated by means of t he se ries of sheaths viz., the sheath of food et c. rep re sented as the in ner self of ev ery thing. Thi s same Brah man is again re ferred to in the clause. He wished May I be many. This clearly in ti mates that B rah man cre ated the whole uni - verse. The term Be ing or di narily de notes that which is dif fer en ti ated by names and forms. The t erm Non-be ing de notes the same sub - stance pre vi ous to its dif fer en ti a t ion. Brah man is called Non-be ing pre vi ously to t he orig i na tion of t he world in a sec ond ary sense. We read in Chh. Up. VI -2-2 How can that which is cre ated from non-ex is tence be? This clearly de nies such a pos si bil ity. Now this was then un de vel oped (Bri. Up. I-4-7) does not by any means as sert that t he evo lu tion of t he world took place with out a ruler, be cause it is con nected with an other p as sage where it is said, He has en tered here to the v ery tip s of the fin ger-nails (Bri. Up. I-4-7). He re fers to the Ruler . There fore we have to t ake that the Lord, the Ruler , de vel oped what was un de vel oped. An other scrip tural tex t also de scribes that the evo lu tion of t he world took place un der the su per in ten dence of a Ruler . Let me now en ter these be ings with this lov ing Self, and let me t hen evolve nam es and forms Chh. Up. VI -3-2. Al though there is a reaper it is said The corn-field reap s it self. It is said also The vil lage is be ing ap proached. Here we have to sup - ply by Dev adatt a or some body else. Brah man is de scribed in one place as ex is tence. In an other place it is de scribed as the Self of al l. There fore it is a set tled con clu - sion that all V edant a text s uni formly poi nt to B rah man as the First Cause. Cer tainly t here is no con flict on t his point. Even in t he pas sage that de clares Asat i.e. non-be ing to be the cause there is a ref er ence to Sat i. e. Be ing. Ev en the tex t that de - scribes Asat as the Causal force ends by re fer ring to Sat .CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 129 The doubt about t he mean ing of a word or p as sage can be re - moved by ref er ence to it s con nec tion with a dis tant p as sage in the same text , for such con nec tion is found t o ex ist in the dif fer ent p as - sages of Sruti. T he ex act mean ing of such words as Asat which means non-en tity, ap par ently, Avyakrit a which means ap par ently non-man i fest Pradhana of Sankhya, is t hus as cer tained to be Brah - man. Com pare the Srutis: gmo@H$m_ `V ~h`m Om`o`o{V He de sired, I will be many I wil l man i fest my self T ait. Up. II-6-2. Agm BX_J AmgrV This was at first Asatap par ently a non-en tity. Tait. II-7-1. The mean ing of the word Asat of the sec ond p as sage is as cer tained to be Brah man by ref er ence to the first p as sage where the same ques tion namely the state of t he uni verse be fore cre ation is an swered in a clearer way . The mean ing of the word A vyakrit a in the Brihadarany aka Upanishad I-4-7 in the p as sage VoX V`mH$ V_mgrV & (thus there fore, that was the un dif fer en ti ated) is as cer tained to be the B rah man as still un - de vel oped by a ref er ence to the p as sage g Ef Bh {d> AmZImJ o` (the same is per vad ing all through and through down t o the tip s of the nails of t he fin gers and toes). A vyakt a is re cog nised in the last p as sage more clearly by t he words Sa esha (the self-same one). The Pradhana of t he Sankhyas does not find a pl ace any where in the p as sages which treat about the cause of the world. The words Asat Avyakrit a also de note Brah man only . The word Asat re fers to Brah man which is the sub ject un der dis cus sion in the pre vi ous verse. Be fore the cre ation, t he dis tinc tion of names and forms did not ex ist. Brah man also then did not ex ist in the sense that He was not con nected with names and forms. A s he has then no name and form, he is said to be Asat or non-ex is tent. The word Asat can not mean mat ter or non-be ing, be cause in this very p as sage we find that t he de scrip tion giv en of it can ap ply only to B rah man. Brah man is not Asat in the lit eral mean ing of that word. The seer of the Up anishad uses it in a sense to tally dis tinct from i ts or di - nary de no t a tion. Balaky adhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 16-18) He who is the maker of t he Sun, Moon, etc. is Brahm an and not Prana or the indi vidual soul OJm{ MdmV& Jagadv achitv at I.4.16 (122) (He, whose work is this, is Brahman) because (the work) denotes th e world. Jagat: the world; Vachitv at: because of the denot ation.BRAHMA SU TRAS 130 A pas sage from the Kaushit aki Upani shad is now t aken up for dis cus si on. In the K aushit aki Brahmana the sage Balaki prom ises to teach Brah man by say ing I shall tell you Brah man, and he goes on to de - scribe six teen things as Brah man, be gin ning with the S un. All t hese are set aside by the K ing Ajat asatru who says, none of them is Brah - man. When Balaki is si lenced, Ajat asatru gives the t each ing about Brah man in these words: O Balaki! He who is the m aker of those per - sons whom you men tioned and whose work is the vis i ble uni - verseis alone to be known. We read in the Kaushit aki Upani shad in the di a logue be tween Balaki and Ajat asatru O Balaki, He who is the maker of t hose per - sons whom you men tioned, and whose work is this (vis i ble uni verse) is alone to be known (Kau. Up. IV -19). A doubt arises now whether what is here said as the ob ject of knowl edge is the in di vid ual soul or the Prana or Brah man, the S u - preme Self. The Purvap akshin holds that the v i tal force or Prana is meant, be cause he says the clause of whom this is the work point s to the ac tiv ity of mo tion and that ac tiv ity rest s on Prana. Sec ondly , we meet with t he term Prana in a com ple men tary p as sage. Then he be - comes one with the Prana alone Kau. Up. IV -20. The word Prana de notes the vi tal force. This is well known. Thirdly , Prana is the maker of all the per sons, the per son in the Sun, t he per son in the moon etc. We know from an other scrip tural tex t that the Sun and ot her de i ties are only dif fer en ti a tions of Prana, Who is that one God in whom all other gods are con tained? Prana and he is Brah man, and they call him Th at (Bri. U p. III-9 -9). Or the p as sage re fers to the in di vid ual soul as the ob ject of knowl edge. A sub se quent p as sage con tains an in fer en tial mark of t he in di vid ual soul, As the mas ter feeds with his peo ple, nay as his peo - ple feed on the m as ter, thus does this con scious Self feed with t he other selfs Kau. Up. I V-20. As the in di vid ual soul is the sup port of the Prana, it may it self be called Prana. W e thus con clude that the p as - sage un der dis cus sion re fers ei ther to the i n di vid ual soul or to the chief Prana but not to the Lord of whom i t does not con tain any in fer - en tial marks what so ever . The Su tra re futes all t hese and says it is Brah man that is re - ferred to the maker in t he text ; be cause Brah man is t aught here I shall teach you Brah man. Again t his which means the world, is his work. This clearly point s out that t he he is Brah man only . The ref er ence in the Kaushit aki Brahmana p as sage is to the Su - preme Lord be cause of the ref er ence to the world. The ac tiv ity re - ferred to is the world of which the Lord is t he Cre ator.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 131 There fore the maker is nei ther Prana nor the in di vid ual soul, but the High est Lord. It is af firmed in all V edant a text s that the Ma ker of the world is the Su preme Lord. Ord_w `mU{ bmo {V MomX `m`mV_ & Jivamukhy apranalin ganneti chet t ad vyakhy atam I.4.17 (123) If it be said that o n acc ount of the inferential m arks of the individual soul and the chief Prana (Br ahman is) n ot (referred to by the word matter in the passage quoted), (we reply) tha t has already bee n explained . Jiva: the indiv idual soul; Mukhy aprana: the chief v ital air; Lingat: because of the inferenti al marks; Na iti : not thus; Chet: if; Tat: that; Yyakhy atam: has already been explained. An ob jec tion to S u tra 16 is raised and re futed. The ob jec tion has al ready been dis posed of un der I-1-31. In the S u tra I-1-31 which dealt with t he topic of the di a logue be - tween Indra and Prat ardana, this ob jec tion was raised and an swered. All those ar gu ment s would ap ply here also. I t was shown there that when a text i s in ter preted as re fer ring to Brah man on the ground of a com pre hen sive sur vey of its ini tial and con clud ing clauses, all other in fer en tial marks which point to ot her top ics, such as Jiva or Prana etc., must be so in ter preted that t hey may be i n har mony with t he main topic. Here also the ini tial clause re fers to Brah man in the sen tence Shall I t ell you Brah man? The con clud ing clause is Hav ing over - come all evils, he ob tains pre-em i nence among all be ings, sov er - eignty and su prem acy, yea, he who knows this. Thus the ini tial and con clud ing clauses here also re fer to Brah man. If in the mid dle of this text we find any mark from which Jiva or any other topic may be in - ferred, we must so in ter pret the p as sage as to re fer to Brah man, in or - der to avoid con tra dic tion. This topic is not re dun dant as it is al ready t aught in Su tra I-1-31, be cause the chief point dis cussed here is the word Karma which is li - a ble to mis in ter pre t a tion. There fore this Adhikarana cer tainly teaches some thing new. The word Prana oc curs in the sense of Brah man in the p as sage The mind set tles down on Prana Chh. Up. VI -8-2. A`mW Vw O{_{Z Z`m`mZm `m_{n M d_oHo$& Anyartham tu Jaim inih p rasnav yakhy anabhy amapi chaiv ameke I.4.18 (124) But Jaimini thinks that (the re ference to the individu al soul in the text) ha s anot her pur pose on accoun t of the quest ion an d the reply; moreover, thus some also (the Vajasaneyins) (read in their text or recension).BRAHMA SU TRAS 132 Anyartham : for another purpose; Tu: but; Jaiminih : Jaimini; Prasna-v yakhy anabhy am: from the question and the reply; Api: also; Cha: and; Evam: in this way; Eke: others, other Srut is. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 16 is given. Even t he ref er ence to the in di vid ual soul has a dif fer ent pur pose i.e. aim s at in ti mat ing Brah man. Af ter Ajat asatru has t aught Balaki by wak ing the sleep ing man, that t he soul is dif fer ent from t he Prana or the vi tal air, he asks the fol - low ing ques tion: B alaki, where did the per son here sleep? Where was he? Whence came he thus back ? Kau. Up. I V. 19. These ques - tions clearly re fer to some thing dif fer ent from t he in di vid ual soul. And so like wise does the an swer (Kau. Up. IV .20) say that the in di vid ual soul is merged in Brah man in deep sleep. When sleep ing he sees no dream, then he be comes one with that P rana alone, and from t hat Self all Pranas pro ceed, each to - wards it s place, from the P ranas the gods, from the gods t he worlds. This con ver sa tion oc curs in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad. It clearly re fers to the in di vid ual soul by means of t he term the per son con sist ing of cog ni tion (V ijnanamaya) and dis tin guishes from it the High est Self. Where was then the per son con sist ing of cog ni tion? and from whence did he thus come back? (Bri. Up. II -1-16) and later on, in the re ply to t he above ques tion, de clares that the per son con - sist ing of cog ni tion lies in t he ether within t he heart. W e al ready know that t he word ether de notes the su preme seat for in stance in the p as - sage above the small ether wit hin the lo tus of the heart (Chh. Up. VIII-1- 1). Vakyanvayadhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 19-22) The Atm an to be seen through hearing etc., of the Bri. Up. I I-4-5 is Brahman and not Jivatma dm`md`mV& Vakyanvayat I.4.19 (125) (The Self to be seen, to be h eard etc., is the Supreme S elf) on account of the conne cted meaning of the sentence s. Vakyanvayat: On account of the connected meaning of the sentences. A pas sage from the Brihadarany aka Upanishad is now t aken up for dis cus sion. From the syn thetic study of the con text it is clear that t he ref er - ence is to the Su preme Self. We read in the Maitrey i-Brahmana of t he Brihadaranyaka Upanishad the fol low ing p as sage: V er ily a hus band is not dear that you may l ove the hus band etc., but that y ou may lov e the Self , there - fore ev ery thing is dear . Ver ily the Self is t o be seen, to be heard, t o beCHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 133 re flected and to be m ed i tated upon, O Mai treyi! When the Self has been seen, heard, re flected and real ised or known, then all this is known Bri . Up. IV-5-6. Here a doubt arises whether that which is rep re sented as the ob ject to be seen, t o be heard and so on is the in di vid ual soul or the Su preme Self. The Purvap akshin says: The Self i s by the men tion of dear things such as hus band and so on, in di cated as the enjoyer . From this it ap pears that the t ext re fers to the in di vid ual soul. This Su tra re futes this and says t hat in this p as sage the high est Self is re ferred to, and not the in di vid ual soul. In t he whole Sec tion Brah man is treated. M aitreyi say s to her hus band Y ajnavalkya: What should I do with the wealt h by which I do not be come im mor tal? What my Lord knoweth tell that t o me. There upon Y ajnavalkya ex pounds to her the knowl edge of the S elf. S crip ture and Smrit i de clare that im - mor tal ity can be at tained only by the knowl edge of the S u preme Self. Then Y ajnavalkya t eaches her the knowl edge of the S elf. Fi nally t he Sec tion con cludes with Thus far goes im mor tal ity. Im mor tal ity can not be at tained by the knowl edge of the in di vid - ual soul, but only by the knowl edge of the High est Self or B rah man. There fore Brah man alone is the sub ject mat ter of the p as sage un der dis cus sion. Brah man alone is to be seen or real ised through hear ing, re flec tion and med i t a tion. Yajnavalkya de clares that the Sel f is the cen tre of the whole world with the ob jects, the senses and the mind, t hat it has nei ther in - side nor out side, that i t is al to gether a mass of knowl edge. It fol lows from all thi s that what t he text rep re sents as the ob ject of sight and so on is the Su preme Self. Fur ther it is said in t he text that by the knowl edge of the S elf ev - ery thing is known. This clearly in ti mates that t he Self is B rah man only be cause how can the knowl edge of fi nite Jiva or in di vid ual soul give us knowl edge of ev ery thing? {Vkm{go{b_m_a` & Pratijn asiddherl ingamasm arathy ah I.4.20 (126) (The fact that the individual soul is taught as the object of realisation is an ) indicator y mark whi ch is proof of t he proposi tion; so Asm arathya t hinks. Pratijnasiddheh: because of the proof of t he proposition; Lingam: indicatory mark; Asmarathy ah: the sage Asmarathy a. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 19 is given. The in di ca tion is that t he in di vid ual soul is not dif fer ent from B rah man, the Ul ti mate Cause, of which it is a ray . Hence to know Brah man, the Cause, is t o know all that.BRAHMA SU TRAS 134 If the in di vid ual were quite dif fer ent from B rah man, then by the knowl edge of Brah man ev ery thing else would not be known. The ini - tial st ate ment aims at rep re sent ing the in di vid ual soul or Jiva and the Su preme Self as non-dif fer ent for the pur pose of ful fill ing the prom ise made. The non-dif fer ence be tween Brah man and the in di vid ual soul es tab lishes the prop o si tion, When the S elf is known all this is known, All this is that Self. Asmarathya i s of opin ion that t he p as sages Atmani vijnate sarvamidam vijnat am bhavati and Idam sarvam yadayamatm a prove the as pect of iden tity of the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Self, be cause only then can be at tained what is prom ised i.e., that by the knowl edge of Brah man ev ery thing can be at tained. I-4-20. The sp arks that pro ceed from a fire are not ab so lutely dif fer ent from the f ire as they are of t he na ture of the f ire. They are not ab so - lutely non-dif fer ent from t he fire, be cause in that case they could be dis tin guished nei ther from the f ire nor from each other . Sim i larly the in di vid ual souls also, which are the ef fects of Brah man, are nei ther ab so lutely dif fer ent from B rah man, be cause that would mean that they are not of the na ture of in tel li gence; nor ab so lutely non-dif fer ent from Brah man, be cause in that case they could not be dis tin guished from each other; and be cause if they were iden ti cal with Brah man, and there fore Om ni scient, it would be use less to give them any in - struc tion. There fore the in di vid ual souls are some how dif fer ent from Brah man and some how non-dif fer ent. This doc trine of A smarathya is known as Bheda-abheda-vada. This is the opin ion of the sage Asmarathya. CH${_`V Ed^mdm{X `mSw>bmo{_& Utkramishy ata evambhav adity audulom ih I.4.21 (127) The initial stateme nt identifie s the indiv idual so ul with Brahman o r the Su preme Self b ecause the so ul, whe n it will depart ( from the body), is such (i.e . one with the Supreme Self); thus Audulomi t hinks. Utkramishy ata: of him who would p ass away from the body; Evam bhavat: because of this condition; Iti: thus; Audulomih: the sage Audulomi. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 19 is con tin ued. Jiva or the in di vid ual soul which is as so ci ated with it s dif fer ent lim it ing ad junct s viz., body , senses and mind, at tains free dom through med i ta tion and knowl edge. When it rises from t he body i.e. , when it is free and has no body-con scious ness, it real ises that it i s iden ti cal with Brah man. There fore it is rep re sented as non-dif fer ent from t he Su - preme Self. This is the opin ion of the t eacher Audulomi. We read in the Sruti s also that se rene be ing aris ing from this body , ap pears in it s own form as soon as it has ap proached the High -CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 135 est Light Chh. Up. V III-12-3. Mundakop anishad says As the flow ing rivers van ish in the sea, hav ing lost their name and f orm, so also the sage, freed from name and f orm, goes to the Di vine Per son who is greater than the great Mu n. Up. II I-2-8. The in di vid ual soul is ab so lutely dif fer ent from t he Su preme Self. It is con di tioned by t he dif fer ent lim it ing ad junct s viz., body , senses, mind and in tel lect. But it is spo ken of in the Up anishads as non-dif fer ent from t he Su preme Self be cause it may p ass out of the body and be come one with the Su preme Self, af ter hav ing pu ri fied it - self by means of m ed i ta tion and knowl edge. The tex t of t he Upanishad thus trans fers a fu ture st ate of non-dif fer ence to that t ime when dif fer ence ac tu ally ex ists. This doc trine ad vo cated by Audulomiwhich holds that dif fer ence be tween the in di vid ual soul and Brah man in the st ate of ig no rance is a re al ityi s a Satyabhedavada. AdpWVo[a{V H$meH$Z& Avasthiteriti Kasakri tsnah I.4.22 (128) (The initial statemen t is made) because (the Supreme S elf) exists in the cond ition (of the indiv idual so ul); so the Sage Kasakritsn a thinks. Avasthiteh: because of the existence; Iti: thus (holds); Kasakrit snah: the sage Kasakrit sna. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 19 is con tin ued. The in di vid ual soul or Jiva is quite dif fer ent in na ture from Brah - man or the Su preme Self. It is not pos si ble for the in di vid ual soul to be one with Brah man in the st ate of eman ci pa tion. There fore the teacher Kasakrit sna thinks that the High est Self I t self ex ists as the in di vid ual soul. As the S u preme Self ex ists also in the con di tion of t he in di vid ual soul, the Sage K asakrit sna is of opin ion that t he ini tial st ate ment which aims at in ti mat ing the non-dif fer ence of the two is pos si ble. Brah man or the Su preme Self and t he in di vid ual soul are ab so - lutely non-dif fer ent. The ap par ent dif fer ence is due to Up adhis or lim - it ing ve hi cles or ad junct s which are only prod ucts of A vidya or ig no rance. The dif fer ence is il lu sory or un real from the ab so lute or tran scen den tal view point. There fore it f ol lows that ev ery thing else is known by the knowl edge of the S elf or Brahmajnana. That the S u preme Self only is that which ap pears as the in di vid - ual soul is ob vi ous from the Brahmana-p as sage Let me en ter into them with t his liv ing Self and ev olve names and forms. Su tra 20 means that, the af fir ma tion that by know ing It ev ery - thing is known, shows the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Self are non-dif fer ent. S u tra 21 means the iden tity of the soul and the S u - preme Self, re fers to the st ate of at tain ment of t he Su preme Self by the pu ri fied and per fected soul. S u tra 22 means that ev en now theBRAHMA SU TRAS 136 Su preme Self is t he in di vid ual soul. It is not that t he in di vid ual soul is dis solved or merged in the S u preme Self. Our er ro ne ous sense of di - ver sity and sep a rate ness is lost or dis solved but t he soul, which is in re al ity the Su preme Self (or the one A t man which alone ex ists), ex ists for ever . Of these three opin ions, the one held by Kasakrit sna is in ac cor - dance with the Scrip ture, be cause it agrees with what all the V edant a texts teach. Ac cord ing to the st ate ment of A smarathya, t he soul is not ab so - lutely dif fer ent from t he Su preme Self. His dec la ra tion in di cates by the ex pres sion Ow ing to the f ul fil ment of t he prom ise, that t here is a cer - tain re la tion of cause and ef fect be tween the Su preme Self and t he in - di vid ual soul. The prom ise is made in the two p as sages when the Self is known, all t his is known and all this is that Self . Ac cord ing to Asmarathya t he in di vid ual soul is a prod uct of the High est Self. There - fore the knowl edge of the cause gives rise to t he knowl edge of ev ery - thing. I f the S oul and the Su preme Self are non-dif fer ent, t he prom ise that t hrough the knowl edge of one ev ery thing be comes known can be ful filled. Ac cord ing to the v iew of Audulomi the dif fer ence and non-dif fer - ence of the two de pend on dif fer ence of con di tion; t he in di vid ual soul is only a st ate of t he high est Self or B rah man. The v iew of Asmarathya and A udulomi can not st and. Jivahood is an un re al ity. It is a cre ation of A vidya or ne science. The in di vid ual soul is iden ti cal with Brah man in es sence. On ac count of ig no rance we feel that we are con di tioned or lim ited by t he false, il - lu sory Up adhis and that we are dif fer ent from B rah man. Re ally the in - di vid ual soul is nei ther cre ated nor de stroyed. I f the Jiv ahood is a re al ity it can never be de stroyed and lib er a tion would be im pos si ble. If the in di vid ual soul be comes one with Brah man or the High est Self when it at tains free dom or the fi nal eman ci pa tion, t hen Jivahood is il - lu sory. The or i gin of the souls from t he Su preme Self li ke sparks from the fire is not real cre ation. I t must be v iewed only with ref er ence to the lim it ing ad junct s. The ob jec tor says: the p as sage, Ris ing from out of these el e - ment s he van ishes again af ter them. When he has de parted there is no more knowl edge, in di cates the fi nal an ni hi la tion of t he soul, but not it s one ness with the Su preme Self. We re ply, this is in cor rect. The p as sage means to say only t hat all sense per cep tion ceases when the soul de parts from the body , not that t he Self is an ni hi lated. The p as sage in ti mates that t he eter nally un chang ing Self which is one mass of knowl edge or con scious ness can not cer tainly per ish but by means of t rue knowl edge of the S elf, dis con nec tion with t he el e ment s and the sense or gans, which are the prod ucts of ig no rance, has t aken place.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 137 The in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Self dif fer in name only . It is a set tled con clu sion that per fect knowl edge pro duces ab so lute one ness of the two. The S elf is called by m any dif fer ent names but it is One only . Per fect knowl edge is the door to Moksha or the fi nal eman - ci pa tion. Moksha is not some thing ef fected and non-eter nal, It is eter - nal and is not dif fer ent from t he eter nally un chang ing, im mor tal, pure Brah man who is One with out a sec ond. Those who st ate that there is dis tinc tion be tween the in di vid ual and the Su preme Self are not in har mony with t he true sense of the V edant a text s. Prakrity adhikaranam : Topic7 (Sutra 23-27) Brahman i s both the eff icient and the m aterial cause H${V {Vkm >mVmZwnamoYmV& Prakriti scha pratijna d risht antanup arodhat I.4.23 (129) (Brahman i s) the material cause also on account of (th is view) not b eing in c onflict with the proposition and the illustratio ns (quot ed in th e Srut i). Prakr itih: the material cause; Cha: also; Pratijna: the proposition; Drisht anta: illustrations ; Anup arodhat: on account of this not bei ng in conflict. This Su tra st ates that B rah man is the ef fi cient as well as the ma - te rial cause of the uni verse. Brah man has been de fined as that f rom which pro ceed the or i - gin, sus te nance and dis so lu tion of t his uni verse. Now a doubt arises whether Brah man is the ma te rial cause like clay or gold, or the ef fi - cient or op er a tive cau sal ity like pot ter or gold smith. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor holds that B rah man is the only op er a tive or t he ef fi cient cause of the world, as in t exts like, He re - flected, he cre ated Prana Pras. Up. V I.3 & 4. Ob ser va tion and ex pe - ri ence in ti mate that the ac tion of op er a tive causes only such as pot ters and the like is pre ceded by think ing or re flec tion. I t is, there - fore, quit e cor rect that we should re gard the cre ator also in the same light. T he cre ator is de clared as the Lord. Lords such as kings are known only as op er a tive causes. The S u preme Lord must be re - garded as an op er a tive cause. This Su tra re futes this prima fa cie view of the P urvap akshin. Brah man is also the ma te rial cause of this uni verse. The term cha (also) in di cates that Brah man is the ef fi cient cause as well. Only if Brah man is the ma te rial cause of the uni verse it is pos si ble to know ev ery thing through t he knowl edge of Brah man. Have you ev er asked for that i n struc tion by which that which is not heard be comes heard; that which is not per ceived, per ceived; t hat which is not known, known? (Chh. Up. IV .1-2), which de clare that the ef fects are not dif -BRAHMA SU TRAS 138 fer ent from t heir ma te rial cause, be cause we know from or di nary ex - pe ri ence that the car pen ter is dif fer ent from t he house he has built. The il lus tra tions re ferred to here are My dear , as by one lump of clay all that is made of clay is known, t he mod i fi ca tion i.e. , the ef fect be ing a name merely which has it s or i gin in speech, while the t ruth is that it is clay merely et c. (Chh. Up. VI -1-14). These text s clearly in di - cate that B rah man is the ma te rial cause of the uni verse, oth er wise they would be mean ing less. Prom is ing st ate ment s are made in other places also. For in - stance What is that through which if i t is known ev ery thing else be - comes known, Mun. Up. I.1. 3. When the Self has been seen, heard, per ceived and known then all thi s is known (Bri. Up. IV -5-6). All these prom is sory st ate ment s and il lus tra tive i n stances which are to be found in all V edant a text s prove that B rah man is also the ma te rial cause. There is no other guid ing be ing than Brah man. W e have to con - clude from this that Brah man is the ef fi cient cause at the same tim e. Lump s of clay and pieces of gold are de pend ent on ex tra ne ous op er - a tive causes such as pot ters and gold smiths in or der to shape them - selves into ves sels and or na ment s; but out side Brah man as ma te rial cause there is no other op er a tive or ef fi cient cause to which the ma te - rial cause could look, be cause the scrip ture says that B rah man was One with out a sec ond pre vi ous to cre ation. Who else could be an ef fi - cient or op er a tive cause when there was noth ing else? If that were ad mit ted that there is a guid ing prin ci ple dif fer ent from the ma te rial cause, in that case ev ery thing can not be known through one thing. Con se quently t he prom is sory st ate ment s and the il lus tra tions would be stul ti f ied. There fore Brah man is the ef fi cient cause, be cause there is no other rul ing prin ci ple. He is the ma te rial cause as well be cause there is no other sub stance from which the uni verse can t ake it s or i gin. For the sake of har mony be tween the prop o si tion to be es tab - lished and il lus tra tions given t herein, we con clude that Brah man is the ma te rial cause of the world. The t ext ex pressly de clares Him to be the ef fi cient or op er a tive cause as well. A{^`monX oem& Abhidhy opadesaccha I.4.24 (130) On account o f the state ment of wi ll or re flection (to c reate on the part o f the Supreme Self, It is the mate rial c ause). Abhidhy a: will, reflection; Upadesat: on account of instruction or teaching or st atement; Cha: also, and.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 139 An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 23 is given He wished or thought may I be many , may I grow forth. In t his text the de sire and re flec tion in di cate that Brah man is the ef fi cient cause. May I be many shows that Brah man Him self be came many . There fore He is the ma te rial cause as well. He willed to man i fest Him self as many i. e., as the uni verse. He willed to evolv e the uni verse out of Him self. This in ti mates that He is at once the m a te rial and the ef fi cient cause of cre ation. gmjmmo^ `mZmZmV & Sakshacchobhay amnanat I.4.25 (131) And because the Sruti s tates that b oth (th e origin a nd the dissolution of the univ erse) have Brah man fo r their mate rial cause. Sakshat: direct; Cha: also; Ubhay amnanat: because the Sruti states both. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 23 is con tin ued. This Su tra pro vides a fur ther ar gu ment for B rah man s be ing the gen eral ma te rial cause. That from which a thi ng takes it s or i gin and into which it i s with - drawn, and ab sorbed is it s ma te rial cause. This is well known. Thus the earth, f or in stance, is the ma te rial cause of rice, bar ley and the like. All t hese things t ake their or i gin from the A kasa (Brah man) alone and re turn into t he Akasa Chh. Up. I-9-1. That from which these thi ngs are pro duced, by which, when pro duced they liv e, and into which they en ter at thei r dis so lu tiontry to know that. That is Brah man T ait. Up. III.1. These Up anishadic p as - sages in di cate clearly that Brah man is the ma te rial cause also. The word Sakshat (di rect) in the Su tra shows that there is no other ma te rial cause, but that all this orig i nated from t he Akasa (Brah - man) only . Ob ser va tion and ex pe ri ence teach that ef fects are not re-ab sorbed into any thing else but t heir ma te rial cause. Am_H $Vo n[aUm_mV & Atmakriteh p arinamat I.4.26 (132) (Brahman i s the material cause of the world) because it creat ed Itself by un dergoin g modi fication. Atmakri teh: created it self; Parinam at: by undergoing modif ication. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 23 is con tin ued. We read in the T ait. Up. II-7 That I t self man i fested It self. This in ti mates that B rah man alone cre ated the world out of It self, which is pos si ble only by un der go ing mod i fi ca ti on. This rep re sent s the Self as the ob ject of ac tion as well as the agent. So He is the Kart a (cre -BRAHMA SU TRAS 140 ator-agent) and Karma (cre ation). He be comes the cre ation by means of Parinama (evo lu tion or mod i fi ca ti on). The word It self in ti mates the ab sence of any other op er a tive cause but the Self . The mod i fi ca tion is ap par ent (V ivarta), ac cord ing to Sri Sankaracharya. It is real, ac cord ing to Sri Ramanujacharya. The world is un real in the sense that it is not per ma nent. I t is an il lu - sion in the sense it has only a phe nom e nal ex is tence, it has no ex is - tence sep a rate from Brah man. `mo{Z {h Jr`Vo & Yonischa hi giy ate I.4.27 (133) And becau se (Brahman) is called the source. Yoni: the womb, t he source, the origin; Cha: and; Hi: because; Giyate: is called . The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 23 is con tin ued. Brah man is the ma te rial cause of the uni verse, also be cause He is stated in Srut i to be the source of the uni verse. We read in Mundaka Upani shad III-1-3, The M aker, the Lord, the Per son, who has his source in Brah man and that which the wise re gard as the Source of all be ings Mun. Up. I-1-6. Achintyam -avyaktam -anant a rup am, sivam, prasant am amrit am brahm ayonim; Tamadim adhyant avihinam-ekam vibhum chidanandam-arup am-adbhut amHe is in com pre hen si ble, un - speak able, in fi nite in form, all-good, all-peace, im mor tal, the p ar ent of the uni verse, with out be gin ning, mid dle and end, with out ri val, al l-per - vad ing, all-con scious ness, all-bliss, in vis i ble, and in scru t a ble (Kaivaly a Up. 6)this in di cates that Brah man is the ma te rial cause of the world. The word Y oni or womb al ways de notes the ma te rial cause, as in the sen tence the earth is the Y oni or womb of herbs and trees. It is thus prov ed or es tab lished that B rah man is the ma te rial cause of the uni verse. Sarv avyakhy anadhikaranam : Topic 8 The argument s which refute the Sankhyas refute the ot hers also EVoZ gd} `m`mVm `m`mVm& Etena sarv e vyakhy ata vyakhy atah I.4.28 (134) By this all (the doctrines c oncerning the o rigin of the wo rld which ar e opposed to the Vedant a texts ) are explained. Etena: by this, by what has been said; Sarv e: all; Vyakhy atah: are explained. The ar gu ment is con cluded in this Su tra.CHAPT ER ISE CTION 4 141 By what has been said in t he fore go ing Sutras it i s to be un der - stood that t he teach ing of all t he Srutis, ev en those that hav e not been dis cussed point s to Brah man, the only cause of the world. By thus dis prov ing the doc trine of P radhana be ing the cause of the world all have been re futed. By ov er throw ing the chief dis pu tant oth ers are over thrown just as by de feat ing the com mander all the oth - ers are also de feated. Thus those who at trib ute cre ation to at oms and other the o rists are all de feated. All doc trines that speak of t wo sep a rate causes are re futed. The atomic the ory and other the o ries are not based on scrip tural au thor ity. They con tra dict many scrip tural tex ts. The Sankhya doc trine ac cord ing to which the Pradhana is t he cause of the uni verse, has in the Sut ras be gin ning with I. 1.5 been again and again brought for ward and re futed. The doc trine of P radhana st ands some what near to the V edant a doc trine as it ad mits the non-dif fer ence of cause and ef fect like the Vedant a doc trine. Fur ther, it has been ac cepted by some of t he au - thors of the Dharma Sut ras such as D evala and oth ers. More over the Vedant a text s con tain some p as sages which to some peo ple who are en dowed with dull in tel lect may ap pear to con tain in fer en tial marks point ing to it. For all these rea sons the com men ta tor has t aken spe - cial trou ble to re fute t he Pradhana doc trine. He has not di rected his spe cial at ten tion to t he atomic and other t he o ries. The rep e ti tion of t he phrase are ex plained shows that the Chap ter ends here. It is proved t hat Brah man is the ma te rial as well as the ef fi cient cause of the uni verse. Thus ends the Fourth Pada ( Sec tion 4) of the First Adhy aya (Chap ter I) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy. Here ends Chap ter IBRAHMA SU TRAS 142 CHAPTER II AVIRODHA-ADHY AYA SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION Smriti-ny aya-virodha-p arihara forms the topic of t he first Pada. The Smriti virodha is dealt wit h in Sutras 1-3 and 12 also. The Nyayav irodha is treated in the rest of the Sut ras. Pada (Sec tion) 2 at - tacks the var i ous Darsanas or sys tems of phi los o phy on their own grounds. The Third and Fourth Padas aim at es tab lish ing a unity of pur port in the ap par ently di ver gent and in con sis tent cos mo log i cal and p sy cho log i cal thought s of the sev eral V edant a pas sages. Thus the ti tle Avirodha or ab sence of con tra dic tion giv en to the chap ter is quite ap pro pri ate. It has been shown in the First Chap ter that t he Om ni scient Lord of all is the cause of t he or i gin of the world just as clay is the ma te rial cause of pot s etc., and gold of golden or na ment s. It has been con clu - sively prov ed also in the First Chap ter that al l the V edant a text s treat of Brah man as the First Cause and that B rah man is the im port of all the V edant a text s. This was es tab lished by the S amanvaya. Just as the ma gi cian is the cause of the sub sis tence of the m ag i - cal il lu sion, so also Brah man is the cause of the sub sis tence of this uni verse by His Rul er ship. Just as the four classes of crea tures are re ab sorbed into the earth, so also, pro jected world is fi nally re ab - sorbed into His es sence dur ing Pralaya or dis so lu tion. It has been fur ther proved also that the Lord is the Self of all be - ings. The doc trine of P radhana be ing the cause of the world has been re futed in t he First Chap ter as it is not based on the au thor ity of the scrip tures. In this Sec tion the ar gu ment s based on rea son ing against the doc trine which speaks of Brah man as the First Cause are re futed. Fur ther ar gu ment s which claim their au thor i t a tive ness from the Smritis t o es tab lish the doc trine of P radhana and the the ory of the at - oms are re futed in t his Sec tion. 143 SYNOPSIS Pre vi ously it has been proved on t he au thor ity of Sruti t hat the mat ter or Pradhana is not the cause of t he world. The First Chap ter has proved that all the V edantic tex ts unan i mously teach that there is only one cause of the uni verse, viz. , Brah man, whose na ture is in tel li - gence. It has also been proved t hat there is no scrip tural tex t which can be used to es tab lish sys tems op posed to the V edant a, more p ar - tic u larly the S ankhya sys tem. The first two P adas of the Sec ond Chap ter re fute any ob jec tions which may be raised against the V edant a doc trine on purely spec u la - tive grounds ap art from the au thor ity of the Sruti s. They also show that no sys tem that can not be rec on ciled with the V edant a can be es - tab lished in a sat is fac tory man ner . Sec tion I (P ada) of the Sec ond Chap ter proves by ar gu ment s that B rah man is the cause of the world and re moves all ob jec tions that may be lev elled against such con clu sion. Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-2) re futes the ob jec tion of t he Sankhyas that t he ac cept ing of the sy s tem of V edant a in volves t he re jec tion of the Sankhya doc trine which con sti tutes a p art of Sm riti and so has claims or con sid er ation. The V edant a re plies that t he ac cep tance of the Sankhya S mriti would force us to re ject other Smrit is such as the Manu Smriti which are op posed to the doc trine of t he Sankhyas. The Veda does not con firm the S ankhya Smrit i but only those Smriti s which teach that the uni verse t akes it s or i gin from an in tel li gent cre - ator or in tel li gent pri mary cause (Brah man). Adhikarana II: (Su tra 3) ex tends the same line of ar gu men ta tion to the Y oga-Smriti. It dis cards the the ory of the Y oga phi los o phy of Patanjali re gard ing the cause of the world. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 4-5) raises an ob jec tion that as Brah man and the world are not sim i lar in na ture and prop er ties, one be ing sen - tient, etc., and t he other in sen tient, etc., B rah man can not be the cause of the uni verse. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 6-7) re futes the ob jec tion by st at ing that there are in stances in the world of gen er a tion of t he in an i mate from the an i mate as, for in stance, the pro duc tion of hair f rom the liv ing body , also of the an i mate from t he in an i mate as, for in stance, the birth of scor pi ons and other in sects from cow-dung. They prove t hat it is not nec es sary that t he cause and the caused should be sim i lar in all re spects. 144 Adhikarana III : (Su tra 8) raises an ob jec tion that at the t ime of gen eral dis so lu tion, when t he ef fect (world) is merged in the cause (Brah man), the lat ter must be con tam i nated by t he for mer. Adhikarana III : (Su tra 9) re futes the ob jec tion by show ing that there are di rect in stances to the con trary, just as the prod ucts of the earth such as jars etc., at the t ime of dis so lu tion do not change earth into their own na ture; but, on the con trary, they are them selves changed into the sub stance of earth. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 10-1 1), Adhikarana IV : (Su tra 12), Adhikarana IX: (Su tra 29) show that ar gu ment s di rected against the view that Brah man is the cause of the world may be lev elled against the op po nents as well, such as the Sankhyas and the V aiseshikas, be cause in the Sankhya sys tem, t he name less Pradhana pro duces all names and forms and in the V aiseshika sys tem in vis i ble and form - less at oms unite and form a v is i ble world. The Sut ras stat e that ar gu - ment s may be pro longed with out any con clu sion be ing ar rived at and that t he con clu sion of the V edas only is to be re spected. All t he views which are an tag o nis tic to the V edas are ruth lessly re futed. Adhikarana V : (Su tra 13) teaches that al though the en joy ing souls and the ob jects are in re al ity not h ing but Brah man, yet they may prac ti cally be held ap art, just as in or di nary life we hold ap art and dis - tin guish as sep a rate in di vid ual things, t he waves, the rip ples and foam of t he ocean al though they are in es sence iden ti cal and only sea wa ter . Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 14-20) treat s of the non-dif fer ence of the ef fect from t he cause, a doc trine of t he Vedant a which is de fended by the fol low ers of the V edant a against the V aiseshikas. Ac cord ing to the Vaiseshikas, the ef fect is some thing dif fer ent from t he cause. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 21-22) re futes the ob jec tion that Brah - man in the fo rm of the in di vid ual soul is sub ject to plea sure and pain by show ing that t hough Brah man as sumes the form of t he in di vid ual soul, yet He tran scends the lat ter and re mains un tainted by any prop - erty of Jiv a whom He con trols from within. Though the in di vid ual soul or Jiva is no other than Brah man Him self, y et Brah man re mains the ab so lute Lord and as such above plea sure and pain. Jiva is a slave of Avidya. Brah man is the con trol ler of Maya. When Jiva is freed from Avidya, he be comes iden ti cal with Brah man. Adhikarana VII I: (Sutras 23-25) shows that Brah man, al though de void of m a te rial and in stru ment s of ac tion, may yet cre ate the world through His Sat-Sankalp a or will power , just as gods by thei r mere power of vo li tion cre ate p al aces, an i mals and the like and milk by it self turns into curds. Adhikarana IX: (Sutras 26-29) ex plains that B rah man does not en tirely t rans form Him self into t he uni verse though He is with out parts. Al though He pro jects the world from Him self, y et He re mainsCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 145 one and un di vided. The world is un real. The change is only ap par ent like the snake is the rope but not real. Brah man is not ex hausted in the cre ation. Adhikarana X: (Sutras 30-31) teaches that Brah man, al though de void of i n stru ment s of ac tion, is able t o cre ate the uni verse by means of the di verse pow ers He pos sesses. Adhikarana XI: (Sutras 32-33) ex plains that B rah man has no mo tive i n cre at ing the world but pro jects the uni verse out of mere sport ing im pulse which is in her ent in Him. Adhikarana XII : (Sutras 34-36) jus ti fies Brah man from the charges of par tial ity and cru elty which are brought against Him ow ing to the in equal ity of po si tion and fat e of the v ar i ous per sons and the uni ver sal suf fer ing in the world. B rah man act s as a cre ator and dis - penser with ref er ence to the merit an d de merit of t he in di vid ual souls. Adhikarana XII I: (Su tra 37) sums up the pre ced ing ar gu ment s and st ates that all the at trib utes of Brah man, vi z., Om ni science, Om - nip o tence and the like, are f ound ap pro pri ate in Brah man alone and none else and are such as to ca pac i tate Him for t he cre ation of t he uni verse. Brah man is, there fore, the cause of t he world. Smri tyadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-2) Refut ation of S mritis not based on Srutis _`ZdH$ meXmof g B{V M om`_ `ZdH $meXmof gmV & Smri tyanav akasadoshaprasanga i ti chet na any asmrity anav akasadoshaprasangat II.1.1 (135) If it be objected tha t (from the doctrine of Brahma n being the cause of the world ) there would result the defect of th ere being no ro om fo r certain Sm ritis (w e say) no , because (by th e rejection o f that do ctrine ) there would result the defect of wan t of room fo r som e other Smriti. Smriti: the Sankhya phi losophy; Anav akasa: no room; Dosha: defect; Prasangat: Result, chance; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not; Anyasmriti: othe r Smr itis; Anav akasadoshaprasangat: because there would result the def ect of want of room for other Smrit is. The con clu sion ar rived at in Chap ter ISec tion IV , that Brah - man is the cause of the world is cor rob o rated by Sm ritis other than Sankhya. The ear li est and the most or tho dox of t hese Smritis is the Smriti writ ten by Manu. If you say that one set of Smrit is will be ig nored if it is said t hat Pradhana is not the cause of t he world, will not an other set of S mritis like Manu Smrit i which is based on the Srutis and there fore more au - thor i ta tive be i g nored if you say t hat Brah man is not the cause? W e have shown that t he Sruti de clares Brah man to be the cause. Only such Smritis which are in full agree ment with t he Sruti are au thor i ta -BRAHMA SU TRAS 146 tive. What if K apila and oth ers are Siddhas? Siddhi (per fec tion) de - pends on Dharma and Dharma de pends on the V edas. No Siddha is au thor i ta tive i f his view is con trary to t hat of t he Sruti. Smritis which are op posed to the V edas should be re jected ruth lessly . Kapila ac knowl edges a plu ral ity of selfs. He does not ad mit the doc trine of t here be ing one uni ver sal Self. The sys tem of K apila con - tra dicts the V edas, not only the as sump tion of an in de pend ent Pradhana but also by i ts hy poth e sis of a plu ral ity of selfs. W e can not ex plain the V edant a text s in such a man ner as not to bring them i nto con flict wit h Kapila Sm riti. K apila Smrit i con tra dicts the Srutis. Hence it should be dis re garded. The verse V -2 of Svet asvat ara Upani shad does not re fer to Kapila the f ounder of Sankhya phi los o phy. It re fers to a dif fer ent be ing al to gether . The verse re ally means He who be fore the cre ation of t he world pro duced the golden col oured Brahma (Kapila) in or der to main tain the uni verse. The word Kapila means here golden col - oured and is an other name for Brahma called Hirany garbha. BVaofm MmZwnbYo & Itaresham chanup alabdheh II.1.2 (136) And there being no m ention ( in the scrip tures) of othe rs (i.e ., the effects o f the Prad hana acco rding to the Sankhya sys tem), (the Sank hya syste m cannot b e authoritative ). Itaresham: of others; Cha: and; Anup alabdheh: there being no mention. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is given. Fur ther such prin ci ples as Mahat etc., which are said to be prod - ucts of Pradhana are per ceived nei ther in the V eda nor in or di nary ex - pe ri ence. On the other hand t he el e ment s and the senses are found in the V eda and in the world and hence may be re ferred to in the Smriti. Hence such wor ds as Mahat etc., f ound in Smriti s do not re fer to prod ucts of Pradhana but t o other cat e go ries re vealed in t he Sruti. See I.4 .1. There is no men tion of t he other cat e go ries of the Sankhyas any where in the V edas. There fore the Sankhy a sys tem can not be au - thor i t a tive. Sankaracharya has proved that by the word Mahat we have t o un der stand ei ther the cos mic in tel lect or Hiranyagarbha or the in di vid - ual soul, but in no case the M ahat of t he Sankhya phi los o phy i.e. , the first prod uct of the P rakriti. It is not onl y be cause Sankhya teaches that P radhana is the au - thor of cre ation which makes it un au thori ta tive, but it t eaches other doc trines also which have no foun da tion in the V edas. It t eaches that souls are pure con scious ness and all-per vad ing, that bond age andCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 147 free dom is the work of Prakriti. It fur ther teaches that t here is no Su - preme Self, the Lord of all. It also main tains that Pranas are merely forms of the f unc tions of the f ive senses and have no sep a rate ex is - tence of their own. All these het ero dox doc trines are to be found there. Hence the Sankhy a sys tem can not be au thor i ta tive. Yogapraty uktyadhikaranam: T opic 2 Refut ation of Y oga EVoZ `mo J `w $& Etena y ogah praty uktah II.1.3 (137) By th is the Yoga ph ilosoph y is (also) refut ed. Etena: by this v iz., by the refut ation of t he Sankhya Sm riti; Yogah: the Yoga philosophy; Praty uktah: is (also) refuted. The Y oga phi los o phy of P atanjali is re futed here. Y oga is called Sesvara-Sankhya. The Purvap akshin says: The Y oga sys tem is given i n the Upanishads also, like the Sv etavatara Upani shad etc. Hold ing his head, neck, trunk erect etc. Sv et. Up. I I-8. The Self is to be heard, to be thought of , to be med i tated upon Bri. Up. II-4-5. This t he firm hold ing back of the senses is what is called Y oga Katha Up. I I-3-11. Hav ing re ceived this knowl edge and the whole rule of Y oga Katha. Up. II-3-18. Y oga is an aid to the con cen tra tion of mi nd. With out con - cen tra tion one can not have knowl edge of Brah man. Hence Y oga is a means to knowl edge. As the Y oga Smriti i s based on the Srutis, it is au thor i ta tive. The Y oga Smriti ac knowl edges the Pradhana which is the First Cause. For the same rea son as ad duced against the Sankhya sy s tem, the Y oga phi los o phy by P atanjali is also re futed as it al so ac cepts the the ory that P rakriti is the cause of the uni verse. This Su tra re marks that by t he ref u ta tion of t he Sankhya Smrit i the Y oga Smriti al so is to be con sid ered as re futed be cause the Y oga phi los o phy also re cog nises, in op po si tion to scrip ture, a Pradhana as the in de pend ent cause of the world and the great prin ci ple etc., as it s ef fects al though the V eda or com mon ex pe ri ence is not in fa vour of these views. Though the Smrit i is partly au thor i ta tive it should be re jected as it con tra dicts the Srutis on other t op ics. Al though there are many S mritis which treat of the soul, we have di rected our at ten tion to re fute t he Sankhya and Y oga, be cause they are widely known as of fer ing the means for at tain ing the high est end of man. M ore over, they have ob tained the ap pre ci a tion of many great per sons. Fur ther their po si tion is strength ened by Sruti He who has known that cause which is to be ap pre hended by Sankhya and Y oga he is freed from all f et ters Svet. Up. VI-13.BRAHMA SU TRAS 148 We say that t he high est goal of man can not be at tained by the knowl edge of the S ankhya Smrit i, or Y oga prac tice. Srut i clearly says that t he fi nal eman ci pa tion or the su preme be at i tude can only be ob - tained by the knowl edge of the unit y of t he Self which is con veyed by the V eda. Only t he man who knows Brah man crosses over Death, there is no other p ath to go Sv et. Up. I II-8. The Sankhya and Y oga sys tems main tain du al ity. They do not dis cern the unity of the Self . In the text cited That cause which is to be known by Sankhya and Y oga, the terms S ankhya and Y oga de note Ve dic knowl edge and med i ta tion as these terms are used in a p as - sage st and ing close to other p as sages which re fer to V e dic knowl - edge. We cer tainly al low room for those por tions of the t wo sys tems which do not con tra dict the V eda. The Sankhyas say , The soul is free from all qual i ties (Asanga). This is in har mony with t he Veda which de clares that Purusha is es sen tially pure. For that per son is not at - tached to any thing Bri. Up. IV -3-16. The Y oga pre scribes re tire ment from t he con cerns of life (Nivritti ) for the wan der ing Sannyasin. This is cor rob o rated by the Sruti. Then the Pariv rajaka with or ange robe, shaven, wit h out any pos ses sion etc. Jabala Up anishad V . Their rea son ing is ac cept able to the ex tent t o which it leads to Self-reali sa ti on. The above re marks will serve as a re ply to t he claims of all ar gu - men ta tive S mritis. W e hold that t he truth can be real ised nor known from the V edant a text s only , None who does not know the V eda per - ceives the great one T aittiriy a Brahmana II I-12.9.7. I now ask thee that P er son t aught in the Up anishads Bri. Up. II I-9-26. Na V ilakshanatv adhikaranam : Topic 3 (Sutras 4-1 1) Brahman can be t he cause of the universe, although It is of a cont rary nature from t he universe Z {dbj UdmX` VW md M e XmV& Na v ilakshanatv adasy a tathatv am cha sabdat II.1.4 (138) (The obje ctor says t hat) Bra hman cann ot be the cause of the world , because this (th e world) is o f a di fferent natu re (from Brahman) a nd its be ing so (d iffere nt from Brahman) ( is kno wn) from th e scriptures. Na: not (i.e. Brahman is not the cause of t he world); Vilakshanatv at: because of dif ference in nature; Asya: its (i.e. of t his world); Tathatv am: its being so; Cha: and; Sabdat: from the word, f rom the Sruti.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 149 There are eight Sutras in t his Adhikarana. The first and t he sec - ond ex press the Purvap aksha (ob jec tion) and the ot h ers ex press the true doc trine (Siddhant a). The ob jec tions founded on Sm riti against t he doc trine of B rah - man be ing the ef fi cient and the ma te rial cause of the uni verse have been re futed. We now pro ceed to re fute t hose founded on rea son ing. Some plau si ble ob jec tions against Brah man be ing the cause of the world are raised in this Su tra and the sub se quent one. The ob jec tor says: Brah man is in tel li gence. Brah man is pure. But the uni verse is ma te rial, in sen tient and im pure. There fore, it is dif - fer ent from t he na ture of Brah man. Hence, Brah man can not be the cause of this world. The ef fect must be of the same na ture as the cause. The ef fect is only cause in an other form. T he cause and ef fect can not be en tirely of a dif fer ent na ture. The in tel li gent and sen tient B rah man can not pro - duce non-in tel li gent , in sen tient, ma te rial uni verse. If Brah man is taken to be the cause of the world, t he na ture of the t wo must be sim i - lar. But they ap pear to be quite dif fer ent in es sence or na ture. Hence, Brah man can not be the cause of the world. The dif fer ence in na ture is also known from the st ate ment s of Sruti, Brah man be came in tel li gence as well as non-in tel li gence (world) (T aittiriy a Up anishad, Brahmananda V alli, S ixth Anuvaka Vijnanam cha avijnanam cha abhavat ). There fore, Brah - man can not be the cause of the m a te rial uni verse. Brah man, which is pure spirit, can not be the cause of thi s uni verse, which is im pure mat - ter. The world which con sists of p ain, plea sure and il lu sion can not be de rived from B rah man. A{^_ m{Z`nXoeVw {deofmZwJ{V`m_ & Abhimani vyapadesastu v iseshanugati bhyam II.1.5 (139) But the reference is to the presiding d eities (of the orga ns) on account of th e spe cial charact erisation and also fr om the fact of a deit y so pr esiding . Abhimani: the presiding deity (of the organs and the element s); Vyapadesah: an expression, an indication, pointing out of , denot ation of; Tu: but; Visesha: specific adjunct, on account of distinction, because of so being qualified; Anugatibhy am: the act of pervading; Viseshanugatibhy am: from the specific adjunct as well as from the fact of pervading, on account of their entering. This Su tra meet s an ob jec tion to S u tra 4. The word T u (but) dis - cards the doubt raised. When ever an in an i mate ob ject is de scribed in Smriti as be hav - ing like an i mate be ings, we are to un der stand that it is an in di ca tion of a de ity pre sid ing over it. In the case of ac tions like speak ing, dis put - ing, and so on, which re quire in tel li gence, the scrip tural tex ts do notBRAHMA SU TRAS 150 de note the mere ma te rial el e ment s and or gans but rather the in tel li - gent de i ties which pre side over each or gan viz., speech, etc. You will find in K aushit aki Upani shad: The de i ties con tend ing with each other for who was the best. Al l the de i ties re cog nised the pre-em i nence in Prana (Kau. Up. I I-14). The Kaushit akins make ex - press use of the word de i ties in or der to ex clude the idea of t he mere ma te rial or gans be ing meant. A itareya Aranyaka (II -2-4) says, Agni hav ing be come speech en tered the mout h. This shows that each or - gan is con nected with it s own pre sid ing de ity. There is a text i n the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad (VI-I-7) which says, These or gans quar relled over their re spec tive great ness. The text s of Chhandogya Up anishad also show the ex is tence of such pre sid ing de i ties. The fi re thought and pro duced wa ter. This in - di cates that the i n an i mate ob ject may be called God hav ing ref er ence to its pre sid ing de ity. The thought spo ken of is that of the High est De - ity which is con nected with the ef fects as a su per in tend ing prin ci ple. All these strengt hen the hy poth e sis that the t exts re fer to the su per in - tend ing de i ties. From all this, we have to con clude that thi s uni verse is dif fer ent in na ture from Brah man. There fore, the Uni verse can not have B rah - man for it s ma te rial cause. The next S u tra gives a very suit able re ply to t he ob jec tion raised by the P urvap akshin or the ob jec tor. `Vo Vw& Drishy ate tu II.1.6 (140) But it (su ch organis ation of li fe from m atter) is a lso seen. Drishy ate: is seen; Tu: but. Ob jec tion raised in Sut ras 4 and 5 are now re futed. The word but dis cards the Purvap aksha. But re futes the Purvap akshin s or ob jec tors views ex pressed in the last Su tra, vi z., that t his uni verse can not have orig i nated from B rah man, be cause it is dif fer ent in char ac ter. For we see that from man who is in tel li gent, non-in tel li gent things such as hair and nails orig i nate, and t hat from non-in tel li gent mat ter such as cow-dung, scor pi ons etc., are pro - duced. So the ob jec tions raised in Sutras 4 and 5 are not v alid. Hence it is quite pos si ble that t his ma te rial uni verse could be pro duced by an in tel li gent Be ing, Brah man. Orig i na tion of in sen tient cre ation from the sen tient Cre ator is not un rea son able. The Mundaka Up anishad says Just as the spi der stretches forth and gath ers to gether it s threads, as herbs grow out of the earth, as from a liv ing man co mes out the hair , so also from the I m per ish able co mes out this uni verse (I.1.7).CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 151 The ob jec tor may say t hat the body of a man is the cause of t he hair and nails and not the man, and the cow-dung is the cause of the body of t he scor pion, etc. E ven then, there is dif fer ence in char ac ter be tween the cause, the dung and t he ef fect, t he body of t he scor pion, in so far as some non-in tel li gent mat ter (the body) is the abode of an in tel li gent prin ci ple (the soul of the scor pion), which the other non-in - tel li gent mat ter (the cow-dung) is not. They are not sim i lar in all re - spect s. If t hey were, then t here would be noth ing like cause and ef fect. I f you ex pect to find al l the as pects of Brah man in the world, then what is the dif fer ence be tween cause and ef fect? The cause and it s ef fects are not sim i lar in all re spect s, but some thing in the cause is found in t he ef fect also, just as clay in the lump is found in t he jar also, though the shape, etc., of the two vary . The very re la tion ship of cause and ef fect im plies that t here is some dif fer ence be tween the two. Some qual i ties of the cause, B rah man, such as ex is tence and in tel li gence, are found in It s ef fect, t he uni - verse. All ob jects in the uni verse ex ist. The uni verse get s this qual ity from Brah man, which is Ex is tence it self. Fur ther the in tel li gence of Brah man il lu mines the en tire world. The two qual i ties of Brah man, viz., ex is tence and in tel li gence, are found in the uni verse. Hence it is quite proper to t ake Brah man as the cause of this uni verse, though there may be some dif fer ence in other re spect s be tween them. Ag{X{V M o {Vfo Y_mdmV& Asaditi chet na pratish edhamatratv at II.1.7 (141) If it be said (that the world , the effect, wo uld then be ) non-existent (be fore its o riginati on or creation), (we say) no, because it is a mere negation (wit hout any basis). Asat: non-existence; Iti ch et: if it be said; Na: no; Pratishedham atratvat: because of denial, as it simpl y denies. An ob jec tion to S u tra 6 is raised and re futed. The op po nent says that if Brah man which is in tel li gent, pure and de void of qual i ties such as sound and so on, is the cause of the uni - verse which is of an op po site na ture, i. e., non-in tel li gent, im pure, pos - sess ing the qual i ties of sound, et c., it f ol lows that the ef fect, i. e., the world, was non-ex is tent be fore its ac tual orig i na tion, be cause Brah - man was then the only ex is tence. This means that some thing which was non-ex ist ing is brought into ex is tence, which is not ac cepted by the V edantins who main tain the doc trine of t he ef fect ex ist ing in the cause al ready . The ob jec tion raised by t he op po nent is no real ob jec tion. I t has no force on ac count of it s be ing a mere ne ga tion. This Su tra re futes the ob jec tion raised by t he op po nent. I t de - clares that this ne ga tion is a mere st ate ment with out any ob jec tive v a - lid ity. If you neg a tive t he ex is tence of the ef fect pre vi ous to it s ac tualBRAHMA SU TRAS 152 orig i na tion, y our ne ga tion is a mere ne ga tion with out any ob ject to be neg a tived. The ef fect cer tainly ex ists in the cause be fore it s orig i na - tion and also af ter it. The ef fect can never ex ist in de pend ently, apart from the cause ei ther be fore or af ter cre ation. The S ruti says, Who - so ever looks for any thing else where than in Brah man is aban doned by ev ery thing (Bri. Up. II-4-6). There fore, the uni verse ex ists in Brah man even be fore cre ation. It is not ab so lutely non-ex is tent. AnrVm VXd gmXg_ Og_& Apitau tadvatprasangadasamanj asam II.1.8 (142) On account of the conseque nce that at t he time of Pralaya or great diss olution (the cause become s) like that (i.e., like the effect), the doctrine mainta ined hith erto (that B rahma n is the cause of the universe ) is absurd. Apitau: at the t ime of Pralay a or the great dissolution; Tadvat: like that, like the ef fect; Prasangat: on account of the consequences; Asamanjasam : inconsistent, absurd. A plau si ble ob jec tion against B rah man be ing the cause of the world is raised here. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent raises fur ther ob jec tions. Dur ing dis so lu tion the ef fect, i. e., the world, is ab sorbed in the cause, the Brah man. Con se quently , it fol lows that the cause be - comes like the ef fect. The cause is af fected by t he na ture of the ef fect. The evils of de fects in her ent in the ef fect will t aint the cause. B rah man must be af fected by t he na ture of the world, just as wa ter is af fected by the salt which is dis solved in it, just as the whole food is scented by the pun gent smell of asaf oetida when it is mi xed with any con di ment. He would be come im pure and would no more be the Om ni scient cause of the uni verse as the Up anishads hold. He must be come in - sen tient, gross, lim ited, li ke the world, which is ab surd. Brah man, there fore, can not be the cause of the world. There is an other ob jec tion also. Dur ing dis so lu tion all t hings have gone into a st ate of one ness with Brah man. All dis tinc tions p ass at the t ime of re ab sorp tion into t he state of non-dis tinc tion. Then t here would be no spe cial cause lef t at the time of a ne w be gin ning of the uni verse. Con se quently , the new world could not arise with all the dis - tinc tions of en joy ing souls, ob jects to be en joyed, et c. There will be no fac tor bring ing about cre ation again. The third ob jec tion is, if in spite of t his a new cre ation is pos si ble, then even t he lib er ated souls or the Mukt as who have be come one with Brah man, will be dragged int o re birth. It can not be said that t he uni verse re mains dis tinct from t he High est Brah man even in t he st ate of re ab sorp tion or dis so lu tion, be -CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 153 cause in that case it would be no dis so lu tion at all . The ef fect ex ist ing sep a rate from the cause is not pos si ble. Hence the V edant a doc trine of B rah man be ing the cause of the uni verse is ob jec tion able as it leads to all sort s of ab sur di ties. The next S u tra gives a suit able re ply to t his. Z Vw >mV^mdmV& Na tu drisht antabhavat II.1.9 (143) But not (s o) on acc ount of the existence of ill ustra tions . Na: not; Tu: but; Drisht antabhav at: on account of illustrat ions. The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 8 is re futed. By the word tu (but) the pos si bil ity of the ob jec tion is set aside. The ob jec tions have no f orce. Why should an ef fect which is re - solved into t he cause again af fect the cause by in tro duc ing the de - fects of the ef fect? When the ef fect is in volved i n the cause, it does not at all t aint the cause by it s ef fects. There are in nu mer a ble in stances. If a good or na ment is melt ed into gold, how can the pe cu liar i ties of form of the or na ment ap pear in the gold? When a jar made up of clay is bro ken and re ab sorbed into it s orig i nal sub stance, i.e., clay, it does not i m part to it its spe cial fea tures or qual i ties. It does not turn the earth i nto pot s and pitch ers but it is it - self trans formed as earth. The f our-fold com plex of or ganic be ings which springs from the earth does not im part its qual i ties to the l at ter at the t ime of re-ab sorp tion. Re ab sorp tion can not oc cur at all if t he ef fect, when re solv ing back into it s causal sub stance, con tin ues to sub sist there with all i ts in di vid ual prop er ties. De spite the non-dif fer ence of cause and ef fect, t he ef fect has it s self in the cause but not the cause in the ef fect. The ef fect is of t he na - ture of the cause and not t he cause the na ture of the ef fect. There fore the qual i ties of the ef fect can not touch the cause. In stead of Brah man be ing trans formed into t he world, the world is trans formed into B rah man, be ing merged in Him at t he time of i ts dis so lu tion. Hence there can not be any ob jec tion to B rah man be ing ac cepted as the cause of the world on the ground sug gested in Sutra 8. Though the world is full of mis ery, etc., yet B rah man is all pure, etc. He re mains al ways un touched by evi l. As yout h, child hood and old age be long to the body only and not t o the Self , as blind ness and deaf ness etc., be long to the senses and not to t he Self, so the de fects of the world do not be long to Brah man and do not per vade the pure Brah man. If cause and ef fect are sep a rate as you say , there will be no in - vo lu tion at all . As cause and ef fect are one and the same, the ob jec -BRAHMA SU TRAS 154 tion that the de fects of the ef fect will af fect the cause is not pe cu liar to in vo lu tion alone. I f what the P urvap akshin says is cor rect, the de fect will af fect the cause even now . That t he iden tity of cause and ef fect of Brah man and the uni verse, holds good in dis crim i nately wit h re gard to all time, not only t he time of i n vo lu tion or re ab sorp tion is de clared in many scrip tural p as sages, as for in stanceThis ev ery thing is that Self ( Bri. U p. II.4.6 ). Th e Self i s all this (Chh. Up . VII.25.2 ). Th e Im - mor tal Brah man is this be fore (Mun. Up. I I.2.11). All t his is Brah man (Chh. Up . III.14.1 ). If it is said that the de fects are the ef fects of su per im po si tion of Avidya or ne science and can not af fect the cause, t his ex pla na tion will ap ply to in vo lu t ion also. Co bra is not af fected by t he poi son. A ma gi cian is not af fected by the mag i cal il lu sion pro duced by him self, be cause it is un real. Even so Brah man is not af fected by M aya. The world is only an il lu - sion or ap pear ance. Brah man ap pears as this uni verse, just as a rope ap pears as the snake. There fore Brah man is un af fected by M aya or the world il lu sion. No one is af fected by hi s dream-cre ations or the il - lu sory vi sions of his dream, be cause they do not ac com pany the wak - ing st ate and the st ate of dream less sleep. Sim i larly the E ter nal Wit ness of all st ates of con scious ness is not af fected by t he world or Maya. Equally base less is the sec ond ob jec tion. There are p ar al lel in - stances with ref er ence to this also. I n the st ate of deep sleep, y ou do not see any thing. The soul en ters into an es sen tial con di tion of non-dis tinc tion. There is no di ver sity, but as soon as you wake up you be hold the world of di ver sity. The old st age of dis tinc tion co mes again, as ig no rance or A vidya i s not de stroyed. Chhandogya Upanishad says, All t hese crea tures when they have be come merged in the T rue, know not that t hey are merged in the T rue. What - ever these crea tures are here, whether a lion, or a wolf, or a boar or a worm or a gnat or a mos quito, t hat they be come again (Chh. Up. VI-9- 2 & 3) . A sim i lar phe nom e non t akes place dur ing Pralaya or dis so lu - tion. The power of dis tinc tion re mains in a po ten tial st ate as A vidya or Ne science in the st ate of dis so lu tion also. S o long as the ba sic Avidya or ig no rance is there, cre ation or evo lu tion will f ol low in vo lu tion just as a man wakes up af ter sleep. The lib er ated souls will not be born again be cause in their case wrong knowl edge or ig no rance has been com pletely de stroyed by per fect knowl edge of Brah man. The view held by the Purvap akshin that even at the time of re ab - sorp tion the world should re main dis tinct from B rah man is not ad mit - ted by t he Vedantins.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 155 In con clu sion it can be cor rectly said that the sys tem founded on the Up anishads is in ev ery way un ob jec tion able. dnjXmo fm& Svapakshadosaccha II.1.10 (144) And becau se the obje ctions (r aised by the Sankhya against the Vedanta doctrine) apply to his (S ankhya) view also. Svapakshadoshat: because of the objections, t o his own view; Cha: and. The ob jec tions raised in Sutras 4 and 8 are lev elled against the op po nent s. Now the t a bles are turned on the ob jec tor. The ob jec tions raised by him (the S ankhya) to the doc trines of V edant a are ap pli ca ble to his the ory as well. In his doc trine of cau sa tion also, t he world of forms and sounds t akes it s or i gin from Pradhana and P rakriti which has no form or sound. Thus the cause is dif fer ent from t he ef fect here also. In t he state of re ab sorp tion or dis so lu tion, all ob jects merge into Pradhana and be come one with it. There is per va sion into the P radhana of all the ef fects of the world. It i s ad mit ted by t he Sankhyas also that at the time of re ab sorp - tion the ef fect p asses back into the st ate of non-dis tinc tion from t he cause, and so the ob jec tion raised in Su tra 8 ap plies to Pradhana also. The Sankhya wil l have to ad mit that be fore the ac tual be gin ning, the ef fect was non-ex is tent. What ever ob jec tions that are raised against V edant a in this re spect are in fact true of t he Sankhyas. That Brah man is the cause of the world, which is ad mit ted by S ruti, can not be thrown out by t his sort of vain rea son ing. V edant a is based on the Srutis. Hence the doc trine of V edant a is au thor i ta tive and i n fal li ble. There fore it must be ad mit ted. Fur ther, the V edantic view is pref er a - ble, be cause the ob jec tions have also been an swered from the view - point of V edant a. It is not pos si ble to an swer them from the v iew point of the S ankhya. VH$m{VR>mZmX{n; A `WmZw_ o`{_{V MoV Ed_ `{Z_m} jg & Tarkapratishthanadapi ; any athanumey amiti ch et ev amapy anirmo ksha prasangah II.1.11 (145) If it be said that in co nsequence o f the non- finality of rea soning we mus t frame our con clusions otherwise ; (we reply that) thus also t here woul d result non- release. Tarka: reasoning, argument; Apratishthana t: because of not having any fix ity or f inality ; Api: also; Anyatha: otherwise; Anumey am: to be inferred, to be ascert ained, by arguing; Iti ch et: if it be said, even thus in this way; Api: even; Anirmoksha: want of release, absence of the way out; Prasangah: consequence. Ob jec tions raised in Sutras 4 and 8 are fur ther re futed.BRAHMA SU TRAS 156 Great think ers like Kapila and Kanada are seen to re fute each other . Logic has no fix ity or f i nal ity. The de duc tions of one rea soner are over thrown by an other . What one man es tab lishes through rea - son can be re futed by an other man more in tel li gent and in ge nious than he. Nei ther anal ogy nor syl lo gism can ap ply to t he soul. Con clu - sions ar rived at by mere ar gu men ta tion, how ever well-rea soned, and not based on any au thor i ta tive st ate ment, can not be ac cepted as fi nal as there still re mains the chance of their be ing re futed by more ex pert soph ists. Hence, the con clu sion of Sruti al one must be ac cepted. With out show ing any re gard to rea son ing we must be lieve Brah - man to be the m a te rial cause of the uni verse, be cause the Upani shad teaches so. The con clu sions of V edant a are based on the Srutis which are in fal li bl e and au thor i t a tive. Rea son ing which has no sure ba sis can - not over throw the con clu sions of V edant a. Rea son has it s own prov ince and scope. It is use ful in cer tain sec u lar mat ters but in mat ters tran scen den tal such as the ex is tence of Brah man, fi nal re lease, life be yond, t he pro nounce ment s of hu man in tel lect can never be per fectly free from doubt, be cause these are mat ters which are be yond the scope of in tel lect. Ev en if there is to be any fi nal ity of rea son ing, it wil l not bring about any fi nal ity of doc trine with ref er ence to the soul, be cause the soul can not be ex pe ri enced by the senses. Brah man can not be an ob ject of per cep tion or of in fer - ence based on per cep tion. B rah man is in con ceiv able and con se - quently unarguable. Kathop anishad says, This knowl edge is not to be ob tained by ar gu ment, but it is easy to un der stand it, O Nachiket as, when t aught by a t eacher who be holds no dif fer ence (I.2.9 ). The op po nent says: Y ou can not say that no rea son ing what ever is well-founded be cause even the judg ment about rea son ing is ar - rived at t hrough rea son ing. Y ou your self can see that rea son ing has no foun da tion on rea son ing only . Hence the st ate ment that rea son ing has never a sure ba sis is not cor rect. Fur ther, if all rea son ing were un - founded, hu man life would hav e to come to an end. You must rea son cor rectly and prop erly. We re mark against this ar gu ment of t he op po nent that thus also then re sults want of re lease. Al though rea son ing is well-founded with re spect to cer tain things, wit h re gard to the mat ter in hand there will re sult want of re lease. Those sages who teach about the fi nal eman ci pa tion of t he soul, de clare that it re sults from per fect knowl edge. Per fect knowl - edge is al ways uni form. I t de pends upon the thing it self. What ever thing is per ma nently of one and the same na ture is ac knowl edged to be the true thi ng. Knowl edge that per tains to this is per fect or true knowl edge. Mu tual con flict of men s opin ions is not pos si ble in theCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 157 case of true or per fect knowl edge. But the con clu sions of rea son ing can never be uni form. The S ankhyas main tain through rea son ing that Pradhana is the cause of the uni verse. The Naiyay ikas ar rive through rea son ing that t he Paramanus or at oms are the cause of the world. Which to ac cept? How , there fore, can knowl edge which is based on rea son ing, and whose ob ject is not some thing al ways uni form, be true of per fect knowl edge? W e can not come to a def i nite, pos i tive con clu sion through rea son ing in de pend ent of t he Srutis. The V eda is eter nal. It is the source of knowl edge. It has for it s ob ject firmly es tab - lished things. K nowl edge which is founded on the V eda can not be de - nied at all by any of t he lo gi cians of the p ast, pres ent or fu ture. As t he truth can not be known through rea son ing, there will be no l ib er a tion. We have thus es tab lished that per fec tion can be at tained through knowl edge of Brah man with the aid of Upanishads or the Srutis. P er fect knowl edge is not pos si ble with out the help of the Srutis. Dis re gard of Srutis will l ead to ab sence of fi nal eman ci pa tion. Rea son ing which goes against the scrip tures is no proof of knowl - edge. Our fi nal po si tion is that the in tel li gent Brah man must be re - garded as the cause and sub stra tum of t he uni verse on the ground of scrip ture and of rea son ing sub or di nate to scrip ture. Sisht aparigrahadhi karanam: T opic 4 Kanada and Gaut ama Refut ed EVoZ {e>mn[aJhm A {n `m`mVm& Etena sisht aparigraha api vyakhy atah II.1.12 (146) By this (i.e . by the a rgume nts against the Sankhyas ) (those other theories) not accepted by the wise or co mpetent persons are explain ed or refut ed. Etena: by this (by t he above reasoning, by what has been said against Sankhya); Sisht aparigrahah: not accepted by t he wise or competent persons; Api: also; Vyakhy atah: are explained or refuted. Other views or the o ries not ac cepted by the V edas are re futed. Sisht ahthe re main ing sys tems like those of t he At om ists trained, i. e., trained in the V edas. Sisht aparigrahah all other vi ews or sys tems of thoug ht not ac - cepted by those who are well in structed in the V edas; all the dif fer ent views or sys tems con trary to t he Vedas. Aparigrahah means those sys tems which do not ac knowl edge or ac cept (Parigraha) the V edas as au thor ity on t hese mat ters, but which rely on rea son alone and which are not coun te nanced by the Veda. All the di f fer ent views or sys tems of thoug ht which are con trary to the V edas and which are not ac cepted by the di s ci plined and theBRAHMA SU TRAS 158 wise are re futed by what is said against Sankhya, i.e., by the same ar - gu ment s. Like the the ory of those who say t hat Pradhana or Prakriti is t he cause of the world, the t he o ries of those who pos tu late at oms as the cause are re futed by those who know the truths of scrip ture, like Manu or V yasa, trained i n the cor rect way of know ing them. T he doc - trine of t he Pradhana de serves to be re futed f irst as it st ands near to the V e dic sys tem, and is sup ported by some what strong and weighty ar gu ment s. Fur ther, it has to a cer tain ex tent been adopt ed by some au thor i ties who fol low the V eda. If the most dan ger ous en emy is con - quered, the mi nor en e mies are al ready con quered. Even so, if the Sankhya doc trine is re futed, all other sys tems are al ready re futed also. The Su tra teaches that by the de mo li tion of t he Sankhya doc - trine given abov e, the re main ing the o ries not com prised within the Vedas are also re futed, such as the the o ries of Kanada, Gaut ama, Akshap ada, Bud dhist s, etc., be cause they are op posed to the V edas on these point s. The rea sons are the same as in the case of Sankhya. As re gards the na ture of the at om, there is no una nim ity of opin - ion. Kanada and Gaut ama main tain it to be per ma nent, while t he four schools of Buddhas hold it to be i m per ma nent. The V aibhashika Bauddhas hold that t he at oms are mo men tary but have a n ob jec tive ex is tence (Kshanikam artha-bhut am). The Y ogachara Bauddhas main tain it to be m erely cog ni tional (Jnanarup am). The Madhy amikas hold it to be f un da men tally v oid (Sunya-rup am). The Jains hold it t o be real and un real (Sad-asad-rupam). Bhoktrap attyadhikaranam : Topic 5 The distinctions of enj oyer and enjoyed do not oppose unity ^momn moa{d^mJo `mbmo H$dV& Bhoktrap atteravi bhagaschet sy allokav at II.1.13 (147) If it be said (that if Brahman be the cause then) on account of (the o bjects of e njoyme nt) turning into the e njoye r, non-di stinction (be tween the e njoye r and the o bjects enjoye d) would r esult, we reply t hat such di stinction m ay exist nevertheless as is exper ienced commonly in the world. Bhoktri: one who enjoys and suf fers; Apatteh: from the objecti ons, if it be objected; Avibhagah: non-distinction; Chet: if it be said; Syat: may exi st; Lokav at: as is experienced in the world. An other ob jec tion based on rea son ing is raised against Brah - man be ing the cause and re futed. The dis tinc tion be tween the enjoy er (the Jiva or the in di vid ual soul) and the ob jects of en joy ment is well known from or di nary ex pe ri - ence. The enjoyers are in tel li gent, em bod ied souls while sound andCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 159 the like are the ob jects of enjoyemnt . Ramakrishna for in stance, is an enjoyer while the m ango which he eat s is an ob ject of en joy ment. I f Brah man is the ma te rial cause of the uni verse, then t he world, the ef - fect would be non-dif fer ent from B rah man. The Jiva and B rah man be - ing iden ti cal, the dif fer ence be tween the sub ject and the ob ject would be an ni hi lated, as the one would p ass over into the ot her. Con se - quently , Brah man can not be held to be t he ma te rial cause of the uni - verse, as it would lead t o the sublation of the well-es tab lished dis tinc tion be tween the enjoy er and the ob jects of en joy ment. If you say that t he doc trine of B rah man be ing the cause of the world will lead to the enj oyer or spirit be com ing one with the ob ject of en joy ment (mat ter), we re ply that such dif fer en ti a t ion is ap pro pri ate in our case also, as in stances are found in the uni verse in the case of ocean, it s waves, foams and bub bles and of the Sun and i ts light. The ocean waves, foams and bub bles are one and yet di verse in the uni - verse. Sim i larly, are the Brah man and the world. He cre ated and en - tered into t he cre ation. He is one with t hem, just as the et her in the sky and the ether in t he pot are one al though they ap pear to be sep a rate. There fore it is pos si ble to have di f fer ence and non-dif fer ence in things at the same t ime ow ing to the nam e and form. The enjoy ers and the ob jects of en joy ment do not p ass over into each other and yet they are not di f fer ent from t he Su preme Brah man. The enjoy ers and ob jects of en joy ment are not dif fer ent from t he view point of B rah man but they are dif fer ent as enjoyers and ob jects en joyed. There is not con tra dic tion in this. The con clu sion is that the di s tinc tion of enjoy ers and ob jects of en joy ment is pos si ble, al though both are non-dif fer ent from B rah man, their High est Cause, as the instnce of t he ocean, and it s waves, foams and bub bles dem on strates. Arambhanadhi karanam: T opic 6 (Sutras 14-20) The world (ef fect) is non-dif fer ent from Brah man (the cause) VXZ`d_ ma^Ue Xm{X`& Tadanany atvamarambh anasabdadibh yah II.1.14 (148) The no n-dif fer ence of the m (i.e . of ca use and ef fect) re sults from such terms as or i gin and th e like . Tat: (its, of the uni verse): Anany atvam: non-dif fer ence; Arambhana sabdadibhy ah: from words like or i gin, etc. That the ef fect is not dif fer ent from t he cause is shown here. In su tra 13, the S utrakara spoke from the point of v iew of Parinamavada and re futed t he ob jec tion raised by t he op po nent that Brah man can not be the ma te rial cause as it con tra dicts per cep tion. I n Parinamavada, Brah man ac tu ally un der goes trans for ma tion or mod i - fi ca tion. Now the same ob jec tion is over thrown from the v iew point ofBRAHMA SU TRAS 160 Vivartavada. I n Vivartavada there is only ap par ent mod i fi ca tion. Rope ap pears as a snake. It is not trans formed into an ac tual snake. This is the doc trine of A dvait a of Sri Sankara. In the pre vi ous Su tra the sim ile of the ocean and t he waves was stated, ac cept ing the ap par ent va ri ety of ob jects. But in re al ity, cause and ef fect are one even now . This is clear from the word Arambha na (be gin ning), just as by know ing a lump of clay , all clay wil l be known. Name is only a ver bal mod i fi ca tion. The t rue be ing is only clay . A pot is only clay ev en now . Sim i larly, the world is only B rah man even now . It is wrong to say that one ness and manifoldness are both true as in the case of ocean and waves, etc. The word eva in Mritt iketyev a shows that all di ver sity is un real. The soul is de clared to be one with Brah - man. The ob jec tor or Purvap akshin says: If t here is only one T ruth viz., Brah man, the di verse ob jects of per cep tion will be ne gated. The eth i cal in junc tions and pro hi bi tions will lose their pur port if t he dis tinc - tion on which their va lid ity de pends does not re ally ex ist. More over, the sci ence of lib er a tion of t he soul will have no re al ity, if the dis tinc - tion of t eacher and the stu dent on which it de pends is not real. There would be no bond age and hence no lib er a tion. A s the sci ence of the soul it self is un real, it can not lead to t he Re al ity. If the doc trine of re - lease is un true, how can we main tain the trut h of the ab so lute unity of the Self ? But these ob jects have no force be cause the whole phe nom e - nal ex is tence is re garded as true as long as the knowl edge of Brah - man has not arisen, just as the dream crea tures are re garded to be true till t he wak ing st ate ar rives. When we wake up af ter dreams, we know the dream world to be false but t he knowl edge of dreams is not false. More over, even dreams some times fore bode the im mi nent re - al ity of death. The re al ity of reali sa tion of B rah man can not be said to be il lu sory be cause it de stroys ig no rance and leads to the ces sa tion of il lu sion. ^mdo M monbYo& Bhave chop alabdheh II.1.15 (149) And (be cause) only on the ex is tence (of the cause) (the ef fect) is ex pe r i enced. Bhav e: on the ex is tence; Cha: and; Upalabdheh: is ex pe ri enced ef fect (world) is in sep a ra ble from it s ma te rial cause, Brah man, is con tin ued. The ar gu ment be gun in Su tra 14 as to how it f ol lows that the ef - fect (world) is in sep a ra ble from it s ma te rial cause, Brah man, is con - tin ued. The ef fect is per ceived only when t he cause is pres ent in it; oth - er wise not. A pot or cloth will ex ist even if the pot ter or the weaver isCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 161 ab sent, but it will not ex ist if t he clay or thread is ab sent. This proves that t he ef fect is not dif fer ent from t he cause. The Chhandogya Upanishad says, All t hese cre ated things, O my son, orig i nate from Sat, i.e., Brah man, rest in Him and ev en tu ally dis solve in Him (VI-8 -4). The ob jec tor says: There is no rec og ni tion of f ire in the smoke. The smoke be ing the ef fect of f ire, ought t o show fire in it. T o this we re ply that smoke is re ally the ef fect of damp fuel. The dam p fuel co - mes in con tact with fire and t hrows of f its earthly p ar ti cles in the form of smoke. The smoke and the f uel are iden ti cal. W e can re cog nise the fuel in the smoke. This is proved by the f act that t he smoke has smell just as the fuel has. The smoke is gen er ally of the same na ture as that of the f uel. The phe nom ena of the uni verse man i fest only be cause Brah - man ex ists. They can not cer tainly ap pear with out Brah man. There - fore the world (ef fect) is not dif fer ent from B rah man, the cause. gdmmda `& Sattv acchav arasy a II.1.16 (150) And on a c count of the pos te rior (i .e., the ef fect which c o mes af ter the cause) e x ist ing (as t he cause be fore cre ation). Sattv at: Be cause of the ex is tence; Cha: and; Avarasy a: of the pos te rior, i.e., of t he ef fect as it co mes af ter the cause, i.e. , of t he world. The ar gu ment be gun in Su tra 14 is con tin ued. The scrip ture says that t he ef fect (the world) ex isted in it s causal as pect (Brah man) be fore the cre ation. In the be gin ning, my dear , Sadeva somyedam agra asit , this was only ex is tence (Chh. Up.). Atma va idam eka agra asit , ver ily in the be gin ning this was Self, one only (Ait . Ar.2.4.1). Brahma va idamagra asit . Be fore cre ation, t his uni verse ex isted as Brah man (Bri. Up. 1 .4.10 ). The Up anishads de clare that the uni verse had it s be ing in the cause, Brah man, be fore cre ation. I t was one with Brah man. As the world was non-dif fer ent from t he cause be fore cre ation, it con tin ues to be non-dif fer ent af ter cre ation also. The ef fect (world) is non-dif fer ent from t he cause (Brah man) be - cause it is ex is tent in t he cause, iden ti cally even, prior to it s man i fes - ta tion, t hough in time it is pos te rior. A thing which does not ex ist in an other thing by the self of t he lat - ter is not pro duced from that ot her thing. For in stance, oil is not pro - duced from sand. W e can get oil from t he ground nut be cause it ex ists in the seed, though i n la tency , but not from sand, be cause it does notBRAHMA SU TRAS 162 ex ist in it. The ex is tence is the same both in t he world and in Brah - man. As ev ery thing ex ists in Brah man, so it can come out of it. Brah man is in all tim e nei ther more nor less than that which is. So the ef fect also (the world) is in all t ime only t hat which is. That which is, is one only . Hence the ef fect is non-dif fer ent from t he cause. AgX`nXoe mo{V M o Y_mVaoU dm`eof mV& Asadvyap adesanneti chet na dharmant arena vakyaseshat II.1.17 (151) If it be said that o n ac count of (th e ef fect) be ing d e scrib ed as that whic h is no t, (the ef fect does) not ( ex ist be fore cre ation), we re ply not s o, be cause the term that w hich i s not de notes an other char ac ter is tic or at trib ute (as i s seen from the lat ter part o f the text. Asadv yapadesat: on ac count of it s be ing de scribed as non-ex is tent; Na: not; Iti ch et: if it be said; Na: no: Dharmant arena: by an other at trib ut e or char ac ter is tic; Vakyaseshat: from the lat ter p art of the text or pas sage, be cause of the com ple men tary p as sage. The ar gu ment that the world had no ex is tence be fore cre ation is re futed. From the word Asat, lit er ally mean ing non-ex is tence, in the Sruti, it may be ar gued that be fore cre ation the world had no ex is - tence. But that ar gu ment can not st and as the lat ter part of the same text uses ep i thets other than non-ex is tent to de scribe the con di tion of the world be fore cre ation. W e un der stand from this that the world was ex is tent be fore cre ation. Thi s is es tab lished by rea son ing also be cause some thing can not come out of noth ing and also by clear state ment s on other text s of Sruti. Asad va idam agra asit Asat was this ver ily in t he be gin ning (T ait. Up. II-7-1). Asat eva agre asit This uni verse was at first but non-ex is - tent. Asat in deed was this in the be gin ning. From it ver ily pro ceeded the Sat (Chh. Up. III .19.1). T he lat ter p art of the p as sage is Tatsadasit (That was ex is tent). T he word non-ex is tent (Asat) uni - verse does not cer tainly mean ab so lute non-ex is tence, but t hat the uni verse did not ex ist in a gross, dif fer en ti ated st ate. I t ex isted in an ex tremely sub tle unmanif ested st ate. I t was not dif fer en ti ated. I t had not yet de vel oped name and form. Th e world was pro jected. Then it be came gross, and de vel oped name and form. Y ou can get the mean ing if y ou go through the lat ter part of the p as sage It be came ex - is tent. It gr ew. It is ab surd to say that non-ex is tence (Asat) ex isted. There fore, Sat means man i fest, i. e. hav ing name and form, whereas Asat sim ply means fine, sub tle and unmanif ested. Asat re fers to an other at trib - ute of t he ef fect, namel y non-man i fes ta tion. The words Sat and AsatCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 163 re fer to two at trib utes of one and the same ob ject, namely to its gross or man i fested con di tion and sub tle or unmanifest ed con di tion. Agdm BX_J AmgrV & VVmo d gXOm` V& VXm_mZ d`_Hw$V & V_mV VgwH V_w `V B{V & ` VgwH$V_&& Asad va idamagra asit. Tato vai sadajayat a. Tadatm anam svayamakurut a. Tasmat t atsukrit amuchyat a iti. Y advai t atsukrit am. Asat in deed was this in the be gin ning. From it ver ily pro ceeded the Sat. That made it self it s Self. T here fore, it is said to be self-made. The words Asat made it self it s Self clears up any doubt as to the real mean ing of the word that . If the word Asat meant ab so lute non-ex is tence, then t here will be a con tra dic tion in terms, be cause non-ex is tence can never make it self the Sel f of any thing. The word Asit or was be comes ab surd when ap plied to Asat be cause ab - so lute non-ex is tence can never be said to ex ist and was means ex - isted. A n ab so lute non-ex is tence can have no re la tion with t ime p ast or pres ent. Fur ther, it can not have any agency also as we find in the pas sage, It made it self it s Self. Hence the word Asat should be ex - plained as a sub tle st ate of an ob ject. `wo$ eXmVam & Yukteh sabdant araccha II.1.18 (152) From rea son ing an d from an other Sruti te xt (the same is clear. This re la tion be tween cause and ef fect is es tab lished.) Yukteh: from rea son ing; Sabda-ant arat: from an other Sruti t ext; Cha: and. That the ef fect ex ists be fore it s orig i na tion and is non-dif fer ent from the cause fol lows from rea son ing and also from a fur ther scrip - tural p as sage or an other text of the V edas. The same fact is clear from logic or rea son ing also. Oth er wise, ev ery thing could have been pro duced from any thing. I f non-be ing is the cause, then why should t here be an in ev i ta ble se quence? Why should curds be pro duced from milk and not f rom mud? It i s im pos si - ble even within t hou sands of years to bring about an ef fect which is dif fer ent from its cause. Par tic u lar causes pro duce par tic u lar ef fects only. The re la tion of cause and ef fect (e.g. the re la tion of mud and pot) is a re la tion of iden tity. The cause of our think ing and say ing the pot ex ists is the fact t hat the lump of clay as sumes a par tic u lar form of a neck, hol low belly , etc., while the ma te rial re mains as clay only . On the con trary we think and say t he jar does not ex ist, when the clay pot is bro ken into piece. Hence ex is tence and non-ex is tence show only their dif fer ent con di tions. Non-ex is tence in this con nec tion does not mean ab so lute non-ex is tence. This is rea son ing or Y ukti. Just as an ac tor put s on many dis guises and is yet the same man, so also the Ul ti mate Cause (Brah man) ap pears as these di - verse ob jects and yet is the same.BRAHMA SU TRAS 164 Hence the cause ex ists be fore the ef fects and is non-dif fer ent from the ef fect. The ef fect ex ists in the cause in an unmanifested st ate. I t is man i fested dur ing cre ation. That is all. An ab so lutely non-ex is tent thing like the horns of a hare can never come int o ex is tence. The cause can not pro duce al to gether a new thing which was not ex ist ing in it al ready . Fur ther, we find f rom the well-known p as sage of the Chhandogya Up anishad, In the be gin ning, my dear , there was only ex is tence, one with out a sec ond (Chh. Up. VI-2-1), t hat the ef fect ex - ists even be fore cre ation and is non-dif fer ent from it s cause. The au thor now gives some il lus tra tions in or der to con firm the doc trine that ef fect is iden ti cal with the cause. nQ>dm& Patavaccha II.1.19 (153) And li ke a piece of clot h. Patavat: like a piece of cloth; Cha: and. An ex am ple in sup port of Su tra 17 is pre sented. Just as a rolled or folded piece of cloth is sub se quently un rolled or un folded, so also the world which rested unmanif ested be fore cre - ation be comes af ter wards man i fested. The world is like a f olded cloth be fore cre ation. I t is like a cloth that is spread out af ter cre ation. A folded cloth is not seen as a cloth till it is spread out. The threads are not seen as a cloth till t hey are wo ven. E ven so, the ef fect is in the cause and is iden ti cal with the cause. In t he folded st ate you can not make out whether it is a clot h or any thing else. B ut when it is spread out you can clearly know that is a cloth. In t he st ate of dis so lu tion (Pralaya) the world ex ists in a seed st ate or po ten tial con di tion in Brah man. There are no names and forms. The uni verse is in an un dif fer en - ti ated or unmanifested state. I t takes a gross form af ter cre ation. The names and forms are dif fer en ti ated and man i fested. As a piece of cloth is not di f fer ent from t he threads, so the ef fect (world) is not dif fer ent from it s cause (Brah man). The word Cha (and) of the Su tra shows that other il lus tra tions like the seed and the tree may also be given here. When the cloth is folded, you do not know of what def i nite length and wid th it is. But when it is un folded you know all t hese par tic u lars. You also know that the cloth i s not dif fer ent from t he folded ob ject. The ef fect, t he piece of cloth, i s unmanifested as long as it ex ists in it s cause, i.e., the threads. I t be comes man i fest and is clearly seen on ac count of the op er a tions of shut tle, loom , weaver , etc. The con clu sion is that the ef fect is not dif fer ent from t he cause.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 165 `Wm M mUm{X& Yatha cha pranadi II.1.20 (154) And as in the case of the dif fer ent Pranas or Vi tal air s. Yatha: as; Cha: and; Pranadi: in the case of Pranas or vi tal airs. An other il lus tra tion in sup port of Su tra 17 is pre sented. The word Cha (and) in the Su tra shows that the last i l lus tra tion of the piece of clot h and the pres ent one of lif e func tions should be read to gether as one il lus tra tion. When the fiv e dif fer ent vi tal airs are con trolled by t he prac tice of Pranayama, they merge in t he chief Prana, t he cause which reg u lates breath ing. Mere lif e only is main tained. All other func tions such as bend ing and stretch ing of the li mbs etc., are stopped. This shows that the var i ous vi tal airs, the ef fects, are not dif fer ent from t heir cause, the chief Prana. The di f fer ent vi tal airs are only mod i fi ca tions of the chief or Mukhyaprana. So is t he case with all ef fects. They are not di f fer ent from the cause. Thus it is es tab lished that t he ef fect, t he world, is iden ti cal with its cause, Brah man. There fore, by know ing Brah man ev ery thing is known. As the whole world is an ef fect of B rah man and non-dif fer ent from it, the prom ise held out in the scrip tural tex t what is not heard is heard, what is not per ceived is per ceived, what is not known is known (Chh. Up . VI.I.3) i s ful filled. Itaravyapadesadhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 21-23) Brah man does not cre ate evil BVa`nX oem{VmH$aUm{XX mofg{$& Itaravyapadesaddhit akaranadidoshap rasaktih II.1.21 (155) On ac count of the othe r (i.e., the in di vid ual soul) be ing sta ted (as n on-dif fer ent from B rah man) the re w ould arise (in Brah man) the faults o f not do ing what is be n e fi cial and the like. Itaravyapadesat: on ac count of the ot her be ing st ated (as non-dif fer ent from Brah man); Hitakaranadidoshap rasaktih: de fects of not do ing what is ben e fi cial and the like would arise. (Itara: other than be ing Brah man, i.e. the in di vid ual soul; Vyapadesat: from the des ig na tion, f rom the ex pres sion; Hita: good, ben e fi cial; Akaranadi: not cre at ing, etc.; Dosha: im per fec tion, de fect, faults; Prasaktih: re sult, con se quence.) The dis cus sions on the re la tion of t he world to Brah man have been fin ished now . The ques tion of t he re la tion of t he in di vid ual soul to Brah man is be ing raised by way of an ob jec tion in thi s Su tra.BRAHMA SU TRAS 166 In the pre vi ous Adhikarana, the one ness of the ef fect (world) with it s cause (Brah man) has been es tab lished. In this Su tra, the op po nent or Purvap akshin raises an ob jec tion. He says, that if Brah man is the cause of the world, t here is in ap pro pri - ate ness in that view be cause the scrip ture de scribes Jiva as be ing Brah man and, there fore, he will not cause harm to him self such as birth, deat h, old age, dis ease, by get ting into t he per son of the body . A be ing which is it self ab so lutely pure, can not take this al to gether im - pure body as form ing p art of it s Self. The scrip ture de clares the other , i.e., the em bod ied soul to be one with Brah man. That is t he Self. Thou art That. O Svet aketu (Chh. Up. VI. 8.7.). B y stat ing that t he in di vid ual soul is one with Brah - man, there arises room for fi nd ing out a fault in the wis dom of Brah - man, that He is not do ing good to Him self by cre at ing suf fer ing and pain on ac count of re peated births and deaths for Him self. Will any one do what is harm ful and un pleas ant to him self? Will he not re mem - ber that he cre ated the world? Will he not de stroy it as t he cause of his suf fer ing? Brah man would have cre ated a very be au ti ful world where ev ery thing would have been pl eas ant for the i n di vid ual soul with out the least p ain or suf fer ing. That i s not so. Hence, Brah man is not the cause of the world as V edant a main tains. As we see that what would be ben e fi cial is not done, t he hy poth e sis of the world hav ing come out of an In tel li gent Cause (Brah man) is not ac cept able. A{YH$ Vw ^oX{ ZX}emV & Adhikam tu bhedanirdesat II.1.22 (156) But (Bra h man, the Cre ator, i s) so emthing mo re (than the in di vid ual soul ) on ac count of the stat e ment i n the Srut is (of dif fer ence) be tween the in di v id ual soul (and Brah man) . Adhikam: some thing more, great er than the Jiva; Tu: but; Bhedanirdesat: be cause of the point ing out of dif fer ences on ac count of the st ate ment of dif fer ence. ( Bheda: dif fer ence; Nirdesat: be cause of the point ing out). The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 21 is re futed. The word tu (but) re futes the ob jec tion of t he last Su tra. It dis - cards the Purvap aksha. The Cre ator of the world is Om nip o tent. He is not the im pris - oned, em bod ied soul. The de fects men tioned in the pre vi ous Su tra such as do ing what is not ben e fi cial and the like do not at tach to that Brah man be cause as eter nal free dom is His char ac ter is tic na ture, there is noth ing ei ther ben e fi cial to be done by Him or non-ben e fi cial to be avoided by Him. More over, there is no ob struc tion to His knowl - edge and power , be cause He is Om ni scient and Om nip o tent. He is a mere wit ness. He is con scious of the un re al ity of the world and Jiva.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 167 He has nei ther good nor evil. Hence the cre ation of a uni verse of good and evil by Him is un ob jec tion able. The Jiva is of a dif fer ent na ture. The de fects men tioned in the pre vi ous Su tra be long to the Jiv a only , so long as he is in a st ate of ig - no rance. The Srutis clearly poi nt out t he dif fer ence be tween the in di - vid ual soul and the Cre ator in tex ts like V er ily, the S elf is to be seen, to be heard, to be re flected and to be m ed i tated upon (Bri. Up. I I.4.5). All these dif fer ences are imag i nary or il lu sory on ac count of ig no - rance. When the in di vid ual soul at tains knowl edge of Brah man, he re - mem bers his iden tity with Brah man. Then the whole phe nom e non of plu ral ity which springs from wrong knowl edge dis ap pears. There is nei ther the em bod ied soul nor the cre ator. This Brah man is su pe rior to the in di vid ual soul. The in di vid ual soul is not the cre ator of thi s uni verse. Hence the ob jec tion raised in Su tra 21 can not st and. The pos si bil ity of fault s cling ing to Brah man is ex cluded. Though Brah man as sumes the form of t he in di vid ual soul, yet He is not ex hausted thereby . But He re mains as some thing more, i. e., as the con trol ler of the in di vid ual soul. This is ob vi ous from the dis tinc - tion pointed out in the Srut i. Hence there is no oc ca sion for the fault spo ken of in Su tra 21. A_m{Xd VX Zwnn{m&> Asmadiv accha t adanup apattih II.1.23 (157) And becau se the case is similar to that of stones, etc., (produced fro m the sam e earth), the objection rais ed is untenable . Asmadiv at: like stone, etc. ; Cha: and; Tat anup apattih: its untenabilit y, unreasonableness, impossibility ; (Tat: of tha t; Tasya: its, of the objecti on raised in Sutra 21). The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 21 is fur ther re futed. The ob jec tor may say t hat Brah man which is Knowl edge and Bliss and un change able can not be the cause of a uni verse of di ver - sity, of good and bad. This ob jec tion can not st and, be cause we see that f rom the same ma te rial earth, stones of di f fer ent val ues like di a - monds, lapis laz uli, crys tals and also or di nary stones are pro duced. From the seeds which are placed in one and the same ground var i ous plant s are seen to spring up, such as san dal wood and cu cum bers, which show the great est dif fer ence in their leaves, bl os soms, fruit s, fra grance, juice, etc. One and t he same food pro duces var i ous ef fects such as blood, hair , nail, et c. So also, one B rah man also may con tain in it self the dis tinc tion of t he in di vid ual selves and the high est Self and may pro duce var i ous ef fects. So also from B rah man which is Bliss and Knowl edge, a world of good and evi l can be cre ated.BRAHMA SU TRAS 168 Hence the ob jec tion imag ined by oth ers against the doc trine of Brah man be ing the cause of the world can not be main tained. More over, the scrip ture de clares that all ef fects have their or i gin in speech only . The dream ing man is one but the dream pi c tures are many . These are hinted at by the word Cha of the S u tra. Upasamharadarsanadh ikaranam: T opic 8 (Sutras 24-25) Brahman i s the cause of the world Cnghma XeZmo{V M o jrad{ & Upasamharadarsanann eti chenna kshi ravaddhi II.1.24 (158) If you object that B rahma n witho ut ins trume nts ca nnot b e the cause of the universe , because an agent is seen to collect materials for any constr uction, (w e say) no, because (it is) like milk (turning into curds). Upasamharadarsanat: because collection of materials is seen; Na: not; Iti ch et: if it be said; Na: no; Kshirav at: like milk; Hi: because, as. Darsanat: because of the seeing; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Vat: like, has the force of an instrument al case here. (See Sutra of Panini, Tena tulyam kriya etc.) An ob jec tion that ma te ri als are nec es sary for the cre ation of t he world is re futed. Though Brah man is de void of m a te ri als and in stru ment s, He is yet the cause of the uni verse. If you ob ject that an ef fi cient cause like a pot ter is seen to use in stru ment s and there fore Brah man can not be the ma te rial cause as also the ef fi cient cause, we re ply that it is like milk turn ing into curds. The ob jec tor, Purvap akshin, says: W ork men are found to col lect ma te ri als to do their works. Brah man also must have re quired ma te ri - als where with to cre ate the world, but there was no other thing than Brah man be fore cre ation. He is one with out a sec ond. He could not have brought out His work of cre ation as there was no ma te rial, just as a pot ter could not have m ade his pot s, if there had been no m a te ri - als like earth, wa ter, staffs, wheels, etc. , be fore him. This ob jec tion has no force. Ma te ri als are not re quired in ev ery case. For in stance, milk is it self trans formed into curd. I n milk no ex - ter nal agency is needed to change it i nto curds. If y ou say that i n the case of milk heat is nec es sary for cur dling the mil k, we re ply that heat merely ac cel er ates the pro cess of cur dling. The cur dling oc curs through the in her ent ca pac ity of the milk. Y ou can not turn wa ter into curds by the ap pli ca tion of heat . The milk s ca pa bil ity of turn ing into curd is merely com pleted by t he co op er a tion of aux il iary means. Brah man man i fests Him self in the f orm of the uni verse by His in - scru ta ble power . He sim ply wills. T he whole uni verse co mes into be - ing. Why can not the Om nip o tent I n fi nite Brah man cre ate the world byCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 169 His will-power (Sankalpa) alone wit h out in stru ment s and ex tra ne ous aids? Brah man is Om nip o tent and In fi nit e. Hence no ex tra ne ous aid or in stru ment is nec es sary for Him to cre ate this world. Thus Sruti also de clares There is no ef fect and no in stru ment known of Him, no one is seen like unto or bett er. His high power is re - vealed as man i fold and in her ent, act ing as force and knowl edge (Svet. U p. VI. 8) . There fore, Brah man, al though one only , is able to t rans form Him self as this uni verse of di verse ef fects with out any in stru ment or ex tra ne ous aid, on ac count of His in fi nite pow ers. Xodm{X dX{n b moHo$& Devadivadapi lo ke II.1.25 (159) (The case of Brahman cr eating the world is) l ike that of gods and o ther be ings in the world (in o rdinary e xperience ). Devadivat: like gods and others (saint s); Api: even, also; Loke: in the world. The word vat has the force of sixt h case here. An other read ing is Iti (thus), in stead of Api. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 24 is brought for ward. An ob jec tor (or Purvap akshin) says: The ex am ple of milk t urn - ing into curds is not ap pro pri ate as it is an in sen tient t hing. In tel li gent agent s like pot ters be gin to do their work af ter pro vid ing them selves with a com plete set of i n stru ment s. How then can it be said that Brah - man, an in tel li gent Be ing, can do His work of cre ation with out any aux il iary , with out the aid of any con stit u ent ma te ri als? We re ply , like gods and oth ers. We see also that in the world gods and sages cre ate p ar tic u lar things such as pal aces, char i ots, etc., by force of will, wit h out ex ter nal aid. Why can not the Om nip o tent Cre ator cre ate the world by His will-power (Sat Sankalp a) or His in fi nite power of May a? Just as the spi der pro jects out of it self the threads of i ts web, just as the fe male crane con ceives with out a male from hear ing the sound of thun der, just as the lo tus wan ders from one lake to an other with out any means of con vey ance so also the in tel li gent Brah man cre ates the world by it self with out ex ter nal in stru ment s or aid. The case of Brah man is dif fer ent from t hat of pot ters and sim i lar agent s. No ex tra ne ous means is nec es sary for Brah man for cre ation. There is lim i ta tion in the cre ation of pot s. The cre ation of B rah man can not be lim ited by t he con di tions ob served in the cre ation of pot s. Brah man is Om nip o tent .BRAHMA SU TRAS 170 Kritsnaprasakty adhikaranam : Topic 9 (Sutras 26-29) Brahman i s the mat erial cause of the universe, though He is without p arts H$Zg{ ${Zad`ddeXH$monmo dm& Kritsnaprasaktirni ravayavatvasabdakopo v a II.1.26 (160) Either the conse quence of the e ntire (B rahman und ergoing change) has to be accep ted, or else a violation of t he texts declaring Bra hman to be witho ut parts (i f Brah man is the material cause of the world). Kritsnaprasaktih: possibility of the entire (Brahman bei ng modified); Nirav ayavatvasabdakop at: contradiction of t he scriptural st atement that B rahman is without p arts; Va: or, otherwise. (Kritsna: entire, f ull, tot al; complete; Prasaktih: exigency , employment ; activ ity; Nirav ayava: without p arts, without f orm, without members, i ndivisible; Sabda: word, text , expressions in Sruti; Kopat: contradiction, v iolation, incongruity , stulti fication; Va: or.) An ob jec tion that Brah man is not the ma te rial cause of the world, is raised in the Su tra. The ob jec tor says that i f the en tire Brah man be comes the world, then no Brah man will re main dis tinct from t he world and that if a part of Brah man be comes the world, the scrip tural tex ts which de clare Brah man to be with out p arts will be vi o lated. If Brah man is with out p arts and yet the m a te rial cause of the uni - verse, then we have t o ad mit that the en tire Brah man be comes mod i - fied into t he uni verse. Hence there will be no Brah man lef t but only the ef fect, t he uni verse. Fur ther, it will go against the dec la ra tion of t he Sruti t ext that Brah man is un change able. If on t he con trary it i s said that a por tion of B rah man only be - comes the uni verse, then we will hav e to ac cept that B rah man is made up of p arts, which is de nied by the scrip tural tex ts. The p as - sages are, {ZH$b {ZpH $` emV {Zad {ZaOZ_ & He who is with out p arts, with - out ac tions, tran quil, with out fault , with out taint (Svet . Up. VI .19). {X`mo _yV nwf g ~mm`Va mo O& That heav enly per son is with out body , He is both with out and within, not pro duced (Mun. Up. II. 1.2). BX _hX^yV_ZV_nma {dkmZKZ Ed& That great Be ing is end less, un lim ited, con sist ing of noth ing but Knowl edge (Bri. Up. II .4.12). g Ef Zo{V Zo`_m_m& He is to be de scribed by No, No (Bri. Up. II I.9.26). AWyb_ZUw &It is nei ther coarse nor fine (Bri. Up. I II.8-8). All t hese pas sages deny the ex is tence of parts or dis tinc tions in Brah man. What ever has form is per ish able and so Brah man also will be - come per ish able or non-eter nal. Also if t he uni verse is Brah man, where is the need for any com - mand to see (Drast avya)? The t exts which ex hort us to strive t o seeCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 171 Brah man be come pur pose less, be cause the ef fects of Brah man may be seen with out any ef fort and ap art from them no Brah man ex ists. Fi - nally, the t exts which de clare Brah man to be un born are con tra dicted thereby . Hence Brah man can not be the ma te rial cause of the uni verse. This ob jec tion is re futed in t he next S u tra. lwVoVw eX_ ybdmV& Srutestu sabdamu latvat II.1.27 (161) But (this i s not so) on account of scr iptural passages and on account of (Brah man) restin g on scriptur e (only). Sruteh: from Sruti , as it is st ated in Srut i, on account of scriptural texts; Tu: but; Sabdamu latvat: on account of being based on the scripture, as Sruti is the f oundation. (Sabda: word, revelation, Sruti; Mula: foundation. ) The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 25 is re futed. The en tire Brah man does not be come the world be cause the scrip ture de clares so, and Brah man can be known only through the source of scrip ture. The word tu (but) dis cards the ob jec tion. I t re futes the v iew of the pre vi ous Su tra. These ob jec tions have no f orce be cause we rely on the Sruti or scrip ture. The en tire Brah man does not un dergo change, al though the scrip tures de clare that the uni verse t akes it s or i gin from Brah man. Sruti says, one f oot (quar ter) of Him is all be ings, and three feet are what is im mor tal in heaven. (nmXmo@` {dm ^yVm{Z { nmX`m_V {X{d& ) More over, we are one with Brah man in deep sleep as st ated by the scrip ture. How could that hap pen if the en tire Brah man has be - come the world? Fur ther, the scrip ture de clares that we can real ise Brah man in the heart. How could that be if the en tire Brah man has be come the world? More over , the pos si bil ity of Brah man be com ing the ob ject of per cep tion by m eans of the senses is de nied while it s ef fects may thus be per ceived. The scrip tural tex ts de clare Brah man to be with out p arts. Then how could a part be come man i fest? W e re ply that it is only t he re sult of Avidya. Are there two moons if on ac count of a de fect of y our vi sion you see two moons? Y ou must rely on scrip tures alone but not on logi c for know ing what is be yond the mi nd. Brah man rest s ex clu sively on t he Srutis or scrip tures. The sa - cred scrip tures alone, but not the senses, are au thor i ta tive re gard ingBRAHMA SU TRAS 172 Brah man. Hence we will have to ac cept the dec la ra tions of the S rutis with out the least hes i t a tion. The scrip tural tex ts de clare on the one hand that not the en tire Brah man changes into it s ef fects and on the other hand, t hat Brah - man is with out p arts. Even cer tain or di nary things such as gems, spells, herbs, etc., pos sess pow ers which pro duce di verse op po site ef fects on ac count of dif fer ence of time, place, oc ca sion and so on. No one is able to find out by mere re flec tion the num ber of these pow - ers, their fa vour ing con di tions, thei r ob jects, their pur poses, etc., wit h - out the help of in struc tion. When such is the case with or di nary things, how much more im pos si ble is it to con ceive with out the aid of scrip - ture the true na ture of Brah man with it s pow ers un fath om able by thought? The scrip ture de clares Do not ap ply rea son ing to what is un think able. Hence the Srutis or the scrip tures alone are au thor ity in mat ters supersensuous. W e will have to ac cept that bot h these op po site views ex pressed by the scrip tures are true, though it does not st and to rea son. It must be re mem bered that the change in B rah man is only ap par ent and not real. Brah man some how ap pears as this uni verse, just as rope ap pears as the snake. Brah man be comes the ba sis of the en tire, ap par ent uni verse with it s changes, but it re mains at the same time un changed in it s true and real na ture. Am_{ Z Md {d{Mm { h& Atmani chaiv am v ichitrascha hi II.1.28 (162) And becau se in the individual soul also (as in gods, magi cians, in dream s) various (creation e xists). Similarly (with Brahman also). Atmani : in the indiv idual soul; Cha: also, and; Evam: thus; Vichitrah: diverse, manif old, variegat ed; Cha: and, also; Hi: because. The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 26 is fur ther re futed by an il lus tra - tion. There is no rea son to find faul t with t he doc trine that there can be a man i fold cre ation in the one S elf with out de stroy ing its char ac ter. In the dream st ate, we see such di verse and won der ful cre ation in our selves. There are no char i ots in that dream ing st ate, no horses, no roads, but he him self cre ates char i ots, horses and roads ( Bri. Up. IV.3.10), and y et the in di vid ual char ac ter of the self is not af fected by it. Thi s does not lessen or af fect our in teg rity of be ing. In or di nary life t oo mul ti ple cre ations, el e phant s, horses and the like are seen to ex ist in gods, ma gi cians, with out any change in t hem - selves, with out in ter fer ing with the unit y of t heir be ing. Sim i larly, a mul ti ple cre ation may ex ist in Brah man also with out di vest ing it of i ts char ac ter of unit y. The di verse cre ation orig i nates from Brah manCHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 173 through It s in scru ta ble power of Maya and B rah man It self re mains un - changed. The sec ond cha (also, and) is in or der to in di cate that when such won der ful things are be lieved by us as the dreams, the pow ers of the gods and the m a gi cians, why should we hes i tate to be lieve in the mys te ri ous pow ers of Brah man? The word hi im plies that t he facts above men tioned are well known in the scrip tures. dnjXmo fm& Svapakshadoshaccha lI.1.29 (163) And on a ccount of the opponent s own view being subject t o these v ery objections. Svapaksha: in one s own view; Doshat: because of the defect s; Cha: also, and. The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 26 is fur ther re futed. The ar gu ment raised in Su tra 26 can not st and, be cause the same charge can be lev elled against the ob jec tors side also. The ob jec tion raised by y ou will equally ap ply to y our doc trine that t he form less (imp artite) In fi nite Pradhana or Prakriti v oid of sound and other qual i ties cre ates the world. The S ankhyas may say , We do not men tion that our Pradhana is with out p arts. Pradhana is only a state of equi poise of the three Gunas, Satt va, Rajas and T amas. Pradhana forms a whole con tain ing the three Gunas as it s part s. We re ply that such a parti teness does not re move the ob jec tion in hand since Sattv a, Rajas and T amas are each of them equally impartite. Each Guna by it self as sisted by the t wo other Gunas, con sti - tutes the ma te rial cause of that p art of the world which re sem bles it in its na ture. Hence, the ob jec tion lies against t he Sankhya vi ew like - wise. As rea son ing is al ways un sta ble, if y ou are in clined to be lieve in the Pradhana s be ing in fact ca pa ble of p ar ti tion, t hen it fol lows that the Pradhana can not be eter nal. Let it t hen be said that the v ar i ous pow ers of the Pradhana to which the va ri ety of its ef fects are point ing are it s part s. Well, we re ply, those di verse po ten cies are ad mit ted by us also as we see the cause of the world in Brah man. The same ob jec tion ap plies also to your atomic the ory. The same ob jec tions can be lev elled against the doc trine of t he world hav ing orig i nated from at oms. The atom i s not made up of p arts. When one atom com bines with an other atom, it must en ter into com - bi na tion with it s whole ex tent wit h an other . It can not en ter into p ar tial con tact with an other . There will be en tire interpenet ration. Hence, there could be no fur ther in crease in the size. The com pound of two at oms would not oc cupy more sp ace than one atom. The re sult of theBRAHMA SU TRAS 174 con junc tion would be a mere atom. But if you hold that the atom en - ters into the com bi na tion with a p art only , that would go against the as sump tion of t he at oms hav ing no p arts. If the Pradhana is t aken to be the cause of the uni verse as the Sankhyas main tain, in that case also the view of the S ankhyas will be equally sub ject to the ob jec tions raised against the V edantic view of Brah man as the cause of the uni verse, as the Pradhana, too, is with - out p arts. As for the propounder of t he Brah man-the ory, he has al - ready re futed t he ob jec tion di rected against his own view . Sarv opetadhikaranam : Topic 10 (Sutras 30-31) Fully-equipped Brahm an gdm}noV m M Ve ZmV& Sarv opeta cha t addarsanat II.1.30 (164) And (Br ahma n is) endowed wit h all (powers ), because it is seen (from the scrip tures). Sarv opeta: endowed with all powers, all-powerful; Cha: also, and; Taddarsanat: because it is seen (from the scriptures). (Sarv a: all; Upet a: endowed with, possessed with; Tat: that, th e possession of such power s.) The ob jec tion in Su tra 26 is fur ther re futed. Brah man is Om nip o tent as is clear from the scrip tures. Hence it is per fectly within His pow ers to man i fest Him self as the world and to be at the same t ime be yond it. The ob jec tor (Purvap akshin) says: W e see that men who have a phys i cal body are en dowed with pow ers. But Brah man has no body . Hence He can not be in the possesssion of such pow ers. This has no force. This Su tra gives proof of Brah man be ing en - dowed with Maya S akti. V ar i ous scrip tural tex ts de clare that Brah man pos sesses all pow ers. He to whom all ac tions, de sires, all odours, all tastes be long, he who em braces all this, who never speaks, and is never sur prised (Chh. Up. III. 14.4). He who de sires what is true and imag ines what is true (Chh. Up. VI II.7.1). He who knows all in it s to - tal ity and cog nises all in it s de tails (Mun. Up. I. 1.9). By the com mand of that Im per ish able, O Gargi, sun and moon st and ap art (Bri. Up. III.8.9). The great Lord is the Mayin (t he Ruler of Maya) (Sv et. Up. IV.10) and other sim i lar pas sages. {dH$aU dmo{V M oV VXw$_ & Vikaranatv anneti chet t adukt am II.1.31 (165) If it be said that because (Brahman) is devoid o f organs, (it is) not (a ble to cre ate), (we reply that) this ha s alre ady been explained.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 175 Vikaranatv at: because of want of organs of action and perception; Na: not; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Tat: that, that objecti on; Uktam: has been explained or answered. An other ob jec tion to B rah man be ing the cause of the world is re - futed. The op po nent says: Brah man is des ti tute of or gans. Hence, though He is all-pow er ful, He can not cre ate. Scrip ture de clares, He is with out eyes, wit h out ears, with out speech, with out mind (Bri. Up. III.8.8). F ur ther Srutis say , Not this, Not this. This pre cludes all at trib - utes. W e know from Mantras and Arthav adas, etc., t hat the gods and other in tel li gent be ings, though en dowed with all pow ers, are able to cre ate be cause they are fur nished with bodily i n stru ment s of ac tion. The Su tra con sists of an ob jec tion and it s re ply. The ob jec tion por tion is Vikaranatvanneti chet and the re ply por tion is Tadukt am. Even t hough Brah man has no eyes or ears, or hands or feet, He is Om nip o tent. That has been ex plained above in S utras II. 1.4 and II.1.25. He as sumes dif fer ent forms through A vidya or May a. With re - spect to Brah man, the scrip ture alone is the au thor ity, but not rea son. The scrip ture de clares that Brah man, though des ti tute of or gans, pos sesses all ca pac i ties and pow ers, Grasps with out hands, mov es swiftly wit h out feet , sees with out eyes and hears with out ears (Svet. Up. III .19). Though B rah man is de void of al l at trib utes, yet He is en - dowed with all pow ers through A vidya or May a. Pray ojanatv adhikaranam : Topic 1 1 (Sutras 32-33) Final end of Creation Z `mo OZddmV& Na pray ojanav attvat II.1.32 (166) (Brahman i s) not (t he creator of the universe) on account of (every acti vity) h aving a moti ve. Na: not (i.e. Brahman cannot be the creator); Pray ojana-v attvat: on account of having mot ive. An other ob jec tion to B rah man be ing the cause of the world is raised. The ob jec tor says: In t his world, ev ery body does a work with some mo tive. He does any work to sat isfy his de sire. There is also a scrip tural p as sage that con firms this re sult of com mon ex pe ri ence, Ver ily, ev ery thing is not dear that you may l ove ev ery thing, but that you may l ove the S elf, there fore ev ery thing is dear (Bri. Up. I I.4.5). But Brah man is all-full, self-suf fi cient and self-con tained. He has noth ing to gain by the cre ation. There fore He can not en gage Him self in such a use less cre ation. Hence, B rah man can not be the cause of the uni verse.BRAHMA SU TRAS 176 The un der tak ing of cre at ing this world with all it s de tails is in - deed a weighty one. If Brah man de sires cre ation to f ul fil a wish, t hen He can not be an eter nally happy , per fect be ing with no un ful filled de - sires. If He has no de sire, then He will not wish t o cre ate and so there will be no cre ation. I t can not be said that He cre ates with out pur pose, like a sense less man in a st ate of f renzy . That would cer tainly con tra - dict His Om ni scienc e. Hence the doc trine of t he cre ation pro ceed ing from an in tel li - gent Be ing (Brah man) is un ten a ble. bmoH$dmw brbmH $d`_ & Lokav attu lilakai valyam II.1.33 (167) But (Brahmans cr eative activity) is m ere spo rt, such as is seen in the world (o r ordinary life). Lokav at: as in the world, as in ordinary lif e; Tu: but; Lilakai valyam: mere p astime. (Lila: sport, play; Kaiv alyam: merely; Lilama tram: mere p astime.) The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 32 is re plied to. The word tu (but) re moves the abov e obejction. Brah man has cre ated the world not out of any de sire or mo tive. It is sim ply His p as time, pro ceed ing from His own na ture, which is in - her ent in and in sep a ra ble from Him, as it is seen also in the world that some times a rich man or a prince, does some ac tion with out any mo - tive or pur pose, sim ply out of a sport ive im pulse. Just as chil dren play out of mere f un, or just as men breathe with out any mo tive or pur pose, be cause it is their very na ture, just as a man f ull of cheer ful ness when awak en ing from sound sleep, be gins to dance about with out any ob - jec tive, but from mere ex u ber ance of spirit, so also Brah man en gages Him self in cre at ing this world not out of any pur pose or mo tive, but out of sport ing or Lila or play pro ceed ing from His own na ture. Al though the cre ation of t his uni verse ap pears to us a weighty and dif fi cult un der tak ing, it i s mere play to t he Lord, whose power is in fi nite or lim it less. If in or di nary life we may pos si bly by close scru tiny de tect some sub tle mo tive ev en for sport ful ac tion (play ing at a game of balls is not al to gether mo tive less, be cause the prince get s some plea sure by the play), we can not do so with re gard to the ac tions of the Lord. The scrip ture de clares that all wishes are ful filled in t he Lord and that He is all-full, self-con tained and self-suf fi cient. It should not be f or got ten how ever that t here is no cre ation from the st and point of t he Ab so lute, be cause name and form are due to Avidya or ig no rance and be cause Brah man and At man are re ally one.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 177 The op po nent again raises an ob jec tion. The t he ory that B rah - man is the cre ator is open to the ob jec tion that He is ei ther p ar tial or cruel, be cause some men en joy hap pi ness and oth ers suf fer mis ery. Hence this the ory is not a con gru ous one. This ob jec tion is re moved by the f ol low ing Su tra. Vaishamy anairghri nyadhikaranam : Topic 12 (Sutras 34-36) Brahman i s neither p artial nor cruel df`ZK `o Z g mnojdmV VWm {h Xe` {V& Vaishamy anairghri nye na sapekshatv at tatha hi darsay ati II.1.34 (168) Partialit y and cruelty cannot (be ascribed to Brahman) on account of His taking into consideration (ot her reasons in that matte r viz., m erit and demerit of the souls), fo r so ( scrip ture) declares. Vaishamy a: inequality , partiality ; Nairghriny e: cruelty , unkindness; Na: not (cannot be ascribed to Brahman); Sapekshatv at: because of dependence upon, as it is dependent on somet hing else, i.e. , upon the Karma of the souls; Tatha: so; Hi: because; Darsay ati: the scripture declares. The ac cu sa tion that Brah man is p ar tial and cruel in His cre ation of the world is re moved. Some are cre ated poor , some rich. There fore Brah man or the Lord is par tial to some. He makes peo ple suf fer. There fore He is cruel. For these two rea sons Brah man can not be the cause of the world. This ob jec tion is un ten a ble. The Lord can not be ac cused of in - equal ity and cru elty, be cause en joy ment and suf fer ing of the in di vid - ual soul are de ter mined by his own pre vi ous good and bad ac tions. Sruti also de clares. A man be comes vir tu ous by his vir tu ous deeds and sin ful by hi s sin ful act sPunyo vai punyena karmana bhavati, papah papena (Bri. Up. III.2.13 ). The grace of the Lord is like rain which brings the po tency of each seed to man i fest it self ac cord ing to it s na ture. The v a ri ety of pain and plea sure is due to va ri ety of Karma. The po si tion of t he Lord is to be re garded as sim i lar to that of Parjanya, the giver of rain. Parjany a is the com mon cause of the pro - duc tion of rice, bar ley and other plant s. The dif fer ence be tween the var i ous spe cies is due to the di verse po ten ti al i ties ly ing hid den in the re spec tive seeds. E ven so, the Lord is t he com mon cause of the cre - ation of gods, m en, etc. The di f fer ences be tween these classes of be - ings are due to the dif fer ent merit be long ing to the in di vid ual souls. Scrip ture also de clares, The Lord makes him whom He wishes to lead up from t hese worlds do a good ac tion. The Lord makes HimBRAHMA SU TRAS 178 whom He wishes to lead down do a bad ac tion (Kau. Up. III.8). A man be comes good by good work, bad by bad work (Bri. Up. III.2.13). S mriti also de clares that the Lord metes out re wards and pun ish ment s only in con sid er ation of t he spe cific ac tions of be ings. I serve men in the way i n which they ap proach Me. (Bhagavad Git a IV.11). Z H$_ m{d^mJm{X{V M oV Z AZm{ XdmV& Na karmav ibhagadi ti chet na anaditv at II.1.35 (169) If it be objected tha t it (vi z., the Lord s having re gard to me rit and demeri t) is not possibl e on accoun t of the n on-dis tinction (of m erit and d emerit before creation), (we say) no, b ecause of (the world ) being without a be ginning. Na: not; Karmav ibhagat: because of the non-distinction of work (before creation); Iti ch et: if it be said, if it be obj ected in this way; Na: no, the objecti on cannot st and; Anadi tvat: because of beginninglessness. An ob jec tion against S u tra 34 is raised and re futed. The Su tra con sists of two p arts, viz., an ob jec tion and it s re ply. The ob jec tive por tion is Na karmavibhagaditi chet and the re ply por - tion is Na anaditvat . An ob jec tion is raised now . The Sruti says, Be ing only t his was in the be gin ning, one with out a sec ond. There was no dis tinc tion of works be fore cre ation of t he world. There was only the ab so lutely One Real Be ing or Brah man. The cre ation at t he be gin ning of one man as rich and of an other as poor and un happy can not cer tainly de - pend on the re spec tive pre vi ous good or bad deeds. The first cre ation must have been f ree from in equal i ties. This ob jec tion can not st and. The cre ation of t he world is also with out a be gin ning. There was never a time t hat may be said t o be an ab so lute be gin ning. The ques tion of f irst cre ation can not arise. Cre - ation and de struc tion of t he world fol low ing each other con tin u ally by ro ta tion is with out any be gin ning and end. The con di tion of in di vid ual souls in any p ar tic u lar cy cle of cre ation is pre de ter mined by t heir ac - tions in the pre vi ous cy cle. It can not be said that t here could be no Karma prior to cre ation, which causes the di ver sity of cre ation, be cause Karma is Anadi (beginningless). Cre ation is only t he shoot from a pre-ex ist ing seed of Karma. As the world is with out a be gin ning, merit and i n equal ity are li ke seed and sprout. There is an un end ing chain of the re la tion of cause and ef fect as in the case of t he seed and the sprout. There fore, there is no con tra dic tion pres ent in the Lord s cre ative ac tiv ity.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 179 CnnVo Mm `wnb `Vo M & Upapadyate chapy upalabhy ate cha II.1.36 (170) And (that the worldand also Karma is without a b eginning) is reasonable and is also se en (from th e scriptures). Upapadyate: is proved by reasoning, is reasonable that it should be so; Cha: and; Api: and, also, assuredly; Upalabhy ate: is seen, is found in Srut i or Scriptures; Cha: also, and. Karma is Anadi (beginningl ess). This is log i cal and is sup ported by scrip ture. By rea son ing also it can be de duced that the world must be beginningless. Be cause, if the world did not ex ist in a po ten tial or seed st ate, t hen an ab so lutely non-ex ist ing thing would be pro duced dur ing cre ation. There is also t he pos si bil ity of lib er ated per sons be - ing re born again. Fur ther, peo ple would be en joy ing and suf fer ing with out hav ing done any thing to de serve it. A s there would ex ist no de ter min ing cause of the un equal dis pen sa tion of plea sure and pain, we should have to sub mit or as sert to the doc trine of re wards and pun ish ment s be ing al lot ted with out ref er ence to pre vi ous vir tues and vi cious deeds. There will be ef fect with out a cause. This is cer tainly ab surd. When we as sume ef fect with out a cause, there could be no law at all with ref er ence to the pur pose or reg u lar ity of cre ation. The Sruti de clares that cre ation is Anadi (beginningless). More over, mere A vidya (ig no rance) which is ho mo ge neous (Ekarup a), can not cause the het er o ge ne ity of cre ation. I t is A vidya di - ver si fied by V asanas due to Karma that can hav e such a re sult. Avidya needs t he di ver sity of in di vid ual p ast work to pro duce var ied re sults. Avidya m ay be the cause of in equal ity if it be con sid ered as hav ing re gard to de merit ac cru ing from ac tion pro duced by the men tal sup pres sion of wrath, ha tred and other af flict ing p as sions. The scrip tures also posit the ex is tence of the uni verse in for mer cy cles or Kalp as in text s like, The cre ator fash ioned the sun and the moon as be fore (Rig V eda Samhit a, X-190-3). Hence p ar tial ity and cru elty can not be as cribed to the Lord. Sarv adharmop apattyadhikaranam : Topic 13 Saguna Brahm an necessary for cr eation gdY_m }nnmo& Sarv adharmop apattescha II.1.37 (171) And because all the qualities (required for the creation of the world) are reasonabl y foun d (onl y in Brah man) He must be admit ted to be th e cause of th e universe. Sarv a: all; Dharma: attribut es, qualities; Upapatteh: because of the reasonableness, because of being proved; Cha: and, also.BRAHMA SU TRAS 180 An other rea son to prove that Brah man is the cause of the world is brought for ward. The ob jec tor says: Ma te rial cause un der goes mod i fi ca ti on as the ef fect. S uch a cause is en dowed with the at trib utes. Brah man can not be the ma te rial cause of the uni verse as He is attributeless. This Su tra gives a suit able an swer to this ob jec tion. There is no real change in Brah man but there is an ap par ent mod i fi ca ti on in Brah man on ac count of His in scru t a ble power of Maya. Brah man ap pears as this uni verse, just as rope ap pears as snake. All the at trib utes needed in the cause for the cre ation (such as Om nip o tence, Om ni science) are pos si ble in Brah man on ac count of the power of Maya. Hence, Brah man is the ma te rial cause of this uni - verse through ap par ent change. He is also the ef fi cient cause of this uni verse. There fore it is es tab lished that B rah man is the cause of the uni - verse. The V edantic sys tem founded upon t he Up anishads is not open to any ob jec tion. Thus it fol lows that the whole cre ation pro - ceeds from Para Brah man. In the V edantic the ory as hith erto dem on strated, v iz., that Brah - man is the ma te rial and the ef fi cient cause of the worldthe ob jec tion al leged by our op po nents such as dif fer ence of char ac ter and the like have been re futed by the great T eacher . He brings to a con clu sion the sec tion prin ci pally de voted t o strengthen his own the ory. The chief aim of the nex t chap ter will be to re fute t he opin ions held by other teach ers. Thus ends the First Pada ( Sec tion 1) of the Sec ond Adhy aya (Chap ter II) of the B rahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 1 181 CHAPTER II SECTION 2 INTRODUCTION In the First S ec tion of t he Sec ond Chap ter Brah man s creatorship of the world has been es tab lished on the au thor ity of the scrip tures sup ported by logic. All ar gu ment s against Brah man be ing the cause of the uni verse have been re futed. In the pres ent Sec tion the S utrakara or the framer of the S utras ex am ines the the o ries of cre ation ad vanced by other schools of thought in v ogue in his time. All the doc trines of the ot her schools are taken up for ref u ta tion through rea son ing alone with out ref er ence to the au thor ity of the V edas. Here he re futes by rea son ing the Mat ter the ory or the Pradhana th e ory of the S ankhya phi los o phy, the A tom the ory of the V aiseshika phi los o phy, the mo men tary and the Ni hil is tic view of t he Bud dhist s, the Jain the ory of si mul ta neous ex is tence and non-ex is tence, the Pasup ata the ory of co or di nate du al ity and the ory of en ergy un aided by in tel li gence. It has been shown in the last S u tra of the F irst Sec tion of t he Sec ond Chap ter that B rah man is en dowed with all the at trib utes through Maya, such as Om nip o tence, Om ni science, etc., f or qual i fy - ing Him to be the cause of t he world. Now in Sec tion 2 the ques tion is t aken up whether the Pradhana of the S ankhya phi los o phy can sat isfy all t hose con di tions. 182 SYNOPSIS I To put all thi ngs con cisely in a nut shell, Sri V yasa Bhagavan re - futes in thi s sec tion all t he doc trines or the o ries prev a lent in his ti me and in con sis tent wit h the V edant a the ory; vi z., (1) The Sankhya t he - ory of the P radhana as the first cause. (2) Ref u ta tion of t he ob jec tion from the V aiseshika stand poi nt against the B rah man be ing the First Cause. (3) Ref u ta tion of t he Atomic t he ory of the V aiseshikas. (4) Ref - u ta tion of t he Bauddha Ide al ists and Ni hil ists. (5) Ref u ta tion of t he Bauddha Re al ists. (6) Ref u ta tion of t he Jainas. (7) Ref u ta tion of t he Pasup ata doc trine, t hat God is only t he ef fi cient and not the m a te rial cause of the world. (8) Ref u ta tion of t he Pancharatra or the Bhagavat a doc trine that the soul orig i nates from the Lord, etc. In the First S ec tion of t he Sec ond Chap ter Brah man s au thor - ship of the world has been es tab lished on the au thor ity of the scrip - tures sup ported by logic. The t ask of the Sec ond Pada or Sec tion is to re fute by ar gu ment s in de pend ent of V e dic pas sages the more im por - tant philo soph i cal the o ries con cern ing the or i gin of the uni verse which are con trary to t he Vedantic view . Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-10) is di rected against the Sankhy as. It aims at prov ing that a non-in tel li gent first cause such as the Pradhana of the S ankhyas is un able to cre ate and dis pose. Adhikaranas II and II I: (Sutras 1 1-17) re fute t he Vaiseshika doc - trine that the world t akes it s or i gin from the at oms which are set in mo - tion by t he Adrisht a. Adhikaranas IV and V : are di rected against var i ous schools of Buddhistic phi los o phy . Adhikarana IV : (Sutras 18-27) re futes the v iew of Buddhisti c Re - al ists who main tain the re al ity of an ex ter nal as well as an in ter nal world. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 28-32) re futes the v iew of the Vijnanavadins or Buddhist ic Ide al ists, ac cord ing to whom Ideas are the only re al ity. The last S u tra of the A dhikarana re futes the v iew of the Madhyam ikas or Sunyavadins (Ni hil ists) who teach that ev ery - thing is void, i.e., that not h ing what so ever is real. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 33-36) re futes the doc trine of t he Jainas. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 37-41) re futes the P asupat a school which teaches that the Lord is not t he ma te rial but only the ef fi cient or op er a tive cause of t he world. 183 Adhikarana VII I: (Sutras 42-45) re futes the doc trine of t he Bhagavat as or Pancharatras. II In Sut ras 1 to 10 the prin ci ple of Sankhya phi los o phy is fur ther re futed by rea son ing. Pradhana or blind mat ter is in ert. It is in sen tient or non-in tel li gent . There is me thod i cal ar range ment in the cau sa tion of this world. Hence it i s not rea son able to sup pose that blind mat ter can have any in cli na tion for t he cre ation of t he world with out the help of in tel li gence. The Sankhya says that the in ert Pradhana may be come ac tive of its own ac cord and spon ta ne ously p ass into the st ate of t he world and un dergo mod i fi ca ti on into in tel lect, ego ism, mind, Tanmatras, etc., just as wa ter flows in rivers spon ta ne ously , rain from t he clouds, or milk from the ud der to the calf. This ar gu ment of t he Sankhya is un - ten a ble, be cause the flow ing of wa ter or milk is di rected by the in tel li - gence of the Su preme Lord. Ac cord ing to the S ankhyas, there is no ex ter nal agent to urge Pradhana into ac tiv ity or re strain ing from ac tiv ity. Pradhana can work quite in de pend ently . Their Purusha is al ways in ac tive and in dif fer ent. He is not an agent. Hence the con ten tion that Pradhana in pres ence of Purusha or S pirit ac quires a ten dency to wards ac tion or cre ation can not stand. The Sankhya ar gues that Pradhana is by it self turned into t he vis i ble world, just as grass eaten by a cow is it self turned into m ilk. This ar gu ment is ground less as no such trans for ma tion is found on the p art of the grass eaten by the bull. Hence, al so, it is the wil l of the Su preme Lord that brings about t he change, not be cause the cow has eaten it. There fore Pradhana by it self can not be said to be the cause of the world. The Sankhya says that Purusha can di rect the Pradhana or in - spire ac tiv ity in Pradhana though He has no ac tiv ity, just as a lame man can move by sit ting on the shoul ders of a blind man and di rect his move ment s. The in de pend ent and blind Pradhana, in con junc tion with the p as sive but in tel li gent Purusha, orig i nates the world. This ar - gu ment also is un ten a ble be cause the per fect in ac tiv it y and in dif fer - ence of Purusha and the ab so lute in de pend ence of Pradhana can not be rec on ciled with each other . The Pradhana con sists of three Gunas, vi z., Sat tva, Rajas and Tamas. They are in a st ate of equi poise be fore cre ation. No Guna is su pe rior or in fe rior to the other . The Purusha is al to gether in dif fer ent. He has no in ter est in bring ing about the dis tur bance of equi lib rium of the Pradhana. Cre ation st arts when the equi poise is up set and one Guna be comes more pre dom i nant than t he other two. A s there was in the be gin ning of cre ation no cause for the dis tur bance of the st ate ofBRAHMA SU TRAS 184 equi poise, it was not pos si ble for Pradhana to be t rans formed into t he world. Sutras 1 1 to 17 re fute t he Atomic t he ory of the V aiseshika phi - los o phy where the in di vis i ble min ute at oms are st ated to be t he cause of the world. I f an atom has any parts of an ap pre cia ble mag ni tude, then it can not be an atom. Then it can be fur ther di vis i ble. If they are with out p arts of any ap pre cia ble mag ni tude, as they are so de scribed in Vaiseshika phi los o phy, it is not pos si ble for such two p artless at oms to pro duce by their un ion a sub stance hav ing any mag ni tude. Hence com pound sub stances can never be formed by the com bi na tion of at - oms. There fore the V aiseshika the ory of orig i na tion of t he world from in di vis i ble at oms is un ten a ble. The in an i mate at oms can have no ten dency of them selves to unite to gether and co here so as to form com pounds. V aiseshikas hold that t he mo tion which is due to the un seen prin ci ple (Adrisht a), joins the at oms in which it re sides to an other atom. Adrisht a is a la tent force of the sum t o tal of pre vi ous deeds which waits t o bear fruit in t he fu ture. Thus the whole world orig i nates from at oms. As Adrisht a is in sen tient it can not act. I t can not re side in the at - oms. It m ust in here in the soul. If the la tent f orce or Adrisht a be an in - her ent prop erty of at oms, the at oms will al ways re main united. Hence there will be no dis so lu tion and no chance for fresh cre ation. If the two at oms unite to tally or per fectly the atomic st ate will con tinue as there will be no in crease in bulk. If in p art, then at oms will have p arts. This is against the t he ory of the V aiseshikas. Hence, the the ory of the V aiseshikas that the world is caused by com bi na tion of at oms is un ten a ble. The atomic the ory in volves an other dif fi culty. If the at oms are by na ture ac tive, then cre ation would be per ma nent. No Pralay a or dis - so lu tion could t ake place. If t hey are by na ture in ac tive, no cre ation could t ake place. The dis so lu tion would be per ma nent. For t his rea - son also, the atomi c doc trine is un ten a ble. Ac cord ing to the V aiseshika phi los o phy, the at oms are said to have col our etc. That which has form, col our etc., is gross, and im per - ma nent. Con se quently , the at oms must be gross and im per ma nent. This con tra dicts the the ory of the V aiseshikas that they are mi n ute and per ma nent. If the re spec tive at oms of the el e ment s also pos sess the same num ber of qual i ties as the gross el e ment s, then the at om of air will have one qual ity, an atom of earth will have f our qual i ties. Hence an atom of eart h which pos sesses four qual i ties will be big ger in size. It would not be an atom any lon ger. Hence the At om the ory of the Vaiseshikas on the cau sa tion of t he world does not st and to rea son in any way . This At om the ory is not ac cepted by the V edas.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 185 Sutras 18 to 32 re fute t he Buddhistic the ory of moment arism (Kshanikavada) and Ni hil ism (Sunyav ada). The V aiseshikas are the Re al ists (Sarvastitv avadins). They ac cept the re al ity of both the out - side world and the in side world con sist ing re spec tively of ex ter nal ob - jects and con scious ness and feel ings. The Saut rantikas are the ide al ists (Vijnanavadins). They hold that t hought alone is real. They main tain that ideas only ex ist and the ex ter nal ob jects are in ferred from the ideas. T he Yogacharas hold that ideas alone are real and there is no ex ter nal world cor re spond ing to these ideas. T he ex ter nal ob jects are un real like dreamy ob jects. The Madhymi kas main tain that ev en the ideas them selves are un real and there is noth ing that ex ists ex cept the voi d (Sunyam). T hey are the Ni hil ists or Sunyav adins who hold that ev ery thing is void and un real. All of them agree that ev ery thing is mo men tary. Things of t he pre vi ous mo ment do not ex ist in the nex t mo ment. Ac cord ing to the B ud dhist s, at oms and con scious ness are both in an i mate. There is no per ma nent in tel li gence which can bring about the ag gre ga tion or which can guide the at oms to unite int o an ex ter nal thing or to f orm a con tin u ous men tal phe nom ena. Hence the doc trine of this school of B auddhas is un ten a ble. Ne science etc., st and in a causal re la tion to each other m erely . They can not be made to ac count for the ex is tence of the ag gre gates. Ac cord ing to the B uddhistic the ory, ev ery thing is mo men tary. A thing of the pres ent mo ment van ishes in the next m o ment, when it s suc ces - sor man i fests. At t he time of t he ap pear ance of a sub se quent thing, the pre vi ous thing al ready van ishes. Hence it is im pos si ble for the pre vi ous thing to be the cause of t he sub se quent thing. Con se quently the the ory is un ten a ble. The Bud dhist s main t ain that ex is tence orig i nates from non -ex is - tence be cause they hold that the ef fect can not man i fest with out the de struc tion of t he cause, the tree can not ap pear un til the seed is de - stroyed. W e al ways per ceive that the cause sub sists in the ef fect as the thread sub sists in the cloth. Hence the B uddhistic view is in cor - rect, un rea son able and in ad mis si ble. Even t he pass ing of cause into ef fect in a se ries of suc ces sive states like ne science, etc., can not take place un less there is a co or di - nat ing in tel li gence. The Bud dhist s say that ev ery thing has only a mo - men tary ex is tence. Their school can not bring about t he si mul ta neous ex is tence of two suc ces sive mo ment s. If the cause ex ists till it passes into the st age of ef fect, t he the ory of mo men tary ex is tence (Kshanikavada) will van ish. Ac cord ing to the B uddhistic view , sal va tion or free dom is at - tained when ig no rance is de stroyed. I g no rance is the false idea of per ma nency in things which are mo men tary.BRAHMA SU TRAS 186 The ig no rance can be an ni hi lated by t he adop tion of some means such as pen ance, knowl edge, etc., (con scious de struc tion), or it may de stroy it self (spon ta ne ity). But bot h the al ter na tives are de fec - tive. Be cause this an ni hi la tion of ig no rance can not be at tained by the adop tion of pen ance or the like, be cause the means like ev ery other thing is also mo men tary ac cord ing to the B uddhistic view and is there - fore, not likely to pro duce such an ni hi la tion. An ni hi la t ion can not take place of it s own ac cord, for in that case all Buddhistic in struc tions, the dis ci plines and meth ods of med i t a tion for the at tain ment of sal va tion will be use less. The Bud dhist s do not re cog nise the ex is tence of Akasa. They re gard Akasa as a non-en tity. This is un rea son able. Akasa has the qual ity of sound. It is also a dis tinct en tity like earth, wa ter, etc. I f Akasa be a non-en tity, then t he en tire world would be come des ti tute of sp ace. Scrip tural p as sages de clare Akasa sprang from At man. Hence Akasa is a real thing. It i s a V astu (ex ist ing ob ject) and not non-ex is tence. If ev ery thing is mo men tary, the ex periencer of some thing must also be mo men tary. But the experiencer is not mo men tary be cause peo ple have the m em ory of p ast ex pe ri ences. Mem ory can t ake place in a man who has pre vi ously ex pe ri enced it. He is con nected with at least two mo ment s. This cer tainly re futes the t he ory of mo men tari - ness. A non-en tity has not been ob served to pro duce en tity. There fore it does not st and to rea son to sup pose non-en tity to be the cause. The world which is a re al ity is stated by t he Bud dhist s to have arisen out of non-en tity. This is ab surd. A pot is never found t o be pro duced with out clay. If ex is tence can come out of non-ex is tence, then any thing may come out of any thing, be cause non-en tity is one and the same in all cases. A jack tree may come out of a mango seed. If an ex ist ing thing can arise out of noth ing, then an in dif fer ent and lazy man may also at - tain sal va tion with out ef forts. Eman ci pa tion may be at tained like a wind fall. Rice will grow ev en if the f armer does not cul ti vate his f ield. The V ijnanavadins say t hat the ex ter nal things have no ob jec - tive re al ity . Ev ery t hing is an idea with out any re al ity cor re spond ing to it. Thi s is not cor rect. The ex ter nal ob jects are ac tu ally per ceived by senses of per cep tion. The ex ter nal world can not be non-ex is tent like the horns of a hare. The Bud dhist Ide al ists say that per cep tion of t he ex ter nal world is like the dream. This is wrong. The con scious ness in dream de - pends on the pre vi ous con scious ness in the wake ful st ate, but the con scious ness in the wake ful state does not de pend on any thing else but on the ac tual per cep tion by t he sense. Fur ther, the dream ex pe ri - ences be come false as soon as one wakes up.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 187 The Bud dhist Ide al ists hold that though an ex ter nal thing does not ac tu ally ex ist, yet its im pres sions do ex ist, and from t hese im pres - sions di ver si ties of per cep tion and ideas like chair , tree arise. This is not pos si ble, as there can be no per cep tion of an ex ter nal thing which is it self non-ex is tent. If there be no per cep tion of an ex ter nal thing, how can it leave an im pres sion? The men tal im pres sions can not ex ist be cause the ego which re - ceives im pres sions is it self mo men tary in their v iew. The Sunyav ada or Ni hil ism of the B ud dhist s which as serts that noth ing ex ists is fal la cious, be cause it goes against ev ery method of proof, vi z., per cep tion, in fer ence, tes ti mony or scrip ture and anal ogy. Sutras 33 to 36 re fute t he Jaina the ory. Ac cord ing to the Jaina the ory, ev ery thing is at once ex ist ing and non-ex ist ing. Now this view can not be ac cepted, be cause in one sub stance it is not pos si ble that con tra dic tory qual i ties should ex ist si mul t a neously . No one ever sees the same ob ject to be hot and cold at the same time. Si mul ta neous ex is tence of light and dark ness in one place is im pos si ble. Ac cord ing to the Jaina doc trine heaven and li b er a tion may ex ist or may not ex ist. W e can not ar rive at any def i nite knowl edge. There is no cer tainty about any thing. The Jainas hold that t he soul is of the size of the body . As the bod ies of dif fer ent classes of crea tures are of dif fer ent sizes, the soul of a man t ak ing the body of an el e phant on ac count of his p ast deeds will not be able t o fill up t he body of an el e phant. The soul of an el e - phant will not hav e suf fi cient sp ace in the body of an ant. The st a bil ity of the di men sions of the soul is im paired. The Jaina the ory it self falls to the ground. Sutras 37 to 41 re fute t he the ory of the f ol low ers of the Pasup ata sys tem. The f ol low ers of this school re cog nise God as the ef fi cient or the op er a tive cause. They re cog nise the pri mor dial mat ter as the ma - te rial cause of the world. This v iew is con trary to t he view of t he Sruti or Vedant a where Brah man is st ated to be bot h the ef fi cient and the ma te rial cause of the world. Hence, the t he ory of Pasup atas can not be ac cepted. God, in thei r view , is pure, with out at trib utes, and ac tiv ity. Hence there can be no con nec tion be tween Him and the in ert pri mor dial mat ter. He can not urge and reg u late mat ter to work. T o say that God be comes the ef fi cient cause of the world by put t ing on a body is also fal la cious be cause all bod ies are per ish able. God is eter nal ac cord ing to the P asupat as, and so can not have a per ish able body and be come de pend ent on this phys i cal in stru ment. If it be said that the Lord rules the P radhana, etc., just as the Jiva rules the senses which are also not per ceived, t his can not be; be - cause the Lord also would ex pe ri ence plea sure and pain, hence would for feit His God head. He would be sub ject to births and deat hs,BRAHMA SU TRAS 188 and de void of Om ni science. He will lose all His su prem acy. This sort of God is not ad mit ted by t he Pasup atas. Sutras 42 to 45 re fute t he doc trine of t he Bhagavat as or the Pancharatra doc trine. A c cord ing to this school, t he Lord is the ef fi - cient as well as the ma te rial cause of the uni verse. This is in quite agree ment with t he Srutis. A n other p art of the sy s tem is open to ob - jec tion. The doc trine that Sankarshana or the Jiva is born of Vaasudeva, Prady umna or mind from S ankarshana, Aniruddha or Ahamkara from Prady umna is in cor rect. Such cre ation is not pos si - ble. If there is such birth, if t he soul be cre ated it would be sub ject to de struc tion and hence there could be no lib er a tion. The Bhagavat as may say that all the V yuhas or forms are Vaasudeva, the Lord hav ing in tel li gence, Lord ship, strength, power , etc., and are f ree from fault s and im per fec tions. In t his case there will be more than one Isvara or Lord. Thi s goes against their own doc trine ac cord ing to which there is only one real es sence, the holy Vaasudeva. Fur ther, there are also in con sis ten cies or man i fold con - tra dic tions in the sys tem. There are p as sages which are con tra dic tory to the V edas. It con tains words of de pre ci a tion of t he Vedas. Hence, the doc trine of t he Bhagavat as can not be ac cepted. Rachananup apattyadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-10) Refut ation of t he Sankhyan theory of the Pradhana as the cause of the world aMZmZwnnmo ZmZw_mZ_& Rachananup apattescha nanumanam II.2.1 (172) That which is inferre d (by the Sankhyas , viz., the Pra dhana), cannot be the cause (of the world) because (in th at case it is) not pos sible (t o account for the) desig n or or derly a rrangement (found in the creation). Rachana: construction, the design in creation; Anup apatteh: on account of the impossibili ty; Cha: and; Na: not; Anumanam: that which is inferred, what is arrived at by inference, i.e. , the P radhana of the Sankhyas. An ar gu ment is brought for ward to the ef fect that the Pradhana of the S ankhyas is not the cause of the world. The main ob ject of the V edant a Sutras is to show the pur pose of the rev e la tion of t ruth in the V edas. They aim al so at re fut ing the wrong doc trines in the other sy s tems of phi los o phy. In the pre vi ous por tion the doc trine of t he Sankhyas has been re futed here and there on the au thor ity of the scrip tures. Sut ras 1-10 re fute it through log i cal rea son ing. Pradhana or blind mat ter is in ert. It is an in sen tient en tity. It does not pos sess the in tel li gence that is needed for cre at ing such a mul ti -CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 189 far i ous, elab o rate, won der ful, or derly , me thod i cal and well-de signed uni verse as this. It can not bring into be ing the man i fold or der li ness of the cos mos. No one has ever seen a beau ti ful pal ace con structed by the for tu itous com ing to gether of bricks, mor tar, etc., with out the ac - tive co op er a tion of in tel li gent agent s like the ar chi tect s, ma sons and the rest. Hence, Pradhana can not be the cause of thi s world. Clay can not change it self into a pot . The rea son ing that P radhana is the cause of the world be cause it has in it pl ea sure, p ain, dull ness, which are found in the world is not valid, be cause it is not pos si ble for an in sen tient en tity to cre ate the won der ful, or derly uni verse. More over, how do you say t hat plea sure and p ain and dull ness are found in the out side world? The ex ter nal ob jects are a fac tor in plea sure and pain which are in ter nal ex pe ri - ences. More over, there can be plea sure and pain ev en ir re spec tive of the ex ter nal ob jects. How can you as cribe them to an in sen tient en tity (Achet ana)? Phys i cal ob jects like flow ers, fruit s, etc., no doubt have the pres - ence in them of t he qual ity of pro duc ing plea sure. But t he feel ing of plea sure is al to gether an in ter nal feel ing. W e can not say that flow ers and fruit s have the na ture of plea sure in them, though t hey ex cite plea sure in man. Plea sure is al to gether an at trib ute of t he soul and not of mat ter or Pradhana. Hence, mat ter or Pradhana can not be said to have t he qual ity of plea sure, etc. dmo & Prav rittescha II.2.2 (173) And on a ccount of the (imp ossibi lity of) activity. Prav ritteh: because of the activi ty, of a t endency; Cha: and (it has the force of only here). This is an ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1. Pradhana (blind mat ter) can not be the cause of the world, be - cause it is also im pos si ble for it t o have an in cli na tion for cre ation. How does Pradhana in a st ate of equi lib rium of it s three Gunas be come dy namic and cre ative? I t can not dis turb it s own equi poise. The de sire or ten dency to cre ate can not be as cribed to the in ert Pradhana. The in ert char iot can not move by it self. It is only the in tel li - gent char i o teer who moves the char iot by di rect ing the mov e ment s of the horse. Mud by i t self is never seen to cre ate a jar with out the agency of an in tel li gent pot ter. From what is seen we de ter mine what is not seen. W e pro ceed from the known to the un known. How then do you prove that Pradhana which is in sen tient is self -mov ing? Hence the in ert Pradhana can not be the cause of the u ni verse, be cause the ac tiv ity that is nec es sary for the cre ation of t he uni verse would be im - pos si ble in that case. T here must be a di rec tive i n tel li gent Be ing or En tity for that pur pose.BRAHMA SU TRAS 190 The ac tiv it y must be at trib ut ed to the di rec tive in tel li gence rather than to t he in ert mat ter or Pradhana. That which set s Pradhana or mat ter in mo tion is the real agent . Ev ery ac tiv ity is seen as the re sult of an in tel li gent agent. In ert mat ter or Pradhana there fore has no agency . Mat ter or Pradhana has no self-ini ti ated ac tiv ity of its own. The ob jec tor may say I do not see Chet ana (soul) ac tive and that I see only the ac tiv ity of the body . We re ply that there is no ac tiv - ity wit h out the soul. He may again say t hat the soul, be ing pure con scious ness, can - not have ac tiv ity. We re ply that the soul can in duce ac tiv ity, though not self-ac tive, just as a lode stone or mag net though unmov ing can make iron move. A ma te rial ob ject though fi xed causes ac tiv ity in our senses. The ob jec tor may again say that as the soul is one and in fi nite, there is no pos si bil ity of cau sa tion of ac tiv ity. We re ply that it causes ac tiv ity in the names and forms cre ated by May a ow ing to A vidya. Hence, mo tion can be rec on ciled with the doc trine of an in tel li - gent First Cause but not wit h the doc trine of a non-in tel li gent first cause (Pradhana of the Sankhyas). n`mo@~wdoV V m@{n& Payombu vacchet t atrapi II.2.3 (174) If it be said (that th e Pradhana moves or spontaneou sly modif ies herself into the var ious pr oducts) like mil k or w ater (without the guida nce of any inte lligence), (we re ply that) the re also (it is du e to inte lligence ). Payombuv at: like milk and water; Chet: if; Tatra: there, in t hose cases; Api: even, also. (Payah: milk; Ambuv at: like water .) The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. If the ob jec tor says that t here could be self-ac tiv ity of na ture as in milk or wa ter, we re ply that even then t here is the op er a tion of an in - tel li gent agent. The Sankhya says that the in ert Pradhana may be come ac tive of its own ac cord and un dergo mod i fi ca tion into i n tel lect, ego ism, mind, T anmatra, et c., just as wa ter flows in rivers spon ta ne ously , rain from the clouds or milk from t he ud der to the calf. This is re futed by the lat ter part of Su tra Tatra Api , even t here. Even t he flow ing of wa ter or milk is di rected by the in tel li gence of the Su preme Lord. This we in fer from the ex am ple of char iot, et c. We may not see the in tel li gent driver of t he char iot, but we in fer his ex is tence from the mo tion of t he car . The scrip tures also say , He who dwells in the wa ter, who rules the wa ter from withi n (Bri. Up. II I.7.4). By t he com mand of thatCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 191 Akshara, O Gargi! some rivers fl ow to the east (Bri. Up. III .8.9). E v - ery thing in thi s world is di rected by the Lord. Fur ther the cow is an in tel li gent crea ture. She l oves her calf, and makes her milk flow by her wish. The mil k is in ad di tion drawn forth by the suck ing of the calf . The flow of wa ter de pends on the down ward slop ing of the eart h. `{Vao H$mZdp WVo mZnojdmV & Vyatirekanav asthiteschanapekshatv at II.2.4 (175) And b ecause (the P radhana) is not de pendent (on anything), there b eing no external agent besides it (it cannot be active). Vyatirekanav asthiteh: There being no external agency besides it; Cha: and also; Anapekshatv at: because it is not dependent. (Vyatireka: an external agent ; Anav asthiteh: from non-existence, as it does not ex ist.) The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. Ac cord ing to the S ankhyas, there is no ex ter nal agent to urge Pradhana into ac tiv ity, or re strain from ac tiv ity. Their Purusha is in dif - fer ent, nei ther moves to, nor re strains from, ac tion. He is not an agent. He is un re spon sive to t he first stim u lus for st art ing the pro cess of cre ation. Hence, t here is no agency to dis turb the pri mor dial equi - lib rium. There fore, the P radhana of the Sankhy as can not be the First Cause of the world. The st ate in which the three Gunas are in a st ate of equi poise is called Pradhana by th e Sankhyas. Ac cord ing to the S ankhyas, no con trol ling sen tient power op er ates on the Pradhana. Purusha is static and qui es cent. There fore, Pradhana may evolve i n one way now and in an other way af ter wards or may not evolv e at all, as it is not con trolled by any di rect ing and rul ing In tel li gence. But t he Su preme Lord is Om ni scient and Om nip o tent. He has per fect con trol over May a. He can cre ate or not cre ate as He pleases. The Pradhana of t he Sankhyas is in ert, so it can not of it self st art to be ac tive; or when it is set in mo tion it can hardly stop to be ac tive of it self. Hence, the S ankhyas can not ex plain cre ation and dis so lu tion when there is no di rect ing or rul ing in tel li gence. All ot her prin ci ples are only ef fects of the Pradhana. There fore, they can not ex er cise any in flu ence on it. Hence, the t he ory of the S ankhyas is self-con tra dic - tory. A`m^mdm Z VU m{XdV & Anyatrabhav accha na trinadi vat II.2.5 (176) And (it can) n ot (be said that th e Pradhana modifies itself spontaneously) like grass, etc., (which turn in to milk), because of its absence e lsewhere (than in th e female animals).BRAHMA SU TRAS 192 Anyatra: elsewhere, in the other case, elsewhere than in cows; Abhavat: because of the absence; Cha: and, also; Na: not; Trinadiv at: like the grass etc. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. The word cha, and, has the f orce of only. The ob jec tor says that as grass be comes milk, so Pradhana may evol ve into t he world. But does grass be come milk of it s own power? No. If so, t ry to pro duce milk from grass. A cow alone con verts grass into milk. Does a bull do so? The spon t a ne ous mod i fi ca ti on of the Pradhana is not pos si ble. Grass is not changed into milk spon ta ne ously . It is con verted int o milk only when eaten by cows but not by the bul ls. Here also it is the will of the Su preme Lord that brings about t he change, not be cause the cow has eaten it. The il lus tra tion or anal ogy is use less. It can not st and. The ar gu - ment of t he Sankhyas is not sound. Hence, t he Pradhana s un der go - ing mod i fi ca ti on of it self can not be ac cepted. The spon t a ne ous mod i fi ca tion of P radhana can not be proved from t he in stances of grass and the like. A`wn J_o@`W m^mdmV& Abhy upagamepy arthabhavat II.2.6 (177) Even if we ad mit (the Sa nkhya p ositio n with regard to the spont aneous modif ication of the Pr adhan a, it can not be t he cause of the universe ) because of the absence o f any purpose. Abhy upagame: accepting, admit ting, t aking for granted; Api: even; Artha: purpose; Abhavat: because of the absence. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. Even t hough we ad mit for t he sake of ar gu ment that the Pradhana is spon ta ne ously ac tive, it will lead t o a con tra dic tion in their phi los o phy. If the Pradhana is spon ta ne ously ac tive, if it is ca pa - ble of an in her ent ten dency for mod i fi ca tion, mo tion or change, it s ac - tiv ity can not have any pur pose. This will con tra dict the v iew of the Sankhyas that the mod i fi ca tion of t he Pradhana is for the ex pe ri ence or en joy ment (Bhoga) and re lease of the soul (Moksha). There is no en joy ment to be en joyed by t he ever-per fect Purusha (or Soul). If he could en joy, how could he ever be come free from en joy ment? He is al ready free. He is al ready in a st ate of be at i - tude. A s He is per fect, He can have no de sire. The in sen tient P radhana can not have a de sire to evolv e. So t he sat is fac tion of a de sire can not be con sid ered as the pur pose of ac tiv - ity of the Pradhana. I f you say t hat evo lu tion must be pos tu lated be - cause cre ative power would be come in op er a tive oth er wise, we re ply that in t hat case cre ative power will be al ways op er a tive and t hereCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 193 could be no at tain ment of f ree dom from it by the at tain ment of be at i - tude. It is, t here fore, im pos si ble to main tain that t he Pradhana be - comes ac tive for the pur pose of the soul. I t can not be the cause of the uni verse. nwfm_d{ X{V MoV VWm{n& Purushasm avaditi chet t athapi II.2.7 (178) If it be said (t hat the Pur usha or Soul ca n direct or m ove the Pradhana) as t he (lame) man can direct a blind man, or as the magne t (move s the iro n), eve n then (the difficulty c annot be overcome ). Purusha: a person; Asma: a lodestone, a magnet ; Vat: like; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Tathapi: even then, still. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. The Sankhyas say that Purusha can di rect the Pradhana or in - spire ac tiv ity in Pradhana, though He has no ac tiv ity, just as a lame man can move by sit ting on the shoul ders of a blind man and di rect his move ment s or just as a mag net at tracts iron. But t hese il lus tra - tions are not apt. A lame man speaks and di rects the blind man. T he blind man, t hough in ca pa ble of see ing, has the ca pac ity of un der - stand ing those in struc tions given by the lame man and act ing upon them. B ut Purusha is per fectly in dif fer ent. He has no kind of ac tiv ity at all. Hence, He can not do that with re gard to the Pradhana. More over, the lame and the blind are both con scious en ti ties and the iron and the mag net are both in sen tient mat ter. Con se - quently , the in stances given are not to t he point. A c cord ing to the Sankhyas the Pradhana is in de pend ent. Hence, it is not right to say that it de pends on the prox im ity of the Purusha for it s ac tiv ity, just as the iron de pends on the mag net for it s mo tion. A mag net at tracts when the iron is brought near . The prox im ity of the mag net to t he iron is not per ma nent. I t de pends on a cer tain ac tiv ity and t he ad just ment of the mag net in a cer tain po si tion. B ut no one brings the Purusha near Pradhana. If Purusha is al ways near , then cre ation will be et er - nal. There will be no lib er a tion at all . The Purusha and the Pradhana are al to gether sep a rate and in - de pend ent. Pradhana is non-in tel li gent , in ert and in de pend ent. Purusha is in tel li gent and in dif fer ent. No one else (a third prin ci ple) ex ists to bring them to gether . Hence there can be no con nec tion be - tween them. There could be no cre ative ac tiv ity at all ac cord ing to the doc - trine of t he Sankhyas. I f there could be such ac tiv ity, there could be no fi nal re lease as the cause of cre ation could never cease. In Vedant a, Brah man which is the cause of the uni verse is in dif - fer ent but He is en dowed with at trib utes and ac tiv ity through Maya.BRAHMA SU TRAS 194 He is char ac ter ised by non-ac tiv ity in her ent in His own na ture and at the same time by mov ing power in her ent in May a. So He be comes the Cre ator. He is in dif fer ent by na ture and ac tive by Maya. Hence, His cre ative power is well ex plained. He is su pe rior to the Purusha of the Sankhyas. A{dm Zwnnmo& Angitv anup apattescha II.2.8 (179) And again (t he Pradhana cannot be active) because the relation of prin cipal (and s ubordin ate mat ter) is im possibl e (between t he three Gun as). Angitvanup apatteh: on account of the impossibili ty of the relation of princip al (and subordinate); Cha: and, also. ( Angitva: the relation of being the princip al, being preponderant; Anup apatteh: on account of the impossibilit y and unreasonableness). The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. The Pradhana has been de fined to be t he equi lib rium of the three Gunas. The Pradhana con sists of three Gunas, vi z., Sat tva, Rajas and T amas. Three Gunas are in de pend ent of each other . They are in a st ate of equi poise be fore cre ation. I n the st ate of P radhana no Guna is su pe rior or in fe rior to the other . Ev ery one of them is equal to the other and con se quently t he re la tion of sub or di nate and prin ci pal could not ex ist then. T he Purusha is al to gether in dif fer ent. He has no in ter est in bring ing about the dis tur bance of equi lib rium of the Pradhana. Cre ation st arts when the equi poise is up set and one Guna be comes more pre dom i nant than t he other two. A s there ex ists no ex - tra ne ous prin ci ple to stir up the G unas, the pro duc tion of t he Great Prin ci ple and the other ef fects which would re quire for it s op er a tive cause a non-bal anced st ate of t he Gunas is im pos si ble. Equi poise can not be dis turbed with out any ex ter nal force. The Gunas are ab so - lutely in de pend ent when they are in a st ate of equi lib rium. They can - not take of them selves a sub sid iary po si tion to an other Guna with out los ing their in de pend ence. Hence, cre ation would be im pos si ble. This Su tra says that such pre pon der ance is not pos si ble. The Sankhyas can not ex plain why should one Guna pre pon der ate over the other . Hence, on ac count of the im pos si bil ity of such pre pon der - ance of one over the ot her Gunas, Pradhana can not be ac cepted to be the cause of the world. A`WmZ w{_Vm M k e{${d`moJmV & Anyathanumit au cha jnasaktiv iyogat II.2.9 (180) Even if it b e inferred othe rwise on a ccount o f the Prad hana being devoid of the pow er of i ntelligence (t he oth er objecti ons to the Pradhana being the cause of the universe remain in force).CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 195 Anyatha: otherwise, in other ways; Anumit au: if it be i nferred, in case of inference; Cha: even, and; Jnasakti: power of intelligence; Viyogat: because of being destitut e of, because of dissociation. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con tin ued. Even if the ob jec tor pos tu lates such power of mod i fi ca tion as be ing in her ent in Pradhana, the in ap pro pri ate ness will con tinue be - cause of the insentiency or non-in tel li gence of the Pradhana. The Sankhya says: W e do not ac knowl edge the Gunas to be char ac ter ised by ab so lute in de pend ence, irrelativit y and unchangeableness. W e in fer the char ac ter is tics of the Gunas from those of their ef fects. We pre sume that th eir na ture must be such as to make the pro duc tion of t he ef fects pos si ble. The Gunas have some char ac ter is tics, dif fer ent at trib ut es and mys te ri ous pow ers in her ent in them like unst ability . Con se quently t he Gunas them selves are able to en ter into a st ate of in equal ity, even while t hey are in a st ate of equi - poise. Even i n that case we re ply, the ob jec tions st ated above which were founded on the im pos si bil ity of an or derly ar range ment of t he world, etc., re main in force on ac count of the P radhana be ing de void of the power of in tel li gence. As Pradhana is in sen tient it has not the power of self-con scious ness. Be ing thus des ti tute of it, it has not the idea of any pl an or de sign. It can not say as an in tel li gent en tity would say, Let me cre ate the world in such and such a way . A house can never be built by mere bricks and mor tar with out the su per vi sion and ac tive agency of the ar chi tect and ma sons. Even so, cre ation never pro ceeds from dead mat ter or Pradhana. With out the di rec tive ac tion of in tel li gence, the Gunas, how ever won der ful in thei r pow ers and at - trib utes, can not of t hem selves cre ate the uni verse. On ac count of lack of in tel li gence the ob jec tions, founded on de - sign etc., in t he uni verse and that it would lead to con tin u ous cre ation, come in the way of ac cept ing the Pradhana as the cause of t he uni - verse (V ide Sutras 1, 4 and 7). {d{VfoYmmg_ Og_& Vipratishedh acchasamanjasam II.2.10 (181) And mor ever (th e Sankh ya doct rine) is object ionabl e on account of its cont radictions. Vipratishedhat: because of contradiction; Cha: also, and; Asamanjasam : inconsistent, objecti onable, not harmonious, untenable. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is con cluded. Fur ther, the S ankhya doc trine is in con sis tent be cause there are var i ous con tra dic tions in the Sankhya phi los o phy . Some tim es the senses are said to be eleven and again they are said t o be seven. It some times says that the T anmatras come from Mahat and some - times that they come f rom Ahamkara. Some times it say s that thereBRAHMA SU TRAS 196 are three Ant ahkaranas. Some times it say s that there is only one Antahkarana. More over, their doc trine con tra dicts Sruti which teaches that t he Lord is the cause of the uni verse, and Smrit i based on Sruti. F or these rea sons also the Sankhya sys tem is ob jec tion able. It can not be ac - cepted. Here the Sankhya again brings a coun ter-charge. He says Y ou also have got such in ap pro pri ate ness in your doc trine. He asks whether if Brah man is cause and ef fect, t here could be any lib er a tion from ef fects and whether scrip ture af firm ing lib er a tion will not be come use less. He ar gues fire can not be come free from heat and l ight or wa ter free from wav es. Only when there is sep a rate ness of cause and ef fect, t here can be any mean ing in lib er a tion. We re ply that even the ob jec tor must ad mit that Purusha be ing by na ture pure, can not be dis turbed and that di s tur bance is due to Avidya and i s not ab so lutely real. That is our po si tion too. But y ou give Avidya a st ate of per ma nence. Con se quently ev en if Purusha get s free from it , there is no surety t hat such sep a ra tion will be per ma nent. We pos tu late only one Be ing. All ef fects are only rel a tive and can not, there fore, af fect the ab so lute re al ity . Mahaddirghadhikaranam: T opic 2 Refut ation of t he Vaiseshika view _hrK dm dn[a_S >bm`m_ & Mahaddirg havadva hrasv aparimand alabhy am II.2.11 (182) (The wo rld m ay origina te fro m Bra hman) as the great and the long origi nate from the short and the atom ic. Mahat dirghavat: like the great and the l ong; Va: or; Hrasv aparimand alabhy am: from the short and t he atomic. The atomic the ory of the V aiseshikas that form less, in di vis i ble at oms en ter into t he com po si tion of t he world is now re futed. The sage Kanada is the founder of the V aiseshika phi los o phy. He holds all ob jects which have any shape or form as per ish able and they are all m ade of min ute, in di vis i ble, form less and im mu ta ble p ar ti - cles known as at oms (Anu). These at oms are con sid ered to be the cause of the world. The at oms are of four kinds, viz. , the at oms of earth, the at oms of wa ter, the at oms of fire and th e at oms of air . These at oms ex ist dis tinct from one an other with out any shape or form. At the be gin ning of cre ation, one at om (a monad) unites with an other and forms a dyad, an ag gre gate of t wo at oms. The dyad (dv yanu) unites with an other atom and f orms a triad, an ag gre gate of t hree at - oms, and so on. Thus a vis i ble uni verse is formed. The V aiseshikas ar gue thus: The qual i ties which in here in the sub stance which con sti tutes the cause pro duces qual i ties of theCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 197 same kind in the sub stance which forms the ef fect. Whit e cloth is pro - duced from a cloth of a dif fer ent col our. Con se quently , when the in tel - li gent Brah man is t aken as the cause of the uni verse, we should find in tel li gence in her ent in the ef fect also, v iz., the uni verse. But this is not so. Hence, the in tel li gent Brah man can not be the cause of the uni - verse. The Sutrakara or the au thor of the S utras shows that this rea - son ing is fal la cious on the ground of the sys tem of V aiseshikas them - selves. The Sankhya phi los o phy has been re futed in S utras 1-10. Now the V aiseshika sys tem is t aken up in Sutras 1 1-17 and re futed. The in - con sis tency in t he orig i na tion of an ag gre gate of t he three and of four at oms from the un ion of mo nads and of dyads of t he Vaiseshika is like the in con sis tency in t he orig i na tion of t he world from the in sen tient Pradhana of Sankhy a. If the atom has any parts of an ap pre cia ble mag ni tude, t hen it can not be an atom. Then it can be fur ther di vis i ble. If they are with out p arts of any ap pre cia ble mag ni tude, as they are so de scribed in V aiseshika phi los o phy, it is not pos si ble for such two partless at oms to pro duce by their un ion a sub stance hav ing any mag ni tude. The same is t he case with three at oms and so on. Hence, com pound sub stances can never be formed by the com bi na tion of at - oms. There fore, the V aiseshika the ory of orig i na tion of t he world upon in di vis i ble at oms is un ten a ble. Ac cord ing to the Vaiseshika phi los o phy , two ul ti mat e at oms (Parimandalas or Paramanus) be come a dou ble atom (Dvy anuka or Hrasva) on ac count of Adrisht a, etc. B ut the at omic na ture of the ul ti - mate atom is not found in t he Dvyanuka which is small. T wo Dvyanukas form a Chaturanuka (qua dru ple atom) which has not the char ac ter is tics of small ness but be comes lon ger and big ger. If the ul - ti mate atom can cre ate some thing which is con trary to t he atom, what is the in ap pro pri ate ness in Brah man which is Knowl edge and Bliss cre at ing the in sen tient and non-in tel li gent world full of mis ery? Just as the atomic na ture of the ul ti mate atom is not found in t he later com bi - na tions which have other trait s, so also the Chait anya or in tel li gence of Brah man is not found in t he world. The ul ti mate con di tion of t he world is atomic, ac cord ing to the Vaiseshika sys tem. The at oms are eter nal. They are t he ul ti mate cause of the uni verse. The uni verse ex ists in the atomic st ate in the state of P ralaya or dis so lu tion. A n atom is in fin i tes i mal. A dyad is min - ute and short. Chaturanuka or qua dru ple atom is great, and long. If two at oms which are spher i cal can pro duce a dyad which is min ute and short but which has not got t he spher i cal na ture of the atom, if the dyads which are short and min ute can pro duce a Chaturanuka which is great and long but which has not got the m i - nute ness and short ness of the dyad, it is quite ob vi ous that all t heBRAHMA SU TRAS 198 qual i ties of the cause are not f ound in the ef fect. S o it is quite pos si ble that t he in tel li gent, bliss ful Brah man can be the cause of a world which is non-in tel li gent and full of suf fer ing. Paramanuj agadakaranatv adhikaranam : Topic 3 (Sutras 12-17) Refut ation of t he atom ic theory of the V aiseshikas The ob jec tion against t he view of V edant a has been an swered in the pre vi ous Su tra. Now the V aiseshika sys tem is re futed. C^`Wm{n Z H$_ mVVX ^md& Ubhay athapi na karmat astadabhav ah II.2.12 (183) In both cases also (in the cases o f the Adrisht a, the unseen principle inhering e ither in the atoms or the so ul) the ac tivity (of the atom s) is not p ossible; hence negation of tha t (viz., creation through the union o f the ato ms). Ubhay atha: in either case, in both way s, on both assumptions or hypotheses; Api: also; Na: not; Karma: action, activ ity, motion; Atah: therefore; Tadabhav ah: absence of that, negat ion of that , i.e. , negation of t he creation of the world by union of atom s. The ar gu ment against t he V aiseshika sys tem com menced in Su tra 11 is con tin ued. What is the cause that f irst op er ates on the ul ti mate at oms? Vaiseshikas hold that the mo tion which is due to the un seen prin ci ple (Adrisht a) joins the atom in which it re sides, to an other atom. Thus bi - nary com pounds, etc. are pro duced and fi nally t he el e ment of air . Sim i larly fi re, wa ter, earth, t he body with it s or gans are pro duced. Thus the whole world orig i nates from at oms. The qual i ties of the bi - nary com pounds are pro duced from the qual i ties in her ing in the at - oms, just as the qual i ties of the clot h re sult from the qual i ties of the threads. Such is the t each ing of the V aiseshika sys tem of phi los o phy. The mo tion in the at oms can not be brought about by the Adrisht a re sid ing in the at oms, be cause the Adrisht a which is the re - sul tant of t he good and bad ac tions of the soul can not re side in the at - oms. It m ust in here in the soul. The A drisht a re sid ing in the soul can not pro duce mo tion in the at om. The mo tion of t he atom is not ex - plained on both these v iews. As Adrisht a is in sen tient it can not act. A s Adrisht a is in the soul, how can it op er ate in the at oms? If it can, such op er a tion will go on f or ever as there is no agency to con trol it. When two at oms com bine do they uni te per fectly or not? If t hey unite t o tally, if there is to tal interpenetrat ion, the at omic st ate will con tinue as there will be no in crease in bulk. If in p art, then at oms will have p arts. This is against the the ory of the V aiseshikas. More over, if they com bine once, there can not be sep a ra tion or dis so lu tion. A drisht a will be ac - tive t o bring about cre ation for t he en joy ment of t he fruit s of ac tions.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 199 For these rea sons the doc trine of t he at oms be ing the cause of the world must be re jected. The V aiseshikas may ar gue that t he mo tion orig i nates in the at - oms as soon as they come in the prox im ity of the souls charged with any def i nite Adrisht a. This also is un ten a ble. Be cause there can be no prox im ity or con tact be tween the souls which are p artless and the at - oms which also are partl ess. An in sen tient ob ject can not move an other as it is in ert. Al l mo - tion of ob jects are ini ti ated, guided and di rected by in tel li gence and in - tel li gent be ings. The soul can not be the cause of the pri mal mo tion of t he at oms at the be gin ning of cre ation. B e cause in dis so lu tion, ac cord ing to the Vaiseshikas, the soul it self lies dor mant with out pos sess ing any in tel - li gence and hence is in no way su pe rior to the atom . It can not be said also that t he pri mal mo tion of t he atom is caused by the will of t he Lord in con for mity with the Adrisht a of the souls, be cause the Adrisht as of the souls do not ma ture and are not awak ened. Hence the will of t he Lord is not ac tive. As there is thus no mo tion in the at oms in the be gin ning of the cre ation, t hey can not come to gether and form an ag gre gate. Con se - quently , there can be no cre ation as the bi nary com pounds can not be pro duced. Ac cord ing to the V aiseshikas, the uni verse is cre ated by t he un - ion of the at oms. Now what causes this un ion? If it is a seen cause, it is not pos si ble be fore the cre ation of t he body . A seen cause can be an endeavour or an im pact. There can be no endeavour on the p art of the soul if t here is no con nec tion of t he soul with mind. A s there is nei - ther body nor mind be fore cre ation, t here can not be any endeav our. Sim i lar is the case with im pact or the like. What causes the un ion of the at oms? Adrisht a or the un seen prin ci ple can not be the cause of the f irst mo tion of t he at oms be cause the Adrisht a is non-in tel li gent. There is no in tel li gence to guide the Adrisht a. Hence it can not act by i t self. Does the Adrisht a in here in the soul or the at oms? If it is in her ent in the soul, t here is no in tel li gence to di rect the Adrisht a as the soul is then in ert. More over, the soul is p artless like the at oms. Con se - quently , there can not be any con nec tion be tween the soul and the at - oms. Hence, if t he Adrisht a in heres in the soul, it can not pro duce mo tion in the at oms which are not con nected with the soul. If the Adrisht a is in her ent in the at oms, there would be no dis so - lu tion be cause the at oms will ever be ac tive as t he Adrisht a is al ways pres ent. There fore there is no pos si bil ity for orig i nal mo tion in the at oms and so com bi na tion of at oms is not pos si ble.BRAHMA SU TRAS 200 Hence the the ory of V aiseshikas that the uni verse is caused by the com bi na tion of at oms is un ten a ble. g_dm`m`wnJ_ m gm`mXZdp WVo& Samav ayabhy upagamaccha samy adanav asthiteh II.2.13 (184) And becau se in consequ ence of Samavaya being admitt ed, a regresssu s ad infinitum results on similar reasoning (hence the Vaiseshika theory is untenable). Samav ayabhy upagamat: Samavay a being admitt ed; Cha: and, also; Samy at: because of equality of reasoning; Anav asthiteh: regressus ad infinitum would result. The ar gu ment against t he Vaiseshika phi los o phy com menced in Su tra 11 is con tin ued. Samavay a is in sep a ra ble in her ence or con com i t ant cause or com bin ing force. It is one of the seven cat e go ries of the V aiseshika phi los o phy. It is the af fin ity which brings about t he un ion of the at oms. The V aiseshikas say that two Paramanus be come a Dvyanuka on ac count of the op er a tion of t he com bin ing force (Samavay a) and that t he Samavay a con nects the dyad with it s con stit u ents, the two at - oms, as the dyad and t he at oms are of dif fer ent qual i ties. Sam avaya is dif fer ent from t he ul ti mate at oms and dyads which it con nects. Why should it op er ate un less there be an other Samav aya to make it op er - ate? That new Sam avaya will re quire an other Samav aya to con nect it with the f irst and so on. Thus their the ory is vi ti ated by t he fault of Anavastha Dosha or regressus ad in fi ni t um. The ar gu ment is fault y. Hence the atomic doc trine which ad mits Samavay a re la tion ship for the un ion of the at oms is not ad mis si ble. It must be re jected as it is use less and as it is an in con gru ous as sump - tion. {Z`_ od M ^ mdmV& Nityamev a cha bhav at II.2.14 (185) And on a ccount of the perman ent exist ence (of ac tivity or non-activit y, the atomic theory is not admissi ble). Nityam: eternal; Eva: cert ainly, even; Cha: and, also; Bhav at: because of the existence, from the possibilit y. The ar gu ment against t he Vaiseshika com menc ing in Su tra 11 is con tin ued. The atomic the ory in volves an other dif fi culty. If the at oms are by na ture ac tive, then cre ation would be per ma nent. No Pralay a or dis - so lu tion could t ake place. If t hey are by na ture in ac tive, no cre ation could t ake place. The dis so lu tion would be per ma nent. Their na ture can not be both ac tiv ity and i n ac tiv ity be cause they are self-con tra dic - tory. If they were nei ther, their ac tiv ity and non-ac tiv ity would hav e toCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 201 de pend on an op er a tive or ef fi cient cause like Adrishta. A s the Adrishta is in per ma nent prox im ity to the at oms, as the Adrishta is al - ways con nected with the at oms, they will be ever ac tive. Con se - quently, cre ation would be per ma nent. If there is no ef fi cient or op er a tive cause, there will be no ac tiv ity of the at oms. Con se que ntly, there would be no cre ation. For this rea son also the atomic doc tri ne is un ten a ble and in ad - mis si ble. $n m{X_dm {dn ``mo XeZ mV& Rupadimatvaccha viparyayo darsanat II.2.15 (186) And on acc ount of the atoms posse ssing colour, etc., the opposite (of which the V aiseshikas hold would ta ke place), because it is seen o r observed. Rupadimatvat: because of possessing colour, et c.; Cha: and, also; Viparyayah: the reverse, the opp osite; Darsan at: because it is seen or observed, from common experience. The ar gu ment against Vaiseshika com menc ing in Su tra 11 is con tin ued. Ac cord ing to the Vaiseshika phi los o p hy, the at oms are said to have col our, etc. If this is not the case, the ef fects will not pos sess these qual i ties, as the qual i ties of the cause only are found in the ef - fects. Then the at oms would no lon ger be atomic and per ma nent. Be - cause that which has form, col our, etc., is gross, ephem eral and im per ma nent. Con se quently the a t oms, etc., wh ich are en dowed with col our etc., must be gross and impermanent. This con tra dicts the the - ory of the Vaiseshikas that they are min ute and per ma nent. Hence the atomic the ory, be in g thus self-con tra dic tory, ca n not be ac cepted. The at oms ca n not be the ul ti mate cause of the uni verse. There would re sult from the cir cum stance o f the at oms hav ing col our, etc., the op po site of which the Vaiseshikas mean. C^`Wm M XmofmV & Ubhayatha cha doshat II.2.16 (187) And because of defects in both cases (the atomic theory cannot be accepted). Ubhayatha: in both ways, on either side, in eith er case; Cha: also, and; Doshat: because of defects (or difficulties). The ar gu ment against Vaiseshikas is con tin ue d. Earth has the qual i ties of smell, t aste, col our and is gross. W a ter has col our, taste and touch and is fin e. Fire has col our and touch and is finer still. Air is the fi n est of all and has the qual ity of touch only. The four gross el e ments earth, wa ter, fire and air are pro duced from at - oms.BRAHMA SUTRAS 202 If we sup pose that the re spec tive at oms of the el e ments also pos sess the same num ber of qual i ties as the gross el e m ents, then the atom of air will hav e one qual ity, an atom of earth will have four qual i ties. Hence an atom of earth which pos sesses four qual i ties will be big ger in size. It would not be an atom any lon ger. It will not sat isfy the def i ni tion of an atom. If we sup pose them all to pos sess the same num ber of qual i t ies, in that case there can not be any dif fer ence in the qual i ties of t he ef - fects, the gross el e ments be cause the at trib utes of the cause (the at - oms) are re pro duced in its ef fects ( the gross el e ments). If the atom is one and the same and has only one qual ity, then more than one qual ity should not be found. Fire s hould not have form in ad di tion to touch and so on. Hence, in ei ther case the doc trine of th e Vaiseshikas is de fec - tive and there fore un ten a ble. It can not be log i cally main tained. An[aJhmm`V_Znojm& Aparigrahacchatyantamanapeksha II.2.17 (188) And because (the atom ic theory) is not accepted (by authoritative sage s like Manu and others) it is to be totally rejected. Aparigrahat: because it is not accepted; Cha: a nd; Atyantam: altogether, totall y, completely; Anapeksha: to be rejected. The ar gu ment against Vaiseshika is con cluded . At least the Sankhya doc trine of Pradhana was ac cepted to some ex tent by Manu and other knowers of th e Veda but the atomic doc trine has not been ac cepted by any per son of au thor ity in any of its parts. There fore, it is to be dis re garded e n tirely by all those who take their stand on the Veda. Fur ther, there are other ob jec tions to the Vaiseshika doc tri ne. The Vaiseshikas as sume six cat e go ries or Padarthas viz., Dravya (sub stance), Guna (qual ity), Karma (ac tion), Samanya (gen er al ity), Visesha (par tic u lar ity) and Samavaya (in her ence). They main tain that the six cat e go ries a re ab so lutely dif fer ent from each other and pos sess dif fer ent char ac ter is tics just as a man , a horse and a hare dif fer from one an other. They say that the cat e go ries ar e in de pe nd ent and yet they hold that on Dravya the other five cat e go ries de pend. This con tra dicts the for mer one. This is quite in ap pro pri ate. Just as an i mals, grass, trees and the like, be ing ab so lutely dif fer ent from each other, do not de pend on each other, so also the qual i ties etc., also be ing ab so lutely dif fer ent from sub stance can not d e pend on the lat ter. The Vaiseshikas say that Dravya (sub sta nce) and Guna (qual - ity) are in sep a ra bly con nected. At the same tim e they say that eachCHAPTER IISECTION 2 203 be gins it s ac tiv ity. The threads bring the clot h into ex is tence and the white ness in the threads pro duces the white ness in the cloth. Sub - stances orig i nate an other sub st ance and qual i ties an other qual ity (Vaiseshika Sutras I.1. 10). If t he thread and it s qual ity oc cupy the same space and are in sep a ra bly unit ed, how can this t ake place? If the sub stance and the qual ity are in sep a ra bly to gether with ref er ence to time, the two horns of a cow would have to grow to gether . If there is in sep a ra bil ity in the na ture of the sub stance and it s qual ity, why can you not say t hat both are one and iden ti cal? Hence the the ory that t he qual ity de pends upon sub stance and that the qual ity and sub stance are in sep a ra ble, is un ten a ble and in ad mis si ble. Fur ther, the V aiseshikas make dis tinc tion be tween Samy oga (con junc tion) and Samav aya (in her ence). They say t hat Samy oga is the con nec tion of t hings which ex ists sep a rately and S amavaya i s the con nec tion of things which are in ca p a ble of sep a rat e ex is tence. This dis tinc tion is not t en a ble as the cause which ex ists be fore the ef fect can not be said to be in ca pa ble of sep a rate ex is tence. What is the proof of the ex is tence of Samy oga or Samavay a apart from cause and ef fect? Nor is there any S amyoga or Samav aya ap art from the things which be come con nected. The same man al though be ing one only forms t he ob ject of many dif fer ent names and no tions ac cord ing as he is con sid ered in him self or in his re la tion to ot h ers. Thus he is thought and spo ken of as man, Brahmana, learned in the V eda, gen - er ous boy , young man, old man, fa ther, son, grand son, brother , son-in-law , etc. The same di git con notes dif fer ent num bers, ten or hun dred or thou sand, ac cord ing to it s place. More over, we have not seen S amyoga ex cept as be tween things which oc cupy sp ace. But mi nd is Anu and does not oc cupy space ac cord ing to you. You can not say that you will imag ine some space f or it. I f you make such a sup po si tion, t here is no end to such sup po si tions. There is no rea son why you should not as sume a fur - ther hun dred or thou sand things in ad di tion to t he six cat e go ries as - sumed by the V aiseshikas. More over, two Paramanus which have no f orm can not be united with a Dvyanuka which has form. There does not ex ist that kind of in ti - mate con nec tion be tween ether and earth which ex ists be tween wood and var nish. Nor is the the ory of Sam avaya nec es sary to ex plain which, out of cause and ef fect, de pends on the other . There is mu tual de pend - ence. V edantins do not ac cept any dif fer ence be tween cause and ef - fect. E f fect is only cause in an other form. T he Vedantins ac knowl edge nei ther the sep a rate ness of cause and ef fect, nor t heir st and ing to each other in the re la tion of abode and t he thing abid ing. Ac cord ing to the V edant a doc trine, t he ef fect is only a cer tain st ate of t he cause.BRAHMA SU TRAS 204 More over, Paramanus are fi nite and so they will have form . What has form must be li a ble to de struc tion. Thus it is quite clear that the atomic doc trine is sup ported by very weak ar gu ment s. It is op posed to those scrip tural tex ts which de - clare the Lord to be the gen eral cause. It is not al so ac cepted by sages like Manu and oth ers. There fore, it should be to tally dis re - garded by wise men. Samuday adhikaranam : Topic 4 (Sutras 18-27) Refut ation of t he Bauddha Realist s g_wXm` C^` hoVwHo$@{n VXm{ & Samuday a ubhay ahetukepi t adapraptih II.2.18 (189) Even if the (two k inds of) a ggregates pro ceed from the ir two causes, there would take place non-establishment (of the two aggrega tes). Samuday a: the aggregate; Ubhay ahetuke: having two causes; Api: also, even; Tadapraptih: it will not take place, it cannot be established. Af ter re fut ing the atomi c the ory of V aiseshika, the Buddhisti c the o ries are now re futed. Lord Bud dha had four dis ci ples who founded four sys tems of phi los o phy , called re spec tively Vaibhashika, Sautranti ka, Yogachara and Madhyamika. T he V aibhashikas are the Re al ists (Sarvastit vavadins) who ac cept the re al ity of both the out side and the in side world con sist ing re spec tively of ex ter nal ob ject s and thought (also con scious ness, feel ings, etc.). T he Sautranti kas are the Ide al - ists (Vijnanavadins). They hold that t hought alone is real. They main - tain that t here is no proof whether ex ter nal ob jects re ally ex ist or not, the ideas only ex ist and the ex ter nal ob jects are in ferred from these ideas. Thus the V aibhashikas hold that the ex ter nal ob jects are di - rectly per ceived while the S autrantikas main tain that t he out ward world is an in fer ence from ideas. The thi rd class, the Y ogacharas hold that ideas alone are real and there is no ex ter nal world cor re spond ing to these ideas. The out ward ob jects are un real like dream ob jects. The Madhyamikas main tain that ev en the ideas them selves are un real and there is noth ing that ex ists ex cept the voi d (Sunyam). They are the Ni hil ists or Sunyavadins who hold t hat ev ery thing is void and un real. All of them agree that ev ery thing is mo men tary. Noth ing lasts be yond a mo ment. Thi ngs of the pre vi ous mo ment do not ex ist in the next mo ment. One ap pears and the next mo ment it i s re placed by an other . There is no con nec tion be tween the one and the ot her. Ev - ery thing is like a scene in a cin ema which is pro duced by the suc ces - sive ap pear ance and dis ap pear ance of sev eral iso lated pic tures.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 205 The Re al ist s re cog nise two ag gre gates, viz., the ex ter nal ma te - rial world and the in ter nal men tal world, which to gether make up the uni verse. The ex ter nal world is made up of the ag gre gate of at oms, which are of four kinds, viz., at oms of earth which are solid, at oms of wa ter which are vis cid, at oms of fire which are hot and at oms of air which are mo bile. The five S kandhas or groups are the cause for the in ter nal world. They are Rup a Skandha, V ijnana Skandha, V edana Skandha, Samjna Skandha and S amskara Skandha. The senses and their ob - jects form the Rup a Skandha. V ijnana Skandha is the stream of con - scious ness which gives the no tion of ego ism or I. T he V edana Skandha com prises the feel ing of plea sure and pain. The Samjna Skandha con sists of names such as Ramakrishna, etc. All words thus con sti tute t he Samjna Skandha. The fif th Skandha called Sam skara Skandha con sists of the at trib utes of the m ind such as af fec tion, ha - tred, de lu sion, merit (Dharma), de merit (Adharma), et c. All in ter nal ob jects be long to any one of the last four S kandhas. The four last Skandhas form the in ter nal ob jects. All ac tiv i ties de pend upon the in - ter nal ob jects. The in ter nal ob jects con sti tute t he in ner mo tive of ev - ery thing. A ll ex ter nal ob jects be long to one Skandha namely the Rup a Skandha. Thus the whole uni verse con sists of these two kinds of ob - jects, in ter nal and ex ter nal. The in ter nal ag gre gate or the men tal world is formed by the ag gre gate of t he last four Skandhas. These are the two in ter nal and ex ter nal ag gre gates re ferred to in the S u tra. The the ory of the B auddhas which clas si fies all ob jects un der two heads, one ag gre gate be ing called the ex ter nal, the ot her in ter - nal, is not suf fi cient to ex plain the world or der; be cause all ag gre gates are un in tel li gent and there is no per ma nent in tel li gence ad mit ted by the Bauddhas which can bring about this ag gre ga tion. E v ery thing is mo men tary in it s ex is tence ac cord ing to the B auddhas. There is no per ma nent in tel li gent be ing who brings about the con junc tion of t hese Skandhas. The con tin u a tion is not pos si ble for these ex ter nal at oms and in ter nal sen sa tions with out the in ter ven t ion of an in tel li gent guide. If it be said they come to gether of thei r own in ter nal mo tion, then the world be comes eter nal; be cause the Skandhas will be con - stantly bring ing about cre ation as they are eter nal and as they pos - sess mo tion of t heir own. Thus this the ory is un ten a ble. It can not be ex plained how the ag gre gates are brought about, be cause the p arts that con sti tute t he ma te rial ag gre gates are des ti - tute of in tel li gence. The Bauddhas do not ad mit any other per ma nent in tel li gent be ing such as en joy ing soul or a rul ing lord, which could ef - fect the ag gre ga tion of at oms. How are the ag gre gates formed? Is t here any in tel li gent prin ci - ple be hind the ag gre gates as the Cause, the Guide, the Con trol ler or the Di rec tor? Or does it t ake place spon ta ne ously? If you say thatBRAHMA SU TRAS 206 there is an in tel li gent prin ci ple, is it per ma nent or mo men tary? If i t is per ma nent, t hen the Buddhisti c doc trine of mo men tari ness is op - posed. If it is mo men tary, it must come into ex is tence first and then unite the at oms. Then the cause should last more than one m o ment. If there is no in tel li gent prin ci ple as di rec tor or con trol ler, how can non-in tel li gent at oms and the Skandhas ag gre gate in an or derly man - ner? Fur ther, the cre ation would con tinue for ev er. There would be no dis so lu tion. For all these rea sons the for ma tion of ag gre gates can not be prop erly ex plained. With out ag gre gates there would be an end of t he stream of earthly ex is tence which pre sup poses those ag gre gates. There fore, the doc trine of t his school of Bauddhas is un ten a ble and in ad mis s i ble. BVaoVa``dm{X{ V Momo n{m_ m{Z{_ mdmV & Itaretarapraty ayatvaditi chennotp attimatranim ittatvat II.2.19 (190) If it be said that (the forma tion o f aggre gates may be explained) through (ne science) standing in the relatio n of mutu al causality, we say no; they merely are the efficient cau se of the origin (of the immedia tely s ubsequent li nks an d not of the aggrega tion). Itara-it ara: mutual, one another; Praty ayatvat: because of being the cause, one being the cause of the ot her; Iti: thus; Chet: if; (Iti ch et: if it be said); Na: no; Utpattim atrani mittatvat: because they are merely the ef ficient cause of t he origin. An ob jec tion against S u tra 18 is raised and re futed. The se ries be gin ning with ne science com prise the fol low ing mem bers: Ne science, Samskara or im pres sion, V ijnana (knowl - edge), name and form, the abode of t he six (i.e. , the body and the senses, con tact, ex pe ri ence of plea sure and pain, de sire, ac tiv ity, merit, de merit, birt h, spe cies, de cay, death, grief, lam en ta tion, men tal af flic tion and the li ke). Ne science is the er ror of con sid er ing that what is mo men tary, im pure, etc., to be per ma nent, pure, et c. Im pres sion, (af fec tion, Samskara) com prises de sire, aver sion, etc., and the ac tiv ity caused by them. Knowl edge (V ijnana) is the self-con scious ness ( Aham iti alayavijnanasya vrittilabhah ) spring ing up in the em bryo. Name and form is the ru di men tary flake or bub ble-like con di tion of t he em bryo. The abode of the six (Sadayat ana) is the fur ther de vel oped st age of the em bryo in which the lat ter is the abode of t he six senses. T ouch (Sparsa) is the sen sa tion of cold, warmth, etc. , on the em bryo s part . Feel ing (V edana) is the sen sa tion of plea sure and pain re sult ing there from. De sire (T rishna) is the wish to en joy the pl ea sur able sen - sa tions and to shun the p ain ful ones. Ac tiv ity (Up adana) is the ef fortCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 207 re sult ing from de sire. Birth is t he pass ing out from t he uterus. S pe cies (Jati) is the class of be ings to which the new-born crea ture be longs. De cay (Jara), death (Marana) is ex plained as the con di tion of t he crea ture when about to die (Mum ursha). Grief (Soka) is the frus tra tion of wishes con nected there with. La ment (Pariv edana): the lam en ta - tions on that ac count. Pain (Duhkha) is such p ain as caused by the five senses. Durmanas is men tal af flic tion. The and the like im plies death, t he de par ture to an other world and the sub se quent re turn from there. The Buddhistic re al ist says: Al though there ex ists no per ma nent in tel li gent prin ci ple of the na ture ei ther of a rul ing Lord of an en joy ing soul un der whose in flu ence the for ma tion of t he ag gre gates could take place, yet t he course of earthly ex is tence is ren dered pos si ble through the mu tual cau sal ity of ne science (ig no rance) and so on, so that we need not l ook for any other com bin ing prin ci ple. Ne science, Samskara, etc., con sti tute an un in ter rupted chain of cause and ef fect. I n the above se ries the im me di ately pre ced ing item is the cause of the next . The wheel of cause and ef fect re volves un - ceas ingly like t he wa ter-wheel and this can not take place with out ag - gre gates. Hence ag gre gates are a re al ity. We re ply: Though i n the se ries the pre ced ing one is the cause of the sub se quent one, t here is noth ing which can be the cause of the ag gre gates. It may be ar gued that t he un ion of atom a nd the con tin u - ous flow of sen sa tions are proved by t he mu tual in ter de pen dence ex - ist ing among them. But t he ar gu ment can not st and, as this mu tual in ter de pen dence can not be the cause of thei r co he sion. Of t wo things one may pro duce the other , but t hat is no rea son why they should unite to gether . Even if Avidya (ne science), Samskara, V ijnana, Nama, and Rupa, etc., may with out a sen tient or in tel li gent agency p ass from the stage of cause to the st age of ef fect, y et how can the to tal ity of all these si mul t a neously ex ist with out the will of a co or di nat ing mind? If you say that t his ag gre gate or the world is formed by the mu - tual cau sa tion of A vidya and t he rest, we say it is not so, be cause your link of cau sa tion ex plains only the or i gin of the sub se quent from t he pre vi ous. It only ex plains how V ijnana arises from Samskara, etc. I t does not ex plain how the ag gre gate is brought about. An ag gre gate called Sanghat a al ways shows a de sign and is brought about for the pur pose of en joy ment. A Sanghat a like a house may be ex plained to have been pro duced by putt ing to gether of bricks, mor tar, etc., but they do not ex plain the de sign. Y ou say that t here is no per ma nent At - man. Y our At man is mo men tary only . You are a Kshanikatvav adin. There can be no en joy ment or ex pe ri enc ing for such a mo men tary soul; be cause the en joy ing soul has not pro duced the merit or de merit whose fruit s it has to en joy. It was pro duced by an other mo men taryBRAHMA SU TRAS 208 soul. Y ou can not say that the mo men tary soul suf fers the fruit s of the acts done by it s an ces tral soul, for t hen that an ces tral soul must be held to be per ma nent and not mo men tary. If you hold any soul t o be per ma nent, it will con tra dict your the ory of the m o men tari ness of ev - ery thing. B ut if y ou hold ev ery thing to be im per ma nent, y our the ory is open to the ob jec tion al ready made. Hence the doc trine of t he Sanghat as (Bud dhist s) is un ten a ble. It is not based on rea son. The at oms can not com bine by them selves even when they are as sumed to be per ma nent and eter nal. W e have al ready shown this when ex am in ing the doc trine of t he Vaiseshikas. Their com bi na tion is much more im pos si ble when they are mo men tary. The Bauddhas say that a com bin ing prin ci ple of the at oms is not nec es sary if the at oms st and in a re la tion of cau sal ity. The at oms would com bine by them selves. This is in cor rect. The cau sal ity will ex - plain only t he pro duc tion of at oms at dif fer ent mo ment s. It can not cer - tainly ex plain the un ion of the at om into an ag gre gate. The com bi na tion of an ag gre gate can t ake place only if t here is an in tel li - gent agent be hind. Oth er wise it is im pos si ble to ex plain the un ion of in ert and mo men t ary at oms. You will say that in the eter nal Samsara the ag gre gates suc ceed one an other in an un bro ken chain and hence also Ne science and so on which abide in those ag gre gates. But in that case you will have to as sume ei ther that each ag gre gate nec es sar ily pro duces an other ag - gre gate of t he same kind, or that it may pro duce ei ther a like or an un - like one with out any set tled or def i nite rule. I n the for mer case a hu man body could never p ass over into that of a god or an an i mal or a be ing of the in fer nal re gions as like will go on pro duc ing like; in t he lat - ter case a man might in an in stant be come an el e phant or a god and again be come a man; ei ther of which con se quences would be con - trary to y our sys tem. The in di vid ual soul for whose en joy ment this ag gre gate of body etc., ex ists is also ev a nes cent or mo men tary. It can not there fore be an enjoyer . As the in di vid ual soul is mo men tary, whose is lib er a tion? As there is no per ma nent enjoyer , there is no ne ces sity for these ag - gre gates. There may ex ist a causal re la tion be tween the mem bers of the se ries con sist ing of Ne science, etc., but in the ab sence of a per - ma nent en joy ing soul, it i s not pos si ble to es tab lish on that ground the ex is tence of ag gre gates. Hence the doc trine of mo men tari ness of the Bud dhist school of Re al ists can not st and. CmamonmXo M nyd {ZamoYm V& Uttarotp ade cha purvanirodhat II.2.20 (191) (Nor can th ere be a causal relation between nescie nce, etc.) because on the o rigination of the sub sequent thing the preceding one ceases to be.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 209 Uttarotp ade: at the t ime of the producti on of the subsequent thi ng; Cha: and; Purv anirodhat: because the antecedent one has ceased to exist , because of the destruction of the previous thi ng. (Uttara: in the next , in the subsequent; Utpade: on the origination, on the production.) The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory, com menced in Su - tra 18, is con tin ued. We have hith erto ar gued that ne science and so on stand in a causal re la tion to each other m erely , so that t hey can not be made to ac count for the ex is tence of the ag gre gates. W e are now go ing to prove that t hey can not even be re garded as ef fi cient causes of the sub se quent mem bers of the se ries to which they be long. Ac cord ing to the B uddhistic the ory ev ery thing is mo men tary. A thing of t he pres ent mo ment van ishes in the next m o ment when it s suc ces sor man i fests. At t he time of the ap pear ance of a sub se quent thing, t he pre vi ous thing van ishes. Hence it is im pos si ble for the pre vi - ous thing to be the cause of t he sub se quent thing. Con se quently t he the ory is un ten a ble and in ad mis si ble. It can not stand to rea son. We al ways per ceive that the cause sub sists in the ef fect as the thread sub sists in the cloth. B ut the B ud dhist s hold that ex is tence orig i nates from non-ex is tence be cause they main tain that t he ef fect can not man i fest with out the de struc tion of t he cause, the tree can not ap pear un til the seed is de stroyed. Even t he pass ing of cause into ef fect in a se ries of suc ces sive states like ne science, etc., can not take place, un less there is a co or di - nat ing in tel li gence. Y ou say that ev ery thing has only a mo men tary ex - is tence. Y our School can not bring about t he si mul ta neous ex is tence of two suc ces sive mo ment s. If t he cause ex ists till it passes into the stage of ef fect, t he the ory of mo men tary ex is tence (Kshanikatva) will van ish. You may say t hat the f or mer mo men tary ex is tence when it has reached it s full de vel op ment be comes the cause of the later mo men - tary ex is tence. That al so is im pos si ble, be cause even that will re quire a suc ces s ive or sec ond mo ment for op er a tion. This con tra dict s the doc trine of mo men t ari ness. The the ory of mo men tary ex is tence (Kshanikatva) can not stand. The gold that ex ists at the tim e the or na ment is made is alone the cause of the or na ment and not t hat which ex isted be fore and has ceased to ex ist then. I f it be sti ll held to be t he cause, then ex is tence will come out of non-ex is tence. This is not pos si ble. The the ory of mo - men tari ness will con tra dict the doc trine that the ef fect is the cause in a new form. This doc trine in di cates that the cause ex ists in the ef fect. This shows that it is not m o men tary. Fur ther, orig i na tion and de struc - tion will be t he same ow ing to mo men tari ness. If it is said that there is dif fer ence be tween orig i na tion and de struc tion, t hen we will have toBRAHMA SU TRAS 210 say that t he thing last s for more than one mo ment. Hence we have again to de clare the doc trine of mo men tari ness to be un ten a ble. Ag{V {VkmonamoYmo `mJn _`Wm& Asati pratijnop arodho y augap adyamany atha II.2.21 (192) If non-existence (of cause) be a ssumed, (while yet the ef fect takes place), the re re sults co ntrad iction of the adm itted principle or pr opositi on. Ot herwi se there woul d result simultaneity ( of cause and e ffect). Asati: in the case of non-existence of cause, if it be adm itted t hat an effect is produced without a cause; Pratijna: proposition, admit ted principle; Uparodhah: contradiction, denial ; Yaugap adyam: simult aneity , simult aneous existence; Anyatha: otherwise. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. If the Bud dhist s say that an ef fect is pro duced with out a cause then they would con tra dict their own prop o si tion that ev ery ef fect has a cause. The prop o si tion ad mit ted by B ud dhist s that the con scious - ness of blue, etc., arises when mind, eye, li ght and ob ject act in un ion as cause will fail. Al l sort s of ef fects can co-ex ist. If a cause be as sumed then we have to ac cept that t he cause and ef fect ex ist si mul ta neously at t he next mo ment. The cause ex ists for more than one mo ment. The cause ex ists till the st ate of ef fect is reached. Then the doc trine of mo men tari ness will fail. {Vg`m{V g`m{Za moYmm{a{dN>oXmV& Pratisankhy apratisankhy anirodha praptirav icchedat II.2.22 (193) Consci ous and un consci ous destr uction woul d be impossibl e on acc ount of non -interrupt ion. Pratisankhy a nirodha: conscious destruction, destruction due to some cause or agency; causal destruction, destruction depending upon the voli tion of conscious entity ; Apratisankhya ni rodha: unconscious destruction, destruction not depending upon any volunt ary agency; Apraptih: non-att ainment, i mpossibility ; Avicchedat: because of non-interruption, because it goes on wit hout interruption. The ar gu ment against t he the ory of the B ud dhist s is con tin ued. The Bud dhist s hold that uni ver sal de struc tion is ever go ing on and that t his de struc tion or ces sa tion is of t wo kinds, viz., con scious and un con scious. Con scious de struc tion de pends upon an act of thought as when a man breaks a jar hav ing pre vi ously formed t he in - ten tion of do ing so. Un con scious de struc tion is the nat u ral de cay of ob ject s. The flow of cause and ef fect goes on with out in ter rup tion and there fore can not be sub ject to ei ther kind of de struc tion. Nor can anyCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 211 in di vid ual an te ced ent of a se ries be said to be to tally de stroyed, as it is re cog nised in its im me di ate con se quence. Both kinds of de struc tion or ces sa tion are im pos si ble be cause it must re fer ei ther to the se ries of mo men tary existences or to t he sin - gle mem bers con sti tut ing the se ries. The for mer al ter na tive i s not pos si ble be cause in all se ries of mo men tary existences the m em bers of the se ries st and in an un bro - ken re la tion of cause and ef fect so that t he se ries can not be in ter - rupted. The lat ter al ter na tiv e is sim i larly not ad mis si ble, be cause it is not pos si ble to hold that any mo men tary ex is tence should un dergo com plete an ni hi la tion en tirely un de fin able and dis con nected with the pre vi ous st ate of ex is tence, as we ob serve that a t hing is re cog nised in the var i ous st ates through which it may pass and thus has a con - nected ex is tence. When an earthen jar is de stroyed we find t he ex is - tence of the clay in the pot sherds or frag ment s into which the jar is bro ken or in the pow der into which the pot sherds are ground. W e in fer that ev en though what seems to v an ish al to gether such as a drop of wa ter which has fallen on heated iron, yet con tin ues to ex ist in some other form, v iz., as steam. The se ries of mo men tary ex is tence form ing a chain of causes and ef fect is con tin u ous and can never be stopped, be cause the last mo men t ary ex is tence be fore its an ni hi la tion must be sup posed ei ther to pro duce it s ef fect or not t o pro duce it. If it does, then t he se ries is con tin ued and will not be de stroyed. I f it does not pro duce the ef fect, the last link does not re ally ex ist as the Bauddhas de fine Sat ta of a thing as it s causal ef fi ciency and the non-ex is tence of the last link would lead back ward to the non-ex is tence of the whole se ries. We can not have t hen two kinds of de struc tion in the i n di vid ual mem bers of the se ries also. Con scious de struc tion is not pos si ble on ac count of the mo men tary ex is tence of each mem ber. There can not be un con scious de struc tion as the in di vid ual mem ber is not to tally an - ni hi lated. De struc tion of a t hing re ally means only change of con di tion of the sub stance. You can not say that when a can dle is burnt out, i t is to tally an ni - hi lated. When a can dle burns out, it i s not lost but un der goes a change of con di tion. W e do not cer tainly per ceive the can dle when it is burnt out, but the ma te ri als of which it con sisted con tinue to ex ist in a very sub tle st ate and hence they are im per cep ti ble. For these rea sons the two kinds of de struc tion which the Bauddhas as sume can not be proved. C^`Wm M X mofmV& Ubhay atha cha doshat II.2.23 (194) And on a ccount of the objection s present ing themselv es in either case.BRAHMA SU TRAS 212 Ubhay atha: in either case; Cha: and, also; Doshat: because of objections. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. There is a fal lacy in ei ther view , i.e., that Avidya or ig no rance is de stroyed by right knowl edge or self-de stroyed. Ac cord ing to the B uddhistic view , eman ci pa tion is the an ni hi la - tion of ig no rance. Sal va tion or free dom is at tained when ig no rance is de stroyed. I g no rance (A vidya or ne science) is the false idea of per - ma nency in things which are mo men tary. The ig no rance can be an ni hi lated by t he adop tion of some means such as pen ance, knowl edge, etc., (con scious de struc tion); or it may de stroy it self (spon ta ne ity). But bot h the al ter na tives are de fec - tive. Be cause this an ni hi la tion of ig no rance can not be at tained by the adop tion of pen ance or the like; for the m ean like ev ery other thing, is also mo men tary ac cord ing to the B uddhistic view and is, t here fore, not likely to pro duce such an ni hi la tion; an ni hi la tion can not take place of its own ac cord, for in that case all Buddhistic in struc tions, the di s ci - plines and meth ods of med i ta tion for t he at tain ment of em an ci pa tion will be use less. Ac cord ing to the B uddhistic the ory, there can be no vol un tary ex er tion on the p art of the as pi rant for the break ing asun der of his con tin ued worldly ex pe ri ences or ne science. There is no hope of their ever com ing to an end by m ere ex haus tion as the causes con tinue to gen er ate their ef fects which again con tinue to gen er ate their own ef - fects and so on and there is no oc ca sion lef t for prac tices for at tain ing re lease. Thus in the Buddhist ic sys tem re lease or free dom can never be es tab lished. The teach ing of the B ud dhist s can not st and the test of rea son ing. AmH$meo M m{deofmV & Aakase chav iseshat II.2.24 (195) The ca use of Akasa (ether) als o not being d ifferent (from the two other kinds of destruc tion it also can not b e a non-ent ity.) Akase: in the case of Akasa or ether; Cha: also, and; Aviseshat: because of no specific dif ference. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. We have shown in Sutras 22-23 that the two kinds of de struc tion (ces sa tion) are not to tally des ti tute of all pos i tive char ac ter is tics and so can not be non-en ti ties. W e now pro ceed to show the same with re - gard to sp ace (ether , Akasa). The Bud dhist s do not re cog nise the ex is tence of Akasa. They re gard Akasa as a non-en tity. Akasa is noth ing but the ab sence of cov er ing or oc cu py ing body (A varanabhava). Thi s is un-rea son able.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 213 Akasa has the qual ity of sound, just as earth has smell, wa ter taste, fire form, air touch. Akasa also is a dis tinct en tity like earth, wa ter, etc. Hence there is no rea son why Akasa also should be re jected as a non-en tity, while earth, wa ter, etc., are re cog nised as be ing en ti ties. Just as earth, air , etc., are re garded as en ti ties on ac count of their be ing the sub stra tum of at trib utes like smell, et c., so also Akasa should be con sid ered as an en tity on ac count of it s be ing the sub stra - tum of sound. E arth, wa ter, etc., are ex pe ri enced through their re - spec tive qual i ties, v iz., smell, taste, form, touch. The ex is tence of Akasa is ex pe ri enced through it s qual ity, sound. Hence Akasa also must be an en tity. Space is in ferred from it s at trib ute of sound, just as earth is in - ferred from smell. Where t here is re la tion of sub stance and at trib ute there must be an ob ject. The B ud dhist s hold that sp ace is mere non-ex is tence of mat ter (A varanabhavamat ram). If so, a bird may fal l down as there is no ob struc tive m at ter, but how can it f ly up? Non-ex - is tence of mat ter is sp ace which is a pos i tive ob ject and not mere ne - ga tion or non-en tity. The doc trine that Akasa is an ab so lute non-en tity is not ten a ble. Why do you say so? A viseshat, be cause there is no dif fer ence in the case of Akasa from any other kind of sub stance which is an ob ject of per cep tion. W e per ceive sp ace when we say , the crow flies in space. The space, there fore, is as much a real sub stance as the earth, etc. As we know the earth by it s qual ity of smell, wa ter by it s qual ity of taste, and so on, so we know from the qual ity of be ing the abode of ob jects, the ex is tence of sp ace, and that it has the qual ity of sound. Thus Akasa is a real sub stance and not a non-en tity. If Akasa be a non-en tity, then t he en tire world would be come des ti tute of space. Scrip tural p as sages de clare S pace sprang from the At man (Atmana akasassambhut ah). So Akasa is a real thing. It is a V astu (ex ist ing ob ject) and not non-ex is tence. O Bud dhist s! You say that ai r ex ists in Akasa. In the B auddha scrip tures, a se ries of ques tions and an swers be gin ning On which, O re vered Sir , is the earth f ounded? in which the fol low ing ques tion oc - curs, On which is the air founded? to which it is re plied that t he air is founded on sp ace (ether). Now it is clear that thi s state ment is ap pro - pri ate only on t he sup po si tion of sp ace be ing a pos i tive en tity, not a mere ne ga tion. I f Akasa was to tally non-ex is tent, what would be the re cep t a cle of air? You can not say that space is not h ing but the ab sence of any oc - cu py ing ob ject. This also can not st and to rea son. If y ou say that space is not h ing but the ab sence in gen eral of any cov er ing or oc cu - py ing body , then when one bird is fly ing, whereby sp ace is oc cu pied, there would be no room for a sec ond bird which wishes to fly at t heBRAHMA SU TRAS 214 same time. Y ou may giv e an an swer that the sec ond bird may fl y there where there is ab sence of a cov er ing body . But we de clare that that some thing by which the a b sence of cov er ing bod ies is dis tin guished must be a pos i tive en tity, viz. , space in our sense and not the mere non-ex ist ing of cov er ing bod ies. More over, there is a self-con tra dic tion in the st ate ment s of Bud - dhist s with ref er ence to the three kinds of neg a tive en ti ties (Nirupakhy a). They say t hat the neg a tive en ti ties are not pos i tively de fin able, and also are eter nal. It is ab surd to t alk of a non-be ing as be ing eter nal or ev a nes cent. The dis tinc tion of sub jects and pred i - cates of at tri bu tion to tally rest s on real things. Where there is such dis tinc tion, t here ex ists the real thing such as pot, et c., which is not a mere un de fin able ne ga tion or non-en tity . AZw_Vo & Anusmritescha II.2.25 (196) And o n accou nt of mem ory the things a re not mo mentary. Anusmriteh: on account of memory; Cha: and. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. The the ory of mo men tari ness of the Bud dhist s is re futed here. I f ev ery thing is mo men tary the experiencer of some thing must also be mo men tary. But the experiencer is not mo men tary, be cause peo ple have the mem ory of p ast ex pe ri ences. Mem ory can t ake place only in a man who has pre vi ously ex pe ri enced it, be cause we ob serve that what one man has ex pe ri enced is not re mem bered by an other man. I t is not that t he ex pe ri ence is that one sees and an other re mem bers. Our ex pe ri ence is I saw and I now re mem ber what I saw . He who ex - pe ri ences and re mem bers is the same. He is con nected with at least two mo ment s. This cer tainly re futes the t he ory of mo men tari ness. The Bud dhist s may say that mem ory is due to sim i lar ity. But un - less there be one per ma nent know ing sub ject, who can per ceive the sim i lar ity in the p ast with the pres ent. One can not say This is the pot , this is the chair which was in the p ast. So long t here is not the same soul which saw and which now re mem bers, how can mere sim i lar ity bring about such a con scious ness as I saw and I now re mem ber (Pratyabhij na)? The know ing sub ject must be per ma nent and not mo men t ary. Doubt may arise with ref er ence to an ex ter nal ob ject. Y ou may not be able to say whether it is iden ti cally the same ob ject which was per ceived in the p ast or some thing sim i lar to it. But with ref er ence to the Self , the cog nis ing sub ject, there can nev er arise any such doubt whether I am the same who was in the p ast, for it is im pos si ble that the mem ory of a thi ng per ceived by an other should ex ist in one s own Self.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 215 If you say that t his, the thi ng re mem bered, is like that, the thing seen, in that case also two t hings are con nected by one agent. If the thing per ceived was sep a rate and ceased to tally, it can not be re ferred at all. M ore over the ex pe ri ence is not that thi s is like that but t hat this is that. We ad mit that some times with ref er ence to an ex ter nal thing a doubt may arise whether it is that or merely is sim i lar to that ; be cause mis take may oc cur con cern ing what lies out side our minds. But t he con scious sub ject never has any doubt whether it is it self or only sim i - lar to it self. It is dis tinctly con scious that it is one and the same sub ject which yes ter day had a cer tain sen sa tion and re mem bers that sen sa - tion to day. Does any one doubt whether he who re mem bers is the same as he who saw? For this rea son also the the ory of mo men tari ness of the Bud - dhist s is to be re jected. We do not per ceive ob jects com ing into ex is tence in a mo ment or van ish ing in a mo ment. Thus t he the ory of mo men tari ness of all things is re futed. ZmgVmo@ >dmV& Nasatodrisht atvat II.2.26 (l97) (Existe nce or entity doe s) not (sp ring) from non-e xistence or non-entity, because it is not seen. Na: not; Asat ah: from non-existence, of the unreal, of a non-entit y; Adrisht atvat: because it is not seen. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. A non-en tity has not been ob served to pro duce en tity. There fore it does not st and to rea son to sup pose non-en tity to be the cause. The Bauddhas (V ainasikas) as sert that no ef fect can be pro - duced from any thing that is un chang ing and eter nal, be cause an un - chang ing thing can not pro duce an ef fect. S o they de clare that the cause per ishes be fore the ef fect is pro duced. They say f rom the de - com posed seed only the young pl ant springs, spoilt mil k only turns into curds, and the lump of clay has ceased to be a lump when it be - comes a pot. So ex is tence co mes out of non-ex is tence. Ac cord ing to the v iew of the Bud dhist s, a real thing, i .e., the world has come into ex is tence out of not h ing. But ex pe ri ence shows that t his the ory is false. A pot for in stance is never found to be pro - duced with out clay . Such a hy po thet i cal pro duc tion can only ex ist in the imag i na tion, f or ex am ple, the child of a bar ren woman. Hence the view of the Bud dhist s is un ten a ble and in ad mis si ble. If ex is tence can come out of non-ex is tence, if be ing can pro - ceed from non-be ing, then t he as sump tion of spe cial causes would have no mean ing at all. Then any thing may come out of any thing, be -BRAHMA SU TRAS 216 cause non-en tity is one and the same in all cases. There is no dif fer - ence be tween the non-en tity of a mango seed and that of a jack-seed. Hence a jack tree may come out of a mango seed. Sprout s also may orig i nate from t he horns of hares. If t here are dif fer ent kinds of non-ex is tence, hav ing spe cial dis tinc tions just as for in stance, blue - ness and the like are the spe cial qual i ties of lo tuses and so on, the non-ex is tence of a mango seed will dif fer from that of a jack-seed, and then this would turn non-en ti ties into en ti ties. More over if ex is tence springs from non-ex is tence all ef fects would be af fected with non-ex is tence, but t hey are seen to be pos i tive en ti ties with their var i ous spe cial char ac ter is tics. The horn of a hare is non-ex is tent. What can come out from t hat horn? W e see only be ing emerg ing from be ing, e.g. , or na ment from gold, etc. Ac cord ing to the B auddhas, all mind and all m en tal mod i fi ca - tions spring from the f our Skandhas and all ma te rial ag gre gates from the at oms. And y et they say at the same t ime that en tity is born of non-en tity . This is cer tainly quite in con sis tent and self-con tra dic tory . They stul tify their own doc trine and need lessly con fuse the minds of ev ery one. CXmgrZmZm_ {n Md {g{& Udasinanamap i chaiv am siddh ih II.2.27 (198) And t hus (i f exist ence should s pring from non -existenc e, there would result) the attain ment of the goal by th e indiffe rent and non-active people also. Udasianam: of the indif ferent and non-activ e; Api: even, also; Cha: and; Evam: thus; Siddih: success accomplishment, and at tainment of the goal. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. If it were ad mit ted that ex is tence or en tity springs from non-ex is - tence or non-en tity, lazy in ac tive peo ple also would at tain their pur - pose. Rice will grow even if t he farmer does not cul ti vate his f ield. Jars will shape them selves even if t he pot ter does not fash ion the clay . The weaver too will hav e fin ished pieces of cloth with out weav ing. No body will have to ex ert him self in the least ei ther for go ing to the heav enly world or for at tain ing fi nal eman ci pa tion. A ll this is ab surd and not main tained by any body . Thus the doc trine of t he orig i na tion of ex is tence or en tity from non-ex is tence or non-en tity is un ten a ble or in ad mis si ble.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 217 Nabhav adhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 28-32) Refut ation of t he Bauddha Idealist Zm^md Cnb Yo Nabhava up alabdheh lI.2.28 (199) The non-e xistence (of eternal things) cannot b e maintaine d; on account of (our) consciousness (of th em). Na: not; Abhavah: non-existence; Upalabdheh: because they are perceived, because of perception, because we are conscious of them on account of their being ex perienced. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. From this Su tra be gins the ref u ta tion of B uddhistic Ide al ists. The doc trine of t he Bud dhist which af firms the mo men tary ex is - tence of ex ter nal ob jects has been re futed. The Sutrakara or the au - thor of the S utras now pro ceeds to re fute t he doc trine of t he Buddhistic school which af firms the mo men tari ness of thought, which de clares that only ideas ex ist and noth ing else. Ac cord ing to the B uddhistic Ide al ists (Vijnanavadins), t he ex ter - nal world is non-ex is tent. They main tain that ev ery phe nom e non re - solves it self into con scious ness and idea with out any re al ity cor re spond ing to it. This is not cor rect. The ex ter nal phe nom ena are not non-ex is tent as they are ac tu ally wit nessed by our senses of per - cep tion. The ex ter nal world is an ob ject of ex pe ri ence through the senses. It can not there fore, be non-ex is tent like t he horns of a hare. The V ijnanavadins say: No ex ter nal ob ject ex ists apart from con scious ness . There is im pos si bil ity for the ex is tence of out ward things. Be cause if out ward ob jects are ad mit ted, t hey must be ei ther at oms or ag gre gates of at oms such as chairs , pots, etc. But at oms can not be com pre hended un der the ideas of chair , etc. I t is not pos si - ble for cog ni tion to rep re sent things as min ute as at oms. There is no rec og ni tion of at oms and so the ob jects could not be at oms. They could not be atomic com bi na tions be cause we can not af firm if such com bi na tions are one with at oms or sep a rate there from. Ac cord ing to the V ijnanavadins or the Y ogachara sys tem the Vijnana Skandha or idea alone is real. A n ob ject like pot or chair which is per ceived out side is noth ing more than ideas. The V ijnana or idea mod i fies it self into t he form of an ob ject. Al l worldly ac tiv i ties can go on with mere ideas, just as in dream all ac tiv i ties are per formed with the t hought ob jects. Ideas only ex ist. It is use less to as sume that the ob ject is some thing dif fer ent from t he idea. It is pos si ble to have prac ti cal thought and in ter course with out ex ter nal ob jects, just as it is done in dream. All prac ti cal pur poses are well ren dered pos si ble by ad mit ting the re al ity of ideas only , be cause no good pur pose is served BRAHMA SU TRAS 218 by ad di tional as sump tion of ex ter nal ob ject s cor re spond ing to in ter nal ideas. The mind as sumes dif fer ent shapes ow ing to the dif fer ent Vasanas or de sire-im pres sions sub merged in it. Just as t hese Vasanas cre ate the dream world, so t he ex ter nal world in the wak ing state is also the re sult of V asanas. The as sump tion of an ex ter nal ob - ject is un nec es sary. We do not see any sep a ra tion of cog ni tion and ob ject. In dream we cog nise with out ob jects. Even so in t he wak ing state there could be cog ni tion with out ob jects. Our manifoldness of Vasanas can ac count for such cognitions. Per cep tion in the wak ing st ate is like a dream. The ideas t hat are pres ent dur ing a dream ap pear in the form of sub ject and ob ject, al though there is no ex ter nal ob ject. Hence, the i deas of chair , pot, which oc cur in our wak ing st ate are like wise in de pend ent of ex ter nal ob jects, be cause they also im ply ideas. This ar gu ment is fal la cious. When you see a chair or a pot how can you deny it ? When you eat, y our hun ger is ap peased. How can you doubt t he hun ger or the food? Y ou say that t here is no ob ject apart from your cog ni tion on ac count of your ca pri cious ness. Why do you not see a chair as a pot? If an ob ject is a mere men tal cre ation like a dream why should the mind lo cate it out side? The Bud dhist may say I do not af firm that I have no con scious - ness of an ob ject. I al so feel that t he ob ject ap pears as an ex ter nal thing, but what I af firm is this t hat I am al ways con scious of noth ing di - rectly save my own ideas. My idea alone shines as some thing ex ter - nal. Con se quently t he ap pear ance of the ex ter nal things is the re sult of my own ideas. We re ply that the very f act of your con scious ness proves that there is an ex ter nal ob ject giv ing rise to the idea of externalit y. That the ex ter nal ob ject ex ists apart from con scious ness has nec es sar ily to be ac cepted on the ground of t he na ture of con scious ness it self. No one when per ceiv ing a chair or a pot is con scious of his per cep tion only, but all are con scious of chair or a pot and the like as ob jects of per cep tion. You (V ijnanavadins) say that the in ter nal con scious ness or idea ap pears as some thing ex ter nal. This al ready in di cates that the ex ter - nal world is real. If i t were not real, y our say ing like some thing ex ter nal would be mean ing less. The word like shows that you ad mit the re al - ity of the ex ter nal ob jects. Oth er wise you would not have used t his word. Be cause no one makes a com par i son with a thing which is an ab so lute un re al ity. No one says that Ramakrishna is like the son of a bar ren woman. An idea like a lamp re quires an ul te rior in tel lec tual prin ci ple or illuminer to ren der it man i fest. V ijnana has a be gin ning and an end. ItCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 219 also be longs to the cat e gory of the known. T he knower is as in dis - pens able of cognitions as of ob jects. The Bud dhist ide al ist, while con tend ing that t here is noth ing out - side the mind, f or gets the fal lacy of t he ar gu ment. I f the world, as t hey ar gue, were only an out ward ex pres sion of in ter nal ideas, then t he world also would be just mind. But the Bud dhist s ar gue that t he mind, which is os ten si bly in t he in di vid ual, is also the world out side. Here the ques tion arises: How does the idea of t here be ing noth ing out side arise with out the mind i t self be ing out side? The con scious ness that noth ing ex ists out side can not arise if there is re ally not h ing out side. Hence the Bud dhist V ijnanavada doc trine is de fec tive. When the Bud dhist s came to know of the il log i cal ity of their con - cept, they mod i fied their doc trine say ing that t he mind re ferred to here is not the in di vid ual mind but t he cos mic mind, known as Alaya-V ijnana, which is the re pos i tory of al l in di vid ual minds in a po - ten tial form. Here the Bud dhist stum bles on the V edant a doc trine that the world is a man i fes ta tion of t he Uni ver sal Mind. dY`m Z dZm{X dV& Vaidharm yaccha na sv apnadiv at II.2.29 (200) And on ac count of the diff erence in na ture (in con sciousn ess between the wak ing and the dreaming state , the e xperience of the waking sta te) is no t like dreams, etc., etc. Vaidharm yat: on account of dif ference of nature, because of dissimilar ity; Cha: and, also; Na: not; Svapnadiv at: like dreams etc. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. The wak ing st ate is not like dream, etc., be cause of dis sim i lar ity. The ideas of the wak ing st ate are not like those of a dream on ac count of their dif fer ence of na ture. The Bud dhist s say: The per cep tion of t he ex ter nal world is like the dream. There are no ex ter nal ob jects in a dream and yet t he ideas man i fest as sub ject and ob ject. Ev en so the ap pear ance of the ex ter - nal uni verse is in de pend ent of any ob jec tive re al ity . The anal ogy of dream phe nom ena to the phe nom ena of the wak ing world is wrong. The con scious ness in a dream and that in a wake ful state are dis sim i lar. The con scious ness in a dream de pends on the pre vi ous con scious ness in the wake ful st ate, but the con - scious ness in the wake ful st ate does not de pend on any thing else, but on the ac tual per cep tion by senses. Fur ther the dream ex pe ri ence be come false as soon as one wakes up. The dream ing man says as soon as he wakes up, I wrongly dreamt that I had a meet ing with the col lec tor. No such meet ing took place. My mind was dulled by sleep and so the false ideas arose. Those things on the con trary, of whichBRAHMA SU TRAS 220 we are con scious in our wak ing st ate such as post and the like, are never ne gated in any st ate. They stand un chal lenged and un con tra - dicted. Ev en af ter hun dreds of years they will have the same ap pear - ance as now . More over dream phe nom ena are mere mem o ries whereas the phe nom ena of the wak ing st ate are ex pe ri enced as re al i ties. The dis - tinc tion be tween re mem brance and ex pe ri ence or im me di ate con - scious ness is di rectly real ised by ev ery one as be ing founded on the ab sence or pres ence of the ob ject. When a man re mem bers his ab - sent son, he does not di rectly meet him. Si m ply be cause there is sim i - lar ity be tween dream st ate and wak ing st ate we can not say that they have the same na ture. If a char ac ter is tic is not the na ture of an ob ject it will not be come it s in her ent na ture sim ply by be ing sim i lar to an ob - ject which has that na ture. Y ou can not say that fire which burns is cold be cause it has char ac ter is tics in com mon with wa ter. Hence the dream ing st ate and the wak ing st ate are to tally dis - sim i lar in their in her ent na ture. Z ^mdmo@ ZwnbYo& Na bhavonup alabdheh II.2.30 (201) The ex istence (of Samskaras or mental i mpressions) is not possibl e (accor ding to t he Bauddhas ), on accoun t of the absence of perc eption ( of extern al things). Na: not; Bhav ah: existence (of impressions or Samskaras); Anup alabdheh: because they are not perceived, because (external things) are not experienced. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. Ac cord ing to your doc trine there could be no ex is tence of Vasanas or men tal im pres sions as you deny the ex is tence of ob jects. You say that t hough an ex ter nal thing does not ac tu ally ex ist, yet its im pres sions do ex ist, and from t hese im pres sions di ver si ties of per cep tion and ideas like chair , tree arise. This is not pos si ble, as there can be no per cep tion of an ex ter nal thing which is it self non-ex - is tent. If there be no per cep tion of an ex ter nal thing, how can it leave an im pres sion? If you say that t he Vasanas or the men tal im pres sions are Anadi (beginningless, or cause less), this will land you i n the log i cal fal lacy of regressus ad in fi ni t um. This would in no way es tab lish your po si tion. Vasanas are Samskaras or im pres sions and im ply a cause and ba sis or sub stra tum, but for you there is no cause or ba sis for V asanas or men tal im pres sions, as you say that it can not be cog nised through any means of knowl edge.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 221 j{UH $dm& Kshanikatv accha II.2.31 (202) And on account of the momentariness (of th e Alayavijnana or ego-consciousne ss it cann ot be the abod e of the Samskaras or mental impressions). Kshanikatv at: on account of the moment ariness; Cha: and. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con tin ued. The men t al im pres sions can not ex ist with out a re cep t a cle or abode. Ev en the Alay avijnana or ego-con scious ness can not be the abode of men tal im pres sions as it is also mo men tary ac cord ing to the Buddhistic vi ew. Un less there ex ists one con tin u ous per ma nent prin ci ple equally con nected with the p ast, the pres ent and the f u ture, or an ab so lutely un change able Self which cog nises ev ery thing, we are un able to ac - count for re mem brance, rec og ni tion, which are sub ject to men tal im - pres sions de pend ent on place, ti me and cause. If y ou say that Alayav ijnana is some thing per ma nent then t hat would con tra dict your doc trine of mo men t ari ness. We have thus re futed t he doc trine of t he Bud dhist s which holds the mo men tary re al ity of the ex ter nal world and the doc trine which de - clares that ideas only ex ist. gdWmZwnnmo& Sarv athanup apattescha II.2.32 (203) And (as the Bauddha system is) illogical in every way (it cannot be acce pted). Sarv atha: in every way ; Anup apatteh: because of it s not being proved illogical; Cha: and, also. The ar gu ment against t he Buddhistic the ory is con cluded here. The Sunyav ada or Ni hil ism of the B ud dhist which as serts that noth ing ex ists is fal la cious be cause it goes against ev ery method of proof, vi z., per cep tion, in fer ence, tes ti mony and anal ogy. It goes against the Srut i and ev ery means of right knowl edge. Hence it has to be to tally ig nored by those who care for their own hap pi ness and wel - fare. It need not be dis cussed in de tail as it giv es way on all sides, like the walls of a well dug in sandy soil. It has no foun da tion what ever to rest upon. Any endeavour to use this sys tem as a guide in the prac ti - cal con cerns of life is mere folly . O Sunyav adins! Y ou must ad mit your self to be a be ing and your rea son ing also to be some thing and not not h ing. This con tra dicts your the ory that al l is noth ing. Fur ther, the means of knowl edge by which Sunyat a is to be proved must at l east be real and must be ac knowl edged to be true,BRAHMA SU TRAS 222 be cause if such means of knowl edge and ar gu ment s be them selves noth ing, then t he the ory of noth ing ness can not be es tab lished. If these means and ar gu ment s be true, then some thing cer tainly is proved. Then also th e the ory of noth ing ness is dis proved. Ekasmi nnasambhav adhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 33-36) Refut ation of t he Jaina Doctrine ZH$p_g^dmV& Naikasmin nasambhav at II.2.33 (204) On account o f the impossibility (of contradictory attrib utes) in one and the same thing at the sa me tim e (the Jaina do ctrine is ) not (to be accepted). Na: not; Ekasmi n: in one; Asambhav at: on account of the impossib ility. Af ter the ref u ta tion of t he Buddhistic doc trine of mo men tari ness, Vijnanavada and Ni hil ism, the Jaina doc trine is t aken up for dis cus - sion and ref u ta tion. The Jainas ac knowl edge seven cat e go ries or T attvas, viz., soul(Jiva), non-soul (Ajiva), the is su ing out ward(Asrava), re straint (Samvara), de struc tion (Nirjara), bond age (Bandha), and re lease (Moksha). These cat e go ries can be mainly di vided int o two group s, the soul and the non-soul. The Jainas say also t hat there are fiv e Astikayas vi z., Jiva or soul, P udgala (body , mat ter), Dharma (merit), Adharma (de merit) and Akasa (sp ace). Their chief doc trine is the Sapt abhanginyaya. They pred i cate seven dif fer ent views with ref er ence to the re al ity of ev ery thing, i. e., it may ex ist, may not ex ist, may ex ist and may not ex ist, may be in ex - press ible, may ex ist and may be in ex press ible, may not ex ist and may be in ex press ible and may ex ist and may not ex ist and may be in ex - press ible. Now this view about t hings can not be ac cepted, be cause in one sub stance it is not pos si ble that con tra dic tory qual i ties should ex ist si - mul ta neously . No one ever sees the same ob ject to be hot and cold at the same time. Si mul ta neous ex is tence of light and dark ness in one place is im pos si ble. Ac cord ing to the Jaina doc trine, heav en and lib er a tion may ex ist or may not ex ist. This world, heav en and even lib er a tion will be come doubt ful. W e can not ar rive at any def i nite knowl edge. It would be use - less to lay down rules of prac tice for the at tain ment of heav en, for the avoid ance of hell or for eman ci pa tion be cause there is no cer tainty about any thing. The heav en may as well be hell and f i nal free dom not dif fer ent from t hese. As ev ery thing is am big u ous, there would be noth ing to dis tin guish heaven, hell and f i nal lib er a tion from each other .CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 223 Con fu sion will arise not only wit h re gard to the ob ject of the world, but of t he world also. If t hings are in def i nite, and if ev ery thing is some how it is, some how it is not, t hen a man who want s wa ter will take fire to quench his thirst and so on with ev ery thing else, be cause it may be that fire is hot, i t may be t hat fire is cold. If there is such doubt how can true knowl edge re sult? How can the Jaina teach ers teach any thing with cer tainty i f ev ery thing is doubt - ful? How can their fol low ers act at all, learn ing such teach ings? Ap ply ing this Sapt abhanginyaya t o their fiv e Astikayas, t he five may be come four or even less. If they are in ex press ible, why do t hey talk about it? We have al ready re futed t he atomic the ory on which is based the Jaina doc trine that Pudgala (mat ter) is due to atomic com bi na tion. Hence the Jaina doc trine is un ten a ble and in ad mis si ble. Their logic is frag ile as the thread of a spi der and can not st and the strain of rea son ing. Ed Mm_ mH$m `_& Evam chatmakart snyam II.2.34 (205) And in the same way (the re results from the Jaina doctrine ) the non-u niversality of the soul. Evam: thus, in the same way , as it is suggested by t he Jaina theory; Cha: also, and; Atma-akart snyam: non-universality of the soul. Other de fects of the Jaina the ory are shown. We have hith erto spo ken about the ob jec tion re sult ing from the Syadv ada of the Jainas, v iz., that one thing can not have con tra dic tory at trib utes. W e now turn to the ob jec tion that from their doc trine it would fol low that t he in di vid ual soul is not uni ver sal, i.e. , not om ni - pres ent. The Jainas hold that t he soul is of the size of the body . In that case it would be lim ited and with p arts. Hence it can not be eter nal and om ni pres ent. More over, as the bod ies of dif fer ent classes of crea tures are of dif fer ent sizes, the soul of a m an tak ing the body of an el e phant on ac - count of it s past deeds will not be able to f ill up that body . The soul of an ant also will not be abl e to fill up the body of an el e phant. The soul of an el e phant will not hav e suf fi cient sp ace in the body of an ant. A large por tion of it will have to be out side that body . The soul of a child or a youth be ing smaller in size will not be able t o fill com pletely the body of a grown-up man. The st a bil ity of the di men sions of the soul is im paired. The Jaina the ory it self falls t o the ground. The Jainas may give an an swer that a Jiva has in fi nite limbs and there fore could ex pand or con tract. B ut could those in fi nite limbs be in BRAHMA SU TRAS 224 the same place or not? If they could not , how could they be com - pressed in a small space? If they could, then all the l imbs must be in the same place and can not ex pand into a big body . More over they have no right t o as sume that a Jiva has in fi nite limbs. What is there to jus tify the view t hat a body of lim ited size con tains an in fi nite num ber of soul p ar ti cles? Well then, t he Jainas may re ply, let us as sume that by turns when ever the soul en ters a big body , some p ar ti cles ac cede to it, while some with draw from it, when ever it en ters a small body . To this hy poth e sis, the next Su tra gives a suit able an swer. Z M n`m `mX`{ damoYmo {dH$mam{X`& Na cha p aryayadapy avirodho v ikaradibh yah II.2.35 (206) Nor is non-contr adiction to be derived from t he succe ssion (of parts accor ding to an d departi ng from t he soul to s uch different bodies) on acc ount of the chan ge, etc., (of the soul). Na: not; Cha: also, and; Pary ayat: in turn, because of assuming by succession ; Api: even; Avirodhah: no inconsistency; Vikaradibh yah: on account of change, etc. Fur ther de fects of the Jaina doc trine are shown in this Su tra. The Jaina may say t hat the soul is re ally in def i nite in it s size. There fore when it an i mates the bod ies of an in fant or a yout h it has that size, and when it oc cu pies the bod ies of horses or el e phant s it ex - pands it self to that size. By suc ces sive ex pan sion and di la tion like the gas it fully oc cu pies the en tire body which an i mates for the t ime be ing. Then there is no ob jec tion to our t he ory that t he soul is of the size of the body . Even if you say that the limbs of t he soul keep out or come in ac - cord ing as the body is small or big, you can not get ov er the ob jec tion that in such a case the soul will be li a ble to change and con se quently will not be eter nal. Then any talk of bond age and eman ci pa tion would be mean ing less. The fu til ity of the ques tion of re lease and of the phi - los o phy that deals with it would re sult. If the soul s limbs can come and go, how could it be dif fer ent in na ture from the body ? So one of t hese limbs only can be the A t man. Who can fix it ? Whence do the limbs of the soul come? Where do they take rest? They can not spring from the m a te rial el e ment s and re-en - ter the el e ment s be cause the soul is im mor tal. The lim bs come and go. The soul will be of an in def i nite na ture and st at ure. The Jaina may say t hat al though the soul s size suc ces sively changes it may y et be per ma nent. Just as the stream of wa ter is per - ma nent al though the wa ter con tin u ally changes. Then the same ob jec tion as that urged against the Bud dhist s will arise. If such a con ti nu ity is not real but is only ap par ent, t here willCHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 225 be no At man at all. We are led back to the doc trine of a gen eral void. I f it is some thing real, t he soul will be li a ble to change and hence not eter nal. This will ren der the view of t he Jaina im pos si ble. A`mdp WVo mo^`{Z`dmX{ deof& Anty avasthiteschobhay anity atvadav isesah II.2.36 (207) And on ac count of the permanenc y of the fin al (size of t he soul on rel ease) and the re sulting pe rmanenc y of the two (preceding sizes), the re is no diffe rence (of size of the soul, at an y time ). Anty avasthi teh: because of the permanency of t he size at the end; Cha: and; Ubhay anity atvat: as both are permanent; Aviseshah: because there being no dif ference. Dis cus sion on the de fects of the Jaina doc trine is con cluded. Fur ther the Jainas them selves ad mit the per ma nency of the f i - nal size of the soul, which it has in the st age of re lease. From this it fol - lows also that it s ini tial size and it s in ter ven ing size must be per ma nent. There fore there is no dif fer ence be tween the three sizes. What is the spe ci al ity of the st ate of re lease? There is no pe cu liar ity of dif fer ence, ac cord ing to the Jainas, be tween the st ate of re lease and the mun dane st ate. The dif fer ent bod ies of the soul have one and t he same size and the soul can not en ter into big ger and smaller bod ies. The soul must be re garded as be ing al ways of the same size, whether min ute or in fi nite and not of the vary ing sizes of the bod ies. There fore the Jaina doc trine that the soul var ies ac cord ing to the size of the body is un ten a ble and in ad mis si ble. It must be set aside as not in any way more ra tio nal than the doc trine of t he Bauddhas. Paty adhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 37-41) Refut ation of t he Pasup ata System n`wagm_O`m V& Paty urasamanj asyat II.2.37 (208) The Lo rd (canno t be the efficient or the operative cause of the world) on accoun t of the in consi stency (of that doctr ine). Paty uh: of the Lord, of Pasup ati, of the Lord of animals; Asamanjasy at: on account of inconsistency , on account of untenableness, inappropriateness. The Pasup atas or the Mahesvaras are di vided int o four classes, viz., Kap ala, Kalam ukha, Pasup ata and Saiva. Their scrip ture de - scribes five cat e go ries, viz., Cause (Ka ra na), Ef fect (Karya), Un ion (Yoga by the prac tice of med i ta tion), Rit ual (V idhi) and the end of p ain or sor row (Duhkhanta), i .e., the fi nal eman ci pa tion. Thei r cat e go ries were re vealed by t he great Lord Pasup ati Him self in or der to break the bonds of the soul called herein P asu or an i mal.BRAHMA SU TRAS 226 In this sys tem Pasup ati is the op er a tive or t he ef fi cient cause (Nimitt a Ka ra na). Mahat and t he rest are the ef fects. Un ion means un - ion with Pasup ati, their God, through ab stract med i ta tion. Thei r rit u als con sist of bath ing thrice a day , smear ing the fore head with ashes, interturning t he fin gers in re li gious wor ship (Mudra), wear ing Rudraksha on the neck and arms, tak ing food in a hu man skull, smear ing the body wit h ashes of a burnt hu man body , wor ship ping the de ity im mersed in a wine-ves sel. By wor ship ping the Pasup ati the soul at tains prox im ity wit h the Lord, and there ac crues a stat e of ces - sa tion of all de sires and all p ains which is Moksha. The fol low ers of this school re cog nise God as the ef fi cient or the op er a tive cause. They re cog nise the pri mor dial mat ter as the ma te rial cause of the world. This the ory is con trary to t he view of t he Sruti where Brah man is st ated to be bot h the ef fi cient and the ma te rial cause of the world. Hence the the ory of Pasup atas can not be ac - cepted. Ac cord ing to V edant a, the Lord is both t he ef fi cient and the ma - te rial cause of the uni verse. The Naiyay ikas, V aiseshikas, Y ogins and Mahesvaras say that t he Lord is the ef fi cient cause only and the ma te - rial cause is ei ther the at oms, ac cord ing to the Naiy ayikas and Vaiseshikas, or the Pradhana, ac cord ing to the Y ogins and Mahesvaras. He is the ruler of t he Pradhana and the souls which are dif fer ent from Him. This view is wrong and in con sis tent. Be cause God will be p ar tial to some and prej u diced against oth ers. Be cause some are pros per - ous, while oth ers are mis er a ble in this uni verse. Y ou can not ex plain this say ing that such dif fer ence is due to di ver sity of Karma, f or if the Lord di rects Karma, they will be come mu tu ally de pend ent. Y ou can - not ex plain this on the ground of beginninglessness, for the de fect of mu tual de pend ence will per sist. Your doc trine is in ap pro pri ate be cause you hold the Lord to be a spe cial kind of soul. From t his it fol lows that He must be de void of al l ac tiv ity . The Sutrakara him self has proved in the pre vi ous Sec tion of t his book that the Lord is the m a te rial cause as well as the ruler of the world (ef fi cient or the op er a tive cause). It is im pos si ble that t he Lord should be the mere ef fi cient cause of the world, be cause His con nec tion with t he world can not be es tab - lished. In or di nary worldly lif e we see that a pot ter who is merely the ef fi cient cause of the pot has a cer tain con nec tion with t he clay with which he fash ions the pot. The Srutis em phat i cally de clare I will be come many (Tait. Up. II.6). This in di cates that the Lord is bot h the ef fi cient and the ma te rial cause of the uni verse.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 227 g~YmZw nnmo& Samband hanup apattescha II.2.38 (209) And because relat ion (between th e Lord an d the Pradha na or the soul s) is not pos sible. Sambandha: relation; Anup apatteh: because of the impossibilit y; Cha: and. The ar gu ment against t he Pasup ata view is con tin ued. A Lord who is dis tinct from t he Pradhana and the souls can not be the ruler of the l at ter with out be ing con nected with them i n a cer tain way. It can not be con junc tion (Samy oga), be cause the Lord, the Pradhana and the souls are of in fi nite ex tent and des ti tute of parts. Hence they can not be ruled by Him. There could not be Samav aya-sambandha (in her ence) which sub sist s be tween en ti ties in sep a ra bly con nected as whole and part, sub stance and at trib utes etc., (as in t he case of T antu-p ata, thread and cloth), be cause it would be im pos si ble to de fine who should be the abode and who the abid ing thing. The dif fi culty does not arise in t he case of the V edantins. They say that B rah man is Abhinna-Nimit ta-Upadana, the ef fi cient cause and the ma te rial cause of the world. They af firm Tadatmya-sambandha (re la tion of iden tity). Fur ther they de pend on the Sruti s for their au thor ity. They de fine the na ture of the cause and so on, on the ba sis of Sruti. They are, t here fore, not obl iged to ren der their ten et s en tirely con form able to ob ser va tion as the op po nent s have to. The Pasup atas can not say that they hav e the sup port of the Aga ma (T an tras) for af firm ing Om ni science about God. Such a st ate - ment suf fers from the de fect of a log i cal see-saw ( pe titio principii ), be - cause the om ni science of the Lord is es tab lished on the doc trine of the scrip ture and the au thor ity of the scrip ture is again es tab lished on the om ni science of the Lord. For all these rea sons, such doc trines of Sankhyay oga about the Lord is de void of f oun da tion and is in cor rect. Other sim i lar doc trines which like wise are not based on the V eda are to be re futed by cor re - spond ing ar gu ment s. A{YR>m ZmZwnnmo& Adhishthananup apattescha II.2.39 (210) And on a ccount of the imposs ibility of rulersh ip (on the par t of the Lo rd). Adhisthana: rulership; Anup apatteh: because of the impossibilit y; Cha: and. The ar gu ment against t he Pasup ata view is con tin ued.BRAHMA SU TRAS 228 The Lord of the ar gu men t a tive phi los o phers, such as Naiyayikas, etc., is un ten a ble hy poth e sis. There is an other log i cal fal - lacy in the Ny aya con cep tion of I svara. They say that t he Lord cre ates the world with the help of Pradhana, etc. , just as a pot ter makes pot s with the mud. But this can not be ad mit ted, be cause the Pradhana which is de - void of col our and other qual i ties and there fore not an ob ject of per - cep tion, is on t hat ac count of an en tirely di f fer ent na ture from clay and the like. There fore, it can not be looked upon as the ob ject of the Lord s ac tion. The Lord can not di rect the Pradhana. There is an other mean ing also for this Su tra. In t his world we see a king with a body and never a king with out a body . There fore, the Lord also must have a body which will serve as t he sub stra tum of his or gans. How can we as cribe a body to the Lord, be cause a body is only pos te rior to cre ation? The Lord, there fore, is not able t o act be cause he is de void of a ma te rial sub stra tum, be cause ex pe ri ence teaches us that ac tion needs a ma te rial sub stra tum. I f we as sume that the L ord pos sesses some kind of body which serves as a sub stra tum for his or gans prior to cre ation, t his as sump tion also will not do, be cause if the Lord has a body He is sub ject to the sen sa tions of the or di nary souls and thus no lon ger is the Lord. The Lord s putt ing on a body also can not be es tab lished. So t he Lord of an i mals (Pasup ati) can not be the ruler of m at ter (Pradhana). That by put t ing on a body the Lord be comes the ef fi cient cause of the world is also fal la cious. In the world it is ob served that a pot ter hav ing a bodily f orm fash ions a pot with the clay . If from this anal ogy the Lord is in ferred to be the ef fi cient cause of the world, He is to be ad mit ted to have a bodily form. B ut all bod ies are per ish able. Ev en the Pasup atas ad mit that the Lord is eter nal. It is un ten a ble that t he eter nal Lord re - sides in a per ish able body and so be comes de pend ent on an other ad di tional cause. Hence it can not be in ferred that t he Lord has any bodily f orm. There is still an other mean ing. Fur ther, there is in his case the im pos si bil ity (ab sence) of place. For an agent like the pot ter etc., stands on the ground and does his work. He has a place to stand upon. Pasup ati does not pos sess that. H$aUdo ^ moJm{X `& Karanavacchenna bhogadibhy ah II.2.40 (21 1) If it be said (that the Lord rules the Prad hana etc.,) jus t as (th e Jiva rules) the senses (which are also not perceive d), (we say) no, because of the enjoyment, etc. Karanav at: like the senses; Chet: if, if it be conceived. Na: not (no it cannot be accepted); Bhogadibhy ah: because of enjoyment, etc.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 229 An ob jec tion against S u tra 38 is raised and re futed. The Su tra con sists of two p arts, namely an ar gu ment and it s re - ply. The ar gu ment is Karanavacchet and the re ply is Na bhogadibhyah . The op po nent says: Just as the in di vid ual soul rules the sense or gans which are not per ceived, so also the Lord rules the P radhana, etc. The anal ogy is not cor rect, be cause the in di vid ual soul feels plea sure and pain. If the anal ogy be true, t he Lord also would ex pe ri - ence plea sure and pain, caused by the Pradhana etc. , and hence would for feit His God head. AVd d_gdk Vm dm Antavattvam asarv ajnat a va II.2.41 (212) (There would f ollow from th eir doct rine the Lor ds) being subject t o destruc tion or His non- omni science. Antavattvam: finiteness, t erminableness, subject to destruction; Asarv ajnat a: absence of Omniscience; Va: or. The ar gu ment raised in Su tra 40 is fur ther re futed and t hus the Pasup ata doc trine is re futed. Ac cord ing to these schools (Nyaya, P asupat a, the Mahesv ara, etc.), t he Lord is Om ni scient and eter nal. The Lord, t he Pradhana and the souls are in fi nite and sep a rate. Does the Om ni scient Lord know the mea sure of the Pradhana, soul and Him self or not? If the Lord knows their mea sure, they all are lim ited. There fore a time will come when they will all cease to ex ist. If Samsara ends and thus there is no more Pradhana, of what can God be the ba sis or His lord ship? Or , over what is His Om ni science to ex tend? If na ture and souls are fi nite, they must have a be gin ning. If they hav e a be gin ning and end, there will be scope for Sunyav ada, the doc trine of not h ing ness. If He does not know them, t hen he would no lon ger be Om ni scient. In ei ther case the doc trine of t he Lord s be ing the mere ef fi cient cause of the world is un ten a ble, in con sis tent and un ac cept able. If God be ad mit ted to hav e or gans of senses and so to be sub - ject to plea sure and pain, as st ated in Su tra 40, He is sub ject to birth and death like an or di nary man. He be comes de void of Om ni science. This sort of God is not ac cepted by the P asupat as even. Hence the doc trine of t he Pasup atas, that God i s not the ma te rial cause of the world can not be ac cepted. Utpattyasambhav adhikaranam : Topic 8 (Sutras 42-45) Refut ation of t he Bhagavat a or the Pancharatra school Cn`g^dmV& Utpattyasambhav at II.2.42 (213)BRAHMA SU TRAS 230 On a ccount o f the imp ossibility of th e origina tion ( of the individual soul f rom t he High est Lor d), (the doct rine of th e Bhagavatas or t he Pancharatr a doctrine cannot be accepted ). Utpatti: causation, originati on, creation; Asambhav at: on account of the impossib ility. The Pancharatra doc trine or the doc trine of t he Bhagavat as is now re futed. Ac cord ing to this school, t he Lord is the ef fi cient cause as well as the ma te rial cause of the uni verse. This is in quite agree ment with the scrip ture or the Sruti and so it is au thor i ta tive. A part of thei r sys - tem agrees with the V edant a sys tem. W e ac cept this. A n other p art of the sys tem, how ever, is open to ob jec tion. The Bhagavat as say that V aasudeva whose na ture is pure knowl edge is what re ally ex ists. He di vides Him self four fold and ap - pears in four forms (V yuhas) as V aasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and A niruddha. V aasudeva de notes the Su preme Self, Sankarshana the in di vid ual soul, Pradyum na the mind, and Aniruddha the prin ci ple of ego ism, or Ahamkara. Of these four , Vaasudeva con sti tutes the Ul ti mate Cause, of which the t hree oth ers are the ef fects. They say t hat by de vo tion for a long pe riod to V aasudeva through Abhigamana (go ing to the t em ple with de vo tion), Up adana (se cur ing the ac ces so ries of wor ship), Ijya (ob la tion, wor ship), Svadhy aya (study of holy scrip ture and rec i ta tion of Mant ras) and Yoga (de vout med i ta tion) we can p ass be yond all af flic tions, p ains and sor rows, at tain Lib er a tion and reach the Su preme Be ing. W e ac - cept this doc trine. But we con tro vert the doc trine that Sankarshana (the Jiva) is born from V aasudeva and so on. Such cre ation is not pos si ble. If there is such birth, if t he soul be cre ated it would be sub ject to de - struc tion and hence there could be no Lib er a tion. That the soul is not cre ated will be shown in Su tra II. 3.17. For this rea son the Pancharatra doc trine is not ac cept able. Z M H$Vw H$a U_& Na cha kartuh karanam II.2.43 (214) And (i t is) not (observed th at) the in strument ( is produced) from the agent. Na: not; Cha: and; Kartuh: from the agent ; Karanam: the instrument. The ar gu ment against t he Pancharatra doc trine is con tin ued.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 231 An in stru ment such as a hatchet and the li ke is not seen to be pro duced from the agent, the wood cut ter. But the Bhagav atas teach that f rom an agent, v iz., the i n di vid ual soul termed Sankarshana, there springs it s in ter nal in stru ment or mind (Prady umna) and from the mind, t he ego or Ahamkara (Aniruddha). The mind is the in stru ment of t he soul. No where do we see the in stru ment be ing born from the doer . Nor can we ac cept that Ahamkara is sues from the mind. T his doc trine can not be ac cepted. Such doc trine can not be set tled with out ob served in stances. W e do not meet wit h any scrip tural p as sage in it s fa vour. The scrip ture de - clares that ev ery thing t akes it s or i gin from Brah man. {dkmZm{ X^mdo dm V X{VfoY& Vijnanad ibhav e va tadapratishedhah II.2.44 (215) Or if t he (four Vyuhas are said to) possess infinit e knowled ge, etc., yet there is no denial o f that (v iz., the objection rais ed in Sutra 42). Vijnanadibhav e: if intel ligence etc. exi st; Va: or, on the ot her hand; Tat: that ( Tasya it i); Apratishedhah: no denial (of). ( Vijnana : knowledge; Adi: and the rest; Bhav e: of the nat ure (of).) The ar gu ment against t he Pancharatra doc trine is con tin ued. The er ror of the doc trine will per sist even if t hey say that all the Vyuhas are gods hav ing in tel li gence, etc. The Bhagavat as may say , that all the forms are V aasudeva, the Lord, and that al l of them equal ly pos sess Knowl edge, Lord ship, Strength, P ower , etc., and are free from fault s and im per fec tions. In this case there will be more t han one Isvara. This goes against your own doc trine ac cord ing to which there is only one real es sence, viz., t he holy V aasudeva. All the work can be done by only One Lord. Why should there be f our Isvaras? More over, there could be no birth of one from an other , be cause they are equal ac cord ing to the B hagavat as, whereas a cause is al - ways greater than the ef fect. Ob ser va tion shows that the re la tion of cause and ef fect re quires some su pe ri or ity on t he part of the cause, as for in stance, in the case of the clay and the pot, where the cause is more ex ten sive than t he ef fect and that with out such su pe ri or ity the re la tion is sim ply im pos si ble. The Bhagav atas do not ac knowl edge any dif fer ence founded on su pe ri or ity of knowl edge, power , etc., be - tween V aasudeva and the other Lords, but sim ply say t hat they are all forms of V aasudeva with out any spe cial dis tinc tion. Then again, the f orms of V aasudeva can not be lim ited to f our only, as the whole world from Brahm a down to a blade of grass is aBRAHMA SU TRAS 232 form or man i fes ta tion of t he Su preme Be ing. The whole world is the Vyuha of V aasudeva. {d{VfoYm& Vipratishedh accha II.2.45 (216) And becau se of contradictions ( the Pancharat ra doctrin e is untenable ). Vipratishedhat: because of contradiction; Cha: and. The ar gu ment against t he doc trine of t he Bhagavat as is con - cluded here. There are also other in con sis ten cies, or man i fold con tra dic tions in the Pancharatra doc trine. Jnana, A isvarya, or rul ing ca pac ity, Sakti (cre ative power), B ala (strength), V irya (val our) and T ejas (glory) are enu mer ated as qual i ties and they are again in some other place spo - ken of as selfs, holy V aasudevas and so on. It say s that V aasudeva is dif fer ent from S ankarshana, Pradyumna and Ani ruddha. Y et it say s that t hese are the same as V aasudeva. Som e times it speaks of the four forms as qual i ties of the A t man and some times as the At man it - self. Fur ther we meet with p as sages con tra dic tory to t he V edas. It con tains words of de pre ci a tion of t he Vedas. It say s that Sandil ya got the Pancharatra doc trine af ter find ing that t he Vedas did not con tain the means of per fec tion. Not hav ing found the high est bliss in the Vedas, Sandily a stud ied this Sastra. For this rea son also the Bhagavat a doc trine can not be ac - cepted. As thi s sys tem is op posed to and con demned by all t he Srutis and abhored by the wise, it is not wor thy of re gard. Thus in this Pada has been shown that t he paths of Sankhy as, Vaiseshikas and the rest down to the Pancharatra doc trine are strewn with thorns and are full of dif fi cul ties, while t he path of V edant a is free from all these de fects and should be trod den by ev ery one who wishes his fi nal be at i tude and sal va tion. Thus ends the Sec ond Pada (Sec tion 2) of the Sec ond Adhy aya (Chap ter II) of the B rahmasutras or the Vedant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 2 233 CHAPTER II SECTION 3 INTRODUCTION In the pre vi ous Sec tion the in con sis tency of t he doc trines of the var i ous non-V edantic schools has been shown. Af ter show ing the untenabilit y and un re li abil ity of other sys tems, Sri V yasa, the au thor of Vedant a Sutras now pro ceeds to ex plain the ap par ent con tra dic tions and in con sis ten cies in the Sruti sy s tem be cause there ap pear to be di ver si ties of doc trines with ref er ence to the or i gin of the el e ment s, the senses, etc. We now clearly un der stand that ot her philo soph i cal doc trines are worth less on ac count of their mu tual con tra dic tions. Now a sus pi - cion may arise that t he Vedantic doc trine also is equally worth less on ac count of its in trin sic con tra dic tions. There fore a new dis cus sion is be gun in or der to re move all doubt s in the V edant a pas sages which re fer to cre ation and thus to re move the sus pi cion in the minds of t he read ers. Here we have to con sider first the ques tion whether ether (Akasa) has an or i gin or not. In Sec tions III and IV t he ap par ent con tra dic tions in Sruti texts are beau ti fully har mo nised and rec on ciled. The ar gu ment s of the op - po nent (Purvap akshin) who at tempt s to prove the S elf-con tra dic tion of the scrip tural tex ts are given first. Then co mes the ref u ta tion by t he Siddhantin. 234 SYNOPSIS The Third Sec tion of Chap ter II deal s with the or der of cre ation as it is t aught in Srut i, of t he five pri mal el e ment s namely Akasa, air , fire, wa ter and earth. I t dis cusses the ques tion whether the el e ment s have an or i gin or not, whether t hey are co-eter nal with Brah man or is - sue from it and are with drawn into it at stated in ter vals. The es sen tial char ac ter is tics of the in di vid ual is also as cer tai ned. The first seven A dhikaranas deal with the fiv e el e men tary sub - stances. Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-7) teaches that the et her is not co-eter - nal with Brah man but orig i nates from it as it s first ef fect. Though t here is no men tion of A kasa in the Chhandogya Up anisad, the in clu sion of Akasa is im plied. Adhikarana II: (Su tra 8) shows that air orig i nates from ether . Adhikarana III : (Su tra 9) teaches that t here is no or i gin of that which is (i.e., B rah man) on ac count of the im pos si bil ity of there be ing an or i gin of Brah man, and as it does not st and to rea son. Adhikarana IV , V, VI: (Sutras 10, 1 1, 12) teach that fire springs from air , wa ter from fi re, earth from wa ter. Adhikarana VII : (Su tra 13) teaches that t he orig i na tion of one el - e ment from an other is due not to t he lat ter in it self but to B rah man act - ing in it. Brah man who is their Indweller has ac tu ally ev olved these suc ces s ive el e ment s. Adhikarana VII I: (Su tra 14) shows that the ab sorp tion of t he el e - ment s into Brah man t akes place in the in verse or der of their cre ation. Adhikarana IX: (Su tra 15) teaches that t he or der in which the cre ation and the re-ab sorp tion of t he el e ment s takes place is not in - ter fered with by t he cre ation and re-ab sorp tion of P rana, mind and the senses, be cause they also are the cre ations of Brah man, and are of el e men tal na ture and there fore are cre ated and ab sorbed to gether with the el e ment s of which they con sist. The re main ing por tion of t his Sec tion is de voted t o the spe cial char ac ter is tics of the in di vid ual soul by com p ar ing dif fer ent Srutis bear ing on this point. Adhikarana X: (Su tra 16) shows that ex pres sions such as Ramakrishna is born Ramakrishna has died, strictly ap ply to t he body only and are t rans ferred to the soul in so far only as it is con - nected with a body . Adhikarana XI: (Su tra 17) teaches that t he in di vid ual soul is ac - cord ing to the S rutis per ma nent, et er nal. There fore it is not l ike the ether and the other el e ment s, pro duced from Brah man at the t ime of 235 cre ation. The Jiv a is in re al ity iden ti cal with Brah man. What orig i nates is merely the soul s con nec tion with it s lim it ing ad junct s such as mind, body , senses, etc. This con nec tion is more over il lu sory. Adhikarana XII : (Su tra 18) de fines the na ture of the i n di vid ual soul. The Su tra de clares that in tel li gence is the very es sence of the soul. Adhikarana XII I: (Sutras 19-32) deals with the ques tion whether the in di vid ual soul is Anu, i. e., of very min ute size or om ni pres ent, all-per vad ing. The Sut ras 19-28 rep re sent the vi ew of the Purvap akshin ac cord ing to which the in di vid ual soul is Anu, while S u - tra 29 for mu lates the Si ddhant a viz., the in di vid ual soul is in re al ity all-per vad ing; it i s spo ken of as Anu in some scrip tural p as sages be - cause the qual i ties of the i n ter nal or gan it self are Anu which con sti tute the es sence of the Jiva so long as he is in volved i n the Samsara. Su tra 30 ex plains that t he soul may be called Anu as it is con - nected with the B uddhi as long as it is im pli cated in the Sam sara. Su tra 31 in ti mates that i n the st ate of deep sleep the soul i s po - ten tially con nected with the B uddhi while in the wak ing st ate that con - nec tion be comes ac tu ally man i fest. Su tra 32 in ti mates that i f no in tel lect ex isted there would re sult con st ant per cep tion or con st ant non-per cep tion. Adhikaranas XIV and X V: (Sutras 33-39 and 40) re fer to the Kartritv a of the in di vid ual soul, whether the soul is an agent or not. Sutras 33-39 de clare that the soul is an agent . The soul is an agent when he is con nected with the in stru ment s of ac tion, B uddhi, etc. Su tra 40 in ti mates that he ceases to be an agent when he is dis - so ci ated from t hem, just as the car pen ter works as long as he wields his in stru ment s and rests af ter hav ing laid them aside. Adhikarana XVI : (Sutras 41-42) teaches that the agent ship of the in di vid ual soul is ver ily sub or di nate to and con trolled by t he Su - preme Lord. The Lord al ways di rects the soul ac cord ing to his good or bad ac tions done in pre vi ous births. Adhikarana XVI I (Sutras 43-53) treat s of the re la tion of t he in di - vid ual soul to Brah man. Su tra 43 de clares that the in di vid ual soul is a p art (Amsa) of Brah man. This Su tra pro pounds A vacchedavada i.e. , the doc trine of lim i ta tion i.e. , the doc trine that the soul is the Su preme Self in so f ar as lim ited by i ts ad junct s. The fol low ing Sutras in ti mate that the Su preme Lord is not af - fected by pl ea sure and pain l ike the in di vid ual soul, just as light is un - af fected by t he shak ing of it s re flec tions. Ac cord ing to Sankara, A msa must be un der stood to mean Amsa iva , a part as it were. The one uni ver sal in di vis i ble Brah manBRAHMA SU TRAS 236 has no real part s but ap pears to be di vided ow ing to it s lim it ing ad - junct s. Su tra 47 teaches that t he in di vid ual souls are re quired to fol low the dif fer ent in junc tions and pro hi bi tions laid down in the scrip tures, when they are con nected with bod ies, high and low . Fire is one only but the f ire of a fu neral pyre is re jected and that of the sac ri fice is ac - cepted. Sim i lar is the case with the At man. When the soul is at tached to the body , eth i cal rules, ideas of pu rity and im pu rity hav e full ap pli ca - tion. Su tra 49 shows that there is no con fu sion of ac tions or fault s of ac tions. The in di vid ual soul has no con nec tion with all the bod ies at the same time. He is con nected with one body onl y and he is af fected by the pe cu liar prop er ties of that one alone. Su tra 50 pro pounds the doc trine of re flec tion (Abhasavada) or Pratibimbav ada, the doc trine that the in di vid ual soul is a mere re flec - tion of t he Su preme Brah man in the Buddhi or in tel lect. In the S ankhya phi los o phy the in di vid ual soul has been st ated to be all-per vad ing. If this view be ac cepted there would be con fu sion of works and their ef fects. This view of t he Sankhyas is, there fore, an un fair con clu sion. Viyadadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-7) Ether is not et ernal but created Z {d`Xl wVo& Na v iyadasruteh II.3.1 (217) (The P urvapakshin, i .e., the objector s ays th at) ether (Ak asa) (does) not (originate), as Sr uti does n ot say so. Na: not; Viyat: ether , space, Akasa; Asruteh: as Sruti does not say so. The op po nent raises a con ten tion that Akasa is uncreated and as such not pro duced out of Brah man. This prima f a cie view is set aside in the next Su tra. To be gin with, t he text s which treat of cre ation are t aken up. Akasa (ether) is first dealt wit h. The Purv apakshin says that Akasa is not caused or cre ated be cause there is no Sruti to t hat ef fect. A kasa is eter nal and is not caused be cause the Sruti does not call it caused, while it re fers to the cre ation of f ire. Tadaikshat a bahu syam prajayeyeti t attejo srijat a It thought May I be come many , may I grow forthI t sent fort h fire. (Chh. Up. V I.2.3). Here there is no men tion of Akasa be ing pro duced by Brah man. As scrip tural sen tence is our only au thor ity in the orig i na tion of knowl edge of supersensuous things, and as there is no scrip tural st ate ment de clar ing the or i gin of ether , ether must be con sid ered to have no or i gin. There fore Akasa has no or i gin. It is eter nal.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 237 In the V edantic tex ts, we come across in dif fer ent places dif fer - ent st ate ment s re gard ing the or i gin of var i ous things. Some t exts say that t he ether and air orig i nated; some do not . Some ot her text s again make sim i lar st ate ment s re gard ing the in di vid ual soul and the Pranas (vi tal airs). In some places the Srut i text s con tra dict one an other re - gard ing or der of suc ces sion and the like. ApV Vw & Asti tu II.3.2 (218) But there is (a Sruti t ext which stat es that Akasa is created). Asti: there is; Tu: but. The con tra dic tion raised in Su tra 1 is p ar tially met here. The word but (tu) is used in this Su tra in or der to re move the doubt raised in the pre ced ing Su tra. But there is a Sruti which ex pressly says so. Though there is no state ment in the Chhandogy a Up anishad re gard ing the cau sa tion of Akasa, yet t here is a pas sage in the T aittiriy a Sruti on it s cau sa tion: Tasmad va et asmadatm ana akasah sambhut ahFrom the Self (Brah man) sprang Akasa, from Akasa the air , from air t he fire, f rom fire the wa ter, from wa ter the earth (T ait. Up. II.1). Jm`g^dmV & Gauny asambhav at II.3.3 (219) (The Sruti tex t conce rning the o rigination of A kasa) has a secondary sense , on account of t he impossibility (of t he origination of the Akasa ). Gauni: used in a secondary sense, having a met aphorical sense; Asambhav at: because of the impossibilit y. Here is an ob jec tion against S u tra 20. The op po nent says: The T aittiriy a text re ferred to in the pre vi ous Su tra which de clares the orig i na tion of t he Akasa should be t aken in a sec ond ary sense (fig u ra tive), as Akasa can not be cre ated. I t has no parts. There fore it can not be cre ated. The V aiseshikas deny that Akasa was caused. They say t hat cau sa tion im plies three fac tors, viz. , Samav ayikarana (in her ent causesmany and sim i lar fac tors), Asamavay ikarana (non-in her ent causes, their com bi na tion) and Nimitt akarana (op er a tive causes, a hu man agency). T o make a cloth, threads and thei r com bi na tion and a weaver are needed. Such causal fac tors do not ex ist in the case of Akasa. We can not pred i cate of sp ace a spaceless st ate, just as we can pred i cate of fire an an te ced ent st ate with out bright ness.BRAHMA SU TRAS 238 Fur ther un like earth, etc. , Akasa is all-per vad ing and hence could not have been caused or cre ated. I t is eter nal. It is with out or i - gin. The word Akasa is used in a sec ond ary sense in such phrases as make room, there is room. Al though sp ace is only one, it is des - ig nated as be ing of dif fer ent kinds when we speak of the sp ace of a pot, t he space of a house. Even i n Ve dic p as sages a form of ex pres - sion such as He is to place the wild an i mals in the sp aces (Akaseshu) is seen. Hence we con clude that those S ruti tex ts also which speak of the orig i na tion of A kasa must be t aken to have a sec - ond ary sense or fig u ra tiv e mean ing. eXm& Sabdaccha II.3.4 (220) Also from the Sruti te xts (we find th at Ak asa is eternal). Sabdat: from the S ruti tex ts, because Sruti says so; Cha: also, and. Here is an ob jec tion against S u tra 2. In the pre vi ous Su tra Akasa was in ferred to be eter nal. In t his Su tra the op po nent cites a Sruti text to show that it is eter nal. He point s out that S ruti de scribes Akasa as unc aused and uncreated. Vayuschantariksham chait adamrit amThe air and the Akasa are im mor tal (Br . Up. II .3.3). What is im mor tal can not have an or i gin. An other scrip tural pas sage, Om ni pres ent and eter nal like ether Akasavat sarvagato nityah , in di cates that those t wo qual i - ties of Brah man be long to the et her also. Hence an or i gin can not be at trib uted to t he Akasa. Other scrip tural p as sages are: As this Akasa is in fi nite, so the Self is t o be known as in fi nite. Brah man has the ether for it s body , the Akasa is the Self . If t he Akasa had a be gin ning it could not be pred i cated of Brah man as we pred i cate blue ness of a lo tus (lo tus is blue). There fore the eter nal Brah man is of the same na ture as Akasa. (This is the view of t he op po nentPurv apakshin). `mH$` ~eXd V & Syacchaikasy a Brahmasabdav at II.3.5 (221) It is p ossib le that the one word (s prangSam bhutah) ma y be used in a se condary and primar y sense like the word Brahman. Syat: is possible; Cha: also, and; Ekasy a: of the one and t he same word; Brahmasabdav at: like the word Brahman. An ar gu ment in sup port of the abov e ob jec tion is now ad vanced by the op po nent (Purvap akshin).CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 239 The op po nent says that the same word sprang (Sambhut ah) in the T aittiriy a text (II.1)From t hat Brah man sprang Akasa, from Akasa sprang air , from air sprang fire. can be used in a sec ond ary sense with re spect to Akasa and in the pri mary sense with re spect to air, fire, etc. He sup ports his st ate ment by m ak ing ref er ence to other Sruti t exts where the word Brah man is so used. T ry to know Brah - man by pen ance, be cause, pen ance is Brah man (T ait. Up. III.2). Here Brah man is used both in a pri mary and in a sec ond ary sense in the same tex t. The same word Brah man is in the way of fig u ra tive iden ti fi ca tion (Bhakti) ap plied to pen ance which is only the means of know ing Brah - man and again di rectly to B rah man as the ob ject of knowl edge. Also Food is Brah man Annam Brahma (Tait. U p. III.2) , and Bliss is Brah man Anando Brahm a (Tait. Up . III.6). H ere Brah man is used in a sec ond ary and pri mary sense re spec tively in two com ple - men t ary texts. The V edantin says: B ut how can we up hold now the va lid ity of the st ate ment made in t he clause, Brah man is one only with out a sec ond Ekameva Advit iyam B rahma . Be cause if Akasa is a sec - ond en tity co-ex ist ing with Brah man from eter nity, it fol lows that Brah - man has a sec ond. If it is so, how can it be said that when Brah man is known ev ery thing is known? (Chh. Up. VI. 1.3). The op po nent re plies that t he words Ekameva one only are used with ref er ence to the ef fects. Just as when a man sees in a pot - ters house a lump of clay , a staff, a wheel and so on to day and on the fol low ing day a num ber of pot s and says that clay alone ex isted on the pre vi ous day , he means only t hat the ef fects, i.e., the pot s did not ex ist and does not deny the wheel or t he stick of the pot ter, even so the pas sage means only that t here is no other cause for Brah man which is the ma te rial cause of the world. The t erm with out a sec ond does not ex clude the ex is tence from eter nity of ether but ex cludes the ex is - tence of any ot her su per in tend ing Be ing but Brah man. There is a su - per in tend ing pot ter in ad di tion to t he ma te rial cause of the ves sels, i.e., the clay . But there is no other su per in ten dent in ad di tion to B rah - man, the m a te rial cause of the uni verse. The op po nent fur ther adds that t he ex is tence of Akasa will not bring about the ex is tence of two t hings, for num ber co mes in only when there are di verse things. Brah man and Akasa have no such di - verse ness be fore cre ation as both are all-per vad ing and in fi nite and are in dis tin guish able like milk and wa ter mixed t o gether . There fore the Sruti says: Akasasariram Brahm aBrah man has the ether for it s body. It fol lows that the t wo are iden ti cal. More over all cre ated things are one with A kasa which is one with Brah man. There fore if B rah man is known with it s ef fects, Akasa also is known.BRAHMA SU TRAS 240 The case is sim i lar to that of a few drop s of wa ter poured into a cup of milk. These drop s are t aken when the milk is t aken. The t ak ing of the drop s does not form some thing ad di tional to t he tak ing of the milk. Si m i larly the A kasa which is non-s ep a rate in place and time f rom Brah man, and it s ef fects, is com prised within Brah man. There fore, we have to un der stand the p as sages about the or i gin of the et her in a sec ond ary sense. Thus the op po nent (Purvap akshin) tries to es tab lish that A kasa is uncreated and is not an ef fect and that the Sruti text calls it Sambhut a (cre ated) only in a sec ond ary sense. {Vkm@hm{Za`{ VaoH$mN>Xo` & Pratijn ahanirav yatirekacchabdebhy ah II.3.6 (222) The non-a bandon ment of the pr oposit ion ( viz., by t he knowle dge of one everything e lse become s kno wn, can res ult only) from the non- difference (of the entire world from Brah man) according to the word s of th e Veda or th e Sruti te xts (which declare the non-difference of the cause and its effects). Pratijn a ahanih: non-abandonment of t he proposition; Avyatirekat: from non distincti on, on account of non-dif ference, because of absence of exclusion; Sabdebhy ah: from the words namely f rom the Srutis. The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 1 and con tin ued in Sutras 3, 4 and 5 is now re plied to. The Sutrakara re futes the P urvap akshin s (ob jec tors) view and es tab lishes his po si tion. The scrip tural as ser tion that from the knowl - edge of One (Brah man) ev ery thing else is known can be true only if ev ery thing in the world is an ef fect of B rah man. Be cause the Sruti says that t he ef fects are not dif fer ent from t he cause, there fore if t he cause (Brah man) is known, the ef fects also will be known. If Akasa does not orig i nate from B rah man, then by know ing Brah man we can - not know Akasa. There fore the above as ser tion will not come true. Akasa still re mains to be known as it is not an ef fect of B rah man. But if Akasa is cre ated then t here will be no such dif fi culty at all. There fore Akasa is an ef fect. I t is cre ated. I f it is not cre ated the au thor i ta tive - ness of the V edas will dis ap pear. The op po nent is en tirely wrong in imag in ing that t he Taittiriy a Sruti is in con flict wit h Chhandogya Up anishad. Y ou will have to add in the Chhandogya Srut i Af ter cre at ing Akasa and V ayu. Then t he text would mean that af ter cre at ing Akasa and V ayu Brah man cre ated fire. Now there will be no con flict at all. More over, the ex pla na tion that as Brah man and Akasa are one like milk and wa ter and that as A kasa is one with all things it will be known by know ing Brah man and it s ef fects is en tirely wrong, be cause the knowl edge of milk and wa ter which are one is not a cor rect knowl -CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 241 edge. The anal ogy given i n the Sruti text is not milk and wa ter, but clay and jars to in di cate that all ef fects are not sep a rate from the cause and be cause the word eva in Ekameva Adv itiyam ex cludes two com bined things like milk and wa ter and says that onl y one en tity is the cause. The knowl edge of ev ery thing through t he knowl edge of one thing of which the S ruti speaks can not be ex plained through the anal - ogy of mi lk mixed with wa ter, for we un der stand from the p ar al lel in - stance of a piece of clay be ing brought for ward, (Chh. Up. VI. 1.4), that the knowl edge of ev ery thing has to be ex pe ri enced through the re la - tion of t he ma te rial cause and the ma te rial ef fect. The knowl edge of the cause im plies the knowl edge of the ef fect. Fur ther, the knowl edge of ev ery thing, if taken to be sim i lar to the case of knowl edge of milk and wa ter, could not be called a per fect knowl edge (Samyag-V ijnana), be cause the wa ter which is ap pre hended only through the knowl edge of the mi lk with which it is mix ed is not grasped by per fect knowl edge, be cause the wa ter al though mix ed with the milk, yet is dif fer ent from it. That noth ing has an in de pend ent ex is tence ap art from Brah man is cor rob o rated by st ate ment s in Sruti: Sarvam khalvidam Brahma Idam sarvam yadayamatm a. Tha t Self is all tha t is (Bri. Up. II.4 .6). `md{H $ma Vw {d^mJmo bmo H$dV& Yavadvikaram tu v ibhago l okav at II.3.7 (223) But whe rever th ere are effects, the re are separate ness as is seen in the world (as in o rdinary life). Yavat vikaram: so far as all modificati ons go, wherever there is an effect; Tu: but; Vibhagah: division, sep arateness, distinction, specification; Lokav at: as in the world. ( Yavat: whatever; Vikaram: transformation. ) The ar gu ment be gun in Su tra 6 is con cluded here. The word tu (but) re futes the idea t hat Akasa is not cre ated. I t shows that the doubt raised in t he last Su tra is be ing re moved. The Chhandogya Up anishad pur posely omit s Akasa and V ayu from the list enu mer ated, be cause it keep s in view the pro cess of Trivritkarana, com bi na tion of t he three vis i ble el e ment s (Murt a, i.e. , with form), i n stead of Panchikarana, com bi na tion of f ive el e ment s which is else where de vel oped. It is to be not ed here that though al l the el e ment s orig i nate from Brah man, yet Akasa and air are not men tioned by nam e in the Srut i, Chhandogya Up anishad, whereas fire, wa ter and earth are dis tinctly stated therein t o have orig i nated from B rah man. The spec i fi ca tion is like that f ound in sim i lar cases of or di nary ex pe ri ence in the world, forBRAHMA SU TRAS 242 in stance, to mean all t he sons of a p ar tic u lar per son, Ramakrishna, only a few of them are named. This is just like what we find in t he or di nary world. If a man says all these are sons of Narayana and then he gives cer tain p ar tic u lars about the birt h of one of t hem, he im plies thereby t hat it ap plies to the birth of all t he rest. Ev en so when the Up anishad says that all t his has its self in Brah man and then it goes on t o give the or i gin of some of them from B rah man such as fire, wa ter and earth, it does not mean that ot h ers have not their or i gin in Him, but it only means that it was not thought nec es sary to give a de tailed ac count of their or i gin. There fore, though t here is no ex press text in t he Chhandogya Upanishad as to the or i gin of Akasa, y et we in fer from the uni ver sal prop o si tion therein t hat ev ery thing has it s self in Brah man, that Akasa has it s self in Brah man, and so is pro duced from Brah man. Akasa is an el e ment like fi re and air . There fore it must hav e an or i gin. It is the sub stra tum of im per ma nent qual ity like the sound, and so it must be im per ma nent. This is t he di rect ar gu ment to prov e the or i gin and de struc tion of A kasa. The in di rect ar gu ment to prov e it is, what ever has no or i gin is eter nal as Brah man and what ever has per ma nent qual i ties is eter nal as the soul, but A kasa not be ing like Brah man in these re spect s, can not be eter nal. Akasa t akes it s or i gin from Brah man, though we can not con - ceive how sp ace can have any or i gin. We see in this uni verse that all cre ated things are dif fer ent from each other . What ever we ob serve: ef fects or mod i fi ca tions of a sub - stance such as jars , pots, brace lets, arm lets, and ear-rings, nee dles, ar rows, and swords w e ob serve di vi sion or sep a rate ness. What ever is di vided or sep a rate is an ef fect, as jars, pot s, etc. What ever is not an ef fect is not di vided as the At man or Brah man. A pot is dif fer ent from a piece of cloth and so on. Ev ery thing that is di vided or sep a rate is cre ated. I t can not be eter nal. Y ou can not think of a t hing as sep a - rate from oth ers and yet eter nal. Akasa is sep a rate from earth, etc. Hence Akasa also must be an ef fect. I t can not be eter nal. It must be a cre ated thing. If you say that A t man also, be ing ap par ently sep a rate from Akasa etc., must be an ef fect we re ply that it is not so, be cause Akasa it self has orig i nated from A t man. The Srut i de clares that Akasa sprang from the At man (T ait. Up. II.1). If A t man also is an ef fect, Akasa etc., will be wit h out an At man i.e., Svarup a. The re sult will be Sunyav ada or the doc trine of not h ing ness. At man is Be ing, there fore it can not be neg a tived. Atm atvacchatmano nirakarana- sankanupap attih . It is s elf-ex is tent. Na hyatma-gantukah kasyachit, svayam siddhatvat . It is self-ev i dent. Na hyatma at manah pramanapekshaya siddhyati .CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 243 Akasa etc., are not st ated by any one to be self-ex is tent. Hence no one can deny the At man, be cause the de nier is him self, At man. At - man ex ists and is eter nal. The All-per va sive ness and eter nity of Akasa are only rel a tively true. Akasa is cre ated. I t is an ef fect of B rah man. In the clauses, I know at t he pres ent mo ment what ever is pres - ent, I knew at for mer mo ment s, the nearer and the re moter p ast; I shall know in the fu ture, the nearer and re moter fu ture the ob ject of knowl edge changes ac cord ing as it is some thing p ast or some thing fu ture or some thing pres ent. B ut the know ing agent does not change at all as his na ture is eter nal pres ence. As the na ture of the A t man is eter nal pres ence it can not be an ni hi lated even when t he body is burnt to ashes. Y ou can not even t hink that it ever should be come some - thing dif fer ent from what i t is. Hence the At man or Brah man is not an ef fect. The A kasa, on the con trary, co mes un der the cat e gory of ef - fects. More over, you say t hat there must be m any and sim i lar causal fac tors be fore an ef fect can be pro duced. This ar gu ment is not cor - rect. Threads are Dravya (sub stance). Their com bi na tion (Samy oga) is a Guna (at trib ute) and yet bot h are fac tors in the pro duc tion of an ef - fect. E ven if y ou say that t he need for many and sim i lar causal fac tors ap plies only to S amavayi karana, this sort of ex pla na tion is not cor - rect, for a rope or a car pet is spun out of t hread, wool, etc. More over, why do you say that many causal fac tors are needed? In the case of Paramanu or ul ti mate atom or mind, the ini tial ac tiv ity is ad mit tedly not due to many causal fac tors. Nor can you say that only for a Dravya (sub stance) many causal fac tors are nec es - sary. That would be so, i f com bi na tion causes the ef fect as in the case of threads and cloth. B ut in many in stances, (e.g., mi lk be comes curd) the same sub stance changes into an other sub stance. It is not the Lord s law that only sev eral causes in con junc tion should pro duce an ef fect. W e there fore de cide on the au thor ity of the Sruti that t he en tire world has sprung from the one Brah man, Akasa be ing pro duced first and later on the ot her el e ment s in due suc ces sion (V ide II. 1.24). It is not right to say that with ref er ence to the or i gin of Akasa we could not find out any dif fer ence be tween it s pre-causal state and i ts post-causal st ate (the ti me be fore and af ter the orig i na tion of et her). Brah man is de scribed as not gross and not sub tle (Asthulam na anu ) in the Srut i. The Srut i re fers to an Anakasa st ate, a st ate de void of Akasa. Brah man does not p ar tic i pate in the na ture of Akasa as we un - der stand from the p as sage. It is with out Akasa (Bri. Up. I II.8.8). There fore it is a set tled con clu sion that, be fore Akasa was pro duced, Brah man ex isted with out Akasa.BRAHMA SU TRAS 244 More over, you (Purv apakshin or op po nent) are cer tainly wrong in say ing that A kasa is dif fer ent in it s na ture from earth, etc. The Srut i is against the uncreatedness of Akasa. Hence there is no good in such in fer ence. The in fer ence drawn by you that A kasa has no be gin ning be - cause it dif fers in na ture from these sub stances which have a be gin - ning such as earth, etc., i s with out any v alue, be cause it must be con sid ered fal la cious as it is con tra dicted by t he Sruti. We have brought for ward co gent, con vinc ing and strong ar gu ment s show ing that A kasa is an orig i nated thing. Akasa has Anitya-guna (non-eter nal at trib ute). There fore it also is Anity a (non-eter nal). Akasa is non-eter nal be cause it is the sub stra - tum of a non-et er nal qual ity, viz., sound, just as jars and other thi ngs, which are the sub strata of non-eter nal qual i ties are them selves non-eter nal. The V edantin who t akes his stand on t he Up anishads does not ad mit that the At man is the sub stra tum of non-et er nal qual i - ties. You can not say that At man also may be Ani tya (non-eter nal) for Sruti de clares that At man is eter nal (Nitya). The Sruti t exts which de scribe Akasa as eter nal (Am ri ta) de - scribe it so in a sec ond ary sense only (Gauna), just as it calls heaven-dwell ing gods as eter nal (Am ri ta). The or i gin and de struc tion of Akasa has been shown to be pos si ble. Even in t he Sruti t ext, Akasavat sarvagat ascha nityah which de scribes At man as sim i lar to Akasa in be ing all-per vad ing and eter - nal, these words are used only in a sec ond ary and fig u ra tive sense (Gauna). The words are used only to in di cate in fi nite ness or super- em i - nent great ness of At man and not to say that A t man and Akasa are equal. The use is as when the sun is said to go like an ar row. When we say that t he sun moves with the speed of an ar row, we sim ply mean that he m oves fast, not that he moves at t he same rate as an ar - row. Such p as sages as Brah man is greater or vaster than A kasa prove that t he ex tent of Akasa is less than that of B rah man. Pas sages like There is no im age of Him. There is not h ing like Brah man Na tasya pratimasti (Svet. Up. IV .19) show that there is not h ing to com - pare Brah man to. P as sages like Ev ery thing else is of ev il (Bri. Up. III.4.2) show that ev ery thing dif fer ent from B rah man such as Akasa is of evil . All but Brah man is small. Hence Akasa is an ef fect of B rah - man. Srutis and rea son ing show that Akasa has an or i gin. There fore the fi nal set tled con clu sion is that Akasa is an ef fect of B rah man.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 245 Matarisv adhikaranam : Topic 2 Air originates from ether EVoZ _ mV[adm `m`mV & Etena mat arisv a vyakhy atah II.3.8 (224) By this i.e ., the fore going e xplanation abo ut Aka sa be ing a product, (the fact o f) air (a lso being an effect) is explained. Etena: by this, i.e., the foregoing ex planation about A kasa being a production, by t his p arity of reasoning; Matarisv a: the air , the mov er in mother , space; Vyakhy atah: is explained. This Su tra st ates that air also, like Akasa, has been cre ated by and from Brah man. The pres ent Su tra ex tends the rea son ing con cern ing Akasa to the air of which the A kasa is the abode. The Purvap akshin main tains that t he air is not a prod uct, be cause it is not men tioned in the chap ter of the Chhandogya Up anishad which treat s of the orig i na tion of things. The P urvap akshin says that the birt h of air men tioned in the Taittiriy a Upanishad is fig u ra tive onl y, be cause air is said to be one of the im mor tal along with Akasa. Vayu (the air) is the de ity that never set s (Bri. Up. I. 5.22). The de nial of V ayus never set ting re fers to the lower knowl edge or Ap ara Vidya in which Brah man is spo ken of as to be med i tated upon un der the form of Vayu and is merely a rel a tive one. The glory of V ayu is re ferred to as an ob ject of wor ship. The Sruti says V ayu never set s. Some dull t ype of men m ay think t hat Vayu (air) is eter nal. T o re move thi s doubt there is made a for mal ex - ten sion of the for mer rea son ing to air also. Vayu is called death less or im mor tal only in a f ig u ra tive sense. Vayu (air) also has or i gin like Akasa. Asambhav adhikaranam : Topic 3 Brahman (S at) has no origin Ag^d Vw gVmo@Zwnnmo& Asambhav stu satonup apatteh II.3.9 (225) But the re is no origi n of tha t which i s (i.e ., Brahm an), o n accoun t of the im possibi lity (of such a n origin). Asambhav ah: no origination, no creati on; Tu: but; Satah: of the S at, of the t rue one, eternally existing, of Brahman; Anup apatteh: as it does not st and to reason, on account of the i mpossibility of there being an origin of Brahman. This Su tra st ates that B rah man has no or i gin as it is, nei ther proved by rea son ing nor di rectly st ated by S ruti. The word tu (but) is used in or der to re move the doubt .BRAHMA SU TRAS 246 The op po nent says that Svet asvat ara Upani shad de clares that Brah man is born, Thou art born with Thy face turned to all di rec tions (Svet. U p. 4.3 ). We can not, as in the case of A kasa and V ayu, at trib ute or i gin to Brah man also. Brah man is not an ef fect like Akasa, et c. Orig i na tion of Brah man can not be es tab lished by any m ethod of proof. Brah man is ex is tence it self. It can not be an ef fect, as It can have no cause. The Sruti t ext ex pressly de nies that Brah man has any pro - gen i tor. He is the cause, the Lord of t he Lords of the or gans and there is of Him nei ther pro gen i tor nor Lord (Svet. Up. VI. 9). More over it is not sep a rated from any thing else. Nei ther can Sat come from A sat, as Asat has no be ing, for t hat which is not (Asat) is with out a self and can not there fore con sti tute a cause, be cause a cause is the self of it s ef fects. The Sruti say s How can ex is tence come out of non-ex is tence? (Chh. Up. VI .2.2). You can not say that Sat co mes from Sat as t he re la tion of cause and ef fect can not ex ist with out a cer tain su pe ri or ity on t he part of the cause. The ef fect must hav e some spe ci al ity not pos sessed by the cause. Brah man is mere ex is tence with out any de struc tion. Brah man can not spring from that which is some thing p ar tic u lar, as this would be con trary to ex pe ri ence. Be cause we ob serve that par tic u lar forms are pro duced from what is gen eral, as for in stance, jars and pot s from clay , but not that which is gen eral is pro duced from par tic u lars. Hence Brah man which is ex is tence in gen eral, can not be the ef fect of any par tic u lar thing. If there is no eter nal First Cause, the log i cal fal lacy of Anav astha Dosha ( regressus ad in fi ni t um) is in ev i t a ble. The non-ad mis sion of a fun da men tal cause (sub stance) would drive us to a retrogressus ad in fi ni tum . Sruti says, That great birt hless Self is undecaying (Bri. Up. IV.4.25 ). Brah man is with out any or i gin. Ac cord ing to Srut i, He alone is the T rue one, who ex ists eter nally. On the sup po si tion of t he or i gin of Brah man, He can not be said to be eter nal. Hence such a sup po si tion is against Sruti. It is also against rea son ing, be cause by ad mit ting such an or i gin the ques tion of source of that or i gin arises; then again an other source of that source and so on. Thus an ar gu ment may be con tin ued ad in fi ni t um with out com ing to a def i nite con clu sion. That fun da men t al causesub stancewhich is gen er ally ac - knowl edged to ex ist, just t hat is our Brah man. There fore Brah man is not an ef fect but is et er nal.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 247 Tejodhikaranam: T opic 4 Fire originates from air VoOmo@V V Wm mh& Tejotah tatha hy aha II.3.10 (226) Fire (is p roduce d) from this (i.e., air), so ve rily (decla res the Sruti) . Tejah: fire; Atah: from this, nam ely from ai r which has been just spoken of in Sutra 8; Tatha: thus, so; Hi: because, verily; Aha: says (Srut i). Taittiriy a Up anishad de clares that fire was born of air Vayoragnih From air is pro duced fire (T ait. Up. II.1). Chhandogya Upanishad (IV .2.3) de clares That (Brah man) cre ated fire. The con sis tency of t he two Srutis is shown in Su tra 13. There is thus a con flict of scrip tural p as sages with re gard to the or i gin of fire. The Purvap akshin main tains that fi re has Brah man for it s source. Why? Be cause the text de clares in the be gin ning that t here ex isted only t hat which is. It sent forth f ire. The as ser tion that ev ery - thing can be known through Brah man is pos si ble only if ev ery thing is pro duced from Brah man. The scrip tural st ate ment Tajjalan (Chh. Up. III .14.1) spec i fies no dif fer ence. The Mundaka text (II.1. 3) de - clares that ev ery thing with out ex cep tion is born from Brah man. The Taittiriy a Upanishad speaks about the en tire uni verse with out any ex - cep tion Af ter hav ing brooded, sent fort h all what ever there is (T ait. Up. II. 6). There fore, the st ate ment that Fire was pro duced from air (Tait. Up. II.1) teaches the or der of suc ces sion only . Fire was pro - duced sub se quently t o air. The Purvap akshin says: The above two Up anishadic p as sages can be rec on ciled by in ter pret ing the T aittiriy a text to mean the or der of se quenceBrah man af ter cre at ing air, cre ated fire. This Su tra re futes this and says t hat Fire is pro duced from V ayu or air . This does not at al l con tra dict the Chhandogya t ext. It means that A ir is a prod uct of Brah man and that f ire is pro duced from Brah - man, which has as sumed the form of air. Fire sprang from Brah man only through in ter me di ate links, not di rectly . We may say equall y that milk co mes from the cow , that curds come from the cow , that cheese co mes from the cow . The gen eral as ser tion that ev ery thing springs from Brah man re - quires that all t hings should ul ti mately be traced to that cause, and not that t hey should be it s im me di ate ef fects. Thus there is no con tra dic - tion. There re mains no dif fi culty. It is not right to say that Brah man di rectly cre ated Fire af ter cre - at ing Air , be cause the T aittiriy a ex pressly says that fi re was born of Air. No doubt Brah man is the root cause.BRAHMA SU TRAS 248 Abadhikaranam: T opic 5 Water is produced from f ire Amn& Apah lI.3.11 (227) Wate r (is p roduced from fire ). Apah: water . (Atah: from it; Tatha: thus; Hi: because; Aha: says the Sruti. ) The same thing may be said of wa ter. We have to sup ply from t he pre ced ing Su tra the words thence and for thus the tex t de clares. The au thor of the S utras ex plained the cre ation of f ire in the pre - vi ous Su tra. He ex plains cre ation of eart h in the next Su tra. He pro - pounds the Su tra in or der to in sert wa ter and thus to point out it s po si tion in the S rishtikrama or or der of cre ation. Agnerap ahFrom fire sprang wa ter (T ait. Up. II.1). Tatteja aikshat a bahu syam prajayeyeti t adapo srijat aThe fire thought May I be many , may I grow forth. It cre ated wa ter. (Chh. Up. VI .2.3). Doubt: Does wa ter come out di rectly from f ire or from Brah man? The Purvap akshin says: W a ter co mes out di rectly from B rah - man as the Chhandyoga tex t teaches. Siddhant a: There is no such con flict. From fire is pro duced wa - ter, for thus says t he scrip ture. Here also it means that as fi re is a prod uct of Brah man, it i s from Brah man which has as sumed the form of fire, t hat wa ter is pro duced. There is no room for in ter pre ta tion re gard ing a text which is ex press and un am big u ous. In the Chhandogya Up anishad is given the rea son why wa ter co mes out of f ire. And, t here fore, when ever any body any where is hot and per spires wa ter is pro duced on him from fire alone. Sim i larly, when a man suf fers grief and is hot with sor row, he weep s and thus wa ter is also pro duced from fire. These ex plicit st ate ment s leave no doubt t hat wa ter is cre ated from fire. Prithiv yadhikaranam: T opic 6 Earth is created from water n{Wdr A{Y H$ma$neX mVao`& Prithi vi adhikarar upasabdant arebhy ah II.3.12 (228) The ea rth (is me ant by the word A nna) be cause of the su bject matte r, col our and othe r Sruti te xts.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 249 Prith ivi: earth; Adhikara: because of the context , because of the subject matter; Rupa: colour; Sabdant arebhy ah: on account of other text s (Sruti). The same thing may be said of earth. From wa ter sprang earth (T ait. Up. II.1). It (wa ter) pro duced Anna (lit er ally food) (Chh. Up. VI.2. 4). The two Srut i texts are ap par - ently con tra dic tory, be cause in one text wa ter is said to pro duce earth and in an other food. The Su tra says that Anna in the Chhandogya t ext means not food but earth. Why? On ac count of the sub ject mat ter, on ac count of the col our, and on ac count of other p as sages. The sub ject mat ter in the first place is clearly con nected with the el e ment s, as we see from the pre ced ing p as sages. It sent fort h fire; it sent forth wa ter. In de - scrib ing the cre ative or der we can not jump from wa ter to ce re als with - out hav ing the earth. The cre ative or der re ferred to is in re gard to the el e ment s. There fore Anna should re fer to an el e ment and not f ood. Again we find in a com ple men tary p as sage, The black col our in fire is the col our of Anna (Chh. Up. VI .4.1). Here, t he ref er ence to col - our ex pressly in di cates that the eart h is meant by A nna. Black col our agrees with earth. The pre dom i nant col our of earth is black. Eat able things such as cooked dishes , rice, bar ley and the l ike are not nec es - sar ily black. The P auranikas also des ig nate the col our of the earth by the term night . The night is black. W e, there fore, con clude that black is the col our of earth, also. Other Sruti t exts like What was there as the froth of t he wa ter, that was hard ened and be came the earth (Bri. Up. I.2.2), clearly in di - cate that f rom wa ter earth is pro duced. On the other hand the t ext de clares that rice and the like were pro duced from the earth, From earth sprang herbs, from herbs food (Tait. U p. II.1.2 ). The com ple men tary p as sage also, when ever it rains etc., point ing out that ow ing to the eart hly na ture of food (rice, bar ley, etc.), earth it self im me di ately springs from wa ter. There fore, for all these rea sons the word Anna de notes this earth. There is re ally no con tra dic tion be tween the Chhandogya and Taittiriya text s. Tadabhidhy anadhikaranam: T opic 7 Brahman abi ding within the el ement is the creative principle VX{^ `mZmXod V w V{mV g& Tadabhidhy anadeva tu t allingat sah II.3.13 (229) But on account of t he indi cating m ark suppl ied by th eir reflecting, i.e ., by the reflection a ttribu ted to the elements, HeBRAHMA SU TRAS 250 (i.e., the Lord is the cre ative p rinciple a biding within the elements). Tat (Tasya): His (of Brahman); Abhidhy anat: because of the volit ion, reflection; Eva: even, only ; Tu: but; Tat lin gat: because of His indicating marks; Sah: He. The con ten tion raised in Su tra 10 is now re futed. The word tu (but) is used in or der to re move the doubt . The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor says: The Srut is de clare that Brah man is the cre ator of ev ery thing. B ut the T aittiriy a Up anishad says From Akasa sprang air (T ait. Up. II.1). This in di cates that cer - tain el e ment s pro duce cer tain ef fects in de pend ently . There is con tra - dic tion in the S ruti p as sages. This Su tra re futes this ob jec tion. Cre ation of A kasa, fire, wind, wa ter is done solely to Go ds will. One el e ment can not cre ate an other el e ment out of its own power . It is God in the form of one el e ment that cre ates an other el e ment there - from by His will. The el e ment s are in ert. They have no power to cre ate. B rah man Him self act ing from within t he el e ment s was the real cre ator of all those el e ment s. You will find in B rihadaranyka Up anishad He who dwells within the f ire, who is dif fer ent from f ire, whom fire does not know , whose body is fire, who rules the f ire from within, is Thy Im mor - tal At man, the I n ner Ruler within (Bri. Up. I II.7.5). This Sruti t ext in di cates that the S u preme Lord is the sole Ruler and de nies all in de pend ence to the el e ment s. Though it is st ated in the Chhandogy a Up anishad that the el e - ment s have cre ated each one, the ot her next of i t, yet the S u preme Lord is in deed the cre ator of ev ery thing be cause Sruti de clares that Brah man has cre ated this world by t he ex er cise of His will. Texts such as H e wished may I be come many , may I grow forth (Tait. U p. II.6) and It ma de it self its Self, i.e ., the Se lf of ev ery thing which ex ists (II.7)in di cates that the S u preme Lord is the Self of ev - ery thing. The p as sage There is no other seer (thinker) but He de - nies there be ing any other seer (thinker), that which is (i.e., B rah man) in the char ac ter of seer or thinker con sti tutes the sub ject mat ter of the whole Chap ter, as we con clude from the in tro duc tory p as sage It thought, may I be m any, may I grow forth (Chh. Up. VI .2.3). In the Chhandogya Up anishad it is st ated That f ire thought. That wa ter thought. Re flec tion is not pos si ble for the in ert el e ment s. The Su preme Lord, the In ner Ruler of all el e ment s, the Indweller within the el e ment s re flected and pro duced the ef fects. This is the real mean ing. The el e ment s be came causes only through the agency of the S u preme Lord who abides within them and rules them f rom within. There fore there is no con tra dic tion at all be tween the two t exts.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 251 For a wise man who re flects and cog i tates there is no con tra dic - tion. The Sruti texts are in fal li bl e and au thor i t a tive. Re mem ber this point well al ways. The Srut i text s have come out from t he heart s of real ised sages who had di rect in tu itive ex pe ri ence in Nirvikalp a Sam - adhi. They are nei ther fic ti tious nov els nor prod ucts of the in tel lect. Viparyayadhikaranam : Topic 8 The process of dissolution of the elem ents is in the reverse order from that of creation {dn``oU Vw H$_m o@V CnnVo M& Viparyayena tu kramot ah up apadyate cha II.3.14 (230) The orde r (in which the e lements a re ind eed withdrawn into Brahman durin g Pralaya or dissoluti on) is the reverse o f that (i.e., the ord er in which they are created) and thi s is reasonable. Viparyayena: in the reverse order; Tu: indeed, but; Kramah: order , the process of dissolution; Atah: from that (the order of creation); Cha: and; Upapadyate: is reasonable. The pro cess of dis so lu tion of t he el e ment s is de scribed in this Su tra . The word tu (but) has the force of only here. The ques tion here is whether at the t ime of cos mic dis so lu tion or Pralay a the el e ment s are with drawn into Brah man in an in def i nite or der, or in the or der of cre ation or in the re verse or der. In cre ation the or der is from above and in dis so lu tion the or der is from be low. The or der of in vo lu tion is in the i n verse of the or der of evo lu tion. I t alone is quite ap pro pri ate and rea son able. Be cause we see in or di nary life t hat a man who has as cended a st air has in de - scend ing to t ake the step s in the re verse or der. Fur ther, we ob serve that t hings made of clay such as jars, dishes, etc., on be ing de stroyed p ass back into clay and that t hings which have orig i nated from wa ter such as snow and hail-stones again dis solve into wa ter, the cause. The gross be comes re solved into t he sub tle, the sub tle into t he sub tler and so on till t he whole man i fes ta tion at tains it s fi nal First Cause, viz., B rah man. Each el e ment is with drawn into it s im me di ate cause, in the re verse or der till Akasa is reached, which in turn get s merged in Brah man. Smriti al so de clares O Di vine Rishi! t he earth, the ba sis of the uni verse is dis solved into wa ter, wa ter into f ire, fire int o air. Those which are pro duced first in cre ation are more pow er ful. Con se quently t hey have lon ger ex is tence. There fore, it fol lows log i - cally that the lat est in cre ation, be ing of fee ble es sence, should first be come ab sorbed in those of higher pow ers. The higher pow ersBRAHMA SU TRAS 252 should later on t ake their turn. V amana Purana de clares: The ear lier a thing hap pens to be in cre ation, t he more it be comes the re cep ta cle of the Lord s glory . Con se quently t hose that are ear lier in cre ation are more pow er ful and are with drawn only later . And f or the same rea son un doubt edly thei r per va sion is also greater . Antaravijnanad hikaranam : Topic 9 The ment ion of the m ind and intellect does not interfere with the order of creation and reabsorption as they are the product s of the elem ents AVam { dkmZ_ Zgr H $_oU V{ m{X{V M o A{deofmV & Antara v ijnanam anasi kramen a tallingaditi chet na av iseshat II.3.15 (231) If it be said that b etween (Bra hman a nd the elements) the intellect and the mind (are mention ed, and that the refore their origination an d re-absor ption are to be pla ced) somewh ere in the se ries o n acco unt of the ir being infere ntial signs (whe reby the order of the creation of the elements is b roken), we say, no t so on acc ount of the non- difference (of the intellect and the mind from the elem ents). Antara: intervening bet ween, in between; Vijnanam anasi: the intellect and t he mind; Kramena: in the order of succession, according to the successive order; Tat lin gat: owing to indication of that, as there is indication in Srut i to that effect, because of an inferential m ark of this; Iti: thus , this; Chet: if; Na: not, no, not so, the objection cannot st and; Aviseshat: because of no speciality , as there is no speciality ment ioned in Sruti about the causation of t he element s, because there being no p articular dif ference, on account of non-dif ference. A fur ther ob jec tion to t he cau sa tion of t he pri mary el e ment s from Brah man is raised and re futed. The Su tra con sists of two p arts namely an ob jec tion and it s ref u - ta tion. The ob jec tion is Antara vijnanamanasi kram ena t allingat it i chet. The ref u ta tion por tion is Na aviseshat . In the A tharvana (Mundaka Up anishad) in the chap ter which treats of the cre ation oc curs the fol low ing text : From this (Brah man) are born Prana, mind, t he senses, ether , air, fire, wa ter and earth, t he sup port of all (II .1.3). The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: The or der of cre ation which is de scribed in the Mundaka Up anishad con tra dicts the or der of cre ation of el e ment s de scribed in the Chhandogya Up anishad VI.2. 3, and other Srutis. To this we re ply: Thi s is only a se rial enu mer a tion of t he or gans and the el e ment s. It is not cer tainly a st ate ment as to th e or der of theirCHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 253 orig i na tion. The M undaka text onl y states that all these are pro duced from Brah man. In the A tharva V eda (Mundaka) mind, in tel lect and the senses are men tioned in the m id dle of the enu mer a tion of t he el e ment s. This does not af fect the ev o lu tion ary or der, be cause the mind, the i n tel lect and the senses are the ef fects, of the el e ment s and their in vo lu tion is in cluded in the in vo lu tion of t he el e ment s. The in tel lect, the m ind and the senses are prod ucts of the el e - ment s. There fore, they can come into be ing only af ter the el e ment s are cre ated. The orig i na tion and re ab sorp tion of t he mind, in tel lect and the senses are the same as those of the el e ment s as there is no dif fer ence be tween the senses and the el e ment s. Even if the mind, t he in tel lect and the senses are sep a rate from the el e ment s, the evo lu tion ary or der is ei ther the mind and t he senses fol lowed by the el e ment s or the el e ment s fol lowed by the mi nd and the senses. Any how they have an or derly evo lu tion. That the mi nd, in tel lect and the or gans are mod i fi ca tions of the el e ment s and are of the na ture of the el e ment s is proved by Sruti texts like For the mind, m y child, con sists of earth, breath or v i tal force of wa ter, speech of fire (Chh. Up. V I.6.5). Hence the Mundaka text which treat s of cre ation does not con - tra dict the or der of cre ation men tioned in the Chhandogy a and Taittiriy a Upanishads. The orig i na tion of t he or gans does not cause a break in the or der of the orig i na tion of t he el e ment s. The Purvap akshin again says: that as t here is men tion in Srut i of the mind and t he senses, Akasa and the other el e ment s should not be con sid ered to be cre ated out of Brah man and to dis solve in Brah man but to be cre ated out of and to dis solve in the mi nd and the senses ac - cord ing to the or der of suc ces sion, as there is in di ca tion in the Mundaka to that ef fect. This ar gu ment is un ten a ble as there is no spe ci al ity m en tioned in Sruti about the cre ation of t he el e ment s. The mind, t he in tel lect and the senses have all with out ex cep tion been st ated therein as cre ated out of B rah man. The word Et asmat of that text is to be read along with ev ery one of these i.e. , Prana, m ind, etc. T hus from Him is born Prana, from Him is born mind, from Him are born the senses etc. Etasmat Pranah, Et asmat M anah , etc . Characharav yapasray adhikaranam : Topic 10 Births and deaths are not of the soul MamMa `nml`Vw `mV VX >`nXoemo ^m$ Vmd^m{d dmV & Characharav yapasray astu sy at tadvyapadeso bhakt ah tadbhavabhav itvat II.3.16 (232)BRAHMA SU TRAS 254 But the mention of tha t (viz., b irth and death o f the individual soul) i s apt on ly with referenc e to th e bodies of being s movi ng and n on-movi ng. It is seconda ry or metaph orical if applied t o the soul, as the ex istence of those terms depends on the existence of tha t (i.e., the body). Characharav yapasray ah: in connection with the bodi es fixed and movable; Tu: but, indeed; Syat: may be, becomes; Tadvyapadesah: mention of t hat, t hat expression, i. e., to popular expressions of births and deaths of the soul; Bhakt ah: secondary , met aphorical, not lit eral; Tadbhavabhav itvat: on account of (those terms) depending on the existence of t hat. ( Tadbhava: on the exist ence of that, i.e., the body; Bhav itvat: depending.) The es sen tial na ture or char ac ter of the i n di vid ual soul is dis - cussed now . A doubt may arise t hat the in di vid ual soul also has births and deaths be cause peo ple use such ex pres sions as Ramakris hna is born, Ramakrishna is dead and be cause cer tain cer e mo nies such as the Jat akarma etc., are pre scribed by the scrip tures at the birt h and death of peo ple. This Su tra re futes such a doubt, and de clares that the in di vid ual soul has nei ther birth nor death. Birth and deat h per tain to the body with which the soul is con nected but not t o the soul. If the in di vid ual soul per ishes there would be no sense in the re li gious in junc tions and pro hi bi tions re fer ring to the en joy ment and avoid ance of pleas ant and un pleas ant things in an other body (an other birth). The con nec tion of t he body with t he soul is pop u larly called birth, and t he dis con nec tion of t he soul from the body is called death in the com mon p ar lance. Scrip ture says, This body in deed dies when the liv ing soul has lef t it, the liv ing soul does not die (Chh. Up. VI.11.3). Hence birth and death are spo ken pri mar ily of the bod ies of mov ing and non-mov ing be ings and only met a phor i cally of t he soul. That the words birth and death have ref er ence to the con junc - tion with and sep a ra tion from a body merely is also shown by the f ol - low ing Sruti t ext, On be ing born that per son as sum ing his body , when he p asses out of the body and dies etc. (Bri. Up. I V.3.8). The Jat akarma cer e mony also has ref er ence to the man i fes ta - tion of t he body only be cause the soul is not man i fested. Hence the birth and death be long to the body only but not to the soul. Atmadhikaranam : Topic 1 1 The individual soul is eternal. It is not produced Zm_m, AlwVo{Z`dm V m`& Natma, asruternity atvat cha t abhy ah II.3.17 (233)CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 255 The indi vidual soul is not ( produced), (because) it is not (so) mentioned by the scriptures, and as it is eternal accor ding to them (the Sruti te xts). Na: not (produced); Atma: the indiv idual soul; Asruteh: because of no mention in S ruti, as it i s not found in Srut i; Nityatvat: because of it s permanence, as it is eternal; Cha: also, and; Tabhy ah: from them (Srutis), according to the S rutis. The dis cus sion on the es sen tial char ac ter is tics of the in di vid ual soul is be ing con tin ued. Aitareya Up anishad de clares: At the be gin ning of cre ation there was only One Brah man with out a sec ond (I.1). There fore it is not rea son able to say t hat the in di vid ual soul is not born, be cause then there was noth ing but Brah man. Again the S ruti says, As small sp arks come forth from fire, thus from that At man all Pranas, all worlds, all gods em a nate (Bri. Up. II.1.20). As from a bl az ing fire sp arks, be ing of the same na ture as fire, f ly fort h a thousandfold, t hus are var i ous be ings brought forth from the I m per ish able, my friend, and re turn thit her also, (Mun. Up. II.1.1). There fore the Purv apakshin or the ob jec tor ar gues that the in - di vid ual soul is born at the be gin ning of the cy cle, just as Akasa and other el e ment s are born. This Su tra re futes it and say s that the in di vid ual soul is not born. Why? on ac count of the ab sence of scrip tural st ate ment. For in t he chap ters which treat of t he cre ation the S ruti tex ts ex pressly deny birth to t he in di vid ual soul. We know from scrip tural p as sages that the soul is eter nal, that it has no or i gin, that it is un chang ing, that what con sti tutes the soul is the un mod i fied Brah man, and that the soul has it s self rooted in Brah - man. A be ing of such a na ture can not be pro duced. The scrip tural p as sages to which we are al lud ing are the fol low - ing: The great un born Self undecaying , un dy ing, im mor tal, fear less is in deed Brah man (Bri. Up. I V.4.25). The know ing self is not born, i t dies not (Katha Up. I .2.18). The an cient is un born, eter nal, ev er last - ing (Katha Up. I .2.18). It is the one B rah man with out a sec ond that en ters the in tel lect and ap pears as the in di vid ual soul Hav ing sent forth t hat en tered into it (Tait. Up. II.6). Let me now en ter those with t his liv ing self and let me then evol ve names and forms (Chh. Up. VI .3.2). He en tered thither t o the very t ips of fin ger-nails (Bri. Up. I. 4.7). Thou art That (Chh. Up. V I.8.7). I am Brah man (Bri. Up. I.4.10). This self is Brah man, know ing all (Bri. Up. I I.5.19). All t hese texts de clare the eter nity of the soul and thus con tend against the view of it s hav ing been pro duced.BRAHMA SU TRAS 256 There fore there is in re al ity no di f fer ence be tween the in di vid ual soul and Brah man. Jiva is not cre ated. I t is not a prod uct. It is not born just as Akasa and other el e ment s are born. The fact of t he in di vid ual souls be ing non-cre ated does not con tra dict the Srut i pas sage At the be gin ning there was only the A t man the one with out a sec ond (Ait. U p. I.1) . The men tion of cre ation of souls in t he other Sruti p as sages cited is only in a sec ond ary sense. It does not there fore con tra dict the Sruti p as sage Hav ing cre ated it, It en tered into it . The doc trine that souls are born from Brah man is not cor rect. Those who pro pound this doc trine de clare that if souls are born from Brah man, the scrip tural st ate ment that by know ing Brah man ev ery - thing can be come true, be cause Brah man is the cause and the knowl edge of the cause will lead t o the knowl edge of all the ob jects. They say f ur ther that B rah man can not be iden ti fied with t he in di vid ual souls, be cause He is sin less and pure, whereas they are not so. They fur ther say that all that i s sep a rate is an ef fect and that as the souls are sep a rate they m ust be ef fects. The souls are not sep a rate. The Srut i de clares, There is one God hid den in all be ings, all-per vad ing, the S elf within al l be ings (Svet. Up. VI. 11). It onl y ap pears di vided ow ing to it s lim it ing ad junct s, such as the mind and so on, just as the ether ap pears di vided by i ts con nec tion with jars and the l ike. It i s His con nec tion with t he in tel lect that leads to hi s be ing called a Jiva, or t he in di vid ual soul. Et her in a pot is iden ti cal with the ether in sp ace. All t he above ob jec tions can not stand be cause of the ac tual iden tity of the in di vid ual soul and Brah - man. There fore there is no con tra dic tion of t he dec la ra tion of t he Sruti that by know ing Brah man we can know ev ery thing. Orig i na tion of souls has ref er ence only to t he body . Jnadhikaranam : Topic 12 The nature of t he individual soul is intelli gence kmo@V E d& Jnot a eva II.3.18 (234) For th is very reason (viz ., that it is not c reated), (the individual soul is) inte lligence (itself). Jnah: intelligent , intell igence, knower; Ata eva: for this very reason, therefore. The dis cus sion on the es sen tial char ac ter is tics of the in di vid ual soul is con tin ued. The Sankhya doc trine is that t he soul is al ways Chait anya or pure con scious ness in it s own na ture. The V aiseshikas de clare that the in di vid ual soul is not in tel li gent by na ture, be cause it is not found t o be in tel li gent in the st ate of deepCHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 257 sleep or swoon. It be comes in tel li gent when the soul co mes to the wak ing st ate and unites with t he mind. The in tel li gence of the soul is ad ven ti tious and is pro duced by the con junc tion of t he soul with the mind, just as f or in stance the qual ity of red ness is pro duced in an iron rod by the con junc tion of t he iron rod with fire. If the soul were eter nal, es sen tial in tel li gence, it would re main in tel li gent in the st ates of deep sleep, swoon etc. T hose who wake up from sleep say that they were not con scious of any thing. There fore, as in tel li gence is clearly in ter mit t ent, we con clude that the in tel li gence of the soul is ad ven ti tious only . To this we re ply that the soul is of eter nal in tel li gence. In tel li - gence con sti tutes the es sen tial na ture of Brah man. This we know from Sruti texts such as Brah man is knowl edge and Bliss (Bri. Up. III.9.28. 7). Brah man is true, knowl edge, in fi nite (T ait. Up. II.1). Hav - ing nei ther in side nor out side but be ing al to gether a mass of knowl - edge (Bri. Up. IV .5.13). Now if the in di vid ual soul is noth ing but that Su preme Brah man, then eter nal in tel li gence con sti tutes the souls es sen tial na ture, just as light and heat con sti tute t he na ture of fi re. The in tel li gent Brah man It self be ing lim ited by t he Up adhis or lim it ing ad junct s such as body , mind etc. , man i fests as the in di vid ual soul or Jiva. There fore, in tel li gence is the very na ture of Jiva and i s never al to gether de stroyed, nor even i n the st ate of deep sleep or swoon. Sruti t exts di rectly de clare that the in di vid ual soul is of the na ture of self-lu mi nous in tel li gence. He not asleep, him self looks down upon the sleep ing senses (Bri. Up. IV .3.11). That per son is self-il lu - mi nated (Bri. Up. I V.3.14). For t here is no in ter mis sion of the know - ing of the knower (Bri. Up. I V.3.30). That the soul s na ture is in tel li gence fol lows more over from the pas sage (Chh. Up. VII I.12.4) where it is st ated as con nected with knowl edge through all sense or gans. He who knows let me smell this, he is the self . You may ask, what is the use of the senses if the At man it self is of the na ture of knowl edge. The senses are needed to bring about the dif fer en ti at ed sen sa tions and ideas (Vrittijnana). From the soul s es sen tial na ture be ing in tel li gence it does not fol low that t he senses are use less; be cause they serve the pur pose of de ter min ing the spe cial ob ject of each sense, such as smell and so on. Sruti ex pressly de clares: Smell (or gan of smell) is for the pur pose of per ceiv ing odour (Chh. Up. VII I.12.4). The ob jec tion that sleep ing per sons are not con scious of any - thing is re futed by scrip ture, where we read con cern ing a man ly ing in deep sleep, And when there he does not see, y et he is see ing though he does not see. Be cause there is no in ter mis sion of the see ing of theBRAHMA SU TRAS 258 seer for it can not per ish. But t here is then no sec ond, noth ing else dif - fer ent from him that he could see (Bri. Up. I V.3.23). The non-sentiency in deep sleep is not due t o ab sence of Chait anya but ab sence of V ishaya (ob jects). The Jiva does not lose its power of see ing. It does not see, be cause there is no ob ject to see. It has not lost its in tel li gence, for it is im pos si ble. The ab sence of ac - tual in tel lec tual ity is due to the ab sence of ob jects, but not t o the ab - sence of in tel li gence, just as the light per vad ing sp ace is not ap par ent ow ing to the ab sence of things to be il lu mi nated, not to the ab sence of its own na ture. If in tel li gence did not ex ist in deep sleep, et c., then who would be there to say t hat it did not ex ist? How could it be known? The man af ter wak ing from deep sleep says, I slept soundly . I en joyed per fect rest. I did not know any thing. He who says, I di d not know any thing. I en joyed per fect rest must hav e been ex is tent at that t ime. If it is not so how could he re mem ber the con di tion of t hat st ate? There fore, the i n tel li gence of the in di vid ual soul or Jiva is never lost un der any con di tion. The rea son ing of the V aiseshikas and oth ers is merely fal la cious. It con tra dicts the Srutis. W e there fore con clude and de cide that eter nal in tel li gence is the es sen tial na ture of the soul. Utkrantigaty adhikaranam : Topic 13 (Sutras 19-32) The size of the individual soul CH$mpVJ`mJVrZ m_ & Utkrantigaty agatinam II.3.19 (235) (On account of t he scriptural declarati ons) of (th e souls) passing out, go ing, and re turning (the s oul is not infinite in size; it is of atom ic size ). Utkranti : passing out, coming out; Gati: going; Agatin am: returning. The dis cus sion on the char ac ter of the i n di vid ual soul is con tin - ued. From this up to S u tra 32 the ques tion of t he size of the soul, whether it is atomi c, me dium-sized or in fi nite is dis cussed. The first ten Sut ras (19-28) state t he ar gu ment s for the view t hat the in di vid ual soul is Anu (atomic). The nex t four Sut ras give the re ply. Svetasvat ara Upani shad de clares He is the one God, all-per - vad ing (VI.1 1). Mundaka Sruti say s, This At man is atomic (III .1.9). The two tex ts con tra dict each other and we have to ar rive at a de ci - sion on the point. It has been shown above that the soul is not a prod uct and that eter nal in tel li gence con sti tutes it s na ture. There fore it f ol lows that it i s iden ti cal with the Su preme Brah man. The in fin ity of the Su preme Brah man is ex pressly de clared in the Srutis. What need then is there of a dis cus sion of the size of t he soul? T rue, we re ply. But Sruti t extsCHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 259 which speak of the soul s pass ing out from t he body (Utkranti), go ing (Gati) and re turn ing (Agati), es tab lish the prima f a cie view that the soul is of lim ited size. Fur ther, the S ruti clearly de clares in some places that the soul is of at omic size. The pres ent dis cus sion is there - fore be gun in or der to clear this doubt. The op po nent or Purvap akshin holds that the soul must be of lim ited atomi c size ow ing to it s be ing said to p ass out, go and re turn. Its pass ing out is men tioned in Kaushit aki Upani shad (III. 3), And when he p asses out of this body he p asses out to gether with all these. It s go ing is said in Kaushit aki Upani shad (I.2), All who de part from this world go to t he moon. It s re turn ing is seen in Brihadaranyaka Up anishad (IV .4.6), From t hat world he re turns again to this world of ac tion. From t hese st ate ment s as to the soul s pass ing out from t he body , go ing to heaven, etc., and re turn ing from there to thi s world, it fol lows that it i s of lim ited size. Be cause mo tion is not pos si ble in the case of an all-per vad ing be ing. If the soul is in fi nite, how can it rise, or go or come? There fore the soul is atomi c. dm_Zm M moma`mo& Svatmana chott arayoh II.3.20 (236) And on a ccount o f the latte r two (i .e., goi ng and retu rning) being co nnected with their soul (i.e., agent), (the soul is o f atomic size). Svatmana: (being connected) directly with t he agent, t he soul; Cha: and, only , also; Uttarayoh: of the lat ter two, namel y, of Gat i and Agati, of the going away and coming back, as st ated in the prev ious Sutra. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 19 is given in t his Su tra. Even if it can be said that pass ing out means only dis con nec - tion with t he body , how can they who say t hat the soul is in fi nite ex - plain it s go ing to the mo on or re turn ing from there? Even if the soul is in fi nite still it can be spo ken of as p ass ing out, out of t he body , if by that t erm is meant ceas ing to be the ruler of the body , in con se quence of the re sults of it s for mer ac tions hav ing be - come ex hausted, just as some body , when ceas ing to be the ruler of a vil lage may be said to go out. The p ass ing away from t he body may mean only ces sa tion of t he ex er cise of a def i nite func tion just as in t he case of a man no lon ger re tained in of fice. But t he two lat ter ac tiv i ties viz., go ing to the moon , re turn ing from there to t he world, are im pos si ble for an all-per vad ing soul. Hence the soul is atomic in size. ZmUwaVN>Vo[a{V MoV Z, BVam{YH$mamV & Nanurat acchruteriti chet, na, it aradhikarat II.3.21 (237) If it be said that (th e soul is) not atomic, as th e scriptures state it to b e otherwise , (i.e., all- pervading), (we say) not s o, becauseBRAHMA SU TRAS 260 (the one) othe r than the indi vidual soul (i.e., the Sup reme Brah man o r the High est Self) is the subject ma tter ( of tho se passages). Na: not; Anu: minute, at omic; Atat: not that , otherwise, namely opposite of Anu; Sruteh: as it is st ated in Srut i, because of a Sruti or scriptural text ; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not; Itara: other than the individual soul, i.e., the Supreme S elf; Adhikarat: because of the context or t opic, from the subject matter of the portion in t he Chapter . An ob jec tion to S u tra 19 is raised and re futed. The Su tra con sists of an ob jec tion and it s an swer. The ob jec - tion-por tion is Nanurat acchruteriti chet and the an swer-por tion is Na itaradhikarat . The p as sages which de scribe the soul and in fi nite ap ply only to Su preme Brah man and not to t he in di vid ual soul. Sruti p as sages like He is the one God, who is hid den in all be - ings, all-per vad ing, etc. (S vet. Up. VI. 11), He is that great un born Self who con sists of knowl edge, is sur rounded by the Pranas, t he ether within t he heart. (Bri. Up. IV.4.22), Like t he ether He is Om ni - pres ent, et er nal, T ruth, Knowl edge, In fi nite is Brah man (T ait. Up. II.1)re fer not to t he Jiva or the in di vid ual soul with it s lim i ta tions, but to the S u preme Brah man or the High est Self, who is other than the in - di vid ual soul, and forms the chief sub ject mat ter of all t he V edant a texts, be cause Brah man is the one thing t hat is to be known or real - ised in tu itively and is there fore pro pounded by all t he Vedant a pas - sages. deXmo _mZm`m M& Svasabdonmanabhy am cha II.3.22 (238) And on account o f dire ct sta tements (of the Sruti te xts as to th e atomic size ) and infinitesimal m easure (the soul is a tomic). Svasabdonmanabhy am: from direct st atement s (of Sruti t exts) and infinit esimal measure; Cha: and. ( Svasabda: the word it self; the word directly denoting m inute; Unmanabhy am: on account of the measure of comp arison; Ut: subtle; Mana: measure, hence subtle division; hence smaller ev en than the small. Svasabdonmanabhy am: as these are the words directly denoting minute and to expression denoting small er than the small as measured by division. ) The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 19 is con tin ued. The soul must be atomic be cause the Sruti ex pressly says so and calls him in fi nitely small. Mundaka Sruti de clares, This Atma is atom ic (III. 1.9). Svetasvat ara Upani shad says, The in di vid ual is of the size of t he hun dredth part of a p art, which it self is one hun dredth part of the poi ntCHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 261 of a hair (V .9); That l ower one also is seen small even like the point of a goad. There fore the soul is atomi c in size. But an ob jec tion may here be raised. If t he soul is of atomic size, it will oc cupy a point of the body only . Then the sen sa tion which ex - tends over the whole body would ap pear con trary to rea son. And yet it is a mat ter of ex pe ri ence that those who t ake bath in the Gan ga ex pe - ri ence the sen sa tion of cold all over their whole bod ies. In sum mer peo ple feel hot al l over the body . The fol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer to the ob jec tion. A{damoYXZdV & Avirodhaschandanavat II.3.23 (239) There is no contradiction as i n the case of sandal paste. Avirodhah: non-conflict, no contradict ion, no incongruity , it is not incongruous; Chandanavat: like the sandal p aste. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 19 is con tin ued. Just as one drop of san dal-wood p aste, smeared on one p art of the body makes the whole body thrill with j oy, so also the in di vid ual soul, though nat u rally min ute, man i fests it self through out the whole body and ex pe ri ences all the sen sa tions of plea sure and pain. Though the soul is atomic it may ex pe ri ence plea sure and pain ex - tend ing over the whole body . Though the soul is at omic still it is pos si - ble that it per vades the en tire body , just as a drop of san dal p aste al though in ac tual con tact with one p ar tic u lar spot of the body only per vades, i. e., causes re fresh ing sen sa tion all ov er the body . As the soul is con nected with the skin which is the seat of feel - ing, the as sump tion that the soul s sen sa tions should ex tend over the whole body is not con trary to rea son be cause the con nec tion of t he soul and the skin abides in the en tire skin and the skin ex tends over the en tire body . AdpW{ Vdeo`m{X{V Mo , A`wnJ _mXY{X {h& Avasthitiv aiseshy aditi chenn a, adhy upagamaddhridi hi II.3.24 (240) If it be said (that th e two cases are not parallel), on account of the specialisation of abode (prese nt in t he case o f the sanda l-ointme nt, abse nt in the ca se of the s oul), we deny that, on accoun t of the ackn owledgement (by sc ripture, of a special place of the soul), viz., within the heart. Avasthiti: existence, residence, abode; Vaiseshy at: because of the speciality , on account of specialisation; Iti: thus , this ; Chet: if (if it be argued); Na: not (so), no, the argument cannot st and; Adhy upagamat: on account of the admission, o r acknowledgment; Hridi: in the heart; Hi: indeed.BRAHMA SU TRAS 262 An ob jec tion to S u tra 23 is raised and re futed by the op po nent or Purvap akshin. The Su tra con sists of two p arts namely , an ob jec tion, and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion-por tion is: Avasthitivaiseshyaditi chet , and the re - ply por tion is: Nabhyup agamaddhridi hi . The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor raises an ob jec tion against his own view . The ar gu men ta tion re lied upon in the last Su tra is not ad mis si ble, be cause the two cases com pared are not p ar al lel. The sim i lar ity is not ex act. The anal ogy is fault y or in ap pro pri ate. I n the case of the san dal p aste, it oc cu pies a p ar tic u lar point of t he body and re freshes the en tire body . But in the case of the soul it does not ex ist in any par tic u lar lo cal ity but is per cip i ent of all sen sa tions through out the en tire body . We do not know that it has a pa r tic u lar abode or spe - cial seat. When there is no spe cial seat, for t he soul, we can not in fer that it must have a p ar tic u lar abode in the body l ike the san dal p aste and there fore be atomic. B e cause, even an all-per vad ing soul like ether , or a soul per vad ing the en tire body li ke the skin may pro duce the same re sult. We can not rea son like this: the soul is at omic be cause it causes ef fects ex tend ing over the en tire body li ke a drop of san dal oint ment, be cause that rea son ing would ap ply to t he sense of touch, the skin also, which we know not to be of atom ic size. There fore it is not easy to de cide the size of the soul when there is no pos i tive proof . The op po nent re futes the abov e ob jec tion by quot ing such Sruti texts as: The soul abides within the heart (Pras. Up. III.6), The self is in the heart (Chh. Up. V III.3.3), The S elf abides in the heart (Bri. Up. IV .3.7), Who is that self? He who is within the heart, sur rounded by the P ranas, the per son of light, con sist ing of knowl edge, ex - pressly de clare that the soul has a spe cial abode or p ar tic u lar seat in the body , viz., the heart. There fore it is atom ic. The anal ogy is not f aulty. It is quite ap pro pri ate. The t wo cases are p ar al lel. Hence the ar gu men ta tion re sorted to in Su tra 23 is not ob jec tion able. JwUmXdm@@b moH$dV&> Gunadv a alokav at II.3.25 (241) Or on account of (i ts) qualit y (viz. , intelligence), as in cases of ordinary experience (such as in th e case of a lamp by its li ght). Gunat: on account of it s quality (of intelligence); Va: or (a further example is giv en); Alokav at: like a light. (Or Lokav at: as in the world, as in cases of ordinary experience). The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 23 is con tin ued. Or it is like a small light whic h, by it s own vir tue, il lu mi nates the whole house. The soul, though at omic and oc cu pies a p ar tic u lar por -CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 263 tion of t he body , may per vade the whole body by it s qual ity of in tel li - gence as the flame per vades the whole room by i ts rays and thus ex pe ri ences plea sure and pain t hrough out the whole body . A fur ther ex am ple is given by way of com par i son to show how an atomic soul can have ex pe ri ence through out the en tire body . `{Vao H$mo JYdV & Vyatireko gandhav at II.3.26 (242) The exte nsion (of the q uality of intellige nce) b eyond (the so ul in which it inhe res) i s like the o dour (which ex tends beyond the fragran t object). Vyatirekah: exp ansion, ext ension beyond (the object i. e., soul); Gandhavat: like the odour . Su tra 23 is fur ther elu ci dated by t his Su tra. Just as the sweet fra grance of flow ers ex tends be yond them and dif fuses through out a larger sp ace, so also the in tel li gence of the soul, which is atomic, ex tends be yond the soul and per vades the en - tire body . If it be said that ev en the anal ogy in the abov e Su tra is not ap - pro pri ate, be cause a qual ity can not be ap art from the sub stance, and hence the light of a lamp is only t he lamp in it s ten u ous form, the anal - ogy of per fume will ap ply. Just as though a flower is far away i ts scent is felt around, so t hough the soul is atomic it s cog ni tion of t he en tire body is pos si ble. This anal ogy can not be ob jected on the ground that even the f ra grance of a flower is only the sub tle par ti cles of the flower , be cause our ex pe ri ence is that we feel t he fra grance and not any p ar - ti cles. VWm M Xe`{V& Tatha cha darsay ati II.3.27 (243) Thus also, (th e Sruti) shows or declares. Tatha: thus, in the same way ; Cha: also; Darsay ati: (the Sruti) declares. The Sruti also, af ter hav ing sig ni fied the soul s abid ing in the heart and it s atomic size, de clares by means of such p as sages as Upto the hairs, upto t he tip s of the nails (Kau. Up. IV.20, B ri. Up. I.4.7), that t he soul per vades the whole body by means of in tel li gence, which is it s qual ity. nWJwnXo emV& Prithagup adesat II.3.28 (244) On account o f the separate teaching (of the Sruti) (that the soul pervades th e body on acc ount of its quali ty of intelligence).BRAHMA SU TRAS 264 Prith ak: separat e, dif ferent; Upadesat: because of teaching or statement. This Su tra is a de fence in fa vour of the pre ced ing Su tra where in tel li gence is used as an at trib ute of t he in di vid ual soul and so sep a - rate from it . A fur ther ar gu ment is given here t o es tab lish the prop o si tion of the pre vi ous Su tra. Kaushit aki Upani shad de clares Hav ing by Prajna, (in tel li gence, knowl edge,) t aken pos ses sion of the body (III.6). This in di cates that in tel li gence is dif fer ent from t he soul be ing re lated as in stru ment and agent and t he soul per vades the en tire body with t his qual ity of in tel li gence. Again the t ext Thou t he in tel li gent per son hav ing through the in - tel li gence of the senses ab sorbed within him self all in tel li gence (Bri. Up. II. 1.17) shows in tel li gence to be dif fer ent from t he agent, i. e., the Jiva or the in di vid ual soul and so like wise con firms our views. Though there is no fun da men tal dif fer ence be tween the in di vid - ual soul and his in tel li gence, they are dif fer ent in the sense that in tel li - gence is the at trib ute of t he in di vid ual soul which is the sub stance. The in di vid ual soul is the pos sessor of that at trib ute, be cause the Sruti st ates a dif fer ence be tween the two. VXJwUgmadmV Vw VX `nXoe mkdV& Tadgunasaratv at tu t advyapadesah prajnav at II.3.29 (245) But that declaration (as to t he atomic size of the soul) is on account of its h aving for its essence the qualities of that (viz., the B uddhi), as in the case of the i ntellige nt Lord (Sagu na Brahman). Tadgunasaratv at: on account of it s possess ing for it s essence the qualities of t hat (viz., the Buddhi); Tu: but; Tadvyapadesah: that declaration (as to it s atomic size); Prajnav at: as in the case of the Intelli gent Lord. The dis cus sion on the true char ac ter of the i n di vid ual soul, com - menced in Su tra 16 is con tin ued. The word tu (but), re futes all t hat has been said in Sutras 19-28 and de cides that the soul is all-per vad ing. The next f our Sutras are the Siddhant a Sutras which lay down the cor rect doc trine. The soul is not of at omic size as the Sruti does not de clare it to have had an or i gin. The scrip ture de clares that the Su preme Brah - man en tered the uni verse as the in di vid ual soul and that t he in di vid ual soul is iden ti cal with Brah man, and that the in di vid ual soul is noth ing else but the Su preme Brah man. If the soul is the Su preme Brah man, it must be of the same ex tent as Brah man. The scrip ture st ates Brah - man to be all-per vad ing. There fore the soul also is all-per vad ing.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 265 Your ar gu ment is that though the soul is Anu, it can cog nise all that goes on in the body be cause of it s con tact with the skin. B ut that ar gu ment is un ten a ble be cause when a thorn pricks w e feel p ain only in the pricked spot. More over, your anal ogy of t he lamp and it s light and of the f lower and it s fra grance has no real ap pli ca bil ity, be cause a Guna (qual ity) can never be ap art from the sub stance (Guna). The light and the per fume are only sub tle por tions of the f lame and the flower . Fur ther, as Chait anya is the na ture or Svarup a of the soul, t he soul also must be of the size of t he body if t here is cog ni tion of t he whole body . This lat ter doc trine has been al ready re futed. There fore the soul must be in fi nite. The Jiva is de clared to be atomic by rea son of it s iden ti fi ca tion with the Budd hi. Ac cord ing to the ex tent of in tel lect, the size of the in di vid ual soul has been fixed. It is imag ined that t he soul is con nected with the Buddhi or in tel lect and bound. Pass ing out, go ing and com ing are qual i ties of the i n tel lect and are su per im posed on the Jiva or the in di - vid ual soul. The soul is con sid ered to be atomic on ac count of the li m i - ta tion of t he in tel lect. That the non-trans mi grat ing eter nally f ree At man, which nei ther act s nor en joys is de clared to be of the same size as the Buddhi is due only t o its hav ing the qual i ties of the B uddhi (in tel lect) for it s es sence, viz., as long as it is in fic ti tious con nec tion with the Budd hi. It is sim i lar to imag in ing the all-per vad ing Lord as lim - ited for t he sake of Upasana or wor ship. Svetasvat ara Upani shad (V .9) says, That li v ing soul is to be known as part of the hun dredth part of the poi nt of a hair di vided a hun dred times and yet it is to be in fi nite. This S ruti tex t at first st ates the soul to be atom ic and then teaches it t o be in fi nite. Thi s is ap pro - pri ate only i f the at omicity of the soul is met a phor i cal and it s in fin ity is real, be cause both st ate ment s can not be t aken in their pri mary sense at the same t ime. The in fin ity cer tainly can not be un der stood in a met - a phor i cal sense, as all the Up anishads aim at show ing that B rah man con sti tutes the S elf of t he soul. The other p as sage (Svet. Up. V .8) which treat s of the mea sure of the soul The lower one en dowed with the qual ity of mind and the qual ity of the body , is seen small even like t he point of a goad teaches the soul s small size to de pend on it s con nec tion with t he qual i ties of the B uddhi, not upon it s own Self. Mundaka Upani shad de clares, That small (Anu) Self is to be known by thought (II I.1.9). This Up anishad does not teach that t he soul is of atomic size, as the sub ject of the chap ter is Brah man in so far as not to be f ath omed by the ey e, etc., but to be real ised by the light of knowl edge. Fur ther, the soul can not be of at omic size in the pri mary sense of the word.BRAHMA SU TRAS 266 There fore the st ate ment about A nutva (small ness, sub tlety) has to be un der stood as re fer ring ei ther to the di f fi culty of know ing the soul, or else to it s lim it ing ad junct s. The Buddhi abides in t he heart. So i t is said that t he soul abides in the heart. Re ally the soul is all-per vad ing. As the soul is in volved i n the Samsara and as it has for it s es - sence the qual i ties of it s lim it ing ad junct viz., Buddhi, it is spo ken of as min ute. `mdXm_^m{ ddm Z Xmo fVe ZmV& Yavadatmabhav itvaccha na doshast addarsanat II.3.30 (246) And the re is no defect o r fault in what has b een said in the previous Sutra ( as the conjunction o f the soul with the intellect exists) so long as the soul (in it s relative aspect) ex ists; because it is so seen (in the scriptur es). Yavat: so long as; Atmabh avitvat: as the soul (in it s relative aspect) exists; Cha: also, and; Na doshah: there is no defect or fault ; Taddarsanat: because it is so seen (in the scriptures), as Sruti also shows that. An ad di tional rea son is given in sup port of Su tra 29. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent raises an ob jec tion. V ery well, let us t hen as sume that the trans mi gra tory con di tion of t he soul is due to the qual i ties of the i n tel lect form ing its es sence. It will f ol low from this that , as the con junc tion of t he in tel lect and soul which are dif - fer ent en ti ties must nec es sar ily come to an end, the soul when dis - joined from the i n tel lect will ei ther cease to ex ist al to gether or at least cease to be a Samsarin (in di vid ual soul). To this ob jec tion this S u tra gives a re ply. There can be no such de fect in the ar gu ment of t he pre vi ous Su tra, be cause this con nec tion with the Buddh i (in tel lect) last s so long as the soul s state of S amsara is not brought to an end by means of per fect knowl edge. As long as the soul s con nec tion with t he Buddhi, it s lim it ing ad junct last s, so long the in di vid ual soul re mains in di vid ual soul, in volved i n trans mi - gra tory ex is tence. There is no Jiva or in di vid ual soul with out iden ti fi ca tion with in - tel lect. The con nec tion of t he soul with the in tel lect will cease only by right knowl edge. The scrip ture de clares I know that Per son of sunlike lus tre be yond dark ness. A man who knows Him passes over death, there is no other p ath to go (Sv et. Up. I II.8). How is it known that the soul is con nected with the B uddhi as long as it ex ists? W e re ply, be cause that is seen, viz. , in scrip ture. It is known from the Sruti s that this con nec tion is not sev ered even at death. The scrip ture de clares, He who is within the heart, con sist ing of knowl edge, sur rounded by Pranas, the per son of light, he re main - ing the same wan ders along the two worlds as if think ing, as if mov -CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 267 ing (Bri. Up. I V.3.7). Here the t erm con sist ing of knowl edge means con sist ing of Buddhi . The p as sage He re main ing in the same wan - ders along the two worlds de clares that the Sel f, even when go ing to an other world, is not sep a rated from the B uddhi etc. The t erm as if think ing, as if mov ing mean that t he in di vid ual soul does not think and move on it s own ac count, but only through it s as so ci a tion with t he Buddhi. The i n di vid ual soul thinks as it were, and mov es as it were, be cause the in tel lect to which it i s joined re ally mov es and thinks. The con nec tion of t he in di vid ual soul with the in tel lect, it s lim it ing ad junct, de pends on wrong knowl edge. W rong knowl edge (Mithyaj nana) can not cease ex cept through per fect knowl edge. There fore, as long as there does not arise the reali sa tion of B rah man or Brahmajnana, so long the con nec tion of t he soul with the in tel lect and it s other lim it ing ad junct s does not come to an end. nwdm{XdV d` gVmo@ {^`{ $`moJmV& Pumstv adivat tvasy a satobhiv yaktiy ogat II.3.31 (247) On account o f the appropriateness of the manif estation of tha t (conne ction) which ex ists (pote ntially) like v irile po wer, etc. Pumstv adivat: like the viril e power etc.; Tu: verily , but; Asya: its, i.e., of the connection wit h the intell ect; Satah: existing; Abhiv yaktiy ogat: on account of the manif estation being possible, because of appropriateness of the manif estation. A proof is now given in sup port of Su tra 29 by show ing the per - pet ual con nec tion be tween the in di vid ual soul and the in tel lect. The word tu (but), is used in or der to set aside the ob jec tion raised above. An ob jec tion is raised that i n Sushupti or deep sleep and Pralaya t here can be no con nec tion with t he in tel lect, as the scrip ture de clares, Then he be comes united with the T rue; he is gone to his own (Chh. Up. VI.8. 1). How then can it be said that the con nec tion with the in tel lect last s so long as the in di vid ual soul ex ists? The Su tra re futes it and say s that this con nec tion ex ists in a sub - tle or po ten tial form ev en in deep sleep. Had it not been for this, it could not have be come man i fest in the wak ing st ate. S uch con nec - tion is clear from the ap pro pri ate ness of such con nec tion be com ing man i fest dur ing cre ation, af ter dis so lu tion and dur ing the wak ing state af ter sleep, as in the case of v i ril ity dor mant in boy hood and man i fest in man hood. The con nec tion of t he soul with the in tel lect ex ists po ten tially dur ing deep sleep and the pe riod of dis so lu tion and again be comes man i fest at t he time of wak ing and the tim e of cre ation. Vir ile power be comes man i fest in man hood only if it ex ists in a fine or po ten tial st ate in the body . Hence this con nec tion with t he in tel - lect last s so long as the soul ex ists in it s Samsara-st ate.BRAHMA SU TRAS 268 {Z`monb` ZwnbpYgm o@`Va{Z`_ mo dm@`Wm& Nityopalabdhy anup alabdhiprasangony ataraniy amo vanyatha II.3.32 (248) Otherwise (if no intelle ct ex isted) there wo uld re sult e ither const ant perception or con stant non -percepti on, or else a limita tion o f either of the two (i .e., of the soul or of the senses). Nityopalabdhy anup alabdhiprasanga: there would result perpetual perception or non-perception; Anyatara: otherwise, either of the two; Niyamah: restrictive rule; Va: or; Anyatha: otherwise. ( Upalabdhi: perception, consciousness; Anup alabdhi: non-perception, non-consciousnes s.) The in ter nal or gan (Ant ahkarana) which con sti tutes the li m it ing ad junct of the soul i s called in dif fer ent places by dif fer ent names such as Manas (mind), Buddhi (in tel lect), V ijnana (knowl edge), and Chitt a (thought) etc. When it is in a st ate of doubt it is called Manas; when it is in a st ate of de ter mi na tion it i s called Buddhi. Now we must nec es - sar ily ac knowl edge the ex is tence of such an in ter nal or gan, be cause oth er wise there would re sult ei ther per pet ual per cep tion or per pet ual non-per cep tion. There would be per pet ual per cep tion when ever there is a con junc tion of t he soul, and senses and the ob jects of senses, the three to gether form ing the in stru ment s of per cep tion. Or else, if on t he con junc tion of t he three causes the ef fect did not f ol low, there would be per pet ual non-per cep tion. B ut nei ther of these t wo al - ter na tiv es is ac tu ally observ+ed. Or else we will have to ac cept the lim i ta tion of t he power ei ther of the soul or of t he senses. But the li m it ing of power is not pos si ble, as the At man is change less. It can not be said that t he power of the senses which is not ob structed ei ther in the pre vi ous mo ment or in the sub se quent mo ment is lim ited in the m id dle. There fore we have to ac knowl edge the ex is tence of an in ter nal or gan (Ant ahkarana) through whose con nec tion and dis con nec tion per cep tion and non-per cep tion t ake place. The scrip ture de clares, My mind was else where, I did not see, my mind was else where, I did not hear; for a man sees with his mi nd and hears with the mind (Bri. Up. I.5. 3). The scrip ture fur ther shows that de sire, rep re sen ta tion, doubt, f aith, want of fait h, mem ory, for get ful ness, shame, re flec tion, fear, all this is mind. There fore there ex ists an in ter nal or gan, the A ntahkarana, and the con nec tion of t he soul with the in ter nal or gan causes the At man to ap pear as the in di vid ual soul or as the soul it s Samsara st ate as ex - plained in Su tra 29. The ex pla na tion giv en in Su tra 29 is there fore an ap pro pri ate one.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 269 Kartradhikaranam: T opic 14 (Sutras 38-39) The individual soul is an agent H$Vm emmWd dmV& Karta sastrarthav attvat II.3.33 (249) (The soul is) an agent on account of t he scripture having a purport the reby. Karta: agent; Sastrarthav attvat: in order that the scriptures may have a meaning, on account of the scriptures having a purport. An other char ac ter is tic of the in di vid ual soul is be ing stated. The ques tion as re gards the size of the soul has been st ated. Now an other char ac ter is tic of the soul i s taken up for dis cus sion. The Jiva is a doer or an agent, f or oth er wise the scrip tural in junc tions will be use less. On that as sump tion scrip tural in junc tions such as He is to sac ri fice, He is to make an ob la tion into t he fire, He is to giv e, etc., hav e a pur port, oth er wise they would be purportless. The scrip - tures en join cer tain act s to be done by the agent . If the soul be not an agent these in junc tions would be come mean ing less. On that sup po - si tion there is mean ing to the f ol low ing pas sage also, For , it is he who sees, hears, per ceives, con ceives, act s, he is the per son whose self is knowl edge (Pras. Up. IV .9). He who de sires to at tain heaven, has to per form sac ri fices; and he, who de sires to at tain sal va tion, has to wor ship Brah man in med i t a tion. {dhmamo nXoemV & Viharop adesat II.3.34 (250) And o n accou nt of (the Sruti) te aching (its) wand ering ab out. Vihara: wandering at will, play , sporting about; Upadesat: on account of declaration, as S ruti declares. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 33 is given. The Sruti de clares The im mor tal one goes wher ever he likes (Bri. Up. I V.3.12), and agai n He t ak ing the senses along with him moves about ac cord ing to his plea sure, within his own body (Bri. Up. II.1.18). These p as sages which give a de scrip tion of t he wan der ing of the soul in the dream in di cate clearly that the soul is an agent. CnXmZmV & Upadanat II.3.35 (251) (Also i t is a doer) on accoun t of its taking the orga ns. Upadanat: on account of it s taking (the organs). An other ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 33 is given. The text quoted in the last Su tra also in di cates that the soul i n dream st ate takes the or gans with it. Hav ing taken through the in tel li -BRAHMA SU TRAS 270 gence of the senses, in tel li gence, and hav ing taken the senses (Bri. Up. II. 1.18, 19). T his clearly shows that the soul is an agent. It is a doer or an agent be cause it is said to use the senses. The in di vid ual soul is to be ad mit ted as the agent, be cause he is de scribed in Sruti t o take the senses along with him as in stru ment s of his work, while roam ing within his own body dur ing the dream st ate. Thus, he tak ing the senses along with him, m oves about within hi s own body , just as he pleases. (Bri. Up. I I.1.18). In the Git a also we find when the soul ac quires a body and when he aban dons it, he seizes these and goes with them, as the wind t akes fra grance from the flow ers (Git a. XV .8). `nXoe m {H $`m`m Z Mo{X}e{dn``& Vyapadesaccha kriy ayam na chennirdesav iparyayah II.3.36 (252) (The soul is an agent) also because it is designated as such with re gard to ac tions ; if it we re not so , the re would be a change of de signation. Vyapadesat: on account of mention, from a st atement of Sruti; Cha: also, and; Kriyayam: in respect of performance of rites; Na chet: if it were not so, or else, otherwise; Nirdesav iparyayah: reversal of the statement, change of designation. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 33 is con tin ued. In the p as sage Vijnanam yajnam t anute, K armani t anute pi chaIn tel li gence (i.e., the in tel li gent per son, Jiva) per forms sac ri - fices, and it al so per forms all act s (Tait. Up. II.5), by I n tel li gence the soul is meant and not t he Buddhi. Thi s clearly shows that the soul is an agent. Vijnana re fers to Jiva and not to Buddhi, be cause if Buddhi is re - ferred to, t he word would be V ijnanena. The nom i na tive case in Vijnanam yajnam t anute , should be in stru men tal case, V ijnanena, by in tel li gence mean ing through its in stru men t al ity. We see that in an other text where the Buddhi is meant t he word in tel li gence is ex hib it ed in the in stru men t al case Hav ing through the in tel li gence of these senses it t akes all un der stand ing (Bri. Up. II.1.17). In t he pas sage un der dis cus sion, on the con trary, the word in tel li gence is given in the char ac ter is tic of the agent , viz., nom i na - tive case and there fore in di cates the soul which is dis tinct from t he Buddhi. CnbpYdX{Z`_& Upalabdhi vadaniy amah II.3.37 (253) As in the case of perception (there is) no rule (here also).CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 271 Upalabdhiv at: as in the case of perception; Aniyamah: (there is) no rule. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 33 is con tin ued. An ob jec tion is raised that i f the soul were a free agent, then why should he do any act pro duc tive of harm ful ef fects? He would have done only what is ben e fi cial to him and not both good and evil ac tions. This ob jec tion is re futed in t his Su tra. Just as the soul, al though he is free, per ceives both pleas ant and un pleas ant things, so also he per forms both good and evi l ac tions. There is no rule that he should per form only what is ben e fi cial and avoid what is bad or harm ful. In the per for mance of ac tions, the soul i s not ab so lutely free as he de pends on dif fer ences of place, time and ef fi cient causes. But an agent does not cease to be so be cause he is in need of as sis tance. A cook re mains the agent in ac tion of cook ing, al though he needs fuel, wa ter, etc. His func tion as a cook ex ists at all tim es. e{${dn` `mV& Saktiv iparyayat II.3.38 (254) On account o f the reversal of power (of the Buddhi). Saktiv iparyayat: on account of the reversal of power (of the Buddhi). The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 33 is con tin ued. If the Buddhi which is an in stru ment be comes the agent and ceases to func tion as an in stru ment there would t ake place a re ver sal of power , i.e., the in stru men tal power which per tains to the Buddhi would have to be set aside and t o be re placed by the power of an agent. If the Buddhi has the power of an agent , it must be ad mit ted that it is also the ob ject of self-con scious ness (Aham-pratyaya), as we see that ev ery where ac tiv ity is pre ceded by self-con scious ness: I go, I come, I eat, I drink, I do, I en joy. If the Buddhi is en dowed with the power of an agent and af fects all things, we hav e to as sume for it an other in stru ment by m eans of which it af fects ev ery thing, be cause ev ery doer needs an in stru ment. Hence the whole dis pute is about a name only . There is no real dif fer - ence, since in ei ther case that which is dif fer ent from t he in stru ment of ac tion is ad mit ted to be t he agent. I n ei ther case an agent dif fer ent from the in stru ment has to be ad mit ted. g_m`^ mdm& Samadhy abhav accha II.3.39 (255) And on a ccount of the impossi bility of Sama dhi. Samadhy abhav at: on account of the impossibili ty of Samadhi; Cha: and, also. ( Samadhi : superconscious state; Abhavat: for w ant, fo r impossibility , as it becomes an impossible thi ng).BRAHMA SU TRAS 272 The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 33 is con tin ued. If the soul is not a doer , there will be non-ex is tence of at tain ment of lib er a tion. I f the Jiv a or soul is not an agent, t hen the reali sa tion pre - scribed by Sruti tex ts like The At man is to be real ised (Bri. Up. II.4.5.) through S am adhi would be im pos si ble. The med i ta tion t aught in the V edant a text s is pos si ble only if the soul is the agent. Ver ily, the At man is to be seen, to be heard, to be per ceived, t o be searched. The Self we must seek out, we must try t o un der stand (Chh. Up. VIII.7.1.) Med i tate on the S elf as OM (Mun. Up. I I.2.6). There from also it fol lows that the soul is an agent . The soul will not be ca pa ble of prac tis ing hear ing, rea son ing, re flec tion, and me d i ta tion which lead to Sam adhi and the at tain ment of Knowl edge of the I m per ish able. Hence there will be no eman ci pa - tion for t he soul. There fore it is es tab lished that t he soul alone is the agent, but not the B uddhi. Takshadhikaranam : Topic 15 The soul is an agent as long as it is lim ited by the adjunct s `Wm M Vjmo ^`Wm& Yatha cha t akshobhay atha II.3.40 (256) And as the carpenter is both. Yatha: as; Cha: also, and; Taksha: the carpenter; Ubhay atha: in both ways, is both. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 33 is con tin ued. That the in di vid ual soul is an agent has been proved by t he rea - sons set forth in Sut ras 33 to 39. W e now have to con sider whether this agency is it s real na ture or only a su per im po si tion due to it s lim it - ing ad junct s. The Nyaya S chool main tains that it is its very na ture. This Su tra re futes it and de clares that it is su per im posed on the soul and not real. Such doership is not t he soul s na ture, be cause if it is so, there could be no lib er a tion, just as fire, be ing hot in it s na ture, can never be free from heat. Do ing is es sen tially of the na ture of p ain. You can not say that even if t here is the power of do ing, eman ci pa tion can come when there is noth ing to do, be cause the power of do ing will re sult in do ing at some tim e or other . The Sruti calls the At man as hav ing an eter nally pure con scious and free na ture. How could that be if doership is it s na ture? Hence, it s doership is due to it s iden ti fi ca - tion with a li m it ing func tion. S o there is no soul as doer or enjoyer apart from Para-Brah man. Y ou can not say that in that case God will be come a Samsarin, be cause doership and en joy ment are due only to Avidya. The body of t he car pen ter is not the cause of his f unc tion. His tools are the cause. Ev en so the soul is a doer only through the m ind and the senses. The scrip tural in junc tions do not com mand do ing butCHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 273 com mand act s to be done on the ba sis of such doership which is due to Avidya. The Sruti de clares This At man is non-at tached (Bri. Up. IV.3.15). Just as in or di nary life, a car pen ter suf fers when he is work - ing with his tools and is happy when he leav es his work, so does the At man suf fer when he is ac tive i n the wak ing and dream st ates through his con nec tion with t he in tel lect, etc. , and is bliss ful when he ceases to be an agent as in the st ate of deep sleep. The scrip tural in junc tions in pre scrib ing cer tain act s re fer to the con di tioned st ate of t he self. By na ture the soul is in ac tive. It be comes ac tive through con nec tion with it s Upadhis or lim it ing ad junct s, the in - tel lect, etc. Doership re ally be longs to the in tel lect. Et er nal Up alabdhi or Con scious ness is in the soul. Doership im plies Ahamkara or ego-con scious ness. Hence such doers hip does not be long to the soul as it s na ture but be longs to the in tel lect. The scrip tural in junc tions in pre scrib ing cer tain acts pre sup pose an agent ship es tab lished some how on ac count of A vidya or ig no - rance, but do not t hem selves aim at es tab lish ing the di rect agent ship of the S elf. The agent ship of the Sel f does not con sti tute it s real na - ture be cause scrip ture teaches that it s true Self is B rah man. W e, there fore, con clude that the V e dic in junc tions are op er a tive wit h ref er - ence to that agent ship of the soul which is due to A vidya. Nor can you in fer doership from the de scrip tion of V ihara (play or ac tiv ity) in dreams, be cause the con nec tion with t he mind or in tel - lect con tin ues in dreams. Even in t he st ate of dream t he in stru ment s of the S elf are not al to gether at rest; be cause scrip ture de clares that even then it is con nected with the B uddhi. Hav ing be come a dream, to gether with Buddhi, it passes be yond this world. S mriti also says, when the senses be ing at rest, t he mind not be ing at rest is oc cu pied with the ob jects, that st ate know to be a dream. It is clearly es tab lished that t he agent ship of the soul is due to it s lim it ing ad junct Buddhi only. Paray attadhikaranam : Topic 16 (Sutras 41-42) The soul is dependent on the Lord, when he works nammw VV lwVo& Parattu t at sruteh II.3.41 (257) But (even) that ( agency o f the soul) is from th e Supreme Lord, so declare s the Sruti. Parat: from the S upreme Lord; Tu: but, indeed; Tat: agency , agent ship; Sruteh: from Sruti , so declares the Sruti. A lim i ta tion to S u tra 33 is st ated.BRAHMA SU TRAS 274 We now en ter on the dis cus sion whether the agent ship char ac - ter is ing the in di vid ual soul in the st ate of ig no rance on ac count of it s lim it ing ad junct s is in de pend ent of t he Lord or de pend ent on Him. The Purvap akshin main tains that the soul as f ar as it is an agent does not de pend on the Lord. The word tu (but), is em ployed in or der to re move the doubt raised by the Purv apakshin. The view that the soul s doership is due to its de sires and it s pos ses sion of the senses as in stru ment s and not to the Lord is wrong, be cause the Sruti de clares that Lord is the cause. The agency of t he soul is also due to the Su preme Lord. It can be un der stood from Srut i that t he agent ship of the in di vid ual soul is ver ily sub or di nate to and con trolled by t he Su preme Lord. The soul does good and bad deeds be ing so di rected by the Lord. Sruti de clares, He makes him, whom He wishes to lead up from these worlds do good deeds; He makes him, whom He wishes to lead down from these worlds, do bad deeds. (Kau. Up. III.8) and, again, He who dwell ing within the S elf pulls the S elf within (Sat . Br. XIV.6.7.30). The Uni ver sal Soul en ter ing within, gov erns the in di vid - ual souls Antah pravisht ah sast a jivanam The Lord is within all, the Ruler of all crea tures. You can not say that that will cause the at tri bu tion of p ar tial ity (Vaishamya) and cru elty (Nairghrinya) t o the Lord, be cause He acts ac cord ing to Dharma (merit) and Adharma (de merit). Y ou may re ply that t hese are due to doership and if doership is due to the Lord, how can the Lord act ac cord ing to Dharma and Adharma? We re ply that the Sruti says that t he soul is the doer and de - clares as caus e of doership the Su preme Lord who is the bestower of the fruit s of ac tions, who is im ma nent in all, who is the wit ness of all ac tions, and who is the in spirer and guider of all. H$V`ZmnojVw {d{hV {V{fYmd ``m{X` Kritapray atnapekshastu vihitapratishiddhavaiy arthy adibhy ah II.3.42 (258) But (t he Lord s makin g the soul act ) depends on t he works done (by i t), for o therwise there will be uselessness of the scriptural injunct ions a nd pr ohibi tions. Kritapray atnapekshah: depends on works done; Tu: but; Vihita-pratishiddha-avaiy arthy adibhy ah: so that the scriptural injunctions and prohibitions may not be meaningless. ( Vihita: ordained; Pratishiddha: prohibited; Avaiyarthy adibhy ah: on account of non-meaninglessness.) This Su tra pro ceeds to nar row the scope of Su tra 41 within cer - tain lim its.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 275 If causal agency be longs to the Lord, it fol lows that He must be cruel and un just and that t he soul has to un dergo con se quences of what it has not done. He must be cruel and whim si cal too as He makes some per sons do good acts and ot h ers evil deeds. This Su tra re futes this doubt . The word tu (but), re moves the ob jec tions. The Lord al ways di - rects the soul ac cord ing to it s good or bad ac tions done in pre vi ous births. He be stows good and bad fruit s ac cord ing to the soul s good and bad ac tions. He is the rain which al ways causes each s eed to fruc tify ac cord ing to it s power . Though doership is de pend ent on the Lord, do ing is the soul s act. What the soul does the Lord causes to be done. Such do ing is due to deeds done in pre vi ous birth and V asanas which, again, are due to pre vi ous Kar mas and so on, Samsara be ing with out be gin ning (Anadi). As S amsara is beginningless there will al - ways be pre vi ous births with ac tions per formed in those births f or the guid ance of the Lord. Hence He can not be ac cused of be ing cruel, un just and whim si cal. T o give fruit s the Lord de pends on the soul s ac - tions. If this were not so, the scrip tural in junc tions and pro hi bi tions would be mean ing less. If Lord does not de pend on the soul s ac tions for giv ing fruit, ef fort or ex er tion (Purushartha) will hav e no place at all. The soul will gain noth ing by fol low ing these in junc tions. More over, time, place and cau sa tion will be ca pri ciously op er a - tive and not ac cord ing to the law of cause and ef fect, if our Karma is not the in stru men tal cause, and the Lord the Su per vis ing Cause. Amsadhikaranam : Topic 17 (Sutras 43-53) Relation of t he individual soul to Brahm an Aemo ZmZm `nXoemX `Wm Mm{n X me{H$Vdm{Xd_ Yr`V EH o$& Amso nanav yapadesad any atha chapi dasakit avaditv amadhiy ata eke II.3.43 (259) (The soul is ) a par t of the Lor d on accoun t of difference (between t he two) being declared and otherwise also (i.e., as non-different from B rahma n); be cause in so me (Vedic texts) (Brahman) is spoken of as be ing fi shermen, knaves, etc. Amsah: part; Nanav yapadesat: on account of dif ference being declared; Anyatha: otherwise; Cha: and; Api: also; Dasakit avaditv am: being fisher-men, knaves, et c.; Adhiy ata: read; Eke: some (Srutis, Sakhas of t he Vedas). This Su tra shows that the in di vid ual soul is dif fer ent from as well as the same with Brah man. In the last t opic it has been shown that the Lord rules the soul. Now the ques tion of t he re la tion of t he in di vid ual soul to Brah man is taken up. Is it t hat of mas ter and ser vant or as be tween fire and it s sparks?BRAHMA SU TRAS 276 The Purvap akshin holds that the re la tion is like that of mas ter and ser vant, be cause that con nec tion only is well known to be the re - la tion of ruler (Lord) and ruled (sub ject). To this the Su tra says that t he soul must be con sid ered a p art of the Lord, just as a sp ark is a part of the fire. But t hen the soul is not ac - tu ally a p art, but a p art as it were. It is an imag ined p art only , be cause Brah man can not have any parts. Brah man is Nishkala, with out p arts. He is Akhanda (in di vis i ble). He is Niravayav a (with out limbs). Why then should it be taken as a part a nd not iden ti cal with the Lord? Be cause the scrip tures de clare a dif fer ence be tween them in texts like That self it i s which we must search out, that it is we must try to un der stand (Chh. Up. VII I.7.1). He who knows H im be comes a Muni (Bri. Up. I V.4.22). He who dwell ing within the self , pulls the self from within (Bri. Up. III .7.23). The A t man is to be seen (Bri. Up. II.4.5). This dif fer ence is spo ken of from the rel a tive v iew point. They are iden ti cal from the ab so lute vi ew point. The text Brah man is the fish er men, Brah man the slaves, B rah - man these gam blers etc., in di cate that ev en such low per sons are in re al ity Brah man and that al l in di vid ual souls, men, women and chil - dren are all Brah man. The same view point is set fort h in other p as sages such as Thou art woman, Thou art m an, Thou art t he youth, Thou art the maiden; Thou as an old man t ot ters along on Thy st aff, Thou art born with Thy f ace turned ev ery where (Svet. Up. IV.3). T exts like There is no other but He and sim i lar ones es tab lish the same truth. Non-dif fer - en ti ated in tel li gence be longs to the soul and the Lord ali ke, just as heat be longs to the sp arks as well as the fire. From these two views of di f fer ence, and non-dif fer ence, there re sults the com pre hen sive view of the soul be ing a p art of the Lord. _dUm & Mantrav arnaccha II.3.44 (260) Also from the word s of th e Mantra ( it is k nown th at the soul is a part o f the Lord ). Mantrav arnat: from the words of the M antra, from t he letters in sacred verses, because of description given in the sacred Mantras; Cha: also, and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 43, that the in di vid ual soul is a part of Brah man is given. A fur ther rea son is given to show that t he soul is a p art of the Lord. Such is the great ness of it; greater t han it is the P er son. One foot of It are all t hese be ings, three feet of It are the im mor tal in heaven, (Chh. Up. I II.12.6) where be ings in clud ing souls are said to be a foot or p art of the Lord. nmXmo@` gdm ^ yVm{Z (One foot, i .e., the fourthCHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 277 part of Him are all be ings, the whole cre ation cov ers only a frac tion of Him). Purusha Sukt a: Rigveda: X.90. 3, de clares the same thing. Al l the be ings are but a foot of Him. The word p ada and amsa are iden ti cal. Both m ean p art or a por tion. Hence we con clude that the i n di vid ual soul is a p art of the Lord, and again from the f ol low ing rea son. A{n M _`Vo& Api cha smary ate II.3.45 (261) And it is s o stated in the Smriti. Api: also; Cha: and; Smary ate: it is (so) st ated in the S mriti. The ar gu ment that the in di vid ual soul is a p art of Brah man is con cluded here. The Smriti also says sothat the in di vid ual soul is a p art of Brah man. An et er nal por tion of My self be comes the in di vid ual soul in the world of lif e (Bhagavad Git a: XV .7). H$mem{Xd d na& Prakasadiv annaiv am p arah II.3.46 (262) The Supreme Lor d is not (affected by pl easure and pai n) like this (individua l soul) ju st as light (is unaffecte d by the shaking of its reflections ). Prakasadiv at: like light, etc.; Na: is not; Evam: thus, like thi s, like the individual soul; Parah: the Supreme Lord. The spe ci al ity of the Su preme Lord is shown in this Su tra. Here the Purvap akshin raises an other ob jec tion. I f the soul is a part of the Lord, the Lord also must ex pe ri ence plea sure and pain l ike the soul. W e see in or di nary life t hat the en tire Ramakrishna suf fers from the p ain af fect ing his hand or foot or some other lim b. Hence at - tain ment of God would m ean max i mum grief and p ain, and the old lim ited p ain of in di vid ual soul would be far better . This Su tra re futes it. The Lord does not ex pe ri ence plea sure and p ain like the in di vid ual soul. The in di vid ual soul iden ti fies it self with the body , the senses and the mind, on ac count of ig no rance, and there fore ex pe ri ences plea sure and pain. The Su preme Lord nei ther iden ti fies him self with a body , nor imag ines him self to be af flicted by pain. The p ain of the in di vid ual soul also is not real but imag i nary only . It is due to non-dis crim i na tion of t he Self f rom the body , senses and mind which are the prod ucts of A vidya or ig no rance. Just as a man feels the p ain of a burn or cut which af fects his body by er ro ne ously iden ti fy ing him self with the l at ter, so also he feels the p ain which af fects oth ers such as s ons or friends, by er ro ne ouslyBRAHMA SU TRAS 278 iden ti fy ing him self with them . He en ters as it were into them t hrough Moha or love and imag ines I am the son, I am the friend. This clearly shows that the feel ing of p ain is due merely to t he er ror of false imag i - na tion. Some men and women are sit ting to gether and t alk ing. If then some body calls out the son has died, grief is pro duced in the minds of those who have Moha or lov e for sons on ac count of er ro ne ous imag i na tion, iden ti fi ca tion, and con nec tion, but not in the m inds of re - li gious as cet ics or Sannyasins who have freed them selves from that imag i na tion. I f even a man of right knowl edge who has be come an as - cetic has no p ain or grief con se quent on death of re la tions or friends, God who is Su preme and alone, who is pure con scious ness, who is eter nal pure in tel li gence, who sees noth ing be side the Self for which there are no ob jects, can have no p ain at all. To il lus trate thi s view the Su tra in tro duces a com par i son like light etc. Just as the light of the sun which is all-per vad ing be comes straight or bent by com ing in con tact with p ar tic u lar ob jects, but does not re ally be come so, or the ether of a pot seems to move when the pot is moved, but does not re ally mov e, or as the sun does not trem ble al though it s im age which is re flected in wa ter trem bles, so also the Lord is not af fected by pl ea sure, p ain or grief al though plea sure and pain etc., are f elt by t hat p art of Him, which is called the in di vid ual soul which is a prod uct of ig no rance and is lim ited by B uddhi, etc. Just as the sun does not be come con tam i nated by it s touch through it s part s, the rays with t he im pu ri ties of the eart h, so also the Su preme Lord does not be come af fected by t he en joy ment and suf - fer ing of the in di vid ual soul, though lat ter is p art and p ar cel of the for - mer. When the soul s in di vid ual st ate due to ig no rance is sub lat ed, it be comes Brah man, Thou art That etc. Thus the Su preme Lord is not af fected by t he pain of the in di vid ual soul. _apV M& Smaranti Cha II.3.47 (263) The Smritis al so state (that) . Smaranti : the Smr itis state; Cha: and, also. Of the two, the Su preme Self is said t o be eter nal, de void of qual i ties. It is not touched by t he fruit s of ac tions, any more than a lo - tus leaf by wa ter. The Smrit i text s like these st ate that the Su preme Lord does not ex pe ri ence plea sure and pain. AZwkmn[ahma m Xohg~Ym `mo{V am{XdV & Anujnap ariharau dehasambandhajjy otiradiv at II.3.48 (264)CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 279 Injunct ions a nd pr ohibi tions (are possible) on accoun t of the conne ction (o f the Se lf) with the bo dy, as in the case of light, etc. Anujnap ariharau: injunctions and prohibitions; Dehasambandhat: on account of connection with t he body; Jyotiradiv at: like light etc. The ne ces sity for ob ser vance of man da tory and pro hib i tory rules is ex plained. The At man or the Su preme Self is one. There can be no in junc - tions and pro hi bi tions with re gard to the At man. But in junc tions and pro hi bi tions are pos si ble when it is con nected with a body . What are those per mis sions and in junc tions? He is to ap proach his wife at the proper time. He is not to ap proach the wife of his Guru. He is to kill the an i mal de voted t o Agnistoma and He is not to hurt any be ing. Fire is one only but t he fire of t he fu neral pyre is re jected and that of a sac ri fice is ac cepted. Some t hings con sist ing of earth, like di - a monds, are de sired; other things con sist ing of earth, like dead bod - ies, are shunned. The urine and dung of cows are con sid ered pure and used as such; those of other an i mals are re jected. W a ter poured from a clean ves sel or of fered by a clean per son is to be ac cepted; that con tained in an un clean ves sel or of fered by an un clean man is to be re jected. Si m i lar is the case with the At man. When the soul is in a st ate of at tach ment to t he body , eth i cal ideas of pu rity and im pu rity hav e full ap pli ca tion. AgVVo m`{ VH$a& Asant ateschav yatikarah II.3.49 (265) And on a ccount of the non-ext ension ( of the soul beyond i ts own body ) there is no con fusion (of result s of ac tions). Asant ateh: on account of non-extension (bey ond it s own body); Cha: and; Avyatikarah: there is no confusion (of result s of actions). The dis cus sion on the spe cial char ac ter is tic of the in di vid ual soul is con tin ued. An ob jec tion is raised that on ac count of the unit y of t he self there would re sult a con fu sion of the re sults of ac tions, there be ing only one mas ter, i.e., one soul to en joy the f ruits of ac tions. This Su tra re futes such a pos si bil ity . This is not so, be cause there is no ex ten sion of the act ing and en joy ing self, i. e., no con nec tion on it s part with all bod ies. The in di - vid ual soul de pends on it s ad junct s, and there is also non-ex ten sion of the soul on ac count of the non-ex ten sion of those ad junct s. The in - di vid ual souls are dif fer ent from each other . Each soul is con nected with a p ar tic u lar body , mind, et c. The in di vid ual soul has no con nec tion with all the bod ies at the same time. He is con nected with one body onl y and he is af fected byBRAHMA SU TRAS 280 the pe cu liar prop er ties of that one alone. There fore the ef fects of works done by the soul in one body be longs to him in re spect of that body only and not of any ot her body . All t he in di vid u als are not af - fected by t he works done by a par tic u lar in di vid ual. There will be no pos si bil ity for the At man, as it is one, to ex pe ri - ence all the plea sures and all the p ains of all the bod ies, be cause the bod ies are dis con nected. There fore there is no con fu sion of ac tions or fruit s of ac tions. Am^mg Ed M & Abhasa ev a cha II.3.50 (266) And (the individu al soul is ) only a refle ction (of Paramatman o r the Supr eme Lord). Abhasa: a reflection; Eva: only; Cha: and. Ac cord ing to V edant a, the in di vid ual soul is only a re flec tion of Brah man or the Su preme Soul in the m ind like the re flec tion of t he sun in the wa ter. Just as the re flec tions of the sun in di f fer ent pot s of wa ter are dif fer ent, so also the re flec tions of the S u preme Soul in dif fer ent minds are dif fer ent. Just as, when one re flected im age of the sun trem bles, an other re flected im age does not on that ac count trem ble also, so also when a p ar tic u lar soul ex pe ri ences fruit s of his ac tions, viz., plea sure and pain, it is not shared by ot her souls. When the in di - vid ual soul in one body is un der go ing the ef fects of his ac tions, the soul in any other body is not af fected on that ac count. For those, such as the Sankhyas, t he V aiseshikas and the Naiyayikas on the con trary, who main tain that t here are many souls and all of them all-per vad ing, it f ol lows that there must be a con fu sion of ac tions and re sults, be cause each soul is pres ent ev ery where near to those causes which pro duce plea sure and pain. Ac cord ing to the opin ion of the S ankhyas, there ex ist many all-per vad ing selfs, whose na ture is pure in tel li gence, de void of qual i - ties and of unsurp assable ex cel lence. For the com mon pur pose of all of them t here ex ists the Pradhana through which the souls ob tain en - joy ment and re lease. In the S ankhya phi los o phy the in di vid ual soul has been st ated to be all-per vad ing. If this view be ac cepted there would be con fu sion of works and their ef fects. This view of S ankhyas is there fore an un fair con clu sion. There fore there can be no con fu sion of the re sults of ac tion. AX>m{Z`_mV & Adrisht aniyamat II.3.51 (267) There being n o fixity about t he unseen prin ciple (t here would result c onfusion of wo rks a nd the ir effects for th ose who believe in many souls, each all-pervading).CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 281 Adrisht aniyamat: There being no fixi ty about the unseen principle. (Adrisht a: the fat e, the accumulated st ock of previous actions, waiting as a latent force to bring forth f ruits in future, merit or demerit acquired by the souls by t hought s, words and actions; Aniyamat: for want of any bi nding rule, on account of non-determ inateness.) The dis cus sion be gun in Su tra 50 is con tin ued. Sutras 51 to 53 re fute t he doc trine of t he Sankhyas and other schools about the plu ral ity of souls, each of which is all-per vad ing. It leads to ab sur di ties. This con fu sion can not be avoided by bring ing the Adrisht a or un seen prin ci ple, be cause if all the souls equally are all-per vad ing, there can not be any bind ing rule as to upon which of them t he force will act. Ac cord ing to the S ankhyas, the A drisht a does not in here in the soul but in the P radhana which is com mon to all souls. Hence there is noth ing to fix that a p ar tic u lar Adrisht a op er ates in a p ar tic u lar soul. The doc trine of t he other two schools is open to the same ob jec - tion. A c cord ing to the Ny aya and V aiseshika schools, the un seen prin ci ple is cre ated by t he con junc tion of t he soul with the mind. Here also there is noth ing to fix that a p ar tic u lar Adrisht a be longs to a p ar - tic u lar soul, as ev ery soul is all-per vad ing and there fore equally con - nected with all mi nds. There fore the con fu sion of re sults is un avoid able. A{^g`m{X d{n M d_& Abhisandhy adishu api chaiv am II.3.52 (268) And this is also t he case in resolutions, etc. Abhisandhy adishu: in resolutions, etc. ; Api: even; Cha: and; Evam: thus, like thi s, in the like manner . The dis cus sion be gun in Su tra 50 is con tin ued. The same log i cal de fect will ap ply also to t he re solve to do ac - tions. There will be no or der li ness of re solves to do ac tions. That is want of or der also in mat ters of per sonal de ter mi na tion, et c., if t he in - di vid ual soul be ad mit ted to be all-per vad ing. If it be held that t he res o lu tion which one makes to get some - thing or to av oid some thing will al lot the A drisht a to p ar tic u lar souls, even then t here will be this con fu sion of re sults of ac tions, be cause res o lu tions are formed by t he con junc tion of t he soul and the mind. There fore the same ar gu ment ap plies here also. If the in di vid ual soul is all-per vad ing, there can not be any or der in mo tives or mat ters of per sonal de ter mi na tion such as I will do a cer tain thing or I will not do a cer tain thing be cause in such a cas e, ev ery one be comes con scious of the de ter mi na tion of ev ery other . There fore no or der of de ter mi na tion and it s putt ing it int o ac tion canBRAHMA SU TRAS 282 be main tained. More over col li sion be tween wills can not be avoided. But or der is found in this world ev ery where. There fore it is es tab lished that t he soul is not all-per vad ing. Xoem{X{V MomV^ mdmV& Pradesaditi chenna ant arbhav at II.3.53 (269) If it be said (that the distinctio n of p leasure and pain e tc., results) from ( the diffe rence of) p lace, (we say) not s o, on account of the self being in al l bodies. Pradesat: on account of p articular locality or environment, from (difference of) place; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not so, the argument cannot st and; Antarbhavat: on account of the self bei ng in all bodies. An ob jec tion to S u tra 52 is raised and re futed. This Su tra con - sists of two p arts, viz., an ob jec tion and it s re ply. The ob jec tion por tion is Pradesaditi chet and the re ply por tion is Na ant arbhavat . The Naiyayi kas and oth ers try to get ov er the dif fi culty shown in the pre vi ous Su tra by giv ing the fol low ing ar gu ment. Though each soul is all-per vad ing, yet , con fu sion of re sults of ac tions will not oc cur if we t ake it s con nec tion with t he mind to t ake place in that p art of it which is lim ited by i ts body . Even t his can not st and. This also is not pos si ble on ac count of its be ing within all. Be cause, as be ing equally in fi nite all self s are within all bod ies. Ev ery soul is all-per vad ing and there fore per me ates all bod ies. There is noth ing to fix that a p ar tic u lar body be longs to a par tic u lar soul. More over, on ac count of the doc trine of lim i ta tion due to dif fer - ence of place, it would f ol low that some times two selfs en joy ing the same plea sure or pain m ay ef fect their f ru ition by one and the same way, as it may hap pen that t he un seen prin ci ple of two selfs oc cu pies the same place. Fur ther, from t he doc trine that the un seen prin ci ples oc cupy fixed pl aces it would fol low that no en joy ment of heav en can t ake place, be cause the Adrisht a is ef fected in def i nite places such as, e.g., the body of a Brahmana and the en joy ment of heav en is bound to a def i nite dif fer ent place. There can not be more than one all -per vad ing en tity. If there were many all-per vad ing en ti ties they would limit each ot her and there fore cease to be all-per vad ing or in fi nite. There fore there is only one A t man and not many . The V edant a doc trine of one A t man is the only f ault less doc trine. The only doc trine not open to any ob jec tions is the doc trine of t he unity of the self. T he plu ral ity of selfs in V edant a is only a prod uct of A vidya, ne science or ig no rance and not a re al ity. Thus ends the Third Pada (Sec tion 3) of the Sec ond Adhy aya (Chap ter II) of the B rahmasutras or the Vedant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 3 283 CHAPTER II SECTION 4 INTRODUCTION In the Third P ada or Sec tion it has been shown that ether and other el e ment s are pro duced from Brah man by rec on cil ing the ap par - ently con tra dic tory tex ts of the Srut is that treat of their or i gin. It has been shown that a con flict of the V e dic pas sages as to the orig i na tion of the et her, etc., does not ex ist. The same is now done in thi s Sec tion with re gard to the vi tal airs or Pranas, and senses. The text s that deal with the or i gin of the P ranas and senses ar e taken up for dis cus sion. This Sec tion es tab lishes that the v i tal airs and the senses de rive their or i gin from Brah man. 284 SYNOPSIS This Sec tion (Pada) IV of Chap ter II i s de voted t o the dis cus sion of the cre ation of t he senses, the chief Prana. I t es tab lishes that they orig i nate from Brah man. Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-4) teaches that the P ranas (senses ) orig i nate from Brah man. Adhikarana II: (Sutras 5-6) de clares that the senses are eleven in num ber. Adhikarana III : (Su tra 7) teaches that t he senses are of min ute size (Anu) and not all-per vad ing. Adhikarana IV : (Su tra 8) in ti mates that t he chief Prana is also pro duced from Brah man. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 9-12) informs us that t he chief Prana is a prin ci ple dis tinct from ai r in gen eral and from Pranas (senses) dis - cussed above. Adhikarana VI: (Su tra 13) teaches that t he chief Prana is min ute (Anu) and not all-per vad ing. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 14-16) teaches that the or gans are su - per in tended and guided in thei r ac tions by spe cial de i ties. The senses are con nected per ma nently wit h and are sub ser vi ent to t he in di vid ual soul. Hence the in di vid ual soul and not the pre sid ing de i ties is their mas ter . Adhikarana VII I: (Sutras 17-19) informs us that or gans are in de - pend ent prin ci ples and not mere modes of func tions of the chief Prana. Prana is not the re sul tant of t he com bined func tions of all t he eleven senses. Al though Prana is dif fer ent from t he senses and there fore not in cluded in their num ber of eleven, yet it is like them, an in stru ment of ac tion, as it has a spe cific and ex traor di nary func tion of sup port ing and nour ish ing the body , sus tain ing life, and sup port ing the senses. Adhikarana IX: (Sutras 20-22) de clares that the cre ation of names and forms (the Namarup avyakarana) is the work not of t he in - di vid ual soul but of t he Lord. Flesh orig i nates from earth. So also is the case of the t wo other el e ment s (fire and wa ter). On ac count of pre pon der ance of a par tic u lar el e ment in them the gross el e ment s are so named af ter it. As for in stance, the gross wa ter is pro duced from the mix ture of all t he five pri mary el e ment s but as the share con sti tuted by the el e ment wa ter pre pon der ates in the com po si tion of t he gross wa ter, it is named wa ter. 285 Pranotp attyadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-4) The Pranas have their origin from Brahman VWm mU m& Tatha pranah II.4.1 (270) Thus the vital air s (are produce d from Brahman ). Tatha: thus, likewise, simil arly, like the creation of the fiv e primal element s as stat ed in the previous section; Pranah: the Pranas, t he organs. The cre ation of t he Pranas or senses is now de scribed. The Pranas are di vided int o two classes, namely Pranas in a strict sense and Pranas in a met a phor i cal sense. The eleven senses, sight, hear ing, etc., are called Pranas in a sec ond ary mean ing. The five P ranas, Prana, Ap ana, V yana, S amana and Udana are the prin ci - pal Pranas. Among t hese, the au thor first t akes up the eleven senses which are called Pranas in a sec ond ary sense. Purvap akshin: The Pranas have no or i gin for they are eter nal like the Jivas and ex isted even be fore cre ation. Siddhantin: The Pranas have or i gin. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: The chap ters which treat of t he or i gin of things do not re cord an or i gin of the v i tal airs, e.g., It sent fo rth fi re, etc., ( Chh. Up. VI.2 .3). From that Se lf sprang ether, etc., (Tait. Up. II.1). It i s said clearly in some places that the v i - tal airs were not pro duced. This was in deed non-ex is tence in the be - gin ning. They say what was that non-be ing? Those Rishis in deed were the non-be ing in the be gin ning. They say who are those Rishis? The Pranas (or gans) are in deed the Rishis (Sat. B r. VI.1.1.1). This shows that the Pranas (or gans) are eter nal and not cre ated. This Su tra re futes the abov e view and says that the Pranas are pro duced just like ether from B rah man. The word T atha (thus or like - wise) does not re fer to the pre ced ing topic of t he last sec tion which is the plu ral ity of souls but to the cre ation of et her, etc., treated in t he last sec tion. S ruti tex ts di rectly de clare their orig i na tion. From t hat (Brah - man) are pro duced the vi tal air , mind and all t he or gans (Mun. Up. II.1.3). As small sp arks come forth from fire, thus do all vi tal airs come forth from t hat Brah man (Bri. Up. I I.1.20). The seven vi tal airs also spring from Him (Mun. Up. II .1.8). He sent f orth the vi tal air; from the v i tal air , Sraddha, et her, air, light, wa ter, earth, sense, mi nd, food (Pras. U p. VI.4) . There fore, the senses are cre ated. If the cre ation of the Prana is not stated in some places, that will not lessen the force of the p as sages about such cre ation. Na hi kvachidasravanamanyatra srut am nivarayitumut sahate ; Tattejo srijat ; Etasmajjayate P ranah .BRAHMA SU TRAS 286 The cir cum stance of a thing not be ing st ated in some places has no power to in val i date what is st ated about it in other places. There fore, an ac count of equal ity of scrip tural st ate ment s, it is proper to main tain that t he Pranas also are pro duced in the same way as ether and so on. Jm`g^dmV & Gauny asambhav at II.4.2 (271) On acc ount of the imposs ibility of a secon dary (origin of the Pranas). Gauni: secondary sense; Asambhav at: on account of impossibilit y, as it is impossible, being im possible. A plau si ble ob jec tion to S u tra 1 is re futed. The Purvap akshin says: The Sat apatha Brahmana speaks of the ex is tence of the P ranas (or gans) be fore cre ation. The t exts which de scribe their cre ation speak in a sec ond ary sense only . This Su tra re futes it. The st ate ment as to the o r i gin of the Pranas can not be t aken in a sec ond ary sense be cause there from the aban don ment of a gen eral as ser tion would re sult. By the knowl edge of one, ev ery thing else is known. What is that t hrough which when it is known ev ery thing else be comes known? (Mun. Up. I.1.3). There - fore the Pranas are pro duced from Brah man. The cre ation of ev ery thing from B rah man has been re it er ated in Sruti. There is no Sruti which con tra dicts it. Yato va im ani bhut ani jayante from which orig i nate all these t hings (T ait. B hriguvalli I ). In the face of t he ex press stat e ment in Srut is that all t hings are cre ated from Brah man, it i s ab surd to sup pose the Pranas (senses) are the sole ex cep tions. The ref er ence to the ex is tence of the P ranas (or gans) be fore cre ation in the S atapatha Brahmana per tains to Hiranyagarbha. Hiranyagarbha is Cos mic Prana. It is not re solved in p ar tial dis so lu - tion of t he uni verse. Ev en Hiranyagarbha is re solved in com plete dis - so lu tion (Mahapralaya). VmH $N>Vo& Tatprakcchrutescha II.4.3 (272) On acc ount o f that (word which ind icates origin) b eing mentio ned first (in conne ction with Prana s). Tat: that; Prak: first; Sruteh: from Sruti , on account of the S ruti tex t being mentioned; Cha: and, also. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 2 is given. A fur ther rea son is given in this Su tra to in di cate that t he Pranas (or gans) have t aken their or i gin from Brah man.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 287 Fur ther, be cause of the use of the word Jayat e (is born) in re - spect of Pranas ex ist ing prior to Akasa or ether , etc., it is clear that t he Pranas (or gans) have orig i nated from B rah man. The scrip tural st ate ment about t he or i gin of the P ranas is to be taken in it s lit eral or pri mary sense only . The tex t re ferred to is From that (Brah man) are pro duced the Prana (vi tal air), mind and all t he or - gans, ether , air, wa ter, fire and earth. (Mun. Up. II .1.3). Here the word Jayate (is born) oc curs at the very be gin ning of the t hings enu mer - ated. I f the word is in ter preted in it s pri mary sense with ref er ence to ether , etc., it must be all the more so in ter preted with ref er ence to the Pranas, mind and or gans which are men tioned ear lier. The sec ond ary sense is not ac cept able be cause the Sruti places the Pranas (or gans) prior to Akasa, air , etc. The word (Jayat e) oc curs first, then the words sig ni fy ing Prana and the senses, and, last of all, come A kasa, air , etc. Now that the word Jayate is ac cepted in its pri mary sense with re spect to Akasa, etc. , why should it be t aken in a sec ond ary sense, in con nec tion with P ranas (or gans) which the Sruti has placed prior to Akasa, et c.? It would be ab surd to de cide that a word enu mer ated once only in one chap ter and one sen tence and con nected with many other words, has in some cases to be taken in i ts pri mary sense and oth ers in a sec ond ary sense, be cause such a de ci sion would im ply want of uni for mity. The word Jayate which co mes in the end must be con - nected with the P ranas, etc., men tioned in the ear lier p art of the sen - tence. VnydH$dm mM& Tatpurv akatv advachah II.4.4 (273) Because spee ch is precede d by that, (viz., fire and the other elements). Tatpurv akatv at: being preceded by them (the el ement s); Vachah: of the organ of speech. An other ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 2 is given. The Chhandogya Up anishad de clares For , truly , my child, mind con sists of earth (i.e. , food), P rana of wa ter, Vak of speech of fire (VI.5. 4). This text clearly in di cates that the or gans, etc., are prod ucts of the el e ment s. The el e ment s in their turn orig i nate from B rah man. There fore the or gans (Pranas) are also prod ucts of Brah man. As the Pranas (or gans) are the prod ucts of the el e ment s, they are not sep a - rately men tioned in the S ruti p as sages which treat of the or i gin of things. By the st ate ment in the S ruti of t he di rect cau sa tion of t he el e - ment s it is sug gested that t he Pranas (senses) have Brah man for their im me di ate cause.BRAHMA SU TRAS 288 More over, the p as sage con cludes by say ing that t he en tire world is the cre ation of B rah man, and is the f orm of Brah man and is ensouled by Brah man. There fore it is an es tab lished con clu sion that the P ranas also are ef fects of Brah man. The Pranas (or gans) have an or i gin just like the el e ment s ether , etc., and are not eter nal. Sapt agaty adhikaranam : Topic 2 (Sutras 5-6) The number of the organs g JVo{ deo{fVdm& Sapt a gaterv iseshit atvaccha II.4.5 (274) The Pranas (organs) are seve n on account of t his being understood (from scriptural passages) and of the spe cificati on (of those seve n). Sapt a: seven; Gateh: from the mov ement, being so known (from the scriptural p assages); Viseshit atvat: on account of the specificati on; Cha: and. The num ber of the Pranas (senses) is now dis cussed. The num ber of the or gans is as cer tained in this and the nex t Su - tra. A doubt arises here ow ing to the con flict ing na ture of the scrip tural pas sages. In one place seven Pranas are men tioned The seven Pranas (or gans) spring from Him (Mun. Up. II .1.8). I n an other place eight Pranas are men tioned as be ing Grahas Eight Grahas there are and eight At igrahas (Bri. Up. II I.2.1). In an other place nine Seven are the Pranas of the head, two the lower ones (T ait. S amhit a V.3.2.5). Some times ten Nine Pranas in deed are in man, the na vel is the tent h (Tait. S amhit a V.3.2.3). Some times eleven T en are these Pranas in man, and At man is the elev enth (Bri. Up. I II.9.4). Som e - times twelv e All touches have t heir cen tre in the skin (Bri. Up. II.4.11). Some times thir teen The eye and what can be seen (Prasna Up. IV .8). Thus the scrip tural p as sages dis agree about the num ber of the Pranas (or gans). This Su tra gives the v iew of the P urvap akshin or the op po nent. Here the Purvap akshin main tains that the P ranas are in re al ity sev en in num ber, be cause it is st ated to be so in some scrip tural tex ts such as The seven Pranas (or gans) sprang from Him (Mun. Up. II. 1.8). These seven Pranas are more over spec i fied in T ait. S amhit a V.1.7.1, Seven in deed are the Pranas in the head. Eight or nine or gans are enu mer ated in some tex ts but these are only mod i fi ca tions of the i n ner or gan. Hence there is no con tra dic tion in the Srut i text s if we t ake the num ber as seven. To this ar gu men ta tion of t he Purvap akshin the next S u tra gives a suit able re ply.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 289 hVmX`Vw pWVo@V mo Zd_& Hast aday astu sthiteto naiv am II.4.6 (275) But (there are also in addition to t he seve n Pranas mentioned) the hand s and rest. This be ing a s ettled matte r, the refore (we must) not ( conclude) thus (viz., that the re are seven Pran as only). Hast aday ah: hands and the rest; Tu: but; Sthite: being determined, being a fact, whil e abiding in the body ; Atah: therefore; Na: not; Evam: thus, so, like t his. Su tra 5 is re futed and t he ac tual num ber of the Pranas (senses) is as cer tai ned. The word tu (but) re futes the v iew of the pre vi ous Su tra. Su tra 6 is the Siddhant a Su tra. The num ber seven is not cor rect. In ad di tion to t he seven Pranas scrip ture men tions other Pranas also, such as the hands, etc. The hand is one Graha (or gan) and that is seized by work as the Atigraha; f or with the hands one does work (Bri. Up. I II.2.8), and sim i lar pas sages, ten are the senses in a man and mind with these com pletes the num ber eleven (Bri. Up. I II.9.4), in di cate that t he hands etc., are ad di tional or gans. There fore, four other or gans viz., hands, f eet, anus and the or gan of gen er a tion have to be added to t he seven or gans al ready men tioned, v iz., ey es, nose, ears, tongue, t ouch (skin), speech, and mind, the in ner or gan. The in - tel lect, ego ism, Chitt a or mem ory are not sep a rate or gans. They are only mod i fi ca ti ons of the mind. There fore, the num ber of or gans is in all eleven. This is the num - ber that is fix ed. They are, the fiv e or gans of knowl edge (Jnana-Indriyas), the fi ve or gans of ac tion (Karma-Indriy as) and the in ner or gan, mind. To unite all t he di verse ac tiv i ties of the or gans, it is nec es sary that t here should be an or gan which must ex ist as a uni fy ing agent with the mem ory of the p ast and the pres ent to gether with the an tic i - pa tion of t he fu ture, be cause with out such an or gan the ac tiv i ties of the or gans would be unharmonised and dis cor dant. This uni fy ing or - gan is the in ner or gan or the Manas (mind). This one in ner or gan as - sumes four names such as mind, in tel lect, ego ism and Chitt a, ac cord ing to the f unc tions it per forms (V rittibheda). In the p as sage Nine Pranas in deed are in man, the na vel is the tenth, t he ex pres sion ten Pranas is used to de note the dif fer ent open ings of the hu man body , not t he dif fer ence of na ture of the Pranas. Be cause no Prana is known that bears the name of na vel. A s the na vel is one of t he spe cial abodes of the chief P rana, it is here enu mer ated as tenth P rana.BRAHMA SU TRAS 290 There are only eleven P ranas. This con clu sion is con firmed by one of the scrip tural p as sages, T en are these Pranas in man and At - man is the elev enth. By the word At man we have to un der stand the in ter nal or gan on ac count of it s rul ing over the or gans. Prananutvadhikaranam: T opic 3 The organs are minute i n size AUd & Anav ascha II.4.7 (276) And (the y are) m inute . Anav ah: minute; Cha: and, also. The na ture and size of senses is now as cer tained. The au thor now con sid ers the ques tion of t he na ture and size of the senses. Are these senses all-per vad ing or are they min ute? The Purvap akshin says that the senses are all-per vad ing, be cause we can hear sounds at a dis tance and see ob jects far of f. The S iddhant a view how ever is that senses are atomic. The word cha has the force of cer tainty. It means that the senses are not all-per vad ing but atomi c. This Su tra re futes the doc - trine of t he Sankhyas who main tain that t he senses are all-per vad ing. The or gans are min ute. Min ute does not mean at omic, but sub - tle and lim ited in size. The or gans must be sub tle; for, if they are gross we could see them when they go out of t he body at t he mo ment of deat h, as a snake co mes out of it s hole. Had they been al l-per vad ing like the ether , there would have been no move ment pos si ble on their p art, and the t exts which speak of their p ass ing out of body and go ing and com ing along with the soul at deat h and birth would be con tra dicted. The soul can - not have t hem as his es sence. It can not be said that ev en if they are all-per vad ing they can have a p ar tic u lar mode or func tion within t he body , be cause it is that par tic u lar mode or func tion which we call the sense or the in stru ment. More over, we do not per ceive through the senses what is hap pen ing through out the world. I f they were all-per vad ing we will cer tainly per - ceive through them what is hap pen ing through out the world. There fore the senses are all sub tle and fi nite, i. e., of lim ited size. Pranasraish thyadhikaranam : Topic 4 The chief Prana has also an origin from Brahman loR>& Sreshthascha II.4.8 (277) And the best (i.e ., the chief vital air or Pran a is a lso produced).CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 291 Sreshthah: the best, t he highest, the chief Prana (vit al force or life-energy); Cha: and, also. The chief Prana is be ing char ac ter ised now . The chief Prana has also an or i gin. It is an ef fect of B rah man. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: From t his (Brah man) is pro duced the vi tal force or Prana (Mun. Up. II .1.3). A gain we have By it s own law the one was breath ing with out wind; t here was noth ing dif fer ent from t hat or higher than that (Rig V eda VII I.7.17). Here the words was breath ing which de note the proper func tion of breat h show that breath or Prana must hav e ex isted be fore the cre ation. There fore, it may be con cluded that Prana was not cre ated. There seems to be a con tra dic tion with ref er ence to it s orig i na tion. This Su tra re futes the abov e view and de clares that even t he chief Prana is pro duced from Brah man. The words was br eath ing are qual i fied by t he ad di tion with out wind and so do not in ti mate that Prana ex isted be fore cre ation. More over scrip tural p as sages such as He is with out breath, with out mind, pure (Mun. Up. II. 1.2) de clare clearly that B rah man is with out any qual i fi ca tions such as Prana and so on. There fore the words was breath ing have merely t he pur pose of st at ing the ex is - tence of the cause. They in ti mate that Brah man, the cause ex isted be fore cre ation as is known from the tex ts like Ex is tence alone was there be fore this (Chh. Up. VI .2.1). In the S ruti p as sage Anidavat am, the word avat a shows that what is re ferred to is some thing which is an te rior to Prana. A nit, there - fore re fers to Brah man. The term the best de notes the chief v i tal air (Mukhya Prana) ac cord ing to the dec la ra tion of scrip ture, Breath i n deed is the old est and the best (Chh. Up. V .1.1). T he breath is the old est or the chief be - cause it be gins it s func tion from t he mo ment when the child is con - ceived. The senses of hear ing, etc., be gin to func tion only when their spe cial seat s, viz., the ears, etc., are formed. They are, there fore, not the old est. It is called the old est or the chief on ac count of it s su pe rior qual i ties and on ac count of the p as sage W e shall not be able to l ive with out thee (Bri. Up. VI. 1.13). The chief P rana is called the best, be - cause it is the cause of the main te nance of the body . Vayukriy adhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 9-12) The chief Prana is diff erent from air and sense functions Z dm`w{H$` o nWJwnXoemV& Na vayukriye prit hagup adesat II.4.9 (278) (The c hief Pran a is) neither air no r func tion, o n acc ount of its being men tioned separately.BRAHMA SU TRAS 292 Na: not; Vayukriy e: air or function; Prith ak: separat e, sep arately; Upadesat: because of the teaching, on account of its being mentioned. ( Prithagup adesat: because of the sep arate mention. ) The na ture of the chief Prana is dis cussed in this Su tra. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that there is no sep a rate prin ci ple called Prana, and t hat the P rana is ac cord ing to Sruti not h ing but air . For Sruti say s, Breath is air; t hat air as sum ing five f orms is Prana, Ap ana, V yana, Udana, S amana. Or it m ay be con sid ered as the com bined func tion of all or gans. Just as eleven birds shut up in one cage may move t he cage by the com bi na tion of their ef forts, so also the eleven P ranas which abide in one body func - tion ing to gether pro duce one com mon func tion called Prana. This is the view of the Sankhyas. The Sankhyas teach The fi ve airs, Pranas, etc., are t he com mon func tion of t he or gans (in stru ment s). There - fore, there is no sep a rate prin ci ple called Prana. This Su tra re futes these v iews and says that the P rana is nei ther air nor func tion of or gans, for it is men tioned sep a rately f rom air and the sense func tions. Breat h in deed is the fourth f oot of B rah man. That foot shines and warms as the light called air (Chh. Up. III .18.4). Here it is dis tin guished from air . Each sense and it s func tion are iden - ti cal. Again, ot her p as sages also, in which the Prana is men tioned sep a rately f rom air and the or gans are here to be con sid ered, e.g., From Him is born the Prana, mi nd and all or gans of sense, ether , air, etc. (Mun. Up. I I.1.3). This in di cates that Prana is not a func tion of any or gan be cause, in that case, it would not have been sep a rated from the or gans. It is not pos si ble that all the or gans to gether should have one func tion and that that f unc tion should be the P rana, be cause each or - gan has it s own spe cial func tion and the ag gre gate of t hem has no ac - tive power of i ts own. Prana can not be said to be the re sul tant of t he joint func tion ing of the senses, as the f unc tions are di verse. The p as sage Breath (Prana) is air is also cor rect, be cause the ef fect is only t he cause in an other form. T he Prana is only air that func tions within t he body . The air p ass ing into the A dhyatma st ate, di - vid ing it self fiv e fold and thus abid ing in a spe cial ised con di tion is called Prana. The anal ogy of t he birds in a cage is not to the point , be cause they all have the same kind of ac tiv ity which is fa vour able to the m o - tion of t he cage. But t he func tion ing of the senses are not of one kind but dif fer ent from one an other . They are also of a dis tinct na ture from that of Prana. Prana is quit e dis sim i lar to hear ing, etc. Hence, t hey (the or gans) can not con sti tute lif e. There fore, Prana is a sep a rate entity .CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 293 More over, if the vi tal breath were the mere func tion of or gans it could not be glo ri fied as the best and speech, etc., could not be rep - re sented as sub or di nate to P rana. Hence the Prana is dif fer ent from air and the func tions of the or gans. Mjwam{Xdmw Vgh{ eQ>m{X`& Chakshuradiv attu t atsahasishty adibhy ah II.4.10 (278) But (the Prana is su bordina te to the soul), lik e eyes, etc., on account of (i ts) being tau ght with the m (the eyes, etc.) and for other reasons. Chakshuradiv at: like the eyes and the rest; Tu: but; Tatsaha: along with them; Sishty adibhy ah: on account of (it s) being t aught, because of the scriptural instructions and other reasons. The char ac ter is tics of Prana are con tin ued. The Purvap akshin says: The Prana also must be con sid ered to be in de pend ent in this body like the in di vid ual soul, as scrip ture de - clares it to be the best and t he or gans such as s peech, etc., t o be sub - or di nate to it . Var i ous pow ers are at trib uted to it in scrip tural pas sages. It is said that when speech and the other or gans are asleep the Prana alone is awake; that the Prana alone is not reached by death; that t he Prana is the ab sorber , it ab sorbs speech, etc., that the Prana guards the other senses (Pranas) as a mother guards her sons. Hence it fol lows that the P rana is in de pend ent like the in di vid ual soul. This Su tra re futes this and says t hat the P rana is sub or di nate to the soul. The words tu (but) set s aside the in de pend ence of the Prana. It re moves the doubt . The word Adi etc., in di cates that the word P rana is also used in the sense of sense or gans. The Prana is enu mer ated along with the senses in or der to in di cate that it is not in de pend ent. The Prana sub serves the soul like the senses, be cause it is de - scribed with them. The chief Prana is not in de pend ent of t he Jiva, but is, like the senses, a means of his be ing Kart a (doer) and Bhokt a (enjoyer). The soul is the K ing. Prana is his min is ter. The senses are his sub jects. Prana is de scribed along with the senses. It abides in t he body like the senses. Fur ther, it is A chetana (non-sen tient) like t hem. It is com posed of p arts. These are the other rea sons for re fut ing the in de pend ence of Prana. There fore it de pends on the soul and serves the soul like the senses. Prana is like the eyes, etc., one of the tools or in stru ment s of the in di vid ual soul though it st ands fore most among them, be cause it is placed in the same cat e gory with the ey e and the other senses in a mu tual con ver sa tion amongst t hem de scribed in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad VI.1. 7-14. Things hav ing sim i lar at trib utes are al waysBRAHMA SU TRAS 294 grouped and t aught to gether , e.g. , the B rihatsaman and the Rathant arasaman. Hence it is sub or di nate to t he soul. AH$aUdm Z XmofVWm {h Xe`{V& Akaranatv accha na doshast atha hi darsay ati II.4.11 (280) And on a ccount of (its) not b eing an instrument the object ion is not (valid); because thus (scri pture) declares. Akaranatv at: on account of (it s) not being an instrument; Cha: and, also; Na: not; Doshah: defect, object ion, fault ; Tatha: thus, so; Hi: as, because; Darsay ati: teaches, scripture shows, declares. An ob jec tion against S u tra 10 is re futed. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: if the Prana is sub or di - nate to t he soul like the or gans, then it m ust st and in the re la tion of an in stru ment to t he soul like the or gans. W e must as sume an other sense-ob ject anal o gous to col our. But there is no twelf th sense-ob - ject. There are only el even func tions and eleven or gans. There is no room for a twelf th or gan when there is no twelf th sense-ob ject. The word Cha (and) has the force of but here, and is used to re move the doubt raised above. This Su tra re futes the abov e ob jec tion. P rana is not an in stru - ment. S crip ture de clares that the chief P rana has a spe cific func tion which can not be long to the ot her or gans. The body and all t he senses sub sist by means of t he chief Prana. The scrip tural p as sages say: Then Prana as the best said to t he or gans: Be not de ceived. I alone, di vid ing my self fiv e-fold, sup port this body and keep it (Pras. Up. II.3). An other p as sage, viz., With Prana guard ing the lower nest (Bri. Up. IV .3.12), shows that the guard ing of the body de pends upon the Prana. Again, t wo other p as sages show that the nour ish ing of the body de pends on Prana From what ever limb P rana goes away that lim b with ers (Bri. Up. I.3. 19). What we eat and drink, with i t sup ports the other or gans (Bri. Up. 1.3. 18). And an other p as sage de clares that the soul s de part ing and st ay ing de pends on Prana. What is it by whose de par ture I shall de part, and by whose st ay ing I shall stay?the cre ated Prana (Pras. Up. V I.3-4). All these t exts show that the func tion of t he Prana is nour ish ing and up keep of the body . Prana pro tects the body from di s so lu tion. The strength of t he body and the senses also de pends upon Prana. Prana sup ports the body and energises it with al l the senses. This is its spe cific func tion. Prana is of the great est help to the soul by be ing the sup port of all other senses. Not only does it sup port the senses but it is t he or - gan is ing life of the body and hence of t he great est im por tance to the Jiva or the in di vid ual soul.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 295 Prana has no func tion like the or di nary sense. There fore it can - not be styl ed as Indriya or or gan. Hence it is ex cluded from the list of eleven senses. The chief Prana is also an in stru ment of t he soul. The senses like the eye, ear, etc., are as if of fi cials of the Jiva and hel p him in his en joy ment and ac tiv ity but the chief Prana is his prime mi n is ter. It as - sists him in his high est func tions and in the at tain ment of all his de - sires. This is not the only func tion of P rana. There are other func tions also. The next Su tra de scribes the other func tions. n#md{m_Zm odX ` n{X` Vo& Panchav rittirman ovat vyapadisy ate II.4.12 (281) It is taught as h aving a fi vefold function like the mind. Panchav rittih: having fi vefold f unction; Manov at: like the mind; Vyapadisy ate: is described, it is t aught, it is designated. The de scrip tion of t he char ac ter is tics of the chief Prana is con - tin ued. Prasna Up anishad (II.3) de clares I alone, di vid ing my self fiv e - fold, sup port this body and pro tect it. Just as the mind in re la tion to t he five senses has five m odes, even so Prana has fiv e modes, viz., Prana, Ap ana, V yana, Udana and Samana. P rana does the func tion of res pi ra tion; A pana, evac u a tion; Samana, di ges tion, as sim i la tion of food; Vyana, cir cu la tion of blood (aid ing feat s of strength); and Udana, degl utition. Udana help s the soul to p ass out of the body at the t ime of death. In this re spect Prana re sem bles the in ner or gan which though one has a five-f old as pect as mind, in tel lect, ego, Chit ta and mem ory. Just as the mind be ing en dowed with sev eral func tions such as de sire, con tem pla tion, faith, vo li tion, feel ing, know ing, etc., serves the in di vid ual soul, so also the chief P rana does good to the in di vid ual soul be ing vested with t he five f unc tions. The func tions of the m ind, ac cord ing to Raja Y oga of Pat anjali Maharshi, are right knowl edge, er ror, imag i na tion, slum ber and re - mem brance. Or the Su tra may quot e the means as an anal o gous in - stance merely with ref er ence to the plu ral ity and not the fiv e-foldness of its func tions. The Prana s sub or di nate po si tion with re gard to the soul fol lows from it s hav ing fiv e func tions like the mind. Sreshthanutvadhikaranam: T opic 6 The mi nuteness of the chief P rana AUwM& Anuscha II.4.13 (282) And it (chie f Prana) is minute .BRAHMA SU TRAS 296 Anuh: minute; Cha: and. The de scrip tion of t he char ac ter is tics of the chief Prana is con - tin ued. The chief Prana is also min ute like the senses. Here also we have to un der stand by mi nute ness that the chief P rana is sub tle and of lim ited size, not t hat it is of atomic size, be cause by means of it s five func tions it per vades the whole body . Prana is sub tle be cause it can not be seen when it goes out of the body . It is lim ited or fi nite, be cause the scrip ture speaks of it s pass ing out, go ing and com ing. Had it been all -per vad ing, there could have been no move ment on it s part . There fore Prana is also fi nite or lim ited. It may be ob jected that i t is all-per vad ing ac cord ing to the t ext He is equal to a gnat, equal t o a mos quito, equal t o an el e phant, equal to these three worlds, equal t o this uni verse (Bri. Up. I. 3.22). But the all-pervadingness of which this tex t speaks is with re spect to Hiranyagarbha, the cos mic Prana, the P rana of the mac ro cosm. It is all-per vad ing in it s uni ver sal as pect; in it s in di vid ual as pect it is lim - ited. The st ate ment s of equal ity equal t o a gnat, etc. , de clare the lim ited size of the P rana which abides within ev ery liv ing be ing. Jyotirady adhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 14-16) The presiding deities of t he organs `mo{V am{Y R>mZ Vw VXm_ZZ mV& Jyotirady adhishthanam tu t adamananat II.4.14 (283) But there is the presiding o ver by F ire and othe rs (over the organs), because of such statement in Sr uti. Jyotirady adhishthanam: presiding over by Fire and ot hers; Tu: but; Tadamananat: because of such stat ement in Srut i, on account of t he scriptures teaching that. Now fol lows a dis cus sion on the de pend ence of the or gans or the pre sid ing de i ties. The Purvap akshin holds that the P ranas (senses ) act from their own power . If we ad mit that the Pranas act only un der the guid ance of the pre sid ing de i ties, it would fol low that t hose guid ing de i ties are enjoyers of the f ruits of the ac tions and the in di vid ual soul would thus cease to be the enjoyer . The word tu (but) is used in or der to re move the doubt . It ex - cludes the Purvap aksha. The Pranas and senses func tion not be cause of their own po - tency but be cause of the power of the de i ties pre sid ing over them.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 297 Pranas, i.e. , the senses, are un der the guid ance of the de i ties such as Fire and oth ers pre sid ing over them. Sruti also st ates so. Aitareya Aranyaka (I. 2.4) de clares, Fire hav ing be come speech en - tered the mout h. The senses are in ert. They can not move by them - selves. The as ser tion that the Pranas be ing en dowed with the ca pa bil ity of pro duc ing their ef fects act from their own power is un founded, as we see that some things which pos sess the ca pa bil ity of mo tion such as cars ac tu ally mov e only if dragged by bulls and the like. There fore the Pranas and the senses are de pend ent on the pre - sid ing de i ties. mUdVm e XmV& Pranav ata sabdat II.4.15 (284) (The gods ar e not t he enjoyers, but t he soul, becaus e the organs ar e connecte d) with t he one (i.e., the soul) posse ssing them (a thing we k now) from the scriptu res. Pranav ata: with the one possessing the Pranas (organs); Sabdat: from the scriptures. From the pre ced ing Su tra a doubt may arise, that t he gods, who guide the senses may be the enjoy ers; this doubt is re moved by t his Su tra . Prana here is a syn onym for I ndriya or sense. The senses are con nected with the soul. This is de scribed by the Sruti . Though the gods guide t he senses, though they are t he pre - sid ing de i ties of the or gans, they can not be come Bhokt as or enjoyers. The in di vid ual soul is the mas ter. The senses are his ser vants. The senses func tion for sub serv ing the in ter est of the soul. The in di vid ual soul is the Lord of the ag gre gate of t he in stru ment s of ac tion. The Jiv a alone real ises that he sees, hears, etc. The scrip tures de clare Then where there is the eye, en ter ing this open ingthe cav ity of the eyeit is there to serve the i n di vid ual soul, the ey e it self is the in stru ment of see ing. He who knows Let me smell this he is the Self , the nose is the in stru ment of smell ing (Chh. Up. VII I.12.4) This clearly shows that the soul is the enj oyer but not the gods. The or gans are con nected with the in di vid ual soul only . The in di vid ual soul claims and feels the ey e to be his own. The eye is to serve him by pre sent ing him with t he ob jects of sight. S im i - larly the ot her senses also are the ser vants of the same mas ter, the in di vid ual soul. Hence the in di vid ual soul and not the pre sid ing de i ties is the mas ter or Lord of the senses and the real enjoyer . The soul is called Pranavat be cause the Pranas (or gans) be - long to it. The soul rules the senses in or der to ac com plish it s ob jects of en joy ment. The gods rule t he senses by merely giv ing their ac tiv i -BRAHMA SU TRAS 298 ties. The in di vid ual soul rules the senses in or der to en joy plea sur able ex pe ri ences. More over there are many gods in t he body . A par tic u lar or gan is pre sided over by a p ar tic u lar de ity. The plu ral ity of gods guid ing the or gans ren ders it im pos si ble that t hey should be enjoyers in thei r body . There is and can be only one Bhokt a or enjoyer . Oth er wise re - mem brance or rec og ni tion of iden tity would be im pos si ble. There fore the senses are for the en joy ment of t he soul and not the gods though they are pre sided and di rected by them. V` M {Z`dmV& Tasya cha nity atvat II.4.16 (285) And on a ccount of its (soul s) perm anence (i n the body it i s the enjoyer, and not the go ds). Tasya: its; Cha: and; Nityatvat: on account of permanence. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 15 is given. The in di vid ual soul dwells per ma nently i n this body as the enjoyer , as it can be af fected by good and ev il and can ex pe ri ence plea sure and pain. It is the Jiv a alone who has such per ma nent con - nec tion with t he senses in the body . There fore, the Jiv a, and not t he guid ing de i ties is their mas ter. The body i s the re sult of the soul s past ac tions. The soul only can ex pe ri ence or en joy in t he body which is the prod uct of it s Prarabdha Karma. Oth ers, e.g., the gods can not en - joy in t his body . The gods who have great glory and power can not be enjoyers in the low hu man body . They hav e ex alted st a tus. They would t reat with con tempt such low en joy ment s as can be ex pe ri enced through the hu man body . They can not pos si bly en ter in this wretched body int o the con di - tion of enjoy ers. Scrip ture also says Only what is good ap proaches him; v er ily ev il does not ap proach the Devas (Bri. Up. I. 5.20). The or gans are per ma nently con nected with the em bod ied soul only. When the soul p asses out, the Pranas (or gans) fol low it. Thi s we see from p as sages such as the fol low ing When the soul p asses out, the Prana fol lows; when the Prana de parts, all other or gans fol low (Bri. Up. IV .4.2). The soul is the mas ter and is there fore the enjoy er, al though there are pre sid ing gods over the or gans. The gods are con nected with the or gans only , not wit h the st ate of t he soul as enjoyer .CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 299 Indriy adhikaranam : Topic 8 (Sutras 17-19) The organs are independent principles and not functions of the chief Prana V Bp `m{U VX >`nXoemX` lo R>mV& Ta Indriy ani tadvyapadesadany atra sreshthat II.4.17 (286) They (the other Pranas) ar e senses, on account of being so designa ted (by th e scriptures), with the exception of the best (the chief Pran a). Ta: they; Indriy ani: the organs; Tadvyapadesat : because designated as such; Sreshthat any atra: except the chief , other than the chief Prana which is the highest . (Anyatra: elsewhere, except; Sreshthat: than the best or t he chief Prana.) The dis tinc tion be tween the chief P rana and other Pranas (the or gans) is now pointed out. Now there arises an other doubt vi z., whether the or gans such as eyes, ears, etc., are func tions or modes of the chief Prana or in de - pend ent en ti ties. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor main tains that they are mere func tions on ac count of scrip tural st ate ment. The scrip ture says, This is the great est amongst us (the or gans). W ell, let us all as sume his form. There upon they all as sumed his form. There fore they are called by this name of Prana (Bri. Up. I .5.21). The Su tra re futes this and says t hat the elev en or gans are not func tions or modes of the chief Prana. They be long to a sep a rate cat - e gory. They are shown to be dif fer ent in scrip tural p as sages like From Him are born Prana, mind, and all or gans (Mun. Up. II. 1.3). In this and other p as sages Prana and the sense or gans are men tioned sep a rately . The tex t of the Brihadaranyaka must be t aken in a sec - ond ary sense. There fore it can not cer tainly be said that just as the chief P rana has five modes the senses also are it s modes, be cause the Sruti de - scribes the senses as sep a rate. The senses are dis tinct in de pend ent prin ci ples. The senses and the mind are de scribed as be ing eleven in num ber . ^oXlwVo & Bhedasruteh II.4.18 (287) (On a ccount o f the) scriptural sta tement of d ifference. Bhedasruteh: on account of the scriptural st atement of difference. An ar gu ment in fa vour of Su tra 17 is given. The Prana is ev ery where spo ken of as dif fer ent from t he or - gans. In Brihadarany aka Upanishad (I. 3.2) the or gans are dealt with in one sec tion. A f ter con clud ing it, t he Prana is dealt with sep a rately in BRAHMA SU TRAS 300 the same sec tion. Thi s clearly in di cates that they do not be long to the same cat e gory . Other p as sages also re fer ring to that dif fer ence may be quoted, as for in stance, He made mind, speech and breath for him self (Bri. Up. I.5 .3). In the B rihadaranyaka Up anishad (I.3.2) it is st ated that the gods in their strug gle with the A suras, i.e., t he evil f orces found that the senses such as the speech, the nose, the eye, t he ear , and the mind were vi ti ated by t he Asuras. So they took the help of t he chief Prana. The Asuras were not able to v i ti ate the chief P rana. The gods be came vic to ri ous over the Asuras. Here the chief P rana is spo ken of as dif fer ent from and su pe rior to all the senses. For ref er ence vide, Then, the gods ap pealed to the chief Prana, the chief vi tal force which is su pe rior to the senses (Bri. Up. I. 3.7). There fore the or gans are in de pend ent prin ci ples, and not modes or func tions of the chief Prana. dbj `m& Vailakshany accha II. 4.19 (288) And on a ccount o f the diffe rence of ch aracteristics. Vailakshany at: on account of dif ference of characteristics; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in fa vour of Su tra 17 is given. There is, more over , a dif fer ence of char ac ter is tics be tween the chief Prana and the senses. The or gans do not func tion in deep sleep, whereas the Prana does. The chief P rana alone is not reached by death, while the other P ranas are. The st ay ing and de part ing of the chief Prana, not that of the sense or gans is the cause of the main te - nance and the dis so lu tion of t he body . The sense or gans are the cause of the per cep tion of t he sense-ob jects, not the chief Prana. The or gans get tired, but not the chief Prana. The l oss of in di vid ual or gans does not cause death, but the p ass ing out of P rana causes death of the body . Thus there are many dif fer ences dis tin guish ing the Prana f rom the senses. This also in di cates that the senses are dif fer ent from t he Prana. The Sruti which speaks, The senses as sumed the form of Prana, is to be t aken in a sec ond ary sense. The word Prana is ap - plied to the sense or gans in a sec ond ary sense. It m eans that their func tion ing de pends upon Prana. It means that t he or gans fol low the Prana just as the ser vants fol low their mas ter. The chief P rana is the ruler or the mas ter or the teacher of t he or gans. The Sruti de scribes Prana as su pe rior to the or gans (Sreshtha).CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 301 There fore the or gans are in de pend ent prin ci ples and not modes of the chief P rana. Samj namurtikl ripty adhikaranam : Topic 9 (Sutras 20-22) The creation of nam es and forms is by the Lord and not by the individual soul gkm_y{Vb{ Vw {dHw$dV C nXoemV& Samj namurtikl riptistu triv ritkurv ata upadesat II.4.20 (289) But t he creat ion of names an d forms is by Him who does t he tripartite (creation), for s o the scrip tures teach. Samjnamu rtiklriptih : the creation of name a nd form; Tu: but; Trivritkurv atah: of Him who does the trip artite creation, of His who made the element s triple; Upadesat: on account of scriptural teaching, as Sruti has st ated so. ( Samjna: name; Murtih: form; Klrip tih: creation; Trivrit: tripartite, compound; Kurv atah: of the Creator .) The Sruti de clares: That De ity thought, let me now en ter those three de i ties (fire, eart h, and wa ter) with this liv ing self (Jivatm a) and let me then e volve nam es and forms; let me m ake each of these three tri par tite (Chh. Up . VI.3.2) . Here the doubt arises whether the agent in t hat evo lu tion of names and forms is the Jiva or the i n di vid ual soul or the Su preme Lord. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains the for mer al ter - na tive on ac count of the glo ri fi ca tion con tained in the words with this liv ing self. The word tu (but), dis cards the Purvap aksha. This Su tra re - futes it and say s: The in di vid ual soul has not the power to cre ate the gross world. The en tire cre ation of t he world can surely be the work of the Su preme Lord only who cre ated fire, wa ter and earth. The word Jiva in the p as sage is syn tac ti cally re lated with en trance and not with the cre ation of name s and forms. That the S u preme Lord is He who evolves the names and forms is ac knowl edged by all t he Up anishads, as we see from such pas - sages as He w ho is called ether is the evol ver of all nam es and forms (Chh. Up . VIII.14) . Fur ther, the nex t sen tence of that text, Then that De ity said, Let me make each of these three el e ment s tri par tite (Chh. Up. VI. 3.3), clearly in di cates that the S u preme Lord alone cre ates names and forms, the gross el e ment s and this uni verse. The Lord dwells in ev ery thing and di rects the en tire cre ation. He is the in ner di rec tor, in the pro duc tion of pot s, etc., by the pot ter.BRAHMA SU TRAS 302 _mgm{X ^m_ `Wme X{_Va`mo& Mamsadi b haumam y athasabdamit arayoscha II.4.21 (290) Flesh, e tc., ori ginate s from earth acc ording to the scrip tural statement and (so also) in t he case o f the other (elements, viz., fire and wate r). Mamsadi: flesh and the rest; Bhaumam: are ef fects of earth; Yathasabdam: as Sruti has said so, as declared by the scripture; Itarayoh: of the ot her two, namely fire and water; Cha: also, and. Tri par tite eart h, when as sim i lated by m an, forms flesh, etc. For the tex t says Food (earth) when eaten be comes three-fold; it s gross - est por tion be comes fae ces, it s mid dle por tion flesh, its sub tlest por - tion mind (Chh. Up. V I.5.1). So also we have t o learn from the t ext the ef fects of the two ot her el e ment s, viz., fire and wa ter. Out of the con - sumed wa ter, the gross por tion goes out as urine, t he me dium por tion be comes the blood and the sub tle por tion be comes Prana. Out of the as sim i lated fire, the gross por tion builds the bones, the me dium por - tion be comes the mar row and the sub tle por tion be comes speech. deo`mmw V mXV mX& Vaiseshy attu t advadast advadah II.4.22 (291) But on a ccount of the preponderan ce (of a par ticular element in the m the gross elements) a re so named (after it). Vaiseshy at: on account of the preponderance; Tu: but; Tadvadah: that special name. Su tra 21 is am pli fied here. Here now an ob jec tion is raised. If all the gross el e ment s con tain the three fi ne el e ment s, then why t here is such dis tinc tion as This is fire, t his is wa ter, this is earth? And, again, why is it said that among the el e ment s of the hu man body , flesh etc. , is the ef fect of t he food that is eaten; blood, etc., the ef fect of t he wa ter that i s drunk; bone etc., t he ef fect of t he fire eaten? The word tu (but), re moves the ob jec tion. This Su tra re futes the ob jec tion. Even in each el e ment, where the ot her two el e ment s have com - bined, it i s called so be cause it is the pre dom i nant por tion. Al though all thi ngs are tri par tite, yet we ob serve in dif fer ent places a pre pon der ance of dif fer ent el e ment s. Heat pre pon der ates in fire, wa ter in all that is liq uid, food in eart h. As the f ine el e ment s are not found in equal pro por tion in each of t he gross el e ment s, they are named af ter that f ine el e ment which pre pon der ates in their con sti tu - tion.CHAPT ER IISECT ION 4 303 Thus the com pound fire is called fire be cause of the pre pon der - ance of pure fire in it. Sim i larly the Dev as are called fi ery, be cause their bod ies are made of sub stances in which fire pre pon der ates. The rep e ti tion Tadvadah that spe cial name in di cates the ter - mi na tion of t he Chap ter. Thus ends the Fourth Pada ( Sec tion 4) of the Sec ond Adhy aya (Chap ter II) of the B rahmasutras or the Vedant a Phi los o phy. Here ends Chap ter IIBRAHMA SU TRAS 304 CHAPTER III SADHANADHY AYA SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION Now in the Third Chap ter are be ing de ter mined those Sadhanas or prac tices which are the means of at tain ing the high est Brah man or the In fi nite. I n the First and Sec ond Padas of this Chap ter are be ing taught two thi ngs, viz., a strong yearn ing or burn ing de sire (Mumukshutva) to real ise Brah man or the fi nal eman ci pa tion and an equally strong dis gust (V airagya) to wards all ob jects other than Brah - man; be cause these are the two fun da men tal things among all Sadhanas. In or der to in duce V airagya or disp assion, the Sut ras show in the first Pada t he im per fec tions of all m un dane existences and this they base on the Panchagnividy a or the doc trine of f ive fi res of the Chhandogya Up anishad in which is t aught how the soul p asses af ter death from one con di tion to an other . The first Pada t eaches the great doc trine of re in car na tion, t he de par ture of the soul f rom the phys i cal body , its jour ney to t he Chandraloka on the third plane and it s com ing back to the earth. T his is done in or der to cre ate V airagya or in dif fe r ence to sen sual en joy - ment s herein and here af ter. In the Sec ond Pada are de scribed all the glo ri ous at trib ut es of the Su preme Brah man, His Om ni science, Om - nip o tence, Love li ness, etc., in or der to at tract the soul to wards Him, so that He may be t he sole ob ject of quest. 305 SYNOPSIS Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-7) teaches that the soul, at the dis so lu - tion of t he body , de parts, ac com pa nied by the sub tle ma te rial el e - ment s (Bhut a Sukshma), as well as by the I ndriyas and Pranas. The sub tle el e ment s serve as an abode to the Pranas at tached to the soul. Su tra 7: Those who do sac ri fice be come in Chandraloka the food of t he gods which means that they con trib ute to t he en joy ment of the gods by thei r pres ence and ser vice to t hem. Adhikarana II: (Sutras 8-1 1) shows that the souls af ter en joy ing the fruit s of their mer i to ri ous deeds in the Chandraloka de scend to the earth with a re main der (Anusaya) of their works which de ter mines the na ture of the new body or the char ac ter of the new li fe. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 12-21) dis cusses the fate af ter death of those evil-do ers whom their evil deeds do not en ti tle to p ass to the Chandraloka. Adhikaranas IV , V, and VI : (Sutras 22; 23; and 24 t o 27) teach that t he sub tle bod ies of the souls de scend ing from the Chandraloka through the ether , air, etc., do not be come iden ti cal with ether , air, etc., but only liv e there; that they de scend in a short time. On en ter ing into a corn or a plant the soul re mains merely in con tact with it which is al ready an i mat ed by an other soul. The soul af ter hav ing en tered into a corn or a plant, get s con nected with him who eat s the corn or fruit of the plant and per forms the act of cop u la tion. The soul re mains with him till he en ters into the mot hers womb with the sem i nal fluid in - jected. The soul ul ti mately en ters the mother s womb and is brought forth as a child. 306 Tadant arapratip attyadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-7) The soul at the t ime of transmigrat ion does t ake with it subtl e parts of the elem ents VXVa{Vnm m ah{V gn[ ad$ Z{Z$nUm `m_ & Tadant arapratip attau ramhati sam parishv aktah prasnanirup anabhy am III.1.1 ( 292) In order t o obtai n another body (t he soul) g oes enveloped (by subtle e lements) (as appears from) t he que stion and explanatio n (in the sc ripture , Chhando gya). Tadant arapratip attau: for the purpose of obt aining a fresh body ( Tat: that, i.e. a body ; Antara: different, anot her; Pratip attau: in obt aining); Ramhati: goes, dep arts, Samp arishv aktah: enveloped (by subtl e element s); Prasna: from question; Nirup anabhy am: aid for explanati ons. In the S ec ond Chap ter all ob jec tions raised against the V edantic view of B rah man on the ground of S ruti and rea son ing have been re - futed. It has been shown also that all other views are in cor rect and de - void of f oun da tion and the al leged mu tual con tra dic tions of V e dic texts do not ex ist. Fur ther it has been shown that all the en ti ties dif fer - ent from t he in di vi d ual soul such as Prana, etc., spring from B rah man for the en joy ment of t he soul. In this Chap ter the man ner in which the soul trav els af ter death to the dif fer ent re gions with it s ad junct s, the dif fer ent st ates of the soul and the na ture of Brah man, the sep a rate ness or non-sep a rate ness of the V idyas (kinds of Up asana); the ques tion whether the qual i ties of Brah man have to be cu mu lated or not, the at tain ment of t he goal by right knowl edge (Samyagdarsana), the di ver si ties of the m eans of right know l edge and the ab sence of cer tain rules as to Moksha which is the fruit of per fect knowl edge are dis cussed to cre ate disp assion. The Jiva (in di vid ual soul) along with the P ranas, the mind and the senses leaves his for mer body and ob tains a new body . He t akes with him self, A vidya, vir tues and vi cious ac tions and the im pres sions left by his pre vi ous births. Here the ques tion arises whether the soul is en vel oped or not by sub tle parts of the el e ment s as the seed for the fu ture body in his trans mi gra tion. The P urvap akshin or the op po nent saysIt is not so en vel oped, be cause the sub tle parts of the el e ment s are eas ily av ail - able ev ery where. This Su tra re futes this v iew and says that the soul does t ake with it sub tle parts of the el e ment s which are the seeds of the new body . How do we know this? From the ques tion and an swer that oc curs in the scrip tures. The ques tion is Do you know why in the fifth ob la tion wa ter is called man? (Chh. Up. V .3.3). T he an swer is given in t he whole p as sage which, af ter ex plain ing how the fiv e ob la - tions in the f orm of Sraaddha, S oma, rain, f ood and seed are of feredCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 307 in the fiv e fires, vi z., the heav enly world, P arjanya (rain God), the earth, man and woman, con cludes For this rea son is wa ter, in the fifth ob la tion, called m an. Go through the sec tion Panchagniv idya in Chh. Up. V . parts 3-10. Hence we un der stand that t he soul goes en - vel oped by wa ter. Though the el e ment s are avail able ev ery where, yet the seeds for a fu ture body can not be eas ily pro cured any where. The or gans, etc., which go wit h the soul can not ac com pany it wit h out a ma te rial body . Just as a cat er pil lar takes hold of an other ob ject be fore it leav es its hold of an ob ject, so also the soul has the v i sion of the body to come be fore it leav es the pres ent body . Hence the view of the Sankhyas that the Self and the or gans are both all-per vad ing and when ob tain ing a new body only be gin to func tion in it on ac count of Karma; t he view of t he Bauddhas that t he soul alone with out the or - gans be gins to func tion in a new body , new senses be ing formed like the new body; t he view of t he Vaiseshikas that the mind alone goes t o the new body; and t he view of t he Digambara Jains that the soul only flies away from the old body and al ights in the new one just as a p ar rot flies from one t ree to an other are not cor rect and are op pos ing to the Vedas. The soul goes from the body ac com pa nied by the m ind, Prana, the senses and the Sukshmabhut as or sub tle el e ment s. An ob jec tion can be raised that wa ter only ac com pa nies the soul and not any ot her el e ment. How can it be said t hen that t he soul goes en vel oped by the sub tle parts of all el e ment s. To this ob jec tion the next Su tra gives the re ply. `m_H $dmmw ^y`dmV & Tryatmakatv attu bhuy astvat III.1.2 ( 293) On account o f wate r con sisting of th ree (elements) (th e soul is enveloped b y all these el emen ts and not merely water); but (wate r alo ne is me ntion ed in the text) on a ccount o f its preponderan ce (in t he human body). Tryatmakatv attu: on account of (water) consisting of three element s; Tu: but; Bhuy astvat: on account of the preponderance (of water). The wa ter which en vel ops the soul is three fold. I t de notes all the other el e ment s by im pli ca tion. The text spec i fies wa ter , be cause it pre pon der ates in the hu man body . In all an i mated bod ies liq uid sub - stances such as juices, blood and the like pre pon der ate. The word tu (but), re moves the ob jec tion raised above. Wa ter stands for all the el e ment s be cause it is re ally a com bi na tion of wa ter, fire and earth ac cord ing to the t ri par tite cre ation of t he gross el e - ment s. There fore all the t hree el e ment s ac com pany the soul. No body can be formed by wa ter alone. Fur ther liq uid mat ter is pre dom i nant in the causal st ate of t he body , i.e., se men and men strual blood. More - over fluid por tion is pre dom i nant in Soma, milk, but ter and the likeBRAHMA SU TRAS 308 which are nec es sary for Karma, which is an ef fi cient cause for the build ing of the f u ture body . mUJVo & Pranagatescha III.1.3 ( 294) And because of t he goin g out of the Pr anas (the sense organ s) with the soul, the eleme nts also accompany t he soul. Prana: of the P ranas (the sense organs) ; Gateh: because of the going out; Cha: and. A fur ther rea son is given to show that t he sub tle es sences of the el e ment s ac com pany the soul at the dis so lu tion of t he body . The Sruti has st ated that the Pranas and senses de part along with t he in di vid - ual soul at the dis so lu tion of t he body . When he thus de parts the chief Prana de parts af ter him, and when t he chief Prana thus de parts all the other Pranas de part af ter it (Bri. Up. IV .4.2). T hey can not st ay with out the ba sis or sub stra tum or sup port of the el e ment s. There fore it f ol - lows that the in di vid ual soul de parts at tended by t he sub tle es sences of the el e ment s at the dis so lu tion of t he body . The sub tle el e ment s form the base for t he mov ing of Pranas. The go ing of the P ranas is not pos si ble with out a base. The Pranas can not ei ther move or abide any where with out such a base. This is ob served in liv ing be ings. There can be en joy ment only when the Prana goes to an other body . When the soul de parts the chief Prana also fol lows. When the chief Prana de parts all the other Pranas and or gans also fol low. The es sences of el e ment s are the ve hi cle of Pranas. Where the el e ment s are, there the or gans and Pranas are. They are never sep a rated. A`m{XJ{V lwVo[a{V M o ^m $dmV& Agny adigatisruteri ti chet na bhakt atvat III.1.4 ( 295) If it be said (that the Pran as or the orga ns do not follo w the soul) on account of th e scriptural stat ements as to entering into Agni, etc., (we say) not so, on account of its being so said in a secondary sense (or metaphorical n ature of these statements). Agny adi: Agni and others; Gati: entering; Sruteh: on account of the scriptures; Iti: as thus; Chet: if; Na: not so (it cannot be accepted); Bhakt atvat: on account of it s being said in a secondary sense. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor de nies that at t he time when a new body is ob tained the Pranas go with t he soul, be cause the scrip - ture speaks of their go ing to Agni, etc. This Su tra re futes this v iew. The text which says that Pranas on death go t o Agni and other gods says so in a fig u ra tive and sec ond ary sense just as when it says that t he hair goes to the trees. The t ext means only that t he Pranas ob tain the grace of Agni and ot her gods.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 309 The en ter ing of speech, etc., into Agni i s met a phor i cal. Al though the tex t says that the hairs of the body en ter into t he shrubs and the hairs of the head into t he trees. It does not mean that the hairs ac tu - ally fly away f rom the body and en ter into t rees and shrubs. The scrip tural tex ts clearly say When the soul de parts, the Prana fol lows. When the Prana de parts, all the or gans fol low (Bri. Up. IV .4.2.) Fur ther the soul could not go at all if t he Prana could not fol low it. The soul could not en ter into t he new body with out Prana. The re could be no en joy ment in the new body with out the P ranas go ing to this body . The p as sage met a phor i cally ex presses that Agni and other de i - ties who act as guides of the P ranas and the senses and co op er ate with them, stop their co op er a tion at t he time of de ath. The P ranas and the senses con se quently l ose their re spec tive func tions and are sup - posed to be im mersed in the guid ing de i ties. The P ranas and the senses re main at that time quit e in op er a tive, wait ing for ac com pa ny - ing the de part ing soul. The en ter ing of speech into fi re, etc., means only that at the t ime of death, these senses and Pranas cease to per form their f unc tions and not that they are ab so lutely lost to the soul. The con clu sion, there fore, is that the Pranas and the senses do ac com pany the soul at the t ime of death. W_o@ldUm{X{ V Mo Vm Ed wnnmo& Prathame sravanaditi chet na t a eva hi up apatteh III.1.5 ( 296) If it be object ed on the gr ound of w ater n ot being menti on ed in the first o f the oblations, we say n ot so, because that (wa ter) only is verily meant by t he word Sraddha because that i s the most app ropriate meaning of the word in that p assage. Prathame: in the first of the fiv e ob la tions de scribed in the Chhandogya Sruti; Asrav anat: on ac count of not be ing men tioned; Iti: thus; Chet: if; Na: not; Ta eva: that o nly, i.e., w a ter; Hi: be cause; Upapatteh: be cause of fit ness. The Purvap akshin raises an ob jec tion: How can it be as cer - tained that i n the fif th ob la tion wa ter is called man as there is no mean ing of wa ter in the f irst ob la tion? On that al tar the gods of fer Sraddha as ob la tion (Chh. Up. V .4.2). The Siddhanti n gives his an swer: In the case of the f irst fire the word Sraddha is to be t aken in the sense of wa ter. Why? B e cause of ap pro pri ate ness. Then only there is har mony in t he be gin ning, mid dle and end of the p as sage and the syn thet i cal unity of the whole p as - sage is not dis turbed. Oth er wise the ques tion and an swer would not agree and so the unity of the whole p as sage would be de stroyed.BRAHMA SU TRAS 310 Faith by i t self can not be phys i cally t aken out and of fered as an ob la tion. There fore the word Sraddha must be t aken to mean wa ter. Wa ter is called Sraddha in the S ruti tex ts. Sraddha va apahaSraddha in deed is wa ter (T ait. S am. I. 6.8.1). F ur ther it is the Sraddha (faith) which leads to sac ri fice which leads to rain. It is the ot her four of fer ings Soma, rain, food and seed that are de scribed to be the ef fects of Sraddha. I t is Sraddha which mod i fies it - self into t hese four . There fore it must be a sub stance be long ing to the same cat e gory as these four , be cause the cause can not be dif fer ent from it s ef fect. A n ef fect is only a m od i fi ca tion of t he cause. There fore it is rea son able to in ter pret Sraddha to mean wa ter here. AlwVdm{X{ V MoV Z B>m{XH$m[aUm VrVo & Asrut atvaditi chet na i shtadikarinam pratiteh III.1.6 ( 297) If it be sai d tha t on a ccount of (the soul) n ot being stated in th e Sruti (the soul does not depart env eloped by wat er, etc .) (we say) not s o, because it is under stood (f rom t he scri ptures) th at the Jivas who perform sacr ifices and other good works (alone go to he aven). Asrut atvat: on account of this not bei ng st ated in the S ruti; Iti: this; Chet: if; Na: not; Ishtadikarinam : in reference to those who perform sacrif ices; Pratiteh: on account of being understood. An ob jec tion is raised that i n the Chhandogya Up anishad (V .3.3) there is men tion of wa ter only but no ref er ence to the soul (Jiva). Thi s ob jec tion can not st and. The p as sage re fers to the per sons per form - ing sac ri fices, i.e. , the per form ers of Isht a (sac ri fice) and Purt a (dig - ging t anks, build ing tem ples, etc.) and Dana (char ity), go ing by the path of smoke (Dhuma marga or Dakshinayana Path to t he world of moon) Chh. Up. V .10.3. To those per sons who have per formed Ishtis, etc., wa ter is sup - plied in the f orm of ma te ri als used in the Agnihot ra, the Darsapurnamasa and other sac ri fices, viz. , sour milk, milk, curd, etc. The ma te ri als like milk, curds, etc., that are of fered as ob la tions in sac ri fices as sume a sub tle form called A purva and at tach them selves to the sac ri ficer. The Jivas thus go en vel oped by wa ter which is sup - plied by t he ma te ri als that are of fered as ob la tions in sac ri fices. The wa ter form ing the ob la tions as sumes the sub tle form of Apurva, en - vel ops the souls and leads them to t he heaven to re ceive their re - ward. An other ob jec tion is raised now by the P urvap akshin. He says that is the f ood of the gods. The gods do eat it (Chh. Up. V .10.4. ) Hav ing reached the moon they be come food and then t he Devas feed on them t here (Bri. Up. VI .2.16). I f they are eaten by gods as by ti gers, how could they en joy the f ruit of t heir ac tions? The fol low ing Su tra gives a suit able an swer. The per form ers of sac ri fices ob tain theCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 311 name of Som araja when they reach Chandraloka. This tech ni cal name Somaraja is ap plied here to the soul. ^m$ dmZm_{ ddmV VWm {h X e`{V& Bhakt am v anatmav ittvat tatha hi darsay ati III.1.7 ( 298) But (t he souls bein g the food of t he gods in heaven is us ed) in a secondary or metaphorical sense, on account of their n ot knowing the Self b ecause the Sruti d eclares like that. Bhakt am: Metaphorical; Va: but, or; Anatma vittvat: on account of their not knowing the S elf; Tatha: so; Hi: because; Darsay ati: (Srut i) declares, shows. The soul be comes the food of gods has to be un der stood in a met a phor i cal or sec ond ary sense and not lit er ally . Oth er wise the state ment of scrip tures such as He w ho is de sir ous of heaven must per form sac ri fice is mean ing less. If t he Devas were to eat the souls why should men then ex ert them selves to go there and why should they per form sac ri fices like Jyotistom a and the rest? Food is the cause of en joy ment. E at ing is the re joic ing of the gods with t he per - form ers of sac ri fices. The sac ri fices are ob jects of en joy ment to t he gods just as wives, chil dren and cat tle are to men. It is not ac tual eat - ing like the chew ing and swal low ing of sweet meat s. The gods do not eat in the or di nary way . The scrip ture says The gods do not eat or drink. They are sat is fied by see ing the nec tar. Those who per form sac ri fices re joice like ser vants of a king, al - though they are sub or di nate to t he gods. They giv e en joy ment to t he gods and re joice with them. Those who do not know the Self are ob - jects of en joy ment for t he gods. This is known from text s like Now , if a man wor ships an other de ity, think ing the de ity is one and he is an - other , he does not know . He is like a beast for the Dev as (Bri. Up. I.4.10). That means he in t his life pro pi ti ates the gods by means of ob - la tions and other works, serves them like a beast and does so in the other world also, de pend ing on them like a beast and en joys the f ruits of his works as as signed by them. They (the per form ers of such sac ri - fices) be come ser vice able com pan ions to the gods. They en joy the com pan ion ship of the gods. S o they are said to be t he food of t he gods in the fig u ra tive or met a phor i cal sense. They con trib ute to t he en joy ment of t he gods by their pres ence and ser vice in that world. There fore it is quit e clear that the soul goes en vel oped with the sub tle es sence of el e ment s when it goes to other spheres for en joy ing the fruits of his good deeds. He en joys in the Chandraloka and re turns to the earth at t he end of his store of merit .BRAHMA SU TRAS 312 Kritatyayadhikaranam : Topic 2 (Sutras 8-1 1) The souls descending from heaven have a remnant of Karm a which determines t heir birth H$Vm``o@Zwe` dmZ >_{V `m_ ` WoV_Zod M& Kritatyayenusay avan drisht asmritib hyam yathet amanev am cha III.1.8 ( 299) On the exhaustion of go od work the soul returns to the earth with a re main der of the Karma s, as can b e understoo d from direct sta tement in Sru ti and Smriti, b y the sam e route through which he asce nded afte r death and diffe rently too . Krita: of what is done, of the Karma; Atyaye: at the end, at the exhaustion; Anusay avan: with a remainder of t he Karma; Drishtasmr itibh yam: as can be understood from direct st atement in Sruti and Smriti ; Yatha it am: by the way he went ; Anev am: differently ; Cha: and. A fresh topic is dis cussed here. This Adhikarana teaches the mode of re turn from heaven. The ques tion is raised whether the souls, af ter hav ing en joyed the f ruits of all their works, re turn to the earth with any rem nant of K arma (Karmasesha) or not. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says that there is no rem nant of Karma. Why? O n ac count of the spec i fi ca tion Yavat samp atam. The Sruti says Hav ing dwelt there t ill their work is ex hausted, they re turn again the way t hey went by (Chh. Up. V.10.5). T his in di cates that all their Karma is com pletely ex hausted there and there is noth ing lef t. This view is wrong. The right v iew is that the souls re turn to the earth by the f orce of some unenjoyed rem nant or Anusaya of Karma. When the to tal ity of works which helped the souls to go to the Chandraloka for en joy ment of t he fruit s of good deeds is ex hausted, then the body made up of wa ter which had orig i nated there for t he sake of en joy ment is dis solv ed by the f ire of sor row spring ing from the thought t hat the en joy ment co mes to an end, just as hail stones melt by con tact with the ray s of the sun, just as ghee mel ts by con tact with the fire. Then the souls come down with a re main der yet lef t. This is proved by Srut i and Smriti as well. The Sruti says Those whose con duct, dur ing the pre vi ous life, has been good, pres ently ob - tain good birth, such as the birth of a Brah min, a Kshat riya or a V aisya; those whose con duct has been bad pres ently ob tain some evil birt h such as that of a dog or a pig (Chh. Up. V .10.7). The Smriti says The mem bers of the dif fer ent castes and of the dif fer ent or ders of life who are en gaged in the works pre scrib ed for them, af ter leav ing this world and en joy ing the fruit s of their works in the other world, are born again ow ing to the unenjoy ed por tion of t heir re wards, in dis tin guished castes and fam i lies, with spe cial beauty ,CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 313 lon gev it y, knowl edge, con duct, prop erty , com fort and in tel li gence. Hence the soul is born with re sid ual Karma. What is such Anusaya (re sid ual work) of Karma which leads to higher or lower birth? Of what kind is that re main der? Some say that thereby we have t o un der stand a re main der of the works which had been per formed in the pre vi ous birth to ob tain heaven and whose fruits have for the greater p art been en joyed. That res i due might be com pared to the re main der of oil which sticks to the in side of a ves sel pre vi ously fill ed with oil even af ter it has been emp tied or to a court ier of a king who loses his Dur bar robe and there fore co mes out with his shoes and um brella alone. These anal o gies are ob vi ously wrong, be - cause when a vir tu ous deed leads the soul to heaven, we can not as - sume that a por tion of it brings him down to the earth. This would con tra dict the tex t which de clares clearly that heaven al one is the fruit of mer i to ri ous acts and no res i due con tin ues to ex ist. More over the scrip tural pas sage dis tin guishes re main ders of a dif fer ent kind, v iz., t hose whose con duct has been good; those whose con duct has been bad. The lat ter can not be a por tion of t he vir tu ous deed which leads the soul to the heaven. There fore the Anusaya is the res i due or rem nant of some ot her store of Kar mas bear ing fruit. Af ter the fruit s of the mer i to ri ous act s have com pletely been en joyed in heav en, the re main ing other set of works (good and bad) whose fruit s are to be en joyed in t his world forms the Anusaya with which the souls come to the eart h. An other view is that af ter death the en tire store of K ar mas about to bear fruit f ruc ti fies. There fore the souls come to the eart h with out any Anusaya or res i due of Karma. This is wrong. This is un ten a ble. Some of t hose Kar mas can be en joyed only in one kind of birth and some in an other . They can not com bine in one birth. I t can not be said that one por tion ceases to bear fruit. There is no such ces sa tion save by Prayaschit ta or ex pi a tion. I f all Kar mas bear fruit af ter death, t here will be no cause for re birth af ter life in heav en or hell or in an i mal bod - ies, be cause in these there is no means of vir tue or vice. M ore over some cap i tal sins like the kill ing of a Brah min in volve m any births. How then can the to tal ity of Kar mas lead to one birth alone? T he scrip ture is the sole source of vir tue and vice. Sim i larly the K ariri Ishti, a sac ri fice of fered by those who are de sir ous of rain, causes rain. There fore you can not as cribe it to the f ruc tifi ca tion of p ast act s af ter death. There fore the vi ew that death m an i fests all ac tions, that all event s are due to the fruc tifi ca tion of com plete store of K ar mas af ter death is en tirely i n cor rect and base less. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor ar gues that just as a lamp shows all ob jects, so also death ex haust s all Kar mas. This anal ogy is not cor rect. Be cause a lamp, al though equally dis tant from a big and a very small ob ject, may man i fest only the big one and not t he small ob -BRAHMA SU TRAS 314 ject. So deat h ex cites the op er a tion of t he stron ger ac tions only , not the weaker ones, al though there is equal op por tu nity f or both set s of works for fruc tifi ca tion. There fore the vi ew that all ac tions are man i - fested by deat h can not be up held, be cause it is con tra dicted by Srut i, Smriti and rea son. You need not be afraid t hat if any Kar mas are lef t in store there will be no sal va tion, be cause knowl edge of Self will an ni hi late all K ar - mas. There fore it is an es tab lished con clu sion that the souls de scend to the earth f rom heaven with a re main der of works (Anusaya). By what way does it de scend? They re turn by the same way that they went by , but wit h some dif fer ence. From the ex pres sion as they came and from the fact of ether and smoke it is con cluded that they de scend by the way they went to the heav en (Chh. Up. V .10.5). T hat there is some dif fer ence too is known from night, et c., not be ing men - tioned and from t he cloud, etc., be ing added (Chh. Up. V .10.6). He de - s cends by the route by which he went t o a cer tain st age and then by a dif fer ent route. T he word Ramaniyacharana means works whic h are Ramaniya or good. K apuyacharana means evil act s. The word Yavat samp atam does not mean the ex haus tion of all Kar mas, but the ex haus tion of t he works that took the soul to heav en and which is ex hausted in heaven by en joy ment. MaUm{X{V Mom onbjUmW}{VH$mUm {O{Z& Charanaditi chet na u palakshanartheti karsh najini hIII.1.9 ( 300) If it be objected tha t on a ccount of con duct ( the ass umpti on of the remnant o f Karma , Anu saya is no t necessary for re birth o n earth), ( we say) not so (because the word conduct is used) to signify indire ctly (the re mainde r). So Karshnajini think s. Charanat: on account of conduct; Iti: thus, so; Chet: if; Na: not so; Upalakshanartha: to signify secondarily , indirectly , meant t o imply or connote; Iti: thus; Karshnajinih: Karshnajini thinks, holds, says. An ob jec tion is raised with ref er ence to the re sid ual Karma, Anusaya, st ated in the pre ced ing Su tra and is re futed. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor says in the t ext cit ed (Chh. Up. V .10.7. ) those whose con duct has been good etc., get a good birth. The qual ity of the new birth de pends on Charana or con duct, not on Anusaya or re main der of work. Charana and Anusaya are dif fer ent things be cause Charana is the same as Charitra, Achara, Silaall of which mean con duct, while Anusay a means re main der of work. Scrip ture also says that ac tion and con duct are dif fer ent things Ac cord ing as he act s and ac cord ing as he con ducts him self so will he be (Bri. Up. IV .4.5).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 315 The ob jec tion is with out force. This S u tra re futes this and says that t he term con duct is meant to de note the re main der of the works (good Kar mas) af ter en joy ment in the other world. Con duct st ands for Karma which de pends on good con duct. This is the opin ion of the sage Karshnajini. This is sec ond ary im pli ca tion of t he term. AmZW `{_{ V Mo VX nojdmV & Anarthaky amiti ch et na t adapekshatv at III.1.10 (301) If it be sai d (by suc h interpr etation of t he word conduct good con duct w ould become) pur poseless, ( we say) not s o, on accoun t of (Karma) bein g dependent on t hat (good con duct) . Anarthaky am: purposeless, useless, irrelevancy; Iti: thus, as; Chet: if; Na: not so; Tat: that (conduct); Apekshatv at: on account of dependence on that. A fur ther ob jec tion with ref er ence to the word Charanacon - duct is raised and re futed in t his Su tra. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor says that m ay be, but why should we give up that mean ing which the word Charana di rectly con veys vi z., con duct and t ake up the merely con no ta tive m ean ing res i due of Karma. Then good con duct would be pur pose less in man s life, as it has no re sult of it s own, not be ing a cause of the qual - ity of new birth. Con duct which is the di rect mean ing of the word may have for it s fruit ei ther a good or an evil birt h ac cord ing as it is good or bad. Some f ruit will have t o be al lowed to it in any case for oth er wise it would be pur pose less. This Su tra re futes this. The Su tra de nies this view on the ground that only those who are of good con duct are en ti tled to per form V e dic sac ri fices. This ob jec tion is with out force on ac count of the de pend - ence on it. It can not st and. The Smrit i says, Him who is de void of good con duct the V edas do not pu rify. He, whose con duct is not good, does not at tain re li gious merit by mere per for mance of sac ri - fices. Con duct en hances the fruit of K arma (Atisaya). Good con duct is an aid or aux il iary to K arma. There fore it has a pur pose. When the sac ri fice be gins to pro duce it s fruit, t he con duct which has ref er ence to the sac ri fice will orig i nate in the f ruit some ad di tion. I t is, there fore, the view of Karshnajini that the res i due of works only which is the in di - rect mean ing of the t erm Charana or con duct and not just con duct is the cause of the new birth. If a man is able t o run by means of his feet he will cer tainly not creep on his knees. If a man can not run on his legs, can he run on his knees? gwH$VXwH$Vo E do{V V w ~mX[a& Sukrit adushkrite ev eti tu baadarih III.1.1 1 (302) But con duct ( Char ana) means mer ely good an d evil wor ks; thus th e sage B aadari thi nks.BRAHMA SU TRAS 316 Sukrit a: good or righteous deeds; Dushkrite: (and) bad or unrighteous deeds; Eva: only , merely; Iti: thus; Tu: but; Baadarih: (Sage) Baadari. Fur ther dis cus sion on the mean ing of the word Charana is made here. The Su tra says that t here is no dif fer ence be tween con - duct and Karma. A c cord ing to the sage Baadari t he phrases Ramaniyacharana and Kapuyacharana mean good and evil works. Charana means the same as Anusthana or Karma (work). The root Char (to walk, to con duct one self) is used in the gen eral sense of act ing. Peo ple say in com mon p ar lance of a man who does sac ri - fices. That man walks in righ teous ness. The term Achara also de - notes only a kind of re li gious duty . A sac ri fice is a mer i to ri ous act (Dharma). Achara is also Dharma. When Karma and Charana are sep a rately de scribed it is as when you speak of Brah mins and Parivrajakas, i. e., S annyasis. Though Charana and Karma are one, yet t hey are spo ken of some times as dif fer ent on the max im of Kuru-Pandavas. Though t he Pandavas were also Kurus, yet in the phrase Kurus and Pandavas the word Kuru is used in a nar rower sense. Thus men of good con duct or char ac ter means those whose ac tions are praise wor thy; men of ev il con duct or evil Charana are those whose ac tions are to be cen sured. Con duct is used in the gen - eral sense of ac tion. A s Charana is Karma only , it is es ta b lished, there fore, that those who go to heaven hav e re main der of Karma (Anusaya) as the cause of a new birth on earth. Evaonly: T he force of this word in this S u tra is to in di cate that this is the opin ion of the au thor of the S utras. Tubut is used to in di cate spe ci al ity, one s own con clu sion and to add em pha sis. Anisht adikary adhikaranam : Topic 3 (Sutras 12-21) The fate af ter death of t hose souls whose deeds do not entitle t hem t o pass up to Chandraloka A{Z>m{XH$m[aUm _{n M lwV_& Anisht adikarinam api cha srut am III.1.12 (303) The Sru ti declares that the non- performe rs of s acrifi ces, etc., also ( go to t he wor ld of m oon). Anisht adikarinam : of those who do not perform sacrifices etc. ; Api: even; Cha: also; Srutam: is declared by the Sruti . The move ment of per sons do ing evil deeds is now de scribed. This Su tra is that of Purvap akshin. It has been said that those who do sac ri fices, etc., go to the Chandraloka. The ques tion now arises whether those per sons also who do not per form sac ri fices go to the sphere of moon or not .CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 317 The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that ev en they go to heaven t hough they do not en joy any thing there like t hose who per - form sac ri fices, be cause they too are in need of the fif th ob la tion for a new birth. More over the Srut i de clares: All who de part from thi s world go to the sphere of moon (Kau. Up. I.2). The word all shows that it is a uni ver sal prop o si tion with out any qual i fi ca ti ons. Since all who per - ish must go to the world of moon, it f ol lows that the sin ners also go there. Siddhantin: The sin ners do not go to the sphere of moon. They go to Y amaloka or the world of pun ish ment. Thi s is said in the fol low - ing Su tra. g`_Zo dZw^y`oV aofm_mamohmdamohm VX>J{VXeZmV& Samy amane tv anubhuy etareshamarohav arohau tadgatidarsanat III.1.13 (304) But of o thers, (i.e ., thos e who ha ve not p erformed sacrifices, etc.) the ascent is to t he abode of Yama and aft er having exper ienced (the results of their evil deeds ) they come down to the earth; as such a course is declared b y the Sruti . Samy amane: in the abode of Y ama; Tu: but; Anubhuy a: having experienced; Itaresham: of others (of those who do not perf orm sacrif ices); Aroha-ava rohau: the ascent and descent; Tat: of them; Gati: (about their) courses; Darsanat: as can be understood from the Sruti. De scrip tion of t he move ment of per sons who have done evil deeds is con tin ued. This Su tra re futes the v iew of the pre vi ous Su tra. This is the Siddhant a Su tra. Sin ners suf fer in Y amaloka and re turn to thi s earth. Y ama says to Nachiket as: The way to t he here af ter never rises be fore an ig no - rant per son who is de luded by wealth. This is the worldhe thinksthere is no other; t hus he falls again and again un der my sway (Katha Up. I .2.6). Tu (but), dis cards the Purvap aksha. It is not t rue that all per sons go to Chandraloka. The as cent to the sphere of m oon or Chandraloka is only for t he en joy ment of t he fruit s of good works. It is nei ther with - out a spe cial pur pose nor for the mere pur pose of sub se quent de - scent. Hence those who have done evil ac tions do not go there. Those who per form sac ri fices rise to the Chandraloka not any ot her per sons. Aroha-avarohau: As cent and de scent, i.e. , com ing to worldly ex is tence (as cent) and go ing to still nether re gions (de scent). This is the in ter pre t a tion of Sri Madhvacharya.BRAHMA SU TRAS 318 _apV M& Smaranti cha III.1.14 (305) The Smriti s also declare thus. Smaranti : the Sruti s declare; Cha: also. De scrip tion of t he jour ney of per sons do ing evil deeds is con tin - ued in the Su tra. The Smriti s also de clare the same fate of the sin ners. The Smritis also de clare that the ev il do ers come within the clutches of Yama. Manu, Vyasa and oth ers say that those who do evi l deeds go to hell and suf fer there. I n the Bhagav ata it is said The sin ners are quickly car ried to the abode of Yama by the p ath of sin ners, on which they t ravel with great p ains, con s tantly ris ing and fall ing, tired and swoon ing. Manu and V yasa de clare that in the Chit isamyamana ev il deeds are re quited un der the rule of Y ama. A{n M g& Api cha sapt a III.1.15 (306) Moreover there are sev en (hells). Api cha: also, moreover; Sapt a: the seven (hells). Par tic u lars of the abode of Y ama are given. S mriti men tions seven hells which serve as places of tor ture for the ev il do ers. The tem po rary hells are Raurava, Maharaurava, Vahni, V aitarani and Kumbhika. The t wo eter nal hells are T amisra (dark ness) and Andhat amisra (blind ing dark ness). Vm{n M VX `mnma mX{damo Y& Tatrapi cha t advyaparat av irodhah III.1.16 (307) And on account of his (Yam as) control even there (in those hells) is no contradiction. Tatra: there (in those hells); Api: also, even; Cha: and; Tadvyaparat: on account of his (Y ama s) control; Avirodhah: no contradiction. The same topic con tin ues in this Su tra. The Purv apakshin or the ob jec tor says: Ac cord ing to the S ruti the ev il do ers un dergo pun ish - ment from t he hands of Y ama. How is this pos si ble in the seven hell s called Raurava, etc., which are su per in tended by Chit ragupt a and oth ers? This Su tra re futes the ob jec tion. There is no con tra dic tion as the same Y ama is the chief ruler in those seven hells also. Chitragupt a and oth ers are only su per in ten - dents and lieu ten ants em ployed by Y ama. They are all un der Y ama s gov ern ment or su zer ainty. Chitragupt a and oth ers are di rected by Yama.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 319 {dmH$ _Umo[a{V Vw H$VdmV& Vidyakarmanori ti tu prakrit atvat III.1.17 (308) But (the reference is to the two ro ads) of knowledge and work , those two being under dis cussion . Vidyakarmanoh: of knowledge and work; Iti: thus; Tu: but, only ; Prakrit atvat: on account of these being the subject u nder discussion. But the sin ners never go to heaven be cause the topic re lat ing to the two p aths in the Chhandogya Up anishad is con fined to men o f knowl edge and men of work. It has no ref er ence to evil-do ers. The dif - fer ent jour neys of the de parted souls to the other world t hrough the two roads or pat hs de scribed in the Panchagnividy a of Chhandogya Upanishad are the re sults of knowl edge (med i ta tion) and re li gious sac ri fices ac cord ing as they were prac tised in lif e; be cause these two are the sub jects un der dis cus sion. The Sruti says t hat those who do not go by means of V idya along the p ath of Devay ana to Brahmaloka or by m eans of Karma along the p ath of P itriyana t o Chandraloka are born of ten in low bod - ies and die of ten. I f you say t hat evil -do ers also go to Chandraloka that world will get overfull. But y ou may re ply that there will be souls go ing out from t here to the earth. But t hen the Sruti text clearly says that t he evil-do ers do not go there. The evil-do ers go to the third place and not t o heaven. The S ruti pas sage says Now those who go along nei ther of these ways be - come those small crea tures con tin u ally re turn ing of whom it m ay be said Live and die. Theirs is a third place. There fore the world never be comes full (Chh. Up. V .10.8). The word but in the Su tra re futes a doubt t hat arises from a tex t from Kaushit aki Upani shad, That all de parted go to the Chandraloka. The word all has to be t aken as re fer ring only to t hose who are qual i fied, who hav e per formed good deeds. All el i gi ble souls only go to Chandraloka. I t does not in clude evil do ers or sin ners. The word but sets aside the view pro pounded by the ob jec tor. If the sin ners do not go to the world of m oon or Chandraloka, then no new body can be pro duced in their case: be cause there is no fif th ob - la tion pos si ble in their case and the fi fth ob la tion de pends on one s go ing to the sphere of mo on. There fore all must go t o the Chandraloka in or der to get a new body . This ob jec tion is an swered by the nex t Su tra. Z VVr `o VWmonbYo & Na tritiy e tathop alabdheh III.1.18 (309) Not in (th e case of) a thi rd place, as it is th us dec lared in the scrip tures.BRAHMA SU TRAS 320 Na: not; Tritiye: in the third; Tatha: so thus; Upalabdheh: it being perceived or seen to be. The fif th ob la tion is not nec es sary in the case of those who go to the third place, be cause it is thus de clared in the scrip tures. The rule about the f ive ob la tions does not ap ply in t he case of evil-do ers or sin ners be cause they are born with out the ob la tions. The Sruti says, Live and die. That is the third place. That is to say these small crea tures (flies, worms, etc. ,) are con tin u ally be ing born and are dy ing. The sin ners are called small crea tures be cause they as sume the bod ies of in sects, gnat s etc. Their place is called the t hird place, be cause it is nei ther the Brahmal oka nor the Chandraloka. Hence the heaven world never be comes full, be cause these sin ners never go there. More over, in the p as sage, In the f ifth ob la tion wa ter is called man the wa ter be comes the body of a m an only , not of an in - sect or moth etc. The word man ap plies to the hu man spe cies only . _`Vo@{n M bm oHo$& Smary atepi cha l oke III.1.19 (310) And (moreover the ) Smriti s hav e recorded also (that) i n this world (there had been cas es of birth witho ut the course of fiv e oblat ions). Smary ate: is stated in Smritis; Api: also; Cha: and; Loke: in the world. The ar gu ment com menced in Su tra 17 to re fute t he ob jec tions raised in Su tra 12, is con tin ued. There are, more over, tra di tions, ap art from the V edas that cer - tain per sons like Drona, Dhrishtady umna, Sit a, Draup adi and oth ers were not born in the or di nary way from m other s womb. In their cases there was want ing the fif th ob la tion which is made to t he woman. In the case of Dhrisht adyumna and oth ers, even two of t he ob la tions, viz., the one of fered into woman and t he one of fered into man, were ab sent. Drona had no mother . Dhrisht adyumna had nei ther fa ther nor mother . Hence in many ot her cases also, pro cre ation or birth may be sup posed to t ake place in de pend ently of ob la tions. The f e male crane con ceives with out a male. The five ob la tions are not ab so lutely nec es sary for a fu ture birth. The rule about the f ive ob la tions is not uni ver sal. It ap plies only to those who do sac ri fices. There fore the sin ners need not go to heaven. The five ob la tions have not h ing to do with t he third way , i.e., die and be born in low bod ies. They re fer only t o hu man births in the case of souls who as cend and then de scend. In the case of oth ers em bodi - ment may take place in a man ner other than through wombs.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 321 By the par ti cle Cha (and) the Sutrakara shows that the ob ser - va tion of t he world is also one cor rob o rated by Sm riti. XeZm& Darsanaccha III.1.20 (311) Also on a ccount of observ ation. Darsanat: on account of observation; Cha: also, and. The ar gu ment com menced in Su tra 17 is con tin ued. It is also ob served that of the four classes of or ganic be ings, namely vi vip a rous an i mals, ovip a rous an i mals, an i mals spring ing from heat and moi s ture and be ings spring ing from germs (plant s)the last two classes are pro duced with out sex ual in ter - course, so that in their case the num ber of ob la tions is of no con se - quence. The Purvap akshin or the ob jec tor says, The Srut i pas sage speaks only of three classes of be ings: That which springs from an egg (Andaja), that which springs from a liv ing be ing (Jivaja) and that which springs from a germ (Udbhijja) (Chh. Up. VI.3. 1). How then can it be main tained that t here are four classes? The fol low ing Su tra gives a re ply to hi s ob jec tion. VVr`e XmdamoY gemoH $O`& Tritiyasabdav arodhah samso kajasy a III.1.21 (312) The third term (i.e. plant life ) includes that whi ch sp rings fro m heat and moisture. Tritiya sabda: the third t erm; Avarodhah: inclusion; Samsokaj asya: of that which springs from heat and moisture. The two classes spring from earth or wa ter, from some thing st a - ble. They bot h ger mi nate: one f rom the earth and the ot her from wa - ter. It makes no dif fer ence be cause that which springs from mois ture is in cluded in the place of plant life (Udbhijja). T here is sim i lar ity be - tween Svedaj a and Udbhijja. Hence there is no con tra dic tion. Those which are born of sweat are called Svedaja. S vedaja and Udbhijja are not born of wombs. The word Udbhijja li t er ally means born by burst ing through. The plant s burst through the earth. T he sweatborn burst through the wa ter. Thus the or i gin of both is sim i lar, for both are born by burst ing through. Thus the evil-do ers do not go to heaven. Only those who per - form sac ri fices go to heaven. This is the set tled con clu sion.BRAHMA SU TRAS 322 Sabhav yapattyadhikaranam : Topic 4 The soul on it s descent from t he Chandraloka does not become identi fied with et her, etc., but att ains a similarit y of nature Vgm^m`mn{ mnnmo & Tatsabhav yapattirup apatteh III.1.22 (313) (The soul when com ing down from the sphere of moon) at tains sim i lar ity of na ture with them , (i.e. , with et her, air, etc., ) as this only is pos si ble. Tatsabhav yapattih: attainment of a sim ilarity of nature with t hem; Upapatteh: being reasonable. The way of de scent of the in di vid ual soul from the sphere of t he moon is now dis cussed. The Sruti de clares, They re turn again the way they went , to the ether , from t he ether to the ai r. Then the sac ri - ficer hav ing be come air be comes smoke, hav ing be come smoke he be comes mist, hav ing be come mist, he be comes a cloud, hav ing be - come a cloud he rains down (Chh. Up. V .10.5 & 6). Now a ques tion arises whether the soul ac tu ally be comes iden - ti cal with ether , etc., or sim ply re sem bles them. This Su tra says that t he souls do not at tain iden tity with them, be cause it is im pos si ble. It is not pos si ble that one t hing should be - come an other in the lit eral sense of the word. One sub stance can not be come an other . If the souls be come iden ti cal with ether , they could no lon ger de scend through air . The souls be come only like ether , air, etc. They as sume a sub tle form li ke ether , come un der the in flu ence or power of air and get mixed wit h or con nected with smoke etc. The at tain ing to the st ate of be ing smoke, etc., is but mov ing along with them when they are in mo tion, stop ping while they st op, en ter ing into them and be com ing as light as they are. There fore the p as sage means that th e souls be come sim i lar to Akasa, air , etc., but not iden ti - cal. Natichiradhi karanam: T opic 5 It takes only a short time f or the descent of the soul Zm{V{MaoU {deof mV& Natichirena v iseshat III.1.23 (314) (The soul passe s through the stages of its descent) in a not very long time; on account of the special statement. Na: not; Atichirena: in a very long t ime; Viseshat: because of special st atement of Sruti. The dis cus sion on the soul s way of de scent is con tin ued. Next arises the ques tion, does the soul i n its de scent through ether down to rain, st ay at each st age for a very long t ime, or p asses through itCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 323 quickly? The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: There be ing noth - ing to de fine the t ime of his st ay, it re mains in def i nitely long at each stage. This view is set aside by t his Su tra. This Su tra says that t he soul p asses through them quickly . This is in ferred from the cir cum - stance of the tex t mak ing a spe cial st ate ment. The Sruti says, Hav ing be come a cloud he rains down. Then he is born as rice and corn, herbs and trees, ses amum and beans. From thence the es cape is be set with many dif fi cul ties. For who ever the per sons may be that eat the food, and be get of f spring, he hence forth be comes like unto them (Chh. Up. V .10.5). The soul s jour ney, through the st ages of the ether , the air , the vapour or smoke, the mist, the cloud and the rain, t akes a shorter time than his p ass ing through the st ages of corn, se men, foe tus, which takes a much lon ger time or hard suf fer ing, as there is the spe cial state ment in Srut i, that af ter its en trance into a corn the es cape is be - set with much greater dif fi culty and p ain. The Sruti says The souls en ter into rice and adds from thence the es cape is be set with more dif fi culty and p ain. There is a hint here that t he es cape from the pre vi ous st ates or ear lier st ages is easy and pleas ant and at tained quickly . He who has be gun to de scend will en ter the mot hers body (womb) be fore a year p asses since s tart ing, though wan der ing through dif fer ent places (Naradiya Purana). Anyadhisthit adhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 24-27) When the souls enter into plant s, etc., t hey only cling to them and do not them selves become those species A`m{Y {R>Vofw nyddX{^bmnmV & Anyadhishthiteshu purvav adabhilap at III.1.24 (315) (The des cending soul e nters) into (plants) anima ted o ther (souls), as in t he previou s cases, on account of scriptural declaration. Anyadhishthiteshu: into what is possessed or occupied by another; Purvavat: like the previous cases; Abhilap at: on account of the scriptural st atement. The dis cus sion on the way of de scent of the in di vid ual soul is con tin ued. In the de scrip tion of t he soul s de scent, it is said then t hey are born as rice and corn, herbs and beans . Now a doubt arises, are these souls de scend ing with a rem nant of t heir Kar mas, them selves born as rice, corn, etc., or do they merely cling to t hose plant s, etc. The Purvap akshin holds that they are born as rice, corn, etc., and en joy thei r plea sures and pains on ac count of the re main der of works still at tach ing to them a nd do not merely cling t o them. The con -BRAHMA SU TRAS 324 di tion of a plant may be a place of en joy ment of t he fruit s of ac tions. Sac ri fices which en tail kill ing of an i mals may lead t o un pleas ant re - sults. Hence the word born is to be t aken lit er ally. This Su tra re futes this v iew. The souls are merely con nect ed with rice and plant s which are al ready an i mated by ot her souls and do not en joy there plea sures and pains as in pre vi ous cases. As the souls be com ing air , smoke, was de cided to mean only t hat they be - come con nected with them, so here also their be com ing rice, etc., merely means that they be come con nected with those plant s. Be - cause in these st ages there is no ref er ence to their Karma, just as in the ear lier st ages of ether etc. They en ter these plant s in de pend ently of their K arma. They do not en joy plea sure and pain whil e they abide there. The souls use the rice and plant s as their halt ing st a tion with out be ing iden ti fied with it , as it is ex pressly st ated in Srut i to be a p ass ing stage, like the pre vi ous st ages of ether , air etc. They do not lose their iden tity. The souls are not born there for t he pur pose of re trib u tive en - joy ment. Where real birth t akes place and ex pe ri ence of plea sure and pain com mences, the fruit s of ac tions be gin, the t ext re fers to the op - er a tion of K arma as in Those whose con duct has been good will quickly at tain a good birth (Chh. Up. V .10.7). Fur ther if t he word born is taken in it s lit eral sense, then the souls which have de scended into the rice plant s and are an i mat ing them would have t o leave them when they are reaped, husked, cooked and eaten. When a body is de stroyed the soul t hat an i mates it aban dons it. There fore the de scend ing souls are merely out wardly con - nected with the plant s an i mated by ot her souls. They abide ti ll they at - tain the op por tu nity f or a new birth. Aew {_{V Mo eXmV& Asuddhamiti chet na sabdat III.1.25 (316) If it be said that (sacrificial work is ) unholy, (we s ay) not so, on account of s criptural auth ority. Asuddham: unholy; Iti: so, thus; Chet: if; Na: no, not so, (t he objection cannot st and); Sabdat: on account of the word, on account of the script ural authority . An ob jec tion to S u tra 24 is raised and re futed. An ob jec tion may be raised that the sac ri fi cial work, such as the Jyotistoma sac ri fice and the like where an i mals are killed is un holy. There fore it s re sult may cause the sac ri ficer to be ac tu ally born as a corn or a plant as pen alty f or his cruel ac tion. S uch ob jec tion is ground less, be cause the kill ing of an i mals in sac ri fices causes no de - merit as it is sanc tioned by t he scrip tures. The sac ri fices are not im pure or sin ful be cause the scrip tures de clare them to be mer i to ri ous. The scrip tures alone can tell us whatCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 325 is Dharma and what is Adharma, what is holy and what is un holy. Our knowl edge of what is duty and the con trary of dut y de pends en tirely on Sastras, be cause these are Atindriya, i.e., be yond sense per cep - tion and there is in t he case of right and wrong an en tire want of bi nd - ing rules as to place, time and oc ca sion. What in one place, at one time on one oc ca sion is per formed as a right ac tion, is a wrong ac tion in an other place, at an other time, on an other oc ca sion. There fore no one can know with out a scrip ture, what is ei ther right or wrong. No doubt the scrip ture says that one m ust not cause in jury ( Ma him syat sarva bhutani let not any an i mal be in jured (killed). That is t he gen - eral rule. Let him of fer an an i mal sa cred to Agnistoma is an ex cep - tion. Gen eral rule and ex cep tion have di f fer ent spheres of ap pli ca tion. They have di f fer ent scopes set tled by us age, and so there is no con - flict be tween them. There fore we con clude that the souls be come en closed in plant s when scrip ture says that t he de scend ing souls from the Chandraloka be come plant s. They are per fectly un con scious in these stages. aoVpg `moJmo@W& Retah sigy ogotha III.1.26 (317) Then (the so ul gets) conne cted with him who pe rforms the act of generation. Retah: one who eject s the seminal fluid; Yoga: connection with; Atha: then af terwards. The dis cus sion on the way of de scent of the soul is con tin u ed. What be comes of the soul af ter its cling ing to the plant s is now men - tioned. Chhandogya text (V.10.6. ) de clares For who ever eat s the food and per forms the act of gen er a tion, t hat again he (the soul) be - comes. Here again the soul s be com ing, i. e., he who per forms the act of gen er a tion can not be t aken in it s lit eral sense, be cause a man is able to pro cre ate when he at tains pu berty . We have to un der stand that t he soul get s con nected with one who per forms the act of g en er a - tion. W e again in fer from thi s that the soul s be com ing a plant merely means it s en ter ing into con nec tion with t he plant and not ac tual birth as such. The soul af ter hav ing en tered into a corn or a plant be comes con nected to him who eat s the corn or the fruit and per forms the act of cop u la tion. I n ev ery st age of it s pas sage it re tains it s dis tinc tive iden - tity from the bod ies with which it may be con nected. When ever one eat s the food, when ever one per forms the act of coition, t he de scend ing soul be comes again that food and t hat se - men. The soul re mains in him in cop u la tion only till he en ters into the mother s womb, with the se men in jected. He has a touch with t heBRAHMA SU TRAS 326 sem i nal fluid cre ated by eat ing such grain and ul ti mately at tains a body in wombs. The soul does not re ally take the form of and be come iden ti cal with it s pro cre ator, be cause one thing can not take the form of an other thing. If it were to be come lit er ally t he pro cre ator, then there would be no pos si bil ity of the soul s get ting an other body . `moZoeara_ & Yoneh sariram III.1.27 (318) From the wom b a (new) body (spr ings). Yoneh: from the womb; Sarira m: the body . The dis cus sion on the na ture of the de scent of the soul is con - cluded here. Af ter hav ing p assed through the var i ous pre ced ing st ages, the soul at last en ters into the womb of the mother . He at tains a fully de - vel oped hu man body in t he womb of the mot her which is fit for ex pe ri - enc ing the fruit s of the re main der of works. The fam ily in which it is to be born is reg u lat ed by the na ture of thi s re main der as men tioned in Chh. Up. V .10.7. Of these, t hose whose con duct here has been good will quickly at tain some good birth, t he birth of a B rahmana, or a Kshatriya or a V aisya. But those whose con duct here has been bad will quickly at tain an evil birt h, the birt h of a dog, or a Chandala. Thus it has been clearly shown that t he soul be comes plant, etc., in t he same sense as it be comes ether , etc. The whole ob ject of teach ing this law of in car na tion is that you should real ise that the A t man or the Ab so lute alone is the High est Bliss. This At man alone must be yo ur sole ob ject of quest. You should get dis gusted with this world of p ain and sor row and de velop dispassion and dis crim i na tion and try ear nestly t o at tain the Et er nal Bliss of the A b so lute. O ig no rant man! O f ool ish man! O mis er a ble man! O de luded soul! W ake up from your long slum ber of ig no rance. Open your eyes. De velop the f our means of sal va tion and at tain the goal of l ife, the sum m um bonum , right now in t his very birth. Come out of t his cage of flesh. Y ou have been long im pris oned in this prisonhouse of body f or time im me mo rial. Y ou have been dwell ing in the womb again and again. Cut t he knot of A vidya and soar high in t he realms of Eter nal Bliss. Thus ends the First Pada ( Sec tion 1) of the Third A dhyaya (Chap ter III) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 1 327 CHAPTER III SECTION 2 INTRODUCTION In the pre ced ing Pada or Sec tion the p as sage of the soul to dif - fer ent spheres and it s re turn has been ex plained in or der to cre ate dispassion or dis gust in peo ple who per form sac ri fices to ob tain heaven. I f they have a clear un der stand ing of the f ate of t he soul they will nat u rally de velop V airagya and will striv e to at tain Moksha or the fi nal eman ci p a tion. This sec tion st arts with the ex pla na tion of t he soul s dif fer ent states, vi z., wak ing, dream, deep sleep. The three st ates of the soul will be shown to be merely il lu sory and the iden tity of the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Soul will be es tab lished. A knowl edge of the t hree st ates, vi z., wak ing, dream ing and deep sleep, is very nec es sary for the stu dents of V edant a. It will help them to un der stand the na ture of the f ourth st ate, v iz., T uriya or the state of superconsciousness. For a stu dent of V edant a, the wak ing state is as much un real as the dream st ate. The st ate of deep sleep in - ti mates that t he na ture of the S u p reme Soul is Bli ss and that Brah man is one with out a sec ond, and that the world is un real. V edantins make a study of t he four st ates very care fully. They do not ig nore dream and deep sleep st ates whereas the sci en tists draw their con clu sions from the ex pe ri ences of the wak ing st ate only . Hence, their knowl edge is lim ited, par tial and in cor rect. In the last sec tion the wak ing st ate of t he soul has been fully dealt with. Now it s dream st ate is t aken up for dis cus sion. In or der to make the stu dents un der stand the true sig nif i cance of the Maha-V akya or the great sen tence of the Up anishad Tat Tvam AsiThou art That, this sec tion ex plains the true na ture of That and Thou. 328 SYNOPSIS This Sec tion st arts with the ex pla na tion of t he st ates of dream, deep sleep and so on. Then it dis cusses the two fold na ture of Brah - man, one im ma nent and the ot her tran scen dent. Lastly it deals with the re la tion of B rah man to the in di vid ual soul as well as to the world. Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-6) treat s of the soul in the dream ing state. The v i sion in dreams is of a won der ful char ac ter. Ac cord ing to Sri Sankara the three f irst Sutras dis cuss the ques tion whether the cre ative ac tiv ity, at trib uted to t he Jiva or the in di vid ual soul in some Sruti t exts pro duces ob jects as real as those by which the soul in the wak ing st ate is sur rounded or not. Su tra 3 says that t he cre ations of the dream ing soul are mere Maya or il lu sion as they do not f ully ex hibit the na ture or char ac ter of real ob jects, as they are want ing in the re al ity of the wak ing st ate. Su tra 4 in ti mates that dream s, al though mere Maya, yet hav e a pro phetic qual ity. Some dreams are in dic a tive of fu ture good or bad. Sutras 5 and 6 say that the soul, al though it is iden ti cal with the Lord, is not able to pro duce in dreams a real cre ation, be cause it s knowl edge and power are ob scured by it s con nec tion with t he gross body . The rul er ship is hid den by ig no rance in the Jiva st ate. I t is not pos si ble for the in di vid ual soul to dream a good or a bad dream ac - cord ing to his own choice as he in his pres ent st ate of bond age is ig - no rant of the f u ture. Adhikarana II: (Sutras 7-8) teaches that the soul abides wit hin Brah man in the heart in the st ate of deep sleep. Adhikarana III : (Su tra 9) gives rea sons to as sume that the soul awak en ing from sleep is the same t hat went to sleep. What has been partly done by a per son be fore go ing to sleep is fin ished af ter he wakes up. He has also a sens e of self-iden tity. He has mem ory of p ast event s. He has mem ory in the shape of I am the per son who had gone to sleep and who have now awak ened. Adhikarana IV : (Su tra 10) ex plains the na ture of a swoon. It in ti - mates that swoon is half death and half deep sleep, a mix ture of these two st ates. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 1 1-21) in ti mate the na ture of Su p reme Brah man in which the in di vid ual soul is merged in the st ate of deep sleep. Su tra 11 de clares that Brah man is de void of di s tinc tive at trib - utes (Nirvisesha). Brah man with at trib utes is only for t he sake of Upasana or pi ous wor ship of dev o tees. It is not it s real na ture. 329 Su tra 12 de clares that ev ery form due to l im it ing ad junct is de - nied of Brah man. In ev ery p as sage of Sruti iden tity is af firmed. The Su preme T ruth is One ness. Sep a rate ness is for de vo tion. There is only one In fi nite form less es sence or Prin ci ple in re al ity. Su tra 13 says that t he whole uni verse char ac ter ised by enjoyers, thi ngs to be en joyed and a ruler has Brah man for it s true na - ture. Su tra 14 says that t he as sump tion of di ver sity or plu ral ity is ob - jec tion able. Brah man is des ti tute of all forms. Su tra 15 says Brah man ap pears to have forms, as it were. This is due to it s con nec tion with it s un real lim it ing ad junct s, just as the light of t he sun ap pears straight or crooked, as it were, ac cord ing to the na ture of the t hing it il lu mines. Su tra 16 says that t he Sruti (Brihadarany aka) ex pressly de - clares that Brah man is one uni form mass of con scious ness or in tel li - gence and has nei ther in side nor out side. Su tra 17 says the other scrip tural p as sages and the Smriti al so teach that B rah man is with out at trib utes. Su tra 18 de clares that just as the one lu mi nous sun when en ter - ing into re la tion to many dif fer ent wa ters is him self ren dered mul ti form by his lim it ing ad junct s, so also the one Un born Brah man. Su tra 19: Here the Purv apakshin ob jects. There is no sim i lar ity of the t wo things com pared as in the case of Brah man any sec ond thing is not ap pre hended or ex pe ri enced like wa ter. Brah man is form - less and all-per vad ing. It is not a ma te rial thing. S un has a form. It is a ma te rial thing. W a ter is dif fer ent from t he sun and is at a dis tance from the sun. Hence the sun may be re flected in t he wa ter. Su tra 20: The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 19 is re futed. The sim i - lar ity is only in point of the p ar tic i pa tion in the di s tor tion and con tor - tion, in i n crease and de crease of the im age re flected. B rah man par tic i pates as it were in the at trib utes and st ates of the body and other lim it ing ad junct s with which it abides. T wo things are com pared with ref er ence to some p ar tic u lar point s or fea tures only . Su tra 21 says the scrip tures de clare that the A t man is within the Upadhis or lim it ing ad junct s. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 22-30) teaches that the clause neti, netinot this, not this in Brihadarany aka Upanishad I I.3.6 de nies the gross and sub tle forms of B rah man given in B ri. Up. II .3.1 and not Brah man it self. Sutras 23-26 fur ther dwell on Brah man be ing in re al ity de void of all dis tinc tive at trib utes which are en tirely due t o the lim it ing ad junct s or Upadhi s. Sutras 27-28: ex press the views of the Bhedabhedav adins. They say t here is dif fer ence as well as non-dif fer ence be tween the in -BRAHMA SU TRAS 330 di vid ual soul and Brah man. The sep a rate ness and one ness is like a ser pent in qui es cence and mo tion. Su tra 29: This Su tra re futes the v iew of the B hedabhedavadins and es tab lishes the fi nal truth which has been de clared in Su tra 25 viz., that t he dif fer ence is merely il lu sory due to fic ti tious lim it ing ad - junct s and iden tity or non-dif fer ence is the re al ity. Su tra 30: Su tra 29 is con firmed. The S ruti in fact ex pressly de - nies sep a rat e ness. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 31-37) ex plains that B rah man is one with out a sec ond and ex pres sions which ap par ently i m ply some thing else as ex ist ing are only met a phor i cal. Brah man is com pared to a bridge or a bank or cause way not to in di cate that He con nects the world with some thing else be yond Him but to show that He is the pro tec tor of the worlds and is also like a cause way, the sup port of the i n di vi d u als while cross ing over this ocean of life. He is con ceived to be sym bol ised and lo cated in a lim ited sp ace for fa cil ity of med i ta tion on the p art of those who are not v ery in tel li - gent. Adhikarana VII I: (Sutras 38-41) in ti mates that t he fruit of ac tions is not as Jaimini thinks, t he in de pend ent re sult of ac tions act ing through Apurva, but is dis pensed by the Lord. The Lord who is all-per - vad ing is the bestower of fruit s of ac tions, ac cord ing to mer its and de - mer it s.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 331 Sandhy adhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-6) The soul in the dream state g`o g {>amh {h & Sandhy e srishtiraha h i III.2.1 ( 319) In the intermediate stage (between w aking and deep s leep) there is (a real) creation; because (the Sruti) says so. Sandhy e: in the intermedi ate st age (between waking and deep sleep, i.e. , in the dream st ate); Srisht ih: (there is real) creation; Aha: (Srut i) says so; Hi: because. The st ate of dream is now con sid ered. Sutras 1 and 2 are Purvap aksha Sutras and set out the v iew that what we see in dreams are true cre ations be cause of the word Srijate (cre ates). The word Sandhya means dream. It is called Sandhya or the in ter me di ate st ate be cause it is mid way be tween wak ing (Jagrat) and the deep sleep st ate (Sushupti). That place is called the in ter me di ate state or place be cause it lies there where the two worlds or else the place of wak ing and the place of deep sleep join. Scrip ture de clares, when he falls asleep, there are no char i ots, in that st ate, no horses, no roads, but he him self cre ates char i ots, horses and roads, etc. (Bri. Up. IV .3.9-10). Here a doubt arises whether the cre ation which t akes place in dreams is a real one (Paramarthika) like the cre ation seen in the wak ing st ate or whether it is il lu sor y (Maya). The Purvap akshin holds that in the dream ing st ate there is a real cre ation. In that in ter me di ate st ate or dream the cre ation must be real, be - cause scrip ture which is au thor i ta tive de clares it to be so, He (the in - di vid ual soul) cre ates char i ots, horses, roads, etc. W e, more over, in fer this from t he con clud ing clause, He in deed is the cre ator (Bri. Up. IV .3.10 ). Fur ther there is no dif fer ence be tween the ex pe ri ence of the wak ing st ate and that of the dream st ate. A t man in dream get s plea - sure by go ing in a car , hear ing mu sic, see ing plea sure-sights and eat - ing sump tu ous food even as in the wak ing st ate. Hence the cre ation of t he dream st ate is real and orig i nates from the Lord Him self, just as et her, etc., sprang from Him. {Z_mV ma MHo$ n wmX`& Nirmat aram chaike p utraday ascha III.2.2 ( 320) And s ome (the fo llowe rs of one Sakha, nam ely, the Kathakas ) (state that the Supreme Lord is the ) Creator; s ons, etc., (being the lo vely things which He creates).BRAHMA SU TRAS 332 Nirmat aram: Creator , the shaper , the builder , the maker; Cha: and, more over; Eke: some (followers of the p articular Sakhas of the Vedas); Putraday ah: sons, etc .; Cha: and, also. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent gives a f ur ther ar gu ment to show that the cre ation even i n dreams is by the Lord Him self. He who is awake in us while we are asleep, shap ing one lovely thing af ter an - other , that is Brah man (Katha Up. I I.2. 8). Kama (lovely t hings) in this p as sage means sons, etc., that are so called be cause they are be loved. The t erm Kama does not de - note mere de sires. It is used in this sense in the pre vi ous pas sage also, such as Ask for all Kamas ac cord ing to thy wish (Katha Up. I.1.25). That t he word Kama there means sons, etc., we in fer from Katha Up. I .1.23, where we find these Kamas de scribed as sons and grand sons, etc. Even in dreams t he Lord Him self cre ates just as in the case of the wak ing st ate. There fore the world of dreams is also real. The scrip ture de clares This is the same as the place of wak ing, for what he sees while awake the same he sees while asleep (Bri. Up. IV .3.14). Hence the world of dreams is real. To this we re ply as fol lows. _m`m_m Vw H$m`}ZmZ{^ `$ d$ndmV & Mayamatram tu kart snyena- anabhiv yaktasvarup atvat III.2.3 ( 321) But it (viz., the dr eam wor ld) is mere ill usion on accoun t of its nature not ma nifesting i tself with the total ity (of the attrib utes of reality). Mayamatram: mere illusio n; Tu: but; Kart snyena: entirely , fully ; Anabhiv yaktasvarup atvat: on account of it s nature being unmanifested. The the sis ad duced in Sutras 1 and 2 is now criti cised. The word tu (but), dis cards the view ex pressed by the two pre - vi ous Sutras. The world of dreams is not real. It is mere il lu sion. There is not a p ar ti cle of re al ity in it. The na ture of the dream-world does not agree en tirely wit h that of the wak ing world with re spect to time, place, cause and the cir cum stance of non-ref u ta tion. Hence the dream world is not real like the wak ing world. In the f irst place there is in a dream no sp ace for char i ots and the like, be cause those ob jects can not pos si bly fi nd room in the lim ited con fines of the body . If you say that the soul goes out and en joys ob - jects, how can it go hun dreds of miles and re turn within a f ew min - utes? In a dream the soul does not leav e the body; be cause if it did, then one who dreams of hav ing gone to Lon don would find him selfCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 333 there on wak ing, while he went t o sleep in Bom bay. But as a mat ter of fact, he awakes in Bom bay only . Fur ther while a man imag ines him self in his dream go ing in his body to an other place, the by -standers see the very same body ly ing on the cot. More over a dream ing per son does not see in his dream other places such as they re ally are. B ut if he in see ing them did ac tu ally go about, t hey would ap pear to him like the t hings he sees in his wak ing state. Sruti de clares that the dream is withi n the body , But when he moves about in dream, he moves about ac cord ing to his plea sure within his own body (Bri. Up. II. 1.18). In the sec ond place we no tice that dreams are in con flict wit h the con di tions of ti me. One man who is sleep ing at night dreams t hat it is day. An other man liv es dur ing a dream which last s for ten min utes only, through fi fty years. One man sees at night an eclip se of the sun in his dream. In the t hird place, the senses which alone can bring the sen sa - tion of sight etc., are not func tion ing in dream. The or gans are drawn in ward and the dream ing per son has no eyes to see char i ots and other things. How can he get in t he twin kling of an eye ma te ri als for mak ing char i ots and the like? In the f ourth place the char i ots etc., dis ap pear on wak ing. The char i ots etc., dis ap pear even in the course of the dream. The dream it self re futes what it cre ates, as it s end con tra dicts its be gin ning. The char iot is sud denly trans ferred into a man, and a man into a t ree. Scrip ture it self clearly says that the char i ots, etc., of a dream have no real ex is tence. There are no char i ots in that st ate, no horses, no roads, etc. Hence the vi sions in a dream are mere il lu sion. The ar gu ment that the dream world is real, be cause it is also a cre ation of t he Su preme Lord like this wak ing world is not true, be - cause the dream world is not the cre ation of t he Lord, but of t he in di - vid ual soul. The Srut i de clares When he dreams he him self put s the phys i cal body aside and him self cre ates a dream body in it s place (Bri. Up. I V.3.9.) This p as sage of the Srut i clearly proves that it is the in di vid ual soul who cre ates the dream world and not t he Lord. gyMH$ {h lwVoamMjVo M V {X& Suchakascha hi sruterachakshate cha t advidah III.2.4 ( 322) But (though the drea m world is an illus ion), yet it is indi cative (of the future), for (s o we find) in the Sruti, th e dream-experts also declare this.BRAHMA SU TRAS 334 Suchaka: indicative, suggestive; Cha: moreover , and; Hi: because, as for; Sruteh: from the Sr uti; Achakshate: say, affirm; Cha: also; Tadvidah: dream-expert s, those who know the secret s of dream. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 3 is given. The word T advid or ex pert means those who know how to in ter - pret dreams such as V yasa, Brihasp ati, and t he rest. Well then, as dreams are mere il lu sion, they do not con tain a par ti cle of re al ity? Not so we re ply: be cause dreams are pro phetic of fu ture good and bad for tune. For scrip ture says When a man en - gaged in some sac ri fice un der taken for a spe cial wish sees in his dreams a woman, he may in fer suc cess from that dream-vi sion (Chh. Up. V .2.8). Ot her scrip tural p as sages de clare that cer tain dreams in di cate speedy death, e.g., If he sees a black man with black teeth, t hat man will kill hi m. Those who un der stand the sci ence of dreams main tain that t o dream of rid ing on an el e phant and the like is lucky while i t is un lucky to dream of rid ing on a don key. What ever a Brah min or a god, a bull or a king may tell a per son in dream, will doubt less prove true. Some times one get s Mantras in dream. Lord Siv a taught Visvamitra in dream t he Man tra called Ramaraksha. V isvamitra ex - actly wrote it out in the m orn ing, when he awoke from sleep. In all these cases the thing i n di cated may be real. The in di cat ing dream how ever, re mains un real as it is re futed by the wak ing st ate. The doc trine that the dream it self is mere il lu sion thus re mains un con - tra dicted. The word cre ation in dream in the fi rst Su tra is used in a sec - ond ary and fig u ra tive sense. The soul s good and bad deeds bring about plea sure and pain en joyed dur ing dream, by m eans of dream-ex pe ri ences. In the wak ing st ate the light of the soul op er ates along with the li ght of t he sun to bring about ex pe ri ences. The dream state is re ferred to, t o show the self-ac tiv ity of the soul even af ter the senses are shut of f and there is no op er a tion of ex ter nal light. It is thi s fact that is the pri mary teach ing. The ref er ence to cre ation in dreams is sec ond ary . The world of dreams is not real in the same sense as the world con sist ing of ether is real. W e must re mem ber that the so-called real cre ation with it s ether , air, etc., is not ab so lutely real. The world of ether , etc., van ishes into noth ing when the in di vid ual soul real ises it s iden tity with the Su preme Soul. The dream-cre ation, how ever, is stul ti fied ev ery day . That t he dream is mere il lu sion has there fore to be un der stood very clearly and de ci sively .CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 335 nam{^ `mZmmw {Vamo{hV VVmo ` ~ Y{dn` `m& Parabhidhy anattu tirohit am tato hy asya bandhav iparyayau III.2.5 ( 323) But by t he meditat ion on the Supr eme Lord, t hat which is hidde n (by ignora nce, viz., the e quality o f the Lord and the soul becomes manif est), be cause from hi m (the Lord ) are its (the souls) bondag e and fr eedom. Parabhidhy anat: by medit ation on the S upreme Lord; Tu: but; Tirohit am: that which is hidden; Tatah: from Him(the Lord); Hi: for; Asya: his, of the i ndividual soul; Bandhav iparyayau: bondage and its opposite, i.e. , freedom. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent says: The in di vid ual soul is a part (Amsa) of the S u preme Soul, just as a spark is a p art of the f ire. Just as fire and sp ark have in com mon the pow ers of burn ing and giv - ing light, so also the in di vid ual soul and the Lord have in com mon the pow ers of knowl edge and rul er ship. There fore the in di vid ual soul may by means of his lord ship cre ate in the dream ing st ate char i ots and the like at will (Sankalp a) like the Lord. This Su tra re futes it and say s that the soul now is dif fer ent from the Lord on ac count of A vidya or ig no rance. The rul er ship is hid den by ig no rance in the Jiva st ate. I t be comes man i fest only when in the state of med i ta tion on the Lord. This ig no rance is dis pelled by t he knowl edge, I am B rah man, just as through the a c tion of a strong med i cine the power of sight of t he blind man be comes man i fest. The Sruti de clares when that God is known all fet ters fall of f; suf fer ings are de stroyed and birth and deat h cease. From med i tat ing on Him there arises on the dis so lu tion of t he body , a third st ate, t hat of uni ver sal Lord ship; he who is alone is sat is fied (Svet . Up. I. 11). Till the knowl edge dawns the in di vid ual soul can not cre ate at will any - thing real. Lord ship does not come to man spon ta ne ously . It does not on it s own ac cord re veal it self to all m en, as the bond age and free dom of the in di vid ual soul come from the Lord. T hat means: f rom knowl edge of Lord s true na ture, i. e., from reali sa tion of God f ree dom co mes; from ig no rance of His true na ture co mes bond age. T ill such reali sa - tion co mes, where is then any power of cre ation? Xoh`moJmm gmo @{n Dehay ogadva so pi III.2.6 ( 324) And that (v iz., the concealment of the souls rule rship ) also (results) fro m its c onne ction with the body. Dehay ogat: from it s connection with the body; Va: and, or; Sah: that (the concealment of t he soul s rulership); Api: also. Su tra 5 is am pli fied here.BRAHMA SU TRAS 336 Such hid ing of power is due to em bodi ment of t he soul. The state of con ceal ment of t he soul s knowl edge and Lord ship is due to its be ing joined to a body , i.e., to a body , sense-or gans, mind, in tel lect, sense-ob jects, sen sa tions, etc. , on ac count of ig no rance. Just as fire is hid den in wood or ashes, the knowl edge and power of the soul are hid den, though t he Jiva is re ally t he Su preme Lord. Hence the soul does not it self cre ate. I f it can, i t will never cre ate un pleas ant dreams. No one ever wishes for some thing un pleas ant to him self. The soul s knowl edge and Lord ship re main hid den as long as he er ro ne ously thinks him self as the body , etc., as long as he is un der the wrong no tion of not be ing dis tinct from t hose lim it ing ad junct s. Sruti de clares that the soul is non-dif fer ent from t he Lord. It is True, it is the S elf, Thou art That, O S vetaketu! But its knowl edge and power are ob scured by it s con nec tion with t he body . Though the dream-phe nom ena are like wak ing phe nom ena in their hav ing rel a tive re al ity, the S ruti it self de clares that they do not re - ally ex ist. As t he dreams are due to V asanas ac quired dur ing the wak - ing st ate, t he sim i lar ity be tween the dream st ate and the wak ing st ate is de clared. From all this it fol lows that dreams are mere il lu sion. They are false. Tadabhav adhikaranam : Topic 2 (Sutras 7-8) The soul in dreamless sleep VX^mdmo ZmS>rfw VV lwVoam_{Z M& Tadabhavo nadishu t at sruteh at mani cha III.2.7 ( 325) The ab sence of tha t (i.e., of d reams, i.e ., dre amless sleep) takes place in the nerves (Nadis o r psychic cur rents) and in t he self, as it i s known fro m the Sruti o r scrip tural state ment. Tadabhav ah: absence of that (dreaming) i.e. , deep sleep; Nadishu: in the nerves (p sychic currents); Tat sruteh: as it is known from the Srutis; Atmani : in the self; Cha: and, also. ( Tat: about it. ) The st ate of dream less deep sleep is now dis cussed. The st ate of dream has been dis cussed. W e are now go ing to en quire into the st ate of deep sleep (Sushupti ). Var i ous Sruti tex ts de scribe the soul as rest ing in deep sleep in nerves (Nadis), in Prana, in t he heart, in it self, in B rah man or the Ab - so lute. In dif fer ent Sruti pas sages deep sleep is said to t ake place un - der dif fer ent con di tions. When a man is asleep re pos ing and at per fect rest so that he sees no dreams, then he has en tered into t hese Nadis (nerves) (Chh. Up. VII I.6.3). In an other place it is said with ref er ence to the Nadis, Through them he mov es forth and rest s in the re gion of theCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 337 heart (Bri. Up. I I.1.19). In an other place it is said In t hese the per son is when sleep ing, he sees no dream. Then he be comes one with the Prana alone (Kau. Up. I V.19). In an other place it is said That et her which is within the heart in t hat he re poses (Bri. Up. IV .4.22). I n Chhandogya Up anishad it is said, Then he be comes united with that which is, he is gone to his self (Chh. Up. VI .8.1). I n Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it is said Em braced by the high est Self he knows noth ing that is with out, not h ing that is wit hin (Bri. Up. I V.3.21). When thi s be - ing full of con scious ness is asleep... lies in t he ether , i.e., the real self which is in the heart (Bri. Up. I I.1.17). Here the doubt arises whether the Nadis, etc., men tioned in the above p as sages are in de pend ent from each other and con sti tute v ar i - ous places for the soul in the st ate of deep sleep or if t hey st and in mu - tual re la tion so as to re fer to one place only . The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds the for mer views on ac count of the v ar i ous places men tioned serv ing one and the same pur pose. Things which serve the same pur pose, e.g., rice and bar ley do not de pend on each other . As all t he words which stand for t he places enu mer ated are in the same case, vi z., the locat ive case in the texts, they are co or di nate and there fore al ter na tiv es. If mu tual re la tion was meant then dif fer ent case-end ings would be used by the Sruti . Hence we con clude that in t he st ate of deep sleep the soul op tion ally goes to any one of t hose places, ei ther the Nadis, or that which is, the Prana, the heart , etc. The Su tra re futes the v iew of the Pu rvapakshin and says that they are to be t aken as stand ing in mu tual re la tion in di cat ing the same place. The view t hat the soul goes to one or an other of these is not cor rect. The trut h is that the soul goes t hrough the nerves to the re - gion of the heart and there rest s in Brah man. There is no al ter na tive here. The as ser tion made abov e that we are com pelled to al low op tion be cause the Nadis, etc., serve one and the same pur pose is with out foun da tion. The au thor ity of the Sruti s is weak ened if we al low op tion be tween two st ate ment s of the Srut i. If you re cog nise one al ter na tiv e, the au thor ity of the other al ter na tiv e is de nied. Fur ther the same case is used where things serve dif fer ent pur - poses and have to be com bined. W e say , e.g. , he sleep s in the p al - ace, he sleep s on a cot. W e have to com bine the two locati ves into one as He sleeps on a cot in t he pal ace. Even so the di f fer ent st ate - ment s have to be com bined into one. The soul goes t hrough the Nadis to the re gion of the heart and then rest s in Brah man. Just as a man goes along the Gan ga to the sea so also the soul goes through the Nadis to Brah man. So he at tains Svarup a. Scrip ture men tions only t hree places of deep sleep, viz., the Nadis, the pericardium and Brah man. Among t hese three again Brah -BRAHMA SU TRAS 338 man alone is the last ing place of deep sleep. The Nadis and the pericardium, are mere roads lead ing to it. The Purit at or pericardium is the cov er ing which sur rounds the lo tus of the heart . In deep sleep the in di vid ual soul rest s in Brah man, but t here is a thin vei l of ig no rance be tween him and the S u preme Soul. Hence he has no di rect knowl edge of his iden tity with the Su preme Soul, as in Nirvikalp a Sam adhi or superconscious state. The S ruti de clares He be comes united with the T rue, he is gone to his own (Self) (Chh. Up. VI.8). In the K aushit aki Upani shad (IV .19) the three places are men - tioned to gether: In t hese the per son is when sleep ing he sees no dreams. Then he be comes one with the Prana (Brah man) alone. There fore Brah man is the rest ing place of the soul in deep sleep. AV ~moYmo@_mV& Atah prabodho smat III.2.8 ( 326) Hence the waking fro m that ( viz., B rahma n). Atah: hence; Prabodhah: waking; Asmat: from this (i.e. , Brahman). The mode of wak ing from deep sleep is now de scribed. There fore wak ing is com ing from that state of un ion with Brah - man or At man. Brah man is the place of re pose of deep sleep. That i s the rea - son why the Sruti texts which treat of deep sleep in vari ably teach t hat in the wak ing st ate the in di vid ual soul re turns to wak ing con scious - ness from Brah man. The Srut i de clares In the same man ner, my child, all t hese crea tures when they have come back from t he True do not know that t hey have come back from t he True (Chh. Up. VI.10. 2). This Sruti p as sage clearly in ti mates that t he Jiva or the in di vid ual soul re turns from the T rue or Brah man to the wak ing st ate and that the Jiva rests or merges him self in Brah man and not in t he Nadis, Hit a, etc., dur ing deep sleep. But he does not real ise his iden tity with Brah man in deep sleep as he is en vel oped by the ev il of ig no rance. Brihadaranyaka Up anishad also de clares When the time co - mes for the an swer to the ques tion whence did he come back? (II.1.16); the tex t says, As small sp arks come forth from fire, thus all Pranas come forth from t hat Self (II.1. 20). If there were op tional places, t o which the soul may re sort, in deep sleep, the Srut i would teach us that it awakes some times from the Nadis, some times from t he pericardium (Purit at), some times from the Self (Brah man). For this rea son also Brah man is the place of deep sleep. The Nadis are only the gate way to Brah man.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 339 Karmanusmri tisabdav idhyadhikaranam : Topic 3 The same soul returns from deep sleep g Ed Vw H $_mZw_{VeX{d{Y `& Sa ev a tu karmanusm ritisabdav idhib hyah III.2.9 ( 327) But the same (soul returns from B rahma n afte r deep sleep) on account of wo rk, re membra nce, scrip tural text and precept. Sah ev a: the selfsame soul (which went to sleep); Tu: but; Karmanusmritisabdavi dhibhy ah: on account of Karma or work, memory , scriptural authority and precept; ( Sah: he; Eva: only, and no other); Karma: activit y, on account of his fi nishing the action lef t unfinished; Anus mriti: remembrance, on account of memory of identity ; Sabda: from the Sr uti; Vidhibhy ah: from the commandment s. Here we have to en quire whether the soul when awak ing from deep sleep is the same which en tered into un ion with Brah man or an - other one. The word tu (but) re moves the doubt . If an other self arose from sleep, t he con scious ness of per sonal iden tity (Atmanusmarana) ex pressed in the words I am the same as I was be fore would not be pos si ble. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds that t here is no fixed rule on this point. There can be no rule that the same soul arises from Brah man. When a drop of wa ter is poured into a big ba sin of wa ter, it be comes one with the lat ter. When we again t ake out a drop it will be dif fi cult to man age that it should be the very same drop. It is hard to pick it out again. Even so when the in di vid ual soul has merged in Brah man in deep sleep it is dif fi cult to say t hat the self-same Jiv a arises from Brah man af ter deep sleep. Hence some other soul arises af ter deep sleep from Brah man. This Su tra re futes this and says t hat the same soul which in the state of deep sleep en tered Brah man again arises from Brah man, af - ter deep sleep, not any other for the f ol low ing rea sons. The per son who wakes from sleep must be the same be cause what has been p artly done by a per son be fore go ing to sleep is fin - ished af ter he wakes up. Men fin ish in the morn ing what they had lef t in com plete on the day be fore. It is not pos si ble that one m an should pro ceed to com plete a work half done by an other man. I f it were not the same soul, then t he lat ter would find no in ter est in com plet ing the work which has been partly done by an other . In the case of sac ri fices oc cu py ing more than one day , there would be sev eral sac ri fices. Hence it would be doubt ful to whom t he fruit of the sac ri fice as prom - ised by the V eda be longs. This would bring stul ti fi ca tion of t he sa credBRAHMA SU TRAS 340 text. There fore it is quit e clear that it i s one and the same man who fin - ishes on the lat ter day the work be gun on the for mer. He has also a sense of self-iden tity. He ex pe ri ences iden tity of per son al ity be fore and af ter sleep, for if sleep leads to lib er a tion by un ion with Brah man, sleep will be come the means of lib er a tion. Then scrip tural in struc tions would be use less to at tain sal va tion. I f the per - son who goes to sleep is dif fer ent from t he per son who rises af ter sleep, then the com mand ment s of the scrip tures with ref er ence to work or know l edge would be mean ing less or use less. The per son ris ing from sleep is the same who went t o sleep. If i t is not so he could not re mem ber what he had seen, etc., on the day be fore, be cause what one man sees an other can not re mem ber. He has mem ory of p ast event s. One can not re mem ber what an other felt . He has mem ory or rec ol lec tion in the shape of I am the per son who had gone to sleep and who have now awak ened. The Sruti t exts de clare that the same per son rises again. He has tens back again as he came to the place from which he st arted, to be awake (Bri. Up. IV .3.16). A ll these crea tures go day af ter day int o Brah man and yet do not dis cover Him (Chh. Up. VII I.3.2). What ever these crea tures are here whether a ti ger, or a lion, or a wolf , or a boar , or a worm, or a midge or a gnat, or a mos quito, t hat they be come again (Chh. Up. VI. 10.2). These and sim i lar text s which ap pear in the chap ters which deal with sleep ing and wak ing have a proper sense only if the self-same soul rises again. More over, if it is not the same soul, K arma and A vidya wil l have no pur pose. There fore from all t his it fol lows that the per son ris ing from sleep is the same that went to sleep. The case of the drop of wa ter is not quite anal o gous, be cause a drop of wa ter merges in the ba sin of wa ter with out any ad junct s. There fore it is lost f or ever but the in di vid ual soul merges in Brah man with it s ad junct s (viz., body , mind, i n tel lect, Prana, sense). So the same Jiva rises again from Brah man on ac count of the f orce of Karma and de sire. When the in di vid ual soul en ters Brah man in deep sleep, he en - ters like a pot full of salt wa ter with cov ered mouth plunged int o the Gan ga. When he awak ens from sleep it is the same pot taken out of the river with t he same wa ter in it. Sim i larly the i n di vid ual soul en vel - oped by his de sires goes to sleep and for the time be ing put s off all sense-ac tiv i ties and goes to the rest ing place namely , the S u preme Brah man and again co mes out of it in or der to get fur ther ex pe ri - ences. He does not be come iden ti cal with Brah man like the per son who has ob tained lib er a tion. Thus we hear that the same soul which had gone to sleep awakes again into the same body .CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 341 Hence it is an es tab lished fact that the same soul awakes from deep sleep. Mugdherdhasamp attyadhikaranam: T opic 4 The nature of swoon _wYo@gn {m n[ae ofmV& Mugdher dhasamp attih p ariseshat III.2.10 (328) In a swoo n (in him who is senseless) there is half unio n on account of th is remaining (as the only alt ernative left, as th e only possibl e hypoth esis). Mugdhe: in a swoon; Ardhasamp attih: partial att ainment of t he state of deep sleep or death; Pariseshat: on account of the remaining, because of excess, as it i s a st ate in additi on to all others. The st ate of a swoon is now dis cussed. The Purvap akshin says, There are only three st ates of a soul while liv ing in the body , viz., wak ing, dream ing and deep sleep. The souls pass ing out of t he body is the f ourth st ate or death. T he st ate of swoon can not be t aken as a fif th state. A fifth state is known nei ther from Sruti nor Smriti . What is swoon then? Is it a sep a rate st ate of t he soul or is it only one of these st ates? It can not be wak ing, be cause he does not per ceive ex ter nal ob - jects, by the senses. May thi s case be sim i lar to that of the ar row-maker? Jus t as the man work ing in the prep a ra tion of an ar row, al though awake, is so ab - sorbed in his work that he per ceives noth ing else, so also the man who is stunned by a blow may be awake but may not per ceive any - thing else as his mind is con cen trated on the sen sa tion of p ain caused by the blow of a stick. No, we re ply. The case is dif fer ent ow ing to the ab sence of con - scious ness. The ar row-maker says, I was not con scious of any thing but the ar row for such a length of time. The man who re turns to con - scious ness from a swoon says, I was con scious of noth ing. I was shut up in blind dark ness for such a length of time. A man who is wak - ing keep s his body straight or up right but t he body of a swoon ing per - son falls pros trate on the ground. There fore a man in a swoon is not awake. He is not dream ing, be cause he is to tally un con scious. It is not deep sleep be cause there is hap pi ness in deep sleep whereas there is no hap pi ness in the st ate of swoon. He is not dead also, be cause he con tin ues to breathe and his body is warm. When a man has be come sense less and when peo ple are in doubt whether he is aliv e or dead, they t ouch the re gion of his heart in or der to find out whether there is warmth in his body or not .BRAHMA SU TRAS 342 They place their hands to hi s nos trils to fi nd out whether there is breath ing or not. I f they do not per ceive warmth or breath they come to the con clu sion that he is dead and t ake his body to the cre ma to rium to burn it. If there are warmth and breath ing they con clude that he is not dead. They sprin kle cold wa ter on his face so that he may come back to con scious ness. The man who has swooned away is not dead, be cause he co - mes back to con scious ness af ter some time. Let us then say t hat a man who has swooned lies in deep sleep as he is un con scious and at the same time not dead. No, we re ply. This is also not pos si ble ow ing to the dif fer ent char ac ter is tics of the two st ates. A man who has swooned does some times not breathe for a long time. His body shakes or trem bles. His face is dread ful. His eyes are star ing wide open. But a sleep ing man looks calm, peace ful and happy . He draws his breath at reg u lar in ter vals. His eyes are closed. His body does not trem ble. A sleep ing man may be waked by a gen tle strok ing with the hand. He who is ly ing in a st ate of swoon can not be wak ened even by a blow wit h a stick. Swoon is due to ex ter nal causes such as blow on the head with a stick, etc., while sleep is due to fa - tigue or wea ri ness. Swoon is only half -un ion. The man in t he state of swoon be longs with one half t o the side of deep sleep, wit h the other half to the side of the other st ate, i. e., deat h. It is only half sleep. We do not mean by t his that he half en joys Brah man. W e mean that i t partly re sem bles sleep. It is half death, a st ate al most bor der ing upon death. I n fact it i s the door to death. I f there is a rem nant of K arma he re turns to con scious - ness. Else, he dies. The man in the st ate of swoon be longs with one half t o the side of deep sleep, with t he other half t o the side of the ot her st ate, i. e., death. Those who know Brah man say that swoon is half-un ion. In a swoon the per son par tially at tains the st ate of deep sleep as there is no con scious ness in that st ate and he re turns to con scious ness and par tially the st ate of deat h as he ex pe ri ences pain and m is ery which are ex pressed through dis tor tion of f ace and limbs. The ob jec tion that no fif th state is com monly ac knowl edged is with out much weight, be cause as that st ate oc curs oc ca sion ally only it may not be gen er ally known. Al l the same it i s known from or di nary ex pe ri ence as well as from the sci ence of A yurveda. I t is a sep a rate state, t hough it hap pens oc ca sion ally. As it i s a mix ture of the t wo states, vi z., deep sleep and death it is not con sid ered as a fif th state.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 343 Ubhay alingad hikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 1 1-21) The nature of B rahman Z WmZVmo @{n na `mo^`{ b gd [h& Na sthanatopi p arasy obhay alingam sarv atra hi III.2.1 1 (329) Not on ac count of (d ifference of) p lace also two- fold chara cteristic s can be long to the High est; for e verywhe re (scripture teaches It to b e withou t any d ifference). Na: not; Sthanat ah: on account of (dif ference of) place; Api: even; Parasy a: of the Highest (i. e., B rahman); Ubhay alingam: two-f old charact eristics; Sarv atra: everywhere; Hi: because. The Sutrakara now pro ceeds to deal with the na ture of Brah - man. In the scrip tures we find two kinds of de scrip tion about B rah - man. Some t exts de scribe it as qual i fied, i. e., wit h at trib utes and some as un qual i fied (with out at trib ut es). From whom all ac tiv i t ies, all de - sires, all odours and all t astes pro ceed (Chh. Up. III. 14.2). This tex t speaks of at trib utes. Again, It is nei ther coarse nor fine, nei ther short nor long, nei ther red ness nor vis cid etc. (Bri. Up. I II.8.8). This tex t speaks of Brah man with out at trib utes. Are we to as sume that bot h are true of Brah man ac cord ing as it is or is not con nected with lim it ing ad junct s or Upadhis or have we t o as sume only one of t hem as true and the other f alse? and if so, which is true? and why it is t rue? This Su tra says that t he High est Brah man can not by it self pos - sess dou ble char ac ter is tics. In t he case of Brah man you can not say that it has two as pects, viz., with form and at trib utes, and with out form and at trib utes, i.e. , with Up adhis (lim it ing ad junct s) and with out Upadhis, be cause It is de scribed ev ery where as be ing Nirguna (with - out at trib ut es). Both can not be pred i cated of one and the same B rah man be - cause it is against ex pe ri ence. One and the same thing can not have two con tra dic tory na tures at the same ti me. Brah man can not at t he same time have f orm and be form less. The red ness of a flower re flected in a crys tal does not change the na ture of the crys tal which is colour less. Even so the m ere con - nec tion of a t hing with an other does not change it s na ture. It is an al to - gether er ro ne ous no tion to im pute red ness to the crys tal. The red ness of the crys tal is un real. A thing can not change it s real na ture. Changes of it s real na ture means an ni hi la tion. S im i larly in t he case of Brah man, it s con nec tion with t he lim it ing ad junct s like earth, etc., is due to ig no rance. An Up adhi can not af fect the na ture of Brah man, such Upadhi be ing merely due t o Avidya or ne science. The es sen tial char ac ter of a thi ng must al ways re main the same what ever may beBRAHMA SU TRAS 344 the con di tions im posed on it. If how ever it ap pears to be al tered it is surely due to ig no rance. There fore we have to ac cept that B rah man is with out at trib utes, be cause all Sruti tex ts whose aim is to rep re sent the na ture of Brah - man such as It is with out sound, with out touch, wit h out form, with out de cay (Katha Up. I .3.15) teach t hat It is free from all at trib utes. Brah man with at trib utes is only for t he sake of Upasana or pi ous wor ship of dev o tees; it i s not It s real na ture. Z ^oXm{X{V Mo ` oH$_VMZmV& Na bhedaditi chen na praty ekamat advachanat III.2.12 (330) If it be said that it is not s o on acc ount of d ifference (being taught in the scrip tures), we reply that it i s not so, b ecause with re ference to e ach ( such form) , the Sruti d eclares the opposit e of th at. Na: not so; Bhedat: on account of dif ference (being t aught in the scrip tures); Iti: thus , as, s o, this ; Chet: if; Na: not so; Praty ekam: with refe rence to each; Atadvachanat: because of the declaration of opposite of that . (Atad: absence of that; Vachanat: on account of the statement. ) An ob jec tion to t he pre ced ing Su tra is raised and re futed. This Su tra con sists of two p arts namely an ob jec tion and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion por tion is Bhedat it i chet and the re ply por tion is Na pratyekamat advachanat . The Purvap akshin says, The var i ous V idyas teach dif fer ent forms of Brah man. It is said to have four f eet (Chh. Up. II I.18.2); to con sist of six teen p arts or Kalas (Pras. Up. VI. 1); to be char ac ter ised by dwarf ish ness (Katha Up. V .3); to hav e the three worlds for it s body (Bri. Up. I .3.22); t o be named V aisvanara (Chh. Up. V .11.2), etc. Hence we must ad mit that Brah man is also qual i fied. This Su tra re futes it and de clares that ev ery such form due to lim it ing ad junct is de nied of Brah man in tex ts like This bright, im mor - tal be ing who is in this earth and that bright im mor tal cor po real be ing in the body are but the self (Bri. Up. II. 5.1). Such t exts clearly in di cate that t he same self is pres ent in all li m it ing ad junct s like earth, etc. There fore there is only one ness. It, t here fore can not be main tained that t he con cep tion of B rah man with var i ous forms is t aught by t he Vedas. In ev ery p as sage iden tity is also af firmed. The S u preme T ruth is one ness. Sep a rate ness is for de vo tion. The S ruti de clares that the form is not true and t hat there is only one form less es sence or prin ci - ple in re al ity. A{n Md _oHo$& Api chaiv ameke III.2.13 (331)CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 345 Moreove r some (teach) thus. Api: also; Cha: moreover , and; Evam: thus; Eke: some. A fur ther ar gu ment is given i n sup port of Su tra 11. Some Sakhas or recensions of the V edas di rectly teach t hat the manifoldness is not true. They p ass a crit i cal re mark on those who see dif fer ence, He goes from death to deat h who sees dif fer ence, as it were, in it (Katha Up. I. 4.11). By t he mind alone it i s to be per - ceived. There is no di ver sity in I t. He who per ceives therein any di ver - sity goes from deat h to death (Bri. Up. IV .4.19). Oth ers also By know ing the enjoy er, the en joyed, and t he ruler , ev ery thing has been de clared to be three-fold and t his is Brah man (Svet. Up. I.12), say that t he en tire world char ac ter ised by enjoyers, things to be en joyed and a ruler has Brah man for it s true na ture. A$ndXod { h VY mZdmV& Arup avadev a hi t atpradhanatv at III.2.14 (332) Verily Brahman is only formle ss on a ccount of that be ing the main purport (of al l texts about Br ahman ). Arup avat: without f orm, formless; Eva: only , indeed, decidedly ; Hi: verily , cert ainly, because; Tatpradhanatv at: on account of that bei ng the main purport of scripture. ( Tat: of tha t; Pradhanatv at: on account of being the chief thing.) A fur ther ar gu ment is given i n sup port of Su tra 11. We must def i nitely as sert that B rah man is form less and so on. Why? On ac count of this be ing the main pur port of scrip tures. The scrip tures de clare,It is nei ther coarse nor fine, nei ther short nor long (Bri. Up. I II.8.8). That which is with out sound, with out form, with out de cay (Katha Up. I .3.15). He who is called ether is the rev ealer of all names and forms. That wit hin which names and forms are, that i s Brah man (Chh. Up. VII I.14.1). That heav enly Per son is with out body , He is both within and wit h out, not pro duced (Mun. Up. II. 1.2). That Brah man is with out cause, and with out any thing in side or out - side, this self is B rah man, Om ni pres ent and Om ni scient (Bri. Up. II.5.19 ). These text s aim at teach ing Brah man, de scribe It as form less. If Brah man be un der stood to have a f orm then the scrip tural p as sages which de scribe it as form less would be come mean ing less. The scrip - tures have a pur port all through out. On t he con trary, the ot her p as - sages which re fer to a Brah man qual i fied by f orm do not aim at set ting forth the na ture of Brah man but rather at en joy ing the wor ship of Brah man. There fore Brah man is form less. As long as those lat ter text s do not con tra dict those of t he for mer class they are to be ac cepted as they st and; where, how ever, con tra -BRAHMA SU TRAS 346 dic tions oc cur, the t exts whose main pur port is Brah man must be viewed as hav ing greater force than those of the other kind. Thi s is the rea son for our de cid ing that, al though there are two dif fer ent classes of scrip tural tex ts, Brah man must be held to be al to gether form less, not at t he same time of an op po site na ture. The main S ruti tex ts de - clare Brah man to be form less. The col our and forms are the prod ucts of the el e ment s and Brah man is far above t he in flu ence of and dif fer ent from t he el e ment s. Hence He is called the colour less or form less. Ma te rial col our and form can not be found in Him when He is far abov e the sub tle ma te rial cause as well as above it s pre sid ing de ity. H$medmd` `mV& Prakasav acchav aiyarthy at III.2.15 (333) And as light (assumes forms as it were by its cont act wit h thing s posse ssing for m, so does Brahman take form in conne c tion with Upad his or limiting a djunc ts), be cause (texts which ascr ibe form to Brahman) are not meaningless. Prakasav at: like the light ; Cha: and, moreover; Avaiyarthy at: because of not being meaningless. A fur ther ar gu ment is given i n sup port of Su tra 11. The word Cha (and) is em ployed to re move the doubt raised above. If Brah man is form less then all the scrip tural tex ts which treat of Brah man with form would be mean ing less, and su per flu ous. Then all Upasanas of Brah man with form would be use less. How can the wor - ship of such a false Brah man lead to Brahmal oka? This Su tra ex plains that t hey also have a pur pose. The light of the sun has no form but it ap pears to be great or small ac cord ing to the hole through which it en ters a room and yet has the f orce of dis - pel ling the dark ness in the room. Sim i larly Brah man which is with out a form ap pears to have a form due t o lim it ing ad junct s like earth, body , etc. Just as the light of the sun co mes in con tact with a fin ger or some other lim it ing ad junct and ac cord ing as the lat ter is straight or bent, it - self be comes straight or bent as it were, so also Brah man as sumes, as it were, the f orm of the earth, and the lim it ing ad junct s with which it co mes into con tact. The wor ship of such an il lu sory Brah man can help one to at tain Brahmaloka which is also il lu sory from the view-point of the Ab so lute. There fore these tex ts are not mean ing less. They have cer tainly a pur port. Al l parts of the V eda are equally au thor i ta tive and t here fore must all be as sumed to have a mean ing or pur pose. This, how ever, does not con tra dict the tenet main tained above, viz., that B rah man though con nected with lim it ing ad junct s does not pos sess dou ble char ac ter is tics, be cause what is merely due to a lim -CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 347 it ing ad junct can not con sti tute an at tri b ut e of a sub st ance. Fur ther the lim it ing ad junct s are all due to ig no rance. Amh M V_m _& Aha cha t anmatram III.2.16 (334) And (the Sruti) declares (tha t Brahm an is ) that (i .e., intellige nce) o nly. Aha: (the Sruti) declares; Cha: and, moreover; Tanmatram: that (i.e., intelligent ) only . The force of the word Mat ra in Tanmatra is to de note ex clu sive - ness. Scrip ture de clares that Brah man con sists of in tel li gence. As a lump of salt has nei ther in side nor out side, but is al to ge ther a mass of saltish t aste, thus in deed has that Self nei ther in side nor out side but is al to gether a mass of knowl edge (Bri. Up. IV .3.13). P ure in tel li gence con sti tutes it s na ture. Just as a lump of salt has nei ther in side nor out - side but one and the same salti sh taste, not any other t aste, so also Brah man has nei ther in side nor out side any char ac ter is tic form but i n - tel li gence. Xe`{V MmWmo A{n _` Vo& Darsay ati chatho api sm aryate III.2.17 (335) (The scripture) a lso shows (this and ) it is like wise state d in Smriti. Darsay ati: (the scripture or Sruti) shows; Cha: and, also; Atho: thus, moreover; Api: also; Smary ate: the Smrit is declare or stat e. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 11 is con tin ued. That Brah man is with out any at trib utes is also proved by those scrip tural tex ts also which ex pressly deny that It pos sesses any other char ac ter is tics, e.g., Now , there fore, the de scrip tion of Brah man; not this, not th is (neti, net i) (Bri. Up. II .3.6). T here is no other and more ap pro pri ate de scrip tion than t his not this, not this. Kenop anishad (I.4) de clares It is dif fer ent from t he known, It is also above the un known. T aittiriy a Up anishad (II.9) says From whence all speech, with the mind, turns away un able to reach it. The Sruti t ext which treat s of the con ver sa tion be tween Bahva and V ashkali has a sim i lar pur port. V ashkali ques tioned Bahv a about the na ture of Brah man. Bahv a ex plained it t o Vashkali by si lence. Bahva said to Vashkali Learn Brah man, O friend and be came si lent. Then on a sec ond and third ques tion he re plied I am teach ing you in - deed, but y ou do not un der stand. That B rah man is Si lence. If Brah man has form, t here is no ne ces sity t o deny ev ery thing and say Not this, not this.BRAHMA SU TRAS 348 The same teach ing is con veyed by those Smriti texts which deny of B rah man all other char ac ter is tics, e.g. , I will pro claim that which is the ob ject of knowl edge, know ing which one at tains im mor - tal ity; the High est Brah man with out ei ther be gin ning or end, which can not be said ei ther to be or not t o be (Git a XII I.12). I t is unmanifest, un think able, and with out mod i fi ca tion, t hus It is spo ken of (Gita II. 25). Of a sim i lar pur pose is an other Smrit i text . Lord Hari in structed Narada The cause, O Narada, of your see ing Me en dowed with the qual i ties of all be ings is the Maya t hrown out by Me; do not cog nise Me as be ing such in re al ity. AW Ed M mon_m gy `H$m{XdV & Ata eva chop ama sury akadiv at III.2.18 (336) For this very r eason (we have with r espect to Brahm an) comparisons like the images of the sun and the like. Ata ev a: for this very reason; therefore; Cha: also, and; Upama: comp a rison; Sury akadiv at: like the images of t he sun and the like. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 11 is con tin ued. That Brah man is form less is fur ther es tab lished from the sim i les used with re spect to It. As Brah man is of the na ture of in tel li gence, de - void of al l dif fer ence, tran scend ing speech and mind, as He is form - less, ho mo ge neous and as He is de scribed only by de ny ing of Him all other char ac ter is tics, the scrip tures com pare His forms to the im ages of the sun re flected in t he wa ter and the like, m ean ing thereby t hat these forms are un real be ing due only t o lim it ing ad junct s. As the one lu mi nous sun en ters into re la tion to many dif fer ent wa ters is him self ren dered mul ti form by his lim it ing ad junct s; so also the one un born Brah man ap pears dif fer ent in dif fer ent bod ies. A~wdXJhU mmw Z VWmd_ & Ambuv adagrahanatt u na t athatvam III.2.19 (337) But there is no similarity (of the two things co mpare d since ) (in the ca se of Brahma n any se cond thing) is not ap prehend ed or exper ienced like water. Ambuv at: like water; Agrahanat: in the absence of perception, because of non-acceptance, because it cannot be accepted, not being experienced; Tu: but; Na: not, no; Tathatv am: that nat ure, similarity . An ob jec tion to t he pre ced ing Su tra is raised by the Purvap akshin. An ob jec tion is raised by the P urvap akshin that the sim i lar ity spo ken of in the pre ced ing Su tra is not ap pro pri ate or cor rect. In t he above il lus tra tion the sun is seen to be sep a rate from the wa ter. SunCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 349 has a form. It is a ma te rial thing. W a ter is dif fer ent from t he sun and is at a dis tance from the sun. Hence the sun may be re flected in t he wa - ter. But Brah man is form less and all-per vad ing. It is not a m a te rial thing. A ll are iden ti cal with it. There are no lim - it ing ad junct s dif fer ent from it and oc cu py ing a dif fer ent place, that can catch it s re flec tion. I t is not seen to be sep a rate from the Up adhis or lim it ing ad juncts. Brah man is all-per vad ing. So no ob ject can be at a dis tance from Him. The sun is re flected in wa ter be cause of it s dis tance from wa ter. But there can be no such dis tance be tween Brah man and any ob ject. Hence re flec tion in thi s con nec tion is a mean ing less term. There fore the in stances are not p ar al lel. The com par i son is de - fec tive. The next S u tra re moves the ob jec tion. d{mg^m d_V^m dmXw^` gm_O `mXod_ & Vriddhihrasabhaktvamant arbhavadubhay a- samanjasy adev am III.2.20 (338) As (the highe st Brahman) is inside (its limiting adjuncts) I t participat es in their incr ease and decrease ; owing to the appropriateness (th us re sulting) o f the two (th ings c ompared), it is thus, (i.e., the compar ison h olds good) . Vriddhihrasabhaktvam: particip ating in the i ncrease and decreas e; Antarbhavat: on account of it s being inside; Ubhay a-samanjasy at: on account of the appropriateness in the t wo cases; Evam: thus. (Vriddhi: increase; Hrasa: decrease; Ubhay a: towards both; Samanj asyat: because of the justness, appropriateness.) The ob jec tion raised in the pre ced ing Su tra is re futed. The com par i son with the re flec tion of t he sun should not be taken on all fours. When ever two things are com pared they are so only with ref er ence to some p ar tic u lar point or fea ture they hav e in com mon. En tire equal ity of the two can never be dem on strated. I f it could be shown, there would be an end of that par tic u lar re la tion which gives rise to the com par i son. Ex act si mil i tude in all point s would mean ab so lute iden tity . The sim i lar ity is only in point of the p ar tic i pa tion in the di s tor tion and con tor tion in in crease and de crease of the im age or re flec tion. The re flected im age of the sun di lates when the sur face of the wa ter ex pands; it con tracts when the wa ter shrinks; it trem bles when the wa ter is ag i tated; it di vides it self when the wa ter is di vided. I t thus p ar - tic i pates in all the at trib utes and con di tions of the wa ter; while t he real sun re mains all the t ime the same. Even so Brah man al though in re al ity uni form and never chang - ing, p ar tic i pates as it were in the at trib utes and st ates of the body and the other lim it ing ad junct s within which It abides. I t grows with them as BRAHMA SU TRAS 350 it were, de creases with them as it were and so on. As the t wo things com pared pos sess cer tain com mon fea tures, no ob jec tion can be made to the com par i son. The com par i son is cer tainly not de fec tive on ac count of the abov e sim i lar ity in the two cases. XeZm& Darsanaccha III.2.21 (339) And on ac count of the declarat ion of scripture. Darsanat: as it is found to be so, because it is seen, on account of scrip tural declaration; Cha: and, also. A fur ther rea son is given to re fute t he ob jec tion raised in Sutra 19. The scrip ture more over de clares that the Su preme Brah man en ters into the body and other lim it ing ad junct s. He made bod ies with two feet, He made bod ies with four feet . That High est Brah man first en tered the bod ies as a bird. He is called the Purusha on ac count of His dwell ing in all bod ies (Bri. Up. II .5.18). Hav ing en tered into t hem with this lur ing in di vid ual self (Chh. Up. VI .3.2). F or all these rea sons the com par i son set forth in Su tra 18 is not de fec tive. There fore it is es tab lished that B rah man is form less, ho mo ge - neous, of the na ture of in tel li gence, and with out any dif fer ence. Scrip ture de clares that de vout med i t a tions on Brah man with form have re sults of their own viz., ei ther the ward ing of f of ca lam i ties, or the gain ing of power , or else re lease by suc ces sive step s (Krama Mukti or pro gres sive eman ci p a tion). Prakrit aitavattvad hikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 22-30) The Neti-neti t ext explained H$VVmdd { h {Vfo Y{V VVmo ~ dr{V M ^y`& Prakrit aitavattvam hi pratished hati tato braviti cha bhuy ah III.2.22 (340) What has been mention ed up to th is is denied (by t he words not this, not this and the Sruti) says s omething more than that (a fterward s). Prakrit aitavattvam : what bas been mentioned up to t his; Hi: because, for; Pratishedhati : denies; Tatah: then that , over and above that ; Brav iti: declares; Cha: and; Bhuy ah: something more. (Prakrit a: mentioned fi rst, previously stated; Etavattvam : this much.) In this group of S utras also the Sutrakara ex pounds the Nirvisesha (form less) Brah man. The Sruti de clares There are two forms of Brah man, gross and sub tle, the ma te rial and the im ma te rial, the mor tal and the im mor tal, the lim ited and the un lim ited, S at and T yat (Bri. Up. II. 3.1).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 351 Af ter de scrib ing the two f orms of Brah man, the gross con sist ing of earth, wa ter and fire, and t he sub tle, con sist ing of air and ether , the Sruti de clares fi nally Now , there fore, the de scrip tion of B rah man; not this, not th is (Bri. Up. II.3 .6). There arises a doubt whether the dou ble de nial in not thi s, not this ne gates both the world and B rah man, or only one of them. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that both are de - nied and con se quently B rah man which is false, can not be the sub - stra tum for a uni verse which is also false. It l eads us to Sunyav ada. If one only is de nied it is proper that B rah man is de nied, be cause It is not seen and there fore It s ex is tence is doubt ful and not t he uni verse be cause we ex pe ri ence it. This Su tra re futes this v iew of the P urvap akshin. It is im pos si ble that t he phrase Not so, not so should neg a tive bot h, as that would im ply the doc trine of a gen eral void. The words Neti, Neti can not be said to deny B rah man as well as it s hav ing form, be cause that would be Sunyav ada. The Sruti af firms Brah man. What is t he good of teach ing Brah - man and say ing that it is non-ex is tent? Why smear y our self with mud and then wash it? So B rah man is be yond speech and mind and is eter nal, pure and free. I t is a mass of con scious ness. There fore the Sruti de nies that Brah man has form but not Brah man it self. What has been de scribed till now , viz. , the t wo forms of Brah - man: gross and sub tle, is de nied by the words, not t his, not thi s. Brah man can not be de nied, be cause that would con tra dict the in tro duc tory phrase of the Chap ter. Shall I tell y ou Brah man? (Bri. Up. II. 1.1), would show dis re gard of the threat con veyed in T ait. Up. II.6. He who knows the Brah man as non-ex ist ing be comes him self non-ex ist ing, would be op posed to def i nite as ser tions such as He is He is to be ap pre hended (Katha Up. II .6.13); and would cer tainly in - volve a st ul ti fi ca tion of t he whole V edant a. The phrase that Brah man tran scends all speech and thought does cer tainly not mean to say t hat Brah man does not ex ist, be cause af ter the Srut i has es tab lished the ex is tence of Brah man in such text s as He who know s Brah man ob tains the High est, T ruth, Knowl edge, In fin ity is Brah man. It can not be sup posed all at once to teach it s non-ex is tence. Be cause the com mon say ing is Better t han bath ing it is not to touch dirt at all. The S ruti tex t From whence all speech with the mind turns away un able to reach it (T ait. Up. II.4), must there fore be viewed as in ti mat ing Brah man. Not so, not so neg a tives t he en tire ag gre gate of ef fects su per - im posed on Brah man, but not Brah man which is the ba sis for all fic ti - tious su per im po si tions. It de nies of Brah man the lim ited form, ma te rial as well as im ma te rial which in the pre ced ing p art of the chap - ter is de scribed with ref er ence to the gods as well as the body , andBRAHMA SU TRAS 352 also the sec ond form which is pro duced by the fi rst, is char ac ter ised by men tal im pres sions, forms the es sence of that which is im ma te rial, is de noted by t he term Purusha. The dou ble rep e ti tion of t he ne ga tion may ei ther serve the pur - pose of fur nish ing spe cial de nial of the m a te rial as well as the im ma - te rial form of B rah man; or the f irst not so may neg a tive the ag gre gate of ma te rial el e ment s, while the sec ond de nies the ag gre gate of men - tal im pres sions. Or else the rep e ti tion may be an em phatic one, in ti - mat ing that what ever can be thought is not Brah man. The Sruti de nies that Brah man has form but not Brah man it self. It in ter dicts by two ne ga tions the gross and the sub tle bod ies. Or it in - ter dicts Bhut as (el e ment s) and V asanas. Or the rep e ti tion is for st at - ing the de nial of all sim i lar as sump tions. So t he de nial de nies the world as su per im posed on Brah man and does not deny B rah man it - self. Af ter the ne ga tion of Net i Neti, t he Sruti goes on to de scribe in pos i tive terms the fur ther at trib utes of this B rah manHis name be ing the T rue of the true ( Satyasya Satyam ). More over af ter mak ing such a de nial, it af firms the ex is tence of some thing higher Anyat Paramast i; Sat yasya Satyam The T ruth of T ruth. This in ti mates that Brah man alone is the one re al ity that ex ists and is the sub stra tum of the world which is il lu sory. Neti Neti de nies the so-much ness of Brah man, as was de - scribed in the pre ced ing Sutras. I t says that the ma te rial and im ma te - rial is not the whole of Brah man. It is some thing more than t hat. The word Iti re fers to what has been men tioned im me di ately be fore, i. e., the two forms of Brah man, the sub ject mat ter of the di s cus sion. Hence it can not re fer to Brah man it self which is not the chief t opic of the pre ced ing texts. The ob jec tion vi z., Brah man is not ex pe ri enced and there fore it is Brah man that is de nied, has no force. It can not st and, be cause the ob ject of the S ruti is to teach about some thing which is not or di narily ex pe ri enced by us. Oth er wise its teach ing would be su per flu ous. We, there fore, de cide that the clause not so, not so, neg a tives not ab so lutely ev ery thing, but only ev ery thing but B rah man. VX`$_mh {h& Tadav yaktamaha hi III.2.23 (341) That (Bra hman) is no t mani fest, for ( so th e scripture) says. Tat: that (i. e., B rahman); Avyaktam: is not manifest ; Aha: (so the scripture) says; Hi: for, because. The char ac ter of Brah man is dis cussed. This is a Purvap aksha Su tra.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 353 Brah man is be yond the senses, so the Srut i de clares. If Brah - man ex ists, then why is It not ap pre hended by the senses or the mind? Be cause It is ex tremely sub tle and is the wit ness of what ever is ap pre hended i.e., sub ject in the ap pre hen sion. The in di vid ual souls are en vel oped by ig no rance. Hence they are not able t o per ceive Brah man. The Srut i de clares Brah man is not ap pre hended by the eye, nor by t he speech, nor by the other senses, nor by pen ance, nor by good works (Mun. Up. III .1). That S elf is to be de scribed by no, no! He is in com pre hen si ble, for He can not be com pre hended (Bri. Up. III .9.26). That which can not be seen nor ap pre hended (Mun. Up. I.1 .6). When in that which is in vis i ble, in cor po real, un de fined, un sup - ported (T ait. Up. II.7). Sim i lar st ate ment s are made in Smriti p as - sages, e.g., He is called un evolved, not to be f ath omed by thought , un change able. A{n M gamY Zo `jmZw_ mZ`m_ & Api cha samradh ane praty akshanumanabh yam III.2.24 (342) And mor eover (Bra hman is experienced) i n devout m edita tion (as we know) from the Sruti a nd Smriti. Api cha: and moreover; Samradhan e: in devout m editation; Praty akshanumanabh yam: from the S ruti and the S mriti. The dis cus sion on the char ac ter is tic of Brah man is con tin ued. The word Api sets aside the Purvap aksha. It is used in a deprecative sense. The above P urvap aksha is not even wor thy of con sid er ation. Brah man is ex ceed ingly sub tle. Hence He can not be seen by the phys i cal eyes. He is be yond the senses. But Yo gis be hold Him in their pu ri fied minds. I f Brah man is not man i fest, t hen we can never know Him and there fore there will be no f ree dom. This Su tra de clares that Brah man is not known only to t hose whose heart is not pu ri fied, but those who are en dowed with a pure heart real ise Brah man in the st ate of S am adhi when ig no rance is an - ni hi lated. This is vouched for by S rutis as well as Smritis. The S elf-ex is - tent cre ated the senses with out-go ing ten den cies. There fore man be holds the ex ter nal uni verse but not t he in ter nal Self. Some wise man, how ever, with his eyes closed and wish ing for im mor tal ity be - holds the Self within (Katha Up. IV.1). When a man s mind has be - come pu ri fied by t he se rene light of knowl edge, then he sees Him, med i tat ing on Him as with out p arts (Mun. Up. III .1.8). The Smriti also says the same thing He who is seen as light by the Y ogins med i tat ing on Him sleep lessly , with sus pended breath,BRAHMA SU TRAS 354 with con tented minds and sub dued senses, etc., rev er ence be to Him and the Y ogins see Him, the au gust, eter nal one! H$mem{Xd mdeo` H$me H$_``mgmV & Prakasadiv acchav aiseshy am prakasascha karmany abhy asat III.2.25 (343) And a s in the c ase of (physi cal) light and the lik e, the re is no difference, so also be tween Brahman and Its manifestati on in activity; on account of the repeated instru ction (of th e Sruti to that e ffect). Prakasadiv at: like light and t he like; Cha: also, and; Avaiseshy am: simi larity, non-dif ference, non-distinction; Prakasah: Brahman; Cha: and; Karmani: in work; Abhy asat: on account of repeated ment ion (in the Sruti ). The dis cus sion on the char ac ter of Brah man is con tin ued. The iden tity of Jiva and Brah man is ex plained. Just as light, ether , the sun, et c., ap pear dif fer en ti ated as it were, t hrough their ob - jects such as fin gers, ves sels, wa ter, etc., which form the lim it ing ad - junct s while in re al ity they pre serve their es sen tial non-dif fer ence, so also the dis tinc tion of dif fe r ent selves is due to li m it ing ad junct s only , while the unity of all selves is nat u ral and orig i nal. Through ig no rance the in di vi d ual soul thinks he is dif fer ent from B rah man, but in re al ity he is iden ti cal with Brah man. As in the case of light , etc., the self-lu mi nous Brah man ap pears di verse in med i ta tion and other act s. This is clear from the Srut i say - ing Tat Tvam Asi nine times. The V edant a text s in sist again and again on the doc trine of t he non-dif fer ence of the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Soul. The i den - tity of the in di vid ual soul with the S u preme Soul is known from re - peated in struc tion of t he Sruti in t exts like That Thou art Tat Tvam Asi, I am Brah man Aham Brahma A smi which deny dif fer ence. AVmo@Z VoZ VW m {h {b_& Atonantena t atha hi lingam III.2.26 (344) Therefore (the individ ual sou l become s one ) with the Infinite ; for thu s the (scripture) indicates. Atah: hence, therefore; Anantena: with the I nfinite; Tatha: thus; Hi: because, for; Lingam: the indication (of the scriptures). The re sult of reali sa tion of B rah man is st ated here. By the reali sa tion of B rah man the medit ator be comes iden ti cal with the I n fi nite. I g no rance with all it s lim it ing ad junct s van ishes when one at tains Brahma Jnana. There is in di ca tion to t hat ef fect in Srut i, He who knows the high est Brah man be comes Brah man Him self (Mun. Up. II I.2.9). Be ing Brah man he goes to Brah man (Bri. Up.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 355 IV.4.6). I f the dif fer ence were real, then one could not be come Brah - man Him self. Dif fer ence is only il lu sory or un real. Jiva is only a mere shadow or re flec tion. He is mere ap pear ance. Just as the re flec tion of the sun in the wa ter get s ab sorbed in the sun it self when the wa ter dries up, so also the re flected Jiva get s ab sorbed in Brah man when ig no rance is de stroyed by t he dawn of Knowl edge of Brah man. C^``nXoemd{hHw$S>bdV & Ubhay avyapadesattv ahikundal avat III.2.27 (345) But on a ccount o f both (i.e ., diffe rence and non- difference) being taught (by the Sruti), (the re lation o f the highe st Brah man t o the in dividua l soul h as to be vi ewed) like th at of the snake to its coils. Ubhay avyapadesat: on account of both being t aught; Tu: but; Ahikundalavat: like that bet ween a serpent and it s coils. ( Ubhay a: both; Vyapadesat: on account of the declaration of the scrip ture; Ahi: serpent; Kundalavat: like the coils.) The dis cus sion on the char ac ter is tic of Brah man is re sumed. Sutras 27 and 28 ex press the views of the Bhedabhedav adins. Su tra 29 gives the real v iew. Hav ing es tab lished the iden tity of the in di vid ual soul and Brah - man the Sut rakara or the au thor men tions a dif fer ent view of the same mat ter. He now pro ceeds to en quire into the doc trine of dif fer ence and non-dif fer ence. Some scrip tural tex ts re fer to the S u preme Soul and the in di vid - ual soul as dis tinct en ti ties: T wo birds of beau ti ful plum age, etc. (Mun. Up. II I.1.1). This text speaks of dif fer ence be tween the Jiva and Brah man. In some other tex ts the Su preme Soul is rep re sented as the ob - ject of ap proach and as the ruler of the in di vid ual soul. Then he sees him med i tat ing on him as with out p arts (Mun. Up. III .1.8). He goes to the Di vine Per son who is greater than the great (Mun. Up. I II.2.8). Who rules all be ings within. In other tex ts again the two are spo ken of as non-dif fer ent. Thou art That (Chh. Up. V I.8.7). I am Brah man (Bri. Up. I .4.10). This is thy Self w ho is within all (Bri. U p. III.4.1 ). He is thy Self, th e ruler within, t he im mor tal (Bri. Up. I II.7.15). As thus dif fer ence and non-dif fer ence are equally vouched for by the S ruti tex ts, the ac cep ta tion of ab so lute non-dif fe r ence would ren der fu tile all t hose text s which speak of dif fer ence. There fore we have to t ake that their re la tion is one of dif fer ence and non-dif fer ence, as be tween a ser pent and it s coils. As a ser pent it is one non-dif fer ent, but if we look at t he coils, hood, erect pos ture, and so on, t here is dif - fer ence.BRAHMA SU TRAS 356 Even so there is dif fer ence as well as non-dif fer ence be tween the in di vid ual soul and Brah man. The dif fer ence be tween them prior to eman ci pa tion is real. The Jiv a be comes iden ti cal with Brah man only when his ig no rance is de stroyed by t he dawn of knowl edge of Brah man. Their sep a rate ness and one ness is like a ser pent in qui es cence and mo tion. H$meml`dm V oOdmV& Prakasasray avadva tejastv at III.2.28 (346) Or lik e (the relation of) l ight an d its substratu m, on a ccount o f both bein g lumi nous. Prakasasray avat: like light and it s substratum; Va: or; Tejastv at: on account of both being lum inous. The re la tion be tween Brah man and the in di vid ual soul also is dis cussed . Or else the re la tion of t he two may be v iewed as fol lows. An - other il lus tra tion is given t o es tab lish the the ory of dif fer ence and non-dif fer ence. Just as the light of the sun and it s sub stra tum, i. e., the sun it self, are not ab so lutely dif fer ent, be cause they both con sist of fire and yet are spo ken of as dif fe r ent, so also the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Soul (Brah man). The light and t he sun are both lu mi nous. Hence they are non-dif - fer ent. They are dif fer ent ow ing to their v ary ing ex tensity . Sim i larly is the re la tion be tween the in di vid ual soul and the Su preme Soul one of dif fer ence and non-dif fer ence. The for mer is lim ited and the lat ter is all-per vad ing. nydd m& Purvavadva III.2.29 (347) Or (the relation between the two, i.e ., Jiva and Brah man i s) as (given) b efore. Purvavat: as before; Va: or. Or it may be as st ated in Su tra 25. This last i s the real view , be - cause if the in di vid ual soul is an other st ate of B rah man or a ray of Brah man, such in her ent lim i ta tion will nev er dis ap pear. The Sruti af - firms iden tity and st ates the fea ture of di ver sity which is due to A vidya. The two pre vi ous Sutras ex press the view of Bhedabhedavadins who main tain the doc trine of dif fer ence and non-dif fer ence. This Su tra re futes the v iew of Bhedabhedav adins and es tab - lishes the fi nal truth which has been de clared in Su tra 25, vi z., that the dif fer ence is merely il lu sory, and iden tity or non-dif fer ence is the reality .CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 357 If the bond age of the soul is due to A vidya or ig no rance only , fi - nal lib er a tion is pos si ble. But if the soul is re ally bound, whether the soul be re garded as a cer tain con di tion or st ate of t he Su preme Soul or Brah man, as st ated in Su tra 27, or as a p art of the S u preme Soul, as ex pressed in Su tra 28it s real bond age can not be de stroyed. Thus the scrip tural doc trine of fi nal lib er a tion be comes pur pose less and ab surd. If the dif fer ence is real it can never come to an end. A ll the scrip - tural in struc tions with re gard to the fi nal eman ci pa tion will be mean - ing less. Bond age is only the idea of sep a rate ness. If sep a rate ness is real there can be no fi nal re lease at all. B ut if t he dif fer ence is due to ne science or ig no rance, then knowl edge of Brah man or Brahma-Jnana can an ni hi late it. Then the Su preme Re al ity or B rah - man, the non-dif fer ence may be real ised. It can not be said that t he Sruti equally teaches dif fer ence and non-dif fer ence. The Sruti ai ms at es tab lish ing non-dif fer ence only . It merely re fers to dif fer ence as some thing known from other sources of knowl edge, viz., per cep tion, etc. Hence the views ex pressed in Sutras 27 and 28 are not cer tainly cor rect. The view giv en in Su tra 25 alone is cor rect. The con clu sion is that the soul is not dif fer ent from t he Su preme Soul or Brah man as ex plained in Su tra 25. {VfoYm& Pratishedhacch a III.2.30 (348) And on a ccount of the denial. Pratishedhat: on account of denial; Cha: and, moreover . Su tra 29 is con firmed. The Sruti in f act ex pressly de nies sep a rate ness. The con clu sion ar rived at abov e is con firmed by t he fact of scrip ture ex pressly de ny ing that there ex ists any in tel li gent be ing apart from Brah man or the Su preme Soul. There is no other S eer but He Nanyato sti Drasht a (Bri. Up. III.7.23 ). The same con clu sion fol lows from those p as sages which deny the ex is tence of a world ap art from Brah man, and thus leav e Brah - man alone re main ing, vi z., Now then the t each ingnot thi s, not this (Bri. Up. I I.3.6). That Brah man is with out cause and with out ef fect, with out any thing in side or out side (Bri. Up. II .5.19). It is now an es tab lished fact that there is no other en tity but Brah man. There fore there is only one B rah man with out any dif fer - ence at all.BRAHMA SU TRAS 358 Paradhikar anam: T opic 7 (Sutras 31-37) Brahman i s one without a second na_V goVy_mZg~Y^oX` nXoeo `& Paramat ah setunmanasam bandha- bhedav yapadesebhy ah III.2.31 (349) (There is some thing) Supe rior to this (B rahman) on a ccount of terms denotin g a b ank, measure, connection and diffe rence (used with re spect to I t). Param: greater; Atah: for this, t han this (Brahman); Setunmanasam bandhabhedav yapadesebhy ah: on account of terms denoting a bridge, measure, connection and dif ference. ( Setu: a bridge; Unmana: dimensions; Sambandha: relation; Bheda: difference; Vyapadesebhy ah: from the declarations. ) It may be said that there must be some thing higher than B rah - man be cause Brah man is de scribed as a bridge, or as lim it ed or as at - tained by man or as dif fer ent from man. There arises now the doubt on ac count of the con flict ing na ture of var i ous scrip tural st ate ment s whether some thing ex ists be yond Brah man or not. The Purvap akshin holds that some en tity must be ad mit ted apart from Brah man, be cause Brah man is spo ken of as be ing a bank, as hav ing size, as be ing con nected, as be ing sep a rated. As a bank it is spo ken of in the p as sage The Self is a bank, a bound ary (Chh. Up. VIII.4.1). The term bank in ti mates that t here ex ists some thing ap art from Brah man, just as there ex ists some thing dif fer ent from an or di - nary bank. The same con clu sion is con firmed by t he words Hav ing passed the bank (Chh. Up. VIII .4.2). I n or di nary life a m an af ter hav - ing crossed a bank, reaches some place which is not a bank, let us say a for est. So we must un der stand that a man af ter hav ing crossed, i.e., passed be yond Brah man, reaches some thing which is not Brah - man. As hav ing size Brah man is spo ken of in the fol low ing p as s ages This Brah man has four feet (quar ters), eight hoof s, six teen p arts (Chh. Up. III .18.2). Now it is well known from or di nary ex pe ri ence that wher ever an ob ject, e.g. , a coin has a def i nite lim ited size, there ex ists some thing dif fer ent from t hat ob ject. There fore we must as sume that there also ex ists some thing dif fer ent from B rah man. Brah man is de clared to be con nected in the fol low ing pas sages. Then he is united with t he True (Chh. Up. VI.8. 1). The em bod ied self is em braced by the Su preme Self (Bri. Up. IV .3.21). W e ob serve that non-mea sured things are con nected with the t hings mea sured, e.g., men with a town. Scrip ture de clares that the in di vid ual souls are in the st ate of deep sleep con nected with Brah man. There fore we con clude that be yond Brah man there is some thing un mea sured.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 359 The same con clu sion is con firmed by t hose text s which stat e dif - fer ence. Now that golden per son who is seen within the sun. The text re fers to a Lord re sid ing in the sun and then men tions a Lord re - sid ing in the ey e dis tinct from t he for mer: Now the per son who is seen within the eye. The Sruti de clares The At man is to be seen etc. There is a seer and there is the seen. There is dif fer ence. All these in di cate that B rah man is not one with out a sec ond, and that t here ex ists some thing dif fer ent from B rah man. gm_m`mmw & Samany attu III.2.32 (350) But (Brahman i s called a bank e tc.) on account of similar ity. Samany at: on account of similarity ; Tu: but. The ob jec tion raised in the pre ced ing Su tra is re futed here. The word tu (but) re moves the doubt . It sets aside the pre vi - ously es tab lished con clu sion. There can ex ist noth ing dif fer ent from B rah man. Brah man is called the bank, etc. , be cause He re sem bles it in a cer tain re spect. He is the sup port of all while cross ing over this ocean of t he world, just as a bank is a great pro tec tion or help in cross ing a ca nal. There can ex ist noth ing dif fer ent from B rah man as we are not able to ob serve a proof for such ex is tence. All things pro ceed from Brah man. The Srut i says that by know ing Brah man ev ery thing will be known. How then can there be any other en tity? Bridge or bank means like a bridge or bank. Brah man is called a bank on ac count of sim i lar ity, not be cause there ex ists some thing be yond Him. I f the mere f act of Brah man be - ing called a bank im plied the ex is tence of some thing be yond Him as in the case of an or di nary bank, we should also be forced to con clude that B rah man is made of earth and stones. This would go against the scrip tural doc trine that Brah man is not some thing pro duced. Brah man is called a bank be cause it re sem bles a bank in cer - tain re spect s. Just as a bank dams back the wa ter and makes the bound ary of ad ja cent fields, so also Brah man sup ports the world and its bound aries. In the clause quoted abov e Hav ing p assed that bank the verb to pass can not be t aken in the sense of go ing be yond but must rather mean to reach fully . Hav ing p assed the bank means hav ing at tained Brah man fully and not hav ing crossed it just as we say of a stu dent he has p assed in the gram mar mean ing thereby t hat he has fully mas tered it.BRAHMA SU TRAS 360 ~wW nmX dV& Buddhy arthah p adavat III.2.33 (351) (The statement as to Brahman havin g size) is for t he sake of easy compr ehension ( i.e., Upasan a or devout m editat ion); just like (four) fee t. Buddhy arthah: for the sake of easy comprehension; Padav at: just like (four) feet. The st ate ment s as to the size of Brah man Brah man has four feet, It has six teen dig its, etc., are meant for the sake of Up asana or de vout med i t a tion, be cause it is dif fi cult to un der st and the In fi nit e, most sub tle, all-per vad ing Brah man. In or der to fa cil i t ate pi ous med i - ta tion on the p art of less in tel li gent peo ple four feet etc., are as cribed to Brah man. The de scrip tion of B rah man as hav ing a lim ited form (Shodasakala, 16 p arts) is for the sake of med i ta tion just as Padas, i.e., speech etc., are de scribed in re spect of mind. Just as mind con ceived as the per sonal man i fes ta tion of B rah - man is imag ined to have t he or gan of speech, nose, eyes and ears as its four feet, so also Brah man is imag ined as hav ing size, etc., for fa - cil ity of med i ta tion but not in re al ity. Prac tise med i ta tion, t ak ing the mind as Brah man,this is t he form of wor ship with the aid of the con stit u ents of the in di vid ual soulThis Brah man is of four feet , namely , the speech as a foot, the chief vi tal en ergy as a foot, the eyes as a foot , and the ears as a foot (Chh. Up . III.18.1 -2). WmZ{deo fmV H$mem{ XdV& Sthanav iseshat prakasadiv at III.2.34 (352) (The state ments conc erning c onne ction and diffe rence with respect to Brahman) are due to spe cial places: as in th e case of light and the like. Sthanav iseshat: on account of special places; Prakasav at: like light and the like. Su tra 33 is fur ther con firmed. The state ment s re gard ing con nec tion and dif fer ence are made with a view t o dif fer ence of place. The st ate ment s re gard ing dif fer - ence are made with ref er ence to lim it ing ad junct s (Buddhi, etc.) only and not to any dif fer ence in the na ture of Brah man. When the cog ni tion of dif fer ence which is pro duced by Brah - man s con nec tion with dif fer ent places i.e., with the Budd hi and the other lim it ing ad junct s, ceases ow ing to the ces sa tion of t hose lim it ing ad junct s them selves, con nec tion with the Su p reme Self is met a phor i -CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 361 cally said to t ake place; but that is done with a view to t he lim it ing ad - junct s only , not wit h a view to any lim i ta tion on the p art of Brah man. This is sim i lar to the case of light and the like. The l ight of t he sun also is dif fer en ti ated by it s con nec tion with li m it ing ad junct s. The light is said to be di vided on ac count of these ad junct s. It is said t o en ter into con nec tion or un ion when the ad junct s are re moved. We see two moons on ac count of an eye-dis ease. W e see only one when the dis ease is re moved. Light is re ally one but we speak of light in side a room and light out side it. The di s tinc tion is due to li m it ing ad junct s. The light i n side the room may be said t o be united with t he light in gen eral when the room is de stroyed. Other ex am ples of the ef fect of li m it ing ad junct s are fur nish ed by the ether en ter ing into con nec tion with t he eyes of nee dles and the like. Cnnmo & Upapattescha III.2.35 (353) And it is reasonable. Upapatteh: as it becomes reasonable; Cha: also, and. Fur ther only such a con nec tion as de scribed above is pos si ble. Be cause scrip tural p as sages such as He is gone to his self (Chh. Up. VI. 8.1) de clare that the con nec tion of t he soul with the Su preme Soul is one of es sen tial na ture. The es sen tial na ture of a thi ng is im - per ish able. Hence the con nec tion can not be like that of the in hab it - ants with the town. The con nec tion can only be ex plained with ref er ence to an ob - ser va tion ow ing to ig no rance of the true na ture of the soul. Sim i larly the di f fer ence re ferred to by scrip ture can not be real but due to ig no rance, be cause many text s de clare that there ex ists only one Brah man. Scrip ture teaches that t he one ether is made man i fold as it were by its con nec tion with dif fer ent places. The ether which is out side man is the ether which is in side man, and the et her within the heart (Chh. Up . III.12.7 ). Hence con nec tion and dif fer ence are not to be t aken as real, but only met a phor i cally . VWm`{VfoY mV& Tathany apratishedhat III.2.36 (354) Similarly on ac count o f the e xpress de nial of all o ther things (there is nothing b ut Brahma n).BRAHMA SU TRAS 362 Tatha: similarly; Anyapratishedhat: on account of the ex press denial of all ot her things. ( Anya: any other , of t he other; Pratishedhat: owing to the denial, or prohibition or negation. ) Fur ther the Srut i de nies ex pressly that t here is any other en tity be sides Brah man. (Brahmai vedam Sarvam ; Atmaivedam Sarvam ). Brah man is de scribed as the in ner most of all. Hav ing thus re futed t he ar gu ment s of the Purv apakshin, the au - thor or Sutrakara in con clu sion strength ens his view by a fur ther rea - son. A great num ber of V e dic pas sages dis tinctly deny the ex is tence of any thing else be sides Brah man. He in deed is be low; I am be low; the Self is be low etc. (Chh. Up. VI I.25.1.2). Who so ever looks for any thing else where than in the Sel f was aban doned by ev ery thing (Bri. Up. I I.4.6). Brah man alone is all this (Mun. Up. II. 2.11). The Self is all this (Chh. Up. VI I.25.2). In it t here is no di ver sity (Bri. Up. IV.4.19). He to whom t here is noth ing su pe rior, from whom t here is noth ing dif fer ent (Svet . Up. II I.9). Thi s is the Brah man with out cause and with out ef fect, wit h out any thing in side or out side (Bri. Up. II.5.19). That there is no other self withi n the High est Self f ol lows from that scrip tural p as sage which teaches Brah man to be within ev ery - thing (Bri. Up. II.5 .19). There fore Brah man is one with out a sec ond. AZoZ gdJVd_ m`m_eX m{X`& Anena sarv agatatvamay amasabdadi bhyah III.2.37 (355) By this t he Omniprese nce (of Brahman is establish ed) in accordance with th e scriptural stat ements regardin g (Brah mans) extent. Anena: by this; Sarv agatatvam: all-pervadingness; Ayama: (regarding Brahman s) extent; Sabdadibhy ah: from scriptural statement s. By the re ject ing of the t ak ing of the de scrip tion as bridge or bank etc., in t heir ac tual sense, it i s clear that Brah man has all-pervadingness. Such Om ni pres ence is clear also from such words as Ayama. I f you t ake the de scrip tion as bridge etc., in their ac tual sense but not in the f ig u ra tive sense, B rah man will be come lim ited, and con se quently not eter nal. But the Sruti and Smriti de scribe Brah - man as un lim ited and all-per va sive. The word A yama means per va - sive. The all -pervadingness of Brah man fol lows from the very fact that it is one with out a sec ond. That Brah man is Om ni pres ent fol lows from the tex ts pro claim - ing its ex tent. As large as this ether is, so large is that et her within the heart (Chh. Up. VII I.1.3). Like the ether , he is Om ni pres ent and eter - nal. He is greater than the sky , greater than t he ether (Sat. B r. X.6.3.2). He is eter nal, Om ni pres ent, f irm, im mov able (Git a. II.24).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 363 Phaladh ikaranam: T opic 8 (Sutras 38-41) The Lord is the giver of the f ruits of actions \$b_V Cnnmo & Phalam ata upapatteh III.2.38 (356) From Him (the Lord ) are the fruits of ac tions , for tha t is reasonable. Phalam: the fr uit; Atah: from Him only; Upapatteh: for that i s reasonable. An other char ac ter is tic of Brah man is es tab lished. The Mimamsakas hold that t he Karma (work) and not the Lord gives the f ruits of one s ac tions. The Su tra re futes it and de clares that the fruit s of one s work viz., pain, plea sure and a mix ture of the t wo, come only f rom the Lord. The Lord of all who knows all the dif fer ences of place and time alone is ca pa ble of be stow ing fruit s in ac cor dance with the merit of the agent s. Karma is in sen tient and short-liv ed. It ceases to ex ist as soon as it is done. It can not there fore be stow the fruit s of ac tions at a fu ture date ac cord ing to one s merit. How can fruit which is pos i tive re sult from such non-ex is tence? You can not say that Karma died af ter gen er at ing the fruit which at ta ches it self to the doer in due t ime, be cause it is called fruit only when it is en joyed. You can not say also that Karma gen er ates Apurva which giv es fruit. Apurva is Achet ana (non-sen tient). It can not act un less moved by some in tel li gent be ing. It can not, t here fore, be stow re wards and pun ish ment s. Fur ther there is no proof what ever for the ex is tence of such an Apurva. There fore the fruit s of ac tions come to men f rom Isvara or the Lord only, who is Eter nal, Om nip o tent , Om ni scient, All-com p as sion - ate. lwVdm& Srutatvaccha III.2.39 (357) And becau se the Sruti so teaches. Srutatvat: because the Sruti so teaches, f rom the declaration of t he Sruti to tha t effect; Cha: also, and. The pre ced ing Su tra is strength ened on the sup port of Srut i. The Sruti also de clares that the fruit s of ac tions come from the Lord. This in deed is the great, un born Self, the giver of food, and t he giver of wealt h (the fruit of one s work) (Bri. Up. I V.4.24). Y_ O{_{ZaV Ed& Dharmam Jai minirata eva III.2.40 (358)BRAHMA SU TRAS 364 Jaim ini thin ks for the same reasons (viz., sc riptu ral au tho rity and reasoning, on t he same ground as stated in Sutras 38 and 39) that re ligious m erit (is wh at bri ngs a bout the fruits of actions). Dharmam: practice of religious duties, reli gious merit s; Jaiminih : the sage Jaimini; Ata eva: for the same reasons. An ob jec tion is raised to Sut ras 38 and 39. The view of t he Sutras 38 and 39 is be ing criti cised. Jaimini says that Dharma gives fruit s of ac tions as Sruti and rea - son sup port such a view . Scrip ture, Jaimini ar gues, pro claims in junc tions such as the fol - low ing one He who is de sir ous of the heav enly world is to sac ri fice. It is ad mit ted that ev ery scrip tural in junc tion has an ob ject. There fore it is rea son able to think t hat the scrip ture it self brings about the f ruit or the re sult, i. e., the at tain ment of t he heav enly world. I f this were not so, no body would per form sac ri fices and thereby scrip tural in junc - tions would be ren dered pur pose less. But it may be ob jected that an ac tion can not pro duce a re sult at a fu ture time as it is de stroyed. Jaimini says: A deed can not pro duce re sult at some fu ture time, un less be fore p ass ing away , it giv es birth to some un seen re sult. W e, there fore, as sume that there ex ists some ex tra or di nary prin ci ple called Apurva which is pro duced by the Karma be fore it is de stroyed. The re sult is pro duced at some fu ture time on ac count of this A purva. This hy poth e sis re moves all dif fi cul ties. But on the con trary it i s im pos si ble that t he Lord should ef fect the f ruits of Kar mas. Be cause one uni form cause (Isvara) can not cause va ri ety of ef fects. He will have p ar tial ity and cru elty; and Karma will be come pur pose less, i.e., if the deed it self can not bring about it s own fruit, it would be use less to per form it at all. For all these rea sons the re sult springs from the ac tion only , whether mer i to ri ous or non-mer i to ri ous. (This is the view of Jaimini). nyd Vw ~mXam`Umo hoV w`nXoemV& Purv am Baadaray ano hetuv yapadesat III.2.41 (359) But Baa darayana think s the forme r (i.e., the Lord to b e the cause o f the fr uits of action) on account of His being declared to be the cause (of the actions t hemselve s). Purvam: the former , i. e., the Lord as the giv er of the fruit s of actions; Tu: but; Baadaray anah: Baadarayana, t he framer of the S utras (holds); Hetuv yapadesat: on account of His being declared the cause (of the actions themselv es). The view of Jaimi ni ex pressed in Su tra 40 is re futed by cit ing a con trary one.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 2 365 The word T u (but) re futes the v iew of Su tra 40. It sets aside the view of t he fruit be ing pro duced ei ther by the m ere ac tion or the mere Apurva. The sage Baadarayana holds the f or mer, i.e., the Lord is the Dis penser of the fruit of ac tions. The S ruti clearly st ates that all re - wards whether heaven or un ion with the Lord come from Him , He takes one to a purer world by vir tue of one s pi ety Punyena punyam lokam nayati . Also Kat ha Up anishad (I.2.23) de clares He gives Him - self away to whom so ever He chooses Yamevaisha vrinute tena labhyah . Baadarayana says that the Lord be stows the fruit s of deeds be - cause Sruti says that t he Lord in duces the do ing of ac tions and gives the fruit s thereof. A s the Lord act s ac cord ing to the v a ri ety of Kar mas, he can pro duce and give a va ri ety of re sults and has no par tial ity and cru elty, and Karma will not be come pur pose less. The Lord is the causal agent with ref er ence to all ac tions whether good or evil. K aushit aki Upani shad (III. 8) de clares He makes him whom He wishes to lead up from these worlds do a good deed and the same makes him whom He wishes to lead down from these worlds do a bad deed. The same is said in Bhagavad Git a (VII. 21-22), Which ever di - vine form a dev o tee wishes to wor ship with fait h, to t hat form I ren der his faith steady . Hold ing that f aith he striv es to pro pi ti ate the de ity and ob tains from it t he ben e fits he de sires, as or dained by Me. More over all V edant a text s de clare that the Lord is the onl y cause of all cre ations. The Lord cre ates all be ings in forms and con di - tions cor re spond ing to and re trib u tive of their for mer Kar mas. Hence the Lord is the cause of all f ruits of ac tions. As t he Lord has re gard for the merit and de merit of t he souls, the ob jec tions raised above that a uni form cause is in ca pa ble of pro duc ing var i ous ef fects, etc., are wit h - out any f oun da tion. To sum up, the na ture of the S u preme Brah man has been de - scribed. Brah man has been shown to be form less, self-lu mi nous and with out dif fer ence. It has been es tab lished through Neti-Neti not this, not t his doc trine that Brah man is one with out a sec ond. It has been con clu sively prov ed that t he Lord is the Dis penser of the fruit s of Kar mas of the peo ple. Thus ends the Sec ond Pada (Sec tion II) of the Third Adhy aya (Chap ter III) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy.BRAHMA SU TRAS 366 CHAPTER III SECTION 3 INTRODUCTION In the pre vi ous Sec tion (Pada 2) it has been shown that the Jiva (Tvam Pada of the T at-Tvam-A si Mahavakya) is iden ti cal with Brah - man (T at Pada of Tat-Tvam-A si Mahavakya). B rah man has been shown to be Ekarasa (of ho mo ge neous or un chang ing na ture). W e have ex plained the na ture of the ob ject of cog ni tion, i. e., Brah man. The au thor of the B rahma Sutras now set s him self to as cer tain the end and aim of the V idyas (med i ta tions of Up asanas) as pre - scribed in the Srutis. The Srutis pre scribe var i ous kinds of V idyas or med i ta tions to en able the as pi rant to at tain the knowl edge of iden tity. It is ex tremely dif fi cult or rather im pos si ble for the or di nary man to hav e a com pre - hen sive un der st and ing of the In fi nit e, which is tran scen dent, ex - tremely sub tle and be yond the reach of t he senses and gross un dis ci plined in tel lect. There fore the Srut is or the sa cred scrip tures pre scribe easy meth ods of Saguna med i ta tion for ap proach ing the In - fi nite or the A b so lute. They pres ent var i ous sym bols of Brah man (Pratikas) such as V aisvanara or V irat, S un, Akasa, Food, Prana and mind for the neo phyte or the be gin ner to con tem plate on. These sym - bols are props for t he mind to lean upon in t he be gin ning. The gross mind is ren dered sub tle, sharp and one-pointed by such Saguna forms of med i t a tion. These dif fer ent meth ods of ap proach ing the Im per sonal Ab so - lute are known as V idyas or Up asanas. This Sec tion dis cusses these var i ous V idyas by means of which the Jiva or the i n di vid ual soul at tains Brah man or the Su preme Soul. Sim i lar Vidyas are de scribed dif fer ently i n dif fer ent recensions of the Vedas. Now the ques tion arises nat u rally whether these sim i lar Vidyas are one and the same or dif fer ent, whether sim i lar V idyas have to be com bined into a sin gle Up asana or med i ta tion or to be taken sep a rately . It is de cided here which V idyas are the same and have to be com bined into one and which V idyas are dif fer ent de spite cer tain sim i lar fea tures. The aim and ob ject of all V idyas is the at tain ment of B rah man or the Im per ish able. Brah man alone is the only liv ing Re al ity. Brah man alone is T ruth. Brah man is Sat or Ex is tence Ab so lute. Hence it m ay be ad van ta geous and help ful to com bine the p ar tic u lars of the same Vidya men tioned in dif fer ent recensions or Sakhas as they have been 367 found highly ef fi ca cious and im mensely ben e fi cial by the fol low ers of those Sakhas. He who med i tates on Brah man as mind as is t aught in the Taittiriy a Upanishad, Bhrigu V alli, must col late all t he at trib utes of the mind not only from his own p ar tic u lar V e dic Sakha, but f rom other Sakhas also where med i ta tion on Brah man in the form of mind is taught. I n med i tat ing on Brah man as mind, he must not bring to gether at trib utes not be long ing to mind such as those of f ood, though B rah - man is t aught to be med i tat ed upon as food also. In f act only t hose at - trib utes are to be sup plied from other S akhas which are taught about the par ti c u lar ob ject of med i t a tion, and not any at trib ut e in gen eral. In this Sec tion Sri V yasa the framer of the Brahma S utras con - cludes that most of the V idyas pre scribed in the Srutis have f or their ob ject the knowl edge of Brah man or Brahma-Jnana. They di f fer only in form but not in sub stance. Their fi nal goal is the at tain ment of ev er - last ing peace, eter nal bliss and im mor t al ity. One med i t a tion or Upasana or V idya is as good as an other for at tain ing the fi nal eman ci - pa tion. Sruti t eaches us to med i tate on Brah man ei ther di rectly or through the me dium of some Prat ikas or sym bols, such as the sun, Akasa, food, m ind, Prana, the Purusha re sid ing in the ey e, the empt y space (Daharakasa) within the heart, Om or Pranava and t he like. You will have to search Brah man and adore Him in and through the sym bols, but these sym bols must not usurp His place. Y ou must con cen trate and fi x the mi nd on these sym bols and think of His at trib - utes such as Om nip o tence, Om ni science, Om ni pres ence, Sat-Chit-A nanda, pu rity , per fec tion, free dom, etc. The V idyas ap pear to be dif fer ent only f rom the view-point of dif - fer ence in the sym bols but the goal ev ery where is the same. Re mem - ber this point al ways. Bear thi s in mind con stantly. Some at trib utes of Brah man are found com mon in some of the Vidyas. Y ou should not con sider your self as a dis tinct en tity from Brah man. This is a fun da men tal or vi tal point. In all the V idyas three thi ngs are com mon. The fi nal goal is the at tain ment of et er nal bliss and im mor tal ity, through the reali sa tion of Brah man with or with out the aid of the sym bols or Pratikas. The at trib - utes which are found in com mon in all the V idyas such as bliss ful - ness, pu rity , per fec tion, knowl edge, im mor t al ity, Ab so lute Free dom or Kaivaly a, Ab so lute In de pend ence, eter nal sat is fac tion and the like must be in vari ably as so ci ated with t he con cep tion of B rah man. The medit ator must think him self iden ti cal with Brah man and must wor - ship Brah man as his Im mor tal At man.BRAHMA SU TRAS 368 SYNOPSIS Adhikaranas I and II: (Sutras 1-4; 5) are con cerned with the ques tion whether those V idyas which are met with in i den ti cal or sim i - lar form in more than one sa cred text, are to be con sid ered as con sti - tut ing sev eral V idyas or one V idya only . The V idyas with iden ti cal or sim i lar form met wit h in the scrip tures or in dif fer ent recensions of the scrip tures, are one V idya. P ar tic u lars of iden ti cal V idyas men tioned in dif fer ent places or Sakhas are to be com bined with one med i ta tion. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 6-8) dis cusses the case of V idyas which are sep a rate on ac count of dif fer ent sub ject-mat ter, al though in other re spects there are sim i lar i ties. The ex am ples se lected are the Udgitha V idyas of t he Chhandogya Up anishad (I.1.3) and t he Brihadaranyaka Up anishad (I.3.1). Al though they in di cate cer tain sim i lar i ties such as bear ing the same name and the Udgit ha be ing in both iden ti fied with P ranayet t hey are to be held ap art, be cause the sub ject of the Chhandogy a Vidya is not t he whole Udgitha but only the sa cred syl la ble OM while Brihadarany aka Upanishad rep re sents the whole Udgitha as the ob ject of med i ta tion. Adhikarana IV : (Su tra 9). In t he pas sage, Let one med i tate on the syl la ble OM (of) the Udgitha (Chh. Up. I .1.1), t he Omkara and the Udgitha st and in the re la tion of one spec i fy ing the other . The mean ing is Let one med i tate on that Omkara which etc. Adhikarana V : (Su tra 10) in ti mates that t here should be no mis - take in the iden tity of the P rana V idya as t aught in Chhandogya, Brihadaranyaka and Kaushit aki. It de ter mines the unity of the Prana-V idyas and the con se quent com pre hen sion of the dif fer ent qual i ties of the P rana, which are men tioned in the di f fer ent tex ts within one med i t a tion. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 1 1-13) in ti mates that t he es sen tial and un al ter able at trib utes of Brah man such as Bliss and knowl edge are to be taken into ac count ev ery where while those which ad mit of i n - crease and de crease as for in stance the at trib ute of hav ing joy f or its head, men tioned in the T aittiriy a Up anishad are con fined to spe cial med i t a tions. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 14-15) teaches that the ob ject of Kat ha Upanishad (III. 10, 1 1) is one only , viz. , to in di cate that t he Su preme Self is higher t han ev ery thing, so that the p as sage forms one V idya only. Adhikarana VII I: (Sutras 16-17) in ti mates that t he Self re fer red to in Ait areya Aranyaka (II .4.1.1) is not a lower form of t he self (Sutratman or Hiranyagarbha), but the S u preme Self. 369 Adhikarana IX: (Su tra 18) dis cusses a mi nor point con nected with the Prana-samv ada. Rins ing the mouth is not en joined in the Prana-V idya, but only thi nk ing the wa ter as the dress of Prana. Adhikarana X: (Su tra 19) de clares that the V idyas in the same Sakha which are iden ti cal or sim i lar have to be com bined, for t hey are one. Adhikarana XI: (Sutras 20-22). In Brihadarany aka Upanishad (V.5), Brah man is rep re sented first as abid ing in the sphere of the sun and then as abid ing within the right eye. The nam es Ahar and Aham of the S u preme Brah man abid ing in the sun and in the right eye re spec tively can not be com bined, as these are two sep a rate Vidyas. Adhikarana XII : (Su tra 23). At trib utes of Brah man men tion ed in Ranayaniya-Khi la are not to be t aken into con sid er ation in other Brahma-V idyas, e. g., the Sandilya V idya, as t he for mer is an in de - pend ent V idya ow ing to the dif fer ence of Brah man s abode. Adhikarana XII I: (Su tra 24) point s out that t he Purusha-V idya of Chhandogya is quite dif fer ent from t he Purusha-V idya of T ait tiriya though they pass by the same name. Adhikarana XIV : (Su tra 25) de cides that cer tain de tached Mantras like Pierce the whole body of the en emy etc., and sac ri fices men tioned at t he be gin ning of cer tain Up anishadsas for in stance, a Brahmana about t he Mahavrat a cer e mony at t he be gin ning of the Aitareya-Aranyaka, do, not with stand ing their po si tion which seems to con nect them with t he Brahma-V idya, not be long to the lat ter, as they show un mis t ak able signs of be ing con nected with sac ri fi cial acts. Adhikarana XV : (Su tra 26) treat s of the p as sage st at ing that t he man dy ing in the pos ses sion of true knowl edge shakes of f all his good and evil deeds and af firms that a st ate ment made in some of those pas sages, only to t he ef fect that the good and evil deeds pass over t o the friends and en e mies of the de ceased, is valid for all the p as sages. Adhikarana XVI : (Sutras 27-28) de cides that the shak ing of the good and evil deeds t akes place not as the Kaushit aki Upani shad states on the road to B rahmaloka or the world of Brah man but at t he mo ment of t he soul s de par ture from the body . Adhikarana XVI I: (Sutras 29-30) in ti mates that t he knower of the Saguna Brah man alone goes by the p ath of t he gods af ter death and not the knower of the Nirguna B rah man. The soul of hi m who knows the Nirguna Brah man be comes one with it with out mov ing to any other place. Adhikarana XVI II: (Su tra 31) de cides that the road of t he gods is fol lowed not only by those who know the V idyas which spe cially men - tion the go ing on that road but all who are ac quainted with t he Saguna Vidyas of Brah man.BRAHMA SU TRAS 370 Adhikarana XIX : (Su tra 32) de cides that, al though the gen e ral ef fect of t rue knowl edge is re lease from all forms of body , yet even per fected souls may be re born for the ful fil ment of some di vine mis - sion. Adhikarana XX: (Su tra 33) teaches that t he neg a tive at tri b utes of Brah man men tioned in some V idyas such as it s be ing not gross, not sub tle, et c., are to be com bined in all med i ta tions on Brah man. Adhikarana XXI : (Su tra 34) de ter mines that K athop anishad (III.1), and Mundaka (III .1), con sti tute one V idya only , be cause both pas sages re fer to the hi gh est Brah man. Adhikarana XXI I: (Sutras 35-36) main tains that the t wo p as - sages (Bri. Up. III .4 and II I.5), con sti tute one V idya only , the ob ject of knowl edge be ing in both cases Brah man viewed as the I n ner Self of all. Adhikarana XXI II: (Su tra 37) de cides that the p as sage in Aitareya Aranyaka (II .2.4.6) con sti tutes not one but two med i ta tions. The Sruti en joins re cip ro cal med i ta tion and not m erely one way . Adhikarana XXI V: (Su tra 38) de ter mines that t he Vidyas of t he True (Satya B rah man) con tained in Bri. Up. (V.4.1 and V .5.2) is one only. Adhikarana XXV : (Su tra 39) de cides that the at trib utes men - tioned in Chh. Up. (V III.1.1) and Bri. Up. (IV .4.32) are to be com bined on ac count of a num ber of com mon fea tures in both the t exts. Adhikarana XXV I: (Sutras 40-41) main tains that Pranagnihot ra need not be ob served on days of fast . Adhikarana XXV II: (Su tra 42) de cides that those med i ta tions which are con nected with cer tain sac ri fices are not p arts of them and there fore not in sep a ra bly con nected with them. Adhik arana XXVIII: (Su tra 43) teaches that in a B ri. Up. p as sage and a sim i lar Chh. Up. p as sage, med i ta tions on V ayu and Prana are to be kept sep a rate in spite of t he es sen tial one ness of these two. Adhikarana XXI X: (Sutras 44-52) de cides that the f ire-al tars made of mind et c., which are men tioned in the A gnirahasya of the Brihadaranyaka are not p art of the sac ri fi cial act, but con sti tute a sep - a rate Vidya. Adhikarana XXX : (Sutras 53-54) de ter mines that t he self is a sep a rate en tity dis tinct from t he body . Adhikarana XXX I: (Sutras 55-56) de cides that Up asanas or med i t a tions con nected with sac ri fi cial acts, e.g., the Udgitha Upasana, are valid f or all Sakhas. Adhikarana XXX II: (Su tra 57) de cides that the V aisvanara Upasana of Chh. Up. (V .11) is one en tire Up asana. V aisvanara Agni is to be med i tated upon as a whole, not in hi s sin gle p arts.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 371 Adhik arana XXXIII: (Su tra 58) de cides that var i ous V idyas like the Sandily a-Vidya, Dahara-V idya and so on, are to be kept sep a rate and not com bined into one en tire Up asana. Adhikarana XXX IV: (Su tra 59) teaches that t hose med i ta tions on Brah man for which the tex ts as sign one and the same fruit, are op - tional, t here be ing no rea son for their be ing cu mu lated. Any one V idya should be se lected ac cord ing to one s choice. Adhikarana XXX V: (Su tra 60) de cides that those med i ta tions on the other hand which re fer to spe cial de sires may or may not be com - bined ac cord ing to choice or lik ing. Adhikarana XXX VI: (Sutras 61-66) de cides that med i ta tions con nected with mem bers of sac ri fi cial act s, such as the Udgitha may or may not be com bined ac cord ing to lik ing.BRAHMA SU TRAS 372 Sarv avedant apraty ayadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-4) The V idyas having identical or the same f orm found in scriptures constitute one V idya gddoX mV`` MmoXZm{deo fmV& Sarv avedant apraty ayam chodanady aviseshat III.3.1 ( 360) (The Vidyas or the Upasanas) described in the various Ve danta texts (are not d ifferent, are identica l) on account of the non-difference of inj unction, e tc., (i.e ., con nection, form and name ). Sarv avedant apraty ayam: exposition of Brahman in all t he Vedant a texts; Chodanady aviseshat: as there is no dif ference in the injunctions, et c., (i.e. , con nection, form and n ame). ( Sarv a: all; Veda: the V edas; Anta: the settled conclusion; Praty ayam: the knowledge, realisation; Chodanadi: or the injunction and ot hers; Aviseshat: as there is no dif ference.) Can Srutis de clare dif fer ent Up asanas in re spect of one en tity? If we say t hat one Sruti is cor rect and oth ers are in cor rect, dis be lief in Srutis as a whole will fol low. The Sruti s which de clare the na ture of Brah man are not com mands. They only state solid fact s. The au thor of the S utras now pro ceeds to dis cuss whether the Upasana (de vo tional) Srut is are di ver gent and sep a rate or not. S crip - tures teach that li ke Karma, Up asanas have var i ous re sults. Some of them have v is i ble re sults, oth ers un seen re sults. Some Up asanas cre ate true knowl edge and lead to Krama mukti or grad ual lib er a tion or re lease by suc ces sive step s. With a vi ew to those med i ta tions, there fore, we may raise t he ques tion whether the i n di vid ual Vedant a-text s teach dif fer ent Up asanas of Brah man or not. There are many ex po si tions of Brah man in Sruti. In some Sruti He is de scribed as V aisvanara, in an other He is de scribed as Prana and so forth. Now a doubt may arise as to whether these ex po si tions are dif fer ent or they al l aim at one and t he same thing. This Su tra re moves the doubt . The ex po si tions in all t he Srutis are the same. They all point t o one and the same pur pose of wor ship of Brah man, though in dif fer ent forms fit ted to t he ca pac ity of the medit ator, be cause there is no dif fer ence in the in junc tions about med i ta tion. A ll the in junc tions in ti mate that Brah man is to be med i - tated upon. Hence the ob ject of those ex po si tions and of med i ta tion is one and the same. The Up asanas of Prana are de scribed in one way in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad and in a dif fer ent way in t he Chhandogya Upanishad. Now a doubt arises whether such Upasanas de scribed dif fer ently i n dif fer ent Sakhas of the V edas are dif fer ent or the same.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 373 The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that they are dif - fer ent ow ing to the dif fer ence in form. This S u tra re futes it and de - clares that such med i ta tions are one and the same ow ing to the non-dif fer ence as re gards in junc tions, con nec tion, name a nd form of these in dif fer ent Sakhas. Thus, as the Agnihot ra though de scribed in dif fer ent Sakhas is yet one, the same kind of hu man ac tiv ity be ing en joined in all by means of the words He is to of fer, so the in junc tion met wit h in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad (VI.1. 1.). He who knows the old est and the best, et c., is the same as that which oc curs in the text of Chhandogya He who knows the first and the best (Chh. Up. V .1.1). The Prana-V idya in all t he Sakhas is one and the same. There is non-dif fer ence as re gards the fruit of the Up asana in both tex ts. He who knows it to be such be comes the first and best among hi s peo - ple (Bri. Up. V I.1.1). Prana is the ob ject of med i ta tion in both t exts. The name of the m ed i ta tion in both t exts is Prana-V idya. P rana is de - scribed in both text s as the old est and the great est. There fore the two Vidyas are not dif fer ent, as there is no dif fer ence in all re spect s. The two V idyas are one and the same. The same i s true of Dahara-V idya, Panchagni-V idya or the knowl edge of the f ive fires, V aisvanara-V idya or the knowl edge of the V aisvanara, Sandil ya-Vidya, et c., de scribed in var i ous Sakhas. ^oXmo{V MoH$`m_{n& Bhedanneti chennai kasy amapi III.3.2 ( 361) If it be said that th e Vidyas are se parate on account of difference (in minor po ints), we d eny that, sinc e even in the same Vidyas (there may be such minor differences). Bhedat: on account of dif ference; Na: not; Iti: as, s o, this ; Chet: if; Na: no, not; Ekasy am: in the one and the same (V idya); Api: also, even. An ob jec tion to t he pre ced ing Su tra is raised and re futed. The Su tra con sists of two p arts namely an ob jec tion and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion is Bhedanneti chet . The re ply is Naikasyamapi . If you say that di f fer ence ex ists, we say that it is not so, be cause such dif fer ences can ex ist even in t he same Upasana or V idya. Doubt less the V ajasaneyins re fer to a sixt h Agni when re fer ring to Panchagni V idya or the doc trine of f ive fires The fire be comes his fire (Bri. Up. V I.2.24), but the Chhandogy as do not. But he who knows these five fires (Chh. Up. V .10.10). B ut this will not make them sep a rate. The Chhandogyas also can add it i f they like. Thus the Vidya as st ated in the t wo Srutis Brihadaranyaka and Chhandogya, is iden ti cal. The pres ence or ab sence of a sixth fi re can not make a dif fer - ence as re gards form, be cause the Shodasi ves sel may or may not be BRAHMA SU TRAS 374 taken in the same Ati ratra sac ri fice. The name f ive fires is no ob jec - tion against t his in crease of num ber, be cause the num ber five is not a fun da men tal part of the i n junc tion. Dif fer ences like this are found in dif fer ent chap ters even in the same S akha and in the same V idya, and yet t he Vidya de scribed in these dif fer ent chap ters is re cog nised by all as one. The Chhandogya Up anishad also ac tu ally men tions a sixth f ire, viz., in the p as sage V .9.2 When he has de parted his friends carry him, as ap pointed, t o the fire. There fore it is quit e clear that the V idyas of t he same class are one and not dif fer ent not with st and ing these dif fer ences in dif fer ent Sakhas. The Purvap akshin says: Then again in the con ver sa tion be - tween the Pranas, t he Chhandogyas men tion in ad di tion to t he most im por tant Prana four ot her Pranas viz., speech, t he eye, t he ear and the mind, whil e the V ajasaneyins men tion a fif th one also. Seed in - deed is gen er a tion. He who knows that be comes rich in of f spring and cat tle (Bri. Up. VI.1 .6). We re ply: not h ing st ands in the way of some ad di tional qual i fi ca - tion be ing in cluded in the V idya con cern ing the col lo quy of t he Pranas. The ad di tion or omis sion of some par tic u lar qual i fi ca ti on is not able to cre ate dif fer ence in the ob ject of knowl edge and thereby in the knowl edge it self, be cause the ob jects of knowl edge may dif fer partly, yet their greater p art and at the same t ime the know ing per son are un der stood to be the same. There fore the V idya also re mains the same. dm`m`` VW mdoZ { h g_mMma o@{YH$mam gdd V {`_& Svadhy ayasya tathatv ena hi samach aredhikar accha sav avaccha tanniy amah III.3.3 ( 362) (The rite of ca rrying fire on the head is connected) wi th the study of th e Ve da (of the Atharvan ikas), because in the Samachara ( it is mentioned) as being such. And (th is also follows) fro m its b eing a q ualification ( for the stud ents of th e Atharva Veda) as in t he case with the (seven) oblations (viz., Saurya etc.). Svadhy ayasya: of the study of the V edas; Tathatv ena: on account of being such; Hi: because; Samachare: in the book named Samachara cont aining the rules for the perf ormance of V edic rites; Adhikarat: on account of the qualif ication; Cha: and; Savavat: as in the case of the seven oblat ions (viz., S aurya, etc. ); Cha: and, also; Tanniy amah: that rule. An ob jec tion based on a st ate ment of t he Mundaka Upani shad is ex plained and re futed.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 375 A fur ther ob jec tion is raised. In t he Mundaka Upani shad which deals with the knowl edge of Brah man, the car ry ing of fire on t he head by the stu dent (Sirovrat a) is men tioned. The P urvap akshin or the op - po nent main tains that the V idyas of t he Atharvani kas are dif fer ent from all other V idyas on ac count of this p ar tic u lar cer e mony which is prac tised by t he fol low ers of the At harva V eda. This Su tra re futes this and says t hat the rit e of car ry ing fire on the head is an at trib ute not of the V idya, but merely of t he study of t he Veda on the p art of the A tharvanikas. So i t is de scribed in the book Samachara which treat s of V e dic ob ser vances. At the close of the Up anishad more over we have the f ol low ing sen tence, A man who has not per formed the rit e (car ry ing fire on the head) does not read this (Mun. Up. II I.2.11). This clearly in ti mates that it is con nected with the study of the Up anishad and not with the Vidya. The Su tra adds an other il lus tra tive in stance in the words as in the case of the li ba tions there is lim i ta tion of t hat. The rit e of car ry ing the fire is as so ci ated only wit h the study of that p ar tic u lar Veda and not oth ers, like the seven ob la tions from the S aurya li ba tion up to t he Sataudana li ba tion, which are not con nected with the f ires t aught in the other V edas, but only with those of A tharva V eda. The com mand is to those study ing the Mundaka Up anishad just as the com mand to per form the seven S avas is to them. The car ry ing of a fire-pot on their head will not make the V idya dif fer ent. There fore there is unity of Vidya in all cases. The doc trine of t he unity of the V idyas thus re mains un shaken. Xe`{V M& Darsay ati cha III.3.4 ( 363) (The scripture) also instr ucts (thus). Darsay ati: (Srut i) shows, i nstruct s; Cha: also. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 1 is given. The V eda also de clares the iden tity of the V idyas, be cause all Vedant a text s rep re sent the ob ject of knowl edge, as one, e.g. , Katha Upanishad (I.2.15), That word which all the V edas de clare; Ait areya Aranyaka (III .2.3.12) Him only the B ahvrichas con sider in the great hymn, t he Adhvaryus in t he sac ri fi cial fire, t he Chhandogyas in the Mahavrat a cer e mony . To prove the unit y of t he Vidyas some other in stances may be quoted. K athop anishad (I.6.2) men tions as one of the Lord s qual i ties that He causes fear . Now this very same qual ity is re ferred to in the Tait. Up. II.7: For if he makes but t he small est dis tinc tion in the S elf, there is fear for him. But t hat fear is only for him who knows a dif fer - ence and does not know one ness.BRAHMA SU TRAS 376 The Im per sonal Ab so lute is the one pur port of all t he Vedant a texts. Hence all V idyas which per tain to It must also be one. The med i - ta tion on the S aguna Brah man as V aisvanara, who is rep re sented as ex tend ing from heaven t o the earth in t he Brihadaranyaka Up anishad is re ferred to in the Chhandogy a Upanishad, But he who adores that Vaisvanara Self as ex tend ing from heaven t o the earth (Chh. Up. V.18.1). T his clearly in di cates that all V aisvanara V idyas are one. Nirguna Brah man is one and not many . Saguna B rah man also is one and not many . Hence p ar tic u lar Vidyas which per tain to ei ther Saguna Brah man or Nirguna Brah man are also one and not many . This also fol lows from the same hymns and t he like en joined in the one place be ing em ployed in ot her places for the pur pose of de vout med i t a tion or Upasana. The same rule ap plies to other V idyas also be sides the Vaisvanara V idya. There fore, V idyas are not many , though t hey are dif fer ently de scribed in dif fer ent Sakhas. Al l Vedantic tex ts in ti mate iden ti cal de vout med i ta tions. Thus the uni ty of Vidyas is es tab lished. Upasamharadhi karanam: T opic 2 Particulars of ident ical V idyas mentioned i n different Sakhas or places are to be combined int o one medit ation Cnghma mo@Wm^oXm{{Yeofdg_mZo M& Upasamharo rthabhedadv idhisesh avatsamane cha III.3.5 ( 364) And in the Upasanas of t he same class (me ntioned in diff er ent Sakhas) a combination ( of all th e particulars mentioned in all Sakhas is to be made) as there is no difference in the object of meditation, just as (a com bination of) all su bsidiary rites of a main sacrif ice (mentioned in different Sakhas is made). Upasamharah: combination; Arthabhedat : as there is no dif ference in the object of medit ation; Vidhisesh avat: like the subsidiary rites of a main sacrifice; Samane: in the Up asanas of the same class, in the case of equality , the f orms of medit ation being the same i n effect; Cha: also, and. ( Artha: purpose; Abheda: non-dif ference; Vidhi: injunctions, of the duties enjoined by the scriptures.) A de duc tion is made from t he four pre ced ing Sutras. Thi s Su tra states the prac ti cal out come of the dis cus sion car ried on in the first four Sutras. The V idyas de scribed in dif fer ent Sakhas will have t o be com - bined in the Up asana, be cause their ob ject is one and the fruit also is the same, just as in t he case of V idhiseshas. The p ar tic u lars that are men tioned in other S akhas than one s own are also ef fi ca cious. There fore one will have t o com bine all these, just as one does in the case of sub sid iary rites like Agni hotra con nected with a main sac ri fice, men tioned in sev eral Sakhas.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 377 Anyathatv adhikaranam : Topic 3 (Sutras 6-8) Those V idyas with different subject-mat ter are sep arate, even if there m ay be some sim ilarities A`Wm d eXm{X{V Mom{ deofmV & Anyathatv am sabdadi ti chennav iseshat III.3.6 ( 365) If it be said (that the Udgi tha Vi dya of the Briha daranyak a Upanisha d and that of the C hhando gya Upanis had) are different on a ccount o f (diff erence in) te xts; w e deny this o n the ground of their non -difference (as re gards essentials ). Anyathatv am: there is dif ference; Sabdat: on account of (dif ference in) text s; Iti: so; Chet: if; Na: not; Aviseshat: on account of non-dif ference (as regards es sentials). This Su tra rep re sents the view of t he Purvap akshin or the op po - nent. The op po nent tries to es tab lish that t he two V idyas are one. The Su tra con sists of two p arts namely , a sup posed ob jec tion to the ob jec tors view and it s ref u ta tion by t he ob jec tor to strengthen hi s case. The sup posed ob jec tion is Anyathatvam sabdaditi chet and the re ply is Naviseshat . It is said in t he Vajasaneyaka (I.3. 1), The Devas said, W ell, let us de feat t he Asuras at the sac ri fices by means of t he Udgitha! They said to speech: sing for us. The speech said yes. The speech and the other Pranas were pierced by the Asuras with evil. They were not able t o do what was ex pected from them . There upon the Devas ap pointed the Chief Prana, and said to t he breath in the mout h sing for us. The breath said y es and sang. There is a sim i lar story in Chhandogya Up anishad I.2. T he Devas took the Udgitha. They thought they would ov er come the Asuras with it. T he other Pranas were pierced with evil and t hus van - quished by the A suras. There upon the Devas went to t he Chief Prana. Then co mes the Chief Prana. On that t hey med i tated as Udgitha. Both t hese pas sages glo rify the chief Prana. Hence it f ol l ows that t hey both are in junc tions of a med i ta tion on the P rana. A doubt arises now whether the two V idyas are sep a rate V idyas or one V idya only. The Purvap akshin holds that the t wo V idyas have t o be con sid - ered as one. It may be ob jected that t hey can not be one on ac count of the dif fer ence in text s. The V ajasaneyins rep re sent the chief v i tal air as the pro ducer of the Udgitha, Do thou sing out for us; while the Chhandogyas speak of it as it self be ing the Udgitha, On that they med i tated as Udgitha. How can this di ver gence be rec on ciled with the as sump tion of t he unity of the V idyas?BRAHMA SU TRAS 378 But t his is not ac cept able be cause there is unity as re gards a great many point s. Both t exts re late that the Devas and the A suras were fight ing; both at first glo rify speech and the ot her Pranas in their re la tion to t he Udgitha and there upon find ing fault wit h them p ass on to the chief P rana; both tel l how through the strength of the lat ter, the Asuras were van quished. The dif fer ence pointed out, i s not im por tant enough to bring about a sep a ra tion of t he two V idyas. The text of the V ajasaneyaka also co or di nates the chief P rana and the Udgitha in t he clause, He is Udgitha (Bri. Up. I. 3.23). W e there fore have to as sume that in t he Chhandogya also the chief Prana has sec ond arily to be l ooked upon as the pro ducer of the Udgitha. The two tex ts thus con sti tute one V idya only . There is unity of Vidyas on the grounds given i n Su tra III .3.1. Z dm H $aU^oXmnamodar` dm{XdV & Na v a prakaranabhedatp arov ariyastvadivat III.3.7 ( 366) Or rathe r the re is no (uni ty of the Vidyas) owin g to the difference of su bject ma tter e ven as ( the meditation o n the Udgitha) a s the highe st and greatest (i.e ., Brah man) (is different from the meditation o n the Udgi tha as abiding in the eye et c.). Na: not; Va: certainly; Prakaranabhedat: on account of dif ference in subject matter; Parov ariyastvadivat: even as (the medit ation on the Udgitha) as the highest and great (B rahman) (is dif ferent). The ob jec tion raised in the pre ced ing Su tra is re futed. The Su tra re futes the f or mer view and es tab lishes that the t wo Vidyas, in spit e of sim i lar ity in many point s, are dif fer ent ow ing to dif - fer ence in sub ject mat ter. In the Chhandogya, Omkara is said to be a limit of Udgitha and so such Omkara has to be re garded as Prana. In the ot her the singer of Udgitha, the Udgatri is called Prana. There fore the two V idyas are dif fer ent just as the Up asana of Udgitha as the In fi nite and Su preme (Parovariya) (Chh. Up. I .9.2). Thi s is in deed the high est and great - est is dif fer ent from t he Up asana of Udgitha as golden in form and as be ing in the ey e and in the sun (Chh. Up. I. 6). In the Chhandogya onl y a p art of the Udgit ha (hymn), the sy l la - ble OM is med i tated upon as Prana Let one med i tate on the syl la ble OM of the Udgit ha (Chh. Up. I.1. 1). But i n the Brihadaranyaka t he whole Udgitha hymn is med i tated upon as Prana (I.3. 2). Hence the two V idyas can not be one ow ing to this dif fer ence in the ob ject of med i t a tion.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 379 The spe cial fea tures of dif fer ent V idyas are not to be com bined even when the V idyas be long to one and the same S akha; much less then when they be long to dif fer ent Sakhas. gkmVomXw$_p V Vw V X{n& Samj nataschet t adukt amasti tu t adapi III.3.8 ( 367) If it be said (that the Vidyas a re one) on a ccount o f (the identity of) name ; (we rep ly that) that is explaine d (alre ady); more over that (id entity of n ame) is ( found in the case of adm ittedly separate Vidyas). Samj natah: on account of the name (being same); Chet: if; Tat: that; Uktam: has already been answered; Asti: is, e xists; Tu: but; Tat: that; Api: even, also. An ar gu ment against t he pre ced ing Su tra is re futed. The word tu (but), re moves the doubt raised above. You can not call them i den ti cal merely be cause they have t he same name. The sub ject mat ter dif fers. This has al ready been es tab - lished in the last S u tra. For in stance Agnihotra and Darsapurnamasa are sep a rate and yet hav e the same name, v iz., Kat haka as they are de scribed in the book called Kathaka. E ven the Udgit ha Vidya of Chh. Up. I.6 and Chh. Up. I.9. 2 are dif fer ent V idyas. Vyaptyadhikaranam : Topic 4 It is appropriate t o specialise OM by the term Udgit ha `mo g_Og _& Vyaptescha samanjasam III.3.9 ( 368) And because (OM) ext ends (over t he whol e of th e Vedas), (t o specialise it by the te rm Udgitha) is app ropriate. Vyapteh: because (OM) extends (over the whole of t he Vedas); Cha: and; Samanj asam: is appropriate, consistent, justifiabl e. Su tra 7 is elab o rated here. In the S ruti Omit yetadaksharamudgitham upasita, the use of the word Udgitha as V iseshana, i.e., ad jec tive of OM is ap pro pri ate, be cause OM by it self is per va sive in all S rutis and should not be un - der stood here in it s gen eral sense. In the p as sage Let a man med i tate on the syl la ble OM as the Udgitha, the t wo words Omkara and Udgitha, are placed in co or di - na tion. The ques tion then arises whether the re la tion in which the ideas con veyed by these two words st and to each other is the re la tion of su per im po si tion (Adhy asa) or sublation (Ap avada) or unity (Ekatva) or spec i fi ca tion (Viseshana) . The word and stands here in place of but and is meant to dis - card the three other al ter na tives. The fourth is to be adopt ed. TheBRAHMA SU TRAS 380 fourth and cor rect view is that t he one is V iseshana (an ad jec tive) t o the other as in the words Nila-Utp ala (blue lo tus). The p as sage means that Udgitha i s the V iseshana of Omkara. The ap pro pri ate view of t he Chhandogya p as sage is to t ake the word Udgitha as spe - cial is ing the term O mkara. Sarv abhedadhikaran am: T opic 5 Unity of the P rana-V idya gdm^oX mX`o_o & Sarv abhedadany atreme III.3.10 (369) On acc ount o f the non- difference (of the Vidya) e verywhere (i.e., in all the texts of th e different Sak has wh ere the Prana-Vidya occurs) t hese qu alities (mentioned in two of t hem are to b e inserted) in the othe r pla ces (e.g., the Kau shita ki Upanisha d). Sarv abhedat: on account of non-dif ference everywhere; Anyatra: in the other places; Ime: these (qualities are to be inserted). A con crete in stance on the gen eral prin ci ple of Su tra 5 is cited. In the col lo quy of t he Pranas re corded by the V ajasaneyins and the Chhandogyas, t he Prana which is en dowed with var i ous qual i ties such as be ing the best and so on, is rep re sented as the ob ject of med - i ta tion. V ar i ous qual i ties such as be ing the rich est and the like are as - cribed to speech and the other or gans. These lat ter qual i ties are in the end at trib uted to t he Prana also. If I am the rich est thou art t he rich est. Now in other Sakhas also, as e.g., that of the Kaushit akins the set of qual i ties such as be ing the best and so on is at trib uted to t he Prana (Katha Up. I I.14). B ut the set of at trib utes, vi z., be ing the rich est and so on is not men tioned. The ques tion is whether they are to be in serted in the Kaushit aki also, where they are not m en tioned. This Su tra de clares that they have to be in serted, as the V idya is the same in all t he three Up anishads. At trib utes be long ing to one and the same V idya or sub ject have t o be com bined wher ever that V idya oc curs al though they may not be ex pressly st ated. Anandady adhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 1 1-13) Attributes like Bliss, et c., of B rahman have to be combined int o one medit ation AmZX mX` Y mZ`& Anandaday ah pradhanasy a III.3.1 1 (370)CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 381 Bliss and other attrib utes (whi ch depict the true natu re) of the Princ ipal or the Sup reme Self, i.e., Brah man (h ave to b e combin ed from al l places in the medit ation on Br ahman ). Anandaday ah: Bliss and other att ributes; Pradhanasy a: of the Princip al, i.e. , the S upreme Self or B rahman. Brah man is de scribed as Bliss, Knowl edge, all-per vad ing, the Self of all, true, etc., in di f fer ent tex ts of dif fer ent Sakhas. Al l the at trib - utes are not men tioned in all pl aces. Now the ques tion arises whether they hav e to be com bined in the med i ta tion on Brah man or not. This S u tra says that t hey have t o be com bined, as the ob ject of med i ta tion (Brah man) is one and the same in all Sakhas and there fore the V idya is one. The rea son for this con clu sion is the one given in S u tra 10. The qual i ties at trib uted to B rah man in any one place hav e to be com bined when ever Brah man is spo ken of. {`{eadm m{nM`mnM` m {h ^oXo& Priyasirastv adyapraptirup achay apachay au hi bhede III.3.12 (371) (Quali ties l ike) joy bein g His h ead, etc. , are not t o be taken everywhere, (being subject to) increase and decrease (are possib le only) if there is d ifference (and not in Brahman in which there is non-d iffere nce). Priyasirastv adi: qualities like joy being His head, etc.; Apraptih: are not to be t aken everywhere; Upachay apachay au: increase and decrease; Hi: be cause; Bhede: (are possible) in dif ference. (Upachay a: increase; Apachay a: decrease.) The dis cus sion com menced in Su tra 11 is con tin ued, st at ing here as to which of the at trib utes are not to be culled and com bined to gether in ev ery form of m ed i ta tion. More and less will ap ply only if there is dif fer en ti a tion. Hence the de scrip tions of Priy asiras, etc., will not ap ply to B rah man. The de - scrip tion of P riyasiras (at trib utes like joy be ing His head, etc.) in t he Taittiriy a Upanishad are not Dharmas of Brah man but the Dharmas of the Ananda maya-kosa or the bliss ful sheath. T he de scrip tions are given to t urn the mind to wards Brah man. Dif fer ences of higher and lower in Gunas can come in Upasanas of Sagu na Brah man but have no ap pli ca tion to Nirguna Brah man. The at trib utes of hav ing joy f or His head and such other at trib - utes are not ac cept able in ev ery form of m ed i ta tion on Brah man be - cause at trib ut ing limbs to B rah man would ren der Him li a ble to fluc tu a ti on. At trib utes like joy be ing His head and so on men tioned in the Taittiriy a Upanishad are not to be t aken and com bined in other placesBRAHMA SU TRAS 382 where the Up asana of Brah man is en joined be cause the suc ces sive terms, Joy is It s head, sat is fac tion is it s right arm, great sat is fac - tion is it s left arm, blis s is His trunk, Brah man is His tail, His su p - port (II.5), in di cate qual i ties which have in crease and de crease with re gard to each other and to other enjoy ers (in di vid ual souls or Jivas) and there fore can ex ist where there is dif fer ence. Now for higher and lower de grees there is room only where there is plu ral ity or dif fer ence but Brah man is with out all plu ral ity or dif fer ence, as we know from many scrip tu ral pas sages (One only , with out a sec ond). There fore these at trib utes can not con sti tute t he na ture of Brah man. They are to be con fined to t he text s which pre scribe them and not t aken to other places. More over, these qual i ties are at trib uted to t he Su preme Brah - man merely as means of f ix ing one s mind, not as them selves be ing ob jects of med i ta tion. From t his it fol lows that they are not valid ev ery - where. The at trib utes men tioned in any one are not valid f or oth ers. The case is sim i lar to that of two wives min is ter ing to one king; one with a fan, the other with an um brella. Here also the ob ject of thei r min is tra tions is one, but t he act s of min is tra tion them selves are dis - tinct. T hey have each thei r own par tic u lar at trib utes. Sim i lar is the case un der dis cus sion also. Qual i ties in which lower and higher de grees can be dis tin - guished be long to the qual i fied Brah man only in which there is plu ral - ity, not t o the Su preme Nirguna Brah man which is above all qual i fi ca ti ons. Such at trib ut es as hav ing true de sires (Sat-Kama) and the like which are men tioned in some p ar ti c u lar place have no va lid ity for other med i ta tions on Brah man. BVao dWgm_ m`mV& Itare tv arthasamany at III.3.13 (372) But othe r attrib utes (like Bliss, etc., are to be combined) on accoun t of identi ty of purpor t. Itare: other attribut es; Tu: but; Arthasamany at: because of common purport, on account of ident ity of purport. ( Artha: result, object, purport; Samany at: on account of the equalit y or sameness.) The pre vi ous dis cus sion is con tin ued. But at trib utes like Bliss, knowl edge, all-pervadingness, et c., which de scribe the na ture of Brah man, are to be com bined as the ob - ject of such de scrip tions is the same, as they di rectly re late to B rah - man and as they are in her ent at trib utes of Brah man, as their pur port is the one in di vis i ble, un con di tioned Brah man. These at trib utes which scrip ture set s for the pur pose of teach - ing the true na ture of Brah man are to be viewed as val id for all p as - sages which re fer to Brah man, be cause their pur port, i. e., the Brah man whose na ture is to be t aught is one. These at trib utes areCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 383 men tioned with a v iew to knowl edge of Brah man only , and not f or Upasana. Adhy anadhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 14-15) Katha Up. I .3.10-1 1 teaches merely that the Self is higher than everything else Am`mZ m` `mo OZm^mdmV & Adhy anay a pray ojanabhav at III.3.14 (373) (The passage in Kath a Upanishad I.3.10 tells about the Self only as the highe st) for the sake of pious meditatio n, as th ere is no us e (of the kno wledge of the ob jects being higher than the senses and so on). Adhy anay a: for the sake of medit ation; Pray ojanabhav at: as there is no use, as there is no other necessity . (Pray ojana: of any ot her purpose; Abhavat: on account of the absence.) The pre vi ous dis cus sion is con tin ued. We read in the Kat haka (I.3.10-1 1), Higher than the senses are the ob jects, higher than the ob jects there is the mind, et c., higher than the A t man there is noth ing, this is t he goal, the high est road. Here the doubt arises whether the pur port of the p as sage is to in ti mate that each of the things suc ces sively enu mer ated is higher than the pre ced ing one, or only t hat the A t man is higher than all of them. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent holds the for mer al ter na tive be cause the text ex pressly de clares the ob jects to be higher than the senses, the mind higher than t he ob jects and so on. He main tains that these sen tences are sep a rate and not one as re fer ring to the A t man alone. There fore the pur pose of the tex t is to teach t hat the ob jects are su pe rior to the senses and so on. This Su tra re futes it and de clares that it is one sen tence and means that th e At man is su pe rior to all these. The ob ject of the S ruti is not to say that each later cat e gory is higher than the f or mer, be cause there is no spir i tual gain or any use ful pur pose in such a dec la ra tion. The ai m is to de clare that Brah man is higher than all, as such knowl edge leads to Moksha. The At man alone is to be known, be cause the Knowl edge gives free dom or the fi nal re lease. The scrip ture also says He who has per - ceived that , is freed from t he jaws of death (Katha Up. I.3.15). Fur ther, the t ext in ti mates high est rev er ence for the At man by de clar ing that not h ing is higher than the A t man and that He is the high est goal and thereby shows that the whole se ries of ob jects is enu mer ated only f or the pur pose of giv ing in for ma tion about t he At - man. This in for ma tion is given f or the sake of med i ta tion on the A t man which re sults in the knowl edge of it.BRAHMA SU TRAS 384 Am_e Xm& Atmasabdaccha III.3.15 (374) And on ac count of the word At man. Atmasabdat: on account of the word At ma; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 14 is given. The above con clu sion is con firmed by t he fact that the sub ject of dis cus sion is called the Self or At man. That S elf is hid den in all be - ings and does not shine forth, but it is seen by sub tle seers through their sharp and sub tle in tel lect (Katha Up. I .3.2). F rom this we con - clude that the t ext wishes to rep re sent the other t hings enu mer ated as the non-Self . A wise man should keep down speech and mind (Katha Up. I.3.13). This p as sage en joins pi ous med i ta tion as a means of the Knowl edge of the S u preme Self. It thus fol lows that the S ruti in di cates var i ous excellences in the case of the At man only and not in that of the other thi ngs enu mer ated. The text He reaches the end of his jour ney and that is the high - est place of V ishnu sug gests the ques tion as to who is the end of the jour ney and we there fore con clude that the enu mer a tion of t he senses, ob jects, etc., has merely the pur pose of teach ing the high est place of V ishnu and not of teach ing any thing about t he re la tion of t he senses, ob jects and so on. But the enu mer a tion of t he senses is not al to gether use less. It en ables the as pi rant to turn t he out go ing mind to wards the In ner Self or the At man. This sub tle At man can not be at tained with out ab strac - tion, in tro spec tion and pro found med i t a tion. Atmagrihi tyadhikaranam : Topic 8 (Sutras 16-17) The Self m entioned in Ai t. Up. I .1. is the S upreme Sel f and the att ributes of the S elf given elsewhere should be combined with t his medit ation Am_J hr{V[aVa dXwmamV& Atmagrihi tiritaravadutt arat III.3.16 (375) (In the Aitareya Upa nisha d I.1.) the Supreme Self is me ant, as in oth er te xts ( dealing with cre ation) be cause of the subse quent qualification. Atma grihit ih: the Supreme S elf is meant; Itaravat: as in other text s (dealing with creation); Uttarat: because of the subsequent qualificati on. We read in the Ait areya Up anishad V er ily in t he be gin ning all this was the Self , one only; there was noth ing else what so ever (I.1). Here the doubt arises whether the term Sel f de notes the Su preme Self or some other be ing such as Hiranyagarbha.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 385 It re fers to the S u preme Self, even as the word Self in ot her texts which treat of cre ation re fers to It , and not t o Hiranyagarbha. From the Self ether was pro duced (T ait. Up. II.1). Why? Be cause in the sub se quent tex t of the Ait areya we have It thought shall I send forth worlds? It sent forth these worlds (Ait. Up. I.1. 2). This qual i fi ca - tion, v iz., that It thought be fore cre ation is ap plied to Brah man in the pri mary sense in other Sruti pas sages. Hence we con clude from this that t he Self re fers to the S u preme Self or P ara Brah man and not to Hiranyagarbha, or any ot her Be ing. Ad`m{X {V Mo`mXdY maUmV & Anvayaditi chet syadav adharanat III.3.17 (376) If it be said that b ecause of the context (the Supreme Self is no t meant) (w e reply th at) it is so (i.e., the Supreme Self is me ant) on account o f the definite state ment (that the Atma n alo ne existed in the b eginning). Anvayat: because of connection, because of the contex t; Iti: this, so; Chet: if; Syat: it might be so; Avadharanat: on account of the defi nite state ment. An ob jec tion to S u tra 16 is raised and re futed. The Su tra con sists of two p arts namely an ob jec tion and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion is Anvayaditi chet the re ply is Syad-avadharanat . The ref er ence is to Para Brah man or the High est Self. The word Asit shows that the ref er ence is to Para Brah man alone, be cause He alone ex isted be fore all cre ation. The Lokasrishti or cre ation of t he world is only af ter the Mahabhut asrishti or cre ation of t he five great el - e ment s. The Purvap akshin says: In the Ai tareya Up anishad (I.1), it is stated that Brah man cre ated the f our worlds. But it i s said in the Taittiriy a and other text s that Brah man cre ated ether , air, fire, wa ter and earth, the f ive el e ment s. It is only Hiranyagarbha that cre ates the world with the aid of t he el e ment s cre ated by t he High est Self. Hence the Self in the Ait areya Up anishad can not mean the S u preme Self but only Hiranyagarbha or the K arya-Brah man. This Su tra re futes it and de clares that on ac count of the st ate - ment V er ily, in the be gin ning all this was the Sel f, one only (Ait. Up. I.1.) which in ti mates that t here was one only with out a sec ond, it can only re fer to the High est Self or P ara Brah man and not to Hiranyagarbha, the K arya-Brah man. The High est Self cre ated the four worlds af ter cre at ing the el e ment s as de scribed in other Sakhas. The at trib utes of Para B rah man or the High est Self which are men - tioned in other places are to be com bined in the Ai tareyaka med i ta - tion.BRAHMA SU TRAS 386 Kary akhy anadhikaranam : Topic 9 Only thinking water to be t he dress of Prana is enjoined in the P rana-V idya H$m`m`mZmXny d_& Kary akhy anadapurv am III.3.18 (377) On account o f (the rinsin g of the mou th with wa ter re fer red to in the Prana Vidya) being a reiteration of an act (already ordai ned by th e Smri ti), wh at has not been so ordain ed elsewhere (is here enjoined by the Sruti). Kary akhy anat: on account of being a st atement of an act (already enjoined by t he Smriti); Apurvam: which has not been so enjoined elsewhere. In re gard to Prana Up asana, Achamana is or dained only as re it - er a tion of what is stated else where. What is or dained is only med i ta - tion on wa ter as cov er ing food. What is en joined in Prana V idya Upasana of Chhandogya Up anishad is not the Achamana, as such. Achamana is en joined by t he Smritis and is com mon to all. What is or - dained is Anagnat atchint ana i.e., med i tat ing that t he food is cov ered by wa ter. In the Chhandogya Up anishad (V .2.2) and the B rihadaranyaka (VI.1. 14) there is a ref er ence to the rins ing of the mou th with wa ter be - fore and af ter meal, t hink ing that t hereby that P rana is dressed. These text s in ti mate two t hings, rins ing of the mo uth and med i - ta tion on the breat h as dressed. A doubt arises whether the tex ts en - join both these mat ters or only the rins ing of the mout h, or only t he med i ta tion on breath as dressed. This Su tra st ates that t he act of rins ing the mouth is al ready or - dained on ev ery one by t he Smriti and t he act of think ing the wa ter as the dress of Prana is alone en joined by t he Sruti. The act of rins ing the mouth is not a new one and there for re quires no V e dic in junc tion. Samanadh ikaranam: T opic 10 Vidyas of the same S akha which are identical should be combined, i n medit ation g_mZ Ed M m^oXmV & Samana ev am chabhedat III.3.19 (378) In the same (Sakha also) it i s thus (i. e., there is unity of Vi dya,) owing to no n-difference (of the object of m editatio n). Samana: in the same Sakha; Evam: every , (it is) like this ; Cha: and, also; Abhedat: owing to non-dif ference. A cor ol lary to S u tra 5 is proved.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 387 In the A gnirahasya in the V ajasaneyi Sakha there is a V idya called Sandily a Vidya, i n which oc curs the pas sage Let him med i tate on the Self which con sists of mind, which has the P rana for it s body , and light for it s form (Sat. B r. Madhy . 10.6. 3.2). Agai n, in the Brihadaranyaka (V .10.6) which be longs to the same Sakha we have That per son con sist ing of mind, whose be ing is light, is within the heart, small li ke a grain of rice or bar ley. He is the ruler of all, the Lord of allHe rules all thi s what so ever ex ists. A doubt here pres ents it self whether these two p as sages are to be taken as one V idya in which the p ar tic u lars men tioned in ei ther text are to be com bined or not. A re they one V idya or dif fer ent V idyas? This Su tra de clares that, they are one V idya, as t he ob ject of med i ta tion (Up asya) is the same in both. The ob ject of med i ta tion in both is the Sel f con sist ing of mind. The com bin ing of the p ar tic u lars of a sim i lar Vidya in t he same Sakha is the same as in the case of such Vidyas which oc cur in dif fer ent Sakhas. Al though the t wo p as sages be long to one and the same S akha, they y et con sti tute t he Vidya only and their p ar tic u lars have to be com bined into one whole. T he for mer di rects wor ship, by means of such V idya. The l at ter gives it s Gunas (fea tures). Though there is some dif fer ence in mi nor de tails, the t wo de - scrip tions of the S andilya V idya in t he two Srutis are prac ti cally the same. So, a p ar tic u lar point men tioned in one Srut i in con nec tion with the Sandily a Vidya has to be in cor po rated with the ot her, if it be not men tioned in the l at ter. There fore the Sandi lya V idya is one. Samband hadhikaranam : Topic 1 1 (Sutras 20-22) The names Ahar and A ham of Brahm an occurring in Bri. Up. V .5.1-2 cannot be com bined g~YmXo d_`m{n& Samband hadev amany atrapi III.3.20 (379) Thus in other cases also, on account of t he connection (of particular s with one and the same Vidya). Sambandhat: on account of the connection; Evam: thus, like thi s; Anyatra: in other cases; Api: also. An in fer ence on the anal ogy of t he pre ced ing Su tra is drawn by way of ob jec tion. This Su tra is a Purvap aksha Su tra. It sets forth the v iew of the op po nent. We read in the Brihadaranyaka (V .5.1-2), Sat ya (the trut h) is Brah man. That which is Sat ya is that Sunthe be ing who is in that orb and the be ing who is in the right ey e. This gives the abode of the Satya Brah man with re spect to the gods and the body . The tex tBRAHMA SU TRAS 388 teaches the two se cret names of the Sat ya Brah man in con nec tion with these abodes. It s se cret name is Ahar with ref er ence to the gods, and it s se cret name is Aham with ref er ence to the body . A doubt here arises whether these two se cret names are both to be ap plied to the Dev a-abode of Brah man as well as to it s bodily abode, or only one name t o each. Now on the anal ogy of t he Sandilya Vidya, t he par tic u lars must be com bined as the ob ject of med i ta tion, v iz., the S atya B rah man is one. There fore both the nam es Ahar and Aham have to be com - bined with re spect to Saty a Brah man. Both t he se cret names equally be long to the A ditya as well as to the per son within the eye. Z dm {deo fmV& Na v a viseshat III.3.21 (380) Rathe r not (s o) on acc ount of the diffe rence (of p lace). Na: not, not so; Va: or, but; Viseshat: because of dif ference. ( Na va: rather not.) The con clu sion ar rived at in t he pre ced ing Su tra is set aside. This is the Siddhant a Su tra. This Su tra re futes the v iew of the pre vi ous Su tra. As t he so lar orb and the eye-ball are too di s tant and dis tant abodes for the wor ship of Brah man, the t wo sig nif i cant names Ahar and Aham re ferred to in the pre vi ous Su tra, should not bot h be em ployed in t he same form of med i ta tion. E ach name re fers to a dif fer ent lo cus of Upasana. Though the V idya is one, sti ll on ac count of dif fer ence in places the ob ject of med i ta tion be comes dif fer ent. There fore there are dif fer - ent names. Hence these can not be ex changed or com bined. The Purvap akshin or the op po nent raises an ob jec tion. He says: The per son within the orb of t he sun and the per son within the eye are one only , be cause the text teaches that both are abodes of the one true Brah man. True, we re ply, but as each se cret name is t aught only wit h ref er - ence to the one Brah man and con di tioned by a p ar tic u lar st ate, t he name ap plies to Brah man only in so far as it is in that st ate. Here is an anal ogy. The teacher al ways re mains the teacher; y et those kinds of ser vices which the pu pil has to do to t he teacher when sit ting have not to be done when he st ands and vice versa. The com par i son given by t he op po nent is not well cho sen as the du ties of the di s ci ple to wards his teacher de pend on the lat ters char - ac ter as teacher and that is not changed by his be ing ei ther in the v il - lage or in the for est. There fore, the t wo se cret names Ahar and Aham have to be held ap art. They can not be com bined.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 389 Xe`{V M& Darsay ati cha III.3.22 (381) (The scripture) also declares (that). Darsay ati: (Sruti) shows, indicates, declares; Cha: also, and. An ad di tional ar gu ment is given t o re fute S u tra 20. The scrip ture dis tinctly states that t he at trib utes are not to be com bined, but kept ap art; be cause it com pares the two per sons, the per son in the sun and the per son within the eye. If it wanted the p ar tic - u lars to be com bined, it would not make such a com par i son. The con clu sion, there fore, is that the two se cret names are to be kept ap art. Sambhri tyadhikaranam : Topic 12 Attributes of Brahm an occurring in the Ranayaniya Khila constitute an independent Vidya g^{Vw`m`{ n MmV& Sambhritidy uvyaptyapi chat ah III.3.23 (382) For the same reason (as in the previous Sutra) th e supp ort ing (of the worl d) and perv ading the sky ( attribut ed to Brah man i n the Rana yaniya Khila) a lso (are not to be includ ed in othe r Vidyas or Upasanas of Brah man). Sambhr iti: supporting the world; Dyuvyapti: pervading the sky; Api: also; Cha: and; Atah: for the same reason (as in the previous Sut ra). (Dyu: the sky , all the sp ace, heaven). A re stric tion to S u tra 5 is made. In a sup ple men tary text of the Ranayani yas we meet with a p as - sage, The pow ers, which were col lected to gether , were pre ceded by Brah man; the pre-ex is tent B rah man in the be gin ning per vaded the whole sky . Now these two qual i ties Sambhrit i and Dyuvy apti are not to be in serted or in cluded in the Sandil ya Vidya and other V idyas for the same rea son as is given in the last S u tra, vi z., dif fer ence of abode. In the Sandily a Vidya, B rah man is said to have it s abode in the heart He is the Self within the heart (Chh. Up. III .14.3). T he same st ate ment is made in the Dahara-V idya There is the p al ace, the small lo tus of the heart, and in it that small et her (VIII. 1.1). In t he Up akosala-V idya, again, Brah man is said to abide within t he eye That per son that is seen in the eye (IV .15.1). Fur ther these qual i ties and those men tioned in other V idyas like the Sandily a Vidya are of such a na ture as to ex clude each other and are not sug ges tive of each other . The mere fact of cer tain V idyas be - ing con nected with Brah man does not con sti tute t heir unity . It is an es -BRAHMA SU TRAS 390 tab lished fact that Brah man, al though one only , is ow ing to the plu ral ity of its pow ers med i tated upon in many ways, as shown un der Su tra 7. The con clu sion, there fore, is that the at trib utes of hold ing to - gether it s pow ers (Sambhriti and Dyuv yapti) are not t o be in serted in the Sandily a and sim i lar Vidyas, and t hat the Up asana re ferred to in this Su tra is an in de pend ent V idya by i t self. The S andilya V idya re fers to the wor ship of At man in the heart and t he Up akosala-V idya re fers to the wor ship of the At man in the ey e, whereas the above at trib utes re late to t he mac ro cosm. Purushav idyadhikaranam: T opic 13 The Purusha V idya in the Chhandogya and the T aittiriya are not to be com bined nwf{dm`m{_ d MoVa ofm_ZmZmZmV & Purushav idyayamiv a chet areshamanam nanat III.3.24 (383) And (as the qualities) as (mentioned) in the Purusha-Vidya (of the C hhando gya) are not me ntione d (in that) of the others (i.e., in the Taittiriya) (the two P urusha-Vidyas a re not one; are not to be combin ed). Parushav idyayamiv a: as in the Purusha-V idya (of t he Chhandogya); Cha: and; Itaresham: of the ot hers; Anamnanat: because of not being menti oned (in the T aittiriy a). The Purusha V idya of t he Chhandogya Up anishad and that of the T aittiriy a Up anishad are now ex am ined. In the Rahasya-Brahmana of the T andins and the Paingins (the Chhandogya) there is a V idya treat ing of man in which man is iden ti - fied with t he sac ri fice, the t hree pe ri ods of his life wit h the three li ba - tions Man is the sac ri fice. In the T aittiriy a Aranyaka (X.64) also oc curs a sim i lar Vidya For him who knows thus the self of t he sac ri fice is the sac ri ficer, faith (Sraddha) is the wife of t he sac ri ficer, etc. The doubt here arises whether the two V idyas are one, whether the p ar tic u lars of the man-sac ri fice given in t he Chhandogya are to be in serted in the T aittiriy a or not. The fun da men tal at trib ute re ferred to is that man is iden ti fied with sac ri fice in both. This Su tra de clares that in spite of this, the t wo Vidyas are not one, be cause the de tails dif fer. The char ac ter is tics of the Purusha-Y ajna of the Chhandogy as are not re cog nised in the Taittiriy a text . The T aittiriy a ex hib its an iden ti fi ca tion of man wit h the sac ri fice in which the wife, the sac ri ficer, the V eda, the V edi, the sac ri - fi cial grass, the post, t he but ter, the sac ri fi cial an i mal, the priest etc., are men tioned in suc ces sion. These p ar tic u lars are not men tion ed in the Chhandogya.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 391 The two tex ts agree in iden ti fi ca tion of t he Avabhritha cer e mony with death. There are greater num ber of dis sim i lar i ties. The T aittiriy a does not rep re sent man as the sac ri fice as the Chhandogya does. More over the re sult of the V idya in t he Taittiriy a is the at tain ment of the great ness of Brah man: He ob tains the great ness of Brah man. The re sult of the V idya in Chhandogya i s long life, He who knows this lives on to a hun dred and six teen years. There fore, the t wo V idyas are sep a rate. The p ar tic u lars can not be com bined in the two places. The par tic u lars men tioned in the Purusha-V idya of Chhandogy a, such as for mu las of prayer , Mantras and so on are not to be com bined with the T aittiriy a text of the V idya. Vedhady adhikaranam : Topic 14 Unconnected Mantras and sacrifices mentioned in cert ain Upanishads do not belong to Brahm a-Vidya doYm W^oXmV& Vedhady arthabhedat III.3.25 (384) Because the matter (of certai n Mantr as) such as piercing and so on is d ifferent (from the matte r of the approximate Vidyas), (the forme r are not to be combined with the latte r). Vedhadi: piercing etc.; Arthabhedat : because they have a dif ferent meaning. Cer tain ex pres sions oc cur ring at the be gin ning of an Up anishad of the A tharva-V eda are t aken up for dis cus sion. At the be gin ning of the Up anishad of the At harvanikas we have Pierce the whole (body of t he en emy), pierce his heart, crush his veins, crush his head etc. At the be gin ning of the Up anishad of the Tandins we have the Man tra O God Savi ta! pro duce the sac ri fice. At the be gin ning of Kat has and the T aittiriy aka we have May Mit ra be pro pi tious to us and V aruna etc. At t he be gin ning of that of the Kaushit akins we have Brah man in deed is the Agnistom a, Brah man is that day ; through Brah man they p ass into Brah man, Im mor tal ity, those reach who ob serve that day . The ques tion is whether these Mant ras and the sac ri fices re - ferred to in the B rahmanas in close prox im ity to the Up anishads are to be com bined with the V idyas pre scribed by these Up anishads. The op po nent holds that t hey are to be com bined, be cause the text ex hib its them in prox im ity to the Up anishad-por tions of the Brahmanas whose chief con tents are formed by the V idyas. I n the case of Mantras we can al ways imag ine some mean ing which con - nects them with the V idyas. The f irst Man tra quoted glo ri fies the heart, be cause the heart is of ten rep re sented in the V idyas as abode of med i ta tion. There fore Mantras which glo rify the heart may con sti - tute sub or di nate mem bers of those V idyas.BRAHMA SU TRAS 392 This Su tra de clares that they are not to be com bined be cause their mean ing is dif fer ent, as they in di cate act s of a sac ri fice and so have no as so ci a tion or re la tion ship with the Vidyas. The Mantras might be so em ployed if their whole con tents were glo ri fi ca tion of t he heart, but t his is not the case. The Man tra first quoted clearly ex presses en mity to some body and is there fore not to be con nected with the V idyas of t he Up anishads, but with some cer e - mony meant to de stroy one s en emy. Other Mantras are sub or di nate to cer tain sac ri fi cial ac tions. They can not, be cause they oc cur in the Up anishads, be con nect ed with the V idyas on the ground of m ere prox im ity. For this rea son the men tioned Mantras and act s are not on the ground of mere tex tual col lo ca tion to be v iewed as sup ple men tary to the V idyas of t he Up anishads. Hany adhikaranam : Topic 15 The st atem ent that the good and evil deeds of a person go respectively to his friends and enemies is t rue for text s that m ention discarding of such actions by him hmZm V ynm`Ze XeofdmHw$emN> XVw`wnJmZd mXw$_ & Hanau tup ayanasabdaseshatv at kusacchandastuty upaganav attadukt am III.3.26 (385) But whe re only the ge tting rid (of the good and e vil) is mentio ned (the o btaining o f this good and e vil by o thers has to be add ed) be cause the stateme nt about acceptance is supplementary (to the state ment abo ut the getting rid of) as in the case of the Kusas, metres, praise and hymns or r ecitations. This (i.e ., the reason for this ) has been state d (by Jaim ini in Purvamimamsa). Hanau: where only the gett ing rid (of good and evil ) is mentioned; Tu: but; Upayanasabdaseshatv at: on account of the word accept ance being supplement ary to the word get ting rid; Kusacchandastuty upaganav at: like K usa-st icks, m etres, pra ises and hymns; Tat: that; Uktam: has been st ated (by Jaimini). (Upayana: accept ance; Sabda: on account of the st atement of the word; Seshatv at: on account of being supplement ary to.) Here is a dis cus sion on the shak ing of f of v ir tues and vices by the re leased soul at death and thei r ac cep tance by his friends and en - e mies. Jaimini has said that st ate ment s with re spect to Kusas, met res, praises and hymns have to be com pleted from ot her text s. It is said in the Kaushit aki Sruti that Kusa sticks are to be col lected from trees with out any spec i fi ca tion as to what sort of tree; but i n the Sat yayana branch it is said that t he Kusas are of the Udumbara tree. T his lat terCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 393 ex pres sion is to be ac cepted as com ple men tary to the f or mer ex pres - sion of the Kaushit aki Sruti. T he first Srut i will have t o be com pleted in the light of the other . There is in a Sruti an in junc tion to say a prayer com posed in metre with out any spec i fi ca tion of t he kind of metre, but in an other place there is men tion of t he Deva-metre to be em ployed in such a case. There fore the Deva-met re is to be un der stood in the pre vi ous case also. There is in struc tion in one Srut i to ut ter praises for the sac ri fi cial ves sel Shodasi with out spec i fy ing the tim e as to when it should be per formed; but in an other Sruti i t is taught to be per formed when the sun has risen. Here the lat ter in struc tion is to be ac cepted as sup ple - men tary to the f or mer. As re gards the hymn it is not def i nitely stated which of the f our priest s is to join in the sing ing of the pray er in a sac ri fice; but t his doubt has been cleared up by a p ar tic u lar text which says that the Adhvaryu wil l not join in t he sing ing. Put t ing the two st ate ment s to - gether , the con clu sion is that all t he priest s ex cept the Adhv aryu will join. This prin ci ple is here ap plied to the ef fects of the ac tions of a lib - er ated sage in con nec tion with t he V idyas men tioned in the Upanishads. In the t ext of the T andins we find shakes of f all ev il as a horse shakes his hair, and shak ing of f the body as the moon frees her self from the m outh of Rahu, I ob tain the uncreated world of B rah - man (Chh. Up. VII I.13). A gain in Mundaka Up anishad (III. 1.3) we read Then know ing shak ing of f good and evil , he reaches the high est one ness, free from p as sion. These Srutis are si lent on the point as to who ac cepts his good and evil deeds. In the S atyay ana branch of Sruti it is said His sons ob tain his in - her i tance, his friends the good, hi s en e mies the evil he has done. In the Kaushit aki Upani shad (I.4) we find He shakes of f his good and his bad deeds. His be loved re la tions ob tain the good, his un be loved rel a tives t he evil he has done. This Su tra de clares that the ob tain ing of the good and ev il by his friends and en e mies has to be in serted or nec es sar ily added in t he Chhandogya text and Mundaka text ac cord ing to Jaimini s prin ci ple ex plained above. The Purvap akshin raises an other ob jec tion. He ar gues that the verb Dhu in the tex t of the Chhandogya and Kaushit aki may be in ter - preted as trem bling and not as get ting rid of. It would mean there - fore that good and ev il still cling t o a per son who at tains Knowl edge, al though their ef fects are re tarded on ac count of the K nowl edge. This Su tra de clares that such a mean ing is in cor rect, be cause the sub se quent por tion of t he text in di cates that oth ers ob tain theBRAHMA SU TRAS 394 good and evil. This is cer tainly not pos si ble un less the per son who at - tains Knowl edge aban dons them. Good and evil deeds can not be said to t rem ble in the lit eral sense of the word like flags in the wind, as they are not of a sub stan tial na ture. Though Dhu in V idhuya may be said to sig nify shak ing and not cast ing of f, yet as oth ers are de scribed as tak ing the lib er ated sage s mer its and sins, it means cast ing of f. Samp arayadhikaranam : Topic 16 (Sutras 27-28) The shaking off of good and evil by t he man of Knowledge occurs only at the tim e of his death gmnam`o V m`m^mdm mWm`o& Samp araye tarttavyabhav attathahy anye III.3.27 (386) (He who at tains kn owledge gets rid of his g ood and evil deeds) at the time of death, the re being no thing to be attain ed (by h im on the way to Brah maloka th rough tho se work s); fo r thus others (declare in the ir sac red texts). Samp araye: at the t ime of death; Tarttavyabhav at: there being nothing to be at tained; Tatha: in this way , so; Hi: because, for; Anye: others. This Su tra de cides when the in di vid ual soul shakes of f his good and evil deeds. The ques tion now arises as to when the in di vid ual soul get s rid of his good and evil deeds. In the K aushit aki Upani shad (I.4) we find He co mes to the riv er Viraja and crosses it by the mind alone, and there he shakes of f good and evil . On the strength of this tex t the Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that the good and ev il deeds are dis carded on his way to Brahmaloka and not at the time o f de part - ing from the body . This Su tra re futes it and de clares that the lib er ated sage frees him self from the ef fects of good and evil works at the t ime of death through the strength of his knowl edge. Though the Kaushit aki Sruti re fers to the dis card ing of good and evil on t he Devayana way or t he way to Brahmal oka, af ter cross ing the V iraja river , the good and ev il deeds are cast of f at deat h, be cause there is noth ing to be at tained through them af ter death, t here re main - ing noth ing to be en joyed by hi m through his good and evil works. The good and evil works are no lon ger of any use to him and not fit to be re tained by him t here af ter. The Sanchit a Karma or ac cu mu lated works are de stroyed as soon as one at tains knowl edge of Brah man. Prarabdha is de stroyed at death. So he is freed from t he ef fects of all his mer its and sins at the time of deat h.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 395 As the re sults of his good and evil deeds are con trary to t he re - sult of knowl edge, they are de stroyed by t he power of the lat ter. The mo ment of t heir de struc tion is that mo ment in which he set s out to - wards the fruit of hi s knowl edge, i.e. , the world of B rah man. More over it is not pos si ble to cast of f the ef fects of good and evil deeds on the way to B rahmaloka be cause the soul has no gross body and so it can not take re course to any prac tice that can de stroy them. Fur ther one can not cross the river V iraja un less he is freed from all good and evil. The Sruti de clares shak ing of f all ev il as a horse shakes of f his hairs (Chh. Up . VIII.13.1 ). There fore the set tled con clu sion is that all good and ev il works are cast of f at the time of de ath. N>XV C^`m{da moYmV& Chhandat a ubhay avirodhat III.3.28 (387) (The in terpretation th at the indi vidual sou l pra ctising Yama-Niyama) according to his likin g (discards good and evil works whil e living is reasonable) on account of there being harmony i n that case be tween the two (viz., cause and e ffect, as we ll as be tween the C hhando gya and a nothe r Sruti). Chhandat ah: according to his liking; Ubhay avirodhat: on account of there being harmony bet ween the two. ( Ubhay a: of either; Avirodhat: there being no contradiction. ) The view is cor rect be cause vol un tary per for mance of Y ama, Niyma, et c., to get rid of Karma is pos si ble only be fore death, and be - cause it is op posed to all tex ts. The above v iew is in agree ment or uni - son with all Sruti s. If the soul frees him self from his good and evi l deeds on the way af ter hav ing de parted from the body and hav ing en tered on the way of the gods (Devayana), we land our selves in im pos si bil i ties, be cause af ter the body has been lef t be hind, he can not prac tise ac cord ing to his lik ing self-re straint and pur suit of knowl edge which can ef fect de - struc tion of his good and ev il deeds. There fore there can not be an ni - hi la tion of his good and ev il works. It does not cer tainly st and to rea son that the ef fect is de layed ti ll some time af ter death when the cause is there al ready . When there is a body it i s not pos si ble to at tain Brahmaloka. There is no dif fi culty in dis card ing good and evil.BRAHMA SU TRAS 396 Gaterarthav attvad hikaranam : Topic 17 (Sutras 29-30) The knower of Saguna Brahm an alone goes along Devayana, and not the knower of Nirguna Brahm an JVoaWdd_w^`Wm` Wm {h {da moY& Gaterarthav attvam ubhay athany atha hi v irodhah III.3.29 (388) (The sou ls) jo urney (along the path of the gods , Devayana) i s applic able in a two- fold m anner, ot herwi se there woul d be contradiction (of s cripture). Gateh: of the journey of the soul (af ter death), along t he path of t he gods; Arthav atvam: utility; Ubhay atha: in two ways; Anyatha: otherwise; Hi: for, cert ainly; Virodhah: contradiction. Here is a side is sue of Su tra 27. In some scrip tural tex ts the dead man s go ing on the p ath of t he gods is men tioned in con nec tion with his f ree ing him self from good and evil. In other tex ts it is not men tioned. The doubt now arises whether the two thi ngs go to gether in all cases or only in cer tain cases. The Purvap akshin holds that the t wo are to be con nected in all cases, just as the man s free ing him self from his good and evi l works is al ways fol lowed by their p ass ing over to his f riends and en e mies. This Su tra de clares that the wor ship per of Saguna Brah man only t akes jour ney af ter death along t he Devayana. T he go ing on that path has a sense in the case of Saguna Up asana only and not in wor - ship pers of Nirguna Brah man. Brahmaloka is lo cated else where in space. The Saguna Up asaka has to move and at tain that abode. There is ac tual go ing through which an other place is reached. There - fore, the j our ney has a mean ing in his case only . The Prana of Nirguna Upasaka is ab sorbed in Brah man. He is one with the I n fi nite or the Ab so lute. Where will he mov e? The lib er ated sage who is free from all de sires and ego ism does not go to an other place. He does not move. The Su preme Brah man is not to be reached by t he lib er - ated sage. He need not t rans port him self to an other lo cal ity. There is no mean ing at all in j our ney for such a sage who is ab sorbed in Nirguna Brah man. His ig no rance is de stroyed by t he dawn of knowl - edge of Brah man. He be comes iden ti cal with the Su preme Self. If there is jour ney for him al so, then it would con tra dict Sruti t exts like Shak ing of f good and evil , free from p as sions, he reaches the High - est Self, or Para-Brah man (Mun. Up. II I.1.3). How can the lib er ated sage who has be come one with the Su - preme Brah man who is secondless, who is all-per vad ing, who is In fi - nite, who is with out mo tion, go t o an other place by Devay ana? He has al ready at tained his goal or un ion with Brah man. The jour ney along the Devayana i s mean ing less for him.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 397 There fore, he who has real ised the Saguna Brah man, he who wor ships Saguna Brah man alone goes by the Dev ayana. CnnVb jUmWm}n bYobm}H$dV& Upapannast allakshanartho palabdherl okav at III.3.30 (389) (The two- fold v iew ta ken above) is j ustified because we observe a purpose chara cterised the reby (i.e., a pu rpose of the goin g) as in ordinary life . Upapannah: is reasonable; Tallakshanartho palabdheh: for th e characteristics which render s uch journey possible are seen; Lokav at: as is seen in the world, as is the ordinary experience. (Tat: that; Lakshana: mark, characteristic features; Artha: object; Upalabdheh: being known, on account of the obt aining.) The pre vi ous dis cus sion is con tin ued. The med i ta tions on Saguna or qual i fied Brah man, such as the Paryankavidy a of the K aushit aki Upani shad, there is a rea son for the man s pro ceed ing on the p ath of t he gods (Devayana); be cause the text men tions cer tain re sults which can be at tained only by the man go ing to dif fer ent places, such as his mount ing a couch, his hold ing con ver sa tion with B rah man seated on a couch, his ex pe ri enc ing var i - ous odours and so on. On the con trary go ing on the p ath of t he gods has noth ing to do with per fect knowl edge. No pur pose is served by such a jour ney in the case of a lib er ated sage or Nirguna Upasaka in whom ig no rance has been de stroyed by t he dawn of knowl edge of Brah man or the Im per - ish able. He has at tained one ness or unity with the S u preme Self. All his de sires have been ful filled. All his Kar mas have been de stroyed. He is only wait ing for the dis so lu tion of t he body . The de struc tion is sim i lar to what is ob served in or di nary life. If we wish to reach some vil lage we have to pro ceed on a p ath lead ing there, but no m ov ing on a p ath is needed when we want to at tain free - dom from a dis ease. Aniy amadhikar anam: T opic 18 The p assage of the soul by Devayana applies equally to all V idyas of Saguna Brahm an A{Z`_ gdmgm_ {damoY e XmZw_mZm`m_ & Aniyamah sar vasamavirodhah s abdanum anabhy am III.3.31(390) There is no restriction ( as to the going on the path of the gods for any V idya). T here is no contradiction as i s see n from t he Sruti a nd Sm riti. Aniyamah: (there is) no restriction; Sarv asam: of all; Avirodhah: there is no contradiction; Sabdanumanabhy am: as is seen fromBRAHMA SU TRAS 398 Sruti and Smriti . (Sabdah: the word, i.e. , the reveal ed scripture or Sruti; Anumana: inference or Smriti. ) The jour ney of t he soul who knows Brah man is con tin ued. We have shown that t he go ing on the p ath of t he gods is valid only for t he V idyas of Sagun a Brah man, not f or the knowl edge of Nirguna Brah man which is de void of al l qual i ties. Now we ob serve that t he go ing on the p ath of t he gods to Brahmaloka is men tioned only in some of the qual i fied V idyas such as the Paryanka V idya, t he Panchagni V idya, t he Up akosala V idya, t he Dahara V idya, but it is not men tioned or ex pressly st ated in oth ers such as the Madhu V idya, t he Sandilya V idya, t he Shodasakala Vidya, t he Vaisvanara V idya. The doubt now arises whether the go ing on the p ath of t he gods is to be con nected with those V idyas in which it is ac tu ally men tioned or gen er ally with al l Vidyas of t hat kind. This Su tra de clares that all wor ship pers of the Saguna B rah - man, what ever their V idyas may be, go af ter death by t his path. This is seen from the Srut i and Smriti . Those who med i tate thus through Panchagni V idya and also those who un der stand other V idyas and also those who med i tate in the f or est with fait h and aus teri ties, on Saguna Brah man through any ot her V idya pro ceed on the p ath of t he gods (Chh. Up . V.10.1 .); (Br i. Up. VI.2.15 ). Bhagavad Git a also de clares, Light and dark ness, these are thought t o be the world s ev er last ing p aths; by t he one he goes who does not re turn, by t he other he re turns again (VIII .26). The term The T rue in the p as sage Those who in the for est, with fait h, wor ship the T rue, i.e., Brah man, is of ten em ployed to de - note Brah man. Thus it is quite clear that the go ing on the p ath of gods is not con fined to t hose V idyas in which it is ac tu ally men tioned or ex pressly stated. Yavadadhikaradhi karanam: T opic 19 Perfected souls m ay take a corporeal existence for divine mission `mdX{Y H$ma_dpW{Vam{ YH$m[aH$mUm_& Yavadadhikaram avasthitiradhi karikanam III.3.32 (391) Of tho se who h ave a mis sion to fu lfil (th ere is co rporeal) existence , so long as the mission is no t fulfilled. Yavadadhikaram : so long as the mission is not fulf illed; Avasthitih: (there is corporeal) existence; Adhikarikanam : of those who have a mission in life to fulfil. ( Yavad: as long as; Adhikaram: mission, purpose to be fulfil led.) A plau si ble ob jec tion to S u tra 31 is re futed.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 399 The Purvap akshin says: Rishi Ap antaratamas, a teacher of t he Vedas was by the or der of V ishnu, born on this earth as V yasa or Krishna Dvaip ayana. S im i larly V asishtha, the son of B rahma s mind hav ing p arted from for mer body in con se quence of the curse of Nimi, was on the or der of Brahma, agai n pro cre ated by Mi tra and V aruna. Bhrigu and other sons of Brahma s mind were again born at the sac ri - fice of V aruna. Sanatkumara also, who li ke wise was a son of Brahma s mind, was in con se quence of a boon be ing granted to Rudra, born again as Skanda. Daksha, Narada and other Rishis were born again. It is st ated that some as sumed a new body af ter the old body had per ished, some as sumed through their su per nat u ral pow - ers var i ous new bod ies while the old body re mained in tact all the while. Now these Rishis had knowl edge of Brah man or the Ab so lute and yet t hey had to be re born. If t his is the case what is the use of such knowl edge of Brah man? The knowl edge of Brah man may ei ther be or not be the cause of fi nal eman ci pa tion or free dom. The Su tra re futes it and de clares that or di narily a per son is not re born af ter at tain ing knowl edge of the A b so lute. B ut the case of those who have a di vine mis sion to ful fil is dif fer ent. They may have one or more births till t heir mis sion is ful filled, af ter which they are not born again. They are en trusted with t he of fices con du cive to t he sub - sis tence of the world such as the pro mul ga tion of t he Vedas and the like. They as sume new bod ies of their own free will and not as the re - sult of Karma. They p ass from one body to an other , as if from one house into an other in or der to ac com plish the du ties of thei r of fices. They pre serve all the t rue mem ory of thei r iden tity. They cre ate for them selves, through t heir power over the ma te rial of the body and the sense or gans, new bod ies and oc cupy them ei ther all at once or in suc ces sio n. Smriti t ells us that Sul abha, a woman who had knowl edge of Brah man, wanted t o en ter into dis cus sion with Janaka. She lef t her own body , en tered into t hat of Janaka, car ried on a dis cus sion with him and again re turned into her own body . Tat Tvam Asi (That thou art) does not mean Tat Tvam Mrito Bhavishyasi (they will be come That af ter death). I t can not be in ter - preted to mean Thou wilt be that af ter thou hast dead. An other text de clares that the fruit of Knowl edge viz., un ion with Brah man springs up at the mo ment when the com plete knowl edge of Brah man is at - tained. The Rishi V amadeva saw and un der stood it sing ing, I was Manu, I was the sun. But t hey never come un der the sway of A vidya or ne science even though t hey may be born. The case is sim i lar to that of a lib er - ated sage. A Jivanmukt a con tin ues his phys i cal ex is tence even af ter at tain ing Brahma Jnana or Knowl edge of the A b so lute as long as theBRAHMA SU TRAS 400 Prarabdha Karma last s. The di vine mis sion of these Rishis like Sri Vyasa, V asishtha, Ap antaratamas, can be com pared to the Prarabdha Karma of Jiv anmukt as. For all these rea sons it is es tab lished that t hose who are en - dowed with true and per fect knowl edge at tain in all cases fi nal eman - ci pa tion. Aksharadhy adhikaranam : Topic 20 The negative att ributes of Brahm an ment ioned in various text s are to be combined i n all m editations on Brahm an Aja{Y`m ddamoY gm_m`Vmdm`m_ mngXd mXw$_& Aksharadhiy am tv avarodhah samany atadbhav abhy amaup asadav attadukt am III.3.33 (392) But the con ceptions o f the (negative) attrib utes of th e Imperisha ble (Bra hman ) are to be combined (f rom di fferent texts whe re the Imperisha ble Brah man is dealt with , as the y form o ne Vidya), b ecause of the simi larity ( of defining the Imperishable Brahman throu gh de nials) and the o bject (the Impe rishable Brahman) being the same, as in the case of the Upasad (offerings). This has bee n explaine d (by Jaimini in the Purvamimamsa). Aksharadhiy am: of the medit ation of negat ive att ributes belonging to the Imperishable; Tu: but, indeed; Avarodhah: combination; Samany atadbhav abhy am: because of the similarity (of denying Brahman through denials) and the object (viz., I mperishable Brahman) being the same; Aupasadav at: as in the case of the Upasad (of fering) like the hy mn or the Mantra in connection wit h the Upasada rite; Tat: that; Uktam: has been explained (by Jaimini in the Purvamimamsa) . The neg a tive at trib ut es of the Im per ish able are now ex am in ed, as the pos i tive at trib utes were ex am ined in Su tra 11 of this Sec tion. We read in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad, O Gargi! The Brahmanas or the knowers of Brah man call this Akshara or the Im - per ish able. It is nei ther gross nor sub tle, nei ther short nor long (Bri. Up. III .8.8). A gain the Mundaka says, The S u preme Knowl edge is that by which the Im per ish able (Akshara) is at tained. That which is imperceivable, ungrasp able, which has no fam ily and no caste etc. (Mun. Up. I. 1.5-6). In ot her places also the high est Brah man, un der the name of A kshara is de scribed as that of which all qual i ties are to be de nied. A doubt arises now as to whether the neg a tive qual i ties in the above two tex ts are to be com bined so as to form one V idya or they are to be treated as two sep a rate V idyas.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 401 The Purvap akshin main tains that each de nial is valid onl y for that p as sage in which the text ac tu ally ex hib its it, and not f or other places. These neg a tive at trib utes do not di rectly in di cate or spec ify the na ture of Brah man like the pos i tive at trib utes, Bli ss, Peace, Knowl edge, T ruth, Pu rity, Per fec tion, E ter nity, etc. Hence the prin ci - ple st ated in Su tra III .3.11 does not ap ply here, be cause no pur pose is re ally served or gained by such a com bi na tion. This Su tra re futes this and de clares that such de ni als are to be com bined be cause the method of t each ing Brah man through de nial is the same and the ob ject of in struc tion is also the same, v iz., the I m - per ish able Brah man (Akshara). The rule of Su tra III .3.11 ap plies here also. In Su tra III .3.11 pos i tive at trib utes of Brah man were dis cussed. Here we are con cerned with neg a tive at trib utes which teach Brah - man by an in di rect method. The case is sim i lar to the Up asad of fer - ings. The Mantras for giv ing these of fer ings are found only in t he Sama V eda. But the priest s of the Y ajur V eda use this Man tra given in the other V eda. The hym ns which oc cur in the Sama V eda are re cited by the A dhvaryu af ter the ti me of the Y ajur V eda. This prin ci ple has been es tab lished by Jaimini in P urvamimamsa (II I.3. 9). Sim i larly the neg a tive at trib utes have to be com bined here also in the med i t a tion on the Im per ish able Brah man (Akshara). The con cep tion of the neg a tive at trib ut es of the In de struc ti ble (Akshara) as stated i n the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad is to be re - tained in the med i ta tions on the In de struc ti ble ev ery where (i.e., in ev - ery Akshara V idya) be cause the same Akshara is re cog nised in ev ery Akshara V idya and also be cause those neg a tive at trib utes are pre - sup posed to be in cluded among His es sen tial at trib utes. Iyadadhikaranam : Topic 21 Mundaka III. 1.1 and Kat ha I.3. 1 constitute one V idya B`Xm_ZZ mV& Iyadamananat III.3.34 (393) Because (the same thing) is described as such and such. Iyat: so much only , this much; Amananat: on account of being men tioned in the scripture. We read in the Mundaka Up anishad T wo birds of beau ti ful plum age, in sep a ra ble friends, cling t o the same tree. One of them eats the sweet and bit ter fruit s there of, t he other looks on with out eat - ing (Mun. Up. II I.1.1). The same Man tra is found in the t ext of Svetasvat ara Upani shad (IV .6). Again we have, There are the two en joy ing the fruit s of their good deeds, en tered into t he cave, dwell ing on the high est sum mit. Those who know Brah man call them shade and light , like wise thoseBRAHMA SU TRAS 402 house hold ers who per form the T rinachiket a sac ri fice (Katha Up. I.3.1) . The doubt here arises, do we have in these t wo text s two dif fer - ent V idyas or one only? The Purvap akshin or the op po nent main tains that these are two Vidyas, be cause there are dif fer ent ob jects of med i ta tion. The Mundaka text de clares that only one eat s the fruit, while the other does not. Kat ha text says that bot h of them en joy the f ruits of their good ac tions. So t he ob ject of med i ta tion is not t he same. As the ob - jects of knowl edge dif fer in char ac ter, the V idyas them selves must be looked upon as sep a rate. This Su tra re futes it and de clares that they form one V idya, be - cause both de scribe the same Lord as ex ist ing thus and thus, i. e. in the form of the in di vid ual soul. The pur pose or aim of the two S ruti pas sages is to teach about the High est Self or P ara Brah man and show the iden tity of the Jiv a and Para Brah man. As the word Dvau, i. e., two is used in the two Srutis we must real ise that they re fer to the same V idya. Though t he Mundaka text says that one bird (the i n di vid ual soul) eat s the fruit s of ac tions and the other bird looks on with out eat ing and though the lat ter pas sage re fers to the t wo as eat ing fruit s, the V idyas are the same as they re fer to the same en tity. Just as when in a group one car ries an um brella we say um brella-hold ers go, even so the Para B rah man also is de - scribed as eat ing fruit s. The con text re fers clearly to t he eter nal and Su preme Brah man (Aksharam brahm a yat p aram ). The Katha Up anishad text in ti mates the same high est Brah man which is above all de sires. As it is men tioned to gether with the en joy - ing in di vid ual soul, it is it self met a phor i cally spo ken of as en joy ing, just as we speak of the men with t he um brella al though only one out of sev eral car ries an um brella. All this has been ex plained at lengt h un der I.2.11. There fore, the V idyas are one only , as the ob ject of med i ta tion or Knowl edge is one. Antaratv adhikaranam : Topic 22 (Sutras 35-36) Brihadaranyaka III. 4.1 and II I.5.1 constitute one V idya AVam ^ yVJm_ddm_ Z& Antara bhut agramav atsvatmanah III.3.35 (394) As the Self is within all, as in the case of the a ggregate of the elements, (there is oneness of Vidya). Antara: as being innermost of all, inside, the st atus of being the inmost; Bhut agramav at: as in the case of the aggregate of the element s; Svatmanah: of one s own self.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 403 Two p as sages from the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad are t aken up for dis cus sion to show that they re late to t he same V idya. In the B rihadaranyaka Up anishad Ushasta ques tions Yajnavalkya, Ex plain to me t he Brah man which is pres ent to in tu i tion, not hid denthis At man or Self which is within al l (Bri. Up. I II.4.1). Yajnavalkya re plies, That which breathes through P rana is your self, that is withi n all. In the same Up anishad Y ajnavalkya giv es an an swer to the same ques tion put by Kahola, That which tran scends hun ger and thirst, grief and de lu sion, de cay and death, know ing this very self etc. (Bri. Up. III.5 .1). The Purvap akshin main tains that these t wo are sep a rate Vidyas, be cause the re plies given be ing dif fer ent, t he ob jects re ferred to must also be dif fer ent. This Su tra re futes this and de clares that the ob ject is one, the High est Self or P ara Brah man, be cause it is im pos si ble to con ceive two selves be ing si mul ta neously in ner most of all i n the same body . At man alone is t aught in the t wo text s as be ing ul ti mately im ma - nent just as At man is also t aught as be ing im ma nent in the el e ment s. The two p as sages re fer only t o one V idya, be cause there could be only one At man, who is Sarvant ara, i.e. , ul ti mately im ma nent. A mong the el e ment s wa ter is im ma nent in earth, fire in wa ter and so on. But none has ul ti mate im ma nency . Even so there is only one ul ti mate im - ma nent en tity . Rel a tively one el e ment can be in side the other . But none of the five el e ment s which con sti tute t his phys i cal body can be truly t he in - ner most of all. Sim i larly two selv es can not be si mul ta neously the in - ner most of all i n the same body . Even so one self alone can be the in ner most of all. There fore, the same self is t aught in both t he re plies of Yajnavalkya. In both t he cases the sub ject-mat ter of the ques tion and the an - swer is Brah man. This is emphasised by t he sage Y ajnavalkya him - self, when he re peats That soul of thine i s the in ner most soul of in di vid u als. The dif fer ent ex po si tions of Yajnavalkya re fer to the one and the same ob ject of wor ship, viz., Brah man. As both tex ts equally de clare the self to be wit hin all, t hey must be taken as con sti tut ing one V idya only . In bot h pas sages ques tion and an swer equally re fer to a Sel f which is within ev ery thing. For in one body , there can not be two selves, e ach of which is in side ev ery - thing else. One S elf only may be withi n ev ery thing. W e read in the Svetasvat ara Upani shad He is the one God, hid den in all be ings, all-per vad ing, the S elf within al l be ings. As this Man tra re cords that one Self li ves within the ag gre gate of all be ings, the same holds good with re gard to the two p as sages of the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad.BRAHMA SU TRAS 404 As the ob ject of Knowl edge or the ob ject of wor ship is one, the Vidya also is one only . A`Wm ^ oXmZwnn{m[a {V MomonXoemVadV & Anyatha bhedanup apattiriti chenn opadesant aravatIII.3.36 (395) If it be said (that the two V idyas are separate, for) othe r wise the repetition c anno t be accounted for, we reply not so; ( it is) like (the re petition) in anothe r instruction (in the Chhando gya). Anyatha: otherwise; Bhedanup apattih: the repetit ion cannot be account ed for , no justif ication for the v ariety in t he wording of the two replies; Iti: so, th is; Chet: if; Na: no, not so; Upadesant aravat: as will be seen from other teachings, as in t he teaching of another V idya, mode of medit ation, namel y the S atya V idya in t he Chhandogya. (Bheda: difference; Anup apattih: not obt aining.) The op po nent says that un less the sep a rate ness of the two Vidyas be ad mit ted, t he sep a ra tion of t he two st ate ment s can not be ac counted for . He re marks that un less the two text s re fer to two dif fer - ent selves the rep e ti tion of t he same sub ject would be mean ing less. This Su tra says that i t is not so. The rep e ti tion has a def i nite pur - pose or aim. It hel ps the as pi rant to com pre hend the sub jects more clearly and deeply f rom dif fer ent view point s. The rep e ti tion does not jus tify us to t ake that two dif fer ent selves are t aught here. In Chhandogya Up anishad the in struc tion con veyed in t he words That is the Self , Thou art That (Tat Tvam Asi), O Svet aketu, is re peated nine times, and y et the one V idya is not t hereby split int o many . Sim i - larly is this case also. The in tro duc tory and con clud ing clauses in di cate that all those pas sages have the same sense. There also the Up akrama (be gin - ning) is the same. So i s the con clu sion (Upasamhara). I t says, Ev ery - thing else is per ish able. Ev ery thing else is of ev il. In the ear lier Brahmana, A t man is t aught as be ing sep a rate from the body and t he senses. In the later B rahmana, At man is t aught as not hav ing hun ger, etc. B ut the V idya is the same. The for mer sec tion de clares the ex is tence of the S u preme Self which is nei ther cause nor ef fect, while t he lat ter qual i fies it as that which tran scends all the rel a tive at trib utes of the S amsara st ate, such as hun ger, thirst and so on. T he sec ond an swer tells some thing spe - cial about the S elf. The two sec tions, there fore, form one V idya only . Vyatiharadhikar anam: T opic 23 The Sruti prescribes reciprocal medit ation in Ai t. Ar. II.2.4.6 `{Vhmamo {dqefp V hrVadV& Vyatiharo v isimshanti hit aravat III.3.37 (396)CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 405 There is exc hange (of meditation), bec ause t he t exts distin guish (tw o meditations); as in other cases. Vyatiharah: exchange; reciprocity (of medit ation); Visimsha nti: (the scriptures) explain clearly , distinguish; Hi: because, for; Itaravat: as in other cases. The Ait areya Aranyaka says with ref er ence to the per son in the sun, Wh at I am, th at He is; w hat H e is, that a m I ( Ait. Ar . II.2.4.6 ). A doubt arises here whether the med i ta tion is to be of a re cip ro - cal na ture, a dou ble one by means of ex change, i.e., iden ti fy ing the wor ship per with the be ing in the sun, and t hen in versely , iden ti fy ing the be ing in the sun with t he wor ship per; or only in t he for mer man ner. The Purvap akshin main tains that the m ed i ta tion is to be prac - tised in the f or mer man ner only and not in t he re verse way also. He ar gues that the soul would be ex alted by t he for mer med i ta tion and the Lord be low ered by the lat ter one! There is a mean ing in the fi rst kind of med i ta tion but t he sec ond kind of med i ta tion is mean ing less. The pres ent Su tra re futes this v iew and de clares that the med i - ta tion is to be prac tised in both ways be cause such a s tate ment would be purportless. Ex change, or re verse med i ta tion is ex pressly re - corded in the Sruti f or the pur pose of med i ta tion, just as other qual i - ties of the S elf such as it s be ing the self of all, Sat yasankalp a, etc., are re corded for the same pur pose. For both tex ts make the dis tinc tive dou ble enun ci a tion I am Thou and Thou art I. Now the dou ble enun ci a tion has a sense only if a t wo fold med i ta tion is to be based upon it; ot h er wise it would be de void of m ean ing; since one st ate ment would be all that i s needed. This will not in any way lower Brah man. Ev en in that way , only the unity of the S elf is med i tated upon. B rah man who is bodi less can be adored or med i tated even as hav ing a form. The dou ble st ate ment is merely meant t o con firm the one ness of the Self . It gives force or em pha sis to the iden tity. There fore, a two fold med i ta tion has to be ad mit ted, not a sin gle one. This con firms the unit y of the Self. The dou ble re la tion enounced in the Srut i text has to be med i tated upon, and is to be trans formed to other V idyas also which treat of t he same sub ject. Saty adyadhikaranam : Topic 24 Brihadaranyaka V .4.1 and V .5.3 t reat of one V idya about Sat ya Brahman gd [h g`mX`& Saiva hi saty aday ah III.3.38 (397) The same (Satya Vidya is taugh t in both places), because (attrib utes like) Satya etc., (are seen in bo th pla ces).BRAHMA SU TRAS 406 Sa ev a: the same (Saty a Vidya); Hi: because; Saty aday ah: (attributes like) Sat ya etc. We read in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad He who knows this great, glo ri ous, first born (Be ing) as the Saty a Brah man, con quers these worlds (V .4.1). A gain we read That which is Satya i s that Sun the be ing who is in that orb and the be ing who is in the right ey e... he de stroys evils (V .5.3). Now a doubt arises whether these two Saty a Vidyas are one or dif fer ent. The Purvap akshin holds that the V idyas are two; be cause the text de clares two dif fer ent re sults, one in the ear lier p as sage He con - quers these worlds(V .4.1), t he other one later on He de stroys evil and leaves it (V .5.3). The Su tra de clares that they are one, be cause the sec ond text re fers to the S atya of the ear lier text , That which is Sat ya, etc. In re al ity there is only one re sult in both cases. The st ate ment of a sec ond re sult merely has the pur pose of glo ri fy ing the new in struc - tion giv en about Sat ya or the T rue, viz., that it s se cret names are Ahar and Aham. There fore, the con clu sion is that the t ext re cords only one V idya of the T rue (Satyam), dis tin guished by such and such de tails and that hence all the qual i ties men tioned such as T ruth and so on are to be com pre hended in one act of med i ta tion. Some com men ta tors think that t he above Su tra re fers not to t he ques tion whether Bri. Up. V .4,1 and V .5.3 f orm one V idya or one med - i ta tion but t o the ques tion whether the B rihadaranyaka text about the per sons in the sun and in the eye and t he sim i lar Chhandogya text (I.6.6), Now that golden per son who is seen within the sun etc. con - sti tute one V idya or not. They come to t he con clu sion that they con sti tute one V idya and that hence trut h and the other qual i ties men tioned in the Brihadaranyaka are to be com bined with the Chhandogy a text also. But this in ter pre t a tion of the Su tra is ob jec tion able, be cause the Chhandogya V idya re fers to the Udgit ha and is thus con nected with sac ri fi cial rites. The marks of thi s as so ci a tion are seen in the be gin - ning, the mi d dle and the end of t he Vidya. W e read at the be gin ning, The Rik is the earth, the S aman is fire, in t he mid dle, Rik and Saman are his joint s, and there fore he is the Udgitha, and in the end, He who knows this sings as a Saman (Chh. Up. I. 6.1). In the B rihadaranyaka, on the con trary, there is ver ily, noth ing to con nect the V idya with t he sac ri fi cial rites. As t he sub ject mat ter is dif - fer ent, t he Vidyas are sep a rate and the de tails of the t wo V idyas are to be held sep a rate.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 407 Kamady adhikaranam : Topic 25 Attributes ment ioned in Chh. Up. VI II.1.1 and Bri. Up. IV .4.22 are to be combined on account of several com mon f eatures in both text s H$m_mXrVa V M m`VZm{X `& Kamadit aratra t atra chay atanadibhy ah III.3.39 (398) (Qualitie s like true) de sire e tc., (mentione d in the C hhandogya Upanisha d are to b e inserted) in the othe r (i.e ., in the Brihada ranyaka) a nd (those mentio ned) in the o ther (i.e ., in the Brihad aranyaka a re als o to be inserted in the Chhando gya) on acc ount of the abode, etc. , (bein g the same in bot h). Kamadi: (Satyasankalp adi) (T rue) desire etc.; Itaratra: in the other , elsewhere, in the Brihadarany aka Upanishad; Tatra: there, in t he Chhandogya Up anishad; Cha: also; Ayatanadibhy ah: on account of the abode etc. Dahara V idya of t he Chhandogya and the Brihadarany aka Upanishads is now dis cussed. In the Chhandogya Up anishad (VIII .1.1) we read, There is this city of Brah man and in it t he pal ace, the small lo tus and in it t he small ether; that is the Self . We read in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad (IV.4.22) That great un born self who con sists of Knowl edge, who is sur rounded by the Pranas lies in t he ether that i s within the heart. A doubt here arises whether the two con sti tute one V idya and there fore the p ar tic u lars are to be com bined or not. The pres ent Su tra de clares that they form one V idya and the qual i ties men tioned in each are to be com bined in the other , be cause many point s are com mon in both. Wishes and so on, i.e., The qual ity of hav ing true wishes and so on. The word Kama stands for Saty akama just as peo ple oc ca - sion ally say Dat ta for Devadatt a and Bhama for S atyabhama. This qual ity and t he other qual i ties which the Chhandogya at trib utes to the ether within t he heart, have t o be com bined with the B rihadaranyaka pas sage, and vice versa, i. e., t he qual i ties men tioned in the Brihadaranyaka such as be ing the ruler of all, have also to be as - cribed to the Self free from sin, de scribed in the Chhandogya. The rea son for this is that t he two p as sages ex hibit a num ber of com mon fea tures. Com mon to both is t he heart re garded as abode. Com mon again is the Lord as ob ject of knowl edge or med i ta tion. Com mon also is the Lord be ing re garded as a bank pre vent ing these worlds from be ing con founded. A nd there are sev eral other point s also. But an ob jec tion is raised. There are also dif fer ences. In the Chhandogya the at trib utes are as cribed to the ether wit hin the heart, while in the Brihadarany aka they are at trib uted to B rah man abid ing inBRAHMA SU TRAS 408 the ether . This ob jec tion has no force. It can not cer tainly st and. W e have shown un der I.3.14 t hat the t erm ether in the Chhandogya des - ig nates Brah man. There is, how ever, one dif fer ence be tween the two t exts. The Chhandogya treat s of Saguna Brah man while the Brihadarany aka treats of Nirguna Brah man or the Su preme Brah man des ti tute of all qual i ties. Y ajnavalkya say s to Janaka For that per son is not at tached to any thing. That Self is t o be de scribed by No, No neti, net i (Bri. Up. IV .3.14 ). But as the qual i fied Brah man is fun da men tally one with t he un - qual i fied Brah man we must con clude that the S u tra teaches the com - bi na tion of t he qual i ties for glo ri fy ing Brah man and not for t he pur pose of de vout med i t a tion or Upasana. Adaradhikaranam : Topic 26 (Sutras 40-41) Pranagnihotra need not be observed on days of fast AmXamXbmon& Adaradalop ah III.3.40 (399) On acc ount o f the re spect shown (to the P ranagnihotra b y the Sruti) there can be no omi ssion (o f this act) (e ven when the eatin g of food is omi tted). Adarat: on account of the respect shown; Alop ah: there can be no omission . This Su tra gives the v iew of the Pu rvapakshin or the op po nent. Be cause there is lov ing em pha sis on Pranagnihotra in Jabala Sruti, such Pranagnihotra should not be omit ted. In the V aisvanara V idya of t he Chhandogya Up anishad, the wor ship per is asked first be fore he t akes his meals to of fer food to each of the Pranas, say ing T o Prana I of fer this. The S ruti at ta ches much im por tance to this Pranagnihot ra. The Sruti en joins that f ood must be of fered to the P ranas even be fore en ter tain ing guest s. Now the ques tion is whether the P ranagnihotra is to be ob - served even on days of f ast ing. The Su tra de clares that there should be no omis sion of it ev en on days of fast ing, as the Srut i at ta ches much im por tance to it. T he Jabala Sruti says it must be ob served even on days of f ast ing by sip - ping at least a f ew drops of wa ter. To this Purvap aksha the next S u tra gives a re ply. CnpWVo@VVMZmV& Upasthitet astadvachanat III.3.41 (400) When e ating is taking p lace (the P ranagnihotra has to be performe d) fro m that (i .e., the food firs t eaten), for s o (the Sruti) declares.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 409 Upasthi te: being present, being near , when food is served; Atah: from that , on that account; Tadvachanat: for so (the Sruti) declares. This Su tra re futes the v iew ex pressed in the last Su tra, and de - clares that Pranagnihotra, need not be per formed on fast ing days, be - cause the Sruti ex pressly de clares, There fore the fi rst food which co mes is meant for Homa. A nd he who of fers that f irst ob la tion should of fer it t o Prana, say ing Svaha (Chh. Up. 19. 1). The first por tion of t he food should be of fered to the P ranas on those days when it is t aken. The Sruti gi ves im por tance to this only and not that it should be ob served even on days of f ast ing. Tannirdharanadhikaranam: T opic 27 Upasanas mentioned in connecti on with sacrifices are not their p arts, but sep arate V{Ym aUm{Z `_VX >o nW`{V~Y \$b_ & Tannirdharan aniyamast addrishteh prithagghy apratibandhah phalam III.3.42 (401) There is no rule about the invio lability o f that (i.e ., Upas a nas connected with certain s acrifi ces) tha t is se en (from the Sruti itself); for a separate fru it (be longs to the Upas anas), viz., non-obstruc tion ( of the results of the sacrifice ). Tannirdharananiy amah: no rule, about t he inviolabil ity of that; Taddrishtih: that being seen (from t he Sruti); Prith ak: separat e; Hi: because; Apratibandhah: non-obstruction; Phalam: fruit , reward, result. This Su tra st ates that a med i ta tion or Up asana pre scribed in con nec tion with a cer e mo nial rite is not com pul sory. We have the di rec tion to make a cer tain Up asana as an Anga (el e ment or limit ) of Karma (Karmangav abaddhop asti). Is it an in dis - pens able el e ment? No. I f it is per formed there will be great er fruit. Even if it is not done t he Karma will be com plete. Thi s is clear from the Chhandogya Up anishad. We now en ter into an en quiry whether cer tain Up asanas men - tioned with some sac ri fices are p art of those sac ri fices and there fore in sep a ra ble and per ma nently con nected with them. The pres ent Su tra de clares that Up asanas do not con sti tute a part of the sac ri fice, be cause there is no rule as to their in sep a ra bil ity. The Sruti ex pressly de clares that the sac ri fice can be done with or with out the Up asanas. The ig no rant man, as well as the wise man may both en gage in the Udgitha wor ship; both per form the sac ri fice (Chh. Up. I.1. 10). This shows that the Udgit ha wor ship may be per - formed, t he med i ta tion or Up asana part be ing lef t out. That which is per formed with med i ta tion, f aith and knowl edge be comes all the more ef fec tiv e.BRAHMA SU TRAS 410 There is no fixed rule f or com pul sory per for mance of Udgitha med i ta tion and the li ke in cere moni als, be cause per for mance of the med i ta tion on OM is lef t op tional to t he per former and also be cause the fruit in each case is quite dis tinct, i f the per for mance of the rite i s not in any way ob structed, be cause it is clear that the med i ta tion is sure to pro duce it s own ef fect in de pend ently of the rite but the rite is li - a ble to in ter rup tion and ob struc tion. If, how ever , the med i t a tion and the rite be con joined, fruit be comes dou bly ef fec tive. The Chhandogya Sruti (I.1.10) in di cates that the rit e can be done even with out med i ta tion or Up asana and that to per form the rit e with med i ta tion is to make it more ef fec tive. Hence the Udgitha med i - ta tion and all ot h ers per formed in con nec tion with cer e mo nial rite (Karmanga Up asana), are not com pul sory and are to be done by those only who wish to at tain greater fruit s. The orig i nal sac ri fice brings it s own re wards but the Up asana in - creases its re sults. There fore, the Up asana does not con sti tute a p art of the sac ri fice. There fore, it may or may not be done ac cord ing to the sweet will of the sac ri ficer. The Up asana pre vents any ob struc tion to t he re sults of the sac - ri fice. This does not make it a part of the cer e mo nial rite. T he re wards of the sac ri fice may be de layed on ac count of the in ter ven tion of an evil Karm a of the sac ri ficer. The Up asana an ni hi lates the ef fect of t his evil deed and has tens the at tain ment of t he fruit s of the sac ri fice. That is all. The sac ri fice does not rely upon t he Up asana for it s re wards. There fore, the Up asana does not form a p art of the sac ri fice and is, there fore, op tional. Pradanadhi karanam: T opic 28 Medit ations on V ayu and Prana are to be kept sep arate notwithst anding the essential oneness of these t wo XmZdXod VX w$_& Pradanav adev a tadukt am III.3.43 (402) As in the case of the offerings (Vay u and Prana must be held apart). This has been e xplained (in the Purvamimamsa Sutra) . Pradanav at: as in the case of the of ferings of the P radana, oblation; Eva: exactly ; Tat: that; Uktam: has been st ated. The sec tion of t he Brihadaranyaka Up anishad which be gins Voice held, I shall speak (Bri. Up. I .5.21) de ter mines Prana to be the best amomg the or gans of the body and V ayu to be t he best among the Devas. In the Chhandogya Up anishad V ayu is said to be the gen eral ab sorber of the Devas, V ayu in deed is the ab sorber (IV .3.1); P rana is said to be the gen eral ab sorber of the or gans of the body , Breath in deed is the ab sorber (IV .3.3).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 411 In the S amvarga V idya of t he Chhandogya Up anishad, med i ta - tion on Prana with ref er ence to the body and on V ayu with ref er ence to the gods is pre scribed. Many Srut i text s say that Prana and V ayu are one in es sence. There fore, the P urvap akshin main tains that the t wo med i ta tions can be com bined and that V ayu and Prana are non-sep a rate be cause in their true na ture they do not dif fer. And as their t rue na ture does not dif fer they m ust not be med i tated upon sep a rately . In some places we have even a di rect iden ti fi ca tion of t he two, What Prana is t hat is Vayu Yah pranah sa vayuh . The pres ent Su tra re futes the abov e view and de clares that they are to be kept ap art de spite the non-dif fer ence in na ture of Prana and Vayu, be cause their func tions on ac count of their dif fer ent abodes are dif fer ent. A l though there may be non-dif fer ence of true na ture, yet there may be dif fer ence of con di tion giv ing rise to dif fer ence of in - struc tion, and t hrough the lat ter to dif fer ence of med i ta tion. The Su tra com pares the case un der dis cus sion to a p ar al lel one from the K armakanda by means of the clause as in the case of t he of - fer ings. As an il lus tra tion we may t ake Pradhana where Purodasa (ob la - tions) is given sep a rately t o Raja Indra (the Ruler), Adhiraja I ndra (the mon arch or the over-ruler), and Svaraja I ndra (the sov er eign or the self-ruler) ac cord ing to his dif fer ent ca pac i ties, though I ndra is es sen - tially one, though he is one god. Hence, though the V idya is one from t he Adhyat mic point of view, there is sep a rate ness from the Adhidaiv ata point of v iew. So t he med i ta tions on Prana and V ayu have t o be kept ap art. This prin ci ple is es tab lished by Jaimini, in Purva mimamsa (Sankarsha alias Devat a Kanda). Lingabhu yastvadhikaranam : Topic 29 (Sutras 44-52) The fires in Agnirahasya of the Brihadaranyaka are not p art of the sacrificial act, but form an independent V idya {b^y`dmm{ ~br`VX {n& Lingabhuy astvat t addhi baliy astadapi III.3.44 (403) On account o f the majo rity of i ndicatory mark s (the fires of th e mind, speech, etc., in t he Agnirahasya of the Vajasaneyins do not fo rm pa rt of the sacrifice ), for i t (the indicatory mark ) is strong er (than the context or the general su bject matte r). This also (has bee n explained in the Purvamimamsa Sutras by Jaimini). Lingabhuy astvat: because of an abundance of distinguishing marks; Tat: that, the distinguishing mark; Hi: because; Baliyah: is stronger; Tat: that; Api: also.BRAHMA SU TRAS 412 In the A gnirahasya of the V ajasaneyins (Sat apatha Brahmana) cer tain fires named af ter mind, speech, ey es, etc., are men tioned. A doubt arises whether these form p art of the sac ri fice men - tioned therein or f orm an in de pend ent V idya. The pres ent Su tra de clares that in spite of the prima f a cie view which arises from the con text, these form a sep a rate V idya be cause there are many indicat ory marks to show that these f ires form an in de - pend ent Vidya. The indicatory marks are of greater f orce than the con text or the lead ing sub ject mat ter (Prakarana). This has been ex plained in the Purvamim amsa (III. 3.14). The ref er ence in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad t akes a man s age to be one hun dred years, i.e. , 36,000 day s and de scribes each days men tal ity as an Agn ichayana or fire sac ri fice. The p as sage oc - curs in a por tion re lat ing to Karma or cer e mo nial ac tion. I f you say t hat such a med i ta tion is an Anga or el e ment in the cer e mo nial be cause it oc curs in a pas sage re lat ing to Karma, we say that t he ma jor ity of indicatory marks is oth er wise, e.g., the Sruti says that such Chayana goes on even in sleep. A spe cific rea son given in a p as sage has a greater weight or force than mere con text. nyd{dH$n H$aUm`mV {H$`m_mZgdV & Purv avikalp ah prakaranat sy at kriy amanasav at III.3.45 (404) (The fire s spoken of in th e previous Sutra are ) alternativ e forms of the one mention ed first, (i .e., the actu al sacrificial fire) on account of the context; (the y) ou ght to b e part of the sacrifice like the ima ginary drink o r the Ma nasa-c up. Purv avikalp ah: an alternativ e form of t he already menti oned first; Prakaranat: on account of the contex t, as can be understood from the subject matt er of the chapter; Syat: there may be, ought to be; Kriyamana sav at: ceremonial act, like the act of medit ation, li ke the imaginary drink, as in t he case of ment al operation in the soma-sa crifice. An ob jec tion is raised to the pre ced ing Su tra. The Purvap akshin raises a fresh ob jec tion. On t he tenth day of the Soma sac ri fice a Soma drink is of fered to Prajap ati wherein the earth is re garded as the cup and the sea as the Soma. T his is a men - tal act only , and yet it forms a p art of the sac ri fice. The same then holds good with re gard to the quasi-agnis made of mind and so on though t hese fires are men tal, i.e. , imag i nary, yet they f orm p art of the sac ri fice and not an in de pend ent V idya, be cause of the con text. They are an al ter nate form of the ac tual fire men tioned first.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 413 You may say t hat it is only Arthavada and t hat a mere Arthav ada can not over ride the con text and that such med i ta tion is p art of the Karma as is the case in the Dasaratra Karma. A{VXoem& Atidesascha III.3.46 (405) And on account o f the extension (of th e attribu tes of the actu al fire to the se imag inary fi res). Atidesat: on account of the ex tension (of the at tributes of the first t o these fires); Cha: and. Ob jec tion to S u tra 44 is con tin ued by pre sent ing an other ar gu - ment in sup port of Su tra 45. The Purvap akshin gives an other rea son to sup port his view . The Sruti in t hat p as sage as cribes all the at trib utes of the ac tual fire t o these imag i nary fires. There fore, they are p art of the sac ri fice. {dd V w {ZYmaUmV & Vidyaiva tu nirdharanat III.3.47 (406) But (the fires) rath er constitute the Vidya, because (the Sruti) asserts it. Vidya: Vidya, f orm of medit ation or worship, Knowledge; Eva: alone, indeed; Tu: verily , undoubtedly , but; Nirdharanat: because the Sruti assert s it. Ob jec tions raised in Sutras 45 and 46 are now re futed. The word T u (but) set s aside the Purvap aksha. It re futes the op po nent. The pres ent Su tra de clares that the fi res form an in de pen d ent Vidya, be cause the text as serts that They are built of knowl edge (Vidya) only, and that By knowl edge they are built for him who thus knows. XeZm& Darsanaccha III.3.48 (407) And because (in the text indi catory mark s of th at are ) seen. Darsanat: it being seen in the scriptures, because it i s clearly st ated in Sruti, because (of the indicatory marks) seen; Cha: and. The indicatory marks are those re ferred to in Su tra 44. In f act the in ter nal in di ca tions show that it is a V idya and not a K armanga. lw`m{ X~br` dm Z ~mY & Sruty adibali yastvaccha na badhah III.3.49 (408) (The vie w that the Agni s or fire s cons titute a n inde pendent Vidya) canno t be refuted, owin g to the greater force of the Sruti etc.BRAHMA SU TRAS 414 Sruty adibali yastvat: on account of the greater f orce of the Sruti etc.; Cha: and; Na: no, cannot; Badhah: refut ation. Ob jec tions raised in Sutras 45 and 46 are fur ther re futed. There is no ne ga tion of t his view on the ba sis of the con text, be - cause of the greater strength of Sruti, etc. Our op po nent has no right to de ter mine on the ground of Prakarana that the A gnis are sub or di nate to t he sac ri fi cial ac tion and so to set aside our view ac cord ing to which they a re in de pend ent. For we know from the Purvami mamsa that di rect enun ci a tion (Sruti ), indicatory mark (Lin ga) and syn tac ti cal con nec tion (V akya) are of greater force than lead ing sub ject mat ter (Prakarana) and all those three means of proof are seen to con firm our view of the Agnis be ing in de pend ent. Mere con text is of no force against ex press Sruti, Lin ga, etc. The Sruti used the word Ev a where there is an im per a tive t ense, etc., used, a mere Up adesa can be treated as an Arthavada, be cause there is also an ex press com mand. Where there is no such in di ca tion, an Up adesa must be treated as a V idhi. There fore what we have here is an in de pend ent V idya and not a K armanga. The Sruti di rectly says, A ll these fires are kin dled with knowl - edge alone. The indicat ory mark is this. All be ings kin dle these fires for him, ev en when he is asleep. This con ti nu ity of the fire shows that they are men tal ones. An ac tual sac ri fice is not con tin ued dur ing sleep. The syn tac ti cal con nec tions Through med i t a tion alone these fires of the wor ship per are kin dled. These three are more forc ible than mere con text. AZw~Y m{X` kmVan WddX > VXw$_& Anubandhadibhy ah prajnant araprithaktvav at drisht ascha tadukt am III.3.50 (409) On acc ount o f the co nnection and s o on (the fires b uilt of mind , etc., form a n inde pendent Vidya), in the same way as o ther Vidyas (like Sandilya Vidya) ar e separate; and it is seen (that in spite of the context a sa crifice is treated as independent). This has bee n explained (in th e Purvamimamsa Sutras by Jaimi ni). Anubandhadibhy ah: from the connection and so on; Prajnant araprithaktv avat: even as the other V idyas are sep arate; Drisht ah: (it is) seen; Cha: and; Tat: that; Uktam: is st ated (in the Purvamimamsa by Jaimin i). The ar gu ment in ref u ta tion of S utras 45 and 46 is con tin ued. This Su tra gives ad di tional rea sons in sup port of the v iew set forth in S u tra 47. In de pend ence has, against the gen eral sub ject mat ter, to be as - sumed for the fire-al tars built of mind and so on, be cause the text con -CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 415 nects the con stit u ent mem bers of the sac ri fi cial ac tion with ac tiv i t ies of the mind. The text con nects for the pur pose of Samp ad Up asana (med i ta tions based on re sem blance) part s of a sac ri fice with men tal ac tiv i ties, e.g. , These fires are st arted men tally, the al tars are set up men tally, the cup s are t aken men tally, the Udgatris are praised men - tally, the Hotris are re cited men tally, ev ery thing con nected with this sac ri fice is done men tally. This is pos si ble only if there is a sharp dif - fer ence be tween things which re sem ble each other . The Sruti men tions in re gard to such men tal wor ship all the great ness of a Karmanga. There fore Ati desa (sim i lar ity) ap plies even on the foot ing of the con text re fer ring to an in de pend ent V idya which is sep a rate from a Karmanga. The fires con sti tute an in de pend ent V idya, j ust as the Sandily a Vidya, Dahara V idya, f orm sep a rate V idyas, al though men tioned along with sac ri fi cial acts. A sim i lar thing is seen in A veshti be ing done as an in de pend ent cer e mony in t he Rajasuya sac ri fice. It is ob served in the sac ri fi cial por tion of t he Vedas, that t hough the sac ri fice A veshti is men tioned along with the Rajasuya sac ri fice, it is yet con si d ered as an in de pend - ent sac ri fice by Jaimini in the Purv a mimamsa Sut ras. Z gm_m`mX `wnb Yo_`wd {h b moH$mn{m& Na samany adapy upalabdherm rityuvanna hi lokap attih III.3.51 (410) In spite of the resemblance (of the fires to th e imaginary d rink, they do) not (consti tute part of t he sacrificial act) because it is seen (fro m the re asons given, and on the ground of Sruti that they form an ind ependent Vid ya) as in the case of death; fo r the world does not become (fir e, because it r esembles fir e in some point s). Na: not; Samany adapi: in spite of t he resemblance, because of common ness, on the ground of their resemblance to sacrificial fire; Upalabdheh: for it is seen; Mrityuvat: just as in the case of death; Na hi lokap attih: for the world does not become (fire on account of certain resemblances). The ar gu ment in ref u ta tion of S utras 45 and 46 is con tin ued. Though be ing a men tal act, there is an el e ment of sim i lar ity, it is not a Karmanga be cause it is st ated to hav e a sep a rate fruit. This is clear from the il lus tra tions re lat ing to Mrity u and de scrib ing the earth as fire. The re sem blance cited by the P urvap akshin has no force. It can not cer tainly st and be cause on ac count of the rea sons al ready given, v iz., the S ruti, indicat ory mark, etc., the fires in ques tion sub - serve the pur pose of man only , and not t he pur pose of some sac ri fi - cial ac tion.BRAHMA SU TRAS 416 Mere re sem blance can hardly jus tify the con trary view . Any thing in deed may re sem ble any thing in some point or other; but in spit e of that t here re mains the in di vid ual dis sim i lar ity of each thing from all other things. The case is anal o gous to that of death. T he re sem blance cited is like the com mon ep i thet deat h ap plied to fi re and the be ing in the sun. The be ing in that orb is deat h in deed (Sat. B r. X.5.2.3). Fi re in - deed is death (T ait. S amh. V .1.10. 3). This re sem blance can not make fire and the be ing in the same one. Again we have This world is a fire in deed, O Gaut ama, the sun is its fuel etc., (Chh. Up. V .4.1). Here it does not fol low from the sim i - lar ity of fuel and so on that t he world does not ac tu ally be come fire. Thus also in our case. Hence from the fact that the Manaschit a Agni (fire) is a men tal act like the Manasagraha which is a Karmanga, you can not on that ground of such sim i lar ity alone ar gue that it also is a Karmanga. naoU M eX ` Vm{ ` ^y`dmdZ w~Y& Parena cha sabdasy a tadvidhyam bhuy astvattv anubandhah III.3.52 (411) And from the subsequent (Bra hmana ) the fact o f the text (unde r discu ssion) b eing s uch (i.e ., enjo ining an inde pendent Vidya) ( is kno wn). But the conne ction (o f the fancifu l Agnis o r imaginary fi res with the actu al fire is) o n acc ount of the abundance (of the attrib utes of th e latter that are imag ined in these fires). Parena: from the subsequent (Brahmana), by the subsequent expression, by t he st atement s immediately following; Cha: and; Sabdasy a: of Sru ti, of the text, of the word; Tadvidhyam: the fact of being such; Bhuy astvat: because of abundance; Tu: but; Anubandhah: connection. In a sub se quent Brahmana we have B y knowl edge they as - cend there where all wishes are at tained. Those skilled in words do not go there, nor t hose who des ti tute of knowl edge do pen ance. This verse de pre ci ates mere works and praises V idya or know l edge. A for - mer Brahmana also viz., the one be gin ning Where that orb leads (Sat. B r. X.5.2.23) con cludes with a st ate ment of t he fruit of knowl - edge Im mor tal be comes he whose self is death and thereby shows that works are not the chief t hing. Hence we con clude that the i n junc - tion of t he Sruti is that the fires con sti tute an in de pend ent V idya. The con nec tion of t he fires with the ac tual fire is not be cause they con sti tute p art of the sac ri fice but be cause many of the at trib utes of the real f ire are imag ined in the fi res of the V idya, i n the Agnis built of mind. T he st ate ment of t he fires built of mind along with t he or di -CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 417 nary sac ri fi cial fire is due to an abun dance of com mon mat ters with the lat ter. All thi s es tab lishes the con clu sion that the f ire-al tars built of mind and so on con sti tute an in de pend ent V idya. Aikatmy adhikaranam : Topic 30 (Sutras 53-54) Atman is an entity distinct from t he body EH$ A m_Z ea rao ^mdmV& Eka atmanah sari re bhav at III.3.53 (412) Some (maintain t he non-existence ) of a separate self (besi des the body) on accoun t of the exist ence (of t he self) w here a body is (only). Eka: some (maint ain the non-exist ence); Atmana h: of a sep arate self (besides the body); Sarire : in the body; Bhav at: because of existence. In this topi c the ex is tence of an At man ap art from the body is taken up for dis cus sion. Un less there is a soul apart from the body there is no use of the scrip ture teach ing lib er a tion. Nor can there be any scope for eth i cal com mands which are the means of at tain ment of heaven or for t he teach ing that t he soul is Brah man. There must be a soul ap art from the body who can en joy the fruits of the Up asana or V idyas, ot h er wise of what avail i s Upasana? If there is no soul all Up asanas be come use less. At pres ent we will prove t he ex is tence of a soul dif fer ent from t he body in or der to es tab lish thereby t he qual i fi ca tion of t he self for bond - age and re lease. For if t here were no selves dif fer ent from t he body , there would be no room for in junc tion that have the ot her world for their re sult, nor could it be t aught of any body that Brah man is his Self. This Su tra gives the v iew of the Charvakas or Lokayatikas (ma - te ri al ists) who deny the ex is tence of an At man dif fer ent from t he body . They say t hat con scious ness is a mere ma te rial prod uct and that t he body is the soul. T hey de clare that con scious ness is seen to ex ist only when there is a body and t hat it is no where ex pe ri enced in de - pend ent of t he body . There fore con scious ness is only an at trib ute or qual ity of the body . There is no sep a rate self or soul in this body . They say man is only a body . Con scious ness is the qual ity of the body . Con scious ness is like the in tox i cat ing qual ity which arises when cer tain ma te ri als are mixed in cer tain pro por tions. No sin gle ma te rial has the in tox i cat ing ef fect. Al though con scious ness is not ob served in earth, and t he other ex ter nal el e ment s, ei ther sin gle or com bined, yet it may ap pear in them when trans formed into t he shape of a body . Con scious ness springs from them. No soul is found af ter the body di es and that hence BRAHMA SU TRAS 418 as both are pres ent or ab sent to gether , con scious ness is only an at - trib ute of t he body just as light and heat are at trib utes of fire. As life, move ment s, con scious ness, re mem brances and so on, which are re garded as qual i ties of the A t man by those who main tain that t here is an in de pend ent At man ap art from the body , are ob served only within t he bod ies and not out side the bod ies, and as an abode of those at trib utes dif fer ent from t he body can not be proved, i t fol lows that t hey must be at trib utes of the body only. There fore, the S elf is not dif fer ent from t he body . The next S u tra gives a re ply to t his con clu sion of the Charvakas or Lokayatikas (ma te ri al ist s). `{Vao H$Vmdm^m{ddm V ynbpYdV & Vyatirekast adbhav abhav itvanna tup alabdhi vat III.3.54 (413) But n ot (so); a self or soul separ ate (from t he body does exist) , because (Consciousness) doe s not exist eve n when there is the body (a fter d eath), as in the case of cog nition or p er ceptive consciousness. Vyatirekah: separat ion; Tadbhavabhav itvat: for (consciousness ) does not exist ev en when there is the body; Na: not (so); Tu: but; Upalabdhiv at: as in the case of knowledge or cognition. The st ate ment in the pre ced ing Su tra is re futed. The soul is sep a rate be cause even when the body ex ists the soul goes away . They are sep a rate just as sub ject and ob ject are sep - a rate. The view ex pressed by the op po nent in the pre vi ous Su tra is cer tainly wrong, be cause the Atma-Dharma such as Chait anya (con - scious ness), etc., are not f ound af ter death, t hough the body ex ists. Con scious ness can not be an at trib ute of t he body , be cause we do not find con scious ness in a body af ter a per son dies. This con scious ness is an at trib ute of some thing which is dif fer - ent from t he body and which abides in the body . The sub ject and the ob ject can not pos si bly be iden ti cal. Fire can not burn it self. The ac ro bat can not st and upon his own shoul der. Can form sense form? Can sound hear sound? No. Con scious ness is eter nal, as it is of the same iden ti cal qual ity al ways. Can you say t hat con scious ness is a qual ity of the light, be cause light is nec es sary to see forms? Even so con scious ness is not a qual ity of the body . More - over con scious ness func tions in dreams even with out the aid of the body . The Charvakas ac cept that t he cogniser is dif fer ent from t he thing cog nised. So the ex periencer of this body , he who cog nises this body must be dif fer ent from t he body . He who cog nises this body is the Self .CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 419 There fore, con scious ness is an at trib ute of t his Self, rather it s very es sence of na ture. As con scious ness con sti tutes the char ac ter of the S elf, the Self must be dis tinct from t he body . That con scious ness is per ma nent fol - lows from the uni for mity of its char ac ter and we, there fore, may con - clude that the con scious Self is per ma nent also. That con scious ness is the na ture of the S elf, that it is per ma nent, f ol lows from the fact t hat the Self , al though con nected with a dif fer ent st ate, re cog nises it self as the con scious agent a rec og ni tion ex pressed in judg ment s such as I saw this and from the f act of re mem brance and so on be ing pos si - ble. There fore, the v iew that t he Self is some thing sep a rate from the body is free from al l ob jec tions. Angav abaddhadhi karanam: T opic 31 (Sutras 55-56) Upasanas connected with sacrificial act s, i.e., Udgitha Up asana are valid for all schools Amd~ mVw Z emImgw { h {VdoX_ & Angav abaddhastu na sakhasu hi prativ edam III.3.55 (414) But (the Upasanas or meditati ons connected with parts) (of sacrifi cial acts ar e) not (restrict ed) to (particular) Sakhas, accor ding to the Veda (to w hich they belon g), (but t o all i ts Sakhas because the same Upasana is describe d in all). Angavabaddhah: (Upasanas) connected p arts (of sacrificial act s); Tu: but; Na: not; Sakhasu: to (p articular) Sakhas; Hi: because; Prativ edam: in each V eda, according to the V eda. There is no rule that the A ngavabaddha (Karmanga) Up a sana in each Sruti Sakha is sep a rate and should be con fined to it alone. The above said in ter ven ing or oc ca sional dis cus sion is over . Now we pur sue the main theme. In Udgitha, etc., v ar i ous Karmanga Upasanas are taught . From this y ou could not say that each Upasana in each Sruti Sakha is dif fer ent, on ac count of the prox im ity of text and the dif fer ence in Svaras or sounds. All such Up asanas may be t aken to gether , be cause the Udgitha Sruti i s more pow er ful than mere prox - im ity of con text or di ver sity of Svara. There are cer tain Up asanas men tioned in con nec tion with sac ri - fi cial act s, as for ex am ple the med i ta tion on OM which is con nected with the Udgitha as P rana, or the med i ta tion on the Udgit ha as the earth and so on. Let a man med i tate on the syl la ble OM as the Udgitha (Chh. Up. I. 1.1). Let a man m ed i tate on the f ive-fold S aman as the fiv e worlds (Chh. Up. II.2. 1). A doubt here arises whether the med i ta tions or V idyas are en - joined with ref er ence to the Udgitha and so on as be long ing to a cer - tain Sakha only or as be long ing to all S akhas. The doubt arisesBRAHMA SU TRAS 420 be cause the Udgitha and so on are chanted dif fer ently i n dif fer ent Sakhas, be cause the ac cents, etc., di f fer. There fore, they may be con sid ered dif fer ent. Here the Purvap akshin holds that the V idyas are en joined only with ref er ence to the Udgitha and so on which be long to the p ar tic u lar Sakha to which the V idya be longs. Why? Be cause of prox im ity. The pres ent Su tra re futes the v iew that t hey are so re stricted, be cause the text speaks of these Upasanas in gen eral and so they are all one in all the branches. The word tu (but) dis cards the prima fa cie view or the vi ew of the Purvap akshin. The Up asanas are not re stricted to thei r own Sakhas ac cord ing to the V eda to which they be long but are vali d for all Sakhas, be cause the di rect st ate ment s of the tex t about t he Udgitha and so on enounce no spec i fi ca tion. Di rect st ate ment has greater force or weight than prox im ity. There is no rea son why the V idya should not be of gen eral ref er - ence. W e, there fore, con clude that, al though the S akhas dif fer as to ac cents and the like, the V idyas men tioned re fer to the Udgit ha and so on be long ing to all S akhas, be cause the text speaks only of the Udgitha and so on in gen eral. _m{Xd m{damo Y& Mantradivadv avirodhah III.3.56 (415) Or else, the re is no contradiction (he re), as in the case of Mantras an d the like. Mantradiv at: like Mantras, etc. ; Va: or else; Avirodhah: there is no contradiction. The dis cus sion com menced in Su tra 33 is con tin ued. Just as Mantras, etc., men tioned in only one Sakha, are used in an other Sakha, with re spect to that p ar tic u lar rite, so also the Upasanas con nected with p ar tic u lar rites in one Sakha of t he Veda can be ap plied to the ot her Sakhas. As for ex am ple the Man tra Kut arurasi (thou art the grind ing stone), pre scribed in one Branch of the V edas for t ak ing stone to grind rice, is ac cept able in that rit e ev ery where; even so the Up asana (med i ta tion) pre scribed in one Branch of the V edas may be trans - ferred or ap plied to other S akhas or Branches with out ap pre hend ing any im pro pri ety . We find that Man tra and Guna and Karma in one S akha are taken into an other Sakha, just as t he mem bers of sac ri fi cial ac tions on which cer tain V idyas rest are valid ev ery where, so the V idyas them selves also which rest on those mem bers are valid for all Sakhas and V edas.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 421 Bhumajy ayastvadhikaranam : Topic 32 Vaisvanara Upasana is one entire Up asana ^yZ H $Vwd`m`d VWm {h X e`{V& Bhumnah kratuv ajjyayastvam tatha hi darsay ati III.3.57 (416) Importance (is gi ven to the meditation) on the entire form ( of Vaisvanara) as in th e case of sacrif ice; for th us (the Sruti) shows. Bhumnah: on the entire f orm; Kratuv at: as in the case of sacrifice; Jyayastvam: prominence, pre-eminence, import ance; Tatha: so; Hi: be cause, for , as; Darsay ati: (the Sruti) shows. The V aisvanara V idya is dis cussed here. In the Chhandogya Up anishad (V .11.8) there is the V aisvanara Vidya, t he med i ta tion on the cos mic form of t he Lord. The medit ator should think that His head is the heav en, His eye the sun and so on. Dif fer ent fruit s are men tioned for each p art of the Up asana. For ex am - ple, the f ruit of med i tat ing on His head as the heaven is He eat s food, be holds his be loved ones and has V e dic glory in his house (Chh. Up. V.12.2). Now a doubt arises whether the Sruti here speaks of one Upasana on the en tire cos mic form or Up asana of each p art of Vaisvanara. The pres ent Su tra says that t he Sruti speaks of one Up asana on the whole form of Vaisvanara or the cos mic form of t he Lord. The Sruti giv es su pe ri or ity to the med i ta tion on V aisvanara as a whole, as in the case of Krat u or sac ri fice. Though t he Sruti de clares fruits for Up asana or wor ship of each p art of V aisvanara, yet it emphasises the wor ship of the en tire V aisvanara with the uni verse as His body , just as in sac ri fices like Darsa-Purnamasa all the Angas have to be com bined. The sep a rate fruit s men tioned for med i ta tion on p arts of Vaisvanara must be com bined into one whole with m ed i ta tion. The text informs us that six Rishis, Prakinasala, Uddalaka, etc. , be ing un able to reach a firm foun da tion in the K nowl edge of Vaisvanara, went t o the King A svap ati Kaikey a; goes on to men tion the ob ject of each Rishi s med i ta tion, v iz., the sky and so on; de ter - mines that t he sky and so on are only the head and so on of Vaisvanara. Asv apati said That is but the head of t he self, and re - jects all med i ta tions on V aisva nara in his p ar tial form. He said Y our head would have fall en if you had not come to me (Chh. Up. V .12.2). As this tex t dis cour ages par tial wor ship of V aisvanara, it is quite clear that it rec om mends the en tire Up asana on the whole V aisvanara. More over the sec tion be gins thus: which is our own self, which is Brah man (Chh. Up. V .11.1). This in di cates that the en tire Brah manBRAHMA SU TRAS 422 is the ob ject of med i ta tion. I t ends thus of that Vaisvanara Self Sutejas is the head et c. (Chh. Up. V .18.2). T his clearly in ti mates that only the en tire Up asana is in tended. For all these rea sons, the view ac cord ing to which the tex t en - joins a med i ta tion on the en tire V aisvanara only is cor rect. Sabdadibhedadhikaranam: T opic 33 Various V idyas like the Sandilya V idya, Dahara V idya and so on are to be kept sep arate and not com bined into one enti re Upasana ZmZm eX m{X^oXmV& Nana sabdadibhedat III.3.58 (417) (The V idyas are) separate, on account o f the difference of wo rds and the like. Nana: different, v arious; Sabdadibhedat: on account of dif ference of names of words, etc. ( Bhedat: due to variet y.) In the pre vi ous Su tra we have ar rived at t he con clu sion that a med i ta tion on V aisvanara as a whole is the pre-em i nent mean ing of the tex t, al though spe cial fruit s are stat ed for med i ta tions on p arts such as Sutejas and so on. The Purvap akshin fol lows this line of ar gu ment and says that we must com bine all the dif fer ent V idyas like Sandily a Vidya, Dahara Vidya, S atya V idya, and so on int o one com pos ite med i ta tion or more gen eral med i ta tion on the Lord, as the ob ject of med i ta tion is the one Lord. The pres ent Su tra re futes this and de clares that the V idyas are sep a rate, al though the ob ject of med i ta tion is on the one Lord, on ac - count of the dif fer ence of words and the like. For the t ext ex hib its a dif - fer ence of words such as He knows. Let him med i tate, Let him form the idea (Chh. Up. I II.14.1). This dif fer ence of terms is ac knowl edged as a rea son or test of dif fer - ence of act s, ac cord ing to Purv a mimamsa Sut ras, II. 2.1. And the like or etc. re fers to other rea sons like the dif fer ence in qual i ties. The Lord in deed is the only ob ject of med i ta tion, but ac cord ing to its gen eral pur port each p as sage teaches dif fer ent qual i ties of the Lord. Al though one and the same Prana is t he ob ject of med i ta tion in the other se ries of p as sages, yet one of his qual i ties has to be med i - tated upon in one place and an other in an other place. From dif fer ence of con nec tion there t hus fol lows dif fer ence of in junc tion and from t he lat ter we ap pre hend the sep a rate ness of the V idyas. Though the ob ject of med i ta tion is the one Lord, y et He is dif fer - ent on ac count of the dif fer ence in qual i ties that are im ag ined in dif fer - ent Up asanas. Fur ther it is not pos si ble at all t o com bine all the var i ous V idyas into one.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 423 There fore, the di f fer ent V idyas are to be kept sep a rate and not com bined into one com pos ite or gen eral med i t a tion. Though the V idya (what is to be known) is one, each Up asana which is de scribed by such words as Upasita, etc., is dif fer ent. I n each Upasana cer tain spe cial at trib utes of the Lord and cer tain spe cial re - sults are stat ed. The forms of med i ta tion such as the Sandily a Vidya, t he Saty a Vidya, t he Dahara V idya, t he Vaisvanara V idya, are dif fer ent ow ing to dif fer ence of names and pro cesses, the di rec tory words and the at - trib utes, yet , each of them teaches the wor ship of the same Lord; but un der a par tic u lar as pect med i t a tions have been pre scribed in var i - ous names and forms so as to suit dif fer ent medit ators. The Su tra, there fore, rightl y de clares the sep a rate ness of the Vidyas. Vikalp adhikaranam : Topic 34 Any one of the V idyas should be selected according to one s own option or choice {dH$nmo@{d{e >\$bdmV& Vikalpo visisht aphalatv at III.3.59 (418) There is option (with r espect to th e several Vidyas), because the result (of all t he Vidyas) is the same. Vikalp ah: option; Visisht aphalatv at: on account of (all V idyas) having the same result. The most im por tant V idyas are: Sandil ya Vidya, B huma V idya, Sat V idya, Dahara V idya, Up akosala V idya, V aisva nara V idya, Udgitha V idya, A nandamaya V idya, A kshara V idya. One may fol low any V idya ac cord ing to his op tion, and sti ck to it till he reaches the goal, as the re sult of all V idyas or the goal is the same, namely t he reali sa tion of S elf or Brah man. If we adopt many , the mind will get dis tracted and the spir i tual prog ress will be re tarded. When the Brah man is real ised through one med i ta tion, a sec ond med i t a tion would be pur pose less. There fore, one must se lect one p ar tic u lar V idya and stick to it and re main in tent on it till the fruit of the V idya is at tained through the in tu iti on of the ob ject of med i t a tion. Kamy adhikaranam : Topic 35 Vidyas yielding p articular desires may or may not be combined according to one s liking H$m`mV w `WmH $m_ g_w r`oa dm ny dhod^mdmV& Kamy astu y athakamam sam ucchiy eranna v a purv ahetvabhav at III.3.60 (419)BRAHMA SU TRAS 424 But Vi dyas f or par ticular desires may be combined or not according to ones desires on account of the absence of the previous r eason (ment ioned in t he previous S utra). Kamy ah: Vidyas adopted f or some sensuous des ires; Tu: but; Yatha kamam: according to one s desire or liking; Samucchi yeran: may be combin ed; Na: not; Va: or; Purva: the former; Hetu: reason; Abhavat : on account of the absence of. This Su tra shows an ex cep tion to t he pre vi ous Su tra that m ore Vidyas than one may be com bined where the ob ject is other than t he reali sa tion of Brah man. In the pre vi ous Su tra it was st ated that any one of t he V idyas about Brah man should be t aken up, and that m ore than one at a ti me should not be t aken up, be cause each V idya was quite suf fi cient to take to the goal or Self -reali sa tion and more than one V idya would pro duce dis trac tion of t he mind. We have on the ot her hand, V idyas con nected with p ar ti c u lar de sires, e.g., He who knows that the wind i s the child of the re gions never weep s for his sons (Chh. Up. III.15. 2). He who med i tates on name as Brah man, walks at will as far as name reaches (Chh. Up. VII.1.5) . The ques tion arises whether one is to re strict one self to only one of these V idyas or can t ake up more than one at a ti me. The pres ent Su tra de clares that one can prac tise more than one Vidya or not ac cord ing to one s lik ing, as the re sults are dif fer ent un - like that of the Brahma-V idyas. He may prac tise more than one V idya or not, on ac count of the ab sence of the for mer rea son, i.e., be cause there is not the rea son for op tion which was st ated in the pre ced ing Su tra . Yathasray abhav adhikaranam : Topic 36 (Sutras 61-66) Medit ations connected with m embers of sacrificial act s may or m ay not be combined according to one s liking Aoew `Wml `^md& Angeshu y athasray abhav ah III.3.61 (420) With re gard (to m editatio ns) c onne cted with members (o f sacrifici al acts) it is as with (the membe rs) wit h which they are conne cted. Angeshu: with regard (to medit ations) connected with members (of sacrif icial acts); Yathasray abhav ah: it is as with ( members) with which they are connected. Of the six Sutras which are con tained in this Adhi karana, the first four S utras are Purvap aksha Sutras and the last two S utras are Siddhant a Sutras.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 425 Dif fer ent in struc tions con nected with a sac ri fice are st ated in the dif fer ent V edas. The scrip tures say that al l these mem bers men tioned in the dif fer ent V edas are to be com bined for the due per for mance of the prin ci p al one. The ques tion now is, which is the rule to be f ol lowed with re gard to the med i ta tions or Up asanas con nected with these mem bers. The pres ent Su tra de clares that the same rule which ap plies to the mem bers ap plies also to the Up asanas con nected with them. It is ac cord ing to the abodes. A s the abid ing places of those med i ta tions, viz., the S totra and so on are com bined for the per for mance of the sac ri fice, so those med i ta tions or Up asanas also; for a med i ta tion is sub ject to what it rests on. All t hese Upasanas are to be com bined. Just as the S totras, et c., are com bined when per form ing Kar - mas, so also the Up asanas which are Angas of Karma (Angavabaddha Up asana) should be com bined. {e>o Sishtescha III.3.62 (421) And from the injunctio n of the Sruti. Sisht eh: from the injunct ion of the S ruti; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of the ob jec tion raised in Su tra 61 is ad - duced. That is be cause the Upasanas de pend on the S totras. As the S totra and the ot her mem bers of the sac ri fice on which the med i ta tions un der dis cus sion rest are t aught in the t hree V edas, so also are the med i ta tions rest ing on them. Just as the mem bers are scat tered in the dif fer ent V edas, so also are the med i ta tions con - nected with them. There is no dif fer ence as re gards the in junc tion of the Sruti with ref er ence to these med i ta tions. There is no dif fer ence be tween the mem bers of a sac ri fi cial act and the med i t a tions re fer ring to them. g_mhmamV & Samaharat III.3.63 (422) On account o f the rectification. Samaharat: on account of the rectif ication. A fur ther rea son is given by th e op po nent. A n other ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 61 is ad duced. There is also in di ca tion in the S ruti about such com bi na tion. Such com bi na tion is seen when the Udgatri per forms the Hautra Karma de scribed in an other V eda for re mov ing the ef fects of er ror in the dis charge of his func tion. Chhandogya Up anishad de clares What is Udgitha is OM or Pranava and what is OM i s Udgitha. This med i ta tion on the one nessBRAHMA SU TRAS 426 of the Udgit ha and OM mends the Udgitha de filed by any mis take com mit ted even on t he part of the Hot ri, the hy mn-re cit ing priest in rec i ta tion of t he Udgitha (Chh. Up. I. 5.5). Here it is said that t he mis takes com mit ted by t he Udgatri or chant ing priest of the S ama V eda are rec ti fied by t he rec i ta tion of t he Hotri or in vok ing priest of the Rigv eda. This in di cates that though t he med i ta tions are given in t he dif fer ent V edas they are yet inter linked. Hence all of them hav e to be ob served. The p as sage From the seat of the Hot ri, he set s right any mis - take com mit ted in the Udgit ha (Chh. Up. I.5. 5), de clares that ow ing to the force of t he med i ta tion on the unit y of P ranava and Udgitha, t he Hotri rec ti fies any mis take he may com mit in his work, by m eans of the work of the Hotri. Now, as a med i ta tion men tioned in one V eda is con nected with what is men tioned in an other V eda, in the same man ner as a thing men tioned in an other V eda, the abov e pas sage sug gests the con clu - sion that all m ed i ta tions on mem bers of sac ri fi cial act s, in what ever Veda they may be men tionedhave t o be com bined. A thing be long ing to the Rigv eda, viz. , Pranava i s, ac cord ing to the Chhandogya tex t, con nected with the S ama V eda med i ta tion on the Udgitha. Hence med i ta tions also which be long to dif fer ent V edas may be com bined; be cause there is no dif fer ence be tween them and things as far as con nec tion is con cerned. JwUgmY ma`lw Vo& Gunasadharany asrutescha III.3.64 (423) And from the Sruti d eclaring OM which is a commo n featu re (of the Udgi tha Vidya ) to be comm on to a ll the Vedas. Gunasadharany asruteh: from the S ruti declaring the feat ure of OM as being common to all t he Vedas; Cha: and. An other ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 61 is ad duced. Fur ther Pranava (Omkara) is com mon to all t he Up asanas and links them up. It is found i n Sruti t hat OM is the com mon prop erty of al l the Vedas. There fore, it is an in sep a ra ble con com i t ant of the sac ri fi cial rites, pre scribed in the V edas. Hence the V idyas also, be ing de pend - ent on OM, are concomit ants of the sac ri fi cial rites. Chhandogya Upanishad de clares Through this (OM) the V e dic V idya pro ceeds. With OM the A dhvaryu giv es or ders, with OM the Hot ri re cites, with OM the Udgatri sings (Chh. Up. I. 1.9). This is st ated with re f er ence to OM, which is com mon to all t he Vedas and all the Up asanas in them. This in di cates that as the abode of all Vidyas, v iz., OM, is com mon, so the V idyas that rest in it are com mon also. There fore, all of them are to be ob served.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 427 Z dm Vgh^ mdmlwV o Na v a tatsahabhav asruteh III.3.65 (424) (The med itations connected with membe rs of th e sacrificial acts are) rathe r not (to be combined) as the Sruti d oes not state their go ing toge ther. Na: not; Va: rather; Tatsahabhav asruteh: their correlation not being mentioned by the Sruti . (Tat: their; Sahabhav a: about being toget her; Asruteh: because there is no such injunction in Sruti). The words Na va rather not dis card the Purvap aksha. This Su tra re futes the con ten tion raised in Sut ras 61-64. This and the fol low ing Su tra give t he con clu sion. There is no Sruti com mand ing such com bi na tion of t he Karmanga Up asanas. No Sruti re fers to such com pul sory com bi na - tion of t he Up asanas. So they can be done sin gly or in com bi na tion as we like. There is no bind ing rule that t he V idyas, de pend ing on the Pranava or on any p art of a sac ri fi cial rite, is a nec es sary con com i tant of the sac ri fice. It may be dis pensed with or re tained at the op tion of the per former . But there is this dif fer ence. If V idyas be as so ci ated with the rites greater good will ac crue. Though the ut ter ance of the Pranav a or the Udgitha hym n has been en joined by t he Sruti t o be nec es sary for the sac ri fi cial per for - mance, yet Sruti does not in sist that t he Vidya (med i ta tion) por tion of the per for mance is a nec es sary ad junct to the m ind. It is not ab so - lutely nec es sary for the ful fil ment of ex ter nal sac ri fices. A sac ri fice may be per formed even wit h out the V idya (med i ta tion) merely by ut - ter ance of Mantras, sing ing of the Udgit ha hymns, pour ing of the clar i - fied but ter into t he sa cred fire and the like ex ter nal rites, in or der to at tain p ar tic u lar de sired ob jects, but the V idya or med i ta tion on Brah - man leads to reali sa tion of B rah man. The rule for com bin ing the in struc tions re gard ing sac ri fices that are scat tered in all the V edas can not be ap plied with re gard to the med i ta tions (Up asanas) con nected with them. If the in struc tions re - gard ing the sac ri fices are not com bined, the sac ri fice will it self fail. But it is not t he case if the Up asanas are not prac tised, be cause Upasanas only in crease the fruit s of the sac ri fice (V ide III .3.42). Upasanas are not in sep a ra ble from the sac ri fice. There fore, Up asanas (V idyas, med i ta tions) may or may not be prac tised. XeZm& Darsanaccha III.3.66 (425) And becau se the Sruti (scri pture) says so (shows it) .BRAHMA SU TRAS 428 Darsanat: because the Sruti says so, shows it from S ruti; Cha: and, also. This Su tra is ad duced in sup port of Su tra 65. This may also be in ferred from Sruti . Chhandogya Up anishad de clares The Brahmana (su per in - tend ing chief priest) who pos sesses s uch knowl edge saves the sac ri - fice, the sac ri ficer and all the priest s, just as the horse saves the horse man (Chh. Up. IV .17.10). This shows that the scrip tures do not in tend that all the med i ta - tions should go to gether . For, if all med i ta tions were to be com bined, all priest s would know them all and the tex t could not spe cially an - nounce that the B rahmana, chief su per in tend ing priest, pos sess ing a cer tain knowl edge thereby saves the ot h ers. The med i ta tions, there fore, ac cord ing to one s lik ing may or may not be com bined. Thus ends the Third Pada (Sec tion 3) of the Third A dhyaya (Chap ter III) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 3 429 CHAPTER III SECTION 4 INTRODUCTION In the last S ec tion the V idyas or Up asanas (med i ta tions) which are the means to the knowl edge of Brah man were dis cussed. In this Sec tion the S utrakara en ters into an en quiry whether the knowl edge of Brah man is con nected with rit u al is tic work through one who is en ti tled to per form the works or is an in de pend ent means to ac com plish the pur pose of man. Sri Baadarayana, the Sut rakara, be gins by st at ing the fi nal view in the first S u tra, Thence etc. He is of opin ion that t hrough the in de - pend ent Knowl edge of Brah man en joined in the V edant a-text s the pur pose of man is ef fected. In the pres ent Sec tion it wil l be shown that Knowl edge of Brah - man is in de pend ent of K arma and that is not sub or di nate to sac ri fi cial acts. Baadarayana es tab lishes that the at tain ment of t he fi nal eman - ci pa tion is the di rect re sult of Brahma V idya of knowl edge of Brah - man, that works or s ac ri fices are only in di rect aids to con tem plat ing by pu ri fy ing the heart, that K arma does not di rectly lead t o the fi nal be - at i tude, t hat the seeker of Brah man may ev en do away with Karma and may at tain free dom solely by con tem pla tion on Brah man and that even in that case he should not aban don the du ties en joined by t he scrip tures. 430 SYNOPSIS Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-17) proves that the knowl edge of Brah - man is not Kratv artha, i. e., sub or di nate to ac tion (sac ri fi cial act s) but in de pend ent. Adhikarana II: (Sutras 18-20) con firms this con clu sion that Sannyasa is pre scribed by the scrip tures, that the st ate of t he Pravrajins is en joined by t he sa cred law and that for them Brahma Vidya only is pre scribed, and not ac tion. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 21-22) de ter mines that cer tain clauses form ing p art of V idyas are not mere glorif icatory p as sages (Srutis or Arthavadas) but t hem selves en join the med i ta tion. Adhikarana IV : (Sutras 23-24) The sto ries re corded in the Upanishads are not to be used as sub or di nate mem bers of act s. They do not serve the pur pose of Pariplavas and do not form p art of the rit u - al is tic act s. They are meant to glo rify the Vidya t aught in them. They have the pur pose of glo ri fy ing as Arthavadas th e in junc tions with which they are con nected. Adhikarana V : (Su tra 25) For all these rea sons the Sannya sin need not ob serve rit u al is tic act s as knowl edge serves their pur pose. They re quire no ac tions but only knowl edge. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 26-27) Nev er the less the ac tions en - joined by scrip ture such as sac ri fices, con duct of cer tain kinds, etc., are use ful as they are in di rect means of knowl edge. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 28-31) Cer tain re lax ations al lowed by scrip ture of the l aws re gard ing food, are meant only for cases of ex - treme need. Re stric tions as re gards food may be aban doned only when life is in dan ger. Adhikarana VII I: (Sutras 32-35) The du ties of the A sramas are to be per formed by ev en one who does not strive af ter lib er a tion or who is not de sir ous of knowl edge. Adhikarana IX: (Sutras 36-39) Those who stand m id way be - tween two Asramas are also en ti tled to knowl edge. Those also who ow ing to pov erty and so on, are Anasramins, have claims to V idya. Adhikarana X: (Su tra 40) A Sannyasi who has t aken the vow of life-long cel i bacy can not re voke his vow . He can not re vert back to his for mer st ages of life. Adhikarana XI: (Sutras 41-42) Ex pi a tion of t he fall of an Urdhvaret a, of one who trans gresses the vow of life-long cel i bacy. Adhikarana XII : (Su tra 43) Ex clu sion of the fal len Urdhva retas or life-long cel i bate. He must be shunned by So ci ety. 431 Adhikarana XII I: (Sutras 44-46) Those med i ta tions which are con nected with sub or di nate mem bers of the sac ri fice are the busi - ness of the priest, not of the Y ajamana or sac ri ficer. Adhikarana XIV : (Sutras 47-49) Bri. Up. I II.5.1 en joins Mauna or med i ta tion as a third in ad di tion to B alya (child-like st ate) and Pandity a (schol ar ship or er u di tion). Adhikarana XV : (Su tra 50) By B alya or child-like st ate is to be un der stood a child-like in no cent st ate of mind, be ing free from p as - sion, an ger, etc. Adhikarana XVI : (Su tra 51) in ti mates that t he fru ition of knowl - edge may t ake place even in this lif e if there be no ob struc tion to it (the means adopted). Adhikarana XVI I: (Su tra 52) de clares that there is no dif fe r ence in lib er a tion, i. e., in t he reali sa tion of B rah man. It is of one kind in all cases.BRAHMA SU TRAS 432 Purusharthadh ikaranam: T opic 1 (Sutra 1-17) Knowledge of Brahm an is independent of sacrificial act s nwfmWm}@VeX m{X{V ~ mXam`U& Purusharthot ah sabdaditi baadaray anah III.4.1 ( 426) From thi s (Brahma Vidya or Brahma Jn ana results) th e purpose or t he chief obj ect of pur suit of man , because th e scriptures state so; th us (holds) the sage Baadarayana. Purusharthah: purpose of man, object of human pursuit, here the chief object, i .e., salvation; Atah: from this, f rom Brahma V idya; Sabdat: from the scriptures, because the scriptures st ate so, from Sruti; Iti: so thus (says), this is the opinion of ; Baadaray anah: the sage Baadarayana, (holds). The re sult or fruit of Brahma V idya is st ated. The Sutrakara Sri V yasa now pro ceeds to show that Brahma Jnana leads not to Karma, but to t he at tain ment of t he high est Purushartha, i. e., Moksha or the fi nal eman ci pa tion. That is Baadarayana s teach ing. The four Purusharthas are: Dharma (dis charge of re li gious duty), A rtha (ac qui si tion of wealt h, worldly pros per ity), Kama (en joy - ment), and Moksha (sal va tion). K nowl edge of Brah man is not merely con nected with sac ri fi cial act s by af ford ing to the agent a cer tain qual - i fi ca tion. I t def i nitely paves the way f or the at tain ment of t he fi nal re - lease or free dom from births and deat hs. Whence is this known? From the scrip ture. Baadarayana bases his ar gu ment s on the Sruti t exts, such as The knower of At man goes be yond grief Tarati sokamat mavit (Chh. Up. III .4.1). He who knows the high est Brah man be comes even Brah man Brahmavit brahmaiva bhavati (Mun. Up . III.2.9) . He who knows Brah man at tains the High est Brahmavidapnot i Param (Tait. U p. II.1) . For him who has a teacher there is de lay only so long as he is not de liv ered; then he will be per fect (Chh. Up. VI .14.2). He who has searched out and un der stood the Self which is free from sin, etc. , ob - tains all worlds and all de sires (Chh. Up. VIII .7.1). The A t man is to be seen etc., up to Thus far goes im mor tal ity (Bri. Up. IV .5.6-15). These and sim i lar text s em phat i cally de clare that Knowl edge of Brah man ef fects the high est pur pose of man or Su preme Purushartha. Against thi s the Purvap akshin raises his ob jec tion as fol lows. Here Jaimini co mes for ward with his fol low ing ob jec tions.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 433 eofdmnw fmWdmXmo `Wm`o pd{V O{_{Z& Seshatv atpurusharthav ado y athany eshv iti jai minihIII.4.2 ( 427) Because (the self) is suppleme ntary (to sacrif icial acts) , (the fruits of the Knowl edge of the Self) are mere praise of the agent, as in other cases; thus J aimini opines. Seshatv at: because of being supplement ary (to sacrificial act s); Pusushar thav adah: are mere praise or the agent; Yatha: as; Anyeshu: in other cases; Iti: thus (says); Jaiminih : Jaimini (ho lds). Sutras 2 to 7 are Purv apaksha Sutras and Sutras 8 to 17 are Siddhant a Sutras. Jaimini thinks that the Sruti texts merely praise the doer of Karma and that Brahmajnana is only an ac ces sory of Karma (Karmanga). He is of the opin ion that t he Vedas merely pre scribe works to at - tain cer tain pur poses in clud ing eman ci pa tion. He holds that the knowl edge of Brah man has no in de pend ent fruit of its own be cause it stands in a sub or di nate re la tion to sac ri fi cial ac tion. This re la tion is med i tated by t he Self, the ob ject of knowl edge, which is the agent in all works and, there fore, it self st ands in a sub or di nate re la tion to ac - tion. The agent be comes qual i fied for ac tions, the f ruit of which will only ap pear af ter death by know ing that his self will sur vive t he body . A man un der takes a sac ri fi cial act only when he is con scious that he is dif fer ent from t he body and that af ter death he will go t o heaven when he will en joy the f ruits of his sac ri fice. The qual i fi ca tion the self thus ac quires is sim i lar to that which the rice-grains ac quire by be ing sprin kled with wa ter; be cause they be come fit t o be used in the sac ri fice, only through this lat ter act of cer e mo nial pu ri fi ca tion. As the knowl edge of the S elf has no in de pend ent po si tion, it can not have an in de pend ent fruit of its own. There fore the p as sages which st ate such fruit s can not be t aken as in junc tions of fruit s, but merely as Arthav adas (or glorificatory p as sages), like other Arthavadas re lat ing to the sub stance (Dravya) or to the pu ri fi ca tion of the sub stance (Samskara) or to sub or di nate act s them selves (Karma), mak ing some ad di tional st ate ment about t he fruit s of the sac ri fi cial ac tions to which the knowl edge of the S elf is aux il iary. Jaimini main tains that the st ate ment that the re ward of Brahma Jnana is the high est good does not mean that such knowl edge of the Self by it self yields any real fruit but the st ate ment is only an ex hor ta - tion to t he per for mance of the sac ri fices. He says that t he knowl edge of the self i s use ful only so far as it pro duces in the per former a be lief in his ex tra-mun dane ex is tence to en able him to en joy the re wards of his sac ri fices. The st ate ment that it yields any fruit by it self is only an ex hor t a tion to pu ri fi ca tion of the sac ri ficer . The pu ri fi ca tion of the sac -BRAHMA SU TRAS 434 ri ficer is a nec es sary con com i t ant fac tor like other ma te rial req ui sites of a sac ri fice; be cause with out this pu ri fi ca tion he would not be as - sured of his sur viv ing the body and en joy ing the fruit of his sac ri fices in a higher world af ter death. AmMma XeZmV& Acharadarsanat III.4.3 ( 428) Because we fin d (from th e script ures such ) condu ct (of men of realisatio n). Acharadarsanat: because of the conduct found (from t he scriptures). The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 2 is strength ened. Janaka the king of the V idehas per formed a sac ri fice in which gifts were freely dis trib uted (Bri. Up. III.1.1). S irs, I am go ing to per - form a sac ri fice (Chh. Up. V .11.5). These and sim i lar pas sages in di - cate that t hose who know Brah man are con nected with sac ri fi cial ac tion. Janaka and Asvap ati were knowers of Brah man. If they had at - tained the fi nal eman ci pa tion by knowl edge of Brah man there was no ne ces sity for them to per form sac ri fices. If mere knowl edge could ef - fect the pur pose of man, why should t hey per form sac ri fices trou ble - some in many re spect s? If a man would fi nd honey in the A rka tree why should he go to the f or est? But t he two text s in ti mate that they did per form sac ri fices. This proves that one at tains the fi nal eman ci pa tion through sac - ri fices or works alone and not through the knowl edge of Brah man, as the V edantins main tain. VN>Vo Tacchruteh III.4.4 ( 429) Because scripture directly declares that (viz ., that knowledge of Brahman st ands in a subordinate relation to sacr ificial acts.) Tat: that, that knowledge is subsidiary and supplement ary to sacrif ice; Sruteh: from Sruti , because the scriptures directly declare. The Sruti also says t hat V idya is an Anga of Karma. If one does Karma wit h knowl edge there will be greater ef fi - ciency . What a man does with knowl edge, fait h and med i ta tion is more pow er ful (Chh. Up. I. 1.10). This tex t clearly in di cates that knowl edge is a p art of the sac ri fi cial act. This p as sage di rectly st ates that knowl edge is sub or di nate to work and from thi s it fol lows that mere knowl edge can not ef fect the pur pose of man.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 435 g_dma^U mV& Samanv arambhanat III.4.5 ( 430) Because the tw o (know ledge and w ork) g o toget her (w ith the departing so ul to give fruits of ac tions ). Samanv arambhanat: because of the accomp anying toget her, as they joi ntly f ollow the sacrificer to produce their ef fects on account of their t aking hold together or being toget her. The ob jec tion be gun in Su tra 2 is con tin ued. Brihadaranyaka Up anishad (IV .4.2) says The de part ing soul is fol lowed by knowl edge and work. This pas sage in di cates that knowl - edge and work go to gether with the soul and be gin to gether to man i - fest their f ruits. There fore, it fol lows that knowl edge is not in de pend ent. I t is not able t o pro duce any such ef fect in de pend ently. It is con cluded that knowl edge is not in de pend ent of works or sac ri fi - cial a cts. VVmo { dYmZmV & Tadvato v idhanat III.4.6 ( 431) Because (th e script ures) enj oin (works) for such (only wh o underst and t he purpor t of the Vedas) . Tadvatah: for such (as know the purport of the V edas); Vidhanat: be cause (the scriptures) enjoin (work ). The ob jec tion, be gun in the Su tra 2, is con tin ued. Fur ther Karma is en joined for one who re cites and stud ies the Vedas. He who has learnt i.e., read t he Vedas from a fam ily of teach - ers, ac cord ing to the sa cred in junc tion in the l ei sure time lef t from t he du ties to be per formed for the Guru; who af ter hav ing re ceived his dis - charge has set tled in his own house, study ing his sa cred text s in some sa cred spot (Chh. Up. VIII .15.7). S uch pas sages also in di cate that t hose who know the pur port of the whole V eda are qual i fied for sac ri fi cial act s and that hence knowl edge does not in de pend ently pro duce any re sult. {Z`_m& Niyamaccha III.4.7 ( 432) And on ac count of pr escribed rul es. Niyamat: on account of prescribed rules, because of compulsory injunction; Cha: also, and. The ar gu ment be gun in Su tra 2 is con cluded here. Do ing Karma is a Niyama or li fe-long com mand ment. P er form - ing works here (i.e., in this lif e), let a man wish to l ive a hun dred years (Isa. Up. 2). Agni hotra is a sac ri fice last ing up to old age and deat h; for through old age one is freed f rom it or through death (Sat . Br.BRAHMA SU TRAS 436 XII.4.1.1). From such def i nite rules also it f ol lows that Knowl edge is merely sup ple men tary to works, or st ands in a sub or di nate re la tion to work . The Sutrakara (Sri V yasa) up holds his view in the f ol low ing Su - tra against all t hose ob jec tions. A{YH$mon Xoemmw ~mXam`U`d VeZmV& Adhikop adesaattu baadarayanasy aivam taddarsanat III.4.8 ( 433) But because (the scrip tures) teach ( the Sup reme Self to b e) other (than the agent), Baadarayan as view is correct (or valid) for th at is seen thus (in scri ptural passages). Adhikop adesat: because (the sriptures) teach (the Supreme Self t o be) something over and above; Tu: but; Baadaray anasy a: of Baadarayana; Evam: thus, such (is the opinion); Taddarsanat: for that is seen (from the scrip tures). ( Adhika: Supreme Being, more different; Upadesat: from the st atement in S ruti, owing t o the teaching about.) Ob jec tions raised in Sutras 2 to 7 are now be ing re futed one by one. This Su tra re futes Su tra 2. Sutras 2-7 give t he view of t he Mimamsakas which is re futed in Sutras 8-17. The Sruti de clares Isvara as higher than the in di vid ual soul. So Baadarayana s doc trine as st ated in Su tra 1 is cor rect. The Sruti shows this. The real na ture of the soul is di vin ity. The word tu (but) dis cards the Purvap aksha. The V edant a text s do not teach the li m ited self which is the agent . What the V edant a texts re ally t each as the ob ject of Knowl edge is some thing dif fer ent from the em bod ied self, v iz., the non-t rans mi grat ing Lord who is free from all at trib utes of trans mi grat ing ex is tence such as agency and the like and dis tin guished by free dom from sin and so on, the S u preme Self. The knowl edge of such a self does not only not pro mote ac tion but rather put s an end to all ac tions. Hence the vi ew of the re vered Baadarayana which was st ated in Su tra 1 re mains valid and can not be shaken by fal la cious rea son ing about the sub or di na tion of knowl - edge to ac tion and the li ke. That the V edant a text s teach the Su preme Self is clear from such text s as the fol low ing: He who per ceives all and knows all (Mun. Up. I. 1.9). From ter ror of it the wind bl ows, from ter ror the sun rises (T ait. Up. II.8). It is a great t er ror, a raised thun der bolt (Katha Up. II. 6.2). By the com mand of that Im per ish able one, O Gargi (Bri. Up. III.8 .9). It thou ght, ma y I be ma ny, may I gr ow fo rth. It s ent fo rth fire (Chh. VI.2 .3).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 437 VwmVw Xe Z_& Tulyam tu darsanam III.4.9 ( 434) But t he declara tions of t he Sr uti equal ly suppor t both view s. Tulyam: the same, simil ar, equal; Tu: but; Darsanam: declaration of the Sruti . This Su tra re futes the v iew ex pressed in Su tra 3. It is a re ply to the third S u tra. There are equal Srutis which show that V idya is not K armanga. The Sruti shows that V idya is not K armanga. The word tu (but) is used in or der to re move the i dea that V idya is sub or di nate to K arma. There is equal au thor ity in the scrip tures from the prop o si tion that Vidya is not sub or di nate to K arma, that for one who has at tained knowl edge there is no work. Thus there are scrip tural p as sages such as : know ing this the Rishis de scended from Kavasa said: For what pur pose should we study the V edas, for what pur pose should we sac ri fice? Know ing this in deed the an cient ones did not of fer the Agni hotra, and when Brahmanas know that self and have risen above the de sire for sons, wealth and worlds, they wan der about as men di cants (Bri. Up. II I.5). Thus the sages called Kavaseyas did not care for Karma, nor did Y ajnavalkya, who aban don ing all Kar mas went to for est. This much in deed is the means of Im mor tal ity, my dear , say ing this Yajnavalkya lef t home (Bri. Up. IV.5.15). T hus we find ex am ples of em i nent men de voted to Vidya, re nounc ing all cer e mo nial ac tions. There fore, scrip tural tex ts are not all one-sided, in fa vour of Kar mas, but there are p as sages to the con trary also. The ex am ples of per sons like Janaka and oth ers in di cate that t hese men fol lowed Karma as an ex am ple to man kind, so that t he so cial or der may be pre served. Their work was c har ac ter ised by non-at tach ment and there fore it was prac - ti cally no work at all. Hence the ar gu ment of t he Mimamsakas is weak. There are in deed found in Srut is in stances of sac ri fices be ing per formed by en light ened souls like Janaka, but there are also dec la - ra tions of equal weight to the ef fect that per for mance of sac ri fices is quite use less and re dun dant for the en light ened, i.e. , those who have known Brah man. So it can not be as serted on the strength of the in stances of Janaka and oth ers like him, that knowl edge is to be con sid ered as sec ond ary to the sac ri fice. With ref er ence to the indicatory sign as to the de pend ence of knowl edge to work, which is im plied in the p as sage Sirs, I am go ing to per form a sac ri fice we say , that it be longs to a sec tion which treat s of Vaisvanara.BRAHMA SU TRAS 438 Now the text s may de clare that a V idya of B rah man as lim it ed by ad junct s is ac com pa nied by works; but all t he same the V idya does not st and in a sub or di nate re la tion to works as the lead ing sub ject mat ter and the other means of proof are ab sent. The au thor or Sutrakara (Baadarayana) next an swers the ob - jec tion raised in the S u tra 4. Agmd{ H$s& Asarv atriki III.4.10 (435) (The s criptural declara tion re ferred to in Su tra 4) is no t of universal application. Asarv atriki: not universal, not applicable every where. The ref u ta tion of t he ob jec tions is con tin ued. This Su tra spe - cially re futes Su tra 4. The st ate ment of t he Sruti re ferred to in Su tra 4 to the ef fect that the com bi na tion of med i t a tion and sac ri fice makes the sac ri fice ef fec - tive is not ap pli ca ble ev ery where. The above-men tioned st ate ment of the Sruti does not re fer to med i ta tions in gen eral, but only to the Udgitha V idya which forms the sub ject mat ter of the di s course con - cerned. The dec la ra tion of t he Sruti t hat Knowl edge in creases the fruit of the sac ri fice does not re fer to all knowl edge (all V idyas), as it is con - nected only with t he Udgitha (Udgitha V idya) which is the topic of the sec tion Let a man m ed i tate on the syl la ble OM as the Udgitha. The text says that if this Udgitha V idya is re cited by a per son with knowl edge, then it is more fruit ful than if it is re cited with out such Vidya. There fore, V idya is not an aux il iary to work in ev ery in stance. The au thor next an swers the ob jec tion raised in II I.4.5. {d^mJ eVdV & Vibhagah sat avat III.4.1 1 (436) There is di vision of kn owledge an d wor k as in the cas e of a hundr ed (divided betw een two perso ns). Vibhagah: (there is) division of knowledge and work; Satavat: as in the case of a hundred (divided bet ween two persons). This Su tra spe cially re futes Su tra 5. Brihadaranyaka Up anishad de clares The de part ing soul is fol - lowed by V idya (Knowl edge) and Karma (work) and past ex pe ri - ences (IV .4.2). Here we have t o take knowl edge and work in a dis trib u tive sense. I t means the knowl edge fol lows one and work an - other . Just as when we say , Give Rs. 100 t o Rama and Krishna it means Give Rs. 50 to Rama and Rs. 50 t o Krishna, the abov e pas -CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 439 sage means that the V idya re lates to the souls seek ing eman ci pa tion and Karma to ot her souls. There is no com bi na tion of t he two. The text quoted re fers only to knowl edge and work which con - cern the soul that trans mi grates but not t he soul which is about to ob - tain fi nal re lease. Be cause the p as sage, Thus does the man who de sires to trans mi grate (Bri. Up. I V.4.6) in di cates that the pre vi ous text re fers to the soul that trans mi grates. The Sruti de clares of the soul who is about to be re leased, But t he man who never de sires never trans mi grates (Bri. Up. IV .4.6). The next S u tra re futes the S u tra 6. A``Z _mdV Adhy ayanamatrav atah III.4.12 (437) (The scripture s enjoin work) on those who have mere ly read the Vedas. Adhy ayanamatrav atah: of one who has merely read the V edas. This Su tra spe cially re futes Su tra 6. He who has read the V edas and known about the sac ri fices is en ti tled to do sac ri fice. But no work is pre scribed for one who has knowl edge of Brah man (Brahma Jnana). Zm{deo fmV& Naviseshat III.4.13 (438) There be ing no spe cification (the rule does) not (spe cially app ly to him who k nows, i.e ., a Jnani). Na: not, compulsion does not appl y; Aviseshat: on account of the absence of any specification, because there is no special mention. This Su tra spe cially re futes Su tra 7. The Sruti Kurvanneveha per form ing works here let a man live etc. , of t he Isavasya Up anishad does not spe cially ap ply to a Brahma Jnani. It is gen eral in it s terms. There is no spe cial men tion in it that it is ap pli ca ble to a Jnani also. I t is not bind ing on a Jnani when there is no spec i fi ca tion. The Sruti of the Isavasy a does not lay down any such re stric tive rule that ev en the il lu mined sage must per form Karma t hrough out his life. Why so? Aviseshat . Be cause there is no spec i fi ca tion. A ll that i t says is Let one per form Kar mas through out his life. There is noth ing to show to which class of peo ple, that par tic u lar rule is ad dressed. On the other hand there are ex press text s of the Srut is which show that im mor tal ity is not to be ob tained by Kar mas, but by knowl edge alone. Mahanarayana Up anishad of the T ait. A r. X.5 de clares Not by Kar mas (sac ri fices), not by prog eny, nor by wealth can one ob tain im - mor tal ity. It is by re nun ci a tion alone that some great souled be ings have ob tained im mor t al ity.BRAHMA SU TRAS 440 The ap par ent con flict in t he two Sruti t exts is to be rec on ciled by giv ing them dif fer ent scopes. One is ad dressed to Karma-nishtha dev o tees, the ot her to the Jnana-nishtha devotees. VwV`o@Zw_{Vd m& Stutayenumatirv a III.4.14 (439) Or rathe r the permiss ion (to do work) is for the glori fication (of knowl edge). Stutaye: for the purpose of glorif ication (of knowledge); Anumatih: permission; Va: or, rather . This Su tra also re futes Su tra 7. The p as sage per form ing works here may be treated in an other way also. The in junc tion to do work for the knowers of Brah man or the il lu mined sages is for eulogising this knowl edge. A Brahma Jnani or knower of the Self may work all his life but he will not be bound by its ef fects, on ac count of the power of knowl edge. Knowl edge nul li fies the ef fect of K arma. No work clings to the man. This clearly glo ri fies Knowl edge. H$m_am aoU MHo$ & Kamakarena chaike III.4.15 (440) And some acc ordin g to t heir ow n liking (hav e abandoned all works ). Kamakarena: according to their own liking; Cha: and; Eke: some. The ar gu ment in ref u ta tion of Jaimi nis views is con tin ued. In Su tra 3 it was st ated that Janaka and oth ers per formed sac ri - fices even af ter at tain ing knowl edge of Brah man. This Su tra says that some have aban doned all works ac cord ing to their own lik ing. Some may like to work to set an ex am ple to oth ers af ter at tain ing knowl - edge, while oth ers may aban don all works. There is no com pul sion on the knowers of Brah man or lib er ated sages as re gards work. A scrip tural tex t of the Vajasaneyins runs as fol lows: Know ing this the peo ple of old did not wish for of f spring. What shall we do with off spring, they said, we who have this self and thi s world (Bri. Up. IV.4.22). F rom this it f ol lows that know l edge is not sub or di nate to ac - tion and that the scrip tural st ate ment s as to the fruit of knowl edge can not be t aken in any but t heir true sense. Cn_X M& Upamardam ch a III.4.16 (441) And (scri pture te aches that the ) de struc tion ( of al l quali fi cations for wor k result s from know ledge). Upamardam: complete destruction, putting an end t o all actions; Cha: and.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 441 The pre vi ous ar gu ment is con tin ued. Fur ther, such knowl edge brings the reali sa tion that ev ery thing is At man or Brah man. How then can the knower act? Again, f ar from be ing a p art of work, knowl edge put s an end to all works, all oblig a tory du ties. Mundaka Up anishad de clares, Brah - man in both His su pe rior and in fe rior as pects be ing real ised, the knot of the heart (ego ism, etc.) is cut down, all doubt s are dis pelled and works are de stroyed (Mun. Up. I I.2.9). Knowl edge of Brah man an ni hi lates all ig no rance and it s ef fects like agent, deed and f ruit, But when to the Knower of B rah man ev ery - thing has be come the Self , then what should one see and through what? (Bri. Up. I V.5.15). T he know l edge of Brah man is an tag o nis tic to all ac tions. Hence it can not be sub sid iary to work. It is in de pend ent. D$daoV gw M eXo {h & Urdhv aretassu cha sabde hi III.4.17 (442) And (kn owledge belongs ) to t hose who obs erve perpetual celibacy, because in script ure (that st age of life is mentioned). Urdhv aretassu: to those who observe perpetual celibacy , in those stages of life where the sex ual energy has an upward flow; Cha: and; Sabde: in the Srut i; Hi: because. The pre vi ous ar gu ment is con tin ued. Fur ther the Srut i de clares Jnana in re la tion to S annyasins. Knowl edge is said to be in Sanny asins. They have not to do any K ar - mas. Such Sanny asa can be t aken even with out go ing through the house holder s life. Scrip ture shows that knowl edge is valid also for t he stages of life for which per pet ual cel i bacy is pre scribed. Now in their case knowl - edge can not be sub or di nate to work, be cause work is ab sent, be - cause the works pre scribed by V edas such as the Agnihotra are not per formed by men who hav e reached those st ages. T o a Sannyasin there is no work pre scribed ex cept en quiry of B rah man and med i ta - tion on the S u preme Self. So how can knowl edge be sub or di nate to work? We find from t he Sruti t exts that there is a st age of life call ed Sannyasa. There are three branches of duty (Chh. Up. II. 23.1). Those who in the for est prac tise fait h and aus ter ity (Chh. Up. V.10.1). Those who prac tise pen ance and faith in t he for est (Mun. Up. I.10. 11). Wish ing for that world only , men di cants re nounce their homes and wan der forth (Bri. Up. I V.4.22). Let him wan der forth at once from the st ate of student ship. All these at tain to the worlds of the vir tu ous; but only one who is fi nally es tab lished in Brah man, at - tains im mor tal ity. (Chh. Up. II .23.1-2).BRAHMA SU TRAS 442 Ev ery one can t ake to this lif e, with out be ing a house holder etc. This in di cates the in de pend ence of knowl edge. Thus, the the ory of Jaimini t hat Knowl edge is sub or di nate to Karma has no legs to st and upon, and has been re futed. Paramarsadh ikaranam: T opic 2 (Sutras 18-20) Sannyasa is prescribed by the scr iptures nam_e O{_{ZaMmoXZm Mm ndX{V {h & Paramarsam jaim iniracho dana chap avadati hi III.4.18 (443) Jaim ini (c onsiders that s criptural texts me ntion ing tho se stages of life in whi ch celibacy is obligatory, contain) a reference (onl y to tho se stage s; the y are not in junctions ; because other (script ural texts) condemn (those stages). Paramarsam : a passing allusion, mere reference; Jaiminih : Jaimini; Achodana: there is no clear injunction; Cha: and; Apavadati: condemns; Hi: because, clearly , cert ainly. An ob jec tion to S u tra 17 is raised. Jaimini says that in the tex t quoted in t he last Su tra (Chh. Up. II.23.1), there is no word in di cat ing that S annyasa is en joined on man. It is a mere ref er ence only but not an in junc tion. The Brihadaranyaka tex t quoted in t he last Su tra de clares that some per sons do like Sannyasa. Srut i here makes a st ate ment of fact. I t does not en join Sannyasa. Thus there is no di rect Sruti f or Sannyasa though t here are Smritis and A chara (us age). But i f we say that there is no Sruti f or the house holder s life, he (Jaimini) would re ply that Kar mas like Agnihotra are en joined by Srut i. Fur ther, the t ext here glo ri fies stead fast ness in Brah man. But only one who is firmly es tab lished in Brah man at tains Im mor tal ity. Sac ri fice, study , char ity, aus ter ity, student ship and life-long con ti - nence be stow the fruit of ob tain ing heaven. B ut Im mor tal ity is at tained only by one who is f irmly es tab lished in Brah man. More over, there are other Srut i pas sages which con demn Sannyasa. Hav ing brought to y our teacher his proper re ward, do not cut of f the line of chil dren (T ait. Up. I.11.1). T o him who is with out a son this world does not be long; all beast s even know that (T ait. B r. VII.13.1 2). AZwR>o` ~mXam`U gm`l wVo& Anushthey am baadaray anah samy asruteh III.4.19 (444) Baadarayana (holds t hat San nyasa) also must be gone throu gh, be cause the scrip tural text (quoted) refers equally to all the four Asram as or stages of lif e.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 443 Anushtheyam : should be practised; Baadaray anah: Baadarayana, the author of t he Sutras; Samy asruteh: for the scriptural tex t refers equally t o all the four A sramas. The ob jec tion raised in Su tra 18 is re futed. In the t ext quot ed sac ri fice re fers to the house holder s life, aus - ter ity to Vanaprastha, student ship to Brahmacharya, and one who is firmly es tab lished in Brah man to Sanny asa. So the t ext re fers equally to all the f our st ages of life. The text that re lates to the f irst three stages re fers to what is en joined else where. So also does the tex t that re lates to Sanny asa. There fore, Sanny asa also is en joined and must be gone through by all. Baadarayana holds that Sannyasa is an ap pro pri ate Asrama like Grihastha Asrama (house holder s life), be cause both are re ferred to in Srut i. The word T apas re fers to a dif fer ent Asrama in which the pre dom i nant fac tor is Tapas. {d{Ydm Yma UdV& Vidhirv a dharanavat III.4.20 (445) Or rather (there is an) injunction (in this tex t) as in the case of carryi ng (of t he sacrificial w ood). Vidhih: injunction; Va: or rather; Dharanav at: as in the case of carry ing (of the sacrificial wood). The ar gu ment com menced in Su tra 19 to re fute t he ob jec tion raised in Su tra 18 is con tin ued. This Su tra now tries to es tab lish that t here is an in junc tion about Sannyasa in th e Chhandogya text quoted. The p as sage is rather to be un der stood as con tain ing an in junc tion, not a mere ref er ence. The case is anal o gous to that of car ry ing. There is a scrip tural text re lat ing to the A gnihotra which forms p art of the M ahapitriyaj na which is per formed for the m anes. Let him ap proach car ry ing the sac ri fi cial wood be low the la dle hold ing the of fer ing; for abov e he car - ries it to the gods. Jaimini in ter prets the last clause as an in junc tion al though there is no word in it t o that ef fect, f or such an in junc tion is no where else to be found in the scrip tures. Fol low ing this ar gu ment, this Su tra de clares that there is an in junc tion as re gards Sannyasa and not a mere ref er ence in Chh. Up. II .23.1, as it is not en joined any - where else. Even if in the Srut i there is only A nuvada (dec la ra tion) of ot her Asramas, the Purv amimamsika rules show that we must in fer a V idhi (in junc tion) of S annyasa from the por tion: Brahma- samstho mritatvamet i, be cause there is no other sep a rate in junc tion just as there is no com mand that t he Samit should be kept on the up -BRAHMA SU TRAS 444 per por tion of t he Sruk and yet t he Purvamim amsa says that such com mand should be in ferred. In the pres ent case also the same rule of con struc tion should be ap plied. Fur ther, even if there is only a dec la ra tion and not an in junc - tion as re gards the other Asramas, we must in fer an in junc tion about Sannyasa as it has been spe cially glo ri fied. Fur ther there are Sruti p as sages which di rectly en join Sannyasa, Or else he may wan der forth from t he stu dent s life, or from the house, or f rom the for est (Jabala Upanishad 4). Hence the ex is tence of Sanny asa Asrama is un de ni able. The word T apas in the Sruti re fers to V anaprastha whereas the spe ci al ity of Sannyasa is con trol of t he senses (Indriya Samyam a). The Sruti dif fer en ti ates Sannyasa and says that those be long ing to the other three A sramas go to the Puny a Lokas whereas the Sannyasin at tains Amrit atva (Im mor t al ity). Jaimini him self says that ev en glo ri fi ca tion must be in a com pli - men tary re la tion to an in junc tion. I n the tex t, stead fast de vo tion to Brahma is em ployed. Hence it has an in junc tive v alue. Brahma Samstha means med i tat ing al ways on Brah man. It is a st ate of be ing grounded in Brah man to the ex clu sion of all other ac tiv i ties. In t he case of other Asramas: that is not pos si ble as they hav e their own Kar mas. But i t is pos si ble to Sanny asins as they have aban doned Kar mas. Their Sama (se ren ity) and Dama (self-re straint) help them to wards it and are not ob sta cles. Sannyasa is not pre scribed only for those who are blind, lam e, etc., and who are, t here fore, not f it for per form ing rit u als. Sannyasa is a means for the reali sa tion of B rah man. It must be t aken in a reg u lar pre scribed man ner. The Sruti de clares, The wan der ing men di cant, with or ange-col oured robe, shaven, wife less, pure, guile less, liv ing on alms, ac cept ing no gif ts, qual i fies him self for the reali sa tion of Brah man (Jabali Sruti). There fore, Sanny asa is pre scribed by the scrip tures. As knowl - edge is en joined on Sanny asins, it is in de pend ent of works. Stutimatradhi karanam: T opic 3 (Sutras 21-22) Scriptural text s as in Chh. Up. I.1. 3. which refer to V idyas are not mere praises but them selves enjoin the medi tations Vw{V_m_w nmXmZm{X {V Momnyd dmV& Stutimatramup adanaditi chennapurvatv at III.4.21 (446) If it be said that (texts such as the one about the Udgitha are) mere glorifications on acc ount of the ir reference (to p arts o f sacrifices), ( we say) not so, on account of t he newness (o f what they teach, if viewed as injunctions).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 445 Stutim atram : mere praise; Upadanat: on account of their reference (to p arts of sacrificial act s); Iti: thus, so; Chet: if; Na: not so; Apurv atvat: on account of it s newness. ( Iti ch et: if it be said). This Su tra con sists ot two p arts, namely an ob jec tion and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion por tion is: Stutim atramup adanaditi chet , and the re ply por tion is: Na apurvatvat . That Udgitha (OM) is the best of all es sences, the high est, hold ing the high est place, the eight h (Chh. Up. I.1. 3). This earth is the Rik, the f ire is Saman (Chh. Up. I. 6.1). This world in truth i s that piled up fire-al tar (Sat. Br . X.1.2.2). That hymn is truly that earth (Ait. Ar . II.1.2.1 ). A doubt arises whether these p as sages are meant to glo rify the Udgitha or to en join de vout med i ta tions. The Purvap akshin main tains that these are mere praise and no in junc tion to med i tate on OM and so on. These p as sages are anal o - gous to p as sages such as This earth is the la dle. The sun is the tor - toise. The heav enly world is the Ahav aniya which sim ply glo rify the la dle and so on. The lat ter half of the pres ent Su tra re futes the v iew of the op po - nent. In the S ruti p as sage That Udgitha (OM) is the best es sence of the es sences etc., the de scrip tion is not mere praise but i s a V idhi, and it tell s us some thing which is new . The anal ogy is in cor rect. Glorifi catory p as sages are of use in so far as en ter ing into a com pli men t ary re la tion to in junc tive pas sages, but the p as sages un der dis cus sion are not ca pa ble of en ter ing into such a re la tion to t he Udgitha and so on which are en joined in al to - gether dif fer ent places of the V edas and would be pur pose less as far as the glo ri fi ca tion is con cerned. Pas sages such as This earth is the la dle are not anal o gous be cause they st and in prox im ity to in junc tive pas sages, and so they can be t aken as praise. There fore, the t exts such as those un der dis cus sion have an in - junc tive pur pose. On ac count of the new ness, these are not mere praise but an in junc tion. ^mdeX m& Bhav asabdaccha III.4.22 (447) And t here being w ords expressi ve of in junct ion. Bhav asabaat: from words indicative of existence of inj unction in Sruti; Cha: and, also, moreov er. The ar gu ment com menced in Su tra 21 is con cluded. Let one med i tate on OM or the Udgit ha (Chh. Up. I.1. 1). W e have a very clear in junc tion to med i tate on OM in t his pas sage. On the face of this we can not in ter pret the tex t quoted in t he last Su tra asBRAHMA SU TRAS 446 mere praise of OM. The ex pres sion This is the best of all t he es - sences in the pas sage cited un der the pre ced ing Su tra is not a mere glorificatory ex pres sion, but it amount s to an in junc tion for t he Udgitha med i t a tion. Paripl avadhikaranam : Topic 4 (Sutras 23-24) The stories ment ioned in the Up anishads do not serve the purpose of Pariplavas and so do not form part of the rit ualistic act s. They are meant t o euloisge the V idya t aught in them n[ab dmWm B{ V Mo { deo{fV dmV& Paripl avartha iti chenna v iseshit atvat III.4.23 (448) If it be said (that the stori es told in the Upanisha ds) are for the purpose of Pariplava (only, we say) not so, because (certain stories above) ar e specified (by the S ruti for this purpos e). Paripl avarthah: for the purpose of Paripl avas; Iti: so; Chet: if; Na: not so; Viseshit atvat: because of specification, on account of (certain stories alone) being specified. ( Iti ch et: if it be said. ) The pur pose of nar ra tion of sto ries in the Up anishads is stat ed in this Su tra and in the nex t one. This Su tra con sists of two p arts namely , an ob jec tion and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion por tion is Pariplavartha iti chet . And t he re ply is: Na viseshit atvat . In the A svamedha sac ri fice the priest re cites sto ries to the king who per forms the Asv amedha sac ri fice, and his rel a tives at in ter vals dur ing the per for mance of the sac ri fice. These are known as Pariplavas and form part of the rit u al is tic act s. The ques tion is whether the sto ries of the Up anishads such as those re lat ing to Y ajnavalkya and M aitreyi (B ri. Up. IV .5.1), Pratardana (Kau. Up. II I.1), Janasruti (Chh. Up. IV.1.1), and so on also serve this pur pose in which case they be come p art of the rit es, and the whole of Jnana Kanda be comes sub or di nate to K arma Kanda. The Purvap akshin holds that those sto ries of the Up anishads serve the pur pose of Pariplava, be cause they are sto ries like oth ers and be cause the tell ing of sto ries is en joined for the P ariplava. From this it f ol lows that the Up anishadic sto ries and V edant a text s do not chiefly aim at knowl edge, be cause like Mantras they st and in a com - pli men t ary re la tion to sac ri fi cial acts. VWm M H$dm`Vmo n~YmV & Tatha chaikav akyatopabandhat III.4.24 (449) And so (they are meant to i llustrate the nearest Vid yas), being conne cted as one cohe rent whole .CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 447 Tatha: so, similarly; Cha: and; Ekav akyatopabandhat: being connected as one whole. ( Ekav akya: unity of construction or of statement s or that of sense; Upabandhat: because of connection.) The dis cus sion com menced in Su tra 23 is con cluded here. There fore, it is for the pur pose of praise of V idya be cause only then there would be unit y of idea i n the con text. Only such a vi ew will lead to har mony of t he con text. The sto ries of the Up anishads are to be re garded as es sen tial parts of Brahma V idya. They are in tro duced only to f a cil i tate an in tel li - gent group ing of the sub ject. The sto ries are in tended to in tro duce the Vidyas. The story form cre ates more at ten tion and in ter est on the p art of the as pi rant. Their ob ject is to make it clear t o our un der stand ing in a con crete form, t he V idyas t aught in other por tions of the Upanishads in the ab stract. Why do we say so? Ekavakyatop abandhat . Be cause of their syn tac ti cal con nec tion with t he Vidyas t aught in the suc ceed ing p as - sages. Thus in the story be gin ning with Y ajnavalkya had t wo wives, etc., we f ind im me di ately f ol low ing in that v ery sec tion, t he V idya taught about t he At man in these words The At man is ver ily to be seen, to be heard of, to be med i tated upon. As t hese sto ries are im - me di ately pre ceded or suc ceeded by in struc tions about Brah man, we in fer that t hey are meant t o glo rify the Vidyas and are not Pariplav a sto ries. The sto ries are told in or der to fa cil i tate the un der stand ing of these ab struse sub jects and they are em i nently f it ted to sub serve that pur pose. Agnindhanady adhikaranam: T opic 5 Sannyasins need not observe ritualistic act s, as Brahma V idya or knowledge serves their purpose AV Ed Mm ZrYZm Znojm& Ata eva chagnindh anady anapeksha III.4.25 (450) And, therefore, there is no necessity of the lighti ng of th e fire and so on . Ata eva: therefore, only , for thi s reason only; Cha: and, also; Agni: fire; Indhanadi: fire-wood, and so on, kindling f ire and performing sacrif ices, etc.; Anapeksha: no need, has not to be depended upon. (Agni-indhanadi-anapeksha: no necessity of light ing fires, etc. ) This Su tra st ates that t he seeker of Brah man may dis pense with sac ri fi cial rites. Brahma V idya has no need for fi re, fire-wood, etc. It is by it self the cause of eman ci pa tion. In Su tra III .4.1 it was stat ed that t he knowl edge of Brah man re - sults in the at tain ment of t he high est Purushartha or goal of lif e. TheBRAHMA SU TRAS 448 ex pres sion Ata Eva (for this rea son alone) must be viewed as t ak ing up Su tra III .4.1 be cause thus a sat is fa c tory sense is es tab lished. For this very same rea son, i.e., be cause knowl edge serves the pur pose of Sanny asins, the light ing of the sac ri fi cial fire and sim i lar works which are en joined on the house hold ers, etc., need not be ob served by them. Thus the Sutrakara sums up the re sult of thi s first Adhikarana, in tend ing to make some fur ther re marks. As a Sannyasin, de voted t o the med i ta tion on Brah man is st ated in Sruti t o at tain im mor tal ity and not any of t he re wards aris ing from sac ri fi cial rites, he is not re quired to have re course to sac ri fi cial works to be per formed with f ire, fire-wood and so on. Chhandogya Upanishad de clares, Brahmasam stho amrit a tvamet iOne de voted to Brah man at tains Im mor tal ity (Chh. Up. I I.23.1). The the ory or doc trine that knowl edge and work must be com - bined in or der to pro duce Mukti or sal va tion is hereby set aside. Brahma V idya or Knowl edge of Brah man is suf fi cient for that pur pose. Sarv apekshadhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 26-27) Works pres cribed by the scriptures are means to the at tainment of knowledge gdmnojm M `km{ X lwVoa dV& Sarv apeksha cha y ajnadi sru terasv avat III.4.26 (451) And there is the nece ssity of al l works because the scriptures prescribe sacrifices, etc., (as means to the att ainment of knowledge ) even as the horse (is used to draw a chariot, and not for ploug hing). Sarv apeksha: there is the necessity of all works; Cha: and; Yajnadisru teh: for the scriptures prescribe sacrifices, etc., (as means to knowledge); Asvavat: like a horse, as in the case of the horse. The Su tra says that sac ri fi cial works and the like are nec es sary for orig i na tion of knowl edge of Brah man. We may con clude from the pre vi ous Su tra that works are al to - gether use less. This Su tra says that al l these works are use ful for orig i na tion of knowl edge. Ev en the scrip tures pre scribe them as they serve an in di - rect means to the at tain ment of knowl edge. Brihad aranyaka Upanishad de clares, Brahmanas seek to know Brah man by the study of t he V edas, by scrip tures, gif ts, pen ance and re nun ci a tion (Bri. Up. I V.4.22). S im i larly the p as sage, what peo ple call sac ri fice that is re ally Brahm acharya (Chh. Up. VII I.5.1), by con nect ing sac ri - fices and so on with Bra hmacharya which is a means of knowl edge, in ti mates that sac ri fices, etc., also are means of knowl edge. AgainCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 449 the p as sage That word which all the V edas re cord, which all pen - ances pro claim, de sir ing which men live as re li gious stu dents, that word I tell t hee briefly , it is OM (K atha Up. I. 2.15), like wise in ti mates that t he works en joined on the Asramas are means of knowl edge. When knowl edge once is at tained re quires no help from ex ter - nal works for the pro duc tion of t his re sult namely , Lib er a tion. The case is anal o gous to a horse, whose help is re quired un til the pl ace of des ti na tion is reached but it m ay be dis pensed with af ter the jour ney has been ac com plished. When Atma-Jnana is at tained it does not need any other ac ces - sory to bring about sal va tion, but Karma is needed for At ma-Jnana. Just as a horse is not used to drag a plough but is used to drag a car , so the Asrama Kar mas are not needed for the f ru ition of Jnana but are needed for Jnana. The fi nal eman ci pa tion re sults only from knowl edge of Brah man and not from work. W ork pu ri fies the mind and knowl edge dawns in a pure mind. Hence works are use ful as they are an in di rect means to knowl - edge. If knowl edge be orig i nated by sac ri fices, gif ts, pen ance and fast - ing, what is the ne ces sity of other qual i fi ca tions like Sama (se ren ity) and Dama (self-re straint)? T o this the au thor re plies in the next Su tra. e_X_mwno V `mmWm{n Vw V{ YoVXV`m Vofm_d`mZw R>o`dmV & Samadam adyupetah sy at tathapi tu t advidhest adangat aya teshamav asyanushthey atvat III.4.27 (452) But all the same (even tho ugh the re is no injunctio n to do sacrifici al acts to at tain knowledge in the Brihadaran yaka text) one must posse ss serenity, self-contr ol and the like, as these are enjoi ned as auxi liaries to kn owledge an d ther efore hav e neces sarily t o be p ractised. Samadam adyupetah sy at: one must possess serenity , self-control and the like; Tathapi: still, al l the same, ev en if it be so; Tu: verily; Tadvidheh: as they are enjoined; Tadangat aya: on account of their being a p art, as help s to knowledge; Tesham: their; Avasyanushthey atvat: because it being necessary to be practised. (Avasya: necessarily; Anushtheyatv at: because they must be practised.) Brihadaranyaka Up anishad de clares, The Brahmanas seek to know Brah man through the study of the V edas, sac ri fices, char ity, etc. (Bri. Up. IV .4.22). I n this p as sage there is no word to in di cate that sac ri fice is en joined on one who want s to know Brah man.BRAHMA SU TRAS 450 So the P urvap akshin main tains that there is no ne ces sity at all for work for one who as pires af ter knowl edge. This pres ent Su tra says that ev en should this be so. The seeker for knowl edge must pos sess calm ness of mind, must sub due his senses and so on; be cause all this is en joined as a means of knowl - edge in the fol low ing scrip tural p as sage, There he who knows this, hav ing be come calm, sub dued, sat is fied, p a tient and col lected sees Self in Self (Bri. Up. IV .4.23 ). What is en joined must nec es sar ily be car ried out. The in tro duc - tory word there fore (Tasmat) which ex presses the praise of the sub - ject un der dis cus sion makes us un der stand that t he pas sage has an in junc tive char ac ter, be cause if there were no in junc tion, t he praise would be mean ing less. Fur ther the Madhy andina Sruti uses the word p asyet let hi m see and not he sees. Hence calm ness of mind, etc. , are re quired even if sac ri fices, etc., should not be re quired. As these qual i ties are en joined, they are nec es sar ily to be prac - tised. Sam a, Dama etc., are prox i mate or di rect means of knowl edge (Antaranga-Sadhana). Y ajnas or sac ri fices, etc., are re mote or in di - rect means of knowl edge (Bahiranga-Sadhana). The word Adi (and the rest) men tioned in the S u tra, in di cates that t he as pi rant af ter Brahma V idya must pos sess all these qual i fi ca - tions of truth ful ness, gen er os ity , as cet i cism, cel i bacy , in dif fer ence to worldly ob ject s, tol er ance, en dur ance, faith, equi lib rium, com p as sion etc. Sarv annanumaty adhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 28-31) Food-restrictions may be given up only when life i s in danger gdmmZw _{V mUm``o VeZmV & Sarv annanumati scha pranaty aye taddarsanat III.4.28 (453) Only when life is in dange r (there is) p ermissio n to take all food (i.e., take food ind iscrimina tely) be cause the Sruti d eclares that. Sarv annanumatih: permission to t ake all sort s of food; Cha: only; Prana ty aye: when life is in danger; Taddarsanat: because the Sruti declares that. This and the sub se quent three Sut ras in di cate what kind of food is to be t aken. Chhandogya Up anishad de clares, For one who knows this, there is noth ing that is not food (Chh. Up. V .2.1). T he ques tion is if such Sarvannanumati (de scrip tion of all as his food) is a V idhi or Vidhyanga or a Sruti (praise).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 451 The Purvap akshin main tains that it is en joined on one who med - i tates on Prana on ac count of the new ness of the st ate ment. I t has an in junc tive v alue, as such st ate ment is not f ound any where else. The Su tra re futes it and de clares that it is not an in jun c tion, but only a st ate ment of f act. W e are not jus ti fied in as sum ing an in junc - tion, where the i dea of an in junc tion does not arise. I t is not V idhi or in - junc tion as no man da tory words are found. Can a man eat and di gest all things? No. P ro hi b ited food may be eaten only when li fe is in dan - ger, when one is dy ing of hun ger as was done by the sage Chakrayana (Ushasti) when he was dy ing for want of f ood. Sruti de - clares this. Sage Ushasti was dy ing of hun ger on ac count of fam ine. He ate the beans half-eaten by a keeper of el e phant s but re fused to drink what had been of fered by the l at ter on the ground of it s be ing a mere leav ing. The sage jus ti fied his con duct by say ing, I would not have lived, if I had not eaten the beans, but wa ter I can do with out at pres - ent. I can drink wa ter wher ever I like. From this it f ol lows, that t he pas sage For one who knows this etc., is an A rthavada. A~mY m& Abadhaccha III.4.29 (454) And becau se (thus) (the script ural stat ements wi th respect to food) a re not cont radicted. Abadhat: becausc of a non-contradiction, as there is no contrary state ment anywhere in S ruti; Cha: and, also, moreov er, on account of non-sublation. The topic com menced in Su tra 28 is con tin ued. And thus those scrip tural p as sages which dis tin guish law ful and un law ful food such as When the food is pure the whole na ture be - comes pure (Chh. Up. VII. 26.2) are non-sub lat ed. The st ate ment of the Chhandogya Up anishad will not be con tra dicted only if the ex pla - na tion giv en is t aken, and not oth er wise. Only then ot her Srutis will have un hin dered ap pli ca tions. Only in this view will t he Sruti When the f ood is pure the mind be comes pure have ap pli ca tion. Clean food should gen er ally be t aken as there is no con trary state ment any where in Sruti to t he pu ri fy ing ef fect of clean f ood. There is no where any p as sage in Sruti, con tra dict ing the p as sage of the Chhandogya Srut i which de clares that clean food makes our na - ture pure. Un law ful food as a gen eral rule clogs the un der stand ing and ob - struct s the clear works of the in tel lect. But in the case of the sage, whose heart is al ways pure and in tel lect keen, the t ak ing of such foodBRAHMA SU TRAS 452 does not ob struct the work ing of his brain, and his knowl edge re mains as pure as ever . A{n M _`Vo& Api cha smary ate III.4.30 (455) And more over the Smritis say s o. Api: also; Cha: moreover; Smary ate: the Smrit i says so, it is seen in the Smritis, it is pres cribed by Smriti. The pre vi ous topic is con tin ued. Smriti al so st ates that when lif e is in dan ger both he who has knowl edge and he who has not can t ake any food. He who eat s food pro cured from any where when life is in dan ger, is not t ainted by sin, as a lo tus leaf is not wet ted by wa ter. On the con trary many pas sages teach that un law ful food is t o be avoided. The B rahmana must per ma nently f orego in tox i cat ing li - quor. Let them pour boil ing spir its down the throat of a B rahmana who drinks spir its. S pirit-drink ing worms grow in the mouth of t he spirit-drink ing man, be cause he en joys what is un law ful. From this it i s in ferred that gen er ally clean food i s to be t aken ex - cept in the case of ex treme st ar va tion or in tim es of dis tress only . When the Up anishad says that the sage may eat all kinds of food, it must be in ter preted as mean ing that he m ay eat all kinds of food, in t imes of dis tress only . The tex t of the Up anishad should not be con strued as an in junc tion in fa vour of eat ing un law ful food. eX mVmo@H$m_H$mao& Sabdaschatokam akare III.4.31 (456) And he nce the sc ripture prohib iting lice nse. Sabdah: the scriptural p assage; Cha: and; Atah: hence; Akamakare: to prevent undue l icense, prohibiting license, as t o non-proceeding according to liking. The pre vi ous topic is dis cussed and con cluded here. There are scrip tural p as sages which pro hibit one from do ing ev - ery thing just as he pleases, which for bid man to t ake un due lib erty in the mat ter of food and drink. There fore a Brahmana must not drink li - quor (Kathaka Sam.). Per fect spir i tual dis ci pline is ab so lutely nec es - sary for con trol ling the mind and t he senses and at tain ing knowl edge or Self-reali sa tion. S uch Sruti tex ts are meant for this dis ci pline. There fore, it is es tab lished that t he Sruti does not en join on one who med i tates on Prana to t ake all kinds of food in dis crim i nately . As there is Sruti which f or bids li cense in food and drink, the Srut i re ferred to above in S u tra 28 is an Arthav ada.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 453 The per mis sion to t ake all kinds of food is con fined to t imes of dis tress only when one s life is in dan ger. One must strictl y ob serve the in junc tions of the scrip tures in or di nary times. Asramakarmadhi karanam: T opic 8 (Sutras 32-35) The duties of A srama are to be perform ed by even one who is not desirous of salvation {d{hVdm ml_H$_m{n& Vihitatvacchasramakarm api III.4.32 (457) And th e duties of t he Asram as (ar e to be perform ed also by h im who does n ot desir e emancipat ion) because they a re enjoin ed (on him b y the sc ripture s). Vihitatvat: because they are enjoined; Cha: and; Asrama-karma: duties of the A srama, or order of life; Api: also. This and the sub se quent three Sut ras show who ar e re quired to per form sac ri fices and do other pre scribed du ties. Un der Su tra 26 it has been proved t hat the works en joined on the Asramas are means to knowl edge. The ques tion arises now , why should one who does not de sire knowl edge or fi nal re lease do these works? The pres ent Su tra de clares that since these du ties are en joined on all who are in these Aramas or or ders of life, v iz., stu dent-life, house holder s life, and her mit lif e, one should ob serve them. In the case of a man who keep s to the Asramas but does not seek lib er a tion, t he Nityakarmas or the per ma nent oblig a tory du ties are in dis pens able. The Srut i says Yavajjivam agnihot ram juhot ias long as his life last s, one is to of fer the Agni hotra. ghH$m[a doZ M Sahakaritv ena cha III.4.33 (458) And (t he duties ar e to be perfor med also) a s a means to knowl edge. Sahakaritv ena: as, an auxiliary , on account of cooperativ eness, as means to knowledge; Cha: and. The topic com menced in Su tra 32 is con tin ued. The du ties or works are help ful in pro duc ing knowl edge but not its fruit, v iz., eman ci pa tion. I n the for mer case the con nec tion be - tween Karma and fruit is in sep a ra ble (Nitya-Sam yoga), but i n the lat - ter case it is sep a ra ble (Anity a-Samyoga). S al va tion or Moksha is at tain able only t hrough knowl edge of Brah man or Brahma-Jnana. Works (Kar mas) are an aid to V idya or knowl edge of Self . Those who are de sir ous of eman ci pa tion should also per form re li gious rites as a help to en light en ment. B rahma V idya is in de pend ent in pro duc -BRAHMA SU TRAS 454 ing it s re sults. Karma is merely t he hand maid and co op er a tor of Vidya. W orks are means for the orig i na tion of knowl edge. gdWm{n V Edmo^`{ bmV & Sarv athapi t a evobhay alingat III.4.34 (459) In all cases the same duties (have to be performed), because of the twofo ld indicatory mark s. Sarv atha: in all cases, in every respect, under any circumst ance; Api: also; Ta ev a: the same duties (have t o be performed); Ubhay alingat: because of the twofold i nferential signs. ( Ta: they, the sacrif icial works; Eva: certainly.) The pre vi ous topic is con tin ued. The word Api in the Su tra has the force of in deed, ev en. The words Sarvatha Api are equal to Sarv atha Ev a. The ques tion arises whether the works per formed as en joined on the Asramas, and those done as aux il ia ries to knowl edge are of two dif fer ent kinds. The pres ent Su tra de clares that in ei ther case, whether viewed as du ties in cum bent on the A sramas or as co op er at ing with knowl - edge, the v ery same Agnihot ra and other du ties have t o be per - formed, as is seen from the S ruti and the S mriti tex ts. Brihadaranyaka Up anishad de clares, Him the Brahmanas seek to know through the study of the V edas, sac ri fices etc. (Bri. Up. IV.4.22). T his text in di cates that sac ri fices etc., en joined in Karmakanda for dif fer ent pur poses are to be per formed as means to knowl edge also. The Smriti also says the same thing, He who per forms oblig a - tory works with out aim ing at the f ruit of work etc. (Git a VI.1). Those very oblig a tory du ties sub serve the orig i na tion of knowl edge also. More over the Sm riti p as sage He who is qual i fied by t hat forty-eight y purificat ions etc., re fers to the purif ications re quired for Ve dic works, with a view to the orig i na tion of knowl edge in him who has un der gone these purifications. In ev ery re spect, whether viewed as du ties in cum bent on a house holder or as prac tices aux il iary to knowl edge or il lu mi na t ion, the sac ri fi cial works, pre scribed to be per formed, are re cog nised to be the same and not dif fer ent, be cause they are in dis pens able req ui - sites for both or ders of life, as per ma nent du ties for a house holder and as aux il iary aids to med i ta tion for a S annyasi. The Sutrakara, there fore, rightl y emphasises the non-dif fer ence of the works.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 455 AZ{^^d M Xe`{V& Anabhibhav am cha darsay ati III.4.35 (460) And th e script ure also decla res (t hat he who i s endowed wit h Brahmachar ya) is not overpowered (by passion, anger, etc.). Anabhibhavam: not being overpowered; Cha: and; Darsay ati: the scrip ture shows, the Srutis declare. The pre vi ous topic is con cluded here. This Su tra point s out a fur ther indicatory m ark strength en ing the con clu sion that works co op er ate to wards knowl edge. Scrip ture also de clares that he who is en dowed with such means as Brahmacharya, etc.. is not over pow ered by such af flic tions as p as sion, an ger and the like. For that S elf does not per ish which one at tains by Brahmacharya (Chh. Up. VI II.5.3). This p as sage in di cates that like work, Brahmacharya, etc. , are also means to knowl edge. He who is en dowed with cel i bacy is not over come by an ger, pas sion, jeal ousy, ha tred. His mind is ever peace ful. A s his mind is not ag i tated, he is able to prac tise deep and con stant med i ta tion which leads to the at - tain ment of knowl edge. It is thus a set tled con clu sion that works are oblig a tory on the Asramas and are also means to knowl edge. Vidhuradhi karanam: T opic 9 (Sutras 36-39) Those who st and midway bqualif ied for knowledgeetween two Asramas also are AVam Mm {n Vw VX>o Antara chapi tu t addrishteh III.4.36 (461) And (persons standing) i n betwee n (tw o Asramas) are also (qualified for k nowledge), for tha t is se en (in sc riptu re). Antara: (persons standing) in bet ween (two Asramas); Cha: and; Api tu: also; Taddrishteh: such cases being seen, (as it is seen in Sruti, because it is so seen). Wid ow ers who have not mar ried again, per sons who are too poor to marry and those who are forced by cir cum stances not to en ter into wed lock and have not re nounced the world come un der the pur - view of S utras 36-39. The word tu is em ployed in or der to re fute t he Purvap aksha that K arma is nec es sary for the orig i na tion of knowl edge of Brah man. The force of the word cha is to show cer tainty. A doubt arises whether per sons in want who do not pos sess means, etc., and, there fore, are not able t o en ter into one or the ot her of the A sramas, or who stand m id way be tween two Asramas as for ex am ple, a wid ower , are qual i fied for knowl edge or not.BRAHMA SU TRAS 456 The Purvap akshin main tains that they are not qual i fied, as they can not per form the works of any A srama which are means to knowl - edge. The pres ent Su tra de clares that they are en ti tled, be cause such cases are seen from the scrip tures. Scrip tural p as sages de clare that per sons of that class such as Raikva and Gargi, the daugh ter of Vachaknavi had the knowl edge of Brah man (Chh. Up. IV .1 and Bri. Up. III.6 .8). Vidura, a man who had no wife, did not adopt t he Vanaprastha Asrama, and who had no Asrama, was ex pert in Brahma V idya. He had knowl edge of Brah man. Antara (who stand out side) are those per sons who do not be - long to any or der or Asrama and con se quently do not per form the du - ties of any Asrama. They are born in t his life with di s crim i na tion and dispassion ow ing to the per for mance of such du ties in their pre vi ous birth. Their mi nds have been pu ri fied by t ruth, pen ance, prayers, etc., per formed in their p ast lives. I f a man has duly dis charged the du ties of his Asrama in pre vi ous birth, but ow ing to some ob sta cles or Pratibandhas Brahma-Jnana did not arise in hi m in that l ife, and he dies be fore the dawn of knowl edge, then he is born in the pres ent life ripe for knowl edge. Brahma-Jnana man i fests in him in all it s glory by mere con tact with a sage. There fore such a man does not per form any Kar mas or rather does not st and in any need of per form ing any du ties of Asramas. A{n M _`Vo& Api cha smary ate III.4.37 (462) This is stated in Smriti also. Api: also, too; Cha: moreover , and; Smary ate: is stated in Smriti, t he Smriti records such cases. The pre vi ous topic is con tin ued. More over, it is st ated also in Smrit i that per sons, not be long ing to any one of the four pre scribed or ders of life, ac quire Brahma-Jnana. It is re corded in the Itihasas (Mahabharat a) also how Samvart a and oth ers who paid no re gard to the du ties in cum bent on the Asramas went na ked and af ter wards be came great Y ogins or saint s. The great Bhishma is also an in stance in point. Manu Samhit a de clares There is no doubt that a Brahmana at - tains fi nal suc cess only by prac tice of con tin u ously re peat ing the Japa. It mat ters lit tle whether he per forms other pre scribed du ties or not. One who is friendly to all, i s re ally a Brahm ana (II.87).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 457 But t he in stances quoted from scrip ture and Smrit i fur nish merely indicatory marks. What then is the f i nal con clu sion? That con - clu sion is st ated in the nex t Su tra. {deofmZ wJh& Viseshanugrahasch a III.4.38 (463) And t he promot ion ( of know ledge is bestow ed on th em) through special acts. Visesha: special; Anugrahah: favour; Cha: and. ( Viseshanu- grahah: special advant age, advant age or favour accruing from extraordinary good works done in the previ ous life.) The pre vi ous topic is con tin ued. More over knowl edge of Brah man may be at tained by the spe - cial grace of the gods due to Jap a, fast ing and wor ship of gods. Or it may be that Asrama Kar mas might have been done in pre vi ous births. A wid ower who is not a house holder in the proper sense of the term, can at tain knowl edge of Brah man through spe cial act s like Japa, fast ing, prayer , which are not op posed to the con di tion of t hose who do not be long to any A srama. The Smriti says By mere prayer no doubt the Brahmana per - fects him self. May he per form other works or not, the kind-hearted one is called Brahmana (Manu Samhit a II.87). This p as sage in di cates that where the works of the Asramas are not pos si ble, prayer qual i fies for knowl edge. Smriti al so de clares Per fected by m any births he fi nally goes to the high est st ate (Bhagavad Git a VI.45). This p as sage in ti mates that the ag gre gate of the dif fer ent mer i to ri ous works per formed in pre vi - ous births pro motes knowl edge. There fore, there is no con tra dic tion in ad mit ti ng qual i fi ca ti on for knowl edge on the p art of wid ow ers and the like. AVpdVa `m`mo {b m& Atastvitarajjy ayo ling accha III.4.39 (464) Better t han thi s is th e other (state of belonging to a n Asrama ) on account o f the indi catory mark s (in th e Sruti a nd the Smriti). Atah: from this, t han this, than t he intermediate st ate mentioned above; Tu: but; Itarat: the other , the st ate belonging to a prescribed order of life; Jyayah: better , superior; Lingat: because of the indicatory marks, from such indicati ons in the scripture, from indication, signs, i n ferences; Cha: and. The pre vi ous topic is con cluded here. The word tu (but) is em ployed in or der to re move the doubt . The word cha (and) is used in the sense of ex clu sion.BRAHMA SU TRAS 458 Though it is pos si ble for one who st ands be tween two Asramas to at tain knowl edge, yet it is a bett er means to know l edge to be long to some Asrama. He who be longs to an Asrama has better means of at - tain ing knowl edge of the S elf or Brah man, be cause the fa cil i ties are greater in the lat ter con di tion. This is con firmed by t he Sruti and S mriti The Brahmanas seek to know Brah man through sac ri fices etc. (Bri. Up. IV.4.22). On t hat path goes who ever knows Brah man and who has done holy works as pre scribed for the Asramas and ob tained splen dour (Bri. Up. IV .4.9). Smriti de clares, Let not a Brahmana st ay for a day ou t side the Asrama; hav ing st ayed out side for a year he goes to ut ter ruin. Tadbhut adhikaranam: T opic 10 He who has t aken Sannyasa cannot revert back to his former st ages of life VX^yV` Vw ZmVmdmo O{_Zoa{n {Z `_mV nm^mdo`& > Tadbhut asya tu nat adbhavo j aiminerapi niy amat adrup abhavebhy ah III.4.40 (465) But for o ne who ha s become that (i.e . entered the highe st Asrama, i.e ., Sanny asa) there is no reverting (to the preced ing ones) on a ccount of restrictions pr ohibi ting such reversi on or descending to a lowe r order. Jaimini also (is of this opinio n). Tadbhut asya: of one who has become that, f or one who has att ained that (highest A srama); Tu: but; Na: no; Atadbhavah: lapse from that stage, falli ng away from that ; Jaimine h: according to Jaimini, of Jaimini (is this opinion) ; Api: also, even; Niyamat adrup abhav ebhy ah: on account of the restrictions prohibiting such reversion. ( Niyamat: because of the strict rule; Atadrup dbhavebhy ah: because there is no st atement permi tting it , and because it is against custom; Abhavebhy ah: because of the absence of that.) The ques tion whether one who has t aken Sannyasa can go back to the pre vi ous Asrama is now con sid ered. The pres ent Su tra de clares that he can not go back to the pre vi - ous Asrama. This is the opin ion of Jaimini also. There are no words in the Sruti al low ing such a de scent. The Sruti ex pressly for bids it, He is to go t o the for est, he is not t o re turn from there. It is also against ap proved cus tom or us age. The Up anishad de clares Hav ing been dis missed by the teacher he is to fol low one of the f our Asramas ac cord ing to rule, up t o re lease from the body (Chh. Up. II. 23.1). There are tex ts which teach of the as cent to higher Asramas. Hav ing com pleted the Brahmacharya st ate he is to be come a house holder . He may wan derCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 459 forth from t he Brahmacharya st ate, but t here are no text s which treat of the de scent to lower Asramas. Dharma is what is en joined for each and not what each is ca pa - ble of do ing. Scrip ture de clares, Once re turn ing to the f or est, one should never re turn to house hold life. A Sannyasi should not st ir up the house hold fire again af ter hav ing once re nounced it. There fore, one can not go back from Sanny asa. Adhikaradhi karanam: T opic 1 1 (Sutras 41-42) Expiation f or one who has broken the vow of Sannyasa Z Mm{Y H$m[aH $_{n n VZmZw_ mZmmX`mo JmV& Na chadhikarikam api p atananumanatt aday ogat III.4.41 (466) And there is no fitness for expiation in the case of a Naishthika Brahmachar in (wh o is immoral), because a fall (i n his case) is inferred from the Smriti a nd because of the inefficac y (in hi s case) of the ex piatory ceremony. Na: not; Cha: and; Adhikarikam : (expiation) ment ioned in the chapter that deals with t he qualificati on; Api: also, even; Patananumanat: because of a fall (in his case) is inferred from the Smriti; Taday ogat: because of it s (of the expiat ory ceremony) inefficiency in his case. The pre vi ous dis cus sion is con tin ued. The pres ent Su tra ex presses the view of the Purv apakshin. The op po nent main tains that there is no ex pi a tion for such trans gres sion in the case of a Naishthika Brahmacharin who has taken the vow of lif e-long cel i bacy, be cause no such ex pi a tory cer e - mony is men tioned with re spect to him. T he ex pi a tory cer e mony which is men tioned in Purv amimamsa VI .8.22, re fers to or di nary Brahmacharins and not to Naishthika Brahm acharins. Smriti de clares that such sins can not be ex pi ated by him any more than a head once cut of f can again be fix ed to the body , He who hav ing once en tered on the du ties of a Naishthika again lap ses from them, f or him a slayer of t he Self, I see no ex pi a tion which might m ake him clean again (Agneya X VI.5.23). Fur ther the ex pi a tory cer e mony re ferred to in Purv amimamsa is not ef fi ca cious in his case, be cause he will have to light sac ri fi cial fire and there fore have to m arry. In t hat case he will cease to be a Naishthika Brahmacharin there af ter. But t he Up akurvana (i.e., who is a Brahmacharin for a cer tain pe riod only , not f or life, one who is a Brahmacharin t ill mar riage) about whose sin Smriti makes no sim i lar dec la ra tion, may pu rify him self by the cer e mony men tioned. I f he is im moral there is ex pi a tion.BRAHMA SU TRAS 460 Cnnyd_{n doHo$ ^ md_eZdmXw$_ & Upapurv amapi tv eke bhav amasanav attadukt am III.4.42 (467) But som e (consider the sin) a m inor o ne (and therefore claim) the existence (of expiation for th e Naishthika Brahmachar in also); as in t he case o f eating (of unlawful f ood). Th is has been explained (in the Purvamimamsa). Upapurvam : (Upapurv aka-pat akam, Up apatakam) a minor sin; Api tu: but, however; Eke: some (say); Bhav am: possibility of expiati on; Asanav at: as in the eating (prohibit ed food); Tat: this; Uktam: is explained (in Purv amimamsa). The pre vi ous dis cus sion is con tin ued. Some teach ers, how ever, are of opin ion that t he trans gres sion of the v ow of chas tity, even on t he part of a Naishthika is a mi nor sin, not a ma jor one ex cept ing cases where the wife of the teacher is con - cerned and so can be ex pi ated by proper cer e mo nies just as or di nary Brahmacharins who t ake pro hib ited food such as honey , wine, f lesh, are again pu ri fied by ex pi a tory cer e mo nies. They plead t hat that sin is not any where enu mer ated among the deadl y ones (Mahap ataka) such as vi o lat ing a teacher s bed and so on. They claim t he ex pi a tory cer e mony to be v alid for the Naishthi ka as well as the Upakurvana. Both are Brahmacharins and have com mit ted the same of fence. It is only sex ual in ter course with the wife of t he Guru or spir i tual pre cep tor that i s a Mahap ataka (ma jor sin). That Up apataka, a mi nor sin is an expiable sin has been ex plained in the P urvamimamsa of Jaimini in Chap. I .3.8. The Smriti pas sage which de clares that there is no ex pi a tion for the Naishthika must be ex plained as aim ing at the orig i na tion of se ri - ous ef fort on the p art of Naishthika Brahmacharins. I t puts him in mind of the se ri ous re spon si bil ity on hi s part so that he may be ever alert and vig i lant and strug gle hard in main tain ing strict un bro ken Brahmacharya and thus achiev ing the goal or sum m um bonum of life , i.e., Self-reali sa ti on. Sim i larly in t he case of the her mit and the S annyasin. The S mriti does pre scribe the pu rif i ca tory cer e mony for bot h the her mit (Vanaprastha) and the men di cant (Sannyasi). When t he her mit has bro ken his vows, un der goes the Kricchra-pen ance for twelve night s and then cul ti vates a place which is full of trees and grass. The Sannyasi also pro ceeds like the her mit, wit h the ex cep tion of cul ti vat - ing the Soma pl ant, and un der goes the purifications pre scribed for his state.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 461 Bahiradhikar anam: T opic 12 The life-long celibat e who fails to keep up his vow must be excluded by society ~{hVy^`Wm {n _VoamMmam & Bahistubhay athapi smri teracharaccha III.4.43 (468) But (the y are to be kept) outside the society in either case, on account of th e Smriti an d custom. Bahih: outside; Tu: but; Ubhay atha: in either case, whether it be a grave sin or a minor sin; Api: also, even; Smrite h: on account of the state ment o f the Smr iti, fro m the Sm riti; Acharat: from custom; Cha: and. The pre vi ous dis cus sion is con cluded here. Whether the lap ses be re garded as ma jor sins or mi nor sins, in ei ther case good peo ple (Sisht as) must shun such trans gres sors, be - cause the Smriti and good cus tom both con demn them. Smriti de clares, he who touches a Brahmana who has bro ken his vow and fallen f rom his or der, must un dergo the Chandrayana pen ance. Ap proved cus tom also con demns them, be cause good men do not sac ri fice, study , or at tend wed dings with such per sons. Svamyadhikaranam : Topic 13 (Sutras 44-46) The medi tations connected with the subordinat e mem bers of sacrificial act s (Yajnangas) should be observed by the priest and not by the sacrificer dm{_Z \$blw Vo[a`m o`& Svaminah p halasruterity atrey ah III.4.44 (469) To the sacrific er (b elongs the a gentship in me ditations ) because the Sruti d eclares a fru it (for it): thu s Atre ya (ho lds). Svaminah: of the master , of t he sacrificer or Y ajamana; Phalasruteh: from the declaration i n Sruti of the result s; Iti: so, thus; Atrey ah: the sage Atrey a (holds). This is the view of the Purvap akshin or the op po nent. A doubt arises as to who is to ob serve the med i ta tions con - nected with the sub or di nate mem bers of sac ri fi cial act s (Yajnangas), whether it is the sac ri ficer (Y ajamana) or the priest (Ritv ik). The op po nent, rep re sented by the S age Atreya, main tains that it is to be ob served by the sac ri ficer, as the Srut i de clares a spe cial fruit for these med i t a tions. There is rain for him and he brings rain for oth ers who thus know ing med i tates on the fiv e-fold Saman as rain (Chh. Up. I I.3.2). Hence the sac ri ficer only is the agent in those med i ta tions which have a fruit . This is the opin ion of the t eacher Atreya.BRAHMA SU TRAS 462 Ampd `{_ `mSw>bm o{_V _ {h n[ aH$s`V o& Artvijyamityaudulomist asma i hi p arikr iyate III.4.45 (470) (They a re) the duty of the Ritvik (prie st), this is the view of Audulomi , because he is pa id for that (i.e., the perf orma nce of the entire sacrifice ). Artvijyam: the duty of the Rit vik (priest); Iti: thus; Audulomih: the sage Audulomi (thinks); Tasmai: for th at; Hi: because; Parikri yate: he is p aid. The pre vi ous topic is con tin ued. The as ser tion that the med i t a tions on sub or di nate mem bers of the sac ri fice are the work of the sac ri ficer (Y ajamana) is un founded. But Au dulomi says that they are to be done by the priest (Ritv ik), be cause he is en gaged (lit er ally bought ) for the sake of the K arma. As the priest is p aid for all his act s, the fruit of all his act s, is as it were, pur chased by the Y ajamana (sac ri ficer). There fore the med i ta tions also fall withi n the per for mance of the work, as they be long to the sphere of that t o which the sac ri ficer is en ti tled. They have to be ob - served by the priest and not the sac ri ficer. This is the view of the sage Audulomi. lwVo& Srutescha III.4.46 (471) And because th e Srut i (so) declares. Sruteh: from the Sr uti; Cha: and. The pre vi ous topic is con cluded here. The Ritvik is t o make the Anga Up asana. But t he fruit goes to t he Yajamana. What ever bless ing the priest s pray for at the sac ri fice, they pray for the good of the sac ri ficer (Sat. B r. I.3., I.26). There fore an Udgatri who knows this may say: what wish shall I ob tain for you by my sing ing (Chh. Up. I.7. 8). The scrip tural p as sages also de clare that t he fruit of med i ta tions in which the priest is the agent , goes to the sac ri f icer. All thi s es tab lishes the con clu sion that the m ed i ta tions on sub or - di nate p arts of the sac ri fice are the work of the priest. There fore, Audul omis view is cor rect, be ing sup ported by the Sruti texts.CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 463 Sahakary antaravidhyadhikaranam : Topic 14 (Sutras 47-49) In Bri. Up. III .5.1 m editation is enjoined besides the child-like st ate and scholarship ghH$m` Va{d{ Y njo U VVr` VVmo { d`m{XdV & Sahakary antaravidhih pakshena tritiy am tadvato vidhyadivat III.4.47 (472) There is the inju nctio n of s omething e lse, i.e., me ditation, cooperation (towa rds kno wledge) (which is) a third thing (with regard to Balya or st ate of a child and Pandity a or scholarsh ip), (which injunctio n is give n) for the ca se (of pe r fect k nowle dge not ye t having arise n) to him who is s uch (i.e ., the Sannyasin posse ssing knowledge); as in the case of injunctions, and the like. Sahakary antaravidhih : a separat e auxiliary injunction; Pakshena: as an alternativ e; Tritiyam: the third; Tadvatah: for one who possesses it, (i. e., knowledge); Vidhyadivat: just as in the case of injunctions and the like. This Su tra ex am ines a p as sage of the Brihadarany aka Upanishad and con cludes that con tin u ous med i ta tion is also to be con sid ered as en joined by Srut i for the reali sa tion of B rah man. This and the fol low ing two Sutras show that t he scrip ture en joins the four or ders of life. Mauna (Nididhyasa or med i ta tion) is en joined as an aid. The third, i. e., Mauna is en joined for a Sanny asi in case his sense of cos - mic di ver sity is per sis tent, just as Y ajnas are en joined for one de sir - ous of heaven. There fore, a knower of Brah man, hav ing done with schol ar - ship, should re main like a child (free from p as sion, an ger, etc.); and af ter hav ing fin ished with this st ate and with er u di tion he be comes med i ta tive (M uni) (Bri. Up. III.5.1) . A doubt arises now whether the med i ta tive st ate is en joined or not. The Purvap akshin main tains that it is not en joined, as there is no word in di cat ing an in junc tion. Though t he im per a tive m ood oc curs in re gard to Baly a or child-like st ate, t here is no such in di ca tion in re - gard to the Muni. The text merely says that he be comes a Muni or med i ta tive whereas it ex pressly en joins One should re main etc., with re spect to the st ate of child and schol ar ship. Fur ther schol ar ship re fers to knowl edge. There fore, it in cludes Muniship which also re fers to knowl edge. As there is no new ness (Apurva) with re spect to Muniship in the t ext it has no in junc tive v alue.BRAHMA SU TRAS 464 This Su tra re futes this v iew and de clares that Muniship or medi - ta tive ness is en joined in the t ext as a thi rd req ui site be sides child-like state and schol ar ship. Muni means a per son who con stantly m ed i tates on Brah man. So con stant med i ta tion is the t hird aux il iary ob ser vance for one who is al ready pos sessed of Panditya (er u di tion) and Baly a (child-like st ate); and as such con stant med i ta tion is en joined to be ob served like the in junc tions about sac ri fice and con trol of t he senses and so on. This Su tra re fers to a p as sage of the Brihadarany aka Upanishad, where in re ply to a ques tion by one K ahola, the sage Yajnaval kya en joins first, schol arly at tain ment s, the child-like sim plic - ity, and then thirdly , con tin u ous med i t a tion co op er at ing with the two pre vi ous con di tions, with a v iew to reali sa tion of B rah man. Though there is no verb of im per a tive or in junc tive f orce in the case of this third st ate, t here is to be in ferred an in junc tion to be un der stood like the in junc tions in the ot her cases. Muniship is con tin u ous con tem pla tion on Brah man. There fore, it is dif fer ent from schol ar ship. It i s a new thing (Apurva). I t has not been re ferred to be fore. Hence the tex t has in jun c tive v alue. In ces - sant med i ta tion is highly ben e fi cial for a Sannyasin who has not y et at tained one ness or unity of Sel f and who ex pe ri ences plu ral ity on ac - count of p ast ex pres sions or the pre vail ing force of the er ro ne ous idea of mul ti plic ity . Munihood is en joined as some thing help ful to knowl edge. H$Z^mdm mw J{hUmong hma& Kritsnabhavattu grihinop asamharah III.4.48 (473) On acc ount o f his be ing all, howe ver, there is winding up with the hous eholder. Kritsnabhav at: on account of the householder s life including all; Tu: verily; Grihina: by a householder , with t he householder; Upasamharah: the conclusion, the goal, salvation, (the Chapter) ends. ( Kritsna: of all (duties); Bhav at: owing to the ex istence; Grihin opasamharah: conclusion with the case of the householder .) The Sruti winds up with t he house holder as he has all the du ties. He has to do dif fi cult sac ri fices and has also to ob serve Ahim sa, self-con trol, et c. As the house holder s life in cludes du ties of all t he other st ages of life, the Chap ter ends with the enu mer a tion of t he du - ties of the house holder . The Chhandogya Up anishad con cludes with the house holder s stage, be cause of the fact t hat this st age in cludes all the oth ers. He, the house holder , con duct ing his life in t his way , con cen t rat ing all his senses upon the self, and ab stain ing from in jury to any liv ing be ing through out his life, at tains the world of Brahma and has not t o re turn again to this world (Chh. Up. V III.15.1).CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 465 The word tu is meant to lay stress on the house holder be ing ev - ery thing. He has to do many du ties be long ing to his own Asrama which in volve a great trou ble. At the same time t he du ties of the ot her Asramas such as ten der ness for all liv ing crea tures, re straint of t he senses and study of scrip tures, and so on are in cum bent on him also as far as cir cum stances al low. There fore, there is not h ing con tra dic - tory in t he Chhandogya wind ing up with the house holder . The house holder s life is very i m por tant. Grihasthasrama in - cludes more or less the du ties of all A sramas. The Sruti enu mer ates the du ties of the B rahmacharin and then those of t he house holder and there it ends with out re fer ring to Sanny asa in or der to lay stress on the life of the house holder , to show it s im por tance, and not be - cause it is not one of t he pre scribed Asramas. _mZd{XVaof m_`wn XoemV& Maunav aditareshamapy upadesat III.4.49 (474) Because the scrip ture enjoins the othe r (stag es of life , viz., Brahmachar ya and Vanaprasth a), just as it enjoins the state of a Muni (Sa nnyasi). Maunav at: just as silence, like const ant medit ation, li ke the st ate of a Muni (Sannyasi); Itaresham: of the ot hers, of the ot her orders of life; Api: even, also; Upadesat: because of scriptural injunction. This Su tra st ates that t he scrip ture en joins the ob ser vance of the du ties of all t he or ders of life. Just as the Sruti en joins Sannyasa and house holder s life, so also it en joins the lif e of a V anaprastha (her mit) and that of a stu dent (Brahmacharin). For we have al ready pointed abov e to p as sages such as Aus ter ity is the sec ond, and to dwell as a stu dent in the house of a teacher is the third. As thus the four A sramas are equally taught by t he scrip ture, they are to be gone through in se quence or al - ter nately . That the S u tra uses a plu ral form (of the oth ers) when speak ing of two or ders only , is due to it s hav ing re gard ei ther to the di f fer ent sub-classes of those two or to t heir dif fi cult du ties. Anav ishkaradhi karanam: T opic 15 Child-like st ate m eans the st ate of innocence, being free from egoism, lust, anger , etc. AZm{dHw$dd`mV& Anav ishkurv annanv ayat III.4.50 (475) (The child-like state me ans) without manifes ting himself, accor ding to the cont ext. Anav ishkurv an: without manif esting himself; Ananv ayat: according to the contex t.BRAHMA SU TRAS 466 This Su tra says that t he per ver sity of a child is not meant by the word Balyena (by the child-like st ate), in t he p as sage of the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad quoted un der Su tra 47. In the p as sage of the Brihadarany aka quoted in the Su tra 47, the child-like st ate is en joined on an as pi rant af ter knowl edge. There - fore, a Brahmana af ter he has done with learn ing should re main like a child. What is ex actly meant by this? Does it mean to be like a child wit h out any idea of pu rity and im - pu rity, freely at tend ing to the calls of na ture with out any re spect of place, etc., be hav ing, talk ing and eat ing, ac cord ing to one s lik ing and do ing what ever one likes, or does it mean in ward pu rity, i.e., ab sence of cun ning ness, ar ro gance, sense of ego ism, force of t he sen sual pas sions and so on as in the case of a child? The pres ent Su tra says it is the l at ter and not the f or mer, be - cause that is det ri men tal to knowl edge. It means that one should be free from guile, pride, ego ism, etc. He should not man i fest the un de - sir able evil t raits. He should not man i fest by a di s play of knowl edge, learn ing and vir tu ous ness. Just as a child whose sen sual pow ers have not y et de vel oped them selves does not at tempt t o make a dis - play of hi m self be fore oth ers, he must not pub lish and pro claim his learn ing, wis dom and good ness. Such mean ing only is ap pro pri ate to the con text, pu rity and in no cence be ing help ful to knowl edge. Then only the pas sage has a con nec tion with t he en tire chap ter on the ground of co op er at ing to wards the prin ci pal mat ter, namely , the reali sa tion of B rah man. Be ing free from os ten ta tion is nec es sary, be cause only then there will be A nvaya or con cor dance of doc trine. The Smriti writ ers have said, He whom no body knows ei ther as no ble or ig no ble, as ig no rant or learned, as well as well-con ducted or ill-con ducted, he is a Brahmana. Qui etly de voted t o his duty , let t he wise man p ass through life un known, let him step on t his earth as if he were blind, un con scious, deaf. An other Smrit i pas sage is With hid - den na ture, hid den con duct, and so on. Aihikadhi karanam: T opic 16 The tim e of the originat ion of knowledge when Brahma V idya is practised Eo{hH$_` VwV{V~Yo Ve ZmV& Aihikam apyaprastut apratibandhe t addarsanat III.4.51 (476) In this life (the origination of k nowled ge take s place ) if there b e no obst ruction to it (the mean s adopted), because it i s so seen from th e scriptures. Aihik am: in this life; Api: even; Aprastut apratibandhe: in the absence of an obstruction to it (the means adopted); Taddarsanat:CHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 467 as it is seen in Sruti. (Aprastut a: not being present; Pratibandhe: obstruction; Tat: that; Darsanat: being declared by the scriptures.) This Su tra st ates whether the con se quence of Brahma V idya, which is the reali sa tion of B rah man, is pos si ble in this lif e or will wait till deat h. Be gin ning from Su tra 26 of the pres ent Pada (Sec tion) we have dis cussed the var i ous means of knowl edge. The ques tion now is whether knowl edge that re sults from these means co mes in this life or in t he life to come. The pres ent Su tra de clares that knowl edge may come in thi s life only if there is no ob struc tion to it s man i fes ta tion from ex tra ne ous causes. When the fru ition of knowl edge is about to t ake place, it is hin dered by the fruit of some other pow er ful work (Karma), which is also about to ma ture. When such an ob struc tion t akes place, then knowl edge co mes in the next life. That is the rea son why the scrip ture also de clares that it is dif fi - cult to know the Sel f, He of whom many are not even able t o hear , whom many even when t hey hear of him do not com pre hend; won - der ful is a man when found who is able t o teach him; won der ful is he who com pre hends him when t aught by an able t eacher (Katha Up. I.27). The Git a also says, There he re cov ers the char ac ter is tics be - long ing to his for mer body , and with t hat he again striv es for per fec - tion, O Joy of the K urus (VI.43). The Y ogin striv ing with as si du ity, pu ri fied from sin, grad u ally gain ing per fec tion, through man i fold births, then reaches the Su preme Goal (VI.45). Fur ther scrip ture re lates that V amadeva al ready be came Brah - man in his mother s womb and thus shows that knowl edge may spring up in a later form of ex is tence through means pro cured in a for - mer one; be cause a child in a womb can not pos si bly pro cure such means in it s pres ent st ate. It, there fore, is an es tab lished con clu sion that knowl edge orig i - nates ei ther in the pres ent or in a fu ture life, in de pend ence on the ev - a nes cence of ob sta cles. Muktiphal adhikaranam : Topic 17 Liberation is a st ate without difference. I t is only one. Ed _w{$\$bm{Z `_VXd WmdY VoVXdWmdY Vo& Evam mukti phalani yamast adav asthav adhrites- tadav asthav adhriteh III.4.52 (477) No such definite rule exists w ith re spect to e manc ipation, th e fruit (o f kno wledge), because the Sruti a sserts that s tate (to b e immutable ).BRAHMA SU TRAS 468 Evam: thus, like thi s; Muktiphal aniyamah: there is no rule with respect to the final emancip ation, t he fruit (of knowledge); Tadav asthav adhriteh: on account of the assertions by t he Sruti as to that conditi on. (Mukti: salvation; Phala: f ruit; Aniyamah: there is no rule; Tat: that; Avastha: condition; Avadhriteh: because the Sruti has ascertained so. ) In the pre vi ous Su tra it was seen that knowl edge may re sult in this life or t he next ac cord ing to the ab sence or pres ence of ob struc - tions and the in ten sity of the means adopted. Sim i larly a doubt m ay arise that t here may be some rule with re - spect to the fi nal eman ci pa tion also, which is the f ruit of knowl edge. A doubt may arise whether sal va tion can be de layed af ter knowl edge, and whether there are de grees of knowl edge ac cord ing to the qual i fi - ca tion of t he as pi rant, whether there ex ists a sim i lar def i nite dif fer - ence with re gard to the fruit char ac ter ised as fi nal re lease, ow ing to the su pe rior or in fe rior qual i fi ca ti on of the per sons know ing. This Su tra de clares that no such rule ex ists with re gard to re - lease. Be cause all V edant a text s as sert the st ate of f i nal re lease to be of one kind only . The st ate of f i nal re lease is noth ing but Brah man and Brah man can not be con nected with dif fer ent forms since many scrip - tural p as sages as sert it to hav e one na ture only . The knower of Brah man be comes Brah man. There can be no va ri ety in i t, as Brah man is with out qual i ties. There is no such di ver gence in the fruit of Mukti, be cause of the af fir ma tion of it s iden ti cal na ture. There may be dif fer ences in the po - tency of t he Sadhana lead ing to knowl edge or Brahma V idya. B rahma Vidya it self is of the same na ture, though i t may come early or late ow - ing to the power of t he Sadhana. There is no dif fer ence in the na ture of Mukti (lib er a tion) which is at tained by Brahma V idya. There would be dif fer ence of re sults in Kar mas and Upasanas (Saguna V idyas) but Nirguna V idya is but one and it s re sult viz., Mukti is iden ti cal in all cases. Dif fer ence is pos si ble only when there are qual i ties as in the case of the Saguna Brah man. There may be dif fer ence in the ex pe ri - ences ac cord ing to dif fer ence in V idyas but with re gard to Nirguna Brah man it can be one only and not many . The means of knowl edge may , per haps, ac cord ing to their in di - vid ual strength, im part a higher or lower de gree to their re sult, v iz., knowl edge, but not to the re sult of knowl edge, viz. , Lib er a tion. B e - cause lib er a tion is not some thing which is to be brought about , but some thing whose na ture is per ma nently es tab lished, and is reached through knowl edge. Knowl edge can not ad mit of l ower or higher de gree be cause it is in its own na ture high only and would not be knowl edge at all if it were low. Al though knowl edge may dif fer in so far as it orig i nates af ter aCHAPT ER IIISECT ION 4 469 long or short time, i t is im pos si ble that li b er a tion should be dis tin - guished by a higher or lower de gree. From the ab sence of dif fer ence of knowl edge also there fol lows ab sence of def i nite dis tinc tion on the part of the re sult of knowl edge, viz. , Lib er a tion. There can not be any de lay in t he at tain ment of em an ci pa tion af - ter knowl edge has dawned, be cause knowl edge of Brah man it self is eman ci p a tion. The rep e ti tion of t he clause, Tadavasthavadhriteh be cause the Sruti as serts that st ate in di cates that the Chap ter ends here. Thus ends the Fourth Pada ( Sec tion 4) of the Third A dhyaya (Chap ter III) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy. Here ends Chap ter IIIBRAHMA SU TRAS 470 CHAPTER IV PHALA-ADHY AYA SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION In the Third Chap ter, the S adhanas or the means of knowl edge re lat ing to Para V idya (higher knowl edge) and Ap ara V idya (lower knowl edge) were dis cussed. The Fourth Chap ter treat s of Phala or the Su preme Bliss of at tain ment of B rah man. Other t op ics also are dealt with in i t. In the be gin ning, how ever, a sep a rate dis cus sion con - cerned with the means of knowl edge is dealt with in a f ew Adhikaranas. The re main der of the pre vi ous dis cus sion about Sadhanas is con tin ued in the be gin ning. As the m ain topic of t his Chap ter is that of the re sults or fruit s of Brahma V idya, i t is called Phala Adhy aya. 471 SYNOPSIS Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-2) The med i ta tion on the A t man en - joined by scrip ture is not an act to be ac com plished once only , but is to be re peated again and again ti ll knowl edge is at tained. Adhikarana II: (Su tra 3) The medit ator en gaged in med i ta tion on Brah man is to view or com pre hend It as iden ti cal with his own self. Adhikarana III : (Su tra 4) In Prati kopasanas where sym bols of Brah man are used for med i ta tion as for in stance Mano Brahmet yupasit a, the medit ator is not to con sider the Pratika or sym - bol as iden ti cal with him. Adhikarana IV : (Su tra 5) In the P ratikop asanas, the Pratikas or sym bols are to be viewed as Brah man and not in t he re verse way . Adhikarana V : (Su tra 6) In med i ta tions on the mem bers of sac ri - fi cial act s, the idea of di vin ity is to be su per im posed on the mem bers and not vice versa . In the ex am ple quoted for in stance the Udgitha is to be viewed as Adit ya, not Adity a as the Udgitha. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 7-10) One is to carry on his med i ta tions in a sit ting pos ture. Sri S ankara main tains that the rule does not ap ply to those med i ta tions whose re sult is Samy ag-darsana but the Su tra gives no hint t o that ef fect. Adhikarana VII : (Su tra 11) The med i ta tions may be car ried on at any tim e, and in any pl ace, if fa vour able to con cen tra tion of mi nd. Adhikarana VII I: (Su tra 12) The med i ta tions are to be con tin ued un til death. Sri Sankara again holds that those med i ta tions which lead to Samy ag-darsana are ex cepted. Adhikarana IX: (Su tra 13) Knowl edge of Brah man frees one from the ef fects of all p ast and fu ture evil deeds. Adhikarana X: (Su tra 14) Good deeds like wise cease to af fect the knower of Brah man. Adhikarana XI: (Su tra 15) W orks which have not be gun to yiel d re sults (Anarabdhakarya) are alone de stroyed by knowl edge and not those which have al ready be gun to yiel d fruit s (Arabdhakarya). Adhikarana XII : (Sutras 16-17) From the rule enun ci ated in Adhikarana X are ex cepted such sac ri fi cial per for mances as are en - joined per ma nently (Nit ya, obli g a tory works), as for in stance the Agnihotra, be cause they pro mote the orig i na tion of knowl edge. Adhikarana XII I: (Su tra 18) Sac ri fi cial works not com bined with knowl edge or med i ta tions also help in the orig i na tion of knowl edge. Adhikarana XIV : (Su tra 19) On the ex haus tion of P rarabdha work through en joy ment, t he knower of Brah man at tains one ness with It . The Bhoga or en joy ment of t he Su tra is, ac cord ing to Sankara, 472 re stricted to the pres ent ex is tence of the seeker , since the com plete knowl edge ob tained by him de stroys the ig no rance which oth er wise would lead to fu ture em bodi ment s.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 473 Avrittyadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-2) Medit ation on Brahm an should be continued till knowledge is att ained Amd{m agH$X wnXoemV & Avrittirasakrid upadesat IV.1.1 (478) The re petition (of he aring, re flection and meditation o n Brahman is n ecessary) on account of the repeate d instruct ion by the scrip tures. Avrittih: repetition, practice of medit ation on Brahman (is necessary); Asakrit: not only once, many ti mes, repeatedly ; Upadesat: because of instruction by t he scriptures. This Su tra st ates that con stant prac tice of med i ta tion is nec es - sary. Fre quent prac tice of med i t a tion on Brah man is nec es sary as there is in struc tion to t hat ef fect in the S ruti. Ver ily, the S elf is to be seen, t o be re flected upon, and m ed i - tated upon (Bri. Up. I I.4.5). The in tel li gent as pi rant know ing about Brah man should at tain Brahma-Sakshatkara or di rect Self-reali sa - tion (Bri. Up. IV.4.21). That is what we must search out, that is what we must try t o un der stand (Chh. Up. VII I.7.1). A doubt arises whether the men tal ac tion (re flec tion and med i ta - tion) re ferred to in them is to be pre formed once only or re peat edly. The Purvap akshin main tains that it is to be ob served once only as in the case of Prayaja of fer ings and the like. Let us then re peat ex actly as the scrip ture says, i. e., let us hear the self once, let us re flect on it once, let us med i tate on it once and noth ing more. The pres ent Su tra re futes this v iew and says that hear ing, etc., must be re peated till one at tains knowl edge of Brah man or di rect Self-reali sa tion, just as paddy is husked till we get rice. There is the ne ces sity of rep e ti tion til l there is dawn of knowl edge of Brah man. The rep e ti tion of men t al acts of re flec tion and med i t a tion even tu all y leads to di rect Self-reali sa tion. Rep e ti tion is to be per formed be cause scrip ture gives re peated in struc tion. Thus in the Chh. Up. V I.8.7 the teacher re peats nine times the say ing, Tat Sat yam Sa A tma Tat-Tvam-A si Svet aketo That T ruth, That At man, That t hou art, O Sv etaketu! Here Svet aketu is t aught the mys tery about B rah man nine times be fore he un der stood it. The anal ogy of t he Prayaja is faul ty. It is not to the poi nt at all be - cause there is the Adrisht a which is the re sult gives fruit at some p ar - tic u lar fu ture time in t he next world. B ut here the re sult is di rectly real ised. Di rect in tu ition of t he Self is a v is i ble re sult to be gained in this very l ife. There fore, if the re sult is not there, the pro cess must beBRAHMA SU TRAS 474 re peated, t ill the re sult is real ised. Such act s must be re peated, be - cause they sub serve a seen pur pose. When we speak of the Up asana of the Guru or the king or of t he wife think ing about her ab sent hus band, we do not mean a sin gle act of ser vice or thought but a con tin u ous se ries of act s and thought s. We say in or di nary life t hat a per son is de voted t o a teacher or a king if he fol lows him with a mind steadil y set on him, and of a wife whose hus - band has gone on a jour ney we say that she thinks of him only if she steadily re mem bers him with long ing. In Vedant a, Vid (know ing) and Up asati (med i tat ing) are used as iden ti cal. That know ing im plies rep e ti tion fol lows from the fact t hat in the V edant a text s the terms know ing and med i tat ing are seen to be used one in the place of the ot her. In some p as sages the term know - ing is used in the be gin ning and the term med i tat ing in the end: t hus, e.g., He who knows what he knows is thus spo ken of by me and teach me sir , the de ity which y ou med i tate on (Chh. Up. IV .1.4; 2.2). In other places the tex t at first speaks of med i tat ing and later on of know ing; thus e. g., Let a m an med i tate on mind as Brah man and He who knows this shines and warms through his ce leb rity, fame and glory of coun te nance (Chh. Up. III. 18.1, 6). Med i t a tion and re flec tion im ply a rep e ti tion of the men t al act. When we say He med i tates on it the con ti nu ity of the act of re mem - brance of the ob ject is im plied. Si m i lar is the case with re flec tion also. From this it f ol lows that rep e ti tion has to be prac tised there also, where the text gives in struc tion once only . Where, again, t he text gives re peated in struc tion, re peated per for mance of the men tal act s is di rectly in ti mated. When the scrip ture speak ing about the rice for t he sac ri fice says, The rice should be beaten the sac ri ficer un der stands that the in junc tion means The rice should be beaten over and ov er again, till it is free from husk for no sac ri fice can be per formed with t he rice with its husk on. So when the scrip ture says, The Self must be seen through hear ing, re flec tion and med i t a tion it means the rep e ti tion of these men tal pro cesses, so long as the Self is not seen or real ised. {bm & Lingaccha IV.1.2 (479) And on a ccount of the indi cator y mar k. Lingat: because of the indicatory m ark or sign; Cha: and. The same topic is con tin ued. An indicatory m ark also shows that rep e ti tion is re quired. In t he Sruti t here is a teach ing of re peated med i ta tion. I t says that one son will be born if there is a sin gle act of med i ta tion whereas many sons will be born if there are many and re peated act s of med i ta tion. Re -CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 475 flect upon the ray s and you will have many sons (Chh. Up. I.5.2). I n the Sec tion treat ing of med i ta tion on the Udgit ha the tex t re peats the med i ta tion on the Udgit ha viewed as the sun, be cause it s re sult is one son only and the clause Re flect upon his rays en joins a med i ta tion on his man i fold rays as lead ing to the pos ses sion of many sons. Thi s in di cates that the rep e ti tion of med i t a tion is some thing well known. What holds good in this case holds good for other med i ta tions also. In the case of fi rst class type of as pi rant with in tense pu rity, dispassion, dis crim i na tion and ex tremely sub tle and sharp in tel lect, a sin gle hear ing of that great sen tence Tat-Tvam-A si Mahavakya will be quite suf fi cient. Rep e ti tion would in deed be use less for him who is able to real ise the true na ture of Brah man even if the Mahavaky a Tat-Tvam-A si is enounced once only . But such ad vanced souls are very rare. Or di nary peo ple who are deeply at tached to the body and ob jects can not at tain reali sa tion of T ruth by a sin gle enun ci a tion of it . For such per sons rep e ti tion is of use. T he er ro ne ous no tion I am t he body can be de stroyed only t hrough con stant med i ta tion or re peated prac tice. Knowl edge can dawn only when there is in ces sant and fre - quent med i t a tion. Rep e ti tion has the power of an ni hi lat ing this er ro ne ous idea grad u ally. Med i ta tion should be con tin ued till t he last trace of body idea is de stroyed. When the body con scious ness is to tally an ni hi - lated, B rah man shines It self in all I ts pris tine glory and pu rity. The medit ator and the med i t ated be come one. In di vi d u al ity van ishes in toto. If rep e ti tion is not nec es sary, the Chhandogya Up anishad would not have t aught the t ruth of the great sen tence Thou art That re peat - edly. In the T aittiriy a Upanishad III. 2 we find that Bhrigu goes sev eral times to his f a ther V aruna and asks him again and again, to be t aught the na ture of Brah man. Bhrigu V aruni went to his fa ther V aruna say ing, Sir , teach me Brah man. He told him t his, viz., food, breath, the eye, the ear , mind and speech. Then he said again to him That from whence these be - ings are born, that by which when born they live, that int o which they en ter at thei r death, try to know that. That is Brah man. This in junc tion about rep e ti tion is meant f or those only who lack in pu rity and sub tle un der stand ing and in whom a sin gle enun ci a tion is not suf fi cient to giv e them the di rect cog ni tion of B rah man. The in di vid ual soul is t aught step by st ep to be sub tler than t he body , etc., till it is real ised as pure Chait anya. When we have t he knowl edge of the ob ject only , we can have full knowl edge of the af fir - ma tion about it . In the case of those who have ig no rance or doubt or wrong knowl edge, the af fir ma tion (Tat-Tvam-A si) can not bring on im - me di ate reali sa tion but t o those who have no such ob struc tion thereBRAHMA SU TRAS 476 will be reali sa tion. Hence re it er a tion with rea son ing is only for lead ing us to full V achyartha Jnana. We ob serve that men by re peat ing again and again a sen tence which they , on the f irst hear ing, had un der stood im per fectly only , grad u ally rid t hem selves of all mi s con cep tions and ar rive at a f ull un - der stand ing of the t rue sense. All thi s es tab lishes the con clu sion that, i n the case of cog ni tion of the S u preme Brah man, the in struc tion lead ing to such reali sa tion may be re peated. Atmatv opasanadhikaranam : Topic 2 He who medit ates on the Suprem e Brahman must com prehend It as identical wit h himself Am_o{ V VynJN>pV Jmh`pV M & Atmeti tup agacchanti grahay anti cha IV.1.3 (480) But (the Sruti te xts) acknowledge (Brahman) as the Self (of the meditator) and also teach oth er (to realise It as such). Atmeti : as the Self; Tu: but; Upagacchanti: acknowledge, approach, realise; Grahay anti: teach, make others comprehend, instruct; Cha: also. This Su tra pre scribes the pro cess of med i ta tion. A doubt arises whether Brah man is to be com pre hended by the Jiva or the in di vid ual soul as iden ti cal with it or sep a rate from it . The op po nent main tains that Brah man is to be com pre hended as dif fer ent from t he in di vid ual soul ow ing to their es sen tial dif fer ence, be cause the in di vid ual soul is sub ject to p ain, sor row and mis ery, while the other is not. The pres ent Su tra re futes the v iew that Brah man is to be com - pre hended as iden ti cal with one s self. The in di vid ual is es sen tially Brah man only . The Jivahood is due t o the lim it ing ad junct, the i n ter nal or gan or Ant ahkarana. The Jivahood is il lu sory. The Jiva is in re al ity an em bodi ment of bli ss. It ex pe ri ences pain and m is ery on ac count of the lim it ing ad junct, Antahkarana. The Jabalas ac knowl edge it I am in deed Thou, O Lord, and Thou art in deed my self. Other scrip tural tex ts also say the same thing, I am Brah man: Aham Brahma A smi (Bri. Up. I.4.10 ). Thy se lf is this which is within all (Bri. Up. III .4.1). He is thy self, the ruler within, the im mor tal (Bri. Up. III.7 .3). That i s the True, that is the Se lf, That thou art (Chh. Up. VI. 8.7). The t exts are to be t aken in their pri - mary and not sec ond ary sense as in The mind is Brah man (Chh. Up. III .18.1), where the t ext pres ents the mind as a sym bol for med i ta - tion. There fore we have to med i tate on Brah man as the Self .CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 477 You can not say that these mean only a f eel ing or emo tion of one ness, just as we re gard an idol as V ishnu. In the lat ter case we have only a sin gle st ate ment. B ut in the Jabala Sruti we have a dou ble af fir ma tion, i. e., the iden tity of Brah - man with the in di vid ual soul with Brah man. The seem ing dif fer ence be tween Jiva and Brah man is un real. There is Jivahood or Samsaritv a for the in di vid ual soul till reali sa tion is at tained. Hence we must fix our minds on Brah man as be ing the Self . Pratikadhi karanam: T opic 3 The symbols of B rahman should not be m editated upon as identical with t he medit ator Z VrH o$ Z {h g& Na pratike na hi sah IV.1.4 (481) (The meditato r is) not (to se e the Self) in the s ymbol, be cause he is not (that). Na: not; Pratike: in the symbol (such as Akasa, the sun, t he mind, etc.); Na: not; Hi: because; Sah: he. This and the fol low ing two Sutras ex am ine the val ue of a Prati ka or sym bol in wor ship. Pratikas, sym bols, would not be re garded as one with us. The medit ator can not re gard them as be ing one with him, as they are sep - a rate from him. Chhandogya Up anishad III. 18.1 de clares The mind is Brah - man. A doubt arises whether in such med i ta tions where the mind is taken as a sym bol of Brah man, the m editator is to iden tify him self with the mind, as in t he case of the med i ta tion: I am Brah man Aham Brahma A smi. The Purvap akshin main tains that he should, be cause the mind is a prod uct of Brah man and as such it is one with It. So the medit ator, the in di vid ual soul, is one with Brah man. There fore, it fol lows that the medit ator also is one with the mi nd, and hence he should see his Self in the mind in t his med i ta tion also. The pres ent Su tra re futes this. We must not at tach to sym bols the idea of B rah man. Be cause the medit ator can not com pre hend the het er o ge neous sym bols as be ing of the na ture of the S elf. We must not re gard Pratikas (sym bols or im ages) as be ing our - selves. They are dif fer ent from our selves and can not be re garded as be ing iden ti cal with our selves. Nor can we say that t hey be ing de riv a - tives of Brah man and Brah man be ing one with At man, they are also to be treated as one wit h the At man. They can be one with Brah man only if they go abov e name and form and when they go above name and form, t hey will not be P ratikas.BRAHMA SU TRAS 478 At man is Brah man only when freed f rom Kartritv a (doership). Two gold or na ment s can not be iden ti cal but both can be one with gold. If the sym bol mind is real ised as iden ti cal with Brah man, then it is no lon ger a sym bol, just as when we real ise an or na ment as gold, it ceases to be an or na ment. I f the med i tat ing per son real ises his iden - tity with Brah man, then he i s no lon ger the Jiva or the in di vid ual soul, the medit ator. The dis tinc tions of medit ator, med i ta tion and the m ed i - tated ex ist in the be gin ning when one ness has not been real ised. When ever there is the dis tinc tion be tween the medit ator and the med - i tated there is the pro cess of med i ta tion. Where there is con scious - ness of dif fer ence, di ver sity or plu ral ity, the medit ator is quite dis tinct from the sym bol. For these rea sons the self is not med i tated in sym bols. The medit ator is not to see his self in t he sym bol. Brahmadrish tyadhikaranam : Topic 4 When medit ating on a symbol, the symbol should be considered as Brahman and not Brahman as t he symbol ~{ >H$fmV & Brahmadrish tirutkarshat IV.1.5 (482) (The symbol) is to be vie wed as Brahman (and not in the reverse way), o n acc ount of the exaltati on (o f the symb ol thereby). Brahmadrishtih: the view of Brahman, t he view in the li ght of Brahman; Utkarshat: on account of superiority , because of super-eminence. The same dis cus sion is con tin ued. In med i ta tions on sym bols as in The mind is Brah man, The sun is Brah man, the ques tion is whether the sym bol is to be con sid - ered as Brah man, or Brah man as the sym bol. This Su tra de clares that the sym bols, the mind, the sun, etc., are to be re garded as Brah man and not in t he re verse way . Be cause you can at tain el e va tion or prog ress by look ing upon an in fe rior thing as a su pe rior thing and not in t he re verse way . As you hav e to be hold Brah man in ev ery thing and free y our self from the i dea of dif fer en ti a - tion and di ver sity, you hav e to con tem plate on these sym bols as Brah man. To view the sym bol as Brah man is quite proper , but by re vers ing the or der to view Brah man in the light of the sym bol is not jus ti fi able, be cause of super-em i nence of Brah man over the sym bol. It would not serve any pur pose to think of B rah man in the light of a lim ited thing; be cause it would be only to de grade the In fi nite Lord to the st a tus of a fi nite thing. The sym bol should be raised higher inCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 479 thought t o the level of Brah man but Brah man should not be brought down to the lev el of the sy m bol. Adity adimaty adhikaranam : Topic 5 In meditation on the m embers of sacrificial act s the idea of divinit y is to be superimposed on the m embers and not in t he reverse way . Am{X`m{X_ V`m Cnnmo & Adity adimat ayaschanga up apatteh IV.1.6 (483) And t he ideas of t he sun, etc., are to be superi mposed) on t he subordinate membe rs (of sacr ificial act s), because (in th at way alone the state ment of the scrip tures would be) consistent. Adity adimat ayah: the idea of t he sun, etc.; Cha: and; Anga: in a subordinate member (of the sacrificial act s); Upapatteh: because of consistency , because of it s reasonableness. A par tic u lar in stance is cited to con firm the pre ced ing Su tra. He who burns up these (s un), let a man m ed i tate upon that which shines yon der as the Udgitha (Chh. Up. I. 3.1). One ought t o med i tate upon the S aman as five fold (Chh. Up. II .2.1). Let a man med i tate on the seven fold Saman i n speech (Chh. Up. II.8. 1). This earth is the Rik, fi re is Saman (Chh. Up. I. 6.1). In med i ta tions con nected with sac ri fi cial act s as given in the texts quoted, how is the med i ta tion to be per formed? Is the sun t o be viewed as the Udgitha or t he Udgitha as the sun? Be tween the Udgitha and the sun there is noth ing to in di cate which is su pe rior, as in the pre vi ous Su tra, where Brah man be ing pre-em i nent, t he sym bol was viewed as Brah man. The pres ent Su tra de clares that the mem bers of sac ri fi cial act s as the Udgitha are to be v iewed as the sun and so on, for the fruit of the sac ri fi cial act is in creased by so do ing. The sac ri fi cial work be - comes suc cess ful. A scrip tural p as sage, viz., Chh. Up. I. 1.10 What - ever one per forms with knowl edge, fait h and Up anishad is more pow er ful ex pressly de clares that knowl edge causes the suc cess of sac ri fi cial work . If we vi ew the Udgitha as the sun, it un der goes a cer tain cer e - mo nial pu ri fi ca tion and thereby con trib utes to the A purva or Adrisht a, the in vis i ble fruit of the whole sac ri fice, which leads to Karm a Samriddhi (the f ulness of the Karma). I f the sun is viewed as Udgitha in the re verse way the pu ri fi ca tion of t he sun by this med i ta tion will not con trib ute to t he Apurva, as t he sun is not a mem ber of the sac ri fi cial act. The mem bers of the sac ri fi cial act s are to be viewed as the sun, etc., if the dec la ra tion of t he scrip tures that t he med i ta tions in crease the re sult of the sac ri fice is to come true.BRAHMA SU TRAS 480 The sun, etc., are higher (Utkarsha) than Udgitha be cause the sun, etc., are t he fruit s at tained by Karma. There fore, the rule of Utkarsha-buddhi re ferred to above needs that we must re gard and wor ship Udgitha, etc. , as the sun, etc. If you say that i f we re gard the sun, etc., as the Udgitha, t he for - mer be ing of the na ture of Karma wil l give t he fruit, that would be wrong be cause Upasana it self is a Karma and will giv e the fruit . The Udgitha should be raised higher in thought to the lev el of the sun, but not the sun brought down to that of the Udgit ha. In this way a m editator should raise him self to the l evel of B rah - man by thi nk ing him self as Brah man, but should not bring Brah man down to the lev el of the in di vid ual soul. Asinadhikaran am: T opic 6 (Sutras 7-10) One is to m editate sitti ng. AmgrZ g^ dmV & Asinah sambh avat IV.1.7 (484) Sitting (a man is to med itate) on ac count of the possib ility. Asinah: sittin g; Sambhav at: on account of the possibilit y. The pos ture of the m editator while en gaged in med i ta tion is now dis cussed . In Karmanga Up asanas there is no ques tion as to whether t hey should be done sit ting or st and ing as they de pend on the p ar tic u lar Karma. I n pure reali sa tion or per fect in tu ition there could be no such ques tion as it de pends on the ob ject of reali sa tion. I n other Up asanas sit ting is nec es sary for med i t a tion. The Purvap akshin here main tains that as the med i ta tion is some thing men tal there can be no re stric tion as to the at ti tude of t he body . This Su tra says that one has t o med i tate sit ting, be cause it is not pos si ble to med i tate while st and ing or ly ing down. Sit ting is nec es sary for med i ta tion be cause Upasana is the con ti nu ity of men tal state and such con ti nu ity will not ex ist when one walks or runs be cause then the mind will at tend to t he body and can not con cen trate, or when one lies down be cause then he will be soon over pow ered by sleep. In Up asana one has to con cen trate one s mind on a sin gle ob - ject. This is not pos si ble if one is st and ing or ly ing. The mind of a stand ing man is di rected on main tain ing the body i n an erect po si tion and there fore in ca pa ble of re flec tion on any sub tle mat ter. A sit ting per son may eas ily av oid these sev eral oc cur rences and is, there fore, in a po si tion to carry on his med i ta tion. The sit ting pos ture con trib utes that com po sure of mind which is the sine qua nonCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 481 of med i ta tion. Med i ta tion is to be prac tised in a sit ting pos ture, as in that case only med i t a tion is prac ti ca ble. `mZm& Dhyanaccha IV.1.8 (485) And on a ccount of medit ation. Dhyanat: on account of medit ation; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 7 is ad duced. Fur ther, such con ti nu ity of thought is Dhy ana or med i ta tion. I t can come only when the limbs are not ac tive and t he mind is calm. Upasana (wor ship) be ing mainly of the na ture of con cen tra tion, should be prac tised in a sit ting pos ture, which is con du cive to con cen - tra tion. Con cen tra tion be ing an un in ter rupted and unintermitt ent cur - rent of thought sent to wards a par tic u lar ob ject, the sit ting pos ture be comes in dis pens able. The word Upasana also de notes ex actly what m ed i ta tion means, that i s con cen trat ing on a sin gle ob ject with a fi xed look, and with out any mov e ment of t he limbs. This is pos si ble only in a sit ting pos ture. Med i ta tion de notes a length ened car ry ing of the same t rain of ideas. W e as cribe thought ful ness to those whose mind is con cen - trated on one and the same ob ject while their look is fi xed and their limbs do not mov e. We say that S ri Ramakrishna is thought ful. Now such thought ful ness is easy for those who sit. The wife sit s and thinks deeply over her hus band gone on a dis tant jour ney. Dhy ana or med i t a tion is think ing on one sub ject con tin u ously , with out the in rush of ideas in con gru ous with the sub ject of thought . Such med i ta tion is pos si ble in a sit ting pos ture only and not while ly - ing down or st and ing etc. There fore, a sit ting pos ture should be adopted both f or prayers as well as for med i ta tion. The dis trac tion of mi nd is mini mised when one med i tates in a sit ting pos ture. We, there fore, con clude herefrom also that med i ta tion is the oc - cu pa tion of a sit ting per son. AMb d Mmno `& Achalatv am chapekshy a IV.1.9 (486) And with re ference to im mobility ( the scrip tures ascribe meditativeness to the earth). Achalatv am: immobility , stability , steadiness ; Cha: and, indeed; Apekshy a: referring to, aim ing at, point ing to. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 7 is con tin ued.BRAHMA SU TRAS 482 The word cha has the force of in deed. In t he Chhandogya Upanishad the root Dhy ana or med i ta tion is em ployed in t he sense of mo tion less ness. With ref er ence to the im mo bil ity of the earth in or di nary eye, t he scrip ture fan cies the earth as be ing en gaged in con cen tra tion, as if it re mains fixed i n space in t he act of pi ous med i ta tion. I t sug gests that such a steady ap pli ca tion of t he mind can be at tained by med i tat ing only in a sit ting pos ture. If the body is at rest, there is rest for the mind al so; if the body is in mo tion, i. e., rest less, the mind t oo be comes rest less. In the p as sage, The earth med i tates as it were, medi ta tive - ness is at trib uted to earth on ac count of it s im mo bil ity or steadi ness. This also help s us to in fer that m ed i ta tion is pos si ble in one when he is sit ting and not while st and ing or walk ing. Steadi ness ac com pa ni es med i t a tion. Steadi ness of body and mind is pos si ble only while sit ting and not while st and ing or walk ing. _apV M Smaranti cha IV.1.10 (487) The Smriti passages also say (th e same thing ). Smaranti : the Smrit i text s say , it is ment ioned in the Sm ritis; Cha: also. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 7 is con cluded. Au thor i ta tive au thors also teach in their Sm ritis that a sit ting pos ture sub serve the act of m ed i ta tion, e. g., Hav ing made a firm seat for one s self on a pure spot (Bhagavad Git a VI.11). For the same rea son the Y oga-Sastra teaches dif fer ent pos - tures, viz. , Padmasana, S iddhasana, etc. Ekagrat adhikaranam : Topic 7 There is no restriction of place with regard to m editation `H$mJVm V m{deof mV & Yatraikagrat a tatraviseshat IV.4.11 (488) Wherever concentratio n of mi nd (is atta ined), the re (it is to be practised), th ere be ing no specificati on (as to place). Yatra: where, wherever; Ekagrat a: concentration of mind; Tatra: there; Aviseshat: for want of any specification, it not being specifically ment ioned, as there is no special direction in S ruti. There are no spe cific rules about the t ime or place of med i ta tion. When ever and wher ever the mind at tains con cen tra tion, we should med i tate. The S ruti says Mano nukule where the mind feels fa - vour able.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 483 Any place is good if con cen tra tion is at tained in that pl ace. The scrip tures say , Let a man med i tate at what ever time, in what ever place and fac ing what ever re gion, he may with ease man age to con - cen trate his mind. But places that are clean, free from peb bles, fire, dust , noises, stand ing wa ter, and the like are de sir able, as such places are con ge - nial to med i t a tion. But there are no fixed rules to place, time and di rec tion. Apray anadhikaranam : Topic 8 Medit ations should be continued til l death Am m`Ummm{n {h >_ & Aa pray anat t atrapi hi dr ishtam IV.1.12 (489) Till death (till one a ttains Moksha) (m editations have to be repeated); for the n also it is thu s seen in sc riptu re. Aa pray anat: till death, till Mukti; Tatra: there, then; Api: also, even; Hi: because; Drisht am: is seen (in the Sruti). This Su tra says Up asana (med i ta tion, wor ship) is to be ob - served till deat h. Wor ship is to be con tin ued till deat h, till one get s Mukti, be cause it is found in S ruti, t hat the wor ship per, con tin u ing so till deat h, at tains the world of Brah man af ter death. The first topi c of the pres ent Chap ter has es tab lished that t he med i ta tion on the A t man or Brah man en joined by t he scrip tures is to be re peated till knowl edge dawns. The ques tion is now t aken up about other med i ta tions which are prac tised for at tain ing cer tain re sult s. The Purvap akshin main tains that such med i ta tions can be stopped af ter a cer tain time. They should still gi ve fruit s like sac ri fices per formed only once. The pres ent Su tra de clares that they are to be con tin ued up to death, be cause the Sruti and Sm riti say so. Wit h what ever thought he passes away from this world (Sat. B r. X.6.3.1). Re mem ber ing what ever form of be ing he in the end leav es this body , into t hat same form he even p asses, as sim i lated it s be ing (Bhagavad Git a VII I.6). At the t ime of death wit h un moved mind (Bhagav ad Git a VII I.10). Let a man at t he time of death, t ake ref uge with this triad (Chh. Up. III.17.6). What ever his thought at the time of death with t hat he goes into Prana and t he Prana united wit h light, t o gether with the i n di vid ual self, leads on to t he world as con ceived at t he mo ment of deat h (Pras. Up. IV .2.10). T his also fol lows from the com par i son to the cat - er pil lar (Bri. Up. I V.4.3) or leech. The leech t akes hold of an other ob - ject be fore it leav es an ob ject.BRAHMA SU TRAS 484 One can not en ter tain such a thought at t he time of d e par ture of Prana from thi s body with out prac tice for the whole li fe. There fore, med i ta tions must be prac tised up to death. Tadadhigamadhikaranam: T opic 9 Knowledge of Brahm an frees one from al l past and future sins. VX{YJ_ Cma nydmK`moabof{dZmem VX >`nXoemV & Tadadhigam a uttarapurv aghay orasleshav inasau tadvyapadesat IV.1.13 (490) On the attain ment of thi s (viz., Bra hman) (there takes place) the no n-clinging and the d estruction o f later and earlier sins ; because it is so declared by the scriptures. Tadadhigama: when that is realised; Uttarapurvaghay oh: of the subsequent and the previous sins; Asleshav inasau: non-clinging and destruction; Tadvyapadesat: because Sruti has declared so. The re sult of knowl edge of Brah man or the st ate of Jiv anmukti is now dis cussed. The sup ple ment to t he Third Chap ter is fin ished here with. Wit h the last Adhi karana the top ics con nected with the Thi rd Chap ter have come to an end. From t his Adhikarana the Fourth Chap ter proper be - gins. The Fourth Chap ter is the Phaladhy aya, i. e., the Chap ter re lat - ing to the f ruits of Brahma V idya. The Purvap akshin main tains that eman ci pa tion is at tained in spite of knowl edge, only af ter one has ex pe ri enced ef fects of one s sins com mit ted be fore en light en ment be cause the Smritis de clare Karma is not de stroyed be fore it has yi elded it s ef fects. The law of Karma is un re lent ing. This Su tra says that when a per son at tains knowl edge all his past sins are de stroyed and fu ture sins do not cling to him. Karma has doubt less it s power of bring ing it s ef fects but that power can be nul li fied and over come by knowl edge of Brah man. Prayaschitt as (ex pi a tory act s) have the power of cleans ing sin. Saguna-Brahma-V idya cleanses all sins. Nirguna-Brahma-V idya puts an end to agency or doership and de stroys all sins. Hence no fu - ture doership can come to him and the ef fects of the en tire p ast doership van ish when knowl edge dawns. Oth er wise there will be no lib er a tion as Karma is Anadi (beginningless). If it is said that eman ci - pa tion is caused like the fruit s of Karma, it will be tran sient and not eter nal. Fur ther, the re sults of Jnana must be di rect and im me di ate. S o all sins van ish when one at tains knowl edge of Brah man or Self-reali - sa tion. The scrip ture de clares that fu ture sins which might be pre - sumed to cling to t he agent do not cling t o him who knows. As wa terCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 485 does not cling to lo tus leaf, so no ev il deed clings to him who knows this (Chh. Up. IV .14.3). S im i larly scrip ture de clares the de struc tion of pre vi ous ac cu mu lated evi l deeds. As the fi bres of the Ishika reed when thrown into the f ire are burnt, thus all sins are burnt (Chh. Up. V.24.3). T he ex tinc tion of works the fol low ing p as sage also de clares: The fet ter of the heart is bro ken, all doubt s are solved, all his works are de stroyed when He who is high and low is seen (Mun. Up. II. 2.8). As re gards the verses which say that no Karma is de stroyed, but by pro duc ing it s ef fects, that holds good in t he case of or di nary men who are in ig no rance and who have no knowl edge of Brah man. It does not hold good in the case of t hose en light ened sages who have knowl edge of Brah man. The knower of Brah man feels and real ises thus: That Brah man whose na ture it is to be at all times nei ther agent not enj oyer, and which is thus op posed in be ing to the soul s pre vi ously es tab lished state of agency and en joy ment that Brah man am I; hence I nei ther was an agent, nor an enjoyer at any pre vi ous time, nor am I such at the pres ent time, nor shall I be such at any fu ture time. In this way only the fi nal eman ci pa tion is pos si ble; for ot h er wise, i.e., if the chain of works which has been run ning on from eter nity could not be cut short, li b er a tion could never t ake place. Eman ci pa - tion can not de pend on lo cal ity, time and spe cial causes, as the fruit of works is; be cause there from it would f ol low that t he fruit of knowl edge is non-per ma nent. There fore, it is an es tab lished con clu sion that there re sults the ex tinc tion of all sins on at tain ing Brah man. Itarasamsleshad hikaranam : Topic 10 Similarly good work do not affect t he knower of Brahman. BVa`m`od_gbof n mVo Vw& Itarasy apyevamasamsl eshah p ate tu IV.1.14 (491) Thus in the sam e way, there is non-c linging of the othe r (i.e., Punya or virtue, good w orks) also; but at death ( libera tion, i.e., Videha-Mukti is certain). Itarasy a: of the ot her; Api: also; Evam: thus, in the same way ; Asamsleshah: non-clinging; Pate: at death; Tu: but, indeed. Dis cus sion on the con se quence of Brahma Jnana (the knowl - edge of Brah man) is con tin ued. As in the case of sin, so merit or vir tue can not at tach to the knower of Brah man. Oth er wise such merit will be an ob struc tion to lib er a tion. When doership goes, merit must go like sin. The re sult of merit is be low that of Jnana. Merit and sin have t o be lef t be hind. When both are tran scended, lib er a tion is sure at death.BRAHMA SU TRAS 486 A knower of Brah man has no idea of agency . He is not touched by good works also. He goes be yond vir tue and vice. He over comes both (Bri. Up. IV.4.22 ). Even t here where the text m en tions evil deeds only , we must con sider good deeds also to be im plied therein, be cause the re sults of the lat ter also are in fe rior to the re sults of knowl edge. Merit also is a cause of bond age and st ands in the way of l ib er a - tion. For a knower of Brah man all his ac cu mu lated mer its and de mer - its are de stroyed. Thus his mer its and sins be ing to tally in op er a tive, his sal va tion nec es sar ily fol lows at death. Anarabdhadhikaranam: T opic 1 1 Works which hav e not begun to yield result s are alone destroyed by knowledge and not those which have already begun to bear fruit s. AZmaYH$m`} Ed Vw nyd} V XdYo& Anarabdhakary e eva tu purv e tadav adheh IV.1.15 (492) But only those former (work s) who se effects ha ve not ye t begun (are destroyed by kn owledge; because th e script ure sta tes) that (i.e ., the death o f the body) to be the term . Anarabdhakary e: in the case of those works, the ef fects of which have not begun t o operate, i. e., to yield f ruits or results; Eva: only; Tu: but; Purve: forme r works; Tadav adheh: that (death) being t he limit, because of waiting til l death. Dis cus sion on the con se quence of Brahma Jnana is con tin ued. In the last t wo Adhikaranas (top ics) it has been st ated that all the past works of a knower of Brah man are de stroyed. P ast works are of two kinds, viz., Sanchit a (ac cu mu lated works) those which have not yet be gun to yiel d re sults and Prarabdha, i.e. , those works whose ef - fects have al ready be gun to op er ate and have pro duced the body through which the as pi rant has at tained Brahma Jnana or knowl edge of Brah man. The Purvap akshin main tains that both t hese are de stroyed, be - cause the Mundaka Upani shad says that all his works are de stroyed. He thereby over comes both. This re fers to all works with out any dis - tinc tion, all works what ever must be re garded to un dergo de struc tion. Fur ther the sage who has at tained Self-reali sa tion is a non-doer . He has no idea or feel ing of agency . His idea of non-doership is the same with ref er ence to Sanchit a or Prarabdha. Hence both these works are de stroyed when one at tains knowl edge of Brah man or the Su preme Self. This Su tra re futes this v iew and de clares that only S anchit a Kar - mas or ac cu mu lated works whose fruit s have not yet be gun to op er - ate are de stroyed by knowl edge but not t he Prarabdha. Prarabdha Kar mas are de stroyed only by be ing worked out. Those works whoseCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 487 ef fects have be gun and whose re sults have been half en joyed, i .e., those very works to which there is due the pres ent st ate of ex is tence in which the knowl edge of Brah man arises and not de stroyed by t hat knowl edge. This view is f ounded on the scrip tural p as sage For him there is de lay only as long as he is not de liv ered from this body , and then he is one with Brah man (Chh. Up. VI. 14.2), which fix es the death of t he body as the term of the st ate ment of t he at tain ment of f i - nal re lease. If it were not so, then there would be no t each ers of knowl edge. There fore, the P rarabdha Kar mas are not de stroyed by knowl - edge. If it is said that fi re must de stroy all seeds, the re ply is that what has be gun to op er ate, like a pot ters wheel, must have it s op er a tion. Mithy a Jnana (the er ro ne ous knowl edge of mul ti plic ity) though ne - gated by Jnana, will per sist for a while (Badhit anuvritt i). Each man s in ner reali sa tion can not be de nied or dis puted by an other . This truth i s de clared by the de scrip tion of t he Sthitaprajna in the Bhagav ad Git a. The Knowl edge of Brah man in a knower or a sage can not check the Prarabdha Karma, just as an ar cher has no con trol over the ar - rows al ready dis charged, which co mes to rest only when it s mo men - tum is ex hausted. The lib er ated sage must keep up this body as long as the mo men tum of P rarabdha Kar mas last s. When the Prarabdha Kar mas are worked out or ex hausted the body f alls of f and he at tains Videha-Mukti or dis em bod ied sal va tion. The fi nal dis cus sion, there fore, is that knowl edge ef fects the de - struc tion of t hose works only whether good or evil, whose ef fects have not y et be gun to op er ate. Agnihotrady adhikaranam : Topic 12 (Sutras 16-17) Permanent obligatory works enjoined by the V edas for diff erent Asramas are not t o be given up. A{hmom{X Vw VH$m`m` d VeZmV & Agnihotradi tu tatkary ayaiva taddarsanat IV.1.16 (493) But the Agni hotra and the like (tend) to ward s the same effect, knowl edge (libera tion), becaus e that is seen fr om th e scrip tures. Agnihotradi: daily Agni hotra, etc. , daily offering of oblat ions to the perpetually m aintained fire; Tu: but; Tatkary a: tend towards the same result as that (knowledge); Eva: only; Taddarsanat: that being seen from the scriptures. Works of per ma nent ob li ga tion (Nity a Kar mas) en joined by t he Vedas such as Agnihotra tend to wards the same ef fect, i. e., hav e the same ef fect as knowl edge. Be cause this is de clared by the tex ts suchBRAHMA SU TRAS 488 as the fol low ing, Brahmanas seek to know him by t he study of t he Vedas, by sac ri fices, by gif ts (Bri. Up. IV .4.22). But an ob jec tion is raised as knowl edge and works have dif fer - ent ef fects, it is not pos si ble that t hey should have one and t he same ef fect. It is ob served, we re ply, that curd and poi son whose or di nary ef - fects are fe ver and death hav e for their ef fects sat is fac tion and a flour - ish ing st ate of t he body , if the curd is mixed with sugar and the poi son taken while cer tain Mantras are re cited. Ev en so works if joined with knowl edge may ef fect fi nal eman ci p a tion. The Purvap akshin main tains that ev en oblig a tory works (Nitya Kar mas) such as Agnihotra which do not give any f ruits but which are en joined by t he scrip tures as a sort of dis ci pline are de stroyed by t he dawn of knowl edge, just as other works done with de sires, be cause the idea of non-agency of the knower of Brah man is the same with re - spect to both. This Su tra re futes this v iew and de clares that the reg u lar oblig a - tory works are not de stroyed. Oblig a tory du ties ex er cise a pu ri fy ing in flu ence on the heart and are help ful to t he orig i na tion of knowl edge. They con trib ute in di rectly to knowl edge i.e., lib er a tion. They sub serve fi nal eman ci p a tion im me - di ately. There fore, thei r re sults per sist till deat h. AVmo@ `m{n oHo$ fm_w^`mo& Atony api hi ekeshamubhay oh IV.1.17 (494) For (there is) also (a class of g ood works) other than t his, according to som e. (There is ag reement) of b oth (te achers, Jaimini and Baadarayana) (as t o the fate of those works). Atah: from this; Anya: different; Api: also; Hi: because, indeed; Ekesham: of some (Sakhas); Ubhay oh: of both. There is also a class of good works dif fer ent from works of per - ma nent ob li ga tion (Nity a Kar mas like the daily Agnihotra and t he like) which are per formed with a v iew to a fruit . The fol low ing st ate ment of some Sakhas is made with ref er ence to these: His friends get his good works and en e mies his evil ac tions. Both t each ers, Jaimini and Baadarayana, are of the opin ion that works per formed for the f ul fil ment of some spe cial de sire do not con - trib ute to wards the orig i na tion of t rue knowl edge. Vidyajnanasadhanad hikaranam : Topic 13 Sacrificial works not combined wit h knowledge or medit ation also help in the originat ion of knowledge `Xod {d` o{V {h& Yadev a vidyayeti hi IV.4.18 (495)CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 489 Because the text whatever he does with knowledge intimates this. Yadev a: whatever; Vidyaya: with knowledge; Iti: thus , this , so; Hi: because. Nitya K ar mas (reg u lar oblig a tory works) which help the orig i na - tion of knowl edge are of two kinds, vi z., those com bined with med i ta - tions and those un ac com pa ni ed by knowl edge or med i t a tions. The Purvap akshin main tains that work com bined with med i ta - tions help s the orig i na tion of knowl edge as it is su pe rior to work done with out med i t a tion. The pres ent Su tra re futes it and say s that in the st ate ment That alone which is per formed with knowl edge be comes more pow er ful (Chh. Up. I.1. 10) the com par a tive de gree in di cates that works done with out knowl edge, not com bined with med i ta tions are not al to gether use less, though the ot her class is more pow er ful. Even or di nary Agnihot ra has V irya (power) but Agnihotra con - firmed by V idya (Up asana) is more po tent (V iryavat tara). Agnihotra if ac com pa ni ed by knowl edge pos sesses a greater ca pa bi l ity of orig i - nat ing knowl edge and, there fore, is of su pe rior causal ef fi ciency with re gard to the reali sa tion of t he self, while t he same works if de void of knowl edge pos sess no such su pe ri or ity . Itarakshap anadhikaranam : Topic 14 After enjoying the fruit s of Prarabdha Karm a the knower becomes one with Brahm an ^moJoZpdVa o jn{` dm gnVo& Bhogenatv itare kshap ayitva samp adyate IV.1.19 (496) But having e xhaus ted b y enjo yment the other two wo rks (viz., good and evil works , that have begun t o yield f ruits), he become s one with Brahman. Bhogena: by enjoym ent; Tu: but; Itare: of the ot her two works (merit and demerit); Kshap ayitva: having exhaust ed; Samp adyate: becomes united with Brahman, becomes one with Brahman, obt ains, joins. This Su tra con cludes with the an swer to the ques tion What be - comes of the Prarabdha por tion of t he il lu mined soul s work, which has brought his pres ent life i nto ex is tence. It has been shown that all good and evil deeds whose ef fects have not y et be gun are de stroyed by t he power of knowl edge of Brah - man. The two ot h ers on the other hand, i. e., those good and evil works whos e ef fects have be gun, a man has at f irst to ex haust by the fru ition of t heir con se quences, and then he be comes one with Brah - man. This ap pears from scrip tural p as sages such as for him there is de lay so long as he is not de liv ered from the body , then he will be -BRAHMA SU TRAS 490 come one with Brah man (Chh. Up. VI. 14.2), and Be ing Brah man he goes to Brah man (Bri. Up. I V.4.6). The Purvap akshin ar gues that the knower of B rah man will con - tinue to see di ver sity ev en af ter death, j ust as he sees plu ral ity while liv ing; anal o gously to t he vi sual ap pear ance of a dou ble moon which may con tinue even af ter it has been cog nised as false. He does not at tain one ness with Brah man even af ter death. This Su tra re futes it and de clares that the Prarabdha works are de stroyed through en joy ment. Though t he knower of Brah man has to re main in this world as a lib er ated sage or Jivanmukt a, yet he at tains one ness with Brah man at death. When the Prarabdha Kar mas are ex hausted by be ing worked out, he no lon ger be holds any plu ral ity on ac count of the ab sence of any cause like the Prarabdha. He cer tainly be comes one with Brah - man as all works in clud ing Prarabdha are de stroyed at deat h. Thus Brahma Jnana de stroys Kar mas (Sanchit a) which have not be gun to bear fruit. Those which have be gun to bear fruit (Prarabdha) must be worked out by en joy ment. There is no es cape even on the p art of the en light ened soul from the op er a tion of t he law of Prarabdha. The Purvap akshin again ar gues that a new ag gre gate of works will orig i nate a new fru ition. Not so, we re ply; the seed of all such fru - ition is de stroyed. What on t he death of t he body , could orig i nate a new pe riod of fru ition, i s only a new set of works and works de pend on false knowl edge. But such false knowl edge is to tally de stroyed by per fect knowl edge of Brah man. When, there fore, the works whose ef fects have be gun are de - stroyed, t he lib er ated sage who knows Brah man nec es sar ily en ters into the st ate of per fected iso la tion or Ab so lute Kaiv alya. Thus ends the First Pada ( Sec tion 1) of the Four th Chap ter (Adhy aya IV) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 1 491 CHAPTER IV SECTION 2 INTRODUCTION In the pre vi ous Sec tion it was shown that one at tains Jivanmukti when the Sanchit a Kar mas or the ac cu mu lated works which have not as yet be gun to bear fruit s are de stroyed, and V idehamukti at deat h when the Prarabdha Karma is de stroyed. This Sec tion is de voted t o the mode of de par ture of the en light - ened and the un en light ened souls at the tim e of leav ing the body . The path of t he gods, the Devay ana, by which the knower of t he Saguna Brah man trav els af ter death, i s de scribed. The Sutrakara be gins by ex plain ing on the ba sis of scrip tural st ate ment s the suc ces sive step s by which the soul p asses out of the body at death. The de par ture of the soul is the same in the case of hi m who pos sesses the lower knowl edge and of him who is des ti tute of all knowl edge. 492 SYNOPSIS Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-2) At the t ime of death of the knower of Saguna Brah man, the f unc tions of the or gans get merged in mind. Adhikarana II: (Su tra 3) At t he time of deat h of the knower of Saguna Brah man, the f unc tion of t he mind is merged in the P rana. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 4-6) At the t ime of death of the knower of Saguna Brah man, the f unc tion of P rana is merged in the in di vid ual soul or Jiva. Adhikarana IV : (Su tra 7) The mode of de par ture from the body up to the way i s com mon to both a knower of S aguna Brah man and an or di nary man. B oth p ass through the same st ages up to the en - trance of the soul to gether with the sub tle el e ment s and so on into the Nadis. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 8-1 1) The merg ing of fire, etc., of death in the High est De ity is not ab so lute merg ing. A com plete ab sorp tion of the el e ment s takes place only when fi nal eman ci pa tion is at tained. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 12-14) The Pranas of a knower of the Nirguna Brah man do not de part from the body at death. Adhikarana VII : (Su tra 15) The or gans of the knower of the Nirguna Brah man get merged in I t at deat h. Adhikarana VII I: (Su tra 16) The Kalas of t he knower of the Nirguna Brah man at tain ab so lute non-dis tinc tion with Brah man at death. Adhikarana IX: (Su tra 17) The soul of the knower of t he Saguna Brah man co mes to the heart at the time of death and thence goes out through the Sushumna. The soul of the ig no rant man goes out by means of some other Nadi. Adhikarana X: (Sutras 18-19) The de part ing soul of a knower of the Saguna B rah man fol lows the rays of the sun af ter death which ex - ist at night as well as dur ing day , and goes to Brahmaloka. Adhikarana XI: (Sutras 20-21) The soul of the knower of the Saguna Brah man goes to Brahmaloka even i f he dies dur ing the south ern course of the sun (Dakshinayana). 493 Vagadhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-2) At the tim e of death t he functions of t he organs are merged in the m ind. dmL>_Z{g Xe ZmN> Xm& Vangmanasi darsanacchabdaccha IV.2.1 (497) Speech is merged in mind, because it is so seen , and there are scrip tural state ments (to that e ffect). Vak: speech; Manasi: in the mind; Darsanat: because it is so seen or observed, because of the scriptural declaration; Sabdat: because of the word of the V edas, because of the st atement of the Smrit i; Cha: also, and. This Su tra says that speech merges in the mi nd at death. Till now Jivanmukti or li b er a tion while liv ing is de scribed. Now the at tain ment of B rahmaloka by go ing along the p ath of gods (Devayana) af ter death is go ing to be de scribed. About t he pro cess of dy ing we have the f ol low ing p as sage, When a man de parts from here his speech merges in his mind, his mind in Prana, P rana in fire and fire in t he High est De ity (Chh. Up. VI.6.1) . Now a doubt here arises whether the or gan of speech as such gets merged in the mind or only i ts func tion. The Purvap akshin main tains that the or gan it self is merged in the mind as there is no men tion in the t ext about the func tion of speech get ting merged. The pres ent Su tra re futes this v iew and de cides that only t he func tion of t he or gan of speech is merged in the mind. The merg ing is al ways of the ef fect in the cause. S peech is not an ef fect of t he mind. There fore, the or gan of speech can not merge in the mind. B ut Vrittis (func tional man i fes ta tions) can merge in some - thing which is not it s cause. For in stance, heat which is the func tion of fire orig i nates from fuel and ex tin guished in wa ter. We see the man i fes ta tion of speech ceas ing in a dy ing man, though his mind is still func tion ing. None sees the or gan of speech be ing merged in the mind. So ex pe ri ence also teaches that the f unc tion of speech and not the or gan it self get s merged in mind. AV Ed M gdm `Zw& Ata eva cha sarv anyanu IV.2.2 (498) And for th e same reason all (sense-organs) follow (mi nd, i.e., get their func tions merged in i t). Ata ev a: hence; Cha: and, also; Sarv ani: all (organs); Anu (Anugacchant i): after (follow).BRAHMA SU TRAS 494 This Su tra in ti mates that t he func tions of all t he or gans merge in the mind at t he time of de ath. For the same rea sons (gen eral ex pe ri ence and cor rob o ra tive state ment of S ruti) as st ated in Su tra 1, the f unc tions of all t he other sense-or gans fol low, i.e., get merged in t he mind. The fi re is ver ily the Udana, for he whose light has gone out co mes to a new birth with his senses merged in the mind (Pras. Up. II I.9). Like the speech it is ob served that t he eye and other senses dis - con tinue their f unc tions, while t he mind con tin ues to act. Be cause the or gans them selves can not be ab sorbed, and be cause the text ad mits of that in ter pre ta tion we con clude that the di f fer ent or gans fol low af ter, i.e., are merged in the mind only as far as their func tions are con - cerned. Manodhikaranam: T opic 2 The function of mind i s merged in Prana. V_Z mU Cma mV & Tanmanah pran a uttarat IV.2.3 (499) That min d (is merged) in Prana (as is seen) from th e subsequ ent clause (of the Sruti cit ed). Tat: that; Manah: mind; Prana: in the Prana; Uttarat: from the subsequent clause (of the Sruti). It has been shown that t he pas sage speech is merged in mind means a merg ing of the f unc tion only . A doubt here arises whether the sub se quent clause mind is breath also means to in ti mate a merg ing of the f unc tion only or of that t o which the func tion be longs. The Purvap akshin main tains that here it i s mind it self and not it s func tion that gets merged in Prana, as Prana can be said to be the ma te rial cause of mind. I n sup port of his st ate ment he quotes t he fol - low ing text : Mind con sists of food, P rana of wa ter (Chh. Up. VI. 6.5); Wa ter sent forth eart h (VI.2. 4). When mind, t here fore, is merged in Prana, it is the same thing as earth be ing merged in wa ter, for mind is food or earth, and P rana is wa ter, causal sub stance and ef fect be ing non-dif fer ent. Hence the S ruti here speaks not of the func tion of t he mind, but of mind it self get ting merged in Prana. This Su tra re futes this v iew. For the same rea son it is the men tal Vrittis (func tions) that get merged in Prana, be cause in deep sleep and in ap proach ing death, we see the men tal func tions stop ping while the Prana (breath) is ac tive. The mind is not de rived from P rana, and hence can not merge in it. Breath or Prana is not t he causal sub stance of mind. T he re la tion of cau sal ity by an in di rect pro cess does not suf - fice to show that m ind is re ally merged in P rana. W ere it so, then mi nd would also be merged in earth, earth in wa ter, breath in wa ter. Nor isCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 2 495 there on the al ter na tive con tem plated any proof of mind hav ing orig i - nated from t hat wa ter which has passed over int o breath. There fore, mind can not it self be merged in Prana. T he func tion of the mind o nly is merged in Prana. Adhy akshadhikaranam : Topic 3 (Sutras 4-6) The function of Prana is merged in t he Jiva. gmo@`jo VXw nJ_m{X `& Sodhy akshe t adup agamadibhy ah IV.2.4 (500) That (Prana) is me rged in the ruler (indiv idual so ul or Jiva) o n account of the (stat ements as to t he Pranas) coming to it and so on. Sah: that (Prana); Adhy akshe: in the ruler (the Jiva); Tadup agamadibhy ah: on account of the (st atement s as to the Pranas) coming to it and so on. Prana is merged in fire (Chh. Up. VI .8.6). A doubt arises now whether ac cord ing to the word of t he scrip ture, the f unc tion of P rana is merged in fire or in the in di vid ual soul which is the ruler of the body and senses. Ac cord ing to the P urvap akshin we must con clude that Prana is merged in fire only . The pres ent Su tra jus ti fies it s view be cause stat e ment s about Pranas com ing to the Jiv a, etc., are found in scrip tural p as sages. All the P ranas ap proach the de part ing man at th e time of dea th (Bri. Up. I V.3.38). A n other p as sage again spe cially de clares that the Prana with it s five f unc tions fol lows the in di vid ual soul. Af ter him thus de part ing the Prana de parts, and that t he other Pranas fol low that Prana. And af ter the Prana t hus de part ing all the ot her Pranas de - part (Br i. Up. IV.4.2). The text cited in Su tra 1, When the man de parts from here, his speech merges in mind, mind in Prana, Prana in fire and f ire in the High est De ity (Chh. Up. V I.8.6), does not, how ever, con tra dict this view, as the fol low ing Su tra in di cates. ^yVofw V N>Vo& Bhuteshu t acchruteh IV.2.5 (501) In the (subtle ) elements (is me rged) (the Jiva with the Pranas) as it i s seen from the Sruti. Bhuteshu: in the element s; Tat sruteh: as that can be understood from Sruti , from t he Sruti t exts to that ef fect, t here being a V edic statement about that. This Su tra am pli fies the pre vi ous one.BRAHMA SU TRAS 496 The soul among with Prana rest s in the sub tle el e ment s (Bhut a-sukshma). This is clear from the Sruti Pranastejasi . The soul united with t he Prana t akes up it s abode within the sub - tle el e ment s which ac com pany fire and f orms the seed of the f u ture gross body . This we con clude from the clause, Prana in heat . But this p as sage in ti mates that t he Prana t akes up it s abode and not that the soul to gether with the P rana t akes up it s abode. We re ply, it does not m at ter. The pre ced ing Su tra in ter ca lates the soul in the in ter val be tween Prana and fire. We may say shortly of a man who first trav els from Haridwar to A yodhya and t hen from Ayodhya t o Benares that he t rav els from Haridwar to Benares. The pas sage un der dis cus sion, there fore, means that the soul to gether with the Prana abid es in the el e ment s as so ci ated with f ire. The Prana is first merged in the i n di vid ual soul and then the soul wit h the Prana takes it s abode in the fine es sence of the gross el e ment s, fire etc., the seed of the fu ture body . But how are you en ti tled to draw in t he other el e ment s also, while the tex t only speaks of that ? To this ques tion the nex t Su tra gives an an swer. The Prana join ing the soul, merged not only in T ejas but at the same time in ot her el e ment s too. This can be un der stood from Srut i. It is said to merge only in T ejas, be cause T ejas (fire), is the pre dom i nat - ing fac tor there. That soul is united with t he es sence of the earth, of the wa ter, of the air , of the Akasa, of the f ire (Bri. Up. IV .4.5). ZH$p_Z Xe`V mo {h& Naikasmin darsay ato hi IV.2.6 (502) (The soul with Prana is me rged) not in one element o nly, for both (the Sruti a nd Sm riti) d eclare this (o r declare so). Na: not; Ekasmi n: in one; Darsay atah: (both the Srut i and Smriti ) declare so, both the Srut i and Smriti show; Hi: as, for , because. When the soul leaves one body at the time of death and goes in from an other , it to gether with the sub tle body abi des in the sub tle es - sence of all the gross el e ment s and not in fire only , be cause all the el - e ment s are needed for a fu ture body . The new body con sists of var i ous el e ment s. This mat ter is de clared in the ques tion and an swer about the wa ters called man (Chh. Up. V .3.3). V ide III .1.2. When the soul at tains an other body he does not rest in P rana alone, but goes with t he sub tle por tions of all t he el e ment s. The ques - tion and an swer in the Sruti show his. A pas sage in the Brihadaranyaka Up anishad de clares that the souls em bodi ment is due to K arma, for the abode con sist ing of Graha (Indriyas or senses) and Atigraha (V ishayas or ob jects) is the ef fect of Karma. Here the sub tle el e ment s are called the abode be cause theyCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 2 497 are the stuf f of which the new body is made. These two vi ews or pas - sages do not con tra dict each other . Asrity upakramadhi karanam: T opic 4 The mode of departure from the body up to the way is comm on to both the knower of the S aguna Brahman and an ordinary m an. g_mZm Mmgw `wnH$_mX_Vd MmZ wnmo`& Samana chasrity upakramadamr itatvam chanuposhya IV.2.7 (503) And comm on (is the mode of depart ure at t he tim e of death f or both the knowe r of the Sag una Bra hman and the ignorant) up to the beginnin g of the ir ways ; and the immo rtality ( of the knowe r of the Sa guna B rahman is o nly rela tive) without having bu rnt (ignorance ). Samana: common; Cha: and; Asrity upakramat: up to the beginning of their ways; Amrit atvam: immort ality; Cha: and; Anuposhy a: without burning, without dissoluti on. There is no de par ture for the knower of Nirguna Brah man. His Pranas are ab sorbed in Brah man. The Purvap akshin main tains that the m ode of de par ture from the body f or the knower of Saguna Brah man and the ig no rant or the or di nary man ought t o be dif fer ent, be cause they at tain dif fer ent abodes af ter death. T he knower of Saguna Brah man goes to Brahmaloka while the or di nary man is re born in this world. The pres ent Su tra says that t he knower of the Saguna Brah man en ters the Sushumna Nadi at deat h and then goes out of t he body and then en ters the Devayana or t he path of t he gods while the or di - nary ig no rant man en ters some other Nadi and goes by an other way to have re birth. But the mode of de par ture at death i s com mon to both t ill they en ter on their re spec tive way s. Chhandogya Up anishad VIII .6.6 and K athop anishad II.3. 16 de - clare There are a hun dred and more Nadis in the in te rior of the heart, of which only one leads from t he heart to the head; by that , pro gress - ing up wards, the de part ing soul at tains im mor t al ity, i.e., eman ci p a - tion; all the other Nadis are for the egress of the or di nary peo ple for un der go ing bond age of fre quent births and deaths. Samsarav yapadesadhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 8-1 1) The dissolution of f ire etc., at the tim e of death in the Suprem e Deity is only relative. VXmnrVo g gma`nXo emV& Tadapiteh samsarav yapadesat IV.2.8 (504)BRAHMA SU TRAS 498 That (fine body la sts) u p to the attain ment of B rahma n (through knowl edge), because (t he scri ptures) declare t he state of re lative existence (till the n). Tat: that, aggregate of the el ement s, the sum tot al of the subtl e element s; Apiteh : till t he att ainment of B rahman (through knowledge); Samsarav yapadesat: because (scr iptures) declare the state of relat ive exi stence. In the t ext cit ed in Su tra 1, we have And f ire is merged in the High est De ity. The mean ing is that t he fire of t he dy ing man to gether with the in di vid ual soul, the P rana, the ag gre gate of t he or gans and the other el e ment s is merged in Brah man. We now have to con sider of what kind that m erg ing is. The Purvap akshin holds that it is an ab so lute ab sorp tion of things merged, as it i s proved that t hose things have the High est De ity for their causal mat ter. For it has been es tab lished that t he De ity is the causal sub stance of all things, that hav e an or i gin. There fore that pass ing into the st ate of non-sep a ra tion is an ab so lute one. Thi s is the fi nal dis so lu tion. Ev ery one at tains the fi nal eman ci p a tion at death. This Su tra says that t his merg ing is not ab so lute merg ing. Al - though Brah man is the causal sub stance of those el e ment s, they are at the t ime of death, as in the case of deep sleep and a Pralaya of the world, merged in it only in such a way as to con tinue to ex ist in a sem i - nal con di tion or seed st ate. Only the func tions of these el e ment s are merged and not the el e ment s them selves. Those sub tle el e ment s, fire and so on, which form t he abode of hear ing and the other or gans per sist up to fi nal re lease from the Samsara, which is caused by per fect knowl edge, be cause the scrip - tures de clare that til l then the Jiv a or the in di vid ual soul is sub ject to rel a tive ex is tence. Some souls en ter the womb for em bod ied ex is - tence as or ganic be ings; oth ers go into in or ganic mat ter, ac cord ing to their work and ac cord ing to their knowl edge (Katha Up. II .5.7). Oth er wise the lim it ing ad junct s of ev ery soul would at the t ime of death be ab sorbed and the soul would en ter into ab so lute un ion with Brah man. Ev ery dy ing per son will reach Brah man. This would ren der all scrip tural in junc tion and scrip tural doc trine equally use less. Bond age which is due to wrong knowl edge, can not be dis solved but through per fect knowl edge (Samyag Jnana). I f the merg ing at death were ab so lute, t hen there could be no re birth. gy_ _mUV VWmonb Yo& Sukshmam pramanat ascha t athop alabdheh IV.2.9 (505) (This fin e body) is su btle (b y nature) and size, be cause it is so observed.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 2 499 Sukshmam : subtle; Pramanat ah: as regards size; Cha: and; Tatha: thus, so; Upalabdheh: because it is experienced, it being observed. The el e men tary mat ter of fi re and the other el e ment s which form the sub stra tum of t he soul, when p ass ing out of t his body , must be sub tle in it s na ture and ex tent. This fol lows from the scrip tural p as - sages, which de clare that it p asses out by the Nadis and so on. Its thin ness ren ders it ca pa ble of p ass ing out through t he thin and sub tle Nadi and it s trans par ency is the cause of it s not be ing stopped or ob structed by any gross sub stance, and not be ing seen by the by-st anders when it p asses out at death. Zmon_X}ZmV& Nopamardenat ah IV.2.10 (506) Therefor e, (this s ubtle body i s) not (destr oyed) by t he destruc tion (of the gros s body). Na: not; Upamardena: by the destructi on; Atah: therefore, because of this reason. On ac count of this great sub tlety the sub tle body i s not de - stroyed by what de stroys the gross body , viz., burn ing and the like. A`d Mmonn moaof D$ _m& Asyaiva chop apatteresha ushma IV.2.11 (507) And t o this (subt le body) al one does thi s (bodil y) heat belong , because this (onl y) is possible. Asya: of the subtle body ; Eva: verily , cert ainly, alone; Cha: and, also; Upapatteh: it being possible, because of possibilit y; Esha: this; Ushma: (bodily) heat. To that same sub tle body be longs the warmth which we per - ceive in the li v ing body , by means of touch. That bodi ly heat i s not felt in the body af ter death, whil e such qual i ties as form, col our and so on, con tinue to be per ceived. The bodil y heat is f elt as long as there is life. It fol lows from this that the heat re sides in some thing dif fer ent from the body , as or di narily known. The sub tle body i m parts its own heat to the gross body and keep s it warm as long as it re mains alive. Scrip - ture also says, He is warm if go ing to liv e; cold if go ing to die. Pratishedhad hikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 12-14) The Pranas of the knower of Brahm an do not dep art at the t ime of death. {VfoYm{X{V Mo em aramV& Pratishedhad iti chenna sari rat IV.2.12 (508) If it be said (t hat the Pr anas of one w ho know s Bra hman do not depart) on acc ount of the denial m ade by th e Srut i, (we say) not BRAHMA SU TRAS 500 so, (because the scrip ture denies the departu re of the Pran as) from th e indivi dual soul (and n ot from t he body). Pratishedhat: on account of the denial; Iti: so; Chet: if (if it be argued); Na: not so, you cannot say so; Sarira t: from the indiv idual soul. This Su tra con sists of two p arts, viz., an ob jec tion and it s re ply. The ob jec tion por tion is Pratishedhaditi chet . The re ply por tion is Na sarirat; Sp ashto hyekesham . This Su tra gives the v iew of the Pu rvapakshin while the thir - teenth and f our teenth S utras st ate the S iddhant a or cor rect doc trine. Brihadaranyaka Up anishad de clares, But as to the m an who does not de sire, who not de sir ing, freed f rom de sires, is sat is fied in his de sires, or de sires the Self only , of him, the vi tal airs (Pranas) do not de part (Bri. Up. I V.4.6). F rom this ex press de nial, form ing p art of the higher knowl edge, it f ol lows that the P ranas do not p ass out of the body of him who knows Brah man. This Srut i pas sage re fers to one who knows the Nirguna Brah man. It de clares that his Pranas do not de part at death. The Purvap akshin main tains that the p as sage quoted does not deny the de par ture of the P ranas from the body but from the in di vid ual soul. If t he Pranas do not de part from the body there will be no death at all. T his is made clear from the Madhy andina recension which says From him the v i tal spir its do not de part. There fore, the soul of a knower of Brah man p asses out of the body with t he Pranas. The next S u tra re futes this v iew. n>mo oHo$fmm& Spashto hy ekesham IV.2.13 (509) For (the denial o f the souls departu re) is clear (in the texts) of some schools. Spashtah: clear; Hi: for; Ekesham: of some Sakhas or schools; the statement of some Srutis. The Pranas do not de part from the body in the case of a lib er - ated sage. This is made clear from t he Sruti t exts like: Y ajnavalkya said Art abhaga, when the lib er ated man dies, do his P ranas go up from him or do they not? No re plied Y ajnavalkya, they merge in him o nly ( Bri. U p. III.2.1 1). If the Pranas de part with the soul f rom the body , then t he soul will surely t ake a re birth. Hence there will be no eman ci pa tion. There fore, the P ranas do not de part from the body in the case of one who knows Brah man.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 2 501 _`Vo M& Smary ate cha IV.2.14 (510) And Smrit i also says that . Smary ate: the Smrit i says, it i s mentioned in the S mritis; Cha: and. In the Mahabharat a also it is said that t hose who know Brah man do not go or de part. He who has be come the Self of all be ings and has a com plete in tu ition of al l, at his way t he gods them selves are per - plexed, seek ing for the p ath of him who has no p ath (Mahabharat a: XII.270 .22). Vagadilay adhikaranam : Topic 7 The Pranas (organs) and element s of the knower of the Nirguna Brahman get merged in I t at deat h. Vm{Z nao VWm mh& Tani p are tatha hy aha IV.2.15 (51 1) Those (Pranas, elemen ts) (are mer ged) in the S upreme Brah man, fo r thus the (scripture) says . Tani: those; Pare: in the Supreme B rahman; Tatha: thus, so; Hi: because; Aha: (the Sruti) says. Those, i.e. , sense-or gans de noted by t he term Prana and the el e ment s of him who knows the Su preme Brah man are merged when he dies in the same Su preme Brah man. Why? B e cause scrip ture de - clares that Thus these six teen p arts of this wit ness, the Purusha, hav ing their goal in Him are dis solved on reach ing Him in Him (Pras. Up. VI.5 ). But an other text which re fers to him who knows teaches that the parts also are merged in some thing dif fer ent from t he High est Self. The fif teen p arts en ter into t heir el e ment s (Mun. Up. III .2.7). No, we re ply. This lat ter pas sage is con cerned with the or di nary view of t he mat ter. It in ti mates the end f rom a rel a tive st and-point, ac cord ing to which the whole ag gre gate of t he parts of him who knows the Su - preme Brah man is merged in Brah man only , just as the il lu sory snake is merged in the rope. There is thus no con tra dic tion. Though or di narily the senses and the el e ment s merge in their causal sub stances, yet in t he case of the Jnani they m erge in Brah - man. Avibhagadhikaranam: T opic 8 The Kalas of t he knower of the Nirguna Brahman at tain absolute non-distinction wit h Brahman at death A{d^ mJmo dMZmV & Avibhago v achanat IV.2.16 (512)BRAHMA SU TRAS 502 (Absolut e) non-di stinction (with Brahma n of t he part s merged takes place) according to the state ment (of th e scriptures). Avibhagah: non-distinction; Vachanat: on account of the st atement (of the scriptures). Thus these six teen con stit u ents or Kalas, viz., eleven senses and five sub tle el e ment s, be long ing to the seer , i.e., the lib er ated sage who at tains the Su preme Brah man loses his dis tinc tion and dis - ap pears in Him. There names and forms are de stroyed; and peo ple speak of the Purusha only . Then he be comes part less and death less (Pras. Up. VI.5) . The Kalas in the case of t he knower of Brah man get ab so lutely merged in the High est Brah man. In t he case of an or di nary per son it is not so. They ex ist in a fine po ten tial st ate, t he cause of fu ture birth. When p arts or Kalas that are the ef fects of ig no rance are dis - solved through knowl edge it is not pos si ble that a re main der be lef t. The p arts, there fore, get m erged ab so lutely in Brah man. There is no chance for them for crop ping up again. Tadokodhikaranam: T opic 9 The soul of the knower of the S aguna Brahman com es to the heart at the t ime of death and then goes out t hrough the Sushum na Nadi. VXmoH$mo@Jdb Z V H$m{eVmamo {dmgm_`m mN>ofJ`Zw _{V`moJm hmXmZ wJhrV eV{Y H$`m& Tadokograj valanam t atprakasit advaro vidyasamarthy attaccheshagaty anusmri tiyogaccha hardanugrihit ah satadhikay a IV.2.17 (513) When the soul of a kno wer o f the Sagu na Brahman i s abo ut to depart fro m the body, the re takes place) a lig hting u p of the front o f its (s ouls) abode (viz., the heart); the door (of its e gress) being i llumi ned ther eby; owi ng to the power of know ledge and the application o f meditation to the way whi ch is part o f that (know ledge); t he soul f avoured by Hi m in the hear t (viz., Brahman) ( passes u pward) by the one that excee ds a hundred (i.e., the hund red and first N adi). Tadoko agrajv alanam: the illumi ning of the t op of it s (soul s) abode (the heart); Tatprakasit advarah: with the p assage illumined by t his light; Vidyasamarthy at: by the power of his knowledge; Tat seshagaty anusmri tiyogat: because of the application of medit ation to the way which is p art of that knowledge; Cha: and; Hardanugrihit ah: being favoured by Him who dwells in the heart; Satadhikay a: by one that exceeds a hundred. ( Tat: of tha t; Okah: abode, the heart; Agrajv alanam: the forep art or the end of t he heart being illumined; Tat: by the Lord dwelling in t he heart; Prakasit a: illumined; Dvarah: door , the root f rom which the hundred and firstCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 2 503 Nadi has it s origin; Sesha: remainder; Gati: path, t he way; Anusmritiy ogat: because of the application of the remembrance or const ant thought ; Harda: the Lord who dwells in the heart; Anugrihit ah: being favoured by .) The dis cus sion about the Para V idya (Higher Knowl edge) is over. The Sut rakara now pur sues the dis cus sion of the Ap ara V idya, i.e., Upasana (lower knowl edge). It has been al ready st ated in Su tra 7 that up t o the be gin ning of the way the de par ture of a knower of the S aguna Brah man and an ig - no rant man is the same. T he pres ent Su tra now de scribes the soul s en ter ing on the way . The Brihadarany aka text de scribes the death of a per son He t ak ing with him t hose el e ment s of light de scends into the heart (Bri. Up. IV.4.1). T hen again it says, The poi nt of his heart be comes lighted up, and by that light the self de parts, ei ther through the eye or through t he skull or through other places of the body (B ri. Up. IV .4.2). T he soul to gether with the or gans co mes to the heart at the time of death. The ques tion arises whether the de par ture is the same for a knower of Saguna Brah man and an or di nary man. The exit of the or di nary man is dif fer ent from t hat of t he knower of Saguna B rah man. The for mer goes out from any p art of the body at death (eye, ear , nose, anus, etc. ). But t he lat ter goes out only t hrough the Sushumna Nadi and out of the Brahmarandhra in the head. If he goes out by any ot her way he can not at tain the Su preme Abode. By vir tue of knowl edge and ow ing to the ap pli ca tion of con stant thought of Brah man the point o f the heart which is the abode of the de part ing soul is il lu mined and through the grace of t he su preme soul res i dent therein, the door of egress, the mout h of the Nadi lead ing from the heart t o the head as st ated in Su tra 7 is thrown open. The soul p asses into the Nadi num bered one hun dred and one. This Nadi is the gate way of the re lease. The other one hun dred Nadis lead to bond age. The scrip ture says in a chap ter treat ing of the knower of Brah - man dwell ing in the heart: There are a hun dred and one Nadis of the heart; one of t hem pen e trates the crown of the head; go ing up along that one at tains Im mor tal ity; the oth ers serve for de par ture in dif fer ent di rec tions ) (Chh. Up. VIII.6 .5). Al though equal ity for him who does know and him who does not know , the point of the heart be comes shin ing and the door of egress thereby is light ed up, yet he who knows de parts through the skull only , while the oth ers de part from other places. Why so? On ac count of the power of knowl edge. If also he who knows de parts like all oth ers, from any place of t he body , he would be un able to reach an ex alted sphere and then all knowl edge would be mean ing less.BRAHMA SU TRAS 504 And on ac count of the ap pli ca tion of med i ta tion on the way form ing a p art of that . In dif fer ent V idyas there is en joined med i ta tion on the soul s trav el ling on the way con nected with the Nadi t hat passes through the skull, which way forms p art of those V idyas. Now it is proper to con clude that he who med i tates on that way should af ter death pro ceed on it. There fore, he who knows be ing fa voured by Brah man dwell ing in the heart, on which he had med i tated and thus be com ing like it in na ture de parts by the Nadi which p asses through the skull which is the hun dred and first. The souls of ot her men p ass out by other Nadis. Rasmy adhikaranam : Topic 10 (Sutras 18-19) The soul of one who knows Saguna Brahman f ollows the rays of the sun af ter death and goes to B rahmaloka. a`Zw gmar& Rasmy anusari IV.2.18 (514) (The sou l of a kno wer o f the Sagu na Brahman whe n he d ies) follows the rays ( of the sun). Rasmi: the rays; Anusari: following. The de scrip tion of t he prog ress of the re leased soul is con tin - ued. Chhandogya Up anishad de clares When he thus de parts from this body , then he de parts up wards by those very rays. By that mov ing up wards he reaches im mor tal ity (Chh. Up. V III.6.5). From this we un der stand that t he soul p ass ing out by t he hun - dred and first Nadi (Sushumna) fol lows the rays of the sun. A doubt here arises as to whether the soul of one who dies by night as well as of him who dies by day fol lows the rays, or the soul of the lat ter only . As scrip ture men tions no dif fer ence, the Su tra teaches that t he souls fol low the rays in both cases. {Z{e Zo{ V Mo g~Y` `mdoh^ m{ddme`{V M& Nisi neti chen na sambandhasy a yavaddehabhav itvaddarsay ati cha IV.2.19 (515) If it be said (that the so ul do es) no t (follow the rays) in the night , we say (not so) because the connection (of Nadis and rays) cont inues as long as the body lasts; th e Sruti also declares (this). Nisi: at night, in the night; Na: not; Iti: so; Chet: if (if it be objected); Na: not (the objection i s not valid); Samband hasy a: of the relat ion; Yavaddehabhav itvat: as long as the body last s; Darsay ati: the Sruti shows or declares (this); Cha: and, also. ( Yavad: as long as; Bhav itvat: because of the existence. )CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 2 505 An ob jec tion to S u tra 17 is raised and re futed. This Su tra con sists of two p arts, namely an ob jec tion and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion por tion is Nisi neti chet and the re ply por tion is Na sambandhasya yavaddehabhavitvad darsayati cha . It might per haps be said that the Nadis and rays are con nected dur ing the day , and so the soul of a per son who dies dur ing the day may fol low those rays but not t he soul of one who dies by night, when the con nec tion of t he Nadis and the rays bro ken. But t his is an er ro ne ous no tion, f or the con nec tion of ray s and Nadis last s as long as the body ex ists. Hence it is im ma te rial whether the soul p asses out by day or by night . Fur ther we ob serve that t he rays of the sun con tinue to ex ist in the night s of the sum mer sea son, be cause we feel their warmth and other ef fects. Dur ing the night s of the other sea sons they are dif fi cult to per ceive, be cause then few only con tinue to ex ist, just as dur ing the cloudy day s of the cold sea son. The Sruti al so de clares, Even by night the sun sheds his rays. We can not pre de ter mine the mov e ment of deat h. If such de par - ture to the su preme abode is de nied to the per son dy ing in the night , no one will t ake to Up asana. The re sult of knowl edge can not be made to de pend on the ac ci dent of deat h by day or night . If again a m an dy ing at night should wait for the dawn to mount up wards, it might hap pen that, ow ing to the ac tion of t he fu neral fire etc., his body would at the t ime of day -break, not be ca pa ble of en ter - ing into con nec tion with t he rays. The scrip ture more over ex pressly de clares that he does not wait. As quickly as he sends of f the mind he goes to the sun (Chh. Up. VI II.6.5). For all these rea sons the soul fol lows the rays by night as well as by day . Dakshinay anadhikaranam : Topic 1 1 (Sutras 20-21) Even if the knower of t he Saguna Brahm an dies in Dakshinayana, he still goes to Brahm aloka. AVm` Zo@{n X{ jUo& Ataschay anepi d akshine IV.2.20 (516) And f or the same reason (the departed soul f ollow s the rays) also dur ing the sun s south ern cour se. Atah: for this very reason, therefore, f or the same reason; Cha: and; Ayane: during the sun s course; Api: also, even; Dakshine: in the southern. This Su tra is a cor ol lary drawn from the pre ced ing Su tra. The Purvap akshin raises an ob jec tion and main tains that the soul of the knower of Brah man who p asses away dur ing Dakshinayana or the south ern course of the sun does not fol low theBRAHMA SU TRAS 506 rays to Brahmaloka. The Sruti and t he Smriti de clare that only one who dies dur ing Utt arayana or the north ern course of the sun goes to Brahmaloka. Fur ther it is also writ ten that Bhishma waited f or the north ern course of the sun to leave t he body . This Su tra says that f or the same rea son as men tioned in the pre vi ous Su tra, i.e., the un rea son able ness of mak ing the re sult of knowl edge de pend on the ac ci dent of deat h hap pen ing at a p ar tic u lar time, t he knower of Saguna Brah man goes to Brahmaloka even i f he dies dur ing the south ern course of the sun. For the same rea son, viz., be cause wait ing is im pos si ble, and be cause the fruit of knowl edge is not merely ev en tual one, and be - cause the time of deat h is not fix ed, also he who has true knowl edge, and who dies dur ing the south ern course of the sun ob tains the fruit of his knowl edge. In the t ext Those who know thus go by light , from light to day , from day t o the bright half of the mont h, and from t hat to t he six months of the n orth ern course of the sun (Chh. Up. V .10.1), t he point s in the north ern course of the sun do not re fer to any di vi sion of time but t o de i ties as will be shown un der IV .3.4. The Devayana p ath can be trod den by those who die in t he Dakshinayana. Bhishma waited f or the Utt arayana, be cause he wanted to up - hold an ap proved cus tom and to show that he could die at will ow ing to his fa thers boon. `mo{JZ {V M _` Vo _mV} MVo & Yoginah prati cha smary ate smarte chaite IV.2.21 (517) And (the se time s or d etails) are recorded by Sm riti with reference to the Y ogins and these two (Yoga and Sank hya) and classed as Smritis (onl y). Yoginah prati: with respect to the Y ogi; Cha: and; Smary ate: the Smriti declares ; Smarte: belonging to the class of S mritis; Cha: and; Ete: these two. The ar gu ment in the t wo pre ced ing Sutras is strength ened here by fur ther ex po si tion. The Purvap akshin says: W e have the f ol low ing Smriti text, That time wherein go ing Y ogins re turn not, and al so that wherein go ing forth they re turn, that time shall I de clare to thee, O P rince of the Bharat as (Git a VIII. 23-24). Thi s de ter mines spe cially that to die by day and so on causes the soul not to re turn. How then can he who dies by night or dur ing the sun s south ern course de part not to re turn? The de ci sion of the pre vi ous Su tra can not be cor rect.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 2 507 This Su tra re futes the ob jec tion and says that these de tails as to time men tioned in the G ita ap ply only to Yo gis who prac tise Sadhana ac cord ing to Y oga and Sankhya sys tems. These two are Sm ritis, not Srutis. There fore, the l im i ta tions as to the t ime men tioned in them do not ap ply to t hose who med i tate on the S aguna Brah man ac cord ing to the Sr uti texts. Yoga and Sankhya are mere Smrit is. They are not of spir i tual char ac ter. As it has a dif fer ent sphere of ap pli ca tion, and is based on a spe cial kind of au thor ity, the S mriti rule as to t he time of d y ing has no in flu ence on knowl edge based on scrip ture. But an ob jec tion is raised. W e have such p as sages as Fire, light, t he day , the bright half of t he month, t he six months of t he north - ern p ath, smoke, night , the dark half of the month, the six mont hs of the south ern p ath (Git a VII I. 24-25), in which t hough be long ing to Smriti we re cog nise the p ath of t he fa thers as de ter mined by scrip - ture. Our ref u ta tion, we re ply, of the claims of Smrit i ap plies only to the con tra dic tion which may arise from t he teach ing of Smrit i re gard - ing the le git i mate tim e of dy ing, I will t ell you t he time, et c. In so far as Smriti al so men tions Agni and t he other di vin i ties which lead on the de parted soul, there is no con tra dic tion what so ever. What ap pears to re fer to ti me in the abov e pas sage re fers only to the de i ties pre sid ing over the day -time and the bright half of t he month and the Ut tarayana and over the ni ght time, and the dark half of the month and t he Dakshinayana. Thus ends the Sec ond Pada (Sec tion 2) of the Four th Chap ter (Adhy aya IV) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy.BRAHMA SU TRAS 508 CHAPTER IV SECTION 3 INTRODUCTION In the pre vi ous Sec tion the de par ture of a knower of the S aguna Brah man by the p ath of t he gods (Devayana) has been de scribed. Now the pres ent Sec tion treat s of the p ath it self. It de scribes the jour - ney of t he re leased soul on the way to B rah man and t akes up the thread of the st ory at the poi nt where it was lef t in the pre ced ing Sec - tion. 509 SYNOPSIS Adhikarana I: (Su tra 1) The p ath con nected with de i ties be gin - ning with that of light i s the only p ath to B rahmaloka. Adhikarana II: (Su tra 2) The de part ing soul reaches the de ity of the year and then t he de ity of the air . Adhikarana III : (Su tra 3) Af ter reach ing the de ity iden ti fied with light ning the soul reaches the world of V aruna. Adhik aranas I, II, III (Sutras 1-3) rec on cile the dif fer ent ac count s given in t he Up anishads as to the st a tions on the way which leads the Upasaka to Saguna Brah man. Adhikarana IV : (Sutras 4-6) Light, et c., re ferred to in the t ext de - scrib ing the p ath of t he gods mean de i ties iden ti fied with t he light, et c., which lead the soul st age af ter st age till B rahmaloka is reached. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 7-14) The Brah man to which the de - parted souls go by the p ath of t he gods is the Saguna Brah man. This is the opin ion pro pounded in Sutras 7-1 1 by Baadarayana. In Sut ras 12-14 Jaimini de fends the op po site view ac cord ing to which the soul of the Up asaka goes to the High est Brah man, not t o the Karya B rah - man (Saguna Brah man). Jaimini s view is a mere Purvap aksha, while Baadari s opin ion rep re sents the Siddhant a. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 15-16) Only those who have wor shipped the Saguna B rah man with out a sym bol at tain Brahmaloka. 510 Archirady adhikaranam : Topic 1 The p ath connected with the dei ties beginning with t hat of light is the only p ath that leads to Brahm aloka. A{Mam{XZm V{WVo & Archiradin a tatprathiteh IV.3.1 (518) On the path co nnected with light (the d eparted soul of the knower of Saguna Brahman travels to Brahmal oka after death), that be ing well -known (from the Sru ti). Archiradina: by the p ath of t he rays, etc., by the rays of light and so on, on the p ath connected with deit ies, beginning with t hat of light ; Tatprath iteh: that being well-known (from t he Sruti). It has been ex plained that up t o the be gin ning of the way the de - par ture is the same. I n the last sec tion it was st ated that the knower of the Saguna B rah man trav els to Devayana or t he path of t he gods to Brahmaloka. But dif fer ent tex ts make dif fer ent dec la ra tions about the way it self. One p as sage de scribes it as con sti tuted by the junc tion of t he Nadis and rays: Then he mount s up wards by just those rays (Chh. Up. VII I.6.5). An other p as sage de scribes it as be gin ning with light . They go to t he light, f rom light to day (Chh. Up. V .10.1). A n other way is de scribed in Kaushit aki Upani shad I.3: Hav ing reached the p ath of the gods, he co mes to the world of A gni. An other way is de scribed in Bri. Up. V .10.1: When the per son goes away from this world he co - mes to the wind. A n other way is de scribed in Mun. Up. I. 2.11: Free from p as sion they de part through the gat e of the sun. A doubt here arises whether these ways are dif fer ent from each other or whether there is only one p ath, t he path of t he gods of which the dif fer ent texts men tion dif fer ent par tic u lars, or give dif fer ent de - scrip tions. The Purvap akshin main tains that these t exts re fer to dif fer ent paths to Brahmaloka. The pres ent Su tra re futes this v iew and de clares that all the texts re fer to one p ath only and gi ve only di f fer ent p ar tic u lars of the same p ath, t he path con nected with de i ties be gin ning with that iden ti - fied with li ght. Why so? On ac count of it s be ing widely known, from the Sruti texts that this is t he path for all knowers of Brah man. The text Those who know this (Panchagni V idya) and those who in the for est med i tate with f aith and aus ter ity reach the de ity iden - ti fied with li ght (Chh. Up. V .10.1), ex pressly st ates that t he path con - nected with de i ties be gin ning with that of the f lame be longs to all knowers of Brah man what ever be the V idya by which t hey have at - tained that knowl edge.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 3 511 The goal, vi z., Brahmaloka, is the same in all cases. Some p art of the p ath is re cog nised in all tex ts. All t he fol low ing p as sages de - clare one and the same re sult, v iz., the at tain ment of t he world of Brah man. In t hese worlds of Brah man they dwell for ever and ever (Bri. Up. V I.2.15). There he dwells eter nal years (Bri. Up. V .10.1). What ever vic tory, what ever great ness be longs to Brah man, that vic - tory he gains, t hat great ness he reaches (Kau. Up. I .2). There is no jus ti fi ca tion to re gard the p ath as dif fer ent on ac count of it s be ing dealt with in dif fer ent chap ters. Hence we have to con clude that all t he text s re fer to the same path but giv e dif fer ent p ar tic u lars which have all to be com bined for a full de scrip tion of t he path. Though var i ous Srutis re fer to the p ath by such words as Archis (light), S urya (sun), V ayu (wind), etc., yet they all re fer only t o dif fer ent por tions of one and the same way , viz., Archiradi-marga or Devayana which leads to Brahmaloka. Each S ruti gives us some thing indicatory of the p ath and we have to com bine the di verse p ar tic u lars. Vayvadhikaranam : Topic 2 The dep arting soul reaches the deity of t he year and then the deit y of the air . dm`w_ XmX{deo f{deof m`m_& Vayumabdadav iseshav iseshabhy am IV.3.2 (519) (The departed soul ) (of a know er of t he Sag una Br ahma n goes) from the deity of th e year to the deity of th e air on a ccount o f the absence and prese nce of spe cificati on. Vayum: the deity of the air; Abdat: from the deit y of t he year; Aviseshav iseshabhy am: because of non-specification and specification, because it i s stated in general in one Srut i and in det ail in another . The de scrip tion of t he path of t he gods is con tin ued. The Su tra fix es the or der of the st ages. The Kaushit aki Upanishad de scribes the pat h as fol lows: The Up asaka or the wor - ship per, hav ing reached the p ath of t he gods co mes to the world of Agni (fire), t o the world of V ayu (air), to t he world of V aruna, to the world of Indra, t o the world of Prajap ati, and t hen to the world of Brahma (Kau. Up. I .3). Now the world of Agni means the same as light , as both terms de note burn ing, and we, t here fore, need not wit h re gard to them search for the or der in which they are to be com bined. Again the Chhandogy a Up anishad (V .10.1) de scribes the pat h as fol lows: They reach the de ity iden ti fied with t he light, f rom him to the de ity of the day , from him to the de ity of the bright half of the month, f rom him to t he de i ties iden ti fied with six months of t he north -BRAHMA SU TRAS 512 ern p ath of t he sun, from them to the de ity of the year , from him to the de ity of the sun, from him to the de ity of the moon, f rom him to t he de - ity of the light ning. Here V ayu is not men tioned in the p ath be gin ning with light. There is ab sence of spec i fi ca tion. In the B rihadaranyaka Up anishad V ayu is men tioned be fore Adity a. When the per son goes away from this world he co mes to Vayu. Then V ayu makes room for him like t he hole of a wheel, and through it he mount s higher , he co mes to Adit ya. On ac count of this spec i fi ca tion which shows V ayu to come be fore Adit ya, V ayu must be in serted be tween the year and A ditya. We should con clude that the soul goes to V ayuloka be fore go ing to the sun. The Brihadaranyaka tex t (V.10.1) fi xes that ai r co mes im me di - ately be fore the sun, be cause there is reg u lar or der of suc ces sion. But as re gards air com ing af ter the de ity of fire there is no spec i fi ca - tion but sim ply a st ate ment Hav ing reached the p ath of t he gods he co mes to the world of A gni, to t he world of V ayu. The V ajasaneyins in their t ext re cord From the de i ties iden ti fied with the six m onths in which the sun trav els north wards he reaches the de ity iden ti fied with t he world of the gods (Bri. Up. V I.2.15). Here in or der to main tain the im me di ate suc ces sion of the de ity iden ti fied with V ayu (air) and that iden ti fied with t he sun (Aditya) we must un der - stand that t he soul p asses from the de ity of the world of the gods t o the de ity of air. Again in the t exts of the Chhandogya and t he Brihadaranyaka the de ity of the world of the gods is not m en tioned in the f or mer and the de ity of the year in t he lat ter. Bot h text s are au thor i ta tive. Both have to be in cluded in the full de scrip tion of t he path. A s the year is con nected with the mont hs, the de ity of the year pre cedes the de ity of the world of the gods. Hence the se quence is Archis (rays), Ahas (day), Suklap aksha (bright half of the month), six months when the sun trav els to the north, year , the world of t he gods, the world of V ayu, t he sun, the moon, the li ght ning, the world of Varuna, the world of I ndra, the world of Prajap ati and the world of Brahma. Tadidadhikaranam: T opic 3 After reaching the deity ident ified with l ightning, the soul reaches the world of V aruna. V{S>Vmo @{Y d U g~YmV& Taditodhi v arunah sambandhat IV.3.3 (520) After (re aching) the deity of lightning (the sou l reac hes) Varuna, o n acco unt of the conne ction (b etween the two). Taditah adhi: after the deit y of li ghtning; Varunah: (comes) V aruna (rain god); Sambandhat: on account of connection.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 3 513 The enu mer a tion of t he st a tions of the j our ney is con tin ued. In the Chhandogya t ext we fi nd, From the sun to t he moon, from moon to l ight ning. In t he Kaushit aki Upani shad we find, From Vayu (wind) to V aruna. Com bin ing the two t exts we have to place Varuna af ter light ning, on ac count of the con nec tion be tween the two (light ning and V aruna). The broad lightnings dance forth f rom the womb of the clouds with t he sound of deep thun der and then wa ter falls down. It light ens, it thun ders, it will rain (Chh. Up. V II.11.1). Varuna is the god of rain and light ning pre cedes rain. So af ter light - ning co mes V aruna. Af ter V aruna come Indra and Prajap ati for t here is no other place for them. T he Kaushit aki text also put s them there. The com plete enu mer a tion of t he st ages of the p ath of t he gods is as fol lows: first the de ity of fire, t hen the de ity of the day , the de ity of the bright half of the mont h, the de i ties of the six months when the sun trav els to the north, the de ity of the year , the de ity of the world of gods, the de ity of the air , the sun, t he moon, the de ity of light ning, the world of Varuna, the world of I ndra, the world of P rajap ati, and f i nally Brahmaloka. Ativahikadhi karanam: T opic 4 (Sutras 4-6) Light, et c., referred to in t he text describing the p ath of t he gods mean deit ies identifi ed with light, etc., who conduct the soul stage af ter st age till B rahmaloka is reached. Am{Vdm{ hH$mV{bmV& Ativahikast allingat IV.3.4 (521) (These are) deit ies conduct ing the soul (on t he path of the gods), on acc ount of in dicatory mark s to th at effect. Ativahikah: conductors, deities conducting the dep arted soul; Tad-lingat: on account of indicatory m arks to that ef fect. The de scrip tion of t he path of t he gods is con tin ued. With re gard to those be gin ning with light a doubt arises whether they are marks of the road, or places of en joy ment, or con duc tors of the trav el li ng souls. The Purvap akshin says: Light and so on are marks of the road, be cause the in struc tion has that char ac ter. In or di nary life a m an who wishes to go to a vil lage or a town is told Go from here t o that hill , from there to a ban yan tree, f rom that t ree to a river , from t hat to a v il - lage, af ter that y ou will reach the town. So here also t he text says, From light to day , from day to the wax ing half of t he month, et c. Or else light and so on may be v iewed as places of en joy ment. Be cause the text con nects Agni and so on with the world He co mes to the world of A gni. Now the term world de notes places of en joy -BRAHMA SU TRAS 514 ment of li v ing be ings, as when we say the world of men, the world of fa thers, the world of gods. There fore, light and the rest are not con duc tors. Fur ther they can not be con duc tors as they are with out in tel li gence. In or di nary life, in tel li gent men only are ap pointed by t he king to con duct trav el lers over dif fi cult roads. The pres ent Su tra re futes this. They must be t he con duc tors. They re ceive the de parted souls and con duct them on t heir way to Brahmaloka. That con duc tors are meant here and not marks or places of en joy ment is in di cated by the t ext of the Chhandogya which ends thus, From the moon t o the light ning. Then a be ing who is not a man leads them to B rah man (Chh. Up. IV .15.5; V.10.1). T his text shows that un like the pre vi ous guides or con duc tors who were more or less hu man, this p ar tic u lar guide or con duc tor is not a hu man in na - ture Amanava . C^``m_mo hmmpgo& Ubhay avyamohat t atsiddheh IV.3.5 (522) (That de ities or d ivine guides are meant in th ese texts, th ey are personal conductors) is established, because both (i.e., the path and th e traveller) beco me unconscious. Ubhay a: both (the p ath and the t raveller); Vyamohat: because of unconsciousness ; Tat-siddheh: that is est ablished. This Su tra is an ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 4. The de parted souls are not ca pa ble of guid ing them selves as their or gans are with drawn in the mind. The l ight, et c., are with out in - tel li gence. Hence they are equally in ca pa ble and can not guide the souls. Hence it fol lows that the par tic u lar in tel li gent de i ties iden ti fi ed with the light , etc., guide the souls to Brahmal oka. In or di nary life al so drunken or sense less peo ple fol low a road as com manded by oth ers. Again light and the rest can not be t aken for marks of the p ath or road, be cause they are not al ways pres ent. Fur ther the de parted souls can not en joy as their or gans are with drawn into the mind. Hence light and the rest can not be worlds where they en joy. Al though the wan der ers or the de parted souls do not en joy any - thing, t he word world may be ex plained on the ground that those worlds are places of en joy ment for ot her be ings dwell ing there. The con clu sion, there fore, is that he who has reached the world of Agni is led on by Agni and he who has reached the world ruled by Vayu is led by V ayu.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 3 515 dwVoZd VVVN>Vo& Vaidyutenaiv a tatastacchruteh IV.3.6 (523) From thenc e (the souls are led or g uided) by t he very sa me (superhuman) pe rson who c omes to lightning, that be ing known from the Sruti. Vaidyutena: by the (superhuman) guide connected with light ning, by the superhuman being who t akes his charge from the god of lightni ng; Eva: alone, only , indeed; Tatah: from thence; Tat sruteh: that being known from the Sruti , as Sruti st ates so, because of the V edic text . The dis cus sion on the jour ney is con tin ued. From thence, i.e. , af ter they hav e come to the light ning they go to the world of B rah man, be ing led through the worlds of V aruna and the rest by t he per son, not a man (Ama nava-purusha) who fol lows im - me di ately af ter the light ning. When they have reached the place of light ning, a per son, not a man, leads them to t he world of Brah man (Bri. Up. VI.2 .15). Varuna and the rest only f a vour the souls ei ther by not ob struct - ing or help ing them in some way . There fore, it is well es tab lished that li ght and so on are the gods who act as con duc tors or guards. Kary adhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 7-14) The dep arted souls go by the p ath of gods to S aguna Brahman. H$m` ~mX[aa ` J`wnn mo& Kary am baadari rasya gaty upapatteh IV.3.7 (524) To the Karya Brahm an or Hiranya garbha o r Saguna B rahman (the departed souls a re led); (thus opin es) th e sage Baadar i on account of the possibil ity of its being t he goal ( of their j ourney) . Kary am: the relativ e Brahman or Hiranyagarbha; Baadarih: the sage Baadari (holds); Asya: his; Gati-u papatteh: on account of the possibility of being the goal. A dis cus sion is now t aken up whether the soul is con ducted to the Nirguna Brah man or the Saguna B rah man. In the pre vi ous Su tra the way was dis cussed. Now from this Su tra on wards the dis cus sion is about the goal reached. The Chhandogya tex t de clares, Then a be ing who is not a man (Amanava P urusha) leads them to Brah man (Chh. Up. V .10.1). A doubt arises whether the Brah man is the Saguna B rah man or the Su preme Nirguna Brah man. The opin ion of the t eacher Baadari is that t he per son, who is not a man, leads t hem to the lower qual i fied, ef fected Brah man (Saguna or Karya B rah man); be cause it is pos si ble BRAHMA SU TRAS 516 to go to t hat. B e cause Saguna Brah man which oc cu pies a def i nite place, which has a spe cial abode and which is fi nite can be the goal of a jour ney. But it is not pos si ble with re spect to the Nirguna Brah man which is In fi nite and all-per vad ing. With t he High est Nirguna Brah man on the other hand, we can not con nect the ideas of one who goes, or ob ject of go ing or act of go ing; be cause that Brah man is pres ent ev - ery where and is the in ner Self of all. {deo{fVdm& Viseshit atvaccha IV.3.8 (525) And on a ccount of t he quali fication (w ith respect t o thi s Brahman in a nothe r text). Viseshit atvat: because of being specified in Sruti , on account of the qualificati on; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 7 is ad duced. Be cause the word Brah man is qual i fied by t he word lokam. He leads them to the worlds of B rah man; in these worlds of Brah man they l ive for ev er and ever (Bri. Up. V I.2.15). The plu ral num ber is not pos si ble with re spect to the Su preme In fi nite Brah man which may abide in dif fer ent con di tions. gm_r`m mw VX`nXoe &> Sami pyattu t advyapadesah IV.3.9 (526) But on ac count of the near ness (of the Saguna Brah man to the Su preme Brah man it is) des ig nated as that (S u preme Brah man). Samipyat: because of the nearness or proximity ; Tu: but; Tad: that; Vyapadesah: designation. The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 7 is con tin ued. The word tu (but) set s aside any doubt that may arise on ac - count of the word B rahma be ing used for the Saguna B rah man in the Chhandogya text . This Su tra says that t his des ig na tion is on ac count of the prox - im ity of the Saguna B rah man to the su preme Brah man or the Ab so - lute. The man i fested Brah man also can be called Brah man as it is in the clos est prox im ity to the Unmanifested P ara Brah man. The Para Brah man as sumes ab so lutely pure lim it ing ad junct s such as mind, etc., t o be come an ob ject of de vo tion and med i ta tion, i. e., the lower Brah man or Karya Brah man or Saguna Brah man. H$m`m``o VX `joU ghmV na_{ ^YmZmV& Kary atyaye tadadhy akshena sahat ah paramabhidhanat IV.3.10 (527)CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 3 517 On the dissolution of the Brahmal oka (the souls attain) along with the ruler of tha t world what is highe r than tha t (i.e., the Supreme Bra hman ) on ac count of the declarat ion of the Sr uti. Kary atyaye: on the dissolution of the Brahmaloka ( Kary a: of the effect, i. e., the universe, the relat ive Saguna B rahman); Tad: of that ; Adhy akshena: with the ruler-president, i .e., Hiranyagarbha or the four-faced Brahma; Saha: with; Atahparam: higher than that , i.e., the Supreme Brahman; Abhidhanat: on account of the declaration of the Sruti. The in di vid ual soul s fi nal ab sorp tion in the P ara Brah man or the Ab so lute is now st ated. The Purvap akshin says: If t he souls who go by the p ath of t he gods reach the Saguna Brah man, then how can st ate ment s like, They who pro ceed on that p ath do not re turn to the l ife of man (Chh. Up. IV .15.6); For t hem there is no re turn here (Bri. Up. VI .2.15); Mov ing up wards by that a man reaches im mor tal ity (Chh. Up. VIII.6.5), be made with re spect to them, as there is no per ma nency any where apart from the High est Brah man? The Su tra de clares that at the di s so lu tion of B rahmaloka the souls, which by that t ime have at tained knowl edge, along with t he Saguna Brah man at tain what is higher than the S aguna Brah man, i.e., Para Brah man or the pure high est place of V ishnu. This is called Kramamukti or suc ces s ive (pro gres sive) lib er a tion or re lease by suc - ces sive step s. So the S ruti tex ts de clare. _Vo & Smri tescha IV.3.11 (528) And on a ccount of the Smr iti (text s suppor ting this view). Smrite h: on account of the st atement of the Smrit i, as Smrit i agrees with the v iew, according to the Sm riti; Cha: and. An ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 10 is ad duced. The view ex pressed in the pre ced ing Su tra is cor rob o rated by Smriti al so, When the Pralaya has come and when the f irst per son (Hiranyagarbha) co mes to His end, then t hey all, to gether with Brah - man, with pu ri fied minds en ter the high est place. The above are the S iddhant a Sutras. The f i nal con clu sion (Siddhant a), there fore is that t he go ing of the souls of which scrip ture speaks, has for it s goal the Karya B rah man or Saguna Brah man. The Purvap aksha is stat ed in Sutras 12-14. na O{_{Z _w`dmV& Para m jaiminirmu khyatvat IV.3.12 (529)BRAHMA SU TRAS 518 To the highest (Brahman) (the souls a re led); Jaimini opine s, on acc ount o f that be ing the p rimary me aning (of the word Brahman). Param: the Supreme (Brahman); Jaiminih : the sage Jaimini (opines or holds); Mukhy atvat: on account of that bei ng the primary meani ng (of the word Brahman). Sutras 12-14 give a prima f a cie view of t he mat ter. An ob jec tion to Su tra 7 is ad duced by pre sent ing an op po site view . Jaimini is of opin ion that t he word Brah man in the Chhandogya text He leads them to Brah man re fers to the High est Brah man, as that is the pri mary mean ing of the word. XeZm& Darsanaccha IV.3.13 (530) And becau se the Sruti declares that. Darsanat: on account of the Srut i text s; Cha: and, also. An ar gu ment in sup port of Jaimini i s ad duced. The text Go ing up wards by that he reaches im mor tal ity (Chh. Up. VII I.6.6) (Katha Up. II .6.16) de clares that im mor tal ity is at tained by go ing. But im mor tal ity is pos si ble only in t he Su preme Brah man, not in the S aguna Brah man, be cause the lat ter is tran si tory. So scrip - ture says, Where one sees some thing else, t hat is lit tle, that is mor - tal (Chh. Up . VIII.24.1 ). Ac cord ing to the t ext of the Kat hopanishad also the go ing of the soul is to wards the su preme Brah man. The soul which p asses out of the body by the Sushumna Nadi reaches im mor tal ity. This can be at - tained only in t he Su preme Brah man. Z M H$m`} {Vn`{^gpY & Na cha kary e pratip attyabhisandhi h IV.3.14 (531) And the desire to atta in Bra hman c anno t be with re spect to th e Saguna B rahman. Na: not; Cha: and; Kary e: in the Saguna B rahman; Prati patti: realisation of B rahman; Abhisandhih: desire. ( Prati patti- abhisandhih: the desire to att ain or realise Brahman.) The ar gu ment in sup port of Su tra 12 is con tin ued. I en ter the hall of Prajap ati, the house (Chh. Up. VIII .14.1), can not have t he lower or Saguna Brah man for it s ob ject. This de sire to en ter the hall or the house can not be with re spect to the Saguna Brah man. It is ap pro pri ate with re gard to the High est Brah man (Para Brah man). Be cause the im me di atel y pre ced ing pas sage in ti mat es And that wit hin which these (names and forms) are con tained is Brah man. The p as sage I am the glory of the Brahmanas rep re -CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 3 519 sents the soul as the self of all. Glory is the name of t he su preme Brah man. There is no like ness of him whose name is great glory (Vajasaneya Samhit a: XXX II.3). Here the Su preme Brah man is re - ferred to. Sutras 12-14 give t he view of t he Purvap akshin against what has been said in Sutras 7-1 1. The ar gu ment s of Sutras 12-14 are re - futed t hus: The Brah man at tained by those who go by t he path of t he gods (Devayana) can not be the S u preme Brah man (Nirguna Brah man). They at tain only t he Saguna Brah man. Para B rah man is all-per vad - ing. He is the In ner Self of all. He can not be at tained as He is the In - ner most Self of ev ery one. We do not go to what i s al ready reached. Or di nary ex pe ri ence rather tells us that a per son goes to some thing dif fer ent from him . Jour ney or at tain ment is pos si ble only where there is dif fer ence, where the att ainer is dif fer ent from t he at tained. The Su preme Brah man can not be as sumed to pos sess any dif - fer ences de pend ing on time, or space or any thing else and can not, there fore, be come the ob ject of go ing. In the reali sa tion of t he Su preme Brah man the vei l of ig no rance is re moved and the seeker knows his es sen tial di vine na ture. He real - ises his iden tity with the Su preme Brah man. When the ig no rance is re moved Brah man man i fests it self. That is all. There is no go ing or at - tain ing in such a reali sa tion. But the at tain ment of B rah man spo ken of in the tex ts con nected with the p ath of t he gods is not merely the re moval of ig no rance but ac tual. The p as sage I en ter the hall of Prajap ati, the house, can be sep a rated from what pre cedes and be con nected with the S aguna Brah man. The fact that Chh. Up. VI II.14.1 says I am t he glory of t he Brahmanas, of t he kings can not make it re fer to the Nirguna B rah - man, be cause the Saguna Brah man can also be said to be the self of all, as we find in t exts like He, to whom all works, all de sires be long (Chh. Up . III.14.2 ). The ref er ence to the jour ney to B rah man which be longs to the realm of rel a tive or qual i fied knowl edge in a chap ter which deals with the High est Knowl edge is only by way of glo ri fi ca tion of t he lat ter. For all these rea sons the view of Baadari as set f orth in Sut ras 7-11 is the cor rect one.BRAHMA SU TRAS 520 Apratikalamb anadhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 15-16) Only those who have t aken recourse to the worship of Brahman without a sym bol att ain Brahm aloka. AVrH$mb ~Zm`Vr{V ~ mXam`U C^ `WmXmof mmH$Vw& Apratikalamb anannay atiti baadaray ana ubhay athadoshatt atkratuscha IV.3.15 (532) Baadarayana holds th at (th e supe rhuman being) leads (to Brah maloka only) those who do n ot take recourse t o a sym bol of Brahma n in the ir me ditation; th ere being no fault in the twofold re lation (resu lting from this opinion) and (it be ing construe d on the doctrine ) as i s the meditation o n that (i.e ., Brah man) so does one become. Apratikalamb anat: those who do not have recourse to the sym bols for the medit ation of B rahman; Nayati: (the superhuman being) leads or takes; Iti Baadaray anah: so says Baadarayana; Ubhay atha: both ways; Adoshat: there being no defect s; Tat-kratuh: as is t he medit ation on that , (so does one become); Cha: and. The dis cus sion com menced is Su tra 6, whether the soul i s taken to the Su preme Brah man or the Saguna B rah man is con cluded in this and the f ol low ing Su tra. A doubt here arises whether all wor ship pers of the Saguna Brah man go to Brahmaloka be ing led by t he su per hu man be ing men - tioned in Chh. Up. IV.15.5 or only some of them? The Purvap akshin main tains that all go t o Brahmaloka what ever may be thei r Upasana. This Su tra de clares that only t hose wor ship pers of the Saguna Brah man who do not t ake re course to any sym bol in their med i ta tion on Brah man go there. This is t he opin ion of the t eacher Baadarayana. This, how ever, does not con tra dict what is said in II I.3.31 if we un der - stand that by all is meant all t hose wor ship pers who do not t ake re - course to any sym bol in their med i ta tion on Brah man. Only Brahma Up asakas are taken by t he Amanava P urusha to the Brahmaloka. T he form of med i ta tion gov erns the re sult. In t he case of sym bols like the Salagrama stone, there is no feel ing that it it - self is Brah man. No doubt in t he case of Panchagni-V idya, t he Sruti says that t he wor ship per is led to Brahmaloka. B ut we can not ex tend the re sult to the wor ship pers of ex ter nal sym bols where there is no di - rect scrip tural st ate ment, we hav e to un der stand that only those who med i tate on Brah man go to Brahmaloka, not oth ers. He whose med i ta tion is fix ed on Brah man reaches Brahmaloka. This view is sup ported by Srut i and Smriti . In what ever form they med i tate on Him, t hat they be come them selves. In t he case of sym - bols on the other hand, t he med i ta tion is not f ixed on Brah man, theCHAPT ER IVS ECTION 3 521 sym bol be ing the chief el e ment in the med i ta tion. Hence the wor ship - per does not at tain Brahmaloka. {deof#m M Xe `{V& Visesham cha d arsay ati IV.3.16 (533) And the scripture declares a difference (in th e case of meditat ion on symbol s). Visesham: difference; Cha: and; Darsay ati: the scripture declares. An ar gu ment in sup port of the con clu sion ar rived at by Baadarayana, i s ad duced here. With ref er ence to med i ta tions on sym bols such as name and so on, that oc cur in Chhandogya Up anishadic text s, the Srut i speaks of dif fer ent re sults ac cord ing to dif fer ence in the sym bols. One who med i tates upon name as Brah man be comes in de pend ent so far as name reaches (Chh. Up. VII. 1.5). One who med i tates upon speech as Brah man be comes in de pend ent so far as speech reaches ( Chh. Up. VII.2 .2). Now the dis tinc tion of re wards is pos si ble be cause the med i ta - tions de pend on sym bols, while there could be no such dif fer ence in re sults, if they de pend on the one non-dif fer ent Brah man. Hence it is quite clear that those who use sym bols for their med i - ta tion can not have t he same re ward as oth ers. They can not go to Brahmaloka like those who med i tate on the S aguna Brah man. Thus ends the Third Pada (Sec tion 3) of the Four th Chap ter (Adhy aya IV) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy.BRAHMA SU TRAS 522 CHAPTER IV SECTION 4 INTRODUCTION The at tain ment of B rahmaloka by the wor ship pers of the Saguna Brah man has been treated in t he last Sec tion. Thi s Sec tion deals with the reali sa tion of t he High est Brah man by it s wor ship pers. 523 SYNOPSIS Adhikarana I: (Sutras 1-3) the re leased soul does not ac quire any thing new but merely man i fests it self in it s true na ture. Adhikarana II: (Su tra 4) de ter mines that re la tion in which the re - leased soul st ands to Brah man is that of Avibhaga, non-sep a ra tion. Adhikarana III : (Sutras 5-7) dis cuss the char ac ter is tics of the soul that has at tained the Nirguna Brah man. Ac cord ing to Jaimini t he re leased soul, when man i fest ing it self in it s true na ture, pos sesses the at trib utes which in Chh. Up. VI II.7.1 and other places are as cribed to Brah man, such as Ap ahatapapmatva (f ree dom from sin), Satyasankalpat va (true vo li tion) and Aisvary a (Om ni science) etc. Ac cord ing to Audulom i the only char ac ter is tics of the re leased soul is Chait anya or pure in tel li gence. Ac cord ing to Baadaray ana the two vi ews can be com bined. The two views de scribe the re leased soul from two dif fer ent st and point s, viz., rel a tive and t ran scen den tal and so there is no con tra dic tion be - tween the two. Adhikarana IV : (Sutras 8-9) The soul which has at tained the Saguna Brah man ef fects its de sires by mere will. Adhikarana V : (Sutras 10-14) A re leased soul which has at - tained Brahmaloka can ex ist with or with out a body ac cord ing to it s lik - ing. Adhikarana VI: (Sutras 15-16) The re leased soul which has at - tained the Saguna B rah man can an i mate sev eral bod ies at the same time. Adhikarana VII : (Sutras 17-22) The re leased soul which has at - tained Brahmaloka has all the lordly pow ers ex cept the power of cre - ation, et c. There is no re turn to thi s world for these re leased souls. 524 Samp adyavirbhav adhikaranam : Topic 1 (Sutras 1-3) The liberated soul does not acquire anything new but only m anifest s its essential or true nature. gnm{d^m d doZ e XmV& Samp adyavirbhav ah sv ena sabdat IV.4.1 (534) (When the Jiva or the individ ual so ul) has a ttained (the highe st light) the re is man ifestatio n (of i ts own real natu re) as we infer from th e word own. Samp adya: having att ained; Avirbhav ah: there is manifest ation; Svena sabdat: from the word own. ( Svena: by one s own; Sabdat: inferred from the word.) The Chhandogya tex t says Now this se rene and happy be ing, af ter hav ing risen out of thi s body and hav ing at tained the high est light, m an i fests it self by it s own na ture (Chh. Up. VII .12.3). The Purvap akshin holds that the Jiv a or the in di vid ual soul which has freed it self from iden ti fi ca tion with t he three bod ies at tains eman ci pa tion af ter real is ing Brah man. Re lease also is a fruit like other fruit s, e.g., Svarga or heaven. Man i fes ta tion means as much as orig i na tion. Lib er a tion was not a pre-ex is tent t hing. It is some thing that is newly ac quired like heaven, as the word reaches in the tex t clearly in di cates. There fore eman ci pa tion is some thing new that is ac quired by the in di vid ual soul. If the man i fes ta tion took place only through the selfs own na ture, it would al ready ap pear in the self s for - mer st ates, be cause a thing s own na ture is never ab sent in it. The pres ent Su tra re futes this v iew and says that t he word own in di cates that eman ci p a tion was a pre-ex is tent thing. The in di vid ual soul man i fests its own, es sen tial di vine na ture which was so long cov - ered by ig no rance (A vidya). This is his at tain ment of t he fi nal be at i - tude or re lease. It i s cer tainly not h ing that is newly ac quired. _w$ {VkmZmV & Mukt ah pratijnanat IV.4.2 (535) (The self whose true nature has manifested itself is) released ; accor ding to the promi se (made by scr iptur e). Mukt ah: the liberated one, released, freed; Pratijnana t: according to the promise. The pre vi ous Su tra is fur ther elu ci dated. Eman ci pa tion is a ces sa tion of all bond age and not the ac ces - sion of some thing new , just as health i s merely the re moval of ill ness and not a new ac qui si tion. If re lease is noth ing new that is ac quired by the in di vid ual soul, then what is it s dif fer ence from bond age? The Jiva was st ained in the state of bond age by the t hree st ates, i.e. , the st ate of wak ing, dream -CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 4 525 ing and dream less sleep. Ac cord ing to Chhandogya Up anishad VIII . 9-11, It i s blind It weep s as it were It goes to ut ter an ni hi la tion. I t imag ines it self to be fi nite. I t iden ti fies it self with the i l lu sory ve hi cles or Upadhis and ex pe ri ences plea sure, p ain, joy and sor row. Af ter Self-reali sa tion it real ises it s true na ture which is ab so lute bliss. I t is freed from all er ro ne ous no tions and mis con cep tions. It is freed from Avidya or ig no rance and it s ef fects. It is per fect, f ree, in de pend ent. This is the dif fer ence. An ni hi la t ion of ig no rance is sal va tion. Erad i ca tion of all er ro ne - ous no tions or mis con cep tions is lib er a tion. De struc tion of t he veil of ig no rance, that sep a rates the in di vid ual soul from the S u preme Soul, is eman ci p a tion or the fi nal be at i tude. But how is it known that in its pres ent con di tion the soul is re - leased? On ac count of the prom ise made in the scrip tures, says the Su tra . The Chhandogya Up anishad says, I will ex plain It t o you fur - ther (Chh. U p. VIII.9.3 ; VIII.10.4 ; VIII.1 1.3). Her e the Sruti pro poses to ex pound that S elf which is free from all im per fec tions. It be gins thus, The Self which is free from sin (Chh. Up. VII I.7.1). It be ing with out the body , is not touched by plea sure and pain (Chh. Up. VIII.12.1), and con cludes By his own na ture he man i fests him self. That is the high est per son. The se rene be ing rises above it s body , reaches the high est light and ap pears in it s own true na ture (Chh. Up. VIII.1 2.3). Am_m H$aUmV & Atma prakaranat IV.4.3 (536) (The light into which the individua l soul e nters is) the Su preme Self; owi ng to th e subject ma tter o f the chap ter. Atma: the Supreme S elf; Prakaranat: on account of the subject matter of the discourse or context. This Su tra says that t he in di vid ual soul re cov ers his own Self (the Su preme Self) as st ated in Su tra 1. The Purvap akshin holds: How can the soul be called lib er ated con sid er ing that t he clause (hav ing en tered into) the hi gh est light speaks of it as within the sphere of what i s a mere ef fect? Be cause the word light in com mon p ar lance de notes phys i cal light. No one who has not tran scended be yond the sphere of ef fects can be lib er - ated, as what ever is an ef fect is t ainted with ev il. We re ply: t his ob jec tion is with out force. I t can not st and; for in the p as sage re ferred to in the Chh. Up. VII I.3.4 the word light de - notes the Self Su preme, in ac cor dance with the sub ject mat ter of the Chap ter and not any phy s i cal light.BRAHMA SU TRAS 526 The word Jyotih (light) in the p as sage re fers to the A t man which is de scribed as sin less, undecaying and death less ( Ya Atma apahatapapma vijaro vim rityuh Ch h. Up . VIII.7.1) . We, there fore, may not all at once p ass over to phys i cal light in - cur ring thereby the f ault of aban don ing the topic un der dis cus sion and in tro duc ing a new one. The word light is also used to de note the S elf in the t exts like The gods med i tate on the im mor tal Light of al l light s as lon gev ity (Bri. Up. I V.4.16). W e have dis cussed this in de tail un der I.3.40. Avibhagena drisht atvadhikaranam: T opic 2 The released soul remains insep arable from t he Supreme S oul. A{d^ mJoZ >dmV & Avibhagena drisht atvat IV.4.4 (537) (The Jiva in the state of release e xists) as inseparable (from Brahman), because it is so seen from the scriptur es. Avibhagena: as inseparable; Drisht atvat: for it is so seen from the scriptures. A doubt arises whether the in di vid ual soul in the st ate of eman ci - pa tion ex ists as dif fer ent from B rah man or as one with and in sep a ra - ble from It . The pres ent Su tra de clares that it ex ists as in sep a ra ble from Brah man, be cause the Sruti tex ts de clare so. Thou art That, Tat Tvam Asi (Chh. U p. VI.8.7 ). Aham Brahma A smi, I am B rah man (Bri. Up. I .4.10). Where he sees noth ing else (Chh. Up. VII .24.1). Be ing but Brah man, he is merged in Brah man (Bri. Up. I V.4.6). A ll these Sruti p as sages de clare that the eman ci pated soul is iden ti cal with Brah man. Such p as sages as Jus t as pure wa ter poured into pure wa ter re mains the same, t hus O Gaut ama, is the self of a thinker who knows (Katha Up. II. 4.15), whose ob ject is to de scribe the na ture of the re leased soul, de clare that there is non-sep a ra tion only . The same fol lows from the com par i son of the soul en ter ing Brah man to rivers fall ing into the sea. Pas sages which speak of dif fer ence have to be ex plained in a sec ond ary sense, ex press ing non-sep a ra t ion or unity. Brahmadhikar anam: T opic 3 (Sutras 5-7) Characteristics of the soul that has att ained the Nirguna Brahm an. ~moU O{_{Zn` mgm{X`& Brahmena jai minirupanyasadibhy ah IV.4.5 (538)CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 4 527 (The rele ased sou l exists) as possesse d of (the attr ibutes of) Brahman; (thus ) Jaimini (o pines) on ac count of the re ference etc. Brahmena: as possess ed of the at tributes of B rahman; Jaiminih : Jaimini (ho lds); Upanyasadibhy ah: on account of the reference etc. The view of t he sage Jaimini is st ated in this con nec tion. It has been st ated that the re leased soul at tains Brah man. Brah - man has two as pects, viz., one the un con di tioned as pect as pure con - scious ness and the other as de scribed in the Chhandogya Upanishad VIII .7.1: The At man which is free from evil , undecaying, un dy ing, free f rom sor row, hun ger and thirst, wit h true de sires (Satyakama) and t rue vo li tions (Saty asankalpa). A doubt arises now , which as pect does the re leased soul at tain? Jaimini main tains that the l ib er ated soul at tains the con di tioned as - pect. Why? B e cause this is known from ref er ence to the na ture of the self as be ing such in the text cited. The qual i ties of Om ni science and Om nip o tence are men tioned. Hence Jaimini opines t hat the re leased soul at tains the con di tioned as pect of Brah man. {M{VV_moU VXm_H $dm{X `mSw>bmo{_& Chitit anmatrena t adatmakatv adity audulom ih IV.4.6 (539) (The rele ased sou l exists) solely as pure consciousne ss or Intelligence, that b eing its tru e nature or e ssence; thus Audulomi ( thinks). Chitit anmatrena: solely as pure consciousness (Tanmatrena: solely); Tadatmakatv at: that being it s true nature or essence; Iti: thus, so; Audulomih: Audulomi (thi nks). The view of sage Audul omi is st ated in this con nec tion. This Su tra gives an other view about t he st ate of eman ci pa tion. This is the view of the sage Audulomi. Audulomi says t hat it is t he reali sa tion of t he soul s es sen tial na ture as pure Chait anya (knowl - edge, con scious ness or in tel li gence). The soul is solely of t he na ture of Pure Con scious ness. It ex ists as such in the stat e of re lease. This con clu sion will also agree with other scrip tural tex ts such as Bri. Up. IV .5.13: Thus this Self has nei ther in side nor out side, but is al to gether a mass of knowl edge. Al though the t ext enu mer ates dif fer ent qual i ties such as free - dom from sin, et c., these qual i ties rest only on f an ci ful con cep tions due to dif fer ence of words; be cause what the text in ti mates is only ab - sence in gen eral of all qual i ties such as sin and the rest. Ed_`w n`mgmV ny d^mdmX{ damoY ~mXam`U& Evamapy upanyasat purvabhav adavi rodham baadaray anah IV.4.7 (540)BRAHMA SU TRAS 528 Thus als o, on acc ount of the existence of the forme r qua lities admitted owing to refe rence and so o n, the re is no contradict ion (betwee n the two); (so thinks) Baadaray ana. Evam: thus; Api: even; Upanyasat: on account of reference; Purv abhavat: owing to att ribution of properti es mentioned before; Avirodham: there is no contradiction; Baadaray anah: Baadarayana (thinks). The au thors own view is now st ated. Baadarayana rec on ciles both and says that t he af fir ma tion of the di vine at trib utes of Om ni science and Om nip o tence is from the point of v iew of God s na ture when the soul is bound, while t he af fir - ma tion of t he soul s na ture as pure knowl edge is from the point of view of it s re leased st ate. Al though it is ad mit ted that in tel li gence con sti tutes the t rue na - ture of the S elf, also t he for mer na ture, i. e., lordly power like that of Brah man, which is in ti mated by ref er ence and the rest is with a view to the world of ap pear ances not re jected. Hence there is no con tra dic - tion. Thi s is the opin ion of the t eacher Baadarayana. Sankalp adhikaranam : Topic 4 (Sutras 8-9) The soul which has att ained the Saguna B rahman effect s its desire by mere will. g>nmXo d Vw VN >Vo& Sankalp adev a tu t acchruteh IV.4.8 (541) But by mere wil l (the libera ted souls a ttain t heir pur pose), because scriptures say so. Sankalp at: by the ex ercise of will; Eva: only; Tu: but; Tat-sruteh : because Sruti says so. The pow ers and priv i leges which a lib er ated soul ac quires are stated here. In the med i ta tion on Brah man within the heart we read as fol - lows: If he de sires the world of the fa thers (Pitriloka) by his mere will they come t o him (Chh. Up. VI II.2.1). A doubt here arises whether the will alone is the cause to get the re sult, or the will com bined with some other op er a tive cause. The Purvap akshin holds that al though scrip ture says by his mere will some other cause must be sup posed to co op er ate as in or - di nary life. Be cause, as in or di nary ex pe ri ence the meet ing with one s fa ther is caused by one s will, and in ad di tion by t he act of go ing and so on, so it will be with t he case of the lib er ated soul also. This Su tra says that by mere will the re sult co mes, be cause the Sruti so de clares. If any other cause were re quired, the di rect scrip - tural st ate ment s by his will only would thereby be con tra dicted.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 4 529 The will of t he lib er ated soul is dif fer ent from t he will of or di nary men. It has the power of pro duc ing re sults with out any op er a tive cause. AV Ed MmZ `m{Yn{ V& Ata eva chanany adhip atih IV.4.9 (542) And for th is very same reason (the rele ased sou l is) wit hout anothe r Lord. Ata ev a: for the very reason, therefore, so; Cha: and; Anany adhip atih: without any other Lord. The pre vi ous topic is con tin ued. For the very same rea son, i.e., ow ing to the f act of the will of the re leased per son be ing all-pow er ful, he who knows has no other Lord over him self. Be cause not even an or di nary per son when form ing wishes, will, if he can help i t, wish him self to be sub ject to an other mas ter. Even in this world no one could will ingly hav e mas ter to lord over him. S crip ture also de clares that a re leased soul is mas ter of him self. For them t here is free dom from all worlds (Chh. Up. VIII.1.6) . Abhav adhikaranam : Topic 5 (Sutras 10-14) A liberated soul who has att ained Brahm aloka can exist with or without a body according to his liking. A^md ~mX[aamh od_ & Abhav am baadari raha hy evam IV.4.10 (543) There is abse nce (of body and organs, in the case of the liberated souls) (asserts) Baadari, for thus script ure says. Abhavam: absence (of body and organs); Baadarih: the sage Baadari (assert s); Aha: (the Sruti) says; Hi: because; Evam: thus. There fol lows a dis cus sion whether the lib er ated soul pos - sesses a body or not. The p as sage By his mere will the f a thers rise shows that the lib er ated soul pos sesses a mind, whereby he wills. A doubt arises whether he pos sesses a body and the or gans. The teacher Baadari says that he does not, be cause the scrip - ture de clares so, And it is by means of the mind th at he sees the de - sires and re joices (Chh. Up. VIII .12.5). T his clearly in di cates that he pos sesses only the mind and not t he or gans, etc. There are nei ther body nor sense-or gans in the st ate of eman ci pa tion. ^md O {_{Z{dH$nm_ ZZmV & Bhavam jaiminirvikalp amana nat IV.4.11 (544)BRAHMA SU TRAS 530 Jaimini ( asserts that the liberated soul) po ssesse s (a body and the organs) because the scriptures de clare (the capacity on t he part of such a soul t o assume) various forms. Bhav am: existence; Jaiminih : Jaimini (ho lds); Vikalp a-mananat: because the scripture declares (the capacity to assume) divine forms. (Vikalp a: option, div ersity in manif estation; Amananat: from statement in S ruti.) A con trary view t o Su tra 10 is ad duced. The teacher Jaimini is of t he opin ion that t he lib er ated soul pos - sesses a body and or gans as well as a mind. the Chhandogya Upanishad de clares He be ing one be comes three, fiv e, seven, ni ne (Chh. Up. VII .26.2). T his text says that a lib er ated soul can as sume more than one form. This in di cates that the re leased soul pos sesses be sides the mind, a body and the or gans mXemhdX w^`{dY ~mXam`Umo @V& Dvadasahav adubhay avidham b aadaray anot ah IV.4.12 (545) For this r eason Baadarayana opines that the released person is of both kinds as in t he case o f the twelve days sacrifice. Dvadasahav at: like the twelv e days sacrifice; Ubhay avidham: (is) of both kinds; Baadaray anah: Baadarayana (thinks); Atah: so, therefore, f rom this, from this very reason. A de ci sion is given on the con flict ing views noted abov e. Baadarayana af firms from th e two fold dec la ra tions of the t wo scrip tures that a lib er ated soul who has at tained Brahmaloka can ex - ist both ways, wit h or with out a body , ac cord ing to his lik ing. It is like the twelv e days sac ri fice, which is called a Sat ra as well as an Ahina sac ri f ice. Vd^mdo g `dXwnn mo& Tanvabhav e sandhy avadup apatteh IV.4.13 (546) In the absenc e of a body ( the fulfilment of desir es is possibl e) as in dreams, as thi s is reasonable. Tanvabhav e: in the absence of a body; Sandhy avad: just as in dreams (which stand mi dway between waking and deep sleep); Upapatteh: this being reasonable. An in fer ence is drawn from the con clu sion ar rived at in S u tra 12. When there is no body or sense-or gans, the wished for ob jects are ex pe ri enced by the lib er ated souls just as em bod ied per sons ex - pe ri ence joy in dreams. ^mdo O mJX>dV& Bhav e jagradv at IV.4.14 (547)CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 4 531 When the b ody e xists (the fu lfilment of de sires is) a s in the waking stat e. Bhav e: when the body exi sts; Jagradv at: just as in the waking st ate. When there are the body and sense-or gans, the wished for ob - jects are ex pe ri enced by the lib er ated souls, just as em bod ied per - sons ex pe ri ence joys in the wak ing st ate. Pradip adhikaranam : Topic 6 (Sutras 15-16) The liberated soul which has att ained the Saguna B rahman can animat e several bodies at the same t ime. XrndX mdoeVW m {h Xe `{V& Pradip avadav esast atha hi darsay ati IV.4.15 (548) The en tering (of the released soul into several bodies) like (the multiplication of) the f lame of a lamp because th us th e scripture declares. Pradip avat: like the flam e of a lamp; Avesah: entering, animat ing; Tatha: thus, so; Hi: because; Darsay ati: the scripture shows (or declares). This Su tra shows the pos si bil ity of the lib er ated soul of si mul ta - neously pos sess ing sev eral bod ies other than his own. In Su tra 11 it has been shown that a re leased soul can as sume many bod ies at the same ti me for en joy ment. A doubt arises whether the bod ies which the re leased cre ate for them selves when ren der ing them selves three fold and so on are soul - less like wooden fig ures or an i mated by souls like t he bod ies of men. The Purvap akshin main tains that as nei ther the soul nor the mind can be di vided, t hey are joined with one body only, while other bod ies are soul less. Other bod ies are life less pup pets. En joy ment is pos si ble only in t hat body in which t he soul and mind ex ist. This Su tra re futes this v iew and says, Like the flam e of a lamp in their en ter ing i.e., just as the one flam e of a lamp can en ter into dif - fer ent wicks lighted from it , the re leased soul, al though one only , mul - ti plies it self through it s lordly power and en ters into all t hese bod ies. It cre ates bod ies with in ter nal or gans cor re spond ing to the orig i nal in - ter nal or gans and be ing lim ited by t hese di vides it self as many . There - fore, all t he cre ated bod ies have a soul which ren ders en joy ment through all of t hese bod ies pos si ble. Scrip ture de clares that in this way one may be come many . He is onefold, he is t hree fold, f ive fold, seven fold (Chh. Up. VI I.6.2). The Y oga Sastras also make the same af fir ma tion. dm``g n`moa`Vamno j_m{d H$V {h& Svapyayasamp attyor anyatarapekshamav ishkrit am hi IV.4.16 (549)BRAHMA SU TRAS 532 (The de clarati on of absence o f all cogni tion is made) having in view either of the two s tates, viz ., deep sleep and absolute union (with B rahman), for this is m ade clear (by the scrip tures). Svapyayasamp attyoh: of deep sleep and absolute union (with Brahman); Anyatarapeksham: having in v iew either of t hese two; Avishkrit am: this is made clear (by the S ruti); Hi: because. (Svapyaya: deep sleep; Anyatara: either , any of the two; Apeksham: with reference to, wit h regard to.) The range of knowl edge of the lib er ated soul is now dis cussed. The Purvap akshin holds: How can lordly power , en abling the re - leased soul to en ter into sev eral bod ies and en joy be ad mit ted if we con sider the dif fer ent scrip tural tex ts which de clare that the soul in that st ate has not any spe cific cog ni tion? e.g. , What should one know and through what? (Bri. Up. I I.4.14). But t here is not the sec ond thing sep a rate from it which it can know (Bri. Up. IV .3.30). I t be - comes like wa ter, one, wit ness and with out a sec ond (Bri. Up. IV.3.32 ). This Su tra says that t hese text s re fer ei ther to the st ate of deep sleep or to that of fi nal re lease in which the soul at tains ab so lute un ion with the Nirguna Brah man. Those p as sages on the other hand, which de scribe lordly power re fer to an al to gether dif fer ent con di tion which like the heav enly world, is an abode where knowl edge of Saguna B rah man pro duces its re sults. We have been dis cuss ing in the pre vi ous Sutras about one who has not at tained ab so lute un ion with Nirguna Brah man but only Brahmaloka. There is cog ni tion in Brahmal oka. There is en joy ment also in heaven. The di f fer ence be tween heaven and Brahmal oka is that one does not re turn to thi s world from Brahmaloka whereas one re turns to this uni verse from heaven when the re sults of his vir tu ous deeds have been ex hausted. Jagadv yaparadhikaranam : Topic 7 (Sutras 17-22) The liberated soul which has att ained Brahm aloka has all the lordly powers except the power of creation. OJX`mnadO H$aUmXg{ {hVdm& > Jagadv yaparavarjam prakar anadasannihit attvaccha IV.4.17 (550) (The libera ted soul at tains all lordly pow ers) except t he power of cre ation, etc., on account of (th e Lord being) the subject matte r (of a ll texts w here creation, e tc., are referred to) and (th e libera ted souls) not b eing m ention ed (in t hat conn ection ). Jagadv yaparavarjam: except the power of creati on, etc., Prakaranat: (on account of the Lord being) the subject mat ter,CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 4 533 because of the general topic of t he chapter; Asannihit attvat: on account of (liberated souls) not being ment ioned on account of non-proximity ; Cha: and. ( Jagat: world; Vyapara: creation etc.; Varjam: excepted.) The lim i ta tions of the re leased souls power are stat ed here. A doubt here pres ents it self whether those who through med i ta - tion on the S aguna Brah man en ter Brahmaloka pos sess un lim ited lordly power or power lim ited to some ex tent. The Purvap akshin main tains that thei r pow ers must be un lim - ited, be cause we meet with text s such as They can roam at will in all the worlds (Chh. Up. VII .25.2; VIII.1.6). He ob tains self-lord ship (Tait. S am. I. 6.2). T o him all the gods of fer wor ship (T ait. S am. I. 5.3). For him there is free dom in all worlds (Chh. Up. VII I.1.6). This Su tra says that t he lib er ated souls at tain all lordly pow ers such as Anima, ren der ing one self to atom ic size, etc., ex cept the power of cre ation, et c. Cre ation, pres er va tion and de struc tion, on t he other hand can be long to the ev er last ingly per fect Lord only . Why so? Be cause the Lord is the sub ject mat ter of all t he text s deal ing with cre - ation, et c., while the re leased souls are not men tioned at all in this con nec tion. Fur ther, this would lead t o many Isv aras. If t hey have t he power of cre ation of t he uni verse they may not be of one mi nd. There may be con flict of wills with re spect to cre ation, et c. One may de sire to cre ate, and an other to de stroy . Such con flicts can only be avoided by as sum - ing that t he wishes of one should con form to t hose of an other and from this it fol lows that all ot her souls de pend on the High est Lord. Hence the pow ers of the re leased souls are not ab so lute but lim ited and are de pend ent on the will of the Lord. `jmo nXoem{ X{V Mo m{YH $m[aH$_S>bWmoo$& Pratyakshop adesadi ti chennad hikari kamandal astho kteh IV.4.18 ( 551) If it be said th at the libera ted soul at tains abs olute power s on account of d irect te aching of the scrip tures, we say no ; becaus e the scriptures de clare that t he liberated so ul attain s Him w ho entrusts the sun, etc., with the ir offic es and abides in those spheres. Praty akshop adesat: on account of direct teaching; Iti: so, thus; Chet: if; ( Iti ch et: if it be said); Na: not; Adhikarikam andala- sthokteh: because the scripture declares that the soul att ains Him who entrust s the sun, etc., with their of fices and abodes in those spheres. ( Adhikarika: the master of a world, a world-ruler; Mandalastha: existing in spheres, i. e., those abiding in the spheres, of those entrusted wit h the special functions; Ukteh: as it is cle arly stated in Srut i.) An ob jec tion to S u tra 17 is raised and re futed.BRAHMA SU TRAS 534 This Su tra con sists of two p arts, namely an ob jec tion and it s re - ply. The ob jec tion por tion is, Pratyakshop adesat ; the re ply por tion is Nadhikarikamandalasthokteh . He be comes the Lord of him self Apnoti svarajyam (Tait. Up. I.6). F rom the di rect teach ing of the S ruti the P urvap akshin main tains that t he lim ited soul at tains ab so lute pow ers. This pres ent Su tra re futes this and says t hat his pow ers de pend on the Lord, be cause the text cited fur ther on says, He at tains the Lord of the mind, the Lord who dwells in spheres like the sun, etc., and en trusts the sun, etc., with of fices. There fore, it is quite clear from thi s lat ter part of the t ext that the lib er ated soul ob tains it s pow ers from the Lord and de pends on Him. Hence it s pow ers are not un lim ited. He at tains pow ers as the gif t of the Su preme Lord who is in the sun, etc., and who be stows the func - tion of con trol ling the orb of t he sun, on the sun-god. {dH$mamd{V M VWm {h pW{V_mh& Vikarav arti cha t atha hi sthitim aha IV.4.19 (552) And (t here is a f orm of the Supr eme Lord) w hich is beyond a ll created things (because, so the scripture de clares) (His) existence (in a tw o-fold form unmani fest and manif est). Vikarav arti: which is beyond all ef fected things, becomes incapabl e of transformat ion by birth, decay , death, etc.; Cha: and; Tatha: so; Hi: because; Sthitim: status, condition, existence; Aha: (Sruti) declares. The de scrip tion of t he st a tus of the li b er ated soul is con tin ued. Ac cord ing to scrip ture, there is also an in ter nal form of t he Su - preme Lord, which does not abide in ef fects. He is not only t he rul ing soul of the spheres of the sun and so on which lie within t he sphere of what is ef fected. The text de clares this abid ing in a two-fold f orm as fol lows: Such is the great ness of it; greater t han that is the P urusha; one foot of Him is all be ings; His other three feet are what is im mor tal in heaven (Chh. Up. II I.12.6). This text in ti mates that t he High est Lord abides in two forms, t he tran scen den t al and the rel a tive. He who med i tates on the Lord in His rel a tive as pect does not at - tain the tran scen den tal as pect. He who wor ships the Lord as hav ing form can not at tain the form less Brah man, be cause of the law of pro - por tion of f ruit to de sire. The Sruti de clares As one med i tates upon That, so he be comes. As the medit ator on the rel a tive as pects of the Lord is un able to com pre hend it full y, he at tains only lim ited pow ers and not un lim ited pow ers like the Lord Him self.CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 4 535 Xe`V d ` jmZw_mZo& Darsay ataschaiv am praty akshanumane IV.4.20 (553) And t hus perc eption a nd in ference sh ow. Darsay atah: they bot h show; Cha: and; Evam: thus; Praty aksha-anumane: Pratyaksha and Anumana , perception and inference. This Su tra de clares that the tran scen den tal as pect of the Lord is es tab lished by both t he Sruti and S mriti. S ruti and Smrit i both de clare that t he high est light does not abi de within ef fected thing, The sun does not shine there, nor the m oon and the st ars, nor these lightnings and much less this fire (Mun. Up. I I.2.10). The sun does not il lu mine it, nor t he moon, nor fire (Bhagav ad Git a, XV .6). ^moJ_mgm`{b m& Bhogamatrasamy alingacch a IV.4.21 (554) And because of t he indi cations (i n the script ures) of equalit y (of the libe rated so ul wi th the Lord ) onl y with re spect to enjoyment. Bhogamatra: with respect to enjoym ent only; Samy a: equality ; Lingat: from the indicat ion of Srut i; Cha: also, and. That the pow ers of the lib er ated soul are not un lim ited is also known from the in di ca tion in the S ruti that the equal ity of these souls with the Lord is only wit h re gard to en joy ment and not wit h re spect to cre ation, etc. As all be ings hon our that De ity, so do all be ings hon our him who knows that (Bri. Up. I. 5.20). Through it he at tains iden tity with the De ity, or lives in t he same world with it (Bri. Up. I.5.23). All these t exts de scribe equal ity onl y with re gard to en joy ment. They do not m en tion any thing with ref er ence to cre ation, et c. AZmd {m e XmXZmd {m e XmV& Anavrittih sabdadanav rittih sabdat IV.4.22 (555) (There is) no retu rn (for th ese liberated souls), on a ccount o f the scrip tural state ment (to th at effect). Anav rittih: no return; Sabdat: on account of the scriptural st atement. The dis cus sion on the priv i leges of the lib er ated soul is con - cluded here. The Purvap akshin main tains: If t he pow ers of the lib er ated souls are lim ited, t hen they t oo will come to an end like all l im ited mor tal be - ings. There fore, the l ib er ated souls will have t o re turn to thi s world from Brahmaloka. This Su tra re futes this and says t hat those who go to Brahmaloka by t he path of t he gods do not re turn from there. Be cause BRAHMA SU TRAS 536 scrip tural p as sages teach that they do not so re turn. Go ing up by that way, one reaches im mor tal ity (Chh. Up. V III.6.6). Those who pro - ceed on that p ath do not re turn to the l ife of man (Chh. Up. IV.15.6). He reaches the world of Brah man and does not re turn (Chh. Up. VII.15.1). They no more re turn to thi s world (Bri. Up. VI. 2.15). The rep e ti tion of t he words No re turn, etc., in di cates that the book is fin ished. Thus ends the Fourth Pada ( Sec tion 4) of the Four th Chap ter (Adhy aya IV) of the Brahma Sutras or the V edant a Phi los o phy of Sri Baadaray ana or Sri Veda-V yasa or Sri Krish na-Dv aipayana, the A vatara of Lord Sri Hari. May His bless ings be upon y ou all. HARI OM T AT SAT Sri Sadguru Param atman e Nam ah Om Sri V edavyasaya Nam ah Om Purnamadah Purnamidam P urnat Purnamudachyate, Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamevavasishyat e. Om Santi h Santih Santih!CHAPT ER IVS ECTION 4 537 INDEX To Im por tant T op ics dis cussed in the Brahma Sutras Adhikari f or Know l edge, 456 Air orig i nates f rom Et her, 246 Akasa of Chh. Up. 1. 9 is Brah man, 39, 91 Aja of Sv et. Up. does not mean Pradhana, 121 Akshara i s Brah man, 84 Ashrama D harma to be fol lowed by even those not de sir ous of Mok sha, 454 At man is dis tinct from t he body, 418 At man to be seen ( Bri. U p. II.4.5) is B rah man, 133 Avyakt a of Kat ha Up. does not re fer to Sankhya T attva, 116 Brah manabi d ing with the el e ment is t he cre ative prin ci ple, 250 Births and deaths are not of soul, 254 Brah man and in di vid ual soul re side in the hear t, 59 Brah mancause of sun, moon, et c., 130 ,,cre ates no evil , 166 ,,Def i ni tion, 13 ,,ef fi cient and ma te ri al cause of the world, 138, 149, 171 ,,en quiry of, 12,,first cause, 21, 126 ,,full of bl iss, 3 0 ,,has no or i gin, 246 ,,is abode of eart h and heaven, 78 ,,is equipped w ith full pow ers, 175 ,,is high est ob ject of med i ta tion, 86 ,,is the un seen, 67 ,,is one w ith out a sec ond, 359 ,,its at trib utes to be com bined in med i ta tion, 381 ,,its na ture, 344 ,,Light of li ghts, 94 ,,nei ther par tial nor cruel, 178 ,,the In ner Ruler , 65 ,,way of reali sa tion, 16 Bhuma is Br ah man, 82 Char ac ter is tics of the soul which has at tained Nirguna Brah man, 527 Child-like s tate, 466 Cre ationt he fi nal end of, 176 Dahara is Br ah man, 87 Devas en ti tled to s tudy of Vedas and med i ta tion, 97 Dis so lu t ionpro ces s of 252, 253 539 BRAHMA SU TRAS 540 Earth is cre ated fr om w a ter, 249 Eater is Brah man, 58 Ether is not eter nal, 237 Ex pi a tion for vi o lat ing the Sannyasa or der, 460 Fate of souls af ter deat h who are not en ti tled to go t o Chandraloka, 317 Five fold-five of Bri . Up. IV .4.17 does not re fer to Sankhyan cat e go ries , 124 Food re stric tions can be gi ven up only w hen life is in dan ger, 451 Good and evil deeds of a man of Know l edge are shared by his friends and en e mies, 393, 395 In di vid ual soul de pend ent on the Lord, 274 In di vid ual soul is agent when lim ited by ad juncts, 273 In di vid ual soulna tur e of, 257 In di vid ual soul not pro duced but eter nal, 255 In di vid ual souls re la tion s hip to Brah man, 276 In di vid ual soulsiz e of, 259 Know er of Br ah man merges in Brah man at deat h, 490 Know er of Saguna B rah man de parts through Sus humna Nadi at death, 503 Know er of Saguna B rah man goes to Br ahmaloka, 505 Know er of Saguna B rah man goes to Brahmalok a even thoughhe dies in Dakshinayana, 505 Know er of Saguna B rah man goes along the path of Devayana, 397, 398 Know l edge of Brah man frees one from al l sins past and fu ture, 485, 486 Know l edgeits orig i na tion, 467, 489 Lib er ated soul can an i mate sev eral bod ies at once, 532 Lib er ated soul man i fests its es sen tial na ture, 525 Lib er ated soul re mains inseparable from S u preme Soul, 527 Lib er ated soul w ho has at tained Brahmaloka can re main with or with out body , 530 Lib er ated soul w ho has at tained Brahmaloka has all lordly pow ers, 533 Light is Br ah man, 41, 109 Mahat of Katha Up. does not re fer to Sankhya T attva, 116 Manomaya is Brah man, 52 Med i ta tions in sac ri f i cial acts, 425, 462 Med i ta tion is en joined even for a Muni, 464, 483 Med i ta tion, its tech nique and rules, 477, 478, 479, 480, 481, 483 Med i ta tion es sen tial till know l edge is at tained, 474 Merg ing of func tions of or gans at death, 494 Mode of de par ture at death, 498 INDEX 541 Namarupa cre ation of t he Lord and not of t he Jiva, 302 Na ture of Mukti, 468 Na ture of swoon, 342 Neti-Net i ex plained, 351 Nityakarmas en joined in V edas should not be giv en up, 488 Om and Udgit ha, 380 Path t o Brahmalok a, 51 1, 512, 513, 514, 516 Per fected souls may take birth to ful fil the di vine mis sion, 399 Per son in the eye is Brah man, 61 Prana dis tinct from ai r and senses, 292 Prana has als o an or i gin from Brah man, 291 Prana is Br ah man, 40, 45, 108 Prana is m erged in Jiva, 496 Prana is m in ute, 296 Prana of a k nower of Br ah man does not de part, 500, 502 Prana V idyaUnity of, 381 Prarabdha not de stroyed by know l edge, 487 Purusha is of the s ize of t he thumb, 95 Re cip ro cal med i ta tion, 405 Rec on cil i a t ion of Vidyas, 402, 403, 406, 408, 41 1, 412 Ref u ta tion of Atomic the ory , 199 Ref u ta tion of Bauddha Ide al ists, 218 Ref u ta tion of Bauddha Re al ists, 205 Ref u ta tion of Gautama and Kanada, 158Ref u ta tion of Jaina doc trine, 223 Ref u ta tion of Pancharat ra, 230 Ref u ta tion of Pasupat a, 226 Ref u ta tion of Sankhyan the ory , 189 Ref u ta tion of Vaiseshika, 197 Ref u ta tion of Yoga, 148 Re turn of soul from deep sleep, 340 Saguna Brah man in cre ation, 180 Sannyasa is pre scribed in scrip t ures, 443 Sannyasin can not re vert bac k to for mer stages of lif e, 459 Self con sist ing of know l edge is Brah man, 110 Self is hi gher than ev ery thing, 384 Self is S u preme, 385 Senses are el even, 289 Senses are in de pend ent prin ci ples, 300 Senses are m in ute, 291 Senses have t heir or i gin from Brah man, 286 Senses not func tions of Prana, 300 So cial boy cott by so ci ety of a Naishthik a Brahmachar in fail ing to keep up cel i bacy, 462 Soul s de scent f rom Chandraloka, 323 Soul de scend ing from heaven, 313 Soul s en try into plants, 324 Soul in deep sleep, 337 Soul in dream s tate, 332 Soul s time f or de scent t o the earth, 323 Soultr ans mi gra t ion of, 307 BRAHMA SU TRAS 542 Soul at tain ing Saguna Brah man ef fects de sires by mere w ill, 529 Sto ries in Upanishads eulo gise the Vidyas t aught in them , 447 Sudras el i gi bil ity to study of Vedas, 105 Un con nected Mantras in cer tain Up anishads do not be long to Brahm a-Vidya, 392Upasanas, 420, 422, 423, 424 Vaisvanara is Brah man, 69 Vidyastheir con sti t u tion, 373 Vidyastheir place in med i ta tion, 377, 387, 445 Wa ter is pr o duced from fire, 249 Worksm eans to know l edge, 449 World is non-dif fer ent fr om Brah man, 160 |
ESOTERIC TEACHINGS OF THE TIBETAN TANTRA INCLUDING SEVEN INITIATION RITUALS AND THE SIX YOGAS OF NROP IN TSONG -KHA -PA'S COMMENTARY, TRANSLATED BY CHANG CHEN CHI, FORMER LECTURER AT THE KONG -KA LAMASERY, MEINYA, EAST TIBET EDITED BY C. A. MUSES 1961 Esoteric Teachings of the Tibetan Tantra by C.A. Muss. This edition was created and published by Global Grey GlobalGrey 2018 globalgreyebooks.com CONTENTS PART 1: SEVEN INITIATION RITUALS OF THE TIBETAN TANTRA Chapter One. The Initiation Ritual Of The Fierce Guru Chapter Two. The In itiation Ritual Of The Fierce Guru With Phurba Chapter Three. The Initiation Ritual Of The All -Merciful One Chapter Four The Initiation Ritual Of Hayagriva Buddha The Green Rta - Mgrin's* Initiation Ceremony From The Treasury Of Percipience Chapter Five. The Initiation Ritual Of The Red Gshin -Rje* Chapter Six. The Superb Initiation Ritual Of Ahm Gtsug* Vajrap ni Chapter Seven. A Compendium Of The Initiation Rituals Of Performance Or All -Accomplishing Wisdom Presided Over By Amoghasiddhi* PART 2. THE SIX YOGAS OF NAROPA Prologu e Chapter One. Introduction Chapter Two. Special Preparations Chapter Three. The Arising And Perfecting Yoga Chapter Four. The Steps Of Practice In The Path Chapter Five. The Art Of Gtum -Mo Or Heat Yoga Chapter Six. The Practice Of The Illusory Body Or Dream Yoga, Depending On Foregoing Heat Yoga Chapter Seven. On The Bardo Realm Chapter Eight. The Yoga Of The Light Chapter Nine. The Transformation Yoga Chapter Ten. How To Improve The Practice In The Path Chapter Eleven. Tsong Khopa's Summary Of Sources Epilogue APPENDIX: THE VOW OF MAHAMUDRA Translator's Introduction The Vow Of Mahamudra FRONTISPIECE: Rare Tibetan tanka, now one of the last of its kind, acquired near the Indo- Tibetan Border by the editor in 1956. PART 1: SEVEN INITIATION RITUALS OF THE TIBETAN TANTRA 1 CHAPTER ONE. THE INITIATION RITUAL OF THE FIERCE GURU From the Treasury of Consciousness1 All the practice of the Initiation of the Fierce Guru (Padmasambhava) can b e summarized into three performances. of the Heavenly Dharma, and among the profound Teachings of the Whisper Succession, this is the Initiation of the Fierce Guru, the most secret of the secret, the Four Inner Teachings condensed in one initiation ritual. (The preparations for the initiation by the guru:) Instantaneously one's self becomes the Fierce Guru, Red in color, with one face and two arms. In his right hand, he holds a vajra, And in his left, he holds a scorpion2 At the five parts of his body . 3 Upon the crown of his head there is a Garuda bird, the king of all creatures. stand the five deities in armor. His right arm embraces the Great Red Mother, And he sits on the cushion of the Sun- Lotus, which is covered with the corpse of a demon. 1 The treasures of Wisdom recorded in universal consciousness, to which access can be had by enlightened beings such as the original author of these texts, Mi -rgyur-rdor -rje.Ed . 2 The scorpion represents both sin and the demonic forces which tried to prevent Padmasambhava from introducing the teachings of the true Dharma into Tibet. As the Fierce Guru grasping the scorpion, Padmasambhava manifests his power and triumph over both the immoral and irrational forces of the universe. 3 The five Chakras or psychic centers in the human body. 2 From the three places 4 After they have shone on all sentient beings and blessed them, of the Father and Mother Buddha Shine forth infinite rays of light, They invite the Wisdom Buddha to come down from above, And all merge with him; thus the guru attains the Initiation. O Ah Tsiga Nitsi Namobigawadi 5 The Front Arising Buddha [so named because arising through the power of the Ritual Vase in front of the candidate], the Fierce Guru, red in color, H Au H Pai! Has one face and two arms. In his right hand is the vajra, in his left the scorpion. All the wrathful adornments are complete on him. At the five places are fixed five Skull -Rosary Holders of the Fierce Buddha 6 And in his heart -center stand the five gods with armor brig ht. ; On the top of his head stands a Garuda bird, the king of all creatures. In his arms, he holds the Red Mother. He is the only director of the four inheritances 7 In all the corners and directions stand the ten wrathful ones. , the wrathful one. In the f our directions are manifest the Four Great Kings. In his heart -center appears a thunderbolt -grasping Buddha, Also holding the Heavenly -Iron -Made wheel of many spokes. 4 The psychic centers in the forehead, throat, and he art. 5 "In the name of the Lord." This expression, in varying states of orthographical corruption, occurs throughout the mantric liturgies of the MS. Ed. 6 Another name for the Fierce Guru. 7 The reference is not clear but probably refers to the four linea ges of Buddhism: the Sravakayana, teachings for Gotama Buddha's direct disciples; Pratekayana, for those who realize the truths of Buddhism intuitively through their own efforts; Bodhisattva teachings, for those aspiring to Buddhahood; Tantricism, for those following the esoteric doctrines. 3 From the center of the wheel shines the red word Hm . The main incantation encircles the Hm word. The seeds of the retinue deities, together with the red Hm word, Radiate the great beams of light which invite the initiation Buddhas to descend. For this one should render offerings, obeisance, and praise. O Ah Tsi Ne Tsi Name Babawadi H Ah Pai, Ba- tsa H Yauga H ! (And then repeat the foregoing prayer once more.) The Front Arising Buddha [A gap in the manuscript here.] All the grace and blessing of the Buddhas are embodied in the Front Vase [which helps concentrate the power of the Gtor- ma as a Leyden- jar type of receptacle]. O Ah H Ahtsi Gani Gana moBagawadi H Pai. Au H Pai The Gtor- ma instantaneously becomes the Fierce Guru, With three faces and six arms. The right face is white, the left blue. Beneath is the curved knife, t he skull and blood. The vajra and the scorpion are in the two lower arms; In his hands, he also holds the sword and the stick. His body glows red as the burning flame. The Six Ornaments adorn him. He stretches one foot and bends the other; The two feet are spread wide apart. 4 The five Lotus- born deities remain at the five places. His left arm hugs the Blue Mother- Buddha. From her heart the seed -word radiates beams of light, Through which the Wisdom Buddha is invited to descend. O Ah H Hre Ahtsi Nitsi Gana mobagawadi H H Pai Ah H H Pai. Ba-tsa H Yagha H Ragsha H . (Toward the Front Vase and Gtor -ma one should practice the initiation incantation, repeating as aforesaid. Perform the eight offerings 8 O Ah H Guru Dasasariwa Ra Ahmarda Banemta Gagta Kahe Ah Gm .) H! Subdue all beings in the Three Kingdoms. He is the Vajra, Victor over female demons, the Bhagavad, Standing in a black -red blazing flame. He has three eyes, wide open, angry! His two feet, far apart as in running, trample the corpse of the female demon; To the scorpion holder, the Fierce Guru, I render obeisance and praise. (Then the disciples perform the Cleansing Ritual 9 Now, I am going to relate to you a brief history of this initiation. In the Pure Land of Aog-min resided the Buddha All- Perfect and the Mandala Offering.) 10 8 Eight Offerings: incense for burning; powdered incense for rubbing the body; lights (candles); fruits; flowers; food; music; and water. with the five Divisional Buddhas and infinite Bodhisattvas encircling him. Before Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Buddha All -Perfect urged Buddha Amida to preach the Tantra of the Fierce Guru, called the Origin of the Light , and to preach 9 Cleansing Ritual: a special incantation which is used to purify the mandala. 10 Buddha All -Perfect; a reference to the Adi Buddha who, according to a tradition of the Red School, was the first human being to become enlightened (here, tradition diverges from the orthodox view of the Adi Buddha). 5 also the Tantra of Expelling the Spirit of the Prideful One . Immediately all the devils of disease, non-men demons, and MaSran demons became fiercely angry. They raised the Eight -Divisional Demonic Forces as a sweeping storm. Thereupon Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara went before the Lotus- Born Guru (Padmasambhava) and urged him, saying: "This is the time to subdue the Eight Divisions of Demons in this world. This is the time for you the Fierce Guru to display your miracle powers." Thereupon the Lotus- Born transformed himself into the body of the Fierce Guru. (He cried:) "ri! This is the roaring voice of the Great Powerful One! I now conquer you, the Eight -Divisional Demons!" [i.e. the demons of the eight divisions of space.] (By his saying this all demons were conquered.) "After the subjugation Samaya H Pai! " (Thus the demons were commanded to observe the precepts.) "I am the combined body of all Buddhas, the Wrathful One! Who else is more powerf ul than I? All the potentialities of the Tathagatas converge in me. I am the most powerful of the forceful ones. What I desire is the hearts of the Eight -Divisional Demons! What I like to eat and drink is their flesh and blood!" With fiery anger he wrenched out the hearts of all the Eight -Divisional Demons, and crushed them on the plain. Afterward he revived them and said: "When hungry I am the being who eats the flesh of the male demons. When thirsty, I drink the blood of the she -demons. When active, I tear the double- sexed demons to pieces." After saying this, he ate all the hearts of the Eight Divisional Demons who had committed sinful deeds. At the time of eclipse, he collected all the sinful flesh and blood of the demons into a huge heap as a sacrificial food to 6 benefit the scorpions11 and ate them all. Thereupon, the Eight -Divisional Demons called for help and begged for forgiveness. Then he agreed that at every eclipse time he would provide blood and flesh to the Eight -Divisional demons in the Three Regions, and thereby prohibited them from killing sentient beings. In order to prevent them from further slaughter, he gave them the Krum Ga 12 Thereupon, all demons assembled together to witness the flesh -adornment. Those who had broken the rules were sent as sacrificial food to the scorpions. The offenders all cried and begged for mercy, but to no avail. They became frenzied and howled loudly; but they had no choice but to walk toward their destiny. The Eight -Divisional Demons then brought the moonlight, presented it to the fire by holding Dagiratsa fast, and then offered it to the Krum -Ga Principal Mandala as sacrificial food to the assembly , the Chief Mandala's food [Note the personification of the mandala]. Whoever among the demons should break the rules, he declared, would be punished and offered as sacrificial food to the numerous scorpions. 13 At the Four Relative Times . 14 "Who has committed sinful deeds? Who has afflicted the sentient beings? Who has troubled the servants of Buddhist temples? Who has offended the precepts? Who has violated my rules?" , the Eight -Divisional Demons all assembled together by order of the Wrathful One. The Wrathful One then asked: He then looked at the faces of the demons; those who had cheated him, he tore apart. He uttered the Main Incantation 15 of Hayagriva16 11 Scorpions; swallowers of evil. and wielded his mental power of Thunderbolt Holder (Vajrahetu) to cut the demons into pieces and to put all the demons who had damaged the Buddhist religion 12 Krum -ka: transcendental sacrificial food. 13 This is an enigmatic statement; the text is not explicit. 14 The four seasons comprise the greater circle or wheel of time, while the divisions of sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight form the lesser wheel. The meaning and observances connected with these times i4 highly important in the practice of Tantricism. 15 Before beginning any Tantric practice, it is customary to recite incantations to dispel any untoward influences. 16 The Tibetan transliterates the Sanskrit v as w, since the Tibetan alphabet does not possess a v. We have reinserted y as the correct spelling of this important name. Ed.] 7 into the Fire Sacrifice as an offering to be burned. The troublemakers and those who had impeded the cause of Dharma these he made living sacrificial food for the scorpions. As for all those who afflicted the servants of the temple, he used his Wheel to cut them up and his weapons to chop them into pieces. Al l the sinful demons who had harmed sentient beings became food for the scorpions. Thus he subdued all the Eight Divisions of Demons. He bound them to the precepts, admonished them not to harm any Buddhist and not to incite any kind of trouble. He also orde red them to assist the servants of the temples: on the tenth of every month, they should come before the Fierce Guru and attend the Congregation of the Sacred Offering 17 The Fierce Guru then said: , help to set in motion the Wheel of Dharma; and for the benefit of sentient beings they should fight against those demons who make harm. "Oh! you pitiful demons! Now, I safeguard you. Though you are the lokas of Ghost, Eventually you will all become the Great Blissful Body; You will all become the perfect Buddha." This is stated in the Tantra of the Blood -Drinking Wrathful One , Drag -bo- grag -atung -rol-bah -rgyud . Though there are many different Treasures [sacred or revealed books] and lineages of the teaching of the Fierce Guru, this one belongs to the Whisper Succession of the Heavenly Dharma Treasury. As said in the Sutra of the Fountain of the Noble Dharma: "The Bodhisattvas, the perfect Bodhisattvas, are able to procure abundant hidden teachings from the walls, woods, caves, and from Heaven Circles, even at a time when Buddha is no longer in the world." The Incarnation of Buddha [in the Tibetan youth] Mi -gyur -rdo- rje was a demon- subduer; this was prophesied in many Treasury Dharmas. When he was thirteen years old, in the Black month of the Fowl year, he saw t he 17 Congregation of the Sacred Offering: the 10th of the month, according to the lunar calendar, is considered a particularly auspicious time for those practicing Tantric yoga to congregate, make offerings to the angels and deities, and receive the grace -waves necessary for success in their practices. 8 Fierce Guru appear in the forest many times. The Fierce Guru himself conferred the Tantra instructions and practice, together with the various teachings necessary to the Incarnation of Buddha. Therefore this teaching has the advantage of being a near -succession one18 and of possessing an unusual benevolent power (grace). In comparison with other teachings, the teaching of the Fierce Guru is an easier and faster way to attain the Siddhis (yogic accomplishments) and Signs 19 "This teaching is greater than others; the Accomplishments and Signs are also greater. If one practices this teaching for seven days, no doubt he will attain both the Common and Superior Accomplishments , as said in the Tantra of the Fierce Act (Drag -bo prang -lashi -rgyud): 20 If one rec ites ten thousand times the Main Incantations' Inner Narration, he will be immune from sickness; if one recites it only one hundred times, he will subdue the Ghost ." 21 It is also stated in this same Tantra: ; if one recites it two hundred thousand times, he will become a gem -like Brgyal -bseng , enl ightened Master. For those well -gifted ones, only one hundred recitations will bring all the Eight Kinds of Demons to bow before them; they shall wear the war dress and subjugate all evils; they shall have faith and practice devotions continually. These va rious accomplishments are pledged as stated in the aforementioned Tantra. "One who practices this teaching shall attain both Common and Super - Accomplishments. He shall become a Gem- like person as Padmasambhava." In th e Fierce Instruction, Padmasambhava said: "If one continuously recites the incantation, his sins will gradually be cleansed and his obstacles removed; he shall never separate from his Guru; 18 An important Tantric tradition is that an esoteric teaching should have a "warm" or "close" succession to be most effective. If the teaching is handled too long by humans it becomes "cold" losing its initial strength to transmit power. This particular initiation ritual was revealed to the incarnation lama, Mi-rgyur-rdo -rje. A close disciple of his recorded it sometime later. 19 Evidence of mystical development. 20 Common = worldly; Superior = transcendental. See footnote 28, Chapter IV. 21 According to Tibetan traditions, ghosts and demons manifest through the negative (Yin) aspect of univer sal forces while human beings belong to the positive (Yang) aspect of such forces. For this reason, ghosts and demons are much more likely to be seen in Tibet and other little -populated regions where their manifestation is not blotted out by the positive auras from large aggregations of human beings. 9 the Buddhas in the Three Times will assemble around him like the gathering clouds; the devas and angels will all circle around him. His power will be great enough to spellbind the ghosts and demons; the Eight Kinds of Demons will serve him as slaves; the ocean -like Guards of Dharma (Samaya - Holders) will give him the knowledge of things to come, and also will instruct him and preach to him. They will also tell him both the good and bad outcomes. All the ghosts and spirits will become his messengers. He can destroy his enemies and conquer hindrances if he wishes. With one thought he can subjugate heretics. His accomplishments are beyond measure and words. In the future life he will be born in the Pure Land of Ao-rgyng (the Pure Land of Padmasambhava). The Father and Mother Guru will protect him as their own son. The merits of this teaching are indeed inconceivable. As from all directions the clouds gather, the rain of accomplishments will fall upon him. Is there any teaching more profound than this? To subjugate the enemy, this is the sharpest; to annihilate obstacles, this is the quickest. It is the nearest way to accomplishments; the precepts are easier. The preparations for offering are simple, the power is great, and the merits are many. "If one possesses this treasure, the devas and ghosts will offer him their lives and hearts. He will influence and charm people; his merits 22 will become great; prosperity and good omens always follow him; all his wishes will be granted; the signs of Siddhis and performance 23 will come fast; his power will be as great as Herugas24 , great enough to subdue the male and female spirits. The accomplishment is easier and the incantation more effective. There is no question about the profoundness of this teaching; even those evil -possessed monks who practice this teaching will [overcome themselves and attain the accomplishment of Mahamudra25 22 All virtues and fortunes. . Such a profound teaching one can hardly find anywhere else. If you do not believe what I say, you may look for yourself. 23 Miracle powers. 24 Tantric Buddhas. 25 Mahamudra (The great Symbol): A Tibetan teaching, analogous to Chinese Zen, which seeks enlightenment directly through realization of the "pure essence of mind." [A more correct meaning, without the intellectualistic flavor of "mind" would be given by "pure essence of consciousness."] 10 "Hard it is to find an easy yet powerful teaching like this! Hard it is to find an immac ulate teaching like this! Hard it is to find a teaching without a defect; one which can bestow the transcendental accomplishments and bring forth the great powers. This teaching is the treasury of both the mundane and transcendental accomplishments; it is a teaching for those easy- going, leisure- pursuing seekers who are lovers of pleasure. It is a teaching and practice for lustful seekers; and also for those who have compassion and yearnings for serving sentient beings; for those who want to practice Dharma as well as for those who want power. It is a helpful teaching for lustful and fame -desiring monks to practice; it is also a teaching for faithful and sincere disciples; for congregation-attendants; for unrestrained and passionate yogis to practice; a helpful teaching for credulous and enemy - despising yogis to practice; and also for those people you should consider as brothers in Dharma, the protectors of the Treasury. "Yet you should spread this teaching with great caution. It should be kept secret from bo th sinful and Dam Med 26 persons; from sophisticated and foulmouthed persons. This teaching should not be given to skeptical and defamatory persons; it should not be bestowed upon heretical and insincere persons. It should not be given to the thief of Dharma or to those disciples who do not observe the precepts. Keeping this sacred teaching from such persons is a rule you should observe. You should not be idle but should cooperate with your brothers in the Vajrayana27 Now, to obtain this profound and solemn initiation, you disciples should follow me in reciting the following prayers three times: ." So the Guru says. "I concentrate my mind and sincerely pray to the Three Pillars28 26 Oath-breakers. and all Buddhas. I pray to the Fierce Guru with his retinues. I pray that you grant me the profound initiation." 27 The Tantric (esoteric) Brotherhood, analogous to the Sangha (exoteric) Brotherhood of general Buddhism. 28 Tibetan Rtsa -wa-gsums; can be translated as Three Pillars or Three Foundations. (1) Foundation of Blessing, from one's personal Guru. (2) Foundation of Accomplishment, from practicing the yoga of a tutelary deity. (3) Foundation of Career, through appeals for guardianship and protection in wordly affairs from special "guardian deities" such as Mahakala. 11 Now follow me in reciting the Take -in-Refuge Prayer together with the Vows of Bodhisattva in front of the Fierce Guru and all Buddhas. "I take refuge in the Three Precious Ones; I confess all my sins and evil deeds. I offe r my sympathetic joy for all virtues of sentient beings. I pray the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to protect me and remember me. From now until the day of my attainment of Buddhahood, I submit myself completely to the care of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. For the sake of benefiting self and others, I now take the Vow of Bodhisattva. As a servant I render my service to all sentient beings; For the good of all beings I hope the day of Enlightenment will come soon!" (Recite this prayer three times and use the holy grass of the vase to bless the disciples.) Now you should visualize the Wisdom Buddha and follow my instruction: Instantaneously the disciples all become the Fierce Guru: Three faces, six arms; the right face is white, the left blue. The first two arms hold the curved knife and the human skull full of blood; Below them, the second pair of arms hold the Vajra and the scorpion; The last two arms hold the sword and the rod. His body is red in color, burning like fire: Adorned with all the fierce elements he stands, One foot stretching, the other curved. In the Beyond- Measure Palace on his head Sits a white Padmasambhava with one face, and two hands holding the iron shackles, Also adorned with various silk ornaments. In the center of the Golden Circle in the throat 12 Sits a red Padmasambhava with one face, and two hands holding the iron chain. In the center of the Weapon Circle in the heart Sits a purple- brown Padmasambhava with one face, and two hands holding a wheel, With adornments over his body. In the six -edged center of the Dharma -producing Chakra in the navel Sits a yellow Padmasambhava with one face, his two hands holding a rope. In the center of the black triangle in the secret parts Sits a green Padmasambhava with one face, and two hands holding a curved knife. His left arm embraces the Mother, green in color with One face, her two arms holding the curved knife with all fierce adornments. From her heart the seed -word (ri) radiates a great light; The light passes through the southwest direction of Rgva -yab-gling (the Pure Land) And falls upon the body of Padmasambhava, touching his heart. Instantaneously, from the heart of Padmasambhava springs a Fierce Guru With myriads of Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Secret Buddhas29 With great roars and sounds of thunder, they all descend here, around him; And, entering your body, they dissolve in you. Thus should you visualize. Now blow the trumpet and play all musical instruments. [Pray thus:] play all musical instruments. 29 The Buddhas of the four types of initiation. 13 "H! The Outer, Inner, Secret, Most Fierce Gurus, Pray come down and bless us! Pray grant the highest Initiation to us, your faithful and well -destined disciples; Pray dispel the evil- persuaders and smash the hindrances to longevity. "O Ah H Guru Gorda Sarva Samaya O Ba-tsa Ah We Sha Ya Ah Ah! " (Recite many times.) "Di Tsha Ban Tsar! " (Recite to retain the Buddhas.) Thus by the grace of the initiation, a pure foundation (for further advancement) is laid. Now, in order to attain further initiations, follow me and recite the following praye rs: "I sincerely pray to the Three Pillars and all Buddhas, I sincerely pray to the Fierce Guru and his retinues, I beseech you to grant me the Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Secret Initiations." In response to this prayer, the Buddhas in front of you all send forth from their bodies the Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Secret Fierce Gurus in large and small forms, and they all enter into you and unite with you. Thus should you visualize: H! This is the Outer Practice, the Outer Fierce Guru: He Has three faces and six arms. I now put his image on you, on the disciple's head; Thus the initiation of the Fierce Guru is attained by you. O Ah H Guru Gorda Ga Ya Ah Bi Di Tsa H ! H! This is the Inner Practice, the Inner Guru: He has three faces and four a rms. I now put his image on your, the disciple's, head; 14 Thus the initiation of the Fierce Guru is attained by you. O Ah H Guru Gorda Ga Ya Ah Bi Di Tsa H ! H! This is the Most Secret Practice, the Most Secret Fierce Guru: His two arms embrace the Yum [consort], red in color. I now put this image on your, the disciple's, head; Thus the initiation of the Fierce Guru is attained by you. O Ah Guru Gorda Ga Ya Ah Bi Di Tsa H ! (Thereupon throw the flowers.) H! The conqueror of the Three Kingdoms 30 He is reddish -black, with his three fierce eyes wide open. and demons, the Lord of all Vajras! He tramples upon the body of a demon with his two feet. May the Fierce Guru and all Buddhas grant us the Blessing! After attaining the Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Secret Initiations [the four lower tantric initiations], one should ask for the Initiation of Vase. The disciples are to recite the following prayers: "I pray the Three Pillars and all Deities; I pray the Fierce Guru and his retinues; With sincerity and great yearning I beg you to grant me the Initiation of Vase." (The initiating guru holds the Vase in his hand.) This Vase, in its outer symbolic aspect, is made of invaluable gems; in its inner aspect it symbolizes the Beyond -Measure Palace made of Gnam- lchags 31 30 Three Kingdoms: World of Desire, World of Form, World of the Formless. ; it is infinitely spacious. In this Beyond- Measure Palace sit numerous 31 Gnam -lchags; "falling from heaven" or "heaven -made." According to tradition certain ritual objects made of heavenly material are allowed to fall upon the earth, where they are discovered and venerated. The Vajra or thunderbolt of the Fierce Guru, referred to subsequently in the text, is one of these objects. 15 Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Secret Fierce Buddhas. From their bodies flow out the streams of nectar which enter your body through the Divine Gate of the head. The Great Bliss- Wheel (Chakra) of the Head, the Dharma- Wheel of the Heart, the Transformation -Wheel of the Navel [related respectively to the Sambhogakaya , Dharmakaya, and Nirmanakaya, higher bodies of the buddha- state], and all parts of the body from the crown of the head down to the soles of the feet are full of the blessing nectar. You should regard it thus [as the initiating guru holding the ritual Vase speaks]: H! This is the Gnam -lchags made in the Beyond- Measure Palace Where the Fierce Guru abides. I now enact this for you, and place them [these streams of nectar] on your head. The Initiation of the Fierce Guru is thus given to you! O Ah Guru Gorda Cuba Ahbi Ditsa H ! Oh! by the force of this initiation, your four hindrances 32 are cleared and Four Initiations obtained; you also have attained the capability of practicing the Four Paths, the capacity of realizing the Four Bodies33 (Sprinkle the holy water over the disciples, and throw the flowers.) The nectar continues to flow and enter your body, until the nectar is so overflowing that it gushes out of your head and becomes an image of Buddha Amida, which remains on the top of your head as an adornment. H! The Lord who conquers the Three Kingdoms He is reddish -black He tramps upon the body of a demon May the Fierce Guru and all Buddhas grant us the blessing! (Recite the prayer of benediction as before.) 32 Sometimes called the four devils: illness; interruptions; kleas; death. 33 The Trikaya body of Buddha plus the Dharmadhatu (universal body). 16 Now follow me in reciting the prayers for the Initiation of Symbols. (The guru holds the Thunderbolt in his hand.) This is the Nine -Spoked Thunderbolt of the Fierce Guru, made of Gnamlchags, and with the Buddhas on its prongs. H Gu Rum Gu Phi! This Thunderbolt has nine perfections; the fire of wisdom burns within it. By obtaining the Initiation of this Vajra, the eight -four -thousand kleas will all be destroy ed. No one will be able to harm you if you attain this Initiation. You will achieve the stability (of meditation). You shall therefore contemplate the Vajra Principle; the transcendental Wisdom of the Voidness. H! This is the Symbol of the Hand of the Fierce Guru, The Gnam -lchags -made Thunderbolt! I now place it on your head; Thus, you are given the Initiation of the Fierce Guru. O Ah H Guru Gorda Ba -tsa Ah Bi Ditsa H ! (Thereupon the Guru holds the sword.) Now, I shall grant you the Initiation of the Symbol of the Wisdom - Sword 34 H! This is the Hand Symbol of the Fierce Guru , The blazing Sword of Wisdom. of the Fierce Guru. This Wisdom Sword can cut the inner Clinging of Ego and also cut off the gates of Sa sara. You should therefore be granted the Initiation of the Wisdom Sword. I now place it on your head; Thus, to you is given the initiation of the Fierce Guru. 34 The sword, representing the sharp cutting power of discrimination, is always of Wisdom in the hands of Manjuri. 17 O Ah Guru Gorda Dani Ahbi Ditsa H ! (Thereupon, the Guru holds the Curved Knife.) Now another Hand Symbol of the Fierce Guru, the Gnam -lchags -made Curved Knife. This, the wild thunderbolt, symbolizes the Five Wisdoms35 of Buddha. It has a five -ribbed thunderbolt handle. Because the nature of being is away from playwords36 H! This is the Hand Symbol of the Fierce Guru, the center part of the knife is broad; to elucidate the sole oneness (of the absolute truth) it has one sharp blade. By merely attaining the Initiation of this Symbol, one is able to realize the nature of being which is away from playwords; thus he attains the Five Wisdoms of Buddha and is able to annihilate the eighty -four thousand kleas. Thus should you think. The Thunderbolt curved -knife. I now place it on your head; Thus, to you is given the Initiation of the Fierce Guru. O Ah Guru Gorda Gida Ahbi Ditsa H ! (Thereupon the Guru holds the scorpion [usually only a picture] in his hand.) Now, another Hand Symbol of the Fierce Guru, the transformed Gnam - lchags -made scorpion. It has nine heads, nine mouths, nine eyes, nine stings. The right sting touches the top of the universe, the left one touches the bottom of the earth. The body flames with the fire of hell. By merely touching the scorpion to your head, all the sins, obstacles, mishaps, and demon- enemies of your body, mouth, and mind are all hungrily swallowed by this scorpion. From now on, all the demons and enemies who attempt to afflict you will only re -afflict themselves. They will all be subdued by you. Thus should you think. 35 Four of these Wisdom Accomplishments of the Buddha are: Wisdom of Performance, of Observation, of Equanimity, of the Great Dharmadhatu Mirror. This fourth one has some bearing also on the Tantric. 36 Playwords: the affirmative, arbitrary, limited notions of human beings which might be represented as a long, sharp -pointed knife. In contradistinction to these concepts, the all- inclusive enlightened view of reality is symbolized by a knife whose blade is broad and well-rounde d (curved). 18 H! This is the Hand Symbol of the Fierce Guru, The heaven -made scorpion with nine heads, I now place it on your head; Thus to you is given the Initiation of the Fierce Guru. O Ah Guru Gorda Racha Ah Bi Ditsa H ! (Thereupon the Guru holds the human skull in his hand.) This is another symbol of the Fierce Guru, the Wisdom -Ga-ba-la (human skull) with the adorned metal cover (adornment) on it. This skull is filled with the cardinal heart -blood of the just -slaughtered Four Demons. By attaining this Initiation of Skull, you will be able to realize the truth of the Wisdom of Non-Existence; the Five Poi sons37 H! This is the hand-symbol of the Fierce Guru, will naturally be dissolved into the universal essence (Dharmadatu); the blood- ocean of Sa sara will thus be dried up. You should now think of these merits. The heaven -made Human Skull. I now pray to the Fierce Guru and his retinues and all deities, With my deepest sincerity and concentration I pray thee: Grant me now the Inner Initiation. Moved by your sincere prayers, the Father and Mother Fierce Guru bring forth a sound of agreement, by which all the Buddhas and the Three Pillars are invited to descend here. They all enter into your mouth and become the nectar -like Bodhi Heart38 (absorbed in you). By embracing this Ga -ba-la [skull] and touching it with your head you cause the nectar to flow out from it; the stream of nectar enters into your body from the divine head - opening 39 37 The Five Poisons: the five kleas. until the nectar fills every part of your body. By the power of this nectar, a burning -like blissful feeling and warmth is generated within you; 38 Tantricists borrow and adopt exoteric Buddhist terminology for their own purposes. Originally Bodhi- heart referred to a special quality of devoutness; here, however, in connection with the nectar, it means fluid or secretion source of energy and compassion. 39 Crown of head. 19 thus the Initiation of Wisdom40 H! This is the Non -Outflow is attained by you. You should meditate on this teaching. Thus you will attain also the Precious Initiation of Longevity. (Thereupon, the Guru holds the Nectar [in the skull] in his hand.) 41 I now place it on your head; nectar! Thus the Initiation of the Fierce Guru is given to you. Hoping that with little effort you will attain the Three Bodies of Buddha. O Ah Guru Gorda Ahmer Daga Ya Waga Tsi Tsa Sarva Ahbi Ditsa H ! (Throw the flowers.) H! The Lord who conquers the Three Kingdoms He is reddish black He tramps upon the body of a demon May the Fierce Guru and all Buddhas grant us the blessing. (Recite the prayer of benediction as before .) Now, although the main section of the Initiation is completed, a Gtor -ma initiation still is to be given; because it is said that if the Initiation of the Gtor- ma is not received, there will be delay and difficulties in attaining the Mundane [or lesser] Siddhis. Though you have attained the main Initiation, however, if you do not have the Initiation of the Gtor -ma, the mundane accomplishment will be delayed, therefore we should perform the Initiation of the Gtor- ma. 40 The third type of initiation; the first two being Initiation of Vase and Inner (Secret) Initiation. The fourth initiation is that of Mahamudra. 41 The universal process in Sa sara is a process of reciprocal interchange of energies in which nothing in the universe can maintain its energy very long but must lose it or have it renewed. In the world of Sa sara everything "leaks" is filled only to become empty again; there exists not stability or true "conservation of energy." 20 This Gtor- ma is identical with the Fierce Guru and all Outer, Inner, and Secret Buddhas. They all assemble here like the gathering storms, with great power and roaring sounds. By dint of my sincere prayer they all vaporize (melt into light) and enter into the body through the divine Head- opening. The Fierce Guru's body, mouth, and mind become one with yours. In this mood, you should repose your mind in the non- active and relaxed state. (This is the essence of the Teaching of Mahamudra.) I pray the Dharmakaya Buddha Amida, the Sambhogakaya the All -Merciful One, the Nirmanakaya Padmasambhava. I pray the Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Sacred Fierce Mother and Father Gurus. I pray the Sow- Mother of the Three Lineages; I pray the Fierce Manjuri, the great Yama, the Lord of the Fierce Hayagriva, the Powerful Vajrapani, the transformation body of the Mother of Music: the Fierce Black Mother, the Accomplishments-bestower, the Burning Fierce Afflicter white and black, the dragon subduer Great Eagle, the Fierce Vajra, the Fierce Jewels, the Fierce Lotus, the Fierce Accomplishments, the upper Fierce H Gara, the east Fierce Victors, the southeast Fierce Blue Club Holder, the north Fierce Yama, the southwest Fierce Fire Refuge, the west Fierce King Hayagriva, the northwest Fierce Inconquerable, the north Fierce Demon Holder, the northeast Fierce Three Kingdom Winner, the lower Great -Power-Fie rce One, the Four Great Guards of the Gate, the Illumination Holder Fierce Gurus and all Deities to all of you I pray. I pray you to bestow the initiations to these disciples and to grant them your grace. I pray you to protect them from the detriment of Ch al Sen, Dam Si, and Eight -Divisional Demons; also protect them from injury, nervous malady, madness, ulcers, and all illness and diseases. I pray you to expel the damaging power of wicked ghosts, the inducements of the Misleader, and possible harms done by evil spirits. I pray you to protect these disciples body, mouth, and mind; grant them shelter, and hide them. O Ah H Shri Ahtsiga Netsiga Namo Baghawade H H Pai Ah H H Pai Ba- tsa H H Pai Ba- tsa H Yaga H Ragsha H O Ahtsiga Nitsiga Namo Bagawade H Ah Pai Ba -tsa H Yacha H Racha H O Ahrtsiga Netsiga Namo Bhagawade H Ah H Pai Gaya Waga Tsida Ba- tsa Racha, Racha! (Throw the flowers.) 21 H! May all the Gurus and all the Buddhas in the past, present, and future Grant us the blessing and prosperity through their body, mouth, and mind. May all the accomplishments be granted to us. May all the tutelary deities fulfill all our wishes. May all Mother Guards destroy all malicious enemies. May the Ocean- like Oath- Holde rs bestow happiness and prosperity. These are the Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Secret Initiations of the Fierce Guru given one by one in a concise manner. This initiation is a profound yet symbolic one. Though it is not very clear in the distinction of the Four Successive Initiations, it has the implied meaning of the Four Initiations. Therefore you may consider that by it you have obtained all of the four initiations42 The teaching of the Fierce Guru in other sects than this one is generally perilous, fo r, if one does not practice the Peaceful Incantation of Padmasambhava for a long period, or does not recite it in a great amount, one will be liable to excite the enmities and troubles and see many frightening visions. However, this teaching is different. Because the Outer Practice and Secret Practice of this teaching are amalgamated with each other, it is safe yet powerful; even beginners can practice it. . As for the advantages of reciting the invocation of the Fierce Guru, the Guru Padmasambhava himself said: "If one wants to receive the special grace from Buddha and achieve the accomplishments fast, he should then practice the meditation of the Fierce Guru. I have all the merits that the Buddhas have. The outer and inner incantations of the Fierce Buddha, the blessing and siddhi of all male and female Sky- Travelers 43 42 The translator is very skeptical and critical about this statement, unless the teaching of the third and fourth initiations are given separately in a secret manner. , the jewel -like virtues and benefits are all found in me. If one merely practices my meditation and prays to me, he will see all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; he will achieve all the Outer and Inner accomplishments of Tantra; he will be able to give the blessing of 43 Sky Travelers: Tib. Dba- wo or Mka -agro. [Usually M ka-agro -ma. This term refers to goddesses or accomplished yogis who without effort can traditionally traverse whole mountain ranges and travel in both the physical skies and the heights of consciousness. Ed.] 22 initiation and accomplishments to others; the female Guards will gather around him; all the protectors of Dharma will serve him as ushers; his orders will be obeyed; his instructions will be carried out by the Guards. Solely by practicing this teaching and meditating on me one will attain all the merits and accomplishments. By prayer and meditation on me, one will achieve his wishes." This is the essence of meditation practice, This is the teaching of the Fierce Guru. It is blessed by all the Buddhas, And blessed by all Outer and Inner Deities of Mandalas. It is the concentration of the powers of all Buddhas. If one recites the incantation one hundred times, He will be cleared of the evil sins and hindrances. If one recites the incantation one thousand times, He will be delivered from the outer and inner obstacles. If one recites the incantation ten thousand times, He will dominate the Eight -Divisional Demons. If one recites the incantation one hundred thousand times, He will attain the transcendental accomplishment. By merely hearing the name of the Fierce Guru and thinking of it, He will be protected from the evil spirits. You should recite the incantation and practice this meditation. Now follow me in reciting the following prayer: Whatever the admonishments our master has given to us, We will follow and obey and practice. 23 From this moment on, please, always remember us! I offer you my whole being and all my possessions, Pray have pity on me and consider me as your disciple! Pray be my shelter and refuge at all times! At the ending of this Initiation ceremony, the disciples should offer the Mandala [and say]: Samaya Cha Cha Cha Chawa Gudaya! The foregoing initiation practice was given by the incarnation lama, Mi - rgyur -rdo- rje, the Immutable Vajra. When he was thirteen years old, on the tenth day of the Black Month of the Fowl Year, he actually appeared (before the eyes of the people) as the Fierce Guru Padmasambhava himself, with all adornmen ts and dressings. The Outer, Inner, Secret, and Most Secret Initiations are usually to be given separately and practiced separately; however, it is said, in some special occasion the Guru may put all four initiations into a condensed one. This teaching is revealed from the treasury after a well -prepared sacrificial ceremony. If 44 there is any mistake or error in this work, I beg the forgiveness and pardon from the Guards and Deities. By the merits of carrying out this work, I hope that the tradition of the Treasury Finding will be growing, that the Treasury Finders will have no obstacles, and that all sentient beings will gain great benefits and happiness. 44 From now to the end of this concluding section it is the original compiler and amanuensis of the teachings of Mi-rgyur-rdo -rje who speaks to us personally. See pp. 9 -10.Ed. 24 CHAPTER TWO. THE INITIATION RITUAL OF THE FIERCE GURU WITH PHURBA Padmasambhava, wishing to combat the demonic evils and mental diseases of this dark time, extended his manifestation as the Fierce Guru into that of Fierce Guru with Phurba (dagger) [actually a ritual dagger of triangular pyramidal blade Ed.] for this purpose. This initiation is a sub - initiation of the Fierce Guru. Before the execution of the Initiation Ritual of the Fierce Guru with Phurba, the preparation of Vase, Gtor -ma, etc., should all be arranged as instructed in the foregoing ritual. The Taking- in-Refuge Prayers and the Arising of Bodhi Heart should be practiced first, and so forth. [Note: The reference here is to standard ritual.] And instantaneously one should think that the Samaya Buddha is identified with the Wisdom Buddha. The Visualization process is thus completed. O Ah H! Welcome the Wisdom Buddhas! The Initiation Buddhas all hold the Vase of Wisdom in their hands. In their hearts stands the H word. Encircling the H is the garland of mantras. The garland of mantras evolves swiftly, Glowing with infinite beams of light, Which shine forth to the Pure Land of the Golden Mountain 1 Attracting numerous Fierce Gurus to come down here. , 1 The Golden Mountain is a name for the Pure Land of Padmasambhava. 25 They all coalesce with the Samaya Buddhas. O Atsiga Nitsiga Namo Bhagavade Ba -tsa Gili Gilaya H Pai! (Thus, the phurba practice of the Fierce Guru is completed. Samaya, Chia Chia Chia! ) The instruction of the ritual, incantation, and visualization are given as follows: "Think yourself become the Fierce Guru; From out of his body fire blazes. Think that this flame consumes all the devils and demons You should think that all manifestations and forms are the body of the Fierce Guru. You should think that all sounds are the Fierce Incantation of Buddha. You should thus think that no demon or devil can possibly harm you2 Recite the chief incantation; then recite the following incantation: ." Ba-tsa Merda Ba -tsa Sumerda Ba-tsa Hora Merda Ba- tsa H Merda Ba -tsa Racha Merda Ba -tsa Ma Merda Ba -tsa Gha Merda Ba -tsa Yam Merda Ba- tsa De Merda Ba -tsa Merda Merda Ye Merda Svaha! (Samaya Chia Chia Chia. Ka Tam Gu Haya Chia Mum Gana Ta! ) After this initiation ritual (for the guru), the offerings and apology practice should be performed according to one's capability. After this, the Eight Offerings should be served. The prayer to Padmasambhava should be recited. Then the disciples should gather and offer the Mandala. (The Guru addresses the disciples.) 2 According to Buddhist tradition, there are various ways to subdue evils. The highest teaching, however, urges the disciple to look upon all untoward manifestations and obstacles as themselves representing an aspect of Buddha in this case, of the Fierce Guru. The yogi, seeing frightful visions or hearing dem onic voices, should identify them as a manifestation of the Fierce Guru. 26 Padmasa mbhava himself said, "I, the Lotus -Born of Ao-rgyng3 Preach the Dharma of the Nine Vehicles , 4 In the East and in the West, . I also spread the Teaching of Knowledge and the Teaching of Practice. In the Snow Country of Tibet, I promulgate Dharma and fulfill the wishes of Buddha's sons. I display my power and perform miracles And help all the faithful ones by leading them to the path. The inimical devils and demons are all subdued by me And restrained under oath. I am Dharmakaya, the All- Perfect Buddha. My real being is absorbed in the plane of Universal Quintessence. I am Sambhogakaya, the body of the Fierce and Peaceful Buddhas5 My consciousness manifests in the form of Buddha's body and Wisdom. ; I am Nirmanakaya, the Lord of the Esoteric Doctrine. I am t he Treasury of Tantras and Instructions. Guru Gara -rdor -rje and Maju ri, 3 Ao-rgyng is another name for the Pure Land of Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava is called Ao-rgyng Rimpoche, meaning "the Precious One of Ao-rgyng". 4 The Nine Vehicles are (1) the Vehicle of Hearing (Sravaka); (2) the Vehicle of Self -Buddha (Pratyeka- Buddha); (3) the Vehicle of Bodhisattva; (4) the Vehicle of the Tantra of Affairs; (5) the Vehicle of the Yoga Tantra; (7) the Vehicle of the Maha Yoga; (8) the Vehicle of Ah Nu Yoga; and (9 ) the Vehicle of Adi Yoga. The first two vehicles are Hinayana Buddhism; the third is general Mahayana Buddhism. The remaining six all belong to Tantricism. Among them the fourth, fifth, and sixth are the so -called three lower divisions, or preparatory Tantra. The seventh, eighth, and ninth belong to the highest division of Tantra, the Annutara Tantra, which is practiced in Tibet; while the lower division of Tantra, Tang -Mig (the esotericism of the Tang Dynasty), is practiced in China and Japan. 5 The Fierc e and Peaceful Buddhas are both the manifestations of the Dharmakaya. 27 Nagarjuna and the H-Practicer Sabhava; Bemala Medra and Darna, the Rambu Guha Shan Dhava, The Secret Buddha Goamadhi, And King Indra Bodhi and Guru Tilopa, Guru Naropa, Biwashidhapa, Gu Gu Ripa and Andhaba, The Holy Being Dhawa Draba, Madi Tsidar Dhava Zun and Gub Dha All these Gurus are not different beings; They are actually one being. I, Padmasambhava, am also identical with them. I am the one who has all perfections, I am omnipresent and absorbed in all. One may visualize me either as the Peaceful Buddha or the Fierce Buddha. Whatsoever the forms, ornaments, and holdings of the Yidam6 Do not be confused that sometimes I manifest many faces and arms, , it makes no difference [one may visualize me whatever the form he choose and attai n enlightenment like mine]; and sometimes I manifest few. After all, what difference does the number of faces and arms make? You should remember that I manifest all! I shall transform myself into numerous bodily forms in the world to benefit the world. The innumerable transformation bodies of mine 6 Yidam is the patron Buddha one relics on. 28 Will fill every corner of the world! Although I appear myself before every man, They do not see me, Because their extremely disturbing thoughts hinder them. My love and compassion is so great That I can not delay a single moment to come to the person who calls for help. Especially for the Tibetans, I always give them my blessing. Though apparently I am in the Northwestern Land, My performances and te achings will never cease to exist in Tibet. I even appear myself in person before my faithful and sincere disciples. My Transformation Body will never cease to exist in Tibet. None will get a faster response in praying to other Buddhas than in praying to m e. If a good wish cannot be accomplished by peaceful means, I will use the powerful one! For the welfare of others, I use both the peaceful ways and the forceful ways In the Mandala I am the chief Buddha and am also the retinues. I manifest in various for ms[as] many or few deities in a Mandala According to the nature and capacity of the individual. I will protect my disciples from the affliction of the Eight Earthly Demons. I will bestow all the Siddhis like rainfall upon my followers. 29 If one desires to be born in the Pure Land of Non -Regression7 He should look to me. , If one wants to help others, he should appeal to me. If one wants longevity and prosperity, he should pray to me. For the afflicted ones, I also destroy demons, hindrances, sins, and illness. If one wants power, I grant that to him. If one wills to conquer the proud enemy, I will fulfill his wishes. I give the Siddhis of the Four Performances, The desirable Lotus of Wish -Granting also comes from me. I am the one who fulfills all wishes without delay. With my body, speech, mind, merits, and performances, I send forth numerous transformation bodies and sub -transformation bodies. I am the shelter, the refuge, the protector, and Wish- granter of all beings. I am the one who cures all illness , kleas, and sufferings. In the dangerous state of Bardo, When one beholds the frightful scenes And hears the terrible voices, I shall be his savior and protect him from fear. I am the one who creates the Essence of Buddha's Pure Land. I am the Lord of the Lotus, the Yidam of all devas. 7 Unfavorable circumstances for practicing Dharma will usually cause the disciples to regress. Therefore it is their wish to be born in a land of favorable circumstances for their practice, so that regression cannot occur. 30 I elucidate the Pith- meaning of the radiant Dharmakaya. I am the Lotus -Born Wish -Granting Guru. By merely hearing my name, One's hair stands up and one's tears flow." (The Guru says:) "Thus one should have faith in his teaching and lineage. O the Lotus Lord! Through his miraculous Phurba, All wishes are granted and accomplishments realized." Again, you should know that the Father and Mother Guru are embodied in the Purbu -dagger. Today's initiation is called the Initiation of the Ao-rgyng Yabyum8 Says Padmasambhava's prophecy: embodied in the Buddha Rdo- rje-gyoun- nu, or the Teaching of Elimination of Evil through the Fierce Guru with Phurba. "In the time of sinful, soiled, and corrupt custom in the future The demons and spirits of the Planets9 Thus he said. Because of the powerful influence of the Demon King Pehar, the cases of insanity [Tib. s myo] and nervous disturbance [abog] will be many, the cases of violent death will also be great in number. will infest the world. At that time, the Demon King Pehar will be very powerful and dominant [his teachings will spread afar]. " [This remarkable prophecy is now explained further:] In ancient times, there was an Indian scholar who was very fond of gold. He had devoted his lifetime to practicing the worship of Yamantaka and was about to achieve the Siddhis. But he raised dispute and became very angry; then the Black Yamantaka put him to death. Whereupon he became the Black King Demon called Hala. Later he came to Tibet and enslaved half of the Tibetan population. 8 The Ao-rgyng Yabyum is the Father -Mother Buddha in the Pure Land of Ao-rgyng. 9 Tibetans believe that certain mental illnesses are caused by the demons and spirits of the eight planets. 31 Plate 1 Folios 6 verso and 7 recto (Muses MS, vol. I) showing the major portion, in the cursive "headless" Tibetan script, of the unique prophecy of Padmasambhava in his role as "The Fierce Guru with Phurba" voiced through the lama prodigy Mi -gyur -rdorje, inspired at the age of 13, as the manuscript relates. The prophecy foretells a time of utter disaster for Tibet, when it will be conquered and decimated by evil and deranged, demon -like men. 32 Maji Lab Dran 10 By the power of his malignant vow and hate [joined to all other evil], he became a plague -spreading gnome, the one who appeared in the form of life-and- vow -destroyer. He appeared both in the East and in the West. He spread all kinds of disease and made people insane and mentally disturbed. Furthermore, the King Demon Pehar then gathered all the breath of the oath- breakers (the greatest woman philosopher of Tibet) in her previous life was the Indian scholar Rin -Chin- Drab who subdued and converted many heretic philosophers of India. Among them there was a scholar who became very angry and revengeful after his defeat in debat ing with Rin -Chin- Drab. He then made a malignant vow and immediately flew away to a cave and died by committing suicide. 11 This was prophesied [also by Padmasambhava]: and made them his retinues, filling many countries like husks scattered by the wind pervading a whole valley. At that time half of the populations [of all nations] will become insane; most of the people will cut short their o wn lives by themselves (suicide); and at that time China will become a dark land. Powerful men and wealth will follow the steps of the evil spirits and their three cousins 12 ; all Tibet will be broken into small pieces. At that time, here in the Snow Country, the life and breath of the lamas, the officials, the teachers, the kings, the high officers, and those who follow the Buddhist teachings will be taken away (and persecuted). All the good teachers and virtuous persons will be cut in the middle by the evil demons. People will suffer excessively 13 10 Maji Lab Dran formed her own school, which still prevails in a part of Tibet. She was Tibet's greatest woman philosopher and yogi. . 11 Oath-breakers are disciples who violate the Tantric precepts. 12 This is the translation of the prophecy, whi ch is quite clear except for the meaning of the phrase "three evil spirits and their cousins." 13 Tibetan text: Bde Sdug -ahi Bya Wa Spyod Bai Dus . Although literally Bde means happiness and Sdug means suffering, this seems to be an idiomatic expression denoting "the coming into being of the sufferings," or "great changes and sufferings will come to pass." 33 Thinking of benefitting the world [later on] at this miserable time, on the evening of the fifth lunar day a significant date in the year of Rooster, the Fierce Guru with Phurba himself (red and with one fa ce) appeared before the Living Buddha, Mi -rgyur -rdo- rje, when he was thirteen years old, and imparted to him this initiation and teaching. Therefore this teaching is a very near one (to the original source), and has great power and blessing. If one attains this initiation and practices it many times, he may certainly cure the illness of Life -Prana 14 To attain this initiation, you disciples should now follow me in reciting the following prayers: and the pain of fainting. "I pray the Three Pillars and all Dei ties, I pray the Fierce Guru and his retinues, Considering my sincere prayer and earnest request, Please grant me the Initiation of the Vase. I take refuge in the Three Precious Ones. I confess all the sins and evil doings that I have committed. I shall view all the good deeds and merits of sentient beings with sympathetic joy. I pray that all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas ceaseles sly remember me in their minds. From now until the time of attaining the perfect Buddhahood, I take refuge in the Buddha , the Dharma, and the Sangha. For the benefit of self and others I raise the incomparable Heart for Bodhi. When this prime vow of the Heart for Bodhi is made, I shall render my services to all sentient beings. I hope the day I attain Buddhahood will come soon!" Recite this prayer not less than three times. (Then the Guru holds the Human Skull, filled with nectar, and addresses the disciple.) 14 According to Tantrism, most mental disturbances are caused by irregular or abnormal activity of the Life Prana that usually functions in the central nervous system. 34 "You are born in a well- gifted lineage; I now impart to you the Vajra of Wisdom and grant you the Siddhis. Deyata Jaha H Neya! " (The disciple drinks the nectar from the human skull) and thinks that he has drunk the nectar that can cure all poisonous disease and bring all prosperity and auspiciousness. The Guru says: "This is the Water of Hell for you If you break your oath or violate the precepts, It will become a great fire and burn you to ashes. If you observe the precepts and keep your oath It will bring you all Siddhis and accomplishments. Samaya Gahi Hasa H !" Now, follow me in reciting this prayer; "Oh, Guru, you are the embodiment of all Buddhas; In you, I take refuge. In you I find shelter. In the endless and miserable Sa sara Ocean I look forward to you to ferry me to the safe shore! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. H H H H! Now, you disciples should think that nothing any more exists; there is only a vast void. Suddenly from this great voidness you become the Fierce Guru with Phurba, four faces all looking in one direction, for this is the manner of conquering and subduing all devils and demons. His first h and holds the thunderbolt with knife; the other hand holds the scorpion. The lower hand holds the symbolic staff, Khadramga, and at the lower part of his 35 body stands the powerful Phurba with grooves, the weapon that kills the evils, agonizing and tormenting them. O Ah H! From the three places, the three words radiate beams of light to the Golden Pure Land in the northwestern direction, and enter the heart of Guru Padmasambhava, who sits on the summit of the hill in the Pure Land. Instantaneously, with great vibration and thundering sound, the Fierce Guru with Phurba descends here. He enters into your body and mind and unites with you. (Play all musical instruments) H! O Fierce Guru With Phurba, and thy holy retinues, I pray you to come here and bless me ! I pray you to protect me from the dangers and obstacles of my life. (In addition to the basic incantation add: Ba-tsa Ah Wei Sha Ya Ah Ah. Recite it several times.) The Guru then puts the rdo -rje on the head of the disciple and says: "Di Char Ba- tsa!" (Thus the Initiation of Vases is given.) "H! This is the Heaven -Made 15 The Guru then holds the sword in his hand and says: Phurba, The powerful and inconceivable one! This is the illumination of the Fierce Guru, I now place it on your head. Ba-tsa Ah Bi Itsa H !" "H! This is the blazing sword of the Fierce Guru! I now place it on your head, And wish you to obtain the superb initiation of the Fierce Guru." Then recite the main incantation [not given here Ed.] up to [the words] Dike Ahbi . 15 See previous note on the thunderbolt (Note 30, Chapter I). 36 The Guru then holds the scorpion (usually a picture or image) and says: "This is the nine- headed scorpion of the Fierce Guru. I now place it on your head, And wish you to obtain the superb Initiation of the Fierce Guru." Recite the main incantation and add Rag Cha Ah Bi. [Following the same manner, the Initiation of Staff is given as follows:] "H! This is the Staff of the Fierce Guru, The blazing Staff held in his hand, I now place it upon your head and grant you the initiation of the Fierce Guru." Recite the main incantation and add Dre Shu La Ahi. (Thereupon the disciples offer the lamp and recite the following incantation with great sincerity.) "Maha Guru Tsida Ma Ma Da Ri Ga Ah Ha Na Haya! " Then the Initiation of Fruit: "H! This is the fruit of great value. I now place it on your throat, I now grant you all the Secret Initiation of the Fierce Guru with Phurba. Ah Gei Ha Ge Ge Ge Ge Be Ge Na Savha Ga Ye Ga Ye Hehi Heye Hagadi Gagadi! " The Guru holds the shell in hand and says: "H! this is the right -circled shell [Ed.: clockwise] that symbolizes the perfection and merit of all Buddhas. I now place it on your heart and bless you, I wish you to attain the powerful initiation of the Fierce Guru with Phurba. Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Dum Dum Dum Dum Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ga Di Ma Pa Ya Na Ga Go Sen Nga Ba Di. The Guru holds the wand in his hand and says: "H! my good disciple, 37 I now place this wand upon your head And grant you the Initiation of Performance of the Fierce Guru with Phurba. Gehura hasaya de ah mum hm. H! This Gtor- ma itself is the Fierce Guru With Phurba; All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas dwell in it. I now place it on your head And grant you the complete Four Initiations of Tantra. Bhagavan, the Lord of Infinite Light, Guru Padmasambhava, Dakini Ye -shes-mtsh o-rgyal, the Superb Deva, Rdo -rje Youth O all ye holy beings! You now become embodied in the form of the Fierce Guru with Phurba, I pray, grant your grace and blessing to my disciples. Please at this very moment cure my disciples Sickness- of-Life- Prana. Please cure their insanity, psychosis, mania, faintness, depression16 In short, please cure all their mental diseases, if any at this very moment. Please protect my disciples from the injuries of the Male Demon, King -Ghost, Gon- po Demon, Nine Devils of Bun, white and black devils, the old and new demons, the poisonous devils, evil spirits and all the malignant ghosts. From now on until they reach the final enlightenment, please protect them and remember them! Ma Nyan Da Ya Ga Dim Hu, Hasayale Sayaselege Lei Lei Sya Deyataya H Haya, O Ah H Ahtsi Netriga Namo Bhagavade Ba -tsa Gi Li Gi La Ya H Pai, Ba- tsa Sa Sa Nan, Ba-tsa Ragcha Nan, Homlan Nan, Bala Dana Nan, Gu Haya Di La Nan, Ba-tsa Da Di Nan, Di La Di La Nan, Ba -tsa Ba-tsa Ha Jun Rag Cha Rag Cha, Sidi U 16 The Tibetan word for insanity is smyo-wa; for neurosis [so changed from the translator's "psychosis". Ed.], abog; for mania, srog -rbin -nad; for faintness, brgyl -nad; for depress ion, atibs . 38 Su Nan, Ratsa Ah Mu Ga, Tsi Da Be, Mam Sa Be, Ra Dah Be, Gi Ni Ra Di Be, Go Re Tsa Na Be, Ba Su Da Be, Tsida Jun, Tsida Duob, Ahdi Labi Dhide Savha! " Now you have obtained the initiation of the Fierce Guru with Phurba. From now on you should always identify yourself with the Fierce Guru, and think that you yourself are the Fierce Guru inflamed with fire, no evil spirits can harm you. All the manifestations you should behold as the play of the Fierce Guru. All the sounds you should hear as the Fierce G uru's Mantras. You should think that no evil spirits can harm you In such a manner should you practice. Now follow me in reciting this incantation: Gadiga Samaya Ahr Da Ah Ai Ha La Ha La Sagha Samaya Ah Di Wa Ah Samaya Na Ra Ga Ga Cha Savha! Then offer the Mandala. This is a very strict, powerful, and dangerous initiation. It cannot be given to many people. If a proficient Yogi, who has achieved to some extent the Siddhis of Mantra, cannot overcome the illness of life -prana and the mental disturbances ca used by the King -Demons, and nothing can cure him: for such an extreme case, this initiation ritual should be practiced, in front of the sick Yogi, one thousand times. It will definitely cure him. The ordinary person, who has not practiced meditation or Ma ntra, or is merely a beginner, will be much easier to cure. Usually, reciting the Mantra for one or two rotations of the rosary [the Tibetan rosary of 108 beads. Ed.] will be quite sufficient to cure him. It is a rare case that a few recitations of Mantra cannot help Occasionally, when the spittle comes up 17 17 The meaning of this statement is not obvious from the text; it may have a hidden meaning. The translator presumes that, when the incantation is effective, the yogi as well as the patient will feel the spittle rise into his mouth. , the Yogi should carefully observe whether the patient has also been affected by the Mantra. In case a great many Mantras have been practiced, but without help, the Yogi should then practice the Visualization with Action and also apply the 39 Frightening Acts together with the recitation of the Mantra. This will definitely help. If one is not affected by King- Demons Disease, but merely feels minor mental disturbance because of the time element (at certain times the King - Demons and evil spirits are very active and powerful), he should meditate on this teaching for a little while to protect himself; and reciting the Mantra a few times will certainly help. The King -Demons (the makers of mental disturbances) a re numerous, forming many diabolic families and ranks. Whichever King -Demon harms you, you should visualize that the sharp tip of the Purbu is stabbed into the joiningpart of the white and black part of the demon's heart, torturing him. Absorb yourself in this visualization to recite the Mantra. The foregoing initiation ritual is one of the instructions from the Heavenly Dharma, which includes not only the initiation ritual itself but also explanations. This ritual was written and arranged by the monk named Brtson -agrus, the Diligent One. If I have ever committed the sin of expressing too obviously and clearly the esoteric teachings which are supposed to be kept secret, I beg forgiveness from the Shelter Berha 18 Good wishes to all. , the Protector and his retinues. If any merits have accrued to me through writing down this ritual, I dedicate them to all the demon -afflicted sentient beings to pacify them and calm their disturbed minds. I also wish them to attain happiness of body and mind. 18 Shelter Be rha ( Mgong -bo Berha ) is the Protector of the Old School. 40 CHAPTER THREE . THE INITIATION RITUAL OF THE ALL-MERCIFUL ONE The All- Merciful One: Avalokitevara, patron Bodhisattva of Tibet. Obeisance to Guru Devadike. Pray grant me all Siddhis H! This is the Fourth Initiation [of the Tantric Scheme], the Initiation of the All - Merciful One. The Mandala should be arranged as before 1 . The Gtor -ma should be made as the pomegranate in shape and placed in the center of the Mandala. On the right side a glass rosary is placed; on the left side three fossil shells; in the front many precious ornaments; on the west side a white vase bound with ribbons. On the top of the Gtor-ma, the Tsagli2 (The aforesaid articles are arranged in preparation for the ceremony. At the time of performing the Initiation, the Vase Ritual and Gtor -ma Ritual may be performed according to the general rules. In the preparation practice for the Initiation, the guru should meditate on the proceeding once: visualize the Self, Front, and Vase as all instantaneously united with the Wisdom Ones is installed. 3 1 The ritual containing these instructions is missing from the manuscript. Ed . , and recite the incantation not less than one hundred times. If one wants to 2 Tsag -li: A miniature flag with the device of a mandala or mantram, one of the Tantric ornaments. 3 Wisdom Ones: Thos e Buddhas that give life to the Front Vase, manifestations of the coming Buddhas. See Note 5, Chapter 4. 41 practice a more comprehensive and elaborate ceremony, he should perform the Three Purifications4 One should visualize as follows: .) In front of me is the Vase -Buddha5 He is white in color with four arms and one face. , the All -Merciful One. He folds his two palms together with his central arms. The two outer arms hold separately the lotus and the rosary. His two feet join together in the Diamond Sitting Posture6 All the precious ornaments adorn his body. . Robed in magnificent clothes of silk, He sits solemnly on the cushion of the Lotus -Moon. O Ma Ni Be Mi H , the All -Merciful One is here! Sa Ma Ya, Jia Jia Jia! Recite and visualize as follows: In the heart -center of the Vase- Buddha before me, there is a white word, ri standing straight on the moon disc and encircling the hri clockwise are the Six Words. From these Words emanate rays of light shining into the ten directions. Among all the Bodhisattvas, the rays of light choose the All -Merciful One and entreat him, with all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to descend here. Because the All -Merciful One, Avalokitevara, is extremely compassionate. He is the special tutelary Buddha of Tibet. Practicing his meditation makes it easier to attain the grace of bliss. He is nearer to us than other Buddhas. Padmasambhava said, "In the time of defilements, Avalokiteshvara is the most compassionate one. Especially to us, the Kham Pa7 4 Three Purifications : The ceremony of purifying the body, mouth, and mind. , the Six Words of Incantation are most 5 Vase-Buddha: See Note 2, Chapter 4. 6 Diamond Sitting Posture: Traditional cross-legged posture of the Buddhas. 7 Kham Pa: People of Kham, or East Tibet. 42 beneficial and appropriate. The All -Merciful One, His Holiness Avalokitevara, is the intimate patron deity of the Snow Country8 About the benefits of remembering and meditating on the All -Merciful One, The Thousand -Arms -and-Thousand -Eyes-True -Words Tantra says, "If one takes the initiation and recites the incantation of Avalakitevara, his sins will all be cleansed and his obstacles removed. He will obtain the infinite merits . His Dharma, especially, has a close affinity to the people of Kham. Therefore, in the region of Kham, one sees that men and women alike all recite the Six Words Incantation diligently." This was prophesied by Padmasambhava himself. 9 In The Various -Winds -and-Waters Sutra (Chu-rlung -snga -tsogs- mdo ) it is also said, "In the future time, any good man or good woman who has heard the merits of the All -Merciful One will gradually exhaust his or her kleas; the Great Five Unceasing Sins and their like will be exhausted. If one has nothing in his mind but the All -Merciful One ; after his death he will go to the Pure Land (of Buddha Amida)." In The Sutra of the Ten Countenances, one reads, "The All -Merciful One himself said, 'If one think of me and call my name, whatever his wishes may be, all will be granted. All injuries to him will be prevented, sins and hindrances will be oblitera ted; all his fears will be conquered. This man is liberated from the evils and obstacles, and well protected under my shelter. His merits and talents will be promoted. He is hid from all ominous signs and afflictions.'" 10 and meditates on the merits of Avalokitevara for only one month, he will be able to see the All -Merciful One as well as Buddha Amida face to face. He will thus never regress on the Path of Bodhi 11 8 Snow Country: Another name for Tibet. . He will recollect his lives in the past, follow the teachings he has heard, and wherever he is born will corn across Dharma. He will never depart from Buddhism, and will attain great wealth and enjoy great happiness. Wherever he stays no demons nor illness can seriously harm him." 9 Infinite merits: Buddhist term for all virtues. 10 This refers to deep Samadhi in which the thought -flow is stopped. 11 Path of Bodhi: The way to Buddhahood. 43 The Magnificent Casket Sutra states: "Gotama Buddha says, 'Whoever thinks of Avalokiteshvara will attain to happiness; he will be freed from the sufferings of birth, age, illness, and death. He will go to the happy Pure Land to see Buddh a Amida. Those devoted to the All -Merciful One will have no Samsaric sufferings in their bodies, no leas in their minds; hunger and thirst cannot threaten them, nor will they undergo ordeal in the womb. With sincere devotion growing in their hearts, they will then be born in the lotus12 The benefits and profit of the Six Sacred Words are thus stated in The S utra of the Hundred- and-Eight Symbols: "Tathagata Buddha says, 'Those good men and good women who contemplate Avalokiteshvara and recite the Six Sacred Words: O Mani Padme H , will never fall into the lower Lokas or the Unceasing Hell. Whoever takes this incantation in his mind and recites it with sound, his body becomes immune from leprosy, ulcer, Bra Gyan and Bas Lhag diseases . Those relying on the Victorious Master Avalokiteshvara to be their tutelary Buddha will always be able to go to Buddha's paradise and remain there.'" 13 Again, The Magnificent Casket Sutra states: "The Majestic Red Buddha says, 'That good man or good woman who recites these Six Sacred Words will attain the following benefits: his valor and spi rit will never diminish, his wisdom will grow, he will become a man with great compassion and kindness, he will complete the Six Paramitas , tuberculosis, asthma, and all kinds of disease. Immediately after death, he will be born in the Happy Pure Land. Wherever he is born he will never be separated from the All -Merciful One.'" 14 in his everyday activity. He will become the King of Turning -the-Mystic -Holding -Wheel15 This initiation practice was revealed by Buddha Amida to His Holiness Mi- rgyur -rdo- rje in the (year of the) Fire Monkey, Dragon Month, when he was . He will become a Bodhisattva of Non- Regression. He will eventually attain the perfect, peerless Buddhahood.'" 12 Born in the lotus: A term of the Pure Land Sutras referring to those advanced beings having a higher birth than from the womb. 13 Bra Gyan and Bas Lhag diseases: Unknown diseases. 14 Six Paramitas: Six perfections of Buddh ist philosophy. 15 Mystic Holding-Wheel: The ruler of a Golden Age holds a golden wheel and rules through love; the king of a Silver Age rules through fear; the king of an Iron Age, whose symbol is the iron wheel, rules through violence. (Asoka is identified with the last type of ruler.) 44 twelve years old. This in itiation was bestowed upon me [the original lama - scribe. Ed.] by two Living Buddhas; therefore it is a very recent late and close one with great blessing power. Dakinis16 The guru says, "You should think that I and the Initiation Symbols are the real embodiment of Avalokiteshvara. With this confidence and devotion follow me in reciting the following pray ers: vowed to give special protection to this instruction. Therefore, together with sinceri ty and respect you should feel happiness and joy for this opportunity. "I pray to all the Buddhas in the past, present, and future. Especially I pray to the All -Merciful One! I pray thee to grant me the invaluable Initiation! I take refuge in the Three Precious Ones. I confess to you all the sinful deeds I have done. I raise my sympathetic joy unto all merits and virtues of the sentient beings. Forever I shall bear the Three Precious Ones in my mind, From now on till the time of my attaining the Buddhahood, I devote and submit myself, my whole being, to all Buddhas! For the sake of benefiting self and others, I hereby take the oath for the Devotion for Bodhi 17 After the growing of the Heart for Bodhi, . I render my service to all beings as a humble servant. With joy and vigor I practice the Action of Bodhi. In order to benefit all the sentient beings, I sincerely pray the day of my attaining Bodhi will come soon!" 16 Dakinis: Tantric goddesses. 17 Oath for the Devotion for Bodhi: The Bodhisattva's vow. 45 (Repeat not less than three times, using Ku Sha grass to bless the disciples.) Now, the disciples should practice the visualization of the Arising Buddha. Follow my instructions and visualize them. (The guru reads loudly and slowly.) "All of you become Avalokitevara, the All -Merciful One. His body is white in color and he has only one face. His four arms are poised in the following manner: The palms of the two ce nter arms are folded together. One arm holds a rosary, and one holds a lotus branch. The two feet entwine in the Diamond Sitting Posture. The rare ornaments adorn his body. Arrayed in silks, he sits solemnly on the cushion of the Sun-Moon- Lotus. "In such manner you visualize the Arising Buddha. Now you should meditate on the three places from which to draw the wave of grace and blessing: "Visualize in your forehead a white O word standing straight; A red Ah word stands in the forepart of the throat; A blue H word stands in your heart. In the very center of your heart is a moon disc; Upon the white moon disc stands a white ri word. The Six Sacred Words circle the ri word. Because of inviting the Wisdom -Buddha to come here, From the ri word emanate infinite rays of light. These rays of light shine forth to the Pure Land of Happiness, 46 Also shining forth south toward the Holy Potala18 There by numerous forms of Avalokitevara, big as mountains, small as mustard seeds, . With the Six Sacred Words, and the white ri word in their bodies, As snow falling, they all descend here. They enter your body like the rainfall and penetrate deep in you." (Play all musical instruments. All chant in rhythm.) "H! I think, I think of the All -Merciful One! Listen! the All -Merciful One and Buddhas rise up, From the Great Place of the South the Buddhas arise! With retinues and assemblies they descend here. Well dressed is the crown of the head, The precious ornaments are as glossy as sun rays. Accompanied with music and dance, you come here. Your grace and blessing are beyond human apprehension. Without any closefistedness, you grant us the Siddhis. From the great place full of wonder, With an unlimited compassion you come down here. I pray thee with my utmost sincerity a nd yearning Grant me your grace and blessing! Pray thee, embrace me in your care under your boundless compassion! Pray look after me and bestow on me the Siddhis. 18 Holy Bodala: Pure Land of Kwan Yin, traditionally located in this world in a region of the Chinese coast, Chekiang province. 47 Come here, thou gracious one! Safeguard me, you compassionate one! Oh, father Guru himself is the All -Merciful One! To whom I pray with one single thought (concentrated attention). May all the wishes of ours be granted! O Ah H ri Svaha! O Mani Padme H ! Be Tsa Ah Bi Sha Ya Ah Ah!" (Play musical instruments; then place the Vajra on the head. Visualize the Wisdom Buddha becoming steady.) Di Tsha Be Tsa! (Hold the vase in hand and read the following words.) H! the Beyond- Measure Palace Where the All -Merciful One and his retinue abide, Whereby the Four Initiations of Vase I wish to attain. (Place the symbol on disciple's head.) O Mani Be Mi H Ga La Shu Kura Sar Jia, Tsa Tu Ah Bi Di Tsa H ! (Give the water in the Vase to disciples and let them drink it. Then hold the Gtor- ma in hand and read as follows.) H! This Gtor- ma itself is the embodi ment of Avalokiteshvara. His myriad retinues are also contained within it. To you my disciples, the Four Initiations of Avalokiteshvara Are now completely being given! I pray Buddha Amida, the Dharmakaya, I pray Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the Sambhogakaya, I pray the teacher Padmasambhava, the Nirmanakaya, 48 I pray the Dakini and the Victorious Ocean Wisdom, Ye-shes-mtsho -rgyal, I pray the twenty -eight followers and one -hundred- and- one Treasure Finders, I pray all accomplished Illumination Holder s19 Pray the All- Merciful One, Lord of Transiency , One with the Eyes of Compassion, . Mighty being! Also pray all the accompanying holy beings to bless this disciple of Diamond Vehicle, and grant them the Initiation! Pray to cleanse the Hindrance of Passion, Hindrance of Knowledge20 Pray forever close the gate of Sanmara and Lower Path for them! , and all Habitual Thinking for them forever! Pray bestow your gracious blessing to them and deliver them to the West Pure Land at the moment of their departure! O Mani Padme H ! Gaya Waga Tsida Sarva Ahbi Aitsi H ! (Recite this incantation three times. Hold the image in hand and read.) H! Pray the All -Merciful One and his accompanied Deities, Grant you, the disciples, the complete Four Initiations. (Place the image on the disciple's head.) O Mani Padme H Gaya Ah Bi Ai Tsa H ! (Holding the Vase, Vajra, rosary, and conch in hand read the following prayers.) H! Pray the All -Merciful One grant you, the well -destined disciples, the Initiation of Body, Mouth, and Mind. 19 Illumination Holders: Tantric yogis. 20 One freed of the passions may yet have Hindrance of Knowledge , not being omniscient. Such a one is an arhat, but not yet a fully enlightened being Buddha. 49 O Mani Padme H , Gaya Waka TsiDa Kica Ah Bi Ai Tsa H ! (Place all the symbols on disciple's head. Throw the flowers and sing the benediction psalm and dedications.) H! May all the gurus who possess the Trikaya21 May the tutelary Buddha, Deities, and Dakinis grant us the blessing and prosperity! grant us the blessing and prosperity. May all the Guardians of Dharma, the Ocean- like Samaya22 Among the ocean-like teachings in the Mind-Treasury of Heavenly Dharma in the Whisper- Succession there are forty initiation teachings. This one, the Initiation of Avalokiteshvara with Six Sacred Words, is one of them. From now on you should always submit yourself to your tutelary Buddha, the All - Merciful One, and recite the Six Sacred Words regularly; therefore follow me in taking this oath. Holders bless us. From now on, till the time of my attaining Buddhahood, I will regard the All - Merciful One as my tutelary Buddha. Sa Maya Narayan! 21 Trikaya: The Three Bodies of Buddha. 22 Samaya here means the Tantric precepts 50 CHAPTER FOUR THE INITIATION RITUAL OF HAYAGRIVA BUDDHA THE GREEN RTA-MGRIN 'S* INITIATION CEREMONY FROM THE TREASURY OF PERCIPIENCE *Rta-mgrin: A Tantric Buddha; SanskritHayagriva. The literal translation of the Tibetan name is Horsehead or Horse -neck . Obeisance to all Gurus! In obedience to the order of the guardians of Dharma, I relate these instructions of the initiation ritual of the Green Hayagriva from the Treasury of Percipience1 On the top of the Food Vase . 2 And adorn it with a colored scarf and the proper jewel ornaments. one should make a Horse -head of butter, 1 Treasury of Percipience (Dgons-gter): One of the four Treasuries of the Red School. Treasury (Gter ) means the hidden teachings of the esoteric doctrine. These esoteric teachings were hidden in the rocks, caves, and underground. Their dis covery is preordained for the right time by the right person, who introduces them to the faithful. This is the regular Treasury, or Treasury of Earth. There are other types, such as the Treasury from Heaven; that is, the Treasury Finders see the revealed scriptures in dreams or in trances, or hear the reciting of the scriptures, incantations, and prophecy from the deities. The highest Treasury, according to the Red School, is the Treasury of Percipience; this type of Treasury does not require even the revelations from the intuitive sense the Treasury is naturally unfolded. 2 Vase: In the Highest Division of Diamond Vehicle (the Anuttara Tantra of the Vajrayana), there are altogether four classes of initiations: the Initiation of Vase, the Secret Initiation, the Wisdom Initiation, and the Initiation of Great Symbol (Mahamudra). This initiation ceremony belongs to the first class; therefore, the symbol of vase plays a very important role. The vase symbolizes the original nature of Buddhahood; it also draws the grace wave and blessing from the real Buddhas (the Wisdom Buddhas), and so the original or Buddha nature can thus be unfolded. The vase is also the center of all symbols used in the initiation performance. The vase or vases are different in number; usually one is enough, but sometimes two, three, four, or even ten are used. The initiation vase has many different names, too. 51 If one wishes to make a separate symbol3 He should prepare a separate figure of the Horsehead mounted upon the complete jewel -like body (of Hayagriva). , This figure should be placed on the Gtor -ma of Initiation. Besides this, the various offerings should be made and traditional prayers recited as customary in the usual rituals. As to the process of the Perfecting Device 4 , one should practice the Yoga of the Bound and Wisdom Buddhas5 , also meditate on the Arising Buddha6 Then practice the inner and outer prayers such as the Three Refuges. . The (Buddha) in the Vase, the Buddha on the offering's Gtor -ma, and I, we three become instantaneously Vajra, the Horsehead, green in color, with two arms and all the adornments of the wrathful deity. One hand holds a human skull. Above the crowned head7 3 The separate symbol is the effigy of a complete body of Hayagriva; the horsehead effigy is molded from tsamba (cooked barley flour) and decorated with colored butter. of Hayagriva a horsehead appears. From the three places shine the three words, and the green ri word standing on the Sun Disc with the rosary of invocation arrange d from left to right (clockwise) encircling the (main seed-word) ri. From all these words glorious rays of light shine forth in the ten directions. Immediately an innumerable host of green Hayagrivas descend, like rainfall, from the Pure Land of all the Buddhas to this place (of ritual), entering my body and merging with me fully. They also enter into and merge with the symbolic Hayagriva in the Front Vase. By this the Wisdom Buddha is assimilated with (the symbolic) Buddha; the preparation of the guru for the initiation is completed. From the Perfect Buddha's body flows forth a stream of nectar, filling the whole Vase. 4 The Perfecting Device: The identification of Buddha nature (the Bound Vase), the praying to Buddha, the coming and blessing from Buddha, the unification of Buddha and vase (Buddha nature) these four processes make a Perfecting Device. 5 Bound Buddha and Wisdom Buddha (or Bound One and Wisdom One): The original Buddha nature, which is not lost but hidden or "bound" deep within each sentient being. The Bound One (the cause or impulse toward realization) must be merged with the Wisdom or Fruit Buddha to produce the enlightenment. 6 Arising Buddha: The Bound Buddha is also called the Arising Buddha. 7 Crowned head: One of the thirty -two signs of Buddhahood, 52 O Hayagriva Hu Lu Hu Lu H Pai! This invocation would be recited not less than one hundred times. Ah Rgyam! The King of the Wrathful Deit ies, the meritorious Horse Lord, Yells with dreadful voice, as the horse roaring. This terrible voice subdues all demons and all evils! To the King of the Wrathful Ones I render my obeisance and praise! After this the disciples should gather together and perform the Cleansing Ritual followed by the Mandala offering ritual. (The Guru addresses the disciples:) Now is the time to grant you the initiation of the Green Hayagriva. In the time long past when the Great Bliss- Beyond- Effort, the Lotus Dancing - Master, the Lord Buddha Amida was staying in the Heaven of Aog-min 8 , a vicious demon named Dregs Byod Tshogs Sprul (prideful actor multitude - conjurer) roamed the worlds (of the Cosmos), committing various evils and doing grievous harm to all sentient beings. T herefore the Lord conjured the Mandala of the Green Hayagriva, and by this subjugated the demon. Whereupon the great Mandala of Hayagriva was elaborated, the Tantra of Hayagriva preached. This caused the king of all demons great distress. In a furious mood, he raised his five burning poisons 9 and deranged the Three Kingdoms10 8 a Og -min: The highest Buddha paradise (lit. "inferior to none"). . He brought contagious diseases, famine, and war to the world. He destroyed the crops and showered various weapons of destruction upon the earth. At his instigation all the demons displayed dreadful forms; plagues raged, fields were scorched, and great floods covered the corners of the earth. Evil burned continually like furious fire; both the Path of 9 Five burning poisons: Lust, hate, blindness, jealousy, and pride. 10 The Three Kingdoms: the domains of desire, of form, and of the formless. 53 Virtue11 and the Paths of Liberation12 By the end of the Kasyapa Buddha's were cut; the minds of the people were oppressed; and all the sentient beings throughout the Six Lokas were thrown into immeasurable misery. Thereupon, the Bhagavan (Amida), from his heart center, sent forth the Mandala of the Wrathful Hayagriva, whereby the demon king was subjugated and bound to observe the Precepts. 13 Because of the numerous lineages of Gurus beginning with Hayagriva, preached in these sources, the well -known saying arose: "The lineages of Hayagriva are as many as the Horsehead's conjuration." time in this Kalpa, the demon king Matram Rutras afflicted all the sentient beings, killing them and eating their corpses. Whereupon the Bhagavan again sent forth the Mandala of Hayagriva, trans formed in blue, and plunged it into the chest of the demon, cutting him to pieces. After the extinction of the demon, his demon- body became the abode of Hayagriva. Then he was bound by the Precepts and became known as Mahagala, the Guardian of Dharma. At that time, the Tantra of the Manifestation of the Superb Horse was preached. Later on, the Nirmanakaya Buddha, Gotama, preached the Seven Hundred Stanzas of the Enlightenment of Hayagriva . For all the sects of the Red- Cap School, a green Hayagriva in a form with four faces and eight arms was introduced also, as stated in the Tantra of Sambhuda . This, now, is the history of Hayagriva quoted from the Treasury of Percipience: When the Living Buddha 14 11 Path of Virtue: The teaching or the path that leads one to a happier life in one's next birth. The precept of Ten Virtues is taught in Buddhism, and by the practice of these Ten Virtues one may go to heaven and live there for a long period. But this practice can never bring one to liberation, because the Ten Virtues are not practiced in the light of non- klea or non -discrimination. The kleas and discrimination are the two main causes of Sa sra. Mi-rgyur -rdo- rje (Immutable Vajra), was eleven years old, he captured entirely by intuition thirteen volumes of the Treas ury of Dharma from Heavenly Sources within three years. Afterward he also 12 Paths of Liberation: The Paths of Four Noble Truths and the Path of Bodhisattva. 13 Kasyapa Buddha: The Buddha directly antecedent to Gotama Buddha. 14 Living Buddha: Tibetan, Sprul -skur; literally the Transformation Body of Buddha (Nirmanakaya). But nowadays this name is merely a title or a rank of a Lama; it no longer has any significant meaning in religion. 54 received this one volume of the Treasury of Percipience. Although there was an indication that he might have captured another one hundred volumes from the Treasury of Earth, he did not receive any due to unfavourable influences. His external life was ill -omened. By the age of seventeen, he had completed his work on the Treasury of Percipience. In one of his books of Initiation, this volume was found. As said in the Sutra of the Emerging of Pure Dharma, Chos -yan-dag-par- sbjun pahi -mdo: "There will come a few Bodhisattvas of pure mind and heart who, merely through the observation of their own consciousness, will obtain the inner teachings and the principles of Dharma (the law or nature of reality); from them these inner teachings of Dharma will thence be imparted to the people." This is evidence that the tradition of the Dharma from Treasury finds support in the Sutras. Furthermore, the Dharma from Treasury is deeper and more profound than the Dharma from Mouth 15 The benefits to the devotee who practices the Yoga of Hayagriva were stated in The Manifestation of the Superb Victorious Wrathful Great Horse Tantra: (preaching). The Treasury from Heaven is more profound than the Treasury from Earth . Again, the Treasury of Percipience is more profound than the Treasury From Heaven. "To the superb Initiation of the Fierce Hayagriva And the victorious Tantra of great value! If one surely beholds the initiation and has a fancy for it, he will be emancipated from fear and all diseases. Those who practice the Yoga of Hayagriva, their patron Buddha, Will be immune for seven hundred births from falling into the lower path and hell. Those who have the faith and the pure realization constantly, Will i n their future life be born in the Pure Land. If one recites each word of incantation 100,000 times, 15 Dharma from Mouth: Traditional Hinayana and ordinary sour ces of Buddhist doctrine. 55 Right in this life he shall see the face of Hayagriva. Even in offering a part of the offerings to the Lord, He will influence his surroundings and his neighbors. Those who merely recite the incantation frequently Will be free from the afflictions caused by evil spirits." So it is said in this Sutra. The Tantra of Proud Master Hayagriva states: "Those who practice the Yoga of Hayagriva will attain the Common and the Eight Superb Accomplishments. They will also obtain the Four Accomplishments of the Illumination-Holding16 The Secret Wrathful Hayagriva Tantra declares as follows: (Yogi). He who does this will likewise attain the Three Bodies, the Four Bodies, the Five Bodies, and so on. He will also attain the Accomplishment of Mahamudra." "When it comes near to the Ending- Time17 The Tantric Yogis who desire to perform the inner invocation practice Will be able to protect themselves from disease and harm If they invoke this profound ritual. Whatever intention they have in mind, Whatever act they wish to perform, If they visualize the body of Hayagriva clearly, No one will be able to oppose or afflict them. For the armor of nyat18 16 Illumination- Holding: A title of the Tantric Yogi. Illumination (Rig ) has a number of meanings. is unparalleled, This is the King of all Protections." The Precious One, Padma Sambhava, also said: "Whoever has obtained the complete initiation At the time of death, when he enters into the state of Bardo, 17 Ending -Time: The end of our time. Buddhist tradition says that there will come a time when all beings on earth will be annihilated. Here, however, the author means to emphasize a Bad Time when kleas and all misfortunes prevail in the world. The Tibetan term Mtha -ma means both the Last and the Worst . 18 unyta: The Voidness, emptiness. The teaching of Voidness is the most important in Buddhism. 56 From the Palace -beyond- Measure19 As stated in the Sutra for Forming Hayagriva: of the great burning bliss Will come his patron Buddha and lead him into paradise." "Whoever, including even the insects, has heard the name and incantation of Hayagriva only one time will never again fall into the lower paths20 To all the Buddhas in the past, present, and future, . Theref ore, to those who have taken the Bodhisattva's Vow and obtained the Initiation, to them have accrued merits extremely great. Thus you disciples who have come here for the profound initiation should follow my reading and repeat: And especially to the Buddha, the Green Hayagriva, I sincerely pray to grant me the Initiation of Hayagriva." (Repeat this stanza three times.) (The Guru says:) Now follow me in repeating the prayers of the Three Refuges, the Confe ssion of All Sins, and the great Vow of Bodhisattva: I take refuge in the Three Precious Ones, I also take refuge in Hayagriva. I confess all the sins and evil doings that I have committed; I shall view all the good deeds and merits of sentient beings with sympathetic joy. I pray that all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas ceaselessly remember me in their minds. From now on till the time of attaining the perfect Buddhahood, I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. For the benefit of self and other s 19 Palace-beyond -Measure: The size of the abode of the Buddhas is beyond measurementinfinite. Ed. 20 Lower Paths: Three lower paths of the six Lokas of Sa sra Hell, Hungry Ghosts, and Animals. 57 I raise the incomparable Heart for Bodhi21 When this prime vow of the Heart for Bodhi is made, . I shall render my services to all the sentient beings. I shall treat them as my friends and kinsmen. I vow to practice the Actions of Bodhi22 In order to benefit all the sentient beings. with determinati on and joy I hope the day I attain the Buddhahood will come soon! After this is repeated more than three times, the Guru takes the holy grass of the Vase of Performance and sprinkles water from the Vase over the disciples. (The Guru then reads the incantation of nyat:)23 O soubava shuta sarva dharma soubava shutor ha ! (The meaning of which is explained as "All the universe becomes a great emptiness.") From the Emptiness, you, the one who seeks the initiation, and the Front - Arising -Buddha 24 21 Heart for Bodhi: The wish to liberate sentient beings, to practice the Six Paramitas and actions of a Bodhisattva. from whom the initiation is given, together with the other Gtor- mas, all immediately become the holy word ri. This ri word is seated on a resplendent Sun Disc supported by a lotus with eight leaves. From the ri word spring beams whose rays touch the Heavens and render homage to all the Buddhas, and again the rays shine forth upon all the worlds to relieve the sufferings of sentient creatures and to benefit all beings. Finally all the beams contract into the ri word. 22 Actions of Bodhi: the practice of Six Paramitas and Four Dominations Practices, etc. 23 Incantation of unyta: Generally, Tibetan Buddhists never expect to understand incantations or to translate them into ordinary language, since the literal cannot contain the whole truth. Tradition does not try to explain the incantations but treats the secret words as sacred syllables and sounds. Being symbolic, each word and sound has many meanings. This sacred statement is called "The Incantation on the Observation of the Emptiness." 24 Front -Arising Buddha: The Buddha of the Vase. 58 This ri word now transforms itself into an emerald, in color like the green Hayagriva's body; above, his face, red and wrathful, with three widely opened eyes, stares fiercely as if looking on all obstacles and demons. All the hairs of his head stand up in the midst of a cluster of flames burning vehemently as though blazing in a strong wind. All -radiant, the vigorous horse -face glows green. With the terrible voice of the horse, he yells with such fury that all the universe is shaken. On his head Hayagriva wears a crown made of five human skulls, the top of each skull adorned with five glowing jewels. His mouth opens wide, exposing his tongue and his four canine teeth that symbolize the subjugation of the four demons 25 He is posturing in a flame as great in fury as the fire of this Kalpa's ending. On his forehead lies a white O, on his throat a red Ah, on his heart a blue H. In his heart center stands a green ri. From all these words rays of light in many colors reach out unto the Pure Land. By this light the Buddhas in the Pure Land are invited to descend. From the Palace -beyond- Measure of the Great Bliss Master Wrathful One, the green Hayagrivas descend in numbers countless as snowflakes falling some lar ge as Mount Sumeru . His eyebrows and beard burn wit h fire. A new moon stands at his side. In his right hand, he grasps a curved knife with a cross -shaped vajra as its handle. In his left hand, he holds a human skull filled with blood. Large of body, sturdy of limb, he stands posturing on a corpse of the demon enemy which lies above the Sun- Lotus -Disc. Blood- drops, the great ash -bundle, six ornaments of bone, and the snake -tassel adorn his sun- like figure, clothed with elephant skins and wearing the tiger - skin apron. He possesses all the adornments of the wrathful one. 26 (The trumpet is blown and musical instruments played.) , others tiny as seeds of mustard. All of them enter into your body and dissolve in you. You should attentively visualize like this. (The Guru reads as follows:) H All the Buddhas and the green Hayagrivas, 25 Four Demons: Illness, Obstacles to Dharma, Death, and Kleas. 26 Mount Sumeru: A symbolic huge mountain. According to Budd hist legend, it is located in the center of the cosmos. 59 Pray come here and grant us your blessing! Please bestow the initiation to these faithful and well -endowed ones; Pray dispel the obstacles to our longevity. O Hayagriva Hulu Hulu H Pai! Ba- tsa Ah Wi Sha Ya Ah Ah! (Recite three or seven times; adjust the Vajra Head.) The Wisdom Buddha thus becomes stable. Dee Chr Ba -Tsa 27 The myriad initiation Wisdom Buddhas all come! ! Ba-tsa Samaya! I pray you to grant the initiation to my disciples. After this prayer visualize that the Initiation of the Vase is granted by the Buddhas. H! From the Palace -beyond -Measure comes the Initiation of Vase. Having obtained the complete Initiation of Vase, The well -endowed disciples will easily attain the Four Bodies of Buddha; Also they will achieve the Four Accomplishments28 In the future, may they constantly receive the great initiations. . O Hayagriva Hulu Hulu H Pai! O Sarva Datagada Ahbiuigade Samaya Bri Ya Pai! The disciples receive the initiation as rays of light. Thereupon the bodies o f the disciples are filled with nectar, and all their sins are purified. The nectar received from Hayagriva is so much that the body cannot hold it all. The superfluous nectar swarms up out of the head to form a horsehead. It utters 27 This short incantation is to stabilize the coming Buddha. 28 The Four Accomplishments: To alleviate sorrows and misfortunes; to augment merits; to attract sentient beings; and to subdue demons. 60 the yell of the horse three times. According to this description, visualize. (The Guru sprinkles water with the holy grass.) By tasting the water in this Vase, you will attain unlimited Power of Mouth29 Now, in order to attain the Initiation of Body, Mouth, Mind, Merits, and Accomplishment, follow me and repeat three times: . (Each disciple tastes the water of the Vase.) To all the Buddhas and Hayagriva in the Three Times Especially to the green Hayagriva I pray you to grant me the Accomplishments and the Initiation of the Five Bodies. Then think that from the forehead of the Front -Arising -Buddha emanate innumerable small wrathful Hayagrivas white as a white shell. Visualize these entering into your forehead and penetrating fully all parts of your body. H! The one who illustrates the conduct of the great Precept. I pray to that great fierce one to come here. I pray you to grant me the accomplishments of Body, Mouth, and Mind; Also bestow on me the power to exhibit and protect the Doctrine and other Tantric abilities. Through the attainment of this Initiation of Body All the sins, hindrances, and illnesses within my body are purified. O Hayagriva Hulu Hulu H Pai Gayanbidi Tsi O ! (If available, set up five Hayagriva images in five different colors. Otherwise use the Gtor- ma and discard it afterwards.) H! All the teachings of Buddhas embodied in Padmasambhava 30 29 Pow er of Mouth: Speech, singing, admonishing. , 61 He is the Dharmakaya, the Buddha Amida, the Diamond Doctrine. From the ri word of the All -merciful One (Avalokitevara) Was formed the Great Speech Body. May the horse -yelling -laughing -body bring us propitiousness! Thus the Body Initiation is attained, the defilements of the body are purified, and illnesses and demonic hindrances are dissolved. The seed of the Vajra body is thus planted (or obtained). Again, discip les, you should visualize that from the throat of the Front - Arising -Buddha emanate numerous Speech -Hayagrivas, red as rubies. These figures are tiny but fully formed. They all enter into your throat and these fierce red Hayagrivas fill your entire body. H! The one who illustrates the conduct of the Great Precept, I pray the great Fierce One to come here. I pray you to grant me the Accomplishments of Body, Mouth and Mind; Also bestow on me the Power of Showing, the capability of protecting the Doctrine, and other Tantric abilities. I pray you to grant me the Superb Initiation of Speech; Thereby my power of speech will be magnified. O Hayagriva Waga Ahbiditsa Ah! (The Guru places the symbol on the disciple's throat). H! Like the King of Initiation who gave the all- essential initiations, This initiation is a green one like the fire of Kalpa's end. 30 Padmasambhava: Founder of the Red [or Nying -mapa] School. This ritual belongs to the Red School, so Padmasambhava's name is always mentioned. The followers of this School believe that the body of Padmasambhava was transmitted from Buddha Amida; his mouth from Avalokitevara; and his mind from Gotama Buddha. Another way of viewing this is to say that Padmasambhava received his Dharmakaya from Amiba, his Sambhoga -kaya. Avalokitevara; his Nirmanakaya from Gotama. Padmasambhava received his Dharmakaya from Avalokitevara; his Nirmanakaya from Gotama. 62 This initiation is greatly bright like the hundred thousand suns gathering together. Pray the Initiation Buddha grant us the propitiousness of speech! Thus, throu gh the attainment of the Initiation of the Mouth, All the obstacles of speech are cleared; The seed of the Speech of Buddha is thus planted. Again, you should think that from the Front -Arising -Buddha's heart emanate infinitely small Hayagrivas, blue as sap phires, and fully formed of limb. They all enter into your heart, and thus the fierce blue Hayagrivas fill your body. H! The one who illustrates the conduct of the Great Precept. I pray the great fierce one to come here. I pray you to grant me the accomplishments of Body, Mouth, and Mind; Also bestow on me the power of appearance, and the capability of protecting the Doctrine, and other Tantric abilities. I pray you to grant me the Initiation of Mind; Thereby the bliss and illumination of mind will he vividly illustrated. O Hayagriva Tsi Da Ahbiditsa H ! (The symbol is placed on the disciple's heart.) Although your mind -essence never moves nor wavers Nor departs from the immutable quietude, For the sake of subduing the vicious enemy and obstacles You arose and uttered the fierce voice in the flame of Kalpa's end; Pray that the reverend mighty mind of yours grant us propitiousness! Thus the Initiation of Mind is attained, and all the defilements of mind are cleansed. The seed of Mind- Vajra is thus planted. 63 Again you should think that from the navel of the Front -Arising -Buddha emanate infinite fierce Hayagrivas of the Merits, yellow in color like hemp. These are tiny but completely formed. They all enter into the navel of your body. Thus the fierce y ellow Hayagrivas fill your body completely. H! The one who I pray the I pray you to grant me Also bestow me the power of Showing I pray you to grant me the Initiation of Merits Thereby I pray that my power and might will be greatly augmented. O Hayagriva Sarva Ahbi Ditsi ri! Having been born from the lineage of non- craving, And having acted in the manner of a king to subdue the demons, With your flame blazing furiously like the fire of the Ending -Time, O wrathful king, Hayagriva! I pray you to grant us prosperity! Thus the Initiation of Merits is attained. The defilements of decay dissolve. Hindrances to longevity and prosperity are subdued. The seed of Merits- without -Effort is thus planted. Again think that from the place of generation of the Front- Arising -Buddha emanate numerous emerald golden coloured Hayagrivas and enter into the place of generation in your body; thus the golden Hayagrivas fill your body [thus impregnated by the Buddha] 31 H! The one who . I pray the 31 We have added this parenthesis to clarify an important concept, which though stated here in simple form, expresses the fundamental idea of the new birth of the regenerate man within the shell or womb of the old self the renewed man, born of divine power. The essential gotra concept explained in our Introduction is vitally close to the meaning of the text. Ed. 64 I pray you to grant me Also bestow on me the power I pray you to grant me the Initiation of Performance Pray destroy all sickness, demons and obstacles. O Hayagriva Garma Zabiditsa Pai! ri! The original nature is beyond appearing and extinction; The magnificently manifested Horse- Body is never apart from the immutable nature of being. Through the superb speech of horse- yelling the beings are subjugated. May the accomplishments without effort and without difference (from Hayagriva) be granted! May prosperity and propitiousness be bestowed upon us. Thus the Initiation of Performance is attained, the Obstacle to Omniscience 32 Now that you have attained the Initiations of the Body, Mouth, Mind, Merits, and Performance, let us look into the practice of Gtor -ma by which things desired are accomplished. cleared away. All hindrances to things desired are subdued. And planted is the seed of benefitting sentient beings in all actions. Think that the Gtor -ma itself becomes the green Hayagriva with all adornments as described previo usly. Also visualize the Succession of Gurus33 32 Obstacle to Omniscience: Another translation is the Hindrance of Knowing . To attain Nirvana, one must annihilate the Hindrance of klea, which is the direct cause of Sa sra. But to attain the Non-Abiding Nirvana (Mahayana's view of the perfect Nirvana), one must also annihilate the Hindrance of Knowing, or the O bstacle to Omniscience. Since the Bodhisattvas aspire not merely to liberation but also to Perfection, the extermination of the Hindrance is necessary in attaining the perfect Buddhahood. sitting on his head. See one after another come quickly to the top of your head like clouds gathering together. Think: Whatever I pray to them, the wish is granted; the wave of grace and the various Siddhis ar e bestowed 33 Succession of Gurus: The Lineage or Rosary of Gurus in direct succession from Hayagriva. 65 on me. Then see all the Gurus vaporized into a great light and see all enter your body as beams of light and merge with you. H! I pray the I pray you to grant me Also grant me the power of Showing I pray you to grant me the Initiation of Gtor -ma, Thus I shall become identical with Hayagriva. The Body, Mouth, Mind, Merits, and Performance of Hayagriva Encompass and contain the quintessence of all goodness. I pray you, Hayagriva, grant me all accomplishments in this very moment! I pray the Dharmakaya, Buddha of Infinite Light, I pray the Sambogakaya, the All -Merciful One, I pray the Nirmanakaya, the Guru Padma Sambhava. Also I pray the Dakini Yishi Tsojar, the great teacher Beroo Tsana, The powerful one Barji Sange, the Immutable Vajra who con quers demons. To those Keepers of the Tantra, the Succession -Gurus, I pray. I pray the Hayagriva of the Performance- Lineage, The Heruka - (Vajra) of Superb Horse who conjures numerous retinues and sub-retinues. I pray that you all grant me the Wave of Grace, I pray you to grant me the Initiations. Pray protect me from the harm of male and female demons, Also protect me from the dragon demons and the eight divisions of heavenly demons. 66 Pray protect me from injuries, ulcers, pains, illnesses, all four-hundred -and- four kinds of sickness, together with all afflictions. May all these misfortunes be conquered. May all the virtuous merits, powers, and fortunes increase for me. Protect me from the fear of suffering Low Birth and Sa sara. O Hayagriva Hulu Hulu H Pai, H Hayagriva H H, Gayavaatseda Ahbiditsa H ! Now I am going to grant you the Superb Green Hayagriva's rosary; follow me and repeat: I pray the perfect Buddha to look after me, Pray make me your servant. Throughout these prayers the heart of the green Hayagriva sends forth a green incantation rosary, which enters into your mouth and finally arranges itself in a right -winding circle. Repeat the incantation three times: O Hayagriva Huluhulu H Pai: Thereupon the incantation rosary becomes a fl ower rosary, which you must see wreathed upon your head. I pray the perfect Buddha to bless me, Pray make me your servant. O Susra Di- Tsra Ba -Tsa Svaha! Now you have already obtained the comprehensive Initiation of the Green Hayagriva. Under the blessing and protection of your patron Buddha, Hayagriva, you should repeat with me the following words: Whatever the admonishments our master has given to us, We will follow and obey and practice. From this moment on, please always remember us! 67 I offer you my whole being and all my possessions, Pray have pity on me and consider me as your disciple! Pray be my shelter and refuge at all times! For beseeching forgiveness, the disciples should offer the Mandala practice and recite the Mandala prayer If, in my account of this ritual, there is any mistake or discrepancy, pray all Buddhas to forgive me in my ignorance. I hope that, through the good deeds of this work, all sentient beings will find peace and happiness. Wherever this book is presented, may propitiousness co me to that place. 68 CHAPTER FIVE. THE INITIATION RITUAL OF THE RED GSHIN -RJE* *The Red Gshin -rje (Yama): How does Buddhism come to have a "judge of the dead" if, according to Buddhist doctrine, the Law of Karma responding to the individual's action brings of itself full punishment or reward? To understand why the position of Yama as Judge of the Dead is not contradictory, we must examine Buddhist thought on this doctrine. First, it should, however, be point ed out that while deities like Yama, Mahakala, and others may found in Hinduism, their meaning and interpretation is quite different in Buddhism. There are three Buddhist views on the subject of Yama. One, briefly stated, is that Yama is not an objective god but the subject manifestation of an individual's conscience, which punishes him. Certain Sutras offer another explanation; that often a Bodhisattva declares he will transform his body into that of the Fierce Yama, in order to benefit many sinful people. For instance, in order to reduce a murderer's retribution, the Bodhisattva takes the place of the slaughterer. A third theory is that a number of sentient beings are connected to Yama by Karma. Because of their Karma, they must stand judgment in the after -death state. This is not necessary, however, for humans who have taken certain initiations or reached a certain enlightenment. The doctrine concerning Yama will be understood best, perhaps, if the reader remembers that Buddhism is very fluid in its teachings which best fit the different levels of human development. Namo Guru Diwa Dargini Shidi H ! [Note Tibetan transliterations of Sanskrit words like Deva and kin. Ed.] If one wants to practice the Three Pillars1 Both the preparation for the initiation by the Guru and the actual initiation ritual (by the deity) require only the general Gtor -ma and offerings. Before the initiation ceremony takes place, the teacher should perform and Red Gshin -rje, he should arrange the Mandala as in that of the foregoing rituals. He should prepare a hill-shaped Gtor -ma. At the back of the Gtor- ma, a vase with red decorations on its brim should be placed. 1 Three Pillars: Guru, Patron Buddha, and Garuda. 69 meditate at least once on the following prayers, which include the Self - Front -Arising Yoga, confession, and other prayers. If one wants to perform a very comprehensive ritual, he may elaborate by reciting the prayers of the Three Pillars as well as the Bodhisattva's Vow and the like. After these practices the Guru should follow the instructions given below: I, myself, become the Red Gshin -rje; Three faces, six arms, and four legs, stretched apart. The right face is blue; the left, black; and the center, red. The three arms on the right side hold the club, Vajra, and knife. The three arms on the left side hold the bloodskull, bell, and stick. Also adorning him are the complete ornaments of a Fierce Buddha. He (I) sits on the cushion of the Sun- Moon- Lotus Wheel. Absorbing himself in this meditation, the teacher should recite the following incantation: Ah ri H ri H Soha! (By reciting this incantation the Red Gshin- rje is consolidated). Sa Ma Yu Chia Chia Chia! "Sa Ma Yu Chia Chia Chia!" The Guru recites and meditates: In front of me is the Buddha of the Vase, In the center of his heart there is a Sun Disc, Upon w hich stands a red H letter. Around this H circle the words of this incantation in a clock -wise order. From his body shine forth splendid rays of light. 70 The Buddhas, Bodhisattavas, Three Pillars, and all deities in the ten directions and three times, all become the red Gshin -rje. Like rain falling, they descend here and are absorbed into the Buddha of the Front Vase. From the body of the Vase Buddha incessantly flows out the Water of Heaven. Thus should one meditate, also reciting the incantation as much as he can. Then the disciples should gather near the Mandala and offer flowers and food. If conditions permit, it is desirable to conduct a complete performance, including the preparation ritual with offerings, confessions, consecration, and exorcising. The Guru then addresses the disciples: Now, you are to be given the Initiation of the Red Gshin-rje. He is identical with Maju ri 2 "If one repeatedly calls the names of numerous Buddhas as numerous as the total number of sands in the sixty- two Ganges rivershis merits are great; but if he calls the name of Maju ri only once, his merits are even greater." Hence it is obvious that if one attains the Initiation of Maju ri, his merits should be greater than the merits of those who attain the initiations of Buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Among the Four Divisions of Tantra, this initiation belongs to the most profound Tantra, namely, the Highest Division Tantra (Anuttara Tantra). Of the two forms of M aju ri, this is the fierce one. Among all the Fierce Buddhas, this one is most powerful and effective. As said in a Tantra: in essence. The Sutra of Maju ri says: "When some fierce deities behold the Fierce Gshin -rje, they are frightened, they tremble, and the weapons they brandish slip from their hands." Furthermore, we, all the scientist beings, are going to see the Gshin -rje, for he is the King of Death for everyone. No one in this world is immortal; therefore everyone is destined to see the Gshin -rje one day. 2 Maju ri: A great Bodhisattva who represents the wisdom of all Buddhas. 71 As said in the Sutra: "From the Buddhas of the three times Down to the lowest animals, the insects and worms, All should be wise to keep good relations with the King of Death, the Life -eater, the powerful one! This Deva Yama is conjured by Bodhisattva Maju ri. If one attains the initiation of this Deva, all the retinues of Yama will not harm him. He is freed from the Untimely Death. He will also be immune from illness and sufferings at the moment of his death. The hostile demons, such as Dur -mi, Dun -zur, She-yi, and She -ga never h arm him. This Deva Yama is an extremely formidable one; therefore, keep on good terms with him." Thus the Sutra says. This initiation of Deva Yama, extremely powerful and dynamic, yet easy to practice and to accomplish, was given by the All -Perfect Buddha to my first Guru 3 In the preparation of the initiation, the disciples are to follow the Guru in reciting the following prayers. , Mi- jyur-rdo- rje (The Immutable Vajra), early one morning in the Dragon Month of the Monkey Year when he was twelve years old. I obtained this initiation from him, the Adi -Buddha like Illumination- Possessor, directly. Hence, this teaching has a very close and warm successionthe conduit through which the grace -waves are transmitted. Therefore, you should all join the initiation ceremony with great reverence and high spirits. You should now think that I and all the initiation symbols are identical with the Red Yama himself. I pray to all the Buddhas in the three times, I especially pray to the Red Yama, I pray Thee to grant me the I nitiation. 3 The Guru- Scribe is speaking. Ed . 72 (Repeat three times. Then the disciples should recite the prayer of taking the Three Refuges and the confession, and so on). I take refuge in the Three Precious Ones, I take refuge in the Red Yama. I confess all the sins that I have committed. I raise the sympathetic joy toward all good deeds. To the Buddhas and Bodhi, I aspire. From now on till the time of my attaining the Bodhi, I shall take refuge in the Three Precious Ones, For the sake of benefitting others and self, I now raise the all-virt uous Bodhi Heart. I will serve all sentient beings as their servant. I will practice the all -virtuous Action -of Bodhi 4 For the benefit of sentient beings, . I offer my heart in the pursuit of Bodhi- Fruit. (Recite three times; bless the disciples with the h oly grass.) Now, disciples, you should visualize the Red Yama as follows: You all, each of you instantaneously, become the Red Yama, Three faces, six arms, and four feet extending apart. The right face, blue; the left, black; and the center, red. The three right arms hold club, Vajra, and knife. The three left arms hold blood -skull, bell, and long club. 4 Action -of-Bodhi: The Wish -for-Heart -of-Bodhi must be followed by Action for -Bodhi, practical application of the Bodhisattva's precepts. 73 You become completely adorned with all the Fierce ornaments And sit on the Lotus -cushion of the Sun- Moon disc. In this manner you should visualize yourself as the Red Yama. See a white O placed at your forehead, a red Ah at your throat, a blue H at your heart. From them emanate infinite rays of light reaching to the Buddha's Pure Land and also the Land of Self -Nature5 inviting all the Buddhas and the Red Yama together with infinite incantation, tantric symbols and seeds 6 (Play all musical instruments.) to come here, and they all enter and are absorbed in you as the rain falls into the ocean and merges with it. H! the Red Yama and all deities! I pray yo u to come down here and to bless these faithful and gifted disciples! I pray you to grant them the highest initiation; Thus they may eschew temptations and not go astray, Thus they may be freed from all the causes of accidental and untimely death 7 O ri H ri H Savha Betsa Ah Bi Sha Ya Ah Ah . (Recite this incantation as much as possible and play the musical instruments. Next, the Guru places the Diamond Flower on the heads of the disciples.) 8 5 Land of Self -nature: Reality, the eternal world. 6 Seeds: The 'seed -words' such as ri and H, which the disciple visualizes placed in the various centers of the body according to the initiator's instructions. 7 Untimely death: According to Buddhism, there are two kinds of death. The first is that arising from the inevitable decay and running down of the bodily machine and its functions. The second, or untimely death is that which results from Karma of this or a previous life. This kind of death might have been prevented. Examples are death from accident, war, poison, capital punishment, or other man -made causes. This kind of death can be prevented by certain Yoga. Untimely death cannot be prevented by hygiene; Yoga is the antidote. 8 In the "Diamond Flower" the symbolism of the combined natures of active love (upya) with the lotus of wisdom (praj ) or padma. The same symbolism exists in the sacred phrase "The Jewel or Vajra -Diamond is in the lotus." Ed . 74 Now the disciples should think that the Wisdom Buddha is consolidated. Di Cha Ben Tsa! Thereupon the Guru holds the vase in his hand and says: This is the vase in which the Red Yama resides; I now place it on your head, I now grant you the Four Initiations of the Red Yama. O ri H ri H Savha Ga Na Sha Gu Hap Tsa Dur Ah Bi Ai Tsa H ! (He places the Vase on the heads of the disciples and baptizes them.) Then the Guru holds the Gtor -ma in hand and says: H! This is the body of the Red Yama, This is the complete body of the Red Yama. By him, the Four Initiations are given to you. Pray! that you will attain all the accomplishments of the Four Initiations. I pray the Dharmakaya, the All -Perfect Buddha; I pray the Sambhogakaya, the Buddha Amida; I pray the Nirmanakaya, the Guru Padmasambhava; I pray Dakini Yeshes- mtsho -rgyal; the twenty -five disciples; the hundred -and- eight Treasury Finders; and all the Ocean- like Illumination- Holders. I pray the peaceful and wrathful tutelary deities. I pray the Red Yama and the Ocean- like Dakinis, Guardians. Pray all of you to bless my disciples. I pray you to grant your grace -wave to them, and to bestow the initiations upon them. I pray you to protect them from the afflictions of the self -demon, others - demon; the demon of Dun- zur, Drug -drum, Gshed -bzhe; the demon of illness, death; the demon -afflictor of Mdung -bsu, Rjes -rgyalin short, all the three- hundred- and- sixty different demons. I pray you to protect them from the eighteen different kinds of untimely death. I pray you to grant them the one hundred Siddhis, the Four Performances 9 9 Four Performances: (1) to subdue ominous evils; (2) to increase whatever is auspicious, such as Wisdom and Merits; (3) to gain the power to attract human beings and animals; (4) to uproot and finally conquer various stubborn evils. , the mundane and 75 transcendental accomplishments. I pray you to give them these accomplishments without delay! O ri H ri H Savha Gayawaga Tsida Sarva Ah Bi Ditsa H ! (Recite this incantation three times.) Thereupon, the Guru holds in his hand the consecrated white shell whose curve is clockwise and says: H! The Body, mouth, and mind of all Buddhas in the Three Times, Are embodied in this right -direction- circled shell. I now place it on the four centers of your body. Pray that you will attain the Four Initiations of the Red Yama. O ri H, ri H Savha Gayawaga Tsida Guna Garma Ah Bi Ditsa H ! (At the same time, the Guru places the shell on the four centers [chakras] of the disciples.) Thereupon, all should throw flowers and recite the auspicious wishes and prayers. Among the Ocean -like Teachings in the Whisper Succession, this is the Initiation of the Red Yama of "The Heavenly Dharma Treasury of Heart," in which one may find forty different Initiations at the concluding section. This Initiation of Yama which has just been given to you is one of them. From now on, you will be protected and be taken care of by the Red Yama. Therefore, let us all recite this prayer: Whatever you have admonished us, we shall all obey and practice. From now on you are my master, Pray consider and remember me as your disciple, Pray bless me and grant me the superlative Siddhis. Thereupon the disciples should render their gifts and perform the Mandala Offering. This initiation belongs to the teachings of the Heaven Dharma. It is based on the sayings of Buddha in its ritual and arrangement. No alterations or 76 modifications were made. If, however, I have made any mistake in recording it, I pray that the Buddhas and all the Guardians of Dharma will forgive me and allow me to make apology. Good wishes to all sentient beings. 77 CHAPTER SIX. THE SUPERB INITIATION RITUAL OF AHM GTSUG * VAJRAP NI *Ahm Gtsug: This word is obviously a mistake made by the copyist. The translator presumes that this word should be spelled Ahm Gtsigs, which means using the upper teeth to press the lower lip when one is in despair or anger. (The editor disagrees here. The same (Gtsug) spelling is repeated in the ritual consistently. The editor believes this to be a technical tantric term designating one of the thirteen forms of Vajrapani, and specifically the one with the braided hair. Ed .) Obeisance to Vajrapani! For the performance of the Initiation Ritual of Vajrapani general prepara tions are required, and the Vase and Gtor- ma should be arranged. The yogi should think that both he and the front Gtor -ma instantaneously become Vajrapani, whose hair is as white as a shell, appearing in a form of Drang Strong1 His body is greenish -grey adorned with silk scarves; . His right hand lifts up in a threatening manner of conquering all the hindrances, and his left hand holds the bell in front of his breast as a sign of attracting and increasing longevity, merits, and prosperities. He wears a tiger- skin apron at the lower part of his body. He stretches the left leg and bends the right. Vajrapani stands vividly on the lotus -moon. A H word stands on the moon disc in his heart center; 1 Drang Srong: The sages, hermits, or anchorites. Also means the Rishi , the deific sages who can perform miracles. 78 Circling the H word clockwise is the garland of Mantra, From it emanate beams of light to the ten directions, Inviting all Vajrapanis, the Masters of Tantra, To come down here, entering into both the front Gtor- ma and the yogi's body. The nectar in the vase now is overflowing. O Ba-tsa Pani Nama H ! (Recite this Ma ntra several hundred or thousand times, or recite it as much as one can. After the recitation of Mantra, the Eight -Offerings ritual should be performed.) (Then, the guru addresses the disciples:) Now, I am going to impart to you the initiation of Vajrapani, the Son of Buddha Samantabhadra. In fact, Vajrapani is identical in essence with Buddha Samantabhadra, who is considered to be the First Buddha or The Buddha, who came into being before all other Buddhas. Vajrapani has different forms, as clearly stated in the Tantra of One -Hundred -and-Eight Praisings . These different forms can be classified as the Wrathful Ones, the Peaceful Ones, and the Wrathful -Peaceful Ones. This initiation belongs to the Wrathful -Peaceful form. According to the Heart Treasury of the Heavenly Dharma, Vajrapani has thirteen different forms; this Vajrapani is the one appearing in the form of Ahm Gtsug. He is not known heretofore on earth. At one time, Vajrapani transformed himself as a sage deity (Tib. Drang Srong) named Gon- ba-skyes, and engaged himself in deep Samadhi at the west side of Mount Sumeru. At that time Buddha Rnam -gzigs came to this world. When he was about to manifest the manner of realizing the Perfect Enlightenment, numerous demons, together with their great armies, c ame to afflict him. They threw myriads of weapons like rain to hurt the Buddha. The Buddha then waved his Dharma- rope as the eagle flaps its wings, and said: "O wrathful Drang Srong, please come here to subdue these demons!" 79 As soon as Buddha had spoken, from the west side of Mount Sumeru the deity Gon-b a-skyes, holding a nine -spoked thunderbolt in his hand, with his whole body enveloped in great flames, descended from the sky and conquered all demons. The numerous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were much please d. Thereupon they blessed Vajrapani and named him the Thunderbolt - Holder, the Master of the Cosmos, and handed him the thunderbolt as the symbol of initiation. Then Vajrapani said to the Buddha, "O my Lord Bhaghavan! I am the protector of all Buddhas in the three times; I was the protector of the seven Buddhas in the past; I am the protector of the present Buddha and will be the protector of the nine -hundred- and- ninety- two 2 Then said the Buddha, "You have been blessed as both Bodhisattva and Wrathful Deity by all the Buddhas in the past. The Buddhas -to-come will also bless you in both of these two forms. Now, I shall also bless you. You will become the master of all the great devas. You should emancipate all sentient beings from Sa sra and from miseries." Buddhas in the future. I shall be their protectors until all of the one thousand Bu ddhas in this Kalpa have completed their missions. I shall protect them from all hindrances. I have besought the Buddhas in the past to preach the Dharma, and shall beseech the Buddhas in the future to preach the Dharma; also I shall beseech all the present Buddhas to preach the Dharma. I pray you, the Perfect One, grant me your blessings." So this is the story of the origination of Vajrapani of Drang Srong form. His Mantra is unique and superb. O symbolizes the Five Buddhas and Five Wisdoms. Batsa pani namameans "pay homage to Vajrapani". H is the word that destroys all the sufferings. Says the Tantra of the Supreme Origination of Vajrapani: "If the disciple renders one o beisance to Vajrapani, he attains more merits than he would have secured through rendering numerous obeisances to myriads of Buddhas as many as the total grains of sands in ninety -two million Ganges Rivers. Thus, we know if he recites the mantra of Vajrapa ni with faith once only, he attains more merit than he will attain through paying homage to Buddhas as many as the total grains of sand in millions of 2 According to Buddhist tradition, one thousand Buddhas will appear in this world in this Kalpa. Eight Buddhas have already appeared, therefore the Buddhas -to-come total nine hundred and ninety -two. 80 Ganges Rivers. If he relies on Vajrapani as his Yidam Buddha and recites the Mantra, he will surely be protected by Vajrapani from all hindrances. No demons can hurt him, all illness will be cured, his merits will be increased and prosperity augmented. All his wishes will be fulfilled. Thus, the benefits of practicing this ritual are beyond description, nothing can afflict those who practise it. The practitioner of this ritual will also accomplish all the four performances, namely, the Performance of Subduing, of Increasing, of Attraction, and of Conquering. He will encounter no obstacles. Therefore, one should always rely on Vajrapani, take him as one's shelter and refuge. Also, those who have chronic diseases will be cured through reciting the Mantra of Vajrapani. Now, you should all think that these initiation symbols prepared for you are all Vajrapanis themselves, and follow me in reciting the prayers: "I pray to gurus and to the Three Precious ones and to the Yidam Buddhas, Especially, I pray Vajrapani. Please grant me the superb initiation." [Recite this prayer three times.] The guru then addresses the disciples: Follow me and recite the prayer of Raising the Bodhi Heart: "I take refuge in the Three Precious Ones. I confess all my sinful doings and transgressions To all virtuous deeds of sentient beings, I raise the sympathetic joys. I devote my heart t o Buddhas and to the Enlightenment. Till the day of my final enlightenment, I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. For the sake of benefiting self and others I aspire to Bodhi. From now on I will serve all sentient beings; And practice all Actions of Bodhi with earnestness and joy. For the sake of benefiting all beings, May I come to the realization of Perfect Enlightenment." 81 All you disciples should think that you have now become the Ahm Gtsug Vajrapani, Appearing in a form of Drang Srong, Holding in his hand the skull; His braided hair is as white as the seashell. His right hand holds the thunderbolt upflung toward the sky; That is the symbol of subduing all hindrances. The left one holds the bell in front of his breast; That is the symbol of increasing longevity, merits, and prosperity. His body is greenish -grey, adorned with silk scarves. On the lower part of his body He wears an apron made of tiger -skin. He stretches his left leg and bends his right leg. Vividly and distinctly he stands on the lotus -moon disc. On the moon- disc at his heart -center there is a H word. Clockwise encircling the H word is the garland of Mantra. From this garland of Mantra emanate infinite beams of light, Inviting the numerous Vajrapanis from the Pure Lands in ten directions. Thus, the beyond -number -Vajrapanis all come down here, They all enter into you and unite with you. [The guru says:] H! All the Vajrapanis in Ahm Gtsug form, Pray come down here and bless us! 82 Pray vouchsafe my disciples your supreme initia tion! Pray protect them from all evils and hindrances of life! Recite the main incantation: O Ba-tsa Ah Wei Sha Ya Ah Ah! Recite this incantation many times, and play the musical instrument. The guru then puts the thunderbolt on the head of disciples and says the following Mantra: D Tsha Ba -tsa! Now in order to attain the main initiation the disciples should follow the guru in reciting this prayer: I pray to gurus, the Three Precious Ones, The Yidam Buddha and all deities. Especially I pray to the Ahm Gtsug Vajrapani. I pray you grant me the Initiation of Body, of Speech, Of Mind, of Merit, and of Performance. The guru then holds the Vase in his hand and says: "This is the Vase of Initiation; adorning its surface are the precious stones; its body is light, its neck long; it is full of the sacred water. It is decorated with the heavenly clothes; a blue silk scarf is also fastened on its neck. In the inner part of the Vase stands the Buddha Vajrapani in his Beyond- Measure Palace. From the body of Buddha Vajr apani gush out streams of nectar flowing into your body through the Gate of Heaven in your head. Thus the defilements of your body are purified, and all the four hindrances of mouth are cleansed. Therefore, you should understand that you have now received the four initiations and also attained the capability of realizing the Buddha's body [in future time]. H, this Vase itself is the Beyond -Measure -Palace! In it the great Ahm Gtsug Vajrapani resides. 83 Now, I put it upon your head And impart you the Initiation of Vajrapani. O Betsapani Nama H Grum Bha Ahbi Ahi Tsa H ! Also recite "O, the Braided -Hair Vajrapani till [text obscure and broken here] Through the power of the body of Lord Vajrapani, May I attain the blessing and prosperity". You have now attained the Body Initiation of Vajrapani; all the hindrances of sickness and demonic afflictions of your body are thus purified. From now on you will be able to meditate on the Body of Vajrapani, and you will have the capability of attaining the supreme body of Vajrapani with its perfection of the Thirty -two Signs and Eighty Beatifications. Then the guru holds the white shell in his hand and says: From the throat of the Front -Buddha in the shell emanate infinite beams of light, Shining upon the Pure Lands of all Buddhas in all directions, And attracting the merits of speech of all Buddhas, including the sixty voices of Perfection, Through which the eighty -four thousand Dharmas were introduced. This shell symbolizes the expression of all Buddhas, The clockwise curves on its surface are a symbol of prosperity. It also has the eight signs of auspiciousness. Spontaneously this shell broadcasts the voice of Dharma. Now, you should think that the waves of the voice of Dharma delivered from this shell all enter into your throat. 84 H! This is the shell which perfectly represents the expression of Buddha Vajrapani, I now put it upon your throat And impart to you the Initiation of Speech of Vajrapani. Recite the main Mantra and add: Shan Kha Lam Ah Be Ahi Tsa Mong! Then repeat the basic prayer: "O Lord Vajrapani Manifesting in a form with braided hair Through the power of speech of Lord Vajrapani, May I attain the blessing and prosperity." The hindrances of your speech are now cleared; thus, you have attained the power of expression and the capability of achieving the unique sixty merits of the voice of Buddha. Then the guru holds the thunderbolt in his hand and says: "From the Heart- Center of Vajrapani emanate infinite beams of light shining upon Buddha's Pure Land in the ten directions and attracting numerous thunderbolts with five spokes, which sym bolize the wisdom of Buddha, to come down here. All these thunderbolts then enter into your heart and unite with you. H! This thunderbolt itself is Vajrapani, Possessing all qualities of Buddha's wisdom. I now put it upon your heart And impart to you the complete Initiation of Wisdom. Recite the main incantation and add: Ba-tsa Ah Bi Ahi Tsa Mong! Also recite the basic prayer: "O, Lord Vajrapani Through the power of wisdom of Lord Vajrapani May I attain the blessing and prosperity." 85 Now you have attained the Initiation of Wisdom; thus, the hindrances that block your mind are cleared; from now on hundreds and thousands of Samadhis will grow within you. Then the guru holds the picture of Vajrapani in his hand and says: "This picture clearly represents Buddha Vajrapani himself. From it emanate infinite beams of light shining upon the Pure Lands in the ten directions, and attracting numerous Vajrapanis from the eternal Heaven Aog -min and also from the Pure Land of the North to come down here. These Vajrapanis are in different sizes and numerous forms: the large ones are as big as Mount Sumeru, and the small ones are as tiny as mustard seeds. Now you should think that all these Vajrapanis enter into you and merge with you. H! This picture is Vajrapani himself I now put it upon your head And impart to you the Initiation of Merits of Vajrapani. Recite the main incantation and add: Gaya Ahbi Ahi Tsa Mam! Also recite the ma in prayer: "O, Lord Vajrapani Through the power of the merits of Vajrapani May I attain the blessing and prosperity!" Now you have received the Initiation of Merits; thus the hindrances that cause the degeneration of merits are cleared. From now on you will be able to increase all your merits and wisdoms. Then the guru holds the Gtor -ma in his hand and says: This Gtor- ma itself is Vajrapani; from it emanate infinite beams of light in white, yellow, red, and green, shining upon you and merged with you. Thus, from now on you will be able to perform the Four Acts without any difficulties or hindrances. H! This Gtor- ma itself is Vajrapani; I now put it in your hands, 86 And impart to you the Initiation of Performances. Plate 2. Folio 10 (ii) recto (Muses MS, vol. II), the second of two folios bearing the same number. The Holy Thunderbolt, Vajra or rDorje, symbolic of the power of wisdom, especially in its most potent or esoteric form; and hence symbolic of the entire Tibetan Tantra (rGyud) or Vajrayna. Recite the main Mantra and add: Shandan Sudam Sashang Maraya Bendha Ahbi Ahi Tsa Mang; also recite the main prayer: "O, Lord Vajrapani Through the power of the performance of Vajrapani May I attain the blessing and prosperity!" 87 This Gtor- ma itself is identical with Buddha Vajrapani, the Master of the Esoteric Teachings. From it emanate infinite beams of light shining upon Buddha's Pure Lands in the ten directions, attracting hundreds of thousands of Buddha Vajrapanis, large and small, from the Aog -min Heaven and also from the north side of Mount Sumeru, together with infinite Garlands of Mantra and five -spoked thunderbolts to come down here. They all enter into your heart, and eventually they are transformed into lights and merge with you. "O, the Dharmakaya Samantabhadra, The Sixth Buddha, the Great Rdo -rje-chang, The Guru Padma Sambhava and the Dakini Ye -shes- mtsho -rgyal, The Gurus Bal -ji-sen-ge and Mi -rgyur -rdo- rje, All the demon conquerors and all gurus in the lineage, And then the beyond- number Budd has in the universe, Buddha Vajrapani, the host -Buddha of this initiation, in numerous numbers and forms, I beseech all of you! 1 pray you bless my disciples! I pray you protect them from all kinds of demons and sickness from the planets 3 I pray you increase their merits and advance their meditation experiences. [and] epilepsy, I pray you safeguard them from the miseries of Sa sara and all fears. O Ba-tsa Pani Nama H Balinda Gaya Waga Tsida Ahdirdana Samaya Tsa H Bam Ho! Now you have well received the initiation; hence you should rely on Vajrapani as your Patron Buddha. 3 That is, astrologically indicated illnesses. Ed . 88 At the end of this initiation the disciples all say to the guru: "We shall obey all your instructions and follow all your admonishments." 89 CHAPTER SEVEN . A COMPENDIUM OF THE INITIATION RITUALS OF PERFORMANCE OR ALL-ACCOMPLISHING WISDOM PRESIDED OVER BY AMOGHASIDDHI * *The manuscript of these initiations presents a series of colored images of god- forms, with explanatory text on the verso sides and on supplementary folios containing the most profound ideas, most explicitly expressed, of any of the seven initiation texts here given. Ed. FOLIO 1 Picture: Buddha Amoghasiddhi (Tibetan Don -yod-grub-pa , meaning Buddha of Performance). This Buddha abides in the north of the Mandala. He is the fifth Buddha of the Five Buddhas of Tantricism and usually belongs to the last of the initiation series1 Text . H! This is the Bhagavan, Buddha of Performance. I now give to you, the well -destined disciples, his initiation. Have faith and devotion toward him! Through the power of his speech and wisdom, Your envious nature naturally dissolves and becomes his holy body. May you attain the complete initiation of Amoghasiddhi. Dagarma Abhi Ditsa Ah! 1 The translator believes the folios of the other four Buddhas are missing. The first few lines of the text are indiscernible. 90 If you understand, O disciples, that everything is the manifestation of consciousness, Or that consciousness makes everything, Then you will truly attain the Initiation of the Dissolution of the Envious Nature. (And you should know that) the green wisdom -light symbolizes the Buddha of Performance, himself. FOLIO 2 Picture: Very unclear; presumably it is the robe which Buddha wears. Text Buddha's body feels no cold, But following the fashion of sentient beings Needing this and needing that Buddha, likewise, robes himself. Putting on this Buddha's robe, you will become resplendent: Ahdi Sabuya Svaha. FOLIO 3 Picture: The Tiger -skin apron and ornaments for the Fierce Buddha. Text You should think that you offer t he Tiger- skin apron and ornaments to the Fierce One. H! Although Buddha's mind is fearless, He wears these terrifying ornaments On his wrathful body To cleanse the sins of sentient beings 91 And bring them to the Path of Liberation. By your wearing this Tiger -skin apron and fierce ornaments, The demons will be conquered and all your fears routed. O! Sher Bi Yo Di Sar Su Yy Svaha! FOLIO 4 Picture: The Fiery Water2 Text [which conquers both cold and heat] (The Guru hands over the picture of the Fiery Water to they disciple.) H! This is the protection from heat and coldthe Fiery Water with qualities of both warmth and coolness. I now impart to you well- destined disciples, this initiation. You will be immune to the cold and heat -torments of Hell; Thus you will be forever freed from the sufferings of Hell. Du Da Ha Da Ha Sarwa Nara Gade Heru H Pai! (see note, Folios 26- 41, p. 115) FOLIO 10 Picture: The Five Wheels. Text H! These are the Precious Wheels The Cross Symbols3 I now impart this initiation to you, good disciples. on the human heart. 2 Fiery Water: For human beings, fire is fire and water is water. This is not so for sentient beings in Hell. For them, cool water they try to drink turns to fire, and fire by which they try to warm themselves turns to cold water. Hence the term "Fiery Water" is used to convey the absence of self- nature in this nether -world phenomenon. 3 Cross Symbols (Rgya -gram): In Tibetan, this term may refer either to the symbol of the crossed thunderbolts or that symbol we call the swastika. Here it means crossed thunderbolts. 92 May you attain the Initiation of the Five Wheels. Batsa Matna Bema Garma Ah Be Ditsi Ah! SECOND FOLIO 10 (as marked in Tibetan on the folio. Ed.) Picture: The Thunderbolt. Text H! This is the Precious Wheel the Cross Symbols of the lotus on the human heart. I now impart this initiation to you, good disciples, May you attain the Initiation of the Five Wheels. Batsa Darna Bema Garma Ah Be Ditsi Ah! FOLIO 11 Picture: A water vase, a hat, a thunderbolt, a bell, and a Buddha. Text The Vase Initiation is the annihilation of Hate. The Initiation of Head- Adornment is the subduing of the Pride- poison. The initiation of Thunderbolt is the destroying of the Lust -poison. The Initiation of Bell is the conquering of Enviousness and Arrogance. The Initiation of Name is the dispelling of the Ignorance- Darkness. I now bestow upon you the Initiation of Eternity. H Batsa Ah Dar Shu Jana Samaya Ahbi Yi Tsa Mum! (Use the water vase.) Sar Rana Jarna Sobhawa Ahbi Yitsa Mum! (Use the thunderbolt.) 93 Da Di Cha Ah Bu Di Jana Sadna Batsa Ahbi Yi Tsa Mum! (Use the bell.) O Dar Tri Da Ma Di Ahme Jaha Batsa Ahbi Yi Tsa Mum! (Use the thunderbolt and bell.) FOLIOS 12 13 Picture: The Yab -Yum (literally Father -Mother) of All- Perfection or Adi Buddha Yab- Yum. Text H! to you well -gifted disciples I now grant the Initiation of Adi Buddha Yab- Yum. With the annulment and purification of the "mind complex", May you attain the Initiation of the Immense Dharmakaya. Darmakaya Ahbe Yitsa O Ah H Hri! (Then the Guru makes the wish for the disciples.) O, well -gifted disciples: Through attaining the Initiation Of Adi Biddha Yab -Yum, your mind will be purified in the Dharmadathu (the universal whole). May you thus attain the Initiation of the Immense Dharmakaya. (Then the Guru bestows the Pointing -Out Practice 4 O, well -destined disciples: You should not think that the so- called Yab -Yum Adi Buddha is other than the Alaya Bodhi Heart upon the disciples.) 5 4 Pointing -Out Practice: This is the practice by which the Guru points out (illustrates) to the disciple, during the initiation, his original Buddha -nature. This is a special practice of the Red and White Schools of Tibetan Buddhism. of your own mind. Oh! the aware thinker at this very moment, bright, radiantly aware, transparent, 5 Alaya Bodhi Heart: "Alaya" is the term meaning "foundation of all." Here the term is used in connection with Bodhi -heart, implying that the Vow of Bodhisattva is the foundation and source of all Buddhist teachings. 94 itself is the absolute body of Adi Buddha, the original, the primordial Immutable Shelter. The awareness of your own mind, devoid of any characteristics and substantialities, the lightning awareness itself is the Mother Adi Buddha: its over -flowing manifestation and play. The versatile actor itself is the Father Adi Buddha: Now, recognize it and become acquainted with it! FOLIOS 14 15 Picture: The Five Buddhas. Text (Thereupon the Initiation of the Five Father Buddhas of the Five Groups is given as follows:) H! To you well- gifted disciples, I now impart the Initiation of the Five Buddhas in the Five Groups. Your Five Aggregations [the skandhas or five modes of consciousness] will thus be purified. May you obtain the Initiation of the Universal Reward Body (Sambhogakaya)! O H So Ahm Ha Sambhogaya Ahbi Aitsa Ah! (The Guru blesses as follows:) Having received the Initiation of the Five Buddhas, I wish that all your Five Aggregations will be purified and tha t the Initiation of the Universal Reward Body be attained by you. (The Guru now executes the Pointing -Out Practice.) O well -gifted disciples: The so called Five Buddhas are nothing else but your own Five Skandhas. The non- extinct but purified [natures] of your own Five Skandhas are the Five Buddhas themselves: The non-extinct but all - manifest Form, clear and vivid, is the Buddha of All Manifestations. (Tib. Rnam -bar -snang -mdzad; Skt. Vairochana). The non- extinct but all- manifest 95 Feeling (Tib. Rin -chen- byun- gnas; Skt. Ratnasambhava) clear and vivid, is the Buddha of Treasury. The non- extinct but all- manifest Conception (Tib. Adushes), clear and vivid, is the Buddha of Infinite Light. The non- extinct but all -manifest Volition, clear and vivid, is the Buddha of All- Performance. The non-extinct but all- manifest Consciousness, clear and vivid, is the Buddha of the Diamond- Mind. This, you should understand. FOLIO 16 Picture: The Five Mother- Buddhas or the Five Goddesses. Text H! To you well- destined disciples. I now impart the Initiation of the Five Mother- Buddhas. Having purified but not abolished the five elements, May you this attain this Initiation of the Five Mother -Buddhas. Mum Lam Mam Syam Tayam Ahbi Aitsa Ah! (The Guru now bestows a wish as follows:) Havin g received the Initiation of the Five Mother- Buddhas, I wish that all your five elements may be purified and that the Initiation of Generating All Buddhas be attained by you. (The Pointing- Out Practice follows.) FOLIO 17 Text O well -gifted disciples, the s o-called Five Mother -Buddhas are nothing else but your own five inner and outer elements. The non -extinct but purified five elements are the Five Mother- Buddhas themselves. The manifested earth -element is the Mother- Buddha Spyng -ma. The manifested water- element is the Mother- Buddha Ma -ma-ge. The manifested fire-element is the Mother -Buddha Gos -dgar -mo. The manifested air -element is the Mother- 96 Buddha Dam -tsig-sgrol -ma. The manifested space -element is the nature of the Mother- Buddha Dbyings -pyug -ma. FOLIO 18 Picture: The Eight Boddhisattvas. Text The Initiation of the Eight Bodhisattvas: H! To you well- destined disciples, I now impart the Initiation of the Eight Bodhisattvas. Having purified but not destroyed the eight consciousnesses, May you obtain the Initiation of the Great Bodhisattvas. Bu Dhi Sa Ta Ah Bi Yi Tsa Ah! (The Guru makes a wish as follows.) O well -gifted disciples, through the attainment of this Initiation your eight consciousnesses are purified. Thus having attained the Initiation of the E ight Bodhisattvas, you will act as the Eight Bodhisattvas to carry out the great careerto further the welfare of all sentient beings. FOLIO 19 Text The Pointing -Out Practice: O, well -gifted disciples, the so -called Eight Bodhisattvas are nothing else but your own eight consciousnesses. The non- extinct but brightened eight consciousnesses of one's self are the Eight Bodhisattvas themselves. The eye-consciousness, aware and non-extinct, is the Bodhisattva Earth -Essence. The ear- consciousness, the one that he ars, is the Bodhisattva Space -Essence . The nose -consciousness, the one that smells, is the Bodhisattva Self- Seeing. The tongue -consciousness, the one that tastes, is the Bodhisattva 97 Thunderbolt- Holder . The body -consciousness, the one that penetrates all6 FOLIOS 20 -21 , the illumined wisdom, is the Bodhisattva Purger- of-Obstacles. The klea - bound Mind- Consciousness, the one that perpetuates the ego, is the Bodhisattva [called] All-Merits . The base-of -all consciousness, the all- pervading and illumined, is the Bodhisattva [called] Meritorious Youth. Picture: The Eight Consort -Bodhisattvas. Text The Initiation of the Eight Consort -Bodhisattvas: H! To you well- gifted disciples I now impart the Initiation of the Eight Consort -Bodhisattvas. Having purified but not destroyed the eight (outer) objects, May you obtain the Initiation of the Eight Consort -Bodhisattvas. Ahbi Yitsa Ah! (The Guru makes a wish as follows:) O, well -gifted disciples, through the attainment of this Initiation of the Eight Consort -Bodhisattv as, the eight objects are purified but not abandoned. Thus, you will act as the Eight Consort -Bodhisattvas to further the welfare of sentient beings. (The Pointing- Out Practice.) O, well -gifted disciples, the so -called Eight Consort -Bodhisattvas are nothing else but the purification of the thought of the eight objects. The eye- object, the appearance of form, in its purity, is the Consort -Bodhisattva La- ser-Dkar - mo. Likewise, the Ear -object, the sound in its purity, is the Consort - Bodhisattva Ma- le-ser-mo. T he nose -object, the odor in its purity, is the Consort -Bodhisattva Ge -di-mar -mo. The tongue -object, the taste in its purity, is the Consort- Bodhisattva Ni -ti-ljang -gu. The purification of thought in the 6 This refers to the most active and versatile consciousness, generally called mental, which Buddhists classify as the Sixth Consciousness. 98 past is the Consort-Bodhisattva Su -si-dkar -mo. The purification of thought in the present is the Consort- Bodhisattva Dub -se-ser-mo. The purification of thought in the future is Bodhisattva Ah -loga -mar -mo. The insubstantial, the not-definite nature of the elements, the purification of phenomena, are the Consort -Bodhisattva Green Gha -ne. This you should understand. FOLIO 22 Picture: The Six Transformation Bodies of the Six Buddhas. Text The Initiation of the Transformation Bodies of the Six Buddhas. H! To you well- destined disciples I now impart the Initiation of the Six Buddhas. Having purified the six Kleas, May you obtain the Initiation of the Nirmanakaya Buddhas. Nir Ma Kaya Ahbe Yitsa Ah! (The Guru makes a wish as follows:) O, well -gifted disciples, through the attainment of this Initiation of the Six Nirmanakaya Buddhas, the Six Poisons five kleas and stinginessare purified. Thus may you be able to transform numerous bodies to further the welfare of sentient beings in the Six Lokas. (The Pointing- Out Practice:) O, well -gifted disciples, the so -called Six Buddhas are not something else the purification of Pride is the Buddha of Heaven, Dwan- bo-brgya- bying; FOLIO 23 (Continues the text of Folio 22.) 99 the purification of envy is the Buddha of Asura Tag Zang -ris; the purification of lust is the Bud dha of Human beings, Shakyamuni; the purification of Blindness is the Buddha of Animals, Sen-ge -rab-brteng; the purification of stinginess is the Buddha of Hungry Ghost, Ga -abar- ma; the purification of Hate is the Buddha of Hell, Chos -gyri-rgyal -bo. FOLI O 24 Picture: The Initiation Buddha of the Four Meanings. Text H! To you well- destined disciples I now impart the Initiation of the Four Meanings. Having purified the realistic and nihilistic Four Extremes7 May you obtain the Initiation of Infinite Performances. Shen Da Su Da Ahn Wa Shm Ma Ra Ya Ahbi Aitsa Ah! (The Guru makes a wish as follows:) O well -gifted disciples, through the attainment of this Initiation of Four Meanings, the Realistic and Nihilistic Four Extremes are purified. May you be able to benefit sentient beings through the power of the Four Great Performances without the slightest hindrance. (The Pointing- Out Practice:) O, well -gifted disciples, the Buddhas of Four Meanings are not something elsethe purification of the Realistic View is the Buddha Victor (Rnam -bar - rgyal- wa); the purification of the Nihilistic View is the Buddha of Death. Gshin -rje-gshed -bo; the purification of the Ego- View is the Buddha of Horse [-Head] (Rta -mgrin); the purification of the Form -View is the Buddha of Nectar -Flowing. FOLIO 25 7 Four Extremes: (1) The Extreme of Existence; (z) The Extreme of Non -Existence; (3) The Extreme of both Existence and Non -Existence; (4) The Extremes of neither Existence nor Non -Existen ce. 100 Picture: The Female Buddha of the Four Meanings. Text H! To you, the well- destined disciples, I now impart the Female Buddhas of Four Meanings. Having purified the four ways of birth, May you attain the Initiation of the Four Per formances. Batsa O Gu Sha la Sa Sha Mo Da Gen De Ahbi Aitsa Ah! (The Guru makes the wish for the disciples:) Now you, the disciples have attained the Initiation of the Four Female Deities. Thus, the gates of the Four Births will be shut off, the four Infinities will arise from your heart the four great performances through which you will be able to benefit sentient beings without the slightest hindrances. Thus you will accomplish the career of benefiting others. May you attain all these merits and powers! (The Pointing- Out Practice:) O well -destined disciples, the Four Female Buddhas are but the natural purification of the Thought of the Four Births 8 FOLIOS 26-41 . The birth from metamorphosis is the Iron -Chain Goddess; the natural purification of the thought of bir th from the womb is the Rope Female Buddha. The natural purification of the thought of birth from eggs is the Iron- Fetter Female Buddha. The natural purification of the thought of the warmth- wetness is the Bell Goddess. From the very beginning they are identical! O well -gifted ones! You should definitely know these truthsas they are unmistakably trueand bear this conviction with you. Are not of first importance to initiation per se or are ideationally repetitious and hence have not been trans lated. Ed. FOLIO 42 8 Thought of the Four Births: From the transcendental viewpoint, there is no birth nor death. The Four Births of Sasara are dreamlike and unreal; they are merely thoughts, not the real beings. 101 The Pointing -Out demonstration for the complete [company of] Fierce Buddhas The Guru says to the disciples: O well -gifted disciples, these sixty Blood -Drinking Deities are not something else, they are one's own kleas- group, purified but not abandoned. The insubstantial or the perceiver that is devoid of any self- nature awareness manifests itself as the sixty Blood -Drinking Deities. As illustrated, in the Palace -Beyond- Measure in one's skull -brain, a group of Blood- Drinking Deities now actually and vividly dwell9 . The forty -two Peaceful Deities with their illuminate bodies, all now dwell in the Dharma Chakra in the heart center. Furthermore, all the hairs over your body are identical with the nature of Dba- wo (Brave Deities). All the Pranas are the nature of Dakinis, all the White -Drops10 manifest in the form of the infinite Peaceful and Wrathful Sambhogakaya of the Father Buddhas. All the Red Drops11 (Ragda) manifest in the form of the infinite Peaceful and Wrathful Sambhogakaya of the Mother Buddhas. The numerous nadis12 Folio 43 of the body are the Dakinis. Therefore, your very body itself is the nature of the Mandala of the Peaceful and Wrathful Buddhas. Hence, you should never despise, abuse, or injure your body, nor should you overstrain your body, practice asceticism, or commit suicide. When you eat or drink you should think that this is the Tantric Sacrament and duly make the offering. If you remain without attachment, you may always wear fire and lovely clothes and adorn yourself as a manner of [Continuing the text of Folio 42.] practicing Tantric offerings. At the time of death, the Peaceful and Wrathful Buddhas will come out of your body, extending over all space; thereupon the Bardo visions will begin. Remember! At that time d o not be frightened 9 This is the esoteric teaching of this initiation: that all the Wrathful Buddhas are reflected or manifested through the psychic center in the head. 10 White Drops: The life -force (physically, semen) of the male. 11 Red Drops: The life -force of the female. 12 Nadis (Skt.): Follicles; all the tubes and nerves in the body; Tibetan, Riser. [Actually the nadis (rTsa) are not part of the physical body, but are subtle channels for the conveyance of prana.Ed .] 102 or terrified by the thundering voices and the Three Lights! You should remember that all these Buddhas are your tutelary Buddhas whose initiations I am right now giving to you! You should remember and recognize them. As soon as you recognize them, you will be instantaneously emancipated! Thus the Pointing -Out demonstration is extensively given to the disciples. Plate 3 The number 5, entering Mahayana Buddhism via Hindu Tantric forms of the S khya doctrine, pervades Tibetan Buddhism. This detail, depicting the five Dhyni Buddhas, is from a tanka of the sambhogakya aspect of the Buddha Amitbha. ( Reproduced here by courtesy of the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey.) 103 The foregoing initiation- ritual is given to the disciples to make them understand the teachings of initiation; as said in the Prime King -Initiation Tantra of Vajrasattva: The Mandala -Offering practice is to be done [now.] For the unwise disciples, The Vajrasattava gives the Skull -Initiation, To elucidate the symbolic teachings. The disciple should try to understand the Wisdom Initiation, The Secret Initiation will elucidate the self -experience. While the Word- Initiation elucidates the non- existence of self. FOLIO 43b (The text written on the reverse side of Folio 43.) Thus says the Tantra of Vajrasattva. Of this Skull -Initiation (a simpler type or Rite -Free Initiation), that Tantra gives the following explanation: "The Initiation tells the disciples whether the Outer Objects in the material world and Inner Essence13 The Tantra explains the Extreme Rite- Free Initiation in the terms of the Secret Initiations; its objective is to elucidate self-Illuminationif one knows himself, he has attained the Secret Initiation. within oneself are existent or non-existent, and in what sense they do or do not exist, by giving many symbols and explanations, such as the Sumeru Mountain, the Four Continents and the Vase Buddhas. In the Wisdom Initiation, the Thunderbolt, the Precious Whe el, the Cross- Thunderbolt, the Three- Pointed Knife, the Purba Dagger, the bow and arrows, the mirror, the forms and colors these things are shown to the disciples, to give them a sagacious view, by the Guru in the Initiation ritual." Thus states the Tantra. 13 Inner Essence, here, refers to the disciple's consciousness. 104 The Tantra also says: "If one knows one thing he knows all. O, marvelous is the Nature of Equality!14 Now, the ultimate-Rite- Free Initiation: If existentEquality from the beginning! If non-existent Equality from the beginning! If abstract Equality from the beginning! If concrete still Equality from the beginning! If one realizes the Nature of Equality, He has attained the Secret Initiation! Oh, marvelous is the Nature of Equality!" As said in the Tantra: "Through the Words -Initiation the Non- ego truth is elucidated to the disciples: Wherever there is ego, there are always confusions (Sa sra). The word of no words is the highest initiation. Without I, without ego, none sinks into Sa sra!" Now, the Great Vase Initiation with Rite, the Rite -Free Initiation, the Extreme Rite- Free Initiation, and the Ultimate Rite -Free Initiation are all given to you; thus the sins, hindrances, and habitual thoughts of your body, mouth, and mind are all cleansed and actually become the Four Bodies of Buddha. Hereafter, you will benefit sentient beings in a natural way, without any strenuous effort. To obtain pardon and give thanks, the Mandala should be offered; the assemblage should be entertained and exalted with dancing and singing. What remains after the festival should be given away as charity. Those who want to ha ve a comprehensive sacramental festival and celebration should consult the Annotations of the Four Initiation Rituals. Samaya Chia Chia Chia! 14 The Nature of Equality is one of the most important aspects of the Prajna- Paramita. From the viewpoint of absolute enlightenment, all things appear equal. [Instead of "equal," to say "partaking of the same ultimate nature" would probably be more accurate. Ed .] Therefore, Tantrism declares that Nirvana is Sasra and Sa sara is Nirvana. 105 May the message of the Argument -Free Adi Doctrine15 This is the teaching from the Treasury of Garma Linpa, the accomplished Yogi. reach all the corners of the world at all times. May this teaching be spread and magnified on the earth and last for ages. Blessings to all! 15 Argument -Free Adi Doctrine: Traditionally, this term carries two meanings: (1) It refers to the nature of the Adi Doctrine beyond arguments, opinions, and "play words"; (2) It refers to the tradition of the Red School which, in contradistinction to the Yellow School, disregards scholastic opinions and arguments. 106 PART 2. THE SIX YOGAS OF NAROPA 107 PROLOGUE [IN TSONG -KHA -PA'S COMMENTARY]1 ENTERING THE PROFOUND PATH THROUGH THE SUCCESSIVE TEACHING OF The Six Yogas of Naropa, WHICH IS NAMED The Book of the Three Faiths 2 Prologue . With great respect I bow down to the Lotus -Feet of the revered gurus who are identical with the great Vajra Dhara3 I prostrate myself in front of His supreme Body, Mouth and Mind! . I bow down to my guru and his omnipresent miraculous powers! He who grants all wishes (of ours), He who possesses all the merits and virtues, He who is the mighty master, the embodiment of Vajra Dhara! To him, the mighty lord of eight merits, I render my obeisance, Gathering all the quintessence of the profound Tantras. The accomplished masters Deropa and Naropa, through their lineage, handed down this teaching! It is known as the Six Yogas of Naropa, 1 We have, in the text, allowed the translator's Naropa , frequent Milarepa and Dumo to stand, instead of correcting to Nrop, Milaraspa and Gtum -mo, since the loose orthography in such instances does no severe violence to the actual pronunciation. Similar instances were treated likewise. Ed. 2 Three Faiths: The enumerative terminology of Buddhism becomes very complicated, so that unless one belongs to a particular school it is not always possible to say with certainty what terms like "The Three Faiths" and "The Four Hindrances" refer to. Here it may be presumed, however, that the Three Faiths refer to the disciple's progress in Buddhism through three stages: Veneration (respect for Buddha and practice of the precepts); Understanding (reached by studying Buddhist philosophy); and Realization (highest personal attainment through practice of meditation and other Yogic practices. Likewise in understanding the Six Yoga s, the disciple who hears of them, venerates them. Next, he gains the faith of understanding by studying them. Third, he achieves the faith of realization by practicing them. Hence, the relevance of calling the Six Yogas also The Book of the Three Faiths [or The Book of Threefold Faith Ed.]. 3 Vajra Dhara: (Rdor -rje-chang, in Tibetan) lit. "Thunderbolt Holder." This is the Buddha from whom all Tantric teachings originated, according to tradition. 108 It is the teaching heard in all directions! Following its path, the hard- working and well- gifted disciples Are led to the plane of the saviours! Through a careful and continuous study Of the teachings by the successive gurus in the lineage, I now elucidate for you the way to liberation! 109 CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION It is the intention of the author to relate the secret, yet famous teachings of the profound Six Yogas of Naropa in two steps. First, the preparatory practice. Second, the main practice of the teaching itself. The first step includes two groups of teachings, the ordinary preparatory works of Mahayana Buddhism, and the extraordinary preparations for the Supreme Vehicle 1 . About the first group two questions must be answered: (1) Why is it necessary to make an effort in the ordinary practice of Mahayana Buddhism? (2) How should one actually practice them? Let us discuss the first point. It is absolutely necessary to work step by step on the preparations both for the Paramita Vehicle2 and the True Word Vehicle3 . As admonished by Lama Rngog -pa4 , the one who held the traditional way of preaching of Marpa (he quoted from the Tantra of Two Forms5 The disciple must first give and offer till ): After that, he is to be given The teaching of the Middle Way6 Both schools (exoteric and esoteric) of Mahayana Buddhism exhort the disciples to observe the basic practices and teachings of Buddha, there is no exception, even in Tantra. The Jetsun Milarepa also said that if one wants to know how to liberate oneself in Bardo, one should first practice the prayer of Taking the Three Refuges, then bring forth the Bodhi Heart of Vow and . 1 Supreme Vehicle: Tantric teachings, the Diamond Vehicle (Va jrayana). The term "Tantricism" is not used in Buddhist countries, instead the terms Hinayana, Mahayana, and for the esoteric teachings, Vajrayana, are used. 2 Paramita Vehicle: the Bodhisattva's Path; the esoteric teaching of the practice of Mahayana Buddhism. 3 True Word Vehicle: Vajravana (Buddhist Tantricism); the esoteric teaching. [Literally "Thunderbolt Vehicle", associated with doctrines of sudden enlightenment and the Short Path to liberation for those who take the Kingdom by storm. The cognate Tibetan term rDo -rje connotes "Diamond," i.e. pure and irresistible. Ed .] 4 Lama Rngog- pa: One of the chief disciples of Marpa (See Biography of Milarepa). 5 Tantra of Two Forms (Tibetan Stags-gnyis): The main Tantra of Hevajra. 6 The implication of this quot ation is chat the student should advance step by step from the practices of a novice serving his guru until he understands the Doctrine of the Middle Way (Madhyamika). 110 the Bodhi Heart of Performance (see note 15). Even then it should be known the misfortune- bringer always turns out to be one's close friend. The fallers in the abyss are the men who follow the cattle. Thus, if anyone does not observe the precepts strictly after having taken the oath of Tantra, both he and his guru will fall into danger. It is also said that by merely hearing the advantages of the esoteric teachings one may apply (the initiations) in an easy -going manner which is very dangerous and often leads to disasters. The Jetsun Mila was blessed by the Goddess7 for having preached the Bardo preparation in such a manner. Thus we know that the fundamental teachings of Buddha are essential and necessary to all schoo ls. His holiness Gampopa also urged in his Commentary on the Four Dharmas that all Buddhists should follow the Three Gradual Paths of Lam -rim 8 Some disciples may raise the question: Why did not Jet -sun Pag- mo-grubpa and other great masters mention any of these preparations in their books on the Six Yogas? This is simply because the preparatory teachings had already been given, and the teachings of the Six Yogas were to be given to those who had already compl eted the preparatory practice. In their admonishments to the monastic orders, the masters clearly emphasized the importance of the preparatory practices. If one follows these instructions one will be freed from partiality. This is the vital point of both esoteric and exoteric Buddhism; the reader should especially note it. in the beginning stage of his way to Buddhahood. Now the second question. How should one actually practice the preparatory teaching? According to the Great Jetsun (Adisha) 9 After this, he should then follow the guru's instruction to contemplate the difficulties of attaining this present precious and meaningful human birth. , the disciple should first find a qualified guru of Mahayana Buddhism, think of his teachings and practice them under his instructions wholeheartedly. 7 Goddess: Lit. the Sky -traveling-lady (Dakini), female angelic deity. 8 Three Gradual Paths of Lam Rim: Lam Rim (Steps to Buddhahood) was Tsong Khapa's great contribution to Buddhist literature, in which he pointed out the necessity for a gradual progress of the disciple, beginning with the Lower Path (observation of ethics); through the Middle Path (understanding of the Four Noble Truths); to the Highest Path (observation of the Bodhisattva's Vow and Precepts). 9 Adisha (A. D. 980 -1052): Famous Indian Buddhist who journeyed to Tibet and founded the Bgha-gdams -ba School. 111 Thus he fervent ly determines to make right use of this human body; he also learns that to make the most of it is to enter the path of Mahayana in which the first step is to awaken the Heart -for-Bodhi. If the Heart -for-Bodhi is actually awakened in one's heart, he is then able to practice Mahayana Buddhism truly and naturally, otherwise his Malayana will merely be a word. Therefore, the wise Buddhist must strive step by step to put an end to the wrong thoughts adverse to the Heart -for-Bodhi10 If he does not completely give up thoughts concerned with the wordly affairs of this life, he will encounter many difficulties in the practice of both Hinayana and Mahayana. Always he should remind himself that this life is short. Always he should think of his inevitable death and warn himself of the possibility of falling into a lower birth after his departure from this world. Furthermore, he should realize that to strive for a happier birth in his next life is still of no avail, for everything in Sa sara is transient and untenable. Rather he should exert himself to attain Liberation, he should continuously make an effort to widen his compassion and kindness as these qualities are the roots of the Heart- for-Bodhi. He should try to reach a state in which the compassionate Bodhi- Heart a rises spontaneously without effort. . With a desire for learning the way of the Bodhisattva's actions, he should gladly undertake the Bodhisattvas responsibilities and compassionate deeds. With this in mind, he is to observe the precepts of the Bodhisattva and study and practice the Six Paramitas in general. He should particularly pay attention to the preparatory works for Dhayana 11 , namely, the fitness and readiness of his mind for meditation. He should also study and practice the teachings of the Prajana Paramita, contemplating on the magic-like and space -like 12 10 According to Buddh ist belief, the human embodiment is the best in which to work for liberation, since the heaven -body is too blissful, whereas lower births or embodiments are too full of suffering. nature of all beings. Thereafter, if he is capable of taking the Tantric precepts on himself, he should study the Guru's Fifty Stanza and follow its instructions to serve his guru. In this manner, he should set about the practices of Tantra. 11 Dhayana: Buddhist term for a special psychic state of absolute concentrati on. 12 Terms referring to the illusory, non -real, and void nature of Samsaric existence. 112 If he has not undergone these preparatory works step by step, he can never conquer the craving of this life. Thus he has no chance to become a steady and unwavering devotee. By no means then shall he possess unfe igned faith, or an absolute devotion in his heart. He is uncertain about the law of Karma, and he will become an unscrupulous Buddhist who observes no precepts whatsoever. He will have no abomination for Sa sara. There will be no tranquility in his mind; t herefore, his striving for liberation is merely a talking with no meaning at all. Since kindness and compassion cannot grow within him, he has no chance of developing the spontaneous Wish- for-Heart- of-Bodhi 13 . At most he is a nominal Mahayana Buddhist. He lacks a strong desire to learn the actions of a Bodhisattva so that the peacefulness of abiding -in-goodness will never come to him. A steadfast understanding of Meditation and Wisdom will never come to him; he will always be confused at the delicate discriminations on Samadhis. Nor is there a chance for him to attain, an unwavering understanding of the non- Ego truth. If one wants to avoid the aforementioned dangers, he should work hard on the preparatory practices for Mahayana. This is clearly advocated and elucidated by His Holiness Adisha, who received the teaching from the Maitreya -Asanga lineage and also the teachings from the Manjuri Nagra -juna -Ziwala lineage, and put them together as if to combine the three rivers into one to show that preparatory works are necessary both to the Paramita Path and to the Diamond Path. 13 The chief aim of Mahayana Buddhism, to develop the Heart-for -Bodhi, includes two aspects: (1) the wish or pure desire for this state, called "Wish-for -Heart -of-Bodhi" ; and (2) the vow to practice to achieve this aim. "Practice -for-Heart -of-Bodhi." 113 CHAPTER TWO. SPECIAL PREPARATIONS The Jetsn Milarepa also said in his song: "Good and evil do never fail To bring about corresponding fruits; Hence, one should be extremely careful to avoid evil deeds. Even petty misbehaviours, one must forbid; For the law of retribution never fails, And the misery in the Lower Paths is hard to bear! If anyone realizes not the faults of desire And t he consequences of pleasure, He can never resign ardent longings! Then, from the Samsaric Prison he has no way to escape. One should therefore remind oneself: All these desires are delusions! Bearing this understanding in mind One may work on the cur e of the kleas!" If one remembers not the gratitude one owes To the father - and mother -like sentient beings in the Six Paths, One is liable to fall down to the Small Vehicle, (Hinayana). Therefore one should foster great compassion, And learn to nourish the Bodhi -Heart." Milarepa said in another song: "I am so much afraid of the Eight Non- Freedoms1 1 Eight Non -Freedoms: Conditions in which it is impossible to practice Buddhism, such as falling into the realms of hell, hungry ghosts, or animals; being born at a time when there is no Buddha, or before a Buddha begins preaching, or in a country where there is no Buddhist teaching; lacking the intelligence to understand Buddhism; becoming absorbed in the Samadhi of non-form. That I continuously think of the faults of Sa sara And the transiency of beings! I submit myself completely to the care of the Three Precious Ones! I strictly discipline myself in all karmic doings. By repeatedly practising the Heart- for-Bodhi, 114 I dispel the enduring shadow of Habitual- Thinking2 In view of these admonishments (by the celebrated masters), one ought to work hard in the preparatory practices until one's mind is consolidated. One should bear in mind that to complete a perfect journey, a clear knowledge is needed of the route and what is required for the journey. This is not a light matter. In fact, the most important and crucial of all the teachings is the preparation work, or the "Common Foundation of All Practice." , Realizing that all the manifestations are delusory magic Of the Three Miserable Paths, I have no fear no r alarm!" In the second group of teachings, the extraordinary preparations for the Supreme Vehicle, there are also two types of preparations, the general and the special. The general preparation for the Supreme Vehicle means to attain a complete initiation, and to observe the precepts of Tantra. I want to expound the attainment of initiation first. According to the tradition of the Marpa lineage, as demonstrated by Me - sdon and Ngo- sdon 3 , whoever aspires to the practice of the Arising Yoga and of the Secret Doctrine Perfect Yoga4 must first obtain the complete Four Initiations. When Milarepa first saw Gambopa, he asked Gambopa whether he had obtained the complete initiations before importing to him the teachings of the Six Yogas. Gambopa said, "Like a fine copper utensil ready for filling with butter, I am quite ready." Thereupon, Milarepa bestowed upon him the teachings and Pith Instructions 5 Many instances like this have been told. . Milarepa also urged Gambopa to encourage the Bari Translator to come for initiations. The great master Pag -mo-grub -pa also considered the attainment of the Four Initiations was necessary for the disciples. In accordance with the 2 Habitual -Thinking: The clinging of ego and the k leas, is the cause of all sufferings and Sa sara, and has its roots in the peculiarly human ceaseless, and automatic type of thinking (mentation). 3 Mes- sdon and Ngo -sdon: Two chief disciples of Milarepa. Ngo- sdon is mentioned in Milarepa's biography. 4 Arising Yoga: The first stage of Yoga; Perfect Yoga is the final or complete stage. The purpose of the Arising Yoga is to bring the mind and body to perfect control and to set the mind upon the practice of visionary concentration. The Perfect Yoga emphasizes the transformation of the body and mind. It is a final psycho- physical practice. 5 Pith -Instructions: The essential practical key directions for Yogic practice communicated privately from Guru to disciple. 115 teachings of these great masters of the Marpa Lineage in the past, a disciple must have the complete Four Initiations before the bestowal of Tantric teachings. Plat e 4 Folio 46 recto (Muses MS, Vol. II) Buddha -Guardians of the Law: Past Present and Future. This point is emphasized in many Tantras; for instance, the Second Ti -Li of the Mahmudra Tantra says: "When the disciple starts to learn the teaching, He should first try to obtain an initiation. 116 After the attainment of initiation, He will then become a candidate Capable of receiving the grand esoteric teachings! "Without Initiations there will be no accomplishment! If he grinds sand, no butter will ever come out of it. If he has obtained no initiation And unscrupulously relates the teaching of Tantra, Both he and his disciples will go to hell immediately after their deaths, Even if they are accomplished beings! Therefore, all diligent persons should look for a Guru for Initiation." The Second Tantra of Rdor -bred says: "The most important matter is initiation; All the accomplishments depend on it. I now tell you this essential truth; To it, you should pay first attention. When one intends to be a follower of Tantra, One should first attain a perfect initiation. Having attained this initiation, one is thus Capable of practicing the Perfecting Yoga! If a disciple has all knowledge about Tantra But never attained the initiation, Both he and his followers will fall into the great hell!" Both the acquisition of the Pith-Instructions, and (the transformation from common capacity to) the competency- in-Tantra depend on initiation. Therefore, initiation is the root of all accomplishments. Without initiation, no matter how diligently one may strive, he will achieve no accomplishments whatsoever. Also, there is a definite danger that both the guru and disciples are liable to fall into hell. The Tantra of Bde -mchog says: "If a Tantric Yogi who desires to practice a certain Yoga, has never seen the Mandala, All his efforts will be in vain, 117 As a man trying to beat the sky with his fist, Or a fool taking the mirage for water." According to these sayings, the disciples should first be sent into the Mandala and given the complete Water and Crown Initiations. This is necessary, for if one depends on the Partial Initiation, such as the consecration from one particular Buddha and the fragmentary performance of initiation, it can only be considered a prepara tory work preceding the "real, complete Initiation." Although there is no fault in depending on the Partial or Concise Initiation, it is by no means sufficient. A great and complete Initiation is necessary, as admonished in many Tantras and by many learned and accomplished teachers. Having attained the Initiation of Hevajra6 The explanation for the nece ssity of observing the Tantra precepts follows. , if one can also obtain the initiation of Bde -mchog, it will be very useful to him, because these two teachings are very closely connected with each other. During the ceremony when the Guru and all the Buddhas Sons7 "The experts in Dhyana, the advanced Yogis, Should always observe their precepts carefully. Whoever violates the Tantric precepts Will never accomplish anything in Mandala, He will attain no Siddhis whatsoever." imparted the initiation to the disciple, the disciple had sworn to observe the precepts and to follow all the admonishments. Having been shown how the precepts should be observed in the initiation ceremony, he was made fully aware of his responsibilities. He should observe the precepts accordingly. As said in the basic Tantra of Bde -mchog: The Tantra of Mnyam -sbyor (Balanced Actions) says: "If one has never entered the Mandala, If one violates one's oaths, 6 Hevajra and Bde -mchog: names of two important Tantric Buddhas. 7 Buddha's Sons: The Bodhisattvas. 118 If one knows not the esoteric Pith -Instruction, No matter how hard one practices, There will be no accomplishment!" It is clearly stated that if the disciple has not entered the Mandala and obtained the initiation, or if he does not observe the precepts and know the teaching of the Two Steps of the Arising Yoga thoroughly, he will never attain any accomplishments even if he practises a long time. If he has attained the teachings of the Highest Division of Tantra and claims to be a Tantric Yogi, he must know the Fundamental and Secondary Precepts of Tantricism 8 After these general preparations we now consider special preparations, which are the supreme preparation practice. After the disciple has learned the necessary supreme preparation practices such as the general virtuous deeds, the attainment of Initiation, and the observation of Tantric Precepts, he should then begin the essential Tantric practice: t he Guru Yoga , Vajrasattva Yoga, and the Mandala Offering Performance . Based upon the traditional sayings of the Gurus in the past, the explanation of the Vajrasattva Yoga and the Guru Yoga follows: . Therefore, he should discipline himself well and observe the precepts carefully. Vajrasattva Yoga is designed for cleansing the sins and removing the obstacles of the disciples, while the Guru Yoga is designed for the bestowal of blessing and grace on the disciples. First, the Vajrasattva Yoga: He should earnestly devote himself to taking refuge in the Three Precious Ones like a hunted prey. He should also think of his fellow men, the infinite sentient beings, who are drowned in the ocean of suffering with him. As a matter of fact, they were all once his own mothers 9 8 The Fundamental Precepts: Contain Fourteen Rules; the Secondary Precepts are the so -called Eight Transgressions. . Hence he should remind himself of the immense debt of gratitude that he owes them think how much work has to be done by a mother to bring up a child; think how a mother protects her child from dangers, illness, hunger. By constantly 9 According to the philosophy of reincarnation, in endless cycles of rebirths every sentient being is related as parent to child. 119 bearing such thoughts in mind, a resolute will to benefit the mother -like sentient beings will arise in one's heart. Then he should think further that all the seeming pleasures they may enjoy in Sa sara will end in vanity and pain, and he should make a fervent oath: "I will bring all happiness by all possible means to sentient beings. I will set them f ree from all sufferings and unhappiness." He realizes that to materialize this wish there is no other way but to look for attainment of Buddhahood; thus a genuine Heart -for-Bodhi may arise within him. He fully understands that it is for the sake of sentien t beings that he hopes for the Supreme Enlightenment and practices the Yoga of this Tutelary Buddha Vajrasattva. The Tantra of the Essence of Adornment says: "He (Vajrasattva), who is the body of all Buddhas, Sits on the Moon Wheel upon the white lotus Holding the Thunderbolt and Bell with all ornaments. A devotee should visualize the Vajrasattva in this manner. He should also practice the Incantation of the Hundred Words 10 Those accomplished masters also said: For twenty times in one performance. By doing this, even the sinful ones will b e blessed." "In between the meditation periods One should recite the incantation. If one recites it one hundred thousand times, one's sins will be completely purified." This means if he practices the Hundred Words In cantation of Vajrasattva twenty -one times in the interval of meditation periods, his transgressional sins in the Yoga practice will not grow; if he recites the incantation one hundred thousand times, his sins will all be cleansed. Thus one should practice this Yoga according to the following procedure. Visualize a white lotus on the top of your head. In the center of the lotus is an Ah word which is transformed into a Moon Wheel. Upon the Moon Wheel stands a H word, which transforms into a Thunderbolt, and from this 10 The incantation of Vajrasattva, which comprises one hundred words. 120 Thunderbolt's lower part a H word radiates infinite beams of light (by which the Two Acts11 "O! Bh agavat Vajrasattva! Pray cleanse all the sins and transgressional evils of mine and of other sentient beings!" are performed). It shines forth reaching to the Buddha's Pure Land and renders offerings and services. Then it returns and shines downwards into the l ower Lokas to relieve the sufferings of the sentient beings. Then the light retracts to the H word and instantaneously becomes the Buddha Vajrasattva his body is white, his right hand holds a Thunderbolt, and his left hand holds a bell. He also holds the Mother Buddha, the White Mother of Elegance. She has all the ornaments adorning her body and holds the Curved Knife and Human Skull. Her beauty and elegance are beyond description. She sits in a Lotus Posture and her body bears the thirty- two glorified marks and eight subsidiary signs of Buddha's body. In the Mother's heart lies a moon, upon which the white H word radiates infinite light to the Buddha's land inviting the Wisdom Buddha to come down. When the Wisdom Buddha descends, remember to perform the Five Offerings and say Tsa H Bo Hoo to consolidate the Buddha. And, from the Mother's heart, the light again emanates to invite all the Buddhas in the universe to come down. You should earnestly pray them to grant you the Initiation. Then think that fr om all the nectar -filled vases held in the hands of all the Mother Buddhas, there begins to flow out the nectar to fill your body. Thus the Initiation is given to you. Meanwhile you should recite: Aum Sarwa Da Ta Ga Da Ah Bi Ke Gada Samaya Shir Ye H ! After the initiation, the over -flowing nectar gathers over your head and crystallizes into an image of the immutable Buddha (Me Gy Ba) to adorn your head. Thereupon, with the greatest sincerity of your body, mouth, and mind, you should pray as follows: Moved by your sincere prayer, Buddha Vajrasattva radiates beams of light from his heart, which shine upon the bodies of all sentient beings in th e cosmos; thereby, their sins and hindrances are cleared. The light again shines forth to the Buddha's Pure Land, rendering service and offerings, and finally collecting the merits of Buddha's body, mouth, mind, virtue, and performance before retracting to the Hword. Having been enforced by 11 The Two Acts: Offering self to Buddha, and offering self for the liberation of sentient beings. 121 the merits of all the Buddhas, the Vajrasattva becomes more grandiose, powerful, and compassionate. Circling the H word in his heart -center is the following sacred incantation: O Ba-tsa Heruga Samaya Manubabaya Heruga Delobaditsa Dri Dor Mabawa Sudokayo Mabawa Subodayo Mabawa Ah Hu Rado Mabawa Sarwa Sidhi Mebaryatsa Sarwagarma Su Tsame Tse Dar Shirya Guru H Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho Bhagavan Bentsa Heruga Mamemutssa Heruga Bava Mahasamaya Satta Ah Um Pai! When reciting the in cantation, you should visualize the incantation- circle rotating on and on. As the speed of the rotation steadily increases, beams of light emanate from this incantation- spin and shine upon the bodies of all sentient beings, cleansing their sins and removin g obstacles. The light again travels to the myriads of Buddha's Pure Land, rendering offerings to the Buddhas and gathering the wave of grace 12 from Buddha's body, mouth, and mind before returning to the incantation letters. (Through this inspiration) a s tream of pure nectar begins to flow out from the body of Vajrasattva. It flows into your body through the Pure Gate on the top of the head, until the whole body is full of nectar. At the same time, this incoming stream of nectar washes away all filthy and putrid matters which symbolizes the sins. One should think that through the pores over all the body the filthy matters, representing the sins and kleas, are squeezed out and washed away. The body is filled with nothing but the pure and clean nectar. Thereupon, with a confidence of benefiting others and self, you should recite the incantation. When the recitation is finished, the devotee should apply the principle of the Four Mighty Ways 13 to confess all his sins and wrong doings to Buddha. Then he should think that all his sins of the Three Wheels 14 (At the end of this meditation) the Yogi reads the following prayer: the sin, sinner, and the act of sinare cleansed thereby. 12 This term is common also in the initiation rituals. It is a term from the Hindu Tantra. Ed. 13 Four Mighty Ways: (1) Public confession of one's past wrongdoings; (2) Taking an oath never to repeat these wrong acts; (3) Performance of meritorious deeds; (4) Meditation on nyat . 14 The sin, sinner, and act of sin are likened to wheels turning about and keeping the world of Sa sara in manifestation. 122 "O my protector! Because of my ignorance and desires I have committed certain transgressions and evil deeds. My Guru, my refuge! Save me and protect me! O my lord, the one who holds the immutable Vajra! Thou art the essence of great kindness and compassion! The supreme lord of all, in whom I take refuge!" After reciting this prayer, Buddha Vajrasattva smiles at him and says, "Good man, your sins, transgressions, and hindrances are all cleared." Then the Buddha Vajrasattva transforms himself into great light and enters into the body of the disciple. Then the disciple should think that his body, mouth, and mind are united and identified with the Buddha Vajrasattva. At the end of this meditation, the disciple should dedicate the merits and make an expression of good wishes toward all sentient beings. In order to obtain blessing and grace from the Guru, the instructions for the practice of Guru Yoga are given as follows: 1. To view the Guru as the Field of Merits 15 2. To serve and revere the Guru. . 1. The disciple should think that in the firmament in front of him there is a lion- shaped seat of gems with lotus- moon cushions upon it. On this sits his own Guru, who is the embodiment of the Thunderbolt -Holder, the Great Rdo- rje-chang, the Primordial Buddha of the Six Buddhas16 15 Offerings are more than acts of reverence. According to the law of Cause and Effect, one reaps merits through sowing offerings. The more enlightened the recipient, the greater the blessing; hence, the Buddhas and Gurus are the best Fields of Merits for the disciples. . His blue body has one face and two arms. His right hand holds the Thunderbolt and his left hand holds the bell. With heavenly clothes and jewels adorning his body, he embraces the Mother Buddha in a Lotus- Sitting posture. From his body radiates resplendently the five- colored aura. On his forehead is a moon and a white O word, at his throat there is a lotus and a red Ah word, in his heart there is a sun and a blue H word. From these three words emanate beams of light shining forth to the Buddha's Pure Land and inviting the great Rdo- 16 Six Buddhas: In most Tantric mandalas these are deities of the four directions and of the center, together with the all encompassing prim ordial Buddha Rdo -rje-chang, making six in all. 123 rje-chang and all the Gurus in the lineage to descend here. They all enter the disciple's body and become unified with the disciple. As said in the Tantra of Sdom -abpung: "Guru is the Buddha, Guru is the Dharma, Guru is also the Sangha" One should thus regard his own Guru as the embodiment of the Three Refuges. The Five Steps Tantra also says: "The self -born Bhagavan He who is the supreme heaven of all. He gives the teaching and Pith- Instructions. But there is one who is superior even to the Bhagavan, He is the actual teacher, one's own Guru of Vajrayana." According to these sayings one must regard one's own Guru as much more important even than the Great Buddha, for only through him can one be benefited. As Buddha says: "When the appropriate time comes, I shall embody myself in a proper person. Whoever serves him will be blessed, his sins and transgressions cleansed." This convinces us that whenever we serve the Pith -Instruction -Giver, our Guru, all the Buddhas will embody themselves in him to accept the offerings and to purify the disciples sins. In the ordinary practice when one renders the offerings to Buddha, no doubt he attains the due merits of serving the Buddhas; however, he cannot be assured that the Buddha will actually come and accept his offerings17 17 The translator does not agree with Tsong Khapa's reasoning here, since it implies that a Buddha may refuse to accept a sincere offering. This would mean that the Buddha could be less than all -compassionate, an impossibility. [The sense of the text, however, rather appears to be not that the Buddha would refuse to accept any offering, but that there is no necessity that the Buddha will or should make a special miraculous appearance in a personal nirmanakya ( body of transformation) to do so, when the yogi's guru, who is already personally accessible, can act as just such a vehicle or channel. Ed .] . Therefore, we know that the very best Merit - Field is one's own Guru. Thus, we should regard the Guru as the embodiment of all Tathagatas, possessing all the merits. In this manner, a pure faith toward one's Guru will grow. If a disciple thinks ill of his Guru or is faultfinding towards his Guru, he is sure to encounter the hindrances in his quest for enlightenment. If a disciple esteems and pays homage to his Guru, he will soon attain the enlightenment. With this and other right manners 124 and considerations, one should think much of the gratitude that he owes to his Guru and faithfully respect and venerate him. 2. To serve and revere the Guru, as said in the Tantra of Five Steps: "He should give up all other services and offerings And concentrate on serving and offering to the Guru a lone. If his Guru is pleased, The disciple will soon attain the All -Knowing Wisdom. If the disciple serves and offers to his Guru As he offers and serves the real Buddha, What accomplishments and merits cannot he attain then? What easier way to enlightenment can he find?" One should know that among all the offerings and services, these made to one's Guru are the best. Hence, with great faith, one ought to make the best effort to serve one's Guru. The practice of Mandala18 "This great Mandal, which includes the entire wealth of the cosmos, is now visualized clearly by my mind. Now I offer it in its entirety together with all (a ritual of offering) is briefly expounded as follows: The Mandal, of clay or gems, should be smeared with incense and the Five Nectars. The Yogi then recite the invocation: O Ba-tsa Bume Ah H ! By reciting this invocation the great iron wall is laid up. Within the enclosure of the great iron wall are spread clusters of gorgeous flowers, from which emanate the fragrance of perfume and the agreeable odor of the Five Nectars. In the center of the earth looms the great Sumeru Mountain; encircling the Sumeru Mountain are the Four Continents the East, South, West, and North; and between the continents are scattered small islands. East of the Four Continents is a sacred elephant (The Precious One); in the South, a sacred Family Overseer; in the West, a sacred Supreme Horse; in the North, a sacred Girl Rinbochi; in the Northeast, a sacred Warrior; in the Southwest, the precious Wheel; in the Northwest, the precious Jewel; in the Southeast, a great treasury. In the farther inner circle the sun, moon, planets, and stars are situated in their r espective locations. 18 Mandal: a bowl -like utensil, symbol of the universe, which is offered to Buddha. The treasure in it are symbols of the most perfect wealth and gifts of heaven and earth. 125 the pleasures, merits, and happiness of mine and others in past, present, and fu ture to the Gurus and Deities. I pray you to pity me, to accept my offer, and to grant me your blessing." Thus the yogi should pray. He should also render the Outer Offerings, the flowers and so on; the Inner Offerings, the offerings of nectars; and the Se cret Offerings 19 The Yogi should also think that he has attained the accomplishments of the Three Vajras . Thus he should praise Buddha and take Tantric precepts, both general and special, before his Guru. He should pray with earnestness and respect to his Guru to grant him a speedy arising of the understanding and realization of the Mundane and Transcendental Siddhis, to keep him apart from obstacles and bring him to agreeable conditions for his practice. Moved by this sincere prayer, the Guru is pleased. Therefore, he radiates successively from the Three Words ( O Ah H) the white, red, and blue lights which enter into the Three Places (forehead, throat, and heart) of the Yogi in order and eventually fill his body wholly. The defilements and sins of body, speech, and mind are thus cleansed, and the Vase Secret and Wisdom Initiations are attai ned. 20 . Thereupon, from the Three Places of the Guru simultaneously emanate the Three Lights. They enter into the body through all the gates 21 . By means of these lights , the subtle defilements22 The Three Words ( O Ah H) are the symbol of the Three Vajras, having the ability to cleanse the defilements of the three gates. Therefore, it is permissible to consider that the three initiations are attained by this practice. And inasmuch as the thought of attaining the Absolute Fourth Initiation (Identity of the Three Vajras) is able to cleanse the Subtle of the body, speech and mind are cleansed; the fourth initiation is thus attained by the Yogi. The Yogi should think that he has attained the Accomplishment of the Identity of the Three Vajras. 19 The Inner Offerings and Secret Offerings: The Inner Offerings are the bliss and enlightenment produced in the Tantric meditation the meditation with breathing and physical exercises. The Secret Of ferings are the highest bliss and ecstasy produced by the Third Initiation. 20 The Three Vajras: The perfecting of body, speech, and mind. Vajra may be translated as Diamond, meaning the strongest most precious; here, it means the highest perfection. 21 All the Gates: all the pores of the body, in addition to the nine chief gatestwo eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the mouth, the anus, and the sex organ. 22 Subtle defilements: According to Mahayana Buddhism these are the subtle, or fine, Clinging of Dharma , only to be destroyed in the Eight, Ninth and Tenth Bhumis in the advanced stage of the Bodhisattva's path. (See Avatansaga Sutra and Yogacara Bhumi .) 126 Defilements, thereby the Fourth Initiation is attained. However, these so - called initiations are merely accepted for convenience and are by no means the actual initiations. "Thereupon, the Guru above and before me descends upon my head, enters my body, and becomes one with me. Thus the Guru's body, speech and mind are identical with mine." Thus the Yogi should think; and then he should recite the Mantra of One Hundred Words to consolidate this unification. This practice should be performed at the beginning and end of the meditation, especially at the beginning. 127 CHAPTER THREE . THE ARISING AND PERFECTING YOGA In the second part, th e actual practice of the Path, there are two divisions the Arising Yoga and the Perfecting Yoga . We have heard some ignorant sayings from schools in Tibet that the Arising Yoga is necessary only for the Mundane Accomplishments. Nevertheless, according to t he Mes -mdsur and Rngog1 "In the course of the arising and extinction of manifestation, For the sake of developing the illuminated mind, One should diligently practice both the Arising and the Perfecting Yoga." schools of the Marpa lineage, the teaching of the Arising Yoga is given first. Milarepa said: Many great teachers of the past said that to practice both the Arising Yoga and Perfecting Yoga is necessary. Therefore, to dispense with the Arising Yoga is against the teaching of Tantra and its authori tative commentaries. It is also against the teaching of their own [i.e. the ignorant objectors] schools; hence, before the practice of Perfecting Yoga, we must study and practice the Arising Yoga. As said in the Tantra of Gye- rdo- rje: "If one says the tw o Yogas are equal 2 The same Tantra also says: , It is a Tantra -infant's preaching." "Through practising the Arising Yoga, The Tantric Yogi3 first practices the Yoga of Forms4 1 These names are the title of the sub -schools or branches of Kagyutpa (the White School, or the School of Marpa.) 2 This quotation from the Tantra of Gye -rdo-rje is incomplete, being only a part or the original stanza. It therefore can be given many different interpretations. 3 The Tantric Yogi: The original text is Brtul-zugs -chans, meaning literally "the one with oath." 4 The Yoga of Forms and Non- Forms: This is not a perfect but an expressive translation. The Tibetan term Spros -pa means "Nonsense" or "Play -Words" which implies that all the conceptions and patterns of human thought are relative and illusor y; they are "play- words" when applied to reality. For convenience, the translator has used the term "Yoga of Forms," because in the practice of Arising Yoga one cannot free oneself from conceptualism and symbolism. All visualizations, recitations, and pray ers practiced in the Arising Yoga have form, while Mahamudra or the Yoga of Non -Forms transcends all these practices. The reader may consider "The Yoga of Away- From -the Play -Words" and "The Yoga with Play -Words" as alternative translations. 128 Knowing the Yoga of Forms is dreamlike The Yoga of Form itself eventually becomes the Yoga of Non-Form." The Holy Nagarjuna says: "First one should master the Arising Yoga, Then one should aspire to the Perfecting Yoga, This is the teaching given by the Perfect Buddha, It is like a ladder with rungs." Thus in many sutras we find stated the necessity for practising the Arising Yoga first. The main reason for this necessity is that the Arising Yoga will lay a good foundation for the Perfecting Yoga, and will ripen and produce in the Yogi's heart the complete enlightenment experi ence of the Perfecting Yoga. If the disciple has attained a stable Samadhi of Arising Yoga, he can then begin practicing the Perfecting Yoga. In the course of this practice, he first meditates solely on either the Father or the Mother tutelary deity for the sake of convenience and ease. In such case he may not be wrong. However, to think that this process can also be adopted by the beginner is certainly against the principle of Tantra. Then, how should one practice? According to those who retain the tradi tions and principles of this teaching, the foundation of the teaching of the Six Yogas is the Heat Yoga. This view is based mainly on the doctrine of Hevajra, in which it is stated that any one of the four castes 5 Those revered masters in the past who devoted themselves mainly to practicing this teaching acquired their Pith instructions from the Tantra of Bde -mchog. From Gambopa, through the transmission of Ladak and Mar, the Bde- mchog teaching of Ladak was transmitted. In his youth, the Glorious Pag-mo-grub -pa practiced the Bde- mchog teaching from Mar -do. Transmissions were derived from the Bde- mchog Mandala of Sixty -two Tutelaries of the Lu-I- Pa School. Although there are two such different transmissions, they both (p rovide the methods of) producing bliss and joy; therefore the practice of either one will do. One should thus practice the can be led to practice this teaching. 5 Four Castes: the four castes of India. 129 Yoga of Four Periods6 Now, t hese experiences will be encountered during the practice of Arising Yoga as the appropriate instructions are followed: which will lead to the unfoldment of the Mandalas from the feet the Five Buddhas and Bells to the head. At first, (the yogi) should visualize the tutelary deity through the gradual steps till the whole body of the tutelary is completed. If t he tutelary deity visualized has many faces and arms, the yogi may disregard the others and concentrate on visualizing the two main arms and the main face. There are two ways of visualizing the tutelary one's body: the upward process from the feet to the h ead, and the downward process from the head to the feet. The tutelary -body should be envisioned as a whole, clearly and vividly. At first, however, the yogi should visualize the body not in specific detail but the body at once complete; then softly and loosely hold onto the visualization without any distraction. If any disturbing or diversified thought arises liable to cause the meditator to follow it, the meditator should beware, and bring his mind back to the object of meditation. If the visualization (mi nd-picture) becomes unclear, the yogi should freshen it by seeing it vividly until it becomes clear again. In the process of his meditation, the yogi will have the following experiences; that part of the tutelary -body he intensifies will appear clearly and vividly, the part to which he pays no attention will never appear in his mind- picture. Finally, the mind -picture will become so clear that he will think that not even the actual eye could see it better. If the yogi wants to rest his mind stably on the cle ar picture, he must overcome drowsiness and distraction. Throughout the whole period of meditation he must possess the power of concentration. Having mastered the above- mentioned "sketchy visualization" 7 6 Four Periods: Morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Here Tsong Khapa's commentary is not explicit. The translator presumes that he means that the Yogi meditates on a different part of the body (corresponding to the Five Buddhas and their adornments) during each of the four periods. , the yogi should then visualize the other faces, arms, adornments etc., until all the details are complete and perfect. Thereafter the Mother tutelary deity 7 "Sketchy Visualization": a general, non particularized mind -picture of the tutelary deity. 130 should be visualized, then the other deities. Eventually the yogi is able to picture clearly and vividly all the deities (in the Mandala) and the objects in the complete Beyond- Measure Palace, general and specific, all at once in perfect concentration. The yogi is required to reach this stage. Now the teaching of the Tutelary Pride8 The yogi should raise the Tutelary Pride and think to himself, "I am t he Buddha so- and- so," and concentrate on this. If the vision becomes unclear, the yogi should freshen it again. In the beginning, this meditation- with - effort- and-stress is needed. Later on, the yogi will be able to maintain a stable feeling of the Tutelary Pride after the meditation period in his daily activities. When he reaches this stage, his mental power of retaining the visualization will be strong enough to withstand the fluctuating circumstances, and he will maintain the Tutelary Pride in between med itation periods. The Visualization Practice and Tutelary Pride Practice should be exercised alternately. Working on this superb meditation, consisting of both deities and their dwellings, will eventually prevent the arising of the Samsaric visions; only the Superb Visions : 9 When the yogi arises from h is meditation, whatever he sees living beings or the material world he should think of as Buddhas and Buddhas' dwelling -places. If he can stabilize this feeling, he can attain the steadfast Samadhi. When he reaches this stage, he is admitted to have purifi ed the Common Visions through the practice of the Arising Yoga. will appear in the yogi's mind. The spontaneous Tutelary Pride capable of maintaining itself in all fluctuating circumstances is the cure which purifies the vulgar (or Sasaric) attachments in the yogi's mind. It is said in the Tantra of Sdom -abyung: "The nature of the Three Kingdoms is the Beyond -Measure Palace. All the living beings are the deities of the Mandala." 8 Tutelary Pride: to cure the Sa saric Pride -of-Ego, Tantricism teaches the yogi to expand instead of aband on, as Hinayana Buddhism taught, this pride to a cosmic scale to the identification of one's self with Buddha, this being the highest pride of all. 9 Superb Visions: When the Yogi reaches this stage he no longer views the world and its objects in the ordinary, common, Sa saric way but sees the outer world as the Palace -Beyond -Measure and himself as the tutelary Buddha. 131 The saintly Apags -ba-Iha said, "If you understand that the myriad manifestations are the Mandala itself, how would it be possible for your mind to become confused?" This understanding is applicable to both the Arising and the Perfecting Yoga. According to the principle of Vajrayana, all manisfestations are the Mandala of Heaven; all feelings and experiences are the Great Bliss; all thoughts are the Untreated. To follow and to identify this principle is the main function of the Arising Yogi. In the Arising Yoga, the Great Bliss of Perfect ing Yoga produced by the entering of Life Prana into the Central Channel is not found. Nevertheless, since the practicer has attained a very stable and clear visualization of Yab -Yum Buddha, he is able to unify wisdom and skill, to stop wavering and fluctu ating Bodhi -heart, as symbolized in the Pad word 10 In short, the main objective and function of the Arising Yoga the practice of visualizing the Mandala is to ripen the yogi, to bring his consciousness forth to the realization of the identity of Buddha and sentient beings. ; and he will experience a variety of blisses in Arising Yoga. The instruction of the Practice of Perfecting Yoga is given in three parts: the basic principles, the step -by-step path, and the realization of the fruit or accomplishm ent. In the first part there are two divisions: 1. The basic principle or real -nature of the mind. 2. The basic principle or real -nature of the body. For the sake of exposing the principles behind the complete practices, the first exposition is introduced. For the sake of explaining the points in the body with respect to which the visualization should be carried out, the second exposition is introduced. 10 Bodhi -heart means in this case, the male life -force or semen. Pad symbolizes the stability and the union of the two forces (male and female). [The translator here, we feel, is imposing a very restricted interpretation on the text, which may apply just as well to p. 275 a female yogi, who also has Bodhi Heart. This term actually refers to the inner love -power which is released or "melted " by "the taming of prana." It is by no means simply to be conceived in any naive physical sense, which would succeed only in mis -defining it as a false limitation. The same is to be said of Pad.Ed .] 132 1. The basic principle of the mind. The Tantra of Two Forms says: "The mind, the perceiver, is formless in its essence. There is no sound and no hearer, no smell and no smeller, no taste and no taster, no touch and no feeler. Likewise there are no mind and mind- functions11 "One should understand that the organs, the outer -objects, and the consciousnesses of the organs Are all the Goddesses. Thus, the eighteen dhatus ." 12 The [visual] form, sound, smell, taste, and [touch] stimuli are the five outer objects, from the seer to the feeler are the five senses, from the eye to the body are the five organs. In the terms of Skandhas , they all belong to the Aggregation of Form. In the terms of Ayatana are preached. From the very beginning, their essence is uncreated never did they come into being. They are neither false nor real; Therefore, they are like the moon's reflection in the water. Thus should you understand the Dakinis." 13 The stanza says that the non- existence of essence means the absence or the non- existence of self -nature in all Dharmas and living beings. These sayings they belong to the ten Ayatanas of form; the Nonself- nature of them is thus pointed out by the stanza. The so -called mind (Sems) is the Aggregation of Consciousness, or the Ayatana of Consciousness. The so -called mind -function is the Aggregation of Feelings, Perceptions, and Emotions. The above stanza explains the Non-self -nature of sense-data or the Ayatana of Dharma. The form -seer and the sound- hearer mentioned in the stanza denote the egotistic conception of beings. In short, this stanza illustrates both the Clinging of Ego and the Clinging of Dharma. 11 Mind -Functions: Buddhism distinguishes between the mind and its activity. Mind is that which acts, but the functions are the different ways in which this mind manifests. According to Yogacara, the mind or the No. 6 Consciousness has 51 mind functions. 12 The eighteen dhatus (groups): The six outer- objects, the six sense -organs, and the six consciousnesses. 13 Ayatanas: The six places where the consciousnesses abide and the six objects observed. 133 are the philosophy of the great master Mdso -sgyes as mentioned in his commentary. They imply the Voidness or non- existence of the self -nature or the non- existence of the definable nature of being the self -being as expressed in many other sources. This truth of the non -existence of self -nature, or the nonexistence of essence, or the never- come -into -being -self-nature, is by no means previously untrue but intentionally and subsequently verified through human reason and the holy edifications. This truth exists from the very beginning, as said in the stanza "to understand the truth as it is"; this clearly demonstrates the aspect of the "Originally true". Guru Marpa said: "On the bank of the Ganges river in the East, Through the grace of the great Medrepa14 Thus Marpa's understanding of Mahamudra was procured mainly from the great master Medrepa, who, in this connection, particularly referred to the Thatness among the Ten Solenesses . As he said in a stanza: "It is neither with form nor without form." By this he meant the Soleness of the Originally True , not the Soleness With Form nor the Soleness Without Form. His disciple Lhan- jig-sgyes -pai-rdor -rjes gave the exposition to this stanza in his commentary: , I fully realized the original reality of the never -come -into- being. This enlightenment kindles the void- nature of mind. Clearly I beheld the original essence the truth devoid of play- words, And clearly saw the Three Bodies, Whereby all the conceptualistic ideas in my mind were forever cleared up." "Without -Form means the doctrine of the Sutra School. These terms also imply the True Form or Illusory Form of Yogachara, as favored by the School of Yogachara of True Form and the School of Yogachara of Illusory Form. This is also applicable to the Madhyamika Yogachara School its doctrine 14 Medrepa: The Guru of Marpa, an accomplished Indian Yogi. 134 allows the mind- only philosophy, either With Form or Without Form, of Yogachara in the field of mundane truth15 The doctrine of Two Truths should be established in a manner such as the Great Yogi Milarepa explains: . (The printing is not clear in the two first lines.) "Buddha says that all do exist. But, in the category of Transcendental Truth, There are no hindrances and even no Buddha. There is no meditator nor meditation. There is no practice nor experiences. Neither is there any Buddha -body nor Buddha -wisdom Therefore there is no Nirvana. All such terms are merely names and conceptions." According to the Middle -Way doctrine of Nagrajuna, Aryadeva, Zla -wa-grags - ba, the very nature of causation itself is Soleness. So this stanza implies that only these sages doctrine is acceptable16 Zla-wa-zhaba said that, if a teacher has no pith- instruction as if an adornment for himself, he can be only a mediocre follower of the middle way. This right explanation of the ultimate truth by Zla -wa-zhaba should be rightly followed. . Nagrajuna and Aryadeva, the Savior and the Holy One, were both middle -wayists after the Sutra period. Subsequent to the period of these two sages, there were many peopl e who talked about Middle -Way philosophy, but these people can only nominally be regarded as middle -wayists. The superb being, Master Medrepa, and the meritorious Dhawadrapa were two outstanding sages who really held Nagrajuna's and Arydeva's view in a cor rect manner. Furthermore the Treatise of the Ten Solenesses says: "Without the adornment of pith- instructions from one's Guru, one can be considered only a mediocre follower of the middle way. 15 The philosophies of these schools are very complicated. Because of the limitation of space, the translator cannot explain all their differences here. 16 This is Tsong Khapa's view and does not reflect that of Tibetan scholars in general. 135 Now, the explanations of "neither true nor false." Says the Sutra of the Sixty Rational Stanzas: "The beings that depend on and are caused by other beings, Their nature is insubstantial like the moon's reflection in water. All the stable and unstable living beings in Sa sara Are originally unborn and non -existent. There is no fundamental truth nor Innate Wisdom17 Thus it is said that in the Transcendental Truth nothing whatsoever exists, Sasaric or Nirvanicnot an iota ever existed. But immediately the Sutra continues: , There is neither Karma nor the effects of Karma. Therefore, the Sa sara never existed even its name is meaningless! O, the absolute truth is like this!" "Alas, if there is no sentient being, From where have the Buddhas in the Three Times come? If there are no causes there will be no effects. In the sense of Mundane Truth Both Sasara and Nirvana exist. This is said by Buddha Shakyamuni himself. The existence and the non-existence, The entities and the emptiness, The manifestations and the reality, Are identical and of one taste. In essence there is no difference between them at all. There is no self -awareness nor other- awareness, All and all are absorbed in the great two- in-one. The sages who have realized this truth See no consciousness but wisdom. The sages who have realized this truth See no sentient beings but Buddhas, See no Dharma Form but Dharma Essence. 17 Innate Wisdom: The perfect wisdom of Buddhahood, which is not made by humans but is inborn in every sentient being. 136 They are neither true nor false One should not fall into these views." Sentient beings and materials are all produced through respective causes and conditions; they are consolidated through co nceptualization; therefore, they are not real, nor have they any substantiality. In other words, all beings are void in their self -nature in the sense of the actual existence of self - essence. If there were an independently- solid self -nature in beings there would be no need for depending on any cause or conditions (to form the beings themselves). Thus there never existed even an atom of sense- data (outer -object) upon which the Clinging of Existence arises 18 This very truth does not impair the order and functions of the causation-bound events in Sa sara and Nirvana; as dream, magic, and shadow, all the transpiring events manifest. Based on this view, one should know that those who claim the Voidness as the non- existence of the horn -of a-rabbit [i.e. the non-e xistence of false notions Ed.] are mistaken. One should also know that those who claim nonexistence of the delusory snake -perception arising from the rope, are also wrong. Thus, one should know that this absolute non-existence of the sensedata upon which t he Clinging of Existence arises is the correct understanding of Sunyata. Without such a horse -of-right- understanding, even if one rides on a horse -of-Buddha, one will not be able to cross the stream of Sa sara. . Says the Tantra of Rdo -rje- bgur: "In order to destroy the clinging of ego, The Buddhas have preached the teaching of the Voidness." This means that in order to destroy the Clinging of Ego and the Clinging of Dharma, Buddhas have preached the philosophy of the Voidness. Though the principle of the Transcendental Truth is as mentioned above, even in the 18 This complicated conception is unique in Tsong Khapa's philosophy. Tsong Khapa's definition of the self - nature is very peculiar; his philosophy of Middle -way is greatly different from those of the old schools an d is refuted [rather, "opposed," for the Middle Way doctrine's meaning is really not different from Mahamudra] by many outstanding scholars of these schools. Since it takes a great deal of careful thought and study to understand Tsong Khapa's philosophy and how it differs from that of the old schools, the translator believes that it is not wise to explain the different views here briefly, for that would definitely lead to misunderstanding. It is the wish of the translator to write an essay on this topic at some later date. 137 category of Mundane Truth, if one decisively or unalterably identifies existent things with dreams, magic, and illusory visions, one will eventually come to the point of the Nothingness19 Some hold that all manifestations are magic- like, and accept the existence of all happenings in Sa sara and Nirvana such as the attainment of Buddhahood. They also claim that all manifestations are merely names and words denominated and conceptualized by human beings, that the manifested beings in the causations are identical in essence with the Voidness of non self -nature, that the existence and the non- existence have never separated from each other. They further claim that this is the special teaching given by the great masters in the past, and that it is not necessary to follow the Two- Truths System of the Middle Way doctrine. This kind of saying is not right; it is against the teachings of the Buddhas and the exposition of them by sages. Not only that, these sayings contradict their own doctrine, for on the one hand they deny the Two- Fold Truth and on the other hand they accept the principle of the identity of bliss and voidness. In short, one should definitely search for the understanding of Voidness which is briefly explained above. which is not allowed in my school. If one follows the wrong views of other schools one is liable to fall into endless dangers. 2. The basic principles or nature of the Body. In the center of the Transformation -Wheel (Chakra) at the navel and the other main Wheels in the body is pivoted the Central Channel; the upper end and the lower end of it, together with other points of the Wheels, are the most important centers. These centers are viewed as vital points and are emphasized in the Skill -in-Yoga- Teachings of Tantra. 19 Here is shown Tsong Khapa's "timidness" on nyat, and his materialistic view is clearly reflected . We cannot agree with the translator here. Tsong Khapa at this point is simply referring to the error of the Nihilistic Extreme (see note 95). The Anuttara Tantra (which Tsong Khapa follows, thus being on no account a materialist, as the very next paragraph in the text also confirms) very explicitly states that to reduce all things to non- existence is as wrong as to affirm naively the ultim ate reality of their phenomenal existence. The Snyat is not in question at all here.Ed . 138 According to the pith- instructions of Marpa, one should put emphasis on the Heart and Throat Centers during sleeping, and should know the critical teachings on the Navel and Forehead Centers during the practice of Heat Yoga and Karma Yoga in the awakening stage. This is because during these different times the Thig -le20 At the time of falling into sleep, the pranas will gather at the Heart Center and the Precious Center. When they are heavily concentrated, one will fall into sleep; thereafter, the pranas in these two parts gradually become thinner and thinner. When (most of) the pranas come to the Secret Center and Throat Center the fleeting dreams will appear; when the pranas have gathered in these two parts for some time the actu al dreams (or steady dreams) will arise. When the pranas rise up to the Center Head and Navel Centers, one will awake. From the Head Center the Thig -le drops to the end of the precious organ; as it reaches the different centers as mentioned above it will p roduce the various blisses (or so -called Four Blisses). upon which the consciousness relies concentrates at these four different centers. According to the teaching of Dus- akor (Kalachakra) the Head Center and Navel Center produce the Thig -le in the awakening stage; the Throat and the Secret Center produce the Thig - le in dreaming stage; the Heart and the Precious Center produce the Thig- le in the deep -dreaming stage. This agrees approximately with the saying that at the end of the navel and genital center, the Thig- le is produced in the four different times. This is the meaning of the four times: Through the power of the prana the Yogi manipulates in exercise, the Downward- Bliss produces the Dim Innate when it reaches the center of the navel; when it reaches the end of the precious organ the Bright Innate is produced. That these four centers are very important in the meritorious exercises of dream and sleep by no means implies that they are not essential points upon which the exercises of mental concentration should be carried out during the daytime. Among all the centers in the body, the Navel Center is the one upon which the Yogi should begin. One should also know that to 20 Thig -le is equivalent to the Sanskrit bindu and signifies a seed and source of life -power. Ed . 139 concentrate upon the different centers will produce different effects and specific a dvantages. 140 CHAPTER FOUR. THE STEPS OF PRACTICE IN THE PATH First, the preparatory exercises of Akrul-akor and Stong -ra are given; second, the process of the actual practice. Some in the Marpa School say that with the protection -practice of the H word during the inhaling, exhaling, and holding periods of breathing, or with the moderate wrathful deities as protection, or with the practice of the Guru Yoga to accumulate the merits, the Yogi may do without the practice of Akrul-akor and Stong -ra. This kind of saying is given by the later followers; but His Holiness Milarepa and Gampopa never so declared in the old days. The practice of Akrul-akor has two aspects: First, the practice of Taking the Refuges and Arousing the Bodhi Heart; and second, meditation on the Guru who sits upon one's own head and sincerely praying to him. These practices are definitely in accordance with the teachings of Tantra. The Yogi should first vividly visualize himself as the Fathe r-Mother Patron Buddha. Master Pag -mo-grub -ba exposed, in his Stanzas on the Skillful Path, the methods and physical exercises as follows: 1. Making the body full like a vase. 2. Turning like a wheel. 3. Bending like a hook. 4. With the Vajra Mudra shooting the sky and tightening the lower part. 5. Like a dog vomiting, shaking the body. 6. Shaking the head and body, and stretching the limbs. These are the famous Six Exercises of Naropa. 1. Making the body full like a vase: The Yogi should sit on a comforta ble seat in a lotus posture, his body and spine erect; put his two palms on his two knees; inhale the air with the right nostril, and then look to the left and exhale all the air very slowly and gently. Take in the air with the right nostril 141 and look toward the right, and slowly, gently, let all the breath out. Then take in the air with the left nostril and look toward the left; gently let the breath out as before. Next take in the air with both nostrils and let the breath out while the body remains sitting in a normal position. Repeat this manner of breathing three times. Altogether nine repetitions are required to expel all the defiled air within the body. During the inhaling and exhaling, the mouth should not be opened. The yogi should keep his body strai ght and turn his two fists inward. Then he should inhale very gently and slowly and send the air down below the navel. Meantime he should gulp down the air without any sound, using the diaphragm to press the Upper Prana down and to gently pull up the Lower Prana. Thus, the Upper and Lower Prana meet and unite. The mind should concentrate on the center of the navel Chakra, and one should hold the breath as long as he can as if holding the air in a vase to its fullness. During this breath -holding period, all the body movements should be carried out. Although not a real Akrul-akor exercise, this exercise is called a form of Akrul-akor. At the moment when the yogi cannot hold the breath longer, he should very gently let the air out through the nostrils, but never through the mouth. While doing this, the mind should not think of anything. 2. Turning like a Wheel: Sitting in the Lotus posture, use the fingers of the right hand to hold the large toe of the right foot and those of the left hand to hold the large toe of the left foot. Hold the body erect, and turn the waist and stomach clockwise three times; turn them counterclockwise three times. Next bend the body from left to right and from right to left three times; then bend the body forward and reverse it to the looking -up position. Repeat the body -bending three times. 3. Bending like a Hook: Put the two fists, in the vajra -fist manner, upon the Heart Center and stretch them forward with great force, then stretch both arms forward. Use the right fist to make a circle around the head from left to right. As the arm and fist come down, use the elbow to strike the side of the chest. Do the same movement with the left arm from the opposite direction. Then holding the Vajra -fists and putting them on the Heart Center, again stretch them forward with force. Next, stretch both arms to the right, as before, and strike the side of the chest. 142 4. With the Vajra Mudra shooting the sky and tightening the lower part: Cross the two knees and hold the body erect. Join the fingers of both hands and massage the body from the lower part up to the head; then use the fingers to support the whole body and lift it up. Then suddenly loosen the fingers, and let the body drop down vehemently. 5. Like a dog vomiting, shaking the body: Cross the knees and keep the body straight. Put the two hands on the ground, and then successively lift up the body and the head. As the hands release the support and the body drops down, the whole body should be waved and shaken as though trembling. At the same tim e exhale the air and utter a prolonged Hasound, turning round at the waist. Repeat three times. 6. Shaking the head and body and stretching the limbs: Put the right hand on the left knee and the left hand on the right knee. Use the fingers of both hands to pull up the knees, then shake the head and body. The yogi who practices these exercises must be acquainted with the art of holding the breath. He must be at ease and gentle. The best time to practice these exercises is before eating, or some time after th e meal when the stomach is not too full. These exercises should be practised until the body becomes very flexible and energetic. The Practice of the Visualization of the Stong -ra (the Empty Body ) The Yogi should visualize the image of the patron Buddha as before, but now he should especially visualize the interior of the body as clear and transparent, like crystal, from the top of the head to the soles of the feet. In this manner, the yogi should try to stabilize the visualization. The practice of mental visualization and the physical exercises should be carried out alternatively. The Stong -ra practice is to visualize the body without the slightest shadow or obstruction as if one were seeing a clear rainbow. Although one's body cannot at this stage actually become (a body of rainbow), the stabilization of this visualization will enable the yogi to overcome the hazards the nerve 143 pains and prana pains which he may encounter during his practice. Because of this Stong -ra practice, the greater pains or hazards will not arise; even if these pains do arise they can be subdued by the practice of Stong -ra visualization. This is the special advantage of practicing Stong -ra as well as the physical exercises. Although there are a number of different statements and arrangements of the Stong -ra practice, the teaching of Pag- mo-grub -ba says no more than the instruction given above; therefore, one should know that to follow this instruction is quite sufficient. Though one may not find many accounts of the Stong -ra and physi cal exercises in the main Tantras, these are the pith -instructions taught by the masters. Furthermore, in the practice on Rtsa1 and prana it is sometimes difficult to attain Samadhi through the gentle or soft practice; therefore, the radical or strong pra ctice is needed. In that case it is believed that these preparatory practices will minimize hazards and obstacles. The Actual Successive Practice of the Path This is expounded in two sections: The classifications of the Path; and the instruction of entering into the Path. There are different ways to classify this teaching some divide it into two groups; some, into three, four, six, or ten. However, from the viewpoint of befitting the different dispositions or capacities of human beings, the teachings can be classified in three groups. First, the teaching that enables one to become the perfect Buddha in this very life; second, the teaching that enables one to become Buddha in the Bardo state; third, the teaching that enables one to become Buddha in fut ure lives 2 1 Rtsa in Tibetan, Nadi in Sanskrit. All the tubular structures of the human body, including the nerves, capable of transforming the fluids and energies of the body. In the text this term is translated usually as nerve or nerves. [See also Part I, Ch. VII, Note 13. Ed.] . From the viewpoint of the nature of the practice, the teaching can be divided into the ordinary Perfecting Yoga, and the outstanding betterment practice of the Perfecting 2 Literal translation would be "enables me to become Buddha in eight lives in the future." 144 Yoga The latter is not usually found in the teachings of the masters of this school (Kar -gyupa), who mainly depend on the pith- instructions alone. However, those masters in the Marpa school who held the tradition of preaching the Tantra do accept this type of teaching. Marpa said: "From the great master Naropa, the guard3 , I have heard the profound Tantra of Hevajra I also received the pith -instruction of joining, transformation and unification4 Thus, Marpa said, was illustrated for him the joining and transformation practice of the Whisper Succession. In particular, he relied on the practice of the Heat Yoga of the Vajra, which produces the four blisses. Later on, through the practices of Karmayoga, the four blisses were also raised within him. From this we know that, in the teaching of Hevajra, he relied mainly on the Heat Yoga and Karma -yoga. (Bsre, rpo, nrtsams -sbyor ). Especially have I learned the teaching of Heat Yoga and Karmayoga. Thus, for me, was the essence of the teachings of the Whisper Succession illustrated." Again Marpa said: "In the city of Lagkedar, in the west, I bowed down at the feet of the holy Ye-shes-snying -po. From him I heard the teaching of Gsun -wa-adus-ba of the Father Tantra 5 3 Naropa held a professorship in an Indian college -monastery that had four doors. He held the office of guardian of the North Door. . And also received the pith- instructions 4 Lacking Marpa's original text, it is felt that the meaning of the Tibetan is substantially conveyed by the three English terms given (barring any esoteric meaning they might have carried and that is now lost). 5 The Father Tantra is one division of the highest, or Annutara Tantra, in which emphasis is on the Skill [upya in the sense of perfect Love's boundless means to aid. Ed.] Teachings. The other division, called the Mother Tantra by Tibetan scholars, is that which emphasizes the Wisdom [praj , in the sense of transcendental wisdom. Ed.] Teachings. 145 Of the Illusory Body and Great Light. Thus have I learned the teaching of the Path of the Five Steps." According to Naropa there are four outstanding Tantras from which the superb pith -instructions are derived; one of them is the teaching of the Path of the Five Steps of Gsun -wa-adus-ba. Thus Marpa learned the teaching of the Illusory Body and Great Light of Gsun- wa-adus-ba from both Ye -shes- snying -po and Naropa. As for the teaching of Transformation Yoga and Yoga of Entrance, he mainly derived them from the masterly Gdan -bzhi Tantra. According to the classification of the Six Yogas of Naropa, the yogas are: Heat Yoga, Yoga of Illusory Body, Light Yoga, Transformation Yoga, Yoga of Entrance and Bardo Yoga. Both the Dream Yoga and Bardo Yoga are ramifications of the Yoga of Illusory Body. It is better to appropriate the Light- of-Sleep 6 "This teaching contains the Arising Yoga, Head Yoga, Karmayoga, the Knowledge of Reality, the Symbolic Light in the Path, and the Symbolic Illusory Body and Dream in the Path. These six teachings are the heart -like pith -instruction of Marpa, the final teachings of the Whisper Succession. No other teachings of any Path- with -Form can be found superior in essence to these. There is no other temporary or final instruction that does not belong to this teaching. The teaching of the Six Yogas is itself the Perfecting Yoga." to the Yoga of Illusory Body; also it is more convenient to classify the Transformation Yoga and the Yoga of Entrance as one. The pith- instruction of Milarepa stated: Those who follow and hold the traditional instructions of the Marpa School all hold this opinion. Those who declare that there are other teachings more profound than the Six Yogas of Naropa, speak nonsense. Here it is proper to point out that, in general, the highest Perfecting Yoga must first provide the method of induc ing the [prana] of the Roma and R- 6 "Light" is the term used to symbolize the transparent nature of the pure consciousness. This consciousness has, however, many degrees, hence many terms are used to describe these gradations and manifestations of consciousness, such as the Original or Mother Light, the Light- of-Sleep, Ligh t-of-Death, and Light -of-Bardo. 146 kyang7 , to enter the Central Channel. This teaching is indispensable, though there are a great many different methods given by accomplished yogis who relied on different Tantras. In this teaching (of Six Yogas), the method of meditating on the [gTummo]8 or the short. Ah at the Transformation Center of the navel is used to gather the Live- Dynamic Prana into the Central Channel. Through the entrance of the air into the Central Channel, the four blisses are produced, and finally, the Mahamudra Innate Wisdom. In this profound Teaching of Skillfulness9 is not relied on, but, instead, the practice of the Samadhi of Absolute -No- Thought, the Yogi will reach the state of Mind -Consolidation in which bliss, illumination, and non- thought are experienced. This state of Mind -Consolidation, however, is a common stage: Hinayana, Mahayana, Paramitayana, and Vajrayana all have the k now ledge and experiences of it. It is by no means special; therefore, it is of great importance that one should not confuse the teaching of this Mind- Consolidation state with the special Tantric Skillful Path. This view can be verified by the instance of Gampopa's [Sgam -po-pa] meeting with Milarepa. When Gampopa first met Milarepa, he told Milarepa that he was able to remain in Samadhi with perfect concentration for many days in a single period. But Milarepa told him that no butter can be produced by squeezing the sand; moreover, the Samadhi he had engaged in was by no means enough. Milarepa then told him that he should practice the Small Ah of Life -Energy of the Heat Yoga. One should well understand this important point 10 We have always heard it said that the teaching of Heat Yoga of the Kargyutpa is the very best; however, this should only be understood to the effect that the primordial and fundamental principle of the Perfecting Yoga is to make the life -prana enter into the Central Channel to produce the Innate Great Bliss. Consequently, as the prime goal is reached, there is no need to pursue any other teach ings of the Perfecting Yoga. By the practice . 7 Roma and Rgyng- ma: the Right and Left Channels. 8 gTum -ma: Tibetan name for the Heat- Yoga. Ed. 9 Tantrism provides two types of teachings. The Skill Teachings instruct in those methods used to carry the yogi beyond the habitual patterns of human thought so that he may grasp that real beyond thought, the Pure Consciousness. The Wisdom Teachings begin with the mind to penetrate beyond it to the Realm of Pure Consciousness. [Such skill is technically called thabs . Ed.] 10 Here, Tsong Khapa wishes to emphasize the differences between the blisses produced by the experiences of ordinary meditation and those produced by Tantric meditation. 147 of the meditation on the Dumo fire, the air enters into the Central Channel and goes through the progressive process of entering, remaining, and dissolving. By means of this power the Bodhi -Heart is brought unde r control. No more leakage of the Bodhi -Heart will occur; therefore the Yogi is able to practice the Karmayoga which provides favorable conditions for producing the Four Innate Blisses. The teaching of Heat Yoga and Karmayoga is mainly needed for the purpo se of producing the Innate Bliss. Relying on this Innate Blissful -Emptiness while awake, the Yoga of Illusory Body should he practiced in the daytime. At time of sleep in the night, exercise on the Illusory Body of the dream state should be stressed. To practice this, one should first exercise the Light Yoga; then one is able to enter into (and master) the dream. In order to be capable of holding the prana during the time of (the unfoldment of) the Light -of-Sleeping State, one must first have the ability to gather the pranas during the waking state. For both of these practices, the best preparation is Heat Yoga. The Yogi must first completely master the Dream State. After that he is able to recognize the Bardo State; for this the Heat Yoga is also the best preparation. Also because of the Heat Yoga these three practices converge into the Yoga of Illusory Body. In the art of mastering the special Transformation Yoga and the Entrance Yoga, one must first be able to gather all the pranas into the Central Channel. Practicing Heat Yoga is the best method to accomplish this. If he knows the different ways of allocating these teachings, he will have no difficulty in understanding the various ways of classifying them. If he possesses sound understanding of them, he ma y arrange them in any manner. The Successive Steps of the Teachings in the Path This will be expounded in two categories: first, the basic teachings in the path; second, the teaching of improvement. In the first category lie (1) the principle of the Path and (2) the ramification teachings of the path- Transformation Yoga and the Entrance Yoga. In the former there also lie 148 two divisions: (1) The exposition of the gathering of prana in the Central Channel and the manner of the arising of the four blisses. (2) Relying on the foregoing experience, instruction on practicing the Illusory Yoga and Light Yoga. Of the first there are also two divisions: (1) The inner practice of Heat Yoga. (2) The outer practice of Karmayoga. The first again has two divisions; (1) Through the practice of Dumo the prana is led to the Central Channel. (2) By means of the entrance of the prana the manner of the arising of the four blisses. The first, again has two divisions: (1) How to practice Dumo. (2) The manner of the entrance, rema ining, and dissolving of the prana in the Central Channel resulting from the Dumo practice. The first is divided into three groups: (1) Meditation on the Three Pillars. (2) Meditation on the Clear Words. (3) The practice of Vase -Breathing. Meditation on the Three Pillars: Visualize clearly that sitting in the front sky are the Chief Gurus and the Succession Gurus, together with the Goddess and the Brave ones11 . To them render the comprehensive offerings without the slightest regard for one's own possessions. Then pray to them in general terms many times; especially on this occasion one should pray fervently for the arising of the two -in-one bliss -voidness experience and realization. Also one should think that it is for the purpose of enabling all the mother -like sentient beings to become the perfect Buddha Rdo -rje-chang that he now practices the Heat Yoga. One should put all one's heart into thinking of the Bodhi -Heart. Then visualize, clearly and vividly, the image of the self - Buddha 12 The Yogi should put on the meditation- belt . Thus the foundation of Samadhi is laid. 13 11 Brave Ones (Dpao Wo in Tibetan): The male heavenly beings who practice Tantricism. , cross his legs (in the sitting posture), hold his spine erect, slightly bend his chin, and rest naturally the eyes. The tongue slightly touches the upper palate, the teeth and lips rest natur ally as they are. Alert the body and mind; thrust the chest forward; put one hand on top of the other and poise them below the navel. Clearly visualize the three channels. Then think of the Dumo situated about four fingers distance from the navel, close t o the spine. More explicitly, the Dumo is situated in the Central Channel at the joining point of the three 12 In tantric meditation, the yogi visualizes himself as becoming the Patron Buddha or yidam; he is no longer of human form. 13 The special belt wrapped around the body to keep it in the right posture for meditation. 149 channels namely the Central, Right, and Left Channels. They are situated in a parallel position, and the Central Channel extends from the place below the navel up to the top of the head, as the supporting pillar of the four Chakras. The reason for meditating in such a manner is to lead the pranas to enter into the Central Channel. Three different ways of practice were suggested. Some say that the three Channels all end at the place four fingers distance below the navel. Some say that the Right and Left Channels do not end there, but extend down to the end of the precious organ. In the upper part, some claim, the Central Channel extends up to Smin- mds ams, the center of the two eyebrows, and the Right and Left Channels extend down to the nostrils. Through correct practice, the Right and Left Channels which encircle the Central Channels in the center of the four chakras will eventually be straightened. As for the diameter of the Channels, there are no definite rules. Meditate on various diameters. When the Dumo is meditated upon, the color of the Central Channel should be visualized as the color of the oil lamps flame. This whisper- given pith -instruction is found in the Tantras of Mkaspyol; however, before reaching this stage, the color of the Right Channel should be visualized as red, and the Left Channel as white, and the Central as blue. Then the four Chakras should be meditated upon. First the Transformation Chakra of the Navel Center: its outer shape is triangular and has forty- two red nerve- leaves (Rtsadabs) extending upwards. This is a general way of meditating on these nerve- leaves. Though it is not specific, it is quite sufficient to serve the pu rpose. Second, the Dharma Chakra in the Heart Center; its outer shape is round, like the shape of the Bo word. It has eight white nerve- leaves extending downward. Third in the Throat Center lies the Chakra of Reward. Its outer shape is rounded like the Bo word. It has sixteen red nerve-leaves extending downward. The Yogi should understand that the last two Chakras symbolize Wisdom and Skill, and duly meditate upon them. At the beginning of visualizing the three Channels, one should know that the process o f visualization consists of two practices: 150 1. Seeing the Channels vividly, or forming a clear picture in the mind. 2. Holding on to this picture. The mind should concentrate in the Central Channel at the point where the three channels join. This is very important. Then, one should proceed to visualize all the nerve -leaves, complete in number, of the different Chakras. Keep on with this practice; the nerve- leaves will become clearer and clearer in the mental picture. If one has made every effort to visuali ze the nerve -leaves, but cannot get a clear picture of them in mind, one should concentrate on visualizing the three Channels, putting emphasis on picturing the portion above the Heart Center. If the mind concentrates without a slight rest for a long perio d, it will incur great hazards and hindrances. In that case, one should only meditate on the point where the three Channels join. According to this teaching, it is said, the yogi will experience two different stages: the emergence of a very clear and durab le picture of the nerves, and the emergence of an obscure picture of the nerves. Whichever the case, it is advisable to follow the above instructions. This is verified by the teachings on visualization of nerves given by the accomplished yogi, the great La wabi. During this visualizing practice, if the yogi wants also to practice the breath-holding exercise, he may do so as instructed before. The way of alternately practicing the visualization, body movement, and Stong -ra will be expounded later. The Practice of Visualizing Words In Heat -Yoga, a teaching of meditating on different words in the three Channels and four Chakras is provided. This teaching is found in both the fundamental Tantra of Hevajraand the Expounding Tantra of Sambhuda. Many great accomplished yogis, such as the Black Practitioner (Nagbo-Spyod- pa), taught this teaching. The practice of visualizing words includes two ways the comprehensive way and the simple. The comprehensive way is to meditate on the words both at the center of the C hakra and at each different nerve -leaf. But in this teaching (of the Six Yogas), we find no clear instructions on this. The simple 151 way is to meditate only on the words in the center of the four Chakras. This is clearly stated in the Expounding Tantra and the teachings of the great accomplished beings. Reflecting on this principle, one finds that merely meditating on the small Ah word in the Navel Center and the H word in the Head Center is not sufficient nor desirable. To meditate on the words in the Heart Center and Throat Center is also necessary. It is of great importance. To meditate on the words, one should follow the aforementioned instructions on keeping posture. Visualize the small Ah word at the center of the Transformation Chakra of the navel, or in the center in the Central Channel, which is close to the core of the spine. The Yogi should concentrate only at this point. The visualization procedure is as follows: Visualize a small red, Sanskrit Ah word. Its shape is similar to the Tibetan word Shad of the printed alphabet, standing upon a moon- wheel. To locate the visualization in the Heart Center, the yogi should see the word at the center of the eight nerve- leaves of the Dharma Chakra of the Heart Center near the central point between the two breasts.. He should meditate only on the point in the Central Channel that is near the spine. Visualize a blue H word standing on a moon- wheel, head face down, the Bodhi -Heart like snow about to melt. To locate the visualized word at the Throat Center, the yogi should visualize only the center -point of the sixteen nerve-leaves of the Throat Center in the Central Channel near the spinal column. Visualize at this point a red O word, its head facing up, standing on the moon-wheel. To locate the word at the Hea d Center, the yogi should visualize the word at the center of the nerve-leaves of the Head Center in the Central Channel near the spinal column. Visualize at the point a white Ha word, facing down, standing on the moon- wheel. It is of great importance that the yogi should visualize the points in the center of the Central Channel, entwined by the knot of the Right and Left channels, at the cross sections of the four Chakras. 152 Says the Expounding Tantra Sambhoda: "The lotus that reaches the inner part of the heart Is the principal one, which has eight nerve- leaves. The nerve that reaches the inside of it is like a lamp. In shape, it resembles the plantain flower, Leaves opened and facing downward. The god who dwells within it Is as small as the mustard seed. The indestructible seed the H, Trembles like the snow about to melt" [cf. the Upanisadic and the gotra teaching.] The nerve that reaches the inner part of the heart is the principal nerve, which implies the Central Channel; the H world should be visualized in it. The other words in the other three Chakras should be visualized as well. Although there are many different teachings on the word- visualization in the four Chakras, the essential point is to visualize these words in the center of the Central Channel. Nevertheless, this point is not clearly stated in some teachings. If it is not clearly understood, one will not be able to gather the pranas at the Central Channel; consequently one will miss the essence of the pith -instruction. The size of the words on which the yogi meditates should be as small as the mustard seed as the Tantra describes the H word. This size applies to the other four words as well. The smaller and clearer the word as visualized and held by the mind, the easier it is to control the pranas. This is a very important factor in mastering the pranas. Although the Sambhodra Tantra does not mention it, the small word Ah should be visualized with a head. According to the pith- instruction given in the Tantra of Bde -mchog , all the four words should be visualized with the half-moon head, the Thig -le and Na- da melting like the female Bodhisattva about to weep. This teaching is important because it produces and will enhance the Great Bliss. 153 If the Yogi visualizes the word as very brigh t and glowing, he will be able easily to overcome drowsiness and promote his illuminative experience of Samadhi. When any visualized object is meditated upon, the yogi should put all his mind into the subtle object as if his mind (or rather his whole being ) enters into the object. He should never visualize the object as if he merely sees it before him14 The beginner should not meditate on the three words above the heart center for too long; he should meditate on them for only a short while, and devote most of this time to concentrating on the small Ah. If he finds it difficult to concentrate on the minute object, he should visualize it a little larger. When a larger picture can be stabilized in the mind, the yogi will then be able to visualize smaller or more subtle objects. . For the correct practice, mind and object become as one; thus the experience of the unification of mind and Thig -le will come to pass, and, the gathering o f the prana will become easy. In the practice of this meditation one should neither overstrain nor be too lax in his effort. Overstrain or laziness will bring drowsiness and distractions; therefore, the yogi should avoid both extremes. The purpose of practicing the Heat Yoga is to produce the Four Blisses. When the Bodhi -Heart in the nerves begins melting and the two pranas 15 start gathering at the head Chakra, the (first) Bliss [ananda] begins to arise. Thereafter, the Bodhi -Heart begins to disperse into the nerves. When the Bodhi -Heart gathers at the Throat Center the (second) Extreme- Bliss [paramananda] arises; then the Bodhi -Heart disperses again through the different nerves, and when it is gathered at the Heart Center, the (third) Superb Bliss [viramananda] arises. Again, the Bodhi -Hearth disperses through the nerves, and when it is gathered at the Navel Center, the (fourth) Innate Bliss [sahajananda] arises 16 14 This is Tsong Khapa's own view which is refuted by Gamaba VIII of the White School. . Following this if one meditates 15 Two pranas: the up -going air and the down -going air; one negative and the other positive. 16 We have inserted the four technical Sanskrit terms. The Hevajra Tantra states also the alternative tradition of this highest bliss as third in order, thus implying its correspondence with the Heart Center of the Sacred Light of Vairoana and his co -power, the Lord of the Center of the five Dhyani Buddhas. This tacit identification with the heart, and not the usually given hair-splitting reasons, is the true esoteric basis for the alternative order, which is thus seen not to be "artificial" as D. L. Snellgrove ( Hevajra Tantra , Oxford, Vol. I, p. 137) surmises, saying hence not correctly 154 upon the words in the center of the Central Channel in the four Chakras, the mind -prana will be easily gathered at the four centers; thus, the F our Blisses will arise from the four centers. It is necessary for the Yogi to recognize these Four Blisses in experience. When the Bodhi -Hearth begins to melt and drop down from the upper center to the lower centers, if the Bodhi -Heart cannot remain at each center for a longer period, it will be extremely difficult for the yogi to recognize the differences between the Four Blisses. Especially will it be difficult to recognize the Innate Bliss. Thus one should know that if the mind can concentrate a long period on the four Chakras, the melted Bodhi -Heart will also remain at the different centers for a longer period. This is a very important point. If the Ha word at the Head Center that is the center of the white Bodhi -Heart can be stabilized, the white element will be greatly enhanced and multiplied. If the word at the Throat Center, the place through which the Right Channel multiplies the blood- element, can be stabilized, the secretion of the Dumo which comes from the Navel Center will produce great power. 17 The small Ah word should also be stabilized at the Navel Center, since through it the Left Channel multiplies the fluid. From the Navel Center the White -Bodhi -Heart revitalizes the whole body. Furthermore, this center is the special place where the Dumo resides. It is well known that the Navel Center is the place where the fire, that melts the Bodhi- Heart, is kindled. Consequently, it will promote and improve the practice of Dream Yoga. The Heart Center is the center of light. If the H word at the heart center is stabilized the great light will unfold. Meditation on the Heart Center will help the emergence of the ligh t in both the waking and the sleeping states. 18 that "it is associated with no improved interpretation of them (the Four Blisses) as a coherent set." This conclusion is understandable, however, for anyone not familiar with the relation of the Four Misses to the Chakras, for that relation provides the only solid and practical basis for the non -arbitrariness Snellgrove rightly sought. The moment the Chakras are taken into account, the only proper position for the Highest or Innate Bliss is seen at once to he third, placing it in direct correspondence with the Heart Center, where it uniquely belongs.Ed . 17 We would rather say, as better agreeing with practice: Which comes from the Heart Center, and in mediated through the Navel Center. Ed. 18 Both from conversations with other practitioners of yoga and from personal experience, the editor can unequivocally state that the greatest heat (gTum -mo) can be generated and more easily controlled through the use of the Heart Center rather than through the navel plexus, allowing the latter to function 155 It is of great importance that the yogi should acquaint himself with the teaching of the meditation on the Chakras and their words. Until all the words in the different Chakras appear vividly in the mind, the yogi should continue his effort. The Practice of Vase -Breathing Following the preceding instructions, the yogi should first clearly visuali ze the nerve [nadi = Tib. rtsa. Ed.] system in general, then concentrate on the center of the Central Channel at the cross section of the three channels. Next, the yogi should meditate on the four words in the different nerves; especially should he concentrate on the small Ah word in the Central Channel at the Navel Center. If this mind- holding object can be stabilized, the mind and prana will converge to it. Thus the mind reaches the state of concentration and the pranas are collected. This is stated in the Tantra of Bde -Mchog and the Expounding Tantra Sambhodra of Hevajra. During the practice of Vase- Breathing, the yogi should also meditate on the four words in the four Chakras. This is taught by the great accomplished yogis the Black -Practitioner, Lawaba, and Ocean- Born, as well as in many holy scriptures, especially in those important pith -instructions of the Perfecting Yoga given in the Tantras. But that the four words should all be visualized, is not given, even in the instruction of Vase -Breathing Prac tice in the Whisper Teaching. The Yogi should well acquaint himself with the meditation procedure as given in the preceding instructions. Through this practice the pranas will enter into the Central Channel and by the power of the fire of Dumo the Bodhi -Heart will be melted thus the Four Blisses will definitely arise. But there are many Tibetan teachers who give the teaching of Dumo in a manner which combines all the practices of nerve (Rtsa), word, and Vase - Breathing at one time and declares that it is for the sake of promptly producing the Dumo experience that the combined practice is given. unconsciously under orders of the Heart Center, as it were, and as a distribution pointbut not bestowing any direct attention on the navel per se. Even on a cold night the bodily heat thus generated with comparative simplicity is pervasive and intense.Ed . 156 "The taking -in, the filling -up, the dissolving, And the shooting like the arrow are the four steps." This stanza shows the four special steps of the Vase- Breathing practice that was found in the pith- instructions of the gurus in the past and favored by them. There is a certain commentary which says that "the four" means the four bases; this is a mistake, however, that was made through overlooking the text of the Tant ras. The physical preparations for the breathing exercise are the same as given before. The best time to practice this breathing exercise, according to the instructions of the accomplished Yogi Pag- mo-grub -pa is the time when the breathing runs equally (in both nostrils). Pag-mo-grub -pa adds: "Although many gurus say that the best time to practice this breathing exercise is the time when the air runs equally (through both nostrils), (in the light of serious meditation) the breathing practice should be carried on day and night." In order to make the proper time explicit, this instruction is given first. In general, the prana 19 Now, the explanation of the taking -in-air: The yogi should not inhale through the mouth but through the nostrils. He should not breath in roughly, but inhale gently and slowly. is the essence of the expression of the Buddhas. In this practice the exercise should be carried out when most of the Lotus-Shelter- Air ascends. This is stated in the Lotus Commentary of the Dorn Tyun Tantra . Filling -up the air: After taking in the air, press it down and hold it. As the yogi inhales, he should think that the air comes in through the two nostrils and enters into the Right and Left Channels, filling them up (like breath inflating balloons made of ent rails.) Dissolving- the-air: When both channels, Right and Left, are full, all the air enters into the Central Channel with a "Whoosh." 19 There are a great number of pranas in the body of many different natures and functions. In the past, thousands of different pranas were named and classified. Today there still exists well -defined knowledge of fifty or sixty pranas, but most of the traditional prana- knowledge has been lost. 157 At this time the yogi should swallow the spittle in the mouth and press the upper air down and pull the lower air up from both the lower gates20 Though this instruction is somewhat contradictory on two points with the instruction given before, except the fourth step (the dissolving step), the other three (taking -in, holding, and exhaling the air) are expounded. The filling -up practice means inhaling the air that fills the Right and Left Channels, and the dissolving practice means the departure of the air from the two channels and its entrance into the Central Channel; thereby the Central Channel is filled with air, but the air in the Right and Left Channel is dissolved or emptie d. to the small Ah word. Then the yogi should concentrate on his visualizations and hold his breath as long as he can. The holy Pag -mo-grub -pa said in his instructions -stanza: "From the Right and Left Channels the air enters into the C entral Channel and fills it. When the breath can be held no longer, the yogi should release it for a very short timethe duration of snapping one's finger. The air left in the body should be used for the dissolving practice." As to the manner of practicing the Vase -Breathing at the Navel Center, some claim that the lower air should not be pulled up, merely pressing the upper air down will do; others say that the yogi should press the air down at first, then, after a while, pull up the lower air three times. These sayings are wrongfully given through ignorance of the essence of Vase -Breathing practice. The right practice is to combine the Live -Prana above the navel with the Tur Sel Prana 21 "The up -going air and the down-going air Should be joined together by the mind." below the navel. As the Dom Gyun Tantra says: This stanza explains the way of practicing the Vase -Breathing by combining or uniting the up -going and down- going prana. Thus we know that the up - going and down-goin g air should be combined and that they should not be pulled up simultaneously, but one after another. If there is no special reason for a particular meditation, the up -going air should be drawn and pressed 20 Two lower gates: the anus and urethra. 21 Tur Sel Prana: The down -going Prana. 158 first; afterwards, pull up the down -going air. It is not necessary to pull the down- going air three times. "Shooting the air like the arrow." This illustrates the manner of expelling the air from the body. When the yogi exhales the air, he should visualize it arising through the Central Channel freely, li ke gas through a pipe. One should not visualize the air going out of the body through the crown of the head. About the practice of drawing the up -going and the down- going air together at the Navel Center, one important point should be mentioned: some say the yogi should visualize the whole body full of Prana; some say the Prana should be visualized only full above the Heart Center or above the Throat Center. These instructions are unsound because the true and sound teaching is to visualize the small Ah word whereupon the two pranas unite 22 Through the practice of Vase -Breathing, the out- going breathing from the Ro-ma and Rkyang -ma is stopped ; and through visualizing the air entering into the Central Channel, the yogi eventually will be able actually to lead the incoming air into the Central Channel. . There are two reasons for this. First, through leading the Prana into the Central Channel, the Life -Prana and the down- going prana are unified. Second, through visualizing words, the essential mental concentration process is automatically completed. Furthermore, whenever the mouth of Ro-ma and Rkyang -ma are open, the mouth of the Central Channel is closed and vice versa. The manner and the duration of holding the breath are explained by Pag - mo-grub -pa as follows: In the beginning stage, practice on taming the nerves is emphasized. The yogi should not hold his breath to the point of strain. The yogi should hold the breath easily and not for too long. Gradually, he should increase the duration of the holding period. Until the breath becomes very smooth and submissive, he should not engage in the stronger breathing practices, such as shaking the upper part of the body and forcibly 22 There is a third and synthesizing view and doctrine here not mentioned in the text; namely, to maintain the conscious concentration of the prana at the heart center, letting that center be the m eans for the (unconscious) command to the Navel Center for its (the prana's) distribution. Ed . 159 pulling up the prana. He should release his breath before he feels uncomfortable, and not try to hold it too long. Even if he tries to do so, it will not help the gathering of pranas in the Central Channel, for the prana will remain in the Transformation Wheel only a moment and then go outside. Although to hold the prana outside the Wheel Center for a long period will produce a little warmness and bliss, it does not help the prana to enter into the Central Channel. In the practice of visualization, the yogi tries to visualize the subject clearly, but a clear image appears in his mind for only a short moment. To visualize a steady picture is difficult. In the after- meditation period, however, he will sometimes experience the appearance of a steady picture in his mind clearly, without any effort. In the same way he will learn that natural and easy breath -holding cannot come without practice and effort. Therefore, until the natural breath- holding or breath- remaining comes to pass, he should try to prolong the breath -holding exercise gently. Even if he exerts himself in holding the breath for a long period the prana will not remain at the place desired. Furthermore, too much exertion will cause many troubles and do little good, so, until the prana can be easily and naturally placed in the Navel Center, the yogi should gently prolong the breath- holding exercise. If one knows how to practice this exercise proficiently, one will be able to know whether the prana naturally remains and whether the prana can be led to the desired place. The best time to practice Vase Breathing is neither just before nor just after eating, but when the stomach is neither too full nor too empty. The practice should be carried out without interruption, yet not for too long a period. At times the yogi should rest for a while. During the Vase Breathing, word -visualization should a lso be practiced. The yogi should clearly visualize the four words Ah, H, O, Haat the four respective centers of navel, heart, throat and head that are knotted (by the nerves) as mentioned before. Thereupon, the yogi should visualize an Ah word, the essence of fire and Dumo, blazing with brightness. This word -of-fire is then fanned and stimulated by the wind from the Privy Wheel, and its heat rises up and 160 ascends to the H, O and Ha words. The three words begin to melt, and the melted drops all fall to the Ah word and unite with it, becoming one. This one drop is the self -nature of the Innate Bliss, whereupon the yogi should concentrate. In this process of holding mind to the subject, the yogi should visualize the Dumo -Ti-Le burning with the tiny fire -tongue. The yogi should visualize the melting Bodhi- Heart begin to drop from the respective Wheels and fill up the Ah word, and then concentrate on visualizing the Ah word until the signs of a stable visualization appear. If the visualization becomes stable, the light of Dumo will shine. The body, both inside and out, and the things in the house can all be seen clearly as one sees the olive fruit in one's own palm. Thus it is important to visualize the Ah word shining with its burning tongue, clearly and vividly. Through this practice the brightness- aspect of Samadhi will increase, and a perfect Samadhi will be obtained. 161 CHAPTER FIVE. THE ART OF GTUM -MO OR HEAT YOGA Through the above -mentioned three practices, prana will enter into the Central Channel, but in this connection one may ask what are the unmistakable signs of the prana entering into the Central Channel? (In other words, what are the right signs one should expect to experience if the pranas are on the point of entering into the Central Channel?) This is an extremely important question; there is a great number of different answers. Among them the definite and unmistakable sign is the following experience. After the meditation period, th e yogi identifies the particular nostril from which the breathing (or most of the exhaled air) runs. Then he applies the mental and bodily practices as before. In a very short time, the breath running through both nostrils becomes even, and it should not a lter within one or two breaths. If there is no other hindrance, the breath should remain even in both nostrils; the strength of both nostrils should be equal. If the yogi is able to do this, he may be considered as having a little strength in leading the prana into the Central Channel. However, this does not mean that, by doing this practice once (attaining even runs of the breath in the two nostrils), the ordinary breathing -process, which unequally stresses the two nostrils, will be forever stopped. Having learned how to make the prana enter into the Central Channel, the yogi is taught the practice involving the prana remaining there. In accordance with the teachings, the yogi carries on his practice and carefully observes the manner of the breath running in the nostrils. Gradually the breath will become more and more subtle, and finally it will stop. The Jetsun Milarepa said: "Happy is the entering into the Central Channel by the air of Ro- ma and Rleyang -ma! Happy is the cessation of the outgoing and ingoing breathing! "Happy is the vast experience of the cessation of breath!" As to the subtle breathing, for some it is difficult and for some it is easy. If the yogi finds it difficult to absorb the air, lie will in a few minutes feel it 162 filling up his entire belly, but then it begins to dissolve. Immediately after the dissolving, he will feel an extraordinary warmness taking place in the fire - place of the Navel Center and Secret Center; thereafter, the Melting Bliss will take place. A cessation of the subtle running breath will tend to accumulate the subtle distractions, whence great distractions often occur. In this connection those who do not know how to concentrate on the central point of the Wheels, and who engage themselves in various kinds of Vase -Breath ing exercises, will neither help the prana to enter nor remain inside [the Central Channel], because these practices can not tame the pranas and make them gather in the Central Channel. Consequently, neither the entering into nor the remaining in the Central Channel will come to pass; therefore, one must discriminate carefully. As to the length or the duration of holding the Vase -Breathing, the Dom Jun Tantra says: "Knowing the way of practicing Vase Breathing as instructed before, The yogi then sits in a lotus posture. One hand rubs the other three times, And then he snaps his fingers six times. The duration of thirty- six snappings Is the length of time of Vase Breathing. The best are (able to hold on) three times as long; The length of more than one hundred snappings." The left hand is supinely placed on the knee and is rubbed by the right hand three times; then six snaps are made with the fingers. This is one complete process. If one is able to hold the breath for 108 times of such duration, it is the best; to hold seventy -two times is the medium, and thirty -six times is the minimum. It is also said that whoever holds the breath for any of these three durations will be able to conquer death. Now, the second: The manner of the Arising of the Four Blisses through the Prana Entering into the Central Channel. 163 Of this, three expositions are given: 1. The appearance of the signs. 2. The manner of the firing of Dumo 3. The melting of the Bodhi -Heart. The manner of the arising of the Four Blisses that are pro duced by the melting of the Bodhi -Heart will be discussed, and also the practice on the meditation of the Innate -Born -Wisdom. Now, the first: Through concentration on the central point of the Navel Center, the live prana enters into the Central Channel, whereupon signs will appear. These signs are explained by the accomplished Yogi Lawaba: "The first sign is like the bewildered animals. The second sign is the smoke. The third sign is like the light of the firefly. The fourth sign is like the lamplight. The fifth sign is without any form, It appears like the clear firmament without any clouds." The first sign the bewildered animals means the phantasm. That is, in comparison with the other four signs, which are successively brighter one by one, the first sign is hazy and unclear like the phantasm (seen by bewildered animals in the distance). Some say this stanza cannot be interpreted literally, that the signs do not appear as the stanza relates. Some say it merely symbolizes the stability of the sign -appearing -consciousness, whether the experiences are stable or wavering. Some say the signs are like smoke. Of these three opinions, the last one is best. The intensiveness and stability (of the smoke and light) will depend on the alternation of the strong and weak wind; they cannot be uniform all the time. There are two possible ways through which the sign of smoke can be experienced: first, the special skillful (Tantric) teachings through which the pranas are gathered into the Central Channel, as here instructed; second, the practice of the non-thought meditation through which the sign of smoke will also be experienced. The yogi should be extremely careful in discriminating between these two. 164 The signs experienced through the Tantric teachings are subject to th e disturbance caused by the wicked earthly wind. The disturbance (or the retrogression of signs) can be differentiated in three degreesthe things of retrogression, the little retrogression, and the definite retrogression. The extreme outgoing winds from t he different organs are being checked (by the practice) and turned inward. When a small portion of the outgoing winds is checked, the due portion of prana is reversed, and when this due portion of prana enters the Central Channel the appropriate sign will appear. From then on, the reversal (of prana) in the path and its unique signs will appear successively. There are a great many different signs to be experienced, but our concern is with the Life- Prana entering into the Central Channel, of which the comple te processfrom the phantasm stage to the clear sky of no- clouds will take place. When the earth element enters into the water element, the sign of the phantasm appears; when the water enters into the fire, the smoke sign appears; when the fire enters into the air, the fire spark appears; when the spark enters into the mind -prana upon which the distracted thoughts ride a steady lamp light burning in the air without any wind disturbance appears. By the power of these successively appearing signs, the yogi wi ll attain the accomplishment of Mahamudra. As to the kindling of Dumo, there are many different types, such as the kindling of Dumo in the Central Channel from the Navel Center and the Secret Center in the beginning stage; the kindling of Dumo outside of t he Central Channel or the ordinary kindling. The manners of the kindling are also various, such as the kindling of the Dumo from the depth of the body; the kindling of Dumo in between the skin and the flesh, the intensive and weak kindling -warmness in the beginning stage; the kindling warmness going upward, blowing upward, and fleeing upward; and the strong and weak kindling. Of these kindlings, the former are better than the latter. The blisses produced by these varieties of kindling -warmness follow this p attern. In addition to these numerous experiences that arise successively, one should pay special attention to discriminate between the kindling of the unique Dumo, the kindling of the ordinary warmness, the bliss produced by 165 prana and the bliss produced by prana and the bliss produced by the melting of elements. If the unique Dumo is ever kindled, the appropriate Bodhi- Heart will melt. In this case the yogi will have no sickness caused by the unbalanced elements, while in the case of the ordinary kindling -warmness, the melting of the Bodhi -Heart is very uncertain; the gall secretion will increase; the feeling of bliss is always weak, and the pain induced by the warmness is great. If a qualified Dumo is kindled as it should be, the White Bodhi -Heart will mel t and multiply the Red Bodhi -Heart. Dumo will also increase. The melting of the Bodhi -Heart brings about the arising of the Four Blisses. The respective places wherein the down -coming Four Blisses arise are named in the Tantra Rdo-rje-rin- wa. "At the Wheel of Great Bliss in the head, The (first) bliss arises. At the Wheel of Enjoyment [Throat], The Superlative Bliss arises. At the Wheel of Dharma [Heart], The Beyond -Reach Bliss arises. At the Wheel of Transformation [Navel] 1 When the Bodhi -Heart coming down from the head reaches the throat, the first Bliss arises; from the throat coming down to the heart, the Superlative Bliss arises; from the heart coming to the navel the Beyond -Bliss arises; from the navel coming to the top of the precious organ the Innate- Bliss arises. , The Innate Wisdom arise s. Thus, one shall experience these Blisses." As to the up -going Blisses, the Tantra says: "The up -going Blisses arise like this: At the Wheel of Transformation arises the Bliss. At the Wheel of Dharma aris es the Superlative Bliss. 1 There is an alternative order in which the Innate Bliss relates to and arises in the Dharmachakra or Heart Center. From prolonged study, theoretical and practical, we feel that that order is preferable. Ed . 166 At the Wheel of Enjoyment arises the great Innate- Bliss, This is the reverse of the process of bliss- arising." These explanations are in accord with the Great Symbol Thig -le 2 The [above] Tantra says: . Each of the four down- coming and up -going Blisses c an be divided into four, making the so-called sixteen portions of the Moon- Elements. Following the viewpoint of the Sun, each bliss can be divided into three, making the total of twelve. "The signs of hare and so forth Are the Thig -le of sixteen -fold bliss. They are the substance of the -li [the vowels]. The four Wheels come in order. Following these different sayings, They can be understood as twelve Sun- Elements." When the Bodhi -Heart goes upward or downward, the blood el ement always goes with it. As it reaches the four respective centers in each level of each center, a specific Bliss is experienced, making a total of sixteen. From the viewpoint of the intensiveness of the Bliss, the Bliss of each center can be divided into three the Extreme Bliss, the Medium Bliss, and the Small Blissmaking a total of twelve. The experienced yogi should know the subtle differences between these. 3 The four up -going Blisses should be much stronger than the down- coming Blisses. In the up -going process, until the reversed operation has become steady, the Bliss will not be steady at the Head Center. When the Head Center becomes steady, the Bliss will also be steady. Says the [same] Tantra [ibid.] : "Upon the life is the mind; Because of t he reversal it flows, Dwells in the center of the lotus's navel; 2 Great Symbol Thig -le: A commentary on a Tantric book. 3 In the light of the text quoted above, we see here a subtle astro -philosophical doctrine of an isomorphism between the Twelve Blisses and the twelve sectors of the earth's orbit (with the equinoctial and solsticial points as references) "the twelve Sun -Elements." Such a doctrine of isomorphism is the key to the Samkhya Tattvic doctrine as it is employed in the Hindu (Dvaita) and Buddhist Tantras. Ed . 167 Thereafter, it will stabilize. At that time the refuge will not go away. As in a utensil without any hole, The water in it will never be exhausted. That is the time the bliss will become steady. The Innate -Bliss (comes) from the stabilization, Thus, the nerve-ending Buddha is accomplished Through this way, the yogi attains his conviction." The mind means the secretion (or drops). Reversal means reversing the process of the ordinary route. Stabilization means the head. These explanations are given in the Mang -snag , the intimate pith -instruction. There are a great many pith -instructions. According to one of them when the warmness becomes stabilized, the Bodhi -Heart in the nerve begins to melt; because of the melting of Bodhi -Heart the Bliss arises. When the Bliss becomes steady, the Non -Discrimination (Wisdom) arises. This explanation is very general; it does not give the specific explanations on the up -going and the down- coming Blisses. Nor does it make clear the recognition of the great Innate Bliss. In view of this, I have given the explanations of the Four Blisses in two categories, as stated in the Tantras and instructed by the great accomplished yogis. Generally speaking, there are t wo different kinds of Bliss the Bliss produced through meditation, and the Bliss produced through ordinary ways. Through the dropping of the melted Bodhi -Heart to the Secret Center, one experiences the Bliss; however, even in this process the kindling of Dumo by which the Thig -le is melted is a necessary condition required in the production of such a Bliss. But though the Dumo is kindled and the Bodhi - Heart melted, this by no means implies the entering into the Central Channel. Therefore, it is understood that some individuals may experience the Bliss of Thig -le-Melting but not that of the Entering -into -the-Central - Channel, as experienced by those who practice the vital physical exercises, given in the pith -instructions. As the Thig -le arrives at the top of the Vajra Jewel, there are great difficulties in holding it. In the beginning, the outer and inner methods are 168 applied to let the Bodhi -Heart drop, but before it reaches the Jewel, it should be reversed with great force. However, if it is not properly spread over all the body, some sickness may arise. In view of this danger, one may try to spread the Thig -le with many different methods. However, he may not go far enough to differentiate between the Thig -le-Melting of the Entering - into- Central Channel and the Thig -le-Melting through the ordinary process. To sense the difficulty or the ease of holding the Thig -le, to carefully weigh whether or not to apply a very forceful halting exercise, to discover whether the Thig -le is properly spread and the danger of sickness avoidedthese are necessary safeguards. The reason and purpose for melting the Thig- le by the Dumo fire through meditation practices is to bring to pass the Innate Wisdom. To produce the Innate Wisdom requires, in general, the standing of the meltin g Thig-le below the navel; in particular, the halting of it at the Jewel. If it cannot be held for some time, the real Innate Wisdom can hardly arise. The arising of the Great Bliss of the Innate Wisdom of Perfecting Yoga requires that the prana enter into and remain in the Central Channel. In case of the Thig -le melting through the Entering -into- Central -Channel, the yogi should still hold the Thig -le at the Jewel and not release it until the Innate Wisdom is fully unfolded. The yogi should visualize the Bodhi -Heart waveringly coming down from center to center, as if swayed by the wind, until it reaches the Jewel. This is to safeguard the out -going prana which might expel the Thig le. There are some who merely look for an easy way to produce the Melting Bliss without a fair command of the gathering of prana [into the Central Channel]. By doing this, the melting of the Bodhi -Heart may easily be experienced, but, if the Bodhi -Heart is not reversed to a higher level, it will be extremely difficult to reverse it when the Thig- le comes down too low, unless the melting is weak. Even if it is reversed, it must be reversed to a higher level and be spread well, otherwise certain illnesses will result. In the case of the Entering -into- the-Central Channel as discussed be fore, none of these difficulties ever arise. Some may ask what steps one should take to reverse and spread the Thig -le when the disqualified Melting 169 Bliss4 Sit in a lotus position and visualize clearly the self- patron Buddha. Holding the two fists tight, cross them in front of the chest forceful ly, staring upward with both eyes, contracting the toes, and fixing the mind on the Ha word at the Crown Center. Meanwhile, the yogi should utter a prolonged sound of H twenty -one times, thinking that the Thig -le ascends to the Crown Center through the Central Channel that is close to the spine. Then the yogi should practice the mild Vase Breathing and gently carry out the bodily movements. He should also think for many time (repetitions), that all the Thig -le's are thoroughly spread over all the nerves in his body. arises. If the Melting Bliss is produced slowly and gradually, step -by- step, it will not be necessary to apply the forceful methods to reverse it to the Crown Center and spread it over all the Centers of the body. Thereby, should a great Bliss ever arise, the yogi will still be able to reverse and spread it. If a great Melting- Bliss is produced not thro ugh the gradual step - by-step process, but in a very quick and vehement manner, the following practices are advised. How to Practice the Innate Wisdom If, at the time of down -coming, when the Bodhi -Heart reaches the Jewel, the yogi is able to hold it within, the Innate Bliss will arise. Meanwhile, he should apply his view (on Reality) as instructed before (in the chapter discussing the Middle Way Doctrine). His mind should rest on the View, and safeguard the Void- Bliss feeling. Even if he does not have a good understanding of the View, he should avoid all disturbing thoughts and put himself right in the bli ssful feeling until it becomes steady. In the up -going process, when the Thig -le reaches the Crown from the Jewel, the up -going Innate Wisdom will arise. The yogi should try to recognize it. Thus the identity of the Void -Bliss will be realized. He should also try to safeguard the single Bliss of Non- Thought as long as possible, as instructed [in the previous paragraph]. 4 There are various degrees of the Melting Bliss. Here, "disqualified" refers to a lower, more mundane, bliss, rather than the highest actual Melting Bliss. 170 Plate 5 Folio 4 recto (Muses MS, vol. II) depicting the Fiery Water (contact with which in harmony is achieved through certain forms of yoga) that protects against both heat and cold. This should be one's practice in the meditation state. The practice of the after- meditation- state is explained as follows: Generally speaking, whenever the Innate -Bliss arises in the after- meditation- state, automatically and naturally all manifestations appear to be blissful. However, this experience alone is by no means enough. If the yogi reminds himself about the Blissful -Void experiences of the real -meditation-state and identifies this experience with whatever manifests, an extraordinary Great Bliss will arise and he should safeguard it. Although this pith- instruction is 171 not given by others, the Rngog- Pa School of the Marpa Succession gives many instructions on this aspect. This is the instruction of the Hevajra Tantra and other Tantras, and it should be kept from falling into oblivion. Thus, with the visualization of Dumo, the practice of Real -Meditation- State and After -Meditation- State, and the practice of breathing exercises of the Four Blisses, experi ence will be augmented. The Outer Practice of Karmayoga The practice of depending on outer conditions is the Karmayoga practice. (Both self and the Mudra should be the utmost well -gifted sentient being.) They should receive the perfect and pure initiation; observe the main and secondary Tantric precepts in a perfect degree; be proficient in all Mandala practices and affairs, and practice four periods without intermission every day; be acquainted with all the sixty -four qualifications and forms of the condit ion as instructed in the Books of Bliss; possess the power of halting the Bodhi -Heart within; have a definite understanding on the principle of Voidness and the successive steps of the Four Blisses, and especially be extremely learned in the field of the arising of the Innate Wisdom. These qualifications and requirements are stated in the Tantras and by many accomplished yogis; and they should all be fulfilled without the slightest concession. As to those who claim to have the so- called "profound teachings" and yet carry out the practice unscrupulously, there is nothing else but falling into the miserable path for them. The Tantra of Heruka (Mngong -abyung) says: "(If one unscrupulously) practices the yoga which is not yoga, And unconscientiously practices the Mudra, Or claims the wisdom which is not wisdom, There is not the slightest doubt that he will fall into hell." If the outer conditions are utilized without the fulfillment of all requirements and qualifications, the sin is extremely great. This is admonished (by all teachers) and should always be carefully remembered. If one has not attained the capability of practicing this Yoga, one may practice on the (visualized) Vajra Dakini or the Non- Ego Mother, following the teachings of the Wisdom Symbol (Ye -shes- pyag -rgya). If the visualization is clear and 172 steady, through such practice the Four Misses will arise. When the Innate- Bliss arises, if the yogi is capable of acting in the Bliss- Void, he should also apply his View -on-Reality and safeguard the oneness or Void-Bliss. If he cannot do so, through the power of the bliss, he may be able to attain a one - thought Samadhi. 173 CHAPTER SIX. THE PRACTICE OF THE ILLUSORY BODY OR DREAM YOGA, DEPENDING ON FOREGOING HEAT YOGA This is to be explained in two parts. First, following the Heat Yoga, other Yogas are to be discussed in general. Second, each of these Yogas will be individually considered. Now, the first: Of this school, the teaching on Entering- into- the-Cent ral Channel through the practice of Dumo is very clear, but, the practices and instructions on the Illusory Body and Light are very obscure. These teachings are very difficult to understand; however, I shall reveal some unique pith -instructions that I have obtained. These instructions on the Illusory Body and Light Yoga are obtained from the source of Gsan Adus given by Apags -pa, father and son. According to their teaching, before the process of entering, remaining, and dissolving into the Central Channel by the life -Prana, the three steps of the Manifestation, Augmentation, and Attainment of the Peaceful -Mind Samadhi 1 The mind-prana that perfects the genuine wisdom of the Peaceful -Mind- State is also the means through which the genuine Illusory Body is practiced. These teachings are clearly given in the pith- instructions on the Gsan Adus and are also found in the teaching of the Five Steps of the Marpa School. Therefore, though the teaching of Light Yoga and Illusory Body are not clear ly given in Naropa's Six Yogas, relying on the instructions of Apags -pa, the explanations are given here: can never be attained. In the Commentary of the Epitome of the Five Steps of the Marpa School , the stanza says: "At first, (the yogi will) see the mirage -like visions With the five -coloured light shining. The next vision he will see is a moon. 1 Peaceful -Mind: This refers to a special system of Tantric teaching given by the Gsan Adus Tan tra. "Peaceful - Mind" is an expedient translation of a Tibetan term (Sems Dben) which can be translated variously. 174 The third one is the flowing light of the sun. Then the vision of the brink appears. Through this process manifests the Illusory -Body That is manifested by the mind -prana." The vi sion of moonlight shining from a cloudless sky appears; this is a stage of Manifestation. Then the glowing light of the sun shines in the sky; this is the stage of Augmentation. Then the brink period that appears like the dark sky before dawn comes in sight; this is the stage of Attainment. After the emergence of these stages, the real Illusory Body -with -light that is produced by the Mind- Prana of the Peaceful- Mind Teaching (will come to pass); but this point is not clearly stated in the Six Yogas. Among the numerous teachings of the Illusory Body, one is to meditate on the shadow -like nature of the self -body. First let someone praise and then insult you and observe the reactions of pleasure and resentment. Thus the crude form of the delusory thoughts 2 Other teachings of the Illusory Body are the Three -Steps Illusory Body, or the Secret Illusory Body; and the Two- in-One Illusory Body of the Five Steps. However, the discriminations and differences among these Illusory -Body teachings are not even briefly mentioned here. Nevertheless the teaching of Illusor y Body (in the Six Yogas) is an uncommon teaching of the Perfecting Yoga of the Anuttara Tantra. The former one [the practice of The Impure Illusory Body. Ed.] does not, however, fulfill all the qualifications of are subdued; this is the practice of the Impure Illusory Body. Another practice is called the Pure Illusory Body Yoga. That is to meditate on the illusory -like self -Buddha figure and let another person praise and insult you and observe the reaction of pleasure and displeasure, until an indifferent feeling toward both praise and insult arises. But this practice is not a special practice; it is the common practice of the highest Yoga and other general teachings. 2 There are various levels of delusory thoughts to which sentient beings are subject. The crude delusory thoughts such as resentment, anger, and pleasure are easily recognized and felt by all conscious beings as well as by those seeking enlightenment . However, Buddhism says that freedom from these gross illusory thoughts does not result in enlightenment, since there are deeper, more subtle illusory thoughts in sentient beings of which they are ordinarily unaware but which are the source of bondage. These must be struggled with and eliminated before enlightenment is obtained. 175 the real Illusory Body; the second one [the Pure Illusory Body Yoga. Ed.] is also common because this teaching can also be found in the lower Tantras. (Through the practice of the above teachings), the thoughts of anger and lust are subdued and the mind -state of unconcern is attained. Then combinin g the decisive understanding of the Voidness of the Middle Way with the Innate -Bliss and the essence of meditation practice, the yogi should carefully remember this state of mind. If he can practice well in such manner, immediately after the arising of the Yi-Dam figure (or the completion of the Arising Yoga period) through the power of Samadhi, all the manifestations appear to him as insubstantial and delusory like the mirage. With this teaching of identifying the manifestations with the Mandala, one does not have to meditate on the non-self nature of the divine manifestation purposely; such feeling will arise naturally without effort. A teaching of the pith- instruction of the Marpa School is that the yogi should stare at a mirror and see whether his own i mage reflects from the mirror as the true Buddha's image. This teaching is designed for promoting the meditation of Arising Yoga. According to the pith- instructions given by gurus at the time of the bestowal of the Third Initiation, the image of the Vajras attva reflected from a mirror is shown to the disciple to point out the non- self aspect of the Illusory Body and to illustrate its mirage- like nature. Following carefully the teaching of the Five Steps, the instructions are given [by the guru]. A comprehensive survey of the A pags -pa pith -instruction is thus afforded, and the incompleteness of the Illusory -Body teaching of the Marpa School is also discussed fully. Again, there are instructions such as given here: the teaching of the Two -in- One -with -Learning, the teaching of the Two- in-One -without -Learning, the principle of the four steps: Manifestation, Augmentation, Attainment and Great Light. Especially, the instructions on the following steps are given: How the illusory body is transformed from the mind- prana; how one can enter into the Absolute Light after making the Illusory Body; in what manner the Manifestation, Augmentation, Voidness, etc., come in sight; how the 176 Two -in-One -with -Learning3 Through the power of the prana's entrance into the Central Channel, one is able to hold the light of sleep; or, if one has attained the general Samadhis of Mahayana or Hinayana, one can also apply his Samadhi's power in the sleeping state. Thus, the deep -sleep -Samadhi state can be brought into the weaker- sleeping -state Samadhi. There is no clear explanation here on the differe nces of these various experiences though the various approaches. Therefore, one should carefully discriminate between the holding -of-dream through prana power and the holding -of-dream through desire; and between the coming of death -light and sleep -light through the prana power and through the power of the strong will. How the Sambhogakaya is manifested in the Bardo state should also be studied. If one wants to know this in detail, one may study the instructions of Apags -pa who provides much information. (Body) is transformed after the Absolute- Light is stabilized and how through it the Two- in-One -without -Learning Body can be established how, if the Yogi practices the Light -of-Sleep, he is able to make the prana enter into the Central Channel during the awakening state; then how the four Voids will successively appear as light through his capability of gathering the prana of Roma and Rkyang- ma in the Heart Center (after the light state); and how the Illusory Body of Buddha will appear in the dream in this stage, even if the Illusory Body of Buddha does not appear in the dream, the yogi will have no doubt. In the practice of holding the Light -of-Sleep and the practice of holding the dream state, though the power of prana, the first step is to grasp the Light- of-Sleep and then manipulate the dream state. If one is not able to gather the prana into the Central Channel, but with a very strong will or intention sets one's mind upon the recognizing of the dream state during the awakening time, throughout exertion of will power a Samadhi of sleeping state will arise. However, this cannot be called a decisive or actual Light- of-Sleep state. 3 Two -in-One-with-Learning refers to all these teachings provided for th e instruction and enlightenment of those who have progressed up to the stage just before Buddhahood. Two -in-One- without -Learning refers to the stage of final enlightenment, Buddhahood, in which nothing remains to be learned. 177 If through both the inner and outer daytime practice, one is able to proceed with the entering, remaining, and dissolving process in the Central Channel, the well -known Four Blisses and Four Voids will arise. Then the identity of Bliss-Void during the emergence of the Innate -Born can be practised. Eventually the Illusory Body will arise. By means of this practice, one will be able to impress the Bliss- Void feeling on all manifestations at all times. Thus the (identity) of manifestation and Mandala (practice of Tantrism) is exercised. What is the reason for relying on the remaining two Wheels to practice the Sleep -Light and Illusory- Dream? Because in sleep the pranas will naturally gather in the Heart Center, and with the power of gath ering the prana in the Central Channel and through the mental concentration on the Central Channel Heart -Center, the prana of Ro- ma and Rkyang -ma will gather in the Central Channel -Heart Center, and its power will be very great. Consequently, the Four Voids, especially the All -Void, will appear. If one can guard this light of Samadhi for a long period, through its power in daytime, one will be able to gather a greater portion of prana in the Central Channel where it will become more steady than before. If the light -of-sleep becomes steady, it will help the path greatly. With it, the power of meditation will increase, without it, the power will decrease. This is extremely important for those who have not attained the ultimate accomplishment in this life and e xpect to attain the ultimate enlightenment at the time of death. This practice is superior to the teaching of (merely) recognizing the Light -of Death. After the emergence of the light -of-sleep, if one knows how to radiate or raise up the superb Illusory Dream -Body, through its power the daytime practice on the Illusory Body will become more powerful and steady. If one cannot attain the ultimate accomplishment in this life and puts his hope in the moment of death, he must have the ability of holding the light with prana and must practice this teaching of Illusory Body of Dream. Thus he will be able to identify the Illusory Body of Bardo. Without these practices it would be impossible to do so; therefore, these two instructions are unique and of great importance. 178 The instructions on the actual practice of the Illusory Body and the Light Yoga follow: In addition to the teachings given in the last chapter the Tantric teaching of the perfect Illusory Body, the teaching of the light -of-awakening -from sleep, the tea chings for the time of the reversed processes, there are other ways of practice found in the commentaries of the great teachers, which I will now relate in this chapter. First the instruction on the Illusory Body practice; second, the instructions on the Light Yoga. The teaching of the Illusory Body will be discussed in three steps: the Illusory Body practice on the manifestations; the Illusory Body practice on the dream state; and the Illusory Body practice on the Bardo state. With a decisive understanding or View on Snyat, the yogi associates this view with the Innate -Born Bliss in meditation. After the meditation period, through remembering the View and remembering that all manifestations are Buddhahood, the yogi will naturally experience, in all daily activities, the feeling that all manifestations are immanently illusory. He will also see all manifestations illustrating themselves in the forms of Mandalas. For these (capable) yogis, of course, there is no need for any visualization practices. But in or der to benefit those who cannot do the same in their meditation, the following practice is advised: In the after -meditation period, the yogi should observe the non -self nature of all Dharmas the sentient beings and the material world and identify his body with his image reflected from the mirror. Through this practice, the common visions of sentient being and universe 4 will appear as mirage without any substance or self -nature. If this experience can be stabilized, all manifestations will appear in the form of the two Mandalas5 4 The Tibetan words Snod and Bjud [pronounced "nu" and "ju". Ed.] mean not only the "Sentient beings" and the "Universe" but also "the supporter" and "that which is supported" implying the idea of the subjective and the objective. . With an understanding of the mirage -like nature, or with the view of the identity of non-self -nature Voidness and manifestation, the yogi observes the pure Mandala. And then he looks into the mirror and 5 Two Mandalas: Here, Tsong Khapa does not clearly state which Mandalas he refers to. Perhaps he means the Samaya Mandala and Wisdom Mandala. See footnote 6 of Chapter IV (Initiation of Hayagriva) on the "Samaya and Wisdom Buddhas." 179 identifies the godly image there with his own body. In this way, the mirage - like nature of Buddha's body is observed. With such an understanding, the yogi observes the Buddha's body in the mirror and concentrates upon it. Then he should think that this image of Buddha projects itself and merges with him. Since the former practice is a complete process, its power is much greater than that of the latter. As instructed in The Five Steps , the picture of an image of Vajrasattva is reflected in a mirror so that by looking at this reflection, the yogi may observe the nature of the Illusory Body. Following this instruction, the two gurus, Marpa and Agog Lodrawa, have established this teaching to benefit those disciples who cannot quite understand the illusory nature of beings merely through hearing it explained. For that reason, this seeing -practice is given. To practice this teaching in the Arising Yoga, a specially constructed house is required; many different drugs and other materials are also needed. After all the preparations are arranged, the yogi then proceeds to observe the reflection of the image in the mirror. These instructions are found in both Marpa's and Agog's teachings. (Generally speaking) there are two different aspects of the illusory -like and dream -like nature of all Dharmas: 6 Here, the latter aspect which refers to the Illusory Body is stressed. the existent -but-not-real aspect, and the manifesting -yet-void aspect. The manifestation and the manifestation- void should also be distinguished; and two different kinds of voidness7 6 The original text uses the term Dharma, which has the several meanings of existence, objects, beings, becomings, Perceptions, etc. the voidness of the utter non -existent 7 These statements reflect the typical thought of Tsong Khapa's own philosophy, according to which there is a Voidness to be realized and a (Reality) Voidness to be observed and contemplated, even from the viewpoint of the Absolute Realm (the final transcendental truth). The Old Schools declare that while in the Mundane Category it is permissible to say that there is a giver and a receiver, a Voidness to meditate upon, and one who meditates, etc., from t he viewpoint of the Absolute Realm there is no Voidness to be realized, nor anyone to realize this Voidness. As stated in the Diamond Sutra by Gotama Buddha, himself: "If anyone says, 'I see Buddha', If anyone says, 'I hear the preaching of Buddha', He treads a vicious path and will never behold Buddha." Also in the same Sutra: "Because there is no Wisdom to be attained, [i.e., because the Buddha knew this Ed.] Buddha said, 'I attained Wisdom'." 180 such as the never coming -into- being of the horn of the rabbit or the son of a barren woman; and the voidness of the manifesting -yet-empty. (If one has not realized the latter, one will not be able to understand the illusory nature of manifestations.) The illusory nature of beings is illustrated through analogies. For example, the phantasm of horses and cattle conjured by the magicians does not exist in reality, but one cannot deny the apparent reality of these phenomena (as one sees them). The same holds true in the case of sentient beings (and objects, etc.) as people see them. Although there is no immanent actuality in the self -nature of beings, (through their illusory thoughts) people see manifestations as having r eal existence. The manifestations considered (by ordinary beings) as things having Dharma -form (color, shape, sound, taste, etc.) have never existed. Nevertheless, the actor and the action, the hearer and the sound, the seer and the vision, etc., are conti nuously manifesting themselves freely. If one realizes the Two -in-One View of "existence in voidness and voidness in existence," there will be no danger of falling into the extreme Realistic or Nihilistic views. Since all Dharmas are immanently void in nat ure, realizing their nature as void is quite sufficient; there is no need for creating a voidness through one's mind-effort, or a voidness of day, month, or year (past, present, and future). If one meditates on this principle, all attachments and clinging to the actuality of beings will be subdued. This profound principle (of voidness) is by no means imperceptible or unobservable. During the practice of the meditation on Reality nyat, and during the contemplation of the Right View, it (the Voidness) can definitely serve as an object of observation. It is utterly erroneous to say that the reality of Voidness cannot be seen or known, that it can never be practiced in the path, and that nothing of it can be understood, as claimed by some scholars of the old schools of Tibet. The origin of all the conceptions of skandhas, self- natures, and symbols, is the very thought of I am! Therefore one should stress practicing the non - existence of the self -nature of beings. As the yogi perceives the "becomings" with his mind, he should appreciate the existence of 181 manifestations in the mundane category. The existence of causations the existence of the doer and receivershould be confirmed within own mind. Though these causations are devoid of self- nature, they still manifes t freely without any hindrances. Should a conflict between the twothe voidness and existence appear in his mind, he should think on the principle of delusiveness, reflected by the parables of shadow, dream, etc., and reconcile the conflict. We know that the reflection of the face in the mirror is in reality void. We also know that the reflection is caused by the conjunction of the face and mirror, and that the withdrawal of either of them will end the reflection. But the disappearance of the reflection does not mean the annihilation of the face and mirror themselves 8 Through these practices, the yogi will experience all manifestations as the Bodies of Buddha, will realize these Bodies as delusory, and will find this delusiveness absorbed in the Great Bliss. These realizations will take place successively as three steps. If the yogi attains the Great Bliss in his main - meditation stage, he should pay especial attention to the observation of nyat. Thus, by concentration on nyat -Bliss the non -discriminating Wisdom will arise. . In the same way, though there is not one atom existing in sentient beings, the Karma -doer, the Karma -receiver, and the ripening of Karma through one's previous deeds can still take place. We should ponder on and practice this principle; when its understanding is stabilized one may proceed to work on the practice of the Beyond- Measure - Palace, outwardly, and the Yi -Dam image (in the Mandala). Then, he should contemplate the View of the Identity of the Bliss and Void. The yogi should pra ctice the main- meditation and after -meditation stages, alternatively. 9 8 This statement reflects Tsong Khapa's philosophy of Voidness to the effect that, briefly, "all conceptions are Void (Empty)" but that beings, themselves, exist. 9 Main -meditation Stage: The period in meditation when the yogi is concerned only with the central object of his meditation -practice in contrast to the After -meditation Stage when he is engaged in daily activities while, nevertheless, keeping his meditation experience in mind. 182 The instruction on the Dream -Illusory Body Practice falls into four divisions: (1) how to recognize the dream; (2) how to purify and develop the dream; (3) how to overcome the rambling type of dreams and recognize them as illusory manifestations; (4) how to practice on the real nature of dream. (1) There are two different ways to recognize or to hold the dream. The first way is recognizing and holding the dream through the power of Prana. That is, through the power which is produced by the gathering and dissolving of Prana in the Central Channel during the waking stage, the Four Voidnesses will arise. At the outset, when the light of the dream stage is realized, the yogi will be able to recognize the Four Voidnesses clearly. Through this realization, he will automatically recognize the dream (as such). In this case, there is no need for him to practice any teachings for recognizing the dream. The second way is recognizing the dream by i ntention. These teachings are provided for those who do not have the power over Prana, as mentioned before. This practice is carried out by creating, in the daytime, a strong intention for recognizing the dream and concentrating on the Throat Center, etc. Of these two (methods), the former is the unique teaching of recognizing the dream given by Tantra. The latter practice, however, is a common and general one. Here, I want to mention the so -called teaching of Matsur, of recognising the dream through concentration on the Heart Center, and the teaching of Mestson of accomplishing the same purpose by concentration on the Throat Center. Some claim that concentration on the Heart Center is for the practice of Light Yoga and that concentration on the Throat Cente r is for the practice of Dream Yoga. However, I think that, through the arising of the Four Voidnesses of sleep, before the dream appears, the power of Prana which is produced by concentration on the Heart Center will enable one to recognize the dream. The refore it is permissible to say that concentration on the Heart Center will enable one to recognize the dream. In the case of practice through intensive intention, the yogi is not able to see the Four Voidnesses before the dream appears; therefore, concentration on the Throat Center is the right method. In this connection, one may ask: "Since concentrating on the Throat Center is the right teaching, should we stick to it and disregard the others?" A brief 183 discussion on this point may be helpful. Consider the case of the yogi who is able to hold (the dream) through Prana power; if he concentrates on the Throat Center during the time just before falling into the stage of sleep, the Pranas will gather and dissolve in the Central Channel at the Throat Center. Though the yogi has raised the Four Voidnesses beforehand, (because of the diversified attention placed on the Throat Center) the Prana is neither concentrated (completely) in the Heart Center nor gathered at the Throat Center. Since the Four Voidnesses can never be revealed through practices other than meditation in the Heart Center, the yogi should concentrate on the Heart Center just on the verge of falling asleep. However, there is an advantage in concentrating on the Throat Center. If one concentrates at the Throat Center or at the forehead, the gathering of Prana in the Heart Center will become lesser and weaker; consequently, the sleep will become very light and the awareness of mind will become clearer. If a dream is produced through meditating on the Throat Center during sleep, this dream will last longer than usual (or be more steady than the usual dream.) Furthermore, if the yogi raises a desire to have a longer dream in his sleeping state after a certain dream he has experienced, he will shortly be able, through the power derived from previous concentration on the Throat Center (during repose), to hold his mind (and produce) a dream wherein he is able to practice the meritorious (Dream Yoga) for a longer. period. For these reasons, the instruction fo r concentrating on the Throat Center is given. Generally speaking, if the yogi has a sound foundation of the practice of the path, his dream is clear and he is able to recognize it frequently. In this case, he does not have to depend on the infrequent clear dreams (as do those who practice with intention). If he has strong desires in the daytime, these will usually be (represented) in his dreams. Based on this principle, if he creates a strong desire during the day to recognize his dream, and repeatedly strengthens this desire while awake, he will, when asleep, be able to recognize the dream. This is not a very difficult practice. If no dream whatsoever appears, there is then no way for the yogi to practice the Dream Yoga; therefore, he must use all methods to produce a dream as given in the Tantric instructions. If the dream takes place but is not 184 clear, it will still be difficult for the yogi to practice Dream Yoga. Therefore, it is necessary to have a clear dream clear to the point that the yogi can relate it when he awakes. To dwell in a solitary place helps to purify mind so that it will be as clear in the evening as in the morning. Then it is easy to recognize the dream. In short, this intentional practice requires a very strong desire directed toward recognizing the dream in the daytime, and only by such strong habitual thinking and awareness can the dream be recognized. Therefore, the practice in the daytime is important. Besides this, there are many teachings such as concentrating on the Throat Center, on the point between the eyebrows, visualizing certain objects and shapes, some special Prana practices, etc. Through these methods, the clearness and awareness of the mind is strengthened. Thus, the yogi should follow these Pith- instructions of Dream Yoga, study them, and learn them well. He should rely on a guru who possesses the unmistakable experience of Dream Yoga; otherwise (if he follows the wrong instruction from the wrong guru), he may have some experiences in the beginning, but will have nothing but confusion in the end. Once the dream is recognized, the yogi should visualize himself as his Patron Buddha, or practice the Guru Yoga together with offering -prayers. (In the dream state) the yogi should make an effort to create many clear, auspicious dreams at his own will, try to recognize them, expand them, and utilize them as an opportunity to practice various benevolent devotions. If any ominous dream occur the yogi should transform it into an auspicious one. He should pray to his Guru with great ea rnestness to grant him the ability to do so. In the dream state, the yogi should perform the ritual of offering the Gtormas to the Yi -Dam and protective deities, pray them to grant his wishes, etc. In his retreat -confinement, 10 Practice during the daytime should put emphasis mainly on dwelling upon or retaining the memory of the desire (to recognize the dream at night). The yogi should think that all manifestations he beholds and all that cross his way in the waking state are (actually) in the dream state. This he does by the yogi should work hard on these practices. 10 The meaning of this sentence is not entirely clear. The translator presumes that a solitary, isolated place is recommended as being most conducive to the success of this yogic practice. 185 reminding himself, "This is a dream. I now recognize it. I know that I am dreaming." With great earnestness the yogi should strengthen his wish by enhancing the desire. Thus, eventually, when the dreams appear, he will be able to recognize them and also to utilize them as a basis to exercise (the Dream Yoga practices). The yogi should not only strengthen his intention by repeatedly reminding himself of the desire during the day, but also strength en the desire just before sleep. This will greatly increase the chance of recognizing the dream. The instructions on the intensive practice at night are given in three divisions: first, to visualize the word -symbols in the Throat Center. When the yogi feels that he is about to go to sleep, he should visualize that he becomes the Patron Buddha and also prays many times to his guru who is sitting upon his head. Then he should visualize a red Ahword or O word situated in the center of a red lotus with four leaves in the Central Channel of the Throat Center, This Ah or O word is the symbol of the essence of Buddha's expression upon which the yogi should concentrate without distraction. In such a manner, the yogi should enter into the state of sleep (keeping these visualizations in mind). There is another instruction on performing this practice, i.e. to visualize five words O , Ah, Nu, Da, Rain a successive order, in contrast to meditating on one red Ah word alone. This method is quite different. The (Tantra) of the Non -Twofold Victorious Illusoriness says, "Meditating on the four words Ah, Nu, Da, Rain a successive order does not increase more power. It helps little; therefore, this practice may be dispensed with." To meditate on the O word at the central point is in accord with the saying of Sambhudra and other Tantras 11 11 Tantra: This term may refer to a Tantra, a commentary on a Tantra, or to some other book. . However, visualizing a red Ah word is also acceptable. The extremely important point is to meditate on the word at the "central point"; i.e., to meditate on the word in the Throat Center in the Central Channel. Should he be unable to recognize the dream through this visualization, he must practice many, many times. If he still cannot hold the dream, he should visualize a Thig- le [here in the sense of bindu or seed of power] at the point between the eyebrows and hold on to it. 186 It is difficult to recognize the dream after midnight and before dawn, for this is a period in which sleep is very deep. In the time after daybreak into and through dawn, the sleep is usually light. During this period i t is easy to recognize the dream. Then the yogi should pray to his guru, remind himself of the desire (to hold onto the dream),visualize a white glittering Thig -le at the central point between the eyebrows on his self -Yi-Dam body, and hold onto the visualization. He should also practice the Vase -Breathing exercise seven times; then he will fall asleep again. If he stresses visualizing the glittering Thig- le too much, he will not be able to sleep, or will be prone to awaken easily. In this case, he should visualize the Thig- le as a little darker in hue. Some say that if he cannot fall into sleep because of meditating on the Throat Center, he should concentrate on the forehead, visualizing a white Thig- le there. This is very erroneous, because the forehead is a place that, if concentrated upon, causes dreams to arise, (puts consciousness in operation in opposition to the tendency to sleep). This foolish statement is akin to saying that concentration upon the Sleeping Center will make one awake. If he concentrates on the Throat Center at dawn and twilight for a long period and still cannot hold the dream, he must be a person who requires a sound, heavy sleep. For him, meditating on the Eyebrow Center will help. If by doing this, the sleep then becomes too light and he is liable to awake, or he can not fall into sleep at all, he should visualize a Thig- le within the reproductive organ and also repeatedly strengthen his desire for recognizing the dream during the daytime as mentioned before. Before sleep, he should visualize a black Thig- le in the center of the organ and practice the breathing exercise twenty -one times. Thus the destructive thoughts will be halted, and he can fall into sleep more easily. One should know that meditating on that organ is a cure for lig ht sleep. If through the practice [of meditating on the frontal sinus center] one still cannot subdue or overcome heavy sleep, one may follow such instructions as meditating on the month and year (visualizing the moon and sun). If by doing so, the yogi still cannot practice the Dream Yoga, he should know that only through the power of the (Wisdom) -Prana produced by the arising of the Innate Born Wisdom through the process of gathering, entering, and 187 dissolving in the Central Channel of the Heat Yoga practice, one is able to hold a dream properly. Through the practice of intensive intention, no matter how hard one tries, he may still not be able to practice properly. Therefore, he should work hard on the superb Heat Yoga and try to lead the Pranas into the Central Channel. This is the primary practice, others being secondary. (2) How to purify and develop the dream: There are two ways to develop the dream: the mundane way and the Buddhistic way. The principle of developing the dream is to create a dream or t o transform it. The yogi may think in the dream stage that he rides on the rays of the sun and moon and journeys to the thirty -three heavens or to any place in this world. To enlarge his visions and experiences, he may conceive that he walks or flies in the sky. The Buddhistic way is to conceive that in the dream state one goes to the Pure Land of Amitabha or the heaven- land of Maitreya or the Aog-min Pure Land, etc., visiting the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, rendering one's offerings, and hearing the Dharma from them. To be able to do this, one must have attained the mastery of Prana power. Only through the Prana power is one able to transform or create any dream state at one's own will. For those who have this mastery these things are not difficult. For the o rdinary person, however, a great deal of practice is required. In both cases (through intensive intention and through the Prana power), the yogi sees the Buddha's Pure Land in his dream vision; however, these visions are merely the pictures the (reflection s) of the Buddha's Pure Land and cannot be considered as real. In the latter case (through the exercise of Prana's power), one may receive some revelations or prophecies in dream that prove to be true. Most of them, however, are not reliable. In the former case (through intensive intention), the yogi should rely on the meritorious instructions together with some breathing exercises to practice the Dream Yoga. The following instruction will improve the practice of Dream Yoga: When the yogi sees a man, an animal, a pillar, a vase or any other object in a 188 dream, he should transform them by multiplying them from one to two, from two to four, to eightup to hundreds and thousands. (3) How to overcome the rambling type of dreams and recognize them as illusory manifestations: When the yogi one sees a fire or flood in a dream and becomes frightened, he should think to himself, recognizing the dream, "How can the fire and water of dream ever harm me?" Also, he should try to jump the fire and cross the flood. To learn the illusory nature of dream means to realize the non-existent nature of the vase, and other objects of dream -visions. This is accomplished by recognizing the dream. But one is not able, merely through the understanding, to realize the non- existence nyat of the self -nature of the dream. For instance, in the waking state, when he sees the reflection in a mirror, though he knows that the reflection is illus ory, he still cannot realize the Suchness of the reflection. One's incapacity for recognizing the dream is like that of a child who believes the reflection of his face to be his true face; while in recognizing the dream, one is like an adult who knows the reflection is unreal although it appears to be his actual face. This example is an illustration of the underlying principle, and is a good one to express the principle of the Voidness -as-Reflection (literally the Voidness of the face -like reflection in the sense of the nonexistence of the "true" face in the reflection). According to this principle, one should know that all Dharmas are Void in their self - nature self -nature in the sense of real self -existence. One should also understand that all Dharmas are dream -like and have no substantiality whatsoever. With this understanding definitely in mind, the yogi should acquaint himself with the nature, manner and characteristics of the Clinging -of-Existence, and also familiarize himself with the reasons for the no n-existence of this (illusory) Clinging. With such an understanding, the yogi learns that all the visions, objects, and subjects that he sees in the dream are identical with (Buddha) and the Two Mandalas; they are void in nature yet manifest (freely) as conjurations. Further, the yogi should understand that all these 189 visions are absorbed in the bliss -void, as one has experienced during the daytime. (4) The Practice on the real nature of dream: This is a teaching combining the Light Yoga with Dream Yoga. In the practice of this teaching, the yogi clearly visualizes (in the dream state) the self -body becoming his Yidam. From his heart, the H word emanates rays of light that gather all the visions in the dream and draw them back into the H word. Then both the lower and upper part of his body melt and become absorbed into the H word. Then the Hword also vanishes into the non-discriminating Light, upon which the yogi should concentrate his mind. The perception -of-mind 12 of the dream state is much easier to absorb than the perception -of-mind of the waking state. In the dream state, when some portion of the very coarse kind of Prana dissolves itself and gathers at the Heart Center, the dream will vanish, and one will fall into the sleeping state. This is th e time in which one may recognize the Voidness; if not, through repeated practices, one will definitely be able to see the Voidness of sleep clearly. If the absorbing process 13 and Void- holding become stable, this will greatly help meditationPrana exercise, visualization, Mahamudra in the daytime. 1f the yogi cannot recognize the Voidness- of-Sleep at the beginning stage when he first falls into sleep, he will be able through the power of recognizing the dream, to see the special Voidness. 12 Perception -of-Mind: (Tib. Snang -wa). Tibetan terms have many meanings; this the reader should keep in mind. In this case, not only 'perceptions' are meant but any subjects, objects, or visions created or apprehended by the mind. 13 The absorbing process: The sinking of the different consciousnesses into one fundamental consciousness during the process of death, enlightenment, the Main -Meditation Stage, etc. 190 CHAPTER SEVEN . ON THE BARDO REALM Now the third instruction on the Illusoriness of Bardo: This topic will be discussed in two aspects; a general introduction to the subject of the Bardo1 The former: In the process of dying and in the process of the coming into Bardo at time of death, one's feeling is very changeable and fluctuating, like the scale and arrow. The sentient being of Bardo [hereafter termed "Bardoist"] has the body -form, with all limbs complete, of the Loka wherein the Bardoist is destined to have his birth. The Bardoist is endowed with supernatural power and is capable of performing miraculous feats such as passing through solid matter without difficulty or hindrances; he can travel to any places except the place wherein he will be reborn. The lifetime of the Bardoist usually lasts seven days; in some cases it is even shorter than this. After this period, if the Bardoist can not reincarnate (for some reason) he will return to the Bardo state again. This may happen as many as seven times, making forty -nine days, if conditions necessary for his new reincarnation are not ready. state, and instructions on the successive practices. Within this period, when the time for reincarnating ripens, the Bardoist, if so destined by Karma, will have his consciousness drawn into the place of the Metamorphosis -Born. If the Bardoist is to have a birth of Warmth -Born, his consciousness will merge with smell and taste and reincarnate in the place of the Warmth -Born. If the Bardoist is to have a birth of the Egg -Born or Womb- Born, his lust and hate will be inflamed when he beholds the scene of his parents having intercourse. If destined to be born male, he will hate his father and lust after his mother; if destined to be female, he will hate his mother and lust after his father (at first sight) [Here is penetrating pre- natal psychoanalysis long before the advent of Freud. Ed.] In some cases, the Bardoist dies and reincarnates in a place because of his aversion to. In other cases, the Bardoist who has committed many evil deeds (in his previous life) sees his surroundings as dark as the twilight sky, while the virtuous Bardoist 1 Bardo: The intermediate stage between life and death. 191 sees his surroundings bright as moonlight or white as woolen cloth. The Hell- destined Bardoist sees the burning tree- stump. The Animal -destined Bardoist sees the smoke. The Hungry Ghost (Preta) -destined Bardoist sees a color like that of water. Both the Human -destined and Desire- Heaven - destined Bardoists behold the gold color. The one destined for the Heaven - of-Form sees the white womb and enters into it. The sentient being of the Heaven of Non- Form also experiences Bardo if he is destined to fall down into the lower Kingdoms. If sentient beings in the two lower Kingdoms are destined to reincarn ate in the Heaven -without - Form, they will not experience Bardo after their death. Instead, a body for them will come into being (made) of the Skandha of the Heaven-of -Non- Form. Some declare that the Beings of Non-Intermission 2 "In the previous time, the reincarnate (beings) Who possess the face of flesh, etc." both of lower and upper, wil l not experience Bardo at all. This kind of statement shows ignorance. The Abhidharma -Ghosa says: This stanza refers to the beings possessing the body -form of their existence previous to the Bardo stage [Gap in text, probably copyists errors, occur here.] to the time before their future death. Those who do not understand this point claim that the Bardoist has a body -form like that of his previous existence. Some say that all those in Bardo have the same body- form and face as their previous existence. Some say that their body -form, visions, and perceptions are like those of their companions in Bardo. Some put various conceptions together, saying: "The face and body are like that of the face and body that will be born." On this saying is based the claim that the Bardoist possesses both the face and body of his next existence and those of his companions in Bardo. Some say that the Bardoist has both the body and form of his previous life and of his future life. Thus they claim that in the seven- day periodthe 2 Beings of Non -Intermission: This refers to the most virtuous beings and the most sinful beings. Both classes, because of their very strong Karma, are said to have no Bardo experience but, instead, reincarnate immediately. 192 lifetime of Bardo the bodily face, form, and visions of the first three -and-a- half days are like those of the previous life, and that the face, form and visions of the next three- and- a half days are like those of the future life. Some state that the Bardoist dies at the expiration of the three- and-a- half days that the so-called "Bardo" refers to this time. These statements have no basis at all. As for the meaning of the "Bardo," the Abhidharma -Ghosa says: "Died from here. Gone to be born. (Between these two stages) the Bardo." This stanza explains that "Bardo" means the stage between death and the next life. Besides the Sgye- she-bardo (Bardo of Death and Birth) there is no other Bardo. But this Sgye- she-bardo is the Sridba -bardo itself. However, in the teaching of the Six Yogas the classification or arrangement is somewhat different. It states that the period from the time of birth till the time of death is called the Sgye -she-bardo. The period from the sleeping state to the waking state is called the Dream Bardo. The period from the time of death till the time of the next birth is called the Sridba- bardo. If people ask how I would explain these two conflicting views, I answer that this problem can be clarified through the study of Gsan Hdus, according to the teaching of Gsan Hdus given by the Paoba School, the successive emergence of the Four Emptinesses manifesting as light finds illustration in the process of dying. The illusory Sambhogakaya corresponds to the manifestation of Bardo. The subtle Sambhogakaya, which transforms the coarse Nirmanakayas, finds correspondence in the process of taking a new birth. Those who do not have the pith- instructions mistakenly interpret the esoteric teachings as referring to the vulgar Sgye- she-bardo and the other two (Bardos). But the yogis who possess the pith -instructions understand the Trikaya at the end with a clear understanding of the corresponding nature of the two, knowing how and why names of the Trikaya of the Path and Fruit are used to denote the Three Dharmas of the Foundation. They understand that it is merely the names of the Trikaya and not the real 193 Trikaya being used to explain the Three Dharmas of Foundation. This background is found in many other sources.3 From this view, the so -called practice of the Illusory Body Bardo in the waking state is merely a name, not the real Bardo. Likewise the so- called Illusory Body Bardo of Dream which manifests in the period after the appearance of the Light -of-Sleep stage i s also a name (for explaining the Bardo- like nature of the dream). The name of Bardo is also given to that period in which advanced yogis realize the Sambhogakaya after the emergence of the Death -Light. For the ordinary sentient beings, however, the same p eriod is merely Bardo. For these reasons the "so -called" three Bardos are avowed; however, such statements do not make much sense and are superfluous.4 3 Since Tsong Khapa's commentary was designed for Tibetan scholars, the quotations are often incomplete, for it was presumed that the readers were familiar with the various Tantric texts, or had access to the texts. At the time of this translation, these texts were not available to the translator; therefore, it has proved most difficult to translate and comment upon these scattered, fragmentary stanzas. The basic principle is to interpret and associate the Three Dharmas of the Foundation with the Trikaya of the Path (in order) to establish a system. Only after this first consideration can the Birth -Death Bardo and the other two Bardos be considered acceptable. The yogi should acquaint himself with the fact that the three Illusory Body teachings Illusory- Body of the Waking State, Illusory -Body of the Dream State, and the corresponding Illusory -Body of Bardo Stateare all based on the fundamental principle of Bardo. He should also know that by means of the practice of Heat Yoga in the daytime, through the pro cess of Prana entering, remaining, and dissolving in the Central Channel, the Four Blisses or Four Emptinesses will successively appear. He should know that this process is in correspondence with the principle of the (Subsiding) Process of Mind Prana at time of death, so that the Light of Death will also appear. 4 These statements reflect the typical polemic and pedantic characteristics of Tsong Khapa and many other Tibetan scholars who have been busily engaging in controversial argumentations on trifles and matters of secondary importance in the past few centuries. Except for Mahgi (the great woman philosopher of Tibet) and a handful of scholars, few of them had a creative mind capable of producing a new philosophy like the glorious teaching of Hwayan and Zen Buddhism of China. [We do not feel Tsong Khapa's explanations here so useless as the translator alleges and suspect that a bit of understandable partisanship of his own has colored his views here. See too p. 244 note. Ed .] 194 Likewise, he should know that the teaching and practice of the Light- of- Waking State, Light- of-Sleeping State, and Light of Death correspond to the principle of the (Subsiding) Process of Mind Prana at time of death; because in both cases the Four Emptinesses will appear. With this interpretation of the three (above) conformities in mind, the yogi should know that at the end of the emergence of the Illusory Body of Waking State the crude Nirmanakaya will be transformed (literal text: "Nirmanakaya will be seized"). At the end of a dream, close to the waking state, the Subtle Sambhogakaya appears by which the Nirmanakaya will be transformed (seized). At the end of the emergence of the Light of Death th e corresponding Sambhogakaya of Bardo arises, by which the crude Nirmanakaya will be transformed (seized). The yogi should be well- acquainted with this basic principle so that he will be clear from all doubt (in his mind) and acquire a definite understandi ng. If he grasps the foregoing principle, he will then understand the correspondence of the Dharmakaya with death, the Sambhogakaya with Bardo, and the Nirmanakaya with rebirth. These three correspondences can also be subdivided into nine; one should know that this is the highest teaching. Some (scholars), however, made a different interpretation. They aligned the Lust with the Third Initiation, the Blindness with Light, and the Hate with the Illusory Body. Although in the performance of the Third Initiation some aspect of lust is involved, there is little reason to align the Lust Initiation in this connection, because in the case of the Third Initiation many preparations and practices are required. (Since both the preparatory practices and the Arising and Perfecting Yoga are not aligned with the Bardo, there is little sense in connecting the Lust with the Third Initiation). In view of the fact that the Bardoist always experiences the Lust and Hate when entering into the womb of the mother, some scholars mist akenly aligned the Illusory Body with the Hate. This view is erroneous, because it implied the abandonment of the practice of the Illusory Body of the Waking and Dream states. By holding these views they neglect the real basis of the Illusory Body teaching. Also they cannot possibly explain the fact of the emergence of the Light of Death and the manifestations of the Illusory Body 195 of Bardo. Besides, a lust- desire will arise in the Bardoist when he sees the scene of his parents intercourse; if so, the Illusory Body should not only be aligned with the Hate but also with the Lust; therefore, this arrangement is not very sound. Some declare that because the lust of the sentient beings of the Sgye- she- bardo is very great, it should be aligned with the Lust; the blindness of the dream is great, thus the dream should be aligned with the Blindness; the hate of the Sridba -bardo is great, this the Sridba -bardo should be aligned with the Hate. This saying is also incorrect, as explained before; furthermore the Tantra says: "In between the Sleep and Dream state Is the Blindness, the nature of the Dharmakaya." According to this irrefutable quotation, the time to realize the Light is in the sleeping state when the dream visions have not yet arisen; it is erroneous to align the Dream -state with Blindness (as it should be aligned with Sleeping - state and Light). Some claim that Marpa said that the Lust should be aligned with the Non- Leakage (Zag -med), the Hate should be aligned with the Illusory Body, the Blindness with the Light. The two former statements are not a convincing theory at all. Some Lamas say that in correspondence with the Sgye -she-bardo certain aspects of the Two -Successive Step Practice (Arising Yoga and Perfecting Yoga) are taught and should be practiced: the Dream -Bardo, Light, and Blindness should be aligned together with the related aspects of the Two Yogas; the Sridba- bardo, the Hate, and the Dharma- essence should also be aligned together with the related aspects of the Two Yogas. This saying makes n o sense at all. The Three Bodies aligned with the three Barrios make together nine different groups and aligned with other arrangements make the system of fifteen groups, etc. Since this is easily understood, there is no need to detail them here. 196 The instructions on the successive practice include (1) the explanations of the different groups of Bardoists (i.e. Bardo dwellers) and (2) the manner in which these various classes of beings can apply the Bardo practice. First, the explanations. All Bardo dwellers may be divided into three groups (or levels) the most advanced beings, the fairly advanced beings, and the least advanced beings. Discussions of the advanced beings are found in the books of Zal-lun, Spyod -bsdus and Sgron -gsal. At the end of the death process, the illusory [in the sense of a but transitory means that is nonetheless useful and even necessary under the Bardo conditions. This technical use of the word "illusory" will be noticed on several occasions.] Sambhogakaya will appear in the Bardo; rely on it and you will attain Buddhahood. In the past the scholars of Tibet regarded this teaching of attaining Buddhahood while in the Bardo state as "the lazy man's teaching." 5 Someone may ask how much realization and practice are required in one's lifeti me to enable one even to attain the Buddhahood in Bardo. The answer is, a perfect accomplishment of the First Successive Step (the Arising Yoga), the entering, remaining, and dissolving in the Central Channel, together with the successive arising of the Four Emptiness- Wisdoms and the actual accomplishment of attaining the Illusory Body. This is the best preparation that found in the case of the most advanced beings. However, there are some yogis who are not lazy but nevertheless lack cert ain necessary conditions which are required (for the attainment of Buddhahood in this life), so that they cannot reach Buddhahood in one lifetime. Therefore the appellation "lazy man's practice" is merely valid from one particular viewpoint. Required of the fairly advanced yogi is the arising of the Four Emptinesses through the prana's entering into the Central Channel, so that the yogi is able to merge himself with the Emptiness of Sleep because merging with the Emptiness of Sleep is just like merging with the Light of Death through prana power. If one is able to merge with the Voidness in a state of deep sleep, this is the best method. 5 "Lazy man's teaching": In comparison with other teachings, the Bardo Yoga is much easier and faster for attaining Buddhahood; hence the nickname. 197 In the case of the least advanced, it is required that they obtain an initiation and strictly observe the Tantric disciplines, and also diligently practice the Arising Yoga and the Perfecting Yoga. Then at the time of death, when the subsidence of the earth, water, and other elements takes place, the yogi should notice the arising of the Light of Death and the successive emergence of the stages of Bardo. Thus he should now in this lifetime practise the pith -instructions of the Sleeping and Dream yogas. Since the sleeping and dream states are in many ways like the death and Bardo states, practising the Dream Yoga is a good preparation for death and the Bardo state. At the time of death, even if the yogi cannot hold the Light through the prana power, he will be able through these practices to recognize it. One who has worked mainly on the Dhyana practice (but not the Tantric Path) and has acco mplished Dhyana to a great extent is able to apply his Samadhi -power at the time when his death is approaching. By the Samadhi which he has stressed in his lifetime the yogi is able at time of death to bypass the death process and Bardo. However, one should know that this is merely a result depending on the ordinary Samadhi. How do these yogis (the most advanced, fairly advanced, and least advanced) recognize the Bardo? Those who attain Buddhahood in Bardo are those who are unable to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime; therefore, through the holding of the Light of Death, Buddhahood is attained. The [sometimes heard] saying: "At the beginning stage of Bardo, one may attain Buddhahood," is erroneous. The teachings found in the recognized holy books, have never said any such thing the attainment in Bardo may be accomplished before the completion of the death- birth process. Furthermore, the saying just quoted should be interpreted to mean the attainment of Buddhahood in the lifetime, not the actual Bardo stage. Also, the saying that, through holding the Light of Death, Buddhahood may be attained at that time, can never be found in any of the recognized holy books it is erroneous. If not, how can one explain the fact that the body of a new procurer of Dharmakaya becomes a corpse without having the 198 magnificent (thirty -two and eighty) signs of Buddha? (Lit.: "the body of either With -Learning or Without -Learning"). For these reasons, one should know that the Dharmakaya, with which there is the so -called merging of time of death, is by no means the real Dharmakaya but a similar one. Therefore, it is necessary to rely on a perfect body of Bardo after the emergence of the Light of Death. The perfect accomplishment cannot be attained without this body or through depending on another body. In the case of the most advanced yogi, it is required for his accomplishment that he establish a Sambhogakaya of the Path through his mind-prana in the state of Bardo. This instruction is also found in some other sources. The fairly advanced or the least advanced yogi should alert his mind before death comes and offer all his belongings to the Fields of Merits, in complete abandonment, without the slightest attachment to any wordly belongings. He should also confess all his transgressions of the precepts made during his lifetime. Through confession he will have peace of mind and no regret at time of death. A pith -instruction concerning the practice of death and Bardo is to take them as the favorable conditions to practice Dharma: "One should think that in dying one is going to one's beloved home." Then, he should visualize his body as the body of the Yidam, render his offerings, and pray to the gurus, Yidam, and deities in the Front Sky before him. With great earnestness, he should sincerely pray them to enable him to merge with the Light of Death and Illusory Body of Bardo. The fairly advanced and the least advanced yogi should practice as much as possible the gathering of prana in the Central Channel, whatever method he uses, before the sign of death appears. He should also try to raise the Four Emptinesses and the (Three) Bodies of Buddha. In addition, he should try to hold the Light of Sleep and the Illusory Body of Dream. It is important to practice these teachings before death comes. The Instruction on Recognizing the Signs of Death 199 One should know the explanations on the subsidence of the Crude Twenty Lights; that can be found in other books. In brief, the signs of death are as follows: When the earth -element subsides into the water- element, the outer phenomenon is that one cannot move or hold his body as if the body is collapsing and sinking so that the dying person feels like exclaiming "Hold me up!" The inner phenomenon is the experience of seeing a mirage. When the water- element subsides into the fire -element, the outer phenomenon is that one feels thirst, a burning in the mouth and nose, and that the tongue shrivels; the inner phenomenon is seeing smoke. When the fire- element subsides into the air -element, the outer phenomenon is the experience of decrease in the warmness of the body; the bodily warmth will gather at the end of the body. The inner phenomenon is seeing a tiny light like that of a glow -worm. When the subsidence of the delusory mind -prana takes place, the outer phenomenon is the long exhaling of the breath. The dying person feels his breath to be hard and rough, and finds it impossible to stop the exhalation even if he wills to do so. The inner phenomenon is the seeing of a steady (unwavering) lamplight. Thereupon, the so-c alled "First" Voidness or first perception appears, which is like seeing the moonlight shining in a cloudless sky. After the emergence of the "First" Voidness, comes the so -called "Second" Voidness or the Extreme Voidness. The dying one sees an augmenting Voidness, bright and glaring like the sunlight blazing from a clear sky; this is called the Stage of Augmentation. After the subsidence of this stage, comes the stage c alled the "Attainment," in which the dying one feels his consciousness becoming dim and sluggish; this experience is like seeing a dark sky. Then comes the complete cessation of all thoughts, and the dying one experiences complete darkness. Thereafter, his consciousness awakes from darkness, and the "Universal Voidness" appears; this experien ce is like seeing a clear and unobscured sky under the radiant sunlight at dawn. This light is the real Fundamental Light. In short, the successive emergence of the three Voidnesses and the Light are experienced as outer phenomenon through seeing the smoke, the light of the glow -worm, the lamplight, and the cloudless sky; as inner phenomena they are experienced through seeing the white, the red, the black, and the 200 dawn- like visions. Although there are two different explanations that of the With -Form -Action and that of the Without -Form -Actionthe latter one is better; for in many holy books is found the saying that the smoke, etc., precedes the emergence of the Four Emptinesses (Voidnesses), and that all the Four Emptinesses cannot be literally described as h aving color and form. The closest description of the appearance of the Voidness is to say it is like the clear and cloudless sky. At the time of the emergence of the Death -Light, the Three Steps (Appearance, Augmentation, and Attainment) successively come to pass and subside, one after another. Eventually, all the pranas dissolve in the Heart Center; the white Thig- le drops down from the Head- Center, the red Thig- le rises up from the Navel Center, and they join together at the Heart Center. 6 Since the yogi has experienced these signs of subsidence before in his lifetime, he is able to recognize them clearly. When the first sign appears, he should apply the particular method of gathering the prana into the Central Channel that he has mastered, is most skilled in, or has practised most in his lifetime, and watch for the emergence of the signs. With such m indfulness and recollection, he may grasp these opportunities and accomplish the realization. When the First Emptiness emerges, the yogi should meditate on the view and try to recognize it. When the Second Emptiness and (the Third Emptiness) the Attainment and the Light appear, the yogi should also concentrate as long as possible on the view and try to merge with the Lights. In the case of the sentient beings who do not possess all the six elements, such as devas, etc., these Lights will still appear, but not in the same manner. At the time of death when the Light of Death emerges, the mind -pranas all gather in the Central Channel and dissolve into the Heart Ce nter; the erroneous views and the dualistic conceptions of the crude form also subside. Thereupon, the "vision" of the cloudless sky will appear. Even if the yogi can concentrate upon this light, however, it will be of no avail if he has not practised and meditated on the Middle Way View in his lifetime and 6 This is an extremely significant point. Compare our observations on pages 176178, 182 and 191. Ed. 201 knows how to absorb his mind in that view. Otherwise, this yogi will not be able to see Reality. It is, therefore, necessary to have had the experiences of the deep contemplation on the Mdhyamika princi ple in one's lifetime and the practices of the Bliss-Void or the practice of Son- Light or Light of the Path. Said the Jetsn [i.e. venerated Ed.] Milarepa: "The light of Death is the Dharmakaya, itself; one should understand this point and thus identify it. In order to recognize it, the 'Pointing -Out-on-Mind - Essence' practice should be given by one's guru. Thus one will understand the view of reality and the practice of the expressive Light of the Path." These were his words: The Light of Death is the pri mordial Mother -Light. In order to merge the Son- Light with the Mother-Light, one should practice in the waking state the gathering of the pranas into the Central Channel and the entering, remaining, and dissolving exercises. One should also contemplate the Four Emptinesses, especially the "All Emptiness" (or the Fourth Emptiness). Only if a yogi is able to merge with the Light, even in the deep -sleeping state, will he be able to merge the Son -Light with the Mother-Light through his prana power at time of de ath. If he can recognize the Light of Death and merge with it, he will be able to recognize the subsequent emergence of Bardo. The recognition of the Light of Death and the capability of merging with it, is the only right way of "holding" the Bardo; there is no other way to hold or recognize Bardo. If he exercises during his lifetime on the practice of pretending to go through the successive stages by reminding himself "Now, death has come This is the such and such vision of Bardo," he may to some extent hold or recognize the Bardo, but his power to do so will be extremely weak. Likewise, if he keeps exercising on the practice of imitating the successive stages of death, he may at the time of the emergence of the Light of Death, be absorbed in (his) Samadhi for a long period. Nevertheless, because of his Sasaric Prana (literally, prana of this life) that never enables him to identify the Light of Death, it is very difficult to consider this kind of practice a practice of the unique Anuttara Tantra. 202 If he puts too much emphasis on this practice, it is like abandoning the basic teaching to put stress on the secondary teaching. Instead, he should practice the Heat Yoga and work hard on the gathering of pranas into the Central Channel. In his waking state, he should practice the entering, remaining, and dissolving process and the arising of the Four Emptinesses; if he is able to do so, he will be able to hold the Light of Sleep through his prana power. If the yogi can raise the Illusory Body after the emergence the Light of Waking State and the Light of Sleep, only then will he be able to hold or recognize the Light of Death and Bardo. Then he will have attained a supreme and unprecedented confidence. This is the reason that the practice of Heat Yoga is considered the peerless teaching. This one should always remember. From the state of recognizing and holding the Light of Death, the dying person comes to another stage, and, through his ability acquired from meditation in his lifetime, and through his understanding of the key -instructions and his faith toward Dharma, he is then able to raise the Buddha's Bodies in the delusory Bardo state. The Bardo Body, however, cannot be used as a qualified means to accomplish the Supreme Bodies of Buddha, though at the time of Bardo one should recognize the Bardo state and try to take up the perfect Buddha Bodies. Nevertheless, one still should visualize the self -Body becoming the Yidam's Body, contemplate on the View of Thatness, and identify all manifestations cosmos and sent ient beingsas illusory, dreamlike, and magic in nature. If the yogi practises these teachings in Bardo, he will procure superb benefits; therefore, he should realize the significance of these pith instructions and practise them. The yogi who practices the Teachings of Path may not be womb -born in his next life. Very possibly he may take any of the other three forms of Birth 7 7 The four births of Sa sara: (1) the metamorphosis- born; (2) the egg -born; (3) the womb -born; (4) the wet- born. . Therefore the Bardoist should try all the more to practise the teaching of 203 manifestation -as-Yidam, Yidam -as-delusion, delusion- as-Voidness, as instructed before. He should also identity his future parents as the father and mother Guru or the father and mother Yidam. One may also apply the teaching of choosing the place of birth in the Bardo stateto vow earnestly to be born in the Pure Land of Buddha as given in another part of Marpa's teachings. These teachings include the recognizing of Bardo and the longing for a birth in the Pure Land according to the pith-instructions of Apo-wa (the teaching of Transforming One's Consciousness). 204 CHAPTER EIGHT . THE YOGA OF THE LIGHT The instruction on Light Yoga is given in two parts: The practice of Light Yoga in the waking state, and the practice of Light Yoga in the sleeping state. This Light Yoga practiced in the daytime refers to the general or common Light (in contrast to the unique Tantric Light practice), which is the fundamental Dharma -essence apart from the realistic and nihilistic extremes1 The unique teaching of the Anuttara Tantra for the realization of the Innate Born Great Bliss, requires mainly the entering, remaining, and dissolving of the prana in the Central Channel, or the Bliss -of-the-Perfecting -Yoga. This Innate Great Bliss is not, however, produced through the melting of Thig- le, nor through the concentration practice of ordinary meditationthe no - thought experience apart from drowsi ness and distraction. Neither is it produced through the taming of prana . For the Bliss produced through the taming of prana is quite different from the Innate Great Bliss. Through the taming of prana, the experience of brightness, no -thought, and bliss may be produced, but this bliss is different from the Innate Great Bliss. It may also be a Bliss- of-Melting, but it is not the same Bliss of the Arising Yoga the Melting -Bliss is not produced through the prana entering into the Central . This is the (so -called) Light -of-Object; the understanding or realization of which is (called) the Light -of-Object (literally, the Light -of- Comprehending -the-Object). This teaching is found in both Hinayana and Mahayana, in the Paramita Vehicle as well as in Tantra, and in the three Lower Tantras as well as the Highest Division of Tantra. It is a teaching common to all Buddhist schools. Sometimes it is called the Absolute Light. The unique Light (as taught in Tantra) is no different in essence from the common Light -of-Object. The difference lies in t he Light -of-Subject, which (in the Tantric teachings) is the realization of the Innate Great Bliss. 1 Realistic and nihilistic extremes (or the Realistic and Nihilistic Views): According to Buddhism most of the philosophies and religious beliefs in the world are either "realistic" or "nihilistic." Realistic Views are those philosophies and beliefs that assert the absolute existence of beings, god, retribution, etc. Nihilistic Views are those philosophies that do not accept the existence of soul, reason, causation, and the like. Both of these extremes are erroneous, says Buddhism; as a matter of fact, these two clingings are basic causes of Sasara. The right view is the view that transcends both extremes; namely, the Middle Way Doctrine. 205 Channel, etc. One should carefully distinguish the different Blisses, and understand them well. As explained before, in the Heat Yoga, the Innate Great Bliss of the Perfecting Yoga should be merged with the well -studied View of the Soleness thus arises the Void -Bliss Wisdom, called the Light, or the Light of the Path. In the practice of Perfecting Yoga, to unfold this light is required before the Illusory Bodies come to pass. In addition to this, many other practices are required for the raising of the Illusory Bodies. Here, the special Light practice is emphasized. The entering of Light requires a dependence on either the actual Illusory Body or on any similar illusory body. The subsiding process of the Light [is now discussed]. The explanations on this subject are not very clear in most of the pith - instructions. However, there is a very good one that describes the process as follows: The yogi should visualize himself as the Father and Mother Yidam. At the Dharma Wheel of the Heart Center in the Central Channel stands a blue H word on the Sun Disc. From this H word emanate beams of light shining upon all the cosmos and purifying them; then the beams enter and are absorbed into the bodies of all sentient beings. Thereupon, all the sentient beings melt (and are absorbed) into the Mother Yidam. Then, in the downward absorbing process, the head of the Yidam vanishes, then the neck, the chest, etc., one by one, and are finally absorbed in the H word. At the same time, in the upward -absorbing process the toes first vanish into the leg, then the leg into the thigh, thigh into hips, hips into belly, and finally all are absorbed into the H word. Thereon, the lower part of the H word, the vowel , vanishes into the Ha, and the Ha vanishes into the half -moon; the half -moon then vanishes into the Thig- le [here to be understood as bindu Ed.] and the Thig- le vanishes upward into the Nada . Since this Visualization of the absorbing process is concentrated upon the Heart Center in the Central Channel, if one can stabilize the Visualization, the pranas of the Ro- ma and Rkyang -ma will all enter, remain, and dissolve in the Heart Center in the Central Channel; the Four Voidnesses will successively arise; the Light of 206 Path will augment. At this time, with blissful mind, one should unwaveringly meditate upon the Visualization. As mentioned before, this commentary on the Illusory Body and Light Yoga is prepared on the pith -instructions of the Pao School. The instruction of the Light Yoga given above is based on the unique teaching of the Five Ste ps of Gsun -adus and it was introduced here as a little adornment for the pith- instructions. In the Heat Yoga practice, if one can raise (unfold) the Innate [Wisdom- Bliss] through the entering of prana into the Central Channel, he will easily be able to rai se the Innate Light at the time of Light Yoga practice. At least, he will be able to unfold it through the practice of the absorbing process (without difficulty). If the practice of the Light of the Sleeping State can be done through holding the Light of Sleeping State by prana, which is the prerequisite practice of Dream Yoga, it accords with the instructions of many gurus. For holding the dream through prana is itself a very good method of practising the Light. At first, one should eat well and abundantly, and dress in very warm clothes (or cover oneself with a warm quilt). Depending on the needs and time the yogi should abandon sleep for two or three days, or sleep as usual (literally, do not abandon sleep). If he abandons sleep for two to three days, he will become too sleepy, and it will be difficult for him to recognize the Light of Sleep. Therefore, for the beginners, it is preferable to practice the Light Yoga in a comparatively light sleeping state. For the advanced yogi, whose meditation has already become steady, it is not necessary to abandon sleep; however, in order to test one's ability to recognize the Light in very deep sleeping state, he may abandon sleep for some days. In the practice of the Light Yoga, the yogi should render offerings and pr ay to the Precious Ones, present the Gtor- mas to the Guards, and pray them to assist him in recognizing the Light of Sleep and in subduing all hindrances. He should visualize the Yidam's body, practise the Guru Yoga, and pray earnestly many times that his guru assist him to recognize the Light. The yogi should also repeatedly remind himself not to fall into dreams but to recognize the Voidness -of-Sleep when sleep comes. 207 The sleeping -posture should be as follows: Lie down on the right side, with the head to the north, the feet pointing south; the back, east; and the mouth, toward the west. Place the left foot on the right foot. This position is called the Lion- Sleep- Posture. Then, the yogi should visualize the self- Yidam body and also visualize a blue H wor d standing in the center of a lotus, with four green leaves extending in each direction, situated at the Heart Center in the Central Channel. On the four leaves there are four words Ah, Nu, Da, Ra. (In some other instructions no word is visualized on the four leaves). The Ah word sits on the leaf in the east; the Nu word; in the south; the Da, in the west; the Ra, north. When one feels sleepy, he concentrates on the Ah word; when he feels very sleepy or insensible, he should concentrate on the Nu word; thus the First Voidness will appear. When the yogi concentrates on the Da word, the Second Voidness or the Extreme Voidness will emerge; when he concentrates on the Ra word, the Third Voidness or the Voidness of Attainment will emerge. Thereupon, when the yogi concentrates on the H word in the center, the Fourth Voidness or the Universal Voidness will emerge. It is said that successively visualizing these four words will cause the Four Voidnesses to emerge successively. However, this saying makes little sense, because some do not understand that in meditating on these words at the Heart Center in the Central Channel, the life prana will automatically gather; consequently, the Four Voidnesses will arise. Based on this reasoning, one should not misinterpret the text "visualizing the word of the center at the Heart." The essential thing is to visualize at the central point of the Heart Center in the Central Channel. Because the words of the instructions are not clear, it is wrongly said that concentrating on the t hree words on the three leaves will produce the Three Voidnesses. This opinion completely misses the essential point of the teaching. Therefore, we may dispense with this Ah, Nu, Da, Ra word -practice, which is difficult and results in little benefit. The i mportant thing is to concentrate on the H word in the center. There are two different kinds of meditator of the Sleeping Light: the yogi who has attained a stable Samadhi of the visualized object before (engaging in this practice), and the yogi who has not attained a stable Samadhi. In the 208 latter case, the yogi will attain a Sleeping Samadhi immediately after he falls into sleep through holding his mind on the instructions given before, but this Sleeping Samadhi will last only a very short while. Therefore, relying merely on the mindfulness of recognizing the sleeping state, through desire will not give one a stable Samadhi even though great efforts are made. For if one cannot "hold" the Light through the prana power, the inhalation and exhalation will still take place. Though the breathing may be very subtle and calm, the breath cannot be completely stopped. Thus a counterpart of the Fourth Emptiness will emerge but not the real Fourth Emptiness. Consequently, the Sleeping Light cannot be (fully) recognize d. In the case of the yogi who has already attained a stable Samadhi and has mastered the Heat Yoga capable of gathering the Life Prana in the Central Channel and raising the Fourth Emptiness, he will have no difficulty in unfolding the Light -of-the Sleepi ng-State. If he follows the instructions as given before and visualizes the H word in the Central Channel at bedtime, he will be able to unfold the Fourth Emptiness of the Sleeping State through the dissolving process of prana within two or three days. If the yogi cannot unfold the Emptiness through the prana power in the daytime, but if he attains a stable Samadhi with the experience of bliss, brightness and non- thought, he may either follow the foregoing instructions or absorb himself in his Samadhi to reach the state of Sleeping Samadhi. Some people say that if one has attained a stable Samadhi of any general type it is not necessary for one to lead the prana entering into the Central Channel. This is not correct, for doing so will not bring about the a ctual Sleeping -Light of Anuttara Tantra. Nevertheless, if the yogi concentrates at the Heart -Center, through the power of the habitual thought produced by the practice he may well bring about the fruit. Though through the power of any general Dhyana one may induce a certain sleeping samadhi with the capability of contemplating on the Soleness and the Light of the general Paths (Hinayana and Mahayana Path), that is by no means the Light as taught by the teaching of Anuttara Tantra 2 2 It is clear that throughout the text Tsong Khapa is referring to a practical yoga-type discipline, very different from the very philosophical and verbal context of the Anuttara Tantra as presented in most of the . 209 Recognizing the Light through the prana power by concentrating on the Heart Center will cause the Four Voidnesses to successively arise; the manner of their emergence is explained as follows: Meditating upon a Thig- le in the Heart Center at the deep -sleeping state in the preparatory stage will cause a perfect Light -of-No- Thought to emerge. Even if it does not emerge and the yogi falls asleep, his prana will naturally gather in the Central Channel. As instructed before, if one is able to gather the pranas in the Central Channel in the daytime practice and practises the concentration of the H word at the Heart Center in the Central Channel before bedtime, the pranas will be gathered easily in the Central Channel. The experiences of the emergence of the Voidness are as follows: First, the yogi sees the water- reflection -like mirage, then it vanishes and becomes smoke. The yogi sees many sparkling lights like those of the glowworm, then they vanish again and become the stable light of a lamp. This light vanishes, and the yogi sees the manifestation as the lucid Thig- le like moonlight shining in the clear sky. The serene moonlight spreads over all the universe; this experience is called the "Voidness" or the "Emergence." Then the vision vanishes again, and the yogi experiences all his mental manifestations appearing to be a clear sky and sees the all- spreading glaring sunlight, its color not like the blazing fire -ball but sparkling and gleaming. This experience is called the "Extreme Emptiness" or the "Augmentation of Manifestation." Then the yogi experiences, as the sky extending over all the universe, his mental manifestations appearing to be the dark firmament at night, dark but not black. At this time, if the yogi concentrates on the upper part of the body, the vision will not disappear; if he concentrates on the lower part of the body, the mind will become dim and dull; however, this experience is not harmful. Keeping one's mind on the instruction, the yogi cultivates this experience of darkness and eventually a very stable "Light" will emerge. The emergence of this light is called the "Great Emptiness" or the "Manifestation of Attainment." When the yogi arises from the darkness, a vision like the clear sky of dawn will emerge, which is neither exactly like the color or shape of the sky, nor occidentally accessible texts, e.g. in the Vow of Mahamudra, for example. That practical teaching and the realization it brings is the true heart of the Anuttara Tantra.Ed . 210 like the sunlight, moonlight, or darkness. This stage is called the "Universal Voidness." He should try to absorb himself in this great voidness as long as possible. In the teaching of Gsun-a dus of the Marpa School, one may find instructions for avoiding either the sudden awakening from sleep or the falling into dream state. The Four Voidnesses are also called the Four Blisses. The Fourth Voidness is identified with the supreme Innate Bliss. The rapturous and non -thought aspects of this Innate Bliss are expediently called "bliss"; actually they are two characteristics among others of the Voidness which are seen as clearly (by the enlightened beings) as one sees his own palm. The teaching of the identity of Bliss and Void of the Unparalled- Vehicle 3 Although the pith- instructions of this school are many, in this connection there is no mentioning of the "Three Voidnesses." Some people avow the "Four Voidnesses principle," but it seems not befitting here. One may not be able to find this point in the pith- instructions of the Rngog -pa School; nevertheless, it is clearly stated in the book of Spyod- bsdus( Collective Instructions on Performances commentary of Gsun- adus), which says: is to meditate on the View of the Soleness together with the produced Bliss, as mentioned before. Although this term, the Identity -of-Bliss- Void, is claimed by many, there are numerous incorrect and misleading explanations of the teaching. They are similar, [to the true teaching Ed.] but erroneous; one should examine them very carefully. "The skandhas then enter into the subtle elements, the subtle elements into the consciousness, the consciousness into the subtle- consciousness (Sattva), the subtle- consciousness into the Blindness. 4 3 Unparalleled Vehicle: The Highest Division of Tantra, Anuttara Tantra. [This appellation is a term used by the Madhyamika apologists themselves. Many would disagree. See the discourse on the Gotra concept in the Introduction as well as the previous footnote in the text.] Ed . Following this proceeding and coordinating with it , the sleeping procedure is reversed. At the time the 'Entering -process' of consciousness, of subtle consciousness, and of the great Blindness takes place, in a split second the yogi forgets his 4 Here is the "entering process of the three consciousnesses" mentioned below. See note 98. Ed. 211 meditation (or completely fails to keep his attention on the meditation- object). Later, when the forgetfulness is overcome, the Light essence of the wisdom will shine forth. If one can liberate himself from the forgetfulness, he will attain the 'essence' through the Prana (force). If any dream takes place during thi s time, the yogi should try to reverse the sleeping -procedure and concentrate as long as possible on the illuminating Light." Having fully understood the secret meaning of the books of the accomplished one, I have given the explanations on the Four Voidnesses and the (practical) instructions on holding the Light. These instructions cannot be found anywhere else 5 In the above quotation, "the skandhas " means the crude visions; "the subtle elements" implies the time when the elements enter into the prana that is, the time when the earth, water, and fire elements successively subside from one to another until the fire elements enter into prana. "Entering into the consciousness" means that the prana su bsides into the consciousness; here, the consciousness means the First Voidness. The "Sattva" implies the stage of the Augmentation; "entering" implies the consciousness enters or (subsides) into this stage. "The Blindness" means the stage of Attainment. "Following this proceeding and coordinating with it" means the yogi should coordinate and combine himself with the Three Voidnesses at the time of sleep. ; one should try to understand them properly and follow them. In short, this quotation from the "Collective Instruction on Performance" is the essence summarized fro m Ye -shes-rdo -rje. "This time" means the time of sleep. The "entering -process of the three consciousnesses 6 5 A little bit presumptuous in the translator's opinion. " means that former consciousnesses successively enter into the later consciousnesses, and at the time of the third stage of the third consciousness the mind becomes dim. "Later" implies the time after the attainment, or the "After- stage" of the Attainment. "When the forgetfulness is overcome" denotes 6 This paragraph is very confusing. Either Tsong Khapa himself made the mistake by quoting this sentence that does not appear in the preceding paragraph, or the negligence of the Tibetan book printer caused the mistake. [The sentence is mentioned and here we have straightforward commentary. See our footnote on page 247.] Ed. 212 the time when one awakes from the non-thought consciousness in the deeply slumbering statethe experi ence is like beholding the clear sky at dawn. During this time no other visions (or thoughts) come to pass. "If [there is] liberation [from forgetfulness Ed.], the prana arouses the essence 7 If the yogi is able to bring forth the Samadhi of Sleep, but not to produce the "Light" through the prana -holding -practice, he may experience the transparency and clearness in the Samadhi of Sleep, but (since it follows not the way of Light Yoga) the Three Voidnesses preceding the sleeping -stage would never appear. Therefore, it by no means can be considered as having the qualifications and significance of the "Light of Sleep." Besides, in the Samadhi of Sleep, the qualified and plentiful experiences of the mirage, smoke, etc., preceding the First Voidness will never come into being, but only those resembling them. ." Before the various dreams come in sight, one should try to concentrate on the Light as long as possible. Here, the "liberation" implies the Light Samadhi; if the Samadhi becomes dim or weakened and the yogi is forced to arise from it, through the force of the (moving) prana the flowing- thoughts will also be set in motion; whereupon the dreams also take place. In case no dream whatsoever arises (at this time) the yogi should meditate on the Light without distraction as long as possible. One should acquaint oneself with the two different Lights of the Light of Sleep, i.e., the Light in Experience and the Light in Realization also the thick and thin Light, or the bright and dim Light. Though many people declare that the thoughtless, lucid, and transparent Samadhi of Sleep is identical with the Light of Sleep, no sufficient reason is found for this claim. This exposition, based upon the teaching of the "Holy Father and Son" [see last paragraph, Chapter Two Ed.], of the Light Yoga with both the instructions on the Light of Daytime and the Light of Sleep, is given here 7 Here is another incongruous statement about the quotation. The sentence that appeared in the foregoing paragraph was "Ya!n grol ba na rlu!n gis ra!n bzin rnyeg de." But here Tsong Khapa quotes it as "Ya!n grol ba rlu!n gis ra!n bzin gyos te." The mean ing and implications of these two sentences are completely different. Since the original text of the quoted matter is not available at present, the translator has no sure way to correct this mistake. [See editor's note to note 88 and text. We disagree with the translator that there is any essential difficulty here, the reference to the quotation existing and being uniquely determinable.] 213 after careful studies and contemplations. Thus one should hold it dear as most valuable instruction. If one has tried his best to remain in the Light, but, because of the drifting prana is unable to hold on, one may then resort to the special teaching on dream -arisings given in the pith -instruction of Gsun -adus of the Marpa School. 214 CHAPTER NINE. THE TRANSFORMATION YOGA The ramifications or sub -instructions of the main path are given as follows: 1. The teaching of going above to the pure land (instructions on the Transformation Yoga). 2. The teaching of entering into another's body (instruction on the Yoga of Entering Another's Body). The teaching of transforming one's consciousness to the Pure Land, is a special teaching of the Unparalleled [i.e. Anuttara Ed.] Tantra. It is found in both the Tantra of Bde -mchog's Teaching and that of Jerdo , and their common Tantra Sambhuda; in the Tantra of Vajra Dakini , a special Tantra of Bde -mchog; in the Two Tantras of Sdom -abyung (Bde -mchog's teaching) and in the Admonishment of the Holy Maju ri, etc. If one intends to get well acquainted with the pith- instructions of the Transformation Yoga, one may study these Tantras and their special commentaries. The instructions given here are all based upon these sources, with careful arrangement. The merit of this practice is stated in the Tantra of Vajra Dakini: "If one has committed the sin of killing a kinsman, Of slaughtering the Brahmins; Or has committed the Five Paramount Crimes 1 Its advantages are also claimed by the Tantra of Ga- sbyor and Gdan -bzhi . Therefore, this yoga is of utmost importance and should receive greater attention. These sources say that this teaching can liberate one from falling into the miserable path, cleanse one's sins, and bring one to the happy land. , Or has stolen or robbed from others for pleasure All these sins can be cleansed By practicing this superb teaching. No evils or sins can ever defile it, It stays aloof and far apart from all wickednesses of Sa sara." 1 Five Paramount Crimes: (1) matricide; (2) patricide; (3) killing an Arhat (Buddhist saint); (4) causing disunion or div ision among the priesthood; (5) malignantly causing Buddha to bleed. 215 The time to apply this yoga is instructed by the Tantra of Vajra- Dakini as follows: "When the time (of death) comes, This teaching is applied. If the time (of death) is not near when anyone applies the teaching, He is committing the crime of slaughtering Buddha; He will certainly fall into hell and be scourged. Therefore, one should carefully and diligently study the signs of death." This point is also stressed by the Gdan -bzhi and the Ga-sbyor if the yogi uses this teaching at the wrong time, he has thus murdered the Buddha -like self body. If he has taken the precepts of Tantra, he is then violating the eighth rule of th e basic precepts of Tantra, and he is exposed to the danger of falling into hell. Therefore, he should clearly understand the time factor, and industriously study the signs of death to foresee the coming of death. When the signs appear, he should try to prevent it by all possible means. If everything is done but to no avail, he should know that it is the right time to apply this teaching. According to the commentary on Gdan- bzhi, Bhaba Bhadras , he should practise this teaching, or make his preparations six months before the time of death. For this reason one should carefully study the lines in the books concerning the signs of death. Furthermore the Tantra of Gdan -bzhi says: "The best condition under which one transforms (his soul) Is without disease or other illness." The Transformation Yoga is applied under condition that one has not caught any disease. If the practitioner is caught by disease, he cannot perform the transformation in a perfect way, though he may have tried his utmost. In the case of an old, miserable man with great sufferings who foresees the coming of his death and intends to leave this world by means of the Transformation Yoga before the time of death comes, it is still forbidden. It is also forbidden in the case of one who suffers from an unbearable 216 sickness. Some ignorant people say that in the former case, the old man is allowed to use the Transformation Yoga (before his time comes). 2 The main instruction on the Transformation Yoga consists of two practices. The Tantra of Vajra says: "The foundation of all (feelings) should be purified. After the purification the transformation from existence is applied; Otherwise it will be futile." "The foundation of all (feelings)" implies that the human body is the foundation or base of all ag reeable or disagreeable feelings. (Purification means that through the practice of Heat Yoga the body and mind are purified.) Without purifying the body through practicing the Heat Yoga it will be useless and futile to perform the Transformation Yoga. This is said in Bhaba Bhadras, because the Tumo practice is the very foundation of Transformation Yoga. The Tantra of Vajra Dakini also says: "By means of the Vase Breathing the door is bound (opened). Thus, the hole of the door is purified." The Tantra of Gdan -bzhi as well as the Tantra of Sambhuda says the same thing. They stress the necessity of having a (tamed) prana for practicing the (Transformation Yoga), only because through practicing the Vase Breathing can the pranas, which run wild toward all organs and gates in the body, be fairly gathered (or tamed). Some people say that, if one reaches the lowest stage of Vase- Breathing practice, one is qualified to perform the Transformation Yoga. This shows their ignorance of the teaching of Tantra. In performing the Transformation Yoga, all the nine gates of the body 3 2 To use Transformation yoga to try to circumvent karma is forbidden; it would be absurd to try to do so, for the "escaped" karma would only return in aggravated form later.Ed . except the Golden Gate on [top of the] the head should first be closed to prevent the escape of the consciousness through these gates. The consciousness should be allowed to exit only from the Golden Gate. According to Tantras, these conditions are required to meet the 3 Nine gat es of the body: two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, rectum, urethra, top of head. 217 qualifications of a perfect ground upon which the qualified Tantric yogis may perform the Yoga of Transformation. Furthermore, a perfect visualization on the exit of consciousness de scribed by the Tantras is required. The procedure of the visualization is profusely described in the Fourth Book of Transformation Yoga as well as in the Book of Transformation Yoga of the Rngog School. However, the instructions I give here are mostly based upon the verbal instruction from the gurus who primarily follow the teaching of this school. One may ask, "Upon which deity's body should one practice the Transformation Yoga?" According to the gurus, one may depend on any patron Buddha of his own choosing. Though the Tantra of Ga - sbyor and Gdan -bzhi have pointed out some particular deity for Transformation Yoga together with the instructions on their practices, I shall not introduce them here; for it would take excessive space to explain them. The Pract ice of the Transformation Yoga . First, the yogi visualizes the self -body become the body of the patron Buddha; then visualizes a red Ah word at the reproductive center or at the navel center, a dark blue Hword at the Heart Center, a white Kha word at the Gate of Purity 4 Thereupon, the yogi may proceed to practice the formal or real Transformation Yoga as follows: Sitting in a crouching posture, grasp the two knees with hands clasped, recite the prayer of Taking Refuge and the prayer of Raising the Bodhi Heart. Then visualize your body become the body of one's patron Buddha; also think that the patron Buddha whose . Then he should pull up the lower prana (from the reproductive center) to the navel center; thus the Ah word is pushed up to the place of the H word (in the Heart Center); again the H word is pushed to the Kha word. Some say the H word and Ah word should come down and return to their own places once, then rise up again; but I think the first way is simpler and more convenient. One should repeatedly practice this until the signs or symptoms appear. The signs are the feeling of itchi ng, throbbing, etc., at the top of the head. 4 Gate of Purity: another name for the Golden Gate or the gate of the head. 218 essence is identical with that of your guru, sits in the sky in front of and above your head at a distance of one to six feet. With great earnestness and faith the yogi should pray to him. Then, with a clear visualization of the Ah word at the Navel Center, the H word at the Heart Center, and the Kha word at the Pure- Gate Center, the yogi pulls the lower prana to drive up the Ah word into the H word through the Central Channel, and thus the two words are fused in one. Meantime, he should pull up all his strength and say loudly "Ah- hi-ga" many times, until he feels that the Ah word has been actually driven into the H word. Then he says again "Ah-hi -ga" loudly twenty times, and the H word thus rises to the Throat Center. At this time the yogi should visualize clearly the Kha word standing at the Gate of Purity; the gate is open and through it can be seen clearly the firmament as one sees the bright sky through an open window. Then the yogi pulls all his strength together and shouts "Ah -hi-ga" five times; through this force the H word is ejected (with great speed) from the Gate of Purity and hits right into the Heart Center of the patron Buddha [above your head]. Thereupon, the yogi concentrates his mind in the realm of Non- Thought. Based on the Tantra of Gdan -bzhi as well as the verbal instructions given by gurus is this brief instruction on the Transformation Yoga. Furthermore, according to the teaching of Tantras and their commentaries, the yogi will gain great profit if he understands the way of meditating on the crown of two sounded letters, of visualizing the two words with the heads of the letters seeing upward a nd downward; the way of "calling -with -prana" during the up -going and down -coming performance; and other special superb instructions. Generally speaking, the teaching of transforming one's consciousness to a felicitous plane, (such as the thirty -three Heavens and the Heavens of Forms in Sasara) is of great importance and value; especially, the Tantric Transformation Yoga designed for the qualified Tantric Yogis. With the power of the unique Samadhi, the Tantric yogi is able to close all eight gates and make the consciousness exit through the Golden Gate. If he can keep the (horse -like) prana, upon which the consciousness rides, from running through the eight gates, he can automatically stop the consciousness from escaping through the eight gates. The yogi sh ould know how to use the 219 words to close the gates and control the consciousness, and he should be able to control the prana at the different gates through the Vase Breathing [practice]. It is difficult to find a clear instruction in the books concerning what kind of words should be used to close the gates. However, according to the Tantra of Sambhoda and Man -snye, only the red Ah word like that of the Ah at the Navel Center should be used. Some say the best teaching is to use a red H word instead of Ah to close each gate. This saying proves ignorance of the meaning of the Tantra and of the clear instructions about using the word to close all the nine gates, in the Tantra of Gdan -bzhi and others. The instruction of Grong -hjug (House Entering) is also call ed the instruction in the Yoga of Entering Another's Body. Grong (literally, city or house), here implies the physical organs of eye, ear, etc., (for they are like houses wherein the consciousnesses dwell). Says the Sutra of the Paramita Vehicle: "One's consciousness entering into the not -yet-decomposed corpse of another is called Grong -hjugEntering into Another's House." This teaching is the unique teaching of the Unparalleled Tantra. It frequently appears in the Mother Tantra, and sometimes in the Father Tantra. 5 What is the purpose of practicing this yoga, or what is this teaching for? Who is qualified to practice it? How is the teaching of this Yoga exercised? The person who practices this teaching, as well as those who practice the Transformation Yoga, must have well obtained the initiation and observed the Tantric precepts in a perfect manner, etc., as required in the practice of the Arising Yoga. According to Tantra there are three different teachings of the Transformation practices: the special Transformation Yoga; the Teaching of the self -mind (or soul) entering into another's corpse; and the teaching of expelling another's soul from his body so that one's consciousness may enter this body. All these three Transformation practices require, first, the capability of closing the nine gates by words; second, the mastery of Vase 5 Comparable to the Kali and Siva gamas respectively of Hindu Tantra. See note 60 and also the disc ussion of akta-akti vs. upya-praj in the editorial introduction. Ed . 220 Breathing, by means of which all the pranas of different organs are gathered and entered into the Central Channel; third, the mastery of Tumo, whereby the small Ah-word of the red-element in the navel center is able to attract and hold the wisdom H word (which is the rider of the subtle prana) at the Heart Center. This is said in the Tantras of Vajra Dakini and of Gdan - bzhi and in their common commentary Bhaba Bhad -ras; and in the Tantra of Ga-sbyor and its commentary, the Fruit -Bearing Pith -Instruction. I believe that in both cases, whether the self -consciousness enters into the corpse or into another's living body, a special prana performance is required in addition to the requirements and qualifications mentioned before6 It would be difficult to benefit sentient beings on a great scale with a low-born human body; therefore, it is desirable to have a human body of high class to accomplish the undertaking. Because the possession of a sick, aged, crippled body would handicap self -improvement as well as altruistic deeds, one resorts to the Yoga of Entering Another's Body to procure a fair and healthy body. . The details may be found in some other sources. According to gurus there are three requirements for practicing this Yoga: first, the person who intends to practice this yoga must have an infinite compassion for all sentient beings; he must be absolutely sure that great benefits and boons for sentient beings will be achieved if he performs this yoga; he also must have mastered both prana and mind. A yogi who meets these requirements and conditions may then proceed to a very secluded, sheltered place. He should dispense with all distracted thoughts, keep away from all wordly acti vities, prepare the offerings, and establish the altar for the patron Buddha. With all these arrangements made, he should then engage himself in meditation under strict Confinement of Contemplation 7 6 According to Tibetan lamas, the essential teachings of the Yoga of Entering Another's Body was lost in Tibet. It was lost after the death of Dharmadorje, son of Marpa. See the biography of Marpa. [See Tsong Khapa's own statement in the last paragraph of Chapter 9.] . 7 Confinement of Contemplation: Any Buddhist who wants to practice meditation in a serious manner must retreat to solitude or strictly confine himself in hermitage for his devotion; he makes a vow not to go beyond the boundary of his room, hermitage, or the like for a certain period of time in confinement to practice meditation. 221 Then he should prepare a Mandala painted black as the s upporting -platform and put a human skull on it. In the center of the human skull a H word should be clearly written with a white stone (chalk). Visualizing himself become the Patron -Buddha, he then recites and meditates on the prayer of Seven Wishes of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Then the yogi visualizes a H word in the center of the heart, and, when the exhalation goes through the right nostril, he should think the H word comes out along with the exalted air and enters into and is identified with the H word in the skull. Meantime the yogi should hold the air outside as long as possible. When he cannot hold it any longer, he slowly takes the air in. Then he exhales and visualizes as before. Continuing this practice for a while, the yogi will see the skull shake, jump and move these are the signs that will appear. The yogi may now proceed to the actual transformation of soul. First, he should procure a fresh corpse with no signs of decomposing, not being dead from any injuries or disease; or he may procure a clean and fresh corpse of cattle or any livestock. Then he washes the corpse with clean water, decorates it with pleasing ornaments, and places it well on the Mandala in a sitting position. Then, the yogi visualizes the H word which symbolizes the mind, both in his own heart and that of the corpse. He then arouses his prana to drive the H word out through his right nostril and through the corpse's left nostril into the H word at the Heart Center. If the yogi practices this again and again, the corpse will start to breathe and to regain its senses. When these signs take place, the yogi should know his performance is effective and should (temporarily) stop the practice. When the yogi is ready to carry out the real performance, he should release himself from the Confinement and go out to find a qualified and fresh corpse, bring it back, and place it on the Mandala facing him. Having decorated the corpse, the yogi then visualizes the self -Yidam -body and lays aside the attachment to the vulgar human body. He then reminds himself that all Dharmas in the cosmos are magic -like and illusory. Now it is time for him to cut off all vulgar, fallacious thought, as well as delusory habitual thinking, and render his body as an offering to the gurus and guards. 222 With great earnestness, he should pray them to protect him from all evil hindrances and influences. Then the yogi should clearly visualize both himself and the corpse transformed into Patron Buddha and vividly visualize the H word in the Heart Center of bot h. Then the yogi contacts the air - gate of the corpse and actuates his prana to drive the H word in his Heart Center out through his right nostril and into the H word of the corpse through its left nostril. At this time the yogi should pull up all his s trength to aim at the H word of the corpse with his prana -mind. By means of this exercise, the corpse will begin to breathe and jerk, etc. Whereupon, the yogi's friendly companions should take care of him, foster him with proper food for half a month in a solitary place. Until the yogi can stably live with the new body, he should not appear before people. In order to express his gratitude to the deceased one, the yogi should perform the Offering Rituals, such as the Ritual of Tsa Tsa and the Ritual of Burning Performances. With this new human body, the yogi should devote himself to the welfare of sentient beings on a great and broad scale. These instructions were given by gurus. Thus, the instruction on the Yoga of Entering Other's body which are based on the genuine contents of (several) Tantras and their commentaries has now been given here without wavering ambiguity. (Now the important question concerning the rightfulness of performing this yoga will naturally arise in people's minds); 8 8 The translator feels that it is necessary to add this sentence to make the text understandabl e. if it is sinful to transform one's consciousness to some other consciousness to some other place before the coming of death as admonished in the Instruction on Transformation Yoga, is it not also sinful to perform this Yoga? Though no clear statement answering this questi on can be found in Tantras, I consider the problem in the light of the following: first, since the performance of this yoga excludes itself from the category of normal death, it cannot be considered a crime of committing suicide, for it does not meet the qualifications of normal death and rebirth; it belongs to none of the regular Four Births of Sa sara. Though there is a (tiny) intermediate stage between the time the consciousness leaves the body and the time it enters into the other's body, this cannot be considered a qualified Bardo- stage. Besides, in the case of a right 223 performance of this yoga, the yogi has a pure and altruistic wish, and, since his mind aims at Dharma, he cannot be regarded as committing the crime of suicide. If one wants to know more about this topic, one may study the pith- instructions on the Illusory Body in the Tantra of Gsun -adus. Though both the instruction of the Self -Transforming Yoga and the Yoga of Transforming into Others were available in the past, the latter was not given to gurus; therefore, it is not explained here. 224 CHAPTER TEN. HOW TO IMPROVE THE PRACTICE IN THE PATH If one intends to attain the Highest Accomplishment (Buddhahood) in one's lifetime, one should practice both the Arising Yoga and the Perfecting Yoga. Each of them has three different practices: the With -Form -Practice, the Without -Form -Practice, and the Extremely -Without -Form Practice. This is said in the Book of Sgron-gsal (The Light of the Lamp ). Here, some explanation of the term "Practice" is needed. The so -called "Practice" [with and without form] means the practice of enjoying all pleasures with a spirit absorbed in the realization of the Dharma -essence [the very heart of Tantric practice, whether Hindu, Taoist, or Buddhist.Ed .]; especially it implies the enjoyment of the negative embodiment. Through this practice on the (excessive) enjoyments, the Enlightenment on the Soleness will be elevated to consummation. The Extremely- Without Form Practice denotes the practice of the Wisdom -Yoga, which is a practice of enjoying the blisses of the negative embodiment 1 These practices can be performed in three different ways: the elaborate way, which is the joyful performance including dancing and singing, etc.; the modest way; and the simplest way. These practices are applied at the beginning stage of the Illusory Body Yoga practice, and at the time when one wants to attain the Without -Learning -Two -In-One Position from the With -Learning -Two -In-One Position. These are the three times one may carry out the practices. It is for the purpose of planting the Dharma -seed in the mind of sincere disciples that I have mentioned these pra ctices and given all the essential instruction in full. For fear of involving too many words, the foregoing instructions are not given in detail. If one wants them elaborated, one may study and search in the works of the Collective Pith- Instructions (of Gsun -adus). . The other practices imply the Karma Yoga. [Only the Extremely -Without -Form is karma -free.] What happens when the Final Accomplishment comes into being? 1 We feel that 'Body of Non -Form" better expresses the meaning here, which points to the Without- Form Practice of the Anuttara Tantra.Ed . 225 Having attained the position of the With- Learning -Two -in-One, one furthers the meditation on the Light Yoga; thus, in time, the dualistic thoughts and manifestations are purified and th e absolute Dharmakaya is fully unfolded. The Two -in-One -Illusory Body of the With- Learning is transformed into the Two -in-One -Body of the Without -Learning. As long as the Sa sara exists, this body will not change or vanish; (for the welfare of sentient beings) this pure body of Buddha will remain. Here, the two -Hindrances -Free Objective- Light is the immutable Dharmakaya itself. The Subjective -Light is the Wisdom Dharmakaya itself; it is also called the Body of Great Bliss. Coexistent with it is the Body -of-Form, or the Sambhogakaya, which is the (consummated) transformation of the Mind -Prana. These two Bodies are one in essence and two in aspect. This Body- of-Form is identical with the Not -Two -Wisdom -Body [better: "Non - Twofold Wisdom Body" Ed.]; this is f requently mentioned by the gurus. Some people say that the Body -of-Form cannot be ascribed to (or do not exist in) the realm of Buddha, but only appears through the Karma of sentient beings 'or, more accurately speaking' this Body -of-Form only appears as a reflection from the mind- mirror -of-Karma of sentient beings. They also claim that this Body-of -Form is in essence insensible and non - conscious. Some even say that in the Absolute Accomplishment (or Enlightenment) there is no wisdom whatsoever. One should know that all these sayings are false! From this Unparalleled Two -in-One Body emanates the supreme Nirmanakaya, and from it are conjured numerous Transformation- Forms. 226 CHAPTER ELEVEN . TSONG KHOPA 'S SUMMARY OF SOURCES Some say that this teaching (Six Yogas) appears in the first part of the general -contents section of the Book; some that it is in the last part of the Book1 The worst sources are those so -called "Six Yogas" texts discovered in the Dharma of Treasury; though they are numerous, I can have no confidence whatsoever in them . The former claim apparently has two mistakes. According to those who avow the latter, there is a commentary as well as a book called Collective Instructions written by Marpa; but this seems neither reliable nor convincing. It is also said that there is a book by Marpa containing the instructions of the Six Yogas in both stanza style and pr ose style. And there is a book called the Six Yogas of the Diamond Song . But this is merely an introductory book; it only serves the purpose of sowing the seeds of Pith -Instructions; it cannot bestow great power (to the followers). 2 Marpa (the founder of the Kagyupa school) imparted this teaching to Rngog -ston, Mdsur -ston, and Milarepa; that made three lineages in the school. Then Milarepa imparted the teaching to the Holy Gambopa and Rechung. From Gambopa this School branched out into many sects, their teachings and practices quite different from one another. This book is written after a tho rough study of the different pith- instructions from these sects. The instruction of Heat Yoga is based on the fundamental teachings and the (special) instructions bestowed upon Tilopa [the teacher of Marpa's guru Nrop Ed.] by the Master Tsarayawa, the Black Practitioner. . 1 This sentence is not clear, nor did the writer clearly state which book he referred to. [The Book of the Collected Pith -Instructions appears to be meant. See in the text five paragraphs above, p. 263. Ed.] 2 Here Tsong Khapa discredits the authenticity of the scriptures of the Nyingmapa. In the translator's opinion Tsong Khapa fails to remember that the entire Mahayana Buddhism, both Paramitayana and Vajrayanathe teaching that he himself followswas based on the very Sutras and Tantras that have an accountable historical origin, so to speak; for most of the Sutras and Tantras of Mahayana were "brought out" through divine revelations. This is exactly the Nyingmapa way receiving the teaching from the Heavenly Treasures. According to the Nyingmapa Lamas, the teachings from the visible human lineage are by no means better or more reliable than the teachings receiv ed from revelation. As a matter of fact, the latter are much superior, for they are closer, clearer, "warmer," and more direct. Besides, there are less human prejudice and dogmatic hocus -pocus involved. 227 The Light Yoga is mainly based on the pith-instructions and the available commentary Wisdom Essence . In addition to these sources, writings of the "Holy Father and Son" [two revered and learned lamas who were father and son, with family name of Apags -pa Ed.] have been relied upon. The Transformation Yoga and the Yoga of Entering into Another's Body are based not only on the Tantra of Gdan -bzhi as mentioned before, but also on the Tantra Sambhoda and the Tantra Vajra Dakini . Therefore, these instructions are trustworthy, and one may have full confidence in them. 228 EPILOGUE "O, the peerless teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni That were preached for the good of sentient beings! Among them, the unparalleled is the Tantra of Highest Division, Including the Mother Tantras and Father Tantras. Based (mainly) upon the Mother Tantra The instruction on the Dumo Yoga With the essential practice of Small Ah and Life -Prana are given. It is the path, t he teaching that Leads to the unfoldment of the original Innate Wisdom. From the skillfully instructed main teaching (of Dumo Yoga) Come the Illusory Body and the Light Yoga of Gsun- adus. Derived from it and based upon it Are also the Transformation and Entering -Body Yoga of Vajra Gdan- bzhi. These are the famous Six Yogas, The supreme teachings of the great Masters Tilopa and Naropa. In the Country of Snow this teaching is widespread; It is practiced by all gifted ones in Tibet: It is the quintessence of Tantra, The teaching of profundity, the happiness- bestower! Urging me to write a book on Six Yogas is Lord Canopy of Fame He whose crown is adorned with the Three Precious Ones; Through the power of his great merits in the past lives He now becomes the dominant master of the broad kingdoms. Because of his sincere request, this book is written. Also petitioning me to comment on Six Yogas Is the Reverend Dharma -Brother, Canopy of Merit. He is the one who has perfectly mastered the Holy scriptures And absorbed the deep intuitive meditations. Because of his sincere request, this book is written. They offered me grains of fine gold and the precious Mandala, And said to me, 'There are many disciples who yearn for this supreme teaching; 229 Pray, for their sake, write a book of Six Yogas!' Thus, with diligence and effort I wrote this book. It contains the clear instructions and explanations On all practices and visualizations. It is trustworthy, For it is based on the holy writings. It is a special book, the Book of Three Confidences. Oh, difficult indeed it is to understand the profound teaching! And human dispositions vary greatly! If anyone misunderstands this teaching and finds faults, I beg the guards and Dakinis Grant their mercy and pardon him; Through the merits of this well -spoken instruction, May all the sentient beings enter into the Unparalleled Vehicle! Let this teaching spread afar! Let the supreme path increasingly expand!" This book is called "The Six Yogas of Naropa , with the Successive Instructions Leading to the Profound Paththe Book with Three Confidences" [i.e. The Book of Threefold FaithEd .]. Because of repeated requests from the Lord Canopy of Fame (Mi- Dong - grogs- ba-rgyal- mdsan) and the Reverend Canopy of M erit (Chos- rje-bsod - nams -rgyal- mdsan) I wrote this book. It includes the well arranged instructions on the practice of Heat Yoga, etc., and some explanations on the common teachings, together with the elaborate expositions on each of the special practices (of the Tantric Yogas). This book was written with a pure wish of spreading the Dharma of this school [Gelugpa], low School), which is thriving in this region to a great extent; however, it has not yet reached the full -flourishing state. In consideration of the welfare of many of those who have faith in and admiration for the teaching of this school, this book was written at the Victorious Place Dge -ldan on the Great Hill of the Pasture Land by me, the well -learned Buddhist monk, the renouncer, Good Mind Fame Tsong Khapa of the East [of Eastern Tibet]. 230 May goodness and prosperity thrive! 231 APPENDIX: THE VOW OF MAHAMUDRA 232 TRANSLATOR 'S INTRODUCTION Buddhism seldom positively asserts what is the Truth.1 Rather, it teaches the truth -seekers to understand and to explore their own minds, for in the quest of Reality nothing is more important or befitting for the seeker than to know what the mind actually is rather tha n to know only what mind knows ofthe so -called knowledge and objects known by the mind. Reality is the object known, but the first step is to understand the knower of this Reality.2 After waking from sleep, each day of our lives begins with an awareness of 'I'. Descartes observed, "I think, therefore I am" which seems logical to common sense since it feels the necessity for a knower in order for anything to be known. But whether or not this 'I' really exists and is substantial is debatable, says Buddhism . Although Buddhism denies the reality of the ego, it does not absolutely deny the reality of the "awareness," or thinking - process (at least in Mahayana Buddhism). Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to know what this "awareness" or "mind" is. Whatever one's beliefs, opinions, and thoughts, all these depend on the mind and come through the mind, for there is no possibility for one to escape from the sphere of mind in thinking or knowing. Buddhist schools employ two different approaches in the study of mind. The Vaibhasika and Yogacara may be said to use the "horizontal" approach, i.e. studying the mind analytically by mapping its divisions, characteristics, functions, etc., including the 8 Consciousnesses and mental functions of the different stages of Samadhis. The Tantric [Buddhist] schools and Zen, 3 1 The translator must here be restricting himself to the skeptical method of Nagrjuna and some schools of Zen, for there exist very explicit Buddhist cosmological and psychological texts, both in Hinayana and Mahayana.Ed . however, employ what may be called a "vertical" approachurging the student to disregard the analysis of functions and peripheral knowledge of mind and instead to penetrate directly and deeply to the very foundation of mind- essence. 2 The translator overlooks here the ancient Upaniadic dictum, which became part of t he essence of the much later Zen: O Maitreya, the knower cannot be known! Ed. 3 Growing out of more of a Mdhyamika emphasis. Ed. 233 To clarify for the readers the Buddhist view of these two approaches in studying the mind, the translator will explain them through applying what may be called the "three -dimension system" to the mind: The first dimension funct ion; the second dimensionthe form; the third dimension the essence- of-mind. The first dimension (Chinese "Yung"; Tibetan " Rtsl") means "activity" or "function"; the second dimension, (Chinese Shang; Tibetan Rnam Pa) refers to the "form" or "characteristics." The third dimension (Chinese Ti; Tibetan Ngo wo ) points to the essence or real nature of mind. The manifestations in the first dimension of mindthe peripheral or outer realm of mindare comparatively easy to comprehend. The second dimension, the form and characteristics, is not easily understood without a certain kind of study or investigation. The third dimension denotes the transcendental aspect of mind or the Dimension of Beyond. The function of mind refers to the capability of the mind to know or t o be "aware" of the Five Objects (of sight, sound, touch, taste, feeling, smell), of Dharma (all objects, existences, and ideas, etc.), and if we include the two obscure consciousnesses (No. 7 and No. 8) their functions are to become aware of the illusory ego (in the case of No. 7) and the "form of all Dharmas" (in the case of No. 8). Also, the function of mind refers to the emotional manifestations of mind in being able to express love, 4 hate, anger, joy, etc. This realm, of the functioning -aspect -of-mind or the first dimension of mind, is very obvious and immediately known by all. Now, the second dimensionthe form or characteristics of the mindrefers to the awareness 5 4 Not the correct word here, merely "affection" being meant; (see our note to stanza 15) the word "mind" in the same line coul d also be bettered by "consciousness", "mind" having too intellectualistic a connotation. Ed. of the mind, or more clearly, the "awaring -aspect -of-the- mind". This "awaring- aspect -of-mind" is found in all the Eight Consciousnesses, though some consciousnesses (such as No. 8, the Alaya) are not as sharply aware as the mind -consciousness or the eye -consciousness. 5 The editor here assumes responsibility for this term throughout, having suggested it to the translator, in several discussions preceding the writing of this essay, as a better one in this context than "consciousness," quoting to him the editor's definition of mind as "that which orders awareness." The awareness is thus more primal than the ordering. Ed . 234 Although this "awareness" continually takes place in the mind of every individual, seldom is the individual conscious of the "awareness" itself but is rather primarily conscious of the objects of the awareness. To become "aware" of the "awareness" requires some study and effort. Holding onto the "awareness" for long periods during meditation will in time produce a change in the function and pattern of the 8 Consciousnesses and a relative transcendental accomplishment will be achieved. According to Buddhism, the final transcendental accomplishment the perfect Buddhahoodwill only be reached through the realization of the Void- nature of the "awareness." The frequently used terms in Mahamudra "brightness" and "light"refer to the "evolved -awareness" of the mind, while the "Void," "non- existent," and "non- creating" refer to the "roo t- nature" of awareness. This realm of the "Void- bright" is the essence of mind, herethe third dimension of the mind. In short, the essence of mind, as taught in Mahamudra, is the "void- bright" or "awareness without subject - object". Thus the teaching of Mahamudra disregards the first dimension of mind and even does not concern itself much with "awareness" but strives to cut through the Samsaric "awareness" which stems from the subject -object pattern of thought. To completely realize the essence- of-mind is b y no means an easy task. It requires years and lives of study and effort. One may ask, Why is it so difficult if the Buddha- nature is inherent in one's mind? What prevents this realization is the force of our "habitual thinking." On a small scale this bond age may be likened to that of some childhood habit or obsession which, although we know it is illusory and irrational, nevertheless grips us and influences our thinking and behavior because of early, deep -set conditioning. It is much the same in the case of our "endeavor for enlightenment"; though the Void-nature of mind is somewhat glimpsed or even realized, this does not permanently eliminate habitual thoughts which have been operating through immeasurable lifetimes in the past. Therefore, Mahamudra and Zen can never be considered merely philosophy or art, for they are actually the most serious teachings of the Buddhist 235 religion. They are teachings of liberation6 The reader will discover that the opening stanzas of The Vow express the religious and spiritual tradition of Mahamudra. The first five stanzas present the fundamental principles and the necessary "wishes" of the Buddhists. The author of The Vow is Garmapa III (1284 -1339) a very great authority and accomplished yogi whose numerous writings include The Profound Inner Meaning Of Tantrism, considered by Tibetan scholars the greatest work on the subject. The Vow is recited by the White School as a daily prayer. and should not be abused, as Zen has recently been in the Occident, by being made a subject of vain talk or subtle speculations as though they were only a game of the mind. Although this Vow is comparatively short, it contains the majority of the essential teachings of Mahamudra. In Tibet, there exists quite a body of books and commentarie s explaining this Vow. At present these works are not available; therefore translator has supplied a short commentary to accompany the stanzas also . Also, since the original text was not available, the present translation was made from the Chinese text that the translator had previously made from the Tibetan. The translator is confident that this Vow of Mahamudra is one of the highest teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and firmly believes it will contribute much to the search by psychologists and religionists for a deeper understanding of man's essential nature. EDITOR'S NOTE Mahmudr (Tib. pyag -rgya- chen- po) means literally "the great attitude or symbolic gesture". The term derives from the Hindu Tantra (as ri or mahyantra) and the subsequent Buddhist Tantra of North India. One writer of that school, Advayavajra, in his aturmudr , refers to Mahmudr in very much the same way that akti as ultimate Divinity as Goddess is referred to in higher treatises of the Hindu Tantra: "She is not an object subject to time she combines sa sra and nirv a; her 6 They become such only when linked to a definite practice o f tantric yoga type. See also our remarks in the footnotes on pages 244 and 296.Ed . 236 substance is universal Love; she is the unique essence of the Innate Transcendent Bliss." 237 THE VOW OF MAHAMUDRA By Garmapa Rinchen Dorje With Commentary (in smaller type) by the translator and notes by the editor 1 I pray to the Guru, to the Yidam, and to those holy beings in the Mandala, I pray to the Buddhas and to their Sons (Bodhisattvas) in the Three Times and in the Ten Directions, Remember me, have compa ssion and pity on me, Bless with accomplishment my wishes. First, according to the traditions of Buddhist Tantric ritual, a supplication is offered to one's teacher (who is considered more important than the Buddhas), next to one's patron Buddha, then to the Darginis, Guardians, and other beings of the Mandala who grant protection and certain powers to the yogi. This supplication to the esoteric or Tantric lineage is followed by one to the esoteric lineage of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the past, present, and future, and in all directions of space. 2 The pure action of my body and my mind My virtuous deeds and those of all sentient beings Are like clear streams flowing from the Snow Mountain devoid of the defilements of the Three Circles May they flow freely into the great ocean the ocean of the Buddha's Four Bodies. The pure action of body and mind and the virtuous deeds of sentient beings exist (pure in essence) only if one realizes that the action, the doer, and the receiver (The Three Circles) are alike empty and void. The unimpeded realization of this enables one to merge with (obtain) the Four Bodies of Buddha, or the three - in-one the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya, the Nirmanakaya, in the all -encompassing (Tantric) Body of Universal Essence. 3 Until I attain the Four Bodies of Buddha, May even the name of Samsaric miseries and sins Be unheard in all my future lives While I enjoy the happy Dharma -Oceans. 238 It is a long journey from sentient being to Buddhahood. Even a diligent and well -gifted person, after strenuous efforts, may not attain Buddhahood in one lifetime, even though he depends on Mahamudra which is considered an "Abrupt" or "Sudden Enlightenment" teaching like that of Zen. Therefore, in Buddhist countries, people are made mindful of this and taught to pray for auspicious conditions and favorable environments in their future incarnations. 4 May faith, intelligence, diligence and leisure, Good Gurus and the essential teachings come to me, May I practice rightly without stumbling and hindrances The blessings of Dharma filling my future lives. Mahamudra is not just philosophical. Without faith, intelligence, diligence, favorable environment, and skilled teachers there would be no base for its study and practice and no result for sentient bein gs still existing in the realm of causation. 5 The Holy and Wisdom reckonings liberate me from ignorance The pith -instructions destroy my dark doubts forever Through the light from meditation, vividly and unmistakenly, I behold Reality Increase, O Light of the Three Wisdoms! Buddha taught that to judge rightly one should rely on the admonishments of the Sutras and on one's own innate reason (the Holy and Wisdom reckonings). By not leaning blindly on just one or the other, one is less likely to err. Some dou bts can be dispelled through intellectual reasoning, but more subtle and deeply intrenched doubts cannot be eliminated through reasoning or study of the Sutras. These can only be destroyed by the "pith- instructions" the clear, precise, practical instructions given by one's own Guru. The real nature of mind can best be compared to the transparent brightness of physical light. Here, however, the word "light" is also used in a symbolic aspect to refer to the experience of the Three Wisdoms of the Foundation (the undeveloped Buddha -nature in every sentient being), of the Path (the partially realized Buddha- nature from meditation practice), and of the Fruit (or full enlightenment). 6 The Root -Principle is the Two Truthsthe absence of the concrete and the null views The superb Path is the Provisionswithout either the exaggerating or minimizing views The Fruit is the Two Benefits of neither Nirvana or Sa sara In future life, may I meet such right teachings. 239 These three termsRoot or Foundation, Path, and Fruit are frequently used terms to explain the complete philosophy and procedure of Buddhism, though in Hinayana, general Mahayana, and Tantric Buddhism the terms Root, Path, and Fruit are applied differently. Here, the author points out that the basis or "Root" of Mahamudra is the view which transcends Yes and No, which goes beyond the truth of either existence or non- existence. The Path of Mahamudra is knowing the mind in its essence without either adding or deducting anything to its original nature. The Fruit is Buddhahood, the realization which transcends the concepts of both Nirvana and Sasra. This Fruit is expressed in the Two Benefits blessings accruing to oneself and blessings bestowed on others. 7 The Essence of Mind is the Two -in-One the void and radiant original source, Mahamudra, the Diamond -Practice, is the Purifier The Purified are the flickering and insubstantial Blindness and Defilements May I attain the immaculate Dharmakaya, the purified Fruit. Mahamudra is called the "Diamond -Practice" because it is held to be the strongest antidote for delusory thoughts and worldly desires. To the sentient beings the Blindness (ignorance) and Defilements (desires) appear real and substantial, but the enlightened being knows them as insubstantial and nonexi stent. 8 The View of Mahamudra lies in neither adding nor deducting from the nature of mind Being mindful of this, (the View) without distraction, is the root- action of Mahamudra Of all meditations, this is the highest practice p. 295 Let me always find this right teaching of the View, Action, and Practice. To understand the nature of mind is easy if one can recognize it without making any mental effort, and grasp it instantaneously as it is at this very moment. The practice of Mahamudra lies in the constan t awareness of this view. Other teachings using visualization, mantras, and bodily and prana exercises must all employ effort and are With Form. Compared to them, the practice of Mahamudra, effortless and Without Form, is superb. 9 All Dharmas (manifestations) are the expression of mind The mind is of no- mind void in essence Void, yet not extinct, it manifest all Let me observe this essence, and retain this immutable view. Dharma: In Buddhism "Dharma" has two meanings. It means "Doctrine" and is also a general term to include all "objects, manifestations, and existences". 240 10 In our confusion, we consider the self- manifestation (which never came into being) apparent in outer objects In our blindness, we hold the self -awareness to be the real ego Because of the Two Clingings, sentient beings wander in Sa sara May I cut this root of Confusion and Blindness. Two Clingings: 1) The Clinging of Egoclinging to the individual conditioned and continuously changing consciousness as the ego. 2) The Clinging of Dharmacl inging to objects and manifestations as real. 11 "Nothing really exists!" Buddha, himself, sees no existence "All is not empty!" since the causes of Nirvana and Sa sara exist This, is the Middle Path of the Two -in-One, neither agreeing nor contradicting. May I realize the discrimination- free Mind -essence. One trying to understand Buddhism is often puzzled by its apparently contradictory statements such as, "Everything exists," "Nothing exists," "There is an ego," "There is no ego," "Meritorious deeds are beneficial," "Meritorious deeds do not exist." Such statements can be understood only if one learns to think from the standpoint of different categories of truth. For instance, in the Mundane category (or point-of-view) everything exists; but from the standpoint of Transcendental truth, nothing exists. 1 12 This distinction in Buddhist philosophy between the Mundane and Transcendental views must be kept in mind. No one can describe that by saying, "This is it!" No one can deny that by saying, "This is not it !" Such is the Non-created nature of Being which transcends the realm of Consciousness May I attain, decisively, this uttermost truth. Because "the Non- created nature of Being Mind -essence" lies beyond the realm of words and thoughts, it is indescribable; therefore, it can neither be affirmed nor negated. Furthermore, this Mind -essence 1 We most strongly disagree with the translation of the idea that there is nothing that is not Snyat as "there is nothing that exists." Snyat is by no means non -existe nce (see our comments on notes 55 and 96). Until this is clearly understood, Zen and Mahamudra will remain word -play, only sparkling but unenlightening. Without experienced knowledge of the nature of Snyat no treatise on Mahamudra is very helpful, and with such experiences, such treatises are unnecessary except as confirmation. The transcendental view is not that "nothing exists," but rather that it is not true to say either "nothing exists" or "everything exists." The view that there is nothing that exists is the "Nihilistic Extreme" criticized in Tsong-kha -pa's text of Nrop. See note 95 and the text of page 238. Ed. 241 though beyond words and thought is, nevertheless, all- pervading. Since it embraces all, no one can deny it by saying of anything, "This is not the Mind -essence". 13 Ignorant of this, we drift in the ocean of Sa sara If one realizes this essence, there is no other Buddha In the final truth, there is neither Yes nor No May I realize the Dharma -nature the principle of Alaya! The cause of Sa sara is the Blindnessthe subject -objec t pattern of thought which does not exist in the dualistic- free Mind-essence. Enlightenment or the attainment of Buddhahood is nothing but the complete realization of this Mind -essence. The experience of the final realm of truth lies beyond the opposites and thoughts of Yes and No. 14 The manifestation is mind, the Voidness is also mind The enlightenment is mind, and the Blindness is also mind p. 298 The springing of things is mind, and their extinction is also mind May I understand that all Increasing and Decreasing inhere in mind. All activities, existences, experiences, Sangsaric or Nirvanic, all stem from the mind. If one understands and realizes the mind, he understands and realizes all. 'Increasing' and 'Decreasing' here means the two opposites: the purity and defilement, the merits and sins, the enlightenment and blindness etc. 15 Unsullied by intentional practice or meditation- with -effort Away from the Worldly -Wind of distraction With no effort and correction, I rest comfortably on the natural state of mind May I find the adroit and subtle teaching of Mind Practice. The difference between Mahamudra and other types of meditation is that in Mahamudra no meditation - effort and no correction is employed; but in most other types of meditations such as visualizing a subject, holding the breath, meditating on love and divine mercy a mental effort is always required 2 2 Here the translator is repeating, and we fear incorrectly, a conversation between himself and the editor, who pointed out to him tha t in the true meditation of love (not "on" love, as it is a meditation without seed) there is a spontaneous awakening and melting of Bodhi Heart, distinctively characterized by the fact that no mental effort is required. The translator, in saying here that mental effort is required in the love - meditation, evinces that he did not apprehend either the editor's meaning p. 299 or that meditation. Long before the Buddhist Mahmudra sect, the Hindu Tantra and the higher yoga practice of Patanjali taught , 242 concentration choosing one and rejecting the other is always stressed, whereas in the practice of Mahamudra, no effort whatsoever is required. A fter one has realized the essence of mind, concentration or non -concentration, distracted thoughts and Samadhi all become Mahamudra itself. Though for the beginners of Mahamudra, the distractions are obstacles for their meditation, they still should not 'intentionally practice Mahamudra' or meditate Mahamudra with effort . Because any effort or intentional practice helps not but impedes the realization of Mind -Essence. Hence, to comfortably rest on "the awareness of mind" and observe it is the key -instruction of Mahamudra. 16 The waves of Thought -Flow strong and weak, clear and dim subside Without disturbance the River- of-Consciousness flows naturally Far from the mud of drowsiness and distraction Let the steady and immutable Ocean of Samadhi, absorb me! The chief difficulty for the meditator arises from the habitual flow- of-thought common to everyone and which, according to Buddhism, has had this characteristic flowing nature from the very no -beginning. Besides this uncontrollable and habitual thinking the two chief obstacles hindering the meditator are drowsiness and distraction. Only through the attaining of a steady Samadhi can these obstacles be overcome. 17 Repeatedly contemplating the incontemplatable mind, Clearly discerning the indiscernable meaning, I forever eliminate the doubts of Yes and No Let me surely behold my original face. "Original face" A symbolic term denotes the original Buddha -nature innate in every sentient being from the very no -beginning. It is interesting to note that th is term, "Original face", is widely used in Chinese Zen as well as being found in the Mahamudra teaching of Tibet. [Here we have a fleeting reference to the all - important gotra concept. See our introduction. Ed.] 18 When I observe the (outer) objects, I fi nd nothing but my own mind When I observe my mind, I find nothing but the Voidness Observing both mind and objects, free am I from the Two Clingings Let me realize the true nature of the illuminating Mind- essence. In the first step of Mahamudra practice, the yogi is taught to observe the outer objects and to keep on observing them. Continuing in this, he will come to the actual realization (not merely through belief or intellectual reasoning) that all objects are the phenomenal reflections of mind. Then he is taught to the effor tless meditation become part and parcel of spontaneous living "without seed" or partaking of the nature of the unconditioned. 243 observe the mind, itself. From this continual observance, the yogi finally arrives at the realization that mind, itself, is merely voidness. When the yogi observes both mind and objects he is liberated from the Two Clingings the Clinging of Ego which is the subjective -illusory conception of mind, and the Clinging of Dharma, which is the objective -delusory conception of mind. When one realizes the illuminating Mind - essence, one finds that neither ego nor objects exists. [The two-fold egolessness of persons and of things taught also in the Lankavatara Sutra, one of the texts basic to Mahamudra and Zen. Ed.] 19 Because that transcends the mind, it is called the Great Symbol Because that frees from the extremes, it is called the Great Middle Way Because that encompasses all and embrace all, it is called the Great Perfection Let me understand that knowing one is knowing all. The Great Symbol (Tib. Pyag Rgya Chen Po) literally means "The Great Hand -Seal," referring to the custom of ancient times when t he Emperor signed imperial edicts with the print of his hand. Mahamudra is like the imperial law which was supreme in its own realm and came to be called "The Great Symbol," being acknowledged as the teaching which could not be violated and which surpassed all others. Since Mind -essence is intrinsically apart from the subject- object pattern of thought, the teaching of realizing the Mind -essence is in this respect called the teaching of the Great Middle Way (Tib. Dwu Ma Chen Po). Since Mind -essence intrinsically encompasses all and its teaching is the consummation of all teachings, it is called the Great Perfection (Tib. Rdzogs Pa Chen Po). If one succeeds in practicing one teaching, no matter by what name it is called, he succeeds in realizing all. 20 With C lingings absent, the great bliss continuously arises With no form to cling to, the radiant light outshines the dark hindrances May I constantly practice the practice of no-efforttranscending mind The natural and spontaneous Non- Discerning. The sufferings and miseries of sentient beings are the result of 'tensions' which are originated from the 'fundamental tension'. Buddhism denominates this fundamental tension as 'clinging' (Tib. atsin Pa ). If one can eliminate, or even subdue this Clinging to some exten t, a great bliss or Nirvanic ecstasy will arise. Hindrances cannot exist without being embodied in forms; therefore, if the yogi can realize in his Mahamudra meditation that no forms whatsoever exist at all, he automatically overcomes all hindrances. Any e ffort, or intentional practice in Mahamudra meditation is redundant, useless, and even harmful since the Mind -Essence is ever -present and has always existed. The closest description one can give of the experience of the enlightenment mind is the feeling of a natural and spontaneous non -discriminating, subject -object -free awareness. 21 244 The craving for ecstasy and good experience in meditation naturally dissolves The evil thoughts and blindness rest innately pure in Dharma- dhatu In the "ordinary mind" there is no loss or gain, no claim or disclaim. Away from words, let me realize the truth of Dharma Essence. It is common for the yogi to cling to the rapture, brightness, and pleasant visions and feelings experienced during meditation -practice. Buddha, however, has warned that those who continue to crave such experiences cannot liberate themselves . In practicing Mahamudra rightly, the yogi will find his craving for such ecstasies diminish and finally dissolve. Dharma -dhatu may be translated as "the Universal Who le" in which evil thoughts and virtues, blindness and enlightenment are innately identical3 There is a famous Zen story that once a monk asked the Zen master Chow Chu, "What is Tao (reality or path)?" The master answered, "The ordinary mind is Tao." This "ordinary mind" can be easily misunderstood as referring to the ignorant and illusory mind of the ordinary person. However, it really means the Mind -essence which the enlightened being sees and which is not a new mind or something which is different in es sence from the common mind. The enlightened see mind as it is natural, common, and intrinsic. In this sense, Mahamudra denotes the Mind- essence as "the ordinary mind" wherein one finds no loss or gain, no claim or disclaim, since it excludes all discrimina tions and includes all differentiations. . Before actually and directly realized the Mind -essence, whatever philosophy or theories one holds ("Reality is one," "Reality is two," "Truth is this or that") are nonsense like 'Playwords' of children. When one directly and actually realizes the Mind -essence, he reaches the world -beyond or the state called here "Away From Playwords." 22 Not knowing their natures are identical with Buddha's Sentient beings wander endlessly in Sangsara To those misery -bound who have undergone endless sufferings May I forever pity ["Succour" would be a better translation then the condescending "pity," we feel. Ed.] them with the unbearable great compassion! May I forever pity them with the unbearable great compassion! 3 Here we strongly disagree; Dharma -dhtu may not so be translated; defilements and the buddha- nature are not at all identical in the context of Dharma-dhtu, much less innately so. If they were, and hence if blindness and enlightenment were innately identical, there would be no point in either the translator's translation or comments, nor indeed in the existence of this or any other book. The expression of the matter by the translator tends to confusion. We would rather see it put that the essential Buddha-nature is the self -nature of all things, and constitutes the ultimate reality stripped of all manifestation, and even the ultimate substance of those manifestations we call evil or defilements. It is important to point out, however, that in the sa sara, what is evil uses the innate nature parasitically, while what is good tends to increase the explicit manifestation (nirmanakya for ms) of the Buddha -nature. Ed . 245 23 Right in that moment when the Great Compassion arises Emerges nakedly and vividly the Great Voidness. Let me always find this unmistakable Two- in-One Path And practice it day and night. The teaching of Buddhism on Great Voidness and Great Compassion is not rightly understood by most people. These two are, actually, one entity manifested in two aspects. But to the Sangsaric beings, these two are seemingly irreconcilable since in many characteristics they seem opposed, the wisdom seems 'cold' while the compassion is 'warm' ; the Voidness has no object while the Compassion demands an object, etc. Only the Buddha and enlightened beings can merge the two, or, more accurately speaking, realize and unfold the identicalness and simultaneous- existing -nature of the two. Here the author points out that the unmistakable sign of the experience of the enlightened being is that during the moment of enlightenment, when the great Voidness is seen, the Great Compassion automatically arises, or, in some cases, a great and unbearable compassion, should it ever arise, will automatically bring forth the emergence of the Great Voidness. [In this stanza is expressed the essence of the Buddhist Tantra: that the unya (or praj ) and active Love (or vajra) must be and are forever joined at the heart of reality. Here is the true inner meaning of the profound Yab- Yum symbolism of the phrase "the jewel (or diamond, i.e. upya, vajra) is in the lotus (padma, unya, praj )." In the terms of the Hindu Tantra, with its emphasis on the formative center and energy, akta and akti are forever united in a not indistinct, but rather in a dynamic polar union. Ed.] 24 With meditation-produced clairvoyance and other miraculous powers May I ripen all the sentient beings and adorn Buddha's Pure Land May I fulfill the compassionate vows of all Buddhas And eventually achieve the highest enlightenment and perfections. 25 The power of the compassion of Buddha The power of the loving Bodhisattvas The power of all virtues and good deeds May I bind these powers into one grea t force By which the pure vow of mine And the benevolent wishes of others may be readily fulfilled! 246 |
Human, All Too Human by Friedrich Nietzsche. First published in 1878. The translation of the first part by Helen Zimmern was first published in 1914. The translation of the second part by Paul V. Cohn was first published in 1913. This ebook edition was created and published by Global Grey on the 29th June 2021, and updated on the 26th January 2023. The artwork used for the cover is The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton painted by Thomas Eakins. This book can be found on the site here: globalgreyebooks.com/human- all-too-human-ebook.html Global Grey 2023 globalgreyebooks.com Contents Part I Preface First Division - First And Last Things Second Division - The History Of The Moral Sentiments Third Division - The Religious Life Fourth Division - Concerning The Soul Of Artists And Authors Fifth Division - The Signs Of Higher And Lower Culture Sixth Division - Man In Society Seventh Division - Wife And Child Eighth Division - A Glance At The State Ninth Division - Man Alone By Himself An Epode - Among Friends Part II Translators Introduction Preface Part I. Miscellaneous Maxims And Opinions Part II. The Wanderer And His Shadow Part I 1 Preface 1. I HAVE been told frequently, and always with great surprise, that there is something common and distinctive in all my writings, from the Birth of Tragedy to the latest published Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future . They all contain, I have been told, snares and nets for unwary birds, and an almost perpetual unconscious demand for the inversion of customary valuations and valued customs. What? Everything only humanall -too-human? People lay down my writings with this sigh, not without a certain dread and distrust of morality itself, indeed almost tempted and encouraged to become advocates of the worst things: as being perhaps only the best disparaged ? My writings have been called a school of suspicion and especially of disdain, more happily, also, a school of courage and even of audacity. Indeed, I myself do not think that any one has ever looked at the world with such a profound suspicion; and not only as occasiona l Devils Advocate, but equally also, to speak theologically, as enemy and impeacher of God; and he who realises something of the consequences involved, in every profound suspicion, something of the chills and anxieties of loneliness to which every uncompr omising difference of outlook condemns him who is affected therewith, will also understand how often I sought shelter in some kind of reverence or hostility, or scientificality or levity or stupidity, in order to recover from myself, and, as it were, to obtain temporary self -forgetfulness ; also why, when I did not find what I needed , I was obliged to manufacture it, to counterfeit and to imagine it in a suitable manner (and what else have poets ever done? And for what purpose has all the art in the world existed ?). What I always required most, however, for my cure and self- recovery, was the belief that I was not isolated in such circumstances, that I did not see in an isolated mannera magic suspicion of relationship and similarity to others in outlook and desire, repose in the confidence of friendship, a blindness in both parties without suspicion or note of interrogation, an enjoyment of foregrounds, and surfaces of the near and the nearest, of all that has colour, epidermis, and outside appearance. Perhaps I might be reproached in this respect for much art and fine false coinage; for instance, for voluntarily and knowingly shutting my eyes to Schopenhauer s blind will to morality at a time when I had become sufficiently clear -sighted about morality; als o for deceiving myself about Richard Wagner s incurable romanticism, as if it were a beginning and not an end; also about the Greeks, also about the Germans and their future and there would still probably be quite a long list of such alsos? Supposing however, that this were all true and that I were reproached with good reason, what do you know, what could you know as to how much artifice of self-preservation, how much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception,and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity ? . . . In short, I still live ; and life, in spite of ourselves, is not devised by morality; it demands illusion, it lives by illusion . . . but There ! I am already beginning again and doing what I have always done, old immoralist and bird- catcher that I am, I am talking un- morally, ultra -morally, beyond good and evil ? . . . 2. Thus then, when I found it necessary, I invented once on a time the free spirits, to whom this discouragingly encouraging book with the title Human, all-too- Human , is dedicated. There are no such free spirits nor have there been such, but, as already said, I then required them for company to keep me cheerful in the midst of evils (sickness, loneliness, foreignness, acedia, inactivity) as brave companions and ghosts with whom I could laugh 2 and gossip when so inclined and send to the devil when they became bores,as compensation for the lack of friends. That such free spi rits will be possible some day, that our Europe will have such bold and cheerful wights amongst her sons of to-morrow and the day after to -morrow, actually and bodily, and not merely, as in my case, as the shadows of a hermits phantasmagoria I should be the last to doubt thereof. Already I see them coming, slowly, slowly; and perhaps I am doing something to hasten their coming when I describe in advance under what auspices I see them originate, and upon what paths I see them come. 3. One may suppose that a spirit in which the type free spirit is to become fully mature and sweet, has had its decisive event in a great emancipation, and that it was all the more fettered previously and apparently bound for ever to its corner and pillar. What is it that binds most strongly? What cords are almost unrendable? In men of a lofty and select type it will be their duties; the reverence which is suitable to youth, respect and tenderness for all that is time-honoured and worthy, gratitude to the land which bore them, to the hand which led them, to the sanctuary where they learnt to adore, their most exalted moments themselves will bind them most effectively, will lay upon them the most enduring obligations. For those who are thus bound the great emancipation comes suddenly, like an earthquake; the young soul is all at once convulsed, unloosened and extricatedit does not itself know what is happening. An impulsion and compulsion sway and over- master it like a command ; a will and a wish awaken, to go forth on their course, anywhere, at any cost; a violent, dangerous curiosity about an undiscovered world flames and flares in every sense. Better to die than live heresays the imperious voice and seduction, and this here, this at home is all that the soul has hitherto loved! A sudden fear and suspicion of that which it loved, a flash of disdain for what was called its duty, a rebellious, arbitrary, volcanically throbbing longing for travel, foreignness, estrangement, coldness, disenchantment, glaciation, a hatred of love, perhaps a sacrilegious clutch and look backwards , to where it hitherto adored and loved, perhaps a glow of shame at what it was just doing, and at the same time a rejoicing that it was doing it, an intoxicated, internal, exulting thrill which betrays a triumph a triumph? Over what? Over whom? An enigmatical, questionable, doubtful triumph, but the first triumph nevertheless ;such evil and painful incidents belong to the history of the great emancipation. It is, at the same time, a disease which may destroy the man, this first outbreak of power and will to self-decision, self- valuation, this will to free will; and how much disease is manifested in the wild attempts and eccentricities by which the liberated and emancipated one now seeks to demonstrate his mastery over things! He roves about raging with unsatisfied longing; whatever he captures has to suffer for the dangerous tension of his pride; he tears to pieces whatever attracts him. With a malicious laugh he twirls round whatever he finds veiled or guarded by a sense of shame; he tries how these things look when turned upside down. It is a matter of arbitrariness with him, and pleasure in arbitrariness, if he now perhaps bestow his favour on what had hitherto a bad repute,if he inquisitively and temptingly haunt what is specially forbidden. In the background of his activities and wanderings for he is restless and aimless in his course as in a desert stands the note of interrogation of an increasingly dangerous curiosity. Cannot all valuations be reversed? And is good perhaps evil? And God only an invention and artifice of the devil? Is everything, perhaps, radically false? And if we are the deceived, are we not thereby also deceivers? Must we not also be deceivers?Such thoughts lead and mislead him more and more, onward and away. Solitude encircles and engirdles him, always more threatening, more throttling, more heart-oppressing, that terrible goddess and mater sva cupidinum but who knows nowadays what solitude is? ... 4. 3 From this morbid solitariness, from the desert of such years of experiment, it is still a long way to the copious, overflowing safety and soundness which does not care to dispense with disease itself as an instrument and angling -hook of knowledge;to that mature freedom of spirit which is equally self -control and discipline of the heart, and gives access to many and opposed modes of thought;to that inward comprehensiveness and daintiness of superabundance, which excludes any danger of the spirits becoming enamoured and lost in its own paths, and lying intoxicated in some corner or other; to that excess of plastic, healing, formative, and restorative powers, which is exactly the sign of splendid health, that excess which gives the free spirit the dangerous prerogative of being entitled to live by experiments and offer itself to adventure; the free spirit s prerogative of mastership! Long years of convalescence may lie in between, years full of many -coloured, painfully-enchanting magical transformations, curbed and led by a tough will to health , which often dares to dress and disguise itself as actual health. There is a middle condition therein, which a man of such a fate never calls to mind later on without emotion ; a pale, delicate light and a sunshine- happiness are p eculiar to him, a feeling of bird-like freedom, prospect, and haughtiness, a tertium quid in which curiosity and gentle disdain are combined. A free spirit this cool expression does good in every condition, it almost warms. One no longer lives, in the fe tters of love and hatred, without Yea, without Nay, voluntarily near, voluntarily distant, preferring to escape, to turn aside, to flutter forth, to fly up and away; one is fastidious like every one who has once seen an immense variety beneath him,and one has become the opposite of those who trouble themselves about things which do not concern them. In fact, it is nothing but things which now concern the free spirit,and how many things!which no longer trouble him! 5 A step further towards recovery, and the free spirit again draws near to life; slowly, it is true, and almost stubbornly, almost distrustfully. Again it grows warmer around him, and, as it were, yellower ; feeling and sympathy gain depth, thawing winds of every kind pass lightly over him. He almost feels as if his eyes were now first opened to what is near . He marvels and is still; where has he been ? The near and nearest things, how changed they appear to him! What a bloom and magic they have acquired meanwhile! He looks back gratefully,gratef ul to his wandering, his austerity and self- estrangement, his far -sightedness and his bird- like flights in cold heights. What a good thing that he did not always stay at home, by himself, like a sensitive, stupid tenderling. He has been beside himself , there is no doubt. He now sees himself for the first time, and what surprises he feels thereby! What thrills unexperienced hitherto! What joy even in the weariness, in the old illness, in the relapses of the convalescent! How he likes to sit still and suf fer, to practise patience, to lie in the sun! Who is as familiar as he with the joy of winter, with the patch of sunshine upon the wall! They are the most grateful animals in the world, and also the most unassuming, these lizards of convalescents with thei r faces half -turned towards life once more:there are those amongst them who never let a day pass without hanging a little hymn of praise on its trailing fringe. And, speaking seriously, it is a radical cure for all pessimism (the well-known disease of old idealists and falsehood -mongers) to become ill after the manner of these free spirits, to remain ill a good while, and then grow well (I mean better ) for a still longer period. It is wisdom, practical wisdom, to prescribe even health for one s self for a long time only in small doses. 6. About this time it may at last happen, under the sudden illuminations of still disturbed and changing health, that the enigma of that great emancipation begins to reveal itself to the free, 4 and ever freer, spirit, that enigma which had hitherto lain obscure, questionable, and almost intangible, in his memory. If for a long time he scarcely dared to ask himself, Why so apart? So alone? denying everything that I revered? denying reverence itself? Why this hatred, this suspicion, this severity towards my own virtues? he now dares and asks the questions aloud, and already hears something like an answer to them Thou shouldst become master over thyself and master also of thine own virtues. Formerly they were thy masters ; but they are only entitled to be thy tools amongst other tools. Thou shouldst obtain power over thy pro and contra, and learn how to put them forth and withdraw them again in accordance with thy higher purpose. Thou shouldst learn how to take the proper perspective of every valuationthe shifting, distortion, and apparent teleology of the horizons and everything that belongs to perspective; also the amount of stupidity which opposite values involve, and all the intellectual loss with which every pro and every contra has to be paid for. Thou shouldst learn how much necessary injustice there is in every for and against, injustice as inseparable from life, and life itself as conditioned by the perspective and its injustice. Above all thou shouldst see clearly where the injustice is always greatest :namely, where life has developed most punily, restrictedly, necessitously, and incipiently, and yet cannot help regarding itself as the purpose and standard of things, and for the sake of self -preservation, secretly, basely, and continuously wasting away and calling in question the higher, greater, and richer,thou shouldst see clearly the problem of gradation of rank, and how power and right and amplitude of perspective grow up together. Thou shouldst But enough; the free spirit knows henceforth which thou shalt he has obeyed, and also what he can now do, what he only nowmay do. . . . 7. Thus doth the free spirit answer himself with regard to the riddle of emancipation, and ends therewith, while he generalises his case, in order thus to decide with regard to his experience. As it has happened to me ! he says to himself, so must it happen to every one in whom a mission seeks to embody itself and to come into the world. The secret power and necessity of this mission will operate in and upon the destined individuals like an unconscious pregnancy,long before they have had the mission itself in view and have known its name. Our destiny rules over us, even when we are not yet aware of it; it is the future that makes laws for our to-day. Granted that it is the problem of the gradations of rank , of which we may say that it is our problem, we free spirits; now only in the midday of our life do we first understand what preparations, dtours, tests, experiments, and disguises the problem needed, before it was permitted to rise before us, and how we had first to experience the most manifold and opposing conditions of distress and happiness in soul and body, as adventurers and circumnavigators of the inner world called man, as surveyors of all the higher and the one-above-another, also called manpenetrating everywhere, almost without fear, rejecting nothing, losing nothing, tasting everything, cleansing everything from all that is accidental, and, as it were, sifting it out until at last we could say, we free spirits, Herea new problem! Here a long ladder, the rungs of which we ourselves have sat upon and mounted,which we ourselves at some time have been ! Here a higher place, a lower place, an under -us, an immeasurably long order, a hierarchy which we see; here our problem! 8. No psychologist or augur will be in doubt for a moment as to what stage of the development just described the following book belongs (or is assigned to). But where are these psychologists nowadays? In France, certainly ; perhaps in Russia; assuredly not in Germany. Reasons are not lacking why the present-day Germans could still even count this as an 5 honour to thembad enough, surely, for one who in this respect is un -German in disposition and constitution! This German book, which has been able to find readers in a wide circle of countries and nationsit has been about ten years going its roundsand must understand some sort of music and piping art, by means of which even coy foreign ears are seduced into listening, it is precisely in Germany that this book has been most negligently read, and worst listened to ; what is the reason ? It demands too much, I have been told, it appeals to men free from the press ure of coarse duties, it wants refined and fastidious senses, it needs superfluity superfluity of time, of clearness of sky and heart, of otium in the boldest sense of the term :purely good things, which we Germans of to-day do not possess and therefore cannot give. After such a polite answer my philosophy advises me to be silent and not to question further; besides, in certain cases, as the proverb points out, one only remains a philosopher by being silent. NICE, Spring 1886. 6 First Division - First And Last Things 1. CHEMISTRY OF IDEAS AND SENSATIONS. Philosophical problems adopt in almost all matters the same form of question as they did two thousand years ago; how can anything spring from its opposite? for instance, reason out of unreason, the sentient out of the dead, logic out of unlogic, disinterested contemplation out of covetous willing, life for others out of egoism, truth out of error? Metaphysical philosophy has helped itself over those difficulties hitherto by denying the origin of one thing in another, and assuming a miraculous origin for more highly valued things, immediately out of the kernel and essence of the thing in itself. Historical philosophy, on the contrary, which is no longer to be thought of as separ ate from physical science, the youngest of all philosophical methods, has ascertained in single cases (and presumably this will happen in everything) that there are no opposites except in the usual exaggeration of the popular or metaphysical point of view, and that an error of reason lies at the bottom of the opposition: according to this explanation, strictly understood, there is neither an unegoistical action nor an entirely disinterested point of view, they are both only sublimations in which the fundamental element appears almost evaporated, and is only to be discovered by the closest observation. All that we require, and which can only be given us by the present advance of the single sciences, is a chemistry of the moral, religious, sthetic ideas and s entiments, as also of those emotions which we experience in ourselves both in the great and in the small phases of social and intellectual intercourse, and even in solitude; but what if this chemistry should result in the fact that also in this case the mo st beautiful colours have been obtained from base, even despised materials? Would many be inclined to pursue such examinations? Humanity likes to put all questions as to origin and beginning out of its mind ; must one not be almost dehumanised to feel a contrary tendency in one s self? 2. INHERITED FAULTS OF PHILOSOPHERS. All philosophers have the common fault that they start from man in his present state and hope to attain their end by an analysis of him. Unconsciously they look upon man as an terna v eritas , as a thing unchangeable in all commotion, as a sure measure of things. Everything the philosopher has declared about man is, however, at bottom no more than a testimony as to the man of a very limited period of time. Lack of historical sense is the family failing of all philosophers; many, without being aware of it, even take the most recent manifestation of man, such as has arisen under the impress of certain religions, even certain political events, as the fixed form from which one has to start out. They will not learn that man has become, that the faculty of cognition has become; while some of them would have it that the whole world is spun out of this faculty of cognition. Now, everything essential in the development of mankind took place in prim eval times, long before the four thousand years we more or less know about; during these years mankind may well not have altered very much. But the philosopher here sees instincts in man as he now is and assumes that these belong to the unalterable facts of mankind and to that extent could provide a key to the understanding of the world in general: the whole of teleology is constructed by speaking of the man of the last four millennia as of an eternal man towards whom all things in the world have had a natural relationship from the time he began. But everything has become: there are no eternal facts , just as there are no absolute truths. Consequently what is needed from now on is historical philosophizing, and with it the virtue of modesty. 7 3. ESTIMATION OF UNPRETENTIOUS TRUTHS. It is the mark of a higher culture to value the little unpretentious truths which have been discovered by means of rigorous method more highly than the errors handed down by metaphysical ages and men, which blind us and make us happy. At first, one has scorn on his lips for unpretentious truths, as if they could offer no match for the others: they stand so modest, simple, sober, even apparently discouraging, while the other truths are so beautiful, splendid, enchanting, or even enrapturing. But truths that are hard won, certain, enduring, and therefore still of consequence for all further knowledge are the higher; to keep to them is manly, and shows bravery, simplicity, restraint. Eventually, not only the individual, but all mankind will be elevated to this manliness, when men finally grow accustomed to the greater esteem for durable, lasting knowledge and have lost all belief in inspiration and a seemingly miraculous communication of truths. The admirers of forms , with their standard of beauty and sublimity, will, to be sure, have good reason to mock at first, when esteem for unpretentious truths and the scientific spirit first comes to rule, but only because either their eye has not yet been opened to the charm of the simplest form, or because men raised in that spirit have not yet been fully and inwardly permeated by it, so that they continue thoughtlessly to imitate old forms (and poorly, too, like someone who no longer really cares about the matter). Previously, the mind was not obliged to think rigorously; its importance lay in spinning out symbols and forms. That has changed; that earnestness in the symbolical has become the mark of a lower culture. As our arts themselves grow evermore intellectual, our senses more spiritual, and as, for instance, people now judge concerning what sounds well to the senses quite differently from how they did a hundred years ago, so the forms of our life grow ever more spiritual , to the eye of older ages perhaps uglier , but only because it is incapable of perceiving how the kingdom of the inward, spiritual beauty constantly grows deeper and wider, and to what extent the inner intellectual look may be of more importance to us all than the most beautiful bodily frame and the noblest architectural structure 4. ASTROLOGY AND THE LIKE. It is probable that the objects of religious, moral, sthetic and logical sentiment likewise belong only to the surface of things, while man willingly believes that here, at least, he has touched the heart of the world ; he deceives himself, because those things enrapture him so profoundly, and make him so profoundly unhappy, and he therefore shows the same pride here as in astrology. For astrology believes that the firmament moves round the destiny of man; the moral man, however, takes it for granted that what he has essentially at heart must also be the essence and heart of things. 5. MISUNDERSTANDING OF DREAMS. In the ages of a rude and primitive civilisation man believed that in dreams he became acquainted with a second actual world; herein lies the origin of all metaphysics. Without dreams there could have been found no reason for a division of the world. The distinction, too, between soul and body is connected with the most ancient comprehension of dreams, also the supposition of an imaginary soul-body, therefore the origin of all belief in spirits, and probably also the belief in gods. The dead continues to live, for he appears to the living in a dream : thus men reasoned of old for thousands and thousands of years. 6. 8 THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT PARTIALLY BUT NOT WHOLLY POWERFUL. The smallest subdivisions of science taken separately are dealt with purely in relation to themselves, the general, great sciences, on the contrary, regarded as a whole, call up the questioncertainly a very non -objective one Wherefore? To what end? It is this utilitarian consideration which causes them to be dealt with less impersonally when taken as a whole than when considered in their various parts. In philosophy, above all, as the apex of the entire pyramid of science, the question as to the utility of knowledge is involuntarily brought forward, and every philosophy has the unconscious intention of ascribing to it the greatest usefulness. For this reason there is so much high-flying metaphysics in all philosophies and such a shyness of the apparently unimportant solutions of physics; for the importance of knowledge for life must appear as great as possible. Here is the antagonism between the separate provinces of science and philosop hy. The latter desires, what art does, to give the greatest possible depth and meaning to life and actions; in the former one seeks knowledge and nothing further, whatever may emerge thereby. So far there has been no philosopher in whose hands philosophy has not grown into an apology for knowledge; on this point, at least, every one is an optimist, that the greatest usefulness must be ascribed to knowledge. They are all tyrannised over by logic, and this is optimismin its essence. 7. THE KILL- JOY IN SCIENCE. Philosophy separated from science when it asked the question, Which is the knowledge of the world and of life which enables man to live most happily? This happened in the Socratic schools; the veins of scientific investigation were bound up by the point of view of happiness ,and are so still. 8. PNEUMATIC EXPLANATION OF NATURE. Metaphysics explains the writing of Nature, so to speak, pneumatically , as the Church and her learned men formerly did with the Bible. A great deal of understanding is required to apply to Nature the same method of strict interpretation as the philologists have now established for all books with the intention of clearly understanding what the text means, but not suspecting a double sense or even taking it for granted. Just, however, as with regard to books, the bad art of interpretation is by no means overcome, and in the most cultivated society one still constantly comes across the remains of allegorical and mystic interpretation, so it is also with regard to Nature, indeed it is even much worse. 9. THE METAPHYSICAL WORLD. It is true that there might be a metaphysical world ; the absolute possibility of it is hardly to be disputed. We look at everything through the human head and cannot cut this head off; while the question remains, What would be left of the world if it had been cut off? This is a purely scientific problem, and one not very likely to trouble mankind; but everything which has hitherto made metaphysical suppositions valuable, terrible, delightful for man, what has produced them, is passion, error, and self -deception; the very worst methods of knowledge, not the best, have taught belief therein. When these methods have been discovered as the foundation of all existing religions and metaphysics, they have been refuted. Then there still always remains that possibility ; but there is nothing to be done with it, much less is it possible to let happiness, salvation, and life depend on the spider-thread of such a possibility. For nothing could be said of the metaphysical wor ld but that it would be a different condition, a condition inaccessible and incomprehensible to us; it would be a thing of negative qualities. Were the existence of such a world ever so well proved, the fact would nevertheless remain that it would be preci sely the 9 most irrelevant of all forms of knowledge: more irrelevant than the knowledge of the chemical analysis of water to the sailor in danger in a storm. 10. THE HARMLESSNESS OF METAPHYSICS IN THE FUTURE. Directly the origins of religion, art, and morals have been so described that one can perfectly explain them without having recourse to metaphysical concepts at the beginning and in the course of the path, the strongest interest in the purely theoretical problem of the thing- in-itself and the phenomenon ceases. For however it may be here, with religion, art, and morals we do not touch the essence of the world in itself ; we are in the domain of representation, no intuition can carry us further. With the greatest calmness we shall leave the question as to how our own conception of the world can differ so widely from the revealed essence of the world, to physiology and the history of the evolution of organisms and ideas. 11. LANGUAGE AS A PRESUMPTIVE SCIENCE. The importance of language for th e development of culture lies in the fact that in language man has placed a world of his own beside the other, a position which he deemed so fixed that he might therefrom lift the rest of the world off its hinges, and make himself master of it. Inasmuch as man has believed in the ideas and names of things as tern veritates for a great length of time, he has acquired that pride by which he has raised himself above the animal; he really thought that in language he possessed the knowledge of the world. The maker of language was not modest enough to think that he only gave designations to things, he believed rather that with his words he expressed the widest knowledge of the things; in reality language is the first step in the endeavour after science. Her e also it is belief in ascertained truth, from which the mightiest sources of strength have flowed. Much lateronly nowit is dawning upon men that they have propagated a tremendous error in their belief in language. Fortunately it is now too late to rever se the development of reason, which is founded upon that belief. Logic , also, is founded upon suppositions to which nothing in the actual world corresponds,for instance, on the supposition of the equality of things, and the identity of the same thing at different points of time, but that particular science arose out of the contrary belief (that such things really existed in the actual world). It is the same with mathematics, which would certainly not have arisen if it had been known from the beginning that in Nature there are no exactly straight lines, no real circle, no absolute standard of size. 12. DREAM AND CULTURE. The function of the brain which is most influenced by sleep is the memory ; not that it entirely ceases ; but it is brought back to a condition of imperfection, such as everyone may have experienced in pre- historic times, whether asleep or awake. Arbitrary and confused as it is, it constantly confounds things on the ground of the most fleeting resemblances; but with the same arbitrariness and confusion the ancients invented their mythologies, and even at the present day travellers are accustomed to remark how prone the savage is to forgetfulness, how, after a short tension of memory, his mind begins to sway here and there from sheer weariness and gives forth lies and nonsense. But in dreams we all resemble the savage; bad recognition and erroneous comparisons are the reasons of the bad conclusions, of which we are guilty in dreams: so that, when we clearly recollect what we have dreamt, we are alarmed at ourselves at harbouring so much foolishness within us. The perfect distinctness of all dream -representations, which pre-suppose absolute faith in their reality, recall the conditions that appertain to primitive man, in whom hallucination was 10 extraordinarily frequent, and sometimes simultaneously seized entire communities, entire nations. Therefore, in sleep and in dreams we once more carry out the task of early humanity. 13. THE LOGIC OF DREAMS. In sleep our nervous system is perpetually excited by numerous inner occurrences; nearly all the organs are disjointed and in a state of activity, the blood runs its turbulent course, the position of the sleeper causes pressure on certain limbs, his coverings influence his sensations in various ways, the stomach digests and by its movements it disturbs other organs, the intestines writhe, the position of the head occasions unaccustomed play of muscles, the feet, unshod, not pressing upon the floor with the soles, occasion the feeling of the unaccustomed just as does the different clothing of the whole body: all this, according to its daily change and extent, excites by its extraordinariness the entire system to the very functions of the brain, and thus there are a hundred occasions for th e spirit to be surprised and to seek for the reasons of this excitation ;the dream, however, is the seeking and representing of the causes of those excited sensations,that is, of the supposed causes. A person who, for instance, binds his feet with two straps will perhaps dream that two serpents are coiling round his feet; this is first hypothesis, then a belief, with an accompanying mental picture and interpretation These serpents must be the causa of those sensations which I, the sleeper, experience, so decides the mind of the sleeper. The immediate past, so disclosed, becomes to him the present through his excited imagination. Thus every one knows from experience how quickly the dreamer weaves into his dream a loud sound that he hears, such as the ringing of bells or the firing of cannon, that is to say, explains it from afterwards so that he first thinks he experiences the producing circumstances and then that sound. But how does it happen that the mind of the dreamer is always so mistaken, while the s ame mind when awake is accustomed to be so temperate, careful, and sceptical with regard to its hypotheses? so that the first random hypothesis for the explanation of a feeling suffices for him to believe immediately in its truth ? (For in dreaming we belie ve in the dream as if it were a reality, i.e. we think our hypothesis completely proved.) I hold, that as man now still reasons in dreams, so men reasoned also when awake through thousands of years ; the first causa which occurred to the mind to explain anything that required an explanation, was sufficient and stood for truth. (Thus, according to travellers tales, savages still do to this very day.) This ancient element in human nature still manifests itself in our dreams, for it is the foundation upon which the higher reason has developed and still develops in every individual; the dream carries us back into remote conditions of human culture, and provides a ready means of understanding them better. Dream-thinking is now so easy to us because during immense periods of human development we have been so well drilled in this form of fantastic and cheap explanation, by means of the first agreeable notions. In so far, dreaming is a recreation for the brain, which by day has to satisfy the stern demands of thought, as they are laid down by the higher culture. We can at once discern an allied process even in our awakened state, as the door and ante-room of the dream. If we shut our eyes, the brain produces a number of impressions of light and colour, probably as a kind of after-play and echo of all those effects of light which crowd in upon it by day. Now, however, the understanding, together with the imagination, instantly works up this play of colour, shapeless in itself, into definite figures, forms, landscapes, and animated groups. The actual accompanying process thereby is again a kind of conclusion from the effect to the cause: since the mind asks, Whence come these impressions of light and colour? it supposes those figures and forms as causes; it takes them for the origin of those colours and lights, because in the daytime, with open eyes, it is accustomed to find a producing cause for every colour, every effect of light. Here, therefore, the imagination constantly places pictures before the mind, since it s upports itself on the visual impressions of the day in their production, and 11 the dream -imagination does just the same thing, that is, the supposed cause is deduced from the effect and represented after the effect ; all this happens with extraordinary rapidity, so that here, as with the conjuror, a confusion of judgment may arise and a sequence may look like something simultaneous, or even like a reversed sequence. From these circumstances we may gather how lately the more acute logical thinking, the strict d iscrimination of cause and effect has been developed, when our reasoning and understanding faculties still involuntarily hark back to those primitive forms of deduction, and when we pass about half our life in this condition. The poet, too, and the artist assign causes for their moods and conditions which are by no means the true ones; in this they recall an older humanity and can assist us to the understanding of it. 14. CO-ECHOING. All stronger moods bring with them a co-echoing of kindred sensations and moods, they grub up the memory, so to speak. Along with them something within us remembers and becomes conscious of similar conditions and their origin. Thus there are formed quick habitual connections of feelings and thoughts, which eventually, when they follow each other with lightning speed, are no longer felt as complexes but as unities . In this sense one speaks of the moral feeling, of the religious feeling, as if they were absolute unities : in reality they are streams with a hundred sources and tributaries. Here also, as so often happens, the unity of the word is no security for the unity of the thing. 15. NO INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL IN THE WORLD. As Democritus transferred the concepts above and below to endless space where they have no sense, so philosophers in general have transferred the concepts Internal and External to the essence and appearance of the world ; they think that with deep feelings one can penetrate deeply into the internal and approach the heart of Nature. But these feel ings are only deep in so far as along with them, barely noticeable, certain complicated groups of thoughts, which we call deep, are regularly excited ; a feeling is deep because we think that the accompanying thought is deep. But the deep thought can nevertheless be very far from the truth, as, for instance, every metaphysical one; if one take away from the deep feeling the commingled elements of thought, then the strong feeling remains, and this guarantees nothing for knowledge but itself, just as strong faith proves only its strength and not the truth of what is believed in. 16. PHENOMENON AND THING- IN-ITSELF. Philosophers are in the habit of setting themselves before life and experiencebefore that which they call the world of appearanceas before a picture that is once for all unrolled and exhibits unchangeably fixed the same process, this process, they think, must be rightly interpreted in order to come to a conclusion about the being that produced the picture: about the thing- in-itself, therefo re, which is always accustomed to be regarded as sufficient ground for the world of phenomenon. On the other hand, since one always makes the idea of the metaphysical stand definitely as that of the unconditioned, consequently also unconditioning, one must directly disown all connection between the unconditioned (the metaphysical world) and the world which is known to us; so that the thing- in-itself should most certainly not appear in the phenomenon, and every conclusion from the former as regards the latte r is to be rejected. Both sides overlook the fact that that picturethat which we now call human life and experiencehas gradually evolved,nay, is still in the full process of evolving,and therefore should not be regarded as a fixed magnitude from which a conclusion about its originator might be deduced (the sufficing cause) or even merely neglected. It is because for 12 thousands of years we have looked into the world with moral, sthetic, and religious pretensions, with blind inclination, passion, or fear, and have surfeited ourselves in the vices of illogical thought, that this world has gradually become so marvellously motley, terrible, full of meaning and of soul, it has acquired colourbut we were the colourists; the human intellect, on the basis of human needs, of human emotions, has caused this phenomenon to appear and has carried its erroneous fundamental conceptions into things. Late, very late, it takes to thinking, and now the world of experience and the thing- in-itself seem to it so extraordinarily different and separated, that it gives up drawing conclusions from the former to the latter or in a terribly mysterious manner demands the renunciation of our intellect, of our personal will, in order thereby to reach the essential, that one may become essential . Again, others have collected all the characteristic features of our world of phenomenon,that is, the idea of the world spun out of intellectual errors and inherited by us,and instead of accusing the intellect as the offenders, they have lai d the blame on the nature of things as being the cause of the hard fact of this very sinister character of the world, and have preached the deliverance from Being. With all these conceptions the constant and laborious process of science (which at last celebrates its greatest triumph in a history of the origin of thought ) becomes completed in various ways, the result of which might perhaps run as follows:That which we now call the world is the result of a mass of errors and fantasies which arose gradually in the general development of organic being, which are inter-grown with each other, and are now inherited by us as the accumulated treasure of all the past as a treasure, for the value of our humanity depends upon it. From this world of representation str ict science is really only able to liberate us to a very slight extent as it is also not at all desirableinasmuch as it cannot essentially break the power of primitive habits of feeling ; but it can gradually elucidate the history of the rise of that world as representation, and lift us, at least for moments, above and beyond the whole process. Perhaps we shall then recognise that the thing in itself is worth a Homeric laugh; that it seemed so much, indeed everything, and is really empty, namely, empty of meaning. 17. METAPHYSICAL EXPLANATIONS. The young man values metaphysical explanations, because they show him something highly significant in things which he found unpleasant or despicable, and if he is dissatisfied with himself, the feeling becomes light er when he recognises the innermost world-puzzle or world-misery in that which he so strongly disapproves of in himself. To feel himself less responsible and at the same time to find things more interesting that seems to him a double benefit for which he has to thank metaphysics. Later on, certainly, he gets distrustful of the whole metaphysical method of explanation; then perhaps it grows clear to him that those results can be obtained equally well and more scientifically in another way : that physical and historical explanations produce the feeling of personal relief to at least the same extent, and that the interest in life and its problems is perhaps still more aroused thereby. 18. FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS OF METAPHYSICS. When the history of the rise of thought comes to be written, a new light will be thrown on the following statement of a distinguished logician: The primordial general law of the cognisant subject consists in the inner necessity of recognising every object in itself in its own nature, as a thing identical with itself, consequently self-existing and at bottom remaining ever the same and unchangeable: in short, in recognising everything as a substance. Even this law, which is here called primordial, has evolved: it will some day be shown how gradually this tendency arises in the lower organisms, how the feeble mole-eyes of their organisations at first see only the same 13 thing,how then, when the various awakenings of pleasure and displeasure become noticeable, various substances are gradually distinguished, but each with one attribute, i.e. one single relation to such an organism. The first step in logic is the judgment,the nature of which, according to the decision of the best logicians, consists in belief. At the bottom of all belief lies the sensation of the pleasant or the painful in relation to the sentient subject . A new third sensation as the result of two previous single sensations is the judgment in its simplest form. We organic beings have originally no interest in anything but its relation to us in connection with pleasure and pain. Between the moments (the states of feeling) when we become conscious of this connection, lie moments of rest, of non-feeling ; the world and everything is then without interest for us, we notice no change in it (as even now a deeply interested person does not notice when any one passes him). To the plant, things are as a rule tranquil and eternal, everything like itself. From the period of the lower organisms man has inherited the belief that similar thin gs exist (this theory is only contradicted by the matured experience of the most advanced science). The primordial belief of everything organic from the beginning is perhaps even this, that all the rest of the world is one and immovable. The point furthest removed from those early beginnings of logic is the idea of Causality ,indeed we still really think that all sensations and activities are acts of the free will ; when the sentient individual contemplates himself, he regards every sensation, every alterati on as something isolated , that is to say, unconditioned and disconnected,it rises up in us without connection with anything foregoing or following. We are hungry, but do not originally think that the organism must be nourished; the feeling seems to make i tself felt without cause and purpose , it isolates itself and regards itself as arbitrary. Therefore, belief in the freedom of the will is an original error of everything organic, as old as the existence of the awakenings of logic in it; the belief in unconditioned substances and similar things is equally a primordial as well as an old error of everything organic. But inasmuch as all metaphysics has concerned itself chiefly with substance and the freedom of will, it may be designated as the science which treats of the fundamental errors of mankind, but treats of them as if they were fundamental truths. 19. NUMBER. The discovery of the laws of numbers is made upon the ground of the original, already prevailing error, that there are many similar things (but in reality there is nothing similar), at least, that there are things (but there is no thing). The supposition of plurality always presumes that there is something which appears frequently,but here already error reigns, already we imagine beings, unities, which do not exist. Our sensations of space and time are false, for they lead examined in sequenceto logical contradictions. In all scientific determinations we always reckon inevitably with certain false quantities, but as these quantities are at least constant, as, for instance, our sensation of time and space, the conclusions of science have still perfect accuracy and certainty in their connection with one another; one may continue to build upon themuntil that final limit where the erroneous original suppositions, those constant faults, come into conflict with the conclusions, for instance in the doctrine of atoms. There still we always feel ourselves compelled to the acceptance of a thing or material substratum that is moved, whilst the whole scientific procedure has pursued the very task of resolving everything substantial (material) into motion ; here, too, we still separate with our sensation the mover and the moved and cannot get out of this circle, because the belief in things has from immemorial times been bound up with our being. When Kant says, The understanding does not derive its laws from Nature, but dictates them to her, it is perfectly true with regard to the idea of Nature which we are compelled to associate with her (Nature = Wo rld as representation, that is to say as error), but which is the summing up of a number of errors of the understanding. The laws of numbers 14 are entirely inapplicable to a world which is not our representationthese laws obtain only in the human world. 20. A FEW STEPS BACK. A degree of culture, and assuredly a very high one, is attained when man rises above superstitious and religious notions and fears, and, for instance, no longer believes in guardian angels or in original sin, and has also ceased to talk of the salvation of his soul,if he has attained to this degree of freedom, he has still also to overcome metaphysics with the greatest exertion of his intelligence. Then, however, a retrogressive movement is necessary ; he must understand the historic al justification as well as the psychological in such representations, he must recognise how the greatest advancement of humanity has come therefrom, and how, without such a retrocursive movement, we should have been robbed of the best products of hitherto existing mankind. With regard to philosophical metaphysics, I always see increasing numbers who have attained to the negative goal (that all positive metaphysics is error), but as yet few who climb a few rungs backwards; one ought to look out, perhaps, over the last steps of the ladder, but not try to stand upon them. The most enlightened only succeed so far as to free themselves from metaphysics and look back upon it with superiority, while it is necessary here, too, as in the hippodrome, to turn round the end of the course. 21. CONJECTURAL VICTORY OF SCEPTICISM. For once let the sceptical starting -point be accepted, granted that there were no other metaphysical world, and all explanations drawn from meta - physics about the only world we know were useless to us, in what light should we then look upon men and things? We can think this out for ourselves, it is useful, even though the question whether anything metaphysical has been scientifically proved by Kant and Schopenhauer were altogether set aside. For it is quite possible, according to historical probability, that some time or other man, as a general rule, may grow sceptical ; the question will then be this : What form will human society take under the influence of such a mode of thought? Perhaps the sci entific proof of some metaphysical world or other is already so difficult that mankind will never get rid of a certain distrust of it. And when there is distrust of metaphysics, there are on the whole the same results as if it had been directly refuted and could no longer be believed in. The historical question with regard to an unmetaphysical frame of mind in mankind remains the same in both cases. 22. UNBELIEF IN THE MONUMENTUM RE PERENNIUS An actual drawback which accompanies the cessation of metaphy sical views lies in the fact that the individual looks upon his short span of life too exclusively and receives no stronger incentives to build durable institutions intended to last for centuries, he himself wishes to pluck the fruit from the tree which he plants, and therefore he no longer plants those trees which require regular care for centuries, and which are destined to afford shade to a long series of generations. For metaphysical views furnish the belief that in them the last conclusive foundation has been given, upon which henceforth all the future of mankind is compelled to settle down and establish itself; the individual furthers his salvation, when, for instance, he founds a church or convent, he thinks it will be reckoned to him and recompensed to him in the eternal life of the soul, it is work for the soul s eternal salvation. Can science also arouse such faith in its results ? As a matter of fact, it needs doubt and distrust as its most faithful auxiliaries ; nevertheless in the course of time, the sum of inviolable truthsthose, namely, which have weathered all the storms of scepticism, and all destructive analysis may have become so 15 great (in the regimen of health, for instance), that one may determine to found thereupon eternal works. For the present the contrast between our excited ephemeral existence and the long-winded repose of metaphysical ages still operates too strongly, because the two ages still stand too closely together ; the individual man himself now goes through too many inward an d outward developments for him to venture to arrange his own lifetime permanently, and once and for all. An entirely modern man, for instance, who is going to build himself a house, has a feeling as if he were going to immure himself alive in a mausoleum. 23. THE AGE OF COMPARISON. The less men are fettered by tradition, the greater becomes the inward activity of their motives ; the greater, again, in proportion thereto, the outward restlessness, the confused flux of mankind, the polyphony of strivings. For whom is there still an absolute compulsion to bind himself and his descendants to one place? For whom is there still anything strictly compulsory? As all styles of arts are imitated simultaneously, so also are all grades and kinds of morality, of customs, of cultures. Such an age obtains its importance because in it the various views of the world, customs, and cultures can be compared and experienced simultaneously,which was formerly not possible with the always localised sway of every culture, corresponding to the rooting of all artistic styles in place and time. An increased sthetic feeling will now at last decide amongst so many forms presenting themselves for comparison; it will allow the greater number, that is to say all those rejected by it, to die out. In the same way a selection amongst the forms and customs of the higher moralities is taking place, of which the aim can be nothing else than the downfall of the lower moralities. It is the age of comparison ! That is its pride, but more justly also its grief. Let us not be afraid of this grief! Rather will we comprehend as adequately as possible the task our age sets us: posterity will bless us for doing so,a posterity which knows itself to be as much above the terminated original national cultures as above the culture of comparison, but which looks back with gratitude on both kinds of culture as upon antiquities worthy of veneration. 24. THE POSSIBILITY OF PROGRESS. When a scholar of the ancient culture forswears the company of men who believe in progress, he does quite right. For the greatness and goodness of ancient culture lie behind it, and historical education compels one to admit that they can never be fresh again ; an unbearable stupidity or an equally insufferable fanaticism would be necessary to deny this. But men can consciously resolve to develop themselves towards a new culture; whilst formerly they only developed unconsciously and by chance, they can now create better conditions for the rise of human beings, for their nourishment, education and instruction ; they can administer the earth economically as a whole, and can generally weigh and restrain the powers of man. This new, conscious culture kills the old, which, regarded as a whole, has led an unconscious animal and plant life; it also kills distrust in progress,progress is possible . I must say that it is over -hasty and almost nonsensical to believe that progress must necessarily follow; but how could one deny that it is possible? On the other hand, progress in the sense and on the path of the old culture is not even thinkable. Even if romantic fantasy has also constantly used the word progress to denote i ts aims (for instance, circumscribed primitive national cultures), it borrows the picture of it in any case from the past; its thoughts and ideas on this subject are entirely without originality. 25. 16 PRIVATE AND CUMENICAL MORALITY. Since the belief has ceased that a God directs in general the fate of the world and, in spite of all apparent crookedness in the path of humanity, leads it on gloriously, men themselves must set themselves cumenical aims embracing the whole earth. The older morality, especially that of Kant, required from the individual actions which were desired from all men,that was a delightfully nave thing, as if each one knew off -hand what course of action was beneficial to the whole of humanity, and consequently which actions in general were desirable; it is a theory like that of free trade, taking for granted that the general harmony must result of itself according to innate laws of amelioration. Perhaps a future contemplation of the needs of humanity will show that it is by no means de sirable that all men should act alike ; in the interest of cumenical aims it might rather be that for whole sections of mankind, special, and perhaps under certain circumstances even evil, tasks would have to be set. In any case, if mankind is not to destroy itself by such a conscious universal rule, there must previously be found, as a scientific standard for cumenical aims, a knowledge of the conditions of culture superior to what has hitherto been attained. Herein lies the enormous task of the great minds of the next century. 26. REACTION AS PROGRESS. Now and again there appear rugged, powerful, impetuous, but nevertheless backward-lagging minds which conjure up once more a past phase of mankind; they serve to prove that the new tendencies agai nst which they are working are not yet sufficiently strong, that they still lack something, otherwise they would show better opposition to those exorcisers. Thus, for example, Luthers Reformation bears witness to the fact that in his century all the movements of the freedom of the spirit were still uncertain, tender, and youthful; science could not yet lift up its head. Indeed the whole Renaissance seems like an early spring which is almost snowed under again. But in this century also, Schopenhauer s Metap hysics showed that even now the scientific spirit is not yet strong enough; thus the whole medival Christian view of the world and human feeling could celebrate its resurrection in Schopenhauers doctrine, in spite of the long achieved destruction of all Christian dogmas. There is much science in his doctrine, but it does not dominate it: it is rather the old well - known metaphysical requirement that does so. It is certainly one of the greatest and quite invaluable advantages which we gain from Schopenhauer, that he occasionally forces our sensations back into older, mightier modes of contemplating the world and man, to which no other path would so easily lead us. The gain to history and justice is very great,I do not think that any one would so easily succeed now in doing justice to Christianity and its Asiatic relations without Schopenhauer s assistance, which is specially impossible from the basis of still existing Christianity. Only after this great success of justice , only after we have corrected so essential a point as the historical mode of contemplation which the age of enlightenment brought with it, may we again bear onward the banner of enlightenment, the banner with the three names, Petrarch, Erasmus, Voltaire. We have turned reaction into prog ress. 27. A SUBSTITUTE FOR RELIGION. It is believed that something good is said of philosophy when it is put forward as a substitute for religion for the people. As a matter of fact, in the spiritual economy there is need, at times, of an intermediary order of thought: the transition from religion to scientific contemplation is a violent, dangerous leap, which is not to be recommended. To this extent the recommendation is justifiable. But one should eventually learn that the needs which have been satisfied by religion and are now to be satisfied by philosophy are not unchangeable; these themselves can be weakened and eradicated . Think, for instance, of the Christians distress of soul, his sighing over inward corruption, his anxiety 17 for salvation,all notio ns which originate only in errors of reason and deserve not satisfaction but destruction. A philosophy can serve either to satisfy those needs or to set them aside ; for they are acquired, temporally limited needs, which are based upon suppositions contradictory to those of science. Here, in order to make a transition, art is far rather to be employed to relieve the mind over-burdened with emotions; for those notions receive much less support from it than from a metaphysical philosophy. It is easier, then, to pass over from art to a really liberating philosophical science. 28. ILL-FAMED WORDS. Away with those wearisomely hackneyed terms Optimism and Pessimism ! For the occasion for using them becomes less and less from day to day; only the chatterboxes still find them so absolutely necessary. For why in all the world should any one wish to be an optimist unless he had a God to defend who must have created the best of worlds if he himself be goodness and perfection,what thinker, however, still needs the hypothesis of a God ? But every occasion for a pessimistic confession of faith is also lacking when one has no interest in being annoyed at the advocates of God (the theologians, or the theologising philosophers), and in energetically defending the opposite view, that evil reigns, that pain is greater than pleasure, that the world is a bungled piece of work, the manifestation of an ill-will to life. But who still bothers about the theologians now except the theologians? Apart from all theology and its contentions , it is quite clear that the world is not good and not bad (to say nothing of its being the best or the worst), and that the terms good and bad have only significance with respect to man, and indeed, perhaps, they are not justified even here in the way they are usually employed; in any case we must get rid of both the calumniating and the glorifying conception of the world. 29. INTOXICATED BY THE SCENT OF THE BLOSSOMS. It is supposed that the ship of humanity has always a deeper draught, the heavie r it is laden ; it is believed that the deeper a man thinks, the more delicately he feels, the higher he values himself, the greater his distance from the other animals, the more he appears as a genius amongst the animals, all the nearer will he approach th e real essence of the world and its knowledge; this he actually does too, through science, but he means to do so still more through his religions and arts. These certainly are blossoms of the world, but by no means any nearer to the root of the world than the stalk ; it is not possible to understand the nature of things better through them, although almost every one believes he can. Error has made man so deep, sensitive, and inventive that he has put forth such blossoms as religions and arts. Pure knowledge could not have been capable of it. Whoever were to unveil for us the essence of the world would give us all the most disagreeable disillusionment. Not the world as thing- in-itself, but the world as representation (as error) is so full of meaning, so deep, so wonderful, bearing happiness and unhappiness in its bosom. This result leads to a philosophy of the logical denial of the world, which, however, can be combined with a practical world- affirming just as well as with its opposite. 30. BAD HABITS IN REASONING. The usual false conclusions of mankind are these: a thing exists, therefore it has a right to exist. Here there is inference from the ability to live to its suitability ; from its suitability to its rightfulness. Then : an opinion brings happiness; the refore it is the true opinion. Its effect is good; therefore it is itself good and true. To the effect is here assigned the predicate beneficent, good, in the sense of the useful, and the cause is then furnished with the same predicate good, but here in the sense of the logically valid. The 18 inversion of the sentences would read thus: an affair cannot be carried through, or maintained, therefore it is wrong; an opinion causes pain or excites, therefore it is false. The free spirit who learns only too often the faultiness of this mode of reasoning, and has to suffer from its consequences, frequently gives way to the temptation to draw the very opposite conclusions, which, in general, are naturally just as false: an affair cannot be carried through, therefore it is good; an opinion is distressing and disturbing, therefore it is true. 31. THE ILLOGICAL NECESSARY. One of those things that may drive a thinker into despair is the recognition of the fact that the illogical is necessary for man, and that out of the illogical comes much that is good. It is so firmly rooted in the passions, in language, in art, in religion, and generally in everything that gives value to life, that it cannot be withdrawn without thereby hopelessly injuring these beautiful things. It is only the all-too-nave people who can believe that the nature of man can be changed into a purely logical one; but if there were degrees of proximity to this goal, how many things would not have to be lost on this course! Even the most rational man has need of nature again from time to time, i.e. his illogical fundamental attitude towards all things. 32. INJUSTICE NECESSARY. All judgments on the value of life are illogically developed, and therefore unjust. The inexactitude of the judgment lies, firstly, in the manner in which the material is presented, namely very imperfectly ; secondly, in the manner in which the conclusion is formed out of it; and thirdly, in the fact that every separate element of the material is again the result of vitiated recognition, and this, too, of necessity. For instance, no experience of an individual, however near he may stand to us, can be perfect, so that we could have a logic al right to make a complete estimate of him; all estimates are rash, and must be so. Finally, the standard by which we measure, our nature, is not of unalterable dimensions,we have moods and vacillations, and yet we should have to recognise ourselves as a fixed standard in order to estimate correctly the relation of any thing whatever to ourselves. From this it will, perhaps, follow that we should make no judgments at all; if one could only live without making estimations, without having likes and dislikes! For all dislike is connected with an estimation, as well as all inclination. An impulse towards or away from anything without a feeling that something advantageous is desired, something injurious avoided, an impulse without any kind of conscious valuation of the worth of the aim does not exist in man. We are from the beginning illogical, and therefore unjust beings, and can recognise this ; it is one of the greatest and most inexplicable discords of existence. 33. ERROR ABOUT LIFE NECESSARY FOR LIFE. Every belief in the value and worthiness of life is based on vitiated thought; it is only possible through the fact that sympathy for the general life and suffering of mankind is very weakly developed in the individual. Even the rarer people who think outside themselves do not contemplate this general life, but only a limited part of it. If one understands how to direct ones attention chiefly to the exceptions,I mean to the highly gifted and the rich souls,if one regards the production of these as the aim of the whole world-development and rejoices in its operation, then one may believe in the value of life, because one thereby overlooks the other men one consequently thinks fallaciously. So too, when one directs ones attention to all mankind, but only considers one species of impulses in them, the less egoistical ones, and excuses them with regard to the other instincts, one may then again entertain hopes of mankind in general and believe so far in the value of life, consequently in this case also through fallaciousness of 19 thought. Let one, however, behave in this or that manner: with such behaviour one is an exception amongst men. Now, most people bear life without any considerable grumbling, and consequently believe in the value of existence, but precisely because each one is solely self-seeking and self-affirming, and does not step out of himself like those exceptions; everything extra-personal is imperceptible to them, or at most seems only a faint shadow. Therefore on this alone is based the value of life for the ordinary everyday man, that he regards himself as more important than the world. The great lack of imagination from which he suffers is the reason why he cannot enter into the feelings of other beings, and therefore sympathises as little as possible with their fate and suffering. He, on the other hand, who really could sympathise therewith, would have to despair of the value of life; were he to succeed in comprehending and feeling in himself the general consciousness of mankind, he would collapse with a curse on existence; for mankind as a whole has no goals, consequently man, in considering his whole course, cannot find in it his comfort and support, but his despair. If, in all that he does, he considers the final aimlessness of man, his own activity assumes in his eyes the character of wastefulness. But to feel one s self just as much wasted as humanity (and not only as an individual) as we see the single blossom of nature wasted, is a feeling above all other feelings. But who is capable of it? Assuredly only a poet, and poets always know how to console themselves. 34. FOR TRANQUILLITY. But does not our philosophy thus become a tragedy? Does not truth become hostile to life, to improvement? A question seems to weigh upon our tongue and yet hesitate to make itself heard : whether one can consciously remain in untruthfulness? or, supposing one were obliged to do this, would not death be preferable? For there is no longer any must ; morality, in so far as it had any must or shalt, has been destroyed by our mode of contemplation, just as religion has been destroyed. Knowledge can only allow pleasure and pain, benefit and injury to subsist as motives; but how will these motives a gree with the sense of truth? They also contain errors (for, as already said, inclination and aversion, and their very incorrect determinations, practically regulate our pleasure and pain). The whole of human life is deeply immersed in untruthfulness; the individual cannot draw it up out of this well, without thereby taking a deep dislike to his whole past, without finding his present motives those of honour, for instanceinconsistent, and without opposing scorn and disdain to the passions which conduce to happiness in the future. Is it true that there remains but one sole way of thinking which brings after it despair as a personal experience, as a theoretical result, a philosophy of dissolution, disintegration, and self- destruction ? I believe that the deci sion with regard to the after- effects of the knowledge will be given through the temperament of a man ; I could imagine another after -effect, just as well as that one described, which is possible in certain natures, by means of which a life would arise much simpler, freer from emotions than is the present one, so that though at first, indeed, the old motives of passionate desire might still have strength from old hereditary habit, they would gradually become weaker under the influence of purifying knowledge. One would live at last amongst men, and with one s self as with Nature without praise, reproach, or agitation, feasting one s eyes, as if it were a play , upon much of which one was formerly afraid. One would be free from the emphasis, and would no longer feel the goading, of the thought that one is not only nature or more than nature. Certainly, as already remarked, a good temperament would be necessary for this, an even, mild, and naturally joyous soul, a disposition which would not always need to be on its guard against spite and sudden outbreaks, and would not convey in its utterances anything of a grumbling or sudden nature, those well -known vexatious qualities of old dogs and men who have been long chained up. On the contrary, a man from whom the ordi nary fetters of life have so far fallen 20 that he continues to live only for the sake of ever better knowledge must be able to renounce without envy and regret: much, indeed almost everything that is precious to other men, he must regard as the all- sufficing and the most desirable condition; the free, fearless soaring over men, customs, laws, and the traditional valuations of things. The joy of this condition he imparts willingly, and he has perhaps nothing else to impart,wherein, to be sure, there is more p rivation and renunciation. If, nevertheless, more is demanded from him, he will point with a friendly shake of his head to his brother, the free man of action, and will perhaps not conceal a little derision, for as regards this freedom it is a very peculiar case. 21 Second Division - The History Of The Moral Sentiments 35. ADVANTAGES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION. That reflection on the human, all-too-humanor, according to the learned expression, psychological observationis one of the means by which one may lighten the burden of life, that exercise in this art produces presence of mind in difficult circumstances, in the midst of tiresome surroundings, even that from the most thorny and unpleasant periods of ones own life one may gather maxims and thereby feel a little better: all this was believed, was known in former centuries. Why was it forgotten by our century, when in Germany at least, even in all Europe, the poverty of psychological observation betrays itself by many signs? Not exactly in novels, tales, and philosophical treatises, they are the work of exceptional individuals,rather in the judgments on public events and personalities; but above all there is a lack of the art of psychological analysis and summing-up in every rank of society, in which a great deal is talked about men, but nothing about man . Why do we allow the richest and most harmless subject of conversation to escape us? Why are not the great masters of psychological maxims more read ? For, without any exaggeration, the educated man in Europe who has read La Rochefoucauld and his kindred in mind and art, is rarely found, and still more rare is he who knows them and does not blame them. It is probable, however, that even this exceptional reader will find much less pleasure in them than the form of this artist should afford him; for even the clearest head is not capable of rightly estimating the art of shaping and polishing maxims unless he has really been brought up to it and has competed in it. Without this practical teaching one deems this shaping and polishing to be easier than it is; one has not a sufficient perception of fitness and charm. For this reason the present readers of maxims find in them a comparatively small pleasure, hardly a mouthful of pleasantness, so that they resemble the people who generally look at cameos, who praise because they cannot love, and are very ready to admire, but still more ready to run away. 36. OBJECTION. Or should there be a counter-reckoning to that theory that places psychological observation amongst the means of charming, curing, and relieving existence? Should one have sufficiently convinced ones self of the unpleasant consequences of this art to divert from it designedly the attention of him who is educating himself in it? As a matter of fact, a certain blind belief in the goodness of human nature, an innate aversion to the analysis of human actions, a kind of shamefacedness with respect to the nakedness of the soul may really be more desirable for the general well - being of a man than that quality, useful in isolated cases, of psychological sharp-sight edness ; and perhaps the belief in goodness, in virtuous men and deeds, in an abundance of impersonal good-will in the world, has made men better inasmuch as it has made them less distrustful. When one imitates Plutarch s heroes with enthusiasm, and turns with disgust from a suspicious examination of the motives for their actions, it is not truth which benefits thereby, but the welfare of human society ; the psychological mistake and, generally speaking, the insensibility on this matter helps humanity forwards, while the recognition of truth gains more through the stimulating power of hypothesis than La Rochefoucauld has said in his preface to the first edition of his Sentences et maximes morales. . . . Ce que le monde nomme vertu n est dordinaire quun fantme form par nos passions, qui on donne un nom 22 honnte pour faire impunment ce quon veut. La Rochefoucauld and those other French masters of soul-examination (who have lately been joined by a German, the author of Psychological Observations ) resembl e good marksmen who again and again hit the bulls- eye; but it is the bulls- eye of human nature. Their art arouses astonishment; but in the end a spectator who is not led by the spirit of science, but by humane intentions, will probably execrate an art wh ich appears to implant in the soul the sense of the disparagement and suspicion of mankind. 37. NEVERTHELESS. However it may be with reckoning and counter-reckoning, in the present condition of philosophy the awakening of moral observation is necessary. Humanity can no longer be spared the cruel sight of the psychological dissecting- table with its knives and forceps. For here rules that science which inquires into the origin and history of the so-called moral sentiments, and which, in its progress, has to draw up and solve complicated sociological problems:the older philosophy knows the latter one not at all, and has always avoided the examination of the origin and history of moral sentiments on any feeble pretext. With what consequences it is now very eas y to see, after it has been shown by many examples how the mistakes of the greatest philosophers generally have their starting-point in a wrong explanation of certain human actions and sensations, just as on the ground of an erroneous analysis for instance, that of the so- called unselfish actions a false ethic is built up; then, to harmonise with this again, religion and mythological confusion are brought in to assist, and finally the shades of these dismal spirits fall also over physics and the general mode of regarding the world. If it is certain, however, that superficiality in psychological observation has laid, and still lays, the most dangerous snares for human judgments and conclusions, then there is need now of that endurance of work which does not grow weary of piling stone upon stone, pebble on pebble; there is need of courage not to be ashamed of such humble work and to turn a deaf ear to scorn. And this is also true,numberless single observations on the human and all-too-human have first been dis covered, and given utterance to, in circles of society which were accustomed to offer sacrifice therewith to a clever desire to please, and not to scientific knowledge,and the odour of that old home of the moral maxim, a very seductive odour, has attached itself almost inseparably to the whole species, so that on its account the scientific man involuntarily betrays a certain distrust of this species and its earnestness. But it is sufficient to point to the consequences, for already it begins to be seen what results of a serious kind spring from the ground of psychological observation. What, after all, is the principal axiom to which the boldest and coldest thinker, the author of the book On the Origin of Moral Sensations, has attained by means of his incisive and decisive analyses of human actions? The moral man, he says, is no nearer to the intelligible (metaphysical) world than is the physical man. This theory, hardened and sharpened under the hammer -blow of historical knowledge, may some time or other, perhaps in some future period, serve as the axe which is applied to the root of the metaphysical need of man,whether more as a blessing than a curse to the general welfare it is not easy to say, but in any case as a theory with the most important consequences, at once fruitful and terrible, and looking into the world with that Janus- face which all great knowledge possesses. 38. HOW FAR USEFUL. It must remain for ever undecided whether psychological observation is advantageous or disadvantageous to man ; but it is certain that it is necessary, because science cannot do without it. Science, however, has no consideration for ultimate purposes, any more than Nature has, but just as the latter occasionally achieves things of the greatest suitableness wit hout intending to do so, so also true science, as the imitator of nature 23 in ideas , will occasionally and in many ways further the usefulness and welfare of man,but also without intending to do so. But whoever feels too chilled by the breath of such a refl ection has perhaps too little fire in himself; let him look around him meanwhile and he will become aware of illnesses which have need of ice-poultices, and of men who are so kneaded together of heat and spirit that they can hardly find an atmosphere that is cold and biting enough. Moreover, as individuals and nations that are too serious have need of frivolities, as others too mobile and excitable have need occasionally of heavily oppressing burdens for the sake of their health, should not we, the more intellectual people of this age, that grows visibly more and more inflamed, seize all quenching and cooling means that exist, in order that we may at least remain as constant, harmless, and moderate as we still are, and thus, perhaps, serve some time or other as mirror and self -contemplation for this age? 39. THE FABLE OF INTELLIGIBLE FREEDOM. The history of the sentiments by means of which we make a person responsible consists of the following principal phases. First, all single actions are called good or bad without any regard to their motives, but only on account of the useful or injurious consequences which result for the community. But soon the origin of these distinctions is forgotten, and it is deemed that the qualities good or bad are contai ned in the action itself without regard to its consequences, by the same error according to which language describes the stone as hard, the tree as green, with which, in short, the result is regarded as the cause. Then the goodness or badness is implanted in the motive, and the action in itself is looked upon as morally ambiguous. Mankind even goes further, and applies the predicate good or bad no longer to single motives, but to the whole nature of an individual, out of whom the motive grows as the plant grows out of the earth. Thus, in turn, man is made responsible for his operations, then for his actions, then for his motives, and finally for his nature. Eventually it is discovered that even this nature cannot be responsible, inasmuch as it is an absolute ly necessary consequence concreted out of the elements and influences of past and present things,that man, therefore, cannot be made responsible for anything, neither for his nature, nor his motives, nor his actions, nor his effects. It has therewith come to be recognised that the history of moral valuations is at the same time the history of an error, the error of responsibility, which is based upon the error of the freedom of will. Schopenhauer thus decided against it: because certain actions bring ill humour (consciousness of guilt ) in their train, there must be a responsibility ; for there would be no reason for this ill humour if not only all human actions were not done of necessity,which is actually the case and also the belief of this philosopher,but man himself from the same necessity is precisely the being that he is which Schopenhauer denies. From the fact of that ill humour Schopenhauer thinks he can prove a liberty which man must somehow have had, not with regard to actions, but with regard to nature; liberty, therefore, to be thus or otherwise, not to act thus or otherwise. From the esse , the sphere of freedom and responsibility, there results, in his opinion, the operari , the sphere of strict causality, necessity, and irresponsibility. This ill humour is apparently directed to the operari ,in so far it is erroneous, but in reality it is directed to the esse , which is the deed of a free will, the fundamental cause of the existence of an individual, man becomes that which he wishes to be, his wi ll is anterior to his existence. Here the mistaken conclusion is drawn that from the fact of the ill humour, the justification, the reasonable admissableness of this ill humour is presupposed; and starting from this mistaken conclusion, Schopenhauer arrive s at his fantastic sequence of the so -called intelligible freedom. But the ill humour after the deed is not necessarily reasonable, indeed it is assuredly not reasonable, for it is based upon the erroneous presumption that the action need not have inevitably followed. Therefore, it is only 24 because man believes himself to be free, not because he is free, that he experiences remorse and pricks of conscience. Moreover, this ill humour is a habit that can be broken off; in many people it is entirely abs ent in connection with actions where others experience it. It is a very changeable thing, and one which is connected with the development of customs and culture, and probably only existing during a comparatively short period of the worlds history. Nobody is responsible for his actions, nobody for his nature; to judge is identical with being unjust. This also applies when an individual judges himself. The theory is as clear as sunlight, and yet every one prefers to go back into the shadow and the untruth, f or fear of the consequences. 40. THE SUPER -ANIMAL. The beast in us wishes to be deceived ; morality is a lie of necessity in order that we may not be torn in pieces by it. Without the errors which lie in the assumption of morality, man would have remained an animal. Thus, however, he has considered himself as something higher and has laid strict laws upon himself. Therefore he hates the grades which have remained nearer to animalness, whereby the former scorn of the slave, as a not -yet-man, is to be explaine d as a fact. 41. THE UNCHANGEABLE CHARACTER. That the character is unchangeable is not true in a strict sense; this favourite theory means, rather, that during the short lifetime of an individual the new influencing motives cannot penetrate deeply enough to destroy the ingrained marks of many thousands of years. But if one were to imagine a man of eighty thousand years, one would have in him an absolutely changeable character, so that a number of different individuals would gradually develop out of him. The shortness of human life misleads us into forming many erroneous ideas about the qualities of man. 42. THE ORDER OF POSSESSIONS AND MORALITY. The once- accepted hierarchy of possessions, according as this or the other is coveted by a lower, higher, or highest egoism, now decides what is moral or immoral. To prefer a lesser good (for instance, the gratification of the senses) to a more highly valued good (for instance, health) is accounted immoral, and also to prefer luxury to liberty. The hierarchy of possessions, however, is not fixed and equal at all times ; if any one prefers vengeance to justice he is moral according to the standard of an earlier civilisation, but immoral according to the present one. To be immoral, therefore, denotes that an individual has not felt, or not felt sufficiently strongly, the higher, finer, spiritual motives which have come in with a new culture ; it marks one who has remained behind, but only according to the difference of degrees. The order of possessions itself is not raised and lowered according to a moral point of view; but each time that it is fixed it supplies the decision as to whether an action is moral or immoral. 43. CRUEL PEOPLE AS THOSE WHO HAVE REMAINED BEHIND. People who are cruel nowadays must be accounted for by us as the grades of earlier civilisations which have survived; here are exposed those deeper formations in the mountain of humanity which usually remain concealed. They are backward people whose brains, through all manner of accidents in the cou rse of inheritance, have not been developed in so delicate and manifold a way. They show us what we all were and horrify us, but they themselves are as little responsible as is a block of granite for being granite. There must, too, be grooves and twists in our brains which answer to that condition of mind, as in the form of certain human organs 25 there are supposed to be traces of a fish -state. But these grooves and twists are no longer the bed through which the stream of our sensation flows. 44. GRATITUDE AND REVENGE. The reason why the powerful man is grateful is this: his benefactor, through the benefit he confers, has mistaken and intruded into the sphere of the powerful man, now the latter, in return, penetrates into the sphere of the benefactor by the act of gratitude. It is a milder form of revenge. Without the satisfaction of gratitude, the powerful man would have shown himself powerless, and would have been reckoned as such ever after. Therefore every society of the good, which originally meant the powerful, places gratitude amongst the first duties. Swift propounded the maxim that men were grateful in the same proportion as they were revengeful. 45. THE TWOFOLD EARLY HISTORY OF GOOD AND EVIL. The conception of good and evil has a twofold early history, namely, once in the soul of the ruling tribes and castes. Whoever has the power of returning good for good, evil for evil, and really practises requital, and who is, therefore, grateful and revengeful, is called good; whoever is powerless, and unable to requite, is reckoned as bad. As a good man one is reckoned among the good, a community which has common feelings because the single individuals are bound to one another by the sense of requital. As a bad man one belongs to the bad, to a party of subordinate, powerless people who have no common feeling. The good are a caste, the bad are a mass like dust. Good and bad have for a long time meant the same thing as noble and base, master and slave. On the other hand, the enemy is not looked upon as evil, he can requite. In Homer the Trojan and the Greek are both good. It is not the one who injures us, but the one who is despicable, who is called bad. Good is inherited in the community of the good; it is impossible that a bad man could spring from such good soil. If, nevertheless, one of the good ones does something which is unworthy of the good, refuge is sought in excuses; the guilt is thrown upon a god, for instance; it is said that he has struck the good man with blindness and madness. Then in the soul of the oppressed and powerless. Here every other man is looked upon as hostile, inconsiderate, rapacious, cruel, cunning, be he noble or base; evil is the distinguishing word for man, even for every conceivable living creature, e.g. for a god ; human, divine, is the same thing as devilish, evil. The signs of goodness, helpfulness, pity, are looked upon with fear as spite, the prelude to a terrible result, stupefaction and out- witting, in short, as refined malice. With such a disposition in the individual a community could hardly exist, or at most it could exist only in its crudest form, so that in all places where this conception of good and evil obtains, the downfall of the single individuals, of their tribes and races, is at hand.Our present civilisation has grown up on the soil of the ruling tribes and castes. 46. SYMPATHY STRONGER THAN SUFFERING. There are cases when sympathy is stronger than actual suffering. For instance, we are more pained when one of our friends is guilty of something shameful than when we do it ourselves. For one thing, we have more faith in the purity of his character than he has himself; then our love for him, probably on account of this very faith, is stronger than his love for himself. And even if his egoism suffers more thereby than our egoism, inasmuch as it has to bear more of the bad consequences of his fault, the un- egoistic in us this word is not to be taken too seriously, but only as a modification of the expressionis more deeply wounded by his guilt than is the un- egoistic in him. 26 47. HYPOCHONDRIA. There are people who become hypochondriacal through their sympathy and concern for another person; the kind of sympathy which results therefrom is nothing but a disease. Thus there is also a Christian hypochondria, which afflicts those solitary, religiously -minded people who keep constantly before their eyes the sufferings and death of Christ. 48. ECO NOMY OF GOODNESS. Goodness and love, as the most healing herbs and powers in human intercourse, are such costly discoveries that one would wish as much economy as possible to be exercised in the employment of these balsamic means; but this is impossible. The economy of goodness is the dream of the most daring Utopians. 49. GOODWILL. Amongst the small, but countlessly frequent and therefore very effective, things to which science should pay more attention than to the great, rare things, is to be reckoned good - will; I mean that exhibition of a friendly disposition in intercourse, that smiling eye, that clasp of the hand, that cheerfulness with which almost all human actions are usually accompanied. Every teacher, every official, adds this to whatever is his duty; it is the perpetual occupation of humanity, and at the same time the waves of its light, in which everything grows; in the narrowest circle, namely, within the family, life blooms and flourishes only through that goodwill. Kindliness, friendliness, the courtesy of the heart, are ever-flowing streams of un-egoistic impulses, and have given far more powerful assistance to culture than even those much more famous demonstrations which are called pity, mercy, and self-sacrifice. But they are thought little of, and, as a matter of fact, there is not much that is un-egoistic in them. The sum of these small doses is nevertheless mighty, their united force is amongst the strongest forces. Thus one finds much more happiness in the world than sad eyes see, if one only reckons rightly, and does not forget all those moments of comfort in which every day is rich, even in the most harried of human lives. 50. THE WISH TO AROUSE PITY. In the most remarkable passage of his auto - portrait (first printed in 1658), La Rochefoucauld assuredly hits the nail on the head when he warns all sensible people against pity, when he advises them to leave that to those orders of the people who have need of passion (because it is not ruled by reason), and to reach the point of helping the suffering and acting energetically in an accident; while pity, according to his (and Plato s) judgment, weakens the soul. Certainly we should exhibit pity, but take good care not to feel it, for the unfortunate are so stupid that to them the exhibition of pity is the greatest good in the world. One can, perhaps, give a more forcible warning against this feeling of pity if one looks upon that need of the unfortunate not exactly as stupidity and lack of intellect, a kind of mental derangement which misfor tune brings with it (and as such, indeed, La Rochefoucauld appears to regard it), but as something quite different and more serious. Observe children, who cry and scream in order to be pitied, and therefore wait for the moment when they will be noticed ; live in intercourse with the sick and mentally oppressed, and ask yourself whether that ready complaining and whimpering, that making a show of misfortune, does not, at bottom, aim at making the spectators miserable ; the pity which the spectators then exhibi t is in so far a consolation for the weak and suffering in that the latter recognise therein that they possess still one power , in spite of their weakness, the power of giving pain. The unfortunate derives a sort of pleasure from this feeling of superiority, of which the exhibition of pity makes him conscious; his imagination is exalted, he is still powerful enough to give 27 the world pain. Thus the thirst for pity is the thirst for self-gratification, and that, moreover, at the expense of his fellow- men; it shows man in the whole inconsiderateness of his own dear self, but not exactly in his stupidity, as La Rochefoucauld thinks. In society- talk three - fourths of all questions asked and of all answers given are intended to cause the interlocutor a little pain; for this reason so many people pine for company; it enables them to feel their power. There is a powerful charm of life in such countless but very small doses in which malice makes itself felt, just as goodwill, spread in the same way throughout the world, is the ever-ready means of healing. But are there many honest people who will admit that it is pleasing to give pain? that one not infrequently amuses one s self and amuses one s self very well in causing mortifications to others, at least in thought, and firing off at them the grape- shot of petty malice ? Most people are too dishonest, and a few are too good, to know anything of this pudendum ; these will always deny that Prosper Mrime is right when he says, Sachez aussi qu il ny a rien de plus commun que de faire le mal pour le plaisir de le faire. 51. HOW APPEARANCE BECOMES ACTUALITY. The actor finally reaches such a point that even in the deepest sorrow he cannot cease from thinking about the impression made by his own person and the general scenic effect ; for instance, even at the funeral of his child, he will weep over his own sorrow and its expression like one of his own audience. The hypocrite, who always plays one and the same part, ceases at last to be a hypocrite; for instance, priests, who as young men are generally conscious or unconscious hypocrites, become at last natural, and are then really without any affectation, just priests ; or if the father does not succeed so far, perhaps the son does, who makes use of his fathers progress and inherits his habits. If any one long and obstinately desires to appear something, he finds it difficult at last to be anything else. The profession of almost every individual, even of the artist, begins with hypocrisy, with an imitating from without, with a copying of the effective. He who always wears the mask of a friendly expression must eventually obtain a power over well-meaning dispositions without which the expression of friendliness is not to be compelled, and finally, these, again, obtain a power over him, he is well -meaning. 52. THE POINT OF HONOUR IN DECEPTION. In all great deceivers one thing is noteworthy, to which they owe their power. In the actual act of deception, with all their preparations, the dreadful voice, expression, and mien, in the midst of their effective scenery they are overcome by their belief in themselves ; it is this, then, which speaks so wonderfully and persuasively to the spectators. The founders of religions are distinguished from those great deceivers in that they never awake from their condition of self-deception; or at times, but very rarely, they have an enlightened moment when doubt overpowers them; they generally console themselves, however, by ascribing these enlightened moments to the influence of the Evil One. T here must be self -deception in order that this and that may produce great effects . For men believe in the truth of everything that is visibly, strongly believed in. 53. THE NOMINAL DEGREES OF TRUTH. One of the commonest mistakes is this : because some one is truthful and honest towards us, he must speak the truth. Thus the child believes in its parents judgment, the Christian in the assertions of the Founder of the Church. In the same way men refuse to admit that all those things which me n defended in former ages with the sacrifice of life and happiness were nothing but errors; it is even said, perhaps, that they 28 were degrees of the truth. But what is really meant is that when a man has honestly believed in something, and has fought and died for his faith, it would really be too unjust if he had only been inspired by an error. Such a thing seems a contradiction of eternal justice; therefore the heart of sensitive man ever enunciates against his head the axiom : between moral action and intellectual insight there must absolutely be a necessary connection. It is unfortunately otherwise; for there is no eternal justice. 54. FALSEHOOD. Why do people mostly speak the truth in daily life?Assuredly not because a god has forbidden falsehood. But, f irstly, because it is more convenient, as falsehood requires invention, deceit, and memory. (As Swift says, he who tells a lie is not sensible how great a task he undertakes ; for in order to uphold one lie he must invent twenty others.) Therefore, because it is advantageous in upright circumstances to say straight out, I want this, I have done that, and so on; because, in other words, the path of compulsion and authority is surer than that of cunning. But if a child has been brought up in complicated domestic circumstances, he employs falsehood, naturally and unconsciously says whatever best suits his interests ; a sense of truth and a hatred of falsehood are quite foreign and unknown to him, and so he lies in all innocence. 55. THROWING SUSPICION ON MORALITY FOR FAITH S SAKE. No power can be maintained when it is only represented by hypocrites; no matter how many worldly elements the Catholic Church possesses, its strength lies in those still numerous priestly natures who render life hard and full of meaning for themselves, and whose glance and worn bodies speak of nocturnal vigils, hunger, burning prayers, and perhaps even of scourging; these move men and inspire them with fear. What if it were necessary to live thus ? This is the terrible question which their aspect brings to the lips. Whilst they spread this doubt they always uprear another pillar of their power; even the free-thinker does not dare to withstand such unselfishness with hard words of truth, and to say, Thyself deceived, deceive not others! Only the difference of views divides them from him, certainly no difference of goodness or badness; but men generally treat unjustly that which they do not like. Thus we speak of the cunning and the infamous art of the Jesuits, but overlook the self-control which every individual Jesuit practises, and the fact that the lightened manner of life preached by Jesuit books is by no means for their benefit, but for that of the laity. We may even ask whether, with precisely similar tactics and organisation, we enlightened ones would make equally good tools, equally admirable through self-conquest, indefatigableness, and renunciation. 56. VICTORY OF KNOWLEDGE OVER RADICAL EVIL. It is of great advantage to him who desires to be wise to have witnessed for a time the spectacle of a thoroughly evil and degenerate man ; it is false, like the contrary spectacle, but for whole long periods it held the mastery, and its roots have even extended and ramified themselves to us and our world. In order to understand ourselves we must understand it; but then, in order to mount higher we must rise above it. We recognise, then, that there exist no sins in the metaphysical sense; but, in the same sense, also no virtues; we recognise that the entire domain of ethical ideas is perpetually tottering, that there are higher and deeper conceptions of good and evil, of moral and immoral. He who does not desire much more from things than a knowledge of them easily makes peace with his soul, and will make a mistake (or commit a sin, as the world calls it) at the most from ignorance, but hardly from covetousness. He will no longer wish to 29 excommunicate and exterminate desires ; but his only, his wholly dominating ambition, to know as well as possible at all times, will make him cool and will soften all the savageness in his disposition. Moreover, he has been freed from a number of tormenting conceptions, he has no more feeling at the mention of the words punishments of hell, sinfulness, incapacity for good, he recognises in them only the vanishing shadow- pictures of false views of the world and of life. 57. MORALITY AS THE SELF -DISINTEGRATION OF MAN. A good author, who really has his heart in his work, wishes that some one could come and annihilate him by representing the same thing in a clearer way and answering without more ado the problems therein proposed. The loving girl wishes she could prove the self-sacrificing faithfulness of her love by the unfaithfulness of her beloved. The soldier hopes to die on the field of battle for his victorious fatherland; for his loftiest desires triumph in the victory of his country. The mother gives to the child that of which she deprives herselfsleep, the best food, sometimes her health and fortune. But are all these un-egoistic conditions? Are these deeds of morality miracles , because, to use Schopenhauers expression, they are impossible and yet performed ? Is it not clear that in all four cases the individual loves something of himself , a thought, a desire, a production, better than anything else of himself ; that he therefore divides his nature and to one part sacrifices all the rest? Is it something entirely different when an obstinate man says, I would rather be shot than move a step out of my way for this man ? The desire for so mething (wish, inclination, longing) is present in all the instances mentioned; to give way to it, with all its consequences, is certainly not un- egoistic. In ethics man does not consider himself as individuum but as dividuum . 58. WHAT ONE MAY PROMISE .One may promise actions, but no sentiments, for these are involuntary. Whoever promises to love or hate a person, or be faithful to him for ever, promises something which is not within his power; he can certainly promise such actions as are usually the r esults of love, hate, or fidelity, but which may also spring from other motives ; for many ways and motives lead to one and the same action. The promise to love some one for ever is, therefore, really : So long as I love you I will act towards you in a loving way; if I cease to love you, you will still receive the same treatment from me, although inspired by other motives, so that our fellow- men will still be deluded into the belief that our love is unchanged and ever the same. One promises therefore, the continuation of the semblance of love, when, without self-deception, one speaks vows of eternal love. 59. INTELLECT AND MORALITY. One must have a good memory to be able to keep a given promise. One must have a strong power of imagination to be able to feel pity. So closely is morality bound to the goodness of the intellect. 60. To WISH FOR REVENGE AND TO TAKE REVENGE. To have a revengeful thought and to carry it into effect is to have a violent attack of fever, which passes off, however,but to have a reveng eful thought without the strength and courage to carry it out is a chronic disease, a poisoning of body and soul which we have to bear about with us. Morality, which only takes intentions into account, considers the two cases as equal; usually the former c ase is regarded as the worse (because of the evil consequences which may perhaps result from the deed of revenge). Both estimates are short-sighted. 30 61. THE POWER OF WAITING. Waiting is so difficult that even great poets have not disdained to take incapab ility of waiting as the motive for their works. Thus Shakespeare in Othello or Sophocles in Ajax, to whom suicide, had he been able to let his feelings cool down for one day, would no longer have seemed necessary, as the oracle intimated ; he would probably have snapped his fingers at the terrible whisperings of wounded vanity, and said to himself, Who has not already, in my circumstances, mistaken a fool for a hero? Is it something so very extraordinary? On the contrary, it is something very commonly human; Ajax might allow himself that consolation. Passion will not wait; the tragedy in the lives of great men frequently lies not in their conflict with the times and the baseness of their fellow -men, but in their incapacity of postponing their work for a year or two; they cannot wait. In all duels advising friends have one thing to decide, namely whether the parties concerned can still wait awhile; if this is not the case, then a duel is advisable, inasmuch as each of the two says, Either I continue to live and that other man must die immediately, or vice versa. In such case waiting would mean a prolonged suffering of the terrible martyrdom of wounded honour in the face of the insulter, and this may entail more suffering than life is worth. 62. REVELLING IN VENGEANCE. Coarser individuals who feel themselves insulted, make out the insult to be as great as possible, and relate the affair in greatly exaggerated language, in order to be able to revel thoroughly in the rarely awakened feelings of hatr ed and revenge. 63. THE VALUE OF DISPARAGEMENT. In order to maintain their self -respect in their own eyes and a certain thoroughness of action, not a few men, perhaps even the majority, find it absolutely necessary to run down and disparage all their acquaintances. But as mean natures are numerous, and since it is very important whether they possess that thoroughness or lose it, hence 64. THE MAN IN A PASSION. We must beware of one who is in a passion against us as of one who has once sought our life; fo r the fact that we still live is due to the absence of power to kill, if looks would suffice, we should have been dead long ago. It is a piece of rough civilisation to force some one into silence by the exhibition of physical savageness and the inspiring of fear. That cold glance which exalted persons employ towards their servants is also a relic of that caste division between man and man, a piece of rough antiquity; women, the preservers of ancient things, have also faithfully retained this survival of an ancient habit. 65. WHITHER HONESTY CAN LEAD. Somebody had the bad habit of occasionally talking quite frankly about the motives of his actions, which were as good and as bad as the motives of most men. He first gave offence, then aroused suspicion, was then gradually excluded from society and declared a social outlaw, until at last justice remembered such an abandoned creature, on occasions when it would otherwise have had no eyes, or would have closed them. The lack of power to hold his tongue concerning the common secret, and the irresponsible tendency to see what no one wishes to seehimself brought him to a prison and an early death. 66. 31 PUNISHABLE, BUT NEVER PUNISHED. Our crime against criminals lies in the fact that we treat them like rascals. 67. SANCTA SIMPLICITAS OF VIRTUE. Every virtue has its privileges; for example, that of contributing its own little faggot to the scaffold of every condemned man. 68. MORALITY AND CONSEQUENCES. It is not only the spectators of a deed who frequently judge of its morality or immorality according to its consequences, but the doer of the deed himself does so. For the motives and intentions are seldom sufficiently clear and simple, and sometimes memory itself seems clouded by the consequences of the deed, so that one ascribes the deed to false motives or looks upon unessential motives as essential. Success often gives an action the whole honest glamour of a good conscience; failure casts the shadow of remorse over the most estimable deed. Hence arises t he well -known practice of the politician, who thinks, Only grant me success, with that I bring all honest souls over to my side and make myself honest in my own eyes. In the same way success must replace a better argument. Many educated people still believe that the triumph of Christianity over Greek philosophy is a proof of the greater truthfulness of the former, although in this case it is only the coarser and more powerful that has triumphed over the more spiritual and delicate. Which possesses the gre ater truth may be seen from the fact that the awakening sciences have agreed with Epicurus philosophy on point after point, but on point after point have rejected Christianity. 69. LOVE AND JUSTICE. Why do we over-estimate love to the disadvantage of jus tice, and say the most beautiful things about it, as if it were something very much higher than the latter? Is it not visibly more stupid than justice? Certainly, but precisely for that reason all the pleasanter for every one. It is blind, and possesses an abundant cornucopia, out of which it distributes its gifts to all, even if they do not deserve them, even if they express no thanks for them. It is as impartial as the rain, which, according to the Bible and experience, makes not only the unjust, but also occasionally the just wet through to the skin. 70. EXECUTION. How is it that every execution offends us more than does a murder? It is the coldness of the judges, the painful preparations, the conviction that a human being is here being used as a warning to scare others. For the guilt is not punished, even if it existedit lies with educators, parents, surroundings, in ourselves, not in the murdererI mean the determining circumstances. 71 HOPE. Pandora brought the box of ills and opened it. It was the gift of the gods to men, outwardly a beautiful and seductive gift, and called the Casket of Happiness. Out of it flew all the evils, living winged creatures, thence they now circulate and do men injury day and night. One single evil had not yet escaped from the box, and by the will of Zeus Pandora closed the lid and it remained within. Now for ever man has the casket of happiness in his house and thinks he holds a great treasure; it is at his disposal, he stretches out his hand for it whenever he desires ; for he does not know the box which Pandora brought was the casket of evil, and he believes the ill which remains within to be the greatest blessing, it is hope. Zeus did not wish man, however much he might be tormented by the other evils, to fling away his life, but 32 to go on letting himself be tormented again and again. Therefore he gives man hope,in reality it is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man. 72. THE DEGREE OF MORAL INFLAMMABILITY UNKNOWN. According to whether we have or have not had certain disturbing views and impressionsfor instance, an unjustly executed, killed, or martred father; a faithless wife ; a cruel hostile attack it depends whether our passions reach fever heat and influence our whole life or not. No one knows to what he may be driven by circumstances, pity, or indignation; he does not know the degree of his own inflammability. Miserable little circumstances make us miserable ; it is generally not the quantity of experiences, but their quality, on which lower and higher man depends, in good and evil. 73. THE MARTYR IN SPITE OF HIMSELF. There was a man belonging to a party who was too nervous and cowardly ever to contradict his comrades; they made use of him for everything, they demanded everything from him, because he was more afraid of the bad opinion of his companions than of death itself; his was a miserable, feeble soul. They recognised this, and on the ground of these qualities they made a hero of him, and finally even a martyr. Although the coward inwardly always said No, with his lips he always said Yes, even on the scaffold, when he was about to die for the opinions of his party; for beside him stood one of his old companions, who so tyrannised over him by word and look that he really suffered death in the most respectable manner, and has ever since been celebrated as a martyr and a great character. 74. THE EVERY -DAY STANDARD. One will seldom go wrong if one attributes extreme actions to vanity, average ones to habit, and petty ones to fear. 75. MISUNDERSTANDING CONCERNING VIRTUE. Whoever has known immorality in connection with pleasure, as is the case with a man who has a pleasure-seeking youth behind him, imagines that virtue must be connected with absence of pleasure.Whoever, on the contrary, has been much plagued by his passions and vices, longs to find in virtue peace and the souls happiness. Hence it is possible for two virtuous persons not to understand each other at all. 76. THE ASCETIC. The ascetic makes a necessity of virtue. 77. TRANSFERRING HONOUR FROM THE PERSON TO THE THING. Deeds of love and sacrifice for the benefit of one s neighbour are generally honoured, wherever they are manifested. Thereby we multiply the valuation of things which are thus loved, or for which we sacrifice ou rselves, although perhaps they are not worth much in themselves. A brave army is convinced of the cause for which it fights. 78. AMBITION A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE MORAL SENSE. The moral sense must not be lacking in those natures which have no ambition. The am bitious manage without it, with 33 almost the same results. For this reason the sons of unpretentious, unambitious families, when once they lose the moral sense, generally degenerate very quickly into complete scamps. 79. VANITY ENRICHES. How poor would be the human mind without vanity! Thus, however, it resembles a well -stocked and constantly replenished bazaar which attracts buyers of every kind. There they can find almost everything, obtain almost everything, provided that they bring the right sort of coin, namely admiration. 80. OLD AGE AND DEATH. Apart from the commands of religion, the question may well be asked, Why is it more worthy for an old man who feels his powers decline, to await his slow exhaustion and extinction than with full consciousness to set a limit to his life ? Suicide in this case is a perfectly natural, obvious action, which should justly arouse respect as a triumph of reason, and did arouse it in those times when the heads of Greek philosophy and the sturdiest patriots used to seek death through suicide. The seeking, on the contrary, to prolong existence from day to day, with anxious consultation of doctors and painful mode of living, without the power of drawing nearer to the actual aim of life, is far less worthy. Religion is rich in excuses to reply to the demand for suicide, and thus it ingratiates itself with those who wish to cling to life. 81. ERRORS OF THE SUFFERER AND THE DOER. When a rich man deprives a poor man of a possession (for instance, a prince taking the sweetheart of a plebeian), an error arises in the mind of the poor man; he thinks that the rich man must be utterly infamous to take away from him the little that he has. But the rich man does not estimate so highly the value of a single possession, becaus e he is accustomed to have many ; hence he cannot imagine himself in the poor man s place, and does not commit nearly so great a wrong as the latter supposes. They each have a mistaken idea of the other. The injustice of the powerful, which, more than anything else, rouses indignation in history, is by no means so great as it appears. Alone the mere inherited consciousness of being a higher creation, with higher claims, produces a cold temperament, and leaves the conscience quiet ; we all of us feel no injust ice when the difference is very great between ourselves and another creature, and kill a fly, for instance, without any pricks of conscience. Therefore it was no sign of badness in Xerxes (whom even all Greeks describe as superlatively noble) when he took a son away from his father and had him cut in pieces, because he had expressed a nervous, ominous distrust of the whole campaign; in this case the individual is put out of the way like an unpleasant insect ; he is too lowly to be allowed any longer to cause annoyance to a ruler of the world. Yes, every cruel man is not so cruel as the ill- treated one imagines ; the idea of pain is not the same as its endurance. It is the same thing in the case of unjust judges, of the journalist who leads public opinion astra y by small dishonesties. In all these cases cause and effect are surrounded by entirely different groups of feelings and thoughts; yet one unconsciously takes it for granted that doer and sufferer think and feel alike, and according to this supposition we measure the guilt of the one by the pain of the other. 82. THE SKIN OF THE SOUL. As the bones, flesh, entrails, and blood- vessels are enclosed within a skin, which makes the aspect of man endurable, so the emotions and passions of the soul are enwrapped with vanity,it is the skin of the soul. 83 34 THE SLEEP OF VIRTUE. When virtue has slept, it will arise again all the fresher. 84. THE REFINEMENT OF SHAME. People are not ashamed to think something foul, but they are ashamed when they think these foul thoughts are attributed to them. 85. MALICE IS RARE. Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious. 86. THE TONGUE IN THE BALANCE. We praise or blame according as the one or the other affords more opportunity for exhibiting our power of judgment. 87. ST. LUKE XVIII. 14, IMPROVED. He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted. 88. THE PREVENTION OF SUICIDE. There is a certain right by which we may deprive a man of life, but none by which we may deprive him of death; this is mere cruelty. 89 . VANITY. We care for the good opinion of men, firstly because they are useful to us, and then because we wish to please them (children their parents, pupils their teachers, and well- meaning people generally their fellow-men). Only where the good opinion of men is of importance to some one, apart from the advantage thereof or his wish to please, can we speak of vanity. In this case the man wishes to please himself, but at the expense of his fellow-men, either by misleading them into holding a false opinion about him, or by aiming at a degree of good opinion which must be painful to every one else (by arousing envy). The individual usually wishes to corroborate the opinion he holds of himself by the opinion of others, and to strengthen it in his ow n eyes ; but the strong habit of authoritya habit as old as man himself induces many to support by authority their belief in themselves: that is to say, they accept it first from others; they trust the judgment of others more than their own. The interest in himself, the wish to please himself, attains to such a height in a vain man that he misleads others into having a false, all too elevated estimation of him, and yet nevertheless sets store by their authority,thus causing an error and yet believing in it. It must be confessed, therefore, that vain people do not wish to please others so much as themselves, and that they go so far therein as to neglect their advantage, for they often endeavour to prejudice their fellow - men unfavourably, inimicably, enviously, consequently injuriously against themselves, merely in order to have pleasure in themselves, personal pleasure. 90. THE LIMITS OF HUMAN LOVE. A man who has declared that another is an idiot and a bad companion, is angry when the latter eventually proves himself to be otherwise. 91. MORALIT LARMOYANTE.What a great deal of pleasure morality gives ! Only think what a sea of pleasant tears has been shed over descriptions of noble and unselfish deeds! This charm of life would vanish if the belief in absolute irresponsibility were to obtain supremacy. 92. 35 THE ORIGIN OF JUSTICE. Justice (equity) has its origin amongst powers which are fairly equal, as Thucydides (in the terrible dialogue between the Athenian and Melian ambassadors) rightly comprehended: that is to say, where there is no clearly recognisable supremacy, and where a conflict would be useles s and would injure both sides, there arises the thought of coming to an understanding and settling the opposing claims; the character of exchange is the primary character of justice. Each party satisfies the other, as each obtains what he values more than the other. Each one receives that which he desires, as his own henceforth, and whatever is desired is received in return. Justice, therefore, is recompense and exchange based on the hypothesis of a fairly equal degree of power,thus, originally, revenge belongs to the province of justice, it is an exchange. Also gratitude.Justice naturally is based on the point of view of a judicious self-preservation, on the egoism, therefore, of that reflection, Why should I injure myself uselessly and perhaps not atta in my aim after all? So much about the origin of justice. Because man, according to his intellectual custom, has forgotten the original purpose of so-called just and reasonable actions, and particularly because for hundreds of years children have been taught to admire and imitate such actions, the idea has gradually arisen that such an action is un- egoistic ; upon this idea, however, is based the high estimation in which it is held : which, moreover, like all valuations, is constantly growing, for something that is valued highly is striven after, imitated, multiplied, and increases, because the value of the output of toil and enthusiasm of each individual is added to the value of the thing itself. How little moral would the world look without this forgetfulness! A poet might say that God had placed forgetfulness as door- keeper in the temple of human dignity. 93. THE RIGHT OF THE WEAKER. When any one submits under certain conditions to a greater power, as a besieged town for instance, the counter-condition is that one can destroy ones self, burn the town, and so cause the mighty one a great loss. Therefore there is a kind of equalisation here, on the basis of which rights may be determined. The enemy has his advantage in maintaining it. In so far there are also rights between slaves and masters, that is, precisely so far as the possession of the slave is useful and important to his master. The right originally extends so far as one appears to be valuable to the other, essentially unlosable, unconquerable, and so forth. In so far the weaker one also has rights, but lesser ones. Hence the famous unusquisque tantum juris habet, quantum potentia valet (or more exactly, quantum potentia valer e creditur ). 94. THE THREE PHASES OF HITHERTO EXISTING MORALITY. It is the first sign that the animal has become man when its actions no longer have regard only to momentary welfare, but to what is enduring, when it grows useful and practical ; here the free rule of reason first breaks out. A still higher step is reached when he acts according to the principle of honour ; by this means he brings himself into order, submits to common feelings and that exalts him still higher over the phase in which he was led only by the idea of usefulness from a personal point of view; he respects and wishes to be respected, i.e. he understands usefulness as dependent upon what he thinks of others and what others think of him. Eventually he acts, on the highest step of the hit herto existing morality, according to his standard of things and men; he himself decides for himself and others what is honourable, what is useful; he has become the law -giver of opinions, in accordance with the ever more highly developed idea of what is useful and honourable. Knowledge enables him to place that which is most useful, that is to say the general, enduring usefulness, above the 36 personal, the honourable recognition of general, enduring validity above the momentary; he lives and acts as a collective individual. 95. THE MORALITY OF THE MATURE INDIVIDUAL. The impersonal has hitherto been looked upon as the actual distinguishing mark of moral action; and it has been pointed out that in the beginning it was in consideration of the common good that a ll impersonal actions were praised and distinguished. Is not an important change in these views impending, now when it is more and more recognised that it is precisely in the most personal possible considerations that the common good is the greatest, so that a strictly personal action now best illustrates the present idea of morality, as utility for the mass? To make a whole personality out of ourselves, and in all that we do to keep that personalitys highest good in view, carries us further than those sympathetic emotions and actions for the benefit of others. We all still suffer, certainly, from the too small consideration of the personal in us; it is badly developed,let us admit it; rather has our mind been forcibly drawn away from it and offered as a s acrifice to the State, to science, or to those who stand in need of help, as if it were the bad part which must be sacrificed. We are still willing to work for our fellow-men, but only so far as we find our own greatest advantage in this work, no more and no less. It is only a question of what we understand as our advantage ; the unripe, undeveloped, crude individual will understand it in the crudest way. 96. CUSTOM AND MORALITY. To be moral, correct, and virtuous is to be obedient to an old-established law and custom. Whether we submit with difficulty or willingly is immaterial, enough that we do so. He is called good who, as if naturally, after long precedent, easily and willingly, therefore, does what is right, according to whatever this may be (as, f or instance, taking revenge, if to take revenge be considered as right, as amongst the ancient Greeks). He is called good because he is good for something; but as goodwill, pity, consideration, moderation, and such like, have come, with the change in manners, to be looked upon as good for something, as useful, the good-natured and helpful have, later on, come to be distinguished specially as good. (In the beginning other and more important kinds of usefulness stood in the foreground.) To be evil is to be not moral (immoral), to be immoral is to be in opposition to tradition, however sensible or stupid it may be; injury to the community (the neighbour being understood thereby) has, however, been looked upon by the social laws of all different ages as being eminently the actual immorality, so that now at the word evil we immediately think of voluntary injury to ones neighbour. The fundamental antithesis which has taught man the distinction between moral and immoral, between good and evil, is not the egoistic and un- egoistic, but the being bound to the tradition, law, and solution thereof. How the tradition has arisen is immaterial, at all events without regard to good and evil or any immanent categorical imperative, but above all for the purpose of preserving a community , a generation, an association, a people; every superstitious custom that has arisen on account of some falsely explained accident, creates a tradition, which it is moral to follow ; to separate one s self from it is dange rous, but more dangerous for the community than for the individual (because the Godhead punishes the community for every outrage and every violation of its rights, and the individual only in proportion). Now every tradition grows continually more venerable , the farther off lies its origin, the more this is lost sight of; the generation paid it accumulates from generation to generation, the tradition at last becomes holy and excites awe; and thus in any case the morality of piety is a much older morality tha n that which requires un- egoistic actions. 97. 37 PLEASURE IN TRADITIONAL CUSTOM. An important species of pleasure, and therewith the source of morality, arises out of habit. Man does what is habitual to him more easily, better, and therefore more willingly; he feels a pleasure therein, and knows from experience that the habitual has been tested, and is therefore useful; a custom that we can live with is proved to be wholesome and advantageous in contrast to all new and not yet tested experiments. According to this, morality is the union of the pleasant and the useful; moreover, it requires no reflection. As soon as man can use compulsion, he uses it to introduce and enforce his customs ; for in his eyes they are proved as the wisdom of life. In the same way a company of individuals compels each single one to adopt the same customs. Here the inference is wrong ; because we feel at ease with a morality, or at least because we are able to carry on existence with it, therefore this morality is necessary, f or it seems to be the only possibility of feeling at ease ; the ease of life seems to grow out of it alone. This comprehension of the habitual as a necessity of existence is pursued even to the smallest details of custom, as insight into genuine causality is very small with lower peoples and civilisations, they take precautions with superstitious fear that everything should go in its same groove; even where custom is difficult, hard, and burdensome, it is preserved on account of its apparent highest usefulness. It is not known that the same degree of well-being can also exist with other customs, and that even higher degrees may be attained. We become aware, however, that all customs, even the hardest, grow pleasanter and milder with time, and that the severest way of life may become a habit and therefore a pleasure. 98. PLEASURE AND SOCIAL INSTINCT. Out of his relations with other men, man obtains a new species of pleasure in addition to those pleasurable sensations which he derives from himself; whereby he greatly increases the scope of enjoyment. Perhaps he has already taken too many of the pleasures of this sphere from animals, which visibly feel pleasure when they play with each other, especially the mother with her young. Then consider the sexual relations , which make almost every female interesting to a male with regard to pleasure, and vice versa. The feeling of pleasure on the basis of human relations generally makes man better ; joy in common, pleasure enjoyed together is increased, it gives the individual security, makes him good-tempered, and dispels mistrust and envy, for we feel ourselves at ease and see others at ease. Similar manifestations of pleasure awaken the idea of the same sensations, the feeling of being like something; a like effect is prod uced by common sufferings, the same bad weather, dangers, enemies. Upon this foundation is based the oldest alliance, the object of which is the mutual obviating and averting of a threatening danger for the benefit of each individual. And thus the social instinct grows out of pleasure. 99. THE INNOCENT SIDE OF SO- CALLED EVIL ACTIONS. All evil actions are prompted by the instinct of preservation, or, more exactly, by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain on the part of the individual; thus prompted, but not evil. To cause pain per se does not exist , except in the brains of philosophers, neither does to give pleasure per se (pity in Schopenhauers meaning). In the social condition before the State we kill the creature, be it ape or man, who tries to take from us the fruit of a tree when we are hungry and approach the tree, as we should still do with animals in inhospitable countries. The evil actions which now most rouse our indignation, are based upon the error that he who causes them has a free will, that he had the option, therefore, of not doing us this injury. This belief in option arouses hatred, desire for revenge, spite, and the deterioration of the whole imagination, while we are much less angry with an animal because we consider it irresponsible. To do injury, not from the instinct of preservation, but as requital , is the 38 consequence of a false judgment and therefore equally innocent. The individual can in the condition which lies before the State, act sternly and cruelly towards ot her creatures for the purpose of terrifying , to establish his existence firmly by such terrifying proofs of his power. Thus act the violent, the mighty, the original founders of States, who subdue the weaker to themselves. They have the right to do so, suc h as the State still takes for itself; or rather, there is no right that can hinder this. The ground for all morality can only be made ready when a stronger individual or a collective individual, for instance society or the State, subdues the single individuals, draws them out of their singleness, and forms them into an association. Compulsion precedes morality, indeed morality itself is compulsion for a time, to which one submits for the avoidance of pain. Later on it becomes custom,later still, free obedience, and finally almost instinct, then, like everything long accustomed and natural, it is connected with pleasureand is henceforth called virtue. 100. SHAME. Shame exists everywhere where there is a mystery ; this, however, is a religious idea, which was widely extended in the older times of human civilisation. Everywhere were found bounded domains to which access was forbidden by divine right, except under certain conditions; at first locally, as, for example, certain spots that ought not to be trodden by the feet of the uninitiated, in the neighbourhood of which these latter experienced horror and fear. This feeling was a good deal carried over into Bother relations, for instance, the sex relations, which, as a privilege and of riper years, h ad to be withheld from the knowledge of the young for their advantage, relations for the protection and sanctification of which many gods were invented and were set up as guardians in the nuptial chamber. (In Turkish this room is on this account called har em, sanctuary, and is distinguished with the same name, therefore, that is used for the entrance courts of the mosques.) Thus the kingdom is as a centre from which radiate power and glory, to the subjects a mystery full of secrecy and shame, of which many after- effects may still be felt among nations which otherwise do not by any means belong to the bashful type. Similarly, the whole world of inner conditions, the so- called soul, is still a mystery for all who are not philosophers, after it has been looked upon for endless ages as of divine origin and as worthy of divine intercourse; according to this it is an and arouses shame. 101. JUDGE NOT. In considering earlier periods, care must be taken not to fall into unjust abuse. The injustice in slavery, the cruelty in the suppression of persons and nations, is not to be measured by our standard. For the instinct of justice was not then so far developed. Who dares to reproach the Genevese Calvin with the burning of the physician Servet? It was an action following and resulting from his convictions, and in the same way the Inquisition had a good right; only the ruling views were false, and produced a result which seems hard to us because those views have now grown strange to us. Besides, what is the burning of a single individual compared with eternal pains of hell for almost all! And yet this idea was universal at that time, without essentially injuring by its dreadfulness the conception of a God. With us, too, political sectarians are hardly and cruelly treated, but because one is accustomed to believe in the necessity of the State, the cruelty is not so deeply felt here as it is where we repudiate the views. Cruelty to animals in children and Italians is due to ignorance, i.e. the animal, through the interests of Church teaching, has been placed too far behind man. Much that is dreadful and inhuman in history, much that one hardly likes to believe, is mitigated by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who carries out are different persons, the former does not behold the right and therefore does not experience the strong impression on the imagination; the latter obeys a superior and therefore feels no responsibility. Most 39 princes and military heads, through lack of imagination, easily appear hard and cruel without really being so. Egoism is not evil because the idea of the neighbourthe word is of Christian origin and does not represent the truthis very weak in us; and we feel ourselves almost as free and irresponsible towards him as towards plants and stones. We have yet to learn that others suffer, and this can never be completely learnt. 102. MAN ALWAYS ACTS RIGHTLY. We do not complain of nature as immoral because it sends a thunderstorm and makes us wet,why do we call those who injure us immoral? Because in the latter case we take for granted a free will functioning voluntarily ; in the former we see necessity. But this distinction is an error. Thus we do not call even intentional injury immoral in all circumstances ; for instance, we kill a fly unhesitatingly and intentionally, only because its buzzing annoys us; we punish a criminal intentionally and hurt him in order to protect ourselves and society. In the first case it is the individual who, in order to preserve himself, or even to protect himself from worry, does intentional injury; in the second case it is the State. All morals allow intentional injury in the case of necessity, that is, when it is a matter of self-preservation! But these two points of view suffice to explain all evil actions committed by men against men, we are desirous of obtaining pleasure or avoiding pain; in any case it is always a question of self -preservation. Socrates and Plato are right: whatever man does he always does well, that is, he does that which seems to him good (useful) according to the degree of his intellect, the particular standard of his reasonableness. 103. THE HARMLESSNESS OF MALICE. The aim of malice is not the suffering of others in itself, but our own enjoyment; for instance, as the feeling of revenge, or stronger nervous excitement. All teasing, even, shows the pleasure it gives to exercise our power on others and bring it to an I enjoyable feeling of preponderance. Is it immoral to taste pleasure at the expense of another s pain? Is malicious joy devilish, as Schopenhauer says? We give ourselves pleasure in nature by breaking off twigs, loosening stones, fighting with wild animals, and do this in order to become thereby conscious of our strength. Is the knowledge, therefore, t hat another suffers through us, the same thing concerning which we otherwise feel irresponsible, supposed to make us immoral? But if we did not know this we would not thereby have the enjoyment of our own superiority, which can only manifest itself by the suffering of others, for instance, in teasing. All pleasure per se is neither good nor evil; whence should come the decision that in order to have pleasure ourselves we may not cause displeasure to others? From the point of view of usefulness alone, that is, out of consideration for the consequences , for possible displeasure, when the injured one or the replacing State gives the expectation of resentment and revenge: this only can have been the original reason for denying ourselves such actions. Pity aims just as little at the pleasure of others as malice at the pain of others per se . For it contains at least two (perhaps many more) elements of a personal pleasure, and is so far self -gratification ; in the first place as the pleasure of emotion, which is the kind of pity that exists in tragedy, and then, when it impels to action, as the pleasure of satisfaction in the exercise of power. If, besides this, a suffering person is very dear to us, we lift a sorrow from ourselves by the exercise of sympathetic actio ns. Except by a few philosophers, pity has always been placed very low in the scale of moral feelings, and rightly so. 104. SELF -DEFENCE. If self -defence is allowed to pass as moral, then almost all manifestations of the so -called immoral egoism must also stand; men injure, rob, or kill in 40 order to preserve or defend themselves, to prevent personal injury , they lie where cunning and dissimulation are the right means of self-preservation. Intentional injury , when our existence or safety (preservation of our comfort) is concerned, is conceded to be moral; the State itself injures, according to this point of view, when it punishes. In unintentional injury, of course, there can be nothing immoral, that is ruled by chance. Is there, then, a kind of intentional injury where our existence or the preservation of our comfort is not concerned ? Is there an injuring out of pure malice , for instance in cruelty? If one does not know how much an action hurts, it is no deed of malice; thus the child is not malicious toward s the animal, not evil; he examines and destroys it like a toy. But do we ever know entirely how an action hurts another? As far as our nervous system extends we protect ourselves from pain; if it extended farther, to our fellow -men, namely, we should do no one an injury (except in such cases as we injure ourselves, where we cut ourselves for the sake of cure, tire and exert ourselves for the sake of health). We conclude by analogy that something hurts somebody, and through memory and the strength of imagination we may suffer from it ourselves. But still what a difference there is between toothache and the pain (pity) that the sight of toothache calls forth ! Therefore, in injury out of so- called malice the degree of pain produced is always unknown to us; but inasmuch as there is pleasure in the action (the feeling of ones own power, ones own strong excitement), the action is committed, in order to preserve the comfort of the individual, and is regarded, therefore, from a similar point of view as defence and falsehood in necessity. No life without pleasure; the struggle for pleasure is the struggle for life. Whether the individual so fights this fight that men call him good, or so that they call him evil, is determined by the measure and the constitution of his intellect. 105. RECOMPENSING JUSTICE. Whoever has completely comprehended the doctrine of absolute irresponsibility can no longer include the so-called punishing and recompensing justice in the idea of justice, should this consist of giving to each man his due. For he who is punished does not deserve the punishment, he is only used as a means of henceforth warning away from certain actions; equally so, he who is rewarded does not merit this reward, he could not act otherwise than he did. Therefore the reward is meant only as an encouragement to him and others, to provide a motive for subsequent actions; words of praise are flung to the runners on the course, not to the one who has reached the goal. Neither punishment nor reward is anything that comes to one as ones own; they are given from motives of usefulness, without one having a right to claim them. Hence we must say, The wise man gives no reward because the deed has been well done, just as we have said, The wise man does not punish because evil has been committed, but in order that evil shall not be committed. If punishment and reward no longer existed, then the strongest motives which deter men from certain actions and impel them to certain other actions, would also no longer exist ; the needs of mankind require their continuance; and inasmuch as punishment and reward, blame and praise, work most sensibly on vanity, the same need requires the continuance of vanity. 106. AT THE WATERFALL. In looking at a waterfall we imagine that there is freedom of will and fancy in the countless turnings, twistings, and breakings of the waves; but everything is compulsory, every movement can be mathematically calculated. So it is also with human actions ; one would have to be able to calculate every single action beforehand if one were all- knowing; equally so all progress of knowledge, every error, all malice. The one who acts certainly labours under the illusion of voluntariness; if the world s wheel were to stand still for a moment and an all-knowing, calculating reason were there to make use of this pause, it 41 could foretell the future of every creature to the remotest times, and mark out every track upon which that wheel would continue to roll. The delusion of the acting agent about himself, the supposition of a free will, belongs to this mechanism which still remains to be calculated. 107. IRRESPONSIBILITY AND INNOCENCE. The complete irresponsibility of man for his actions and his nature is the bitterest drop which he who understands must swallow if he was accustomed to see the patent of nobility of his humanity in responsibility and duty. All his valuations, distinctions, disinclinations, are thereby deprived of value and become false,his deepest feeling for the sufferer and the hero was based on an error ; he may no longer either praise or blame, for it is absurd to praise and blame nature and necessity. In the same way as he loves a fine work of art, but does not praise it, because it can do nothing for itself; in the same way as he regards plants, so must he regard his own actions and those of mankind. He can admire strength, beauty, abundance, in themselves; but must find no merit therein,the chemical progress and the strife of the elements, the torments of the sick person who thirsts after recovery, are all equally as little merits as those struggles of the soul and states of distress in which we are torn hither and thither by different impulses until we finally decide for the strongestas we say (but in reality it is the strongest motive which decides fo r us). All these motives, however, whatever fine names we may give them, have all grown out of the same root, in which we believe the evil poisons to be situated; between good and evil actions there is no difference of species, but at most of degree. Good actions are sublimated evil ones; evil actions are vulgarised and stupefied good ones. The single longing of the individual for self- gratification (together with the fear of losing it) satisfies itself in all circumstances: man may act as he can, that is as he must, be it in deeds of vanity, revenge, pleasure, usefulness, malice, cunning; be it in deeds of sacrifice, of pity, of knowledge. The degrees of the power of judgment determine whither any one lets himself be drawn through this longing; to every society, to every individual, a scale of possessions is continually present, according to which he determines his actions and judges those of others. But this standard changes constantly ; many actions are called evil and are only stupid, because the degree of intelligence which decided for them was very low. In a certain sense, even, all actions are still stupid ; for the highest degree of human intelligence which can now be attained will assuredly be yet surpassed, and then, in a retrospect, all our actions and judgments will appear as limited and hasty as the actions and judgments of primitive wild peoples now appear limited and hasty to us. To recognise all this may be deeply painful, but consolation comes after: such pains are the pangs of birth. The butterfly wants to break through its chrysalis: it rends and tears it, and is then blinded and confused by the unaccustomed light, the kingdom of liberty. In such people as are capable of such sadness and how few are!the first experiment made is to see whether mankind can change itself from a moral into a wise mankind. The sun of a new gospel throws its rays upon the highest point in the soul of each single individual, then the mists gather thicker than ever, and the brightest light and the dreariest shadow lie side by side. Everything is necessity so says the new knowledge, and this knowledge itself is necessity. Everything is innocence, and knowledge is the road to insight into this innocence. Are pleasure, egoism, vanity necessary for the production of the moral phenomena and their highest result, the sense for truth and justice in knowledge; were error and the confusion of the imagination the only means through which mankind could raise itself gradually to this degree of self-enlightenment and self-liberation who would dare to undervalue these means? Who would dare to be sad if he perceived the goal to which those roads led? Everything in the domain of morality has evolved, is changeable, unstable, everything is dissolved, it is true; but everything is also streaming towards one goal . Even if the inherited habit of erroneous 42 valuation, love and hatred, continue to reign in us, yet under the influence of growing knowledge it will become weaker; a new habit, that of comprehension, of not loving, not hating, of over- looking, is gradually implanting itself in us upon the same ground, and in thousands of years will perhaps be powerful enough to give humanity the strength to produce wise, innocent (consciously innocent) men, as it now produces unwise, guilt- conscious men, that is the necessary preliminary step, not its opposite . 43 Third Division - The Religious Life 108. THE DOUBLE FIGHT AGAINST EVIL. When misfortune overtakes us we can either pass over it so lightly that its cause is removed, or so that the result which it has on our temperament is altered, through a changing, therefore, of the evil into a good, the utility of which is perhaps not Visible until later on. Religion and art (also metaphysical philosophy) work upon the changing of the temperament, partly through the changing of our judgment on events (for instance, with the help of the phrase whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth ), partly through the awakening of a pleasure in pain, in emotion generally (whence the tragic art takes its starting -point). The more a man is inclined to twist and arrange meanings the less he will grasp the causes of evil and disperse them; the momentary mitigation and influence of a narcotic, as for example in toothache, suffices him even in more serious sufferings. The more the dominion of creeds and all arts dispense with narcotics, the more strictly men attend to the actual removing of the evil, which is certainly bad for writers of tragedy; for the material for tragedy is growing scarcer because the domain of pitiless, inexorable fate is growing ever narrower, but worse still for the priests, for they have hitherto lived on the narcotisation of human woes. 109. SORROW is KNOWLEDGE. How greatly we should like to exchange the false assertions of the priests, that there is a god who desires good from us, a guardian and witness of every action, every moment, every thought, who loves us and seeks our welfare in all misfortune,how greatly we would like to exchange these ideas for truths which would be just as healing, pacifying and beneficial as those errors ! But there are no such truths; at most philosophy can oppose to them metaphysical appearances (at bottom also untruths). The tragedy consists in the fact that we cannot believe those dogmas of religion and metaphysics, if we have strict methods of truth in heart and brain: on the other hand, mankind has, through development, become so delicate, irritable and suffering, that it has need of the highest means of healing and consolation; whence also the danger arises that man would bleed to death from recognised truth, or, more correctly, from discovered error. Byron has expressed this in the immortal lines : Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most Must mourn the deepest o er the fatal truth, The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life. For such troubles there is no better help than to recall the stately levity of Horace, at least for the worst hours and eclipses of the soul, and to say with him: . . . quid seternis minorem consiliis animum fatigas ? cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac pinu jacentes. 0F1 1 Why harass with eternal designs a mind too weak to compass them ? Why do we not, as we lie beneath a lofty plane -tree or this pine [drink while we may] ? HOR., Odes II. ii. 11 -14. 44 But assuredly frivolity or melancholy of every degree is better than a romantic retrospection and desertion of the flag, an approach to Christianity in any form; for according to the present condition of knowledge it is absolutely impossible to approach it without hopelessly soiling our intellectual conscience and giving ourselves away to ourselves and others. Those pains may be unpleasant enough, but we cannot become leaders and educators of mankind without pain; and woe to him who would wish to attempt this and no longer have that clear conscience! 110. THE TRUTH IN RELIGION. In the period of rationalism justice was not done to the importance of religion, of that there is no doubt, but equally there is no doubt that in the reaction that followed this rationalism justice was far overstepped ; for religions were treated lovingly, even amorously, and, for instance, a deeper, even the very deepest, understanding of the world was ascribed to them ; which science has only to strip of its dogmatic garment in order to possess the truth in unmythical form. Religions should, therefore,this was the opinion of all opposers of rationalism,sensu allegorico, with all consideration for the understanding of the masses, give utterance to that ancient wisdom which is wisdom itself, inasmuch as all true science of later times has always led up to it instead of away from it, so that between the oldest wisdom of mankind and all later harmonies similarity of discernment and a progress of knowledgein case one should wish to speak of such a thing rests not upon the nature but upon the way of communicating it. This whole conception of religion and science is thoroughly erroneous, and none would still dare to profess it if Schopenhauer s eloquence had not taken it under its protection; this resonant eloquence which, however, only reached its hearers a generation later. As surely as from Schopenhauer s religious- moral interpretations of men and the world much may be gained for the understanding of the Christian and other religions, so surely also is he mistaken about the value of religion for knowledge . Therein he himself was only a too docile pupil of the scientific teachers of his time, who all worshipped romanticism and had forsworn the spirit of enlightenment; had he been born in our present age he could not possibly have talked about the sensus allegoricus of religion ; he would much rather have given honour to truth, as he used to do, with the words, no religion, direct or indirect, either as dogma or as allegory, has ever contained a truth. For each has been born of fear and necessity, through the byways of reason did it slip into existence; once, perhaps, when imperilled by science, some philosophic doctrine has lied itself into its system in order that it may be found there later, but this is a theological trick of the time when a religion already doubts itself. These tricks of theology (which certainly were practised in the early days of Christianity, as the religion of a scholarly period steeped in philosophy) have led to that superstition of the sensus allegoricus, but yet more the habits of the philosophers (especially the half-natures, the poetical philosophers and the philosophising artists), to treat a ll the sensations which they discovered in themselves as the fundamental nature of man in general, and hence to allow their own religious feelings an important influence in the building up of their systems. As philosophers frequently philosophised under the custom of religious habits, or at least under the anciently inherited power of that metaphysical need, they developed doctrinal opinions which really bore a great resemblance to the Jewish or Christian or Indian religious views,a resemblance, namely, such as children usually bear to their mothers, only that in this case the fathers were not clear about that motherhood, as happens sometimes,but in their innocence romanced about a family likeness between all religion and science. In reality, between religions and real science there exists neither relationship nor friendship, nor even enmity; they live on different planets. Every philosophy which shows a religious comet s tail shining in the darkness of its last prospects makes all the science it contain s suspicious; all this is presumably also religion, 45 even though in the guise of science. Moreover, if all nations were to agree about certain religious matters, for instance the existence of a God (which, it may be remarked, is not the case with regard to this point), this would only be an argument against those affirmed matters, for instance the existence of a God ; the consensus gentium and hominum in general can only take place in case of a huge folly. On the other hand, there is no consensus omnium sapientium , with regard to any single thing; with that exception mentioned in Goethes lines : Alle die Weisesten aller der Zeiten Lacheln und winken und stimmen mit ein: Thoricht, auf Bessrung der Thoren zu harren! Kinder der Klugheit, o habet die Narren Eben zum Narren auch, wie sich s gehort! 1F2 Spoken without verse and rhyme and applied to our case, the consensus sapientium consists in this : that the consensus gentium counts as a folly. 111. THE ORIGIN OF THE RELIGIOUS CULT. If we go back to the times in which the religious life flourished to the greatest extent, we find a fundamental conviction, which we now no longer share, and whereby the doors leading to a religious life are closed to us once for all, it concerns Nature and intercourse with her. In those times people knew nothing of natural laws ; neither for earth nor for heaven is there a must ; a season, the sunshine, the rain may come or may not come. In short, every idea of natural causality is lacking. When one rows, it is not the rowing that moves the boat, but rowing is only a magical ceremony by which one compels a dmon to move the boat. All maladies, even death itself, are the result of magical influences. Illness and death never happen naturally ; the whole conception of natural sequence is lacking, it dawned first amongst the older Greeks, that is, in a very late phase of humanity, in the conception of Moira , enthroned above the gods. When a man shoots with a bow, there is still always present an irrational hand and strength; if the wells suddenly dry up, men think first of subterranean dmons and their tricks; it must be the arrow of a god beneath whose invisible blow a man suddenly sinks down. In India (says Lubbock) a carpenter is accustomed to offer sacrifice to his hammer, his hatchet, and the rest of his tools; in the same way a Brahmin treats the pen with which he writes, a soldier the weapons he requires in the field of battle, a mason his trowel, a labourer his plough. In the imagination of religious people all nature is a summary of the actions of conscious and voluntary creatures, an enormous complex of arbitrariness . No conclusion may be drawn with regard to everything that is outside of us, that anything will be so and so, must be so and so; the approximately sure, reliable are we , man is the rule , nature is irregularity , this theory contains the fundamental conviction which obtains in rude, religiously productive primitive civilisations. We latter -day men feel just the contrary,the richer man now feels himself inwardly, the more polyphonous is the music and the noise of his soul the more powerfully the symmetry of nature works upon him; we all recognise with Goethe the great means in nature for the appeasing of the modern soul; we li sten to the pendulum swing of this greatest of clocks with a longing for rest, for home and tranquillity, as if we could absorb this symmetry into ourselves and could only thereby arrive at the enjoyment of ourselves. Formerly it was otherwise; if we consider the rude, early condition of nations, or contemplate 2 All greatest sag es of all latest ages Will chuckle and slily agree, Tis folly to wait till a fool s empty pate Has learnt to be knowing and free : So children of wisdom, make use of the fools And use them whenever you can as your tools. 46 present -day savages at close quarters, we find them most strongly influenced by law and by tradition : the individual is almost automatically bound to them, and moves with the uniformity of a pendulum. To him Natureuncomprehended, terrible, mysterious Nature must appear as the sphere of liberty , of voluntariness, of the higher power, even as a superhuman degree of existence, as God. In those times and conditions, however, every individual felt that his existence, his happiness, and that of the family and the State, and the success of all undertakings, depended on those spontaneities of nature; certain natural events must appear at the right time, others be absent at the right time. How can one have any influence on these terrible unknown things, how can one bind the sphere of liberty? Thus he asks himself, thus he inquires anxiously; is there, then, no means of making those powers as -regular through tradition and law as you are yourself? The aim of those who believe in magic and miracles is to impose a law on nature ,and, briefly, the religious cult is a result of this aim. The problem which those people have set themselves is closely related to this: how can the weaker race dictate laws to the stronger , rule it, and guide its actions (in relation to the weaker)? One would first remember the most harmless sort of compulsion, that compulsion which one exercises when one has gained any ones affection. By imploring and praying, by submission, by the obligation of regular taxes and gifts, by flattering glorifications, it is also possible to exercise an influence upon the powers of nature, inasmuch as one gains the affections ; love binds and becomes bound. Then one can make compacts by which one is mutually b ound to a certain behaviour, where one gives pledges and exchanges vows. But far more important is a species of more forcible compulsion, by magic and witchcraft. As with the sorcerer s help man is able to injure a more powerful enemy and keep him in fear, as the love- charm works at a distance, so the weaker man believes he can influence the mightier spirits of nature. The principal thing in all witchcraft is that we must get into our possession something that belongs to some one, hair, nails, food from the ir table, even their portrait, their name. With such apparatus we can then practise sorcery ; for the fundamental rule is, to everything spiritual there belongs something corporeal; with the help of this we are able to bind the spirit, to injure it, and destroy it; the corporeal furnishes the handles with which we can grasp the spiritual. As man controls man, so he controls some natural spirit or other; for this has also its corporeal part by which it may be grasped. The tree and, compared with it, the seed from which it sprang,this enigmatical contrast seems to prove that the same spirit embodied itself in both forms, now small, now large. A stone that begins to roll suddenly is the body in which a spirit operates; if there is an enormous rock lying on a lonely heath it seems impossible to conceive human strength sufficient to have brought it there, consequently the stone must have moved there by itself, that is, it must be possessed by a spirit. Everything that has a body is susceptible to witchcraft, there fore also the natural spirits. If a god is bound to his image we can use the most direct compulsion against him (through refusal of sacrificial food, scourging, binding in fetters, and so on). In order to obtain by force the missing favour of their god the lower classes in China wind cords round the image of the one who has left them in the lurch, pull it down and drag it through the streets in the dust and the dirt: You dog of a spirit, they say, we gave you a magnificent temple to live in, we gilded y ou prettily, we fed you well, we offered you sacrifice, and yet you are so ungrateful. Similar forcible measures against pictures of the Saints and Virgin when they refused to do their duty in pestilence or drought, have been witnessed even during the present century in Catholic countries. Through all these magic relations to nature, countless ceremonies have been called into life; and at last, when the confusion has grown too great, an endeavour has been made to order and systematise them, in order that t he favourable course of the whole progress of nature, i.e. of the great succession of the seasons, may seem to be guaranteed by a corresponding course of a system of procedure. The essence of the religious cult is to determine and confine nature to human a dvantage, to impress it with 47 a legality, therefore, which it did not originally possess ; while at the present time we wish to recognise the legality of nature in order to adapt ourselves to it. In short, then, the religious cult is based upon the representations of sorcery between man and man,and the sorcerer is older than the priest. But it is likewise based upon other and nobler representations; it premises the sympathetic relation of man to man, the presence of goodwill, gratitude, the hearing of pleaders, of treaties between enemies, the granting of pledges, and the claim to the protection of property. In very low stages of civilisation man does not stand in the relation of a helpless slave to nature, he is not necessarily its involuntary bondsman. In the Greek grade of religion, particularly in relation to the Olympian gods, there may even be imagined a common life between two castes, a nobler and more powerful one, and one less noble; but in their origin both belong to each other somehow, and are of one kind; they need not be ashamed of each other. That is the nobility of the Greek religion. 112. AT THE SIGHT OF CERTAIN ANTIQUE SACRIFICIAL IMPLEMENTS. The fact of how many feelings are lost to us may be seen, for instance, in the mingling of the droll , even of the obscene, with the religious feeling. The sensation of the possibility of this mixture vanishes, we only comprehend historically that it existed in the feasts of Demeter and Dionysus, in the Christian Easter-plays and Mysteries. But we also know that which is noble in alliance with burlesque and such like, the touching mingled with the laughable, which perhaps a later age will not be able to understand. 113. CHRISTIANITY AS ANTIQUITY. When on a Sunday morning we hear the old bells ring out, w e ask ourselves, Is it possible ! This is done on account of a Jew crucified two thousand years ago who said he was the Son of God. The proof of such an assertion is wanting. Certainly in our times the Christian religion is an antiquity that dates from v ery early ages, and the fact that its assertions are still believed, when otherwise all claims are subjected to such strict examination, is perhaps the oldest part of this heritage. A God who creates a son from a mortal woman ; a sage who requires that man should no longer; work, no longer judge, but should pay attention to; the signs of the approaching end of the world; a justice that accepts an innocent being as a substitute in sacrifice; one who commands his disciples to drink his blood; prayers for mirac ulous intervention; sins committed against a God and atoned for through a God; the fear of a future to which death is the portal; the form of the cross in an age which no longer knows the signification and the shame of the cross, 2F3 how terrible all this ap pears to us, as if risen from the grave of the ancient past! Is it credible that such things are still believed ? 114. WHAT IS UN -GREEK IN CHRISTIANITY. The Greeks did not regard the Homeric gods as raised above them like masters, nor themselves as being u nder them like servants, as the Jews did. They only saw, as in a mirror, the most perfect examples of their own caste; an ideal, therefore, and not an opposite of their own nature. There is a feeling of relationship, a mutual interest arises, a kind of symmachy. Man thinks highly of himself when he gives himself such gods, and places himself in a relation like that of the lower nobility towards the higher; while the Italian nations hold a genuine peasant-faith, with perpetual fear of evil and mischievous powers and tormenting spirits. Wherever the Olympian gods retreated into the background, Greek life was more sombre and more anxious. Christianity, on the contrary, oppressed man and crushed him utterly, sinking him as if in deep mire; then into the feeling 3 It may be remembered that the cross was the gallows of the ancient world. 48 of absolute depravity it suddenly threw the light of divine mercy, so that the surprised man, dazzled by forgiveness, gave a cry of joy and for a moment believed that he bore all heaven within himself. All psychological feelings of Christianity work upon this unhealthy excess of sentiment, and upon the deep corruption of head and heart it necessitates; it desires to destroy, break, stupefy, confuse,only one thing it does not desire, namely moderation, and therefore it is in the deepest sense barbaric, Asiatic, ignoble and un- Greek. 115. TO BE RELIGIOUS WITH ADVANTAGE. There are sober and industrious people on whom religion is embroidered like a hem of higher humanity; these do well to remain religious, it beautifies them. All people who do not understand some kind of trade in weaponstongue and pen included as weapons become servile; for such the Christian religion is very useful, for then servility assumes the appearance of Christian virtues and is surprisingly beautified. People to whom their daily life appears too empty and monotonous easily grow religious; this is comprehensible and excusable, only they have no right to demand religious sentiments from those whose daily life is not empty and monotonous. 3F4 116. THE COMMONPLACE CHRISTIAN. If Christianity we re right, with its theories of an avenging God, of general sinfulness, of redemption, and the danger of eternal damnation, it would be a sign of weak intellect and lack of character not to become a priest, apostle or hermit, and to work only with fear and trembling for ones own salvation; it would be senseless thus to neglect eternal benefits for temporary comfort. Taking it for granted that there is belief , the commonplace Christian is a miserable figure, a man that really cannot add two and two together, and who, moreover, just because of his mental incapacity for responsibility, did not deserve to be so severely punished as Christianity has decreed. 117. OF THE WISDOM OF CHRISTIANITY. It is a clever stroke on the part of Christianity to teach the utter unworthiness, sinfulness, and despicableness of mankind so loudly that the disdain of their fellow-men is no longer possible. He may sin as much as he lik es, he is not essentially different from me, it is I who am unworthy and despicable in every way, says the Christian to himself. But even this feeling has lost its sharpest sting, because the Christian no longer believes in his individual despicableness ; he is bad as men are generally, and comforts himself a little with the axiom, We are all of one kind. 118. CHANGE OF FRONT. As soon as a religion triumphs it has for its enemies all those who would have been its first disciples. 119. THE FATE OF CHRISTIANITY. Christianity arose for the purpose of lightening the heart; but now it must first make the heart heavy in order afterwards to lighten it. Consequently it will perish. 120. THE PROOF OF PLEASURE. The agreeable opinion is accepted as true, this is the proof of the pleasure (or, as the Church says, the proof of the strength), of which all religions are so 4 This may give us one of the reasons for the religiosity still happily prevailing in England and the United States, 49 proud when they ought to be ashamed of it. If Faith did not make blessed it would not be believed in ; of how little value must it be, then ! 121. A DANGEROUS GAME. Whoever now allows scope to his religious feelings must also let them increase, he cannot do otherwise. His nature then gradually changes; it favours whatever is connected with and near to the religious element, the whole extent of judgment and feeling becomes clouded, overcast with religious shadows. Sensation cannot stand still; one must therefore take care. 122. THE BLIND DISCIPLES. So long as one knows well the strength and weakness of one s doctrine, ones art, one s relig ion, its power is still small. The disciple and apostle who has no eyes for the weaknesses of the doctrine, the religion, and so forth, dazzled by the aspect of the master and by his reverence for him, has on that account usually more power than the master himself. Without blind disciples the influence of a man and his work has never yet become great. To help a doctrine to victory often means only so to mix it with stupidity that the weight of the latter carries off also the victory for the former. 123. CHURCH DISESTABLISHMENT. There is not enough religion in the world even to destroy religions. 124. THE SINLESSNESS OF MAN. If it is understood how sin came into the world, namely through errors of reason by which men held each other, even the single individual held himself, to be much blacker and much worse than was actually the case, the whole sensation will be much lightened, and man and the world will appear in a blaze of innocence which it will do one good to contemplate. In the midst of nature man is always the child per se . This child sometimes has a heavy and terrifying dream, but when it opens its eyes it always finds itself back again in Paradise. 125. THE IRRELIGIOUSNESS OF ARTISTS. Homer is so much at home amongst his gods, and is so familiar with them as a poet, that he must have been deeply irreligious; that which the popular faith gave hima meagre, rude, partly terrible superstition he treated as freely as the sculptor does his clay, with the same unconcern, therefore, which Aeschylus and Aristophanes possessed, and by which in later times the great artists of the Renaissance distinguished themselves, as also did Shakespeare and Goethe. 126. THE ART AND POWER OF FALSE INTERPRETATIONS. All the visions, terrors, torpors, and ecstasies of saints a re well -known forms of disease, which are only, by reason of deep -rooted religious and psychological errors, differently explained by him, namely not as diseases. Thus, perhaps, the Daimonion of Socrates was only an affection of the ear, which he, in accor dance with his ruling moral mode of thought, expounded differently from what would be the case now. It is the same thing with the madness and ravings of the prophets and soothsayers; it is always the degree of knowledge, fantasy, effort, morality in the head and heart of the interpreters which has made so much of it. For the greatest achievements of the people who are called geniuses and saints it is necessary that they should secure interpreters by force, who misunderstand them for the good of mankind. 50 127. THE VENERATION OF INSANITY. Because it was remarked that excitement frequently made the mind clearer and produced happy inspirations it was believed that the happiest inspirations and suggestions were called forth by the greatest excitement; and so the i nsane were revered as wise and oracular. This is based on a false conclusion. 128. THE PROMISES OF SCIENCE. The aim of modern science is : as little pain as possible, as long a life as possible, a kind of eternal blessedness, therefore; but certainly a very modest one as compared with the promises of religions. 129. FORBIDDEN GENEROSITY. There is not sufficient love and goodness in the world to permit us to give some of it away to imaginary beings. 130. THE CONTINUANCE OF THE RELIGIOUS CULT IN THE FEELINGS. The Roman Catholic Church, and before that all antique cults, dominated the entire range of means by which man was put into unaccustomed moods and rendered incapable of the cold calculation of judgment or the clear thinking of reason. A church quivering with deep tones; the dull, regular, arresting appeals of a priestly throng, unconsciously communicates its tension to the congregation and makes it listen almost fearfully, as if a miracle were in preparation ; the influence of the architecture, which, as the dwelling of a Godhead, extends into the uncertain and makes its apparition to be feared in all its sombre spaces,who would wish to bring such things back to mankind if the necessary suppositions are no longer believed? But the results of all this are not lost, nevertheless; the inner world of noble, emotional, deeply contrite dispositions, full of presentiments, blessed with hope, is inborn in mankind mainly through this cult; what exists of it now in the soul was then cultivated on a large scale as it germinated, grew up and blossomed. 131. THE PAINFUL CONSEQUENCES OF RELIGION. However much we may think we have weaned ourselves from religion, it has nevertheless not been done so thoroughly as to deprive us of pleasure in encountering religious sensations and moods in music, for instance; and if a philosophy shows us the justification of metaphysical hopes and the deep peace of soul to be thence acquired, and speaks, for instance, of the whole, certain gospel in the gaze of Raphael s Madonnas, we receive such stateme nts and expositions particularly warmly; here the philosopher finds it easier to prove; that which he desires to give corresponds to a heart that desires to receive. Hence it may be observed how the less thoughtful free spirits really only take offence at the dogmas, but are well acquainted with the charm of religious sensations; they are sorry to lose hold of the latter for the sake of the former. Scientific philosophy must be very careful not to smuggle in errors on the ground of that need,a need which has grown up and is consequently temporary, even logicians speak of presentiments of truth in ethics and in art (for instance, of the suspicion that the nature of things is one ), which should be forbidden to them Between the carefully established truths and such presaged things there remains the unbridgable chasm that those are due to intellect and these to requirement. Hunger does not prove that food exists to satisfy it, but that it desires food. To presage does not mean the acknowledgment of the existence of a thing in any one degree, but its possibility, in so far as it is desired or feared; presage does not advance one step into the land of certainty. We believe involuntarily that the portions of a philosophy 51 which are tinged with religion are better proved than others; but actually it is the contrary, but we have the inward desire that it may be so, that that which makes blessed, therefore, may be also the true. This desire misleads us to accept bad reasons for good ones. 132. OF THE CHRISTIAN NEED OF REDEMPTION. With careful reflection it must be possible to obtain an explanation free from mythology of that process in the soul of a Christian which is called the need of redemption, consequently a purely psychological explanation. Up to the present, the psychological explanations of religious conditions and processes have certainly been held in some disrepute, inasmuch as a theology which called itself free carried on its unprofitable practice in this domain ; for here from the beginning (as the mind of its founder, Schleiermacher, gives us reason to suppose) the preservation of the Christian religion and the continuance of Christian theology was kept in view; a theology which was to find a new anchorage in the psychological analyses of religious facts, and above all a new occupation. Unconcerned about such predecessors we hazard the following interpretation of the phenomenon in question. Man is conscious of certain actions which stand far down in the customary rank of actions; he even disc overs in himself a tendency towards similar actions, a tendency which appears to him almost as unchangeable as his whole nature. How willingly would he try himself in that other species of actions which in the general valuation are recognised as the loftiest and highest, how gladly would he feel himself to be full of the good consciousness which should follow an unselfish mode of thought! But unfortunately he stops short at this wish, and ,the discontent at not being able to satisfy it is added to all the o ther discontents which his lot in life or the consequences of those above-mentioned evil actions have aroused in him; so that a deep ill -humour is the result, with the search for a physician who could remove this and all its causes. This condition would not be felt so bitterly if man would only compare himself frankly with other men,then he would have no reason for being dissatisfied with himself to a particular extent, he would only bear his share of the common burden of human dissatisfaction and imperfection. But he compares himself with a being who is said to be capable only of those actions which are called unegoistic, and to live in the perpetual consciousness of an unselfish mode of thought, i.e. with God; it is because he gazes into this clear mirror that his image appears to him so dark, so unusually warped. Then he is alarmed by the thought of that same creature, in so far as it floats before his imagination as a retributive justice; in all possible small and great events he thinks he recognises its anger and menaces, that he even feels its scourge- strokes as judge and executioner. Who will help him in this danger, which, by the prospect of an immeasurable duration of punishment, exceeds in horror all the other terrors of the idea? 133. Before we ex amine the further consequences of this mental state, let us acknowledge that it is not through his guilt and sin that man has got into this condition, but through a series of errors of reason ; that it was the fault of the mirror if his image appear ed so dark and hateful to him, and that that mirror was his work, the very imperfect work of human imagination and power of judgment. In the first place, a nature that is only capable of purely unegoistic actions is more fabulous than the phoenix; it cannot even be clearly imagined, just because, when closely examined, the whole idea unegoistic action vanishes into air. No man ever did a thing which was done only for others and without any personal motive; how should he be able to do anything which had no relation to himself, and therefore without inward obligation (which must always have its foundation in a personal need)? How could the ego act without ego ? A God who, on the contrary, is all love, as such a one is often represented, would not be capable of a single unegoistic action, whereby one is reminded of a 52 saying of Lichtenberg s which is certainly taken from a lower sphere: We cannot possibly feel for others, as the saying is; we feel only for ourselves. This sounds hard, but it is not so really if it be rightly understood. We do not love father or mother or wife or child, but the pleasant sensations they cause us ; or, as Rochefoucauld says : Si on croit aimer sa matresse pour lamour delle, on est bien tromp. To know the reason why actions of love are valued more than others, not on account of their nature, namely, but of their usefulness , we should compare the examinations already mentioned, On the Origin of Moral Sentiments . But should a man desire to be entirely like that God of Love, to do and wish everything for others and nothing for himself, the latter is impossible for the reason that he must do very much for himself to be able to do something for the love of others. Then it is taken for granted that the other is sufficiently egoistic to accept that sacrifice again and again, that living for him,so that the people of love and sacrifice have an interest in the continuance of those who are loveless and incapable of sacrifice, and, in order to exist, the highest morality would be obliged positively to compel the existence of un -morality (whereby it would certainly annihilate itself). Further : the conception of a God disturbs and humbles so long as it is believed in ; but as to how it arose there can no longer be any doubt in the present st ate of the science of comparative ethnology; and with a comprehension of this origin all belief falls to the ground. The Christian who compares his nature with Gods is like Don Quixote, who under-valued his own bravery because his head was full of the marvellous deeds of the heroes of the chivalric romances, the standard of measurement in both cases belongs to the domain of fable. But if the idea of God is removed, so is also the feeling of sin as a trespass against divine laws, as a stain in a creature vowed to God. Then, perhaps, there still remains that dejection which; is intergrown and connected with the fear of the punishment of worldly justice or of the scorn of men; the dejection of the pricks of conscience, the sharpest thorn in the consciousness of sin, is always removed if we recognise that though by our own deed we have sinned against human descent, human laws and ordinances, still that we have not imperilled the eternal salvation of the Soul and its relation to the Godhead. And if man succeeds in gaining philosophic conviction of the absolute necessity of all actions and their entire irresponsibility, and absorbing this into his flesh and blood, even those remains of the pricks of conscience vanish. 134. Now if the Christian, as we have said, has fallen into the way of self-contempt in consequence of certain errors through a false, unscientific interpretation of his actions and sensations, he must notice with great surprise how that state of contempt, the pricks of conscience and displeasure generally, does not endure, how sometimes there come hours when all this is wafted away from his soul and he feels himself once more free and courageous. In truth, the pleasure in himself, the comfort of his own strength, together with the necessary weakening through time of every deep emotion, has usually been victorious; man loves himself once again, he feels it,but precisely this new love, this self- esteem, seems to him incredible, he can only see in it the wholly undeserved descent of a stream of mercy from on high. If he formerly believed that in every event he could recognise warnings, menaces, punishments, and every kind of manifestation of divine anger, he now finds divine goodness in all his experiences, this event appears to him to be full of love, that one a helpful hint, a third, and, indeed, his whole happy mood, a proof that God is merciful. As formerly, in his state of pain, he interpreted his actions falsely, so now he misinterprets his experiences ; his mood of comfort he believes to be the working of a power operating outside of him- self, the love with which he really loves himself seems to him to be divine love; that which he calls mercy, and the prologue to redemption, is actually self-forgiveness, self-redemption. 53 135. Therefor e: A certain false psychology, a certain kind of imaginative interpretation of motives and experiences, is the necessary preliminary for one to become a Christian and to feel the need of redemption. When this error of reason and imagination is recognised, one ceases to be a Christian. 136. OF CHRISTIAN ASCETICISM AND HOLINESS. As greatly as isolated thinkers have endeavoured to depict as a miracle the rare manifestations of morality, which are generally called asceticism and holiness, miracles which it wou ld be almost an outrage and sacrilege to explain by the light of common sense, as strong also is the inclination towards this outrage. A mighty impulse of nature has at all times led to a protest against those manifestations ; science, in so far as it is an imitation of nature, at least allows itself to rise against the supposed in- explicableness and unapproachableness of these objections. So far it has certainly not succeeded : those appearances are still unexplained, to the great joy of the above- mentioned worshippers of the morally marvellous. For, speaking generally, the unexplained must be absolutely inexplicable, the inexplicable absolutely unnatural, supernatural, wonderful,thus runs the demand in the souls of all religious and metaphysical people (al so of artists, if they should happen to be thinkers at the same time ); whilst the scientist sees in this demand the evil principle in itself. The general, first probability upon which one lights in the contemplation of holiness and asceticism is this, that their nature is a complicated one, for almost everywhere, within the physical world as well as in the moral, the apparently marvellous has been successfully traced back to the complicated, the many-conditioned. Let us venture, therefore, to isolate separate impulses from the soul of saints and ascetics, and finally to imagine them as inter -grown. 137. There is a defiance of self , to the sublimest manifestation of which belong many forms of asceticism. Certain individuals have such great need of exercising their power and love of ruling that, in default of other objects, or because they have never succeeded otherwise, they finally excogitate the idea of tyrannising over certain parts of their own nature, portions or degrees of themselves. Thus many a thinker confesses to views which evidently do not serve either to increase or improve his reputation; many a one deliberately calls down the scorn of others when by keeping silence he could easily have remained respected; others contradict former opinions and do not hesitate to be called inconsistenton the contrary, they strive after this, and behave like reckless riders who like a horse best when it has grown wild, unmanageable, and covered with sweat. Thus man climbs dangerous paths up the highest mountains in order that he may laugh to scoria his own fear and his trembling knees; thus the philosopher owns to views on asceticism, humility, holiness, in the brightness of which his own picture shows to the worst possible disadvantage. This crushing of ones self, this scorn of ones own nature, this spernere se sperni , of which religion has made so much, is really a very high degree of vanity. The whole moral of the Sermon on the Mount belongs here; man takes a genuine delight in doing violence to himself by these exaggerated claims, and afterwards idolising these tyrannical demands of his soul. In every ascetic morality man worships one part of himself as a God, and is obliged, therefore, to diabolise the other parts. 138. Man is not equally moral at all ho urs, this is well known. If his morality is judged to be the capability for great self -sacrificing resolutions and self-denial (which, when continuous and grown habitual, are called holiness), he is most moral in the passions \ the higher emotion 54 provides him with entirely new motives, of which he, sober and cold as usual, perhaps does not even believe himself capable. How does this happen? Probably because of the proximity of everything great and highly exciting; if man is once wrought up to a state of extraordinary suspense, he is as capable of carrying out a terrible revenge as of a terrible crushing of his need for revenge. Under the influence of powerful emotion, he desires in any case the great, the powerful, the immense; and if he happens to notice that the sacrifice of himself satisfies him as well as, or better than, the sacrifice of others, he chooses that. Actually, therefore, he only cares about discharging his emotion; in order to ease his tension he seizes the enemy s spears and buries them in his breast. That there was something great in self-denial and not in revenge had to be taught to mankind by long habit; a Godhead that sacrificed itself was the strongest, most effective symbol of this kind of greatness. As the conquest of the most difficul t enemy, the sudden mastering of an affection thus this denial appears ; and so far it passes for the summit of morality. In reality it is a question of the confusion of one idea with another, while the temperament maintains an equal height, an equal level. Temperate men who are resting from their passions no longer understand the morality of those moments; but the general admiration of those who had the same experiences upholds them; pride is their consolation when affection and the understanding of their deed vanish. Therefore, at bottom even those actions of self-denial are not moral, inasmuch as they are not done strictly with regard to others; rather the other only provides the highly-strung temperament with an opportunity of relieving itself through tha t denial. 139. In many respects the ascetic seeks to make life easy for himself, usually by complete subordination to a strange will or a comprehensive law and ritual; something like the way a Brahmin leaves nothing whatever to his own decision but refers every moment to holy precepts. This submission is a powerful means of attaining self-mastery: man is occupied and is therefore not bored, and yet has no incitement to self- will or passion ; after a completed deed there is no feeling of responsibility and with it no tortures of remorse. We have renounced our own will once and for ever, and this is easier than only renouncing it occasionally ; as it is also easier to give up a desire entirely than to keep it within bounds. When we remember the present relation of man to the State, we find that, even here, unconditional obedience is more convenient than conditional. The saint, therefore, makes his life easier by absolute renunciation of his personality, and we are mistaken if in that phenomenon we admire the lof tiest heroism of morality. In any case it is more difficult to carry ones personality through without vacillation and unclearness than to liberate one s self from it in the above-mentioned manner; moreover, it requires far more spirit and consideration. 140. After having found in many of the less easily explicable actions manifestations of that pleasure in emotion per se , I should like to recognise also in self-contempt, which is one of the signs of holiness, and likewise in the deeds of self-torture (through hunger and scourging, mutilation of limbs, feigning of madness) a means by which those natures fight against the general weariness of their life- will (their nerves) ; they employ the most painful irritants and cruelties in order to emerge for a time, at all events, from that dulness and boredom into which they so frequently sink through their great mental indolence and that submission to a strange will already described. 141. 55 The commonest means which the ascetic and saint employs to render life still endurable and amusing consists in occasional warfare with alternate victory and defeat. For this he requires an opponent, and finds it in the so- called inward enemy. He principally makes use of his inclination to vanity, love of honour and rule, and of his sensual desires, that he may be permitted to regard his life as a perpetual battle and himself as a battlefield upon which good and evil spirits strive with alternating success. It is well known that sensual imagination is moderated, indeed almost dispelled, by regular sexual intercourse, whereas, on the contrary, it is rendered unfettered and wild by abstinence or irregularity. The imagination of many Christian saints was filthy to an extraordinary degree; by virtue of those theories that these desires were actual demons raging within them they did not feel themselves to be too responsible; to this feeling we ow e the very instructive frankness of their self -confessions. It was to their interest that this strife should always be maintained in one degree or another, because, as we have already said, their empty life was thereby entertained. But in order that the st rife might seem sufficiently important and arouse the enduring sympathy and admiration of non-saints, it was necessary that sensuality should be ever more reviled and branded, the danger of eternal damnation was so tightly bound up with these things that it is highly probable that for whole centuries Christians generated children with a bad conscience, wherewith humanity has certainly suffered a great injury. And yet here truth is all topsy-turvy, which is particularly unsuitable for truth. Certainly Christianity had said that every man is conceived and born in sin, and in the insupportable superlative-Christianity of Calderon this thought again appears, tied up and twisted, as the most distorted paradox there is, in the well-known lines The greatest sin of man Is that he was ever born. In all pessimistic religions the act of generation was looked upon as evil in itself. This is by no means the verdict of all mankind, not even of all pessimists. For instance, Empedocles saw in all erotic things nothing shameful, diabolical, or, sinful; but rather, in the great plain of disaster he saw only one hopeful and redeeming figure, that of Aphrodite; she appeared to him as a guarantee that the strife should not endure eternally, but that the sceptre should one day be given over to a gentler dmon. The actual Christian pessimists had, as has been said, an interest in the dominance of a diverse opinion; for the solitude and spiritual wilderness of their lives they required an ever living enemy, and a generally recognised enemy, through whose fighting and overcoming they could constantly represent themselves to the non- saints as incomprehensible, half - supernatural beings. But when at last this enemy took to flight for ever in consequence of their mode of life and their impaired health, they immediately understood how to populate their interior with new daemons. The rising and falling of the scales of pride and humility sustained their brooding minds as well as the alternations of desire and peace of soul. At that time p sychology served not only to cast suspicion upon everything human, but to oppress, to scourge, to crucify; people wished to find themselves as bad and wicked as possible, they sought anxiety for the salvation of their souls, despair of their own strength. Everything natural with which man has connected the idea of evil and sin (as, for instance, he is still accustomed to do with regard to the erotic) troubles and clouds the imagination, causes a frightened glance, makes man quarrel with himself and uncertain and distrustful of himself. Even his dreams have the flavour of a restless conscience. And yet in the reality of things this suffering from what is natural is entirely without foundation, it is only the consequence of opinions about things. It is easily seen how men grow worse by considering the inevitably- natural as bad, and afterwards always feeling themselves made thus. It is the trump - card of religion and metaphysics, which wish to have man evil and sinful by nature, to cast suspicion on nature and t hus really to make him bad, for he learns to 56 feel himself evil since he cannot divest himself of the clothing of nature. After living for long a natural life, he gradually comes to feel himself weighed down by such a burden of sin that supernatural powers are necessary to lift this burden, and therewith arises the so- called need of redemption, which corresponds to no real but only to an imaginary sinfulness. If we survey the separate moral demands of the earliest times of Christianity it will everywhere be found that requirements are exaggerated in order that man cannot satisfy them; the intention is not that he should become more moral, but that he should feel himself as sinful as possible . If man had not found this feeling agreeable why would he have thought out such an idea and stuck to it so long? As in the antique world an immeasurable power of intellect and inventiveness was expended in multiplying the pleasure of life by festive cults, so also in the age of Christianity an immeasurable amount of intellect has been sacrificed to another endeavour,man must by all means be made to feel himself sinful and thereby be excited, enlivened, en -souled . To excite, enliven, en- soul at all costs is not that the watchword of a relaxed, over-ripe, over- cultured age? The range of all natural sensations had been gone over a hundred times, the soul had grown weary, whereupon the saint and the ascetic invented a new species of stimulants for life. They presented themselves before the public eye, not exactly as an example for the many, but as a terrible and yet ravishing spectacle, which took place on that border-land between world and over-world, wherein at that time all people believed they saw now rays of heavenly light and now unholy tongues of flame glowing in the depths. The saints eye, fixed upon the terrible meaning of this short earthly life, upon the nearness of the last decision concerning endless new spans of existence, this burning eye in a half-wasted body made men of the old world tremble to their very depths; to gaze, to turn shudderingly away, to feel anew the attraction of the spectacle and to give way to it, to drink deep of it till the soul quivered with fire and ague,that was the last pleasure that antiquity invented after it had grown blunted even at the sight of beast- baitings and human combats. 142. Now to sum up. That condition of soul in which the saint or embryo saint rejoiced, was composed of elements which we all know well, only that under the influence of other than religious conceptions they exhibit themselves in other colours and are then accustomed to en- counter man s blame as fully as, with that decoration of religion and the ultimate meaning of existence, they may reckon on receiving admiration and even worship,might reckon, at least, in former ages. Sometimes the saint practises that defiance of himself which is a near relative of domination at any cost and gives a feeling of power even to the most lonely; sometimes his swollen sensibility leaps from the desire to let his passions have f ull play into the desire to overthrow them like wild horses under the mighty pressure of a proud spirit; sometimes he desires a complete cessation of all disturbing, tormenting, irritating sensations, a waking sleep, a lasting rest in the lap of a dull, animal, and plant- like indolence; sometimes he seeks strife and arouses it within himself, because boredom has shown him its yawning countenance. He scourges his self-adoration with self-contempt and cruelty, he rejoices in the wild tumult of his desires and the sharp pain of sin, even in the idea of being lost; he understands how to lay a trap for his emotions, for instance even for his keen love of ruling, so that he sinks into the most utter abasement and his tormented soul is thrown out of joint by this c ontrast; and finally, if he longs for visions, conversations with the dead or with divine beings, it is at bottom a rare kind of delight that he covets, perhaps that delight in which all others are united. Novalis, an authority on questions of holiness through experience and instinct, tells the whole secret with naive joy: It is strange enough that the association of lust, religion, and cruelty did not long ago draw men s attention to their close relationship and common tendency. 57 143. That which gives the saint his historical value is not the thing he is , but the thing he represents in the eyes of the unsaintly. It was through the fact that errors were made about him, that the state of his soul was falsely interpreted , that men separated themselves from him as much as possible, as from something incomparable and strangely superhuman, that he acquired the extraordinary power which he exercised over the imagination of whole nations and whole ages. He did not know himself; he himself interpreted the writing of his moods, inclinations, and actions according to an art of interpretation which was as exaggerated and artificial as the spiritual interpretation of the Bible. The distorted and diseased in his nature, with its combination of intellectual poverty, evil knowledge, ruined health, and over- excited nerves, remained hidden from his own sight as well as from that of his spectators. He was not a particularly good man, and still less was he a particularly wise one; but he represented something that exceeded the human standard in goodness and wisdom. The belief in him supported the belief in the divine and miraculous, in a religious meaning of all existence, in an impending day of judgment. In the evening glory of the worlds sunset, which glowed over the Christian nations, the shadowy form of the saint grew to vast dimensions, it grew to such a height that even in our own age, which no longer believes in God, there are still thinkers who believe in the saint. 144. It need not be said that to this description of the saint which has been made from an average of the whole species, there may be opposed many a description which could give a more agreeable impression. Certain exceptions stand out from among this species, it may be through great mildness and philanthropy, it may be through the magic of unusual energy; others are attractive in the highest degree, because certain wild ravings have poured streams of light on their whole being, as is the case, for instance, with the famous founder of Christianity, who thought he was the Son of God and therefore felt himself sinlessso that through this ideawhich we must not judge too hardly because the whole antique world swarms with sons of Godhe reached that same goal, that feeling of complete sinlessness, complete irresp onsibility, which every one can now acquire by means of science. Neither have I mentioned the Indian saints, who stand midway between the Christian saint and the Greek philosopher, and in so far represent no pure type. Knowledge, sciencesuch as existed thenthe uplifting above other men through logical discipline and training of thought, were as much fostered by the Buddhists as distinguishing signs of holiness as the same qualities in the Christian world are repressed and branded as signs of unholiness. 58 Fourth Division - Concerning The Soul Of Artists And Authors 145. THE PERFECT SHOULD NOT HAVE GROWN. With regard to everything that is perfect we are accustomed to omit the question as to how perfection has been acquired, and we only rejoice in the present as if it had sprung out of the ground by magic. Probably with regard to this patter we are still under the effects of an ancient mythological feeling. It still almost seems to us (in such a Greek temple, for instance, as that of Paestum) as if one morning a god in sport had built his dwelling of such enormous masses, at other times it seems as if his spirit had suddenly entered into a stone and now desired to speak through it. The artist knows that his work is only fully effective if it arouses the belief in an improvisation, in a marvellous instantaneousness of origin; and thus he assists this illusion and introduces into art those elements of inspired unrest, of blindly groping disorder, of listening dreaming at the beginning of creation, as a means of deception, in order so to influence the soul of the spectator or hearer that it may believe in the sudden appearance of the perfect It is the business of the science of art to contradict this illusion most decidedly, and to show up the mistakes and pampering of the intellect, by means of which it falls into the artist s trap. 146. THE ARTIST S SENSE OF TRUTH. With regard to recognition of truths, the artist has a weaker morality than the thinker; he will on no account let himself be deprived of brilliant and profound interpretations of life, and defends himself against temperate and simple methods and results. He is apparently fighting for the higher worthiness and meaning of mankind; in reality he will not renounce the most effective suppositions for his art, the fantastical, mythical, uncertain, extreme, the sense of the symbolical, the over-valuation of personality, the belief that genius is something miraculous, he considers, therefore, the continuance of his art of creation as more important than the scientific devotion to truth in every shape, however simple this may appear. 147. ART AS RAISER OF THE DEAD. Art also fulfils the task of preservation and even of brightening up extinguished and faded memories; when it accomplishes this task it weaves a rope round the ages and causes their spirits to return. It is, certainly, only a phantom- life that results therefrom, as out of graves, or like the return in dreams of our beloved dead, but for some moments, at least, the old sensation lives a gain and the heart beats to an almost forgotten time. Hence, for the sake of the general usefulness of art, the artist himself must be excused if he does not stand in the front rank of the enlightenment and progressive civilisation of humanity; all his lif e long he has remained a child or a youth, and has stood still at the point where he was overcome by his artistic impulse ; the feelings of the first years of life, however, are acknowledged to be nearer to those of earlier times than to those of the presen t century. Unconsciously it becomes his mission to make mankind more childlike; this is his glory and his limitation. 148. 59 POETS AS THE LlGHTENERS OF LIFE. Poets, inasmuch as they desire to lighten the life of man, either divert his gaze from the wearisome present, or assist the present to acquire new colours by means of a life which they cause to shine out of the past. To be able to do this, they must in many respects themselves be beings who are turned towards the past, so that they can be used as bridges to far distant times and ideas, to dying or dead religions and cultures. Actually they are always and of necessity epigoni . There are, however, certain drawbacks to their means of lightening life,they appease and heal only temporarily, only for the moment; they even prevent men from labouring towards a genuine improvement in their conditions, inasmuch as they remove and apply palliatives to precisely that passion of discontent that induces to action. 149. THE SLOW ARROW OF BEAUTY. The noblest kind of beauty is that which does not transport us suddenly, which does not make stormy and intoxicating impressions (such a kind easily arouses disgust), but that which slowly filters into our minds, which we take away with us almost unnoticed, and which we encounter again in our dreams; but which, however, after having long lain modestly on our hearts, takes entire possession of us, fills our eyes with tears and our hearts with longing. What is it that we long for at the sight of beauty? We long to be beautiful, we fancy it must bring much happiness with it. But that is a mistake. 150. THE ANIMATION OF ART. Art raises its head where creeds relax. It takes over many feelings and moods engendered by religion, lays them to its heart, and itself becomes deeper, more f ull of soul, so that it is capable of transmitting exultation and enthusiasm, which it previously was not able to do. The abundance of religious feelings which have grown into a stream are always breaking forth again and desire to conquer new kingdoms, but the growth of the Enlightenment undermined the dogmas of religion and inspired a fundamental mistrust of themso that the feelings, thrust by the Enlightenment out of the religious sphere, throw themselves into art, in a few cases into political life, eve n straight into science. Everywhere where human endeavour wears a loftier, gloomier aspect, it may be assumed that the fear of spirits, incense, and church- shadows have remained attached to it. 151. HOW METER BEAUTIFIES. Meter casts a veil over reality [See: Goethe to Schiller, May 5, 1798.]; it causes various artificialities of speech and obscurities of thought; by the shadow it throws upon thought it sometimes conceals it, and sometimes brings it into prominence. As shadow is necessary to beauty, so the dull is necessary to lucidity. Art makes the aspect of life endurable by throwing over it the veil of obscure thought. 152. THE ART OF THE UGLY SOUL. Art is confined within too narrow limits if it be required that only the orderly, respectable, well-behaved soul should be allowed to express itself therein. As in the plastic arts, so also in music and poetry: there is an art of the ugly soul side by side with the art of the beautiful soul; and the mightiest effects of art, the crushing of souls, moving of stones and humanising of beasts, have perhaps been best achieved precisely by that art. 153. ART MAKES HEAVY THE HEART OF THE THINKER. How strong metaphysical need is and how difficult nature renders our departure from it may be seen from the fact that even in the free spirit, when he has cast off everything metaphysical, the loftiest effects of art can 60 easily produce a resounding of the long silent, even broken, metaphysical stringit may be, for instance, that at a passage in Beethoven s Ninth Symphony he feels himself floating above the earth in a starry dome with the dream of immortality in his heart; all the stars seem to shine round him, and the earth to sink farther and farther away. If he becomes conscious of this state, he feels a deep pain at his heart, and sighs for the man who will lead back to him his lost darling, be it called religion or metaphysics. In such moments his intellectual character is put to the test. 154. PLAYING WITH LIFE. The lightness and frivolity of the Homeric imagination was necessary to calm and occasionally to raise the immoderately passionate temperament and acute intellect of the Greeks. If their intellect speaks, how harsh and cruel does life then appear! They do not deceive themselves, but they intentionally weave lies round life. Simonides advised his countrymen to look upon life as a game; earnestness was too well- known to them as pain (the gods so gladly hear the misery of mankind made the theme of song), and they knew that through art alone misery might be turned into pleasure. As a punishment for this insight, however, they were so plagued with the love of romancing that it was difficult for them in everyday life to keep themselves free from falsehood and deceit; for all poetic nations have such a love of falsehood, and yet are innocent withal. Probably this occasionally drove the neighboring nations to desperation. 155. THE BELIEF IN INSPIRATION. It is to the interest of the artist that there should be a belief in sudden suggestions, so- called inspirations; as if the idea of a work of art, of poetry, the fundamental thought of a philosophy shone down from heaven like a ray of grace. In reality the imagination of the good artist or thinker constantly produces good, mediocre, and bad, but his power of judgment, most clear and practised, rejects and chooses and joins together, just as we now learn from Beethovens notebooks that he gradually composed the most beautiful melodies, and in a manner selected them, from many different attempts. He who makes less severe distinctions, and willingly abandons himself to imitative memories, may under certain circumstances be come a great improvisatore; but artistic improvisation ranks low in comparison with serious and laboriously chosen artistic thoughts. All great men were great workers, unwearied not only in invention but also in rejection, reviewing, transforming, and arranging. 156. INSPIRATION AGAIN. If the productive power has been suspended for a length of time, and has been hindered in its outflow by s ome obstacle, there comes at last such a sudden outpouring, as if an immediate inspiration were taking place without previous inward working, consequently a miracle. This constitutes the familiar deception, in the continuance of which, as we have said, the interest of all artists is rather too much concerned. The capital has only accumulated, it has not suddenly fallen down from heaven. Moreover, such apparent inspirations are seen elsewhere, for instance in the realm of goodness, of virtue and of vice. 157. THE SUFFERINGS OF GENIUS AND THEIR VALUE. The artistic genius desires to give pleasure, but if his mind is on a very high plane he does not easily find any one to share his pleasure; he offers entertainment but nobody accepts it. This gives him, in cert ain circumstances, a comically touching pathos; for he has really no right to force pleasure on men. He pipes, but none will dance: can that be tragic? Perhaps. As compensation for this deprivation, however, he finds more pleasure in creating than the rest of mankind experiences 61 in all other species of activity. His sufferings are considered as exaggerated, because the sound of his complaints is louder and his tongue more eloquent; and yet sometimes his sufferings are really very great; but only because his ambition and his envy are so great. The learned genius, like Kepler and Spinoza, is usually not so covetous and does not make such an exhibition of his really greater sufferings and deprivations. He can reckon with greater certainty on future fame and can afford to do without the present, whilst an artist who does this always plays a desperate game that makes his heart ache. In very rare cases, when in one and the same individual are combined the genius of power and of knowledge and the moral genius, there is added to the above-mentioned pains that species of pain which must be regarded as the most curious exception in the world; an extra- and supra-personal sensibility attuned to a nation, to humanity, to all civilisation, to all suffering existence, which acquires its value through its connection with particularly difficult and remote perceptions (pity in itself is worth but little). But by what standard, on what scales can we measure whether or not it is genuine? Is it not almost imperative to be mistrus tful of all who speak of possessing sensiblities of this sort? 158. FATALITY OF GREATNESS. Every great phenomenon is succeeded by degeneration, especially in the domain of art. The example of greatness incites all vainer natures to extreme imitation or attempts to outdo; in addition to which, all great talents have the fatal property of suppressing many weaker shoots and forces and as it were laying nature waste all around them. The most fortunate thing that can happen in the evolution of an art is that se veral geniuses appear together and keep one another in bounds; in the course of this struggle the weaker and tenderer natures too will usually be granted light and air. 159. ART DANGEROUS TO THE ARTIST. When art seizes violently on an individual it draws him back to the conceptions of those ages in which art flourished most mightily, and then it effects a retrogression in him. The artist acquires increasing reverence for sudden excitations, believes in gods and demons, instills a soul into nature, hates the sciences, becomes changeable of mood as were the men of antiquity and longs for an overthrowing of everything unfavorable to art, and he does this with all the vehemence and unreasonableness of a child. The artist is in himself already a retarded being, inasmuch as he has halted at games that pertain to youth and childhood: to this there is now added his gradual retrogression to earlier times. Thus there at last arises a violent antagonism between him and the men of his period, of his own age, and his end is gloomy; just as, according to the tales told in antiquity, Homer and Aeschylus at last lived and died in melancholia. 160. CREATED PEOPLE. When we say the dramatist (and the artist in general) actually creates characters, this is a nice piece of decep tion and exaggeration in the existence and dissemination of which art celebrates one of its unintentional and as it were superfluous triumphs. In reality we understand very little of an actual living person and generalize very superficially when we attribu te to him this or that character: well, the poet adopts the same very imperfect posture towards man as we do, in that his sketches of men are just as superficial as is our knowledge of men. There is much illusion involved in these created characters of the artists; they are in no way living products of nature, but, like painted people, a little too thin, they cannot endure inspection from close to. And if one should even venture to say that the character of the ordinary living man is often self-contradictor y and that created by the dramatist the ideal that hovered dimly before the eye of nature, this would be quite 62 wrong. An actual human being is something altogether necessary (even in those so- called contradictions), but we do not always recognize this necessity. The invented human being, the phantasm, desires to signify something necessary, but only in the eyes of those who comprehend even an actual human being only in a crude, unnatural simplification: so that a couple of striking, often repeated characteristics, with a great deal of light on them and a great deal of shadow and twilight around them, suffice to meet all their demands. They are thus quite ready to treat phantasms as actual, necessary human beings because they are accustomed when dealing with actual human beings to take a phantasm, a silhouette, an arbitrary abridgment for the whole. That the painter and the sculptor, of all people, give expression to the idea of the human being is mere fantasizing and sense-deception: one is being tyrannized over by the eye when one says such a thing, since this sees even of the human body only the surface, the skin; the inner body, however, is just as much part of the idea. Plastic art wants to make characters visible on the outside; the art of speech emplo ys the word to the same end, it delineates the character in sounds. Art begins from the natural ignorance of mankind as too his interior (both bodily and as regards character): it does not exist for physicists or philosophers. 161 SELF -OVERESTIMATION IN THE BELIEF IN ARTISTS AND PHILOSOPHERS. We all think that a work of art, an artist, is proved to be of high quality if it seizes hold on us and profoundly moves us. But for this to be so our own high quality in judgment and sensibility would first have to have been proved: which is not the case. Who in the realm of the plastic arts has moved and enraptured more than Bernini, who has produced a mightier effect than that post- Demosthenes rhetor who introduced the Asiatic style and caused it to predominate for two centuries? Such a predomination over entire centuries proves nothing in regard to the quality or lasting validity of a style; that is why one should never be too firm in one s faith in any artist: for such a faith is not only faith in the veracity of our sensibility but also in the infallibility of our judgment, while our judgment or sensibility, or both of them, can themselves be too coarse or too refined, exaggerated or gross. The blessings and raptures conferred by a philosophy or a religion likewise prove nothing in regard to their truth: just as little as the happiness the madman enjoys from his ide fixe proves anything in regard to its rationality. 162. THE CULT OF GENIUS FOR THE SAKE OF VANITY. Because we think well of ourselves, but nevertheless do not imagine that we are capable of the conception of one of Raphael s pictures or of a scene such as those of one of Shakespeare s dramas, we persuade ourselves that the faculty for doing this is quite extraordinarily wonderful, a very rare case, or, i f we are religiously inclined, a grace from above. Thus the cult of genius fosters our vanity, our self-love, for it is only when we think of it as very far removed from us, as a miraculum , that it does not wound us (even Goethe, who was free from envy, ca lled Shakespeare a star of the farthest heavens, whereby we are reminded of the line die Sterne, die begehrt man nicht 4F5). But, apart from those suggestions of our vanity, the activity of a genius does not seem so radically different from the activity of a mechanical inventor, of an astronomer or historian or strategist. All these forms of activity are explicable if we realise men whose minds are active in one special direction, who make use of everything as material, who always eagerly study their own inward life and that of others, who find types and incitements everywhere, who never weary in the employment of their means. Genius does 5 The allusion is to Goethe s lines : Die Sterne, die begehrt man nicht, Man freut sick ihrer Pracht. We do not want the stars themselves, Their brilliancy delights our hearts. 63 nothing but learn how to lay stones, then to build, always to seek for material and always to work upon it. Every human activity is marvellously complicated, and not only that of genius, but it is no miracle. Now whence comes the belief that genius is found only in artists, orators, and philosophers, that they alone have intuition (by which we credit them with a kind of magic glass by means of which they see straight into one s being )? It is clear that men only speak of genius where the workings of a great intellect are most agreeable to them and they have no desire to feel envious. To call any one divine is as much as saying here we have no occasion for rivalry. Thus it is that everything completed and perfect is stared at, and everything incomplete is undervalued. Now nobody can see how the work of an artist has developed ; that is its advantage, for everything of which the development is seen is looked on coldly. The perfected art of representation precludes all thought of its development, it tyrannises as a present perfection. For this reason artists of representation are especially held to be possessed of genius, but not scientific men. In reality, however, the former valuation and the latter under-valuation are only puerilities of reason. 163. THE EARNESTNESS OF HANDICRAFT. Do not talk of gifts, of inborn talents! We could mention great men of all kinds who were but little gifted. But they obtained greatness, became geniuses (as they are called), through qualities of the lack of which nobody who is conscious of them likes to speak. They all had that thorough earnestness for work which learns first how to form the different parts perfectly before it ventures to make a great whole; they gave themselves time for this, because they took more pleasure in doing small, accessory things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole. For instance, the recipe for becoming a good novelist is easily given, but the carrying out of the recipe presupposes qualities which we are in the habit of overlooking when we say, I have not sufficient talent. Make a hundred or more sketches of novel-plots, none more than two pages long, but of such clearness that every word in them is necessary ; write down anecdotes every day until you learn to find the most pregnant, most effective form; never weary of collecting and delineating human types and characters ; above all, narrate things as often as possible and listen to narrations with a sharp eye and ear for the effect upon other people present; travel like a landscape painter and a designer of costumes ; take from different sciences everythin g that is artistically effective, if it be well represented ; finally, meditate on the motives for human actions, scorn not even the smallest point of instruction on this subject, and collect similar matters by day and night. Spend some ten years in these v arious exercises : then the creations of your study may be allowed to see the light of day. But what do most people do, on the contrary? They do not begin with the part, but with the whole. Perhaps they make one good stroke, excite attention, and ever afterwards their work grows worse and worse, for good, natural reasons. But sometimes, when intellect and character are lacking for the formation of such an artistic career, fate and necessity take the place of these qualities and lead the future master step by step through all the phases of his craft. 164. THE DANGER AND THE GAIN IN THE CULT OF GENIUS. The belief in great, superior, fertile minds is not necessarily, but still very frequently, connected with that wholly or partly religious superstition that those spirits are of superhuman origin and possess certain marvellous faculties, by means of which they obtained their knowledge in ways quite different from the rest of mankind. They are credited with having an immediate insight into the nature of the world, through a peep-hole in the mantle of the phenomenon as it were, and it is believed that, without the trouble and severity of science, by virtue of this marvellous prophetic sight, they could impart something final and decisive about mankind and the world. 64 So long as there are still believers in miracles in the world of knowledge it may perhaps be admitted that the believers themselves derive a benefit therefrom, inasmuch as by their absolute subjection to great minds they obtain the best discipline and schooling for their own minds during the period of development. On the other hand, it may at least be questioned whether the superstition of genius, of its privileges and special faculties, is useful for a genius himself when it implants itself in him. In any case it is a dangerous sign when man shudders at his own self, be it that famous Caesarian shudder or the shudder of genius which applies to this case, when the incense of sacrifice, which by rights is offered to a God alone, penetrates into the brain of the genius, so that he begins to waver and to look upon himself as something superhuman. The slow consequences are: the feeling of irresponsibility, the exceptional rights, the belief that mere intercourse with him confers a favour, and frantic rage at any attempt to compare him with others or even to place him below them and to bring into prominence whatever is unsuccessful in his work. Through the fact that he ceases to criticise himself one pinion after another falls out of his plumage,that superstition undermines the foundation of his strength and even makes him a hypocrite after his power has failed him. For great minds it is, therefore, perhaps better when they come to an understanding about their strength and its source, when they comprehend what purely human qualities are mingled in them, what a combination they are of fortunate conditions: thus once it was continual energy, a decided application to individual aims, great personal courage, and then the good fortune of an education, which at an early period provided the best teachers, examples, and methods. Assuredly, if its aim is to make the greatest possible effect , abstruseness has always done much for itself and that gift of partial insanity ; for at all times that power has been admired and envied by means of which men were deprived of will and imbued with the fancy that they were preceded by supernatural leaders. Truly, men are exalted and inspired by the belief that some one among them is endowed with super- natural powers, and in this respect insanity, as Plato says, has brought the greatest blessings to mankind In a few rare cases this form of insanity may also have been the means by which an all-round exuberant nature was kept within bounds; in individual life the imaginings of frenzy frequently exert the virtue of remedies which are poisons in themselves; but in every genius that believes in his own divinity the poison shows itself at last in the same proportion as the genius grows old; we need but recollect the example of Napoleon, for it was most assuredly through his faith in himself and his star, and through his scorn of mankind, that he grew to that mighty unity which distinguished him from all modern men, until at last, however, this faith developed into an almost insane fatalism, robbed him of his quickness of comprehension and penetration, and was the cause of his downfall. 165. GENIUS AND NULLITY. It is precisely the original artists, those who create out of their own heads, who in certain circumstances can bring forth complete emptiness and husk, whilst the more dependent natures, the so- called talented ones, are full of memories of all manner of goodness, and even in a state of weakness produce something tolerable. But if the original ones are abandoned by themselves, memory renders them no assistance; they become empty. 166. THE PUBLIC. The people really demands nothing more from tragedy than to be deeply affected, in order to have a good cry occasionally; the artist, on the contrary, who sees the new tragedy, takes pleasure in the clever technical inventions and tricks, in the management and distribution of the material, in the novel arrangement of old motives and old ideas. His attitude is the aesthetic attitude towards a work of art, that of the creator ; the one first described, with regard solely to the material, is that of the people. Of the individual who 65 stands between the two nothing need be said: he is neither people nor artist, and does not know what he wants therefore his pleasure is also clouded and insignificant 167. THE ARTISTIC EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC. If the same motif is not employed in a hundred ways by different masters, the public never learns to get beyond their interest in the subject ; but at last, when it is well acquainted with the motif through countless different treatments, and no longer finds in it any charm of novelty or excitement, it will then begin to grasp and enjoy the various shades and delicate new inventions in its treatment. 168. THE ARTIST AND HIS FOLLOWERS MUST KEEP IN STEP. The progress from one grade of style to another must be so slow that not only the artists but also the auditors and spectators can follow it and know exactly what is going on. Otherwise there will suddenly appear that gr eat chasm between the artist, who creates his work upon a height apart, and the public, who cannot rise up to that height and finally sinks discontentedly deeper. For when the artist no longer raises his public it rapidly sinks downwards, and its fall is t he deeper and more dangerous in proportion to the height to which genius has carried it, like the eagle, out of whose talons a tortoise that has been borne up into the clouds falls to its destruction. 169. ORIGIN OF THE COMIC. If one considers that man was for many hundreds of thousands of years an animal in the highest degree accessible to fear and that everything sudden and unexpected bade him prepare to fight and perhaps to die that even later on, indeed, in social relationships all security depended on the expected and traditional in opinion and action then one cannot be surprised if whenever something sudden and unexpected in word and deed happens without occasioning danger or injury man becomes wanton, passes over into the opposite of fear: the anxious, crouching creature springs up, greatly expandsman laughs. This transition from momentary anxiety to short- lived exuberance is called the comic. In the phenomenon of the tragic, on the other hand, man passes swiftly from great, enduring wantonness and great fear and anguish; since, however, great, enduring wantonness and high spirits is much rarer among mortals than occasions for fear, there is much more of the comic than the tragic in the world; we laugh much more often than we are profoundly shaken. 170. ARTIST S AMBITION. The Greek artists, the tragedians for example, poetized in order to conquer; their whole art cannot be thought of apart from contest: Hesiod s good Eris, ambition, gave their genius its wings. Now this ambition demands above all that their work should preserve the highest excellence in their own eyes, as they understand excellence, that is to say, without reference to a dominating taste or the general opinion as to what constitutes excellence in a work of art; and thus Aeschylus and Euripides were for a long time unsuccessful until they had finally educated judges of art who assessed their work according to the standards they themselves laid down. It is thus they aspire to victory over their competitors as they understand victory, a victory before their own seat of judgment, they want actually to be more excellent; then they exact agreement from others as to their own assessment of themselves and confirmation of their own judgment. To aspire to honor here means: to make oneself superior and to wish this superiority to be publicly acknowledged. If the former is lacking and the latter nonetheless still demanded, one speaks of vanity. If the latter is lacking and its absence not regretted, one speaks of pride. 171. 66 THE NECESSARY IN A WORK OF ART. Those who talk so much of the necessary in a work of art exaggerate, if they are artists, in majorem artis gloriam 5F6, or, if they are laity, out of ignorance. The forms of a work of art which express the ideas contained in it, its mode of speech that is to say, always have something easy-going about them, like all forms of speech. The sculptor can add many little details or leave them out: the performer likewise, whether he be an actor or, in the realm of music, a virtuoso or conductor. These many little details and elaborations today appeal to him, tomorrow not; they exist for the sake of the artist rather than for that of art, for he too, given the rigorousness and self-constraint the representation of his principal idea demands of him, occasiona lly requires sweetmeats and playthings if he is not to grow sullen and morose. 172. CAUSING THE MASTER TO BE FORGOTTEN. The pianist who performs the work of a master will have played best when he makes his listeners forget the master, when it seems as though he is relating a tale from his own life or is experiencing something at that very moment. To be sure, if he himself is nothing of consequence his listeners will execrate the loquacity with which he tells us about himself. He thus has to know how to engage the imagination of his listeners on his own behalf. Conversely, it is this which accounts for all the weaknesses and follies of the virtuoso. 173. CORRIGER LA FORTUNE 6F7. Evil chances occur in the lives of great artists such as compel a painter, for instance, to leave his finest picture in the form of mere hurried sketches, or which compelled Beethoven, for example, to leave behind to us in many great sonatas (as is the case of the great B major 7F8) only an unsatisfactory piano arrangement of a symphony. Here the artist coming after ought to try posthumously to amend the life of the master: which is what he would do, for example, who, as a master of orchestration, should waken to life for us that symphony now lying in the death- trance of the piano. 174. DIMINUTION. There are many things, events or people which cannot endure being reduced to scale. The Laokoon group cannot be reduced to a trinket; it needs to be large. But it is much rarer for something small by nature to be able to endure enlargement; which is why biographers will always have better success in diminishing the size of a great man than in enlarging that of a small one. 175. SENSUALITY IN CONTEMPORARY ART. Artists nowadays often go wrong when they labor to make their works of art produce a sensual effect; for their spectators or auditors are no longer in possession of a full sensuality and the effect which, quite contrary to his intention, the artists work produces upon them is a feeling of saintliness closely related to boredom. Their sensuality perhaps commences just where the artist s ceases; thus they encounter one another at one point at the most. 176. SHAKESPEARE AS MORALIST. Shakespeare reflected a great deal on the passions and from his temperament probably had very intimate access to many of them (dramatists are in 6 to the greater glory of art 7 compensate for the deliverances of fate 8 Beethoven s piano sonata no. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106, Hammerklavier. 67 general somewhat wicked men). But, unlike Montaigne, he was incapable of discoursing on them; instead of which he placed observations about the passions into the mouths of impassioned characters: a practic e which, though counter to nature, makes his plays so full of ideas they make all others seem empty and can easily arouse in us a repugnance to them. The maxims of Schiller (which are almost always based on ideas either false or trite) are designed purely for the theater, and as such they are extremely effective: while Shakespeare s do honor to his model, Montaigne, and contain entirely serious ideas in a polished form, but are for that reason too remote and subtle for the theater public and thus ineffecti ve. 177. GETTING ONESELF HEARD WELL. One has to know, not only how to play well, but also how to get oneself heard well. The violin in the hands of the greatest master will emit only a chirp if the room is too big; and then the master sounds no better than any bungler. 178. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INCOMPLETE. Just as figures in relief produce so strong an impression on the imagination because they are as it were on the point of stepping out of the wall but have suddenly been brought to a halt, so the rel ief-like, incomplete presentation of an idea, of a whole philosophy, is sometimes more effective than its exhaustive realization: more is left for the beholder to do, he is impelled to continue working on that which appears before him so strongly etched in light and shadow, to think it through to the end, and to overcome even that constraint which has hitherto prevented it from stepping forth fully formed. 179. AGAINST ORIGINALITY. When art dresses itself in the most worn -out material it is most easily rec ognized as art. 180. COLLECTIVE SPIRIT. A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends. 181. TWOFOLD MISJUDGMENT. The misfortune suffered by clear-minded and easily understood writers is that they are taken for shallow and thus little effort is expended on reading them: and the good fortune that attends the obscure is that the reader toils at them and ascribes to them the pleasure he has in fact gained from his own zeal. 182. RELATIONSHIP TO SCIENCE. They lack a true interest in a science who begins to become enthusiastic about it only when they themselves have made discoveries in it. 183. THE KEY. A man of significance may set great store by an idea and all the insignificant laugh and mock at him for it: to him it is a key to hidden treasure- chambers, while to them it is no more than a piece of old iron. 184. UNTRANSLATABLE. It is neither the best nor the worst in a book that is untranslatable in it. 185. 68 AUTHOR S PARADOXES. The so -called paradoxes of an author to whi ch a reader takes exception very often stand not at all in the authors book but in the reader s head. 186. WIT. The wittiest authors evoke the least perceptible smile. 187. THE ANTITHESIS. The antithesis is the narrow gateway through which error most li kes to creep into truth. 188. THINKERS AS STYLISTS. Most thinkers write badly because they communicate to us not only their thoughts but also the thinking of their thoughts. 189. THOUGHT IN POETRY. The poet conducts thoughts along festively, in the carri age of rhythm: usually because they are incapable of walking on foot. 190. SIN AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF THE READER. If the author denies his talent merely so as to place himself on a level with his reader, he commits the only mortal sin the latter will never forgive himsupposing, that is, he notices it. One may say anything ill of a man one likes: but in the way one says it one must know how to restore his vanity again. 191. LIMIT OF HONESTY. Even the most honest writer lets fall a word too many when he wants to round off a period. 192. THE BEST AUTHOR. The best author will be he who is ashamed to become a writer. 193. DRACONIAN LAW AGAINST WRITERS. Writers ought to be treated as malefactors who deserve to be freed or pardoned only in the rarest cases: this would be a way of preventing the proliferation of books. 194. THE LICENSED FOOLS OF MODERN CULTURE. Our feuilletonists are like licensed medieval court fools: it is the same category of people. Half-rational, witty, excessive, silly, they are somet imes there only to soften the atmosphere of pathos with whimsy and chatter, and to drown out with their shouting the all too ponderous, solemn tintinnabulation of great events. Formerly they were in the service of princes and nobles; now they serve politic al parties, for a good part of the people s old submissiveness in dealing with their prince still lives on in party feeling and party discipline. However, the whole class of modern men of letters is not far removed from the feuilletonists writers; they are the licensed fools of modern culture, who are judged more mildly if they are taken as not quite accountable. To think of writing as one s life s profession should by rights be considered a kind of madness. 195. AFTER THE GREEKS. Knowledge today is greatly hindered by the fact that all words have become hazy and inflated through centuries of exaggerated feeling. The higher stage of 69 culture, which places itself under the rule of knowledge (though not under its tyranny), requires a much greater sobriety of feeling and a stronger concentration of wordsin this the Greeks in the age of Demosthenes preceded us. Extravagance characterizes all modern writings; even if they are written simply, the words in them are still felt too eccentrically. Rigorous reflection, compression, coldness, plainness (even taken intentionally to the limits) in short, restraint of feeling and taciturnity: that alone can help. Such a cold way of writing and feeling, incidentally, is now very attractive by its contrast; and therein, of course, lies a new danger. For bitter cold can be as good a stimulant as a high degree of heat. 196. GOOD NARRATORS, BAD EXPLAINERS. Good narrators can display in the actions of their characters an admirable psychological certainty and consistency, which often stands in downright ludicrous contrast to their lack of skill in thinking psychologically. Thus their culture appears at one moment as excellently high as in the next it appears regrettably low. Too often it even happens that they are obviously explaining the actions and natures of their own heroes incorrectlythere is no doubt about it, as improbable as it sounds. The greatest pianist may have thought only a little about technical requirements and the special virtue, vice, use and educability of each finger (dactylic ethics), and make crude errors when he speaks about such things. 197. WRITING OF ACQUAINTANCES AND THEIR READERS. We read the writings of acquaintances (friends and enemies) doubly, inasmuch as our knowledge keeps whispering alongside, That is by him, a sign of his inner nature, his experience, his gift; and, on the other hand, a different kind of knowledge tries to ascertain what the yield of the work itself is, what esteem it deserves aside from its author, what enrichment of learning it brings with it. As is self evident, these two kinds of reading and weighing interfere with one another. Even a conversation with a friend will produce good fruits of knowledge only when both people finally think solely of the matter at hand and forget that they are friends. 198. SACRIFICE OF RHYTHM. Good writers change the rhythm of some sentences simply because they do not credit the ordinary reader with the ability to grasp the meter of the sentence in its first version. So they simplify it for the reader, by choosing better-known rhythms. Such consideration for the contemporary reader s lack of rhythmical ability has already elicited some sighs, for much has already been sacrificed to it. Do good musicians experience the same thing? 199. THE INCOMPLETE AS ARTISTIC STIMULANT. Incompleteness is often more effective than completeness, especially in eulogies. For such purposes, one needs precisely a stimulating incompleteness as an irrational element that simulates a sea for the listener s imagination, and, like fog, hides its opposite shore, that is, the limitation of the subject being praised. If one mentions the well-known merits of a man, and is exhaustive and expansive in doing so, it always gives rise to the suspicion that these are his only merits. He who praises completely places himself above the man being praised; he seems to take him in at a glance. For that reason, completeness has a weakening effect. 200. WARNING TO WRITERS AND TEACHERS. He who has once written, and feels in himself the passion of writing, acquires from almost all he does and experiences only that 70 which can be communicated through writing. He no longer thinks of himself but of the writer and his public: he desires insight, but not for his own private use. He who is a teacher is usually incapable of any longer doing anything for his own benefit, he always thinks of the benefit of his pupils, and he takes pleasure in knowledge of any kind only insofar as he can teach it. He regards himself in the end as a thoroughfa re of knowledge and as a means and instrument in general, so that he has ceased to be serious with regard to himself. 8F9 201. BAD WRITERS NECESSARY. There will always have to be bad writers, for they reflect the taste of undeveloped, immature age groups, who have needs as much as the mature do. If human life were longer, there would be more of the individuals who have matured than of the immature, or at least as many. But as it is, the great majority die too young, which means there are always many more undeveloped intellects with bad taste. Moreover, these people demand satisfaction of their needs with the greater vehemence of youth, and they force the existence of bad authors. 202. TOO NEAR AND TOO FAR. Often reader and author do not understand each other because the author knows his theme too well and finds it almost boring, so that he leaves out the examples he knows by the hundred; but the reader is strange to the matter and finds it poorly substantiated if the examples are withheld from him. 203. A VANISHED PREPARATION FOR ART. Of all the things the grammar school did, the most valuable was its training in Latin style, for this was an artistic exercise, while all other occupations were aimed solely at learning. To put the German essay first is barbaris m, for we have no classical German style developed by a tradition of public eloquence; but if one wants to use the German essay to further the practice of thinking, it is certainly better if one ignores the style entirely for the time being, thus distinguishing between exercise in thinking and in describing. The latter should be concerned with multiple versions of a given content, and not with independent invention of the content. Description only, with the content given, was the assignment of Latin style, for which the old teachers possessed a long-since- lost refinement of hearing. Anyone who in the past learned to write well in a modern language owed it to this exercise (now one is obliged to go to school under the older French teachers); and still further: he gained a concept of the majesty and difficulty of form, and was prepared for art in general in the only possible right way: through practice. 204. DARK AND TOO BRIGHT SIDE BY SIDE. Writers who do not know how to express their thoughts clearly in general, will in particular prefer to select the strongest, most exaggerated terms and superlatives: this produces an effect as of torchlights along confusing forest paths. 205. PAINTING IN WRITING. When portraying important objects, one will do best to t ake the colors for the painting from the object itself, as would a chemist, and then to use them as would an artist, allowing the design to develop out of the distinctions and blendings of the 9 Beyond Good an d Evil, 63: Whoever is a teacher through and through takes all things seriously only in relation to his students even himself. 71 colors. In this way, the painting acquires something of the thr illing innate quality that makes the object itself significant. 206. BOOKS WHICH TEACH ONE TO DANCE. There are writers who, by portraying the impossible as possible, and by speaking of morality and genius as if both were merely a mood or a whim, elicit a feeling of high-spirited freedom, as if man were rising up on tiptoe and simply had to dance out of inner pleasure. 207 UNCOMPLETED THOUGHTS. Just as youth and childhood have value in themselves (as much as the prime of life) and are not to be considered a mere transition or bridge, so too do unfinished thoughts have their own value. Thus we must not pester a poet with subtle interpretations, but should take pleasure in the uncertainty of his horizon, as if the road to various other thoughts were still ope n. We stand on the threshold; we wait as if a treasure were being dug up; it is as if a lucky trove of profundity were about to be found. The poet anticipates something of the thinkers pleasure in finding a central thought and in doing so makes us covetous, so that we snatch at it. But it flutters past over our heads, showing the loveliest butterfly wings and yet it slips away from us. 208. THE BOOK BECOME ALMOST HUMAN. Every writer is surprised anew when a book, as soon as it has separated from him, begins to take on a life of its own. He feels as if one part of an insect had been severed and were going its own way. Perhaps he almost forgets the book; perhaps he rises above the views set down in it; perhaps he no longer understands it and has lost those wings on which he soared when he devised that book. Meanwhile, it goes about finding its readers, kindles life, pleases, horrifies, fathers new works, becomes the soul of others resolutions and behaviorin short, it lives like a being fitted out with mind and soul and yet it is nevertheless not human. The most fortunate author is one who is able to say as an old man that all he had of life-giving, invigorating, uplifting, enlightening thoughts and feelings still lives on in his writings, and that he himself is only the gray ash, while the fire has been rescued and carried forth everywhere. If one considers, then, that a man s every action, not only his books, in some way becomes the occasion for other actions, decisions, and thoughts; that everything which is happening is inextricably tied to everything which will happen; then one understands the real immortality, that of movement: what once has moved others is like an insect in amber, enclosed and immortalized in the general intertwining of all that exists . 209. JOY IN AGE. The thinker or artist whose better self has fled into his works feels an almost malicious joy when he sees his body and spirit slowly broken into and destroyed by time; it is as if he were in a corner, watching a thief at work on his sa fe, all the while knowing that it is empty and that all his treasures have been rescued. 210. QUIET FRUITFULNESS. The born aristocrats of the spirit are not too zealous: their creations appear and fall from the tree on a quiet autumn evening unprecipitately, in due time, not quickly pushed aside by something new. The desire to create continually is vulgar and betrays jealousy, envy, ambition. If one is something one really does not need to make anythingand one nonetheless does very much. There exists abov e the productive man a yet higher species. 72 211. ACHILLES AND HOMER. It is always as between Achilles and Homer: the one has the experience, the sensation, the other describes it. A true writer only bestows words on the emotions and experiences of others , he is an artist so as to divine much from the little he himself has felt. Artists are by no means men of great passion but they often pretend to be, in the unconscious feeling that their painted passions will seem more believable if their own life speaks for their experience in this field. One has only to let oneself go, to abandon self- control, to give rein to one s anger or desires: at once all the world cries: how passionate he is! But deep -rooted passion, passion which gnaws at the individual and often consumes him, is a thing of some consequence: he who experiences such passion certainly does not describe it in dramas, music or novels. Artists are often unbridled individuals to the extent that they are not artists: but that is something else. 212. OLD DOUBTS OVER THE EFFECT OF ART. Are fear and pity really discharged by tragedy, as Aristotle has it 9F10, so that the auditor goes home colder and more placid? Do ghost stories make one less fearful and superstitious? It is true in the case of certain physic al events, the enjoyment of love for example, that with the satisfaction of a need an alleviation and temporary relaxation of the drive occurs. But fear and pity are not in this sense needs of definite organs which want to be relieved. And in the long run a drive is, through practice in satisfying it, intensified, its periodical alleviation notwithstanding. It is possible that in each individual instance fear and pity are mitigated and discharged: they could nonetheless grow greater as a whole through the tragic effect in general, and Plato could still be right when he says that through tragedy one becomes generally more fearful and emotional. The tragic poet himself would then necessarily acquire a gloomy, disheartened view of the world and a soft, suscepti ble, tearful soul, and it would likewise accord with Platos opinion of the matter if the tragic poet and with him whole city communities which take especial delight in him should degenerate to ever greater unbridledness and immoderation.But what right has our age to offer an answer to Plato s great question concerning the moral influence of art at all? Even if we possessed art what influence of any kind does art exercise among us? 213. PLEASURE IN NONSENSE. How can man take pleasure in nonsense? For wher ever in the world there is laughter this is the case; one can say, indeed, that almost everywhere there is happiness there is pleasure in nonsense. The overturning of experience into its opposite, of the purposive into the purposeless, of the necessary into the arbitrary, but in such a way that this event causes no harm and is imagined as occasioned by high spirits, delights us, for it momentarily liberates us from the constraint of the necessary, the purposive and that which corresponds to our experience w hich we usually see as our inexorable masters; we play and laugh when the expected (which usually makes us fearful and tense) discharges itself harmlessly. It is the pleasure of the slave at the Saturnalia. 214. ENNOBLEMENT OF REALITY. Because men once to ok the aphrodisiacal drive to be a godhead, showing worshipful gratitude when they felt its effect, that emotion has in the course of time been permeated with higher kinds of ideas, and thus in fact greatly ennobled. By virtue of this idealizing art, some peoples have turned diseases into great beneficial forces of culture: the Greeks, for example, who in earlier centuries suffered from widespread 10 Poetics, 1449b; Politics, 1341b 73 nervous epidemics (similar to epilepsy and the St. Vitus Dance) and created the glorious prototype of the bacchante from them. For the health of the Greeks was not at all robust; their secret was to honor illness like a god, too, if only it were powerful. 215. MUSIC. Music is, of and in itself, not so significant for our inner world, nor so profoundly exciting, t hat it can be said to count as the immediate language of feeling; but its primeval union with poetry has deposited so much symbolism into rhythmic movement, into the varying strength and volume of musical sounds, that we now suppose it to speak directly to the inner world and to come from the inner world. Dramatic music becomes possible only when the tonal art has conquered an enormous domain of symbolic means, through song, opera and a hundred experiments in tone-painting. Absolute music is either form in itself, at a primitive stage of music in which sounds made in tempo and at varying volume gave pleasure as such, or symbolism of form speaking to the understanding without poetry after both arts had been united over a long course of evolution and the mus ical form had finally become entirely enmeshed in threads of feeling and concepts. Men who have remained behind in the evolution of music can understand in a purely formalistic way the same piece of music as the more advanced understand wholly symbolically. In itself, no music is profound or significant, it does not speak of the will or of the thing- in-itself ; the intellect could suppose such a thing only in an age which had conquered for musical symbolism the entire compass of the inner life. It was the intellect itself which first introduced this significance into sounds: just as, in the case of architecture, it likewise introduced a significance into the relations between lines and masses which is in itself quite unknown to the laws of mechanics. 216. GESTURE AND LANGUAGE. Imitation of gesture is older than language, and goes on involuntarily even now, when the language of gesture is universally suppressed, and the educated are taught to control their muscles. The imitation of gesture is so strong tha t we cannot watch a face in movement without the innervation of our own face (one can observe that feigned yawning will evoke natural yawning in the man who observes it). The imitated gesture led the imitator back to the sensation expressed by the gesture in the body or face of the one being imitated. This is how we learned to understand one another; this is how the child still learns to understand its mother. In general, painful sensations were probably also expressed by a gesture that in its turn caused pain (for example, tearing the hair, beating the breast, violent distortion and tensing of the facial muscles). Conversely, gestures of pleasure were themselves pleasurable and were therefore easily suited to the communication of understanding (laughing as a sign of being tickled, which is pleasurable, then served to express other pleasurable sensations). As soon as men understood each other in gesture, a symbolism of gesture could evolve. I mean, one could agree on a language of tonal signs, in such a way that at first both tone and gesture (which were joined by tone symbolically) were produced, and later only the tone. It seems that in earlier times, something must often have occurred much like what is now going on before our eyes and ears in the development of music; namely of dramatic music: while music without explanatory dance and miming (language of gesture) is at first empty noise, long habituation to that juxtaposition of music and gesture teaches the ear an immediate understanding of the tonal figures. Finally, the ear reaches a level of rapid understanding such that it no longer requires visible movement, and understands the composer without it. Then we are talking about absolute music, that is, music in which everything can be understood symbolically, without further aids. 217. 74 THE DESENSUALIZATION OF HIGHER ART. Because the artistic development of modern music has forced the intellect to undergo an extraordinary training, our ears have become increasingly intellectual. Thus we can now endure much greater volume, much greater noise, because we are much better trained than our forefathers were to listen for the reason in it. All our senses have in fact become somewhat dulled because we always inquire after the reason, what it means and no longer what it is. Such a dullness is betrayed, for example, by the unqualified rule of tempered notes. For now those ears still able to make the finer distinctions, say, between C-sharp and D-flat are exceptions. In this regard, our ear has become coarsened. Furthermore, the ugly side of the world, originally inimical to the senses, has been won over for music. Its area of power to express the sublime, the frightful, and the mysterious, has thus been astonishingly extended. Our music makes things speak that before had no tongue. Similarly, some painters have made the eye more intellectual, and have gone far beyond what was previously called a joy in form and color. Here, too, that side of the world originally considered ugly has been conquered by artistic understanding. What is the consequence of all this? The more the eye and ear are capable of thought, the more they reach that boundary line where they become unsensual. Joy is transferred to the brain; the sense organs themselves become dull and weak. More and more, the symbolic replaces that which exists and so, as surely as on any other path, we arrive along this one at barbarism. For the present, it is still said that the world is uglier than ever, but it means a more beautiful world than ever exi sted. But the more the perfumed fragrance of meaning is dispersed and evaporated, the rarer will be those who can still perceive it. And the rest will stay put at ugliness, seeking to enjoy it directly; such an attempt is bound to fail. Thus we have in Germany a twofold trend in musical development: on the one side, a group of ten thousand with ever higher, more delicate pretensions, ever more attuned to what it means ; and on the other side, the vast majority, which each year is becoming ever more incapable of understanding meaning, even in the form of sensual ugliness, and is therefore learning to reach out with increasing pleasure for that which is intrinsically ugly and repulsive, that is, the basely sensual. 218. A STONE IS MORE OF A STONE THAN FORMERLY. As a general rule we no longer understand architecture, at least by no means in the same way as we understand music. We have outgrown the symbolism of lines and figures, just as we are no longer accustomed to the sound- effects of rhetoric, and h ave not absorbed this kind of mother s milk of culture since our first moment of life. Everything in a Greek or Chris- tian building originally had a meaning, and re- ferred to a higher order of things; this feeling of inexhaustible meaning enveloped the e difice like a mystic veil. Beauty was only a secondary con - sideration in the system, without in any way materially injuring the fundamental sentiment of the mysteriously -exalted, the divinely and magic- ally consecrated ; at the most, beauty tempered horror but this horror was everywhere presupposed. What is the beauty of a building now? The same thing as the beautiful face of a stupid woman, a kind of mask. 219. THE RELIGIOUS SOURCE OF THE NEWER MUSIC. Soulful music arose out of the Catholicism re -estab lished after the Council of Trent, through Palestrina, who endowed the newly -awakened, earnest, and deeply moved spirit with sound; later on, in Bach, it appeared also in Protestantism, as far as this had been deepened by the Pietists and released from its originally dogmatic character. The supposition and necessary preparation for both origins is the familiarity with music, which existed during and before the Renaissance, namely that learned occupation with music, which was really scientific pleasure in the masterpieces of 75 harmony and voice-training. On the other hand, the opera must have preceded it, wherein the layman made his protest against a music that had grown too learned and cold, and endeavoured to re-endow Polyhymnia with a soul. Without the change to that deeply religious sentiment, without the dying away of the inwardly moved temperament, music would have remained learned or operatic; the spirit of the counter- reformation is the spirit of modern music (for that pietism in Bach s music is also a k ind of counter-reformation). So deeply are we indebted to the religious life. Music was the counter- reformation in the field of art; to this belongs also the later painting of the Caracci and Caravaggi, perhaps also the baroque style, in any case more than the architecture of the Renaissance or of antiquity. And we might still ask : if our newer music could move stones, would it build them up into antique architecture? I very much doubt it. For that which predominates in this music, affections, pleasure in exalted, highly-strained sentiments, the desire to be alive at any cost, the quick change of feeling, the strong relief-effects of light and shade, the combination of the ecstatic and the naive, all this has already reigned in the plastic arts and created n ew laws of style : but it was neither in the time of antiquity nor of the Renaissance. 220. THE BEYOND IN ART. It is not without deep pain that we acknowledge the fact that in their loftiest soarings, artists of all ages have exalted and divinely transfigured precisely those ideas which we now recognise as false; they are the glorifiers of humanity s religious and philosophical errors, and they could not have been this without belief in the absolute truth of these errors. But if the belief in such truth diminishes at all, if the rainbow colours at the farthest ends of human knowledge and imagination fade, then this kind of art can never re-flourish, for, like the Divina Commedia, Raphael s paintings, Michelangelo s frescoes, and Gothic cathedrals, they indicate not only a cosmic but also a metaphysical meaning in the work of art. Out of all this will grow a touching legend that such an art and such an artistic faith once existed. 221. REVOLUTION IN POETRY. The strict limit which the French dramatists marked out with regard to unity of action, time and place, construction of style, verse and sentence, selection of words and ideas, was a school as important as that of counterpoint and fugue in the development of modern music or that of the Gorgianic figures in Greek oratory. Such a restriction may appear absurd ; nevertheless there is no means of getting out of naturalism except by confining ourselves at first to the strongest (perhaps most arbitrary) means. Thus we gradually learn to walk gracefully on the narrow paths that bridge giddy abysses, and acquire great suppleness of movement as a result, as the history of music proves to our living eyes. Here we see how, step by step, the fetters get looser, until at last they may appear to be altogether thrown off; this appearance is the highest achievement of a necessary development in art. In the art of modern poetry there existed no such fortunate, gradual emerging from self-imposed fetters. Lessing held up to scorn in Germany the French form, the only modern form o f art, and pointed to Shakespeare; and thus the steadiness of that unfettering was lost and a spring was made into naturalismthat is, back into the beginnings of art. From this Goethe endeavoured to save himself, by always trying to limit himself anew in different ways ; but even the most gifted only succeeds by continuously experimenting, if the thread of development has once been broken. It is to the unconsciously revered, if also repudiated, model of French tragedy that Schiller owes his comparative sureness of form, and he remained fairly independent of Lessing (whose dramatic attempts he is well known to have rejected). But after Voltaire the French themselves suddenly lacked the great talents which would have led the development of tragedy out of const raint to that apparent freedom ; later 76 on they followed the German example and made a spring into a sort of Rousseau -like state of nature and experiments. It is only necessary to read Voltaire s Mahomet from time to time in order to perceive clearly what European culture has lost through that breaking down of tradition. Once for all, Voltaire was the last of the great dramatists who with Greek proportion controlled his manifold soul, equal even to the greatest storms of tragedy, he was able to do what n o German could, because the French nature is much nearer akin to the Greek than is the German ; he was also the last great writer who in the wielding of prose possessed the Greek ear, Greek artistic conscientiousness, and Greek simplicity and grace; he was, also, one of the last men able to combine in himself the greatest freedom of mind and an absolutely unrevolutionary way of thinking without being inconsistent and cowardly. Since that time the modern spirit, with its restlessness and its hatred of moderation and restrictions, has obtained the mastery on all sides, let loose at first by the fever of revolution, and then once more putting a bridle on itself when it became filled with fear and horror at itself,but it was the bridle of rigid logic, no longer that of artistic moderation. It is true that through that unfettering for a time we are able to enjoy the poetry of all nations, everything that has sprung up in hidden places, original, wild, wonderfully beautiful and gigantically irregular, from folk -songs up to the great barbarian Shakespeare; we taste the joys of local colour and costume, hitherto unknown to all artistic nations; we make liberal use of the barbaric advantages of our time, which Goethe accentuated against Schiller in order to pla ce the formlessness of his Faust in the most favourable light. But for how much longer? The encroaching flood of poetry of all styles and all nations must gradually sweep away that magic garden upon which a quiet and hidden growth would still have been pos sible ; all poets must become experimenting imitators, daring copyists, however great their primary strength may be. Eventually, the public, which has lost the habit of seeing the actual artistic fact in the controlling of depicting power, in the organising mastery over all art - means, must come ever more and more to value power for power s sake, colour for colour s sake, idea for idea s sake, inspiration for inspiration s sake ; accordingly it will not enjoy the elements and conditions of the work of art, unl ess isolated , and finally will make the very natural demand that the artist must deliver it to them isolated. True, the senseless fetters of Franco -Greek art have been thrown off, but unconsciously we have grown accustomed to consider all fetters, all restrictions as senseless; and so art moves towards its liberation, but, in so doing, it toucheswhich is certainly highly edifyingupon all the phases of its beginning, its childhood, its incompleteness, its sometime boldness and excesses, in perishing it interprets its origin and growth. One of the great ones, whose instinct may be relied on and whose theory lacked nothing but thirty years more of practice, Lord Byron, once said: that with regard to poetry in general, the more he thought about it the more convinced he was that one and all we are entirely on a wrong track, that we are following an inwardly false revolutionary system, and that either our own generation or the next will yet arrive at this same conviction. It is the same Lord Byron who said that he looked upon Shakespeare as the very worst model, although the most extraordinary poet. And does not Goethe s mature artistic insight in the second half of his life say practically the same thing? that insight by means of which he made such a bound in advance of whole generations that, generally speaking, it may be said that Goethe s influence has not yet begun, that his time has still to come. Just because his nature held him fast for a long time in the path of the poetical revolution, just because he drank to the dregs of whatsoever new sources, views and expedients had been indirectly discovered through that breaking down of tradition, of all that had been unearthed from under the ruins of art, his later transformation and conversion carries so mu ch weight; it shows that he felt the deepest longing to win back the traditions of art, and to give in fancy the ancient perfection and completeness to the abandoned ruins and colonnades of the temple, with the imagination of the eye at least, should the strength of the 77 arm be found too weak to build where such tremendous powers were needed even to destroy. Thus he lived in art as in the remembrance of the true art, his poetry had become an aid to remembrance, to the understanding of old and long- departed ages of art. With respect to the strength of the new age, his demands could not be satisfied; but the pain this occasioned was amply balanced by the joy that they have been satisfied once, and that we ourselves can still participate in this satisfaction. Not individuals, but more or less ideal masks ; no reality, but an allegorical generality ; topical characters, local colours toned down and rendered mythical almost to the point of in - visibility ; contemporary feeling and the problems of contemporary society reduced to the simplest forms, stripped of their attractive, interesting pathological qualit ies, made ineffective in every other but the artistic sense; no new materials and characters, but the old, long-accustomed ones in constant new animation and transformation; that is art, as Goethe understood it later, as the Greeks and even the French prac tised it. 222. WHAT REMAINS OF ART. It is true that art has a much greater value in the case of certain metaphysical hypotheses, for instance when the belief obtains that the character is unchangeable and that the essence of the world manifests itself continually in all character and action ; thus the artists work becomes the symbol of the eternally constant, while according to our views the artist can only endow his picture with temporary value, because man on the whole has developed and is mutable, and even the individual man has nothing fixed and constant. The same thing holds good with another metaphysical hypothesis: assuming that our visible world were only a delusion, as metaphysicians declare, then art would come very close to the real world; for there would be much similarity between the world of appearance and the artist s world of dream images; the remaining difference would actually enhance the meaning of art rather than the meaning of nature, because art would portray the symmetry, the types and models of nature. But such assumptions are wrong: what place remains for art, then, after this knowledge? Above all, for thousands of years, it has taught us to see every form of life with interest and joy, and to develop our sensibility so that we final ly call out, However it may be, life is good. 10F11 This teaching of art-to have joy in existence and to regard human life as a part of nature, without being moved too violently, as something that developed through lawsthis teaching has taken root in us; it now comes to light again as an all-powerful need for knowledge. We could give art up, but in doing so we would not forfeit what it has taught us to do. Similarly, we have given up religion, but not the emotional intensification and exaltation it led to. A s plastic art and music are the standard for the wealth of feeling really earned and won through religion, so the intense and manifold joy in life, which art implants in us, would still demand satisfaction were art to disappear. The scientific man is a fur ther development of the artistic man. 223 EVENING TWILIGHT OF ART. Just as in an old age one remembers ones youth and celebrates festivals of remembrance, so will mankind soon stand in relation to art: it will be a moving recollection of the joys of youth. Perhaps art has never before been comprehended so profoundly or with so much feeling as it is now, when the magic of death seems to play around it. Recall that Greek city in south Italy which on one day of the year continued to celebrate their Greek fes tival and did so with tears and sadness at the fact that foreign barbarism was triumphing more and more over the customs they had brought with them; it is to be doubted whether the Hellenic has ever been so greatly savored, or its golden nectar imbibed with so much relish, as it was among these declining Hellenes. The artist will soon be regarded as a glorious relic, and we shall bestow upon him, as a marvelous stranger upon 11 Goethe, Der Brutigam: Wie es auch sei, das Leben, es ist gut. 78 whose strength and beauty the happiness of former ages depended, honors such as we do not grant to others of our own kind. The best in us has perhaps been inherited from the sensibilities of earlier ages to which we hardly any longer have access by direct paths; the sun has already set, but the sky of our life still glows with its light, even though we no longer see it. 79 Fifth Division - The Signs Of Higher And Lower Culture 224. ENNOBLEMENT THROUGH DEGENERATION. History teaches that a race of people is best preserved where the greater number hold one common spirit in consequence of the similarity of their accustomed and indisputable principles: in consequence, therefore, of their common faith. Thus strength is afforded by good and thorough customs, thus is learnt the subjection of the individual, and strenuousness of c haracter becomes a birth gift and afterwards is fostered as a habit. The danger to these communities founded on individuals of strong and similar character is that gradually increasing stupidity through transmission, which follows all stability like its sh adow. It is on the more unrestricted, more uncertain and morally weaker individuals that depends the intellectual progress of such communities, it is they who attempt all that is new and manifold. Numbers of these perish on account of their weakness, witho ut having achieved any specially visible effect; but generally, particularly when they have descendants, they flare up and from time to time inflict a wound on the stable element of the community. Precisely in this sore and weakened place the community is inoculated with something new; but its general strength must be great enough to absorb and assimilate this new thing into its blood. Deviating natures are of the utmost importance wherever there is to be progress. Every wholesale progress must be preceded by a partial weakening. The strongest natures retain the type, the weaker ones help it to develop . Something similar happens in the case of individuals; a deterioration, a mutilation, even a vice and, above all, a physical or moral loss is seldom without its advantage. For instance, a sickly man in the midst of a warlike and restless race will perhaps have more chance of being alone and thereby growing quieter and wiser, the one-eyed man will possess a stronger eye, the blind man will have a deeper inward sight and will certainly have a keener sense of hearing. In so far it appears to me that the famous Struggle for Existence is not the only point of view from which an explanation can be given of the progress or strengthening of an individual or a race. Rather must two different things converge: firstly, the multiplying of stable strength through mental binding in faith and common feeling; secondly, the pos sibility of attaining to higher aims, through the fact that there are deviating natures and, in consequence, partial weakening and wounding of the stable strength; it is precisely the weaker nature, as the more delicate and free, that makes all progress at all possible. A people that is crumbling and weak in any one part, but as a whole still strong and healthy, is able to absorb the infection of what is new and incorporate it to its advantage. The task of education in a single individual is this: to plant him so firmly and surely that, as a whole, he can no longer be diverted from his path. Then, however, the educator must wound him, or else make use of the wounds which fate inflicts, and when pain and need have thus arisen, something new and noble can be inoculated into the wounded places. With regard to the State, Machiavelli says that, the form of Government is of very small importance, although half-educated people think otherwise. The great aim of State -craft should be duration, which outweighs all el se, inasmuch as it is more valuable than liberty. It is only with securely founded and guaranteed duration that continual development and ennobling inoculation are at all possible. As a rule, however, authority, the dangerous companion of all duration, wi ll rise in opposition to this. 225. 80 FREE -THINKER A RELATIVE TERM. We call that man a free-thinker who thinks otherwise than is expected of him in consideration of his origin, surroundings, position, and office, or by reason of the prevailing contemporary views. He is the exception, fettered minds are the rule; these latter reproach him, saying that his free principles either have their origin in a desire to be remarkable or else cause free actions to be inferred, that is to say, actions which are not compat ible with fettered morality. Sometimes it is also said that the cause of such and such free principles may be traced to mental perversity and extravagance; but only malice speaks thus, nor does it believe what it says, but wishes thereby to do an injury, for the free-thinker usually bears the proof of his greater goodness and keenness of intellect written in his face so plainly that the fettered spirits understand it well enough. But the two other derivations of free-thought are honestly intended; as a matt er of fact, many free -thinkers are created in one or other of these ways. For this reason, however, the tenets to which they attain in this manner might be truer and more reliable than those of the fettered spirits. In the knowledge of truth, what really m atters is the possession of it, not the impulse under which it was sought, the way in which it was found. If the free-thinkers are right then the fettered spirits are wrong, and it is a matter of indifference whether the former have reached truth through immorality or the latter hitherto retained hold of untruths through morality. Moreover, it is not essential to the free-thinker that he should hold more correct views, but that he should have liberated himself from what was customary, be it successfully or disastrously. As a rule, however, he will have truth, or at least the spirit of truth-investigation, on his side; he demands reasons, the others demand faith. 226. THE ORIGIN OF FAITH. The fettered spirit does not take up his position from conviction, but from habit; he is a Christian, for instance, not because he had a comprehension of different creeds and could take his choice; he is an Englishman, not because he decided for England, but he found Christianity and England ready- made and accepted them witho ut any reason, just as one who is born in a wine- country becomes a wine-drinker. Later on, perhaps, as he was a Christian and an Englishman, he discovered a few reasons in favour of his habit; these reasons may be upset, but he is not therefore upset in his whole position. For instance, let a fettered spirit be obliged to bring forward his reasons against bigamy and then it will be seen whether his holy zeal in favour of monogamy is based upon reason or upon custom. The adoption of guiding principles without reasons is called faith . 227. CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE CONSEQUENCES AND TRACED BACK TO REASON AND UN- REASON. All states and orders of society, professions, matrimony, education, law: all these find strength and duration only in the faith which the fettered spirits repose in them,that is, in the absence of reasons, or at least in the averting of inquiries as to reasons. The restricted spirits do not willingly acknowledge this, and fee l that it is a pudendum . Christianity, however, which was very simple in its intellectual ideas, remarked nothing of this pudendum , required faith and nothing but faith, and passionately repulsed the demand for reasons; it pointed to the success of faith: You will soon feel the advantages of faith, it suggested, and through faith shall ye be saved. As an actual fact, the State pursues the same course, and every father brings up his son in the same way: Only believe this, he says, and you will soon feel the good it does. This implies, however, that the truth of an opinion is proved by its personal usefulness; the wholesomeness of a doctrine must be a guarantee for its intellectual surety and solidity. It is exactly as if an accused person in a cour t of law were to say, My counsel speaks the whole truth, for only see what is the result of his speech: I shall be acquitted. Because the fettered spirits retain their principles on account of 81 their usefulness, they suppose that the free spirit also seeks his own advantage in his views and only holds that to be true which is profitable to him. But as he appears to find profitable just the contrary of that which his compatriots or equals find profitable, these latter assume that his principles are dangerous to them; they say or feel, He must not be right, for he is injurious to us. 228. THE STRONG, GOOD CHARACTER. The restriction of views, which habit has made instinct, leads to what is called strength of character. When any one acts from few but always from the same motives, his actions acquire great energy ; if these actions accord with the principles of the fettered spirits they are recognised, and they produce, moreover, in those who perform them the sensation of a good conscience. Few motives, energe tic action, and a good conscience compose what is called strength of character. The man of strong character lacks a knowledge of the many possibilities and directions of action; his intellect is fettered and restricted, because in a given case it shows him , perhaps, only two possibilities; between these two he must now of necessity choose, in accordance with his whole nature, and he does this easily and quickly because he has not to choose between fifty possibilities. The educating surroundings aim at fettering every individual, by always placing before him the smallest number of possibilities. The individual is always treated by his educators as if he were, indeed, something new, but should become a duplicate . If he makes his first appearance as something unknown, unprecedented, he must be turned into something known and precedented. In a child, the familiar manifestation of restriction is called a good character; in placing itself on the side of the fettered spirits the child first discloses its awakening c ommon feeling; with this foundation of common sentiment, he will eventually become useful to his State or rank. 229. THE STANDARDS AND VALUES OF THE FETTERED SPIRITS. There are four species of things concerning which the restricted spirits say they are in the right. Firstly : all things that last are right; secondly: all things that are not burdens to us are right; thirdly : all things that are advantageous for us are right; fourthly: all things for which we have made sacrifices are right. The last sentence, for instance, explains why a war that was begun in opposition to popular feeling is carried on with enthusiasm directly a sacrifice has been made for it. The free spirits, who bring their case before the forum of the fettered spirits, must prove that free spirits always existed, that free -spiritism is therefore enduring, that it will not become a burden, and, finally, that on the whole they are an advantage to the fettered spirits. It is because they cannot convince the restricted spirits on this last point that they profit nothing by having proved the first and second propositions. 230. ESPRIT FORT. Compared with him who has tradition on his side and requires no reasons for his actions, the free spirit is always weak, especially in action ; for he is acquainted with too many motives and points of view, and has, therefore, an uncertain and unpractised hand. What means exist of making him strong in spite of this , so that he will, at least, manage to survive, and will not perish ineffectually? What is the source of the strong spirit ( esprit fort )? This is especially the question as to the production of genius. Whence comes the energy, the unbending strength, the endurance with which the one, in opposition to accepted ideas, endeavours to obtain an entirely individual knowledge of the world? 231. 82 THE RISE OF GENIUS. The ingenuity with which a prisoner seeks the means of freedom, the most cold -blooded and patient employment of every smallest advantage, can teach us of what tools Nature sometimes ma kes use in order to produce Genius,a word which I beg will be understood without any mythological and religious flavour; she, Nature, begins it in a dungeon and excites to the utmost its desire to free itself. Or to give another picture: some one who has completely lost his way in a wood, but who with unusual energy strives to reach the open in one direction or another, will sometimes dis- cover a new path which nobody knew previously, thus arise geniuses, who are credited with originality. It has already been said that mutilation, crippling, or the loss of some important organ, is frequently the cause of the unusual development of another organ, because this one has to fulfil its own and also another function. This explains the source of many a brilliant talent. These general remarks on the origin of genius may be applied to the special case, the origin of the perfect free spirit. 232. CONJECTURE AS TO THE ORIGIN OF FREE -SPIRITISM. Just as the glaciers increase when in equatorial regions the sun shines upon the seas with greater force than hitherto, so may a very strong and spreading free- spiritism be a proof that somewhere or other the force of feeling has grown extraordinarily. 233. THE VOICE OF HISTORY. In general, history appears to teach the following about the production of genius: it ill- treats and torments mankind calls to the passions of envy, hatred, and rivalrydrives them to desperation, people against people, throughout whole centuries ! Then, perhaps, like a stray spark from the terrible energy thereby aroused, there flames up suddenly the light of genius; the will, like a horse maddened by the riders spur, thereupon breaks out and leaps over into another domain. He who could attain to a comprehension of the production of genius, and desires to carry out practically the manner in which Nature usually goes to work, would have to be just as evil and regardless as Nature itself, But perhaps we have not heard rightly. 234. THE VALUE OF THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. It is possible that the production of genius is reserved to a limited period of mankinds history. For we must not expect from the future everything that very defined conditions were able to produce; for instance, not the astounding effects of religious feeling. This has had its day, and much that is very good can never grow again, because it could grow out of that alone. There will never again be a horizon of life and culture that is bounded by religion. Perhaps even the type of the saint is only possible with that certain narrowness of intellect, which apparently has completely disappeared. And thus the greatest height of intelligence has perhaps been reserved for a single age; it appeared and appears, for we are still in that age when an extraordinary, long- accumulated energy of will concentrates itself, as an exceptional case, upon intellectual aims. That height will no longer exist when this wildness and energy cease to be cultivated. Mankind probably approaches nearer to its actual aim in the middle of its road, in the middle time of its existence than at the end. It may be that powers with which, for instance, art is a condition, die out altogether; the pleasure in lying, in the undefined, the symbolical, in intoxication, in ecstasy might fall into disrepute. For certainly, when life is ordered in the perfect State, the present will provide no more motive for poetry, and it would only be those persons who had remained behind who would ask for poetical unreality. These, then, would assuredly look longingly backwards to the times of the imperfect State, of half -barbaric society, to our times. 83 235. GENIUS AND THE IDEAL STATE IN CONFLICT. The Socialists demand a comfortable life for the greatest possible number. If the lasting house of this life of comfort, the perfect State, had really been attained, then this life of comfort would have destroyed the ground out of which grow the great intellect and the mighty individual generally, I mean powerful energy. Were this State reached, mankind would have grown too weary to be still capable of producing genius. Must we not hence wish that life should retain its forcible character, and that wild forces and energies should continue to be called forth afresh? But warm and sympathetic hearts desire precisely the removal of that wild and forcible character, and t he warmest hearts we can imagine desire it the most passionately of all, whilst all the time its passion derived its fire, its warmth, its very existence precisely from that wild and forcible character ; the warmest heart, therefore, desires the removal of its own foundation, the destruction of itself, that is, it desires something illogical, it is not intelligent. The highest intelligence and the warmest heart cannot exist together in one person, and the wise man who passes judgment upon life looks beyond goodness and only regards it as something which is not without value in the general summing-up of life. The wise man must oppose those digressive wishes of unintelligent goodness, because he has an interest in the continuance of his type and in the eventual appearance of the highest intellect ; at least, he will not advance the founding of the perfect State, inasmuch as there is only room in it for wearied individuals. Christ, on the contrary, he whom we may consider to have had the warmest heart, advanced the process of making man stupid, placed himself on the side of the intellectually poor, and retarded the production of the greatest intellect, and this was consistent. His opposite, the man of perfect wisdom,this may be safely prophesiedwill just as necessarily hinder the production of a Christ. The State is a wise arrangement for the protection of one individual against another; if its ennobling is exaggerated the individual will at last be weakened by it, even effaced, thus the original purpose of the State will be most completely frustrated. 236. THE ZONES OF CULTURE. It may be figuratively said that the ages of culture correspond to the zones of the various climates, only that they lie one behind another and not beside each other like the geographical zones. In comparison with the temperate zone of culture, which it is our object to enter, the past, speaking generally, gives the impression of a tropical climate . Violent contrasts, sudden changes between day and night, heat and colour- splendour, the reverence of all that was sudden, mysterious, terrible, the rapidity with which storms broke: everywhere that lavish abundance of the provisions of nature; and opposed to this, in our culture, a clear but by no means bright sky, pure but fairly unchanging a ir, sharpness, even cold at times ; thus the two zones are contrasts to each other. When we see how in that former zone the most raging passions are suppressed and broken down with mysterious force by metaphysical representations, we feel as if wild tigers were being crushed before our very eyes in the coils of mighty serpents; our mental climate lacks such episodes, our imagination is temperate, even in dreams there does not happen to us what former peoples saw waking. But should we not rejoice at this change, even granted that artists are essentially spoiled by the disappearance of the tropical culture and find us non- artists a little too timid ? In so far artists are certainly right to deny progress, for indeed it is doubtful whether the last three thousand years show an advance in the arts. In the same way, a metaphysical philosopher like Schopenhauer would have no cause to acknowledge progress with a regard to metaphysical philosophy and religion if he glanced back over the last four thousand years. For us, however, the existence even of the temperate zones of culture is progress. 84 237. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. The Italian Renaissance contained within itself all the positive forces to which we owe modern culture. Such were the liberation of thought, the disregard of authorities, the triumph of education over the darkness of tradition, enthusiasm for science and the scientific past of mankind, the unfettering of the Individual, an ardour for truthfulness and a dislike of delusion and mere effect (which ardour blazed forth in an entire company of artistic characters, who with the greatest moral purity required from themselves perfection in their works, and nothing but perfection); yes, the Renaissance had positive forces, which have, as yet , never become so mighty again in our modern culture. It was the Golden Age of the last thousand years, in spite of all its blemishes and vices. On the other hand, the German Reformation stands out as an energetic protest of antiquated spirits, who were by no means tired of mediaeval views of life, and who received the signs of its dissolution, the extraordinary flatness and alienation of the religious life, with deep dejection instead of with the rejoicing that would have been seemly. With their northern strength and stiff-neckedness they threw mankind back again, brought about the counter-reformation, that is, a Catholic Christianity of self -defence, with all the violences of a state of siege, and delayed for two or three centuries the complete awakening and ma stery of the sciences ; just as they probably made for ever impossible the complete inter-growth of the antique and the modern spirit. The great task of the Renaissance could not be brought to a termination, this was prevented by the protest of the contemporary backward German spirit (which, for its salvation, had had sufficient sense in the Middle Ages to cross the Alps again and again). It was the chance of an extraordinary constellation of politics that Luther was preserved, and that his protest gained strength, for the Emperor protected him in order to employ him as a weapon against the Pope, and in the same way he was secretly favoured by the Pope in order to use the Protestant princes as a counter -weight against the Emperor. With- out this curious count er-play of intentions, Luther would have been burnt like Huss, and the morning sun of enlightenment would probably have risen somewhat earlier, and with a splendour more beauteous than we can now imagine. 238. JUSTICE AGAINST THE BECOMING GOD. When the ent ire history of culture unfolds itself to our gaze, as a confusion of evil and noble, of true and false ideas, and we feel almost seasick at the sight of these tumultuous waves, we then under- stand what comfort resides in the conception of a becoming God. This Deity is unveiled ever more and more throughout the changes and fortunes of mankind; it is not all blind mechanism, a senseless and aimless confusion of forces. The deification of the process of being is a metaphysical outlook, seen as from a lighthouse overlooking the sea of history, in which a far-too historical generation of scholars found their comfort. This must not arouse anger, however erroneous the view may be. Only those who, like Schopenhauer, deny development also feel none of the misery of this historical wave, and therefore, because they know nothing of that becoming God and the need of His supposition, they should in justice withhold their scorn. 239. THE FRUITS ACCORDING TO THEIR SEASONS. Every better future that is desired for mankind is necessarily in many respects also a worse future, for it is foolishness to suppose that a new, higher grade of humanity will combine in itself all the good points of former grades, and must produce, for instance, the highest form of art. Rather has every season its own advantages and charms, which exclude those of the other seasons. That which has grown out of religion and in its neighbourhood cannot grow again if this has been destroyed; at the most, straggling and belated off-shoots may lead to deception on that point, like the 85 occasional out- breaks of remembrance of the old art, a condition that probably betrays the feeling of loss and deprivation, but which is no proof of the power from which a new art might be born. 240. THE INCREASING SEVERITY OF THE WORLD. The higher culture an individual attains, the less field there is left for mockery and scorn. Voltaire thanked Heaven from his heart for the invention of marriage and the Church, by which it had so well provided for our cheer. But he and his time, and before him the sixteenth century, had exhausted their ridicule on this theme; everything that is now made fun of on this theme is out of date, and above all too cheap to tempt a purchaser. Causes are now inquired after; ours is an age of seriousness. Who cares now to discern, laughingly, the difference between reality and pretentious sham, between that which man is and that which he wishes to represent; the feeling of this contrast has quite a different effect if we seek reasons. The more thoroughly any one understands life, the less he will mock, though finally, perhaps, he will mock at the thoroughness of his understanding. 241. THE GENIUS OF CULTURE. If any one wished to imagine a genius of culture, what would it be like? It handles as its tools falsehood, force, and thoughtless selfishness so surely that it could only be called an evil, demoniacal being; but its aims, which are occasionally transparent, are great and good. It is a centaur, half -beast, half -man, and, in addition, has angel s wings upon its head. 242. THE MIRACLE- EDUCATION. Interest in Education will acquire great strength only from the moment when belief in a God and His care is renounced, just as the art of healing could only flourish when the belief in miracle- cures ceased. So far, however, there is universal belief in the miracle -education ; out of the greatest disorder and confusion of aims and unfavourableness of conditions, the most fertile and mighty men have been seen to grow; could this happen naturally? Soon these cases w ill be more closely looked into, more carefully examined ; but miracles will never be discovered. In similar circumstances countless persons perish constantly; the few saved have, therefore, usually grown stronger, because they endured these bad conditions by virtue of an inexhaustible inborn strength, and this strength they had also exercised and increased by fighting against these circumstances; thus the miracle is explained. An education that no longer believes in miracles must pay attention to three thin gs: first, how much energy is inherited? secondly, by what means can new energy be aroused ? thirdly, how can the individual be adapted to so many and manifold claims of culture without being disquieted and destroying his personality, in short, how can the individual be initiated into the counterpoint of private and public culture, how can he lead the melody and at the same time accompany it? 243. THE FUTURE OF THE PHYSICIAN. There is now no profession which would admit of such an enhancement as that of the physician; that is, after the spiritual physicians the so - called pastors, are no longer allowed to practise their conjuring tricks to public applause, and a cultured person gets out of their way. The highest mental development of a physician has not yet been reached, even if he understands the best and newest methods, is practised in them, and knows how to draw those rapid conclusions from effects to causes for which the diagnostics are celebrated ; besides this, he must possess a gift of eloquence that adapts itself to every individual and draws his heart out of his body; a manliness, the sight of which alone 86 drives away all despondency (the canker of all sick people), the tact and suppleness of a diplomatist in negotiations between such as have need of joy for their recovery and such as, for reasons of health, must (and can) give joy; the acuteness of a detective and an attorney to divine the secrets of a soul without betraying them,in short, a good physician now has need of all the artifices and artistic p rivileges of every other professional class. Thus equipped, he is then ready to be a benefactor to the whole of society, by increasing good works, mental joys and fertility, by preventing evil thoughts, projects and villainies (the evil source of which is so often the belly), by the restoration of a mental and physical aristocracy (as a maker and hinderer of marriages), by judiciously checking all so- called soul -torments and pricks of conscience. Thus from a medicine man he becomes a saviour, and yet need work no miracle, neither is he obliged to let himself be crucified. 244. IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF INSANITY. The sum of sensations, knowledge and experiences, the whole burden of culture, therefore, has become so great that an overstraining of nerves and powers of thought is a common danger, indeed the cultivated classes of European countries are throughout neurotic, and almost every one of their great families is on the verge of insanity in one of their branches. True, health is now sought in every possible way; but in the main a diminution of that tension of feeling, of that oppressive burden of culture, is needful, which, even though it might be bought at a heavy sacrifice, would at least give us room for the great hope of a new Renaissance . To Christianity, to the philosophers, poets, and musicians we owe an abundance of deeply emotional sensations; in order that these may not get beyond our control we must invoke the spirit of science, which on the whole makes us somewhat colder and more sceptical, and in particular cools the faith in final and absolute truths; it is chiefly through Christianity that it has grown so wild. 245. THE BELL- FOUNDING OF CULTURE. Culture has been made like a bell, within a covering of coarser, commoner material, falsehood, violence, the boundless extension of every individual I, of every separate people this was the cove ring. Is it time to take it off? Has the liquid set, have the good and useful impulses, the habits of the nobler nature become so certain and so general that they no longer require to lean on metaphysics and the errors of religion, no longer have need of hardnesses and violence as powerful bonds between man and man, people and people? No sign from any God can any longer help us to answer this question; our own insight must decide. The earthly rule of man must be taken in hand by man himself, his omniscien ce must watch over the further fate of culture with a sharp eye. 246. THE CYCLOPES OF CULTURE. Whoever has seen those furrowed basins which once contained glaciers, will hardly deem it possible that a time will come when the same spot will be a valley of woods and meadows and streams. It is the same in the history of mankind; the wildest forces break the way, destructively at first, but their activity was nevertheless necessary in order that later on a milder civilisation might build up its house. These t errible energies that which is called Evilare the cyclopic architects and road -makers of humanity. 247. THE CIRCULATION OF HUMANITY. It is possible that all humanity is only a phase pf development of a certain species of animal of limited duration. Man may have grown out of 87 the ape and will return to the ape again, 11F12 without anybody taking an interest in the ending of this curious comedy. Just as with the decline of Roman civilisation and its most important cause, the spread of Christianity, there was a general uglification of man within the Roman Empire, so, through the eventual decline of general culture, there might result a far greater uglification and finally an animalising of man till he reached the ape. But just because we are able to face this prospect, we shall perhaps be able to avert such an end. 248. THE CONSOLING SPEECH OF A DESPERATE ADVANCE. Our age gives the impression of an intermediate condition; the old ways of regarding the world, the old cultures still partially exist, the new are not ye t sure and customary and hence are without decision and consistency. It appears as if everything would become chaotic, as if the old were being lost, the new worthless and ever becoming weaker. But this is what the soldier feels who is learning to march ; for a time he is more uncertain and awkward, because his muscles are moved sometimes according to the old system and sometimes according to the new, and neither gains a decisive victory. We waver, but it is necessary not to lose courage and give up what we have newly gained. Moreover, we cannot go back to the old, we have burnt our boats; there remains nothing but to be brave whatever happen. March ahead, only get forward ! Perhaps our behaviour looks like progress ; but if not, then the words of Frederick the Great may also be applied to us, and indeed as a consolation: Ah, mon cher Sulzer, vous ne connaissez pas assez cette race maudite laquelle nous appartenons? 249. SUFFERING FROM PAST CULTURE. Whoever has solved the problem of culture suffers from a fe eling similar to that of one who has inherited unjustly-gotten riches, or of a prince who reigns thanks to the violence of his ancestors. He thinks of their origin with grief and is often ashamed, often irritable. The whole sum of strength, joy, vigour, which he devotes to his possessions, is often balanced by a deep weariness, he cannot forget their origin. He looks despondingly at the future; he knows well that his successors will suffer from the past as he does. 250. MANNERS. Good manners disappear in proportion as the influence of a Court and an exclusive aristocracy lessens; this decrease can be plainly observed from decade to decade by those who have an eye for public behaviour, which grows visibly more vulgar. No one any longer knows how to court and flatter intelligently ; hence arises the ludicrous fact that in cases where we must render actual homage (to a great statesman or artist, for instance), the words of deepest feeling, of simple, peasant-like honesty, have to be borrowed, owing to the embarrassment resulting from the lack of grace and wit. Thus the public ceremonious meeting of men appears ever more clumsy, but more full of feeling and honesty without really being so. But must there always be a decline in manners ? It appears to me, rather, tha t manners take a deep curve and that we are approaching their lowest point. When society has become sure of its intentions and principles, so that they have a moulding effect (the manners we have learnt from former moulding conditions are now inherited and always more weakly learnt), there will then be company manners, gestures and social expressions, which must appear as necessary and simply natural because they are intentions and principles. The better division of time and work, the gymnastic exercise transformed into the accompaniment of all beautiful leisure, increased and severer meditation, which brings wisdom and suppleness 12 This may remind one of Gobineau s more jocular saying : Nous ne descendons pas du singe, mais nous y allons? 88 even to the body, will bring all this in its train. Here, indeed, we might think with a smile of our scholars, and consider whether, as a matter of fact, they who wish to be regarded as the forerunners of that new culture are distinguished by their better manners? This is hardly the case; although their spirit may be willing enough their flesh is weak. The past of culture is still too powerful in their muscles, they still stand in a fettered position, and are half worldly priests and half dependent educators of the upper classes, and besides this they have been rendered crippled and life-less by the pedantry of science and by antiqua ted, spiritless methods. In any case, therefore, they are physically, and often three- fourths mentally, still the courtiers of an old, even antiquated culture, and as such are themselves antiquated; the new spirit that occasionally inhabits these old dwellings often serves only to make them more uncertain and frightened. In them there dwell the ghosts of the past as well as the ghosts of the future; what wonder if they do not wear the best expression or show the most pleasing behaviour? 251. THE FUTURE OF S CIENCE. To him who works and seeks in her, Science gives much pleasure, to him who learns her facts, very little. But as all important truths of science must gradually become commonplace and everyday matters, even this small amount of pleasure ceases, just as we have long ceased to take pleasure in learning the admirable multiplication table. Now if Science goes on giving less pleasure in herself, and always takes more pleasure in throwing suspicion on the consolations of metaphysics, religion and art, that greatest of all sources of pleasure, to which mankind owes almost its whole humanity, becomes impoverished. Therefore a higher culture must give man a double brain, two brain - chambers, so to speak, one to feel science and the other to feel non- science, w hich can lie side by side, without confusion, divisible, exclusive; this is a necessity of health. In one part lies the source of strength, in the other lies the regulator; it must be heated with illusions, onesidednesses, passions; and the malicious and dangerous consequences of over-heating must be averted by the help of conscious Science. If this necessity of the higher culture is not satisfied, the further course of human development can almost certainly be foretold: the interest in what is true ceases as it guarantees less pleasure; illusion, error, and imagination reconquer step by step the ancient territory, because they are united to pleasure; the ruin of science: the relapse into barbarism is the next result; mankind must begin to weave its web afresh after having, like Penelope, destroyed it during the night. But who will assure us that it will always find the necessary strength for this? 252. THE PLEASURE IN DISCERNMENT. Why is discernment, that essence of the searcher and the philosopher, connected with pleasure? Firstly, and above all, because thereby we become conscious of our strength, for the same reason that gymnastic exercises, even without spectators, are enj oyable. Secondly, because in the course of knowledge we surpass older ideas and their representatives, and become, or believe ourselves to be, conquerors. Thirdly, because even a very little new knowledge exalts us above every one, and makes us feel we are the only ones who know the subject aright. These are the three most important reasons of the pleasure, but there are many others, according to the nature of the discerner. A not inconsiderable index of such is given, where no one would look for it, in a passage of my parenetic work on Schopenhauer, 12F13 with the arrangement of which every experienced servant of knowledge may be satisfied, even though he might wish to dispense with the ironical touch that seems to pervade those pages. For if it be true that for the making of a scholar a number 13 This refers to his essay, Schopenhauer as Educator, in Thoughts Out of Season, vol. ii. of the English edition. 89 of very human impulses and desires must be thrown together, that the scholar is indeed a very noble but not a pure metal, and consists of a confused blending of very different impulses and attractions, the same thin g may be said equally of the making and nature of the artist, the philosopher and the moral genius and whatever glorified great names there may be in that list. Everything human deserves ironical consideration with respect to its origin, therefore irony is so superfluous in the world. 253. FIDELITY AS A PROOF OF VALIDITY. It is a perfect sign of a sound theory if during forty years its originator does not mistrust it ; but I maintain that there has never yet been a philosopher who has not eventually deprecated the philosophy of his youth. Perhaps, however, he has not spoken publicly of this change of opinion, for reasons of ambition, or, what is more probable in noble natures, out of delicate consideration for his adherents. 254. THE INCREASE OF WHAT IS INTER ESTING. In the course of higher education everything becomes interesting to man, he knows how to find the instructive side of a thing quickly and to put his finger on the place where it can fill up a gap in his ideas, or where it may verify a thought. Through this boredom disappears more and more, and so does excessive excitability of temperament. Finally he moves among men like a botanist among plants, and looks upon himself as a phenomenon, which only greatly excites his discerning instinct. 255 THE SUPERSTITION OF THE SIMULTANEOUS. Simultaneous things hold together, it is said. A relative dies far away, and at the same time we dream about him, Consequently! But countless relatives die and we do not dream about them. It is like shipwrecked people who make vows; afterwards, in the temples, we do not see the votive tablets of those who perished. A man dies, an owl hoots, a clock stops, all at one hour of the night,must there not be some connection? Such an intimacy with nature as this supposition implie s is flattering to mankind. This species of superstition is found again in a refined form in historians and delineators of culture, who usually have a kind of hydrophobic horror of all that senseless mixture in which individual and national life is so rich . 256. ACTION AND NOT KNOWLEDGE EXERCISED BY SCIENCE. The value of strictly pursuing science for a time does not lie precisely in its results, for these, in proportion to the ocean of what is worth knowing, are but an infinitesimally small drop. But it gives an additional energy, decisiveness, and toughness of endurance; it teaches how to attain an aim suitably . In so far it is very valuable, with a view to all that is done later on, to have once been a scientific man. 257. THE YOUTHFUL CHARM OF SCIENCE. Th e search for truth still retains the charm of being in strong contrast to gray and now tiresome error; but this charm is gradually disappearing. It is true we still live in the youthful age of science and are accustomed to follow truth as a lovely girl; but how will it be when one day she becomes an elderly, ill-tempered looking woman? In almost all sciences the fundamental knowledge is either found in earliest times or is still being sought; what a different attraction this exerts compared to that time whe n everything essential has been found and there only remains for the seeker a scanty gleaning (which sensation may be learnt in several historical disciplines). 90 258. THE STATUE OF HUMANITY. The genius of culture fares as did Cellini when his statue of Pers eus was being cast ; the molten mass threatened to run short, but it had to suffice, so he flung in his plates and dishes, and whatever else his hands fell upon. In the same way genius flings in errors, vices, hopes, ravings, and other things of baser as we ll as of nobler metal, for the statue of humanity must emerge and be finished; what does it matter if commoner material is used here and there? 259. A MALE CULTURE. The Greek culture of the classic age is a male culture. As far as women are concerned, Pericles expresses everything in the funeral speech : They are best when they are as little spoken of as possible amongst men. The erotic relation of men to youths was the necessary and sole preparation, to a degree unattainable to our comprehension, of all manly education (pretty much as for a long time all higher education of women was only attainable through love and marriage). All idealism of the strength of the Greek nature threw itself into that relation, and it is probable that never since have young men been treated so attentively, so lovingly, so entirely with a view to their welfare ( virtus ) as in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. according to the beautiful saying of Holderlin : denn liebend giebt der Sterbliche vom Besten. 13F14 The higher the light in which this relation was regarded, the lower sank intercourse with woman; nothing else was taken into consideration than the production of children and lust; there was no intellectual intercourse, not even real love-making. If it be further remembered that women were even excluded from contests and spectacles of every description, there only remain the religious cults as their sole higher occupation. For although in the tragedies Electra and Antigone were represented, this was only tolerated in art, but not liked in real life, just as now we cannot endure anything pathetic in life but like it in art. The women had no other mission than to produce beautiful, strong bodies, in which the fathers character lived on as unbrokenly as possible, and therewith to counteract the increasing nerve-tension of such a highly developed culture. This kept the Greek culture young for a relatively long time; for in the Greek mothers the Greek genius always returned to nature 260. THE PREJUDICE IN FAVOUR OF GREATNESS. It is clear that men overvalue everything great and prominent. This arises from the conscious or unconscious idea that they deem it very useful when one person throws all his strength into one thing and makes himself into a monstrous organ. Assuredly, an equal development of all his powers is more useful and happier for man ; for every talent is a vampire which sucks blood and strength from other powers, and an exaggerated production can drive the most gifted almost to madness. Within the circle of the arts, too, extreme natures excite far too much attention ; but a much lower culture is necessary to be captivated by them. Men submit from habit to everything that seeks power. 261. THE TYRANTS OF THE MIND. It is only where the ray of myth falls that the life of the Greeks shines ; otherwise it is gloomy. The Greek philosophers are now robbing themselves of this myth ; is it not as if they wished to quit the sunshine for shadow and gloom? Yet no plant avoids the light; and, as a matter of fact, those philosophers were only seeking a brighter sun; the myth was not pure enough, not shining enough for them. They found this 14 For it is when loving that mortal man gives of his best. 91 light in their knowledge, in that which each of them called his truth. But in those times knowledge shone with a greater glory; it was still young and knew but little of all the difficulties and danger s of its path ; it could still hope to reach in one single bound the central point of all being, and from thence to solve the riddle of the world. These philosophers had a firm belief in themselves and their truth, and with it they over- threw all their n eighbours and predecessors; each one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in believing themselves the possessors of truth was perhaps never greater in the world, but neither were the hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be, and which every one was if he was able . Perhaps Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did it for love of his works, of his law -giving; and to be a law -giver is a sublimated form of tyranny. Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to become the greatest philosophic law -giver and founder of States ; he appears to have suffered terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in power the more they suffered inwardly from this bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought for their truths in the street, then first were the souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element then raged like poison within their bodies. These many petty tyrants would have liked to devour each other; there survived not a single spark of love and very little joy in their own knowledge. The saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and violent, and their after- effects break off suddenly. It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that they appear to have come too late: it was thus with schylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with Thucydides: one generat ionand then it is passed for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is almost the same thing now as if in all ages history had been made according to the theory The smallest possible amount in the longest possible time ! Oh ! how quickly Greek history runs on! Since then life has never been so extravagant so unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the history of the Greeks followed that natural course fo r which it is so celebrated. They were much too variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly manner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles, and that is called natural development. The Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly downwards; the movement of the whole machine is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone, for instance, was Socrates ; the hitherto so wonderfully regular, although certainly too rapid, development of the philosophical science was destroyed in one night. It is no idle question whether Plato, had he remained free from the Socratic charm, would not have discovered a still h igher type of the philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us. We look into the ages before him as into a sculptors workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth centuries B.C. seemed to promise something more and higher even than they produced; they stopped short at promising and announcing. And yet there is hardly a greater loss than the loss of a type, of a new, hitherto undiscovered highest possibility of the philosophic life. Even of the older type the greater number are badly transmitted ; it see ms to me that all philosophers, from Thales to Democritus, are remarkably difficult to recognise, but whoever succeeds in imitating these figures walks amongst specimens of the mightiest and purest type. This ability is certainly rare, it was even absent i n those later Greeks, who occupied themselves with the knowledge of the older philosophy; Aristotle, especially, hardly seems to have had eyes in his head when he stands before these great ones. And thus it appears as if these splendid philosophers had lived in vain, or as if they had only been intended to prepare the 92 quarrelsome and talkative followers of the Socratic schools. As I have said, here is a gap, a break in development; some great misfortune must have happened, and the only statue which might have revealed the meaning and purpose of that great artistic training was either broken or unsuccessful; what actually happened has remained for ever a secret of the workshop. That which happened amongst the Greeksnamely, that every great thinker who believed himself to be in possession of the absolute truth became a tyrant, so that even the mental history of the Greeks acquired that violent, hasty and dangerous character shown by their political history, this type of event was not therewith exhausted, much that is similar has happened even in more modern times, although gradually becoming rarer and now but seldom showing the pure, naive conscience of the Greek philosophers. For on the whole, opposition doctrines and scepticism now speak too powerfully, too loudly. The period of mental tyranny is past. It is true that in the spheres of higher culture there must always be a supremacy, but henceforth this supremacy lies in the hands of the oligarchs of the mind. In spite of local and political separation they form a cohesive society, whose members recognise and acknowledge each other, whatever public opinion and the verdicts of review and newspaper writers who influence the masses may circulate in favour of or against them. Mental superiority, which formerly divided and embittered, nowadays generally unites ; how could the separate individuals assert themselves and swim through life on their own course, against all currents, if they did not see others like them living here and there under similar conditions, and gr asped their hands, in the struggle as much against the ochlocratic character of the half mind and half culture as against the occasional attempts to establish a tyranny with the help of the masses ? Oligarchs are necessary to each other, they are each others best joy, they understand their signs, but each is nevertheless free, he fights and conquers in his place and perishes rather than submit 262. HOMER. The greatest fact in Greek culture remains this, that Homer became so early Pan - Hellenic. All mental an d human freedom to which the Greeks attained is traceable to this fact At the same time it has actually been fatal to Greek culture, for Homer levelled, inasmuch as he centralised, and dissolved the more serious instincts of independence. From time to time there arose from the depths of Hellenism an opposition to Homer; but he always remained victorious. All great mental powers have an oppressing effect as well as a liberating one; but it certainly makes a difference whether it is Homer or the Bible or Scie nce that tyrannises over mankind. 263. TALENTS. In such a highly developed humanity as the present, each individual naturally has access to many talents. Each has an inborn talent , but only in a few is that degree of toughness, endurance, and energy born and trained that he really becomes a talent, becomes what he is that is, that he discharges it in works and actions. 264. THE WITTY PERSON EITHER OVERVALUED OR UNDERVALUED. Unscientific but talented people value every mark of intelligence, whether it be on a true or a false track ; above all, they want the person with whom they have intercourse to entertain them with his wit, to spur them on, to inflame them, to carry them away in seriousness and play, and in any case to be a powerful amulet to protect them against boredom. Scientific natures, on the other hand, know that the gift of possessing all manner of notions should be strictly controlled by the scientific spirit: it is not that which shines, deludes and excites, but the often insignificant truth that is the fruit which he knows how to shake down from the tree of knowledge. Like 93 Aristotle, he is not permitted to make any distinction between the bores and the wits, his dmon leads him through the desert as well as through tropical vegetation, in or der that he may only take pleasure in the really actual, tangible, true. In insignificant scholars this produces a general disdain and suspicion of cleverness, and, on the other hand, clever people frequently have an aversion to science, as have, for insta nce, almost all artists. 265. SENSE IN SCHOOL. School has no task more important than to teach strict thought, cautious judgment, and logical conclusions, hence it must pay no attention to what hinders these operations, such as religion, for instance. It can count on the fact that human vagueness, custom, and need will later on unstring the bow of all-too-severe thought. But so long as its influence lasts it should enforce that which is the essential and distinguishing point in man: Sense and Science, the very highest power of man as Goethe judges. The great natural philosopher, Von Baer, thinks that the superiority of all Europeans, when compared to Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving reasons for that which they believe, of which the latte r are utterly incapable. Europe went to the school of logical and critical thought, Asia still fails to know how to distinguish between truth and fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions spring from individual observation and systematic thought or from imagination. Sense in the school has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages it was on the road to become once more a part and dependent of Asia,forfeiting, therefore, the scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks. 266. THE UNDERVALUED EFFE CT OF PUBLIC- SCHOOL TEACHING. The value of a public school is seldom sought in those things which are really learnt there and are carried away never to be lost, but in those things which are learnt and which the pupil only acquires against his will, in ord er to get rid of them again as soon as possible. Every educated person acknowledges that the reading of the classics, as now practised, is a monstrous proceeding carried on before young people are ripe enough for it by teachers who with every word, often by their appearance alone, throw a mildew on a good author. But therein lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these teachers who speak the abstract language of the higher culture , which, though dry and difficult to understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the brain : and there is value in the constant recurrence in their language of ideas, artistic expressions, methods and allusions which the young people hardly ever hear in the conversations of their relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils only hear , their intellect is involuntarily trained to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely untouched by its abstract character, and to remain a simple child of nature. 267. LEARNING MANY LANGUAGES. The learning of many languages fills the memory with words instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a vessel which, with every person, can only contain a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore the learning of many languages is injurious, inasmuch as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of solid knowledge and the intention to win the respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate sense of language in our mother-tongue, which thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The two nations which produced the greatest stylists, the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign languages. But as human intercourse must always grow more cosmopolitan, and as, 94 for instance, a good merchant in London must now be able to read and write eight languages, the learning of many tongues has certainly become a necessary evil ; but which, when finally carried to an extreme, will compel mankind to find a remedy, and in some far- off future there will be a new language, used at first as a language of commerce, then as a language of intellectual intercourse generally, then for all, as surely as some time or other there will be aviation. Why else should philology have studied the laws of languages for a whole century, and have estimated the necessary, the valuable, and the successful portion of each separate language? 268. THE WAR HISTORY OF THE INDIVIDUAL. In a single human life that passes through many styles of culture we find that struggle condensed which would otherwise have been played out between two generations, between father and son; the closeness of the relationship sharpens this struggle, because each party ruthlessly drags in the familiar inward nature of the other party; and thus this struggle in the single individual becomes most embittered ; here every new phase disregards the earlier ones with cruel injustice and misunderstanding of their means and aims. 269. A QUARTER OF AN HOUR EARLIER. A man is found occasionally whose views are beyond his time, but only to such an extent that he anticipates the common views of the next decade. He possesses public opinion before it is public; that is, he has fallen into the arms of a view that deserves to be trivial a quarter of an hour sooner than other people. But his fame is usually far noisier than the fame of those who are really great and prominent. 270. THE ART OF READING. Eve ry strong tendency is one- sided ; it approaches the aim of the straight line and, like this, is exclusive, that is, it does not touch many other aims, as do weak parties and natures in their wave- like rolling to -and-fro; it must also be forgiven to philologists that they are one-sided. The restoration and keeping pure of texts, besides their explanation, carried on in common for hundreds of years, has finally enabled the right methods to be found; the whole of the Middle Ages was absolutely incapable of a st rictly philological explanation, that is, of the simple desire to comprehend what an author says - it was an achievement, finding these methods, let it not be under- valued ! Through this all science first acquired continuity and steadiness, so that the art of reading rightly, which is called philology, attained its summit. 271. THE ART OF REASONING. The greatest advance that men have made lies in their acquisition of the art to reason rightly . It is not so very natural, as Schopenhauer supposes when he says, All are capable of reasoning, but few of judging, it is learnt late and has not yet attained supremacy. False conclusions are the rule in older ages ; and the mythologies of all peoples, their magic and their superstition, their religious cult and their law are the inexhaustible sources of proof of this theory. 272. PHASES OF INDIVIDUAL CULTURE. The strength and weakness of mental productiveness depend far less on inherited talents than on the accompanying amount of elasticity . Most educated young people of thirty turn round at this solstice of their lives and are afterwards disinclined for new mental turnings. Therefore, for the salvation of a constantly increasing culture, a new generation is immediately necessary, which will not do 95 very much either, for in order to come up with the fathers culture the son must exhaust almost all the inherited energy which the father himself possessed at that stage of life when his son was born; with the little addition he gets further on (for as here the road is being traversed for the second time progress is a little quicker; in order to learn that which the father knew, the son does not consume quite so much strength). Men of great elasticity, like Goethe, for instance, get through almost more than four generations in succession would be capable of; but then they advance too quickly, so that the rest of mankind only comes up with them in the next century, and even then perhaps not completely, because the exclusiveness of culture and the consecutiveness of development have been weakened by the frequent interruptions. Men catch up more quickly with the ordinary phases of intellectual culture which has been acquired in the course of history. Nowadays they begin to acquire culture as religiously inclined children, and perhaps about their tenth year these sentiments attain to their highest point, and are then changed into weakened forms (pantheism), whilst they draw near to science; they entirely pass by God, immortality, and such-like things, but are overcome by the witchcraft of a metaphysical philosophy. Eventually they find even this unworthy of belief; art, on the contrary, seems to vouchsafe more and more, so that for a time metaphysics is metamorphosed and continues to exist either as a transition to art or as an artistically transfiguring temperament. But the scientific sense grows more imperious and conducts man to natural sciences and history, and particularly to the severest methods of knowledge, whilst art has always a milder and less exacting meaning. All this usua lly happens within the first thirty years of a man s life. It is the recapitulation of pensum for which humanity had laboured perhaps thirty thousand years. 273. RETROGRADED, NOT LEFT BEHIND. Whoever, in the present day, still derives his development from religious sentiments, and perhaps lives for some length of time afterwards in metaphysics and art, has assuredly gone back a considerable distance and begins his race with other modern men under unfavourable conditions; he apparently loses time and space. But because he stays in those domains where ardour and energy are liberated and force flows continuously as a volcanic stream out of an inexhaustible source, he goes forward all the more quickly as soon as he has freed himself at the right moment from those dominators; his feet are winged, his breast has learned quieter, longer, and more enduring breathing. He has only retreated in order to: have sufficient room to leap; thus something terrible and threatening may lie in this retrograde movement. 274. A PORTION OF OUR EGO AS AN ARTISTIC OBJECT. It is a sign of superior culture consciously to retain and present a true picture of certain phases of development which commoner men live through almost thoughtlessly and then efface from the tablets of their souls: this is a higher species of the painters art which only the few understand. For this it is necessary to isolate those phases artificially. Historical studies form the qualification for this painting, for they constantly incite us in regard to a portion of history, a people, or a human life, to imagine for ourselves a quite distinct horizon of thoughts, a certain strength of feelings, the prominence of this or the obscurity of that. Herein consists the historic sense, that out of given instances we can quickly reconstruct such systems of thoughts and feelings, just as we can mentally reconstruct a temple out of a few pillars and remains of walls accidentally left standing. The next result is that we understand our fellow-men as belonging to distinct systems and representatives of different cultures that is, as necessary, but as changeable; and, again, that we can separate portions of our own development and put them down independently. 96 275. CYNICS AND EPICUREANS. The cynic recognises the connection between the multiplied and stronger pains of the more highly cultivated man and the abundance of requirements ; he comprehends, therefore, that the multitude of opinions about what is beautiful, suitable, seemly and pleasing, must also produce very rich sources of enjoyment, but also of displeasure. In accordance with this view he educates himself backwards, by giving up many of these opinions and withdrawing from certain demands of culture; he thereby gains a feeling of freedom and strength; and gradually, when habit has made his manner of life endurable, his sensations of displeasure are, as a matter of fact, rarer and weaker than those of cultivated people, and approach those of the domestic animal; moreover, he experiences everything with the charm of contrast, andhe can also scold to his heart s content; so that thereby he again rises high above the sensation-range of the animal. The Epicurean has the same point of view as the cynic; there is usually only a difference of temperament between them. Then the Epicurean makes use of his higher culture to render himself independent of prevailing opinions, he raises himself above them, whilst the cynic only remains negative. He walks, as it were, in wind- protected, well -sheltered, half - dark paths, whilst over him, in the wind, the tops of the trees rustle and show him how violently agitated is the world out there. The cynic, on the contrary, goes, as it were, naked into the rushing of the wind and hardens himself to the point of insensibility. 276. MICROCOSM AND MACROCOSM OF CULTURE. The best discoveries about culture man makes within himself when he finds two heterogeneous powers ruling therein. Supposing some one were living as much in love for the plastic arts or for music as he was carried away by the spirit o f science, and that he were to regard it as impossible for him to end this contradiction by the destruction of one and complete liberation of the other power, there would therefore remain nothing for him to do but to erect around himself such a large edifice of culture that those two powers might both dwell within it, although at different ends, whilst between them there dwelt reconciling, intermediary powers, with predominant strength to quell, in case of need, the rising conflict. But such an edifice of culture in the single individual will bear a great resemblance to the culture of entire periods, and will afford consecutive analogical teaching concerning it. For wherever the great architecture of culture manifested itself it was its mission to compel opp osing powers to agree, by means of an overwhelming accumulation of other less unbearable powers, without thereby oppressing and fettering them. 277. HAPPINESS AND CULTURE. We are moved at the sight of our childhood s surroundings,the arbour, the church with its graves, the pond and the wood, all this we see again with pain. We are seized with pity for ourselves; for what have we not passed through since then ! And everything here is so silent, so eternal, only we are so changed, so moved; we even find a few human beings, on whom Time has sharpened his teeth no more than on an oak tree, peasants, fishermen, woodmenthey are unchanged. Emotion and self- pity at the sight of lower culture is the sign of higher culture; from which the conclusion may be drawn that happiness has certainly not been increased by it. Whoever wishes to reap happiness and comfort in life should always avoid higher culture. 278. THE SIMILE OF THE DANCE. It must now be regarded as a decisive sign of great culture if some one possesses suff icient strength and flexibility to be as pure and strict in discernment 97 as, in other moments, to be capable of giving poetry, religion, and metaphysics a hundred paces start and then feeling their force and beauty. Such a position amid two such different demands is very difficult, for science urges the absolute supremacy of its methods, and if this insistence is not yielded to, there arises the other danger of a weak wavering between different impulses. Meanwhile, to cast a glance, in simile at least, on a solution of this difficulty, it may be remembered that dancing is not the same as a dull reeling to and fro between different impulses. High culture will resemble a bold dance, wherefore, as has been said, there is need of much strength and suppleness. 279. OF THE RELIEVING OF LIFE. A primary way of lightening life is the idealisation of all its occurrences ; and with the help of painting we should make it quite clear to ourselves what idealising means. The painter requires that the spectator should not observe too closely or too sharply, he forces him back to a certain distance from whence to make his observations; he is obliged to take for granted a fixed distance of the spectator from the picture,he must even suppose an equally certain amount of sharpness of eye in his spectator; in such things he must on no account waver. Every one, therefore, who desires to idealise his life must not look at it too closely, and must always keep his gaze at a certain distance. This was a trick that Goethe, for instance, understood. 280. AGGRAVATION AS RELIEF, AND VICE VERSA. Much that makes life more difficult in certain grades of mankind serves to lighten it in a higher grade, because such people have become familiar with greater aggravations of life. The contrary also happens ; for instance, religion has a double face, according to whether a man looks up to it to relieve him of his burden and need, or looks down upon it as upon fetters laid on him to prevent him from soaring too high into the air. 281. THE HIGHER CULTURE is NECESSARILY MISUNDERSTOOD. He who has strung his instrument with only two strings, like the scholars (who, besides the instinct of knowledge possess only an acquired religious instinct), does not understand people who can play upon more strings. It lies in the nature of the higher, many-stringed culture that it should always be falsely interpreted by the lower; an example of this is when art appears as a disguised form of the religious. People who are only religious understand even science as a searching after the religious sentiment, just as deaf mutes do not know what music is, unless it be visible movement. 282. LAMENTATION. It is, perhaps, the advantages of our epoch that bring with them a backward movement and an occasional undervaluing of the vita c ontemplativa. But it must be acknowledged that our time is poor in the matter of great moralists, that Pascal, Epictetus, Seneca, and Plutarch are now but little read, that work and industry formerly in the following of the great goddess Healthsometimes a ppear to rage like a disease. Because time to think and tranquillity in thought are lacking, we no longer ponder over different views, but content ourselves with hating them. With the enormous acceleration of life, mind and eye grow accustomed to a partial and false sight and judgment, and all people are like travellers whose only acquaintance with countries and nations is derived from the railway. An independent and cautious attitude of knowledge is looked upon almost as a kind of madness; the free spirit is brought into disrepute, chiefly through scholars, who miss their thoroughness and ant-like industry in his art of regarding things and would gladly banish 98 him into one single corner of science, while it has the different and higher mission of commanding the battalion rear -guard of scientific and learned men from an isolated position, and showing them the ways and aims of culture. A song of lamentation such as that which has just been sung will probably have its own period, and will cease of its own accord on a forcible return of the genius of meditation. 283. THE CHIEF DEFICIENCY OF ACTIVE PEOPLE. Active people are usually deficient in the higher activity, I mean individual activity. They are active as officials, merchants, scholars, that is as a species, but not as quite distinct separate and single individuals; in this respect they are idle. It is the misfortune of the active that their activity is almost always a little senseless. For instance, we must not ask the money-making banker the reason of his restless activity, it is foolish. The active roll as the stone rolls, according to the stupidity of mechanics. All mankind is divided, as it was at all times and is still, into slaves and freemen ; for whoever has not two-thirds of his day for himsel f is a slave, be he otherwise whatever he likes, statesman, merchant, official, or scholar. 284. IN FAVOUR OF THE IDLE. As a sign that the value of a contemplative life has decreased, scholars now vie with active people in a sort of hurried enjoyment, so that they appear to value this mode of enjoying more than that which really pertains to them, and which, as a matter of fact, is a far greater enjoyment Scholars are ashamed of otium . But there is one noble thing about idleness and idlers. If idleness is r eally the beginning of all vice, it finds itself, therefore, at least in near neighbourhood of all the virtues; the idle man is still a better man than the active. You do not suppose that in speaking of idleness and idlers I am alluding to you, you sluggards? 285. MODERN UNREST. Modern restlessness increases towards the west, so that Americans look upon the inhabitants of Europe as altogether peace-loving and enjoying beings, whilst in reality they swarm about like wasps and bees. This restlessness is so gr eat that the higher culture cannot mature its fruits, it is as if the seasons followed each other too quickly. For lack of rest our civilisation is turning into a new barbarism. At no period have the active, that is, the restless, been of more importance. One of the necessary corrections, therefore, which must be undertaken in the character of humanity is to strengthen the contemplative element on a large scale. But every individual who is quiet and steady in heart and head already has the right to believe that he possesses not only a good temperament, but also a generally useful virtue, and even fulfils a higher mission by the preservation of this virtue. 286. TO WHAT EXTENT THE ACTIVE MAN IS LAZY. I believe that every one must have his own opinion about everything concerning which opinions are possible, because he himself is a peculiar, unique thing, which assumes towards all other things a new and never hitherto existing attitude. But idleness, which lies at the bottom of the active man s soul, prevents him from drawing water out of his own well. Freedom of opinion is like health; both are individual, and no good general conception can be set up of either of them. That which is necessary for the health of one individual is the cause of disease in another, and many means and ways to the freedom of the spirit are for more highly developed natures the ways and means to confinement. 287. 99 CENSOR VIT Alternations of love and hatred for a long period distinguish the inward condition of a man who desires to be free in his judgment of life; he does not forget, and bears everything a grudge, for good and evil. At last, when the whole tablet of his soul is written full of experiences, he will not hate and despise existence, neither will he love it, but will regard it sometimes with a joyful, sometimes with a sorrowful eye, and, like nature, will be now in a summer and now in an autumn mood. 288. THE SECONDARY RESULT. Whoever earnestly desires to be free will therewith and without any compulsion lose all inclination for faults and vices; he will also be more rarely overcome by anger and vexation. His will desires nothing more urgently than to discern, and the means to do this, that is, the permanent condition in which he is best able to discern. 289. THE VALUE OF DISEASE. The man who is bed-ridden often perceives that he is usually ill of his position, business, or society, and through them has lost all self-possession. He gains this piece of knowledge from the idleness to which his illness condemns him. 290. SENSITIVENESS IN THE COUNTRY. If there are no firm, quiet lines on the horizon of his lif e, a species of mountain and forest line, man s inmost will itself becomes restless, inattentive, and covetous, as is the nature of a dweller in towns; he has no happiness and confers no happiness. 291. PRUDENCE OF THE FREE SPIRITS. Free -thinkers, those who live by knowledge alone, will soon attain the supreme aim of their life and their ultimate position towards society and State, and will gladly content themselves, for instance, with a small post or an income that is just sufficient to enable them to live ; for they will arrange to live in such a manner that a great change of outward prosperity, even an overthrow of the political order, would not cause an overthrow of their life. To all these things they devote as little energy as possible in order that with their whole accumulated strength, and with a long breath, they may dive into the element of knowledge. Thus they can hope to dive deep and be able to see the bottom. Such a spirit seizes only the point of an event, he does not care for things in the whole breadth and prolixity of their folds, for he does not wish to entangle himself in them. He, too, knows the weekdays of restraint, of dependence and servitude. But from time to time there must dawn for him a Sunday of liberty, otherwise he could not endure life. It is probable that even his love for humanity will be prudent and somewhat short-winded, for he desires to meddle with the world of inclinations and of blindness only as far as is necessary for the purpose of knowledge. He must trust that the geni us of justice will say something for its disciple and protg if accusing voices were to call him poor in love. In his mode of life and thought there is a refined heroism , which scorns to offer itself to the great mob- reverence, as its coarser brother does, and passes quietly through and out, of the world. Whatever labyrinths it traverses, beneath whatever rocks its stream has occasionally worked its way when it reaches the light it goes clearly, easily, and almost noiselessly on its way, and lets the sunshine strike down to its very bottom. 292. FORWARD. And thus forward upon the path of wisdom, with a firm step and good confidence! However you may be situated, serve yourself as a source of experience! Throw off the displeasure at your nature, forgive yourself your own individuality, for in any case 100 you have in yourself a ladder with a hundred steps upon which you can mount to knowledge. The age into which with grief you feel yourself thrown thinks you happy because of this good fortune; it calls out to you that you shall still have experiences which men of later ages will perhaps be obliged to forego. Do not despise the fact of having been religious; consider fully how you have had a genuine access to art Can you not, with the help of these experiences, follow immense stretches of former humanity with a clearer understanding? Is not that ground which sometimes displeases you so greatly, that ground of clouded thought, precisely the one upon which have grown many of the most glorious fruits of older civilisations? You must have loved religion and art as you loved mother and nurse,otherwise you cannot be wise. But you must be able to see beyond them, to outgrow them; if you remain under their ban you do not understand them. You must also be familiar with history and that cautious play with the balances: On the one handon the other hand. Go back, treading in the footsteps made by mankind in its great and painful journey through the desert of the past, and you will learn most surely whither it is that all later humanity never can or may go again. And inasmuch as you wish with all your strength to see in advance how the knots of the future are tied, your own life acquires the value of an instrument and means of knowledge. It is within your power to see that all you have experienced, trials, errors, faults, deceptions, passions, your love and your hope, shall be merged wholly in your aim. This aim is to become a necessary chain of culture-links yourself, and from this necessity to draw a conclusion as to the necessity in the progress of general culture. When your sight has become strong enough to see to the bottom of the dark well of your nature and your knowledge, it is possible that in its mirror you may also behold the far-away visions of future civilisations. Do you think that such a life with such an aim is too wearisome, too empty of all that is agreeable ? Then you have still to learn that no honey is sweeter than that of knowledge, and that the overhanging clouds of trouble must be to you as an udder from which you shall draw milk for your refreshment. And only when old age approaches will you rightly perceive how you listened to the voice of nature, that nature which rules the whole world through pleasure; the same life which has its zenith in age has also i ts zenith in wisdom, in that mild sunshine of a constant mental joyfulness; you meet them both, old age and wisdom, upon one ridge of life, it was thus intended by Nature. Then it is time, and no cause for anger, that the mists of death approach. Towards the light is your last movement; a joyful cry of knowledge is your last sound. 101 Sixth Division - Man In Society 293. WELL- MEANT DISSIMULATION. In intercourse with men a well- meant dissimulation is often necessary, as if we did not see through the motives of their actions. 294. COPIES. We not unfrequently meet with copies of prominent persons; and as in the case of pictures, so also here, the copies please more than the originals. 295. THE PUBLIC SPEAKER. One may speak with the greatest appropriateness, and yet so that everybody cries out to the contrary, that is to say, when one does not speak to everybody. 296. WANT OF CONFIDENCE. Want of confidence among friends is a fault that cannot be censured without becoming incurable. 297. THE ART OF GIVING. To have to refuse a gift, merely because it has not been offered in the right way, provokes animosity against the giver. 298. THE MOST DANGEROUS PARTISAN. In every party there is one who, by his far too dogmatic expression of the party-principles, excites defection among the others. 299. ADVISERS OF THE SICK. Whoever gives advice to a sick person acquires a feeling of superiority over him, whether the advice be accepted or rejected. Hence proud and sensitive sick persons hate advisers more than their sickness. 300. DOUBLE NATURE OF EQUALITY. The rage for equality may so manifest itself that we seek either to draw all others down to ourselves (by belittling, disregarding, and tripping up), or ourselves and all others upwards (by recognition, assistance, and congratulation). 301. AGAINST EMBARRASSMENT. The best way to relieve and calm very embarrassed people is to give them decided praise. 302. PREFERENCE FOR CERTAIN VIRTUES. We set no special value on the possession of a virtue until we p erceive that it is entirely lacking in our adversary. 303. WHY WE CONTRADICT. We often contradict an opinion when it is really only the tone in which it is expressed that is unsympathetic to us. 304. 102 CONFIDENCE AND INTIMACY. Whoever proposes to command the intimacy of a person is usually uncertain of possessing his confidence. Whoever is sure of a person s confidence attaches little value to intimacy with him. 3O5. THE EQUILIBRIUM OF FRIENDSHIP. The right equilibrium of friendship in our relation to other men is sometimes restored when we put a few grains of wrong on our own side of the scales. 306. THE MOST DANGEROUS PHYSICIANS. The most dangerous physicians are those who, like born actors, imitate the born physician with the perfect art of imposture, 307. WHEN PARADOXES ARE PERMISSIBLE. In order to interest clever persons in a theory, it is sometimes only necessary to put it before them in the form of a prodigious paradox. 308. HOW COURAGEOUS PEOPLE ARE WON OVER. Courageous people are persuaded to a course of action by representing it as more dangerous than it really is. 309. COURTESIES We regard the courtesies shown us by unpopular persons as offences. 310. KEEPING PEOPLE WAITING. A sure way of exasperating people and of putting bad thoughts into their heads is to keep them waiting long. That makes them immoral. 311. AGAINST THE CONFIDENTIAL. Persons who give us their full confidence think they have thereby a right to ours. That is a mistake; people acquire no right through gifts. 312. A MODE OF SE TTLEMENT. It often suffices to give a person whom we have injured an opportunity to make a joke about us to give him personal satisfaction, and even to make him favourably disposed to us. 313. THE VANITY OF THE TONGUE. Whether man conceals his bad qualities and vices, or frankly acknowledges them, his vanity in either case seeks its advantage thereby, only let it be observed how nicely he distinguishes those from whom he conceals such qualities from those with whom he is frank and honest. 314. CONSIDERATE. To have no wish to offend or injure any one may as well be the sign of a just as of a timid nature. 315. REQUISITE FOR DISPUTATION. He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of dispute. 316. 103 INTERCOURSE AND PRETENSION. We forget our pretensions when we are always conscious of being amongst meritorious people; being alone implants presumption in us. The young are pretentious, for they associate with their equals, who are all ciphers but would fain have a great significance. 317. MOTIVES OF AN ATTACK. One does not attack a person merely to hurt and conquer him, but perhaps merely to become conscious of ones own strength. 318. FLATTERY. Persons who try by means of flattery to put us off our guard in intercourse with them, employ a dangerous expedient, like a sleeping-draught, which, when it does not send the patient to sleep, keeps him all the wider awake. 319. A GOOD LETTER -WRITER. A person who does not write books, thinks much, and lives in unsatisfying society, will usually be a good letter -writer. 320. THE UGLIEST OF ALL. It may be doubted whether a person who has travelled much has found anywhere in the world uglier places than those to be met with in the human face. 321. THE SYMPATHETIC ONES. Sympathetic natures, ever ready to help in misfortune, are seldom those that participate in joy; in the happiness of others they have nothing to occupy them, they are superfluous, they do not feel themselves in possession of their superiority, and hence readily show their displeasure. 322. THE RELATIVES OF A SUICIDE. The relatives of a suicide take it in ill part that he did not remain alive out of consideration for their reputation. 323. INGRATITUDE FORESEEN. He who makes a large gift gets no gratitude; for the recipient is already overburdened by the acceptance of the gift. 324. IN DULL SOCIETY. Nobody thanks a witty man for politeness when he puts himself on a par with a society in which it would not be polite to show one s wit. 325. THE PRESENCE OF WITNESSES. We are doubly willing to jump into the water after some one who has fallen in, if there are people present who have not the courage to do so. 326. BEING SILENT. For both parties in a controversy, the most disagreeable way of retaliating is to be vexed and silent; for the aggressor usually regards the silence as a sign of contempt. 327. FRIENDS SECRETS. Few people will not expose the private affairs of their friends when at a loss for a subject of conversation. 104 328. HUMANITY. The humanity of intellectual celebrities consists in cou rteously submitting to unfairness in intercourse with those who are not celebrated. 329. THE EMBARRASSED. People who do not feel sure of themselves in society seize every opportunity of publicly showing their superiority to close friends, for instance by t easing them. 330. THANKS. A refined nature is vexed by knowing that some one owes it thanks, a coarse nature by knowing that it owes thanks to some one. 331. A SIGN OF ESTRANGEMENT. The surest sign of the estrangement of the opinions of two persons is when they both say something ironical to each other and neither of them feels the irony. 332. PRESUMPTION IN CONNECTION WITH MERIT. Presumption in connection with merit offends us even more than presumption in persons devoid of merit, for merit in itself offends us. 333. DANGER IN THE VOICE. In conversation we are sometimes confused by the tone of our own voice, and misled to make assertions that do not at all correspond to our opinions. 334. IN CONVERSATION. Whether in conversation with others we mostly agree or mostly disagree with them is a matter of habit; there is sense in both cases. 335. FEAR OF OUR NEIGHBOUR. We are afraid of the animosity of our neighbour, because we are apprehensive that he may thereby discover our secrets. 336. DISTINGUISHING BY BLAMING. Highly respected persons distribute even their blame in such fashion that they try to distinguish us there-with. It is intended to remind us of their serious interest in us. We misunderstand them entirely when we take their blame literally and protest against it; we thereby offend them and estrange ourselves from them. 337. INDIGNATION AT THE GOODWILL OF OTHERS. We are mistaken as to the extent to which we think we are hated or feared ; because, though we ourselves know very well the extent of our divergence from a person, tendency, or party, those others know us only superficially, and can, therefore, only hate us superficially. We often meet with goodwill which is inexplicable to us; but when we comprehend it, it shocks us, because it shows that we are not considered with sufficient seriousness or importance. 338. 105 THWARTING VANITIES. When two persons meet whose vanity is equally great, they have afterwards a bad impression of each other; because each has been so occupied with the impression he wished to produce on the other that the other has made no impression upon him; at last it becomes clear to them both that their efforts have been in vain, and each puts the blame on the other. 339. IMPROPER BEHAVIOUR AS A GOOD SIGN. A superior mind takes pleasure in the tactlessness, pretentiousness, and even hostility of ambitious youths; it is the vicious habit of fiery horses which have not yet carried a rider, but, in a short time, will be so proud to carry one. 340. WHEN IT is ADVISABLE TO SUFFER WRONG. It is well to put up with accusations without refutation, even when they injure us, when the accuser would see a still greater fault on our part if we contradicted and perhaps even refuted him. In this way, certainly, a person may always be wronged and always have right on his side, and may eventually, with the best conscience in the world, become the most intolerable tyrant and tormentor; and what happens in the individual may also take place in whole classes of society. 341. TOO LITTLE HON OURED. Very conceited persons, who have received less consideration than they expected, attempt for a long time to deceive themselves and others with regard to it, and become subtle psychologists in order to make out that they have been amply honoured. Should they not attain their aim, should the veil of deception be torn, they give way to all the greater fury. 342. PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS RE -ECHOING IN SPEECH. By the manner in which people make assertions in their intercourse we often recognise an echo of the times when they were more conversant with weapons than anything else; sometimes they handle their assertions like sharp -shooters using their arms, sometimes we think we hear the whizz and clash of swords, and with some men an assertion crashes down like a stout cudgel. Women, on the contrary, speak like beings who for thousands of years have sat at the loom, plied the needle, or played the child with children. 343. THE NARRATOR. He who gives an account of something readily betrays whether it is because the fact interests him, or because he wishes to excite interest by the narration. In the latter case he will exaggerate, employ superlatives, and such like. He then does not usually tell his story so well, because he does not think so much about his subject as about himself. 344. THE RECITER He who recites dramatic works makes discoveries about his own character ; he finds his voice more natural in certain moods and scenes than in others, say in the pathetic or in the scurrilous, while in ordinary life, perhaps, he has not had the opportunity to exhibit pathos or scurrility. 345. A COMEDY SCENE IN REAL LIFE. Some one conceives an ingenious idea on a theme in order to express it in society. Now in a comedy we should hear and see how he sets all sail 106 for that point, and tries to land the company at the place where he can make his remark, how he continuously pushes the conversation towards the one goal, sometimes losing the way, finding it again, and finally arriving at the moment: he is almost breathless and then one of the company takes the remark itself out of his mouth! What will he do ? Oppose his own opinion? 346. UNINTENTIONALLY DISCOURTEOUS. When a person treats another with unintentional discourtesy,for instance, not greeting him because not recognising him,he is vexed by it, although he cannot reproach his own sentiments; he is hurt by the bad opinion which he has produced in the other person, or fears the consequences of his bad humour, or is pained by the thought of having injured him,vanity, fear, or pity may therefore be aroused; perhaps all three together. 347. A MASTERPIECE OF TREACHERY. To express a tantalising distrust of a fellow- conspirator, lest he should betray one, and this at the very moment when one is practising treachery one s self, is a masterpiece of wickedness ; because it absorbs the other s attention and compels him for a time to act very unsuspiciously and openly, so that the real traitor has thus acquired a free hand. 348. TO INJURE AND TO BE INJURED. It is far pleasanter to injure a nd afterwards beg for forgiveness than to be injured and grant forgiveness. He who does the former gives evidence of power and afterwards of kindness of character. The person injured, however, if he does not wish to be considered inhuman, must forgive; his enjoyment of the other s humiliation is insignificant on account of this constraint. 349. IN A DISPUTE. When we contradict another s opinion and at the same time develop our own, the constant consideration of the other opinion usually disturbs the natural attitude of our own which appears more intentional, more distinct, and perhaps somewhat exaggerated. 350. AN ARTIFICE. He who wants to get another to do something difficult must on no account treat the matter as a problem, but must set forth his plan plainly as the only one possible; and when the adversary s eye betrays objection and opposition he must understand how to break off quickly, and allow him no time to put in a word. 351. PRICKS OF CONSCIENCE AFTER SOCIAL GATHERINGS. Why does our conscience prick us after ordinary social gatherings? Because we have treated serious things lightly, because in talking of persons we have not spoken quite justly or have been silent when we should have spoken, because, sometimes, we have not jumped up and run away,in short, because we have behaved in society as if we belonged to it. 352. WE ARE MISJUDGED. He who always listens to hear how he is judged is always vexed. For we are misjudged even by those who are nearest to us ( who know us best). Even good friends some times vent their ill-humour in a spiteful word; and would they be our friends if they knew us rightly? The judgments of the indifferent wound us deeply, because they sound 107 so impartial, so objective almost. But when we see that some one hostile to us knows us in a concealed point as well as we know ourselves, how great is then our vexation! 353. THE TYRANNY OF THE PORTRAIT. Artists and statesmen, who out of particular features quickly construct the whole picture of a man or an event, are mostly unjust in demanding that the event or person should afterwards be actually as they have painted it; they demand straightway that a man should be just as gifted, cunning, and unjust as he is in their representation of him. 354. RELATIVES AS THE BEST FRIENDS. The Greeks, who knew so well what a friend was, they alone of all peoples have a profound and largely philosophical discussion of friendship; so that it is by them firstly (and as yet lastly) that the problem of the friend has been recognised as worthy of solution,these same Greeks have designated relatives by an expression which is the superlative of the word friend. This is inexplicable to me. 355. MISUNDERSTOOD HONESTY. When any one quotes himself in conversation ( I then said, I am accustomed to say ), it gives the impression of presumption; whereas it often proceeds from quite an opposite source; or at least from honesty, which does not wish to deck and adorn the present moment with wit which belongs to an earlier moment. 356. THE PARASITE. It denotes entire absence of a noble disposition when a person prefers to live in dependence at the expense of others, usually with a secret bitterness against them, in order only that he may not be obliged to work. Such a disposition is far more frequent in women than in men, also far more pardonable (for historical reasons). 357. ON THE ALTAR OF RECONCILIATION. There are circumstances under which one can only gain a point from a person by wounding him and becoming hostile; the feeling of having a foe torments him so much that he gladly seizes the first indication of a milder disposition to effect a reconciliation, and offers on the altar of this reconciliation what was formerly of such importance to him that he would not give it up at any price. 358. PRESUMPTION IN DEMANDING PITY. There are people who, when they have been in a rage and have insulted others, demand, firstly, that it shall all be taken in good part; and, secondly, that they shall be pitied because they are subject to such violent paroxysms. So far does human presumption extend. 359. BAIT. Every man has his pricethat is not true. But perhaps every one can be found a bait of one kind or other at which he will snap. Thus, in order to gain some supporters for a cause, it is only necessary to give it the glamour of being philanthropic, noble, charitable, and self-denyingand to what cause could this glamour not be given! It is the sweetmeat and dainty of their soul; others have different ones. 360. 108 THE ATTITUDE IN PRAISING. When good friends praise a gifted person he often appears to be delighted with them out of politeness and goodwill, but in reality he feels indifferent. His real nature is quite unmoved towards them, and will not budge a step on that account out of the sun or shade in which it lies; but people wish to please by praise, and it would grieve them if one did not rejoice when they praise a person. 361. THE EXPERIENCE OF SOCRATES. If one has become a master in one thing, one has generally remained, precisely thereby, a complete dunce in most other things; but one forms the very reverse opinion, as was already experienced by Socrates. This is the annoyance which makes association with masters disagreeable. 362. A MEANS OF DEFENCE. In warring against stupidity, the most just and gentle of men at last become brutal. They are thereby, perhaps, taking the proper course for defence; for the most appropriate argument for a stupid brain is the clenched fist. But because, as has been said, their character is just and gentle, they suffer more by this means of protection than they injure their opponents by it. 363. CURIOSITY. If curiosity did not exist, very little would be done for the good of our neighbour. But curiosity creeps into the houses of the unfortunate and the needy under the name of duty or of pity. Perhaps there is a good deal of curiosity even in the much-vaunted maternal love. 364. DISAPPOINTMENT IN SOCIETY. One man wishes to be interesting for his opinions, another for his likes and dislikes, a third for his acquaintances, and a fourth for his solitariness and they all meet with disappointment. For he before whom the play is performed thinks himself the only play that is to be taken into account. 365. THE DUEL. It may be said in favour of duels and all affairs of honour that if a man has such susceptible feelings that he does not care to live when So- and-so says or thinks this or that about him; he has a right to make it a question of the death of the one or the other. With regard to the fact that he is so susceptible, it is not at all to be remonstrated with, in that matter we are the heirs of the past, of its greatness as well as of its exaggerations, without which no greatness ever existed. So when there exists a code of honour which lets blood stand in place of death, so that the mind is re lieved after a regular duel it is a great blessing, because otherwise many human lives would be in danger. Such an institution, moreover, teaches men to be cautious in their utterances and makes intercourse with them possible. 366. NOBLENESS AND GRATITUDE. A noble soul will be pleased to owe gratitude, and will not anxiously avoid opportunities of coming under obligation; it will also be moderate afterwards in the expression of its gratitude; baser souls, on the other hand, are unwilling to be under any obligation, or are afterwards immoderate in their expressions of thanks and altogether too devoted. The latter is, moreover, also the case with persons of mean origin or depressed circumstances ; to show them a favour seems to them a miracle of grace. 367. 109 OCCASIONS OF ELOQUENCE. In order to talk well one man needs a person who is decidedly and avowedly his superior to talk to, while another can only find absolute freedom of speech and happy turns of eloquence before one who is his inferior. In both cases the cause is the same; each of them talks well only when he talks sans gne the one because in the presence of something higher he does not feel the impulse of rivalry and competition, the other because he also lacks the same impulse in the presence of somet hing lower. Now there is quite another type of men, who talk well only when debating, with the intention of conquering. Which of the two types is the more aspiring: the one that talks well from excited ambition, or the one that talks badly or not at all fr om precisely the same motive ? 368. THE TALENT FOR FRIENDSHIP. Two types are distinguished amongst people who have a special faculty for friendship. The one is ever on the ascent, and for every phase of his development he finds a friend exactly suited to him. The series of friends which he thus acquires is seldom a consistent one, and is sometimes at variance and in contradiction, entirely in accordance with the fact that the later phases of his development neutralise or prejudice the earlier phases. Such a man may jestingly be called a ladder . The other type is represented by him who exercises an attractive influence on very different characters and endowments, so that he wins a whole circle of friends; these, however, are thereby brought voluntarily into friendly relations with one another in spite of all differences. Such a man may be called a circle, for this homogeneousness of such different temperaments and natures must somehow be typified in him. Furthermore, the faculty for having good friends is great er in many people than the faculty for being a good friend. 369. TACTICS IN CONVERSATION. After a conversation with a person one is best pleased with him when one has had an opportunity of exhibiting one s intelligence and amiability in all its glory. Shrewd people who wish to impress a person favourably make use of this circumstance, they provide him with the best opportunities for making a good joke, and so on in conversation. An amusing conversation might be imagined between two very shrewd persons, each wishing to impress the other favourably, and therefore each throwing to the other the finest chances in conversation, which neither of them accepted, so that the conversation on the whole might turn out spiritless and unattractive because each assigned to the other the opportunity of being witty and charming. 370. DISCHARGE OF INDIGNATION. The man who meets with a failure attributes this failure rather to the ill- will of another than to fate. His irritated feelings are alleviated by thinking that a person and not a thing is the cause of his failure; for he can revenge himself on persons, but is obliged to swallow down the injuries of fate. Therefore when anything has miscarried with a prince, those about him are accustomed to point out some individual as the ostensible cause, who is sacrificed in the interests of all the courtiers ; for otherwise the prince s indignation would vent itself on them all, as he can take no revenge on the Goddess of Destiny herself. 371. ASSUMING THE COLOURS OF THE ENVIRONMENT. Wh y are likes and dislikes so contagious that we can hardly live near a very sensitive person without being filled, like a hogshead, with his fors and againsts ? In the first place, complete forbearance of judgment is very difficult, and sometimes absolutely intolerable to our vanity; it has the same appearance as poverty of thought and sentiment, or as timidity and unmanliness; and so we are, at least, 110 driven on to take a side, perhaps contrary to our environment, if this attitude gives greater pleasure to our pride. As a rule, however,and this is the second point,we are not conscious of the transition from indifference to liking or disliking, but we gradually accustom ourselves to the sentiments of our environment, and because sympathetic agreement and acquiescence are so agreeable, we soon wear all the signs and party -colours of our surroundings. 372. IRONY. Irony is only permissible as a pedagogic expedient, on the part of a teacher when dealing with his pupils; its purpose is to humble and to shame, but in the wholesome way that causes good resolutions to spring up and teaches people to show honour and gratitude, as they would to a doctor, to him who has so treated them. The ironical man pretends to be ignorant, and does it so well that the pupils conversing with him are deceived, and in their firm belief in their own superior knowledge they grow bold and expose all their weak points; they lose their cautiousness and reveal themselves as they are, until all of a sudden the light which they have held up to t he teacher s face casts its rays back very humiliatingly upon themselves. Where such a relation, as that between teacher and pupil, does not exist, irony is a rudeness and a vulgar conceit. All ironical writers count on the silly species of human beings, who like to feel themselves superior to all others in common with the author himself, whom they look upon as the mouthpiece of their arrogance. Moreover, the habit of irony, like that of sarcasm, spoils the character ; it gradually fosters the quality of a m alicious superiority ; one finally grows like a snappy dog, that has learnt to laugh as well as to bite. 373. ARROGANCE. There is nothing one should so guard against as the growth of the weed called arrogance, which spoils all ones good harvest; for there is arrogance in cordiality, in showing honour, in kindly familiarity, in caressing, in friendly counsel, in acknowledgment of faults, in sympathy for others,and all these fine things arouse aversion when the weed in question grows up among them. The arrogant manthat is to say, he who desires to appear more than he is or passes for always miscalculates. It is true that he obtains a momentary success, inasmuch as those with whom he is arrogant generally give him the amount of honour that he demands, owing to fear or for the sake of convenience; but they take a bad revenge for it inasmuch as they subtract from the value which they hitherto attached to him just as much as he demands above that amount. There is nothing for which men ask to be paid dearer than for humiliation. The arrogant man can make his really great merit so suspicious and small in the eyes of others that they tread on it with dusty feet. If at all, we should only allow ourselves a proud manner where we are quite sure of not being misunderstood and considered as arrogant; as, for instance, with friends and wives. For in social intercourse there is no greater folly than to acquire a reputation for arrogance; it is still worse than not having learnt to deceive politely. 374. TTE --TTEPrivate conversation is the perfect conversation, because everything the one person says receives its particular colouring, its tone, and its accompanying gestures out of strict consideration for the other person engaged in the conversation, it therefore corresponds to what takes place in intercourse by letter, viz., that one and the same person exhibits ten kinds of psychical expression, according as he writes now to this individual and now to that one. In duologue there is only a single refraction of thought; the person conversed with produces it, as the mirror in whom we want to behold our thoughts anew in their finest form. But how is it when there are two or three, or even more persons conversing with one? 111 Conversation then necessarily loses something of its individualising subtlety, different considerations thwart and neutralise each other; the style which pleases one does not suit the taste of another. In intercourse with several individuals a person is therefore to withdraw within himself and repres ent facts as they are; but he has also to remove from the subjects the pulsating ether of humanity which makes conversation one of the pleasantest things in the world. Listen only to the tone in which those who mingle with whole groups of men are in the habit of speaking; it is as if the fundamental base of all speech were, It is myself ; I say this, so make what you will of it! That is the reason why clever ladies usually leave a singular, painful, and forbidding impression on those who have met them in s ociety; it is the talking to many people, before many people, that robs them of all intellectual amiability and shows only their conscious dependence on themselves, their tactics, and their intention of gaining a public victory in full light; whilst in a p rivate conversation the same ladies become womanly again, and recover their intellectual grace and charm. 375. POSTHUMOUS FAME. There is sense in hoping for recognition in a distant future only when we take it for granted that mankind will remain essentially unchanged, and that whatever is great is not for one age only but will be looked upon as great for all time. But this is an error. In all their sentiments and judgments concerning what is good and beautiful mankind have greatly changed; it is mere fantasy to imagine one s self to be a mile ahead, and that the whole of mankind is coming our way. Besides, a scholar who is misjudged may at present reckon with certainty that his discovery will be made by others, and that, at best, it will be allowed to him later on by some historian that he also already knew this or that but was not in a position to secure the recognition of his knowledge. Not to be recognised is always interpreted by posterity as lack of power. In short, one should not so readily speak in favour of haughty solitude. There are, however, exceptional cases; but it is chiefly our faults, weakness, and follies that hinder the recognition of our great qualities. 376. OF FRIENDS. Just consider with thyself how different are the feelings, how divided are the opinions of even the nearest acquaintances; how even the same opinions in thy friend s mind have quite a different aspect and strength from what they have in thine own; and how manifold are the occasions which arise for misunderstanding and hostil e severance. After all this thou wilt say to thyself, How insecure is the ground upon which all our alliances and friendships rest, how liable to cold downpours and bad weather, how lonely is every creature! When a person recognises this fact, and, in addition, that all opinions and the nature and strength of them in his fellowmen are just as necessary and irresponsible as their actions ; when his eye learns to see this internal necessity of opinions, owing to the indissoluble interweaving of character, occupation, talent, and environment,he will perhaps get rid of the bitterness and sharpness of the feeling with which the sage exclaimed, Friends, there are no friends! Much rather will he make the confession to himself: Yes, there are friends, but they were drawn towards thee by error and deception concerning thy character; and they must have learnt to be silent in order to remain thy friends; for such human relationships almost always rest on the fact that some few things are never said, are never, indeed, alluded to; but if these pebbles are set rolling friendship follows afterwards and is broken. Are there any who would not be mortally injured if they were to learn what their most intimate friends really knew about them? By getting a knowledge of ourselves, and by looking upon our nature as a changing sphere of opinions and moods, and thereby learning to despise ourselves a little, we recover once more our equilibrium with the rest of mankind. It is true that we have good reason to despise each of our ac quaintances, even the greatest of 112 them; but just as good reason to turn this feeling against ourselves. And so we will bear with each other, since we bear with our selves; and perhaps there will come to each a happier hour, when he will exclaim : Friends, there are really no friends! thus cried th expiring old sophist; Foes, there is really no foe! thus shout I, the incarnate fool. 113 Seventh Division - Wife And Child 377. THE PERFECT WOMAN. The perfect woman is a higher type of humanity than the perfect man, and also something much rarer. The natural history of animals furnishes grounds in support of this theory. 378. FRIENDSHIP AND MARRIAGE. The best friend will probably get the best wife, because a good marriage is based on talent for friendship. 379. THE SURVIVAL OF THE PARENTS. The undissolved dissonances in the relation of the character and sentiments of the parents survive in the nature of the child and make up the history of its inner sufferings. 380. INHERITED FROM THE MOTHER. Every one bears within him an image of woman, inherited from his mother: it determines his attitude to wards women as a whole, whether to honour, despise, or remain generally indifferent to them. 381. CORRECTING NATURE. Whoever has not got a good father should procure one. 382. FATHERS AND SONS. Fathers have much to do to make amends for having sons. 383. THE ERROR OF GENTLEWOMEN. Gentle women think that a thing does not really exist when it is not possible to talk of it in society. 384. A MALE DISEASE. The surest remedy for the male disease of self -contempt is to be loved by a sensible woman. 385. A SPECIES OF JEALOUSY. Mothers are readily jealous of the friends of sons who are particularly successful. As a rule a mother loves herself in her son more than the son. 386. RATIONAL IRRATIONALITY. In the maturity of life and intelligence the feeling comes over a man that his father did wrong in begetting him. 387. MATERNAL EXCELLENCE. Some mothers need happy and honoured children, some need unhappy ones,otherwise they cannot exhibit their maternal excellence. 388. 114 DIFFERENT SIGHS. Some husbands have sighed over the elopement of their wives, the greater number, however, have sighed because nobody would elope with theirs. 389. LOVE MATCHES. Marriages which are contracted for love (so-called love- matches) have error for their father and need (necessity) for their mother. 390. WOMEN S FRIENDSHIPS. Women can enter into friendship with a man perfectly well; but in order to maintain it the aid of a little physica l antipathy is perhaps required. 391. ENNUI. Many people, especially women, never feel ennui because they have never learnt to work properly. 392. AN ELEMENT OF LOVE. In all feminine love something of maternal love also comes to light. 393. UNITY OF PLACE AND DRAMA. If married couples did not live together, happy marriages would be more frequent. 394. THE USUAL CONSEQUENCES OF MARRIAGE. All intercourse which does not elevate a person, debases him, and vice versa ; hence men usually sink a little when they marry, while women are somewhat elevated. Over -intellectual men require marriage in proportion as they are opposed to it as to a repugnant medicine. 395. LEARNING TO COMMAND. Children of unpretentious families must be taught to command, just as much as other children must be taught to obey. 396. WANTING TO BE IN LOVE. Betrothed couples who have been matched by convenience often exert themselves to fall in love , to avoid the reproach of cold, calculating expediency. In the same manner those who become co nverts to Christianity for their advantage exert themselves to become genuinely pious; because the religious cast of countenance then becomes easier to them. 397. No STANDING STILL IN LOVE. A musician who loves the slow tempo will play the same pieces ever more slowly. There is thus no standing still in any love. 398. MODESTY. Women s modesty usually increases with their beauty. 14F15 399. 15 The opposite of this aphorism also holds good. 115 MARRIAGE ON A GOOD BASIS. A marriage in which each wishes to realise an individual aim by means of the other wil l stand well; for instance, when the woman wishes to become famous through the man and the man beloved through the woman. 400. PROTEUS -NATURE. Through love women actually become what they appear to be in the imagination of their lovers. 401. To LOVE AND TO POSSESS. As a rule women love a distinguished man to the extent that they wish to possess him exclusively. They would gladly keep him under lock and key, if their vanity did not forbid, but vanity demands that he should also appear distinguished before ot hers. 402. THE TEST OF A GOOD MARRIAGE. The goodness of a marriage is proved by the fact that it can stand an exception. 403. BRINGING ANYONE ROUND TO ANYTHING. One may make any person so weak and weary by disquietude, anxiety, and excess of work or thought that he no longer resists anything that appears complicated, but gives way to it,diplomatists and women know this. 404. PROPRIETY AND HONESTY. Those girls who mean to trust exclusively to their youthful charms for their provision in life, and whose cunning is further prompted by worldly mothers, have just the same aims as courtesans, only they are wiser and less honest. 405. MASKS. There are women who, wherever one examines them, have no inside, but are mere masks. A man is to be pitied who has connection with such almost spectre- like and necessarily unsatisfactory creatures, but it is precisely such women who know how to excite a mans desire most strongly; he seeks for their soul, and seeks evermore. 406. MARRIAGE AS A LONG TALK. In entering on a marriage one should ask one s self the question, Do you think you will pass your time well with this woman till your old age? All else in marriage is transitory; talk, however, occupies most of the time of the association. 407. GIRLISH DREAMS. Inexper ienced girls flatter themselves with the notion that it is in their power to make a man happy; later on they learn that it is equivalent to underrating a man to suppose that he needs only a girl to make him happy. Womens vanity requires a man to be someth ing more than merely a happy husband. 408. THE DYING- OUT OF FAUST AND MARGUERITE. According to the very intelligent remark of a scholar, the educated men of modern Germany resemble somewhat a mixture of Mephistopheles and Wagner, but are not at all like Faust, whom our grandfathers (in their youth at least) felt agitating within them. To them, therefore, to continue the remark, 116 Marguerites are not suited, for two reasons. And because the latter are no longer desired they seem to be dying out. 409. CLASSICAL EDUCATION FOR GIRLS. For goodness sake let us not give our classical education to girls! An education which, out of ingenious, inquisitive, ardent youths, so frequently makes copies of their teacher! 410. WITHOUT RIVALS. Women readily perceive in a man whether his soul has already been taken possession of; they wish to be loved without rivals, and find fault with the objects of his ambition, his political tasks, his sciences and arts, if he have a passion for such things. Unless he be distinguished thereby,then, in the case of a love-relationship between them, women look at the same time for an increase of their own distinction; under such circumstances, they favour the lover. 411. THE FEMININE INTELLECT. The intellect of women manifests itself as perfect mastery, presence of mind, and utilisation of all advantages. They transmit it as a fundamental quality to their children, and the father adds thereto the darker background of the will. His influence determines as it were the rhythm and harmony with which the new life is to be performed; but its melody is derived from the mother. For those who know how to put a thing properly: women have intelligence, men have character and passion. This does not contradict the fact that men actually achieve so much more with their intelligence: they have deeper and more powerful impulses; and it is these which carry their understanding (in itself something passive) to such an extent. Women are often silently surprised at the great respect men pay to their character. When, t herefore, in the choice of a partner men seek specially for a being of deep and strong character, and women for a being of intelligence, brilliancy, and presence of mind, it is plain that at bottom men seek for the ideal man, and women for the ideal woman,consequently not for the complement but for the completion of their own excellence. 412. HESIOD S OPINION CONFIRMED. It is a sign of womens wisdom that they have almost always known how to get themselves supported, like drones in a bee-hive. Let us just consider what this meant originally, and why men do not depend upon women for their support. Of a truth it is because masculine vanity and reverence are greater than feminine wisdom; for women have known how to secure for themselves by their subordination the greatest advantage, in fact, the upper hand. Even the care of children may originally have been used by the wisdom of women as an excuse for withdrawing themselves as much as possible from work. And at present they still understand when they are really active (as house keepers, for instance) how to make a bewildering fuss about it, so that the merit of their activity is usually ten times over -estimated by men. 413. LOVERS AS SHORT -SIGHTED PEOPLE. A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love; and whoever has had sufficient imagination to represent a face or form twenty years older, has probably gone through life not much disturbed. 414. 117 WOMEN IN HATRED. In a state of hatred women are more dangerous than men; for one thing, because they are hampered by no regard for fairness when their hostile feelings have been aroused; but let their hatred develop unchecked to its utmost consequences; then also, because they are expert in finding sore spots (which every man and every party possess), and pouncing upon them: for which purpose their dagger-pointed intelligence is of good service (whilst men, hesitating at the sight of wounds, are often generously and conciliatorily inclined). 415. LOVE. The love idolatry which women practise is fundamentally and originally an intelligent device, inasmuch as they increase their power by all the idealisings of love and exhibit themselves as so much the more desirable in the eyes of men. But by being accustomed for centuries to this exaggerated ap preciation of love, it has come to pass that they have been caught in their own net and have forgotten the origin of the device. They themselves are now still more deceived than the men, and on that account also suffer more from the disillusionment which, almost necessarily, enters into the life of every womanso far, at any rate, as she has sufficient imagination and intelligence to be able to be deceived and undeceived. 416. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN. Can women be at all just, when they are so accustomed to love and to be immediately biased for or against? For that reason they are also less interested in things and more in individuals: but when they are interested in things they immediately become their partisans, and thereby spoil their pure, innocent effect. Thus there arises a danger, by no means small, in entrusting politics and certain portions of science to them (history, for instance). For what is rarer than a woman who really knows what science is? Indeed the best of them cherish in their breasts a secret scorn for science, as if they were somehow superior to it. Perhaps all this can be changed in time; but meanwhile it is so. 417. THE INSPIRATION IN WOMEN S JUDGMENTS. The sudden decisions, for or against, which women are in the habit of making, the flashing illumination of personal relations caused by their spasmodic inclinations and aversions, in short, the proofs of feminine injustice have been invested with a lustre by men who are in love, as if all women had inspirations of wisdom, even without the Delphic cauldron and the laurel wreaths; and their utterances are interpreted and duly set forth as Sibylline oracles for long afterwards. When one considers, however, that for every person and for every cause something can be said in favour of it but equally also something against it, that things are not only two-sided, but also three and four- sided, it is almost difficult to be entirely at fault in such sudden decisions; indeed, it might be said that the nature of things has been so arranged that women should always carry their point. 15F16 418. BEING LOVED. As one of every two persons in love is usually the one who loves, the other the one who is loved, the belief has arisen that in every love- affair there is a constant amount of love; and that the more of it the one person monopolises the less is left for the other. Exceptionally it happens that the vanity of each of the parties persuades him or her that 16 It may be remarked that Nietzsche changed his view on this subject later on, and ascribed more importance to woman s intuition. Cf. also Disraeli s reference to the High Priestesses of predestin ation. 118 it is he or she who must be loved; so that both of them wish to be loved: from which cause many half funny, half absurd scenes take place, especially in married life. 419. CONTRADICTIONS IN FEMININE MINDS. Owing to the fact that women are so much more personal than objective, there are tendencies included in the range of their ideas which are logically in contradiction to one another; they are accustomed in turn to become enthusiastically fond just of the representatives of these tendencies and accept their systems in the lump; but in such wise that a dead place originates wherever a new personality afterwards gets the ascendancy. It may happen that the whole philosophy in the mind of an old lady consists of nothing but such dead places. 420. WHO SUFFERS THE MORE? After a personal dissension and quarrel between a woman and a man the latter party suffers chiefly from the idea of having wounded the other, whilst the former suffers chiefly from the idea of not having wounded the other sufficiently; so she subsequently endeavours by tears, sobs, and discomposed mien, to make his heart heavier. 421. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR FEMININE MAGNANIMITY. If we could disregard the claims of custom in our thinking we might consider whether nature and reason do not suggest several marriages for men, one after another: perhaps that, at the age of twenty -two, he should first marry an older girl who is mentally and morally his superior, and can be his leader through all the dangers of the twenties (ambition, hatred, self-contempt, and passions of all kinds). This womans affection would subsequently change entirely into maternal love, and she would not only submit to it but would encourage the man in the most salutary manner, if in his thirties he contracted an alliance with quite a young girl whose education he himself should take in hand. Marriage is a necessary institution for the twenties; a useful, but not necessary, institution for the thirties; for later life it is often harmful, and promotes the mental deterioration of the man. 422. THE TRAGEDY OF CHILDHOOD. Perhaps it not infrequently happens that noble men with lofty aims have to fight their hardest battle in childhood; by having perchance to carry out their principles in opposition to a base-minded father addicted to feigning and falsehood, or living, like Lord Byron, in constant warfare with a childish and passionate mother. He who has had such an experience will never be able to forget all his life who has been his greatest and most dangerous enemy. 423. PARENTAL FOLLY. The grossest mistakes in judging a man are made by his parents, this is a fact, but how is it to be explained? Have the parents too much experience of the child and cannot any longer arrange this experience into a unity? It has been noticed that it is only in the earlier period of their sojourn in foreign countries that travellers rightly grasp the general distinguishing features of a people; the better they come to know it, they are the less able to see what is typical and distinguishing in a people. As soon as they grow short-sighted their eyes cease to be long -sighted. Do parents, therefore, judge their children falsely because they have never stood far enough away from them? The following is quite another explanation: people are no longer accustomed to reflect on what is close at hand and surrounds them, but just accept it. Perhaps the usual thoughtlessness of parents is the reason why they judge so wrongly when once they are compelled to judge their children. 119 424. THE FUTURE OF MARRIAGE. The noble and liberal-minded women who take as their mission the education and elevation of the female sex, should not overlook one point of view: Marriage regarded in its highest aspect, as the spiritual friendship of two persons of opposite sexes, and accordingly such as is hoped for in future, contracted for the purpose of producing and educating a new generation ,such marriage, which only makes use of the sensual, so to speak, as a rare and occasional means to a higher purpose, will, it is to be feared, probably need a natural auxiliary, namely, concubinage . For if, on the grounds of his health, the wife is also to serve for the sole satisfaction of the man s sexual needs, a wrong perspective, opposed to the aims indicated, will have most influence in the choice of a wife. The aims referred to: the production of descendants, will be accidental, and their successful education highly improbable. A good wife, who has to be friend, helper, child-bearer, mother, family- head and manager, and has even perhaps to conduct her own business and affairs separately from those of the husband, cannot at the same time be a concubine; it would, in general, be asking too much of her. In the future, therefore, a state of things might take place the opposite of what existed at Athens in the time of Pericles; the men, whose wives were then little more to them than concubines, turned besides to the Aspasias, because they longed for the charms of a companionship gratifying both to head and heart, such as the grace and intellectual suppleness of women could alone provide. All human institutions, just like marriage, allow only a moderate amo unt of practical idealising, failing which coarse remedies immediately become necessary. 425. THE STORM AND STRESS PERIOD OF WOMEN. In the three or four civilised countries of Europe, it is possible, by several centuries of education, to make out of women anything we like,even men, not in a sexual sense, of course, but in every other. Under such influences they will acquire all the masculine virtues and forces, at the same time, of course, they must also have taken all the masculine weaknesses and vices into the bargain: so much, as has been said, we can command. But how shall we endure the intermediate state thereby induced, which may even last two or three centuries, during which feminine follies and injustices, woman s original birthday endowment, will still maintain the ascendancy over all that has been otherwise gained and acquired? This will be the time when indignation will be the peculiar masculine passion; indignation, because all arts and sciences have been overflowed and choked by an unprecedented dilettanteism, philosophy talked to death by brain -bewildering chatter, politics more fantastic and partisan than ever, and society in complete disorganisation, because the conservatrices of ancient customs have become ridiculous to themselves, and have endeavoured in every way to place themselves outside the pale of custom. If indeed women had their greatest power in custom, where will they have to look in order to reacquire a similar plenitude of power after having renounced custom? 426. FREE -SPIRIT AN D MARRIAGE. Will free thinkers live with women? In general, I think that, like the prophesying birds of old, like the truth-thinkers and truth-speakers of the present, they must prefer to fly alone . 427. THE HAPPINESS OF MARRIAGE. Everything to which we ar e accustomed draws an ever-tightening cobweb-net around us; and presently we notice that the threads have become cords, and that we ourselves sit in the middle like a spider that has here got itself caught and must feed on its own blood. Hence the free spi rit hates all rules and customs, all that is 120 permanent and definitive, hence he painfully tears asunder again and again the net around him, though in consequence thereof he will suffer from numerous wounds, slight and severe; for he must break off every thread from himself, from his body and soul. He must learn to love where he has hitherto hated, and vice versa . Indeed, it must not be a thing impossible for him to sow dragon s teeth in the same field in which he formerly scattered the abundance of his bounty. From this it can be inferred whether he is suited for the happiness of marriage. 428. TOO INTIMATE. When we live on too intimate terms with a person it is as if we were again and again handling a good engraving with our fingers; the time comes when we have soiled and damaged paper in our hands, and nothing more. A mans soul also gets worn out by constant handling; at least, it eventually appears so to usnever again do we see its original design and beauty. We always lose through too familiar association with women and friends; and some times we lose the pearl of our life thereby. 429. THE GOLDEN CRADLE. The free spirit will always feel relieved when he has finally resolved to shake off the motherly care and guardianship with which women surround him. What harm will a rough wind, from which he has been so anxiously protected, do him? Of what consequence is a genuine disadvantage, loss, misfortune, sickness, illness, fault, or folly more or less in his life, compared with the bondage of the golden cradle, the peacock s- feather fan, and the oppressive feeling that he must, in addition, be grateful because he is waited on and spoiled like a baby? Hence it is that the milk which is offered him by the motherly disposition of the women about him can so readily turn into gall. 430. A VOLUNTARY VICTIM. There is nothing by which able women can so alleviate the lives of their husbands, should these be great and famous, as by becoming, so to speak, the receptacle for the general disfavour and occasional ill -humour of the rest of mankind. Contemporaries are usually ac customed to overlook many mistakes, follies, and even flagrant injustices in their great men if only they can find some one to maltreat and kill, as a proper victim for the relief of their feelings. A wife not infrequently has the ambition to present herself for this sacrifice, and then the husband may indeed feel satisfied,he being enough of an egoist to have such a voluntary storm, rain, and lightning-conductor beside him. 431. AGREEABLE ADVERSARIES. -The natural inclination of women towards quiet, regular, happily tuned existences and intercourse, the oil-like and calming effect of their influence upon the sea of life, operates unconsciously against the heroic inner impulse of the free spirit. Without knowing it, women act as if they were taking away the stones from the path of the wandering mineralogist in order that he might not strike his foot against themwhen he has gone out for the very purpose of striking against them. 432. THE DISCORD OF TWO CONCORDS. Woman wants to serve, and finds her happiness therein; the free spirit does not want to be served, and therein finds his happiness. 433. XANTIPPE. Socrates found a wife such as he required, but he would not have sought her had he known her sufficiently well; even the heroism of his free spirit would not have gone so far. As a matter of fact, Xantippe forced him more and more into his peculiar profession, 121 inasmuch as she made house and home doleful and dismal to him; she taught him to live in the streets and wherever gossiping and idling went on, and thereby made him the greatest Athenian street -dialectician, who had, at last, to compare himself to a gad -fly which a god had set on the neck of the beautiful horse Athens to prevent it from resting. 434. BLIND TO THE FUTURE. Just as mothers have senses and eye only for those pains of their children that are evident to the senses and eye, so the wives of men of high aspirations cannot accustom themselves to see their husbands suffering, starving, or slighted,although all this is, perhaps, not only the proof that they have rightly chosen their attitude in life, but even the guarantee that their great aims must be achieved some time. Women always intrigue privately against the higher souls of their husbands; they want to cheat them out of their future for the sake of a painless and comfortable present. 435. AUTHORITY AND FREEDOM. However highly women may honour their husbands, they honour still more the powers and ideas recognised by society; they have been accustomed for millennia to go along with their hands folded on their breasts, and their heads bent before every thing dominant, disapproving of all resistance to public authority. They therefore unintentionally, and as if from instinct, hang themselves as a drag on the wheels of free-spirited, independent endeavour, and in certain circumstances make their husbands highly impatient, especially when the latter persuade themselves that it is really love which prompts the action of their wive s. To disapprove of womens methods and generously to honour the motives that prompt themthat is man s nature and often enough his despair. 436. CETERUM CENSEO It is laughable when a company of paupers decree the abolition of the right of inheritance, and it is not less laughable when childless persons labour for the practical lawgiving of a country: they have not enough ballast in their ship to sail safely over the ocean of the future. But it seems equally senseless if a man who has chosen for his mission the widest know ledge and estimation of universal existence, burdens himself with personal considerations for a family, with the support, protection, and care of wife and child, and in front of his telescope hangs that gloomy veil through which hardly a r ay from the distant firmament can penetrate. Thus I, too, agree with the opinion that in matters of the highest philosophy all married men are to be suspected. 437. FINALLY. There are many kinds of hemlock, and fate generally finds an opportunity to put a cup of this poison to the lips of the free spirit,in order to punish him, as every one then says. What do the women do about him then? They cry and lament, and perhaps disturb the sunset-calm of the thinker, as they did in the prison at Athens. Oh Crit o, bid some one take those women away! said Socrates at last. 122 Eighth Division - A Glance At The State 438. ASKING TO BE HEARD. The demagogic disposition and the intention of working upon the masses is at present common to all political parties ; on this account they are all obliged to change their principles into great al fresco follies and thus make a show of them. In this matter there is no further alteration to be made : indeed, it is superfluous even to raise a finger against it; for here Voltaires saying applies: Quand la populace se mcle de raisonner, tout est perdu. Since this has happened we have to accommodate ourselves to the new conditions, as we have to accommodate ourselves when an earthquake has displaced the old boundaries and the contour of the land and altered the value of property. Moreover, when it is once for all a question in the politics of all parties to make life endurable to the greatest possible majority, this majority may always decide what they understand by an endurable life; if they believe their intellect capable of finding the right means to this end why should we doubt about it? They want , once for all, to be the architects of their own good or ill fortune; and if their feeling of free choice and their pr ide in the five or six ideas that their brain conceals and brings to light, really makes life so agreeable to them that they gladly put up with the fatal consequences of their narrow- mindedness, there is little to object to, provided that their narrow- mind edness does not go so far as to demand that everything shall become politics in this sense, that all shall live and act according to this standard. For, in the first place, it must be more than ever permissible for some people to keep aloof from politics and to stand somewhat aside. To this they are also impelled by the pleasure of free choice, and connected with this there may even be some little pride in keeping silence when too many, and only the many, are speaking. Then this small group must be excused if they do not attach such great importance to the happiness of the majority (nations or strata of population may be understood thereby), and are occasionally guilty of an ironical grimace; for their seriousness lies elsewhere, their conception of happines s is quite different, and their aim cannot be encompassed by every clumsy hand that has just five fingers. Finally, there comes from time to time what is certainly most difficult to concede to them, but must also be conceded a moment when they emerge from their silent solitariness and try once more the strength of their lungs; they then call to each other like people lost in a wood, to make themselves known and for mutual encouragement; whereby, to be sure, much becomes audible that sounds evil to ears for which it is not intended. Soon, however, silence again prevails in the wood, such silence that the buzzing, humming, and fluttering of the countless insects that live in, above, and beneath it, are again plainly heard. 439. CULTURE AND CASTE. A higher culture can only originate where there are two distinct castes of society : that of the working class, and that of the leisured class who are capable of true leisure ; or, more strongly expressed, the caste of compulsory labour and the caste of free labour. The point of view of the division of happiness is not essential when it is a question of the production of a higher culture; in any case, however, the leisured caste is more susceptible to suffering and suffer more, their pleasure in existence is less and their task is greater. Now supposing there should be quite an interchange between the two castes, so that on the one hand the duller and less intelligent families and individuals are lowered from the higher caste into the lower, and, on the other ha nd, the freer men of the lower caste obtain access to the higher, a condition of things would be attained beyond which one can only 123 perceive the open sea of vague wishes. Thus speaks to us the vanishing voice of the olden time; but where are there still ears to hear it? 440. OF GOOD BLOOD. That which men and women of good blood possess much more than others, and which gives them an undoubted right to be more highly appreciated, are two arts which are always increased by inheritance: the art of being able to command, and the art of proud obedience. Now wherever commanding is the business of the day (as in the great world of commerce and industry), there results something similar to these families of good blood, only the noble bearing in obedience is lacking which is an inheritance from feudal conditions and hardly grows any longer in the climate of our culture. 441. SUBORDINATION. The subordination which is so highly valued in military and official ranks will soon become as incredible to us as the secret tactics of the Jesuits have already become; and when this subordination is no longer possible a multitude of astonishing results will no longer be attained, and the world will be all the poorer. It must disappear, for its foundation is disappearing, the belief in unconditional authority, in ultimate truth; even in military ranks physical compulsion is not sufficient to produce it, but only the inherited adoration of the princely as of something superhuman. In freer circumstances people subordinate themselves only on conditions, in compliance with a mutual contract, consequently with all the provisos of self- interest. 442. THE NATIONAL ARMY. The greatest disadvantage of the national army, now so much glorified, lies in the squandering of men of the highest civilis ation ; it is only by the favourableness of all circumstances that there are such men at all ; how carefully and anxiously should we deal with them, since long periods are required to create the chance conditions for the production of such delicately organis ed brains! But as the Greeks wallowed in the blood of Greeks, so do Europeans now in the blood of Europeans: and indeed, taken relatively, it is mostly the highly cultivated who are sacrificed, those who promise an abundant and excellent posterity; for suc h stand in the front of the battle as commanders, and also expose themselves to most danger, by reason of their higher ambition. At present, when quite other and higher tasks are assigned than patria and honor , the rough Roman patriotism is either somethin g dishonourable or a sign of being behind the times. 443. HOPE AS PRESUMPTION. Our social order will slowly melt away, as all former orders have done, as soon as the suns of new opinions have shone upon mankind with a new glow. We can only wish this meltin g away in the hope thereof, and we are only reasonably entitled to hope when we believe that we and our equals have more strength in heart and head than the representatives of the existing state of things. As a rule, therefore, this hope will be a presumption, an over -estimation . 444. WAR. Against war it may be said that it makes the victor stupid and the vanquished revengeful. In favour of war it may be said that it barbarises in both its above- named results, and thereby makes more natural; it is the sleep or the winter period of culture; man emerges from it with greater strength for good and for evil. 445. 124 IN THE PRINCE S SERVICE. To be able to act quite regardlessly it is best for a statesman to carry out his work not for himself but for a prince. The eye of the spectator is dazzled by the splendour of this general disinterestedness, so that it does not see the malignancy and severity which the work of a statesman brings with it. 16F17 446. A QUESTION OF POWER, NOT OF RIGHT. As regards Socialism, in the eyes of those who always consider higher utility, if it is really a rising against their oppressors of those who for centuries have been oppressed and downtrodden, there is no problem of right involved (notwithstanding the ridiculous, effeminate question, How far ought we to grant its demands?) but only a problem of power (How far can we make use of its demands? ); the same, therefore, as in the case of a natural force, steam, for instance, which is either forced by man into his service, as a machine- god, or which, in case of defects of the machine, that is to say, defects of human calculation in its construction, destroys it and man together. In order to solve this question of power we must know how strong Socialism is, in what modification it may yet be employed as a powerful lever in the present mechanism of political forces ; under certain circumstances we should do all we can to strengthen it. With every great forcebe it the most dangerousmen have to think how they can make of it an instrument for their purposes. Socialism acquires a right only if war seems to have taken place between the two powers, the representatives of the old and the new, when, however, a wise calculation of the greatest possible preservation and advantageousness to both sides gives rise to a desire for a treaty. Without treaty no right. So far, however, there is neither war nor treaty on the ground in question, therefore no rights, no ought. 447. UTILISING THE MOST TRIVIAL DISHONESTY. The power of the press consists in the fact t hat every individual who ministers to it only feels himself bound and constrained to a very small extent. He usually expresses his opinion, but sometimes also does not express it in order to serve his party or the politics of his country, or even himself. Such little faults of dishonesty, or perhaps only of a dishonest silence, are not hard to bear by the individual, but the consequences are extraordinary, because these little faults are committed by many at the same time. Each one says to himself: For such small concessions I live better and can make my income; by the want of such little compliances I make myself impossible. Because it seems almost morally indifferent to write a line more (perhaps even without signature), or not to write it, a pe rson who has money and influence can make any opinion a public one. He who knows that most people are weak in trifles, and wishes to attain his own ends thereby, is always dangerous. 448. TOO LOUD A TONE IN GRIEVANCES. Through the fact that an account of a bad state of things (for instance, the crimes of an administration, bribery and arbitrary favour in political or learned bodies) is greatly exaggerated, it fails in its effect on intelligent people, but has all the greater effect on the unintelligent (who would have remained indifferent to an accurate and moderate account). But as these latter are considerably in the majority, and harbour in themselves stronger will-power and more impatient desire for action, the exaggeration becomes the cause of investigations, punishments, promises, and reorganisations. In so far it is useful to exaggerate the accounts of bad states of things. 17 This aphorism may have been suggested by Nietzsche s observing the behaviour of his great contemporary, Bismarck, towards the dynasty. 125 449. THE APPARENT WEATHER - MAKERS OF POLITICS. Just as people tacitly assume that he who understands the weather, and foretells i t about a day in advance, makes the weather, so even the educated and learned, with a display of superstitious faith, ascribe to great statesmen as their most special work all the important changes and conjunctures that have taken place during their administration, when it is only evident that they knew something thereof a little earlier than other people and made their calculations accordingly,thus they are also looked upon as weathermakersand this belief is not the least important instrument of their power. 450. NEW AND OLD CONCEPTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. To draw such a distinction between Government and people as if two separate spheres of power, a stronger and higher, and a weaker and lower, negotiated and came to terms with each other, is a remnant of transmitted political sentiment, which still accurately represents the historic establishment of the conditions of power in most States. When Bismarck, for instance, describes the constitutional system as a compromise between Government and people, he speaks in accordance with a principle which has its reason in history (from whence, to be sure, it also derives its ad - mixture of folly, without which nothing human can exist). On the other hand, we must now learn in accordance with a principle which has originated only in the brain and has still to make historythat Government is nothing but an organ of the people, not an attentive, honourable higher in relation to a lower accustomed to modesty. Before we accept this hitherto unhistorical and arbitrary, although logical, formulation of the conception of Government, let us but consider its consequences, for the relation between people and Government is the strongest typical relation, after the pattern of which the relationship between teacher and pupil, master and servants, father and family, leader and soldier, master and apprentice, is unconsciously formed. At present, under the influence of the prevailing constitutional system of government, all these relationships are changing a little, they are becoming com promises. But how they will have to be reversed and shifted, and change name and nature, when that newest of all conceptions has got the upper hand everywhere in people s minds! to achieve which, however, a century may yet be required. In this matter there is nothing further to be wished for except caution and slow development. 451. JUSTICE AS THE DECOY -CRY OF PARTIES. Well may noble (if not exactly very intelligent) representatives of the governing classes asseverate: We will treat men equally and grant t hem equal rights ; so far a socialistic mode of thought which is based on justice is possible; but, as has been said, only within the ranks of the governing class, which in this case practises justice with sacrifices and abnegations. On the other hand, to demand equality of rights, as do the Socialists of the subject caste, is by no means the outcome of justice, but of covetousness. If you expose bloody pieces of flesh to a beast, and withdraw them again, until it finally begins to roar, do you think that roaring implies justice? 452. POSSESSION AND JUSTICE. When the Socialists point out that the division of property at the present day is the consequence of countless deeds of injustice and violence, and, in summa , repudiate obligation to anything with so unrighteous a basis, they only perceive something isolated. The entire past of ancient civilisation is built up on violence, slavery, deception, and error; we, however, cannot annul ourselves, the heirs of all these conditions, nay, the concrescences of all this past, and are not entitled to demand the withdrawal of a 126 single fragment thereof. The unjust disposition lurks also in the souls of non- possessors; they are not better than the possessors and have no moral prerogative; for at one time or another their ancestors have been possessors. Not forcible new distributions, but gradual transformations of opinion are necessary; justice in all matters must become greater, the instinct of violence weaker. 453. THE HELMSMAN OF THE PASSIONS. The statesman excites pub lic passions in order to have the advantage of the counter-passions thereby aroused. To give an example: a German statesman knows quite well that the Catholic Church will never have the same plans as Russia ; indeed, that it would far rather be allied with the Turks than with the former country; he likewise knows that Germany is threatened with great danger from an alliance between France and Russia. If he can succeed, therefore, in making France the focus and fortress of the Catholic Church, he has averted this danger for a lengthy period. He has, accordingly, an interest in showing hatred against the Catholics in transforming, by all kinds of hostility, the supporters of the Popes authority into an impassioned political power which is opposed to German pol itics, and must, as a matter of course, coalesce with France as the adversary of Germany ; his aim is the catholicising of France, just as necessarily as Mirabeau saw the salvation of his native land in de-catholicising it. The one State, therefore, desires to muddle millions of minds of another State in order to gain advantage thereby. It is the same disposition which supports the republican form of government of a neighbouring Statele dsordre organis , as Mrime says for the sole reason that it assumes that this form of government makes the nation weaker, more distracted, less fit for war. 454. THE DANGEROUS REVOLUTIONARY SPIRITS. Those who are bent on revolutionising society may be divided into those who seek something for themselves thereby and those who seek something for their children and grandchildren. The latter are the more dangerous, for they have the belief and the good conscience of disinterestedness. The others can be appeased by favours: those in power are still sufficiently rich and wise to adopt that expedient. The danger begins as soon as the aims become impersonal; revolutionists seeking impersonal interests may consider all defenders of the present state of things as personally interested, and may therefore feel themselves superior to their opponents. 455. THE POLITICAL VALUE OF PATERNITY. When a man has no sons he has not a full right to join in a discussion concerning the needs of a particular community. A person must himself have staked his dearest object along with the others: that alo ne binds him fast to the State ; he must have in view the well-being of his descendants, and must, therefore, above all, have descendants in order to take a right and natural share in all institutions and the changes thereof. The development of higher morality depends on a persons having sons; it disposes him to be unegoistic, or, more correctly, it extends his egoism in its duration and permits him earnestly to strive after goals which lie beyond his individual lifetime. 456. PRIDE OF DESCENT. A man may be justly proud of an unbroken line of good ancestors down to his father,not however of the line itself, for every one has that. Descent from good ancestors constitutes the real nobility of birth ; a single break in the chain, one bad ancestor, therefore, destroys the nobility of birth. Every one who talks about his nobility should be asked : Have you no violent, avaricious, dissolute, wicked, cruel man amongst your 127 ancestors? If with good cognisance and conscience he can answer No, then let his friendship be sought. 457. SLAVES AND LABOURERS. The fact that we regard the gratification of vanity as of more account than all other forms of well-being (security, position, and pleasures of all sorts), is shown to a ludicrous extent by every one wishing for the abolition of slavery and utterly abhorring to put any one into this position (apart altogether from political reasons), while every one must ac- knowledge to himself that in all respects slaves live more securely and more happily than modern labourers, and that slave labour is very easy labour compared with that of the labourer. We protest in the name of the dignity of man ; but, expressed more simply, that is just our darling vanity which feels non-equality, and inferiority in public estimation, to be the hardest lot of all. The cynic thinks differently concerning the matter, because he despises honour:and so Diogenes was for some time a slave and tutor. 458. LEADING MINDS AND THEIR INSTRUMENT S.We see that great statesmen, and in general all who have to employ many people to carry out their plans, sometimes proceed one way and sometimes another; they either choose with great skill and care the people suitable for their plans, and then leave them a comparatively large amount of liberty, because they know that the nature of the persons selected impels them precisely to the point where they themselves would have them go; or else they choose badly, in fact take whatever comes to hand, but out of every piece of clay they form something useful for their purpose. These latter minds are the more high-handed; they also desire more submissive instruments; their knowledge of mankind is usually much smaller, their contempt of mankind greater than in the case of the first mentioned class, but the machines they construct generally work better than the machines from the workshops of the former. 459. ARBITRARY LAW NECESSARY. Jurists dispute whether the most perfectly thought-out law or that which is most easily understood should prevail in a nation. The former, the best model of which is Roman Law, seems incomprehensible to the layman, and is therefore not the expression of his sense of justice. Popular laws, the Germanic, for instance, have been rude, superstitious, illogical, and in part idiotic, but they represented very definite, inherited national morals and sentiments. But where, as with us, law is no longer custom, it can only command and be compulsion; none of us any longer possesses a traditional s ense of justice; we must therefore content ourselves with arbitrary laws which are the expressions of the necessity that there must be law. The most logical is then in any case the most acceptable, because it is the most impartial , granting even that in every case the smallest unit of measure in the relation of crime and punishment is arbitrarily fixed. 460. THE GREAT MAN OF THE MASSES. The recipe for what the masses call a great man is easily given. In all circumstances let a person provide them with something very pleasant, or first let him put it into their heads that this or that would be very pleasant, and then let him give it to them. On no account give it immediately , however: but let him acquire it by the greatest exertions, or seem thus to acquire it. The masses must have the impression that there is a powerful, nay indomitable strength of will operating; at least it must seem to be there operating. Everybody admires a strong will, because nobody possesses it, and everybody says to himself that if he did possess it there would no longer be any bounds for him and his egoism. If, then, it becomes evident that such a strong will effects something very agreeable 128 to the masses, instead of hearkening to the wishes of covetousness, people admire once more, and wish good luck to themselves. Moreover, if he has all the qualities of the masses, they are the less ashamed before him, and he is all the more popular. Consequently, he may be violent, envious, rapacious, intriguing, flattering, fawning, inflated, and, according to circumstances, anything whatsoever. 461. PRINCE AND GOD. People frequently commune with their princes in the same way as with their God, as indeed the prince himself was frequently the Deity s representative, or at least His high priest. This almost uncanny disposition of veneration, disquiet, and shame, grew, and has grown, much weaker, but occasionally it flares up again, and fastens upon powerful persons generally. The cult of genius is an echo of this veneration of Gods and Princes. Wherev er an effort is made to exalt particular men to the superhuman, there is also a tendency to regard whole grades of the population as coarser and baser than they really are. 462. MY UTOPIA. In a better arranged society the heavy work and trouble of life wil l be assigned to those who suffer least through it, to the most obtuse, therefore; and so step by step up to those who are most sensitive to the highest and sublimest kinds of suffering, and who therefore still suffer notwithstanding the greatest alleviations of life. 463. A DELUSION IN SUBVERSIVE DOCTRINES. There are political and social dreamers who ardently and eloquently call for the overthrow of all order, in the belief that the proudest fane of beautiful humanity will then rear itself immediately, almost of its own accord. In these dangerous dreams there is still an echo of Rousseau s superstition, which believes in a marvellous primordial goodness of human nature, buried up, as it were; and lays all the blame of that burying-up on the institutions of civilisation, on society, State, and education. Unfortunately, it is well known by historical experiences that every such overthrow reawakens into new life the wildest energies, the long-buried horrors and extravagances of remotest ages ; that an over - thro w, therefore, may possibly be a source of strength to a deteriorated humanity, but never a regulator, architect, artist, or perfecter of human nature. It was not Voltaire s moderate nature, inclined towards regulating, purifying, and reconstructing, but Ro usseaus passionate follies and half- lies that aroused the optimistic spirit of the Revolution, against which I cry, Ecrasez l infme! Owing to this the Spirit of enlightenment and progressive development has been long scared away ; let us see each of us individually if it is not possible to recall it! 464. MODERATION. When perfect resoluteness in thinking and investigating, that is to say, freedom of spirit, has become a feature of character, it produces moderation of conduct; for it weakens avidity, attracts much extant energy for the furtherance of intellectual aims, and shows the semi-usefulness, or uselessness and danger, of all sudden changes. 465. THE RESURRECTION OF THE SPIRIT. A nation usually renews its youth on a political sick-bed, and there finds again the spirit which it had gradually lost in seeking and maintaining power. Culture is indebted most of all to politically weakened periods 466. 129 NEW OPINIONS IN THE OLD HOME. The overthrow of opinions is not immediately followed by the overthrow pf i nstitutions ; on the contrary, the new opinions dwell for a long time in the desolate and haunted house of their predecessors, and conserve it even for want of a habitation. 467. PUBLIC EDUCATION. In large States public education will always be extremely mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is at best only mediocre. 468. INNOCENT CORRUPTION. In all institutions into which the sharp breeze of public criticism does not penetrate an innocent corruption grows up like a fungus (for instance, in learned bodies and senates). 469. SCHOLARS AS POLITICIANS. To scholars who become politicians the comic role is usually assigned; they have to be the good conscience of a state policy. 470. THE WOLF HIDDEN BEHIND THE SHEEP. Almost every politician, in certain circumstances, has such need of an honest man that he breaks into the sheep-fold like a famished wolf; not, however, to devour a stolen sheep, but to hide himself behind its woolly back. 471. HAPPY TIMES. A happy age is no longer possible, because men only wish for it but do not desire to have it; and each individual, when good days come for him, learns positively to pray for disquiet and misery. The destiny of mankind is arranged for happy moments every life has such but not for happy times. Nevertheless, such times will continue to exist in mans imagination as over the hills and far away, an heirloom of his earliest ancestors; for the idea of the happy age, from the earliest times to the present, has no doubt been derived from the state in which man, after violent exertions in hunting and warfare, gives himself over to repose, stretches out his limbs, and hears the wings of sleep rustle around him. It is a false conclusion when, in accordance with that old habit, man imagines that after whole periods of distress and trouble he will be able also to enjoy the state of happiness in proportionate increase and duration. 472. RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT. So long as the State, or, more properly, the Government, regards itself as the appointed guardian of a number of minors, and on their account considers the question whether religion should be preserved or abolished, it is highly probable that it will always decide for the preservation thereof. For religion satisfies the nature of the individual in times of loss, destitution, terror, and distrust, in cases, therefore, where the Government feels itself incapable of doing anything directly for the mitigation of the spiritual sufferings of the individual; indeed, even in general unavoidable and next to inevitable evils (famines, financial crises, and wars) religion gives to the masses an attitude of tranquillity and confiding expectancy. Whenever the necessary or accidental deficiencies of the State Government, or the dangerous consequences of dynastic interests, strike the eyes of the intelligent and make them refractory, the unintelligent will only think they see the finger of God therein and will submit with patience to the dispensations from on high (a conception in which divine and human modes of government usually coalesce); thus internal civil peace 130 and continuity of development will be preserved. The power, which lies in the unity of popular feeling, in the existence of the same opinions and aims for all, is protected and confirmed by religion,the rare cases excepted in which a priesthood cannot agree with the State about the price, and therefore comes into conflict with it. As a rule the State will know how to win over the priests, because it needs their most private and secret system for educating souls, and knows how to value servants who apparently, and outwardly, represent quite other interests. Even at present no power can become legitimate without the assistance of the priests ; a fact which Napoleon understood. Thus, absolutely pate rnal government and the careful preservation of religion necessarily go hand- in-hand. In this connection it must be taken for granted that the rulers and governing classes are enlightened concerning the advantages which religion affords, and consequently f eel themselves to a certain extent superior to it, inasmuch as they use it as a means ; thus freedom of spirit has its origin here. But how will it be when the totally different interpretation of the idea of Government, such as is taught in democratic State s, begins to prevail? When one sees in it nothing but the instrument of the popular will, no upper in contrast to an under, but merely a function of the sole sovereign, the people? Here also only the same attitude which the people assume towards rel igion can be assumed by the Government; every diffusion of enlightenment will have to find an echo even in the representatives, and the utilising and exploiting of religious impulses and consolations for State purposes will not be so easy (unless powerful party leaders occasionally exercise an influence resembling that of enlightened despotism). When, however, the State is not permitted to derive any further advantage from religion, or when people think far too variously on religious matters to allow the St ate to adopt a consistent and uniform procedure with respect to them, the way out of the difficulty will necessarily present itself, namely to treat religion as a private affair and leave it to the conscience and custom of each single individual. The first result of all is that religious feeling seems to be strengthened, inasmuch as hidden and suppressed impulses thereof, which the State had unintentionally or intentionally stifled, now break forth and rush to extremes; later on, however, it is found that religion is overgrown with sects, and that an abundance of dragon s teeth were sown as soon as religion was made a private affair. The spectacle of strife, and the hostile laying bare of all the weaknesses of religious confessions, admit finally of no other expedient except that every better and more talented person should make irreligiousness his private affair, a sentiment which now obtains the upper hand even in the minds of the governing classes, and, almost against their will, gives an anti-religious character to their measures. As soon as this happens, the sentiment of persons still religiously disposed, who formerly adored the State as something half sacred or wholly sacred, changes into decided hostility to the State ; they lie in wait for governmental measures, seeking to hinder, thwart, and disturb as much as they can, and, by the fury of their contradiction, drive the opposing parties, the irreligious ones, into an almost fanatical enthusiasm for the State ; in connection with which there is also the silently Co -operating influence, that since their separation from religion the hearts of persons in these circles are conscious of a void, and seek by devotion to the State to provide themselves provisionally with a substitute for religion, a kind of stuffing for the void. After these perhaps lengthy transitional struggles, it is finally decided whether the religious parties are still strong enough to revive an old condition of things, and turn the wheel backwards: in which case enlightened despotism (perha ps less enlightened and more timorous than formerly), inevitably gets the State into its hands, or whether the non-religious parties achieve their purpose, and, possibly through schools and education, check the increase of their opponents during several generations, and finally make them no longer possible. Then, however, their enthusiasm for the State also abates: it always becomes more obvious that along, with the religious adoration which regards the State as a mystery and a supernatural institution, the reverent and pious relation to it has also been 131 convulsed. Henceforth individuals see only that side of the State which may be useful or injurious to them, and press forward by all means to obtain an influence over it. But this rivalry soon becomes too gr eat; men and parties change too rapidly, and throw each other down again too furiously from the mountain when they have only just succeeded in getting aloft. All the measures which such a Government carries out lack the guarantee of permanence; people then fight shy of undertakings which would require the silent growth of future decades or centuries to produce ripe fruit. Nobody henceforth feels any other obligation to a law than to submit for the moment to the power which introduced the law; people immedia tely set to work, however, to undermine it by a new power, a newly- formed majority. Finally it may be confidently assertedthe distrust of all government, the insight into the useless and harassing nature of these short-winded struggles, must drive men to an entirely new resolution: to the abrogation of the conception of the State and the abolition of the contrast of private and public. Private concerns gradually absorb the business of the State ; even the toughest residue which is left over from the old work of governing (the business, for instance, which is meant to protect private persons from private persons) will at last some day be managed by private enterprise. The neglect, decline, and death of the State , the liberation of the private person (I am careful not to say the individual), are the consequences of the democratic conception of the State; that is its mission. When it has accomplished its task, which, like everything human, involves much rationality and irrationality, and when all relapses int o the old malady have been overcome, then a new leaf in the story-book of humanity will be unrolled, on which readers will find all kinds of strange tales and perhaps also some amount of good. To repeat shortly what has been said: the interests of the tute lary Government and the interests of religion go hand- in-hand, so that when the latter begins to decay the foundations of the State are also shaken. The belief in a divine regulation of political affairs, in a mystery in the existence of the State, is of religious origin: if religion dis - appears, the State will inevitably lose its old veil of Isis, and will no longer arouse veneration. The sovereignty of the people, looked at closely, serves also to dispel the final fascination and superstition in the realm of these sentiments; modern democracy is the historical form of the decay of the State . The outlook which results from this certain decay is not, however, unfortunate in every respect; the wisdom and the selfishness of men are the best developed of all t heir qualities ; when the State no longer meets the demands of these impulses, chaos will least of all result, but a still more appropriate expedient than the State will get the mastery over the State. How many organising forces have already been seen to die out! For example, that of the gens or clan which for millennia was far mightier than the power of the family, and indeed already ruled and regulated long before the latter existed. We ourselves see the important notions of the right and might of the family, which once possessed the supremacy as far as the Roman system extended, always becoming paler and feebler. In the same way a later generation will also see the State become meaningless in certain parts of the world,an idea which many contemporaries can hardly contemplate without alarm and horror. To labour for the propagation and realisation of this idea is, certainly, another thing; one must think very presumptuously of ones reason, and only half understand history, to set ones hand to the plough at present when as yet no one can show us the seeds that are afterwards to be sown upon the broken soil. Let us, therefore, trust to the wisdom and selfishness of men that the State may yet exist a good while longer, and that the destructive attempts of over -zealous, too hasty socialists may be in vain! 473. SOCIALISM, WITH REGARD TO ITS MEANS. Socialism is the fantastic younger brother of almost decrepit despotism, which it wants to succeed; its efforts are, therefore, in the deepest sense reactionary. For it desires such an amount of State power as only despotism 132 has possessed, indeed, it outdoes all the past, in that it aims at the complete annihilation of the individual, whom it deems an unauthorised luxury of nature, which is to be improved by it into an appropriate organ of the general community . Owing to its relationship, it always appears in proximity to excessive developments of power, like the old typical socialist, Plato, at the cour t of the Sicilian tyrant; it desires (and under certain circumstances furthers) the Caesarian despotism of this century, because, as has been said, it would like to become its heir. But even this inheritance would not suffice for its objects, it requires the most sub- missive prostration of all citizens before the absolute State, such as has never yet been realised ; and as it can no longer even count upon the old religious piety towards the State, but must rather strive involuntarily and continuously for the abolition thereof,because it strives for the abolition of all existing States ,it can only hope for existence occasionally, here and there for short periods, by means of the extremest terrorism. It is therefore silently preparing itself for reigns of te rror, and drives the word justice like a nail into the heads of the half - cultured masses in order to deprive them completely of their understanding (after they had already suffered seriously from the half-culture), and to provide them with a good conscie nce for the bad game they are to play. Socialism may serve to teach, very brutally and impressively, the danger of all accumulations of State power, and may serve so far to inspire dis- trust of the State itself. When its rough voice strikes up the way- cry as much State as possible the shout at first becomes louder than ever,but soon the opposition cry also breaks forth, with so much greater force: as little State as possible 474. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND FEARED BY THE STATE. The Greek polis was , like every organising political power, exclusive and distrustful of the growth of culture; its powerful fundamental impulse seemed almost solely to have a paralysing and obstructive effect thereon. It did not want to let any history or any becoming have a place in culture; the education laid down in the State laws was meant to be obligatory on all generations to keep them at one stage of development. Plato also, later on, did not desire it to be otherwise in his ideal State. In spite of the polis culture developed itself in this manner; indirectly to be sure, and against its will, the polis furnished assistance because the ambition of individuals therein was stimulated to the utmost, so that, having once found the path of intellectual development, they followed it to its farthest extremity. On the other hand, appeal should not be made to the panegyric of Pericles, for it is only a great optimistic dream about the alleged necessary connection between the Polis and Athenian culture; immediately before the night fell over Athens (the plague and the breakdown of tradition), Thucydides makes this culture flash up once more like a transfiguring afterglow, to efface the remembrance of the evil day that had preceded. 475. EUROPEAN MAN AND THE DESTRUCTION OF NATIONALIT IES.Commerce and industry, interchange of books and letters, the universality of all higher culture, the rapid changing of locality and landscape, and the present nomadic life of all who are not landowners,these circumstances necessarily bring with them a weakening, and finally a destruction of nationalities, at least of European nationalities ; so that, in consequence of perpetual crossings, there must arise out of them all a mixed race, that of the European man. At present the isolation of nations, through the rise of national enmities, consciously or unconsciously counteracts this tendency; but nevertheless the process of fusing advances slowly, in spite of those occasional counter- currents. This artificial nationalism is, however, as dangerous as was ar tificial Catholicism, for it is essentially an unnatural condition of extremity and martial law, which has been proclaimed by the few over the many, and requires 133 artifice, lying, and force to maintain its reputation. It is not the interests of the many (of the peoples), as they probably say, but it is first of all the interests of certain princely dynasties, and then of certain commercial and social classes, which impel to this nationalism; once we have recognised this fact, we should just fearlessly style ourselves good Europeans and labour actively for the amalgamation of nations; in which efforts Germans may assist by virtue of their hereditary position as interpreters and intermediaries between nations . By the way, the great problem of the Jews only exis ts within the national States, inasmuch as their energy and higher intelligence, their intellectual and volitional capital, accumulated from generation to generation in tedious schools of suffering, must necessarily attain to universal supremacy here to an extent provocative of envy and hatred; so that the literary misconduct is becoming prevalent in almost all modern nationsand all the more so as they again set up to be nationalof sacrificing the Jews as the scapegoats of all possible public and private abuses. So soon as it is no longer a question of the preservation or establishment of nations, but of the production and training of a European mixed-race of the greatest possible strength, the Jew is just as useful and desirable an ingredient as any other national remnant Every nation, every individual, has unpleasant and even dangerous qualities,it is cruel to require that the Jew should be an exception. Those qualities may even be dangerous and frightful in a special degree in his case; and perhaps the young Stock-Exchange Jew is in general the most repulsive invention of the human species. Nevertheless, in a general summing up, I should like to know how much must be excused in a nation which, not without blame on the part of all of us, has had the most mournful history of all nations, and to which we owe the most loving of men (Christ), the most upright of sages (Spinoza), the mightiest book, and the most effective moral law in the world ? Moreover, in the darkest times of the Middle Ages, when Asiatic cl ouds had gathered darkly over Europe, it was Jewish free-thinkers, scholars, and physicians who upheld the banner of enlightenment and of intellectual independence under the severest personal sufferings, and defended Europe against Asia; we owe it not leas t to their efforts that a more natural, more reasonable, at all events un -mythical, explanation of the world was finally able to get the upper hand once more, and that the link of culture which now unites us with the enlightenment of Greco-Roman antiquity has remained unbroken. If Christianity has done everything to orientalise the Occident, Judaism has assisted essentially in occidentalising it anew ; which, in a certain sense, is equivalent to making Europe s mission and history a continuation of that of G reece. 476. APPARENT SUPERIORITY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The Middle Ages present in the Church an institution with an absolutely universal aim, involving the whole of humanity,an aim, moreover, whichpresumedlyconcerned man s highest interests ; in comparison therewith the aims of the States and nations which modern history exhibits make a painful impression ; they seem petty, base, material, and restricted in extent. But this different impression on our imagination should certainly not determine our judgment; for that universal institution corresponded to feigned and fictitiously fostered needs, such as the need of salvation, which, wherever they did not already exist, it had first of all to create: the new institutions, however, relieve actual distresses; and the time is coming when institutions will arise to minister to the common, genuine needs of all men, and to cast that fantastic prototype, the Catholic Church, into shade and oblivion. 477. WAR INDISPENSABLE. It is nothing but fanaticism and beautiful soulism to expect very much (or even, much only) from humanity when it has forgotten how to wage war. For the present we know of no other means whereby the rough energy of the camp, the deep 134 impersonal hatred, the cold-bloodedness of murder with a good conscie nce, the general ardour of the system in the destruction of the enemy, the proud indifference to great losses, to ones own existence and that of ones friends, the hollow, earthquake-like convulsion of the soul, can be as forcibly and certainly communicated to enervated nations as is done by every great war : owing to the brooks and streams that here break forth, which, certainly, sweep stones and rubbish of all sorts along with them and destroy the meadows of delicate cultures, the mechanism, in the workshops of the mind is afterwards, in favourable circumstances, rotated by new power. Culture can by no means dispense with passions, vices, and malignities. When the Romans, after having become Imperial, had grown rather tired of war, they attempted to gain new strength by beast-baitings, gladiatoral combats, and Christian persecutions. The English of today, who appear on the whole to have also renounced war, adopt other means in order to generate anew those vanishing forces; namely, the dangerous exploring expeditions, sea voyages and mountaineerings, nominally undertaken for scientific purposes, but in reality to bring home surplus strength from adventures and dangers of all kinds. Many other such substitutes for war will be discovered, but perhaps precisely thereby it will become more and more obvious that such a highly cultivated and therefore necessarily enfeebled humanity as that of modern Europe not only needs wars, but the greatest and most terrible wars, consequently occasional relapses into barbarism, lest, by the means of culture, it should lose its culture and its very existence. 478. INDUSTRY IN THE SOUTH AND THE NORTH. Industry arises in two entirely different ways. The artisans of the South are not industrious because of acquisitiveness but because of the constant needs of others. The smith is industrious because some one is always coming who wants a horse shod or a carriage mended. If nobody came he would loiter about the market -place. In a fruitful land he has little trouble in supporting himself, for that purpose he requires only a very small amount of work, certainly no industry; eventually he would beg and be contented. The industry of English workmen, on the contrary, has acquisitiveness behind it; it is conscious of itself and its aims ; with property it wants power, and with power the greatest possible liberty and individual distinction. 479. WEALTH AS THE ORIGIN OF A NOBILITY OF RACE. Wealth necessarily creates an aristocracy of race, for it permits the choice of the most beautiful women an d the engagement of the best teachers ; it allows a man cleanliness, time for physical exercises, and, above all, immunity from dulling physical labour. So far it provides all the conditions for making man, after a few generations, move and even act nobly and handsomely: greater freedom of character and absence of niggardliness, of wretchedly petty matters, and of abasement before bread -givers. It is precisely these negative qualities which are the most profitable birthday gift, that of happiness, for the young man; a person who is quite poor usually comes to grief through nobility of disposition, he does not get on, and acquires nothing, his race is not capable of living. In this connection, however, it must be remembered that wealth produces almost the same effects whether one have three hundred or thirty thousand thalers a year; there is no further essential progression of the favourable conditions afterwards. But to have less, to beg in boyhood and to abase one s self is terrible, although it may be the pr oper starting -point for such as seek their happiness in the splendour of courts, in subordination to the mighty and influential, or for such as wish to be heads of the Church. (It teaches how to slink crouching into the underground passages to favour.) 480. 135 ENVY AND INERTIA IN DIFFERENT COURSES. The two opposing parties, the socialist and the national, or whatever they may be called in the different countries of Europe,are worthy of each other; envy and laziness are the motive powers in each of them. In the one camp they desire to work as little as possible with their hands, in the other as little as possible with their heads; in the latter they hate and envy prominent, self-evolving individuals, who do not willingly allow themselves to be drawn up in rank and file for the purpose of a collective effect ; in the former they hate and envy the better social caste, which is more favourably circumstanced outwardly, whose peculiar mission, the production of the highest blessings of culture, makes life inwardly all the harder and more painful. Certainly, if it be possible to make the spirit of the collective effect the spirit of the higher classes of society, the socialist crowds are quite right, when they also seek outward equalisation between themselves and these classes, since they are certainly internally equalised with one another already in head and heart. Live as higher men, and always do the deeds of higher culture, thus everything that lives will acknowledge your right, and the order of society, whose sum mit ye are, will be safe from every evil glance and attack! 481. HIGH POLITICS AND THEIR DETRIMENTS. Just as a nation does not suffer the greatest losses that war and readiness for war involve through the expenses of the war, or the stoppage of trade and traffic, or through the maintenance of a standing army, however great these losses may now be, when eight European States expend yearly the sum of five milliards of marks thereon,but owing to the fact that year after year its ablest, strongest, and most industrious men are withdrawn in extraordinary numbers from their proper occupations and callings to be turned into soldiers: in the same way, a nation that sets about practising high politics and securing a decisive voice among the great Powers does not suf fer its greatest losses where they are usually supposed to be. In fact, from this time onward it constantly sacrifices a number of its most conspicuous talents upon the Altar of the Fatherland or of national ambition, whilst formerly other spheres of activity were open to those talents which are now swallowed up by politics. But apart from these public hecatombs, and in reality much more horrible, there is a drama which is constantly being performed simultaneously in a hundred thousand acts; every able, industrious, intellectually striving man of a nation that thus covets political laurels, is swayed by this covetousness, and no longer belongs entirely to himself alone as he did formerly; the new daily questions and cares of the public welfare devour a dai ly tribute of the intellectual and emotional capital of every citizen ; the sum of all these sacrifices and losses of individual energy and labour is so enormous, that the political growth of a nation almost necessarily entails an intellectual impoverishmen t and lassitude, a diminished capacity for the performance of works that require great concentration and specialisation. The question may finally be asked: Does it then pay, all this bloom and magnificence of the total (which indeed only manifests itself as the fear of the new Colossus in other nations, and as the compulsory favouring by them of national trade and commerce) when all the nobler, finer, and more intellectual plants and products, in which its soil was hitherto so rich, must be sacrificed to this coarse and opalescent flower of the nation? 17F18 482. REPEATED ONCE MORE. Public opinionprivate laziness. 18 This is once more an allusion to modern Germany. 136 Ninth Division - Man Alone By Himself 483. THE ENEMIES OF TRUTH. Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. 484. A TOPSY- TURVY WORLD. We criticise a thinker more severely when he puts an unpleasant statement before us; and yet it would be more reasonable to do so when we find his statement pleasant. 485. DECIDED CHARACTER. A man far oftener appears to have a decided character from persistently following his temperament than from persistently following his principles. 486. THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. One thing a man must have: either a naturally light disposition or a disposition lightened by art and knowledge. 487. THE PASSION FOR THINGS. Whoever sets his passion on things (sciences, arts, the common weal, the interests of culture) withdraws much fervour from his passion for persons (even when they are the representatives of those things; as states men, philosophers, and artists are the representatives of their creations). 488. CALMNESS IN ACTION. As a cascade in its descent becomes more deliberate and suspended, so the great man of action usually acts with more calmness than his strong passions previous to action would lead one to expect. 489. NOT TOO DEEP. Persons who grasp a matter in all its depth seldom remain permanently true to it. They have just brought the depth up into the light, and there is always much evil to be seen there. 490. THE ILLUSION OF I DEALISTS. All idealists imagine that the cause which they serve is essentially better than all other causes, and will not believe that if their cause is really to flourish it requires precisely the same evil-smelling manure which all other human undertakings have need of. 491. SELF -OBSERVATION. Man is exceedingly well protected from himself and guarded against his self -exploring and self-besieging; as a rule he can perceive nothing of himself but his outworks. The actual fortress is inaccessible, and even in visible, to him, unless friends and enemies become traitors and lead him inside by secret paths. 492. 137 THE RIGHT CALLING. Men can seldom hold on to a calling unless they believe or persuade themselves that it is really more important than any other. Women are the same with their lovers. 493. NOBILITY OF DISPOSITION. Nobility of disposition consists largely in good- nature and absence of distrust, and therefore contains precisely that upon which money-grabbing and successful men take a pleasure in walking wi th superiority and scorn. 494. GOAL AND PATH. Many are obstinate with regard to the once-chosen path, few with regard to the goal. 495. THE OFFENSIVENESS IN AN INDIVIDUAL WAY OF LIFE. All specially individual lines of conduct excite irritation against him who adopts them; people feel themselves reduced to the level of commonplace creatures by the extra ordinary treatment he bestows on himself. 496. THE PRIVILEGE OF GREATNESS. It is the privilege of greatness to confer intense happiness with insignificant gi fts. 497. UNINTENTIONALLY NOBLE. A person behaves with unintentional nobleness when he has accustomed himself to seek naught from others and always to give to them. 498. A CONDITION OF HEROISM. When a person wishes to become a hero, the serpent must previously have become a dragon, otherwise he lacks his proper enemy. 499. FRIENDS. Fellowship in joy, and not sympathy in sorrow, makes people friends. 500. MAKING USE OF EBB AND FLOW. For the purpose of knowledge we must know how to make use of the inward current which draws us towards a thing, and also of the current which after a time draws us away from it. 501. JOY IN ITSELF. Joy in the Thing ; people say; but in reality it is joy in itself by means of the thing. 502. THE UNASSUMING MAN. He who i s unassuming towards persons manifests his presumption all the more with regard to things (town, State, society, time, humanity). That is his revenge. 503. ENVY AND JEALOUSY. Envy and jealousy are the pudenda of the human soul. The comparison may perhaps be carried further. 138 504. THE NOBLEST HYPOCRITE. It is a very noble hypocrisy not to talk of one s self at all. 505. VEXATION. Vexation is a physical disease, which is not by any means cured when its cause is subsequently removed. 506. THE CHAMPIONS OF TRUTH. Truth does not find fewest champions when it is dangerous to speak it, but when it is dull. 507. MORE TROUBLESOME EVEN THAN ENEMIES. Persons of whose sympathetic attitude we are not, in all circumstances, convinced, while for some reason or other (gratitude, for instance) we are obliged to maintain the appearance of unqualified sympathy with them, trouble our imagination far more than our enemies do. 508. FREE NATURE. We are so fond of being out among Nature, because it has no opinions about us. 509. EACH SUPERIOR IN ONE THING. In civilised intercourse every one feels himself superior to all others in at least one thing; kindly feelings generally are based thereon, inasmuch as every one can, in certain circumstances, render help, and is therefore entitled to accept help without shame. 510. CONSOLATORY ARGUMENTS. In the case of a death we mostly use consolatory arguments not so much to alleviate the grief as to make excuses for feeling so easily consoled. 511. PERSONS LOYAL TO THEIR CONVICTIONS. Whoever is very busy retains his general views and opinions almost unchanged. So also does every one who labours in the service of an idea; he will nevermore examine the idea itself, he no longer has any time to do so; indeed, it is against his interests to consider it as still admit ting of discussion. 512. MORALITY AND QUANTITY. The higher morality of one man as compared with that of another, often lies merely in the fact that his aims are quantitively greater. The other, living in a circumsc ribed sphere, is dragged down by petty occupations. 513. THE LIFE AS THE PROCEEDS OF LIFE. A man may stretch himself out ever so far with his knowledge; he may seem to himself ever so objective, but eventually he realises nothing therefrom but his own biography. 514. IRON NECESSITY. Iron necessity is a thing which has been found, in the course of history, to be neither iron nor necessary. 139 515. EXPERIENCE. The unreasonableness of a thing is no argument against its existence, but rather a condition thereof. 516. TRUTH. Nobody dies nowadays of fatal truths, there are too many antidotes to them. 517. A FUNDAMENTAL INSIGHT. There is no pre-established harmony between the promotion of truth and the welfare of mankind. 518. MAN S LOT. He who thinks most deeply knows that he is always in the wrong, however he may act and decide. 519. TRUTH AS CIRCE. Error has made animals into men; is truth perhaps capable of making man into an animal again? 520. THE DANGER OF OUR CULTURE. We belong to a period of which the culture is in danger of being destroyed by the appliances of culture. 521. GREATNESS MEANS LEADING THE WAY. No stream is large and copious of itself, but becomes great by receiving and leading on so many tributary streams. It is so, also, with all intelle ctual greatnesses. It is only a question of some one indicating the direction to be followed by so many affluents; not whether he was richly or poorly gifted originally. 522. A FEEBLE CONSCIENCE. People who talk about their importance to mankind have a feeble conscience for common bourgeois rectitude, keeping of contracts, promises, etc. 523. DESIRING TO BE LOVED. The demand to be loved is the greatest of presumptions. 524. CONTEMPT FOR MEN. The most unequivocal sign of contempt for man is to regard everybody merely as a means to ones own ends, or of no account whatever. 525. PARTISANS THROUGH CONTRADICTION. Whoever has driven men to fury against himself has also gained a party in his favour. 526. FORGETTING EXPERIENCES. Whoever thinks much and to good purpose easily forgets his own experiences, but not the thoughts which these experiences have called forth. 527. 140 STICKING TO AN OPINION. One person sticks to an opinion because he takes pride in having acquired it himself,another sticks to it because he has l earnt it with difficulty and is proud of having understood it; both of them, therefore, out of vanity. 528. AVOIDING THE LIGHT. Good deeds avoid the light just as anxiously as evil deeds; the latter fear that pain will result from publicity (as punishment), the former fear that pleasure will vanish with publicity (the pure pleasure per se, which ceases as soon as satisfaction of vanity is added to it). 529. THE LENGTH OF THE DAY. When one has much to put into them, a day has a hundred pockets. 530. THE GENIUS OF TYRANNY. When an invincible desire to obtain tyrannical power has been awakened in the soul, and constantly keeps up its fervour, even a very mediocre talent (in politicians, artists, etc.) gradually becomes an almost irresistible natural force. 531. THE ENEMY S LIFE. He who lives by fighting with an enemy has an interest in the preservation of the enemy s life. 18F19 532. MORE IMPORTANT. Unexplained, obscure matters are regarded as more important than explained, clear ones. 533. VALUATION OF SERVICES RENDERED. We estimate services rendered to us according to the value set on them by those who render them, not according to the value they have for us. 534. UNHAPPINESS. The distinction associated with unhappiness (as if it were a sign of stupidity, unambitiousness, or commonplaceness to feel happy) is so great that when any one says to us, How happy you are!; we usually protest. 535. IMAGINATION IN ANGUISH. When one is afraid of anything, ones imagination plays the part of that evil spirit which springs on ones back just when one has the heaviest load to bear. 536. THE VALUE OF INSIPID OPPONENTS. We sometimes remain faithful to a cause merely because its opponents never cease to be insipid. 537. 19 This is why Nietzsche pointed out later on that he had an interest in the preservation of Christianity, and that he was sure his teaching would not undermine this faith just as little as anarchists have undermined kings; but have left them seated all the more firmly on their thrones. 141 THE VALUE OF A PROFESSION. A profess ion makes us thoughtless; that is its greatest blessing. For it is a bulwark behind which we are permitted to withdraw when commonplace doubts and cares assail us. 538. TALENT. Many a man s talent appears less than it is, because he has always set himself too heavy tasks. 539. YOUTH. Youth is an unpleasant period; for then it is not possible or not prudent to be productive in any sense whatsoever. 540. Too GREAT AIMS. Whoever aims publicly at great things and at length perceives secretly that he is too weak to achieve them, has usually also insufficient strength to renounce his aims publicly, and then inevitably becomes a hypocrite. 541. IN THE CURRENT. Mighty waters sweep many stones and shrubs away with them; mighty spirits many foolish and confused minds. 542. THE DANGERS OF INTELLECTUAL EMANCIPATION. In a seriously intended intellectual emancipation a person s mute passions and cravings also hope to find their advantage. 543. THE INCARNATION OF THE MIND. When any one thinks much and to good purpose, not only his face but also his body acquires a sage look. 544. SEEING BADLY AND HEARING BADLY. The man who sees little always sees less than there is to see; the man who hears badly always hears something more than there is to hear. 545. SELF -ENJOYMENT IN VANITY. The vain man does not wish so much to be prominent as to feel himself prominent; he therefore disdains none of the expedients for self-deception and self -out-witting. It is not the opinion of others that he sets his heart on, but his opinion of their opinion. 546. EXCEPTIONALLY VAIN. He who is usually self-sufficient becomes exceptionally vain, and keenly alive to fame and praise when he is physically ill. The more he loses himself the more he has to endeavour to regain his position by means of the opinion of others. 547. THE WITTY. Those who seek wit do not possess it. 548. A HINT TO THE HEADS OF PARTIES. When one can make people publicly support a cause they have also generally been brought to the point of inwardly declaring themselves in its favour, because they wish to be regarded as consistent. 142 549. CONTEMPT. Man is more sensitive to the contempt of others than to self-contempt. 550. THE TIE OF GRATITUDE. There are servile souls who carry so far their sense of obligation for benefits r eceived that they strangle themselves with the tie of gratitude. 551. THE PROPHET S KNACK. In predicting beforehand the procedure of ordinary individuals, it must be taken for granted that they always make use of the smallest intellectual expenditure in fr eeing themselves from disagreeable situations. 552. MAN S SOLE RIGHT. He who swerves from the traditional is a victim of the unusual; he who keeps to the traditional is its slave. The man is ruined in either case. 553. BELOW THE BEAST. When a man roars with laughter he surpasses all the animals by his vulgarity. 554. PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE. He who speaks a foreign language imperfectly has more enjoyment therein than he who speaks it well. The enjoyment is with the partially initiated. 555. DANGEROUS HELPFULNESS. There are people who wish to make human life harder for no other reason than to be able afterwards to offer men their life- alleviating recipes their Christianity, for example. 556. INDUSTRIOUSNESS AND CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. Industriousness and conscientiousness are often antagonists, owing to the fact that industriousness wants to pluck the fruit sour from the tree while conscientiousness wants to let it hang too long, until it falls and is bruised. 557. CASTING SUSPICION. We endeavour to cast suspicion on persons whom we cannot endure. 558. THE CONDITIONS ARE LACKING. Many people wait all their lives for the opportunity to be good in their own way . 559. LACK OF FRIENDS. Lack of friends leads to the inference that a person is envious or presumptuous. Many a man owes his friends merely to the fortunate circumstance that he has no occasion for envy. 560. DANGER IN MANIFOLDNESS. With one t alent more we often stand less firmly than with one less; just as a table stands better on three feet than on four. 143 561. AN EXEMPLAR FOR OTHERS. Whoever wants to set a good example must add a grain of folly to his virtue; people then imitate their exemplar and at the same time raise themselves above him, a thing they love to do. 562. BEING A TARGET. The bad things others say about us are often not really aimed at us, but are the manifestations of spite or ill-humour occasioned by quite different causes. 563. EASILY RESIGNED. We suffer but little on account of ungratified wishes if we have exercised our imagination in distorting the past. 564. IN DANGER. One is in greatest danger of being run over when one has just got out of the way of a carriage. 565. THE R OLE ACCORDING TO THE VOICE. Whoever is obliged to speak louder than he naturally does (say, to a partially deaf person or before a large audience), usually exaggerates what he has to communicate. Many a one Becomes a conspirator, malevolent gossip, or intriguer, merely because his voice is best suited for whispering, 566. LOVE AND HATRED. Love and hatred are not blind, but are dazzled by the fire which they carry about with them. 567. ADVANTAGEOUSLY PERSECUTED. People who cannot make their merits perfectly obvious to the world endeavour to awaken a strong hostility against themselves. They have then the consolation of thinking that this hostility stands between their merits and the acknowledgment thereofand that many others think the same thing, which is ve ry advantageous for their recognition. 568. CONFESSION. We forget our fault when we have confessed it to another person, but he does not generally forget it. 569. SELF -SUFFICIENCY. The Golden Fleece of self -sufficiency is a protection against blows, but not against needle-pricks. 570. SHADOWS IN THE FLAME. The flame is not so bright to itself as to those whom it illuminates, so also the wise man. 571. OUR OWN OPINIONS. The first opinion that occurs to us when we are suddenly asked about anything is not usually our own, but only the current opinion belonging to our caste, position, or family; our own opinions seldom float on the surface. 572. 144 THE ORIGIN OF COURAGE. The ordinary man is as courageous and invulnerable as a hero when he does not see the danger, when he has no eyes for it. Reversely, the hero has his one vulnerable spot upon the back, where he has no eyes. 573. THE DANGER IN THE PHYSICIAN. One must be born for ones physician, otherwise one comes to grief through him. 574. MARVELLOUS VANITY. Whoever has courageously prophesied the weather three times and has been successful in his hits, acquires a certain amount of inward confidence in his prophetic gift. We give credence to the marvellous and irrational when it flatters our self-esteem. 575. A PROFESSION. A profession is the backbone of life. 576. THE DANGER OF PERSONAL INFLUENCE. Whoever feels that he exercises a great inward influence over another person must give him a perfectly free rein, must, in fact, welcome and even induce occasional opposition, otherwise he will inevitably make an enemy. 577. RECOGNITION OF THE HEIR. Whoever has founded something great in an unselfish spirit is careful to rear heirs for his work. It is the sign of a tyrannical and ignoble nature to see opponents in all possible heirs, and to live in a state of self -defence against them. 578. PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE. Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are, and so makes its theory more popular and convincing. 579. UNSUITABLE FOR A PARTY- MAN. Whoever thinks much is unsuitable for a party- man; his thinking leads him too quickly beyond the party. 580. A BAD MEMORY. The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first t ime. 581. SELF -AFFLICTION. Want of consideration is often the sign of a discordant inner nature, which craves for stupefaction. 582. MARTYRS. The disciples of a martyr suffer more than the martyr. 583. ARREARS OF VANITY. The vanity of many people who have no occasion to be vain is the inveterate habit, still surviving from the time when people had no right to the belief in them selves and only begged it in small sums from others. 145 584. PUNCTUM SALIENS OF PASSION. A person falling into a rage or into a violent passion of love reaches a point when the soul is full like a hogshead, but nevertheless a drop of water has still to be added, the good will for the passion (which is also generally called the evil will). This item only is necessary, and then the hogs head overflows. 585. A GLOOMY THOUGHT. It is with men as with the charcoal fires in the forest. It is only when young men have cooled down and have got charred, like these piles, that they become useful . As long as they fume and smoke they are perhaps more interesting, but they are useless and too often uncomfortable. Humanity ruthlessly uses every individual as material for the heating of its great machines; but what then is the purpose of the machines, when all individuals (that is, the human race) are usef ul only to maintain them? Machines that are ends in themselves: is that the umana commedia? 586. THE HOUR -HAND OF LIFE. Life consists of rare single moments of the greatest importance, and of countless intervals during which, at best, the phantoms of those moments hover around us. Love, the Spring, every fine melody, the mountains, the moon, the seaall speak but once fully to the heart, if, indeed, they ever do quite attain to speech. For many people have not those moments at all, and are themselves intervals and pauses in the symphony of actual life. 587. ATTACK OR COMPROMISE. We often make the mistake of showing violent enmity towards a tendency, party, or period, because we happen only to get a sight of its most exposed side, its stuntedness, or the inevitable faults of its virtues, perhaps because we ourselves have taken a prominent part in them. We then turn our backs on them and seek a diametrically opposite course ; but the better way would be to seek out their strong good sides, or to develop them in ourselves. To be sure, a keener glance and a better will are needed to improve the becoming and the imperfect than are required to see through it in its imperfection and to deny it. 588. MODESTY. There is true modesty (that is the knowledge that we are not the works we create); and it is especially becoming in a great mind, because such a mind can well grasp the thought of absolute irresponsibility (even for the good it creates). People do not hate a great man s presumptuousness in so far as he feels his strength, but because he wishes to prove it by injuring others, by dominating them, and seeing how long they will stand it. This, as a rule, is even a proof of the absence of a secure sense of power, and makes people doubt his greatness. We must there fore beware of presumption from the stand point of wisdom. 589. THE DAY S FIRST THOUGHT. The best way to begin a day well is to think, on awakening, whether we cannot give pleasure during the day to at least one person. If this could become a substitute for the religious habit of prayer our fellow-men would benefit by the change. 590. 146 PRESUMPTION AS THE LAST CONSOLATION. When we so interpret a misfortune, an intellectual defect, or a disease that we see therein our predestined fate, our trial, or the myster ious punishment of our former misdeeds, we thereby make our nature interesting and exalt ourselves in imagination above our fellows. The proud sinner is a well-known figure in all religious sects. 591. THE VEGETATION OF HAPPINESS. Close be side the worlds woe, and often upon its volcanic soil, man has laid out his little garden of happiness. Whether one regard life with the eyes of him who only seeks knowledge therefrom, or of him who submits and is resigned, or of him who rejoices over surmounted difficul tieseverywhere one will find some happiness springing up beside the eviland in fact always the more happiness the more volcanic the soil has been, only it would be absurd to say that suffering itself is justified by this happiness. 592. THE PATH OF OUR ANCESTORS. It is sensible when a person develops still further in himself the talent upon which his father or grandfather spent much trouble, and does not shift to some thing entirely new; otherwise he deprives himself of the possibility of attaining perfection in any one craft. That is why the proverb says, Which road shouldst thou ride?That of thine ancestors. 593. VANITY AND AMBITION AS EDUCATORS. As long as a person has not become an instrument of general utility, ambition may torment him; if, ho wever, that point has been reached, if he necessarily works like a machine for the good of all, then vanity may result; it will humanise him in small matters and make him more sociable, endurable, and considerate, when ambition has completed the coarser work of making him useful. 594. PHILOSOPHICAL NOVICES. Immediately we have comprehended the wisdom of a philosopher, we go through the streets with a feeling as if we had been re- created and had become great men; for we encounter only those who are ignorant of this wisdom, and have therefore to deliver new and unknown verdicts concerning everything. Because we now recognise a law -book we think we must also comport ourselves as judges. 595. PLEASING BY DISPLEASING. People who prefer to attract attention, and thereby to displease, desire the same thing as those who neither wish to please nor to attract attention, only they seek it more ardently and indirectly by means of a step by which they apparently move away from their goal. They desire influence and power, and therefore show their superiority, even to such an extent that it becomes disagreeable; for they know that he who has finally attained power pleases in almost all he says and does, and that even when he displeases he still seems to please. The free spir it also, and in like manner the believer, desire power, in order some day to please thereby; when, on account of their doctrine, evil fate, persecution, dungeon, or execution threaten them, they rejoice in the thought that their teaching will thus be engraved and branded on the heart of mankind; though its effect is remote they accept their fate as a painful but powerful means of still attaining to power. 596. CASUS BELLI AND THE LIKE. The prince who, for his determination to make war against his neighbour, invents a casus belli , is like a father who foists on his child a mother 147 who is hence forth to be regarded as such. And are not almost all publicly avowed motives of action just such spurious mothers? 597. PASSION AND RIGHT. Nobody talks more passionately of his rights than he who, in the depths of his soul, is doubtful about them. By getting passion on his side he seeks to confound his understanding and its doubts,he thus obtains a good conscience, and along with it success with his fellow -men. 598. THE TRICK OF THE RESIGNING ONE. He who protests against marriage, after the manner of Catholic priests, will conceive of it in its lowest and vulgarest form. In the same way he who disavows the honour of his contemporaries will have a mean opinion of it; he can thus dispense with it and struggle against it more easily. More over, he who denies himself much in great matters will readily indulge himself in small things. It might be possible that he who is superior to the approbation of his contemporaries would ne vertheless not deny himself the gratification of small vanities. 599. THE YEARS OF PRESUMPTION. The proper period of presumption in gifted people is between their twenty -sixth and thirtieth years; it is the time of early ripeness, with a large residue of sourness. On the ground of what we feel within ourselves we demand honour and humility from men who see little or nothing of it, and because this tribute is not immediately forthcoming we revenge ourselves by the look, the gesture of arrogance, and the tone of voice, which a keen ear and eye recognise in every product of those years, whether it be poetry, philosophy, or pictures and music. Older men of experience smile thereat, and think with emotion of those beautiful years in which one resents the fate of being so much and seeming so little. Later on one really seems more, but one has lost the good belief in being much,unless one remain for life an incorrigible fool of vanity. 600. DECEPTIVE AND YET DEFENSIBLE. Just as in order to pass by an abyss or to cross a deep stream on a plank we require a railing, not to hold fast by, for it would instantly break down with us, but to give the notion of security to the eye, so in youth we require persons who unconsciously render us the service of that railing. It is true they would not help us if we really wished to lean upon them in great danger, but they afford the tranquillising sensation of protection close to one (for instance, fathers, te achers, friends, as all three usually are). 601. LEARNING TO LOVE. One must learn to love, one must learn to be kind, and this from childhood onwards; when education and chance give us no opportunity for the exercise of these feelings our soul becomes dried up, and even incapable of understanding the fine devices of loving men. In the same way hatred must be learnt and fostered, when one wants to become a proficient hater, otherwise the germ of it will gradually die out. 602. RUIN AS ORNAMENT. Persons who pass through numerous mental phases retain certain sentiments and habits of their earlier states, which then project like a piece of inexplicable antiquity and grey stonework into their new thought and action, often to the embellishment of the whole surroundings. 148 603. LOVE AND HONOUR. Love desires, fear avoids. That is why one cannot be both loved and honoured by the same person, at least not at the same time. 19F20 For he who honours recognises power,that is to say, he fears it, he is in a state of reverential fear ( Ehr-furcht ). But love recognises no power, nothing that divides, detaches, superordinates, or subordinates. Because it does not honour them, ambitious people secretly or openly resent being loved. 604. A PREJUDICE IN FAVOUR OF COLD NATURES. People w ho quickly take fire grow cold quickly, and therefore are, on the whole, unreliable. For those, therefore, who are always cold, or pretend to be so, there is the favourable prejudice that they are particularly trustworthy, reliable persons; they are confou nded with those who take fire slowly and retain it long. 605. THE DANGER IN FREE OPINIONS. Frivolous occupation with free opinions has a charm, like a kind of itching; if one yields to it further, one begins to chafe the places; until at last an open, painful wound results; that is to say, until the - free opinion begins to disturb and torment us in our position in life and in our human relations. 606. DESIRE FOR SORE AFFLICTION. When passion is over it leaves behind an obscure longing for it, and even in disappearing it casts a seductive glance at us. It must have afforded a kind of pleasure to have been beaten with this scourge. Compared with it, the more moderate sensations appear insipid; we still prefer, apparently, the more violent displeasure to languid delight. 607. DISSATISFACTION WITH OTHERS AND WITH THE WORLD. When, as so frequently happens, we vent our dissatisfaction on others when we are really dissatisfied with ourselves, we are in fact attempting to mystify and deceive our judgment; we desire to find a motive a posteriori for this dissatisfaction, in the mistakes or deficiencies of others, and so lose sight of ourselves. Strictly religious people, who have been relentless judges of themselves, have at the same time spoken most ill of humanity generally; there has never been a saint who reserved sin for himself and virture for others, any more than a man who, according to Buddhas rule, hides his good qualities from people and only shows his bad ones. 608. CONFUSION OF CAUSE AND EFFECT. Unconsciously we seek the principles and opinions which are suited to our temperament, so that at last it seems as if these principles and opinions had formed our character and given it support and stability, whereas exactly the contrary has taken place. Our thoughts and judgments are, apparently, to be taken subsequently as the causes of our nature, but as a matter of fact our nature is the cause of our so thinking and judging. And what induces us to play this almost unconscious comedy? Inertness and convenience, and to a large extent also the vain desire to be regarded as thoroughly consistent and homogeneous in nature and thought; for this wins respect and gives confidence and power. 609. 20 Women never understand t his. 149 AGE IN RELATION TO TRUTH. Young people love what is interesting and exceptional, indifferent whether it is truth or falsehood. Riper minds love what is interesting and extraordinary when it is truth. Matured minds, finally, love truth even in those in whom it appears plain and simple and is found tiresome by ordinary people, because they have observed that truth is in the habit of giving utterance to its highest intellectual verities with all the appearance of simplicity. 610. MEN AS BAD POETS. Just as bad poets seek a thought to fit the rhyme in the second half of the verse, so men in the second half of life, having become more scrupulous, are in the habit of seeking pursuits, positions, and conditions which suit those of their earlier life, so that outwardly all sounds well, but their life is no longer ruled and continuously determined anew by a powerful thought: in place thereof there is merely the intention of finding a rhyme. 611. ENNUI AND PLAY. Necessity compels us to work, with the product of which the necessity is appeased ; the ever new awakening of necessity, however, accu stoms us to work. But in the intervals in which necessity is appeased and asleep, as it were, we are attacked by ennui. What is this? In a word it is the habituation to work, which now makes itself felt as a new and additional necessity; it will be all the stronger the more a person has been accustomed to work, perhaps, even, the more a person has suffered from necessities. In order to escape ennui, a man either works beyond the extent of his former necessities, or he invents play, that is to say, work that is only intended to appease the general necessity for work. He who has become satiated with play, and has no new necessities impelling him to work, is sometime attacked by the longing for a third state, which is related to play as gliding is to dancing, a s dancing is to walking, a blessed, tranquil movement; it is the artists and philosophers vision of happiness. 612. LESSONS FROM PICTURES. If we look at a series of pictures of ourselves, from the time of later childhood to the time of mature manhood, we discover with pleased surprise that the man bears more resemblance to the child than to the youth: that probably, therefore, in accordance with this fact, there has been in the interval a temporary alienation of the fundamental character, over which the collected, concentrated force of the man has again become master. With this observation this other is also in accordance, namely, that all strong influences of passions, teachers, and political events, which in our youthful years draw us hither and thither, seem later on to be referred back again to a fixed standard; of course they still continue to exist and operate within us, but our fundamental sentiments and opinions have now the upper hand, and use their influence perhaps as a source of strength, but are no longer merely regulative, as was perhaps the case in our twenties. Thus even the thoughts and sentiments of the man appear more in accordance with those of his childish years, and this objective fact expresses itself in the above-mentioned subjective fact. 613. THE TONE OF VOICE OF DIFFERENT AGES. The tone in which youths speak, praise, blame, and versify, displeases an older person because it is too loud, and yet at the same time dull and confused like a sound in a vault, which acquires such a loud ring owing to the emptiness; for most of the thought of youths does not gush forth out of the fulness of their own nature, but is the accord and the echo of what has been thought, said, praised or blamed around them. As their sentiments, however (their inclinations and aversions), resound much more forcibly than the reasons thereof, there is heard, whenever they divulge these 150 sentiments, the dull, clanging tone which is a sign of the absence or scarcity of reasons. The tone of riper age is rigorous, abruptly concise, moderately loud, but, like everything distinctly articulated, is heard very far off. Old age, finally, often brings a certain mildness and consideration into the tone of the voice, and as it were, sweetens it; in many cases, to be sure it also sours it. 614. THE ATAVIST AND THE FORERUNNER. The man of unpleasant character, full of distrust, envious of the success of fellow-competitors and neighbours, violent and enraged at divergent opinions, shows that he belongs to an earlier grade of culture, and is, therefore, an atavism; for the way in which he behaves to people was right and suitable only for an age of club-law; he is an atavist . The man of a different character, rich in sympathy, winning friends everywhere, finding all that is growing and becoming amiable, rejoicing at the honours and successes of others and claiming no privilege of solely knowing the truth, but full of a modest distrust, he is a forerunner who presses upward towards a higher human culture. The man of unpleasant character dates from the times when the rude basis of human intercourse had yet to be laid, the other lives on the upper floor of the edifice of culture, removed as far as possible from the howling and raging wild beast imprisoned in the cellars. 615. CONSOLATION FOR HYPOCHONDRIACS. When a great thinker is temporarily subjected to hypochondriacal self-torture he can say to himself, by way of consolation: It is thine own great strength on which this parasite feeds and grows; if thy strength were smaller thou wouldst have less to suffer. The statesman may say just the same thing when jealousy and vengeful feeling, or, in a word, the tone of the bellum omnium contra omnes , for which, as the representative of a nation, he must necessarily have a great capacity, occasionally intrudes into his personal relations and makes his life hard. 616. ESTRANGED FROM THE PRESENT. There are great advantages in estranging one s self for once to a large extent from ones age, and being as it were driven back from its shores into the ocean of past views of things. Looking thence towards the coast one commands a view, perhaps for the first time, of its aggregate formation, and when one again approaches the land one has the advantage of understanding it better, on the whole, than those who have never left it. 617. SOWING AND REAPING ON THE FIELD OF PERSONAL DEFECTS. Men like Rousseau understand how to use their weaknesses, defects, and vices as manure for their talent. When Rousseau bewails the corruption and degeneration of society a s the evil results of culture, there is a personal experience at the bottom of it, the bitterness which gives sharpness to his general condemnation and poisons the arrows with which he shoots; he unburdens himself first as an individual, and thinks of getting a remedy which, while benefiting society directly, will also benefit himself indirectly by means of society. 618. PHILOSOPHICALLY MINDED. We usually endeavour to acquire one attitude of mind, one set of opinions for all situations and events of lifeit is mostly called being philosophically minded. But for the acquisition of knowledge it may be of greater importance not to make ourselves thus uniform, but to hearken to the low voice of the different situations in life; these bring their own opinions wit h them. We thus take an intelligent interest in the 151 life and nature of many persons by not treating ourselves as rigid, persistent single individuals. 619. IN THE FIRE OF CONTEMPT. It is a fresh step towards independence when one first dares to give utterance to opinions which it is considered as disgraceful for a person to entertain; even friends and acquaintances are then accustomed to grow anxious. The gifted nature must also pass through this fire; it afterwards belongs far more to itself. 620. SELF -SAC RIFICE. In the event of choice, a great sacrifice is preferred to a small one, because we compensate ourselves for the great sacrifice by self -admiration, which is not possible in the case of a small one. 621. LOVE AS AN ARTIFICE. Whoever really wishes to become acquainted with something new (whether it be a person, an event, or a book), does well to take up the matter with all possible love, and to avert his eye quickly from all that seems hostile, objectionable, and false therein, in fact to forget such things; so that, for instance, he gives the author of a book the best start possible, and straightway, just as in a race, longs with beating heart that he may reach the goal. In this manner one penetrates to the heart of the new thing, to its moving point, and this is called becoming acquainted with it. This stage having been arrived at, the understanding afterwards makes its restrictions; the over-estimation and the temporary suspension of the critical pendulum were only artifices to lure forth the soul of the matter. 622. THINKING TOO WELL AND TOO ILL OF THE WORLD. Whether we think too well or too ill of things, we always have the advantage of deriving therefrom a greater pleasure, for with a too good preconception we usually put more sweetness into things (experiences) than they actually contain. A too bad preconception causes a pleasant disappointment, the pleasantness that lay in the things themselves is increased by the pleasantness of the surprise. A gloomy temperament, however, will have the reverse experience in both cases. 623. PROFOUND PEOPLE. Those whose strength lies in the deepening of impressionsthey are usually called profound peopleare relatively self -possessed and decided in all sudden emergencies, for in the first moment the impression is still shallow, it only then becomes deep. Long foreseen, long expected events or persons, however, excite such natures most, and make them almost incapable of eventually having presence of mind on the arrival thereof. 624. INTERCOURSE WITH THE HIGHER SELF. Every one has his good day, when he finds his higher self; and true humanity demands that a person shall be estimated according to this state and not according to his work-days of constraint and bondage. A painter, for instance, should be appraised and honoured according to the most exalted vision he could see and represent. But men themselves commune very differently with this their higher self, and are frequently their own playactors, in so far as they repeatedly imitate what they are in those moments. Some stand in awe and humility before their ideal, and would fain deny it; they are afraid of their higher self because, when it speaks, it speaks pretentiously. Besides, it has a ghost-like freedom of coming and staying away just as it pleases; on that account it is often 152 called a gift of the gods, while in fact everything else is a gift of the gods (of chance); this, however, is the man himself. 625. LONELY PEOPLE. Some people are so much accustomed to being alone in self- communion that they do not at all compare themselves with others, but spin out their soliloquising life in a quiet, happy mood, conversing pleasantly, and even hilariously, with themselves. If, however, they are brought to the point of comparing themselves with others, they are in clined to a brooding under-estimation of their own worth, so that they have first to be compelled by others to form once more a good and just opinion of themselves, and even from this acquired opinion they will always want to subtract and abate something. We must not, therefore, grudge certain persons their loneliness or foolishly commiserate them on that account, as is so often done. 626. WITHOUT MELODY. There are persons to whom a constant repose in themselves and the harmonious ordering of all their capa cities is so natural that every definite activity is repugnant to them. They resemble music which consists of nothing but prolonged, harmonious accords, without even the tendency to an organised and animated melody showing itself. All external movement ser ves only to restore to the boat its equilibrium on the sea of harmonious euphony. Modern men usually become excessively impatient when they meet such natures, who will never be anything in the world, only it is not allowable to say of them that they are nothing. But in certain moods the sight of them raises the unusual question: Why should there be melody at all? Why should it not suffice us when life mirrors itself peacefully in a deep lake? The Middle Ages were richer in such natures than our times. How seldom one now meets with any one who can live on so peace- fully and happily with himself even in the midst of the crowd, saying to himself, like Goethe, The best thing of all is the deep calm in which I live and grow in opposition to the world, and gain what it cannot take away from me with fire and sword. 627. To LIVE AND EXPERIENCE. If we observe how some people can deal with their experiences their unimportant, everyday experiencesso that these become soil which yields fruit thrice a year; whilst o thers and how many!are driven through the surf of the most exciting adventures, the most diversified movements of times and peoples, and yet always remain light, always remain on the surface, like cork; we are finally tempted to divide mankind into a minority (minimality) of those who know how to make much out of little, and a majority of those who know how to make little out of much; indeed, we even meet with the counter-sorcerers who, instead of making the world out of nothing, make a nothing out of the world. 628. SERIOUSNESS IN PLAY. In Genoa one evening, in the twilight, I heard from a tower a long chiming of bells; it was never like to end, and sounded as if insatiable above the noise of the streets, out into the evening sky and sea- air, so thrilling, and at the same time so childish and so sad. I then remembered the words of Plato, and suddenly felt the force of them in my heart : Human matters, one and all, are not worthy of great seriousness; nevertheless ... 629. CONVICTION AND JUSTICE. The requirement that a person must afterwards, when cool and sober, stand by what he says, promises, and resolves during passion, is one of the 153 heaviest burdens that weigh upon mankind. To have to acknowledge for all future time the consequences of anger, of fiery revenge, of enthusiastic devotion, may lead to a bitterness against these feelings proportionate to the idolatry with which they are idolised, especially by artists. These cultivate to its full extent the esteem of the passions , and have always done so; to be sure, they also glorify the terrible satisfaction of the passions which a person affords himself, the outbreaks of vengeance, with death, mutilation, or voluntary banishment in their train, and the resignation of the broken heart. In any case they keep alive curiosity about the passions; it is as if they said: Without passions you have no experience whatever. Because we have sworn fidelity (perhaps even to a purely fictitious being, such as a god), because we have surrendered our heart to a prince, a party, a woman, a priestly order, an artist, or a thinker, in a state of infatuated delusion that threw a charm over us and made those beings appear worthy of all veneration, and every sacrificeare we, therefore, firmly and inevitably bound? Or did we not, after all, deceive ourselves then? Was there not a hypothetical promise, under the tacit presupposition that those beings to whom we consecrated ourselves were really the beings they seemed to be in our imagination? Are we under obligation to be faithful to our errors, even with the knowledge that by this fidelity we shall cause injury to our higher selves? No, there is no law, no obligation of that sort; we must become traitors, we must act unfaithfully and abandon our ideals again and again. We cannot advance from one period of life into another without causing these pains of treachery and also suffering from them. Might it be necessary to guard against the ebullitions of our feelings in order to escape these pains ? Would not the world then become too arid, too ghost-like for us? Rather will we ask ourselves whether these pains are necessary on a change of convictions, or whether they do not depend on a mistaken opinion and estimate. Why do we admire a person who remains true to his convictions and despise him who changes them? I fear the answer must be, because every one takes for granted that such a change is caused only by motives of more general utility or of personal trouble. That is to say, we believe at bottom that nobody alters his opinions as long as they are advantageous to him, or at least as long as they do not cause him any harm. If it is so, however, it furnishes a bad proof of the intellectual significance of all convictions. Let us once examine how convictions arise, and let us see whether their importance is not greatly over- estimated; it will thereby be seen that the change of convictions also is in all circumstances judged according to a false standard, that we have hitherto been accustomed to suffer too much from this change. 630. Conviction is belief in the possession of absolute truth on any matter of knowledge. This belief takes it for granted, therefore, that there are absolute truths ; also, that perfect methods have been found for attaining to them; and finally, that every one who has convictions makes use of these perfect methods. All three notions show at once that the man of convictions is not the man of scientific thought; he seems to us still in the age of theoretical innocence, and is practically a child, howe ver grown -up he may be. Whole centuries, however, have been lived under the influence of those childlike presuppositions, and out of them have flowed the mightiest sources of human strength. The countless numbers who sacrificed themselves for their convictions believed they were doing it for the sake of absolute truth. They were all wrong, however; probably no one has, ever sacrificed himself for Truth; at least, the dogmatic expression of the faith of any such person has been unscientific or only partly scientific. But really, people wanted to carry their point because they believed that they must be in the right. To allow their belief to be wrested from them probably meant calling in question their eternal salvation. In an affair of such extreme importance the will was too audibly the prompter of the intellect. The presupposition of every believer of every shade of belief has been that he could not be confuted; if the counter-arguments happened to be very 154 strong, it always remained for him to decry intellect generally, and, perhaps, even to set up the credo quia absurdum est as the standard of extreme fanaticism. It is not the struggle of opinions that has made history so turbulent; but the struggle of belief in opinions,that is to say, of convictions. If all those who thought so highly of their convictions, who made sacrifices of all kinds for them, and spared neither honour, body, nor life in their service, had only devoted half of their energy to examining their right to adhere to this or that conviction and by what road they arrived at it, how peaceable would the history of mankind now appear! How much more knowledge would there be! All the cruel scenes in connection with the persecution of heretics of all kinds would have been avoided, for two reasons: firstly, because the inquisitors would above all have inquired of themselves, and would have recognised the presumption of defending absolute truth; and secondly, because the heret ics themselves would, after examination, have taken no more interest in such badly established doctrines as those of all religious sectarians and orthodox believers. 631. From the ages in which it was customary to believe in the possession of absolute truth, people have inherited a profound dislike of all sceptical and relative attitudes with regard to questions of knowledge; they mostly prefer to acquiesce, for good or evil, in the convictions of those in authority (fathers, friends, teachers, princes), and they have a kind of remorse of conscience when they do not do so. This tendency is quite comprehensible, and its results furnish no ground for condemnation of the course of the development of human reason. The scientific spirit in man, however, has gradually to bring to maturity the virtue of cautious forbearance , the wise moderation, which is better known in practical than in theoretical life, and which, for instance, Goethe has represented in Antonio, as an object of provocation for all Tassos, that is to say, for unscientific and at the same time inactive natures. The man of convictions has in himself the right not to comprehend the man of cautious thought, the theoretical Antonio ; the scientific man, on the other hand, has no right to blame the former on that account, he takes no notice thereof, and knows, moreover, that in certain cases the former will yet cling to him, as Tasso finally clung to Antonio. 632. He who has not passed through different phases of conviction, but sticks to the faith in whose net he was first caught, is, under all circumstances, just on account of this unchangeableness, a representative of atavistic culture; in accordance with this lack of culture (which always presupposes plasticity for culture), he is severe, unintelligent, unteachable, without liberality, an ever suspicious person, an unscrupulous person who has recourse to all expedients for enforcing his opinions because he cannot conceive that there must be other opinions; he is, in such respects, perhaps a source of strength, and even wholesome in cultures that have become too emancipated and languid, but only because he strongly incites to opposition: for thereby the delicate organisation of the new culture, which is forced to struggle with him, becomes strong it self. 633. In essential respects we are still the same men as those of the time of the Reformation ; how could it be otherwise? But the fact that we no longer allow ourselves certain means for promoting the triumph of our opinions distinguishes us from that age, and proves that we belong to a higher culture. He who still combats and overthrows opinions with calumnies and outbursts of rage, after the manner of the Reformation men, obviously betrays the fact that he would have burnt his adversaries had he lived in other times, and that he would have resorted to all the methods of the Inquisition if he had been an opponent of the Reformation. The 155 Inquisition was rational at that time; for it represented nothing else than the universal application of martial law, which had to be proclaimed throughout the entire domain of the Church, and which, like all martial law, gave a right to the extremest methods, under the presupposition, of course, (which we now no longer share with those people), that the Church possessed truth and had to preserve it at all costs, and at any sacrifice, for the salvation of mankind. Now, however, one does not so readily concede to any one that he possesses the truth; strict methods of investigation have diffused enough of distrust and precaution, so that every one who violently advocates opinions in word and deed is looked upon as an enemy of our modern culture, or, at least, as an atavist. As a matter of fact the pathos that man possesses truth is now of very little consequence in comparison with the certainly milder and less noisy pathos of the search for truth, which is never weary of learning afresh and examining anew. 634. Moreover, the methodical search for truth is itself the outcome of those ages in which convictions were at war with each other. If the individual had not cared about his ruth, that is to say, about carrying his point, there would have been no method of investigation; thus, however, by the eternal struggle of the claims of different individuals to absolute truth, people went on step by step to find irrefragable principles according to which the rights of the claims could be tested and the dispute settled. At first people decided according to authorities ; later on they criticised one another s ways and means of finding the presumed truth ; in the interval there was a period when people deduced the consequences of the adverse theory, and perhaps found them to be productive of injury and unhappiness; from which it was then to be inferred by every one that the conviction of the adversary involved an error. The personal struggle of the thinker at last so sharpened his methods that real truths could be discovered, and the mistakes of former methods exposed before the eyes of all. 635. On the whole, scientific methods are at lea st as important results of investigation as any other results, for the scientific spirit is based upon a knowledge of method, and if the- methods were lost, all the results of science could not prevent the renewed prevalence of superstition and absurdity. Clever people may learn as much as they like of the results of science, but one still notices in their conversation, and especially in the hypotheses they make, that they lack the scientific spirit; they have not the instinctive distrust of the devious courses of thinking which, in consequence of long training, has taken root in the soul of every scientific man. It is enough for them to find any kind of hypothesis on a subject, they are then all on fire for it, and imagine the matter is thereby settled. To have an opinion is with them equivalent to immediately becoming fanatical for it, and finally taking it to heart as a conviction. In the case of an unexplained matter they become heated for the first idea that comes into their head which has any resemblance to an explanationa course from which the worst results constantly follow, especially in the field of politics. On that account everybody should nowadays have become thoroughly acquainted with at least one science, for then surely he knows what is meant by method, and how necessary is the extremest carefulness. To women in particular this advice is to be given at present; as to those who are irretrievably the victims of all hypotheses, especially when these have the appearance of being witty, attractive, enlivening, and invigorating. Indeed, on close inspection one sees that by far the greater number of educated people still desire convictions from a thinker and nothing but convictions , and that only a small minority want certainty . The former want to be forcibly carried away in order thereby to obtain an increase of strength; the latter few have the real interest which disregards personal advantages and the increase of strength also. The former 156 class, who greatly predominate, are always reckoned upon when the thinker comports himself and labels himself as a genius , and thus views himself as a higher being to whom authority belongs. In so far as genius of this kind upholds the ardour of convictions, and arouses distrust of the cautious and modest spirit of science, it is an enemy of truth, however much it may think itself the wooer thereof. 636. There is, certainly, also an entirely different species of genius, that of justice; and I cannot make up my mind to estimate it lower than any kind of philosophical, political, or artistic genius. Its peculiarity is to go, with heartfelt aversion, out of the way of everything that blinds and confuses peoples judgment of things; it is consequently an adversary of convictions , for it wants to give their own to all, whether they be living or dead, real or imaginary and for that purpose it must know thoroughly; it therefore places everything in the best light and goes around it with careful eyes. Finally, it will even give to its adversary the blind or short-sighted convi ction (as men call it, among women it is called faith), what is due to conviction for the sake of truth. 637. Opinions evolve out of passions ; indolence of intellect allows those to congeal into convictions . He, however, who is conscious of himself as a free, restless, lively spirit can prevent this congelation by constant change; and if he is altogether a thinking snowball, he will not have opinions in his head at all, but only certainties and properly estimated probabilities. But we, who are of a mixed nature, alternately inspired with ardour and chilled through and through by the intellect, want to kneel before justice, as the only goddess we acknowledge, The fire in us generally makes us unjust, and impure in the eyes of our goddess; in this condition we are not permitted to take her hand, and the serious smile of her approval never rests upon us. We reverence her as the veiled Isis of our life; with shame we offer her our pain as penance and sacrifice when the fire threatens to burn and consume us. It is the intellect that saves us from being utterly burnt and reduced to ashes; it occasionally drags us away from the sacrificial altar of justice or enwraps us in a garment of asbestos. Liberated from the fire, and impelled by the intellect, we then pass from opinion to opinion, through the change of parties, as noble betrayers of all things that can in any way be betrayed and nevertheless without a feeling of guilt. 638. THE WANDERER. He who has attained intellectual emancipation to any extent cannot, for a long time, regard himself otherwise than as a wanderer on the face of the earth and not even as a traveller towards a final goal, for there is no such thing. But he certainly wants to observe and keep his eyes open to whatever actually happens in the world; therefore he cannot attach his heart too firmly to anything individual; he must have in himself something wandering that takes pleasure in change and transitoriness. To be sure such a man will have bad nights, when he is weary and finds the gates of the town that should offer him rest closed; perhaps he may also find that, as in the East, the desert reaches to the gates, that wild beasts howl far and near, that a strong wind arises, and that robbers take away his beasts of burden. Then the dreadful night closes over him like a second desert upon the desert, and his heart grows weary of wandering. Then when the morning sun rises upon him, glowing like a Deity of anger, when the town is opened, he sees perhaps in the faces of the dweller s therein still more desert, uncleanliness, deceit, and insecurity than outside the gatesand the day is almost worse than the night. Thus it may occasionally happen to the wanderer but then there come as compensation the delightful mornings of other lands and days, when already in the 157 grey of the dawn he sees the throng of muses dancing by, close to him, in the mist of the mountain; when afterwards, in the symmetry of his ante- meridian soul, he strolls silently under the trees, out of whose crests and leafy hiding-places all manner of good and bright things are flung to him, the gifts of all the free spirits who are at home in mountains, forests, and solitudes, and who, like himself, alternately merry and thoughtful, are wanderers and philosophers. Born of the secrets of the early dawn, they ponder the question how the day, between the hours of ten and twelve, can have such a pure, transparent, and gloriously cheerful countenance: they seek the ante- meridian philosophy. 158 An Epode - Among Fr iends (Translated by T. COMMON.) I. NICE, when mute we lie a-dreaming, Nicer still when we are laughing, Neath the sky heaven s chariot speeding, On the moss the book a-reading, Sweetly loud with friends all laughing Joyous, with white teeth a-gleaming. Do I well, we re mute and humble; Do I illwe ll laugh exceeding; Make it worse and worse, unheeding, Worse proceeding, more laughs needing, Till into the grave we stumble. Friends! Yea! so shall it obtain? Amen! Till we meet again. II. No excuses need be started! Give, ye glad ones, open hearted, To this foolish book before you Ear and heart and lodging meet; Trust me, twas not meant to bore you, Though of folly I may treat! What I find, seek, and am needing, Was it eer in book for reading? Honour now fools in my name, Learn from out this book by reading How our sense from reason came. Thus, my friends, shall it obtain? Amen! Till we meet again. 159 Part II 160 Translator s Introduction The publication of Human, all-too- Human extends over the period 1878-1880. Of the two divisions which constitute the Second Part, Miscellaneous Maxims and Opinions appeared in 1879, and The Wanderer and his Shadow in 1880, Nietzsche being then in his thirty-sixth year. The Preface was added in 1886. The whole book forms Nietzsches first lengthy contribution to literature. His previous works comprise only the philological treatises, The Birth of Tragedy , and the essays on Strauss, Schopenhauer, and Wagner in Thoughts out of Season. With the volumes of Human, all-too- Human Nietzsche appears for the first time in his true colours as philosopher. His purely scholarly publications, his essays in literary and musical criticismespecially the essay on Richard Wagner at Bayreuth had, of course, foreshadowed his work as a thinker. These efforts, however, had been mere fragments, from which hardly any one could observe that a new philosophical star had arisen on the horizon. But by 1878 the period of transition had definitely set in . Outwardly, the new departure is marked by Nietzsches resignation in that year of his professorship at Blea resignation due partly to ill-health, and partly to his conviction that his was a voice that should speak not merely to students of philology, but to all mankind. Nietzsche himself characterises Human, all-too-Human as the monument of a crisis. He might as fitly have called it the first-fruits of a new harvest. Now, for the first time, he practises the form which he was to make so peculiarly his own. We are told and we may well believe that the book came as a surprise even to his most intimate friends. Wagner had already seen how matters stood at the publication of the first part, and the gulf between the two probably widened on the appearance of the Second Part. Several aphorisms are here, varying in length as in subject, and ranging over the whole human provincethe emotions and aspirations, the religions and cultures and philosophies, the arts and literatures and politics of mankind. Equally varied is the range of style, the incisive epigram and the passage of pure poetry jostling each other on the same page. In this curious power of alternating between cynicism and lyricism, Nietzsche appears as the prose counterpart of Heine. One or two of the aphorisms are of peculiar interest to English readers. The essay (as it may almost be called) on Sterne (p. 60, No. 113) does ample justice, if not more than justice, to that wayward genius. The allusion to Milton (p. 77, No. 150) will come as somewhat of a shock to English readers, especially to those who hold that in Milton Art triumphed over Puritanism. It should be remembered, however, that Nietzsche s view coincides with Goethes. The dictum that Shakespeares gold is to be valued for its quantity rather than its quality (p. 81, No. 162) also betrays a certain exclusivenessa legacy from that eighteenth - century France which appealed so strongly to Nietzsche on its intellectual side. To Nietzsche, as to Voltaire, Shakespeare is after all the great barbarian. The title of the book may be explained from a phrase in Thus Spake Zarathustra: Verily, even the greatest I foundall -too-human. The keynote of these volumes is indeed disillusion and destruction. Nor is this to be wondered at, for all men must s weep away the rubbish before they can build. Hence we find here little of the constructive philosophy of Nietzscheso far as he had a constructive philosophy. The Superman appears but faintly, the 161 doctrine of Eternal Recurrence not at all. For this very reason, Human, all-too- Human is perhaps the best starting -point for the study of Nietzsche. The difficulties in style and thought of the later work difficulties that at times become well-nigh insuperable in Thus Spake Zarathustraare here practically absent. The book may, in fact, almost be described as popular, bearing the same relation to Nietzsche s later productions as Wagner s Tannhuser and Lohengrin bear to the Ring . The translator s thanks are due to Mr. Thomas Common for his careful revision of the manuscript and many valuable suggestions. P. V. C. 162 Preface 1. One should only speak where one cannot remain silent, and only speak of what one has conqueredthe rest is all chatter, literature, bad breeding. My writings speak only of my conquests, I am in them, with all that is hostile to me, ego ipsissimus , or, if a more haughty expression be permitted, ego ipsissimum . It may be guessed that I have many below me.... But first I always needed time, convalescence, distance, se paration, before I felt the stirrings of a desire to flay, despoil, lay bare, represent (or whatever one likes to call it) for the additional knowledge of the world, something that I had lived through and outlived, something done or suffered. Hence all my writings,with one exception, important, it is true,must be ante-datedthey always tell of a behind- me. Some even, like the first three Thoughts out of Season, must be thrown back before the period of creation and experience of a previously published book ( The Birth of Tragedy in the case cited, as any one with subtle powers of observation and comparison could not fail to perceive). That wrathful outburst against the Germanism, smugness, and raggedness of speech of old David Strauss, the contents of the first Thought out of Season, gave a vent to feelings that had inspired me long before, as a student, in the midst of German culture and cultured Philistinism (I claim the paternity of the now much used and misused phrase cultured Philistinism ). What I said against the historical disease I said as one who had slowly and laboriously recovered from that disease, and who was not at all disposed to renounce history in the future because he had suffered from her in the past. When in the third Thought out of Season I gave expression to my reverence for my first and only teacher, the great Arthur SchopenhauerI should now give it a far more personal and emphatic voiceI was for my part already in the throes of moral scepticism and dissolution, that is, as much concerned with the criticism as with the study of all pessimism down to the present day. I already did not believe in a blessed thing, as the people say, not even in Schopenhauer. It was at this very period that an unpublished essay of mine, On Truth and Falsehood in an Extra- Moral Sense, came into being. Even my ceremonial oration in honour of Richard Wagner, on the occasion of his triumphal celebration at Bayreuth in 1876Bayreuth signifies the greatest triumph that an artist has ever won a work that bears the strongest stamp of individuality, was in the background an act of homage and gratitude to a bit of the past in me, to the fairest but most perilous calm of my sea- voyage ... and as a matter of fact a severance and a farewell. (Was Richard Wagner mistaken on this point? I do not think so. So long as we still love, we do not paint such pictures, we do not yet examine, we do not place ourselves so far away as is essential for one who examines. Examining needs at least a secret antagonism, t hat of an opposite point of view, it is said on page 46 of the above- named work itself, with an insidious, melancholy application that was perhaps understood by few.) The composure that gave me the power to speak after many intervening years of solitude and abstinence, first came with the book, Human, All-too Human, to which this second preface and apologia 20F21 is dedicated. As a book for free spirits it shows some trace of that almost cheerful and inquisitive coldness of the psychologist, who has behind him many painful things that he keeps under him, and moreover establishes them for himself and fixes them firmly as with a needle-point. Is it to be wondered at that at such sharp, ticklish work blood flows now and again, that indeed the psychologist has blood on his fingers and not only on his fingers? 21 Foreword and forword would be the literal rendering of the play on words. Tr. 163 2. The Miscellaneous Maxims and Opinions were in the first place, like The Wanderer and His Shadow , published separately as continuations and appendices to the above-mentioned human, all-too human Book for Fr ee Spirits : and at the same time, as a continuation and confirmation of an intellectual cure, consisting in a course of anti- romantic self -treatment, such as my instinct, which had always remained healthy, had itself discovered and prescribed against a tem porary attack of the most dangerous form of romantics. After a convalescence of six years I may well be permitted to collect these same writings and publish them as a second volume of Human, All-too Human. Perhaps, if surveyed together, they will more clearly and effectively teach their lesson a lesson of health that may be recommended as a disciplina voluntatis to the more intellectual natures of the rising generation. Here speaks a pessimist who has often leaped out of his skin but has always returned int o it, thus, a pessimist with goodwill towards pessimismat all events a romanticist no longer. And has not a pessimist, who possesses this serpentine knack of changing his skin, the right to read a lecture to our pessimists of to -day, who are one and all s till in the toils of romanticism? Or at least to show them how it is done? 3. It was then, in fact, high time to bid farewell, and I soon received proof. Richard Wagner, who seemed all -conquering, but was in reality only a decayed and despairing romantic, suddenly collapsed, helpless and broken, before the Christian Cross.... Was there not a single German with eyes in his head and sympathy in his heart for this appalling spectacle? Was I the only one whom he causedsuffering? In any case, the unexpected eve nt illumined for me in one lightning flash the place that I had abandoned, and also the horror that is felt by every one who is unconscious of a great danger until he has passed through it. As I went forward alone, I shuddered, and not long afterwards I wa s ill, or rather more than illweary: weary from my ceaseless disappointment about all that remained to make us modern men enthusiastic, at the thought of the power, work, hope, youth, love, flung to all the winds: weary from disgust at the effeminacy and undisciplined rhapsody of this romanticism, at the whole tissue of idealistic lies and softening of conscience, which here again had won the day over one of the bravest of men: last, and not least, weary from the bitterness of an inexorable suspicionthat after this disappointment I was doomed to mistrust more thoroughly, to despise more thoroughly, to be alone more thoroughly than ever before. My taskwhither had it flown? Did it not look now as if my task were retreating from me and as if I should for a long future period have no more right to it? What was I to do to endure this most terrible privation?I began by entirely forbidding myself all romantic music, that ambiguous, pompous, stifling art, which robs the mind of its sternness and its joyousness and provides a fertile soil for every kind of vague yearning and spongy sensuality. Cave musicam is even to-day my advice to all who are enough of men to cling to purity in matters of the intellect. Such music enervates, softens, feminises, its eternal feminine draws usdown! 21F22 My first suspicion, my most immediate precaution, was directed against romantic music. If I hoped for anything at all from music, it was in the expectation of the coming of a musician bold, subtle, malignant, southern, healthy enough to take an immortal revenge upon that other music. 4. Lonely now and miserably self-distrustful, I took sides, not without resentment, against myself and for everything that hurt me and was hard to me. Thus I once 22 The allusion is to the ending of the Second Part of Goethe s Faust das Ewig Weibliche Zieht uns hinan! The Eternal Feminine Draweth us on!Tr. 164 more found the way to that courageous pessimism that is the antithesis of all romantic fraud, and, as it seems to me to -day, the way to myself, to my task. That hidden masterful Something, for which we long have no name until at last it shows itself as our taskthat tyrant in us exacts a terrible price for every attempt that we make to escape him or give him the slip, for every premature act of self -constraint, for every reconciliation with those to whom we do not belong, for every activity, however reputable, which turns us aside from our main purpose, yes, even for every virtue that would fain protect us from the cruelty of our most individual responsibility. Disease is always the answer when we wish to have doubts of our rights to our own task, when we begin to make it easier for ourselves in any way. How strange and how terrible! It is our very alleviations for which we have to make the severest atonement! And if we want to return to health, we have no choice leftwe must load ourselves more heavily than we were ever laden before. 5. It wa s then that I learnt the hermitical habit of speech acquired only by the most silent and suffering. I spoke without witnesses, or rather indifferent to the presence of witnesses, so as not to suffer from silence, I spoke of various things that did not conc ern me in a style that gave the impression that they did. Then, too, I learnt the art of showing myself cheerful, objective, inquisitive in the presence of all that is healthy and evilis this, in an invalid, as it seems to me, his good taste ? Nevertheless, a more subtle eye and sympathy will not miss what perhaps gives a charm to these writingsthe fact that here speaks one who has suffered and abstained in such a way as if he had never suffered or abstained. Here equipoise, composure, even gratitude tow ards life shall be maintained, here rules a stern, proud, ever vigilant, ever susceptible will, which has undertaken the task of defending life against pain and snapping off all conclusions that are wont to grow like poisonous fungi from pain, disappointment, satiety, isolation and other morasses. Perhaps this gives our pessimists a hint to self -examination? For it was then that I hit upon the aphorism, a sufferer has as yet no right to pessimism, and that I engaged in a tedious, patient campaign against the unscientific first principles of all romantic pessimism, which seeks to magnify and interpret individual, personal experiences into general judgments, universal condemnationsit was then, in short, that I sighted a new world. Optimism for the sake of restitution, in order at some time to have the right to become a pessimistdo you understand that? Just as a physician transfers his patient to totally strange surroundings, in order to displace him from his entire past, his troubles, friends, letters, duties, stupid mistakes and painful memories, and teaches him to stretch out hands and senses towards new nourishment, a new sun, a new future: so I, as physician and invalid in one, forced myself into an utterly different and untried zone of the soul, and particularly into an absorbing journey to a strange land, a strange atmosphere, into a curiosity for all that was strange. A long process of roaming, seeking, changing followed, a distaste for fixity of any kinda dislike for clumsy affirmation and negati on: and at the same time a dietary and discipline which aimed at making it as easy as possible for the soul to fly high, and above all constantly to fly away. In fact a minimum of life, an unfettering from all coarser forms of sensuality, an independence in the midst of all marks of outward disfavour, together with the pride in being able to live in the midst of all this disfavour: a little cynicism perhaps, a little of the tub of Diogenes, a good deal of whimsical happiness, whimsical gaiety, much calm, light, subtle folly, hidden enthusiasmall this produced in the end a great spiritual strengthening, a growing joy and exuberance of health. Life itself rewards us for our tenacious will to life, for such a long war as I waged against the pessimistic weariness of life, even for every observant glance of our gratitude, glances that do not miss the smallest, most delicate, most fugitive gifts.... In the end we receive Life s great gifts, perhaps the greatest it can bestow we regain our task. 165 6. Should my expe riencethe history of an illness and a convalescence, for it resulted in a convalescencebe only my personal experience? and merely just my Human, All -too- human ? To-day I would fain believe the reverse, for I am becoming more and more confident that my books of travel were not penned for my sole benefit, as appeared for a time to be the case. May I, after six years of growing assurance, send them once more on a journey for an experiment?May I commend them particularly to the ears and hearts of those who are afflicted with some sort of a past, and have enough intellect left to suffer even intellectually from their past? But above all would I commend them to you whose burden is heaviest, you choice spirits, most encompassed with perils, most intellectual, most courageous, who must be the conscience of the modern soul and as such be versed in its science: 22F23 in whom is concentrated all of disease, poison or danger that can exist to-day: whose lot decrees that you must be more sick than any individual because you are not mere individuals: whose consolation it is to know and, ah! to walk the path to a new health, a health of to-morrow and the day after: you men of destiny, triumphant, conquerors of time, the healthiest and the strongest, you good Europeans ! 7. To express finally in a single formula my opposition to the romantic pessimism of the abstinent, the unfortunate, the conquered: there is a will to the tragic and to pessimism, which is a sign as much of the severity as of the strength of the intellect (taste, emotion, conscience). With this will in our hearts we do not fear, but we investigate ourselves the terrible and the problematical elements characteristic of all existence. Behind such a will stand courage and pride and the desire for a really great enemy. That was my pessimistic outlook from the firsta new outlook, methinks, an outlook that even at this day is new and strange? To this moment I hold to it firmly and (if it will be believed) not only for myself but occasionally against myself.... You would prefer to have that proved first? Well, what else does all this long prefaceprove? Sils-Maria, Upper Engadine, September, 1886. 23 It has been attempted to render the play on Gewissen and Wissen. Tr. 166 Part I. Miscellaneous Maxims And Opinions 1. To the Disillusioned in Philosophy.If you hitherto believed in the highest value of life and now find yourselves disillusioned, must you immediately get rid of life at the lowest possible price? 2. Overnice. One can even become overnice as regards the clearness of concepts. How disgusted one is then at having truck with the half-clear, the hazy, the aspiring, the doubting! How ridiculous and yet not mirth-provoking is their eternal fluttering and straining without ever being able to fly or to grasp! 3. The Wooers of Reality.He w ho realises at last how long and how thoroughly he has been befooled, embraces out of spite even the ugliest reality. So that in the long run of the world s history the best men have always been wooers of reality, for the best have always been longest and most thoroughly deceived. 4. Advance of Freethinking.The difference between past and present freethinking cannot better be characterised than by that aphorism for the recognition and expression of which all the fearlessness of the eighteenth century was n eeded, and which even then, if measured by our modern view, sinks into an unconscious navet. I mean Voltaires aphorism, croyez-moi, mon ami, l erreur aussi a son mrite. 5. A Hereditary Sin of Philosophers.Philosophers have at all times appropriated and corrupted the maxims of censors of men (moralists), by taking them over without qualification and trying to prove as necessary what the moralists only meant as a rough indication or as a truth suited to their fellow -countrymen or fellow-townsmen for a single decade. Moreover, the philosophers thought that they were thereby raising themselves above the moralists! Thus it will be found that the celebrated teachings of Schopenhauer as to the supremacy of the will over the intellect, of the immutability of character, the negativity of pleasureall errors, in the sense in which he understands themrest upon principles of popular wisdom enunciated by the moralists. Take the very word will, which Schopenhauer twisted so as to become a common denotation of several human conditions and with which he filled a gap in the language (to his own great advantage, in so far as he was a moralist, for he became free to speak of the will as Pascal had spoken of it). In the hands of its creator, Schopenhauers will, through the philosophic craze for generalisation, already turned out to be a bane to knowledge. For this will was made into a poetic metaphor, when it was held that all things in nature possess will. Finally, that it might be applied to all kinds of disordered mysticism, the word was misused by a fraudulent convention. So now all our fashionable philosophers repeat it and seem to be perfectly certain that all things have a will and are in fact One Will. According to the description generally given of this All- One-Will, this is much as if one should positively try to have the stupid Devil for ones God. 6. 167 Against Visionaries. The visionary denies the truth to himself, the liar only to others. 7. Enmity to Light. If we make it clear to any one that, strictly, he can never speak of truth, but only of probability and of its degrees, we generally discover, from the undisguised joy of our pupil, how greatly men prefer the uncertainty of their intellectual horizon, and how in their heart of hearts they hate truth becaus e of its definiteness. Is this due to a secret fear felt by all that the light of truth may at some time be turned too brightly upon themselves? To their wish to be of some consequence, and accordingly their concealment from the world of what they are? Or is it to be traced to their horror of the all- too brilliant light, to which their crepuscular, easily dazzled, bat -like souls are not accustomed, so that hate it they must? 8. Christian Scepticism. Pilate, with his question, What is Truth? is now gleefully brought on the scene as an advocate of Christ, in order to cast suspicion on all that is known or knowable as being mere appearance, and to erect the Cross on the appalling background of the Impossibility of Knowledge. 9. Natural Law, a Phrase of Superstition.When you talk so delightedly of Nature acting according to law, you must either assume that all things in Nature follow their law from a voluntary obedience imposed by themselvesin which case you admire the morality of Nature: or you are enchanted with the idea of a creative mechanician, who has made a most cunning watch with human beings as accessory ornaments.Necessity, through the expression, conformity to law, then becomes more human and a coign of refuge in the last instance for mythological reveries. 10. Fallen Forfeit to History. All misty philosophers and obscurers of the world, in other words all metaphysicians of coarse or refined texture are seized with eyeache, earache, and toothache when they begin to suspect that there is truth in the saying: All philosophy has from now fallen forfeit to history. In view of their aches and pains we may pardon them for throwing stones and filth at him who talks like this, but this teaching may itself thereby become dirty and disreputable for a time and lose in effect. 11. The Pessimist of the Intellect. He whose intellect is really free will think freely about the intellect itself, and will not shut his eyes to certain terrible aspects of its source and tendency. For this reason others will perhaps designate him the bitterest opponent of free thought and give him that dreadful, abusive name of pessimist of the intellect : accustomed as they are to typify a man not by his strong point, his pre-eminent virtue, but by the quality that is most foreign to his nature. 12. The Metaphysicians Knapsack. To all who talk so boastfully of the scientific basis of their metaphysics it is best to make no reply. It is enough to tug at the bundle that they rather shyly keep hidden behind their backs. If one succeeds in lifting it, the results of that scientific basis come to light, to their great confusion: a dear little God, a genteel immortality, perhaps a little spiritualism, and in any case a complicated mass of poor- sinners -misery and pharisee- arrog ance. 168 13. Occasional Harmfulness of Knowledge.The utility involved in the unchecked investigation of knowledge is so constantly proved in a hundred different ways that one must remember to include in the bargain the subtler and rarer damage which individuals must suffer on that account. The chemist cannot avoid occasionally being poisoned or burnt at his experiments. What applies to the chemist, is true of the whole of our culture. This, it may be added, clearly shows that knowledge should provide itself with healing balsam against burns and should always have antidotes ready against poisons. 14. The Craving of the Philistine.The Philistine thinks that his most urgent need is a purple patch or turban of metaphysics, nor will he let it slip. Yet he would look less ridiculous without this adornment. 15. Enthusiasts.With all that enthusiasts say in favour of their gospel or their master they are defending themselves, however much they comport themselves as the judges and not the accused: because they are involuntarily reminded almost at every moment that they are exceptions and have to assert their legitimacy. 16. The Good Seduces to Life.All good things, even all good books that are written against life, are strong means of attraction to life. 17. The Happiness of the Historian. When we hear the hair -splitting metaphysicians and prophets of the after-world speak, we others feel indeed that we are the poor in spirit, but that ours is the heavenly kingdom of change, with spring and autumn, summer and winter, and theirs the after -world, with its grey, everlasting frosts and shadows. Thus soliloquised a man as he walked in the morning sunshine, a man who in his pursuit of history has constantly changed not only his mind but his heart. In contrast to the metaphysicians, he is happy to harbour in himself not an immortal soul but many mortal souls. 18. Three Varieties of Thinkers. There are streaming, flowing, trickling mineral springs, and three corresponding varieties of thinkers. The layman values them by the volume of the water, the expert by the contents of the waterin other words, by the elements in them that are not water. 19. The Picture of Life. The task of painting the picture of life, often as it has been attempted by poets and philosophers, is nevertheless irrational. Even in the hands of the greatest artist-thinkers, pictures and miniatures of one life onlytheir ownhave come into being, and indeed no other result is possible. While in the process of developing, a thing that develops, cannot mirror itself as fixed and permanent, as a definite object. 20. Truth will have no Gods before it.The belief in truth begins with the doubt of all truths in which one has previously believed. 21. 169 Where Silence is Required. If we speak of freethinking as of a highly dangerous journey over glaciers and frozen seas, we find that those who do not care to travel on this track are offended, as if they had been reproached with cowardice and weak knees. The difficult, which we find to be beyond our powers, must not even be mentioned in our presence. 22. Historia in Nuce.The most serious parody I ever heard was this: In the beginning was the nonsense, and the nonsense was with God, and the nonsense was God. 23F24 23. Incurable. The idealist is incorrigible: if he b e thrown out of his Heaven, he makes himself a suitable ideal out of Hell. Disillusion him, and lo! he will embrace disillusionment with no less ardour than he recently embraced hope. In so far as his impulse belongs to the great incurable impulses of huma n nature, he can bring about tragic destinies and later become a subject for tragedy himself, for such tragedies as deal with the incurable, implacable, inevitable in the lot and character of man. 24. Applause Itself as the Continuation of the Play.Sparkl ing eyes and an amiable smile are the tributes of applause paid to all the great comedy of world and existencebut this applause is a comedy within a comedy, meant to tempt the other spectators to a plaudite amici . 25. Courage for Tedium.He who has not the courage to allow himself and his work to be considered tedious, is certainly no intellect of the first rank, whether in the arts or in the sciences. A scoffer, who happened for once in a way to be a thinker, might add, with a glance at the world and at history: God did not possess this courage, for he wanted to make and he made all things so interesting. 26. From the Most Intimate Experience of the Thinker.Nothing is harder for a man than to conceive of an object impersonally, I mean to see in it an object and not a person. One may even ask whether it is possible for him to dispense for a single moment with the machinery of his instinct to create and construct a personality. After all, he associates with his thoughts, however abstract they may be, as with individuals, against whom he must fight or to whom he must attach himself, whom he must protect, support and nourish. Let us watch or listen to ourselves at the moment when we hear or discover a new idea. Perhaps it displeases us because it is so defi ant and so autocratic, and we unconsciously ask ourselves whether we cannot place a contradiction of it by its side as an enemy, or fasten on to it a perhaps or a sometimes : the mere little word probably gives us a feeling of satisfaction, for it shatters the oppressive tyranny of the unconditional. If, on the other hand, the new idea enters in gentle shape, sweetly patient and humble, and falling at once into the arms of contradiction, we put our autocracy to the test in another way. Can we not come to the aid of this weak creature, stroke it and feed it, give it strength and fulness, and truth and even unconditionality? Is it possible for us to show ourselves parental or chivalrous or compassionate towards our idea?Then again, we see here a judgment and there a judgment, sundered from each other, never looking at or making any movement towards each other. So we are tickled by the thought, whether it be not here feasible to make a match, to draw a conclusion, with the anticipation that if a consequence follows this conclusion it is not only 24 Cf. John i. 1. Tr. 170 the two judgments united in wedlock but the matchmakers that will gain honour. If, however, we cannot acquire a hold upon that thought either on the path of defiance and ill-will or on that of good- will (if we hold it to be true) then we submit to it and do homage to it as a leader and a prince, give it a chair of honour, and speak not of it without a flourish of trumpets: for we are bright in its brightness. Woe to him who tries to dim this brightness! Perhaps we ou rselves one day grow suspicious of our idea. Then we, the indefatigable king- makers of the history of the intellect, cast it down from its throne and immediately exalt its adversary. Surely if this be considered and thought out a little further, no one will speak of an absolute impulse to knowledge! Why, then, does man prefer the true to the untrue, in this secret combat with thought-personalities, in this generally clandestine match -making of thoughts, constitution-founding of thoughts, child- rearing o f thoughts, nursing and almsgiving of thoughts? For the same reason that he practises honesty in intercourse with real persons: now from habit, heredity, and training, originally because the true, like the fair and the just, is more expedient and more reputable than the untrue. For in the realm of thought it is difficult to assume a power and glory that are built on error or on falsehood. The feeling that such an edifice might at some time collapse is humiliating to the self -esteem of the architect he is as hamed of the fragility of the material, and, as he considers himself more important than the rest of the world, he would fain construct nothing that is less durable than the rest of the world. In his longing for truth he embraces the belief in a personal i mmortality, the most arrogant and defiant idea that exists, closely allied as it is to the underlying thought, pereat mundus, dum ego salvus sim! His work has become his ego, he transforms himself into the Imperishable with its universal challenge. It is his immeasurable pride that will only employ the best and hardest stones for the worktruths, or what he holds for such. Arrogance has always been justly called the vice of the sage; yet without this vice, fruitful in impulses, Truth and her status on earth would be in a parlous plight. In our propensity to fear our thoughts, concepts and words, and yet to honour ourselves in them, unconsciously to ascribe to them the power of rewarding, despising, praising, and blaming us, and so to associate with them as with free intellectual personalities, as with independent powers, as with our equalsherein lie the roots of the remarkable phenomenon which I have called intellectual conscience. Thus something of the highest moral species has bloomed from a black root. 27. The Obscurantists.The essential feature of the black art of obscurantism is not its intention of clouding the brain, but its attempt to darken the picture of the world and cloud our idea of existence. It often employs the method of thwarting all i llumination of the intellect, but at times it uses the very opposite means, seeking by the highest refinement of the intellect to induce a satiety of the intellect s fruits. Hair-splitting metaphysicians, who pave the way for scepticism and by their excess ive acumen provoke a distrust of acumen, are excellent instruments of the more subtle form of obscurantism.Is it possible that even Kant may be applied to this purpose? Did he even intend something of the sort, for a time at least, to judge from his own notorious exposition: to clear the way for belief by setting limitations to knowledge?Certainly he did not succeed, nor did his followers, on the wolf and fox tracks of this highly refined and dangerous form of obscurantismthe most dangerous of all, for the black art here appears in the garb of light. 28. By what Kind of Philosophy Art is Corrupted. When the mists of a metaphysical -mystical philosophy succeed in making all sthetic phenomena opaque , it follows that these phenomena cannot be comparatively valued, inasmuch as each becomes individually 171 inexplicable. But when once they cannot be compared for the sake of valuation, there arises an entire absence-of-criticism, a blind indulgence. From this source springs a continual diminution of the enjoyment of art (which is only distinguished from the crude satisfaction of a need by the highest refinement of taste and appreciation). The more taste diminishes, the more does the desire for art change and revert to a vulgar hunger, which the artist henceforth seeks to appease by ever coarser fare. 29. On Gethsemane. The most painful thing a thinker can say to artists is: Could ye not watch with me one hour? 30. At the Loom.There are many (artists and women, for instance) who work against the few that take a pleasure in untying the knot of things and unravelling their woof. The former always want to weave the woof together again and entangle it and so turn the conceived into the unconceived and if possible inconceivable. Whatever the result may be, the woof and knot always look rather untidy, because too many hands are working and tugging at them. 31. In the Desert of Science. As the man of science proceeds on his modest and toilsome wanderings, which must often enough be journeys in the desert, he is confronted with those brilliant mirages known as philosophic systems. With magic powers of deception they show him that the solution of all riddles and the most refreshing draught of true water of life are close at hand. His weary heart rejoices, and he well -nigh touches with his lips the goal of all scientific endurance and hardship, so that almost unconsciously he presses forward. Other natures stand still, as if spellbound by the beautiful illusion: the desert swallows them up, they become lost to sc ience. Other natures, again, that have often experienced these subjective consolations, become very disheartened and curse the salty taste which these mirages leave behind in the mouth and from which springs a raging thirstwithout one s having come one step nearer to any sort of a spring. 32. The So -called Real Reality. When the poet depicts the various callingssuch as those of the warrior, the silk -weaver, the sailor he feigns to know all these things thoroughly, to be an expert. Even in the exposition of human actions and destinies he behaves as if he had been present at the spinning of the whole web of existence. In so far he is an impostor. He practises his frauds on pure ignoramuses, and that is why he succeeds. They praise him for his deep, genuine knowledge, and lead him finally into the delusion that he really knows as much as the individual experts and creators, yes, even as the great world -spinners themselves. In the end, the impostor becomes honest, and actually believes in his own sincerity. E motional people say to his very face that he has the higher truth and sincerityfor they are weary of reality for the time being, and accept the poetic dream as a pleasant relaxation and a night s rest for head and heart. The visions of the dream now appear to them of more value, because, as has been said, they find them more beneficial, and mankind has always held that what is apparently of more value is more true, more real. All that is generally called reality, the poets, conscious of this power, proceed with intention to disparage and to distort into the uncertain, the illusory, the spurious, the impure, the sinful, sorrowful, and deceitful. They make use of all doubts about the limits of knowledge, of all sceptical excesses, in order to spread over everything the rumpled veil of uncertainty. For they desire that when this darkening process is complete their wizardry and soul-magic may be accepted without hesitation as the path to true truth and real reality. 172 33. The Wish to be Just and the Wish to be a Judge.Schopenhauer, whose profound understanding of what is human and all-too-human and original sense for facts was not a little impaired by the bright leopard-skin of his metaphysic (the skin must first be pulled off him if one wants to find the real moralist genius beneath)Schopenhauer makes this admirable distinction, wherein he comes far nearer the mark than he would himself dare to admit: Insight into the stern necessity of human actions is the boundary line that divides philosophic from other brains. He worked against that wonderful insight of which he was sometimes capable by the prejudice that he had in common with the moral man (not the moralist), a prejudice that he expresses quite guilelessly and devoutly as follows: The ultimate and tr ue explanation of the inner being of the entirety of things must of necessity be closely connected with that about the ethical significance of human actions. This connection is not necessary at all: such a connection must rather be rejected by that principle of the stern necessity of human actions, that is, the unconditioned non-freedom and non-responsibility of the will. Philosophic brains will accordingly be distinguished from others by their disbelief in the metaphysical significance of morality. This must create between the two kinds of brain a gulf of a depth and unbridgeableness of which the much-deplored gulf between cultured and uncultured scarcely gives a conception. It is true that many back doors, which the philosophic brains, like Schopenhauers own, have left for themselves, must be recognised as useless. None leads into the open, into the fresh air of the free will, but every door through which people had slipped hitherto showed behind it once more the gleaming brass wall of fate. For we are in a prison, and can only dream of freedom, not make ourselves free. That the recognition of this fact cannot be resisted much longer is shown by the despairing and incredible postures and grimaces of those who still press against it and continue the ir wrestling -bout with it. Their attitude at present is something like this: So no one is responsible for his actions? And all is full of guilt and the consciousness of guilt? But some one must be the sinner. If it is no longer possible or permissible to accuse and sentence the individual, the one poor wave in the inevitable rough- and-tumble of the waves of developmentwell, then, let this stormy sea, this development itself, be the sinner. Here is free will: this totality can be accused and sentenced, can atone and expiate. So let God be the sinner and man his redeemer. Let the world s history be guilt, expiation, and self-murder. Let the evil -doer be his own judge, the judge his own hangman. This Christianity strained to its limits for what else is it? is the last thrust in the fencing -match between the teaching of unconditioned morality and the teaching of unconditioned non-freedom. It would be quite horrible if it were anything more than a logical pose, a hideous grimace of the underlying thought, perhaps the death-convulsion of the heart that seeks a remedy in its despair, the heart to which delirium whispers: Behold, thou art the lamb which taketh away the sin of God. This error lies not only in the feeling, I am responsible, but just as much in the contradiction, I am not responsible, but some one must be. That is simply not true. Hence the philosopher must say, like Christ, Judge not, and the final distinction between the philosophic brains and the others would be that the former wish to be just and the latter wish to be judges. 34. Sacrifice. You hold that sacrifice is the hallmark of moral action? Just consider whether in every action that is done with deliberation, in the best as in the worst, there be not a sacrifice. 35. 173 Against the Triers of the Reins of Morality.One must know the best and the worst that a man is capable of in theory and in practice before one can judge how strong his moral nature is and can be. But this is an experiment that one can never carry out. 36. Serpent s Tooth.Whether we have a serpent s tooth or not we cannot know before some one has set his heel upon our necks. A wife or a mother could say: until some one has put his heel upon the neck of our darling, our child.Our character is determined more by the absence of certain experiences than by the experiences we have undergone. 37. Deception in Love.We forget and purposely banish from our minds a good deal of our past. In other words, we wish our picture, that beams at us from the past, to belie us, to flatter our vanitywe are constantly engaged in this self-deception. And you who talk and boast so much of self-oblivion in love, of the absorption of the ego in the other personyou hold that this is something different? So you break the mirror, throw yourselves into another personality that you admire, and enjoy the new portrait of your ego, though calling it by the other person s nameand this whole proceeding is not to be thought self-deception, self- seeking, you marvellous beings? It seems to me that those who hide something of themselves from themselves, or hide their whole selves from themselves, are alike committing a theft from the treasury of knowledge. It is clear, then, against what transgression the maxim Know thyself is a warning. 38. To the Denie r of his Vanity. He who denies his own vanity usually possesses it in so brutal a form that he instinctively shuts his eyes to avoid the necessity of despising himself. 39. Why the Stupid so often Become Malignant.To those arguments of our adversary against which our head feels too weak our heart replies by throwing suspicion on the motives of his arguments. 40. The Art of Moral Exceptions.An art that points out and glorifies the exceptional cases of morality where the good becomes bad and the unjust justshould rarely be given a hearing: just as now and again we buy something from gipsies, with the fear that they are diverting to their own pockets much more than their mere profit from the purchase. 41. Enjoyment and Non-enjoyment of Poisons.Th e only decisive argument that has always deterred men from drinking a poison is not that it is deadly, but that it has an unpleasant taste. 42. The World without Consciousness of Sin.If men only committed such deeds as do not give rise to a bad conscience, the human world would still look bad and rascally enough, but not so sickly and pitiable as at present.Enough wicked men without conscience have existed at all times, and many good honest folk lack the feeling of pleasure in a good conscience. 43. 174 The Conscientious.It is more convenient to follow ones conscience than one s intelligence, for at every failure conscience finds an excuse and an encouragement in itself. That is why there are so many conscientious and so few intelligent people. 44. Opposite Means of Avoiding Bitterness.One temperament finds it useful to be able to give vent to its disgust in words, being made sweeter by speech. Another reaches its full bitterness only by speaking out: it is more advisable for it to have to gulp down somethingthe restraint that men of this stamp place upon themselves in the presence of enemies and superiors improves their character and prevents it from becoming too acrid and sour. 45. Not to be Too Dejected.To get bed-sores is unpleasant, but no pr oof against the merits of the cure that prescribes that you should take to your bed. Men who have long lived outside themselves, and have at last devoted themselves to the inward philosophic life, know that one can also get sores of character and intellect . This, again, is on the whole no argument against the chosen way of life, but necessitates a few small exceptions and apparent relapses. 46. The Human Thing in Itself.The most vulnerable and yet most unconquerable of things is human vanity: nay, through being wounded its strength increases and can grow to giant proportions. 47. The Farce of Many Industrious Persons.By an excess of effort they win leisure for themselves, and then they can do nothing with it but count the hours until the tale is ended. 48. The Possession of Joy Abounding.He that has joy abounding must be a good man, but perhaps he is not the cleverest of men, although he has reached the very goal towards which the cleverest man is striving with all his cleverness. 49. In the Mirror of Na ture.Is not a man fairly well described, when we are told that he likes to walk between tall fields of golden corn: that he prefers the forest and flower colours of sere and chilly autumn to all others, because they point to something more beautiful than Nature has ever attained: that he feels as much at home under big broad -leaved walnut trees as among his nearest kinsfolk: that in the mountains his greatest joy is to come across those tiny distant lakes from which the very eyes of solitude seem to peer a t him: that he loves that grey calm of the misty twilight that steals along the windows on autumn and early winter evenings and shuts out all soulless sounds as with velvet curtains: that in unhewn stones he recognises the last remaining traces of the primeval age, eager for speech, and honours them from childhood upwards: that, lastly, the sea with its shifting serpent skin and wild-beast beauty is, and remains to him, unfamiliar? Yes, something of the man is described herewith, but the mirror of Nature do es not say that the same man, with (and not even in spite of ) all his idyllic sensibilities, might be disagreeable, stingy, and conceited. Horace, who was a good judge of such matters, in his famous beatus ille qui procul negotiis puts the tenderest feel ing for country life into the mouth of a Roman money- lender. 50. 175 Power without Victory.The strongest cognition (that of the complete non-freedom of the human will) is yet the poorest in results, for it has always had the mightiest of opponentshuman vanity. 51. Pleasure and Error. A beneficial influence on friends is exerted by one man unconsciously, through his nature; by another consciously, through isolated actions. Although the former nature is held to be the higher, the latter alone is allied to good conscience and pleasurethe pleasure in justification by good works, which rests upon a belief in the volitional character of our good and evil doingthat is to say, upon a mistake. 52. The Folly of Committing Injustice. The injustice we have inflicted our selves is far harder to bear than the injustice inflicted upon us by others (not always from moral grounds, be it observed). After all, the doer is always the suffererthat is, if he be capable of feeling the sting of conscience or of perceiving that by hi s action he has armed society against himself and cut himself off. For this reason we should beware still more of doing than of suffering injustice, for the sake of our own inward happinessso as not to lose our feeling of well-beingquite apart from any consideration of the precepts of religion and morality. For in suffering injustice we have the consolation of a good conscience, of hope and of revenge, together with the sympathy and applause of the just, nay of the whole of society, which is afraid of the evil-doer. Not a few are skilled in the impure self-deception that enables them to transform every injustice of their own into an injustice inflicted upon them from without, and to reserve for their own acts the exceptional right to the plea of self- defen ce. Their object, of course, is to make their own burden lighter. 53. Envy with or without a Mouthpiece.Ordinary envy is wont to cackle when the envied hen has laid an egg, thereby relieving itself and becoming milder. But there is a yet deeper envy that in such a case becomes dead silent, desiring that every mouth should be sealed and always more and more angry because this desire is not gratified. Silent envy grows in silence. 54. Anger as a Spy.Anger exhausts the soul and brings its very dregs to light . Hence, if we know no other means of gaining certainty, we must understand how to arouse anger in our dependents and adversaries, in order to learn what is really done and thought to our detriment. 55. Defence Morally more Difficult than Attack. The true heroic deed and masterpiece of the good man does not lie in attacking opinions and continuing to love their propounders, but in the far harder task of defending his own position without causing or intending to cause bitter heartburns to his opponent. The sword of attack is honest and broad, the sword of defence usually runs out to a needle point. 56. Honest towards Honesty.One who is openly honest towards himself ends by being rather conceited about this honesty. He knows only too well why he is honestfor the same reason that another man prefers outward show and hypocrisy. 57. 176 Coals of Fire. The heaping of coals of fire on anothers head is generally misunderstood and falls flat, because the other knows himself to be just as much in the right, and on his side too has thought of collecting coals. 58. Dangerous Books.A man says: Judging from my own case, I find that this book is harmful. Let him but wait, and perhaps one day he will confess that the book did him a great service by thrusting forward and bringing to light the hidden disease of his soul.Altered opinions alter not at all (or very little) the character of a man: but they illuminate individual facets of his personality, which hitherto, in another constellation of opinions, had remained dark and unrecognisable. 59. Simulated Pity. We simulate pity when we wish to show ourselves superior to the feeling of animosity, but generally in vain. This point is not noticed without a considerable enhancement of that feeling of animosity. 60. Open Contradiction often Conciliatory.At the moment when a man openly makes known his difference of opinion from a well-known party leader, the whole world thinks that he must be angry with the latter. Sometimes, however, he is just on the point of ceasing to be angry with him. He ventures to put himself on the same plane as his opponent, and is free from the tortures of suppressed envy. 61. Seeing our Light Shining.In the darkest hour of depression, sickness, and guilt, we are still glad to see others taking a light from us and making use of us as of the disk of the moon. By this roundabout route we derive some light from our own illuminating faculty. 62. Fellowship in Joy. 24F25The snake that stings us means to hurt us and rejoices in so doing: the lowest animal can picture to itself the pain of others. But to picture to oneself the joy of others and to rejoice thereat is the highest privilege of the highest animals, and again, amongst them, is the property only of the most select specimens accordingly a rare human thing. Hence there have been philosophers who denied fellowship in joy. 63. Supplementary Pregnancy.Those who have arrived at works and deeds are in an obscure way, they know not how, all the more pregnant with them, as if to prove supplementar ily that these are their children and not those of chance. 64. Hard -hearted from Vanity.Just as justice is so often a cloak for weakness, so men who are fairly intelligent, but weak, sometimes attempt dissimulation from ambitious motives and purposely show themselves unjust and hard, in order to leave behind them the impression of strength. 65. 25 The German word Mitfreude , coined by Nietzsche in opposition to Mitleid (sympathy), is untranslateable. Tr. 177 Humiliation. If in a large sack of profit we find a single grain of humiliation we still make a wry face even at our good luck. 66. Extreme Herostratism. 25F26There mi ght be Herostratuses who set fire to their own temple, in which their images are honoured. 67. A World of Diminutives.The fact that all that is weak and in need of help appeals to the heart induces in us the habit of designating by diminutive and softening terms all that appeals to our heartsand accordingly making such things weak and clinging to our imaginations. 68. The Bad Characteristic of Sympathy. Sympathy has a peculiar impudence for its companion. For, wishing to help at all costs, sympathy is in no perplexity either as to the means of assistance or as to the nature and cause of the disease, and goes on courageously administering all its quack medicines to restore the health and reputation of the patient. 69. Importunacy.There is even an importunacy in relation to works, and the act of associating oneself from early youth on an intimate footing with the illustrious works of all times evinces an entire absence of shame. Others are only importunate from ignorance, not knowing with whom they have to dofor instance classical scholars young and old in relation to the works of the Greeks. 70. The Will is Ashamed of the Intellect. In all coolness we make reasonable plans against our passions. But we make the most serious mistake in this connection in being often ashamed, when the design has to be carried out, of the coolness and calculation with which we conceived it. So we do just the unreasonable thing, from that sort of defiant magnanimity that every passion involves. 71. Why the Scept ics Offend Morality. He who takes his morality solemnly and seriously is enraged against the sceptics in the domain of morals. For where he lavishes all his force, he wishes others to marvel but not to investigate and doubt. Then there are natures whose la st shred of morality is just the belief in morals. They behave in the same way towards sceptics, if possible still more passionately. 72. Shyness.All moralists are shy, because they know they are confounded with spies and traitors, so soon as their penchant is noticed. Besides, they are generally conscious of being impotent in action, for in the midst of work the motives of their activity almost withdraw their attention from the work. 73. 26 Herostratus of Ephesus (in 356 b.c.) set fire to the temple of Dia na in order (as he confessed on the rack) to gain notoriety. Tr. 178 A Danger to Universal Morality.People who are at the same time nobl e and honest come to deify every devilry that brings out their honesty, and to suspend for a time the balance of their moral judgment. 74. The Saddest Error. It is an unpardonable offence when one discovers that where one was convinced of being loved, one is only regarded as a household utensil and decoration, whereby the master of the house can find an outlet for his vanity before his guests. 75. Love and Duality.What else is love but understanding and rejoicing that another lives, works, and feels in a different and opposite way to ourselves? That love may be able to bridge over the contrasts by joys, we must not remove or deny those contrasts. Even self-love presupposes an irreconcileable duality (or plurality) in one person. 76. Signs from Dreams. What one sometimes does not know and feel accurately in waking hourswhether one has a good or a bad conscience as regards some personis revealed completely and unambiguously by dreams. 77. Debauchery. Not joy but joylessness is the mother of debauchery. 78. Reward and Punishment.No one accuses without an underlying notion of punishment and revenge, even when he accuses his fate or himself. All complaint is accusation, all self - congratulation is praise. Whether we do one or the other, we always make some one responsible. 79. Doubly Unjust.We sometimes advance truth by a twofold injustice: when we see and represent consecutively the two sides of a case which we are not in a position to see together, but in such a way that every time we mistake or deny the other side, fancying that what we see is the whole truth. 80. Mistrust. Self -mistrust does not always proceed uncertainly and shyly, but sometimes in a furious rage, having worked itself into a frenzy in order not to tremble. 81. Philosophy of Parvenus.If you want to be a personality you must even hold your shadow in honour. 82. Knowing how to Wash Oneself Clean.We must know how to emerge cleaner from unclean conditions, and, if necessary, how to wash ourselves even with dirty water. 83. Letting Yourself Go.The more you let yourself go, the less others let you go. 84. 179 The Innocent Rogue.There is a slow, gradual path to vice and rascality of every description. In the end, the traveller is quite abandoned by the insect- swarms of a bad conscience, and although a thorough scoundrel he walks in innocence. 85. Making Plans.Making plans and conceiving projects involves many agreeable sentiments. He that had the strength to be nothing but a contriver of plans all his life would be a happy man. But one must occasionally have a rest from this activity by carrying a plan into execution, and then comes anger and sobriety. 86. Wherewith We See the Ideal. Every efficient man is blocked by his efficiency and cannot look out freely from its prison. Had he not also a goodly share of imperfection, he could, by reason of his virtue, never arrive at an intellectual or moral freedom. Our shortcomings are the eyes with which we see the ideal. 87. Dishonest Praise. Dishonest praise causes many more twinges of conscience than dishonest blame, probably only because we have exposed our capacity for judgment far more completely through excessive praise than through excessive and unjust blame. 88. How One Dies is Indifferent.The whole way in which a man thinks of death during the prime of his life and strength is very expressive and significant for what we call his character. But the hour of death itself, his behaviour on the death-bed, is almost indifferent. The exhaustion of waning life, especially when old people die, the irregular or insufficient nourishment of the brain during this last period, the occasionally violent pain, the novel and untried nature of the whole position, and only too often the ebb and flow of superstitious impressions and fears, as if dying were of much consequence and meant the crossing of bridges of the most terrible kindall this forbids our using death as a testimony concerning the living. Nor is it true that the dying man is generally more honest than the living. On the contrary, through the solemn attitude of the bystanders, the repressed or flowing streams of tears and emotions, every one is inveigled into a comedy of vanity, now conscious, now unconscious. The serious way in which every dying man is treated must have been to many a poor despised devil the highest joy of his whole life and a sort of compensation and repayment for many privations. 89. Morality and its Sacrifice. The origin of morality may be traced to two ideas: The community is of more value than the individual, and The permanent interest is to be preferred to the temporary. The conclusion drawn is that the permanent interest of the community is unconditionally to be set above the temporary interest of the individual, especially his momentary well-being, but also his permanent interest and even the prolongation of his existence. Even if the individual suffers by an arrangement that suits the mass, even if he is depressed and ruined by it, morality must be maintained and the victim brought to the sacrifice. Such a trend of thought arises, however, only in those who are not the victims for in the victim s case it enforces the claim that the individual might be worth more than the many, and that the present enjoyment, the moment in paradise, 26F27 should perhaps be rated higher than a tame succession of untroubled or 27 Quotation from Schiller, Don Carlos , i. 5.Tr. 180 comfortable circumstances. But the philosophy of the sacrificial victim always finds voice too late, and so victory remains with morals and morality: which are really nothing more than the sentiment for the wh ole concept of morals under which one lives and has been reared and reared not as an individual but as a member of the whole, as a cipher in a majority. Hence it constantly happens that the individual makes himself into a majority by means of his morality. 90. The Good and the Good Conscience.You hold that all good things have at all times had a good conscience? Science, which is certainly a very good thing, has come into the world without such a conscience and quite free from all pathos, rather clandestinely, by roundabout ways, walking with shrouded or masked face like a sinner, and always with the feeling at least of being a smuggler. Good conscience has bad conscience for its stepping-stone, not for its opposite. For all that is good has at one time been new and consequently strange, against morals, immoral, and has gnawed like a worm at the heart of the fortunate discoverer. 91. Success Sanctifies the Intentions. We should not shrink from treading the road to a virtue, even when we see clearly that noth ing but egotism, and accordingly utility, personal comfort, fear, considerations of health, reputation, or glory, are the impelling motives. These motives are styled ignoble and selfish. Very well, but if they stimulate us to some virtuefor example, self -denial, dutifulness, order, thrift, measure, and moderationlet us listen to them, whatever their epithets may be! For if we reach the goal to which they summon us, then the virtue we have attained, by means of the pure air it makes us breathe and the spir itual well-being it communicates, ennobles the remoter impulses of our action, and afterwards we no longer perform those actions from the same coarse motives that inspired us before.Education should therefore force the virtues on the pupil, as far as possible, according to his disposition. Then virtue, the sunshine and summer atmosphere of the soul, can contribute her own share of work and add mellowness and sweetness. 92. Dabblers in Christianity, not Christians.So that is your Christianity!To annoy humanity you praise God and His Saints, and again when you want to praise humanity you go so far that God and His Saints must be annoyed.I wish you would at least learn Christian manners, as you are so deficient in the civility of the Christian heart. 93. The Religious and Irreligious Impression of Nature.A true believer must be to us an object of veneration, but the same holds good of a true, sincere, convinced unbeliever. With men of the latter stamp we are near to the high mountains where mighty rivers have their source, and with believers we are under vigorous, shady, restful trees. 94. Judicial Murder.The two greatest judicial murders 27F28 in the worlds history are, to speak without exaggeration, concealed and well- concealed suicide. In both cases a man willed to die, and in both cases he let his breast be pierced by the sword in the hand of human injustice. 95. 28 This, of course, refers to Jesus and Socrates. Tr. 181 Love.The finest artistic conception wherein Christianity had the advantage over other religious systems lay in one wordLove. Hence it became the lyric religion (whereas in its two other creations Semitism bestowed heroico -epical religions upon the world). In the word love there is so much meaning, so much that stimulates and appeals to memory and hope, that even the meanest intelligence and the coldest heart feel some glimmering of its sense. The cleverest woman and the lowest man think of the comparatively unselfish moments of their whole life, even if with them Eros never soared high: and the vast number of beings who miss love from their parents or children or sweethearts, especially those whose sexual instincts have been refined away, have found their heart s desire in Christianity. 96. The Fulfilment of Christianity. In Christianity there is also an Epicurean trend of thought, starting fr om the idea that God can only demand of man, his creation and his image, what it is possible for man to fulfil, and accordingly that Christian virtue and perfection are attainable and often attained. Now, for instance, the belief in loving one s enemies ev en if it is only a belief or fancy, and by no means a psychological reality (a real love)gives unalloyed happiness, so long as it is genuinely believed. (As to the reason of this, psychologist and Christian might well differ.) Hence earthly life, through the belief, I mean the fancy, that it satisfies not only the injunction to love our enemies, but all the other injunctions of Christianity, and that it has really assimilated and embodied in itself the Divine perfection according to the command, Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, might actually become a holy life. Thus error can make Christ s promise come true. 97. Of the Future of Christianity.We may be allowed to form a conjecture as to the disappearance of Christianity and as to the places where it will be the slowest to retreat, if we consider where and for what reasons Protestantism spread with such startling rapidity. As is well known, Protestantism promised to do far more cheaply all that the old Church did, without costly masses, pilg rimages, and priestly pomp and circumstance. It spread particularly among the Northern nations, which were not so deeply rooted as those of the South in the old Churchs symbolism and love of ritual. In the South the more powerful pagan religion survived in Christianity, whereas in the North Christianity meant an opposition to and a break with the old- time creed, and hence was from the first more thoughtful and less sensual, but for that very reason, in times of peril, more fanatical and more obstinate. If from the standpoint of thought we succeed in uprooting Christianity, we can at once know the point where it will begin to disappearthe very point at which it will be most stubborn in defence. In other places it will bend but not break, lose its leaves but burst into leaf afresh, because the senses, and not thought, have gone over to its side. But it is the senses that maintain the belief that with all its expensive outlay the Church is more cheaply and conveniently managed than under the stern conditions of work and wages. Yet what does one hold leisure (or semi-idleness) to be worth, when once one has become accustomed to it? The senses plead against a dechristianised world, saying that there would be too much work to do in it and an insufficient supply of leisure. They take the part of magic that is, they let God work himself ( oremus nos, Deus laboret ). 98. Theatricality and Honesty of Unbelievers.There is no book that contains in such abundance or expresses so faithfully all that man occasionally finds salutary ecstatic inward happiness, ready for sacrifice or death in the belief in and contemplation of his truth as the book that tells of Christ. From that book a clever man may learn all the means whereby a book can be 182 made into a world-book, a vade- mecum for all, and especially that master -means of representing everything as discovered, nothing as future and uncertain. All influential books try to leave the same impression, as if the widest intellectual horizon were circumscribed here and as if about the sun that shines here every constellation visible at present or in the future must revolve.Must not then all purely scientific books be poor in influence on the same grounds as such books are rich in influence? Is not the book fated to live humble and among humble folk, in order to be crucified in the end and never resurrected? In relation to what the religious inform us of their knowledge and their holy spirit, are not all upright men of science poor in spirit? Can any religion de mand more self -denial and draw the selfish out of themselves more inexorably than science?This and similar things we may say, in any case with a certain theatricality, when we have to defend ourselves against believers, for it is impossible to conduct a defence without a certain amount of theatricality. But between ourselves our language must be more honest, and we employ a freedom that those believers are not even allowed, in their own interests, to understand. Away, then, with the monastic cowl of self -denial, with the appearance of humility! Much more and much betterso rings our truth! If science were not linked with the pleasure of knowledge, the utility of the thing known, what should we care for science? If a little faith, love, and hope did not lead our souls to knowledge, what would attract us to science? And if in science the ego means nothing, still the inventive, happy ego, every upright and industrious ego, means a great deal in the republic of the men of science. The homage of those who pay homage, the joy of those whom we wish well or honour, in some cases glory and a fair share of immortality, is the personal reward for every suppression of personality: to say nothing here of meaner views and rewards, although it is just on this account that the majority have sworn and always continue to swear fidelity to the laws of the republic and of science. If we had not remained in some degree unscientific, what would science matter to us? Taking everything together and speaking in plain language: To a p urely knowing being knowledge would be indifferent. Not the quality but the quantity of faith and devoutness distinguishes us from the pious, the believers. We are content with less. But should one of them cry out to us: Be content and show yourselves contented! we could easily answer: As a matter of fact, we do not belong to the most discontented class. But you, if your faith makes you happy, show yourselves to be happy. Your faces have always done more harm to your faith than our reasons! If that glad message of your Bible were written in your faces, you would not need to demand belief in the authority of that book in such stiff-necked fashion. Your words, your actions should continually make the Bible superfluousin fact, through you a new Bible should continually come into being. As it is, your apologia for Christianity is rooted in your unchristianity, and with your defence you write your own condemnation. If you, however, should wish to emerge from your dissatisfaction with Christianity, you should ponder over the experience of two thousand years, which, clothed in the modest form of a question, may be voiced as follows: If Christ really intended to redeem the world, may he not be said to have failed? 99. The Poet as Guide to the Future.All the surplus poetical force that still exists in modern humanity, but is not used under our conditions of life, should (without any deduction) be devoted to a definite goal not to depicting the present nor to reviving and summarising the past, but to pointing the way to the future. Nor should this be so done as if the poet, like an imaginative political economist, had to anticipate a more favourable national and social state of things and picture their realisation. Rather will he, just as the earlier poets portr ayed the images of the Gods, portray the fair images of men. He will divine those cases where, in the midst of our modern world and reality (which will not be shirked or repudiated in the usual 183 poetic fashion), a great, noble soul is still possible, where it may be embodied in harmonious, equable conditions, where it may become permanent, visible, and representative of a type, and so, by the stimulus to imitation and envy, help to create the future. The poems of such a poet would be distinguished by appearing secluded and protected from the heated atmosphere of the passions. The irremediable failure, the shattering of all the strings of the human instrument, the scornful laughter and gnashing of teeth, and all tragedy and comedy in the usual old sense, would appear by the side of this new art as mere archaic lumber, a blurring of the outlines of the world-picture. Strength, kindness, gentleness, purity, and an unsought, innate moderation in the personalities and their action: a levelled soil, giving rest and pleasure to the foot: a shining heaven mirrored in faces and events: science and art welded into a new unity: the mind living together with her sister, the soul, without arrogance or jealousy, and enticing from contrasts the grace of seriousness, not the i mpatience of discordall this would be the general environment, the background on which the delicate differences of the embodied ideals would make the real picture, that of ever -growing human majesty. Many roads to this poetry of the future start from Goethe, but the quest needs good pathfinders and above all a far greater strength than is possessed by modern poets, who unscrupulously represent the half- animal and the immaturity and intemperance that are mistaken by them for power and naturalness. 100. The Muse as Penthesilea. 28F29Better to rot than to be a woman without charm. When once the Muse thinks thus, the end of her art is again at hand. But it can be a tragic and also a comic finale. 101. The Circuitous Path to the Beautiful. If the beautiful is to be identified with that which gives pleasureand thus sang the Muses oncethe useful is often the necessary circuitous path to the beautiful, and has a perfect right to spurn the short-sighted censure of men who live for the moment, who will not wait, and who think that they can reach all good things without ever taking a circuitous path. 102. An Excuse for many a Transgression.The ceaseless desire to create, the eternal looking outward of the artist, hinders him from becoming better and more beautiful as a personality: unless his craving for glory be great enough to compel him to exhibit in his relations with other men a growth corresponding to the growing beauty and greatness of his works. In any case he has but a limited measure of strength, and how could the proportion of strength that he spends on himself be of any benefit to his workor vice versa ? 103. Satisfying the Best People. If we have satisfied the best people of our time with our art, it is a sign that we shall not satisfy the best people of the succeeding period. We have indeed lived for all time, and the applause of the best people ensures our fame. 29F30 104. 29 Queen of the Amazons, slain by Achilles in the Trojan War. Tr. 30 From Schiller, Wallenstein s Lager : Wer den Besten seiner Zeit genug gethan, der hat gelebt fr alle Zeiten (He that has satisfied the best men of his time has lived for all time ). 184 Of One Substance.If we are of one substance with a book or a work of art, we think in our heart of hearts that it must be excellent, an d are offended if others find it ugly, over-spiced, or pretentious. 105. Speech and Emotion.That speech is not given to us to communicate our emotions may be seen from the fact that all simple men are ashamed to seek for words to express their deeper feelings. These feelings are expressed only in actions, and even here such men blush if others seem to divine their motives. After all, among poets, to whom God generally denies this shame, the more noble are more monosyllabic in the language of emotion, and e vince a certain constraint: whereas the real poets of emotion are for the most part shameless in practical life. 106. A Mistake about a Privation.He that has not for a long time been completely weaned from an art, and is still always at home in it, has no idea how small a privation it is to live without that art. 107. Three-quarter Strength.A work that is meant to give an impression of health should be produced with three-quarters, at the most, of the strength of its creator. If he has gone to his farthes t limit, the work excites the observer and disconcerts him by its tension. All good things have something lazy about them and lie like cows in the meadow. 108. Refusing to have Hunger as a Guest.As refined fare serves a hungry man as well as and no better than coarser food, the more pretentious artist will not dream of inviting the hungry man to his meal. 109. Living without Art and Wine. It is with works of art as with wine it is better if one can do without both and keep to water, and if from the inner fire and inner sweetness of the soul the water spontaneously changes again into wine. 110. The Pirate-Genius.The pirate-genius in art, who even knows how to deceive subtle minds, arises when some one unscrupulously and from youth upwards regards all good things, that are not protected by law, as the property of a particular person, as his legitimate spoil. Now all the good things of past ages and masters lie free around us, hedged about and protected by the reverential awe of the few who know them. To these few our robber-genius, by the force of his impudence, bids defiance and accumulates for himself a wealth that once more calls forth homage and awe. 111. To the Poets of Great Towns.In the gardens of modern poetry it will clearly be observed that the sewers of great towns are too near. With the fragrance of flowers is mingled something that betrays abomination and putrescence. With pain I ask: Must you poets always request wit and dirt to stand godfather, when an innocent and beautiful sensation has to be christened by you? Are you obliged to dress your noble goddess in a hood of devilry and caricature? But whence this necessity, this obligation? The reason is because you live too near the sewers. 185 112. Of the Salt of Speech. No one has ever explained why the Greek writers, having at command such an unparalleled wealth and power of language, made so sparing a use of their resources that every post-classical Greek book appears by comparison crude, over-coloured, and extravagant. It is said that towards the North Polar ice and in the hottest countries salt is becoming less and less used, whereas on the other hand the dwellers on the plains and by the coast in the more temperate zones use salt in great abundance. Is it possible that the Greeks from a twofol d reason because their intellect was colder and clearer but their fundamental passionate nature far more tropical than oursdid not need salt and spice to the same extent that we do? 113. The Freest Writer. In a book for free spirits one cannot avoid mention of Laurence Sterne, the man whom Goethe honoured as the freest spirit of his century. May he be satisfied with the honour of being called the freest writer of all times, in comparison with whom all others appear stiff, square-toed, intolerant, and downright boorish! In his case we should not speak of the clear and rounded but of the endless melody if by this phrase we arrive at a name for an artistic style in which the definite form is continually broken, thrust aside and transferred to the realm of the indefinite, so that it signifies one and the other at the same time. Sterne is the great master of double entendre , this phrase being naturally used in a far wider sense than is commonly done when one applies it to sexual relations. We may give up for lost the reader who always wants to know exactly what Sterne thinks about a matter, and whether he be making a serious or a smiling face (for he can do both with one wrinkling of his features; he can be and even wishes to be right and wrong at the same moment, to interweave profundity and farce). His digressions are at once continuations and further developments of the story, his maxims contain a satire on all that is sententious, his dislike of seriousness is bound up with a disposition to take no matter merely externally and on the surface. So in the proper reader he arouses a feeling of uncertainty whether he be walking, lying, or standing, a feeling most closely akin to that of floating in the air. He, the most versatile of writers, communicates somet hing of this versatility to his reader. Yes, Sterne unexpectedly changes the parts, and is often as much reader as author, his book being like a play within a play, a theatre audience before another theatre audience. We must surrender at discretion to the mood of Sterne, although we can always expect it to be gracious. It is strangely instructive to see how so great a writer as Diderot has affected this double entendre of Sterne sto be equally ambiguous throughout is just the Sternian super-humour. Did Did erot imitate, admire, ridicule, or parody Sterne in his Jacques le Fataliste ? One cannot be exactly certain, and this uncertainty was perhaps intended by the author. This very doubt makes the French unjust to the work of one of their first masters, one who need not be ashamed of comparison with any of the ancients or moderns. For humour (and especially for this humorous attitude towards humour itself) the French are too serious. Is it necessary to add that of all great authors Sterne is the worst model, in fact the inimitable author, and that even Diderot had to pay for his daring? What the worthy Frenchmen and before them some Greeks and Romans aimed at and attained in prose is the very opposite of what Sterne aims at and attains. He raises himself as a mas terly exception above all that artists in writing demand of themselves propriety, reserve, character, steadfastness of purpose, comprehensiveness, perspicuity, good deportment in gait and feature. Unfortunately Sterne the man seems to have been only too cl osely related to Sterne the writer. His squirrel -soul sprang with insatiable unrest from branch to branch; he knew what lies between sublimity and rascality; he had sat on every seat, always with unabashed watery eyes and mobile play of feature. He wasif language does not revolt from such a combinationof a hard -hearted kindness, and in the 186 midst of the joys of a grotesque and even corrupt imagination he showed the bashful grace of innocence. Such a carnal and spiritual hermaphroditism, such untrammelled w it penetrating into every vein and muscle, was perhaps never possessed by any other man. 114. A Choice Reality. Just as the good prose writer only takes words that belong to the language of daily intercourse, though not by a long way all its wordswhence arises a choice style so the good poet of the future will only represent the real and turn his eyes away from all fantastic, superstitious, half -voiced, forgotten stories, to which earlier poets devoted their powers. Only reality, though by a long way not e very reality but a choice reality. 115. Degenerate Species of Art. Side by side with the genuine species of art, those of great repose and great movement, there are degenerate species weary, blas art and excited art. Both would have their weakness taken for strength and wish to be confounded with the genuine species. 116. A Hero Impossible from Lack of Colour.The typical poets and artists of our age like to compose their pictures upon a background of shimmering red, green, grey, and gold, on the background of nervous sensualitya condition well understood by the children of this century. The drawback comes when we do not look at these pictures with the eyes of our century. Then we see that the great figures painted by these artists have something flickering, tremulous, and dizzy about them, and accordingly we do not ascribe to them heroic deeds, but at best mock -heroic, swaggering mis deeds. 117. Overladen Style. The overladen style is a consequence of the impoverishment of the organising force together with a lavish stock of expedients and intentions. At the beginnings of art the very reverse conditions sometimes appear. 118. Pulchrum est paucorum hominum.History and experience tell us that the significant grotesqueness that mysteriously excites the imagination and carries one beyond everyday reality, is older and grows more luxuriantly than the beautiful and reverence for the beautiful in art: and that it begins to flourish exceedingly when the sense for beauty is on the wane. For the vast majority of mankind this grotesque seems to be a higher need than the beautiful, presumably because it contains a coarser narcotic. 119. Origins of Taste in Works of Art.If we consider the primary germs of the artistic sense, and ask ourselves what are the various kinds of joy produced by the firstlings of artas, for example, among savage tribes we find first of all the joy of understanding what another means. Art in this case is a sort of conundrum, which causes its solver pleasure in his own quick and keen perceptions.Then the roughest works of art remind us of the pleasant things we have actually experienced, and so give joyas, for example, when the artist alludes to a chase, a victory, a wedding.Again, the representation may cause us to feel excited, touched, inflamed, as for instance in the glorification of revenge and danger. Here the enjoyment lies in the excitement itself, in the victory over tedium. The memory, too, of unpleasant things, so far as they have been overcome or make us appear interesting to the listener as subjects for art (as when the singer describes the mishaps of a daring seaman), can 187 inspire great joy, the credit for which is given to art.A more subtle variety is the joy that arises at the sight of all that is regular and symmetrical in lines, points, and rhythms. For by a certain analogy is awakened the feeling for all that is orderly and regular in life, which one has to thank alone for all well-being. So in the cult of symmetry we unconsciously do homage to rule and proportion as the source of our previous happiness, and the joy in this case is a kind of hymn of thanksgiving. Only when a certain satiety of the last-mentioned joy arises does a more subtle feeling step in, that enjoyment might even lie in a violation of the symmetrical and regul ar. This feeling, for example, impels us to seek reason in apparent unreason, and the sort of sthetic riddle-guessing that results is in a way the higher species of the first -named artistic joy. He who pursues this speculation still further will know what kind of hypotheses for the explanation of sthetic phenomena are hereby fundamentally rejected. 120. Not too Near.It is a disadvantage for good thoughts when they follow too closely on one another, for they hide the view from each other. That is why grea t artists and writers have made an abundant use of the mediocre. 121. Roughness and Weakness.Artists of all periods have made the discovery that in roughness lies a certain strength, and that not every one can be rough who wants to be: also that many varieties of weakness have a powerful effect on the emotions. From this source are derived many artistic substitutes, which not even the greatest and most conscientious artists can abstain from using. 122. Good Memory.Many a man fails to become a thinker for the sole reason that his memory is too good. 123. Arousing instead of Appeasing Hunger. Great artists fancy that they have taken full possession of a soul. In reality, and often to their painful disappointment, that soul has only been made more capacious and insatiable, so that a dozen greater artists could plunge into its depths without filling it up. 124. Artists Anxiety.The anxiety lest people may not believe that their figures are alive can mislead many artists of declining taste to portray these figu res so that they appear as if mad. From the same anxiety, on the other hand, Greek artists of the earliest ages gave even dead and sorely wounded men that smile which they knew as the most vivid sign of lifecareless of the actual forms bestowed by nature on life at its last gasp. 125. The Circle must be Completed. He who follows a philosophy or a genre of art to the end of its career and beyond, understands from inner experience why the masters and disciples who come after have so often turned, with a depreciatory gesture, into a new groove. The circle must be described but the individual, even the greatest, sits firm on his point of the circumference, with an inexorable look of obstinacy, as if the circle ought never to be completed. 126. 188 The Older Art and the Soul of the Present.Since every art becomes more and more adapted to the expression of spiritual states, of the more lively, delicate, energetic, and passionate states, the later masters, spoilt by these means of expression, do not feel at their e ase in the presence of the old-time works of art. They feel as if the ancients had merely been lacking in the means of making their souls speak clearly, also perhaps in some necessary technical preliminaries. They think that they must render some assistanc e in this quarter, for they believe in the similarity or even unity of all souls. In truth, however, measure, symmetry, a contempt for graciousness and charm, an unconscious severity and morning chilliness, an evasion of passion, as if passion meant the de ath of art such are the constituents of sentiment and morality in all old masters, who selected and arranged their means of expression not at random but in a necessary connection with their morality. Knowing this, are we to deny those that come after the r ight to animate the older works with their soul? No, for these works can only survive through our giving them our soul, and our blood alone enables them to speak to us . The real historic discourse would talk ghostly speech to ghosts. We honour the great artists less by that barren timidity that allows every word, every note to remain intact than by energetic endeavours to aid them continually to a new life.True, if Beethoven were suddenly to come to life and hear one of his works performed with that modern animation and nervous refinement that bring glory to our masters of execution, he would probably be silent for a long while, uncertain whether he should raise his hand to curse or to bless, but perhaps say at last: Well, well! That is neither I nor not-I, but a third thingit seems to me, too, something right, if not just the right thing. But you must know yourselves what to do, as in any case it is you who have to listen. As our Schiller says, the living man is right. So have it your own way, and let me go down again. 127. Against the Disparagers of Brevity.A brief dictum may be the fruit and harvest of long reflection. The reader, however, who is a novice in this field and has never considered the case in point, sees something embryonic in all brief dicta, not without a reproachful hint to the author, requesting him not to serve up such raw and ill-prepared food. 128. Against the Short-Sighted.Do you think it is piece-work because it is (and must be) offered you in pieces? 129. Readers of Aphorisms.The worst readers of aphorisms are the friends of the author, if they make a point of referring the general to the particular instance to which the aphorism owes its origin. This namby-pamby attitude brings all the authors trouble to naught, and instead of a philosophic lesson and a philosophic frame of mind, they deservedly gain nothing but the satisfaction of a vulgar curiosity. 130. Readers Insults.The reader offers a two -fold insult to the author by praising his second book at the expense of his first (or vice versa ) and by expecting the author to be grateful to him on that account. 131. The Exciting Element in the History of Art. We fall into a state of terrible tension when we follow the history of an artas, for example, that of Greek oratory and, passing from master to master, observe their increasing precautions to obey the old and the new laws and all these self -imposed limitations. We see that the bow must snap, and that the so- 189 called loose composition, with the wonderful means of expression smothered and concealed (in this particular case the florid style of Asianism), was once necessary and almost beneficial . 132. To the Great in Art. That enthusiasm for some object which you, O great man, introduce into this world causes the intelligence of the many to be stunted. The knowledge of this fact spells humiliation. But the enthusiast wears his hump with pride and pleasure, and you have the consolation of feeling that you have increased the worlds happiness. 133. Conscienceless sthetes. The real fanatics of an artistic school are perhaps those utterly inartistic natures that are not even grounded in the elements of artistic study and creation, but are impressed with the strongest of all the elementary influences of an art. For them there is no sthetic consciencehence nothing to hold them back from fanaticism. 134. How the Soul should be Moved by the New Music.The artistic purpose followed by the new music, in what is now forcibly but none too lucidly termed endless melody, can be understood by going into the sea, gradually losing ones firm tread on the bottom, and finally surrendering unconditionally to the fluid element. One has to swim . In the previous, older music one was forced, with delicate or stately or impassioned movement, to dance . The measure necessary for dancing, the observance of a distinct balance of time and force in the soul of the hearer, imposed a continual self-control. Through the counteraction of the cooler draught of air which came from this caution and the warmer breath of musical enthusiasm, that music exercised its spell. Richard Wagner aimed at a different excitation of the soul, allied, as above said, to swimming and floating. This is perhaps the most essential of his innovations. His famous method, originating from this aim and adapted to itthe endless melodystrives to break and sometimes even to despise all mathematical equilibrium of time and force. He is only too rich in the invention of such effects, which sound to the old school like rhythmic paradoxes and blasphemies. He dreads petrifaction, crystallisation, the development of music into the architectural. He accordingly sets up a three- time rhythm in opposition to the double-time, not infrequently introduces five- time and seven -time, immediately repeats a phrase, but with a prolation, so that its time is again doubled and trebled. From an easy-going imitation of such art may arise a great danger to music, for by the side of the superabundance of rhythmic emotion demoralisation and decadence lurk in ambush. The danger will become very great if such music comes to associate itself more and more closely with a quite naturalistic art of acting and pantomime, trained and dominated by no higher plastic models; an art that knows no measure in itself and can impart no measure to the kindred element, the all-too-womanish nature of music. 135. Poet and Reality. The Muse of the poet who is not in love with reality will not be reality, and will bear him children with hollow eyes and all too tender bones. 136. Means and End.In art the end does not justify the means, but holy means can justify the end. 137. 190 The Worst Readers. The worst readers are those who act like plundering soldiers. They take out some things that they might use, cover the rest with filth and confusion, and blaspheme about the whole. 138. Signs of a Good Writer.Good writers have two things in common: they prefer being understood to being admired, and they do not write for the critical and over- shrewd reader. 139. The Mixed Species. The mixed species i n art bear witness to their authors distrust of their own strength. They seek auxiliary powers, advocates, hiding- places such is the case with the poet who calls in philosophy, the musician who calls in the drama, and the thinker who calls in rhetoric to his aid. 140. Shutting Ones Mouth.When his book opens its mouth, the author must shut his. 141. Badges of Rank.All poets and men of letters who are in love with the superlative want to do more than they can. 142. Cold Books.The deep thinker reckons on readers who feel with him the happiness that lies in deep thinking. Hence a book that looks cold and sober, if seen in the right light, may seem bathed in the sunshine of spiritual cheerfulness and become a genuine soul- comforter. 143. A Knack o f the Slow- Witted. The slow- witted thinker generally allies himself with loquacity and ceremoniousness. By the former he thinks he is gaining mobility and fluency, by the latter he gives his peculiarity the appearance of being a result of free will and art istic purpose, with a view to dignity, which needs slow movement. 144. Le Style Baroque. 30F31He who as thinker and writer is not born or trained to dialectic and the consecutive arrangement of ideas, will unconsciously turn to the rhetoric and dramatic forms. For, after all, his object is to make himself understood and to carry the day by force, and he is indifferent whether, as shepherd, he honestly guides to himself the hearts of his fellow-men, or, as robber, he captures them by surprise. This is true of t he plastic arts as of music: where the feeling of insufficient dialectic or a deficiency in expression or narration, together with an urgent, over-powerful impulse to form, gives birth to that species of style known as baroque. Only the ill- educated and the arrogant will at once find a depreciatory force in this word. The baroque style always arises at the time of decay of a great art, when the demands of art in classical expression have become too great. It is a natural phenomenon which will be observed with melancholy for it is a forerunner of the nightbut at the same time with admiration for its peculiar compensatory arts of expression and narration. To this style belongs already a choice of material and subjects of the highest dramatic tension, at which the heart trembles even when there is no art, because heaven and hell are all too near the emotions: then, the oratory of strong passion and gestures, of ugly sublimity, of 31 In German Barockstil , i.e. the degenerate post -Renaissance style in art and literature, which spread from Italy in the seventeenth century. Tr. 191 great masses, in fact of absolute quantity per se (as is shown in Michael Angelo, the father or grandfather of the Italian baroque stylists): the lights of dusk, illumination and conflagration playing upon those strongly moulded forms: ever-new ventures in means and aims, strongly underscored by artists for artists, while the layman must fancy he sees an unconscious overflowing of all the horns of plenty of an original nature- art: all these characteristics that constitute the greatness of that style are neither possible nor permitted in the earlier ante - classical and classical periods of a branch of art. Such luxuries hang long on the tree like forbidden fruit. Just now, when music is passing into this last phase, we may learn to know the phenomenon of the baroque style in peculiar splendour, and, by comparison, find much that is instru ctive for earlier ages. For from Greek times onward there has often been a baroque style, in poetry, oratory, prose writing, sculpture, and, as is well known, in architecture. This style, though wanting in the highest nobility,the nobility of an innocent, unconscious, triumphant perfection,has nevertheless given pleasure to many of the best and most serious minds of their time. Hence, as aforesaid, it is presumptuous to depreciate it without reserve, however happy we may feel because our taste for it has not made us insensible to the purer and greater style. 145. The Value of Honest Books.Honest books make the reader honest, at least by exciting his hatred and aversion, which otherwise cunning cleverness knows so well how to conceal. Against a book, however, we let ourselves go, however restrained we may be in our relations with men. 146. How Art makes Partisans. Individual fine passages, an exciting general tenor, a moving and absorbing finaleso much of a work of art is accessible even to most laymen. In an art period when it is desired to win over the great majority of the laymen to the side of the artists and to make a party perhaps for the very preservation of art, the creative artist will do well to offer nothing more than the above. Then he will not be a squanderer of his strength, in spheres where no one is grateful to him. For to perform the remaining functions, the imitation of Nature in her organic development and growth, would in that case be like sowing seeds in water. 147. Becoming Gr eat to the Detriment of History. Every later master who leads the taste of art - lovers into his channel unconsciously gives rise to a selection and revaluation of the older masters and their works. Whatever in them is conformable and akin to him, and antici pates and foreshadows him, appears henceforth as the only important element in them and their worksa fruit in which a great error usually lies hidden like a worm. 148. How an Epoch becomes Lured to Art.If we teach people by all the enchantments of artists and thinkers to feel reverence for their defects, their intellectual poverty, their absurd infatuations and passions (as it is quite possible to do); if we show them only the lofty side of crime and folly, only the touching and appealing element in weakness and flabbiness and blind devotion (that too has often enough been done):we have employed the means for inspiring even an unphilosophical and inartistic age with an ecstatic love of philosophy and art (especially of thinkers and artists as personalitie s) and, in the worst case, perhaps with the only means of defending the existence of such tender and fragile beings. 149. 192 Criticism and Joy. Criticism, one -sided and unjust as well as intelligent criticism, gives so much pleasure to him who exercises it th at the world is indebted to every work and every action that inspires much criticism and many critics. For criticism draws after it a glittering train of joyousness, wit, self-admiration, pride, instruction, designs of improvement.The God of joy created the bad and the mediocre for the same reason that he created the good. 150. Beyond his Limits.When an artist wants to be more than an artist for example, the moral awakener of his people he at last falls in love, as a punishment, with a monster of moral substance. The Muse laughs, for, though a kind-hearted Goddess, she can also be malignant from jealousy. Milton and Klopstock are cases in point. 151. A Glass Eye. The tendency of a talent towards moral subjects, characters, motives, towards the beautiful soul of the work of art, is often only a glass eye put on by the artist who lacks a beautiful soul. It may result, though rarely, that his eye finally becomes living Nature, if indeed it be Nature with a somewhat troubled look. But the ordinary result is that the whole world thinks it sees Nature where there is only cold glass. 152. Writing and Desire for Victory.Writing should always indicate a victory, indeed a conquest of oneself which must be communicated to others for their behoof. There are, however, dyspeptic authors who only write when they cannot digest something, or when something has remained stuck in their teeth. Through their anger they try unconsciously to disgust the reader too, and to exercise violence upon himthat is, they desire victory, but victory over others. 153. A Good Book Needs Time.Every good book tastes bitter when it first comes out, for it has the defect of newness. Moreover, it suffers damage from its living author, if he is well known and much talked about. For all the world is accustomed to confuse the author with his work. Whatever of profundity, sweetness, and brilliance the work may contain must be developed as the years go by, under the care of growing, then old, and lastly traditional reverence. Many hours must pass, many a spider must have woven its web about the book. A book is made better by good readers and clearer by good opponents. 154. Extravagance as an Artistic Means. Artists well understand the idea of using extravagance as an artistic means in order to convey an impression of wealth. This is one of those innocent wiles of soul-seduction that the artist must know, for in his world, which has only appearance in view, the means to appearance need not necessarily be genuine. 155. The Hidden Barrel -Organ.Gen ius, by virtue of its more ample drapery, knows better than talent how to hide its barrel-organ. Yet after all it too can only play its seven old pieces over and over again. 156. The Name on the Title -Page. It is now a matter of custom and almost of duty for the authors name to appear on the book, and this is a main cause of the fact that books have so little influence. If they are good, they are worth more than the personalities of their authors, of which they are the quintessences. But as soon as the author makes himself known on the 193 title-page, the quintessence, from the reader s point of view, becomes diluted with the personal, the most personal element, and the aim of the book is frustrated. It is the ambition of the intellect no longer to appear individual. 157. The Most Cutting Criticism. We make the most cutting criticism of a man or a book when we indicate his or its ideal. 158. Little or no Love.Every good book is written for a particular reader and men of his stamp, and for that very reason is looked upon unfavourably by all other readers, by the vast majority. Its reputation accordingly rests on a narrow basis and must be built up by degrees. The mediocre and bad book is mediocre and bad because it seeks to please, and does please, a great number. 159. Music and Disease. The danger of the new music lies in the fact that it puts the cup of rapture and exaltation to the lips so invitingly, and with such a show of moral ecstasy, that even the noble and temperate man always drinks a drop too much. Thi s minimum of intemperance, constantly repeated, can in the end bring about a deeper convulsion and destruction of mental health than any coarse excess could do. Hence nothing remains but some day to fly from the grotto of the nymph, and through perils and billowy seas to forge ones way to the smoke of Ithaca and the embraces of a simpler and more human spouse. 160. Advantage for Opponents.A book full of intellect communicates something thereof even to its opponents. 161. Youth and Criticism. To criticise a book means, for the young, not to let oneself be touched by a single productive thought therefrom, and to protect ones skin with hands and feet. The youngster lives in opposition to all novelty that he cannot love in the lump, in a position of self-defence, and in this connection he commits, as often as he can, a superfluous sin. 162. Effect of Quantity. The greatest paradox in the history of poetic art lies in this: that in all that constitutes the greatness of the old poets a man may be a barbarian, faulty and deformed from top to toe, and still remain the greatest of poets. This is the case with Shakespeare, who, as compared with Sophocles, is like a mine of immeasurable wealth in gold, lead, and rubble, whereas Sophocles is not merely gold, but gold in its noblest form, one that almost makes us forget the money- value of the metal. But quantity in its highest intensity has the same effect as quality. That is a good thing for Shakespeare. 163. All Beginning is Dangerous.The Poet can choose whether to raise emotion from one grade to another, and so finally to exalt it to a great heightor to try a surprise attack, and from the start to pull the bell-rope with might and main. Both processes have their dangerin the first case his hearer may run away from him through boredom, in the second through terror. 164. 194 In Favour of Critics.Insects sting, not from malice, but because they too want to live. It is the same with our critics they desire our blood, not our pain. 165. Success of Aphorisms. The inexperienced, when an aphorism at once illuminates their minds with its naked truth, always think that it is old and well known. They look askance at the author, as if he had wanted to steal the common property of all, whereas they enjoy highly spiced half -truths, and give the author to understand as much. He knows how to appreciate the hint, and easily guesses thereby where he has succeeded and failed. 166. The Desire for Victory. An artist who exceeds the limit of his strength in all that he undertakes will end by carrying the multitude along with him through the spectacle of violent wrestling that he affords. Success is not always the accompaniment only of victory, but also of the desire for victory. 167. Sibi Scribere.The sensible author writes for no other posterity than his ownthat is, for his ageso as to be able even then to take pleasure in himself. 168. Praise of the Aphorism.A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch. Hence it is the greatest paradox in literature, the imperishable in the midst of change, the nourishment which always remains highly valued, as salt does, and never becomes stupid like salt. 169. The Art -Need of the Second Order.The people may have something of what can be called art-need, but it is small, and can be cheaply satisfied. On the whole, the remnant of art (it must be honestly confessed) suffices for this need. Let us consider, for example, the kind of melodies and songs in which the most vigorous, unspoiled, and true- hearted classes of the population find genuine delight; let us live among shepherds, cowherds, peasants, huntsmen, soldiers, and sailors, and give ourselves the answer. And in the country town, just in the houses that are the homes of inherited civic virtue, is it not the worst music at present produced that is loved and, one might say, cherished? He who speaks of deeper needs and unsatisfied yearnings for art among the people, as it is, is a crank or an impostor. Be honest! Only in exceptional men is there now an art-need in the highest sensebecause art is once more on the down-grade, and human powers and hopes are for the time being directed to other matters. Apart from this, outside the populace, there exists indeed, in the higher and highest strata of society, a broader and more comprehensive art-need, but of the second order . Here there is a sort of artistic commune, which possibly means to be sincere. But let us look at the elements! They are in general th e more refined malcontents, who attain no genuine pleasure in themselves; the cultured, who have not become free enough to dispense with the consolations of religion, and yet do not find its incense sufficiently fragrant; the half-aristocratic, who are too weak to combat by a heroic conversion or renunciation the one fundamental error of their lives or the pernicious bent of their characters; the highly gifted, who think themselves too dignified to be of service by modest activity, and are too lazy for real, self -sacrificing work; girls who cannot create for themselves a satisfactory sphere of duties; women who have tied themselves by a light-hearted or nefarious marriage, and know that they are not tied securely enough; scholars, physicians, merchants, offi cials who specialised too early and never gave their lives a free enough scopewho do their work 195 efficiently, it is true, but with a worm gnawing at their hearts; finally, all imperfect artists these are nowadays the true needers of art! What do they reall y desire from art? Art is to drive away hours and moments of discomfort, boredom, half-bad conscience, and, if possible, transform the faults of their lives and characters into faults of world -destiny. Very different were the Greeks, who realised in their art the outflow and overflow of their own sense of well-being and health, and loved to see their perfection once more from a standpoint outside themselves. They were led to art by delight in themselves; our contemporariesby disgust of themselves. 170. The Germans in the Theatre. The real theatrical talent of the Germans was Kotzebue. He and his Germans, those of higher as well as those of middle- class society, were necessarily associated, and his contemporaries should have said of him in all seriousness, in him we live and move and have our being. Here was nothingno constraint, pretence, or half- enjoyment: what he could and would do was understood. Yes, until now the honest theatrical success on the German stage has been in the hands of the shamefaced or unashamed heirs of Kotzebues methods and influencethat is, as far as comedy still flourishes at all. The result is that much of the Germanism of that age, sometimes far off from the great towns, still survives. Good-natured; incontinent in small pleasur es; always ready for tears; with the desire, in the theatre at any rate, to be able to get rid of their innate sobriety and strict attention to duty and exercise; a smiling, nay, a laughing indulgence; confusing goodness and sympathy and welding them into one, as is the essential characteristic of German sentimentality; exceedingly happy at a noble, magnanimous action; for the rest, submissive towards superiors, envious of each other, and yet in their heart of hearts thoroughly self-satisfied such were they and such was he. The second dramatic talent was Schiller. He discovered a class of hearers which had hitherto never been taken into consideration: among the callow German youth of both sexes. His poetry responded to their higher, nobler, more violent if more confused emotions, their delight in the jingle of moral words (a delight that begins to disappear when we reach the thirties). Thus he won for himself, by virtue of the passionateness and partisanship of the young, a success which gradually reacted with advantage upon those of riper years. Generally speaking, Schiller rejuvenated the Germans. Goethe stood and still stands above the Germans in every respect. To them he will never belong. How could a nation in well-being and well-wishing come up to the intellectuality of Goethe? Beethoven composed and Schopenhauer philosophised above the heads of the Germans, and it was above their heads, in the same way, that Goethe wrote his Tasso , his Iphigenie . He was followed by a small company of highly cultured persons, who were educated by antiquity, life, and travel, and had grown out of German ways of thought. He himself did not wish it to be otherwise. When the Romantics set up their well -conceived Goethe cult; when their amazing skill in appreciation was passed on to the disciples of Hegel, the real educators of the Germans of this century; when the awakening national ambition turned out advantageous to the fame of the German poets; when the real standard of the nation, as to whether it could honestly find enjoyment in anything, became inexorably subordinated to the judgment of individuals and to that national ambition,that is, when people began to enjoy by compulsion,then arose that false, spurious German culture which was ashamed of Kotzebue; which brought Sophocles, Calderon, and even the Second Part of Goethes Faust on the stage; and which, on account of its foul tongue and congested stomach, no longer knows now what it likes and what it finds tedious.Happy are those who have taste, even if it be a bad taste! Only by this characteristic can one be wise as well as happy. Hence the Greeks, who were very refined in such matters, designated the sage by a word that means man of taste, and called wisdom, artistic as well as scientific, taste ( sophia). 196 171. Music as a Late -Comer in every Culture.Among all the arts that are accustomed to grow on a definite culture -soil and under definite social and political conditions, music is the last plant to come up, arising in the autumn and fading-season of the culture to which it belongs. At the same time, the first signs and harbingers of a new spring are usually already noticeable, and sometimes music, like the language of a forgotten age, rings out into a new, astonished world, and comes too late. In the art of the Dutch and Flemish musicians the soul of the Christian middle ages at last found its fullest tone: their sound -architecture is the posthumous but legitimate and equal sister of Gothic. Not until Handels music was heard the note of the best in the soul of Luther and his kin, the great Judo- heroical impulse that created the whole Reformation movement. Mozart first expressed in golden melody the age of Louis xiv. and the art of Racine and Claude Lorrain. The eighteenth centurythat century of rhapsody, of broken ideals and transitory happinessonly sang itself out in the music of Beethoven and Rossini. A lover of sentimental similes might say that all really important music was a swan - song.Music is, in fact, not a universal language for all time, as is so often said in its praise, but responds exactly to a particular period and warmth of emotion which involves a quite definite, individual culture, determined by time and place, as its inner law. The music of Palestrina would be quite unintelligible to a Greek; and again, what would the music of Rossini convey to Palestrina? It may be that our most modern German music, with all its pre-eminence and desire of pre-eminence, will soon be no longer understood. For this music sprang from a culture that is undergoing a rapid decay, from the soil of that epoch of reaction and restoration in which a certain Catholicism of feeling, as well as a delight in all indigenous, national, primitive manners, burst into bloom and scattered a blended perfume over Europe. These two emotional tendencies, adopted in their greatest strength and carried to their farthest limits, found final expression in the music of Wagner. Wagners predilection for the old native sagas, his free idealisation of their unfamiliar gods and heroes,who are really sovereign beasts of prey with occasional fits of thoughtfulness, magnanimity, and boredom,his re -animation of those figures, to which he gave in addition the medival Christian thirst for ecstatic sensuality and spiritualisation all this Wagnerian give- and-take with regard to materials, souls, figures, and wordswould clearly express the spirit of his music, if it could not, like all music, speak quite unambiguously of itself. This spirit wages the last campaign of reaction against the spirit of illumin ation which passed into this century from the last, and also against the super-national ideas of French revolutionary romanticism and of English and American insipidity in the reconstruction of state and society.But is it not evident that the spheres of thought and emotion apparently suppressed by Wagner and his school have long since acquired fresh strength, and that his late musical protest against them generally rings into ears that prefer to hear different and opposite notes; so that one day that high and wonderful art will suddenly become unintelligible and will be covered by the spiders web of oblivion?In considering this state of affairs we must not let ourselves be led astray by those transitory fluctuations which arise like a reaction within a re action, as a temporary sinking of the mountainous wave in the midst of the general upheaval. Thus, this decade of national war, ultramontane martyrdom, and socialistic unrest may, in its remoter after-effect, even aid the Wagnerian art to acquire a sudden halo, without guaranteeing that it has a future or that it has the future. It is in the very nature of music that the fruits of its great culture- vintage should lose their taste and wither earlier than the fruits of the plastic arts or those that grow on the tree of knowledge. Among all the products of the human artistic sense ideas are the most solid and lasting. 172. 197 The Poet no longer a Teacher.Strange as it may sound to our time, there were once poets and artists whose soul was above the passions with their delights and convulsions, and who therefore took their pleasure in purer materials, worthier men, more delicate complications and dnouements. If the artists of our day for the most part unfetter the will, and so are under certain circumstances for that very reason emancipators of life, those were tamers of the will, enchanters of animals, creators of men. In fact, they moulded, re-moulded, and new-moulded life, whereas the fame of poets of our day lies in unharnessing, unchaining, and shattering.The ancient Greeks demanded of the poet that he should be the teacher of grown men. How ashamed the poet would be now if this demand were made of him! He is not even a good student of himself, and so never himself becomes a good poem or a fine picture. Unde r the most favourable circumstances he remains the shy, attractive ruin of a temple, but at the same time a cavern of cravings, overgrown like a ruin with flowers, nettles, and poisonous weeds, inhabited and haunted by snakes, worms, spiders, and birds; an object for sad reflection as to why the noblest and most precious must grow up at once like a ruin, without the past and future of perfection. 173. Looking Forward and Backward.An art like that which streams out of Homer, Sophocles, Theocritus, Calderon, Racine, Goethe, as the superabundance of a wise and harmonious conduct of lifethat is the true art, at which we grasp when we have ourselves become wiser and more harmonious. It is not that barbaric, if ever so delightful, outpouring of hot and highly coloured things from an undisciplined, chaotic soul, which is what we understood by art in our youth. It is obvious from the nature of the case that for certain periods of life an art of overstrain, excitement, antipathy to the orderly, monotonous, simple, logical, is an inevitable need, to which artists must respond, lest the soul of such periods should unburden itself in other ways, through all kinds of disorder and impropriety. Hence youths as they generally are, full, fermenting, tortured above all things by boredom, and women who lack work that fully occupies their soul, require that art of delightful disorder. All the more violently on that account are they inflamed with a desire for satisfaction without change, happiness without stupor and intoxication. 174. Against the Art of Works of Art.Art is above all and first of all meant to embellish life, to make us ourselves endurable and if possible agreeable in the eyes of others. With this task in view, art moderates us and holds us in restraint, creates forms of intercourse, binds over the uneducated to laws of decency, cleanliness, politeness, well- timed speech and silence. Hence art must conceal or transfigure everything that is uglythe painful, terrible, and disgusting elements which in spite of every effort will always break out afresh in accordance with the very origin of human nature. Art has to perform this duty especially in regard to the passions and spiritual agonies and anxieties, and to cause the significant factor to shine through unavoidable or unconquerable ugliness. To this great, super- great task the so -called art proper, that of works of art, is a mere accessary. A man who feels within himself a surplus of such powers of embellishment, concealment, and transfiguration will finally seek to unburden himself of this surplus in works of art. The same holds good, under special circumstances, of a whole nation.But as a rule we nowadays begin art at the end, hang on to its tail, and think that works of art constitute art proper, and that life should be improved and transformed by this means fools that we are! If we begin a dinner with dessert, and try sweet after sweet, small wonder that we ruin our digestions and even our appetites for the good, hearty, nourishing meal to which art invites us! 175. 198 Continued Existence of Art.Why, really, does a creative art nowadays continue to exist? Because the majority who have hours of leisure (and such an art is for them only) think that they cannot fill up their time without music, theatres and picture -galleries, novels and poetry. Granted that one could keep them from this indulgence, either they would strive less eagerly for leisure, and the invidious sight of the rich would be less common (a great gain for the stability of society), or they would have leisure, but would learn to reflect on what can be learnt and unlearnt: on their work, for instance, their associations, the pleasure they could bestow. All the world, with the exception of the artist, would in both cases reap the advantage. Certainly, there are many vigorous, sensible readers who could take objection to this. Still, it must be said on behalf of the coarse and malignant that the author himself is concerned with this protest, and that there is in his book much to be read that is not actually written down therein. 176. The Mouthpiece of the Gods.The poet expresses the universal higher opinions of the nation, he is its mouthpiece and flute; but by virtue of metre and all other artistic means he so expresses them that the nation regards them as s omething quite new and wonderful, and believes in all seriousness that he is the mouthpiece of the Gods. Yes, under the clouds of creation the poet himself forgets whence he derives all his intellectual wisdomfrom father and mother, from teachers and books of all kinds, from the street and particularly from the priest. He is deceived by his own art, and really believes, in a nave period, that a God is speaking through him, that he is creating in a state of religious inspiration. As a matter of fact, he is only saying what he has learnt, a medley of popular wisdom and popular foolishness. Hence, so far as a poet is really vox populi he is held to be vox dei . 177. What all Art wants to Do and Cannot.The last and hardest task of the artist is the presentment of what remains the same, reposes in itself, is lofty and simple and free from the bizarre. Hence the noblest forms of moral perfection are rejected as inartistic by weaker artists, because the sight of these fruits is too painful for their ambition. The fruit gleams at them from the topmost branches of art, but they lack the ladder, the courage, the grip to venture so high. In himself a Phidias is quite possible as a poet, but, if modern strength be taken into consideration, almost solely in the sense that to God nothing is impossible. The desire for a poetical Claude Lorrain is already an immodesty at present, however earnestly one man s heart may yearn for such a consummation.The presentment of the highest man, the most simple and at the same time the most complete, has hitherto been beyond the scope of all artists. Perhaps, however, the Greeks, in the ideal of Athene, saw farther than any men did before or after their time. 178. Art and Restoration.The retrograde movements in history, the so- called per iods of restoration, which try to revive intellectual and social conditions that existed before those immediately preceding, and seem really to succeed in giving them a brief resurrection, have the charm of sentimental recollection, ardent longing for what is almost lost, hasty embracing of a transitory happiness. It is on account of this strange trend towards seriousness that in such transient and almost dreamy periods art and poetry find a natural soil, just as the tenderest and rarest plants grow on mountain -slopes of steep declivity.Thus many a good artist is unwittingly impelled to a restoration way of thinking in politics and society, for which, on his own account, he prepares a quiet little corner and garden. Here he collects about himself the human remains of the historical epoch that appeals to him, and plays his 199 lyre to many who are dead, half-dead, and weary to death, perhaps with the above-mentioned result of a brief resurrection. 179. Happiness of the Age. In two respects our age is to be acco unted happy. With respect to the past , we enjoy all cultures and their productions, and nurture ourselves on the noblest blood of all periods. We stand sufficiently near to the magic of the forces from whose womb these periods are born to be able in passing to submit to their spell with pleasure and terror; whereas earlier cultures could only enjoy themselves, and never looked beyond themselves, but were rather overarched by a bell of broader or narrower dome, through which indeed light streamed down to them, but which their gaze could not pierce. With respect to the future , there opens out to us for the first time a mighty, comprehensive vista of human and economic purposes engirdling the whole inhabited globe. At the same time, we feel conscious of a power ourselves to take this new task in hand without presumption, without requiring supernatural aids. Yes, whatever the result of our enterprise, however much we may have overestimated our strength, at any rate we need render account to no one but ourselves, and mankind can henceforth begin to do with itself what it will.There are, it is true, peculiar human bees, who only know how to suck the bitterest and worst elements from the chalice of every flower. It is true that all flowers contain something that is not honey, but these bees may be allowed to feel in their own way about the happiness of our time, and continue to build up their hive of discomfort. 180. A Vision. Hours of instruction and meditation for adults, even the most mature, and such institutions visited without compulsion but in accordance with the moral injunction of the whole community; the churches as the meeting-places most worthy and rich in memories for the purpose; at the same time daily festivals in honour of the reason that is attained and attainable by man; a newer and fuller budding and blooming of the ideal of the teacher, in which the clergyman, the artist and the physician, the man of science and the sage are blended, and their individual virtues should come to the fore as a collecti ve virtue in their teaching itself, in their discourses, in their methodthis is my ever -recurring vision, of which I firmly believe that it has raised a corner of the veil of the future. 181. Education a Distortion.The extraordinary haphazardness of the whole system of education, which leads every adult to say nowadays that his sole educator was chance, and the weathercock -nature of educational methods and aims, may be explained as follows. The oldest and the newest culture-powers, as in a turbulent mass-meeting, would rather be heard than understood, and wish to prove at all costs by their outcries and clamourings that they still exist or already exist. The poor teachers and educators are first dazed by this senseless noise, then become silent and finally apathetic, allowing anything to be done to them just as they in their turn allow anything to be done to their pupils. They are not trained themselves, so how are they to train others? They are themselves no straight-growing, vigorous, succulent trees, and he who wishes to attach himself to them must wind and bend himself and finally become distorted and deformed as they. 182. Philosophers and Artists of the Age.Rhapsody and frigidity, burning desires and waning of the heart s glowthis wretched medley is to be found in the picture of the highest European society of the present day. There the artist thinks that he is achieving a great deal when through his art he lights the torch of the heart as well as the torch of desire. The philosopher 200 has the same noti on, when in the chilliness of his heart, which he has in common with his age, he cools hot desires in himself and his following by his world-denying judgments. 183. Not To Be a Soldier of Culture Without Necessity.At last people are learning what it costs us so dear not to know in our youththat we must first do superior actions and secondly seek the superior wherever and under whatever names it is to be found; that we must at once go out of the way of all badness and mediocrity without fighting it ; and that even doubt as to the excellence of a thing (such as quickly arises in one of practised taste) should rank as an argument against it and a reason for completely avoiding it. We must not shrink from the danger of occasionally making a mistake and confounding the less accessible good with the bad and imperfect. Only he who can do nothing better should attack the world s evils as the soldier of culture. But those who should support culture and spread its teachings ruin themselves if they g o about armed, and by precautions, night-watches, and bad dreams turn the peace of their domestic and artistic life into sinister unrest. 184. How Natural History Should Be Expounded.Natural history, like the history of the war and victory of moral and intellectual forces in the campaign against anxiety, self -delusion, laziness, superstition, folly, should be so expounded that every reader or listener may be continually aroused to strive after mental and physical health and soundness, after the feeling of joy, and be awakened to the desire to be the heir and continuator of mankind, to an ever nobler adventurous impulse. Hitherto natural history has not found its true language, because the inventive and eloquent artistswho are needed for this purposenever rid themselves of a secret mistrust of it, and above all never wish to learn from it a thorough lesson. Nevertheless it must be conceded to the English that their scientific manuals for the lower strata of the people have made admirable strides towards that ideal. But then such books are written by their foremost men of learning, full, complete, and inspiring natures, and not, as among us, by mediocre investigators. 185. Genius in Humanity.If genius, according to Schopenhauers observation, lies in the coherent and vivid recollection of our own experience, a striving towards genius in humanity collectively might be deduced from the striving towards knowledge of the whole historic pastwhich is beginning to mark off the modern age more and more as compared w ith earlier ages and has for the first time broken down the barriers between nature and spirit, men and animals, morality and physics. A perfectly conceived history would be cosmic self-consciousness. 186. The Cult of Culture.On great minds is bestowed the terrifying all-too-human of their natures, their blindnesses, deformities, and extravagances, so that their more powerful, easily all-too-powerful influence may be continually held within bounds through the distrust aroused by such qualities. For the sum-total of all that humanity needs for its continued existence is so comprehensive, and demands powers so diverse and so numerous, that for every one-sided predilection, whether in science or politics or art or commerce, to which such natures would persuade us, mankind as a whole has to pay a heavy price. It has always been a great disaster to culture when human beings are worshipped. In this sense we may understand the precept of Mosaic law which forbids us to have any other gods but God.Side by side with the cult of genius and violence we must always place, as its complement and remedy, the cult of culture. This cult can find an intelligent appreciation even for the material, the 201 inferior, the mean, the misunderstood, the weak, the imperfect, the one- sided , the incomplete, the untrue, the apparent, even the wicked and horrible, and can grant them the concession that all this is necessary . For the continued harmony of all things human, attained by amazing toil and strokes of luck, and just as much the work of Cyclopes and ants as of geniuses, shall never be lost. How, indeed, could we dispense with that deep, universal, and often uncanny bass, without which, after all, melody cannot be melody? 187. The Antique World and Pleasure.The man of the antique world understood better how to rejoice, we understand better how to grieve less. They continually found new motives for feeling happy, for celebrating festivals, being inventive with all their wealth of shrewdness and reflection. We, on the other hand, concentrate our intellect rather on the solving of problems which have in view painlessness and the removal of sources of discomfort. With regard to suffering existence, the ancients sought to forget or in some way to convert the sensation into a pleasant one, thus trying to supply palliatives. We attack the causes of suffering, and on the whole prefer to use prophylactics.Perhaps we are only building upon a foundation whereon a later age will once more set up the temple of joy. 188. The Muses as Liars. We know how to tell many lies, so sang the Muses once, when they revealed themselves to Hesiod. The conception of the artist as deceiver, once grasped, leads to important discoveries. 189. How Paradoxical Homer can be. Is there anything more desperate, more horribl e, more incredible, shining over human destiny like a winter sun, than that idea of Homer s: So the decree of the Gods willed it, and doomed man to perish, that it might be a matter for song even to distant generations? In other words, we suffer and peri sh so that poets may not lack material, and this is the dispensation of those very Gods of Homer who seem much concerned about the joyousness of generations to come, but very little about us men of the present. To think that such ideas should ever have ent ered the head of a Greek! 190. Supplementary Justification of Existence.Many ideas have come into the world as errors and fancies but have turned out truths, because men have afterwards given them a genuine basis to rest upon. 191. Pro and Con Necessary.He who has not realised that every great man must not only be encouraged but also, for the sake of the common welfare, opposed, is certainly still a great child or himself a great man. 192. Injustice of Genius.Genius is most unjust towards geniuses, if they be contemporary. Either it thinks it has no need of them and considers them superfluous (for it can do without them), or their influence crosses the path of its electric current, in which case it even calls them pernicious. 193. 202 The Saddest Destiny of a Prophet.He has worked twenty years to convince his contemporaries, and succeeds at last, but in the meantime his adversaries have also succeeded he is no longer convinced of himself. 194. Three Thinkers like one Spider.In every philosophical school three thinkers follow one another in this relation: the first produces from himself sap and seed, the second draws it out in threads and spins a cunning web, the third waits in this web for the victims who are caught in itand tries to live upon this philosophy. 195. From Association with Authors.It is as bad a habit to go about with an author grasping him by the nose as grasping him by the horn (and every author has his horn). 196. A Team of Two. Vagueness of thought and outbursts of sentimentality are as oft en wedded to the reckless desire to have ones own way by hook or by crook, to make oneself alone of any consequence, as a genuinely helpful, gracious, and kindly spirit is wedded to the impulse towards clearness and purity of thought and towards emotional moderation and self- restraint. 197. Binding and Separating Forces.Surely it is in the heads of men that there arises the force that binds theman understanding of their common interest or the reverse; and in their hearts the force that separates them a blind choosing and groping in love and hate, a devotion to one at the expense of all, and a consequent contempt for the common utility. 198. Marksmen and Thinkers.There are curious marksmen who miss their mark, but leave the shooting- gallery with s ecret pride in the fact that their bullet at any rate flew very far (beyond the mark, it is true), or that it did not hit the mark but hit something else. There are thinkers of the same stamp. 199. Attack from Two Sides.We act as enemies towards an intell ectual tendency or movement when we are superior to it and disapprove of its aim, or when its aim is too high and unrecognisable to our eyein other words, when it is superior to us. So the same party may be attacked from two sides, from above and from below. Not infrequently the assailants, from common hatred, form an alliance which is more repulsive than all that they hate. 200. Original. Original minds are distinguished not by being the first to see a new thing, but by seeing the old, well-known thing, which is seen and overlooked by every one, as something new. The first discoverer is usually that quite ordinary and unintellectual visionarychance. 201. Error of Philosophers.The philosopher believes that the value of his philosophy lies in the whole, in the structure. Posterity finds it in the stone with which he built and with which, from that time forth, men will build oftener and better in other words, in the fact that the structure may be destroyed and yet have value as material. 202. 203 Wit.Wit is the epitaph of an emotion. 203. The Moment before Solution.In science it occurs every day and every hour that a man, immediately before the solution, remains stuck, being convinced that his efforts have been entirely in vain like one who, in untying a noose, hesitates at the moment when it is nearest to coming loose, because at that very moment it looks most like a knot. 204. Among the Visionaries.The thoughtful man, and he who is sure of his intelligence, may profitably consort with visionaries for a decade and abandon himself in their torrid zone to a moderate insanity. He will thus have travelled a good part of the road towards that cosmopolitanism of the intellect which can say without presumption, Nothing intellectual is alien to me. 205. Keen Ai r.The best and healthiest element in science as amid the mountains is the keen air that plays about it.Intellectual molly -coddles (such as artists) dread and abuse science on account of this atmosphere. 206. Why Savants are Nobler than Artists.Science r equires nobler natures than does poetry; natures that are more simple, less ambitious, more restrained, calmer, that think less of posthumous fame and can bury themselves in studies which, in the eye of the many, scarcely seem worthy of such a sacrifice of personality. There is another loss of which they are conscious. The nature of their occupation, its continual exaction of the greatest sobriety, weakens their will; the fire is not kept up so vigorously as on the hearths of poetic minds. As such, they often lose their strength and prime earlier than artists doand, as has been said, they are aware of their danger. Under all circumstances they seem less gifted because they shine less, and thus they will always be rated below their value. 207. How Far Piety Obscures. In later centuries the great man is credited with all the great qualities and virtues of his century. Thus all that is best is continually obscured by piety, which treats the picture as a sacred one, to be surrounded with all manner of votive offerings. In the end the picture is completely veiled and covered by the offerings, and thenceforth is more an object of faith than of contemplation. 208. Standing on One s Head. If we make truth stand on its head, we generally fail to notice that our own head, too, is not in its right position. 209. Origin and Utility of Fashion.The obvious satisfaction of the individual with his own form excites imitation and gradually creates the form of the many that is, fashion. The many desire, and indeed attain, that same comforting satisfaction with their own form. Consider how many reasons every man has for anxiety and shy self-concealment, and how, on this account, three-fourths of his energy and goodwill is crippled and may become unproductive! So we must be very grateful to fashion for unfettering that three-fourths and communicating self-confidence and the power of cheerful compromise to those who feel themselves bound to 204 each other by its law. Even foolish laws give freedom and calm of the spirit, so long as many persons have submitted to their sway. 210. Looseners of Tongues.The value of many men and books rests solely on their faculty for compelling all to speak out the most hidden and intimate things. They are looseners of tongues and crowbars to open the most stubborn teeth. Many events and misdeeds which are apparently only sent as a curse to mankind possess this value and utility. 211. Intellectual Freedom of Domicile. 31F32Who of us could dare to call himself a free spirit if he could not render homage after his fashion, by taking on his own shoulders a portion of that burden of public dislike and abuse, to men to whom this name is attached as a reproach? We might as well call ourselves in all seriousness spirits free of domicile (Freizgig) (and witho ut that arrogant or high- spirited defiance) because we feel the impulse to freedom ( Zug zur Freiheit ) as the strongest instinct of our minds and, in contrast to fixed and limited minds, practically see our ideal in an intellectual nomadismto use a modest and almost depreciatory expression. 212. Yes, the Favour of the Muses!What Homer says on this point goes right to our heart, so true, so terrible is it: The Muse loved him with all her heart and gave him good and evil, for she took away his eyes and vouchsafed him sweet song. This is an endless text for thinking men: she gives good and evil, that is her manner of loving with all her heart and soul! And each man will interpret specially for himself why we poets and thinkers have to give up our eyes in he r service. 32F33 213. Against the Cultivation of Music. The artistic training of the eye from childhood upwards by means of drawing, painting, landscape-sketching, figures, scenes, involves an estimable gain in life, making the eyesight keen, calm, and enduring in the observation of men and circumstances. No similar secondary advantage arises from the artistic cultivation of the ear, whence public schools will generally do well to give the art of the eye a preference over that of the ear. 214. The Discoverers of Trivialities. Subtle minds, from which nothing is farther than trivialities, often discover a triviality after taking all manner of circuitous routes and mountain paths, and, to the astonishment of the non-subtle, rejoice exceedingly. 215. Morals of Savants. A regular and rapid advance in the sciences is only possible when the individual is compelled to be not so distrustful as to test every calculation and assertion of others, in fields which are remote from his own. A necessary condition, however, is t hat 32 The original word, Freizgig , means, in the modern German Empire, possessing the free right of migration, without pecuniary burdens or other restrictions, from one German state to another. The play on words in Zug zur Freiheit ( impulse to freedom ) is untranslateable. Tr. 33 Nietzsche seems to allude to his own case, for he ultimately contracted a myopia which bordered on blindness. Tr. 205 every man should have competitors in his own sphere, who are extremely distrustful and keep a sharp eye upon him. From this juxtaposition of not too distrustful and extremely distrustful arises sincerity in the republic of learning. 216. Reasons fo r Sterility. There are highly gifted minds which are always sterile only because, from temperamental weakness, they are too impatient to wait for their pregnancy. 217. The Perverted World of Tears. The manifold discomforts which the demands of higher cultu re cause to man finally pervert his nature to such an extent that he usually keeps himself stoical and unbending. Thus he has tears in reserve only for rare occasions of happiness, so that many must weep even at the enjoyment of painlessnessonly when happy does his heart still beat. 218. The Greeks as Interpreters. When we speak of the Greeks we unwittingly speak of to-day and yesterday; their universally known history is a blank mirror, always reflecting something that is not in the mirror itself. We enjo y the freedom of speaking about them in order to have the right of being silent about othersso that these Greeks themselves may whisper something in the ear of the reflective reader. Thus the Greeks facilitate to modern men the communication of much that is debatable and hard to communicate. 219. Of the Acquired Character of the Greeks. We are easily led astray by the renowned Greek clearness, transparency, simplicity, and order, by their crystal- like naturalness and crystal -like art, into believing that all these gifts were bestowed on the Greeksfor instance, that they could not but write well, as Lichtenberg expressed it on one occasion. Yet no statement could be more hasty and more untenable. The history of prose from Gorgias to Demosthenes shows a course of toiling and wrestling towards light from the obscure, overloaded, and tasteless, reminding one of the labour of heroes who had to construct the first roads through forest and bog. The dialogue of tragedy was the real achievement of the dramatist, owing to its uncommon clearness and precision, whereas the national tendency was to riot in symbolism and innuendo, a tendency expressly fostered by the great choral lyric. Similarly it was the achievement of Homer to liberate the Greeks from Asiatic pomp and gloom, and to have attained the clearness of architecture in details great and small. Nor was it by any means thought easy to say anything in a pure and illuminating style. How else should we account for the great admiration for the epigram of Simonides, which shows itself so simple, with no gilded points or arabesques of wit, but says all that it has to say plainly and with the calm of the sun, not with the straining after effect of the lightning. Since the struggle towards light from an a lmost native twilight is Greek, a thrill of jubilation runs through the people when they hear a laconic sentence, the language of elegy or the maxims of the Seven Wise Men. Hence they were so fond of giving precepts in verse, a practice that we find objectionable. This was the true Apolline task of the Hellenic spirit, with the aim of rising superior to the perils of metre and the obscurity which is otherwise characteristic of poetry. Simplicity, flexibility, and sobriety were wrestled for and not given by nature to this people. The danger of a relapse into Asianism constantly hovered over the Greeks, and really overtook them from time to time like a murky, overflowing tide of mystical impulses, primitive savagery and darkness. We see them plunge in; we see Europe, as it were, flooded, washed away for Europe was very small then; but they always emerge once more to the light, good swimmers and divers that they are, those fellow-countrymen of Odysseus. 206 220. The Pagan Characteristic. Perhaps there is nothing more astonishing to the observer of the Greek world than to discover that the Greeks from time to time held festivals, as it were, for all their passions and evil tendencies alike, and in fact even established a kind of series of festivals, by order of the St ate, for their all-too-human. This is the pagan characteristic of their world, which Christianity has never understood and never can understand, and has always combated and despised.They accepted this all -too-human as unavoidable, and preferred, instead of railing at it, to give it a kind of secondary right by grafting it on to the usages of society and religion. All in man that has power they called divine, and wrote it on the walls of their heaven. They do not deny this natural instinct that expresses itself in evil characteristics, but regulate and limit it to definite cults and days, so as to turn those turbulent streams into as harmless a course as possible, after devising sufficient precautionary measures. That is the root of all the moral broad -mindedness of antiquity. To the wicked, the dubious, the backward, the animal element, as to the barbaric, pre- Hellenic and Asiatic, which still lived in the depths of Greek nature, they allowed a moderate outflow, and did not strive to destroy it utterly. Th e whole system was under the domain of the State, which was built up not on individuals or castes, but on common human qualities. In the structure of the State the Greeks show that wonderful sense for typical facts which later on enabled them to become inv estigators of Nature, historians, geographers, and philosophers. It was not a limited moral law of priests or castes, which had to decide about the constitution of the State and State worship, but the most comprehensive view of the reality of all that is human. Whence do the Greeks derive this freedom, this sense of reality? Perhaps from Homer and the poets who preceded him. For just those poets whose nature is generally not the most wise or just possess, in compensation, that delight in reality and activity of every kind, and prefer not to deny even evil. It suffices for them if evil moderates itself, does not kill or inwardly poison everythingin other words, they have similar ideas to those of the founders of Greek constitutions, and were their teachers and forerunners. 221. Exceptional Greeks. In Greece, deep, thorough, serious minds were the exception. The national instinct tended rather to regard the serious and thorough as a kind of grimace. To borrow forms from a foreign source, not to create but to t ransform into the fairest shapes that is Greek. To imitate, not for utility but for artistic illusion, ever and anon to gain the mastery over forced seriousness, to arrange, beautify, simplifythat is the continual task from Homer to the Sophists of the third and fourth centuries of our era, who are all outward show, pompous speech, declamatory gestures, and address themselves to shallow souls that care only for appearance, sound, and effect. And now let us estimate the greatness of those exceptional Greeks, who created science! Whoever tells of them, tells the most heroic story of the human mind! 222. Simplicity not the First nor the Last Thing in Point of Time. In the history of religious ideas many errors about development and false gradations are made in matters which in reality are not consecutive outgrowths but contemporary yet separate phenomena. In particular, simplicity has still far too much the reputation of being the oldest, the initial thing. Much that is human arises by subtraction and division, and not merely by doubling, addition, and unification.For instance, men still believe in a gradual development of the idea of God from those unwieldy stones and blocks of wood up to the highest forms of anthropomorphism. Yet the fact is that so long as divinity was attributed to and felt in trees, logs of wood, stones, and beasts, people shrank from humanising their forms as from an act 207 of godlessness. First of all, poets, apart from all considerations of cult and the ban of religious shame, have had to make the inner imagination of man accustomed and compliant to this notion. Wherever more pious periods and phases of thought gained the upper hand, this liberating influence of poets fell into the background, and sanctity remained, after as before, on the side of the monstrous, uncanny, quite peculiarly inhuman. And then, much of what the inner imagination ventures to picture to itself would exert a painful influence if externally and corporeally represented. The inner eye is far bolder and more shameless th an the outer (whence the well -known difficulty and, to some extent, impossibility, of working epic material into dramatic form). The religious imagination for a long time entirely refuses to believe in the identity of God with an image: the image is meant to fix the numen of the Deity, actually and specifically, although in a mysterious and not altogether intelligible way. The oldest image of the Gods is meant to shelter and at the same time to hide 33F34 the Godto indicate him but not to expose him to view. No Greek really looked upon his Apollo as a pointed pillar of wood, his Eros as a lump of stone. These were symbols, which were intended to inspire dread of the manifestation of the God. It was the same with those blocks of wood out of which individual limbs, generally in excessive number, were fashioned with the scantiest of carving as, for instance, a Laconian Apollo with four hands and four ears. In the incomplete, symbolical, or excessive lies a terrible sanctity, which is meant to prevent us from thinking of anything human or similar to humanity. It is not an embryonic stage of art in which such things are madeas if they were not able to speak more plainly and portray more sensibly in the age when such images were honoured! Rather, men are afraid of just one thingdirect speaking out. Just as the cella hides and conceals in a mysterious twilight, yet not completely, the holy of holies, the real numen of the Deity; just as, again, the peripteric temple hides the cella, protecting it from indiscreet eyes a s with a screen and a veil, yet not completely so it is with the image of the Deity, and at the same time the concealment of the Deity. Only when outside the cult, in the profane world of athletic contest, the joy in the victor had risen so high that the ripples thus started reacted upon the lake of religious emotion, was the statue of the victor set up before the temple. Then the pious pilgrim had to accustom his eye and his soul, whether he would or no, to the inevitable sight of human beauty and super- strength, so that the worship of men and Gods melted into each other from physical and spiritual contact. Then too for the first time the fear of really humanising the figures of the Gods is lost, and the mighty arena for great plastic art is openedeven now with the limitation that wherever there is to be adoration the primitive form and ugliness are carefully preserved and copied. But the Hellene, as he dedicates and makes offerings, may now with religious sanction indulge in his delight in making God becom e a man. 223. Whither We must Travel. Immediate self -observation is not enough, by a long way, to enable us to learn to know ourselves. We need history, for the past continues to flow through us in a hundred channels. We ourselves are, after all, nothing but our own sensation at every moment of this continued flow. Even here, when we wish to step down into the stream of our apparently most peculiar and personal development, Heraclitus aphorism, You cannot step twice into the same river, holds good.This is a piece of wisdom which has, indeed, gradually become trite, but nevertheless has remained as strong and true as it ever was. It is the same with the saying that, in order to understand history, we must scrutinise the living remains of historical periods; that we mus t travel, as old Herodotus travelled, to other nations, especially to those so -called savage or half -savage races in regions where man has doffed or not yet donned European garb. For they are ancient and firmly established steps of culture on 34 The play on bergen (shelter) and verbergen (hide) is untranslateable. Tr. 208 which we can stand. There is, however, a more subtle art and aim in travelling, which does not always necessitate our passing from place to place and going thousands of miles away. Very probably the last three centuries, in all their colourings and refractions of culture, survive even in our vicinity, only they have to be discovered. In some families, or even in individuals, the strata are still superimposed on each other, beautifully and perceptibly; in other places there are dispersions and displacements of the structure which are harder to understand. Certainly in remote districts, in less known mountain valleys, circumscribed communities have been able more easily to maintain an admirable pattern of a far older sentiment, a pattern that must here be investigated. On the other hand, it is improbable that such discoveries will be made in Berlin, where man comes into the world washed-out and sapless. He who after long practice of this art of travel has become a hundred -eyed Argus will accompany his IoI mean his egoever ywhere, and in Egypt and Greece, Byzantium and Rome, France and Germany, in the age of wandering or settled races, in Renaissance or Reformation, at home and abroad, in sea, forest, plant, and mountain, will again light upon the travel -adventure of this ever -growing, ever- altered ego. Thus self-knowledge becomes universal knowledge as regards the entire past, and, by another chain of observation, which can only be indicated here, self-direction and self-training in the freest and most far- seeing spirits mig ht become universal direction as regards all future humanity. 224. Balm and Poison.We cannot ponder too deeply on this fact: Christianity is the religion of antiquity grown old; it presupposes degenerate old culture-stocks, and on them it had, and still h as, power to work like balm. There are periods when ears and eyes are full of slime, so that they can no longer hear the voice of reason and philosophy or see the wisdom that walks in bodily shape, whether it bears the name of Epictetus or of Epicurus. Then, perhaps, the erection of the martyr s cross and the trumpet of the last judgment may have the effect of still inspiring such races to end their lives decently. If we think of Juvenals Rome, of that poisonous toad with the eyes of Venus, we understand what it means to make the sign of the Cross before the world, we honour the silent Christian community and are grateful for its having stifled the Greco-Roman Empire. If, indeed, most men were then born in spiritual slavery, with the sensuality of old men, what a pleasure to meet beings who were more soul than body, and who seemed to realise the Greek idea of the shades of the under- world shy, scurrying, chirping, kindly creatures, with a reversion on the better life, and therefore so unassuming, so secretly scornful, so proudly patient!This Christianity, as the evening chime of the good antiquity, with cracked, weary and yet melodious bell, is balm in the ears even to one who only now traverses those centuries historically. What must it have been to those men themselves! To young and fresh barbarian nations, on the other hand, Christianity is a poison. For to implant the teaching of sinfulness and damnation in the heroic, childlike, and animal soul of the old Germans is nothing but poisoning. An enormous chemical fermentation and decomposition, a medley of sentiments and judgments, a rank growth of adventurous legend, and hence in the long run a fundamental weakening of such barbarian peoples, was the inevitable result. True, without this weakening what should we have left of Greek culture, of the whole cultured past of the human race? For the barbarians untouched by Christianity knew very well how to make a clean sweep of old cultures, as was only too clearly shown by the heathen conquerors of Romanised Britain. Thus Christianity, against its will, was compelled to aid in making the antique world immortal. There remains, however, a counter -question and the possibility of a counter-reckoning. Without this weakening through the poisoning referred to, would any of those fresh stocksthe Germans, for instancehave been in a position gradually to find by themselves a higher, a peculiar, a new culture, of which the most distant conception would therefore have been lost to 209 humanity?In this, as in every case, we do not know, Christianly speaking, whether God owes the devil or the devil God more thanks for everything having turned out as it has. 225. Faith makes Holy and Condemns.A Christian who happened upon forbidden paths of thought might well ask himself on s ome occasion whether it is really necessary that there should be a God, side by side with a representative Lamb, if faith in the existence of these beings suffices to produce the same influences? If they do exist after all, are they not superfluous beings? For all that is given by the Christian religion to the human soul, all that is beneficent, consoling, and edifying, just as much as all that depresses and crushes, emanates from that faith and not from the objects of that faith. It is here as in another w ell-known casethere were indeed no witches, but the terrible effects of the belief in witches were the same as if they really had existed. For all occasions where the Christian awaits the immediate intervention of a God, though in vain (for there is no God), his religion is inventive enough to find subterfuges and reasons for tranquillity. In so far Christianity is an ingenious religion.Faith, indeed, has up to the present not been able to move real mountains, although I do not know who assumed that it could. But it can put mountains where there are none. 226. The Tragi -Comedy of Regensburg.Here and there we see with terrible clearness the harlequinade of Fortune, how she fastens the rope, on which she wills that succeeding centuries should dance, on to a few days, one place, the condition and opinions of one brain. Thus the fate of modern German history lies in the days of that disputation at Regensburg: the peaceful settlement of ecclesiastical and moral affairs, without religious wars or a counter - reformation, and also the unity of the German nation, seemed assured: the deep, gentle spirit of Contarini hovered for one moment over the theological squabble, victorious, as representative of the riper Italian piety, reflecting the morning glory of intellectual freedom. But Luthers hard head, full of suspicions and strange misgivings, showed resistance. Because justification by grace appeared to him his greatest motto and discovery, he did not believe the phrase in the mouth of Italians; whereas, in point of fact, as is well known, they had invented it much earlier and spread it throughout Italy in deep silence. In this apparent agreement Luther saw the tricks of the devil, and hindered the work of peace as well as he could, thereby advancing to a great extent the aims of the Empire s foes. And now, in order to have a still stronger idea of the dreadful farcicality of it all, let us add that none of the principles about which men then disputed in Regensburgneither that of original sin, nor that of redemption by proxy, nor that of justification by faithis in any way true or even has any connection with truth: that they are now all recognised as incapable of being discussed. Yet on this account the world was set on firethat is to say, by opinions which correspond to no things or realities; whereas as regards purely philological questionsas, for instance, that of the sacramental words in the Eucharist discussion at any rate is permitted, because in this case the truth can be said. But where nothing is, even truth has lost her right. 34F35Lastly, it only remains to be said that it is true these principles give rise to sources of power so mighty that without them all the mills of the modern world could not be driven with such force. And it is primarily a matter of f orce, only secondarily of truth (and perhaps not even secondarily)is it not so, my dear up- to-date friends? 227. Goethe s Errors. Goethe is a signal exception among great artists in that he did not live within the limited confines of his real capacity, as if that must be the essential, the distinctive, 35 Allusion to German proverb: Where there is nothing, the Emperor has lost his rights. Tr. 210 the unconditional, and the last thing in him and for all the world. Twice he intended to possess something higher than he really possessedand went astray in the second half of his life, where he seems quite convinced that he is one of the great scientific discoverers and illuminators. So too in the first half of his life he demanded of himself something higher than the poetic art seemed to himand here already he made a mistake. That nature wished to make hi m a plastic artist, this was his inwardly glowing and scorching secret, which finally drove him to Italy, that he might give vent to his mania in this direction and make to it every possible sacrifice. At last, shrewd as he was, and honestly averse to any mental perversion in himself, he discovered that a tricksy elf of desire had attracted him to the belief in this calling, and that he must free himself of the greatest passion of his heart and bid it farewell. The painful conviction, tearing and gnawing at his vitals, that it was necessary to bid farewell, finds full expression in the character of Tasso. Over Tasso, that Werther intensified, hovers the premonition of something worse than death, as when one says: Now it is over, after this farewell: how sha ll I go on living without going mad? These two fundamental errors of his life gave Goethe, in face of a purely literary attitude towards poetry (the only attitude then known to the world), such an unembarrassed and apparently almost arbitrary position. Not to speak of the period when Schiller (poor Schiller, who had no time himself and left no time to others) drove away his shy dread of poetry, his fear of all literary life and craftsmanship, Goethe appears like a Greek who now and then visits his beloved, doubting whether she be not a Goddess to whom he can give no proper name. In all his poetry one notices the inspiring neighbourhood of plastic art and Nature. The features of these figures that floated before him and perhaps he always thought he was on the track of the metamorphoses of one Goddessbecame, without his will or knowledge, the features of all the children of his art. Without the extravagances of error he would not have been Goethethat is, the only German artist in writing who has not yet become out of datejust because he desired as little to be a writer as a German by vocation. 228. Travellers and their Grades. Among travellers we may distinguish five grades. The first and lowest grade is of those who travel and are seen they become really travelled and are, as it were, blind. Next come those who really see the world. The third class experience the results of their seeing. The fourth weave their experience into their life and carry it with them henceforth. Lastly, there are some men of the hig hest strength who, as soon as they have returned home, must finally and necessarily work out in their lives and productions all the things seen that they have experienced and incorporated in themselves.Like these five species of travellers, all mankind goes through the whole pilgrimage of life, the lowest as purely passive, the highest as those who act and live out their lives without keeping back any residue of inner experiences. 229. In Climbing Higher.So soon as we climb higher than those who hitherto admired us, we appear to them as sunken and fallen. For they imagined that under all circumstances they were on the heights in our company (maybe also through our agency). 230. Measure and Moderation.Of two quite lofty things, measure and moderation, it i s best never to speak. A few know their force and significance, from the mysterious paths of inner experiences and conversions: they honour in them something quite godlike, and are afraid to speak aloud. All the rest hardly listen when they are spoken about, and think the subjects under discussion are tedium and mediocrity. We must perhaps except those who have once 211 heard a warning note from that realm but have stopped their ears against the sound. The recollection of it makes them angry and exasperated. 231. Humanity of Friendship and Comradeship.If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, 35F36 that feeling is the hall-mark of humanity in intimate intercourse, and without that feeling every friendship, every band of apostles or disciples, sooner or later becomes a fraud. 232. The Profound.Men of profound thought appear to themselves in intercourse with others like comedians, for in order to be understood they must always simulate superficiality. 233. For the Scorners of Herd -Humanity.He who regards human beings as a herd, and flies from them as fast as he can, will certainly be caught up by them and gored upon their horns. 234. The Main Transgression against the Vain.In society, he who gives another an opportunity of favourably setting forth his knowledge, sentiments, and experience sets himself above him. Unless he is felt by the other to be a superior being without limitation, he is guilty of an attack upon his vanity, while what he aimed at was the gratification of the other man s van ity. 235. Disappointment.When a long life of action distinguished by speeches and writings gives publicity to a man s personality, personal intercourse with him is generally disappointing on two grounds. Firstly, one expects too much from a brief period of intercou rse (namely, all that the thousand and one opportunities of life can alone bring out). Secondly, no recognised person gives himself the trouble to woo recognition in individual cases. He is too careless, and we are at too high a tension. 236. Two Sources of Kindness.To treat all men with equal good -humour, and to be kind without distinction of persons, may arise as much from a profound contempt for mankind as from an ingrained love of humanity. 237. The Wanderer in the Mountains to Himself.There are certain signs that you have gone farther and higher. There is a freer, wider prospect before you, the air blows cooler yet milder in your face (you have unlearned the folly of confounding mildness with warmth), your gait is more firm and vigorous, cour age and discretion have waxed together. On all these grounds your journey may now be more lonely and in any case more perilous than heretofore, if indeed not to the extent believed by those who from the misty valley see you, the roamer, striding on the mountains. 238. With the Exception of Our Neighbour.I admit that my head is set wrong on my neck only, for every other man, as is well known, knows better than I what I should do or leave alone. The only one who cannot help me is myself, poor beggar! Are we not all like statues on 36 Genesis xiii. 9. Tr. 212 which false heads have been placed? Eh, dear neighbour?Ah no; you, just you, are the exception! 239. Caution.We must either not go about at all with people who are lacking in the reverence for personalities, or inexorably fetter them beforehand with the manacles of convention. 240. The Wish to Appear Vain.In conversation with strangers or little-known acquaintances, to express only selected thoughts, to speak of ones famous acquaintances, and important experiences and travels, is a sign that one is not proud, or at least would not like to appear proud. Vanity is the polite mask of pride. 241. Good Friendship.A good friendship arises when the one man deeply respects the other, more even than himself; loves him also, though not so much as himself; and finally, to facilitate intercourse, knows how to add the delicate bloom and veneer of intimacy, but at the same time wisely refrains from a true, real intimacy, from the confounding of meum and tuum . 242. Friends as Ghosts. If we chang e ourselves vitally, our friends, who have not changed, become ghosts of our own past: their voice sounds shadowy and dreadful to us, as if we heard our own voice speaking, but younger, harder, less mellow. 243. One Eye and Two Glances. The same people whose eyes naturally plead for favours and indulgences are accustomed, from their frequent humiliations and cravings for revenge, to assume a shameless glance as well. 244. The Haze of Distance. A child throughout lifethat sounds very touching, but is only t he verdict from the distance. Seen and known close at hand, he is always called puerile throughout life. 245. Advantage and Disadvantage in the Same Misunderstanding.The mute perplexity of the subtle brain is usually understood by the non- subtle as a si lent superiority, and is much dreaded whereas the perception of perplexity would produce good will. 246. The Sage giving Himself out to be a Fool.The philanthropy of the sage sometimes makes him decide to pretend to be excited, enraged, or delighted, so that he may not hurt his surroundings by the coldness and rationality of his true nature. 247. Forcing Oneself to Attention. So soon as we note that any one in intercourse and conversation with us has to force himself to attention, we have adequate evidence that he loves us not, or loves us no longer. 248. 213 The Way to a Christian Virtue. Learning from one s enemies is the best way to love them, for it inspires us with a grateful mood towards them. 249. Stratagem of the Importunate. The importunate man gives us gold coins as change for our convention coins, and thereby tries to force us afterwards to treat our convention as an oversight and him as an exception. 250. Reason for Dislike.We become hostile to many an artist or writer, not because we notice in the end that he has duped us, but because he did not find more subtle means necessary to entrap us. 251. In Parting.Not by the way one soul approaches another, but by the way it separates, do I recognise its relationship and homogeneity with the other. 252. Silentium. We must not speak about our friends, or we renounce the sentiment of friendship. 253. Impoliteness. Impoliteness is often the sign of a clumsy modesty, which when taken by surprise loses its head and would fain hide the fact by means of rudeness. 254. Honesty s Miscalculation. Our newest acquaintances are sometimes the first to learn what we have hitherto kept dark. We have the foolish notion that our proof of confidence is the strongest fetter wherewith to hold them fast. But they do not know enough about us to feel so strongly the sacrifice involved in our speaking out, and betray our secrets to others without any idea of betrayal. Hereby we possibly lose our old friends. 255. In the Ante-Chamber of Favour. All men whom we let stand long in the ante- chamber of our favour get into a state of fermentation or become bitter. 256. Warning to the Despised.When we have sunk unmistakably in the estimation of mankind we should cling tooth and nail to modesty in intercourse, or we shall betray to others that we have sunk in our own estimation as well. Cynicism in intercourse is a sign that a man, when alone, treats himself too as a dog. 257. Ignorance often Ennobles.With regard to the respect of those who pay respect, it is an advantage ostensibly not to understand certain things. Ignorance, too, confers privileges. 258. The Opponent of Grace.The impatient and arrogant man does not care for grace, feeling it to be a corporeal, visible reproach against himself. For grace is heartfelt toleration in movement and gesture. 259. 214 On Seeing Again.When old friends see each other again after a long separation, it often happens that they affect an interest in matters to which they have long since become indifferent. Sometimes both remark this, but dare not raise the veil from a mournful doubt. Hence arise conversations as in the realm of the dead. 260. Making Friends only with the Industrious.The man of leisure is dangerous to his friends, for, having nothing to do, he talks of what his friends are doing or not doing, interferes, and finally makes himself a nuisance. The clever man will only make friends with the industrious. 261. One Weapon twice as Much as Two. It is an unequal combat when one man defends his cause with head and heart, the other with head alone. The first has sun and wind against him, as it were, and his two weapons interfere with each other: he loses the prizein the eyes of truth. True, the victory of the second, with his one weapon, is seldom a victory after the hearts of all the other spectators, and makes him unpopular. 262. Depth and Troubled Waters.The public easily confounds him who fishes in troubled waters with him who pumps up from the depths. 263. Demonstrating Ones Vanity to Friend and Foe.Many a man, from vanity, maltreats even his friends, when in the presence of witnesses to whom he wishes to make his own preponderance clear. Others exaggerate the merits of their enemies, in order to point proudly to the fact that they are worthy of such foes. 264. Cooling Off.The over-heating of the heart is generally allied with illness of the head and judgment. He who is concerned for a time with the health of his head must know what he has to cool, careless of the future of his heart. For if we are capable at all of giving warmth, we are sure to become warm again and then have our summer. 265. Mingled Feelings.Towards science women and self -seeking artists entertain a feeling that is composed of envy and sentimentality. 266. Where Danger is Greatest. We seldom break our leg so long as life continues a toilsome upward climb. The danger comes when we begin to take things easily and choose the convenient paths. 267. Not too Early.We must beware of becoming sharp too early, or we shall also become thin too early. 268. Joy in Refractoriness.The good teacher knows cases where he is proud that his pupil remains true to himself in opposition to himat times when the youth must not understand the man or would be harmed by understanding him. 269. 215 The Experiment of Honesty.Young men, who wish to be more honest than they have been, seek as victim some one acknowledged to be honest, attacking him first with an attempt to reach his height by abusewith the underlying notion that this first experiment at any rate is void of danger. For just such a one has no right to chastise the impudence of the honest man. 270. The Eternal Child.We think, short- sighted that we are, that fairy -tales and games belong to childhood. As if at any age we should care to live without fairy- tales and games! Our word s and sentiments are indeed different, but the essential fact remains the same, as is proved by the child himself looking on games as his work and fairy-tales as his truth. The shortness of life ought to preserve us from a pedantic distinction between the different ages as if every age brought something newand a poet ought one day to portray a man of two hundred, who really lives without fairy -tales and games. 271. Every Philosophy is the Philosophy of a Period of Life.The period of life in which a philosopher finds his teaching is manifested by his teaching; he cannot avoid that, however elevated above time and hour he may feel himself. Thus, Schopenhauers philosophy remains a mirror of his hot and melancholy youthit is no mode of thought for older men. Plato s philosophy reminds one of the middle thirties, when a warm and a cold current generally rush together, so that spray and delicate clouds and, under favourable circumstances and glimpses of sunshine, enchanting rainbow- pictures result. 272. Of the Intellect of Women. The intellectual strength of a woman is best proved by the fact that she offers her own intellect as a sacrifice out of love for a man and his intellect, and that nevertheless in the new domain, which was previously foreign to her nature, a second intellect at once arises as an aftergrowth, to which the man s mind impels her. 273. Raising and Lowering in the Sexual Domain.The storm of desire will sometimes carry a man up to a height where all desire is silenced, where he really loves an d lives in a better state of being rather than in a better state of choice. On the other hand, a good woman, from true love, often climbs down to desire, and lowers herself in her own eyes. The latter action in particular is one of the most pathetic sensat ions which the idea of a good marriage can involve. 274. Man Promises, Woman Fulfils.By woman Nature shows how far she has hitherto achieved her task of fashioning humanity, by man she shows what she has had to overcome and what she still proposes to do for humanity.The most perfect woman of every age is the holiday-task of the Creator on every seventh day of culture, the recreation of the artist from his work. 275. Transplanting.If we have spent our intellect in order to gain mastery over the intemperance of the passions, the sad result often follows that we transfer the intemperance to the intellect, and from that time forth are extravagant in thought and desire of knowledge. 276. Laughter as Treachery. How and when a woman laughs is a sign of her culture, but in the ring of laughter her nature reveals itself, and in highly cultured women perhaps even the last 216 insoluble residue of their nature. Hence the psychologist will say with Horace, though from different reasons: Ridete puellae. 277. From the Youthful Soul.Youths varyingly show devotion and impudence towards the same person, because at bottom they only despise or admire themselves in that other person, and between the two feelings but stagger to and fro in themselves, so long as they have not found in experience the measure of their will and ability. 278. For the Amelioration of the World.If we forbade the discontented, the sullen, and the atrabilious to propagate, we might transform the world into a garden of happiness.This aphorism belongs to a practical philosophy for the female sex. 279. Not to Distrust your Emotions.The feminine phrase Do not distrust your emotions does not mean much more than Eat what tastes good to you. This may also, especially for moderate natures, be a g ood everyday rule. But other natures must live according to another maxim: You must eat not only with your mouth but also with your brain, in order that the greediness of your mouth may not prove your undoing. 280. A Cruel Fancy of Love. Every great love involves the cruel thought of killing the object of love, so that it may be removed once for all from the mischievous play of change. For love is more afraid of change than of destruction. 281. Doors.In everything that is learnt or experienced, the child, just like the man, sees doors; but for the former they are places to go to , for the latter to go through. 282. Sympathetic Women. The sympathy of women, which is talkative, takes the sick-bed to market. 283. Early Merit. He who acquires merit early i n life tends to forget all reverence for age and old people, and accordingly, greatly to his disadvantage, excludes himself from the society of the mature, those who confer maturity. Thus in spite of his early merit he remains green, importunate, and boyish longer than others. 284. Souls All of a Piece. Women and artists think that where we do not contradict them we cannot. Reverence on ten counts and silent disapproval on ten others appears to them an impossible combination, because their souls are all of a piece. 285. Young Talents.With respect to young talents we must strictly follow Goethe s maxim, that we should often avoid harming error in order to avoid harming truth. Their condition is like the diseases of pregnancy, and involves strange appetites. These appetites should be satisfied and humoured as far as possible, for the sake of the fruit they may be expected to produce. It 217 is true that, as nurse of these remarkable invalids, one must learn the difficult art of voluntary self-abasement. 286. Disgu st with Truth. Women are so constituted that all truth (in relation to men, love, children, society, aim of life) disgusts themand that they try to be revenged on every one who opens their eyes. 287. The Source of Great Love. Whence arises the sudden pass ion of a man for a woman, a passion so deep, so vital? Least of all from sensuality only: but when a man finds weakness, need of help, and high spirits united in the same creature, he suffers a sort of overflowing of soul, and is touched and offended at the same moment. At this point arises the source of great love. 288. Cleanliness. In the child, the sense for cleanliness should be fanned into a passion, and then later on he will raise himself, in ever new phases, to almost every virtue, and will finally appear, in compensation for all talent, as a shining cloud of purity, temperance, gentleness, and character, happy in himself and spreading happiness around. 289. Of Vain Old Men. Profundity of thought belongs to youth, clarity of thought to old age. When, in spite of this, old men sometimes speak and write in the manner of the profound, they do so from vanity, imagining that they thereby assume the charm of juvenility, enthusiasm, growth, apprehensiveness, hopefulness. 290. Enjoyment of Novelty.Men use a n ew lesson or experience later on as a ploughshare or perhaps also as a weapon, women at once make it into an ornament. 291. How both Sexes behave when in the Right.If it is conceded to a woman that she is right, she cannot deny herself the triumph of setting her heel on the neck of the vanquished; she must taste her victory to the full. On the other hand, man towards man in such a case is ashamed of being right. But then man is accustomed to victory; with woman it is an exception. 292. Abnegation in the Wi ll to Beauty. In order to become beautiful, a woman must not desire to be considered pretty. That is to say, in ninety-nine out of a hundred cases where she could please she must scorn and put aside all thoughts of pleasing. Only then can she ever reap the delight of him whose souls portal is wide enough to admit the great. 293. Unintelligible, Unendurable.A youth cannot understand that an old man has also had his delights, his dawns of feeling, his changings and soarings of thought. It offends him to think that such things have existed before. But it makes him very bitter to hear that, to become fruitful, he must lose those buds and dispense with their fragrance. 294. 218 The Party with the Air of Martyrdom.Every party that can assume an air of martyrdom wins good-natured souls over to its side and thereby itself acquires an air of good naturegreatly to its advantage. 295. Assertions surer than Arguments.An assertion has, with the majority of men at any rate, more effect than an argument, for arguments provoke mistrust. Hence demagogues seek to strengthen the arguments of their party by assertions. 296. The Best Concealers. All regularly successful men are profoundly cunning in making their faults and weaknesses look like manifestations of strength. This proves that they must know their defects uncommonly well. 297. From Time to Time. He sat in the city gateway and said to one who passed through that this was the city gate. The latter replied that this was true, but that one must not be too much in the right if one expected to be thanked for it. Oh, answered the other, I dont want thanks, but from time to time it is very pleasant not merely to be in the right but to remain in the right. 298. Virtue was not Invented by the Germans.Goethe s nobleness and freedom from envy, Beethoven s fine hermitical resignation, Mozart s cheerfulness and grace of heart, Handel s unbending manliness and freedom under the law, Bachs confident and luminous inner life, such as does not even need to renounce glamour and successare these qualities peculiarly German?If they are not, they at least prove to what goal Germans should strive and to what they can attain. 299. Pia Fraus or Something Else.I hope I am mistaken, but I think that in Germany of to- day a twofold sort of hypocrisy is set up as the duty of the moment for every one. From imperial- political misgivings Germanism is demanded, and from social apprehensions Christianitybut both only in words and gestures, and particularly in ability to keep silent. It is the veneer that nowadays costs so much and is paid for so highly; and for the benefit of the spectators the face of the nation assumes German and Christian wrinkles. 300. How far even in the Good the Half may be More than the Whole.In all things that are constructed to last and demand the service of many hands, much that is less good must be made a rule, although the organiser knows what is better and harder very well. He will calculate that there will never be a lack of persons who can correspond to the rule, and he knows that the middling good is the rule.The youth seldom sees this point, and as an innovator thinks how marvellously he is in the right and how strange is the blindness of others. 301. The Partisan. The true partisan learns nothing more, he only experiences and judges. It is significant that Solon, who was never a partisan but pursued his aims above and apart from parties or even against them, was the father of that simple phrase wherein lies the secret of the health and vitality of Athens: I grow old, but I am always learning. 219 302. What is German according to Goethe.They are really intolerable people of whom one cannot even accept the good, who have freedom of disposition but do not remark that they are lacking in freedom of taste and spirit. Yet just this, according to Goethe s well -weighed judgment, is German.His voice and his example indicate that the German should be more than a German if he wishes to be useful or even endurable to other nationsand which direction his strivin g should take, in order that he may rise above and beyond himself. 303. When it is Necessary to Remain Stationary. When the masses begin to rage, and reason is under a cloud, it is a good thing, if the health of ones soul is not quite assured, to go under a doorway and look out to see what the weather is like. 304. The Revolution-Spirit and the Possession- Spirit. The only remedy against Socialism that still lies in your power is to avoid provoking Socialismin other words, to live in moderation and contentment, to prevent as far as possible all lavish display, and to aid the State as far as possible in its taxing of all superfluities and luxuries. You do not like this remedy? Then, you rich bourgeois who call yourselves Liberals, confess that it is your own inclination that you find so terrible and menacing in Socialists, but allow to prevail in yourselves as unavoidable, as if with you it were something different. As you are constituted, if you had not your fortune and the cares of maintaining it, this bent of yours would make Socialists of you. Possession alone differentiates you from them. If you wish to conquer the assailants of your prosperity, you must first conquer yourselves.And if that prosperity only meant well-being, it would not be so external and provocative of envy; it would be more generous, more benevolent, more compensatory, more helpful. But the spurious, histrionic element in your pleasures, which lie more in the feeling of contrast (because others have them not, and feel envious) than in feelings of realised and heightened poweryour houses, dresses, carriages, shops, the demands of your palates and your tables, your noisy operatic and musical enthusiasm; lastly your women, formed and fashioned but of base metal, gilded but without the ri ng of gold, chosen by you for show and considering themselves meant for showthese are the things that spread the poison of that national disease, which seizes the masses ever more and more as a Socialistic heart -itch, but has its origin and breeding- place in you. Who shall now arrest this epidemic? 305. Party Tactics. When a party observes that a previous member has changed from an unqualified to a qualified adherent, it endures it so ill that it irritates and mortifies him in every possible way with the object of forcing him to a decisive break and making him an opponent. For the party suspects that the intention of finding a relative value in its faith, a value which admits of pro and con, of weighing and discarding, is more dangerous than downright oppos ition. 306. For the Strengthening of Parties.Whoever wishes to strengthen a party internally should give it an opportunity of being forcibly treated with obvious injustice. The party thus acquires a capital of good conscience, which hitherto it perhaps la cked. 307. 220 To Provide for One s Past. As men after all only respect the old -established and slowly developed, he who would survive after his death must not only provide for posterity but still more for the past. Hence tyrants of every sort (including tyrannical artists and politicians) like to do violence to history, so that history may seem a preparation and a ladder up to them. 308. Party Writers. The beating of drums, which delights young writers who serve a party, sounds to him who does not belong to the party like a rattling of chains, and excites sympathy rather than admiration. 309. Taking Sides against Ourselves.Our followers never forgive us for taking sides against ourselves, for we seem in their eyes not only to be spurning their love but to be exposing them to the charge of lack of intelligence. 310. Danger in Wealth. Only a man of intellect should hold property: otherwise property is dangerous to the community. For the owner, not knowing how to make use of the leisure which his possessions might secure to him, will continue to strive after more property. This strife will be his occupation, his strategy in the war with ennui. So in the end real wealth is produced from the moderate property that would be enough for an intellectual man. Such wealth , then, is the glittering outcrop of intellectual dependence and poverty, but it looks quite different from what its humble origin might lead one to expect, because it can mask itself with culture and artit can, in fact, purchase the mask. Hence it excites envy in the poor and unculturedwho at bottom always envy culture and see no mask in the maskand gradually paves the way for a social revolution. For a gilded coarseness and a histrionic blowing of trumpets in the pretended enjoyment of culture inspires that class with the thought, It is only a matter of money, whereas it is indeed to some extent a matter of money, but far more of intellect. 311. Joy in Commanding and Obeying.Commanding is a joy, like obeying; the former when it has not yet become a h abit, the latter just when it has become a habit. Old servants under new masters advance each other mutually in giving pleasure. 312. Ambition for a Forlorn Hope.There is an ambition for a forlorn hope which forces a party to place itself at the post of e xtreme danger. 313. When Asses are Needed. We shall not move the crowd to cry Hosanna! until we have ridden into the city upon an ass. 314. Party Usage. Every party attempts to represent the important elements that have sprung up outside it as unimportant, and if it does not succeed, it attacks those elements the more bitterly, the more excellent they are. 315. 221 Becoming Empty.Of him who abandons himself to the course of events, a smaller and smaller residue is continually left. Great politicians may ther efore become quite empty men, although they were once full and rich. 316. Welcome Enemies. The Socialistic movements are nowadays becoming more and more agreeable rather than terrifying to the dynastic governments, because by these movements they are provided with a right and a weapon for making exceptional rules, and can thus attack their real bogies, democrats and anti -dynasts.Towards all that such governments professedly detest they feel a secret cordiality and inclination. But they are compelled to dra w the veil over their soul. 317. Possession Possesses. Only up to a certain point does possession make men feel freer and more independent; one step farther, and possession becomes lord, the possessor a slave. The latter must sacrifice his time, his though ts to the former, and feels himself compelled to an intercourse, nailed to a spot, incorporated with the Stateperhaps quite in conflict with his real and essential needs. 318. Of the Mastery of Them that Know.It is easy, ridiculously easy, to set up a model for the choice of a legislative body. First of all the honest and reliable men of the nation, who at the same time are masters and experts in some one branch, have to become prominent by mutual scenting -out and recognition. From these, by a narrower pr ocess of selection, the learned and expert of the first rank in each individual branch must again be chosen, also by mutual recognition and guarantee. If the legislative body be composed of these, it will finally be necessary, in each individual case, that only the voices and judgments of the most specialised experts should decide; the honesty of all the rest should have become so great that it is simply a matter of decency to leave the voting also in the hands of these men. The result would be that the law, in the strictest sense, would emanate from the intelligence of the most intelligent. As things now are, voting is done by parties, and at every division there must be hundreds of uneasy consciences among the ill-taught, the incapable of judgment, among those who merely repeat, imitate, and go with the tide. Nothing lowers the dignity of a new law so much as this inherent shamefaced feeling of insincerity that necessarily results at every party division. But, as has been said, it is easy, ridiculously easy, to set up such a model: no power on earth is at present strong enough to realise such an idealunless the belief in the highest utility of knowledge, and of those that know, at last dawns even upon the most hostile minds and is preferred to the prevalent belief in majorities. In the sense of such a future may our watchword be: More reverence for them that know, and down with all parties! 319. Of the Nation of Thinkers (or of Bad Thinking).The vague, vacillating, premonitory, elementary, intuitive elements to choose obscure names for obscure thingsthat are attributed to the German nature would be, if they really still existed, a proof that our culture has remained several stages behind and is still surrounded by the spell and atmosphere of the Middle Ages. It is true that in this backwardness there are certain advantages: by these qualities the Germans (if, as has been said before, they still possess them) would possess the capacity, which other nations have now lost, for doing certain things and parti cularly for understanding certain things. Much undoubtedly is lost if the lack of sensewhich is just the common factor in all those qualities is lost. Here too, however, there are no losses without 222 the highest compensatory gains, so that no reason is left for lamenting, granting that we do not, like children, and gourmands, wish to enjoy at once the fruits of all seasons of the year. 320. Carrying Coals to Newcastle.The governments of the great States have two instruments for keeping the people dependent, in fear and obedience: a coarser, the army, and a more refined, the school. With the aid of the former they win over to their side the ambition of the higher strata and the strength of the lower, so far as both are characteristic of active and energetic men of moderate or inferior gifts. With the aid of the latter they win over gifted poverty, especially the intellectually pretentious semi-poverty of the middle classes. Above all, they make teachers of all grades into an intellectual court looking unconsciously towards the heights. By putting obstacle after obstacle in the way of private schools and the wholly distasteful individual tuition they secure the disposal of a considerable number of educational posts, towards which numerous hungry and submissive eyes are turned to an extent five times as great as can ever be satisfied. These posts, however, must support the holder but meagrely, so that he maintains a feverish thirst for promotion and becomes still more closely attached to the views of the government. For it is always more advantageous to foster moderate discontent than contentment, the mother of courage, the grandmother of free thought and exuberance. By means of this physically and mentally bridled body of teachers, the youth of the country is as far as possible raised to a certain level of culture that is useful to the State and arranged on a suitable sliding- scale. Above all, the immature and ambitious minds of all classes are almost imperceptibly imbued with the idea that only a career which is recognised and hall- marked by the State can lead immediately to social distinction. The effect of this belief in government examinations and titles goes so far that even men who have remained independent and have risen by trade or handicraft still feel a pang of discontent in their hearts until their position too is marked and acknowledged by a gracious bestowal of rank and orders from aboveuntil one becomes a somebody. Finally the State connects all these hundreds of offices and posts in its hands with the obligation of being trained and hallmarked in these State schools if one ever wishes to enter this charmed circle. Honour in society, daily bread, the possibility of a family, protection from above, the feeling of community in a common cultureall this forms a network of hopes into which every young man walks: how should he feel the slightest breath of mistrust? In the end, perhaps, the obligation of being a soldier for one year has become with every one, after the lapse of a few generations, an unrefl ecting habit, an understood thing, with an eye to which we construct the plan of our lives quite early. Then the State can venture on the master -stroke of weaving together school and army, talent, ambition and strength by means of common advantagesthat is , by attracting the more highly gifted on favourable terms to the army and inspiring them with the military spirit of joyful obedience; so that finally, perhaps, they become attached permanently to the flag and endow it by their talents with an ever new and more brilliant lustre. Then nothing more is wanted but an opportunity for great wars. These are provided from professional reasons (and so in all innocence) by diplomats, aided by newspapers and Stock Exchanges. For the nation, as a nation of soldiers, need never be supplied with a good conscience in war it has one already. 321. The Press. If we consider how even to -day all great political transactions glide upon the stage secretly and stealthily; how they are hidden by unimportant events, and seem small when close at hand; how they only show their far- reaching effect, and leave the soil still quaking, long after they have taken place;what significance can we attach to the Press in its present position, with its daily expenditure of lung-power in order to bawl, to deafen, to 223 excite, to terrify? Is it anything more than an everlasting false alarm, which tries to lead our ears and our wits into a false direction? 322. After a Great Event. A nation and a man whose soul has come to light through some gre at event generally feel the immediate need of some act of childishness or coarseness, as much from shame as for purposes of recreation. 323. To be a Good German means to de- Germanise Oneself. National differences consist, far more than has hitherto been observed, only in the differences of various grades of culture, and are only to a very small extent permanent (nor even that in a strict sense). For this reason all arguments based on national character are so little binding on one who aims at the alteration of convictionsin other words, at culture. If, for instance, we consider all that has already been German, we shall improve upon the hypothetical question, What is German? by the counter-question, What is now German? and every good German will answer it practically, by overcoming his German characteristics. For when a nation advances and grows, it bursts the girdle previously given to it by its national outlook. When it remains stationary or declines, its soul is surrounded by a fresh girdle, and the crust, as it becomes harder and harder, builds a prison around, with walls growing ever higher. Hence if a nation has much that is firmly established, this is a sign that it wishes to petrify and would like to become nothing but a monument. This happened, from a definite date, in the case of Egypt. So he who is well-disposed towards the Germans may for his part consider how he may more and more grow out of what is German. The tendency to be un- German has therefore always been a mark of efficient members of our nation. 324. Foreignisms.A foreigner who travelled in Germany found favour or the reverse by certain assertions of his, according to the districts in which he stayed. All intelligent Suabians, he used to say, are coquettish. The other Suabians still believed that Uhland was a poet and Goethe immoral. The best about German novels now in vogue was that one need not read them, for one knew already what they contained.The native of Berlin seemed more good-humoured than the South German, for he was all too fond of mocking, and so could endure mockery himself, which the South German could not.The intellect of the Germans was kept down by their beer and their newspapers: he recommended them tea and pamphlets, of course as a cure. He advised us to contemplate the different nations of worn-out Europe and see how well each displayed some particular quality of old age, to the delight of those who sit before the great spectacle: how the French successfully represent the cleverness and amiability of old age, the English the experience and reserve, the Italians the innocence and candour. Can the other masks of old age be wanting? Where is the proud old man, the domineering old man, the covetous old man?The most dangerous region in Germany was Saxony and Thuringia: nowhere else was there more mental nimbleness, more knowledge of men, side by side with freedom of thought; and all this was so modestly veiled by the ugly dialect and the zealous officiousness of the inhabitants that one hardly noticed that one here had to deal with the intellectual drill-sergeants of Germany, her teachers for good or evil.The arrogance of the North Germans was kept in check by their tendency to obey, that of the South Germans by their tendencyto make themselves comfortable. It appe ared to him that in their women German men possessed awkward but self-opinionated housewives, who belauded themselves so perseveringly that they had almost persuaded the world, and at any rate their husbands, of their peculiarly German housewifely virtue.When the conversation 224 turned on Germanys home and foreign policy, he used to say (he called it betray the secret ) that Germany s greatest statesman did not believe in great statesmen. The future of Germany he found menaced and menacing, for Germans had forgotten how to enjoy themselves (an art that the Italians understood so well), but, by the great games of chance called wars and dynastic revolutions, had accustomed themselves to emotionalism, and consequently would one day have an meute. For that is the strongest emotion that a nation can procure for itself. The German Socialist was all the more dangerous because impelled by no definite necessity: his trouble lay in not knowing what he wanted; so, even if he attained many of his objects, he would still pine away from desire in the midst of delights, just like Faust, but presumably like a very vulgar Faust. For the Faust- Devil, he finally exclaimed, by whom cultured Germans were so much plagued, was exorcised by Bismarck; but now the Devil has entered into the swine, 36F37 and is worse than ever! 325. Opinions.Most men are nothing and count for nothing until they have arrayed themselves in universal convictions and public opinions. This is in accordance with the tailors philosophy, The apparel makes the man. Of exceptional men, however, it must be said, The wearer primarily makes the apparel. Here opinions cease to be public, and become something else than masks, ornament, and disguise. 326. Two Kinds of Sobriety.In order not to confound the sobriet y arising from mental exhaustion with that arising from moderation, one must remark that the former is peevish, the latter cheerful. 327. Debasement of Joy. To call a thing good not a day longer than it appears to us good, and above all not a day earlier that is the only way to keep joy pure. Otherwise, joy all too easily becomes insipid and rotten to the taste, and counts, for whole strata of the people, among the adulterated foodstuffs. 328. The Scapegoat of Virtue. When a man does his very best, those who mean well towards him, but are not capable of appreciating him, speedily seek a scapegoat to immolate, thinking it is the scapegoat of sin but it is the scapegoat of virtue. 329. Sovereignty.To honour and acknowledge even the bad, when it pleases one, and to have no conception of how one could be ashamed of being pleased thereat, is the mark of sovereignty in things great and small. 330. Influence a Phantom, not a Reality.The man of mark gradually learns that so far as he has influence he is a phantom in other brains, and perhaps he falls into a state of subtle vexation of soul, in which he asks himself whether he must not maintain this phantom of himself for the benefit of his fellow- men. 331. 37 Luke viii. 33. Tr. 225 Giving and Taking.When one takes away (or anticipates) the smallest thing that another possesses, the latter is blind to the fact that he has been given something greater, nay, even the greatest thing. 332. Good Ploughland.All rejection and negation betoken a deficiency in fertility. If we were good ploughland, we should allow nothing to be unused or lost, and in every thing, event, or person we should welcome manure, rain, or sunshine. 333. Intercourse as an Enjoyment.If a man renounces the world and intentionally lives in solitude, he may come to regard intercourse with others, which he enjoys but seldom, as a special delicacy. 334. To Know how to Suffer in Public.We must advertise our misfortunes and from time to time heave audible sighs and show visible marks of impatience. For if we could let others see how assured and happy we are in spite of pain and privation, how envious and ill- tempered they would become at the sight!But we must take care not to corrupt our fellow-men; besides, if they knew the truth, they would levy a heavy toll upon us. At any rate our public misfortune is our private advantage. 335. Warmth on the Heights.On the heights it is warmer than people in the valleys suppose, especially in winter. The thinker recognises the full import of this simile. 336. To Will the Good and be Capable of the Beautiful.It is not enough to practise the good one must have willed it, and, as the poet says, include the Godhead in our will. But the beautiful we must not will, we must be capable of it, in innocence and blindness, without any psychical curiosity. He that lights his lantern to find perfect men should remember the token by which to know them. They are the men who always act for the sake of the good and in so doing always attain to the beautiful without thinking of the beautiful. Many better and nobler men, from impotence or from want of beauty in their souls, remain unrefreshing and ugly to behold, with all their good will and good works. They rebuff and injure even virtue through the repulsive garb in which their bad taste arrays her. 337. Danger of Renunciation.We must beware of basing our lives on too narrow a foundation of appetite. For if we renounce all the joys involved in positions, honours, associations, revels, creature comforts, and arts, a day may come when we perceive that this repudiation has led us not to wisdom but to satiety of life. 338. Final Opinion on Opinions.Either we should hide our opinions or hide ourselves behind our opinions. Whoever does otherwise, does not know the way of the world, or belongs to the order of pious fire- eaters. 339. Gaudeamus Igitur.Joy must contain edifying and healing forces for the moral nature of man. Otherwise, how comes it that our soul, as soon as it basks in the sunshine of joy, 226 unconsciously vows to itself, I will be good! I will become perfect! and is at once seized by a premonition of perfection that is like a shudder of religious awe? 340. To One who is Praised.So long as you are praised, believe that you are not yet on your own course but on that of another. 341. Loving the Master.The apprentice and the master love the master in different ways. 342. All-too-Beautiful and Human.Nature is too beautiful for thee, poor mortal, one often feels. But now and then, at a profound contemplation of all that is human, in its fulness, vigour, tenderness, and complexity, I have felt as if I must say, in all humility, Man also is too beautiful for the contemplation of man! Nor did I mean the moral man alone, but every one. 343. Real and Personal Estate. When life has treated us in true robber fashion, and has taken away all that it could of honour, joys, connections, health, and property of every kind, we perhaps discover in the end, after the first shock, that we are richer than before. For now we know for the first time what is so peculiarly ours that no robber hand can touch it, and perhaps, after all the plunder and devastation, we come forward with the airs of a mighty real estate owner. 344. Involuntarily Idealised.The most painful feeling that exists is finding out that we are always taken for something higher than we really are. For we must thereby confess to ourselves, There is in you some element of fraudyour speech, your expression, your bearing, your eye, your dealings; and this deceitful something is as necessary as your usual honesty, but constantly destroys its effect and its value. 345. Idealist and Liar. We must not let ourselves be tyrannised even by that finest faculty of idealising things: otherwise, truth will one day part company from us with the insulting remark: Thou arch-liar, what have I to do with thee? 346. Being Misunderstood.When one is misunderstood generally, it is impossible to remove a particular misunderstanding. This point must be recognised, to save superfluous expenditure of energy in self -defence. 347. The Water -Drinker Speaks.Go on drinking your wine, which has refreshed you all your lifewhat affair is it of yours if I have to be a water -drinker? Are not wine and water peaceable, brotherly elements, that can live side by side wit hout mutual recriminations? 348. From Cannibal Country.In solitude the lonely man is eaten up by himself, among crowds by the many. Choose which you prefer. 349. 227 The Freezing -Point of the Will. Some time the hour will come at last, the hour that will envelop you in the golden cloud of painlessness; when the soul enjoys its own weariness and, happy in patient playing with patience, resembles the waves of a lake, which on a quiet summer day, in the reflection of a many-hued evening sky, sip and sip at the shore and again are hushed without end, without purpose, without satiety, without needall calm rejoicing in change, all ebb and flow of Natures pulse. Such is the feeling and talk of all invalids, but if they attain that hour, a brief period of enjoyment is followed by ennui. But this is the thawing-wind of the frozen will, which awakes, stirs, and once more begets desire upon desire. Desire is a sign of convalescence or recovery. 350. The Disclaimed Ideal. It happens sometimes by an exception that a man only reaches the highest when he disclaims his ideal. For this ideal previously drove him onward too violently, so that in the middle of the track he regularly got out of breath and had to rest. 351. A Treacherous Inclination.It should be regarded as a sign of an envious but aspiring man, when he feels himself attracted by the thought that with regard to the eminent there is but one salvation love. 352. Staircase Happiness. Just as the wit of many men does not keep pace with opportunity (so that opportunity has already passed through the door while wit still waits on the staircase outside), so others have a kind of staircase happiness, which walks too slowly to keep pace with swift-footed Time. The best that it can enjoy of an experience, of a whole span of life, falls to its share long afterwards, often only as a weak, spicy fragrance, giving rise to longing and sadnessas if it might have been possiblesome time or other to drink one s fill of this element: but now it is too late. 353. Worms. The fact that an intellect contains a few worms does not detract from its ripeness. 354. The Seat of Victory. A good seat on horseback robs an opponent of his courage, the spectator of his heartwhy attack such a man? Sit like one who has been victorious! 355. Danger in Admiration.From excessive admiration for the virtues of others one can lose the sense of ones own, and finally, through lack of practice, lose these virtues themselves, without retaining the alien virtues as compensation. 356. Uses of Sickl iness. He who is often ill not only has a far greater pleasure in health, on account of his so often getting well, but acquires a very keen sense of what is healthy or sickly in actions and achievements, both his own and others. Thus, for example, it is just the writers of uncertain health among whom, unfortunately, nearly all great writers must be classed who are wont to have a far more even and assured tone of health in their writings, because they are better versed than are the physically robust in the philosophy of psychical health and convalescence and in their teachers morning, sunshine, forest, and fountain. 357. 228 Disloyalty a Condition of Mastery.It cannot be helpedevery master has but one pupil, and he becomes disloyal to him, for he also is destined for mastery. 358. Never in Vain. In the mountains of truth you never climb in vain. Either you already reach a higher point to-day, or you exercise your strength in order to be able to climb higher to- morrow. 359. Through Grey Window- Panes. Is what you see through this window of the world so beautiful that you do not wish to look through any other windoway, and even try to prevent others from so doing? 360. A Sign of Radical Changes.When we dream of persons long forgotten or dead, it is a sign that we have suffered radical changes, and that the soil on which we live has been completely undermined. The dead rise again, and our antiquity becomes modernity. 361. Medicine of the Soul. To lie still and think little is the cheapest medicine for all diseases of the soul, and, with the aid of good-will, becomes pleasanter every hour that it is used. 362. Intellectual Order of Precedence. You rank far below others when you try to establish the exception and they the rule. 363. The Fatalist. You must belie ve in fatescience can compel you thereto. All that develops in you out of that beliefcowardice, devotion or loftiness, and uprightnessbears witness to the soil in which the grain was sown, but not to the grain itself, for from that seed anything and everything can grow. 364. The Reason for Much Fretfulness.He that prefers the beautiful to the useful in life will undoubtedly, like children who prefer sweetmeats to bread, destroy his digestion and acquire a very fretful outlook on the world. 365. Excess as a Remedy. We can make our own talent once more acceptable to ourselves by honouring and enjoying the opposite talent for some time to excess.Using excess as a remedy is one of the more refined devices in the art of life. 366. Will a Self. Active, successful natures act, not according to the maxim, Know thyself, but as if always confronted with the command, Will a self, so you will become a self.Fate seems always to have left them a choice. Inactive, contemplative natures, on the other hand, reflect on how they have chosen their self once for all at their entry into life. 367. To Live as Far as Possible without a Following. How small is the importance of followers we first grasp when we have ceased to be the followers of our fol lowers. 229 368. Obscuring Oneself.We must understand how to obscure ourselves in order to get rid of the gnat- swarms of pestering admirers. 369. Ennui.There is an ennui of the most subtle and cultured brains, to which the best that the world can offer has become stale. Accustomed to eat ever more and more recherch fare and to feel disgust at coarser diet, they are in danger of dying of hunger. For the very best exists but in small quantities, and has sometimes become inaccessible or hard as stone, so that even good teeth can no longer bite it. 370. The Danger in Admiration.The admiration of a quality or of an art may be so strong as to deter us from aspiring to possess that quality or art. 371. What is Required of Art.One man wants to enjoy himself by means of art, another for a time to get out of or above himself.To meet both requirements there exists a twofold species of artists. 372. Secessions. Whoever secedes from us offends not us, perhaps, but certainly our adherents. 373. After Death. It is only lo ng after the death of a man that we find it inconceivable that he should be missedin the case of really great men, only after decades. Those who are honest usually think when any one dies that he is not much missed, and that the pompous funeral oration is a piece of hypocrisy. Necessity first teaches the necessariness of an individual, and the proper epitaph is a belated sigh. 374. Leaving in Hades.We must leave many things in the Hades of half-conscious feeling, and not try to release them from their sha dow-existence, or else they will become, as thoughts and words, our demoniacal tyrants, with cruel lust after our blood. 375. Near to Beggary. Even the richest intellect sometimes mislays the key to the room in which his hoarded treasures repose. He is then like the poorest of the poor, who must beg to get a living. 376. Chain -Thinkers.To him who has thought a great deal, every new thought that he hears or reads at once assumes the form of a chain. 377. Pity.In the gilded sheath of pity is sometimes hidden the dagger of envy. 378. What is Genius?To aspire to a lofty aim and to will the means to that aim. 379. 230 Vanity of Combatants.He who has no hope of victory in a combat, or who is obviously worsted, is all the more desirous that his style of fighting should be admired. 380. The Philosophic Life Misinterpreted.At the moment when one is beginning to take philosophy seriously, the whole world fancies that one is doing the reverse. 381. Imitation. By imitation, the bad gains, the good loses credit especially in art. 382. Final Teaching of History.Oh that I had but lived in those times! is the exclamation of foolish and frivolous men. At every period of history that we seriously review, even if it be the most belauded era of the past, we shall rather cry out at the end, Anything but a return to that! The spirit of that age would oppress you with the weight of a hundred atmospheres, the good and beautiful in it you would not enjoy, its evil you could not digest. Depend upon it, posterity will pass the same verdict on our own epoch, and say that it was unbearable, that life under such conditions was intolerable. And yet every one can endure his own times? Yes, because the spirit of his age not only lies upon him but is in him. The spirit of the age offers resistance to itself and can bear itself. 383. Greatness as a Mask. By greatness in our comportment we embitter our foes; by envy that we do not conceal we almost reconcile them to us. For envy levels and makes equal; it is an unconscious, plaintive variety of modesty.It may be indeed that here and there, for the sake of the above-named advantage, envy has been assumed as a mask by those who are not envious. Certainly, however, greatness in comportment is often used as the mask of envy by ambitious men who would rather suffer drawbacks and embitter their foes than let it be seen that they place them on an equal footing with themselves. 384. Unpardonable.You gave him an opportunity of displaying the greatness of his character, and he did not make use of the opportunity. He will never forgive you for that. 385. Contrasts.The most senile thought ever conceived about men lies in the famous saying, The ego is always hateful, the most childish in the still more famous saying, Love thy neighbour as thyself.With the one knowledge of men has ceased, with the other it has not yet begun. 386. A Defective Ear. We still belong to the mob so long as we always shift the blame on to others; we are on the track of wisdom when we always make ourselves alone responsible; but the wise man finds no one to blame, neither himself nor others.Who said that? Epictetus, eighteen hundred years ago.The world has heard but forgotten the saying.No, the world has not heard and not forgotten it: everything is not forgotten. But we had not the necessary ear, the ear of Epictetus. So he whispered it into his own ear?Even so: wisdom is the whispering of the sage to himself in the crowded market- place. 387. 231 A Defect of Standpoint, not of Vision.We always stand a few paces too near ourselves and a few paces too far from our neighbour. Hence we judge him too much in the lump, and ourselves too much by individual, occasional, insignificant features and circumstances. 388. Ignorance about Weapons.How little we ca re whether another knows a subject or not! whereas he perhaps sweats blood at the bare idea that he may be considered ignorant on the point. Yes, there are exquisite fools, who always go about with a quiverful of mighty, excommunicatory utterances, ready to shoot down any one who shows freely that there are matters in which their judgment is not taken into account. 389. At the Drinking- Table of Experience. People whose innate moderation leads them to drink but the half of every glass, will not admit that ev erything in the world has its lees and sediment. 390. Singing- Birds. The followers of a great man often put their own eyes out, so that they may be the better able to sing his praise. 391. Beyond our Ken.The good generally displeases us when it is beyond our ken. 392. Rule as Mother or as Child.There is one condition that gives birth to rules, another to which rules give birth. 393. Comedy.We sometimes earn honour or love for actions and achievements which we have long since sloughed as the snake sloughs his skin. We are hereby easily seduced into becoming the comic actors of our own past, and into throwing the old skin once more about our shouldersand that not merely from vanity, but from good- will towards our admirers. 394. A Mistake of Biographers.Th e small force that is required to launch a boat into the stream must not be confounded with the force of the stream that carries the boat along. Yet this mistake is made in nearly all biographies. 395. Not Buying too Dear.The things that we buy too dear we generally turn to bad use, because we have no love for them but only a painful recollection. Thus they involve a twofold drawback. 396. The Philosophy that Society always Needs.The pillars of the social structure rest upon the fundamental fact that every one cheerfully contemplates all that he is, does, and attempts, his sickness or health, his poverty or affluence, his honour or insignificance, and says to himself, After all, I would not change places with any one! Whoever wishes to add a stone to the social structure should always try to implant in mankind this cheerful philosophy of contentment and refusal to change places. 397. 232 The Mark of a Noble Soul.A noble soul is not that which is capable of the highest flights, but that which rises little and falls little, living always in a free and bright atmosphere and altitude. 398. Greatness and its Contemplator.The noblest effect of greatness is that it gives the contemplator a power of vision that magnifies and embellishes. 399. Being Satisfied. We show that we have attained maturity of understanding when we no longer go where rare flowers lurk under the thorniest hedges of knowledge, but are satisfied with gardens, forests, meadows, and ploughlands, remembering that life is too short for the rare and uncommon. 400. Advantage in Privation.He who always lives in the warmth and fulness of the heart, and, as it were, in the summer air of the soul, cannot form an idea of that fearful delight which seizes more wintry natures, who for once in a way are kissed by the rays of love and the milder breath of a sunny February day. 401. Recipe for the Sufferer. You find the burden of life too heavy? Then you must increase the burden of your life. When the sufferer finally thirsts after and seeks the river of Lethe, then he must become a hero to be certain of finding it. 402. The Judge.He who has seen anothers ideal becomes his inexorable judge, and as it were his evil conscience. 403. The Utility of Great Renunciation. The useful thing about great renunciation is that it invests us with that youthful pride through which we can thenceforth easily demand of ourselves small renunciations. 404. How Duty Acquires a Glamour.You can change a brazen duty into gold in the eyes of all by always performing something more than you have promised. 405. Prayer to Mankind.Forgive us our virtuesso should we pray to mankind. 406. They that Create and They that Enjoy.Every one who enjoys thinks that the principal thing to the tree is the fruit, but in point of fa ct the principal thing to it is the seed. Herein lies the difference between them that create and them that enjoy. 407. The Glory of all Great Men. What is the use of genius if it does not invest him who contemplates and reveres it with such freedom and lo ftiness of feeling that he no longer has need of genius?To make themselves superfluous is the glory of all great men. 408. 233 The Journey to Hades.I too have been in the underworld, even as Odysseus, and I shall often be there again. Not sheep alone have I sacrificed, that I might be able to converse with a few dead souls, but not even my own blood have I spared. There were four pairs who responded to me in my sacrifice: Epicurus and Montaigne, Goethe and Spinoza, Plato and Rousseau, Pascal and Schopenhauer. With them I have to come to terms. When I have long wandered alone, I will let them prove me right or wrong; to them will I listen, if they prove each other right or wrong. In all that I say, conclude, or think out for myself and others, I fasten my eyes on those eight and see their eyes fastened on mine.May the living forgive me if I look upon them at times as shadows, so pale and fretful, so restless and, alas! so eager for life. Those eight, on the other hand, seem to me so living that I feel as if even now, after their death, they could never become weary of life. But eternal vigour of life is the important point: what matters eternal life, or indeed life at all? 234 Part I I. The Wanderer And His Shadow The Shadow : It is so long since I heard you speak that I should like to give you an opportunity of talking. The Wanderer : I hear a voicewhere? whose? I almost fancied that I heard myself speaking, but with a voice yet weaker than my own. The Shadow (after a pause): Are you not glad to have an opportunity of speaking? The Wanderer : By God and everything else in which I disbelieve, it is my shadow that speaks. I hear it, but I do not believe it. The Shadow : Let us assume that it exists, and think no more about it. In another hour all will be over. The Wanderer : That is just what I thought when in a forest near Pisa I saw first two and then five camels. The Shadow : It is all the better if we are both equally forbearing towards each other when for once our reason is silent. Thus we shall avoid losing our tempers in conversation, and shall not at once apply mutual thumb-screws in the event of any word sounding for once unintelligible to us. If one does not know exactly how to answer, it is enough to say something. Those are the reasonable terms on which I hold conversation with any person. During a long talk the wisest of men becomes a fool once and a simpleton thrice. The Wanderer : Your moderation is not flattering to those to whom you confess it. The Shadow : Am I, then, to flatter? The W anderer : I thought a mans shadow was his vanity. Surely vanity would never say, Am I, then, to flatter? The Shadow : Nor does human vanity, so far as I am acquainted with it, ask, as I have done twice, whether it may speak. It simply speaks. The Wanderer : Now I see for the first time how rude I am to you, my beloved shadow. I have not said a word of my supreme delight in hearing and not merely seeing you. You must know that I love shadows even as I love light. For the existence of beauty of face, clearness of speech, kindliness and firmness of character, the shadow is as necessary as the light. They are not opponentsrather do they hold each others hands like good friends; and when the light vanishes, the shadow glides after it. The Shadow : Yes, and I hate the same thing that you hatenight. I love men because they are votaries of life. I rejoice in the gleam of their eyes when they recognise and discover, they who never weary of recognising and discovering. That shadow which all things cast when t he sunshine of knowledge falls upon themthat shadow too am I. The Wanderer : I think I understand you, although you have expressed yourself in somewhat shadowy terms. You are right. Good friends give to each other here and there, as a sign of mutual understanding, an obscure phrase which to any third party is meant to be a riddle. And we are good friends, you and I. So enough of preambles! Some few hundred questions oppress my soul, and the time for you to answer them is perchance but short. Let us see how we may come to an understanding as quickly and peaceably as possible. 235 The Shadow : But shadows are more shy than men. You will not reveal to any man the manner of our conversation? The Wanderer : The manner of our conversation? Heaven preserve me from wire-drawn, literary dialogues! If Plato had found less pleasure in spinning them out, his readers would have found more pleasure in Plato. A dialogue that in real life is a source of delight, when turned into writing and read, is a picture with nothing but false perspectives. Everything is too long or too short.Yet perhaps I may reveal the points on which we have come to an understanding? The Shadow : With that I am content. For every one will only recognise your views once more, and no one will think of the shadow. The Wanderer : Perhaps you are wrong, my friend! Hitherto they have observed in my views more of the shadow than of me. The Shadow : More of the shadow than of the light? Is that possible? The Wanderer : Be serious, dear fool! My very first question dema nds seriousness. 1. Of the Tree of Knowledge. Probability, but no truth; the semblance of freedom, but no freedom these are the two fruits by virtue of which the tree of knowledge cannot be confounded with the tree of life. 2. The World s Reason.That the world is not the abstract essence of an eternal reasonableness is sufficiently proved by the fact that that bit of the world which we knowI mean our human reasonis none too reasonable. And if this is not eternally and wholly wise and reasonable, the res t of the world will not be so either. Here the conclusion a minori ad majus, a parte ad totum holds good, and that with decisive force. 3. In the Beginning was.To glorify the originthat is the metaphysical after -shoot which sprouts again at the contemplation of history, and absolutely makes us imagine that in the beginning of things lies all that is most valuable and essential. 4. Standard for the Value of Truth.The difficulty of climbing mountains is no gauge of their height. Yet in the case of science it is different! we are told by certain persons who wish to be considered the initiated, the difficulty in finding truth is to determine the value of truth! This insane morality originates in the idea that truths are really nothing more than gymnastic appliances, with which we have to exercise ourselves until we are thoroughly tired. It is a morality for the athletes and gymnasts of the intellect. 5. Use of Words and Reality. There exists a simulated contempt for all the things that mankind actually holds most important, for all everyday matters. For instance, we say we only eat to livean abominable lie , like that which speaks of the procreation of children as the real purpose of all sexual pleasure. Conversely, the reverence for the most important things is hardly ever quite genuine. The priests and metaphysicians have indeed accustomed us to a hypocritically exaggerated use of words regarding these matters, but they have not altered the feeling that these most important things are not so important as those despised everyday matters. A fatal consequence of this twofold hypocrisy is that we never 236 make these everyday matters (such as eating, housing, clothes, and intercourse) the object of a constant unprejudiced and universal reflection and revision, but, as such a process appears degrading, we divert from them our serious intellectual and artistic side. Hence in such matters habit and frivolity win an easy victory over the thoughtless, especially over inexperienced youth. On the other hand, our continual transgressions of the simplest laws of body and mind reduce us all, young and old, to a disgraceful state of dependence and servitudeI mean to that fundamentally superfluous dependence upon physicians, teachers and clergymen, whose dead- weight still lies heavy upon the whole of society. 6. Earthly Infirmities and their Main Cause. If we look about us, we are always coming across men who have eaten eggs all their lives without observing that the oblong- shaped taste the best; who do not know that a thunder- storm is beneficial to the stomach; that perfumes are most fragrant in cold, clear air; that our sense of taste varies in different parts of our mouths; that every meal at which we talk well or listen well does harm to the digestion. If we ar e not satisfied with these examples of defective powers of observation, we shall concede all the more readily that the everyday matters are very imperfectly seen and rarely observed by the majority. Is this a matter of indifference? Let us remember, after all, that from this defect are derived nearly all the bodily and spiritual infirmities of the individual. Ignorance of what is good and bad for us, in the arrangement of our mode of life, the division of our day, the selection of our friends and the time we devote to them, in business and leisure, commanding and obeying, our feeling for nature and for art, our eating, sleeping, and meditation; ignorance and lack of keen perceptions in the smallest and most ordinary details this it is that makes the world a vale of tears for so many. Let us not say that here as everywhere the fault lies with human unreason. Of reason there is enough and to spare, but it is wrongly directed and artificially diverted from these little intimate things. Priests and teachers, and the sublime ambition of all idealists, coarser and subtler, din it even into the child s ears that the means of serving mankind at large depend upon altogether different things upon the salvation of the soul, the service of the State, the advancement of science, or even upon social position and property; whereas the needs of the individual, his requirements great and small during the twenty-four hours of the day, are quite paltry or indifferent.Even Socrates attacked with all his might this a rrogant neglect of the human for the benefit of humanity, and loved to indicate by a quotation from Homer the true sphere and conception of all anxiety and reflection: All that really matters, he said, is the good and evil hap I find at home. 7. Two Me ans of Consolation.Epicurus, the soul-comforter of later antiquity, said, with that marvellous insight which to this very day is so rarely to be found, that for the calming of the spirit the solution of the final and ultimate theoretical problems is by no means necessary. Hence, instead of raising a barren and remote discussion of the final question, whether the Gods existed, it sufficed him to say to those who were tormented by fear of the Gods: If there are Gods, they do not concern themselves with us. The latter position is far stronger and more favourable, for, by conceding a few points to the other, one makes him readier to listen and to take to heart. But as soon as he sets about proving the opposite (that the Gods do concern themselves with us), into what thorny jungles of error must the poor man fall, quite of his own accord, and without any cunning on the part of his interlocutor! The latter must only have enough subtlety and humanity to conceal his sympathy with this tragedy. Finally, the other comes to feel disgustthe strongest argument against any propositiondisgust with his own hypothesis. He becomes cold, and goes away in the same frame of mind as the pure atheist who says, What do the Gods matter to me? The devil take them! In other 237 cases, especially when a half -physical, half-moral assumption had cast a gloom over his spirit, Epicurus did not refute the assumption. He agreed that it might be true, but that there was a second assumption to explain the same phenomenon, and that it could perhaps be maintained in other ways. The plurality of hypotheses (for example, that concerning the origin of conscientious scruples) suffices even in our time to remove from the soul the shadows that arise so easily from pondering over a hypothesis which is isolated, merely visible, and hence overvalued a hundredfold.Thus whoever wishes to console the unfortunate, the criminal, the hypochondriac, the dying, may call to mind the two soothing suggestions of Epicurus, which can be applied to a great number of problems. In their simplest form they would run: firstly, granted the thing is so, it does not concern us; secondly, the thing may be so, but it may also be otherwise. 8. In the Night.So soon as night begins to fall our sensations concerning everyday matt ers are altered. There is the wind, prowling as if on forbidden paths, whispering as if in search of something, fretting because he cannot find it. There is the lamplight, with its dim red glow, its weary look, unwillingly fighting against night, a sullen slave to wakeful man. There are the breathings of the sleeper, with their terrible rhythm, to which an ever- recurring care seems to blow the trumpet-melodywe do not hear it, but when the sleeper s bosom heaves we feel our heart-strings tighten; and when the breath sinks and almost dies away into a deathly stillness, we say to ourselves, Rest awhile, poor troubled spirit! All living creatures bear so great a burden that we wish them an eternal rest; night invites to death. If human beings were deprived of the sun and resisted night by means of moonlight and oil- lamps, what a philosophy would cast its veil over them! We already see only too plainly how a shadow is thrown over the spiritual and intellectual nature of man by that moiety of darkness and sunlessness that envelops life. 9. Origin of the Doctrine of Free Will. Necessity sways one man in the shape of his passions, another as a habit of hearing and obeying, a third as a logical conscience, a fourth as a caprice and a mischievous delight in evasions. These four, however, seek the freedom of their will at the very point where they are most securely fettered. It is as if the silkworm sought freedom of will in spinning. What is the reason? Clearly this, that every one thinks himself most free where his v itality is strongest; hence, as I have said, now in passion, now in duty, now in knowledge, now in caprice. A man unconsciously imagines that where he is strong, where he feels most thoroughly alive, the element of his freedom must lie. He thinks of dependence and apathy, independence and vivacity as forming inevitable pairs.Thus an experience that a man has undergone in the social and political sphere is wrongly transferred to the ultimate metaphysical sphere. There the strong man is also the free man, there the vivid feeling of joy and sorrow, the high hopes, the keen desires, the powerful hates are the attributes of the ruling, independent natures, while the thrall and the slave live in a state of dazed oppression.The doctrine of free will is an invention of the ruling classes. 10. Absence of Feeling of New Chains. So long as we do not feel that we are in some way dependent, we consider ourselves independenta false conclusion that shows how proud man is, how eager for dominion. For he hereby assumes that he would always be sure to observe and recognise dependence so soon as he suffered it, the preliminary hypothesis being that he generally lives in independence, and that, should he lose that independence for once in a way, he would immediately detect a contrary sensation.Suppose, however, the reverse to 238 be truethat he is always living in a complex state of dependence, but thinks himself free where, through long habit, he no longer feels the weight of the chain? He only suffers from new chains, and free will really means nothing more than an absence of feeling of new chains. 11. Freedom of the Will and the Isolation of Facts. Our ordinary inaccurate observation takes a group of phenomena as one and calls them a fact. Between this fact and another we imagine a vacuum, we isolate each fact. In reality, however, the sum of our actions and cognitions is no series of facts and intervening vacua, but a continuous stream. Now the belief in free will is incompatible with the idea of a continuous, uniform, undivided, indivisible flow. This belief presupposes that every single action is isolated and indivisible; it is an atomic theory as regards volition and cognition.We misunderstand facts as we misunderstand characters, speaking of similar characters and similar facts, whereas both are non -existent. Further, we bestow praise and blame only on this false hypothesis, that there are similar facts, that a graduated order of species of facts exists, corresponding to a graduated order of values. Thus we isolate not only the single fact, but the groups of apparently equal facts (good, evil, compassionate, envious actions, and so forth). In both cases we are wrong.The word and the concept are the most obvious reason for our belief in this isolation of groups of actions. We do not merely thereby designate the things; the thought at the back of our minds is that by the word and the concept we can grasp the essence of the actions. We are still constantly led astray by words and actions, and are induced to think of things as simpler than they are, as separate, indivisible, existing in the absolute. Language contains a hidden philosophical mythology, which, however careful we may be, breaks out afresh at every moment. The belief in free willthat is to say, in similar facts and isolated facts finds in language its continual apostle and advocate. 12. The Fundamental Errors. A man cannot feel any psychical pleasure or pain unless he is swayed by one of two illusions. Either he believes in the identity of certain facts, certain sensations, and in that case finds spiritual pleasure and pain in comparing present with past conditions and in noting their similarity or difference (as is invariably the case with recollection); or he believes in the freedom of the will, perhaps when he ref lects, I ought not to have done this, This might have turned out differently, and from these reflections likewise he derives pleasure and pain. Without the errors that are rife in every psychical pain and pleasure, humanity would never have developed. For the root idea of humanity is that man is free in a world of bondageman, the eternal wonder -worker, whether his deeds be good or evilman, the amazing exception, the super-beast, the quasi-God, the mind of creation, the indispensable, the key- word to the cosmic riddle, the mighty lord of nature and despiser of nature, the creature that calls its history the history of the world! Vanitas vanitatum homo. 13. Repetition. It is an excellent thing to express a thing consecutively in two ways, and thus provide it with a right and a left foot. Truth can stand indeed on one leg, but with two she will walk and complete her journey. 14. Man as the Comic Actor of the World.It would require beings more intellectual than men to relish to the full the humorous side of man s view of himself as the goal of all existence and of his serious pronouncement that he is satisfied only with the prospect of fulfilling a 239 world -mission. If a God created the world, he created man to be his ape, as a perpetual source of amusement in the midst of his rather tedious eternities. The music of the spheres surrounding the world would then presumably be the mocking laughter of all the other creatures around mankind. God in his boredom uses pain for the tickling of his favourite animal, in order to enjoy his proudly tragic gestures and expressions of suffering, and, in general, the intellectual inventiveness of the vainest of his creaturesas inventor of this inventor. For he who invented man as a joke had more intellect and more joy in int ellect than has man. Even here, where our human nature is willing to humble itself, our vanity again plays us a trick, in that we men should like in this vanity at least to be quite marvellous and incomparable. Our uniqueness in the world! Oh, what an improbable thing it is! Astronomers, who occasionally acquire a horizon outside our world, give us to understand that the drop of life on the earth is without significance for the total character of the mighty ocean of birth and decay; that countless stars present conditions for the generation of life similar to those of the earth and yet these are but a handful in comparison with the endless number that have never known, or have long been cured, of the eruption of life; that life on each of these stars, measur ed by the period of its existence, has been but an instant, a flicker, with long, long intervals afterwards and thus in no way the aim and final purpose of their existence. Possibly the ant in the forest is quite as firmly convinced that it is the aim and purpose of the existence of the forest, as we are convinced in our imaginations (almost unconsciously) that the destruction of mankind involves the destruction of the world. It is even modesty on our part to go no farther than this, and not to arrange a universal twilight of the world and the Gods as the funeral ceremony of the last man. Even to the eye of the most unbiassed astronomer a lifeless world can scarcely appear otherwise than as a shining and swinging star wherein man lies buried. 15. The Modesty of Man. How little pleasure is enough for the majority to make them feel that life is good! How modest is man! 16. Where Indifference is Necessary. Nothing would be more perverse than to wait for the truths that science will finally establish concerning the first and last things, and until then to think (and especially to believe) in the traditional way, as one is so often advised to do. The impulse that bids us seek nothing but certainties in this domain is a religious offshoot, nothing bettera hidden an d only apparently sceptical variety of the metaphysical need, the underlying idea being that for a long time no view of these ultimate certainties will be obtainable, and that until then the believer has the right not to trouble himself about the whole subject. We have no need of these certainties about the farthermost horizons in order to live a full and efficient human life, any more than the ant needs them in order to be a good ant. Rather must we ascertain the origin of that troublesome significance that we have attached to these things for so long. For this we require the history of ethical and religious sentiments, since it is only under the influence of such sentiments that these most acute problems of knowledge have become so weighty and terrifying. Into the outermost regions to which the mental eye can penetrate (without ever penetrating into them), we have smuggled such concepts as guilt and punishment (everlasting punishment, too!). The darker those regions, the more careless we have been. For ages men have let their imaginations run riot where they could establish nothing, and have induced posterity to accept these fantasies as something serious and true, with this abominable lie as their final trump -card: that faith is worth more than knowledge. What we need now in regard to these ultimate things is not knowledge as against faith, but indifference as against faith and pretended knowledge in these 240 matters! Everything must lie nearer to us than what has hitherto been preached to us as the most important thing, I mean the questions: What end does man serve? What is his fate after death? How does he make his peace with God? and all the rest of that bag of tricks. The problems of the dogmatic philosophers, be they idealists, materialists, or realists, concern us as little as do these religious questions. They all have the same object in viewto force us to a decision in matters where neither faith nor knowledge is needed. It is better even for the most ardent lover of knowledge that the territory open to investigation and to reason should be encircled by a belt of fog -laden, treacherous marshland, a strip of ever watery, impenetrable, and indeterminable country. It is just by the comparison with the realm of darkness on the edge of the world of knowledge that the bright, accessible region of that world rises in value.We must once more become good friends of the everyday matters, and not, as hitherto, despise them and look beyond them at clouds and monsters of the night. In forests and caverns, in marshy tracts and under dull skies, on the lowest rungs of the ladder of culture, man has lived for ons, and lived in poverty. There he has learnt to despise the present, his neighbours, his life, and himself, and we, the inhabitants of the brighter fi elds of Nature and mind, still inherit in our blood some taint of this contempt for everyday matters. 17. Profound Interpretations.He who has interpreted a passage in an author more profoundly than was intended, has not interpreted the author but has obscured him. Our metaphysicians are in the same relation, or even in a worse relation, to the text of Nature. For, to apply their profound interpretations, they often alter the text to suit their purposeor, in other words, corrupt the text. A curious example of the corruption and obscuration of an authors text is furnished by the ideas of Schopenhauer on the pregnancy of women. The sign of a continuous will to life in time, he says, is copulation; the sign of the light of knowledge which is associated anew with this will and holds the possibility of a deliverance, and that too in the highest degree of clearness, is the renewed incarnation of the will to life. This incarnation is betokened by pregnancy, which is therefore frank and open, and even proud, whereas copulation hides itself like a criminal. He declares that every woman, if surprised in the sexual act, would be likely to die of shame, but displays her pregnancy without a trace of shame, nay even with a sort of pride. Now, firstly, this condition cannot easily be displayed more aggressively than it displays itself, and when Schopenhauer gives prominence only to the intentional character of the display, he is fashioning his text to suit the interpretation. Moreover, his statement of the universality of the phenomenon is not true. He speaks of every woman. Many women, especially the younger, often appear painfully ashamed of their condition, even in the presence of their nearest kinsfolk. And when women of riper years, especially in the humbler classes, do actually appear proud of their condition, it is because they would give us to understand that they are still desirable to their husbands. That a neighbour on seeing them or a passing stranger should say or think Can it be possible?that is an alms always acceptable to the vanity of women of low mental capacity. In the reverse instance, to conclude from Schopenhauers proposition, the cleverest and most intelligent women would tend more than any to exult openly in their condition. For they have the best prospect of giving birth to an intellectual prodigy, in whom the will can once more negative itself for the universal good. Stupid women, on the other hand, would have every reason to hide their pregnancy more modestly than anything they hide.It cannot be said that this view corresponds to reality. Granted, however, that Schopenhauer was right on the general principle that women show more self-satisfaction when pregnant than at any other time, a better explanation than this lies to hand. One might imagine the clucking of a hen even before she lays an egg, saying, Look! look! I shall lay an egg! I shall lay an egg! 241 18. The Modern Diogenes.Before we look for man, we must have found the lantern.Will it have to be the Cynics lantern? 19. Immoralists. Moralists must now put up with being rated as immoralists, because they dissect morals. He, however, who would dissect must kill, but only in order that we may know more, judge better, live better, not in order that all the world may dissect. Unfortunately, men still think that every moralist in his every action must be a pattern for others to imitate. They confound him with the preacher of morality. The older moralists did not dissect enough and preached too often, whence that confusion and the unpleasant consequences for our latter- day moralists are derived. 20. A Caution against Confusion.There are moralists who treat the strong, noble, self-denying attitude of such beings as the heroes of Plutarch, or the pure, enlightened, warmth-giving state of soul peculiar to truly good men and women, as difficult scientific problems. They investigate the origin of such phenomena, indicating the complex element in the apparent simplicity, and directing their gaze to the tangled skein of motives, the delicate web of conceptual illusions, and the sentiments of individuals or of groups, that are a legacy of ancient days gradually increased. Such moralists are very different from those with whom they are most commonly confounded, from those petty minds that do not believe at all in these modes of thought and states of soul, and imagine their own poverty to be hidden somewhere behind the glamour of greatness and purity. The moralists say, Here are problems, and these pitiable creatures say, Here are impostors and deceptions. Thus the latter deny the existence of the very things which the former are at pains to explain. 21. Man as the Measurer.Perhaps all human morality had its origin in the tremendous excitement that seized primitive man when he discovered measure and measuring, scales and weighing (for the word Mensch [man] means the measurer he wished to name himself after his greatest discovery!). With these ideas they mounted into regions that are quite beyond all measuring and weighing, but did not appear to be so in the beginning. 22. The Principle of Equilibrium.The robber and the man of power who promises to protect a community from robbers are perhaps at bottom beings of the same mould, save that the latter attains his ends by other means than the formerthat is to say, through regular imposts paid to him by the community, and no longer through forced contributions. (The same relation exists between merchant and pirate, who for a long period are one and the same person: where the one function appears to them inadvisable, they exercise the other. Even to-day mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement on piratical morality buying in the cheapest market, at prime cost if possible, and selling in the dearest.) The essential point is that the man of power promises to maintain the equilibrium against the robber, and herein the weak find a possibility of living. For either they must group themselves into an equivalent power, or they must subject themselves to some one of equivalent power ( i.e. render service in return for his efforts). The latter course is generally preferred, because it really keeps two dangerous beings in checkthe robber through the man of power, and the man of power through the standpoint of advantage; for the latter profits by treating his subjects with graciousness and tolerance, in order that they may support not only themselves but their ruler. 242 As a matter of fact, conditions may still be hard and cruel enough, yet in comparison with the complete annihilation that was formerly always a possibility, men breathe freely. The community is at first the organisation of the weak to counterbalance menacing forces. An organisation to outweigh those forces would be more advisable, if its members grew strong enough to destroy the adverse power: and when it is a question of one mighty oppressor, the attempt will certainly be made. But if the one man is the head of a clan, or if he has a large following, a rapid and decisive annihilation is improbable, and a long or permanent feud is only to be expected. This feud, however, involves the least desirable condition for the community, for it thereby loses the time to provide for its means of subsistence with the necessary regularity, and sees the product of all work hourly threatened. Hence the community prefers to raise its power of attack and defence to the exact plane on which the power of its dangerous neighbour stands, and to give him to understand that an equal weight now lies in its own side of the scalesso why not be good friends?Thus equilibrium is a most important conception for the understanding of the ancient doctrines of law and morals. Equilibrium is, in fact, the basis of justice. When justice in ruder ages says, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, it presupposes the attainment of this equilibrium and tries to maintain it by means of this compensation; so that, when crime is committed, the injured party will not take the revenge of blind anger. By means of the jus talionis the equilibrium of the disturbed relations of power is restored, for in such primitive times an eye or an arm more means a bit more power, more weight.In a community where all consider themselves equal, disgrace and punishment await crimethat is, violations of the principle of equilibrium. Disgrace is thrown into the scale as a counter-weight against the encroaching individual, who has gained profit by his encroachment, and now suffers losses (through disgrace) which annul and outweigh the previous profits. Punishment, in the same way, sets up a far greater counter -weight against the preponderance which every criminal hopes to obtainimprisonment as against a deed of violence, restitution and fines as against theft. Thus the sinner is reminded that his action has excluded him from the community and from its moral advantages, since the community treats him as an inferior, a weaker brother, an outsider. For this reason punishment is not merely retaliation, but has something more, something of the cruelty of the state of nature, and of this it would serve as a reminder. 23. Whether the Adherents of the Doctrine of Free Will have a Right to Punish?Men whose vocation it is to judge and punish try to establish in every case whether an evil-doer is really responsible for his act, whether he was able to apply his reasoning powers, whether he acted with motives and not unconsciously or under constraint. If he is punished, it is because he preferred the worse to the better motives, which he must consequently have known. Where this knowledge is wanting, man is, according to the prevailing view, not responsibleunless his ignorance, e.g. his ignorantia legis , be the co nsequence of an intentional neglect to learn what he ought: in that case he already preferred the worse to the better motives at the time when he refused to learn, and must now pay the penalty of his unwise choice. If, on the other hand, perhaps through stupidity or shortsightedness, he has never seen the better motives, he is generally not punished, for people say that he made a wrong choice, he acted like a brute beast. The intentional rejection of the better reason is now needed before we treat the offen der as fit to be punished. But how can any one be intentionally more unreasonable than he ought to be? Whence comes the decision, if the scales are loaded with good and bad motives? So the origin is not error or blindness, not an internal or external const raint? (It should furthermore be remembered that every so- called external constraint is nothing more than the internal constraint of fear and pain.) Whence? is the repeated question. So reason is not to be the cause of action, because reason cannot decide against the better motives? Thus 243 we call free will to our aid. Absolute discretion is to decide, and a moment is to intervene when no motive exercises an influence, when the deed is done as a miracle, resulting from nothing. This assumed discretion is punished in a case where no discretion should rule. Reason, which knows law, prohibition, and command, should have left no choice, they say, and should have acted as a constraint and a higher power. Hence the offender is punished because he makes use of free willin other words, has acted without motive where he should have been guided by motives. But why did he do it? This question must not even be asked; the deed was done without a Why? without motive, without origin, being a thing purposeless, unreasoned.However, according to the above-named preliminary condition of punishability, such a deed should not be punished at all! Moreover, even this reason for punishing should not hold good, that in this case something had not been done, had been omitted, that reason had not been used at all: for at any rate the omission was unintentional, and only intentional omission is considered punishable. The offender has indeed preferred the worse to the better motives, but without motive and purpose: he has indeed failed to apply his reason, but not exactly with the object of not applying it. The very assumption made in the case of punishable crime, that the criminal intentionally renounced his reason, is removed by the hypothesis of free will. According to your own principles, you must not punish, you adherents of the doctrine of free will!These principles are, however, nothing but a very marvellous conceptual mythology, and the hen that hatched them has brooded on her eggs far away from all reality. 24. Judging the Criminal and his Judge.The criminal, who knows the whole concatenation of circumstances, does not consider his act so far beyond the bounds of order and comprehension as does his judge. His punishment, however, is measured by the degree of astonishment that seizes the judge when he finds the crime incomprehensible. If the defending counsels knowledge of the case and its previous history extends far enough, the so-called extenuating circumstances which he duly pleads must end by absolving his client from all guilt. Or, to put it more plainly, the advocate will, step by step, tone down and finally remove the astonishment of the judge, by forcing every honest listener to the tacit avowal, He was bound to act as he did, and if we punished, we should be punishing eternal Necessity. Measuring the punishment by the degree of knowledge we possess or can obtain of the previous history of the crimeis that not in conflict with all equity? 25. Exchange and Equity.In an exchange, the only just and honest course would be for either party to demand only so much as he considers his commodity to be worth, allowance being made for trouble in acquisition, scarcity, time spent and so forth, besides the subjective value. As soon as you make your price bear a relation to the other s need, you become a refined sort of robber and extortioner.If money is the sole medium of exchange, we must remember that a shilling is by no means the same thing in the hands of a rich heir, a farm labourer, a merchant, and a university student. It would be equitable for every one to receive much or little for his money, according as he has done much or little to earn it. In practice, as we all know, the reverse is the case. In the world of high finance the shilling of the idle rich man can buy more than that of the poor, industrious man. 26. Legal Conditions as Means.Law, where it rests upon contracts between equals, holds good so long as the power of the parties to the contract remains equal or similar. Wisdom created law to end all feuds and useless expenditure among men on an equal footing. Quite as 244 definite an end is put to this waste, however, when one party has become decidedly weaker than the other. Subjection enters and law ceases, but the result is the same as that attained by law. For now it is the wisdom of the superior which advises to spare the inferior and not uselessly to squander his strength. Thus the position of the inferior is often more favourable than that of the equal. Hence legal conditions are temporary means counselled by wisdom, and not ends. 27. Explanation of Malicious Joy.Malicious joy arises when a man consciously finds himself in evil plight and feels anxiety or remorse or pain. The misfortune that overtakes B. makes him equal to A., and A. is reconciled and no longer envious.If A. is prosperous, he still hoards up in his memory B. s misfortune as a capital, so as to throw it in the scale as a counter-weight when he himself suffers adversity. In this case too he feels malicious joy ( Schadenfreude ). The sentiment of equality thus applies its standard to the domain of luck and chance. Malicious joy is the commonest expression of victory and restoration of equality, even in a higher state of civilisation. This emotion has only been in existence since the time when man learnt to look upon another as his equalin other words, since the foundation of society. 28. The Arbitrary Element in the Award of Punishment.To most criminals punishment comes just as illegitimate children come to women. They have done the same thing a hundred times without any bad consequences. Suddenly comes discovery, and with discovery punishment. Yet habit should make the deed for which the criminal is punished appear more excusable, for he has developed a propensity that is hard to resist. Instead of this, the criminal is punished more severely if the suspicion of habitual crime rests on him, and habit is made a valid reason against all extenuation. On the other hand, a model life, wherein crime shows up in more terrible contrast, should make the guilt appear more heavy! But here the custom is to soften the punishment. Everything is measured not from the standpoint of the criminal but from that of society and its losses and dangers. The previous utility of an individual is weighed against his one nefarious action, his previous criminality is added to that recently discovered, and punishment is thus meted out as highly as possible. But if we thus punish or reward a man s past (for in the former case the diminution of punishment is a reward) we ought to go farther back and punish and reward the cause of his pastI mean parents, teachers, society. In many instances we shall then find the judges somehow or other sharing in the guilt. It is arbitrary to stop at the criminal himself when we punish his past: if we will not grant the absolute excusability of every crime, we should stop at each individual case and probe no farther into the pastin other words, isolate guilt and not connect it with previous actions. Otherwise we sin against logic. The teachers of free will should draw the inevitable conclusion from their doctrine of free will and boldly decree: No action has a past. 29. Envy and her Nobler Sister.Where equality is really recognised and permanently established, we see the rise of that propensity that is generally considered immoral, and would scarcely be conceivable in a state of nature envy. The envious man is susceptible to every sign of individual superiority to the common herd, and wishes to depress every one once more to the level or raise himself to the superior plane. Hence arise two different modes of action, which Hesiod designated good and bad Eris. In the same way, in a condition of equality there arises indignation if A. is prosperous above and B. unfortunate beneath their deserts an d equality. These latter, however, are emotions of nobler natures. They feel the 245 want of justice and equity in things that are independent of the arbitrary choice of menor, in other words, they desire the equality recognised by man to be recognised as well by Nature and chance. They are angry that men of equal merits should not have equal fortune. 30. The Envy of the Gods.The envy of the Gods arises when a despised person sets himself on an equality with his superior (like Ajax), or is made equal with him by the favour of fortune (like Niobe, the too favoured mother). In the social class system this envy demands that no one shall have merits above his station, that his prosperity shall be on a level with his position, and especially that his self- conscio usness shall not outgrow the limits of his rank. Often the victorious general, or the pupil who achieves a masterpiece, has experienced the envy of the gods. 31. Vanity as an Anti- Social Aftergrowth. As men, for the sake of security, have made themselves equal in order to found communities, but as also this conception is imposed by a sort of constraint and is entirely opposed to the instincts of the individual, so, the more universal security is guaranteed, the more do new offshoots of the old instinct for predominance appear. Such offshoots appear in the setting-up of class distinctions, in the demand for professional dignities and privileges, and, generally speaking, in vanity (manners, dress, speech, and so forth). So soon as danger to the community is apparent, the majority, who were unable to assert their preponderance in a time of universal peace, once more bring about the condition of equality, and for the time being the absurd privileges and vanities disappear. If the community, however, collapses utterly and anarchy reigns supreme, there arises the state of nature: an absolutely ruthless inequality as recounted by Thucydides in the case of Corcyra. Neither a natural justice nor a natural injustice exists. 32. Equity.Equity is a development of justice, and arises among such as do not come into conflict with the communal equality. This more subtle recognition of the principle of equilibrium is applied to cases where nothing is prescribed by law. Equity looks forwards and backwards, its maxim being, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Aequum means: This principle is conformable to our equality; it tones down even our small differences to an appearance of equality, and expects us to be indulgent in cases where we are not compelled to pardon. 33. Elements of Revenge. The word revenge is spoken so quickly that it almost seems as if it could not contain more than one conceptual and emotional root. Hence we are still at pains to find this root. Our economists, i n the same way, have never wearied of scenting a similar unity in the word value, and of hunting after the primitive root idea of value. As if all words were not pockets, into which this or that or several things have been stuffed at once! So revenge is now one thing, now another, and sometimes more composite. Let us first distinguish that defensive counter-blow, which we strike, almost unconsciously, even at inanimate objects (such as machinery in motion) that have hurt us. The notion is to set a check to the object that has hurt us, by bringing the machine to a stop. Sometimes the force of this counter-blow, in order to attain its object, will have to be strong enough to shatter the machine. If the machine be too strong to be disorganised by one man, t he latter will all the same strike the most violent blow he can as a sort of last attempt. We behave similarly towards persons who hurt us, at the immediate sensation of the hurt. If we like to call this an act of revenge, well and good: but we must remember that here self -preservation alone has set 246 its cog -wheels of reason in motion, and that after all we do not think of the doer of the injury but only of ourselves. We act without any idea of doing injury in return, only with a view to getting away safe an d sound.It needs time to pass in thought from oneself to one s adversary and ask oneself at what point he is most vulnerable. This is done in the second variety of revenge, the preliminary idea of which is to consider the vulnerability and susceptibility of the other. The intention then is to give pain. On the other hand, the idea of securing himself against further injury is in this case so entirely outside the avenger s horizon, that he almost regularly brings about his own further injury and often fores ees it in cold blood. If in the first sort of revenge it was the fear of a second blow that made the counter-blow as strong as possible, in this case there is an almost complete indifference to what ones adversary will do: the strength of the counter-blow is only determined by what he has already done to us. Then what has he done? What profit is it to us if he is now suffering, after we have suffered through him? This is a case of readjustment, whereas the first act of revenge only serves the purpose of se lf-preservation. It may be that through our adversary we have lost property, rank, friends, childrenthese losses are not recovered by revenge, the readjustment only concerns a subsidiary loss which is added to all the other losses. The revenge of readjustment does not preserve one from further injury, it does not make good the injury already sufferedexcept in one case. If our honour has suffered through our adversary, revenge can restore it. But in any case honour has suffered an injury if intentional harm has been done us, because our adversary proved thereby that he was not afraid of us. By revenge we prove that we are not afraid of him either, and herein lies the settlement, the readjustment. (The intention of showing their complete lack of fear goes so far in some people that the dangers of revengeloss of health or life or other losses are in their eyes an indispensable condition of every vengeful act. Hence they practise the duel, although the law also offers them aid in obtaining satisfaction for what they have suffered. They are not satisfied with a safe means of recovering their honour, because this would not prove their fearlessness.) In the first- named variety of revenge it is just fear that strikes the counter - blow; in the second case it is the absence of fear, which, as has been said, wishes to manifest itself in the counter -blow.Thus nothing appears more different than the motives of the two courses of action which are designated by the one word revenge. Yet it often happens that the avenger is not precisely certain as to what really prompted his deed: perhaps he struck the counterblow from fear and the instinct of self -preservation, but in the background, when he has time to reflect upon the standpoint of wounded honour, he imagines that he has avenged himself for the sake of his honourthis motive is in any case more reputable than the other. An essential point is whether he sees his honour injured in the eyes of others (the world) or only in the eyes of his offenders: in the latter case he w ill prefer secret, in the former open revenge. Accordingly, as he enters strongly or feebly into the soul of the doer and the spectator, his revenge will be more bitter or more tame. If he is entirely lacking in this sort of imagination, he will not think at all of revenge, as the feeling of honour is not present in him, and accordingly cannot be wounded. In the same way, he will not think of revenge if he despises the offender and the spectator; because as objects of his contempt they cannot give him honour, and accordingly cannot rob him of honour. Finally, he will forego revenge in the not uncommon case of his loving the offender. It is true that he then suffers loss of honour in the others eyes, and will perhaps become less worthy of having his love returned. But even to renounce all requital of love is a sacrifice that love is ready to make when its only object is to avoid hurting the beloved object: this would mean hurting oneself more than one is hurt by the sacrifice. Accordingly, every one will avenge himself, unless he be bereft of honour or inspired by contempt or by love for the offender. Even if he turns to the law- courts, he desires revenge as a private individual; but also, as a thoughtful, prudent man of society, he desires the revenge of so ciety upon one who does not respect it. Thus by legal punishment private 247 honour as well as that of society is restoredthat is to say, punishment is revenge. Punishment undoubtedly contains the first- mentioned element of revenge, in as far as by its means society helps to preserve itself, and strikes a counter-blow in self-defence. Punishment desires to prevent further injury, to scare other offenders. In this way the two elements of revenge, different as they are, are united in punishment, and this may perhaps tend most of all to maintain the above-mentioned confusion of ideas, thanks to which the individual avenger generally does not know what he really wants. 34. The Virtues that Damage Us. As members of communities we think we have no right to exercise certain virtues which afford us great honour and some pleasure as private individuals (for example, indulgence and favour towards miscreants of all kinds)in short, every mode of action whereby the advantage of society would suffer through our virtue. No bench of judges, face to face with its conscience, may permit itself to be gracious. This privilege is reserved for the king as an individual, and we are glad when he makes use of it, proving that we should like to be gracious individually, but not collectively. Society recognises only the virtues profitable to her, or at least not injurious to hervirtues like justice, which are exercised without loss, or, in fact, at compound interest. The virtues that damage us cannot have originated in society, because even now opposition to them arises in every small society that is in the making. Such virtues are therefore those of men of unequal standing, invented by the superior individuals; they are the virtues of rulers, and the idea underlying them is: I am mighty enough to put up with an obvious loss; that is a proof of my power. Thus they are virtues closely akin to pride. 35. The Casuistry of Advantage.There would be no moral casuistry if there were no casuistry of advantage. The most free and refined intelligence is often incapable of choosing between two alternatives in such a way that his choice necessarily involves the greater advantage. In such cases we choose because we must, and afterwards often feel a kind of emotional sea-sickness. 36. Turning Hypocrite.Every beggar turns hypocrite, like every one who makes his living out of indigence, be it personal or public.The beggar does not feel want nearly so keenly as he must make others feel it, if he wishes to make a living by mendicancy. 37. A Sort of Cult of the Passions.You hypochondriacs, you philosophic blind-worms talk of the formidable nature of human passions, in order to inveigh against the dreadsomeness of the whole world-structure. As if the passions were always and everywhere formidable! As if this sort of terror must always exist in the world!Through a carelessness in small matters, through a deficiency in observation of self and of the rising generation, you have yourselves allowed your passions to develop into such unruly monsters that you are frightened now at the mere mention of the word passion ! It rests with you and it rests with us to divest the passions of their formidable features and so to dam them that they do not become devastating floods.We must not exalt our errors into e ternal fatalities. Rather shall we honestly endeavour to convert all the passions of humanity into sources of joy. 37F38 38 The play on Freudenschaften ( i.e. pleasure- giving passions) and Leidenschaft en (i.e. pain-giving passions) is often used by Nietzsche, and is untranslateable. Tr. 248 38. The Sting of Conscience.The sting of conscience, like the gnawing of a dog at a stone, is mere foolishness. 39. Origin of Rights.Rig hts may be traced to traditions, traditions to momentary agreements. At some time or other men were mutually content with the consequences of making an agreement, and, again, too indolent formally to renew it. Thus they went on living as if it had constantly been renewed, and gradually, when oblivion cast its veil over the origin, they thought they possessed a sacred, unalterable foundation on which every generation would be compelled to build. Tradition was now a constraint, even if it no more involved the profit originally derived from making the agreement. Here the weak have always found their strong fortress. They are inclined to immortalise the momentary agreement, the single act of favour shown towards them. 40. The Significance of Oblivion in Moral Se ntiment. The same actions that in primitive society first aimed at the common advantage were later on performed from other motives: from fear or reverence of those who demanded and recommended them; or from habit, because men had seen them done about them from childhood upwards; or from kindness, because the practising of them caused delight and approving looks on all sides; or from vanity, because they were praised. Such actions, in which the fundamental motive, that of utility, has been forgotten, are then called moral; not, indeed, because they are done from those other motives, but because they are not done with a conscious purpose of utility.Whence the hatred of utility that suddenly manifests itself here, and by which all praiseworthy actions formally exclude all actions for the sake of utility? Clearly society, the rallying -point of all morality and of all maxims in praise of moral action, has had to battle too long and too fiercely with the selfishness and obstinacy of the individual not to rate every motive morally higher than utility. Hence it looks as if morals had not sprung from utility, whereas in fact morals are originally the public utility, which had great difficulty in prevailing over the interests of the unit and securing a loftier reputation. 41. The Heirs to the Wealth of Morality. Even in the domain of morals there is an inherited wealth, which is owned by the gentle, the good-tempered, the compassionate, the indulgent. They have inherited from their forefathers their gentle mode of action, but not common sense (the source of that mode of action). The pleasant thing about this wealth is that one must always bestow and communicate a portion of it, if its presence is to be felt at all. Thus this wealth unconsciously aims at bridging the gulf between the morally rich and the morally poor, and, what is its best and most remarkable feature, not for the sake of a future mean between rich and poor, but for the sake of a universal prosperity and superfluity.Such may be the prevailing view of inher ited moral wealth, but it seems to me that this view is maintained more in majorem gloriam of morality than in honour of truth. Experience at least establishes a maxim which must serve, if not as a refutation, at any rate as an important check upon that generalisation. Without the most exquisite intelligence, says experience, without the most refined capacity for choice and a strong propensity to observe the mean, the morally rich will become spendthrifts of morality. For by abandoning themselves without re straint to their compassionate, gentle, conciliatory, harmonising instincts, they make all about them more careless, more covetous, and more sentimental. The children of these highly moral spendthrifts easily and (sad to relate) at best become pleasant but futile wasters. 249 42. The Judge and Extenuating Circumstances.One should behave as a man of honour even towards the devil and pay his debts, said an old soldier, when the story of Faust had been related to him in rather fuller detail. Hell is the right place for Faust! You are terrible, you men! cried his wife; how can that be? After all, his only fault was having no ink in his ink- stand! It is indeed a sin to write with blood, but surely for that such a handsome man ought not to burn in Hell- fire? 43. Problem of the Duty of Truth.Duty is an imperious sentiment that forces us to action. We call it good, and consider it outside the pale of discussion. The origin, limits, and justification of duty we will not debate or allow to be debated. But the thinker considers everything an evolution and every evolution a subject for discussion, and is accordingly without duty so long as he is merely a thinker. As such, he would not recognise the duty of seeing and speaking the truth; he would not feel the sentime nt at all. He asks, whence comes it and whither will it go? But even this questioning appears to him questionable. Surely, however, the consequence would be that the thinkers machinery would no longer work properly if he could really feel himself unencumbered by duty in the search for knowledge? It would appear, then, that for fuel the same element is necessary as must be investigated by means of the machine. Perhaps the formula will be: granted there were a duty of recognising truth, what is then the truth in regard to every other kind of duty?But is not a hypothetical sense of duty a contradiction in terms? 44. Grades of Morals. Morality is primarily a means of preserving the community and saving it from destruction. Next it is a means of maintaining the community on a certain plane and in a certain degree of benevolence. Its motives are fear and hope, and these in a more coarse, rough, and powerful form, the more the propensity towards the perverse, one-sided, and personal still persists. The most terrib le means of intimidation must be brought into play so long as milder forms have no effect and that twofold species of preservation cannot be attained. (The strongest intimidation, by the way, is the invention of a hereafter with a hell everlasting.) For this purpose we must have racks and torturers of the soul. Further grades of morality, and accordingly means to the end referred to, are the commandments of a God (as in the Mosaic law). Still further and higher are the commandments of an absolute sense of duty with a Thou shaltall rather roughly hewn yet broad steps, because on the finer, narrower steps men cannot yet set their feet. Then comes a morality of inclination, of taste, finally of insightwhich is beyond all the illusory motives of morality, but has convinced itself that humanity for long periods could be allowed no other. 45. The Morality of Pity in the Mouths of The Intemperate.All those who are not sufficiently masters of themselves and do not know morality as a self-control and self-conques t continuously exercised in things great and small, unconsciously come to glorify the good, compassionate, benevolent impulses of that instinctive morality which has no head, but seems merely to consist of a heart and helpful hands. It is to their interest even to cast suspicion upon a morality of reason and to set up the other as the sole morality. 46. Sewers of the Soul.Even the soul must have its definite sewers, through which it can allow its filth to flow off: for this purpose it may use persons, relations, social classes, its native 250 country, or the world, or finallyfor the wholly arrogant (I mean our modern pessimists )le bon Dieu. 47. A Kind of Rest and Contemplation.Beware lest your rest and contemplation resemble that of a dog befo re a butcher s stall, prevented by fear from advancing and by greed from retiring, and opening its eyes wide as though they were mouths. 48. Prohibitions without Reasons.A prohibition, the reason of which we do not understand or admit, is almost a command , not only for the stiff-necked but for the thirster after knowledge. We at once make an experiment in order to learn why the prohibition was made. Moral prohibitions, like those of the Decalogue, are only suited to ages when reason lies vanquished. Nowadays a prohibition like Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, laid down without reasons, would have an injurious rather than a beneficial effect. 49. Character Portrait. What sort of a man is it that can say of himself: I despise very easily, but never hate. I at once find out in every man something which can be honoured and for which I honour him: the so- called amiable qualities attract me but little ? 50. Pity and Contempt.The expression of pity is regarded as a sign of contempt, bec ause one has clearly ceased to be an object of fear as soon as one becomes an object of pity. One has sunk below the level of the equilibrium. For this equilibrium does not satisfy human vanity, which is only satisfied by the feeling that one is imposing r espect and awe. Hence it is difficult to explain why pity is so highly prized, just as we need to explain why the unselfish man, who is originally despised or feared as being artful, is praised. 51. The Capacity of Being Small. We must be as near to flowers, grasses, and butterflies as a child, that is, not much bigger than they. We adults have grown up beyond them and have to stoop to them. I think the grasses hate us when we confess our love for them.He who would have a share in all good things must unde rstand at times how to be small. 52. The Sum- Total of Conscience. The sum -total of our conscience is all that has regularly been demanded of us, without reason, in the days of our childhood, by people whom we respected or feared. From conscience comes that feeling of obligation (This I must do, this omit) which does not ask, Why must I?In all cases where a thing is done with because and why, man acts without conscience, but not necessarily on that account against conscience. The belief in authority i s the source of conscience; which is therefore not the voice of God in the heart of man, but the voice of some men in man. 53. Conquest of the Passions.The man who has overcome his passions has entered into possession of the most fruitful soil, like the c olonist who has become lord over bogs and forests. To sow the seed of spiritual good works on the soil of the vanquished passions is the next and most urgent task. The conquest itself is a means, not an end: if it be not so regarded, all kind of weeds and devils crop quickly spring up upon the fertile soil that has been cleared, and soon the growth is all wilder and more luxuriant than before. 251 54. Skill in Service. All so -called practical men have skill in service, whether it be serving others or themselves; this is what makes them practical. Robinson owned a servant even better than Friday his name was Crusoe. 55. Danger in Speech to Intellectual Freedom. Every word is a preconceived judgment. 56. Intellect and Boredom.The proverb, The Hungarian is far too lazy to feel bored, gives food for thought. Only the highest and most active animals are capable of being bored.The boredom of God on the seventh day of Creation would be a subject for a great poet. 57. Intercourse with Animals. The origin of our morality may still be observed in our relations with animals. Where advantage or the reverse do not come into play, we have a feeling of complete irresponsibility. For example, we kill or wound insects or let them live, and as a rule think no more about it. We are so clumsy that even our gracious acts towards flowers and small animals are almost always murderous: this does not in the least detract from our pleasure in them.To -day is the festival of the small animals, the most sultry day of the year. There is a swarming and crawling around us, and we, without intention, but also without reflection, crush here and there a little fly or winged beetle.If animals do us harm, we strive to annihilate them in every possible way. The means are often cruel enough, even without our really intending them to be soit is the cruelty of thoughtlessness. If they are useful, we turn them to advantage, until a more refined wisdom teaches us that certain animals amply reward a different mode of treatment, that of tending and breeding. Here responsibility first arises. Torturing is avoided in the case of the domestic animal. One man is indignant if another is cruel to his cow, quite in accordance with the primitive communal morality, which sees the commonwealth in danger whenever an individual does wrong. He who perceives any transgression in the community fears indirect harm to himself. Thus we fear in this case for the quality of meat, agriculture, and means of communication if we see the domestic animals ill-treated. Moreover, he who is harsh to animals awakens a suspicion that he is also harsh to men who are weak, inferior, and incapable of revenge. He is held to be ignoble and deficient in the finer form of pride. Thus arises a foundation of moral judgments and sentiments, but the greatest contribution is made by superstition. Many animals incite men by glances, tones, and gestures to transfer themselves into them in imagination, and some religions teach us, under certain circumstances, to see in animals the dwelling -place of human and divine souls: whence they recommend a nobler caution or even a reverential awe in intercourse with animals. Even after the disappearance of this superstition the sentiments awakened by it continue to exercise their influence, to ripen and to blossom.Christianity, as is well known, has shown itself in this respect a poor and retrograde religion. 58. New Actors. Among human beings there is no greater banality than death. Second in order, because it is possible to die without being born, comes birth, and next comes marriage. But these hackneyed little tragi -comedies are always presented, at each of their unnumbered and innumerable performances, by new actors, and accordingly do not cease to find interested spectators: whereas we might well believe that the whole audience of the world -theatre had long since hanged themselves to every tree from sheer boredom at these performances. So much depends on new actors, so little on the piece. 252 59. What is Being Obstinate?The shortest way is not the straightest p ossible, but that wherein favourable winds swell our sails. So says the wisdom of seamen. Not to follow his course is obstinate, firmness of character being then adulterated by stupidity. 60. The Word Vanity.It is annoying that certain words, with which we moralists positively cannot dispense, involve in themselves a kind of censorship of morals, dating from the times when the most ordinary and natural impulses were denounced. Thus that fundamental conviction that on the waves of society we either find navigable waters or suffer shipwreck far more through what we appear than through what we are (a conviction that must act as guiding principle of all action in relation to society) is branded with the general word vanity. In other words, one of the most weighty and significant of qualities is branded with an expression which denotes it as essentially empty and negative: a great thing is designated by a diminutive, ay, even slandered by the strokes of caricature. There is no help for it; we must use su ch words, but then we must shut our ears to the insinuations of ancient habits. 61. The Fatalism of the Turk. The fatalism of the Turk has this fundamental defect, that it contrasts man and fate as two distinct things. Man, says this doctrine, may struggle against fate and try to baffle it, but in the end fate will always gain the victory. Hence the most rational course is to resign oneself or to live as one pleases. As a matter of fact, every man is himself a piece of fate. When he thinks that he is strugg ling against fate in this way, fate is accomplishing its ends even in that struggle. The combat is a fantasy, but so is the resignation in fate all these fantasies are included in fate. The fear felt by most people of the doctrine that denies the freedom o f the will is a fear of the fatalism of the Turk. They imagine that man will become weakly resigned and will stand before the future with folded hands, because he cannot alter anything of the future. Or that he will give a free rein to his caprices, becaus e the predestined cannot be made worse by that course. The follies of men are as much a piece of fate as are his wise actions, and even that fear of belief in fate is a fatality. You yourself, you poor timid creature, are that indomitable Moira , which rule s even the Gods; whatever may happen, you are a curse or a blessing, and in any case the fetters wherein the strongest lies bound: in you the whole future of the human world is predestined, and it is no use for you to be frightened of yourself. 62. The Advocate of the Devil. Only by our own suffering do we become wise, only by others suffering do we become goodso runs that strange philosophy which derives all morality from pity and all intellectuality from the isolation of the individual. Herein this philosophy is the unconscious pleader for all human deterioration. For pity needs suffering, and isolation contempt of others. 63. The Moral Character -Masks. In ages when the character -masks of different classes are definitely fixed, like the classes themselves, moralists will be seduced into holding the moral character -masks, too, as absolute, and in delineating them accordingly. Thus Molire is intelligible as the contemporary of the society of Louis XIV.: in our society of transitions and intermediate stag es he would seem an inspired pedant. 64. 253 The Most Noble Virtue.In the first era of the higher humanity courage is accounted the most noble virtue, in the next justice, in the third temperance, in the fourth wisdom. In which era do we live? In which do you live? 65. A Necessary Preliminary. A man who will not become master of his irritability, his venomous and vengeful feelings, and his lust, and attempts to become master in anything else, is as stupid as the farmer who lays out his field beside a torrent without guarding against that torrent. 66. What is Truth?Schwarzert (Melanchthon): We often preach our faith when we have lost it, and leave not a stone unturned to find itand then we often do not preach worst! Luther : Brother, you are really speaking like an angel to -day. Schwarzert : But that is the idea of your enemies, and they apply it to you. Luther : Then it would be a lie from the devils hind- quarters. 67. The Habit of Contrasts.Superficial, inexact observation sees contrasts everywhere in nature (for instance, hot and cold), where there are no contrasts, only differences of degree. This bad habit has induced us to try to understand and interpret even the inner nature, the intellectual and moral world, in accordance with such contrasts. An infinite amount of cruelty, arrogance, harshness, estrangement, and coldness has entered into human emotion, because men imagined they saw contrasts where there were only transitions. 68. Can We Forgive?How can we forgive them at all, if they know not what they do? We have nothing to forgive. But does a man ever fully know what he is doing? And if this point at least remains always debatable, men never have anything to forgive each other, and indulgence is for the reasonable man an impossible thing. Finally, if the evil-doers had really known what they did, we should still only have a right to forgive if we had a right to accuse and to punish. But we have not that right. 69. Habitual Shame. Why do we feel shame when some virtue or merit is attributed to us which, as the saying goes, we have not deserved ? Because we appear to have intruded upon a territory to which we do not belong, from which we should be excluded, as from a holy place or holy of holies, which ought not to be trodden by our foot. Through the errors of others we have, nevertheless, penetrated to it, and we are now swayed partly by fear, partly by reverence, partly by surprise; we do not know whether we ought to fly or to enjoy the blissful moment with all its gracious advantages. In all sha me there is a mystery, which seems desecrated or in danger of desecration through us. All favour begets shame. But if it be remembered that we have never really deserved anything, this feeling of shame, provided that we surrender ourselves to this point of view in a spirit of Christian contemplation, becomes habitual, because upon such a one God seems continually to be conferring his blessing and his favours. Apart from this Christian interpretation, the state of habitual shame will be possible even to th e entirely godless sage, who clings firmly to the basic non-responsibility and non-meritoriousness of all action and being. If he be treated as if he had deserved this or that, he will seem to have won his way into a higher order of beings, 254 who do actually deserve something, who are free and can really bear the burden of responsibility for their own volition and capacity. Whoever says to him, You have deserved it, appears to cry out to him, You are not a human being, but a God. 70. The Most Unskilful Te acher. In one man all his real virtues are implanted on the soil of his spirit of contradiction, in another on his incapacity to say noin other words, on his spirit of acquiescence. A third has made all his morality grow out of his pride as a solitary, a fourth from his strong social instinct. Now, supposing that the seeds of the virtues in these four cases, owing to mischance or unskilful teachers, were not sown on the soil of their nature, which provides them with the richest and most abundant mould, they would become weak, unsatisfactory men (devoid of morality). And who would have been the most unskilful of teachers, the evil genius of these men? The moral fanatic, who thinks that the good can only grow out of the good and on the soil of the good. 71. The Cautious Style.A. But if this were known to all , it would be injurious to the majority . You yourself call your opinions dangerous to those in danger, and yet you make them public? B. I write so that neither the mob, nor the populi , nor the parties of all kinds can read me. So my opinions will never be public opinions. A. How do you write, then? B. Neither usefully nor pleasantlyfor the three classes I have mentioned. 72. Divine Missionaries. Even Socrates feels himself to be a divine missionary, but I am not sure whether we should not here detect a tincture of that Attic irony and fondness for jesting whereby this odious, arrogant conception would be toned down. He talks of the fact without unctionhis images of the gadfly and the hors e are simple and not sacerdotal. The real religious task which he has set himself to test God in a hundred ways and see whether he spoke the truthbetrays a bold and free attitude, in which the missionary walked by the side of his God. This testing of God is one of the most subtle compromises between piety and free-thinking that has ever been devised.Nowadays we do not even need this compromise any longer. 73. Honesty in Painting.Raphael, who cared a great deal for the Church (so far as she could pay him), but, like the best men of his time, cared little for the objects of the Churchs belief, did not advance one step to meet the exacting, ecstatic piety of many of his patrons. He remained honest even in that exceptional picture which was originally intended for a banner in a processionthe Sistine Madonna. Here for once he wished to paint a vision, but such a vision as even noble youths without faith may and will havethe vision of the future wife, a wise, high-souled, silent, and very beautiful woman, c arrying her first -born in her arms. Let men of an older generation, accustomed to prayer and devotion, find here, like the worthy elder on the left, something superhuman to revere. We younger men (so Raphael seems to call to us) are occupied with the beaut iful maiden on the right, who says to the spectator of the picture, with her challenging and by no means devout look, The mother and her childis not that a pleasant, inviting sight? The face and the look are reflected in the joy in the faces of the beho lders. The artist who devised all this enjoys himself in this way, and adds his own delight to the delight of the art-lover. As regards the messianic expression in the face 255 of the child, Raphael, honest man, who would not paint any state of soul in which he did not believe, has amiably cheated his religious admirers. He painted that freak of nature which is very often found, the man s eye in the child s face, and that, too, the eye of a brave, helpful man who sees distress. This eye should be accompanied by a beard. The fact that a beard is wanting, and that two different ages are seen in one countenance, is the pleasing paradox which believers have interpreted in accordance with their faith in miracles. The artist could only expect as much from their art of exposition and interpretation. 74. Prayer. On two hypotheses alone is there any sense in prayer, that not quite extinct custom of olden times. It would have to be possible either to fix or alter the will of the godhead, and the devotee would have to know best himself what he needs and should really desire. Both hypotheses, axiomatic and traditional in all other religions, are denied by Christianity. If Christianity nevertheless maintained prayer side by side with its belief in the all- wise and all - provident divine reason (a belief that makes prayer really senseless and even blasphemous), it showed here once more its admirable wisdom of the serpent. For an outspoken command, Thou shalt not pray, would have led Christians by way of boredom to the denial of Christianity. In the Christian ora et labora ora plays the rle of pleasure. Without ora what could those unlucky saints who renounced labora have done? But to have a chat with God, to ask him for all kinds of pleasant things, to feel a slight amusement at one s own folly in still having any wishes at all, in spite of so excellent a father all that was an admirable invention for saints. 75. A Holy Lie. The lie that was on Arria s lips when she died ( Paete, non dolet 38F39) obscures all the truths that have ever been uttered by the dying. It is the only holy lie that has become famous, whereas elsewhere the odour of sanctity has clung only to errors. 76. The Most Necessary Apostle. Among twelve apostles one must always be hard as stone, in order that upon him the new church may be built. 77. Which is more Transitory, the Body or the Spirit?In legal, moral, and religious institutions the external and concrete elements in other words, rites, gestures, and ceremoniesare the most permanent. They are the body to which a new spirit is constantly being superadded. The cult, like an unchangeable text, is ever interpreted anew. Concepts and emotions are fluid, customs are solid. 78. The Belief in Disease qua Disease. Christianity first painted the devil on the wall of the world. Christianity first brought the idea of sin into the world. The belief in the remedies, which is offered as an antidote, has gradually been shaken to its very foundations. But the belief in the disease, which Christianity has taught and propagated, still exists. 79. Speech and Writings of Religious Men.If the priest s style and general expression, both in speaking and writing, do not clearly betray the religious man, we need no longer take his 39 The wife of the Stoic Thrasea Paetus, when their complicity in the great conspiracy of 65 a.d. against Nero was discovered, is reported to have said as she committed s uicide, It doesn t hurt, Paetus. Tr. 256 views upon religion and his pleading for religion seriously. These opinions have become powerless for him if, judging by his style, he has at command irony, arrogance, malice, hatred, and all the changing eddies of mood, just like the most irreligious of menhow far more powerless will they be for his hearers and readers! In short, he will serve to make the latter still more irreligious. 80. The Danger in Personality.The more God has been regarded as a personality in himself, the less loyal have we been to him. Men are far more attached to their thought-images than to their best beloved. That is why they sacrifice themselves for State, Church, and even for Godso far as he remains their creation, their thought, and is not too much looked upon as a personality. In the latter case they almost always quarrel with him. After all, it was the most pious of men who let slip that bitter cry: My God, why hast thou forsaken me? 81. Worldly Justice.It is possible to unhinge worldly justice with the doctrine of the complete non-responsibility and innocence of ever y man. An attempt has been made in the same direction on the basis of the opposite doctrine of the full responsibility and guilt of every man. It was the founder of Christianity who wished to abolish worldly justice and banish judgment and punishment from the world. For he understood all guilt as sinthat is, an outrage against God and not against the world. On the other hand, he considered every man in a broad sense, and almost in every sense, a sinner. The guilty, however, are not to be the judges of their peers so his rules of equity decided. Thus all dispensers of worldly justice were in his eyes as culpable as those they condemned, and their air of guiltlessness appeared to him hypocritical and pharisaical. Moreover, he looked to the motives and not to the results of actions, and thought that only one was keen-sighted enough to give a verdict on motiveshimself or, as he expressed it, God. 82. An Affectation in Parting.He who wishes to sever his connection with a party or a creed thinks it necessary for him to refute it. This is a most arrogant notion. The only thing necessary is that he should clearly see what tentacles hitherto held him to this party or creed and no longer hold him, what views impelled him to it and now impel him in some other direct ions. We have not joined the party or creed on strict grounds of knowledge. We should not affect this attitude on parting from it either. 83. Saviour and Physician.In his knowledge of the human soul the founder of Christianity was, as is natural, not with out many great deficiencies and prejudices, and, as physician of the soul, was addicted to that disreputable, laical belief in a universal medicine. In his methods he sometimes resembles that dentist who wishes to heal all pain by extracting the tooth. Thus, for example, he assails sensuality with the advice: If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. Yet there still remains the distinction that the dentist at least attains his objectpainlessness for the patientalthough in so clumsy a fashion that he becomes ridiculous; whereas the Christian who follows that advice and thinks he has killed his sensuality, is wrong, for his sensuality still lives in an uncanny, vampire form, and torments him in hideous disguises. 84. Prisoners. One morning the prisoners entered the yard for work, but the warder was not there. Some, as their manner was, set to work at once; others stood idle and gazed defiantly around. Then one of them strode forward and cried, Work as much as you will or do 257 nothing, it all comes to the same. Your secret machinations have come to light; the warder has been keeping his eye on you of late, and will cause a terrible judgment to be passed upon you in a few days time. You know himhe is of a cruel and resentful disposition. But now, listen: you have mistaken me hitherto. I am not what I seem, but far moreI am the son of the warder, and can get anything I like out of him. I can save younay, I will save you. But remember this: I will only save those of you who believe that I am the son of the prison warder. The rest may reap the fruits of their unbelief. Well, said an old prisoner after an interval of silence, what can it matter to you whether we believe you or not? If you are really the son, and can do what you say, then put in a good word for us all. That would be a real kindness on your part. But have done with all talk of belief and unbelief! What is more, cried a younger man, I dont believe him: he has only got a bee in his bonnet. I ll wager that in a week s time we shall find ourselve s in the same place as we are to -day, and the warder will know nothing. And if the warder ever knew anything, he knows it no longer, said the last of the prisoners, coming down into the yard at that moment, for he has just died suddenly. Ah ha! crie d several in confusion, ah ha! Sir Son, Sir Son, how stands it now with your title? Are we by any chance your prisoners now? I told you, answered the man gently, I will set free all who believe in me, as surely as my father still lives. The prisoners did not laugh, but shrugged their shoulders and left him to himself. 85. The Persecutors of God.Paul conceived and Calvin followed up the idea that countless creatures have been predestined to damnation from time immemorial, and that this fair world was made in order that the glory of God might be manifested therein. So heaven and hell and mankind merely exist to satisfy the vanity of God! What a cruel, insatiable vanity must have smouldered in the soul of the first or second thinker of such a thought!Paul, then, after all, remained Saul the persecutor of God. 86. Socrates. If all goes well, the time will come when, in order to advance themselves on the path of moral reason, men will rather take up the Memorabilia of Socrates than the Bible, and when Montaigne and Horace will be used as pioneers and guides for the understanding of Socrates, the simplest and most enduring of interpretative sages. In him converge the roads of the most different philosophic modes of life, which are in truth the modes of t he different temperaments, crystallised by reason and habit and all ultimately directed towards the delight in life and in self. The apparent conclusion is that the most peculiar thing about Socrates was his share in all the temperaments. Socrates excels t he founder of Christianity by virtue of his merry style of seriousness and by that wisdom of sheer roguish pranks which constitutes the best state of soul in a man. Moreover, he had a superior intelligence. 87. Learning to Write Well. The age of good speaking is over, because the age of city- state culture is over. The limit allowed by Aristotle to the great city in which the town- crier must be able to make himself heard by the whole assembled communitytroubles us as little as do any city -communities, us who even wish to be understood beyond the boundaries of nations. Therefore every one who is of a good European turn of mind must learn to write well, and to write better and better. He cannot help himself, he must learn that: even if he was born in Germany, where bad writing is looked upon as a national privilege. Better writing means better thinking; always to discover matter more worthy of communication; to be able to communicate it properly; to be translateable into the tongues of neighbouring nations; to make oneself comprehensible to foreigners who learn our language; to work with the view of 258 making all that is good common property, and of giving free access everywhere to the free; finally, to pave the way for that still remote state of things, when the great task shall come for good Europeansguidance and guardianship of the universal world-culture.Whoever preaches the opposite doctrine of not troubling about good writing and good reading (both virtues grow together and decline together) is really showing the peoples a way of becoming more and more national . He is intensifying the malady of this century, and is a foe to good Europeans, a foe to free spirits. 88. The Theory of the Best Style.The theory of the best style may at one time be the theory of finding the expression by which we transfer every mood of ours to the reader and the listener. At another, it may be the theory of finding expressions for the more desirable human moods, the communication and transference of which one desires mostfor the mo od of a man moved from the depth of his heart, intellectually cheerful, bright, and sincere, who has conquered his passions. This will be the theory of the best style, a theory that corresponds to the good man. 89. Paying Attention to Movement.The movemen t of the sentences shows whether the author be tired. Individual expressions may nevertheless be still strong and good, because they were invented earlier and for their own sake, when the thought first flashed across the author s mind. This is frequently the case with Goethe, who too often dictated when he was tired. 90. Already and Still. A. German prose is still very young. Goethe declares that Wieland is its father. B. So young and already so ugly! C. But, so far as I am aware, Bishop Ulfilas already wrote German prose, which must therefore be fifteen hundred years old. B. So old and still so ugly! 91. Original German. German prose, which is really not fashioned on any pattern and must be considered an original creation of German taste, should give the eager advocate of a future original German culture an indication of how real German dress, German society, German furniture, German meals would look without the imitation of models.Some one who had long reflected on these vistas finally cried in great horror, But, Heaven help us, perhaps we already have that original cultureonly we don t like to talk about it! 92. Forbidden Books.One should never read anything written by those arrogant wiseacres and puzzle- brains who have the detestable vice o f logical paradox. They apply logical formul just where everything is really improvised at random and built in the air. ( Therefore with them means, You idiot of a reader, this therefore does not exist for you, but only for me. The answer to this is: You idiot of a writer, then why do you write?) 93. Displaying One s Wit. Every one who wishes to display his wit thereby proclaims that he has also a plentiful lack of wit. That vice which clever Frenchmen have of adding a touch of ddain to their best ideas arises from a desire to be considered richer than they really are. 259 They wish to be carelessly generous, as if weary of continual spending from overfull treasuries. 94. French and German Literature. The misfortune of the French and German literature of the last hundred years is that the Germans ran away too early from the French school, and the French, later on, went too early to the German school. 95. Our Prose. None of the present-day cultured nations has so bad a prose as the German. When clever, blas Frenchmen say, There is no German prose, we ought really not to be angry, for this criticism is more polite than we deserve. If we look for reasons, we come at last to the strange phenomenon that the German knows only improvised prose and has no conception of any other. He simply cannot understand the Italian, who says that prose is as much harder than poetry as the representation of naked beauty is harder to the sculptor than that of draped beauty. Verse, images, rhythm, and rhyme need honest effortthat even the German realises, and he is not inclined to set a very high value on extempore poetry. But the notion of working at a page of prose as at a statue sounds to him like a tale from fairyland. 96. The Grand Style.The grand style comes into being when the beautiful wins a victory over the monstrous. 97. Dodging.We do not realise, in the case of distinguished minds, wherein lies the excellence of their expression, their turn of phrase, until we can say what word every mediocre writer would inevitably have hit upon in expressing the same idea. All great artists, in steering their car, show themselves prone to dodge and leave the track, but never to fall over. 98. Something like Bread.Bread neutralises and takes out the taste of other food, and is therefore necessary to every long meal. In all works of art there must be something like bread, in order that they may produce divers effects. If these effects followed one another without occasional pauses and intervals, they would soon make us weary and provoke disgustin fact, a long meal of art would then be impossible. 99. Jean Paul. Jean Paul knew a great deal, but had no science; understood all manner of tricks of art, but had no art; found almost everything enjoyable, but had no taste; possessed feeling and seriousness, but in dispensing them poured over them a nauseous sauce of tears; had even wit, but, unfortunately for his ardent desire for it, far too littlewhence he drives the reader to despair by his very lack of wit. In short, he was the bright, rank-smelling weed that shot up overnight in the fair pleasaunces of Schiller and Goethe. He was a good, comfortable man, and yet a destiny, a destiny in a dressing-gown. 39F40 100. Palate for Opposites. In order to enjoy a work of the past as its contemporaries enjoyed it, one must have a palate for the prevailing taste of the age which it attacked. 40 It is interesting to compare this judgment with Carlyle s praise of Jean Paul. The dressing -gown is an allusion to Jean Paul s favourite costume.Tr. 260 101. Spirits -of-Wine Authors.Many writers are neither spirit nor wine, but spirits of wine. They can flare up, and then they give warmth. 102. The Interpret ative Sense. The sense of taste, as the true interpretative sense, often talks the other senses over to its point of view and imposes upon them its laws and customs. At table one can receive disclosures about the most subtle secrets of the arts; it suffices to observe what tastes good and when and after what and how long it tastes good. 103. Lessing.Lessing had a genuine French talent, and, as writer, went most assiduously to the French school. He knows well how to arrange and display his wares in his shop-window. Without this true art his thoughts, like the objects of them, would have remained rather in the dark, nor would the general loss be great. His art, however, has taught many (especially the last generation of German scholars) and has given enjoyment to a countless number. It is true his disciples had no need to learn from him, as they often did, his unpleasant tone with its mingling of petulance and candour.Opinion is now unanimous on Lessing as lyric poet, and will some day be unanimous on Lessing as dramatic poet. 104. Undesirable Readers. How an author is vexed by those stolid, awkward readers who always fall at every place where they stumble, and always hurt themselves when they fall! 105. Poets Thoughts.Real thoughts of real poets always go about with a veil on, like Egyptian women; only the deep eye of thought looks out freely through the veil.Poets thoughts are as a rule not of such value as is supposed. We have to pay for the veil and for our own curiosity into the bargain. 106. Write Simply and Usefully.Transitions, details, colour in depicting the passionswe make a present of all these to the author because we bring them with us and set them down to the credit of his book, provided he makes us some compensation. 107. Wieland. Wieland wrote German better than any one else, and had the genuine adequacies and inadequacies of the master. His translations of the letters of Cicero and Lucian are the best in the language. His ideas, however, add nothing to our store of thought. We can endure his cheerful moralities as little as his cheerful immoralities, for both are very closely connected. The men who enjoyed them were at bottom better men than we are, but also a good deal heavier. They needed an author of this sort. The Germans did not need Goethe, and therefore cannot make proper use of him. We have only to consider the best of our statesmen and artists in this light. None of them had or could have had Goethe as their teacher. 108. Rare Festivals. Pithy conciseness, repose, and maturity where you find these qualities in an author, cry halt and celebrate a great festival in the desert. It will be long before you have such a treat again. 109. 261 The Treasure of German Prose. Apart from Goethes writings and especially Goethe s conversations with Eckermann (the best German book in existence), what German prose literature remains that is worth reading over and over again? Lichtenberg s Aphorisms , the first book of Jung- Stilling s Story of My Life , Adalbert Stifter s St. Martins Summ er and Gottfried Keller s People of Seldwylaand there, for the time being, it comes to an end. 110. Literary and Colloquial Style.The art of writing demands, first and foremost, substitutions for the means of expression which speech alone possessesin other words, for gestures, accent, intonation, and look. Hence literary style is quite different from colloquial style, and far more difficult, because it has to make itself as intelligible as the latter with fewer accessaries. Demosthenes delivered his spee ches differently from what we read; he worked them up for reading purposes.Cicero s speeches ought to be demosthenised with the same object, for at present they contain more of the Roman Forum than we can endure. 111. Caution in Quotation.Young authors do not know that a good expression or idea only looks well among its peers; that an excellent quotation may spoil whole pages, nay the whole book; for it seems to cry warningly to the reader, Mark you, I am the precious stone, and round about me is lead pale, worthless lead! Every word, every idea only desires to live in its own companythat is the moral of a choice style. 112. How should Errors be Enunciated?We may dispute whether it be more injurious for errors to be enunciated badly or as well as the best truths. It is certain that in the former case they are doubly harmful to the brain and are less easily removed from it. But, on the other hand, they are not so certain of effect as in the latter case. They are, in fact, less contagious. 113. Limiting and Widening.Homer limited and diminished the horizon of his subject, but allowed individual scenes to expand and blossom out. Later, the tragedians are constantly renewing this process. Each takes his material in ever smaller and smaller fragments th an his predecessor did, but each attains a greater wealth of blooms within the narrow hedges of these sequestered garden enclosures. 114. Literature and Morality Mutually Explanatory.We can show from Greek literature by what forces the Greek spirit developed, how it entered upon different channels, and where it became enfeebled. All this also depicts to us how Greek morality proceeded, and how all morality will proceed: how it was at first a constraint and displayed cruelty, then became gradually milder; h ow a pleasure in certain actions, in certain forms and conventions arose, and from this again a propensity for solitary exercise, for solitary possession; how the track becomes crowded and overcrowded with competitors; how satiety enters in, new objects of struggle and ambition are sought, and forgotten aims are awakened to life; how the drama is repeated, and the spectators become altogether weary of looking on, because the whole gamut seems to have been run throughand then comes a stoppage, an expiration, and the rivulets are lost in the sand. The end, or at any rate an end, has come. 115. What Landscapes give Permanent Delight. Such and such a landscape has features eminently suited for painting, but I cannot find the formula for it; it remains beyond my grasp 262 as a whole. I notice that all landscapes which please me permanently have a simple geometrical scheme of lines underneath all their complexity. Without such a mathematical substratum no scenery becomes artistically pleasing. Perhaps this rule may be applied symbolically to human beings. 116. Reading Aloud.The ability to read aloud involves of necessity the ability to declaim. Everywhere we must apply pale tints, but we must determine the degree of pallor in close relation to the richly and deeply coloured background, that always hovers before our eyes and acts as our guidein other words, in accordance with the way in which we should declaim the same passages. That is why we must be able to declaim. 117. The Dramatic Sense. He who has not the four subtler senses of art tries to understand everything with the fifth sense, which is the coarsest of allthe dramatic sense. 118. Herder. Herder fails to be all that he made people think he was and himself wished to think he was. He was no great thinker or discoverer, no newly fertile soil with the unexhausted strength of a virgin forest. But he possessed in the highest degree the power of scenting the future, he saw and picked the first-fruits of the seasons earlier than all others, and they then believed that he had made them grow. Between darkness and light, youth and age, his mind was like a hunter on the watch, looking everywhere for transitions, depressions, convulsions, the outward and visible signs of internal growth. The unrest of spring drove him to and fro, but he was himself not the spring.At times, indeed, he had some inkling of this, and yet would fain not have believed ithe, the ambitious priest, who would have so gladly been the intellectual pope of his epoch! This is his despair. He seems to have lived long as a pretender to several kingdoms or even to a universal monarchy. He had his following which believed in him, among others the young Goethe. But whenever crowns were really distributed, he was passed over. Kant, Goethe, and then the first true German historians and scholars robbed him of what he thought he had reserved for himself (although in silence and secret he often thought the reverse). Just when he doubted in himself, he gladly clothed himself in dignity and enthusiasm: these were often in him mere garments, which had to hide a great deal and also to deceive and comfort him. He really had fire and enthusiasm, but his ambition was far greater! It blew impatiently at the fire, which flickered, crackled, and smokedhis style flickers, cr ackles, and smokesbut he yearned for the great flame which never broke out. He did not sit at the table of the genuine creators, and his ambition did not admit of his sitting modestly among those who simply enjoy. Thus he was a restless spirit, the taster of all intellectual dishes, which were collected by the Germans from every quarter and every age in the course of half a century. Never really happy and satisfied, Herder was also too often ill, and then at times envy sat by his bed, and hypocrisy paid he r visit as well. He always had an air of being scarred and crippled, and he lacked simple, stalwart manliness more completely than any of the so- called classical writers. 119. Scent of Words.Every word has its scent; there is a harmony and discord of scents, and so too of words. 120. The Far -Fetched Style. The natural style is an offence to the lover of the far -fetched style. 263 121. A Vow. I will never again read an author of whom one can suspect that he wanted to make a book, but only those writers whose thoughts unexpectedly became a book. 122. The Artistic Convention.Three-fourths of Homer is convention, and the same is the case with all the Greek artists, who had no reason for falling into the modern craze for originality. They had no fear of convention, for after all convention was a link between them and their public. Conventions are the artistic means acquired for the understanding of the hearer; the common speech, learnt with much toil, whereby the artist can really communicate his ideas. All the mo re when he wishes, like the Greek poets and musicians, to conquer at once with each of his works (since he is accustomed to compete publicly with one or two rivals), the first condition is that he must be understood at once, and this is only possible by means of convention. What the artist devises beyond convention he offers of his own free will and takes a risk, his success at best resulting in the setting -up of a new convention. As a rule originality is marvelled at, sometimes even worshipped, but seldom understood. A stubborn avoidance of convention means a desire not to be understood. What, then, is the object of the modern craze for originality? 123. Artists Affectation of Scientific Method. Schiller, like other German artists, fancied that if a man had intellect he was entitled to improvise even with the pen on all difficult subjects. So there we see his prose essays in every way a model of how not to attack scientific questions of sthetics and ethics, and a danger for young readers who, in their admiration for Schiller the poet, have not the courage to think meanly of Schiller the thinker and author.The temptation to traverse for once the forbidden paths, and to have his say in science as well, is easy and pardonable in the artist. For even the ablest artist from time to time finds his handicraft and his workshop unendurable. This temptation is so strong that it makes the artist show all the world what no one wishes to see, that his little chamber of thought is cramped and untidy. Why not, indeed? He does not live there. He proceeds to show that the storeroom of his knowledge is partly empty, partly filled with lumber. Why not, indeed? This condition does not really become the artist-child badly. In particular, the artist shows that for the very easiest exercises of scientific method, which are accessible even to beginners, his joints are too stiff and untrained. Even of that he need not really be ashamed! On the other hand, he often develops no mean art in imitating all the mistakes, vices, and base pedantries that are practised in the scientific community, in the belief that these belong to the appearance of the thing, if not to the thing itself. T his is the very point that is so amusing in artists writing, that the artist involuntarily acts as his vocation demands: he parodies the scientific and inartistic natures. Towards science he should show no attitude but that of parody, in so far as he is an artist and only an artist. 124. The Faust -Idea. A little sempstress is seduced and plunged into despair: a great scholar of all the four Faculties is the evil-doer. That cannot have happened in the ordinary course, surely? No, certainly not! Without the aid of the devil incarnate, the great scholar would never have achieved the deed. Is this really destined to be the greatest German tragic idea, as one hears it said among Germans?But for Goethe even this idea was too terrible. His kind heart could not avoid placing the little sempstress, the good soul that forgot itself but once, near to the saints, after her involuntary death. Even the great scholar, the good man with the dark impulse, is brought into heaven in the nick of time, by a trick which is 264 played upon the devil at the decisive moment. In heaven the lovers find themselves again. Goethe once said that his nature was too conciliatory for really tragic subjects. 125. Are there German Classics ?Sainte -Beuve observes somewhere that the word classic does not suit the genius of certain literatures. For instance, nobody could talk seriously of German classics. What do our German publishers, who are about to add fifty more to the fifty German classics we are told to accept, say to that? Does i t not almost seem as if one need only have been dead for the last thirty years, and lie a lawful prey to the public, 40F41 in order to hear suddenly and unexpectedly the trumpet of resurrection as a Classic ? And this in an age and a nation where at least five out of the six great fathers of its literature are undoubtedly antiquated or becoming antiquatedwithout there being any need for the age or the nation to be ashamed of this. For those writers have given way before the strength of our timelet that be considered in all fairness! Goethe, as I have indicated, I do not include. He belongs to a higher species than national literatures : hence life, revival, and decay do not enter into the reckoning in his relations with his countrymen. He lived and now lives but for the few; for the majority he is nothing but a flourish of vanity which is trumpeted from time to time across the border into foreign ears. Goethe, not merely a great and good man, but a culture , is in German history an interlude without a sequel. Who, for instance, would be able to point to any trace of Goethe s influence in German politics of the last seventy years (whereas the influence, certainly of Schiller, and perhaps of Lessing, can be traced in the political world)? But what of those five others? Klopstock, in a most honourable way, became out of date even in his own lifetime, and so completely that the meditative book of his later years, The Republic of Learning, has never been taken seriously from that day to this. Herders misfortune was that his writings were always either new or antiquated. Thus for stronger and more subtle minds (like Lichtenberg) even Herder s masterpiece, his Ideas for the History of Mankind, was in a way antiquated at the very moment of its appearance. Wieland, who lived to the full and made others live likewise, was clever enough to anticipate by death the waning of his influence. Lessing, perhaps, still lives to-daybut among a young and ever younger band of scholars. Schiller has fallen from the hands of young men into those of boys, of all German boys. It is a well-known sign of obsolescence when a book descends to people of less and less mature age.Well, what is it that has thrust these five into the background, so that well-educated men of affairs no longer read them? A better taste, a riper knowledge, a higher reverence for the real and the true: in other words, the very virtues which these five (and ten or twenty others of lesser repute) first re-planted in Germany, and which now, like a mighty forest, cast over their graves not only the shadow of awe, but something of the shadow of oblivion.But classical writers are not planters of intellectual and literary virtues. They bring those virtues to perfection and are their highest luminous peaks, and being brighter, freer, and purer than all that surrounds them, they remain shining above the nations when the nations themselves perish. There may come an elevated stage of humanity, in which the Europe of the peoples is a dark, forgotten thing, but Europe lives on in thirty books, very old but never antiquatedin the classics. 126. Interesting, but not Beautiful.This countryside conceals its meaning, but it has one that we should like to guess. Everywhere that I look, I read words and hints of words, but I do not know where begins the sentence that solves the riddle of all these hints. So I get a stiff neck in trying to discover whether I should start reading from this or that point. 41 The German copyright expires thirty years after publication. Tr. 265 127. Against Innovators in Language.The use of neologisms or archaisms, the prefe rence for the rare and the bizarre, the attempt to enrich rather than to limit the vocabulary, are always signs either of an immature or of a corrupted taste. A noble poverty but a masterly freedom within the limits of that modest wealth distinguishes the Greek artists in oratory. They wish to have less than the people hasfor the people is richest in old and newbut they wish to have that little better . The reckoning up of their archaic and exotic forms is soon done, but we never cease marvelling if we hav e an eye for their light and delicate manner in handling the commonplace and apparently long outworn elements in word and phrase. 128. Gloomy and Serious Authors.He who commits his sufferings to paper becomes a gloomy author, but he becomes a serious one if he tells us what he has suffered and why he is now enjoying a pleasurable repose. 129. Healthiness of Taste. How is it that health is less contagious than disease generally, and particularly in matters of taste? Or are there epidemics of health? 130. A Resolution.Never again to read a book that is born and christened (with ink) at the same moment. 131. Improving our Ideas.Improving our style means improving our ideas, and nothing else. He who does not at once concede this can never be convinced of the point. 132. Classical Books. The weakest point in every classical book is that it is written too much in the mother tongue of its author. 133. Bad Books.The book should demand pen, ink, and desk, but usually it is pen, ink, and desk that demand the book. That is why books are of so little account at present. 134. Presence of Sense. When the public reflects on paintings, it becomes a poet; when on poems, an investigator. At the moment when the artist summons it it is always lacking in the right sense, and accordingly in presence of sense, not in presence of mind. 135. Choice Ideas. The choice style of a momentous period does not only select its words but its ideas and both from the customary and prevailing usage. Venturesome ideas, that smell too fresh, are to the maturer taste no less repugnant than new and reckless images and phrases. Later on both choice ideas and choice words soon smack of mediocrity, because the scent of the choice vanishes quickly, and then nothing but the customary and commonplace elem ent is tasted. 136. Main Reason for Corruption of Style.The desire to display more sentiment than one really feels for a thing corrupts style, in language and in all art. All great art shows rather the 266 opposite tendency. Like every man of moral significance, it loves to check emotion on its way and not let it run its course to the very end. This modesty of letting emotion but half appear is most clearly to be observed, for example, in Sophocles. The features of sentiment seem to become beautified when sent iment feigns to be more shy than it really is. 137. An Excuse for the Heavy Style.The lightly uttered phrase seldom falls on the ear with the full weight of the subject. This is, however, due to the bad training of the ear, which by education must pass from what has hitherto been called music to the school of the higher harmonyin other words, to conversation. 138. Birds-Eye Views. Here torrents rush from every side into a ravine: their movement is so swift and stormy, and carries the eye along so quickly, that the bare or wooded mountain slopes around seem not to sink down but to fly down. We are in an agonised tension at the sight, as if behind all this were hidden some hostile element, before which all must fly, and against which the abyss alone gave protection. This landscape cannot be painted, unless we hover above it like a bird in the open air. Here for once the so- called bird s-eye view is not an artistic caprice, but the sole possibility. 139. Rash Comparisons.If rash comparisons are not proofs of the wantonness of the writer, they are proofs of the exhaustion of his imagination. In any case they bear witness to his bad taste. 140. Dancing in Chains. In the case of every Greek artist, poet, or writer we must ask: What is the new constraint which he imposes upon himself and makes attractive to his contemporaries, so as to find imitators? For the thing called invention (in metre, for example) is always a self -imposed fetter of this kind. Dancing in chainsto make that hard for themselves and then to spread a false notion that it is easy that is the trick that they wish to show us. Even in Homer we may perceive a wealth of inherited formul and laws of epic narration, within the circle of which he had to dance, and he himself created new conventions for them that came after. This was the discipline of the Greek poets: first to impose upon themselves a manifold constraint by means of the earlier poets; then to invent in addition a new constraint, to impose it upon themselves and cheerfully to overcome it, so that constraint and victory are perceived and admired. 141. Authors Copiousness.The last quality that a good author acquires is copiousness: whoever has it to begin with will never become a good author. The noblest racehorses are lean until they are permitted to rest from their victories. 142. Wheezing Heroes. Poets and artists who suffer from a narrow chest of the emotions generally make their heroes wheeze. They do not know what easy breathing means. 143. The Short-Sighted. 41F42The short-sighted are the deadly foes of all authors who let themselves go. These authors should know the wrath with which these people shut the book 42 Nietzsche himself was extremely short -sighted. Tr. 267 in which they observe that its creator needs fifty pages to express five ideas. And the cause of their wrath is that they have endangered what remains of their vision almost without compensation. A short-sighted person said, All authors let themselves go. Even the Holy Ghost? Even the Holy Ghost. But he had a right to, for he wrote for those who had lost their sight altogether. 144. The Style of Immortality. Thucydides and Tacitus both imagined immortal life for their works when they executed them. That might be guessed (if not known otherwise) from their style. The one thought to give permanence to his ideas by salting them, the other by boiling them down; and neither, it seems, made a miscalculation. 145. Against Images and Similes. By images and similes we convince, but we do not prove. That is why science has such a horror of images and similes. Science does not want to convince or make plausible, and rather seeks to provoke cold distrust by its mode of expression, by the bareness of its walls. For distrust is the touchstone for the gold of certainty. 146. Caution.In Germany, he who lacks thorough knowledge should beware of writing. The good German does not say in that case he is ignorant, but he is of doubtful character.This hasty conclusion, by the way, does great credit to the Germans. 147. Painted Skeletons.Painted skeletons are th ose authors who try to make up for their want of flesh by artistic colourings. 148. The Grand Style and Something Better.It is easier to learn how to write the grand style than how to write easily and simply. The reasons for this are inextricably bound up with morality. 149. Sebastian Bach. In so far as we do not hear Bach s music as perfect and experienced connoisseurs of counterpoint and all the varieties of the fugal style (and accordingly must dispense with real artistic enjoyment), we shall feel in listening to his musicin Goethe s magnificent phraseas if we were present at God s creation of the world. In other words, we feel here that something great is in the making but not yet madeour mighty modern music, which by conquering nationalities, the Church, and counterpoint has conquered the world. In Bach there is still too much crude Christianity, crude Germanism, crude scholasticism. He stands on the threshold of modern European music, but turns from thence to look at the Middle Ages. 150. Hndel. Hndel, who in the invention of his music was bold, original, truthful, powerful, inclined to and akin to all the heroism of which a nation is capable, often proved stiff, cold, nay even weary of himself in composition. He applied a few well-tried methods of execution, wrote copiously and quickly, and was glad when he had finishedbut that joy was not the joy of God and other creators in the eventide of their working day. 151. 268 Haydn.So far as genius can exist in a man who is merely good, Haydn had genius. He went just as far as the limit which morality sets to intellect, and only wrote music that has no past. 152. Beethoven and Mozart.Beethoven s music often appears like a deeply emotional meditation on unexpectedly hearing once more a piece long thought to be forgotten, Tonal Innocence: it is music about music. In the song of the beggar and child in the street, in the monotonous airs of vagrant Italians, in the dance of the village inn or in carnival nights he discovers his melodies. He stores them together like a bee, snatching here and there some notes or a short phrase. To him these are hallowed memories of the better world, like the ideas of Plato. Mozart stands in quite a different relation to his melodies. He finds his inspiration not in hearing music but in gazing at life, at the most stirring life of southern lands. He was always dreaming of Italy, when he was not there. 153. Recitative. Formerly recitative was dry, but now we live in the age of moist recitative. It has fallen into the water, and the waves carry it whithersoever they list. 154. Cheerful Music. If for a long time we have heard no music, it then goes like a heavy southern wine all too quickly into the blood and leaves behind it a soul dazed with narcotics, half-awake, longing for sleep. This is particularly the case with cheerful music, which inspires in us bitterness and pain, satiety and home-sickness together, and forces us to sip again and again as at a sweetened draught of poison. The hall of gay, noisy merriment then seems to grow narrow, the light to lose its brightness and become browner. At last we feel as if this music were penetrating to a prison where a poor wretch cannot sleep for home-sickness. 155. Franz Schubert. Franz Schubert, inferior as an artist to the other great musicians, had nevertheless the largest share of inherited musical wealth. He spent it with a free hand and a kind heart, so that for a few centuries musicians will continue to nibble at his ideas and inspirations. In his works we find a store of unused inventions; the greatness of others will lie in making use of those inventions. If Beethoven may be called the ideal listener for a troubadour, Schubert has a right to be called the ideal troubadour. 156. Modern Musical Execution.Great tragic or dramatic execution of music acquires its character by imitating the gesture of the great sinner, such as Christianity conceives and desires him: the slow -stepping, passionately brooding man, distracted by the agonies of conscience, now flying in terror, now clutching with delight, now standing still in despairand all the other marks of great sinfulness. Only on the Christian assumption that all men are great sinners and do nothing but sin could we justify the application of this style of execution to all music. So far, music would be the reflection of all the actions and impulses of man, and would continually have to express by gestures the language of the great sinner. At such a performance, a listener who was not enough of a Christian to understand this logic might indeed cry out in horror, For the love of Heaven, how did sin find its way into music? 157. 269 Felix Mendelssohn.Felix Mendelssohns music is the music of the good taste that enjoys all the good things that have ever existed. It always points behind. How could it have much in front, much of a future?But did he want it to have a future? He possessed a virtue rare among artists, that of gratitude without arrire -pense . This virtue, too, always points behind. 158. A Mother of Arts. In our sceptical age, real devotion requires almost a brutal heroism of ambition. Fanatical shutting of the eyes and bending of the knee no longer suffice. Would it not be possible for ambitionin its eagerness to be the last devotee of all the ages to become the begetter of a final church music, as it has been the begetter of the final church architecture? (They call it the Jesuit style.) 159. Freedom in Fetters a Princely Freedom. Chopin, the last of the modern musicians, who gazed at and worshipped beauty, like Leopardi; Chopin, the Pole, the inimitable (none that came before or after him has a right to this name) Chopin had the same princely punctilio in convention that Raphael shows in the use of the simplest traditional colours. The only differen ce is that Chopin applies them not to colour but to melodic and rhythmic traditions. He admitted the validity of these traditions because he was born under the sway of etiquette. But in these fetters he plays and dances as the freest and daintiest of spirits, and, be it observed, he does not spurn the chain. 160. Chopin s Barcarolle. Almost all states and modes of life have a moment of rapture, and good artists know how to discover that moment. Such a moment there is even in life by the seashorethat dreary , sordid, unhealthy existence, dragged out in the neighbourhood of a noisy and covetous rabble. This moment of rapture Chopin in his Barcarolle expressed in sound so supremely that Gods themselves, when they heard it, might yearn to lie long summer evenings in a boat. 161. Robert Schumann. The Stripling, as the romantic songsters of Germany and France of the first three decades of this century imagined him this stripling was completely translated into song and melody by Robert Schumann, the eternal youth, so long as he felt himself in full possession of his powers. There are indeed moments when his music reminds one of the eternal old maid. 162. Dramatic Singers. Why does this beggar sing? Probably he does not know how to wail. Then he does right. But our dramatic singers, who wail because they do not know how to singare they also in the right? 163. Dramatic Music. For him who does not see what is happening on the stage, dramatic music is a monstrosity, just as the running commentary to a lost text is a monstrosity. Such music requires us to have ears where our eyes are. This, however, is doing violence to Euterpe, who, poor Muse, wants to have her eyes and ears where the other Muses have theirs. 164. 270 Victory and Reasonableness. Unfortunately in the sthetic wars, which artists provoke by their works and apologias for their works, just as is the case in real war, it is might and not reason that decides. All the world now assumes as a historical fact that, in his dispute with Piccini, Gluck was in the right. At any rate, he was victorious, and had might on his side. 165. Of the Principle of Musical Execution.Do the modern musical performers really believe that the supreme law of their art is to give every piece as much high -relief as is possible, and to make it speak at all costs a dramatic language? Is not this principle, when applied for example to Mozart, a veritable sin against the spiritthe gay, sunny, airy, delicate spiritof Mozart, whose seriousness was of a kindly and not awe-inspiring order, whose pictures do not try to leap from the wall and drive away the beholder in panic? Or do you think that all Mozart s music is identical with the statue -music in Don Juan? And not only Mozarts, but all music? You reply that the advantage of your princi ple lies in its greater effect . You would be right if there did not remain the counter-question, On whom has the effect operated, and on whom should an artist of the first rank desire to produce his effect? Never on the populace! Never on the immature! Never on the morbidly sensitive! Never on the diseased! And above all never on the blas ! 166. The Music of To- Day. This ultra -modern music, with its strong lungs and weak nerves, is frightened above all things of itself. 167. Where Music is at Home. Music reaches its high -water mark only among men who have not the ability or the right to argue. Accordingly, its chief promoters are princes, whose aim is that there should be not much criticism nor even much thought in their neighbourhood. Next come societies which, under some pressure or other (political or religious), are forced to become habituated to silence, and so feel all the greater need of spells to charm away emotional ennuithese spells being generally eternal love-making and eternal music. Thirdly, we must reckon whole nations in which there is no society, but all the greater number of individuals with a bent towards solitude, mystical thinking, and a reverence for all that is inexpressible; these are the genuine musical souls. The Greeks, as a n ation delighting in talking and argument, accordingly put up with music only as an hors d uvre to those arts which really admit of discussion and dispute. About music one can hardly even think clearly. The Pythagoreans, who in so many respects were except ional Greeks, are said to have been great musicians. This was the school that invented a five- years silence, 42F43 but did not invent a dialectic. 168. Sentimentality in Music. We may be ever so much in sympathy with serious and profound music, yet nevertheless, or perhaps all the more for that reason, we shall at occasional moments be overpowered, entranced, and almost melted away by its oppositeI mean, by those simple Italian operatic airs which, in spite of all their monotony of rhythm and childishness of harmony, seem at times to sing to us like the very soul of music. Admit this or not as you please, you Pharisees of good taste, it is so, and it is my present task to propound the riddle that it is so, and to nibble a little myself at the solution. In childhood s days we tasted the honey of many things for the first time. Never was honey so good as then; it 43 In the sixth century b.c. Pythagoras founded at Croton a school somewhat resembling a monastic order. Among the ordeals for novitiates was enforced silence for five years. Tr. 271 seduced us to life, into abundant life, in the guise of the first spring, the first flower, the first butterfly, the first friendship. Thenperhaps in our ninth year or sowe heard our first music, and this was the first that we understood; thus the simplest and most childish tunes, that were not much more than a sequel to the nurses lullaby and the strolling fiddlers tune, were our first experience. (For even the most trifling revelations of art need preparation and study; there is no immediate effect of art, whatever charming fables the philosophers may tell.) Our sensation on hearing these Italian airs is associated with those first musical raptures, the strongest of our lives. The bliss of childhood and its flight, the feeling that our most precious possession can never be brought back, all this moves the chords of the soul more strongly than the most serious and profound music can move them.This mingling of sthetic pleasure with moral pain, which nowadays it is customary to call (rather too haughtily, I think) sentimentality it is the moo d of Faust at the end of the first scene this sentimentality of the listener is all to the advantage of Italian music. It is a feeling which the experienced connoisseurs in art, the pure sthetes, like to ignore.Moreover, almost all music has a magica l effect only when we hear it speak the language of our own past . Accordingly, it seems to the layman that all the old music is continually growing better, and that all the latest is of little value. For the latter arouses no sentimentality, that most es sential element of happiness, as aforesaid, for every man who cannot approach this art with pure sthetic enjoyment. 169. As Friends of Music.Ultimately we are and remain good friends with music, as we are with the light of the moon. Neither, after all, tries to supplant the sun: they only want to illumine our nights to the best of their powers. Yet we may jest and laugh at them, may we not? Just a little, at least, and from time to time? At the man in the moon, at the woman in the music? 170. Art in an Ag e of Work.We have the conscience of an industrious epoch. This debars us from devoting our best hours and the best part of our days to art, even though that art be the greatest and worthiest. Art is for us a matter of leisure, of recreation, and we consec rate to it the residue of our time and strength. This is the cardinal fact that has altered the relation of art to life. When art makes its great demands of time and strength upon its recipients, it has to battle against the conscience of the industrious a nd efficient, it is relegated to the idle and conscienceless, who, by their very nature, are not exactly suited to great art, and consider its claims arrogant. It might, therefore, be all over with art, since it lacks air and the power to breathe. But perhaps the great art attempts, by a sort of coarsening and disguising, to make itself at home in that other atmosphere, or at least to put up with itan atmosphere which is really a natural element only for petty art, the art of recreation, of pleasant distra ction. This happens nowadays almost everywhere. Even the exponents of great art promise recreation and distraction; even they address themselves to the exhausted; even they demand from him the evening hours of his working- dayjust like the artists of the e ntertaining school, who are content to smooth the furrowed brow and brighten the lack- lustre eye. What, then, are the devices of their mightier brethren? These have in their medicine-chests the most powerful excitants, which might give a shock even to a ma n half -dead: they can deafen you, intoxicate you, make you shudder, or bring tears to your eyes. By this means they overpower the exhausted man and stimulate him for one night to an over-lively condition, to an ecstasy of terror and delight. This great art, as it now lives in opera, tragedy, and musichave we a right to be angry with it, because of its perilous fascination, as we should be angry with a cunning courtesan? Certainly not. It would far rather live in the pure element of morning calm, and would far rather make its appeal to the fresh, expectant, vigorous morning-soul of 272 the beholder or listener. Let us be thankful that it prefers living thus to vanishing altogether. But let us also confess that an era that once more introduces free and complete h igh-days and holidays into life will have no use for our great art. 171. The Employees of Science and the Others. Really efficient and successful men of science might be collectively called The Employees. If in youth their acumen is sufficiently practised, their memory is full, and hand and eye have acquired sureness, they are appointed by an older fellow-craftsman to a scientific position where their qualities may prove useful. Later on, when they have themselves gained an eye for the gaps and defects in their science, they place themselves in whatever position they are needed. These persons all exist for the sake of science. But there are rarer spirits, spirits that seldom succeed or fully mature for whose sake science exists at least, in their view. T hey are often unpleasant, conceited, or cross -grained men, but almost always prodigies to a certain extent. They are neither employees nor employers; they make use of what those others have worked out and established, with a certain princely carelessness a nd with little and rare praise just as if the others belonged to a lower order of beings. Yet they possess the same qualities as their fellow -workers, and that sometimes in a less developed form. Moreover, they have a peculiar limitation, from which the others are free; this makes it impossible to put them into a place and to see in them useful tools. They can only live in their own air and on their own soil. This limitation suggests to them what elements of a science are theirs in other words, what they can carry home into their house and atmosphere: they think that they are always collecting their scattered property. If they are prevented from building at their own nest, they perish like shelterless birds. The loss of freedom causes them to wilt away. If they show, like their colleagues, a fondness for certain regions of science, it is always only regions where the fruits and seeds necessary to them can thrive. What do they care whether science, taken as a whole, has untilled or badly tilled regions? They lack all impersonal interest in a scientific problem. As they are themselves personal through and through, all their knowledge and ideas are remoulded into a person, into a living complexity, with its parts interdependent, overlapping, jointly nurtured, and with a peculiar atmosphere and scent as a whole. Such natures, with their system of personal knowledge, produce the illusion that a science (or even the whole of philosophy) is finished and has reached its goal. The life in their system works this mag ic, which at times has been fatal to science and deceptive to the really efficient workers above described, and at other times, when drought and exhaustion prevailed, has acted as a kind of restorative, as if it were the air of a cool, refreshing resting -place. These men are usually called philosophers . 172. Recognition of Talent.As I went through the village of S., a boy began to crack his whip with all his mighthe had made great progress in this art, and he knew it. I threw him a look of recognitionin reality it hurt me cruelly. We do the same in our recognition of many of the talents. We do good to them when they hurt us. 173. Laughing and Smiling.The more joyful and assured the mind becomes, the more man loses the habit of loud laughter. In compensation, there is an intellectual smile continually bubbling up in him, a sign of his astonishment at the innumerable concealed delights of a good existence. 174. 273 The Talk of Invalids.Just as in spiritual grief we tear our hair, strike our fore heads, lacerate our cheeks or even (like dipus) gouge our eyes out, so against violent physical pain we call to our aid a bitter, violent emotion, through the recollection of slanderous and malignant people, through the denigration of our future, through the sword- pricks and acts of malice which we mentally direct against the absent. And at times it is true that one devil drives out anotherbut then we have the other.Hence a different sort of talk, tending to alleviate pain, should be recommended invalids: reflections upon the kindnesses and courtesies that can be performed towards friend and foe. 175. Mediocrity as a Mask. Mediocrity is the happiest mask which the superior mind can wear, because it does not lead the great majority that is, the mediocre to think that there is any disguise. Yet the superior mind assumes the mask just for their sakeso as not to irritate them, nay, often from a feeling of pity and kindness. 176. The Patient. The pine tree seems to listen, the fir tree to wait, and both without impatience. They do not give a thought to the petty human being below who is consumed by his impatience and his curiosity. 177. The Best Joker. My favourite joke is the one that takes the place of a heavy and rather hesitating idea, and that at once beckons with its finger and winks its eye. 178. The Accessaries of all Reverence. Wherever the past is revered, the over -cleanly and over - tidy people should not be admitted. Piety does not feel content without a little dust, dirt, and dross. 179. The Great Danger of Savants. It is just the most thorough and profound savants who are in peril of seeing their life s goal set ever lower and lower, and, with a feeling of this in their minds, to become ever more discouraged and more unendurable in the latter half of their lives. At first they plunge into their science with spacious hopes and set themselves daring tasks, the ends of which are already anticipated by their imaginations. Then there are moments as in the lives of the great maritime discoverers knowledge, presentiment, and power raise each other higher and higher, until a new shore first dawns upon the eye in the far distance. But now the stern man recognises more and more how important it is that the individual task of the inquirer should be limited as far as possible, so that it may be entirely accomplished and the intolerable waste of force from which earlier periods of science suffered may be avoided. In those days everything was done ten times over, and then the eleventh always had the last and best word. Yet the more the savant learns and practises this art of solving riddles in their entirety, the more pleasure he finds in so doing. But at the same time his demands upon what is here called entirety grow more exacting. He sets aside everything that must remain in this sense incomplete, he acquires a disgust and an acute scent for the half-solublefor all that can only give a kind of certainty in a general and indefinite form. His youthful plans crumble away before his eyes. There remains scarcely anything but a few little knots, in untying which the master now takes his pleasure and shows his strength. Then, in the midst of all this useful, restless activity, he, now grown old, is suddenly then often overcome by a deep misgiving, a sort of torment of conscience. He looks upon himself as one changed, as if he were diminished, humbled, transformed into a dexterous dwarf ; he 274 grows anxious as to whether mastery in small matters be not a convenience, an escape from the summons to greatness in life and form. But he cannot pass beyond any longer the time for that has gone by. 180. Teachers in the Age of Books. Now that self -education and mutual education are becoming more widespread, the teacher in his usual form must become almost unnecessary. Friends eager to l earn, who wish to master some branch of knowledge together, find in our age of books a shorter and more natural way than school and teachers. 181. Vanity as the Greatest Utility. Originally the strong individual uses not only Nature but even societies and weaker individuals as objects of rapine. He exploits them, so far as he can, and then passes on. As he lives from hand to mouth, alternating between hunger and superfluity, he kills more animals than he can eat, and robs and maltreats men more than is necessary. His manifestation of power is at the same time one of revenge against his cramped and worried existence. Furthermore, he wishes to be held more powerful than he is, and thus misuses opportunities; the accretion of fear that he begets being an accretion of power. He soon observes that he stands or falls not by what he is but by what he is thought to be. Herein lies the origin of vanity. The man of power seeks by every means to increase others faith in his power.The thralls who tremble before him and serve him know, for their part, that they are worth just so much as they appear to him to be worth, and so they work with an eye to this valuation rather than to their own self-satisfaction. We know vanity only in its most weakened forms, in its idealisations and its small doses, because we live in a late and very emasculated state of society. Originally vanity is the great utility, the strongest means of preservation. And indeed vanity will be greater, the cleverer the individual, because an increase in the belief in power is easier than an increase in the power itself, but only for him who has intellect or (as must be the case under primitive conditions) who is cunning and crafty. 182. Weather -Signs of Culture.There are so few decisive weather -signs of culture that we must be glad to have at least one unfailing sign at hand for use in house and garden. To test whether a man belongs to us (I mean to the free spirits) or not, we must test his sentiments regarding Christianity. If he looks upon Christianity with other than a critical eye, we turn our backs to him, for he brings us impure air and bad weather.It is no longer our task to teach such men what a sirocco wind is. They have Moses and the prophets of weather and of enlightenment. 43F44 If they will not listen to these, then 183. There is a Proper Time for Wrath and Punishment.Wrath and punishment are our inheritance from the animals. Man does not become of age until he has restored to the animals this gift of the cradle. Herein lies buried on e of the mightiest ideas that men can have, the idea of a progress of all progresses.Let us go forward together a few millenniums, my friends! There is still reserved for mankind a great deal of joy, the very scent of which has not yet been wafted to the men of our day! Indeed, we may promise ourselves this joy, nay summon and conjure it up as a necessary thing, so long as the development of human reason does not stand still. Some day we shall no longer be reconciled to the logical sin that lurks in all wr ath and punishment, whether exercised by the individual or by societysome day, 44 In the German Aufklrung there is a play on the sense clearing up (of weather) and enlightenment. Tr. 275 when head and heart have learnt to live as near together as they now are far apart. That they no longer stand so far apart as they did originally is fairly palpable from a glance at the whole course of humanity. The individual who can review a life of introspective work will become conscious of the rapprochement arrived at, with a proud delight at the distance he has bridged, in order that he may thereupon venture upon more ample hopes. 184. Origin of Pessimists. A snack of good food often decides whether we are to look to the future with hollow eye or in hopeful mood. The same influence extends to the very highest and most intellectual states. Discontent and reviling of the worl d are for the present generation an inheritance from starveling ancestors. Even in our artists and poets we often notice that, however exuberant their life, they are not of good birth, and have often, from oppressed and ill-nourished ancestors, inherited in their blood and brain much that comes out as the subject and even the conscious colouring of their work. The culture of the Greeks is a culture of men of wealth, in fact, inherited wealth. For a few centuries they lived better than we do (better in every sense, in particular far more simply in food and drink). Then the brain finally became so well -stored and subtle, and the blood flowed so quickly, like a joyous, clear wine, that the best in them came to light no longer as gloomy, distorted, and violent, but full of beauty and sunshine. 185. Of Reasonable Death. Which is more reasonable, to stop the machine when the works have done the task demanded of them, or to let it run on until it stands still of its own accordin other words, is destroyed? Is not the latter a waste of the cost of upkeep, a misuse of the strength and care of those who serve? Are men not here throwing away that which would be sorely needed elsewhere? Is not a kind of contempt of the machines propagated, in that many of them are so usel essly tended and kept up?I am speaking of involuntary (natural) and voluntary (reasonable) death. Natural death is independent of all reason and is really an irrational death, in which the pitiable substance of the shell determines how long the kernel is to exist or not; in which, accordingly, the stunted, diseased and dull- witted jailer is lord, and indicates the moment at which his distinguished prisoner shall die. Natural death is the suicide of naturein other words, the annihilation of the most rational being through the most irrational element that is attached thereto. Only through religious illumination can the reverse appear; for then, as is equitable, the higher reason (God) issues its orders, which the lower reason has to obey. Outside religious thought natural death is not worth glorifying. The wise dispensation and disposal of death belongs to that now quite incomprehensible and immoral-sounding morality of the future, the dawn of which it will be an ineffable delight to behold. 186. Retrograde I nfluences. All criminals force society back to earlier stages of culture than that in which they are placed for the time being. Their influence is retrograde. Let us consider the tools that society must forge and maintain for its defence: the cunning detec tives, the jailers, the hangmen. Nor should we forget the public counsel for prosecution and defence. Finally we may ask ourselves whether the judge himself and punishment and the whole legal procedure are not oppressive rather than elevating in their reaction upon all who are not law-breakers. For we shall never succeed in arraying self-defence and revenge in the garb of innocence, and so long as men are used and sacrificed as a means to the end of society, all loftier humanity will deplore this necessity. 187. 276 War as a Remedy. For nations that are growing weak and contemptible war may be prescribed as a remedy, if indeed they really want to go on living. National consumption as well as individual admits of a brutal cure. The eternal will to live and inability to die is, however, in itself already a sign of senility of emotion. The more fully and thoroughly we live, the more ready we are to sacrifice life for a single pleasurable emotion. A people that lives and feels in this wise has no need of war. 188. Intellectual and Physical Transplantation as Remedies. The different cultures are so many intellectual climates, every one of which is peculiarly harmful or beneficial to this or that organism. History as a whole, as the knowledge of different cultures, is the science of remedies, but not the science of the healing art itself. We still need a physician who can make use of these remedies, in order to send every onetemporarily or permanently to the climate that just suits him. To live in the present, within the limits of a single culture, is insufficient as a universal remedy: too many highly useful kinds of men, who cannot breathe freely in this atmosphere, would perish. With the aid of history we must give them air and try to preserve them: even men of lowe r cultures have their value. Add to this cure of intellects that humanity, on considerations of bodily health, must strive to discover by means of a medical geography what kinds of degeneration and disease are caused by each region of the earth, and conversely, what ingredients of health the earth affords: and then, gradually, nations, families, and individuals must be transplanted long and permanently enough for them to become masters of their inherited physical infirmities. The whole world will finally be a series of sanatoria. 189. Reason and the Tree of Mankind.What you all fear in your senile short-sightedness, regarding the over-population of the world, gives the more hopeful a mighty task. Man is some day to become a tree overshadowing the whole earth, with millions upon millions of buds that shall all grow to fruits side by side, and the earth itself shall be prepared for the nourishment of this tree. That the shoot, tiny as yet, may increase in sap and strength; that the sap may flow in countless channels for the nutrition of the whole and the partsfrom these and similar tasks we must derive our standard for measuring whether a man of to-day is useful or worthless. The task is unspeakably great and adventurous: let us all contribute our share to pre vent the tree from rotting before its time! The historically trained mind will no doubt succeed in calling up the human activities of all the ages before its eyes, as the community of ants with its cunningly wrought mounds stands before our eyes. Superfici ally judged, mankind as a whole, like ant-kind, might admit of our speaking of instinct. On a closer examination we observe how whole nations, nay whole centuries, take pains to discover and test new means of benefiting the great mass of humanity, and thus finally the great common fruit-tree of the world. Whatever injury the individual nations or periods may suffer in this testing process, they have each become wise through this injury, and from them the tide of wisdom slowly pours over the principles of whole races and whole epochs. Ants too go astray and make blunders. Through the folly of its remedies, mankind may well go to rack and ruin before the proper time. There is no sure guiding instinct for the former or the latter. Rather must we boldly face t he great task of preparing the earth for a plant of the most ample and joyous fruitfulnessa task set by reason to reason! 190. The Praise of Disinterestedness and its Origin.Between two neighbouring chieftains there was a long -standing quarrel: they laid waste each other s territories, stole cattle, and burnt 277 down houses, with an indecisive result on the whole, because their power was fairly equal. A third, who from the distant situation of his property was able to keep aloof from these feuds, yet had reason to dread the day when one of the two neighbours should gain a decisive preponderance, at last intervened between the combatants with ceremonial goodwill. Secretly he lent a heavy weight to his peace proposal by giving either to understand that he would henceforth join forces with the other against the one who strove to break the peace. They met in his presence, they hesitatingly placed into his hand the hands that had hitherto been the tools and only too often the causes of hatredand then they really and seriously tried to keep the peace. Either saw with astonishment how suddenly his prosperity and his comfort increased; how he now had as neighbour a dealer ready to buy and sell instead of a treacherous or openly scornful evil-doer; how even, in unforeseen troubles, they could reciprocally save each other from distress, instead of, as before, making capital out of this distress of his neighbour and enhancing it to the highest degree. It even seemed as if the human type had improved in both countries, for the eyes had become brighter, the forehead had lost its wrinkles; all now felt confidence in the future and nothing is more advantageous for the souls and bodies of men than this confidence. They saw each other every year on the anniversary of the alliance, the chieftains as well as their retinue, and indeed before the eyes of the mediator, whose mode of action they admired and revered more and more, the greater the profit that they owed to him became. Then his mode of action was called disinterested . They had looked far too fixedly at the profit they had reaped themselves hitherto to see anything more of their neighbours method of dealing than that his condition in consequence of this had not altered so much as their own; he had rather remained the same: and thus it appeared that the former had not had his profit in view. For the first time people said to themselves that disinterestedness was a virtue. It is true that in minor private matters similar circumstances had arisen, but men only had eyes for this virtue when it was depicted on the walls in a large script that was legible to the whole community. Moral qualities are not recognised as virtues, endowed with names, held in esteem, and recommended as worthy of acquisition until the moment when they have visibly decided the happiness and destiny of whole societies. For then the loftiness of sentiment and the excitation of the inner creative forces is in many so great, that offerings are brought to this quality, offerings from the best of what each possess es. At its feet the serious man lays his seriousness, the dignified man his dignity, women their gentleness, the young all the wealth of hope and futurity that in them lies; the poet lends it words and names, sets it marching in the procession of similar b eings, gives it a pedigree, and finally, as is the way of artists, adores the picture of his fancy as a new godheadhe even teaches others to adore. Thus in the end, with the co-operation of universal love and gratitude, a virtue becomes, like a statue, a repository of all that is good and honourable, a sort of temple and divine personage combined. It appears thenceforward as an individual virtue, as an absolute entity, which it was not before, and exercises the power and privileges of a sanctified super-humanity.In the later days of Greece the cities were full of such deified human abstractions (if one may so call them). The nation, in its own fashion, had set up a Platonic Heaven of Ideas on earth, and I do not think that its inhabitants were felt to be less alive than any of the old Homeric divinities. 191. Days of Darkness.Days of Darkness is the name given in Norway to the period when the sun remains below the horizon the whole day long. The temperature then falls slowly but continually.A fine simile for all thinkers for whom the sun of the human future is temporarily eclipsed. 192. 278 The Philosophy of Luxury.A garden, figs, a little cheese, and three or four good friends that was the luxury of Epicurus. 193. The Epochs of Life.The real epochs of l ife are those brief periods of cessation midway between the rise and decline of a dominating idea or emotion. Here once again there is satisfaction: all the rest is hunger and thirstor satiety. 194. Dreams. Our dreams, if for once in a way they succeed and are complete generally a dream is a bungled piece of workare symbolic concatenations of scenes and images in place of a narrative poetical language. They paraphrase our experiences or expectations or relations with poetic boldness and definiteness, so that in the morning we are always astonished at ourselves when we remember the nature of our dream. In dreams we use up too much artistry and hence are often too poor in artistry in the daytime. 195. Nature and Science. As in nature, so in science the worse and less fertile soils are first cultivated because the means that science in its early stages has at command are fairly sufficient for this purpose. The working of the most fertile soils requires an enormous, carefully developed, persevering method, tangible individual results, and an organised body of well -trained workers. All these are found together only at a late stage. Impatience and ambition often grasp too early at these most fertile soils, but the results are then from the first null and void. In nature such losses would usually be avenged by the starvation of the settlers. 196. The Simple Life. A simple mode of life is nowadays difficult, requiring as it does far more reflection and gift for invention than even very clever people possess. The most honourable will perhaps still say, I have not the time for such lengthy reflection. The simple life is for me too lofty a goal: I will wait till those wiser than I have discovered it. 197. Peaks and Needle-Points.The poor fertility, the frequent celibacy, and in general the sexual coldness of the highest and most cultivated spirits, as that of the classes to which they belong, is essential in human economy. Intelligence recognises and makes use of the fact that at an acme of intellectual development the danger of a neurotic offspring is very great. Such men are the peaks of mankind they ought no longer to run out into needle-points. 198. Natura non facit saltum. However strongly man may develop upwards and seem to leap from one contradiction to another, a close observation will reveal the dovetails where the new building grows out of the old. This is the biographers task: he must reflect upon his subject on the principle that nature takes no jumps. 199. Clean, butHe who clothes himself with rags washed clean dresses cleanly, to be sure, but is still ragged. 200. The Solitary Speaks.In compensation for much disgust, disheartenment, boredomsuch as a lonely life without friends, books, duties, and passions must involvewe enjoy those short 279 spans of deep communion with ourselves and with Nature. He who fortifies himself completely against boredom fortifies himself against himself too. He will never drink the most powerful elixir from his own innermost spring. 201. False Renown. I hate those s o-called natural beauties which really have significance only through science, especially geographical science, but are insignificant in an sthetic sense: for example, the view of Mont Blanc from Geneva. This is an insignificant thing without the auxiliar y mental joy of science: the nearer mountains are all more beautiful and fuller of expression, but not nearly so high, adds that absurd depreciatory science. The eye here contradicts science: how can it truly rejoice in the contradiction? 202. Those that Travel for Pleasure. Like animals, stupid and perspiring, they climb mountains: people forgot to tell them that there were fine views on the way. 203. Too Much and Too Little.Men nowadays live too much and think too little. They have hunger and dyspepsia together, and become thinner and thinner, however much they eat. He who now says Nothing has happened to me is a blockhead. 204. End and Goal.Not every end is the goal. The end of a melody is not its goal, and yet if a melody has not reached its end, it has also not reached its goal. A parable. 205. Neutrality of Nature on a Grand Scale. The neutrality of Nature on a grand scale (in mountain, sea, forest, and desert) is pleasing, but only for a brief space. Afterwards we become impatient. Have they all nothing to say to us ? Do we not exist so far as they are concerned? There arises a feeling that a lse- majest is committed against humanity. 206. Forgetting our Purpose.In a journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every vocation is chosen and entered upon as means to an end, but is continued as the ultimate end. Forgetting our purpose is the most frequent form of folly. 207. Solar Orbit of an Idea. When an idea is just rising on the horizon, the soul s temperature is usually very low. Gradually the idea develops in warmth, and is hottest (that is to say, exerts its greatest influence) when belief in the idea is already on the wane. 208. How to have every Man against You.If some one now dared to say, He that is not for me is against me, he would at once have all against him. This sentiment does credit to our era. 209. Being Ashamed of Wealth.Our age endures only a single species of rich menthose who are ashamed of their wealth. If we hear it said of any one that he is very rich, we at once fe el a similar sentiment to that experienced at the sight of a repulsively swollen invalid, one suffering from diabetes or dropsy. We must with an effort remember our humanity, in order to go about with this rich man in such a way that he does not notice our feeling of disgust. 280 But as soon as he prides himself at all on his wealth, our feelings are mingled with an almost compassionate surprise at such a high degree of human unreason. We would fain raise our hands to heaven and cry, Poor deformed and overburdened creature, fettered a hundredfold, to whom every hour brings or may bring something unpleasant, in whose frame twitches every event that occurs in scores of countries, how can you make us believe that you feel at ease in your position? If you appear anywhere in public, we know that it is a sort of running the gauntlet amid countless glances that have for you only cold hate or importunity or silent scorn. You may earn more easily than others, but it is only a superfluous earning, which brings little joy, and the guarding of what you have earned is now, at any rate, a more troublesome business than any toilsome process of earning. You are continually suffering, because you are continually losing. What avails it you that they are always injecting you with fresh artificial blood? That does not relieve the pain of those cupping- glasses that are fixed, for ever fixed, on your neck!But, to be quite fair to you, it is difficult or perhaps impossible for you not to be rich. You must guard, you must earn more; the inherited bent of your character is the yoke fastened upon you. But do not on that account deceive usbe honestly and visibly ashamed of the yoke you wear, as in your soul you are weary and unwilling to wear it. This shame is no disgrace. 210. Extravagan t Presumptions. There are men so presumptuous that they can only praise a greatness which they publicly admire by representing it as steps and bridges that lead to themselves. 211. On the Soil of Insult.He who wishes to deprive men of a conception is generally not satisfied with refuting it and drawing out of it the illogical worm that resides within. Rather, when the worm has been killed, does he throw the whole fruit as well into the mire, in order to make it ignoble in men s sight and to inspire disgust. Thus he thinks that he has found a means of making the usual third -day resurrection of conceptions an impossibility.He is wrong, for on the very soil of insult, in the midst of the filth, the kernel of the conception soon produces new seeds.The right thing then, is not to scorn and bespatter what one wishes finally to remove, but to lay it tenderly on ice again and again, having regard to the fact that conceptions are very tena cious of life. Here we must act according to the maxim: One refutation is no refutation. 212. The Lot of Morality.Since spiritual bondage is being relaxed, morality (the inherited, traditional, instinctive mode of action in accordance with moral sentime nts) is surely also on the decline. This, however, is not the case with the individual virtues, moderation, justice, repose; for the greatest freedom of the conscious intellect leads at some time, even unconsciously, back to these virtues, and then enjoins their practice as expedient. 213. The Fanatic of Distrust and His Surety.The Elder : You wish to make the tremendous venture and instruct mankind in the great things? What is your surety? Pyrrho : It is this: I intend to warn men against myself; I intend to confess all the defects of my character quite openly, and reveal to the world my hasty conclusions, my contradictions, and my foolish blunders. Do not listen to me, I will say to them, until I have become equal to the meanest among you, nay am even less than he. Struggle against truth as long as you 281 can, from your disgust with her advocate. I shall be your seducer and betrayer if you find in me the slightest glimmering of respectability and dignity. The Elder : You promise too much; you cannot bear this burden. Pyrrho : Then I will tell men even that, and say that I am too weak, and cannot keep my promise. The greater my unworthiness, the more will they mistrust the truth, when it passes through my lips. The Elder : You propose to teach distrust of truth? Pyrrho : Yes; distrust as it never was yet on earth, distrust of anything and everything. This is the only road to truth. The right eye must not trust the left eye, and for some time light must be called darkness: this is the path that you must tread. Do not imagine that it will lead you to fruit trees and fair pastures. You will find on this road little hard grainsthese are truths. For years and years you will have to swallow handfuls of lies, so as not to die of hunger, although you know that they are lies. But those grains will be sown and planted, and perhaps, perhaps some day will come the harvest. No one may promise that day, unless he be a fanatic. The Elder : Friend, friend! Your words too are those of a fanatic! Pyrrho : You are right! I will be distrustful of all words. The Elder : Then you will have to be silent. Pyrrho : I shall tell men that I have to be silent, and that they are to mistrust my silence. The Elder : So you draw back from your undertaking? Pyrrho : On the contraryyou have shown me the door through which I must pass. The Elder : I dont know whether we yet completely understand each other? Pyrrho : Probably not. The Elder : If only you understand yourself! (Pyrrho turns round and laughs.) The Elder : Ah, friend! Silence and laughteris that now your whole philosophy? Pyrrho : There might be a worse. 214. European Books.In reading Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyre, Fontenelle (especially the Dialogues des Morts ), Vauvenargues, and Chamfort we are nearer to antiquity than in any group of six authors of other nations. Through these six the spirit of the last centuries before Christ has once more come into being, and they collectively form an important link in the great and still continuous chain of the Renaissance. Their books are raised above all changes of national taste and philosophical nuances from which as a rule every book takes and must take its hue in order to become famous. They contain more real ideas than all the books of German philosophers put together: ideas of the sort that breed ideas I am at a loss how to define to the end: enough to say that they appear to me writers who wrote neither for children nor for visionaries, neither for virgins nor for Christians, neither for Germans nor for I am again at a loss how to finish my list. To praise them in plain terms, I may say that had they been written in Greek, they would have been understood by Greeks. How much, on the other hand, would even a Plato have understood of the writings of our best German thinkersGoet he and Schopenhauer, for instanceto say nothing of the repugnance that he would have felt to their style, particularly to its obscure, exaggerated, and 282 occasionally dry- as-dust elements? And these are defects from which these two among German thinkers suffer least and yet far too much (Goethe as thinker was fonder than he should have been of embracing the cloud, and Schopenhauer almost constantly wanders, not with impunity, among symbols of objects rather than among the objects themselves).On the other hand, what clearness and graceful precision there is in these Frenchmen! The Greeks, whose ears were most refined, could not but have approved of this art, and one quality they would even have admired and reverencedthe French verbal wit: they were extremely fond of this quality, without being particularly strong in it themselves. 215. Fashion and Modernity.Wherever ignorance, uncleanness, and superstition are still rife, where communication is backward, agriculture poor, and the priesthood powerful, nationa l costumes are still worn. Fashion, on the other hand, rules where the opposite conditions prevail. Fashion is accordingly to be found next to the virtues in modern Europe. Are we to call it their seamy side? Masculine dress that is fashionable and no long er national proclaims of its wearer: firstly, that he does not wish to appear as an individual or as member of a class or race; that he has made an intentional suppression of these kinds of vanity a law unto himself: secondly, that he is a worker, and has little time for dressing and self - adornment, and moreover regards anything expensive or luxurious in material and cut as out of harmony with his work: lastly, that by his clothes he indicates the more learned and intellectual callings as those to which he stands or would like to stand nearest as a Europeanwhereas such national costumes as still exist would exhibit the occupations of brigand, shepherd, and soldier as the most desirable and distinguished. Within this general character of masculine fashion ex ist the slight fluctuations demanded by the vanity of young men, the dandies and dawdlers of our great citiesin other words, Europeans who have not yet reached maturity. European women are as yet far less mature, and for this reason the fluctuations with them are much greater. They also will not have the national costume, and hate to be recognised by their dress as German, French, or Russian. They are, however, very desirous of creating an impression as individuals. Then, too, their dress must leave no one in doubt that they belong to one of the more reputable classes of society (to good or high or great society), and on this score their pretensions are all the greater if they belong scarcely or not at all to that class. Above all, the young woman does not want to wear what an older woman wears, because she thinks she loses her market value if she is suspected of being somewhat advanced in years. The older woman, on the other hand, would like to deceive the world as long as possible by a youthful garb. From this competition must continually arise temporary fashions, in which the youthful element is unmistakably and inimitably apparent. But after the inventive genius of the young female artists has run riot for some time in such indiscreet revelations of youth (or rather, after the inventive genius of older, courtly civilisations and of still existing peoplesin fact, of the whole world of dress has been pressed into the service, and, say, the Spaniards, Turks, and ancient Greeks have been yoked together for the glorification of fair flesh), then they at last discover, time and again, that they have not been good judges of their own interest; that if they wish to have power over men, the game of hide- and-seek with the beautiful body is more likely to win than naked or half-naked honesty. And then the wheel of taste and vanity turns once more in an opposite direction. The rather older young women find that their kingdom has come, and the competition of the dear, absurd creatures rages again from the beginning.But the more women advance mentally, and no longer among themselves concede the pre- eminence to an unripe age, the smaller their fluctuations of costume grow and the less elaborate their adornment. A just verdict in this respect must not be based on anc ient models in other words, not on the standard of the dress of women who dwell on the shores of the 283 Mediterranean but must have an eye to the climatic conditions of the central and northern regions, where the intellectual and creative spirit of Europe now finds its most natural home.Generally speaking, therefore, it is not change that will be the characteristic mark of fashion and modernity, for change is retrograde, and betokens the still unripened men and women of Europe; but rather the repudiation of national, social, and individual vanity. Accordingly, it is commendable, because involving a saving of time and strength, if certain cities and districts of Europe think and invent for all the rest in the matter of dress, in view of the fact that a sense of form does not seem to have been bestowed upon all. Nor is it really an excessive ambition, so long as these fluctuations still exist, for Paris, for example, to claim to be the sole inventor and innovator in this sphere. If a German, from hatred of these claims on the part of a French city, wishes to dress differently,as, for example, in the Drer style,let him reflect that he then has a costume which the Germans of olden times wore, but which the Germans have not in the slightest degree invented. For there has never been a style of dress that characterised the German as a German. Moreover, let him observe how he looks in his costume, and whether his altogether modern face, with all its hues and wrinkles, does not raise a protest against a Drer fashion o f dress. Here, where the concepts modern and European are almost identical, we understand by Europe a far wider region than is embraced by the Europe of geography, the little peninsula of Asia. In particular, we must include America, in so far as Ame rica is the daughter of our civilisation. On the other hand, not all Europe falls under the heading of cultured Europe, but only those nations and divisions of nations which have their common past in Greece, Rome, Judaism, and Christianity. 216. German Virtue. There is no denying that from the end of the eighteenth century a current of moral awakening flowed through Europe. Then only Virtue found again the power of speech. She learnt to discover the unrestrained gestures of exaltation and emotion, she was no longer ashamed of herself, and she created philosophies and poems for her own glorification. If we look for the sources of this current, we come upon Rousseau, but the mythical Rousseau, the phantom formed from the impression left by his writings (one might almost say again, his mythically interpreted writings) and by the indications that he provided himself. He and his public constantly worked at the fashioning of this ideal figure. The other origin lies in the resurrection of the Stoical side of Romes greatness, whereby the French so nobly carried on the task of the Renaissance. With striking success they proceeded from the reproduction of antique forms to the reproduction of antique characters. Thus they may always claim a title to the highest hono urs, as the nation which has hitherto given the modern world its best books and its best men. How this twofold archetype, the mythical Rousseau and the resurrected spirit of Rome, affected France s weaker neighbours, is particularly noticeable in Germany, which, in consequence of her novel and quite unwonted impulse to seriousness and loftiness in will and self-control, finally came to feel astonishment at her own newfound virtue, and launched into the world the concept German virtue, as if this were the most original and hereditary of her possessions. The first great men who transfused into their own blood that French impulse towards greatness and consciousness of the moral will were more honest, and more grateful. Whence comes the moralism of Kant? He is continually reminding us: from Rousseau and the revival of Stoic Rome. The moralism of Schiller has the same source and the same glorification of the source. The moralism of Beethoven in notes is a continual song in praise of Rousseau, the antique French, and Schiller. Young Germany was the first to forget its gratitude, because in the meantime people had listened to the preachers of hatred of the French. The young German came to the fore with more consciousness than is generally allowed to youths. When he investigated his paternity, he 284 might well think of the proximity of Schiller, Schleiermacher, and Fichte. But he should have looked for his grandfathers in Paris and Geneva, and it was very short-sighted of him to believe what he believed: that virtue was not more than thirty years old. People became used to demanding that the word German should connote virtue, and this process has not been wholly forgotten to this day.Be it observed further that this moral awakening, as may almost be guessed, has resulted only in drawbacks and obstacles to the recognition of moral phenomena. What is the entire German philosophy, starting from Kant, with all its French, English, and Italian offshoots and by-products? A semi-theological attack upon Helvetius, a rejection of the slowly and laboriously acquired views and signposts of the right road, which in the end he collected and expressed so well. To this day Helvetius is the best-abused of all good moralists and good men in Germany. 217. Classic and Romantic. Both classically and romantically minded spirits two species that always exist cherish a vision of the future; but the former derive their vision from the strength of their time, the latter from its weakness. 218. The Machine as Teacher. Machiner y teaches in itself the dovetailed working of masses of men, in activities where each has but one thing to do. It is the model of party organisations and of warfare. On the other hand, it does not teach individual self- glorification, for it makes of the many a machine, and of each individual a tool for one purpose. Its most general effect is to teach the advantage of centralisation. 219. Unable to Settle. One likes to live in a small town. But from time to time just this small town drives us out into bare and lonely Nature, especially when we think we know it too well. Finally, in order to refresh ourselves from Nature, we go to the big town. A few draughts from this cup and we see its dregs, and the circle begins afresh, with the small town as starting -point. So the moderns live; they are in all things rather too thorough to be able to settle like the men of other days. 220. Reaction against the Civilisation of Machinery.The machine, itself a product of the highest mental powers, sets in motion hardly any but the lower, unthinking forces of the men who serve it. True, it unfetters a vast quantity of force which would otherwise lie dormant. But it does not communicate the impulse to climb higher, to improve, to become artistic. It creates activity and monotony, but this in the long-run produces a counter-effect, a despairing ennui of the soul, which through machinery has learnt to hanker after the variety of leisure. 221. The Danger of Enlightenment.All the half -insane, theatrical, bestially cruel, licentious , and especially sentimental and self -intoxicating elements which go to form the true revolutionary substance, and became flesh and spirit, before the revolution, in Rousseauall this composite being, with factitious enthusiasm, finally set even enlightenment upon its fanatical head, which thereby began itself to shine as in an illuminating halo. Yet, enlightenment is essentially foreign to that phenomenon, and, if left to itself, would have pierced silently through the clouds like a shaft of light, long content to transfigure individuals alone, and thus only slowly transfiguring national customs and institutions as well. But now, bound hand and foot to a violent and abrupt monster, enlightenment itself became violent and abrupt. Its danger has therefore become almost greater than its useful quality of liberation and 285 illumination, which it introduced into the great revolutionary movement. Whoever grasps this will also know from what confusion it has to be extricated, from what impurities to be cleansed, in order that it may then by itself continue the work of enlightenment and also nip the revolution in the bud and nullify its effects. 222. Passion in the Middle Ages.The Middle Ages are the period of great passions. Neither antiquity nor our period possesses this widening of the soul. Never was the capacity of the soul greater or measured by larger standards. The physical, primeval sensuality of the barbarian races and the over -soulful, over-vigilant, over- brilliant eyes of Christian mystics, the most childish and youthful and the most over-ripe and world- weary, the savageness of the beast of prey and the effeminacy and excessive refinement of the late antique spirit all these elements were then not seldom united in one and the same person. Thus, if a man was seized by a passion, the rapidity of the torrent must have been greater, the whirl more confused, the fall deeper than ever before. We modern men may be content to feel that we have suffered a loss here. 223. Robbing and Saving.All intellectual movements whereby the great may hope to rob and the small to save are sure to prosper. That is why, for instance, the German Reformation made progress. 224. Gladsome Souls.When even a remote hint of drink, drunkenness, and an evil-smelling kind of jocularity was given, the souls of the old Germans waxed gladsome. Otherwise they were depressed, but here they found something they really understood. 225. Debauchery at Athens. Even when the fish-market of Athens acquired its thinkers and poets, Greek debauchery had a m ore idyllic and refined appearance than Roman or German debauchery ever had. The voice of Juvenal would have sounded there like a hollow trumpet, and would have been answered by a good-natured and almost childish outburst of laughter. 226. Cleverness of th e Greek. As the desire for victory and pre- eminence is an ineradicable trait of human nature, older and more primitive than any respect of or joy in equality, the Greek State sanctioned gymnastic and artistic competitions among equals. In other words, it m arked out an arena where this impulse to conquer would find a vent without jeopardising the political order. With the final decline of gymnastic and artistic contests the Greek State fell into a condition of profound unrest and dissolution. 227. The Etern al Epicurus.Epicurus has lived in all periods, and lives yet, unbeknown to those who called and still call themselves Epicureans, and without repute among philosophers. He has himself even forgotten his own namethat was the heaviest luggage that he ever cast off. 228. The Style of Superiority.University slang, the speech of the German students, has its origin among the students who do not study. The latter know how to acquire a preponderance over their more serious fellows by exposing all the farcical elements of culture, respectability, erudition, order, and moderation, and by having words taken from these realms always on 286 their lips, like the better and more learned students, but with malice in their glance and an accompanying grimace. This language of superioritythe only one that is original in Germany is nowadays unconsciously used by statesmen and newspaper critics as well. It is a continual process of ironical quotation, a restless, cantankerous squinting of the eye right and left, a language of inverted commas and grimaces. 229. The Recluse. We retire into seclusion, but not from personal misgivings, as if the political and social conditions of the day did not satisfy us; rather because by our retirement we try to save and collect forces which wi ll some day be urgently needed by culture, the more this present is this present , and, as such, fulfils its task. We form a capital and try to make it secure, but, as in times of real danger, our method is to bury our hoard. 230. Tyrants of the Intellect. In our times, any one who expressed a single moral trait so thoroughly as the characters of Theophrastus and Molire do, would be considered ill, and be spoken of as possessing a fixed idea. The Athens of the third century, if we could visit it, would appear to us populated by fools. Nowadays the democracy of ideas rules in every brain there the multitude collectively is lord. A single idea that tried to be lord is now called, as above stated, a fixed idea. This is our method of murdering tyrantswe hin t at the madhouse. 231. A Most Dangerous Emigration.In Russia there is an emigration of the intelligence. People cross the frontier in order to read and write good books. Thus, however, they are working towards turning their country, abandoned by the intellect, into a gaping Asiatic maw, which would fain swallow our little Europe. 232. Political Fools. The almost religious love of the king was transferred by the Greeks, when the monarchy was abolished, to the polis . An idea can be loved more than a person, and does not thwart the lover so often as a beloved human being (for the more men know themselves to be loved, the less considerate they usually become, until they are no longer worthy of love, and a rift really arises). Hence the reverence for State and polis was greater than the reverence for princes had ever been. The Greeks are the political fools of ancient historytoday other nations boast that distinction. 233. Against Neglect of the Eyes. Might one not find among the cultured classes of England, who read the Times , a decline in their powers of sight every ten years? 234. Great Works and Great Faith. One man had great works, but his comrade had great faith in these works. They were inseparable, but obviously the former was entirely dependent upon the latter. 235. The Sociable Man. I don t get on well with myself, said some one in explanation of his fondness for society. Society has a stronger digestion than I have, and can put up with me. 236. 287 Shutting the Mind s Eyes. If we are practised and accustomed to reflect upon our actions, we must nevertheless close the inner eye while performing an action (be this even only writing letters or eating or drinking). Even in conversation with average people we must know how to obscure our own mental vision in order to attain and grasp average thinking. This shutting of the eyes is a conscious act and can be achieved by the will. 237. The Most Terrible Revenge. If we wish to take a thorough revenge upon an opponent, we must wait until we have our hand quite full of truths and equities, and can calmly use the whole lot against him. Hence the exercise of revenge may be identified with the exercise of equity. It is the most terrible kind of revenge, for there is no higher court to which an appeal can be made. Thus did Voltaire revenge himself on Piron, with five lines that sum up Piron s whole life, work, and character: every word is a truth. So too he revenged himself upon Frederick the Great in a letter to him from Ferney. 238. Taxes of Luxury.In shops we buy the most necessary and urgent things, and have to pay very dear, because we pay as well for what is also to be had there cheap, but seldom finds a customer articles of luxury that minister to pleasure. Thus luxury lays a constant tax upon the man of simple life who does without luxuries. 239. Why Beggars still Live.If all alms were given only out of compassion, the whole tribe of beggars would long since have died of starvation. 240. Why Beggars still Live.The greatest of almsgivers is cowardice. 241. How the Thinker Makes Use of a Conversation.Without being eavesdroppers, we can hear a good deal if we are able to see well, and at the same time to let ourselves occasionally get out of our own sight. But people do not know how to make use of a conversation. They pay far too much attention to what they want to say and reply, whereas the true listener is often contented to make a provisional answer and to say something merely as a payment on account of politeness, but on the other hand, with his memory lurking in ambush, carries away with him all that the other said, together with his tones and gestures in speaking. In ordinary conversation every one thinks he is the leader, just as if two ships, sailing side by side and giving each other a slight push her e and there, were each firmly convinced that the other ship was following or even being towed. 242. The Art of Excusing Oneself.If some one excuses himself to us, he has to make out a very good case, otherwise we readily come to feel ourselves the culprit s, and experience an unpleasant emotion. 243. Impossible Intercourse. The ship of your thoughts goes too deep for you to be able to travel with it in the waters of these friendly, decorous, obliging people. There are too many shallows and sandbanks: you would have to tack and turn, and would find yourself continually at your wits end, and they would soon also be in perplexity as to your perplexity, the reason for which they cannot divine. 288 244. The Fox of Foxes.A true fox not only calls sour the grapes he cannot reach, but also those he has reached and snatched from the grasp of others. 245. In Intimate Intercourse. However closely men are connected, there are still all the four quarters of the heavens in their common horizon, and at times they become aware of this fact. 246. The Silence of Disgust.Behold! some one undergoes a thorough and painful transformation as thinker and human being, and makes a public avowal of the change. And those who hear him see nothing, and still believe he is the same as before! This common experience has already disgusted many writers. They had rated the intellectuality of mankind too highly, and made a vow to be silent as soon as they became aware of their mistake. 247. Business Seriousness. The business of many rich and eminent men is their form of recreation from too long periods of habitual leisure. They then become as serious and impassioned as other people do in their rare moments of leisure and amusement. 248. The Eye s Double Sense.Just as a sudden scaly ripple runs over the waters at your feet, so there are similar sudden uncertainties and ambiguities in the human eye. They lead to the question: is it a shudder, or a smile, or both? 249. Positive and Negative.This thinker needs no one to refute himhe is quite capable of doing that himself. 250. The Revenge of the Empty Nets. Above all we should beware of those who have the bitter feeling of the fisherman who after a hard day s work comes home in the evening with nets empty. 251. Non-Assertion of our Rights.The exertion of power is laborious and demands courage. That is why so many do not assert their most valid rights, because their rights are a kind of power, and they are too lazy or too cowardly to exercise them. Indulgence and patience are the nam es given to the virtues that cloak these faults. 252. Bearers of Light. In Society there would be no sunshine if the born flatterers (I mean the so- called amiable people) did not bring some in with them. 253. When most Benevolent.When a man has been highly honoured and has eaten a little, he is most benevolent. 254. To the Light.Men press forward to the light not in order to see better but to shine better. The person before whom we shine we gladly allow to be called a light. 289 255. The Hypochondriac.The hypochondriac is a man who has just enough intellect and pleasure in the intellect to take his sorrows, his losses, and his mistakes seriously. But the field on which he grazes is too small: he crops it so close that in the end he has to look for single stalks. Thus he finally becomes envious and avariciousand only then is he unbearable. 256. Giving in Return.Hesiod advises us to give the neighbour who has helped us good measure and, if possible, fuller measure in return, as soon as we have the power. For t his is where the neighbours pleasure comes in, since his former benevolence brings him interest. Moreover, he who gives in return also has his pleasure, inasmuch as, by giving a little more than he got, he redeems the slight humiliation of being compelled to seek aid. 257. More subtle than Is Necessary. Our sense of observation for how far others perceive our weaknesses is far more subtle than our sense of observation for the weaknesses of others. It follows that the first-named sense is more subtle than i s necessary. 258. A Kind of Bright Shadows.Close to the nocturnal type of man we almost regularly find, as if bound up with him, a bright soul. This is, as it were, the negative shadow cast by the former. 259. Not to take Revenge.There are so many subtle sorts of revenge that one who has occasion to take revenge can really do or omit to do what he likes. In any case, the whole world will agree, after a time, that he has avenged himself. Hence the avoidance of revenge is hardly within man s power. He must not even so much as say that he does not want to do so, since the contempt for revenge is interpreted and felt as a sublime and exquisite form of revenge.It follows that we must do nothing superfluous. 260. The Mistake of Those who Pay Homage. Every one thinks he is paying a most agreeable compliment to a thinker when he says that he himself hit upon exactly the same idea and even upon the same expression. The thinker, however, is seldom delighted at hearing such news, nay, rather, he often becomes distrustful of his own thoughts and expressions. He silently resolves to revise both some day. If we wish to pay homage to any one, we must beware of expressing our agreement, for this puts us on the same level.Often it is a matter of social tact to listen to an opinion as if it were not ours or even travelled beyond the limits of our own horizonas, for example, when an old man once in a while opens the storehouse of his acquired knowledge. 261. Letters. A letter is an unannounced visit, and t he postman is the intermediary of impolite surprises. Every week we ought to have one hour for receiving letters, and then go and take a bath. 262. 290 Prejudiced. Some one said: I have been prejudiced against myself from childhood upwards, and hence I find some truth in every censure and some absurdity in every eulogy. Praise I generally value too low and blame too high. 263. The Path to Equality.A few hours of mountain-climbing make a blackguard and a saint two rather similar creatures. Weariness is the shor test path to equality and fraternity and finally liberty is bestowed by sleep. 264. Calumny.If we begin to trace to its source a real scandalous misrepresentation, we shall rarely look for its origin in our honourable and straightforward enemies; for if they invented anything of the sort about us, they, as being our enemies, would gain no credence. Those, however, to whom for a time we have been most useful, but who, from some reason or other, may be secretly sure that they will obtain no more from ussuch persons are in a position to start the ball of slander rolling. They gain credence, firstly, because it is assumed that they would invent nothing likely to do them damage; secondly, because they have learnt to know us intimately. As a consolation, the much- slandered man may say to himself: Calumnies are diseases of others that break out in your body. They prove that Society is a (moral) organism, so that you can prescribe to yourself the cure that will in the end be useful to others. 265. The Childs Kingdom of Heaven.The happiness of a child is as much of a myth as the happiness of the Hyperboreans of whom the Greeks fabled. The Greeks supposed that, if indeed happiness dwells anywhere on our earth, it must certainly dwell as far as possible from us, perhaps over yonder at the edge of the world. Old people have the same thoughtif man is at all capable of being happy, he must be happy as far as possible from our age, at the frontiers and beginnings of life. For many a man the sight of children, through the veil of this myth, is the greatest happiness that he can feel. He enters himself into the forecourt of heaven when he says, Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of them is the kingdom of heaven. The myth of the childs kingdom of heaven holds good, in some way or other, wherever in the modern world some sentimentality exists. 266. The Impatient. It is just the growing man who does not want things in the growing stage. He is too impatient for that. The youth will not wait until, after long stud y, suffering, and privation, his picture of men and things is complete. Accordingly, he confidently accepts another picture that lies ready to his hand and is recommended to him, and pins his faith to that, as if it must give him at once the lines and colo urs of his own painting. He presses a philosopher or a poet to his bosom, and must from that time forth perform long stretches of forced labour and renounce his own self. He learns much in the process, but he often forgets what is most worth learning and knowinghis self. He remains all his life a partisan. Ah, a vast amount of tedious work has to be done before you find your own colours, your own brush, your own canvas!Even then you are very far from being a master in the art of life, but at least you are the boss in your own workshop. 267. There are no Teachers. As thinkers we ought only to speak of self-teaching. The instruction of the young by others is either an experiment performed upon something as yet unknown and unknowable, or else a thorough levelling process, in order to make the new member of society conform to the customs and manners that prevail for the time being. In both cases the 291 result is accordingly unworthy of a thinkerthe handiwork of parents and teachers, whom some valiantly honest person 44F45 has called nos ennemis naturels . One day, when, as the world thinks, we have long since finished our education, we discover ourselves . Then begins the task of the thinker, and then is the time to summon him to our aidnot as a teacher, but as a self -taught man who has experience. 268. Sympathy with Youth.We are sorry when we hear that some one who is still young is losing his teeth or growing blind. If we knew all the irrevocable and hopeless feelings hidden in his whole being, how great our sorrow would be! Why do we really suffer on this account? Because youth has to continue the work we have undertaken, and every flaw and failing in its strength is likely to injure our work, that will fall into its hands. It is the sorrow at the imperfect guar antee of our immortality: or, if we only feel ourselves as executors of the human mission, it is the sorrow that this mission must pass to weaker hands than ours. 269. The Ages of Life. The comparison of the four ages of life with the four seasons of the y ear is a venerable piece of folly. Neither the first twenty nor the last twenty years of a life correspond to a season of the year, assuming that we are not satisfied with drawing a parallel between white hair and snow and similar colour-analogies. The fir st twenty years are a preparation for life in general, for the whole year of life, a sort of long New Year s Day. The last twenty review, assimilate, bring into union and harmony all that has been experienced till then: as, in a small degree, we do on ever y New Year s Eve with the whole past year. But in between there really lies an interval which suggests a comparison with the seasonsthe time from the twentieth to the fiftieth year (to speak here of decades in the lump, while it is an understood thing that every one must refine for himself these rough outlines). Those three decades correspond to three seasonssummer, spring, and autumn. Winter human life has none, unless we like to call the (unfortunately) often intervening hard, cold, lonely, hopeless, unfruitful periods of disease the winters of man. The twenties, hot, oppressive, stormy, impetuous, exhausting years, when we praise the day in the evening, when it is over, as we wipe the sweat from our foreheadsyears in which work seems to us cruel but ne cessary these twenties are the summer of life. The thirties, on the other hand, are its spring- time, with the air now too warm, now too cold, ever restless and stimulating, bubbling sap, bloom of leaves, fragrance of buds everywhere, many delightful mornings and evenings, work to which the song of birds awakens us, a true work of the heart, a kind of joy in our own robustness, strengthened by the savour of hopeful anticipation. Lastly the forties, mysterious like all that is stationary, like a high, broad plateau, traversed by a fresh breeze, with a clear, cloudless sky above it, which always has the same gentle look all day and half the nightthe time of harvest and cordial gaiety that is the autumn of life. 270. Women s Intellect in Modern Society.What wo men nowadays think of men s intellect may be divined from the fact that in their art of adornment they think of anything but of emphasising the intellectual side of their faces or their single intellectual features. On the contrary, they conceal such traits, and understand, for example by an arrangement of their hair over their forehead, how to give themselves an appearance of vivid, eager sensuality and materialism, just when they but slightly possess those qualities. Their conviction that intellect in women frightens men goes so far that they even gladly deny the keenness of the most intellectual sense and purposely invite the reputation of short-sightedness. They think they 45 Stendhal. Tr. 292 will thereby make men more confiding. It is as if a soft, attractive twilight were spreading itself around them. 271. Great and Transitory.What moves the observer to tears is the rapturous look of happiness with which a fair young bride gazes upon her husband. We feel all the melancholy of autumn in thinking of the greatness and of the transitoriness of human happiness. 272. Sense and Sacrifice. Many a woman has the intelletto del sacrifizio , 45F46 and no longer enjoys life when her husband refuses to sacrifice her. With all her wit, she then no longer knows whither? and without perceiving it, is changed from sacrificial victim to sacrificial priest. 273. The Unfeminine.Stupid as a man, say the women; Cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unfeminine. 274. Masculine and Feminine Temperament and Mortality. That the male sex has a worse temperament than the female follows from the fact that male children have a greater mortality than female, clearly because they leap out of their skins more easily. Their wildness and unbearableness soon make all the bad stuff in them deadly. 275. The Age of Cyclopean Building.The democratisation of Europe is a resistless force. Even he who would stem the tide uses those very means that democratic thought first put into mens hands, and he makes these means more h andy and workable. The most inveterate enemies of democracy (I mean the spirits of upheaval) seem only to exist in order, by the fear that they inspire, to drive forward the different parties faster and faster on the democratic course. Now we may well feel sorry for those who are working consciously and honourably for this future. There is something dreary and monotonous in their faces, and the grey dust seems to have been wafted into their very brains. Nevertheless, posterity may possibly some day laugh at our anxiety, and see in the democratic work of several generations what we see in the building of stone dams and wallsan activity that necessarily covers clothes and face with a great deal of dust, and perhaps unavoidably makes the workmen, too, a little dull-witted; but who would on that account desire such work undone? It seems that the democratisation of Europe is a link in the chain of those mighty prophylactic principles which are the thought of the modern era, and whereby we rise up in revolt against the Middle Ages. Now, and now only, is the age of Cyclopean building! A final security in the foundations, that the future may build on them without danger! Henceforth, an impossibility of the orchards of culture being once more destroyed overnight by wild, senseless mountain torrents! Dams and walls against barbarians, against plagues, against physical and spiritual serfdom! And all this understood at first roughly and literally, but gradually in an ever higher and more spiritual sense, so that all the principles here indicated may appear as the intellectual preparation of the highest artist in horticulture, who can only apply himself to his own task when the other is fully accomplished!True, if we consider the long intervals of time that here lie betwee n means and end, the great, supreme labour, straining the powers and brains of centuries, that is necessary in order to create or to provide each individual means, we must not bear too hardly upon the workers of the present when they loudly proclaim that 46 A transposition of sacrifizio dell intelletto , the Jesuit maxim. Tr. 293 the wall and the fence are already the end and the final goal. After all, no one yet sees the gardener and the fruit, for whose sake the fence exists. 276. The Right of Universal Suffrage.The people has not granted itself universal suffrage but, wherever this is now in force, it has received and accepted it as a temporary measure. But in any case the people has the right to restore the gift, if it does not satisfy its anticipations. This dissatisfaction seems universal nowadays, for when, at any occasion where the vote is exercised, scarce two -thirds, nay perhaps not even the majority of all voters, go to the polls, that very fact is a vote against the whole suffrage system. On this point, in fact, we must pronounce a much sterner verdict. A law that enacts that the majority shall decide as to the welfare of all cannot be built up on the foundation that it alone has provided, for it is bound to require a far broader foundation, namely the unanimity of all. Universal suffrage must not only be the expression of the will of a majority, but of the whole country. Thus the dissent of a very small minority is already enough to set aside the system as impracticable; and the abstention from voting is in fact a dissent of this kind, which ruins the whole institution. The absolute veto of the individual, ornot to be too minutethe veto of a few thousands, hangs over the system as the consequence of justice. On every occasion when it is employed, the system must, according to the variety of the division, first prove tha t it has still a right to exist. 277. False Conclusions.What false conclusions are drawn in spheres where we are not at home, even by those of us who are accustomed as men of science to draw right conclusions! It is humiliating! Now it is clear that in th e great turmoil of worldly doings, in political affairs, in all sudden and urgent matters such as almost every day brings up, these false conclusions must decide. For no one feels at home with novelties that have sprung up in the night. All political work, even with great statesmen, is an improvisation that trusts to luck. 278. Premisses of the Age of Machinery. The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premisses of which no one has yet dared to draw the conclusions that will follow in a thousand years. 279. A Drag upon Culture.When we are told that here men have no time for productive occupations, because military manuvres and processions take up their days, and the rest of the population must feed and clothe them, their dress, however, being striking, often gay and full of absurdities; that there only a few distinguished qualities are recognised, individuals resemble each other more than elsewhere, or at any rate are treated as equals, yet obedience is exacted and yielded without reasoning, for men command and make no attempt to convince; that here punishments are few, but these few cruel and likely to become the final and most terrible; that there treason ranks as the capital offence, and even the criticism of evils is only ventured on by the most audacious; that there, again, human life is cheap, and ambition often takes the form of setting life in dangerwhen we hear all this, we at once say, This is a picture of a barbarous society that rests on a hazardous footing. One man perhaps will add, It is a portrait of Sparta. But another will become meditative and declare that this is a description of our modern military system, as it exists in the midst of our altogether different culture and society, a living anachronism, the picture, as above said, of a community resting on a hazardous footing; a posthumous work of the past, which can only act as a drag upon the 294 wheels of the present. Yet at times even a drag upon culture is vitally necessary that is to say, when culture is advancing too rapidly downhill or (as perhaps in this case) uphill . 280. More Reverence for Them that Know.In the competition of production and sale the public is made judge of the product. But the public has no special knowledge, and judges by the appearance of the wares. In consequence, the art of appearance (and perhaps the taste for it) must increase under the dominance of competition, while on the other hand the quality of every product must deteriorate. The result will beso far as reason does not fall in valuethat o ne day an end will be put to that competition, and a new principle will win the day. Only the master of the craft should pronounce a verdict on the work, and the public should be dependent on the belief in the personality of the judge and his honesty. Accordingly, no anonymous work! At least an expert should be there as guarantor and pledge his name if the name of the creator is lacking or is unknown. The cheapness of an article is for the layman another kind of illusion and deceit, since only durability can decide that a thing is cheap and to what an extent. But it is difficult, and for a layman impossible, to judge of its durability.Hence that which produces an effect on the eye and costs little at present gains the advantagethis being naturally machine-made work. Again, machinerythat is to say, the cause of the greatest rapidity and facility in productionfavours the most saleable kind of article. Otherwise it involves no tangible profit; it would be too little used and too often stand idle. But as to what is most saleable, the public, as above said, decides: it must be the most exchangeablein other words, the thing that appears good and also appears cheap. Thus in the domain of labour our motto must also hold good: More respect for them that know! 281. The Danger of Kings.Democracy has it in its power, without any violent means, and only by a lawful pressure steadily exerted, to make kingship and emperorship hollow, until only a zero remains, perhaps with the significance of every zero in that, while nothing in itself, it multiplies a number tenfold if placed on the right side. Kingship and emperorship would remain a gorgeous ornament upon the simple and appropriate dress of democracy, a beautiful superfluity that democracy allows itself, a relic of all the historically venerable, primitive ornaments, nay the symbol of history itself, and in this unique position a highly effective thing if, as above said, it does not stand alone, but is put on the right side.In order to avoid the danger of this nullif ication, kings hold by their teeth to their dignity as war-lords. To this end they need wars, or in other words exceptional circumstances, in which that slow, lawful pressure of the democratic forces is relaxed. 282. The Teacher a Necessary Evil. Let us ha ve as few people as possible between the productive minds and the hungry and recipient minds! The middlemen almost unconsciously adulterate the food which they supply. For their work as middlemen they want too high a fee for themselves, and this is drawn from the original, productive spiritsnamely, interest, admiration, leisure, money, and other advantages.Accordingly, we should always look upon the teacher as a necessary evil, just like the merchant; as an evil that we should make as small as possible. Perhaps the prevailing distress in Germany has its main cause in the fact that too many wish to live and live well by trade (in other words, desiring as far as possible to diminish prices for the producer and raise prices for the consumer, and thus to profit by the greatest possible loss to both). In the same way, we may certainly trace a main cause of the prevailing intellectual poverty in the superabundance of teachers. It is because of teachers that so little is learnt, and that so badly. 295 283. The Tax of Homage. Him whom we know and honour,be he physician, artist, or artisan, who does and produces something for us, we gladly pay as highly as we can, often a fee beyond our means. On the other hand, we pay the unknown as low a price as possible; here is a contest in which every one struggles and makes others struggle for a foots breadth of land. In the work of the known there is something that cannot be bought, the sentiment and ingenuity put into his work for our own sake. We think we cannot better express our sense of obligation than by a sort of sacrifice on our part.The heaviest tax is the tax of homage. The more competition prevails, the more we buy for the unknown and work for the unknown, the lower does this tax become, whereas it is really the stand ard for the loftiness of man s spiritual intercourse. 284. The Means towards Genuine Peace. No government will nowadays admit that it maintains an army in order to satisfy occasionally its passion for conquest. The army is said to serve only defensive purposes. This morality, which justifies self -defence, is called in as the governments advocate. This means, however, reserving morality for ourselves and immorality for our neighbour, because he must be thought eager for attack and conquest if our state is f orced to consider means of self- defence. At the same time, by our explanation of our need of an army (because he denies the lust of attack just as our state does, and ostensibly also maintains his army for defensive reasons), we proclaim him a hypocrite and cunning criminal, who would fain seize by surprise, without any fighting, a harmless and unwary victim. In this attitude all states face each other to -day. They presuppose evil intentions on their neighbours part and good intentions on their own. This hypothesis, however, is an inhuman notion, as bad as and worse than war. Nay, at bottom it is a challenge and motive to war, foisting as it does upon the neighbouring state the charge of immorality, and thus provoking hostile intentions and acts. The doctrine of the army as a means of self-defence must be abjured as completely as the lust of conquest. Perhaps a memorable day will come when a nation renowned in wars and victories, distinguished by the highest development of military order and intelligence, and accustomed to make the heaviest sacrifice to these objects, will voluntarily exclaim, We will break our swords, and will destroy its whole military system, lock, stock, and barrel. Making ourselves defenceless (after having been the most strongly defended) from a loftiness of sentimentthat is the means towards genuine peace, which must always rest upon a pacific disposition. The so- called armed peace that prevails at present in all countries is a sign of a bellicose disposition, of a disposition that trusts neither itself nor its neig hbour, and, partly from hate, partly from fear, refuses to lay down its weapons. Better to perish than to hate and fear, and twice as far better to perish than to make oneself hated and fearedthis must some day become the supreme maxim of every political community!Our liberal representatives of the people, as is well known, have not the time for reflection on the nature of humanity, or else they would know that they are working in vain when they work for a gradual diminution of the military burdens. On the contrary, when the distress of these burdens is greatest, the sort of God who alone can help here will be nearest. The tree of military glory can only be destroyed at one swoop, with one stroke of lightning. But, as you know, lightning comes from the cloud and from above. 285. Whether Property can be squared with Justice. When the injustice of property is strongly felt (and the hand of the great clock is once more at this place), we formulate two methods of relieving this injustice: either an equal distribution, or an abolition of private possession and a 296 return to State ownership. The latter method is especially dear to the hearts of our Socialists, who are angry with that primitive Jew for saying, Thou shalt not steal. In their view the eighth 46F47 comm andment should rather run, Thou shalt not possess.The former method was frequently tried in antiquity, always indeed on a small scale, and yet with poor success. From this failure we too may learn. Equal plots of land is easily enough said, but how much bitterness is aroused by the necessary division and separation, by the loss of time- honoured possessions, how much piety is wounded and sacrificed! We uproot the foundation of morality when we uproot boundary-stones. Again, how much fresh bitterness among the new owners, how much envy and looking askance! For there have never been two really equal plots of land, and if there were, mans envy of his neighbour would prevent him from believing in their equality. And how long would this equality, unhealthy and poisoned at the very roots, endure? In a few generations, by inheritance, here one plot would come to five owners, there five plots to one. Even supposing that men acquiesced in such abuses through the enactment of stern laws of inheritance, the same eq ual plots would indeed exist, but there would also be needy malcontents, owning nothing but dislike of their kinsmen and neighbours, and longing for a general upheaval.If, however, by the second method we try to restore ownership to the community and make the individual but a temporary tenant, we interfere with agriculture. For man is opposed to all that is only a transitory possession, unblessed with his own care and sacrifice. With such property he behaves in freebooter fashion, as robber or as worthless spendthrift. When Plato declares that self-seeking would be removed with the abolition of property, we may answer him that, if self-seeking be taken away, man will no longer possess the four cardinal virtues either; as we must say that the most deadly plague could not injure mankind so terribly as if vanity were one day to disappear. Without vanity and self-seeking what are human virtues? By this I am far from meaning that these virtues are but varied names and masks for these two qualities. Plato s Utopian refrain, which is still sung by Socialists, rests upon a deficient knowledge of men. He lacked the historical science of moral emotions, the insight into the origin of the good and useful characteristics of the human soul. He believed, like all antiquity , in good and evil as in black and whitethat is to say, in a radical difference between good and bad men and good and bad qualities.In order that property may henceforth inspire more confidence and become more moral, we should keep open all the paths of work for small fortunes, but should prevent the effortless and sudden acquisition of wealth. Accordingly, we should take all the branches of transport and trade which favour the accumulation of large fortunesespecially, therefore, the money marketout of the hands of private persons or private companies, and look upon those who own too much, just as upon those who own nothing, as types fraught with danger to the community. 286. The Value of Labour.If we try to determine the value of labour by the amount of time, industry, good or bad will, constraint, inventiveness or laziness, honesty or make- believe bestowed upon it, the valuation can never be a just one. For the whole personality would have to be thrown into the scale, and this is impossible. Here the m otto is, Judge not! But after all the cry for justice is the cry we now hear from those who are dissatisfied with the present valuation of labour. If we reflect further we find every person non-responsible for his product, the labour; hence merit can never be derived therefrom, and every labour is as good or as bad as it must be through this or that necessary concatenation of forces and weaknesses, abilities and desires. The worker is not at liberty to say whether he shall work or not, or to decide how he shall work. Only the standpoints of usefulness, wider and narrower, have 47 The original, by a curious slip, has seventh. Tr. 297 created the valuation of labour. What we at present call justice does very well in this sphere as a highly refined utility, which does not only consider the moment and exploit the immediate opportunity, but looks to the permanence of all conditions, and thus also keeps in view the well -being of the worker, his physical and spiritual contentment: in order that he and his posterity may work well for our posterity and become trustworthy for longer periods than the individual span of human life. The exploitation of the worker was, as we now understand, a piece of folly, a robbery at the expense of the future, a jeopardisation of society. We almost have the war now, and in any case the expense of maintaining peace, of concluding treaties and winning confidence, will henceforth be very great, because the folly of the exploiters was very great and long-lasting. 287. Of the Study of the Social Body.The worst drawback for the modern student of economics and political science in Europe, and especially in Germany, is that the actual conditions, instead of exemplifying rules, illustrate exceptions or stages of transition and extinction. We must therefore learn to look beyond actually existing conditions and, for example, turn our eyes to distant North America, where we can still contemplate and investigate, if we will, the initial and normal movement of the social body. In Germany such a study requires arduous and historical research, or, as I have suggested, a telescope. 288. How far Machinery Humiliates. Machinery is impersonal; it robs the piece of work of its pride, of the individual merits and defects that cling to all work that is not machine- madein other words, of its bit of humanity. Formerly, all buying from handicraftsmen meant a mark of distinction for their personalities, with whose productions people surrounded themselves. Furniture and dress accordingly became the symbols of mutual valuation and personal connection. Nowadays, on the other hand, we seem to live in the midst of anonymous and impersonal serfdom.We must not buy the facilitation of labour too dear. 289. Century-old Quarantine.Democratic institutions are centres of quarantine against the old plague of tyrannical desires. As such they are extremely useful and extremely tedious. 290. The Most Dangerous Partisan.The most dangerous partisan is he whose defection would involve the ruin of the whole partyin other words, the best partisan. 291. Destiny and the Stomach. A piece more or less of bread and butter in the jockeys body is occasionally the decisive factor in races and bets, and thus in the good and bad luck of thousands.So long as the destiny of nations depends upon diplomats, the stomachs of diplomats will always be the object of patriotic misgivings. Quousque tandem .... 292. The Victory of Democracy.All political powers nowadays attempt to exploit the fear of Socialism for their own strengthening. Yet in the long run democracy alone gains the advantage , for all parties are now compelled to flatter the masses and grant them facilities and liberties of all kinds, with the result that the masses finally become omnipotent. The masses are as far as possible removed from Socialism as a doctrine of altering the acquisition of property. If once they get the steering-wheel into their hands, through great majorities in their Parliaments, they will attack with progressive taxation the whole dominant system of 298 capitalists, merchants, and financiers, and will in fa ct slowly create a middle class which may forget Socialism like a disease that has been overcome. The practical result of this increasing democratisation will next be a European league of nations, in which each individual nation, delimited by the proper geographical frontiers, has the position of a canton with its separate rights. Small account will be taken of the historic memories of previously existing nations, because the pious affection for these memories will be gradually uprooted under the democratic rgime, with all its craze for novelty and experiment. The corrections of frontiers that will prove necessary will be so carried out as to serve the interests of the great cantons and at the same time that of the whole federation, but not that of any vene rable memories. To find the standpoints for these corrections will be the task of future diplomats, who will have to be at the same time students of civilisation, agriculturists, and commercial experts, with no armies but motives and utilities at their bac k. Then only will foreign and home politics be inseparably connected, whereas to-day the latter follows its haughty dictator, and gleans in sorry baskets the stubble that is left over from the harvest of the former. 293. Goal and Means of Democracy. Democracy tries to create and guarantee independence for as many as possible in their opinions, way of life, and occupation. For this purpose democracy must withhold the political suffrage both from those who have nothing and from those who are really rich, as b eing the two intolerable classes of men. At the removal of these classes it must always work, because they are continually calling its task in question. In the same way democracy must prevent all measures that seem to aim at party organisation. For the thr ee great foes of independence, in that threefold sense, are the have-nots, the rich, and the parties. I speak of democracy as of a thing to come. What at present goes by that name is distinguished from older forms of government only by the fact that it drives with new horses; the roads and the wheels are the same as of yore. Has the danger really become less with these conveyances of the commonwealth? 294. Discretion and Success. That great quality of discretion, which is fundamentally the virtue of virtues, their ancestress and queen, has in common life by no means always success on its side. The wooer would find himself deceived if he had wooed that virtue only for the sake of success. For it is rated by practical people as suspicious, and is confused with cunning and hypocrisy: he who obviously lacks discretion, the man who quickly grasps and sometimes misses his grasp, has prejudice on his sidehe is an honest, trustworthy fellow. Practical people, accordingly, do not like the prudent man, thinking he is to them a danger. Moreover, we often assume the prudent man to be anxious, preoccupied, pedanticunpractical, butterfly people find him uncomfortable, because he does not live in their happy-go-lucky way, without thinking of actions and duties; he appears among them as their embodied conscience, and the bright day is dimmed to their eyes before his gaze. Thus when success and popularity fail him, he may often say by way of private consolation, So high are the taxes you have to pay for the possession of the most precious of human commoditiesstill it is worth the price! 295. Et in Arcadia Ego.I looked down, over waves of hills, to a milky-green lake, through firs and pines austere with age; rocky crags of all shapes about me, the soil gay with flowers and grasses. A herd of cattle moved, stretched, and expanded itself before me; single cows and groups in the distance, in the clearest evening light, hard by the forest of pines; others nearer and darker; all in calm and eventide contentment. My watch pointed to half-past six. The bull 299 of the herd had stepped into the white foaming brook, and went forward slowly, now striving against, now giving way to his tempestuous course; thus, no doubt, he took his sort of fierce pleasure. Two dark brown beings, of Bergamasque origin, tended the herd, the girl dressed almost like a boy. On the left, overhanging cliffs and fields of snow above broad belts of woodland; to the right, two enormous ice-covered peaks, high above me, shimmering in the veil of the sunny hazeall la rge, silent, and bright. The beauty of the whole was awe- inspiring and induced to a mute worship of the moment and its revelation. Unconsciously, as if nothing could be more natural, you peopled this pure, clear world of light (which had no trace of yearni ng, of expectancy, of looking forward or backward) with Greek heroes. You felt it all as Poussin and his school feltat once heroic and idyllic. So individual men too have lived, constantly feeling themselves in the world and the world in themselves, and among them one of the greatest men, the inventor of a heroico-idyllic form of philosophyEpicurus. 296. Counting and Measuring.The art of seeing many things, of weighing one with another, of reckoning one thing with another and constructing from them a rapid conclusion, a fairly correct sum that goes to make a great politician or general or merchant. This quality is, in fact, a power of speedy mental calculation. The art of seeing one thing alone, of finding therein the sole motive for action, the guiding principle of all other action, goes to make the hero and also the fanatic. This quality means a dexterity in measuring with one scale. 297. Not to See too Soon.As long as we undergo some experience, we must give ourselves up to the experience and shut our eyes in other words, not become observers of what we are undergoing. For to observe would disturb good digestion of the experience, and instead of wisdom we should gain nothing but dyspepsia. 298. From the Practice of the Wise. To become wise we must will to undergo certain experiences, and accordingly leap into their jaws. This, it is true, is very dangerous. Many a sage has been eaten up in the process. 299. Exhaustion of the Intellect.Our occasional coldness and indifference towards people, which is imputed to us as hardness and defect of character, is often only an exhaustion of the intellect. In this state other men are to us, as we are to ourselves, tedious or immaterial. 300. The One Thing Needful. If we are clever, the one thing we need is to have joy in our hearts. Ah, adds some one, if we are clever, the best thing we can do is to be wise. 301. A Sign of Love.Some one said, There are two persons about whom I have never thought deeply. That is a sign of my love for them. 302. How we Seek to Improve Bad Arguments.Many a man adds a bit of his personality to his bad arguments, as if they would thus go better and change into straight and good arguments. In the same way, players at skittles, even after a throw, try to give a direction to the ball by turns and gestures. 300 303. Honesty.It is but a small thing to be a pattern sort of man with regard to rights and propertyfor instance (to name trifling points, which of course give a better proof of this sort of pattern nature than great examples), if as a boy one never steals fruit from another s orchard, and as a man never walks on unmown fields. It is but little; you are then still only a law-abiding person, with just that degree of morality of which a society, a group of human beings, is capable. 304. Man! What is the vanity of the vainest individual as compared with the vanity which the most modest person feels when he thinks of his position in nature and in the world as Man! 305. The Most Necessary Gymnastic. Through deficiency in s elf-control in small matters a similar deficiency on great occasions slowly arises. Every day on which we have not at least once denied ourselves some trifle is turned to bad use and a danger to the next day. This gymnastic is indispensable if we wish to maintain the joy of being our own master. 306. Losing Ourselves.When we have first found ourselves, we must understand how from time to time to lose ourselves and then to find ourselves again.This is true on the assumption that we are thinkers. A thinker finds it a drawback always to be tied to one person. 307. When it is Necessary to Part. You must, for a time at least, part from that which you want to know and measure. Only when you have left a city do you see how high its towers rise above its houses. 308. At Noontide.He to whom an active and stormy morning of life is allotted, at the noontide of life feels his soul overcome by a strange longing for a rest that may last for months and years. All grows silent around him, voices sound farther and farther in the distance, the sun shines straight down upon him. On a hidden woodland sward he sees the great God Pan sleeping, and with Pan Nature seems to him to have gone to sleep with an expression of eternity on their faces. He wants nothing, he troubles about nothing; his heart stands still, only his eye lives. It is a death with waking eyes. Then man sees much that he never saw before, and, so far as his eye can reach, all is woven into and as it were buried in a net of light. He feels happy, but it is a heavy, very heavy kind of happiness.Then at last the wind stirs in the trees, noontide is over, life carries him away again, life with its blind eyes, and its tempestuous retinue behind itdesire, illusion, oblivion, enjoyment, destruction, decay. And so comes evening, more stormy and more active than was even the morning.To the really active man these prolonged phases of cognition seem almost uncanny and morbid, but not unpleasant. 309. To Beware of One s Portrait -Painter. A great painter, who in a portrait has revealed and put on canvas the fullest expression and look of which a man is capable, will almost always think, when he sees the man later in real life, that he is only looking at a caricature. 310. 301 The Two Principles of the New Life. First Principle : to arrange one s life on the most secure and tangible basis, not as hitherto upon the most distant, undetermined, and cloudy foundation. Second Principle : to establish the rank of the nearest and nearer things, and of the more and less secure, before one a rranges one s life and directs it to a final end. 311. Dangerous Irritability.Talented men who are at the same time idle will always appear somewhat irritated when one of their friends has accomplished a thorough piece of work. Their jealousy is awakened, they are ashamed of their own laziness, or rather, they fear that their active friend will now despise them even more than before. In such a mood they criticise the new achievement, and, to the utter astonishment of the author, their criticism becomes a revenge. 312. Destructions of Illusions.Illusions are certainly expensive amusements; but the destruction of illusions is still more expensive, if looked upon as an amusement, as it undoubtedly is by some people. 313. The Monotone of the Sage. Cows sometimes have a look of wondering which stops short on the path to questioning. In the eye of the higher intelligence, on the other hand, the nil admirari is spread out like the monotony of the cloudless sky. 314. Not to be Ill too Long.We should beware of being ill too long. The lookers-on become impatient of their customary duty of showing sympathy, because they find it too much trouble to maintain the appearance of this emotion for any length of time. Then they immediately pass to suspicion of our character, with the conclusion: You deserve to be ill, and we need no longer be at pains to show our sympathy. 315. A Hint to Enthusiasts. He who likes to be carried away, and would fain be carried on high, must beware lest he become too heavy. For instance, he m ust not learn much, and especially not let himself be crammed with science. Science makes men ponderous take care, ye enthusiasts! 316. Knowledge of how to Surprise Oneself.He who would see himself as he is, must know how to surprise himself, torch in hand. For with the mind it is as with the body: whoever is accustomed to look at himself in the glass forgets his ugliness, and only recognises it again by means of the portrait-painter. Yet he even grows used to the picture and forgets his ugliness all over again. Herein we see the universal law that man cannot endure unalterable ugliness, unless for a moment. He forgets or denies it in all cases.The moralists must reckon upon that moment for bringing forward their truths. 317. Opinions and Fish. We are possessors of our opinions as of fishthat is, in so far as we are possessors of a fish pond. We must go fishing and have luckthen we have our fish, our opinions. I speak here of live opinions, of live fish. Others are content to possess a cabinet of fossilsand, in their head, convictions. 318. 302 Signs of Freedom and Servitude.To satisfy ones needs so far as possible oneself, even if imperfectly, is the path towards freedom in mind and personality. To satisfy many even superfluous needs, and that as fully as possible, is a training for servitude. The Sophist Hippias, who himself earned and made all that he wore within and without, is the representative of the highest freedom of mind and personality. It does not matter whether all is done equally well and perfectlypride can repair the damaged places. 319. Belief in Oneself. In our times we mistrust every one who believes in himself. Formerly this was enough to make people believe in one. The recipe for finding faith now runs: Spa re not thyself! In order to set thy opinion in a credible light, thou must first set fire to thy own hut! 320. At Once Richer and Poorer.I know a man who accustomed himself even in childhood to think well of the intellectuality of mankind in other words, of their real devotion as regards things of the intellect, their unselfish preference for that which is recognised as truebut who had at the same time a modest or even depreciatory view of his own brain (judgment, memory, presence of mind, imagination). He set no value on himself when he compared himself with others. Now in the course of years he was compelled, first once and then in a hundred ways, to revise this verdict. One would have thought he would be thoroughly satisfied and delighted. Such, in fact, was to some extent the case, but, as he once said, Yet a bitterness of the deepest dye is mingled with my feeling, such as I did not know in earlier life; for since I learnt to value men and myself more correctly, my intellect seems to me of less use. I scarcely think I can now do any good at all with it, because the minds of others cannot understand the good. I now always see before me the frightful gulf between those who could give help and those who need help. So I am troubled by the misfortune of ha ving my intellect to myself and of being forced to enjoy it alone so far as it can give any enjoyment. But to give is more blessed than to possess, and what is the richest man in the solitude of a desert? 47F48 321. How we should Attack.The reasons for which men believe or do not believe are in very few people as strong as they might be. As a rule, in order to shake a belief it is far from necessary to use the heaviest weapon of attack. Many attain their object by merely making the attack with some noise in fact, pop-guns are often enough. In dealing with very vain persons, the semblance of a strong attack is enough. They think they are being taken quite seriously, and readily give way. 322. Death. Through the certain prospect of death a precious, fragrant drop of frivolity might be mixed with every life and now, you singular druggist-souls, you have made of death a drop of poison, unpleasant to taste, which makes the whole of life hideous. 323. Repentance. Never allow repentance free play, but say at once to yourself, That would be adding a second piece of folly to the first. If you have worked evil, you must bethink yourself of doing good. If you are punished for your actions, submit to the punishment with the feeling that by this very submission you are somehow doing good, in that you are 48 Clearly autob iographical. Nietzsche, like all great men, passed through a period of modesty and doubt. Tr. 303 deterring others from falling into the same error. Every malefactor who is punished has a right to consider himself a benefactor to mankind. 324. Becoming a Thinker.How can any one become a thinker if he does not spend at least a third part of the day without passions, men, and books? 325. The Best Remedy. A little health on and off is the best remedy for the invalid. 326. Dont Touch.There are dreadful people who, instead of solving a problem, complicate it for those who deal with it and make it harder to solve. 48F49 Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be entreated not to hit the nail at all. 327. Forgetting Nature.We speak of Nature, and, in doing so, forget ourselves: we ourselves are Nature, quand mme.Consequently, Nature is something quite different from what we feel on hearing her name pronounced. 328. Profundity and Ennui.In the case of profound men, as of deep wells, it takes a long time before anything that is thrown into them reaches the bottom. The spectators, who generally do not wait long enough, too readily look upon such a man as callous and hardor even as boring. 329. When it is Time to Vow Fidelity to Oneself. We sometimes go astray in an intellectual direction which does not correspond to our talents. For a time we struggle heroically against wind and tide, really against ourselves; but finally we become weary and we pant. What we accomplish gives us no real pleasure, since we think that we have paid too heavy a price for these successes. We even despair of our productivity, of our future, perhaps in the midst of victory.Finally, finally we turn backand then the wind swells our sails and bears us into our smooth water. What bliss! How certain of victory we feel! Only now do we know what we are and what we intend, and now we vow fidelity to ourselves, and have a right to do soas men that know. 330. Weather Prophets. Just as the clouds reveal to us the direction of the wind high above our heads, so the lightest and freest spirits give signs of future weather by their course. The wind in the valley and the market-place opinions of to-day have no significance for the future, but only for the past. 331. Continual Acceleration. Those who begin slowly and find it hard to become familiar with a subject, sometimes acquire afterwards the quality of continual acceleration so that in the end no one knows where the current will take them. 332. 49 Nietzsche here alludes to his own countrymen. Tr. 304 The Three Good Things.Greatness, calm, sunlightthese three embrace all that a thinker desir es and also demands of himself: his hopes and duties, his claims in the intellectual and moral sphere, nay even in his daily manner of life and the scenic background of his residence. Corresponding to these three things are, firstly thoughts that exalt, secondly thoughts that soothe, and thirdly thoughts that illuminatebut, fourthly, thoughts that share in all these three qualities, in which all earthly things are transfigured. This is the kingdom of the great trinity of joy . 333. Dying for Truth.We sho uld not let ourselves be burnt for our opinionswe are not so certain of them as all that. But we might let ourselves be burnt for the right of possessing and changing our opinions. 334. Market Value. If we wish to pass exactly for what we are, we must be something that has its market value. As, however, only objects in common use have a market value, this desire is the consequence either of shrewd modesty or of stupid immodesty. 335. Moral for Builders. We must remove the scaffolding when the house has been built. 336. Sophocleanism.Who poured more water into wine than the Greeks? Sobriety and grace combinedthat was the aristocratic privilege of the Athenian in the time of Sophocles and after. Imitate that whoever can! In life and in work! 337. Heroism .The heroic consists in doing something great (or in nobly not doing something) without feeling oneself to be in competition with or before others. The hero carries with him, wherever he goes, the wilderness and the holy land with inviolable precincts. 338. Finding our Double in Nature. In some country places we rediscover ourselves, with a delightful shudder: it is the pleasantest way of finding our double.How happy must he be who has that feeling just here, in this perpetually sunny October air, in this happy elfin play of the wind from morn till eve, in this clearest of atmospheres and mildest of temperatures, in all the serious yet cheerful landscape of hill, lake, and forest on this plateau, which has encamped fearlessly next to the terrors of eternal snow: here, where Italy and Finland have joined hands, and where the home of all the silver colour-tones of Nature seems to be established. How happy must he be who can say, True, there are many grander and finer pieces of scenery, but this is so familiar and intimate to me, related by blood, nay even more to me! 339. Affability of the Sage.The sage will unconsciously be affable in his intercourse with other men, as a prince would be, and will readily treat them as equals, in spite of all difference s of talent, rank, and character. For this characteristic, however, so soon as people notice it, he is most heavily censured. 340. Gold.All that is gold does not glitter. A soft sheen characterises the most precious metal. 305 341. Wheel and Drag. The wheel and the drag have different duties, but also one in common that of hurting each other. 342. Disturbances of the Thinker.All that interrupts the thinker in his thoughts (disturbs him, as people say) must be regarded by him calmly, as a new model who comes in by the door to offer himself to the artist. Interruptions are the ravens which bring food to the recluse. 343. Being very Clever.Being very clever keeps men young, but they must put up with being considered, for that very reason, older than they are. For men read the handwriting of the intellect as signs of experiencethat is, of having lived much and evilly, of suffering, error, and repentance. Hence, if we are very clever and show it, we appear to them older and wickeder than we are. 344. How we must C onquer.We ought not to desire victory if we only have the prospect of overcoming our opponent by a hairs breadth. A good victory makes the vanquished rejoice, and must have about it something divine which spares humiliation . 345. An Illusion of Superior Minds.Superior minds find it difficult to free themselves from an illusion; for they imagine that they excite envy among the mediocre and are looked upon as exceptions. As a matter of fact, however, they are looked upon as superfluous, as something that would not be missed if it did not exist. 346. Demanded by Cleanliness.Changing opinions is in some natures as much demanded by cleanliness as changing clothes. In the case of other natures it is only demanded by vanity. 347. Also Worthy of a Hero.Here is a hero who did nothing but shake the tree as soon as the fruits were ripe. Do you think that too small a thing? Well, just look at the tree that he shook. 348. A Gauge for Wisdom.The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill-temper. 349. Expressing an Error Disagreeably.It is not to every one s taste to hear truth pleasantly expressed. But let no one at least believe that error will become truth if it is disagreeably expressed. 350. The Golden Maxim.Man has been bound with many chains, in order that he may forget to comport himself like an animal. And indeed he has become more gentle, more intellectual, more joyous, more meditative than any animal. But now he still suffers from having carried his chains so long, from having been so long without pure air and free movementthese chains, however, are, as I repeat again and again, the ponderous and significant errors of moral, religious, and metaphysical ideas. Only when the disease of chains is overcome is the 306 first great goal r eached the separation of man from the brute. At present we stand in the midst of our work of removing the chains, and in doing so we need the strictest precautions. Only the ennobled man may be granted freedom of spirit; to him alone comes the alleviation of life and heals his wounds; he is the first who can say that he lives for the sake of joy, with no other aim; in any other mouth, his motto of Peace around me and goodwill towards all the most familiar things, would be dangerous.In this motto for single individuals he is thinking of an ancient saying, magnificent and pathetic, which applied to all, and has remained standing above all mankind, as a motto and a beacon whereby shall perish all who adorn their banner too earlythe rock on which Christianity foundered. It is not even yet time, it seems, for all men to have the lot of those shepherds who saw the heavens lit up above them and heard the words: Peace on earth and goodwill to one another among men. It is still the age of the individual. *** The Shadow : Of all that you have enunciated, nothing pleased me more than one promise: Ye want again to be good neighbours to the most familiar things. This will be to the advantage of us poor shadows too. For do but confess that you have hitherto been only too fond of reviling us. The Wanderer : Reviling? But why did you never defend yourselves? After all, you were very close to our ears. The Shadow : It seemed to us that we were too near you to have a right to talk of ourselves. The Wanderer : What delicacy! Ah, you shadows are better men 49F50 than we, I can see that. The Shadow : And yet you called us importunateus, who know one thing at least extremely well: how to be silent and to waitno Englishman knows it better. It is true we are very, very often in the retinue of men, but never as their bondsmen. When man shuns light, we shun manso far, at least, we are free. The Wanderer : Ah, light shuns man far oftener, and then also you abandon him. The Shadow : It has often pained me to leave you. I am eager for knowledge, and much in man has remained obscure to me, because I cannot always be in his company. At the price of complete knowledge of man I would gladly be your slave. The Wanderer : Do you know, do I know, whether you would not then unwittingly become master instead of slave? Or would remain a slave indeed, but would lead a life of humiliation and disgust because you despised your master? Let us both be content with freedom such as you have enjoyed up to nowyou and I! For the sight of a being not free would embitter my greatest joys; all that is best would be repugnant to me if any one had to share it with me I will not hear of any slaves about me. That is why I do not care for the dog, that lazy, tail-wagging parasite, who first became doggish as the slave of man, and of whom they still say that he is loyal to his master and follows him like The Shadow : Like his shadow, they say. Perhaps I have already followed you too long to- day? It has been the longest day, but we are nearing the end; be pa tient a little more! The grass is damp; I am feeling chilly. The Wanderer : Oh, is it already time to part? And I had to hurt you in the endI saw you became darker. 50 An allusion to the poem Der Wilde (The Savage) by Sume, which ends with the line, Sehet, wir wilden sind doch bessere Menschen (Behold, after all, we savages are better men). Tr. 307 The Shadow : I blushed the only colour I have at command. I remembered that I had often lain at your feet like a dog, and that you then The Wanderer : Can I not with all speed do something to please you? Have you no wish? The Shadow : None, except perhaps the wish that the philosophic dog 50F51 expressed to Alexander the Great just move a little out of my light; I feel cold. The Wanderer : What am I to do? The Shadow : Walk under those fir-trees and look around you towards the mountains; the sun is sinking. The Wanderer : Where are you? Where are you? THE END *************** I'm Julie, the woman who runs Global Grey - the website where this ebook w as published. These are my own formatted editions, and I hope you enjoyed reading this particular one. If you have this book because you bought it as part of a collection thank you so much f or your support. If you downloaded it for free please consid er (if you havent already) making a small donation to help keep the site running. If you bought this from Amazon or anywhere else, you have been ripped off by someone taking free ebooks from my site and selling them as their own. You should definitely get a refund :/ Thanks for reading this and I hope you visit the site again - new books are added regularly so you'll always find something of interest :) 51 Diogenes, founder of the Cynic school, which derived its name from (dog). Tr. 308 |
Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most inuential thinkers of the past 150years and On the Genealogy of Morality (1887 ) is his most important work on ethics and politics. A polemical contribution to moral and political theory, it offers a critique of moral values and traces the historical evolution of concepts such as guilt, conscience,responsibility , law and justice. This is a revised and updated editionof one of the most successful volumes to appear in Cambridge Textsin the History of Political Thought. Keith Ansell-Pearson has mod- ied his introduction to Nietzsches classic text, and Carol Diethe has incorporated a number of changes to the translation itself,reecting the considerable advances in our understanding ofNietzsche in the twelve years since this edition rst appeared. In this new guise, the Cambridge Texts edition of Nietzsches Genealogy should continue to enjoy widespread adoption, at both undergradu-ate and graduate level. CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE On the Genealogy of Morality CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT Series editors Raymond Geuss Reader in Philosophy, University of Cambridge Quentin Skinner Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought is now rmly estab- lished as the major student textbook series in political theory. It aims to makeavailable to students all the most important texts in the history of westernpolitical thought, from ancient Greece to the early twentieth century. All thefamiliar classic texts will be included, but the series seeks at the same time toenlarge the conventional canon by incorporating an extensive range of less well-known works, many of them never before available in a modern English edition. Wherever possible, texts are published in complete and unabridgedform, and translations are specially commissioned for the series. Each volumecontains a critical introduction together with chronologies, biographicalsketches, a guide to further reading and any necessary glossaries andtextual apparatus. When completed the series will aim to o er an outline of the entire evolution of western political thought. For a list of titles published in the series, please see end of book FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE On the Genealogy of Morality EDITED BY KEITH ANSELL-PEARSON Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick TRANSLATED BY CAROL DIETHE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, So Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU , UK First published in print format ISBN-13 978-0-521-87123-5ISBN-13 978-0-511-34967-6 in the translation and editorial matter Cambridge University Press 1994 ,2007 2006Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521871235 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambrid ge University Press. ISBN-10 0-511-34967-X ISBN-10 0-521-87123-9 Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or a ppropriate.Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org hardbackeBook (NetLibrary) eBook (NetLibrary) hardback Contents Acknowledgements and a note on the text page viii A note on the revised edition ix Introduction: on Nietzsches critique of morality xiii Chronology xxx Further reading xxxiii Biographical synopses xxxvii On the Genealogy of Morality 1 Supplementary material to On the Genealogy of Morality 121 The Greek State 164 Homers Contest 174 Index of names 183 Index of subjects 187 vii Acknowledgements and a note on the text Carol Diethe is responsible for the translation of all the material featured in this book with the exception of the supplementary material taken from the Cambridge University Press editions of Human, All too Human (volumes one and two), pp. 12332andDaybreak ,p p . 13344, and trans- lated by R. J. Hollingdale. The notes which accompany the text were prepared by Raymond Geuss, who proted from editorial material supplied in the editions of G. Colli and M. Montinari (Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 1967 88) and Peter Putz (Munich, Goldman, 1988 ). The essay The Greek State was originally intended by Nietzsche to be a chapter of his rst published book, The Birth of Tragedy (1872 ); together with the essay Homers Contest and three other essays on the topics of truth, the future of education, and Schopenhauer it formed part of the Five prefaces to ve unwritten books Nietzsche presented to Cosima Wagner in the Christmas of 1872 . The German text of the two essays, newly translated here, can be found in volume 1ofNietzsche. Smtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe (Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 1988 ), pp. 76478and pp. 78393. Nietzsches own italicization and idiosyncratic punctuation have been retained in the text. viii A note on the revised edition This second, revised edition features a new introduction by the editor and a revised and updated guide to further reading. The translation has been extensively modied in an effort to present the reader with a more accu- rate and reliable text. The editor and translator wish to thank those schol- ars who brought errors in the original translation to their attention and made suggestions for rening the text, in particular Christa DavisAcampora and Duncan Large. Ultimately, we made our own decisions and sole responsibility for the text remains with us. Keith Ansell-Pearson wishes to thank Richard Fisher of Cambridge University Press for sup- porting the idea of a second, revised edition of the text, and Christa Davis Acampora, Carol Diethe and Raymond Geuss for looking over versionsof the introduction and providing helpful comments. Carol Diethe wishes to thank Jrgen Diethe for his considered comments. Note by the translator: Anyone who has read Nietzsche in the original will be aware of his polished style, and will have admired his capacity to leapfrom one idea to another with nesse , to sprinkle foreign words into his text, to emphasize words with italics, or to coin a string of neologisms while rushing headlong through a paragraph until, nally, he reaches the safe landing of a full stop. Humbling though the experience often was, I have tried to keep faith with Nietzsches punctuation and to capture asmuch of his style as was possible in translation while still holding on to the demands of accuracy. For accuracy in translating Nietzsche is increas- ingly important. When the rst edition came out in 1994 , I felt I could render a term like blue-eyed as nave, as in the phrase navely menda-cious, which now appears as blue-eyed mendacious in the text (III, 19). ix Now, however, there are several dictionaries collating Nietzsches terms, and the method adopted in the recently published rst volume of de Gruyters Nietzsche Wrterbuch (Vol. I, AE) includes information on the frequency of Nietzsches use of a given term. For example, there is anentry for blue, and we are told that Nietzsche used it seventy-two times.In view of this scrutiny of Nietzsches vocabulary, one feels duty-boundto be as literal as possible, and the translation has been checked and tight-ened with this aspect of Nietzsche research in mind. Nietzsche used foreign words liberally, and these usually appear in italics in the text, though not always, as when Nietzsche actually used an English word in his text, such as contiguity or, more surprisingly,sportsman and training, quite modern words at that time (III, 17,21). Some of Nietzsches terms are given in German after a word to clarify the translation of a key word, or a word translated in a seemingly anarchicway; hence Anschauung (normally used for view or opinion) appears after contemplation to conrm that it is Schopenhauers aesthetic term under discussion. Often, of course, the context dictates that some words are translated differently within the text. One example is Freigeist , trans- lated as free-thinker on page 19and free spirit on page 77.I n Nietzsches day, the free-thinker was usually an enlightened but still reli- gious person, probably with liberal views. When, on page 19, Nietzsche refers to his interlocutor as a democrat (a term of abuse for Nietzsche), we can safely assume that he has the free-thinker in mind. Yet Nietzsche saw himself as a free spirit, and praised the Buddha for breaking free fromhis domestic shackles; for this reason, free spirit is used on p. 77, and this is the best translation for Freigeist when as more usually Nietzsche used it in a positive sense. Much trickier was the wordplay Nietzsche introduced when explain- ing that Christian guilt ( Schuld ) stems from a much earlier concept of debt (also Schuld ). In sections 202of the Second Essay, it is only possi- ble to know which meaning Nietzsche had in mind by the surrounding references to moralizing (where we are fairly safe with guilt) or repay- ment (where debt is necessary). It is not always quite as neat as this sounds, and on a few occasions (pages 62and63), debt/guilt is used to indicate that Nietzsche is changing gear. On one occasion, where Nietzsche describes Napoleon as a synthesis of Unmensch andbermensch (p.33), the German words are given rstand the English translation is in brackets: a high-risk strategy in any transla-tion. The reason for this is an experience I had when teaching under-A note on the revised edition x graduates who did not know any German, but who wanted to know more about Nietzsches slogans: eternal return, the will to power and espe- cially the bermensch variously translated as superman or overman, though the German term is now in widespread use. Although WalterKaufmann in his translation of On the Genealogy of Morals provided an excellent description of Napoleon as this synthesis of the inhuman andsuperhuman, I could not convince my students that this text containedany reference to the bermensch . Kaufmanns index had no such entry, and nobody grasped that the word superhuman elegant as it was along- side inhuman actually translated bermensch . Once the decision had been taken to place the German word in the text proper, we felt we hadto pay Unmensch the same compliment, especially as Nietzsche intends his readers to reect on the two types of human being, Mensch . Finally, a word about the title. When I rst heard about a book by Nietzsche called Zur Genealogie der Moral , I assumed the translation would be On the Genealogy of Morality , since for me, die Moral meant ethics as a formal doctrine, in other words, morality in a grand and abstract sense which naturally comprised morals. I am more relaxed on the matter now, but still feel that to talk about morality as a singular entityand phenomenon is truer to Nietzsches meaning. Everyone concerned with this book has had that consideration in mind, and a primary concern was to make Nietzsche accessible .A note on the revised edition xi Introduction: on Nietzsches critique of morality Introduction to Nietzsches text Although it has come to be prized by commentators as his most import- ant and systematic work, Nietzsche conceived On the Genealogy of Morality as a small polemical pamphlet that might help him sell more copies of his earlier writings.1It clearly merits, though, the level of atten- tion it receives and can justiably be regarded as one of the key texts of European intellectual modernity . It is a deeply disturbing book that retains its capacity to shock and disconcert the modern reader. Nietzsche himself was well aware of the character of the book. There are moments in the text where he reveals his own sense of alarm at what he is discov-ering about human origins and development, especially the perverse nature of the human animal, the being he calls the sick animal ( GM, III,14). Although the Genealogy is one of the darkest books ever written, it is also, paradoxically, a book full of hope and anticipation. Nietzsche provides us with a stunning story about mans monstrous moral past,which tells the history of the deformation of the human animal in the hands of civilization and Christian moralization; but also hints at a new kind of humanity coming into existence in the wake of the death of God and the demise of a Christian-moral culture. On the Genealogy of Morality belongs to the late period of Nietzsches writings ( 1886 8). It was composed in July and August of 1887 and pub- lished in November of that year. Nietzsche intended it as a supplement xiii11Letter to Peter Gast, 18July 1887 , in Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche , ed. Christopher Middleton (London and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999 ), p.269. to and clarication of Beyond Good and Evil , said by him to be in all essentials a critique of modernity that includes within its range of attack modern science, modern art and modern politics. In a letter to his formerBasel colleague Jacob Burckhardt dated 22September 1886 , Nietzsche stresses that Beyond Good and Evil says the same things as Zarathustra only in a way that is different very different. In this letter he drawsattention to the books chief preoccupations and mentions the mysteri-ous conditions of any growth in culture, the extremely dubious relationbetween what is called the improvement of man (or even humanisa- tion) and the enlargement of the human type, and above all the con- tradiction between every moral concept and every scientic concept oflife. On the Genealogy of Morality closely echoes these themes and con- cerns. Nietzsche nds that all modern judgments about men and things are smeared with an over-moralistic language; the characteristic featureof modern souls and modern books is to be found in their moralistic mendaciousness ( GM, III, 19). InEcce Homo Nietzsche describes the Genealogy as consisting of three decisive preliminary studies by a psychologist for a revaluation of values. The First Essay probes the psychology of Christianity and traces thebirth of Christianity not out of the spirit per se but out of a particular kind of spirit, namely, ressentiment ; the Second Essay provides a psy- chology of the conscience, where it is conceived not as the voice of God in man but as the instinct of cruelty that has been internalized after it can no longer discharge itself externally; the Third Essay inquires into themeaning of ascetic ideals, examines the perversion of the human will, and explores the possibility of a counter-ideal. Nietzsche says that he provides an answer to the question where the power of the ascetic ideal, the harmful ideal par excellence , comes from, and he argues that this is simply because to date it has been the only ideal; no counter-ideal has been made available until the advent of Zarathustra . The Genealogy is a subversive book that needs to be read with great care. It contains provocative imagery of blond beasts of prey and of the Jewish slave revolt in morality which can easily mislead the unwary reader about the nature of Nietzsches immoralism. In the preface,Nietzsche mentions the importance of readers familiarizing themselves with his previous books throughout the book he refers to various sections and aphorisms from them, and occasionally he makes partial cita-tions from them. The critique of morality Nietzsche carries out in thebook is a complex one; its nuances are lost if one extracts isolated imagesIntroduction xiv and concepts from the argument of the book as a whole. His contribution to the study of morality has three essential aspects: rst, a criticism of moral genealogists for bungling the object of their study through the lackof a genuine historical sense; second, a criticism of modern evolutionarytheory as a basis for the study of morality; and third, a critique of moralvalues that demands a thorough revaluation of them. Nietzsches polem- ical contribution is intended to question the so-called self-evident facts about morality and it has lost none of its force today. Reading Nietzsche Nietzsche is often referred to as an aphoristic writer, but this falls short of capturing the sheer variety of forms and styles he adopted. In fact, the number of genuine aphorisms in his works is relatively small; instead, most of what are called Nietzsches aphorisms are more substantial para- graphs which exhibit a unied train of thought (frequently encapsulated in a paragraph heading indicating the subject matter), and it is from thesebuilding blocks that the other, larger structures are built in more or lessextended sequences. Nietzsches style, then, is very different from stan-dard academic writing, from that of the philosophical workers he describes so condescendingly in Beyond Good and Evil (BGE,211). His aim is always to energize and enliven philosophical style through anadmixture of aphoristic and, broadly speaking, literary forms. His styl- istic ideal, as he puts it on the title page of The Case of Wagner (parody- ing Horace), is the paradoxical one of ridendo dicere severum (saying what is sombre through what is laughable), and these two modes, the sombre and the sunny, are mischievously intertwined in his philosophy,without the reader necessarily being sure which is uppermost at any one time. Nietzsche lays down a challenge to his readers, and sets them a peda- gogical, hermeneutic task, that of learning to read him well. He acknow- ledges that the aphoristic form of his writing causes difculty , andemphasizes that an aphorism has not been deciphered simply when it has been read out; rather, for full understanding to take place, an art of interpretation or exegesis is required (the German word is Auslegung , lit- erally a laying out). He gives the attentive reader a hint of what kind of exegesis he thinks is needed when he claims that the Third Essay of thebook is a commentary on the aphorism that precedes it (he intends theopening section of the essay, not the epigraph from Zarathustra ).On Nietzsches critique of morality xv Genealogy and morality For Nietzsche, morality represents a system of errors that we have incor- porated into our basic ways of thinking, feeling and living; it is the great symbol of our profound ignorance of ourselves and the world. In The Gay Science 115, it is noted how humankind has been educated by the four errors: we see ourselves only incompletely; we endow ourselves with c- titious attributes; we place ourselves in a false rank in relation to animalsand nature that is, we see ourselves as being inherently superior to them; and, nally, we invent ever new tables of what is good and then acceptthem as eternal and unconditional. H owever, Nietzsche does not propose we should make ourselves feel guilty about our incorporated errors (they have provided us with new drives); and neither does he want us simply toaccuse or blame the past. We need to strive to be more just in our evalua- tions of life and the living by, for example, thinking beyond good and evil. For Nietzsche, it is largely the prejudices of morality that stand in the way of this; morality assumes knowledge of things it does not have. The criticism Nietzsche levels at morality what we moderns take it to be and to represent is that it is a menacing and dangerous system that makes the present live at the expense of the future ( GM, Preface, 6). Nietzsches concern is that the human species may never attain its highest potential and splendour (ibid.). The task of culture is to produce sovereign individuals, but what we really nd in history is a series of deformationsand perversions of that cultural task. Thus, in the modern world the aim and meaning of culture is taken to be to breed a tame and civilized animal, ahousehold pet , out of the beast of prey man ( GM,I ,11), so that now man strives to become better all the time, meaning more comfortable, more mediocre, more indifferent, more Chinese, more Christian . . . ( GM, I,12). This, then, is the great danger of modern culture: it will produce an animal that takes taming to be an end in itself, to the point where the free- thinker will announce that the end of history has been attained (for Nietzsches criticism of the free-thinker see GM,I ,9). Nietzsche argues that we moderns are in danger of being tempted by a new European typeof Buddhism, united in our belief in the supreme value of a morality of communal compassion, as if it were morality itself, the summit, the con- quered summit of humankind, the only hope for the future, comfort in the present, the great redemption from all past guilt . . . ( BGE,202). Nietzsche argues that in their attempts to account for morality philoso- phers have not developed the suspicion that morality might be somethingIntroduction xvi problematic; in effect what they have done is to articulate an erudite form of true belief in the prevailing morality, and, as a result, their inquiries remain a part of the state of affairs within a particular moral-ity ( BGE,186). Modern European morality is herd animal morality which considers itself to be the denition of morality and the only moral-ity possible or desirable ( BGE,202); at work in modern thinking is the assumption that there is a single morality valid for all ( BGE,228). Nietzsche seeks to develop a genuinely critical approach to morality , in which all kinds of novel, surprising and daring questions are posed. Nietzsche does not so much inquire into a moral sense or a moral faculty as attempt to uncover the different senses of morality , that is the different meanings morality can be credited with in the history of human devel-opment: morality as symptom, as mask, as sickness, as stimulant, aspoison, and so on. Morality , Nietzsche holds, is a surface phenomenonthat requires meta-level interpretation in accordance with a different, superior set of extra-moral values beyond good and evil. On several occasions in the Genealogy , Nietzsche makes it clear that certain psychologists and moralists have been doing something we can call genealogy (see, for example, GM,I ,2and II, 4,12). He nds all these attempts insufciently critical. In particular, Nietzsche has in mind the books of his former friend, Paul Re ( 1849 1901 ), to whom he refers in the books preface. In section 4he admits that it was Res book on the origin of moral sensations, published in 1877 , that initially stimulated him to develop his own hypotheses on the origin of morality . Moreover,it was in this book that he rst directly encountered the back-to-front and perverse kind of genealogical hypotheses, which he calls the English kind. In section 7Nietzsche states that he wishes to develop the sharp, unbiased eye of the critic of morality in a better direction than we nd in Res speculations. He wants, he tells us, to think in the directionof a real history of morality (die wirkliche Historie der Moral); in con- trast to the English hypothesis-mongering into the blue that is, looking vainly into the distance as in the blue yonder he will have recourse to the colour grey to aid his genealogical inquiries, for this denotes, that which can be documented, which can actually be conrmed and hasactually existed . . . the whole, long, hard-to-decipher hieroglyphic script of mans moral past! ( GM, Preface, 7). Because the moral genealogists are so caught up in merely modern experience they are altogetherlacking in knowledge; they have no will to know the past, still less aninstinct for history . . . ( GM, II, 4). An examination of the books ofOn Nietzsches critique of morality xvii moral genealogists would show, ultimately, that they all take it to be something given and place it beyond questioning. Although he detects a few preliminary attempts to explore the history of moral feelings and val-uations, Nietzsche maintains that even among more rened researchersno attempt at critique has been made. Instead, the popular superstitionof Christian Europe that selessness and compassion are what is charac- teristic of morality is maintained and endorsed. Nietzsche begins the Genealogy proper by paying homage to English psychologists, a group of researchers who have held a microscope to the soul and, in the process, pioneered the search for a new set of truths: plain, bitter, ugly, foul, unchristian, immoral . . . ( GM,I ,1). The work of these psychologists has its basis in the empiricism of John Locke, and in David Humes new approach to the mind that seeks to show that so-called complex, intellectual activity emerges out of processes that are, in truth, stupid, such as the vis inertiae of habit and the random coupling and mechanical association of ideas. In the attempt of English psychol- ogists to show the real mechanisms of the mind Nietzsche sees at work not a malicious and mean instinct, and not simply a pessimistic suspicionabout the human animal, but the research of proud and generous spirits who have sacriced much to the cause of truth. He admires the honest craftsmanship of their intellectual labours. He criticizes them, however, for their lack of a real historical sense and for bungling their moral genealogies as a result, and for failing to raise questions of value andfuture legislation. This is why he describes empiricism as being limited by a plebeian ambition ( BGE,213). What the English essentially lack, according to Nietzsche, is spiritual vision of real depth in short, philosophy ( BGE,252). In section 12of the Second Essay Nietzsche attempts to expose what he takes to be the fundamental navet of the moral genealogists. This con- sists in highlighting some purpose that a contemporary institution or prac- tice purportedly has, and then placing this purpose at the start of the historical process which led to the modern phenomenon in question. In GM, II,13he says that only that which has no history can be dened, and draws attention to the synthesis of meanings that accrues to any given phenomenon. His fundamental claim, one that needs, he says, to inform all kinds of historical research, is that the origin of the development of a thing and its ultimate usefulness are altogether separate. This is because what exists is continually interpreted anew . . . transformed and redirected to anew purpose by a superior power. Nietzsche is challenging the assump-Introduction xviii tion that the manifest purpose of a thing (its utility , form and shape) con- stitutes the reason for its existence, such as the view that the eye is made to see and the hand to grasp. He argues against the view that we can considerthe development of a thing in terms of a logical progressus towards a goal. This navely teleological conception of development ignores the randomand contingent factors within evolution, be it the evolution of a tradition or an organ. However, he also claims that every purpose and use is just a signthat the will to power is in operation in historical change. This further claim has not found favour among theorists impressed by Nietzsches ideas on evolution because they see it as relying upon an extravagant meta- physics. It is clear from his published presentations of the theory of the willto power that Nietzsche did not intend it to be such. Nietzsche knows that he will shock his readers with the claims he makes on behalf of the will to power, for example, that it is the primor- dial fact of all history ( BGE,259). To say that the will to power is a fact is not, for Nietzsche, to be committed to any simple-minded form ofphilosophical empiricism. Rather, Nietzsches training as a philologistinclined him to the view that no fact exists apart from an interpretation,just as no text speaks for itself, but always requires an interpretingreader. When those of a modern democratic disposition consider natureand regard everything in it as equally subject to a xed set of laws of nature, are they not projecting on to nature their own aspirations for human society, by construing nature as a realm that exhibits the ratio-nal, well-ordered egalitarianism which they wish to impose on all the various forms of human sociability? Might they be, as Nietzsche insin- uates, masking their plebeian enmity towards everything privileged and autocratic, as well as a new and more subtle atheism? But if even these purported facts about nature are really a matter of interpretation andnot text, would it not be possible for a thinker to deploy the opposite intention and look, with his interpretive skill, at the same nature and the same phenomena, reading out of it the ruthlessly tyrannical and unre- lenting assertion of power claims? Nietzsche presents his readers with a contest of interpretations. His critical claim is that, whereas themodern democratic interpretation suffers from being moralistic, his does not; his interpretation of the text of nature as will to power allows for a much richer appreciation of the economy of life, including its active emotions. In the Genealogy , Nietzsche wants the seminal role played by the active affects to be appreciated ( GM, II,11). We suffer from the democratic idiosyncrasy that opposes in principle everythingOn Nietzsches critique of morality xix that dominates and wants to dominate ( GM, II, 12). Against Darwinism, he argues that it is insufcient to account for life solely in terms of adaptation to external circumstances. Such a conceptiondeprives life of its most important dimension, which he namesAktivitt (activity). It does this, he contends, by overlooking the primacy of the spontaneous, expansive, aggressive . . . formative forcesthat provide life with new directions and new interpretations, and fromwhich adaptation takes place only once these forces have had their effect.He tells us that he lays stress on this major point of historical method because it runs counter to the prevailing instinct and fashion which would much rather come to terms with absolute randomness, and eventhe mechanistic senselessness of all events, than the theory that a power- willis acted out in all that happens ( GM, II,12). Nietzsches polemic challenges the assumptions of standard genealo- gies, for example, that there is a line of descent that can be continuously traced from a common ancestor, and that would enable us to trace moral notions and legal practices back to a natural single and xed origin. His emphasis is rather on fundamental transformations, on disruptions, and on psychological innovations and moral inventions that emerge in specicmaterial and cultural contexts. Undue emphasis should not be placed, h owever, on the role Nietzsche accords to contingency and discontinuity within history, as this would be to make a fetish of them as principles. Contrary to Michel Foucaults inuential reading of genealogy, Nietzsche does not simply opposehimself to the search for origins, and neither is he opposed to the attempt to show that the past actively exists in the present, secretly continuing to animate it. 2Much of what Nietzsche is doing in the book is only intelli- gible if we take him to be working with the idea that it does. Nietzsche opposes himself to the search for origins only where this involves what we might call a genealogical narcissism. Where it involves the discovery of difference at the origin, of the kind that surprises and disturbs us, Nietzsche is in favour of such a search. This is very much the case withhis analysis of the bad conscience. For Nietzsche, this is an origin (Ursprung ) that is to be treated as a fate and as one that still lives on in human beings today.Introduction xx12Michel Foucault, Nietzsche, Genealogy, and History ( 1971 ), in The Essential Works of Foucault , volume II: 1954 84, ed. James Faubion, trans. Robert Hurley and others (London: Penguin Books, 2000 ), pp. 36993. Good, bad and evil In the rst of the three essays of which the Genealogy is composed, Nietzsche invites us to imagine a society which is split into two distinct groups: a militarily and politically dominant group of masters exercises absolute control over a completely subordinate group of slaves. Themasters in this model are construed as powerful, active, relatively unre-ective agents who live a life of immediate physical self-afrmation: theydrink, they brawl, they wench, they hunt, whenever the fancy takesthem, and they are powerful enough, by and large, to succeed in most ofthese endeavours, and uninhibited enough to enjoy living in this way. They use the term good to refer in an approving way to this life and to themselves as people who are capable of leading it. As an afterthought,they also sometimes employ the term bad to refer to those people mostnotably , the slaves who by virtue of their weakness are not capable ofliving the life of self-afrming physical exuberance. The terms good and bad then form the basis of a variety of different masters morali- ties. One of the most important events in Western history occurs whentheslaves revolt against the masters form of valuation. The slaves are, after all, not only physically weak and oppressed, they are also by virtue of their very weakness debarred from spontaneously seeing themselves and their lives in an afrmative way. They develop a reactive and nega- tive sentiment against the oppressive masters which Nietzsche callsressentiment , and this ressentiment eventually turns creative, allowing the slaves to take revenge in the imagination on the masters whom they are too weak to harm physically. The form this revenge takes is the inventionof a new concept and an associated new form of valuation: evil. Evil isused to refer to the life the masters lead (which they call good) but it is used to refer to it in a disapproving way . In a slave morality this negative term evil is central, and slaves can come to a pale semblance of self-afr- mation only by observing that they are notlike the evil masters. In the mouths of the slaves, good comes to refer not to a life of robust vitality , but to one that is not-evil, i.e. not in any way like the life that the masterslive. Through a variety of further conceptual inventions (notably , free will), the slaves stylize their own natural weakness into the result of a choice for which they can claim moral credit. Western morality has his-torically been a struggle between elements that derive from a basic formof valuation derived from masters and one derived from slaves.On Nietzsches critique of morality xxi The fate of bad conscience In the Second Essay, Nietzsche develops a quite extraordinary story about the origins and emergence of feelings of responsibility and debt (personal obligation). He is concerned with nothing less than the evolution of the human mind and how its basic ways of thinking have come into being,such as inferring, calculating, weighing and anticipating. Indeed, hepoints out that our word man ( manas ) denotes a being that values, measures and weighs. Nietzsche is keen to draw the readers attention to what he regards as an important historical insight: the principal moral concept of guilt ( Schuld ) descends from the material concept of debts (Schulden ). In this sphere of legal obligations, he stresses, we nd the breeding-ground of the moral conceptual world of guilt, conscience andduty ( GM, II,6). Nietzsche opens the Second Essay by drawing attention to a paradox- ical task of nature, namely, that of breeding an animal that is sanctioned to promise and so exist as a creature of time, a creature that can remem- ber the past and anticipate the future, a creature that can in the presentbind its own will relative to the future in the certain knowledge that it will in the future effectively remember that its will has been bound. For this cultivation of effective memory and imagination to be successful, culture needs to work against the active force of forgetting, which serves an important physiological function. The exercise of a memory of the willsupposes that the human animal can make a distinction between what happens by accident and what happens by design or intention, and it also presupposes an ability to think causally about an anticipated future. Insection 2, Nietzsche makes explicit that what he is addressing is the long history of the origins of responsibility . The successful cultivation of an animal sanctioned to promise requires a labour by which man is made into something regular, reliable, and uniform. This has been achieved by what Nietzsche calls the morality of custom ( Sittlichkeit der Sitte ) and the social straitjacket which it imposes. The disciplining of the human animal into an agent that has a sense of responsibility ( Verantwortlichkeit ) for its words and deeds has not taken place through gentle methods, but through the harsh and cruel measures of coercion and punishment. As Nietzsche makes clear at one point in the text: Each step on earth, eventhe smallest, was in the past a struggle that was won with spiritual andphysical torment . . . (III, 9). The problem for culture is that it has to deal with an animal that is partly dull, that has an inattentive mind and a strongIntroduction xxii propensity to active forgetfulness. In most societies and ages, this problem has not been solved by gentle methods: A thing must be burnt in so that it stays in the memory (II, 3). Nietzsches insight is that without blood, torture and sacrice, including disgusting mutilations, what we know asmodern psychology would never have arisen. All religions are at bottomsystems of cruelty , Nietzsche contends; blood and horror lies at the basisof all good things. In a certain sense it is possible to locate the whole ofasceticism in this sphere of torment: a few ideas have to be madeineradicable . . . unforgettable and xed in order to hypnotize the whole nervous and intellectual system through these xed ideas . . . (ibid.). The fruit of this labour of Cultur performed on man in the pre- historical period is the sovereign individual who is master of a strong anddurable will, a will that can make and keep promises. On this accountfreedom of the will is an achievement of culture and operates in thecontext of specic material practices and social relations. Nietzsche calls this individual autonomous and supra-ethical ( bersittlich ): it is supra- ethical simply in the sense that it has gone beyond the level of custom. For Nietzsche the period of the morality of custom pre-dates what we call world history and is to be regarded as the decisive historical periodwhich has determined the character of man ( GM, III, 9). The sublime work of morality can be explained as the natural and necessary work of culture (of tradition and custom). The sovereign individual is the kind of self-regulating animal that is required for the essential functions of culture (for example, well-functioning creditordebtor relations). Itcannot be taken to be his ideal in any simple or straightforward sense. 3 InGM, II,16Nietzsche advances, albeit in a preliminary fashion, his own theory on the origin of the bad conscience. He looks upon it as a serious illness to which man was forced to succumb by the pressure of the most fundamental of all changes which he experienced. This change refers to the establishment of society and peace and their conning spaces, which brings with it a suspension and devaluation of the instincts.Nietzsche writes of the basic instinct of freedom the will to power being forced back and repressed (II, 1718). Human beings now walk as if a terrible heaviness bears down on them. In this new scenario the old animal instincts, such as animosity , cruelty, the pleasure of changing and destroying, do not cease to make their demands, but have to nd new andOn Nietzsches critique of morality xxiii13Nietzsche criticizes the ideal of a single, rigid and unchanging individuum in Human, All Too Human 618. underground satisfactions. Through internalization, in which no longer dischargeable instincts turn inward, comes the invention of what is popu- larly called the human soul: The whole inner world, originally stretchedthinly as though between two layers of skin, was expanded and extendeditself and granted depth, breadth, and height in proportion to the degreethat the external discharge of mans instincts was obstructed . Nietzsche insists that thisis the origin of bad conscience . He uses striking imagery in his portrait of this momentous development. On the one hand, Nietzsche approaches the bad conscience as the most insidious illness that has come into being and from which man has yet to recover, his sickness of himself. On the other hand, he maintains that theprospect of an animal soul turning against itself is an event and a spec- tacle too interesting to be played senselessly unobserved on some ridicu- lous planet. Furthermore, as a development that was prior to allressentiment , and that cannot be said to represent any organic assimilation into new circumstances, the bad conscience contributes to the appearance of an animal on earth that arouses interest, tension, hope, as if through it something . . . were being prepared, as though man were not an end but just a path, an episode, a bridge, a great promise ( GM, II, 16). Nietzsche observes that although it represents a painful and ugly growth, the bad conscience is not simply to be looked upon in disparaging terms; indeed, he speaks of the active bad conscience. It can be regarded as the true womb of ideal and imaginative events; through it an abundance of disconcerting beauty and afrmation has been brought to light. In the course of history, the illness of bad conscience reached a terrible and sublime peak. In prehistory, argues Nietzsche, the basic creditor debtor relationship that informs human social and economic activity also nds expression in religious rites and worship, for example, the way a tribal community expresses thanks to earlier generations. Over time theancestor is turned into a god and associated with the feeling of fear (the birth of superstition). Christianity cultivates further the moral or reli- gious sentiment of debt, and does so in terms of a truly monstrous level of sublime feeling: God is cast as the ultimate ancestor who cannot be repaid ( GM, II,20). Sin and the ascetic ideal The sense of guilt has evolved through several momentous and fateful events in history. In its initial expression it is to be viewed as a piece ofIntroduction xxiv animal psychology, no more . . . ( GM, III, 20). In the earliest societies, a person is held answerable for his deeds and obliged to honour his debts. In the course of history this material sense of obligation is increasinglysubject to moralization, reaching its summit with guilt before theChristian God. In the Third Essay, the ascetic priest comes into his own.Nietzsche had introduced the priests into his account in the First Essay as a faction of the ruling class of masters, who distinguish themselves from the other masters by an extreme concern for purity ( GM,I ,67). Originally, this concern is no more than a variant of the superiority of the master-caste as a whole over the slaves: the priests are masters and thus can afford to wash, wear clean clothes, avoid certain malodorous orunhealthy foods, etc. Slaves have no such luxury. Priestly purity , h owever, has a dangerous tendency to develop into more and more extreme and more and more internalized forms. Priests become expert in asceticism,and in dealing with all forms of human suffering. It is in the hands of the priest, an artist in feelings of guilt, Nietzsche says, that guilt assumes form and shape: Sin for that is the name for the priestly reinterpre- tation of the animal bad conscience . . . has been the greatest event in the history of the sick soul up till now: with sin we have the most dan-gerous and disastrous trick of religious interpretation ( GM, III, 20). The value of the priestly type of existence, says Nietzsche, lies in the fact that it succeeds in changing the direction of ressentiment (GM, III, 15). In the First Essay, we saw the slaves in the grip of a creative ressentiment directed against the masters which could be expressed in the following terms: they the masters are evil, whereas we are not-evil (therefore, good). Important as the invention of the concept of evil is historically, in itself it does not yet solve the slaves problem. In fact, in some ways it makes it more acute: If we are good, why do we suffer? The correct answer to thisquestion, Nietzsche believes, is that the slaves suffer because they are inherently weak, and it is simply a biological fact that some humans are much weaker than others, either by nature or as a result of unfortunate cir- cumstances. This answer, however, is one no slave can be expected to tol- erate because it seems to make his situation hopeless and irremediable,which, in fact, Nietzsche thinks it is. Humans can bear suffering; what they cannot bear is seemingly senseless suffering, and this is what the slaves suf- fering is. It has no meaning, it is a mere brute fact. The priests interven- tion consists in giving the slaves a way of interpreting their suffering which at least allows them to make some sense of it. You slaves are suffering, soruns the priestly account, because you are evil. The ressentiment that wasOn Nietzsches critique of morality xxv directed at the masters is now turned by the slaves on themselves. The sick, suffering slave becomes a sinner. In addition to this diagnosis of the cause of suffering, the priests also have a proposed therapy. Since evil designatesthe kind of intense vitality the masters exhibit in their lives, the way toescape it is to engage in a progressive spiral of forms of life-abnegation andself-denial. In the long run, this therapy makes the original disease the suffering that results from human weakness worse, but in the short run of2,000years or so, it has mobilized what energy the slaves command in the service of creating what we know as Western culture. The healing instinct of life operates through the priest, in which ideas of guilt, sin, damnation, and so on, serve to make the sick harmless to a degree, and the instincts of the sufferer are exploited for the purpose of self-discipline, self-surveillance, and self-overcoming ( GM, III, 16). The priests remedy for human suffering is the ascetic ideal, the ideal of a human will turned utterly against itself, or self-abnegation for its own sake. Such an ideal seems to express a self-contradiction in as much as we seem to encounter with it life operating against life. Nietzsche argues,however, that viewed from physiological and psychological angles this amounts to nonsense. In section 13of the Third Essay he suggests that, on closer examination, the self-contradiction turns out to be only appar-ent, it is a psychological misunderstanding of something, the real nature of which was far from being understood . . .. His argument is that the ascetic ideal has its source or origins in what he calls the protective and healing instincts of a degenerating life. The ideal indicates a partial phys- iological exhaustion, in the face of which the deepest instincts of life,which have remained intact, continually struggle with new methods and inventions. The ascetic ideal amounts, in effect, to a trick or artice (Kunstgriff ) for the preservation of life. The interpretation of suffering developed by the ascetic ideal for a long time now has succeeded in shut- ting the door on a suicidal nihilism by giving humanity a goal: morality .The ideal has added new dimensions and layers to suffering by making it deeper and more internal, creating a suffering that gnaws more intensely at life and bringing it within the perspective of metaphysical-moral guilt. But this saving of the will has been won at the expense of the future and fostered a hatred of the conditions of human existence. It expresses a fearof happiness and beauty and a longing to get away from appearance, transience, growth, death. The real problem, according to Nietzsche, is not the past, not even Christianity , but present-day Christian-moral Europe. After such vistasIntroduction xxvi and with such a burning hunger in our conscience and science, he writes in an aphorism on the great health, how could we still be satised with present-day man ? (GS,382). We live in an age in which the desire for man and his future a future beyond mere self-preservation, security andcomfort seems to be disappearing from the face of the earth. Modernatheists who have emancipated themselves from the afiction of pasterrors the error of God, of the world conceived as a unity, of free will,and so on have only freed themselves from something and not for some-thing. They either believe in nothing at all or have a blind commitment to science and uphold the unconditional nature of the will to truth. By con- trast, Nietzsche commits himself to the supreme afrmation that is born out of fullness, and this is an afrmation without reservation even of suf-fering, even of guilt, even of all that is strange and questionable in exis-tence. Nietzsche stresses that this Y es to life is both the highest anddeepest insight that is conrmed and maintained by truth and know- ledge ( EHBT, 2). It is not, then, a simple-minded, pre-cognitive Yes to life that he wants us to practise, but one, as he stresses, secured by truth and knowledge. The free spirit knows what kind of you shall he has obeyed, Nietzsche writes; and in so doing, he also knows what he nowcan, what only now he may do . . . ( HH, Preface). Nietzsche and political thought Nietzsches political thinking remains a source of difculty, even embar- rassment, because it fails to accord with the standard liberal ways of thinking about politics which have prevailed in the last 200 and more years. As in liberalism, Nietzsches conception of politics is an instru- mental one, but he differs radically from the liberal view in his valuation of life. For liberalism, politics is a means to the peaceful coexistence ofindividual agents; for Nietzsche, by contrast, it is a means to the produc- tion of human greatness. Nietzsche challenges what we might call the ontological assumptions that inform the positing of the liberal subject, chiey that its identity is largely imaginary because it is posited only at the expense of neglecting the cultural and historical formation of thesubject. The liberal formulation of the subject assumes individual identity and liberty to be a given, in which the individual exists inde- pendently of the mediations of culture and history and outside themedium of ethical contest and spiritual labour. Nietzsche is committedto the enhancement of man and this enhancement does not consist inOn Nietzsches critique of morality xxvii improving the conditions of existence for the majority of human beings, but in the generation of a few, striking and superlatively vital highest exemplars of the species. Nietzsche looks forward to new philosopherswho will be strong and original enough to revalue and reverse so-calledeternal values and, in teaching human beings that the future depends ontheir will, will prepare the way for great risk-taking and joint experi- ments in discipline and breeding, and in this way, put an end to that ter- rible reign of nonsense and coincidence that until now has been known as history ( BGE,203). In the two early essays from 1871 2included in this volume, The Greek State and Homers Contest, we see at work the stress Nietzscheplaces on political life not as an end in itself but as a means to the pro- duction of great human beings and an aristocratic culture. Nietzsche pre- sents a stark choice between culture and politics (or the claims ofjustice). He argues that if we wish to promote greatness and serve the ends of culture, then it is necessary to recognize that an essential aspect of society is economic servitude for the majority of individuals. We must not let the urge for justice . . . swamp all other ideas; or, as Nietzsche memorably puts it, the cry of compassion must not be allowed to teardown the walls of culture. When Nietzsche took up his teaching appointment at Basel University , he sought to make a contribution to the so-called Homeric question which was centred on issues about the authenticity , authorship and sig- nicance of the works ascribed to Homer. He addressed the topic in hisinaugural lecture given in 1869 , which was entitled Homer and Classical Philology (originally conceived as an essay on Homers Personality). He comments upon the signicance of the Greek agon (contest) in research he had done on a neglected (and maligned) Florentine manuscript on an imaginary contest between Homer and Hesiod (the rst part of thisresearch was published in 1870 and a second part in 1873 ). 4An exploration of what constitutes the kernel of the Hellenic idea of the contest ( agon, cer- tamen ) becomes the major concern of Nietzsches speculations on the event of Homer in the unpublished essay Homers Contest that we publish here. Two points are worth noting about this research work by the young Nietzsche: rst, that it is an early exercise in genealogy in the sensethat it focuses on what it means to reclaim something from the past inIntroduction xxviii14See Nietzsche, Kritische Gesamtausgabe Werke , ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1967 ff.),2.1,p p . 271339. this case antiquity for the present, and, second, that the motif of the contest is one that persists in Nietzsche and runs throughout his writings. Nietzsches positions on ethics and politics may not ultimately compel us but they are more instructive than is commonly supposed, and cer-tainly not as horric as many of his critics would have us believe. 5He is out to disturb our satisfaction with ourselves as moderns and as knowers. Although we may nd it difcult to stomach some of his specic propos- als for the overcoming of man and morality , his conception of genealogy has become a constitutive feature of our efforts at self-knowledge.On Nietzsches critique of morality xxix515See the ne study by John Richardson, Nietzsches New Darwinism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004 ). Chronology 1844 15 October: Nietzsche born in Rcken, a Prussian province of Saxony south west of Leipzig, the son of pastor Karl Ludwig Nietzsche. 1849 30 July: Death of father. 1858 Nietzsche enters the Gymnasium Schulpforta near Naumburg, Germanys renowned Protestant boarding-school. 1864 October: Nietzsche enters the University of Bonn as a student of theology and classical philology. 1865 October: Nietzsche follows his philology lecturer at Bonn, F . W . Ritschl, to Leipzig as a student. He comes across thework of Schopenhauer in a Leipzig bookshop. 1868 8 November: Nietzsche has his rst meeting with Richard Wagner in Leipzig. 1869 February: On the recommendation of Ritschl, Nietzsche, who had not yet completed his doctorate, is appointedExtraordinary Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel. 17May: Nietzsches rst visit to Wagner and Cosima (von Blow) at Tribschen. 28May: Inaugural lecture at Basel on Homer and Classical Philology. 1870 August: Nietzsche volunteers as a nursing orderly in the Franco-Prussian War, but owing to illness returns to Baselafter two months. xxx 1871 January: Unsuccessfully applies for the Chair of Philosophy at University of Basel. 1872 January: Publication of rst book, The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music (originally entitled On Greek Cheerfulness).22May: Nietzsche accompanies Wagner on the occasion of the latters fty-ninth birthday to the laying of the foundation-stone of the Bayreuth theatre. 1873 5 Publication of Untimely Meditations . 1876 August: First Bayreuth festival. Beginnings of estrangement from Wagner.September: Leaves Bayreuth in the company of Paul Re. 1878 First part of Human, All Too Human (dedicated to Voltaire). 3January: Wagner sends Nietzsche a copy of the recently published text of Parsifal . May: Nietzsche writes his last letter to Wagner and encloses a copy of Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits . End of friendship with Wagner. 1879 Volume 2, part 1ofHuman, All Too Human: Assorted Opinions and Maxims . Nietzsche is forced to resign from his Chair at Basel due to ill health. For the next ten years he leads the life of a solitary wanderer living in hotel rooms and lodgings. 1880 Volume 2, part 2ofHuman, All Too Human The Wanderer and his Shadow . 1881 Daybreak. Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality . First Summer in Sils-Maria in the Upper Engadine, where he experiences the abysmal thought of the eternal recur- rence of the same. 1882 The Gay Science . In aphorism 125, a madman announces the death of God. March: Paul Re leaves Nietzsche in Genoa and travels to Rome, where he meets and falls in love with Lou Salom. April: In Rome, Nietzsche proposes marriage, rst via Reand then in person. Although he is turned down, he is content with the promise of an intellectual mnage trois made up of himself, Re and Salom.By the end of the year, Nietzsche has broken with both Reand Salom, and feels betrayed by both.Chronology xxxi 1883 Writes rst and second parts of Thus Spoke Zarathustra: ABook for all and None . 13February: Death of Wagner. 1884 5 Third and fourth parts of Zarathustra . 1886 Beyond Good and Evil. A Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future . 1887 10 November: On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic . 1888 MayAugust: The Case of Wagner , nishes Dithyrambs of Dionysus (published 1891 ). September: Writes The Anti-Christ (published 1894 ). OctoberNovember: Writes Ecce Homo (publication delayed by Elisabeth Frster-Nietzsche until 1908 ). December: Writes Nietzsche contra Wagner (published 1895 ). 1889 Twilight of the Idols (original title The Idleness of a Psychologist). 3January: Nietzsche breaks down in the Piazza Carlo Alberto in Turin and throws his arms round an old carthorse that is being beaten by its owner.18January: Admitted as a mental patient to the psychiatric clinic of the University of Jena. Doctors diagnose progres- sive paralysis. 1890 1900 Nietzsche in the care of his mother and then of his sister in Naumburg and Weimar. 1900 25 August: Nietzsche dies in Weimar. Buried in Rcken next to his father.Chronology xxxii Further reading Biographies Hayman, Ronald, Nietzsche: A Critical Life(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; New York: Oxford University Press, 1980 ) Hollingdale, R. J., Nietzsche: The Man and his Philosophy ,2nd edn (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999 ) Safranski, Rdiger, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography , trans. Shelley Frisch (New York: Norton; London: Granta, 2002 ) Small, Robin, Nietzsche and Re: A Star Friendship (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005 ) Introductions Gilman, Sander L., Nietzschean Parody: An Introduction to Reading Nietzsche (Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann, 1976 ) Jaspers, Karl, Nietzsche: An Introduction to his Philosophical Activity , trans. C. F . Walraff and F . J. Schmitz (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997 ) Kaufmann, Walter, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Anti-Christ , 4th edn (Princeton, NJ and London: Princeton University Press, 1974 ) Salom, Lou, Nietzsche , trans. Siegfried Mandel (Redding Ridge, CT: Black Swan Books, 1988 ; reprinted Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001 ) Stern, J. P ., A Study of Nietzsche (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979 ) xxxiii Edited collections Acampora, Christa Davis and Ralph R., A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Docile and Brutal (New York: Rowman and Littleeld, 2004 ) Ansell Pearson, Keith (ed.), A Companion to Nietzsche (Malden, MA and Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2006 ) Gillespie, Michael Allen, and Tracy B. Strong (eds.), Nietzsches New Seas: Explorations in Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Politics (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1988 ) Janaway, Christopher (ed.), Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsches Educator (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1988 ) Magnus, Bernd, and Kathleen M. Higgins (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996 ) Richardson, John, and Brian Leiter (eds.), Nietzsche (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001 ) Monographs and critical studies Assoun, Paul-Laurent, Freud and Nietzsche , trans. Richard L. Collier, Jr (London and New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press, 2000 ) Deleuze, Gilles, Nietzsche and Philosophy , trans. Hugh Tomlinson (London: Athlone Press; New York: Columbia University Press, 1983 ) Heidegger, Martin, Nietzsche , ed. David Farrell Krell, trans. David Farrell Krell et al., four volumes (San Francisco and London: Harper & Row, 1979 87) Kofman, Sarah, Nietzsche and Metaphor , trans. Duncan Large (London: Athlone Press; Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993 ) Lwith, Karl, From Hegel to Nietzsche: The Revolution in Nineteenth- Century Thought , trans. David E. Green (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964 ) Nehamas, Alexander, Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1985 ) Richardson, John, Nietzsches System (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 ) Nietzsches New Darwinism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 )Further reading xxxiv Schrift, Alan D., Nietzsche and the Question of Interpretation: Between Hermeneutics and Deconstruction (New York and London: Routledge, 1990 ) Simmel, Georg, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche , trans. Helmut Loiskandl, Deena Weinstein and Michael Weinstein (Amherst: University ofMassachusetts Press, 1986 ; reprinted Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991 ) Staten, Henry, Nietzsches Voice (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1990 ) On the Genealogy of Morality Acampora, Christa Davis (ed.), Critical Essays on the Classics: Nietzsches On the Genealogy of Morals (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman and Littleeld, 2006 ) Foucault, Michel, Nietzsche, Genealogy, and History, in The Essential Works of Foucault , volume II: 1954 84, ed. James Faubion, trans. Robert Hurley and others (London: Penguin Books, 2000 ), pp.36993 Havas, Randall, Nietzsches Genealogy: Nihilism and the Will to Knowledge (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1995 ) Leiter, Brian, Nietzsche on Morality (London and New York: Routledge, 2002 ) Ridley, Aaron, Nietzsches Conscience: Six Character Studies from the Genealogy (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1998 ) Schacht, Richard (ed.), Nietzsche, Genealogy, Morality: Essays on Nietzsches Genealogy of Morals (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1994 ) Scheler, Max, Ressentiment , ed. Lewis A. Coser, trans. William W . Holdheim (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1961 ) Ethics Berkowitz, Peter, Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1995 ) Hunt, Lester H., Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue (London and New York: Routledge, 1991 ) May, Simon, Nietzsches Ethics and his War on Morality (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999 )Further reading xxxv Politics Conway, Daniel C., Nietzsche and the Political (London and New York: Routledge, 1997 ) Detwiler, Bruce, Nietzsche and the Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1990 ) Hatab, Lawrence J., A Nietzschean Defense of Democracy: An Experiment in Postmodern Politics (Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1995 ) Owen, David, Nietzsche, Politics and Modernity: A Critique of Liberal Reason (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi: Sage, 1995 ) Strong, Tracy B., Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transguration , 3rd edn (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000 ) Warren, Mark, Nietzsche and Political Thought (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 1988 )Further reading xxxvi Biographical synopses Anacreon (c.582 bc c.485 bc ), Greek lyric poet born on the island of Teos. Bahnsen , Julius ( 1830 1881 ), German philosopher inuenced by Schopenhauer and author of books on characterology and the philosophy of history. Buckle , Henry Thomas ( 1821 1862 ), Victorian historian of civilization. His reading of history rests on the view that the causes of social growth, and of divergent forms of social organization which characterize differ- ent historical cultures, are material (factors such as climate, food, soil, etc.) as opposed to racial. Deussen , Paul ( 1845 1919 ), German philologist and philosopher, like Nietzsche the son of a Protestant clergyman. Developed a close friend-ship with Nietzsche, published his Reminiscences in 1901 . Deussen was the rst Western philosopher to include Eastern thought in a general history of philosophy in any scientic way. Published The System of Vedanta in1881 . An enthusiastic interpreter of Schopenhauer and founder of the Schopenhauer Society . Doudan , Ximns ( 1800 1872 ), French critic, author of several posthu- mously published volumes, including Mixed Writings and Letters (1876 7) and Thoughts and Fragments ,and the Revolutions of Taste (1881 ). xxxvii Dhring , Eugen ( 1833 1921 ), German philosopher and political econo- mist. Wrote virulent attacks on religion, militarism, Marxism, Judaism and the Bismarckian state. He held that the feeling of sympathy is thefoundation of morality , which led him to advocate harmony between cap-italists and proletarians. Epicurus (342 bc 270 bc ), Greek philosopher best known for his hedon- ism and atomism. Feuerbach , Ludwig ( 1804 1872 ), German philosopher best known for hisEssence of Christianity (1841 ) and his Principles of the Philosophy of the Future (1843 ), which greatly inuenced the young Marx. Fischer , Kuno ( 1824 1907 ), German historian of philosophy whose major work on the History of Modern Philosophy (1852 77) was exten- sively consulted by Nietzsche. Geulincx , Arnold ( 1624 1669 ), Flemish metaphysician and moralist, heavily inuenced by Descartes, and best known for his occasionalist theory of causation. Hartmann , Eduard von ( 1842 1906 ), German philosopher who espoused a pessimistic philosophy based on a synthesis of German Idealism (Hegel, Schelling) and Schopenhauer. Only pessimism, he held, can serve as a foundation for a viable ethical system and provide a tele-ological perspective from which religion, including contemporary Christianity , can be assessed. Author of Philosophy of the Unconscious (1864 ) and Phenomenology of Ethical Consciousness (1879 ). Heraclitus (c.540 bc c.480 bc ), Greek philosopher who believed that the world was best understood as a unity of opposites. Herwegh , Georg ( 1817 1875 ), German poet whose best-known collec- tion is Poems of the Living One (1841 ). Huxley , Thomas Henry ( 1825 1895 ), educational reformer and biolo- gist. A champion of Darwins theory of evolution. His view of nature as an unending struggle for existence led him to posit a conict between theends of nature and those of morality . Man is a product of evolution butBiographical synopses xxxviii he has an obligation to subjugate the amoral or immoral aspects of evolu- tion to moral ends. Janssen , Johannes ( 1829 1891 ), Roman Catholic German historian best known for his History of the German People from the Close of the Middle Ages(8vols., 1876 91), which was received with enthusiasm by German Catholics but sharply criticized by Protestant historians for its partisan approach. La Rochefoucauld , Francois VI, duc de ( 1613 1680 ), French classical author, cynic and leading exponent of the maxime , a literary form of epigram designed to express an unpalatable or paradoxical truth with brevity . Published Reexions ou sentences et maximes morales in1665 . Mainlnder , Philipp ( 1841 1876 ), German philosopher inuenced by Schopenhauer. Author of Philosophy of Redemption (1876 ). Mirabeau , Comte de ( 1749 1791 ), prominent gure in the early stages of the French Revolution. Moore , Thomas ( 1779 1852 ), Irish poet, satirist, composer and musi- cian, and friend of Byron and Shelley. Ranke , Leopold ( 1795 1886 ), leading German historian who dened the task of the historian as the quest for objectivity. Nietzsches early untimely meditation of 1874 on the uses and abuses of history for life can be read as a polemic against what he saw as the stultifying inuence ofRankes historicism on German intellectual life. Re, Paul ( 1849 1901 ), German (Jewish) psychologist, philosopher and atheist who became a close associate of Nietzsches, introducing him to Lou Salom and exerting a powerful inuence on the writings of hismiddle period ( 1878 82). Author of Psychological Observations (1875 ) andThe Origin of the Moral Sensations (1877 ). Renan , Ernest ( 1823 1892 ), inuential French historian who abandoned a priestly calling in order to devote himself to secular teaching and writing. Author of a life of Jesus in six volumes ( 1863 81), including volumes on the Origins of Christianity (1863 ) and the Antichrist (1876 ).Biographical synopses xxxix Spencer , Herbert ( 1820 1903 ), English philosopher who attempted to unify the biological and the social sciences by means of a generalized philosophical notion of evolution. Taine , Hippolyte ( 1828 1893 ), French critic and historian. One of the leading exponents of positivism in France in the nineteenth century, heattempted to apply the scientic method to the study of the humanities. Tertullian (c.ad155 220), important early Christian theologian, polemi- cist and moralist from North Africa. Theognis (late 6thearly 5th century bc), Greek elegiac poet of Megara, his poems are important for their depiction of aristocratic society in achanging world. Nietzsche wrote his dissertation on Theognis in 1864 , which became his rst publication in the eld of philology in 1867 . Virchow , Rudolf ( 1821 1902 ), German pathologist and statesman, and one of the most prominent physicians in the nineteenth century. Von Gwinner , Wilhelm ( 1825 1917 ), German jurist and civil servant, of importance to Nietzsche as the executor of Schopenhauers literary estate who destroyed his autobiographical papers, only to write three volumes of biography himself ( 1862 78). Whiteeld , George ( 1714 1770 ), methodist revivalist.Biographical synopses xl ON THE GENEALOGY OF MORALITY A Polemic Preface 1 We are unknown to ourselves, we knowers: and with good reason. We have never looked for ourselves, so how are we ever supposed to ndour- selves? How right is the saying: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also;1ourtreasure is where the hives of our knowledge are. As born winged-insects and intellectual honey-gatherers we are constantly making for them, concerned at heart with only one thing to bring some- thing home. As far as the rest of life is concerned, the so-called experi- ences, who of us ever has enough seriousness for them? or enough time? I fear we have never really been with it in such matters: our heart issimply not in it and not even our ear! On the contrary, like somebody divinely absent-minded and sunk in his own thoughts who, the twelve strokes of midday having just boomed into his ears, wakes with a start and wonders What hour struck?, sometimes we, too, afterwards rub our ears and ask, astonished, taken aback, What did we actually experience then?or even, Who arewe, in fact? and afterwards, as I said, we count all twelve reverberating strokes of our experience, of our life, of our being oh! and lose count . . . We remain strange to ourselves out of necessity , we do not understand ourselves, we must confusedly mistake who we are, the motto 2 everyone is furthest from himself applies to us for ever, we are not knowers when it comes to ourselves . . . 311Gospel according to Matthew 6.21. 12Jeder ist sich selbst der Fernste is a reversal of the common German saying, Jeder ist sich selbst der Nchste Everyone is closest to himself i.e. Charity begins at home, cf.also Terence, Andria IV .1.12. 2 My thoughts on the descent of our moral prejudices for that is what this polemic is about were rst set out in a sketchy and provisional way in the collection of aphorisms entitled Human, All Too Human. A Book for Free Spirits ,3which I began to write in Sorrento during a winter that enabled me to pause, like a wanderer pauses, to take in the vast and dan- gerous land through which my mind had hitherto travelled. This was in the winter of 1876 7; the thoughts themselves go back further. They were mainly the same thoughts which I shall be taking up again in the present essays let us hope that the long interval has done them good, that theyhave become riper, brighter, stronger and more perfect! The fact that I still stick to them today, and that they themselves in the meantime have stuck together increasingly rmly, even growing into one another and growing into one, makes me all the more blithely condent that from the rst, they did not arise in me individually, randomly or sporadically butas stemming from a single root, from a fundamental will to knowledge deep inside me which took control, speaking more and more clearly and making ever clearer demands. And this is the only thing proper for a philosopher. We have no right to stand out individually : we must not either make mistakes or hit on the truth individually. Instead, ourthoughts, values, every yes, no, if and but grow from us with the same inevitability as fruits borne on the tree all related and referring to one another and a testimonial to one will, one health, one earth, one sun. Do youlike the taste of our fruit? But of what concern is that to the trees? And of what concern is it to usphilosophers? . . . 3 With a characteristic scepticism to which I confess only reluctantly it relates to morality and to all that hitherto on earth has been celebrated as morality , a scepticism which sprang up in my life so early, so unbid- den, so unstoppably, and which was in such conict with my surround- ings, age, precedents and lineage that I would almost be justied in calling it my a priori , eventually my curiosity and suspicion were bound to x on the question of what origin our terms good and evil actually have. Indeed, as a thirteen-year-old boy, I was preoccupied with the problem ofthe origin of evil: at an age when ones heart was half-lled with childishOn the Genealogy of Morality 43Human, All Too Human , trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge University Press, 1986 ). games, half-lled with God,4I dedicated my rst literary childish game, my rst philosophical essay, to this problem and as regards my solution to the problem at that time, I quite properly gave God credit for it andmade him the father of evil. Did my a priori want thisof me? That new, immoral, or at least immoralistic a priori : and the oh-so-anti-Kantian, so enigmatic categorical imperative 5which spoke from it and to which I have, in the meantime, increasingly lent an ear, and not just an ear? . . . Fortunately I learnt, in time, to separate theological from moral prejudice and I no longer searched for the origin of evil beyond the world. Some training in history and philology, together with my innate fastidiousness with regard to all psychological problems, soon transformed my probleminto another: under what conditions did man invent the value judgments good and evil? and what value do they themselves have ? Have they up to now obstructed or promoted human ourishing? Are they a sign of dis- tress, poverty and the degeneration of life? Or, on the contrary, do they reveal the fullness, strength and will of life, its courage, its condence, itsfuture? To these questions I found and ventured all kinds of answers of my own, I distinguished between epochs, peoples, grades of rank betweenindividuals, I focused my inquiry, and out of the answers there developednew questions, investigations, conjectures, probabilities until I had my own territory, my own soil, a whole silently growing and blossomingworld, secret gardens, as it were, the existence of which nobody must be allowed to suspect . . . Oh! how happy we are, we knowers, provided we can keep quiet for long enough! . . . 4 I was given the initial stimulation to publish something about my hypotheses on the origin of morality by a clear, honest and clever, even too-clever little book, in which I rst directly encountered the back-to- front and perverse kind of genealogical hypotheses, actually the English kind, which drew me to it with that power of attraction which every- thing contradictory and antithetical has. The title of the little book wasPreface 514Goethe, Faust 1.3781 f. 15Immanuel Kant gives a number of different formulations of what he takes to be the basic principle of morality in his two major works on ethics, The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785 ) and the Critique of Practical Reason (1788 ). The rst formulation of the categorical imperative in The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals reads: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law(Groundwork , section 1). The Origin of the Moral Sensations ; its author was Dr Paul Re; the year of its publication 1877 . I have, perhaps, never read anything to which I said no, sentence by sentence and deduction by deduction, as I did tothis book: but completely without annoyance and impatience. In the workalready mentioned which I was working on at the time, I referred to pas-sages from this book more or less at random, not in order to refute them what business is it of mine to refute! but, as bets a positive mind, to replace the improbable with the more probable and in some circum- stances to replace one error with another. As I said, I was, at the time, bringing to the light of day those hypotheses on descent to which these essays are devoted, clumsily, as I am the rst to admit, and still inhibitedbecause I still lacked my own vocabulary for these special topics, and with a good deal of relapse and vacillation. In particular, compare what I say about the dual prehistory of good and evil in Human, All Too Human , section 45(namely in the sphere of nobles and slaves); likewise section 136 on the value and descent of ascetic morality; likewise sections 96and99 and volume II, section 89on the Morality of Custom, that much older and more primitive kind of morality which is toto coelo 6removed from altruistic evaluation (which Dr Re, like all English genealogists, sees as the moral method of valuation as such ); likewise section 92,The Wanderer , section 26, and Daybreak , section 112, on the descent of justice as a balance between two roughly equal powers (equilibrium as the pre- condition for all contracts and consequently for all law); likewise The Wanderer , sections 22and33on the descent of punishment, the deterrent [terroristisch ] purpose of which is neither essential nor inherent (as Dr Re thinks: instead it is introduced in particular circumstances and is always incidental and added on).7 5 Actually, just then I was preoccupied with something much more important than the nature of hypotheses, mine or anybody elses, on the origin of morality (or, to be more exact: the latter concerned me only for one end, to which it is one of many means). For me it was a question of thevalue of morality , and here I had to confront my great teacher Schopenhauer, to whom that book of mine spoke as though he were stillOn the Genealogy of Morality 616completely, utterly. 17All the passages Nietzsche mentions here are to be found below in the supplementary material of this edition. present, with its passion and its hidden contradiction ( it, too, being a polemic). I dealt especially with the value of the unegoistic, the instincts of compassion, self-denial, self-sacrice which Schopenhauer8 had for so long gilded, deied and transcendentalized until he was nally left with them as those values as such on the basis of which he said no to life and to himself as well. But against these very instincts I gave vent to an increasingly deep mistrust, a scepticism which dug deeper and deeper! Precisely here I saw the great danger to mankind, its most sublime temptation and seduction temptation to what? to nothingness? pre-cisely here I saw the beginning of the end, standstill, mankind looking back wearily, turning its will against life, and the onset of the nal sick- ness becoming gently, sadly manifest: I understood the morality of com- passion, casting around ever wider to catch even philosophers and make them ill, as the most uncanny symptom of our European culture whichhas itself become uncanny, as its detour to a new Buddhism? to a new Euro-Buddhism? to nihilism ? . . . This predilection for and over- valuation of compassion that modern philosophers show is, in fact, some- thing new: up till now, philosophers were agreed as to the worthlessness of compassion. I need only mention Plato, Spinoza, La Rochefoucauld andKant, four minds as different from one another as it is possible to be, but united on one point: their low opinion of compassion. 6 This problem of the value of compassion and of the morality of com- passion ( I am opposed to the disgraceful modern softness of feeling ) seems at rst to be only an isolated phenomenon, a lone question mark; but whoever pauses over the question and learns to ask, will nd what I found: that a vast new panorama opens up for him, a possibility makes him giddy, mistrust, suspicion and fear of every kind spring up, belief inmorality , all morality , wavers, nally, a new demand becomes articulate. So let us give voice to this new demand : we need a critique of moral values, the value of these values should itself ,for once, be examined and so we need to know about the conditions and circumstances under which the values grew up, developed and changed (morality as result, as symptom, as mask,as tartuffery, as sickness, as misunderstanding; but also morality as cause,Preface 718In his ber die Grundlagen der Moral ( 1840 ) Schopenhauer claimed that compassion was the basis of morality. remedy, stimulant, inhibition, poison), since we have neither had this knowledge up till now nor even desired it. People have taken the value of these values as given, as factual, as beyond all questioning; up till now,nobody has had the remotest doubt or hesitation in placing higher valueon the good man than on the evil, higher value in the sense of advance-ment, benet and prosperity for man in general (and this includes mans future). What if the opposite were true? What if a regressive trait lurked in the good man, likewise a danger, an enticement, a poison, a narcotic, so that the present lived at the expense of the future ? Perhaps in more comfort and less danger, but also in a smaller-minded, meaner manner? . . . So that morality itself were to blame if man, as species, neverreached his highest potential power and splendour ? So that morality itself was the danger of dangers? . . . 7 Sufce it to say that since this revelation, I had reason to look around for scholarly, bold, hardworking colleagues (I am still looking). The vast, distant and hidden land of morality of morality as it really existed and was really lived has to be journeyed through with quite new questions and as it were with new eyes: and surely that means virtually discovering this land for the rst time? . . . If, on my travels, I thought about theabove-mentioned Dr Re, amongst others, this was because I was certain that, judging from the questions he raised, he himself would have to adopta more sensible method if he wanted to nd the answers. Was I mistaken?At any rate, I wanted to focus this sharp, unbiased eye in a better direc-tion, the direction of a real history of morality , and to warn him, while there was still time, against such English hypothesis-mongering into the blue. It is quite clear which colour is a hundred times more important for a genealogist than blue: namely grey, which is to say, that which can be documented, which can actually be conrmed and has actually existed, in short, the whole, long, hard-to-decipher hieroglyphic script of mansmoral past! This was unknown to Dr Re; but he had read Darwin: and so, in his hypotheses, the Darwinian beast and the ultra-modern, humble moral weakling who no longer bites politely shake hands in a way that is at least entertaining, the latter with an expression of a certain good- humoured and cultivated indolence on his face, in which even a grain ofpessimism and fatigue mingle: as if it were really not worth taking allthese things the problems of morality so seriously. Now I, on theOn the Genealogy of Morality 8 contrary, think there is nothing which more rewards being taken seriously; the reward being, for example, the possibility of one day being allowed to take them cheerfully. That cheerfulness, in fact, or to put it into my par-lance, that gay science is a reward: a reward for a long, brave, diligent, subterranean seriousness for which, admittedly, not everyone is suited.The day we can say, with conviction: Forwards! even our old morality would make a comedy ! we shall have discovered a new twist and possible outcome for the Dionysian drama of the fate of the soul : and hell make good use of it, we can bet, he, the grand old eternal writer of the comedy of our existence! . . . 8 If anyone nds this script incomprehensible and hard on the ears, I do not think the fault necessarily lies with me. It is clear enough, assum- ing, as I do, that people have rst read my earlier works without sparing themselves some effort: because they really are not easy to approach. With regard to my Zarathustra , for example, I do not acknowledge anyone as an expert on it if he has not, at some time, been both profoundly woundedand profoundly delighted by it, for only then may he enjoy the privilege of sharing, with due reverence, the halcyon element from which the book was born and its sunny brightness, spaciousness, breadth and certainty . In other cases, the aphoristic form causes difculty: this is because this form isnot taken seriously enough these days . An aphorism, properly stamped and moulded, has not been deciphered just because it has been read out; on the contrary, this is just the beginning of its proper interpretation , and for this, an art of interpretation is needed. In the third essay of this book I have given an example of what I mean by interpretation in such a case: this treatise is a commentary on the aphorism that precedes it. Iadmit that you need one thing above all in order to practise the requisite artof reading, a thing which today people have been so good at forget- ting and so it will be some time before my writings are readable , you almost need to be a cow for this one thing and certainly nota modern man: it is rumination ... Sils-Maria, Upper Engadine July 1887 .Preface 9 First essay: Good and Evil, Good and Bad 1 These English psychologists, who have to be thanked for having made the only attempts so far to write a history of the emergence of morality , provide us with a small riddle in the form of themselves; in fact, I admit that as living riddles they have a signicant advantage over their books they are actually interesting! These English psychologists just what do they want? You always nd them at the same task, whether they want to ornot, pushing the partie honteuse of our inner world to the foreground, and looking for what is really effective, guiding and decisive for our develop-ment where mans intellectual pride would least wish to nd it (forexample, in the vis inertiae of habit, or in forgetfulness, or in a blind and random coupling and mechanism of ideas, or in something purely passive,automatic, reexive, molecular and thoroughly stupid) what is it that actually drives these psychologists in precisely thisdirection all the time? Is it a secret, malicious, mean instinct to belittle humans, which it might well not admit to itself? Or perhaps a pessimistic suspicion, the mistrust of disillusioned, surly idealists who have turned poisonous and green? Ora certain subterranean animosity and rancune towards Christianity (and Plato), which has perhaps not even passed the threshold of consciousness? Or even a lewd taste for the strange, for the painful paradox, for the dubious and nonsensical in life? Or nally a bit of everything, a bit of meanness, a bit of gloominess, a bit of anti-Christianity , a bit of a thrill andneed for pepper? . . . But people tell me that they are just old, cold, boringfrogs crawling round men and hopping into them as if they were in theirelement, namely a swamp . I am resistant to hearing this and, indeed, I do 10 not believe it; and if it is permissible to wish where it is impossible to know, I sincerely hope that the reverse is true, that these analysts holding a microscope to the soul are actually brave, generous and proud animals,who know how to control their own pleasure and pain and have beentaught to sacrice desirability to truth, every truth, even a plain, bitter, ugly, foul, unchristian, immoral truth . . . Because there are such truths. 2 So you have to respect the good spirits which preside in these histori- ans of morality! But it is unfortunately a fact that historical spirit itself is lacking in them, they have been left in the lurch by all the good spirits of history itself! As is now established philosophical practice, they all think in a way that is essentially unhistorical; this cant be doubted. The idiocy of their moral genealogy is revealed at the outset when it is a questionof conveying the descent of the concept and judgment of good. Originally they decree unegoistic acts were praised and called goodby their recipients, in other words, by the people to whom they wereuseful ; later, everyone forgot the origin of the praise and because such acts had always been habitually praised as good, people also began to experi- ence them as good as if they were something good as such . We can see at once: this rst deduction contains all the typical traits of idiosyncratic English psychologists, we have usefulness, forgetting, habit and nally error, all as the basis of a respect for values of which the higher man has hitherto been proud, as though it were a sort of general privilegeof mankind. This pride must be humbled, this valuation devalued: has that been achieved? . . . Now for me, it is obvious that the real breeding- ground for the concept good has been sought and located in the wrong place by this theory: the judgment good does notemanate from those to whom goodness is shown! Instead it has been the good themselves,meaning the noble, the mighty, the high-placed and the high-minded, who saw and judged themselves and their actions as good, I mean rst- rate, in contrast to everything lowly, low-minded, common and plebeian. It was from this pathos of distance that they rst claimed the right to create values and give these values names: usefulness was none of theirconcern! The standpoint of usefulness is as alien and inappropriate as it can be to such a heated eruption of the highest rank-ordering and rank-dening value judgments: this is the point where feeling reaches theopposite of the low temperatures needed for any calculation of prudence 11First essay or reckoning of usefulness, and not just for once, for one exceptional moment, but permanently. The pathos of nobility and distance, as I said, the continuing and predominant feeling of complete and fundamentalsuperiority of a higher ruling kind in relation to a lower kind, to thosebelow that is the origin of the antithesis good and bad. (The seigneurial privilege of giving names even allows us to conceive of theorigin of language itself as a manifestation of the power of the rulers: theysay this isso and so, they set their seal on everything and every occur- rence with a sound and thereby take possession of it, as it were). It is because of this origin that from the outset, the word good is absolutely notnecessarily attached to unegoistic actions: as the superstition of these moral genealogists would have it. On the contrary, it is only with a decline of aristocratic value judgments that this whole antithesis between egois- tic and unegoistic forces itself more and more on mans conscience, itis, to use my language, the herd instinct which, with that, nally gets its word in (and makes words ). And even then it takes long enough for this instinct to become sufciently dominant for the valuation of moral values to become enmeshed and embedded in the antithesis (as is the case in con- temporary Europe, for example: the prejudice which takes moral,unegoistic and dsintress as equivalent terms already rules with the power of a xed idea and mental illness). 3 But secondly: quite apart from the fact that that hypothesis about the descent of the value judgment good is historically untenable, it also suffers from an inner psychological contradiction. The usefulness of une- goistic behaviour is supposed to be the origin of the esteem in which it is held, and this origin is supposed to have been forgotten : but how was such forgetting possible ? Did the usefulness of such behaviour suddenly cease at some point? The opposite is the case: it is that this usefulness has been a permanent part of our everyday experience, something, then, that has been constantly stressed anew; consequently, instead of fading from con- sciousness, instead of becoming forgettable, it must have impressed itself on consciousness with ever greater clarity . How much more sensible is theopposite theory (that doesnt make it any more true ), which is held, for example, by Herbert Spencer: he judges the concept good as essentiallythe same as useful, practical, so that in their judgments good and bad,people sum up and sanction their unforgotten, unforgettable experiences of 12On the Genealogy of Morality what is useful-practical, harmful-impractical. According to this theory, good is what has always shown itself to be useful: so it can claim validity as valuable in the highest degree, as valuable as such. This route towardsan explanation is wrong, as I said, but at least the explanation in itself isrational and psychologically tenable. 4 I was given a pointer in the right direction by the question as to what the terms for good, as used in different languages, mean from the etymo- logical point of view: then I found that they all led me back to the same con- ceptual transformation , that everywhere, noble, aristocratic in social terms9is the basic concept from which, necessarily, good in the sense of spiritually noble, aristocratic, of spiritually highminded, spiritually privileged developed: a development that always runs parallel with that other one which ultimately transfers common, plebeian, low into the concept bad. The best example for the latter is the German word schlecht (bad) itself: which is identical with schlicht (plain, simple) compare schlechtweg (plainly), schlechterdings (simply) and originally referred to the simple, the common man with no derogatory implication, but simplyin contrast to the nobility. Round about the time of the Thirty Years War,late enough, then, this meaning shifted into its current usage. To me, thisseems an essential insight into moral genealogy; that it has been discovered so late is due to the obstructing inuence which the democratic bias within the modern world exercises over all questions of descent. And this is the case in the apparently most objective of elds, natural science and physiol- ogy, as I shall just mention here. The havoc this prejudice can wreak, once it is unbridled to the point of hatred, particularly for morality and history,can be seen in the famous case of Buckle; the plebeianism of the modern spirit, which began in England, broke out there once again on its native soil as violently as a volcano of mud, and with that salted, overloud, vulgar loquacity with which all volcanoes have spoken up till now. 5 With regard to ourproblem, which can justiably be called a quiet problem and fastidiously addresses itself to only a few ears, it is of no little 13First essay 9Nietzsche here uses a derivative of the word Stand (estate). interest to discover that, in these words and roots which denote good, we can often detect the main nuance which made the noble feel they were men of higher rank. True, in most cases they might give themselvesnames which simply show superiority of power (such as the mighty, themasters, the commanders) or the most visible sign of this superiority,such as the rich, the propertied (that is the meaning of arya ; and the equivalent in Iranian and Slavic). But the names also show a typical char- acter trait : and this is what concerns us here. For example, they call them- selves the truthful: led by the Greek aristocracy, whose mouthpiece is the Megarian poet Theognis. 10The word used specically for this purpose, e0sqlov ,11means, according to its root, one who is, who has reality , who really exists and is true; then, with a subjective transforma- tion, it becomes the slogan and catch-phrase of the aristocracy and is completely assimilated with the sense of aristocratic, in contrast to thedeceitful common man, as taken and shown by Theognis, until, nally, with the decline of the aristocracy, the word remains as a term for spiri-tualnoblesse , and, as it were, ripens and sweetens. Cowardice is underlined in the word xaxo/v , 12as in deilo/v13(the plebeian in contrast to the a0gaqo/v ): perhaps this gives a clue as to where we should look for the ety- mological derivation of the ambiguous term a0gaqo/v .14In the Latin word malus15(to which I juxtapose me/lav )16the common man could be char- acterized as the dark-skinned and especially the dark-haired man ( hic niger est ),17as the pre-Aryan occupant of Italian soil who could most easily be distinguished from the blond race which had become dominant, namely the Aryan conquering race, by its colour; at any rate, I have found exactly the same with Gaelic peoples, n (for example in Fin-gal), the word designating the aristocracy and nally the good, noble, pure, was originally a blond person in contrast to the dark-skinned, dark-hairednative inhabitants. By the way, the Celts were a completely blond race; it is wrong to connect those traces of an essentially dark-haired population, which can be seen on carefully prepared ethnological maps in Germany,On the Genealogy of Morality 1410Cf. esp. 1.5368(ed. Diehl). 11This word seems originally to have meant genuine, real, it later becomes one of the most commonly used words for noble. 12(Greek) weak, ugly, cowardly, worthless. 13(Greek) cowardly (and thus despicable). 14(Greek) capable, useful, good. 15bad, evil. 16(Greek) dark, black. 17That man is a dangerous character, literally He is black (Horace, Satires I.85). with any Celtic descent and mixing of blood in such a connection, as Virchow does: it is more a case of the pre- Aryan population of Germany emerging at these points. (The same holds good for virtually the whole ofEurope: to all intents and purposes the subject race has ended up byregaining the upper hand in skin colour, shortness of forehead andperhaps even in intellectual and social instincts: who can give any guar- antee that modern democracy, the even more modern anarchism, and indeed that predilection for the commune, the most primitive form of social structure which is common to all Europes socialists, are not in essence a huge throw-back and that the conquering master race , that of the Aryans, is not physiologically being defeated as well? . . .) I think I caninterpret the Latin bonus 18as the warrior : providing I am correct in tracing bonus back to an older duonus (compare bellum19=duellum =duen- lum, which seems to me to contain that duonus ). Therefore bonus as a man of war, of division ( duo), as warrior: one can see what made up a mans goodness in ancient Rome. Take our German gut: does it not mean the godlike man, the man of godlike race? And is it not identical with thepopular (originally noble), name of the Goths? The grounds for this sup- position will not be gone into here. 6 If the highest caste is at the same time the clerical caste and therefore chooses a title for its overall description which calls its priestly function to mind, this does not yet constitute an exception to the rule that the concept of political superiority always resolves itself into the concept of psychological superiority (although this may be the occasion giving rise to exceptions). This is an example of the rst juxtaposition of pure andimpure as signs of different estates; and later good and bad develop in a direction which no longer refers to social standing. In addition, people should be wary of taking these terms pure and impure too seri- ously, too far or even symbolically: all ancient mans concepts were orig- inally understood to a degree we can scarcely imagine as crude,coarse, detached, narrow, direct and in particular unsymbolic . From the outset the pure man was just a man who washed, avoided certain foods which cause skin complaints, did not sleep with the lthy women from 15First essay 18good. 19Both bellum and duellum mean war (Latin). the lower orders and had a horror of blood, nothing more, not much more! And yet the very nature of an essentially priestly aristocracy shows how contradictory valuations could become dangerously inter-nalized and sharpened, precisely in such an aristocracy at an early stage;and in fact clefts were nally driven between man and man which evenan Achilles of free-thinking would shudder to cross. From the very beginning there has been something unhealthy about these priestly aris- tocracies and in the customs dominant there, which are turned away from action and are partly brooding and partly emotionally explosive, resulting in the almost inevitable bowel complaints and neurasthenia which have plagued the clergy down the ages; but as for the remedy theythemselves found for their sickness, surely one must say that its after-effects have shown it to be a hundred times more dangerous than thedisease it was meant to cure? People are still ill from the after-effects ofthese priestly quack-cures! For example, think of certain diets (avoid- ance of meat), of fasting, sexual abstinence, the ight into the desert (Weir-Mitchells bed-rest, admittedly without the subsequent overfeed- ing and weight-gain that constitute the most effective antidote to all hys- teria brought on by the ascetic ideal): think, too, of the wholemetaphysics of the clergy, which is antagonistic towards the senses, making men lazy and rened, think, too, of their Fakir-like and Brahmin-like self-hypnotizing Brahminism as crystal ball and xed idea and the nal, all-too-comprehensible general disenchantment with its radical cure, nothingness (or God: the yearning for a unio mystica with God is the Buddhist yearning for nothingness, Nirvna and no more!) Priests make everything more dangerous, not just medica- ments and healing arts but pride, revenge, acumen, debauchery, love, lust for power, virtue, sickness; in any case, with some justication one could add that man rst became an interesting animal on the foundation of this essentially dangerous form of human existence, the priest, and that the human soul became deep in the higher sense and turned evilfor the rst time and of course, these are the two basic forms of mans super- iority, hitherto, over other animals! . . . 7 You will have already guessed how easy it was for the priestly method of valuation to split off from the chivalric-aristocratic method and then todevelop further into the opposite of the latter; this receives a specialOn the Genealogy of Morality 16 impetus when the priestly caste and warrior caste confront one another in jealousy and cannot agree on the prize of war. The chivalric-aristocratic value judgments are based on a powerful physicality, a blossoming, rich,even effervescent good health that includes the things needed to maintainit, war, adventure, hunting, dancing, jousting and everything else that con-tains strong, free, happy action. The priestly-aristocratic method of valua- tion as we have seen has different criteria: woe betide it when it comes to war! As we know, priests make the most evil enemies but why? Because they are the most powerless. Out of this powerlessness, their hate swells into something huge and uncanny to a most intellectual and poisonous level. The greatest haters in world history, and the most intelligent [ die geistreichsten Hasser ], have always been priests: nobody elses intelligence [Geist ] stands a chance against the intelligence [ Geist ] of priestly revenge. 20 The history of mankind would be far too stupid a thing if it had not had the intellect [ Geist ] of the powerless injected into it: let us take the best example straight away. Nothing that has been done on earth against the noble, the mighty, the masters and the rulers, is worth mentioning compared with what the Jews have done against them: the Jews, that priestly people, which in the last resort was able to gain satisfaction fromits enemies and conquerors only through a radical revaluation of their values, that is, through an act of the most deliberate revenge [durch einen Akt der geistigsten Rache ]. Only this was tting for a priestly people with the most entrenched priestly vengefulness. It was the Jews who, rejecting the aristocratic value equation (good = noble = powerful = beautiful = happy= blessed) ventured, with awe-inspiring consistency, to bring about a rever- sal and held it in the teeth of the most unfathomable hatred (the hatred of the powerless), saying: Only those who suffer are good, only the poor, the powerless, the lowly are good; the suffering, the deprived, the sick, the ugly, are the only pious people, the only ones saved, salvation is for them alone,whereas you rich, the noble and powerful, you are eternally wicked, cruel, lustful, insatiate, godless, you will also be eternally wretched, cursed and damned! . . . We know whobecame heir to this Jewish revaluation . . . With regard to the huge and incalculably disastrous initiative taken by the Jews with this most fundamental of all declarations of war, I recall the words Iwrote on another occasion ( Beyond Good and Evil , section 195) 21 namely, 17First essay 20The German term Geist and its derivatives, are generally rendered by spirit and its deriv- atives, but can also, as in this sentence, be translated as intelligence and, as elsewhere,mind, intellectual, etc. 21See below, Supplementary material, p. 145. that the slaves revolt in morality begins with the Jews: a revolt which has two thousand years of history behind it and which has only been lost sight of because it was victorious . . . 8 But you dont understand that? You dont have eyes for something that needed two millennia to achieve victory? . . . There is nothing sur- prising about that: all longthings are difcult to see, to see round. But that is what happened: from the trunk of the tree of revenge and hatred,Jewish hatred the deepest and most sublime, indeed a hatred whichcreated ideals and changed values, the like of which has never been seenon earth there grew something just as incomparable, a new love , the deepest and most sublime kind of love: and what other trunk could it have grown out of? . . . But dont make the mistake of thinking that it had grown forth as a denial of the thirst for revenge, as the opposite of Jewish hatred! No, the reverse is true! This love grew out of the hatred, as itscrown, as the triumphant crown expanding ever wider in the purest brightness and radiance of the sun, the crown which, as it were, in the realm of light and height, was pursuing the aims of that hatred, victory,spoils, seduction with the same urgency with which the roots of thathatred were burrowing ever more thoroughly and greedily into every-thing that was deep and evil. This Jesus of Nazareth, as the embodiment of the gospel of love, this redeemer bringing salvation and victory to the poor, the sick, to sinners was he not seduction in its most sinister and irresistible form, seduction and the circuitous route to just those very Jewish values and innovative ideals? Did Israel not reach the pinnacle of her sublime vengefulness via this very redeemer, this apparent opponent of and disperser of Israel? Is it not part of a secret black art of a truly grand politics of revenge, a far-sighted, subterranean revenge, slow to grip and calculating, that Israel had to denounce her actual instrument of revenge before all the world as a mortal enemy and nail him to the cross so that allthe world, namely all Israels enemies, could safely nibble at this bait? And could anyone, on the other hand, using all the ingenuity of his intel- lect, think up a more dangerous bait? Something to equal the enticing, intoxicating, benumbing, corrupting power of that symbol of the holy cross, to equal that horrible paradox of a God on the Cross, to equalthat mystery of an unthinkable nal act of extreme cruelty and self-crucixion of God for the salvation of mankind? . . . At least it is certainOn the Genealogy of Morality 18 that sub hoc signo22Israel, with its revenge and revaluation of all former values, has triumphed repeatedly over all other ideals, all nobler ideals. 9 But why do you talk about nobler ideals! Lets bow to the facts: the people have won or the slaves, the plebeians, the herd, or what- ever you want to call them if the Jews made this come about, good for them! No people ever had a more world-historic mission. The Masters are deposed; the morality of the common people has triumphed. Youmight take this victory for blood-poisoning (it did mix the races up) I do not deny it; but undoubtedly this intoxication has succeeded . The sal- vation of the human race (I mean, from the Masters) is well on course; everything is being made appreciably Jewish, Christian or plebeian (never mind the words!). The passage of this poison through the whole body of mankind seems unstoppable, even though its tempo and pace, from nowon, might tend to be slower, softer, quieter, calmer there is no hurry . . .With this in view, does the Church still have a necessary role, indeed, does it have a right to exist? Or could one do without it? Quaeritur . 23It seems that the Church rather slows down and blocks the passage of poison instead of accelerating it? Well, that might be what makes it useful . . . Certainly it is by now something crude and boorish, resistant to a more tender intelligence, to a truly modern taste. Should not the Church at least try to be more rened? . . . Nowadays it alienates, more than itseduces . . . Who amongst us would be a free-thinker if it were not for the Church? We loathe the Church, notits poison . . . Apart from the Church, we too love the poison . . . This is the epilogue by a free-thinker to my speech, an honest animal as he clearly shows himself to be, and moreover a democrat; he had listened to me up to that point, and could not standlistening to my silence. As a matter of fact, there is much for me to keep silent about at this point. 19First essay 22Eusebius of Caesarea reports that Constantine (later called the Great) once had a vision of a cross with the attached legend: By this, conquer ( tou/tw | ni/xa ) (De vita Constantini 1.28). This phrase was eventually transformed into the Latin: In hoc signo vinces (In this sign you will conquer). Sub hoc signo (Under this sign) is presumably to be under-stood as a variant of In hoc signo. In ad 312 Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, becoming the rst Christian Emperor. 23That is the question. On the Genealogy of Morality 2010 The beginning of the slaves revolt in morality occurs when ressentiment itself turns creative and gives birth to values: the ressentiment of those beings who, denied the proper response of action, compensate for it only with imaginary revenge. Whereas all noble morality grows out of a tri-umphant saying yes to itself, slave morality says no on principle toeverything that is outside, other, non-self : and thisno is its creative deed. This reversal of the evaluating glance this essential orientation to the outside instead of back onto itself is a feature of ressentiment : in order to come about, slave morality rst has to have an opposing, external world, it needs, physiologically speaking, external stimuli in order to act at all, its action is basically a reaction. The opposite is the case with thenoble method of valuation: this acts and grows spontaneously, seeking out its opposite only so that it can say yes to itself even more thankfully andexultantly, its negative concept low, common, bad is only a pale con-trast created after the event compared to its positive basic concept, satu- rated with life and passion, we the noble, the good, the beautiful and thehappy! When the noble method of valuation makes a mistake and sins against reality , this happens in relation to the sphere with which it is not sufciently familiar, a true knowledge of which, indeed, it rigidly resists: in some circumstances, it misjudges the sphere it despises, that of the common man, the rabble; on the other hand, we should bear in mind thatthe distortion which results from the feeling of contempt, disdain and superciliousness, always assuming that the image of the despised person isdistorted , remains far behind the distortion with which the entrenched hatred and revenge of the powerless man attacks his opponent in efgy of course. Indeed, contempt has too much negligence, nonchalance, com-placency and impatience, even too much personal cheerfulness mixed into it, for it to be in a position to transform its object into a real carica- ture and monster. Nor should one fail to hear the almost kindly nuances which the Greek nobility , for example, places in all words that it uses to distinguish itself from the rabble; a sort of sympathy, consideration andindulgence incessantly permeates and sugars them, with the result that nearly all words referring to the common man remain as expressions for unhappy, pitiable (compare deilo/v, dei/laiov, ponhro/v, moxqhro/v, the last two actually designating the common man as slave worker andbeast of burden) and on the other hand, bad, low and unhappy havenever ceased to reverberate in the Greek ear in a tone in which unhappy predominates: this is a legacy of the old, nobler, aristocratic method of valuation that does not deny itself even in contempt ( philologists will remember the sense in which oi+zurov,24a1nolbov,25tlh/mwn ,26 duvtuxe~in,27cumfora/28are used). The well-born feltthey were the happy; they did not need rst of all to construct their happiness arti- cially by looking at their enemies, or in some cases by talking themselves into it, lying themselves into it (as all men of ressentiment are wont to do); and also, as complete men bursting with strength and therefore necessar- ilyactive, they knew they must not separate happiness from action, being active is by necessity counted as part of happiness (this is the ety-mological derivation of enpra/ttein ) 29 all very much the opposite of happiness at the level of the powerless, the oppressed, and those rankled with poisonous and hostile feelings, for whom it manifests itself as essen- tially a narcotic, an anaesthetic, rest, peace, sabbath, relaxation of themind and stretching of the limbs, in short as something passive . While the noble man is condent and frank with himself ( genna iov, of noble birth, underlines the nuance upright and probably nave as well), the man of ressentiment is neither upright nor nave, nor honest and straight with himself. His soul squints ; his mind loves dark corners, secret paths and back-doors, everything secretive appeals to him as being hisworld, his security , hiscomfort; he knows all about keeping quiet, not forgetting, waiting, temporarily humbling and abasing himself. A race of such men ofressentiment will inevitably end up cleverer than any noble race, and will respect cleverness to a quite different degree as well: namely, as a condi- tion of existence of the rst rank, whilst the cleverness of noble men can easily have a subtle aftertaste of luxury and renement about it: pre-cisely because in this area, it is nowhere near as important as the complete certainty of function of the governing unconscious instincts, nor indeed as important as a certain lack of cleverness, such as a daring charge at danger or at the enemy, or those frenzied sudden ts of anger, love, rev- erence, gratitude and revenge by which noble souls down the ages have 21First essay 24Oi is an interjection expressive of pain. A person whose life gives ample occasion for the use of this interjection is oizuros. 25not prosperous, unfortunate. 26tlenai = to bear, endure, suffer. A person who must endure things is tlemon. 27to have bad luck. 28accident, misfortune. 29This expression ( eu prattein ) has something like the ambiguity of the English do well = engage in some activity successfully or fare well. There is no expression in common usein German with a parallel ambiguity. recognized one another. When ressentiment does occur in the noble man himself, it is consumed and exhausted in an immediate reaction, and therefore it does not poison , on the other hand, it does not occur at all in countless cases where it is unavoidable for all who are weak and power-less. To be unable to take his enemies, his misfortunes and even his mis- deeds seriously for long that is the sign of strong, rounded natures with a superabundance of a power which is exible, formative, healing and can make one forget (a good example from the modern world is Mirabeau, who had no recall for the insults and slights directed at him and who could not forgive, simply because he forgot.) A man like this shakes from him, with one shrug, many worms which would have burrowed into anotherman; actual love of your enemies is also possible here and here alone assuming it is possible at all on earth. 30How much respect a noble man has for his enemies! and a respect of that sort is a bridge to love . . . For he insists on having his enemy to himself, as a mark of distinction, indeed he will tolerate as enemies none other than such as have nothing to be despised and a great deal to be honoured! Against this, imagine the enemy as conceived of by the man of ressentiment and here we have his deed, his creation: he has conceived of the evil enemy, the evil one as a basic idea to which he now thinks up a copy and counterpart, the goodone himself! . . . 11 Exactly the opposite is true of the noble one who conceives of the basic idea good by himself, in advance and spontaneously , and only then creates a notion of bad! This bad of noble origin and that evil from the cauldron of unassuaged hatred the rst is an afterthought, an aside, a complementary colour, whilst the other is the original, the beginning, the actual deed in the conception of slave morality how different are the two words bad and evil, although both seem to be the opposite for the same concept, good! But it is notthe same concept good; on the contrary , one should ask whois actually evil in the sense of the morality of ressentiment . The stern reply is: precisely the good person of the other morality , the noble, powerful, dominating one, but re-touched, re-interpreted andreviewed through the poisonous eye of ressentiment . Here there is one point we would be the last to deny: anyone who came to know these goodOn the Genealogy of Morality 2230Gospel according to Matthew 5.434. men as enemies came to know nothing but evil enemies , and the same people who are so strongly held in check by custom, respect, habit, grati- tude and even more through spying on one another and through peer-group jealousy , who, on the other hand, behave towards one another byshowing such resourcefulness in consideration, self-control, delicacy,loyalty , pride and friendship, they are not much better than uncaged beasts of prey in the world outside where the strange, the foreign, begin. There they enjoy freedom from every social constraint, in the wilderness they compensate for the tension which is caused by being closed in and fenced in by the peace of the community for so long, they return to the innocent conscience of the wild beast, as exultant monsters, who perhapsgo away having committed a hideous succession of murder, arson, rape andtorture, in a mood of bravado and spiritual equilibrium as though they hadsimply played a students prank, convinced that poets will now have some-thing to sing about and celebrate for quite some time. At the centre of all these noble races we cannot fail to see the beast of prey, the magnicent blond beast avidly prowling round for spoil and victory; this hidden centre needs release from time to time, the beast must out again, must return to the wild: Roman, Arabian, Germanic, Japanese nobility , Homericheroes, Scandinavian Vikings in this requirement they are all alike. It was the noble races which left the concept of barbarian in their traces wher- ever they went; even their highest culture betrays the fact that they were conscious of this and indeed proud of it (for example, when Pericles, in that famous funeral oration, tells his Athenians: Our daring has forced apath to every land and sea, erecting timeless memorials to itself every- where for good and ill ). 31This daring of the noble races, mad, absurd and sudden in the way it manifests itself, the unpredictability and even the improbability of their undertakings Pericles singles out the r9aqnmi/a of the Athenians for praise their unconcern and scorn for safety , body, life, comfort, their shocking cheerfulness and depth of delight in all destruc- tion, in all the debauches of victory and cruelty all this, for those whosuffered under it, was summed up in the image of the barbarian, the evil enemy, perhaps the Goth or the Vandal. The deep and icy mistrust that the German arouses as soon as he comes to power, which we see again even today is still the aftermath of that inextinguishable horror with which Europe viewed the raging of the blond Germanic beast for centuries(although between the old Germanic peoples and us Germans there is 23First essay 31Thucydides II. 39ff. scarcely an idea in common, let alone a blood relationship). I once remarked on Hesiods dilemma32when he thought up the series of cultural eras and tried to express them in gold, silver and iron: he could nd no other solution to the contradiction presented to him by the magnicent but at the same time so shockingly violent world of Homer than to make two eras out of one, which he now placed one behind the other rst the era of heroes and demigods from Troy and Thebes, as that world retainedin the memory of the noble races, who had their own ancestry in it; then the iron era, as that same world appeared to the descendants of the down-trodden, robbed, ill-treated, and those carried off and sold: as an era ofiron, hard, as I said, cold, cruel, lacking feeling and conscience, crushing everything and coating it with blood. Assuming that what is at any ratebelieved as truth were indeed true, that it is the meaning of all culture to breed a tame and civilized animal, a household pet , out of the beast of prey man, then one would undoubtedly have to view all instinctive reaction and instinctive ressentiment , by means of which the noble races and their ideals were nally wrecked and overpowered, as the actual instruments of culture ; which, however, is not to say that the bearers of these instincts were themselves representatives of the culture. Instead, the opposite would be not only probable no! it is visible today! These bearers of oppressive, vin- dictive instincts, the descendants of all European and non-European slavery, in particular of all pre-Aryan population represent the decline of mankind! These instruments of culture are a disgrace to man, more a grounds for suspicion of, or an argument against, culture in general! We may be quite justied in retaining our fear of the blond beast at the centreof every noble race and remain on our guard: but who would not, a hundred times over, prefer to fear if he can admire at the same time, rather than notfear, but thereby permanently retain the disgusting spectacle of the failed, the stunted, the wasted away and the poisoned? And is that not ourfate? What constitutes ouraversion to man today? for we suffer from man, no doubt about that. Notfear; rather, the fact that we have nothing to fear from man; that man is rst and foremost a teeming mass of worms; that the tame man, who is incurably mediocre and unedifying, has already learnt to view himself as the aim and pinnacle, the meaning of history, the higher man; yes, the fact that he has a certain right to feellike that in so far as he feels distanced from the superabundance of failed,On the Genealogy of Morality 2432Hesiod, Works & Days 143ff.; cf. also Daybreak , section 189, and Homers Contest (see below, Supplementary material, pp. 17481). sickly, tired and exhausted people of whom todays Europe is beginning to reek, and in so far as he is at least relatively successful, at least still capable of living, at least saying yes to life . . . 12 At this juncture I cannot suppress a sigh and one last hope. What do I nd absolutely intolerable? Something which I just cannot cope alone with and which suffocates me and makes me feel faint? Bad air! Bad air! That something failed comes near me, that I have to smell the bowels of a failedsoul! . . . Apart from that, what cannot be borne in the way of need, depri-vation, bad weather, disease, toil, solitude? Basically we can cope witheverything else, born as we are to an underground and battling existence; again and again we keep coming up to the light, again and again we expe- rience our golden hour of victory, and then there we stand, the way we were born, unbreakable, tense, ready for new, more difcult and distant things, like a bow that is merely stretched tauter by afiction. But fromtime to time grant me assuming that there are divine benefactresses beyond good and evi l a glimpse, grant me just one glimpse of something perfect, completely nished, happy, powerful, triumphant, that still leavessomething to fear! A glimpse of a man who justies man himself , a stroke of luck, an instance of a man who makes up for and redeems man, and enablesus to retain our faith in mankind! . . . For the matter stands like so: the stunting and levelling of European man conceals ourgreatest danger, because the sight of this makes us tired . . . Today we see nothing that wants to expand, we suspect that things will just continue to decline, getting thinner, better-natured, cleverer, more comfortable, more mediocre, moreindifferent, more Chinese, more Christian no doubt about it, man is getting better all the time . . . Right here is where the destiny of Europe lies in losing our fear of man we have also lost our love for him, our respect for him, our hope in him and even our will to be man. The sight of man now makes us tired what is nihilism today if it is not that?. . . We are tired ofman ... 13 But let us return: the problem of the other origin of good, of good as thought up by the man of ressentiment , demands its solution. There is nothing strange about the fact that lambs bear a grudge towards large 25First essay birds of prey: but that is no reason to blame the large birds of prey for carrying off the little lambs. And if the lambs say to each other, These birds of prey are evil; and whoever is least like a bird of prey and most likeits opposite, a lamb, is good, isnt he?, then there is no reason to raiseobjections to this setting-up of an ideal beyond the fact that the birds ofprey will view it somewhat derisively, and will perhaps say: We dont bear any grudge at all towards these good lambs, in fact we love them, nothing is tastier than a tender lamb. It is just as absurd to ask strength notto express itself as strength, notto be a desire to overthrow, crush, become master, to be a thirst for enemies, resistance and triumphs, as it is to ask weakness to express itself as strength. A quantum of force is just such aquantum of drive, will, action, in fact it is nothing but this driving, willing and acting, and only the seduction of language (and the fundamental errors of reason petried within it), which construes and misconstrues allactions as conditional upon an agency, a subject, can make it appear otherwise. And just as the common people separates lightning from its ash and takes the latter to be a deed, something performed by a subject, which is called lightning, popular morality separates strength from the manifestations of strength, as though there were an indifferent substra-tum behind the strong person which had the freedom to manifest strength or not. But there is no such substratum; there is no being behind the deed, its effect and what becomes of it; the doer is invented as an after- thought, the doing is everything. Basically, the common people double a deed; when they see lightning, they make a doing-a-deed out of it: theyposit the same event, rst as cause and then as its effect. The scientists do no better when they say force moves, force causes and such like, all our science, in spite of its coolness and freedom from emotion, still stands exposed to the seduction of language and has not rid itself of the changelings foisted upon it, the subjects (the atom is, for example, justsuch a changeling, likewise the Kantian thing-in-itself ): no wonder, then, if the entrenched, secretly smouldering emotions of revenge and hatred put this belief to their own use and, in fact, do not defend any belief more passionately than that the strong are free to be weak, and the birds of prey are free to be lambs: in this way, they gain the right to make thebirds of prey responsible for being birds of prey . . . When the oppressed, the downtrodden, the violated say to each other with the vindictive cunning of powerlessness: Let us be different from evil people, let us begood! And a good person is anyone who does not rape, does not harmanyone, who does not attack, does not retaliate, who leaves the taking ofOn the Genealogy of Morality 26 revenge to God, who keeps hidden as we do, avoids all evil and asks little from life in general, like us who are patient, humble and upright this means, if heard coolly and impartially, nothing more than: We weakpeople are just weak; it is good to do nothing for which we are not strong enough but this grim state of affairs, this cleverness of the lowest rank which even insects possess (which play dead, in order not to do toomuch when in great danger), has, thanks to the counterfeiting and self-deception of powerlessness, clothed itself in the nery of self-denying,quiet, patient virtue, as though the weakness of the weak were itself I mean its essence , its effect, its whole unique, unavoidable, irredeemable reality a voluntary achievement, something wanted, chosen, a deed,a n accomplishment . This type of man needs to believe in an unbiased subject with freedom of choice, because he has an instinct of self-preservation and self-afrmation in which every lie is sanctied. The reason thesubject (or, as we more colloquially say, the soul ) has been, until now, the best doctrine on earth, is perhaps because it facilitated that sublime self- deception whereby the majority of the dying, the weak and the oppressed of every kind could construe weakness itself as freedom, and their par- ticular mode of existence as an accomplishment . 14 Would anyone like to have a little look down into the secret of how ideals are fabricated on this earth? Who has enough pluck? . . . Come on! Here we have a clear glimpse into this dark workshop. Just wait one moment, Mr Nosy Daredevil: your eyes will have to become used to this false, shimmering light . . . There! Thats enough! Now you can speak! Whats happening down there? Tell me what you see, you with your mostdangerous curiosity now Iam the one whos listening. I cannot see anything but I can hear all the better. There is a guarded, malicious little rumour-mongering and whispering from every nook and cranny. I think people are telling lies; a sugary mildness clings to every sound. Lies are turning weakness into an accomplishment , no doubt about it its just as you said. Go on! and impotence which doesnt retaliate is being turned into good- ness; timid baseness is being turned into humility; submission topeople one hates is being turned into obedience (actually towardssomeone who, they say , orders this submission they call him God). The 27First essay inoffensiveness of the weakling, the very cowardice with which he is richly endowed, his standing-by-the-door, his inevitable position of having to wait, are all given good names such as patience, also known as thevirtue; not-being-able-to-take-revenge is called not-wanting-to-take-revenge, itmight even be forgiveness (for they know not what they do but we know what they are doing!). 33They are also talking about loving your enemies and sweating while they do it. Go on! They are miserable, without a doubt, all these rumour-mongers and clandestine forgers, even if they do crouch close together for warmth but they tell me that their misery means they are Gods chosen and select, after all, people beat the dogs they love best; perhaps this misery is just a preparation, a test, a training, it might be even more than that some-thing that will one day be balanced up and paid back with enormous inter- est in gold, no! in happiness. They call that bliss. Go on! They are now informing me that not only are they better than the powerful, the masters of the world whose spittle they have to lick ( not from fear, not at all from fear! but because God orders them to honour those in authority) 34 not only are they better, but they have a better time, or at least will have a better time one day. But enough! enough! I cant bear it any longer. Bad air! Bad air! This workshop where ideals are fabricated it seems to me just to stink of lies. No! Wait a moment! You havent said anything yet about the master- pieces of those black magicians who can turn anything black into white-ness, milk and innocence: havent you noticed their perfect rafnement , their boldest, subtlest, most ingenious and mendacious stunt? Pay atten- tion! These cellar rats full of revenge and hatred what do they turn revenge and hatred into? Have you ever heard these words? Would you suspect, if you just went by what they said, that the men around you werenothing but men of ressentiment ? ... I understand, Ill open my ears once more (oh! oh! oh! and hold my nose). Now, at last, I can hear what they have been saying so often: We good people we are the just what they are demanding is not called ret- ribution, but the triumph of justice ; what they hate is not their enemy, oh no! they hate injustice , godlessness; what they believe and hope forOn the Genealogy of Morality 2833Gospel according to Luke 23.34 . 34Romans 13.1. is not the prospect of revenge, the delirium of sweet revenge ( Homer early on dubbed it sweeter than honey),35but the victory of God, the justGod, over the Godless; all that remains for them to love on earth are not their brothers in hate but their brothers in love,36as they say, all good and just people on earth. And what do they call that which serves as a consolation for all the sufferings of the world their phantasmagoria of anticipated future bliss? What? Do I hear correctly? They call it the last judgment, the coming of their kingdom, the kingdom of God but in the meantime they live in faith, in love, in hope.37 Enough! Enough! 15 Faith in what? Love of what? Hope for what? These weaklings in factthey, too, want to be the powerful one day, this is beyond doubt, one daytheir kingdom will come too the kingdom of God simpliciter is their name for it, as I said: they are so humble about everything! Just to experience that, you need to live long, well beyond death, yes, you need eternal life in order to be able to gain eternal recompense in the kingdomof God for that life on earth in faith, in love, in hope. Recompensefor what? Recompense through what? . . . It seems to me that Dantemade a gross error when, with awe-inspiring navety he placed the inscription over the gateway to his hell: Eternal love created me as well: 38 at any rate, this inscription would have a better claim to stand over the gateway to Christian Paradise and its eternal bliss: Eternal hate created me as well assuming that a true statement can be placed above the gateway to a lie! For what is the bliss of this Paradise? . . . We might have guessed already; but it is better to be expressly shown it by no less an authority in such matters than Thomas Aquinas, the great teacher andsaint. Beati in regno coelesti, he says as meekly as a lamb, videbunt poenas damnatorum, ut beatitudo illis magis complaceat . 39Or, if you want 29First essay 35Iliad XVIII, 107ff. 36First Thessalonians 1.3. 37First Corinthians 13.13; First Thessalonians 1.3. 38Dante, Inferno III.56. 39The blessed in the heavenly kingdom will see the torment of the damned so that they may even more thoroughly enjoy their blessedness . Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Supplement to the Third Part , question XCVII, article i, conclusio. Some modern edi- tions do not contain this conclusio. it even more forcefully, for example from the mouth of a triumphant Church Father40who advised his Christians against the cruel volup- tuousness of the public spectacles but why? Faith offers us much more h es a y s , De Spectaculis . Chs. 29ff41 something much stronger ; thanks to salvation, quite other joys are at our command; instead of athletes we have our martyrs; we want blood, well then, we have the blood of Christ . . . But think what awaits us on the day of his second coming, of his triumph! and then the enraptured visionary goes on: At enim super- sunt alia spectacula, ille ultimus et perpetuus judicii dies, ille nationibusinsperatus, ille derisus, cum tanta saeculi vetustas et tot ejus nativitates uno igne haurientur. Quae tunc spectaculi latitudo! Quid admirer! Quid rideam! Ubi gaudeam! Ubi exultem , spectans tot et tantos reges, qui in coelum recepti nuntiabantur, cum ipso Jove et ipsis suis testibus in imis tenebris congemescentes! Item praesides (the Provincial Governors) per-secutores dominici nominis saevioribus quam ipsi ammis saevierunt insultantibus contra Christianos liquescentes! Quos praeterea sapientes illos philosophos coram discipulis suis una conagrantibus erubescentes, quibus nihil ad deum pertinere suadebant, quibus animas aut nullas aut non in pristina corpora redituras afrmabant! Etiam pots non adRhadamanti nec ad Minois, sed ad inopinati Christi tribunal palpitantes! Tunc magis tragoedi audiendi, magis scilicet vocales (in better voice, screaming even louder) in sua propria calamitate; tunc histriones cognoscendi, solutiores multo per ignem; tunc spectandus auriga in ammea rota totus rubens, tunc xystici contemplandi non in gymnasiis,sed in igne jaculati, nisi quod ne tunc quidem illos velim vivos, ut qui malim ad eos potius conspectum insatiabilem conferre, qui in dominum desaevierunt. Hic est ille, dicam, fabri aut quaestuariae lius (Tertullian refers to the Jews from now on, as is shown by what follows and in par- ticular by this well-known description of the mother of Jesus from theTalmud), sabbati destructor, Samarites et daemonium habens. Hic est, quem a Juda redemistis, hic est ille arundine et colaphis diverberatus, sputamentis dedecoratus, felle et aceto potatus. Hic est, quem clam dis- centes subripuerunt, ut resurrexisse dicatur vel hortulanus detraxit, ne lactucae suae frequentia commeantium laederentur. Ut talia spectes, utOn the Genealogy of Morality 3040Tertullian. 41In chapter XV of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Gibbon cites this same passage and comments: the Christians, who, in this world, found themselves oppressed by thepower of the pagans, were sometimes seduced by resentment and spiritual pride to delightin the prospect of their future triumph. talibus exultes , quis tibi praetor aut consul aut quaestor aut sacerdos de sua liberalitate praestabit? Et tamen haec jam habemus quodammodo per dem spiritu imaginante repraesentata. Ceterum qualia illa sunt, quae nec oculus vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascenderunt? ( 1. Cor. 2,9) Credo circo et utraque cavea (rst and fourth rank or, according to others, the comic and tragic stages) et omni stadio gratiora.42 (Per dem:43that is what is written.) 16 Let us draw to a close. The two opposing values good and bad, good and evil have fought a terrible battle for thousands of years on earth; and 31First essay 42But there are yet other spectacles: that nal and everlasting day of judgement, that day that was not expected and was even laughed at by the nations, when the whole old world and allit gave birth to are consumed in one re. What an ample breadth of sights there will bethen! At which one shall I gaze in wonder? At which shall I laugh? At which rejoice? At which exult , when I see so many great kings who were proclaimed to have been taken up into heaven, groaning in the deepest darkness together with those who claimed to have wit-nessed their apotheosis and with Jove himself. And when I see those [provincial] governors,persecutors of the Lords name, melting in ames more savage than those with which theyinsolently raged against Christians! When I see those wise philosophers who persuadedtheir disciples that nothing was of any concern to God and who afrmed to them eitherthat we have no souls or that our souls will not return to their original bodies! Now theyare ashamed before those disciples, as they are burned together with them. Also the poetstrembling before the tribunal not of Minos or of Radamanthus, but of the unexpectedChrist! Then the tragic actors will be easier to hear because they will be in better voice [i.e.screaming even louder] in their own tragedy . Then the actors of pantomime will be easy torecognize, being much more nimble than usual because of the re. Then the charioteer willbe on view, all red in a wheel of ame and the athletes, thrown not in the gymnasia but intothe re. Unless even then I dont want to see them [alive +], preferring to cast an insatiable gaze on those who raged against the Lord. This is he, I will say , that son of a carpenteror prostitute [ Tertullian refers to the Jews from now on, as is shown by what follows andin particular by this well-known description of the mother of Jesus from the Talmud ] that destroyer of the Sabbath, that Samaritan, that man who had a devil. He it is whom you bought from Judas, who was beaten with a reed and with sts, who was deled with spitand had gall and vinegar to drink. He it is whom his disciples secretly took away so that itmight be said that he had risen again, or whom the gardener removed so that his lettuceswould not be harmed by the crowd of visitors. What praetor or consul or quaestor or priestwill grant you from his largesse the chance of seeing and exulting in such things? And yet to some extent we have such things already through faith , made present in the imagining spirit. Furthermore what sorts of things are those which the eye has not seen nor the ear heard,and which have not come into the human heart? ( 1. Cor. 2,9) I believe that they are more pleasing than the circus or both of the enclosures [rst and fourth rank of seats, or, accord-ing to others, the comic and the tragic stages] or than any race-track. The material above in square brackets is Nietzsches addition to Tertullians text. At [alive +] Nietzsche incorrectly reads vivos (alive) for visos (seen). 43By my faith. although the latter has been dominant for a long time, there is still no lack of places where the battle remains undecided. You could even say that, in the meantime, it has reached ever greater heights but at the same time hasbecome ever deeper and more intellectual: so that there is, today , perhapsno more distinguishing feature of the higher nature , the intellectual nature, than to be divided in this sense and really and truly a battle groundfor these opposites. The symbol of this ght, written in a script which hashitherto remained legible throughout human history, is Rome againstJudea, Judea against Rome: up to now there has been no greater event than thisbattle, thisquestion, thiscontradiction of mortal enemies. Rome saw the Jew as something contrary to nature, as though he were itsantipodean monster ( Monstrum ); in Rome, the Jew was looked upon as con- victed of hatred against the whole of mankind: 44rightly, if one is right in linking the well being and future of the human race with the unconditional rule of aristocratic values, Roman values. What, on the other hand, did the Jews feel about Rome? We can guess from a thousand indicators; but it isenough to call once more to mind the Apocalypse of John, the wildest ofall outbursts ever written which revenge has on its conscience. (By the way,we must not underestimate the profound consistency of Christian instinctin inscribing this book of hate to the disciple of love, the very same towhom it attributed that passionately ecstatic gospel : there is some truth in this, however much literary counterfeiting might have been necessary to the purpose.) So the Romans were the strong and noble, stronger andnobler than anybody hitherto who had lived or been dreamt of on earth; their every relic and inscription brings delight, provided one can guess what it is that is doing the writing there. By contrast, the Jews were a priestly nation of ressentiment par excellence , possessing an unparalleled genius for popular morality: compare peoples with similar talents, such asthe Chinese or the Germans, with the Jews, and you will realize who are rst rate and who are fth. Which of them has prevailed for the time being, Rome or Judea? But there is no trace of doubt: just consider to whom you bow down in Rome itself, today , as though to the embodiment of the highest values and not just in Rome, but over nearly half the earth, every-where where man has become tame or wants to become tame, to three Jews , as we know, and one Jewess (to Jesus of Nazareth, Peter the Fisherman, Paul the Carpet-Weaver and the mother of Jesus mentioned rst, whoseOn the Genealogy of Morality 3244AtAnnals XV .44Tacitus describes those popularly called Christians as convicted of hatred against the whole human species; at Histories V.5he claims that the Jews show benevolence to one another, but exhibit hatred of all the rest of the world. name was Mary). This is very remarkable: without a doubt Rome has been defeated. However, in the Renaissance there was a brilliant, uncanny reawakening of the classical ideal, of the noble method of valuing every-thing: Rome itself woke up, as though from suspended animation, underthe pressure of the new, Judaic Rome built over it, which looked like anecumenical synagogue and was called Church: but Judea triumphed again at once, thanks to that basically proletarian (German and English) ressentiment -movement which people called the Reformation, including its inevitable consequence, the restoration of the church, as well as the restoration of the ancient, tomb-like silence of classical Rome. In an even more decisive and profound sense than then, Judea once again triumphedover the classical ideal with the French Revolution: the last political nobil-ity in Europe, that of the French seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, col- lapsed under the ressentiment -instincts of the rabble, the world had never heard greater rejoicing and more uproarious enthusiasm! True, the most dreadful and unexpected thing happened in the middle: the ancient ideal itself appeared bodily and with unheard-of splendour before the eye and conscience of mankind, and once again, stronger, simpler and more pen- etrating than ever, in answer to the old, mendacious ressentiment slogan of priority for the majority , of mans will to baseness, abasement, levelling, decline and decay, there rang out the terrible and enchanting counter- slogan: priority for the few ! Like a last signpost to the other path, Napoleon appeared as a man more unique and late-born for his times than ever a man had been before, and in him, the problem of the noble ideal itself was made esh just think what a problem that is: Napoleon, this synthesis of Unmensch (brute) and bermensch (overman) . . . 17 Was it over after that? Was that greatest among all conicts of ideals placed ad acta for ever? Or just postponed, postponed indenitely? . . . Wont there have to be an even more terrible aring up of the old ame, one prepared much longer in advance? And more: shouldnt one desire that with all ones strength? or will it, even? or even promote it? . . . Whoever, like my readers, now starts to ponder these points and reect further, willhave difculty coming to a speedy conclusion, reason enough, then, for me to come to a conclusion myself, assuming that it has been sufciently clear for some time what I want , what I actually want with that dangerous slogan which is written on the spine of my last book, Beyond Good and Evil . . . at least this does notmean Beyond Good and Bad. 33First essay Note. I take the opportunity presented to me by this essay, of publicly and formally expressing a wish that I have only expressed in occasional conversations with scholars up till now: that is, that some Faculty ofPhilosophy should do the great service of promoting the study of the history of morality by means of a series of academic prize essays: perhaps this book might serve to give a powerful impetus in such a direc-tion. With regard to such a possibility , I raise the following question forconsideration: it merits the attention of philologists and historians as wellas those who are actually philosophers by profession: What signposts does linguistics, especially the study of etymology, give to the history of the evolution of moral concepts? On the other hand, it is just as essential to win the support of physiolo- gists and doctors for these problems (on the value of all previous valuations): we can leave it to the professional philosophers to act as advo- cates and mediators in this, once they have completely succeeded in trans- forming the originally so reserved and suspicious relationship between philosophy, physiology and medicine into the most cordial and fruitfulexchange. Indeed, every table of values, every thou shalt known to history or the study of ethnology, needs rst and foremost a physiological elucida- tion and interpretation, rather than a psychological one; and all of them await critical study from medical science. The question: what is this or that table of values and morals worth ? needs to be asked from different angles; in particular, the question value for what ? cannot be examined too nely . Something, for example, which obviously had value with regard to the longest possible life-span of a race (or to the improvement of its abilities to adapt to a particular climate, or to maintaining the greatest number) would not have anything like the same value if it was a question of devel-oping a stronger type. The good of the majority and the good of the minor- ity are conicting moral standpoints: we leave it to the navety of English biologists to view the rst as higher in value as such . . . Allsciences must, from now on, prepare the way for the future work of the philosopher: this work being understood to mean that the philosopher has to solve theproblem of values and that he has to decide on the rank order of values .On the Genealogy of Morality 34 Second essay: Guilt, bad conscience and related matters 1 To breed an animal with the prerogative to promise is that not pre- cisely the paradoxical task which nature has set herself with regard to humankind? is it not the real problem ofhumankind? . . . The fact that this problem has been solved to a large degree must seem all the more sur- prising to the person who can fully appreciate the opposing force, forget- fulness . Forgetfulness is not just a vis inertiae , as supercial people believe, but is rather an active ability to suppress, positive in the strongest senseof the word, to which we owe the fact that what we simply live through,experience, take in, no more enters our consciousness during digestion (one could call it spiritual ingestion) than does the thousand-fold process which takes place with our physical consumption of food, our so-calledingestion. To shut the doors and windows of consciousness for a while; not to be bothered by the noise and battle with which our underworld of serviceable organs work with and against each other; a little peace, a little tabula rasa of consciousness to make room for something new, above all for the nobler functions and functionaries, for ruling, predicting, pre-determining (our organism runs along oligarchic lines, you see) that, as I said, is the benet of active forgetfulness, like a doorkeeper or guardian of mental order, rest and etiquette: from which we can immediately see how there could be no happiness, cheerfulness, hope, pride, immediacy , without forgetfulness. The person in whom this apparatus of suppressionis damaged, so that it stops working, can be compared (and not just com-pared ) to a dyspeptic; he cannot cope with anything . . . And precisely 35 this necessarily forgetful animal, in whom forgetting is a strength, repre- senting a form of robust health, has bred for himself a counter-device, memory, with the help of which forgetfulness can be suspended in certaincases, namely in those cases where a promise is to be made: conse-quently, it is by no means merely a passive inability to be rid of an impres-sion once it has made its impact, nor is it just indigestion caused by giving your word on some occasion and nding you cannot cope, instead it is an active desire not to let go, a desire to keep on desiring what has been, on some occasion, desired, really it is the wills memory : so that a world of strange new things, circumstances and even acts of will may be placed quite safely in between the original I will, I shall do and the actual dis-charge of the will, its act, without breaking this long chain of the will. But what a lot of preconditions there are for this! In order to have that degree of control over the future, man must rst have learnt to distinguishbetween what happens by accident and what by design, to think causally, to view the future as the present and anticipate it, to grasp with certainty what is end and what is means, in all, to be able to calculate, compute and before he can do this, man himself will really have to become reliable, regular, necessary , even in his own self-image, so that he, as someone making a promise is, is answerable for his own future ! 2 That is precisely what constitutes the long history of the origins of responsibility . That particular task of breeding an animal with the prerog- ative to promise includes, as we have already understood, as precondition and preparation, the more immediate task of rst making man to a certain degree necessary, uniform, a peer amongst peers, orderly and conse- quently predictable. The immense amount of labour involved in what Ihave called the morality of custom [see Daybreak ,I ,9;14;16] 45, the actual labour of man on himself during the longest epoch of the human race, his whole prehistoric labour, is explained and justied on a grand scale, in spite of the hardness, tyranny, stupidity and idiocy it also contained, by this fact: with the help of the morality of custom and the social straitjacket, man was made truly predictable. Let us place ourselves, on the other hand, at the end of this immense process where the tree actually bears fruit, where society and its morality of custom nally reveal what they were simply theOn the Genealogy of Morality 3645See below, supplementary material, pp. 1337. means to : we then nd the sovereign individual as the ripest fruit on its tree, like only to itself, having freed itself from the morality of custom, an autonomous, supra-ethical individual (because autonomous and ethicalare mutually exclusive), in short, we nd a man with his own, independent,enduring will, whose prerogative it is to promise and in him a proud con- sciousness quivering in every muscle of what he has nally achieved and incorporated, an actual awareness of power and freedom, a feeling that man in general has reached completion. This man who is now free, who actually hastheprerogative to promise, this master of the freewill, this sov- ereign how could he remain ignorant of his superiority over everybody who does not have the prerogative to promise or answer to himself, howmuch trust, fear and respect he arouses he merits all three and how could he, with his self-mastery, not realise that he has necessarily been given mastery over circumstances, over nature and over all creatures witha less enduring and reliable will? The free man, the possessor of an endur- ing, unbreakable will, thus has his own standard of value : in the possession of such a will: viewing others from his own standpoint, he respects or despises; and just as he will necessarily respect his peers, the strong and the reliable (those with the prerogative to promise), that is everyone whopromises like a sovereign, ponderously, seldom, slowly, and is sparing with his trust, who confers an honour when he places his trust, who gives his word as something that can be relied on, because he is strong enough to remain upright in the face of mishap or even in the face of fate : so he will necessarily be ready to kick the febrile whippets who promise withoutthat prerogative, and will save the rod for the liar who breaks his word in the very moment it passes his lips. The proud knowledge of the extraor- dinary privilege of responsibility , the consciousness of this rare freedom and power over himself and his destiny, has penetrated him to his lowest depths and become an instinct, his dominant instinct: what will he callhis dominant instinct, assuming that he needs a word for it? No doubt about the answer: this sovereign human being calls it his conscience ... 3 His conscience? . . . We can presume, in advance, that the concept conscience, which we meet here in its highest, almost disconcerting form, already has a long history and metamorphosis behind it. To beanswerable to oneself, and proudly, too, and therefore to have the preroga- tive to say yes to oneself is, as I said, a ripe fruit, but also a latefruit: Second essay 37 how long must this fruit have hung, bitter and sour, on the tree! And for even longer there was nothing to see of this fruit, nobody could have promised it would be there, although it is certain that everything aboutthe tree was ready and growing towards it! How do you give a memoryto the animal, man? How do you impress something upon this partly dull,partly idiotic, inattentive mind, this personication of forgetfulness, so that it will stick? . . . This age-old question was not resolved with gentle solutions and methods, as can be imagined; perhaps there is nothing more terrible and strange in mans prehistory than his technique of mnemonics . A thing must be burnt in so that it stays in the memory: only something that continues to hurt stays in the memory that is a proposition from the oldest (and unfortunately the longest-lived) psychology on earth. Youalmost want to add that wherever on earth you still nd ceremonial,solemnity , mystery, gloomy shades in the lives of men and peoples, some-thing of the dread with which everyone, everywhere, used to make promises, give pledges and commendation, is still working : the past, the most prolonged, deepest, hardest past, breathes on us and rises up in us when we become solemn. When man decided he had to make a memory for himself, it never happened without blood, torments and sacrices: themost horrifying sacrices and forfeits (the sacrice of the rst-born belongs here), the most disgusting mutilations (for example, castration), the cruellest rituals of all religious cults (and all religions are, at their most fundamental, systems of cruelty) all this has its origin in that particular instinct which discovered that pain was the most powerful aid tomnemonics. In a certain sense, the whole of asceticism belongs here: a few ideas have to be made ineradicable, ubiquitous, unforgettable, xed, in order to hypnotize the whole nervous and intellectual system through these xed ideas and ascetic procedures and lifestyles are a method of freeing those ideas from competition with all other ideas, of making themunforgettable. The worse mans memory has been, the more dreadful his customs have appeared; in particular, the harshness of the penal law gives a measure of how much trouble it had in conquering forgetfulness, and preserving a few primitive requirements of social life in the minds of these slaves of the mood and desire of the moment. We Germans certainly donot regard ourselves as a particularly cruel or hard-hearted people, still less as particularly irresponsible and happy-go-lucky; but you only have to look at our old penal code in order to see how difcult it was on thisearth to breed a nation of thinkers (by which I mean: thenation in Europe that still contains the maximum of reliability , solemnity,On the Genealogy of Morality 38 tastelessness and sobriety , qualities which give it the right to breed all sorts of European mandarin). These Germans made a memory for them- selves with dreadful methods, in order to master their basic plebeianinstincts and the brutal crudeness of the same: think of old German pun-ishments such as stoning ( even the legend drops the millstone on theguilty persons head), breaking on the wheel (a unique invention and spe- ciality of German genius in the eld of punishment!), impaling, ripping apart and trampling to death by horses (quartering), boiling of the crim- inal in oil or wine (still in the fourteenth and fteenth centuries), the popular aying (cutting strips), cutting out esh from the breast; and, of course, coating the wrong-doer with honey and leaving him to the ies inthe scorching sun. With the aid of such images and procedures, man was eventually able to retain ve or six I-dont-want-tos in his memory, in connection with which a promise had been given, in order to enjoy the advantages of society and there you are! With the aid of this sort of memory, people nally came to reason! Ah, reason, solemnity , master- ing of emotions, this really dismal thing called reection, all these privil- eges and splendours man has: what a price had to be paid for them! how much blood and horror lies at the basis of all good things! . . . 4 How, then, did that other dismal thing, the consciousness of guilt, the whole bad conscience, come into the world? And with this we return to our genealogists of morality. Ill say it again or maybe I havent said it yet? they are no good. No more than ve spans of their own, merely modern experience; no knowledge and no will to know the past; still less an instinct for history, a second sight so necessary at thispoint and yet they go in for the history of morality: of course, this must logically end in results that have a more than brittle relationship to the truth. Have these genealogists of morality up to now ever remotely dreamt that, for example, the main moral concept Schuld (guilt) descends from the very material concept of Schulden (debts)? Or that punishment, as retribution , evolved quite independently of any assump- tion about freedom or lack of freedom of the will? and this to the point where a high degree of humanization had rst to be achieved, so that the animal man could begin to differentiate between those much more primitive nuances intentional, negligent, accidental, of soundmind and their opposites, and take them into account when dealing outSecond essay 39 punishment. That inescapable thought, which is now so cheap and apparently natural, and which has had to serve as an explanation of how the sense of justice came about at all on earth, the criminal deserves tobe punished because he could have acted otherwise, is actually an extremely late and rened form of human judgment and inference;whoever thinks it dates back to the beginning is laying his coarse hands on the psychology of primitive man in the wrong way. Throughout most of human history, punishment has notbeen meted out because the mis- creant was held responsible for his act, therefore it was notassumed that the guilty party alone should be punished: but rather, as parents still punish their children, it was out of anger over some wrong that had beensuffered, directed at the perpetrator, but this anger was held in checkand modied by the idea that every injury has its equivalent which can be paid in compensation, if only through the pain of the person who injures. And where did this primeval, deeply-rooted and perhaps now ineradicable idea gain its power, this idea of an equivalence between injury and pain? I have already let it out: in the contractual relationship between creditor anddebtor , which is as old as the very conception of a legal subject and itself refers back to the basic forms of buying, selling,bartering, trade and trafc. 5 To be sure, thinking about these contractual relationships, as can be expected from what has gone before, arouses all kinds of suspicion and hostility towards the primitive men who created them or permitted them. Precisely here, promises are made ; precisely here, the person making the promise has to have a memory made for him: precisely here, we may suppose, is a repository of hard, cruel, painful things. The debtor, in orderto inspire condence that the promise of repayment will be honoured, in order to give a guarantee of the solemnity and sanctity of his promise, and in order to etch the duty and obligation of repayment into his conscience, pawns something to the creditor by means of the contract in case he does not pay, something that he still possesses and controls, for example, hisbody, or his wife, or his freedom, or his life (or, in certain religious cir- cumstances, even his after-life, the salvation of his soul, nally, even his peace in the grave: as in Egypt, where the corpse of a debtor found nopeace from the creditor even in the grave and this peace meant a lotprecisely to the Egyptians). But in particular, the creditor could inict allOn the Genealogy of Morality 40 kinds of dishonour and torture on the body of the debtor, for example, cutting as much esh off as seemed appropriate for the debt: from this standpoint there were everywhere, early on, estimates which went intohorrifyingly minute and fastidious detail, legally drawn up estimates for individual limbs and parts of the body. I regard it as denite progress andproof of a freer, more open-handed calculation, of a more Roman pricing of justice, when Romes code of the Twelve Tables decreed that it did not matter how much or how little a creditor cut off in such a circumstance, si plus minusve secuerunt ,ne fraude esto . 46Lets be quite clear about the logic of this whole matter of compensation: it is strange enough. The equivalence is provided by the fact that instead of an advantage directly making up for the wrong (so, instead of compensation in money, land or possessions of any kind), a sort of pleasure is given to the creditor as repay- ment and compensation, the pleasure of having the right to exercisepower over the powerless without a thought, the pleasure de faire le mal pour le plaisir de le faire , 47the enjoyment of violating: an enjoyment that is prized all the higher, the lower and baser the position of the creditor in the social scale, and which can easily seem a delicious titbit to him, even a foretaste of higher rank. Through punishment of the debtor, the cred- itor takes part in the rights of the masters : at last he, too, shares the elevated feeling of being in a position to despise and maltreat someone as an infe-rior or at least, when the actual power of punishment, of exacting pun-ishment, is already transferred to the authorities, of seeing the debtor despised and maltreated. So, then, compensation is made up of a warrant for and entitlement to cruelty . 6 Inthissphere of legal obligations, then, the moral conceptual world of debt, conscience, duty, sacred duty, has its breeding ground all began with a thorough and prolonged bloodletting, like the beginning of all great things on earth. And may we not add that this world has really never quite lost a certain odour of blood and torture? (not even with old Kant: the categorical imperative smells of cruelty . . .). In the same way,it was here that the uncanny and perhaps inextricable link-up between theSecond essay 4146If they have cut off more or less, let that not be considered a crime. This is from the Third Table, section 6. Modern editions read a slightly different text here with se (= sine) for ne: If they have cut off more or less, let it be honestly done. 47P . Mrime, Lettres une inconnue (Paris, 1874 ), I.8: To do evil for the pleasure of doing it. ideas of debt and suffering was rst crocheted together. I ask again: to what extent can suffering be a compensation for debts? To the degree that to make someone suffer is pleasure in its highest form, and to the degree that the injured party received an extraordinary counter-pleasurein exchange for the injury and distress caused by the injury: to make someone suffer, a true feast, something that, as I mentioned, rose in price the more it contrasted with the rank and social position of the cred- itor. I say all this in speculation: because such subterranean things are dif- cult to fathom out, besides being embarrassing; and anyone who clumsily tries to interject the concept revenge has merely obscured and darkened his own insight, rather than claried it ( revenge itself justleads us back to the same problem: how can it be gratifying to make someone suffer?). It seems to me that the delicacy and even more the tartuffery of tame house-pets (meaning modern man, meaning us) revoltsagainst a truly forceful realization of the degree to which cruelty is part of the festive joy of the ancients and, indeed, is an ingredient in nearly every pleasure they have; on the other hand, how nave and innocent their need for cruelty appears, and how fundamental is that disinterested malice (or, to use Spinozas words, the sympathia malevolens ) they assume is a normal human attribute : making it something to which conscience says a hearty yes! A more piercing eye would perhaps be able to detect, even now, plenty of these most primitive and basic festive joys of man; in Beyond Good and Evil , VII, section 229 48(earlier in Daybreak , I, sections 18,77,113)49I pointed a wary nger at the ever-growing intellectualiza- tion and deication of cruelty, which runs though the whole history of higher culture (and indeed, constitutes it in an important sense). At all events, not so long ago it was unthinkable to hold a royal wedding or full- scale festival for the people without executions, tortures or perhaps an auto-da-f , similarly, no noble household was without creatures on whom people could discharge their malice and cruel taunts with impunity ( remember Don Quixote, for example, at the court of the Duchess:50today we read the whole of Don Quixote with a bitter taste in the mouth, it is almost an ordeal, which would make us seem very strange and incompre- hensible to the author and his contemporaries, they read it with a clear conscience as the funniest of books, it made them nearly laugh themselves to death). To see suffering does you good, to make suffer, better still thatOn the Genealogy of Morality 4248See below, Supplementary material, pp. 1534. 49See below, Supplementary material, pp. 1379,p p . 1401,p p . 1434. 50Don Quixote , Book II, chs 317. is a hard proposition, but an ancient, powerful, human-all-too-human proposition to which, by the way, even the apes might subscribe: as people say, in thinking up bizarre cruelties they anticipate and, as it were, act outa demonstration of what man will do. No cruelty , no feast: that is whatthe oldest and longest period in human history teaches us and punish-ment, too, has such very strong festive aspects! 7 By the way, these ideas certainly dont make me wish to help provide our pessimists with new grist for their discordant and creaking mills of disgust with life; on the contrary, I expressly want to place on record that at the time when mankind felt no shame towards its cruelty , life on earth was more cheerful than it is today, with its pessimists. The heavens dark- ened over man in direct proportion to the increase in his feeling shame at being man . The tired, pessimistic outlook, mistrust of lifes riddle, the icy no of nausea at life these are not signs of the wickedest epoch of the human race: on the contrary, they come to light as the bog-plants they areonly in their natural habitat, the bog, I mean the sickly mollycoddlingand sermonizing, by means of which the animal man is nally taught tobe ashamed of all his instincts. On the way to becoming an angel (not to use a stronger word here), man has upset his stomach and developed a furry tongue so that he nds not only that the joy and innocence of animals is disgusting, but that life itself is distasteful: so that every now and again, he is so repelled by himself that he holds his nose and dis-approvingly recites a catalogue of his offensive features, with Pope Innocent the Third (conception in lth, loathsome method of feeding in the womb, sinfulness of the raw material of man, terrible stench, secre- tion of saliva, urine and excrement). 51Now, when suffering is always the rst of the arguments marshalled against life, as its most questionable feature, it is salutary to remember the times when people made the oppo- site assessment, because they could not do without making people suffer and saw rst-rate magic in it, a veritable seductive lure tolife. PerhapsSecond essay 4351This is not a quotation, but rather Nietzsches own summary of the topics discussed in the rst few sections of De miseria humanae conditionis (also known as De contemptu mundi and by various other titles). This short treatise, written in 1195 by Cardinal Lotario dei Segni (who in 1198 acceded to the Papacy as Innocent III) was extremely popular in the late Middle Ages, sizable chunks of it turning up, for instance, in The Canterbury Tales (particularly in the Man of Laws Prologue and Tale). pain I say this to comfort the squeamish did not hurt as much then as it does now; at least, a doctor would be justied in assuming this, if he had treated a Negro (taken as a representative for primeval man) for seriousinternal inammations which would drive the European with the stoutestconstitution to distraction; they do notdo that to Negroes. (The curve of human capacity for pain actually does seem to sink dramatically andalmost precipitously beyond the rst ten thousand or ten million of thecultural lite; and for myself, I do not doubt that in comparison with onenight of pain endured by a single, hysterical blue stocking, the total suf- fering of all the animals who have been interrogated by the knife in sci- entic research is as nothing.) Perhaps I can even be allowed to admit thepossibility that pleasure in cruelty does not really need to have died out: perhaps, just as pain today hurts more, it needed, in this connection, some kind of sublimation and subtilization, it had to be transformed into theimaginative and spiritual, and adorned with such inoffensive names that they do not arouse the suspicion of even the most delicate hypocritical conscience (tragic pity is one such name, another is les nostalgies de la croix ). What actually arouses indignation over suffering is not the suf- fering itself, but the senselessness of suffering: but neither for theChristian, who saw in suffering a whole, hidden machinery of salvation, nor for nave man in ancient times, who saw all suffering in relation to spectators or to instigators of suffering, was there any such senseless suf- fering. In order to rid the world of concealed, undiscovered, unseen suf- fering and deny it in all honesty , people were then practically obliged toinvent gods and intermediate beings at every level, in short, something that also roamed round in obscurity , which could see in the dark and which would not miss out on an interesting spectacle of pain so easily. With the aid of such inventions, life then played the trick it has always known how to play, of justifying itself, justifying its evil; nowadays itmight need rather different inventions to help it (for example, life as a riddle, life as a problem of knowledge). All evil is justied if a god takes pleasure in it: so ran the primitive logic of feeling and was this logic really restricted to primitive times? The gods viewed as the friends of cruel spectacles how deeply this primeval concept still penetrates into our European civilization! Maybe we should consult Calvin and Luther on the matter. At all events, the Greeks could certainly think of offering their gods no more acceptable a side-dish to their happiness than the joysof cruelty . So how do you think Homer made his gods look down on thefortunes of men? What nal, fundamental meaning did the Trojan WarOn the Genealogy of Morality 44 and similar tragic atrocities have? We can be in no doubt: they were intended to be festivals for the gods: and, to the extent that the poet has a more god-like nature in these matters, probably festivals for the poets,too . . . It was no different when later Greek moral philosophers thoughtthat the eyes of the gods still looked down on moral struggles, on theheroism and self-inicted torture of the virtuous: the Heracles of duty was on stage and knew it; unwitnessed virtue was something inconceiv- able for this nation of actors. Might it not be the case that that extremely foolhardy and fateful philosophical invention, rst devised for Europe, of the free will, of mans absolute freedom [ Spontaneitt ] to do good or evil, was chiey thought up to justify the idea that the interest of the gods inman, in mans virtue, could never be exhausted ? On the stage of this earth there would never be any lack of real novelty , real unheard-of suspense, intrigues, catastrophes: a world planned on completely deterministiclines would have been predictable and therefore soon boring for the gods, sufcient reason for these friends of the gods , the philosophers, not to impute a deterministic world of that sort to their gods! Everybody in antiquity is full of tender consideration for the spectator, people in antiquity form an essentially public, essentially visible world, incapable ofconceiving of happiness without spectacles and feasts. And, as already stated, severe punishment , too, has very strong festive features! . . . 8 The feeling of guilt, of personal obligation, to pursue our train of inquiry again, originated, as we saw, in the oldest and most primitive per- sonal relationship there is, in the relationship of buyer and seller, credi- tor and debtor: here person met person for the rst time, and measured himself person against person. No form of civilization has been discov- ered which is so low that it did not display something of this relationship.Fixing prices, setting values, working out equivalents, exchanging this preoccupied mans rst thoughts to such a degree that in a certain sense itconstitutes thought: the most primitive kind of cunning was bred here, as was also, presumably, the rst appearance of human pride, mans sense of superiority over other animals. Perhaps our word man ( manas ) expresses something of thisrst sensation of self-condence: man desig- nated himself as the being who measures values, who values and mea-sures, as the calculating animal as such. Buying and selling, with theirpsychological trappings, are older even than the beginnings of any socialSecond essay 45 form of organization or association: it is much more the case that the ger- minating sensation of barter, contract, debt, right, duty , compensation was simply transferred from the most rudimentary form of the legal rights of persons to the most crude and elementary social units (in their rela-tions with similar units), together with the habit of comparing power withpower, of measuring, of calculating. Now the eye was focused in thisdirection in any case: and with the ponderous consistency characteristicof the ancients way of thinking, which, though difcult to get started,never deviated once it was moving, man soon arrived at the great gener- alization: Every thing has its price: everything can be compensated for the oldest, most nave canon of morals relating to justice , the beginning of all good naturedness, equity, all good will, all objectivity on earth.Justice at this rst level is the good will, between those who are roughlyequal, to come to terms with each other, to come to an understandingagain by means of a settlement and, in connection with those who are less powerful, to force them to reach a settlement amongst themselves. 9 Still measuring with the standard of prehistoric times (a prehistory which, by the way, exists at all times or could possibly re-occur): the com- munity has the same basic relationship to its members as the creditor to the debtor. You live in a community , you enjoy the benets of a commu- nity (oh, what benets! sometimes we underestimate them today), you live a sheltered, protected life in peace and trust, without any worry ofsuffering certain kinds of harm and hostility to which the man outside , the man without peace, is exposed a German understands what misery, lend , 52originally means , you make pledges and take on obligations to the community with just that harm and hostility in mind. What happens if you do not ? The community , the cheated creditor, will make you pay up as best it can, you can be sure of that. The immediate damage done by the offender is what we are talking about least: quite apart from this, the law- breaker is a breaker, somebody who has broken his contract and his wordto the whole , in connection with all the valued features and amenities of communal life that he has shared up till now. The lawbreaker is a debtor who not only fails to repay the benets and advances granted to him, but also actually assaults the creditor: so, from now on, as is fair, he is not onlyOn the Genealogy of Morality 4652literally other country i.e. banishment, exile. deprived of all these valued benets, he is now also reminded how important these benets are . The anger of the injured creditor, the com- munity , makes him return to the savage and outlawed state from which hewas sheltered hitherto: he is cast out and now any kind of hostile act canbe perpetrated on him. Punishment at this level of civilization is simplya copy, a mimus , of normal behaviour towards a hated, disarmed enemy who has been defeated, and who has not only forfeited all rights and safeguards, but all mercy as well; in fact, the rules of war and the victory celebration of vae victis ! 53in all their mercilessness and cruelty: which explains the fact that war itself (including the warlike cult of the sacri- cial victim) has given us all forms in which punishment manifests itself in history. 10 As a community grows in power, it ceases to take the offence of the individual quite so seriously, because these do not seem to be as danger- ous and destabilizing for the survival of the whole as they did earlier: the wrongdoer is no longer deprived of peace and cast out, nor can the general public vent their anger on him with the same lack of constraint, instead the wrongdoer is carefully shielded by the community from thisanger, especially from that of the immediate injured party , and given pro-tection. A compromise with the anger of those immediately affected bythe wrongdoing; and therefore an attempt to localize the matter and head off further or more widespread participation and unrest; attempts to work out equivalents and settle the matter (the compositio ); above all, the will, manifesting itself ever more distinctly, to treat every offence as being something that can be paid off , so that, at least to a certain degree, the wrongdoer is isolated from his deed these are the characteristics imprinted more and more clearly into penal law in its further develop- ment. As the power and self-condence of a community grows, its penallaw becomes more lenient; if the former is weakened or endangered, harsher forms of the latter will re-emerge. The creditor always becomes more humane as his wealth increases; nally, the amount of his wealth determines how much injury he can sustain without suffering from it. It is not impossible to imagine society so conscious of its power that it could allow itself the noblest luxury available to it, that of letting itsSecond essay 4753Woe to the vanquished (Livy v . 48). malefactors go unpunished . What do I care about my parasites, it could say, let them live and ourish: I am strong enough for all that! . . . Justice, which began by saying Everything can be paid off, everything must bepaid off , ends by turning a blind eye and letting off those unable to pay, it ends, like every good thing on earth, by sublimating itself . The self- sublimation of justice: we know what a nice name it gives itself mercy ; it remains, of course, the prerogative of the most powerful man, better still, his way of being beyond the law. 11 Now a derogatory mention of recent attempts to seek the origin of justice elsewhere, namely in ressentiment . A word in the ear of the psy- chologists, assuming they are inclined to study ressentiment close up for once: this plant thrives best amongst anarchists and anti-Semites today, so it owers like it always has done, in secret, like a violet but with a dif- ferent scent. And just as like always gives rise to like, it will come as nosurprise to nd attempts coming once more from these circles, as so oftenbefore see section 14[Essay I] above, to sanctify revenge with the term justice as though justice were fundamentally simply a further develop- ment of the feeling of having been wronged and belatedly to legitimize with revenge emotional reactions in general, one and all. The latter is something with which I least take issue: with regard to the whole biolog- ical problem (where the value of these emotions has been underestimated up till now), I even view it as a merit . All I want to point out is the fact that this new nuance of scientic balance (which favours hatred, envy , resent- ment, suspicion, rancune and revenge) stems from the spirit of ressenti- ment itself. This scientic fairness immediately halts and takes on aspects of a deadly animosity and prejudice the minute it has to deal with a different set of emotions, which, to my mind, are of much greater bio- logical value than those of reaction and therefore truly deserve to be sci- entically valued, highly valued: namely the actual active emotions such as lust for mastery, greed and the like. (E. Dhring, The Value of Life. A Course in Philosophy ; basically, all of it.) So much for my general objec- tions to this tendency; but concerning Dhrings specic proposition that the seat of justice is found in the territory of reactive sentiment, for the sake of accuracy we must unceremoniously replace this with anotherproposition: the lastterritory to be conquered by the spirit of justice is that of reactive sentiment! If it actually happens that the just man remainsOn the Genealogy of Morality 48 just even towards someone who has wronged him (and not just cold, mod- erate, remote and indifferent: to be just is always a positive attitude), if the just and judging eye, gazing with a lofty, clear objectivity both penetrating and merciful, is not dimmed even in the face of personal injury, of scornand suspicion, well, that is a piece of perfection, the highest form ofmastery to be had on earth, and even something that we would be wisenot to expect and should certainly nd difcult to believe . Certainly, on average, even a small dose of aggression, malice or insinuation is enough to make the most upright man see red and drive moderation out of his sight. The active, aggressive, over-reaching man is still a hundred paces nearer to justice then the man who reacts; he simply does not need to placea false and prejudiced interpretation on the object of his attention, like the man who reacts does, has to do. In fact, this explains why the aggres- sive person, as the stronger, more courageous, nobler man, has always hadaclearer eye, a better conscience on his side: on the other hand it is easy to guess who has the invention of bad conscience on his conscience, the man of ressentiment ! Finally, just cast your eye around in history: in what sphere, up till now, has the whole treatment of justice, and the actual need for justice, resided? With men who react, perhaps? Not in the least: butwith the active, the strong, the spontaneous and the aggressive. Historically speaking, justice on earth represents I say this to the annoy- ance of the above-mentioned agitator (who himself once confessed: The doctrine of revenge has woven its way though all my work and activities as the red thread of justice) 54 the battle, then, against reactive senti- ment, the war waged against the same on the part of active and aggres- sive forces, which have partly expended their strength in trying to put a stop to the spread of reactive pathos, to keep it in check and within bounds, and to force a compromise with it. Everywhere that justice is practised and maintained, the stronger power can be seen looking formeans of putting an end to the senseless ravages of ressentiment amongst those inferior to it (whether groups or individuals), partly by lifting the object of ressentiment out of the hands of revenge, partly by substituting, for revenge, a struggle against the enemies of peace and order, partly by working out compensation, suggesting, sometimes enforcing it, andpartly by promoting certain equivalences for wrongs into a norm which ressentiment , from now on, has to take into account. The most decisive thing, h owever, that the higher authorities can invent and enforce againstSecond essay 4954E. Dhring, Sache, Leben, und Feinde (Karlsruhe, Leipzig, 1882 ), p.293. the even stronger power of hostile and spiteful feelings and they do it as soon as they are strong enough is the setting up of a legal system , the imperative declaration of what counts as permissible in their eyes, as just,and what counts as forbidden, unjust: once the legal code is in place, bytreating offence and arbitrary actions against the individual or groups asa crime, as violation of the law, as insurrection against the higher author- ities themselves, they distract attention from the damage done by such violations, and ultimately achieve the opposite of what revenge sets out to do, which just sees and regards as valid the injured partys point of view : from then on the eye is trained for an evermore impersonal interpretation of the action, even the eye of the injured party (although, as stated, thishappens last). Therefore just and unjust only start from the moment when a legal system is set up (and not, as Dhring says, from the moment when the injury is done.) To talk of just and unjust as such is meaning- less, an act of injury, violence, exploitation or destruction cannot be unjust as such , because life functions essentially in an injurious, violent, exploitative and destructive manner, or at least these are its fundamental processes and it cannot be thought of without these characteristics. One has to admit to oneself something even more unpalatable: that viewedfrom the highest biological standpoint, states of legality can never be any- thing but exceptional states , as partial restrictions of the true will to life, which seeks power and to whose overall purpose they subordinate them- selves as individual measures, that is to say, as a means of creating greater units of power. A system of law conceived as sovereign and general, notas a means for use in the ght between units of power but as a means against ghting in general, rather like Dhrings communistic slogan that every will should regard every other will as its equal, this would be a prin- ciple hostile to life , an attempt to assassinate the future of man, a sign of fatigue and a secret path to nothingness. 12 Now another word on the origin and purpose of punishment two problems which are separate, or ought to be: unfortunately people usually throw them together. How have the moral genealogists reacted so far in this matter? Naively, as is their wont : they highlight some purpose in punishment, for example, revenge or deterrence, then innocently place the purpose at the start, as causa endi of punishment, and have nished. But purpose in law is the last thing we should apply to the history of theOn the Genealogy of Morality 50 emergence of law: on the contrary, there is no more important proposi- tion for every sort of history than that which we arrive at only with great effort but which we really should reach, namely that the origin of the emergence of a thing and its ultimate usefulness, its practical applicationand incorporation into a system of ends, are toto coelo separate; that any- thing in existence, having somehow come about, is continually inter-preted anew, requisitioned anew, transformed and redirected to a newpurpose by a power superior to it; that everything that occurs in theorganic world consists of overpowering ,dominating , and in their turn, overpowering and dominating consist of re-interpretation, adjustment, in the process of which their former meaning [ Sinn ] and purpose must necessarily be obscured or completely obliterated. No matter how per-fectly you have understood the usefulness of any physiological organ (or legal institution, social custom, political usage, art form or religious rite),you have not yet thereby grasped how it emerged: uncomfortable and unpleasant as this may sound to more elderly ears, for people down the ages have believed that the obvious purpose of a thing, its utility , form and shape, are its reason for existence, the eye is made to see, the hand to grasp. So people think punishment has evolved for the purpose of punishing.But every purpose and use is just a signthat the will to power has achieved mastery over something less powerful, and has impressed upon it its own idea [ Sinn ] of a use function; and the whole history of a thing, an organ, a tradition can to this extent be a continuous chain of signs, continually revealing new interpretations and adaptations, the causes of which neednot be connected even amongst themselves, but rather sometimes just follow and replace one another at random. The development of a thing, a tradition, an organ is therefore certainly not its progressus towards a goal, still less is it a logical progressus , taking the shortest route with least expen- diture of energy and cost, instead it is a succession of more or less pro-found, more or less mutually independent processes of subjugation exacted on the thing, added to this the resistances encountered every time, the attempted transformations for the purpose of defence and reaction, and the results, too, of successful countermeasures. The form is uid, the meaning [ Sinn ] even more so . . . It is no different inside any individual organism: every time the whole grows appreciably, the meaning [ Sinn ] of the individual organs shifts, sometimes the partial destruction of organs, the reduction in their number (for example, by the destruction ofintermediary parts) can be a sign of increasing vigour and perfection.To speak plainly: even the partial reduction in usefulness , decay andSecond essay 51 degeneration, loss of meaning [ Sinn ] and functional purpose, in short death, make up the conditions of true progressus: always appearing, as it does, in the form of the will and way to greater power and always emerg- ing victorious at the cost of countless smaller forces. The amount ofprogress can actually be measured according to how much has had to be sacriced to it; mans sacrice en bloc to the prosperity of one single stronger species of man that would be progress . . . I lay stress on this major point of historical method, especially as it runs counter to just that prevailing instinct and fashion which would much rather come to terms with absolute randomness, and even the mechanistic senselessness of all events, than the theory that a power-will is acted out in all that happens. The democratic idiosyncrasy of being against everything that dominatesand wants to dominate, the modern misarchism (to coin a bad word for a bad thing) has gradually shaped and dressed itself up as intellectual, mostintellectual, so much so that it already, today, little by little penetrates the strictest, seemingly most objective sciences, and is allowed to do so; indeed, I think it has already become master of the whole of physiology and biology, to their detriment, naturally, by spiriting away their basic concept, that of actual activity . On the other hand, the pressure of this idiosyncrasy forces adaptation into the foreground, which is a second- rate activity , just a reactivity , indeed life itself has been dened as an increasingly efcient inner adaptation to external circumstances (Herbert Spencer). But this is to misunderstand the essence of life, its will to power , we overlook the prime importance that the spontaneous, aggressive,expansive, re-interpreting, re-directing and formative forces have, which adaptation follows only when they have had their effect; in the organism itself, the dominant role of these highest functionaries, in whom the life- will is active and manifests itself, is denied. One recalls what Huxley reproached Spencer with, his administrative nihilism: but we aredealing with more than administration . . . 13 To return to our topic, namely punishment , we have to distinguish between two of its aspects: one is its relative permanence , the custom, the act, the drama, a certain strict sequence of procedures, the other is its uidity , its meaning [ Sinn ], purpose and expectation, which is linked to the carrying out of such procedures. And here, without further ado, Iassume, per analogiam , according to the major point of historical methodOn the Genealogy of Morality 52 just developed, that the procedure itself will be something older, pre- dating its use as punishment, that the latter was only inserted and inter- preted into the procedure (which had existed for a long time though itwas thought of in a different way), in short, that the matter is notto be understood in the way our nave moral and legal genealogists assumed uptill now, who all thought the procedure had been invented for the purpose of punishment, just as people used to think that the hand had been invented for the purpose of grasping. With regard to the other element in punishment, the uid one, its meaning, the concept punishment pre- sents, at a very late stage of culture (for example, in Europe today), not just one meaning but a whole synthesis of meanings [ Sinnen ]:the history of punishment up to now in general, the history of its use for avariety of purposes, nally crystallizes 55in a kind of unity which is dif- cult to dissolve back into its elements, difcult to analyse and, this has to be stressed, is absolutely undenable . (Today it is impossible to say pre- cisely why people are actually punished: all concepts in which an entire process is semiotically concentrated defy denition; only somethingwhich has no history can be dened.) At an earlier stage, h owever, the synthesis of meanings appeared much easier to undo and shift; we canstill make out how, in every single case, the elements of the synthesischange valence and alter the order in which they occur so that now this, then that element stands out and dominates, to the detriment of the others, indeed, in some circumstances one element (for example, thepurpose of deterrence) seems to overcome all the rest. To at least give an impression of how uncertain, belated and haphazard the meaning of punishment is, and how one and the same procedure can be used, inter- preted and adapted for fundamentally different projects: you have here a formula that suggested itself to me on the basis of relatively restricted andrandom material. Punishment as a means of rendering harmless, of pre- venting further harm. Punishment as payment of a debt to the creditor in any form (even one of emotional compensation). Punishment as a means of isolating a disturbance of balance, to prevent further spread of the dis- turbance. Punishment as a means of inspiring the fear of those who deter-mine and execute punishment. Punishment as a sort of counter-balance to the privileges which the criminal has enjoyed up till now (for example, by using him as a slave in the mines). Punishment as a rooting-out of degenerate elements (sometimes a whole branch, as in Chinese law:Second essay 5355Cf. Stendhal, De lamour , chs 11ff. whereby it becomes a means of keeping the race pure or maintaining a social type). Punishment as a festival, in the form of violating and mocking an enemy, once he is nally conquered. Punishment as an aide memoire , either for the person suffering the punishment so called reform, or for those who see it carried out. Punishment as payment of afee stipulated by the power which protects the wrongdoer from the excesses of revenge. Punishment as a compromise with the natural state of revenge, in so far as the latter is still nurtured and claimed as a privi- lege by more powerful clans. Punishment as a declaration of war and a war measure against an enemy of peace, law, order, authority , who is fought as dangerous to the life of the community , in breach of the con-tract on which the community is founded, as a rebel, a traitor and breaker of the peace, with all the means war can provide. 14 The list is certainly not complete; punishment can clearly be seen to be richly laden with benets of all kinds. This provides all the more justi- cation for us to deduct one supposed benet that counts as its most char- acteristic in popular perception, faith in punishment, which is shaky today for several reasons, has its strongest support in precisely this. Punishment is supposed to have the value of arousing the feeling of guilt in the guilty party; in it, people look for the actual instrumentum of the mental reex which we call bad conscience or pang of conscience. Butby doing this, people are violating reality and psychology even as it istoday: and much more so for the longest period in the history of mankind,its prehistory! The real pang of conscience, precisely amongst criminals and convicts, is something extremely rare, prisons and gaols are notnurs- eries where this type of gnawing pang chooses to thrive: on this, all con- scientious observers are agreed, in many cases reaching such a conclusion reluctantly and against their personal inclinations. On the whole, punish- ment makes men harder and colder, it concentrates, it sharpens the feelingof alienation; it strengthens the power to resist. If it does happen that a mans vigour is broken, resulting in his wretched prostration and self- abasement, a result of this sort is certainly less edifying than the average effect of punishment: as characterised by a dry, morose solemnity . If we just think about those centuries before the history of mankind, we can safely conclude that the evolution of a feeling of guilt was most stronglyimpeded through punishment, at any rate, with regard to the victims onOn the Genealogy of Morality 54 whom the primitive measures were carried out. Nor must we underesti- mate the degree to which the mere sight of the judicial executive proce- dures inhibits the criminal himself from experiencing his act, his mode ofconduct, as reprehensible as such : because he sees the same kind of action practised in the service of justice and given approval, practised with agood conscience: like spying, duping, bribing, setting traps, the whole intricate and wily skills of the policeman and prosecutor, as well as the most thorough robbery, violence, slander, imprisonment, torture and murder, carried out without even having emotion as an excuse, all prac- tices that are manifest in the various kinds of punishment, none of which is seen by his judges as a depraved and condemned act as such , but only in certain respects and applications. Bad conscience, the most uncanny andmost interesting plant of our earthly vegetation, did notgrow in this soil, in fact, for most of the time it did notenter the consciousness of those who judged and punished that they were dealing with a guilty party. Instead, it was a question of someone who had caused harm, an irrespon- sible piece of fate. He himself, the recipient of punishment, which again descended like a piece of fate, felt no inner pain beyond what he would feel if something unforeseen suddenly happened, a terrible natural disas-ter, a boulder falling on him and crushing him, where resistance is futile. 15 Spinoza became aware of this in a way that made him show his true colours (to the annoyance of his critics, who systematically attempt to mis- understand him on this point, Kuno Fischer,56for example), when, one afternoon, rummaging around among who knows what memories, he turned his attention to the question of what actually remained for him, himself, of that famous morsus conscientiae57 he who had relegated good and evil to mans imagination and angrily defended the honour of his free God against the blasphemists who asserted that God operates everything sub ratione boni58(but that would mean that God is subject to fate and would really be the greatest of all absurdities ).59For Spinoza, the world had returned to that state of innocence in which it had lain before the invention of bad conscience: what had then become of morsusSecond essay 5556Cf. his Geschichte der neueren Philosophie (Heidelberg, 1865 ),1.2. 57bite of conscience. Cf. Spinoza, Ethics III, Denitions XVI, XVII, XXVI. 58to attain some good. 59Spinoza, Ethics Proposition II scholium 2. conscientiae ? The opposite of gaudium ,60he nally said to himself, a sadness accompanied by the notion of a past event which turned out con- trary to expectation. Eth iii, Propos. xviii Schol. i ii . For millennia, wrong- doers overtaken by punishment have felt no different than Spinoza with regard to their offence: something has gone unexpectedly wrong here,notI ought not to have done that , they submitted to punishment as you submit to illness or misfortune or death, with that brave, unrebellious fatalism that still gives the Russians, for example, an advantage over us Westerners in the way they handle life. If, in those days, there was any criticism of the deed, it came from intelligence, which practised criticism: we must certainly seek the actual effect of punishment primarily in the sharpening of intelligence, in a lengthening of the memory, in a will to bemore cautious, less trusting, to go about things more circumspectly fromnow on, in the recognition that one was, once and for all, too weak formany things, in a sort of improvement of self-assessment. What can largely be achieved by punishment, in man or beast, is the increase of fear, the intensication of intelligence, the mastering of desires: punishment tames man in this way but does not make him better, we would be more justied in asserting the opposite. (Y ou can learn from your mistakes asthe saying goes, but what you learn also makes you bad. Fortunately it often enough makes you stupid.) 16 At this point I can no longer avoid giving a rst, preliminary expres- sion to my own theory on the origin of bad conscience: it is not easy to get a hearing for this hypothesis and it needs to be pondered, watched and slept on. I look on bad conscience as a serious illness to which man was forced to succumb by the pressure of the most fundamental of all changes which he experienced, that change whereby he nally found himselfimprisoned within the connes of society and peace. It must have been no different for these semi-animals, happily adapted to the wilderness, war, the wandering life and adventure than it was for the sea animals when they were forced to either become land animals or perish at one go, all instincts were devalued and suspended. Now they had to walk on theirfeet and carry themselves, whereas they had been carried by the water up till then: a terrible heaviness bore down on them. They felt they wereOn the Genealogy of Morality 5660gladness. clumsy at performing the simplest task, they did not have their familiar guide any more for this new, unknown world, those regulating impulses that unconsciously led them to safety the poor things were reduced torelying on thinking, inference, calculation, and the connecting of causewith effect, that is, to relying on their consciousness, that most impov-erished and error-prone organ! I do not think there has ever been such a feeling of misery on earth, such a leaden discomfort, and meanwhile, the old instincts had not suddenly ceased to make their demands! But it was difcult and seldom possible to give in to them: they mainly had to seek new and as it were underground gratications. All instincts which are not discharged outwardly turn inwards this is what I call the inter- nalization of man: with it there now evolves in man what will later be called his soul. The whole inner world, originally stretched thinly as though between two layers of skin, was expanded and extended itself andgained depth, breadth and height in proportion to the degree that the external discharge of mans instincts was obstructed . Those terrible bul- warks with which state organizations protected themselves against the old instincts of freedom punishments are a primary instance of this kind of bulkwark had the result that all those instincts of the wild, free, rovingman were turned backwards, against man himself . Animosity , cruelty , the pleasure of pursuing, raiding, changing and destroying all this was pitted against the person who had such instincts: thatis the origin of bad conscience. Lacking external enemies and obstacles, and forced into the oppressive narrowness and conformity of custom, man impatientlyripped himself apart, persecuted himself, gnawed at himself, gave himself no peace and abused himself, this animal who battered himself raw on the bars of his cage and who is supposed to be tamed; man, full of empti- ness and torn apart with homesickness for the desert, has had to create from within himself an adventure, a torture-chamber, an unsafe andhazardous wilderness this fool, this prisoner consumed with longing and despair, became the inventor of bad conscience. With it, h owever, the worst and most insidious illness was introduced, one from which mankind has not yet recovered; mans sickness of man,o fhimself : as the result of a forcible breach with his animal past, a simultaneous leap andfall into new situations and conditions of existence, a declaration of war against all the old instincts on which, up till then, his strength, pleasure and formidableness had been based. Let us immediately add that, on theother hand, the prospect of an animal soul turning against itself, taking apart against itself, was something so new, profound, unheard-of, puzzling,Second essay 57 contradictory and momentous [Zukunftsvolles ] on earth that the whole character of the world changed in an essential way. Indeed, a divine audi- ence was needed to appreciate the spectacle that began then, but the endof which is not yet in sight, a spectacle too subtle, too wonderful, tooparadoxical to be allowed to be played senselessly unobserved on someridiculous planet! Since that time, man has been included among the most unexpected and exciting throws of dice played by Heraclitus great child, call him Zeus or fate, 61 he arouses interest, tension, hope, almost certainty for himself, as though something were being announced through him, were being prepared, as though man were not an end but just a path, an episode, a bridge, a great promise . . . 17 The rst assumption in my theory on the origin of bad conscience is that the alteration was not gradual and voluntary and did not represent an organic assimilation into new circumstances, but was a breach, a leap, a compulsion, an inescapable fate that nothing could ward off, which occasioned no struggle, not even any ressentiment . A second assumption, however, is that the shaping of a population, which had up till now been unrestrained and shapeless, into a xed form, as happened at the begin-ning with an act of violence, could only be concluded with acts of vio-lence, that consequently the oldest state emerged as a terrible tyranny, as a repressive and ruthless machinery, and continued working until the raw material of people and semi-animals had been nally not just kneadedand made compliant, but shaped . I used the word state: it is obvious who is meant by this some pack of blond beasts of prey, a conqueror and master race, which, organized on a war footing, and with the power to organize, unscrupulously lays its dreadful paws on a populace which, though it might be vastly greater in number, is still shapeless and shift-ing. In this way, the state began on earth: I think I have dispensed with the fantasy which has it begin with a contract. Whoever can command, whoever is a master by nature, whoever appears violent in deed and gesture what is he going to care about contracts! Such beings cannot be reckoned with, they come like fate, without cause, reason, considerationor pretext, they appear just like lightning appears, too terrible, sudden, convincing and other even to be hated. What they do is to create andOn the Genealogy of Morality 5861Heraclitus, Fragment 52. imprint forms instinctively, they are the most involuntary, unconscious artists there are: where they appear, soon something new arises, a struc- ture of domination [ Herrschafts Gebilde ] that lives, in which parts and functions are differentiated and related to one another, in which there isabsolutely no room for anything that does not rst acquire meaning withregard to the whole. They do not know what guilt, responsibility , consid-eration are, these born organizers; they are ruled by that terrible innerartists egoism which has a brazen countenance and sees itself justied toall eternity by the work, like the mother in her child. They are not the ones in whom bad conscience grew; that is obvious but it would not have grown without them, this ugly growth would not be there if a huge amount of freedom had not been driven from the world, or at least drivenfrom sight and, at the same time, made latent by the pressure of their hammer blows and artists violence. This instinct of freedom , forcibly made latent we have already seen how this instinct of freedom forced back, repressed, incarcerated within itself and nally able to discharge and unleash itself only against itself: that, and that alone, is bad conscience in its beginnings. 18 We must be wary of thinking disparagingly about this whole phenom- enon because it is inherently ugly and painful. Fundamentally, it is the same active force as the one that is at work on a grand scale in those artists of violence and organizers, and that builds states, which here, internally, and on a smaller, pettier scale, turned backwards, in the labyrinth of the breast, as Goethe would say,62creates bad conscience for itself, and builds negative ideals, it is that very instinct for freedom (put into my language: the will to power): except that the material on which the formative and rapacious nature of this force vents itself is precisely man himself, his whole animal old self and not, as in that greater and more eye-catching phenomenon, the other man, the other men. This secret self-violation, this artists cruelty, this desire to give form to oneself as a piece of difcult, resisting, suffering matter, to brand it with a will, a critique, a contradic- tion, a contempt, a no, this uncanny, terrible but joyous labour of a soul voluntarily split within itself, which makes itself suffer out of the pleasure of making suffer, this whole active bad conscience has nally we haveSecond essay 5962In the last strophe of his poem An den Mond (To the Moon) ( 1778 ). already guessed as true womb of ideal and imaginative events, brought a wealth of novel, disconcerting beauty and afrmation to light, and perhaps for the rst time, beauty itself . . . What would be beautiful, if the contrary to it had not rst come to awareness of itself, if ugliness hadnot rst said to itself: I am ugly? . . . At least, after this clue, one puzzlewill be less puzzling, namely how an ideal, something beautiful, can behinted at in self-contradictory concepts such as selessness, self-denial, self-sacrice , and furthermore, I do not doubt that we know one thing , what kind of pleasure it is which, from the start, the seless, the self- denying, the self-sacricing feel: this pleasure belongs to cruelty . So much, for the time being, on the descent of the unegoistic as a moral value and on the delineation of the ground on which this value has grown:only bad conscience, only the will to self-violation provides the precon-dition for the value of the unegoistic. 19 Bad conscience is a sickness, there is no point in denying it, but a sick- ness rather like pregnancy. Let us examine the conditions under which this sickness reached its most terrible and sublime peak: we shall see what, with this, really entered the world. But we shall need a great deal of staying power, and rst we have to return to an earlier point. The rela- tionship of a debtor to his creditor in civil law, about which I have writtenat length already, was for a second time transformed through interpreta- tion, in a historically extremely strange and curious manner, into a rela- tionship in which it is perhaps least comprehensible to us modern men: that is the relationship of the present generation to their forebears . Within the original tribal association we are talking about primeval times theliving generation always acknowledged a legal obligation towards the earlier generation, and in particular towards the earliest, which founded the tribe (and this was not just a sentimental tie: this latter could, with good reason, be denied altogether for the longest period of the human race). There is a prevailing conviction that the tribe exists only because of the sacrices and deeds of the forefathers, and that these have to be paid back with sacrices and deeds: people recognize an indebtedness [Schuld ], which continually increases because these ancestors continue to exist as mighty spirits, giving the tribe new advantages and lending it some of their power. Do they do this for nothing, perhaps? But there is no fornothing for those raw and spiritually impoverished ages. What canOn the Genealogy of Morality 60 people give them in return? Sacrices (originally as food in the crudest sense), feasts, chapels, tributes, above all, obedience for all traditions are, as works of the ancestors, also their rules and orders : do people evergive them enough? This suspicion remains and grows: from time to timeit exacts a payment on a grand scale, something immense as a repaymentto the creditor (the infamous sacrice of the rst-born, for example, blood, human blood in any case). Following this line of thought, the dread of the ancestor and his power, the consciousness of debts towards him, increases inevitably, in direct proportion to the increase in power of the tribe itself, that is, in proportion as the tribe itself becomes ever more vic- torious, independent, honoured and feared. And not the other way round!Every step towards the weakening of the tribe, all unfortunate calamities, all signs of degeneration and imminent disintegration, always lessen rather than increase the dread of the spirit of its founder, and lead to anever lower opinion of his sagacity, providence and powerful presence. If you think this sort of crude logic through to the end: it follows that through the hallucination of the growing dread itself, the ancestors of the most powerful tribes must have grown to an immense stature and must have been pushed into the obscurity of divine mystery and transcendence: inevitably the ancestor himself is nally transgured into a god. Perhaps we have here the actual origin of gods, an origin, then, in fear! ...A n d whoever should deem t to add: but in piety, too! would have difculty in justifying the claim for the longest period of the human race, pre- history. All the more so, h owever, w ould he be right, for the middle period in which the noble tribes developed: who actually did repay, with inter- est, their founders, their ancestors (heroes, gods) with all the attributes which, in the meantime, had become manifest in themselves, the noble attributes. Later, we shall take another look at the way gods are ennobled and exalted (which is not at all to say they were hallowed): but let us, forthe present, pursue the course of this whole development of the con- sciousness of guilt to its conclusion. 20 The awareness of having debts to gods did not, as history teaches, come to an end even after the decline of communities organized on the prin- ciple of blood relationship; just as man inherited the concepts of goodand bad from the nobility of lineage (together with its psychological basictendency to institute orders of rank), he also inherited, along with theSecond essay 61 divinities of tribes and clans, the burden of unpaid debts and the longing for them to be settled. (Those large populations of slaves and serfs who adapted themselves to the divinity cults of their masters, whether throughcompulsion, submission or mimicry, form the transitional stage: fromthem, the inheritance overows in every direction.) The feeling of indebt-edness towards a deity continued to grow for several millennia, and indeed always in the same proportion as the concept of and feeling for God grew in the world and was carried aloft. (The whole history of ethnic battles, victories, reconciliations and mergers, and everything that pre- cedes the eventual rank-ordering of the diverse elements of the popula- tion in every great racial synthesis, is mirrored in the genealogical chaosof their gods, in the legends of their battles, victories and reconciliations; the progression to universal empires is always the progress to universal deities at the same time: despotism, with its subjugation of the independ-ent nobility , always prepares the way for some sort of monotheism as well.) The advent of the Christian God as the maximal god yet achieved, thus also brought about the appearance of the greatest feeling of indebt- edness on earth. Assuming that we have now started in the reverse direc- tion, we should be justied in deducing, with no little probability , thatfrom the unstoppable decline in faith in the Christian God there is, even now, a considerable decline in the consciousness of human debt; indeed, the possibility cannot be rejected out of hand that the complete and denitive victory of atheism might release humanity from this whole feeling of being indebted towards its beginnings, its causa prima . Atheism and a sort of second innocence belong together. 21 So much for a brief and rough preliminary outline of the connection between the concepts debt/guilt and duty and religious precepts: I have so far intentionally set aside the actual moralization of these con- cepts (the way they are pushed back into conscience; more precisely, the way badconscience is woven together with the concept of God), and at the conclusion of the last section I actually spoke as though this moral-ization did not exist, consequently, as though these concepts would nec- essarily come to an end once the basic premise no longer applied, the credence we lend our creditor, God. The facts diverge from this in a ter-rible way. With the moralization of the concepts debt/guilt and duty andtheir relegation to badconscience, we have, in reality , an attempt to reverseOn the Genealogy of Morality 62 the direction of the development I have described, or at least halt its movement: now the prospect for a once-and-for-all payment is to be fore- closed, out of pessimism, now our glance is to bounce and recoil discon- solately off an iron impossibility , now those concepts debt and duty are to be reversed but against whom? It is indisputable: rstly against the debtor, in whom bad conscience now so rmly establishes itself, eatinginto him, broadening out and growing, like a polyp, so wide and deep thatin the end, with the impossibility of paying back the debt, is conceivedthe impossibility of discharging the penance, the idea that it cannot be paid off ( eternal punishment); ultimately, h owever, ag ainst the credi- tor, and here we should think of the causa prima of man, the beginning of the human race, of his ancestor who is now burdened with a curse(Adam, original sin, the will in bondage), or of nature, from whosewomb man originated and to whom the principle of evil is imputed (dia-bolization of nature), or of existence in general, which is left standing as inherently worthless (a nihilistic turning-away from existence, the desire for nothingness or desire for the antithesis, to be other, Buddhism and such like) until, all at once, we confront the paradoxical and horrifying expedient through which a martyred humanity has sought temporaryrelief, Christianitys stroke of genius: none other than God sacricing himself for mans debt, none other than God paying himself back, God as the only one able to redeem man from what, to man himself, has become irredeemable the creditor sacricing himself for his debtor, out of love (would you credit it? ), out of love for his debtor! . . . 22 You will already have guessed what has really gone on with all this and behind all this: that will to torment oneself, that suppressed cruelty of animal man who has been frightened back into himself and given an inner life, incarcerated in the state to be tamed, and has discovered bad con- science so that he can hurt himself, after the more natural outlet of this wish to hurt had been blocked, this man of bad conscience has seizedon religious presupposition in order to provide his self-torture with its most horric hardness and sharpness. Debt towards God: this thought becomes an instrument of torture. In God he seizes upon the ultimate antithesis he can nd to his real and irredeemable animal instincts, he reinterprets these self-same animal instincts as debt/guilt before God (asanimosity , insurrection, rebellion against the master, the father, theSecond essay 63 primeval ancestor and beginning of the world), he pitches himself into the contradiction of God and Devil, he emits every no which he says to himself, nature, naturalness and the reality of his being as a yes, as exist-ing, living, real, as God, as the holiness of God, as God-the-Judge, asGod-the-Hangman, as the beyond, as eternity , as torture without end, ashell, as immeasurable punishment and guilt. We have here a sort of madness of the will showing itself in mental cruelty which is absolutely unparalleled: mans willto nd himself guilty and condemned without hope of reprieve, his willto think of himself as punished, without the punishment ever being equivalent to the level of guilt, his willto infect and poison the fundamentals of things with the problem of punishmentand guilt in order to cut himself off, once and for all, from the way out of this labyrinth of xed ideas, this willto set up an ideal that of a holy God , in order to be palpably convinced of his own absolute worthless-ness in the face of this ideal. Alas for this crazy , pathetic beast man! What ideas he has, what perversity , what hysterical nonsense, what bestiality of thought immediately erupts, the moment he is prevented, if only gently, from being a beast in deed ! . . . This is all almost excessively interesting, but there is also a black, gloomy, unnerving sadness to it as well, so thatone has to force oneself to forgo peering for too long into these abysses. Here is sickness , without a doubt, the most terrible sickness ever to rage in man: and whoever is still able to hear (but people have no ear for it now- adays! ) how the shout of love has rung out during this night of torture and absurdity , the shout of the most yearning rapture, of salvationthrough love, turns away, gripped by an unconquerable horror . . . There is so much in man that is horrifying! . . . The world has been a madhouse for too long! . . . 23 That should be enough, once and for all, about the descent of the holy God. That the conception of gods does not, as such, necessarily lead to that deterioration of the imagination which we had to think about for a moment, that there are nobler ways of making use of the invention of gods than mans self-crucixion and self-abuse, ways in which Europe excelled during the last millennia, this can fortunately be deduced from anyglance at the Greek gods , these reections of noble and proud men in whom the animal in man felt deied, did nottear itself apart and did not rage against itself! These Greeks, for most of the time, used their godsOn the Genealogy of Morality 64 expressly to keep bad conscience at bay so that they could carry on enjoying their freedom of soul: therefore, the opposite of the way Christendom made use of its God. They went very far in this, these mar- vellous, lion-hearted children; and no less an authority than the HomericZeus gives them to understand that they are making it too easy for them-selves. Strange!, he says on one occasion he is talking about the case ofAegisthus, a very bad case Strange how much the mortals complain about the gods ! We alone cause evil, they claim, but they themselves, through folly, bring about their own distress, even contrary to fate!63 Yet we can immediately hear and see that even this Olympian observer and judge has no intention of bearing them a grudge for this and think- ing ill of them: How foolish they are is what he thinks when the mortals misbehave, foolishness, stupidity, a little mental disturbance, this much even the Greeks of the strongest, bravest period allowed themselves as a reason for much that was bad or calamitous: foolishness, notsin! you understand? . . . But even this mental disturbance was a problem Y es,how is this possible? Where can this have actually come from with mindslikeours, we men of high lineage, happy, well-endowed, high-born, noble and virtuous? for centuries, the noble Greek asked himself this in the face of any incomprehensible atrocity or crime with which one of hispeers had sullied himself. A godmust have confused him, he said to himself at last, shaking his head . . . This solution is typical for the Greeks . . . In this way, the gods served to justify man to a certain degree, even if he was in the wrong they served as causes of evil they did not, at that time, take the punishment on themselves, but rather, as is nobler , the guilt . . . 24 I shall conclude with three question marks, that much is plain. Is an ideal set up or destroyed here? you might ask me . . . But have you ever asked yourselves properly how costly the setting up of every ideal on earth has been? How much reality always had to be vilied and misunderstood in the process, how many lies had to be sanctied, how much conscience had to be troubled, how much god had to be sacriced every time? If aSecond essay 6563Odyssey I.324. shrine is to be set up, a shrine has to be destroyed : that is the law show me an example where this does not apply! . . . We moderns have inherited millennia of conscience-vivisection and animal-torture inicted on our-selves: we have had most practice in it, are perhaps artists in the eld, inany case it is our rafnement and the indulgence of our taste. For too long, man has viewed his natural inclinations with an evil eye, so that theynally came to be intertwined with bad conscience in him. A reverseexperiment should be possible in principle but who has sufcient strength? by this, I mean an intertwining of bad conscience with per- verse inclinations, all those other-worldly aspirations, alien to the senses, the instincts, to nature, to animals, in short all the ideals which up to nowhave been hostile to life and have defamed the world. To whom should we turn with such hopes and claims today? . . . We would have none other than the good men against us; and, as is tting, the lazy, the complacent, the vain, the zealous, the tired . . . What is more deeply offensive to others and separates us more profoundly from them than allowing them to realize something of the severity and high-mindedness with which we treat ourselves? And again how co-operative and pleasant everyone is towards us, as soon as we do as everyone else does and let ourselves golike everyone else! . . . For that purpose, we would need another sort of spirit than those we are likely to encounter in this age: spirits who are strengthened by wars and victories, for whom conquest, adventure, danger and even pain have actually become a necessity; they would also need to be acclimatized to thinner air higher up, to winter treks, ice andmountains in every sense, they would need a sort of sublime nastiness [Bosheit ] itself, a nal, very self-assured wilfulness of insight which belongs to great health, in brief and unfortunately, they would need pre- cisely this great health !...Is this at all possible today? . . . But some time, in a stronger age than this mouldy, self-doubting present day, he will haveto come to us, the redeeming man of great love and contempt, the creative spirit who is pushed out of any position outside or beyond by his surging strength again and again, whose solitude will be misunderstood by the people as though it were ight from reality : whereas it is just his way of being absorbed, buried and immersed in reality so that from it,when he emerges into the light again, he can return with the redemption of this reality: redeem it from the curse which its ideal has placed on it up till now. This man of the future will redeem us, not just from the idealheld up till now, but also from those things which had to arise from it , from the great nausea, the will to nothingness, from nihilism, that stroke ofOn the Genealogy of Morality 66 midday and of great decision that makes the will free again, which gives earth its purpose and man his hope again, this Antichrist and anti-nihilist, this conqueror of God and of nothingness he must come one day ... 25 But what am I saying? Enough! Enough! At this point just one thing is proper, silence: otherwise I shall be misappropriating something that belongs to another, younger man, one with more future, one stronger than me something to which Zarathustra alone is entitled, Zarathustra the Godless ...Second essay 67 Third essay: what do ascetic ideals mean? Carefree, mocking, violent this is how wisdom wants us:she is a woman, all she ever loves is a warrior. Thus spoke Zarathustra 1 What do ascetic ideals mean? With artists, nothing, or too many dif- ferent things; with philosophers and scholars, something like a nose and sense for the most favourable conditions of higher intellectuality [Geistigkeit ];with women, at most, one more seductive charm, a little morbidezza on fair esh, the angelic expression on a pretty, fat animal; with physiological causalities and the disgruntled (with the majority of mortals), an attempt to see themselves as too good for this world, a saintly form of debauchery, their chief weapon in the battle against long-drawn-out pain and boredom; with priests, the actual priestly faith, their best instrument of power and also the ultimate sanction of their power; with saints, an excuse to hibernate at last, their novissima gloria cupido ,64their rest in nothingness (God), their form of madness. That the ascetic ideal has meant so much to man reveals a basic fact of human will, its horror vacui ;it needs an aim , and it prefers to will nothingness rather than notwill. Do I make myself understood? . . . Have I made myself understood?. . Absolutely not, sir !So let us start at the beginning. 6864the desire for glory, which is the last thing they will rid themselves of (Tacitus, Histories Iv .6). Nietzsche cites the full phrase in 330ofThe Gay Science . Third essay 692 What do ascetic ideals mean? Or let me take an individual example, in connection with which my opinion has often been sought, what, for example, does it mean if an artist like Richard Wagner pays homage to chastity in his old age? I accept that he has always done this in a certainsense; but only at the very end in an ascetic sense. What does this changeof sense mean, this radical alteration of sense? because it was such achange, Wagner made a complete turnabout and became his exact oppos- ite. What does it mean, if an artist makes such a turnabout? . . . Here we at once remember, providing we want to pause over the question a little, the best, strongest, most cheerful and courageous time which Wagner perhaps had in his life: it was when the idea of Luthers wedding pre-occupied him so deeply. Who knows what chance events actually had to occur for us to possess Die Meistersinger instead of that wedding music? And how much of the latter can still be heard in the former? But theres no doubt that even with Luthers Wedding, we would have had a praise of chastity . But also a praise of sensuality: and that would have seemedto me to be quite right, it would have been quite Wagnerian like that. For there is not, necessarily, an antithesis between chastity and sensuality; every good marriage, every real affair of the heart transcends this antith- esis. I think Wagner would have done well to again remind his Germans of this pleasant fact with the help of a nice, plucky Luther comedy, because there always are and have been so many people amongst the Germans who slander sensuality; and perhaps Luthers achievement is nowhere greater than precisely in having had the courage of his ownsensuality ( at the time it was delicately referred to as evangelical freedom . . .). Even in a case where there really is an antithesis betweenchastity and sensuality , there is fortunately no need for it to be a tragic antithesis. This ought to be true for all healthy, cheerful mortals who are far from seeing their precarious balancing act between animal and angel as necessarily one of the arguments against life, the best and the bright- est amongst them, like Goethe, like Haz, actually found in it one more of lifes charms. Such contradictions are what makes life so enticing . . . On the other hand, it is only too clear that if pigs who have fallen on hard times are made to praise chastity and there are such pigs! they willonly see in it and praise the opposite of themselves, the opposite ofpigs who have fallen on hard times and oh! what a tragic grunting andexcitement there will be! We can just imagine that embarrassing and superuous antithesis that Richard Wagner undeniably wanted to set to music and stage at the end of his life. But why? it is fair to inquire. For what were pigs to him, what are they to us? 3 While we are here, we cannot avoid asking what concern that manly (oh-so-unmanly) country bumpkin, that poor devil and child of nature, Parsifal, was to Wagner, who ended up using such suspect means to turn him into a Catholic and what? was this Parsifal meant to be taken ser- iously? We might be tempted to assume the opposite, even to wish, that Wagners Parsifal was meant to be funny, like an epilogue, or satyr play with which the tragedian Wagner wanted to take leave of us, of himselfand above all of tragedy in a manner tting and worthy of himself, namely by indulging in an excessive bout of the most extreme and deliberate parody of the tragic itself, of the whole, hideous, earthly seriousness and misery from the past, of the nally defeated, crudest form of perversion, of the ascetic ideal. This would have been, as I said, worthy of a great tragedian: in which capacity , like every artist, he only reaches the nal summit of his achievement when he knows how to see himself and his art beneath him, and knows how to laugh at himself. Is Wagners Parsifal his secret, superior laugh at himself, his triumph at attaining the nal,supreme freedom of the artist, his artistic transcendence? As I said, itwould be nice to think so: because what would an intentionally serious Parsifal be like? Do we really need to see in him the spawn of an insanehatred of knowledge, mind and sensuality (as someone once arguedagainst me)? A curse on the senses and the mind in one breath of hate?An apostasy and return to sickly Christian and obscurantist ideals? And nally an actual self-denial, self-annulment on the part of an artist who had hitherto wanted the opposite with all the force of his will, namely for his art to be the highest intellectualization and sensualization? And not just his art: his life too. Recall how enthusiastically Wagner followed in thefootsteps of the philosopher Feuerbach in his day: Feuerbachs dictum of healthy sensuality 65 that sounded like the pronouncement of salvation to the Wagner of the 1830 s and 1840 s, as to so many Germans ( they called themselves Young Germans). Did he nally learn something dif- ferent? Because it at least seems that at the end, he had the will to teachOn the Genealogy of Morality 7065Feuerbachs Principle of the Philosophy of the Future appeared in 1843 . See esp. 31ff. of this work. something different . . . and not just by having the trombones of Parsifal66 sound out the way they do from the stage itself: in the gloomy writings of his latter years, unfree and helpless as they are, we nd a hundred passages revealing a secret desire and will, a hesitant, uncertain, unacknowledged will to preach a straightforward reversion, conversion, denial, Christianity , medievalism, and to say to his disciples: It is nothing! Seek salvation somewhere else! Even the Redeemers blood isinvoked once. . . . 67 4 I have to speak my mind in a case like this, which is embarrassing in many ways and it is a typical case : it is certainly better if we separate an artist sufciently far from his work as not immediately to take the man as seriously as his work. After all, he is merely the precondition for the work, the womb, the soil, sometimes the manure and fertilizer on which it grows, and as such, he is something we have to forget about in mostcases if we want to enjoy the work. The insight into the descent of a work concerns the physiologists and vivisectionists of the mind: but not aes-thetic men and artists, and never will! The man who wrote and shapedParsifal was as little spared the profound, thorough-going and indeed ter- rible tendency to sink and delve into medieval spiritual conicts and thehostile falling-off from the sublimity , discipline and rigour of the spirit, a sort of intellectual perversity (if I may say so), as a pregnant woman is spared the reactions of nausea and odd cravings of pregnancy: which, as I said, must be forgotten if she is to enjoy the child. We should avoid the confusion to which the artist is only too prone, out of psychological con-tiguity , as the English say, of thinking he were identical with what he can portray, invent and express. In fact, ifhe really had that same identity he would simply not be able to portray, invent and express it; Homer would not have created Achilles and Goethe would not have created Faust, if Homer had been an Achilles and Goethe a Faust. A perfect and completeThird essay 7166Parsifal is scored for three trombones in the orchestra and, quite unusually, six more off stage. Act 1begins with the striking effect of all six off-stage trombones playing in unison and unaccompanied. They play a four-bar motif with a rather liturgical character whichis one of the main structural elements of the work and which it is easy to associate withthe aspiration to a specically Christian form of love based on the renunciation of sexual-ity, an aspiration which is a central concern of the opera. Cf. R. Wagner, Smtliche Schriften und Dichtungen (Leipzig, 1911 ), XII, p. 347. 67R. Wagner, Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen (Leipzig, 1907 ), X, pp. 280ff. artist is cut off from what is real and actual for all eternity; on the other hand, we can understand how he can occasionally be so tired of the eternal unreality and falsity of his inner existence that he is driven todespair, and that he will then probably try to reach into that area strictlyforbidden to him, into reality , into real being . With what success? We can guess . . . it is the artists typical velleity : that same velleity to which Wagner succumbed in old age and for which he had to pay so dearly and catastrophically ( through it he lost the more valuable amongst his circle of friends). Finally, h owever, quite apart from this velleity , who could not wish, for Wagners sake, that he had taken leave of us and of his art in some other manner, not with a Parsifal , but in a more triumphant, self- condent, Wagnerian manner in a manner less deceptive, less ambigu-ous with regard to his general intent, less Schopenhauerian, lessnihilistic? . . . 5 So what do ascetic ideals mean? In the case of an artist, we have con- cluded: nothing at all ! . . . Or so many things that it is tantamount to nothing! . . . Let us put aside artists for the time being: their position in the world and against the world is far from sufciently independent for their changing valuations as such to merit our attention! Down the ages, they have been the valets of a morality or philosophy or religion: quiteapart from the fact that they were, unfortunately, often the all-too-glib courtiers of their hangers-on and patrons and sycophants with a nose for old or indeed up-and-coming forces. At the very least, they always need a defender, a support, an already established authority: artists never stand independently, being alone is against their deepest instincts.So, for example, Richard Wagner took the philosopher Schopenhauer as his front man, his defender, when the time came: we cant even con- ceive of the possibility of him having the courage for an ascetic ideal without the support offered to him by Schopenhauers philosophy, without the authority of Schopenhauer, which by the 1870 s in Europe was becoming dominant (and we have not even raised the question whether an artist in the new Germany could even have existed at all without the milk of a pious [ fromm ] way of thinking 68piously devoted to the Reich [ reichsfromm ]). And with that we come to the more seriousOn the Genealogy of Morality 7268Schiller, F ., Wilhelm Tell Iv .3.2574 . See also n. 3,p .153. question: what does it mean if a genuine philosopher pays homage to the ascetic ideal, a genuine, independent mind like Schopenhauer, a man and a knight with a brazen countenance who has the courage to behimself, knows how to stand alone and does not wait for the men infront and a nod from on high? Let us immediately consider here theremarkable and, for many types of person, even fascinating stance of Schopenhauer towards art: because this is obviously what rst caused Richard Wagner to go over to Schopenhauer (talked into it by a poet, as we all know, Herwegh), 69and he did this to such a degree that a com- plete theoretical contradiction opened up between his earlier and later aesthetic beliefs, the former, for example, expressed in Opera and Drama , and the latter in the writings published from 1870 . In particu- lar, and this is what is perhaps most disconcerting of all, Wagner ruth- lessly altered his view of the value and place of music itself from then on: what did he care that up till now he had made music a means, a medium, a woman which simply had to have a goal, a man in order to ourish namely a drama! All at once, he grasped that with Schopenhauerstheory and innovation more could be done in majorem musicae gloriam , 70 in fact, with the sovereignty of music as Schopenhauer understood it: music set apart from all the other arts, the inherently independent art, notproviding reections of the phenomenal world like the other arts, but instead, speaking the language of the will itself straight out of the abyss, as the latters most unique, original, direct revelation. With this extraordinary increase in the value placed on music, which seemed tostem from Schopenhauers philosophy, the musician himself suddenly had an unprecedented rise in price: from now on he became an oracle, a priest, in fact, more than a priest, a sort of mouthpiece of the in itself of things, a telephone to the beyond [ ein Telephon des Jenseits ], from now on, he did not just talk music, this ventriloquist of God, he talkedmetaphysics: hardly surprising that one day he ended up talking ascetic ideals ,i si t ?... 6 Schopenhauer made use of the Kantian version of the aesthetic problem, although he denitely did not view it with Kantian eyes. KantThird essay 7369Cf. Wagners autobiography Mein Leben (Munich, 1969 ), pp. 521f. 70For the greater glory of music; parallel to the Christian slogan that all things should be done ad majorem Dei gloriam (for the greater glory of God). intended to pay art a tribute when he singled out from the qualities of beauty those which constitute the glory of knowledge: impersonality and universality . Whether or not this was essentially a mistake is not what Iam dealing with here; all I want to underline is that Kant, like all philoso-phers, just considered art and beauty from the position of spectator, instead of viewing the aesthetic problem through the experiences of theartist (the creator), and thus inadvertently introduced the spectator himself into the concept beautiful. I just wish this spectator had been sufciently known to the philosophers of beauty! I mean as a great per- sonal fact and experience, as a fund of strong personal experiences, desires, surprises and pleasures in the eld of beauty! But as I fear, theopposite has always been the case: and so we receive denitions from them, right from the start, in which the absence of more sensitive per- sonal experience sits in the shape of a fat worm of basic error, as in thatfamous denition Kant gives of the beautiful. Kant said: Something is beautiful if it gives pleasure without interest . 71Without interest! Compare this denition with another made by a genuine spectator and artist Stendhal, who once called the beautiful une promesse de bonheur .72 Here, at any rate, the thing that Kant alone accentuates in aesthetic matters: le dsintressement , is rejected and eliminated. Who is right, Kant or Stendhal? However, as our aestheticians never tire of weighing in on Kants side, saying that under the charm of beauty , even naked female statues can be looked at without interest, I think we are entitled to laugh a little at their expense: the experiences of artists are more interesting with regard to this tricky point and Pygmalion, at all events, was not necessarily an unaesthetic man. Let us think all the better of the inno- cence of our aestheticians which we see reected in such arguments, for example, let us pay tribute to Kant for expounding the peculiarities of the sense of touch with the navety of a country parson!73 And now we come back to Schopenhauer, who stood much closer to the arts than Kant and still could not break free of the spell of Kants denition: why not? The situation is very odd: he interpreted the phrase without interest in the most personal way possible, from an experience which, in his case,On the Genealogy of Morality 7471I. Kant, Critique of Judgment (1790 ), 2and General Remark on the Exposition of Aesthetic Reective Judgments. 72Stendhal, De l Amour , ch. XVII (cf. also chs x, xi). Baudelaire also cites and discusses this view of the beautiful in Le peintre de la vie moderne (1863 ), ch. I. 73Kant does often sound like a country parson, but one would not have thought this trait particularly salient in his discussion of the sense of touch ( Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht ,1st edn ( 1798 ), p.48). Perhaps Nietzsche has some other passage in mind. must have been one of the most frequently recurring. There are few things about which Schopenhauer speaks with such certainty as the effect of aesthetic contemplation: according to him, it counteracts sexual interestedness, rather like lupulin and camphor, and he never tired ofsinging the praises of thisescape from the will as the great advantage and use of the aesthetic condition. We might even be tempted to askwhether the basic conception of will and representation, the thought that redemption from the will could only take place through represen- tation, might not originate in a generalization of that sexual experience. (In all questions regarding Schopenhauers philosophy, by the way, we must not overlook the fact that it is the conception of a twenty-six-year-old young man; so it reects not just specic characteristics of Schopenhauer himself but also the specics of that season of life.) For example, let us listen to one of the most explicit of the countless passageshe wrote in honour of aesthetics ( World as Will and Representation I,231), let us listen to the tone, the suffering, the happiness, the gratitude with which such passages are written. This is the painless condition which Epicurus praises as the greatest good and as the condition of the gods; we are, for that moment, relieved of the base craving of the will, we cel-ebrate the sabbath from the penal servitude of volition, the wheel ofIxion stands still . . . What vehemence of speech! What images oftorture and long-drawn-out fatigue! What an almost pathological juxta- position of time between for that moment and the wheel of Ixion, between penal servitude of volition and base craving! Even grantedthat Schopenhauer was right about himself a hundred times over, what does this do for an insight into the nature of beauty? Schopenhauer described one effect of beauty , that of calming the will, but is this even one that occurs regularly? As I said, Stendhal, no less a sensualist than Schopenhauer but with a more happily adjusted personality , emphasizesanother effect of beauty: beauty promises happiness, to him, the fact of the matter is precisely the excitement of the will (of interest) through beauty . And could we not, nally , accuse Schopenhauer himself of think- ing, quite erroneously, that in this he was following Kant, and object that he did not understand the Kantian denition of beauty in a Kantian wayat all that beauty pleased him, too, out of interest, in fact, out of the strongest, most personal interest possible: that of the tortured person who frees himself from his torture? . . . And, to come back to our rstquestion, what does it mean if a philosopher pays homage to ascetic ideals? we get our rst hint: he wants to free himself from torture Third essay 75 7 Let us be careful not to pull gloomy faces as soon as we hear the word torture: in precisely this case, we have plenty to put down on the other side of the account, plenty to deduct we even have some reason to laugh. For we must not underestimate the fact that Schopenhauer, who actually treated sexuality as a personal enemy (including its tool, woman, that instrumentum diaboli 74),needed enemies to stay cheerful; that he loved wrathful, bilious, black-green words; that he got angry for the sake of it, passionately; that he would have become ill, a pessimist ( because he was not one, however much he wanted to be) without his enemies, without Hegel, women, sensuality and the whole existential will to existence, willto remain. Schopenhauer would otherwise nothave stayed there, you can bet on that, he would have run away: but his enemies held him tight and kept seducing him back to existence; his anger was his solace, as with theancient Cynics, his relaxation, his recompense, his remedium for nausea, his happiness . So much with regard to the most personal aspect in Schopenhauers case; on the other hand, he is typical in one way, and here,at last, we come back to our problem. Undeniably, as long as there arephilosophers on earth and whenever there have been philosophers (fromIndiatoEngland,totaketheoppositepolesof atalentforphilosophy),there exists a genuine philosophers irritation and rancour against sensuality Schopenhauer is just the most eloquent and, if you have an ear for it, he isalso the most fascinating and delightful eruption amongst them ; similarly there exists a genuine partiality and warmth among philosophers with regard to the whole ascetic ideal, there should be no illusions on this score. Both these features belong, as I said, to the type; if both are lacking in a philosopher, he is always just a so-called philosopher you can be sure ofthat. What does that mean? For we must rst interpret this state of affairs: in himself , he remains stupid for all eternity , like any thing in itself . Every animal, including the bte philosophe , instinctively strives for an optimum of favourable conditions in which to fully release his power and achieve his maximum of power-sensation; every animal abhors equally instinctively,with an acute sense of smell that is higher than all reason, any kind of dis- turbance and hindrance that blocks or could block his path to the optimum ( it is nothis path to happiness I am talking about, but the path to power, action, the mightiest deeds, and in most cases, actually, his path to misery).On the Genealogy of Morality 7674Cf. Schopenhauers famous misogynous essay ber die Weiber in the second volume of hisParerga et Paralipomena . Thus the philosopher abhors marriage , together with all that might per- suade him to it, marriage as hindrance and catastrophe on his path to the optimum. Which great philosopher, so far, has been married? Heraclitus,Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Schopenhauer were not;indeed it is impossible to even think about them as married. A married philosopher belongs to comedy , that is my proposition: and that exception, Socrates, the mischievous Socrates, appears to have married ironice , simply in order to demonstrate thisproposition. Every philosopher would say what Buddha said when he was told of the birth of a son: 75Rhula is born to me, a fetter is forged for me (Rhula means here a little demon); every freespiritoughttohaveathoughtfulmoment,assuminghehaspreviously had a thoughtless one, like the moment experienced by that same Buddha he thought to himself, living in a house, that unclean place, is cramped;freedom is in leaving the house: so saying, he left the house. The ascetic ideal points the way to so many bridges to independence that no philosopher canrefrainfrominwardlyrejoicingandclappinghandsonhearingthestory of all those who, one ne day, decided to say no to any curtailment of their liberty , and go off into the desert : even granted they were just strong asses and the complete opposite of a strong spirit. Consequently, what does theascetic ideal mean for a philosopher? My answer is you will have guessed ages ago: on seeing an ascetic ideal, the philosopher smiles because he sees an optimum condition of the highest and boldest intellectuality [Geistigkeit ], he does notdeny existence by doing so, but rather afrms hisexistence and only his existence, and possibly does this to the point where he is not far from making the outrageous wish: pereat mundus, at philosophia, at philosophus, am !... 76 8 As you see, they are hardly unbribed witnesses and judges of the value of ascetic ideals, these philosophers! They are thinking of themselves , they dont care about the saint! At the same time, they are thinking of what, to them , is absolutely indispensable: freedom from compulsion, disturbance, noise, business, duties, worries; clear heads; the dance,Third essay 7775Nietzsches source is H. Oldenburgs Buddha: Sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde (Berlin 1881 ), pp. 122ff. 76Let the world perish, but let philosophy exist, let the philosopher exist, let me exist, mod- elled on the common Latin saying Fiat justicia, pereat mundus (Let the world perish,but let justice be done). bounce and ight of ideas; good, thin, clear, free, dry air, like the air in the mountains, in which all animal existence becomes more spiritual and takes wings; peace in every basement; every dog nicely on the lead; nohostile barking and sh aggy rancune ; no gnawing worms of wounded ambition; bowels regular and under control, busy as a milling mecha-nism but remote; the heart alien, transcendent, expectant, posthumous, all in all, they think of the ascetic ideal as the serene asceticism of a deied creature that has own the nest and is more liable to roam above life than rest. We know what the three great catchwords of the ascetic ideal are: poverty, humility, chastity: let us now look at the life of all great, productive, inventive spirits close up, for once, all three will be foundin them, to a certain degree, every time. Of course, it goes without sayingthat they will denitely notbe virtues this type of person cannot be bothered with virtues! but as the most proper and natural prerequisitesfor their bestexistence and nest productivity. To do this, it is quite pos- sible that their predominant intellect rst had to bridle their unruly and tetchy pride or their wanton sensuality, or that they had to struggle hand and soul to maintain their will to the desert in the face, perhaps, of an inclination towards luxury and nery or similarly, in the face of theirextravagant generosity. But it did this precisely in its capacity of predom- inant instinct, which imposed its demands on all other instincts it still does this; if it did not, it would not be predominant. So there is nothing virtuous about it. Besides, the desert I mentioned, to which strong, independent minds withdraw and become hermits oh how different itlooks from the desert which educated people imagined! on occasion it is actually made up of these educated people themselves. What is certain is that none of the people playing at being intellectuals could survive in it at all, it is not romantic enough, not Syrian enough, not enough of a stage desert for them! To be sure, there is no lack of camels: but there allsimilarity ends. A deliberate obscurity, perhaps; avoidance of self-con- frontation; an aversion to noise, admiration, news, inuence; a small position, daily routine, something that hides more than it uncovers; occasional association with harmless, happy animals and birds, which are refreshing to behold; mountains for company, not dead mountains,though, ones with eyes(by which I mean lakes); in some cases even a room in some crowded, run-of-the-mill hotel where one can be sure of not being recognized and can talk to anyone with impunity, that is adesert: it is quite desolate enough, believe me! When Heraclitus with-drew into the courts and colonnades of the immense Temple ofOn the Genealogy of Morality 78 Artemis,77I admit that this desert was more dignied: why do we lack temples of that sort? ( maybe they are notlacking: I am just thinking of my nicest study, Piazza di San Marco,78spring, of course and in the morning, the time between ten and twelve). But what Heraclitus was trying to avoid is the same that wetry to get away from: the noise and democratic tittle-tattle of the Ephesians, their politics, news of theEmpire (Persia, you understand), their market affairs of today, because we philosophers need a rest from one thing above all: anythingto do with today. We appreciate peace, coldness, nobility, distance, the past, more or less everything at the sight of which the soul is not forced to defend itself and button up [ zuschnren ], something you can talk to without speaking loudly . Just listen to the sound of a spirit talking: every spirit has its own sound and likes to hear it. That one there, for example,is probably an agitator, meaning: empty head, empty vessel: whatever might go in, every single thing that comes out is dull-witted and dim- witted, laden with the echo of the great emptiness. That one there hardly says anything that is not hoarse: has he thought himself hoarse, perhaps? It could well be ask the physiologists , but whoever thinks in words thinks as a speaker and not a thinker (which indicates that basically he does not think in facts, factually, but in relation to facts, so that he is actu- ally thinking about himself and his listeners). A third speaks importu- nately, he comes too physically close, we can feel his breath, we involuntarily close our mouths, although he is talking to us through abook: the sound of his style betrays the reason, that he has no time, that he has no condence in himself, that its now or never for him to get his word in. A spirit, h owever, which is sure of itself, speaks softly; it prefers to be hidden, keeps you waiting. You can recognize a philosopher by his avoidance of three shiny loud things, fame, princes, women: which doesnot mean that they avoid him. He shuns light that is too bright, so he shuns his time and its day. He inhabits it like a shadow: the more the sun sinks, the bigger he becomes. With regard to his humility, he can stand a certain dependency and darkening in the same way that he can stand the dark: indeed, he dreads being disturbed by lightning, heshrinks at the lack of protection afforded by one all-too isolated and exposed tree which bears the brunt of the vagaries of the storms temper and tempers storms. His motherly instinct, that secret love towardsThird essay 7977Reported by Diogenes Laertius at the beginning of his life of Heraclitus ( Lives and Opinions of the Philosophers , Book ix). 78A large public square in Venice. what is growing inside him, shows him places where he can be relieved of the necessity of thinking about himself ; in the same sense that the mothers instinct in woman has, generally, kept woman in her dependent state up till now. In the last resort, they ask for little enough, thesephilosophers, their slogan is, who possesses, is possessed : not,a sIh a v e to say again and again, out of virtue, out of a creditable will to modera-tion and simplicity, but because their supreme master sodemands, clev- erly and inexorably: preoccupied with just one thing, collecting and saving up everything time, strength, love, interest with that end in view. This type of person dislikes being bothered with animosities or even with friendships: he is quick to forget or despise. He thinks mar-tyrdom is in bad taste; suffering for the truth is something he leaves to the ambitious and stage heroes of the spirit [ des Geistes ] and to anyone else with the time ( they themselves, the philosophers, have to dosome- thing for the truth). They make sparing use of big words; I have heard they do not even like the word truth: it sounds boastful . . . Finally, with regard to the chastity of philosophers, this type of spirit obviously has a different progeny than children, and perhaps maintains the survival of its name, its bit of immortality, in some other way (in ancient India it wassaid with even more presumption, why should the man whose soul is the world need to procreate?). This has nothing of chastity from ascetic scruple or hatred of the senses, any more than it is chastity when an athlete or jockey abstains from women: instead, it is their dominating instinct, at least during periods when they are pregnant with somethinggreat. Every artist knows how harmful sexual intercourse is at times of great spiritual tension and preparation; for those with greatest power and the surest instincts, it is not even a case of experience, bad experience, but precisely that maternal instinct ruthlessly takes charge of all other stockpiles and reserves of energy, of animal vigour, to the advantage ofthe work in progress: the greater energy uses up the lesser. Let us now apply this interpretation to what we were saying about Schopenhauer: the sight of beauty clearly worked by stimulating the main strength in his nature (the strength to contemplate and penetrate deeply); so that this then exploded and suddenly took control of his consciousness. But thiscertainly does not exclude the possibility that that remarkable sweetness and fullness characteristic of the aesthetic condition might well descend from the ingredient sensuality (just as that idealism characteristic ofnubile girls descends from the same source) that in this way, sensualityis not suspended as soon as we enter the aesthetic condition, asOn the Genealogy of Morality 80 Schopenhauer believed, but is only transgured and no longer enters the consciousness as a sexual stimulus. (I shall return to this point on another occasion, in connection with even more delicate problems concerningthe hitherto untouched and unexplored physiology of aesthetics .) 9 We have seen that a certain asceticism, a hard and hearty renunciation with a good will, belongs among the most favourable conditions for the highest spirituality , as well as being part of the most natural result of it, so it will come as no surprise that the ascetic ideal has never been treated by the philosophers without a certain partiality . A serious historical re-exam- ination [ Nachrechnung ] actually reveals that the tie between the ascetic ideal and philosophy is very much closer and stronger. We could even say that itwas only on the leading-rein of this ideal that philosophy ever learnt to take its rst toddler steps on earth still oh-so-clumsily , still with an oh-so-vexed expression, still oh-so-ready to fall and lie on its stomach, this clumsy little oaf and bandy-legged weakling! At rst, philosophy began like all goodthings, for a long time, everyone lacked self-condence, looking round to see if anyone would come to their aid, even afraid of anyone who looked on. If we draw up a list of the particular drives and virtues of the philosopher his drive to doubt, his drive to deny , his drive to prevaricate (his ephectic drive), 79his drive to analyse, his drive to research, investigate, dare, his drive to compare and counter-balance, his will to neutrality and objectivity , his will to every sine ira et studio 80: surely we realize that all these ran counter to the primary demands of morality and conscience for the longest period of time? (not to mention reason in general, which Luther was pleased to call Dame Shrewd, the shrewd whore). Would not a philosopher, assuming he hadachieved an awareness of himself, practically feel he was the embodiment of nitimur in vetitum 81 and wouldnt he consequently guard himself from feeling, from being aware of himself? . . . As I said, the case is no different with all the other good things we are so proud of nowadays; even using theThird essay 8179The ephectic drive is the drive to put off, delay, hold back, hesitate, suspend judgment. In Ch. III of the rst book of his Outlines of Pyrrhonism , Sextus Empiricus says that another name for the sceptical method is the ephectic method because of the state of sus-pension of judgment that results from it. 80At the beginning of his Annals (I,1), Tacitus expresses his intention to write without anger or partisanship. 81We have an inclination toward that which is forbidden (Ovid Amores III.4.17). yardstick of the ancient Greeks, our whole modern existence is nothing but hubris and godlessness, in so far as it is strength and awareness of strength rather than weakness: precisely the opposites of the things we admire todayhad conscience on their side and God as their watchman for the longest time.Hubris today characterizes our whole attitude towards nature, our rape of nature with the help of machines and the completely unscrupulous inven-tiveness of technicians and engineers; hubris characterizes our attitude to God, or rather to some alleged spider of purpose and ethics lurking behind the great spiders web of causality we could echo what Charles the Bold said in his battle with Ludwig XI: je combats luniverselle araigne 82;hubris characterizes our attitude towards ourselves , for we experiment on our- selves in a way we would never allow on animals, we merrily vivisect our souls out of curiosity: that is how much we care about the salvation of the soul! Afterwards we heal ourselves: being ill is instructive, we do not doubt,more instructive than being well, people who make us ill seem even more necessary for us today than any medicine men and saviours. We violate our- selves these days, no doubt, we are nutcrackers of the soul, questioning and questionable, treating life as though it were nothing but cracking nuts; whereby we have to become daily more deserving of being questioned, more deserving of asking questions, more deserving of living? . . . All good things used to be bad things at one time; every original sin has turned into an orig- inal virtue. Marriage, for example, was for a long time viewed as a crime against the rights of the community; people used to have to pay a ne for being so presumptuous as to claim one particular woman for themselves (there we include, for example, jus primae noctis , 83still, in Cambodia, the pre- rogative of priests, those custodians of good old customs). The gentle, benevolent, yielding, sympathetic feelings so highly valued by now that they are almost values as such were undermined by self-contempt for most of the time: people were as ashamed of mildness as people are now ashamed of hardness (compare Beyond Good and Evil , IX, section 26084). Submission to law: oh, how the consciences of nobler clans rebelled every- where against having to give up their vendettas and accept the force of law over themselves! For a long time, law was a vetitum ,85a crime, a novelty; introduced with force, asa force to which man submitted, ashamed of himself. Each step on earth, even the smallest, was in the past a struggle thatOn the Genealogy of Morality 8282I struggle against a spider who is everywhere at once. 83Right of spending the rst night of marriage with the bride. 84See below, Supplementary material, pp. 1547. 85Something forbidden. was won with spiritual and physical torment: this whole attitude that, Not just striding forward, no! even the act of striding, moving, changing has required countless martyrs, sounds strange to us today , I brought it to lightinDay-break , I, section 18, where I say Nothing has been purchased more dearly than that little bit of human reason and feeling of freedom that now constitutes our pride. 86However, it is this pride that prevents us, almost completely , from having any empathy with those vast stretches of the moral- ity of custom which pre-date world history as the genuine and decisive main historical period that determined mans character: where everywhere, suffering was viewed as virtue, cruelty as virtue, deceit as virtue, revenge asvirtue, denial of reason as virtue, and conversely well-being was viewed as danger, curiosity as danger, peace as danger, compassion as danger, being pitied was viewed as disgrace, work as disgrace, madness was viewed as god- lessness, change was viewed everywhere as being unethical and ruinous as such! 10 In the same book (section 4287), I examined in what kind of estima- tion the earliest race of contemplative men had to live, widely despised when they were not feared! and how heavily that estimation weighed down on them. Without a doubt: contemplation rst appeared in the world in disguise, with an ambiguous appearance, an evil heart and often with an anxiety-lled head. All that was inactive, brooding and unwar-like in the instincts of contemplative men surrounded them with a deep mistrust for a long time: against which they had no other remedy than to conceive a pronounced fearof themselves. And the old Brahmins, for example, certainly knew how to do that! The earliest philosophers knew how to give their life and appearance a meaning, support and settingwhich would encourage people to learn to fearthem: on closer inspec- tion, from an even more fundamental need, namely in order to fear and respect themselves. Because they found in themselves all their value judgments turned against themselves, they had to ght off every kind of suspicion and resistance to the philosopher in themselves. As menliving in a terrible age, they did this with terrible methods: cruelty towards themselves, imaginative forms of self-mortication theseThird essay 8386See below, Supplementary material, pp. 1379. 87See below, Supplementary material, pp. 13940. were the main methods for these power-hungry hermits and thought- innovators, for whom it was necessary rst to violate the gods and tra- dition in themselves, so they could believe in their own innovations. I remind you of the famous story about King Vivamitra, who gainedsuch a sense of power and self-condence from a thousand-year-longself-martyrdom that he undertook to build a new heaven : the uncanny symbol of the most ancient and most recent story of philosophers on earth anybody who has ever built a new heaven, only mustered the power he needed through his own hell . . . Let us set out the whole state of affairs briey: the philosophic spirit has always had to disguise and cocoon itself among previously established types of contemplative man, as a priest, magician, soothsayer, religious man in general, in order for its existence to be possible at all: the ascetic ideal served the philosopher for a long time as outward appearance, as a precondition of existence, he had to play that part [ darstellen ] in order to be a philosopher, he had tobelieve in it in order to be able to play it [ um es darstellen zu knnen ]. The peculiarly withdrawn attitude of the philosophers, denying the world, hating life, doubting the senses, desensualized, which has been maintained until quite recently to the point where it almost counted forthephilosophical attitude as such , this is primarily a result of the des- perate conditions under which philosophy evolved and exists at all: that is, philosophy would have been absolutely impossible for most of the time on earth without an ascetic mask and suit of clothes, without an ascetic misconception of itself. To put it vividly and clearly: the ascetic priest has until the most recent times displayed the vile and dismal form of a cater- pillar, which was the only one philosophers were allowed to adopt and creep round in . . . Have things really changed? Has the brightly coloured, dangerous winged-insect, the spirit that the caterpillar hid within itself, really thrown off the monks habit and emerged into thelight, thanks to a sunnier, warmer and more enlightened world? Is there enough pride, daring, courage, self-condence, will of spirit [ Wille des Geistes ], will to take responsibility, freedom of will , for the philosopher on earth to be really possible? ... 11 Only now that we have the ascetic priest in sight can we seriously get to grips with our problem: what does the ascetic ideal mean? only now doesit become serious: after all, we are face to face with the actual represen-On the Genealogy of Morality 84 tative of seriousness . What is the meaning of all seriousness? this even more fundamental question is perhaps on our lips already: a question for physiologists, as is proper, but one we shall skirt round for the moment.The ascetic priest not only rests his faith in that ideal, but his will, hispower, his interest as well. His right to exist stands and falls with that ideal: hardly surprising, then, that we encounter a formidable opponentin him, providing, of course, that we are opposed to that ideal? Such anopponent who ghts for his life against people who deny that ideal? . . .On the other hand, it is prima facie not very likely that such a biased atti- tude to our problem would be of much use in attempting to solve it; the ascetic priest will hardly be the happiest defender of his own ideal, for thesame reason that a woman always fails when she wants to justify woman as such, there can be no question of his being the most objective asses- sor and judge of the controversy raised here. So, it is more a case of ourhaving to help him that much is obvious to defend himself well against us than of our having to fear being refuted too well by him . . . The idea we are ghting over here is the valuation of our life by the ascetic priests: they relate this (together with all that belongs to it, nature, the world, the whole sphere of what becomes and what passes away), to a quite dif-ferent kind of existence that it opposes and excludes, unless it should turn against itself and deny itself : in this case, the case of the ascetic life, life counts as a bridge to that other existence. The ascetic treats life as a wrong path that he has to walk along backwards till he reaches the point where he starts; or, like a mistake which can only be set right by action ought to be set right: he demands that we should accompany him, and when he can, he imposes his valuation of existence. What does this mean? Such a monstrous method of valuation is not inscribed in the records of human history as an exception and curiosity: it is one of the most wide-spread and long-lived facts there are. Read from a distant planet, the majusculescript [ Majuskel-Schrift ] of our earthly existence would perhaps seduce the reader to the conclusion that the earth was the ascetic planet par excel- lence , an outpost of discontented, arrogant and nasty creatures who har- boured a deep disgust for themselves, for the world, for all life and hurt themselves as much as possible out of pleasure in hurting: probablytheir only pleasure. Let us consider how regularly and universally the ascetic priest makes his appearance in almost any age; he does not belong to any race in particular; he thrives everywhere; he comes from everysocial class. Not that he breeds and propagates his method of valuationthrough heredity: the opposite is the case, a deep instinct forbids himThird essay 85 to procreate, broadly speaking. It must be a necessity of the rst rank which makes this species continually grow and prosper when it is hostile to life , life itself must have an interest in preserving such a self-contra- dictory type. For an ascetic life is a self-contradiction: here an unparal-leled ressentiment rules, that of an unfullled instinct and power-will that wants to be master, not over something in life, but over life itself and itsdeepest, strongest, most profound conditions; here, an attempt is madeto use power to block the sources of the power; here, the green eye of spiteturns on physiological growth itself, in particular the manifestation of this in beauty and joy; while satisfaction is looked for and found in failure, decay, pain, misfortune, ugliness, voluntary deprivation, destruction ofselfhood, self-agellation and self-sacrice. This is all paradoxical in the extreme: we are faced with a conict [ Zwiespltigkeit ] that wills itself to be conicting [ zwiespltig ], which relishes itself in this afiction and becomes more self-assured and triumphant to the same degree as its own condi- tion, the physiological capacity to live, decreases . Triumph precisely in the nal agony: the ascetic ideal has always fought under this exagger- ated motto; in this seductive riddle, this symbol of delight and anguish, it recognized its brightest light, its salvation, its ultimate victory. Crux ,nux, lux 88 with the ascetic ideal, these are all one. 12 Assuming that such a personied will to contradiction and counter- nature can be made to philosophize: on what will it vent its inner arbi- trariness? On that which is experienced most certainly to be true and real: it will look for error precisely where the actual instinct of life most uncon- ditionally judges there to be truth. For example, it will demote physical- ity to the status of illusion, like the ascetics of the Vednta philosophy did,similarly pain, plurality , the whole conceptual antithesis subject and object errors, nothing but errors! To renounce faith in ones own ego, to deny ones own reality to oneself what a triumph! and not just over the senses, over appearance, a much higher kind of triumph, an act of vio- lation and cruelty inicted on reason : a voluptuousness which reaches its peak when ascetic self-contempt decrees the self-ridicule of reason: there isa realm of truth and being, but reason is rmly excluded from it! . . .On the Genealogy of Morality 8688Cross, nut, light. Meaning unclear, unless nux is a misprint for nox (night) or unless the Greek word (= night) is intended. (By the way: even in the Kantian concept of the intelligible character of things,89something of this lewd ascetic conict [ Zwiespltigkeit ] still lingers, which likes to set reason against reason: intelligible character means, in Kant, a sort of quality of things about which all that the intel- lect can comprehend is that it is, for the intellect completely incompre- hensible .) Finally, as knowers, let us not be ungrateful towards such resolute reversals of familiar perspectives and valuations with which themind has raged against itself for far too long, apparently to wicked and useless effect: to see differently, and to want to see differently to that degree, is no small discipline and preparation of the intellect for its future objectivity the latter understood not as contemplation [ Anschauung ] without interest (which is, as such, a non-concept and an absurdity), butashaving in our power the ability to engage and disengage our pros and cons: we can use the difference in perspectives and affective interpret- ations for knowledge. From now on, my philosophical colleagues, let us be more wary of the dangerous old conceptual fairy-tale which has set up a pure, will-less, painless, timeless, subject of knowledge, let us be waryof the tentacles of such contradictory concepts as pure reason, absolute spirituality, knowledge as such: here we are asked to think an eye which cannot be thought at all, an eye turned in no direction at all, an eye where the active and interpretative powers are to be suppressed, absent, but through which seeing still becomes a seeing-something, so it is anabsurdity and non-concept of eye that is demanded. There is only a per- spectival seeing, only a perspectival knowing; the more affects we are able to put into words about a thing, the more eyes, various eyes we are able to use for the same thing, the more complete will be our concept of thething, our objectivity. But to eliminate the will completely and turn offall the emotions without exception, assuming we could: well? would that not mean to castrate the intellect? . . . 13 But to return. A self-contradiction such as that which seems to occur in the ascetic, life against life, is so much is obvious seen from the physiological, not just the psychological standpoint, simply nonsense. It can only be apparent ; it has to be a sort of provisional expression, an explanation, formula, adjustment, a psychological misunderstanding ofThird essay 8789Critique of Pure Reason B564ff. something, the real nature of which was far from being understood, was far from being able to be designated as it is in itself , a mere word wedged into an old gapin human knowledge. Allow me to present the real state of affairs in contrast to this: the ascetic ideal springs from the protective and healing instincts of a degenerating life , which uses every means to maintain itself and struggles for its existence; it indicates a partial physiologicalinhibition and exhaustion against which the deepest instincts of life,which have remained intact, continually struggle with new methods andinventions. The ascetic ideal is one such method: the situation is there- fore the precise opposite of what the worshippers of this ideal imagine, in it and through it, life struggles with death and against death, the ascetic ideal is a trick for the preservation of life. The fact that, as history tells us, this ideal could rule man and become powerful to the extent that it did, especially everywhere where the civilization and taming of man tookplace, reveals a major fact, the sickliness of the type of man who has lived up till now, at least of the tamed man, the physiological struggle of man with death (to be more exact: with disgust at life, with exhaustion and with the wish for the end). The ascetic priest is the incarnate wish for being otherwise, being elsewhere, indeed, he is the highest pitch of thiswish, its essential ardour and passion: but the power of his wishing is the fetter which binds him here, precisely this is what makes him a tool, who now has to work to create more favourable conditions for our being here and being human, it is precisely with this power that he makes the whole herd of failures, the disgruntled, the under-privileged, the unfortunate,and all who suffer from themselves, retain their hold on life by instinct- ively placing himself at their head as their shepherd. You take my meaning already: this ascetic priest, this apparent enemy of life, this negating one , he actually belongs to the really great conserving andyes- creating forces of life . . . What causes this sickliness? For man is more ill, uncertain, changeable and unstable than any other animal, without a doubt, he is thesick animal: what is the reason for this? Certainly he has dared more, innovated more, braved more, and has challenged fate more than all the rest of the animals taken together: he, the great experimenter with himself, the unsatised and insatiable, struggling for supremecontrol against animals, nature and gods, man, the still-unconquered eternal-futurist who nds no more rest from the pressure of his own strength, so that his future mercilessly digs into the esh of every presentlike a spur: how could such a courageous and rich animal not be themost endangered as well, of all sick animals the one most seriously ill, andOn the Genealogy of Morality 88 for longest? . . . Man is often enough fed up, there are whole epidemics of this state of being fed up ( like the one around 1348 , at the time of the Dance of Death): but even this nausea, this weariness, this fatigue, thisdisgust with himself everything manifests itself so powerfully in himthat it immediately becomes a new fetter. His no that he says to lifebrings a wealth of more tender yeses [ eine Flle zarterer Jas (sic) ]t o light as though by magic; and even when he wounds himself, this master of destruction, self-destruction, afterwards it is the wound itself that forces him to live ... 14 The more normal this sickliness is in man and we cannot dispute this normality , the higher we should esteem the unusual cases of spiritual and physical powerfulness, mans strokes of luck , and the better we should protect the successful from the worst kind of air, that of the sick- room. Do we do that? . . . The sick are the greatest danger for thehealthy; harm comes to the strong notfrom the strongest but from the weakest. Do people realize this? . . . Broadly speaking, it is not the fearof man that we should wish to see diminished: for this fear forces thestrong to be strong, on occasions terrible, it maintains a type of man who is successful. What is to be feared and can work more calamitously than any other calamity is not great fear of, but great nausea at man; sim- ilarly, great compassion for man. Assuming that these might one day mate, then immediately and unavoidably something most uncanny would be produced, the last will of man, his will to nothingness, nihilism. And in fact: a great deal has been done to prepare for this. Whoever still has a nose to smell with as well as eyes and ears, can detect almost everywherehe goes these days something like the air of the madhouse and hospital, I speak, as is appropriate, of mans cultural domains, of every kind of Europe that still exists on this earth. The sickly are the greatest danger to man: notthe wicked, notthe beasts of prey. Those who, from the start, are the unfortunate, the downtrodden, the broken these are theones, the weakest , who most undermine life amongst men, who introduce the deadliest poison and scepticism into our trust in life, in man, in our- selves. Where can we escape the surreptitious glance imparting a deep sadness, the backward glance of the born mist revealing how such a man communes with himself, that glance which is a sigh. If only I weresome other person! is what this glance sighs: but theres no hope of that.Third essay 89 I am who I am: how could I get away from myself? And oh Im fed up with myself ! . . . In such a soil of self-contempt, such a veritable swamp, every kind of weed and poisonous plant grows, all of them so small,hidden, dissembling and sugary. Here, the worms of revenge and rancourteem all round; here, the air stinks of things unrevealed and unconfessed;here, the web of the most wicked conspiracy is continually being spun, the conspiracy of those who suffer against those who are successful and victorious, here, the sight of the victorious man is hated . And what men- dacity to avoid admitting this hatred as hatred! What expenditure of big words and gestures, what an art of righteous slander! These failures: what noble eloquence ows from their lips! How much sugared, slimy,humble humility swims in their eyes! What do they really want? At any rate, to represent justice, love, wisdom, superiority , that is the ambition of these who are the lowest, these sick people! And how skilful such anambition makes them! In particular, we have to admire the counterfeiters skill with which the stamp of virtue, the ding-a-ling golden ring of virtue is now imitated. They have taken out a lease on virtue to keep it just for themselves, these weak and incurably sick people, there is no doubt about it: Only we are good and just is what they say, only we are the homines bon voluntatis . 90They promenade in our midst like living reproaches, like warnings to us, as though health, success, strength, pride and the feeling of power were in themselves depravities for which penance, bitter penance will one day be exacted: oh, how ready they themselves are, in the last resort, to make others penitent, how they thirst to be hangmen ! Amongst them we nd plenty of vengeance-seekers disguised as judges,with the word justice continually in their mouth like poisonous spittle, pursing their lips and always at the ready to spit at anybody who does not look discontented and who cheerfully goes his own way. Among their number there is no lack of that most disgusting type of dandy, the lying freaks who want to impersonate beautiful souls 91and put their wrecked sensuality on the market, swaddled in verses and other nappies, as purity of the heart: the type of moral onanists and self-gratiers [ die Species der moralischen Onanisten und Selbstbefriediger ]. The will of the sick to appear superior in anyway, their instinct for secret paths, which lead to tyranny over the healthy, where can it not be found, this will to powerof precisely the weakest! In particular, the sick woman: nobody can outdoOn the Genealogy of Morality 9090men of good will, Gospel according to Luke 2.14. 91Cf. Goethes Wilhelm Meister , Book 6. Cf. also Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit VI.C.c. her renements in ruling, oppressing, tyrannizing. The sick woman spares nothing, either living or dead, to this end, she digs up the things most deeply buried (the Bogos say: woman is a hyena). You can lookbehind every family, every corporate body, every community: every-where, the struggle of the sick against the healthy mostly a silent strug-gle with small doses of poison, pinpricks, spiteful, long-suffering looks, but also interspersed with the loud gesture of the sick Pharisee playing his favourite role of righteous indignation. The hoarse, indignant baying of sick hounds, the vicious mendacity and rage of such noble Pharisees, can be heard right into the hallowed halls of learning ( I again remind readers who have ears to hear of that apostle of revenge fromBerlin, Eugen Dhring, who makes the most indecent and disgusting use of moral clap-trap of anyone in Germany today: Dhring, todays biggest loudmouth of morality , even amongst his kind, the anti-Semites). Theseworm-eaten physiological casualties are all men of ressentiment , a whole, vibrating realm of subterranean revenge, inexhaustible and insatiable in its eruptions against the happy, and likewise in masquerades of revenge and pretexts for revenge: when will they actually achieve their ultimate, nest, most sublime triumph of revenge? Doubtless if they succeeded inshoving their own misery, in fact all misery, on to the conscience of the happy: so that the latter eventually start to be ashamed of their happiness and perhaps say to one another: Its a disgrace to be happy! There is too much misery ! . . . But there could be no greater or more disastrous mis- understanding than for the happy, the successful, those powerful in bodyand soul to begin to doubt their right to happiness in this way. Away with this world turned upside down! Away with this disgraceful molly- coddling of feeling! That the sick should notmake the healthy sick and this would be that kind of mollycoddling ought to be the chief concern on earth: but for that, it is essential that the healthy should remain sep- arated from the sick, should even be spared the sight of the sick so that they do not confuse themselves with the sick. Or would it be their task, perhaps, to be nurses and doctors? . . . But they could not be more mis- taken and deceived about their task , the higher ought not to abase itself as the tool of the lower, the pathos of distance ought to ensure that their tasks are kept separate for all eternity! Their right to be there, the prior- ity of the bell with a clear ring over the discordant and cracked one, is clearly a thousand times greater: they alone are guarantors of the future, they alone have a bounden duty to mans future. What they can do, what they should do, is something the sick must never do: but so that they canThird essay 91 do what only they should, why should they still be free to play doctor, comforter and saviour to the sick? . . . And so we need good air! good air! At all events, well away from all madhouses and hospitals of culture!And so we need good company, ourcompany! Or solitude, if need be! But at all events, keep away from the evil fumes of inner corruption and thesecret, worm-eaten rottenness of disease! . . . So that we, my friends, can actually defend ourselves, at least for a while yet, against the two worst epidemics that could possibly have been set aside just for us against great nausea at man ! Against deep compassion for man !... 15 If you have comprehended in full and right here I demand profound apprehension , profound comprehension why it can absolutely notbe the task of the healthy to nurse the sick, to make the sick healthy, then another necessity has also been comprehended, the necessity of doctors and nurses who are sick themselves : and now we have and hold with both hands the meaning of the ascetic priest. The ascetic priest must count as pre-destined saviour, shepherd and defender of the sick herd in our eyes: onlythen do we understand his immensely historic mission. Rule over the suf- fering is his domain, his instinct directs him towards it and his own special skill, mastery and brand of happiness are to be had in it. He must be sick himself, he must really be a close relative of the sick and the destitute inorder to understand them, in order to come to an understanding with them; but he has to be strong, too, more master of himself than of others, actually unscathed in his will to power, so that he has the trust and fear of the sick and can be their support, defence, prop, compulsion, disciplinar- ian, tyrant, God. He has to defend his herd, against whom? Against thehealthy, no doubt, but also against envy of the healthy; he must be the natural opponent and despiser of all crude, stormy, unbridled, hard, vio- lently predatory health and mightiness. The priest is the rst form of the more delicate animal which despises more easily than it hates. He will not be spared from waging war with predators, a war of cunning (of thespirit) rather than of force, it goes without saying, in addition he will, if necessary, practically have to make himself into a new kind of predator, or at least signify it , a new animal ferocity in which the polar bear, the lissom, cold tiger-cat on the watch and not least the fox, appear to be com- bined in a unity as attractive as it is frightening. If forced by necessity , hewould probably even step among the other kind of beast of prey them-On the Genealogy of Morality 92 selves, in all likelihood with bearish solemnity , venerable, clever, cold, deceptively superior, as the herald and mouthpiece of more mysterious powers, determined to sow suffering, division and self-contradiction onthis ground wherever he can, and only too certain of his skill at beingmaster of the suffering at any time. He brings ointments and balms with him, of course; but rst he has to wound so that he can be the doctor; andwhilst he soothes the pain caused by the wound, he poisons the wound at the same time for that is what he is best trained to do, this magician and tamer of beasts of prey, whose mere presence necessarily makes every- thing healthy, sick, and everything sick, tame. Actually, he defends his sick herd well enough, this strange shepherd, he even defends it against itselfand against the wickedness, deceit, malice and everything else character- istic of all those who are diseased and sick, all of which smoulders in the herd itself, he carries out a clever, hard and secret struggle against anarchyand the ever-present threat of the inner disintegration of the herd, where that most dangerous of blasting and explosive materials, ressentiment ,c o n - tinually piles up. His particular trick, and his prime use, is to detonate this explosive material without blowing up either the herd or the shepherd; if we wanted to sum up the value of the priestly existence in the shortestformula, we would immediately say: the priest is the direction-changer of ressentiment . For every sufferer instinctively looks for a cause of his dis- tress; more exactly, for a culprit, even more precisely for a guilty culprit who is receptive to distress, in short, for a living being upon whom he can release his emotions, actually or in efgy, on some pretext or other:because the release of emotions is the greatest attempt at relief, or should I say, at anaesthetizing on the part of the sufferer, his involuntarily longed- for narcotic against pain of any kind. In my judgment, we nd here the actual physiological causation of ressentiment , revenge and their ilk, in a yearning, then, to anaesthetize pain through emotion : people generally look for the same thing, wrongly in my view, in the defensive return of a blow, a purely protective reaction, a reex movement in the case of any sudden injury or peril, such as that performed even by a headless frog to ward off corrosive acid. But the difference is fundamental: in the one case, the attempt is made to prevent further harm being done, in the other case,the attempt is made to anaesthetize a tormenting, secret pain that is becoming unbearable with a more violent emotion of any sort, and at least rid the consciousness of it for the moment, for this, one needs anemotion, the wildest possible emotion and, in order to arouse it, the rstavailable pretext. Someone or other must be to blame that I feel ill thisThird essay 93 kind of conclusion is peculiar to all sick people, and in fact becomes more insistent, the more they remain in ignorance of the true reason, the phys- iological one, why they feel ill (this can, perhaps, be a disease of the nervus sympaticus , or lie in an excessive secretion of bile, or in a deciency of potassium sulphate and phosphate in the blood, or in abdominal strictureinterrupting the blood circulation, or in degeneration of the ovaries and such like). The sufferers, one and all, are frighteningly willing and inven- tive in their pretexts for painful emotions; they even enjoy being mis- trustful and dwelling on wrongs and imagined slights: they rummage through the bowels of their past and present for obscure, questionable stories that will allow them to wallow in tortured suspicion, and intoxi-cate themselves with their own poisonous wickedness they rip open the oldest wounds and make themselves bleed to death from scars long-since healed, they make evil-doers out of friend, wife, child and anyone elsenear to them. I suffer: someone or other must be guilty and every sick sheep thinks the same. But his shepherd, the ascetic priest, says to him, Quite right, my sheep! Somebody must be to blame: but you yourself are this somebody, you yourself alone are to blame for it, you yourself alone are to blame for yourself . . . That is bold enough, wrong enough: but at least one thing has been achieved by it, the direction of ressentiment is, as I said changed . 16 You can now guess what, in my opinion, the healing instinct of life has at least tried to do through the ascetic priest and what purpose was served by a temporary tyranny of such paradoxical and paralogical concepts [solcher paradoxer und paralogischer Begriffe ] as guilt, sin, sinfulness, corruption, damnation: to make the sick harmless to a certain degree, to bring about the self-destruction of the incurable, to direct the less illstrictly towards themselves, to give their ressentiment a backwards direc- tion (one thing is needful 92) and in this way to exploit the bad instincts of all sufferers for the purpose of self-discipline, self-surveillance and self-overcoming. It goes without saying that medication of this sort, mere affect-medication, cannot possibly yield a real cureof the sick in the physiological sense; we do not even have the right to claim that in this instance, the instinct of life in any way expects or intends a cure. On theOn the Genealogy of Morality 9492Gospel according to Luke 10.42. one hand, the sick packed together and organized ( the word church is the most popular name for it), on the other hand a sort of provisional safe- guarding of those in better health, the physically better-developed, thusthe opening of a cleft between healthy and sick and for a long time that was all! And it was a great deal! It was a very great deal ! . . . [In this essay I proceed, as you see, on an assumption that I do not rst have to justifywith regard to readers of the kind I need: that sinfulness in man is not afact, but rather the interpretation of a fact, namely a physiological upset, the latter seen from a perspective of morals and religion which is no longer binding on us. The fact that someone feels guilty, sinful, by no means proves that he is right in feeling this way; any more than someoneis healthy just because he feels healthy. Just remember the notorious witch-trials: at the time, the most perspicacious and humane judges did not doubt that they were dealing with guilt; the witches themselves did not doubt it , and yet there was no guilt. To expand upon that assumption: even psychic suffering does not seem to be a fact to me at all, but simply an interpretation (causal interpretation) of facts that could not be formu- lated exactly up till now: thus, as something which is still completely in the air and has no scientic standing actually just a fat word in place ofa spindly question mark. If someone cannot cope with his psychic suf- fering, this does notstem from his psyche, to speak crudely; more prob- ably from his stomach (I did say I would speak crudely: which does not in any way signify a desire for it to be heard crudely, understood crudely . . .). A strong and well-formed man digests his experiences (includingdeeds and misdeeds) as he digests his meals, even when he has hard lumps to swallow. If he cannot cope with an experience, this sort of indigestion is as much physiological as any other and often, in fact, just one of the consequences of that other with such a point of view we can, between ourselves, still be the severest opponents of all materialism . . .] 17 But is he really a doctor , this ascetic priest? We already saw the degree to which it is hardly admissible to call him a doctor, much as he feels himself to be a saviour, and likes to be honoured as saviour. It is only suffering itself, the discomfort of the sufferer, that he combats, not its cause, notthe actual state of being ill, this must constitute our most fundamental objection to priestly medication. But if we just put our-selves into the only perspective known to the priests for a moment, it isThird essay 95 hard to stop admiring how much he has seen, sought and found within this perspective. The alleviation of suffering, consolation of every kind, that is where his genius lies: how imaginatively he has under-stood his task as consoler, how unscrupulously and boldly he has chosenthe means to do it! We have every right to call Christianity in particulara large treasure-trove of the most ingenious means of consolation, so much to refresh, soothe and narcotize is piled up inside it, so many of the most dangerous and most daring risks are taken for the purpose, it has been so especially subtle, so rened, so southerly rened in guessing which emotions to stimulate in order to conquer the deep depression, the leaden fatigue and the black melancholy of the physiologicallyobstructed, at least temporarily. For, to speak generally: with all greatreligions, the main concern is the ght against a certain weariness andheaviness that has become epidemic. We can regard it as inherentlyprobable that from time to time, at certain places on earth, almost from necessity, a physiological feeling of obstruction will rule amongst large masses of people which, h owever, is not consciously perceived as such, through lack of physiological knowledge, so that its cause and its cure can be sought and tested only on the psychological-moral level ( actu-ally, this is my most general formula for what is usually called a reli- gion). Such a feeling of obstruction can be of the most diverse descent: for example, as a result of crossing races that are too heterogeneous (or estates estates always indicate differences in descent and race as well: the European Weltschmerz , the pessimism of the nineteenth century, is essentially the result of a foolishly sudden mixing of estates); or it could be brought about by unsound emigration a race ending up in a climate for which its powers of adaptation are inadequate (the case of the Indians in India); or by the after-effects of a races age and fatigue (Parisian pessimism from 1850 on); or by a faulty diet (alcoholism of the Middle Ages; the nonsense of the vegetarians who at least have the authority of Sir Christopher 93in Shakespeare on their side); or by cor- ruption of the blood, malaria, syphilis and such like (German depres- sion after the Thirty Years War, which infected half of Germany with ruinous diseases and thus prepared the ground for German servility, German faint-heartedness). In such a case, an attempt is made every time to ght against the feeling of lethargy on a grand scale; let us brieyOn the Genealogy of Morality 9693Nietzsche read Shakespeare in the Schlegel/Tieck translation. This translation calls Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who believes that excessive beef-eating has harmed his wits ( Twelfth Night I.iii), Junker Christoph von Bleichenwang. examine its principle methods and forms. (As is tting, I leave to one side the actual ght of the philosophers against the feeling of lethargy, which always has taken place at the same time it is interesting enough,but too absurd, too trivial in practice, too prone to gathering cobwebsand loang around, as when pain is supposed to be proved to be an error,using the nave premise that pain would have to vanish as soon as the error it contains is recognized but lo and behold! it refused to vanish . . .) Firstly , we ght against that dominating lethargy with methods that reduce the awareness of life to the lowest point. If possible, absolutely no more wanting, no more wishing; everything that arouses the emo- tions and blood must be avoided (no eating salt: hygiene of the Fakirs);no loving, no hating; equanimity; no taking of revenge; no getting rich;no working; begging; if possible, no consorting with women or as littleas possible of this; in spiritual matters, Pascals principle il faut sabtir 94. The result in psychological and moral terms: loss of self , sanctication, in physiological terms: hypnotization, the attempt to achieve for man something akin to what hibernation is for some kinds of animal and estivation is for many plants in hot climates, a minimum of expenditure of energy and metabolism, where life can just about be maintained without actually entering consciousness. To this end, anamazing amount of human energy has been expended perhaps invain? . . . We can have absolutely no doubt that these sportsmen of holi-ness who are so abundant at all times, in almost all peoples, have actu- ally found a real deliverance from what they fought against with such a rigorous training, they nally ridthemselves of that deep, physiologi- cal depression with the help of a system of hypnotizing methods in countless cases: for which reason their methodology belongs among the most general ethnological facts. Similarly, it is completely inappropriateto count the mere intention to starve out physicality and desire as symp-toms of insanity (as a clumsy type of roast beef-eating free thinker andSir Christopher are wont to do 95). It is all the more certain that it leads, or can lead, the way to all sorts of spiritual disturbances, [ geistige[n] Strungen ] for example, to inner lights as with the Hesychasts96of Mount Athos, to hallucinations of sound and sight, to voluptuousThird essay 9794One must make oneself stupid. Cf. Pascals Penses , section III. 95Cf. the note on p. 96. 96Sect that ourished in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries whose members aimed at attain- ing quietude (hesuchia in Greek, hence the name of the sect). The use of various ascetictechniques was thought to culminate in a vision of the divine light. excesses and ecstasies of sensuality (the story of Saint Theresa). The interpretation placed on these states by those subject to them has always been as fanatically incorrect as possible, this goes without saying: but weshould not overlook the tone of the most convinced gratitude resound-ing in the mere willto such a kind of interpretation. The supreme state, that of salvation itself, that nally achieved state of total hypnosis and silence, is always seen by them as mystery as such, which even the supreme symbols are inadequate to express, as a journey home and into the heart of things, as a liberation from all delusion, as knowledge, truth, being, as an escape from every aim, every wish, every action, as a beyond good and evil as well. Good and evil, says the Buddhist, both are fetters: the perfect One [ der Vollendete ] has mastered both; a man of the Vednta faith says he cannot be hurt by anything done or not done; as a wise man, he shakes off good and evil; no action candamage his domain; he has gone beyond good and evil, beyond both: so, a conception found throughout India, as much Brahminic as Buddhist. 97(Neither in the Indian nor Christian way of thinking is that salvation regarded as attainable through virtue, through moral improvement, h owever high the value of virtue is set by them as a means of hypnosis: we should mark this well, moreover, it simply corre- sponds to the facts of the matter. To have remained true in this may perhaps be regarded as the best piece of realism in the three greatest reli-gions otherwise so thoroughly steeped in moralizing. For the man of knowledge there is no duty . . . Salvation does not come about by accu- mulating virtues: since it consists of being one with Brahma, whose per- fection admits of no addition; still less does it consist of taking away mistakes: because Brahma, with whom being one constitutes salvation,is eternally pure these passages from the commentary of Shankara, quoted by the rst real expert on Indian philosophy in Europe, my friend Paul Deussen.) So we want to pay due respect to salvation in the great religions; on the other hand, it is a little difcult for us to remain serious, in view of the value placed on deep sleep by these people so weary of life that they are too weary even to dream, that same deep sleep as the entry to Brahma, as a unio mystica with God achieved . When he has com- pletely fallen asleep it says on the matter in the oldest, most venera- ble scripture and completely come to rest, so that he sees no moreOn the Genealogy of Morality 9897Nietzsches sources are Paul Deussens Das System der Vednta (Leipzig, 1883 ) and Die Sutras des Vednta aus dem Sanskrit bersetzt (Leipzig, 1887 ). dream images, then, dearly beloved, he is united with being, and has entered into himself, embraced by the cognitive self, he no longer has any consciousness of what is outside him or within him. This bridge isnot crossed by day or night, age, death, suffering, good work nor evilwork. In deep sleep, likewise say the faithful of this deepest of thethree great religions, the soul lifts itself out of the body, enters the supreme light and emerges in its true form: there it is the highest spirit itself [ der hchste Geist selbst ], roaming round joking and playing and enjoying itself, with women, carriages, friends or whatever, without a thought for this appendage of a body to which prna (the breath of life) is harnessed like a beast to a cart. Nevertheless, we want to remainaware, here as with the case of salvation, that fundamentally, in spite ofthe splendour of Oriental exaggeration, the same value is expressed asthat by the clear, cool, Greek-cool but suffering Epicurus: the hyp-notic feeling of nothingness, the repose of deepest sleep, in short, absence of suffering this may be counted as the highest good, the value of values, by the suffering and by those who are deeply depressed, it hasto be valued positively by them and found to be the positive itself. (According to the same logic of feeling, nothingness is called God in all pessimistic religions.) 18 Much more often than such a hypnotic total dampening of sensibility , of susceptibility to pain, which presupposes unusual powers, above all courage, contempt of opinion, intellectual stoicism, another training is tried to combat the condition of depression, which at all events is easier: mechanical activity . It is beyond doubt that with this, an existence of suf- fering is alleviated to a not inconsiderable extent: today people call thisfact, rather dishonestly, the blessing of work. The alleviation consists of completely diverting the interest of the sufferer from the pain, so that constantly an action and yet another action enters consciousness and con- sequently little room is left for suffering: because this chamber of human consciousness is small ! Mechanical activity and what goes with it like absolute regularity , punctual, mindless obedience, ones way of life xed once and for all, time-lling, a certain encouragement, indeed discipline, to be impersonal, to forget oneself, to be in a state of incuria sui 98: howThird essay 9998lack of concern for self ; this is Geulincxs denition of the virtue of humility. thoroughly, how accurately the ascetic priest has exploited these in the ght against pain! And when he had to deal with the suffering of the lower orders, with work slaves or prisoners (or with women: who are, after all,mostly both at the same time, work slaves and prisoners), all he had to dowas switch names round a bit, some rebaptizing, so that in future theywould view a hated thing as a benet, as relative happiness: in any case, the slaves discontent with their lot was notinvented by the priests. An even higher-valued means of ghting depression is the prescription of a small pleasure which is readily accessible and can be made into normal practice; this medication is often used in conjunction with those just dis- cussed. The most frequent form in which a pleasure of this type isprescribed as a cure is the pleasure of giving pleasure (as doing good, giving gifts, bringing relief, helping, encouraging, comforting, praising, honouring); the ascetic priest thereby prescribes, when he prescribes lovethy neighbour, what is actually the arousal of the strongest, most life- afrming impulse, albeit in the most cautious dose, the will to power . The happiness of even the smallest superiority such as that which accompanies all doing good, being useful, helping, honouring, is the most ample consolation used by the physiologically inhibited, provided theyare well advised: otherwise they hurt one another, naturally in obedience to the same fundamental instinct. If we look for the beginnings of Christianity in the Roman world, we nd associations for mutual support, associations for the poor, the sick, for burials, which have sprouted on the lowest level of that society , where the chief means to counter depression,that of the small pleasure, of mutual do-gooding, was deliberately nur- tured, perhaps this was something new then, an actual discovery? This will to reciprocity, to form a herd, a community, a conventicle, called forth in such a manner is bound to lead, if only in miniature, to a new and much fuller outbreak of the will to power: the formation of a herd is an essential step and victory in the ght against depression. With the growth of the community , a new interest is kindled for the individual as well, which often enough will lift him out of the most personal element in his discontent, his aversion to himself (Geulincxs despectio sui 99). All the sick and sickly strive instinctively for a herd-organization, out of a longing to shake off dull lethargy and the feeling of weakness: the ascetic priest senses this instinct and promotes it; wherever there are herds, it is the instinct of weakness that has willed the herd and the cleverness of theOn the Genealogy of Morality 10099contempt of self . priests that has organized it. For it should not be overlooked: the strong are as naturally inclined to strive to be apart as the weak are to strive to be together , when the former unite, this takes place only with a view to an aggressive collective action and collective satisfaction of their will topower, with much resistance from their individual consciences; the latter,on the contrary, gather together with pleasure at this very gathering, their instinct is just as satised in doing this as the instinct of the born masters (I mean here the solitary species of human beast of prey) is basi- cally irritated and unsettled by organization. Behind every oligarchy the whole of history informs us the lust for tyranny always lurks; every oli- garchy constantly quakes at the tension that each individual has to exertin order to remain in control of this desire. (For example, it was like that with the Greeks : Plato testies to it in a hundred places, Plato, who knew his peers andhimself . . .) 19 The ascetic priests methods that we have been getting to know the total dampening of the awareness of life, mechanical activity, the small pleasure, above all the pleasure of loving ones neighbour, herd- organization, the awakening of the communal feeling of power, conse- quently the individuals dissatisfaction with himself is overridden by his delight at the prosperity of the community these, measured in modernterms, are his innocent means in the ght against displeasure: now let us turn to the more interesting, the guilty means. They are all concerned with one thing: some kind of excess of feeling , which is used as the most effective anaesthetic for dull, crippling, long-drawn-out pain; that is why the ingenuity of the priests has been practically inexhaustible in thinkingout the implications of this one question: howcan one achieve excess of feeling? . . . That sounds hard: obviously it would sound more pleasant and sound better on the ears if I were to say the ascetic priest has always made use of the enthusiasm that lies in all strong affects. But why caress the effeminate ears of our modern weaklings? Why, for our part , should we give in, even by an inch, to their verbal tartuffery? For us psychologists, this would constitute a tartuffery of deed; apart from the fact that it would nau- seate us. Actually, a psychologist today shows his good taste, if he shows any at all (others might say: his integrity), by resisting the scandalously over- moralistic language with which practically all modern judgments about men and things are smeared. For we must make no mistake about it: theThird essay 101 most characteristic feature of modern souls, modern books, is not their lies but the deep-rooted innocence in their moralistic mendaciousness. To have to rediscover this innocence everywhere that is, perhaps, the mostrevolting task among the somewhat dubious tasks a psychologist today hasto perform; it is part of ourgreat danger, it is a path that, perhaps, leads us, too, to the great nausea . . . I do not doubt for what use alone modern books (assuming they last, which certainly is not to be feared, and likewise assuming that one day there will be posterity with stricter, harder, more healthy taste) what use everything modern in general will serve, could serve, for this posterity: as an emetic, and that on account of its moral sugariness and falsity, its innermost feminism, which is pleased to call itselfidealism and at all events believes itself to be idealism. Our educated people today, our good men, do not lie that is true, but it does them no credit! The actual lie, the genuine, resolute honest lie (listen to Plato aboutits value 100) would be something far too tough and strong for them; it would demand something of them that one must not demand, that they open their eyes to themselves, that they come to know how to distinguish between true and false with regard to themselves. The dishonest lie is the only thing tting for them; everyone who feels himself to be a good person today is completely incapable of approaching any thing except in a dishon- estly mendacious way, in a way that was mendacious right down to its very depths, but innocently mendacious, true-heartedly mendacious, blue-eyedmendacious, virtuously mendacious. These good people, all of themnow moralized root and branch and disgraced as far as honesty is con-cerned and ruined for all eternity: which of them could stand a single truth about man! . . . Or, to ask more pertinently: which of them could bear a truebiography! . . . A few hints: Lord Byron wrote some extremely per- sonal things about himself, but Thomas Moore was too good for this: he burnt his friends papers. The same is said to have happened with Dr Gwinner, Schopenhauers executor: for Schopenhauer had written afew things about himself as well and perhaps against himself too (ei0v 9((e(auto/n ). The industrious American Thayer, Beethovens biographer, suddenly called his work to a halt: having reached some point or other in this honourable and nave life, he could no longer stand it . . . moral: what prudent man would write an honest word about himself these days? he would have to belong to the Order of Holy Daredevils. We are promised Richard Wagners autobiography: who can doubt but that it will be aOn the Genealogy of Morality 102100Republic 382c,389b,414bc,459cd. prudent autobiography? . . . Let us, think of the comical horror which the Catholic priest Janssen101aroused with his incredibly down-to-earth and innocuous picture of the German Reformation; what would people do next if someone told the story differently for once, if a real psychologist told us about the real Luther, no longer with the moralistic simplicity of a country pastor, no longer with the sugary, deferential modesty of Protestant histo- rians, but instead with the intrepidity of a Taine , from strength of soul and not from a shrewd indulgence toward strength . . . (The Germans, by the way, have nally produced an agreeable enough classical specimen of thelatter, they have every right to claim him as one of their own, and be proudof him: one Leopold Ranke, this born classical advocatus of every causa fortior , 102this most prudent of all prudent realists.) 20 But you will have already understood me: surely reason enough, do you not think, all in all, why we psychologists of today cannot get rid of a certain mistrust towards ourselves ? . . . Probably we, too, are still too good for our trade, probably we, too, are still the victims, the prey, the sick of this contemporary taste for moralization, much as we feel contempt towards it, it probably infects usas well. What warning did that diplo- mat103give when he spoke to his peers? Above all, gentlemen, we must mistrust our rst impulses! he said, they are nearly always good ... Every psychologist ought to speak to his peers like that today . . . And with that, we return to our problem, which really does require a certain discipline from us, a certain mistrust, especially towards our rst impulses. The ascetic ideal utilized to produce excess of feelings : if you can remember the last essay, you will be able to extrapolate the essentials of what follows from the meaning compressed in these nine words. To throw the human soul out of joint, plunging it into terror, frosts, res and rap- tures to such an extent that it rids itself of all small and petty forms of lethargy, apathy and depression, as though hit by lightning: what pathslead to thisgoal? And which are most certain to do so? . . . Basically, all strong emotions have this capacity , providing they are released suddenly: anger, fear, voluptuousness, revenge, hope, triumph, despair, cruelty; in fact, the ascetic priest has insouciantly taken into his service the wholeThird essay 103101Johannes Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Mittelalter (Freiburg/Br., 1877 ). 102Stronger case. 103allusion to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand ( 1754 1838 ). pack of wild hounds in man, releasing now one, then another, always with the same purpose of waking man out of his long-drawn-out melancholy, of putting to ight, at least temporarily, his dull pain, his lingering misery,always with a religious interpretation and justication as well. Everysuch excess of emotion has to be paid for afterwards, it goes without saying it makes the sick person even sicker : and therefore this type ofremedy for pain is a guilty one, measured against the modern yardstick.However, we have to insist all the more rmly, as fairness demands, that this remedy was applied with a good conscience , that the ascetic priest pre- scribed it with the utmost faith in its efcacy, indeed its indispensability, often enough nearly collapsing himself at the distress he caused; simi-larly that the vehement physiological revenge taken by such excesses, perhaps even mental disturbance, is fundamentally not actually inconsist- ent with the general idea of this type of medication: which did not, as I have already shown, set out to heal diseases but rather to ght the lethargy of depression, to alleviate and anaesthetize it. In this way , too, the aim was achieved. The main contrivance which the ascetic priest allowed himself to use in order to make the human soul resound with every kind of heart- rending and ecstatic music was as everyone knows his utilization ofthefeeling of guilt . The previous essay indicated the descent of this feeling briey as a piece of animal-psychology, no more: there we encountered the feeling of guilt in its raw state, as it were. Only in the hands of the priest, this real artist in feelings of guilt, did it take shape and what a shape! Sin for that is the name for the priestly reinterpretation of theanimal bad conscience (cruelty turned back on itself) has been the greatest event in the history of the sick soul up till now: with sin, we have the most dangerous and disastrous trick of religious interpretation. Man, suffering from himself in some way, at all events physiologically, rather like an animal imprisoned in a cage, unclear as to why? what for? andyearning for reasons reasons bring relief , yearning for cures and narcotics as well, nally consults someone who knows hidden things too and lo and behold! from this magician, the ascetic priest, he receives the rst tip as to the cause of his suffering: he should look for it within himself , in guilt, in a piece of the past, he should understand his suffering itself as a condition of punishment . . . The unhappy man has heard, has understood; he is like a hen around which a line has been drawn. He cannot get out of this drawn circle: the sick man has been made into thesinner . . . And now we shall not be rid of the sight of this new sickperson, the sinner, for a few thousand years, shall we ever be rid ofOn the Genealogy of Morality 104 him? wherever we look, everywhere the hypnotic glance of the sinner always moving in the one direction (in the direction of guilt as the sole cause of suffering); everywhere, bad conscience, that abominable beast,as Luther called it; everywhere, the past regurgitated, the deed distorted,the green eye on every action; everywhere, the willto misunderstand suf- fering made into the content of life, suffering reinterpreted as feelings ofguilt, fear, punishment; everywhere, the scourge, the hair shirt, the starv-ing body, contrition; everywhere, the sinner breaking himself on the cruelwheel of a restless and morbidly lustful conscience; everywhere, dumb torment, the most extreme fear, the agony of the tortured heart, the paroxysms of unknown happiness, the cry for redemption. In fact, theold depression, heaviness and fatigue were thoroughly overcome by this system of procedures, life became very interesting again: awake, eternally awake, sleepless, glowing, burned out, exhausted and yet not tired, thisis how man, the sinner, looked when initiated into these mysteries. That great old magician ghting lethargy, the ascetic priest had obviously won, hiskingdom had come: already people were no longer making com- plaints against pain, they thirsted for it; more pain !more pain screamed the desire of his disciples and initiates for centuries. Every excess offeeling that hurt, everything that broke, overthrew, crushed, entranced and enraptured, the secret of the torture chamber, the ingenuity of hell itself all this was now discovered, guessed at and utilized, everything was at the magicians service, from now on, everything served towards the victory of his ideal, the ascetic ideal . . . My kingdom is not of this world 104 is what he kept on saying: did he really have the right to talk like that? . . . Goethe claimed there were only thirty-six tragic situ- ations:105from this we gather, if we did not know already, that Goethe was not an ascetic priest. He knows more . . . 21 With regard to thiswhole type of priestly medication, the guilty kind, every word of criticism is too much. That such an excess of feeling as pre- scribed by the ascetic priest to his patient (under the holiest of names, as goes without saying, and likewise impregnated with the sanctity of his purpose) should in any way have been really of useto any patient, whoThird essay 105104Gospel according to John 18.36. 105Conversations with Eckermann ,14February 1830 . would want to justify a claim of this kind? At least we should be clear about the word use. If we want to imply by it that such a system of treatment improved man, I shall not argue: I merely add what improved means to me exactly the same as tamed, weakened, discouraged, rened, molly-coddled, emasculated (so, almost the same as injured . . .). If, however, it is mainly a question of the sick, the disgruntled, the depressed, a system likethis makes the sick patient more sick in every case, even if it makes him better; just ask the doctors dealing with lunatics what always accompan- ies systematic application of penitential torments, contrition and spasms of redemption. Likewise, study history: everywhere where the ascetic priest has prevailed with this treatment of the sick, the sickness hasincreased in depth and breadth at a terric speed. What was in each casethe successful result? A shattered nervous system added on to the sick-ness; and that applied on the largest and smallest scale, with individualsand with masses. We nd terrible epileptic epidemics in the wake of train- ing in penance and redemption, the greatest known to history such as those of the dancers of St Vitus and St John in the Middle Ages; another form its after-effect takes is terrible paralyses and long-term depressions, which can bring about, under certain circumstances, a permanent rever-sal of the temperament of a people or a town (Geneva, Basel); the witch- hysteria belongs here, related somewhat to sleep-walking (eight great epidemic outbreaks of hysteria between 1564 and1605 alone) ; in its wake we nd, likewise, that death-seeking mass delirium, whose dreadful cry evviva la morte 106could be heard over the whole of Europe, interrupted now by voluptuous, now by manic-destructive idiosyncrasies: and the same alternation of emotions, with the same intervals and reversals, can still be observed everywhere today in every case where the ascetic doctrine of sin has another great success (religious neurosis appears as a form of The Evil One: there is no doubt about it. What is it? Quaritur .107). Broadly speaking, the ascetic ideal and its sublimely moral cult, this most ingenious, unscrupulous and dangerous systematization of all the methods of emotional excess under the protection of holy intentions, has inscribed itself, in a terrible and unforgettable way, into the whole history of man, and unfortunately not just into his history . . . I can think of hardly anything that has sapped the health and racial strength of precisely the Europeans so destructively as this ideal; without any exaggeration we areOn the Genealogy of Morality 106106Long live death. 107That is the question. entitled to call it the real catastrophe in the history of the health of European man. The only thing that can be compared with its inuence is the specically Germanic inuence: I mean the alcoholic-poisoning ofEurope, which has strictly kept pace so far with the political and racial pre-dominance of the Germans ( where they injected their blood, theyinjected their vice as well). Third in line would be syphilis magno sed proxima intervallo . 108 22 The ascetic priest has ruined spiritual health wherever he has come to rule, consequently he has ruined taste in artibus et litteris109 he is still ruining it. Consequently? I hope you will simply allow me this conse- quently; at any rate, I do not want to prove it. One single pointer: it refers to the basic text of Christian literature, its model, its book of books. Even during the era of Grco-Roman splendour, which was also a splendour ofbooks, in the face of an ancient world of writings that had not yet suc- cumbed to decay and ruin, at a time when you could still read a few books we would nowadays give half of whole literatures to possess, the simpli- city and vanity of Christian agitators we call them Church Fathers dared to decree: we have our own classical literature, we dont need that of the Greeks , and so saying, they proudly pointed to books of legends, letters of the apostles and apologetic little tracts, rather similar to the way the English Salvation Army today ghts Shakespeare and other heathens with similar literature. I do not like the New Testament, you have worked that out by now; it almost disturbs me to be so very isolated in my taste regarding this most valued, over-valued work (the taste of two millenia isagainst me): but it is no use! Here I stand, I can do no other, 110 I have the courage of my bad taste. The OldTestament well, that is something quite different: every respect for the Old Testament! I nd in it great men, heroic landscape and something of utmost rarity on earth, the incompara- ble navety of the strong heart ; even more, I nd a people. In contrast, in the New Testament I nd nothing but petty sectarian groupings, nothingbut rococo of the soul, nothing but arabesques, crannies and oddities, nothing but the air of the conventicle, not to forget the occasional breath of bucolic sugariness which belongs to the epoch ( and to the RomanThird essay 107108next but after a large interval. 109in arts and letters. 110Luthers reputed answer at the Diet of Worms ( 1521 ) to the demand that he recant. province) and is neither Jewish nor Hellenistic. Humility and pomposity right next to each other; a garrulousness of feeling that almost stupees; ostensibly passionate but lacking passion; embarrassing gesticulation;obviously breeding is lacking here. What right have people to make such afuss about their little failings, like these pious little men do? No cock isgoing to crow over it; still less, God. Finally, they even want to have the crown of eternal life, 111all these little provincial people: what for? why? it is the ultimate in presumption. An immortal Peter: who could stand him? They have an ambition which makes you laugh: people like that regurgitating their most personal affairs, stupidities, sorrows and linger- ing worries, as if the in-itself of things were duty-bound to concern itself with all that, people like thatnever tire of involving God in the most trivial trouble they are in. And this continual use of rst-name-terms with God,in the worst taste! This Jewish, not just Jewish pawing and nuzzling imper-tinence towards God! . . . There are small, despised heathen peoples in East Asia who could have taught these rst Christians something essen- tial, some tactin reverence; the former do not permit themselves even to mention the name of their god, as Christian missionaries testify . Thisseems to me to be delicate enough; it is certainly too delicate and not justfor the rst Christians: so that you can appreciate the contrast, think of Luther, the most eloquent and most presumptuous peasant Germany has had, think of the Lutheran tone that he was pleased to adopt in his con-versations with God. Luthers resistance to the mediating saints in the Church (in particular to the devils sow, the Pope) was, no doubt, basi- cally the resistance of a lout irritated by the Churchs good etiquette , that reverential etiquette of hieratic taste, which only admits the more conse- crated and silent into the holy of holies, and closes it to louts. These wereabsolutely not going to be allowed a voice here but Luther, the peasant, wanted a complete change, it wasnt German enough for him: above all, he wanted to speak directly, in person and without ceremony to his God . . . Well, he did it. The ascetic ideal, you have guessed, was never anywhere a school of good taste, still less of good manners, at best it was a schoolfor hieratic manners, : which means it contains within itself something that is the deadly enemy of all good manners, lack of moderation, dislike of moderation, being itself a non plus ultra . 112On the Genealogy of Morality 108111Revelation 2.10. 112unsurpassable extreme. 23 The ascetic ideal not only spoilt health and taste, it spoilt a third, fourth, fth, sixth thing as well I shall refrain from saying what they all were (I would never reach the end!). I do not want to bring to light what the ideal did; rather simply what it means , what it indicates, what lies hidden behind, beneath and within it and what it expresses in a provisional, indistinct way, laden with question marks and misunderstandings. And only in regard tothispurpose could I not spare my readers a glimpse of the monstrosity of its effects, and of how calamitous those effects are: to prepare them, as a matter of fact, for the nal, terrible aspect that the question of the meaning of this ideal has for me. What does the power of that ideal mean, the mon- strosity of its power? Why has it been given so much space? why has more effective resistance not been offered to it? The ascetic ideal expresses a will: where is the opposing will, in which an opposing ideal might express itself? The ascetic ideal has a goal, this being so general that all the interests of human existence appear petty and narrow when measured against it; it inexorably interprets epochs, peoples, man, all with reference to this onegoal, it permits of no other interpretation, no other goal, and rejects, denies, afrms, conrms only with reference to itsinterpretation ( and was there ever a system of interpretation more fully thought through?); it does not subject itself to any power, in fact, it believes in its superiority over any power, in its unconditional superiority of rank over any other power, it believes there is nothing on earth of any power that does not rst have to receive a meaning, a right to existence, a value from it, as a tool to itswork, as a way and means to itsgoal, to onegoal . . . Where is the counterpart to this closed system of will, goal and interpretation? Why is the counterpart lacking ? . . . Where is the other one goal? . . . But I am told it is notlacking, not only has it fought a long, successful ght with that ideal, but it has already mastered that ideal in all essentials: all our modern science is witness to that, modern science which, as a genuine philosophy of reality, obvi- ously believes only in itself, obviously possesses the courage to be itself, the will to be itself, and has hitherto got by well enough without God, thebeyond and the virtues of denial. However, I am not impressed by such noise and rabble-rousers claptrap: these people who trumpet reality are bad musicians, it is easy enough to hear that their voices do notcome from the depths, the abyss of scientic conscience does notspeak from them for the scientic conscience today is an abyss , the word science is quitesimply an obscenity in the traps of such trumpeters, an abuse, an indecency.Third essay 109 Precisely the opposite of what they are declaring here is the truth: science today has absolutely nofaith in itself, let alone in an ideal above it, and where it is still passion, love, re, suffering , it is not the opposite of the ascetic ideal but rather the latters own most recent and noble manifestation . Does that sound strange to you? . . . There are enough worthy and modestworkers even amongst the scholars of today, who like their little corner and therefore, because they like being there, are occasionally somewhat pre- sumptuous in making their demand heard that people today ought to be content in general, especially with science there being so much useful work to be done. I do not deny it: I am the last to want to spoil the pleasure of these honest workers in their craft: for I delight in their work. But thefact that nowadays people are working hard in science, and that they are contented workmen, does notat all prove that today, science as a whole has a goal, a will, an ideal, a passion of great faith. The opposite, as I said, is thecase: where it is not the most recent manifestation of the ascetic ideal there are too few noble, exceptional cases for the general judgment to be deected then science today is a hiding place for all kinds of ill-humour, unbelief, gnawing worms, despectio sui , 113bad conscience it is the disquiet of the lack of ideals itself, the suffering from a lack of great love, the dis- content over enforced contentedness. Oh, what does science not conceal today! how much it is supposed to conceal, at any rate! The industry of our best scholars, their unreective diligence, heads smoking night and day, their very mastery of their craft how often does all that mean trying toconceal something from themselves? Science as a means of self-anaesthetic: do you know that ? . . . Everyone in contact with scholars has the experience that they are sometimes wounded to the marrow by a harmless word, we anger our scholarly friends at the very moment when we want to honour them, we make them lose their temper and control simply because we weretoo coarse to guess who we were actually dealing with, with sufferers who do not want to admit what they are to themselves, with people drugged and dazed who fear only one thing: coming to consciousness ... 24 And now consider the rarer cases of which I spoke, the last idealists we have today amongst philosophers and scholars: do we perhaps have, in them, the sought-for opponents of ascetic ideals, the latters counter-idealists?On the Genealogy of Morality 110113contempt of self . In fact, they believe themselves to be, these unbelievers (because that is what they all are); that seems to be their last remnant of faith, to be oppo- nents of this ideal, so serious are they on this score, so passionate is theirevery word and gesture: does what they believe therefore need to be true? . . . We knowers are positively mistrustful of any kind of believers; ourmistrust has gradually trained us to conclude the opposite to what was for- merly concluded: namely, to presuppose, wherever the strength of a belief becomes prominent, a certain weakness, even improbability of proof. Even we do not deny that faith brings salvation: 114precisely for that reason we deny that faith proves anything, a strong faith which brings salvation is grounds for suspicion of the object of its faith, it does not establish truth, it establishes a certain probability of deception . What now is the position in this case? These no-sayers and outsiders of today, those who areabsolute in one thing, their demand for intellectual rigour [ Sauberkeit ], these hard, strict, abstinent, heroic minds who make up the glory of our time, all these pale atheists, Antichrists, immoralists, nihilists, these scep- tics, ephectics, 115hectics of the mind [ des Geistes ] (they are one and all the latter in a certain sense), these last idealists of knowledge in whom, alone, intellectual conscience dwells and is embodied these days, they believe they are all as liberated as possible from the ascetic ideal, these free, very free spirits: and yet, I will tell them what they themselves cannot see because they are standing too close to themselves this ideal is quite simplytheir ideal as well, they themselves represent it nowadays, and perhaps no one else, they themselves are its most intellectualized product, its mostadvanced front-line troops and scouts, its most insidious, delicate andelusive form of seduction: if I am at all able to solve riddles, I wish to claimto do so with thispronouncement! . . . These are very far from being free spirits: because they still believe in truth . . . When the Christian Crusaders in the East fell upon that invincible order of Assassins, the order of free spirits par excellence , the lowest rank of whom lived a life of obedience the like of which no monastic order has ever achieved, somehow or other they received an inkling of that symbol and watchword that was reserved for thehighest ranks alone as their secretum : nothing is true, everything is per- mitted . . . Certainly that wasfreedom of the mind [ des Geistes ],with that the termination of the belief in truth was announced . . . . Has a European or a Christian free-thinker [ Freigeist ] ever strayed into this proposition andThird essay 111114Gospel according to Luke 1.45; Gospel according to John 20.29. 115Cf. note p. 81. the labyrinth of its consequences ? Does he know the Minotaur of this cave from experience ? . . . I doubt it, indeed, I know otherwise: nothing is stranger to these people who are absolute in one thing, these so-called free spirits, than freedom and release in that sense, in no respect are they morermly bound; precisely in their faith in truth they are more rigid and moreabsolute than anyone else. Perhaps I am too familiar with all this: that ven-erable philosophers abstinence prescribed by such a faith like that commitsone, that stoicism of the intellect which, in the last resort, denies itself theno just as strictly as the yes, that willto stand still before the factual, the factum brutum , that fatalism of petits faits 116(ce petit faitalisme ,117as I call it) in which French scholarship now seeks a kind of moral superiority over the German, that renunciation of any interpretation (of forcing, adjusting, shortening, omitting, lling-out, inventing, falsifying and everything else essential to interpretation) on the whole, this expresses the asceticism of virtue just as well as any denial of sensuality (it is basically just a modus of this denial). However, the compulsion towards it, that unconditional will to truth, is faith in the ascetic ideal itself , even if, as an unconscious imperative, make no mistake about it, it is the faith in a metaphysical value, a value as such of truth as vouched for and conrmed by that ideal alone (it stands and falls by that ideal). Strictly speaking, there is no presuppositionlessknowledge, the thought of such a thing is unthinkable, paralogical: a phi- losophy, a faith always has to be there rst, for knowledge to win from it a direction, a meaning, a limit, a method, a right to exist. (Whoever under- stands it the other way round and, for example, tries to place philosophy on a strictly scientic foundation, must rst stand on its head not just phi- losophy, but also truth itself: the worst offence against decency which can occur in relation to two such respectable ladies!) Yes, there is no doubt and here I let my Gay Science have a word, see the fth book (section 344) the truthful man, in that daring and nal sense which faith in science presupposes, thus afrms another world from the one of life, nature and history; and inasmuch as he afrms this other world, must he not there- fore deny its opposite, this world, ourworld, in doing so? . . . Our faith in science is still based on a metaphysical faith , even we knowers of today, we godless anti-metaphysicians, still take ourre from the blaze set alight by a faith thousands of years old, that faith of the Christians, which was alsoPlatos faith, that God is truth, that truth is divine . . . But what if preciselyOn the Genealogy of Morality 112116small facts. 117this petty factualism (with a rather lame pun: fatalisme faitalisme). this becomes more and more unbelievable, when nothing any longer turns out to be divine except for error, blindness and lies and what if God himself turned out to be our oldest lie? At this point we need to stopand take time to reect. Science itself now needs a justication (which is not at all to say that there is one for it). On this question, turn to the mostancient and most modern philosophies: all of them lack a consciousness of the extent to which the will to truth itself needs a justication, here is a gap in every philosophy how does it come about? Because the ascetic ideal has so far been master over all philosophy, because truth was set as being, as God, as the highest authority itself, because truth was not allowed to be a problem. Do you understand this allowed to be? From the very momentthat faith in the God of the ascetic ideal is denied, there is a new problem as well: that of the value of truth. The will to truth needs a critique let us dene our own task with this , the value of truth is tentatively to be called into question . . . (Anyone who nds this put too briey is advised to read that section of Gay Science with the title To what extent even we are still pious (section 344 118) better still, the whole fth book of that work, simi- larly the preface to Daybreak .) 25 No! Do not come to me with science when I am looking for the natural antagonist to the ascetic ideal, when I ask: Where is the opposing will in which its opposing ideal expresses itself? Science is not nearly independ- ent enough for that, in every respect it rst needs a value-ideal, a value- creating power, in whose service itcan believe in itself, science itself never creates values. Its relationship to the ascetic ideal is certainly not yetinherently antagonistic; indeed, it is much more the case, in general, that it still represents the driving force in the inner evolution of that ideal. Its repugnance and pugnacity are, on closer inspection, directed not at the ideal itself but at its outworks, its apparel and disguise, at the way the ideal temporarily hardens, solidies, becomes dogmatic science liberateswhat life is in it by denying what is exoteric in this ideal. Both of them, science and the ascetic ideal, are still on the same foundation I have already explained ; that is to say, both overestimate truth (more correctly: they share the same faith that truth can notbe assessed or criticized), and this makes them both necessarily allies, so that, if theyThird essay 113118See below, Supplementary material, pp. 15860. must be fought, they can only be fought and called into question together. A depreciation of the value of the ascetic ideal inevitably brings about a depreciation of the value of science: one must keep ones eyes open andprick up ones ears for this in time! ( Art, let me say at the outset, since I shall deal with this at length some day, art, in which lying sancties itself and the will to deception has good conscience on its side, is much more fun- damentally opposed to the ascetic ideal than science is: this was sensed instinctively by Plato, the greatest enemy of art Europe has yet produced. Plato versus Homer: 119that is complete, genuine antagonism on the one hand, the sincerest advocate of the beyond, the great slanderer of life, on the other hand, its involuntary idolater, the golden nature. Artistic servitude in the service of the ascetic ideal is thus the specic form of artistic corruption , unfortunately one of the most common: for nothing is more corruptible than an artist.) And when we view it physiologically, too,science rests on the same base as the ascetic ideal: the precondition of boththe one and the other is a certain impoverishment of life , the emotions cooled, the tempo slackened, dialectics in place of instinct, solemnity stamped on faces and gestures (solemnity , that most unmistakable sign of a more sluggish metabolism and of a struggling, more toiling life). Lookat the epochs in the life of a people where scholars predominated: they are times of exhaustion, often of twilight, of decline, gone are the over- owing energy, the certainty of life, the certainty as to the future . The pre- ponderance of the mandarins never indicates anything good: any more than the rise of democracy, international courts of arbitration instead ofwars, equal rights for women, the religion of compassion and everything else that is a symptom of life in decline. (Science conceived as a problem: what does science mean? compare the Preface to The Birth of Tragedy on this.) No! open your eyes! this modern science is, for the time being, the bestally for the ascetic ideal, for the simple reason that it is the most unconscious, involuntary, secret and subterranean! The poor in spirit 120and the scientic opponents of this ideal have up till now played the same game (by the way, beware of thinking that they are its opposite, i.e. the richin spirit: they are notthat, I called them the hectics of the spirit). These famous victories of the latter: undoubtedly they are victo- ries but over what? The ascetic ideal was decidedly not conquered, it was, on the contrary, made stronger, I mean more elusive, more spiritual,On the Genealogy of Morality 114119See especially Platos Republic , Books II, III, and X. 120Gospel according to Matthew 5.3. more insidious by the fact that science constantly and unsparingly detached and broke off a wall or outwork that had attached itself to it and coarsened its appearance. Do you really think that, for example, the defeat of theological astronomy meant a defeat of that ideal? . . . Has manperhaps become less in need of a transcendent solution to the riddle of his existence because this existence has since come to look still more arbitrary,loiterer-like, and dispensable in the visible order of things? Has not mans self-deprecation, his willto self-deprecation, been unstoppably on the increase since Copernicus? Gone, alas, is his faith in his dignity, unique- ness, irreplaceableness in the rank-ordering of beings, he has become animal , literally, unqualiedly and unreservedly an animal, man who in his earlier faiths was almost God (child of God, man of God) . . . SinceCopernicus, man seems to have been on a downward path, now he seemsto be rolling faster and faster away from the centre where to? into noth-ingness? into the piercing sensation of his nothingness? Well! that would be the straight path to the oldideal? . . . Allscience (and not just astronomy alone, the humiliating and degrading effects of which Kant singled out for the remarkable confession that it destroys my impor- tance 121. . .), all science, natural as well as unnatural this is the name I would give to the self-critique of knowledge is nowadays seeking to talk man out of his former self-respect as though this were nothing but a bizarre piece of self-conceit; you could almost say that its own pride, its own austere form of stoical ataraxy, consisted in maintaining this labori- ously won self-contempt of man as his last, most serious claim to self- respect (in fact, rightly so: for the person who feels contempt is always someone who has not forgotten how to respect . . .). Does this really work against the ascetic ideal? Do people in all seriousness still really believe (as theologians imagined for a while), that, say, Kants victory over theological conceptual dogmatism (God, soul, freedom, immortal-ity) damaged that ideal? we shall not, for the moment, concern our- selves with whether Kant himself had anything like that in view. What is certain is that every sort of transcendentalist since Kant has had a winning hand, they are emancipated from the theologians: what good luck! he showed them the secret path on which, from now on, they could, inde-pendently, and with the best scientic decorum, pursue their hearts desires. Likewise: who would blame the agnostics if, as worshippers of the unknown and the secret, they worship the question mark itself as God.Third essay 115121Critique of Pure Reason A289. (Xaver Doudan on one occasion speaks of the ravages caused by lhabi- tude dadmirer linintelligible au lieu de rester tout simplement dans lin- connu ;122he thinks the ancients avoided this.) Suppose that everything man knows does not satisfy his desires but instead contradicts them and arouses horror, what a divine excuse it is to be permitted to lay the guilt for this at the door of knowing rather than wishing! . . . There is noknowing: consequently there is a God: what a new elegantia syllogismi ! 123 What a triumph for the ascetic ideal! 26 Or did the whole of modern historiography take a more condent pos- ition regarding life and ideals? Its noblest claim nowadays is that it is a mirror , it rejects all teleology, it does not want to prove anything any more; it scorns playing the judge, and shows good taste there, it afrms as little as it denies, it asserts and describes . . . All this is ascetic to a high degree; but to an even higher degree it is nihilistic , make no mistake about it! You see a sad, hard but determined gaze, an eye peers out , like a lone explorer at the North Pole (perhaps so as not to peer in? or peer back? . . .). Herethere is snow, here life is silenced; the last crows heard here are called whatfor?, in vain, nada 124 here nothing ourishes or grows any more, except, perhaps, for St Petersburg metapolitics and Tolstois compassion. With regard to that other type of historian, perhaps an even more modern, pleasure-seeking, voluptuous type who irts with life as much as with the ascetic ideal, who uses the word artist as a glove and comman- deers for himself the praise of contemplation: oh, how thirsty these cloyingwits make me even for ascetics and winter landscapes! No! Let such con- templative people go to the devil! I would vastly prefer to wander through the most sombre, grey, cold mists with those historic nihilists! indeed, if I had to choose, I might even lend an ear to someone quite unhistorical, anti-historical (such as Dhring, whose voice enraptures a hitherto shy andunacknowledged species of beautiful souls in Germany today, the species anarchistica within the educated proletariat). The contemplatives are a hundred times worse : I know of nothing as nauseating as this type of objective armchair scholar and perfumed sensualist towards history,On the Genealogy of Morality 116122the habit of transforming the unintelligible into an object of admiration rather than remaining simply in the unknown. 123elegant form of inference. 124nothing. half-priest, half-satyr, Renan-scented, who reveals, by the mere falsetto of his approval, all that he lacks, where he lacks it, where the fates in his case have been, alas! rather too surgical with their cruel scissors! I have neithertaste nor patience for this: the person with nothing to lose by doing so cankeep patient at such sights, I become angry at them, such spectatorsmake me more embittered towards the play than the play itself does (history itself, you understand), anacreontic moods seize me unexpectedly. Nature, which gave the bull its horn and the lion its xa/sm o0do0ntwn , 125 gave me a foot what for? . . . To kick, by holy Anacreon! not just to run away: to kick to pieces the rotten armchairs, this cowardly contemplative- ness, this lewd eunuchism towards history, this irting with ascetic ideals, this tartuffery of fairness that results from impotence! I have every respect for the ascetic ideal in so far as it is honest ! so long as it believes in itself and does not tell us bad jokes! But I dislike all these coquettish bedbugs, withtheir insatiable ambition to smell out innity until nally innity smells ofbedbugs; I dislike the whitewashed graves which portray life; I dislike thetired and worn-out who cocoon themselves in wisdom and look objective; I dislike agitators dressed up as heroes who wear a magic cap of ideals around their straw heads; I dislike the ambitious artists who want to betaken for ascetics and priests and are basically just pathetic clowns; I also dislike the latest speculators in idealism, the anti-Semites, who nowadays roll their Christian-Aryan-Philistine eyes and try to stir up the bovine elements in the population through a misuse, which exhausts all patience, of the cheapest means of agitating, the moralistic attitude ( the fact thatevery type of charlatanism in todays Germany is rewarded with success is related to the practically undeniable, already palpable desolation of the German spirit [ des deutschen Geistes ], the cause of which I look for in the almost exclusive diet of newspapers, politics, beer and Wagnerian music, in addition, the precondition for this regimen: namely the national constrict-edness and vanity, the strong but narrow-minded principle of Deutschland Deutschland ber alles , as well as the paralysis agitans 126of modern ideals). Europe is rich and inventive nowadays, especially in methods of stimula- tion, nothing seems more essential than stimulantia and strong liquor: which explains the enormous hypocrisy in ideals, spirits strongest liquor, and therefore, also, the disgusting, foul-smelling, mendacious,Third essay 117125yawning gap of teeth. This is from number 26of the poems in the collection ascribed to Anacreon. (Modern scholarship no longer attributes these poems to the sixth-centurypoet of Teos.) 126shaking palsy. pseudo-alcoholic air everywhere. I want to know how many shiploads of sham idealism, hero-outts and tinny rattle of great words, how many tons of sugared, alcoholic sympathy (distillery: la religion de la souffrance127), how many stilts of noble indignation to help the spiritually at-footed, how many comedians of the Christian moral ideal Europe would have to export for its air to smell cleaner . . . Obviously , a new type of trade possi- bility is opened up with regard to this overproduction, obviously, business can be made out of little idolatrous ideals and related idealists: do not letthis opportunity slip by! Who has enough courage for it? it is in our hands whether we idealize the whole earth! . . . But why am I talking about courage: one thing only is needful, a hand, an uninhibited, very uninhib- ited hand . . . 27 Enough! Enough! Let us leave these curiosities and complexities of the most modern spirit, which have as many ridiculous as irritating aspects: ourproblem, indeed, can do without them, the problem of the meaning of the ascetic ideal, what has that to do with yesterday and today! These things will be addressed by me more fully and seriously in another connection (with the title On the History of European Nihilism;for which I refer you to a work I am writing, The Will to Power. Attempt at a Revaluation of all Values ). The only reason I have alluded to this is that the ascetic ideal has, for the present, even in the most spiritual sphere, only one type of real enemy and injurer : these are the comedians of this ideal because they arouse mistrust. Everywhere else where spirit is atwork in a rigorous, powerful and honest way, it now completely lacks an ideal the popular expression for this abstinence is atheism : except for its will to truth . But this will, this remnant of an ideal, if you believe me, is that ideal itself in its strictest, most spiritual formulation, completely eso- teric, totally stripped of externals, and thus not so much its remnant as itskernel . Unconditional, honest atheism ( itsair alone is what we breathe, we more spiritual men of the age!) is therefore notopposed to the ascetic ideal as it appears to be; instead, it is only one of the ideals last phases of development, one of its nal forms and inherent logical conclusions, it is the awe-inspiring catastrophe of a two-thousand-year discipline in truth-telling, which nally forbids itself the lie entailed in the belief inOn the Genealogy of Morality 118127the religion of suffering. God. (The same process of development in India, completely independ- ently, which therefore proves something; the same ideal forcing the same conclusion; the decisive point was reached ve centuries before theEuropean era began, with Buddha or, more precisely: already with theSankhya philosophy subsequently popularized by Buddha and made intoa religion.) What , strictly speaking, has actually conquered the Christian God? The answer is in my Gay Science (section 357): 128Christian moral- ity itself, the concept of truthfulness which was taken more and more seriously, the confessional punctiliousness of Christian conscience, trans- lated and sublimated into scientic conscience, into intellectual rigour atany price. Regarding nature as though it were a proof of Gods goodnessand providence; interpreting history in honour of divine reason, as a con-stant testimonial to an ethical world order and ethical ultimate purpose; explaining all ones own experiences in the way pious folk have done for long enough, as though everything were providence, a sign, intended, and sent for the salvation of the soul: now all that is over, it has conscience against it, every sensitive conscience sees it as indecent, dishonest, as a pack of lies, feminism, weakness, cowardice, this severity makes us good Europeans if anything does, and heirs to Europes most protracted and bravest self-overcoming! . . . All great things bring about their owndemise through an act of self-sublimation: that is the law of life, the lawofnecessary self-overcoming in the essence of life, the lawgiver himself is always ultimately exposed to the cry: patere legem, quam ipse tulisti . 129 In this way, Christianity as a dogma was destroyed by its own morality , in the same way Christianity as a morality must also be destroyed, we stand on the threshold of thisoccurrence. After Christian truthfulness has drawn one conclusion after another, it will nally draw the strongest con- clusion , that against itself; this will, h owever, happen when it asks itself, What does all will to truth mean? . . . and here I touch on my problem again, on our problem, my unknown friends ( because I dont know of any friend as yet): what meaning does ourbeing have, if it were not that that will to truth has become conscious of itself as a problem in us? . . . Without a doubt, from now on, morality will be destroyed by the will to truths becoming-conscious-of-itself: that great drama in a hundred actsreserved for Europe in the next two centuries, the most terrible, most questionable drama but perhaps also the one most rich in hope . . .Third essay 119128See below Supplementary material, pp. 1603. 129Submit to the law you have yourself made. 28 Except for the ascetic ideal: man, the animal man, had no meaning up to now. His existence on earth had no purpose; What is man for, actu- ally? was a question without an answer; there was no willfor man and earth; behind every great human destiny sounded the even louder refrainin vain! This is what the ascetic ideal meant: something was missing , there was an immense lacuna around man, he himself could think of no jus- tication or explanation or afrmation, he suffered from the problem of what he meant. Other things made him suffer too, in the main he was a sickly animal: but suffering itself was nothis problem, instead, the fact that there was no answer to the question he screamed, Suffering for what ? Man, the bravest animal and most prone to suffer, does notdeny suffering as such: he wills it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering. The meaninglessness of suffering, notthe suffering, was the curse that has so far blanketed mankind, and the ascetic ideal offered man a meaning ! Up to now it was the only meaning, but any meaning at all is better than no meaning at all; the ascetic idealwas, in every respect, the ultimate faute de mieux par excellence . Within it, suffering was interpreted; the enormous emptiness seemed lled; the door was shut on all suicidal nihilism. The interpretation without a doubt brought new suffering with it, deeper, more internal, more poi- sonous suffering, suffering that gnawed away more intensely at life: itbrought all suffering within the perspective of guilt . . . But in spite of all that man was saved , he had a meaning , from now on he was no longer like a leaf in the breeze, the plaything of the absurd, of non-sense; fromnow on he could willsomething, no matter what, why and how he did it at rst, the will itself was saved . It is absolutely impossible for us to conceal what was actually expressed by that whole willing that derives its direction from the ascetic ideal: this hatred of the human, and even more of the animalistic, even more of the material, this horror of the senses, of reason itself, this fear of happiness and beauty, this longing to get away from appearance, transience, growth, death, wishing, longing itself allthat means, let us dare to grasp it, a will to nothingness , an aversion to life, a rebellion against the most fundamental prerequisites of life, but it is and remains a will! . . . And, to conclude by saying what I said at the begin- ning: man still prefers to will nothingness , than notwill . . .On the Genealogy of Morality 120 SUPP LEMENT ARY MATERI AL TO ON THE GENEALOGY OF MORALITY The following section includes full translation of all the material which Nietzsche either refers to or partly cites from in the Genealogy of Morality . Human, All Too Human Volume 1, Section 45 Twofold prehistory of good and evil . The concept good and evil has a two-fold prehistory: rstly in the soul of the ruling tribes and castes. He who has the power to requite, good with good, evil with evil, and also actu- ally practises requital is, that is to say, grateful and revengeful is called good; he who is powerless and cannot requite counts as bad. As a good man one belongs to the good, a community which has a sense of belong-ing together because all the individuals in it are combined with oneanother through the capacity for requital. As a bad man one belongs tothe bad, to a swarm of subject, powerless people who have no sense of belonging together. The good are a caste, the bad a mass like grains of sand. Good and bad is for a long time the same thing as noble and base,master and slave. On the other hand, one does not regard the enemy as evil: he can requite. In Homer the Trojan and the Greek are both good. It is not he who does us harm but he who is contemptible who counts as bad. In the community of the good goodness is inherited; it is impossible that a bad man could grow up out of such good soil. If, h owever, one of the good should do something unworthy of the good, one looks for excuses; one ascribes the guilt to a god, for example, by saying he struck the good man with madness and rendered him blind. Then in the soul of the sub- jected, the powerless. Here every other man, whether he be noble or base, counts as inimical, ruthless, cruel, cunning, ready to take advantage. Evilis the characterizing expression for man, indeed for every living being onesupposes to exist, for a god, for example; human, divine mean the samething as diabolical, evil. Signs of goodness, benevolence, sympathy are 123 received fearfully as a trick, a prelude with a dreadful termination, a means of confusing and outwitting, in short as rened wickedness. When this disposition exists in the individual a community can hardly arise, atbest the most rudimentary form of community: so that wherever this con-ception of good and evil reigns the downfall of such individuals, of theirtribes and races, is near. Our present morality has grown up in the soil of the ruling tribes and castes. 1,92 Origin of justice . Justice (fairness) originates between parties of approximately equal power , as Thucydides correctly grasped (in the ter- rible colloquy between the Athenian and Melian ambassadors): where there is no clearly recognizable superiority of force and a contest wouldresult in mutual injury producing no decisive outcome the idea arises ofcoming to an understanding and negotiating over one anothers demands:the characteristic of exchange is the original characteristic of justice. Each satises the other, inasmuch as each acquires what he values more than the other does. One gives to the other what he wants to have, to be hence- forth his own, and in return receives what one oneself desires. Justice is thus requital and exchange under the presupposition of an approximatelyequal power position: revenge therefore belongs originally within the domain of justice, it is an exchange. Gratitude likewise. Justice goes back naturally to the viewpoint of an enlightened self-preservation, thus to the egoism of the reection: to what end should I injure myself use- lessly and perhaps even then not achieve my goal? so much for the origin of justice. Since, in accordance with their intellectual habit, men have for- gotten the original purpose of so-called just and fair actions, and especially because children have for millennia been trained to admire and imitate such actions, it has gradually come to appear that a just action is an une- goistic one: but it is on this appearance that the high value accorded itdepends; and this high value is, moreover, continually increasing, as all valuations do: for something highly valued is striven for, imitated, multi- plied through sacrice, and grows as the worth of the toil and zeal expended by each individual is added to the worth of the valued thing How little moral would the world appear without forgetfulness! A poetcould say that God has placed forgetfulness as a doorkeeper on the thresh-old of the temple of human dignity .Supplementary material 124 1,96 Custom and what is in accordance with it . To be moral, to act in accor- dance with custom, to be ethical means to practise obedience towards a law or tradition established from of old. Whether one subjects oneself with effort or gladly and willingly makes no difference, it is enough thatone does it. He is called good who does what is customary as if by nature,as a result of a long inheritance, that is to say easily and gladly, and this isso whatever what is customary may be (exacts revenge, for example, when exacting revenge is part of good custom, as it was with the ancient Greeks). He is called good because he is good for something; since, however, benevolence, sympathy and the like have throughout all the changes in customs always been seen as good for something, as useful, itis now above all the benevolent, the helpful who are called good. To be evil is not to act in accordance with custom, to practise things not sanc-tioned by custom, to resist tradition, h owever ratio nal or stupid that tra- dition may be; in all the laws of custom of all times, h owever, doing injury to ones neighbour has been seen as injurious above all else, so that nowat the word evil we think especially of voluntarily doing injury to ones neighbour. Egoistic and unegoistic is not the fundamental antithesis which has led men to make the distinction between in accordance with custom and in deance of custom, between good and evil, but adher- ence to a tradition, a law, and severance from it. How the tradition hasarisen is here a matter of indifference, and has in any event nothing to do with good and evil or with any kind of immanent categorical imperative; it is above all directed at the preservation of a community , a people; every superstitious usage which has arisen on the basis of some chance event mistakenly interpreted enforces a tradition which it is in accordance withcustom to follow; for to sever oneself from it is dangerous, and even more injurious to the community than to the individual (because the gods punish the community for misdeeds and for every violation of their priv- ileges and only to that extent punish the individual). Every tradition now continually grows more venerable the farther away its origin lies andthe more this origin is forgotten; the respect paid to it increases from generation to generation, the tradition at last becomes holy and evokes awe and reverence; and thus the morality of piety is in any event amuch older morality than that which demands unegoistic actions.Human, All Too Human 125 1,99 The innocent element in so-called evil acts . All evil acts are motivated by the drive to preservation or, more exactly , by the individuals intention of procuring pleasure and avoiding displeasure; so motivated, however, they are not evil. Procuring pain as such does not exist , except in the brains of philosophers, neither does procuring pleasure as such (compassion1in the Schopenhauerian sense). In conditions obtaining before the existence of the state we kill the creature, be it ape or man, that seeks to deprive us of a fruit of the tree if we happen to be hungry and are making for the tree ourself: as we would still do to the animals even now if we were travelling in inhos-pitable regions. The evil acts at which we are now most indignant rest on the error that he who perpetrates them against us possesses free will, that is to say , that he could have chosen not to cause us this harm. It is this belief in choice that engenders hatred, revengefulness, deceitfulness, all the degrad- ing our imagination undergoes, while we are far less censorious towards an animal because we regard it as unaccountable. To do injury not from thedrive to preservation but as requital is the consequence of a mistaken judg-ment and therefore likewise innocent. In conditions obtaining before theexistence of the state the individual can act harshly and cruelly for the purpose of frightening other creatures: to secure his existence through such fear-inspiring tests of his power. Thus does the man of violence, of power,the original founder of states, act when he subjugates the weaker. His right to do so is the same as the state now relegates to itself; or rather, there exists no right that can prevent this from happening. The ground for any kind of morality can then be prepared only when a greater individual or a collective individuality , for example society , the state, subjugates all other individuals,that is to say draws them out of their isolation and orders them within a col- lective. Morality is preceded by compulsion , indeed it is for a time itself still compulsion, to which one accommodates oneself for the avoidance of what one regards as unpleasurable. Later it becomes custom, later still voluntary obedience, nally almost instinct: then, like all that has for a long time beenhabitual and natural, it is associated with pleasure and is now called virtue . 1,136 Of Christian asceticism and holiness . However much individual thinkers have exerted themselves to represent those strange phenomenaSupplementary material 1261Mitleid : changed to compassion, and on following pages to page 144. of morality usually called asceticism and holiness as a marvel and miracle to attempt a rational explanation of which is almost a sacrilege and pro- fanation: the urge to commit this sacrilege is, on the other hand, every bitas strong. A mighty drive of nature has at all times prompted a protest against these phenomena as such; science, insofar as it is, as aforesaid, animitation of nature, permits itself at least to register a protest against the alleged inexplicability, indeed inapproachability, of the said phenomena. So far, to be sure, it has done so in vain: they are still unexplained, a fact that gives great satisfaction to the above-mentioned votaries of the morally miraculous. For, speaking quite generally , the unexplained is to be altogether inexplicable, the inexplicable altogether unnatural, super-natural, miraculous thus sounds the demand in the souls of all religious people and metaphysicians (in those of the artists, too, when they are also thinkers); while the scientific man sees in this demand the evil principle. The first general probability one arrives at when reflecting on holiness and asceticism is that its nature is a complex one: for almost everywhere, within the physical world as well as in the moral, the supposedly marvel- lous has successfully been traced back to the complex, to the multiply caused. Let us therefore venture first to isolate individual drives in thesoul of the saint and ascetic and then conclude by thinking of them entwined together. Volume 11,Assorted Opinions and Maxims , section 89 Custom and its sacrices . The origin of custom lies in two ideas: the community is worth more than the individual and an enduring advan- tage is to be preferred to a transient one; from which it follows that the enduring advantage of the community is to take unconditional prece- dence over the advantage of the individual, especially over his momentary well-being but also over his enduring advantage and even over his sur-vival. Even if the individual suffers from an arrangement which benets the whole, even if he languishes under it, perishes by it the custom must be maintained the sacrice offered up. Such an attitude originates , however, o nly in those who are notthe sacrice for the latter urges that, in his own case, the individual could be worth more than the many, like-wise that present enjoyment, the moment in paradise, is perhaps to be rated higher than an insipid living-on in a painless condition of comfort.The philosophy of the sacricial beast, h owever, is always noised abroad too late: and so we continue on with custom and morality [Sittlichkeit ]: which latter is nothing other than simply a feeling for the whole contentHuman, All Too Human 127 of those customs under which we live and have been raised and raised, indeed, not as an individual, but as a member of the whole, as a cipher in a majority . So it comes about that through his morality the individualoutvotes himself. Volume 11,The Wanderer and His Shadow, section 22 Principle of equilibrium . The brigand and the man of power who promises to defend a community against the brigand are probably at bottom very similar beings, except that the latter obtains what he wants in a different way from the former: namely through regular tributes paid to him by the community and not by imposts levied by force. (It is the same relationship as that between merchant and pirate, who are for a longtime one and the same person: where one function does not seem to him advisable he practises the other. Even now, indeed, merchants morality is really, only a more prudent form of pirates morality: to buy as cheap as possible where possible for no more than the operational costs to sell as dear as possible.) The essential thing is: this man of power promises tomaintain an equilibrium with the brigand; in this the weaker perceive a possibility of living. For they must either combine together to produce an equivalent power or subject themselves to one already possessing this equivalent power (perform services for him in exchange for his protec- tion). The latter proceeding is easily the preferred one, because at bottomit holds twodangerous beings in check: the former through the latter, the latter through considerations of advantage; for the latter derives benet from treating the subject community with kindness or restraint so that they may feed not only themselves but their master too. In reality the people can still have a hard enough time of it even under this arrange-ment, but when they compare it with the perpetual possibility of com- plete destruction that preceded it they nd even this condition endurable. The community is originally the organization of the weak for the pro- duction of an equilibrium with powers that threaten it with danger. An organization to produce preponderance would be more advisable if thecommunity could thereby become strong enough to destroy the threaten- ing power once and for all: and if it were a matter of a single powerful depredator this would certainly be attempted . If, however, he is the head of a clan or has a large following his speedy and decisive destruction isunlikely to be accomplished and what is to be expected is a long-drawn-out feud: but this state of things is the least desirable one for theSupplementary material 128 community , since it must deprive them of the time they need for the pro- vision of their subsistence with the regularity it requires and be attended by the ever-present threat that they will be deprived of all the products oftheir labours. That is why the community prefers to bring its power ofdefence and attack up to precisely the point at which the power possessedby its dangerous neighbour stands and then to give him to understand that the scales are now evenly balanced: why, in that event, should they not be good friends with one another? Equilibrium is thus a very import- ant concept for the oldest theory of law and morality; equilibrium is the basis of justice. When in ruder ages justice says: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, it presupposes that equilibrium has been attained and seeksthrough this retribution to preserve it: so that when one man now trans- gresses against another, the other no longer takes on him the revenge of blind animosity . On the contrary, by virtue of the jus talionis the equilib- rium of the disturbed power relationship is restored : for in such primeval conditions one eye, one arm more is one piece of power more, one weight more in the scales. Within a community in which all regard themselves as equivalent there exist disgrace and punishment as measures against transgressions, that is to say against disruptions of the principle of equi-librium: disgrace as a weight placed in the scales against the encroaching individual who has procured advantages for himself through his encroachment and now through the disgrace he incurs experiences dis- advantages which abolish these earlier advantages and outweigh them. The same applies to punishment: against the preponderance which everycriminal promises himself it imposes a far greater counter-weight, enforced imprisonment for acts of violence, restitution and punitive nes for theft. In this way the transgressor is reminded that through his act he hasexcluded himself from the community and its moral advantages : the community treats him as one who is not equivalent, as one of the weakstanding outside it; that is why punishment is not only retribution but contains something more , something of the harshness of the state of nature ; it is precisely thisthat it wants to recall . 11,26 Rule of law as a means. Law, reposing on compacts between equals , continues to exist for so long as the power of those who have concludedthese compacts remains equal or similar; prudence created law to put anend to feuding and to useless squandering between forces of similarHuman, All Too Human 129 strength. But just as denitive an end is put to them if one party has become decisively weaker than the other: then subjection enters in and law ceases , but the consequence is the same as that previously attained through therule of law. For now it is the prudence of the dominant party which advises that the strength of the subjected should be economized and not uselessly squandered: and often the subjected nd themselves in more favourablecircumstances than they did when they were equals. The rule of law isthus a temporary means advised by prudence, not an end. 11,33 Elements of revenge . The word revenge is said so quickly it almost seems as if it could contain no more than one conceptual and perceptional root. And so one continues to strive to discover it: just as our economists have not yet wearied of scenting a similar unity in the word value and of searching after the original root-concept of the word. As if every word were not a pocket into which now this, now that, now several things atonce have been put! Thus revenge, too, is now this, now that, now some-thing more combined. Distinguish rst of all that defensive return blowwhich one delivers even against lifeless objects (moving machinery, for example) which have hurt us: the sense of our counter-action is to put a stop to the injury by putting a stop to the machine. To achieve this theviolence of the counter-blow sometimes has to be so great as to shatter the machine; if, h owever, it is in f act too strong to be instantly destroyed by a single individual, the latter will nonetheless still deliver the most vigor- ous blow of which he is capable as a last-ditch effort, so to speak. One behaves in a similar way towards people who have harmed us when we feelthe injury directly; if one wants to call this an act of revenge, all well and good; only let it be considered that self-preservation alone has here set its clockwork of reason in motion, and that one has fundamentally been thinking, not of the person who caused the injury, but only of oneself: we act thus without wanting to do harm in return, but only so as to get out with life and limb. One needs time if one is to transfer ones thoughts from oneself to ones opponent and to ask oneself how he can be hit at most grievously. This happens in the second species of revenge: its presuppos- ition is a reection over the others vulnerability and capacity for suffer- ing: one wants to hurt. To secure himself against further harm is here sofar from the mind of the revenger that he almost always brings furtherharm upon himself and very often cold-bloodedly anticipates it. If in theSupplementary material 130 case of the rst species of revenge it was fear of a second blow which made the counter-blow as vigorous as possible, here there is almost complete indifference to what the opponent willdo; the vigour of the counterblow is determined only by that which he hasdone to us. What, then, has he done? And of what use is it to us if our opponent now suffers after we havesuffered through him? It is a question of restitution : while the act of revenge of the rst species serves only self-preservation . Perhaps we lost property , rank, friends, children through our opponent these losses are not made good by revenge, the restitution applies only to an attendant loss occasioned by the other losses referred to. Restitutional revenge does not protect one from further harm, it does not make good the harm one hassuffered except in one case. If our honour has suffered through our opponent revenge is capable of restoring it. But our honour has suffered harm in every case in which someone has done us a deliberate injury: forour opponent proved thereby that he did not fearus. By revenging ourself on him we prove that we do not fear him either: it is in this that the com- pensation, the restitution lies. (The objective of demonstrating the com- plete absence of feargoes so far in the case of some people that the danger to themselves involved in the revenge loss of health or life or otherdeprivations counts as an indispensable condition of the revenge. That is why they choose the path of the duel even when the courts offer them a means of acquiring compensation for the offence they have sustained: they refuse to regard as sufcient a restitution of their honour that involves no risk because it cannot serve to demonstrate their lack of fear.) In the rst species of revenge it is precisely fear which directs the counter-blow: here, on the contrary, it is the absence of fear which, as stated, wants to prove itself through the counter-blow. Nothing, there- fore, could appear more different than the inner motives of these two modes of action which are called by the common word revenge: and yetit very often happens that the revenger is unclear as to what has really determined his action; perhaps he delivered the counter-blow out of fear and to preserve himself but afterwards, when he has had time to reect on the motive of wounded honour, convinces himself he has exacted revenge on account of his honour: this motive is, after all, nobler than the other. An essential element in this is whether he sees his honour as having been injured in the eyes of others (the world) or only in the eyes of him who injured it: in the latter case he will prefer secret revenge, inthe former public. His revenge will be the more incensed or the moremoderate according to how deeply or weakly he can think his way into theHuman, All Too Human 131 soul of the perpetrator and the witnesses of his injury; if he is wholly lacking in this kind of imagination he will not think of revenge at all, since the feeling of honour will not be present in him and thus cannot bewounded. He will likewise not think of revenge if he despises the perpet- rator and the witnesses: because, as people he despises, they cannot accordhim any honour and consequently cannot take any honour from him either. Finally, he will refrain from revenge in the not uncommon case that he loves the perpetrator: he will thus lose honour in the perpetrators eyes, to be sure, and will perhaps become less worthy of being loved in return. But to renounce even all claim to love in return is a sacrice which love is prepared to make if only it does not have to hurt the beloved being: this would mean hurting himself more than any sacrice hurts. Thus:everyone will revenge himself, except if he is without honour or full ofcontempt or full of love for the person who has harmed and offended him.Even when he turns to the courts he desires revenge as a private person: additionally , however, as a f ore-thoughtful man of society , he desires the revenge of society on one who does not honour it. Through judicial pun- ishment, private honour as well as the honour of society is thus restored: that is to say punishment is revenge. Undoubtedly there is also in itthose other elements of revenge already described, insofar as through punishment society serves its own self-preservation and delivers a counter- blow in self-defence . Punishment serves to prevent further injury, it wishes todeter . Two such various elements of revenge are thus actually united in punishment, and the main effect of this may be to sustain the confusionof concepts referred to by virtue of which the individual who takes revenge usually does not know what he really wants.Supplementary material 132 Daybreak Book 1, section 9 Concept of morality of custom . In comparison with the mode of life of whole millennia of mankind we present-day men live in a very immoral age: the power of custom is astonishingly enfeebled and the moral sense so rareed and lofty it may be described as having more or less evaporated. That is why the fundamental insights into the origin of morality are so difcult for us latecomers, and even when we have acquired them we ndit impossible to enunciate them, because they sound so uncouth orbecause they seem to slander morality! This is, for example, already thecase with the chief proposition : morality is nothing other (therefore no more !) than obedience to customs, of whatever kind they may be; customs, however, are the traditional way of behaving and evaluating. In things in which no tradition commands there is no morality; and the less life is determined by tradition, the smaller the circle of morality . The free human being is immoral because in all things he is determined to depend upon himself and not upon a tradition: in all the original conditions of mankind, evil signies the same as individual, free, capricious,unusual, unforeseen, incalculable. Judged by the standard of these conditions, if an action is performed notbecause tradition commands it but for other motives (because of its usefulness to the individual, for example), even indeed for precisely the motives which once founded the tradition, it is called immoral and is felt to be so by him who performedit: for it was not performed in obedience to tradition. What is tradition?A higher authority which one obeys, not because it commands what isuseful to us, but because it commands . What distinguishes this feeling in 133 the presence of tradition from the feeling of fear in general? It is fear in the presence of a higher intellect which here commands, of an incompre- hensible, indenite power, of something more than personal there issuperstition in this fear. Originally all education and care of health, mar- riage, cure of sickness, agriculture, war, speech and silence, trafc withone another and with the gods belonged within the domain of morality: they demanded one observe prescriptions without thinking of oneself as an individual. Originally, therefore, everything was custom, and whoever wanted to elevate himself above it had to become lawgiver and medicine man and a kind of demi-god: that is to say, he had to make customs a dreadful, mortally dangerous thing! Who is the most moral man? First ,h e who obeys the law most frequently: who, like the Brahmin, bears a con-sciousness of the law with him everywhere and into every minute divisionof time, so that he is continually inventive in creating opportunities forobeying the law. Then , he who obeys it even in the most difcult cases. The most moral man is he who sacrices the most to custom: what, however, are the greatest sacrices? The way in which this question is answered determines the development of several diverse kinds of moral- ity; but the most important distinction remains that which divides themorality of most frequent obedience from that of the most difcult obedi- ence. Let us not deceive ourselves as to the motivation of that morality which demands difculty of obedience to custom as the mark of moral- ity! Self-overcoming is demanded, noton account of the useful conse- quences it may have for the individual, but so that the hegemony ofcustom, tradition, shall be made evident in despite of the private desires and advantages of the individual: the individual is to sacrice himself that is the commandment of morality of custom. Those moralists, on the other hand, who, following in the footsteps of Socrates, offer the indi- vidual a morality of self-control and temperance as a means to his own advantage , as his personal key to happiness, are the exceptions and if it seems otherwise to us that is because we have been brought up in their after-effect: they all take a new path under the highest disapprobation of all advocates of morality of custom they cut themselves off from the community , as immoral men, and are in the profoundest sense evil. Thusto a virtuous Roman of the old stamp every Christian who considered rst of all his ownsalvation appeared evil. Everywhere that a community , and consequently a morality of custom exists, the idea also predominatesthat punishment for breaches of custom will fall before all on the com-munity: that supernatural punishment whose forms of expression andSupplementary material 134 limitations are so hard to comprehend and are explored with so much superstitious fear. The community can compel the individual to compen- sate another individual or the community for the immediate injury hisaction has brought in its train; it can also take a kind of revenge on theindividual for having, as a supposed after-effect of his action, caused theclouds and storms of divine anger to have gathered over the community but it feels the individuals guilt above all as its own guilt and bears the punishment as its own punishment : customs have grown lax, each wails in his soul, if such actions as this are possible. Every individual action, every individual mode of thought arouses dread; it is impossible to compute what precisely the rarer, choicer, more original spirits in thewhole course of history have had to suffer through being felt as evil and dangerous; indeed through feeling themselves to be so . Under the domin- ion of the morality of custom, originality of every kind has acquired a badconscience; the sky above the best men is for this reason to this very moment gloomier than it need be. 1,14 Signicance of madness in the history of morality . When in spite of that fearful pressure of morality of custom under which all the commu- nities of mankind have lived, many millennia before the beginnings of our calendar and also on the whole during the course of it up to the present day (we ourselves dwell in the little world of the exceptions and, so to speak, in the evil zone): when, I say, in spite of this, new and deviateideas, evaluations, drives again and again broke out, they did so accom- panied by a dreadful attendant: almost everywhere it was madness which prepared the way for the new idea, which broke the spell of a venerated usage and superstition. Do you understand why it had to be madness which did this? Something in voice and bearing as uncanny and incalcu-lable as the demonic moods of the weather and the sea and therefore worthy of a similar awe and observation? Something that bore so visibly the sign of total unfreedom as the convulsions and froth of the epileptic, that seemed to mark the madman as the mask and speaking-trumpet of a divinity? Something that awoke in the bearer of a new idea himself rev-erence for and dread of himself and no longer pangs of conscience and drove him to become the prophet and martyr of his idea? while it is con-stantly suggested to us today that, instead of a grain of salt, a grain of thespice of madness is joined to genius, all earlier people found it much moreDaybreak 135 likely that wherever there is madness there is also a grain of genius and wisdom something divine, as one whispered to oneself. Or rather: as one said aloud forcefully enough. It is through madness that the greatestgood things have come to Greece, Plato said, in concert with all ancientmankind. Let us go a step further: all superior men who were irresistiblydrawn to throw off the yoke of any kind of morality and to frame new laws had, if they were not actually mad, no alternative but to make themselves or pretend to be mad and this indeed applies to innovators in every domain and not only in the domain of priestly and political dogma: even the innovator of poetical metre had to establish his credentials by madness. (A certain convention that they were mad continued to adhereto poets even into much gentler ages: a convention of which Solon, for example, availed himself when he incited the Athenians to reconquer Salamis.) How can one make oneself mad when one is not mad and doesnot dare to appear so? almost all the signicant men of ancient civiliza- tion have pursued this train of thought; a secret teaching of artices and dietetic hints was propagated on this subject, together with the feeling that such reections and purposes were innocent, indeed holy. The recipes for becoming a medicine-man among the Indians, a saint amongthe Christians of the Middle Ages, an angekok among Greenlanders, a pajee among Brazilians are essentially the same: senseless fasting, perpet- ual sexual abstinence, going into the desert or ascending a mountain or a pillar, or sitting in an aged willow tree which looks upon a lake and think- ing of nothing at all except what might bring on an ecstasy and mentaldisorder. Who would venture to take a look into the wilderness of bitter- est and most superuous agonies of soul in which probably the most fruit- ful men of all times have languished! To listen to the sighs of these solitary and agitated minds: Ah, give me madness, you heavenly powers! Madness, that I may at last believe in myself! Give deliriums and convul-sions, sudden lights and darkness, terrify me with frost and re such as no mortal has ever felt with deafening din and prowling gures, make me howl and whine and crawl like a beast: so that I may only come to believe in myself! I am consumed by doubt, I have killed the law, the law anguishes me as a corpse does a living man: if I am not more than the law I am the vilest of all men. The new spirit which is in me, whence is it if it is not from you? Prove to me that I am yours; madness alone can prove it. And only too often this fervour achieved its goal all too well: in thatage in which Christianity proved most fruitful in saints and desertsolitaries, and thought it was proving itself by this fruitfulness, there wereSupplementary material 136 in Jerusalem vast madhouses for abortive saints, for those who had sur- rendered to it their last grain of salt. 1,16 First proposition of civilization . Among barbarous peoples there exists a species of customs whose purpose appears to be custom in general: minute and fundamentally superuous stipulations (as for example those among the Kamshadales forbidding the scraping of snow from the shoes with a knife, the impaling of a coal on a knife, the placing of an iron in the re and he who contravenes them meets death!) which, h owever, keep continually in the consciousness the constant proximity of custom, the perpetual compulsion to practise customs: so as to strengthen themighty proposition with which civilization begins: any custom is betterthan no custom. 1,18 The morality of voluntary suffering . Of all pleasures, which is the greatest for the men of that little, constantly imperilled community which is in a constant state of war and where the sternest morality prevails? for souls, that is to say, which are full of strength, revengefulness, hostil- ity, deceit and suspicion, ready for the most fearful things and made hard by deprivation and morality? The pleasure of cruelty : just as it is reckoned avirtue in a soul under such conditions to be inventive and insatiable in cruelty . In the act of cruelty the community refreshes itself and for once throws off the gloom of constant fear and caution. Cruelty is one of the oldest festive joys of mankind. Consequently it is imagined that the gods too are refreshed and in festive mood when they are offered the spectacleof cruelty and thus there creeps into the world the idea that voluntary suffering , self-chosen torture, is meaningful and valuable. Gradually, custom created within the community a practice corresponding to this idea: all excessive well-being henceforth aroused a degree of mistrust, all hard suffering inspired a degree of condence; people told themselves: itmay well be that the gods frown upon us when we are fortunate and smile upon us when we suffer though certainly they do not feel compassion! For compassion is reckoned contemptible and unworthy of a strong,dreadful soul; they smile because they are amused and put into a goodhumour by our suffering: for to practise cruelty is to enjoy the highestDaybreak 137 gratication of the feeling of power. Thus the concept of the most moral man of the community came to include the virtue of the most frequent suffering, of privation, of the hard life, of cruel chastisement not,t o repeat it again and again, as a means of discipline, of self-control, of sat-isfying the desire for individual happiness but as a virtue which will putthe community in good odour with the evil gods and which steams up tothem like a perpetual propitiatory sacrice on the altar. All those spiritualleaders of the peoples who were able to stir something into motion withinthe inert but fertile mud of their customs have, in addition to madness, also had need of voluntary torture if they were to inspire belief and rst and foremost, as always, their own belief in themselves! The more theirspirit ventured on to new paths and was as a consequence tormented by pangs of conscience and spasms of anxiety , the more cruelly did they rage against their own esh, their own appetites and their own health asthough to offer the divinity a substitute pleasure in case he might perhaps be provoked by this neglect of and opposition to established usages and by the new goals these paths led to. Let us not be too quick to think that we have by now freed ourselves completely from such a logic of feeling! Let the most heroic souls question themselves on this point. Every small-est step in the eld of free thought, of a life shaped personally, has always had to be fought for with spiritual and bodily tortures: not only the step forward, no! the step itself, movement, change of any kind has needed its innumerable martyrs through all the long path-seeking and foundation- laying millennia which, to be sure, are not what one has in mind when oneuses the expression world history that ludicrously tiny portion of human existence; and even within this so-called world history, which is at bottom merely much ado about the latest news, there is no more really vital theme than the age-old tragedy of the martyrs who wanted to stir up the swamp . Nothing has been purchased more dearly than that little bit of human reason and feeling of freedom that now constitutes our pride. It is this pride, h owever, which now makes it almost impossible for us to empathise with those tremendous eras of morality of custom which precede world history as the actual and decisive eras of history which determined the character of mankind : the eras in which suffering counted as virtue, cruelty counted as virtue, dissembling counted as virtue, revenge counted as virtue, denial of reason counted as virtue, while on the other hand well-being was accounted a danger, desire for knowledge wasaccounted a danger, peace was accounted a danger, compassion wasaccounted a danger, being pitied was accounted an affront, work wasSupplementary material 138 accounted an affront, madness was accounted godliness, and change was accounted immoral and pregnant with disaster! Do you think all this has altered and that mankind must therefore have changed its character? Oobservers of mankind, learn better to observe yourselves! 1,42 Origin of the vita contemplativa . In rude ages, where pessimistic judg- ments as to the nature of man and world prevail, the individual in the feeling of possessing all his powers is always intent upon acting in accord- ance with these judgments and thus translating idea into action through hunting, robbing, attacking, mistreatment and murder, including the paler reections of these actions such as are alone tolerated within thecommunity . But if his powers decline, if he feels weary or ill or melan- choly or satiated and as a consequence for the time being devoid of desires and wishes, he is then a relatively better, that is to say less harmful man, and his pessimistic ideas discharge themselves only in words and thoughts, for example about the value of his comrades or his wife or hislife or his gods his judgments will be unfavourable judgments. In this condition he becomes thinker and prophet, or he expands imaginatively on his superstition and devises new usages, or he mocks his enemies but whatever he may think about, all the products of his thinking are bound to reect the condition he is in, which is one in which fear and wearinessare on the increase and his valuation of action and active enjoyment on the decrease; the content of these products of his thinking must corres- pond to the content of these poetical, thoughtful, priestly moods; unfavourable judgment is bound to predominate. Later on, all those who continually acted as the single individual had formerly acted while in thiscondition, and who thus judged unfavourably and whose lives were melancholy and poor in deeds, came to be called poets or thinkers or priests or medicine-men because they were so inactive one would have liked to have despised such men and ejected them from the community; but there was some danger attached to that they were versed in super-stition and on the scent of divine forces, one never doubted that they com- manded unknown sources of power. This is the estimation under which the oldest race of contemplative natures lived despised to just the extent they were not dreaded! In this mufed shape, in this ambiguous guise,with an evil heart and often an anguished head, did contemplationrst appear on earth, at once weak and fearsome, secretly despised andDaybreak 139 publicly loaded with superstitious reference! Here, as always, it is a case ofpudenda origo! . 1,77 On the torments of the soul . Everyone now exclaims loudly against torment inicted by one person on the body of another; indignation is at once ignited against a person capable of doing it; indeed, we tremble at the mere idea of a torment which could be inicted on a man or an animal, and suffer quite dreadfully when we hear of a denitely attested fact of this kind. But we are still far from feeling so decisively and with suchunanimity in regard to torments of the soul and how dreadful it is to inict them. Christianity has made use of them on an unheard-of scaleand continues to preach this species of torture; indeed, it complains quiteinnocently of falling-off and growing lukewarm when it encounters those who are not in this state of torment all with the result that even todaymankind regards spiritual death-by-re, spiritual torture and instru- ments of torture, with the same anxious toleration and indecision as it for-merly did the cruelties inicted on the bodies of men and animals. Hellhas, in truth, been more than merely a word: and the newly created and genuine fear of Hell has been attended by a new species of pity corres-ponding to it, a horrible, ponderously heavy feeling of compassion, unknown to former ages, for those irrevocably damned to Hell a con- dition, for example, which the stone guest gives Don Juan to understand he is in, and which had no doubt often before during the Christian cen- turies wrung tears even from stones. Plutarch gives a gloomy picture ofthe state of a superstitious man in the pagan world: this picture pales when contrasted with the Christian of the Middle Ages who supposes he is no longer going to escape eternal torment. Dreadful portents appear to him: perhaps a stork holding a snake in its beak but hesitating to swallow it. Or nature suddenly blanches or ery colours utter across the ground.Or he is approached by the gures of dead relatives, their faces bearing the traces of fearful sufferings. Or when he is asleep the dark walls of his room grow bright and there appear on them in a yellow exhalation the images of torture-instruments and a confusion of snakes and devils. Indeed, what a dreadful place Christianity had already made of the earthwhen it everywhere erected the crucix and thereby designated the earthas the place where the just man is tortured to death! And when the pow- erful oratory of great Lenten preachers for once fetched into the light ofSupplementary material 140 publicity all the hidden suffering of the individual, the torments of the closet; when a Whiteeld, for instance, preached like a dying man to the dying, now violently weeping, now stamping loudly, and passionatelyand unashamedly, in the most abrupt and cutting tones, directed thewhole weight of his attack upon some one individual present and in afearful manner excluded him from the community then the earth really did seem to want to transform itself into the vale of misery! Whole masses then come together appeared to fall victim to a madness; many were paralysed with fear; others lay unconscious and motionless; some were seized with violent trembling or rent the air for hours with piercing cries. Everywhere a loud breathing, as of people half-choked gasping forair. And truly, says one eye-witness of such a sermon, almost all the sounds to be heard were those of people dying in bitter torment . Let us never forget that it was Christianity which made of the death-bed a bed of torture, and that with the scenes that have since then been enacted upon it, with the terrifying tones which here seemed to be realized for the rst time, the senses and the blood of countless witnesses have been poisoned for the rest of their life and for that of their posterity! Imagine a harmless human being who cannot get over once having heard such words as these:Oh eternity! Oh that I had no soul! Oh that I had never been born! I am damned, damned, lost for ever. A week ago you could have helped me. But now it is all over. Now I belong to the Devil. I go with him to Hell. Break, break, poor hearts of stone! Will you not break? What more can be done for hearts of stone? I am damned that you may be saved! There he is! Yes,there he is! Come, kind Devil! Come! 11,112 On the natural history of rights and duties . Our duties are the rights of others over us. How have they acquired such rights? By taking us to be capable of contracting and of requiring, by positing us as similar and equal to them, and as a consequence entrusting us with something, edu- cating, reproving, supporting us. We full our duty that is to say: we justify the idea of our power on the basis of which all these things werebestowed upon us, we give back in the measure in which we have been given to. It is thus our pride which bids us do our duty when we do something for others in return for something they have done for us, whatwe are doing is restoring our self-regard for in doing something for us,these others have impinged upon our sphere of power, and would haveDaybreak 141 continued to have a hand in it if we did not with the performance of our duty practise a requital, that is to say impinge upon their power. The rights of others can relate only to that which lies within our power; itwould be unreasonable if they wanted of us something we did not possess.Expressed more precisely: only to that which they believe lies within ourpower, provided it is the same thing we believe lies within our power. The same error could easily be made on either side: the feeling of duty depends upon our having the same belief in regard to the extent of our power as others have: that is to say, that we are able to promise certain things and bind ourselves to perform them (freedom of will). My rights are that part of my power which others have not merely concededme, but which they wish me to preserve. How do these others arrive at that? First: through their prudence and fear and caution: whether in that they expect something similar from us in return (protection of their ownrights); or in that they consider that a struggle with us would be perilous or to no purpose; or in that they see in any diminution of our force a dis- advantage to themselves, since we would then be unsuited to forming an alliance with them in opposition to a hostile third power. Then : by dona- tion and cession. In this case, others have enough and more than enoughpower to be able to dispose of some of it and to guarantee to him they have given it to the portion of it they have given: in doing so they presuppose a feeble sense of power in him who lets himself be thus donated to. That is how rights originate: recognized and guaranteed degrees of power. If power-relationships undergo any material alteration, rights disappear andnew ones are created as is demonstrated in the continual disappearance and reformation of rights between nations. If our power is materially diminished, the feeling of those who have hitherto guaranteed our rights changes: they consider whether they can restore us to the full possession we formerly enjoyed if they feel unable to do so, they henceforth denyour rights. Likewise, if our power is materially increased, the feeling of those who have hitherto recognized it but whose recognition is no longer needed changes: they no doubt attempt to suppress it to its former level, they will try to intervene and in doing so will allude to their duty but this is only a useless playing with words. Where rights prevail , a certain condition and degree of power is being maintained, a diminution and increment warded off. The rights of others constitute a concession on the part of our sense of power to the sense of power of those others. If ourpower appears to be deeply shaken and broken, our rights cease to exist:conversely, if we have grown very much more powerful, the rights ofSupplementary material 142 others, as we have previously conceded them, cease to exist for us. The man who wants to be fair is in constant need of the subtle tact of a balance: he must be able to assess degrees of power and rights, which,given the transitory nature of human things, will never stay in equilib-rium for very long but will usually be rising or sinking: being fair is con-sequently difcult and demands much practice and good will, and very much very good sense . 11,113 The striving for distinction . The striving for distinction keeps a con- stant eye on the next man and wants to know what his feelings are: but the empathy which this drive requires for its gratication is far from being harmless or sympathetic or kind. We want, rather, to perceive or divinehow the next man outwardly or inwardly suffers from us, how he loses control over himself and surrenders to the impressions our hand or evenmerely the sight of us makes upon him; and even when he who strives after distinction makes and wants to make a joyful, elevating or cheering impression, he nonetheless enjoys this success not inasmuch as he has given joy to the next man or elevated or cheered him, but inasmuch as he hasimpressed himself on the soul of the other, changed its shape and ruled over it at his own sweet will. The striving for distinction is the striving for domination over the next man, though it be a very indirect domination and only felt or even dreamed. There is a long scale of degrees of this secretly desired domination, and a complete catalogue of them would be almost the same thing as a history of culture, from the earliest, stillgrotesque barbarism up to the grotesqueries of over-renement and morbid idealism. The striving for distinction brings with it for the next man to name only a few steps on the ladder: torment, then blows, then terror, then fearful astonishment, then wonderment, then envy , then admiration, then elevation, then joy, then cheerfulness, then laughter,then derision, then mockery, then ridicule, then giving blows, then impos- ing torment: here at the end of the ladder stands the ascetic and martyr, who feels the highest enjoyment by himself enduring, as a consequence of his drive for distinction, precisely that which, on the rst step of the ladder, his counterpart the barbarian imposes on others on whom and before whom he wants to distinguish himself. The triumph of the asceticover himself, his glance turned inwards which beholds man split asunderinto a sufferer and a spectator, and henceforth gazes out into the outerDaybreak 143 world only in order to gather as it were wood for his own pyre, this nal tragedy of the drive for distinction in which there is only one character burning and consuming himself this is a worthy conclusion and oneappropriate to the commencement: in both cases an unspeakable happi-ness at the sight of torment ! Indeed, happiness, conceived of as the liveli- est feeling of power, has perhaps been nowhere greater on earth than inthe souls of superstitious ascetics. The Brahmins give expression to thisin the story of King Vivamitra, who derived such strength from practis- ing penance for a thousand years that he undertook to construct a new Heaven . I believe that in this whole species of inner experience we are now incompetent novices groping after the solution of riddles: they knewmore about these infamous renements of self-enjoyment 4,000 years ago. The creation of the world: perhaps it was then thought of by some Indian dreamer as an ascetic operation on the part of a god! Perhaps thegod wanted to banish himself into active and moving nature as into an instrument of torture, in order thereby to feel his bliss and power doubled! And supposing it was a god of love: what enjoyment for such a god to create suffering men, to suffer divinely and superhumanly from the ceaseless torment of the sight of them, and thus to tyrannize over himself!And even supposing it was not only a god of love, but also a god of holi- ness and sinlessness: what deliriums of the divine ascetic can be imagined when he creates sin and sinners and eternal damnation and a vast abode of eternal afiction and eternal groaning and sighing! It is not altogether impossible that the souls of Dante, Paul, Calvin and their like may alsoonce have penetrated the gruesome secrets of such voluptuousness of power and in face of such souls one can ask: is the circle of striving for distinction really at an end with the ascetic? Could this circle not be run through again from the beginning, holding fast to the basic disposition of the ascetic and at the same time that of the compassionate god? That is tosay, doing hurt to others in order thereby to hurt oneself , in order then to triumph over oneself and ones compassion and to revel in an extremity of power! Excuse these extravagant reections on all that may have been possible on earth through the psychical extravagance of the lust for power!Supplementary material 144 Beyond Good and Evil 195 The Jews a people born for slavery,1as Tacitus and the whole ancient world says, the chosen people among peoples as they themselves say and believe the Jews brought about that miracle of a reversal of values, thanks to which life on earth received a new and dangerous attraction for a few thou- sand years: their prophets have smelted rich, godless, evil, violent and sensual into one and coined the word world as a term of abuse for therst time. In this reversal of values (in which it is right and proper to usethe word poor as a synonym for holy and friend) lies the importance ofthe Jewish people: with them begins the slaves revolt in morality . 197 We completely misunderstand the beast of prey and man of prey (for example, Cesare Borgia), we misunderstand nature, as long as we seek something pathological at the core of these healthiest of all tropi- cal monsters and growths, or even a kind of hell innate to them : as almost all moralists have done so far. It seems that the moralists harbour a hatred against the primeval forest and against the tropics? And thattropical man must be discredited at all cost, whether as sickness and human degeneracy or as his own hell and self-torture? But why? In favour of the moderate zones? In favour of moderate men? Of the moral? Of the mediocre? This for the chapter Morality as Timidity. 1451Tacitus, Histories v.8. 198 All these moralities that address themselves to the individual person purportedly for the purpose of his happiness, what else are they but the rules of behaviour relative to the level of danger in which the individual person lives with himself; recipes against his passions, his good and bad inclinations in so far as they all have the will to power and want to play master; small and large wisdoms and artices imbued with the closet smellof old household remedies and old wives tales; the whole lot baroque and unreasonable in form because they address themselves to all, because they generalize where generalization should not take place , making unconditional statements and taking themselves as unconditional, the whole lot not seasoned with just onegrain of salt, but rather only bearable and sometimes even seductive when they learn to smell over-seasoned anddangerous, especially when they smell of the other world: all that, meas-ured intellectually, is worth little and is far from being science, let alone wisdom, but, to say it again and say it three times: cleverness, cleverness, cleverness mixed with stupidity, stupidity, stupidity, whether it bethat indifference and statuesque coldness which the Stoics counselled and administered against the heated folly of the affects; or that no- more-laughing and no-more-crying of Spinoza, his so navely recom- mended destruction of the affects through analysis and vivisection of the same; or that relegation of the affects to a harmless mediocrity, at whichlevel they may be satised, the Aristotelianism of morality; even morality as the enjoyment of the affects in a deliberate dilution and spiritualization through the symbolism of art, as music, perhaps, or as love towards God and towards man for Gods sake for in religion the passions again have civil rights, providing that .....; nally, even that accommodating and delib-erate surrender to the affects, as taught by Haz and Goethe, that bold dropping of the reins, that physical and spiritual licentia morum in the exceptional case of wise old owls and drunkards, where there is no longer much danger. This, too, for the chapter Morality as Timidity. 199 Since at all times at which there have been people at all, there have also been herds of people (clans, communities, tribes, peoples, states,churches) and always a great number of those obeying in comparison tothose giving orders, in consideration, then, of the fact that obedienceSupplementary material 146 has been practised and cultivated best and longest amongst men, one may justiably conclude that on average now the need for it is inborn in everyone as a kind of formal conscience which commands: Thou shalt do something unconditionally, thou shalt unconditionally refrain from doingsomething, in short, thou shalt. This need seeks to satisfy itself and toll its form with a content; it tucks in fairly indiscriminately according toits strength, impatience and state of suspense as a crude appetite, andaccepts whatever is shouted into its ear by those who command parents,teachers, laws, social prejudices [ Standesvorurtheile (n)], public opinion. The strange limitation of human development, its hesitant, long-drawn- out, frequently recoiling and cyclic nature, is due to the fact that the herdinstinct of obedience is inherited most easily and at the expense of the art of giving commands. If one imagines this instinct progressing to its nal excesses, in the end precisely those in command and those who are inde-pendent will be lacking; or they suffer inwardly from bad conscience and need, rst of all, to exercise self-deception in order to be able to command: as though they too were only obeying. This state of affairs actually exists in Europe today: I call it the moral hypocrisy of those who command. They know no other method of protecting themselves fromtheir bad conscience than passing themselves off as the executors of older or higher commands (of their ancestors, of the constitution, of the laws or even of God), or even borrowing herd maxims from the herd way of thinking, for example passing themselves off as rst servants of the people or as instruments of the common weal. On the other hand, theherd man in Europe tries to create the impression that he is the only per- mitted type of man, and glories as the really human virtues the attrib- utes which make him tame, agreeable and useful to the herd: to wit, public-spiritedness, benevolence, consideration, industriousness, moder- ation, modesty , understanding and compassion. H owever, in those cases where one regards leaders and bellwethers as indispensable, one tries again and again today to replace those in command with an accumulation of clever herd men: for example, all representative constitutions have this origin. In spite of all this, what a relief, what a release from a pressure which was becoming intolerable, is the appearance of someone whocommands unconditionally for these herd-animal Europeans, the last great proof of which was the effect which Napoleons appearance made: the history of the effect of Napoleon is practically the history of thehighest happiness that this whole century has produced amongst itsworthiest men and moments.Beyond Good and Evil 147 200 Man, in an age of disintegration in which the races are mixed, who has in his body the legacy of diverse origins, which is to say contradictory and often not even only contradictory drives and standards of valuation, which ght each other and seldom give each other peace, such a man of late cultures and refracted lights will, on average, be a weaker man: his most fundamental desire is that the war, which he is, should nally have an end; happiness appears to him, in accordance with a tranquillizingmedicine and way of thought (for example, the Epicurean or theChristian), principally to be the happiness of rest, of being undisturbed, of repleteness, of being nally at one, as the Sabbath of Sabbaths, to speak with the holy rhetorician Augustine, 2who was himself such a man. If, however, contr adiction and war in such a nature have the effect of being one more stimulus to life and one more thrill, and if, in addition to the powerful and irreconcilable drives, the actual mastery and nesse inwaging war on oneself, I mean self-control, self-outwitting, is inheritedand cultivated: then those enigmatic, magically elusive and incompre-hensible people develop, predestined to victory and seduction, the nestexample of whom are Alcibiades and Caesar ( in whose company Iwould like to rank that rst European to my taste, the Hohenstaufen Friedrich the Second), and perhaps amongst artists Leonardo da Vinci. They appear at precisely the same time in which that weaker type, withits desire to rest, steps into the foreground: both types belong together and arise from the same causes. 201 As long as the usefulness which predominates in moral value judg- ments is only herd-usefulness, as long as the gaze is xed only on pre- serving the community , and the immoral is precisely and exclusively sought in what appears dangerous to the survival of the community: there cannot be any morality of love of ones neighbour. Suppose, even there, one were to nd a continual, minor exercise of consideration, compas-sion, equity , leniency, mutuality of assistance, suppose, too, that in thatSupplementary material 14812Augustine ends both his Confessions and The City of God with the image of a state of perfect rest at the end of time which he calls a Sabbath without evening or withoutend. The expression Sabbath of Sabbaths is used in the Greek translation of the OldTestament known as the Septuagint at Leviticus 16.31and23.3. state of society all those drives were active which are later honoured with the name virtues, and nally almost collapsed into one with the concept morality: in that period of time they still do not yet belong in the realmof moral valuations they are still extra-moral . For example, an act of compassion is not in the best days of the Romans called either good orevil, either moral or immoral; and even if the act is praised, this praise is still most consistent with a kind of grudging disdain as soon as it is com- pared with an act which serves to promote the res publica . In the nal analysis, love of ones neighbour is always something secondary, partly conventional and arbitrarily illusory in relation to fear of the neighbour . After the structure of society as a whole appears determined and secureagainst external dangers, it is this fear of the neighbour which creates new perspectives of moral evaluation. Certain strong and powerful drives like the enterprising spirit, daring, vengeance, cunning, rapacity and thedesire to dominate, which in the sense of social usefulness not only had to be honoured under names different, of course, from the ones chosen above but also had to be trained and cultivated (because when the whole was in danger they were always needed against its enemies), are now felt as dangerous with increased intensity now, when their proper channelshave disappeared and are step by step branded as immoral and given over to vilication. Now the opposite drives and inclinations come to receive moral honours; step by step the herd instinct draws its conclusion. How much or how little that is dangerous to the community , dangerous to equality , lies in an opinion, in a state [ Zustand ] and affects, in a will, in a talent, that is now the moral perspective: here, too, fear is again the mother of morality . When the highest and strongest drives, erupting pas- sionately, drive the individual far beyond and above the average range of the herd conscience, they destroy the self-condence of the community , its belief in itself, breaking as it were its spine: consequently it is just thesedrives which are branded and vilied most. High and independent spiri- tuality [ Geistigkeit ], the will to stand alone, even reason on a grand scale are conceived to be a danger; everything that raises the individual above the herd and causes ones neighbour to be afraid is called evilfrom now on; the equitable, modest, adaptive, conforming mentality , the mediocrity of desires, acquires the names and honours of morality . Finally, under very peaceful conditions, there is an increasing lack of the opportunity and necessity of training ones feelings in severity and hardness; and nowany severity , even severity in exercising justice, begins to disturb con-sciences; a high and hard nobility and self-responsibility is almostBeyond Good and Evil 149 insulting and arouses mistrust, the lamb, even more, the sheep, gains respect. There comes a point in the history of a society that has become pathologically rotten and soft, when it even sides with its attacker, thecriminal , and indeed, in a genuine and serious way. Punishment: that seems unfair to it somehow, what is certain is that it hurts and frightenssociety to imagine punishment and having to punish. Is it not sufcient to render the criminal undangerous ? Why punish as well? Punishment itself is terrible! with this question, herd morality , the morality of timid- ity , draws its nal conclusion. Assuming one could completely get rid of the danger, the reason for being afraid, one would have got rid of this morality at the same time: it would no longer be necessary, it would no longer regard itself as necessary any more! Whoever tests the conscience of todays European will always have to draw out the same imperative from a thousand moral folds and hiding places, the imperative of herdtimidity: our desire is for there to be nothing more to fear some time or other! Some time or other the will and the way there is called progress everywhere in Europe today. 202 Let us immediately say once more what we have already said a hundred times already: for the ears are not well-disposed to such truths to our truths these days. We know well enough already how insulting it sounds when someone includes man, unadorned [ ungeschminkt ] and literally, amongst the animals; but it will almost be reckoned as guilt on our part that precisely regarding the man of modern ideas we constantly use theexpressions herd, herd instincts and the like. Whats the use! We cannot do otherwise: for precisely here is where our new insight lies. We found that in all major moral judgments, Europe has become unanimous, including the countries where Europes inuence dominates: one plainly knows in Europe what Socrates thought he did not know, and what that famous old snake once promised to teach, one knows today what good and evil are. Now it must sound harsh and jar on the ear when we repeat- edly insist: that which here believes it knows, which here glories itself with praise and blame, which calls itself good, is the instinct of the herd animal, man: as such it has come to a breakthrough, preponderance anddominance over other instincts and will continue to do so more and morein line with a growing physiological approximation and assimilation ofSupplementary material 150 which it is a symptom. Morality today in Europe is herd-animal morality : so only, as we understand it, one kind of human morality beside which, before which, after which many others, above all higher moralities are pos- sible or ought to be. But this morality defends itself against such a pos-sibility or ought with all its strength: stubbornly and relentlessly it says,I am morality itself, and nothing else is morality! yes, with the aid of areligion which indulged and attered the most sublime herd-animaldesires, we have come to a point where we nd, even in political and socialinstitutions, an increasingly visible expression of this morality: the demo- cratic movement is the heir of the Christian movement. The increasingly mad howling, the increasingly undisguised grinding of teeth of the anar-chist dogs who now roam the streets of European culture, indicates that the tempo of this movement is still much too slow and sleepy for those more impatient, for the sick and those addicted to the instinct referred toabove: these anarchists, apparently in contrast to the peacefully industri- ous democrats and ideologues of revolution, still more to the foolish philosophasters and enthusiasts of fraternity who call themselves social- ists and want a free society, are actually at one with them all in their fun- damental and instinctive animosity towards every other type of societythan that of the autonomous herd (to the point of denying even the con- cepts master and servant ni dieu ni matre is how a socialist slogan runs ): at one in their tenacious resistance to every special claim, every special right and privilege, (so that means, in the nal analysis, against every right: for when all are equal, nobody needs rights any more ); at one in their mistrust of punitive justice (as though this were a violation of the weaker, an injustice against the necessary consequence of all earlier society ); but just as much at one in the religion of compassion, of suf- fering, in so far as simply felt, lived, endured (right down to the animal and up to God: the excess of compassion with God belongs to ademocratic age ); at one, altogether, in the scream and impatience of compassion, in the lethal hatred against any kind of suffering, in the almost womanly incapacity to be able to remain a spectator, to be able to letsuffering happen; at one in their involuntary gloom and mollycoddling, under the spell of which Europe seems threatened with a new Buddhism;at one in the belief in a morality of communal compassion, as though this were morality as such, as the height, the attained height of man, the sole hope of the future, the means for consoling people in the present, thegreat absolution of all former guilt: at one in the belief in the commu-nity as the saviour , that is, in the herd, in themselves ....Beyond Good and Evil 151 203 We who are of another faith , we, to whom the democratic movement counts not just as a form of decay of political organization but as the form of decay, namely diminution, of man, as a way of levelling him down and lowering his value: where must wereach out with our hopes? To new philosophers , there is no alternative; to spirits strong enough and primor- dially forceful enough to give an incentive for contrary valuations and foreternal values to be valued another way round, turned another way round; to those sent on ahead, to men of the future who, in the present, tie up the knot of compulsion which forces the will of millennia on to new paths. To teach man that the future of mankind is his will, dependent on a human will, and to prepare him for great deeds of daring and compre-hensive attempts at discipline and breeding, in order to put an end to that terrible domination of folly and accident hitherto known as history thefolly of the greatest number is just its nal form : for this, some time orother, a new type of philosopher and commander will be necessary, in comparison to whose image everything we have seen on earth by way ofhidden, terrible and benevolent spirits will seem pale and dwarfed. It is the image of such leaders which oats before oureyes: dare I say it out loud, you free spirits? The circumstances which one must partly create and partly take advantage of to bring this about; the probable ways and experiments by means of which a soul would grow to such height andpower in order to feel the compulsion to these tasks; a transvaluation of values under the new pressure and hammer of which a conscience is steeled, a heart turned to iron, so that it can bear the weight of such aresponsibility; on the other hand, the necessity of such leaders, theappalling danger that they might not materialize or that they might turnout badly or degenerate these are ourreal worries and anxieties, you know, dont you, you free spirits? These are the heavy distant thoughts and thunderstorms that pass over the rmament of ourlife. There are few pains as deep as that of having seen, recognized and sympathized with an extraordinary man who has strayed from his path and degenerated:whoever has the rare eye for the absolute danger of man himself degen- erating , whoever, like us, has recognized the incredible contingency which has played its game with regard to the future of men a game in whichno hand participated, not even Gods nger! whoever guesses at thecalamity which lies concealed in the stupid navety and blind trust ofmodern ideas, still more in the whole Christian-European morality: heSupplementary material 152 suffers from an anxiety which cannot be compared with any other, he sees with one glance what, under a favourable accumulation and increase in forces and tasks could still be bred from man , he knows, with all the knowledge of his conscience, how man is still untapped for the greatestpossibilities and how often the species, man, has already stood confrontedwith mysterious decisions and new paths: he knows even better from hisown painful memory what pathetic things have so far habitually shat-tered, snapped, sunk and made wretched an embryonic being of thehighest potential. The total degeneration of man right down to what appears today, to socialist idiots and numbskulls, as their man of the future as their ideal! this degeneration and diminution of man to theperfect herd animal (or, as they say, to the man in a free society), this bes- tialization of man into a dwarf animal of equal rights and claims is possi- ble, there is no doubt! Whoever has once thought these possibilities through to the end knows one form of nausea more than other people do and perhaps also a new task! .... 229 There remains in those late epochs justiably proud of their humane- ness so much fear, so much superstition of fear of the wild, cruel animal, the mastering of which constitutes that very pride of those more humane epochs, that even palpable truths remain unspoken for centuries, as if by agreement, because they seem to help back to life that wild animal which has nally been killed off. Perhaps I take some risk in letting slip a truthlike that: let others catch it again and give it so much milk of pious ways of thinking 3that it will lie quiet and forgotten in its old corner. People should revise their notion of cruelty and open their eyes; they should nally learn impatience so that presumptuous fat errors like this, which have, for example, been fattened up by ancient and modern philosophers with regard to tragedy, should no longer parade around full of virtue and impertinence. Almost everything we call higher culture is founded onthe spiritualization and internalization of cruelty that is my proposition; that wild animal has not been killed off at all, it lives, it thrives, it has simply made itself divine. What constitutes the painful ecstasy of tragedy is cruelty; what is pleasantly at work in so-called tragic pity , indeed, in basically everything that is sublime right up to the highest,Beyond Good and Evil 1533Schiller, Wilhelm Tell Iv .3.2574 . See also n. 68,p .72. most delicate thrills of metaphysics, attains its sweetness solely because the ingredient of cruelty is mixed into it. What the Roman in the arena, the Christian in the ecstasies of the cross, the Spaniard watching burn-ings or bullghts, the Japanese of today ocking to tragedy, the suburbanParisian worker hankering after bloody revolutions, the Wagnerienne whosubmits to Tristan and Isolde with suspended will, what they all enjoy and seek to imbibe with secret passion, are the spicy potions of the great Circe cruelty. Here, of course, we must expel the foolish psychology taught previously, its only instruction on cruelty being that it arose at the sight of the suffering of others : there is also an abundant, superabundant enjoyment of ones own suffering, of making oneself suffer, and wher-ever man allows himself to be talked into self-denial in the religious sense or to self-mutilation, as with the Phoenicians and ascetics, or to desensu- alization in general, decarnalization, contrition, to Puritanical spasms ofpenitence, conscience-vivisection and Pascalian sacrizio dellintelletto ,h e is secretly lured and propelled by his cruelty , by the dangerous thrills of cruelty turned against himself . Finally, consider how even the knower, in forcing his mind to perceive against his inclination and often enough against his hearts desire namely, to say no where he would like to afrm, love and adore , holds sway as artist and transgurer of cruelty; indeed, every time something is given deep and thorough consideration is a violation of, and desire to hurt, the fundamental will of the mind, which ceaselessly strives for appearance and superciality , in all will to know, there is already a dropof cruelty . 260 On a stroll through the many ner and coarser moralities that have ruled on earth or still rule, I found certain traits regularly recurring together and closely linked: until I concluded that there were two basic types and a basic difference. There is a master morality and a slave moral- ity; I add at once, that in all higher and more mixed cultures attempts to mediate between the two moralities also appear, even more often a con-fusion of the same and mutual misunderstanding, even, on occasion, their harsh juxtaposition indeed, in the same person, within one soul. The moral value-distinctions have either arisen among a ruling section thatwas pleasurably aware of being different from the ruled, or among theruled, the slaves and dependents of every degree. In the rst case, whenSupplementary material 154 it is the rulers who determine the concept good, it is the exalted, proud states of the soul that are perceived as conferring distinction and order- ing rank. The noble man distances himself from men in whom the oppos-ite of such elevated, proud states nds expression: he despises them. Weshould immediately note that in this rst kind of morality the antithesisgood and bad means the same as noble and despicable: the antith- esis good and evil is of different descent. Everyone who is cowardly, timid, petty and thinks only of narrow utility is despised; as is the mis- trustful person with his unfree glances, the person who abases himself, the dog-like man who lets himself be maltreated, the fawning atterer, above all, the liar: it is a fundamental belief of all aristocrats that thecommon people are all liars. We who tell the truth is how the nobility in ancient Greece referred to itself. It is clear that the moral value- distinctions everywhere rst referred to people , and only afterwards, derivatively and late, were they applied to actions: which is why it is a grave mistake for historians of morality to start from such questions as Why have acts of compassion been praised? The noble type of man feels himself to be the determiner of values, he does not need to nd approval, in his opinion, What harms me is harmful as such, he knows that hehimself is the one to rst confer honour on a thing, he creates values .H e honours everything which he knows pertains to himself: a morality like this is self-glorication. To the fore is the feeling of richness, of power ready to overow, the happiness of high tension, the consciousness of wealth which would like to give and share: the noble man, too, helps theunfortunate, but not from compassion, or almost not, but more from an urge produced by the abundance of power. The noble man honours the powerful man in himself, as well as the one who has power over himself and knows when to speak and when to remain silent, who practises sever- ity and harshness on himself with relish and honours everything that issevere and harsh. Wotan placed a hard heart in my breast, is what an old Scandinavian saga says: the poet who said this caught correctly what springs straight from the soul of a proud Viking. Such a type of man is proud of the very fact that he has not been made for compassion: which is why the hero of the saga adds in warning, If a man does not have a hardheart when young, it will never harden. The noble and the brave who think like this are the furthest from that morality that sees the badge of morality precisely in compassion or in doing things for others or in dsin- tressement ; ones faith in ones self, ones pride in ones self, a basic ani- mosity and irony towards selessness belongs just as denitely to nobleBeyond Good and Evil 155 morality as a mild contempt and wariness towards compassionate feelings and the warm heart. The powerful are the ones who understand how to honour, it is their art, their realm of invention. The deep reverence forage and ancestry all law rests on this dual reverence , the faith and prej-udice in favour of the ancestors and against those to come is typical of themorality of the powerful; and when, on the other hand, the men of modern ideas almost instinctively believe in progress and the future and show increasingly scant respect for age, the ignoble descent of these ideas is clearly enough revealed. But mostly, h owever, a mor ality of the rulers is alien to contemporary taste and embarrassing in the severity of its fundamental principle that we have duties only towards our peers; thatwe have the right to behave towards beings of lower rank, towards every- thing alien, as we deem t or as the heart dictates, at all events beyond good and evil : compassion and such like may belong here. The capac-ity for and duty of long drawn-out gratitude and revenge both within the peer-group only , nesse in retribution, a rened concept of friend- ship, a certain need to have enemies (as drainage-channels, as it were, for the emotions envy , quarrelsomeness, arrogance, basically in order to be a good friend ): all these are typical features of noble morality which, as indicated, are not the morality of modern ideas and are therefore dif- cult to appreciate today, also difcult to unearth and uncover. It is dif- ferent with the second type of morality , slave morality . Assuming that the violated, the oppressed, the suffering, unfree, unsure-of-themselves and tired should moralize: what would their moral valuations have incommon? Probably a pessimistic suspicion towards the whole human condition would nd expression, perhaps a condemnation of man together with his condition. The slave looks at the virtues of the power- ful with resentment: he has scepticism and mistrust, he has renement of mistrust toward every good that is honoured there , he would like toconvince himself that happiness is not genuine even there. Conversely, those qualities are stressed and highlighted which serve to ease the exis- tence of the suffering: here compassion, the obliging helping hand, the warm heart, patience, diligence, humility , friendliness are honoured , because here these are the most useful qualities and almost the only meansof enduring the pressure of existence. Slave morality is essentially a morality of usefulness. Here is the source from which that famous antithesis, good and evil emerged: power and danger were projected into evil, a certain dreadfulness, nesse and strength that would not allowcontempt to arise. According to slave morality , therefore, the evil personSupplementary material 156 arouses fear; according to master morality it is precisely the good person who arouses and wishes to arouse fear, whilst the bad man is felt to be contemptible. The antithesis comes to a head when, in accordance withthe logic of slave morality, a whiff of contempt nally clings to the goodpeople in this morality as well h owever slight and benign this contempt might be , because the good person, to the slaves way of thinking, mustat any rate be the man who is not dangerous ; he is good-natured, easy to deceive, perhaps a little stupid, un bonhomme . Wherever slave morality predominates, language shows a propensity for the words good and stupid to edge closer together. A nal basic difference: the longing for freedom , the instinct for happiness and the niceties of the feeling of freedom belong just as necessarily to slave morality and morality as theskill and enthusiasm in reverence, in devotion, is the regular symptom ofan aristocratic way of thought and valuation. This explains withoutfurther ado why love as passion our European speciality simply must be of noble provenance: as is well known, we trace its invention to the poet-knights of Provence, those magnicently inventive men of the gai saber , to whom Europe owes so much, itself almost included.Beyond Good and Evil 157 The Gay Science 344 To what extent even we are still pious . In science, convictions have no citizens rights, so people say with good reason: only when they decide to descend to the modest level of hypothesis, of provisional experimental standpoint, of a regulative ction, can they be allowed the right of entry and indeed certain value within the realm of knowledge, albeit with the proviso that they remain under police supervision, the police of mistrust. But does that not mean, on closer inspection: only when conviction ceases to be conviction does it have the right to gain entry to science? Would it notbe the beginning of the discipline of the scientic spirit to allow itself nomore convictions? . . . This is probably true: it only remains to ask whethera prior conviction has to exist in order for this discipline to begin , such an imperative and unconditional conviction, indeed, that it sacrices all others to itself. We see that science, too, rests on a faith, there is absolutely no science without presuppositions. The question whether truth is what is required must not only be antecedently given an afrmative answer, but the afrmation in the answer must be so strong that it expresses this proposi-tion, this faith, this conviction: Nothing ismore necessary than truth, and in relation to it everything else is of only secondary value. This uncon- ditional will to truth: what is it? Is it the will not to be deceived ? Is it the will not to deceive ? The will to truth, namely, could also be interpreted in the latter way: provided that in the generalization I will not deceive, thespecial case of I will not deceive myself is also included. But why not deceive? Why not let oneself be deceived? Note that the reasons for the rst reside in a quite different area than for the second: one 158 does not want to be deceived, on the assumption that it is harmful, dan- gerous, calamitous to be deceived, in this sense, science would be a long process of prudence, caution, usefulness against which one could,however, justiably object: What? Is not-wanting-to-be-deceived really less harmful, less dangerous, less calamitous: what do you know, inadvance, of the character of existence, to be able to decide whether the greater advantage lies on the side of absolute mistrust or absolute con- dence? But in case both should be needed, a great deal of condence and a great deal of mistrust: where could science nd its absolute faith, its conviction on which it rests, that truth is more important than any other thing, even than any other conviction? Precisely this conviction could nothave come into being if both truth and untruth were continually to prove themselves useful: as is the case. So faith in science, which now undoubtedly exists, cannot have taken its origin from such a calculationof utility , but rather in spite of the fact that the uselessness and danger of the will to truth, of truth at any price, are continually proved. At any price: oh, we understand that well enough, when we have brought one faith after the other to the altar and slaughtered it! Consequently, the will to truth does notmean, I will not be deceived, but instead we have no choice I will not deceive, not even myself : and with this we are on the ground of morality . Just consider thoroughly: why do you not want to deceive?, especially when it should appear, and it does appear! as though life were aimed at appearance, I mean at error, deception, dis- semblance, delusion, self-delusion, and when, on the other hand, thegreat manifestation of life has, in fact, always shown itself to be on the side of the most unscrupulous polytropoi . 1Such a resolve might, to give it a mild gloss, perhaps be a piece of quixotism, a small, enthusiastic folly; it could, h owever, also be something much worse, namely a destructive principle hostile to life . . . Will to truth that could be a hidden will to death. In that way, the question: why science? leads back to the moral problem: Why morality at all , when life, nature, history are non-moral? Without a doubt, the truthful man, in that daring and nal sense that faith in science presupposes, thus afrms another world from the one of life, nature and history; and inasmuch as he afrms this other world, must he not therefore deny its opposite, this world, ourworld, in doing so? . . . But you will have understood what I am aiming at, namely that our faithThe Gay Science 15911Literally many-turning, polytropos in Homer is a usual epithet of Odysseus (for instance in the very rst line of the Odyssey meaning versatile, wily, devious, cunning, resourceful). Polytropoi here are [unscrupulous] men who know all the angles. in science is still based on a metaphysical faith , that even we knowers of today, we godless anti-metaphysicians, still take ourre from the blaze set alight by a faith thousands of years old, that faith of the Christians, whichwas also Platos faith, that God is truth, that truth is divine . . . But what if precisely this becomes more and more unbelievable, when nothing anylonger turns out to be divine except for error, blindness and lies and what if God himself turned out to be our oldest lie? 357 On the old problem: What is German ? Add up for yourself the actual achievement of philosophical thought that can be attributed to Germans: can they, in any legitimate sense, also be attributed to the whole race? May we say: they are simultaneously the work of the German soul, at least asymptom of the latter in the sense in which we are used to taking Platosideomania, his almost religious mania for the forms, at once an event andtestimony of the Greek soul? Or would the reverse be true? Would they be so very individual, so very much an exception to the mind of the race as was, for example, Goethes paganism with a good conscience? Or as was Bismarcks Machiavellism with a good conscience, his so-called Realpolitik , amongst Germans? Did our philosophers not, perhaps, even run counter to the needs of the German soul? In short, were the German philosophers really philosophical Germans ? I recall three cases. First, Leibnizs incomparable insight 2, which proved him right not only against Descartes but against everyone who had philosophized before him that consciousness is just an accidental feature of representation, notthe nec- essary and essential attribute of the same, in fact, that everything which we call consciousness only makes up one state of our mental and psychic world (perhaps a diseased state) and by no means the whole of it : is there anything German about this idea, the profundity of which has not been exhausted even today? Is there any reason to suppose that a Latin could not easily have thought up this reversal of appearances? for it is a rever- sal. Secondly, let us recall Kants tremendous question mark which he placed after the concept causality3 not that he, like Hume, at all doubted its legitimacy: on the contrary, he carefully began to mark out theSupplementary material 16012Leibniz held that we had perceptions of which we were unaware (perceptions dont on ne sapperoit pas). Cf. Monadology 14. 13Cf. Preface to Kants Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics (originally published in1783 ). boundaries within which this concept has any meaning (we are not yet done with the drawing of this boundary even today). Thirdly, let us take Hegels astonishing stab which pierced through all logical usages and pamperings when he dared to teach that the concepts of species developfrom one another : 4a proposition that prepared the minds of Europe for the last great scientic movement, Darwinism for without Hegel, no Darwin. Is there anything German about this Hegelian innovation, which rst brought the decisive concept development into science? Yes, without a doubt: in all three cases we feel that something of us has beenuncovered and divined, and are thankful for this, and at the same time surprised, each of these three propositions is a considered piece of German self-knowledge, self-experience and self-understanding. Our inner world is much richer, more extensive, more concealed, this is what we feel, with Leibniz; as Germans, we doubt, with Kant, the ultimate validity of scientic knowledge and, in general, anything which can beknown causaliter : the know ableappears to us of lesser value simply because of that. We Germans are Hegelians, even if we had never had a Hegel, in so far as we (unlike all Latins) instinctively attach a deeper sense and higher value to becoming and developing than to what is we hardly believe in the legitimacy of the concept of being ; similarly, in so far aswe are not minded to concede that our human logic is logic as such, the only kind of logic (we would far rather persuade ourselves that it is just a special case and perhaps one of the most peculiar and stupid ones ). A fourth question would be whether Schopenhauer with his pessimism, that is, with his problem of the value of existence , 5had to be a German. I do not think so. The event, after which this problem was to be expected with certainty , so that an astronomer of the soul could have calculated the day and hour for it, the decline of faith in the Christian God, the victory of scientic atheism, is a pan-European event in which all peoples should have their share of merit and honour. On the contrary, precisely theGermans could be blamed those Germans with whom Schopenhauer lived contemporaneously , for having delayed this victory of atheism most dangerously and for the longest period of time; Hegel, in fact, was a delayer par excellence , with his grandiose attempt to convince us of the divinity of existence by nally enlisting the help of our sixth sense, thehistorical sense. Schopenhauer was, as a philosopher, the rst avowedThe Gay Science 16114G. W . F . Hegel, Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (1830 edn), 368(especially Zusatz ). 15Cf. A. Schopenhauer The World as Will and Representation vol.1, Book Iv , and vol. 2,c h s 46and49. and uncompromising atheist whom we Germans have had: his animosity towards Hegel had its motives here. He viewed the lack of divinity of exis- tence as something given, palpable, indisputable; he lost his philosopherscalm and grew angry every time he saw somebody hesitate and deviatehere. This is where his whole integrity is located: unswerving, straight-forward atheism is, quite simply, the precondition for posing his prob- lems, representing, as it does, a victory of the European conscience, won at last and with difculty, the most momentous act of a two-thousand- year-long discipline in truth which ultimately forbids itself the lieof faith in God . . . You see what actually conquered the Christian God; Christian morality itself, the concept of truthfulness which was taken more andmore seriously, the confessional punctiliousness of Christian conscience, translated and sublimated into scientic conscience, into intellectual rigour at any price. Regarding nature as though it were a proof of Godsgoodness and providence; interpreting history in honour of divine reason, as a constant testimonial to an ethical world order and ethical ultimate purpose: explaining all ones experiences in the way pious folk have done for long enough, as though everything were providence, a sign, intended, and sent for the salvation of the soul: now all that is over, it has conscience against it, every sensitive conscience sees it as indecent, dishonest, as a pack of lies, feminism, weakness, cowardice, this severity makes us good Europeans if anything does, and heirs to Europes most protracted and bravest self-overcoming! As we thus reject this Christian interpretation and condemn its meaning as counterfeit, the Schopenhauerian question immediately strikes us in a terrible way: does existence, then, have any meaning at all ? that question, which will need a few centuries to be even heard completely and in its full depth. What Schopenhauer himself answered to this ques- tion was if you forgive me something precipitate, youthful, just a com-promise, a standstill and deadlock in precisely those Christian-ascetic moral perspectives, from which faith had been withdrawn along with faith in God . . . But he asked the question as a good European, as I have said, andnotas a German. Or have the Germans perhaps shown, at least in the way in which they appropriated Schopenhauers question, their innerafliation and kinship with, their readiness and need for his problem? The fact that even in Germany, people are pondering and publishing on the problem posed by him albeit belatedly! is certainly not enough to makeus decide in favour of this closer afliation; we could even count thepeculiar ineptitude of this post-Schopenhauerian pessimism as a reasonSupplementary material 162 against, the Germans obviously did not behave as though they were in their element in this matter. I am not in any way referring to Eduard von Hartmann here; on the contrary, my old suspicion remains to this day thathe is too canny for us, or rather that, old rogue that he is, he was from the start poking fun, and not just at German pessimism, only to end,perhaps by bequeathing to the Germans in his will the extent to which they themselves could be made fools of in the age of foundations. But I ask: should we perhaps count the old humming-top Bahnsen as a credit to the Germans, who voluptuously spent his whole life revolving around his real-dialectic misery and personal bad luck, would that, perhaps, be German? (by the way, I recommend his writings be used as I myself usedthem, as anti-pessimistic food, on account of their elegantiae psychologicae , suitable, I think, for the most constipated bowels and temperament). Or could we count such dilettantes and old maids as the sugary apostle of vir-ginity, Mainlnder, amongst the true Germans? In the nal analysis, a Jew will turn out to be the only true German ( all Jews become sugary when they moralize). Neither Bahnsen nor Mainlnder, to say nothing of Eduard von Hartmann, provide clear evidence for the question whether Schopenhauers pessimism, his horried glimpse into a world turnedgodless, stupid, blind, mad and questionable, his honest horror . . . was not just an exceptional case amongst Germans, but a German event: whereas everything else in the foreground, our bold politics, our cheerful patrio- tism that views everything, resolutely enough, relative to a not very philo- sophical principle ( Deutschland, Deutschland ber Alles), in other words sub specie speciei , namely the German species, proves the contrary with great clarity . No! The Germans today are not pessimists! And Schopenhauer was a pessimist, I repeat, as a good European and notas a German. The Gay Science 163 The Greek State ( 1871 /2) Preface We moderns have the advantage over the Greeks with two concepts given as consolation, as it were, to a world behaving in a thoroughly slave- like manner while anxiously avoiding the word slave: we speak of the dignity of man and of the dignity of work. We struggle wretchedly to perpetuate a wretched life; this terrible predicament necessitates exhaust- ing work which man or, more correctly human intellect, seduced bythe will, now and again admires as something dignied. But to justifythe claim of work to be honoured, existence itself, to which work is simplya painful means, would, above all, have to have somewhat more dignity and value placed on it than appears to have been the case with serious- minded philosophies and religions up till now. What can we nd, in thetoil and moil of all the millions, other than the drive to exist at any price, the same all-powerful drive which makes stunted plants push their roots into arid rocks! Only those individuals can emerge from this horrifying struggle for existence who are then immediately preoccupied with the ne illusions ofartistic culture, so that they do not arrive at that practical pessimism that nature abhors as truly unnatural. In the modern world which, compared with the Greek, usually creates nothing but freaks and centaurs, and where the individual man is amboyantly pieced together like the fantas- tic creature at the beginning of Horaces Ars Poetica , 1the greed of the struggle for existence and of the need for art often manifests itself in one 1641lines 15. and the same person: an unnatural combination that gave rise to the need to excuse and consecrate that very greed ahead of the dictates of art. For that reason, people believe in the dignity of man and the dignity ofwork. The Greeks have no need for conceptual hallucinations like this, they voice their opinion that work is a disgrace with shocking openness anda more concealed, less frequently expressed wisdom, nevertheless aliveeverywhere, added that the human being was also a disgraceful andpathetic non-entity and shadow of a dream. 2Work is a disgrace because existence has no inherent value: even when this very existence glitters with the seductive jewels of artistic illusions and then really does seem to have an inherent value, the pronouncement that work is a disgrace is still valid simply because we do not feel it is possible for man, ghting forsheer survival, to be an artist . Nowadays it is not the man in need of art, but the slave who determines general views: in which capacity he nat- urally has to label all his circumstances with deceptive names in order to be able to live. Such phantoms as the dignity of man, the dignity of work, are the feeble products of a slavery that hides from itself. These are ill- fated times when the slave needs such ideas and is stirred up to thinkabout himself and beyond himself! Ill-fated seducers who have destroyed the slaves state of innocence with the fruit of the tree of knowledge! Now he must console himself from one day to the next with transparent lies the like of which anyone with deeper insight would recognize in the alleged equal rights for all or the fundamental rights of man, of man as such,or in the dignity of work. He must be prevented at any cost from realiz- ing what stage or level must be attained before dignity can even be men- tioned, which is actually the point where the individual completely transcends himself and no longer has to procreate and work in the service of the continuation of his individual life. And even at this level of work, a feeling similar to shame occasionally overcomes the Greeks. Plutarch says somewhere, 3with ancient Greek instinct, that no youth of noble birth would want to be a Phidias himself when he saw the Zeus in Pisa or a Polyklet when he saw the Hera in Argos: and would have just as little desire to be Anacreon, Philetas or Archilochus, h owever much he delighted in their poetry. Artistic creativ- ity, for the Greek, falls into the same category of undignied work as anyThe Greek State 1652Pindar, Pythian VIII. 95. 3Life of Pericles, ch. 2. philistine craft. H owever, when the compelling force of artistic inspir- ation unfolds in him, he hasto create and bow to the necessity of work. And as a father admires his childs beauty and talent but thinks of the actof creation with embarrassed reluctance, the Greek did the same. Hispleased astonishment at beauty did not blind him to its genesis which,like all genesis in nature, seemed to him a powerful necessity, a thrusting towards existence. That same feeling that sees the process of procreation as something shameful, to be hidden, although through it man serves a higher purpose than his individual preservation: that same feeling also veiled the creation of the great works of art, although they inaugurate a higher form of existence, just like that other act inaugurates a new gener-ation. Shame , therefore, seems to be felt where man is just a tool of in- nitely greater manifestations of will than he considers himself to be, in his isolated form as individual. We now have the general concept for categorizing the feelings the Greeks had in relation to work and slavery. Both were looked on by them as a necessary disgrace that aroused the feeling of shame , at the same time disgrace and necessity. In this feeling of shame there lurks the uncon- scious recognition that these conditions are required for the actual goal. In that necessity lies the horrifying, predatory aspect of the Sphinx of nature who, in the glorication of the artistically free life of culture [ Kultur ], so beautifully presents the torso of a young woman. Culture [ Bildung ], which is rst and foremost a real hunger for art, rests on one terrible premise: but this reveals itself in the nascent feeling of shame. In orderfor there to be a broad, deep, fertile soil for the development of art, the overwhelming majority has to be slavishly subjected to lifes necessity in the service of the minority , beyond the measure that is necessary for the individual. At their expense, through their extra work, that privileged class is to be removed from the struggle for existence, in order to produceand satisfy a new world of necessities. Accordingly, we must learn to identify as a cruel-sounding truth the fact that slavery belongs to the essence of a culture : a truth, granted, that leaves open no doubt about the absolute value of existence. This truth is the vulture which gnaws at the liver of the Promethean promoter ofculture. The misery of men living a life of toil has to be increased to make the production of the world of art possible for a small number of Olympian men. Here we nd the source of that hatred that has been nour-ished by the Communists and Socialists as well as their paler descendants,the white race of Liberals of every age against the arts, but also againstThe Greek State 166 classical antiquity . If culture were really left to the discretion of a people, if inescapable powers, which are law and restraint to the individual, did not rule, then the glorication of spiritual poverty and the iconoclasticdestruction of the claims of art would be more than the revolt of the oppressed masses against drone-like individuals: it would be the cry ofcompassion tearing down the walls of culture; the urge for justice, for equal sharing of the pain, would swamp all other ideas. Actually, an over- exuberant compassion did break down the ood-gates of cultural life for a brief period now and then; a rainbow of compassionate love and peace appeared with the rst radiance of Christianity , and beneath it, Christianitys most beautiful fruit, the Gospel of St John, was born. Butthere are also examples of powerful religions fossilizing certain stages of culture over long periods of time, and mowing down, with their merciless sickle, everything that wants to continue to proliferate. For we must notforget one thing: the same cruelty that we found at the heart of every culture also lies at the heart of every powerful religion, and in the nature ofpower in general, which is always evil; so we shall understand the matter just as well, if a culture breaks down an all too highly raised bulwark of religious claims with the cry for freedom, or at least justice. Whateverwants to live, or rather must live, in this horrifying constellation of things is quintessentially a reection of the primeval pain and contradiction and must seem, in our eyes, organs made for this world and earth, 4an insa- tiable craving for existence and eternal self-contradiction in terms of time, therefore as becoming . Every moment devours the preceding one, every birth is the death of countless beings, procreating, living and mur- dering are all one. Therefore, we may compare the magnicent culture to a victor dripping with blood, who, in his triumphal procession, drags thevanquished along, chained to his carriage as slaves: the latter having been blinded by a charitable power so that, almost crushed by the wheels of the chariot, they still shout, dignity of work!, dignity of man! Culture, the voluptuous Cleopatra, still continues to throw the most priceless pearls into her golden goblet: these pearls are the tears of compassion for theslave and the misery of slavery. The enormous social problems of today are engendered by the excessive sensitivity of modern man, not by true and deep pity for that misery; and even if it were true that the Greeks were ruined because they kept slaves, the opposite is even more certain, that we will be destroyed by the lackof slavery: an activity whichThe Greek State 1674Goethe, Faust 11line11906 . neither the original Christians nor the Germanic tribes found at all objec- tionable, let alone reprehensible. What an elevating effect on us is pro- duced by the sight of a medieval serf, whose legal and ethical relationshipwith his superior was internally sturdy and sensitive, whose narrow exis-tence was profoundly cocooned how elevating and how reproachful! Whoever is unable to think about the conguration of society without melancholy, whoever has learnt to think of it as the continuing, painful birth of those exalted men of culture in whose service everything else has to consume itself, will no longer be deceived by that false gloss the moderns have spread over the origin and meaning of the state. For what can the state mean to us, if not the means of setting the previouslydescribed process of society in motion and guaranteeing its unobstructed continuation? H owever strong the sociable urges of the individual might be, only the iron clamp of the state can force huge masses into such astrong cohesion that the chemical separation of society, with its new pyr- amidal structure, hasto take place. But what is the source of this sudden power of the state, the aim of which lies far beyond the comprehension and egoism of the individual? How did the slave, the blind mole of culture, come about ? The Greeks have given us a hint with their instinct for the law of nations that, even at the height of their civilization and humanity , never ceased to shout from lips of iron such phrases as the defeated belong to the victor, together with his wife and child, goods and blood. Power ( Gewalt ) gives the rst right , and there is no right that is not fundamentally presumption, usurpation and violence. Here again we see the degree to which nature, in order to bring society about, uses pitiless inexibility to forge for herself the cruel tool of the state namely that conqueror with the iron hand who is nothing but the objectication of the instinct indicated. The onlooker feels, from the indenable greatness and power of such conquerors, that they are just themeans of an intention revealing itself through them and yet concealing itself from them. It is as though a magic will emanated from them, so curi- ously swiftly do weaker powers gravitate to them, so wonderfully do they transform themselves, when that avalanche of violence suddenly swells, and enter into a state of afnity not present till then, enchanted by thatcreative kernel. If we now see how, in no time at all, the subjected hardly bother about the dreadful origin of the state, so that basically history informs us lesswell about the way those sudden, violent, bloody and at least in one aspect inexplicable usurpations came about than about any other kind ofThe Greek State 168 event: if, on the contrary, hearts swell involuntarily towards the magic of the developing state, with the inkling of an invisibly deep intention, where calculating reason can only see the sum total of forces: if the state now isactually viewed enthusiastically as the aim and goal of the sacrices andduties of the individual: then all this indicates how enormously necessarythe state is, without which nature might not succeed in achieving, through society, her salvation in appearance [ im Scheine ], in the mirror of genius. How much knowledge does not mans instinctive pleasure in the state overcome! One should really assume that a person investigating the emer- gence of the state would, from then on, seek salvation only at an awe- struck distance from it; and where we do not see monuments to itsdevelopment, devastated lands, ruined towns, savage men, consuming hatred of nations! The state, of ignominious birth, a continually owing source of toil for most people, frequently the ravishing ame of thehuman race and yet, a sound that makes us forget ourselves, a battle-cry that has encouraged countless truly heroic acts, perhaps the highest and most revered object for the blind, egoistic mass which wears the strange expression of greatness on its face only at tremendous moments in the life of the state! We must, h owever, co nstrue the Greeks, in relation to the unique zenith of their art, as being a priori political men par excellence ; and actu- ally history knows of no other example of such an awesome release of the political urge, of such a complete sacrice of all other interests in the service of this instinct towards the state at best, we could honour themen of the Renaissance in Italy with the same title, by way of comparison and for similar reasons. This urge is so overcharged amongst the Greeks that it continually and repeatedly starts to rage against itself, sinking its teeth into its own esh. This bloody jealousy of one town for another, one party for another, this murderous greed of those petty wars, the tiger-liketriumph over the corpse of the slain enemy, in short, the continual renewal of those Trojan battle-scenes and atrocities which Homer, stand- ing before us as a true Hellene, contemplated with deep relish what does this nave barbarism of the Greek state indicate, and what will be its excuse at the throne of eternal justice? The state appears before it proudlyand calmly: leading the magnicently blossoming woman, Greek society , by the hand. For this Helen, he waged those wars what grey-bearded judge would condemn this 5? The Greek State 1695Illiad III.146ff. It is through this mysterious connection that we sense here between the state and art, political greed and artistic creation, battleeld and work of art, that, as I said, we understand the state only as the iron clamp pro-ducing society by force: whereas without the state, in the natural bellum omnium contra omnes , 6society is completely unable to grow roots in any signicant measure and beyond the family sphere. Now, after states have been founded everywhere, that urge of bellum omnium contra omnes is con- centrated, from time to time, into dreadful clouds of war between nations and, as it were, discharges itself in less frequent but all the stronger boltsof thunder and ashes of lightning. But in the intervals, the concentrated effect of that bellum , turned inwards, gives society time to germinate and turn green everywhere, so that it can let the radiant blossoms of genius sprout forth as soon as warmer days come. With regard to the political Hellenic world, I will not remain silent about those present-day phenomena in which I believe I detect danger-ous signs of atrophy in the political sphere, equally worrying for art andsociety . If there were to be men placed by birth, as it were, outside theinstinct for nation and state, who thus have to recognize the state only to the extent they conceive it to be in their own interest: then such men would necessarily imagine the states ultimate aim as being the mostundisturbed co-existence possible of great political communities, in which they, above all, would be permitted by everyone to pursue their own purposes without restriction. With this idea in their heads, they will promote that policy that offers greatest security to these interests, whilst it is unthinkable that, contrary to their intentions, they should sacricethemselves to the state purpose, led perhaps by an unconscious instinct, unthinkable because they lack precisely that instinct. All other citizens are in the dark about what nature intends for them with their state instinct, and follow blindly; only those who stand outside this know what they want from the state, and what the state ought to grant them. Therefore it ispractically inevitable that such men should win great inuence over the state, because they may view it as means , whilst all the rest, under the power of the unconscious intention of the state, are themselves only means to the state purpose. In order for them to achieve the full effect of their selsh aims through the medium of the state, it is now, above all,essential for the state to be completely freed from those terrible, unpre- dictable outbreaks of war, so that it can be used rationally; and so, asThe Greek State 1706War of all against all, cf. Thomas Hobbes, De cive 1.12;Leviathan , ch. XIII. consciously as possible, they strive for a state of affairs where war is impossible. To this end, they rst have to cut off and weaken the speci- cally political impulses as much as possible and, by establishing large statebodies of equal importance with mutual safeguards, make a successful attack on them, and therefore war in general, extremely unlikely: whilston the other hand they try to wrest the decision over war and peace away from the individual rulers, so that they can then appeal to the egoism of the masses, or their representatives: to do which they must in turn slowly dissolve the monarchical instincts of the people. They carry out this intention through the widest dissemination of the liberal-optimistic world view, which has its roots in the teachings of the FrenchEnlightenment and Revolution i.e. in a completely un-Germanic, gen- uinely Romanesque, at and unmetaphysical philosophy. I cannot help seeing, above all, the effects of the fear of war in the dominant movement of nationalities at the present time, and in the simultaneous spread of uni- versal suffrage, indeed, I cannot help seeing those truly international, homeless, nancial recluses as really those whose fear stands behind these movements, who, with their natural lack of state instinct, have learnt to misuse politics as an instrument of the stock exchange, and state andsociety as an apparatus for their own enrichment. The only counter- measure to the threatened deection of the state purpose towards money matters from this quarter is war and war again: in the excitement of which at least so much becomes clear, that the state is not founded on fear of the war-demon, as a protective measure for egoistic individuals, but insteadproduces from within itself an ethical momentum in the love for father- land and prince, indicating a much loftier designation. If I point to the use of revolutionary ideas in the service of a self-seeking, stateless money aristocracy as a dangerous characteristic of the contemporary political scene, and if, at the same time, I regard the massive spread of liberal opti-mism as a result of the fact that the modern money economy has fallen into strange hands, and if I view all social evils, including the inevitable decline of the arts, as either sprouting from that root or enmeshed with it: then you will just have to excuse me if I occasionally sing a pan to war. His silver bow might sound terrifying; but even if he does swoop in likethe night, 7he is still Apollo, the just god who consecrates and puries the state. But rst, as at the beginning of the Iliad , he shoots his arrows at mules and dogs. Then he actually hits people and, everywhere, pyres withThe Greek State 1717Iliad 1.4752. corpses blaze. So let it be said that war is as much a necessity for the state as the slave for society: and who can avoid this conclusion if he honestly inquires as to the reasons why Greek artistic perfection has never beenachieved again? Whoever considers war, and its uniformed potential, the military pro- fession , in connection with the nature of the state as discussed so far, has to conclude that through war, and in the military profession, we are pre- sented with a type, even perhaps the archetype of the state . Here we see, as the most general effect of the war tendency, the immediate separation and division of the chaotic masses into military castes , from which there arises the construction of a war-like society in the shape of a pyramid onthe broadest possible base: a slave-like bottom stratum. The unconscious purpose of the whole movement forces every individual under its yoke, and even among heterogeneous natures produces, as it were, a chemicaltransformation of their characteristics until they are brought into afnity with that purpose. In the higher castes, it becomes a little clearer what is actually happening with this inner process, namely the creation of the military genius whom we have already met as original founder of the state. In several states, for example in Spartas Lycurgian constitution, 8 we can clearly make out the imprint of that original idea of the state, thecreation of the military genius. If we now think of the original military state, alive with activity , engaged in its proper work, and picture for our- selves the whole technique of war, we cannot avoid correcting our con- cepts of dignity of man, dignity of work, absorbed from all around us, by asking whether the concept of dignity is appropriate for work whichhas, as its purpose, the destruction of the dignied man, or for the man to whom such dignied work is entrusted, or if, in view of the warlike mission of the state, those concepts do not rather cancel each other out as being mutually contradictory. I would have thought the war-like man was ameans for the military genius and that his work was, again, just a means for the same genius; and that a degree of dignity applies to him, not as absolute man and non-genius, but as means of genius who can even choose his own destruction as a means to the masterpiece which is war, that dignity , then, of being acknowledged as worthy to be a means for genius . But what I have demonstrated here, with a single example, is valid in themost general sense: every man, with his whole activity , is only digniedThe Greek State 17218For a brief, elementary discussion of the Lycurgian constitution, cf. ch. 5ofThe Emergence of Greek Democracy 800400 BCby W . G. Forrest ( 1966 ). to the extent that he is a tool of genius, consciously or unconsciously; whereupon we immediately deduce the ethical conclusion that man as such, absolute man, possesses neither dignity, nor rights, nor duties: onlyas a completely determined being, serving unconscious purposes, canman excuse his existence. Platos perfect state is, according to these considerations, certainly something even greater than is believed by his warmest-blooded admirers themselves, to say nothing of the superior smirk with which our historically-educated reject such a fruit of antiquity . The actual aim of the state, the Olympian existence and constantly renewed creation and preparation of the genius, compared with whom everything else is just atool, aid and facilitator, is discovered here through poetic intuition and described vividly. Plato saw beyond the terribly mutilated Herm of con- temporary state life, and still saw something divine inside it. 9Hebelieved that one could, perhaps, extract this divine image, and that the angry, bar- barically distorted exterior did not belong to the nature of the state: the whole fervour and loftiness of his political passion threw itself onto that belief, that wish he was burnt up in this re. The fact that he did not place genius, in its most general sense, at the head of his perfect state, butonly the genius of wisdom and knowledge, excluding the inspired artist entirely from his state, was a rigid consequence of the Socratic judgment on art, which Plato, struggling against himself, adopted as his own. This external, almost accidental gap ought not to prevent us from recognizing, in the total concept of the Platonic state, the wonderfully grand hiero-glyph of a profound secret study of the connection between state and genius , eternally needing to be interpreted: in this preface we have said what we believe we have fathomed of this secret script. The Greek State 17319Nietzsche conates two things here: (a) the incident of the mutilation of the herms (reported in Thucydides VI. 27ff.), and (b) Alcibiades panegyric on Socrates at the end of Platos Symposium (221d1222a6). Homers Contest If we speak of humanity , it is on the basic assumption that it should be that which separates man from nature and is his mark of distinction. But in reality there is no such separation: natural characteristics and those called specically human have grown together inextricably. Man, at the nest height of his powers, is all nature and carries natures uncanny dual character in himself. His dreadful capabilities and those counting asinhuman are perhaps, indeed, the fertile soil from which alone all human- ity , in feelings, deeds and works, can grow forth. Thus the Greeks, the most humane people of ancient time, have a trait of cruelty, of tiger-like pleasure in destruction, in them: a trait which is even clearly visible in Alexander the Great, that grotesquely enlargedreection of the Hellene, and which, in their whole history, and also their mythology, must strike fear into us when we approach them with the emasculated concept of modern humanity. When Alexander has the feet pierced of the brave defender of Gaza, Batis, and ties his live body to his chariot in order to drag him around to the scorn of his own soldiers: 1this is a nauseating caricature of Achilles, who abused the corpse of Hector at night by similarly dragging it around; but for us, even Achilles action has something offensive and horric about it. Here we look into the bottom- less pit of hatred. With the same sensation, we observe the bloody and insatiable mutual laceration of two Greek factions, for example in theCorcyrean revolution. 2When, in a battle between cities, the victor, according to the rights of war, puts the whole male population to the sword 1741Cf. Jacoby, F ., Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Leiden, 1940 1),142.5. 2Thucydides III. 7085. and sells all the women and children into slavery, we see, in the sanc- tioning of such a right, that the Greek regarded a full release of his hatred as a serious necessity; at such moments pent-up, swollen sensation foundrelief: the tiger charged out, wanton cruelty ickering in its terrible eyes.Why did the Greek sculptor repeatedly have to represent war and battleswith endless repetition, human bodies stretched out, their veins taut with hatred or the arrogance of triumph, the wounded doubled up, the dying in agony? Why did the whole Greek world rejoice over the pictures of battle in the Iliad? I fear we have not understood these in a sufciently Greek way, and even that we would shudder if we ever did understand them in a Greek way. But what lies behind the world of Homer, as the womb of everything Hellenic? In the latter , we are already lifted beyond the purely material fusion by the extraordinary artistic precision, calmness and purity of thelines: its colours, through an artistic deception, seem lighter, gentler and warmer, its people, in this warm, multi-coloured light, seem better and more likeable but where do we look if we stride backwards into the pre- Homeric world, without Homers guiding and protecting hand? Only into night and horror, into the products of a fantasy used to ghastly things.What earthly existence is reected in these repellingly dreadful legends about the origins of the gods: a life ruled over by the children of the night alone, by strife, lust, deception, age and death. Let us imagine the air of Hesiods poems, difcult to breathe as it is, still thicker and darker and without any of the things to alleviate and cleanse it which poured overHellas from Delphi and numerous seats of the gods: let us mix this thick- ened Botian air with the dark voluptuousness of the Etruscans; such a reality would then extort from us a world of myths in which Uranus, Kronos and Zeus and the struggles of the Titans would seem like a relief; in this brooding atmosphere, combat is salvation and deliverance, thecruelty of the victory is the pinnacle of lifes jubilation. And just as, in truth, the concept of Greek law developed out of murder and atonement for murder, ner culture, too, takes its rst victors wreath from the altar of atonement for murder. The wake of that bloody period stretches deep into Hellenic history. The names of Orpheus, Musaeus and their cults,reveal what were the conclusions to which a continual exposure to a world of combat and cruelty led to nausea at existence, to the view of existence as a punishment to be discharged by serving out ones time, to the beliefthat existence and indebtedness were identical. But precisely these con-clusions are not specically Hellenic: in them, Greece meets India and theHomers Contest 175 Orient in general. The Hellenic genius had yet another answer ready to the question What does a life of combat and victory want?, and gives this answer in the whole breadth of Greek history. In order to understand it, we must assume that Greek genius acknow- ledged the existing impulse, terrible as it was, and regarded it as justied : whereas in the Orphic version there lay the thought that a life rooted insuch an impulse was not worth living. Combat and the pleasure of victorywere acknowledged: and nothing severs the Greek world so sharply fromours as the resultant colouring of individual ethical concepts, for example Erisandenvy . When the traveller Pausanias visited the Helicon on his travels through Greece, an ancient copy of the Greeks rst didactic poem, HesiodsWorks and Days , was shown to him, inscribed on lead plates and badly damaged by time and weather. 3But he still saw this much, that in contrast to the usual copies it did not carry that little hymn to Zeus at the head, but began straight with the assertion: There are twoEris-goddesses on earth.4This is one of the most remarkable of Hellenic ideas and deserves to be impressed upon newcomers right at the gate of entry to Hellenic ethics. One should praise the one Eris as much as blame the other, if one has any sense; because the two goddesses have quite separate dispositions. One promotes wicked war and feuding, the cruel thing! No mortal likes her, but the yoke of necessity forces man to honour the heavy burden ofthis Eris according to the decrees of the Immortals. Black Night gave birth to this one as the older of the two; but Zeus, who reigned on high,placed the other on the roots of the earth and amongst men as a muchbetter one. She drives even the unskilled man to work; and if someonewho lacks property sees someone else who is rich, he likewise hurries off to sow and plant and set his house in order; neighbour competes with neighbour striving for prosperity . This Eris is good for men. Even potters harbour grudges against potters, carpenters against carpenters, beggars envy beggars and minstrels envy minstrels. 5 The two last verses, about odium gulinum ,6seem to our scholars incomprehensible in this place. In their judgment, the predicates grudge and envy t only the nature of the bad Eris; and for this reason they make no bones about declaring the verses not genuine or accidentally trans-Homers Contest 1763Pausanias IX. 31.4. 4In the received text, this is line 11. 5Hesiod, Works & Days 1226. 6potters hatred. posed here. But another ethic, not a Hellenic one, must have inspired them to this: for Aristotle makes no objection to referring these verses to the good Eris.7And not just Aristotle, but the whole of Greek antiquity thinks about grudge and envy differently from us and agrees with Hesiod, who rst portrays one Eris as wicked, in fact the one who leads men into hostile struggle-to-the-death, and then praises the other Eris as goodwho, as jealousy , grudge and envy , goads men to action, not, h owever, the action of a struggle-to-the-death but the action of the contest . The Greek isenvious and does not experience this characteristic as a blemish, but as the effect of a benevolent deity: what a gulf of ethical judgment between him and us! Because he is envious, he feels the envious eye of a god resting on him whenever he has an excessive amount of honour, wealth, fame and fortune, and he fears this envy; in this case, the god warns him of the tran-sitoriness of the human lot, he dreads his good fortune and, sacricing the best part of it, he prostrates himself before divine envy . This idea does notestrange his gods at all from him: on the contrary, their signicance ismade manifest, which is that man, whose soul burns with jealousy of every other living thing, never has the right to compete with them. In Thamyris ght with the Muses, Marsyas with Apollo, in the moving fate of Niobe, 8there appeared the terrible opposition of the two forces that ought never to ght one another, man and god. However, the greater and more eminent a Greek man is, the brighter the ame of ambition to erupt from him, consuming everyone who runs with him on the same track. Aristotle once made a list of such hostile con- tests in the grand style: amongst them is the most striking example of howeven a dead man can excite a living man to consuming jealousy . 9Indeed, that is how Aristotle describes the relationship of the Kolophonian Xenophanes to Homer. We do not understand the strength of this attack on the national hero of poetry unless we construe the root of the attack to be the immense desire to take the place of the fallen poet and inherit his fame, as later with Plato, too. Every great Hellene passes on the torch ofthe contest; every great virtue strikes the spark of a new grandeur. If the young Themistocles could not sleep at the thought of Miltiades laurels, 10 his early-awakened urge found release only in the long rivalry withHomers Contest 17717Aristotle, Rhetoric 1388 a16,1381 b1617:Nicomachean Ethics 1155 a35b1. 18Three cases of humans who tried unsuccessfully to compete with the gods, Thamyris and Marsyas in artistic accomplishment and Niobe in philo-progenetiveness. 19Aristotle, Fragments , ed. Ross, 7(from Diogenes Laertius II. 5.46). 10Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, ch. 3. Aristides, when he developed that remarkable, purely instinctive genius for political action which Thucydides describes for us.11How very typical is the question and answer, when a notable opponent of Pericles is asked whether he or Pericles is the best wrestler in the city and answers: Even if I throw him he denies having fallen and gets away with it, persuading the people who saw him fall.12 If we want to see that feeling revealed in its nave form, the feeling that the contest is vital, if the well-being of the state is to continue, we should think about the original meaning of ostracism : as, for example, expressed by the Ephesians at the banning of Hermodor. Amongst us, nobodyshould be the best; but if somebody is, let him be somewhere else, withother people. 13For why should nobody be the best? Because with that, the contest would dry up and the permanent basis of life in the Hellenic state would be endangered. Later, ostracism acquires a different relation to the contest: it is used when there is the obvious danger that one of the great contending politicians and party leaders might feel driven, in the heat of battle, to use harmful and destructive means and to conduct dan-gerous coups dtats . The original function of this strange institution is, however, not as a safety valve but as a stimulant: the preeminent individ- ual is removed to renew the tournament of forces: a thought that is hostile to the exclusivity of genius in the modern sense, but assumes that there are always several geniuses to incite each other to action, just as they keep each other within certain limits, too. That is the kernel of the Hellenic idea of competition: it loathes a monopoly of predominance and fears the dangers of this, it desires, as protective measure against genius a second genius. Hellenic popular teaching commands that every talent must develop through a struggle: whereas modern educators fear nothing more than the unleashing of so-called ambition. Here, selshness is feared as evil as such except by the Jesuits, who think like the ancients in this and prob- ably, for that reason, may be the most effective educators of our times. They seem to believe that selshness, i.e. the individual, is simply themost powerful agens , obtaining its character of good and evil essentially from the aims towards which it strives. But for the ancients, the aim of agonistic education was the well-being of the whole, of state society [ der staatlichen Gesellschaft ]. For example, every Athenian was to developHomers Contest 17811Thucydides I. 90ff. 12Plutarch, Life of Pericles, ch. 8. 13Heraclitus, Fragment 121. himself, through the contest, to the degree to which this self was of most use to Athens and would cause least damage. It was not a boundless and indeterminate ambition like most modern ambition: the youth thought ofthe good of his native city when he ran a race or threw or sang; he wantedto increase its reputation through his own; it was to the citys gods that hededicated the wreaths which the umpires placed on his head in honour. From childhood, every Greek felt the burning desire within him to be an instrument of bringing salvation to his city in the contest between cities: in this, his selshness was lit, as well as curbed and restricted. For that reason, the individuals in antiquity were freer, because their aims were nearer and easier to achieve. Modern man, on the other hand, is crossedeverywhere by innity , like swift-footed Achilles in the parable of Zeno of Elea: innity impedes him, he cannot even overtake the tortoise. But as the youths to be educated were brought up competing with one another, their educators in their turn were in rivalry with each other. Full of mistrust and jealousy , the great music masters Pindar and Simonides took their places next to each other; the sophist, the advanced teacher of antiquity , met his fellow sophist in contest; even the most general way of teaching, through drama, was only brought to the people in the formof an immense struggle of great musicians and dramatists. How wonder- ful! Even the artist has a grudge against the artist!. And modern man fears nothing so much in an artist as personal belligerence, whilst the Greek knows the artist only in personal struggle . Where modern man senses the weakness of a work of art, there the Hellene looks for the sourceof its greatest strength! What, for example, is of particular artistic impor- tance in Platos dialogues is mostly the result of a competition with the art of the orators, the sophists, the dramatists of his time, invented for the purpose of his nally being able to say: Look: I, too, can do what my great rivals can do; yes, I can do it better than them. No Protagoras has writtenmyths as beautiful as mine, no dramatist has written such a lively and fas- cinating whole as the Symposium , no orator has composed such speeches as I present in the Gorgias and now I reject all of that and condemn all imitative art! Only the contest made me a poet, sophist and orator! What a problem reveals itself to us when we enquire about the relationship ofthe contest to the conception of the work of art! On the other hand, if we take away the contest from Greek life, we gaze immediately into that pre-Homeric abyss of a gruesome savagery ofhatred and pleasure in destruction. Unfortunately, this phenomenonappears quite often when a great gure was suddenly withdrawn from theHomers Contest 179 contest through an immensely glorious deed and was hors de concours14in his own judgment and that of his fellow citizens. Almost without excep- tion the effect is terrible; and if we usually draw the conclusion from theseeffects that the Greek was unable to bear fame and fortune: we should,perhaps, say more exactly that he was not able to bear fame withoutfurther competition or fortune at the end of the contest. There is no clearer example than the ultimate fate of Miltiades. 15Placed on a lonely pinnacle and carried far beyond every fellow competitor through his incomparable success at Marathon: he feels a base lust for vengeance awaken in him against a citizen of Para with whom he had a quarrellong ago. To satisfy this lust, he misuses his name, the states money andcivic honour, and disgraces himself. Conscious of failure, he resorts tounworthy machinations. He enters into a secret and godless relationship with Timo, priestess of Demeter, and at night enters the sacred temple from which every man was excluded. When he has jumped over the wall and is approaching the shrine of the goddess, he is suddenly overwhelmed by a terrible, panic-stricken dread: almost collapsing and unconscious, hefeels himself driven back and, jumping back over the wall, he falls down, paralysed and badly injured. The siege must be lifted, the peoples court awaits him, and a disgraceful death stamps its seal on the glorious heroiccareer to darken it for all posterity . After the battle of Marathon hebecame the victim of the envy of the gods. And this divine envy ares upwhen it sees a man without any other competitor, without an opponent, at the lonely height of fame. He only has the gods near him now and for that reason he has them against him. But these entice him into an act of hubris, and he collapses under it. Let us also mention that even the nest Greek states perish in the same way as Miltiades when they, too, through merit and fortune have pro- gressed from the racecourse to the temple of Nike. Both Athens, which had destroyed the independence of her allies and severely punished the rebellions of those subjected to her, and Sparta, which, after the battle of Aegospotamoi, 16made her superior strength felt over Hellas in an even harder and crueller fashion, brought about their own ruin, after the example of Miltiades, through acts of hubris. This proves that without envy , jealousy and ambition in the contest, the Hellenic state, likeHomers Contest 18014Out of the competition or contest. 15Herodotus VI 1336. 16Decisive Athenian naval defeat at the hands of the Spartans in 405BC. Cf. Xenophon, Hellenica II.1.1032. Hellenic man, deteriorates. It becomes evil and cruel, it becomes venge- ful and godless, in short, it becomes pre-Homeric it then only takes a panicky fright to make it fall and shatter. Sparta and Athens surrender tothe Persians like Themistocles 16and Alcibiades17did; they betray the Hellenic after they have given up the nest Hellenic principle, the contest: and Alexander, the rough copy and abbreviation of Greek history, now invents the standard-issue Hellene and so-called Hellenism. 1Homers Contest 18116Thucydides I. 135ff. 17Thucydides VIII. 45ff. 183Achilles, 16,71,174,179 Adam, 63 Aegisthus, 65 Aegospotamoi, battle of, 180 Alcibiades, 148, 173 n9, 181 Alexander the Great, 174,181 Anacreon, 117,165 Antichrist, 67,111 Apocalypse of John, 32 Apollo, 171,177 Aquinas, T ., 29 Archilochus, 165 Aristides, 178 Aristotle, 177 Artemis, Temple of, 79 Aryan, 1415, 24, 117 Asia, 108 Assassins, order of, 111 Athens, Athenians, 23,136,179181 Augustine, 148 Bahnsen, J., 163 Basel, 106 Batis, 174 Baudelaire, C., 74n72 Beethoven, L. van, 102 Berlin, 91 Bismarck, O. von, 160 Bogos, 91 Borgia, Cesare, 145 Brahma, 16,83, 98, 144 Brahmins, 83, 114 Brazilians, 136 Buckle, H. T ., 13Buddha (-ism), 7,63,77,98,119, 151 Byron, Lord, 102 Caesar, 148 Calvin, J., 44,144 Cambodia, 82 Cardinal Lotario dei Segni (Pope Innocent III), 43n51 Catholic(s), 70,103 Celts, 14 Charles the Bold, 82 Chinese, 32,53 Christian/Christianity, 10, 19, 25, 2930, 31 n42,32, 44, 62, 63, 70, 71, 73, 96, 98, 100, 107 8, 111112,11719, 126, 134, 136, 1401,148, 151 2,154,1602, 1678; anti-Christianity, 10 Christopher, Sir, 967 Cleopatra, 167 Constantine, 19n22 Copernicus, N., 115 Corcyrean revolution, 174 Crusaders, 111 Cynics, 76 Dame Shrewd, 81 Dance of Death, 89 Dante Alighieri, 29,144 Darwin, C., 8,161 Delphi, 175 Demeter, 180 Descartes, R., 77,160Index of names Deussen, P ., 98 Diet of Worms, 107n110 Diogenes Laertius, 79n77 Don Juan, 140 Don Quixote, 42 Doudan, X., 116 Dhring, E., 4850, 91, 116 Egypt, Egyptians, 40 England, English, 56, 8, 10 11, 13, 33, 34, 71, 76, 107 Ephesians, 79,178 Epicurus, 75, 99, 148 Eris, 17677 Etruscans, 175 Europe, 12, 15, 23, 25, 33, 38, 45, 53, 64, 72, 89, 98, 106 7, 114, 117 19, 147, 1501, 157, 161 2; Europes self- overcoming, 119, 162 European(s), 7, 24 5, 39, 44, 106, 107, 111, 119, 147 8,1502, 157, 161 2; good Europeans, 119, 162 3; nihilism , 118; Weltschmerz , 96 Eusebius of Caesarea, 19n22 Faust, 71 Feuerbach, L., 70 Fin-gal, 14 Fischer, K., 55 Forrest, W . G., 184n8 France, French, 33,112 French Enlightenment, 171 French Revolution, 33 Friedrich II, 148 Gaza, 174 Geneva, 106 Germans, 23, 32, 38 9,6970, 103, 107, 1603 Germany, 14, 15, 72, 91, 96, 108, 11617, 162 Geulincx, A., 99n98,100 Gibbon, E., 30n41 God seeIndex of subjects Goethe, J. W . von, 5n4,59, 69, 71, 90, 105, 146, 160, 167 n4 Goths, 15,23 Greece, 136,155, 175 Greeks, 44, 645, 82, 101, 107, 125, 1649, 174, 176 Greenlanders, 136 Gwinner, W . von, 102Haz, 69,146 Hartmann, E. von, 163 Hector, 174 Hegel, G. W . F ., 76, 90 n91, 1612 Hegelians, 161 Helen, 169 Helicon, 176 Hellas, 175,180 Heracles of duty, 45 Heraclitus, 58, 779, 178 n13 Hermodor, 178 Herodotus, 180n15 Herwegh, G., 73 Hesiod, 24, 1757 Hesychasts of Mount Athos, 98 Hobbes, T ., 170n6 Homer, 234, 29, 44, 65, 71, 114, 123, 159, 169, 17581 Horace, 14n17,164 Hume, D., 160 Huxley, T . H., 52 India, 76, 80, 96, 98, 119, 144, 175 Iranian, 14 Israel, 1819 Italy, 169 Ixion, Wheel of, 75 Janssen, J., 103 Jerusalem, 137 Jesuits, 178 Jesus, 18, 302 Jews, 1719, 302, 108, 145, 163 John, 32, 105 n104,106, 111 n114, 167 Jove, 30, 31 n42 Judas, 30,31n42 Judea, 323 Kamshadales, 137 Kant, I., 5, 7, 26, 41, 735, 77, 87, 115, 1601 Kronos, 175 La Rochefoucauld, F . D. de, 7 Latins, 161 Leibniz, G. W . von, 77, 1601 Livy, Titius, 47n53 Ludwig XI, 82 Luke, 28n33,90n90,94n92,111n114 Luther, M., 44, 69, 81, 103, 105, 107 n110,108; Luthers Wedding, 69 Lycurgian constitution, 172Index of names 184 Machiavellism, 160 Mainlnder, P ., 163 Marathon, 180 Marsyas, 177 Mary, 33 Matthew, 3n1,22n30,114n120 Maxentius, 19n22 Mrime, P ., 41n47 Middle Ages, 43n51, 96, 106, 136, 140 Miltiades, 177, 180 Milvian Bridge, battle of, 19n22 Minos, 31n42 Minotaur, 112 Mirabeau, H. G. de Riqueti, Comte de 22 Moore, T ., 102 Musaeus, 175 Muses, 177 Napoleon Bonaparte, 33,147 Negroes, 44 New Testament, 107 Nike, 180 Niobe, 177 North Pole, 116 Odysseus, 159n1 Old Testament, 107,148n2 Oldenburg, H., 77n75 Olympian, 65, 166, 173 Orpheus, 175 Ovid, 81n81 Para, 180 Parsifal, 702 Pascal, B., 97, 154 Paul, 32, 144 Pausanias, 176 Pericles, 25,165n3,178 Persia, Persians, 79, 181 Peter, 32,108 Pharisees, 91 Phidias, 165 Philetas, 165 Pindar, 165n2,179 Plato, 7,10, 77, 1012, 112, 114, 136, 160, 173, 177, 179 Plutarch, 140, 165, 177 n10,178n12 Pope, 108; Pope Innocent III, 43 Promethean, 166 Protagoras, 179 Protestant, 103Pygmalion, 74 Radamanthus, 31n42 Rahula, 77 Ranke, L. von, 103 Re, P ., 6,8 Reformation, 33; German, 103 Renaissance, 33 Renan, E., 117 Romans, Rome, 15, 323, 41, 149 Russians, 56 Sabbath, 21, 31 n41,75, 148 St John, 106, 167 St Theresa, 98 St Vitus, 106 Salamis, 136 Salvation Army, 107 Samaritan, 31n42 Schiller, F ., 76n68,153n3 Schopenhauer, A., 67, 727, 801, 102, 126, 1613 Sextus Empiricus, 81n79 Shakespeare, W ., 96,107 Shankara, 98 Simonides, 179 Slavic, 14 Socrates, 77, 134, 150, 173 n9 Solon, 136 Sorrento, 4 Sparta, 172,1801 ; Spartans, 180n16 Spencer, H., 12,52 Sphinx of nature, 166 Spinoza, B., 7,42, 556, 77, 146 Stendhal, 53n55, 745 Stoics, 146 Tacitus, 32n44,68n64,81n80,145 Taine, H., 103 Talleyrand, C. M. Herzog von, 103n103 Talmud, 31n42 Teos, 117n125 Terence, 3n2 Tertullian, 30, 31 n42 Thamyris, 177 Thayer, A. W ., 102 Thebes, 24 Themistocles, 177, 181 Theognis, 14 Thirty Years War, 13,96 Thucydides, 23n31,124, 173 n9,174 n2,178, 181 n16 Timo, 180Index of names 185 Titans, 175 Tolstoi, 116 Trojans, 123,169; Trojan War, 44 Troy, 24 Uranus, 175 Vandals, 23 Venice, 79n78 Vivamitra, King, 81,144 Vikings, 23,155 Vinci, L. da, 148 Virchow, R., 15Wagner, R., 6973, 102, 117, 154; see also Parsifal Whiteeld, G., 141 Wotan, 155 Xenophanes, 177 Xenophon, 180n16 Zarathustra, 9,67 Zeno of Elea, 179 Zeus, 58, 65, 165, 1756Index of names 186 187abyss, 64, 73 ; pre-Homeric abyss, 179;o f scientic conscience, 109 active emotions, 48 active forces, 49, 52 activity/reactivity, 52; mechanical activity, 99, 101 adaptation, 512, 96 aesthetic(s), 71, 735, 801 ; physiology of aesthetics, 81 affect(s), 87, 101, 146, 149 agnostic(s), 115 alcoholism, 96, 107, 118 alienation, 54 anarchism/anarchists, 15, 48, 116, 151 ; anarchist dogs, 151 ancestors, 601, 147, 156 ; primeval ancestor, 64 anti-Semites/anti-Semitism, 48, 91, 117 aphorism, 9 aristocracy (-cratic), 1214, 1617, 21, 32, 157, 171 art,51, 70, 724, 90, 114, 146, 156, 1647, 16970, 173, 179 ; artists, 59, 66, 6872, 74, 80, 104, 114, 11617,127, 148, 154, 165, 1723, 175, 179 ; artistic culture, 1646 art of interpretation, 9 art of reading, 9 ascetic, 38, 69, 80, 847, 97; mask , 84; morality , 6; sin, 106; asceticism , 38, 78, 81 ascetic ideal(s), 16, 6870, 723, 758, 81, 84, 868, 103, 1056, 10815ascetic priest, 845, 88, 92, 945, 1001, 1035 astronomy, 115 atheism/atheists, 62, 111, 118, 16162 atonement, 175 autonomous (supra-ethical) individual, 37 bad conscience seeconscience barbarian, 23, 143 beasts of prey, 234, 58, 89, 923, 101, 145 beautiful souls, 90, 116 beauty, 60, 745, 80, 86, 120, 166; Kants concept of, 74 5 becoming, 161, 167 being, 3, 26, 64, 72, 86, 88, 989, 113, 119, 173; being active , 21 bellum omnium contra omnes ,170 benevolence, 32, 123, 125, 147 beyond good and evil, 25, 98, 156 Bildung ,166 biography, 102; Wagners autobiography , 1023 blame, 8, 26, 934, 115, 150, 161, 176 blond beast, 234,58 blood, 16, 19, 24, 30, 389, 41, 61, 71, 94, 967, 107, 141, 1678; of Christ , 30; mixing of , 15; relationship , 24, 61 bonus ,15 breeding, 11,36, 41, 108, 152 Buddhism seeIndex of names buyerseller, 45Index of subjects castration, 38 categorical imperative, 5,41, 125 Catholic(s) seeIndex of names causa prima ,623 causality, 82, 160 chastity, 69, 78, 80 children, 40, 65, 80, 124, 131, 175; of the night , 175 Christian/Christianity seeIndex of names Church, 9, 19, 33, 95, 108 ; Church Fathers, 30, 107 civil rights, 146;see also rights civilization, 445,47, 88, 1367, 168 comedy, 9,69, 77 common man, 1314, 20 common people, 19, 26, 155 compassion, 7, 83, 89, 92, 126 1378, 140, 144, 1479, 151, 1556, 167;religion of, 114, 151; Tolstois, 116 competition, 38, 17880 compulsion, 58, 62, 92, 112, 126, 137, 152; freedom from, 77 Communists, 166 community, 23, 467, 54, 82, 91, 1001, 1235, 1279, 1345, 1379, 141,1489, 151 ; commune, 15 conscience, 12, 234, 323, 35, 37, 402, 44, 49, 545, 57, 62, 656, 812, 91,101, 119, 135, 138, 147, 14950,1524, 162 ; bad, 39, 49, 5460, 623, 656, 1045, 110, 147 ; Christian, 119, 162 ; European, 150, 162; good, 55, 104, 114, 160 ; herd, 149; intellectual, 111; lustful, 105; morsus conscientiae ,55; pang of, 54; scientic, 109, 119, 162 consciousness, 10, 12, 35, 55, 57, 801, 93, 97, 99, 110, 113, 137, 160 ;o f debts, 612 ; of guilt, 39, 61 ; of the law,134; proud, 37; of wealth, 155 contempt, 201, 59, 66, 99, 103, 115, 123, 132, 137, 1567 ; self- contempt, 82, 86, 90, 100, 110, 115 contest, 124, 17781 conviction, 9, 60, 1589 cowardice, 14, 28, 119, 162 creditor, 402, 467, 53, 603 ; creditor debtor relationship, 40, 456 crime, 41n46,50, 65, 82 criminal, 3940, 535, 129, 150 critique, 7, 59, 113 ; self-critique of knowledge, 115cruelty, 18, 234, 30, 38, 414, 47, 57, 5960, 634, 83, 86, 1034, 1378,140, 1534 culture, 6, 234, 53, 92, 143, 148, 151, 154, 164, 1668, 175 ; higher, 42, 153 custom(s), 16, 23, 38, 512, 57, 823, 1258, 1335, 137 ;see also morality of custom death, 29, 39, 42, 52, 56, 88, 94, 99, 106, 120, 137, 140, 159, 167, 175, 177,180; -bed, 141; Dance of , 89 debt(s), 39, 412, 46, 53, 613, 175 ; debtor, 401, 456, 60, 63 deed, 20, 22, 267, 47, 56, 58, 60, 64, 76, 95, 101, 105, 139, 152, 174, 180 democracy, 15, 114 democratic, 13, 52, 79, 151 democratic movement, 1512 depression, 977, 99100, 1036 desire, 26, 33, 36, 38, 56, 59, 63, 71, 74, 95, 97, 101, 105, 116, 124, 132, 134,1389, 143151, 154, 165, 1779;for glory , 68n64; hearts , 115, 154; for knowledge , 138; for nothingness , 63 despectio sui ,100, 110 despotism, 62 Deutschland, Deutschland ber alles ,117, 163 development, 10, 13, 478, 51, 61, 63, 118, 119, 134, 147, 166, 169 ; concept of, 161 Devil, 64, 108, 116, 141 diabolization of nature, 63;see also nature dignity of man, 1645, 167, 172 dignity of work, 1645, 167, 172 Dionysian drama, 9 doctor(s), 34, 44, 913, 95, 106 domination, 51, 59, 80, 143, 152 dread, 38, 61, 79, 135, 139, 156, 177, 180 drives, 26, 81, 1267, 135, 1434, 1489, 164 duty/duties, 401, 456, 623, 91, 98, 108, 1412, 156 education, 134, 178 egoism, 59, 124, 168 ; egoism of the masses, 171Index of subjects 188 egoistic/unegoistic, 7, 11 12,60, 1245, 169, 171 ; value of the unegoistic, 60 English psychologists, 1011 envy, 48, 92, 143, 156, 1767, 180 ephectic drive, 81; ephectics, 111 equality, 76, 149 ; equal power, 6, 46, 124, 12930, 141 ; equal rights, 151, 153, 165 ; equal rights for women, 114 equilibrium, 6, 1289, 143 ; spiritual, 23 equity, 46, 148 Eris, 1767 estate(s), 13n9,15, 96 eternal justice, 169 eternal values, 152 eternity, 59, 64, 72, 76, 91, 102, 141 ethical world order, 119, 162 etymology, 34 Europe/Europeans, seeIndex of names evil, 46, 8, 14 n15, 1618, 257, 31, 41, 445, 55, 63, 65, 83, 92, 94, 989,1237, 1335, 1389, 145, 14950,1556, 167, 171, 178, 181 ; and bad, 22, 31, 33 ; enemy, 17, 223 ;e y e , 66, 113; man, one, 22, 106 ; person, 156; evil principle, 63, 127; evil zone, 145; origins of, 4 excess of feeling(s), 101,1036 exploitation, 50 extra-moral, 149 faith, 2930, 11012, 115, 152, 155; in the ascetic ideal , 85, 11113; Christian , 112, 160; in ones ego , 86; in God , 62, 113, 1623; in mankind , 25; metaphysical , 112, 160; Platos , 112, 160; priestly , 68, 85, 104; in punishment , 54; and science, 110, 112, 15860; and truth , 11213; Vednta , 98 fate, 9, 24, 37, 45, 55, 58, 65, 88; of Miltiades, 180; of Niobe, 177; and Zeus, 58; the fates, 117 father, the, 63; and child, 166; Church, 30, 107; of evil, 5 fatherland, 171 fear (as the mother of morality), 149;o f the blond beast, 24; of Hell 140;o f man, 245, 89 ; of neighbour, 149; and punishment, 56; of war, 171 feeling of power, 90, 138, 144 ; communal, 101feminism, 102, 119, 162 force, 26, 35, 49, 52, 59, 82, 889, 92, 113, 124, 129, 142, 153, 166, 1778;divine, 139; of law, 82; and the state, 16870 forgetfulness, 10, 356, 38, 124 ; forgetting, 9, 11 12, 21, 36 freedom, 23, 267, 37, 3940, 45, 57, 59, 65, 77, 834, 11112, 115, 135, 138,157, 167; of the artist, 70; evangelical, 69; of the mind, 111;o f the will, 39, 45, 84, 142 free spirit, 77, 11112, 152 free-thinker, 19, 97, 111 free will, 37, 45, 126 friendship, 23, 80, 156 gay science, 9 genealogists of morality, 12, 39, 50, 53 genius, 32, 63, 96, 1356, 169, 170, 1723, 176, 178 ; German, 39; military, 172 God, 5,16, 18, 279, 55, 625, 678, 73, 82, 92, 989, 1089, 113, 11516,119, 124, 1467, 1512, 1602; and ascetic ideal, 113; on the Cross, 18; and Devil, 64; kingdom of, 29; Spinozas, 55; and truth, 11213, 160 goddesses, 176 godless(ness), 17, 289, 67, 823, 112, 139, 145, 160, 163, 1801 godlike, 15 god(s), 445, 612, 64, 75, 84, 88, 108, 123, 125, 134, 1378, 144, 171, 175,177, 17980; Greek , 645 good, 1115, 17, 20, 22, 256, 39, 61, 66, 68, 812, 90, 92, 99, 1023, 114,123, 125, 146, 14950, 1557, 177;and bad, 12, 15, 31, 33, 61, 155; conscience, 55, 104, 114, 160 ; doing, 100; and Eris, 1767 ; and evil, 46, 25, 31, 33, 45, 55, 98, 1235, 14950, 155-6, 178; friend, 129, 156; greatest, 75, 136 ; highest, 99; majority and minority , 34; man, 8, 22, 102 ; manners, 108; naturedness, 46, 157 ; origins of, 4, 11, 25; people, 289 ; taste, 101, 116; will, 46, 81, 143 ;see also beyond good and evil,EuropeansIndex of subjects 189 goodness, 11, 15, 27, 119, 123, 162 grand politics of revenge, 18 grand style, 177 great works of art, 166;see also work of art greatness, 1689 guilt, 3940, 45, 545, 59, 615, 935, 101, 1045, 116, 120, 123, 135,1501 happiness, 21, 28, 35, 445, 756, 912, 100, 105, 120, 134, 138, 144, 1468,1557 hatred, 13, 1718, 20, 22, 26, 28, 32, 48, 90, 126, 145, 151, 166, 1745, 179; of the human, 120; Jewish, 18;o f knowledge, 70; of nations, 169; potters, 176n6;of the senses, 80 health, 4, 1617, 36, 6970, 8993, 95, 102, 1067, 109, 131, 134, 138, 145;great , 66 heaven, 29n39, 31 n42, 144 ;n e w , 84 hell, 29, 64, 84, 105, 1401, 145 Hellenic ethics, 176; Hellenic history, 175 herd, 19, 88, 923, 1001, 14650, 153 ; herd conscience, 149; herd instinct, 12, 147, 14950 ; herd morality, 150 higher culture, 42,153 higher man seeman historical method, 52 historical sense, 161 historical spirit, 11 historiography, modern, 116 history, 5,8,1011, 13, 1718, 24, 32, 34, 367, 3940, 423, 47, 4951,534, 612, 83, 85, 88, 101, 104,1067, 112, 11619, 135, 138, 141,143, 147, 150, 152, 159, 162, 1689,174; of European nihilism, 118; Greek, 176, 181; Hellenic, 175; natural, 141; prehistory, 6,36, 38, 46, 54, 61, 123 holiness, 64, 97, 1267, 144 hubris ,82, 180 humanization, 39 humility, 27, 789, 90, 99 n98, 108, 156 ideal(s), 16, 1819, 24, 268, 33, 5960, 646, 6870, 723, 758, 81, 846,88, 103, 1056, 10820, 153 idealism/idealists, 10, 80, 102, 11011, 11718, 143ideologues of revolution, 151 impotence, 27, 117 innity, 117, 179 inhuman, 174 injustice, 28, 151 innocence, 28, 43, 74, 102, 165 ; second, 62; state of, 55 instinct(s), 7, 10, 12, 15, 21, 24, 27, 323, 379, 43, 52, 567, 59, 66, 72,7880, 83, 856, 88, 90, 92, 94,1001, 114, 126, 147, 14951, 157,165, 16871 ; animal, 63;f o r freedom, 57, 59; mothers, 7980 intellectual stoicism, 99, 112 internalization, 57, 153 interpretation, 9, 34, 4951, 60, 80, 95, 98, 109, 112, 120; affective, 87;a r t of,9; Christian, 162; priestly, 104; religious, 104 jealousy, 17, 23, 169, 177, 17980 justice, 6,28, 401, 46, 489, 55, 77, 90, 124, 129, 149, 151, 167, 169 ; and exchange 124, 128 ; self-sublimation of,48 Kultur ,166 language, origins of, 12; seduction of, 26; and slave morality, 157 last will of man, 89 laughter, 31n42, 42, 70, 74, 76, 108, 143, 146 law,6, 48, 501, 54, 66, 82, 119, 125, 12930, 134, 136, 147, 156, 167;Chinese, 53; civil, 60; Greek, 175; lawbreaker, 46; law of life, 119;o f nations, 168; penal, 38, 47 ; purpose in,50 legal obligation, 41,60 legal system, 50 lethargy, 96, 100, 1035 levelling of man, 25, 33, 152 liberal optimism, 171 Liberals, 166 lies, lying, 21, 279, 65, 90, 102, 11314, 11819, 160, 162, 165 life,3, 7, 10, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29, 38, 40, 434, 46, 50, 52, 54, 56, 63, 66,6970, 75, 78, 829, 94, 97102,105, 111114, 11617, 11920,1301, 133, 1389, 141, 145, 148,1523, 159, 1647, 169, 173, 1756,Index of subjects 190 179; after, 40; ascetic, 856; degeneration of, 5; eternal, 29, 108; will of, 5, 50, 52 linguistics, 34 love, 16, 18, 212, 256, 289, 32, 634, 66, 68, 71 n66, 80, 90, 110, 132, 154; compassionate, 167; of enemies, 22; eternal, 29; for fatherland, 171; god of,144; towards God, 146; thy neighbour, 100, 148 9; as passion, 157; the poison, 19; secret, 79 lust for power, 16, 144 lust for vengeance, 180 machine, 58, 82, 130 madman, 135 madness, 68, 83, 123, 1356, 138, 141 ;o f the will, 64 malaria, 96 malus ,14 man, 5, 712, 1519, 22, 245, 27, 323, 3540, 424, 46, 4850, 52, 549,618, 71, 73, 80, 824, 8892, 95,978, 102, 104, 106, 109, 11516,120, 123, 126, 129, 13240, 143,1468, 1507, 1647, 169, 1724,1767, 17980 ; ancient, 15, 136; bad, 123, 157; of bad conscience, 63; as beast of prey, 24, 101, 145 ; common, 1314, 20 ; dark-haired, 14; dignity of, 1645, 172; dying, 141; European, 25, 107 ; of the future, 66, 153 ; of God, 115; godlike, 15; good, 8, 123 ; and goodness, 15; Greek, 177; Hellenic, 181; herd, 147, 153 ; higher, 11, 24 ; of knowledge, 98; internalization of,57; medicine, 134, 136 ; modern, 9, 42, 167, 179 ; noble, 212, 49, 155; of power, 128; powerful, 48, 155; powerless, 20; primitive, 40, 44; pure, 15; redeeming, 66; of ressentiment ,212, 25, 49; scientic, 127; and sinfulness, 95; as sinner, 105; as tamed, 24, 32, 42, 567, 63, 88, 93, 106, 147; tropical, 145; truthful, 112, 159; unaesthetic, 74; of violence, 126; of war, 15 marriage, 69, 77, 82, 134 mask, 7, 84, 135 master(s), 1415, 17, 19, 26, 28, 41, 58, 623, 80, 86, 923, 101, 123, 146;of destruction, 89; of the free will, 37; self-mastery, 378, 148; and slave, 123, 151, 154 master race, 15, 58 materialism, 45 maternal/motherly instinct, 80 meaning ( Sinn ),1314, 24, 44, 513, 59, 83, 85, 92, 103, 109, 112, 11820,137, 1612, 168, 178 mechanical activity, 99, 101 medievalism, 71; medieval serf, 62, 168 memory, 24, 36, 3840, 56, 153 ; mnemonics, 38 mercy, 478 money economy, 171 monotheism, 62 moral genealogy, 11, 13 moral prejudices, 4 morality, 48, 13, 22, 26, 72, 81, 91, 119, 1259, 1334, 1367, 146, 14951,1557, 159; Aristotelianism of, 146; ascetic, 6; Christian, 119, 152, 162; of common people, 19; of compassion, 7, 151; of custom, 6, 367, 83, 1335, 138; as danger, 8; emergence/origins of, 56, 10, 133; genealogists of, 12, 39, 50, 53; herd, 1501, 153 ; historians of, 11, 155 ; history of, 8,34; of love of ones neighbour, 148; and madness, 135; master and slave, 1545 ; merchants, 128; noble, 20, 1556; old,9; of piety, 125; pirates, 128; popular, 26, 32; present, 124; of ressentiment ,22, 49; of self-control, 134; and self-overcoming, 119, 134; slave, 20, 22, 1567 ; slaves revolt in,18, 20, 145; as timidity, 145, 150; of involuntary suffering, 137 moralization of concepts, 62,103 murder, 23, 55, 139, 164, 175 music, 6970, 73, 104, 109, 146, 179 ; Wagnerian, 117 natural science, 13, 115 nature, 32, 35, 37, 45, 589, 634, 66, 82, 856, 88, 112, 117, 119, 125,127, 139, 140, 1435, 159, 162, 164,166, 16870, 172, 174, 176 ; child of,70; cyclic, 147; golden, 114; rape of,82; of the state, 1723; state of, 129Index of subjects 191 nature of power, 167 nausea, 71, 76, 89, 153; great, 66, 89, 92, 102; at existence/life, 43, 175 new laws, 136 new philosophers, 152 nihilism/nihilists, 7,25, 63, 667, 72, 89, 111, 116, 118 ; administrative, 52; historic, 116; suicidal, 120 Nirvana, 16 noble/nobility , 6, 11, 1315, 17, 202, 323, 42, 61, 645, 123, 1557,165; ideal, 19, 33 ; man, 212, 49, 155 ; morality, 20, 1556; Pharisees, 91; race/tribe, 21, 234, 61, 82 nothingness, 7,16, 50, 63, 678, 99, 115, 120; will to, 7, 66, 89, 120 objectivity, 46, 49, 81, 87 oligarchy, 101 order of rank, 5,11, 34, 42, 612, 109, 115, 131, 155 original sin, 63, 82 ;see also sin ostracism, 178 overman, 33 paganism, 160 pain, 11, 21 n24, 38, 40, 44, 55, 66, 68, 86, 934, 97, 99101, 1045, 126,1523, 164 1678 pan-European, 161 Paradise, 29, 127 pathos of distance, 1112, 91 patriotism, 163 peace, 21, 23, 35, 40, 457, 49, 54, 567, 789, 83, 138, 1489, 167, 171 perspective knowing, 87; perspective seeing, 87; new perspectives, 149 pessimism/pessimists, 8, 10, 43, 63, 76, 96, 139, 156, 1614 Philistine, 117, 166 philosophasters, 151 philosopher(s)/philosophy, 4,7,31, 34, 45, 68, 70, 727, 77 n76, 7981, 834, 97, 10910, 11213, 1267,1523, 1602; and ascetic ideal, 81; and chastity, 80; German, 1763; Indian, 98; origins of, 81; Sankhya, 119; Schopenhauers, 723, 75; unmetaphysical, 171; Vednta, 86 physiology, 13, 34, 52 ; of aesthetics, 81 piety, 61, 125pity, 140, 167 ; tragic, 44, 153 pleasure/displeasure, 11, 412, 44, 57, 5960, 74, 85, 1001, 110, 116, 126,1378, 169, 176 ; pleasure in destruction, 57, 174, 179 plebeianism, 11, 1314, 19, 39 plurality, 86 polytropoi ,159 poor, 1718, 100, 145 ; poor in spirit, 114 poverty, 5, 78, 167 power, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 23, 30 n41, 37, 401, 467, 4952, 54, 5861, 68,76, 80, 8493, 96, 99, 101, 109, 113,1234, 126, 1289, 1334, 136,1389, 1414, 152, 1556, 1678,170, 174, 178; corrupting, 18; will to,52, 90, 92, 1001, 118, 146; of punishment, 41 powerful, the, 17, 22, 25, 289, 48, 54, 1556 powerless, the, 17, 202, 41, 123 power-will, 52 pregnancy, 60,71 pride, 11, 16, 23, 30, 35, 45, 78, 834, 90, 115, 138, 141, 153, 155 ; intellectual, 10 priests, 1517, 31 n42, 32, 68, 73, 82, 845, 88, 925, 1001, 1037, 117,136, 139 prince, 79, 171 procreation, 166 promise, 3540, 58, 75, 1289, 142, 150 providence, 61, 119, 162 prudence, 11, 12930, 142, 159 punishment, 6, 3941, 43, 45, 478, 507, 645, 1045, 107, 125, 129,132, 1345, 150, 175, 180 ; eternal, 63 pure/impure, 1415, 54, 98 pure reason, 87 purpose, 6, 14, 503, 67, 82, 94, 96, 1045, 109, 11920, 124, 126,1367, 142, 146, 162, 166, 1703 rabble, 20, 33, 109 race, 1415, 19, 21, 234, 32, 34, 36, 43, 54, 58, 601, 63, 83, 85, 96, 124,139, 148, 160, 166, 169 ; racial synthesis, 62 rape, 23, 26, 82 reactive sentiment, 489Index of subjects 192 Realpolitik ,160 reason, 26, 39, 45, 51, 58, 65, 76, 81, 83, 867, 104, 11920, 130, 138, 149,162, 169 ; denial of, 83; pure, 87 redemption, 66, 1056 ; from the will, 75; Redeemer, 18, 71 Reformation seeIndex of names religion(s), 38, 72, 956, 989, 114, 1189, 146, 151, 164, 167 Renaissance seeIndex of names responsibility, 37, 59, 84, 149, 152 ; origins of, 367 res publica ,149 ressentiment /resentment, 202, 245, 28, 323, 489, 58, 86, 91, 934, 156 restitution, 129, 131 retribution, 28, 39, 129, 156 revaluation of all values, 17, 19, 118 revenge, 1621, 269, 32, 42, 4850, 54, 83, 901, 93, 97, 1034, 123-5,12932, 135, 138, 156 ; revengefulness, 126, 137 reversal of values, 17, 20, 87, 106, 145 rights, 41, 467, 82, 114, 1413, 146, 151, 153, 158, 165, 1734 ; rights of man, 165 rule of law, 12930 ruling class/ruling caste, 123 rumination, 9 sacrice(s), 11, 38, 52, 601, 65, 124, 127, 132, 134, 138, 158, 16970;self,7, 60, 86 sacrilege, 127 Saint Petersburg metapolitics, 192 saints, 29, 68, 77, 108, 127, 1367 sanctication, 97 satyr play, 70 scepticism, 4,7, 89, 156 scholars, 34, 68, 110, 114, 116, 176 science, 9, 26, 34, 52, 10910, 11215, 127, 146, 15861 self-afrmation, 27 self-annulment, 70 self-contempt, 82, 86, 90, 115 self-control, 23, 134, 138, 148 self-defence, 132 self-denial, 7, 60, 70, 154 self-deprecation, 115 self-destruction, 89, 94 self-agellation, 86 self-glorication, 155self-mortication, 83 self-mutilation, 154 self-overcoming/sublimation, 94, 119, 134, 162 self-preservation, 27, 124, 1302 self-responsibility, 149 self-torture/violation, 5960, 63, 145 selshness, 1789 selessness, 60, 155 sensuality, 6970, 76, 78, 80, 90, 98, 112 seriousness, 3, 9, 70, 85, 115 sexuality, 16, 71, 756, 801, 136 shame, 31, 43, 82, 91, 1656 shepherd, 88, 924 sick(ness), 7, 1618, 57, 60, 64, 8895, 100, 1034, 106, 120, 134, 145, 151 ; sickliness, 889 sin, sinfulness, sinners, 18, 20, 43, 65, 945, 1046, 144 ; original sin, 63, 82 Sittlichkeit ,127 slavery, 24, 145, 1657, 175 slaves revolt in morality seemorality socialists/socialism, 15, 151, 153, 166 society, 36, 39, 47, 56, 100, 126, 132, 14851, 153, 16872, 178 Socratic judgement on art, 173 solitude, 25, 66, 92 sophist, 179 soul, 11, 16, 21, 25, 27, 31 n42, 40, 57, 59, 65, 7880, 82, 91, 99, 1024,107, 115, 119, 123, 127, 132, 1358,1401, 1434, 152, 1545, 1612,177; beautiful, 90,116; fate of, 9; German, 160; Greek 160; Viking, 155 sovereign individual, 37 spectator, 445, 74, 117, 143, 151 spirit, 13, 17 n20, 31 n42, 66, 71, 7780, 84, 92, 99, 114, 11718, 1356, 138,149, 152 ; free, 77, 11112, 152; German, 117; historical, 11; of justice, 48; philosophic, 84; poor in, 114; ofressentiment ,48; scientic, 158 spiritual ingestion, 35 spiritualization, 146, 153 state, 579, 126, 16873, 178, 180; and art,170; and genius, 173; origin of, 168Index of subjects 193 Index of subjects 194state of innocence, 55, 165 stock exchange, 171 striving for distinction, 1434 strong, the, 22, 267, 32, 34, 37, 4850, 52, 778, 89, 92, 95, 101, 152 struggle for existence, 164, 166 sublimation, 44, 48, 119 sublime, 7, 18, 27, 60, 66, 91, 106, 151, 153 suffering, 17, 29, 424, 467, 54, 59, 75, 83, 913, 956, 99100, 1045, 110,120, 130, 1378, 1401, 144, 151,154, 156; and Epicurus, 99; psychic, 95; religion of, 118n27; for the truth, 80;see also voluntary suffering sympathia malevolens ,42 sympathy, 20, 118, 123, 125 syphilis, 96, 107 theologians, 115 thing-in-itself, 26, 76 time (as becoming), 167 torture, 23, 412, 45, 55, 57, 634, 66, 756, 105, 1378, 1401, 1445 tradition(s), 51, 61, 84, 125, 1334 tragedy, 31n42,70, 138, 144, 1534 transvaluation of values, 152 tree of knowledge, 165 truth, 4,11, 14, 24, 32, 39, 80, 86, 98, 104, 11013, 11819, 140, 150, 153,155, 15860, 162, 166, 175; see also : will to truth bermensch ,33 underground existence, 25 unhistorical, 11, 116 universal suffrage, 171 usefulness, 1112, 51, 133, 1489, 156, 159 value(s), 4, 8, 1112, 1720, 312, 34, 37, 458, 54, 56, 60, 82, 93, 989,109, 113, 118, 124, 130, 139, 145,152, 1545, 158, 161, 1646 ; aristocratic, 12, 17, 32; of ascetic ideals, 77, 114; eternal, 152;o f existence, 161, 166 ; of honest lie, 102 ; judgements, 5, 1112, 17, 83, 148; metaphysical, 112; of music, 73; rank order of, 34; Roman, 32;o f science, 114; of truth, 11213; see also: revaluation, reversalVednta faith/philosophy, 86, 98 vegetarians, 96 velleity, 72 vengeance, 90, 149; see also : lust for vengeance vengefulness seerevenge virtue, 16, 278, 45, 803, 90, 98, 99 n98, 112, 126, 1378, 153, 177 ; virtues, 78, 81, 98, 109, 147, 149, 156 vita contemplativa ,139 voluntary suffering, 137 war(s), 15, 15 n19,17, 47, 49, 54, 568, 66, 92, 114, 134, 137, 148, 16972,1746 ; rights of, 174; war-like society, 172 warrior, 15, 17, 68 weak/weakness, 14n12,22, 269, 82, 8990, 1001, 119, 126, 1289, 139,148, 151, 162, 168 Weir-Mitchells bed-rest, 16 Weltschmerz ,96 wickedness, 934, 124 will, 4, 7, 256, 33, 367, 47, 52, 56, 5960, 634, 68, 701, 73, 75, 78,801, 846, 98, 105, 10910, 113,118, 120, 143, 14950, 152, 154,1634, 166, 168; to baseness, 33;i n bondage, 63; to existence, 76; freedom of, 37, 39, 45, 67, 84, 126, 142; good, 46, 81, 90, 143; to knowledge, 4, 154; last,89; of/to life,5, 50, 52; for man and earth, 120; and memory, 36; redemption, 75; and representation, 75; of the sick, 90; of spirit, 84 will to contradiction, 86 will to death, 159 will to deception, 114, 1589 will to know/knowledge, 4, 39, 154 will to nothingness, 66, 89, 120 will to power, 512, 59, 90, 92, 1001, 118, 146 will to reciprocity, 100 will to truth, 11213, 11819, 1589 witch-hysteria, 106; witch-trials, 95 woman (-en), 15, 68, 71, 73, 76, 7980, 82, 85, 901, 97, 99100, 114, 151,166, 169, 175; and equal rights, 114; as mother, 59, 7980 ; as such, 85 Index of subjects 195work, 20, 59, 83, 99, 138, 1647, 172, 176; Parisian worker, 154; work slaves, 100 work of art, 170, 179 ; descent of a, 71; see also great works of artworld and earth, 167 world history, 17, 83, 138 ; world-historic mission, 19 wrongdoer, 47, 54, 56 Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Titles published in the series thus far Aquinas Political Writings (edited by R. 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Blom, Eco Haitsma Mulier and Ronald Janse) 05 2 14 6 7 3 65 paperback Sorel Reections on Violence (edited by Jeremy Jennings) 0 521 55910 3 paperback Spencer The Man versus the State andThe Proper Sphere of Government (edited by John O er) 0 521 43740 7 paperback Stirner The Ego and Its Own (edited by David Leopold) 0 521 45647 9 paperback Thoreau Political Writings (edited by Nancy Rosenblum) 0 521 47675 5 paperback Tonnies Community and Civil Society (edited by Jose Harris and Margaret Hollis) 0 521 56119 1 paperback Utopias of the British Enlightenment (edited by Gregory Claeys) 0 521 45590 1 paperback Vico The First New Science (edited by Leon Pompa) 0 521 38726 4 paperback Vitoria Political Writings (edited by Anthony Pagden and Jeremy Lawrance) 0 521 36714 Xpaperback Voltaire Political Writings (edited by David Williams) 0 521 43727 Xpaperback Weber Political Writings (edited by Peter Lassman and Ronald Speirs) 0 521 39719 7 paperback William of Ockham A Short Discourse on Tyrannical Government (edited by A. S. McGrade and John Kilcullen) 0 521 35803 5 paperback William of Ockham A Letter to the Friars Minor and other writings (edited by A. S. McGrade and John Kilcullen) 0 521 35804 3 paperback Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Man and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (edited by Sylvana Tomaselli) 0 521 43633 8 paperback |
9780525558613_Human_TX.indd i 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distributiontio 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd ii 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution ALSO BY STUART RUSSELL The Use of Knowledge in Analogy and Induction (1989) Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality (with Eric Wefald, 1991) Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (with Peter Norvig, 1995, 2003, 2010, 2019) 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd iii 8/7/19 11:21 PM MNot for Distributionon(1989(1989 RationalityRationality 1) Modern ApprModern Appr 5, 2003, 20102003, 201 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd iv 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE PROBLEM OF CONTROL Stuart Russell VIKING 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd v 8/7/19 11:21 PM MNot for SSDistributionIGENCEGENCE OF COOF CO bution VIKING An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC penguinrandomhouse.com Copyright 2019 by Stuart Russell Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. ISBN 9780525558613 (hardcover) ISBN 9780525558620 (ebook) Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Designed by Amanda Dewey 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd vi 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot forBN 9780978 ISBN 9780SBN 97 Printed in thrinted in t 133Distributionuse LLCLLC m uart Russellart Russell ht fuels creatifuels creat and creates a vd creates a n of this bookof this boo g, scanning, og, scanning, o on. You are suon. You are su e to publish e to publish 25552555 For Loy, Gordon, Lucy, George, and Isaac M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd vii 8/7/19 11:21 PMfor Distributionaacc 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd viii 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution CONTENTS PREFACE xi Chapter 1. IF WE SUCCEED 1 Chapter 2. INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 13 Chapter 3. HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 62 Chapter 4. MISUSES OF AI 103 Chapter 5. OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI 132 Chapter 6. THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 145 Chapter 7. AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH 171 Chapter 8. PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 184 Chapter 9. COMPLICATIONS: US 211 Chapter 10. PROBLEM SOLVED? 246 Appendix A. SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS 257 Appendix B. KNOWLEDGE AND LOGIC 267 Appendix C. UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY 273 Appendix D. LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 285 Acknowledgments 297 Notes 299 Image Credits 324 Index 325 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd ix 8/7/19 11:21 PM MNoot OVABVA COMPLICCOMPLIC PROPROforO- FFERENT AFFERENT LY BEY BDistributionND MACHD MACH S IN THE FS IN THE GENT AI GENT AI REAT AREAT 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd x 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution PREFACE Why This Book? Why Now? This book is about the past, present, and future of our attempt to understand and create intelligence. This matters, not because AI is rapidly becoming a pervasive aspect of the present but because it is the dominant technology of the future. The worlds great powers are waking up to this fact, and the worlds largest corporations have known it for some time. We cannot predict exactly how the technology will develop or on what timeline. Nevertheless, we must plan for the possibility that machines will far exceed the human capacity for decision making in the real world. What then? Everything civilization has to offer is the product of our intelli- gence; gaining access to considerably greater intelligence would be the biggest event in human history. The purpose of the book is to explain why it might be the last event in human history and how to make sure that it is not. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd xi 8/7/19 11:21 PM MNote. W. on what what ty that may that m making makingforogy of y o act, and thect, and th We cannoWe cannDistributionw?w? esent, and ent, and igence. Thigence. Th ve aspect ve aspect he fhe f xii PREFACE Overview of the Book The book has three parts. The first part (Chapters 1 to 3) explores the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines. The material requires no technical background, but for those who are interested, it is supple-m en ted b y f o ur a ppen di c es th a t exp l ain so m e o f th e c o re c o n c ep ts underlying present- day AI systems. The second part (Chapters 4 to 6) discusses some problems arising from imbuing machines with intel-ligence. I focus in particular on the problem of control: retaining absolute power over machines that are more powerful than us. The third part (Chapters 7 to 10) suggests a new way to think about AI an d t o e ns ur e th a t m a chin e s r e m ain b e n e fi ci al t o h um ans , f o r e v e r . The book is intended for a general audience but will, I hope, be of value in convincing specialists in artificial intelligence to rethink their fundamental assumptions. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd xii 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distributionntrol erful thanful than way to thinkay to thin ficial to hul to hu ience but wence but w icial intelligal intelli M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd xiii 8/7/19 11:21 PMfor Distributiontio 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd xiv 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution 1 IF WE SUCCEED A long time ago, my parents lived in Birmingham, England, in a house near the university. They decided to move out of the city and sold the house to David Lodge, a professor of English literature. Lodge was by that time already a well-known novelist. I never met him, but I decided to read some of his books: Changing Places and Small World . Among the principal characters were fictional academics moving from a fictional version of Birmingham to a fic-tional version of Berkeley, California. As I was an actual academic from the actual Birmingham who had just moved to the actual Berke-ley, it seemed that someone in the Department of Coincidences was telling me to pay attention. One particular scene from Small World struck me: The protago- nist, an aspiring literary theorist, attends a major international confer-ence and asks a panel of leading figures, What follows if everyone agrees with you? The question causes consternation, because the panelists had been more concerned with intellectual combat than as-certaining truth or attaining understanding. It occurred to me then that an analogous question could be asked of the leading figures in AI: What if you succeed? The fields goal had always been to create 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 1 8/7/19 11:21 PM MNotof Bf ual Birmial Birmi emed that semed that e to paye to payfor. AmoAm from a ficfrom a fi erkeley,erkeley,Distributionin Birmingn Birming They decideey decid o David LodDavid Lod t time alret time alr ded to readed to re ng thng th 2 HUMAN COMPATIBLE human- level or superhuman AI, but there was little or no consider- ation of what would happen if we did. A few years later, Peter Norvig and I began work on a new AI text- book, whose first edition appeared in 1995.1 The books final section is titled What If We Do Succeed? The section points to the possibil-ity of good and bad outcomes but reaches no firm conclusions. By the time of the third edition in 2010, many people had finally begun to consider the possibility that superhuman AI might not be a good thing but these people were mostly outsiders rather than main- stream AI researchers. By 2013, I became convinced that the issue not only belonged in the mainstream but was possibly the most important question facing humanity. In November 2013, I gave a talk at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, a venerable art museum in south London. The audience consisted mostly of retired people nonscientists with a general interest in in- tellectual matters so I had to give a completely nontechnical talk. It seemed an appropriate venue to try out my ideas in public for the first time. After explaining what AI was about, I nominated five candi-dates for biggest event in the future of humanity: 1. We all die (asteroid impact, climate catastrophe, pandemic, etc.). 2. We all live forever (medical solution to aging).3. We invent faster- than- light travel and conquer the universe. 4. We are visited by a superior alien civilization.5. We invent superintelligent AI. I suggested that the fifth candidate, superintelligent AI, would be the winner, because it would help us avoid physical catastrophes and achieve eternal life and faster- than- light travel, if those were indeed possible. It would represent a huge leap a discontinuity in our civ- ilization. The arrival of superintelligent AI is in many ways analogous to the arrival of a superior alien civilization but much more likely to 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 2 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotastest ive forevee foreve nvent ent ffasteastefff are visiteare visitfor in theth roid impoid impDistributionat th he most immost im ulwich Pictwich Pic on. The aun. The au sts with a g with a ve a complea comple o try out mo try out m t AI was t AI was futufutu IF WE SUCCEED 3 occur. Perhaps most important, AI, unlike aliens, is something over which we have some say. Then I asked the audience to imagine what would happen if we received notice from a superior alien civilization that they would ar-rive on Earth in thirty to fifty years. The word pandemonium doesnt begin to describe it. Yet our response to the anticipated arrival of su- perintelligent AI has been . . . well, underwhelming begins to describe it. (In a later talk, I illustrated this in the form of the email exchange shown in figure 1.) Finally, I explained the significance of superintelli-gent AI as follows: Success would be the biggest event in human history . . . and perhaps the last event in human history. From: Superior Alien Civilization <sac12@sirius.canismajor.u> To: humanity@UN.org Subject: Contact Be warned: we shall arrive in 30 50 years From: humanity@UN.org To: Superior Alien Civilization <sac12@sirius.canismajor.u> Subject:2XWRIRIFH 5H &RQWDFW +XPDQLW\LVFXUUHQWO\RXWRIWKHRIFH:HZLOOUHVSRQGWR\RXU message when we return. FIGURE 3UREDEO\QRWWKHHPDLOH[FKDQJHWKDWZRXOGIROORZWKHILUVW FRQWDFW by a superior alien civilization. A few months later, in April 2014, I was at a conference in Iceland and got a call from National Public Radio asking if they could inter-view me about the movie Transcendence , which had just been released in the United States. Although I had read the plot summaries and re-views, I hadnt seen it because I was living in Paris at the time, and it would not be released there until June. It so happened, however, that M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 3 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot NoLVFXUUHQFXUUH ge when we e when we 3URE 3UREfor Civilizatioviliza IRIFH 5HRIFH 5H WO\Distributioneven istory.ory. sirius.canismius.canism 303050 year50 year 4 HUMAN COMPATIBLE I had just added a detour to Boston on the way home from Iceland, so that I could participate in a Defense Department meeting. So, after arriving at Bostons Logan Airport, I took a taxi to the nearest theater showing the movie. I sat in the second row and watched as a Berkeley AI professor , played by Johnny Depp, was gunned down by anti- AI activists worried about, yes, superintelligent AI. Involuntarily, I shrank d o w n i n m y s e a t . ( A n o t h e r c a l l f r o m t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f C o i n c i -dences?) Before Johnny Depps character dies, his mind is uploaded to a quantum supercomputer and quickly outruns human capabilities, threatening to take over the world. On April 19, 2014, a review of Transcendence , co- authored with physicists Max Tegmark, Frank Wilczek, and Stephen Hawking, ap- peared in the Huffington Post . It included the sentence from my Dul- wich talk about the biggest event in human history. From then on, I would be publicly committed to the view that my own field of re-search posed a potential risk to my own species. +RZ'LG:H*HW+HUH" The roots of AI stretch far back into antiquity, but its official begin-ning was in 1956. Two young mathematicians, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, had persuaded Claude Shannon, already famous as the inventor of information theory, and Nathaniel Rochester, the designer of IBMs first commercial computer, to join them in organizing a sum-mer program at Dartmouth College. The goal was stated as follows: The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in prin-ciple be so precisely described that a machine can be made to sim-ulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of prob-lems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. We think 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 4 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottretr 1956. Tw56. Tw insky, had pinsky, had f informf informfor HW++ tch far bch far bDistributionco-aauthoutho Stephen Hatephen Ha e sentence entence man historyman history e view thatiew that y own specown spec HUHHUH IF WE SUCCEED 5 that a significant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of scientists work on it together for a summer. Needless to say, it took much longer than a summer: we are still working on all these problems. In the first decade or so after the Dartmouth meeting, AI had sev- eral major successes, including Alan Robinsons algorithm for general- purpose logical reasoning2 and Arthur Samuels checker-playing program, which taught itself to beat its creator.3 The first AI bubble burst in the late 1960s, when early efforts at machine learning and machine translation failed to live up to expectations. A report com-missioned by the UK government in 1973 concluded, In no part of the field have the discoveries made so far produced the major impact that was then promised. 4 In other words, the machines just werent smart enough. My eleven-year-old self was, fortunately, unaware of this report. Two years later, when I was given a Sinclair Cambridge Programmable calculator, I just wanted to make it intelligent. With a maximum pro-gram size of thirty- six keystrokes, however, the Sinclair was not quite big enough for human-level AI. Undeterred, I gained access to the gi- ant CDC 6600 supercomputer 5 at Imperial College London and wrote a chess program a stack of punched cards two feet high. It wasnt very good, but it didnt matter. I knew what I wanted to do. By the mid-1980s, I had become a professor at Berkeley, and AI was experiencing a huge revival thanks to the commercial potential of so- called expert systems. The second AI bubble burst when these sys- tems proved to be inadequate for many of the tasks to which they were applied. Again, the machines just werent smart enough. An AI winter ensued. My own AI course at Berkeley, currently bursting with over nine hundred students, had just twenty- five students in 1990. The AI community learned its lesson: smarter, obviously, was bet- ter, but we would have to do our homework to make that happen. The M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 5 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothumu 00 superc0 superc prpogramgram d, but itd, but itfored to mto ssix keystroix keystr an-an-lleveeveDistributionfirs achine leahine lea tations. A rations. A concludedncluded ar producedr produce words, the ords, the was, fortunawas, fortun given a Sigiven a S ake iake 6 HUMAN COMPATIBLE field became far more mathematical. Connections were made to the long- established disciplines of probability, statistics, and control the- ory. The seeds of todays progress were sown during that AI winter, including early work on large- scale probabilistic reasoning systems and what later became known as deep learning . Beginning around 2011, deep learning techniques began to pro- duce dramatic advances in speech recognition, visual object recogni- tion, and machine translation three of the most important open problems in the field. By some measures, machines now match or ex- ceed human capabilities in these areas. In 2016 and 2017, DeepMinds AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol, former world Go champion, and Ke Jie, the current champion events that some experts predicted wouldnt happen until 2097, if ever. 6 Now AI generates front- page media coverage almost every day. Thousands of start- up companies have been created, fueled by a flood of venture funding. Millions of students have taken online AI and machine learning courses, and experts in the area command salaries in the millions of dollars. Investments flowing from venture funds, na-tional governments, and major corporations are in the tens of billions of dollars annually more money in the last five years than in the en- tire previous history of the field. Advances that are already in the pipeline, such as self- driving cars and intelligent personal assistants, are likely to have a substantial impact on the world over the next de- cade or so. The potential economic and social benefits of AI are vast, creating enormous momentum in the AI research enterprise. What Happens Next? Does this rapid rate of progress mean that we are about to be over-taken by machines? No. There are several breakthroughs that have to happen before we have anything resembling machines with super- human intelligence. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 6 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot torto h as as sself-elf-dd to have a suto have a s . The p. The pford majomaj mmore monore mo y of they of theDistribution17, D mpion, anpion, an rts predictets predicte coverage acoverage e been creabeen crea students haudents ha experts in texperts in stments flstments f corpcor IF WE SUCCEED 7 Scientific breakthroughs are notoriously hard to predict. To get a sense of just how hard, we can look back at the history of another field with civilization- ending potential: nuclear physics. In the early years of the twentieth century, perhaps no nuclear physicist was more distinguished than Ernest Rutherford, the discov-erer of the proton and the man who split the atom (figure 2[a]). Like his colleagues, Rutherford had long been aware that atomic nuclei stored immense amounts of energy; yet the prevailing view was that tapping this source of energy was impossible. On September 11, 1933, the British Association for the Advance- ment of Science held its annual meeting in Leicester. Lord Rutherford addressed the evening session. As he had done several times before, he poured cold water on the prospects for atomic energy: Anyone who looks for a source of power in the transformation of the atoms is talking moonshine. Rutherfords speech was reported in the Times of London the next morning (figure 2[b]). Leo Szilard (figure 2[c]), a Hungarian physicist who had recently fled from Nazi Germany, was staying at the Imperial Hotel on Russell (a) (b) (c) FIGURE D /RUG5XWKHUIRUGQXFOHDUSK\VLFLVW E ([FHUSWVIURPD UHSRUWLQ the TimesRI6HSWHPEHU FRQFHUQLQJDVSHHFKJLYHQE\5XWKHUIRUG WKH SUHYLRXVHYHQLQJ F /HR6]LODUGQXFOHDUSK\VLFLVW M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 7 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot Distributionor th er. Lord R Lord R several timeeveral time omic energyc energ ansformationsformatio eech was rech was re e 2[b]).[b]). 8 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Square in London. He read the Times report at breakfast. Mulling over what he had read, he went for a walk and invented the neutron- induced nuclear chain reaction.7 The problem of liberating nuclear energy went from impossib le to essen tially solv ed in less than twenty- four hours. Szilard filed a secret patent for a nuclear reactor the following year. The first patent for a nuclear weapon was issued in France in 1939. The moral of this story is that betting against human ingenuity is foolhardy, particularly when our future is at stake. Within the AI community, a kind of denialism is emerging, even going as far as deny- ing the possibility of success in achieving the long- term goals of AI. Its as if a bus driver, with all of humanity as passengers, said, Yes, I am driving as hard as I can towards a cliff, but trust me, well run out of gas before we get there! I am not saying that success in AI will necessarily happen, and I think its quite unlikely that it will happen in the next few years. It seems prudent, nonetheless, to prepare for the eventuality. If all goes well, it would herald a golden age for humanity, but we have to face the fact that we are planning to make entities that are far more pow-erful than humans. How do we ensure that they never, ever have power over us? To get just an inkling of the fire were playing with, consider how content- selection algorithms function on social media. They arent particularly intelligent, but they are in a position to affect the entire world because they directly influence billions of people. Typically, such algorithms are designed to maximize click- through , that is, the probability that the user clicks on presented items. The solution is simply to present items that the user likes to click on, right? Wrong. The solution is to change the users preferences so that they become more predictable. A more predictable user can be fed items that they are likely to click on, thereby generating more revenue. People with more extreme political views tend to be more predictable in which items they will click on. (Possibly there is a category of articles that 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 8 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotn ini tion algoron algo ly intelligenly intellige ause thause thfor ow dod kling of kling of Distributiongoal rs, said, Ysaid, Y t me, wellt me, well will ill necessarnecessar happen in tppen in t epare for thare for th age for humage for h g to makeg to make wewe IF WE SUCCEED 9 die- hard centrists are likely to click on, but its not easy to imagine what this category consists of.) Like any rational entity, the algorithm learns how to modify the state of its environment in this case, the users mind in order to maximize its own reward. 8 The consequences include the resurgence of fascism, the dissolution of the social contract that underpins democracies around the world, and potentially the end of the European Union and NATO. Not bad for a few lines of code, even if it had a helping hand from some humans. Now imagine what a really intelligent algorithm would be able to do. What Went Wrong? The history of AI has been driven by a single mantra: The more intel- ligent the better. I am convinced that this is a mistake not because of some vague fear of being superseded but because of the way we have understood intelligence itself. The concept of intelligence is central to who we are thats why we call ourselves Homo sapiens , or wise man. After more than two thousand years of self- examination, we have arrived at a characteriza- tion of intelligence that can be boiled down to this: Humans are intelligent to the extent that our actions can be expected to achieve our objectives. All those other characteristics of intelligence perceiving, thinking, learning, inventing, and so on can be understood through their con- tributions to our ability to act successfully. From the very beginnings of AI, intelligence in machines has been defined in the same way: Machines are intelligent to the extent that their actions can be expected to achieve their objectives. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 9 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ncenc ans are intellans are inte ieve our ieve ourforo sapisap elf-elfeexaminxami that canthat canDistributioningle mantrngle mantr at this is a this is a erseded buseded bu itself.itself. ence is cenence is ce nsns,o,o 10 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Because machines, unlike humans, have no objectives of their own, we give them objectives to achieve. In other words, we build optimiz-ing machines, we feed objectives into them, and off they go. This general approach is not unique to AI. It recurs throughout the technological and mathematical underpinnings of our society. In the field of control theory, which designs control systems for everything from jumbo jets to insulin pumps, the job of the system is to mini-mize a cost function that typically measures some deviation from a desired behavior. In the field of economics, mechanisms and policies are designed to maximize the utility o f i n d i v i d u a l s , t h e welfare of groups, and the profit of corporations. 9 In operations research, which solves complex logistical and manufacturing problems, a solution maximizes an expected sum of rewards over time. Finally, in statistics, learning algorithms are designed to minimize an expected loss func- tion that defines the cost of making prediction errors. Evidently, this general scheme which I will call the standard model is widespread and extremely powerful. Unfortunately, we dont want machines that are intelligent in this sense . The drawback of the standard model was pointed out in 1960 by Norbert Wiener, a legendary professor at MIT and one of the leading mathematicians of the mid- twentieth century. Wiener had just seen Arthur Samuels checker- playing program learn to play checkers far better than its creator. That experience led him to write a prescient but little- known paper, Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation. 10 Heres how he states the main point: If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot interfere effectively . . . we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire. The purpose put into the machine is exactly the objective that ma- chines are optimizing in the standard model. If we put the wrong 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 10 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot of o els s ccheckhec n its creaton its creat kknown pnown 1fore standtan egendary pregendary p he hemmid-idDistributionthe ns researchresearch problems, problems, time. Finalle. Final imize an emize an e rediction erdiction e ewwhich hich xtremely poxtremely intelligent intelligent ardard IF WE SUCCEED 11 objective into a machine that is more intelligent than us, it will achieve the objective, and we lose. The social- media meltdown I described earlier is just a foretaste of this, resulting from optimizing the wrong objective on a global scale with fairly unintelligent algorithms. In Chapter 5, I spell out some far worse outcomes. All this should come as no great surprise. For thousands of years, we have known the perils of getting exactly what you wish for. In every story where someone is granted three wishes, the third wish is always to undo the first two wishes. In summary, it seems that the march towards superhuman intelli- gence is unstoppable, but success might be the undoing of the human race. Not all is lost, however. We have to understand where we went wrong and then fix it. Can We Fix It? The problem is right there in the basic definition of AI. We say that machines are intelligent to the extent that their actions can be ex-pected to achieve their objectives, but we have no reliable way to make sure that their objectives are the same as our objectives. What if, instead of allowing machines to pursue their objectives, we insist that they pursue our objectives? Such a machine, if it could be designed, would be not just intelligent but also beneficial to humans. So lets try this: Machines are beneficial to the extent that their actions can be ex- pected to achieve our objectives. This is probably what we should have done all along. The difficult part, of course, is that our objectives are in us (all eight billion of us, in all our glorious variety) and not in the machines. It is, nonetheless, possible to build machines that are beneficial in M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 11 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotbjebj instead onstead o that they pthat they ed, woued, wou hhfornt to to heirei objectivobjectr ctives artives ar fDistributionerhu doing of thing of th erstand wherstand wh in the bain the ba he ehe e 12 HUMAN COMPATIBLE exactly this sense. Inevitably, these machines will be uncertain about our objectives after all, we are uncertain about them ourselves but it turns out that this is a feature, not a bug (that is, a good thing and not a bad thing). Uncertainty about objectives implies that machines will necessarily defer to humans: they will ask permission, they will accept correction, and they will allow themselves to be switched off. R em o vin g th e assum p ti o n th a t m a chin es s h o ul d h a v e a d e fini t e objective means that we will need to tear out and replace part of the foundations of artificial intelligence the basic definitions of what we are trying to do. That also means rebuilding a great deal of the superstructure the accumulation of ideas and methods for actually doing AI. The result will be a new relationship between humans and machines, one that I hope will enable us to navigate the next few de-cades successfully. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 12 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distributioneat d ethods forhods for between hbetween h navigate thigate th 2 INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES When you arrive at a dead end, its a good idea to retrace your steps and work out where you took a wrong turn. I have argued that the standard model of AI, wherein ma- chines optimize a fixed objective supplied by humans, is a dead end. The problem is not that we might fail to do a good job of building AI systems; it s that w e migh t succeed too well. The very definition of success in AI is wrong. So lets retrace our steps, all the way to the beginning. Lets try to understand how our concept of intelligence came about and how it came to be applied to machines. Then we have a chance of coming up with a better definition of what counts as a good AI system. Intelligence How does the universe work? How did life begin? Where are my keys? These are fundamental questions worthy of thought. But who is ask-ing these questions? How am I answering them? How can a handful M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 13 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotat wt I is wrongs wrong ts retrace ots retrace nd hownd howford objeobj t that we mthat we m we mighe mighDistributionS dead end, iad end, i ork out whork out w at the stanat the sta tivetive 14 HUMAN COMPATIBLE of matter the few pounds of pinkish- gray blancmange we call a brain perceive, understand, predict, and manipulate a world of un- imaginable vastness? Before long, the mind turns to examine itself. We have been trying for thousands of years to understand how our minds work. Initially, the purposes included curiosity, self- management, persuasion, and the rather pragmatic goal of analyzing mathematical arguments. Yet every step towards an explanation of how the mind works is also a step towards the creation of the minds capabilities in an artifact that is, a step towards artificial intelligence. Before we can understand how to create intelligence, it helps to understand what it is. The answer is not to be found in IQ tests, or even in Turing tests, but in a simple relationship between what we perceive, what we want, and what we do. Roughly speaking, an entity is intelligent to the extent that what it does is likely to achieve what it wants, given what it has perceived. Evolutionary origins Consider a lowly bacterium, such as E. coli . I t is e q ui p p e d wi th about half a dozen flagella long, hairlike tentacles that rotate at the base either clockwise or counterclockwise. (The rotary motor itself is an amazing thing, but thats another story.) As E. coli floats about in its liquid home your lower intestine it alternates between rotating its flagella clockwise, causing it to tumble in place, and counterclock- wise, causing the flagella to twine together into a kind of propeller so the bacterium swims in a straight line. Thus, E. coli does a sort of ran- dom walk swim, tumble, swim, tumble that allows it to find and consume glucose rather than staying put and dying of starvation. If this were the whole story, we wouldnt say that E. coli is particu- larly intelligent, because its actions would not depend in any way on its environment. It wouldnt be making any decisions, just executing a fixed behavior that evolution has built into its genes. But this isnt the whole story. When E. coli s ens es an in cr e as in g c o n c en tr a ti o n o f 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 14 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotwiswi hing, but tng, but t meyyour loour l ockwiseockwiseforacteriueri lagellalagella llo e or coue or cou hDistributionnce, , und in IQ d in IQ hip betweeip betwee ughly speahly spea oes is likely es is likely m, sm, s INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 15 glucose, it swims longer and tumbles less, and it does the opposite when it senses a decreasing concentration of glucose. So, what it does (swim towards glucose) is likely to achieve what it wants (more glu-cose, lets assume), given what it has perceived (an increasing glucose concen tration). Perhaps you are thinking, But evolution built this into its genes too! How does that make it intelligent? This is a dangerous line of reasoning, because evolution built the basic design of your brain into your genes too, and presumably you wouldnt wish to deny your own intelligence on that basis. The point is that what evolution has built into E. coli s genes, as it has into yours, is a mechanism whereby the bacteriums behavior varies according to what it perceives in its envi-ronment. Evolution doesnt know, in advance, where the glucose is going to be or where your keys are, so putting the capability to find them into the organism is the next best thing. Now, E. coli is no intellectual giant. As far as we know , it doesnt remember where it has been, so if it goes from A to B and finds no glucose, its just as likely to go back to A. If we construct an environ-ment where every attractive glucose gradient leads only to a spot of phenol (which is a poison for E. coli ), the bacterium will keep follow- ing those gradients. It never learns. It has no brain, just a few simple chemical reactions to do the job. A big step forward occurred with action potentials , which are a form of electrical signaling that first evolved in single- celled organisms around a billion years ago. Later multicellular organisms evolved spe- cialized cells called neurons that use electrical action potentials to carry signals rapidly up to 120 meters per second, or 270 miles per hour within the organism. The connections between neurons are called syn- apses . The strength of the synaptic connection dictates how much electrical excitation passes from one neuron to another. By changing the strength of synaptic connections, animals learn. 1 Learning confers a huge evolutionary advantage, because the animal can adapt to a range of circumstances. Learning also speeds up the rate of evolution itself. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 15 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotentsn actions to ions to step forwarstep forwa ical signical sig llfor ractivetiv poison for poison for . It neveIt neve dDistributionolutio hanism whnism wh it perceivest perceive nce, where, wher putting theputting the best thing.t thing. giant. As fiant. As , so if it go, so if it g go back tgo back t glucgluc 16 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Initially, neurons were organized into nerve nets , which are distrib- uted throughout the organism and serve to coordinate activities such as eating and digestion or the timed contraction of muscle cells across a wide area. The graceful propulsion of jellyfish is the result of a nerve net. Jellyfish have no brains at all. Brains came later, along with complex sense organs such as eyes and ears. Several hundred million years after jellyfish emerged with their nerve nets, we humans arrived with our big brains a hundred billion (10 11) neurons and a quadrillion (1015) synapses. While slow compared to electronic circuits, the cycle time of a few milliseconds per state change is fast compared to most biological processes. The human brain is often described by its owners as the most complex object in the universe, which probably isnt true but is a good excuse for the fact that we still understand little about how it really works. While we know a great deal about the biochemistry of neurons and synapses and the anatomical structures of the brain, the neural imple-mentation of the cognitive level learning, knowing, remembering, reasoning, planning, deciding, and so on is still mostly anyones guess. 2 (Perhaps that will change as we understand more about AI, or as we develop ever more precise tools for measuring brain activity.) So, when one reads in the media that such- and- such AI technique works just like the human brain, one may suspect its either just someones guess or plain fiction. In the area of consciousness , we really do know nothing, so Im go- ing to say nothing. No one in AI is working on making machines con-scious, nor would anyone know where to start, and no behavior has consciousness as a prerequisite. Suppose I give you a program and ask, Does this present a threat to humanity? You analyze the code and indeed, when run, the code will form and carry out a plan whose re-sult will be the destruction of the human race, just as a chess program will form and carry out a plan whose result will be the defeat of any human who faces it. Now suppose I tell you that the code, when run, also creates a form of machine consciousness. Will that change your 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 16 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotadad ike the he the h guess or plguess or p area of area of hhforill chanch more precimore prec in the in the Distributionw m cal procesl proces as the mos the mo true but is e but is le about hoe about ho he biochembiochem tures of theres of the ellearninlearn ng, and sng, and s ge age a INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 17 prediction? Not at all. It makes absolutely no difference .3 Your predic- tion about its behavior is exactly the same, because the prediction is based on the code. All those Hollywood plots about machines myste-riously becoming conscious and hating humans are really missing the point: its competence, not consciousness, that matters. There is one important cognitive aspect of the brain that we are beginning to understandnamely, the reward system . This is an inter- nal signaling system, mediated by dopamine, that connects positive and negative stimuli to behavior. Its workings were discovered by the Swedish neuroscientist Nils- ke Hillarp and his collaborators in the late 1950s. It causes us to seek out positive stimuli, such as sweet- tasting foods, that increase dopamine levels; it makes us avoid negative stimuli, such as hunger and pain, that decrease dopamine levels. In a sense its quite similar to E. coli s glucose- seeking mechanism, but much more complex. It comes with built- in methods for learning, so that our behavior becomes more effective at obtaining reward over time. It also allows for delayed gratification, so that we learn to desire things such as money that provide eventual reward rather than imme-diate reward. One reason we understand the brains reward system is that it resembles the method of reinforcement learning developed in AI, for which we have a very solid theory. 4 From an evolutionary point of view, we can think of the brains reward system, just like E. coli s glucose- seeking mechanism, as a way of improving evolutionary fitness. Organisms that are more effective in seeking reward that is, finding delicious food, avoiding pain, en- gaging in sexual activity, and so on are more likely to propagate their genes. It is extraordinarily difficult for an organism to decide what actions are most likely, in the long run, to result in successful propa-gation of its genes, so evolution has made it easier for us by providing built- in signposts. These signposts are not perfect, however. There are ways to obtain reward that probably reduce the likelihood that ones genes will prop- agate. For example, taking drugs, drinking vast quantities of sugary M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 17 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotave v evolutionvolution ystem, just ystem, just ving evoving evforson wen w e method oe method a very so very sDistributioncoll muli, suchuli, such makes us avmakes us av ease dopame dopam cose-ose-seekinseekin builtuilt--iin men m e effective effective d gratificatid gratifica provide eveprovide ev undund 18 HUMAN COMPATIBLE carbonated beverages, and playing video games for eighteen hours a day all seem counterproductive in the reproduction stakes. Moreover, if you were given direct electrical access to your reward system, you would probably self- stimulate without stopping until you died. 5 The misalignment of reward signals and evolutionary fitness doesnt affect only isolated individuals. On a small island off the coast of Panama lives the pygmy three- toed sloth, which appears to be ad- dicted to a Valium- like substance in its diet of red mangrove leaves and may be going extinct.6 Thus, it seems that an entire species can disappear if it finds an ecological niche where it can satisfy its reward system in a maladaptive way. Barring these kinds of accidental failures, however, learning to maximize reward in natural environments will usually improve ones chances for propagating ones genes and for surviving environmental changes. Evolutionary accelerator Learning is good for more than surviving and prospering. It also speeds up evolution . How could this be? After all, learning doesnt change ones DNA, and evolution is all about changing DNA over generations. The connection between learning and evolution was pro-posed in 1896 by the American psychologist James Baldwin 7 and in- dependently by the British ethologist Conwy Lloyd Morgan8 but not generally accepted at the time. The Baldwin effect, as it is now known, can be understood by imagining that evolution has a choice between creating an instinctive organism whose every response is fixed in advance and creating an adaptive organism that learns what actions to take. Now suppose, for the purposes of illustration, that the optimal instinctive organism can be coded as a six- digit number, say, 472116, while in the case of the adaptive organism, evolution specifies only 472*** and the organism itself has to fill in the last three digits by learning during its lifetime. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 18 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotNANA The connee conne 1896 by the1896 by th tly by thtly by tforr moremo How coulHow cou and evand evDistributiontisfyy however, lhowever, l will usually usually for survivifor survivi atorator thantha INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 19 Clearly, if evolution has to worry about choosing only the first three digits, its job is much easier; the adaptive organism, in learning the last three digits, is doing in one lifetime what evolution would have taken many generations to do. So, provided the adaptive organisms can sur-vive while learning, it seems that the capability for learning consti-tutes an evolutionary shortcut. Computational simulations suggest that the Baldwin effect is real. 9 The effects of culture only accelerate the process, because an organized civilization protects the individual organism while it is learning and passes on information that the indi-vidual would otherwise need to learn for itself. The story of the Baldwin effect is fascinating but incomplete: it assumes that learning and evolution necessarily point in the same di-rection. That is, it assumes that whatever internal feedback signal de-fines the direction of learning within the organism is perfectly aligned with evolutionary fitness. As we have seen in the case of the pygmy three- toed sloth, this does not seem to be true. At best, built- in mech- anisms for learning provide only a crude hint of the long- term conse- quences of any given action for evolutionary fitness. Moreover, one has to ask, How did the reward system get there in the first place? The answer, of course, is by an evolutionary process, one that internalized a feedback mechanism that is at least somewhat aligned with evolu-tionary fitness. 10 Clearly, a learning mechanism that caused organisms to run away from potential mates and towards predators would not last long. Thus, we have the Baldwin effect to thank for the fact that neu- rons, with their capabilities for learning and problem solving, are so widespread in the animal kingdom. At the same time, it is important to understand that evolution doesnt really care whether you have a brain or think interesting thoughts. Evolution considers you only as an agent , that is, something that acts. Such worthy intellectual character- istics as logical reasoning, purposeful planning, wisdom, wit, imagina-tion, and creativity may be essential for making an agent intelligent, or they may not. One reason artificial intelligence is so fascinating is that M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 19 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothanh ss.10 Clea Clea way from pway from forewardwar s by an evos by an ev ism thaism tha lDistributiong but incombut inco y point in ty point in t nternal feednal fee e organism organism ve seen in tseen in em to be trum to be tru nly a crudenly a crud for evolutfor evolut systesyste 20 HUMAN COMPATIBLE it offers a potential route to understanding these issues: we may come to understand both how these intellectual characteristics make intel-ligent behavior possible and why its impossible to produce truly intel-ligent behavior without them. Rationality for one From the earliest beginnings of ancient Greek philosophy, the con- cept of intelligence has been tied to the ability to perceive, to reason, and to act successfully . 11 Over the centuries, the concept has become both broader in its applicability and more precise in its definition. Aristotle, among others, studied the notion of successful reasoning methods of logical deduction that would lead to true conclusions given true premises. He also studied the process of deciding how to act sometimes called practical reasoning and proposed that it involved deducing that a certain course of action would achieve a desired goal: We deliberate not about ends, but about means. For a doctor does not deliberate whether he shall heal, nor an orator whether he shall persuade. . . . They assume the end and consider how and by what means it is attained, and if it seems easily and best produced thereby; while if it is achieved by one means only they consider how i t will be a chi ev ed b y this an d b y w h a t m eans this will be achieved, till they come to the first cause . . . and what is last in the order of analysis seems to be first in the order of becoming. And if we come on an impossibility, we give up the search, e.g., if we need money and this cannot be got; but if a thing appears possible we try to do it. 12 This passage, one might argue, set the tone for the next two- thousand- odd years of Western thought about rationality. It says that the end what the person wants is fixed and given; and it says that the rational 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 20 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotis is while if it le if it will be achwill be ac ed, till thed, till thforher he he . They assu. They ass ttained,ttained,Distributionept h n its defints defin successful uccessful d to true contrue co ess of decidss of decid and propnd prop ction wouldion would nds, but abnds, but a hallhall INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 21 action is one that, according to logical deduction across a sequence of actions, easily and best produces the end. Aristotles proposal seems reasonable, but it isnt a complete guide to rational behavior. In particular, it omits the issue of uncertainty. In the real world, reality has a tendency to intervene, and few actions or sequences of actions are truly guaranteed to achieve the intended end. For example, it is a rainy Sunday in Paris as I write this sentence, and on T uesday at 2: 1 5 p .m. m y fligh t to Rome lea v es from Charles de Gaulle Airport, about forty- fi v e min u tes fr o m m y h o use . I p l an to leave for the airport around 11:30 a.m., which should give me plenty of time, but it probably means at least an hour sitting in the departure area. Am I certain to catch the flight? Not at all. There could be huge traffic jams, the taxi drivers may be on strike, the taxi Im in may break down or the driver may be arrested after a high- speed chase, and so on. Instead, I could leave for the airport on Monday, a whole day in advance. This would greatly reduce the chance of missing the flight, but the prospect of a night in the departure lounge is not an appealing one. In other words, my plan involves a trade- off between the certainty of success and the cost of ensuring that degree of cer- tainty. The following plan for buying a house involves a similar trade- off: buy a lottery ticket, win a million dollars, then buy the house. This plan easily and best produces the end, but its not very likely to succeed. The difference between this harebrained house- buying plan and my sober and sensible airport plan is, however, just a matter of degree. Both are gambles, but one seems more rational than the other. It turns out that gambling played a central role in generalizing Ar- istotles proposal to account for uncertainty. In the 1560s, the Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano developed the first mathemati- cally precise theory of probability using dice games as his main ex- ample. (Unfortunately, his work was not published until 1663. 13) In the seventeenth century, French thinkers including Antoine Arnauld and Blaise Pascal began for assuredly mathematical reasons to M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 21 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotry y asily and bly and b The differehe differ ober anober anforss andan ng plan for ng plan fo ticket, wicket, wDistributiond givg ing in the dg in the ll. There col. There co trike, the te, the ted after ated after a the airporhe airpor tly reduce ty reduce t night in thnight in t ords, my pords, my p thethe 22 HUMAN COMPATIBLE study the question of rational decisions in gambling.14 Consider the following two bets: A: 20 percent chance of winning $10 B: 5 percent chance of winning $100 The proposal the mathematicians came up with is probably the same one you would come up with: compare the expected values of the bets, which means the average amount you would expect to get from each bet. For bet A, the expected value is 20 percent of $10, or $2. For bet B, the expected value is 5 percent of $100, or $5. So bet B is better, according to this theory. The theory makes sense, because if the same bets are offered over and over again, a bettor who follows the rule ends up with more money than one who doesnt. In the eighteenth century, the Swiss mathematician Daniel Ber- noulli noticed that this rule didnt seem to work well for larger amounts of money. 15 For example, consider the following two bets: A: 100 percent chance of getting $10,000,000 (expected value $10,000,000) B: 1 percent chance of getting $1,000,000,100 (expected value $10,000,001) Most readers of this book, as well as its author, would prefer bet A to bet B, even though the expected- value rule says the opposite! Ber- noulli posited that bets are evaluated not according to expected mon-etary value but according to expected utility . Utility the property of being useful or beneficial to a person was, he suggested, an internal, subjective quantity related to, but distinct from, monetary value. In particular, utility exhibits diminishing returns with respect to money . This means that the utility of a given amount of money is not strictly proportional to the amount but grows more slowly. For example, the utility of having $1,000,000,100 is much less than a hundred times 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 22 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotperp (ex(ex ers of thers of t hhforcent cht c (expected v(expected cent chaent chaDistribution, or So bet B io bet B i e, because e, because who followo follow nt.nt . wiss mathemss mathe seem to worem to wor der the follder the fo ncence INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 23 the utility of having $10,000,000. How much less? You can ask your- self! What would the odds of winning a billion dollars have to be for you to give up a guaranteed ten million? I asked this question of the graduate students in my class and their answer was around 50 percent, meaning that bet B would have an expected value of $500 million to match the desirability of bet A. Let me say that again: bet B would have an expected dollar value fifty times greater than bet A, but the two bets would have equal utility. Bernoullis introduction of utility an invisible property to ex- plain human behavior via a mathematical theory was an utterly re-markable proposal for its time. It was all the more remarkable for the fact that, unlike monetary amounts, the utility values of various bets and prizes are not directly observable; instead, utilities are to be in- ferred from the preferences exhibited by an individual. It would be two centuries before the implications of the idea were fully worked out and it became broadly accepted by statisticians and economists. In the middle of the twentieth century, John von Neumann (a great mathematician after whom the standard von Neumann archi-tecture for computers was named 16) and Oskar Morgenstern pub- lished an axiomatic basis for utility theory.17 What this means is the following: as long as the preferences exhibited by an individual satisfy certain basic axioms that any rational agent should satisfy, then neces- sarily the choices made by that individual can be described as maxi- mizing the expected value of a utility function. In short, a rational agent acts so as to maximize expected utility . Its hard to overstate the importance of this conclusion. In many ways, artificial intelligence has been mainly about working out the details of how to build rational machines. Lets look in a bit more detail at the axioms that rational entities are expected to satisfy. Heres one, called transitivity : if you prefer A to B and you prefer B to C, then you prefer A to C. This seems pretty reasonable! (If you prefer sausage pizza to plain pizza, and you prefer plain pizza to pineapple pizza, then it seems reasonable to predict that M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 23 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotng ag c axioms txioms t e choices me choices m he expehe expefors was wa basis for ubasis for s the prthe pr hDistributionas an e remarkabemarkab y values of values of tead, utilitid, utilit an individun individu f the idea whe idea by statisticistatistici entieth cenentieth ce whom thewhom th namnam 24 HUMAN COMPATIBLE you will choose sausage pizza over pineapple pizza.) Heres another, called monotonicity : if you prefer prize A to prize B, and you have a choice of lotteries where A and B are the only two possible outcomes, you prefer the lottery with the highest probability of getting A rather than B. Again, pretty reasonable. Preferences are not just about pizza and lotteries with monetary prizes. They can be about anything at all; in particular, they can be about entire future lives and the lives of others. When dealing with preferences involving sequences of events over time, there is an addi-tional assumption that is often made, called stationarity : if two differ- ent futures A and B begin with the same event, and you prefer A to B, you still prefer A to B after the event has occurred. This sounds reasonable, but it has a surprisingly strong consequence: the utility of an y seq u en c e o f e v en ts is th e sum o f rew ar ds associ a ted wi th e a ch event (possibly discounted over time, by a sort of mental interest rate). 18 Although this utility as a sum of rewards assumption is widespread going back at least to the eighteenth- century hedonic calculus of Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism the sta- tionarity assumption on which it is based is not a necessary property of rational agents. Stationarity also rules out the possibility that ones preferences might change over time, whereas our experience indicates otherwise. Despite the reasonableness of the axioms and the importance of the conclusions that follow from them, utility theory has been sub-jected to a continual barrage of objections since it first became widely known. Some despise it for supposedly reducing everything to money and selfishness. (The theory was derided as American by some French authors, 19 even though it has its roots in France.) In fact, it is perfectly rational to want to live a life of self- denial, wishing only to reduce the suffering of others. Altruism simply means placing substantial weight on the well- being of others in evaluating any given future. Another set of objections has to do with the difficulty of obtaining the necessary probabilities and utility values and multiplying them 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 24 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ht ct e the reasoe the reas usions thusions tforn whicwhi tationarity ationarity hange ovange ovDistributiony: if nd you preyou pre occurred. Tccurred. T onsequenceequenc ewards assowards asso e, by a sorby a so a sum of sum of ast to the ast to the m, the foum, the fou it iit i INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 25 together to calculate expected utilities. These objections are simply confusing two different things: choosing the rational action and choos-ing it by calculating expected utilities . For example, if you try to poke your eyeball with your finger, your eyelid closes to protect your eye; this is rational, but no expected- utility calculations are involved. Or suppose you are riding a bicycle downhill with no brakes and have a choice between crashing into one concrete wall at ten miles per hour or another, farther down the hill, at twenty miles per hour; which would you prefer? If you chose ten miles per hour, congratulations! Did you calculate expected utilities? Probably not. But the choice of ten miles per hour is still rational. This follows from two basic as-sumptions: first, you prefer less severe injuries to more severe injuries, and second, for any given level of injuries, increasing the speed of collision increases the probability of exceeding that level. From these two assumptions it follows mathematically without considering any numbers at all that crashing at ten miles per hour has higher ex- pected utility than crashing at twenty. 20 I n s u m m a r y , m a x i m i z i n g expected utility may not require calculating any expectations or any utilities. Its a purely external description of a rational entity. Another critique of the theory of rationality lies in the identifica- tion of the locus of decision making. That is, what things count as agents? It might seem obvious that humans are agents, but what about families, tribes, corporations, cultures, and nation- states? If we exam- ine social insects such as ants, does it make sense to consider a single ant as an intelligent agent, or does the intelligence really lie in the colony as a whole, with a kind of composite brain made up of multiple ant brains and bodies that are interconnected by pheromone signaling instead of electrical signaling? From an evolutionary point of view, this may be a more productive way of thinking about ants, since the ants in a given colony are typically closely related. As individuals, ants and other social insects seem to lack an instinct for self- preservation as distinct from colony preservation: they will always throw themselves into battle against invaders, even at suicidal odds. Yet sometimes M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 25 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotus os ight seemht seem tribes, corptribes, cor l insectsl insectforxternarn ue of the the of the t f decisif decisiDistributionut th from twoom two to more sevo more sev s, increasinncreasin ceeding thaeeding tha aticallycally ww t ten milesten miles at twenty.at twent equire calcequire cal descdesc 26 HUMAN COMPATIBLE humans will do the same even to defend unrelated humans; it is as if the species benefits from the presence of some fraction of individuals who are willing to sacrifice themselves in battle, or to go off on wild, speculative voyages of exploration, or to nurture the offspring of oth-ers. In such cases, an analysis of rationality that focuses entirely on the individual is clearly missing something essential. The other principal objections to utility theory are empirical that is, they are based on experimental evidence suggesting that hu- mans are irrational. We fail to conform to the axioms in systematic ways. 21 It is not my purpose here to defend utility theory as a formal model of human behavior. Indeed, humans cannot possibly behave rationally. Our preferences extend over the whole of our own future lives, the lives of our children and grandchildren, and the lives of oth-ers, living now or in the future. Yet we cannot even play the right moves on the chessboard, a tiny, simple place with well- defined rules and a very short horizon. This is not because our preferences are irra- tional but because of the complexity of the decision problem. A great deal of our cognitive structure is there to compensate for the mis-match between our small, slow brains and the incomprehensibly huge complexity of the decision problem that we face all the time. So, while it would be quite unreasonable to base a theory of bene- ficial AI on an assumption that humans are rational, its quite reason-able to suppose that an adult human has roughly consistent preferences over future lives. That is, if you were somehow able to watch two movies, each describing in sufficient detail and breadth a future life you might lead, such that each constitutes a virtual experience, you could say which you prefer, or express indifference . 22 This claim is perhaps stronger than necessary, if our only goal is to make sure that sufficiently intelligent machines are not catastrophic for the human race. The very notion of catastrophe entails a definitely- not- preferred life. For catastrophe avoidance, then, we need claim only that adult humans can recognize a catastrophic future when it is spelled out in great detail. Of course, human preferences have a much 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 26 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotwouo n assumpassump ppose that appose that e lives. Te lives. forall, slowslo ecision probecision pro d be qud be quDistributionory y ot possiblypossibly ole of our oole of our o dren, and thn, and t e cannot evcannot ev ple place wiplace w not becauset because plexitylexity of th of t ure is theure is th brabra INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 27 more fine- grained and, presumably, ascertainable structure than just non- catastrophes are better than catastrophes. A theory of beneficial AI can, in fact, accommodate inconsistency in human preferences, but the inconsistent part of your preferences can never be satisfied and theres nothing AI can do to help. Suppose, for example, that your preferences for pizza violate the axiom of transitivity: ROBOT : Welcome home! Want some pineapple pizza? YOU: No, you should know I prefer plain pizza to pineapple. ROBOT : OK, one plain pizza coming up! YOU: No thanks, I like sausage pizza better. ROBOT : So sorry, one sausage pizza! YOU: Actually, I prefer pineapple to sausage. ROBOT : My mistake, pineapple it is! YOU: I already said I like plain better than pineapple. There is no pizza the robot can serve that will make you happy because theres always another pizza you would prefer to have. A ro-bot can satisfy only the consistent part of your preferencesfor exam-ple, lets say you prefer all three kinds of pizza to no pizza at all. In that case, a helpful robot could give you any one of the three pizzas, thereby satisfying your preference to avoid no pizza while leaving you to contemplate your annoyingly inconsistent pizza topping prefer-ences at leisure. Rationality for two The basic idea that a rational agent acts so as to maximize ex- pected utility is simple enough, even if actually doing it is impossibly c o m p l ex . Th e th e o ry a p p li e s , h o w e v e r , o nl y in th e c as e o f a s in gl e agent acting alone. With more than one agent, the notion that its possible at least in principle to assign probabilities to the different M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 27 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotu pu helpful rolpful ro satisfying ysatisfying ntemplantemplforanothnot the consistthe consis refer allefer all bDistributionineapp ausage.ausage. is! better thanetter than obot can obot can rp irp i 28 HUMAN COMPATIBLE outcomes of ones actions becomes problematic. The reason is that now theres a part of the world the other agent that is trying to second- guess what action youre going to do, and vice versa, so its not obvious how to assign probabilities to how that part of the world is going to behave. And without probabilities, the definition of rational action as maximizing expected utility isnt applicable. As soon as someone else comes along, then, an agent will need some other way to make rational decisions. This is where game theory comes in. Despite its name, game theory isnt necessarily about games in the usual sense; its a general attempt to extend the notion of ratio-nality to situations with multiple agents. This is obviously important for our purposes, because we arent planning (yet) to build robots that live on uninhabited planets in other star systems; were going to put the robots in our world, which is inhabited by us. To make it clear why we need game theory, lets look at a simple ex- ample: Alice and Bob playing soccer in the back garden (figure 3). Alice is about to take a penalty kick and Bob is in goal. Alice is going to shoot vB A FIGURE $OLFHDERXWWRWDNHDSHQDOW\NLFNDJDLQVW%RE 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 28 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot otNNfor forDistributionnotio bviously imiously im et) to build t) to build stems; werms; we ed by us.d by us. e theory, letheory, le er in the bacn the bac and Bob is innd Bob is INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 29 to Bobs left or to his right. Because she is right- footed, its a little bit easier and more accurate for Alice to shoot to Bobs right. Because Alice has a ferocious shot, Bob knows he has to dive one way or the other right away he wont have time to wait and see which way the ball is going. Bob could reason like this: Alice has a better chance of scoring if she shoots to my right, because shes right- footed, so shell choose that, so Ill dive right. But Alice is no fool and can imagine Bob thinking this way, in which case she will shoot to Bobs left. But Bob is no fool and can imagine Alice thinking this way, in which case he will dive to his left. But Alice is no fool and can imagine Bob thinking this way. . . . OK, you get the idea. Put another way: if there is a rational choice for Alice, Bob can figure it out too, anticipate it, and stop Alice from scoring, so the choice couldnt have been rational in the first place. As early as 1713 once again, in the analysis of gambling games a solution was found to this conundrum.23 The trick is not to choose any one action but to choose a randomized strategy . For example, Alice can choose the strategy shoot to Bobs right with probability 55 percent and shoot to his left with probability 45 percent. Bob could choose dive right with probability 60 percent and left with probability 40 percent. Each mentally tosses a suitably biased coin just before act-ing, so they dont give away their intentions. By acting unpredictably , Alice and Bob avoid the contradictions of the preceding paragraph. Even if Bob works out what Alices randomized strategy is, theres not much he can do about it without a crystal ball. The next question is, What should the probabilities be? Is Alices choice of 55 percent 45 percent rational? The specific values depend on how much more accurate Alice is when shooting to Bob s right, how good Bob is at saving the shot when he dives the right way, and so on. (See the notes for the complete analysis. 24) The general criterion is very simple, however: 1. Alices strategy is the best she can devise, assuming that Bobs is fixed. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 29 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnt t ob avoid avoid ob works oob works o can do can do forability lity ntally tossentally toss give awaive awa hDistributionway. y hoice for Aoice for A ice from scoce from sco t place.ace. analysis of gnalysis of g m.23 The tri The tr mized strategzed strateg Bobs rightBobs rig probabilityprobabilit 60 p60 p 30 HUMAN COMPATIBLE 2. Bobs strategy is the best he can devise, assuming that Alices is fixed. If both conditions are satisfied, we say that the strategies are in equilibrium. This kind of equilibrium is called a Nash equilibrium in honor of John Nash, who, in 1950 at the age of twenty- two, proved that such an equilibrium exists for any number of agents with any ra-tional preferences and no matter what the rules of the game might be. After several decades struggle with schizophrenia, Nash eventually recovered and was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for this work in 1994. For Alice and Bobs soccer game, there is only one equilibrium. In other cases, there may be several, so the concept of Nash equilibria, unlike that of expected- utility decisions, does not always lead to a unique recommendation for how to behave. Worse still, there are situations in which the Nash equilibrium seems to lead to highly undesirable outcomes. One such case is the famous prisoners dilemma, so named by Nashs PhD adviser, Albert Tucker, in 1950.25 The game is an abstract model of those all- too- common real- world situations where mutual cooperation would be better for all concerned but people nonetheless choose mutual destruction. The prisoners dilemma works as follows: Alice and Bob are sus- pects in a crime and are being interrogated separately. Each has a choice: to confess to the police and rat on his or her accomplice, or to refuse to talk. 26 If both refuse, they are convicted on a lesser charge and serve two years; if both confess, they are convicted on a more serious charge and serve ten years; if one confesses and the other refuses, the one who confesses goes free and the accomplice serves twenty years. Now, Alice reasons as follows: If Bob is going to confess, then I should confess too ( ten years is better than twenty ); if he is going to refuse, then I should confess (going free is better than spending two years in prison); so either way, I should confess. Bob reasons the same 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 30 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoteopo ners dilers dile a crime anda crime an confessconfesforabstrabstr here mutuaere mutu e nonete nonetDistributione in ly one equiy one equi ncept of Npt of N s, does not, does not ehave.have. in which thewhich th outcomes. Outcomes. d by Nashd by Nash tmtm INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 31 way. Thus, they both end up confessing to their crimes and serving ten years, even though by jointly refusing they could have served only two years. The problem is that joint refusal isnt a Nash equilibrium, because each has an incentive to defect and go free by confessing. Note that Alice could have reasoned as follows: Whatever reason- ing I do, Bob will also do. So well end up choosing the same thing. Since joint refusal is better than joint confession, we should refuse. This form of reasoning acknowledges that, as rational agents, Alice and Bob will make choices that are correlated rather than indepen-dent. Its just one of many approaches that game theorists have tried in their efforts to obtain less depressing solutions to the prisoners dilemma. 27 Another famous example of an undesirable equilibrium is the trag- edy of the commons , first analyzed in 1833 by the English economist William Lloyd28 but named, and brought to global attention, by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968.29 The tragedy arises when several people can consume a shared resource such as common grazing land or fish stocks that replenishes itself slowly. Absent any social or legal constraints, the only Nash equilibrium among selfish ( non- altruistic) agents is for each to consume as much as possible, leading to rapid collapse of the resource. The ideal solution, where everyone shares the resource such that the total consumption is sustainable, is not an equi-librium because each individual has an incentive to cheat and take more than their fair share imposing the costs on others. In practice, of course, humans do sometimes avoid this tragedy by setting up mechanisms such as quotas and punishments or pricing schemes. They can do this because they are not limited to deciding how much to consum e; th ey can also deci de to communicate . By enlarging the decision problem in this way, we find solutions that are better for everyone. These examples, and many others, illustrate the fact that extend- ing the theory of rational decisions to multiple agents produces many interesting and complex behaviors. Its also extremely important M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 31 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotesoes h that thethat the because eaccause ea n their n their forNash esh to consumeto consum urce. Thurce. ThDistributionorist ns to the to the ble equilibrequilib 833 by the 33 by the ought to glght to g 8.29 The tra The tr resourcesource shes itself shes itself uilibuilib 32 HUMAN COMPATIBLE because, as should be obvious, there is more than one human being. And soon there will be intelligent machines too. Needless to say, we have to achieve mutual cooperation, resulting in benefit to humans, rather than mutual destruction. Computers Having a reasonable definition of intelligence is the first ingredient in creating intelligent machines. The second ingredient is a machine in which that definition can be realized. For reasons that will soon be-come obvious, that machine is a computer. It could have been some- thing different for example, we might have tried to make intelligent machines out of complex chemical reactions or by hijacking biological cells 30 but devices built for computation, from the very earliest me- chanical calculators onwards, have always seemed to their inventors to be the natural home for intelligence. We are so used to computers now that we barely notice their ut- terly incredible powers. If you have a laptop or a desktop or a smart phone, look at it: a small box, with a way to type characters. Just by typing, you can create programs that turn the box into something new, perhaps something that magically synthesizes moving images of oceangoing ships hitting icebergs or alien planets with tall blue people; typ e so m e m o r e , an d i t tr ans l a tes En glis h in to Chin ese ; typ e so m e more, and it listens and speaks; type some more, and it defeats the world chess champion. This ability of a single box to carry out any process that you can imagine is called universality , a concept first introduced by Alan Turing in 1936. 31 U ni v ersali ty m eans th a t w e do n o t n eed sep ara te machines for arithmetic, machine translation, chess, speech under-standing, or animation: one machine does it all. Your laptop is essen-tially identical to the vast server farms run by the worlds largest IT companies even those equipped with fancy, special- purpose tensor 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 32 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotcrec somethinomethin g ships hittg ships hit e more, e more, llfor If youfy o small box, mall box, ate proate proDistributions a m that will at will oulduldhave bhave bdd e tried to med to m ons or by hons or by h ation, fromon, from always seelways see gence.gence. uters nowuters now havhav INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 33 processing units for machine learning. Its also essentially identical to all future computing devices yet to be invented. The laptop can do exactly the same tasks, provided it has enough memory; it just takes a lot longer. Turings paper introducing universality was one of the most im- portant ever written. In it, he described a simple computing device that could accept as input the description of any other computing de-vice, together with that second devices input, and, by simulating the operation of the second device on its input, produce the same output that the second device would have produced. We now call this first device a universal Turing machine . To prove its universality, Turing in- troduced precise definitions for two new kinds of mathematical ob-jects: machines and programs. Together, the machine and program define a sequence of events specifically, a sequence of state changes in the machine and its memory. In the history of mathematics, new kinds of objects occur quite rarely. Mathematics began with numbers at the dawn of recorded his-tory. Then, around 2000 BCE, ancient Egyptians and Babylonians worked with geometric objects (points, lines, angles, areas, and so on). Chinese mathematicians introduced matrices during the first millen-nium BCE, while sets as mathematical objects arrived only in the nineteenth century. Turings new objects machines and programs are perhaps the most powerful mathematical objects ever invented. It is ironic that the field of mathematics largely failed to recognize this, and from the 1940s onwards, computers and computation have been the province of engineering departments in most major universities. The field that emerged computer science exploded over the next seventy years, producing a vast array of new concepts, designs, methods, and applications, as well as seven of the eight most valuable companies in the world. The central concept in computer science is that of an algorithm , which is a precisely specified method for computing something. Algo- rithms are, by now, familiar parts of everyday life: a square- root M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 33 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotile l century. Tntury. T aps the mosaps the mo that thethat theforc objecbje icians introicians intr sets as sets as Distributionow c versality, Trsality, T ds of mathes of mathe the machinmachin y, a sequeny, a sequen cs, new kinnew kin th numbersth numbe BCE, ancBCE, anc s( ps( p 34 HUMAN COMPATIBLE algorithm in a pocket calculator receives a number as input and re- turns the square root of that number as output; a chess- playing algo- rithm takes a chess position and returns a move; a route- finding algorithm takes a start location, a goal location, and a street map and returns the fastest route from start to goal. Algorithms can be de-scribed in English or in mathematical notation, but to be implemented they must be coded as programs in a programming language . More complex algorithms can be built by using simpler ones as building blocks called subroutines for example, a self- driving car might use a route- finding algorithm as a subroutine so that it knows where to go. In this way, software systems of immense complexity are built up, layer by layer. Computer hardware matters because faster computers with more memory allow algorithms to run more quickly and to handle more i n f o r m a t i o n . P r o g r e s s i n t h i s a r e a i s w e l l k n o w n b u t s t i l l mind- boggling. The first commercial electronic programmable computer, the Ferranti Mark I, could execute about a thousand (10 3) instructions per second and had about a thousand bytes of main memory. The fast-est computer as of early 2019, the Summit machine at the Oak Ridge N a ti o n al L a b o r a t o ry in T e nn e ss e e , e x e c u t e s a b o u t 1 0 18 instructions per second (a thousand trillion times faster) and has 2.5 1017 bytes of memory (250 trillion times more). This progress has resulted from advances in electronic devices and even in the underlying physics, al-lowing an incredible degree of miniaturization. Although comparisons between computers and brains are not es- pecially meaningful, the numbers for Summit slightly exceed the raw capacity of the human brain, which, as noted previously, has about 10 15 synapses and a cycle time of about one hundredth of a second, for a theoretical maximum of about 1017 operations per second. The biggest difference is power consumption: Summit uses about a million times more power. Moores law, an empirical observation that the number of electronic components on a chip doubles every two years, is expected to continue 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 34 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotusausa 0 trillion trillion n electronin electron incredibincredifory 2019,019 y in Tenne in Tenn nd trillind trilliDistributionws w exity are bity are b ter computcompu quickly andquickly an is well knowell kn lectronic pctronic p ute about aute about housand bhousand b thethe INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 35 until 2025 or so, although at a slightly slower rate. For some years, speeds have been limited by the large amount of heat generated by the fast switching of silicon transistors; moreover, circuit sizes cannot get much smaller because the wires and connectors are (as of 2019) no more than twenty- five atoms wide and five to ten atoms thick. Beyond 2025, we will need to use more exotic physical phenomena including negative capacitance devices, 32 single- atom transistors, graphene nano- tubes, and photonics to keep Moores law (or its successor) going. Instead of just speeding up general- purpose computers, another possibility is to build special- purpose devices that are customized to perform just one class of computations. For example, Googles tensor processing units (TPUs) are designed to perform the calculations re-quired for certain machine learning algorithms. One TPU pod (2018 version) performs roughly 10 17 calculations per second nearly as much as the Summit machine but uses about one hundred times less power and is one hundred times smaller. Even if the underlying chip technology remains roughly constant, these kinds of machines can simply be made larger and larger to provide vast quantities of raw computational power for AI systems. Quantum computation is a different kettle of fish. It uses the strange properties of quantum- mechanical wave functions to achieve something remarkable: with twice the amount of quantum hardware, you can do more than twice the amount of computation! Very roughly, it works like this: 33 Suppose you have a tiny physical device that stores a quantum bit, or qubit. A qubit has two possible states, 0 and 1. Whereas in classical physics the qubit device has to be in one of the two states, in quantum physics the wave function that carries informa- tion about the qubit says that it is in both states simultaneously. If you have two qubits, there are four possible joint states: 00, 01, 10, and 11. If the wave function is coherently entangled across the two qubits, meaning that no other physical processes are there to mess it up, then the two qubits are in all four states simultaneously. Moreover, if the two qubits are connected into a quantum circuit that performs some M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 35 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoties e emarkablemarkabl do more thamore tha ike thisike this bbforfor AI A putation isputation i offqquanuanDistributione cu ple, Google, Goog rm the calcm the calc hms. One Ts. One ns per ns per sseconecon about onbout on smaller. Evmaller. Ev constant, tconstant, d larger tod larger t ysteyste 36 HUMAN COMPATIBLE calculation, then the calculation proceeds with all four states simulta- neously. With three qubits, you get eight states processed simultane-ously, and so on. Now, there are some physical limitations so that the amount of work that gets done is less than exponential in the number of qubits, 34 but we know that there are important problems for which quantum computation is provably more efficient than any classical computer. As of 2019, there are experimental prototypes of small quantum processors in operation with a few tens of qubits, but there are no in- teresting computing tasks for which a quantum processor is faster than a classical computer. The main difficulty is decoherence processes such as thermal noise that mess up the coherence of the multi- qubit wave function. Quantum scientists hope to solve the decoherence problem by introducing error correction circuitry, so that any error that occurs in the computation is quickly detected and cor- r e c t e d b y a ki n d o f v o t i n g p r o c e s s . U n f o r t u n a t e l y , error- correcting systems require far more qubits to do the same work: while a quantum machine with a few hundred perfect qubits would be very powerful compared to existing classical computers, we will probably need a few million error- correcting qubits to actually realize those computations. Going from a few tens to a few million qubits will take quite a few years. If, eventually, we get there, that would completely change the picture of what we can do by sheer brute- force computation. 35 Rather than waiting for real conceptual advances in AI, we might be able to use the raw power of quantum computation to bypass some of the barriers faced by current unintelligent algorithms. The limits of computation Even in the 1950s, computers were described in the popular press as super- brains that were faster than Einstein. So can we say now, finally, that computers are as powerful as the human brain? No. Fo- cusing on raw computing power misses the point entirely. Speed alone 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 36 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotw tw ntually, wually, w what we cawhat we c ng for rng for rforassicalica ting qubits ting qubit ens to ans to aDistributioncesso is decohedecohe the coherethe cohere ntists hopets hop or correctionr correctio tion is quicn is quic ess. Unfortu. Unfortu s to do the ss to do the d perfect d perfect compcom INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 37 wont give us AI. Running a poorly designed algorithm on a faster computer doesnt make the algorithm better; it just means you get the wrong answer more quickly. (And with more data there are more op-portunities for wrong answers!) The principal effect of faster ma-chines has been to make the time for experimentation shorter, so that research can progress more quickly. Its not hardware that is holding AI back; its software. We dont yet know how to make a machine re- ally intelligent even if it were the size of the universe. Suppose, however, that we do manage to develop the right kind of AI software. Are there any limits placed by physics on how powerful a computer can be? Will those limits prevent us from having enough computing power to create real AI? The answers seem to be yes, there are limits, and no, there isnt a ghost of a chance that the limits will prevent us from creating real AI. MIT physicist Seth Lloyd has esti- mated the limits for a laptop- sized computer, based on considerations from quantum theory and entropy. 36 The numbers would raise even Carl Sagans eyebrows: 1051 operations per second and 1030 bytes of memory, or approximately a billion trillion trillion times faster and four trillion times more memory than Summit which, as noted pre- viously, has more raw power than the human brain. Thus, when one hears suggestions that the human mind represents an upper limit on what is physically achievable in our universe, 37 one should at least ask for further clarification. Besides limits imposed by physics, there are other limits on the abilities of computers that originate in the work of computer scien-tists. Turing himself proved that some problems are undecidable by any computer: the problem is well defined, there is an answer, but there cannot exist an algorithm that always finds that answer. He gave the example of what became known as the halting problem : Can an algorithm decide if a given program has an infinite loop that pre- vents it from ever finishing? 38 Turings proof that no algorithm can solve the halting problem39 is incredibly important for the foundations of mathematics, but it seems M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 37 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotns ts ically achally ach er clarificatclarifica es limites limitfore memme aw power taw power hat the hat the Distributionn ho from havinm havin rs seem to bs seem to b chance thatnce tha physicist Sphysicist S omputer, bmputer, b py.y366 The n The n operations poperations a billion a billion ory tory 38 HUMAN COMPATIBLE to have no bearing on the issue of whether computers can be intelli- gent. One reason for this claim is that the same basic limitation seems to apply to the human brain. Once you start asking a human brain to perform an exact simulation of itself simulating itself simulating itself, and so on, youre bound to run into difficulties. I, for one, have never worried about my inability to do this. Focusing on decidable problems, then, seems not to place any real restrictions on AI. It turns out, however, that decidable doesnt mean easy. Computer scientists spend a lot of time thinking about the com- plexity of problems, that is, the question of how much computation is needed to solve a problem by the most efficient method. Heres an easy problem: given a list of a thousand numbers, find the biggest number. If it takes one second to check each number, then it takes a thousand seconds to solve this problem by the obvious method of checking each in turn and keeping track of the biggest. Is there a faster method? No, because if a method didnt check some number in the list, that number might be the biggest, and the method would fail. So, the time to find the largest element is proportional to the size of the list. A computer scientist would say the problem has linear complex-ity, meaning that its very easy; then she would look for something more interesting to work on. What gets theoretical computer scientists excited is the fact that many problems appear 40 to have exponential complexity in the worst case. This means two things: first, all the algorithms we know about require exponential time that is, an amount of time exponential in the size of the input to solve at least some problem instances; sec- ond, theoretical computer scientists are pretty sure that more efficient algorithms do not exist. Exponential growth in difficulty means that problems may be solvable in theory (that is, they are certainly decidable) but sometimes unsolvable in practice; we call such problems intractable . An example is the problem of deciding whether a given map can be colored with just three colors, so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 38 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotto to s theoretiheoreti blems appeblems app means meansforst wouwo s very easys very ea work onwork onDistributioncom method. Hethod. H bers, find tbers, find t h number, umber, m by the obby the ob ck of the biof the bi d didntidnt chechett biggest, andbiggest, a element iselement i ld sald sa INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 39 (I t is w e ll kn o wn th a t c o l o rin g wi th f o ur di ff e r e n t c o l o rs is al w a y s possible.) With a million regions, it may be that there are some cases (not all, but some) that require something like 2 1000 computational steps to find the answer, which means about 10275 years on the Sum- mit supercomputer or a mere 10242 years on Seth Lloyds ultimate- physics laptop. The age of the universe, about 1010 years, is a tiny blip compared to this. Does the existence of intractable problems give us any reason to think that computers cannot be as intelligent as humans? No. There is no reason to suppose that humans can solve intractable problems either. Quantum computation helps a bit (whether in machines or brains), but not enough to change the basic conclusion. Complexity means that the real- world decision problem the problem of deciding what to do right now, at every instant in ones life is so difficult that neither humans nor computers will ever come close to finding perfect solutions. This has two consequences: first, we expect that, most of the time, real- world decisions will be at best halfway decent and certainly far from optimal; second, we expect that a great deal of the mental archi- tecture of humans and computers the way their decision processes actually operate will be designed to overcome complexity to the ex- tent possiblethat is, to make it possible to find even halfway decent answers despite the overwhelming complexity of the world. Finally, we expect that the first two consequences will remain true no matter how intelligent and powerful some future machine may be. The ma-chine may be far more capable than us, but it will still be far from perfectly rational. Intelligent Computers The development of logic by Aristotle and others made available pre-cise rules for rational thought, but we do not know whether Aristotle M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 39 8/7/19 11:21 PMNote that is,that is despite thedespite th ct that tct that tfor we exe e and and ccompuomp wwill be dill be dDistributionctabl her in mar in ma nclusion.clusion. d decisiondecision now, at eveow, at eve ans nor coms nor com s: first, we es: first, we e at best he at best ectect 40 HUMAN COMPATIBLE ever contemplated the possibility of machines that implemented these rules. In the thirteenth century, the influential Catalan philosopher, seducer, and mystic Ramon Llull came much closer: he actually made paper wheels inscribed with symbols, by means of which he could generate logical combinations of assertions. The great seventeenth- century French mathematician Blaise Pascal was the first to develop a real and practical mechanical calculator. Although it could only add and subtract and was used mainly in his fathers tax- collecting office, it led Pascal to write, The arithmetical machine produces effects which appear nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. Technology took a dramatic leap forward in the nineteenth cen- tury when the British mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine, a programmable universal machine in the sense defined later by Turing. He was helped in his work by Ada, Countess of Lovelace, daughter of the romantic poet and adventurer Lord Byron. Whereas Babbage hoped to use the Analytical Engine to compute accurate mathematical and astronomical tables, Lovelace understood its true potential, 41 descri b in g i t in 1 84 2 as a thinkin g or . . . a reasoning machine that could reason about all subjects in the universe. So, the basic conceptual elements for creating AI were in place! From that point, surely, AI would be just a matter of time. . . . A long time, unfortunately the Analytical Engine was never built, and Lovelaces ideas were largely forgotten. With Turings theo- retical work in 1936 and the subsequent impetus of World War II, universal computing machines were finally realized in the 1940s. Thoughts about creating intelligence followed immediately. Turings 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, 42 is the best known of many early works on the possibility of intelligent machines. Skeptics were already asserting that machines would never be able to do X, for almost any X you could think of, and Turing refuted those assertions. He also proposed an operational test for intelligence, called the imitation game , which subsequently (in simplified form) became known as the Turing test . The test measures the behavior of the 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 40 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotpop me, e, uunfonfo Lovelaces Lovelaces rk in 19rk in 1forine the t asic concepasic conce nt, surent, sureDistributionanim he nineteeninetee ntor Charlntor Charl able univere unive s helped in helped in e romanticromantic oped to used to us atical and astical and al,al,414 descrdescr tc otc o INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 41 machine specifically, its ability to fool a human interrogator into thinking that it is human. The imitation game serves a specific role in Turings papernamely as a thought experiment to deflect skeptics who supposed that ma-chines could not think in the right way, for the right reasons, with the right kind of awareness. T uring hoped to redirect the argument to-wards the issue of whether a machine could behave in a certain way; and if it did if it was able, say, to discourse sensibly on Shakespeares sonnets and their meanings then skepticism about AI could not really be sustained. Contrary to common interpretations, I doubt that the test was intended as a true definition of intelligence, in the sense that a machine is intelligent if and only if it passes the Turing test. Indeed, Turing wrote, May not machines carry out something which ought to be described as thinking but which is very different from what a man does? Another reason not to view the test as a definition for AI is that its a terrible definition to work with. And for that rea-so n, mainstream AI research ers h a v e expen ded alm ost n o eff o rt to pass the Turing test. The Turing test is not useful for AI because its an informal and highly contingent definition: it depends on the enormously com- plicated and largely unknown characteristics of the human mind, which derive from both biology and culture. There is no way to un-pack the definition and work back from it to create machines that will provably pass the test. Instead, AI has focused on rational behav-ior, just as described previously: a machine is intelligent to the extent that what it does is likely to achieve what it wants, given what it has perceived. Initially, like Aristotle, AI researchers identified what it wants with a goal that is either satisfied or not. These goals could be in toy worlds like the 15- puzzle, where the goal is to get all the numbered tiles lined up in order from 1 to 15 in a little (simulated) square tray; or they might be in real, physical environments: in the early 1970s, the Shakey robot at SRI in California was pushing large blocks into M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 41 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotrgeg e from borom bo e definitione definitio ably pasably pafornot ust u definition:definition y unkny unkn hDistributionons, , igence, in ence, in passes the passes the carry out soy out so which is vwhich is v ot to view to view tion to worn to wo hers have exers have efuleful 42 HUMAN COMPATIBLE desired configurations, and Freddy at the University of Edinburgh was assembling a wooden boat from its component pieces. All this work was done using logical problem- solvers and planning systems to con- struct and execute guaranteed plans to achieve goals.43 By the 1980s, it was clear that logical reasoning alone could not suffice, because, as noted previously, there is no plan that is guaranteed to get you to the airport. Logic requires certainty, and the real world simply doesnt provide it. Meanwhile, the Israeli- American computer scientist Judea Pearl, who went on to win the 2011 Turing Award, had been working on methods for uncertain reasoning based in probability theory. 44 AI researchers gradually accepted Pearls ideas; they adopted the tools of probability theory and utility theory and thereby con-nected AI to other fields such as statistics, control theory, economics, and operations research. This change marked the beginning of what some observers call modern AI . Agents and environments The central concept of modern AI is the intelligent agent something that perceives and acts. The agent is a process occurring over time, in the sense that a stream of perceptual inputs is converted into a stream of actions. For example, suppose the agent in question is a self- driving taxi taking me to the airport. Its inputs might include eight RGB cameras operating at thirty frames per second; each frame consists of perhaps 7.5 million pixels, each with an image intensity value in each of three color channels, for a total of more than five giga- bytes per second. (The flow of data from the two hundred million photoreceptors in the retina is even larger, which partially explains why vision occupies such a large fraction of the human brain.) The taxi also gets data from an accelerometer one hundred times per sec-ond, as well as GPS data. This incredible flood of raw data is trans-formed by the simply gargantuan computing power of billions of transistors (or neurons) into smooth, competent driving behavior. The 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 42 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotsense of actionsaction ing taxi taking taxi ta camera camerforpt of of ceives and eives and se that se that Distributiond in pp deas; theyas; they ory and thory and th ontrol theorol theo arked the brked the b mentsments modmod INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 43 taxis actions include the electronic signals sent to the steering wheel, brakes, and accelerator, twenty times per second. (For an experienced human driver, most of this maelstrom of activity is unconscious: you may be aware only of making decisions such as overtake this slow truck or stop for gas, but your eyes, brain, nerves, and muscles are still doing all the other stuff.) For a chess program, the inputs are mostly just the clock ticks, with the occasional notification of the op-ponents move and the new board state, while the actions are mostly doing nothing while the program is thinking, and occasionally choos-ing a move and notifying the opponent. For a personal digital assis-tant, or PDA, such as Siri or Cortana, the inputs include not just the acousti c signal from th e mi crop h on e ( sam p l ed forty- eight thousand times per second) and input from the touch screen but also the con- tent of each Web page that it accesses, while the actions include both speaking and displaying material on the screen. The way we build intelligent agents depends on the nature of the problem we face. This, in turn, depends on three things: first, the nature of the environment the agent will operate in a chessboard is a very different place from a crowded freeway or a mobile phone; sec- ond, the observations and actions that connect the agent to the environment for example, Siri might or might not have access to the phones camera so that it can see; and third, the agents objective teaching the opponent to play better chess is a very different task from winning the game. To give just one example of how the design of the agent depends on these things: If the objective is to win the game, a chess program need consider only the current board state and does not need any memory of past events. 45 The chess tutor, on the other hand, should continually update its model of which aspects of chess the pupil does or does not understand so that it can provide useful advice. In other words, for the chess tutor, the pupils mind is a relevant part of the environment. Moreover, unlike the board, it is a part of the environ- ment that is not directly observable. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 43 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotor o era so tha so th the opponethe oppon the gamthe gamforrom a m ions and aons and examplexampleDistributionnal d include noclude no d d fforty-orty-ff eeighig h screen bucreen b while the acwhile the ac the screen.e screen agents depgents dep urn, dependurn, depen the agent the agent rowrow 44 HUMAN COMPATIBLE The characteristics of problems that influence the design of agents include at least the following:46 whether the environment is fully observable (as in chess, where the inputs provide direct access to all the relevant aspects of the current state of the environment) or partially observable (as in driving, where ones field of view is limited, vehicles are opaque, and other drivers intentions are mysterious); whether the environment and actions are discrete (as in chess) or effectively continuous (as in driving); whether the environment contains other agents (as in chess and driving) or not (as in finding the shortest routes on a map); whether the outcomes of actions, as specified by the rules or physics of the environment, are predictable (as in chess) or unpredictable (as in traffic and weather), and whether those rules are known or unknown; whether the environment is dynamically changing, so that the time to make decisions is tightly constrained (as in driving) or not (as in tax strategy optimization); the length of the horizon over which decision quality is mea-sured according to the objective this may be very short (as in emergency braking), of intermediate duration (as in chess, where a game lasts up to about one hundred moves), or very long (as in driving me to the airport, which might take hun-dreds of thousands of decision cycles if the taxi is deciding one hundred times per second). As one can imagine, these characteristics give rise to a bewildering variety of problem types. Just multiplying the choices listed above gives 192 types. One can find real- world problem instances for all the types. Some types are typically studied in areas outside AIfor example, designing an autopilot that maintains level flight is a short- horizon, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 44 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotrdird ency brakcy brak ere a game ere a game g (as in g (as in ffortegy opgy the horizonthe horizo ng to theg to theDistributionnts (as in s (as in st routes ont routes o ecified by thed by t predictable redictable weather), aeather), n; t is dynamict is dynam s is tightly s is tightly timitimi INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 45 continuous, dynamic problem that is usually studied in the field of con- trol theory. Obviously some problem types are easier than others. AI has made a lot of progress on problems such as board games and puzzles that are observable, discrete, deterministic, and have known rules. For the eas-ier problem types, AI researchers have developed fairly general and effective algorithms and a solid theoretical understanding; often, ma-chines exceed human performance on these kinds of problems. We can tell that an algorithm is general because we have mathematical proofs that it gives optimal or near- optimal results with reasonable computational complexity across an entire class of problems, and be- cause it works well in practice on those kinds of problems without needing any problem- specific modifications. Video games such as StarCraft are quite a bit harder than board games: they involve hundreds of moving parts and time horizons of thousands of steps, and the board is only partially visible at any given time. At each point, a player might have a choice of at least 10 50 moves, compared to about 102 in Go.47 On the other hand, the rules are known and the world is discrete with only a few types of objects. As of early 2019, machines are as good as some professional StarCraft players but not yet ready to challenge the very best humans. 48 More important, it took a fair amount of problem- specific effort to reach that point; general- purpose methods are not quite ready for StarCraft. Problems such as running a government or teaching molecular bi- ology are much harder. They have complex, mostly unobservable envi- ronments (the state of a whole country, or the state of a students mind), far more objects and types of objects, no clear definition of what the actions are, mostly unknown rules, a great deal of uncer- tainty, and very long time scales. We have ideas and off- the- shelf tools that address each of these characteristics separately but, as yet, no general methods that cope with all the characteristics simultaneously. When we build AI systems for these kinds of tasks, they tend to M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 45 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotyety t took a ftook a t; ggeneral-eneral- ems sucems sucforis discdis hines are ahines are ready tready tDistributionwith f problemproblem s of probles of proble s. quite a bit quite a bit oving partsing parts d is only pas only pa might have amight have Go.G4747 On O ete wete w 46 HUMAN COMPATIBLE require a great deal of problem- specific engineering and are often very brittle. Progress towards generality occurs when we devise methods that are effective for harder problems within a given type or methods that require fewer and weaker assumptions so they are applicable to more problems. General- purpose AI would be a method that is applicable across all problem types and works effectively for large and difficult instances while making very few assumptions. Thats the ultimate goal of AI research: a system that needs no problem- specific engineer- ing and can simply be asked to teach a molecular biology class or run a government. It would learn what it needs to learn from all the avail-able resources, ask questions when necessary, and begin formulating and executing plans that work. Such a general- purpose method does not yet exist, but we are moving closer. Perhaps surprisingly, a lot of this progress towards gen-eral AI results from research that isnt about building scary, general- purpose AI systems. It comes from research on tool AI or narrow AI , meaning nice, safe, boring AI systems designed for particular prob-lems such as playing Go or recognizing handwritten digits. Research on this kind of AI is often thought to present no risk because its problem- specific and nothing to do with general- purpose AI. This belief results from a misunderstanding of what kind of work goes into these systems. In fact, research on tool AI can and often does produce progress towards general- purpose AI, particularly when it is done by researchers with good taste attacking problems that are be- yond the capabilities of current general methods. Here, good taste means that the solution approach is not merely an ad hoc encoding of what an intelligent person would do in such- and- such situation but an attempt to provide the machine with the ability to figure out the solu- tion for itself. For example, when the AlphaGo team at Google DeepMind suc- ceeded in creating their world- beating Go program, they did this with- out really working on Go . What I mean by this is that they didnt write 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 46 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotana f results fresults f these systemthese syste rogress rogressforo or reor is often this often t d nothind nothinDistributionogy cy from all tom all t and begin fnd begin f es not yet s not yet lot of this pt of this isnt aboutnt about from researfrom rese AI systemAI system cogncogn INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 47 a whole lot of Go- specific code saying what to do in different kinds o f Go si tua ti ons. Th ey di dn t desi gn decisi on proc ed ures tha t w or k only for Go. Instead, they made improvements to two fairly general- purpose techniques lookahead search to make decisions and rein- forcement learning to learn how to evaluate positions so that they were sufficiently effective to play Go at a superhuman level. Those improvements are applicable to many other problems, including prob-lems as far afield as robotics. Just to rub it in, a version of AlphaGo called AlphaZero recently learned to trounce AlphaGo at Go, and also to trounce Stockfish (the worlds best chess program, far better than any human) and Elmo (the worlds best shogi program, also bet-ter than any human). AlphaZero did all this in one day. 49 There was also substantial progress towards general- purpose AI in research on recognizing handwritten digits in the 1990s. Yann Le-Cuns team at AT& T Labs didnt write special algorithms to recognize 8 by searching for curvy lines and loops; instead, they improved on existing neural network learning algorithms to produce convolutional neural networks . Those networks, in turn, exhibited effective charac- ter recognition after suitable training on labeled examples. The same algorithms can learn to recognize letters, shapes, stop signs, dogs, cats, and police cars. Under the headline of deep learning, they have rev-olutionized speech recognition and visual object recognition. They are also one of the key components in AlphaZero as well as in most of the current self- driving car projects. If you think about it, its hardly surprising that progress towards general AI is going to occur in narrow- AI projects that address specific tasks; those tasks give AI researchers something to get their teeth into. (Theres a reason people dont say, Staring out the window is the mother of invention.) At the same time, its important to understand how much progress has occurred and where the boundaries are. When AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol and later all the other top Go players, many people assumed that because a machine had learned from scratch to beat the human race at a task known to be very difficult M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 47 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotUnU speech receech re of the key cof the key elf-elf-drivdrivforuitableabl n to recognn to recog der the der the Distributiongram i programprogram one day.one day.494 ards sggeneraenera digits in theigits in the te special aspecial a and loops; id loops; i ning algorithning algori works, in tworks, in traintrain 48 HUMAN COMPATIBLE even for highly intelligent humans, it was the beginning of the end just a matter of time before AI took over. Even some skeptics may have been convinced when AlphaZero won at chess and shogi as well as Go. But AlphaZero has hard limitations: it works only in the class of dis- crete, observable, two- player games with known rules. The approach simply wont work at all for driving, teaching, running a government, or taking over the world. These sharp boundaries on machine competence mean that when people talk about machine IQ increasing rapidly and threatening to exceed human IQ, they are talking nonsense. To the extent that the concept of IQ makes sense when applied to humans, its because hu-man abilities tend to be correlated across a wide range of cognitiv e activities. Trying to assign an IQ to machines is like trying to get four- legged animals to compete in a human decathlon. True, horses can run fast and jump high, but they have a lot of trouble with pole- vaulting and throwing the discus. Objectives and the standard model Looking at an intelligent agent from the outside, what matters is the stream of actions it generates from the stream of inputs it receives. From the inside, the actions have to be chosen by an agent program . Humans are born with one agent program, so to speak, and that pro-gram learns over time to act reasonably successfully across a huge range of tasks. So far, that is not the case for AI: we dont know how to build one general- purpose AI program that does everything, so in- stead we build different types of agent programs for different types of problems. I will need to explain at least a tiny bit about how these different agent programs work; more detailed explanations are given in the appendices at the end of the book for those who are interested. (Pointers to particular appendices are given as superscripts like this A and this.D) The primary focus here is on how the standard model is 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 48 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotiono ide, the ae, the a are born witare born w ns over ns overfore s ntelligent agtelligent a s it geneit geneDistributionexte ns, its becits bec ide range ode range o s is like tryilike try cathlon. Trcathlon. Tr ot of troubof troub tandartanda INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 49 instantiated in these various kinds of agents in other words, how the objective is specified and communicated to the agent. The simplest way to communicate an objective is in the form of a goal. When you get into your self- driving car and touch the home icon on the screen, the car takes this as its objective and proceeds to plan and execute a route. A state of the world either satisfies the goal (yes, Im at home) or it doesnt (no, I dont live at the San Francisco Airport). In the classical period of AI research, before uncertainty became a primary issue in the 1980s, most AI research assumed a world that was fully observable and deterministic, and goals made sense as a way to specify objectives. Sometimes there is also a cost function to evaluate solutions, so an optimal solution is one that mini- mizes total cost while reaching the goal. For the car, this might be built in perhaps the cost of a route is some fixed combination of the time and fuel consumption or the human might have the option of specifying the trade- off between the two. The key to achieving such objectives is the ability to mentally simulate the effects of possible actions, sometimes called lookahead search . Your self- driving car has an internal map, so it knows that driv- ing east from San Francisco on the Bay Bridge gets you to Oakland. Algorithms originating in the 1960s 50 find optimal routes by looking ahead and searching through many possible action sequences.A These algorithms form a ubiquitous part of modern infrastructure: they pro-vide not just driving directions but also airline travel solutions, robotic assembly, construction planning, and delivery logistics. With some modifications to handle the impertinent behavior of opponents, the same idea of lookahead applies to games such as tic- tac- toe, chess, and Go, where the goal is to win according to the games particular defini- tion of winning. Lookahead algorithms are incredibly effective for their specific tasks, but they are not very flexible. For example, AlphaGo knows the rules of Go, but only in the sense that it has two subroutines, M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 49 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotginain earching trching t ms form a ubms form a u ust drivust drivforng car hcar Francisco oFrancisco ting in ting in t hDistributionand there is ahere is a lution is onution is on For the carthe ca ome fixed ome fixed human miuman mi the two.e two. h objectiveh objectiv ssible actiossible acti as anas an 50 HUMAN COMPATIBLE written in a traditional programming language such as C++: one sub- routine generates all the possible legal moves and the other encodes the goal, determining whether a given state is won or lost. For Alpha Go to play a different game, someone has to rewrite all this C++ code. Moreover, if you give it a new goal say, visiting the exoplanet that orbits Proxima Centauri it will explore billions of sequences of Go moves in a vain attempt to find a sequence that achieves the goal. It cannot look inside the C++ code and determine the obvious: no sequence of Go moves gets you to Proxima Centauri. AlphaGos knowledge is essentially locked inside a black box. In 1958, two years after his Dartmouth summer meeting had ini- tiated the field of artificial intelligence, John McCarthy proposed a much more general approach that opens up the black box: writing general- purpose reasoning programs that can absorb knowledge on any topic and reason with it to answer any answerable question. 51 One particular kind of reasoning would be practical reasoning of the kind suggested by Aristotle: Doing actions A, B, C, . . . will achieve goal G. The goal could be anything at all: make sure the house is tidy be- fore I get home, win a game of chess without losing either of your knights, reduce my taxes by 50 percent, visit Proxima Centauri, and so on. McCarthys new class of programs soon became known as knowledge- based systems . 52 To make knowledge- based systems possible requires answering two questions. First, how can knowledge be stored in a computer? Second, how can a computer reason correctly with that knowledge to draw new conclusions? Fortunately, ancient Greek philosophers particularly Aristotle provided basic answers to these questions long before the advent of computers. In fact, it seems quite likely that, had Aristotle been given access to a computer (and some electricity, I sup- pose), he would have been an AI researcher. Aristotles answer, reiter-ated by McCarthy, was to use formal logic B as the basis for knowledge and reasoning. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 50 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotys y sed systemd system ke kknowlenowl ions. Fiions. Fforgameam taxes by 50taxes by 5 new clanew claDistributioner meetingmeeting McCarthy pMcCarthy p p the blackhe blac at can absot can abso r any answeny answe d be practicbe practi g actions A,g actions A ing at all: ing at all: of cof c INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 51 There are two kinds of logic that really matter in computer sci- ence. The first, called propositional or Boolean logic , was known to the Greeks as well as to ancient Chinese and Indian philosophers. It is the same language of AND gates, NOT gates, and so on that makes up the circuitry of computer chips. In a very literal sense, a modern CPU is just a very large mathematical expression hundreds of mil- lions of pages written in the language of propositional logic. The second kind of logic, and the one that McCarthy proposed to use for AI, is called first- order logic. B The language of first- order logic is far more expressive than propositional logic, which means that there are things that can be expressed very easily in first- order logic that are painful or impossible to write in propositional logic. For example, the rules of Go take about a page in first- order logic but millions of pages in propositional logic. Similarly, we can easily express knowledge about chess, British citizenship, tax law, buying and selling, moving, painting, cooking, and many other aspects of our commonsense world. In principle, then, the ability to reason with first- order logic gets us a long way towards general- purpose intelligence. In 1930, the bril- liant Austrian logician Kurt Gdel had published his famous complete- ness theorem , 53 proving that there is an algorithm with the following property:54 For any collection of knowledge and any question expressible in first- order logic, the algorithm will tell us the answer to the question if there is one. This is a pretty incredible guarantee. It means, for example, that we can tell the system the rules of Go and it will tell us (if we wait long enough) whether there is an opening move that wins the game. We can tell it facts about local geography, and it will tell us the way to the airport. We can tell it facts about geometry and motion and uten-sils, and it will tell the robot how to lay the table for dinner. More M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 51 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ny collection ny collection logic, thlogic, thforKurt Gurt ving that thving that tDistributionns th order logicder logi logic. For eogic. For e logic but mic but m an easily ean easily e law, buyinw, buyin r aspects ofaspects of lity to reaslity to rea ral-ralpurpourpo dede 52 HUMAN COMPATIBLE generally, given any achievable goal and sufficient knowledge of the effects of its actions, an agent can use the algorithm to construct a plan that it can execute to achieve the goal. It must be said that Gdel did not actually provide an algorithm; he merely proved that one existed. In the early 1960s, real algorithms for logical reasoning began to appear, 55 and McCarthys dream of gen- erally intelligent systems based on logic seemed within reach. The first major mobile robot project in the world, SRIs Shakey project, was based on logical reasoning (see figure 4). Shakey received a goal from its human designers, used vision algorithms to create logical as-sertions describing the current situation, performed logical inference to derive a guaranteed plan to achieve the goal, and then executed the plan. Shakey was living proof that Aristotles analysis of human cog-nition and action was at least partially correct. Unfortunately, Aristotles (and McCarthys) analysis was far from being completely correct. The main problem is ignorancenot, I FIGURE 6KDNH\ WKH URERW FLUFD ,QWKHEDFNJURXQGare some of the objects that 6KDNH\ SXVKHG DURXQG LQ LWVsuite of rooms. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 52 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotid td oved that ed that reasoning breasoning lligent lligent forn agenage ute to achiute to ach hat Gdhat GdDistributionble goal able goal a cancan INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 53 hasten to add, on the part of Aristotle or McCarthy, but on the part of all humans and machines, present and future. Very little of our knowl-e d g e is a b s o l u t el y c ertain . In p arti cul ar , w e d o n t kn o w v ery m u ch about the future. Ignorance is just an insuperable problem for a purely logical system. If I ask, Will I get to the airport on time, if I leave three hours before my flight? or Can I obtain a house by buying a winning lottery ticket and then buying the house with the proceeds? the correct answer will be, in each case, I dont know. The reason is that, for each question, both yes and no are logically possible. As a practical matter, one can never be absolutely certain of any empirical question unless the answer is already known. 56 Fortunately, certainty is completely unnecessary for action: we just need to know which ac-tion is best, not which action is certain to succeed. Uncertainty means that the purpose put into the machine can- not, in general, be a precisely delineated goal, to be achieved at all costs. There is no longer such a thing as a sequence of actions that achieves the goal, because any sequence of actions will have multiple possible outcomes, some of which wont achieve the goal. The likeli-hood of success really matters: leaving for the airport three hours in advance of your flight may mean that you wont miss the flight and buying a lottery ticket may mean that youll win enough to buy a new house, but these are very different mays. Goals cannot be rescued by looking for plans that maximize the probability of achieving the goal. A plan that maximizes the probability of getting to the airport in time to catch a flight might involve leaving home days in advance, organiz-ing an armed escort, lining up many alternative means of transport in case the others break down, and so on. Inevitably, one must take into account the relative desirabilities of different outcomes as well as their likelihoods. Instead of a goal, then, we could use a utility function to describe the desirability of different outcomes or sequences of states. Often, the utility of a sequence of states is expressed as a sum of rewards for each of the states in the sequence. Given a purpose defined by a utility M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 53 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottict hese are vse are v or plans thaor plans th at maxiat maxformatteatt ght ght maymay m myy ket ket maymayDistributionof an rtunately,unately, eed to knoweed to kno ucceed.eed. se put into e put into neated goal,ted goal thing as a hing as a ny sequenceny sequenc fw h i c h wfw h i c h w s: les: le 54 HUMAN COMPATIBLE or reward function, the machine aims to produce behavior that maxi- mizes its expected utility or expected sum of rewards, averaged over the possible outcomes weighted by their probabilities. Modern AI is partly a rebooting of McCarthys dream, except with utilities and probabilities instead of goals and logic. Pierre- Simon Laplace, the great French mathematician, wrote in 1814, The theory of probabilities is just common sense reduced to calculus. 57 It was not until the 1980s, however, that a practical formal language and reasoning algorithms were developed for probabilistic knowledge. This was the language of Bayesian networks , C introduced by Judea Pearl. Roughly speaking, Bayesian networks are the probabi-listic cousins of propositional logic. There are also probabilistic cous- ins of first- order logic, including Bayesian logic 58 and a wide variety of probabilistic programming languages. Bayesian networks and Bayesian logic are named after the Rever- end Thomas Bayes, a British clergyman whose lasting contribution to modern thought now known as Bayes theorem was published in 1763, shortly after his death, by his friend Richard Price.59 In its mod- ern form, as suggested by Laplace, the theorem describes in a very simple way how a prior probability the initial degree of belief one has in a set of possible hypotheses becomes a posterior probability as a result of observing some evidence. As more new evidence arrives, the posterior becomes the new prior and the process of Bayesian up-dating repeats ad infinitum. This process is so fundamental that the m o d e r n i d e a o f r a t i o n a l i t y a s m a x i m i z a t i o n o f e x p e c t e d u t i l i t y i s sometimes called Bayesian rationality . It assumes that a rational agent has access to a posterior probability distribution over possible current states of the world, as well as over hypotheses about the future, based on all its past experience. Researchers in operations research, control theory, and AI have also developed a variety of algorithms for decision making under un- certainty , some dating back to the 1950s. These so- called dynamic programming algorithms are the probabilistic cousins of lookahead 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 54 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotssibs bserving srving s rior becomerior becom eats ad eats adforby Lay L priorriorprprobaboba leehhypotypoDistributionks,C ks are the are the lso probabiso probabi gic588 and a w and a ogic are naic are na yman whosman whos as asBayesBayes by his fri by his fr placeplace INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 55 search and planning and can generate optimal or near- optimal behav- ior for all sorts of practical problems in finance, logistics, transpor-tation, and so on, where uncertainty plays a significant role. C The purpose is put into these machines in the form of a reward function, and the output is a policy that specifies an action for every possible state the agent could get itself into. For complex problems such as backgammon and Go, where the number of states is enormous and the reward comes only at the end of the game, lookahead search wont work. Instead, AI researchers have developed a method called reinforcement learning , or RL for short. RL algorithms learn from direct experience of reward signals in the envi-ronment, much as a baby learns to stand up from the positive reward of being upright and the negative reward of falling over. As with dy-namic programming algorithms, the purpose put into an RL algorithm is the reward function, and the algorithm learns an estimator for the value of states (or sometimes the value of actions). This estimator can b e c o m b i n e d w i t h r e l a t i v e l y m y o p i c l o o k a h e a d s e a r c h t o g e n e r a t e highly competent behavior. The first successful reinforcement learning system was Arthur Samuels checkers program, which created a sensation when it was demonstrated on television in 1956. The program learned essentially from scratch, by playing against itself and observing the rewards of winning and losing. 60 In 1992, Gerry Tesauro applied the same idea to the game of backgammon, achieving world- champion- level play after 1,500,000 games.61 Beginning in 2016, DeepMinds AlphaGo and its descendants used reinforcement learning and self- play to defeat the best human players at Go, chess, and shogi. Reinforcement learning algorithms can also learn how to select actions based on raw perceptual input. For example, DeepMinds DQN system learned to play forty- nine different Atari video games entirely from scratch including Pong, Freeway, and Space Invaders.62 It used only the screen pixels as input and the game score as a reward signal. In most of the games, DQN learned to play better than a M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 55 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotn tn h, by playby play and losing.and losing6 of backof bacforul reinrei program, wprogram, elevisionlevisionDistributionRL fo d signals inignals in om the posm the pos of falling ovlling ov pose put inpose put in rithm learnhm learn value of acalue of ac myopic lomyopic orceorce 56 HUMAN COMPATIBLE professional human player despite the fact that DQN has no a priori notion of time, space, objects, motion, velocity, or shooting. It is quite hard to work out what DQN is actually doing, besides winning. If a newborn baby learned to play dozens of video games at super- human levels on its first day of life, or became world champion at Go, chess, and shogi, we might suspect demonic possession or alien inter-vention. Remember, however, that all these tasks are much simpler than the real world: they are fully observable, they involve short time horizons, and they have relatively small state spaces and simple, pre-dictable rules. Relaxing any of these conditions means that the stan-dard methods will fail. Current research, on the other hand, is aimed precisely at going beyond standard methods so that AI systems can operate in larger classes of environments. On the day I wrote the preceding paragraph, for example, OpenAI announced that its team of five AI programs had learned to beat experienced human teams at the game Dota 2. (For the uninitiated, who include me: Dota 2 is an updated version of Defense of the Ancients , a real- time strategy game in the Warcraft fam- ily; it is currently the most lucrative and competitive e- sport, with prizes in the millions of dollars.) Dota 2 involves communication, teamwork, and quasi- continuous time and space. Games last for tens of thousands of time steps, and some degree of hierarchical organiza- tion of behavior seems to be essential. Bill Gates described the an- nouncement as a huge milestone in advancing artificial intelligence. 63 A few months later, an updated version of the program defeated the worlds top professional Dota 2 team. 64 Games such as Go and Dota 2 are a good testing ground for rein- forcement learning methods because the reward function comes with the rules of the game. The real world is less convenient, however, and there have been dozens of cases in which faulty definitions of rewards led to weird and unanticipated behaviors. 65 Some are innocuous, like the simulated evolution system that was supposed to evolve fast- moving creatures but in fact produced creatures that were enormously 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 56 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotuau of time sttime st havior seemavior see nt as a nt as aformost lost ons of dollans of dol i-ccontinontinDistributions tha med preciseed precise ms can opcan op ote the preote the pre at its teamits team human teauman tea ude me: Doude me: D --ttime straime stra cratcrat INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 57 tall and moved fast by falling over.66 Others are less innocuous, like the social- media click- through optimizers that seem to be making a fine mess of our world. The final category of agent program I will consider is the simplest: programs that connect perception directly to action, without any intermediate deliberation or reasoning. In AI, we call this kind of pro- gram a reflex agent a reference to the low- level neural reflexes ex- hibited by humans and animals, which are not mediated by thought.67 For example, the human blinking reflex connects the outputs of low- level processing circuits in the visual system directly to the motor area that controls the eyelids, so that any rapidly looming region in the vi- sual field causes a hard blink. You can test it now by trying (not too hard) to poke yourself in the eye with your finger. We can think of this reflex system as a simple rule of the following form: if <rapidly looming region in visual field > then < blink>. The blinking reflex does not know what its doing: the objective (of shielding the eyeball from foreign objects) is nowhere represented; the knowledge (that a rapidly looming region corresponds to an object approaching the eye, and that an object approaching the eye might damage it) is nowhere represented. Thus, when the non- reflex part of you wants to put in eye drops, the reflex part still blinks. Another familiar reflex is emergency braking when the car in front stops unexpectedly or a pedestrian steps into the road. Quickly deciding whether braking is required is not easy: when a test vehicle in a u t o n o m o us m o d e kill e d a p e d e stri an in 2 0 1 8 , Ub e r ex p l ain e d th a t emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle be- havior. 68 Here, the human designers objective is clear dont kill pedestrians but the agents policy (had it been activated) implements it incorrectly. Again, the objective is not represented in the agent: no autonomous vehicle today knows that people dont like to be killed. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 57 8/7/19 11:21 PMNote e s nowhereowhere ts to put in ts to put in her famher famforll fromfro t a rapidly lt a rapidly ye, and e, and Distributiono the ing region g region now by trynow by try ur finger. Winger. W he followinhe followin in visual fieldvisual fie s not knos not kn forefore 58 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Reflex actions also play a role in more routine tasks such as staying in lane: as the car drifts ever so slightly out of the ideal lane position, a simple feedback control system can nudge the steering wheel in the opposite direction to correct the drift. The size of the nudge would depend on how far the car drifted. These kinds of control systems are usually designed to minimize the square of the tracking error added up over time. The designer derives a feedback control law that, under certain assumptions about speed and road curvature, approximately implements this minimization. 69 A similar system is operating all the time while you are standing up; if it were to stop working, youd fall over within a few seconds. As with the blinking reflex, its quite hard to turn this mechanism off and allow yourself to fall over. Reflex agents, then, implement a designers objective, but do not know what the objective is or why they are acting in a certain way. This means they cannot really make decisions for themselves; some-one else, typically the human designer or perhaps the process of bio-logical evolution, has to decide everything in advance. It is very hard to create a good reflex agent by manual programming except for very simple tasks such as tic- tac- toe or emergency braking. Even in those cases, the reflex agent is extremely inflexible and cannot change its behavior when circumstances indicate that the implemented policy is no longer appropriate. One possible way to create more powerful reflex agents is through a process of learning from examples. D Rather than specifying a rule for how to behave, or supplying a reward function or a goal, a human can supply examples of decision problems along with the correct deci- sion to make in each case. For example, we can create a French- to- English translation agent by supplying examples of French sentences along with the correct English translations. (Fortunately, the Cana- dian and EU parliaments generate millions of such examples every year.) Then a supervised learning algorithm processes the examples to produce a complex rule that takes any French sentence as input 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 58 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ircurc ropriate.priate. ossible wayossible way of learnof learn hhfortac-c-t ent is extrent is extr mstancmstancDistributionkingg flex, its qux, its qu o fall over.o fall over ers objectiobject are acting are acting decisions fecisions f igner or perner or pe e everythine everythi by manuaby manu eo reo r INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 59 and produces an English translation. The current champion learning algorithm for machine translation is a form of so- called deep learning, and it produces a rule in the form of an artificial neural network with hundreds of layers and millions of parameters.D Other deep learning algorithms have turned out to be very good at classifying the objects in images and recognizing the words in a speech signal. Machine trans-lation, speech recognition, and visual object recognition are three of the most important subfields in AI, which is why there has been so much excitement about the prospects for deep learning. One can argue almost endlessly about whether deep learning will lead directly to human- level AI. My own view, which I will explain later, is that it falls far short of what is needed, D but for now lets focus on how such methods fit into the standard model of AI, where an al-gorithm optimizes a fixed objective. For deep learning, or indeed for any supervised learning algorithm, the purpose put into the machine is usually to maximize predictive accuracy or, equivalently, to min- imize error. That much seems obvious, but there are actually two ways to understand it, depending on the role that the learned rule is going to play in the overall system. The first role is a purely perceptual role: the network processes the sensory input and provides informa-tion to the rest of the system in the form of probability estimates for what its perceiving. If its an object recognition algorithm, maybe it says 70 percent probability its a Norfolk terrier, 30 percent its a Nor- wich terrier. 70 The rest of the system decides on an external action to tak e b ased o n this inf o rm a ti o n . This p ur el y p er c ep tual o b j ecti v e is unproblematic in the following sense: even a safe superintelligent AI system, as opposed to an unsafe one based on the standard model, needs to have its perception system as accurate and well calibrated as possible. The problem comes when we move from a purely perceptual role to a decision- making role. For example, a trained network for recog- nizing objects might automatically generate labels for images on a M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 59 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotof of rceiving. Ieiving. percent propercent pro ier.ier.7070TTforerall syll s processes throcesses t he systehe syste fDistributioneep lp which I wiich I wi but for nowbut for no model of Adel of A r deep learr deep lear he purposepurpose eaccuracyccuracy ms obviousms obviou ending onending on temtem 60 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Web site or social- media account. Posting those labels is an action with consequences. Each labeling action requires an actual classifica- tion decision, and unless every decision is guaranteed to be perfect, the human designer must supply a loss function that spells out the cost of misclassifying an object of type A as an object of type B. And thats how Google had an unfortunate problem with gorillas. In 2015, a soft-ware engineer named Jacky Alcin complained on Twitter that the Google Photos image- labeling service had labeled him and his friend as gorillas. 71 While it is unclear how exactly this error occurred, it is almost certain that Googles machine learning algorithm was designed to minimize a fix ed, definite loss function moreover, one that as- signed equal cost to any error. In other words, it assumed that the cost of misclassifying a person as a gorilla was the same as the cost of mis-classifying a Norfolk terrier as a Norwich terrier. Clearly, this is not Googles (or their users) true loss function, as was illustrated by the public relations disaster that ensued. Since there are thousands of possible image labels, there are mil- lions of potentially distinct costs associated with misclassifying one category as another. Even if it had tried, Google would have found it very difficult to specify all these numbers up front. Instead, the right thing to do would be to acknowledge the uncertainty about the true misclassification costs and to design a learning and classification algo-rithm that was suitably sensitive to costs and uncertainty about costs. Such an algorithm might occasionally ask the Google designer ques-tions such as Which is worse, misclassifying a dog as a cat or misclas-sifying a person as an animal? In addition, if there is significant uncertainty about misclassification costs, the algorithm might well refuse to label some images. By early 2018, it was reported that Google Photos does refuse to classify a photo of a gorilla. Given a very clear image of a gorilla with two babies, it says, Hmm . . . not seeing this clearly yet. 72 I dont wish to suggest that AIs adoption of the standard model was a poor choice at the time. A great deal of brilliant work has gone 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 60 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotld bd ion costs n costs t was suitabt was suita lgorithmlgorithmforen if itif cify all thescify all the e to acke to ackDistributionm wa eover, onever, one assumed thassumed th e same as thme as t ch terrier. Ch terrier. C nction, as wtion, as ed. of possible of possibl costs assocosts ass hadhad INTELLIGENCE IN HUMANS AND MACHINES 61 into developing the various instantiations of the model in logical, probabilistic, and learning systems. Many of the resulting systems are very useful; as we will see in the next chapter, there is much more to come. On the other hand, we cannot continue to rely on our usual practice of ironing out the major errors in an objective function by trial and error: machines of increasing intelligence and increasingly global impact will not allow us that luxury. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 61 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution 3 HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? The Near Future On May 3, 1997, a chess match began between Deep Blue, a chess computer built by IBM, and Garry Kasparov, the world chess cham-pion and possibly the best human player in history. Newsweek billed the match as The Brains Last Stand. On May 11, with the match tied at 2 2, Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in the final game. The media went berserk. The market capitalization of IBM increased by $18 billion overnight. AI had, by all accounts, achieved a massive breakthrough. From the point of view of AI research, the match represented no breakthrough at all. Deep Blues victory, impressive as it was, merely continued a trend that had been visible for decades. The basic design for chess- playing algorithms was laid out in 1950 by Claude Shannon, 1 with major improvements in the early 1960s. After that, the chess ratings of the best programs improved steadily, mainly as a result of faster computers that allowed programs to look further ahead. In 1994, 2 Peter Norvig and I charted the numerical ratings of the best 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 62 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothe he , Deep BDeep nt berserk. nt berserk n overnn overnfor, and nd he best hume best hu Brains LBrains L lDistribution? atch begaatch bega GarryGarry HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 63 chess programs from 1965 onwards, on a scale where Kasparovs rat- ing was 2805. The ratings started at 1400 in 1965 and improved in an almost perfect straight line for thirty years. Extrapolating the line for-ward from 1994 predicts that computers would be able to defeat Kasparov in 1997 exactly when it happened. For AI researchers, then, the real breakthroughs happened thirty or forty years before Deep Blue burst into the publics consciousness. Similarly, deep convolutional networks existed, with all the mathe-matics fully worked out, more than twenty years before they began to create headlines. The view of AI breakthroughs that the public gets from the media stunning victories over humans, robots becoming citizens of Saudi Arabia, and so on bears very little relation to what really hap- pens in the worlds research labs. Inside the lab, research involves a lot of thinking and talking and writing mathematical formulas on white-boards. Ideas are constantly being generated, abandoned, and redis- covered. A good idea a real breakthrough will often go unnoticed at the time and may only later be understood as having provided the basis for a substantial advance in AI, perhaps when someone reinvents it at a more convenient time. Ideas are tried out, initially on simple problems to show that the basic intuitions are correct and then on harder problems to see how well they scale up. Often, an idea will fail by itself to provide a substantial improvement in capabilities, and it has to wait for another idea to come along so that the combination of the two can demonstrate value. All this activity is completely invisible from the outside. In the world beyond the lab, AI becomes visible only when the gradual accu-mulation of ideas and the evidence for their validity crosses a thresh-old: the point where it becomes worthwhile to invest money and engineering effort to create a new commercial product or an impres-sive demonstration. Then the media announce that a breakthrough has occurred. One can expect, then, that many other ideas that have been M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 63 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotow ow ems to sems to se to provide to provide ait for anait for a ddforadvancvan nient time.nient time that thethat theDistributionblic gets ic gets ts becomins becomin elation to wtion to the lab, resthe lab, res mathematicathemati ng generategenerate breakthroureakthro ater be unater be un in Ain A 64 HUMAN COMPATIBLE gestating in the worlds research labs will cross the threshold of com- mercial applicability over the next few years. This will happen more and more frequently as the rate of commercial investment increases and as the world becomes more and more receptive to applications of AI. This chapter provides a sampling of what we can see coming down the pipe. Along the way, Ill mention some of the drawbacks of these tech- nological advances. You will probably be able to think of many more, but dont worry. Ill get to those in the next chapter. The AI ecosystem In the beginning, the environment in which most computers oper- ated was essentially formless and void: their only input came from punched cards and their only method of output was to print charac-ters on a line printer. Perhaps for this reason, most researchers viewed intelligent machines as question- answerers; the view of machines as agents perceiving and acting in an environment did not become wide- spread until the 1980s. The advent of the World Wide Web in the 1990s opened up a whole new universe for intelligent machines to play in. A new word, softbot , was coined to describe software robots that operate entirely in a software environment such as the Web. Softbots, or bots as they later became known, perceive Web pages and act by emitting se-quences of characters, URLs, and so on. AI companies mushroomed during the dot- com boom ( 1997 2000), providing core capabilities for search and e- commerce, including link analysis, recommendation systems, reputation systems, compari- son shopping, and product categorization. In the early 2000s, the widespread adoption of mobile phones with microphones, cameras, accelerometers, and GPS provided new access for AI systems to peoples daily lives; smart speakers such as 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 64 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotersers oined to dned to d are environare enviro me knome knoforhe World Whe World for intefor inteDistributionich most comost co their only their only d of outputof outpu his reason, s reason, on-aanswerenswer in an enviin an env HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 65 the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod have com- pleted this process. By around 2008, the number of objects connected to the Internet exceeded the number of people connected to the Internet a transi- tion that some point to as the beginning of the Internet of Things (IoT). Those things include cars, home appliances, traffic lights, vend-ing machines, thermostats, quadcopters, cameras, environmental sen- sors, robots, and all kinds of material goods both in the manufacturing process and in the distribution and retail system. This provides AI systems with far greater sensory and control access to the real world. Finally, improvements in perception have allowed AI- powered robots to move out of the factory , where they relied on rigidly con- strained arrangements of objects, and into the real, unstructured, messy world, where their cameras have something interesting to look at. Self- driving cars In the late 1950s, John McCarthy imagined that an automated vehicle might one day take him to the airport. In 1987, Ernst Dick- manns demonstrated a self- driving Mercedes van on the autobahn in Germany; it was capable of staying in lane, following another car, changing lanes, and overtaking.3 More than thirty years later, we still dont have a fully autonomous car, but its getting much closer. The focus of development has long since moved from academic re- search labs to large corporations. As of 2019, the best- performing test vehicles have logged millions of miles of driving on public roads (and billions of miles in driving simulators) without serious incident. 4 Un- fortunately, other autonomous and semi- autonomous vehicles have killed several people.5 Why has it taken so long to achieve safe autonomous driving? The first reason is that the performance requirements are exacting. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 65 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotratr t was capwas cap lanes, andlanes, an t have at have ffforJohn ohn day take hiday take h ed a d a sselfelf bDistributionthe lowed AIwed AI y relied on relied on to the real,he real ave somethve someth McCMcC 66 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Human drivers in the United States suffer roughly one fatal accident per one hundred million miles traveled, which sets a high bar. Auton-omous vehicles, to be accepted, will need to be much better than that: perhaps one fatal accident per billion miles, or twenty- five thousand years of driving forty hours per week. The second reason is that one anticipated workaround handing control to the human when the ve- hicle is confused or out of its safe operating conditions simply doesnt work. When the car is driving itself, humans quickly become disen- gaged from the immediate driving circumstances and cannot regain context quickly enough to take over safely. Moreover, nondrivers and taxi passengers who are in the back seat are in no position to drive the car if something goes wrong. Current projects are aiming at SAE Level 4 autonomy, 6 which means that the vehicle must at all times be capable of driving autono-mously or stopping safely, subject to geographical limits and weather conditions. Because weather and traffic conditions can change, and because unusual circumstances can arise that a Level 4 vehicle cannot handle, a human has to be in the vehicle and ready to take over if needed. (Level 5 unrestricted autonomy does not require a human driver but is even more difficult to achieve.) Level 4 autonomy goes far beyond the simple, reflex tasks of following white lines and avoiding obstacles. The vehicle has to assess the intent and probable future trajectories of all relevant objects, including objects that may not be visible, based on both current and past observations. Then, using look- ahead search, the vehicle has to find a trajectory that optimizes some combination of safety and progress. Some projects are trying more direct approaches based on reinforcement learning (mainly in simula-tion, of course) and supervised learning from recordings of hundreds of human drivers, but these approaches seem unlikely to reach the required level of safety. The potential benefits of fully autonomous vehicles are immense. Every year, 1.2 million people die in car accidents worldwide and tens of millions suffer serious injuries. A reasonable target for autonomous 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 66 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotle, e e vehiclevehicle es of all relees of all re sed on bsed on bforstrictict ore difficultre difficu reflex taeflex ta hDistributionnond osition to dition to d evel 4 auto 4 aut be capable oe capable geographicographic traffic conaffic con can arise tcan arise in the vein the ve ddaauu HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 67 vehicles would be to reduce these numbers by a factor of ten. Some analyses also predict a vast reduction in transportation costs, parking structures, congestion, and pollution. Cities will shift from personal cars and large buses to ubiquitous shared- ride, autonomous electric vehicles, providing door- to- door service and feeding high- speed mass- transit connections between hubs. 7 With costs as low as three cents per passenger mile, most cities would probably opt to provide the ser- vice for free w h i l e s u b j e c t i n g r i d e r s t o i n t e r m i n a b l e b a r r a g e s o f advertising. Of course, to reap all these benefits, the industry has to pay atten- tion to the risks. If there are too many deaths attributed to poorly designed experimental vehicles, regulators may halt planned deploy-ments or impose extremely stringent standards that might be un-reachable for decades. 8 And people might, of course, decide not to buy or ride in autonomous vehicles unless they are demonstrably safe. A 2018 poll revealed a significant decline in consumers level of trust in autonomous vehicle technology compared to 2016. 9 Even if the tech- nology is successful, the transition to widespread autonomy will be an awkward one: human driving skills may atrophy or disappear, and the reckless and antisocial act of driving a car oneself may be banned altogether. Intelligent personal assistants Most readers will by now have experienced the unintelligent per- sonal assistant: the smart speaker that obeys purchase commands overheard on the television, or the cell phone chatbot that responds to Call me an ambulance! with OK, from now on Ill call you Ann Am- bulance . Such systems are essentially voice- mediated interfaces to applications and search engines; they are based largely on canned stimulus response templates, an approach that dates back to the Eliza system in the mid- 1960s. 10 These early systems have shortcomings of three kinds: access, M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 67 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot lligent plligent p ddforan drivdr tisocial acttisocial acDistributionhas t ttributed ributed ay halt plany halt plan ndards thatrds tha ht, of courset, of course ess they arethey are decline in coline in co gy comparegy compa ansition tansition ing sing 68 HUMAN COMPATIBLE content, and context. Access shortcomings mean that they lack sensory awareness of whats going onfor example, they might be able to hear what the user is saying but they cant see who the user is talking to. Content shortcomings m e a n t h a t t h e y s i m p l y f a i l t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e meaning of what the user is saying or texting, even if they have access to it. Context shortcomings mean that they lack the ability to keep track of and reason about the goals, activities, and relationships that consti-tute daily life. Despite these shortcomings, smart speakers and cell phone assis- tants offer just enough value to the user to have entered the homes and pockets of hundreds of millions of people. They are, in a sense, Trojan horses for AI. Because they are there, embedded in so many lives, every tiny improvement in their capabilities is worth billions of dollars. And so, improvements are coming thick and fast. Probably the most important is the elementary capacity to understand content to know that Johns in the hospital is not just a prompt to say I hope its nothing serious but contains actual information that the users eight- year- old son is in a nearby hospital and may have a serious injury or illness. The ability to access email and text communications as well as phone calls and domestic conversations (through the smart speaker in the house) would give AI systems enough information to build a reasonably complete picture of the users life perhaps even more information than might have been available to the butler working for a nineteenth- century aristocratic family or the executive assistant working for a modern- day CEO. Raw information, of course, is not enough. To be really useful, an assistant also needs commonsense knowledge of how the world works: that a child in the hospital is not simultaneously at home; that hospital care for a broken arm seldom lasts for more than a day or two; that the childs school will need to know of the expected absence; and so on. Such knowledge allows the assistant to keep track of things it does not observe directly an essential skill for intelligent systems. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 68 8/7/19 11:21 PMd dd d would gwould g y complete y complete on thanon thanforrby hoy h to access emo access e omestic omesticDistributionered hey are, iny are, in embedded imbedded i ilities is woes is w ng thick anthick a capacity topacity to al is not jual is not j actual inactual in pitapita HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 69 The capabilities described in the preceding paragraph are, I be- lieve, feasible with existing technology for probabilistic reasoning,C but this would require a very substantial effort to construct models of all the kinds of events and transactions that make up our daily lives. Up to now, these kinds of commonsense modeling projects have gen-erally not been undertaken (except possibly in classified systems for intelligence analysis and military planning) because of the costs in-volved and the uncertain payoff. Now, however, projects like this could easily reach hundreds of millions of users, so the investment risks are lower and the potential rewards are much higher. Further-more, access to large numbers of users allows the intelligent assistant to learn very quickly and fill in all the gaps in its knowledge. Thus, one can expect to see intelligent assistants that will, for pen- nies a month, help users with managing an increasingly large range of daily activities: calendars, travel, household purchases, bill payment, childrens homework, email and call screening, reminders, meal plan- ning, and one can but dream finding my keys. These skills will not b e s c a tt e r e d a c r o s s m u l ti p l e a p p s . I n s t e a d , th e y w i l l b e f a c e ts o f a single, integrated agent that can take advantage of the synergies avail-able in what military people call the common operational picture . The general design template for an intelligent assistant involves background knowledge about human activities, the ability to extract information from streams of perceptual and textual data, and a learn-ing process to adapt the assistant to the users particular circum-stances. The same general template can be applied to at least three other major areas: health, education, and finances. For these applica-tions, the system needs to keep track of the state of the users body, mind, and bank account (broadly construed). As with assistants for daily life, the up- front cost of creating the necessary general knowl- edge in each of these three areas amortizes across billions of users. In the case of health, for example, we all have roughly the same physiology, and detailed knowledge of how it works has already been encoded in machine- readable form. 11 Systems will adapt to your M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 69 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotded knowledgnowledg ion from stion from s ess to aess to afort that hat ry people cry people sign temign temDistributionhighg intelligenttelligent its knowledts knowled ssistants thtants th g an increasan increas usehold puehold pu call screenill screeni mffinding indinfff le apps. Ile apps. I an taan t 70 HUMAN COMPATIBLE individual characteristics and lifestyle, providing preventive sugges- tions and early warning of problems. In the area of education, the promise of intelligent tutoring sys- tems was recognized even in the 1960s,12 but real progress has been a long time coming. The primary reasons are shortcomings of content and access: most tutoring systems dont understand the content of what they purport to teach, nor can they engage in two- way commu- nication with their pupils through speech or text. (I imagine myself teaching string theory, which I dont understand, in Laotian, which I dont speak.) Recent progress in speech recognition means that auto-mated tutors can, at last, communicate with pupils who are not yet fully literate. Moreover, probabilistic reasoning technology can now keep track of what students know and dont know 13 and can optimize the delivery of instruction to maximize learning. The Global Learning XPRIZE competition, which started in 2014, offered $15 million for open- source, scalable software that will enable children in develop- ing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithme-tic within 15 months. Results from the winners, Kitkit School and onebillion, suggest that the goal has largely been achieved. In the area of personal finance, systems will keep track of invest- ments, income streams, obligatory and discretionary expenditures, debt, interest payments, emergency reserves, and so on, in much the same way that financial analysts keep track of the finances and pros-pects of corporations. Integration with the agent that handles daily life will provide an even finer- grained understanding, perhaps even ensur- ing that the children get their pocket money minus any mischief- related deductions. One can expect to receive the quality of day- to- day financial advice previously reserved for the ultra- rich. If your privacy alarm bells werent ringing as you read the preced- ing paragraphs, you havent been keeping up with the news. There are, however, multiple layers to the privacy story. First, can a personal assistant really be useful if it knows nothing about you? Probably not. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 70 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottretr paymentayment that financthat finan orporatiorporatiforthe goe g rsonal finarsonal fin ams, obms, obDistributioneans ls who arewho are g technologtechnolog knowow1313 and an earning. Tharning. Th in 2014, of2014, o hat will enat will ena ves basic reves basic r ults from tults from lh alh a HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 71 Second, can personal assistan ts be really useful if they cannot pool information from multiple users to learn more about people in general and people who are similar to you? Probably not. So, dont those two things imply that we have to give up our privacy to benefit from AI in our daily lives? No. The reason is that learning algorithms can operate on encrypted data using the techniques of secure multiparty computa- tion, so that users can benefit from pooling without compromising privacy in any way. 14 Will software providers adopt privacy- preserving technology voluntarily, without legislative encouragement? That re- mains to be seen. What seems inevitable, however, is that users will trust a personal assistant only if its primary obligation is to the user rather than to the corporation that produced it. Smart homes and domestic robots The smart home concept has been investigated for several decades. In 1966, James Sutherland, an engineer at Westinghouse, started col- lecting surplus computer parts to build ECHO, the first smart- home controller.15 Unfortunately, ECHO weighed eight hundred pounds, con- sumed 3.5 kilowatts, and managed just three digital clocks and the TV antenna. Subsequent systems required users to master control interfaces of mind- boggling complexity. Unsurprisingly, they never caught on. Beginning in the 1990s, several ambitious projects attempted to design houses that managed themselves with minimal human interven-tion, using machine learning to adapt to the lifestyles of the occupants. To make these experiments meaningful, real people had to live in the houses. Unfortunately, the frequency of erroneous decisions made the systems worse than useless the occupants quality of life decreased rather than increased. For example, inhabitants of the 2003 MavHome project 16 at Washington State University often had to sit in the dark if their visitors stayed later than the usual bedtime.17 As with the unintel- ligent personal assistant, such failings result from inadequate sensory M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 71 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotuenu gling comng com ning in thening in th uses thauses thfortely, ECy, E s, and manas, and man nt systemt system lDistributions tha gation is toion is to t. robotsobots been investen invest n engineer n enginee arts to buarts to bu HOHO 72 HUMAN COMPATIBLE access to the activities of the occupants and the inability to understand and keep track of whats happening in the house. A truly smart home equipped with cameras and microphones and the requisite perceptual and reasoning abilities can understand what the occupants are doing: visiting, eating, sleeping, watching TV, reading, exercising, getting ready for a long trip, or lying helpless on the floor after a fall. By coordinating with the intelligent personal as-sistant, the home can have a pretty good idea of who will be in or out of the house at what time, whos eating where, and so on. This under- standing allows it to manage heating, lighting, window blinds, and security systems, to send timely reminders, and to alert users or emer-gency services when a problem arises. Some newly built apartment complexes in the United States and Japan are already incorporating technology of this kind. 18 The value of the smart home is limited because of its actuators: much simpler systems (timed thermostats and motion- sensitive lights and burglar alarms) can deliver a lot of the same functionality in ways that are perhaps more predictable, if less context sensitive. The smart home cannot fold the laundry, clear the dishes, or pick up the news-paper. It really wants a physical robot to do its bidding. FIGURE OHIW %5(77IROGLQJWRZHOV ULJKW WKH%RVWRQ'\QDPLFV6SR W0LQL URERWRSHQLQJDGRRU 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 72 8/7/19 11:21 PMt foraundryndr s a physicals a physica Distributionow b alert users rt users newly built ewly built are alreadyalready imited becited bec rmostats anmostats an r a lot of ther a lot of t ctable, if lectable, if l cleaclea HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 73 It may not have too long to wait. Already, robots have demon- strated many of the required skills. In the Berkeley lab of my colleague Pieter Abbeel, BRETT (the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks) has been folding piles of towels since 2011, while the SpotMini robot from Boston Dynamics can climb stairs and open doors (figure 5). Several companies are already building cooking robots, although they require special, enclosed setups and pre- cut ingredients and wont work in an ordinary kitchen. 19 Of the three basic physical capabilities required for a useful do- mestic robot perception, mobility, and dexterity the latter is most problematic. As Stefanie Tellex, a robotics professor at Brown Univer- sity, puts it, Most robots cant pick up most objects most of the time. This is partly a problem of tactile sensing, partly a manufacturing problem (dexterous hands are currently very expensive to build), and partly an algorithmic problem: we dont yet have a good understand-ing of how to combine sensing and control to grasp and manipulate the huge variety of objects in a typical household. There are dozens of grasp types just for rigid objects and there are thousands of distinct manipulation skills, such as shaking exactly two pills out of a bottle, peeling the label off a jam jar, spreading hard butter on soft bread, or lifting one strand of spaghetti from the pot with a fork to see if its ready. It seems likely that the tactile sensing and hand construction prob- lems will be solved by 3D printing, which is already being used by Boston Dynamics for some of the more complex parts of their Atlas humanoid robot. Robot manipulation skills are advancing rapidly, thanks in part to deep reinforcement learning. 20 The final push putting all this together into something that begins to approximate the awesome physical skills of movie robots is likely to come from the rather unromantic warehouse industry. Just one company, Amazon, employs several hundred thousand people who pick products out o f bins in gian t w areh ouses an d disp a tch th em to custom ers. F ro m 2015 through 2017 Amazon ran an annual Picking Challenge to M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 73 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot tranr ms likely thms likely t l be solvl be solforuch as as ff a jam jaff a jam j nd of spd of spDistributionhe l or at Browat Brow jects most oects most g, partly a partly a very expenvery expen dont yet hant yet ha and controld control a typical hoa typical h bjects andbjects and hakihaki 74 HUMAN COMPATIBLE accelerate the development of robots capable of doing this task.21 There is still some distance to go, but when the core research problems are solved probably within a decade one can expect a very rapid rollout of highly capable robots. Initially they will work in warehouses, then in other commercial applications such as agriculture and construction, where the range of tasks and objects is fairly predictable. We might also see them quite soon in the retail sector doing tasks such as stocking supermarket shelves and refolding clothes. The first to really benefit from robots in the home will be the el- derly and infirm, for whom a helpful robot can provide a degree of independence that would otherwise be impossible. Even if the robot has a limited repertoire of tasks and only rudimentary comprehension of whats going on, it can still be very useful. On the other hand, the robot butler, managing the household with aplomb and anticipating its masters every wish, is still some way off it requires something ap- proaching the generality of human- level AI. Intelligence on a global scale The development of basic capabilities for understanding speech and text will allow intelligent personal assistants to do things that human assistants can already do (but they will be doing it for pennies per month instead of thousands of dollars per month). Basic speech and text understanding also enable machines to do things that no hu- man can do not because of the depth of understanding but because of its scale. For example, a machine with basic reading capabilities will be able to read everything the human race has ever written by lunch- time, and then it will be looking around for something else to do. 22 With speech recognition capabilities, it could listen to every radio and television broadcast before teatime. For comparison, it would take two hundred thousand full- ti m e h um a n s j u s t t o k e e p u p w i th th e worlds current level of print publication (let alone all the written 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 74 8/7/19 11:21 PMowow ants can ats can a h instead oh instead o nderstanderstaforglo nt of basic t of basic intelligintelligDistributionide a . Even if tEven if t entary comntary com l. On the on the o h aplomb ah aplomb a yoffffiit ret re n-level AI.vel AI bal scabal sc HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 75 material from the past) and another sixty thousand to listen to current broadcasts.23 Such a system, if it could extract even simple factual assertions and integrate all this information across all languages, would represent an incredible resource for answering questions and revealing patterns probably far more powerful than search engines, which are currently valued at around $1 trillion. Its research value for fields such as history and sociology would be inestimable. Of course, it would also be possible to listen to all the worlds phone calls (a job that would require about twenty million people). There are certain clandestine agencies that would find this valuable. Some of them have been doing simple kinds of large- scale machine listening, such as spotting key words in conversations, for many years, and have now made the transition to transcribing entire conversations into searchable text. 24 Transcriptions are certainly useful, but not nearly as useful as simultaneous understanding and content integra-tion of all conversations. Another superpower that is available to machines is to see the en- tire world at once . Roughly speaking, satellites image the entire world every day at an average resolution of around fifty centimeters per pixel. At this resolution, every house, ship, car, cow, and tree on Earth is visible. Well over thirty million full- time employees would be needed to examine all these images; 25 so, at present, no human ever sees the vast majority of satellite data. Computer vision algorithms could pro-cess all this data to produce a searchable database of the whole world, updated daily, as well as visualizations and predictive models of eco-nomic activities, changes in vegetation, migrations of animals and peo-ple, the effects of climate change, and so on. Satellite companies such as Planet and DigitalGlobe are busy making this idea a reality. With the possibility of sensing on a global scale comes the possi- bility of decision making on a global scale. For example, from global s a t e l l i t e d a t a f e e d s , i t s h o u l d b e p o s s i b l e t o c r e a t e d e t a i l e d m o d e l s M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 75 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoton,on over thirver thir ne all thesene all thes ority of ority of ddforghly sply age resolutiage resolu every hevery hDistributionmill d find thisfind this of of lalarge-rge-ssca versations, sations, nscribing enscribing e ns are certare cer understannderstan hat is avaihat is ava eakieaki 76 HUMAN COMPATIBLE for managing the global environment, predicting the effects of environ- mental and economic interventions, and providing the necessary ana-lytical inputs to the UNs sustainable development goals. 26 We are already seeing smart city control systems that aim to optimize traffic management, transit, trash collection, road repairs, environmental maintenance, and other functions for the benefit of citizens, and these may be extended to the country level. Until recently, this degree of coordination could be achieved only by huge, inefficient, bureaucratic hierarchies of humans; inevitably, these will be replaced by mega- agents that take care of more and more aspects of our collective lives. Along with this, of course, comes the possibility of privacy invasion and social control on a global scale, to which I return in the next chapter. When Will Superintelligent AI Arrive? I am often asked to predict when superintelligent AI will arrive, and I usually refuse to answer. There are three reasons for this. First, there is a long history of such predictions going wrong. 27 For example, in 1960, the AI pioneer and Nobel Prize winning economist Herbert Simon wrote, Technologically . . . machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do. 28 In 1967, Marvin Min- sky, a co- organizer of the 1956 Dartmouth workshop that started the field of AI, wrote, Within a generation, I am convinced, few compart-ments of intellect will remain outside the machines realm the prob- lem of creating artificial intelligence will be substantially solved. 29 A second reason for declining to provide a date for superintelligent AI is that there is no clear threshold that will be crossed. Machines already exceed human capabilities in some areas. Those areas will broaden and deepen, and it is likely that there will be superhuman general knowledge systems, superhuman biomedical research systems, superhuman dexterous and agile robots, superhuman corporate plan-n i n g s y s t e m s , a n d s o o n w e l l b e f o r e w e h a v e a c o m p l e t e l y g e n e r a l 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 76 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotechec of doing afd o i n g rganizer ofrganizer o , wrote,, wrote llforh predpre er and Nober and No nologicanologicaDistributioncolle rivacy invavacy inva n in the nexin the nex ent AI Arnt AI A en superinten superi ere are there are th ctioctio HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 77 superintelligent AI system. These partially superintelligent systems will, individually and collectively, begin to pose many of the same is-sues that a generally intelligent system would. A third reason for not predicting the arrival of superintelligent AI is th a t i t is inh eren tl y un p redi cta b l e . I t req uires c o n c ep tual b re ak -throughs, as noted by John McCarthy in a 1977 interview. 30 McCar- thy went on to say, What you want is 1.7 Einsteins and 0.3 of the Manhattan Project, and you want the Einsteins first. I believe itll take five to 500 years. In the next section Ill explain what some of the conceptual breakthroughs are likely to be. Just how unpredictable are they? Probably as unpredictable as Szilards invention of the nu-clear chain reaction a few hours after Rutherfords declaration that it was completely impossible. Once, at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in 2015, I answered the question of when we might see superintelligent AI. The meeting was under Chatham House rules, which means that no re- marks may be attributed to anyone present at the meeting. Even so, out of an excess of caution, I prefaced my answer with Strictly off the record. . . . I suggested that, barring intervening catastrophes, it would probably happen in the lifetime of my children who were still quite young and would probably have much longer lives, thanks to advances in medical science, than many of those at the meeting. Less than two hours later, an article appeared in the Daily Telegraph citing Professor Russells remarks, complete with images of rampaging Terminator robots. The headline was SOCIOPATHIC ROBOTS COULD OVERRUN THE HUMAN RACE WITHIN A GENERATION . M y tim elin e o f , sa y , eigh ty y ears is consi derab l y m ore conserv a- tive than that of the typical AI researcher. Recent surveys31 suggest that most active researchers expect human- level AI to arrive around the middle of this century. Our experience with nuclear physics suggests that it would be prudent to assume that progress could occur quite quickly and to prepare accordingly. If just one conceptual break- through were needed, analogous to Szilards idea for a neutron- induced M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 77 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotd pd cience, thence, th er, an articler, an artic remarkremarkforthat, bhat n the lifetimthe lifeti robably obably Distributionw un nvention oention o ords declarrds declar Economic Economic might see sught see su ouse rules, se rules, anyone presanyone pr I prefacedI prefaced arrinarrin 78 HUMAN COMPATIBLE nuclear chain reaction, superintelligent AI in some form could arrive quite suddenly. The chances are that we would be unprepared: if we built superintelligent machines with any degree of autonomy, we would soon find ourselves unable to control them. I am, however, fairly confident that we have some breathing space because there are several major breakthroughs needed between here and superintelli-gence, not just one. Conceptual Breakthroughs to Come The problem of creating general- purpose, human- level AI is far from solved. Solving it is not a matter of spending money on more engi- neers, more data, and bigger computers. Some futurists produce charts that extrapolate the exponential growth of computing power into the future based on Moores law, showing the dates when ma-chines will become more powerful than insect brains, mouse brains, human brains, all human brains put together, and so on. 32 These charts are meaningless because, as I have already said, faster machines just give you the wrong answer more quickly. If one were to collect AIs leading experts into a single team with unlimited resources, with the goal of creating an integrated, human- level intelligent system by com- bining all our best ideas, the result would be failure. The system would break in the real world. It wouldnt understand what was going on; it wouldnt be able to predict the consequences of its actions; it wouldnt understand what people want in any given situation; and so it would do ridiculously stupid things. By understanding how the system would break, AI researchers are able to identify the problems that have to be solved the conceptual breakthroughs that are needed in order to reach human- level AI. I will now describe some of these remaining problems. Once they are solved, there may be more, but not very many more. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 78 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotntont ng an intean inte our best ideour best id he real whe real bbfore, as Ias answer moanswer m a singlea singleDistributionan-n-llevel AI evel AI ng money money rs. Some frs. Some ial growth l growth s law, showaw, show erful than erful than ins put togins put to havehave HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 79 Language and common sense Intelligence without knowledge is like an engine without fuel. Hu- mans acquire a vast amount of knowledge from other humans: it is passed down through generations in the form of language. Some of it is factual: Obama became president in 2009, the density of copper is 8.92 grams per cubic centimeter, the code of Ur- Nammu set out pun- ishments for various crimes, and so on. A great deal of knowledge re- sides in the language itself in the concepts that it makes available. President , 2009 , density , copper , gram , centimeter , crime , and the rest all carry with them a vast amount of information, which represents the extracted essence of the processes of discovery and organization that led them to be in the language in the first place. Take, for example, copper , which refers to some collection of atoms in the universe, and compare it to arglebarglium , which is my name for an equally large collection of entirely randomly selected atoms in the universe. There are many general, useful, and predictive laws one can discover about copper about its density, conductivity, malleability, melting point, stellar origin, chemical compounds, practical uses, and so on; in comparison, there is essentially nothing that can be said about arglebarglium. An organism equipped with a language com-posed of words like arglebarglium would be unable to function, be-cause it would never discover the regularities that would allow it to model and predict its universe. A machine that really understands human language would be in a position to quickly acquire vast quantities of human knowledge, al-lowing it to bypass tens of thousands of years of learning by the more than one hundred billion people who have lived on Earth. It seems simply impractical to expect a machine to rediscover all this from scratch, starting from raw sensory data. At present, however, natural language technology is not up to the task of reading and understanding millions of books many of M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 79 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotliuli rds like as like a would nevewould nev d predid predifororigin, gin son, there on, there m. An om. An oDistribution, and hich reprech repre y and organand organ place.e. ers to some rs to some glebargliumbarglium irely randoely rando eral, usefuleral, usefu out its deout its de hemhem 80 HUMAN COMPATIBLE which would stump even a well- educated human. Systems such as IBMs Watson, which famously defeated two human champions of the Jeopardy! quiz game in 2011, can extract simple information from clearly stated facts but cannot build complex knowledge structures from text; nor can they answer questions that require extensive chains of reasoning with information from multiple sources. For example, the task of reading all available documents up to the end of 1973 and assessing (with explanations) the probable outcome of the Watergate impeachment process against then president Nixon would be well be-yond the current state of the art. There are serious efforts underway to deepen the level of language analysis and information extraction. For example, Project Aristo at the Allen Institute for AI aims to build systems that can pass school science exams after reading textbooks and study guides. 33 Heres a question from a fourth- grade test:34 Fourth graders are planning a roller- skate race. Which surface would be the best for this race? (A) gravel (B) sand (C) blacktop (D) grass A machine faces at least two sources of difficulty in answering this question. The first is the classical language- understanding problem of working out what the sentences say: analyzing the syntactic structure, identifying the meanings of words, and so on. (Try this for yourself: use an online translation service to translate the sentences into an unfamiliar language, then use a dictionary for that language to try translating them back to English.) The second is the need for common-sense knowledge: to work out that a roller- skate race is probably a race between people wearing roller skates (on their feet) rather than a race between roller skates, to understand that the surface is what the skaters will skate on rather than what the spectators will sit on, to know what best means in the context of a surface for a race, and 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 80 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotcesce e first is thirst is t ut what theut what th g the mg the mfor sandnd at least at least Distributionhe level of level of ple, Projecple, Projec tems that cs that c and study gnd study g a g a rroller-oller- sk race?race? HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 81 so on. Think how the answer might change if we replaced fourth grad- ers with sadistic army boot- camp trainers. One way to summarize the difficulty is to say that reading requires knowledge and knowledge (largely) comes from reading. In other words, we face a classic chicken- and- egg situation. We might hope for a bootstrapping process, whereby the system reads some easy text, acquires some knowledge, uses that to read more difficult text, ac-quires still more knowledge, and so on. Unfortunately, what tends to happen is the opposite: the knowledge acquired is mostly erroneous, which causes errors in reading, which results in more erroneous knowl- edge, and so on. For example, the NELL ( Never- Ending Language Learning) proj- ect at Carnegie Mellon University is probably the most ambitious language- bootstrapping project currently underway. From 2010 to 2018, NELL acquired over 120 million beliefs by reading English text on the Web. 35 Some of these beliefs are accurate, such as the beliefs that the Maple Leafs play hockey and won the Stanley Cup. In addi-tion to facts, NELL acquires new vocabulary, categories, and semantic relationships all the time. Unfortunately, NELL has confidence in only 3 percent of its beliefs and relies on human experts to clean out false or meaningless beliefs on a regular basis such as its beliefs that Nepal is a country also known as United States and value is an agricultural product that is usually cut into basis. I suspect that there may be no single breakthrough that turns the downward spiral into an upward spiral. The basic bootstrapping pro-cess seems right: a program that knows enough facts can figure out which fact a novel sentence is referring to, and thereby learns a new textual form for expressing facts which then lets it discover more facts, and so the process continues. (Sergey Brin, the co- founder of Google, published an important paper on the bootstrapping idea in 1998. 36) Priming the pump by supplying a good deal of manually en- coded knowledge and linguistic information would certainly help. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 81 8/7/19 11:21 PMbelie also knowo know hat is usualhat is usua ect thatect thaforme. Un U iefs and relefs and re efs on a rfs on a Distributionrron nguage Leanguage Lea bably the mly the tly underwly underw on beliefs bn beliefs b liefs are accfs are acc ckey and wckey and w s new vocs new voc ortuortu 82 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Increasing the sophistication of the representation of facts allowing for complex events, causal relationships, beliefs and attitudes of oth-ers, and so on and improving the handling of uncertainty about word meanings and sentence meanings may eventually result in a self- reinforcing rather than self- extinguishing process of learning. Cumulative learning of concepts and theories Approximately 1.4 billion years ago and 8.2 sextillion miles away, two black holes, one twelve million times the mass of the Earth and the other ten million, came close enough to begin orbiting each other. Gradually losing energy, they spiraled closer and closer to each other and faster and faster, reaching an orbital frequency of 250 times per second at a distance of 350 kilometers before finally colliding and merging. 37 In the last few milliseconds, the rate of energy emission in the form of gravitational waves was fifty times larger than the total energy output of all the stars in the universe. On September 14, 2015, those gravitational waves arrived at the Earth. They alternately ex-panded and compressed space itself by a factor of about one in 2.5 sextillion, equivalent to changing the distance to Proxima Centauri (4.4 light years) by the width of a human hair. Fortunately, two days earlier, the Advanced LIGO (Laser Interfer- ometer Gravitational- Wave Observatory) detectors in Washington and Louisiana had been switched on. Using laser interferometry, they were able to measure the minuscule distortion of space; using calcula-tions based on Einsteins theory of general relativity, the LIGO re- searchers had predicted and were therefore looking for the exact shape of the gravitational waveform expected from such an event. 38 This was possible because of the accumulation and communica- tion of knowledge and concepts by thousands of people across centu-ries of observation and research. From Thales of Miletus rubbing amber with wool and observing the static charge buildup, through 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 82 8/7/19 11:21 PMby ty t ly, two datwo da ravitationavitation iana hadiana hadford spacpa nt to changt to chan he widthe widtDistributionft h e rbiting eaciting ea d closer to d closer to equency of ency of before finbefore fin ds, the rate the rate was fifty tims fifty tim n the univern the univ rived at trived at t itseitse HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 83 Galileo dropping rocks from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, to Newton seeing an apple fall from a tree, and on through thousands more ob-servations, humanity has gradually accumulated layer upon layer of concepts, theories, and devices: mass, velocity, acceleration, force, Newtons laws of motion and gravitation, orbital equations, electrical phenomena, atoms, electrons, electric fields, magnetic fields, electro-magnetic waves, special relativity, general relativity, quantum me-chanics, semiconductors, lasers, computers, and so on. Now, in principle we can understand this process of discovery as a mapping from all the sensory data ever experienced by all humans to a very complex hypothesis about the sensory data experienced by the LIGO scientists on September 14, 2015, as they watched their com- puter screens. This is the purely data- driven view of learning: data in, hypothesis out, black box in between. If it could be done, it would be the apotheosis of the big data, big network deep learning approach, but it cannot be done. The only plausible idea we have for how intelli-gent entities could achieve such a stupendous feat as detecting the merger of two black holes is that prior knowledge of physics , combined with the observational data from their instruments, allowed the LIGO scientists to infer the occurrence of the merger event. Moreover, this prior knowledge was itself the result of learning with prior knowledge and so on, all the way back through history. Thus, we have a roughly cumulative picture of how intelligent entities can build predictive ca- pabilities, with knowledge as the building material. I say roughly because, of course, science has taken a few wrong turns over the centuries, temporarily pursuing illusory notions such as phlogiston and the luminiferous aether. But we know for a fact that the cumulative picture is what actually happened, in the sense that scientists all along the way wrote down their findings and theories in books and papers. Later scientists had access only to these forms of explicit knowledge, and not to the original sensory experiences of ear- lier, long- dead generations. Because they are scientists, the members M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 83 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotwaw ll the waythe way ve picture opicture , with k, with kfordata frta he occurrenhe occurr s itself titself t bDistributionby al experiencxperienc ey watchedey watched n view of leew of l f it could beit could b network dework d plausible ideusible ide uch a stupuch a stu s that s that priopri om tom t 84 HUMAN COMPATIBLE of the LIGO team understood that all the pieces of knowledge they used, including Einsteins theory of general relativity, are (and always will be) in their probationary period and could be falsified by experi- ment. As it turned out, the LIGO data provided strong confirmation for general relativity as well as further evidence that the graviton a hypothesized particle that mediates the force of gravity is massless. We are a very long way from being able to create machine learn- ing systems that are capable of matching or exceeding the capacity for cumulative learning and discovery exhibited by the scientific community or by ordinary human beings in their own lifetimes. 39 Deep learning systemsD are mostly data driven: at best, we can wire in some very weak forms of prior knowledge in the structure of the network. Probabilistic programming systemsC do allow for prior knowledge in the learning process, as expressed in the structure and vocabulary of the probabilistic knowledge base, but we do not yet have effective methods for generating new concepts and relationships and using them to expand such a knowledge base. The difficulty is not one of finding hypotheses that provide a good fit to data; deep learning systems can find hypotheses that are a good fit to image data, and AI researchers have built symbolic learning pro-grams able to recapitulate many historical discoveries of quantitative scientific laws. 40 Learning in an autonomous intelligent agent requires much more than this. First, what should be included in the data from which predic- tions are made? For example, in the LIGO experiment, the model for predicting the amount that space stretches and shrinks when a gravi-tational wave arrives takes into account the masses of the colliding black holes, the frequency of their orbits, and so on, but it doesnt take into account the day of the week or the occurrence of Major League baseball games. On the other hand, a model for predicting traffic on the San Francisco Bay Bridge takes into account the day of the week and the occurrence of Major League baseball games but ignores the masses and orbital frequencies of colliding black holes. Similarly, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 84 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotcapa .40 Learn Learn e than thisthan thi what shwhat shforg systemyste AI researchAI researc tulate mtulate mDistributionwn best, we cst, we c n the strucn the struc msCC do al do a pressed in pressed in edge base, bge base, b new concepw concep nowledge bnowledge of finding of finding ms cams ca HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 85 programs that learn to recognize the types of objects in images use the pixels as input, whereas a program that learns to estimate the value of an antique object would also want to know what it was made of, who made it and when, its history of usage and ownership, and so on. Why is this? Obviously, its because we humans already know something about gravitational waves, traffic, visual images, and antiques. We use this knowledge to decide which inputs are needed for predicting a specific output. This is called feature engineering , and doing it well re- quires a good understanding of the specific prediction problem. Of course, a real intelligent machine cannot rely on human feature engineers showing up every time there is something new to learn. It will have to work out for itself what constitutes a reasonable hypothe-sis space for a learning problem. Presumably, it will do this by bringing to bear a wide range of relevant knowledge in various forms, but at present we have only rudimentary ideas about how to do this. 41 Nel- son Goodmans Fact, Fiction, and Forecast42 written in 1954 and per- haps one of the most important and underappreciated books on machine learning suggests a kind of knowledge called an overhypoth- esis, because it helps to define what the space of reasonable hypotheses might be. In the case of traffic prediction, for example, the relevant overhypothesis would be that the day of the week, time of day, local events, recent accidents, holidays, transit delays, weather, and sunrise and sunset times can influence traffic conditions. (Notice that you can figure out this overhypothesis from your own background knowledge of the world, without being a traffic expert.) An intelligent learning system can accumulate and use knowledge of this kind to help formu-late and solve new learning problems. Second, and perhaps more important, is the cumulative generation of new concepts such as mass, acceleration, charge, electron, and grav-itational force. Without these concepts, scientists (and ordinary peo-ple) would have to interpret their universe and make predictions on the basis of raw perceptual inputs. Instead, Newton was able to work w i t h c o n c e p t s o f m a s s a n d a c c e l e r a t i o n d e v e l o p e d b y G a l i l e o a n d M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 85 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotwow nt accidenacciden et times canet times ca t this ovt this ofordefineefin ase of traffise of traf uld be tld be tDistributionn hu ing new tog new to s a reasonaba reasonab y, it will do will do edge in varedge in va deas about as about ForecastecastF424 ortant and ortant and s a kind ofs a kind o whawha 86 HUMAN COMPATIBLE others; Rutherford could determine that the atom was composed of a dense, positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons because the concept of an electron had already been developed (by numerous re-searchers in small steps) in the late nineteenth century; indeed, all scientific discoveries rely on layer upon layer of concepts that stretch back through time and human experience. In the philosophy of science, particularly in the early twentieth century, it was not uncommon to see the discovery of new concepts attributed to the three ineffable Is: intuition, insight, and inspiration. All these were considered resistant to any rational or algorithmic ex-planation. AI researchers, including Herbert Simon, 43 have objected strongly to this view. Put simply, if a machine learning algorithm can search in a space of hypotheses that includes the possibility of adding definitions for new terms not present in the input, then the algorithm can discover new concepts. For example, suppose that a robot is trying to learn the rules of backgammon by watching people playing the game. It observes how they roll the dice and notices that sometimes players move three or four pieces rather than one or two and that this happens after a roll of 1- 1, 2- 2, 3- 3, 4- 4, 5- 5, or 6- 6. If the program can add a new concept of doubles , defined by equality between the two dice, it can express t h e s a m e p r e d i c t i v e t h e o r y m u c h m o r e c o n c i s e l y . I t i s a s t r a i g h t -forward process, using methods such as inductive logic programming, 44 to create programs that propose new concepts and definitions in order to identify theories that are both accurate and concise. At present, we know how to do this for relatively simple cases, but for more complex theories the number of possible new concepts that could be introduced becomes simply enormous. This makes the recent success of deep learning methods in computer vision all the more in-triguing. The deep networks usually succeed in finding useful inter-mediate features such as eyes, legs, stripes, and corners, even though they are using very simple learning algorithms. If we can understand better how this happens, we can apply the same approach to learning 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 86 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoted d edictive tictive t rocess, usinrocess, usin programprogramforone or e o 55, or 6or 6-66 by equay equa hDistributionalgorg n,43 have have earning algoarning alg s the possibe possib the input, thhe input, t robot is trybot is try ople playingople playin es that somes that so wowo HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 87 new concepts in the more expressive languages needed for science. This by itself would be a huge boon to humanity as well as a signifi- cant step towards general- purpose AI. Discovering actions I n t e l l i g e n t b e h a v i o r o v e r l o n g t i m e s c a l e s r e q u i r e s t h e a b i l i t y to plan and manage activity hierarchically, at multiple levels of abstraction all the way from doing a PhD (one trillion actions) to a single motor control command sent to one finger as part of typing a single character in the application cover letter. Our activities are organized into complex hierarchies with dozens of levels of abstraction. These levels and the actions they contain are a key part of our civilization and are handed down through generations via our language and practices. For example, actions such as catching a wild boar and applying for a visa and buying a plane ticket may involve millions of primitive actions, but we can think about them as single units because they are already in the library of actions that our lan-guage and culture provides and because we know (roughly) how to do them. Once they are in the library, we can string these high- level actions together into still higher- level actions, such as having a tribal feast for the summer solstice or doing archaeological research for a summer in a remote part of Nepal. Trying to plan such activities from scratch, starting with the lowest- level motor control steps, would be com- pletely hopeless because such activities involve millions or billions of steps, many of which are very unpredictable. (Where will the wild boar be found, and which way will he run?) With suitable high- level actions in the library, on the other hand, one need plan only a dozen or so steps, because each such step is a large piece of the overall activ- ity. This is something that even our feeble human brains can manage but it gives us the superpower of planning over long time scales. There was a time when these actions didnt exist as suchfor M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 87 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotre ie o still still hhigig ummer solstummer sol ote part ote part hhfor ovides des n the libn the lib hDistributionpart hierarchies ierarchies e actions thtions th ded down thed down t xample, actmple, ac and buying buying but we canbut we c ady in the ady in the nd bnd b 88 HUMAN COMPATIBLE example, to obtain the right to a plane journey in 1910 would have required a long, involved, and unpredictable process of research, letter writing, and negotiation with various aeronautical pioneers. Other actions recently added to the library include emailing, googling, and ubering. As Alfred North Whitehead wrote in 1911, Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. 45 Saul Steinbergs famous cover for The New Yorker (figure 6) bril- liantly shows, in spatial form, how an intelligent agent manages its own future. The very immediate future is extraordinarily detailed in fact, my brain has already loaded up the specific motor control FIGURE 6: Saul Steinbergs View of the World from 9th Avenue ILUVWSXE - OLVKHGDVDFRYHURI The New Yorker magazine. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 88 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot to obtain tto obtain a long, a long, forgs ViewView e New Yorkerew YorkDis Df the f the HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 89 sequences for typing the next few words. Looking a bit further ahead, there is less detail my plan is to finish this section, have lunch, write some more, and watch France play Croatia in the final of the World Cup. Still further ahead, my plans are larger but vaguer: move back from Paris to Berkeley in early August, teach a graduate course, and finish this book. As one moves through time, the future moves closer to the present and the plans for it become more detailed, while new, vague plans may be added to the distant future. Plans for the immedi-ate future become so detailed that they are executable directly by the motor control system. At present we have only some pieces of this overall picture in place for AI systems. If the hierarchy of abstract actions is provided including knowledge of how each abstract action can be refined into a subplan composed of more concrete actions then we have algorithms that can construct complex plans to achieve specific goals. There are algorithms that can execute abstract, hierarchical plans in such a way that the agent always has a primitive, physical action ready to go, even if actions in the future are still at an abstract level and not yet executable. The main missing piece of the puzzle is a method for constructing the hierarchy of abstract actions in the first place. For example, is it possible to start from scratch with a robot that knows only that it can send various electric currents to various motors and have it discover for itself the action of standing up? Its important to understand that Im not asking whether we can train a robot to stand up, which can be done simply by applying reinforcement learning with a reward for the robots head being farther away from the ground. 46 Training a robot to stand up requires that the human trainer already knows what standing up means, so that the right reward signal can be defined. What we want is for the robot to discover for itself that standing up is a thing a useful abstract action, one that achieves the precondition (being up- right) for walking or running or shaking hands or seeing over a wall and so forms part of many abstract plans for all kinds of goals. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 89 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotf ab tart fromrt from ous electrius electr the actithe actforng piece of ng piece o stract astract aDistributionerall picturll pictur actions is actions i action can bon can b onsons tthen when achieve spchieve sp ract, hierarct, hierar primitive, pprimitive, re are stillre are stil 90 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Similarly, we want the robot to discover actions such as moving from place to place, picking up objects, opening doors, tying knots, cooking dinner, finding my keys, building houses, and many other actions that have no names in any human language because we humans have not discovered them yet. I believe this capability is the most important step needed to reach human- level AI. It would, to borrow Whiteheads phrase again, ex- tend the number of important operations that AI systems can perform without thinking about them. Numerous research groups around the world are hard at work on solving the problem. For example, Deep- Minds 2018 paper showing human- level performance on Quake III Arena Capture the Flag claims that their learning system constructs a temporally hierarchical representation space in a novel way to promote . . . temporally coherent action sequences. 47 (Im not com- pletely sure what this means, but it certainly sounds like progress to- wards the goal of inventing new high- level actions.) I suspect that we do not yet have the complete answer, but this is an advance that could occur any moment, just by putting some existing ideas together in the right way. Intelligent machines with this capability would be able to look fur- ther into the future than humans can. They would also be able to take into account far more information. These two capabilities combined lead inevitably to better real- world decisions. In any kind of conflict situation between humans and machines, we would quickly find, like Garry Kasparov and Lee Sedol, that our every move has been antici-pated and blocked. We would lose the game before it even started. Managing mental activity If managing activity in the real world seems complex, spare a thought for your poor brain, managing the activity of the most com- plex object in the known universe itself. We dont start out know- ing how to think, any more than we start out knowing how to walk or 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 90 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoture r far more r more tably to bettably to be betweenbetweenforines with thnes with t than huhan huDistributionxam ance on Qce on Q ng system ng system pace in a e in a sequencessequences ertainly soutainly so igh-h-llevel acevel ac nswer, but nswer, bu utting somutting som HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 91 play the piano. We learn how to do it. We can, to some extent, choose what thoughts to have. (Go on, think about a juicy hamburger or Bul- garian customs regulations your choice!) In some ways, our mental activity is more complex than our activity in the real world, because our brains have far more moving parts than our bodies and those parts move much faster. The same is true for computers: for every move that AlphaGo makes on the Go board, it performs millions or billions of units of computation, each of which involves adding a branch to the lookahead search tree and evaluating the board position at the end of that branch. And each of those units of computation happens because the program makes a choice about which part of the tree to explore next. Very approximately, AlphaGo chooses computations that it ex- pects will improve its eventual decision on the board. It has been possible to work out a reasonable scheme for managing AlphaGos computational activity because that activity is simple and homogeneous: every unit of computation is of the same kind. Com-pared to other programs that use that same basic unit of computation, AlphaGo is probably quite efficient, but its probably extremely ineffi- cient compared to other kinds of programs. For example, Lee Sedol, AlphaGos human opponent in the epochal match of 2016, probably does no more than a few thousand units of computation per move, but he has a much more flexible computational architecture with many more kinds of units of computation: these include dividing the board into subgames and trying to resolve their interactions; recognizing possible goals to attain and making high- level plans with actions like k e e p t h i s g r o u p a l i v e o r p r e v e n t m y o p p o n e n t f r o m c o n n e c t i n g these two groups; thinking about how to achieve a specific goal, such as keeping a group alive; and ruling out whole classes of moves be-cause they fail to address a significant threat. We simply dont know how to organize such complex and varied computational activity how to integrate and build on the results from each and how to allocate computational resources to the various kinds of deliberation so that good decisions are found as quickly as M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 91 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotan an ch more h more ds of units ds of unit games agames aforer kindkin opponent iopponent a few thfew th lDistributionhapppp the tree the tree t omputationomputation the board.board. asonable schsonable sc ecause thatause tha mputation isutation is use that samuse that sa efficient, befficient, so fso f 92 HUMAN COMPATIBLE possible. It is clear, however, that a simple computational architecture like AlphaGos cannot possibly work in the real world, where we rou-tinely need to deal with decision horizons of not tens but billions of primitive steps and where the number of possible actions at any point is almost infinite. Its important to remember that an intelligent agent in the real world is not restricted to playing Go or even finding Stuarts keys its just being . It can do anything next, but it cannot possibly afford to think about all the things it might do. A system that can both discover new high- level actions as de- scribed earlier and manage its computational activity to focus on units of computation that quickly deliver significant improvements in decision quality would be a formidable decision maker in the real world. Like those of humans, its deliberations would be cognitively efficient, but it would not suffer from the tiny short- term memory and slow hardware that severely limit our ability to look far into the future, handle a large number of contingencies, and consider a large number of alternative plans. More things missing? If we put together everything we know how to do with all the po- tential new developments listed in this chapter, would it work? How would the resulting system behave? It would plow through time, ab-sorbing vast quantities of information and keeping track of the state of the world on a massive scale by observation and inference. It would gradually improve its models of the world (which include models of humans, of course). It would use those models to solve complex prob-lems and it would encapsulate and reuse its solution processes to make its deliberations more efficient and to enable the solution of still more complex problems. It would discover new concepts and actions, and these would allow it to improve its rate of discovery. It would make effective plans over increasingly long time scales. In summ ary , i t s n o t o b vi o us th a t an ythin g else o f gr e a t si gnifi - 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 92 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotetht evelopmeelopme e resulting se resulting st quantst quanfor issing?sing? er everytr everyDistributionty to t improvemprove on maker on maker ons would bwould the tiny he tiny sshh t our abilitour abilit contingencontingenc HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 93 cance is missing, from the point of view of systems that are effective in achieving their objectives. Of course, the only way to be sure is to build it (once the breakthroughs have been achieved) and see what happens. Imagining a Superint elligent Machine The technical community has suffered from a failure of imagination when discussing the nature and impact of superintelligent AI. Often, we see discussions of reduced medical errors, 48 safer cars,49 or other advances of an incremental nature. Robots are imagined as individual entities carrying their brains with them, whereas in fact they are likely to be wirelessly connected into a single, global entity that draws on vast stationary computing resources. Its as if researchers are afraid of examining the real consequences of success in AI. A general- purpose intelligent system can, by assumption, do what any human can do. For example, some humans did a lot of mathemat- ics, algorithm design, coding, and empirical research to come up with the modern search engine. The results of all this work are very useful and of course very valuable. How valuable? A recent study showed that the median American adult surveyed would need to be paid at least $17,500 to give up using search engines for a year, 50 which trans- lates to a global value in the tens of trillions of dollars. Now imagine that search engines dont exist yet because the nec- essary decades of work have not been done, but you have access in-stead to a superintelligent AI system. Simply by asking the question, you now have access to search engine technology, courtesy of the AI system. Done! Trillions of dollars in value, just for the asking, and not a single line of additional code written by you. The same goes for any other missing invention or series of inventions: if humans could do it, so can the machine. This last point provides a useful lower bound a pessimistic M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 93 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotverye dian Amean Ame 500 to give500 to giv global vglobal forcodingdin engine. Thengine. T valuabvaluabDistributionigent afer cars,er cars,44 imagined aimagined a ereas in facas in fac e, global en, global en Its as if rets as if re of success f success gent systement system mple, sommple, som andand 94 HUMAN COMPATIBLE estimate on what a superintelligent machine can do. By assumption, the machine is more capable than an individual human. There are many things an individual human cannot do, but a collection of n humans can do: put an astronaut on the Moon, create a gravitational- wave detector, sequence the human genome, run a country with hun- dreds of millions of people. So, roughly speaking, we create n software copies of the machine and connect them in the same way with the same information and control flows as the n humans. Now we have a machine that can do whatever n humans can do, except better, be- cause each of its n components is superhuman. This multi- agent cooperation design for an intelligent system is just a lower bound on the possible capabilities of machines because there are other designs that work better. In a collection of n humans, the total available information is kept separately in n brains and commu- nicated very slowly and imperfectly between them. Thats why the n humans spend most of their time in meetings. In the machine, there is no need for this separation, which often prevents connecting the dots. For an example of disconnected dots in scientific discovery, a brief perusal of the long history of penicillin is quite eye- opening. 51 Another useful method of stretching your imagination is to think about some particular form of sensory input say, reading and scale it up. Whereas a human can read and understand one book in a week, a machine could read and understand every book ever written all 150 million of them in a few hours. This requires a decent amount of processing power, but the books can be read largely in parallel, mean- ing that simply adding more chips allows the machine to scale up its reading process. By the same token, the machine can see everything at once through satellites, robots, and hundreds of millions of surveil-lance cameras; watch all the worlds TV broadcasts; and listen to all the worlds radio stations and phone conversations. Very quickly it would gain a far more detailed and accurate understanding of the world and its inhabitants than any human could possibly hope to acquire. One can also imagine scaling the machines capacity for action. A 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 94 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotculcu as a humaa huma could read could read tthemhemforg histoist method of smethod of ar form r form Distributiongent systent syste achines becachines bec lection of tion of tely in tely in nn br br between thetween th in meetingn meeting which oft which o connectedconnecte yo fyo f HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 95 human has direct control over only one body, while a machine can control thousands or millions. Some automated factories already ex-hibit this characteristic. Outside the factory, a machine that controls thousands of dexterous robots can, for example, produce vast numbers of houses, each one tailored to its future occupants needs and desires. In the lab, existing robotic systems for scientific research could be scaled up to perform millions of experiments simultaneously perhaps to create complete predictive models of human biology down to the molecular level. Note that the machines reasoning capabilities will give it a far greater capacity to detect inconsistencies between scien-tific theories and between theories and observations. Indeed, it may already be the case that we have enough experimental evidence about biology to devise a cure for cancer: we just havent put it together. In the cyber realm, machines already have access to billions of ef- fectorsnamely, the displays on all the phones and computers in the w or l d. This p artl y exp lains th e ability o f IT com p ani es to g en era te enormous wealth with very few employees; it also points to the severe vulnerability of the human race to manipulation via screens. Scale of a different kind comes from the machines ability to look further into the future, with greater accuracy, than is possible for hu-mans. We have seen this for chess and Go already; with the capacity for generating and analyzing hierarchical plans over long time scales and the ability to identify new abstract actions and high- level descrip- tive models, machines will transfer this advantage to domains such as mathematics (proving novel, useful theorems) and decision making in the real world. Tasks such as evacuating a large city in the event of an e n v i r o n m e n t a l d i s a s t e r w i l l b e r e l a t i v e l y s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d , w i t h t h e machine able to generate individual guidance for every person and vehicle to minimize the number of casualties. The machine might work up a slight sweat when devising pol- icy recommendations to prevent global warming. Earth systems mod-eling requires knowledge of physics (atmosphere, oceans), chemistry (carbon cycle, soils), biology (decomposition, migration), engineering M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 95 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotseese ng and anand an ability to ideability to id els, macels, macforkind ind ture, with gure, with n this fon this fo lDistributions bet ons. Indeens. Indee imental evimental evi havent putent pu y have accey have acce the phonese phone ability of Ibility of I ew employew employ race to mrace to m omeome 96 HUMAN COMPATIBLE (renewable energy, carbon capture), economics (industry, energy use), human nature (stupidity, greed), and politics (even more stupidity, e v e n m o r e g r e e d ) . A s n o t e d , t h e m a c h i n e w i l l h a v e a c c e s s t o v a s t quantities of evidence to feed all these models. It will be able to sug-gest or carry out new experiments and expeditions to narrow down the inevitable uncertainties for example, to discover the true extent of gas hydrates in shallow ocean reservoirs. It will be able to consider a vast range of possible policy recommendations laws, nudges, mar- kets, inventions, and geoengineering interventions but of course it will also need to find ways to persuade us to go along with them. The Limits of Superintelligence While stretching your imagination, dont stretch it too far. A common mistake is to attribute godlike powers of omniscience to superintelli- gent AI systems complete and perfect knowledge not just of the present but also of the future.52 This is quite implausible because it requires an unphysical ability to determine the exact current state of the world as well as an unrealizable ability to simulate, much faster than real time, the operation of a world that includes the machine it- self (not to mention billions of brains, which would still be the second- most- complex objects in the universe). This is not to say that it is impossible to predict some aspects of the future with a reasonable degree of certainty for example, I know what class Ill be teaching in what room at Berkeley almost a year from now, despite the protestations of chaos theorists about butterfly wings and all that. (Nor do I think that humans are anywhere close to pre-dicting the future as well as the laws of physics allow!) Prediction depends on having the right abstractions for example, I can predict that I will be on stage in Wheeler Auditorium on the Berkeley campus on the last Tuesday in April, but I cannot predict my exact 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 96 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothe he ention biltion bil plex objectplex objec not to snot to forabilitylit s an unrealan unrea operatioperatioDistributionwith ce ont stretcht stretch wers of omers of om nd perfect nd perfec re.re.52 This This to deto de HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 97 location down to the millimeter or which atoms of carbon will have been incorporated into my body by then. Machines are also subject to certain speed limits imposed by the real world on the rate at which new knowledge of the world can be acquired one of the valid points made by Kevin Kelly in his arti- cle on oversimplified predictions about superhuman AI.53 For exam- ple, to determine whether a specific drug cures a certain kind of cancer in an experimental animal, a scientist human or machine has two choices: inject the animal with the drug and wait several weeks or run a sufficiently accurate simulation. To run a simulation, however, requires a great deal of empirical knowledge of biology, some of which is currently unavailable; so, more model- building experi- ments would have to be done first. Undoubtedly, these would take time and must be done in the real world. On the other hand, a machine scientist could run vast numbers of model- building experiments in parallel, could integrate their out- comes into an internally consistent (albeit very complex) model, and could compare the models predictions with the entirety of experi-mental evidence known to biology. Moreover, simulating the model does not necessarily require a quantum- mechanical simulation of the entire organism down to the level of individual molecular reactions which, as Kelly points out, would take more time than simply doing the experiment in the real world. Just as I can predict my future loca- tion on Tuesdays in April with some certainty, properties of biological systems can be predicted accurately with abstract models. (Among other reasons, this is because biology operates with robust control sys-tems based on aggregate feedback loops, so that small variations in initial conditions usually dont lead to large variations in outcomes.) Thus, while instantaneous machine discoveries in the empirical sci- ences are unlikely, we can expect that science will proceed much faster with the help of machines. Indeed, it already is. A final limitation of machines is that they are not human. This puts M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 97 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotdod elly pointy point riment in thriment in t uesdaysuesdaysfor wn to bto y require a y require wn to thwn to thDistributionun a dge of biole of biol mmodel-odel- bbuilduild ubtedly, thedly, th .. ientist coulntist cou parallel, carallel, c sistent (albeistent (alb s predictios predicti ologolog 98 HUMAN COMPATIBLE them at an intrinsic disadvantage when trying to model and predict one particular class of objects: humans. Our brains are all quite simi- lar, so we can use them to simulate to experience, if you will the mental and emotional lives of others. This, for us, comes for free. (If you think about it, machines have an even greater advantage with each other: they can actually run each others code!) For example, I dont need to be an expert on neural sensory systems to know what it feels like when you hit your thumb with a hammer. I can just hit my thumb with a hammer. Machines, on the other hand, have to start almost 54 from scratch in their understanding of humans: they have access only to our external behavior, plus all the neuroscience and psychology lit-erature, and have to develop an understanding of how we work on that basis. In principle, they will be able to do this, but it s reasonable to suppose that acquiring a human- level or superhuman understanding of humans will take them longer than most other capabilities. How Will AI Benefit Humans? Our intelligence is responsible for our civilization. With access to greater intelligence we could have a greater and perhaps far better civilization. One can speculate about solving major open problems such as extending human life indefinitely or developing faster- than- light travel, but these staples of science fiction are not yet the driving force for progress in AI. (With superintelligent AI, well probably be able to invent all sorts of quasi- magical technologies, but its hard to say now what those might be.) Consider, instead, a far more prosaic goal: raising the living standard of everyone on Earth, in a sustainable way, to a level that would be viewed as quite respectable in a devel-oped country. Choosing (somewhat arbitrarily) respectable to mean the eighty- eighth percentile in the United States, the stated goal rep- resents almost a tenfold increase in global gross domestic product (GDP), from $76 trillion to $750 trillion per year. 55 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 98 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotce ce One can ne can xtending huxtending h l, but thl, but tforresponsibleresponsib we couldwe couldDistributionave and psychod psycho f how we whow we w his, but itsbut it uperhumanuperhuman ost other cat other c it Humit Hum HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 99 To calculate the cash value of such a prize, economists use the net present value of the income stream, which takes into account the dis- counting of future income relative to the present. The extra income of $674 trillion per year has a net present value of roughly $13,500 tril-lion, 56 assuming a discount factor of 5 percent. So, in very crude terms, this is a ballpark figure for what human- level AI might be worth if it can deliver a respectable living standard for everyone. With numbers like this, its not surprising that companies and countries are investing tens of billions of dollars annually in AI research and development. 57 Even so, the sums invested are minuscule compared to the size of the prize. Of course, these are all made- up numbers unless one has some idea of how human- level AI could achieve the feat of raising living standards. It can do this only by increasing the per- capita production of goods and services. Put another way: the average human can never expect to consume more than the average human produces. The ex- ample of self- driving taxis discussed earlier in the chapter illustrates the multiplier effect of AI: with an automated service, it should be possible for (say) ten people to manage a fleet of one thousand vehi-cles, so each person is producing one hundred times as much transpor-tation as before. The same goes for manufacturing the cars and for extracting the raw materials from which the cars are made. Indeed, some iron-ore mining operations in northern Australia, where tem-peratures regularly exceed 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahren-heit), are almost completely automated already. 58 These present- day applications of AI are special- purpose systems: self- driving cars and self- operating mines have required huge invest- ments in research, mechanical design, software engineering, and test-ing to develop the necessary algorithms and to make sure that they work as intended. Thats just how things are done in all spheres of engineering. Thats how things used to be done in personal travel too: if you wanted to travel from Europe to Australia and back in the sev-enteenth century, it would have involved a huge project costing vast M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 99 8/7/19 11:21 PMNote. T he raw mraw m n-ore minin-ore min s regulas regulaforpeople opl is producinis produc he samehe samDistributiond to s unless on unless on e the feat oe feat ing the ng the ppee way: the avey: the ave he average haverage h scussed earscussed ea : with an : with an omom 100 HUMAN COMPATIBLE sums of money, requiring years of planning, and carrying a high risk of death. Now we are used to the idea of transportation as a service (TaaS): if you need to be in Melbourne early next week, it just requires a few taps on your phone and a relatively minuscule amount of money. General- purpose AI would be everything as a service (EaaS). There would be no need to employ armies of specialists in different disci-plines, organized into hierarchies of contractors and subcontractors, in order to carry out a project. All embodiments of general- purpose AI would have access to all the knowledge and skills of the human race, and more besides. The only differentiation would be in the physical capabilities: dexterous legged robots for construction or sur- gery, wheeled robots for large- scale goods transportation, quadcopter robots for aerial inspections, and so on. In principle politics and eco- nomics aside everyone could have at their disposal an entire organi- zation composed of software agents and physical robots, capable of designing and building bridges, improving crop yields, cooking dinner for a hundred guests, running elections, or doing whatever else needs doing. Its the generality of general- purpose intelligence that makes this possible. History has shown, of course, that a tenfold increase in global GDP per capita is possible without AI its just that it took 190 years (from 1820 to 2010) to achieve that increase. 59 It required the development of factories, machine tools, automation, railways, steel, cars, airplanes, electricity, oil and gas production, telephones, radio, television, com-puters, the Internet, satellites, and many other revolutionary inven-tions. The tenfold increase in GDP posited in the preceding paragraphs is predicated not on further revolutionary technologies but on the ability of AI systems to employ what we already have more effectively and at greater scale. Of course, there will be effects besides the purely material benefit of raising living standards. For example, personal tutoring is known to be far more effective than classroom teaching, but when done by hu- mans it is simply unaffordable and always will be for the vast 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 100 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotibleb ) to achieo achie s, machine s, machine , oil and, oil andforwn, of coursn, of cour withouwithouDistributionould onstructiostructio portation, qportation, q incipleple pp eir disposaeir disposa and physicnd physic mproving croroving cro elections, oelections, ggeneral-eneral- pp HOW MIGHT AI PROGRESS IN THE FUTURE? 101 majority of people. With AI tutors, the potential of each child, no matter how poor, can be realized. The cost per child would be negli-gible, and that child would live a far richer and more productive life. The pursuit of artistic and intellectual endeavors, whether individu-ally or collectively, would be a normal part of life rather than a rar-efied luxury. In the area of health, AI systems should enable researchers to un- ravel and master the vast complexities of human biology and thereby gradually banish disease. Greater insights into human psychology and neurochemistry should lead to broad improvements in mental health. Perhaps more unconventionally, AI could enable far more effective authoring tools for virtual reality (VR) and could populate VR envi-ronments with far more interesting entities. This might turn VR into the medium of choice for literary and artistic expression, creating ex-periences of a richness and depth that is currently unimaginable. And in the mundane world of daily life, an intelligent assistant and guide would if well designed and not co- opted by economic and po- litical interests empower every individual to act effectively on their own behalf in an increasingly complex and sometimes hostile eco-nomic and political system. You would, in effect, have a high- powered lawyer, accountant, and political adviser on call at any time. Just as traffic jams are expected to be smoothed out by intermixing even a small percentage of autonomous vehicles, one can only hope that wiser policies and fewer conflicts will emerge from a better- informed and better- advised global citizenry. These developments taken together could change the dynamic of history at least that part of history that has been driven by conflicts within and between societies for access to the wherewithal of life. If the pie is essentially infinite, then fighting others for a larger share makes little sense. It would be like fighting over who gets the most digital copies of the newspaper completely pointless when anyone can make as many digital copies as they want for free. There are some limits to what AI can provide. The pies of land and M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 101 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotantan are expece expec rcentage of arcentage of and fewand fewforreasingsin system. Yosystem. Y , and poand poDistributionn me le far morefar more ould populauld popula . This mighhis mig rtistic exprtistic expr at is currenis curren f daily life, aaily life, a d and not cod and not every indievery ind yc oyc o 102 HUMAN COMPATIBLE raw materials are not infinite, so there cannot be unlimited popula- tion growth and not everyone will have a mansion in a private park. (This will eventually necessitate mining elsewhere in the solar system and constructing artificial habitats in space; but I promised not to talk about science fiction.) The pie of pride is also finite: only 1 percent of people can be in the top 1 percent on any given metric. If human hap-piness requires being in the top 1 percent, then 99 percent of humans are going to be unhappy, even when the bottom 1 percent has an ob-jectively splendid lifestyle. 60 It will be important, then, for our cul- tures to gradually down- weight pride and envy as central elements of perceived self- worth. As Nick Bostrom puts it at the end of his book Superintelligence , success in AI will yield a civilizational trajectory that leads to a com-passionate and jubilant use of humanitys cosmic endowment. If we fail to take advantage of what AI has to offer, we will have only our-selves to blame. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 102 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distributionral e book ook SuperSuper ctory that ly that s cosmic ens cosmic e to offer, wo offer, w 4 MISUSES OF AI A compassionate and jubilant use of humanitys cosmic endow- m e n t s o u n d s w o n d e r f u l , b u t w e a l s o h a v e t o r e c k o n w i t h the rapid rate of innovation in the malfeasance sector. Ill- intentioned people are thinking up new ways to misuse AI so quickly that this chapter is likely to be outdated even before it attains printed form. Think of it not as depressing reading, however, but as a call to act before it is too late. 6XUYHLOODQFH3HUVXDVLRQDQG&RQWURO The automated Stasi The Ministerium fr Staatsicherheit of East Germany, more com- monly known as the Stasi, is widely regarded as one of the most effec-tive and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to have ever existed. 1 It maintained files on the great majority of East German households. It monitored phone calls, read letters, and planted hidden cameras in apartments and hotels. It was ruthlessly effective at identi-fying and eliminating dissident activity. Its preferred modus operandi M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 103 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot LOODQFHLOODQFHfor as depde ate.ate.Distributionof humanitof humanit ut we also we also tion in theon in the ng up new ng up new be outdatbe outda essinessin 104 HUMAN COMPATIBLE was psychological destruction rather than imprisonment or execution. This level of control came at great cost, however: by some estimates, more than a quarter of working- age adults were Stasi informants. Stasi paper records have been estimated at twenty billion pages2 and the task of processing and acting on the huge incoming flows of informa-tion began to exceed the capacity of any human organization. It should come as no surprise, then, that intelligence agencies have spotted the potential for using AI in their work. For many years, they have been applying simple forms of AI technology, including voice recognition and identification of key words and phrases in both speech and text. Increasingly, AI systems are able to understand the content of what people are saying and doing, whether in speech, text, or video surveillance. In regimes where this technology is adopted for the pur-poses of control, it will be as if every citizen had their own personal Stasi operative watching over them twenty- four hours a day. 3 Even in the civilian sphere, in relatively free countries, we are sub- ject to increasingly effective surveillance. Corporations collect and sell information about our purchases, Internet and social network us-age, electrical appliance usage, calling and texting records, employ-ment, and health. Our locations can be tracked through our cell phones and our Internet- connected cars. Cameras recognize our faces on the street. All this data, and much more, can be pieced together by intelligent information integration systems to produce a fairly com-plete picture of what each of us is doing, how we live our lives, who we like and dislike, and how we will vote. 4 The Stasi will look like amateurs by comparison. Controlling your behavior Once surveillance capabilities are in place, the next step is to mod- ify your behavior to suit those who are deploying this technology. One rather crude method is automated, personalized blackmail: a system that understands what you are doing whether by listening, reading, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 104 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnten All this dll this d informatioinformat ure of wure of w ddfore usagusa Our locatiOur locat net-net-ccononDistributionin b tand the cnd the c speech, texpeech, tex gy is adoptes adopt tizen had thzen had th wenty-nty-ffour ourfff relatively fratively fr surveillancesurveillan urchases, urchases, ,c a,c a MISUSES OF AI 105 or watching you can easily spot things you should not be doing. Once it finds something, it will enter into correspondence with you to extract the largest possible amount of money (or to coerce behavior, if the goal is political control or espionage). The extraction of money works as the perfect reward signal for a reinforcement learning algo-rithm, so we can expect AI systems to improve rapidly in their ability to identify and profit from misbehavior. Early in 2015, I suggested to a computer security expert that automated blackmail systems, driven by reinforcement learning, might soon become feasible; he laughed and said it was already happening. The first blackmail bot to be widely publicized was Delilah, identified in July 2016. 5 A more subtle way to change peoples behavior is to modify their information environment so that they believe different things and make different decisions. Of course, advertisers have been doing this for centuries as a way of modifying the purchasing behavior of individ-uals. Propaganda as a tool of war and political domination has an even longer history. So whats different now? First, because AI systems can track an individuals online reading habits, preferences, and likely state of knowledge, they can tailor specific messages to maximize impact on that individual while minimizing the risk that the information will be disbelieved. Second, the AI system knows whether the individual reads the message, how long they spend reading it, and whether they follow additional links within the message. It then uses these signals as immediate feedback on the success or failure of its attempt to influ-ence each individual; in this way , it quickly learns to become more effective in its work. This is how content selection algorithms on so-cial media have had their insidious effect on political opinions. Another recent change is that the combination of AI, computer graphics, and speech synthesis is making it possible to generate deepfakes realistic video and audio content of just about anyone say- ing or doing just about anything. The technology will require little more than a verbal description of the desired event, making it usable M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 105 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotwhwh Second, econd, e message, he message, ditionalditionaforading ing an tailor spn tailor sp le minime minim hDistributionbot t avior is to mvior is to m lieve differe diffe vertisers havertisers ha he purchasipurchas and politicnd politic w? First, bw? First, b habithabit 106 HUMAN COMPATIBLE by more or less anyone in the world. Cell phone video of Senator X accepting a bribe from cocaine dealer Y at shady establishment Z? No problem! This kind of content can induce unshakeable beliefs in things that never happened. 6 In addition, AI systems can generate millions of false identities the so- called bot armies that can pump out billions of comments, tweets, and recommendations daily, swamping the ef- forts of mere humans to exchange truthful information. Online market- places such as eBay, Taobao, and Amazon that rely on reputation systems7 to build trust between buyers and sellers are constantly at war with bot armies designed to corrupt the markets. Finally, methods of control can be direct if a government is able to implement rewards and punishments based on behavior. Such a sys-tem treats people as reinforcement learning algorithms, training them to optimize the objective set by the state. The temptation for a gov- ernment, particularly one with a top- down, engineering mind-set, is to reason as follows: it would be better if everyone behaved well, had a patriotic attitude, and contributed to the progress of the country; technology enables measurement of individual behavior, attitudes, and contributions; therefore, everyone will be better off if we set up a technology- based system of monitoring and control based on rewards and punishments. There are several problems with this line of thinking. First, it ig- nores the psychic cost of living under a system of intrusive monitoring and coercion; outward harmony masking inner misery is hardly an ideal state. Every act of kindness ceases to be an act of kindness and becomes instead an act of personal score maximization and is per-ceived as such by the recipient. Or worse, the very concept of a volun-tary act of kindness gradually becomes just a fading memory of something people used to do. Visiting an ailing friend in hospital will, under such a system, have no more moral significance and emotional value than stopping at a red light. Second, the scheme falls victim to the same failure mode as the standard model of AI, in that it assumes that the stated objective is in fact the true, underlying objective. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 106 8/7/19 11:21 PMNots.. several peveral p psychic cospsychic co ion; oution; ouforefore, ere, stem of mostem of mDistributionvernment irnment behavior. Sbehavior. S algorithms,rithms e. The teme. The tem own, enginwn, engin ter if everyr if every buted to thbuted to ement of ement of veryvery MISUSES OF AI 107 Inevitably, Goodharts law will take over, whereby individuals opti- mize the official measure of outward behavior, just as universities have learned to optimize the objective measures of quality used by university ranking systems instead of improving their real (but un-measured) quality. 8 Finally, the imposition of a uniform measure of behavioral virtue misses the point that a successful society may com-prise a wide variety of individuals, each contributing in their own way. A right to mental security One of the great achievements of civilization has been the gradual improvement in physical security for humans. Most of us can expect to conduct our daily lives without constant fear of injury and death. Article 3 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. I would like to suggest that everyone should also have the right to mental security the right to live in a largely true information envi- ronment. Humans tend to believe the evidence of our eyes and ears. We trust our family, friends, teachers, and (some) media sources to tell us what they believe to be the truth. Even though we do not ex- pect used- car salespersons and politicians to tell us the truth, we have trouble believing that they are lying as brazenly as they sometimes do. We are, therefore, extremely vulnerable to the technology of misin-formation. The right to mental security does not appear to be enshrined in the Universal Declaration. Articles 18 and 19 establish the rights of free-dom of thought and freedom of opinion and expression. Ones thoughts and opinions are, of course, partly formed by ones informa- tion environment, which, in turn, is subject to Article 19s right to . . . impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. That is, anyone, anywhere in the world, has the right to impart false information to you. And therein lies the difficulty: dem-ocratic nations, particularly the United States, have for the most part M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 107 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotalesle eving thatng that therefore, etherefore, nnforfriendsend elieve to beelieve to b persons ersons hDistributionhas been thbeen th Most of usMost of us t fear of injar of in ation of Hution of Hu ty and secuand secu veryone shoryone sho o live in a la live in a believe thbelieve th teatea 108 HUMAN COMPATIBLE been reluctant or constitutionally unable to prevent the imparting of false information on matters of public concern because of justifiable fears regarding government control of speech. Rather than pursuing the idea that there is no freedom of thought without access to true information, democracies seem to have placed a nave trust in the idea that the truth will win out in the end, and this trust has left us unpro-tected. Germany is an exception; it recently passed the Network En-forcement Act, which requires content platforms to remove proscribed hate speech and fake news, but this has come under considerable crit-icism as being unworkable and undemocratic. 9 For the time being, then, we can expect our mental security to remain under attack, protected mainly by commercial and volunteer efforts. These efforts include fact- checking sites such as factcheck.org and snopes. com but of course other fact- checking sites are spring- ing up to declare truth as lies and lies as truth. The major information utilities such as Google and Facebook have come under extreme pressure in Europe and the United States to do something about it. They are experimenting with ways to flag or rel- egate false content using both AI and human screeners and to direct users to verified sources that counteract the effects of misinfor- mation. Ultimately, all such efforts rely on circular reputation sys-tems, in the sense that sources are trusted because trusted sources report them to be trustworthy. If enough false information is propa-gated, these reputation systems can fail: sources that are actually trustworthy can become untrusted and vice versa, as appears to be occurring today with major media sources such as CNN and Fox News in the United States. Aviv Ovadya, a technologist working against mis- information, has called this the infopocalypse a catastrophic failure of the marketplace of ideas. 10 One way to protect the functioning of reputation systems is to inject sources that are as close as possible to ground truth. A single fact that is certainly true can invalidate any number of sources that are 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 108 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotely,el sense thanse tha em to be truem to be t se repuse repuforsing bg ed sources ed sources all suchall sucDistributionmental secental sec mercial andmercial and ites such assuch a ct-ct-ccheckinghecking as truth.s truth. s such as Guch as G in Europe ain Europe e experime experim th Ath A MISUSES OF AI 109 only somewhat trustworthy, if those sources disseminate information contrary to the known fact. In many countries, notaries function as sources of ground truth to maintain the integrity of legal and real- estate information; they are usually disinterested third parties in any transaction and are licensed by governments or professional societies. (In the City of London, the Worshipful Company of Scriveners has been doing this since 1373, suggesting that a certain stability inheres in the role of truth telling.) If formal standards, professional qualifica- tions, and licensing procedures emerge for fact- checkers, that would tend to preserve the validity of the information flows on which we depend. Organizations such as the W3C Credible Web group and the Credibility Coalition aim to develop technological and crowdsourcing methods for evaluating information providers, which would then al- low users to filter out unreliable sources. A second way to protect reputation systems is to impose a cost for purveying false information. Thus, some hotel rating sites accept re-views concerning a particular hotel only from those who have booked and paid for a room at that hotel through the site, while other rating sites accept reviews from anyone. It will come as no surprise that rat-ings at the former sites are far less biased, because they impose a cost (paying for an unnecessary hotel room) for fraudulent reviews. 11 Regu- latory penalties are more controversial: no one wants a Ministry of Truth, and Germanys Network Enforcement Act penalizes only the content platform, not the person posting the fake news. On the other hand, just as many nations and many US states make it illegal to record telephone calls without permission, it ought, at least, to be possible to impose penalties for creating fictitious audio and video recordings of real people. Finally, there are two other facts that work in our favor. First, al- most no one actively wants, knowingly, to be lied to. (This is not to say that parents always inquire vigorously into the truthfulness of those who praise their childrens intelligence and charm; its just that they M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 109 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnnnn ties are ms are m nd Germannd Germa platformplatformforom any an sites are farites are fa ecessarycessaryDistributionws o Web grouWeb grou ical and crocal and cro ers, which which .. on systemsn systems us, some ho some ho hotel only hotel onl hotel thrhotel thr one.one. 110 HUMAN COMPATIBLE are less likely to seek such approval from someone who is known to lie at every opportunity.) This means that people of all political per-suasions have an incentive to adopt tools that help them distinguish truth from lies. Second, no one wants to be known as a liar, least of all news outlets. This means that information providers at least those for who reputation matters have an incentive to join industry associ- ations and subscribe to codes of conduct that favor truth telling. In turn, social media platforms can offer users the option of seeing con- tent from only reputable sources that subscribe to these codes and subject themselves to third- party fact- checking. Lethal Autonomous Weapons The United Nations defines lethal autonomous weapons systems (AWS for short, because LAWS is quite confusing) as weapons sys-tems that locate, select, and eliminate human targets without human i n t e r v e n t i o n . A W S h a v e b e e n d e s c r i b e d , w i t h g o o d r e a s o n , a s t h e third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear weapons. You may have read articles in the media about AWS; usually the article will call them killer robots and will be festooned with images from the Terminator movies. This is misleading in at least two ways: first, it suggests that autonomous weapons are a threat because they might take over the world and destroy the human race; second, it sug-gests that autonomous weapons will be humanoid, conscious, and evil. The net effect of the medias portrayal of the issue has been to make it seem like science fiction. Even the German government has been taken in: it recently issued a statement 12 asserting that having the abil- ity to learn and develop self- awareness constitutes an indispensable at- tribute to be used to define individual functions or weapon systems as autonomous. (This makes as much sense as asserting that a missile isnt a missile unless it goes faster than the speed of light.) In fact, autono-m o u s w e a p o n s w i l l h a v e t h e s a m e d e g r e e o f a u t o n o m y a s a c h e s s 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 110 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotheh minator mnator m ggests that ggests tha e over the over tforfare, re, ead articles ad article mmkiller killer Distributionautonomoutonomo is quite conquite con liminate huliminate h een descrieen descr fterfter MISUSES OF AI 111 program, which is given the mission of winning the game but decides by itself where to move its pieces and which enemy pieces to eliminate. AWS are not science fiction. They already exist. Probably the clear- est example is Israels Harop (figure 7, left), a loitering munition with a ten- foot wingspan and a fifty- pound warhead. It searches for up to six hours in a given geographical region for any target that meets a given criterion and then destroys it. The criterion could be emits a radar signal resembling antiaircraft radar or looks like a tank. By combining recent advances in miniature quadrotor design, min- iature cameras, computer vision chips, navigation and mapping algo-rithms, and methods for detecting and tracking humans, it would be possible in fairly short order to field an antipersonnel weapon like the Slaughterbot 13 shown in figure 7 (right). Such a weapon could be tasked with attacking anyone meeting certain visual criteria (age, gen- der, uniform, skin color, and so on) or even specific individuals based on face recognition. Im told that the Swiss Defense Department has already built and tested a real Slaughterbot and found that, as ex-pected, the technology is both feasible and lethal. Since 2014, diplomatic discussions have been underway in Geneva that may lead to a treaty banning AWS. At the same time, some of the major participants in these discussions (the United States, China, FIGURE OHIW +DURSORLWHULQJZHDSRQSURGXFHGE\,VUDHO$HURVSDFH, QGXV - WULHV ULJKW VWLOOLPDJHIURPWKH Slaughterbots YLGHRVKRZLQJDSRVVLEOHGHVLJQ IRUDQDXWRQRPRXVZHDSRQFRQWDLQLQJDVPDOO H[SORVLYH GULYHQSURMHFWLOH M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 111 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotng rg ras, comp, comp nd methodnd metho n fairly n fairlyfortroys oys ntiaircraft rntiaircraft ecent adcent adDistributioning the gamthe gam h enemy pieenemy pie y already exlready ex ure 7, left), e 7, left), ppound waround wa al region al region .T h.T hnSRVVL YHQSURMHFWSURMHFW 112 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Russia, and to some extent Israel and the UK) are engaged in a danger- ous competition to develop autonomous weapons. In the United States, for example, the CODE (Collaborative Operations in Denied Environ- ments) program aims to move towards autonomy by enabling drones to function with at best intermittent radio contact. The drones will hunt in packs, like wolves according to the program manager. 14 In 2016, the US Air Force demonstrated the in- flight deployment of 103 Perdix micro- drones from three F/ A- 18 fighters. According to the announce- ment, Perdix are not pre- programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision- making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature. 15 You may think its pretty obvious that building machines that can decide to kill humans is a bad idea. But pretty obvious is not always persuasive to governments including some of those listed in the pre- ceding paragraph who are bent on achieving what they think of as strategic superiority. A more convincing reason to reject autonomous weapons is that they are scalable weapons of mass destruction . Scalable is a term from computer science; a process is scalable if you can do a million times more of it essentially by buying a million times more hardware. Thus, Google handles roughly five billion search requests per day by having not millions of employees but mil-lions of computers. With autonomous weapons, you can do a million times more killing by buying a million times more weapons, pre- cisely because the weapons are autonomous . Unlike remotely piloted drones or AK- 47s, they dont need individual human supervision to do their work. As weapons of mass destruction, scalable autonomous weapons have advantages for the attacker compared to nuclear weapons and carpet bombing: they leave property intact and can be applied selec-tively to eliminate only those who might threaten an occupying force. They could certainly be used to wipe out an entire ethnic group or all the adherents of a particular religion (if adherents have visible indicia). Moreover, whereas the use of nuclear weapons represents a cataclys- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 112 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotper e uters. Witers. W re killing bre killing use the use theformes mes m are. Thus, re. Thus day by hday by h hDistributionin fo nature.ure.155 ing machinng machin tty obviousobviou me of thoseme of those achieving whieving w vincing reascing reas ble weapons ble weapon computer computer re ore o MISUSES OF AI 113 mic threshold that we have (often by sheer luck) avoided crossing since 1945, there is no such threshold with scalable autonomous weapons. Attacks could escalate smoothly from one hundred casualties to one thousand to ten thousand to one hundred thousand. In addition to actual attacks, the mere threat of attacks by such weapons makes them an effective tool for terror and oppression. Autonomous weapons will greatly reduce human security at all levels: personal, local, national, and international. This is not to say that autonomous weapons will be the end of the world in the way envisaged in the Terminator movies. They need not be especially intelligent a self- driving car probably needs to be smarter and their missions will not be of the take over the world variety. The existential risk from AI does not come primarily from simple- minded killer robots. On the other hand, superintelligent ma- chines in conflict with humanity could certainly arm themselves this way, by turning relatively stupid killer robots into physical extensions of a global control system. Eliminating Work as We Know It Thousands of media articles and opinion pieces and several books have been written on the topic of robots taking jobs from humans. Research centers are springing up all over the world to understand what is likely to happen. 16 The titles of Martin Fords Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future17 and Calum Chaces The Economic Singularity: Artificial Intelligence and the Death of Capital-ism 18 do a pretty good job of summarizing the concern. Although, as will soon become evident, I am by no means qualified to opine on what is essentially a matter for economists,19 I suspect that the issue is too important to leave entirely to them. The issue of technological unemployment was brought to the fore in a famous article, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, by M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 113 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotof media media n written on written centerscenterforWork asWork aDistribution. Th bably neeably nee take overtake over not come t come her hand, suer hand, su uld certainld certain killer robotller robot 114 HUMAN COMPATIBLE John Maynard Keynes. He wrote the article in 1930, when the Great Depression had created mass unemployment in Britain, but the topic has a much longer history. Aristotle, in Book I of his Politics , presents the main point quite clearly: For if every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others . . . if, in like manner, the shut- tle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them, chief workmen would not want servants, nor mas-ters slaves. Everyone agrees with Aristotles observation that there is an im- mediate reduction in employment when an employer finds a mechan-ical method to perform work previously done by a person. The issue is whether the so- called compensation effects that ensue and that tend to increase employment will eventually make up for this reduction. The optimists say yes and in the current debate, they point to all the new jobs that emerged after previous industrial revolutions. The pes-simists say no and in the current debate, they argue that machines will do all the new jobs too. When a machine replaces ones physical labor, one can sell mental labor. When a machine replaces ones men-tal labor, what does one have left to sell? In Life 3.0 , Max Tegmark depicts the debate as a conversation between two horses discussing the rise of the internal combustion engine in 1900. One predicts new jobs for horses. . . . Thats whats always happened before, like with the invention of the wheel and the plow. For most horses, alas, the new job was to be pet food. The debate has persisted for millennia because there are effects in both directions. The actual outcome depends on which effects matter more. Consider, for example, what happens to housepainters as tech-nology improves. For the sake of simplicity, Ill let the width of the paintbrush stand for the degree of automation: 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 114 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotll ml t does ondoes on 3.0 3.0, Max , Max two hortwo horforthe cue c jobs too. Wobs too. mental laental laDistributionn that thern that ther employer fiployer f done by a peone by a p ffects that ects that entually matually ma the currentthe curren previous previous rentrent MISUSES OF AI 115 If the brush is one hair (a tenth of a millimeter) wide, it takes thousands of person- years to paint a house and essentially no housepainters are employed. With brushes a millimeter wide, perhaps a few delicate murals are painted in the royal palace by a handful of painters. At one centimeter, the nobility begin to follow suit. At ten centimeters (four inches), we reach the realm of practi-cality: most homeowners have their houses painted inside and out, although perhaps not all that frequently, and thousands of housepainters find jobs. Once we get to wide rollers and spray guns the equivalent of a paintbrush about a meter wide the price goes down consid- erably, but demand may begin to saturate so the number of housepainters drops somewhat. When one person manages a team of one hundred housepaint-ing robots the productivity equivalent of a paintbrush one hundred meters widethen whole houses can be painted in an hour and very few housepainters will be working. Thus, the direct effects of technology work both ways: at first, by increasing productivity, technology can increase employment by re-ducing the price of an activity and thereby increasing demand; subse-quently, further increases in technology mean that fewer and fewer humans are required. Figure 8 illustrates these developments. 20 Many technologies exhibit similar curves. If, in some given sector of the economy, we are to the left of the peak, then improving tech- nology increases employment in that sector; present- day examples might include tasks such as graffiti removal, environmental cleanup, inspection of shipping containers, and housing construction in less de-veloped countries, all of which might become more economically fea-sible if we have robots to help us. If we are already to the right of the peak, then further automation decreases employment. For example, M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 115 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotuctuc rice of ance of an further incfurther in are requare requfor effects of effects of ivity, tevity, teDistributionthe equivae equiva ce goes dowe goes dow urate so thte so th am of one hm of one h ty equivaleequivale then whole hen whol usepainterusepainte 116 HUMAN COMPATIBLE its not hard to predict that elevator operators will continue to be squeezed out. In the long run, we have to expect that most industries are going to be pushed to the far right on the curve. One recent article, based on a careful econometric study by economists David Autor and Anna Salomons, states that over the last 40 years, jobs have fallen in every single industry that introduced technologies to enhance productivity. 21 What about the compensation effects described by the economic optimists? Some people have to make the painting robots. How many? Far fewer than the number of housepainters the robots replace otherwise, it would cost more to paint houses with robots, not less, and no one would buy the robots.number of housepainters employed effective brush width 0.1mm 1mm 1cm 10cm 1m 10m 100m0 FIGURE 8: A notional graph of housepainting employment as painting technol- ogy improves. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 116 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotushs reful econful econ omons, stateomons, sta gle indgle ind 2fort that ha e long run, wlong run, ed to thed to theDistrielevaelevaibutionbutm 100tiotiotioion ibng employmeemployme MISUSES OF AI 117 Housepainting becomes somewhat cheaper, so people call in the housepainters a bit more often. Finally, because we pay less for housepainting, we have more money to spend on other things, thereby increasing employ-ment in other sectors. Economists have tried to measure the size of these effects in vari- ous industries experiencing increased automation, but the results are generally inconclusive. Historically , most mainstream economists have argued from the big picture view: automation increases productivity, so, as a whole , humans are better off, in the sense that we enjoy more goods and ser-vices for the same amount of work. Economic theory does not, unfortunately, predict that each hu- man will be better off as a result of automation. Generally, automa- tion increases the share of income going to capital (the owners of the housepainting robots) and decreases the share going to labor (the ex- housepainters). The economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, in The Second Machine Age , argue that this has already been happening for several decades. Data for the United States are shown in figure 9. They indicate that between 1947 and 1973, wages and productivity increased together, but after 1973, wages stagnated even while productivity roughly doubled. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call this the Great Decoupling . Other leading economists have also sounded the alarm, including Nobel laureates Robert Shiller, Mike Spence, and Paul Krugman; Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum; and Larry Summers, former chief economist of the World Bank and Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton. Those arguing against the notion of technological unemployment often point to bank tellers, whose work can be done in part by ATMs, and retail cashiers, whose work is sped up by barcodes and RFID tags on merchandise. It is often claimed that these occupations are growing M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 117 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotey ey increasedncrease oductivity oductivity Great DeGreat Dford MachMa ral decadesral decade ndicatendicateDistributionargueg vity, so, ty, so, aa oy more gooy more go unately, prenately, pre f automatioutomatio me going te going t d decreasesd decrease onomists onomists ne Ane A 118 HUMAN COMPATIBLE because of technology. Indeed, the number of tellers in the United States roughly doubled from 1970 to 2010, although it should be noted that the US population grew by 50 percent and the financial sector by over 400 percent in the same period, 22 so it is difficult to attribute all, or perhaps any, of the employment growth to ATMs. Unfortunately, between 2010 and 2016 about one hundred thousand tellers lost their jobs, and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts another forty thousand job losses by 2026: Online banking and automation technology are expected to continue replacing more job duties that tellers traditionally performed. 23 The data on retail cashiers are no more encouraging: the number per capita dropped by 5 percent from 1997 to 2015, and the BLS says, Advances in technology, such as self- service checkout stands in retail stores and increasing online sales, will continue to limit the need for cashiers. Both sectors appear to be on the downslope. The same is true of almost all low- skilled occupations that involve working with machines. Which occupations are about to decline as new, AI- based technol-FIGURE (FRQRPLFSURGXFWLRQDQGUHDOPHGLDQZDJHVLQWKH8QLWHG6WDW HV VLQFH 'DWDIURPWKH%XUHDXRI/DERU6WDWLVWLFV 45 55 65 75 YearProductivity and average real earningsIndex relative to 1970 8550100150200250 95Real wages of goods-producing workersMajor sector productivity 105 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 118 8/7/19 11:21 PMof tf and 201nd 201 the US Buthe US Bu usand jousand joforgrew bew the same pthe same p he emple emplDistributio, the numb, the num 1970 to 201970 to 2 y5 0y5 0utDQZDJHVLQWDQZDJHVLQ 6WDWLVWLFV DWLVWLFV tionon95g wo MISUSES OF AI 119 ogy arrives? The prime example cited in the media is that of driving. In the United States there are about 3.5 million truck drivers; many of these jobs would be vulnerable to automation. Amazon, among other companies, is already using self- driving trucks for freight haulage on interstate freeways, albeit currently with human backup drivers. 24 It seems very likely that the long- haul part of each truck journey will soon be autonomous, while humans, for the time being, will handle city traffic, pickup, and delivery. As a consequence of these expected devel-opments, very few young people are interested in trucking as a career; ironically, there is currently a significant shortage of truck drivers in the Unites States, which is only hastening the onset of automation. White- collar jobs are also at risk. For example, the BLS projects a 13 percent decline in per- capita employment of insurance underwrit- e r s f r o m 2 0 1 6 t o 2 0 2 6 : A u t o m a t e d u n d e r w r i t i n g s o f t w a r e a l l o w s workers to process applications more quickly than before, reducing the need for as many underwriters. If language technology develops as expected, many sales and customer service jobs will also be vulner-able, as well as jobs in the legal profession. (In a 2018 competition, AI software outscored experienced law professors in analyzing standard nondisclosure agreements and completed the task two hundred times faster. 25) Routine forms of computer programming the kind that is often outsourced today are also likely to be automated. Indeed, al- most anything that can be outsourced is a good candidate for automa-tion, because outsourcing involves decomposing jobs into tasks that can be parceled up and distributed in a decontextualized form. The robot process automation industry produces software tools that achieve exactly this effect for clerical tasks performed online. As AI progresses, it is certainly possible perhaps even likely that within the next few decades essentially all routine physical and mental labor will be done more cheaply by machines. Since we ceased to be hunter- gatherers thousands of years ago, our societies have used most people as robots, performing repetitive manual and mental tasks, so it is perhaps not surprising that robots will soon take on these roles. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 119 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotne fe f rced ed ttodod thing that cthing that ause ouause ouforperienrie ements andements an orms oforms ofDistributionuck d automatioutomatio mple, the BLple, the BL nt of insuraof insur underwritinnderwritin re quickly quickly ers. If lang. If lang ustomer seustomer s egal profesegal profe ed led l 120 HUMAN COMPATIBLE When this happens, it will push wages below the poverty line for those people who are unable to compete for the highly skilled jobs that remain. Larry Summers put it this way: It may well be that, given the possibilities for substitution [of capital for labor], some cat- egories of labor will not be able to earn a subsistence income. 26 This is precisely what happened to the horses: mechanical transportation became cheaper than the upkeep cost of a horse, so horses became pet food. Faced with the socioeconomic equivalent of becoming pet food, humans will be rather unhappy with their governments. Faced with potentially unhappy humans, governments around the world are beginning to devote some attention to the issue. Most have already discovered that the idea of retraining everyone as a data scien- tist or robot engineer is a nonstarter the world might need five or ten million of these, but nowhere close to the billion or so jobs that are at risk. Data science is a very tiny lifeboat for a giant cruise ship. 27 Some are working on transition plans but transition to what? We need a plausible destination in order to plan a transitionthat is, we need a plausible picture of a desirable future economy where most of what we currently call work is done by machines. One rapidly emerging picture is that of an economy where far fewer people work because work is unnecessary. Keynes envisaged just such a future in his essay Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchil-dren. He described the high unemployment afflicting Great Britain in 1930 as a temporary phase of maladjustment caused by an in- crease of technical efficiency that took place faster than we can deal with the problem of labour absorption. He did not, however, imagine that in the long run after a century of further technological advances there would be a return to full employment: Thus for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 120 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotrk bk in his esn his es described described s a tems a temforll worwo erging picterging pic ecause wecause wDistributionents he issue. Missue. M eryone as a ryone as a orld might nmight n e billion or billion or at for a gianfor a gia ion plansn plans n in order tn in order of a desirabof a desira is dis d MISUSES OF AI 121 and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well. Such a future requires a radical change in our economic system, because, in many countries, those who do not work face poverty or destitution. Thus, modern proponents of Keyness vision usually sup-port some form of universal basic income , or UBI. Funded by value- added taxes or by taxes on income from capital, UBI would provide a reasonable income to every adult, regardless of circumstance. Those who aspire to a higher standard of living can still work without losing the UBI, while those who do not can spend their time as they see fit. Perhaps surprisingly, UBI has support across the political spectrum, ranging from the Adam Smith Institute 28 to the Green Party.29 For some, UBI represents a version of paradise.30 For others, it rep- resents an admission of failure an assertion that most people will have nothing of economic value to contribute to society. They can be fed and housedmostly by machinesbut otherwise left to their own devices. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between, and it depends largely on how one views human psychology. Keynes, in his essay, made a clear distinction between those who strive and those who enjoythose purposive people for whom jam is not jam unless it is a case of jam to- morrow and never jam to- day and those delight- ful peop le wh o are capab le o f taking direct en j o ymen t in things. The UBI proposal assumes that the great majority of people are of the delightful variety. Keynes suggests that striving is one of the habits and instincts of the ordinary man, bred into him for countless generations rather than one of the real values of life. He predicts that this instinct will grad-ually disappear. Against this view, one may suggest that striving is in-trinsic to what it means to be truly human. Rather than striving and enjoying being mutually exclusive, they are often inseparable: true enjoyment and lasting fulfillment come from having a purpose and M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 121 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot se se jam tom to--mm ple who areple who ar proposaproposforw one on r distinctiodistincti purposipurposiDistributionk wi time as thme as th the politicahe politica o the Greene Gree f paradise.paradise.33 assertion ssertion to contributcontribu machinesachines always, liealways, li viewview 122 HUMAN COMPATIBLE achieving it (or at least trying), usually in the face of obstacles, rather than from passive consumption of immediate pleasure. There is a dif-ference between climbing Everest and being deposited on top by helicopter. The connection between striving and enjoying is a central theme for our understanding of how to fashion a desirable future. Perhaps future generations will wonder why we ever worried about such a fu-tile thing as work. Just in case that chang e in attitudes is slo w in coming, lets consider the economic implications of the view that most people will be better off with something useful to do, even though the great majority of goods and services will be produced by machines with very little human supervision. Inevitably, most people will be engaged in supplying interpersonal services that can be provided or which we prefer to be provided only by humans. That is, if we can no longer supply routine physical labor and routine mental labor, we can still supply our humanity. We will need to become good at being human. 31 Current professions of this kind include psychotherapists, execu- tive coaches, tutors, counselors, companions, and those who care for children and the elderly. The phrase caring professions is often used in this context, but that is misleading: it has a positive connotation for those providing care, to be sure, but a negative connotation of depen-dency and helplessness for the recipients of care. But consider this observation, again from Keynes: It will be those peoples, who can keep alive, and cultivate into a fuller perfection, the art of life itself and do not sell themselves for the means of life, who will be able to enjoy the abundance when it comes. All of us need help in learning the art of life itself. This is not a mat- ter of dependency but of growth. The capacity to inspire others and to confer the ability to appreciate and to create be it in art, music, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 122 8/7/19 11:21 PMNott tht ng care, tcare, t d helplessned helplessn n, againn, againforunselosel erly. The perly. The at is miat is miDistributionven uced by mced by m most peopmost peo that can bet can b humans. Thhumans. Th nd routine d routine will need tol need to his kind inhis kind i s, cos, co MISUSES OF AI 123 literature, conversation, gardening, architecture, food, wine, or video games is likely to be more needed than ever. The next question is income distribution. In most countries, this has been moving in the wrong direction for several decades. Its a complex issue, but one thing is clear: high incomes and high social standing usually follow from providing high added value. The profes- sion of childcare, to pick one example, is associated with low incomes and low social standing. This is, in part, a consequence of the fact that we dont really know how to do it. Some practitioners are naturally good at it, but many are not. Contrast this with, say, orthopedic sur-gery. We wouldnt just hire bored teenagers who need a bit of spare cash and put them to work as orthopedic surgeons at five dollars an hour plus all they can eat from the fridge. We have put centuries of research into understanding the human body and how to fix it when its broken, and practitioners must undergo years of training to learn all this knowledge and the skills necessary to apply it. As a result, or-thopedic surgeons are highly paid and highly respected. They are highly paid not just because they know a lot and have a lot of training but also because all that knowledge and training actually works. It en- ables them to add a great deal of value to other peoples lives especially people with broken bits. Unfortunately, our scientific understanding of the mind is shock- ingly weak and our scientific understanding of happiness and fulfill-ment is even weaker. We simply dont know how to add value to each others lives in consistent, predictable ways. We have had moderate success with certain psychiatric disorders, but we are still fighting a Hundred Years Literacy War over something as basic as teaching chil-dren to read. 32 We need a radical rethinking of our educational system and our scientific enterprise to focus more attention on the human rather than the physical world. (Joseph Aoun, president of Northeast-ern University, argues that universities should be teaching and study- ing humanics. 33) It sounds odd to say that happiness should be an engineering discipline, but that seems to be the inevitable conclusion. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 123 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotkenke nately, outely, ou ak and our ak and our ven weaven weforat knowkn great deal ogreat deal bits.bits.Distributionorth need a bieed a bi geons at fiveons at fiv We have pe have body and body and undergo yeadergo ye necessary tcessary t y paid andy paid an e they knoe they kno wledgwledg 124 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Such a discipline would build on basic science a better understand- ing of how human minds work at the cognitive and emotional levels and would train a wide variety of practitioners, ranging from life architects, who help individuals plan the overall shape of their life trajectories, to professional experts in topics such as curiosity en-hancement and personal resilience. If based on real science, these professions need be no more woo- woo than bridge designers and or- thopedic surgeons are today. Reworking our education and research institutions to create this basic science and to convert it into training programs and credentialed professions will take decades, so its a good idea to start now and a pity we didnt start long ago. The final result if it works would be a world well worth living in. Without such a rethinking, we risk an un- sustainable level of socioeconomic dislocation. Usurping Other Human Roles We should think twice before allowing machines to take over roles involving interpersonal services. If being human is our main selling point to other humans, so to speak, then making imitation humans seems like a bad idea. Fortunately for us, we have a distinct advantage over machines when it comes to knowing how other humans feel and how they will react. Nearly every human knows what its like to hit ones thumb with a hammer or to feel unrequited love. Counteracting this natural human advantage is a natural human disadvantage: the tendency to be fooled by appearances especially human appearances. Alan Turing warned against making robots re- semble humans: 34 I certainly hope and believe that no great efforts will be put into making machines with the most distinctively human, but non- intellectual, characteristics such as the shape of the human body; 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 124 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotumum bad idea. Fd idea. F hines when hines when will reawill reaforbeforefo nal servicenal servic ans, so tns, so Distributionnd cr tart now art now a t wworksorks ethinking, inking, ation.tion. man Rolman Rol alloallo MISUSES OF AI 125 it appears to me quite futile to make such attempts and their re- sults would have something like the unpleasant quality of artificial flowers. Unfortunately, Turings warning has gone unheeded. Several research groups have produced eerily lifelike robots, as shown in figure 10. As research tools, the robots may provide insights into how hu- mans interpret robot behavior and communication. As prototypes for future commercial products, they represent a form of dishonesty. They bypass our conscious awareness and appeal directly to our emo-tional selves, perhaps convincing us that they are endowed with real intelligence. Imagine, for example, how much easier it would be to switch off and recycle a squat, gray box that was malfunctioning even if it was squawking about not wanting to be switched off than it would be to do the same for JiaJia or Geminoid DK. Imagine also how confusing and perhaps psychologically disturbing it would be for babies and small children to be cared for by entities that appear to be human, like their parents, but are somehow not; that appear to care about them, like their parents, but in fact do not. FIGURE OHIW -LD-LDDURERWEXLOWDWWKH8QLYHUVLW\RI6FLHQFHD QG7HFKQRO - RJ\RI&KLQD ULJKW *HPLQRLG'.DURERWGHVLJQHGE\+LURVKL ,VKLJXURDW 2VDND8QLYHUVLW\LQ-DSDQDQGPRGHOHGRQ+HQULN6FKlUIHRI$DOE RUJ8QLYHU - sity in Denmark. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 125 8/7/19 11:21 PM for parentren Distributionctly y endowed ndowed h easier it weasier it w hat was was mm ting to be sing to be s a or Geminor Gemi hologically logically be cared forbe cared fo but are sobut are so ,b u,b u 126 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Beyond a basic capability to convey nonverbal information via fa- cial expression and movement which even Bugs Bunny manages to do with ease there is no good reason for robots to have humanoid form. There are also good, practical reasons not to have humanoid form for example, our bipedal stance is relatively unstable compared to qua-drupedal locomotion. Dogs, cats, and horses fit into our lives well, and their physical form is a very good clue as to how they are likely to behave. (Imagine if a horse suddenly started behaving like a dog!) The same should be true of robots. Perhaps a four- legged, two- armed, centaur- like morphology would be a good standard. An accurately hu- manoid robot makes as much sense as a Ferrari with a top speed of five miles per hour or a raspberry ice- cream cone made from beetroot- tinted cream of chopped liver. The humanoid aspect of some robots has already contributed to political as well as emotional confusion. On October 25, 2017, Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to Sophia, a humanoid robot that has been described as little more than a chatbot with a face 35 and worse.36 Perhaps this was a public relations stunt, but a proposal emanating from the European Parliaments Committee on Legal Affairs is en-tirely serious. 37 It recommends creating a specific legal status for robots in the long run, so that at least the most sophisticated autonomous robots could be estab-lished as having the status of electronic persons responsible for making good any damage they may cause. In other words, the robot itself would be legally responsible for damage, rather than the owner or manufacturer. This implies that robots will own financial assets and be subject to sanctions if they do not comply. Taken literally, this does not make sense. For example, if we were to imprison the robot for nonpayment, why would it care? In addition to the needless and even absurd elevation of the status of robots, there is a danger that the increased use of machines in 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 126 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotspecific leecific le he most sophe most so as havinas havinfor rliamenm commendscommendDistributionn acc a top speetop spee made frommade from s has alrea has alrea on. On Oct. On Oc hia, a humaa, a huma a chatbot chatbo elations stelations s ts Cts C MISUSES OF AI 127 decisions affecting people will degrade the status and dignity of hu- mans. This possibility is illustrated perfectly in a scene from the science-fiction movie Elysium , when Max (Matt Damon) pleads his case before his parole officer (figure 11) to explain why the exten-sion of his sentence is unjustified. Needless to say, Max is unsuccess-ful. The parole officer even chides him for failing to display a suitably deferential attitude. One can think of such an assault on human dignity in two ways. The first is obvious: by giving machines authority over humans, we relegate ourselves to a second- class status and lose the right to partic- ipate in decisions that affect us. (A more extreme form of this is giving machines the authority to kill humans, as discussed earlier in the chapter.) The second is indirect: even if you believe it is not the ma- chines making the decision but those humans who designed and com- missioned the machines , the fact that those human designers and commissioners do not consider it worthwhile to weigh the individual circumstances of each human subject in such cases suggests that they attach little value to the lives of others. This is perhaps a symptom of the beginning of a great separation between an elite served by humans and a vast underclass served, and controlled, by machines. In the EU, Article 22 of the 2018 General Data Protection Regu- lation, or GDPR, explicitly forbids the granting of authority to ma-chines in such cases: FIGURE 11: Max (Matt Da- mon) meets his parole offi-cer in Elysium . M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 127 8/7/19 11:21 PMns ths t he authorauthor The seconThe secon aking thaking thforby givigiv o a o ssecond-econd hat affecat affecDistribution and dignnd dign y in a scenin a scen (Matt Damatt Da 11) to expla1) to expla Needless to edless to es him for fhim for f an assaultan assault gmgm 128 HUMAN COMPATIBLE The data subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or similarly signifi-cantly affects him or her. Although this sounds admirable in principle, it remains to be seen at least at the time of writing how much impact this will have in prac- tice. It is often so much easier, faster, and cheaper to leave the deci-sions to the machine. One reason for all the concern about automated decisions is the po- tential for algorithmic bias the tendency of machine learning algo- rithms to produce inappropriately biased decisions about loans, housing, jobs, insurance, parole, sentencing, college admission, and so on. The explicit use of criteria such as race in these decisions has been illegal for decades in many countries and is prohibited by Article 9 of the GDPR for a very wide range of applications. That does not mean, of course, that by excluding race from the data we necessarily get racially unbi- ased decisions. For example, beginning in the 1930s, the government- sanctioned practice of redlining caused certain zip codes in the United States to be off- limits for mortgage lending and other forms of invest- ment, leading to declining real-estate values. It just so happened that those zip codes were largely populated by African Americans. To prevent redlining, now only the first three digits of the five- digit zip code can be used in making credit decisions. In addition, the deci-sion process must be amenable to inspection, to ensure no other acci-dental biases are creeping in. The EUs GDPR is often said to provide a general right to an explanation for any automated decision, 38 but the actual language of Article 14 merely requires meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for the data subject. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 128 8/7/19 11:21 PMded es were lawere la vent redlinivent redlin an be uan be uforedlininini ts for mortgts for mor clining lining Distributionision hine learnine learni ns about loans about loan dmission, aission, e decisions hdecisions hibited by Aited by A ons. That ds. That d he data we ne data we beginningbeginning caucau MISUSES OF AI 129 At present, it is unknown how courts will enforce this clause. Its pos- sible that the hapless consumer will just be handed a description of the particular deep learning algorithm used to train the classifier that made the decision. Nowadays, the likely causes of algorithmic bias lie in the data rather than in the deliberate malfeasance of corporations. In 2015, Glamour magazine reported a disappointing finding: The first female Google image search result for CEO appears TWELVE rows down and its Barbie. (There were some actual women in the 2018 results, but most of them were models portraying CEOs in generic stock pho- tos, rather than actual female CEOs; the 2019 results are somewhat better.) This is a consequence not of deliberate gender bias in Googles image search ranking but of preexisting bias in the culture that pro-duces the data: there are far more male than female CEOs, and when people want to depict an archetypal CEO in a captioned image, they almost always pick a male figure. The fact that the bias lies primarily in the data does not, of course, mean that there is no obligation to take steps to counteract the problem. There are other, more technical reasons why the nave applica- tion of machine learning methods can produce biased outcomes. For example, minorities are, by definition, less well represented in population- wide data samples; hence, predictions for individual mem- bers of minorities may be less accurate if such predictions are made largely on the basis of data from other members of the same group. Fortunately, a good deal of attention has been paid to the problem of removing inadvertent bias from machine learning algorithms, and there are now methods that produce unbiased results according to several plausible and desirable definitions of fairness. 39 The mathe- matical analysis of these definitions of fairness shows that they cannot be achieved simultaneously and that, when enforced, they result in lower prediction accuracy and, in the case of lending decisions, lower profit for the lender. This is perhaps disappointing, but at least it M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 129 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotmini wide data de data minorities mminorities n the ban the bformore tre earning meearning m orities arities aDistributionneric sults are sults are s gender biasgender bias as in the cun the c than femalthan femal CEO in aCEO in a . The fact tThe fact t , mean that, mean th blem.blem. chnichni 130 HUMAN COMPATIBLE makes clear the trade- offs involved in avoiding algorithmic bias. One hopes that awareness of these methods and of the issue itself will spread quickly among policy makers, practitioners, and users. If handing authority over individual humans to machines is some- times problematic, what about authority over lots of humans? That is, should we put machines in political and management roles? At present this may seem far- fetched. Machines cannot sustain an extended con- versation and lack the basic understanding of the factors that are rele-vant to making decisions with broad scope, such as whether to raise the minimum wage or to reject a merger proposal from another cor-poration. The trend, however, is clear: machines are making decisions at higher and higher levels of authority in many areas. T ake airlines, for example. First, computers helped in the construction of flight schedules. Soon, they took over allocation of flight crews, the booking of seats, and the management of routine maintenance. Next, they were connected to global information networks to provide real- time status reports to airline managers, so that managers could cope with disruption effectively. Now they are taking over the job of managing disruption: rerouting planes, rescheduling staff, rebooking passengers, and revising maintenance schedules. This is all to the good from the point of view of airline economics and passenger experience. The question is whether the computer sys-tem remains a tool of humans, or humans become tools of the com- puter system supplying information and fixing bugs when necessary, but no longer understanding in any depth how the whole thing is working. The answer becomes clear when the system goes down and global chaos ensues until it can be brought back online. For example, a single computer glitch on April 3, 2018, caused fifteen thousand flights in Europe to be significantly delayed or canceled. 40 When trad- ing algorithms caused the 2010 flash crash on the New York Stock Exchange, wiping out $1 trillion in a few minutes, the only solution was to shut down the exchange. What happened is still not well understood. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 130 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottheh r experienxperien ins a tool oins a tool mmsuuforanes, res, nance schednance sche good frgood frDistributionm an e making dmaking d y areas. Tay areas. Ta he construcconstru n of flight cof flight c utine mainine main ation netwoon netwo gers, so thagers, so th they are tthey are t schesche MISUSES OF AI 131 Before there was any technology, human beings lived, like most animals, hand to mouth. We stood directly on the ground, so to speak. Technology gradually raised us up on a pyramid of machinery, increas-ing our footprint as individuals and as a species. There are different ways we can design the relationship between humans and machines. If we design it so that humans retain sufficient understanding, author-ity, and autonomy, the technological parts of the system can greatly magnify human capabilities, allowing each of us to stand on a vast pyramid of capabilities a demigod, if you like. But consider the worker in an online- shopping fulfillment warehouse. She is more pro- ductive than her predecessors because she has a small army of robots bringing her storage bins to pick items from; but she is a part of a larger system controlled by intelligent algorithms that decide where she should stand and which items she should pick and dispatch. She is already partly buried in the pyramid, not standing on top of it. Its only a matter of time before the sand fills the spaces in the pyramid and her role is eliminated. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 131 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for DistributionShe i mall armyall army but she isbut she is orithms thahms th hould pick aould pick a id, not stannot stan sand fills tand fills t 5 OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI The Gorilla Problem It doesnt require much imagination to see that making something smarter than yourself could be a bad idea. We understand that our control over our environment and over other species is a result of our intelligence, so the thought of something else being more intelligent than us whether its a robot or an alien immediately induces a queasy feeling. Around ten million years ago, the ancestors of the modern gorilla created (accidentally, to be sure) the genetic lineage leading to modern humans. How do the gorillas feel about this? Clearly, if they were able to tell us about their species current situation vis- - vis humans, the consensus opinion would be very negative indeed. Their species has essentially no future beyond that which we deign to allow. We do not want to be in a similar situation vis- - vis superintelligent machines. Ill call this the gorilla problem specifically, the problem of whether humans can maintain their supremacy and autonomy in a world that includes machines with substantially greater intelligence. Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, who designed and wrote pro- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 132 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot er g. d ten milliod ten mill ccidentaccidentafornmentmen thought of thought o ts a rots a roDistributionination to ination to be a badbe a bad andand OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI 133 grams for the Analytical Engine in 1842, were aware of its potential but seemed to have no qualms about it.1 In 1847, however, Richard Thornton, editor of the Primitive Expounder , a religious journal, railed against mechanical calculators:2 Mind . . . outruns itself and does away with the necessity of its own existence by inventing machines to do its own thinking . . . . But who knows that such machines when brought to greater per-fection, may not think of a plan to remedy all their own defects and then grind out ideas beyond the ken of mortal mind! This is perhaps the first speculation concerning existential risk from computing devices, but it remained in obscurity. In contrast, Samuel Butlers novel Erewhon , published in 1872, de- veloped the theme in far greater depth and achieved immediate suc-cess. Erewhon is a country in which all mechanical devices have been banned after a terrible civil war between the machinists and anti- machinists. One part of the book, called The Book of the Machines, explains the origins of this war and presents the arguments of both sides. 3 It is eerily prescient of the debate that has re- emerged in the early years of the twenty- first century. The anti- machinists main argument is that machines will advance to the point where humanity loses control: Are we not ourselves creating our successors in the supremacy of the earth? Daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of their organi-zation, daily giving them greater skill and supplying more and more of that self- regulating self- acting power which will be better than any intellect? . . . In the course of ages we shall find ourselves the inferior race. . . . We must choose between the alternative of undergoing much present suffering, or seeing ourselves gradually superseded by our own creatures, till we rank no higher in comparison with them, M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 133 8/7/19 11:21 PMNote e t machinisachinis int where hint where forf this whis prescient ofrescient o wenty-wenty- ffDistributionmind! ng existentig existenti urity.ty. ewhonewhon , pub, pub pth and achh and ac ich all mech all mec war betwear betw e book, cal book, ca war awar a 134 HUMAN COMPATIBLE than the beasts of the field with ourselves. . . . Our bondage will steal upon us noiselessly and by imperceptible approaches. The narrator also relates the pro- machinists principal counter- argument, which anticipates the man machine symbiosis argument that we will explore in the next chapter: There was only one serious attempt to answer it. Its author said that machines were to be regarded as a part of mans own physical nature, being really nothing but extra- corporeal limbs. Although the anti- machinists in Erewhon win the argument, Butler himself appears to be of two minds. On the one hand, he complains that Erewhonians are . . . quick to offer up common sense at the shrine of logic, when a philosopher arises among them, who carries them away through his reputation for especial learning and says, They cut their throats in the matter of machinery. On the other hand, the Erewhonian society he describes is remarkably harmonious, productive, and even idyllic. The Erewhonians fully accept the folly of re- embarking on the course of mechanical invention, and regard those remnants of machinery kept in museums with the feelings of an English antiquarian concerning Druidical monuments or flint ar-row heads. Butlers story was evidently known to Alan Turing, who consid- ered the long- term future of AI in a lecture given in Manchester in 1951: 4 It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers. There would be no question of the machines dying, and they would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore we should have to expect the machines to take control, in the way that is mentioned in Samuel Butlers Erewhon . 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 134 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotof m ntiquarianquarian s story s story fordyllic. lic the coursethe cours machinermachineDistributions. the argumthe argum e one hand,ne hand fer up comer up com arises amonses amo on for espefor espe e matter ofe matter y he descry he desc The EThe OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI 135 In the same year, Turing repeated these concerns in a radio lecture broadcast throughout the UK on the BBC Third Programme: If a machine can think, it might think more intelligently than we do, and then where should we be? Even if we could keep the ma-chines in a subservient position, for instance by turning off the power at strategic moments, we should, as a species, feel greatly humbled. . . . This new danger . . . is certainly something which can give us anxiety. When the Erewhonian anti- machinists feel seriously uneasy about the future, they see it as their duty to check the evil while we can still do so, and they destroy all the machines. Turings response to the new danger and anxiety is to consider turning off the power (al-though it will be clear shortly that this is not really an option). In Frank Herberts classic science- fiction novel Dune , set in the far fu- ture, humanity has barely survived the Butlerian Jihad, a cataclysmic war with the thinking machines. A new commandment has emerged: Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind . This commandment precludes computing devices of any kind. All these drastic responses reflect the inchoate fears that machine intelligence evokes. Yes, the prospect of superintelligent machines does make one uneasy. Yes, it is logically possible that such machines could take over the world and subjugate or eliminate the human race. If that is all one has to go on, then indeed the only plausible response available to us, at the present time, is to attempt to curtail artificial intelligence research specifically, to ban the development and deployment of general- purpose, human- level AI systems. Like most other AI researchers, I recoil at this prospect. How dare anyone tell me what I can and cannot think about? Anyone proposing an end to AI research is going to have to do a lot of convincing. Ending AI research would mean forgoing not just one of the principal avenues for understanding how human intelligence works but also a golden M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 135 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotastis evokes. Yeokes. Ye e uneasy. Yee uneasy. Y the wothe wofora machmac cludes comcludes com c responresponDistributionriously uneusly une k the evil wthe evil w es. Turings Turings er turning r turning this is nothis is no ction noveon nove rvived the Brvived the hines. A nhines. A ne inne in 136 HUMAN COMPATIBLE opportunity to improve the human condition to make a far better civilization. The economic value of human- level AI is measurable in the thousands of trillions of dollars, so the momentum behind AI re- search from corporations and governments is likely to be enormous. It will overwhelm the vague objections of a philosopher, no matter how great his or her reputation for especial learning, as Butler puts it. A second drawback to the idea of banning general- purpose AI is that its a difficult thing to ban. Progress on general- purpose AI occurs pri- marily on the whiteboards of research labs around the world, as mathe-matical problems are posed and solved. We dont know in advance which ideas and equations to ban, and, even if we did, it doesnt seem reasonable to expect that such a ban could be enforceable or effective. To compound the difficulty still further, researchers making prog- ress on general- purpose AI are often working on something else. As I have already argued, research on tool AI those specific, innocu- ous applications such as game playing, medical diagnosis, and travel planning often leads to progress on general- purpose techniques that are applicable to a wide range of other problems and move us closer to human- level AI. For these reasons, its very unlikely that the AI community or the governments and corporations that control the laws and research budgets will respond to the gorilla problem by ending progress in AI. If the gorilla problem can be solved only in this way, it isnt going to be solved. The only approach that seems likely to work is to understand why it is that making better AI might be a bad thing. It turns out that we have known the answer for thousands of years. 7KH.LQJ0LGDV3UREOHP Norbert Wiener, whom we met in Chapter 1, had a profound impact on many fields, including artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 136 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotana l respondespond gorilla probgorilla pro ed.ed.fors, its very s, its very d corpod corpoDistributionnow did, it doesd, it does forceable ororceable or researchersearcher orking on sorking on so ool AAIItthh aying, meding, medi ess on ess on ggeneen e of other e of other OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI 137 control theory. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he was particularly concerned with the unpredictability of complex systems operating in the real world. (He wrote his first paper on this topic at the age of ten.) He became convinced that the overconfidence of scientists and engineers in their ability to control their creations, whether military or civilian, could have disastrous consequences. In 1950, Wiener published The Human Use of Human Beings , 5 whose front- cover blurb reads, The mechanical brain and similar machines can destroy human values or enable us to realize them as never before. 6 He gradually refined his ideas over time and by 1960 had identified one core issue: the impossibility of defining true human purposes correctly and completely. This, in turn, means that what I have called the standard model whereby humans attempt to imbue machines with their own purposes is destined to fail. We might call this the King Midas problem : Midas, a legendary king in ancient Greek mythology, got exactly what he asked for namely, that everything he touched should turn to gold. Too late, he discovered that this included his food, his drink, and his family mem- bers, and he died in misery and starvation. The same theme is ubiqui-tous in human mythology. Wiener cites Goethes tale of the sorcerers apprentice, who instructs the broom to fetch water but doesnt say how much water and doesnt know how to make the broom stop. A technical way of saying this is that we may suffer from a failure of value alignment we may, perhaps inadvertently, imbue machines with objectives that are imperfectly aligned with our own. Until re- cently, we were shielded from the potentially catastrophic conse-quences by the limited capabilities of intelligent machines and the limited scope that th ey ha v e to aff ect th e w or l d. (In deed, most AI work was done with toy problems in research labs.) As Norbert Wie-ner put it in his 1964 book God and Golem , 7 In the past, a partial and inadequate view of human purpose has been relatively innocuous only because it has been accompanied by M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 137 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoto ini water and ter and hnical way hnical way alignmenalignmeforisery ary hology. Wihology. W structs ttructs t dDistributionme a defining trufining tru urn, means rn, means humans attmans at destined todestined to das problemas proble gy, got exagot exa ouched shououched sh d his foodd his food ds tds t 138 HUMAN COMPATIBLE technical limitations. . . . This is only one of the many places where human impotence has shielded us from the full destructive impact of human folly. Unfortunately, this period of shielding is rapidly coming to an end. We have already seen how content- selection algorithms on social media wrought havoc on society in the name of maximizing ad reve-nues. In case you are thinking to yourself that ad revenue maximiza-tion was already an ignoble goal that should never have been pursued, lets suppose instead that we ask some future superintelligent system to pursue the noble goal of finding a cure for cancer ideally as quickly as possible, because someone dies from cancer every 3.5 seconds. Within hours, the AI system has read the entire biomedical literature and hypothesized millions of potentially effective but previously un-tested chemical compounds. W ithin weeks, it has induced multiple tumors of different kinds in every living human being so as to carry out medical trials of these compounds, this being the fastest way to find a cure. Oops. If you prefer solving environmental problems, you might ask the machine to counter the rapid acidification of the oceans that results from higher carbon dioxide levels. The machine develops a new cata-lyst that facilitates an incredibly rapid chemical reaction between ocean and atmosphere and restores the oceans pH levels. Unfortu-nately, a quarter of the oxygen in the atmosphere is used up in the process, leaving us to asphyxiate slowly and painfully. Oops. These kinds of world- ending scenarios are unsubtle as one might expect, perhaps, for world- ending scenarios. But there are many sce- narios in which a kind of mental asphyxiation steals upon us noiselessly and by imperceptible approaches. The prologue to Max Tegmarks Life 3.0 describes in some detail a scenario in which a superintelligent machine gradually assumes economic and political control over the entire world while remaining essentially undetected. The Internet and the global-scale machines that it supportsthe ones that already 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 138 8/7/19 11:21 PMon on litates anates an d atmosphed atmosph quarter quarter forg envirnv the rapid athe rapid dioxide dioxide Distributionelligg ideally adeally a er every 3.r every 3. ntire biomed biome effective beffective b weeks, it hweeks, it y living humiving hum mpounds, tmpounds, onmonm OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI 139 interact with billions of users on a daily basis provide the perfect medium for the growth of machine control over humans. I dont expect that the purpose put into such machines will be of the take over the world variety. It is more likely to be profit maximi-zation or engagement maximization or , perhaps, even an apparently benign goal such as achieving higher scores on regular user happiness surveys or reducing our energy usage. Now, if we think of ourselves as entities whose actions are expected to achieve our objectives, there are two ways to change our behavior. The first is the old- fashioned way: leave our expectations and objectives unchanged, but change our circumstancesfor example, by offering money, pointing a gun at us, or starving us into submission. That tends to be expensive and diffi-cult for a computer to do. The second way is to change our expecta-tions and objectives. This is much easier for a machine. It is in contact with you for hours every day, controls your access to information, and provides much of your entertainment through games, TV, movies, and social interaction. The reinforcement learning algorithms that optimize social- media click- through have no capacity to reason about human behavior in fact, they do not even know in any meaningful sense that humans exist. For machines with much greater understanding of human psy-chology, beliefs, and motivations, it should be relatively easy to gradu-ally guide us in directions that increase the degree of satisfaction of the machines objectives. For example, it might reduce our energy consumption by persuading us to have fewer children, eventually and inadvertently achieving the dreams of anti- natalist philosophers who wish to eliminate the noxious impact of humanity on the natu- ral world. With a bit of practice, you can learn to identify ways in which the achievement of more or less any fixed objective can result in arbi-trarily bad outcomes. One of the most common patterns involves omitting something from the objective that you do actually care about. In such cases as in the examples given above the AI system M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 139 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotinen iefs, and ms, and m e us in diree us in dir hines ohines oforcapacapa even know ven know s with mwith mDistribution, but pointing a inting a be expensive expensiv is to changto chan r for a machfor a mach ls your acceyour acc ment througnt throug ning algorining algor ty toty to 140 HUMAN COMPATIBLE will often find an optimal solution that sets the thing you do care about, but forgot to mention, to an extreme value. So, if you say to your self- driving car, Take me to the airport as fast as possible! and it interprets this literally, it will reach speeds of 180 miles per hour and youll go to prison. (Fortunately, the self- driving cars currently contemplated wont accept such a request.) If you say, Take me to the airport as fast as possible while not exceeding the speed limit, it will accelerate and brake as hard as possible, swerving in and out of traffic to maintain the maximum speed in between. It may even push other cars out of the way to gain a few seconds in the scrum at the airport terminal. And so on eventually, you will add enough considerations so that the cars driving roughly approximates that of a skilled human driver taking someone to the airport in a bit of a hurry. Driving is a simple task with only local impacts, and the AI sys- tems currently being built for driving are not very intelligent. For these reasons, many of the potential failure modes can be anticipated; others will reveal themselves in driving simulators or in millions of miles of testing with professional drivers ready to take over if some-thing goes wrong; still others will appear only later, when the cars are already on the road and something weird happens. Unfortunately, with superintelligent systems that can have a global impact, there are no simulators and no do- overs. Its certainly very hard, and perhaps impossible, for mere humans to anticipate and rule out in advance all the disastrous ways the machine could choose to achieve a specified objective. Generally speaking, if you have one goal and a superintelligent machine has a different, conflicting goal, the machine gets what it wants and you dont. )HDUDQG*UHHG ,QVWUXPHQWDO*RDOV If a machine pursuing an incorrect objective sounds bad enough, theres worse. The solution suggested by Alan Turing turning off the 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 140 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoty, wy, e are no sre no s perhaps imperhaps im vance alvance alforothers er and somethand somet with supeith supeDistributionm at t ugh considh consid hat of a skilat of a skil of a hurry.a hurry cal impactscal impact ng are not are not ial failure mfailure m in driving in driving sional drivsional dri will awill a OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI 141 power at strategic moments may not be available, for a very simple reason: you cant fetch the coffee if youre dead . Let me explain. Suppose a machine has the objective of fetching the coffee. If it is sufficiently intelligent, it will certainly understand that it will fail in its objective if it is switched off before completing its mission. Thus, the objective of fetching coffee creates, as a necessary subgoal, the objective of disabling the off- switch. The same is true for curing cancer or calculating the digits of pi. Theres really not a lot you can do once youre dead, so we can expect AI systems to act preemp-tively to preserve their own existence, given more or less any definite objective. If that objective is in conflict with human preferences, then we have exactly the plot of 2001: A Space Odyssey , in which the HAL 9000 computer kills four of the five astronauts on board the ship to prevent interference with its mission. Dave, the last remaining astro- naut, manages to switch HAL off after an epic battle of wits presumably to keep the plot interesting. But if HAL had been truly superintelligent, Dave would have been switched off. It is important to understand that self- preservation doesnt have to be any sort of built- in instinct or prime directive in machines. (So Isaac Asimovs Third Law of Robotics, 8 which begins A robot must protect its own existence, is completely unnecessary.) There is no need to build self- preservation in because it is an instrumental goal a g o al th a t is a us e ful su b g o al o f alm o st an y o ri gin al o b j e cti v e .9 Any entity that has a definite objective will automatically act as if it also has instrumental goals. In addition to being alive, having access to money is an instrumen- tal goal within our current system. Thus, an intelligent machine might want money, not because its greedy but because money is useful for achieving all sorts of goals. In the movie Transcendence , when Johnny Depps brain is uploaded into the quantum supercomputer, the first thing the machine does is copy itself onto millions of other computers on the Internet so that it cannot be switched off. The second thing it M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 141 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotThT own existn exist uild ld sself-elf-pp is a usis a u hhforndersters ltt--in instincn instin rd Law rd Law Distributionless n preferencpreferenc dysseyey, in w, in wyyy tronauts onronauts on n. Dave, theDave, th off after ff after interestinginterestin ld have beld have be nd tnd t 142 HUMAN COMPATIBLE does is make a quick killing on the stock market to fund its expan- sion plans. And what, exactly, are those expansion plans? They include de- signing and building a much larger quantum supercomputer; doing AI research; and discovering new knowledge of physics, neuroscience, and biology. These resource objectives computing power, algorithms, and knowledge are also instrumental goals, useful for achieving any over- arching objective. 10 T h e y s e e m h a r m l e s s e n o u g h u n t i l o n e r e a l i z e s that the acquisition process will continue without limit. This seems to create inevitable conflict with humans. And of course, the machine, equipped with ever- better models of human decision making, will anticipate and defeat our every move in this conflict. Intelligence Explosions I. J. Good was a brilliant mathematician who worked with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, breaking German codes during World War II. He shared Turings interests in machine intelligence and statistical infer- ence. In 1965, he wrote what is now his best- known paper, Specula- tions Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine. 11 The first sentence suggests that Good, alarmed by the nuclear brinkmanship of the Cold War, regarded AI as a possible savior for humanity: The survival of man depends on the early construction of an ultraintelligent machine. As the paper proceeds, however, he becomes more circumspect. He intro-duces the notion of an intelligence explosion , but, like Butler, Turing, and Wiener before him, he worries about losing control: Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an intelligence explosion, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 142 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottheth Good, alaood, ala ded AI as a ded AI as a n the en the efors in mn m rote what irote what First UlFirst UlDistributione, th ision makon mak nflict.flict. ematician wmatician German cGerman chinchin OVERLY INTELLIGENT AI 143 and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. It is curious that this point is made so sel-dom outside science fiction. This paragraph is a staple of any discussion of superintelligent AI, although the caveats at the end are usually left out. Goods point can be strengthened by noting that not only could the ultraintelligent ma- chine improve its own design; its likely that it would do so because, as we have seen, an intelligent machine expects to benefit from improv-ing its hardware and software. The possibility of an intelligence explo-si on is o ften cited as th e main source o f risk to h umanity from AI because it would give us so little time to solve the control problem. 12 Goods argument certainly has plausibility via the natural analogy to a chemical explosion in which each molecular reaction releases enough energy to initiate more than one additional reaction. On the other hand, it is logically possible that there are diminishing returns to intelligence improvements, so that the process peters out rather than exploding. 13 Theres no obvious way to prove that an explosion will necessarily occur. The diminishing- returns scenario is interesting in its own right. It could arise if it turns out that achieving a given percentage improve-ment becomes much harder as the machine becomes more intelligent. (Im assuming for the sake of argument that general-purpose machine intelligence is measurable on some kind of linear scale, which I doubt will ever be strictly true.) In that case, humans wont be able to cre-ate superintelligence either. If a machine that is already superhuman runs out of steam when trying to improve its own intelligence, then humans will run out of steam even sooner. Now, Ive never heard a serious argument to the effect that creat- ing any given level of machine intelligence is simply beyond the capac-ity of human ingenuity, but I suppose one must concede its logically M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 143 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot r.. inishing-ishing- rr se if it turnse if it tur omes momes mforents, sts, s no obvios no obviDistributiondo so enefit fromefit from of an intelligf an intellig risk to humto hum o solve the csolve the lausibility vusibility ch each meach m re than onere than o ssible thatssible tha thatha 144 HUMAN COMPATIBLE possible. Logically possible and Im willing to bet the future of the human race on it are, of course, two completely different things. Bet-ting against human ingenuity seems like a losing strategy. If an intelligence explosion does occur, and if we have not already solved the problem of controlling machines with only slightly super- human intelligence for example, if we cannot prevent them from making these recursive self- improvements then we would have no time left to solve the control problem and the game would be over. This is Bostroms hard takeoff scenario, in which the machines intelli- gence increases astronomically in just days or weeks. In Turings words, it is certainly something which can give us anxiety. The possible responses to this anxiety seem to be to retreat from AI research, to deny that there are risks inherent in developing ad-vanced AI, to understand and mitigate the risks through the design of AI systems that necessarily remain under human control, and to resign simply to cede the future to intelligent machines. Denial and mitigation are the subjects of the remainder of the book. As I have already argued, retreat from AI research is both unlikely to happen (because the benefits forgone are too great) and very difficult to bring about. Resignation seems to be the worst possible response. It is often accompanied by the idea that AI systems that are more intelli-gent than us somehow deserve to inherit the planet, leaving humans to go gentle into that good night, comforted by the thought that our bril- liant electronic progeny are busy pursuing their objectives. This view was promulgated by the roboticist and futurist Hans Moravec, 14 who writes, The immensities of cyberspace will be teeming with unhuman superminds, engaged in affairs that are to human concerns as ours are to those of bacteria. This seems to be a mistake. Value, for humans, is defined primarily by conscious human experience. If there are no hu-mans and no other conscious entities whose subjective experience mat-ters to us, there is nothing of value occurring. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 144 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot nieni omehow mehow nto that gonto that go ronic prronic pforenefits fit gnation seemnation see d by theby the dDistributionTuri y. to be to reto be to re herent in dent in he risks throe risks thro under humnder hu to intelligeo intellige he subjects ohe subjects treat fromtreat from orgoorgo 6 THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE The implications of introducing a second intelligent species onto Earth are far-reaching enough to deserve hard thinking.1 So ended The Economist magazines review of Nick Bostroms Super- intelligence . Most would interpret this as a classic example of British understatement. Surely, you might think, the great minds of today are already doing this hard thinkingengaging in serious debate, weigh- ing up the risks and benefits, seeking solutions, ferreting out loopholes in solutions, and so on. Not yet, as far as I am aware. When one first introduces these ideas to a technical audience, one can see the thought bubbles popping out of their heads, beginning with the words But, but, but . . . and ending with exclamation marks. The first kind of but takes the form of denial. The deniers say, But this cant be a real problem, because XYZ. Some of the XYZs reflect a reasoning process that might charitably be described as wish-ful thinking, while others are more substantial. The second kind of but takes the form of deflection: accepting that the problems are real but arguing that we shouldnt try to solve them, either because M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 145 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothis i sks and bes and be ons, and so ons, and so n one firn one fiforld inteint urely, you mrely, you hard hard tthihiDistributionucing a secong a seco g enough tog enough magazinemagazine pretpret 146 HUMAN COMPATIBLE theyre unsolvable or because there are more important things to fo- cus on than the end of civilization or because its best not to mention them at all. The third kind of but takes the form of an oversimpli- fied, instant solution: But cant we just do ABC? As with denial, some of the ABCs are instantly regrettable. Others, perhaps by acci-dent, come closer to identifying the true nature of the problem. I dont mean to suggest that there cannot be any reasonable objec- tions to the view that poorly designed superintelligent machines would present a serious risk to humanity. Its just that I have yet to see such an objection. Since the issue seems to be so important, it deserves a public debate of the highest quality. So, in the interests of having that debate, and in the hope that the reader will contribute to it, let me provide a quick tour of the highlights so far, such as they are. Denial Denying that the problem exists at all is the easiest way out. Scott Alexander, author of the Slate Star Codex blog, began a well- known article on AI risk as follows: 2 I first became interested in AI risk back around 2007. At the time, most peoples response to the topic was Haha, come back when anyone believes this besides random Internet crackpots. Instantly regrettable remarks A perceived threat to ones lifelong vocation can lead a perfectly intelligent and usually thoughtful person to say things they might wish to retract on further analysis. That being the case, I will not name the authors of the following arguments, all of whom are well- known AI researchers. Ive included refutations of the arguments, even though they are quite unnecessary. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 146 8/7/19 11:21 PMNott tht back wheck whe forhe SlaSla follows:follows:22 I e time, e time, Distributionnt, it rests of havts of hav ontribute tontribute to such as theh as th exists at aexists at a StaSta THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 147 Electronic calculators are superhuman at arithmetic. Calcula- tors didnt take over the world; therefore, there is no reason to worry about superhuman AI. Refutation: intelligence is not the same as arithmetic, and the arithmetic ability of calculators does not equip them to take over the world. Horses have superhuman strength, and we dont worry about proving that horses are safe; so we neednt worry about proving that AI systems are safe. Refutation: intelligence is not the same as physical strength, and the strength of horses does not equip them to take over the world. Historically, there are zero examples of machines killing mil-lions of humans, so, by induction, it cannot happen in the future. Refutation: theres a first time for everything, before which there were zero examples of it happening. No physical quantity in the universe can be infinite, and that includes intelligence, so concerns about superintelligence are overblown. Refutation: superintelligence doesnt need to be infinite to be problematic; and physics allows computing devices billions of times more powerful than the human brain. We dont worry about species- ending but highly unlikely pos- sibilities such as black holes materializing in near- Earth orbit, so why worry about superintelligent AI? Refutation: if most physicists on Earth were working to make such black holes, wouldnt we ask them if it was safe? Its complicated It is a staple of modern psychology that a single IQ number cannot characterize the full richness of human intelligence.3 There are, the M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 147 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotmatma es more pomore po We dont worWe dont wo bilities sbilities sfor: superintellsuperinte c; and pc; and pDistributionl stre ake over thee over the machines kilachines k t cannot hannot h for everythinr everythi appening.pening. the univerthe unive so concerso concer 148 HUMAN COMPATIBLE theory says, different dimensions of intelligence: spatial, logical, lin- guistic, social, and so on. Alice, our soccer player from Chapter 2, might have more spatial intelligence than her friend Bob, but less so-cial intelligence. Thus, we cannot line up all humans in strict order of intelligence. This is even more true of machines, because their abilities are much narrower. The Google search engine and AlphaGo have almost nothing in common, besides being products of two subsidiaries of the same parent corporation, and so it makes no sense to say that one is more intelligent than the other. This makes notions of machine IQ problematic and suggests that its misleading to describe the future as a one- dimensional IQ race between humans and machines. Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired magazine and a remarkably p e r c e p t i v e t e c h n o l o g y c o m m e n t a t o r , t a k e s t h i s a r g u m e n t o n e s t e p further. In The Myth of a Superhuman AI, 4 he writes, Intelligence is not a single dimension, so smarter than humans is a meaningless concept. In a single stroke, all concerns about superintelligence are wiped away. Now, one obvious response is that a machine could exceed human capabilities in all r e l e v a n t d i m e n s i o n s o f i n t e l l i g e n c e . I n t h a t c a s e , even by Kellys strict standards, the machine would be smarter than a human. But this rather strong assumption is not necessary to refute Kellys argument. Consider the chimpanzee. Chimpanzees probably have better short- term memory than humans, even on human- oriented tasks such as recalling sequences of digits. 5 Short- term mem- ory is an important dimension of intelligence. By Kellys argument, then, humans are not smarter than chimpanzees; indeed, he would claim that smarter than a chimpanzee is a meaningless concept. This is cold comfort to the chimpanzees (and bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, whales, dolphins, and so on) whose species survive only because we deign to allow it. It is colder comfort still to all those species that we have already wiped out. Its also cold comfort to humans who might be worried about being wiped out by machines. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 148 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottricri this rathes rathe gument. Cogument. C erershorhorforesponson elevant dimelevant di t standastandaDistributionf m cribe the fibe the f d machinesmachines agazine andzine an kes this arkes this ar man AI,n AI,44 he h rter than her than h ll concerns ll concern is this th THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 149 Its impossible Even before the birth of AI in 1956, august intellectuals were har- rumphing and saying that intelligent machines were impossible. Alan Turing devoted much of his seminal 1950 paper, Computing Machin-ery and Intelligence, to refuting these arguments. Ever since, the AI community has been fending off similar claims of impossibility from philosophers, 6 mathematicians,7 and others. In the current debate over superintelligence, several philosophers have exhumed these impossi-bility claims to prove that humanity has nothing to fear. 8,9 This comes as no surprise. The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, or AI100, is an ambitious, long- term project housed at Stanford University. Its goal is to keep track of AI, or, more precisely, to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every as-pect of how people work, live and play. Its first major report, Artifi-cial Intelligence and Life in 2030, does come as a surprise. 10 As might be expected, it emphasizes the benefits of AI in areas such as medical diagnosis and automotive safety. Whats unexpected is the claim that unlike in the movies, there is no race of superhuman robots on the horizon or probably even possible. To my knowledge, this is the first time that serious AI researchers have publicly espoused the view that human- level or superhuman AI is impossible and this in the middle of a period of extremely rapid progress in AI research, when barrier after barrier is being breached. Its as if a group of leading cancer biologists announced that they had been fooling us all along: theyve always known that there will never be a cure for cancer. What could have motivated such a volte- face? The report provides no arguments or evidence whatever. (Indeed, what evidence could there be that no physically possible arrangement of atoms outperforms the human brain?) I suspect there are two reasons. The first is the natural desire to disprove the existence of the gorilla problem, which M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 149 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotablab nowledge,wledge, licly espoulicly espou ibleible aforive safe sa ies, there iies, there y even peven pDistributionar.8 IntelligencIntelligenc at StanfordStanfor cisely, to stisely, to st nce will ripe will ri d play. Its fplay. Its 030, 030, doesdoescs the benefthe benef ty. Wty. W 150 HUMAN COMPATIBLE presents a very uncomfortable prospect for the AI researcher; cer- tainly, if human- level AI is impossible, the gorilla problem is neatly dispatched. The second reason is tribalism the instinct to circle the wagons against what are perceived to be attacks on AI. It seems odd to perceive the claim that superintelligent AI is pos- sible as an attack on AI, and even odder to defend AI by saying that AI will never succeed in its goals. We cannot insure against future ca-tastrophe simply by betting against human ingenuity. W e have made such bets before and lost. As we saw earlier , the physics establishment of the early 1930s, personified by Lord Ruther-ford, confidently believed that extracting atomic energy was impossi- ble; yet Leo Szilards invention of the neutron- induced nuclear chain reaction in 1933 proved that confidence to be misplaced. Szilards breakthrough came at an unfortunate time: the begin- ning of an arms race with Nazi Germany. There was no possibility of developing nuclear technology for the greater good. A few years later, having demonstrated a nuclear chain reaction in his laboratory, Szilard wrote, We switched everything off and went home. That night, there was very little doubt in my mind that the world was headed for grief. Its too soon to worry about it Its common to see sober- minded people seeking to assuage public concerns by pointing out that because human- level AI is not likely to arrive for several decades, there is nothing to worry about. For exam- ple, the AI100 report says there is no cause for concern that AI is an imminent threat to humankind. This argument fails on two counts. The first is that it attacks a straw man. The reasons for concern are not predicated on imminence. For example, Nick Bostrom writes in Superintelligence , It is no part of the argument in this book that we are on the threshold of a big break-through in artificial intelligence, or that we can predict with any pre-cision when such a development might occur. The second is that a 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 150 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot oon ton t mmon to semon to s by pointby pointfor my my m wowoDistributiony Lo nergy was rgy was nduced nunduced nu be misplacemisplace unfortunatenfortunate many. Thereny. There the greaterhe greater chain reactchain rea hing off anhing off an nd thnd th THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 151 long- term risk can still be cause for immediate concern. The right time to worry about a potentially serious problem for humanity de- pends not just on when the problem will occur but also on how long it will take to prepare and implement a solution. F or exam p l e , if w e w ere to detect a larg e astero i d on c o urse to collide with Earth in 2069, would we say its too soon to worry? Quite the opposite! There would be a worldwide emergency project to de-velop the means to counter the threat. We wouldnt wait until 2068 to start working on a solution, because we cant say in advance how much time is needed. Indeed, NASAs Planetary Defense project is already working on possible solutions, even though no known aster- oid poses a significant risk of impact with Earth over the next 100 years. In case that makes you feel complacent, they also say, About 74 percent of near- Earth objects larger than 460 feet still remain to be discovered. And if we consider the global catastrophic risks from climate change, which are predicted to occur later in this century, is it too soon to take action to prevent them? On the contrary, it may be too late. The relevant time scale for superhuman AI is less predictable, but of course that means it, like nuclear fission, might arrive considerably sooner than expected. One formulation of the its too soon to worry argument that has gained currency is Andrew Ngs assertion that its like worrying about overpopulation on Mars. 11 (He later upgraded this from Mars to Al- pha Centauri.) Ng, a former Stanford professor, is a leading expert on machine learning, and his views carry some weight. The assertion ap- peals to a convenient analogy: not only is the risk easily managed and far in the future but also its extremely unlikely wed even try to move billions of humans to Mars in the first place. The analogy is a false one, however. We are already devoting huge scientific and tech- nical resources to creating ever- more- capable AI systems, with very little thought devoted to what happens if we succeed. A more apt analogy, then, would be working on a plan to move the human race to M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 151 8/7/19 11:21 PMpecte mulation olation o urrency is Aurrency is A ulation oulation forscale fale ns it, like nns it, like n ed.ed. fDistributionefens gh no knono kno arth over thrth over th cent, they at, they han 460 feehan 460 fee bal catastrol catastr to occur lato occur ent them?ent them or suor su 152 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Mars with no consideration for what we might breathe, drink, or eat once we arrive. Some might call this plan unwise. Alternatively, one could take Ngs point literally, and respond that landing even a single person on Mars would constitute overpopulation, because Mars has a carrying capacity of zero. Thus, groups that are currently planning to send a handful of humans to Mars are worrying about overpopulation on Mars, which is why they are developing life-support systems. Were the experts In every discussion of technological risk, the pro- technology camp wheels out the claim that all concerns about risk arise from ignorance. For example, heres Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for AI and a noted researcher in machine learning and natural language understanding: 12 At the rise of every technology innovation, people have been scared. From the weavers throwing their shoes in the mechanical looms at the beginning of the industrial era to todays fear of killer robots, our response has been driven by not knowing what impact the new technology will have on our sense of self and our livelihoods. And when we dont know, our fearful minds fill in the details. Popular Science published an article titled Bill Gates Fears AI, but AI Researchers Know Better:13 When you talk to A.I. researchers again, genuine A.I. research- e r s , p e o p l e w h o g r a p p l e w i th m a ki n g s y s t e m s th a t w o r k a t a l l , much less work too well they are not worried about superintelli- gence sneaking up on them, now or in the future. Contrary to the spooky stories that Musk seems intent on telling, A.I. researchers arent frantically installing firewalled summoning chambers and self- destruct countdowns. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 152 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotll hl dont knownt know ienceience pupuforindustdus been driven been driven ave on ove on oDistribution-technoloechnolo k arise fromarise from the Allen InAllen I arning and rning and y innovationy innovatio g their shog their sho al eal e THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 153 This analysis was based on a sample of four, all of whom in fact said in their interviews that the long- term safety of AI was an important issue. Using very similar language to the Popular Science article, David Kenny, at that time a vice president at IBM, wrote a letter to the US Congress that included the following reassuring words: 14 When you actually do the science of machine intelligence, and when you actually apply it in the real world of business and society as we have done at IBM to create our pioneering cognitive computing system, Watson you understand that this technology does not support the fear- mongering commonly associated with the AI de- bate today. The message is the same in all three cases: Dont listen to them; were the experts. Now, one can point out that this is really an ad hominem argument that attempts to refute the message by delegitimizing the messengers, but even if one takes it at face value, the argument doesnt hold water. Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates are certainly very familiar with scientific and technological reasoning, and Musk and Gates in particular have supervised and invested in many AI re-search projects. And it would be even less plausible to argue that Alan Turing, I. J. Good, Norbert Wiener, and Marvin Minsky are unquali-fied to discuss AI. Finally, Scott Alexanders blog piece mentioned earlier, which is titled AI Researchers on AI Risk, notes that AI re-searchers, including some of the leaders in the field, have been instru-mental in raising issues about AI risk and superintelligence from the very beginning. He lists several such researchers, and the list is now much longer. Another standard rhetorical move for the defenders of AI is to describe their opponents as Luddites. Oren Etzionis reference to weavers throwing their shoes in the mechanical looms is just this: the Luddites were artisan weavers in the early nineteenth century protest-ing the introduction of machinery to replace their skilled labor. In 2015, M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 153 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotAnA Good, Nood, N discuss AI. discuss AI which is which is forentifictifi cular have sular have d it woud it wouDistributionogy y d with the with the es: Dont lis: Dont li t that this ishat this i e the messthe mess kes it at fackes it at fa phen Hawphen Haw andand 154 HUMAN COMPATIBLE the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation gave its annual Luddite Award to alarmists touting an artificial intelligence apoca-lypse. Its an odd definition of Luddite that includes Turing, Wiener, Minsky, Musk, and Gates, who rank among the most prominent con- tributors to technological progress in the twentieth and twenty- first centuries. The accusation of Luddism represents a misunderstanding of the nature of the concerns raised and the purpose for raising them. It is as if one were to accuse nuclear engineers of Luddism if they point out the need for control of the fission reaction. As with the strange phe-nomenon of AI researchers suddenly claiming that AI is impossible, I think we can attribute this puzzling episode to tribalism in defense of technological progress. Deflection Some commentators are willing to accept that the risks are real, but still present arguments for doing nothing. These arguments include the impossibility of doing anything, the importance of doing some-thing else entirely, and the need to keep quiet about the risks. You cant control research A common answer to suggestions that advanced AI might present risks to humanity is to claim that banning AI research is impossible. Note the mental leap here: Hmm, someone is discussing risks! They must be proposing a ban on my research!! This mental leap might be appropriate in a discussion of risks based only on the gorilla problem, and I would tend to agree that solving the gorilla problem by prevent-ing the creation of superintelligent AI would require some kind of constraints on AI research. Recent discussions of risks have, however, focused not on the gen- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 154 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot y, ay, cant concant conforfor dor doing anytdoing any nd the nnd the nDistributionhe st AI is impI is imp tribalism inribalism in ling to acling to ac inging THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 155 eral gorilla problem (journalistically speaking, the humans vs. super- intelligence smackdown) but on the King Midas problem and variants thereof. Solving the King Midas problem also solves the gorilla problem not by preventing superintelligent AI or finding a way to defeat it but by ensuring that it is never in conflict with humans in the first place. Discussions of the King Midas problem generally avoid proposing that AI research be curtailed; they merely suggest that at-tention be paid to the issue of preventing negative consequences of poorly designed systems. In the same vein, a discussion of the risks of containment failure in nuclear plants should be interpreted not as an attempt to ban nuclear physics research but as a suggestion to focus more effort on solving the containment problem. There is, as it happens, a very interesting historical precedent for cutting off research. In the early 1970s, biologists began to be con- cerned that novel recombinant DNA methods splicing genes from one organism into another might create substantial risks for human health and the global ecosystem. Two meetings at Asilomar in Califor- nia in 1973 and 1975 led first to a moratorium on such experiments and then to detailed biosafety guidelines consonant with the risks posed by any proposed experiment. 15 Some classes of experiments, such as those involving toxin genes, were deemed too hazardous to be allowed. Immediately after the 1975 meeting, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds virtually all basic medical research in the United States, began the process of setting up the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. The RAC, as it is known, was instrumental in developing the NIH guidelines that essentially implemented the Asi-lomar recommendations. Since 2000, those guidelines have included a ban on funding approval for any protocol involving human germline alteration the modification of the human genome in ways that can be inherited by subsequent generations. This ban was followed by legal prohibitions in over fifty countries. The goal of improving the human stock had been one of the M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 155 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot volvo ediately aftediately af NIH), wNIH), wforbiosafosa posed experosed exp ving toxing toxDistributionprete suggestionuggestion m.m. ng historicahistoric s, biologists, biologist A mmethodsethods ht create sucreate su m. Two mem. Two m rst to a mrst to a m ty gty g 156 HUMAN COMPATIBLE dreams of the eugenics movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The development of CRISPR- Cas9, a very pre- cise method for genome editing, has reignited this dream. An interna-tional summit held in 2015 left the door open for future applications, calling for restraint until there is broad societal consensus about the appropriateness of the proposed application. 16 In November 2018, the Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced that he had edited the genomes of three human embryos, at least two of which had led to live births. An international outcry followed, and at the time of writing, Jiankui appears to be under house arrest. In March 2019, an international panel of leading scientists called explicitly for a formal moratorium. 17 The lesson of this debate for AI is mixed. On the one hand, it shows that we can refrain from proceeding with an area of research that has huge potential. The international consensus against germline alteration has been almost completely successful up to now. The fear that a ban would simply drive the research underground, or into coun-tries with no regulation, has not materialized. On the other hand, germline alteration is an easily identifiable process, a specific use case of more general knowledge about genetics that requires specialized equipment and real humans to experiment on. Moreover, it falls within an area reproductive medicine that is already subject to close over- sight and regulation. These characteristics do not apply to general- purpose AI, and, as yet, no one has come up with any plausible form that a regulation to curtail AI research might take. Whataboutery I was introduced to the term whataboutery by an adviser to a Brit- ish politician who had to deal with it on a regular basis at public meet-ings. No matter the topic of the speech he was giving, someone would invariably ask, What about the plight of the Palestinians? 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 156 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot eal a roductive ductive regulation.regulation AI, and, AI, and,forn easilyasi owledge abowledge a humans umans DistributionMarc licitly for itly for xed. On the On th ing with anng with an onal consennal conse etely succesely succes he researchhe researc s not mats not ma ideniden THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 157 In response to any mention of risks from advanced AI, one is likely to hear, What about the benefits of AI? For example, here is Oren Etzioni: 18 Doom- and- gloom predictions often fail to consider the potential benefits of AI in preventing medical errors, reducing car accidents, and more. And here is Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, in a recent media- fueled exchange with Elon Musk:19 If youre arguing against AI, then youre arguing against safer cars that arent going to have accidents and youre arguing against being able to better diagnose people when theyre sick. Leaving aside the tribal notion that anyone mentioning risks is against AI, both Zuckerberg and Etzioni are arguing that to talk about risks is to ignore the potential benefits of AI or even to negate them. This is precisely backwards, for two reasons. First, if there were no potential benefits of AI, there would be no economic or social impe- tus for AI research and hence no danger of ever achieving human- level AI. We simply wouldnt be having this discussion at all. Second, if the risks are not successfully mitigated, there will be no benefits . The potential benefits of nuclear power have been greatly reduced because of the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, the uncon-trolled reaction and catastrophic releases at Chernobyl in 1986, and the multiple meltdowns at Fukushima in 2011. Those disasters se-verely curtailed the growth of the nuclear industry. Italy abandoned nuclear power in 1990 and Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Switzer-land have announced plans to do so. Since 1990, the worldwide rate of commissioning of nuclear plants has been about a tenth of what it was before Chernobyl. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 157 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotarcr simply wmply w ks are not suks are not benefitbenefit llforckwarwa of AI, theref AI, ther h and hand hDistributioning against sng against re arguing aarguing heyre sick.eyre sick. at anyone manyone m zioni are arzioni are a nefits of Anefits of s, fos, fo 158 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Silence The most extreme form of deflection is simply to suggest that we should keep silent about the risks. For example, the aforementioned AI100 report includes the following admonition: If society approaches these technologies primarily with fear and suspicion, missteps that slow AIs development or drive it under-ground will result, impeding important work on ensuring the safety and reliability of AI technologies. Robert Atkinson, director of the Information Technology and In- novation Foundation (the very same foundation that gives out the Luddite Award), made a similar argument in a 2015 debate. 20 While there are valid questions about precisely how risks should be described when talking to the media, the overall message is clear: Dont men-tion the risks; it would be bad for funding. Of course, if no one were aware of the risks, there would be no funding for research on risk mitigation and no reason for anyone to work on it. The renowned cognitive scientist Steven Pinker gives a more opti- mistic version of Atkinsons argument. In his view, the culture of safety in advanced societies will ensure that all serious risks from AI will be eliminated; therefore, it is inappropriate and counterproduc-tive to call attention to those risks. 21 Even if we disregard the fact that our advanced culture of safety has led to Chernobyl, Fukushima, and runaway global warming, Pinkers argument entirely misses the point. The culture of safety consists precisely of people pointing to possible failure modes and finding ways to ensure they dont happen. (And with AI, the standard model is the failure mode.) Saying that its ridic- ulous to point to a failure mode because the culture of safety will fix it anyway is like saying no one should call an ambulance when they see a hit- and- run accident because someone will call an ambulance. In attempting to portray the risks to the public and to policy mak- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 158 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotf A anced sociced soci iminated; timinated; l attentil attentiforn for afor ognitive sciognitive sc tkinsonkinsonDistributionon Technolon Technolo dation that on that nt in a 201nt in a 201 ely how riskhow risk verall messarall messa for fundingfor fundin ould be nould be n nyonnyon THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 159 ers, AI researchers are at a disadvantage compared to nuclear physi- cists. The physicists did not need to write books explaining to the p u b l i c t h a t a s s e m b l i n g a c r i t i c a l m a s s o f h i g h l y e n r i c h e d u r a n i u m might present a risk, because the consequences had already been demonstrated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It did not require a great deal of further persuasion to convince governments and funding agen-cies that safety was important in developing nuclear energy. Tribalism In Butlers Erewhon , focusing on the gorilla problem leads to a prema- ture and false dichotomy between pro- machinists and anti- machinists. The pro- machinists believe the risk of machine domination to be min- imal or nonexistent; the anti- machinists believe it to be insuperable unless all machines are destroyed. The debate becomes tribal, and no one tries to solve the underlying problem of retaining human control over the machines. To varying degrees, all the major technological issues of the twentieth century nuclear power, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and fossil fuels succumbed to tribalism. On each issue, there are two sides, pro and anti. The dynamics and outcomes of each have been different, but the symptoms of tribalism are similar: mutual distrust and denigration, irrational arguments, and a refusal to concede any (reasonable) point that might favor the other tribe. On the pro- technology side, one sees denial and concealment of risks combined with accusations of Luddism; on the anti side, one sees a conviction that the risks are insuperable and the problems unsolvable. A member of the pro- technology tribe who is too honest about a prob- lem is viewed as a traitor, which is particularly unfortunate as the pro- technology tribe usually includes most of the people qualified to solve the problem. A member of the anti- technology tribe who dis- cusses possible mitigations is also a traitor, because it is the technology M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 159 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ossoss wo sides, sides, e been diffe been dif istrust aistrust fores, all al nuclear puclear lffuelsuelsfffDistributionoblem leads blem leads inists and sts and achine domachine dom nists believsts belie d. The debaThe deba ing probleming proble thethe 160 HUMAN COMPATIBLE itself that has come to be viewed as evil, rather than its possible ef- fects. In this way, only the most extreme voices those least likely to be listened to by the other side can speak for each tribe. In 2016, I was invited to No. 10 Downing Street to meet with some of then prime minister David Camerons advisers. They were worried that the AI debate was starting to resemble the GMO debate which, in Europe, had led to what the advisers considered to be premature and overly restrictive regulations on GMO production and labeling. They wanted to avoid the same thing happening to AI. Their concerns had some validity: the AI debate is in danger of be- coming tribal, of creating pro- AI and anti- AI camps. This would be damaging to the field because its simply not true that being concerned about the risks inherent in advanced AI is an anti- AI stance. A physi- cist who is concerned about the risks of nuclear war or the risk of a poorly designed nuclear reactor exploding is not anti- physics. To say that AI will be powerful enough to have a global impact is a compli- ment to the field rather than an insult. It is essential that the AI community own the risks and work to mitigate them. The risks, to the extent that we understand them, are neither minimal nor insuperable. We need to do a substantial amount of work to avoid them, including reshaping and rebuilding the founda-tions of AI. &DQW:H -XVW . . . switch it off? Once they understand the basic idea of existential risk, whether in the form of the gorilla problem or the King Midas problem, many people myself included immediately begin casting around for an easy solution. Often, the first thing that comes to mind is switching off the machine. For example, Alan Turing himself, as quoted earlier, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 160 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot thehforks, to tto insuperablinsuperab m, inclum, incluDistributionn dan ps. This w. This w e that beingthat being n antinti-AAI stI s nuclear wanuclear w ding is not ng is not to have a glhave a gl n insult.insult. I communI commu ee xee x THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 161 speculates that we might keep the machines in a subservient posi- tion, for instance by turning off the power at strategic moments. This wont work, for the simple reason that a superintelligent entity will already have thought of that possibility and taken steps to prevent it. And it will do that not because it wants to stay alive but because it is pursuing whatever objective we gave it and knows that it will fail if it is switched off. There are some systems being contemplated that really cannot be switched off without ripping out a lot of the plumbing of our civilization. These are systems implemented as so- called smart contracts in the blockchain. The blockchain is a highly distributed form of com- puting and record keeping based on encryption; it is specifically de-signed so that no datum can be deleted and no smart contract can be interrupted without essentially taking control of a very large number of machines and undoing the chain, which might in turn destroy a large part of the Internet and/ or the financial system. It is debatable whether this incredible robustness is a feature or a bug. Its certainly a tool that a superintelligent AI system could use to protect itself. . . . put it in a box? If you cant switch AI systems off, can you seal the machines inside a kin d o f fir e w all , extr a ctin g us e ful question- answering work from them but never allowing them to affect the real world directly? This is the idea behind Oracle AI, which has been discussed at length in the AI safety community. 22 An Oracle AI system can be arbitrarily intel- ligent, but can answer only yes or no (or give corresponding probabil-ities) to each question. It can access all the information the human race possesses through a read- only connectionthat is, it has no di- rect access to the Internet. Of course, this means giving up on super-intelligent robots, assistants, and many other kinds of AI systems, but a trustworthy Oracle AI would still have enormous economic value because we could ask it questions whose answers are important to M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 161 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnt switchswitch f firewall, f firewall, never anever afor n a box?a box? ADistributiond sm buted formuted form on; it is spen ; i t i s s p e d no smart o smart ntrol of a ventrol of a v hich might h might ancial systencial syste feature or a feature or ould use tould use t 162 HUMAN COMPATIBLE us, such as whether Alzheimers disease is caused by an infectious o r g ani s m o r w h e th e r i t s a g o o d i d e a t o b an a u t o n o m o us w e a p o n s . Thus, the Oracle AI is certainly an interesting possibility. Unfortunately, there are some serious difficulties. First, the Oracle AI system will be at least as assiduous in understanding the physics and origins of its world the computing resources, their mode of op- eration, and the mysterious entities that produced its information store and are now asking questions as we are in understanding ours. Second, if the objective of the Oracle AI system is to provide accurate answers to questions in a reasonable amount of time, it will have an incentive to break out of its cage to acquire more computational re-sources and to control the questioners so that they ask only simple questions. And, finally, we have yet to invent a firewall that is secure against ordinary humans, let alone superintelligent machines. I think there might be solutions to some of these problems, partic- ularly if we limit Oracle AI systems to be provably sound logical or Bayesian calculators. That is, we could insist that the algorithm can output only a conclusion that is warranted by the information pro-vided, and we could check mathematically that the algorithm satisfies this condition. This still leaves the problem of controlling the process that decides which logical or Bayesian computations to do, in order to reach the strongest possible conclusion as quickly as possible. Because this process has an incentive to reason quickly, it has an incentive to acquire computational resources and of course to preserve its own existence. In 2018, the Center for Human- Compatible AI at Berkeley ran a workshop at which we asked the question, What would you do if you knew for certain that superintelligent AI would be achieved within a decade? My answer was as follows: persuade the developers to hold off on building a general- purpose intelligent agent one that can choose its own actions in the real world and build an Oracle AI in- stead. Meanwhile, we would work on solving the problem of making Oracle AI systems provably safe to the extent possible. The reason 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 162 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothh l ongest posgest pos ss has an inss has an omputatomputaforeck mak m still leaves still leave ogical orgical orDistributionit w computatomputat they ask othey ask o nt a firewallfirewal intelligent mntelligent m some of thome of th ms to be ps to be p we could inwe could at is warrat is war hemhem THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 163 this strategy might work is twofold: first, a superintelligent Oracle AI system would still be worth trillions of dollars, so the developers might be willing to accept this restriction; and second, controlling Oracle AI systems is almost certainly easier than controlling a general- purpose intelligent agent, so wed have a better chance of solving the problem within the decade. . . . work in human machine teams? A common refrain in the corporate world is that AI is no threat to e m p l o y m e n t o r t o h u m a n i t y b e c a u s e w e l l j u s t h a v e c o l l a b o r a t i v e human AI teams. For example, David Kennys letter to Congress, quoted earlier in this chapter, stated that high- value artificial intelli- gence systems are specifically designed to augment human intelli- gence, not replace workers. 23 While a cynic might suggest that this is merely a public relations ploy to sugarcoat the process of eliminating human employees from the corporations clients, I think it does move the ball forward a few inches. Collaborative human AI teams are indeed a desirable goal. Clearly, a team will be unsuccessful if the objectives of the team mem-bers are not aligned, so the emphasis on human AI teams highlights the need to solve the core problem of value alignment. Of course, highlighting the problem is not the same as solving it. . . . merge with the machines? Human machine teaming, taken to its extreme, becomes a human machine merger in which electronic hardware is attached directly to the brain and forms part of a single, extended, conscious entity. The futurist Ray Kurzweil describes the possibility as follows:24 We are going to directly merge with it, we are going to become the AIs. . . . As you get to the late 2030s or 2040s, our thinking M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 163 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotgnen solve theolve the ing the proing the prforhumam be unsuccebe unsucc d, so the, so theDistributionAI is have colhave col ys letter tys letter t high-h-vvalue aalue d to augmed to augm that this isat this is of eliminaof elimin think it dthink it d AAII 164 HUMAN COMPATIBLE will be predominately non-biological and the non-biological part will ultimately be so intelligent and have such vast capacity itll be able to model, simulate and understand fully the biological part. Kurzweil views these developments in a positive light. Elon Musk, on the other hand, views the human machine merger primarily as a de- fensive strategy:25 If we achieve tight symbiosis, the AI wouldnt be other it would be you and [it would have] a relationship to your cortex analogous to the relationship your cortex has with your limbic system. . . . Were going to have the choice of either being left behind and be-ing effectively useless or like a pet you know, like a house cat or something or eventually figuring out some way to be symbiotic and merge with AI. Musks Neuralink Corporation is working on a device dubbed neural lace after a technology described in Iain Bankss Culture nov-els. The aim is to create a robust, permanent connection between the human cortex and external computing systems and networks. There are two main technical obstacles: first, the difficulties of connecting an electronic device to brain tissue, supplying it with power, and con-necting it to the outside world; and second, the fact that we under-stand almost nothing about the neural implementation of higher levels of cognition in the brain, so we dont know where to connect the de-vice and what processing it should do. I am not completely convinced that the obstacles in the preceding paragraph are insuperable. First, technologies such as neural dust are rapidly reducing the size and power requirements of electronic de-vices that can be attached to neurons and provide sensing, stimula-tion, and transcranial communication. 26 (The technology as of 2018 had reached a size of about one cubic millimeter, so neural grit might 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 164 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnd ed technicaechnica nic device tnic device to the to the forhnologolo eate a robueate a robu xternal xternalDistributionr ortex analotex analo limbic limbic systys ing left behleft beh u know, likeu know, like out some wt some w oration isoration i desdes THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 165 be a more accurate term.) Second, the brain itself has remarkable p o w e r s o f a d a p t a t i o n . I t u s e d t o b e t h o u g h t , f o r e x a m p l e , t h a t w e would have to understand the code that the brain uses to control the arm muscles before we could connect a brain to a robot arm success-fully, and that we would have to understand the way the cochlea ana-lyzes sound before we could build a replacement for it. It turns out, instead, that the brain does most of the work for us. It quickly learns how to make the robot arm do what its owner wants, and how to map the output of a cochlear implant to intelligible sounds. Its entirely possible that we may hit upon ways to provide the brain with addi- tional memory, with communication channels to computers, and per-haps even with communication channels to other brains all without ever really understanding how any of it works. 27 Regardless of the technological feasibility of these ideas, one has to ask whether this direction represents the best possible future for hu-manity. If humans need brain surgery merely to survive the threat posed by their own technology, perhaps weve made a mistake some-where along the line. . . . avoid putting in human goals? A common line of reasoning has it that problematic AI behaviors arise from putting in specific kinds of objectives; if these are left out, everything will be fine. Thus, for example, Yann LeCun, a pioneer of deep learning and director of AI research at Facebook, often cites this idea when downplaying the risk from AI: 28 There is no reason for AIs to have self- preservation instincts, jeal- ousy, etc. . . . AIs will not have these destructive emotions unless we build these emotions into them. I dont see why we would want to do that. In a similar vein, Steven Pinker provides a gender- based analysis:29 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 165 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoton line ofn line o m putting im putting ng will bng will bfor utting intting inDistributionbrain computersmputers her er bbrainsrains rks.2727 bility of theility of the ts the best pthe best urgery mergery mer gy, perhaps gy, perhap 166 HUMAN COMPATIBLE AI dystopias project a parochial alpha-male psychology onto the concept of intelligence. They assume that superhumanly intelli-gent robots would develop goals like deposing their masters or taking over the world. . . . It s telling that many of our techno- prophets dont entertain the possibility that artificial intelligence will naturally develop along female lines: fully capable of solving problems, but with no desire to annihilate innocents or dominate the civilization. As w e h a v e al r e a d y s e e n i n th e di s c u s s i o n o f i n s trum e n tal g o al s , i t doesnt matter whether we build in emotions or desires such as self- preservation, resource acquisition, knowledge discovery, or, in the ex- treme case, taking over the world. The machine is going to have those emotions anyway, as subgoals of any objective we do build in and regardless of its gender. For a machine, death isnt bad per se. Death is to be avoided, nonetheless, because its hard to fetch the coffee if youre dead. An even more extreme solution is to avoid putting objectives into the machine altogether. Voil, problem solved. Alas, its not as simple as that. Without objectives, there is no intelligence: any action is as good as any other, and the machine may as well be a random number generator. Without objectives, there is also no reason for the machine to prefer a human paradise to a planet turned into a sea of paperclips (a scenario described at length by Nick Bostrom). Indeed, the latter outcome may be utopian for the iron-eating bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans . Absent some notion that human preferences matter, who is to say the bacterium is wrong? A common variant on the avoid putting in objectives idea is the notion that a sufficiently intelligent system will necessarily, as a con-sequence of its intelligence, develop the right goals on its own. Of-t e n , p r o p o n e n ts o f th i s n o ti o n a p p e al t o th e th e o ry th a t p e o p l e o f greater intelligence tend to have more altruistic and lofty objectives a view that may be related to the self-conception of the proponents. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 166 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotr, ar, thout objout obj a human paa human p o descrio descrifor Voiloil jectives, thectives, t nd the mnd the mDistributionment esires sucres suc iscovery, orscovery, or hine is going is goin jective we ective we ne, death isndeath is ause its hause its ha olution is olution is probprob THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 167 The idea that it is possible to perceive objectives in the world was discussed at length by the famous eighteenth- century philosopher David Hume in A Treatise of Human Nature .30 He called it the is- ought problem and concluded that it was simply a mistake to think that moral imperatives could be deduced from natural facts. To see why, consider, for example, the design of a chessboard and chess pieces. One cannot perceive in these the goal of checkmate, for the same chessboard and pieces can be used for suicide chess or indeed many other games still to be invented. Nick Bostrom, in Superintelligence , presents the same underlying idea in a different form, which he calls the orthogonality thesis : Intelligence and final goals are orthogonal: more or less any level of intelligence could in principle be combined with more or less any final goal. Here, orthogonal means at right angles in the sense that the de- gree of intelligence is one axis defining an intelligent system and its goals are another axis, and we can vary these independently. For ex- ample, a self- driving car can be given any particular address as its destination; making the car a better driver doesnt mean that it will start refusing to go to addresses that are divisible by seventeen. By the s am e to k en , i t is e asy to im a gin e th a t a general- purpose intelligent system could be given more or less any objective to pursue including maximizing the number of paperclips or the number of known dig- its of pi. This is just how reinforcement learning systems and other kinds of reward optimizers work: the algorithms are completely gen-eral and accept any reward signal. For engineers and computer scien- tists operating within the standard model, the orthogonality thesis is just a given. The idea that intelligent systems could simply observe the world to acquire the goals that should be pursued suggests that a sufficiently intelligent system will naturally abandon its initial objective in favor M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 167 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotkinki g to go too go to ken, it is eak en , i t is e ould be ould be forand wnd ng car can ng car can g the cag the ca dDistributionsame onality thesality thes more or lesre or le bined with bined with at right angt right an axis definaxis defin ec aec a 168 HUMAN COMPATIBLE of the right objective. Its hard to see why a rational agent would do this. Furthermore, it presupposes that there is a right objective out there in the world; it would have to be an objective on which iron- eating bacteria and humans and all other species agree, which is hard to imagine. The most explicit critique of Bostroms orthogonality thesis comes from the noted roboticist Rodney Brooks, who asserts that its impossi-ble for a program to be smart enough that it would be able to invent ways to subvert human society to achieve goals set for it by humans, without understanding the ways in which it was causing problems for those same humans. 31 Unfortunately, its not only possible for a pro- gram to behave like this; it is, in fact, inevitable, given the way Brooks defines the issue. Brooks posits that the optimal plan to achieve goals set for it by humans is causing problems for humans. It follows that those problems reflect things of value to humans that were omitted from the goals set for it by humans. The optimal plan being carried out by the machine may well cause problems for humans, and the machine may well be aware of this. But, by definition, the machine will not rec- ognize those problems as problematic. They are none of its concern. Steven Pinker seems to agree with Bostroms orthogonality thesis, writing that intelligence is the ability to deploy novel means to attain a goal; the goals are extraneous to the intelligence itself. 32 On the other hand, he finds it inconceivable that the AI would be so brilliant that it could figure out how to transmute elements and rewire brains, yet so imbecilic that it would wreak havoc based on elementary blun- ders of misunderstanding. 33 He continues, The ability to choose an action that best satisfies conflicting goals is not an add- on that engi- neers might forget to install and test; it is intelligence. So is the ability to interpret the intentions of a language user in context. Of course, satisf[ying] conflicting goals is not the problem thats something thats been built into the standard model from the early days of deci- sion theory. The problem is that the conflicting goals of which the machine is aware do not constitute the entirety of human concerns; 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 168 8/7/19 11:21 PMelligll oals are els are e d, he finds id, he finds ld figurld figur llforas probpro ems to agreems to agr ence is tence is tDistributionng prp possible foossible fo given the wgiven the w mal plan toplan to s for humafor huma e to humanto huma . The optimThe optim problems fproblems ut, by definut, by defi emaema THE NOT- SO- GREAT AI DEBATE 169 moreover, within the standard model, theres nothing to say that the machine has to care about goals its not told to care about. There are, however, some useful clues in what Brooks and Pinker say. It does seem stupid to us for the machine to, say, change the color of the sky as a side effect of pursuing some other goal, while ignoring the obvious signs of human displeasure that result. It seems stupid to us because we are attuned to noticing human displeasure and (usu- ally) we are motivated to avoid causing it even if we were previously unaware that the humans in question cared about the color of the sky. That is, we humans (1) care about the preferences of other humans and (2) know that we dont know what all those preferences are. In the next chapter, I argue that these characteristics, when built into a ma-chine, may provide the beginnings of a solution to the King Midas problem. 7KH'HEDWH5HVWDUWHG This chapter has provided a glimpse into an ongoing debate in the broad intellectual community, a debate between those pointing to the risks of AI and those who are skeptical about the risks. It has been conducted in books, blogs, academic papers, panel discussions, inter-views, tweets, and newspaper articles. Despite their valiant efforts, the skeptics those who argue that the risk from AI is negligible have failed to explain why superintelligent AI systems will necessarily remain under human control; and they have not even tried to explain why superintelligent AI systems will never be developed. Many skeptics will admit, if pressed, that there is a real problem, even if its not imminent. Scott Alexander, in his Slate Star Codex blog, summed it up brilliantly: 34 The skeptic position seems to be that, although we should prob- ably get a couple of bright people to start working on preliminary M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 169 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottht n books, bbooks, b weets, and weets, and ticsticsforvided aed ommunity,ommunit ose whose who lDistributionof ot eferences aerences a , when builwhen buil olution to tion to UWHGUWHG glimglim 170 HUMAN COMPATIBLE aspects of the problem, we shouldnt panic or start trying to ban AI research. The believers, meanwhile, insist that although we shouldnt panic or start trying to ban AI research, we should probably get a couple of bright people to start working on preliminary aspects of the problem. Although I would be happy if the skeptics came up with an irre- futable objection, perhaps in the form of a simple and foolproof (and evil- proof) solution to the control problem for AI, I think its quite likely that this isnt going to happen, any more than were going to find a simple and foolproof solution for cybersecurity or a simple and fool-proof way to generate nuclear energy with zero risk. Rather than con- tinue the descent into tribal name- calling and repeated exhumation of discredited arguments, it seems better, as Alexander puts it, to start working on some preliminary aspects of the problem. The debate has highlighted the conundrum we face: if we build machines to optimize objectives, the objectives we put into the ma-chines have to match what we want, but we dont know how to define human objectives completely and correctly. Fortunately, there is a middle way. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 170 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot forhat wet w ompletely ompletelyDistributionthin were goinere goin y or a simplor a simpl ero risk. Rarisk. Ra and repeatand repeat er, as Alexaas Alex ects of the pts of the p d the conund the con tives, the tives, the wantwan 7 AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH Once the skeptics arguments have been refuted and all the but but buts have been answered, the next question is usu- ally, OK, I admit theres a problem, but theres no solution, is there? Yes, there is a solution. Lets remind ourselves of the task at hand: to design machines with a high degree of intelligence so that they can help us with difficult problems while ensuring that those machines never behave in ways that make us seriously unhappy. The task is, fortunately, not the following: given a machine that possesses a high degree of intelligence, work out how to control it. If that were the task, we would be toast. A machine viewed as a black box, a fait accompli , might as well have arrived from outer space. And our chances of controlling a superintelligent entity from outer space are roughly zero. Similar arguments apply to methods of creating AI systems that guarantee we wont understand how they work; these methods include whole-brain emulation 1creating souped-up elec- tronic copies of human brains as well as methods based on simulated evolution of programs.2 I wont say more about these proposals be- cause they are so obviously a bad idea. So, how has the field of AI approached the design machines with M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 171 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotriouio is, fortus, fortu s a high degs a high de e the tae the taforigencenc nsuring thansuring th usly unhsly unhDistributionhave been rave been r wered, theered, the es a problema problem ion.on. f the task f the task ssoo 172 HUMAN COMPATIBLE a high degree of intelligence part of the task in the past? Like many other fields, AI has adopted the standard model: we build optimizing machines, we feed objectives into them, and off they go. That worked well when the machines were stupid and had a limited scope of action; if you put in the wrong objective, you had a good chance of being able to switch off the machine, fix the problem, and try again. As machines designed according to the standard model become more intelligent, however, and as their scope of action becomes more global, the approach becomes untenable. Such machines will pur-sue their objective, no matter how wrong it is; they will resist attempts to switch them off; and they will acquire any and all resources that contribute to achieving the objective. Indeed, the optimal behavior for the machine might include deceiving the humans into thinking they gave the machine a reasonable objective, in order to gain enough time to achieve the actual objective given to it. This wouldnt be deviant or malicious behavior requiring consciousness and free will; it would just be part of an optimal plan to achieve the objective. In Chapter 1, I introduced the idea of beneficial machines that is, machines whose actions can be expected to achieve our objectives rather than their objectives. My goal in this chapter is to explain in simple terms how this can be done, despite the apparent drawback that the machines dont know what our objectives are. The resulting approach should lead eventually to machines that present no threat to us, no matter how intelligent they are. Principles for Beneficial Machines I find it helpful to summarize the approach in the form of three3 prin- ciples. When reading these principles, keep in mind that they are in-tended primarily as a guide to AI researchers and developers in t h i n k i n g a b o u t h o w t o c r e a t e b e n e f i c i a l A I s y s t e m s ; t h e y a r e not intended as explicit laws for AI systems to follow: 4 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 172 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotw tw hines donnes don should leadshould lea tter howtter howforns can can jectives. Mectives. M his can his can Distributionresis d all resoull resou e optimal be optimal b umans into ans into in order to n order to to it. This wit. This consciousnensciousne to achieve to achiev d the idea d the idea be ebe e AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH 173 1. The machines only objective is to maximize the realization of human preferences. 2. The machine is initially uncertain about what those prefer- ences are. 3. The ultimate source of information about human preferences is human behavior. Before delving into more detailed explanations, its important to remember the broad scope of what I mean by preferences in these prin- ciples. Heres a reminder of what I wrote in Chapter 2: if you were somehow able to watch two movies, each describing in sufficient detail and breadth a future life you might lead, such that each constitutes a vir-tual experience, you could say which you prefer, or express indifference . Thus, preferences here are all- encompassing; they cover everything you might care about, arbitrarily far into the future. 5 And they are yours: the machine is not looking to identify or adopt one ideal set of preferences but to understand and satisfy (to the extent possible) the preferences of each person. The first principle: Purely altruistic machines The first principle, that the machines only objective is to maxi- mize the realization of human preferences, is central to the notion of a b en e fi ci al m a chin e . In p arti cul ar , i t will b e b en e fi ci al to humans , rather than to, say, cockroaches. Theres no getting around this recipient- specific notion of benefit. The principle means that the machine is purely altruisticthat is, it attaches absolutely no intrinsic value to its own well- being or even its own existence. It might protect itself in order to continue doing useful things for humans, or because its owner would be unhappy about having to pay for repairs, or because the sight of a dirty or dam-aged robot might be mildly distressing to passersby, but not because it wants to be alive. Putting in any preference for self-preservation sets M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 173 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotprinciplerinciple realizationrealizatio ial macial macfor nciple: Pciple: PDistributioner 2: g in sufficin suffic at each const each cons efer, or expr or exp assing; theyassing; the r into the into the g to identifyo identify d and satisfd and satis 174 HUMAN COMPATIBLE up an additional incentive within the robot that is not strictly aligned with human well- being. The wording of the first principle brings up two questions of fun- damental importance. Each merits an entire bookshelf to itself, and in fact many books have already been written on these questions. The first question is whether humans really have preferences in a meaningful or stable sense. In truth, the notion of a preference is an idealization that fails to match reality in several ways. For example, we arent born with the preferences we have as adults, so they must change over time. For now, I will assume that the idealization is rea-sonable. Later, I will examine what happens when we give up the idealization. The second question is a staple of the social sciences: given that it is usually impossible to ensure that everyone gets their most preferred outcome we cant all be Emperor of the Universe how should the machine trade off the preferences of multiple humans? Again, for the time being and I promise to return to this question in the next chapter it seems reasonable to adopt the simple approach of treating everyone equally. This is reminiscent of the roots of eighteenth- century utilitarianism in the phrase the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers, 6 and there are many caveats and elaborations required to make this work in practice. Perhaps the most important of these is the matter of the possibly vast number of people not yet born, and how their preferences are to be taken into account. The issue of future humans brings up another, related question: How do we take into account the preferences of nonhuman entities? That is, should the first principle include the preferences of animals? (And possibly plants too?) This is a question worthy of debate, but the outcome seems unlikely to have a strong impact on the path forward for AI. For what its worth, human preferences can and do include terms for the well- being of animals, as well as for the aspects of hu- man well- being that benefit directly from animals existence. 7 To say that the machine should pay attention to the preferences of animals in 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 174 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottheh rk in pracin prac the possiblthe possib rences arences fors reminem e phrase t phrase e are me are mDistributionaliza en we givewe give al sciences:ciences ne gets thene gets the f the he UUniveniv of multiplef multiple o return too return e to adopt e to adopt scenscen AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH 175 addition to this is to say that humans should build machines that care more about animals than humans do, which is a difficult position to sustain. A more tenable position is that our tendency to engage in myopic decision making which works against our own interests often leads to negative consequences for the environment and its animal inhabitants. A machine that makes less myopic decisions would help humans adopt more environmentally sound policies. And if, in the future, we give substantially greater weight to the well- being of animals than we currently do which probably means sacrificing some of our own intrinsic well- being then machines will adapt accordingly. The second principle: Humble machines The second principle, that the machine is initially uncertain about what human preferences are, is the key to creating beneficial machines. A machine that assumes it knows the true objective perfectly will pursue it single- mindedly. It will never ask whether some course of action is OK, because it already knows its an optimal solution for the objective. It will ignore humans jumping up and down screaming, Stop, youre going to destroy the world! because those are just words. Assuming perfect knowledge of the objective decouples the machine from the human: what the human does no longer matters, because the machine knows the goal and pursues it. On the other hand, a machine that is uncertain about the true objective will exhibit a kind of humility: it will, for example, defer to humans and allow itself to be switched off. It reasons that the human will switch it off only if its doing something wrong that is, doing something contrary to human preferences. By the first principle, it wants to avoid doing that, but, by the second principle, it knows thats possible because it doesnt know exactly what wrong is. So, if the human does switch the machine off, then the machine avoids doing M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 175 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotll il e going to oing to g perfect kg perfect k humanhumanforedly. Ity. use it alreaduse it alrea gnore hnore hDistributionhines machinesachines e machine machine are, is the e, is the s it knowss it knows willwill 176 HUMAN COMPATIBLE the wrong thing, and thats what it wants. In other words, the machine has a positive incentive to allow itself to be switched off. It remains coupled to the human, who is a potential source of information that will allow it to avoid mistakes and do a better job. Uncertainty has been a central concern in AI since the 1980s; in- deed the phrase modern AI often refers to the revolution that took place when uncertainty was finally recognized as a ubiquitous issue in real- world decision making. Yet uncertainty in the objective of the AI system was simply ignored. In all the work on utility maximization, goal achievement, cost minimization, reward maximization, and loss minimization, it is assumed that the utility function, the goal, the cost function, the reward function, and the loss function are known per-fectly. How could this be? How could the AI community (and the control theory, operations research, and statistics communities) have such a huge blind spot for so long, even while embracing uncertainty in all other aspects of decision making? 8 One could make some rather complicated technical excuses,9 but I suspect the truth is that, with some honorable exceptions,10 AI re- searchers simply bought into the standard model that maps our notion of human intelligence onto machine intelligence: humans have objec-tives and pursue them, so machines should have objectives and pursue them. They, or should I say we, never really examined this fundamen-tal assumption. It is built into all existing approaches for constructing intelligent systems. The third principle: Learning to predict human preferences The third principle, that the ultimate source of information about human preferences is human behavior, serves two purposes. The first purpose is to provide a definite grounding for the term human preferences . By assumption, human preferences arent in the machine and it cannot observe them directly, but there must still be 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 176 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottheh or should should ption. It is bption. It is systemsystemfort into tnto ce onto mace onto m m, so mm, so mDistributionzatio n, the goal,the goal, nction are kction are k AI commucomm statistics costatistics c en while emwhile e king?ng?88 her complicher compli with somewith some es tes t AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH 177 some definite connection between the machine and human prefer- ences. The principle says that the connection is through the observa-tion of human choices : we assume that choices are related in some (possibly very complicated) way to underlying preferences. To see why this connection is essential, consider the converse: if some human preference had no effect whatsoever on any actual or hypothetical choice the human might make, then it would probably be meaningless to say that the preference exists. The second purpose is to enable the machine to become more use- ful as it learns more about what we want. (After all, if it knew nothing about human preferences, it would be of no use to us.) The idea is simple enough: human choices reveal information about human pref-erences. Applied to the choice between pineapple pizza and sausage pizza, this is straightforward. Applied to choices between future lives and choices made with the goal of influencing the robots behavior, things get more interesting. In the next chapter I explain how to for-mulate and solve such problems. The real complications arise, how-ever, because humans are not perfectly rational: imperfection comes between human preferences and human choices, and the machine must take into account those imperfections if it is to interpret human choices as evidence of human preferences. Not what I mean Before going into more detail, I want to head off some potential misunderstandings. The first and most common misunderstanding is that I am propos- ing to install in machines a single, idealized value system of my own design that guides the machines behavior. Whose values are you go-ing to put in? Who gets to decide what the values are? Or even, What gives Western, well- off, white male cisgender scientists such as Russell the right to determine how the machine encodes and develops human values? 11 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 177 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ncenc what I mwhat I mforerencesnc ount those iunt those of humof humDistributionf it k to us.) To us.) T tion about hon about h neapple pizpple pi o choices bechoices b influencingfluencin he next chanext cha ems. The reems. The not perfecnot perfec andand 178 HUMAN COMPATIBLE I think this confusion comes partly from an unfortunate conflict between the commonsense meaning of value and the more technical sense in which it is used in economics, AI, and operations research. In ordinary usage, values are what one uses to help resolve moral dilem-mas; as a technical term, on the other hand, value is roughly synony- mous with utility, which measures the degree of desirability of anything from pizza to paradise. The meaning I want is the technical one: I just want to make sure the machines give me the right pizza and dont ac-cidentally destroy the human race. (Finding my keys would be an un-expected bonus.) To avoid this confusion, the principles talk about human preferences rather than human values , since the former term seems to steer clear of judgmental preconceptions about morality. Putting in values is, of course, exactly the mistake I am saying we should avoid, because getting the values (or preferences) exactly right is so difficult and getting them wrong is potentially catastrophic. I am proposing instead that machines learn to predict better, for each per-son, which life that person would prefer, all the while being aware that the predictions are highly uncertain and incomplete. In principle, the machine can learn billions of different predictive preference models, one for each of the billions of people on Earth. This is really not too much to ask for the AI systems of the future, given that present- day Facebook systems are already maintaining more than two billion indi- vidual profiles. A related misunderstanding is that the goal is to equip machines with ethics or moral values that will enable them to resolve moral dilemmas. Often, people bring up the so- called trolley problems, 12 where one has to choose whether to kill one person in order to save others, because of their supposed relevance to self- driving cars. The whole point of moral dilemmas, however, is that they are dilemmas: there are good arguments on both sides. The survival of the human race is not a moral dilemma. Machines could solve most moral dilem-mas the wrong way (whatever that is) and still have no catastrophic impact on humanity. 13 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 178 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottheh tems are ams are a files.files. ted misuted misforons of s o billions of pbillions of AI systAI systDistributionples e the formthe form ns about mns about m he mistake mistake (or preferenor preferen g is potentiapotentia earn to prern to pre uld prefer, auld prefer, ncertain anncertain a diffediffe AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH 179 A n o t h e r c o m m o n s u p p o s i t i o n i s t h a t m a c h i n e s t h a t f o l l o w t h e three principles will adopt all the sins of the evil humans they observe and learn from. Certainly, there are many of us whose choices leave something to be desired, but there is no reason to suppose that ma-chines who study our motivations will make the same choices, any more than criminologists become criminals. Take, for example, the corrupt government official who demands bribes to approve building permits because his paltry salary wont pay for his children to go to university. A machine observing this behavior will not learn to take bribes; it will learn that the official, like many other people, has a very strong desire for his children to be educated and successful. It will find ways to help him that dont involve lowering the well- being of others. This is not to say that all cases of evil behavior are unproblematic for machinesfor example, machines may need to treat differently those who actively prefer the suffering of others. Reasons for Optimism In a nutshell, I am suggesting that we need to steer AI in a radically new direction if we want to retain control over increasingly intelligent machines. We need to move away from one of the driving ideas of twentieth- century technology: machines that optimize a given objec- tive. I am often asked why I think this is even remotely feasible, given the huge momentum behind the standard model in AI and related disciplines. In fact, I am quite optimistic that it can be done. The first reason for optimism is that there are strong economic incentives to develop AI systems that defer to humans and gradually align themselves to user preferences and intentions. Such systems will be highly desirable: the range of behaviors they can exhibit is simply far greater than that of machines with fixed, known objectives. They will ask humans questions or ask for permission when appropriate; they will do trial runs to see if we like what they propose to do; they M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 179 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotfw ew We need tneed t h-century tentury m often am often forsuggestingsuggestin want towant toDistributioneoplp ccessful. Iessful. I he e wwell-ell-bbeinein vior are unr are un need to treneed to tre others.hers. mismmism 180 HUMAN COMPATIBLE will accept correction when they do something wrong. On the other hand, systems that fail to do this will have severe consequences. Up to now, the stupidity and limited scope of AI systems has protected us from these consequences, but that will change. Imagine, for example, some future domestic robot charged with looking after your children while you are working late. The children are hungry, but the refriger-ator is empty. Then the robot notices the cat. Alas, the robot under-stands the cats nutritional value but not its sentimental value. Within a few short hours, headlines about deranged robots and roasted cats are blanketing the worlds media and the entire domestic- robot indus- try is out of business. The possibility that one industry player could destroy the entire industry through careless design provides a strong economic motiva- tion to form safety- oriented industry consortia and to enforce safety standards. Already, the Partnership on AI, which includes as members nearly all the worlds leading technology companies, has agreed to cooperate to ensure that AI research and technology is robust, reliable, trustworthy, and operates within secure constraints. To my knowl-edge, all the major players are publishing their safety- oriented research in the open literature. Thus, the economic incentive is in operation long before we reach human- level AI and will only strengthen over time. Moreover, the same cooperative dynamic may be starting at the inter- national levelfor example, the stated policy of the Chinese govern- ment is to cooperate to preemptively prevent the threat of AI. 14 A second reason for optimism is that the raw data for learning about human preferences namely, examples of human behavior are so abundant. The data come not just in the form of direct observation via camera, keyboard, and touch screen by billions of machines shar-ing data with one another about billions of humans (subject to privacy constraints, of course) but also in indirect form. The most obvious kind of indirect evidence is the vast human record of books, films, and television and radio broadcasts, which is almost entirely concerned 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 180 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothhu e same coame co evelfor exevelfor e coopercoopeforers are are e. Thus, the. Thus, th man-man- lleveevDistributionic-r uld destroyld destroy strong econong eco nsortia andnsortia and n AI, whichAI, which chnology conology co search and tearch and within secuwithin sec ubliubli AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH 181 with people doing things (and other people being upset about it). Even the earliest and most tedious Sumerian and Egyptian records of cop-per ingots being traded for sacks of barley give some insight into hu-man preferences for different commodities. There are, of course, difficulties involved in interpreting this raw material, which includes propaganda, fiction, the ravings of lunatics, and even the pronouncements of politicians and presidents, but there is certainly no reason for the machine to take it all at face value. Ma-chines can and should interpret all communications from other intel-ligent entities as moves in a game rather than as statements of fact; in some games, such as cooperative games with one human and one ma-chine, the human has an incentive to be truthful, but in many other situations there are incentives to be dishonest. And of course, whether honest or dishonest, humans may be deluded in their own beliefs. There is a second kind of indirect evidence that is staring us in the face: the way we have made the world. 15 We made it that way because very roughly we like it that way. (Obviously, its not perfect!) Now, imagine you are an alien visiting Earth while all the humans are away on holiday. As you peer inside their houses, can you begin to grasp the basics of human preferences? Carpets are on floors because we like to walk on soft, warm surfaces and we dont like loud footsteps; vases are on the middle of the table rather than the edge because we dont want them to fall and break; and so on everything that isnt arranged by nature itself provides clues to the likes and dislikes of the strange bi- pedal creatures who inhabit this planet. Reasons for Caution You may find the Partnership on AIs promises of cooperation on AI safety less than reassuring if you have been following progress in self- driving cars. That field is ruthlessly competitive, for some very good M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 181 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotarmr le of the tof the t fall and brefall and br self provself proforr insidnsi eferences? Ceferences? surfacesurface bDistributionmen human andman and hful, but in ful, but in st. And of cAnd of luded in thuded in th t evidence tvidence orld.ld.1515 We m We m way. (Obviway. (Ob siting Eartsiting Ear thethe 182 HUMAN COMPATIBLE reasons: the first car manufacturer to release a fully autonomous vehi- cle will gain a huge market advantage; that advantage will be self- reinforcing because the manufacturer will be able to collect more data more quickly to improve the systems performance; and ride- hailing companies such as Uber would quickly go out of business if another company were to roll out fully autonomous taxis before Uber does. This has led to a high- stakes race in which caution and careful engi- neering appear to be less important than snazzy demos, talent grabs, and premature rollouts. Thus, life- or- death economic competition provides an impetus to cut corners on safety in the hope of winning the race. In a 2008 retro-spective paper on the 1975 Asilomar conference that he co- organized the conference that led to a moratorium on genetic modification of humans the biologist Paul Berg wrote, 16 There is a lesson in Asilomar for all of science: the best way to re- spond to concerns created by emerging knowledge or early- stage technologies is for scientists from publicly funded institutions to find common cause with the wider public about the best way to regulate as early as possible. Once scientists from corpo- rations begin to dominate the research enterprise, it will simply be too late. Economic competition occurs not just between corporations but also between nations. A recent flurry of announcements of multibillion- dollar national investments in AI from the United States, China, France, Britain, and the EU certainly suggests that none of the major powers wants to be left behind. In 2017, Russian president Vladimir Putin said, The one who becomes the leader in [AI] will be the ruler of the world. 17 This analysis is essentially correct. Advanced AI would, as we saw in Chapter 3, lead to greatly increased productivity and rates of innovation in almost all areas. If not shared, it would allow its pos-sessor to outcompete any rival nation or bloc. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 182 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot o do mic commic comforuse wie w aas early as ps early as ominateminateDistributions an e. In a 200In a 200 that he cohat he co --o n genetic menetic m r all of scienll of scien y emergingy emergin ists from ists from ht hht h AI: A DIFFERENT APPROACH 183 Nick Bostrom, in Superintelligence , warns against exactly this moti- vation. National competition, just like corporate competition, would tend to focus more on advances in raw capabilities and less on the problem of control. Perhaps, however, Putin has read Bostrom; he went on to say, It would be strongly undesirable if someone wins a m o n o p o l i s t p o s i t i o n . I t w o u l d a l s o b e r a t h e r p o i n t l e s s , b e c a u s e human- level AI is not a zero- sum game and nothing is lost by sharing it. On the other hand, competing to be the first to achieve human- level AI, without first solving the control problem, is a negative- sum game. The payoff for everyone is minus infinity. Theres only a limited amount that AI researchers can do to influ- ence the evolution of global policy on AI. We can point to possible applications that would provide economic and social benefits; we can warn about possible misuses such as surveillance and weapons; and we can provide roadmaps for the likely path of future developments and their impacts. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to design AI systems that are, to the extent possible, provably safe and benefi-cial for humans. Only then will it make sense to attempt general reg-ulation of AI. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 183 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distributionhers can dors can do e can pointcan point and social bsocial veillance aneillance an path of futath of fut mportant thportant th xtent possibxtent poss will it mawill it m 8 PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI If we are going to rebuild AI along new lines, the foundations must be solid. When the future of humanity is at stake, hope and good intentions and educational initiatives and industry codes of con- duct and legislation and economic incentives to do the right thing are not enough. All of these are fallible, and they often fail. In such situations, we look to precise definitions and rigorous step- by- step mathematical proofs to provide incontrovertible guarantees. Thats a good start, but we need more. We need to be sure, to the extent possible, that what is guaranteed is actually what we want and that the assumptions going into the proof are actually true. The proofs themselves belong in journal papers written for specialists, but I think it is useful nonetheless to understand what proofs are and what they can and cannot provide in the way of real safety. The provably bene-ficial in the title of the chapter is an aspiration rather than a promise, but it is the right aspiration. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 184 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotstas le, that wthat w ssumptions ssumption s belongs belonforpreciseci s to provideto provid rt, but wrt, but w hDistributionw lines, the lines, the anity is at sity is at tiatives andatives and omic incentomic incen e are fallibe are fallib defdef PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 185 Mathematical Guarantees We will want, eventually, to prove theorems to the effect that a particular way of designing AI systems ensures that they will be ben- eficial to humans. A theorem is just a fancy name for an assertion, stated precisely enough so that its truth in any particular situation can be checked. Perhaps the most famous theorem is Fermats Last Theo-rem, which was conjectured by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in 1637 and finally proved by Andrew Wiles in 1994 after 357 years of effort (not all of it by Wiles). 1 The theorem can be written in one line, but the proof is over one hundred pages of dense mathematics. Proofs begin from axioms , which are assertions whose truth is simply assumed. Often, the axioms are just definitions, such as the definitions of integers, addition, and exponentiation needed for Fermats theorem. The proof proceeds from the axioms by logically incontrovertible steps, adding new assertions until the theorem itself is established as a consequence of one of the steps. Heres a fairly obvious theorem that follows almost immediately from the definitions of integers and addition: 1 + 2 = 2 + 1. Lets call this Russells theorem . Its not much of a discovery. On the other hand, Fermats Last Theorem feels like something completely new a dis- covery of something previously unknown. The difference, however, is just a matter of degree. The truth of both Russells and Fermats the-orems is already contained in the axioms . Proofs merely make explicit what was already implicit. They can be long or short, but they add nothing new. The theorem is only as good as the assumptions that go into it. Thats fine when it comes to mathematics, because mathematics is about abstract objects that we define numbers, sets, and so on. The axioms are true because we say so. On the other hand, if you want to prove something about the real world for example, that AI systems M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 185 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottionio theoremeorem . . Last TheorLast Theo fs o m e t hfs o m e t hforequenue obvious theobvious th s of intes of inteDistributionles in rem can bm can b ndred pagendred page are assertiore assertio are just dre just d n, and exand ex f proceeds ffp r o c e e d s ng new asng new a eo feo f 186 HUMAN COMPATIBLE designed like so wont kill you on purpose your axioms have to be true in the real world. If they arent true, youve proved something about an imaginary world. Science and engineering have a long and honorable tradition of proving results about imaginary worlds. In structural engineering, for example, one might see a mathematical analysis that begins, Let AB be a rigid beam. . . . The word rigid here doesnt mean made of something hard like steel; it means infinitely strong, so that it doesnt bend at all. Rigid beams do not exist, so this is an imaginary world. The trick is to know how far one can stray from the real world and still obtain useful results. For example, if the rigid- beam assumption al- lows an engineer to calculate the forces in a structure that includes the beam, and those forces are small enough to bend a real steel beam by only a tiny amount, then the engineer can be reasonably con-fident that the analysis will transfer from the imaginary world to the real world. A good engineer develops a sense for when this transfer might fail for example, if the beam is under compression, with huge forces push-ing on it from each end, then even a tiny amount of bending might lead to greater lateral forces causing more bending, and so on, result- in g in ca tastrop hi c fail ure. In tha t case, th e anal ysis is redon e with Let AB be a flexible beam with stiffness K. . . . This is still an imag- inary world, of course, because real beams do not have uniform stiff-ness; instead, they have microscopic imperfections that can lead to cracks forming if the beam is subject to repeated bending. The process of removing unrealistic assumptions continues until the engineer is fairly confident that the remaining assumptions are true enough in the real world. After that, the engineered system can be tested in the real world; but the test results are just that. They do not prove that the same system will work in other circumstances or that other instances of the system will behave the same way as the original. One of the classic examples of assumption failure in computer sci- e n c e c o m e s f r o m c y b e r s e c u r i t y . I n t h a t f i e l d , a h u g e a m o u n t o f 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 186 8/7/19 11:21 PMhic ic flexible bxible b ld, of coursld, of cour ead, theead, theford, thenthe al forces caal forces c failure. ailure. Distributionl wor am assumm assum tructure thructure th ugh to ben to be gineer can bineer can b from the imm the im sense for whsense for w nder compnder com eveeve PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 187 mathematical analysis goes into showing that certain digital protocols are provably secure for example, when you type a password into a Web application, you want to be sure that it is encrypted before trans-mission so that someone eavesdropping on the network cannot read your password. Such digital systems are often provably secure but still vulnerable to attack in reality. The false assumption here is that this is a digital process. It isnt. It operates in the real, physical world. By lis-tening to the sound of your keyboard or measuring voltages on the electrical line that supplies power to your desktop computer , an at- tacker can hear your password or observe the encryption/ decryption calculations that are occurring as it is processed. The cybersecurity community is now responding to these so- called side- channel attacks for example, by writing encryption code that produces the same volt- age fluctuations regardless of what message is being encrypted. Lets look at the kind of theorem we would like eventually to prove about machines that are beneficial to humans. One type might go something like this: Suppose a machine has components A, B, C, connected to each other like so and to the environment like so, with internal learn- ing algorithms lA, lB, lC that optimize internal feedback rewards rA, rB, rC defined like so, and [a few more conditions] . . . then, with very high probability, the machines behavior will be very close in value (for humans) to the best possible behavior realizable on any machine with the same computational and physical capabilities. The main point here is that such a theorem should hold regardless of how smart the components become that is, the vessel never springs a leak and the machine always remains beneficial to humans. There are three other points worth making about this kind of the- orem. First, we cannot try to prove that the machine produces optimal (or even near- optimal) behavior on our behalf, because thats almost M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 187 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ms s lAA fined likeed like very high pvery high n value n valueforhas coas c to the envto the en llB, , llCC ththCDistributionption The cybeThe cybe sside-ide-cchannhann at producesproduce sage is beingage is bein we would lie would l cial to huml to hum mpompo 188 HUMAN COMPATIBLE certainly computationally impossible. For example, we might want the machine to play Go perfectly, but there is good reason to be-lieve that cannot be done in any practical amount of time on any phys-ically realizable machine. Optimal behavior in the real world is even less feasible. Hence, the theorem says best possible rather than optimal. Second, we say very high probability . . . very close because thats typically the best that can be done with machines that learn. For ex- ample, if the machine is learning to play roulette for us and the ball lands in zero forty times in a row, the machine might reasonably de-cide the table was rigged and bet accordingly. But it could have hap- pened by chance; so there is always a small perhaps vanishingly small chance of being misled by freak occurrences. Finally, we are a long way from being able to prove any such theorem for really intelli- gent machines operating in the real world! There are also analogs of the side- channel attack in AI. For exam- ple, the theorem begins with Suppose a machine has components A, B, C, connected to each other like so. . . . This is typical of all correct- ness theorems in computer science: they begin with a description of the program being proved correct. In AI, we typically distinguish be-tween the agent (the program doing the deciding) and the environment (on which the agent acts). Since we design the agent, it seems reason-able to assume that it has the structure we give it. To be extra safe, we can prove that its learning processes can modify its program only in certain circumscribed ways that cannot cause problems. Is this enough? No. As with side- channel attacks, the assumption that the program operates within a digital system is incorrect. Even if a learn- ing algorithm is constitutionally incapable of overwriting its own code by digital means, it may, nonetheless, learn to persuade humans to do b r a i n s u r g e ry o n it to violate the agent/ environment distinction and change the code by physical means. 2 Unlike the structural engineer reasoning about rigid beams, we have very little experience with the assumptions that will eventually 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 188 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot(thethe e agent acgent ac ume that itume that i that itsthat itsforuter scer proved correroved cor programprogramDistributionreas it couldcould hhdd pperhaps verhaps v urrences. Finces. F uch theoremch theorem world!ld! de-cchannelhanne Suppose a mSuppose a r like r like sos.. enceence PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 189 underlie theorems about provably beneficial AI. In this chapter, for example, we will typically be assuming a rational human. This is a bit like assuming a rigid beam, because there are no perfectly rational humans in reality . (It s probably much worse, however , because hu-mans are not even close to being rational.) The theorems we can prove seem to provide some insights, and the insights survive the introduc-tion of a certain degree of randomness in human behavior, but it is as yet far from clear what happens when we consider some of the com-plexities of real humans. So, we are going to have to be very careful in examining our as- sumptions. When a proof of safety succeeds, we need to make sure its not succeeding because we have made unrealistically strong assump-tions or because the definition of safety is too weak. When a proof of s af e ty f ails , w e n e e d t o r e s ist th e t e m p ta ti o n t o str e n gth e n th e as- sumptions to make the proof go through for example, by adding the assumption that the programs code remains fixed. Instead, we need to tighten up the design of the AI system for example, by ensuring that it has no incentive to modify critical parts of its own code. There are some assumptions that I call OWMAWGH assumptions, standing for otherwise we might as well go home. That is, if these assumptions are false, the game is up and there is nothing to be done. For example, it is reasonable to assume that the universe operates ac-cording to constant and somewhat discernible laws. If this is not the case, we will have no assurance that learning processes even very sophisticated ones will work at all. Another basic assumption is that humans care about what happens; if not, provably beneficial AI has no purpose because beneficial has no meaning. Here, caring means hav- ing roughly coherent and more- or- less stable preferences about the future. In the next chapter, I examine the consequences of plasticity in human preferences, which presents a serious philosophical challenge to the very idea of provably beneficial AI. For now, I focus on the simplest case: a world with one human and one robot. This case serves to introduce the basic ideas, but its also M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 189 8/7/19 11:21 PMNote faf , it is reast is reas to constant to constan will hawill ha ddforumptiompt wise we mwise we m se, the gse, the gDistributionamin eed to makd to mak stically strotically stro too weak. Wweak. W ptation to ptation to oughgh ffor eor efff ode remainde remain he AI he AI ssysteyst modify critmodify cri ns thns th 190 HUMAN COMPATIBLE useful in its own right: you can think of the human as standing in for all of humanity and the robot as standing in for all machines. Additional complications arise when considering multiple humans and machines. Learning Preferences from Behavior Economists elicit preferences from human subjects by offering them choices. 3 This technique is widely used in product design, marketing, and interactive e- c o m m e r c e s y s t e m s . F o r e x a m p l e , b y o ff e r i n g t e s t subjects choices among cars with different paint colors, seating ar- rangements, trunk sizes, battery capacities, cup holders, and so on, a car designer learns how much people care about various car features and how much they are willing to pay for them. Another important application is in the medical domain, where an oncologist considering a possible limb amputation might want to assess the patients prefer-ences between mobility and life expectancy. And of course, pizza restaurants want to know how much more someone is willing to pay for sausage pizza than plain pizza. Preference elicitation typically considers only single choices made between objects whose value is assumed to be immediately apparent to the subject. Its not obvious how to extend it to preferences be-tween future lives. For that, we (and machines) need to learn from observations of behavior over time behavior that involves multiple choices and uncertain outcomes. Early in 1997, I was involved in discussions with my colleagues Michael Dickinson and Bob Full about ways in which we might be able to apply ideas from machine learning to understand the locomo-tive behavior of animals. Michael studied in exquisite detail the wing motions of fruit flies. Bob was especially fond of creepy- crawlies and had built a little treadmill for cockroaches to see how their gait changed with speed. We thought it might be possible to use reinforce-ment learning to train a robotic or simulated insect to reproduce these 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 190 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotwhw t. Its notIts not ure lives. Fure lives. ns of bns of bforplain pin ation typicaation typic ose valuose valuDistributionby of colors, seolors, se p holders, aholders, a about variouut vario or them. Aor them. A where an ohere an o want to aswant to as life expectlife expec ow much ow much zza.zza. PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 191 complex behaviors. The problem we faced was that we didnt know what reward signal to use. What were the flies and cockroaches opti-mizing? Without that information, we couldnt apply reinforcement learning to train the virtual insect, so we were stuck. One day, I was walking down the road that leads from our house in Berkeley to the local supermarket. The road has a downhill slope, and I noticed, as I am sure most people have, that the slope induced a slight change in the way I walked. Moreover, the uneven paving re-sulting from decades of minor earthquakes induced additional gait changes, including raising my feet a little higher and planting them less stiffly because of the unpredictable ground level. As I pondered these mundane observations, I realized we had got it backwards. While reinforcement learning generates behavior from rewards, we actually wanted the opposite: to learn the rewards given the behavior. We already had the behavior, as produced by the flies and cockroaches; we wanted to know the specific reward signal being optimized by this behavior. In other words, we needed algorithms for inverse reinforce- ment learning, or IRL. 4 (I did not know at the time that a similar problem had been studied under the perhaps less wieldy name of structural estimation of Markov decision processes , a field pioneered by Nobel laureate Tom Sargent in the late 1970s. 5) Such algorithms would not only be able to explain animal behavior but also to predict their behavior in new circumstances. For example, how would a cock-roach run on a bumpy treadmill that sloped sideways? The prospect of answering such fundamental questions was al- most too exciting to bear, but even so it took some time to work out the first algorithms for IRL. 6 Many different formulations and algo- rithms for IRL have been proposed since then. There are formal guar-antees that the algorithms work, in the sense that they can acquire enough information about an entitys preferences to be able to behave just as successfully as the entity they are observing. 7 Perhaps the easiest way to understand IRL is this: the observer starts with some vague estimate of the true reward function and then M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 191 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotToT nly be ably be abl havior in newhavior in ne n on a bn on a bforudied ed n of Markovn of Marko m Sargm SargDistributiond plap evel. As I el. As I had got it had got it ehavior frovior fro he rewards e rewards uced by theed by the eward signaward sign needed algneeded al did not kdid not ndende 192 HUMAN COMPATIBLE refines this estimate, making it more precise, as more behavior is ob- served. Or, in Bayesian language:8 start with a prior probability over possible reward functions and then update the probability distribution on reward functions as evidence arrives. C For example, suppose Robbie the robot is watching Harriet the human and wondering how much she prefers aisle seats to window seats. Initially, he is quite uncertain about this. Conceptually, Robbies reasoning might go like this: If Harriet really cared about an aisle seat, she would have looked at the seat map to see if one was available rather than just accepting the win-dow seat that the airline gave her, but she didnt, even though she probably noticed it was a window seat and she probably wasnt in a hurry; so now its considerably more likely that she either is roughly indifferent between window and aisle or even prefers a window seat. The most striking example of IRL in practice is the work of my colleague Pieter Abbeel on learning to do helicopter aerobatics. 9 Ex- pert human pilots can make model helicopters do amazing things loops, spirals, pendulum swings, and so on. Trying to copy what the human does turns out not to work very well because conditions are not perfectly reproducible: repeating the same control sequences in differ-ent circumstances can lead to disaster. Instead, the algorithm learns what the human pilot wants , in the form of trajectory constraints that it can achieve. This approach actually produces results that are even better than the human experts, because the human has slower reac-tions and is constantly making small mistakes and correcting for them. Assistance Games IRL is already an important tool for building effective AI systems, but it makes some simplifying assumptions. The first is that the robot is going to adopt the reward function once it has learned it by observing the human, so that it can perform the same task. This is fine for driv-ing or helicopter piloting, but its not fine for drinking coffee: a robot 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 192 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotpilp e. This apThis ap n the humn the hum s constas constaforrepeatpea an lead to an lead to ottwantswantsDistributionven t obably wabably wa t she eithershe either n prefers a refers a n practice ipractice i to do helicodo helic del helicopthelicopt gs, and so ogs, and so work verywork very ng thng th PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 193 observing my morning routine should learn that I (sometimes) want coffee, but should not learn to want coffee itself. Fixing this issue is easy we simply ensure that the robot associates the preferences with the human, not with itself. The second simplifying assumption in IRL is that the robot is ob- serving a human who is solving a single- agent decision problem. For example, suppose the robot is in medical school, learning to be a sur- geon by watching a human expert. IRL algorithms assume that the human performs the surgery in the usual optimal way, as if the robot were not there. But thats not what would happen: the human surgeon is motivated to have the robot (like any other medical student) learn quickly and well, and so she will modify her behavior considerably. She might explain what she is doing as she goes along; she might point out mistakes to av oid, such as making the incision too deep or the stitches too tight; she might describe the contingency plans in case something goes wrong during surgery. None of these behaviors make sense when performing surgery in isolation, so IRL algorithms will not be able to interpret the preferences they imply. For this reason, we will need to generalize IRL from the single- agent setting to the multi- agent settingthat is, we will need to devise learning algorithms that work when the human and robot are part of the same environment and interacting with each other. With a human and a robot in the same environment, we are in the realm of game theory just as in the penalty shoot- out between Alice and Bob on page 28. We assume, in this first version of the theory, that the human has preferences and acts according to those prefer-ences. The robot doesnt know what preferences the human has, but it wants to satisfy them anyway. Well call any such situation an assis- tance game , because the robot is, by definition, supposed to be helpful to the human. 10 Assistance games instantiate the three principles from the preced- ing chapter: the robots only objective is to satisfy human preferences, it doesnt initially know what they are, and it can learn more by M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 193 8/7/19 11:21 PMNothuh ing with eg with e a human ana human a game game tthhforIRL fRL is, we willis, we wi man anman anDistribution hum dical studcal stud behavior cbehavior c goes along; along; the incisiothe incisio be the contthe con rgery. Noneery. None ry in isolatiory in isolat eferences eferences om tom t 194 HUMAN COMPATIBLE observing human behavior. Perhaps the most interesting property of assistance games is that, by solving the game, the robot can work out for itself how to interpret the humans behavior as providing informa-tion about human preferences. The paperclip game The first example of an assistance game is the paperclip game. Its a very simple game in which Harriet the human has an incentive to signal to Robbie the robot some information about her preferences. Robbie is able to interpret that signal because he can solve the game, and therefore he can understand what would have to be true about Harriets preferences in order for her to signal in that way. The steps of the game are depicted in figure 12. It involves making paperclips and staples. Harriets preferences are expressed by a payoff function that depends on the number of paperclips and the number of staples produced, with a certain exchange rate between the two. For H R R R0 paperclips 2 staples2 paperclips 0 staples1 paperclip 1 staple 0 paperclips 90 sta ples50 paperclips 50 sta ples90 paperclips 0 sta ples FIGURE 12: The paperclip game. Harriet the human can choose to make 2 SDSHUFOLSVVWDSOHVRURIHDFK5REELHWKHURERWWKHQKDV DFKRLFHWRPDNH SDSHUFOLSV VWDSOHVRURIHDFK 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 194 8/7/19 11:21 PMNNot ototot90 pape 0 stafor ibutionher pp an solve thsolve th have to be ave to be al in that wn that w DistribDistDDDDstr1 pape 1 st PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 195 example, she might value paperclips at 45 and staples at 55 each. (Well assume the two values always add up to $1.00; its only the ratio that matters.) So, if 10 paperclips and 20 staples are produced, Harriets payoff will be 10 45 + 20 55 = $15.50. Robbie the robot is initially completely uncertain about Harriets preferences: he has a uniform distribution for the value of a paperclip (that is, its equally likely to be any value from 0 to $1.00). Harriet goes first and can choose to make two paperclips, two staples, or one of each. Then Robbie can choose to make 90 paperclips, 90 staples, or 50 of each. 11 Notice that if she were doing this by herself, Harriet would just make two staples, with a value of $1.10. But Robbie is watching, and he learns from her choice. What exactly does he learn? Well, that depends on how Harriet makes her choice. How does Harriet make her choice? That depends on how Robbie is going to interpret it. So, we seem to have a circular problem! Thats typical in game- theoretic problems, and thats why Nash proposed the concept of equilibrium solutions. To find an equilibrium solution, we need to identify strategies for Harriet and Robbie such that neither has an incentive to change their strategy, assuming the other remains fixed. A strategy for Harriet specifies how many paperclips and staples to make, given her prefer-ences; a strategy for Robbie specifies how many paperclips and staples to make, given Harriets action. It turns out there is only one equilibrium solution, and it looks like this: Harriet decides as follows based on her value for paperclips: If the value is less than 44.6, make 0 paperclips and 2 staples. If the value is between 44.6 and 55.4, make 1 of each. If the value is more than 55.4, make 2 paperclips and 0 staples. Robbie responds as follows: If Harriet makes 0 paperclips and 2 staples, make 90 staples. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 195 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoty fof en HarrieHarrie ns out thens out thfore otheoth y paperclipy paperclip r RobbieRobbie Distributionrriet e is watchin watchin arn? Well, trn? Well, t s Harriet marriet m o interpret o interpret ical in al in ggamam e concept ooncept o lution, we nlution, we at neitherat neithe remrem 196 HUMAN COMPATIBLE If Harriet makes 1 of each, make 50 of each. If Harriet makes 2 paperclips and 0 staples, make 90 paperclips. (In case you are wondering exactly how the solution is obtained, the details are in the notes.12) With this strategy, Harriet is, in effect, teach- ing Robbie about her preferences using a simple code a language, if you like that emerges from the equilibrium analysis. As in the exam- ple of surgical teaching, a single-agent IRL algorithm wouldnt under- stand this code. Note also that Robbie never learns Harriets preferences exactly, but he learns enough to act optimally on her behalf that is, he acts just as he would if he did know her preferences exactly. He is prov- ably beneficial to Harriet under the assumptions stated and under the assumption that Harriet is playing the game correctly. One can also construct problems where, like a good student, Rob- bie will ask questions, and, like a good teacher, Harriet will show Rob-bie the pitfalls to avoid. These behaviors occur not because we write scripts for Harriet and Robbie to follow, but because they are the op-timal solution to the assistance game in which Harriet and Robbie are participants. The off- switch game An instrumental goal is one that is generally useful as a subgoal of almost any original goal. Self-preservation is one of these instrumental goals, because very few original goals are better achieved when dead. This leads to the off- switch problem : a machine that has a fixed objec- tive will not allow itself to be switched off and has an incentive to disable its own off-switch. The off- switch problem is really the core of the problem of control for intelligent systems. If we cannot switch a machine off because it wont let us, were really in trouble. If we can, then we may be able to control it in other ways too. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 196 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotff-f-switch gswitch g trumentrumenfor sistanctanDistributionets pp behalfhalf tt ces exactly. es exactly. ions stated s stated me correctlyme correctl where, like here, like ood teacherod teache e behaviors behavior ie to followie to follo gamgam PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 197 It turns out that uncertainty about the objective is essential for ensuring that we can switch the machine off even when its more intelligent than us. We saw the informal argument in the previous chapter: by the first principle of beneficial machines, Robbie cares only about Harriets preferences, but, by the second principle, hes unsure about what they are. He knows he doesnt want to do the wrong thing, but he doesnt know what that means. Harriet, on the other hand, does know (or so we assume, in this simple case). There-fore, if she switches Robbie off its to avoid him doing something wrong, so hes happy to be switched off. To make this argument more precise, we need a formal model of the problem. 13 Ill make it as simple as possible, but no simpler ( see figure 13). FIGURE 7KHRIIVZLWFKJDPH5REELHFDQFKRRVHWRDFWQRZZLWKDK LJKO\ XQFHUWDLQSD\RII WRFRPPLWVXLFLGH RUWRZDLWIRU+DUULHW+D UULHWFDQVZLWFK 5REELHRIIRUOHWKLPJRDKHDG5REELHQRZKDVWKHVDPHFKRLFH DJDLQ$FWLQJ VWLOOKDVDQXQFHUWDLQSD\RIIWR+DUULHWEXWQRZ5REELHNQRZV WKHSD\RIILVQRW negative.switch self off wait waitactact go aheadswitch robot off switch self offR U = 0 U = 0 U = 0U = ? 0 U = ?H R40 +60 0 40 +60 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 197 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for rorr+60butiond a formala formal le, but no e, but no DistribuactR U = ?Uibu DistDisDi 198 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Robbie, now working as Harriets personal assistant, has the first choice. He can act now lets say he can book Harriet into an expen- sive hotel. Hes quite unsure how much Harriet will like the hotel and its price lets say he has a uniform probability for its net value to Harriet between 40 and + 60, with an average of + 10. He could also switch himself off less melodramatically, take himself out of the hotel booking process altogether which we define to have value 0 to Harriet. If those were his two choices, he would go ahead and book the hotel, incurring a significant risk of making Harriet unhappy. (If the range were 60 to + 40, with an average of 10, hed switch himself off.) Well give Robbie a third choice, however: explain his plan, wait, and let Harriet switch him off. Harriet can either switch him off or let him go ahead and book the hotel. What possible good could this do, you may ask, given that he could make both of those choices himself? The point is that Harriets choice to switch Robbie off or let him go ahead provides Robbie with new information about Harriets preferences. If Harriet lets Robbie go ahead, its because the value to Harriet is positive. Now Robbies belief is uniform between 0 and 60, with an average of 30. So, if we evaluate Robbies initial choices from his point of view: Acting now and booking the hotel has an expected value of + 10. Switching himself off has a value of 0. Waiting and letting Harriet switch him off (if she so desires) leads to two possible outcomes: There is a 40 percent chance (based on Robbies uncertainty about the hotel plan) that Harriet will hate it and will switch Robbie off, with value 0. Theres a 60 percent chance Harriet will like it and allow Rob-bie to go ahead, with expected value + 30. Thus, waiting has expected value 40% 0 + 60% 30 = + 18, which is better than acting now at + 10. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 198 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnow andow and 10.0 tching htching fore Robbies ie RobbiesDistributionswit lain his plin his pl r switch himswitch hi ssible good le good oth of thoseth of those to switch o switch new inforew info bbie go ahebbie go ah bies beliebies beli PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 199 The upshot is that Robbie has a positive incentive to allow himself to be switched off . This incentive comes directly from Robbies uncertainty about Harriets preferences. Robbie is aware that theres a chance (40 percent in this example) that he might be about to do something t h a t w i l l m a k e H a r r i e t u n h a p p y , i n w h i c h c a s e b e i n g s w i t c h e d o f f would be preferable to going ahead. Were Robbie already certain about Harriets preferences, he would just go ahead and make the decision (or switch himself off). There would be absolutely nothing to be gained fr o m c o nsul tin g H arri et, b ec a us e , a c c o r din g t o R o b b i e s d e fini t e b e-liefs, he can already predict exactly what she is going to decide. In fact, it is possible to prove the same result in the general case: as long as Robbie is not completely certain that he s about to do what Harriet herself would do, he will prefer to allow her to switch him off. 14 Her decision provides Robbie with information, and information is always useful for improving Robbies decisions. Conversely, if Rob-bie is certain about Harriets decision, her decision provides no new information, and so Robbie has no incentive to allow her to decide. There are some obvious elaborations on the model that are worth exploring immediately. The first elaboration is to impose a cost for asking Harriet to make decisions or answer questions. (That is, we assume Robbie knows at least this much about Harriets preferences: her time is valuable. ) In that case, Robbie is less inclined to bother Harriet if he is nearly certain about her preferences; the larger the cost, the more uncertain Robbie has to be before bothering Harriet. This is as it should be. And if Harriet is really grumpy about being interrupted, she shouldnt be too surprised if Robbie occasionally does things she doesnt like. The second elaboration is to allow for some probability of human error that is, Harriet might sometimes switch Robbie off even when his proposed action is reasonable, and she might sometimes let Robbie go ahead even when his proposed action is undesirable. We can put this probability of human error into the mathematical model of the assistance game and find the solution, as before. As one might expect, M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 199 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotknkn valuable.)luable.) f he is neaf he is ne more umore ufory. The Th make decismake deci ows at lews at le IDistributiono de the generhe gener hes about hes about o allow herlow he informatioinformatio ies decisions decisio cision, her ion, her as no incentas no ince elaboratielaborat firstfirst 200 HUMAN COMPATIBLE the solution to the game shows that Robbie is less inclined to defer to an irrational Harriet who sometimes acts against her own best inter-ests. The more randomly she behaves, the more uncertain Robbie has to be about her preferences before deferring to her. Again, this is as it should befor example, if Robbie is an autonomous car and Harriet is his naughty two- year- old passenger, Robbie should not allow himself to be switched off by Harriet in the middle of the freeway. There are many more ways in which the model can be elaborated or embedded into complex decision problems. 15 I am confident, however, that the core idea the essential connection between helpful, deferen- tial behavior and machine uncertainty about human preferences will survive these elaborations and complications. Learning preferences exactly in the long run There is one important question that may have occurred to you in reading about the off- switch game. (Actually, you probably have loads of important questions, but Im going to answer only this one.) What happens as Robbie acquires more and more information about Harri-et s pref eren c es , becomin g l ess an d l ess un c ertain? Does tha t m ean he will eventually stop deferring to her altogether? This is a ticklish question, and there are two possible answers: yes and yes. The first yes is benign: as a general matter, as long as Robbies ini- tial beliefs about Harriets preferences ascribe some probability, how- ever small, to the preferences that she actually has, then as Robbie becomes more and more certain, he will become more and more right. That is, he will eventually be certain that Harriet has the preferences that she does in fact have. For example, if Harriet values paperclips at 12 and staples at 88, Robbie will eventually learn these values. In that case, Harriet doesnt care whether Robbie defers to her, because she knows he will always do exactly what she would have done in his place. There will never be an occasion where Harriet wants to switch Robbie off. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 200 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotly sy there arehere are st yesyes is be is bss about about foruires mes coming lessoming le top defeop defeDistributionelpfup preferenceferenc in the lonn the lon on that maythat may ame. (Actuaame. (Actu Im going Im going ore aore a PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 201 The second yes is less benign. If Robbie rules out, a priori, the true preferences that Harriet has, he will never learn those true preferences, but his beliefs may nonetheless converge to an incorrect assessment. In other words, over time, he becomes more and more certain about a false belief concerning Harriets preferences. Typically, that false belief will be whichever hypothesis is closest to Harriets true preferences, out of all the hypotheses that Robbie initially believes are possible. For exam-ple, if Robbie is absolutely certain that Harriets value for paperclips lies between 25 and 75, and Harriets true value is 12, then Robbie will eventually become certain that she values paperclips at 25. 16 As he approaches certainty about Harriets preferences, Robbie will resemble more and more the bad old AI systems with fixed objec-tives: he wont ask permission or give Harriet the option to turn him off, and he has the wrong objective. This is hardly dire if its just paper- clips versus staples, but it might be quality of life versus length of life if Harriet is seriously ill, or population size versus resource consump-tion if Robbie is supposedly acting on behalf of the human race. We have a problem, then, if Robbie rules out in advance prefer- ences that Harriet might in fact have: he may converge to a definite but incorrect belief about her preferences. The solution to this prob-lem seems obvious: dont do it! Always allocate some probability, however small, to preferences that are logically possible. For example, its logically possible that Harriet actively wants to get rid of staples and would pay you to take them away. (Perhaps as a child she stapled her finger to the table, and now she cannot stand the sight of them.) So, we should allow for negative exchange rates, which makes things a bit more complicated but still perfectly manageable. 17 But what if Harriet values paperclips at 12 on weekdays and 80 on weekends? This new preference is not describable by any single number, and so Robbie has, in effect, ruled it out in advance. Its just not in his set of possible hypotheses about Harriets preferences. More generally, there might be many, many things besides paperclips and staples that Harriet cares about. (Really!) Suppose, for example, that M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 201 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotiouo all, to pre, to pre ally possibleally possib d pay yd pay yforght in t in f about herabout he s: dont : dont Distributiont 25 preferenceeference stems with tems with iet the optithe opt is hardly diis hardly d quality of liality of l lation size vtion size cting on becting on b en, if Roben, if Rob act hact 202 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Harriet is concerned about the climate, and suppose that Robbies ini- tial belief allows for a whole laundry list of possible concerns including sea level, global temperatures, rainfall, hurricanes, ozone, invasive species, and deforestation. Then Robbie will observe Harriets behav-ior and choices and gradually refine his theory of her preferences to understand the weight she gives to each item on the list. But, just as in the paperclip case, Robbie wont learn about things that arent on the laundry list. Lets say that Harriet is also concerned about the color of the sky something I guarantee you will not find in typical lists of stated concerns of climate scientists. If Robbie can do a slightly better job of optimizing sea level, global temperatures, rainfall, and so forth by turning the sky orange, he will not hesitate to do it. There is, once again, a solution to this problem: dont do it! Never rule out in advance possible attributes of the world that could be part of Harriets preference structure. That sounds fine, but actually mak-ing it work in practice is more difficult than dealing with a single num-ber for Harriets preferences. Robbies initial uncertainty has to allow for an unbounded number of unknown attributes that might contrib-ute to Harriets preferences. Then, when Harriets decisions are inex-plicable in terms of the attributes Robbie knows about already, he can infer that one or more previously unknown attributes (for example, the color of the sky) may be playing a role, and he can try to work out what those attributes might be. In this way, Robbie avoids the problems caused by an overly restrictive prior belief. There are, as far as I know, no working examples of Robbies of this kind, but the general idea is encompassed within current thinking about machine learning. 18 Prohibitions and the loophole principle Uncertainty about human objectives may not be the only way to persuade a robot not to disable its off- switch while fetching the coffee. The distinguished logician Moshe Vardi has proposed a simpler solu- tion based on a prohibition:19 instead of giving the robot the goal fetch 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 202 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotmomo ky) may bemay b ibutes mighibutes mig an overan overfornces. Tes. the attributhe attribu e previoe previoDistributiona sligg infall, andfall, and o do it.o do it. oblem: donem: don the world tthe world at sounds fisounds fi cult than dult than d Robbies initRobbies in f unknowf unknow hen,hen, PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 203 the coffee, give it the goal fetch the coffee while not disabling your off- switch . Unfortunately, a robot with such a goal will satisfy the let- ter of the law while violating the spiritfor example by surrounding the off- switch with a piranha- infested moat or simply zapping anyone who comes near the switch. Writing such prohibitions in a foolproof way is like trying to write loophole- free tax law something we have been trying and failing to do for thousands of years. A sufficiently in- telligent entity with a strong incentive to avoid paying taxes is likely to find a way to do it. Lets call this the loophole principle : if a sufficiently intelligent machine has an incentive to bring about some condition, then it is generally going to be impossible for mere humans to write prohibitions on its actions to prevent it from doing so or to prevent it from doing something effectively equivalent. The best solution for preventing tax avoidance is to make sure that the entity in question wants to pay taxes. In the case of a potentially misbehaving AI system, the best solution is to make sure it wants to defer to humans. 5HTXHVWVDQG,QVWUXFWLRQV The moral of the story so far is that we should avoid putting a pur-pose into the machine, as Norbert Wiener put it. But suppose that the robot does receive a direct human order, such as Fetch me a cup of coffee! How should the robot understand this order? Traditionally, it would become the robots goal. Any sequence of actions that satisfies the goal that leads to the human having a cup of coffee counts as a solution. Typically, the robot would also have a way of ranking solutions, perhaps based on the time taken, the dis- tance traveled, and the cost and quality of the coffee. This is a very literal- minded way of interpreting the instruction. It can lead to pathological behavior by the robot. For example, perhaps Harriet the human has stopped at a gas station in the middle of the M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 203 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotof the storthe stor o the macho the mach t does ret does rforG,QVWUXG,QVWUXDistributionsom re humanhuman oing so or toing so or t nt. avoidance iavoidance i taxes. In thxes. In th t solution isolution is 204 HUMAN COMPATIBLE desert; she sends Robbie the robot to fetch coffee, but the gas station has none and Robbie trundles off at three miles per hour to the nearest town, two hundred miles away, returning ten days later with the des-iccated remains of a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, Harriet, waiting pa- tiently, has been well supplied with iced tea and Coca- Cola by the gas station owner. Were Robbie human (or a well- designed robot) he would not inter- pret Harriets command quite so literally. The command is not a goal to be achieved at all costs . It is a way of conveying some information about Harriets preferences with the intent of inducing some behavior on the part of Robbie. The question is, what information? One proposal is that Harriet prefers coffee to no coffee, all other things being equal . 20 This means that if Robbie has a way to get coffee without changing anything else about the world, then its a good idea to do it even if he has no clue about Harriets preferences concerning other aspects of the environment state . As we expect that machines will be perennially uncertain about human preferences, its nice to know they can still be useful despite this uncertainty. It seems likely that the study of planning and decision making with partial and uncertain preference information will become a central part of AI research and product development. On the other hand, all other things being equal means that no other changes are allowedfor example, adding coffee while subtracting money may or may not be a good idea if Robbie knows nothing about Harriets relative preferences for coffee and money. Fortunately, Harriets instruction probably means more than a simple preference for coffee, all other things being equal. The extra meaning comes not just from what she said but also from the fact that she said it, the particular situation in which she said it, and the fact that she didnt say anything else. The branch of linguistics called prag- matics studies exactly this extended notion of meaning. For example, it wouldnt make sense for Harriet to say, Fetch me a cup of coffee! i f H a r r i e t b e l i e v e s t h e r e i s n o c o f f e e a v a i l a b l e n e a r b y o r t h a t i t i s 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 204 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotmenm her hand,r hand, re allowedre allowed ay or maay or mafordecisieci ion will becon will b nttDistributionsom mation?tion? to no coffeto no coffe ie has a wahas a wa e world, the world, th rriets preferets prefe As we expecwe expec uman preferuman pref his uncerhis uncer nmnm PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 205 exorbitantly expensive. Therefore, when Harriet says, Fetch me a cup of coffee! Robbie infers not just that Harriet wants coffee but also that Harriet believes there is coffee available nearby at a price she is willing to pay. Thus, if Robbie finds coffee at a price that seems rea-sonable (that is, a price that it would be reasonable for Harriet to ex-pect to pay) he can go ahead and buy it. On the other hand, if Robbie finds that the nearest coffee is two hundred miles away or costs twenty- two dollars, it might be reasonable for him to report this fact rather than pursue his quest blindly. This general style of analysis is often called Gricean , after H. Paul Grice, a Berkeley philosopher who proposed a set of maxims for infer-ring the extended meaning of utterances like Harriets. 21 In the case of preferences, the analysis can become quite complicated. For example, its quite possible that Harriet doesnt specifically want coffee; she needs perking up, but is operating under the false belief that the gas station has coffee, so she asks for coffee. She might be equally happy with tea, Coca- Cola, or even some luridly packaged energy drink. These are just a few of the considerations that arise when inter- preting requests and commands. The variations on this theme are endless because of the complexity of Harriets preferences, the huge range of circumstances in which Harriet and Robbie might find them-selves, and the different states of knowledge and belief that Harriet and Robbie might occupy in those circumstances. While precomputed scripts might allow Robbie to handle a few common cases, flexible and robust behavior can emerge only from interactions between Harriet and Robbie that are, in effect, solutions of the assistance game in which they are engaged. :LUHKHDGLQJ In Chapter 2, I described the brains reward system, based on dopa-mine, and its function in guiding behavior. The role of dopamine was M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 205 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotstat the differe differ bie might ocbie might o ight alloight alloforcommmm the complethe comp nces in wces in wDistributionan, a of maximsmaxims Harriets.arriets.2121InI complicatemplicate specificallyspecificall under the fader the f r coffee. Shoffee. Sh some luridlsome luri the consithe cons nds.nds 206 HUMAN COMPATIBLE discovered in the late 1950s, but even before that, by 1954, it was known that direct electrical stimulation of the brain in rats could pro- duce a reward- like response.22 The next step was to give the rat access to a lever, connected to a battery and a wire, that produced the elec-trical stimulation in its own brain. The result was sobering: the rat pressed the lever over and over again, never stopping to eat or drink, until it collapsed. 23 Humans fare no better, self- stimulating thousands of times and neglecting food and personal hygiene.24 (Fortunately, ex- periments with humans are usually terminated after one day.) The tendency of animals to short- circuit normal behavior in favor of direct stimulation of their own reward system is called wireheading . Could something similar happen to machines that are running reinforcement learning algorithms, such as AlphaGo? Initially, one might think this is impossible, because the only way that AlphaGo can gain its + 1 reward for winning is actually to win the simulated Go games that it is playing. Unfortunately, this is true only because of an enforced and artificial separation between AlphaGo and its external environment and the fact that AlphaGo is not very intelligent. Let me explain these two points in more detail, because they are impor- tant for understanding some of the ways that superintelligence can go wrong. AlphaGos world consists only of the simulated Go board, com- posed of 361 locations that can be empty or contain a black or white stone. Although AlphaGo runs on a computer, it knows nothing of this computer. In particular, it knows nothing of the small section of code that computes whether it has won or lost each game; nor, during the learning process, does it have any idea about its opponent, which is actually a version of itself. AlphaGos only actions are to place a stone on an empty location, and these actions affect only the Go board and nothing else because there is nothing else in AlphaGos model of the world. This setup corresponds to the abstract mathematical model of reinforcement learning, in which the reward signal arrives from outside the universe . Nothing AlphaGo can do, as far as it knows, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 206 8/7/19 11:21 PMNots world cworld c 361 location361 locatio hough Ahough forpoints nts ing some oing some Distributionfav ireheadingheading ines that anes that a AlphaGo?phaGo the only wthe only w actually to wually to ately, this isely, this i ion betweeion betwe hat Alphahat Alph nm onm o PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 207 has any effect on the code that generates the reward signal, so Alpha Go cannot indulge in wireheading. Life for AlphaGo during the training period must be quite frus- trating: the better it gets, the better its opponent gets because its opponent is a near- exact copy of itself. Its win percentage hovers around 50 percent, no matter how good it becomes. If it were more intelligent if it had a design closer to what one might expect of a human- level AI system it would be able to fix this problem. This AlphaGo++ would not assume that the world is just the Go board, because that hypothesis leaves a lot of things unexplained. For exam-ple, it doesnt explain what physics is supporting the operation of AlphaGo++s own decisions or where the mysterious opponent moves are coming from. Just as we curious humans have gradually come to understand the workings of our cosmos, in a way that (to some extent) also explains the workings of our own minds, and just like the Oracle AI discussed in Chapter 6, AlphaGo++ will, by a pro- cess of experimentation, learn that there is more to the universe than the Go board. It will work out the laws of operation of the computer it runs on and of its own code, and it will realize that such a system cannot easily be explained without the existence of other entities in the universe. It will experiment with different patterns of stones on the board, wondering if those entities can interpret them. It will eventually communicate with those entities through a language of patterns and persuade them to reprogram its reward signal so that it always gets + 1. The inevitable conclusion is that a sufficiently capa- ble AlphaGo++ that is designed as a reward- signal maximizer will wirehead. The AI safety community has discussed wireheading as a possibil- ity for several years. 25 The concern is not just that a reinforcement learning system such as AlphaGo might learn to cheat instead of mastering its intended task. The real issue arises when humans are the source of the reward signal. If we propose that an AI system can be trained to behave well through reinforcement learning, with M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 207 8/7/19 11:21 PMNott w d, wonderwonde ly communly commu and perand peforwn codn c xplained wiplained w ill expell expeDistributionined ng the opthe op mysteriousmysterious us humanshuman ur cosmos,ur cosmos kings of ourngs of ou Chapter 6, Aapter 6, A n that theren that the out the laout the la e, ane, an 208 HUMAN COMPATIBLE humans giving feedback signals that define the direction of improve- ment, the inevitable result is that the AI system works out how to control the humans and forces them to give maximal positive rewards at all times. You might think that this would just be a form of pointless self- delusion on the part of the AI system, and youd be right. But its a logical consequence of the way reinforcement learning is defined. The process works fine when the reward signal comes from outside the universe and is generated by some process that can never be modified by the AI system; but it fails if the reward- generating process (that is, the human) and the AI system inhabit the same universe. How can we avoid this kind of self- delusion? The problem comes from confusing two distinct things: reward signals and actual rewards. In the standard approach to reinforcement learning, these are one and the same. That seems to be a mistake. Instead, they should be treated separately, just as they are in assistance games: reward signals provide information about the accumulation of actual reward, which is the thing to be maximized. The learning system is accumulating brownie points in heaven, so to speak, while the reward signal is, at best, just providing a tally of those brownie points. In other words, the reward signal reports on (rather than constitutes ) reward accumulation. With t h i s m o d e l , i t s c l e a r t h a t t a k i n g o v e r c o n t r o l o f t h e reward- signal mechanism simply loses information. Producing fictitious reward sig- nals makes it impossible for the algorithm to learn about whether its actions are actually accumulating brownie points in heaven, and so a rational learner designed to make this distinction has an incentive to avoid any kind of wireheading. Recursive Self- Improvement I. J. Good s prediction of an intelligence explosion ( see page 1 42) is one of the driving forces that have led to current concerns about the 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 208 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot(ra(ra ts clear clear m simply lom simply l s it imps it impforspeak,eak those browhose brow ther thaher tha hDistributionproce iverse.erse. ? The prob? The prob ignals and aals and nt learning,t learning, . Instead, thnstead, t tance gamence game ulation of aulation of learning slearning whilwhi PROVABLY BENEFICIAL AI 209 potential risks of superintelligent AI. If humans can design a machine that is a bit more intelligent than humans, then the argument goes that machine will be a bit better than humans at designing machines. It will design a new machine that is still more intelligent, and the process will repeat itself until, in Good s words, the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Researchers in AI safety, particularly at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, have studied the question of whether intelligence explosions can occur safely. 26 Initially, this might seem quixotic w o u l d n t i t j u s t b e g a m e o v e r ? but there is, perhaps, hope. Suppose the first machine in the series, Robbie Mark I, starts with perfect knowledge of Harriets preferences. Knowing that his cognitive limitations lead to imperfections in his attempts to make H a rr i e t h a p p y , h e b u i l ds R o b b i e M a r k II . I n t u i ti v e l y , i t s e e m s th a t Robbie Mark I has an incentive to build his knowledge of Harriets preferences into Robbie Mark II, since that leads to a future where Harriets preferences are better satisfied which is precisely Robbie Mark Is purpose in life according to the first principle. By the same argument, if Robbie Mark I is uncertain about Harriets preferences, that uncertainty should be transferred to Robbie Mark II. So perhaps explosions are safe after all. The fly in the ointment, from a mathematical viewpoint, is that Robbie Mark I will not find it easy to reason about how Robbie Mark II is going to behave, given that Robbie Mark II is, by assumption, a more advanced version. There will be questions about Robbie Mark IIs be-havior that Robbie Mark I cannot answer. 27 More serious still, we do not yet have a clear mathematical definition of what it means in reality for a machine to have a particular purpose, such as the purpose of satisfying Harriets preferences. Lets unpack this last concern a bit. Consider AlphaGo: What pur- pose does it have? Thats easy, one might think: AlphaGo has the pur-pose of winning at Go. Or does it? Its certainly not the case that AlphaGo always makes moves that are guaranteed to win. (In fact, it M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 209 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotafeaf n the ointhe oin Mark I will nMark I will o behavo behavforMark I rk ould be traould be tr after allafter allDistributionhere obbie Marbie Mar nces. Knowces. Know s in his atthis at k II. IntuitiII. Intuiti build his kuild his k , since thatsince tha ter ter ssatisfiedatisfie cording tocording to su nsu n 210 HUMAN COMPATIBLE nearly always loses to AlphaZero. ) Its true that when its only a few moves from the end of the game, AlphaGo will pick the winning move if there is one. On the other hand, when no move is guaranteed to win in other words, when AlphaGo sees that the opponent has a winning strategy no matter what AlphaGo does then AlphaGo will pick moves more or less at random. It wont try the trickiest move in the hope that the opponent will make a mistake, because it assumes that its opponent will play perfectly. It acts as if it has lost the will to win. In other cases, when the truly optimal move is too hard to calcu-late, AlphaGo will sometimes make mistakes that lead to losing the game. In those instances, in what sense is it true that AlphaGo actu-ally wants to win? Indeed, its behavior might be identical to that of a machine that just wants to give its opponent a really exciting game. So, saying that AlphaGo has the purpose of winning is an over- simplification. A better description would be that AlphaGo is the re- sult of an imperfect training process reinforcement learning with self- play for which winning was the reward. The training process is imperfect in the sense that it cannot produce a perfect Go player: AlphaGo learns an evaluation function for Go positions that is good but not perfect, and it combines that with a lookahead search that is good but not perfect. The upshot of all this is that discussions beginning with suppose that robot R has purpose P are fine for gaining some intuition about how things might unfold, but they cannot lead to theorems about real machines. We need much more nuanced and precise definitions of purposes in machines before we can obtain guarantees of how they will behave over the long term. AI researchers are only just beginning to get a handle on how to analyze even the simplest kinds of real decision- making systems, 28 let alone machines intelligent enough to design their own successors. We have work to do. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 210 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoRNotfecfe ot of all thof all t has purphas pur s mights mightforluationatio d it combineit combin tDistributionad to hat AlphaGt AlphaG e identical tidentical t t a really exeally ex rpose of wipose of wi would be thuld be th cesssrreinfeinf was the rewwas the re it cannotit canno funcfun 9 COMPLICATIONS: US If the world contained one perfectly rational Harriet and one helpful and deferential Robbie, wed be in good shape. Robbie would grad-ually learn Harriets preferences as unobtrusively as possible and would become her perfect helper. We might hope to extrapolate from this promising beginning, perhaps viewing Harriet and Robbies rela-tionship as a model for the relationship between the human race and its machines, each construed monolithically. Alas, the human race is not a single, rational entity. It is composed of nasty, envy- driven, irrational, inconsistent, unstable, computation- ally limited, complex, evolving, heterogeneous entities. Loads and loads of them. These issues are the staple dietperhaps even the rai- sons d tre of the social sciences. To AI we will need to add ideas from psychology, economics, political theory, and moral philosophy. 1 We need to melt, re- form, and hammer those ideas into a structure that will be strong enough to resist the enormous strain that increas-ingly intelligent AI systems will place on it. Work on this task has barely started. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 211 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotch ch human ruman r envy-vy-ddriverive ted, comted, coforing, peg, p l for the relfor the r construeonstruDistributiony rational Hational H e in good shn good s rences as uences as helper. Wehelper. W haphap 212 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Different Humans I will start with what is probably the easiest of the issues: the fact that humans are heterogeneous. When first exposed to the idea that ma-chines should learn to satisfy human preferences, people often object that different cultures, even different individuals, have widely differ-ent value systems, so there cannot be one correct value system for the machine. But of course, thats not a problem for the machine: we dont want it to have one correct value system of its own; we just want it to predict the preferences of others. The confusion about machines having difficulty with heteroge- neous human preferences may come from the mistaken idea that the machine is adopting the preferences it learns for example, the idea that a domestic robot in a vegetarian household is going to adopt veg-etarian preferences. It wont. It just needs to learn to predict what the dietary preferences of vegetarians are. By the first principle, it will then avoid cooking meat for that household. But the robot also learns about the dietary preferences of the rabid carnivores next door, and, with its owners permission, will happily cook meat for them if they borrow it for the weekend to help out with a dinner party. The robot doesnt have a single set of preferences of its own, beyond the prefer-ence for helping humans achieve their preferences. In a sense, this is no different from a restaurant chef who learns to cook several different dishes to please the varied palates of her clients, or the multinational car company that makes left- hand- drive cars for the US market and right- hand- drive cars for the UK market. In principle, a machine could learn eight billion preference mod- els, one for each person on Earth. In practice, this isnt as hopeless as it sounds. For one thing, its easy for machines to share what they learn w i th e a c h o th e r . F o r a n o th e r , th e p r e f e r e n c e s t ru c t u r e s o f h u m a n s have a great deal in common, so the machine will usually not be learn-ing each model from scratch. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 212 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotwew a single seingle se elping humelping hum nse, thisnse, thi ddforrencesnce mission, wmission, w ekend tekend tDistributione just iculty withculty with he mistakenmistake arnsarns ffor eor fff household usehold st needs to lneeds to ians are. Bians are. that housthat hous of thof th COMPLICATIONS: US 213 Imagine, for example, the domestic robots that may one day be purchased by the inhabitants of Berkeley, California. The robots come out of the box with a fairly broad prior belief, perhaps tailored for the US market but not for any particular city, political viewpoint, or so-cioeconomic class. The robots begin to encounter members of the Berkeley Green Party, who turn out, compared to the average Ameri-can, to have a much higher probability of being vegetarian, of using recycling and composting bins, of using public transportation when-ever possible, and so on. Whenever a newly commissioned robot finds itself in a Green household, it can immediately adjust its expectations accordingly. It does not need to begin learning about these particular humans as if it had never seen a human, let alone a Green Party mem- ber, before. This adjustment is not irreversible there may be Green Party members in Berkeley who feast on endangered whale meat and drive gas- guzzling monster trucks but it allows the robot to be more useful more quickly. The same argument applies to a vast range of other personal characteristics that are, to some degree, predictive of aspects of an individuals preference structures. Many Humans The other obvious consequence of the existence of more than one human being is the need for machines to make trade- offs among the preferences of different people. The issue of trade- offs among humans has been the main focus of large parts of the social sciences for centu- ries. It would be nave for AI researchers to expect that they can sim-ply alight on the correct solutions without understanding what is already known. The literature on the topic is, alas, vast and I cannot possibly do justice to it here not just because there isnt space but also because I havent read most of it. I should also point out that al- most all the literature is concerned with decisions made by humans, whereas I am concerned here with decisions made by machines. This M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 213 8/7/19 11:21 PMmana er obvious er obvious eing is teing is for nsnsDistributionits e out these pt these ne a Green e a Green bletthereher n endangern endanger but it allowt it allow argument agument s that are, t that are, reference reference 214 HUMAN COMPATIBLE makes all the difference in the world, because humans have individual rights that may conflict with any supposed obligation to act on behalf of others, whereas machines do not. For example, we do not expect or require typical humans to sacrifice their lives to save others, whereas we will certainly require robots to sacrifice their existence to save the lives of humans. Several thousand years of work by philosophers, economists, legal scholars, and political scientists have produced constitutions, laws, economic systems, and social norms that serve to help (or hinder, de-pending on whos in charge) the process of reaching satisfactory solu- tions to the problem of trade- offs. Moral philosophers in particular have been analyzing the notion of rightness of actions in terms of their effects, beneficial or otherwise, on other people. They have studied quantitative models of trade- offs since the eighteenth century under the heading of utilitarianism . Th i s w o r k i s d i r e c t l y r e l e v a n t t o o u r present concerns, because it attempts to define a formula by which moral decisions can be made on behalf of many individuals. The need to make trade- offs arises even if everyone has the same preference structure, because its usually impossible to maximally satisfy everyones preferences. For example, if everyone wants to be All- Powerful Ruler of the Universe, most people are going to be disappointed. On the other hand, heterogeneity does make some problems more difficult: if everyone is happy with the sky being blue, the robot that handles atmospheric matters can work on keeping it that way; but if many people are agitating for a color change, the robot will need to think about possible compromises such as an orange sky on the third Friday of each month. The presence of more than one person in the world has another important consequence: it means that, for each person, there are other people to care about. This means that satisfying the preferences of an individual has implications for other people, depending on the indi- viduals preferences about the well- being of others. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 214 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotulerle On theOn the more difficmore diffi that hathat haforbecausau references. eferences of the of the Distributiontisfa phers in pers in p ctions in tertions in ter eople. Theyle. The he eighteenhe eighteen work is direrk is dir mpts to defpts to def n behalf of n behalf o ooffs arisesffs arise itsits COMPLICATIONS: US 215 Loyal AI Lets begin with a very simple proposal for how machines should deal with the presence of multiple humans: they should ignore it. That is, if Harriet owns Robbie, then Robbie should pay attention only to Harriets preferences. This loyal form of AI bypasses the issue of trade- offs, but it leads to problems: ROBBIE : Your husband called to remind you about dinner tonight. HARRIET : Wait! What? What dinner? ROBBIE : For your twentieth anniversary, at seven. HARRIET : I cant! Im meeting the secretary- general at seven thirty! How did this happen? ROBBIE : I did warn you, but you overrode my recommendation. . . . HARRIET : OK, sorry but what am I going to do now? I cant just tell the SG Im too busy! ROBBIE : Dont worry. I arranged for her plane to be delayed some kind of computer malfunction. HARRIET : Really? You can do that?! ROBBIE : The secretary- general sends her profound apologies and is happy to meet you for lunch tomorrow. Here, Robbie has found an ingenious solution to Harriets problem, but his actions have had a negative impact on other people. If Harriet is a morally scrupulous and altruistic person, then Robbie, who aims to satisfy Harriets preferences, will never dream of carrying out such a dubious scheme. But what if Harriet doesnt give a fig for the prefer-ences of others? In that case, Robbie wont mind delaying planes. And might he not spend his time pilfering money from online bank ac-counts to swell indifferent Harriets coffers, or worse? Obviously, the actions of loyal machines will need to be con- strained by rules and prohibitions, just as the actions of humans are M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 215 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot o mo obbie has foobbie has f ctions hctions hforou canca cretary-cretary- ggeneen eet you eet you Distributionggeneral at seneral at ode my ode my rrecoeco m I going to going to anged for hanged for alfunctionalfunction do thdo th 216 HUMAN COMPATIBLE constrained by laws and social norms. Some have proposed strict lia- bility as a solution:2 Harriet (or Robbies manufacturer, depending on where you prefer to place the liability) is financially and legally re-sponsible for any act carried out by Robbie, just as a dogs owner is li-able in most states if the dog bites a small child in a public park. This idea sounds promising because Robbie would then have an incentive to avoid doing anything that would land Harriet in trouble. Unfortu-nately, strict liability doesnt work: it simply ensures that Robbie will act undetectably when he delays planes and steals money on Harriets behalf. This is another example of the loophole principle in operation. If Robbie is loyal to an unscrupulous Harriet, attempts to contain his behavior with rules will probably fail. Even if we can somehow prevent the outright crimes, a loyal Rob- bie working for an indifferent Harriet will exhibit other unpleasant behaviors. If he is buying groceries at the supermarket, he will cut in line at the checkout whenever possible. If he is bringing the groceries home and a passerby suffers a heart attack, he will carry on regardless, lest Harriets ice cream melt. In summary, he will find innumerable ways to benefit Harriet at the expense of others ways that are strictly legal but become intolerable when carried out on a large scale. Socie-ties will find themselves passing hundreds of new laws every day to counteract all the loopholes that machines will find in existing laws. Humans tend not to take advantage of these loopholes, either because they have a general understanding of the underlying moral principles or because they lack the ingenuity required to find the loopholes in the first place. A Harriet who is indifferent to the well- being of others is bad enough. A sadistic Harriet who actively prefers the suffering of others is far worse. A Robbie designed to satisfy the preferences of such a Harriet would be a serious problem, because he would look for and find ways to harm others for Harriets pleasure, either legally or illegally but undetectably. He would of course need to report back to Harriet so she could derive enjoyment from the knowledge of his evil deeds. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 216 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotemsm l the loophe loop end not to tend not to a genera generforat the ethe tolerable wholerable w elves paelves pa hDistributionle in mpts to cots to co right crimeht crim will exhibit ill exhibit the supermhe super ssible. If he ble. If he heart attackheart attac t. In summt. In sum xpenxpen COMPLICATIONS: US 217 It seems difficult, then, to make the idea of a loyal AI work, unless the idea is extended to include consideration of the preferences of other humans, in addition to the preferences of the owner. Utilitarian AI The reason we have moral philosophy is that there is more than one person on Earth. The approach that is most relevant for under-standing how AI systems should be designed is often called consequen- tialism : the idea that choices should be judged according to expected consequences. The two other principal approaches are deontological ethics and virtue ethics , which are, very roughly, concerned with the moral character of actions and individuals, respectively, quite apart from the consequences of choices. 3 A b s e n t a n y e v i d e n c e o f self- awareness on the part of machines, I think it makes little sense to build machines that are virtuous or that choose actions in accordance with moral rules if the consequences are highly undesirable for hu-manity. Put another way, we build machines to bring about conse-quences, and we should prefer to build machines that bring about consequences that we prefer. This is not to say that moral rules and virtues are irrelevant; its just that, for the utilitarian, they are justified in terms of consequences and the more practical achievement of those consequences. This point is made by John Stuart Mill in Utilitarianism : The proposition that happiness is the end and aim of morality doesnt mean that no road ought to be laid down to that goal, or that people going to it shouldnt be advised to take one direction rather than another. . . . Nobody argues that the art of navigation is not based on astronomy because sailors cant wait to calculate the Nautical Almanack. Because they are rational creatures, sail-ors go to sea with the calculations already done; and all rational creatures go out on the sea of life with their minds made up on the M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 217 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotto so the utilithe utilit more practicmore pract by John by John for uld prep we prefer.we prefer. ay that ay that Distributionding g hes are are deodeo ly, concerny, concern s, respectivspectiv Absent anybsent any , I think itthink it or that chothat cho equences arequences we build we build fer tfer t 218 HUMAN COMPATIBLE common questions of right and wrong, as well as on many of the much harder questions of wise and foolish. This view is entirely consistent with the idea that a finite machine facing the immense complexity of the real world may produce better consequences by following moral rules and adopting a virtuous atti-tude rather than trying to calculate the optimal course of action from scratch. In the same way, a chess program achieves checkmate more often using a catalog of standard opening move sequences, endgame algorithms, and an evaluation function, rather than trying to reason its way to checkmate with no moral guideposts. A consequentialist ap-proach also gives some weight to the preferences of those who believe strongly in preserving a given deontological rule, because unhappiness that a rule has been broken is a real consequence. However, it is not a consequence of infinite weight. Consequentialism is a difficult principle to argue against a l t h o u g h m a n y h a v e t r i e d ! b e c a u s e i t s i n c o h e r e n t t o o b j e c t t o consequentialism on the grounds that it would have undesirable con- sequences. One cannot say, But if you follow the consequentialist approach in such- and- su ch case , th en this r e all y terri b l e thin g will happen! Any such failings would simply be evidence that the theory had been misapplied. For example, suppose Harriet wants to climb Everest. One might worry that a consequentialist Robbie would simply pick her up and deposit her on top of Everest, since that is her desired consequence. In all probability Harriet would strenuously object to this plan, because it would deprive her of the challenge and therefore of the exultation that results from succeeding in a difficult task through ones own efforts. Now, obviously, a properly designed consequentialist Robbie would understand that the consequences include all of Harriets expe-riences, not just the end goal. He might want to be available in case of an accident and to make sure she was properly equipped and trained, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 218 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ch ch applied.plied. ample, suppample, sup t a const a confort say, ay, nd-ndssuch cauch c failings wailings Distributioning tog onsequentsequent s of those wof those w ule, becaus becau equence. Hquence. H cult principlt princi because itecause unds thatunds that ButBut COMPLICATIONS: US 219 but he might also have to accept Harriets right to expose herself to an appreciable risk of death. If we plan to build consequentialist machines, the next question is how to evaluate consequences that affect multiple people. One plau- s i b l e a n s w e r i s t o g i v e e q u a l w e i g h t t o e v e r y o n e s preferences in other words, to maximize the sum of everyones utilities. This answer is usually attributed to the eighteenth- century British philosopher Jeremy Bentham 4 and his pupil John Stuart Mill,5 who developed the philosophical approach of utilitarianism. The underlying idea can be traced to the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and appears explicitly in Mozi , a book of writings attributed to the Chi- nese philosopher of the same name. Mozi was active at the end of the fifth century BCE and promoted the idea of jian ai , variously translated as inclusive care or universal love, as the defining char-acteristic of moral actions. Utilitarianism has something of a bad name, partly because of sim- ple misunderstandings about what it advocates. (It certainly doesnt help that the word utilitarian means designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive.) Utilitarianism is often thought to be incompatible with individual rights, because a utilitarian would, sup- posedly, think nothing of removing a living persons organs without permission to save the lives of five others; of course, such a policy would render life intolerably insecure for everyone on Earth, so a util-itarian wouldnt even consider it. Utilitarianism is also incorrectly identified with a rather unattractive maximization of total wealth and is though t to giv e little w eigh t to poetry or suffering. In fact, Ben-thams version focused specifically on human happiness, while Mill confidently asserted the far greater value of intellectual pleasures over mere sensations. (It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.) The ideal utilitarianism of G. E. Moore went even fur- ther: he advocated the maximization of mental states of intrinsic worth, epitomized by the aesthetic contemplation of beauty. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 219 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnotno to save thsave th nder life intnder life in wouldntwouldntforttractivact individual rndividual hing of ing of Distributioner E ributed tobuted to as active ats active at idea of ea of jiaji sal love, asal love, as of a bad nama bad na what it adwhat it a arianarian me me e.) Ue.) 220 HUMAN COMPATIBLE I think there is no need for utilitarian philosophers to stipulate the ideal content of human utility or human preferences. (And even less reason for AI researchers to do so.) Humans can do that for them-selves. The economist John Harsanyi propounded this view with his principle of preference autonomy : 6 In deciding what is good and what is bad for a given individual, the ultimate criterion can only be his own wants and his own preferences. Harsanyis preference utilitarianism is therefore roughly consistent with the first principle of beneficial AI, which says that a machines only purpose is the realization of human preferences. AI researchers should definitely not be in the business of deciding what human pref-erences should be! Like Bentham, Harsanyi views such principles as a guide for public decisions; he does not expect individuals to be so self- less. Nor does he expect individuals to be perfectly rational for e x a m p l e , t h e y m i g h t h a v e short- term desires that contradict their deeper preferences. Finally, he proposes to ignore the preferences of those who, like the sadistic Harriet mentioned earlier, actively wish to reduce the well- being of others. Harsanyi also gives a kind of proof that optimal moral decisions should maximize the average utility across a population of humans. 7 He assumes fairly weak postulates similar to those that underlie util-ity theory for individuals. (The primary additional postulate is that if everyone in a population is indifferent between two outcomes, then an agent acting on behalf of the population should be indifferent be-tween those outcomes.) From these postulates, he proves what be-came known as the social aggregation theorem : an agent acting on behalf of a population of individuals must maximize a weighted linear com- bination of the utilities of the individuals. He further argues that an impersonal agent should use equal weights. The theorem requires one crucial additional (and unstated) as- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 220 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoteine also givesso gives aximize theaximize th es fairlyes fairlyfornally, lly adistic Haradistic Ha ng of othg of othDistributionroughly coughly co says that asays that a eferences. Arences. f deciding wf deciding rsanyi viewanyi view not expectot expect dividuals todividuals t sshort-hort- ttermerm ep rep r COMPLICATIONS: US 221 sumption: each individual has the same prior factual beliefs about the world and how it will evolve. Now, any parent knows that this isnt even true for siblings, let alone individuals from different social back-grounds and cultures. So, what happens when individuals differ in their beliefs? Something rather strange: 8 the weight assigned to each individuals utility has to change over time, in proportion to how well that individuals prior beliefs accord with unfolding reality. This rather inegalitarian- sounding formula is quite familiar to any parent. Lets say that Robbie the robot has been tasked with looking after two children, Alice and Bob. Alice wants to go to the movies and is sure its going to rain today; Bob, on the other hand, wants to go to the beach and is sure its going to be sunny. Robbie could announce, Were going to the movies, making Bob unhappy; or he could an-nounce, Were going to the beach, making Alice unhappy; or he could announce, If it rains, were going to the movies, but if its sunny, well go to the beach. This last plan makes both Alice and Bob happy, because both believe in their own beliefs. Challenges to utilitarianism Utilitarianism is one proposal to emerge from humanitys long- standing search for a moral guide; among many such proposals, it is the most clearly specified and therefore the most susceptible to loopholes. Philosophers have been finding these loopholes for more than a hundred years. For example, G. E. Moore, objecting to Ben-thams emphasis on maximizing pleasure, imagined a world in which absolutely nothing except pleasure existed no knowledge, no love, no enjoyment of beauty, no moral qualities. 9 This finds its modern echo in Stuart Armstrongs point that superintelligent machines tasked with maximizing pleasure might entomb everyone in concrete coffins on heroin drips. 10 Another example: in 1945, Karl Popper proposed the laudable goal of minimizing human suffering,11 arguing that it was immoral to trade one persons pain for another persons M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 221 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotm m rch for a h for a t clearly t clearly ss s. Philos. Philoforutilitaritilita s one ps one pDistributiono the hand, wantnd, want Robbie couldobbie could unhappy; ohappy; making Alicmaking Ali ing to the mg to the m lan makes bn makes b own beliefswn belie 222 HUMAN COMPATIBLE pleasure; R. N. Smart responded that this could best be achieved by rendering the human race extinct.12 Nowadays, the idea that a ma- chine might end human suffering by ending our existence is a staple of debates over the existential risk from AI. 13 A third example is G. E. Moores emphasis on the reality of the source of happiness, amending earlier definitions that seemed to have a loophole allowing maximiza- tion of happiness through self- delusion. The modern analogs of this point include The Matrix (in which present- day reality turns out to be an illusion produced by a computer simulation) and recent work on the self- delusion problem in reinforcement learning. 14 These examples, and more, convince me that the AI community should pay careful attention to the thrusts and counterthrusts of phil-osophical and economic debates on utilitarianism because they are di-rectly relevant to the task at hand. Two of the most important, from the point of view of designing AI systems that will benefit multiple individ-uals, concern interpersonal comparisons of utilities and comparisons of utilities across different population sizes. Both of these debates have been raging for 150 years or more, which leads one to suspect their satisfactory resolution may not be entirely straightforward. The debate on interpersonal comparisons of utilities matters be- cause Robbie cannot maximize the sum of Alices and Bobs utilities unless those utilities can be added; and they can be added only if they are measurable on the same scale. The nineteenth- century British lo- gician and economist William Stanley Jevons (also the inventor of an early mechanical computer called the logical piano) argued in 1871 that interpersonal comparisons are impossible: 15 The susceptibility of one mind may, for what we know, be a thou- sand times greater than that of another. But, provided that the susceptibility was different in a like ratio in all directions, we should never be able to discover the profoundest difference. Every mind is thus inscrutable to every other mind, and no common denominator of feeling is possible. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 222 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnon utilities calities ca rable on thble on th economeconomformay noty n nterpersonanterperson t maximmaximDistributionthe AI come AI com counterthruounterthru nism becaum becau the most imhe most im that will benat will be risons of utions of uti ation sizes.ation size r more, wr more, w be ebe e COMPLICATIONS: US 223 The American economist Kenneth Arrow, founder of modern social choice theory and 1972 Nobel laureate, was equally adamant: The viewpoint will be taken here that interpersonal comparison of utilities has no meaning and, in fact, there is no meaning rele-vant to welfare comparisons in the measurability of individual utility. The difficulty to which Jevons and Arrow are referring is that there is no obvious way to tell if Alice values pinpricks and lollipops at 1 and + 1 or 1000 and + 1000 in terms of her subjective experience of hap- piness. In either case, she will pay up to one lollipop to avoid one pinprick. Indeed, if Alice is a humanoid automaton, her external be-havior might be the same even though there is no subjective experi-ence of happiness whatsoever. In 1974, the American philosopher Robert Nozick suggested that even if interpersonal comparisons of utility could be made, maximiz-ing the sum of utilities would still be a bad idea because it would fall foul of the utility monster a person whose experiences of pleasure and pain are many times more intense than those of ordinary people. 16 Such a person could assert that any additional unit of resources would yield a greater increment to the sum total of human happiness if given to him rather than to others; indeed, removing resources from others to benefit the utility monster would also be a good idea. This might seem to be an obviously undesirable consequence, but consequentialism by itself cannot come to the rescue: the problem lies in how we measure the desirability of consequences. One possible re- sponse is that the utility monster is merely theoretical there are no such people. But this response probably wont do: in a sense, all hu- mans are utility monsters relative to, say, rats and bacteria, which is why we pay little attention to the preferences of rats and bacteria in setting public policy. I f t h e i d e a t h a t d i ff e r e n t e n t i t i e s h a v e d i ff e r e n t u t i l i t y s c a l e s i s M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 223 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotoulou er incremincrem ather than tather than t the utt the ut hhforsterr times moreimes mor d assert d assert Distributionllipop experiencxperienc e lollipop tlollipop t utomaton, hmaton, there is nothere is no sopher Robpher Rob sons of utilsons of ut uld still beuld still b perper 224 HUMAN COMPATIBLE already built into our way of thinking, then it seems entirely possible that different people have different scales too. Another response is to say Tough luck! and operate on the as- sumption that everyone has the same scale, even if they dont.17 One could also try to investigate the issue by scientific means unavailable to Jevons, such as measuring dopamine levels or the degree of electri-cal excitation of neurons related to pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. If Alices and Bobs chemical and neural responses to a lollipop are pretty much identical, as well as their behavioral responses (smil- ing, making lip- smacking noises, and so on), it seems odd to insist that, nevertheless, their subjective degrees of enjoyment differ by a factor of a thousand or a million. Finally, one could use common cur-rencies such as time (of which we all have, very roughly, the same amount)for example, by comparing lollipops and pinpricks against, say, five minutes extra waiting time in the airport departure lounge. I am far less pessimistic than Jevons and Arrow. I suspect that it is indeed meaningful to compare utilities across individuals, that scales may differ but typically not by very large factors, and that machines can begin with reasonably broad prior beliefs about human preference scales and learn more about the scales of individuals by observation over time, perhaps correlating natural observations with the findings of neuroscience research. The second debate about utility comparisons across populations of different sizes matters when decisions have an impact on who will exist in the future. In the movie Avengers: Infinity War , for example, the character Thanos develops and implements the theory that if there w er e h alf as m an y p eo p l e , e v ery o n e w h o r em ain ed w o ul d b e m o r e than twice as happy. This is the kind of nave calculation that gives utilitarianism a bad name. 18 The same question minus the Infinity Stones and the gargantuan budget was discussed in 1874 by the British philosopher Henry Sidgwick in his famous treatise, The Methods of Ethics .19 Sidgwick, in apparent agreement with Thanos, concluded that the right choice was 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 224 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ps ps ce researcresearc cond nd ddebateba ntntssizesizesforbly brobr re about thre about t correlatiorrelati hDistributions od oyment difment di ould use comuld use com , very rougery rou lipops and ipops and n the airporhe airpo evons and Aons and A e utilities ace utilities by very lby very l dp rdp r COMPLICATIONS: US 225 to adjust the population size until the maximum total happiness was reached. (Obviously, this does not mean increasing the population without limit, because at some point everyone would be starving to death and hence rather unhappy.) In 1984, the British philosopher Derek Parfit took up the issue again in his groundbreaking work Reasons and Persons . 20 Parfit argues that for any situation with a pop- ulation of N very happy people, there is (according to utilitarian prin- ciples) a preferable situation with 2 N people who are ever so slightly less happy. This seems highly plausible. Unfortunately, its also a slip- pery slope. By repeating the process, we reach the so- called Repug- nant Conclusion (usually capitalized thus, perhaps to emphasize its Victorian roots): that the most desirable situation is one with a vast population, all of whom have a life barely worth living. As you can imagine, such a conclusion is controversial. Parfit himself struggled for over thirty years to find a solution to his own conundrum, without success. I suspect we are missing some fundamental axioms, analogous to those for individually rational preferences, to handle choices between populations of different sizes and happiness levels. 21 It is important that we solve this problem, because machines with sufficient foresight may be able to consider courses of action leading to different population sizes, just as the Chinese government did with its one- child policy in 1979. Its quite likely, for example, that we will be asking AI systems for help in devising solutions for global climate change and those solutions may well involve policies that tend to limit or even reduce population size. 22 On the other hand, if we decide that larger populations really are better and if we give significant weight to the well- being of potentially vast human populations centu- ries from now, then we will need to work much harder on finding ways to move beyond the confines of Earth. If the machines calculations lead to the Repugnant Conclusion or to its opposite a tiny popula- tion of optimally happy people w e ma y ha v e reason to regret our lack of progress on the question. S o m e p h i l o s o p h e r s h a v e a r g u e d t h a t w e m a y n e e d t o m a k e M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 225 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotatioti olicy in 19cy in 19 AI systems AI systems aand thond thfort we soe s may be ablemay be ab n sizes, jn sizes, j 79Distributiono-ca ps to empto emp tion is one ion is one worth livingth livin n is controveis controve a solution tsolution e missing somissing so vidually ratvidually ra s of differes of differ ve thve th 226 HUMAN COMPATIBLE decisions in a state of moral uncertainty that is, uncertainty about the appropriate moral theory to employ in making decisions.23 One solu- tion is to allocate some probability to each moral theory and make de-cisions using an expected moral value. Its not clear, however, that it makes sense to ascribe probabilities to moral theories in the same way one applies probabilities to tomorrows weather. (Whats the probabil-ity that Thanos is exactly right?) And even if it does make sense, the potentially vast differences between the recommendations of compet- ing moral theories mean that resolving the moral uncertainty working out which moral theory avoids unacceptable consequences has to happen before we make such momentous decisions or entrust them to machines. Lets be optimistic and suppose that Harriet eventually solves this and other problems arising from the existence of more than one person on Earth. Suitably altruistic and egalitarian algorithms are downloaded into robots all over the world. Cue the high fives and happy- sounding music. Then Harriet goes home. . . . ROBBIE : Welcome home! Long day? HARRIET : Yes, worked really hard, not even time for lunch. ROBBIE : So you must be quite hungry! HARRIET : Starving! Can you make me some dinner? ROBBIE : Theres something I need to tell you. . . . HARRIET : What? Dont tell me the fridge is empty! ROBBIE : No, there are humans in Somalia in more urgent need of help. I am leaving now. Please make your own dinner. While Harriet might be quite proud of Robbie and of her own contributions towards making him such an upstanding and decent machine, she cannot help but wonder why she shelled out a small for-tune to buy a robot whose first significant act is to disappear. In prac-tice, of course, no one would buy such a robot, so no such robots would be built and there would be no benefit to humanity. Lets call this the 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 226 8/7/19 11:21 PMu mu Starving! arving! : Theres soTheres s TT:: Wha Whforme! Loe! L orked really rked really must be qust be qDistributionuenc or entrustentrust riet eventueventu ence of mornce of mor arian algoriian algor e the high fhe high f e. . . . . . ng dng d COMPLICATIONS: US 227 Somalia problem . For the whole utilitarian- robot scheme to work, we have to find a solution to this problem. Robbie will need to have some amount of loyalty to Harriet in particular perhaps an amount re- lated to the amount Harriet paid for Robbie. Possibly, if society wants Robbie to help people besides Harriet, society will need to compen-sate Harriet for its claim on Robbies services. Its quite likely that ro-bots will coordinate with one another so that they dont all descend on Somalia at once in which case, Robbie might not need to go after all. Or perhaps some completely new kinds of economic relationships will emerge to handle the (certainly unprecedented) presence of billions of purely altruistic agents in the world. 1LFH1DVW\DQG(QYLRXV+XPDQV Human preferences go far beyond pleasure and pizza. They certainly extend to the well- being of others. Even Adam Smith, the father of economics who is often cited when a justification for selfishness is required, began his first book by emphasizing the crucial importance of concern for others: 24 How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion which we feel for the mis-ery of others, when we either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively manner. That we often derive sorrow from the sorrow of others, is a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it. In modern economic parlance, concern for others usually goes un- der the heading of altruism .25 Th e th e o ry o f al trui s m i s f air l y w e ll M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 227 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotfish soeveh soeve principles inprinciples , and re, and rfor st boobo rs:rs244Distributionnce o +XPDQV+XPDQ d pleasure pleasure others. Evenothers. Ev ted when ted when byby 228 HUMAN COMPATIBLE developed and has significant implications for tax policy among other matters. Some economists, it must be said, treat altruism as another form of selfishness designed to provide the giver with a warm glow. 26 This is certainly a possibility that robots need to be aware of as they interpret human behavior, but for now lets give humans the benefit of the doubt and assume they do actually care. The easiest way to think about altruism is to divide ones prefer- ences into two kinds: preferences for ones own intrinsic well- being and preferences concerning the well- being of others. (There is consid- erable dispute about whether these can be neatly separated, but Ill put that dispute to one side.) Intrinsic well- being refers to qualities of ones own life, such as shelter, warmth, sustenance, safety, and so on, that are desirable in themselves rather than by reference to qualities of the lives of others. To make this notion more concrete, lets suppose that the world contains two people, Alice and Bob. Alices overall utility is composed of her own intrinsic well- being plus some factor C AB times Bobs in- trinsic well- being. The caring factor CAB indicates how much Alice cares about Bob. Similarly, Bobs overall utility is composed of his in- trinsic well- being plus some caring factor CBA times Alices intrinsic well- being, where CBA indicates how much Bob cares about Alice.27 Robbie is trying to help both Alice and Bob, which means (lets say) maximizing the sum of their two utilities. Thus, Robbie needs to pay attention not just to the individual well- being of each but also to how much each cares about the well- being of the other. 28 The signs of the caring factors CAB and CBA matter a lot. For exam- ple, if CAB is positive, Alice is nice: she derives some happiness from Bobs well- being. The more positive CAB is, the more Alice is willing to sacrifice some of her own well- being to help Bob. If CAB is zero, then Alice is completely selfish: if she can get away with it, she will divert any amount of resources away from Bob and towards herself, even if Bob is left destitute and starving. Faced with selfish Alice and nice Bob, a utilitarian Robbie will obviously protect Bob from Alices 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 228 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotre e ing to helg to hel ng the sum ng the sum not just not justforrly, Boy, B lus some caus some c CAA indic indicDistributionparat efers to qurs to qu nce, safety,nce, safety, by referenceeferenc ete, lets sup, lets su b. Alices ovAlices ov g plus someg plus som ng factorng factor bs obs o COMPLICATIONS: US 229 worst depredations. Its interesting that the final equilibrium will typ- ically leave Bob with less intrinsic well- being than Alice, but he may have greater overall happiness because he cares about her well- being. You might feel that Robbies decisions are grossly unfair if they leave Bob with less well- being than Alice merely because he is nicer than she is: Wouldnt he resent the outcome and be unhappy? 29 Well, he might, but that would be a different model one that includes a term for resentment over differences in well- being. In our simple model Bob would be at peace with the outcome. Indeed, in the equilibrium situation, he would resist any attempt to transfer resources from Alice to himself, since that would reduce his overall happiness. If you think this is completely unrealistic, consider the case where Alice is Bobs newborn daughter. The really problematic case for Robbie to deal with is when C AB is negative: in that case, Alice is truly nasty. Ill use the phrase negative altruism to refer to such preferences. As with the sadistic Harriet mentioned earlier, this is not about garden- variety greed and selfish- ness, whereby Alice is content to reduce Bobs share of the pie in order to enhance her own. Negative altruism means that Alice derives hap- piness purely from the reduced well- being of others, even if her own intrinsic well- being is unchanged. In his paper that introduced preference utilitarianism, Harsanyi attributes negative altruism to sadism, envy, resentment, and malice and argues that they should be ignored in calculating the sum total of human utility in a population: No amount of goodwill to individual X can impose the moral ob- ligation on me to help him in hurting a third person, individual Y. This seems to be one area in which it is reasonable for the designers of intelligent machines to put a (cautious) thumb on the scales of justice, so to speak. U n f o r t u n a t e l y , n e g a t i v e a l t r u i s m i s f a r m o r e c o m m o n t h a n o n e M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 229 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoteingin aper that er that s negative as negative es that tes that tforNegativgat the reducethe reduc is unchis unchDistributionurces ppiness. If ness. If se where Ae where A bie to deal wie to deal w nasty. Ill usty. Ill u ences. As wces. As about about ggardar ent to reduent to redu altraltr 230 HUMAN COMPATIBLE might expect. It arises not so much from sadism and malice30 but from envy and resentment and their converse emotion, which I will call pride (for want of a better word). If Bob envies Alice, he derives un- happiness from the difference between Alices well- being and his own; the greater the difference, the more unhappy he is. Conversely, if Al- ice is proud of her superiority over Bob, she derives happiness not just from her own intrinsic well- being but also from the fact that it is higher than Bob s. It is easy to show that, in a mathematical sense, pride and envy work in roughly the same way as sadism; they lead Alice and Bob to derive happiness purely from reducing each others well- being, because a reduction in Bobs well- being increases Alices pride, while a reduction in Alices well- being reduces Bobs envy. 31 Jeffrey Sachs, the renowned development economist, once told me a story that illustrated the power of these kinds of preferences in peo-ples thinking. He was in Bangladesh soon after a major flood had devastated one region of the country. He was speaking to a farmer who had lost his house, his fields, all his animals, and one of his chil- dren. Im so sorry you must be terribly sad, Sachs ventured. Not at all, replied the farmer. Im pretty happy because my damned neighbor has lost his wife and all his children too! The economic analysis of pride and envy particularly in the con- text of social status and conspicuous consumption came to the fore in the work of the American sociologist Thorstein Veblen, whose 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, explained the toxic consequences of these attitudes. 32 In 1977, the British economist Fred Hirsch pub- lished The Social Limits to Growth ,33 in which he introduced the idea of positional goods . A positional good is anything it could be a car, a house, an Olympic medal, an education, an income, or an accent that derives its perceived value not just from its intrinsic benefits but also from its relative properties, including the properties of scarcity and being superior to someone elses. The pursuit of positional goods, driven by pride and envy, has the character of a zero- sum game, in the 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 230 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotc ac status anatus an k of the Amk of the Am Theory oTheory former. r. s wife and awife and nalysis oalysis oDistributionng e ng increaseincrease duces Bobsduces Bob t economistonomis e kinds of pkinds of p h soon aftesoon aft ntry. He wry. He w lds, all his alds, all his ust be terrust be ter mpmp COMPLICATIONS: US 231 sense that Alice cannot improve her relative position without worsen- ing the relative position of Bob, and vice versa. (This doesnt seem to prevent vast sums being squandered in this pursuit.) Positional goods seem to be ubiquitous in modern life, so machines will need to under-stand their overall importance in the preferences of individuals. More-over, social identity theorists propose that membership and standing within a group and the overall status of the group relative to other groups are essential constituents of human self- esteem. 34 Thus, it is difficult to understand human behavior without understanding how individuals perceive themselves as members of groups whether those groups are species, nations, ethnic groups, political parties, profes- sions, families, or supporters of a particular football team. As with sadism and malice, we might propose that Robbie should give little or no weight to pride and envy in his plans for helping Alice and Bob. There are some difficulties with this proposal, however. Be-cause pride and envy counteract caring in Alices attitude to Bobs well- being, it may not be easy to tease them apart. It may be that Alice cares a lot, but also suffers from envy; it is hard to distinguish this Alice from a different Alice who cares only a little bit but has no envy at all. Moreover, given the prevalence of pride and envy in human preferences, its essential to consider very carefully the ramifications of ignoring them. It might be that they are essential for self- esteem, e s p e c i a l l y i n t h e i r p o s i t i v e forms self- respect and admiration for others. Let me reemphasize a point made earlier: suitably designed ma- chines will not behave like those they observe , even if those machines are learning about the preferences of sadistic demons. Its possible, in fact, that if we humans find ourselves in the unfamiliar situation of dealing with purely altruistic entities on a daily basis, we may learn to be better people ourselves more altruistic and less driven by pride and envy. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 231 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotese them. It mem. It m y in their y in theirforAlice wice iven the piven the p ential tential tDistributionw ical partieal partie otball teamtball team ropose thatose tha y in his planin his plan with this pwith this t caring in caring in to tease theto tease th s from envs from en who cwho c 232 HUMAN COMPATIBLE 6WXSLG(PRWLRQDO+XPDQV The title of this section is not meant to refer to some particular subset of humans. It refers to all of us. We are all incredibly stupid compared to the unreachable standard set by perfect rationality, and we are all subject to the ebb and flow of the varied emotions that, to a large ex-tent, govern our behavior. Lets begin with stupidity. A perfectly rational entity maximizes the expected satisfaction of its preferences over all possible future lives it could choose to lead. I cannot begin to write down a number that describes the complexity of this decision problem, but I find the following thought experiment helpful. First, note that the number of motor control choices that a human makes in a lifetime is about twenty trillion. (See Appendix A for the detailed calculations.) Next, lets see how far brute force will get us with the aid of Seth Lloyds ultimate- physics laptop, which is one billion trillion trillion times faster than the worlds fastest computer. Well give it the task of enumerating all possible sequences of English words (perhaps as a warmup for Jorge Luis Borgess Library of Babel), and well let it run for a year. How long are the sequences that it can enumerate in that time? A thousand pages of text? A million pages? No. Eleven words. This tells you some-thing about the difficulty of designing the best possible life of twenty trillion actions. In short, we are much further from being rational than a slug is from overtaking the starship Enterprise traveling at warp nine. We have absolutely no idea what a rationally chosen life would be like. The implication of this is that humans will often act in ways that are contrary to their own preferences. For example, when Lee Sedol lost his Go match to AlphaGo, he played one or more moves that guar- anteed he would lose, and AlphaGo could (in some cases at least) de- tect that he had done this. It would be incorrect, however, for AlphaGo to infer that Lee Sedol has a preference for losing. Instead, it would be reasonable to infer that Lee Sedol has a preference for winning but has 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 232 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotes ts A millionA millio ut the difficut the diff tions. Intions. Infornglishlis y of Babel), of Babel) hat it chat it cDistributionposs te down adown a roblem, buoblem, bu note that tte that s in a lifetimin a lifetim ailed calculaed calcul th the aid othe aid o illion trillioillion tril . Well giv. Well gi wordwor COMPLICATIONS: US 233 some computational limitations that prevent him from choosing the right move in all cases. Thus, in order to understand Lee Sedols be-havior and learn about his preferences, a robot following the third principle (the ultimate source of information about human prefer-ences is human behavior) has to understand something about the cognitive processes that generate his behavior. It cannot assume he is rational. This gives the AI, cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience communities a very serious research problem: to understand enough about human cognition 35 that we (or rather, our beneficial machines) can reverse- engineer human behavior to get at the deep underlying preferences, to the extent that they exist. Humans manage to do some of this, learning their values from others with a little bit of guidance from biology, so it seems possible. Humans have an advantage: they can use their own cognitive architecture to simulate that of other hu- mans, without knowing what that architecture is If I wanted X, Id do just the same thing as Mum does, so Mum must want X. Machines do not have this advantage. They can simulate other ma- chines easily, but not people. Its unlikely that they will soon have ac-cess to a complete model of human cognition, whether generic or tailored to specific individuals. Instead, it makes sense from a practi-cal point of view to look at the major ways in which humans deviate from rationality and to study how to learn preferences from behavior that exhibits such deviations. One obvious difference between humans and rational entities is that, at any given moment, we are not choosing among all possible first steps of all possible future lives. Not even close. Instead, we are typically embedded in a deeply nested hierarchy of subroutines. Generally speaking, we are pursuing near- term goals rather than max- imizing preferences over future lives, and we can act only according to the constraints of the subroutine were in at present. Right now, for example, Im typing this sentence: I can choose how to continue after the colon, but it never occurs to me to wonder if I should stop writing M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 233 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotificf view to loew to lo onality andonality an bits sucbits sucforpeopleopl e model of model o individuindividuDistributioneficia he deep ue deep u ans manageans manage with a little a little mans have mans have ture to simre to sim t architectuarchitectu m does, so Mm does, so his advantahis advant Its uIts u 234 HUMAN COMPATIBLE the sentence and take an online rap course or burn down the house and claim the insurance or any other of a gazillion things I could do next. Many of these other things might actually be better than what I m doing, but, giv en my hierarch y of commitments, it s as if those other things didnt exist. Understanding human action, then, seems to require understand- ing this subroutine hierarchy (which may be quite individual): which subroutine the person is executing at present, which near- term objec- tives are being pursued within this subroutine, and how they relate to deeper, long- term preferences. More generally, learning about human preferences seems to require learning about the actual structure of human lives. What are all the things that we humans can be engaged in, either singly or jointly? What activities are characteristic of differ-ent cultures and types of individuals? These are tremendously inter-esting and demanding research questions. Obviously, they do not have a fixed answer because we humans are adding new activities and be-havioral structures to our repertoires all the time. But even partial and provisional answers would be very useful for all kinds of intelligent systems designed to help humans in their daily lives. Another obvious property of human actions is that they are often driven by emotion. In some cases, this is a good thing emotions such as love and gratitude are of course partially constitutive of our prefer-ences, and actions guided by them can be rational even if not fully de-liberated. In other cases, emotional responses lead to actions that even we stupid humans recognize as less than rational after the fact, of course. For example, an angry and frustrated Harriet who slaps a re-calcitrant ten- year- old Alice may regret the action immediately. Rob- bie, observing the action, should (typically, although not in all cases) attribute the action to anger and frustration and a lack of self- control rather than deliberate sadism for its own sake. For this to work, Rob- bie has to have some understanding of human emotional states, in- cluding their causes, how they evolve over time in response to external stimuli, and the effects they have on action. Neuroscientists are 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 234 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotn. In atitude aritude a d actions gud actions gu In otherIn otheforp humhum property oproperty n some n some Distributiong ab actual struual stru umans can bmans can re characterharacte hese are trehese are tre ons. Obvious. Obvio ns are addinare addin rtoires all thrtoires all be very usbe very u ans ians i COMPLICATIONS: US 235 beginning to get a handle on the mechanics of some emotional states and their connections to other cognitive processes,36 and there is some useful work on computational methods for detecting, predicting, and manipulating human emotional states, 37 but there is much more to be learned. Again, machines are at a disadvantage when it comes to emo-tions: they cannot generate an internal simulation of an experience to see what emotional state it would engender. As well as affecting our actions, emotions reveal useful informa- tion about our underlying preferences. For example, little Alice may be refusing to do her homework, and Harriet is angry and frustrated because she really wants Alice to do well in school and have a better chance in life than Harriet herself did. If Robbie is equipped to under- stand this even if he cannot experience it himself he may learn a great deal from Harriets less- than- rational actions. It ought to be pos- sible, then, to create rudimentary models of human emotional states that suffice to avoid the most egregious errors in inferring human preferences from behavior. Do Humans Really Have Preferences? The entire premise of this book is that there are futures that we would like and futures we would prefer to avoid, such as near- term extinc- tion or being turned into human battery farms la The Matrix . In this sense, yes, of course humans have preferences. Once we get into the details of how humans would prefer their lives to play out, however, things become much murkier. Uncertainty and error One obvious property of humans, if you think about it, is that they dont always know what they want. For example, the durian fruit elicits different responses from different people: some find that it M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 235 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotremise ofmise of futures we futures we eing tureing tur ffforReally HReally hDistributiony an ol and havand hav e is equippee is equipp t himselfmself nal actions.nal actions. models of hudels of h egregious eregious e 236 HUMAN COMPATIBLE surpasses in flavour all other fruits of the world 38 while others liken it to sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs. 39 I have deliberately refrained from trying durian prior to publication, so that I can maintain neutrality on this point: I simply dont know which camp I will be in. The same might be said for many people considering future careers, future life partners, future post- retirement activities, and so on. There are at least two kinds of preference uncertainty. The first is real, epistemic uncertainty, such as I experience about my durian pref-erence. 40 No amount of thought is going to resolve this uncertainty. There is an empirical fact of the matter, and I can find out more by trying some durian, by comparing my DNA with that of durian lovers and haters, and so on. The second arises from computational limita-tions: looking at two Go positions, I am not sure which I prefer because the ramifications of each are beyond my ability to resolve completely. Uncertainty also arises from the fact that the choices we are pre- sented with are usually incompletely specified sometimes so incom- pletely that they barely qualify as choices at all. When Alice is about to graduate from high school, a career counselor might offer her a choice between librarian and coal miner; she may, quite reason-ably, say, Im uncertain about which I prefer. Here, the uncertainty comes from epistemic uncertainty about her own preferences for, say, coal dust versus book dust; from computational uncertainty as she struggles to work out how she might make the best of each career choice; and from ordinary uncertainty about the world, such as her doubts about the long- term viability of her local coal mine. For these reasons, its a bad idea to identify human preferences with simple choices between incompletely described options that are intractable to evaluate and include elements of unknown desirability. Such choices provide indirect evidence of underlying preferences, but they are not constitutive of those preferences. Thats why I have couched the notion of preferences in terms of future lives for exam- ple by imagining that you could experience, in a compressed form, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 236 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotncerce epistemicistemic dust versusdust versu les to wles to wforschooho rarian andrarian an tain aboain aboDistributionhis u n find out ind out h that of duh that of du om computcompu ot sure whict sure whic my ability toability t he fact thatfact that pletely pletely sspecpe ify as choify as cho acac COMPLICATIONS: US 237 two different movies of your future life and then express a preference b etw een th em ( see p a g e 2 6) . Th e th o u gh t exp erim en t is o f c o urse impossible to carry out in practice, but one can imagine that in many cases a clear preference would emerge long before all the details of each movie had been filled in and fully experienced. You may not know in advance which you will prefer, even given a plot summary; but there is an answer to the actual question, based on who you are now, just as there is an answer to the question of whether you will like durian when you try it. The fact that you might be uncertain about your own preferences does not cause any particular problems for the preference- based ap- proach to provably beneficial AI. Indeed, there are already some algo-rithms that take into account both Robbies and Harriets uncertainty about Harriets preferences and allow for the possibility that Harriet may be learning about her preferences while Robbie is. 41 Just as Robbies uncertainty about Harriets preferences can be reduced by observing Harriets behavior, Harriets uncertainty about her own preferences can be reduced by observing her own reactions to experi-ences. The two kinds of uncertainty need not be directly related; nor is Robbie necessarily more uncertain than Harriet about Harriets preferences. For example, Robbie might be able to detect that Harriet has a strong genetic predisposition to despise the flavor of durian. In that case, he would have very little uncertainty about her durian pref-erence, even while she remains completely in the dark. If Harriet can be uncertain about her preferences over future events, then, quite probably, she can also be wrong . For example, she might be convinced that she will not like durian (or, say, green eggs and ham) and so she avoids it at all costs, but it may turn out if some- one slips some into her fruit salad one day that she finds it sublime after all. Thus, Robbie cannot assume that Harriets actions reflect accurate knowledge of her own preferences: some may be thor- oughly grounded in experience, while others may be based primarily on supposition, prejudice, fear of the unknown, or weakly supported M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 237 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotr exe genetic penetic p , he would , he would ven whiven whforof uncun ily more uily more ample, Rample, RDistributionown eference-erence- are alreadyare already s and Harrid Harr or the possor the poss ences whileces whil riets preferts prefer , Harriets , Harriet by observby obser rtainrtain 238 HUMAN COMPATIBLE generalizations.42 A suitably tactful Robbie could be very helpful to Harriet in alerting her to such situations. Experience and memory Some psychologists have called into question the very notion that there is one self whose preferences are sovereign in the way that Harsanyis principle of preference autonomy suggests. Most promi-nent among these psychologists is my former Berkeley colleague Dan-iel Kahneman. Kahneman, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize for his work in behavioral economics, is one of the most influential thinkers on the topic of human preferences. His recent book, Thinking, Fast and Slow , 43 recounts in some detail a series of experiments that con- vinced him that there are two selves the experiencing self and the remembering self whose preferences are in conflict. The experiencing self is the one being measured by the hedonime- ter, which the nineteenth- century British economist Francis Edge- worth imagined to be an ideally perfect instrument, a psychophysical machine, continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual, exactly according to the verdict of consciousness. 44 Ac- cording to hedonic utilitarianism, the overall value of any experience to an individual is simply the sum of the hedonic values of each instant during the experience. This notion applies equally well to eating an ice cream or living an entire life. The remembering self, on the other hand, is the one who is in charge when there is any decision to be made. This self chooses new experiences based on memories of previous experiences and their de- sirability. Kahnemans experiments suggest that the remembering self has very different ideas from the experiencing self. Th e sim p l est experim en t to un derstan d in v o l v es p l un gin g a su b- jects hand into cold water. There are two different regimes: in the first, the immersion is for 60 seconds in water at 14 degrees Celsius; in the second, the immersion is for 60 seconds in water at 14 degrees followed 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 238 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnic ic ual is simpis simp e experience experien or livingor livinforgisteriter y accordingy accordin utilitariatilitariaDistributionel Pr nfluential luential t book, book, ThiThi of experimexperim the he experieexperie are in confle in conf ne being mebeing me ntury Britisntury Brit eally perfeally perfe gt hgt h COMPLICATIONS: US 239 by 30 seconds at 15 degrees. (These temperatures are similar to ocean temperatures in Northern California cold enough that almost every- one wears a wetsuit in the water.) All subjects report the experience as unpleasant. After experiencing both regimes (in either order, with a 7- minute gap in between), the subject is asked to choose which one they would like to repeat. The great majority of subjects prefer to re-peat the 60 + 30 rather than just the 60- second immersion. Kahneman posits that, from the point of view of the experienc- ing self, 60 + 30 has to be strictly worse than 60, because it includes 60 and another unpleasant experience . Yet the remembering self chooses 60 + 30. Why? Kahnemans explanation is that the remembering self looks back with rather weirdly tinted spectacles, paying attention mainly to the peak value (the highest or lowest hedonic value) and the end value (the hedonic value at the end of the experience). The durations of different parts of the experience are mostly neglected. The peak dis-comfort levels for 60 and 60 + 30 are the same, but the end levels are different: in the 60 + 30 case, the water is one degree warmer. If the remembering self evaluates experiences by the peak and end values, rather than by summing up hedonic values over time, then 60 + 30 is better, and this is what is found. The peak- end model seems to explain many other equally weird findings in the literature on preferences. Kahneman seems (perhaps appropriately) to be of two minds about his findings. He asserts that the remembering self simply made a mistake and chose the wrong experience because its memory is faulty and incomplete; he regards this as bad news for believers in the rationality of choice. On the other hand, he writes, A theory of well- being that ignores what people want cannot be sustained. Suppose, for example, that Harriet has tried Pepsi and Coke and now strongly prefers Pepsi; it would be absurd to force her to drink Coke based on adding up secret hedonimeter readings taken during each trial. The fact is that no law requires our preferences between experi- ences to be defined by the sum of hedonic values over instants of time. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 239 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotis ws equally wually w eman seememan see findingfindingforuates tes ming up heming up h hat is fohat is foDistributionring g mbering selfbering sel ng attentionattentio onic value) anic value) a he experienexperien are mostlyre mostly + 30 are the+ 30 are t ase, the waase, the w xperxpe 240 HUMAN COMPATIBLE It is true that standard mathematical models focus on maximizing a sum of rewards,45 but the original motivation for this was mathemati- cal convenience. Justifications came later in the form of technical as-sumptions under which it is rational to decide based on adding up rewards, 46 but those technical assumptions need not hold in reality. Suppose, for example, that Harriet is choosing between two sequences of hedonic values: [10,10,10,10,10] and [0,0,40,0,0]. Its entirely pos-sible that she just prefers the second sequence; no mathematical law can force her to make choices based on the sum rather than, say, the maximum. Kahneman acknowledges that the situation is complicated still fur- ther by the crucial role of anticipation and memory in well- being. The memory of a single, delightful experience ones wedding day, the birth of a child, an afternoon spent picking blackberries and making jam can carry one through years of drudgery and disappointment. Perhaps the remembering self is evaluating not just the experience per se but its total effect on lifes future value through its effect on fu- ture memories. And presumably its the remembering self and not the experiencing self that is the best judge of what will be remembered. Time and change It goes almost without saying that sensible people in the twenty- first century would not want to emulate the preferences of, say, Ro- man society in the second century, replete with gladiatorial slaughter for public entertainment, an economy based on slavery, and brutal massacres of defeated peoples. (We need not dwell on the obvious parallels to these characteristics in modern society.) Standards of mo- rality clearly evolve over time as our civilization progresses or drifts, if you prefer. This suggests, in turn, that future generations might find utterly repulsive our current attitudes to, say, the well- being of ani- mals. For this reason, it is important that machines charged with im-plementing human preferences be able to respond to changes in those 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 240 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot d chanhan almost wialmost w ury wouury woufor the bhe gegeDistributionmplicatedplicated ory in ory in wwell-ell- ones wednes we king blackbeng blackb f drudgery drudgery evaluating valuating es future vaes future ably its thably its th st just ju COMPLICATIONS: US 241 preferences over time rather than fixing them in stone. The three principles from Chapter 7 accommodate such changes in a natural way, because they require machines to learn and implement the cur- rent preferences of current humans lots of them, all different rather than a single idealized set of preferences or the preferences of machine designers who may be long dead. 47 The possibility of changes in the typical preferences of human populations over historical time naturally focuses attention on the question of how each individuals preferences are formed and the plas-ticity of adult preferences. Our preferences are certainly influenced by our biology: we usually avoid pain, hunger, and thirst, for example. Our biology has remained fairly constant, however, so the remaining preferences must arise from cultural and family influences. Quite possibly, children are constantly running some form of inverse re- inforcement learning to identify the preferences of parents and peers in order to explain their behavior; children then adopt these prefer-ences as their own. Even as adults, our preferences evolve through the influence of the media, government, friends, employers, and our own direct experiences. It may be the case, for example, that many sup-porters of the Third Reich did not start out as genocidal sadists thirst-ing for racial purity. Preference change presents a challenge for theories of rationality at both the individual and societal level. For example, Harsanyis princi-ple of preference autonomy seems to say that everyone is entitled to whatever preferences they have and no one else should touch them. Far from being untouchable, however, preferences are touched and modified all the time, by every experience a person has. Machines cannot help but modify human preferences, because machines modify human experiences. Its important, although sometimes difficult, to separate preference change from preference update, which occurs when an initially uncer-tain Harriet learns more about her own preferences through experi- ence. Preference update can fill in gaps in self- knowledge and perhaps M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 241 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotrityri ce changechange individual individual eferenceeferencformay bay d Reich didd Reich diDistributionainlyy thirst, forhirst, for wever, so thever, so th family infmily in ing some fong some f preferencereference or; childrenchildren dults, our prdults, our ernment, ernment, thethe 242 HUMAN COMPATIBLE add definiteness to preferences that were previously weakly held and provisional. Preference change, on the other hand, is not a process that results from additional evidence about what ones preferences actually are. In the extreme case, you can imagine it as resulting from drug administration or even brain surgery it occurs from processes we may not understand or agree with. Preference change is problematic for at least two reasons. The first reason is that its not clear which preferences should hold sway when making a decision: the preferences that Harriet has at the time of the decision or the preferences that she will have during and after the events that result from her decision. In bioethics, for example, this is a very real dilemma because peoples preferences about medical interventions and end- of- life care do change, often dramatically, after they become seriously ill. 48 Assuming these changes do not result from diminished intellectual capacity, whose preferences should be respected? 49 The second reason that preference change is problematic is that there seems to be no obvious rational basis for changing (as opposed to updating) ones preferences. If Harriet prefers A to B, but could choose to undergo an experience that she knows will result in her preferring B to A, why would she ever do that? The outcome would be that she would then choose B, which she currently does not want. The issue of preference change appears in dramatic form in the legend of Ulysses and the Sirens. The Sirens were mythical beings whose singing lured sailors to their doom on the rocks of certain is-lands in the Mediterranean. Ulysses, wishing to hear the song, ordered his sailors to plug their ears with wax and to bind him to the mast; under no circumstances were they to obey his subsequent entreaties to release him. Obviously, he wanted the sailors to respect the pref- erences he had initially, not the preferences he would have after the Sirens bewitch him. This legend became the title of a book by the Norwegian philosopher Jon Elster, 50 dealing with weakness of will and other challenges to the theoretical idea of rationality. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 242 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotuld ld hoose B, wose B, w sue of prefsue of pre UlyssesUlyssesfornces. Ifs. rience that ience that she everhe ever hDistributionurin s, for examfor exam rences aboences abo , often dramten dra these chanhese chan y, whose pwhose p eference cheference rational brational b HarrHarr COMPLICATIONS: US 243 Why might an intelligent machine deliberately set out to modify the preferences of humans? The answer is quite simple: to make the preferences easier to satisfy. We saw this in Chapter 1 with the case of social- media click- through optimization. One response might be to say that machines must treat human preferences as sacrosanct: noth- ing can be allowed to change the humans preferences. Unfortunately, this is completely impossible. The very existence of a useful robot aide is likely to have an effect on human preferences. One possible solution is for machines to learn about human meta- preferences that is, preferences about what kinds of preference change processes might be acceptable or unacceptable. Notice the use of preference change processes rather than preference changes here. Thats because wanting ones preferences to change in a specific direc-tion often amounts to having that preference already; whats really wanted in such a case is the ability to be better at implementing the preference. For example, if Harriet says, I want my preferences to change so that I dont want cake as much as I do now, then she already has a preference for a future with less cake consumption; what she really wants is to alter her cognitive architecture so that her behavior more closely reflects that preference. By preferences about what kinds of preference change processes might be acceptable or unacceptable, I mean, for example, a view that one may end up with better preferences by traveling the world and experiencing a wide variety of cultures, or by participating in a vibrant intellectual community that thoroughly explores a wide range of moral traditions, or by setting aside some hermit time for introspec-tion and hard thinking about life and its meaning. Ill call these pro-cesses preference-neutral , in the sense that one does not anticipate that the process will change ones preferences in any particular direc-tion, while recognizing that some may strongly disagree with that characterization. Of course, not all preference- neutral processes are desirable for example, few people expect to develop better preferences by M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 243 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotncesc eptable optable o end up witend up w cing a wcing a wforher coer c ts that prefts that pre about wabout wDistributionrefer Notice thNotice th eference chference ch change in ange in ference alrerence alr to be betto be bett riet says, Iet says, I ke as much ke as muc ure with leure with l gnitigniti 244 HUMAN COMPATIBLE whacking themselves on the head. Subjecting oneself to an acceptable process of preference change is analogous to running an experiment to find out something about how the world works: you never know in ad-vance how the experiment will turn out, but you expect, nonetheless, to be better off in your new mental state. The idea that there are acceptable routes to preference modifica- tion seems related to the idea that there are acceptable methods of behavior modification whereby, for example, an employer engineers the choice situation so that people make better choices about saving for retirement. Often this can be done by manipulating the non- rational factors that influence choice, rather than by restricting choices or taxing bad choices. Nudge , a book by economist Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein, lays out a wide range of sup-posedly acceptable methods and opportunities to influence peoples behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better. Its unclear whether behavior modification methods are really just modifying behavior. If, when the nudge is removed, the modified be- havior persists which is presumably the desired outcome of such interventions then something has changed in the individuals cogni- tive architecture (the thing that turns underlying preferences into be-havior) or in the individuals underlying preferences. Its quite likely to be a bit of both. What is clear, however, is that the nudge strategy is assuming that everyone shares a preference for longer, healthier, and better lives; each nudge is based on a particular definition of a bet-ter life, which seems to go against the grain of preference autonomy. It might be better, instead, to design preference- neutral assistive pro- cesses that help people bring their decisions and their cognitive archi-tectures into better alignment with their underlying preferences. For example, its possible to design cognitive aides that highlight the longer- term consequences of decisions and teach people to recognize the seeds of those consequences in the present. 51 That we need a better understanding of the processes whereby human preferences are formed and shaped seems obvious, not least 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 244 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotindnd th. What. What that everyothat every es; eaches; each hhformethinth e thing thae thing th vidualsvidualsDistributionatingg han by ren by re by economby econom out a widet a wid unities to inities to longer, healnger, hea modificatioodificatio he nudge ishe nudge resumablyresumabl gh a sgh a s COMPLICATIONS: US 245 because such an understanding would help us design machines that avoid accidental and undesirable changes in human preferences of the kind wrought by social- media content selection algorithms. Armed with such an understanding, of course, we will be tempted to engi- neer changes that would result in a better world. Some might argue that we should provide much greater opportu- nities for preference- neutral improving experiences such as travel, debate, and training in analytical and critical thinking. We might, for example, provide opportunities for every high- school student to live for a few months in at least two other cultures distinct from his or her own. Almost certainly, however, we will want to go furtherfor exam- ple, by instituting social and educational reforms that increase the co- efficient of altruism the weight that each individual places on the welfare of others while decreasing the coefficients of sadism, pride, and envy. Would this be a good idea? Should we recruit our machines to help in the process? Its certainly tempting. Indeed, Aristotle him-self wrote, The main concern of politics is to engender a certain char-acter in the citizens and to make them good and disposed to perform noble actions. Lets just say that there are risks associated with inten-tional preference engineering on a global scale. We should proceed with extreme caution. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 245 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ce ee e cautioncautionfornd to mto s just say ths just say t ngineerngineerDistributionnct go furthergo further forms that ims that each indivieach indivi the coeffiche coeffic dea? Shoulda? Should rtainly temrtainly tem ern of politern of pol akeake 10 PROBLEM SOLVED? If we succeed in creating provably beneficial AI systems, we would eliminate the risk that we might lose control over superintelligent machines. Humanity could proceed with their development and reap the almost unimaginable benefits that would flow from the ability to wield far greater intelligence in advancing our civilization. We would be released from millennia of servitude as agricultural, industrial, and clerical robots and we would be free to make the best of lifes potential. From the vantage point of this golden age, we would look back on our lives in the present time much as Thomas Hobbes imagined life without government: solitary, poor, nasty, brut-ish, and short. Or perhaps not. Bondian villains may circumvent our safeguards and unleash uncontrollable superintelligences against which human-ity has no defense. And if we survive that, we may find ourselves gradually enfeebled as we entrust more and more of our knowledge and skills to machines. The machines may advise us not to do this, understanding the long- term value of human autonomy, but we may overrule them. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 246 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotclerle potential.tential. ok back on ok back on maginedmaginedforater inr i sed from msed from ical robcal rob FDistributionbeneficial Aneficial A ht lose contlose cont proceed wproceed ble benefble bene elligellig PROBLEM SOLVED? 247 Beneficial Machines The standard model underlying a good deal of twentieth- century technology relies on machinery that optimizes a fixed, exogenously s u p p l i e d o b j e c t i v e . A s w e h a v e s e e n , t h i s m o d e l i s f u n d a m e n t a l l y flawed. It works only if the objective is guaranteed to be complete and correct, or if the machinery can easily be reset. Neither condition will hold as AI becomes increasingly powerful. If the exogenously supplied objective can be wrong, then it makes no sense for the machine to act as if it is always correct. Hence my proposal for beneficial machines: machines whose actions can be ex-pected to achieve our objectives. Because these objectives are in us, and not in them, the machines will need to learn more about what we really want from observations of the choices we make and how we make them. Machines designed in this way will defer to humans: they will ask permission; they will act cautiously when guidance is unclear; and they will allow themselves to be switched off. While these initial results are for a simplified and idealized set- ting, I believe they will survive the transition to more realistic set- tings. Already, my colleagues have successfully applied the same approach to practical problems such as self- driving cars interacting with human drivers. 1 For example, self- driving cars are notoriously bad at handling four- way stop signs when its not clear who has the right of way. By formulating this as an assistance game, however, the car comes up with a novel solution: it actually backs up a little bit to show that its definitely not planning to go first. The human under-stands this signal and goes ahead, confident that there will be no col-lision. Obviously, we human experts could have thought of this solution and programmed it into the vehicle, but thats not what hap-pened; this is a form of communication that the vehicle invented en-tirely by itself. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 247 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotmm practicalractica man driversn drive andling andling forl resulesu y will surviwill surv y colleacolleaDistributiong, th correct. Horrect. H hose actionose action these objecse obje d to learn mto learn m he choices wchoices n this way wthis way w act cautiouact cautio lves to be lves to be sa r esa r e 248 HUMAN COMPATIBLE As we gain more experience in other settings, I expect that we will be surprised by the range and fluency of machine behaviors as they interact with humans. We are so used to the stupidity of machines that execute inflexible, preprogrammed behaviors or pursue definite but incorrect objectives that we may be shocked by how sensible they become. The technology of provably beneficial machines is the core of a new approach to AI and the basis for a new relationship between humans and machines. It seems possible, also, to apply similar ideas to the redesign of other machines that ought to be serving humans, beginning with ordinary software systems. We are taught to build software by com- posing subroutines, each of which has a well- defined specification that says what the output should be for any given input just like the square- root button on a calculator. This specification is the direct an- alog of the objective given to an AI system. The subroutine is not supposed to terminate and return control to the higher layers of the software system until it has produced an output that meets the speci-fication. (This should remind you of the AI system that persists in its single- minded pursuit of its given objective.) A better approach would be to allow for uncertainty in the specification. For example, a subrou- tine that carries out some fearsomely complicated mathematical com-putation is typically given an error bound that defines the required precision for the answer and has to return a solution that is correct within that error bound. Sometimes, this may require weeks of com-putation. Instead, it might be better to be less precise about the al-lowed error, so that the subroutine could come back after twenty seconds and say, Ive found a solution thats this good. Is that OK or do you want me to continue? In some cases, the question may perco-late all the way to the top level of the software system, so that the human user can provide further guidance to the system. The humans answers would then help in refining the specifications at all levels. The same kind of thinking can be applied to entities such as gov- ernments and corporations. The obvious failings of government in- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 248 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotoutu ypically gically g for the ansfor the an at error at error forof its gits g rtainty in thtainty in t some feome feDistributionbeging software oftware fined ined specifispecif iven niinputnput specificatiopecificatio system. Tystem. T n control toontrol to oduced an ooduced an d you of td you of t en oen o PROBLEM SOLVED? 249 clude paying too much attention to the preferences (financial as well as political) of those in government and too little attention to the pref-erences of the governed. Elections are supposed to communicate pref-erences to the government, but they seem to have a remarkably small bandwidth (on the order of one byte of information every few years) for such a complex task. In far too many countries, government is sim-ply a means for one group of people to impose its will on others. Cor-porations go to greater lengths to learn the preferences of customers, whether through market research or direct feedback in the form of purchase decisions. On the other hand, the molding of human prefer-ences through advertising, cultural influences, and even chemical ad-diction is an accepted way of doing business. Governance of AI AI has the power to reshape the world, and the process of reshaping will have to be managed and guided in some way. If the sheer number of initiatives to develop effective governance of AI is any guide, then we are in excellent shape. Everyone and their uncle is setting up a Board or a Council or an International Panel. The World Economic Forum has identified nearly three hundred separate efforts to develop ethical principles for AI. My email inbox can be summarized as one long invitation to the Global World Summit Conference Forum on the Future of International Governance of the Social and Ethical Impacts of Emerging Artificial Intelligence Technologies. This is all very different from what happened with nuclear tech- nology. After World War II, the United States held all the nuclear cards. In 1953, US president Dwight Eisenhower proposed to the UN an international body to regulate nuclear technology. In 1957, the In-ternational Atomic Energy Agency started work; it is the sole global overseer for the safe and beneficial development of nuclear energy. In contrast, many hands hold AI cards. To be sure, the United M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 249 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotncn dentified ntified rinciples forinciples f ation toation toforp effeceff t shape. Evt shape. E l or an or an Distributionof hu d even cheeven che the world, the world d guided id guided tivetive 250 HUMAN COMPATIBLE States, China, and the EU fund a lot of AI research, but almost all of it occurs outside secure national laboratories. AI researchers in univer-sities are part of a broad, cooperative international community, glued together by shared interests, conferences, cooperative agreements, and professional societies such as AAAI (the Association for the Advance-ment of Artificial Intelligence) and IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which includes tens of thousands of AI re-searchers and practitioners). Probably the majority of investment in AI research and development is now occurring within corporations, large and small; the leading players as of 2019 are Google (including Deep-Mind), Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM in the United States and Tencent, Baidu, and, to some extent, Alibaba in China all among the largest corporations in the world. 2 All but Tencent and Alibaba are members of the Partnership on AI, an industry consortium that in-cludes among its tenets a promise of cooperation on AI safety. Finally, although the vast majority of humans possess little in the way of AI expertise, there is at least a superficial willingness among other play-ers to take the interests of humanity into account. These, then, are the players who hold the majority of the cards. Their interests are not in perfect alignment but all share a desire to maintain control over AI systems as they become more powerful. (Other goals, such as avoiding mass unemployment, are shared by gov-ernments and university researchers, but not necessarily by corpora-tions that expect to profit in the short term from the widest possible deployment of AI.) To cement this shared interest and achieve coordi-nated action, there are organizations with convening power , which means, roughly, that if the organization sets up a meeting, people ac-cept the invitation to participate. In addition to the professional soci-eties, which can bring AI researchers together, and the Partnership on AI, which combines corporations and nonprofit institutes, the ca-nonical conveners are the UN (for governments and researchers) and the World Economic Forum (for governments and corporations). In addition, the G7 has proposed an International Panel on Artificial 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 250 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotl ov such as avch as av and univerand unive expect expect fffore playeplay not in perfenot in per ver AI ser AI sDistributionnclud the Unitehe Unite a in in CChinahina t Tencent ancent a ndustry condustry co cooperationoperation mans possesns posses perficial wiperficial w umanity inumanity i rs wrs w PROBLEM SOLVED? 251 Intelligence, hoping that it will grow into something like the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Important- sounding re- ports are multiplying like rabbits. With all this activity, is there any prospect of actual progress on governance occurring? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is yes, at least around the edges. Many governments around the world are equipping themselves with advisory bodies to help with the process of develop-ing regulations; perhaps the most prominent example is the EUs High- Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence. Agreements, rules, and standards are beginning to emerge for issues such as user privacy, data exchange, and avoiding racial bias. Governments and corporations are working hard to sort out the rules for self- driving cars rules that will inevitably have cross- border elements. There is a consensus that AI decisions must be explainable if AI systems are to be trusted, and that consensus is already partially implemented in the EUs GDPR legislation. In California, a new law forbids AI systems to impersonate humans in certain circumstances. These last two items explainability and impersonation certainly have some bearing on issues of AI safety and control. At present, there are no implementable recommendations that can be made to governments or other organizations considering the issue of maintaining control over AI systems. A regulation such as AI sys-tems must be safe and controllable would carry no weight, because these terms do not yet have precise meanings and because there is no widely known engineering methodology for ensuring safety and con-trollability. But lets be optimistic and imagine that, a few years down the line, the validity of the provably beneficial approach to AI has been established through both mathematical analysis and practical re-alization in the form of useful applications. We might, for example, have personal digital assistants that we can trust to use our credit cards, screen our calls and emails, and manage our finances because they have adapted to our individual preferences and know when its OK to go ahead and when its better to ask for guidance. Our M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 251 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoternr ng controg contro st be safe ast be safe ms do nms do nforcontroont re are no ime are no im ments oments oDistributionues s GovernmGovernm e rules for rules for order elemder elem plainable ifplainable i eady partialdy partia rnia, a newia, a new n circumstn circums onationonation ll 252 HUMAN COMPATIBLE self- driving cars may have learned good manners for interacting with one another and with human drivers, and our domestic robots should be interacting smoothly with even the most recalcitrant toddler. With luck, no cats will have been roasted for dinner and no whale meat will have been served to members of the Green Party. At that point, it might be feasible to specify software design tem- plates to which various kinds of applications must conform in order to be sold or connected to the Internet, just as applications have to pass a number of software tests before they can be sold on Apples App Store or Google Play. Software vendors could propose additional tem-plates, as long as they come with proofs that the templates satisfy the (by then well- defined) requirements of safety and controllability. There would be mechanisms for reporting problems and for updating software systems that produce undesirable behavior. It would make sense also to create professional codes of conduct around the idea of provably safe AI programs and to integrate the corresponding theo-rems and methods into the curriculum for aspiring AI and machine learning practitioners. To a seasoned observer of Silicon Valley, this may sound rather nave. Regulation of any kind is strenuously opposed in the Valley. Whereas we are accustomed to the idea that pharmaceutical compa-nies have to show safety and (beneficial) efficacy through clinical tri-als before they can release a product to the general public, the software industry operates by a different set of rulesnamely, the empty set. A bunch of dudes chugging Red Bull 3 at a software company can unleash a product or an upgrade that affects literally billions of people with no third- party oversight whatsoever. Inevitably, however, the tech industry is going to have to acknowl- edge that its products matter; and, if they matter, then it matters that the products not have harmful effects. This means that there will be rules governing the nature of interactions with humans, prohibiting designs that, say, consistently manipulate preferences or produce ad-dictive behavior. I have no doubt that the transition from an unregu- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 252 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotaccac how safetw safet they can relthey can re peratesperates ddforrver oer f any kind fa n y k i n d ustomedustomeDistributionaddit mplates saplates sa y and conty and con roblems anlems an ble behavioble behavio es of conduof condu o integrate ntegrate urriculum furriculum SiliSili PROBLEM SOLVED? 253 lated to a regulated world will be a painful one. Lets hope it doesnt require a Chernobyl- sized disaster (or worse) to overcome the indus- trys resistance. Misuse Regulation might be painful for the software industry, but it would be intolerable for Dr. Evil, plotting world domination in his secret under-ground bunker. There is no doubt that criminal elements, terrorists, and rogue nations would have an incentive to circumvent any con-straints on the design of intelligent machines so that they could be used to control weapons or to devise and carry out criminal activities. The danger is not so much that the evil schemes would succeed; it is that they would fail by losing control over poorly designed intelligent systems particularly ones imbued with evil objectives and granted access to weapons. This is not a reason to avoid regulation after all, we have laws against murder even though they are often circumvented. It does, however, create a very serious policing problem. Already, we are losing the battle against malware and cybercrime. (A recent report estimates over two billion victims and an annual cost of around $600 billion. 4) Malware in the form of highly intelligent programs would be much harder to defeat. Some, including Nick Bostrom, have proposed that we use our own, beneficial superintelligent AI systems to detect and destroy any malicious or otherwise misbehaving AI systems. Certainly, we should use the tools at our disposal, while minimizing the impact on personal freedom, but the image of humans huddling in bunkers, defenseless against the titanic forces unleashed by battling superintelligences, is hardly reassuring even if some of them are on our side. It would be far better to find ways to nip the malicious AI in the bud. A good first step would be a successful, coordinated, international M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 253 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotst mt m ion victimn victim in the formin the for defeat.defeatforthoughoug ery serious ery serious malware alware Distributionment rcumventumvent so that thso that th arry out crimout cri l schemes wschemes w ol over poorover poo ued with evd with ev avoid avoid rregeg thethe 254 HUMAN COMPATIBLE campaign against cybercrime, including expansion of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. This would form an organizational tem-plate for possible future efforts to prevent the emergence of uncon-trolled AI programs. At the same time, it would engender a broad cultural understanding that creating such programs, either deliber-ately or inadvertently, is in the long run a suicidal act comparable to creating pandemic organisms. (QIHHEOHPHQWDQG+XPDQ$XWRQRP\ E. M. Forsters most famous novels, including Howards End and A Passage to India , examined British society and its class system in the early part of the twentieth century. In 1909, he wrote one notable science- fiction story: The Machine Stops. The story is remarkable for its prescience, including depictions of (what we would now call) the Internet, videoconferencing, iPads, massive open online courses (MOOCs), widespread obesity, and avoidance of face- to- face con- tact. The Machine of the title is an all- encompassing intelligent infra- structure that meets all human needs. Humans become increasingly dependent on it, but they understand less and less about how it works. Engineering knowledge gives way to ritualized incantations that eventually fail to stem the gradual deterioration of the Machines workings. Kuno, the main character, sees what is unfolding but is power less to stop it: Cannot you see . . . that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills. . . . We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die. Oh, 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 254 8/7/19 11:21 PM, b eering knring kn ually fail toually fail t Kuno, Kuno, fore titleitl s all humans all huma ut theyut theyDistributionP\ Howards EHowards E nd its classits class 1909, he w1909, he w Stops. Theops. Th ctions of (wons of (w ng, iPads, mng, iPads, sity, and sity, and sa nsa n PROBLEM SOLVED? 255 I have no remedyor, at least, only oneto tell men again and again that I have seen the hills of Wessex as Aelfrid saw them when he overthrew the Danes. More than one hundred billion people have lived on Earth. They (we) have spent on the order of one trillion person- years learning and teaching, in order that our civilization may continue. Up to now, its only possibility for continuation has been through re- creation in the minds of new generations. (Paper is fine as a method of transmission, but paper does nothing until the knowledge recorded thereon reaches the next persons mind.) That is now changing: increasingly, it is pos-sible to place our knowledge into machines that, by themselves, can run our civilization for us. Once the practical incentive to pass our civilization on to the next generation disappears, it will be very hard to reverse the process. One trillion years of cumulative learning would, in a real sense, be lost. We would become passengers in a cruise ship run by machines, on a cruise that goes on forever exactly as envisaged in the film WA LL- E. A good consequentialist would say, Obviously this is an undesir- able consequence of the overuse of automation! Suitably designed machines would never do this! True, but think what this means. Ma- chines may well understand that human autonomy and competence are important aspects of how we prefer to conduct our lives. They may well insist that humans retain control and responsibility for their own well-beingin other words, machines will say no. But we myo- pic, lazy humans may disagree. There is a tragedy of the commons at work here: for any individual human, it may seem pointless to engage in years of arduous learning to acquire knowledge and skills that ma-chines already have; but if everyone thinks that way, the human race will, collectively, lose its autonomy. The solution to this problem seems to be cultural, not techni- c a l . W e w i l l n e e d a c u l t u r a l m o v e m e n t t o r e s h a p e o u r i d e a l s a n d preferences towards autonomy, agency, and ability and away from M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 255 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotd nen well undeell und ortant aspecortant aspe insist tinsist tfortialist list of the oveof the ov ver do tver do tDistributionther creasingly,easingly hat, by themat, by them our civilizaour civiliza y hard to revard to re ing would, ig would, i cruise shipcruise sh tly as envitly as envi woulwoul 256 HUMAN COMPATIBLE self- indulgence and dependency if you like, a modern, cultural version of ancient Spartas military ethos. This would mean human preference engineering on a global scale along with radical changes in how our society works. To avoid making a bad situation worse, we might need the help of superintelligent machines, both in shaping the solution and in the actual process of achieving a balance for each individual. Any parent of a small child is familiar with this process. Once the child is beyond the helpless stage, parenting requires an ever- evolving balance between doing everything for the child and leaving the child entirely to his or her own devices. At a certain stage, the child comes to understand that the parent is perfectly capable of tying the childs shoelaces but is choosing not to. Is that the future for the human race to be treated like a child, forever, by far superior machines? I suspect not. For one thing, children cannot switch their parents off. (Thank goodness!) Nor will we be pets or zoo animals. There is really no analog in our present world to the relationship we will have with beneficial intelligent machines in the future. It remains to be seen how the endgame turns out. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 256 8/7/19 11:21 PMfor out.ut.Distributionavin ge, the chilthe chi ble of tying le of tying he future ffuture by far supby far sup cannot swinnot sw e pets or zooets or zoo d to the reld to the re nes in thenes in th Appendix A SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS Choosing an action by looking ahead and considering the out- comes of different possible action sequences is a fundamental capability for intelligent systems. Its something your cell phone does whenever you ask it for directions. Figure 14 shows a typ-ical example: getting from the current location, Pier 19, to the goal, Coit Tower. The algorithm needs to know what actions are available to it; typically, for map navigation, each action traverses a road seg-ment connecting two adjacent intersections. In the example, from Pier 19 there is just one action: turn right and drive along the Embarcadero to the next intersection. Then there is a choice: continue on or take a sharp left onto Battery Street. The algorithm systematically explores all these possibilities until it eventually finds a route. Typically we add a little bit of commonsense guidance, such as a preference for explor-ing streets that head towards the goal rather than away from it. With this guidance and a few other tricks, the algorithm can find optimal solutions very quicklyusually in a few milliseconds, even for a cross- country trip. Searching for routes on maps is a natural and familiar example, but it may be a bit misleading because the number of distinct locations is so small. In the United States, for example, there are only about ten M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 257 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotg twg ust one acone ac xt intersectintersec t onto Bt onto Bforithm nhm map navigmap navi wo adjaco adjacDistributionhead and coead and co action sequeion sequ t systems. systems. k it for direcit for dire the currethe curre eedseeds 258 HUMAN COMPATIBLE million intersections. That may seem like a large number, but it is tiny c o m p a r e d t o t h e n u m b e r o f d i s t i n c t s t a t e s i n t h e 1 5 - p u z z l e . T h e 15- puzzle is a toy with a four- by- four grid containing fifteen num- bered tiles and a blank space. The goal is to move the tiles around to achieve a goal configuration, such as having all the tiles in numerical order. The 15-puzzle has about ten trillion states (a million times big- ger than the United States!); the 24- puzzle has about eight trillion trillion states. This is an example of what mathematicians call combi- natorial complexity the rapid explosion in the number of combina- tions as the number of moving parts of a problem increases. Returning to the map of the United States: if a trucking company wants to opti- mize the movements of its one hundred trucks across the United States, the number of possible states to consider would be ten million to the power of one hundred (i.e., 10 700). FIGURE $PDSRISDUWRI6DQ)UDQFLVFRVKRZLQJWKHLQLWLDOORFDWLR QDW3LHU DQGWKHGHVWLQDWLRQDW&RLW7RZHUCoit TowerPier 19 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 258 8/7/19 11:21 PMoy wy d a blanka blank goal configgoal confi e 15e 15-puzuforhat mat m umber of dumber of with a fowith a fDistrys e eys e etribu ribVFRVKRZLQJRVKRZLQJ APPENDIX A: SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS 259 Giving up on rational decisions Many games have this property of combinatorial complexity, includ- ing chess, checkers, backgammon, and Go. Because the rules of Go are simple and elegant (figure 15), Ill use it as a running example. The ob-jective is clear enough: win the game by surrounding more territory than your opponent. The possible actions are clear too: put a stone in an empty location. Just as with navigation on a map, the obvious way to decide what to do is to imagine different futures that result from differ-ent sequences of actions and choose the best one. You ask, If I do this, what might my opponent do? And what do I do then? This idea is illus-trated in figure 16 for 33 Go. Even for 33 Go, I can show only a small part of the tree of possible futures, but I hope the idea is clear enough. Indeed, this way of making decisions seems to be just straightforward common sense. FIGURE $ *R ERDUG partway through Game 5 of WKH/*&XSILQDOEH - WZHHQ/HH6HGRO EODFN DQG Choe Myeong-hun (white). %ODFNDQG:KLWHWDNHWXUQV placing a single stone on any XQRFFXSLHGORFDWLRQRQWKHERDUG+HUHLWLV%ODFNVWXUQWRPRYHDQGWKHUHDUHSRVVLEOH PRYHV (DFK VLGHDWWHPSWV WR VXUURXQG DVmuch territory as possible. )RU H[DPSOH :KLWH KDVJRRGFKDQFHVWRZLQWHUUL - WRU\ DW WKH OHIWKDQG HGJH DQGRQWKHOHIWVLGHRIWKHERWWRPHGJHZKLOH%ODFNPD\ZLQWH UULWRU\LQWKH WRSULJKWDQGERWWRPULJKWFRUQHUV$NH\FRQFHSWLQ*RLVWKDW RID group WKDWLVDVHWRIVWRQHVRIWKHVDPHFRORUWKDWDUHFRQQHFWHGW RRQHDQRWKHUE\ YHUWLFDORUKRUL]RQWDODGMDFHQF\$JURXSUHPDLQVDOLYHDVORQJ DVWKHUHLVDW OHDVWRQHHPSW\VSDFHQH[WWRLW LILWLVFRPSOHWHO\VXUURXQGH GZLWKQRHPSW\ VSDFHVLWGLHVDQGLVUHPRYHGIURPWKHERDUG M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 259 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot Notototototototfofofofofofor forforrrororororistributionask, , n? This id This id I can showI can show pe the idea he idea ems to be jms to be j DistDistDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDiDiDiDiDiDiDiDiDiDiDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDstiststistist 260 HUMAN COMPATIBLE The problem is that Go has more than 10170 possible positions for the full 1919 board. Whereas finding a guaranteed shortest route on a map is relatively easy, finding a guaranteed win in Go is utterly in-feasible. Even if the algorithm ponders for the next billion years, it can explore only a tiny fraction of the whole tree of possibilities. This leads to two questions. First, which part of the tree should the pro-gram explore? And second, which move should the program make, given the partial tree that it has explored? To answer the second question first: the basic idea used by almost all lookahead programs is to assign an estimated value to the leaves of +3 +5Black to move White to move Black to move FIGURE 3DUWRIWKHJDPHWUHHIRU *R6WDUWLQJIURPWKHHPSW\LQLWLDO VWDWHVRPHWLPHVFDOOHGWKH root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uman_TX.indd 260 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot oblem ioblem tHDYHDYH WKHOHDYHVHDYHforV%OD%OD HWRIROORZHRIROORZ DWLRQIXQFWLRWLRQIXQFWLR RIWKHWRIWKHWDistribution+33 tioi butbububuttttbubbuttttututbutittttttttttututibu*R6WDUWLQJR6WDUWLQJ HWUHH%ODFNUHH%ODFN VDUHV\PPHWDUHV\PPHW NFKRRVHVWRSNFKRRVHVWRS WWKHQ%ODFQ%OD FDQFFDQF APPENDIX A: SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS 261 the tree those states furthest in the future and then work back to find out how good the choices are at the root.1 For example, looking at the two positions at the bottom of figure 16, one might guess a value of + 5 (from Blacks viewpoint) for the position on the left and + 3 for the position on the right, because Whites stone in the corner is much more vulnerable than the one on the side. If these values are right, then Black can expect that White will play on the side, leading to the right- hand position; hence, it seems reasonable to assign a value of + 3 to Blacks initial move in the center. With slight variations, this is the scheme used by Arthur Samuels checker- playing program to beat its creator in 1955, 2 by Deep Blue to beat the then world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in 1997, and by AlphaGo to beat former world Go champion Lee Sedol in 2016. For Deep Blue, humans wrote the piece of the program that evaluates positions at the leaves of the tree, based largely on their knowledge of chess. For Samuels program and for AlphaGo, the programs learned it from thousands or millions of prac-tice games. The first question which part of the tree should the program explore? is an example of one of the most important questions in AI: What computations should an agent do? For game- playing programs, it is vitally important because they have only a small, fixed allocation of time, and using it on pointless computations is a sure way to lose. For humans and other agents operating in the real world, it is even more important because the real world is so much more complex: unless chosen well, no amount of computation is going to make the smallest dent in the problem of deciding what to do. If you are driving and a moose walks into the middle of the road, its no use thinking about whether to trade euros for pounds or whether Black should make its first move in the center of the Go board. The ability of humans to manage their computational activity so that reasonable decisions get made reasonably quickly is at least as re-markable as their ability to perceive and to reason correctly . And it seems to be something we acquire naturally and effortlessly: when my M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 261 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottantan ing it on g it on and other aand other nt becaunt becauforle of oof should an should an becausebecausDistributionogram rld chess cd chess c beat formebeat forme e, humans umans at the leavet the leave s. For SamuFor Sam t from thoufrom thou hich part hich part eo feo f 262 HUMAN COMPATIBLE father taught me to play chess, he taught me the rules, but he did not also teach me such- and- such clever algorithm for choosing which parts of the game tree to explore and which parts to ignore. How does this happen? On what basis can we direct our thoughts? The answer is that a computation has value to the extent that it can improve your decision quality. The process of choosing computations is called metareasoning , which means reasoning about reasoning. Just as actions can be chosen rationally, on the basis of expected value, so can computations. This is called rational metareasoning . 3 The basic idea is very simple: Do the computations that will give the highest expected improve- ment in decision quality, and stop when the cost (in terms of time) exceeds the expected improvement. Thats it. No fancy algorithm needed! This simple principle generates effective computational behavior in a wide range of problems, includ-ing chess and Go. It seems likely that our brains implement something similar, which explains why we dont need to learn new, game- specific algorithms for thinking with each new game we learn to play. Exploring a tree of possibilities that stretches forward into the fu- ture from the current state is not the only way to reach decisions, of course. Often, it makes more sense to work backwards from the goal. For example, the presence of the moose in the road suggests the goal of avoid hitting the moose , which in turn suggests three possible ac- ti o n s : s w e rv e l e ft , s w e rv e ri gh t , o r s l am o n th e b r ak e s . I t d o e s n o t suggest the action of trading euros for pounds or putting a black stone in the center. Thus, goals have a wonderful focusing effect on ones thinking. No current game- playing programs take advantage of this idea; in fact, they typically consider all possible legal actions. This is one of the (many) reasons why I am not worried about AlphaZero taking over the world. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 262 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotreee e current urrent ften, it makften, it ma ple, the ple, the forwhy why ing with eaing with e of possiof possiDistributionexpected imexpected e cost (in terst (in te ded! This sid! This si ior in a widior in a wi kely that okely that o dondon APPENDIX A: SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS 263 Looking further ahead Lets suppose you have decided to make a specific move on the Go board. Great! Now you have to actually do it. In the real world, this involves reaching into the bowl of unplayed stones to pick up a stone, moving your hand above the intended location, and placing the stone neatly on the spot, either quietly or emphatically according to Go etiquette. Each of these stages, in turn, consists of a complex dance of per- ception and motor control commands involving the muscles and nerves of the hand, arm, shoulder, and eyes. And while reaching for a stone, youre making sure the rest of your body doesnt topple over thanks to the shift in your center of gravity. The fact that you may not be con- sciously aware of selecting these actions does not mean that they arent being selected by your brain. For example, there may be many stones in the bowl, but your hand really, your brain processing sensory information still has to choose one of them to pick up. Almost everything we do is like this. While driving, we might choose to change lanes to the left ; but this action involves looking in the mirror and over your shoulder, perhaps adjusting speed, and moving the steering wheel while monitoring progress until the maneuver is complete. In conversation, a routine response such as OK, let me check my calendar and get back to you involves articulating fourteen syllables, each of which requires hundreds of precisely coordinated motor control commands to the muscles of the tongue, lips, jaw, throat, and breathing apparatus. For your native language, this process is automatic; it closely resembles the idea of running a subroutine in a computer program (see page 34). The fact that complex action se-quences can become routine and automatic, thereby functioning as single actions in still more complex processes, is absolutely fundamen- tal to human cognition. Saying words in a less familiar language perhaps asking directions to Szczebrzeszyn in Poland is a useful M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 263 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotheele n conversconvers y calendar ay calendar each oeach oforto the lthe ur shouldeur should while mwhile mDistributionuscle eaching foching fo t topple ovt topple ov t that you mat you m does not medoes not m ample, thermple, the eally, yourally, your ose one of tose one of do is likedo is lik ftft;b;b 264 HUMAN COMPATIBLE reminder that there was a time in your life when reading and speak- ing words were difficult tasks requiring mental effort and lots of practice. So, the real problem that your brain faces is not choosing a move on the Go board but sending motor control commands to your mus-cles. If we shift our attention from the level of Go moves to the level of motor control commands, the problem looks very different. Very roughly, your brain can send out commands about every one hundred milliseconds. We have about six hundred muscles, so thats a theoret-ical maximum of about six thousand actuations per second, twenty million per hour, two hundred billion per year, twenty trillion per lifetime. Use them wisely! Now, suppose we tried to apply an AlphaZero- like algorithm to solve the decision problem at this level. In Go, AlphaZero looks ahead perhaps fifty steps. But fifty steps of motor control commands get you only a few seconds into the future! Not enough for the twenty million motor control commands in an hour- long game of Go, and certainly not enough for the trillion (1,000,000,000,000) steps involved in do- ing a PhD. So, even though AlphaZero looks further ahead in Go than any human can, that ability doesnt seem to help in the real world. Its the wrong kind of lookahead. Im not saying, of course, that doing a PhD actually requires plan- ning out a trillion muscle actuations in advance. Only quite abstract plans are made initially perhaps choosing Berkeley or some other place, choosing a PhD supervisor or research topic, applying for fund- ing, getting a student visa, traveling to the chosen city, doing some research, and so on. To make your choices, you do just enough think-ing, about just the right things, so that the decision becomes clear. If the feasibility of some abstract step such as getting the visa is unclear, you do some more thinking and perhaps information gathering, which means making the plan more concrete in certain aspects: maybe choosing a visa type for which you are eligible, collecting the neces-sary documents, and submitting the application. Figure 17 shows the 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 264 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotof lof ying, of cng, of c a trillion mua trillion m made made iiforugh Alh A t ability doeability do okaheadokaheadDistributionsecon wenty trienty tri haZero-Zero- llikeik n Go, AlphaGo, Alph motor contrtor cont ! Not enougNot enoug n hhour-our-llongon ,000,000,000,000 haZhaZ APPENDIX A: SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS 265 abstract plan and the refinement of the GetVisa step into a three- step subplan. When the time comes to begin carrying out the plan, its ini- tial steps have to be refined all the way down to the primitive level so that your body can execute them. AlphaGo simply cannot do this kind of thinking: the only actions it ever considers are primitive actions occurring in a sequence from the initial state. It has no notion of abstract plan . Trying to apply Al- phaGo in the real world is like trying to write a novel by wondering whether the first letter should be A, B, C, and so on. In 1962, Herbert Simon emphasized the importance of hierarchi- cal organization in a famous paper , The Architecture of Complex - ity. 4 AI researchers since the early 1970s have developed a variety of methods that construct and refine hierarchically organized plans.5 Some of the resulting systems are able to construct plans with tens of millions of stepsfor example, to organize manufacturing activities in a large factory. We now have a pretty good theoretical understanding of the mean- ing of abstract actions that is, of how to define the effects they have on the world. 6 Consider, for example, the abstract action GoToBerke- ley in figure 17. It can be implemented in many different ways, each of which produces different effects on the world: you could sail there, stow away on a ship, fly to Canada and walk across the border, hire a ChooseAdvisor GetFunding ChooseVisaType GetDocuments SubmitApplicationGetVisa GoToBerkeley DoResearch WriteThesis FIGURE $QDEVWUDFWSODQIRUDQRYHUVHDVVWXGHQWZKRKDVFKRVHQWR JHWD 3K'DW%HUNHOH\7KH*HW9LVDVWHSZKRVHIHDVLELOLW\LVXQFHUWD LQKDVEHHQ H[SDQGHGRXWLQWRDQDEVWUDFWSODQRILWVRZQ M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 265 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotrbeb tion in a on in a researchersresearcher that cothat cforrld is lis etter shouldtter shoul rt Simont SimoDistributhis kind of tkind of e actions oe actions otion of otion of a ke trke trution ionZKRKDVFKRKRKDVFKR ELOLW\LVXQFHULVXQFHU 266 HUMAN COMPATIBLE private jet, and so on. But you need not consider any of these choices for now. As long as you are sure there is a way to do it that doesnt consume so much time and money or incur so much risk as to imperil the rest of the plan, you can just put the abstract step GoToBerkeley into the plan and rest assured that the plan will work. In this way, we can build high- level plans that will eventually turn into billions or trillions of primitive steps without ever worrying about what those steps are until its time to actually do them. Of course, none of this is possible without the hierarchy. Without high- level actions such as getting a visa and writing a thesis, we cannot make an abstract plan to get a PhD; without still- higher- level actions such as getting a PhD and starting a company, we cannot plan to get a PhD and then start a company. In the real world, we would be lost without a vast library of actions at dozens of levels of abstraction. (In the game of Go, there is no obvious hierarchy of actions, so most of us are lost.) At present, however, all existing methods for hierarchical planning rely on a human- generated hierarchy of abstract and con- crete actions; we do not yet understand how such hierarchies can be learned from experience. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 266 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for e.Distributionhesis, , igher-her-lleveeve we cannot pe cannot p world, we rld, we ns of levels os of levels ierarchy of archy of l existing mexisting m nerated hienerated hi understanundersta Appendix B KNOWLEDGE AND LOGIC Logic is the study of reasoning with definite knowledge. It is fully general with regard to subject matterthat is, the knowledge can be about anything at all. Logic is therefore an indispensable part of our understanding of general purpose intelligence. Logics main requirement is a formal language with precise mean- ings for the sentences in the language, so that there is an unambiguous process for determining whether a sentence is true or false in a given situation. Thats it. Once we have that, we can write sound reasoning algorithms that produce new sentences from sentences that are al-ready known. Those new sentences are guaranteed to follow from the sentences that the system already knows, meaning that the new sen-tences are necessarily true in any situation where the original sentences are true. This allows a machine to answer questions, prove mathemat-ical theorems, or construct plans that are guaranteed to succeed. High- school algebra provides a good example (albeit one that may evoke painful memories). The formal language includes sentences such as 4 x + 1 = 2 y 5. This sentence is true in the situation where x = 5 and y = 13, and false when x = 5 and y = 6. From this sentence one can derive another sentence such as y = 2x + 3, and whenever the first sentence is true, the second is guaranteed to be true too. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 267 8/7/19 11:21 PMNots iti that prodat prod own. Thoseown. Thos s that ths that thforn the lhe ining whethning whe Once wOnce wDistributiondefinite kndefinite kn mattertmattert l. Logic is tLogic is t general purgeneral pu nt is a nt is a formfor ngungu 268 HUMAN COMPATIBLE The core idea of logic, developed independently in ancient India, China, and Greece, is that the same notions of precise meaning and sound reasoning can be applied to sentences about anything at all, not just numbers. The canonical example starts with Socrates is a man and All men are mortal and derives Socrates is mortal. 1 This deri- vation is strictly formal in the sense that it does not rely on any further information about who Socrates is or what man and mortal mean. The fact that logical reasoning is strictly formal means that it is possi-ble to write algorithms that do it. Propositional logic For our purposes in understanding the capabilities and prospects for AI, there are two important kinds of logic that really matter: prop- ositional logic and first- order logic. The difference between the two is fundamental to understanding the current situation in AI and how it is likely to evolve. Lets start with propositional logic, which is the simpler of the two. Sentences are made of just two kinds of things: symbols that stand for propositions that can be true or false, and logical connectives such as and, or, not, and if . . . then. (Well see an example shortly.) These logical connectives are sometimes called Boolean , after George Boole, a nineteenth- century logician who reinvigorated his field with new mathematical ideas. They are just the same as the logic gates used in computer chips. Practical algorithms for reasoning in propositional logic have been known since the early 1960s. 2,3 Although the general reasoning task may require exponential time in the worst case,4 modern proposi- tional reasoning algorithms handle problems with millions of proposi- tion symbols and tens of millions of sentences. They are a core tool for constructing guaranteed logistical plans, verifying chip designs before they are manufactured, and checking the correctness of software ap-plications and security protocols before they are deployed. The amaz- 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 268 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnon connectivonnecti ineteenth-eteenth- ematicaematicaforde of of ns that can ns that can and and ififDistributioncapabilities abilities ogic that reogic that re he differencdifferen e current sicurrent si tional logitional log ust tust APPENDIX B: KNOWLEDGE AND LOGIC 269 ing thing is that a single algorithm a reasoning algorithm for propositional logic solves all these tasks once they have been formu- lated as reasoning tasks. Clearly, this is a step towards the goal of generality in intelligent systems. Unfortunately, its not a very big step because the language of prop- ositional logic is not very expressive. Lets see what this means in prac-tice when we try to express the basic rule for legal moves in Go: The player whose turn it is to move can play a stone on any unoccupied in- tersection. 5 The first step is to decide what the proposition symbols are going to be for talking about Go moves and Go board positions. The fundamental proposition that matters is whether a stone of a particular color is on a particular location at a particular time. So, well need sym-bols such as White_ Stone_ On_ 5_ 5_ At_ Move_ 38 and Black_ Stone_ On_ 5_ 5_ At_ Move_ 38. (Remember that, as with man, mortal , and Socrates , the reasoning algorithm doesnt need to know what the sym- bols mean.) Then the logical condition for White to be able to play at the 5,5 intersection at move 38 would be (not White_ Stone_ On_ 5_ 5_ At_ Move_ 38) and (not Black_ Stone_ On_ 5_ 5_ At_ Move_ 38) In other words: theres no white stone and theres no black stone. That seems simple enough. Unfortunately, in propositional logic it would have to be written out separately for each location and for each move in the game. Because there are 361 locations and around 300 moves per game, this means over 100,000 copies of the rule! For the rules concern-ing captures and repetitions, which involve multiple stones and loca-tions, the situation is even worse, and we quickly fill up millions of pages. The real world is, obviously, much bigger than the Go board: there are far more than 361 locations and 300 time steps, and there are many kinds of things besides stones; so, the prospect of using a prop-ositional language for knowledge of the real world is utterly hopeless. Its not just the ridiculous size of the rulebook thats a problem: its M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 269 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ds: there there mple enougmple enou e writtee writtefor te__StonSto ototBlack_lack_ StonStDistributionrd pop stone of a one of a me. So, weme. So, we ove_3838 an an at, as witht, as with esnt need tnt need t dition for Wtion for W 8 would be8 would b OnOn 270 HUMAN COMPATIBLE also the ridiculous amount of experience a learning system would need to acquire the rules from examples. While a human needs just one or two examples to get the basic ideas of placing a stone, capturing stones, and so on, an intelligent system based on propositional logic has to be shown examples of moving and capturing separately for each location and time step. The system cannot generalize from a few examples, as a human does, because it has no way to express the general rule. This limitation applies not just to systems based on propositional logic but also to any system with comparable expressive power. That includes Bayesian networks, which are probabilistic cousins of propositional logic, and neural networks, which are the basis for the deep learning approach to AI. First- order logic So, the next question is, can we devise a more expressive logical language? Wed like one in which it is possible to tell the rules of Go to the knowledge- based system in the following way: for all locations on the board, and for all time steps, here are the rules . . . First- order logic , introduced by the German mathematician Gottlob Frege in 1879, allows one to write the rules this way.6 The key difference between propositional and first- order logic is this: whereas proposi- tional logic assumes the world is made of propositions that are true or false, first- order logic assumes the world is made of objects that can be related to each other in various ways. For example, there could be loca- tions that are adjacent to each other, times that follow each other con-secutively, stones that are on locations at particular times, and moves that are legal at particular times. First- order logic allows one to assert that some property is true for all objects in the world; so, one can write 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 270 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot logiclogic, intro, intrcc 879, allo879, alloforn the boardn the boarDistributionf prp he deep le deep l we devise a devise a ich it is poich it is p em in the em in the APPENDIX B: KNOWLEDGE AND LOGIC 271 for all time steps t, and for all locations l, and for all colors c, if it is cs turn to move at time t and l is unoccupied at time t, then it is legal for c to play a stone at location l at time t. With some extra caveats and some additional sentences that define the board locations, the two colors, and what unoccupied means, we have the beginnings of the complete rules of Go. The rules take up about as much space in first- order logic as they do in English. The development of logic programming in the late 1970s provided elegant and efficient technology for logical reasoning embodied in a programming language called Prolog. Computer scientists worked out how to make logical reasoning in Prolog run at millions of reasoning steps per second, making many applications of logic practical. In 1982, the Japanese government announced a huge investment in Prolog- based AI called the Fifth Generation project, 7 and the United States and UK responded with similar efforts.8,9 Unfortunately, the Fifth Generation project and others like it ran out of steam in the late 1980s and early 1990s, partly because of the inability of logic to handle uncertain information. They epitomized what soon became a pejorative term: Good Old- Fashioned AI , or GOFAI. 10 It became fashionable to dismiss logic as irrelevant to AI; indeed, many AI researchers working now in the area of deep learning dont know anything about logic. This fashion seems likely to fade: if you accept that the world has objects in it that are related to each other in various ways, then first- order logic is going to be relevant, because it provides the basic mathematics of objects and relations. This view is shared by Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind: 11 You can think about deep learning as it currently is today as the equivalent in the brain to our sensory cortices: our visual cortex or auditory cortex. But, of course, true intelligence is a lot more than just that, you have to recombine it into higher- level thinking and M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 271 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotcam y AI reseaAI rese ow anythingow anythin pt that pt that forandle udle e a pejorat a pejora me fashioe fashioDistributiong em cientists wntists w t millions ot millions o of logic pralogic pr a huge invehuge inve n project,project,77 efforts.orts.8,98,9 Generation Generation 80s and ea80s and e ncerncer 272 HUMAN COMPATIBLE symbolic reasoning, a lot of the things classical AI tried to deal with in the 80s. . . . We would like [these systems] to build up to this symbolic level of reasoning maths, language, and logic. So thats a big part of our work. Thus, one of the most important lessons from the first thirty years of AI research is that a program that knows things, in any useful sense, will need a capacity for representation and reasoning that is at least comparable to that offered by first- order logic. As yet, we do not know the exact form this will take: it may be incorporated into probabilistic reasoning systems, into deep learning systems, or into some still- to- be- invented hybrid design. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 272 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distributionwe d d into probnto prob or into somor into som Appendix C UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY Whereas logic provides a general basis for reasoning with definite knowledge, probability theory encompasses rea-soning with uncertain information (of which definite knowledge is a special case). Uncertainty is the normal epistemic situ-ation of an agent in the real world. Although the basic ideas of proba-bility were developed in the seventeenth century, only recently has it become possible to represent and reason with large probability models in a formal way. The basics of probability Probability theory shares with logic the idea that there are possible worlds. One usually starts out by defining what they arefor exam- ple, if I am rolling one ordinary six-sided die, there are six worlds (sometimes called outcomes ): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Exactly one of them will be the case, but a priori I dont know which. Probability theory as-sumes that it is possible to attach a probability to each world; for my die roll, Ill attach 1/6 to each world. (These probabilities happen to be M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 273 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoteloplo sible to rele to re mal way.mal way.forcase). se) the real wthe real w ed in thed in thDistributions a general a general ge, probabige, probab ncertain ncertain UnceUnce 274 HUMAN COMPATIBLE equal, but it need not be that way; the only requirement is that the probabilities have to add up to 1.) Now I can ask a question such as Whats the probability Ill roll an even number? To find this, I sim-ply add up the probabilities for the three worlds where the number is even: 1/6 + 1/6 + 1/6 = . Its also straightforward to take new evidence into account. Sup- pose an oracle tells me that the roll is a prime number (that is, 2, 3, or 5). This rules out the worlds 1, 4, and 6. I simply take the probabilities associated with the remaining possible worlds and scale them up so the total remains 1. Now the probabilities of 2, 3, and 5 are each 1/3, and the probability that my roll is an even number is now just 1/3, since 2 is the only remaining even roll. This process of updating probabili-ties as new evidence arrives is an example of Bayesian updating. So, this probability stuff seems quite simple! Even a computer can add up numbers, so whats the problem? The problem comes when there are more than a few worlds. For example, if I roll the die one hundred times, there are 6 100 outcomes. Its infeasible to begin the pro- cess of probabilistic reasoning by attaching a number to each of these outcomes individually. A clue for dealing with this complexity comes from the fact that the die rolls are independent if the die is known to be fairthat is, the outcome of any single roll does not affect the proba-bilities for the outcomes of any other roll. Thus, independence is help-ful in structuring the probabilities for complex sets of events. Suppose I am playing Monopoly with my son George. My piece is on Just Visiting, and George owns the yellow set whose properties are s i x t e e n , s e v e n t e e n , a n d n i n e t e e n s q u a r e s a w a y f r o m J u s t V i s i t i n g . Should he buy houses for the yellow set now, so that I have to pay him some exorbitant rent if I land on those squares, or should he wait until the next turn? That depends on the probability of landing on the yel-low set in my current turn. Here are the rules for rolling the dice in Monopoly: two dice are rolled and the piece is moved according to the total shown; if doubles 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 274 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotouo e outcomeutcome cturing thecturing th se I am se I amforA clueclu e die rolls ae die rolls tcome ocome oDistributiond 5 a s now just now just of updatingf updating f Bayesian uyesian u simple! Eveimple! Eve lem? The pm? The s. For examFor exam utcomes. Itutcomes. I g by attacg by attac for dfor d APPENDIX C: UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY 275 are rolled, the player rolls again and moves again; if the second roll is doubles, the player rolls a third time and moves again (but if the third roll is doubles, the player goes to jail instead). So, for example, I might roll 4- 4 followed by 5- 4, totaling 17; or 2- 2, then 2- 2, then 6- 2, total- ing 16. As before, I simply add up the probabilities of all worlds where I land on the yellow set. Unfortunately, there are a lot of worlds. As many as six dice could be rolled altogether, so the number of worlds runs into the thousands. Furthermore, the rolls are no longer indepen-dent, because the second roll wont exist unless the first roll is dou-bles. On the other hand, if we fix the values of the first pair of dice, then the values of the second pair of dice are independent. Is there a way to capture this kind of dependency? Bayesian networks In the early 1980s, Judea Pearl proposed a formal language called Bayesian networks (often abbreviated to Bayes nets) that makes it pos- sible, in many real- world situations, to represent the probabilities of a very large number of outcomes in a very concise form.1 Figure 18 shows a Bayesian network that describes the rolling of dice in Monopoly. The only probabilities that have to be supplied are the 1/6 probabilities of the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 for the individual die rolls ( D1, D2, etc.) that is, thirty- six numbers instead of thousands. Explaining the exact meaning of the network requires a little bit of mathematics,2 but the basic idea is that the arrows denote dependency relationshipsfor example, the value of Doubles12 depends on the val- ues of D1 and D2. Similarly, the values of D3 and D4 (the next roll of the two dice) depend on Doubles12 because if Doubles12 has value false, then D3 and D4 have value 0 (that is, there is no next roll). Just as with propositional logic, there are algorithms that can an- swer any question for any Bayesian network with any evidence. For example, we can ask for the probability of LandsOnYellowSet , which M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 275 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotly. y bilities oflities of DD2, etc.), etc.) ng the eng the eforutcomco s a Bayesias a Bayesi The onlThe onlDistributionirst pp ependent. endent. rl proposedproposed eviated to Beviated to tuations, ttuations, t es ines in 276 HUMAN COMPATIBLE turns out to be about 3.88 percent. (This means that George can wait before buying houses for the yellow set.) Slightly more ambitiously, we can ask for the probability of LandsOnYellowSet given that the second roll is a double- 3. The algorithm works out for itself that, in that case, the first roll must have been a double and concludes that the answer is about 36.1 percent. This is an example of Bayesian updating: when the new evidence (that the second roll is a double- 3) is added, the probability of LandsOnYellowSet changes from 3.88 percent to 36.1 FIGURE $%D\HVLDQQHWZRUNWKDWUHSUHVHQWVWKHUXOHVIRUUROOLQJGL FHLQ 0RQRSRO\DQGHQDEOHVDQDOJRULWKPWRFDOFXODWHWKHSUREDELOLW\ RIODQGLQJRQD particular set of squares (such as the yellow set) starting from some other VTXDUH VXFKDV-XVW9LVLWLQJ )RUVLPSOLFLW\WKHQHWZRUNRP LWVWKHSRVVLELOLW\ RIODQGLQJRQD&KDQFHRU&RPPXQLW\&KHVWVTXDUHDQGEHLQJGLYH UWHGWRD GLIIHUHQWORFDWLRQ D 1DQG D2 UHSUHVHQWWKHLQLWLDOUROORIWZRGLFHDQGWKH\ DUHLQGHSHQGHQW QROLQNEHWZHHQWKHP ,IGRXEOHVDUHUROOHG Doubles12 WKHQ WKHSOD\HUUROOVDJDLQVR DDQG D4KDYHQRQ]HURYDOXHVDQGVRRQ,QWKHVLW - XDWLRQGHVFULEHGWKHSOD\HUODQGVRQWKH\HOORZVHWLIDQ\RI WKHWKUHHWRWDOVLV RU Total12 Total1234 LandOn YellowSetDoubles12 Doubles34 Doubles56Total123456 GoToJailD1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 276 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot tJDL HGWKHSWKH for &R QGDD2 2 UHS OLQNEHWZHHQLQNEHWZHHQ VRVRDDDQGDQ D\H\HDistributionribHSUHVHQWVWKHSUHVHQWVWKH RFDOFXODWHWKDOFXODWHWK s the yellow s the yellow RUVLPSOLFLW\RUVLPSOLFLW PXQLW\&PXQLW\ APPENDIX C: UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY 277 percent. Similarly, the probability that I roll three times ( Doubles34 is true) is 2.78 percent, while the probability that I roll three times given that I land on the yellow set is 20.44 percent. Bayesian networks provide a way to build knowledge- based sys- tems that avoids the failures that plagued the rule- based expert sys- tems of the 1980s. (Indeed, had the AI community been less resistant to probability in the early 1980s, it might have avoided the AI winter that followed the rule- based expert system bubble.) Thousands of ap- plications have been fielded, in areas ranging from medical diagnosis to terrorism prevention. 3 Bayesian networks provide machinery for representing the neces- sary probabilities and performing the calculations to implement Bayesian updating for many complex tasks. Like propositional logic, however, they are quite limited in their ability to represent general knowledge. In many applications, the Bayesian network representa-tion becomes very large and repetitivefor example, just as the rules of Go have to be repeated for every square in propositional logic, the probability- based rules of Monopoly have to be repeated for every player, for every location a player might be on, and for every move in the game. Such huge networks are virtually impossible to create by hand; instead, one would have to resort to code written in a traditional language such as C++ to generate and piece together multiple Bayes net fragments. While this is practical as an engineering solution for a specific problem, it is an obstacle to generality because the C++ code has to be written anew by a human expert for each application. First- order probabilistic languages It turns out, fortunately, that we can combine the expressiveness of first- order logic with the ability of Bayesian networks to capture probabilistic information concisely. This combination gives us the best of both worlds: probabilistic knowledge- based systems are able to M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 277 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotne ne ch as C++as C++ ments. Whiments. Wh problemproblemforon a pa uge networkge netwo would hwould hDistributionresenting tenting t ulations to lations to s. Like propike pro ir ability tor ability to he BayesianBayesia titivefor tivefor r every squar every squ MonopolyMonopol ayerayer 278 HUMAN COMPATIBLE handle a much wider range of real- world situations than either logical methods or Bayesian networks. For example, we can easily capture probabilistic knowledge about genetic inheritance: for all persons c, f, and m, if f is the father of c and m is the mother of c and both f and m have blood type AB, then c has blood type AB with probability 0.5. The combination of first- order logic and probability actually gives us much more than just a way to express uncertain information about lots of objects. The reason is that when we add uncertainty to worlds containing objects, we get two new kinds of uncertainty: not just un-certainty about which facts are true or false but also uncertainty about what objects exist and uncertainty about which objects are which. These kinds of uncertainty are completely pervasive. The world does not come with a list of characters, like a Victorian play; instead, you gradually learn about the existence of objects from observation. Sometimes the knowledge of new objects can be fairly definite, as when you open your hotel window and see the basilica of Sacr- Cur for the first time; or it can be quite indefinite, as when you feel a gen- tle rumble that might be an earthquake or a passing subway train. And while the identity of Sacr- Cur is quite unambiguous, the identity of subway trains is not: you might ride the same physical train hun- dreds of times without ever realizing its the same one. Sometimes we dont need to resolve the uncertainty: I dont usually name all the to- matoes in a bag of cherry tomatoes and keep track of how well each one is doing, unless perhaps I am recording the progress of a tomato putrefaction experiment. For a class full of graduate students, on the other hand, I try my best to keep track of their identities. (Once, there were two research assistants in my group who had the same first and last names and were of very similar appearance and worked on closely related topics; at least, I am fairly sure there were two.) The problem 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 278 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot; oro at might bmight b identity of identity o trains trains forwledgeedg hotel windhotel win it can bit can bDistributiony act informatiformati uncertaintyuncertaint uncertaintcertain se but also se but also about whicout whic mpletely pepletely p ters, like a ters, like istence of stence of of neof n APPENDIX C: UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY 279 is that we directly perceive not the identity of objects but (aspects of) their appearance ; objects do not usually have little license plates that uniquely identify them. Identity is something our minds sometimes attach to objects for our own purposes. The combination of probability theory with an expressive formal language is a fairly new subfield of AI, often called probabilistic pro- gramming . 4 Several dozen probabilistic programming languages, or PPLs, ha v e been dev eloped, man y of th em deriving th eir expressiv e power from ordinary programming languages rather than first- order logic. All PPL systems have the capacity to represent and reason with complex, uncertain knowledge. Applications include Microsofts TrueSkill system, which rates millions of video game players every day; models for aspects of human cognition that were previously inexplicable by any mechanistic hypothesis, such as the ability to learn new visual c a t e g o r i e s o f o b j e c t s f r o m s i n g l e e x a m p l e s ; 5 and the global seismic monitoring for the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test- Ban Treaty (CTBT), which is responsible for detecting clandestine nuclear explosions.6 The CTBT monitoring system collects real- time ground move- ment data from a global network of over 150 seismometers and aims to identify all the seismic events occurring on Earth above a certain magnitude and to flag the suspicious ones. Clearly there is plenty of existence uncertainty in this problem, because we dont know in ad-vance the events that will occur; moreover, the vast majority of signals in the data are just noise. There is also lots of identity uncertainty: a blip of seismic energy detected at station A in Antarctica may or may not come from the same event as another blip detected at station B in Brazil. Listening to the Earth is like listening to thousands of simulta-neous conversations that have been scrambled by transmission delays and echoes and drowned out by crashing waves. How do we solve this problem using probabilistic programming? One might think we need some very clever algorithms to sort out all the possibilities. In fact, by following the methodology of knowledge- based systems, we dont have to devise any new algorithms at all. We M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 279 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotto to ncertaintyertainty e events thae events th ta are juta are jforal netwne seismic eveeismic ev flag the lag theDistributionand nclude Mclude M game playergame playe were previou previo the ability the ability xamples;mples;55 a a ve NNuclear-uclear- ting clandeting cland system csystem workwork 280 HUMAN COMPATIBLE simply use a PPL to express what we know of geophysics: how often events tend to occur in areas of natural seismicity, how fast seismic waves travel through the Earth and how quickly they decay, how sen-sitive the detectors are, and how much noise there is. Then we add the data and run a probabilistic reasoning algorithm. The resulting moni- toring system, called NET-VISA, has been operating as part of the treaty verification regime since 2018. Figure 19 shows NET- VISA s detection of a 2013 nuclear test in North Korea. Keeping track of the world One of the most important roles for probabilistic reasoning is in keeping track of parts of the world that are not directly observable. In FIGURE /RFDWLRQHVWLPDWHVIRUWKH)HEUXDU\QXFOHDUWHVW FDUULHG out by the government of North Korea. The tunnel entrance (black cross at ORZHUFHQWHU ZDVLGHQWLILHGLQVDWHOOLWHSKRWRJUDSKV7KH 1(79,6$ORFDWLRQ HVWLPDWHLVDSSUR[LPDWHO\PHWHUVIURPWKHWXQQHOHQWUDQFHD QGLVEDVHG SULPDULO\RQGHWHFWLRQVDWVWDWLRQVWRNLORPHWHUV DZD\7KH CTBTO LEB location is the consensus estimate from expert geophysicists. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 280 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotccucc hrough through t detectors ardetectors a un a proun a prforexpress whexpress w r in arein areDistributio butU\Q\Q he tunnel enttunnel en SKRWRJUDSKVKRWRJUDSKV UVIURPWKHWXURPWKHW RQVWRQVWR sensus estimsensus esti APPENDIX C: UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY 281 most video and board games, this is unnecessary because all the relevant information is observable, but in the real world this is seldom the case. An example is given by one of the first serious accidents involving a self- driving car. It occurred on South McClintock Drive at East Don Carlos Avenue in Tempe, Arizona, on March 24, 2017 .7 As shown in figure 20, a self-driving Volvo (V), going south on McClintock, is ap- proaching an intersection where the traffic light is just turning yellow. The Volvos lane is clear, so it proceeds at the same speed through the intersection. Then a currently invisible vehicle the Honda (H) in figure 20appears from behind the queue of stopped traffic and a collision ensues. To infer the possible presence of the invisible Honda, the Volvo could gather clues as it approaches the intersection. In particular, the traffic in the other two lanes is stopped even though the light is green; the cars at the front of the queue are not inching forward into the in-tersection and have their brake lights on. This is not conclusive evi- dence of an invisible left turner but it doesnt need to be; even a small FIGURE OHIW 'LDJUDPRIWKHVLWXDWLRQOHDGLQJXSWRWKHDFFLGHQW 7KHVHOI GULYLQJ9ROYRPDUNHG9LVDSSURDFKLQJDQLQWHUVHFWLRQGULYLQ JLQWKHULJKWPRVW ODQHDWWKLUW\HLJKWPLOHVSHUKRXU7UDIILFLQWKHRWKHUWZRODQHVLVVWRSSHG DQG WKHWUDIILFOLJKW / LVWXUQLQJ\HOORZ,QYLVLEOHWRWKH9ROYR D+RQGD + LVPDN - LQJDOHIWWXUQ ULJKW DIWHUPDWKRIWKHDFFLGHQW M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 281 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotddr n intersectntersec vos lane is cvos lane is ion. Thion. Thforcurredrre Tempe, AriTempe, Ar ving Voving VoDistributis unnecessaunnecessa in the real in the rea one of theone of th on Son StionnDFFLGHQW7LGHQW7 GULYLQJLQWKHUULYLQJLQWKH UWZRODQHVLVZRODQHVLV H9ROYRD+ROYRD+R 282 HUMAN COMPATIBLE probability is enough to suggest slowing down and entering the inter- section more cautiously. The moral of this story is that intelligent agents operating in par- tially observable environments have to keep track of what they cant see to the extent possible based on clues from what they can see. Heres another example closer to home: Where are your keys? Unless you happen to be driving while reading this book not recommended you probably cannot see them right now. On the other hand, you probably know where they are: in your pocket, in your bag, on the bedside table, in the pocket of your coat which is hanging up, or maybe on the hook in the kitchen. You know this be-cause you put them there and they havent moved since. This is a simple example of using knowledge and reasoning to keep track of the state of the world. Without this capability, we would be lost often quite literally. For example, as I write this, I am looking at the white wall of a nondescript hotel room. Where am I? If I had to rely on my current perceptual in-put, I would indeed be lost. In fact, I know that I am in Zrich, because I arrived in Zrich yesterday and I havent left. Like humans, robots need to know where they are so that they can navigate successfully through rooms, buildings, streets, forests, and deserts. In AI we use the term belief state to refer to an agents current knowledge of the state of the world however incomplete and uncer- tain it may be. Generally, the belief state rather than the current perceptual input is the proper basis for making decisions about what to do. Keeping the belief state up to date is a core activity for any in- telligent agent. For some parts of the belief state, this happens auto-m a t i c a l l y f o r e x a m p l e , I j u s t s e e m t o k n o w t h a t I m i n Z r i c h , without having to think about it. For other parts, it happens on de-mand, so to speak. For example, when I wake up in a new city with severe jet lag, halfway through a long trip, I may have to make a con-scious effort to reconstruct where I am, what I am supposed to be 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 282 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot builu use the e the e of the state of the sta y be. Gy be. Gforerday day e they are e they are dings, stdings, stDistributionr coa You knowou know moved sinceoved since oning to keng to ke be llostost ooff ng at the what the w ad to rely oad to rely n fact, I knn fact, I k nd Ind APPENDIX C: UNCERTAINTY AND PROBABILITY 283 doing, and why a bit like a laptop rebooting itself, I suppose. Keeping track doesnt mean always knowing exactly the state of everything in the world. Obviously this is impossible for example, I have no idea who is occupying the other rooms in my nondescript hotel in Zrich, let alone the present locations and activities of most of the eight billion people on Earth. I havent the faintest idea whats happening in the rest of the universe beyond the solar system. My uncertainty about the current state of affairs is both massive and inevitable. The basic method for keeping track of an uncertain world is Bayes- ian updating . Algorithms for doing this usually have two steps: a pre- diction step, where the agent predicts the current state of the world given its most recent action, and then an update step, where it receives new perceptual input and updates its beliefs accordingly. To illustrate how this works, consider the problem a robot faces in figuring out where it is. Figure 21(a) illustrates a typical case: The robot is in the middle of a room, with some uncertainty about its exact location, and wants to go through the door. It commands its wheels to move 1.5 meters towards the door; unfortunately, its wheels are old and wobbly, so the robots prediction about where it ends up is quite uncertain, as shown in figure 21 (b ). If it tried to keep moving now , it might well crash. Fortunately, it has a sonar device to measure the distance to the doorposts. As figure 21(c) shows, the measurements suggest the robot is about 70 centimeters from the left doorpost and 85 centimeters from the right. Finally, the robot updates its belief state by combining the prediction in (b) with the measurements in (c) to obtain the new belief state in figure 21(d). The algorithm for keeping track of the belief state can be applied to handle not just uncertainty about location but also uncertainty about the map itself. This results in a technique called SLAM (simul-taneous localization and mapping). SLAM is a core component of many AI applications, ranging from augmented reality systems to self-driving cars and planetary rovers. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 283 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotely,ly As figure 2figure 2 70 centime70 centim right. Fright. Fforon aboab (b ). If it tr(b ). If it t it has a t has a Distributiontwo s t state of state of e step, wherstep, wher fs accordingccordin a robot faca robot fa a typical casypical ca ertainty abtainty ab or. It commr. It com nfortunatenfortunat tw htw h 284 HUMAN COMPATIBLE FIGURE $URERWWU\LQJWRPRYHWKURXJKDGRRUZD\ D 7KHLQLWLDOE HOLHI VWDWH WKHURERWLVVRPHZKDWXQFHUWDLQRILWVORFDWLRQ LWWULH VWRPRYHPH - WHUVWRZDUGVWKHGRRU E 7KHSUHGLFWLRQVWHS WKHURERWHVWLP DWHVWKDWLWLV FORVHUWRWKHGRRUEXWLVTXLWHXQFHUWDLQDERXWWKHGLUHFWLRQL WDFWXDOO\PRYHG EHFDXVHLWVPRWRUVDUHROGDQGLWVZKHHOVZREEO\ F 7KHURERW PHDVXUHVWKH GLVWDQFHWRHDFKGRRUSRVWXVLQJD SRRUTXDOLW\VRQDUGHYLFH WKHHVWLPDWHVDUH FHQWLPHWHUVIURPWKHOHIWGRRUSRVWDQGFHQWLPHWHUVIURPW KHULJKW G 7KHXSGDWHVWHS FRPELQLQJWKHSUHGLFWLRQLQ E ZLWKWKHREVHU YDWLRQLQ F JLYHVWKHQHZEHOLHIVWDWH1RZWKHURERWKDVDSUHWW\JRRGLGH DRIZKHUHLWLV DQGZLOOQHHGWRFRUUHFWLWVFRXUVHDELWWRJHWWKURXJKWKHGR RU 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 284 8/7/19 11:21 PMfor DistributionKHLQLWLQLW VWRPRYHPRYH RWHVWLPDWHVWHVWLPDWHV UHFWLRQLWDFWXWLRQLWDFWX F 7KHURER7KHURER VRQDUGHYLFHVRQDUGHYLFH FHQWLPHWHFHQWLPHW WLRQLQ E ZLRQLQ E ZL RERWKDVDSURWKDVDSU HDELWWRJHWWHDELWWRJHW Appendix D LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE Learning means improving performance based on experience. For a visual perception system, that might mean learning to recog-nize more categories of objects based on seeing examples of those categories; for a knowledge-based system, simply acquiring more knowledge is a form of learning, because it means the system can an-swer more questions; for a lookahead decision- making system such as AlphaGo, learning could mean improving its ability to evaluate posi-tions or improving its ability to explore useful parts of the tree of possibilities. Learning from examples The most common form of machine learning is called supervised learning. A supervised learning algorithm is given a collection of train-ing examples, each labeled with the correct output, and must produce a hypothesis as to what the correct rule is. Typically, a supervised learning system seeks to optimize the agreement between the hypoth-esis and the training examples. Often there is also a penalty for hy- potheses that are more complicated than necessary as recommended by Ockhams razor. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 285 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot vingin ingingforfor a loa l could meacould me its abilits abiDistributionance based nce based at might mmight m cts based ons based on based systased sy ning, becaning, bec kahkah 286 HUMAN COMPATIBLE Lets illustrate this for the problem of learning the legal moves in Go. (If you already know the rules of Go, then at least this will b e e a s y t o f o l l o w ; i f n o t , t h e n y o u l l b e b e tt e r a b l e t o s y m p a t h i z e with the learning program.) Suppose the algorithm starts with the hypothesis for all time steps t, and for all locations l, it is legal to play a stone at location l at time t. It is Blacks turn to move in the position shown in figure 22. The algo- rithm tries A: thats fine. B and C too. Then it tries D, on top of an existing white piece: thats illegal. (In chess or backgammon, it would be fine thats how pieces are captured.) The move at E, on top of a black piece, is also illegal. (Illegal in chess too, but legal in backgam- mon.) Now, from these five training examples, the algorithm might propose the following hypothesis: for all time steps t, and for all locations l, if l is unoccupied at time t, then it is legal to play a stone at location l at time t. Then it tries F and finds to its surprise that F is illegal. After a few false starts, it settles on the following:C F BG D E AFIGURE /HJDODQGLOOHJDOPRYHVLQ*R PRYHV$%DQG&DUHOHJDOIRU%ODFNZKLOHPRYHV'(DQG)DUHLOOHJDO0RYH*PLJKWRUPLJKWQRWEHOHJDOGHSHQGLQJRQZKDWKDVKDSSHQHGSUHYLRXVO\LQWKHgame. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 286 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoteceec s how pihow pi e, is also ille, is also i w, fromw, fromfore in thn t fine. B anfine. B a thats ithats iDistributionhe le n at least at least e r a b l e t o sr able to s algorithm strithm s all locationsocations a stone at la stone at pospos APPENDIX D: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 287 for all time steps t, and for all locations l, if l is unoccupied at time t and l is not surrounded by opponent stones, then it is legal to play a stone at location l at time t. (This is sometimes called the no suicide rule.) Finally, it tries G, which in this case turns out to be legal. After scratching its head for a while and perhaps trying a few more experiments, it settles on the hypothesis that G is OK, even though it is surrounded, because it captures the white stone at D and therefore becomes un- surrounded immediately. As you can see from the gradual progression of rules, learning takes place by a sequence of modifications to the hypothesis so as to fit the observed examples. This is something a learning algorithm can do eas-ily. Machine learning researchers have designed all sorts of ingenious algorithms for finding good hypotheses quickly. Here the algorithm is searching in the space of logical expressions representing Go rules, but the hypotheses could also be algebraic expressions representing phys-ical laws, probabilistic Bayesian networks representing diseases and symptoms, or even computer programs representing the complicated behavior of some other machine. A second important point is that even good hypotheses can be wrong : in fact, the hypothesis given above is wrong, ev en after fixing it to ensure that G is legal. It needs to include the ko or no- repetition rule for example, if White had just captured a black stone at G by playing at D, Black may not recapture by playing at G, since that produces the same position again. Notice that this rule is a radical departure from what the program has learned so far, because it means that legality cannot be determined from the current position; instead, one also has to remember previous positions. The Scottish philosopher David Hume pointed out in 1748 that inductive reasoningthat is, reasoning from particular observations to M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 287 8/7/19 11:21 PMNote oe d importanmporta he hypothehe hypoth hat G is hat G is forc BayeBay computer compute ther maher maDistributions un n of rules, leof rules, le hypothesispothesi learning algearning alg ve designeddesigne theses quiceses quic al expressioal express be algebraibe algebra ian nian 288 HUMAN COMPATIBLE general principles can never be guaranteed.1 In the modern theory of statistical learning, we ask not for guarantees of perfect correctness but only for a guarantee that the hypothesis found is probably approx- imately correct . 2 A learning algorithm can be unlucky and see an un- representative sample for example, it might never try a move like G, thinking it to be illegal. It can also fail to predict some weird edge cases, such as the ones covered by some of the more complicated and rarely invoked forms of the no- repetition rule.3 B u t, as l o n g as th e universe exhibits some degree of regularity, its very unlikely that the algorithm could produce a seriously bad hypothesis, because such a hypothesis would very probably have been found out by one of the experiments. Deep learning the technology causing all the hullabaloo about AI in the media is primarily a form of supervised learning. It rep- resents one of the most significant advances in AI in recent decades, so its worth understanding how it works. Moreover, some researchers believe it will lead to human- level AI systems within a few years, so its a good idea to assess whether thats likely to be true. Its easiest to understand deep learning in the context of a particu- lar task, such as learning to distinguish giraffes and llamas. Given some labeled photographs of each, the learning algorithm has to form a hypothesis that allows it to classify unlabeled images. An image is, from the computers point of view, nothing but a large table of num-bers, with each number corresponding to one of three RGB values for one pixel of the image. So, instead of a Go hypothesis that takes a board position and a move as input and decides whether the move is legal, we need a giraffe llama hypothesis that takes a table of numbers as input and predicts a category (giraffe or llama). Now the question is, what sort of hypothesis? Over the last fifty- odd years of computer vision research, many approaches have been tried. The current favorite is a deep convolutional network . Let me un- pack this: Its called a network because it represents a complex mathe- matical expression composed in a regular way from many smaller 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 288 8/7/19 11:21 PMNototogt that allowat allow computers computer each nueach nfortand dnd arning to darning to graphs oraphs oDistributionbeca out by onut by on all the huthe hu f supervisedsupervised vances in AInces in A works. Mororks. Mor evel AI sysevel AI sy ther thatther that ep lep l APPENDIX D: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 289 subexpressions, and the compositional structure has the form of a net- work. (Such networks are often called neural networks because their designers draw inspiration from the networks of neurons in the brain.) Its called convolutional because thats a fancy mathematical way to say that the network structure repeats itself in a fixed pattern across the whole input image. And its called deep because such networks typi- cally have many layers, and also because it sounds impressive and slightly spooky. A simplified example (simplified because real networks may have hundreds of layers and millions of nodes) is shown in figure 23. The network is really a picture of a complex, adjustable mathematical ex-pression. Each node in the network corresponds to a simple adjustable expression, as illustrated in the figure. Adjustments are made by chang- ing the weights on each input, as indicated by the volume controls. The FIGURE OHIW $VLPSOLILHGGHSLFWLRQRIDGHHSFRQYROXWLRQDOQHWZR UNIRU UHFRJQL]LQJREMHFWVLQLPDJHV7KHLPDJHSL[HOYDOXHVDUHIHGL QDWWKHOHIWDQG WKHQHWZRUNRXWSXWVYDOXHVDWWKHWZRULJKWPRVWQRGHVLQGLFDWL QJKRZOLNHO\ the image is to be a llama or a giraffe. Notice how the pattern of local connec-WLRQVLQGLFDWHGE\WKHGDUNOLQHVLQWKHILUVWOD\HUUHSHDWV DFURVVWKHZKROH OD\HU ULJKW RQHRIWKHQRGHVLQWKHQHWZRUN7KHUHLVDQDGM XVWDEOHZHLJKWRQ HDFKLQFRPLQJYDOXHVRWKDWWKHQRGHSD\VPRUHRUOHVVDWWHQWLR QWRLW7KHQ the total incoming signal goes through a gating function that allows large signals through but suppresses small ones. llama giraffe M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 289 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot be a e a WHGE\WKHE\WKH KW RQHRIWKHW RQHRIWKH FRPLQJYDOXFRPLQJYDOX incomiincoforOLILHGHG LPDJHV7KHDJHV7 WVYDOXHVDWWVYDOXHVDWW ama or ama or GDisDHSLFWLRHSLFWLR utibugiraffe 290 HUMAN COMPATIBLE weighted sum of the inputs is then passed through a gating function before reaching the output side of the node; typically, the gating func-tion suppresses small values and allows larger ones through. Learning takes place in the network simply by adjusting all the volume control knobs to reduce the prediction error on the labeled examples. Its as simple as that: no magic, no especially ingenious algo-rithms. Working out which way to turn the knobs to decrease the er-ror is a straightforward application of calculus to compute how changing each weight would change the error at the output layer. This leads to a simple formula for propagating the error backwards from the output layer to the input layer, tweaking knobs along the way. Miraculously, the process works. For the task of recognizing ob- jects in photographs, deep learning algorithms have demonstrated re-markable performance. The first inkling of this came in the 2012 ImageNet competition, which provides training data consisting of 1.2 million labeled images in one thousand categories, and then requires the algorithm to label one hundred thousand new images. 4 Geoff Hin- ton, a British computational psychologist who was at the forefront of the first neural network revolution in the 1980s, had been experi-menting with a very large deep convolutional network: 650,000 nodes and 60 million parameters. He and his group at the University of To-ronto achieved an ImageNet error rate of 15 percent, a dramatic im-provement on the previous best of 26 percent. 5 By 20 1 5 , dozens of teams were using deep learning methods and the error rate was down to 5 percent, comparable to that of a human who had spent weeks learning to recognize the thousand categories in the test. 6 By 2017, the machine error rate was 2 percent. Over roughly the same period, there have been comparable im- provements in speech recognition and machine translation based on similar methods. Taken together, these are three of the most import-ant application areas for AI. Deep learning has also played an import-ant role in applications of reinforcement learningfor example, in 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 290 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotaraar d an Imaan Ima t on the prt on the p e using e usingforrk revorev large deep large deep meters. meters. Distributionackw along the ong the ask of recogsk of recog ms have demhave de g of this cg of this c es training training usand categand categ dred thousadred thou psychologpsycholo utioutio APPENDIX D: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 291 learning the evaluation function that AlphaGo uses to estimate the desirability of possible future positions, and in learning controllers for complex robotic behaviors. As yet, we have very little understanding as to why deep learning works as well as it does. Possibly the best explanation is that deep net-works are deep: because they have many layers, each layer can learn a fairly simple transformation from its inputs to its outputs, while many such simple transformations add up to the complex transformation re-quired to go from a photograph to a category label. In addition, deep n e tw o r ks f o r v i s i o n h a v e b uil t - in structure that enforces translation invariance and scale invariance meaning that a dog is a dog no matter where it appears in the image and no matter how big it appears in the image. Another important property of deep networks is that they often seem to discover internal representations that capture elementary fea-tures of images, such as eyes, stripes, and simple shapes. None of these features are built in. We know they are there because we can experi-ment with the trained network and see what kinds of data cause the internal nodes (typically those close to the output layer) to light up. In fact, it is possible to run the learning algorithm a different way so that it adjusts the image itself to produce a stronger response at chosen internal nodes. Repeating this process many times produces what are now known as deep dreaming or inceptionism images, such as the one in figure 24. 7 Inceptionism has become an art form in itself, producing images unlike any human art. For all their remarkable achievements, deep learning systems as we currently understand them are far from providing a basis for generally intelligent systems. Their principal weakness is that they are circuits ; they are cousins of propositional logic and Bayesian networks, which, for all their wonderful properties, also lack the ability to express com-plex forms of knowledge in a concise way. This means that deep networks operating in native mode require vast amounts of circuitry M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 291 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotmagm es. Repea. Repea wn as n as deep ddeep 77 Incep Incep kkforly thostho o run the le run the l e itself e itself Distributionorce og is a dog is a dog ow big it apw big it ap p networksp networks tions that cans that c pes, and sims, and sim w they are tw they are work and swork and cloclo 292 HUMAN COMPATIBLE to represent fairly simple kinds of general knowledge. That, in turn, implies vast numbers of weights to learn and hence a need for unreason- able numbers of examples more than the universe could ever supply. Some argue that the brain is also made of circuits, with neurons as the circuit elements; therefore, circuits can support human- level in- telligence. This is true, but only in the same sense that brains are made of atoms: atoms can indeed support human- level intelligence, but that doesnt mean that just collecting together lots of atoms will produce intelligence. The atoms have to be arranged in certain ways. By the same token, the circuits have to be arranged in certain ways. Comput-ers are also made of circuits, both in their memories and in their processing units; but those circuits have to be arranged in certain ways, and layers of software have to be added, before the computer can support the operation of high- level programming languages and logical reasoning systems. At present, however, there is no sign that deep learning systems can develop such capabilities by themselves nor does it make scientific sense to require them to do so. FIGURE $QLPDJHJHQHUDWHGE\*RRJOHV'HHS'UHDPVRIWZDUH 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 292 8/7/19 11:21 PMNots trt ms can indcan ind ean that juean that ju e. The e. The hhforbrain rai ; therefore; therefor ue, but oe, but oDistributf general kngeneral k s to learn ans to learn a mmore thanore than sa l ssa l sution tio'UHDPVRIWZHDPVRIWZ APPENDIX D: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 293 There are further reasons to think that deep learning may reach a plateau well short of general intelligence, but its not my purpose here to diagnose all the problems: others, both inside 8 and outside9 the deep learning community, have noted many of them. The point is that simply creating larger and deeper networks and larger data sets and bigger machines is not enough to create human- level AI. We have al- ready seen (in Appendix B) DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabiss view that higher- level thinking and symbolic reasoning are essential for AI. Another prominent deep learning expert, Franois Chollet, put it this way: 10 Many more applications are completely out of reach for current deep learning techniques even given vast amounts of human- annotated data. . . . We need to move away from straightforward input- to- output mappings, and on to reasoning and abstraction. Learning from thinking Whenever you find yourself having to think about something, its because you dont already know the answer. When someone asks for the number of your brand- new cell phone, you probably dont know it. You think to yourself, OK, I dont know it; so how do I find it? Not being a slave to the cell phone, you dont know how to find it. You think to yourself, How do I figure out how to find it? You have a generic answer to this: Probably they put it somewhere thats easy for users to find. (Of course, you could be wrong about this.) Obvious places would be at the top of the home screen (not there), inside the Phone app, or in Settings for that app. You try Settings>Phone, and there it is. The next time you are asked for your number, you either know it or you know exactly how to get it. You remember the procedure, not just for this phone on this occasion but for all similar phones on all occasionsthat is, you store and reuse a generalized solution to the problem. The generalization is justified because you understand that M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 293 8/7/19 11:21 PMNottht urself, Helf, H nswer to thnswer to t find. (Ofind. ( ddfornd--nne elf, OK, I elf, OK, e cell ph cell pDistributionout amounts omounts o y from strafrom stra ning and abg and ab elf having telf having know the know the wc e lwc e l 294 HUMAN COMPATIBLE the specifics of this particular phone and this particular occasion are irrelevant. You would be shocked if the method worked only on Tues-days for phone numbers ending in 17. Go offers a beautiful example of the same kind of learning. In figure 25(a), we see a common situation where Black threatens to cap- ture Whites stone by surrounding it. White attempts to escape by adding stones connected to the original one, but Black continues to cut off the routes of escape. This pattern of moves forms a ladder of stones diagonally across the board, until it runs into the edge; then White has nowhere to go. If you are White, you probably wont make the same mistake again: you realize that the ladder pattern always results in eventual capture, for any initial location and any direction, at any stage of the game, whether you are playing White or Black. The only exception occurs when the ladder runs into some additional stones belonging to the escapee. The generality of the ladder pattern follows straightforwardly from the rules of Go. The case of the missing phone number and the case of the Go lad- der illustrate the possibility of learning effective, general rules from a single example a far cry from the millions of examples needed for deep learning. In AI, this kind of learning is called explanation- based . . .15 24 637 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) FIGURE 25: The concept of a ladder in Go. (a) Black threatens to capture :KLWHVSLHFH E :KLWHWULHVWRHVFDSH F %ODFNEORFNVWKDW GLUHFWLRQRIHV - FDSH G :KLWHWULHVWKHRWKHUGLUHFWLRQ H 3OD\FRQWLQXHVL QWKHVHTXHQFH LQGLFDWHGE\WKHQXPEHUV7KHODGGHUHYHQWXDOO\UHDFKHVWKHHGJ HRIWKHERDUG ZKHUH:KLWHKDVQRZKHUHWRUXQ7KHFRXSGHJUkFHLVDGPLQLVWHU HGE\PRYH :KLWHVJURXSLVFRPSOHWHO\VXUURXQGHGDQGGLHV 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 294 8/7/19 11:21 PMNots os nally acroly acro s nowhere ts nowhere mistakemistakforsurrourro ected to thcted to t fe s c a p eescapeDistributionmple of themple of th on situatioon situatio ndinndinnreatens to ctens to c NVWKDWGLUHFWLVWKDWGLUHFW RQWLQXHVLQWKWLQXHVLQWK HDFKHVWKHHGKHVWKHHG HJUkFHLVDGPHJUkFHLVDGP DQGGLHVGGLHV APPENDIX D: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE 295 learning : on seeing the example, the agent can explain to itself why it came out that way and can extract the general principle by seeing what factors were essential for the explanation. Strictly speaking, the process does not, by itself, add new knowl- edgefor example, White could have simply derived the existence and outcome of the general ladder pattern from the rules of Go, with- out ever seeing an example.11 Chances are, however, that White wouldnt ever discover the ladder concept without seeing an example of it; so, we can understand explanation- based learning as a powerful method for saving the results of computation in a generalized way, so as to avoid having to recapitulate the same reasoning process (or making the same mistake with an imperfect reasoning process) in the future. Research in cognitive science has stressed the importance of this type of learning in human cognition. Under the name of chunking , it forms a central pillar of Allen Newells highly influential theory of cognition. 12 (Newell was one of the attendees of the 1956 Dartmouth workshop and co- winner of the 1975 Turing Award with Herb Si- mon.) It explains how humans become more fluent at cognitive tasks with practice, as various subtasks that originally required thinking be-come automatic. Without it, human conversations would be limited to one- or two- word responses and mathematicians would still be count- ing on their fingers. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 295 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot rd rd fingers.ngers.forus subtsub Without it, hithout it, esponseesponseDistributioned w process (oocess (o process) inprocess) in sed the impthe im nder the nander the n wells highlyls highl he attendee attendee the 1975 Tthe 1975 ans becomans becom skssks 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 296 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution Acknowledgments Many people have helped in the creation of this book. They include my excellent editors at Viking (Paul Slovak) and Penguin (Laura Stickney); my agent, John Brockman, who encouraged me to write something; Jill Leovy and Rob Reid, who provided reams of useful feedback; and other readers of early drafts, especially Ziyad Marar, Nick Hay, Toby Ord, David Duvenaud, Max Tegmark, and Grace Cassy. Caroline Jeanmaire was immensely helpful in collating the in-numerable suggestions for improvements made by the early readers, and Martin Fukui handled the collecting of permissions for images. The main technical ideas in the book have been developed in col- laboration with the members of the Center for Human-Compatible AI at Berkeley, especially Tom Griffiths, Anca Dragan, Andrew Critch, Dylan Hadfield-Menell, Rohin Shah, and Smitha Milli. The Center has been admirably piloted by executive director Mark Nitz-berg and assistant director Rosie Campbell, and generously funded by the Open Philanthropy Foundation. Ramona Alvarez and Carine Verdeau helped to keep things run- ning throughout the process, and my incredible wife, Loy, and our childrenGordon, Lucy, George, and Isaacsupplied copious and necessary amounts of love, forbearance, and encouragement to finish, not always in that order. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 297 8/7/19 11:21 PM MNotchnch with the mh the m erkeley, esperkeley, e Dylan HDylan H bbfors for imor handled thehandled th nical ideical ideDistributionhis book. Tis book. T vak) and P) and who encouwho encou d, who prowho pro early draftsrly drafts DuvenaudDuvenau was immewas imm provprov 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 298 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution Notes CHAPTER 1 1. The first edition of my textbook on AI, co- authored with Peter Norvig, currently di- rector of research at Google: Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach , 1st ed. (Prentice Hall, 1995). 2. Robinson developed the resolution algorithm, which can, given enough time, prove any logical consequence of a set of first- order logical assertions. Unlike previous algo- rithms, it did not require conversion to propositional logic. J. Alan Robinson, A machine- oriented logic based on the resolution principle, Journal of the ACM 12 (1965): 23 41. 3. Arthur Samuel, an American pioneer of the computer era, did his early work at IBM. The paper describing his work on checkers was the first to use the term machine learn- ing, although Alan Turing had already talked about a machine that can learn from ex- perience as early as 1947. Arthur Samuel, Some studies in machine learning using the game of checkers, IBM Journal of Research and Development 3 (1959): 210 29. 4. The Lighthill Report, as it became known, led to the termination of research funding for AI except at the universities of Edinburgh and Sussex: Michael James Lighthill, Artificial intelligence: A general survey, in Artificial Intelligence: A Paper Symposium (Science Research Council of Great Britain, 1973). 5. The CDC 6600 filled an entire room and cost the equivalent of $20 million. For its era it was incredibly powerful, albeit a million times less powerful than an iPhone. 6. Following Deep Blues victory over Kasparov, at least one commentator predicted that it would take one hundred years before the same thing happened in Go: George Johnson, To test a powerful computer, play an ancient game, The New York Times , July 29, 1997. 7. For a highly readable history of the development of nuclear technology, see Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Simon & Schuster, 1987). 8. A simple supervised learning algorithm may not have this effect, unless it is wrapped within an A/ B testing framework (as is common in online marketing settings). Bandit algorithms and reinforcement learning algorithms will have this effect if they operate with an explicit representation of user state or an implicit representation in terms of the history of interactions with the user. 9. Some have argued that profit- maximizing corporations are already out- of- control ar- tificial entities. See, for example, Charles Stross, Dude, you broke the future! (key-note, 34th Chaos Communications Congress, 2017). See also Ted Chiang, Silicon Valley is turning into its own worst fear, Buzzfeed , December 18, 2017. The idea is explored further by Daniel Hillis, The first machine intelligences, in Possible Minds: Twenty- Five Ways of Looking at AI , ed. John Brockman (Penguin Press, 2019). 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 299 8/7/19 11:21 PM MNott lligencgen search Counrch Cou C 6600 filled a6600 filled a ncredibly powncredibly pow wing Deep Bwing Deep ould taould TTforhad 7. Arthurrth M Journal of Rournal o ort, as it becamt, as it beca e universitiuniversit A geA gDistributionwith Peter Nth Peter eter Norvig, Norvig, AA which can, giwhich can, r logical asseogical asse to propositionpropositio e resolution pesolution oneer of the coneer of the c on checkers won checkers ready talready ta amuam 300 NOTES 10. For its time, Wieners paper was a rare exception to the prevailing view that all tech- nological progress was a good thing: Norbert Wiener, Some moral and technical con-sequences of automation, Science 131 (1960): 1355 58. CHAPTER 2 1. Santiago Ramn y Cajal proposed synaptic changes as the site of learning in 1894, but it was not until the late 1960s that this hypothesis was confirmed experimentally. See Timothy Bliss and Terje Lomo, Long- lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path, Journal of Physiology 232 (1973): 331 56. 2. For a brief introduction, see James Gorman, Learning how little we know about the brain, The New York Times , November 10, 2014. See also Tom Siegfried, Theres a long way to go in understanding the brain, ScienceNews , July 25, 2017. A special 2017 issue of the journal Neuron (vol. 94, pp. 933 1040) provides a good overview of many different approaches to understanding the brain. 3. The presence or absence of consciousness actual subjective experience certainly makes a difference in our moral consideration for machines. If ever we gain enough understanding to design conscious machines or to detect that we have done so, we would face many important moral issues for which we are largely unprepared. 4. The following paper was among the first to make a clear connection between re- inforcement learning algorithms and neurophysiological recordings: Wolfram Schultz, Peter Dayan, and P. Read Montague, A neural substrate of prediction and reward, Science 275 (1997): 1593 99. 5. Studies of intracranial stimulation were carried out with the hope of finding cures for various mental illnesses. See, for example, Robert Heath, Electrical self- stimulation of the brain in man, American Journal of Psychiatry 120 (1963): 571 77. 6. An example of a species that may be facing self- extinction via addiction: Bryson Voi- rin, Biology and conservation of the pygmy sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus , Journal of Mammalogy 96 (2015): 703 7. 7. The Baldwin effect in evolution is usually attributed to the following paper: James Baldwin, A new factor in evolution, American Naturalist 30 (1896): 441 51. 8. The core idea of the Baldwin effect also appears in the following work: Conwy Lloyd Morgan, Habit and Instinct (Edward Arnold, 1896). 9. A modern analysis and computer implementation demonstrating the Baldwin effect: Geoffrey Hinton and Steven Nowlan, How learning can guide evolution, Complex Systems 1 (1987): 495 502. 10. Further elucidation of the Baldwin effect by a computer model that includes the evo- lution of the internal reward- signaling circuitry: David Ackley and Michael Littman, Interactions between learning and evolution, in Artificial Life II , ed. Christopher Langton et al. ( Addison- Wesley, 1991). 11. Here I am pointing to the roots of our present- day concept of intelligence, rather than describing the ancient Greek concept of nous, which had a variety of related meanings. 12. The quotation is taken from Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics , Book III, 3, 1112b. 13. Cardano, one of the first European mathematicians to consider negative numbers, developed an early mathematical treatment of probability in games. He died in 1576, eighty- seven years before his work appeared in print: Gerolamo Cardano, Liber de ludo aleae (Lyons, 1663). 14. Arnaulds work, initially published anonymously, is often called The Port- Royal Logic : Antoine Arnauld, La logique, ou lart de penser (Chez Charles Savreux, 1662). See also Blaise Pascal, Penses (Chez Guillaume Desprez, 1670). 15. The concept of utility: Daniel Bernoulli, Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis, Proceedings of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences 5 (1738): 175 92. Bernoul- lis idea of utility arises from considering a merchant, Sempronius, choosing whether to transport a valuable cargo in one ship or to split it between two, assuming that each ship has a 50 percent probability of sinking on the journey. The expected monetary value of the two solutions is the same, but Sempronius clearly prefers the two- ship solution. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 300 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotan 7): 49549 dation of thtion of th he internal e internal rew tions betweentions betwee n et al. (n et al. ( AA((ddd pointipoinforvolu win effeceff inctt (Edward (Edwatt nd computer d computer Steven NSteven N 02.02Distributionperien f ever we ger we g hat we have dwe have d largely unprepargely unprep clear connectiar connecti cal recordings:ecordings bstrate of preate of pre d out with thout with t Robert HeathRobert Heath fP s y c h i a t r yychiatry 1212 acing acing sself-lf-eextxt he pygmy sloe pygmy s is usually ais usually a n, n, AmeAm alsoals NOTES 301 16. By most accounts, von Neumann did not himself invent this architecture but his name was on an early draft of an influential report describing the EDVAC stored- program computer. 17. The work of von Neumann and Morgenstern is in many ways the foundation of mod- ern economic theory: John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (Princeton University Press, 1944). 18. The proposal that utility is a sum of discounted rewards was put forward as a mathe- matically convenient hypothesis by Paul Samuelson, A note on measurement of util-ity, Review of Economic Studies 4 (1937): 155 61. If s 0, s1, . . . is a sequence of states, then its utility in this model is U(s0, s1, . . .) = tKtR(st), whereKis a discount factor and R is a reward function describing the desirability of a state. Nave application of this model seldom agrees with the judgment of real individuals about the desirability of present and future rewards. For a thorough analysis, see Shane Frederick, George Loe-wenstein, and Ted ODonoghue, Time discounting and time preference: A critical review, Journal of Economic Literature 40 (2002): 351 401. 19. Maurice Allais, a French economist, proposed a decision scenario in which humans appear consistently to violate the von Neumann Morgenstern axioms: Maurice Allais, Le comportement de lhomme rationnel devant le risque: Critique des postulats et axiomes de lcole amricaine, Econometrica 21 (1953): 503 46. 20. For an introduction to non- quantitative decision analysis, see Michael Wellman, Fun- damental concepts of qualitative probabilistic networks, Artificial Intelligence 44 (1990): 257 303. 21. I will discuss the evidence for human irrationality further in Chapter 9. The standard references include the following: Allais, Le comportement; Daniel Ellsberg, Risk, Ambiguity, and Decision (PhD thesis, Harvard University, 1962); Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases, Science 185 (1974): 1124 31. 22. It should be clear that this is a thought experiment that cannot be realized in practice. Choices about different futures are never presented in full detail, and humans never have the luxury of minutely examining and savoring those futures before choosing. Instead, one is given only brief summaries, such as librarian or coal miner. In mak-ing such a choice, one is really being asked to compare two probability distributions over complete futures, one beginning with the choice librarian and the other coal miner, with each distribution assuming optimal actions on ones own part within each future. Needless to say, this is not easy. 23. The first mention of a randomized strategy for games appears in Pierre Rmond de Montmort, Essay danalyse sur les jeux de hazard, 2nd ed. (Chez Jacques Quillau, 1713). The book identifies a certain Monsieur de Waldegrave as the source of an opti-mal randomized solution for the card game Le Her. Details of Waldegraves identity are revealed by David Bellhouse, The problem of Waldegrave, Electronic Journal for History of Probability and Statistics 3 (2007). 24. The problem is fully defined by specifying the probability that Alice scores in each of four cases: when she shoots to Bobs right and he dives right or left, and when she shoots to his left and he dives right or left. In this case, these probabilities are 25 percent, 70 percent, 65 percent, and 10 percent respectively. Now suppose that Alices strategy is to shoot to Bobs right with probability p and his left with probability 1 p, while Bob dives to his right with probability q and left with probability 1 q. The payoff to Alice is U A = 0.25 pq + 0.70 p(1 q) + 0.65 (1 p)q + 0.10(1 p) (1 q), while Bobs payoff is UB = UA. At equilibrium, UA/p = 0 and UB/q = 0, giving p = 0.55 and q = 0.60. 25. The original game- theoretic problem was introduced by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher at the RAND Corporation; Tucker saw the payoff matrix on a visit to their offices and proposed a story to go along with it. 26. Game theorists typically say that Alice and Bob could cooperate with each other (re- fuse to talk) or defect and rat on their accomplice. I find this language confusing, be- cause cooperate with each other is not a choice that each agent can make separately, and because in common parlance one often talks about cooperating with the police, receiving a lighter sentence in return for cooperating, and so on. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 301 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotn ssay day d book identifok identif omized solutimized soluti vealed by Davvealed by Dav y of Probabiy of Probab lem islemforeallyy one beginbeg stribution asstribution a ess to say, thiss to say, this f a randoma random alyselysDistributionioms: ritique desque des 346.46. see Michael Wee Michael W orks, ks, ArtificiArtifici y further in Ch ther in Ch omportementomportemen rd Universityd Universi ertainty: Heurrtainty: Heur ht experimentht experiment e never presenever pre amining and amining and summaries, summaries, eing askeing as ngng 302 NOTES 27. For an interesting trust- based solution to the prisoners dilemma and other games, see Joshua Letchford, Vincent Conitzer, and Kamal Jain, An ethical game- theoretic solution concept for two- player perfect- information games, in Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Web and Internet Economics , ed. Christos Papadimitriou and Shuzhong Zhang (Springer, 2008). 28. Origin of the tragedy of the commons: William Forster Lloyd, Two Lectures on the Checks to Population (Oxford University, 1833). 29. Modern revival of the topic in the context of global ecology: Garrett Hardin, The tragedy of the commons, Science 162 (1968): 1243 48. 30. Its quite possible that even if we had tried to build intelligent machines from chemical reactions or biological cells, those assemblages would have turned out to be implemen-tations of Turing machines in nontraditional materials. Whether an object is a general- purpose computer has nothing to do with what its made of. 31. Turings breakthrough paper defined what is now known as the Turing machine , the basis for modern computer science. The Entscheidungsproblem, or decision problem , in the title is the problem of deciding entailment in first- order logic: Alan Turing, On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem , Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society , 2nd ser., 42 (1936): 230 65. 32. A good survey of research on negative capacitance by one of its inventors: Sayeef Sala- huddin, Review of negative capacitance transistors, in International Symposium on VLSI Technology, Systems and Application (IEEE Press, 2016). 33. For a much better explanation of quantum computation, see Scott Aaronson, Quan- tum Computing since Democritus (Cambridge University Press, 2013). 34. The paper that established a clear complexity- theoretic distinction between classical and quantum computation: Ethan Bernstein and Umesh Vazirani, Quantum com-plexity theory, SIAM Journal on Computing 26 (1997): 1411 73. 35. The following article by a renowned physicist provides a good introduction to the current state of understanding and technology: John Preskill, Quantum computing in the NISQ era and beyond, arXiv:1801.00862 (2018). 36. On the maximum computational ability of a one- kilogram object: Seth Lloyd, Ulti- mate physical limits to computation, Nature 406 (2000): 1047 54. 37. For an example of the suggestion that humans may be the pinnacle of physically achievable intelligence, see Kevin Kelly, The myth of a superhuman AI, Wired , April 25, 2017: We tend to believe that the limit is way beyond us, way above us, as we are above an ant. . . . What evidence do we have that the limit is not us? 38. In case you are wondering about a simple trick to solve the halting problem: the obvi- ous method of just running the program to see if it finishes doesnt work, because that method doesnt necessarily finish. You might wait a million years and still not know if the program is really stuck in an infinite loop or just taking its time. 39. The proof that the halting problem is undecidable is an elegant piece of trickery. The question: Is there a LoopChecker( P,X) program that, for any program P and any input X, decides correctly, in finite time, whether P applied to input X will halt and produce a result or keep chugging away forever? Suppose that LoopChecker exists. Now write a program Q that calls LoopChecker as a subroutine, with Q itself and X as inputs, and then does the opposite of what LoopChecker( Q,X) predicts. So, if LoopChecker says that Q halts, Q doesnt halt, and vice versa. Thus, the assumption that LoopChecker exists leads to a contradiction, so LoopChecker cannot exist. 40. I say appear because, as yet, the claim that the class of NP- complete problems re- quires superpolynomial time (usually referred to as P NP) is still an unproven con-jecture. After almost fifty years of research, however, nearly all mathematicians and computer scientists are convinced the claim is true. 41. Lovelaces writings on computation appear mainly in her notes attached to her trans- lation of an Italian engineers commentary on Babbages engine: L. F. Menabrea, Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, trans. Ada, Countess of Lovelace, in Scientific Memoirs , vol. III, ed. R. Taylor (R. and J. E. Taylor, 1843). Menabreas original article, written in French and based on lectures given by Babbage in 1840, appears in Bibliothque Universelle de Genve 82 (1842). 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 302 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotond ust runt ru nt necessarinecessar m is really stum is really stu of that the haof that the ha n: Is there an: Is there correccorrforgest e Kevin Kevi believe that thbelieve that hat evidence hat evidence ring abouring abou ing thng tDistributionblem,, ts inventors: Snventors: S nternational Sternational S 016).6). ion, see Scottsee Scot rsity Press, 20y Press, 20 eoretic distineoretic distin and Umesh Vnd Umesh gg 26 (1997): 26 (1997): gg 11 hysicist providicist provid hnology: Johnhnology: John 801.00862 (21.00862 ( l ability of a l ability of a tion, tion NaturNatur n that hn that llylly NOTES 303 42. One of the seminal early papers on the possibility of artificial intelligence: Alan Tur- ing, Computing machinery and intelligence, Mind 59 (1950): 433 60. 43. The Shakey project at SRI is summarized in a retrospective by one of its leaders: Nils Nilsson, Shakey the robot, technical note 323 (SRI International, 1984). A twenty- four- minute film, SHAKEY: Experimentation in Robot Learning and Planning , was made in 1969 and garnered national attention. 44. The book that marked the beginning of modern, probability- based AI: Judea Pearl, Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of Plausible Inference (Morgan Kaufmann, 1988). 45. Technically, chess is not fully observable. A program does need to remember a small amount of information to determine the legality of castling and en passant moves and to define draws by repetition or by the fifty- move rule. 46. For a complete exposition, see Chapter 2 of Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach , 3rd ed. (Pearson, 2010). 47. The size of the state space for StarCraft is discussed by Santiago Ontaon et al., A survey of real- time strategy game AI research and competition in StarCraft, IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games 5 (2013): 293 311. Vast numbers of moves are possible because a player can move all units simultaneously. The numbers go down as restrictions are imposed on how many units or groups of units can be moved at once. 48. On human machine competition in StarCraft: Tom Simonite, DeepMind beats pros at StarCraft in another triumph for bots, Wired , January 25, 2019. 49. AlphaZero is described by David Silver et al., Mastering chess and shogi by self- play with a general reinforcement learning algorithm, arXiv:1712.01815 (2017). 50. Optimal paths in graphs are found using the A* algorithm and its many descendants: Peter Hart, Nils Nilsson, and Bertram Raphael, A formal basis for the heuristic deter-mination of minimum cost paths, IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics SSC- 4 (1968): 100 107. 51. The paper that introduced the Advice Taker program and logic- based knowledge sys- tems: John McCarthy, Programs with common sense, in Proceedings of the Symposium on Mechanisation of Thought Processes (Her Majestys Stationery Office, 1958). 52. To get some sense of the significance of knowledge- based systems, consider database systems. A database contains concrete, individual facts, such as the location of my keys and the identities of your Facebook friends. Database systems cannot store general rules, such as the rules of chess or the legal definition of British citizenship. They can count how many people called Alice have friends called Bob, but they cannot determine whether a particular Alice meets the conditions for British citizenship or whether a particular sequence of moves on a chessboard will lead to checkmate. Database systems cannot combine two pieces of knowledge to produce a third: they support memory but not reasoning. (It is true that many modern database systems provide a way to add rules and a way to use those rules to derive new facts; to the extent that they do, they are really knowledge- based systems.) Despite being highly constricted versions of knowledge- based systems, database systems underlie most of present- day commercial activity and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in value every year. 53. The original paper describing the completeness theorem for first- order logic: Kurt Gdel, Die Vollstndigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalkls, Monat- shefte fr Mathematik 37 (1930): 349 60. 54. The reasoning algorithm for first- order logic does have a gap: if there is no answer that is, if the available knowledge is insufficient to give an answer either way then the algorithm may never finish. This is unavoidable: it is mathematically impossible for a correct algorithm always to terminate with dont know, for essentially the same reason that no algorithm can solve the halting problem (page 37). 55. The first algorithm for theorem- proving in first- order logic worked by reducing first- order sentences to (very large numbers of) propositional sentences: Martin Davis and Hilary Putnam, A computing procedure for quantification theory, Journal of the ACM 7 (1960): 201 15. Robinsons resolution algorithm operated directly on first- order M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 303 8/7/19 11:21 PMma hether aher a particularparticula systems cannsystems cann rt memory burt memory bu e a way to e a way to at theat tforigni tains cons co your Faceboyour Faceb rules of chessules of chess y people y people partiartDistribution2013): ) nits simultasimulta units or groupsts or group monite, Deeonite, Dee nuary 25, 201y 25, 201 astering chessring chess m, arXiv:1712, arXiv:1712 e A* algorithmA* algorith hael, A formhael, A form Transactions oansactions o vice Taker proce Taker p s with commos with commo ocessesoces (Her (Hers ance of ance of eteete 304 NOTES logical sentences, using unification to match complex expressions containing logical variables: J. Alan Robinson, A machine- oriented logic based on the resolution princi- ple, Journal of the ACM 12 (1965): 23 41. 56. One might wonder how Shakey the logical robot ever reached any definite conclusions about what to do. The answer is simple: Shakeys knowledge base contained false as-sertions. For example, Shakey believed that by executing push object A through door D into room B, object A would end up in room B. This belief was false because Shakey could get stuck in the doorway or miss the doorway altogether or someone might sneakily remove object A from Shakeys grasp. Shakeys plan execution module could detect plan failure and replan accordingly, so Shakey was not, strictly speaking, a purely logical system. 57. An early commentary on the role of probability in human thinking: Pierre- Simon La- place, Essai philosophique sur les probabilits (Mme. Ve. Courcier, 1814). 58. Bayesian logic described in a fairly nontechnical way: Stuart Russell, Unifying logic and probability, Communications of the ACM 58 (2015): 88 97. The paper draws heavily on the PhD thesis research of my former student Brian Milch. 59. The original source for Bayes theorem: Thomas Bayes and Richard Price, An essay towards solving a problem in the doctrine of chances, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 53 (1763): 370 418. 60. Technically, Samuels program did not treat winning and losing as absolute rewards; by fixing the value of material to be positive; however, the program generally tended to work towards winning. 61. The application of reinforcement learning to produce a world- class backgammon pro- gram: Gerald Tesauro, Temporal difference learning and TD- Gammon, Communica- tions of the ACM 38 (1995): 58 68. 62. The DQN system that learns to play a wide variety of video games using deep RL: Volodymyr Mnih et al., Human- level control through deep reinforcement learning, Nature 518 (2015): 529 33. 63. Bill Gatess remarks on Dota 2 AI: Catherine Clifford, Bill Gates says gamer bots from Elon Musk- backed nonprofit are huge milestone in A.I., CNBC, June 28, 2018. 64. An account of OpenAI Fives victory over the human world champions at Dota 2: Kelsey Piper, AI triumphs against the worlds top pro team in strategy game Dota 2, Vox, April 13, 2019. 65. A compendium of cases in the literature where misspecification of reward functions led to unexpected behavior: Victoria Krakovna, Specification gaming examples in AI, Deep Safety (blog), April 2, 2018. 66. A case where an evolutionary fitness function defined in terms of maximum velocity led to very unexpected results: Karl Sims, Evolving virtual creatures, in Proceed- i ng s o f t he 2 1 st An n ua l Con f er ence on Com pu t er Gr a p h ics a nd I n t er acti v e T ec h n iq ue s (ACM, 1994). 67. For a fascinating exposition of the possibilities of reflex agents, see Valentino Braiten- berg, Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology (MIT Press, 1984). 68. News article on a fatal accident involving a vehicle in autonomous mode that hit a pedestrian: Devin Coldewey, Uber in fatal crash detected pedestrian but had emer-gency braking disabled, TechCrunch , May 24, 2018. 69. On steering control algorithms, see, for example, Jarrod Snider, Automatic steering methods for autonomous automobile path tracking, technical report CMU- RI- TR- 09- 08, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2009. 70. Norfolk and Norwich terriers are two categories in the ImageNet database. They are notoriously hard to tell apart and were viewed as a single breed until 1964. 71. A very unfortunate incident with image labeling: Daniel Howley, Google Photos mis- labels 2 black Americans as gorillas, Yahoo Tech , June 29, 2015. 72. Follow- up article on Google and gorillas: Tom Simonite, When it comes to gorillas, Google Photos remains blind, Wired , January 11, 2018. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 304 8/7/19 11:21 PMd b y(blog)blog e an evolution evolutio y unexpectedunexpected he 21st Annuhe 21st Annu 1994).1994). natingnatinfor es v hs againstgain ases in the litees in the lit havior: Vhavior: V AprilAprDistributionard Pr ical TransaTransa sing as absoluting as absolu program genrogram gen ce a wworld-rld-clal ning and TDing and TD de variety of de variety of ontrol throughrol through Catherine CCatherine fit are huge fit are huge tory ovtory ov he whe w NOTES 305 &+$37(5 1. The basic plan for game- playing algorithms was laid out by Claude Shannon, Pro- gramming a computer for playing chess, Philosophical Magazine , 7th ser., 41 (1950): 256 75. 2. See figure 5.12 of Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach , 1st ed. (Prentice Hall, 1995). Note that the rating of chess players and chess programs is not an exact science. Kasparovs highest- ever Elo rating was 2851, achieved in 1999, but current chess engines such as Stockfish are rated at 3300 or more. 3. The earliest reported autonomous vehicle on a public road: Ernst Dickmanns and Al- fred Zapp, Autonomous high speed road vehicle guidance by computer vision, IFAC Proceedings Volumes 20 (1987): 221 26. 4. The safety record for Google (subsequently Waymo) vehicles: Waymo safety report: On the road to fully self- driving, 2018. 5. So far there have been at least two driver fatalities and one pedestrian fatality. Some references follow, along with brief quotes describing what happened. Danny Yadron and Dan Tynan, Tesla driver dies in first fatal crash while using autopilot mode, Guardian , June 30, 2016: The autopilot sensors on the Model S failed to distinguish a white tractor- trailer crossing the highway against a bright sky. Megan Rose Dickey, Tesla Model X sped up in Autopilot mode seconds before fatal crash, according to NTSB, TechCrunch , June 7, 2018: At 3 seconds prior to the crash and up to the time of impact with the crash attenuator, the Teslas speed increased from 62 to 70.8 m p h , w i t h n o p r e c r a s h b r a k i n g o r e v a s i v e s t e e r i n g m o v e m e n t d e t e c t e d . D e v i n Coldewey, Uber in fatal crash detected pedestrian but had emergency braking dis- abled, TechCrunch , May 24, 2018: Emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior. 6. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines six levels of automation, where Level 0 is none at all and Level 5 is full automation: The full- time performance by an automatic driving system of all aspects of the dynamic driving task under all roadway and environmental conditions that can be managed by a human driver. 7. Forecast of economic effects of automation on transportation costs: Adele Peters, It could be 10 times cheaper to take electric robo- taxis than to own a car by 2030, Fast Company , May 30, 2017. 8. The impact of accidents on the prospects for regulatory action on autonomous vehi- cles: Richard Waters, Self- driving car death poses dilemma for regulators, Financial Times , March 20, 2018. 9. The impact of accidents on public perception of autonomous vehicles: Cox Automo- tive, Autonomous vehicle awareness rising, acceptance declining, according to Cox Automotive mobility study, August 16, 2018. 10. The original chatbot: Joseph Weizenbaum, ELIZA a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine, Communica- tions of the ACM 9 (1966): 36 45. 11. See physiome.org for current activities in physiological modeling. Work in the 1960s assembled models with thousands of differential equations: Arthur Guyton, Thomas Coleman, and Harris Granger, Circulation: Overall regulation, Annual Review of Physiology 34 (1972): 13 44. 12. Some of the earliest work on tutoring systems was done by Pat Suppes and colleagues at Stanford: Patrick Suppes and Mona Morningstar, Computer- assisted instruction, Science 166 (1969): 343 50. 13. Michael Yudelson, Kenneth Koedinger, and Geoffrey Gordon, Individualized Bayes- ian knowledge tracing models, in Artificial Intelligence in Education: 16th International Conference , ed. H. Chad Lane et al. (Springer, 2013). 14. For an example of machine learning on encrypted data, see, for example, Reza Shokri and Vitaly Shmatikov, Privacy- preserving deep learning, in Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM, 2015). M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 305 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot0, 20, 20 of accidenccide onomous vehonomous veh otive mobility ve mobilit riginal chatbriginal chatb f naturalf natural ACAfor r to tata 7. ents on the prents on the p s, , SSelf-elf-ddrivri 8.8 onDistributionng S failedailed ky. Megan RMegan R re fatal crash,re fatal cras r to the crashto the cra speed increaseed increase ring movemeg moveme rian but had rian but had ncy braking mcy braking m , to reduce tho reduce th (SAE) defineAE) defi ull automatioull automatio pects of the dpects of the that can be mthat can be m fa u t o m a t i ofa u t o m a electelect 306 NOTES 15. A retrospective on the first smart home, based on a lecture by its inventor, James Sutherland: James E. Tomayko, Electronic Computer for Home Operation (ECHO): The first home computer, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 16 (1994): 59 61. 16. Summary of a smart- home project based on machine learning and automated deci- sions: Diane Cook et al., MavHome: An agent- based smart home, in Proceedings of the 1st IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (IEEE, 2003). 17. For the beginnings of an analysis of user experiences in smart homes, see Scott Da- vidoff et al., Principles of smart home control, in Ubicomp 2006: Ubiquitous Comput- ing, ed. Paul Dourish and Adrian Friday (Springer, 2006). 18. Commercial announcement of AI- based smart homes: The Wolff Company unveils revolutionary smart home technology at new Annadel Apartments in Santa Rosa, Cal-ifornia, Business Insider , March 12, 2018. 19. Article on robot chefs as commercial products: Eustacia Huen, The worlds first home robotic chef can cook over 100 meals, Forbes , October 31, 2016. 20. Report from my Berkeley colleagues on deep RL for robotic motor control: Sergey Levine et al., End- to- end training of deep visuomotor policies, Journal of Machine Learning Research 17 (2016): 1 40. 21. On the possibilities for automating the work of hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers: Tom Simonite, Grasping robots compete to rule Amazons warehouses, Wired , July 26, 2017. 22. Im assuming a generous one laptop- CPU minute per page, or about 10 11 operations. A third- generation tensor processing unit from Google runs at about 1017 operations per second, meaning that it can read a million pages per second, or about five hours for eighty million two- hundred- page books. 23. A 2003 study on the global volume of information production by all channels: Peter Lyman and Hal Varian, How much information? sims.berkeley.edu/ research/ projects / how- much- info- 2003. 24. For details on the use of speech recognition by intelligence agencies, see Dan Froom- kin, How the NSA converts spoken words into searchable text, The Intercept , May 5, 2015. 25. Analysis of visual imagery from satellites is an enormous task: Mike Kim, Mapping poverty from space with the World Bank, Medium.com, January 4, 2017. Kim esti-mates eight million people working 24/ 7, which converts to more than thirty million people working forty hours per week. I suspect this is an overestimate in practice, because the vast majority of the images would exhibit negligible change over the course of one day. On the other hand, the US intelligence community employs tens of thousands of people sitting in vast rooms staring at satellite images just to keep track of whats happening in small regions of interest; so one million people is probably about right for the whole world. 26. There is substantial progress towards a global observatory based on real- time satellite image data: David Jensen and Jillian Campbell, Digital earth: Building, financing and governing a digital ecosystem for planetary data, white paper for the UN Science- Policy- Business Forum on the Environment, 2018. 27. Luke Muehlhauser has written extensively on AI predictions, and I am indebted to him for tracking down original sources for the quotations that follow. See Luke Muehl-hauser, What should we learn from past AI forecasts? Open Philanthropy Project report, 2016. 28. A forecast of the arrival of human- level AI within twenty years: Herbert Simon, The New Science of Management Decision (Harper & Row, 1960). 29. A forecast of the arrival of human- level AI within a generation: Marvin Minsky, Com- putation: Finite and Infinite Machines (Prentice Hall, 1967). 30. John McCarthys forecast of the arrival of human- level AI within five to 500 years: Ian Shenker, Brainy robots in our future, experts think, Detroit Free Press , September 30, 1977. 31. For a summary of surveys of AI researchers on their estimates for the arrival of human- level AI, see aiimpacts.org. An extended discussion of survey results on human- level 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 306 8/7/19 11:21 PMm ay. On tOn people sittiople sitti happening in appening in ght for the whght for the wh substantiasubstanti : Davi: Da ddforfrom the WorlW ople workingople workin y hours per whours per w ority of tority of t e othotDistributionJourn thousands of ousands of ule Amazons e Amazons page, or aboute, or abou le runs at abouuns at abou s per second, per second, rmation prodrmation prod mation? simstion? sims ognition by ingnition by oken words inoken words in atellitesatellite BaBa NOTES 307 AI is given by Katja Grace et al., When will AI exceed human performance? Evidence from AI experts, arXiv:1705.08807v3 (2018). 32. For a chart mapping raw computer power against brain power, see Ray Kurzweil, The law of accelerating returns, Kurzweilai.net, March 7, 2001. 33. The Allen Institutes Project Aristo: allenai.org/ aristo. 34. For an analysis of the knowledge required to perform well on fourth- grade tests of comprehension and common sense, see Peter Clark et al., Automatic construction of inference- supporting knowledge bases, in Proceedings of the Workshop on Automated Knowledge Base Construction ( 2014), akbc.ws/ 2014. 35. The NELL project on machine reading is described by Tom Mitchell et al., Never- ending learning, Communications of the ACM 61 (2018): 103 15. 36. The idea of bootstrapping inferences from text is due to Sergey Brin, Extracting pat- terns and relations from the World Wide Web, in The World Wide Web and Databases , ed. Paolo Atzeni, Alberto Mendelzon, and Giansalvatore Mecca (Springer, 1998). 37. For a visualization of the black- hole collision detected by LIGO, see LIGO Lab Caltech, Warped space and time around colliding black holes, February 11, 2016, youtube.com/ watch? v= 1agm33iEAuo. 38. The first publication describing observation of gravitational waves: Ben Abbott et al., Observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger, Physical Review Letters 116 (2016): 061102. 39. On babies as scientists: Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, and Patricia Kuhl, The Sci- entist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn (William Morrow, 1999). 40. A summary of several projects on automated scientific analysis of experimental data to discover laws: Patrick Langley et al., Scientific Discovery: Computational Explorations of the Creative Processes (MIT Press, 1987). 41. Some early work on machine learning guided by prior knowledge: Stuart Russell, The Use of Knowledge in Analogy and Induction (Pitman, 1989). 42. Goodmans philosophical analysis of induction remains a source of inspiration: Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction, and Forecast (University of London Press, 1954). 43. A veteran AI researcher complains about mysticism in the philosophy of science: Herbert Simon, Explaining the ineffable: AI on the topics of intuition, insight and inspiration, in Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence , ed. Chris Mellish (Morgan Kaufmann, 1995). 44. A survey of inductive logic programming by two originators of the field: Stephen Mug- gleton and Luc de Raedt, Inductive logic programming: Theory and methods, Journal of Logic Programming 19 20 (1994): 629 79. 45. For an early mention of the importance of encapsulating complex operations as new primitive actions, see Alfred North Whitehead, A n I n t r o d u c t i o n t o M a t h e m a t i c s (Henry Holt, 1911). 46. Work demonstrating that a simulated robot can learn entirely by itself to stand up: John Schulman et al., High- dimensional continuous control using generalized advan- tage estimation, arXiv:1506.02438 (2015). A video demonstration is available at youtube.com/ watch? v= SHLuf2ZBQSw. 47. A description of a reinforcement learning system that learns to play a capture- the- flag video game: Max Jaderberg et al., Human- level performance in first- person multi- player games with population- based deep reinforcement learning, arXiv:1807.01281 (2018). 48. A view of AI progress over the next few years: Peter Stone et al., Artificial intelligence and life in 2030, One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence , report of the 2015 Study Panel, 2016. 49. The media- fueled argument between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg: Peter Holley, Billionaire burn: Musk says Zuckerbergs understanding of AI threat is limited, The Washington Post , July 25, 2017. 50. On the value of search engines to individual users: Erik Brynjolfsson, Felix Eggers, and Avinash Gannamaneni, Using massive online choice experiments to measure changes in well- being, working paper no. 24514, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 307 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotmin mention ntio ctions, see ons, see Holt, 1911).olt, 1911). demonstratindemonstratin chulman etchulman e mationmatforof th gan KaufmKau logic programlogic progra aedt, Inductedt, Induct 191920 (120 (1 f thethDistributionaves: Ben As: Ben A e merger, merger, PhyPhy off, and Patrif, and Patri earnn (William (Willia entific analysi ic analysi c Discovery: CoDiscovery: C ded by prior kded by prior k ion (Pitman, 1(Pitman, induction reminduction rem astt (University(Universtt lains about mlains about m he ineffable:he ineffable: 14th Int14th In nnnn 308 NOTES 51. Penicillin was discovered several times and its curative powers were described in med- ical publications, but no one seems to have noticed. See en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ His tory_ of_ penicillin. 52. For a discussion of some of the more esoteric risks from omniscient, clairvoyant AI systems, see David Auerbach, The most terrifying thought experiment of all time, Slate , July 17, 2014. 53. An analysis of some potential pitfalls in thinking about advanced AI: Kevin Kelly, The myth of a superhuman AI, Wired , April 25, 2017. 54. Machines may share some aspects of cognitive structure with humans, particularly those aspects dealing with perception and manipulation of the physical world and the conceptual structures involved in natural language understanding. Their delibera-tive processes are likely to be quite different because of the enormous disparities in hardware. 55. According to 2016 survey data, the eighty- eighth percentile corresponds to $100,000 per year: American Community Survey, US Census Bureau, www.census.gov/ pro grams- surveys/ acs. For the same year, global per capita GDP was $10,133: National A c c o u n t s M a i n A g g r e g a t e s D a t a b a s e , U N S t a t i s t i c s D i v i s i o n , unstats.un.org/ unsd / snaama. 56. If the GDP growth phases in over ten years or twenty years, its worth $9,400 trillion or $6,800 trillion, respectively still nothing to sneeze at. On an interesting historical note, I. J. Good, who popularized the notion of an intelligence explosion (page 142), estimated the value of human- level AI to be at least one megaKeynes, referring to the fabled economist John Maynard Keynes. The value of Keyness contributions was esti-mated in 1963 as 100 billion, so a megaKeynes comes out to around $2,200,000 trillion in 2016 dollars. Good pinned the value of AI primarily on its potential to en-sure that the human race survives indefinitely. Later, he came to wonder whether he should have added a minus sign. 57. The EU announced plans for $24 billion in research and development spending for the period 2019 20. See European Commission, Artificial intelligence: Commission out- lines a European approach to boost investment and set ethical guidelines, press re-lease, April 25, 2018. Chinas long- term investment plan for AI, announced in 2017, envisages a core AI industry generating $150 billion annually by 2030. See, for exam- ple, Paul Mozur , Beijing wants A.I. to be made in China by 2030, The New York Times , July 20, 2017. 58. See, for example, Rio Tintos Mine of the Future program at riotinto.com/ aus tralia / pilbara/ mine- of- the- future- 9603.aspx. 59. A retrospective analysis of economic growth: Jan Luiten van Zanden et al., eds., How Was Life? Global Well- Being since 1820 (OECD Publishing, 2014). 60. The desire for relative advantage over others, rather than an absolute quality of life, is a positional good ; see Chapter 9. CHAPTER 4 1. Wikipedias article on the Stasi has several useful references on its workforce and its overall impact on East German life. 2. For details on Stasi files, see Cullen Murphy, Gods Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012). 3. For a thorough analysis of AI surveillance systems, see Jay Stanley, The Dawn of Robot Surveillance (American Civil Liberties Union, 2019). 4. Recent books on surveillance and control include Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveil- lance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (PublicAf- fairs, 2019) and Roger McNamee, Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe (Penguin Press, 2019). 5. News article on a blackmail bot: Avivah Litan, Meet Delilah the first insider threat Trojan, Gartner Blog Network, July 14, 2016. 6. For a low- tech version of human susceptibility to misinformation, in which an unsus- pecting individual becomes convinced that the world is being destroyed by meteor 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 308 8/7/19 11:21 PMh analysinaly obal l WWell-ell-WWW BBee for relative afor relative a nal goodnal good ; see C; see for gen g wants A nts o Tintos MinTintos Mi future-uture- 9696 of ecfeDistributionnstat ts worth $9,4worth $9,4 On an interestOn an interes ligence explogence explo ne megaKeynemegaKeyn of Keyness coKeyness co es comes outs comes out e of AI primaof AI prim ely. Later, he ely. Later, he n in research n in research mmission, Artmission, A ost investmenost investmen ng-ng-term invm inv ating $1ating $ tt NOTES 309 strikes, see Derren Brown: Apocalypse , Part One, directed by Simon Dinsell, 2012, youtube.com/ watch? v= o_ CUrMJOxqs. 7. An economic analysis of reputation systems and their corruption is given by Steven Tadelis, Reputation and feedback systems in online platform markets, Annual Re- view of Economics 8 (2016): 321 40. 8. Goodharts law: Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pres- sure is placed upon it for control purposes. For example, there may once have been a correlation between faculty quality and faculty salary, so the US News & World Report college rankings measure faculty quality by faculty salaries. This has contributed to a salary arms race that benefits faculty members but not the students who pay for those salaries. The arms race changes faculty salaries in a way that does not depend on fac-ulty quality, so the correlation tends to disappear. 9. An article describing German efforts to police public discourse: Bernhard Rohleder, Germany set out to delete hate speech online. Instead, it made things worse, World- Post, February 20, 2018. 10. On the infopocalypse: Aviv Ovadya, Whats worse than fake news? The distortion of reality itself, WorldPost , February 22, 2018. 11. On the corruption of online hotel reviews: Dina Mayzlin, Yaniv Dover, and Judith Chevalier, Promotional reviews: An empirical investigation of online review manipu-lation, American Economic Review 104 (2014): 2421 55. 12. Statement of Germany at the Meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts, Con- vention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Geneva, April 10, 2018. 13. The Slaughterbots movie, funded by the Future of Life Institute, appeared in Novem- ber 2017 and is available at youtube.com/ watch? v= 9CO6M2HsoIA. 14. For a report on one of the bigger faux pas in military public relations, see Dan Lam- othe, Pentagon agency wants drones to hunt in packs, like wolves, The Washington Post, January 23, 2015. 15. Announcement of a large- scale drone swarm experiment: US Department of Defense, Department of Defense announces successful micro- drone demonstration, news re- lease no. NR- 008- 17, January 9, 2017. 16. Examples of research centers studying the impact of technology on employment are the Work and Intelligent Tools and Systems group at Berkeley, the Future of Work and Workers project at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stan-ford, and the Future of Work Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University. 17. A pessimistic take on future technological unemployment: Martin Ford, Rise of the Ro- bots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future (Basic Books, 2015). 18. Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial Intelligence and the Death of Capital- ism (Three Cs, 2016). 19. For an excellent collection of essays, see Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb, eds., The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2019). 20. The mathematical analysis behind this in verted-U employment curve is given by James Bessen, Artificial intelligence and jobs: The role of demand in The Economics of Artificial Intelligence , ed. Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb. 21. For a discussion of economic dislocation arising from automation, see Eduardo Porter, Tech is splitting the US work force in two, The New York Times , February 4, 2019. The article cites the following report for this conclusion: David Autor and Anna Salo-mons, Is automation labor- displacing? Productivity growth, employment, and the labor share, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (2018). 22. For data on the growth of banking in the twentieth century, see Thomas Philippon, The evolution of the US financial industry from 1860 to 2007: Theory and evidence, working paper, 2008. 23. The bible for jobs data and the growth and decline of occupations: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: 2018 2019 Edition (Bernan Press, 2018). 24. A report on trucking automation: Lora Kolodny, Amazon is hauling cargo in self- driving trucks developed by Embark, CNBC, January 30, 2019. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 309 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot and The Eche E Cs, 2016)., 2016). cellent collectellent collect The Economics The Economics ch, 2019).ch, 2019) hemathemforools Center for er of Work Initiaof Work Init on future techn future tech the Threathe Threat nomicomDistributionaniv Dovev Dove of online revonline rev f GovernmenGovernmen April 10, 20ril 10, 20 f Life Institutee Institute ??vv==99CO6M2CO6M n military pubmilitary pu hunt in packs,unt in packs, swarm experswarm exper es successful successfu 2017. 2017. tudying thetudying the nd Systend Syste AdvAdv 310 NOTES 25. The progress of automation in legal analytics, describing the results of a contest: Jason Tashea, AI software is more accurate, faster than attorneys when assessing NDAs, ABA Journal , February 26, 2018. 26. A commentary by a distinguished economist, with a title explicitly evoking Keyness 1930 article: Lawrence Summers, Economic possibilities for our children, NBER Reporter (2013). 27. The analogy between data science employment and a small lifeboat for a giant cruise ship comes from a discussion with Y ong Y ing- I, head of Singapores Public Service Division. She conceded that it was correct on the global scale, but noted that Singa-pore is small enough to fit in the lifeboat. 28. Support for UBI from a conservative viewpoint: Sam Bowman, The ideal welfare system is a basic income, Adam Smith Institute, November 25, 2013. 29. Support for UBI from a progressive viewpoint: Jonathan Bartley, The Greens endorse a universal basic income. Others need to follow, The Guardian , June 2, 2017. 30. Chace, in The Economic Singularity , calls the paradise version of UBI the Star Trek economy, noting that in the more recent series of Star Trek episodes, money has been abolished because technology has created essentially unlimited material goods and energy. He also points to the massive changes in economic and social organization that will be needed to make such a system successful. 31. The economist Richard Baldwin also predicts a future of personal services in his book The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work (Oxford Uni- versity Press, 2019). 32. The book that is viewed as having exposed the failure of whole- word literacy educa- tion and launched decades of struggle between the two main schools of thought on reading: Rudolf Flesch, Why Johnny Cant Read: And What You Can Do about It (Harper & Bros., 1955). 33. On educational methods that enable the recipient to adapt to the rapid rate of techno- logical and economic change in the next few decades: Joseph Aoun, Robot- Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, 2017). 34. A radio lecture in which Turing predicted that humans would be overtaken by ma- chines: Alan Turing, Can digital machines think?, May 15, 1951, radio broadcast, BBC Third Programme. Typescript available at turingarchive.org. 35. News article describing the naturalization of Sophia as a citizen of Saudi Arabia: Dave Gershgorn, Inside the mechanical brain of the worlds first robot citizen, Quartz , November 12, 2017. 36. On Yann LeCuns view of Sophia: Shona Ghosh, Facebooks AI boss described Sophia the robot as complete b t and Wizard- of- Oz AI, Business Insider , January 6, 2018. 37. An EU proposal on legal rights for robots: Committee on Legal Affairs of the Euro- pean Parliament, Report with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics (2015/ 2103(INL)), 2017. 38. The GDPR provision on a right to an explanation is not, in fact, new: it is very similar to Article 15(1) of the 1995 Data Protection Directive, which it supersedes. 39. Here are three recent papers providing insightful mathematical analyses of fairness: Moritz Hardt, Eric Price, and Nati Srebro, Equality of opportunity in supervised learning, in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 29 , ed. Daniel Lee et al. (2016); Matt Kusner et al., Counterfactual fairness, in Advances in Neural Informa- tion Processing Systems 30 , ed. Isabelle Guyon et al. (2017); Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Manish Raghavan, Inherent trade- offs in the fair determination of risk scores, in 8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference , ed. Christos Papadimitriou (Dagstuhl Publishing, 2017). 40. News article describing the consequences of software failure for air traffic control: Simon Calder, Thousands stranded by flight cancellations after systems failure at Europes air- traffic coordinator, The Independent , April 3, 2018. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 310 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot vi ompletmple oposal on legaposal on lega rliament, Rerliament, Re n Robotics n Robotics R provR pro (forpescr the natuna ide the mechde the me 2, 2017., 2017 w of Sophiw of Sophi bbDistributionmater ocial organal organ ersonal servicrsonal servic Future of Woruture of Wo ure of f whole-hole- the two mainthe two main Read: And Wad: And recipient to adipient to ad t few decadest few decades lligencegence (MIT (MI predicted thapredicted tha al machinesal machines t availabt availa iziz NOTES 311 CHAPTER 5 1. Lovelace wrote, The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate any- thing. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths. This was one of the arguments against AI that was refuted by Alan Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence, Mind 59 (1950): 433 60. 2. The earliest known article on existential risk from AI was by Richard Thornton, The age of machinery, Primitive Expounder IV (1847): 281. 3. The Book of the Machines was based on an earlier article by Samuel Butler, Darwin among the machines, The Press (Christchurch, New Zealand), June 13, 1863. 4. Another lecture in which Turing predicted the subjugation of humankind: Alan Turing, Intelligent machinery, a heretical theory (lecture given to the 51 Society, Manchester, 1951). Typescript available at turingarchive.org. 5. Wieners prescient discussion of technological control over humanity and a plea to retain human autonomy: Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (Riverside Press, 1950). 6. The front- cover blurb from Wieners 1950 book is remarkably similar to the motto of the Future of Life Institute, an organization dedicated to studying the existential risks that humanity faces: Technology is giving life the potential to flourish like never before . . . or to self- destruct. 7. An updating of Wieners views arising from his increased appreciation of the possibility of intelligent machines: Norbert Wiener, God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion (MIT Press, 1964). 8. Asimovs Three Laws of Robotics first appeared in Isaac Asimov, Runaround, As- tounding Science Fiction , March 1942. The laws are as follows: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. It is important to understand that Asimov proposed these laws as a way to generate interesting story plots, not as a serious guide for future roboticists. Several of his sto-ries, including Runaround, illustrate the problematic consequences of taking the laws literally. From the standpoint of modern AI, the laws fail to acknowledge any el-ement of probability and risk: the legality of robot actions that expose a human to some probability of harm however infinitesimal is therefore unclear. 9. The notion of instrumental goals is due to Stephen Omohundro, The nature of self- improving artificial intelligence (unpublished manuscript, 2008). See also Stephen Omohundro, The basic AI drives, in Artificial General Intelligence 2008: Proceed- ings of the First AGI Conference , ed. Pei Wang, Ben Goertzel, and Stan Franklin (IOS Press, 2008). 10. The objective of Johnny Depps character, Will Caster, seems to be to solve the prob- lem of physical reincarnation so that he can be reunited with his wife, Evelyn. This just goes to show that the nature of the overarching objective doesnt matter the instru- mental goals are all the same. 11. The original source for the idea of an intelligence explosion: I. J. Good, Speculations concerning the first ultraintelligent machine, in Advances in Computers , vol. 6, ed. Franz Alt and Morris Rubinoff (Academic Press, 1965). 12. An example of the impact of the intelligence explosion idea: Luke Muehlhauser, in Facing the Intelligence Explosion (intelligenceexplosion.com), writes, Goods paragraph ran over me like a train. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 311 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotRunRu From theom t probability anprobability a obability of bability of h otion of instrotion of instr ng artifing artifi ro,rofor d Lawaw nderstand thatnderstand th ots, not as a ts, not as a round,round, staDistributionimilar tlar t ying the exi the exi ntial to flourintial to flou ed appreciatioappreciatio Golem, Inc.: Aem, Inc.: A T Press, 1964T Press, 196 red in Isaac Ared in Isaac A aws are as folls are as fol ng or, throughor, throu given it by hugiven it by h t Law. tL a w . n existencen existen 312 NOTES 13. Diminishing returns can be illustrated as follows: suppose that a 16 percent improve- ment in intelligence creates a machine capable of making an 8 percent improvement, which in turn creates a 4 percent improvement, and so on. This process reaches a limit at about 36 percent above the original level. For more discussion on these issues, see Eliezer Yudkowsky, Intelligence explosion microeconomics, technical report 2013- 1, Machine Intelligence Research Institute, 2013. 14. For a view of AI in which humans become irrelevant, see Hans Moravec, Mind Chil- dren: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (Harvard University Press, 1988). See also Hans Moravec, Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind (Oxford University Press, 2000). CHAPTER 6 1. A serious publication provides a serious review of Bostroms Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies : Clever cogs, Economist , August 9, 2014. 2. A discussion of myths and misunderstandings concerning the risks of AI: Scott Alex- ander, AI researchers on AI risk, Slate Star Codex (blog), May 22, 2015. 3. The classic work on multiple dimensions of intelligence: Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Basic Books, 1983). 4. On the implications of multiple dimensions of intelligence for the possibility of super- human AI: Kevin Kelly, The myth of a superhuman AI, Wired , April 25, 2017. 5. Evidence that chimpanzees have better short- term memory than humans: Sana Inoue and Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Working memory of numerals in chimpanzees, Current Bi- ology 17 (2007), R1004 5. 6. An important early work questioning the prospects for rule- based AI systems: Hubert Dreyfus, What Computers Cant Do (MIT Press, 1972). 7. The first in a series of books seeking physical explanations for consciousness and rais- ing doubts about the ability of AI systems to achieve real intelligence: Roger Penrose, The Emperors New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Ox- ford University Press, 1989). 8. A revival of the critique of AI based on the incompleteness theorem: Luciano Floridi, Should we be afraid of AI? Aeon , May 9, 2016. 9. A revival of the critique of AI based on the Chinese room argument: John Searle, What your computer cant know, The New York Review of Books , October 9, 2014. 10. A report from distinguished AI researchers claiming that superhuman AI is probably impossible: Peter Stone et al., Artificial intelligence and life in 2030, One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, report of the 2015 Study Panel, 2016. 11. News article based on Andrew Ngs dismissal of risks from AI: Chris Williams, AI guru Ng: Fearing a rise of killer robots is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars, Register , March 19, 2015. 12. An example of the experts know best argument: Oren Etzioni, Its time to intelli- gently discuss artificial intelligence, Backchannel , December 9, 2014. 13. News article claiming that real AI researchers dismiss talk of risks: Erik Sofge, Bill Gates fears AI, but AI researchers know better, Popular Science , January 30, 2015. 14. Another claim that real AI researchers dismiss AI risks: David Kenny, IBMs open letter to Congress on artificial intelligence, June 27, 2017, ibm.com/ blogs/ policy / kenny- artificial- intelligence- letter. 15. Report from the workshop that proposed voluntary restrictions on genetic engineering: Paul Berg et al., Summary statement of the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 72 (1975): 1981 84. 16. Policy statement arising from the invention of CRISPR- Cas9 for gene editing: Orga- nizing Committee for the International Summit on Human Gene Editing, On human gene editing: International Summit statement, December 3, 2015. 17. The latest policy statement from leading biologists: Eric Lander et al., Adopt a mora- torium on heritable genome editing, Nature 567 (2019): 165 68. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 312 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotrtifictific based on Ad on aring a rise ofaring a rise of March 19, 201arch 19, 20 mple of the mple of the scuss artiscuss arti ec lecfor of AI bAI ant know, know uished AI reseuished AI re ne et al., Ane et al., A al Intellial Intelli nddDistribution20 d GardnGardn or the possibilor the possib WiredWired , April , Apri mory than humry than hum rals in chimps in chimp ects for ects for rrule-ule-bb ess, 1972)., 1972). cal explanatioal explanatio ms to achieve to achiev Computers, MComputers, M ased on the inased on the i nn, May 9, , May 9 ed oned o NOTES 313 18. Etzionis comment that one cannot mention risks if one does not also mention benefits appears alongside his analysis of survey data from AI researchers: Oren Etzioni, No, the experts dont think superintelligent AI is a threat to humanity, MIT Technology Review , September 20, 2016. In his analysis he argues that anyone who expects super- human AI to take more than twenty- five years which includes this author as well as Nick Bostrom is not concerned about the risks of AI. 19. A news article with quotations from the Musk Zuckerberg debate: Alanna Petroff, Elon Musk says Mark Zuckerbergs understanding of AI is limited, CNN Money , July 25, 2017. 20. In 2015 the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation organized a debate titled Are super intelligent computers really a threat to humanity? Robert Atkinson, director of the foundation, suggests that mentioning risks is likely to result in reduced funding for AI. Video available at itif.org/ events/ 2015/ 06/ 30/ are- super- intelligent - computers- really- threat- humanity; the relevant discussion begins at 41:30. 21. A claim that our culture of safety will solve the AI control problem without ever mentioning it: Steven Pinker, Tech prophecy and the underappreciated causal power of ideas, in Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI , ed. John Brockman (Penguin Press, 2019). 22. For an interesting analysis of Oracle AI, see Stuart Armstrong, Anders Sandberg, and Nick Bostrom, Thinking inside the box: Controlling and using an Oracle AI, Minds and Machines 22 (2012): 299 324. 23. Views on why AI is not going to take away jobs: Kenny, IBMs open letter. 24. An example of Kurzweils positive views of merging human brains with AI: Ray Kurzweil, interview by Bob Pisani, June 5, 2015, Exponential Finance Summit, New York, NY. 25. Article quoting Elon Musk on neural lace: Tim Urban, Neuralink and the brains magical future, Wait But Why, April 20, 2017. 26. For the most recent developments in Berkeleys neural dust project, see David Piech et al., StimDust: A 1.7 mm 3, implantable wireless precision neural stimulator with ul- trasonic power and communication, arXiv: 1807.07590 (2018). 27. Susan Schneider, in Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind (Princeton Univer- sity Press, 2019), points out the risks of ignorance in proposed technologies such as uploading and neural prostheses: that, absent any real understanding of whether elec-tronic devices can be conscious and given the continuing philosophical confusion over persistent personal identity, we may inadvertently end our own conscious existences or inflict suffering on conscious machines without realizing that they are conscious. 28. An interview with Yann LeCun on AI risks: Guia Marie Del Prado, Heres what Face- books artificial intelligence expert thinks about the future, Business Insider , Septem- ber 23, 2015. 29. A diagnosis of AI control problems arising from an excess of testosterone: Steven Pinker, Thinking does not imply subjugating, in What to Think About Machines That Think , ed. John Brockman (Harper Perennial, 2015). 30. A seminal work on many philosophical topics, including the question of whether moral obligations may be perceived in the natural world: David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (John Noon, 1738). 3 1. An argument that a sufficiently intelligent machine cannot help but pursue human objectives: Rodney Brooks, The seven deadly sins of AI predictions, MIT Technology Review , October 6, 2017. 32. Pinker, Thinking does not imply subjugating. 33. For an optimistic view arguing that AI safety problems will necessarily be resolved in our favor: Steven Pinker, Tech prophecy. 34. On the unsuspected alignment between skeptics and believers in AI risk: Alexan- der, AI researchers on AI risk. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 313 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotng with Yath Y icial intelligal intellig 015.15 gnosis of AI cgnosis of AI c Thinking Thinkin . John. Joforut th ostheses:hese conscious anconscious a identity, we mdentity, we n conscioun consciou n LeCLeDistributioned. J ng, Anders Sa Anders Sa d using an Orausing an Ora ny, IBMs opIBMs op erging humanng human 5, Exponenti5, Exponenti ce: Tim Urbane: Tim Urban 0, 2017.2017. Berkeleys neuBerkeleys neu ntable wirelesable wirel tion, arXiv: 1tion, arXiv: 1 You: AI and tYou: AI and risks ofrisks o atat 314 NOTES &+$37(5 1. For a guide to detailed brain modeling, now slightly outdated, see Anders Sandberg and Nick Bostrom, Whole brain emulation: A roadmap , technical report 2008- 3, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University, 2008. 2. For an introduction to genetic programming from a leading exponent, see John Koza, Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Natural Selection (MIT Press, 1992). 3. The parallel to Asimovs Three Laws of Robotics is entirely coincidental. 4. The same point is made by Eliezer Yudkowsky, Coherent extrapolated volition, tech- nical report, Singularity Institute, 2004. Yudkowsky argues that directly building in Four Great Moral Principles That Are All We Need to Program into AIs is a sure road to ruin for humanity. His notion of the coherent extrapolated volition of human-kind has the same general flavor as the first principle; the idea is that a superintelli-gent AI system could work out what humans, collectively, really want. 5. You can certainly have preferences over whether a machine is helping you achieve your preferences or you are achieving them through your own efforts. For example, sup-pose you prefer outcome A to outcome B, all other things being equal. You are unable to achieve outcome A unaided, and yet you still prefer B to getting A with the ma-chines help. In that case the machine should decide not to help you unless perhaps it can do so in a way that is completely undetectable by you. You may, of course, have preferences about undetectable help as well as detectable help. 6. The phrase the greatest good of the greatest number originates in the work of Francis Hutcheson, An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, In Two Treatises (D. Midwinter et al., 1725). Some have ascribed the formulation to an earlier comment by Wilhelm Leibniz; see Joachim Hruschka, The greatest happiness principle and other early German anticipations of utilitarian theory, Utilitas 3 (1991): 165 77. 7. One might propose that the machine should include terms for animals as well as hu- mans in its own objective function. If these terms have weights that correspond to how much people care about animals, then the end result will be the same as if the machine cares about animals only through caring about humans who care about animals. Giv-ing each living animal equal weight in the machines objective function would cer-tainly be catastrophicfor example, we are outnumbered fifty thousand to one by Antarctic krill and a billion trillion to one by bacteria. 8. The moral philosopher Toby Ord made the same point to me in his comments on an early draft of this book: Interestingly, the same is true in the study of moral philoso-phy. Uncertainty about moral value of outcomes was almost completely neglected in moral philosophy until very recently. Despite the fact that it is our uncertainty of moral matters that leads people to ask others for moral advice and, indeed, to do re-search on moral philosophy at all! 9. One excuse for not paying attention to uncertainty about preferences is that it is for- mally equivalent to ordinary uncertainty, in the following sense: being uncertain about what I like is the same as being certain that I like likable things while being uncertain about what things are likable. This is just a trick that appears to move the uncertainty into the world, by making likability by me a property of objects rather than a property of me. In game theory, this trick has been thoroughly institutionalized since the 1960s, following a series of papers by my late colleague and Nobel laureate John Harsanyi: Games with incomplete information played by Bayesian players, Parts I III, Management Science 14 (1967, 1968): 159 82, 320 34, 486 502. In deci- sion theory, the standard reference is the following: Richard Cyert and Morris de Groot, Adaptive utility, in Expected Utility Hypotheses and the Allais Paradox , ed. Maurice Allais and Ole Hagen (D. Reidel, 1979). 10. AI researchers working in the area of preference elicitation are an obvious exception. See, for example, Craig Boutilier, On the foundations of expected expected utility, in Proceedings of the 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligen ce (Morgan Kaufmann, 2003). Also Alan Fern et al., A decision- theoretic model of assistance, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 50 (2014): 71 104. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 314 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotaboabo phy until unt ers that leadsers that leads moral philosomoral philo cuse for not pcuse for not p uivalent uivalent Il iIlfor r examxam ion trillion rilli er Toby Ord mr Toby Ord ok: Interestk: Interes t moral t moral eryDistributionFor qual. Yoal. Yo getting A wing A wi help help yyouou uun ou. You may, ou. You may ble help.help. originates inriginates in of Beauty andof Beauty an the formulatithe formulati The greatest he greatest h eory, ory, UtilitasUtilitas hould include ld includ these terms hthese terms h hen the end rehen the end re h caring abouh caring abou ight in theight in t le, wele, we NOTES 315 11. A critique of beneficial AI based on a misinterpretation of a journalists brief interview with the author in a magazine article: Adam Elkus, How to be good: Why you cant teach human values to artificial intelligence, Slate , April 20, 2016. 12. The origin of trolley problems: Frank Sharp, A study of the influence of custom on the moral judgment, Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin 236 (1908). 13. The anti- natalist movement believes it is morally wrong for humans to reproduce because to live is to suffer and because humans impact on the Earth is profoundly negative. If you consider the existence of humanity to be a moral dilemma, then I suppose I do want machines to resolve this moral dilemma the right way. 14. Statement on Chinas AI policy by Fu Ying, vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Commit- tee of the National Peoples Congress. In a letter to the 2018 World AI Conference in Shanghai, Chinese president Xi Jinping wrote, Deepened international cooperation is required to cope with new issues in fields including law, security, employment, eth-ics and governance. I am indebted to Brian Tse for bringing these statements to my attention. 15. A very interesting paper on the non- naturalistic non- fallacy, showing how preferences can be inferred from the state of the world as arranged by humans: Rohin Shah et al., The implicit preference information in an initial state, in Proceedings of the 7th Inter- national Conference on Learning Representations (2019), iclr.cc/ Conferences/ 2019 / Schedule. 16. Retrospective on Asilomar: Paul Berg, Asilomar 1975: DNA modification secured, Nature 455 (2008): 290 91. 17. News article reporting Putins speech on AI: Putin: Leader in artificial intelligence will rule world, Associated Press, September 4, 2017. CHAPTER 8 1. Fermats Last Theorem asserts that the equation a n = bn + cn has no solutions with a, b, and c being whole numbers and n being a whole number larger than 2. In the margin of his copy of Diophantuss Arithmetica , Fermat wrote, I have a truly marvellous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain. True or not, this guar-anteed that mathematicians pursued a proof with vigor in the subsequent centuries. We can easily check particular cases for example, is 7 3 equal to 63 + 53? (Almost, because 73 is 343 and 63 + 53 is 341, but almost doesnt count.) There are, of course, infinitely many cases to check, and thats why we need mathematicians and not just computer programmers. 2. A paper from the Machine Intelligence Research Institute poses many related issues: Scott Garrabrant and Abram Demski, Embedded agency, AI Alignment Forum, No-vember 15, 2018. 3. The classic work on multiattribute utility theory: Ralph Keeney and Howard Raiffa, Decisions with Multiple Objectives: Preferences and Value Tradeoffs (Wiley, 1976). 4. Paper introducing the idea of inverse RL: Stuart Russell, Learning agents for uncer- tain environments, in Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference on Computational Learning Theory (ACM, 1998). 5. The original paper on structural estimation of Markov decision processes: Thomas Sargent, Estimation of dynamic labor demand schedules under rational expectations, Journal of Political Economy 86 (1978): 1009 44. 6. The first algorithms for IRL: Andrew Ng and Stuart Russell, Algorithms for inverse reinforcement learning, in Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Machine Learning , ed. Pat Langley (Morgan Kaufmann, 2000). 7. Better algorithms for inverse RL: Pieter Abbeel and Andrew Ng, Apprenticeship learn- ing via inverse reinforcement learning, in Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Machine Learning , ed. Russ Greiner and Dale Schuurmans (ACM Press, 2004). 8. Understanding inverse RL as Bayesian updating: Deepak Ramachandran and Eyal Amir, Bayesian inverse reinforcement learning, in Proceedings of the 20th Interna- tional Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence , ed. Manuela Veloso (AAAI Press, 2007) . M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 315 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotm the Mae M brant and Aant and A 5, 2018.5, 201 assic work onassic work on ons with Muons with M roducroduforns pp rticular ula 63 + 5+ 533 is 34 is 3 es to check, as to check, a ers.ers. hine ineDistributionns: Ro oceedings ofdings of iclr.cc/r.cc/ConfeConfe 5: DNA modiDNA modi utin: Leader in Leader in 4, 2017. 2017. he equation he equation aa being a wholeeing a who meticametica , Ferm, Ferm margin is toomargin is too sued a psued a ss 316 NOTES 9. How to teach helicopters to fly and do aerobatic maneuvers: Adam Coates, Pieter Abbeel, and Andrew Ng, Apprenticeship learning for helicopter control, Communi- cations of the ACM 52 (2009): 97 105. 10. The original name proposed for an assistance game was a cooperative inverse reinforce- ment learning game, or CIRL game. See Dylan Hadfield- Menell et al., Cooperative inverse reinforcement learning, in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 29, ed. Daniel Lee et al. (2016). 11. These numbers are chosen just to make the game interesting. 12. The equilibrium solution to the game can be found by a process called iterated best re- sponse : pick any strategy for Harriet; pick the best strategy for Robbie, given Harriets strategy; pick the best strategy for Harriet, given Robbies strategy; and so on. If this process reaches a fixed point, where neither strategy changes, then we have found a solution. The process unfolds as follows: 1. Start with the greedy strategy for Harriet: make 2 paperclips if she prefers paper- clips; make 1 of each if she is indifferent; make 2 staples if she prefers staples. 2. There are three possibilities Robbie has to consider, given this strategy for Harriet: a. If Robbie sees Harriet make 2 paperclips, he infers that she prefers paperclips, so he now believes the value of a paperclip is uniformly distributed between 50 and $1.00, with an average of 75. In that case, his best plan is to make 90 paperclips with an expected value of $67.50 for Harriet. b. If Robbie sees Harriet make 1 of each, he infers that she values paperclips and staples at 50, so the best choice is to make 50 of each. c. If Robbie sees Harriet make 2 staples, then by the same argument as in 2(a), he should make 90 staples. 3. Given this strategy for Robbie, Harriets best strategy is now somewhat different from the greedy strategy in step 1: if Robbie is going to respond to her making 1 of each by making 50 of each, then she is better off making 1 of each not just if she is exactly indifferent but if she is anywhere close to indifferent. In fact, the optimal policy is now to make 1 of each if she values paperclips anywhere between about 44.6 and 55.4. 4. Given this new strategy for Harriet, Robbies strategy remains unchanged. For ex- ample, if she chooses 1 of each, he infers that the value of a paperclip is uniformly distributed between 44.6 and 55.4, with an average of 50, so the best choice is to make 50 of each. Because Robbies strategy is the same as in step 2, Harriets best response will be the same as in step 3, and we have found the equilibrium. 13. For a more complete analysis of the off- switch game, see Dylan Hadfield- Menell et al., The off- switch game, in Proceedings of the 26th International Joint Conference on Arti- ficial Intelligence , ed. Carles Sierra (IJCAI, 2017) . 14. The proof of the general result is quite simple if you dont mind integral signs. Let P(u) be Robbies prior probability density over Harriets utility for the proposed action a. Then the value of going ahead with a is (We will see shortly why the integral is split up in this way.) On the other hand, the value of action d, deferring to Harriet, is composed of two parts: if u > 0, then Harriet lets Robbie go ahead, so the value is u, but if u < 0, then Harriet switches Robbie off, so the value is 0: Comparing the expressions for EU(a) and EU(d), we see immediately that EU(d) EU(a) because the expression for EU(d) has the negative- utility region zeroed out. The two choices have equal value only when the negative region has zero probabilitythat is, when Robbie is already certain that Harriet likes the proposed action. The theorem is a direct analog of the well- known theorem concerning the non- negative expected value of information. EU a() P(u)ud u P (u)ud u P (u)ud u00= = + EU d() P(u)0du P (u)ud u00= + 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 316 8/7/19 11:21 PMNote t omplete analplete anal witch game, iwitch game, telligencetelligence , ed. C, ed. C of of the geof of the g s prios prforfor H of each, eac 44.6 and 544.6 and . Because RobBecause Ro e same as same as Distributiontrateg g prefers paefers pa ributed betweuted betwe an is to make n is to make s that she valuat she va 0 of each.each. by the same by the same s best strategybest strategy Robbie is goingbie is goin e is better off e is better off anywhere closeywhere clo ch if she valuech if she value rriet, Rorriet, R ei nei n NOTES 317 15. Perhaps the next elaboration in line, for the one human one robot case, is to consider a Harriet who does not yet know her own preferences regarding some aspect of the world, or whose preferences have not yet been formed. 16. To see how exactly Robbie converges to an incorrect belief, consider a model in which Harriet is slightly irrational, making errors with a probability that diminishes expo-nentially as the size of error increases. Robbie offers Harriet 4 paperclips in return for 1 staple; she refuses. According to Robbies beliefs, this is irrational: even at 25 per paperclip and 75 per staple, she should accept 4 for 1. Therefore, she must have made a mistake but this mistake is much more likely if her true value is 25 than if it is, say, 30, because the error costs her a lot more if her value for paperclips is 30. Now Robbies probability distribution has 25 as the most likely value because it represents the smallest error on Harriets part, with exponentially lower probabilities for values higher than 25. If he keeps trying the same experiment, the probability distribution becomes more and more concentrated close to 25. In the limit, Robbie becomes cer-tain that Harriets value for paperclips is 25. 17. Robbie could, for example, have a normal (Gaussian) distribution for his prior belief about the exchange rate, which stretches from to +. 18. For an example of the kind of mathematical analysis that may be needed, see Avrim Blum, Lisa Hellerstein, and Nick Littlestone, Learning in the presence of finitely or infinitely many irrelevant attributes, Journal of Computer and System Sciences 50 (1995): 32 40. Also Lori Dalton, Optimal Bayesian feature selection, in Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing , ed. Charles Bouman, Robert Nowak, and Anna Scaglione (IEEE, 2013). 19. Here I am rephrasing slightly a question by Moshe Vardi at the Asilomar Conference on Beneficial AI, 2017. 20. Michael Wellman and Jon Doyle, Preferential semantics for goals, in Proceedings of the 9th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI Press, 1991). This paper draws on a much earlier proposal by Georg von Wright, The logic of preference recon-sidered, Theory and Decision 3 (1972): 140 67. 21. My late Berkeley colleague has the distinction of becoming an adjective. See Paul Grice, Studies in the Way of Words (Harvard University Press, 1989). 22. The original paper on direct stimulation of pleasure centers in the brain: James Olds and Peter Milner, Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain, Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 47 (1954): 419 27. 23. Letting rats push the button: James Olds, Self- stimulation of the brain; its use to study local effects of hunger, sex, and drugs, Science 127 (1958): 315 24. 24. Letting humans push the button: Robert Heath, Electrical self- stimulation of the brain in man, American Journal of Psychiatry 120 (1963): 571 77. 25. A first mathematical treatment of wireheading, showing how it occurs in reinforce- ment learning agents: Mark Ring and Laurent Orseau, Delusion, survival, and intelli-gent agents, in Artificial General Intelligence: 4th International Conference , ed. Jrgen Schmidhuber, Kristinn Thrisson, and Moshe Looks (Springer, 2011). One possible solution to the wireheading problem: Tom Everitt and Marcus Hutter, Avoiding wire-heading with value reinforcement learning, arXiv:1605.03143 (2016). 26. How it might be possible for an intelligence explosion to occur safely: Benja Fallen- stein and Nate Soares, Vingean reflection: Reliable reasoning for self- improving agents, technical report 2015- 2, Machine Intelligence Research Institute, 2015. 27. The difficulty agents face in reasoning about themselves and their successors: Benja Fallenstein and Nate Soares, Problems of self- reference in self- improving space- time embedded intelligence, in Artificial General Intelligence: 7th International Conference , ed. Ben Goertzel, Laurent Orseau, and Javier Snaider (Springer, 2014). 28. Showing why an agent might pursue an objective different from its true objective if its computational abilities are limited: Jonathan Sorg, Satinder Singh, and Richard Lewis, Internal rewards mitigate agent boundedness, in Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Machine Learning , ed. Johannes Frnkranz and Thorsten Joachims (2010), icml.cc/ Conferences/ 2010/ papers/ icml2010proceedings.zip. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 317 8/7/19 11:21 PMNoth t fects of ts o mans push tns push t man, man, AmericaAmerica mathematicamathematica earning ageearning ag ts, ints, forct st ive reinforein s of rat brain, of rat brain he button:e button: ungengeDistributiony be needee neede the presence presence uter and Systeter and Syst eature selectioture selectio nformation Promation Pr EE, 2013).2013). oshe Vardi at tshe Vardi at t ential semantential semant al Intelligencentelligence Georg von WriGeorg von Wr 972): 2): 140140 67.6 the distincti the distincti rdsrds (Harvar (Harvars mulationmulatio emem 318 NOTES &+$37(5 1. Some have argued that biology and neuroscience are also directly relevant. See, for example, Gopal Sarma, Adam Safron, and Nick Hay, Integrative biological simula-tion, neuropsychology, and AI safety, arxiv.org/ abs/ 1811.03493 (2018). 2. On the possibility of making computers liable for damages: Paulius C erka, Jurgita Grigiene , and Gintare Sirbikyte , Liability for damages caused by artificial intelli- gence, Computer Law and Security Review 31 (2015): 376 89. 3. For an excellent machine- oriented introduction to standard ethical theories and their implications for designing AI systems, see Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen, Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong (Oxford University Press, 2008). 4. The sourcebook for utilitarian thought: Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Prin- ciples of Morals and Legislation (T. Payne & Son, 1789). 5. Mills elaboration of his tutor Benthams ideas was extraordinarily influential on lib- eral thought: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (Parker, Son & Bourn, 1863). 6. The paper introducing preference utilitarianism and preference autonomy: John Harsanyi, Morality and the theory of rational behavior, Social Research 44 (1977): 623 56. 7. An argument for social aggregation via weighted sums of utilities when deciding on behalf of multiple individuals: John Harsanyi, Cardinal welfare, individualistic eth-ics, and interpersonal comparisons of utility, Journal of Political Economy 63 (1955): 309 21. 8. A generalization of Harsanyis social aggregation theorem to the case of unequal prior beliefs: Andrew Critch, Nishant Desai, and Stuart Russell, Negotiable reinforce-ment learning for Pareto optimal sequential decision- making, in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 31 , ed. Samy Bengio et al. (2018). 9. The sourcebook for ideal utilitarianism: G. E. Moore, Ethics (Williams & Nor- gate, 1912). 10. News article citing Stuart Armstrongs colorful example of misguided utility maximi- zation: Chris Matyszczyk, Professor warns robots could keep us in coffins on heroin drips, CNET, June 29, 2015. 11. Poppers theory of negative utilitarianism (so named later by Smart): Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies (Routledge, 1945). 12. A refutation of negative utilitarianism: R. Ninian Smart, Negative utilitarianism, Mind 67 (1958): 542 43. 13. For a typical argument for risks arising from end human suffering commands, see Why do we think AI will destroy us?, Reddit, reddit.com/ r/ Futurology/ com ments / 38fp6o/ why_ do_ we_ think_ ai_ will_ destroy_ us. 14. A good source for self- deluding incentives in AI: Ring and Orseau, Delusion, survival, and intelligent agents. 15. On the impossibility of interpersonal comparisons of utility: W. Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy (Macmillan, 1871). 16. The utility monster makes its appearance in Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Uto- pia (Basic Books, 1974). 17. For example, we can fix immediate death to have a utility of 0 and a maximally happy life to have a utility of 1. See John Isbell, Absolute games, in Contributions to the Theory of Games , vol. 4, ed. Albert Tucker and R. Duncan Luce (Princeton University Press, 1959). 18. The oversimplified nature of Thanoss population- halving policy is discussed by Tim Harford, Thanos shows us how not to be an economist, Financial Times , April 20, 2019. Even before the film debuted, defenders of Thanos began to congregate on the subreddit r/ thanosdidnothingwrong/. In keeping with the subreddits motto, 350,000 of the 700,000 members were later purged. 19. On utilities for populations of different sizes: Henry Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (Macmillan, 1874). 20. The Repugnant Conclusion and other knotty problems of utilitarian thinking: Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons (Oxford University Press, 1984). 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 318 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotnk Ak A do_we_we__ th ce for or sself-elf-ddee igent agents.ent agents impossibilityimpossibility Political Political monmofor es (RoRos e utilitarian itar 43.43 ent for risks nt for risk will dewill de nkkDistributionse ities when d when d elfare, individelfare, indivi Political Econoolitical Econ orem to the cm to the c art Russell, art Russell, cision-cision- mmakingaking Bengio et al. (2gio et al. ( G. E. MooG. E. Moo s colorful exas colorful exa or warns roboor warns rob arianism (sarianism ledge,ledge NOTES 319 21. For a concise summary of axiomatic approaches to population ethics, see Peter Eckers- ley, Impossibility and uncertainty theorems in AI value alignment, in Proceedings of the AAAI Workshop on Artificial Intelligence Safety , ed. Huscar Espinoza et al. (2019). 22. Calculating the long- term carrying capacity of the Earth: Daniel ONeill et al., A good life for all within planetary boundaries, Nature Sustainability 1 (2018): 88 95. 23. For an application of moral uncertainty to population ethics, see Hilary Greaves and Toby Ord, Moral uncertainty about population axiology, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 12 (2017): 135 67. A more comprehensive analysis is provided by Will MacAskill, Krister Bykvist, and Toby Ord, Moral Uncertainty (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). 24. Quotation showing that Smith was not so obsessed with selfishness as is commonly imagined: Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Andrew Millar; Alexander Kincaid and J. Bell, 1759). 25. For an introduction to the economics of altruism, see Serge- Christophe Kolm and Jean Ythier, eds., Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity , 2 vols. ( North- Holland, 2006). 26. On charity as selfish: James Andreoni, Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of warm- glow giving, Economic Journal 100 (1990): 464 77. 27. For those who like equations: let Alices intrinsic well- being be measured by wA and Bobs by wB. Then the utilities for Alice and Bob are defined as follows: UA = wA + CAB wBUB = wB + CBA wA. Some authors suggest that Alice cares about Bobs overall utility UB rather than just his intrinsic well- being wB, but this leads to a kind of circularity in that Alices utility depends on Bobs utility which depends on Alices utility; sometimes stable solutions can be found but the underlying model can be questioned. See, for example, Hajime Hori, Nonpaternalistic altruism and functional interdependence of social prefer-ences, Social Choice and Welfare 32 (2009): 59 77. 28. Models in which each individuals utility is a linear combination of everyones well- being are just one possibility. Much more general models are possible for example, models in which some individuals prefer to avoid severe inequalities in the distribu-tion of well- being, even at the expense of reducing the total, while other individuals would really prefer that no one have preferences about inequality at all. Thus, the overall approach I am proposing accommodates multiple moral theories held by indi-viduals; at the same time, it doesnt insist that any one of those moral theories is cor-rect or should have much sway over outcomes for those who hold a different theory. I am indebted to Toby Ord for pointing out this feature of the approach. 29. Arguments of this type have been made against policies designed to ensure equality of outcome, notably by the American legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin. See, for example, Ronald Dworkin, What is equality? Part 1: Equality of welfare, Philosophy and Public Affairs 10 (1981): 185 246. I am indebted to Iason Gabriel for this reference. 30. Malice in the form of revenge- based punishment for transgressions is certainly a com- mon tendency. Although it plays a social role in keeping members of a community in line, it can be replaced by an equally effective policy driven by deterrence and prevention that is, weighing the intrinsic harm done when punishing the transgres- sor against the benefits to the larger society. 31. Let E AB and PAB be Alices coefficients of envy and pride respectively, and assume that they apply to the difference in well- being. Then a (somewhat oversimplified) formula for Alices utility could be the following: UA = wA + CAB wB EAB (wB wA) + PAB (wA wB) = (1 + EAB + PAB) wA + (CAB EAB PAB) wB. Thus, if Alice has positive pride and envy coefficients, they act on Bobs welfare ex- actly like sadism and malice coefficients: Alice is happier if Bobs welfare is lowered, all other things being equal. In reality, pride and envy typically apply not to differ- ences in well- being but to differences in visible aspects thereof, such as status and possessions. Bobs hard toil in acquiring his possessions (which lowers his overall M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 319 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotve o Toby Tob of this type this type notably by thnotably by th d Dworkin, Wd Dworkin, W 10 (1981): 10 (1981) the fotheforthe t no one on m proposing am proposing e time, it doestime, it does much swaymuch sway Ord fodfDistributiondona 1990): 90): 4646 ng be measurebe measure ned as followsed as follows s overall utilverall util ind of circuland of circula Alices utility;ices utilit an be questionn be question functional innctional in (2009): (2009): 5959777 s utility is a liutility is a Much more genMuch more gen uals prefer tuals prefer t xpense xpense aveave 320 NOTES well- being) may not be visible to Alice. This can lead to the self- defeating behaviors that go under the heading of keeping up with the Joneses. 32. On the sociology of conspicuous consumption: Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (Macmillan, 1899). 33. Fred Hirsch, The Social Limits to Growth (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977). 34. I am indebted to Ziyad Marar for pointing me to social identity theory and its impor- tance in understanding human motivation and behavior. See, for example, Dominic Abrams and Michael Hogg, eds., Social Identity Theory: Constructive and Critical Ad- vances (Springer, 1990). For a much briefer summary of the main ideas, see Ziyad Marar, Social identity, in This Idea Is Brilliant: Lost, Overlooked, and Underappreci- ated Scientific Concepts Everyone Should Know , ed. John Brockman (Harper Perennial, 2018). 35. Here, I am not suggesting that we necessarily need a detailed understanding of the neural implementation of cognition; what is needed is a model at the software level of how preferences, both explicit and implicit, generate behavior. Such a model would need to incorporate what is known about the reward system. 36. Ralph Adolphs and David Anderson, The Neuroscience of Emotion: A New Synthesis (Princeton University Press, 2018). 37. See, for example, Rosalind Picard, Affective Computing , 2nd ed. (MIT Press, 1998). 38. Waxing lyrical on the delights of the durian: Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archi- pelago: The Land of the Orang- Utan, and the Bird of Paradise (Macmillan, 1869). 39. A less rosy view of the durian: Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford University Press, 1999). Buildings have been evacuated and planes turned around in mid- flight because of the durians overpowering odor. 40. I discovered after writing this chapter that the durian was used for exactly the same philosophical purpose by Laurie Paul, Transformative Experience (Oxford University Press, 2014). Paul suggests that uncertainty about ones own preferences presents fatal problems for decision theory, a view contradicted by Richard Pettigrew, Transforma-tive experience and decision theory, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 91 (2015): 766 74. Neither author refers to the early work of Harsanyi, Games with in- complete information, Parts I III, or Cyert and de Groot, Adaptive utility. 41. An initial paper on helping humans who dont know their own preferences and are learning about them: Lawrence Chan et al., The assistive multi- armed bandit, in Proceedings of the 14th ACM/ IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interac- tion (HRI) , ed. David Sirkin et al. (IEEE, 2019). 42. Eliezer Yudkowsky, in Coherent Extrapolated Volition ( S in gul ari ty In sti tu t e , 2 004 ) , lumps all these aspects, as well as plain inconsistency, under the heading of muddle a term that has not, unfortunately, caught on. 43. On the two selves who evaluate experiences: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011). 44. Edgeworths hedonimeter, an imaginary device for measuring happiness moment to moment: Francis Edgeworth, Mathematical Psychics: An Essay on the Application of Mathematics to the Moral Sciences (Kegan Paul, 1881). 45. A standard text on sequential decisions under uncertainty: Martin Puterman, Markov Decision Processes : Discrete Stochastic Dynamic Programming (Wiley, 1994). 46. On axiomatic assumptions that justify additive representations of utility over time: Tjalling Koopmans, Representation of preference orderings over time, in Decision and Organization , ed. C. Bartlett McGuire, Roy Radner, and Kenneth Arrow ( North- Holland, 1972). 47. The 2019 humans (who might, in 2099, be long dead or might just be the earlier selves of 2099 humans) might wish to build the machines in a way that respects the 2019 preferences of the 2019 humans rather than pandering to the undoubtedly shallow and ill- considered preferences of humans in 2099. This would be like drawing up a consti- tution that disallows any amendments. If the 2099 humans, after suitable delibera-tion, decide they wish to override the preferences built in by the 2019 humans, it seems reasonable that they should be able to do so. After all, it is they and their de-scendants who have to live with the consequences. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 320 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotky, aspectspec s not, unfortot, unfort wo selves who o selves who arrar, Straus &arrar, Straus & rths hedonrths hedo FranciFranforhum wrence Cnce ACM/M/II///EEE IEEEIII d Sirkin et al. Sirkin et al. nnCoherenCoheren as weswDistributionn: A d. (MIT Pres(MIT Pres Wallace, Wallace, The The disee (Macmilla (Macmill xford CompanidC o m p a n uated and pland and pla odor.odor. e durian was durian wa nsformative Exnsformative Ex nty about onesabout one ontradicted byontradicted by y, PhilosophyPhilosop efers to the eaefers to the ea I, or Cyert I, or Cyert ns whons who anan NOTES 321 48. I am indebted to Wendell Wallach for this observation. 49. An early paper dealing with changes in preferences over time: John Harsanyi, Welfare economics of variable tastes, Review of Economic Studies 21 (1953): 204 13. A more recent (and somewhat technical) survey is provided by Franz Dietrich and Christian List, Where do preferences come from?, International Journal of Game Theory 42 (2013): 613 37. See also Laurie Paul, Transformative Experience (Oxford University Press, 2014), and Richard Pettigrew, Choosing for Changing Selves, philpapers.org / archive/ PETCFC.pdf. 50. For a rational analysis of irrationality, see Jon Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality (Cambridge University Press, 1979). 51. For promising ideas on cognitive prostheses for humans, see Falk Lieder, Beyond bounded rationality: Reverse- engineering and enhancing human intelligence (PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2018). &+$37(5 1. On the application of assistance games to driving: Dorsa Sadigh et al., Planning for cars that coordinate with people, Autonomous Robots 42 (2018): 1405 26. 2. Apple is, curiously, absent from this list. It does have an AI research group and is ramping up rapidly. Its traditional culture of secrecy means that its impact in the mar-ketplace of ideas is quite limited so far. 3. Max Tegmark, interview, Do You Trust This Computer? , directed by Chris Paine, writ- ten by Mark Monroe (2018). 4. On estimating the impact of cybercrime: Cybercrime cost $600 billion and targets banks first, Security Magazine , February 21, 2018. APPENDIX A 1. The basic plan for chess programs of the next sixty years: Claude Shannon, Program- ming a computer for playing chess, Philosophical Magazine , 7th ser., 41 (1950): 256 75. Shannons proposal drew on a centuries- long tradition of evaluating chess positions by adding up piece values; see, for example, Pietro Carrera, Il gioco degli scacchi (Giovanni de Rossi, 1617). 2. A report describing Samuels heroic research on an early reinforcement learning algo- rithm for checkers: Arthur Samuel, Some studies in machine learning using the game of checkers, IBM Journal of Research and Development 3 (1959): 210 29. 3. The concept of rational metareasoning and its application to search and game playing emerged from the thesis research of my student Eric Wefald, who died tragically in a car accident before he could write up his work; the following appeared posthumously: Stuart Russell and Eric Wefald, Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality (MIT Press, 1991). See also Eric Horvitz, Rational metareasoning and compilation for opti-mizing decisions under bounded resources, in Computational Intelligence, II: Proceed- ings of the International Symposium, ed. Francesco Gardin and Giancarlo Mauri ( North- Holland, 1990); and Stuart Russell and Eric Wefald, On optimal game- tree search using rational meta- reasoning, in Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence , ed. Natesa Sridharan (Morgan Kaufmann, 1989). 4. Perhaps the first paper showing how hierarchical organization reduces the combinato- rial complexity of planning: Herbert Simon, The architecture of complexity, Pro- ceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106 (1962): 467 82. 5. The canonical reference for hierarchical planning is Earl Sacerdoti, Planning in a hierarchy of abstraction spaces, Artificial Intelligence 5 (1974): 115 35. See also Aus- tin Tate, Generating project networks, in Proceedings of the 5th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence , ed. Raj Reddy (Morgan Kaufmann, 1977). 6. A formal definition of what high- level actions do: Bhaskara Marthi, Stuart Russell, and Jason Wolfe, Angelic semantics for high- level actions, in Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling , ed. Mark Boddy, Maria Fox, and Sylvie Thibaux (AAAI Press, 2007). M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 321 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot the thhe t before he cfore he c ssell and Eric ssell and Eric 991). See also991). See als g decisions ug decisions the Intethe I llallforuels hes h thur Samuelur Samu ournal of Reseaurnal of Rese onal metarenal metar sis reses reDistributionet ): 1405405 AI research g search s that its impas that its imp r?, directed bydirected by? ercrime cost $ercrime cost 018.018. he next sixty next sixty PhilosophicaPhilosophica ccenturies-enturies- llonon ee, for examee, for exam cr ecr e 322 NOTES APPENDIX B 1. This example is unlikely to be from Aristotle, but may have originated with Sextus Empiricus, who lived probably in the second or third century CE. 2. The first algorithm for theorem- proving in first- order logic worked by reducing first- order sentences to (very large numbers of) propositional sentences: Martin Davis and Hilary Putnam, A computing procedure for quantification theory, Journal of the ACM 7 (1960): 201 15. 3. An improved algorithm for propositional inference: Martin Davis, George Logemann, and Donald Loveland, A machine program for theorem- proving, Communications of the ACM 5 (1962): 394 97. 4. The satisfiability problem deciding whether a collection of sentences is true in some world is NP- complete. The reasoning problem deciding whether a sentence fol- lows from the known sentences is co- NP- complete, a class that is thought to be harder than NP- complete problems. 5. There are two exceptions to this rule: no repetition (a stone may not be played that returns the board to a situation that existed previously) and no suicide (a stone may not be placed such that it would immediately be captured for example, if it is already surrounded). 6. The work that introduced first- order logic as we understand it today ( Begriffsschrift means concept writing): Gottlob Frege, Begriffsschrift, eine der arithmetischen nachge- bildete Formelsprache des reinen Denkens (Halle, 1879). Freges notation for first- order logic was so bizarre and unwieldy that it was soon replaced by the notation introduced by Giuseppe Peano, which remains in common use today. 7. A summary of Japans bid for supremacy through knowledge- based systems: Edward Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck, The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japans Computer Challenge to the World ( Addison- Wesley, 1983). 8. The US efforts included the Strategic Computing Initiative and the formation of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC). See Alex Roland and Philip Shiman, Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983 1993 (MIT Press, 2002). 9. A history of Britains response to the re- emergence of AI in the 1980s: Brian Oakley and Kenneth Owen, Alvey: Britains Strategic Computing Initiative (MIT Press, 1990). 10. The origin of the term GOFAI : John Haugeland, Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea (MIT Press, 1985). 11. Interview with Demis Hassabis on the future of AI and deep learning: Nick Heath, Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis: Three truths about AI, TechRepublic , September 24, 2018. APPENDIX C 1. Pearls work was recognized by the Turing Award in 2011. 2. Bayes nets in more detail: Every node in the network is annotated with the probability of each possible value, given each possible combination of values for the nodes parents (that is, those nodes that point to it). For example, the probability that Doubles 12 has value true is 1.0 when D1 and D2 have the same value, and 0.0 otherwise. A possible world is an assignment of values to all the nodes. The probability of such a world is the product of the appropriate probabilities from each of the nodes. 3. A compendium of applications of Bayes nets: Olivier Pourret, Patrick Nam, and Bruce Marcot, eds., Bayesian Networks: A Practical Guide to Applications (Wiley, 2008). 4. The basic paper on probabilistic programming: Daphne Koller, David McAllester, and Avi Pfeffer, Effective Bayesian inference for stochastic programs, in Proceedings of the 14th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI Press, 1997). For many addi- tional references, see probabilistic- programming.org. 5. Using probabilistic programs to model human concept learning: Brenden Lake, Ruslan Salakhutdinov, and Joshua Tenenbaum, Human- level concept learning through prob- abilistic program induction, Science 350 (2015): 1332 38. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 322 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ind fnd 2018.18. work was recwork was r in moin m blbfor Britaiita GOFAI AI: Joh: is Hassabis os Hassabis under Dunder DDistributionicid ample, ple, nd it today (nd it today B ne der arithmene der arithm Freges notatieges notati placed by the nced by the e today.e today. gh gh kknowledgenowledge ifth GeneratioGeneratio Addison-ddison WesleWesl Computing Inimputing I hnology Corphnology Corp uting: DARPA uting: DARPA o the reo the re --eem s Stras Stra NOTES 323 6. For a detailed description of the seismic monitoring application and associated probabil- ity model, see Nimar Arora, Stuart Russell, and Erik Sudderth, NET- VISA: Network processing vertically integrated seismic analysis, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 103 (2013): 709 29. 7. News article describing one of the first serious self- driving car crashes: Ryan Ran- dazzo, Who was at fault in self- driving Uber crash? Accounts in Tempe police report disagree, Republic (azcentral.com), March 29, 2017. APPENDIX D 1. The foundational discussion of inductive learning: David Hume, Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding (A. Millar, 1748). 2. Leslie Valiant, A theory of the learnable, Communications of the ACM 27 (1984): 1134 42. See also Vladimir Vapnik, Statistical Learning Theory (Wiley, 1998). Val- iants approach concentrated on computational complexity, Vapniks on statistical analysis of the learning capacity of various classes of hypotheses, but both shared a common theoretical core connecting data and predictive accuracy. 3. For example, to learn the difference between the situational superko and natural situational superko rules, the learning algorithm would have to try repeating a board position that it had created previously by a pass rather than by playing a stone. The results would be different in different countries. 4. For a description of the ImageNet competition, see Olga Russakovsky et al., Ima- geNet large scale visual recognition challenge, International Journal of Computer Vision 115 (2015): 211 52. 5. The first demonstration of deep networks for vision: Alex Krizhevsky, Ilya Sutskever, and Geoffrey Hinton, ImageNet classification with deep convolutional neural net-works, in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 25 , ed. Fernando Pereira et al. (2012). 6. The difficulty of distinguishing over one hundred breeds of dogs: Andrej Karpathy, What I learned from competing against a ConvNet on ImageNet, Andrej Karpathy Blog, September 2, 2014. 7 . Blog post on inceptionism research at Google: Alexander Mordvintsev , Christopher Olah, and Mike Tyka, Inceptionism: Going deeper into neural networks, Google AI Blog, June 17, 2015. The idea seems to have originated with J. P. Lewis, Creation by refinement: A creativity paradigm for gradient descent learning networks, in Proceed- ings of the IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks (IEEE, 1988). 8. News article on Geoff Hinton having second thoughts about deep networks: Steve LeVine, Artificial intelligence pioneer says we need to start over, Axios , September 15, 2017. 9. A catalog of shortcomings of deep learning: Gary Marcus, Deep learning: A critical appraisal, arXiv:1801.00631 (2018). 10. A popular textbook on deep learning, with a frank assessment of its weaknesses: Franois Chollet, Deep Learning with Python (Manning Publications, 2017). 11. An explanation of explanation- based learning: Thomas Dietterich, Learning at the knowledge level, Machine Learning 1 (1986): 287 315. 12. A superficially quite different explanation of explanation- based learning: John Laird, Paul Rosenbloom, and Allen Newell, Chunking in Soar: The anatomy of a general learning mechanism, Machine Learning 1 (1986): 11 46. M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 323 8/7/19 11:21 PMn GeGe ificial inteal in og of shortcomof shortco sal, arXiv:18sal, arXiv:18 lar textblar textb holhofor nceptiopti he idea seemdea se vity paradigmvity paradigm rnational Conational C ff Hintoff Hint ligDistributionsuperkoperko to try repeary repea an by playingan by playin Olga Russakoga Russako International ernational vision: Alex Kvision: Alex K ation with deen with de n Processing SyProcessing Sy er one hundrer one hundre against a Coagainst a Co arch at Goarch at G sm: Gsm: G Image Credits Page 7 Figure 2: (b) The Sun / News Licensing; (c) Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives. Page 52 Figure 4: SRI International. creativecommons.org/licenses /by/3.0/legalcode. Page 72 Figure 5: (left) Berkeley AI Research Lab; (right) Boston Dynamics. Page 88 Figure 6: The Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Page 111 Figure 7: (left) Noam Eshel, Defense Update; (right) Future of Life Institute / Stuart Russell. Page 125 Figure 10: (left) AFP; (right) Courtesy of Henrik Sorensen. Page 127 Figure 11: Elysium 2013 MRC II Distribution Company L.P. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Page 258 Figure 14: OpenStreetMap contributors. OpenStreetMap.org. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 /legalcode. Page 281 Figure 19: Terrain photo: DigitalGlobe via Getty Images.Page 284 Figure 20: (right) Courtesy of the Tempe Police Department. Page 294 Figure 24: Jessica Mullen / Deep Dreamscope. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 324 8/7/19 11:21 PMNotre 11e 1 ghts Resets Rese Figure 14: Figure 14: StreetMap.StreetMap. de.de.fore / SS (left) Aeft) ElysiuElysiuDistributionng; (c) Courg; (c) Cou ativecommvecomm AI ResearchAI Research Steinberg Foteinberg Fo Noam EshNoam Esh uart Ruart R Index AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence), 250 Abbeel, Pieter, 73, 192abstract actions, hierarchy of, 8790abstract planning, 26466access shortcomings, of intelligent personal assistants, 6768 action potentials, 15actions, discovering, 8790actuators, 72Ada, Countess of Lovelace. See Lovelace, Ada adaptive organisms, 1819agent. See intelligent agent agent program, 48AI Researchers on AI Risk (Alexander), 153 Alcin, Jacky, 60Alexander, Scott, 146, 153, 16970algorithms, 3334 Bayesian networks and, 27577Bayesian updating, 283, 284bias and, 12830chess-playing, 6263coding of, 34completeness theorem and, 5152computer hardware and, 3435content selection, 89, 105deep learning, 5859, 28893dynamic programming, 5455examples of common, 3334 exponential complexity of problems and, 3839 halting problem and, 3738lookahead search, 47, 4950, 26061 propositional logic and, 26870reinforcement learning, 5557, 105subroutines within, 34supervised learning, 5859, 28593 Alibaba, 250AlphaGo, 6, 4648, 4950, 55, 91, 92, 2067, 20910, 261, 265, 285 AlphaZero, 47, 48altruism, 24, 22729altruistic AI, 17375Amazon, 106, 119, 250 Echo, 6465Picking Challenge to accelerate robot development, 7374 Analytical Engine, 40ants, 25Aoun, Joseph, 123Apple HomePod, 6465Architecture of Complexity, The (Simon), 265 Aristotle, 2021, 3940, 50, 52, 53, 114, 245 Armstrong, Stuart, 221Arnauld, Antoine, 2122Arrow, Kenneth, 223 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 325 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot s, 1818 igent agentnt agent m, 48m, 48 chers on AI chers on AI nder), 15nder), 15 6060for ce. 1919Distributionof common, 3f common, ntial complexal comple d, 3839839 alting problemalting problem lookahead sokahead 2606260 propopropo reire 326 INDEX artificial intelligence (AI), 112 agent ( See intelligent agent) agent programs, 4859beneficial, principles for ( See beneficial AI) benefits to humans of, 98102as biggest event in human history, 14conceptual breakthroughs required for (See conceptual breakthroughs required for superintelligent AI) decision making on global scale, capability for, 7576 deep learning and, 6domestic robots and, 7374general-purpose, 4648, 100, 136global scale, capability to sense and make decisions on, 7476 goals and, 4142, 4853, 13642, 16569 governance of, 24953health advances and, 101history of, 46, 4042human preferences and ( See human preferences) imagining what superintelligent machines could do, 9396 intelligence, defining, 3961intelligent personal assistants and, 6771 limits of superintelligence, 9698living standard increases and, 98100logic and, 3940media and public perception of advances in, 6264 misuses of ( See misuses of AI) mobile phones and, 6465multiplier effect of, 99objectives and, 1112, 43, 4861, 13642, 16569 overly intelligent AI, 13244pace of scientific progress in creating, 69 predicting arrival of superintelligent AI, 7678 reading capabilities and, 7475risk posed by ( See risk posed by AI) scale and, 9496scaling up sensory inputs and capacity for action, 9495 self-driving cars and, 6567, 18182, 247 sensing on global scale, capability to, 75 smart homes and, 7172softbots and, 64speech recognition capabilities and, 7475 standard model of, 911, 13, 4861, 247 Turing test and, 4041tutoring by, 100101virtual reality authoring by, 101World Wide Web and, 64 Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030 (One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence), 149, 150 Asimov, Isaac, 141assistance games, 192203 learning preferences exactly in long run, 200202 off-switch game, 196200paperclip game, 19496prohibitions and, 2023uncertainty about human objectives, 200202 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 250 assumption failure, 18687Atkinson, Robert, 158 Atlas humanoid robot, 73 autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), 110 13 autonomy loss problem, 25556Autor, David, 116Avengers: Infinity War (film), 224 avoid putting in human goals argument, 16569 axiomatic basis for utility theory, 2324axioms, 185 Babbage, Charles, 40, 13233 backgammon, 55Baidu, 250Baldwin, James, 18 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 326 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot elligelige increases creases 94040 d public percd public perc s in, 62s in, 62 eeeemfor 61 stants and, stants and, nce, 96nce, 96 dDistributionhoring by, ing by, Web and, 64Web and, 64 elligence and ligence and Hundred Yearndred Ye ificial Intelligal Intellig ov, Isaac, 141ov, Isaac, 141 sistance gameance gam learning plearning p run, run, off-soff p INDEX 327 Baldwin effect, 1820 Banks, Iain, 164bank tellers, 11718Bayes, Thomas, 54Bayesian logic, 54Bayesian networks, 54, 27577Bayesian rationality, 54Bayesian updating, 283, 284Bayes theorem, 54behavior, learning preferences from, 19092 behavior modification, 1047belief state, 28283beneficial AI, 171210, 24749 caution regarding development of, reasons for, 179 data available for learning about human preferences, 18081 economic incentives for, 17980evil behavior and, 179learning to predict human preferences, 17677 moral dilemmas and, 178objective of AI is to maximize realization of human preferences, 17375 principles for, 17279proofs for ( See proofs for beneficial AI) uncertainty as to what human preferences are, 17576 values, defining, 17778 Bentham, Jeremy, 24, 219Berg, Paul, 182Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks (BRETT), 73 Bernoulli, Daniel, 2223Bill Gates Fears AI, but AI Researchers Know Better (Popular Science), 152 blackmail, 1045blinking reflex, 57blockchain, 161board games, 45Boole, George, 268Boolean (propositional) logic, 51, 26870 bootstrapping process, 8182Boston Dynamics, 73Bostrom, Nick, 102, 144, 145, 150, 166, 167, 183, 253 brains, 16, 1718 reward system and, 1718 Summit machine, compared, 34 BRETT (Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks), 73 Brin, Sergey, 81Brooks, Rodney, 168Brynjolfsson, Erik, 117Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, 25354 Butler, Samuel, 13334, 159 cant we just . . . responses to risks posed by AI, 16069 . . . avoid putting in human goals, 16569 . . . merge with machines, 16365 . . . put it in a box, 16163. . . switch it off, 16061. . . work in human-machine teams, 163 Cardano, Gerolamo, 21caring professions, 122Chace, Calum, 113changes in human preferences over time, 24045 Changing Places (Lodge), 121 checkers program, 55, 261chess programs, 6263Chollet, Franois, 293chunking, 295circuits, 29192 CNN, 108 CODE (Collaborative Operations in Denied Environments), 112 combinatorial complexity, 258 common operational picture, 69compensation effects, 11417completeness theorem (Gdels), 5152 complexity of problems, 3839Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) seismic monitoring, 27980 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 327 8/7/19 11:21 PMe, 17, 17 ng, 1777817778 remy, 24, 219emy, 24, 219 , 182, 182 obot for tobot for t TaskTasforfor beneficialfor benefici at human t human 7676Distributionnces, nces, responses tponses t I, 16069I, 16069 putting in huutting in h 69 merge with mge with m 163656365 . . . put it in. . put it . . . swit. . . swit . . . w. . . w CaC 328 INDEX computer programming, 119 computers, 3261 algorithms and ( See algorithms) complexity of problems and, 3839halting problem and, 3738hardware, 3435intelligent ( See artificial intelligence) limits of computation, 3639software limitations, 37special-purpose devices, building, 3536 universality and, 32 computer science, 33Computing Machinery and Intelligence (Turing), 4041, 149 conceptual breakthroughs required for superintelligent AI, 7893 actions, discovering, 8790cumulative learning of concepts and theories, 8287 language/common sense problem, 7982 mental activity, managing, 9092 consciousness, 1617consequentialism, 21719content selection algorithms, 89, 105content shortcomings, of intelligent personal assistants, 6768 control theory, 10, 4445, 54, 176convolutional neural networks, 47cost function to evaluate solutions, and goals, 48 Credibility Coalition, 109CRISPR-Cas9, 156cumulative learning of concepts and theories, 8287 cybersecurity, 18687 Daily Telegraph, 77 decision making on global scale, 7576decoherence, 36Deep Blue, 62, 261deep convolutional network, 28890deep dreaming images, 291deepfakes, 1056deep learning, 6, 5859, 8687, 28893DeepMind, 90 AlphaGo, 6, 4648, 4950, 55, 91, 92, 2067, 20910, 261, 265, 285 AlphaZero, 47, 48DQN system, 5556 deflection arguments, 15459 research cant be controlled arguments, 15456 silence regarding risks of AI, 15859tribalism, 150, 15960whataboutery, 15657 Delilah (blackmail bot), 105denial of risk posed by AI, 14654 its complicated argument, 14748its impossible argument, 14950its too soon to worry about it argument, 15052 Luddism accusation and, 15354were the experts argument, 15254 deontological ethics, 217dexterity problem, robots, 7374Dickinson, Michael, 190Dickmanns, Ernst, 65DigitalGlobe, 75domestic robots, 7374dopamine, 17, 2056Dota 2, 56DQN system, 5556Dune (Herbert), 135 dynamic programming algorithms, 5455 E. coli, 1415 eBay, 106ECHO (first smart home), 71Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren (Keynes), 11314, 12021 The Economic Singularity: Artificial Intelligence and the Death of Capitalism (Chace), 113 Economist, The, 145 Edgeworth, Francis, 238Eisenhower, Dwight, 249electrical action potentials, 15 Eliza (first chatbot), 67 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 328 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot l netnet evaluate soluate so Coalition, 10Coalition, 10 9, 1569, 156 ninnifor 9 elligent gen 768768 45, 54, 1765, 54, 176 works, 4works, 4Distr0505tributiongume rgument, 1ment, 1 o worry abouo worry abo t, 1505215052 accusation acusation e the expertse experts 52545254 ontological etological e dexterity prexterity pr DickinsonDickinso DickmDick DigDig d INDEX 329 Elmo (shogi program), 47 Elster, Jon, 242Elysium (film), 127 emergency braking, 57enfeeblement of humans problem, 25455 envy, 22931Epicurus, 219equilibrium solutions, 3031, 19596Erewhon (Butler), 13334, 159 Etzioni, Oren, 152, 157eugenics movement, 15556expected value rule, 2223experience, learning from, 28595experiencing self, and preferences, 23840 explanation-based learning, 29495 Facebook, 108, 250 Fact, Fiction and Forecast (Goodman), 85 fact-checking, 1089, 110factcheck.org, 108fear of death (as an instrumental goal), 14042 feature engineering, 8485Fermat, Pierre de, 185Fermats Last Theorem, 185Ferranti Mark I, 34Fifth Generation project, 271firewalling AI systems, 16163first-order logic, 51, 27072 probabilistic languages and, 27780propositional logic distinguished, 270 Ford, Martin, 113Forster, E. M., 25455Fox News, 108Frege, Gottlob, 270Full, Bob, 190 G7, 25051 Galileo Galilei, 8586gambling, 2123game theory, 2832. See also assistance games Gates, Bill, 56, 153GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), 12729Geminoid DK (robot), 125 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), 12729 general-purpose artificial intelligence, 4648, 100, 136 geometric objects, 33Glamour, 129 Global Learning XPRIZE competition, 70 Go, 6, 4647, 4950, 51, 55, 56 combinatorial complexity and, 25961propositional logic and, 269supervised learning algorithm and, 28687 thinking, learning from, 29395 goals, 4142, 4853, 13642, 16569God and Golem (Wiener), 13738 Gdel, Kurt, 51, 52Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 137Good, I. J., 14243, 153, 2089Goodharts law, 77Goodman, Nelson, 85Good Old-Fashioned AI (GOFAI), 271Google, 108, 11213 DeepMind ( See DeepMind) Home, 6465misclassifying people as gorillas in Google Photo, 60 tensor processing units (TPUs), 35 gorilla problem, 13236governance of AI, 24953governmental reward and punishment systems, 1067 Great Decoupling, 117greed (as an instrumental goal), 14042Grice, H. Paul, 205 Gricean analysis, 205 halting problem, 3738 hand construction problem, robots, 73Hardin, Garrett, 31 hard takeoff scenario, 144 Harop (missile), 111 Harsanyi, John, 220, 229Hassabis, Demis, 27172, 293Hawking, Stephen, 4, 153 health advances, 101 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 329 8/7/19 11:21 PMems, ms, 51, 27071, 2707 ic languages c languages tional logic dtional logic d in, 113in, 113 252for 5 ct, 271t, 271 61636163Distributionng from, 29rom, 29 853, 13642853, 136 emm (Wiener) (Wiener urt, 51, 5251, 52 e, Johann Woohann Wo od, I. J., 142od, I. J., 142 Goodharts lawodharts la Goodman,Goodman, Good OGood O GoogGoo 330 INDEX He Jiankui, 156 Herbert, Frank, 135hierarchy of abstract actions, 8790, 26566 High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (EU), 251 Hillarp, Nils-ke, 17Hinton, Geoff, 290Hirsch, Fred, 230Hobbes, Thomas, 246Howards End (Forster), 254 Huffington Post, 4 human germline alteration, ban on, 15556 humanmachine teaming, 16365human preferences, 21145 behavior, learning preferences from, 19092 beneficial AI and, 17277changes in, over time, 24045different people, learning to make trade-offs between preferences of, 21327 emotions and, 23234errors as to, 23637of experiencing self, 23840heterogeneity of, 21213loyal AI, 21517modification of, 24345of nice, nasty and envious humans, 22731 of remembering self, 23840stupidity and, 23234transitivity of, 2324uncertainty and, 23537updates in, 24142utilitarian AI ( See utilitarianism/ utilitarian AI) utility theory and, 2327 human roles, takeover of, 12431Human Use of Human Beings (Wiener), 137 humble AI, 17576Hume, David, 167, 28788 IBM, 62, 80, 250 ideal utilitarianism, 219IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), 250 ignorance, 5253 imitation game, 4041 inceptionism images, 291inductive logic programming, 86inductive reasoning, 28788inputs, to intelligent agents, 4243instinctive organisms, 1819Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 250 instrumental goal, 14142, 196insurance underwriters, 119intelligence, 1361 action potentials and, 15brains and, 16, 1718computers and, 3961consciousness and, 1617E. coli and, 1415 evolutionary origins of, 1418learning and, 15, 1820nerve nets and, 16practical reasoning and, 20rationality and, 2032standard model of, 911, 13, 4861, 247 successful reasoning and, 20 intelligence agencies, 104intelligence explosions, 14244, 2089intelligent agent, 4248 actions generated by, 48agent programs and, 4859 defined, 42 design of, and problem types, 4345environment and, 43, 44, 4546inputs to, 4243multi-agent cooperation design, 94objectives and, 43, 4861reflex, 5759 intelligent computers. See artificial intelligence (AI) intelligent personal assistants, 6771, 101 commonsense modeling and, 6869design template for, 6970education systems, 70health systems, 6970 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 330 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot envinvi ring self, 238ing self, 238 and, 23234and, 23234 y of, 232y of, 23 ndndfor 455 us humus humDistributionand, 15, 15 17181718 and, 3961nd, 3961 sness and, 16ss and, 1 and, 1415d, 1415 olutionary oriolutionary ori learning and,rning and nerve netsnerve nets practicpractic ratiorat st INDEX 331 personal finance systems, 70 privacy considerations, 7071shortcomings of early systems, 6768 stimulusresponse templates and, 67understanding content, improvements in, 68 International Atomic Energy Agency, 249 Internet of Things (IoT), 65interpersonal services as the future of employment, 12224 algorithmic bias and, 12830decisions affecting people, use of machines in, 12628 robots built in humanoid form and, 12426 intractable problems, 3839inverse reinforcement learning, 19193 IQ, 48Ishiguro, Hiroshi, 125is-ought problem, 167its complicated argument, 14748its impossible argument, 14950its too soon to worry about it argument, 15052 jellyfish, 16 Jeopardy! (tv show), 80 Jevons, William Stanley, 222JiaJia (robot), 125jian ai, 219 Kahneman, Daniel, 23840 Kasparov, Garry, 62, 90, 261Ke Jie, 6Kelly, Kevin, 97, 148Kenny, David, 153, 163Keynes, John Maynard, 11314, 12021, 122 King Midas problem, 13640Kitkit School (software system), 70knowledge, 7982, 26772knowledge-based systems, 5051Krugman, Paul, 117Kurzweil, Ray, 16364language/common sense problem, 7982 Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 54Laser-Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), 8284 learning, 15 behavior, learning preferences from, 19092 bootstrapping process, 8182culture and, 19cumulative learning of concepts and theories, 8287 data-driven view of, 8283deep learning, 6, 5859, 84, 8687, 28893 as evolutionary accelerator, 1820from experience, 28593explanation-based learning, 29495feature engineering and, 8485inverse reinforcement learning, 19193 reinforcement learning, 17, 47, 5557, 105, 19091 supervised learning, 5859, 28593from thinking, 29395 LeCun, Yann, 47, 165legal profession, 119lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), 11013 Life 3.0 (Tegmark), 114, 138 LIGO (Laser-Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), 8284 living standard increases, and AI, 98100 Lloyd, Seth, 37 Lloyd, William, 31 Llull, Ramon, 40 Lodge, David, 1logic, 3940, 5051, 26772 Bayesian, 54 defined, 267 first-order, 5152, 27072 formal language requirement, 267 ignorance and, 5253 programming, development of, 271 propositional (Boolean), 51, 26870 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 331 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot ), 8080 Stanley, 2anley, 2 , 125125 99 anianfor t 2Distribution500859 ry acceleratorry accelerat rience, 2859ience, 285 ation-based len-based ure engineerinengineerin nverse reinfornverse reinfor 1919319193 reinforcereinforce 105105 supsu 332 INDEX lookahead search, 47, 4950, 26061 loophole principle, 2023, 216Lovelace, Ada, 40, 13233loyal AI, 21517Luddism accusation, 15354 machines, 33 Machine Stops, The (Forster), 25455machine translation, 6McAfee, Andrew, 117McCarthy, John, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53, 65, 77 malice, 22829malware, 253map navigation, 25758mathematical proofs for beneficial AI, 18590 mathematics, 33matrices, 33Matrix, The (film), 222, 235 MavHome project, 71mechanical calculator, 40mental security, 10710merge with machines argument, 16365 metareasoning, 262Methods of Ethics, The (Sidgwick), 22425 Microsoft, 250 TrueSkill system, 279 Mill, John Stuart, 21718, 219Minsky, Marvin, 45, 76, 153misuses of AI, 10331, 25354 behavior modification, 1047blackmail, 1045deepfakes, 1056governmental reward and punishment systems, 1067 intelligence agencies and, 104interpersonal services, takeover of, 12431 lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), 11013 mental security and, 10710work, elimination of, 11324 mobile phones, 6465monotonicity and, 24Moore, G. E., 219, 221, 222 Moores law, 3435Moravec, Hans, 144Morgan, Conway Lloyd, 18Morgenstern, Oskar, 23 Mozi (Mozi), 219 multi-agent cooperation design, 94Musk, Elon, 153, 164Myth of Superhuman AI, The (Kelly), 148 narrow (tool) artificial intelligence, 46, 47, 136 Nash, John, 30, 195Nash equilibrium, 3031, 19596National Institutes of Health (NIH), 155negative altruism, 22930NELL (Never-Ending Language Learning) project, 81 nerve nets, 16NET-VISA, 27980Network Enforcement Act (Germany), 108, 109 neural dust, 16465 Neuralink Corporation, 164neural lace, 164neural networks, 28889neurons, 15, 16, 19Never-Ending Language Learning (NELL) project, 81 Newell, Allen, 295Newton, Isaac, 8586New Yorker, The, 88 Ng, Andrew, 151, 152Norvig, Peter, 2, 6263no suicide rule, 287Nozick, Robert, 223nuclear industry, 157, 249nuclear physics, 78Nudge (Thaler & Sunstein), 244 objectives, 1112, 43, 4861, 13642, 16569. See also goals off-switch game, 196200onebillion (software system), 70One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100), 149, 150 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 332 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot 279279 , 21718, 21718, 2 in, 45, 76, 1n, 45, 76, 1 AI, 10331, 2AI, 10331, 2 modificatimodificat 44for wick), k), 9Distribution031, 19531, 195 es of Health (es of Health ism, 22930m, 22930 ver-Ending L-Ending rning) projecng) projec nets, 16 nets, 16 ET-VISA, 27-VISA, 27 Network EnNetwork En 108, 108, neuralneur NeuNeu INDEX 333 OpenAI, 56 operations research, 10, 54, 176Oracle AI systems, 16163orthogonality thesis, 16768Ovadya, Aviv, 108overhypothesis, 85overly intelligent AI, 13244 fear and greed, 14042gorilla problem, 13236intelligence explosions and, 14244, 2089 King Midas problem, 13640 paperclip game, 19496 Parfit, Derek, 225Partnership on AI, 180, 250Pascal, Blaise, 2122, 40Passage to India, A (Forster), 254 Pearl, Judea, 54, 275Perdix (drone), 112Pinker, Steven, 158, 16566, 168Planet (satellite corporation), 75Politics (Aristotle), 114 Popper, Karl, 22122Popular Science, 152 positional goods, 23031practical reasoning, 20pragmatics, 204preference autonomy principle, 220, 241preferences. See human preferences preference utilitarianism, 220Price, Richard, 54pride, 23031Primitive Expounder, 133 prisoners dilemma, 3031privacy, 7071probability theory, 2122, 27384 Bayesian networks and, 27577first-order probabilistic languages, 27780 independence and, 274keeping track of not directly observable phenomena, 28084 probabilistic programming, 5455, 84, 27980 programming language, 34programs, 33prohibitions, 2023 Project Aristo, 80Prolog, 271 proofs for beneficial AI assistance games, 184210, 192203learning preferences from behavior, 19092 mathematical guarantees, 18590recursive self-improvement and, 20810 requests and instructions, interpretation of, 2035 wireheading problem and, 2058 propositional logic, 51, 26870Putin, Vladimir, 182, 183put it in a box argument, 16163puzzles, 45 quantum computation, 3536 qubit devices, 3536 randomized strategy, 29 rationality Aristotles formulation of, 2021Bayesian, 54critiques of, 2426expected value rule and, 2223gambling and, 2123game theory and, 2832inconsistency in human preferences, and developing theory of beneficial AI, 2627 logic and, 3940monotonicity and, 24Nash equilibrium and, 3031preferences and, 2327 probability and, 2122 randomized strategy and, 29 for single agent, 2027transitivity and, 2324 for two agents, 2732 uncertainty and, 21 utility theory and, 2226 rational metareasoning, 262 reading capabilities, 7475 real-world decision problem complexity and, 39 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 333 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot umanman tarianism, ianism, d, 54d, 54 3131 xpounder,xpounder mmmmfor principle, 22inciple, 2 preferenpreferen 2Distribution1, 26 82, 183183 argument, 1argument, um computat omputat it devices, 35it devices, 35 randomizerandomize rationalirational ArA 334 INDEX Reasons and Persons (Parfit), 225 Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, 155 recombinant DNA research, 15556recursive self-improvement, 20810redlining, 128reflex agents, 5759reinforcement learning, 17, 47, 5557, 105, 19091 remembering self, and preferences, 23840 Repugnant Conclusion, 225reputation systems, 1089research cant be controlled arguments, 15456 retail cashiers, 11718reward function, 5354, 55reward system, 17Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future (Ford), 113 risk posed by AI, 14570 deflection arguments, 15459denial of problem, 14654 Robinson, Alan, 5Rochester, Nathaniel, 45Rutherford, Ernest, 7, 77, 8586, 150 Sachs, Jeffrey, 230 sadism, 22829Salomons, Anna, 116Samuel, Arthur, 5, 10, 55, 261Sargent, Tom, 191scalable autonomous weapons, 112Schwab, Klaus, 117Second Machine Age, The (Brynjolfsson & McAfee), 117 Sedol, Lee, 6, 47, 90, 91, 261seismic monitoring system (NET-VISA), 27980 self-driving cars, 6567, 18182, 247 performance requirements for, 6566 potential benefits of, 6667probabilistic programming and, 28182 sensing on global scale, 75sets, 33Shakey project, 52 Shannon, Claude, 45, 62Shiller, Robert, 117 side-channel attacks, 187, 188 Sidgwick, Henry, 22425silence regarding risks of AI, 15859Simon, Herbert, 76, 86, 265simulated evolution of programs, 171SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping), 283 Slate Star Codex blog, 146, 16970 Slaughterbot, 111Small World (Lodge), 1 Smart, R. N., 22122smart homes, 7172Smith, Adam, 227snopes.com, 108social aggregation theorem, 22021Social Limits to Growth, The (Hirsch), 230 social media, and content selection algorithms, 89 softbots, 64software systems, 248solutions, searching for, 25766 abstract planning and, 26466combinatorial complexity and, 258computational activity, managing, 26162 15-puzzle and, 258Go and, 25961map navigation and, 25758 motor control commands and, 26364 24-puzzle and, 258 Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation (Wiener), 10 Sophia (robot), 126specifications (of programs), 248Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine (Good), 14243 speech recognition, 6speech recognition capabilities, 7475Spence, Mike, 117SpotMini, 73SRI, 4142, 52 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 334 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot 6 5, 10, 55, 210, 55, 19119 onomous weonomous we us, 117us, 117 AgAfor 6, 61Distribution505027 088 egation theoretion theo imits to Grows to Grow Hirsch), 230Hirsch), 230 cial media, anl media, a algorithalgorith softbots, softbots, softwasoftw solusolu INDEX 335 standard model of intelligence, 911, 13, 4861, 247 StarCraft, 45Stasi, 1034stationarity, 24statistics, 10, 176Steinberg, Saul, 88stimulusresponse templates, 67Stockfish (chess program), 47striving and enjoying, relation between, 12122 subroutines, 34, 23334Summers, Larry, 117, 120Summit machine, 34, 35, 37Sunstein, Cass, 244Superintelligence (Bostrom), 102, 145, 150, 167, 183 supervised learning, 5859, 28593surveillance, 104Sutherland, James, 71switch it off argument, 16061synapses, 15, 16Szilard, Leo, 8, 77, 150 tactile sensing problem, robots, 73 Taobao, 106technological unemployment. See work, elimination of Tegmark, Max, 4, 114, 138Tellex, Stephanie, 73Tencent, 250tensor processing units (TPUs), 35Terminator (film), 112, 113 Tesauro, Gerry, 55Thaler, Richard, 244Theory of the Leisure Class, The (Veblen), 230 Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 238 thinking, learning from, 29395Thornton, Richard, 133Times, 7, 8 tool (narrow) artificial intelligence, 46, 47, 136 TPUs (tensor processing units), 35tragedy of the commons, 31Transcendence (film), 34, 14142transitivity of preferences, 2324 Treatise of Human Nature, A (Hume), 167 tribalism, 150, 15960truck drivers, 119TrueSkill system, 279Tucker, Albert, 30Turing, Alan, 32, 33, 3738, 4041, 12425, 13435, 14041, 144, 149, 153, 16061 Turing test, 4041tutoring, 100101tutoring systems, 702001: A Space Odyssey (film), 141 Uber, 57, 182 UBI (universal basic income), 121uncertainty AI uncertainty as to human preferences, principle of, 53, 17576 human uncertainty as to own preferences, 23537 probability theory and, 27384 United Nations (UN), 250universal basic income (UBI), 121Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), 107 universality, 3233universal Turing machine, 33, 4041unpredictability, 29utilitarian AI, 21727Utilitarianism ((Mill), 21718 utilitarianism/utilitarian AI, 214 challenges to, 22127consequentialist AI, 21719ideal utilitarianism, 219 interpersonal comparison of utilities, debate over, 22224 multiple people, maximizing sum of utilities of, 21926 preference utilitarianism, 220 social aggregation theorem and, 220 Somalia problem and, 22627 utility comparison across populations of different sizes, debate over, 22425 utility function, 5354 M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 335 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot 733 ssing units (Tsing units (T rr (film), 112, (film), 112, rr erry, 55erry, 55 ddfor nt. SeeSee w 138138Distrib33 rkrkibutiony (fil al basic incoml basic inco ty ncertainty asrtainty as preferences, preferences, human unceuman unc prefereprefer probaproba UniteUni unun 336 INDEX utility monster, 22324 utility theory, 2226 axiomatic basis for, 2324objections to, 2426 value alignment, 13738 Vardi, Moshe, 2023Veblen, Thorstein, 230video games, 45virtual reality authoring, 101virtue ethics, 217visual object recognition, 6von Neumann, John, 23 W3C Credible Web group, 109 WA LL-E (film), 255 Watson, 80wave function, 3536were the experts argument, 15254 white-collar jobs, 119Whitehead, Alfred North, 88whole-brain emulation, 171Wiener, Norbert, 10, 13638, 153, 203 Wilczek, Frank, 4Wiles, Andrew, 185 wireheading, 2058work, elimination of, 11324 caring professions and, 122compensation effects and, 11417 historical warnings about, 11314income distribution and, 123occupations at risk with adoption of AI technology, 11820 reworking education and research institutions to focus on human world, 12324 striving and enjoying, relation between, 12122 universal basic income (UBI) proposals and, 121 wage stagnation and productivity increases, since 1973, 117 work in humanmachine teams argument, 163 World Economic Forum, 250World Wide Web, 64Worshipful Company of Scriveners, 109 Zuckerberg, Mark, 157 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 336 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distributiong, rela 22 income (UBincome (U and, 121and, 121 gnation and ption and eases, since 1es, since 1 k in humanmk in humanm argument, argument World EconoWorld Econo World WiWorld W WorshWors Z M 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 337 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution 9780525558613_Human_TX.indd 338 8/7/19 11:21 PMNot for Distribution |
R A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive by John Stuart Mill. First published in 1843. This is based on an 1882 edition. This ebook edition was created and published by Global Grey on the 14th July 2021, and updated on the 2nd May 2023. The artwork used for the cover is Galileo before the Holy Office painted by Joseph-Nicolas Robert- Fleury . This book can be found on the site here: 33TUglobalgreyebooks.com/system-of-logic- ratiocinative -and-inductive-ebook.html U33T Global Grey 2023 globalgreyebooks.com Contents Preface To The First Edition Preface To The Third And Fourth Editions Introduction Book I. Of Names And Propositions I. Of The Necessity Of Commencing With An Analysis Of Language II. Of Names III. Of The Things Denoted By Names IV. Of Propositions V. Of The Import Of Propositions VI. Of Propositions Merely Verbal VII. Of The Nature Of Classification, And The Five Predicables VIII. Of Definition Book II. Of Reasoning I. Of Inference, Or Reasoning, In General II. Of Ratiocination, Or Syllogism III. Of The Functions And Logical Value Of The Syllogism IV. Of Trains Of Reasoning, And Deductive Sciences V. Of Demonstration, And Ne cessary Truths VI. The Same Subject Continued VII. Examination Of Some Opinions Opposed To The Preceding Doctrines Book III. Of Induction I. Preliminary Observations On Induction In General II. Of Inductions Improperly So Called III. Of The Ground Of Induction IV. Of Laws Of Nature V. Of The Law Of Universal Causation VI. On The Composition Of Causes VII. On Observation And Experiment VIII. Of The Four Methods Of Experimental Inquiry IX. Miscellaneous Examples Of The Four Methods X. Of Plurality Of Causes, And Of The Intermixture Of Effects XI. Of The Deductive Method XII. Of The Explanation Of Laws Of Nature XIII. Miscellaneous Examples Of The Explanation Of Laws Of Nature XIV. Of The Limits To The Explanation Of Laws Of Nature; And Of Hypotheses XV. Of Progressive Effects; And Of The Continued Action Of Causes XVI. Of Empirical Laws XVII. Of Chance And Its Elimination XVIII. Of The Calculation Of Chances XIX. Of The Extension Of Derivative Laws To Adjacent Cases XX. Of Analogy XXI. Of The Evidence Of The Law Of Universal Causation XXII. Of Uniformities Of Co -Existence Not Dependent On Causation XXIII. Of Approximate Generalizations, And Probable Evidence XXIV. Of The Remaining Laws Of Nature XXV. Of The Grounds Of Disbelief Book IV. Of Operations Subsidiary To Induction I. Of Obser vation And Description II. Of Abstraction, Or The Formation Of Conceptions III. Of Naming, As Subsidiary To Induction IV. Of The Requisites Of A Philosophical Language, And The Principles Of Definition V. On The Natural History Of The Variations In The Meaning Of Terms VI. The Principles Of A Philosophical Language Further Considered VII. Of Classification, As Subsidiary To Induction VIII. Of Classification By Series Book V. On Fallacies I. Of Fallacies In General II. Classification Of Fallacies III. Fallacies Of Simple Inspection; Or A Priori Fallacies IV. Fallacies Of Ob servation V. Fallacies Of Generalization VI. Fallacies Of Ratiocination VII. Fallacies Of Confusion Book VI. On The Logic Of The Moral Sciences I. Introductory Remarks II. Of Liberty And Necessity III. That There Is, Or May Be, A Science Of Human Nature IV. Of The Laws Of Mind V. Of Ethology, Or The Science Of The Formation Of Character VI. General Considerations On The Social Science VII. Of The Chemical, Or Experimental, Method In The Social Science VIII. Of The Geometrical, Or Abstract, Method IX. Of The Physical, Or Concrete Deductive, Method X. Of The Inverse Deductive , Or Historical, Method XI. Additional Elucidations Of The Science Of History XII. Of The Logic Of Practice, Or Art; Including Morality And Policy Preface To The First Edition T his book makes no pretense of giving to the world a new theory of the intellectual operations. Its claim to attention, if it possess any, is grounded on the fact that it is an attempt, not to supersede, but to embody and systematize, the best ideas which have been either promulgated on its subject by speculative writers, or conformed to by accurate thinkers in their scientific inquiries. To cement together the detached fragments of a subject, never yet treated as a whole; to harmonize the true portions of discordant theories, by supplying the links of thought necessary to connect them, and by disentangling them from the errors with which they are always more or less interwoven, must necessarily require a considerable amount of original speculation. To other originality than this, the present work lays no claim. In the existing state of the cultivation of the sciences, there would be a very strong presumption against any one who should imagine that he had effected a revolution in the theory of the investigation of truth, or added any fundamentally new process to the practice of it. The improvement which remains to be effected in the methods of philosophizing (and the author believes that they have much need of improvement) can only consist in performing more systematically and accurately operations with which, at least in their elementary form, the human intellect, in some one or other of its employments, is already familiar. In the portion of the work which treats of Ratiocination, the author has not deemed it necessary to enter into technical details which may be obtained in so perfect a shape from the existing treatises on what is termed the Logic of the Schools. In the contempt entertained by many modern philosophers for the syllogistic art, it will be seen that he by no means participates; though the scientific theory on which its defense is usually rested appears to him erroneous: and the view which he has suggested of the nature and functions of the Syllogism may, perhaps, afford the means of conciliating the principles of the ar t with as much as is well grounded in the doctrines and objections of its assailants. The same abstinence from details could not be observed in the First Book, on Names and Propositions; because many useful principles and distinctions which were contained in the old Logic have been gradually omitted from the writings of its later teachers; and it appeared desirable both to revive these, and to reform and rationalize the philosophical foundation on which they stood. The earlier chapters of this preliminary Book will consequently appear, to some readers, needlessly elementary and scholastic. But those who know in what darkness the nature of our knowledge, and of the processes by which it is obtained, is often involved by a confused apprehension of the import of the different classes of Words and Assertions, will not regard these discussions as either frivolous, or irrelevant to the topics considered in the later Books. On the subject of Induction, the task to be performed was that of generalizing the modes of investigating truth and estimating evidence, by which so many important and recondite laws of nature have, in the various sciences, been aggregated to the stock of human knowledge. That this is not a task free from difficulty may be presumed from the fact t hat even at a very recent period, eminent writers (among whom it is sufficient to name Archbishop Whately, and the author of a celebrated article on Bacon in the Edinburgh Review ) have not scrupled to 1 pronounce it impossible. P0F1 P The author has endeavored to combat their theory in the manner in which Diogenes confuted the skeptical reasonings against the possibility of motion; remembering that Diogenes's argument would have been equally conclusive, though his individual perambulations might not have extended beyond the circuit of his own tub. Whatever may be the value of what the author has succeeded in effecting on this branch of his subject, it is a duty to acknowledge that for much of it he has been indebted to several important treatises, partly historical and partly philosophical, on the generalities and processes of physical science, which have been published within the last few years. To these treatises, and to their authors, he has endeavored to do justice in the body of the work. But as with one of the se writers, Dr. Whewell, he has occasion frequently to express differences of opinion, it is more particularly incumbent on him in this place to declare, that without the aid derived from the facts and ideas contained in that gentleman's History of the Inductive Sciences, the corresponding portion of this work would probably not have been written. The concluding Book is an attempt to contribute toward the solution of a question which the decay of old opinions, and the agitation that disturbs European society to its inmost depths, render as important in the present day to the practical interests of human life, as it must at all times be to the completeness of our speculative knowledgeviz.: Whether moral and social phenomena are really exceptio ns to the general certainty and uniformity of the course of nature; and how far the methods by which so many of the laws of the physical world have been numbered among truths irrevocably acquired and universally assented to, can be made instrumental to the formation of a similar body of received doctrine in moral and political science. 1 In the later editions of Archbishop Whately's Logic, he states his meaning to be, not that rules for the ascertainment of truths by inductive investigation can not be laid down, or that they may not be of eminent service, but that they must always be comparatively vague and general, and incapable of being built up into a regular demonstrative theory like that of the Syllogism. (Book iv., ch. iv., 3.) And he observes, that to devise a system for this purpose, capable of being brought into a scientific form, would be an a chievement which he must be more sanguine than scientific who expects. (Book iv., ch. ii., 4.) To effect this, however, being the express object of the portion of the present work which treats of Induction, the words in the text are no overstatement of the difference of opinion between Archbishop Whately and me on the subject. 2 Preface To The Third And Fourth Editions Several criticisms, of a more or less controversial character, on this work, have appeared since the publication of the second edition; and Dr. Whewell has lately published a reply to those parts of it in which some of his opinions were controverted. P1F2 P I have carefully reconsidered all the points on which my conclusions have been assailed. But I have not to announce a change of opinion on any matter of importance. Such minor oversights as have been detected, either by myself or by my critics, I have, in general silently, corrected: but it is not to be inferred that I agree with the objections which have been made to a passage, in every instance in which I have altered or canceled it. I have often done so, merely that it might not remain a stumbling -block, when the amount of discussion necessary to place the matter in its true light would have exceeded what was suitab le to the occasion. To several of the arguments which have been urged against me, I have thought it useful to reply with some degree of minuteness; not from any taste for controversy, but because the opportunity was favorable for placing my own conclusions, and the grounds of them, more clearly and completely before the reader. Truth on these subjects is militant, and can only establish itself by means of conflict. The most opposite opinions can make a plausible show of evidence while each has the statement of its own case; and it is only possible to ascertain which of them is in the right, after hearing and comparing what each can say against the other, and what the other can urge in its defense. Even the criticisms from which I most dissent have been of great service to me, by showing in what places the exposition most needed to be improved, or the argument strengthened. And I should have been well pleased if the book had undergone a much greater amount of attack; as in that case I should probably have been enabled to improve it still more than I believe I have now done. In the subsequent editions, the attempt to improve the work by additions and corrections, suggested by criticism or by thought, has been continued. The additions and corrections in the present (eighth) edition, which are not very considerable, are chiefly such as have been suggested by Professor Bain's Logic, a book of great merit and value. Mr. Bain's view of the science is essentially the same with that taken in the present treatise, the differences of opinion being few and unimportant compared with the agreements; and he has not only enriched the exposition by many applications and illustrative details, but has appended to it a minute and very valuable discussion of the logical princi ples specially applicable to each of the sciences a task for which the encyclopedical character of his knowledge peculiarly qualified him. I have in several instances made use of his exposition to improve my own, by adopting, and occasionally by controvert ing, matter contained in his treatise. The longest of the additions belongs to the chapter on Causation, and is a discussion of the question how far, if at all, the ordinary mode of stating the law of Cause and Effect requires modification to adapt it to the new doctrine of the Conservation of Force a point still more fully and elaborately treated in Mr. Bain's work. 2 Now forming a chapter in his volume on The Philosophy of Discovery. 3 Introduction 1. There is as great diversity among authors in the modes which they have adopted of defining logic, as in their treatment of the details of it. This is what might naturally be expected on any subject on which writers have availed themselves of the same language as a means of delivering different ideas. Ethics and jurisprudence are liable to the remark in common with logic. Almost every writer having taken a different view of some of the particulars which these branches of knowledge are usually understood to include; each has so framed his definition as to indicate beforehand his own peculiar tenets, and some times to beg the question in their favor. This diversity is not so much an evil to be complained of, as an inevitable and in some degree a proper result of the imperfect state of those sciences. It is not to be expected that there should be agreement about the definition of any thing, until there is agreement about the thing itself. To define, is to select from among all the properties of a thing, those which shall be understood to be designated and declared by its name; and the properties must be well known to us before we can be competent to determine which of them are fittest to be chosen for this purpose. Accordingly, in the case of so complex an aggregation of particulars as are comprehended in any thing which can be called a science, the definition we set out with is seldom that which a more extensive knowledge of the subject shows to be the most appropriate. Until we know the particulars themselves, we can not fix upon the most correct and compact mode of circumscribing them by a general description. I t was not until after an extensive and accurate acquaintance with the details of chemical phenomena, that it was found possible to frame a rational definition of chemistry; and the definition of the science of life and organization is still a matter of dis pute. So long as the sciences are imperfect, the definitions must partake of their imperfection; and if the former are progressive, the latter ought to be so too. As much, therefore, as is to be expected from a definition placed at the commencement of a su bject, is that it should define the scope of our inquiries: and the definition which I am about to offer of the science of logic, pretends to nothing more than to be a statement of the question which I have put to myself, and which this book is an attempt to resolve. The reader is at liberty to object to it as a definition of logic; but it is at all events a correct definition of the subject of this volume. 2. Logic has often been called the Art of Reasoning. A writer P2F3 P who has done more than any other person to restore this study to the rank from which it had fallen in the estimation of the cultivated class in our own country, has adopted the above definition with an amendment; he has defined Logic to be the Science, as well as the Art, of reasoning; mean ing by the former term, the analysis of the mental process which takes place whenever we reason, and by the latter, the rules, grounded on that analysis, for conducting the process correctly. There can be no doubt as to the propriety of the emendation. A right understanding of the mental process itself, of the conditions it depends on, and the steps of which it consists, is the only basis on which a system of rules, fitted for the direction of the process, can possibly be founded. Art necessarily presupposes knowledge; art, in any but its infant state, presupposes scientific knowledge: and if every art does not bear the name of a science, it is only because several sciences are often necessary to form the groundwork of a single art. So complicated are the conditions which govern our practical agency, that to enable one thing to be done , it is often requisite to know the nature and properties of many things. 3 Archbishop Whately. 4 Logic, then, comprises the science of reasoning, as well as an art, founded on that science. But the word Reasoning, again, like most other scientific terms in popular use, abounds in ambiguities. In one of its acceptations, it means syllogizing; or the mode of inference which may be called (with sufficient accuracy for the present purpose) concluding from generals to particulars. In another of its senses, to reason is simply to infer any assertion, from assertions already admitted: and in this sense induction is as much entitled to be called reasoning as the demonstrations of geometry. Writers on logic have generally preferred the former acceptation of the term: the latter, and more extensive signification is that in which I mean to use it. I do this by virtue of the right I claim for every author, to give whatever provisional definition he pleases of his own subject. But sufficient reasons will, I believe, unfold themselves as we advance, why this should be not only the provisional but the final definition. It involves, at all events, no arbitrary change in the meaning of the word; for, with the general usage of the English language, the wider signification, I believe, accords better than the more restricted one. 3. But reasoning, even in the widest sense of which the word is susceptible, does not seem to comprehend all that is included, either in the best, or even in the most current, conception of the scope and province of our science. The employment of the word Logic to denote the theory of Argumentation, is derived from the Aristotelian, or, as they are commonly termed, the scholastic, logicians. Yet eve n with them, in their systematic treatises, Argumentation was the subject only of the third part: the two former treated of Terms, and of Propositions; under one or other of which heads were also included Definition and Division. By some, indeed, these previous topics were professedly introduced only on account of their connection with reasoning, and as a preparation for the doctrine and rules of the syllogism. Yet they were treated with greater minuteness, and dwelt on at greater length, than was required for that purpose alone. More recent writers on logic have generally understood the term as it was employed by the able author of the Port Royal Logic; viz., as equivalent to the Art of Thinking. Nor is this acceptation confined to books, and scientific inquiries. Even in ordinary conversation, the ideas connected with the word Logic include at least precision of language, and accuracy of classification: and we perhaps oftener hear persons speak of a logical arrangement, or of expressions logically defined, than of conclusions logically deduced from premises. Again, a man is often called a great logician, or a man of powerful logic, not for the accuracy of his deductions, but for the extent of his command over premises; because the general propositions required for explaining a difficulty or refuting a sophism, copiously and promptly occur to him: because, in short, his knowledge, besides being ample, is well under his command for argumentative use. Whether, therefore, we conform to the practice of those who have made the subject their particular study, or to that of popular writers and common discourse, the province of logic will include several operations of the intellect not usually considered to fall within the meaning of the terms Reasoning and Argumentation. These various operations might be brought within the compass of the science, and the additional advantage be obtained of a very simple definition, if, by an extension of the term, sanctioned by high authorities, we were to define logic as the science which treats of the operations of the human understanding in the pursuit of truth. For to this ultimate end, naming, classification, definition, and all other operations over which logic has ever claimed jurisdiction, are essentially subsidiary. They may all be regarded as contrivances for enabling a person to know the truths which are needful to him, and to know them at the precise moment at which they are needful. Other purposes, indeed, are also served by these operations; for instance, that of imparting our knowledge to others. But, viewed with regard to this purpose, they have never been considered as within the province of the logician. The sole object of Logic is the guidance of one's own thoughts: the communication of those 5 thoughts to others falls under the consideration of Rhetoric, in the large sense in which that art was conceived by the ancients; or of the still more extensive art of Education. Logic takes cognizance of our intellectual operations only as they conduce to our own knowledge, and to our command over that knowledge for our own uses. If there were but one rational being in the universe, that being might be a perfect logician; and the science and art of logic would be the same for that one person as for the whole human race. 4. But, if the definition which we formerly examined included too little, that which is now suggested has the opposite fault of including too much. Truths are known to us in two ways: some are known directly, and of themselves; some through the medium of other truths. The former are the subject of Intuition, or Consciousness; P3F4 P the latter, of Inference. The truths known by intuition are the original premises from which all others are inferred. Our assent to the conclusion being grounded on the truth of the premises, we never could arrive at any knowledge by reasoning, unless something could be known antecedently to all reasoning. Examples of truths known to us by immediate consciousness, are our own bodily sensations and mental feelings. I know directly, and of my own knowledge, that I was vexed yesterday, or that I am hungry to-day. Examples of truths which we know only by way of inference, are occurrences which took place while we were absent, the events recorded in history, or the theorems of mathematics. T he two former we infer from the testimony adduced, or from the traces of those past occurrences which still exist; the latter, from the premises laid down in books of geometry, under the title of definitions and axioms. Whatever we are capable of knowing must belong to the one class or to the other; must be in the number of the primitive data, or of the conclusions which can be drawn from these. With the original data, or ultimate premises of our knowledge; with their number or nature, the mode in which they are obtained, or the tests by which they may be distinguished; logic, in a direct way at least, has, in the sense in which I conceive the science, nothing to do. These questions are partly not a subject of science at all, partly that of a very different science. Whatever is known to us by consciousness is known beyond possibility of question. What one sees or feels, whether bodily or mentally, one can not but be sure that one sees or feels. No science is required for the purpose of establishing such truths; no rules of art can render our knowledge of them more certain than it is in itself. There is no logic for this portion of our knowledge. But we may fancy that we see or feel what we in reality infer. A truth, or supposed truth, which is really the resul t of a very rapid inference, may seem to be apprehended intuitively. It has long been agreed by thinkers of the most opposite schools, that this mistake is actually made in so familiar an instance as that of the eyesight. There is nothing of which we appea r to ourselves to be more directly conscious than the distance of an object from us. Yet it has long been ascertained, that what is perceived by the eye, is at most nothing more than a variously colored surface; that when we fancy we see distance, all we really see is certain variations of apparent size, and degrees of faintness of color; that our estimate of the object's distance from us is the result partly of a rapid inference from the muscular sensations accompanying the adjustment of the focal distance of the eye to objects unequally remote from us, and partly of a comparison (made with so much rapidity that we are unconscious of making it) between the size and color of the object as they appear at the time, and the size and 4 I use these terms indiscriminately, because, for the purpose in view, there is no need for making any distinction between them. But metaphysicians usually restrict the name Intuition to the direct knowledge we are supposed to have of things external to our minds, and Consciousness to our knowledge of our own mental phenomena. 6 color of the same or of simi lar objects as they appeared when close at hand, or when their degree of remoteness was known by other evidence. The perception of distance by the eye, which seems so like intuition, is thus, in reality, an inference grounded on experience; an inference, t oo, which we learn to make; and which we make with more and more correctness as our experience increases; though in familiar cases it takes place so rapidly as to appear exactly on a par with those perceptions of sight which are really intuitive, our perceptions of color. P4F5 P Of the science, therefore, which expounds the operations of the human understanding in the pursuit of truth, one essential part is the inquiry: What are the facts which are the objects of intuition or consciousness, and what are those which we merely infer? But this inquiry has never been considered a portion of logic. Its place is in another and a perfectly distinct department of science, to which the name metaphysics more particularly belongs: that portion of mental philosophy which attempts to determine what part of the furniture of the mind belongs to it originally, and what part is constructed out of materials furnished to it from without. To this science appertain the great and much debated questions of the existence of matter; the existence of spirit, and of a distinction between it and matter; the reality of time and space, as things without the mind, and distinguishable from the objects which are said to exist in them. For in the present state of the discussion on these topics, it is almost universally allowed that the existence of matter or of spirit, of space or of time, is in its nature unsusceptible of being proved; and that if any thing is known of them, it must be by immediate intuition. To the same science belong the inquiries into the nature of Conception, Perception, Memory, and Belief; all of which are operations of the understanding in the pursuit of truth; but with which, as phenomena of the mind, or with the possibility which may or may not exist of analyzing any of them into simpler phenomena, the logician as such has no concern. To this science must also be referred the following, and all analogous questions: To what extent our intellectual faculties and our emotions are innateto what extent the result of association: Whether God and duty are realities, the existence of which is manifest to us a priori by the constitution of our rational faculty; or whether our ideas of them are acquired notions, the origin of which we are able to trace and explain; and the reality of the objects themselves a question not of consciousness or intuition, but of evidence and reasoning. The province of logic must be restricted to that portion of our knowledge which consists of inferences from truths previously known; whether those antecedent data be general propositions, or particular observations and perceptions. Logic is not the science of Belief, but the science of Proof, or Evidence. In so far as belief professes to be founded on proof, the office of logic is to supply a test for ascertaining whether or not the belief is well grounded. With the claims which any proposition has to belief on the evidence of consciousnessthat is, without evidence in the proper sense of the wordlogic has nothing to do. 5. By far the greatest portion of our knowledge, whether of general truths or of particular facts, being avowedly matter of inference, nearly the whole, not only of science, but of human conduct, is amenable to the authority of logic. To draw inferences has been said to be the great business of life. Every one has daily, hourly, and momentary need of ascertaining facts which he has not directly observed; not from any general purpose of adding to his stock of knowledge, but because the facts themselves are of importance to his interests or to his 5 This imp ortant theory has of late been called in question by a writer of deserved reputation, Mr. Samuel Bailey; but I do not conceive that the grounds on which it has been admitted as an established doctrine for a century past, have been at all shaken by that gentleman's objections. I have elsewhere said what appeared to me necessary in reply to his arguments. ( Westminster Review for October, 1842; reprinted in Dissertations and Discussions, vol. ii.) 7 occupations. The business of the magistrate, of the military commander, of the navigator, of the physician, of the agriculturist, is merely to judge of evidence, and to act accordingly. They all have to ascertain certain facts, in order that they may afterward apply certain rules, either devised by themselves or prescribed for their guidance by others; and as they do this well or ill, so they discharge well or ill the duties of their several callings. It is the only occupation in which the mind never ceases to be engaged; and is the subject, not of logic, but of knowledge in general. Logic, however, is not the same thing with knowledge, though the field of logic is co- extensive with the field of knowledge. Logic is the common judge and arbiter of all par ticular investigations. It does not undertake to find evidence, but to determine whether it has been found. Logic neither observes, nor invents, nor discovers; but judges. It is no part of the business of logic to inform the surgeon what appearances are found to accompany a violent death. This he must learn from his own experience and observation, or from that of others, his predecessors in his peculiar pursuit. But logic sits in judgment on the sufficiency of that observation and experience to justify his rules, and on the sufficiency of his rules to justify his conduct. It does not give him proofs, but teaches him what makes them proofs, and how he is to judge of them. It does not teach that any particular fact proves any other, but points out to what conditions all facts must conform, in order that they may prove other facts. To decide whether any given fact fulfills these conditions, or whether facts can be found which fulfill them in a given case, belongs exclusively to the particular art or science, or to our knowledge of the particular subject. It is in this sense that logic is, what it was so expressively called by the schoolmen and by Bacon, ars artium ; the science of science itself. All science consists of data and conclusions from those data, of proofs and what they prove: now logic points out what relations must subsist between data and whatever can be concluded from them, between proof and every thing which it can prove. If there be any such indispensable relations, and if these can be precisely determined, every particular branch of science, as well as every individual in the guidance of his conduct, is bound to conform to those relations, under the penalty of making false inferences of drawing conclusions which are not grounded in the realities of things. Whatever has at any time been concluded justly, whatever knowledge has been acquired otherwise than by immediate intuition, depended on the observance of the laws which it is the province of logic to investigate. If the conclusions are just, and the knowledge real, those laws, whether known or not, have been observed. 6. We need not, therefore, seek any further for a solution of the question, so often agitated, respecting the utility of logic. If a science of logic exists, or is capable of existing, it must be useful. If there be rules to which every mind consciously or unconsciously conforms in every instance in which it infers rightly, there seems little necessity for discussing whether a person is more likely to observe those rules, when he knows the rules, than when he is unacquainted with them. A science may undoubtedly be brought to a certain, not inconsiderable, stage of advancement, without the application of any other logic to it than what all persons, who are said to have a sound understanding, acquire empirically in the course of their studies. Mankind judged of evidence, and often correctly, before logic was a science, or they never could have made it one. And they executed great mechanical works before they understood the laws of mechan ics. But there are limits both to what mechanicians can do without principles of mechanics, and to what thinkers can do without principles of logic. A few individuals, by extraordinary genius, or by the accidental acquisition of a good set of intellectual habits, may work without principles in the same way, or nearly the same way, in 8 which they would have worked if they had been in possession of principles. But the bulk of mankind require either to understand the theory of what they are doing, or to have rules laid down for them by those who have understood the theory. In the progress of science from its easiest to its more difficult problems, each great step in advance has usually had either as its precursor, or as its accompaniment and necessary condition, a corresponding improvement in the notions and principles of logic received among the most advanced thinkers. And if several of the more difficult sciences are still in so defective a state; if not only so little is proved, but disputation has not terminated even about the little which seemed to be so; the reason perhaps is, that men's logical notions have not yet acquired the degree of extension, or of accuracy, requisite for the estimation of the evidence proper to those particular departments of knowledge. 7. Logic, then, is the science of the operations of the understanding which are subservient to the estimation of evidence: both the process itself of advancing from known truths to unknown, and all other intellectual operations in so far as auxiliary to this. It includes, therefore, the operation of Naming; for language is an instrument of thought, as well as a means of communicating our thoughts. It includes, also, Definition, and Classification. For, the use of these operations (putting all other minds than one's own out of consideration) is to serve not only for keeping our evidences and the conclusions from them permanent and readily accessible in the memory, but for so marshaling the facts which we may at any time be engaged in investigating, as t o enable us to perceive more clearly what evidence there is, and to judge with fewer chances of error whether it be sufficient. These, therefore, are operations specially instrumental to the estimation of evidence, and, as such, are within the province of Logic. There are other more elementary processes, concerned in all thinking, such as Conception, Memory, and the like; but of these it is not necessary that Logic should take any peculiar cognizance, since they have no special connection with the problem of Evidence, further than that, like all other problems addressed to the understanding, it presupposes them. Our object, then, will be, to attempt a correct analysis of the intellectual process called Reasoning or Inference, and of such other mental operati ons as are intended to facilitate this: as well as, on the foundation of this analysis, and pari passu with it, to bring together or frame a set of rules or canons for testing the sufficiency of any given evidence to prove any given proposition. With respect to the first part of this undertaking, I do not attempt to decompose the mental operations in question into their ultimate elements. It is enough if the analysis as far as it goes is correct, and if it goes far enough for the practical purposes of logic considered as an art. The separation of a complicated phenomenon into its component parts is not like a connected and interdependent chain of proof. If one link of an argument breaks, the whole drops to the ground; but one step toward an analysis holds good and has an independent value, though we should never be able to make a second. The results which have been obtained by analytical chemistry are not the less valuable, though it should be discovered that all which we now call simple substances are really compounds. All other things are at any rate compounded of those elements: whether the elements themselves admit of decomposition, is an important inquiry, but does not affect the certainty of the science up to that point. I shall, accordingly, attempt to analyze the process of inference, and the processes subordinate to inference, so far only as may be requisite for ascertaining the difference between a correct and an incorrect performance of those processes. The reason for thus limiting our design, is evident. It has been said by objectors to logic, that we do not learn to use our muscles by studying their anatomy. The fact is not quite fairly stated; for if the action 9 of any of our muscles were vitiated by local weakness, or other physical defect, a knowl edge of their anatomy might be very necessary for effecting a cure. But we should be justly liable to the criticism involved in this objection, were we, in a treatise on logic, to carry the analysis of the reasoning process beyond the point at which any inaccuracy which may have crept into it must become visible. In learning bodily exercises (to carry on the same illustration) we do, and must, analyze the bodily motions so far as is necessary for distinguishing those which ought to be performed from those which ought not. To a similar extent, and no further, it is necessary that the logician should analyze the mental processes with which Logic is concerned. Logic has no interest in carrying the analysis beyond the point at which it becomes apparent whether t he operations have in any individual case been rightly or wrongly performed: in the same manner as the science of music teaches us to discriminate between musical notes, and to know the combinations of which they are susceptible, but not what number of vibrations in a second correspond to each; which, though useful to be known, is useful for totally different purposes. The extension of Logic as a Science is determined by its necessities as an Art: whatever it does not need for its practical ends, it leaves to the larger science which may be said to correspond, not to any particular art, but to art in general; the science which deals with the constitution of the human faculties; and to which, in the part of our mental nature which concerns Logic, as well as in all other parts, it belongs to decide what are ultimate facts, and what are resolvable into other facts. And I believe it will be found that most of the conclusions arrived at in this work have no necessary connection with any particular views respecting the ulterior analysis. Logic is common ground on which the partisans of Hartley and of Reid, of Locke and of Kant, may meet and join hands. Particular and detached opinions of all these thinkers will no doubt occasionally be controverted, since all of them were logicians as well as metaphysicians; but the field on which their principal battles have been fought, lies beyond the boundaries of our science. It can not, indeed, be pretended that logical principles can be altogether irrelevant to those more abstruse discussions; nor is it possible but that the view we are led to take of the problem which logic proposes, must have a tendency favorable to the adoption of some one opinion, on these controverted subjects, rather than another. For metaphysics, in endeavoring to solve its own peculiar problem, must employ means, the validity of which falls under the cognizance of logic. It proceeds, no doubt, as far as possible, merely by a closer and more attentive interrogation of our consciousness, or more properly speaking, of our memory; and so far is not amenable to logic. But wherever this method is insufficient to attain the end of its inquiries, it must proceed, like other sciences, by means of evidence. Now, the moment this science begins to draw inferences from evidence, logic becomes the sovereign judge whether its inferences are well grounded, or what other inferences would be so. This, however, constitutes no nearer or other relation between logic and metaphysics, than that which exists between logic and every other science. And I can conscientiously affirm that no one proposition laid down in this work has been adopted for the sake of establishing, or with any reference to its fitness for being employed in establishing, preconceived opinions in any department of knowledge or of inquiry on which the speculative world is still undecided. P5F6 P 6 The view taken in the text, of the definition and purpose of Logic, stands in marked opposition to that of the school of philosophy which, in this country, is represented by the writings of Sir William Hamilton and of his numerous pupils. Logic, as this school conceives it, is the Science of the Formal Laws of Th ought; a definition framed for the express purpose of excluding, as irrelevant to Logic, whatever relates to Belief and Disbelief, or to the pursuit of truth as such, and restricting the science to that very limited portion of its total province, which ha s reference to the conditions, not of Truth, but of Consistency. What I have thought it useful to say in opposition to this limitation of the field of Logic, has been said at some length in a separate work, first 10 published in 1865, and entitled An Examina tion of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, and of the Principal Philosophical Questions discussed in his Writings. For the purposes of the present Treatise, I am content that the justification of the larger extension which I give to the domain of the science, should rest on the sequel of the Treatise itself. Some remarks on the relation which the Logic of Consistency bears to the Logic of Truth, and on the place which that particular part occupies in the whole to which it belongs, will be found in the pres ent volume (Book 2 ., chap. 3 ., 9). 11 Book I. Of Names And Propositions La scolastique, qui produisit dans la logique, comme dans la morale, et dans une partie de la mtaphysique, une subtilit, une prcision d'ides, dont l'habitude inconnue aux anciens, a contribu plus qu'on ne croit au progrs de la bonne philosophie. Condorcet, Vie de Turgot . To the schoolmen the vulgar languages are principally indebted for what precision and analytic subtlety they possess. Sir W. Hamilton, Discussions in Philosophy . 12 I. Of The Necessity Of Commencing With An Analysis Of Language 1. It is so much the established practice of writers on logic to commence their treatises by a few general observations (in most cases, it is true, rather meagre) on Terms and their varieties, that it will, perhaps, scarcely be required from me, in merely following the common usage, to be as particular in assigning my reasons, as it is usually expected that those should be who deviate from it. The practice, indeed, is recommended by considerations far too obvious to require a formal justification. Logic is a portion of the Art of Thinking: Language is evidently, and by the admission of all philosophers, one of the principal instruments or helps of thought; and any imperfection in the instrument, or in the mode of employing it, is confessedly liable, still more than in almost any other art, to confuse and impede the process, and destroy all ground of confidence in the result. For a mind not previously versed in the meaning and right use of the various kinds of words, to attempt the study of methods of philosophizing, would be as if some one should attempt to become an astronomical observer, having never learned to adjust the focal distance of his optical instruments so as to see distinctly. Since Reasoning, or Inference, the principal subject of logic, is an operation which usually takes place by means of words, and in complicated cases can take place in no other way; those who have not a thorough insight into the signification and purposes of words, will be under chances, amounting almost to certainty, of reasoning or inferring incorrectly. And logicians have generally felt that u nless, in the very first stage, they removed this source of error; unless they taught their pupil to put away the glasses which distort the object, and to use those which are adapted to his purpose in such a manner as to assist, not perplex, his vision; he would not be in a condition to practice the remaining part of their discipline with any prospect of advantage. Therefore it is that an inquiry into language, so far as is needful to guard against the errors to which it gives rise, has at all times been de emed a necessary preliminary to the study of logic. But there is another reason, of a still more fundamental nature, why the import of words should be the earliest subject of the logician's consideration: because without it he can not examine into the impo rt of Propositions. Now this is a subject which stands on the very threshold of the science of logic. The object of logic, as defined in the Introductory Chapter, is to ascertain how we come by that portion of our knowledge (much the greatest portion) which is not intuitive: and by what criterion we can, in matters not self -evident, distinguish between things proved and things not proved, between what is worthy and what is unworthy of belief. Of the various questions which present themselves to our inquiring faculties, some receive an answer from direct consciousness, others, if resolved at all, can only be resolved by means of evidence. Logic is concerned with these last. But before inquiring into the mode of resolving questions, it is necessary to inquire what are those which offer themselves; what questions are conceivable; what inquiries are there, to which mankind have either obtained, or been able to imagine it possible that they should obtain, an answer. This point is best ascertained by a survey and analysis of Propositions. 2. The answer to every question which it is possible to frame, must be contained in a Proposition, or Assertion. Whatever can be an object of belief, or even of disbelief, must, 13 when put into words, assume the form of a proposition. All truth and all error lie in propositions. What, by a convenient misapplication of an abstract term, we call a Truth, means simply a True Proposition; and errors are false propositions. To know the import of all possible propositions would be to know all questions which can be raised, all matters which are susceptible of being either believed or disbelieved. How many kinds of inquiries can be propounded; how many kinds of judgments can be made; and how many kinds of propositions it is possible to frame with a meaning, are but different forms of one and the same question. Since, then, the objects of all Belief and of all Inquiry express themselves in propositions, a sufficient scrutiny of Propositions and of their varieties will apprise us what questions mankind have actually asked of themselves, and what, in the nature of answers to those questions, they have actually thought they had grounds to believe. Now the first glance at a proposition shows that it is formed by putting together two names. A proposition, according to the common simple definition, which is sufficient for our purpose is, discourse, in which something is affirmed or denied of something. Thus, in the proposition, Gold is yellow, the quality yellow is affirmed of the substance gold. In the proposition, Franklin was not born in England, the fact expressed by the words born in England is denied of the man Franklin. Every proposition consists of three parts: the Subject, the Predicate, and the Copula. The predicate is the name denoting that which is affirmed or denied. The subject is the name denoting the person or thing which something is affirmed or denied of. The copula is the sign denoting that there is an affirmation or denial, and thereby enabling the hearer or reader to distinguish a proposition from any other kind of discourse. Thus, in the proposition, The earth is round, the Predicate is the word round, which denotes the quality affirmed, or (as the phrase is) predicated: the earth, words denoting the object which that quality is af firmed of, compose the Subject; the word is , which serves as the connecting mark between the subject and predicate, to show that one of them is affirmed of the other, is called the Copula. Dismissing, for the present, the copula, of which more will be said hereafter, every proposition, then, consists of at least two namesbrings together two names, in a particular manner. This is already a first step toward what we are in quest of. It appears from this, that for an act of belief, one object is not sufficient; the simplest act of belief supposes, and has something to do with, two objects two names, to say the least; and (since the names must be names of something) two namable things . A large class of thinkers would cut the matter short by saying, two ideas . They would say, that the subject and predicate are both of them names of ideas; the idea of gold, for instance, and the idea of yellow; and that what takes place (or part of what takes place) in the act of belief consists in bringing (as it is often expressed) one of these ideas under the other. But this we are not yet in a condition to say: whether such be the correct mode of describing the phenomenon, is an after consideration. The result with which for the present we must be contented, is, that i n every act of belief two objects are in some manner taken cognizance of; that there can be no belief claimed, or question propounded, which does not embrace two distinct (either material or intellectual) subjects of thought; each of them capable, or not, of being conceived by itself, but incapable of being believed by itself. I may say, for instance, the sun. The word has a meaning, and suggests that meaning to the mind of any one who is listening to me. But suppose I ask him, Whether it is true: whether he believes it? He can give no answer. There is as yet nothing to believe, or to disbelieve. Now, however, let me make, of all possible assertions respecting the sun, the one which involves the least of reference to any object besides itself; let me say, the sun exists. Here, at once, is something which a person can say he believes. But here, instead of only one, we find two 14 distinct objects of conception: the sun is one object; existence is another. Let it not be said that this second conception, existence, is involved in the first; for the sun may be conceived as no longer existing. The sun does not convey all the meaning that is conveyed by the sun exists: my father does not include all the meaning of my father exists, for he may be dead; a ro und square does not include the meaning of a round square exists, for it does not and can not exist. When I say the sun, my father, or a round square, I do not call upon the hearer for any belief or disbelief, nor can either the one or the other be afforded me; but if I say, the sun exists, my father exists, or a round square exists, I call for belief; and should, in the first of the three instances, meet with it; in the second, with belief or disbelief, as the case might be; in the third, with disbelief. 3. This first step in the analysis of the object of belief, which, though so obvious, will be found to be not unimportant, is the only one which we shall find it practicable to make without a preliminary survey of language. If we attempt to proceed further in the same path, that is, to analyze any further the import of Propositions; we find forced upon us, as a subject of previous consideration, the import of Names. For every proposition consists of two names; and every proposition affirms or denies one of these names, of the other. Now what we do, what passes in our mind, when we affirm or deny two names of one another, must depend on what they are names of; since it is with reference to that, and not to the mere names themselves, that we ma ke the affirmation or denial. Here, therefore, we find a new reason why the signification of names, and the relation generally between names and the things signified by them, must occupy the preliminary stage of the inquiry we are engaged in. It may be objected that the meaning of names can guide us at most only to the opinions, possibly the foolish and groundless opinions, which mankind have formed concerning things, and that as the object of philosophy is truth, not opinion, the philosopher should dismiss words and look into things themselves, to ascertain what questions can be asked and answered in regard to them. This advice (which no one has it in his power to follow) is in reality an exhortation to discard the whole fruits of the labors of his predecessors, and conduct himself as if he were the first person who had ever turned an inquiring eye upon nature. What does any one's personal knowledge of Things amount to, after subtracting all which he has acquired by means of the words of other people? Even a fter he has learned as much as people usually do learn from others, will the notions of things contained in his individual mind afford as sufficient a basis for a catalogue raisonn as the notions which are in the minds of all mankind? In any enumeration and classification of Things, which does not set out from their names, no varieties of things will of course be comprehended but those recognized by the particular inquirer; and it will still remain to be established, by a subsequent examination of names, t hat the enumeration has omitted nothing which ought to have been included. But if we begin with names, and use them as our clue to the things, we bring at once before us all the distinctions which have been recognized, not by a single inquirer, but by all inquirers taken together. It doubtless may, and I believe it will, be found, that mankind have multiplied the varieties unnecessarily, and have imagined distinctions among things, where there were only distinctions in the manner of naming them. But we are not entitled to assume this in the commencement. We must begin by recognizing the distinctions made by ordinary language. If some of these appear, on a close examination, not to be fundamental, the enumeration of the different kinds of realities may be abridged accordingly. But to impose upon the facts in the first instance the yoke of a theory, while the grounds of the theory are reserved for discussion in a subsequent stage, is not a course which a logician can reasonably adopt. 15 II. Of Names 1. A name, says Hobbes, P6F7 P is a word taken at pleasure to serve for a mark which may raise in our mind a thought like to some thought we had before, and which being pronounced to others, may be to them a sign of what thought the speaker had P7F8 P before in his mind. This simple definition of a name, as a word (or set of words) serving the double purpose of a mark to recall to ourselves the likeness of a former thought, and a sign to make it known to others, appears unexceptionable. Names, indeed, do much more than this; but whatever else they do, grows out of, and is the result of this: as will appear in its proper place. Are names more properly said to be the names of things, or of our ideas of things? The first is the expression in common use; the last is that of some metaphysicians, who conceived that in adopting it they were introducing a highly important distinction. The eminent thinker, just quoted, seems to countenance the latter opinion. But seeing, he continues, names ordered in speech (as is defined) are signs of our conceptions, it is manifest they are not signs of the things themselves; for that the sound of this word stone should be the sign of a stone, can not be understood in any sense but this, that he that hears it collects that he that pronounces it thinks of a stone. If it be merely meant that the conception alone, and not the thing itself, is recalled by the name, or imparted to the hearer, this of course can not be denied. Nevertheless, there seems good reason for adhering to the common usage, and calling (as indeed Hobbes himself does in other places) the word sun the name of the sun, and not the name of our idea of the sun. For names are not intended only to make the hearer conceive what we conceive, but also to inform him what we believe. Now, when I use a name for the purpose of expressing a belief, it is a belief concerning the thing itself, not concerning my idea of it. When I say, the sun is the cause of day, I do not mean that my idea of the sun causes or excites in me the idea of day; or in other words, that thinking of the sun makes me think of day. I mean, that a certain physical fact, which is called the sun's presence (and which, in the ultimate analysis, resolves itself into sensations, not ideas) causes another physical fact, which is called day. It seems proper to consider a word as the name of that which we intend to be understood by it when we use it; of that which any fact that we assert of it is to be understood of; that, in short, concerning which, when we employ the word, we intend to give information. Names, therefore, shall always be spoken of in this work as the names of things themselves, and not merely of our ideas of things. But the question now arises, of what things? and to answer this it is necessary to take into consideration the different kinds of names. 2. It is usual, before examining the various classes into which names are commonly divided, to begin by distinguishing from names of every description, those words which are not names, but only parts of names. Among such are reckoned particles, as of, to, truly , often ; the inflected cases of nouns substantive, as me , him , John's ; and even adjectives, as large , heavy . These words do not express things of which any thing can be affirmed or denied. We can not say, Heavy fell, or A heavy fell; Truly, or A truly, was asserted; Of, or An of, was in the room. Unless, indeed, we are speaking of the mere words themselves, as when we say, Truly is an English word, or, Heavy is an adjecti ve. In that case they are 7 Computation or Logic , chap. ii. 8 In the original had, or had not . These last words, as involving a subtlety foreign to our present purpose, I have forborne to quote. 16 complete names viz., names of those particular sounds, or of those particular collections of written characters. This employment of a word to denote the mere letters and syllables of which it is composed, was termed by the schoolmen the suppositio materialis of the word. In any other sense we can not introduce one of these words into the subject of a proposition, unless in combination with other words; as, A heavy body fell, A truly important fact was asserted, A member of parliament was in the room. An adjective, however, is capable of standing by itself as the predicate of a proposition; as when we say, Snow is white; and occasionally even as the subject, for we may say, White is an agreeable color. The adjective is often said to be so used by a grammatical ellipsis: Snow is white, instead of Snow is a white object; White is an agreeable color, instead of, A white color, or, The color white, is agreeable. The Greeks and Romans were allowed, by the rules of their language, to employ this ellipsis universally in the subject as well as in the predicate of a proposition. In English this can not, generally speaking, be done. We may say, The earth is round; but we can not say, Round is easily moved; we must say, A round object. This distinction, however, is rather grammatical than logical. Since there is no difference of meaning between round, and a round object , it is only custom which prescribes that on any given occasion one shall be used, and not the other. We shall, therefore, without scruple, speak of adjectives as names, whether in their own right, or as representative of the more circuitous forms of expression above exemplified. The other classes of subsidiary words have no title whatever to be considered as names. An adverb, or an accusative case, can not under any circumstances (except when their mere letters and syllables are spoken of) figure as one of the terms of a proposition. Words which are not capable of being used as names, but only as parts of names, were called by some of the schoolmen Syncategorematic terms: from , with, and , to predicate, because it was only with some other word that they could be predicated. A word which could be used either as the subject or predicate of a proposition without being accomp anied by any other word, was termed by the same authorities a Categorematic term. A combination of one or more Categorematic, and one or more Syncategorematic words, as A heavy body, or A court of justice, they sometimes called a mixed term; but this seems a needless multiplication of technical expressions. A mixed term is, in the only useful sense of the word, Categorematic. It belongs to the class of what have been called many-worded names. For, as one word is frequently not a name, but only part of a name, so a number of words often compose one single name, and no more. These words, The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes, form in the estimation of the logician only one name; one Categor ematic term. A mode of determining whether any set of words makes only one name, or more than one, is by predicating something of it, and observing whether, by this predication, we make only one assertion or several. Thus, when we say, John Nokes, who was the mayor of the town, died yesterdayby this predication we make but one assertion; whence it appears that John Nokes, who was the mayor of the town, is no more than one name. It is true that in this proposition, besides the assertion that John Nokes died yesterday, there is included another assertion, namely, that John Nokes was mayor of the town. But this last assertion was already made: we did not make it by adding the predicate, died yesterday. Suppose, however, that the words had been, John Nokes and the mayor of the town, they would have formed two names instead of one. For when we say, John Nokes and the mayor of the town died yesterday, we make two assertions: one, that John Nokes died yesterday; the other, that the mayor of the town died yester day. 17 It being needless to illustrate at any greater length the subject of many -worded names, we proceed to the distinctions which have been established among names, not according to the words they are composed of, but according to their signification. 3. All names are names of something, real or imaginary; but all things have not names appropriated to them individually. For some individual objects we require, and consequently have, separate distinguishing names; there is a name for every person, and for every remarkable place. Other objects, of which we have not occasion to speak so frequently, we do not designate by a name of their own; but when the necessity arises for naming them, we do so by putting together several words, each of which, by itself, might be and is used for an indefinite number of other objects; as when I say, this stone : this and stone being, each of them, names that may be used of many other objects besides the particular one meant, though the only object of which they can both be used at the given moment, consistently with their signification, may be the one of which I wish to speak. Were this the sole purpose for which names, that are common to more things than one, could be employed; if they only served, by mutually limiting each other, to afford a designation for such individual objects as have no names of their own: they could only be ranked among contrivances for economizing the use of language. But it is evident that this is not their sole function. It is by their means that w e are enabled to assert general propositions; to affirm or deny any predicate of an indefinite number of things at once. The distinction, therefore, between general names, and individual or singular names, is fundamental; and may be considered as the first grand division of names. A general name is familiarly defined, a name which is capable of being truly affirmed, in the same sense, of each of an indefinite number of things. An individual or singular name is a name which is only capable of being truly affirmed, in the same sense, of one thing. Thus, man is capable of being truly affirmed of John, George, Mary, and other persons without assignable limit; and it is affirmed of all of them in the same sense; for the word man expresses certain qualities, and w hen we predicate it of those persons, we assert that they all possess those qualities. But John is only capable of being truly affirmed of one single person, at least in the same sense. For, though there are many persons who bear that name, it is not conferred upon them to indicate any qualities, or any thing which belongs to them in common; and can not be said to be affirmed of them in any sense at all, consequently not in the same sense. The king who succeeded William the Conqueror, is also an individua l name. For, that there can not be more than one person of whom it can be truly affirmed, is implied in the meaning of the words. Even the king, when the occasion or the context defines the individual of whom it is to be understood, may justly be regarded as an individual name. It is not unusual, by way of explaining what is meant by a general name, to say that it is the name of a class . But this, though a convenient mode of expression for some purposes, is objectionable as a definition, since it explains the clearer of two things by the more obscure. It would be more logical to reverse the proposition, and turn it into a definition of the word class : A class is the indefinite multitude of individuals denoted by a general name. It is necessary to disting uish general from collective names. A general name is one which can be predicated of each individual of a multitude; a collective name can not be predicated of each separately, but only of all taken together. The 76th regiment of foot in the British army, which is a collective name, is not a general but an individual name; for though it can be predicated of a multitude of individual soldiers taken jointly, it can not be predicated of them severally. We may say, Jones is a soldier, and Thompson is a soldier, and Smith is a 18 soldier, but we can not say, Jones is the 76th regiment, and Thompson is the 76th regiment, and Smith is the 76th regiment. We can only say, Jones, and Thompson, and Smith, and Brown, and so forth (enumerating all the soldiers), are the 76th regiment. The 76th regiment is a collective name, but not a general one: a regiment is both a collective and a general name. General with respect to all individual regiments, of each of which separately it can be affirmed: collective with respect t o the individual soldiers of whom any regiment is composed. 4. The second general division of names is into concrete and abstract . A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name is a name which stands for an attribute of a thing. Thus John, the sea , this table , are names of things. White , also, is a name of a thing, or rather of things. Whiteness, again, is the name of a quality or attribute of those things. Man is a name of many things; humanity is a name of an attribute of those things. Old is a name of things: old age is a name of one of their attributes. I have used the words concrete and abstract in the sense annexed to them by the schoolmen, who, notwithstanding the imperfections of their philosophy, were unrivaled in t he construction of technical language, and whose definitions, in logic at least, though they never went more than a little way into the subject, have seldom, I think, been altered but to be spoiled. A practice, however, has grown up in more modern times, which, if not introduced by Locke, has gained currency chiefly from his example, of applying the expression abstract name to all names which are the result of abstraction or generalization, and consequently to all general names, instead of confining it to the names of attributes. The metaphysicians of the Condillac schoolwhose admiration of Locke, passing over the profoundest speculations of that truly original genius, usually fastens with peculiar eagerness upon his weakest pointshave gone on imitating him in this abuse of language, until there is now some difficulty in restoring the word to its original signification. A more wanton alteration in the meaning of a word is rarely to be met with; for the expression general name , the exact equivalent of whic h exists in all languages I am acquainted with, was already available for the purpose to which abstract has been misappropriated, while the misappropriation leaves that important class of words, the names of attributes, without any compact distinctive appellation. The old acceptation, however, has not gone so completely out of use as to deprive those who still adhere to it of all chance of being understood. By abstract , then, I shall always, in Logic proper, mean the opposite of concrete; by an abstract nam e, the name of an attribute; by a concrete name, the name of an object. Do abstract names belong to the class of general, or to that of singular names? Some of them are certainly general. I mean those which are names not of one single and definite attribute, but of a class of attributes. Such is the word color , which is a name common to whiteness, redness, etc. Such is even the word whiteness, in respect of the different shades of whiteness to which it is applied in common: the word magnitude, in respect of the various degrees of magnitude and the various dimensions of space; the word weight, in respect of the various degrees of weight. Such also is the word attribute itself, the common name of all particular attributes. But when only one attribute, neither variable in degree nor in kind, is designated by the name; as visibleness; tangibleness; equality; squareness; milk -whiteness; then the name can hardly be considered general; for though it denotes an attribute of many different objects, the attribute itself is always conceived as one, not many. P8F9 P To avoid needless logomachies, the best course would probably be to consider these names as neither general nor individual, and to place them in a class apart. 9 Vide infra, note at the end of 3, book 2 ., chap. 2. 19 It may be objected to our definition of an abstract name, that not only the names which we have called abstract, but adjectives, which we have placed in the concrete class, are names of attributes; that white , for example, is as much the name of the color as whiteness is. But (as before remarked) a word ought to be considered as the name of that which we intend to be understood by it when we put it to its principal use, that is, when we employ it in predication. When we say snow is white, milk is white, linen is white, we do not mean it to be understood that s now, or linen, or milk, is a color. We mean that they are things having the color. The reverse is the case with the word whiteness; what we affirm to be whiteness is not snow, but the color of snow. Whiteness, therefore, is the name of the color exclusivel y: white is a name of all things whatever having the color; a name, not of the quality whiteness, but of every white object. It is true, this name was given to all those various objects on account of the quality; and we may therefore say, without improprie ty, that the quality forms part of its signification; but a name can only be said to stand for, or to be a name of, the things of which it can be predicated. We shall presently see that all names which can be said to have any signification, all names by applying which to an individual we give any information respecting that individual, may be said to imply an attribute of some sort; but they are not names of the attribute; it has its own proper abstract name. 5. This leads to the consideration of a third great division of names, into connotative and non-connotative , the latter sometimes, but improperly, called absolute . This is one of the most important distinctions which we shall have occasion to point out, and one of those which go deepest into the nature of language. A non-connotative term is one which signifies a subject only, or an attribute only. A connotative term is one which denotes a subject, and implies an attribute. By a subject is here meant any thing which possesses attributes. Thus John, or London, or England, are names which signify a subject only. Whiteness, length, virtue, signify an attribute only. None of these names, therefore, are connotative. But white , long, virtuous , are connotative. The word white, denotes all white things, as snow, paper, the foam of the sea, etc., and implies, or in the language of the schoolmen, connotes , P9F10 P the attribute whiteness . The word white is not predicated of the attribute, but of the subjects, snow, etc.; but when we predicate it of them, we convey the meaning that the attribute whiteness belongs to them. The same may be said of the other words above cited. Virtuous, for example, is the name of a class, which includes Socrates, Howard, the Man of Ross, and an undefinable number of other individuals, past, present, and to come. These individuals, collectively and severally, can alone be said with propriety to be denoted by the word: of them alone can it properly be said to be a name. But it is a name applied to all of them in consequence of an attribute which they are supposed to possess in common, the attribute which has received the name of virtue. It is applied to all beings that are considered to possess this attribute; and to none which are not so considered. All concrete general names are connotative. T he word man , for example, denotes Peter, Jane, John, and an indefinite number of other individuals, of whom, taken as a class, it is the name. But it is applied to them, because they possess, and to signify that they possess, certain attributes. These seem to be, corporeity, animal life, rationality, and a certain external form, which for distinction we call the human. Every existing thing, which possessed all these attributes, would be called a man; and any thing which possessed none of them, or only one, or two, or even three of them without the fourth, would not be so called. For example, if in the interior of Africa there were to be discovered a race of animals possessing reason equal to that of human beings, but with the form of an elephant, they would not be called men. Swift's Houyhnhnms would not be so called. Or if such newly-discovered beings possessed the form 10 Notare , to mark; connotare, to mark along with ; to mark one thing with or in addition to another. 20 of man without any vestige of reason, it is probable that some other name than that of man would be found for them. How it happens that there can be any doubt about the matter, will appear hereafter. The word man , therefore, signifies all these attributes, and all subjects which possess these attributes. But it can be predicated only of the subjects. What we call men, are the subjects, the individual Stiles and Nokes; not the qualities by which their humanity is constituted. The name, therefore, is said to signify the subjects directly , the attributes indirectly ; it denotes the subjects, and implies, or involves, or indicates, or as we shall sa y henceforth connotes , the attributes. It is a connotative name. Connotative names have hence been also called denominative , because the subject which they denote is denominated by, or receives a name from the attribute which they connote. Snow, and other objects, receive the name white, because they possess the attribute which is called whiteness; Peter, James, and others receive the name man because they possess the attributes which are considered to constitute humanity. The attribute, or attributes , may therefore be said to denominate those objects, or to give them a common name. P10F11 P It has been seen that all concrete general names are connotative. Even abstract names, though the names only of attributes, may in some instances be justly considered as connotative; for attributes themselves may have attributes ascribed to them; and a word which denotes attributes may connote an attribute of those attributes. Of this description, for example, is such a word as fault ; equivalent to bad or hurtful quality . This word is a name common to many attributes, and connotes hurtfulness, an attribute of those various attributes. When, for example, we say that slowness, in a horse, is a fault, we do not mean that the slow movement, the actual change of pace of the slo w horse, is a bad thing, but that the property or peculiarity of the horse, from which it derives that name, the quality of being a slow mover, is an undesirable peculiarity. In regard to those concrete names which are not general but individual, a distinction must be made. Proper names are not connotative: they denote the individuals who are called by them; but they do not indicate or imply any attributes as belonging to those individuals. When we name a child by the name Paul, or a dog by the name Csar, these names are simply marks used to enable those individuals to be made subjects of discourse. It may be said, indeed, that we must have had some reason for giving them those names rather than any others; and this is true; but the name, once given, is independent of the reason. A man may have been named John, because that was the name of his father; a town may have been named Dartmouth, because it is situated at the mouth of the Dart. But it is no part of the signification of the word John, that the father of the person so called bore the same name; nor even of the word Dartmouth, to be situated at the mouth of the Dart. If sand should choke up the mouth of the river, or an earthquake change its course, and remove it to a distance from the town, the name of the town would not necessarily be changed. That fact, therefore, can form no part of the signification of the word; for otherwise, when the fact confessedly ceased to be true, no one would any longer think of applying the name. Proper names are attached to the objects themselves, and are not dependent on the continuance of any attribute of the object. But there is another kind of names, which, although they are individual namesthat is, predicable only of one objectare really connotat ive. For, though we may give to an 11 Archbishop Whately, who, in the later editions of his Elements of Logic , aided in reviving the impor tant distinction treated of in the text, proposes the term Attributive as a substitute for Connotative (p. 22, 9th edit.). The expression is, in itself, appropriate; but as it has not the advantage of being connected with any verb, of so markedly disti nctive a character as to connote, it is not, I think, fitted to supply the place of the word Connotative in scientific use. 21 individual a name utterly unmeaning, which we call a proper namea word which answers the purpose of showing what thing it is we are talking about, but not of telling any thing about it; yet a name peculiar to an individual is not necessarily of this description. It may be significant of some attribute, or some union of attributes, which, being possessed by no object but one, determines the name exclusively to that individual. The sun is a name of this description; God, when used by a monotheist, is another. These, however, are scarcely examples of what we are now attempting to illustrate, being, in strictness of language, general, not individual names: for, however they may be in fact predicable only of one object, there is nothing in the meaning of the words themselves which implies this: and, accordingly, when we are imagining and not affirming, we may speak of many suns; and the majority of mankind have believed, and still believe, that there are many gods. But it is easy to produce words which are real instances of connotative individual names. It may be part of the meaning of the connotative name itself, that there can exist but one individual possessing the attribute which it connotes: as, for instance, the only son of John Stiles; the first emperor of Rome. Or the attribute connoted may be a connection with some determinate event, and the connection may be of such a kind as only one individual could have; or may at least be such as only one individual actually had; and this may be implied in the form of the expression. The father of Socrates is an example of the one kind (since Socrates could not have had two fathers); the author of the Iliad, the murderer of Henri Quatre, of the second. For, though it is conceivable that more persons than one might have participated in the authorship of the Iliad, or in the murder of Henri Quatre, the employment of the article the implies that, in fact, this was not the case. What is here done by the word the , is done in other cases by the context: thus, Csar's army is an individual name, if it appears from the context that the army meant is that which Csar commanded in a particular battle. The still more general expressions, the Roman army, or the Christian army, m ay be individualized in a similar manner. Another case of frequent occurrence has already been noticed; it is the following: The name, being a many-worded one, may consist, in the first place, of a general name, capable therefore in itself of being affirmed of more things than one, but which is, in the second place, so limited by other words joined with it, that the entire expression can only be predicated of one object, consistently with the meaning of the general term. This is exemplified in such an insta nce as the following: the present prime minister of England. Prime Minister of England is a general name; the attributes which it connotes may be possessed by an indefinite number of persons: in succession however, not simultaneously; since the meaning o f the name itself imports (among other things) that there can be only one such person at a time. This being the case, and the application of the name being afterward limited by the article and the word present , to such individuals as possess the attributes at one indivisible point of time, it becomes applicable only to one individual. And as this appears from the meaning of the name, without any extrinsic proof, it is strictly an individual name. From the preceding observations it will easily be collected, that whenever the names given to objects convey any informationthat is, whenever they have properly any meaningthe meaning resides not in what they denote , but in what they connote . The only names of objects which connote nothing are proper names; and th ese have, strictly speaking, no signification. P11F12 P 12 A writer who entitles his book Philosophy; or, the Science of Truth, charges me in his very first page (referring at the foot of it to this passage) with asserting that general names have properly no signification. And he repeats this statement many times in the course of his volume, with comments, not at all flattering, thereon. It is well to be now and then reminded to how great a length perverse misquotation (for, strange as it appears, I do not believe that the writer is dishonest) can sometimes go. It is a warning to readers when they see an author accused, with volume and page referred to, and the apparent guarantee of inverted commas, of maintaining 22 If, like the robber in the Arabian Nights, we make a mark with chalk on a house to enable us to know it again, the mark has a purpose, but it has not properly any meaning. The chalk does not declare any thing about the house; it does not mean, This is such a person's house, or This is a house which contains booty. The object of making the mark is merely distinction. I say to myself, All these houses are so nearly alike that if I lose sight of them I shall not again be able to distinguish that which I am now looking at, from any of the others; I must therefore contrive to make the appearance of this one house unlike that of the others, that I may hereafter know when I see the mark not indeed any attribute of the housebut simply that it is the same house which I am now looking at. Morgiana chalked all the other houses in a similar manner, and defeated the scheme: how? simply by obliterating the difference of appearance between that house and the others. The chalk was still there, but it no longer served the purpose of a distinctive mark. When we impose a proper name, we perform an operation in some degree analogous to what the robber intended in chalking the house. We put a mark, not indeed upon the object itsel f, but, so to speak, upon the idea of the object. A proper name is but an unmeaning mark which we connect in our minds with the idea of the object, in order that whenever the mark meets our eyes or occurs to our thoughts, we may think of that individual object. Not being attached to the thing itself, it does not, like the chalk, enable us to distinguish the object when we see it; but it enables us to distinguish it when it is spoken of, either in the records of our own experience, or in the discourse of others; to know that what we find asserted in any proposition of which it is the subject, is asserted of the individual thing with which we were previously acquainted. When we predicate of any thing its proper name; when we say, pointing to a man, this is Brown or Smith, or pointing to a city, that it is York, we do not, merely by so doing, convey to the reader any information about them, except that those are their names. By enabling him to identify the individuals, we may connect them with information previously possessed by him; by saying, This is York, we may tell him that it contains the Minster. But this is in virtue of what he has previously heard concerning York; not by any thing implied in the name. It is otherwise when objects are spoken of by connotative names. When we say, The town is built of marble, we give the hearer what may be entirely new information, and this merely by the signification of the many-worded connotative name, built of marble. Such names are not signs of the mere objects, invented because we have occasion to think and speak of those objects individually; but signs which accompany an attribute; a kind of livery in which the attribute clothes all objects which are recognized as possessing it. They are not mere marks, but more, that is to say, significant marks; and the connotation is what constitutes their significance. As a proper name is said to be the name of the one individual which it is predicated of, so (as well from the importance of adhering to analogy, as for the other reasons formerly assigned) a connotative name ought to be considered a name of all the various individuals which it is predicable of, or in other words denotes , and not of what it connotes. But by learning what things it is a name of, we do not learn the meaning of the name: for to the same thing we may, with equal propriety, apply many names, not equivalent in meaning. Thus, I call a certain man by the name Sophroniscus: I call him by another name, The father of Socrates. Both these are names of the same indi vidual, but their meaning is altogether different; they are applied to that individual for two different purposes: the one, merely to distinguish him from other persons who are spoken of; the other to indicate a fact relating to him, the fact that something more than commonly absurd, not to give implicit credence to the assertion without verifying the reference. 23 Socrates was his son. I further apply to him these other expressions: a man, a Greek, an Athenian, a sculptor, an old man, an honest man, a brave man. All these are, or may be, names of Sophroniscus, not indeed of him alone, but of him and each of an indefinite number of other human beings. Each of these names is applied to Sophroniscus for a different reason, and by each whoever understands its meaning is apprised of a distinct fact or number of facts concerning him; but those who knew nothing about the names exce pt that they were applicable to Sophroniscus, would be altogether ignorant of their meaning. It is even possible that I might know every single individual of whom a given name could be with truth affirmed, and yet could not be said to know the meaning of the name. A child knows who are its brothers and sisters, long before it has any definite conception of the nature of the facts which are involved in the signification of those words. In some cases it is not easy to decide precisely how much a particular wo rd does or does not connote; that is, we do not exactly know (the case not having arisen) what degree of difference in the object would occasion a difference in the name. Thus, it is clear that the word man, besides animal life and rationality, connotes al so a certain external form; but it would be impossible to say precisely what form; that is, to decide how great a deviation from the form ordinarily found in the beings whom we are accustomed to call men, would suffice in a newly -discovered race to make us refuse them the name of man. Rationality, also, being a quality which admits of degrees, it has never been settled what is the lowest degree of that quality which would entitle any creature to be considered a human being. In all such cases, the meaning of the general name is so far unsettled and vague; mankind have not come to any positive agreement about the matter. When we come to treat of Classification, we shall have occasion to show under what conditions this vagueness may exist without practical inconvenience; and cases will appear in which the ends of language are better promoted by it than by complete precision; in order that, in natural history for instance, individuals or species of no very marked character may be ranged with those more strongly c haracterized individuals or species to which, in all their properties taken together, they bear the nearest resemblance. But this partial uncertainty in the connotation of names can only be free from mischief when guarded by strict precautions. One of the chief sources, indeed, of lax habits of thought, is the custom of using connotative terms without a distinctly ascertained connotation, and with no more precise notion of their meaning than can be loosely collected from observing what objects they are used to denote. It is in this manner that we all acquire, and inevitably so, our first knowledge of our vernacular language. A child learns the meaning of the words man , or white , by hearing them applied to a variety of individual objects, and finding out, by a process of generalization and analysis which he could not himself describe, what those different objects have in common. In the case of these two words the process is so easy as to require no assistance from culture; the objects called human beings, and the objects called white, differing from all others by qualities of a peculiarly definite and obvious character. But in many other cases, objects bear a general resemblance to one another, which leads to their being familiarly classed together under a common name, while, without more analytic habits than the generality of mankind possess, it is not immediately apparent what are the particular attributes, upon the possession of which in common by them all, their general resemblance depends. When this is the case, people use the name without any recognized connotation, that is, without any precise meaning; they talk, and consequently think, vaguely, and remain contented to attach only the same degree of significance to their own words, which a child three year s old attaches to the words brother and sister. The child at least is seldom puzzled by the starting up of new individuals, on whom he is ignorant whether or not to confer the title; because there is usually an authority close at hand competent to solve all doubts. But a 24 similar resource does not exist in the generality of cases; and new objects are continually presenting themselves to men, women, and children, which they are called upon to class proprio motu. They, accordingly, do this on no other principl e than that of superficial similarity, giving to each new object the name of that familiar object, the idea of which it most readily recalls, or which, on a cursory inspection, it seems to them most to resemble: as an unknown substance found in the ground will be called, according to its texture, earth, sand, or a stone. In this manner, names creep on from subject to subject, until all traces of a common meaning sometimes disappear, and the word comes to denote a number of things not only independently of any common attribute, but which have actually no attribute in common; or none but what is shared by other things to which the name is capriciously refused. P12F13 P Even scientific writers have aided in this perversion of general language from its purpose; sometimes because, like the vulgar, they knew no better; and sometimes in deference to that aversion to admit new words, which induces mankind, on all subjects not considered technical, to attempt to make the original stock of names serve with but little augmenta tion to express a constantly increasing number of objects and distinctions, and, consequently, to express them in a manner progressively more and more imperfect. To what a degree this loose mode of classing and denominating objects has rendered the vocabulary of mental and moral philosophy unfit for the purposes of accurate thinking, is best known to whoever has most meditated on the present condition of those branches of knowledge. Since, however, the introduction of a new technical language as the vehicle of speculations on subjects belonging to the domain of daily discussion, is extremely difficult to effect, and would not be free from inconvenience even if effected, the problem for the philosopher, and one of the most difficult which he has to resolve, is, in retaining the existing phraseology, how best to alleviate its imperfections. This can only be accomplished by giving to every general concrete name which there is frequent occasion to predicate, a definite and fixed connotation; in order that it may be known what attributes, when we call an object by that name, we really mean to predicate of the object. And the question of most nicety is, how to give this fixed connotation to a name, with the least possible change in the objects which the name is habi tually employed to denote; with the least possible disarrangement, either by adding or subtraction, of the group of objects which, in however imperfect a manner, it serves to circumscribe and hold together; and with the least vitiation of the truth of any propositions which are commonly received as true. This desirable purpose, of giving a fixed connotation where it is wanting, is the end aimed at whenever any one attempts to give a definition of a general name already in use; every definition of a connotative name being an attempt either merely to declare, or to declare and analyze, the connotation of the name. And the fact, that no questions which have arisen in the moral sciences have been subjects of keener controversy than the definitions of alm ost all the leading expressions, is a proof how great an extent the evil to which we have adverted has attained. 13 Take the familiar term Stone. It is applied to mineral and rocky materials, to the kernels of fruit, to the accumulations in the gall -bladder and in the kidney; while it is refused to polished minerals (called gems), to rocks that have the cleavage suited for roofing (slates), and to baked clay (bricks). It occurs in the designation of the magnetic oxide of iron (loadstone), and not in speaking of other metallic ores. Such a term is wholly unfit for accurate reasoning, unless hedged round on every occasion by other phrases; as building stone, precious stone, gall -stone, etc. Moreover, the methods of definition are baffled for want of sufficient community to ground upon. There is no quality uniformly present in the cases where it is applied, and uniformly absent where it is not applied; hence the definer would have to employ largely the license of striking off exis ting applications, and taking in new ones. Bain, Logic , ii., 172. 25 Names with indeterminate connotation are not to be confounded with names which have more than one connotation, that is to say, ambiguous words. A word may have several meanings, but all of them fixed and recognized ones; as the word post , for example, or the word box, the various senses of which it would be endless to enumerate. And the paucity of existing names, in comparison with the demand for them, may often render it advisable and even necessary to retain a name in this multiplicity of acceptations, distinguishing these so clearly as to prevent their being confounded with one another. Such a word may be considered as two or more names, accidentally written and spoken alike. P13F14 P 6. The fourth principal division of names, is into positive and negative . Positive, as man , tree, good; negative, as not-man, not- tree, not-good. To every positive concrete name, a corresponding negative one might be framed. After giving a name to any one thing, or to any plurality of things, we might create a second name which should be a name of all things whatever, except that particular thing or things. These negative names are employed whenever we have occasion to speak collectively of all things other than some thing or class of things. When the positive name is connotative, the corresponding negative name is connotative likewise; but in a peculiar way, connoting not the presence but the absence of an attribute. Th us, not- white denotes all things whatever except white things; and connotes the attribute of not possessing whiteness. For the non-possession of any given attribute is also an attribute, and may receive a name as such; and thus negative concrete names may obtain negative abstract names to correspond to them. P14F15 P 14 Before quitting the subject of connotative names, it is proper to observe, that the first writer who, in our times, has adopted from the schoolmen the word to connote , Mr. James Mill, in his Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, employs it in a signification different from that in which it is here used. He uses the word in a sense co -extensive with its etymology, applying it to every case in which a name, while pointing directly to one thing (which is consequently termed its signification), includes also a tacit reference to some other thing. In the case considered in the text, that of concrete general names, his language and mine are the converse of one another. Considering (very justly) the signification of the name to lie in the attribute, he speaks of the word as noting the attribute, and connoting the things possessing the attribute. And he describes abstract names as being properly concrete names with their connotation dropped; whereas, in my view, it is the denotation which would be said to be dropped, what was previously connoted becoming the whole signification. In adopting a phraseology at variance with that which so high an authority, and one which I am less likely than any other person to undervalue, has deliberately sanctioned, I have been influenced by the urgent necessity for a term exclusively appropriated to express the manner in which a concrete general name serves to mark the attributes which are involved in its signi fication. This necessity can scarcely be felt in its full force by any one who has not found by experience how vain is the attempt to communicate clear ideas on the philosophy of language without such a word. It is hardly an exaggeration to say, that some of the most prevalent of the errors with which logic has been infected, and a large part of the cloudiness and confusion of ideas which have enveloped it, would, in all probability, have been avoided, if a term had been in common use to express exactly what I have signified by the term to connote. And the schoolmen, to whom we are indebted for the greater part of our logical language, gave us this also, and in this very sense. For though some of their general expressions countenance the use of the word in t he more extensive and vague acceptation in which it is taken by Mr. Mill, yet when they had to define it specifically as a technical term, and to fix its meaning as such, with that admirable precision which always characterizes their definitions, they clea rly explained that nothing was said to be connoted except forms , which word may generally, in their writings, be understood as synonymous with attributes . Now, if the word to connote , so well suited to the purpose to which they applied it, be diverted from that purpose by being taken to fulfill another, for which it does not seem to me to be at all required; I am unable to find any expression to replace it, but such as are commonly employed in a sense so much more general, that it would be useless attemptin g to associate them peculiarly with this precise idea. Such are the words, to involve, to imply, etc. By employing these, I should fail of attaining the object for which alone the name is needed, namely, to distinguish this particular kind of involving and implying from all other kinds, and to assure to it the degree of habitual attention which its importance demands. 15 Professor Bain ( Logic , i., 56) thinks that negative names are not names of all things whatever except those denoted by the correlative posi tive name, but only for all things of some particular class: not-white , for instance, 26 Names which are positive in form are often negative in reality, and others are really positive though their form is negative. The word inconvenient , for example, does not express the mere absence of convenience; it expresses a positive attributethat of being the cause of discomfort or annoyance. So the word unpleasant , notwithstanding its negative form, does not connote the mere absence of pleasantness, but a less degree of what is signified by the word painful , which, it is hardly necessary to say, is positive. Idle , on the other hand, is a word which, though positive in form, expresses nothing but what would be signified either by the phrase not working, or by the phrase not disposed to work ; and sober, either by not drunk or by not drunken. There is a class of names called privative . A privative name is equivalent in its signification to a positive and a negative name taken together; being the name of something which has once had a particular attrib ute, or for some other reason might have been expected to have it, but which has it not. Such is the word blind, which is not equivalent to not seeing, or to not capable of seeing, for it would not, except by a poetical or rhetorical figure, be applied to stocks and stones. A thing is not usually said to be blind, unless the class to which it is most familiarly referred, or to which it is referred on the particular occasion, be chiefly composed of things which can see, as in the case of a blind man, or a blind horse; or unless it is supposed for any reason that it ought to see; as in saying of a man, that he rushed blindly into an abyss, or of philosophers or the clergy that the greater part of them are blind guides. The names called privative, therefore, co nnote two things; the absence of certain attributes, and the presence of others, from which the presence also of the former might naturally have been expected. 7. The fifth leading division of names is into relative and absolute , or let us rather say, relative and non- relative; for the word absolute is put upon much too hard duty in metaphysics, not to be willingly spared when its services can be dispensed with. It resembles the word civil in the language of jurisprudence, which stands for the opposite of criminal, the opposite of ecclesiastical, the opposite of military, the opposite of politicalin short, the opposite of any positive word which wants a negative. Relative names are such as father, son; ruler, subject; like; equal; unlike; unequal; longer, shorter; cause, effect. Their characteristic property is, that they are always given in pairs. Every relative name which is predicated of an object, supposes another object (or objects), of which we may predicate either that same name or another relative name which is said to be the correlative of the former. Thus, when we call any person a son, we suppose other persons who must be called parents. When we call any event a cause, we suppose another event which is an effect. When we say of any distance that it is longer, we suppose another distance which is shorter. When we say of any object that it is like, we mean that it is like some other object, which is also said to be like the first. In this last case both objects receive the same name; the relative term is its own correlative. It is evident that these words, when concrete, are, like other concrete general names, connotative; they denote a subject, and connote an attribute; and each of them has, or might have, a corresponding abstract name, to denote the attribute connoted by the concrete. Thus the concrete like has its abstract likeness ; the concretes, father and son, have, or might have, the abstracts, paternity, and filiety, or sonship. The concrete name connotes an attribute, and he deems not to be a name for every thing in nature except white things, but only for every colored thing other than white. In this case, however, as in all others, the t est of what a name denotes is what it can be predicated of: and we can certainly predicate of a sound, or a smell, that it is not white. The affirmation and the negation of the same attribute can not but divide the whole field of predication between them. 27 the abstract name which answers to it denotes that attribute. But of what nature is the attribute? Wherein consists the peculiarity in the connotation of a relative name? The attribute signified by a relative name, say some, is a relation; and this they give, if not as a sufficient explanation, at least as the only one attainable. If they are asked, What then is a relation? they do not profess to be able to tell. It is generally regarded as something peculiarly recondite and mysterious. I can not, however, perceive in w hat respect it is more so than any other attribute; indeed, it appears to me to be so in a somewhat less degree. I conceive rather, that it is by examining into the signification of relative names, or, in other words, into the nature of the attribute which they connote, that a clear insight may best be obtained into the nature of all attributes: of all that is meant by an attribute. It is obvious, in fact, that if we take any two correlative names, father and son for instance, though the objects de noted by the names are different, they both, in a certain sense, connote the same thing. They can not, indeed, be said to connote the same attribute : to be a father, is not the same thing as to be a son. But when we call one man a father, another a son, what we mean to affirm is a set of facts, which are exactly the same in both cases. To predicate of A that he is the father of B, and of B that he is the son of A, is to assert one and the same fact in different words. The two propositions are exactly equivalent: nei ther of them asserts more or asserts less than the other. The paternity of A and the filiety of B are not two facts, but two modes of expressing the same fact. That fact, when analysed, consists of a series of physical events or phenomena, in which both A and B are parties concerned, and from which they both derive names. What those names really connote, is this series of events: that is the meaning, and the whole meaning, which either of them is intended to convey. The series of events may be said to const itute the relation; the schoolmen called it the foundation of the relation, fundamentum relationis . In this manner any fact, or series of facts, in which two different objects are implicated, and which is therefore predicable of both of them, may be either considered as constituting an attribute of the one, or an attribute of the other. According as we consider it in the former, or in the latter aspect, it is connoted by the one or the other of the two correlative names. Father connotes the fact, regarded as constituting an attribute of A; son connotes the same fact, as constituting an attribute of B. It may evidently be regarded with equal propriety in either light. And all that appears necessary to account for the existence of relative names, is, that whenever there is a fact in which two individuals are concerned, an attribute grounded on that fact may be ascribed to either of these individuals. A name, therefore, is said to be relative, when, over and above the object which it denotes, it implies in its s ignification the existence of another object, also deriving a denomination from the same fact which is the ground of the first name. Or (to express the same meaning in other words) a name is relative, when, being the name of one thing, its signification can not be explained but by mentioning another. Or we may state it thuswhen the name can not be employed in discourse so as to have a meaning, unless the name of some other thing than what it is itself the name of, be either expressed or understood. These d efinitions are all, at bottom, equivalent, being modes of variously expressing this one distinctive circumstancethat every other attribute of an object might, without any contradiction, be conceived still to exist if no object besides that one had ever existed; P15F16 P but those of its attributes which are expressed by relative names, would on that supposition be swept away. 16 Or rather, all objects except itself and the percipient mind; for, as we shall see hereafter, to ascribe any attribute to an object, necessarily implies a mind to perceive it. 28 8. Names have been further distinguished into univocal and quivocal : these, however, are not two kinds of names, but two different modes of employing names. A name is univocal, or applied univocally, with respect to all things of which it can be predicated in the same sense ; it is quivocal, or applied quivocally, as respects those things of which it is predicated in different senses. It is scarcely necessary to give instances of a fact so familiar as the double meaning of a word. In reality, as has been already observed, an quivocal or ambiguous word is not one name, but two names, accidentally coinciding in sound. File meaning a steel instrument, and file meaning a line of soldiers, have no more title to be considered one word, because written alike, than grease and Greece have, because they are pronounced alike. They are one sound, appropriated to form two different words. An intermediate case is that of a name used analogically or metaphorically; that is, a name which is predicated of two things, not univocally, or exactly in the same signification, but in significations somewhat similar, and which being derived one from the other, one of them may be considered the primary, and the other a secondary signification. As when we speak of a brilliant light and a brilliant achievement. The word is not applied in the same sense to the light and to the achievement; but having been applied to the light in its original sense, that of brightness to the eye, it is transferred to the achievement in a derivative signification, supposed to be somewhat like the primitive one. The word, however, is just as properly two names instead of one, in this case, as in that of the most perfect ambiguity. And one of the commonest forms of fallacious reasoning arising from ambiguity, is that of arguing from a metaphorical expression as if it were literal; that is, as if a word, when applied metaphorically, were the same name as when taken in its original sense: which will be seen more particularly in its place. The simple and clear explanation given in the text, of relation and relative names, a subject so long the opprobrium of metaphysics, was given (as far as I know) for the first time, by Mr. James Mill, in his Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind. 29 III. Of The Things Denoted By Names 1. Looking back now to the commencement of our inquiry, let us attempt to measure how far it has advanced. Logic, we found, is the Theory of Proof. But proof supposes something provable, which must be a Proposition or Assertion; since nothing but a Proposition can be an object of belief, or therefore of proof. A Proposition is, discourse which affirms or denies something of some other thing. This is one step: there must, it seems, be two things concerned in every act of belief. But what are these Things? They can be no other than those signified by the two names, which being joined together by a copula constitute the Proposition. If, therefore, we knew what all names signify, we should know every thing which, in the existing state of human knowledge, is capable either of being made a subject of affirmation or denial, or of being itself affirmed or denied of a subject. We have accordingly, in the preceding chapter, reviewed the various kinds of Names, in order to ascertain what is signified by each of them. And we have now carried this survey far enough to be able to take an account of its results, and to exhibit an enumeration of all kinds of Things which are capable of being made predicates, or of having any thing predicated of them: after which to determine the import of Predication, that is, of Propositions, can be no arduous task. The necessity of an enumeration of Existences, as the basis of Logic, did not escape the attention of the schoolmen, and of their master Aristotle, the most comprehensive, if not also the most sagacious, of the ancient philosophers. The Categories, or P redicaments the former a Greek word, the latter its literal translation in the Latin language were believed to be an enumeration of all things capable of being named; an enumeration by the summa genera, i.e. , the most extensive classes into which things could be distributed; which, therefore, were so many highest Predicates, one or other of which was supposed capable of being affirmed with truth of every namable thing whatsoever. The following are the classes into which, according to this school of philosophy, Things in general might be reduced: , Substantia. , Quantitas. , Qualitas. , Relatio. , Actio. , Passio. , Ubi. , Quando. , Situs. , Habitus. The imperfections of this classification are too obvious to require, and its merits are not sufficient to reward, a minute examination. It is a mere catalogue of the distinctions rudely marked out by the language of familiar life, with little or no attempt to penetrate, by philosophic analysis, to the rationale even of those common distinctions. Such an analysis, however superficially conducted, would have shown the enumeration to be both redundant and defective. Some objects are omitted, and others repeated several times under different heads. It is like a division of animals into men, quadrupeds, horses, asses, and ponies. That, for instance, could not be a very comprehensive view of the nature of Relation which could exclude action, passivity, and local situation from that category. The same observation applies to the categories Quando (or position in time), and Ubi (or position in space); while the distinction between the latter and Situs is merely verbal. The incongruity of erecting into 30 a summum genus the class which forms the tenth category is manifest. On the other hand, the enumeration takes no notice of any thing besides substances and attributes. In what category are we to place sensations, or any other feelings and states of mind; as hope, joy, fear; sound, smell, taste; pain, pleasure; thought, judgment, conception, and the like? Probably all these would have been placed by the Aristotelian school in the categories of actio and passio; and the relation of such of them as are active, to their objects, and of such of them as are passive, to their causes, would rightly be so placed; but the things themselves, the feelings or states of mind, wrongly. Feelings, or states of consciousness, are assuredly to be accounted among realities, but they can not be reckoned either among substances or attributes. P16F17 P 2. Before recommencing, under better auspices, the attempt made with such imperfect success by the early logicians, we must take notice of an unfortunate ambiguity in all the concrete names which correspond to the most general of all abstract terms, the word Existence. When we have occasion for a name which shall be capable of denoting whatever exists, as contradistinguished from non-entity or Nothing, there is hardly a word applicable to the purpose which is not also, and even more familiarly, taken in a sense in which it denotes only substances. But substances are not all that exists; attributes, if such things are to be spoken of, must be said to exist; feelings certainly exist. Yet when we speak of an object , or of a thing, we are almost always supposed to mean a substance. There seems a kind of contradiction in using such an expression as that one thing is merely an attribute of another thing. And the announcement of a Classification of Things would, I believe, prepare most readers for an enumeration like those in natural history, beginning with the great divisions of animal, vegetable, and mineral, and subdividing them into classes and orders. If, rejecting the word Thing, we endeavor to find another of a more general import, or at least more exclusively confined to that general import, a word denoting all that exists, and connoting only simple existence; no word might be presumed fitter for such a purpose than being: originally the present participle of a verb which in one of its meanings is exactly equiva lent to the verb exists ; and therefore suitable, even by its grammatical formation, to be the concrete of the abstract existence. But this word, strange as the fact may appear, is still more completely spoiled for the purpose which it seemed expressly made for, than the word Thing. Being is, by custom, exactly synonymous with substance; except that it is free from a 17 On the preceding passage Professor Bain remarks (Logic, i., 265): The Categories do not seem to have been intended as a classification of Namable Things, in the sense of an enumeration of all kinds of Things which are capable of being made predicates, or of having any thing predicated of them. They seem to have been rather intended as a generalization of predicates; an analysis of the final import of predication. Viewed in this light, they are not open to the objections offered by Mr. Mill. The proper question to ask is not In what Category are we to place sensat ions or other feelings or states of mind? but, Under what Categories can we predicate regarding states of mind? Take, for example, Hope. When we say that it is a state of mind, we predicate Substance: we may also describe how great it is (Quantity), what i s the quality of it, pleasurable or painful (Quality), what it has reference to (Relation). Aristotle seems to have framed the Categories on the plan Here is an individual; what is the final analysis of all that we can predicate about him? This is doubtle ss a true statement of the leading idea in the classification. The Category was certainly understood by Aristotle to be a general name for all possible answers to the question Quid sit? when asked respecting a concrete individual; as the other Catego ries are names comprehending all possible answers to the questions Quantum sit? Quale sit? etc. In Aristotle's conception, therefore, the Categories may not have been a classification of Things; but they were soon converted into one by his Scholastic followers, who certainly regarded and treated them as a classification of Things, and carried them out as such, dividing down the Category Substance as a naturalist might do, into the different classes of physical or metaphysical objects as distinguished from attributes, and the other Categories into the principal varieties of quantity, quality, relation, etc. It is, therefore, a just subject of complaint against them, that they had no Category of Feeling. Feeling is assuredly predicable as a summum genus, of every particular kind of feeling, for instance, as in Mr. Bain's example, of Hope: but it can not be brought within any of the Categories as interpreted either by Aristotle or by his followers. 31 slight taint of a second ambiguity; being implied impartially to matter and to mind, while substance, though originally and in strictness applicable to both, is apt to suggest in preference the idea of matter. Attributes are never called Beings; nor are feelings. A Being is that which excites feelings, and which possesses attributes. The soul is called a Being; God and angels are called Beings; b ut if we were to say, extension, color, wisdom, virtue, are beings, we should perhaps be suspected of thinking with some of the ancients, that the cardinal virtues are animals; or, at the least, of holding with the Platonic school the doctrine of self -existent Ideas, or with the followers of Epicurus that of Sensible Forms, which detach themselves in every direction from bodies, and by coming in contact with our organs, cause our perceptions. We should be supposed, in short, to believe that Attributes are Substances. In consequence of this perversion of the word Being, philosophers looking about for something to supply its place, laid their hands upon the word Entity, a piece of barbarous Latin, invented by the schoolmen to be used as an abstract name, in which class its grammatical form would seem to place it: but being seized by logicians in distress to stop a leak in their terminology, it has ever since been used as a concrete name. The kindred word essence, born at the same time and of the same parents, s carcely underwent a more complete transformation when, from being the abstract of the verb to be , it came to denote something sufficiently concrete to be inclosed in a glass bottle. The word Entity, since it settled down into a concrete name, has retained its universality of signification somewhat less impaired than any of the names before mentioned. Yet the same gradual decay to which, after a certain age, all the language of psychology seems liable, has been at work even here. If you call virtue an entity , you are indeed somewhat less strongly suspected of believing it to be a substance than if you called it a being; but you are by no means free from the suspicion. Every word which was originally intended to connote mere existence, seems, after a time, to enlarge its connotation to separate existence, or existence freed from the condition of belonging to a substance; which condition being precisely what constitutes an attribute, attributes are gradually shut out; and along with them feelings, which in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred have no other name than that of the attribute which is grounded on them. Strange that when the greatest embarrassment felt by all who have any considerable number of thoughts to express, is to find a sufficient variety of precise words fitted to express them, there should be no practice to which even scientific thinkers are more addicted than that of taking valuable words to express ideas which are sufficiently expressed by other words already appropriated to them. When it is impossible to obtain good tools, the next best thing is to understand thoroughly the defects of those we have. I have therefore warned the reader of the ambiguity of the names which, for want of better, I am necessitated to employ. It must now be the writer's endeavor so to employ them as in no case to leave the meaning doubtful or obscure. No one of the above terms being altogether unambiguous, I shall not confine myself to any one, but shall employ on each occasion the word which seems least likely in the particular case to lead to misunderstanding; nor do I pretend to use either these or any other words with a rigorous adherence to one single sense. To do so would often leave us without a word to express what is signified by a known word in some one or other of its senses: unless authors had an unlimited license to coin new words, together with (what it would be more difficult to assume) unlimited power of making readers understand them. Nor would it be wise in a writer, on a subject involving so much of abstraction, to deny himself the advantage derived from even an improper use of a term, when, by means of it, some familiar association is called up which brings the meaning home to the mind, as it were by a flash. The difficulty both to the writer and reader, of the attempt which must be made to use vague words so as to convey a precise meaning, is not wholly a matter of regret. It is not unfitting 32 that logical treatises should afford an example of that, to facilitate which is among the most important uses of logic. Philosophical language will for a long time, and popular language still longer, retain so much of vagueness and ambiguity, that logic would be of little value if it did not, among its other advantages, exercise the understanding in doing its work neatly and correctly with these imperfect tools. After this preamble it is time to proceed to our enumeration. We shall commence with Feelings, the simplest class of namable things; the term Feeling being of course understood in its most enlarged sense. I. Feelings, Or States of Consciousness. 3. A Feeling and a State of consciousness are, in the language of philosophy, equivalent expressions: every thing is a feeling of which the mind is conscious; every thing which it feels , or, in other words, which forms a part of its own sentient existence. In popular language Feeling is not always synonymous with State of Consciousness; being often taken more peculiarly for those states which are conceived as belonging to the sensitive, or to the emotional, phasis of our nature, and sometimes, with a still narrower restriction, to the emotional alone, as distinguished from what are conceived as belonging to the percipient or to the intellectual phasis. But this is an admitted departure from correctness of language; ju st as, by a popular perversion the exact converse of this, the word Mind is withdrawn from its rightful generality of signification, and restricted to the intellect. The still greater perversion by which Feeling is sometimes confined not only to bodily sensations, but to the sensations of a single sense, that of touch, needs not be more particularly adverted to. Feeling, in the proper sense of the term, is a genus, of which Sensation, Emotion, and Thought, are subordinate species. Under the word Thought is here to be included whatever we are internally conscious of when we are said to think; from the consciousness we have when we think of a red color without having it before our eyes, to the most recondite thoughts of a philosopher or poet. Be it remembered, however, that by a thought is to be understood what passes in the mind itself, and not any object external to the mind, which the person is commonly said to be thinking of. He may be thinking of the sun, or of God, but the sun and God are not thoughts; his mental image, however, of the sun, and his idea of God, are thoughts; states of his mind, not of the objects themselves; and so also is his belief of the existence of the sun, or of God; or his disbelief, if the case be so. Even imaginary objects (which are said to exist only in our ideas) are to be distinguished from our ideas of them. I may think of a hobgoblin, as I may think of the loaf which was eaten yesterday, or of the flower which will bloom to -morrow. But the hobgoblin which never existed is not the same thing with my idea of a hobgoblin, any more than the loaf which once existed is the same thing with my idea of a loaf, or the flower which does not yet exist, but which will exist, is the same with my idea of a flower. They are all, not thoughts, but objects of thought; though at the present time all the objects are alike non -existent. In like manner, a Sensation is to be carefully distinguished from the object which causes the sensation; our sensation of white from a white object: nor is it less to be distinguished from the attribute whiteness, which we ascribe to the object in consequence of its exciting the sensation. Unfortunately for clearness and due discrimination in considering these subjects, our sensations seldom receive separate names. We have a name for the objects which produce in us a certain sensation: the word white . We have a name for the quality in those objects, to which we ascribe the sensation: the name whiteness . But when we speak of the sensation itself (as we have not occasio n to do this often except in our scientific speculations), language, which adapts itself for the most part only to the common uses of life, has provided us with no single-worded or immediate designation; we must employ a circumlocution, and 33 say, The sensat ion of white, or The sensation of whiteness; we must denominate the sensation either from the object, or from the attribute, by which it is excited. Yet the sensation, though it never does , might very well be conceived to exist, without any thing whatever to excite it. We can conceive it as arising spontaneously in the mind. But if it so arose, we should have no name to denote it which would not be a misnomer. In the case of our sensations of hearing we are better provided; we have the word Sound, and a whole vocabulary of words to denote the various kinds of sounds. For as we are often conscious of these sensations in the absence of any perceptible object, we can more easily conceive having them in the absence of any object whatever. We need only shut our eyes and listen to music, to have a conception of a universe with nothing in it except sounds, and ourselves hearing them: and what is easily conceived separately, easily obtains a separate name. But in general our names of sensations denote indiscriminately the sensation and the attribute. Thus, color stands for the sensations of white, red, etc., but also for the quality in the colored object. We talk of the colors of things as among their properties . 4. In the case of sensations, another distinction has also to be kept in view, which is often confounded, and never without mischievous consequences. This is, the distinction between the sensation itself, and the state of the bodily organs which precedes the sensation, and which constitutes the physical agency by which it is produced. One of the sources of confusion on this subject is the division commonly made of feelings into Bodily and Mental. Philosophically speaking, there is no foundation at all for this distinction: even sensations are states of the sentient mind, not states of the body, as distinguished from it. What I am conscious of when I see the color blue, is a feeling of blue color, which is one thing; the picture on my retina, or the phenomenon of hitherto mysterious nature which takes place in my optic nerve or in my brain, is another thing, of which I am not at all conscious, and which scientific investigation alone could have apprised me of. These are states of my body; but the sensation of blue, which is the consequence of these states of body, is not a state of body: that which perceives and is conscious is called Mind. When sensations are called bodily feelings, it is only as being the class of feelings which are immediately occasioned by bodily states; whereas the other kinds of feelings, thoughts, for instance, or emotions, are immediately excited not by any thing acting upon the bodily organs, but by sensations, or by previous thoughts. This, however, is a distinction not in our feelings, but in the agency which produces our feelings: all of them when actually produced are states of mind. Besides the affection of our bodily organs from without, and the sensation thereby produced in our minds, many writers admit a third link in the chain of phenomena, which they call a Perception, and which consists in the recognition of an external object as the exciting cause of the sensation. This perception, they say, is an act of the mind, proceeding from its own spontaneous activity; while in a sensation the mind is passive, being merely acted upon by t he outward object. And according to some metaphysicians, it is by an act of the mind, similar to perception, except in not being preceded by any sensation, that the existence of God, the soul, and other hyperphysical objects, is recognized. These acts of w hat is termed perception, whatever be the conclusion ultimately come to respecting their nature, must, I conceive, take their place among the varieties of feelings or states of mind. In so classing them, I have not the smallest intention of declaring or insinuating any theory as to the law of mind in which these mental processes may be supposed to originate, or the conditions under which they may be legitimate or the reverse. Far less do I mean (as Dr. Whewell seems to suppose must be meant in an analogous case P17F18 P) to indicate that as they are merely states of mind, it is superfluous to inquire into their 18 Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences , vol. i., p. 40. 34 distinguishing peculiarities. I abstain from the inquiry as irrelevant to the science of logic. In these so -called perceptions, or direct recognitions by the mind, of objects, whether physical or spiritual, which are external to itself, I can see only cases of belief; but of belief which claims to be intuitive, or independent of external evidence. When a stone lies before me, I am conscious of certain sensa tions which I receive from it; but if I say that these sensations come to me from an external object which I perceive, the meaning of these words is, that receiving the sensations, I intuitively believe that an external cause of those sensations exists. The laws of intuitive belief, and the conditions under which it is legitimate, are a subject which, as we have already so often remarked, belongs not to logic, but to the science of the ultimate laws of the human mind. To the same region of speculation belongs all that can be said respecting the distinction which the German metaphysicians and their French and English followers so elaborately draw between the acts of the mind and its merely passive states ; between what it receives from, and what it gives to, t he crude materials of its experience. I am aware that with reference to the view which those writers take of the primary elements of thought and knowledge, this distinction is fundamental. But for the present purpose, which is to examine, not the original groundwork of our knowledge, but how we come by that portion of it which is not original; the difference between active and passive states of mind is of secondary importance. For us, they all are states of mind, they all are feelings; by which, let it be s aid once more, I mean to imply nothing of passivity, but simply that they are psychological facts, facts which take place in the mind, and are to be carefully distinguished from the external or physical facts with which they may be connected either as effects or as causes. 5. Among active states of mind, there is, however, one species which merits particular attention, because it forms a principal part of the connotation of some important classes of names. I mean volitions , or acts of the will. When we speak of sentient beings by relative names, a large portion of the connotation of the name usually consists of the actions of those beings; actions past, present, and possible or probable future. Take, for instance, the words Sovereign and Subject. What meaning do these words convey, but that of innumerable actions, done or to be done by the sovereign and the subjects, to or in regard to one another reciprocally? So with the words physician and patient, leader and follower, tutor and pupil. In many cases the words also connote actions which would be done under certain contingencies by persons other than those denoted: as the words mortgagor and mortgagee, obligor and obligee, and many other words expressive of legal relation, which connote what a court of justice would do to enforce the legal obligation if not fulfilled. There are also words which connote actions previously done by persons other than those denoted either by the name itself or by its correlative; as the word brother. From these instances, it may be seen how large a portion of the connotation of names consists of actions. Now what is an action? Not one thing, but a series of two things: the state of mind called a volition, followed by an effect. The volition or intention to produce the effect, is one thing; the effect produced in consequence of the intention, is another thing; the two together constitute the action. I form the purpose of instantly moving my arm; that is a state of my mind: my arm (not being tied or paralytic) moves in obedience to my purpose; that is a physical fact, consequent on a state of mind. The intention, followed by the fact, or (if we prefer the expression) the fact when preceded and caused by the intention, is called the action of moving my arm. 6. Of the first leading division of namable things, viz., Feelings or States of Consciousness, we began by recognizing three subdivisions; Sensations, Thoughts, and Emotions. The first two of these we have illustrated at considerable length; the third, Emotions, not being perplexe d by similar ambiguities, does not require similar exemplification. And, finally, we have found it necessary to add to these three a fourth species, commonly known by the name 35 Volitions. We shall now proceed to the two remaining classes of namable things; all things which are regarded as external to the mind being considered as belonging either to the class of Substances or to that of Attributes. II. Substances. Logicians have endeavored to define Substance and Attribute; but their definitions are not so much attempts to draw a distinction between the things themselves, as instructions what difference it is customary to make in the grammatical structure of the sentence, according as we are speaking of substances or of attributes. Such definitions are rather lessons of English, or of Greek, Latin, or German, than of mental philosophy. An attribute, say the school logicians, must be the attribute of something; color, for example, must be the color of something; goodness must be the goodness of something; and if this something should cease to exist, or should cease to be connected with the attribute, the existence of the attribute would be at an end. A substance, on the contrary, is self-existent; in speaking about it, we need not put of after its name. A stone is not the stone of any thing; the moon is not the moon of any thing, but simply the moon. Unless, indeed, the name which we choose to give to the substance be a relative name; if so, it must be followed either by of, or by some other particle, implying, as that preposition does, a reference to something else: but then the other characteristic peculiarity of an attribute would fail; the something might be destroyed, and the substance might still subsist. Thus, a father must be the father of something, and so far resembles an attribute, in being referred to something besides himself: if there were no child, there would be no father: but this, when we look into the matter, only means that we should not call him father. The man called father might still exist though there were no child, as he existed before there was a child; and there would be no contradiction in supposing him to exist, though the whole universe except himself were destroyed. But destroy all white substances, and where would be the attribute whiteness? Whiteness, without any white thing, is a contradiction in terms. This is the nearest approach to a solution of the difficulty, that will be found in the common treatises on logic. It will scarcely be thought to be a satisfactory one. If an attribute is distinguished from a substance by being the attribute of something, it seems highly necessary to understand what is meant by of ; a particle which needs explanation too much itself, to be placed in front of the explanation of any thing else. And as for the self -existence of substance, it is very true that a substance may be conceived to exist without any other substance, but so also may an attribute without any other attribute: and we can no more imagine a substance without attributes than we can ima gine attributes without a substance. Metaphysicians, however, have probed the question deeper, and given an account of Substance considerably more satisfactory than this. Substances are usually distinguished as Bodies or Minds. Of each of these, philosophers have at length provided us with a definition which seems unexceptionable. 7. A body, according to the received doctrine of modern metaphysicians, may be defined, the external cause to which we ascribe our sensations. When I see and touch a piece of gold, I am conscious of a sensation of yellow color, and sensations of hardness and weight; and by varying the mode of handling, I may add to these sensations many others completely distinct from them. The sensations are all of which I am directly conscious; but I consider them as produced by something not only existing independently of my will, but external to my bodily organs and to my mind. This external something I call a body. It may be asked, how come we to ascribe our sensations to any external cause? And is there sufficient ground for so ascribing them? It is known, that there are metaphysicians who have 36 raised a controversy on the point; maintaining that we are not warranted in referring our sensations to a cause such as we understand by the word Body, or to any external cause whatever. Though we have no concern here with this controversy, nor with the metaphysical niceties on which it turns, one of the best ways of showing what is meant by Substance is, to consider what position it is necessary to take up, in order to maintain its existence against opponents. It is certain, then, that a part of our notion of a body consists of the notion of a number of sensations of our own, or of other sentient beings, habitually occurring simultaneously. My conceptio n of the table at which I am writing is compounded of its visible form and size, which are complex sensations of sight; its tangible form and size, which are complex sensations of our organs of touch and of our muscles; its weight, which is also a sensation of touch and of the muscles; its color, which is a sensation of sight; its hardness, which is a sensation of the muscles; its composition, which is another word for all the varieties of sensation which we receive under various circumstances from the wood of which it is made, and so forth. All or most of these various sensations frequently are, and, as we learn by experience, always might be, experienced simultaneously, or in many different orders of succession at our own choice: and hence the thought of any one of them makes us think of the others, and the whole becomes mentally amalgamated into one mixed state of consciousness, which, in the language of the school of Locke and Hartley, is termed a Complex Idea. Now, there are philosophers who have argued as follows: If we conceive an orange to be divested of its natural color without acquiring any new one; to lose its softness without becoming hard, its roundness without becoming square or pentagonal, or of any other regular or irregular figure whatever; t o be deprived of size, of weight, of taste, of smell; to lose all its mechanical and all its chemical properties, and acquire no new ones; to become, in short, invisible, intangible, imperceptible not only by all our senses, but by the senses of all other sentient beings, real or possible; nothing, say these thinkers, would remain. For of what nature, they ask, could be the residuum? and by what token could it manifest its presence? To the unreflecting its existence seems to rest on the evidence of the sens es. But to the senses nothing is apparent except the sensations. We know, indeed, that these sensations are bound together by some law; they do not come together at random, but according to a systematic order, which is part of the order established in the universe. When we experience one of these sensations, we usually experience the others also, or know that we have it in our power to experience them. But a fixed law of connection, making the sensations occur together, does not, say these philosophers, necessarily require what is called a substratum to support them. The conception of a substratum is but one of many possible forms in which that connection presents itself to our imagination; a mode of, as it were, realizing the idea. If there be such a substratum, suppose it at this instant miraculously annihilated, and let the sensations continue to occur in the same order, and how would the substratum be missed? By what signs should we be able to discover that its existence had terminated? Should we not have as much reason to believe that it still existed as we now have? And if we should not then be warranted in believing it, how can we be so now? A body, therefore, according to these metaphysicians, is not any thing intrinsically different from the sensations which the body is said to produce in us; it is, in short, a set of sensations, or rather, of possibilities of sensation, joined together according to a fixed law. The controversies to which these speculations have given rise, and the doctrines which have been developed in the attempt to find a conclusive answer to them, have been fruitful of important consequences to the Science of Mind. The sensations (it was answered) which we are conscious of, and which we receive, not at random, but joined together in a certain uniform manner, imply not only a law or laws of connection, but a cause external to our 37 mind, which cause, by its own laws, determines the laws according to which the sensations are connected and experienced. The schoolmen used to call this external cause by the name we have already employed, a substratum ; and its attributes (as they expressed themselves) inhered , literally stuck, in it. To this substratum the name Matter is usually given in philosophical discussions. It was soon, however, acknowledged by all who reflected on the subject, that the existence of matter can not be proved by extrinsic evidence. The answer, therefore, now usually made to Berkeley and his followers, is, that the belief is intuitive; that mankind, in all ages, have felt themselves compelled, by a necessity of their nature, to refer their sensations to an external cause: that even those who deny it in theory, yield to the necessity in practice, and both in speech, thought, and feeling, do, equally with the vulgar, acknowledge their sensations to be the effects of something external to them: this knowledge, therefore, it is affirmed, is as evidently intuitive as our knowledge of our sensations themselves is intuitive. And here the question merges in the fundamental problem of metaphysics properly so called: to which science we leave it. But although the extreme doctrine of the Idealist metaphysicians, that objects are nothing but our sensations and the laws which connect them, has not been generally adopted by subsequent thinkers; the point of most real importance is one on which those metaphysicians are now very generally considered to have made out their case: viz., that all we know of objects is the sensations which they give us, and the order of the occurrence of those sensations. Kant himself, on this point, is as explicit as Berkeley or Locke. However firmly convinced that there exists a universe of Things in themselves, totally distinct from the universe of phenomena, or of things as they appear to our senses; and even when bringing into use a technical expression ( Noumenon) to denote what the thing is in itself, as contrasted with the representation of it in our minds; he allows that this representation (the matter of which, he says, consists of our sensations, though the form is given by the laws of the mind itself) is all we know of the object: and that the real nature of the Thing is, and by the constitution of our faculties ever must remain, at least in the present state of existence, an impenetrable mystery to us. Of things absolutely or in themselves, says Sir William Hamilton, P18F19 P be they external, be they internal, we know nothing, or know them only as incognizable; and become aware of their incomprehensible existence, only as this is indirectly and accidentally revealed to us, through certain qualities related to our faculties of knowledge, and which qualities, again, we can not think as unconditional, irrelative, existent in and of ourselves. All that we know is therefore phenomenalphenomenal of the unknown. P19F20 P The same doctrine is laid down in the clearest and strongest terms by M. Cousin, whose observations on the subject are the more worthy of attention, as, in consequence of the ultra-German and ontological character of his philosophy in other respects, they may be regarded as the admissions of an opponent. P20F21 P 19 Discus sions on Philosophy , etc. Appendix I., pp. 643, 644. 20 It is to be regretted that Sir William Hamilton, though he often strenuously insists on this doctrine, and though, in the passage quoted, he states it with a comprehensiveness and force which leave nothing to be desired, did not consistently adhere to his own doctrine, but maintained along with it opinions with which it is utterly irreconcilable. See the third and other chapters of An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy . 21 Nous savons qu'il existe quelque chose hors de nous, parceque nous ne pouvons expliquer nos perceptions sans les rattacher des causes distinctes de nous mmes; nous savons de plus que ces causes, dont nous ne connaissons pas d'ailleurs l'essence, produisent les effets l es plus variables, les plus divers, et mme les plus contraires, selon qu'elles rencontrent telle nature ou telle disposition du sujet. Mais savons -nous quelque chose de plus? et mme, vu le caractre indtermin des causes que nous concevons dans les corp s, y a -t-il quelque chose de plus savoir? Y a-t- il lieu de nous enqurir si nous percevons les choses telles qu'elles sont? Non videmment.... Je ne dis pas que le problme est insoluble, je dis qu'il est absurde et enferme une contradiction. Nous ne sav ons pas ce que ces causes sont en elles -mmes , et la raison nous dfend de chercher le connatre: mais il est bien vident priori , qu'elles ne sont pas en elles -mmes ce qu'elles sont par rapport nous , puisque 38 There is not the slightest reason for believing that what we call the sensible qualities of the object are a type of any thing inherent in itself, or bear any affinity to its own nature. A cause does not, as such, resemble its effects; an east wind is not like the feeling of cold, nor heat like the steam of boiling water. Why then should matter resemble our sensations? Why should the inmost nature of fire or water resemble the impressions made by those objects upon our senses? P21F22 P Or on what principle are we authorized to deduce from the effects, any thing concerning the cause, except that it is a cause adequate to produce those effects? It may, therefore, safely be laid down as a truth both obvious in its elf, and admitted by all whom it is at present necessary to take into consideration, that, of the outward world, we know and can know absolutely nothing, except the sensations which we experience from it. P22F23 P la prsence du sujet modifie ncessairement leur action. Supprimez tout sujet sentant, il est certain que ces causes agiraient encore puisqu'elles continueraient d'exister; mais elles agiraient autrement; elles seraient encore des qualits et des proprits, mais qui ne ressembleraient rien de ce que nous connaissons. Le feu ne manifesterait plus aucune des proprits que nous lui connaissons: que serait -il? C'est ce que nous ne saurons jamais. C'est d'ailleurs peut -tre un problme qui ne rpugne pas seulement la nature de notre esprit, mais l'essence mme des choses. Quand mme en effet on supprimerait par le pense tous les sujets sentants, il faudrait encore admettre que nul corps ne manifesterait ses proprits autrement qu'en relation avec un sujet quelconque, et dans ce cas ses propri ts ne seraient encore que relatives : en sorte qu'il me parat fort raisonnable d'admettre que les proprits dtermines des corps n'existent pas indpendamment d'un sujet quelconque, et que quand on demande si les proprits de la matiere sont telles que nous les percevons, il faudrait voir auparavant si elles sont en tant que dtermines, et dans quel sens il est vrai de dire qu'elles sont. Cours d'Histoire de la Philosophie Morale au 18me sicle , 8me leon. 22 An attempt, indeed, has been made by Reid and others, to establish that although some of the properties we ascribe to objects exist only in our sensations, others exist in the things themselves, being such as can not possibly be copies of any impression upon the senses; and they ask, from what sensations our notions of extension and figure have been derived? The gauntlet thrown down by Reid was taken up by Brown, who, applying greater powers of analysis than had previously been applied to the notions of extension and figure, pointed out that the sensations from which those notions are derived, are sensations of touch, combined with sensations of a class previously too little adverted to by metaphysicians, those which have their seat in our muscular frame. His analysis, which was adopted and followed up by James Mill, has been further and greatly improved upon in Professor Bain's profound work, The Senses and the Intellect , and in the chapters on Perception of a work of eminent analytic power, Mr. Herbert Spencer's Principles of Psychology . On this point M. Cousin may again be cited in favor of the better doctrine. M. Cousin recognizes, in opposition to Reid, the essential subjectivity of our conceptions of what are called the primary qualities of matter, as extension, solidity, etc., equally with those of color, heat, and the remainder of the so- called secondary qualities. Cours , ut supra, 9me leon. 23 This doctrine, which is the most complete form of the philosophical theory known as the Relativity of Human Knowledge, has, since the recent revival in this country of an active interest in metaphysical speculation, been the subject of a greatly increased amount of discussion and controversy; and dissentients have manifested themselves in considerably greater number than I had any knowledge of when the passage in the text was written. The doctrine has been attacked from two sides. Some thinkers, among whom are the late Professor Ferrier, in his Institutes of Metaphysic , and Professor John Grote, in his Exploratio Philosophica, appear to deny altogether the reality of Noumena, or Things in themselves of an unknowable substratum or support for the sensations which we experience, and which, according to the theory, constitute all our knowledge of an external world. It seems to me, however, that in Profe ssor Grote's case at least, the denial of Noumena is only apparent, and that he does not essentially differ from the other class of objectors, including Mr. Bailey in his valuable Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, and (in spite of the striking p assage quoted in the text) also Sir William Hamilton, who contend for a direct knowledge by the human mind of more than the sensations of certain attributes or properties as they exist not in us, but in the Things themselves. With the first of these opinio ns, that which denies Noumena, I have, as a metaphysician, no quarrel; but, whether it be true or false, it is irrelevant to Logic. And since all the forms of language are in contradiction to it, nothing but confusion could result from its unnecessary introduction into a treatise, every essential doctrine of which could stand equally well with the opposite and accredited opinion. The other and rival doctrine, that of a direct perception or intuitive knowledge of the outward object as it is in itself, considered as distinct from the sensations we receive from it, is of far greater practical moment. But even this question, depending on the nature and laws of Intuitive Knowledge, is not within the province of Logic. For the grounds of my own opinion 39 8. Body having now been defined the external cause, and (according to the more reasonable opinion) the unknown external cause, to which we refer our sensations; it remains to frame a definition of Mind. Nor, after the preceding observations, will this be difficult. For, as our conception of a body is that of an unknown exciting cause of sensations, so our conception of a mind is that of an unknown recipient or percipient, of them; and not of them alone, but of all our other feelings. As body is understood to be the mysterious something which excites the mind to feel, so mind is the mysterious something which feels and thinks. It is unnecessary to give in the case of mind, as we gave in the case of matter, a particular statement of the skeptical system by which its existence as a Thing in itself, distinct from the series of what are denominated its states, is called in question. But it is necessary to remark, that on the inmost nature (whatever be meant by inmost nature) of the thinking principle, as well as on the inmost nature of matter, we are, and with our faculties must always remain, entirely in the dark. All which we are aware of, even in our own minds, is (in the words of James Mill) a certain thread of consciousness; a series of feelings, that is, of sensations, thoughts, emotions, and volitions, more or less numerous and complicated. There is a something I call Myself, or, by another form of expression, my mind, which I consider as distinct from these sensations, thoughts, etc.; a something which I conceive to be not the thoughts, but the being that has the thoughts, and which I can conceive as existing forever in a state of quiescence, without any thoughts at all. But what this being is, though it is myself, I have no knowledge, other than the series of its states of consciousness. As bodies manifest themselves to me only through the sensations of which I regard them as the causes, so the thinking principle, or mind, in my own nature, makes itself known to me only by the feelings of which it is conscious. I know nothing about myself, save my capa cities of feeling or being conscious (including, of course, thinking and willing): and were I to learn any thing new concerning my own nature, I can not with my present faculties conceive this new information to be any thing else, than that I have some additional capacities, as yet unknown to me, of feeling, thinking, or willing. Thus, then, as body is the unsentient cause to which we are naturally prompted to refer a certain portion of our feelings, so mind may be described as the sentient subject (in the scholastic sense of the term) of all feelings; that which has or feels them. But of the nature of either body or mind, further than the feelings which the former excites, and which the latter experiences, we do not, according to the best existing doctrine, know any thing; and if any thing, logic has nothing to do with it, or with the manner in which the knowledge is acquired. With this result we may conclude this portion of our subject, and pass to the third and only remaining class or division of Namable Things. III. Attributes: and, first, Qualities. 9. From what has already been said of Substance, what is to be said of Attribute is easily deducible. For if we know not, and can not know, any thing of bodies but the sensations which they excite in us or in others, those sensations must be all that we can, at bottom, mean by their attributes; and the distinction which we verbally make between the properties of things and the sensations we receive from them, must originate in the convenience of discourse rat her than in the nature of what is signified by the terms. concerning it, I must content myself with referring to a work already mentionedAn Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy ; several chapters of which are devoted to a full discussion of the questions and theories relating to the supposed direct perception of external objects. 40 Attributes are usually distributed under the three heads of Quality, Quantity, and Relation. We shall come to the two latter presently: in the first place we shall confine ourselves to the former. Let us take, then, as our example, one of what are termed the sensible qualities of objects, and let that example be whiteness. When we ascribe whiteness to any substance, as, for instance, snow; when we say that snow has the quality whiteness, wha t do we really assert? Simply, that when snow is present to our organs, we have a particular sensation, which we are accustomed to call the sensation of white. But how do I know that snow is present? Obviously by the sensations which I derive from it, and not otherwise. I infer that the object is present, because it gives me a certain assemblage or series of sensations. And when I ascribe to it the attribute whiteness, my meaning is only, that, of the sensations composing this group or series, that which I call the sensation of white color is one. This is one view which may be taken of the subject. But there is also another and a different view. It may be said, that it is true we know nothing of sensible objects, except the sensations they excite in us; that the fact of our receiving from snow the particular sensation which is called a sensation of white, is the ground on which we ascribe to that substance the quality whiteness; the sole proof of its possessing that quality. But because one thing may be the s ole evidence of the existence of another thing, it does not follow that the two are one and the same. The attribute whiteness (it may be said) is not the fact of receiving the sensation, but something in the object itself; a power inherent in it; something in virtue of which the object produces the sensation. And when we affirm that snow possesses the attribute whiteness, we do not merely assert that the presence of snow produces in us that sensation, but that it does so through, and by reason of, that power or quality. For the purposes of logic it is not of material importance which of these opinions we adopt. The full discussion of the subject belongs to the other department of scientific inquiry, so often alluded to under the name of metaphysics; but it m ay be said here, that for the doctrine of the existence of a peculiar species of entities called qualities, I can see no foundation except in a tendency of the human mind which is the cause of many delusions. I mean, the disposition, wherever we meet with two names which are not precisely synonymous, to suppose that they must be the names of two different things; whereas in reality they may be names of the same thing viewed in two different lights, or under different suppositions as to surrounding circumsta nces. Because quality and sensation can not be put indiscriminately one for the other, it is supposed that they can not both signify the same thing, namely, the impression or feeling with which we are affected through our senses by the presence of an object; though there is at least no absurdity in supposing that this identical impression or feeling may be called a sensation when considered merely in itself, and a quality when looked at in relation to any one of the numerous objects, the presence of which to our organs excites in our minds that among various other sensations or feelings. And if this be admissible as a supposition, it rests with those who contend for an entity per se called a quality, to show that their opinion is preferable, or is any thing in fact but a lingering remnant of the old doctrine of occult causes; the very absurdity which Molire so happily ridiculed when he made one of his pedantic physicians account for the fact that opium produces sleep by the maxim, Because it has a soporific virtue. It is evident that when the physician stated that opium has a soporific virtue, he did not account for, but merely asserted over again, the fact that it produces sleep. In like manner, when we say that snow is white because it has the quality of whiteness, we are only re-asserting in more technical language the fact that it excites in us the sensation of white. If it be said that the sensation must have some cause, I answer, its cause is the presence of the 41 assemblage of phenomena which is termed the object. When we have asserted that as often as the object is present, and our organs in their normal state, the sensation takes place, we have stated all that we know about the matter. There is no need, after assigning a certain and intelligible cause, to suppose an occult cause besides, for the purpose of enabling the real cause to produce its effect. If I am asked, why does the presence of the object cause this sensation in me, I can not tell: I can only say that such is my nature, and the nature of the object; that the fact forms a part of the constitution of things. And to this we must at last come, even after interpolating the imaginary entity. Whatever number of links the chain of causes and effects may consist of, how any one link produces the one which is next to it, remains equally inexplicable to us. It is as easy to comprehend that the object should produce the sensation directly and at once, as that it should produce the same sensation by the aid of something else called the power of producing i t. But, as the difficulties which may be felt in adopting this view of the subject can not be removed without discussions transcending the bounds of our science, I content myself with a passing indication, and shall, for the purposes of logic, adopt a language compatible with either view of the nature of qualities. I shall say what at least admits of no dispute that the quality of whiteness ascribed to the object snow, is grounded on its exciting in us the sensation of white; and adopting the language already used by the school logicians in the case of the kind of attributes called Relations, I shall term the sensation of white the foundation of the quality whiteness. For logical purposes the sensation is the only essential part of what is meant by the word; the only part which we ever can be concerned in proving. When that is proved, the quality is proved; if an object excites a sensation, it has, of course, the power of exciting it. IV. Relations. 10. The qualities of a body, we have said, are the attributes grounded on the sensations which the presence of that particular body to our organs excites in our minds. But when we ascribe to any object the kind of attribute called a Relation, the foundation of the attribute must be something in which other object s are concerned besides itself and the percipient. As there may with propriety be said to be a relation between any two things to which two correlative names are or may be given, we may expect to discover what constitutes a relation in general, if we enumerate the principal cases in which mankind have imposed correlative names, and observe what these cases have in common. What, then, is the character which is possessed in common by states of circumstances so heterogeneous and discordant as these: one thing like another; one thing unlike another; one thing near another; one thing far from another; one thing before , after , along with another; one thing greater , equal , less, than another; one thing the cause of another, the effect of another; one person the master , servant , child , parent , debtor , creditor , sovereign , subject , attorney , client , of another, and so on? Omitting, for the present, the case of Resemblance, (a relation which requires to be considered separately,) there seems to be one thing common to all these cases, and only one; that in each of them there exists or occurs, or has existed or occurred, or may be expected to exist or occur, some fact or phenomenon, into which the two things which are said to be related to each other, both enter as parties concerned. This fact, or phenomenon, is what the Aristotelian logicians called the fundamentum relationis . Thus in the relation of greater and less between two magnitudes, the fundamentum relationis is the fact that one of the two magnitudes could, under certain conditions, be included in, without entirely filling, the space 42 occupied by the other magnitude. In the relation of master and servant, the fundamentum relationis is the fact that the one has undertaken, or is compelled, to perform cert ain services for the benefit and at the bidding of the other. Examples might be indefinitely multiplied; but it is already obvious that whenever two things are said to be related, there is some fact, or series of facts, into which they both enter; and that whenever any two things are involved in some one fact, or series of facts, we may ascribe to those two things a mutual relation grounded on the fact. Even if they have nothing in common but what is common to all things, that they are members of the universe, we call that a relation, and denominate them fellow - creatures, fellow -beings, or fellow-denizens of the universe. But in proportion as the fact into which the two objects enter as parts is of a more special and peculiar, or of a more complicated nature, so also is the relation grounded upon it. And there are as many conceivable relations as there are conceivable kinds of fact in which two things can be jointly concerned. In the same manner, therefore, as a quality is an attribute grounded on the fact that a certain sensation or sensations are produced in us by the object, so an attribute grounded on some fact into which the object enters jointly with another object, is a relation between it and that other object. But the fact in the latter case consists of the very same kind of elements as the fact in the former; namely, states of consciousness. In the case, for example, of any legal relation, as debtor and creditor, principal and agent, guardian and ward, the fundamentum relationis consists entirely of thoughts, feelings, and volitions (actual or contingent), either of the persons themselves or of other persons concerned in the same series of transactions; as, for instance, the intentions which would be formed by a judge, in case a complaint were made to his tribunal of the infringement of any of the legal obligations imposed by the relation; and the acts which the judge would perform in consequence; acts being (as we have already seen) another word for intentions followed by an effect, and that effect being but another word for sensations, or some other feelings, occasioned either to the agent himself or to somebody else. There is no part of what the names expressive of the relation imply, that is not resolvable into states of consciousness; outward objects being, no doubt, supposed throughout as the causes by which some of those states of consciousness are excited, and minds as the subjects by which all of them are experienced, but neither the external objects nor the minds making their existence known otherwise than by the states of consciousness. Cases of relation are not always so complicated as those to which we last alluded. The simplest of all cases of relation are those expressed by the words antecedent and consequent, and by the word simultaneous. If we say, for instance, that dawn preceded sunrise, the fact in which the two things, dawn and sunrise, were jointly concerned, consisted only of the two things themselves; no third thing entered into the fact or phenomenon at all. Unless, indeed, we choose to call the succession of the two objects a third thing; but their succession is not something added to the things themselves; it is something involved in them. Dawn and sunrise announce themselves to our consciousness by two successive sensations. Our consciousness of the succession of these sensations is not a third sensation or feeling added to them; we have not first the two feelings, and then a feeling of their succession. To have two feelings at all, implies having them either successively, or else simultaneously. Sensations, or other feelings, being given, succession and simultaneousness are the two conditions, to the alternative of which they are subjected by the nature of our faculties; and no one has been able, or needs expect, to analyze the mat ter any further. 11. In a somewhat similar position are two other sorts of relations, Likeness and Unlikeness. I have two sensations; we will suppose them to be simple ones; two sensations of white, or one sensation of white and another of black. I call the first two sensations like; the last two unlike . What is the fact or phenomenon constituting the fundamentum of this 43 relation? The two sensations first, and then what we call a feeling of resemblance, or of want of resemblance. Let us confine ourselves to the former case. Resemblance is evidently a feeling; a state of the consciousness of the observer. Whether the feeling of the resemblance of the two colors be a third state of consciousness, which I have after having the two sensations of color, or whether (like the feeling of their succession) it is involved in the sensations themselves, may be a matter of discussion. But in either case, these feelings of resemblance, and of its opposite dissimilarity, are parts of our nature; and parts so far from being capable of analysis, that they are presupposed in every attempt to analyze any of our other feelings. Likeness and unlikeness, therefore, as well as antecedence, sequence, and simultaneousness, must stand apart among relations, as things sui generis . The y are attributes grounded on facts, that is, on states of consciousness, but on states which are peculiar, unresolvable, and inexplicable. But, though likeness or unlikeness can not be resolved into any thing else, complex cases of likeness or unlikeness can be resolved into simpler ones. When we say of two things which consist of parts, that they are like one another, the likeness of the wholes does admit of analysis; it is compounded of likenesses between the various parts respectively, and of likeness in their arrangement. Of how vast a variety of resemblances of parts must that resemblance be composed, which induces us to say that a portrait, or a landscape, is like its original. If one person mimics another with any success, of how many simple likenesse s must the general or complex likeness be compounded: likeness in a succession of bodily postures; likeness in voice, or in the accents and intonations of the voice; likeness in the choice of words, and in the thoughts or sentiments expressed, whether by word, countenance, or gesture. All likeness and unlikeness of which we have any cognizance, resolve themselves into likeness and unlikeness between states of our own, or some other, mind. When we say that one body is like another, (since we know nothing of bodies but the sensations which they excite,) we mean really that there is a resemblance between the sensations excited by the two bodies, or between some portions at least of those sensations. If we say that two attributes are like one another (since we k now nothing of attributes except the sensations or states of feeling on which they are grounded), we mean really that those sensations, or states of feeling, resemble each other. We may also say that two relations are alike. The fact of resemblance between relations is sometimes called analogy , forming one of the numerous meanings of that word. The relation in which Priam stood to Hector, namely, that of father and son, resembles the relation in which Philip stood to Alexander; resembles it so closely that they are called the same relation. The relation in which Cromwell stood to England resembles the relation in which Napoleon stood to France, though not so closely as to be called the same relation. The meaning in both these instances must be, that a resemblance existed between the facts which constituted the fundamentum relationis . This resemblance may exist in all conceivable gradations, from perfect undistinguishableness to something extremely slight. When we say, that a thought suggested to the mind of a person of genius is like a seed cast into the ground, because the former produces a multitude of other thoughts, and the latter a multitude of other seeds, this is saying that between the relation of an inventive mind to a thought contained in it, and the relation of a fertile soil to a seed contained in it, there exists a resemblance: the real resemblance being in the two fundamenta relationis , in each of which there occurs a germ, producing by its development a multitude of other things similar to itself . And as, whenever two objects are jointly concerned in a phenomenon, this constitutes a relation between those objects, so, if we suppose a second pair of objects concerned in a second phenomenon, the slightest resemblance between the two phenomena is suf ficient to admit of its being said that the two relations resemble; provided, 44 of course, the points of resemblance are found in those portions of the two phenomena respectively which are connoted by the relative names. While speaking of resemblance, it is necessary to take notice of an ambiguity of language, against which scarcely any one is sufficiently on his guard. Resemblance, when it exists in the highest degree of all, amounting to undistinguishableness, is often called identity, and the two similar things are said to be the same. I say often, not always; for we do not say that two visible objects, two persons, for instance, are the same, because they are so much alike that one might be mistaken for the other: but we constantly use this mode of expression when speaking of feelings; as when I say that the sight of any object gives me the same sensation or emotion to -day that it did yesterday, or the same which it gives to some other person. This is evidently an incorrect application of the word same ; for the feeling which I had yesterday is gone, never to return; what I have to-day is another feeling, exactly like the former, perhaps, but distinct from it; and it is evident that two different persons can not be experiencing the same feeling, in the sense in which we say that they are both sitting at the same table. By a similar ambiguity we say, that two persons are ill of the same disease; that two persons hold the same office; not in the sense in which we say that they are engaged in the same adventure, or sailing in the same ship, but in the sense that they fill offices exactly similar, though, perhaps, in distant places. Great confusion of ideas is often produced, and many fallacies engendered, in otherwise enlightened understandings, by not being suffi ciently alive to the fact (in itself not always to be avoided), that they use the same name to express ideas so different as those of identity and undistinguishable resemblance. Among modern writers, Archbishop Whately stands almost alone in having drawn attention to this distinction, and to the ambiguity connected with it. Several relations, generally called by other names, are really cases of resemblance. As, for example, equality; which is but another word for the exact resemblance commonly called identity, considered as subsisting between things in respect of their quantity . And this example forms a suitable transition to the third and last of the three heads under which, as already remarked, Attributes are commonly arranged. V. Quantity. 12. Let us imagine two things, between which there is no difference (that is, no dissimilarity), except in quantity alone; for instance, a gallon of water, and more than a gallon of water. A gallon of water, like any other external object, makes its presence known to us by a set of sensations which it excites. Ten gallons of water are also an external object, making its presence known to us in a similar manner; and as we do not mistake ten gallons of water for a gallon of water, it is plain that the set of sensations is more or less different in the two cases. In like manner, a gallon of water, and a gallon of wine, are two external objects, making their presence known by two sets of sensations, which sensations are different from each other. In the first case, however, we say that the difference is in quantity; in the last there is a difference in quality, while the quantity of the water and of the wine is the same. What is the real distinction between the two cases? It is not within the province of Logic to analyze it; nor to decide whether it is susceptible of analysis or not. For us the following considerations are sufficient: It is evident that the sensations I receive from the gallon of water, and those I receive from the gallon of wine, are not the same, that is, not precisely alike; neither are they altogether unlike: they are partly similar, partly dissimilar; and that in which they resemble is precisely that in which alone the gallon of water and the ten gallons do not resemble. That in which the gallon of water and the gallon of wine are like each other, and in which the gallon and the ten gallons of water are unlike each other, is called their quantity. This likeness and unlikeness I do not pretend to explain, no more than any other 45 kind of likeness or unlikeness. But my object is to show, that when we say of two things that they differ in quantity, just as when we say that they differ in quality, the assertion is always grounded on a difference in the sensations which they excite. Nobody, I presume, will say, that to see, or to lift, or to drink, ten gallons of water, does not include in itself a different set of sensations from those of seeing, lifting, or drinking one gallon; or that to see or handle a foot-rule, and to see or handle a yard- measure made exactly like it, are the same sensations. I do not undertake to say what the difference in the sensations is. Every body knows, and nobody can tell; no more than any one could tell what white is to a person who had never had the sensation. But the difference, so far as cognizable by our faculties, lies in the sensations. Whatever difference we say there is in the things themselves, is, in this as in all other cases, grounded, and grounded exclusively, on a difference in the sensations excited by them. VI. Attribute s Concluded. 13. Thus, then, all the attributes of bodies which are classed under Quality or Quantity, are grounded on the sensations which we receive from those bodies, and may be defined, the powers which the bodies have of exciting those sensations. A nd the same general explanation has been found to apply to most of the attributes usually classed under the head of Relation. They, too, are grounded on some fact or phenomenon into which the related objects enter as parts; that fact or phenomenon having no meaning and no existence to us, except the series of sensations or other states of consciousness by which it makes itself known; and the relation being simply the power or capacity which the object possesses of taking part along with the correlated object in the production of that series of sensations or states of consciousness. We have been obliged, indeed, to recognize a somewhat different character in certain peculiar relations, those of succession and simultaneity, of likeness and unlikeness. These, not being grounded on any fact or phenomenon distinct from the related objects themselves, do not admit of the same kind of analysis. But these relations, though not, like other relations, grounded on states of consciousness, are themselves states of consci ousness: resemblance is nothing but our feeling of resemblance; succession is nothing but our feeling of succession. Or, if this be disputed (and we can not, without transgressing the bounds of our science, discuss it here), at least our knowledge of these relations, and even our possibility of knowledge, is confined to those which subsist between sensations, or other states of consciousness; for, though we ascribe resemblance, or succession, or simultaneity, to objects and to attributes, it is always in virtue of resemblance or succession or simultaneity in the sensations or states of consciousness which those objects excite, and on which those attributes are grounded. 14. In the preceding investigation we have, for the sake of simplicity, considered bodi es only, and omitted minds. But what we have said, is applicable, mutatis mutandis , to the latter. The attributes of minds, as well as those of bodies, are grounded on states of feeling or consciousness. But in the case of a mind, we have to consider its own states, as well as those which it produces in other minds. Every attribute of a mind consists either in being itself affected in a certain way, or affecting other minds in a certain way. Considered in itself, we can predicate nothing of it but the series of its own feelings. When we say of any mind, that it is devout, or superstitious, or meditative, or cheerful, we mean that the ideas, emotions, or volitions implied in those words, form a frequently recurring part of the series of feelings, or states of consciousness, which fill up the sentient existence of that mind. In addition, however, to those attributes of a mind which are grounded on its own states of feeling, attributes may also be ascribed to it, in the same manner as to a body, grounded on the feelings which it excites in other minds. A mind does not, indeed, like a body, excite sensations, but it may excite thoughts or emotions. The most important example of attributes 46 ascribed on this ground, is the employment of terms expressive of approbation or blame. When, for example, we say of any character, or (in other words) of any mind, that it is admirable, we mean that the contemplation of it excites the sentiment of admiration; and indeed somewhat more, for the word implies that we not only feel admiration, but approve that sentiment in ourselves. In some cases, under the semblance of a single attribute, two are really predicated: one of them, a state of the mind itself; the other, a state with which other minds are affected by thinking of it. As when we say of any one that he is generous. The word generosity expresses a certain state of mind, but being a term of praise, it also expresses that this state of mind excites in us another mental state, called approbation. The assertion made, therefore, is twofold, and of the following purport: Certain feelings form habitually a part of this person's sentient existence; and the idea of those feelings of his, excites the sentiment of approbation in ourselves or others. As we thus ascribe attrib utes to minds on the ground of ideas and emotions, so may we to bodies on similar grounds, and not solely on the ground of sensations: as in speaking of the beauty of a statue; since this attribute is grounded on the peculiar feeling of pleasure which the statue produces in our minds; which is not a sensation, but an emotion. VII. General Results. 15. Our survey of the varieties of Things which have been, or which are capable of being, named which have been, or are capable of being, either predicated of other Things, or themselves made the subject of predications is now concluded. Our enumeration commenced with Feelings. These we scrupulously distinguished from the objects which excite them, and from the organs by which they are, or may be supposed to be, conveyed. Feelings are of four sorts: Sensations, Thoughts, Emotions, and Volitions. What are called Perceptions are merely a particular case of Belief, and Belief is a kind of thought. Actions are merely volitions followed by an effect. After Feelings we proceeded to Substances. These are either Bodies or Minds. Without entering into the grounds of the metaphysical doubts which have been raised concerning the existence of Matter and Mind as objective realities, we stated as sufficient for us the conclusion in which the best thinkers are now for the most part agreed, that all we can know of Matter is the sensations which it gives us, and the order of occurrence of those sensations; and that while the substance Body is the unknown cause of our sensations, the substance Mind is the unknown recipient. The only remaining class of Namable Things is Attributes; and these are of three kinds, Quality, Relation, and Quantity. Qualities, like substances, are known to us no otherwise than by the sensations or other states of consciousness which they excite: and while, in compliance with common usage, we have continued to speak of them as a distinct class of Things, we showed that in predicating them no one means to predicate any thing but those sensations or states of co nsciousness, on which they may be said to be grounded, and by which alone they can be defined or described. Relations, except the simple cases of likeness and unlikeness, succession and simultaneity, are similarly grounded on some fact or phenomenon, that is, on some series of sensations or states of consciousness, more or less complicated. The third species of Attribute, Quantity, is also manifestly grounded on something in our sensations or states of feeling, since there is an indubitable difference in the sensations excited by a larger and a smaller bulk, or by a greater or a less degree of intensity, in any object of sense or of consciousness. All attributes, therefore, are to us nothing but either our sensations and other states of feeling, or something inextricably involved therein; and to this even the peculiar and simple relations just adverted to are not exceptions. Those peculiar relations, however, are so 47 important, and, even if they might in strictness be classed among states of consciousness, are so fundamentally distinct from any other of those states, that it would be a vain subtlety to bring them under that common description, and it is necessary that they should be classed apart. P23F24 P As the result, therefore, of our analysis, we obtain the following as an enumeration and classification of all Namable Things: 1st. Feelings, or States of Consciousness. 2d. The Minds which experience those feelings. 3d. The Bodies, or external objects which excite certain of those feelings, together with the powers or properties whereby they excite them; these latter (at least) being included rather in compliance with common opinion, and because their existence is taken for granted in the common language from which I can not prudently deviate, than because the recognition of such powers or properties as real existences appears to be warranted by a sound philosophy. 4th, and last. The Successions and Co- existences, the Likenesses and Unlikenesses, between feelings or states of consciousness. Those relations, when considered as subsisting between other things, exist in reality only between the states of consciousness which those things, if bodies, excite, if minds, either excite or experience. This, until a better can be suggested, may serve as a substitute for the Cate gories of Aristotle considered as a classification of Existences. The practical application of it will appear when we commence the inquiry into the Import of Propositions; in other words, when we inquire what it is which the mind actually believes, when it gives what is called its assent to a proposition. These four classes comprising, if the classification be correct, all Namable Things, these or some of them must of course compose the signification of all names: and of these, or some of them, is made up whatever we call a fact. For distinction's sake, every fact which is solely composed of feelings or states of consciousness considered as such, is often called a Psychological or Subjective fact; while every fact which is composed, either wholly or in part, of something different from these, that is, of substances and attributes, is called an Objective fact. We may say, then, that every objective fact is grounded on a corresponding subjective one; and has no meaning to us (apart from the subjective fact whi ch corresponds to it), except as a name for the unknown and inscrutable process by which that subjective or psychological fact is brought to pass. 24 Professor Bain ( Logic , i., 49) defines attributes as points of community among classes. This definition expresses well one point of view, but is liable to the objection that it applies only to the attributes of classes; though an object, unique in its kind, may be said to have attributes. Moreover, the definition is not ultimate, since the points of community themselves admit of, and require, further analysis; and Mr. Bain does analyze them into resemblances in the sensations, or other states of consciousness excited by the object. 48 IV. Of Propositions 1. In treating of Propositions, as already in treating of Names, some considerations of a comparatively elementary nature respecting their form and varieties must be premised, before entering upon that analysis of the import conveyed by them, which is the real subject and purpose of this preliminary book. A proposition, we have before said, is a portion of discourse in which a predicate is affirmed or denied of a subject. A predicate and a subject are all that is necessarily required to make up a proposition: but as we can not conclude from merely seeing two names put together, that they are a predicate and a subject, that is, that one of them is intended to be affirmed or denied of the other, it is necessary that there should be some mode or form of indicating that such is the intention; some sign to distinguish a predication from any other kind of discourse. This is sometimes done by a slight alteration of one of the words, called an inflection ; as when we say, Fire burns; the change of the second word from burn to burns showing that we mean to affirm the predicate burn of the subject fire. But this function is more commonly fulfilled by the word is , when an affirmation is intended, is not , when a negation; or by some other part of the verb to be . The word which thus serves the purpose of a sign of predication is called, as we formerly observed, the copula. It is important that there should be no indistinctness in our conception of the nature and office of the copula; for confused notions respecting it are among the causes which have spread mysticism over th e field of logic, and perverted its speculations into logomachies. It is apt to be supposed that the copula is something more than a mere sign of predication; that it also signifies existence. In the proposition, Socrates is just, it may seem to be implied not only that the quality just can be affirmed of Socrates, but moreover that Socrates is, that is to say, exists. This, however, only shows that there is an ambiguity in the word is ; a word which not only performs the function of the copula in affirmations, but has also a meaning of its own, in virtue of which it may itself be made the predicate of a proposition. That the employment of it as a copula does not necessarily include the affirmation of existence, appears from such a proposition as this, A centaur is a fiction of the poets; where it can not possibly be implied that a centaur exists, since the proposition itself expressly asserts that the thing has no real existence. Many volumes might be filled with the frivolous speculations concerning the nature of Being ( , , Ens, Entitas, Essentia, and the like), which have arisen from overlooking this double meaning of the word to be ; from supposing that when it signifies to exist , and when it signifies to be some specified thing, as to be a man, to be Socrates, to be seen or spoken of, to be a phantom, even to be a nonentity, it must still, at bottom, answer to the same idea; and that a meaning must be found for it which shall suit all these cases. The fog which rose from this narrow spot diffused i tself at an early period over the whole surface of metaphysics. Yet it becomes us not to triumph over the great intellects of Plato and Aristotle because we are now able to preserve ourselves from many errors into which they, perhaps inevitably, fell. The fire -teazer of a modern steam -engine produces by his exertions far greater effects than Milo of Crotona could, but he is not therefore a stronger man. The Greeks seldom knew any language but their own. This rendered it far more difficult for them than it is for us, to acquire a readiness in detecting ambiguities. One of the advantages of having accurately studied a plurality of languages, especially of those languages which eminent thinkers have used as the vehicle of their thoughts, is the practical lesson we learn respecting the ambiguities of words, by finding that the same word in one language corresponds, on different occasions, to 49 different words in another. When not thus exercised, even the strongest understandings find it difficult to believe that th ings which have a common name, have not in some respect or other a common nature; and often expend much labor very unprofitably (as was frequently done by the two philosophers just mentioned) in vain attempts to discover in what this common nature consists. But, the habit once formed, intellects much inferior are capable of detecting even ambiguities which are common to many languages: and it is surprising that the one now under consideration, though it exists in the modern languages as well as in the ancient, should have been overlooked by almost all authors. The quantity of futile speculation which had been caused by a misapprehension of the nature of the copula, was hinted at by Hobbes; but Mr. James Mill P24F25 P was, I believe, the first who distinctly characterized the ambiguity, and pointed out how many errors in the received systems of philosophy it has had to answer for. It has, indeed, misled the moderns scarcely less than the ancients, though their mistakes, because our understandings are not yet so completely emancipated from their influence, do not appear equally irrational. We shall now briefly review the principal distinctions which exist among propositions, and the technical terms most commonly in use to express those distinctions. 2. A proposition being a portion of discourse in which something is affirmed or denied of something, the first division of propositions is into affirmative and negative. An affirmative proposition is that in which the predicate is affirmed of the subject; as, Csar is dead . A negative proposition is that in which the predicate is denied of the subject; as, Csar is not dead. The copula, in this last species of proposition, consists of the words is not , which are the sign of negation; is being the sign of affirmation. Some l ogicians, among whom may be mentioned Hobbes, state this distinction differently; they recognize only one form of copula, is , and attach the negative sign to the predicate. Csar is dead, and Csar is not dead, according to these writers, are propositions agreeing not in the subject and predicate, but in the subject only. They do not consider dead, but not dead, to be the predicate of the second proposition, and they accordingly define a negative proposition to be one in which the predicate is a negative name. The point, though not of much practical moment, deserves notice as an example (not unfrequent in logic) where by means of an apparent simplification, but which is merely verbal, matters are made more complex than before. The notion of these wri ters was, that they could get rid of the distinction between affirming and denying, by treating every case of denying as the affirming of a negative name. But what is meant by a negative name? A name expressive of the absence of an attribute. So that when we affirm a negative name, what we are really predicating is absence and not presence; we are asserting not that any thing is, but that something is not; to express which operation no word seems so proper as the word denying. The fundamental distinction is between a fact and the non -existence of that fact; between seeing something and not seeing it, between Csar's being dead and his not being dead; and if this were a merely verbal distinction, the generalization which brings both within the same form of as sertion would be a real simplification: the distinction, however, being real, and in the facts, it is the generalization confounding the distinction that is merely verbal; and tends to obscure the subject, by treating the difference between two kinds of tr uths as if it were only a difference between two kinds of words. To put things together, and to put them or keep them asunder, will remain different operations, whatever tricks we may play with language. A remark of a similar nature may be applied to most of those distinctions among propositions which are said to have reference to their modality ; as, difference of tense or time; the 25 Analysis of the Human Mind , i., 126 et seq. 50 sun did rise, the sun is rising, the sun will rise. These differences, like that between affirmation and negation, might be glossed over by considering the incident of time as a mere modification of the predicate: thus, The sun is an object having risen, The sun is an object now rising, The sun is an object to rise hereafter . But the simplification would be merely verbal. Past, present, and future, do not constitute so many different kinds of rising; they are designations belonging to the event asserted, to the sun's rising to -day. They affect, not the predicate, but the applicability of the predicate to the particular subject. That which we affirm to be past, present, or future, is not what the subject signifies, nor what the predicate signifies, but specifically and expressly what the predication signifies; what is expressed only by the proposition as such, and not by either or both of the terms. Therefore the circumstance of time is properly considered as attaching to the copula, which is the sign of predication, and not to the predicate. If the same can not be said of such modifications as these, Csar may be dead; Csar is perh aps dead; it is possible that Csar is dead; it is only because these fall altogether under another head, being properly assertions not of any thing relating to the fact itself, but of the state of our own mind in regard to it; namely, our absence of disbe lief of it. Thus Csar may be dead means I am not sure that Csar is alive. 3. The next division of propositions is into Simple and Complex; more aptly (by Professor Bain P25F26 P) termed Compound. A simple proposition is that in which one predicate is affirmed or denied of one subject. A compound proposition is that in which there is more than one predicate, or more than one subject, or both. At first sight this division has the air of an absurdity; a solemn distinction of things into one and more than one; as if we were to divide horses into single horses and teams of horses. And it is true that what is called a complex (or compound) proposition is often not a proposition at all, but several propositions, held together by a conjunction. Such, for example, is this: Csar is dead, and Brutus is alive: or even this, Csar is dead, but Brutus is alive. There are here two distinct assertions; and we might as well call a street a complex house, as these two propositions a complex proposition. It i s true that the syncategorematic words and and but have a meaning; but that meaning is so far from making the two propositions one, that it adds a third proposition to them. All particles are abbreviations, and generally abbreviations of propositions; a kind of short-hand, whereby something which, to be expressed fully, would have required a proposition or a series of propositions, is suggested to the mind at once. Thus the words, Csar is dead and Brutus is alive, are equivalent to these: Csar is dead; Br utus is alive; it is desired that the two preceding propositions should be thought of together. If the words were, Csar is dead, but Brutus is alive, the sense would be equivalent to the same three propositions together with a fourth; between the two preceding propositions there exists a contrast: viz., either between the two facts themselves, or between the feelings with which it is desired that they should be regarded. In the instances cited the two propositions are kept visibly distinct, each subject having its separate predicate, and each predicate its separate subject. For brevity, however, and to avoid repetition, the propositions are often blended together: as in this, Peter and James preached at Jerusalem and in Galilee, which contains four propositions: Peter preached at Jerusalem, Peter preached in Galilee, James preached at Jerusalem, James preached in Galilee. We have seen that when the two or more propositions comprised in what is called a complex proposition are stated absolutely, and not under any condition or proviso, it is not a proposition at all, but a plurality of propositions; since what it expresses is not a single assertion, but several assertions, which, if true when joined, are true also when separated. But there is a kind of proposition which, though it contains a plurality of subjects and of 26 Logic , i., 85. 51 predicates, and may be said in one sense of the word to consist of several propositions, contains but one assertion; and its truth does not at all imply that of the simple propositions which compose it. An example of this is, when the simple propositions are connected by the particle or; as, either A is B or C is D; or by the particle if; as, A is B if C is D. In the former case, the proposition is called disjunctive , in the latter, conditional : the name hypothetical was originally common to both. As has been well remarked by Archbishop Whately and others, the disjunctive form is resolvable into the conditional; every disjunctive proposition being equivalent to two or more conditional ones. Ei ther A is B or C is D, means, if A is not B, C is D; and if C is not D, A is B. All hypothetical propositions, therefore, though disjunctive in form, are conditional in meaning; and the words hypothetical and conditional may be, as indeed they generally are, used synonymously. Propositions in which the assertion is not dependent on a condition, are said, in the language of logicians, to be categorical . A hypothetical proposition is not, like the pretended complex propositions which we previously considered, a mere aggregation of simple propositions. The simple propositions which form part of the words in which it is couched, form no part of the assertion which it conveys. When we say, If the Koran comes from God, Mohammed is the prophet of God, we do not intend to affirm either that the Koran does come from God, or that Mohammed is really his prophet. Neither of these simple propositions may be true, and yet the truth of the hypothetical proposition may be indisputable. What is asserted is not the truth of either of the propositions, but the inferribility of the one from the other. What, then, is the subject, and what the predicate of the hypothetical proposition? The Koran is not the subject of it, nor is Mohammed: for nothing is affirmed or denied either of the Koran or of Mohammed. The real subject of the predication is the entire proposition, Mohammed is the prophet of God; and the affirmation is, that this is a legitimate inference from the proposition, The Koran comes from God. The subject and predicate, therefore, of a hypothetical proposition are names of propositions. The subject is some one proposition. The predicate is a general relative name applicable to propositions; of this forman inference from so and so. A fresh instance is here afforded of the remark, that particles are abbreviations; since If A is B, C is D, is found to be an abbreviation of the following: The proposition C is D, is a legitimate inference from the proposition A is B. The distinction, therefore, between hypothetical and categorical propositions is not so great as it at first appears. In the conditional, as well as in the categorical form, one predicate is affirmed of one subject, and no more: but a conditional proposition is a proposition concerning a proposition; the subject of the assertion is itself an assertion. Nor is this a property peculiar to hypothetical propositions. There are other classes of assertions concerning propositions. Like other things, a proposition has attributes which may be predicated of it. The attribute predicated of it in a hypothetical proposition, is that of being an inference from a certain other proposition. But this is only one of many attributes that might be predicated. We may say, That the whole is greater than its part, is an a xiom in mathematics: That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone, is a tenet of the Greek Church: The doctrine of the divine right of kings was renounced by Parliament at the Revolution: The infallibility of the Pope has no countenance from Scriptur e. In all these cases the subject of the predication is an entire proposition. That which these different predicates are affirmed of, is the proposition, the whole is greater than its part; the proposition, the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone; the proposition, kings have a divine right; the proposition, the Pope is infallible. 52 Seeing, then, that there is much less difference between hypothetical propositions and any others, than one might be led to imagine from their form, we should be at a loss to account for the conspicuous position which they have been selected to fill in treatises on logic, if we did not remember that what they predicate of a proposition, namely, its being an inference from something else, is precisely that one of its attributes with which most of all a logician is concerned. 4. The next of the common divisions of Propositions is into Universal, Particular, Indefinite, and Singular: a distinction founded on the degree of generality in which the name, which is the subject of the proposition, is to be understood. The following are examples: All men are mortal Universal. Some men are mortal Particular. Man is mortalIndefinite. Julius Csar is mortalSingular. The proposition is Singular, when the subject is an individual name. The individual name needs not be a proper name. The Founder of Christianity was crucified, is as much a singular proposition as Christ was crucified. When the name which is the subject of the proposition is a general name, we may intend to affirm or deny the predicate, either of all the things that the subject denotes, or only of some. When the predicate is affirmed or denied of all and each of the things denoted by the subject, the proposition is universal; when of some undefined portion of them only, it is particular. Thus, All men are mortal; Every man is mortal; are universal propositions. No man is immortal, is also a universal proposition, since the predicate, immortal, is denied of each and every individual denoted by the term man; the negative proposition being exactly equivalent to the following, Every man is not- immortal. But some men are wise, some men are not wise, are particular propositions; the predicate wise being in the one case affirmed and in the other denied not of each and every individual denoted by the term man, but only of each and every one of some portion of those individuals, without specifying what portion; for if this were specified, the proposition would be changed either into a singular proposition, or into a universal proposition with a different subject; as, for instance, all properly instructed men are wise. There are other forms of particular propositions; as, Most men are imperfectly educated: it being immaterial how large a portion of the subject the predicate is asserted of, as long as it is left uncertain how that portion is to be distinguished from the rest. P26F27 P When the form of the expression does not clearly show whether the general name which is the subject of the proposition is meant to stand for all the individuals denoted by it, or only for some of them, the proposition is, by some logicians, called Indefinite; but this, as Archbishop Whately observes, is a solecism, of the same nature as that committed by some grammarians when in their list of genders they enumerate the doubtful gender. The speaker must mean to assert the proposition either as a universal or as a particular proposition, though he has failed to declare which: and it often happens that though the words do not show which 27 Instead of Universal and Particular as applied to propositions, Professor Bain proposes (Logic , i., 81) the terms Total and Partial; reserving the former pair of terms for their inductive meaning, the contrast between a general proposition and the particulars or individuals that we derive it from. This change in nomenclature would be attended with the further advantage, that Singular propositions, which in the Syllogism follow the same rules as Universal, would be included along with them in the same class, that of Total predications. It is not the Subject's denoting many things or only one, that is of importance in reasoning, it is that the assertion is made of the whole or a part only of what the Subject denotes. The words Universal and Particular, however, are so familiar and so well understood in both the senses mentioned by Mr. Bain, that the double meaning does not produce any material inconvenience. 53 of the two he intends, the context, or the custom of speech, supplies the deficiency. Thus, when it is affirmed that Man is mortal, nobody doubts that the assertion is intended of all human beings; and the word indicative of universality is commonly omitted, only because the meaning is evident without it. In the proposition, Wine is good, it is understood with equal readiness, though for somewhat different reasons, that the assertion is not intended to be universal, but particular. P27F28 P As is observed by Professor Bain, P28F29 P the chief examples of Indefinite propositions occur with names of material, which are the subjects sometimes of universal, and at other times of particular predication. Food is chemically constituted by carbon, oxygen, etc., is a proposition of universal quantity; the meaning is all foodall kinds of food. Food is necessary to animal life is a case of particular quantity; the meaning is some sort of food, not necessarily all sorts. Metal is requisite in order to strength does not mean all kinds of metal. Gold will make a way, means a portion of gold. When a general name stands for each and every individual which it is a name of, or in other words, which it denotes, it is said by logicians to be distributed , or taken distributively. Thus, in the proposition, All men are mortal, the subject, Man, is distributed, because mortality is affirmed of each and every man. The predicate, Mortal, is not distributed, because the only mortals who are spoken of in the proposition are those who happen to be men; while the word may, for aught that appears, and in fact does, comprehend within it an indefinite number of objects besides men. In the proposition, Some men are mortal, both the predicate and the subject are undistributed. In the following, No men have wings, both the predicate and the subject are distributed. Not only is the attribute of having wings denied of the entire class Man, but that class is severed and cast out from the whole of the class Winged, and not merely from some part of th at class. This phraseology, which is of great service in stating and demonstrating the rules of the syllogism, enables us to express very concisely the definitions of a universal and a particular proposition. A universal proposition is that of which the subject is distributed; a particular proposition is that of which the subject is undistributed. There are many more distinctions among propositions than those we have here stated, some of them of considerable importance. But, for explaining and illustrating these, more suitable opportunities will occur in the sequel. 28 It may, however, be considered as equivalent to a universal proposition with a different predicate, viz.: All wine is good qu wine, or is good in respect of the qualities which constitute it wine. 29 Logic , i., 82. 54 V. Of The Import Of Propositions 1. An inquiry into the nature of propositions must have one of two objects: to analyze the state of mind called Belief, or to analy ze what is believed. All language recognizes a difference between a doctrine or opinion, and the fact of entertaining the opinion; between assent, and what is assented to. Logic, according to the conception here formed of it, has no concern with the nature of the act of judging or believing; the consideration of that act, as a phenomenon of the mind, belongs to another science. Philosophers, however, from Descartes downward, and especially from the era of Leibnitz and Locke, have by no means observed this distinction; and would have treated with great disrespect any attempt to analyze the import of Propositions, unless founded on an analysis of the act of Judgment. A proposition, they would have said, is but the expression in words of a Judgment. The thing expressed, not the mere verbal expression, is the important matter. When the mind assents to a proposition, it judges. Let us find out what the mind does when it judges, and we shall know what propositions mean, and not otherwise. Conformably to these views , almost all the writers on Logic in the last two centuries, whether English, German, or French, have made their theory of Propositions, from one end to the other, a theory of Judgments. They considered a Proposition, or a Judgment, for they used the two words indiscriminately, to consist in affirming or denying one idea of another. To judge, was to put two ideas together, or to bring one idea under another, or to compare two ideas, or to perceive the agreement or disagreement between two ideas: and the who le doctrine of Propositions, together with the theory of Reasoning (always necessarily founded on the theory of Propositions), was stated as if Ideas, or Conceptions, or whatever other term the writer preferred as a name for mental representations generall y, constituted essentially the subject -matter and substance of those operations. It is, of course, true, that in any case of judgment, as for instance when we judge that gold is yellow, a process takes place in our minds, of which some one or other of thes e theories is a partially correct account. We must have the idea of gold and the idea of yellow, and these two ideas must be brought together in our mind. But in the first place, it is evident that this is only a part of what takes place; for we may put tw o ideas together without any act of belief; as when we merely imagine something, such as a golden mountain; or when we actually disbelieve: for in order even to disbelieve that Mohammed was an apostle of God, we must put the idea of Mohammed and that of an apostle of God together. To determine what it is that happens in the case of assent or dissent besides putting two ideas together, is one of the most intricate of metaphysical problems. But whatever the solution may be, we may venture to assert that it ca n have nothing whatever to do with the import of propositions; for this reason, that propositions (except sometimes when the mind itself is the subject treated of) are not assertions respecting our ideas of things, but assertions respecting the things them selves. In order to believe that gold is yellow, I must, indeed, have the idea of gold, and the idea of yellow, and something having reference to those ideas must take place in my mind; but my belief has not reference to the ideas, it has reference to the things. What I believe, is a fact relating to the outward thing, gold, and to the impression made by that outward thing upon the human organs; not a fact relating to my conception of gold, which would be a fact in my mental history, not a fact of external nature. It is true, that in order to believe this fact in external nature, another fact must take place in my mind, a process must be performed upon my ideas; but so it must in every thing else that I do. I can not dig the ground unless I have the idea of the ground, and of a spade, and of all the other things I am operating upon, and 55 unless I put those ideas together. P29F30 P But it would be a very ridiculous description of digging the ground to say that it is putting one idea into another. Digging is an operation which is performed upon the things themselves, though it can not be performed unless I have in my mind the ideas of them. And in like manner, believing is an act which has for its subject the facts themselves, though a previous mental conception of the facts is an indispensable condition. When I say that fire causes heat, do I mean that my idea of fire causes my idea of heat? No: I mean that the natural phenomenon, fire, causes the natural phenomenon, heat. When I mean to assert any thing respecting the ideas, I give them their proper name, I call them ideas: as when I say, that a child's idea of a battle is unlike the reality, or that the ideas entertained of the Deity have a great effect on the characters of mankind. The notion that what is of primary importance to the logician in a proposition, is the relation between the two ideas corresponding to the subject and predicate (instead of the relation between the two phenomena which they respectively express), seems to me one of the most fatal errors ever introduced into the philosophy of Logic; and the principal cause why the theory of the science has made such inconsiderable progress during the last two centuries. The treatises on Logic, and on the branches of Mental Philosophy connected with Logic, which have been produced since the intrusion of this cardinal error, though sometimes written by men of extraordinary abilities and attainments, almost always tacitly imply a theory that the investigation of truth consists in contemplating and handling our ideas, or conceptions of things, instead of the things themselves: a doctrine tantamount to the assertion, that the only mode of acquiring knowledge of nature is to study it at second hand, as represented in our own minds. Meanwhile, inquiries into every kind of natural phenomena were incessantly establishing great and fruitful truths on most important subjects, by processes upon which these views of the nature of Judgment and Reasoning threw no light, and in which they afforded no assistance whatever. No wonder that those who knew by practical experience how truths are arrived at, should deem a science futile, which consisted chiefly of such speculations. What has been done for the advancement of Logic since these doctrines came into vogue, has been done not by professed logicians, but by discoverers in the other sciences; in whose methods of investigation many principles of logic, not previously thought of, have successively come forth into light, but who have generally committed the error of supposing that nothing whatever was known of the art of philosophizing by the old logicians, because their modern interpreters have written to so little purpose respecting it. We have to inquire, then, on the present occasion, not into Judgment, but judgments; not into the act of believing, but into the thing believed. What is the immediate object of belief in a Proposition? What is the matter of fact signified by it? What is it to which, when I assert the proposition, I give my assent, and call upon others to give theirs? W hat is that which is expressed by the form of discourse called a Proposition, and the conformity of which to fact constitutes the truth of the proposition? 2. One of the clearest and most consecutive thinkers whom this country or the world has produced, I mean Hobbes, has given the following answer to this question. In every proposition (says he) what is signified is, the belief of the speaker that the predicate is a name of the same thing of which the subject is a name; and if it really is so, the propos ition is true. Thus the proposition, All men are living beings (he would say) is true, because living being is a name of every thing of which man is a name. All men are six feet high, is not true, 30 Dr. Whewell ( Philosophy of Discovery , p. 242) questions this statement, and asks, Are we to say that a mole can not dig the ground, except he has an idea of the ground, and of the snout and paws with which he digs it? I do not know what passes in a mole's mind, nor what amount of mental apprehension may or may not accompany his instinctive actions. But a human being does not use a spade by instinct; and he certainly could not use it unless he had knowledge of a spade, and of the earth which he uses it upon. 56 because six feet high is not a name of every thing (though it is of some things) of which man is a name. What is stated in this theory as the definition of a true proposition, must be allowed to be a property which all true propositions possess. The subject and predicate being both of them names of things, if they were names of quite different things the one name could not, consistently with its signification, be predicated of the other. If it be true that some men are copper-colored, it must be trueand the proposition does really assertthat among the individuals denoted by the name man, there are some who are also among those denoted by the name copper -colored. If it be true that all oxen ruminate, it must be true that all the individuals denoted by the name ox are also among those denoted by the name ruminating; and whoever asserts that all oxen ruminate, undoubtedly does assert that this relation subsists between the two names. The assertion, therefore, which, according to Hobbes, is the only one made in any proposition, really is made in every proposition: and his analysis has consequently one of the requisites for being the true one. We may go a step further; it is the only analysis that is rigorously true of all propositions without exception. What he gives as the meaning of propositions, is part of the meaning of all propositions, and the whole meaning of some. This, however, only shows what an extremely minute fragment of meaning it is quite possible to include within the logical formula of a proposition. It does not show that no proposition means more. To warrant us in putting together two words with a copula between them, it is really enough that the thing or things denoted by one of the names should be capable, without violation of usage, of being called by the other name also. If, then, this be all the meaning necessarily implied in the form of discourse called a Proposition, why do I object to it as the scientific definition of what a proposition means? Because, though the mere collocation which makes the proposition a proposition, conveys no more than this scanty amount of meaning, that same collocation combined with other circumstances, that form combined with other matter , does convey more, and the proposition in those other circumstances does assert more, than merely that relation between the two names. The only propositions of which Hobbes's principle is a sufficient account, are that limited and unimportant class in which both the predicate and the subject are proper names. For, as has already been remarked, proper names have strictly no meaning; they are mere marks for individual objects: and when a proper name is predicated of another proper name, all the signification conveyed is, that both the names are marks for the same object. But this is precisely what Hobbes produces as a theory of predic ation in general. His doctrine is a full explanation of such predications as these: Hyde was Clarendon, or, Tully is Cicero. It exhausts the meaning of those propositions. But it is a sadly inadequate theory of any others. That it should ever have been thought of as such, can be accounted for only by the fact, that Hobbes, in common with the other Nominalists, bestowed little or no attention upon the connotation of words; and sought for their meaning exclusively in what they denote : as if all names had been (what none but proper names really are) marks put upon individuals; and as if there were no difference between a proper and a general name, except that the first denotes only one individual, and the last a greater number. It has been seen, however, that the meaning of all names, except proper names and that portion of the class of abstract names which are not connotative, resides in the connotation. When, therefore, we are analyzing the meaning of any proposition in which the predicate and the subject, or either of them, are connotative names, it is to the connotation of those terms that we must exclusively look, and not to what they denote , or in the language of Hobbes (language so far correct) are names of. 57 In asserting that the truth of a proposition depends on the conformity of import between its terms, as, for instance, that the proposition, Socrates is wise, is a true proposition, because Socrates and wise are names applicable to, or, as he expresses it, names of, the same person; it is very remarkable that so powerful a thinker should not have asked himself the question, But how came they to be names of the same person? Surely not because such was the intention of those who invented the words. When mankind fixed the meaning of the word wise, they were not thinking of Socrates, nor, when his parents gave him the name of Socrates, were they thinking of wisdom. The names happen to fit the same person because of a certain fact, which fact was not known, nor in being, when the names were invented. If we want to know what the fact is, we shall find the clue to it in the connotation of the names. A bird or a stone, a man, or a wise man, means simply, an object having such and such attributes. The real meaning of the word man, is those attributes, and not Smith, Brown, and the remainder of the individuals. The word mortal , in like manner connotes a certain attribute or attributes; and when we say, All men are mortal, the meaning of the proposition is, that all beings which possess the one set of attributes, possess also the other. If, in our experience, the attributes connoted by man are always accompanied by the attribute connoted by mortal , it will follow as a consequence, that the class man will be wholly included in the class mortal , and that mortal will be a name of all things of which man is a name: but why? Those objects are brought under the name, by possessing the attributes connoted by it: but their possession of the attributes is the real condition on which the truth of the proposition depends; not their being called by the name. Connotative names do not precede, but follow, the attributes which they connote. If one attribute happens to be always found in conjunction with another attribute, the concrete names which answer to those attributes will of cours e be predicable of the same subjects, and may be said, in Hobbes's language (in the propriety of which on this occasion I fully concur), to be two names for the same things. But the possibility of a concurrent application of the two names, is a mere consequence of the conjunction between the two attributes, and was, in most cases, never thought of when the names were introduced and their signification fixed. That the diamond is combustible, was a proposition certainly not dreamed of when the words Diamond and Combustible first received their meaning; and could not have been discovered by the most ingenious and refined analysis of the signification of those words. It was found out by a very different process, namely, by exerting the senses, and learning from them, that the attribute of combustibility existed in the diamonds upon which the experiment was tried; the number or character of the experiments being such, that what was true of those individuals might be concluded to be true of all substances called b y the name, that is, of all substances possessing the attributes which the name connotes. The assertion, therefore, when analyzed, is, that wherever we find certain attributes, there will be found a certain other attribute: which is not a question of the signification of names, but of laws of nature; the order existing among phenomena. 3. Although Hobbes's theory of Predication has not, in the terms in which he stated it, met with a very favorable reception from subsequent thinkers, a theory virtually identical with it, and not by any means so perspicuously expressed, may almost be said to have taken the rank of an established opinion. The most generally received notion of Predication decidedly is that it consists in referring something to a class, i.e., either placing an individual under a class, or placing one class under another class. Thus, the proposition, Man is mortal, asserts, according to this view of it, that the class man is included in the class mortal. Plato is a philosopher, asserts that th e individual Plato is one of those who compose the class philosopher. If the proposition is negative, then instead of placing something in a class, it is said to exclude something from a class. Thus, if the following be the proposition, The elephant is not carnivorous; what is asserted (according to this theory) is, that the elephant is 58 excluded from the class carnivorous, or is not numbered among the things comprising that class. There is no real difference, except in language, between this theory of Predication and the theory of Hobbes. For a class is absolutely nothing but an indefinite number of individuals denoted by a general name. The name given to them in common, is what makes them a class. To refer any thing to a class, therefore, is to look upon it as one of the things which are to be called by that common name. To exclude it from a class, is to say that the common name is not applicable to it. How widely these views of predication have prevailed, is evident from this, that they are the basis of the celebrated dictum de omni et nullo. When the syllogism is resolved, by all who treat of it, into an inference that what is true of a class is true of all things whatever that belong to the class; and when this is laid down by almost all professed logic ians as the ultimate principle to which all reasoning owes its validity; it is clear that in the general estimation of logicians, the propositions of which reasonings are composed can be the expression of nothing but the process of dividing things into classes, and referring every thing to its proper class. This theory appears to me a signal example of a logical error very often committed in logic, that of , or explaining a thing by something which presupposes it. When I say that snow is white, I may and ought to be thinking of snow as a class, because I am asserting a proposition as true of all snow: but I am certainly not thinking of white objects as a class; I am thinking of no white object whatever except snow, but only of that, and of the sensation of white which it gives me. When, indeed, I have judged, or assented to the propositions, that snow is white, and that several other things are also white, I gradually begin to think of white objects as a class, including snow and those other things. But this is a conception which followed, not preceded, those judgments, and therefore can not be given as an explanation of them. Instead of explaining the effect by the cause, this doctrine explains the cause by the effect, and is, I conceive, founded on a latent misconception of the nature of classification. There is a sort of language very generally prevalent in these discussions, which seems to suppose that classification is an arrangement and grouping of definite and known individuals: that when names were imposed, mankind took into consideration all the individual objects in the universe, distributed them into parcels or lists, and gave to the objects of each list a common name, repeating this operation toties quoties until they had invented all the general names of which language consists; which having been once done, if a question subsequently arises whether a certain general name can be truly predicated of a certain particular object, we have only (as it were) to read the roll of the objects upon which that name was conferred, and see whether the object about which the question arises is to be found among them. The framers of language (it would seem to be supposed) have predetermined all the objects that are to compose each class, and we have o nly to refer to the record of an antecedent decision. So absurd a doctrine will be owned by nobody when thus nakedly stated; but if the commonly received explanations of classification and naming do not imply this theory, it requires to be shown how they admit of being reconciled with any other. General names are not marks put upon definite objects; classes are not made by drawing a line round a given number of assignable individuals. The objects which compose any given class are perpetually fluctuating. We may frame a class without knowing the individuals, or even any of the individuals, of which it may be composed; we may do so while believing that no such individuals exist. If by the meaning of a general name are to be understood the things which it is th e name of, no general name, except by accident, has a fixed meaning at all, or ever long retains the same meaning. The only mode in which any general name has a definite 59 meaning, is by being a name of an indefinite variety of things; namely, of all things, known or unknown, past, present, or future, which possess certain definite attributes. When, by studying not the meaning of words, but the phenomena of nature, we discover that these attributes are possessed by some object not previously known to possess them (as when chemists found that the diamond was combustible), we include this new object in the class; but it did not already belong to the class. We place the individual in the class because the proposition is true; the proposition is not true because t he object is placed in the class. P30F31 P It will appear hereafter, in treating of reasoning, how much the theory of that intellectual process has been vitiated by the influence of these erroneous notions, and by the habit which they exemplify of assimilating a ll the operations of the human understanding which have truth for their object, to processes of mere classification and naming. Unfortunately, the minds which have been entangled in this net are precisely those which have escaped the other cardinal error c ommented upon in the beginning of the present chapter. Since the revolution which dislodged Aristotle from the schools, logicians may almost be divided into those who have looked upon reasoning as essentially an affair of Ideas, and those who have looked upon it as essentially an affair of Names. Although, however, Hobbes's theory of Predication, according to the well-known remark of Leibnitz, and the avowal of Hobbes himself, P31F32 P renders truth and falsity completely arbitrary, with no standard but the will of men, it must not be concluded that either Hobbes, or any of the other thinkers who have in the main agreed with him, did in fact consider the distinction between truth and error as less real, or attached less importance to it, than other people. To suppose that they did so would argue total unacquaintance with their other speculations. But this shows how little hold their doctrine possessed over their own minds. No person, at bottom, ever imagined that there was nothing more in truth than propriety of expression; than using language in conformity to a previous convention. When the inquiry was brought down from generals to a particular case, it has always been acknowledged that there is a distinction between verbal and real questions; that some false propositions are uttered from ignorance of the meaning of words, but that in others the source of the error is a misapprehension of things; that a person who has not the use of language at all may form propositions mentally, and that they may be untruethat is, he may believe as matters of fact what are not really so. This last admission can not be made in stronger terms than it is by Hobbes himself, P32F33 P though 31 Profess or Bain remarks, in qualification of the statement in the text ( Logic , i., 50), that the word Class has two meanings; the class definite, and the class indefinite. The class definite is an enumeration of actual individuals, as the Peers of the Realm, the oceans of the globe, the known planets.... The class indefinite is unenumerated. Such classes are stars, planets, gold -bearing rocks, men, poets, virtuous.... In this last acceptation of the word, class name and general name are identical. The class name denotes an indefinite number of individuals, and connotes the points of community or likeness. The theory controverted in the text, tacitly supposes all classes to be definite . I have assumed them to be indefinite; because, for the purposes of Logic, definite classes, as such, are almost useless; though often serviceable as means of abridged expression. (Vide infra, book 3., chap. 2 .) 32 From hence also this may be deduced, that the first truths were arbitrarily made by those that first of all imposed names upon things, or received them from the imposition of others. For it is true (for example) that man is a living creature , but it is for this reason, that it pleased men to impose both these names on the same thing. Computation or Logic , chap. iii., sect. 8. 33 Men are subject to err not only in affirming and denying, but also in perception, and in silent cogitation.... Tacit errors, or the errors of sense and cogitation, are made by passing from one imagination to the imagination of another different thing; or by feigning that to be past, or future, which never was, nor ever shall be; as when by seeing the image of the sun in water, we imagine the sun itself to be there; or by seeing swords, that there has been, or shall be, fighting, because it used to be so for the most part; or when from promises we feign the mind of the promiser to be such and such; or, lastly, when from any sign we vainly imagine something to be signified which is not. And errors of this sort are common to all things that have sense.Computation or Logic , chap. v., sect. 1. 60 he will not allow such erroneous belief to be called falsity, but only error. And he has himself laid down, in other places, doctrines in which the true theory of predication is by implication contained. He distinctly says that general names are given to things on account of their attributes, and that abstract names are the names of those attributes. Abstract is that which in any subject denotes the cause of the concrete name.... And these causes of names are the same with the causes of our conceptions, namely, some power of action, or affection, of the thing conceived, which some call the manner by which any thing works upon our senses, but by most men they are called accidents . P33F34 P It is strange that having gone so far, he should not have gone one step further, and seen that what he calls the cause of the concrete name, is in reality the meaning of it; and that when we predicate of any subject a name which is given because of an attribute (or, as he calls it, an accident), our object is not to affirm the name, but, by means of the name, to affirm the attribute. 4. Let the predicate be, as we have said, a connotative term; and to take the simplest case first, let the subject be a proper name: The summit of Chimborazo is white. The word white connotes an attribute which is possessed by the individual object designated by the words summit of Chimborazo; which attribute consists in the physical fact, of its exciting in human beings the sensation which we call a sensation of white. It will be admitted that, by asserting the proposition, we wish to communicate information of that physical fact, and are not thinking of the names, except as the necessary means of making that communication. The meaning of the proposition, therefore, is, that the individual thing denoted by the subject, has the attributes connoted by the predicate. If we now suppose the subject also to be a connotative name, the meaning expressed by the proposition has advanced a step further in complication. Let us first suppose the proposition to be universal, as well as affirmative: All men are mortal. In this case, as in the last, what the proposition asserts (or expresses a belief of) is, of course, that the objects denoted by the subject (man) possess the attributes connoted by the predicate (mortal). But the characteristic of this case is, that the objects are no longer individually designated. They are pointed out only by some of their attributes: they are the objects called men, that is, possessing the attributes connoted by the name man; and the only thing known of them may be those attributes: indeed, as the proposition is general, and the objects denoted by the subject are therefore indefinite in number, most of them are not known individually at all. The assertion, therefore, is not, as before, that the attributes which the predicate connotes are possessed by any given individual, or by any number of individuals previously known as John, Thomas, etc., but that those attributes are possessed by each and every individual possessing certain other attributes; that whatever has the attributes connoted by the subject, has also those connoted by the predicate; that the latter set of attributes constantly accompany the former set. Whatever has the attributes of man has the attribute of mortality; mortality constantly accompanies the attributes of man. P34F35 P 34 Chap. iii., sect 3. 35 To the preceding statement it has been objected, that we naturally construe the subject of a proposition in its extension, and the predicate (which therefore may be an adjective) in its intension (connotation): and that consequently co- existence of attributes does not, any more than the opposite theory of equation of groups, correspond with the living processes of thought and language. I acknowledge the distinction here drawn, which, indeed, I had myself laid down and exemplified a few pages back (p. 77). But though it is true that we naturally construe the subject of a proposition in its extension, this extension, or in other words, the extent of the class denoted by the name, is not apprehended or indicated directly. It is both apprehended and indicated solely through the attributes. In the living processes of thought and language the extension, though in this case really thought of (which in the case of the predicate it is n ot), is thought of only through the medium of what my acute and courteous critic terms the intension. For further illustrations of this subject, see Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy , chap. xxii. 61 If it be remembered that every attribute is grounded on some fact or phenomenon, either of outward sense or of inward consciousness, and that to possess an attribute is another phrase for being the cause of, or forming part of, the fact or phenomenon upon which the attribute is grounded; we may add one more step to complete the analysis. The proposition which asserts that one attribute always accompanies another attribute, really asserts thereby no other thing than this, that one phenomenon always accompanies another phenomenon; insomuch that where we find the latter, we have assurance of the existence of the former. Thus, in the proposition, All men are mortal, the word man connotes the attributes which we ascribe to a certain kind of living creatures, on the ground of certain phenomena which they exhibit, and which are partly physical phenomena, namely the impressions made on our senses by their bodily form and structure, and partly mental phenomena, namely the sentient and intellectual life which they have of their own. All this is understood when we utter the word man, by any one to whom the meaning of the word is known. Now, when we say, Man is mortal, we mean that wherever these various physical and mental phenomena are all found, there we have assurance that the other physical and mental phenomenon, called death, will not fail to take place. The proposition does not affirm when ; for the connotation of the word mortal goes no further than to the occurrence of the phenomenon at some time or other, leaving the particular time undecided. 5. We have already proceeded far enough, not only to demonstrate the error of Hobbes, but to ascertain the real import of by far the most numerous class of propositions. The object of belief in a proposition, when it asserts any thing more than the meaning of words, is generally, as in the cases which we have examined, either the co -existence or the sequence of two phenomena. At the very commencement of our inquiry, we found that every act of belief implied two Things: we have now ascertained what, in the most freque nt case, these two things are, namely, two Phenomena; in other words, two states of consciousness; and what it is which the proposition affirms (or denies) to subsist between them, namely, either succession or co -existence. And this case includes innumerable instances which no one, previous to reflection, would think of referring to it. Take the following example: A generous person is worthy of honor. Who would expect to recognize here a case of co- existence between phenomena? But so it is. The attribute which causes a person to be termed generous, is ascribed to him on the ground of states of his mind, and particulars of his conduct: both are phenomena: the former are facts of internal consciousness; the latter, so far as distinct from the former, are physical facts, or perceptions of the senses. Worthy of honor admits of a similar analysis. Honor, as here used, means a state of approving and admiring emotion, followed on occasion by corresponding outward acts. Worthy of honor connotes all this, together with our approval of the act of showing honor. All these are phenomena; states of internal consciousness, accompanied or followed by physical facts. When we say, A generous person is worthy of honor, we affirm co -existence between the two complicated phenom ena connoted by the two terms respectively. We affirm, that wherever and whenever the inward feelings and outward facts implied in the word generosity have place, then and there the existence and manifestation of an inward feeling, honor, would be followed in our minds by another inward feeling, approval. After the analysis, in a former chapter, of the import of names, many examples are not needed to illustrate the import of propositions. When there is any obscurity, or difficulty, it does not lie in the meaning of the proposition, but in the meaning of the names which compose it; in the extremely complicated connotation of many words; the immense multitude and prolonged series of facts which often constitute the phenomenon connoted by a name. But where it is seen what the phenomenon is, there is seldom any difficulty in seeing that the assertion conveyed by the proposition is, the co-existence of one such phenomenon with 62 another; or the succession of one such phenomenon to another: so that where the one is found, we may calculate on finding the other, though perhaps not conversely. This, however, though the most common, is not the only meaning which propositions are ever intended to convey. In the first place, sequences and co- existences are not only asserted respecting Phenomena; we make propositions also respecting those hidden causes of phenomena, which are named substances and attributes. A substance, however, being to us nothing but either that which causes, or that which is conscious of, phenomena; and t he same being true, mutatis mutandis , of attributes; no assertion can be made, at least with a meaning, concerning these unknown and unknowable entities, except in virtue of the Phenomena by which alone they manifest themselves to our faculties. When we sa y Socrates was contemporary with the Peloponnesian war, the foundation of this assertion, as of all assertions concerning substances, is an assertion concerning the phenomena which they exhibitnamely, that the series of facts by which Socrates manifested himself to mankind, and the series of mental states which constituted his sentient existence, went on simultaneously with the series of facts known by the name of the Peloponnesian war. Still, the proposition as commonly understood does not assert that alone; it asserts that the Thing in itself, the noumenon Socrates, was existing, and doing or experiencing those various facts during the same time. Co-existence and sequence, therefore, may be affirmed or denied not only between phenomena, but between noumena, or between a noumenon and phenomena. And both of noumena and of phenomena we may affirm simple existence. But what is a noumenon? An unknown cause. In affirming, therefore, the existence of a noumenon, we affirm causation. Here, therefore, are two addit ional kinds of fact, capable of being asserted in a proposition. Besides the propositions which assert Sequence or Co- existence, there are some which assert simple Existence; P35F36 P and others assert Causation, which, subject to the 36 Professor Bain, in his Logic (i., 256), e xcludes Existence from the list, considering it as a mere name. All propositions, he says, which predicate mere existence are more or less abbreviated, or elliptical: when fully expressed they fall under either co- existence or succession. When we say there exists a conspiracy for a particular purpose, we mean that at the present time a body of men have formed themselves into a society for a particular object; which is a complex affirmation, resolvable into propositions of co- existence and succession (as causation). The assertion that the dodo does not exist, points to the fact that this animal, once known in a certain place, has disappeared or become extinct; is no longer associated with the locality: all which may be better stated without the use of the ve rb exist. There is a debated questionDoes an ether exist? but the concrete form would be this Are heat and light and other radiant influences propagated by an ethereal medium diffused in space; which is a proposition of causation. In like manner the question of the Existence of a Deity can not be discussed in that form. It is properly a question as to the First Cause of the Universe, and as to the continued exertion of that Cause in providential superintendence. (i., 407.) Mr. Bain thinks it fictitio us and unmeaning language to carry up the classification of Nature to one summum genus , Being, or that which Exists; since nothing can be perceived or apprehended but by way of contrast with something else (of which important truth, under the name of Law of Relativity, he has been in our time the principal expounder and champion), and we have no other class to oppose to Being, or fact to contrast with Existence. I accept fully Mr. Bain's Law of Relativity, but I do not understand by it that to enable us to apprehend or be conscious of any fact, it is necessary that we should contrast it with some other positive fact. The antithesis necessary to consciousness need not, I conceive, be an antithesis between two positives; it may be between one positive and its negative. Hobbes was undoubtedly right when he said that a single sensation indefinitely prolonged would cease to be felt at all; but simple intermission, without other change, would restore it to consciousness. In order to be conscious of heat, it is not necessary that we should pass to it from cold; it suffices that we should pass to it from a state of no sensation, or from a sensation of some other kind. The relative opposite of Being, considered as a summum genus, is Nonentity, or Nothing; and we have, now and then, occasion to consider and discuss things merely in contrast with Nonentity. I grant that the decision of questions of Existence usually if not always depends on a previous question of either Causation or Co- existence. But Existence is nevertheless a different thing from Causation or Co- existence, and can be predicated apart from them. The meaning of the abstract name Existence, and the connotation of the concrete name Being, consist, like the meaning of all other names, in sensations or states of consciousness: their 63 explanations which will follow in the Third Book, must be considered provisionally as a distinct and peculiar kind of assertion. 6. To these four kinds of matter-of-fact or assertion, must be added a fifth, Resemblance. This was a species of attribute which we found it impossible to analyze; for which no fundamentum , distinct from the objects themselves, could be assigned. Besides propositions which assert a sequence or co- existence between two phenomena, there are therefore also propositions which assert resemblance between them; as, This color is like that color; The heat of to- day is equal to the heat of yesterday. It is true that such an assertion might with some plausibility be brought within the description of an affirmation of sequence, by considering it as an assertion that the simultaneous contemplation of the two colors is followed by a specific feeling termed the feeling of resemblance. But there would be nothing gained by incumbering ourselves, especially in this place, with a generalization which may be looked upon as strained. Logic does not undertake to analyze mental facts into their ultimate elements. Resemblance between two phenomena is more intelligible in itself than any explanation could make it, and under any classification must remain specifically distinct from the ordinary cases of sequence and co- existence. It is sometimes said, that all propositions whatever, of which the predicate is a general name, do, in point of fact, affirm or deny resemblance. All such propositions affirm that a thing belongs to a class; but things being classed together according to their resemblance, every thing is of course classed with the things which it is supposed to resemble most; and thence, it may be said, when we affirm that Gold is a metal, or that Socrates is a man, the affirmation intended is, that gold resembles other metals, and Socrates other men, more nearly than they resemble the objects contained in any other of the classes co -ordinate with these. There is some slight degree of foundation for this remark, but no more than a slight degree. The arrangement of things into classes, such as the class metal , or the class man , is grounded indeed on a resemblance among the things which are placed in the same class, but not on a mere general resemblance: the resemblance it is grou nded on consists in the possession by all those things, of certain common peculiarities; and those peculiarities it is which the terms connote, and which the propositions consequently assert; not the resemblance. For though when I say, Gold is a metal, I s ay by implication that if there be any other metals it must resemble them, yet if there were no other metals I might still assert the proposition with the same meaning as at present, namely, that gold has the various properties implied in the word metal; just as it might be said, Christians are men, even if there were no men who were not Christians. Propositions, therefore, in which objects are referred to a class because they possess the attributes constituting the class, are so far from asserting nothing but resemblance, that they do not, properly speaking, assert resemblance at all. But we remarked some time ago (and the reasons of the remark will be more fully entered into in a subsequent Book P36F37 P) that there is sometimes a convenience in extending the boundaries of a class so as to include things which possess in a very inferior degree, if in any, some of the characteristic properties of the class provided they resemble that class more than any other, insomuch that the general propositions which are true of the class, will be nearer to being true of those things than any other equally general propositions. For instance, peculiarity is that to exist, is to excite, or be capable of exciting, any sensations or states of consciousness: no matter what, but it is indispensable that there should be some. It was from overlooking this that Hegel, fi nding that Being is an abstraction reached by thinking away all particular attributes, arrived at the self -contradictory proposition on which he founded all his philosophy, that Being is the same as Nothing. It is really the name of Something, taken in the most comprehensive sense of the word. 37 Book 4., chap. 7. 64 there are substances called metals which have very few of the properties by which metals are commonly recognized; and almost every great fa mily of plants or animals has a few anomalous genera or species on its borders, which are admitted into it by a sort of courtesy, and concerning which it has been matter of discussion to what family they properly belonged. Now when the class -name is predicated of any object of this description, we do, by so predicating it, affirm resemblance and nothing more. And in order to be scrupulously correct it ought to be said, that in every case in which we predicate a general name, we affirm, not absolutely that the object possesses the properties designated by the name, but that it either possesses those properties, or if it does not, at any rate resembles the things which do so, more than it resembles any other things. In most cases, however, it is unnecessary to suppose any such alternative, the latter of the two grounds being very seldom that on which the assertion is made: and when it is, there is generally some slight difference in the form of the expression, as, This species (or genus) is considered , or may be ranked, as belonging to such and such a family: we should hardly say positively that it does belong to it, unless it possessed unequivocally the properties of which the class- name is scientifically significant. There is still another exceptional case, i n which, though the predicate is the name of a class, yet in predicating it we affirm nothing but resemblance, the class being founded not on resemblance in any given particular, but on general unanalyzable resemblance. The classes in question are those into which our simple sensations, or other simple feelings, are divided. Sensations of white, for instance, are classed together, not because we can take them to pieces, and say they are alike in this, and not alike in that, but because we feel them to be alike altogether, though in different degrees. When, therefore, I say, The color I saw yesterday was a white color, or, The sensation I feel is one of tightness, in both cases the attribute I affirm of the color or of the other sensation is mere resemblance simple likeness to sensations which I have had before, and which have had those names bestowed upon them. The names of feelings, like other concrete general names, are connotative; but they connote a mere resemblance. When predicated of any individual feeling, the information they convey is that of its likeness to the other feelings which we have been accustomed to call by the same name. Thus much may suffice in illustration of the kind of propositions in which the matter-of- fact asserted (or denied) is simple Resemblance. Existence, Co -existence, Sequence, Causation, Resemblance: one or other of these is asserted (or denied) in every proposition which is not merely verbal. This five-fold division is an exhaustive classification of matters -of-fact; of all th ings that can be believed, or tendered for belief; of all questions that can be propounded, and all answers that can be returned to them. Professor Bain P37F38 P distinguishes two kinds of Propositions of Co- existence. In the one kind, account is taken of Place; they may be described as propositions of Order in Place. In the other kind, the co- existence which is predicated is termed by Mr. Bain Co -inherence of Attributes. This is a distinct variety of Propositions of Co-existence. Instead of an arrangement in place with numerical intervals, we have the concurrence of two or more attributes or powers in the same part or locality. A mass of gold contains, in every atom, the concurring attributes that mark the substanceweight, hardness, color, lustre, incorrosibility, etc. An animal, besides having parts situated in place, has co -inhering functions in the same parts, exerted by the very same masses and molecules of its substance.... The Mind, which affords no Propositions of Order in Place, has co-inhering functions. We affirm mind to contain Feeling, Will, and Thought, not in local separation, but in commingling exercise. The concurring properties of minerals, of plants, and of the bodily and the mental structure of animals, are united in affirmations of co -inherence. 38 Logic , i., 103 -105. 65 The distinction is real and important. But, as has been seen, an Attribute, when it is any thing but a simple unanalyzable Resemblance between the subject and some other things, consists in causing impressions of some sort on consciousness. Consequently, the co- inherence of two attributes is but the co -existence of the two states of consciousness implied in their meaning: with the difference, however, that this co- existence is sometimes potential only, the attribute being considered as in existence, though the fact on which it is grounded may not be actually, but only potentially present. Snow, for instance, is, with great convenience, said to be white even in a state of total darkness, because, though we are not now conscious of the color, we shall be conscious of it as soon as morning breaks. Co- inherence of attributes is therefore still a case, though a complex one, of co- existence of states of consciousness; a totally different thing, however, from Order in Place. Being a part of simultaneity, it belongs not to Place but to Time. We may therefore (and we shall sometimes find it a convenience) instead of Co -existence and Sequence, say, for greater particularity, Order in Place and Order in Time: Order in Place being a specific mode of co-existence, not necessary to be more particularly analyzed here; while the mere fact of co -existence, whether between actual sensations, or between the potentialities of causing them, known by the name of attributes, may be classed, together with Sequence, under the head of Order in Time. 7. In the foregoing inquiry into the import of propositions, we have thought it necessary to analyze directly those alone, in which the terms of the proposition (or the predicate at least) are concrete terms. But, in d oing so, we have indirectly analyzed those in which the terms are abstract. The distinction between an abstract term and its corresponding concrete, does not turn upon any difference in what they are appointed to signify; for the real signification of a concrete general name is, as we have so often said, its connotation; and what the concrete term connotes, forms the entire meaning of the abstract name. Since there is nothing in the import of an abstract name which is not in the import of the corresponding concrete, it is natural to suppose that neither can there be any thing in the import of a proposition of which the terms are abstract, but what there is in some proposition which can be framed of concrete terms. And this presumption a closer examination wi ll confirm. An abstract name is the name of an attribute, or combination of attributes. The corresponding concrete is a name given to things, because of, and in order to express, their possessing that attribute, or that combination of attributes. When, the refore, we predicate of any thing a concrete name, the attribute is what we in reality predicate of it. But it has now been shown that in all propositions of which the predicate is a concrete name, what is really predicated is one of five things: Existence, Co-existence, Causation, Sequence, or Resemblance. An attribute, therefore, is necessarily either an existence, a co -existence, a causation, a sequence, or a resemblance. When a proposition consists of a subject and predicate which are abstract terms, it consists of terms which must necessarily signify one or other of these things. When we predicate of any thing an abstract name, we affirm of the thing that it is one or other of these five things; that it is a case of Existence, or of Co- existence, or of Causation, or of Sequence, or of Resemblance. It is impossible to imagine any proposition expressed in abstract terms, which can not be transformed into a precisely equivalent proposition in which the terms are concrete; namely, either the concrete names w hich connote the attributes themselves, or the names of the fundamenta of those attributes; the facts or phenomena on which they are grounded. To illustrate the latter case, let us take this proposition, of which the subject only is an abstract name, Thoughtlessness is dangerous. Thoughtlessness is an attribute, grounded on the facts which we call thoughtless actions; and the proposition is equivalent to this, Thoughtless 66 actions are dangerous. In the next example the predicate as well as the subject are abstract names: Whiteness is a color; or The color of snow is a whiteness. These attributes being grounded on sensations, the equivalent propositions in the concrete would be, The sensation of white is one of the sensations called those of colorThe sensation of sight, caused by looking at snow, is one of the sensations called sensations of white. In these propositions, as we have before seen, the matter -of-fact asserted is a Resemblance. In the following examples, the concrete terms are those which dir ectly correspond to the abstract names; connoting the attribute which these denote. Prudence is a virtue: this may be rendered, All prudent persons, in so far as prudent, are virtuous: Courage is deserving of honor; thus, All courageous persons are deserving of honor in so far as they are courageous: which is equivalent to thisAll courageous persons deserve an addition to the honor, or a diminution of the disgrace, which would attach to them on other grounds. In order to throw still further light upon the import of propositions of which the terms are abstract, we will subject one of the examples given above to a minuter analysis. The proposition we shall select is the following: Prudence is a virtue. Let us substitute for the word virtue an equivalent but more definite expression, such as a mental quality beneficial to society, or a mental quality pleasing to God, or whatever else we adopt as the definition of virtue. What the proposition asserts is a sequence, accompanied with causation; namely, that benefit to society, or that the approval of God, is consequent on, and caused by, prudence. Here is a sequence; but between what? We understand the consequent of the sequence, but we have yet to analyze the antecedent. Prudence is an attribute; and, in connection with it, two things besides itself are to be considered; prudent persons, who are the subjects of the attribute, and prudential conduct, which may be called the foundation of it. Now is either of these the antecedent? and, first, is it meant, that the approval of God, or benefit to society, is attendant upon all prudent persons ? No; except in so far as they are prudent; for prudent persons who are scoundrels can seldom, on the whole, be beneficial to society, nor can they be acceptable to a good being. Is it upon prudential conduct , then, that divine approbation and benefit to mankind are supposed to be invariably consequent? Neither is this the assertion meant, when it is said that prudence is a virtue; except with the same reservation as before, and for the same reason, namely, that prudential conduct, although in so far as it is prudential it is beneficial to society, may yet, by reason of some other of its qualities, be productive of an injury outweighing the benefit, and deserve a displ easure exceeding the approbation which would be due to the prudence. Neither the substance, therefore (viz., the person), nor the phenomenon (the conduct), is an antecedent on which the other term of the sequence is universally consequent. But the proposition, Prudence is a virtue, is a universal proposition. What is it, then, upon which the proposition affirms the effects in question to be universally consequent? Upon that in the person, and in the conduct, which causes them to be called prudent, and which is equally in them when the action, though prudent, is wicked; namely, a correct foresight of consequences, a just estimation of their importance to the object in view, and repression of any unreflecting impulse at variance with the deliberate purpose. These, which are states of the person's mind, are the real antecedent in the sequence, the real cause in the causation, asserted by the proposition. But these are also the real ground, or foundation, of the attribute Prudence; since wherever these states of mind exist we may predicate prudence, even before we know whether any conduct has followed. And in this manner every assertion respecting an attribute, may be transformed into an assertion exactly equivalent respecting the fact or phenomenon which is the ground of the attribute. And no case can be assigned, where that which is predicated of the fact or phenomenon, does not belong to one or other of the five species formerly enumerated: it is either simple Existence, or it is some Sequence, Co -existence, Causation, or Resemblance. 67 And as these five are the only things which can be affirmed, so are they the only things which can be denied. No horses are web -footed denies that the attributes of a horse ever co -exist with web -feet. It is scarcely necessary t o apply the same analysis to Particular affirmations and negations. Some birds are web -footed, affirms that, with the attributes connoted by bird, the phenomenon web- feet is sometimes co -existent: Some birds are not web- footed, asserts that there are o ther instances in which this co -existence does not have place. Any further explanation of a thing which, if the previous exposition has been assented to, is so obvious, may here be spared. 68 VI. Of Propositions Merely Verbal 1. As a preparation for the inquiry which is the proper object of Logic, namely, in what manner propositions are to be proved, we have found it necessary to inquire what they contain which requires, or is susceptible of, proof; or (which is the same thing) what they assert. In the course of this preliminary investigation into the import of Propositions, we examined the opinion of the Conceptualists, that a proposition is the expression of a relation between two ideas; and the doctrine of the extreme Nominalists, that it is the expression of an agreement or disagreement between the meanings of two names. We decided that, as general theories, both of these are erroneous; and that, though propositions may be made both respecting names and respecting ideas, neit her the one nor the other are the subject- matter of Propositions considered generally. We then examined the different kinds of Propositions, and found that, with the exception of those which are merely verbal, they assert five different kinds of matters of fact, namely, Existence, Order in Place, Order in Time, Causation, and Resemblance; that in every proposition one of these five is either affirmed, or denied, of some fact or phenomenon, or of some object the unknown source of a fact or phenomenon. In distinguishing, however, the different kinds of matters of fact asserted in propositions, we reserved one class of propositions, which do not relate to any matter of fact, in the proper sense of the term at all, but to the meaning of names. Since names and th eir signification are entirely arbitrary, such propositions are not, strictly speaking, susceptible of truth or falsity, but only of conformity or disconformity to usage or convention; and all the proof they are capable of, is proof of usage; proof that the words have been employed by others in the acceptation in which the speaker or writer desires to use them. These propositions occupy, however, a conspicuous place in philosophy; and their nature and characteristics are of as much importance in logic, as those of any of the other classes of propositions previously adverted to. If all propositions respecting the signification of words were as simple and unimportant as those which served us for examples when examining Hobbes's theory of predication, viz., those of which the subject and predicate are proper names, and which assert only that those names have, or that they have not, been conventionally assigned to the same individual, there would be little to attract to such propositions the attention of philosophers. But the class of merely verbal propositions embraces not only much more than these, but much more than any propositions which at first sight present themselves as verbal; comprehending a kind of assertions which have been regarded not only as relating to things, but as having actually a more intimate relation with them than any other propositions whatever. The student in philosophy will perceive that I allude to the distinction on which so much stress was laid by the schoolmen, and which has been retained either under the same or under other names by most metaphysicians to the present day, viz., between what were called essential , and what were called accidental , propositions, and between essential and accidental properties or attributes. 2. Almost a ll metaphysicians prior to Locke, as well as many since his time, have made a great mystery of Essential Predication, and of predicates which are said to be of the essence of the subject. The essence of a thing, they said, was that without which the thing could neither be, nor be conceived to be. Thus, rationality was of the essence of man, because without rationality, man could not be conceived to exist. The different attributes which made up the essence of the thing were called its essential properties; and a proposition in which any of these were predicated of it was called an Essential Proposition, and was considered to go 69 deeper into the nature of the thing, and to convey more important information respecting it, than any other proposition could do. All properties, not of the essence of the thing, were called its accidents; were supposed to have nothing at all, or nothing comparatively, to do with its inmost nature; and the propositions in which any of these were predicated of it were called Accidental P ropositions. A connection may be traced between this distinction, which originated with the schoolmen, and the well-known dogmas of substanti secund or general substances, and substantial forms , doctrines which under varieties of language pervaded alike the Aristotelian and the Platonic schools, and of which more of the spirit has come down to modern times than might be conjectured from the disuse of the phraseology. The false views of the nature of classification and generalization which prevailed among the schoolmen, and of which these dogmas were the technical expression, afford the only explanation which can be given of their having misunderstood the real nature of those Essences which held so conspicuous a place in their philosophy. They said, truly, that man can not be conceived without rationality. But though man can not, a being may be conceived exactly like a man in all points except that one quality, and those others which are the conditions or consequences of it. All, therefore, which is really true in the assertion that man can not be conceived without rationality, is only, that if he had not rationality, he would not be reputed a man. There is no impossibility in conceiving the thing, nor, for aught we know, in its existing: the impossibility is in the conventions of language, which will not allow the thing, even if it exist, to be called by the name which is reserved for rational beings. Rationality, in short, is involved in the meaning of the word man: is one of the attributes connoted by the name. The essence of man, simply means the whole of the attributes connoted by the word; and any one of those attributes taken singly, is an essential property of man. But these reflections, so easy to us, would have been difficult to persons who thought, a s most of the later Aristotelians did, that objects were made what they were called, that gold (for instance) was made gold, not by the possession of certain properties to which mankind have chosen to attach that name, but by participation in the nature of a general substance, called gold in general, which substance, together with all the properties that belonged to it, inhered in every individual piece of gold. P38F39 P As they did not consider these universal substances to be attached to all general names, but o nly to some, they thought that an object borrowed only a part of its properties from a universal substance, and that the rest belonged to it individually: the former they called its essence, and the latter its accidents. The scholastic doctrine of essences long survived the theory on which it rested, that of the existence of real entities corresponding to general terms; and it was reserved for Locke, at the end of the seventeenth century, to convince philosophers that the supposed essences of classes were m erely the signification of their names; nor, among the signal services which his writings rendered to philosophy, was there one more needful or more valuable. Now, as the most familiar of the general names by which an object is designated usually connotes not one only, but several attributes of the object, each of which attributes separately forms also the bond of union of some class, and the meaning of some general name; we may predicate of a name which connotes a variety of attributes, another name which connotes only one of these attributes, or some smaller number of them than all. In such cases, the universal affirmative proposition will be true; since whatever possesses the whole of any set of attributes, must possess any part of that same set. A proposition of this sort, however, conveys no information to any one who previously understood the whole meaning of the 39 The doctrines which prevented the real meaning of Essences from being understood, had not assumed so settled a shape in the time of Aristotle and his immediate followers, as was afterward given to them by the Realists of the Middle Ages. Aristotle himself (in his Treatise on the Categories) expressly denies that the , or Substanti Secund, inhere in a subject. They are only, he says, predicated of it. 70 terms. The propositions, Every man is a corporeal being, Every man is a living creature, Every man is rational, convey no knowledge to any one who was already aware of the entire meaning of the word man, for the meaning of the word includes all this: and that every man has the attributes connoted by all these predicates, is already asserted when he is called a man. Now, of this nature are all th e propositions which have been called essential. They are, in fact, identical propositions. It is true that a proposition which predicates any attribute, even though it be one implied in the name, is in most cases understood to involve a tacit assertion that there exists a thing corresponding to the name, and possessing the attributes connoted by it; and this implied assertion may convey information, even to those who understood the meaning of the name. But all information of this sort, conveyed by all the essential propositions of which man can be made the subject, is included in the assertion, Men exist. And this assumption of real existence is, after all, the result of an imperfection of language. It arises from the ambiguity of the copula, which, in addition to its proper office of a mark to show that an assertion is made, is also, as formerly remarked, a concrete word connoting existence. The actual existence of the subject of the proposition is therefore only apparently, not really, implied in the predication, if an essential one: we may say, A ghost is a disembodied spirit, without believing in ghosts. But an accidental, or non- essential, affirmation, does imply the real existence of the subject, because in the case of a non -existent subject there is no thing for the proposition to assert. Such a proposition as, The ghost of a murdered person haunts the couch of the murderer, can only have a meaning if understood as implying a belief in ghosts; for since the signification of the word ghost implies nothing of the kind, the speaker either means nothing, or means to assert a thing which he wishes to be believed to have really taken place. It will be hereafter seen that when any important consequences seem to follow, as in mathematics, from an essential proposition, or, in other words, from a proposition involved in the meaning of a name, what they really flow from is the tacit assumption of the real existence of the objects so named. Apart from this assumption of real existence, the class of propositions in which the predicate is of the essence of the subject (that is, in which the predicate connotes the whole or part of what the subject connotes, but nothing besides) answer no purpose but that of unfolding the whole or some part of the meaning of the name, to those who did not previously know it. Accordingly, the most useful, and in strictness the only useful kind of essential propositions, are Definitions: which, to be complete, should unfold the whole of what is involved in the meaning of the word defined; that is (when it is a connotative word), the whole of what it connotes. In defining a name, however, it is not usual to specify its entire connotation, but so much only as is sufficient to mark out the objects usually denoted by it from all other known objec ts. And sometimes a merely accidental property, not involved in the meaning of the name, answers this purpose equally well. The various kinds of definition which these distinctions give rise to, and the purposes to which they are respectively subservient, will be minutely considered in the proper place. 3. According to the above view of essential propositions, no proposition can be reckoned such which relates to an individual by name, that is, in which the subject is a proper name. Individuals have no essences. When the schoolmen talked of the essence of an individual, they did not mean the properties implied in its name, for the names of individuals imply no properties. They regarded as of the essence of an individual, whatever was of the essence of the species in which they were accustomed to place that individual; i.e. , of the class to which it was most familiarly referred, and to which, therefore, they conceived that it by nature belonged. Thus, because the proposition Man is a rational being, was an essential proposition, they affirmed the same thing of the proposition, Julius Csar is a rational being. This followed very naturally if genera and species were to be considered as entities, distinct from, 71 but inhering in, the individuals composing them. If man was a substance inhering in each individual man, the essence of man (whatever that might mean) was naturally supposed to accompany it; to inhere in John Thompson, and to form the common essence of Thompson and Julius Csar. It might then be fairly said, that rationality, being of the essence of Man, was of the essence also of Thompson. But if Man altogether be only the individual men and a name bestowed upon them in consequence of certain common properties, what becomes of John Thompson's essence? A fundamental error is seldom expelled from philosophy by a single victory. It retreats slowly, defends every inch of ground, and often, after it has been driven from the open country, retains a footing in some remote fastness. The essences of individuals were an unmeaning figment arising from a misapprehension of the essences of classes, yet even Locke, when he extirpated the parent error, could not shake himself free from that which was its fruit. He distinguished two sorts of essences, Real and Nominal. His nominal essences were the essences of classes, explained nearly as we have now explained them. Nor is any thing wanting to render the third book of Locke's Essay a nearly unexceptional treatise on the connotation of names, except to free its language from the assumption of what are called Abstract Ideas, which unfortunately is involved in the phraseology, though not necessarily connected with the thoughts contained in that immortal Third Book. P39F40 P But besides nominal essences, he admitted real essences, or es sences of individual objects, which he supposed to be the causes of the sensible properties of those objects. We know not (said he) what these are (and this acknowledgment rendered the fiction comparatively innocuous); but if we did, we could, from them alone, demonstrate the sensible properties of the object, as the properties of the triangle are demonstrated from the definition of the triangle. I shall have occasion to revert to this theory in treating of Demonstration, and of the conditions under which one property of a thing admits of being demonstrated from another property. It is enough here to remark that, according to this definition, the real essence of an object has, in the progress of physics, come to be conceived as nearly equivalent, in the case of bodies, to their corpuscular structure: what it is now supposed to mean in the case of any other entities, I would not take upon myself to define. 4. An essential proposition, then, is one which is purely verbal; which asserts of a thing under a part icular name, only what is asserted of it in the fact of calling it by that name; and which, therefore, either gives no information, or gives it respecting the name, not the thing. Non-essential, or accidental propositions, on the contrary, may be called Real Propositions, in opposition to Verbal. They predicate of a thing some fact not involved in the signification of the name by which the proposition speaks of it; some attribute not connoted by that name. Such are all propositions concerning things individually designated, and all general or particular propositions in which the predicate connotes any attribute not connoted by the subject. All these, if true, add to our knowledge: they convey information, not already involved in the names employed. When I am told that all, or even that some objects, which have certain qualities, or which stand in certain relations, have also certain other qualities, or stand in certain other relations, I learn from this proposition a new fact; a fact not included in my knowledge of the meaning of the words, nor even of the existence of Things answering to 40 The al ways acute and often profound author of An Outline of Sematology (Mr. B. H. Smart) justly says, Locke will be much more intelligible, if, in the majority of places, we substitute the knowledge of for what he calls the Idea of (p. 10). Among the many criticisms on Locke's use of the word Idea, this is the one which, as it appears to me, most nearly hits the mark; and I quote it for the additional reason that it precisely expresses the point of difference respecting the import of Propositions, between my view and what I have spoken of as the Conceptualist view of them. Where a Conceptualist says that a name or a proposition expresses our Idea of a thing, I should generally say (instead of our Idea) our Knowledge, or Belief, concerning the thing itself. 72 the signification of those words. It is this class of propositions only which are in themselves instructive, or from which any instructive propositions can be inferred. P40F41 P Nothing has probably contributed more to the opinion so long prevalent of the futility of the school logic, than the circumstance that almost all the examples used in the common school books to illustrate the doctrine of predication and that of the syllogism, consist of essential propositions. They were usually taken either from the branches or from the main trunk of the Predicamental Tree, which included nothing but what was of the essence of the species: Omne corpus est substantia, Omne animal est corpus , Omnis homo est corpus , Omnis homo est animal , Omnis homo est rationalis , and so forth. It is far from wonderful that the syllogistic art should have been thought to be of no use in assisting correct reasoning, when almost the only propositions which, in the hands of its professed teachers, it was employed to prove, were such as every one assented to without proof the moment he comprehended the meaning of the words; and stood exactly on a level, in point of evidence, with the premises from which they were drawn. I have, therefore, throughout this work, avoided the employment of essential propositions as examples, except where the nature of the principle to be illustrated specifically required them. 5. With respect to propositions which do convey informationwhich assert something of a Thing, under a name that does not already presuppose what is about to be asserted; there are two different aspects in which these, or rather such of them as are general propositions, may be considered: we may either look at them as portions of speculative truth, or as memoranda for practical use. According as we consider propositions in one or the other of these lights, their import may be conveniently expressed in one or in the other of two formulas. According to the formula which we have hitherto employed, and which is best adapted to express the import of the proposition as a portion of our theoretical knowledge, All men are mortal, means that the attributes of man are always accompanied by the attribute mortality: No men are gods, means that the attributes of man are never accompanied by the attributes, or at least never by all the attributes, signified by the word god. But when the proposition is considered as a memorandum for practical use, we shall find a different mode of expressing the same meaning better adapted to indicate the office which the proposition performs. The practical use of a proposition is, to apprise or remind us what we have to expect, in any individual case which comes within the assertion contained in the proposition. In reference to this purpose, the proposition, All men are mortal, means that the attributes of man are evidence of , are a mark of, mortality; an indication by which the presence of that attribute is made manifest. No men are gods, means t hat the attributes of man are a mark or evidence that some or all of the attributes understood to belong to a god are not there; that where the former are, we need not expect to find the latter. These two forms of expression are at bottom equivalent; but the one points the attention more directly to what a proposition means, the latter to the manner in which it is to be used. Now it is to be observed that Reasoning (the subject to which we are next to proceed) is a process into which propos itions enter not as ultimate results, but as means to the establishment of other propositions. We may expect, therefore, that the mode of exhibiting the import of a general proposition which shows it in its application to practical use, will best express t he function which propositions perform in Reasoning. And accordingly, in the theory of Reasoning, the mode of viewing the subject which considers a Proposition as 41 This distinction corresponds to that which is drawn by Kant and other metaphysicians between what they term analytic and synthetic , judgments; the former being those which can be evolved from the meaning of the terms used. 73 asserting that one fact or phenomenon is a mark or evidence of another fact or phenomenon, will be found almost indispensable. For the purposes of that Theory, the best mode of defining the import of a proposition is not the mode which shows most clearly what it is in itself, but that which most distinctly suggests the manner in which it may be ma de available for advancing from it to other propositions. 74 VII. Of The Nature Of Classification, And The Five Predicables 1. In examining into the nature of general propositions, we have adverted much less than is usual with logicians to the ideas of a Class, and Classification; ideas which, since the Realist doctrine of General Substances went out of vogue, have formed the basis of almost every attempt at a philosophical theory of general terms and general propositions. We have considered general names as having a meaning, quite independently of their being the names of classes. That circumstance is in truth accidental, it being wholly immaterial to the signification of the name whether there are many objects, or only one, to which it happens to be applicable, or whether there be any at all. God is as much a general term to the Christian or Jew as to the Polytheist; and dragon, hippogriff, chimera, mermaid, ghost, are as much so as if real objects existed, corresponding to those names. Every name the signification of which is constituted by attributes, is potentially a name of an indefinite number of objects; but it needs not be actually the name of any; and if of any, it may be the name of only one. As soon as we employ a name to connote attributes, the things, be they more or fewer, which happen to possess those attributes, are constituted ipso facto a class. But in predicating the name we predicate only the attributes; and the fact of belonging to a class does not, in many cases, come into view at all. Although, however, Predication does not presuppose Classification, and though the theory of Names and of Propositions is not cleared up, but only encumbered, by intruding the idea of classification into it, there is nevertheless a c lose connection between Classification and the employment of General Names. By every general name which we introduce, we create a class, if there be any things, real or imaginary, to compose it; that is, any Things corresponding to the signification of the name. Classes, therefore, mostly owe their existence to general language. But general language, also, though that is not the most common case, sometimes owes its existence to classes. A general, which is as much as to say a significant, name, is indeed mostly introduced because we have a signification to express by it; because we need a word by means of which to predicate the attributes which it connotes. But it is also true that a name is sometimes introduced because we have found it convenient to create a class; because we have thought it useful for the regulation of our mental operations, that a certain group of objects should be thought of together. A naturalist, for purposes connected with his particular science, sees reason to distribute the animal or vegetable creation into certain groups rather than into any others, and he requires a name to bind, as it were, each of his groups together. It must not, however, be supposed that such names, when introduced, differ in any respect, as to their mode of signification, from other connotative names. The classes which they denote are, as much as any other classes, constituted by certain common attributes, and their names are significant of those attributes, and of nothing else. The names of Cuvier's classes and orders, Plantigrades , Digitigrades , etc., are as much the expression of attributes as if those names had preceded, instead of grown out of, his classification of animals. The only peculiarity of the case is, that the convenience of classification was here the primary motive for introducing the names; while in other cases the name is introduced as a means of predication, and the formation of a class denoted by it is only an indirect consequence. The principles which ought to regulate Classification, as a logical process subservient to the investigation of truth, can not be discussed to any purpose until a much later stage of our inquiry. But, of Classification as resulting from, and implied in, the fact of employing general 75 language, we can not forbear to treat here, without leaving the theory of general names, and of their employment in predication, mutilated and formless. 2. This portion of the theory of general language is the subject of what is termed the doctrine of the Predicables; a set of distinctio ns handed down from Aristotle, and his follower Porphyry, many of which have taken a firm root in scientific, and some of them even in popular, phraseology. The predicables are a fivefold division of General Names, not grounded as usual on a difference in their meaning, that is, in the attribute which they connote, but on a difference in the kind of class which they denote. We may predicate of a thing five different varieties of class -name: A genus of the thing: ( ). A species : (). A differentia : ( ). A proprium : (). An accidens : ( ). It is to be remarked of these distinctions, that they express, not what the predicate is in its own meaning, but what relation it bears to the subject of which it happens on the particular occasion to be predicated. There are not some names which are exclusively genera, and others which are exclusively species, or differenti; but the same name is referred to one or another predicable, according to the subject of which it is predicated on the particular occasion. Animal , for instance, is a genus with respect to man, or John; a species with respect to Substance, or Being. Rectangular is one of the Differenti of a geometrical square; it is merely one of the Accidentia of the table at which I am writing. The words genus, species, etc., are therefore relative terms; they are names applied to certain predicates, to express the relation between them and some given subject: a relation grounded, as we shall see, not on what the predicate connotes, but on the class which it denotes, and on the place which, in some given classification, that class occupies relatively to the particular subject. 3. Of these five names, two, Genus and Species, are not only used by naturalists in a technical acceptation not precisely agreeing with their philosophical meaning, but have also acquired a popular acceptation, much more general than either. In this popular sense any two classes, one of which includes the whole of the other and more, may be called a Genus and a Species. Such, for instance, are Animal and Man; Man and Mathematician. Animal is a Genus; Man and Brute are its two species; or we may divide it into a greater number of species, as man, horse, dog, etc. Biped , or two -footed animal , may also be considered a genus, of which man and bird are two species. Taste is a genus, of which sweet taste, sour taste, salt taste, etc., are species. Virtue is a genus; justice, prudence, courage, fortitude, generosity, etc., are its species. The same class which is a genus with reference to the sub -classes or species included in it, may be itself a species with reference to a more comprehensive, or, as it is often called, a superior genus. Man is a species with reference to animal, but a genus with reference to the species Mat hematician. Animal is a genus, divided into two species, man and brute; but animal is also a species, which, with another species, vegetable, makes up the genus, organized being. Biped is a genus with reference to man and bird, but a species with respect to the superior genus, animal. Taste is a genus divided into species, but also a species of the genus sensation. Virtue, a genus with reference to justice, temperance, etc., is one of the species of the genus, mental quality. In this popular sense the words Genus and Species have passed into common discourse. And it should be observed that in ordinary parlance, not the name of the class, but the class itself, 76 is said to be the genus or species; not, of course, the class in the sense of each individual of the class, but the individuals collectively, considered as an aggregate whole; the name by which the class is designated being then called not the genus or species, but the generic or specific name. And this is an admissible form of expression; nor is it of any importance which of the two modes of speaking we adopt, provided the rest of our language is consistent with it; but, if we call the class itself the genus, we must not talk of predicating the genus. We predicate of man the name mortal; and by predicating the name, we may be said, in an intelligible sense, to predicate what the name expresses, the attribute mortality; but in no allowable sense of the word predication do we predicate of man the class mortal. We predicate of him the fact of belonging to the class. By the Aristotelian logicians, the terms genus and species were used in a more restricted sense. They did not admit every class which could be divided into other classes to be a genus, or every class which could be included in a larger class to be a species. Animal was by them considered a genus; man and brute co-ordinate species under that genus: biped, however, would not have been admitted to be a genus with reference to man, but a proprium or accidens only. It was requisite, according to their theory, that genus and species should be of the essence of the subject. Animal was of the essence of man; biped was not. And in every classification they considered some one class as the lowest or infima species. Man, for instance, was a lowest species. Any further divisions into which the class might be capable of being broken down, as man into white, black, and red man, or into priest and layman, they did not admit to be species. It has been seen, however, in the preceding chapter, that the distinction bet ween the essence of a class, and the attributes or properties which are not of its essencea distinction which has given occasion to so much abstruse speculation, and to which so mysterious a character was formerly, and by many writers is still, attached amounts to nothing more than the difference between those attributes of the class which are, and those which are not, involved in the signification of the class -name. As applied to individuals, the word Essence, we found, has no meaning, except in connection with the exploded tenets of the Realists; and what the schoolmen chose to call the essence of an individual, was simply the essence of the class to which that individual was most familiarly referred. Is there no difference, then, save this merely verbal one, between the classes which the schoolmen admitted to be genera or species, and those to which they refused the title? Is it an error to regard some of the differences which exist among objects as differences in kind (genere or specie), and others only as differences in the accidents? Were the schoolmen right or wrong in giving to some of the classes into which things may be divided, the name of kinds , and considering others as secondary divisions, grounded on differences of a comparatively superficial n ature? Examination will show that the Aristotelians did mean something by this distinction, and something important; but which, being but indistinctly conceived, was inadequately expressed by the phraseology of essences, and the various other modes of speech to which they had recourse. 4. It is a fundamental principle in logic, that the power of framing classes is unlimited, as long as there is any (even the smallest) difference to found a distinction upon. Take any attribute whatever, and if some things have it, and others have not, we may ground on the attribute a division of all things into two classes; and we actually do so, the moment we create a name which connotes the attribute. The number of possible classes, therefore, is boundless; and there are as many actual classes (either of real or of imaginary things) as there are general names, positive and negative together. 77 But if we contemplate any one of the classes so formed, such as the class animal or plant, or the class sulphur or phosphorus, or the class white or red, and consider in what particulars the individuals included in the class differ from those which do not come within it, we find a very remarkable diversity in this respect between some classes and others. There are some classes, the thin gs contained in which differ from other things only in certain particulars which may be numbered, while others differ in more than can be numbered, more even than we need ever expect to know. Some classes have little or nothing in common to characterize them by, except precisely what is connoted by the name: white things, for example, are not distinguished by any common properties except whiteness; or if they are, it is only by such as are in some way dependent on, or connected with, whiteness. But a hundre d generations have not exhausted the common properties of animals or of plants, of sulphur or of phosphorus; nor do we suppose them to be exhaustible, but proceed to new observations and experiments, in the full confidence of discovering new properties which were by no means implied in those we previously knew. While, if any one were to propose for investigation the common properties of all things which are of the same color, the same shape, or the same specific gravity, the absurdity would be palpable. We have no ground to believe that any such common properties exist, except such as may be shown to be involved in the supposition itself, or to be derivable from it by some law of causation. It appears, therefore, that the properties, on which we ground our c lasses, sometimes exhaust all that the class has in common, or contain it all by some mode of implication; but in other instances we make a selection of a few properties from among not only a greater number, but a number inexhaustible by us, and to which as we know no bounds, they may, so far as we are concerned, be regarded as infinite. There is no impropriety in saying that, of these two classifications, the one answers to a much more radical distinction in the things themselves, than the other does. And if any one even chooses to say that the one classification is made by nature, the other by us for our convenience, he will be right; provided he means no more than this: Where a certain apparent difference between things (though perhaps in itself of little moment) answers to we know not what number of other differences, pervading not only their known properties, but properties yet undiscovered, it is not optional but imperative to recognize this difference as the foundation of a specific distinction; while, on the contrary, differences that are merely finite and determinate, like those designated by the words white, black, or red, may be disregarded if the purpose for which the classification is made does not require attention to those particular properties. The differences, however, are made by nature, in both cases; while the recognition of those differences as grounds of classification and of naming, is, equally in both cases, the act of man: only in the one case, the ends of language and of classification would be subverted if no notice were taken of the difference, while in the other case, the necessity of taking notice of it depends on the importance or unimportance of the particular qualities in which the difference happens to consist. Now, these classes, distinguished by unknown multitudes of properties, and not solely by a few determinate ones which are parted off from one another by an unfathomable chasm, instead of a mere ordinary ditch with a visible bottomare the only classes which, by the Aristotelian logicians, were considered as genera or species. Differences which extended only to a certain property or properties, and there terminated, they considered as differences only in the accidents of things; but where any class differed from other things by an infinite series of differences, known and unknown, they considered the distinction as one of kind , and spoke of it as being an essential difference, which is also one of the current meanings of that vague expression at the present day. 78 Conceiving the schoolmen to have been justified in drawing a broad line of separation between these two kinds of classes and of class -distinctions, I shall not only retain the division itself, but continue to express it in their language. According to that language, the proximate (or lowest) Kind to which any individual is referrible, is called its species. Conformably to this, Isaac Newton would be said to be of the species man. There are indeed numerous sub-classes included in the class man, to which Newton also belongs; for example, Christian, and Englishman, and Mathematician. But these, though distinct classes, are not, in our sense of the term, distinct Kinds of men. A Christian, for example, differs from other human beings; but he differs only in the attribute which the word expresses, namely, belief in Christianity, and whatever else that implies, either as involved in the fact itself, or connected with it through some law of cause and effect. We should never think of inquiring what properties, unconnected with Christianity, either as cause or effect, are common to all Christians and peculiar to them; while in regard to all Men, physiologists are perpetually carrying on such an inquiry; nor is the answer ever likely to be completed. Man, therefore, we may call a species; Christian, or Mathematician, we can not. Note here, that it is by no means intended to imply that there may not be different Kinds, or logical species, of man. The various races and temperaments, the two sexes, and even the various ages, may be differences of kind, within our meaning of the term. I do not say that they are so. For in the progress of physiology it may almost be said to be made out, that the differences which really exist between different races, sexes, etc., follow as consequences, under laws of nature, from a small number of primary differences which can be precisely determined, and which, as the phrase is, account for all the rest. If this be so, these are not distinctions in kind; no more than Christian, Jew, Mussulman, and Pagan, a difference which also carries many consequences along with it. And in this way classes are often mistaken for real Kinds, which are afterward proved not to be so. But if it turned out that the differences were not capable of being thus accounted for, then Caucasian, Mongolian, Negro, etc., would be really different Kinds of human beings, and entitled to be ranked as species by the logician; though not by the naturalist. For (as already noticed) the word species is used in a different signification in logic and in natural history. By the naturalist, organized beings are not usually said to be of different species, if it is supposed that they have descended from the same stock. That, however, is a sense artificially given to the word, for the technical purpos es of a particular science. To the logician, if a negro and a white man differ in the same manner (however less in degree) as a horse and a camel do, that is, if their differences are inexhaustible, and not referrible to any common cause, they are different species, whether they are descended from common ancestors or not. But if their differences can all be traced to climate and habits, or to some one or a few special differences in structure, they are not, in the logician's view, specifically distinct. When the infima species , or proximate Kind, to which an individual belongs, has been ascertained, the properties common to that Kind include necessarily the whole of the common properties of every other real Kind to which the individual can be referrible. Let the individual, for example, be Socrates, and the proximate Kind, man. Animal, or living creature, is also a real kind, and includes Socrates; but, since it likewise includes man, or in other words, since all men are animals, the properties common to animals form a portion of the common properties of the sub-class, man. And if there be any class which includes Socrates without including man, that class is not a real Kind. Let the class, for example, be flat-nosed; that being a class which includes Socrates , without including all men. To determine whether it is a real Kind, we must ask ourselves this question: Have all flat-nosed animals, in addition to whatever is implied in their flat noses, any common properties, other than those which are common to all a nimals whatever? If they had; if a flat nose were a mark 79 or index to an indefinite number of other peculiarities, not deducible from the former by an ascertainable law, then out of the class man we might cut another class, flat -nosed man, which, according to our definition, would be a Kind. But if we could do this, man would not be, as it was assumed to be, the proximate Kind. Therefore, the properties of the proximate Kind do comprehend those (whether known or unknown) of all other Kinds to which the individual belongs; which was the point we undertook to prove. And hence, every other Kind which is predicable of the individual, will be to the proximate Kind in the relation of a genus, according to even the popular acceptation of the terms genus and species; that is, it will be a larger class, including it and more. We are now able to fix the logical meaning of these terms. Every class which is a real Kind, that is, which is distinguished from all other classes by an indeterminate multitude of properties not derivable from one another, is either a genus or a species. A Kind which is not divisible into other Kinds, can not be a genus, because it has no species under it; but it is itself a species, both with reference to the individuals below and to the genera above (Species Prdicabilis and Species Subjicibilis). But every Kind which admits of division into real Kinds (as animal into mammal, bird, fish, etc., or bird into various species of birds) is a genus to all below it, a species to all genera in which it is itself included. And here we may close this part of the discussion, and pass to the three remaining predicables, Differentia, Proprium, and Accidens. 5. To begin with Differentia. This word is correlative with the words genus and species, and as all ad mit, it signifies the attribute which distinguishes a given species from every other species of the same genus. This is so far clear: but we may still ask, which of the distinguishing attributes it signifies. For we have seen that every Kind (and a species must be a Kind) is distinguished from other Kinds, not by any one attribute, but by an indefinite number. Man, for instance, is a species of the genus animal: Rational (or rationality, for it is of no consequence here whether we use the concrete or the abstract form) is generally assigned by logicians as the Differentia; and doubtless this attribute serves the purpose of distinction: but it has also been remarked of man, that he is a cooking animal; the only animal that dresses its food. This, therefore, is another of the attributes by which the species man is distinguished from other species of the same genus: would this attribute serve equally well for a differentia? The Aristotelians say No; having laid it down that the differentia must, like the genus and species, be of the essence of the subject. And here we lose even that vestige of a meaning grounded in the nature of the things themselves, which may be supposed to be attached to the word essence when it is said that genus and species must be of the essence of the thing. There can be no doubt that when the schoolmen talked of the essences of things as opposed to their accidents, they had confusedly in view the distinction between differences of kind, and the differences which are not of kind; they meant to intimate that genera and species must be Kinds. Their notion of the essence of a thing was a vague notion of a something which makes it what it is, i.e. , which makes it the Kind of thing that it is which causes it to have all that variety of properti es which distinguish its Kind. But when the matter came to be looked at more closely, nobody could discover what caused the thing to have all those properties, nor even that there was any thing which caused it to have them. Logicians, however, not liking to admit this, and being unable to detect what made the thing to be what it was, satisfied themselves with what made it to be what it was called. Of the innumerable properties, known and unknown, that are common to the class man, a portion only, and of course a very small portion, are connoted by its name; these few, however, will naturally have been thus distinguished from the rest either for their greater obviousness, or for greater supposed importance. These properties, then, which were connoted by the na me, logicians seized upon, and called them the essence of the species; and 80 not stopping there, they affirmed them, in the case of the infima species , to be the essence of the individual too; for it was their maxim, that the species contained the whole essence of the thing. Metaphysics, that fertile field of delusion propagated by language, does not afford a more signal instance of such delusion. On this account it was that rationality, being connoted by the name man, was allowed to be a differentia of the class; but the peculiarity of cooking their food, not being connoted, was relegated to the class of accidental properties. The distinction, therefore, between Differentia, Proprium, and Accidens, is not grounded in the nature of things, but in the connotation of names; and we must seek it there, if we wish to find what it is. From the fact that the genus includes the species, in other words de notes more than the species, or is predicable of a greater number of individuals, it follows that the specie s must connote more than the genus. It must connote all the attributes which the genus connotes, or there would be nothing to prevent it from denoting individuals not included in the genus. And it must connote something besides, otherwise it would include the whole genus. Animal denotes all the individuals denoted by man, and many more. Man, therefore, must connote all that animal connotes, otherwise there might be men who are not animals; and it must connote something more than animal connotes, otherwise all animals would be men. This surplus of connotationthis which the species connotes over and above the connotation of the genusis the Differentia, or specific difference; or, to state the same proposition in other words, the Differentia is that which mus t be added to the connotation of the genus, to complete the connotation of the species. The word man, for instance, exclusively of what it connotes in common with animal, also connotes rationality, and at least some approximation to that external form whic h we all know, but which as we have no name for it considered in itself, we are content to call the human. The Differentia, or specific difference, therefore, of man, as referred to the genus animal, is that outward form and the possession of reason. The A ristotelians said, the possession of reason, without the outward form. But if they adhered to this, they would have been obliged to call the Houyhnhnms men. The question never arose, and they were never called upon to decide how such a case would have affe cted their notion of essentiality. However this may be, they were satisfied with taking such a portion of the differentia as sufficed to distinguish the species from all other existing things, though by so doing they might not exhaust the connotation of the name. 6. And here, to prevent the notion of differentia from being restricted within too narrow limits, it is necessary to remark, that a species, even as referred to the same genus, will not always have the same differentia, but a different one, accor ding to the principle and purpose which preside over the particular classification. For example, a naturalist surveys the various kinds of animals, and looks out for the classification of them most in accordance with the order in which, for zoological purposes, he considers it desirable that we should think of them. With this view he finds it advisable that one of his fundamental divisions should be into warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals; or into animals which breathe with lungs and those which breathe with gills; or into carnivorous, and frugivorous or graminivorous; or into those which walk on the flat part and those which walk on the extremity of the foot, a distinction on which two of Cuvier's families are founded. In doing this, the naturalist creat es as many new classes; which are by no means those to which the individual animal is familiarly and spontaneously referred; nor should we ever think of assigning to them so prominent a position in our arrangement of the animal kingdom, unless for a precon ceived purpose of scientific convenience. And to the liberty of doing this there is no limit. In the examples we have given, most of the classes are real Kinds, since each of the peculiarities is 81 an index to a multitude of properties belonging to the class which it characterizes: but even if the case were otherwise if the other properties of those classes could all be derived, by any process known to us, from the one peculiarity on which the class is foundedeven then, if these derivative properties were of primary importance for the purposes of the naturalist, he would be warranted in founding his primary divisions on them. If, however, practical convenience is a sufficient warrant for making the main demarcations in our arrangement of objects run in lines not coinciding with any distinction of Kind, and so creating genera and species in the popular sense which are not genera or species in the rigorous sense at all; fortiori must we be warranted, when our genera and species are real genera and species, in marking the distinction between them by those of their properties which considerations of practical convenience most strongly recommend. If we cut a species out of a given genusthe species man, for instance, out of the genus animalwith an intention on our part that the peculiarity by which we are to be guided in the application of the name man should be rationality, then rationality is the differentia of the species man. Suppose, however, that being naturalists, we, for the purposes of our particular study, cut out of the genus animal the same species man, but with an intention that the distinction between man and all other species of animal should be, not rationality, but the possession of four incisors in each jaw, tusks solitary, and erect posture. It is evident that the word man, when used by us as naturalists, no longer connotes rationality, but connotes the three other properties specified; for that which we have expressly in view when we impose a name, assuredly forms part of the meaning of that na me. We may, therefore, lay it down as a maxim, that wherever there is a Genus, and a Species marked out from that genus by an assignable differentia, the name of the species must be connotative, and must connote the differentia; but the connotation may be special not involved in the signification of the term as ordinarily used, but given to it when employed as a term of art or science. The word Man in common use, connotes rationality and a certain form, but does not connote the number or character of the teeth; in the Linnan system it connotes the number of incisor and canine teeth, but does not connote rationality nor any particular form. The word man has, therefore, two different meanings; though not commonly considered as ambiguous, because it happens in both cases to denote the same individual objects. But a case is conceivable in which the ambiguity would become evident: we have only to imagine that some new kind of animal were discovered, having Linnus's three characteristics of humanity, but not rational, or not of the human form. In ordinary parlance, these animals would not be called men; but in natural history they must still be called so by those, if any there should be, who adhere to the Linnan classification; and the question would arise, whether the word should continue to be used in two senses, or the classification be given up, and the technical sense of the term be abandoned along with it. Words not otherwise connotative may, in the mode just adverted to, acquire a special or technical conno tation. Thus the word whiteness, as we have so often remarked, connotes nothing; it merely denotes the attribute corresponding to a certain sensation: but if we are making a classification of colors, and desire to justify, or even merely to point out, the particular place assigned to whiteness in our arrangement, we may define it the color produced by the mixture of all the simple rays; and this fact, though by no means implied in the meaning of the word whiteness as ordinarily used, but only known by subsequent 82 scientific investigation, is part of its meaning in the particular essay or treatise, and becomes the differentia of the species. P41F42 P The differentia, therefore, of a species may be defined to be, that part of the connotation of the specific name, w hether ordinary or special and technical, which distinguishes the species in question from all other species of the genus to which on the particular occasion we are referring it. 7. Having disposed of Genus, Species, and Differentia, we shall not find much difficulty in attaining a clear conception of the distinction between the other two predicables, as well as between them and the first three. In the Aristotelian phraseology, Genus and Differentia are of the essence of the subject; by which, as we have seen, is really meant that the properties signified by the genus and those signified by the differentia, form part of the connotation of the name denoting the species. Proprium and Accidens, on the other hand, form no part of the essence, but are predicated of the species only accidentally . Both are Accidents, in the wider sense in which the accidents of a thing are opposed to its essence; though, in the doctrine of the Predicables, Accidens is used for one sort of accident only, Proprium being another sort. Proprium, continue the schoolmen, is predicated accidentally , indeed, but necessarily; or, as they further explain it, signifies an attribute which is not indeed part of the essence, but which flows from, or is a consequence of, the essence, and is, ther efore, inseparably attached to the species; e.g., the various properties of a triangle, which, though no part of its definition, must necessarily be possessed by whatever comes under that definition. Accidens, on the contrary, has no connection whatever with the essence, but may come and go, and the species still remain what it was before. If a species could exist without its Propria, it must be capable of existing without that on which its Propria are necessarily consequent, and therefore without its essen ce, without that which constitutes it a species. But an Accidens, whether separable or inseparable from the species in actual experience, may be supposed separated, without the necessity of supposing any other alteration; or at least, without supposing any of the essential properties of the species to be altered, since with them an Accidens has no connection. A Proprium, therefore, of the species, may be defined, any attribute which belongs to all the individuals included in the species, and which, though not connoted by the specific name (either ordinarily if the classification we are considering be for ordinary purposes, or specially if it be for a special purpose), yet follows from some attribute which the name either ordinarily or specially connotes. One attribute may follow from another in two ways; and there are consequently two kinds of Proprium. It may follow as a conclusion follows premises, or it may follow as an effect follows a cause. Thus, the attribute of having the opposite sides equal, which is not one of those connoted by the word Parallelogram, nevertheless follows from those connoted by it, namely, from having the opposite sides straight lines and parallel, and the number of sides four. The attribute, therefore, of having the opposite sides equal, is a Proprium of the class parallelogram; and a Proprium of the first kind, which follows from the connoted attributes by way of demonstration. The attribute of being capable of understanding language, is a Proprium of the species man, since without being connoted by the word, it follows from an attribute which the word does connote, viz., from the attribute of rationality. But this is a Proprium of the second kind, which follows by way of causation. How it is that one property 42 If we allow a differentia to what is not really a species. For the distinction of Kinds, in the sense explained by us, not being in any way applicable to attributes, it of course follows that although attributes may be put into classes, those classes can be admitted to be genera or sp ecies only by courtesy. 83 of a thing follows, or can be inferred, from another; under what conditions this is possible, and what is the exact meaning of the phrase; are among the questions which will occupy us in the two succeeding Books. At present it needs only be said, that whether a Proprium follows by demonstration or by causation, it follows necessarily; that is to say, its not following would be inconsistent with some law which we regard as a part of the constitution either of our thinking faculty or of the universe. 8. Under the remaining predi cable, Accidens, are included all attributes of a thing which are neither involved in the signification of the name (whether ordinarily or as a term of art), nor have, so far as we know, any necessary connection with attributes which are so involved. They are commonly divided into Separable and Inseparable Accidents. Inseparable accidents are those which although we know of no connection between them and the attributes constitutive of the species, and although, therefore, so far as we are aware, they might be absent without making the name inapplicable and the species a different speciesare yet never in fact known to be absent. A concise mode of expressing the same meaning is, that inseparable accidents are properties which are universal to the species, but not necessary to it. Thus, blackness is an attribute of a crow, and, as far as we know, a universal one. But if we were to discover a race of white birds, in other respects resembling crows, we should not say, These are not crows; we should say, These are white crows. Crow, therefore, does not connote blackness; nor, from any of the attributes which it does connote, whether as a word in popular use or as a term of art, could blackness be inferred. Not only, therefore, can we conceive a white crow, but we k now of no reason why such an animal should not exist. Since, however, none but black crows are known to exist, blackness, in the present state of our knowledge, ranks as an accident, but an inseparable accident, of the species crow. Separable Accidents are those which are found, in point of fact, to be sometimes absent from the species; which are not only not necessary, but not even universal. They are such as do not belong to every individual of the species, but only to some individuals; or if to all, not at all times. Thus the color of a European is one of the separable accidents of the species man, because it is not an attribute of all human creatures. Being born, is also (speaking in the logical sense) a separable accident of the species man, because, th ough an attribute of all human beings, it is so only at one particular time. A fortiori those attributes which are not constant even in the same individual, as, to be in one or in another place, to be hot or cold, sitting or walking, must be ranked as sepa rable accidents. 84 VIII. Of Definition 1. One necessary part of the theory of Names and of Propositions remains to be treated of in this place: the theory of Definitions. As being the most important of the class of propositions which we have characterized as purely verbal, they have already received some notice in the chapter preceding the last. But their fuller treatment was at that time postponed, because definition is so closely connected with classification, that, until the nature of the latter process is in some measure understood, the former can not be discussed to much purpose. The simplest and most correct notion of a Definition is, a proposition declaratory of the meaning of a word; namely, either the meaning which it bears in common acceptation, or that which the speaker or writer, for the particular purposes of his discourse, intends to annex to it. The definition of a word being the proposition which enunciates its meaning, words which have no meaning are unsusceptible of definition. Proper names, therefore, can not be defined. A proper name being a mere mark put upon an individual, and of which it is the characteristic property to be destitute of meaning, its meaning can not of course be declared; though we may indicate by language, as we might indicate still more conveniently by pointing with the finger, upon what individual that particular mark has been, or is intended to be, put. It is no definition of John Thomson to say he is the son of General Thomson; for the name John Thomson does not express this. Neither is it any definition of John Thomson to say he is the man now crossing the street. These propositions may serve to make known who is the particular man to whom the name belongs, but that may be done still more unambiguously by pointing to him, which, however, has not been esteemed one of the modes of definition. In the case of connotative names, the meaning, as has been so often observed, is the connotation; and the definition of a connotative name, is the proposition which declares its connotation. This might be done either directly or indirectly. The direct mode would be by a proposition in this form: Man (or whatsoever the word may be) is a name connoting such and such attributes, or is a name which, when predicated of any thing, signifies the possession of such and such attributes by that thing. Or thus: Man is every thing which possesses such and such attributes: Man is every thing which possesses corporeity, organization, life, rationality, and certain peculiarities of external form. This form of definition is the most precise and least equivocal of any; but it is not brief enough, and is besides too technical for common discourse. The more usual mode of declaring the connotation of a name, is to predicate of it another name or names of known signification, which connote the same aggregation of attributes. This may be done either by predicating of the name intended to be defined, another connotative name exactly synonymous, as, Man i s a human being, which is not commonly accounted a definition at all; or by predicating two or more connotative names, which make up among them the whole connotation of the name to be defined. In this last case, again, we may either compose our definition of as many connotative names as there are attributes, each attribute being connoted by one, as, Man is a corporeal, organized, animated, rational being, shaped so and so; or we employ names which connote several of the attributes at once, as, Man is a rat ional animal , shaped so and so. The definition of a name, according to this view of it, is the sum total of all the essential propositions which can be framed with that name for their subject. All 85 propositions the truth of which is implied in the name, all those which we are made aware of by merely hearing the name, are included in the definition, if complete, and may be evolved from it without the aid of any other premises; whether the definition expresses them in two or three words, or in a larger number. It is, therefore, not without reason that Condillac and other writers have affirmed a definition to be an analysis . To resolve any complex whole into the elements of which it is compounded, is the meaning of analysis: and this we do when we replace one wo rd which connotes a set of attributes collectively, by two or more which connote the same attributes singly, or in smaller groups. 2. From this, however, the question naturally arises, in what manner are we to define a name which connotes only a single a ttribute: for instance, white, which connotes nothing but whiteness; rational, which connotes nothing but the possession of reason. It might seem that the meaning of such names could only be declared in two ways; by a synonymous term, if any such can be found; or in the direct way already alluded to: White is a name connoting the attribute whiteness. Let us see, however, whether the analysis of the meaning of the name, that is, the breaking down of that meaning into several parts, admits of being carr ied farther. Without at present deciding this question as to the word white , it is obvious that in the case of rational some further explanation may be given of its meaning than is contained in the proposition, Rational is that which possesses the attribu te of reason; since the attribute reason itself admits of being defined. And here we must turn our attention to the definitions of attributes, or rather of the names of attributes, that is, of abstract names. In regard to such names of attributes as are connotative, and express attributes of those attributes, there is no difficulty: like other connotative names, they are defined by declaring their connotation. Thus the word fault may be defined, a quality productive of evil or inconvenience. Sometimes, a gain, the attribute to be defined is not one attribute, but a union of several: we have only, therefore, to put together the names of all the attributes taken separately, and we obtain the definition of the name which belongs to them all taken together; a definition which will correspond exactly to that of the corresponding concrete name. For, as we define a concrete name by enumerating the attributes which it connotes, and as the attributes connoted by a concrete name form the entire signification of the corresponding abstract name, the same enumeration will serve for the definition of both. Thus, if the definition of a human being be this, a being, corporeal, animated, rational, shaped so and so, the definition of humanity will be corporeity and animal life, combined with rationality, and with such and such a shape. When, on the other hand, the abstract name does not express a complication of attributes, but a single attribute, we must remember that every attribute is grounded on some fact or phenomenon, from which, and which alone, it derives its meaning. To that fac t or phenomenon, called in a former chapter the foundation of the attribute, we must, therefore, have recourse for its definition. Now, the foundation of the attribute may be a phenomenon of any degree of complexity, consisting of many different parts, eit her co -existent or in succession. To obtain a definition of the attribute, we must analyze the phenomenon into these parts. Eloquence, for example, is the name of one attribute only; but this attribute is grounded on external effects of a complicated nature, flowing from acts of the person to whom we ascribe the attribute; and by resolving this phenomenon of causation into its two parts, the cause and the effect, we obtain a definition of eloquence, viz. the power of influencing the feelings by speech or wr iting. A name, therefore, whether concrete or abstract, admits of definition, provided we are able to analyze, that is, to distinguish into parts, the attribute or set of attributes which constitute the meaning both of the concrete name and of the corresponding abstract: if a set of attributes, by 86 enumerating them; if a single attribute, by dissecting the fact or phenomenon (whether of perception or of internal consciousness) which is the foundation of the attribute. But, further, even when the fact is one of our simple feelings or states of consciousness, and therefore unsusceptible of analysis, the names both of the object and of the attribute still admit of definition; or rather, would do so if all our simple feelings had names. Whiteness may be defined, the property or power of exciting the sensation of white. A white object may be defined, an object which excites the sensation of white. The only names which are unsusceptible of definition, because their meaning is unsusceptible of analysis, are the names of the simple feelings themselves. These are in the same condition as proper names. They are not indeed, like proper names, unmeaning; for the words sensation of white signify, that the sensation which I so denominate resembles other sensations which I remember to have had before, and to have called by that name. But as we have no words by which to recall those former sensations, except the very word which we seek to define, or some other which, being exactly synonymous with it, requires definition as much, words can not unfold the signification of this class of names; and we are obliged to make a direct appeal to the personal experience of the individual whom we address. 3. Having stated what seems to be the true idea of a Definition, I proceed to examine some opinions of philosophers, and some popular conceptions on the subject, which conflict more or less with that idea. The only adequate definition of a name is, as already remarked, one which declares the facts, and the whole of the facts, which the na me involves in its signification. But with most persons the object of a definition does not embrace so much; they look for nothing more, in a definition, than a guide to the correct use of the terma protection against applying it in a manner inconsistent with custom and convention. Any thing, therefore, is to them a sufficient definition of a term, which will serve as a correct index to what the term de notes; though not embracing the whole, and sometimes, perhaps, not even any part, of what it connotes. This gives rise to two sorts of imperfect, or unscientific definition; Essential but incomplete Definitions, and Accidental Definitions, or Descriptions. In the former, a connotative name is defined by a part only of its connotation; in the latter, by something which forms no part of the connotation at all. An example of the first kind of imperfect definitions is the following: Man is a rational animal. It is impossible to consider this as a complete definition of the word Man, since (as before remarked) if w e adhered to it we should be obliged to call the Houyhnhnms men; but as there happen to be no Houyhnhnms, this imperfect definition is sufficient to mark out and distinguish from all other things, the objects at present denoted by man; all the beings actually known to exist, of whom the name is predicable. Though the word is defined by some only among the attributes which it connotes, not by all, it happens that all known objects which possess the enumerated attributes, possess also those which are omitted; so that the field of predication which the word covers, and the employment of it which is conformable to usage, are as well indicated by the inadequate definition as by an adequate one. Such definitions, however, are always liable to be overthrown by the discovery of new objects in nature. Definitions of this kind are what logicians have had in view, when they laid down the rule, that the definition of a species should be per genus et differentiam . Differentia being seldom taken to mean the whole of the peculiarities constitutive of the species, but some one of those peculiarities only, a complete definition would be per genus et differentias , rather than differentiam . It would include, with the name of the superior genus, not merely some attribute which distinguishes the species intended to be defined from all other 87 species of the same genus, but all the attributes implied in the name of the species, which the name of the superior genus has not already implied. The assertion, however, that a definition must of necessity consist of a genus and differenti, is not tenable. It was early remarked by logicians, that the summum genus in any classification, having no genus superior to itself, could not be defined in this manner. Yet we have seen that all names, except those of our elementary feelings, are susceptible of definition in the strictest sense; by setting forth in words the constituent parts of the fact or phenomenon, of which the connotation of every word is ultimately composed. 4. Although the first kind of imperfect definition (which defines a connotative term by a part only of what it connotes, but a part sufficient to mark out correctly the boundaries of its denotation), has been considered by the ancients, and by logicians in general, as a complet e definition; it has always been deemed necessary that the attributes employed should really form part of the connotation; for the rule was that the definition must be drawn from the essence of the class; and this would not have been the case if it had been in any degree made up of attributes not connoted by the name. The second kind of imperfect definition, therefore, in which the name of a class is defined by any of its accidents that is, by attributes which are not included in its connotationhas been rejected from the rank of genuine Definition by all logicians, and has been termed Description. This kind of imperfect definition, however, takes its rise from the same cause as the other, namely, the willingness to accept as a definition any thing which, whether it expounds the meaning of the name or not, enables us to discriminate the things denoted by the name from all other things, and consequently to employ the term in predication without deviating from established usage. This purpose is duly answered by stating any (no matter what) of the attributes which are common to the whole of the class, and peculiar to it; or any combination of attributes which happens to be peculiar to it, though separately each of those attributes may be common to it with some other things. It is only necessary that the definition (or description) thus formed, should be convertible with the name which it professes to define; that is, should be exactly co-extensive with it, being predicable of every thing of which it is predicable, and of nothing of which it is not predicable; though the attributes specified may have no connection with those which mankind had in view when they formed or recognized the class, and gave it a name. The following are correct definitions of Man, according to this test: Man is a mammiferous animal, having (by nature) two hands (for the human species answers to this description, and no other animal does): Man is an animal who cooks his food: Man is a featherless biped. What would otherwise be a mere description, may be raised to the rank of a real definition by the peculiar purpose which the speaker or writer has in view. As was seen in the preceding chapter, it may, for the ends of a particular art or science, or for the more convenient statement of an author's particular doctrines, be advisable to give to some general name, without altering its denotation, a special connotation, different from its ordinary one. When this is done, a definition of the name by means of the attributes which make up the special connotation, though in general a mere accidental definition or description, becomes on the particular occasion and for the particular purpose a complete and genuine definition. This actually occurs with respect to one of the preceding examples, Man is a mammiferous animal having two hands, which is the scientific definition of man, considered as one of the species in Cuvier's distribution of the animal kingdom. In cases of this sort, though the definition is still a declaration of the meaning which in the particular instance the name is appointed to convey, it can not be said that to state the meaning of the word is the purpose of the definition. The purpose is not to expound a name, 88 but a classification. The special meaning which Cuvier assigned to the word Man (quite foreign to its ordinary meaning, though involving no change in the denotation of the word), was incidental to a plan of arranging animals into classes on a certain principle, that is, according to a certain set of distinctions. And since the definition of Man according to the ordinary connotation of the word, though it would have answered every other purpose of a definition, would not have pointed out the place which the species ought to occupy in that particular classification; he gav e the word a special connotation, that he might be able to define it by the kind of attributes on which, for reasons of scientific convenience, he had resolved to found his division of animated nature. Scientific definitions, whether they are definitions of scientific terms, or of common terms used in a scientific sense, are almost always of the kind last spoken of: their main purpose is to serve as the landmarks of scientific classification. And since the classifications in any science are continually modi fied as scientific knowledge advances, the definitions in the sciences are also constantly varying. A striking instance is afforded by the words Acid and Alkali, especially the former. As experimental discovery advanced, the substances classed with acids h ave been constantly multiplying, and by a natural consequence the attributes connoted by the word have receded and become fewer. At first it connoted the attributes, of combining with an alkali to form a neutral substance (called a salt); being compounded of a base and oxygen; causticity to the taste and touch; fluidity, etc. The true analysis of muriatic acid, into chlorine and hydrogen, caused the second property, composition from a base and oxygen, to be excluded from the connotation. The same discovery fixed the attention of chemists upon hydrogen as an important element in acids; and more recent discoveries having led to the recognition of its presence in sulphuric, nitric, and many other acids, where its existence was not previously suspected, there is now a tendency to include the presence of this element in the connotation of the word. But carbonic acid, silica, sulphurous acid, have no hydrogen in their composition; that property can not, therefore, be connoted by the term, unless those substances are no longer to be considered acids. Causticity and fluidity have long since been excluded from the characteristics of the class, by the inclusion of silica and many other substances in it; and the formation of neutral bodies by combination with alkalis, together with such electro -chemical peculiarities as this is supposed to imply, are now the only differenti which form the fixed connotation of the word Acid, as a term of chemical science. What is true of the definition of any term of science, is of course true of the definition of a science itself; and accordingly (as observed in the Introductory Chapter of this work), the definition of a science must necessarily be progressive and provisional. Any extension of knowledge or alteration in the current opinions respecting the subject- matter, may lead to a change more or less extensive in the particulars included in the science; and its composition being thus altered, it may easily happen that a different set of characteristics will be found better adapted as d ifferenti for defining its name. In the same manner in which a special or technical definition has for its object to expound the artificial classification out of which it grows; the Aristotelian logicians seem to have imagined that it was also the busines s of ordinary definition to expound the ordinary, and what they deemed the natural, classification of things, namely, the division of them into Kinds; and to show the place which each Kind occupies, as superior, collateral, or subordinate, among other Kinds. This notion would account for the rule that all definition must necessarily be per genus et differentiam , and would also explain why a single differentia was deemed sufficient. But to expound, or express in words, a distinction of Kind, has already been shown to be an impossibility: the very meaning of a Kind is, that the properties which distinguish it do not grow out of one another, and can not therefore be set forth in 89 words, even by implication, otherwise than by enumerating them all: and all are not known, nor are ever likely to be so. It is idle, therefore, to look to this as one of the purposes of a definition: while, if it be only required that the definition of a Kind should indicate what kinds include it or are included by it, any definitions which expound the connotation of the names will do this: for the name of each class must necessarily connote enough of its properties to fix the boundaries of the class. If the definition, therefore, be a full statement of the connotation, it is all that a d efinition can be required to be. P42F43 P 5. Of the two incomplete and popular modes of definition, and in what they differ from the complete or philosophical mode, enough has now been said. We shall next examine an ancient doctrine, once generally prevalent and still by no means exploded, which I regard as the source of a great part of the obscurity hanging over some of the most important processes of the understanding in the pursuit of truth. According to this, the definitions of which we have now treated are only one of two sorts into which definitions may be divided, viz., definitions of names, and definitions of things. The former are intended to explain the meaning of a term; the latter, the nature of a thing; the last being incomparably the most important. This opinion was held by the ancient philosophers, and by their followers, with the exception of the Nominalists; but as the spirit of modern metaphysics, until a recent period, has been on the whole a Nominalist spirit, the notion of definitions of things has been to a certain extent in abeyance, still continuing, however, to breed confusion in logic, by its consequences indeed rather than by itself. Yet the doctrine in its own proper form now and then breaks out, 43 Professor Bain, in his Logic, takes a peculiar view of Definition. He holds (i., 71) with the present work, that the definition in its full import, is the sum of all the properties connoted by the name; it exhausts the meaning of a word. But he regards the meaning of a general name as including, not indeed all the common properties of the class named, but all of them that are ultimate properties, not resolvable into one another. The enumeration of the attributes of oxygen, of gold, of man, should be an enumeration of the final (so far as can be made out), the underivable, powers or functions of each, and nothing less than this is a complete Definition (i., 75). An independent property, not derivable from other properties, even if previously unknown, yet as soon as discovered becomes, according to him, part of the meaning of the term, and should be included in the definition. When we are told that diamond, which we know to be a transparent, glittering, hard, and high- priced substance, is composed of carbon, and is combustible, we must put these additional properties on the same level as the rest; to us they are henceforth connoted by the name (i., 73). Consequently the propositions that diamond is composed of carbon, and that it is combustible, are regarded by Mr. Bain as merely verbal propositions. He carries this doctrine so far as to say that unless mortality can be shown to be a consequence of the ultimate laws of animal organization, mortality is connoted by man, an d Man is Mortal is a merely verbal proposition. And one of the peculiarities (I think a disadvantageous peculiarity) of his able and valuable treatise, is the large number of propositions requiring proof, and learned by experience, which, in conformity with this doctrine, he considers as not real, but verbal, propositions. The objection I have to this language is that it confounds, or at least confuses, a much more important distinction than that which it draws. The only reason for dividing Propositions into real and verbal, is in order to discriminate propositions which convey information about facts, from those which do not. A proposition which affirms that an object has a given attribute, while designating the object by a name which already signifies the attribute, adds no information to that which was already possessed by all who understood the name. But when this is said, it is implied that, by the signification of a name, is meant the signification attached to it in the common usage of life. I can not think we ought to say that the meaning of a word includes matters of fact which are unknown to every person who uses the word unless he has learned them by special study of a particular department of Nature; or that because a few persons are aware of thes e matters of fact, the affirmation of them is a proposition conveying no information. I hold that (special scientific connotation apart) a name means, or connotes, only the properties which it is a mark of in the general mind; and that in the case of any a dditional properties, however uniformly found to accompany these, it remains possible that a thing which did not possess the properties might still be thought entitled to the name. Ruminant, according to Mr. Bain's use of language, connotes cloven- hoofed, since the two properties are always found together, and no connection has ever been discovered between them: but ruminant does not mean cloven- hoofed; and were an animal to be discovered which chews the cud, but has its feet undivided, I venture to say tha t it would still be called ruminant. 90 and has appeared (among other places) where it was scarcely to be expected, in a justly admired word, Archbishop Whately's Logic . P43F44 P In a review of that work published by me in the Westminster Review for January, 1828, and containing some opinions which I no longer entertain, I find the following observations on the question now before us; observations with which my present view of that question is still sufficiently in accordance. The distinction between nominal and real definitions, between definitions of words and what are called definitions o f things, though conformable to the ideas of most of the Aristotelian logicians, can not, as it appears to us, be maintained. We apprehend that no definition is ever intended to explain and unfold the nature of a thing. It is some confirmation of our opinion, that none of those writers who have thought that there were definitions of things, have ever succeeded in discovering any criterion by which the definition of a thing can be distinguished from any other proposition relating to the thing. The definition, they say, unfolds the nature of the thing: but no definition can unfold its whole nature; and every proposition in which any quality whatever is predicated of the thing, unfolds some part of its nature. The true state of the case we take to be this. Al l definitions are of names, and of names only; but, in some definitions, it is clearly apparent, that nothing is intended except to explain the meaning of the word; while in others, besides explaining the meaning of the word, it is intended to be implied that there exists a thing, corresponding to the word. Whether this be or be not implied in any given case, can not be collected from the mere form of the expression. A centaur is an animal with the upper parts of a man and the lower parts of a horse, and A triangle is a rectilineal figure with three sides, are, in form, expressions precisely similar; although in the former it is not implied that any thing, conformable to the term, really exists, while in the latter it is; as may be seen by substituting in both definitions, the word means for is . In the first expression, A centaur means an animal, etc., the sense would remain unchanged: in the second, A triangle means, etc., the meaning would be altered, since it would be obviously impossible to deduce any of the truths of geometry from a proposition expressive only of the manner in which we intend to employ a particular sign. There are, therefore, expressions, commonly passing for definitions, which include in themselves more than the mere explanation of the meaning of a term. But it is not correct to call an expression of this sort a peculiar kind of definition. Its difference from the other kind consists in this, that it is not a definition, but a definition and something more. The definition above given of a triangle, obviously comprises not one, but two propositions, perfectly 44 In the fuller discussion which Archbishop Whately has given to this subject in his later editions, he almost ceases to regard the definitions of names and those of things as, in any important sense, distinct. He seems (9th ed., p. 145) to limit the notion of a Real Definition to one which explains any thing more of the nature of the thing than is implied in the name; (including under the word implied, not only what the name connotes, but every thing which can be deduced by reasoning from the attributes connoted). Even this, as he adds, is usually called not a Definition, but a Description; and (as it seems to me) rightly so called. A Description, I conceive, can only be ranked among Definitions, when taken (as in the case of the zoological definition of man) to fulfill the true office of a Definition, by declaring the connotation given to a word in some special use, as a term of science or art: which special connotation of course would not be expressed by the proper definition of the word in its ordinary employment. Mr. De Morgan, exactly reversing the doctrine of Archbishop Whately, understands by a Real Definition one which contains less than the Nominal Definition, provided only that what it contains is sufficient for distinction. By real definition I mean such an explanation of the word, be it the whole of the meaning or only part, as will be sufficient to separate the things contained under that word from all others. Thus the following, I believe, is a complete definition of an elephant: An animal which naturally drinks by drawing the water into its nose, and then spurting it into its mouth. Formal Logic , p. 36. Mr. De Morgan's general proposition and his example are at variance; for the peculiar mode of drinking of the elephant certainly forms no part of the meaning of the word elephant. It could not be said, because a person happened to be ignorant of this property, that he did not know what an elephant means. 91 distinguishable. The one is, There may exist a figure, bounded by three straight lines; the other, And this figure may be termed a triangle. The former of these propositions is not a definition at all: the latter is a mere nominal definition, or explanation of the use and application of a term. The first is susceptible of truth or falsehood, and may therefore be made the foundation of a train of reasoning. The latter can neither be true nor false; the only character it is susceptible of is that of conformity or disconformity to the ordinary usage of language. There is a real distinction, then, between definitions of names, and what are erroneously called definitions of thin gs; but it is, that the latter, along with the meaning of a name, covertly asserts a matter of fact. This covert assertion is not a definition, but a postulate. The definition is a mere identical proposition, which gives information only about the use of language, and from which no conclusions affecting matters of fact can possibly be drawn. The accompanying postulate, on the other hand, affirms a fact, which may lead to consequences of every degree of importance. It affirms the actual or possible existence of Things possessing the combination of attributes set forth in the definition; and this, if true, may be foundation sufficient on which to build a whole fabric of scientific truth. We have already made, and shall often have to repeat, the remark, that th e philosophers who overthrew Realism by no means got rid of the consequences of Realism, but retained long afterward, in their own philosophy, numerous propositions which could only have a rational meaning as part of a Realistic system. It had been handed down from Aristotle, and probably from earlier times, as an obvious truth, that the science of Geometry is deduced from definitions. This, so long as a definition was considered to be a proposition unfolding the nature of the thing, did well enough. But Hobbes followed, and rejected utterly the notion that a definition declares the nature of the thing, or does any thing but state the meaning of a name; yet he continued to affirm as broadly as any of his predecessors, that the , principia, or original premises of mathematics, and even of all science, are definitions; producing the singular paradox, that systems of scientific truth, nay, all truths whatever at which we arrive by reasoning, are deduced from the arbitrary conventions of mankind concerning the signification of words. To save the credit of the doctrine that definitions are the premises of scientific knowledge, the proviso is sometimes added, that they are so only under a certain condition, namely, that they be framed conformably to the phenomena of nature; that is, that they ascribe such meanings to terms as shall suit objects actually existing. But this is only an instance of the attempt so often made, to escape from the necessity of abandoning old language after the ideas which it expresses have been exchanged for contrary ones. From the meaning of a name (we are told) it is possible to infer physical facts, provided the name has corresponding to it an existing thing. But if this proviso be necessary, from which of the two is the inference r eally drawn? From the existence of a thing having the properties, or from the existence of a name meaning them? Take, for instance, any of the definitions laid down as premises in Euclid's Elements; the definition, let us say, of a circle. This, being analyzed, consists of two propositions; the one an assumption with respect to a matter of fact, the other a genuine definition. A figure may exist, having all the points in the line which bounds it equally distant from a single point within it: Any figure p ossessing this property is called a circle. Let us look at one of the demonstrations which are said to depend on this definition, and observe to which of the two propositions contained in it the demonstration really appeals. About the centre A, describe the circle B C D. 92 Here is an assumption that a figure, such as the definition expresses, may be described; which is no other than the postulate, or covert assumption, involved in the so-called definition. But whether that figure be called a circle or not is quite immaterial. The purpose would be as well answered, in all respects except brevity, were we to say, Through the point B, draw a line returning into itself, of which every point shall be at an equal distance from the point A. By this the definitio n of a circle would be got rid of, and rendered needless; but not the postulate implied in it; without that the demonstration could not stand. The circle being now described, let us proceed to the consequence. Since B C D is a circle, the radius B A is eq ual to the radius C A. B A is equal to C A, not because B C D is a circle, but because B C D is a figure with the radii equal. Our warrant for assuming that such a figure about the centre A, with the radius B A, may be made to exist, is the postulate. Whe ther the admissibility of these postulates rests on intuition, or on proof, may be a matter of dispute; but in either case they are the premises on which the theorems depend; and while these are retained it would make no difference in the certainty of geometrical truths, though every definition in Euclid, and every technical term therein defined, were laid aside. It is, perhaps, superfluous to dwell at so much length on what is so nearly self-evident; but when a distinction, obvious as it may appear, has been confounded, and by powerful intellects, it is better to say too much than too little for the purpose of rendering such mistakes impossible in future. I will, therefore detain the reader while I point out one of the absurd consequences flowing from the supposition that definitions, as such, are the premises in any of our reasonings, except such as relate to words only. If this supposition were true, we might argue correctly from true premises, and arrive at a false conclusion. We should only have to assum e as a premise the definition of a nonentity; or rather of a name which has no entity corresponding to it. Let this, for instance, be our definition: A dragon is a serpent breathing flame. This proposition, considered only as a definition, is indisputably correct. A dragon is a serpent breathing flame: the word means that. The tacit assumption, indeed (if there were any such understood assertion), of the existence of an object with properties corresponding to the definition, would, in the present instance, be false. Out of this definition we may carve the premises of the following syllogism: A dragon is a thing which breathes flame: A dragon is a serpent: From which the conclusion is, Therefore some serpent or serpents breathe flame: an unexceptionable syllogism in the first mode of the third figure, in which both premises are true and yet the conclusion false; which every logician knows to be an absurdity. The conclusion being false and the syllogism correct, the premises can not be true. But the premises, considered as parts of a definition, are true. Therefore, the premises considered as parts of a definition can not be the real ones. The real premises must be A dragon is a really existing thing which breathes flame: A dragon is a really existing serpent: which implied premises being false, the falsity of the conclusion presents no absurdity. If we would determine what conclusion follows from the same ostensible premises when the tacit assumption of real existence is left out, let u s, according to the recommendation in a previous page, substitute means for is . We then have 93 Dragon is a word meaning a thing which breathes flame: Dragon is a word meaning a serpent: From which the conclusion is, Some word or words which mean a serpent, also mean a thing which breathes flame: where the conclusion (as well as the premises) is true, and is the only kind of conclusion which can ever follow from a definition, namely, a proposition relating to the meaning of words. There is still another shape into which we may transform this syllogism. We may suppose the middle term to be the designation neither of a thing nor of a name, but of an idea. We then have The idea of a dragon is an idea of a thing which breathes flame: The idea of a dragon is an idea of a serpent: Therefore, there is an idea of a serpent, which is an idea of a thing breathing flame. Here the conclusion is true, and also the premises; but the premises are not definitions. They are propositions affirming that an idea existing in the m ind, includes certain ideal elements. The truth of the conclusion follows from the existence of the psychological phenomenon called the idea of a dragon; and therefore still from the tacit assumption of a matter of fact. P44F45 P When, as in this last syllogism, the conclusion is a proposition respecting an idea, the assumption on which it depends may be merely that of the existence of an idea. But when the conclusion is a proposition concerning a Thing, the postulate involved in the definition which stands as th e apparent premise, is the existence of a thing conformable to the definition, and not merely of an idea conformable to it. This assumption of real existence we always convey the impression that we intend to make, when we profess to define any name which i s already known to be a name of really existing objects. On this account it is, that the assumption was not necessarily implied in the definition of a dragon, while there was no doubt of its being included in the definition of a circle. 45 In the only attempt which, so far as I know, has been made to refute the preceding argumentation, it is maintained that in the first form of the syllogism, A dragon is a thing which breathes flame, A dragon is a serpent, Therefore some serpent or serpents breathe flame, there is just as much t ruth in the conclusion as there is in the premises, or rather, no more in the latter than in the former. If the general name serpent includes both real and imaginary serpents, there is no falsity in the conclusion; if not, there is falsity in the minor pre mise. Let us, then, try to set out the syllogism on the hypothesis that the name serpent includes imaginary serpents. We shall find that it is now necessary to alter the predicates; for it can not be asserted that an imaginary creature breathes flame; in predicating of it such a fact, we assert by the most positive implication that it is real, and not imaginary. The conclusion must run thus, Some serpent or serpents either do or are imagined to breathe flame. And to prove this conclusion by the instance of dragons, the premises must be, A dragon is imagined as breathing flame. A dragon is a (real or imaginary) serpent: from which it undoubtedly follows, that there are serpents which are imagined to breathe flame; but the major premise is not a definition, nor part of a definition; which is all that I am concerned to prove. Let us now examine the other assertionthat if the word serpent stands for none but real serpents, the minor premise (a dragon is a serpent) is false. This is exactly what I have myself said of the premise, considered as a statement of fact: but it is not false as part of the definition of a dragon; and since the premises, or one of them, must be false (the conclusion being so), the real premise can not be the definition, which is true, b ut the statement of fact, which is false. 94 6. One of the circumstances which have contributed to keep up the notion, that demonstrative truths follow from definitions rather than from the postulates implied in those definitions, is, that the postulates, even in those sciences which are considered to surpass all others in demonstrative certainty, are not always exactly true. It is not true that a circle exists, or can be described, which has all its radii exactly equal. Such accuracy is ideal only; it is not found in nature, still less can it be realized by art. People had a difficulty, therefore, in conceiving that the most certain of all conclusions could rest on premises which, instead of being certainly true, are certainly not true to the full extent asserted. This apparent paradox will be examined when we come to treat of Demonstration; where we shall be able to show that as much of the postulate is true, as is required to support as much as is true of the conclusion. Philosophers, however, to whom this view had not occurred, or whom it did not satisfy, have thought it indispensable that there should be found in definitions something more certain, or at least more accurately true, than the implied postulate of the real existence of a corresponding object. And this something they flattered themselves they had found, when they laid it down that a definition is a statement and analysis not of the mere meaning of a word, nor yet of the nature of a thing, but of an idea. Thus, the proposition, A circle is a plane figure bounded by a line all the points of which are at a n equal distance from a given point within it, was considered by them, not as an assertion that any real circle has that property (which would not be exactly true), but that we conceive a circle as having it; that our abstract idea of a circle is an idea of a figure with its radii exactly equal. Conformably to this it is said, that the subject- matter of mathematics, and of every other demonstrative science, is not things as they really exist, but abstractions of the mind. A geometrical line is a line witho ut breadth; but no such line exists in nature; it is a notion merely suggested to the mind by its experience of nature. The definition (it is said) is a definition of this mental line, not of any actual line: and it is only of the mental line, not of any line existing in nature, that the theorems of geometry are accurately true. Allowing this doctrine respecting the nature of demonstrative truth to be correct (which, in a subsequent place, I shall endeavor to prove that it is not); even on that supposition, the conclusions which seem to follow from a definition, do not follow from the definition as such, but from an implied postulate. Even if it be true that there is no object in nature answering to the definition of a line, and that the geometrical properti es of lines are not true of any lines in nature, but only of the idea of a line; the definition, at all events, postulates the real existence of such an idea: it assumes that the mind can frame, or rather has framed, the notion of length without breadth, and without any other sensible property whatever. To me, indeed, it appears that the mind can not form any such notion; it can not conceive length without breadth; it can only, in contemplating objects, attend to their length, exclusively of their other sen sible qualities, and so determine what properties may be predicated of them in virtue of their length alone. If this be true, the postulate involved in the geometrical definition of a line, is the real existence, not of length without breadth, but merely of length, that is, of long objects. This is quite enough to support all the truths of geometry, since every property of a geometrical line is really a property of all physical objects in so far as possessing length. But even what I hold to be the false doctrine on the subject, leaves the conclusion that our reasonings are grounded on the matters of fact postulated in definitions, and not on the definitions themselves, entirely unaffected; and accordingly this conclusion is one which I have in common with Dr. Whewell, in his Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences : though, on the nature of demonstrative truth, Dr. Whewell's opinions are greatly at variance with mine. And here, as in many other instances, I gladly acknowledge that his writings are eminently servi ceable in clearing from confusion the initial steps in the analysis of the mental processes, 95 even where his views respecting the ultimate analysis are such as (though with unfeigned respect) I can not but regard as fundamentally erroneous. 7. Although, according to the opinion here presented, Definitions are properly of names only, and not of things, it does not follow from this that definitions are arbitrary. How to define a name, may not only be an inquiry of considerable difficulty and intricacy, but m ay involve considerations going deep into the nature of the things which are denoted by the name. Such, for instance, are the inquiries which form the subjects of the most important of Plato's Dialogues; as, What is rhetoric? the topic of the Gorgias, or, What is justice? that of the Republic. Such, also, is the question scornfully asked by Pilate, What is truth? and the fundamental question with speculative moralists in all ages, What is virtue? It would be a mistake to represent these difficult an d noble inquiries as having nothing in view beyond ascertaining the conventional meaning of a name. They are inquiries not so much to determine what is, as what should be, the meaning of a name; which, like other practical questions of terminology, requires for its solution that we should enter, and sometimes enter very deeply, into the properties not merely of names but of the things named. Although the meaning of every concrete general name resides in the attributes which it connotes, the objects were nam ed before the attributes; as appears from the fact that in all languages, abstract names are mostly compounds or other derivatives of the concrete names which correspond to them. Connotative names, therefore, were, after proper names, the first which were used: and in the simpler cases, no doubt, a distinct connotation was present to the minds of those who first used the name, and was distinctly intended by them to be conveyed by it. The first person who used the word white, as applied to snow or to any other object, knew, no doubt, very well what quality he intended to predicate, and had a perfectly distinct conception in his mind of the attribute signified by the name. But where the resemblances and differences on which our classifications are founded are not of this palpable and easily determinable kind; especially where they consist not in any one quality but in a number of qualities, the effects of which, being blended together, are not very easily discriminated, and referred each to its true source; it often happens that names are applied to namable objects, with no distinct connotation present to the minds of those who apply them. They are only influenced by a general resemblance between the new object and all or some of the old familiar objects which they have been accustomed to call by that name. This, as we have seen, is the law which even the mind of the philosopher must follow, in giving names to the simple elementary feelings of our nature: but, where the things to be named are complex wholes, a philosopher is not content with noticing a general resemblance; he examines what the resemblance consists in: and he only gives the same name to things which resemble one another in the same definite particulars. The philosopher, therefore, habitually employs his general names with a definite connotation. But language was not made, and can only in some small degree be mended, by philosophers. In the minds of the real arbiters of language, general names, especially where the classes they denote can not be brought before the tribunal of the outward senses to be identified and discriminated, connote little more than a vague gross resemblance to the things which they were earliest, or have been most, accustomed to call by those names. When, for instance, ordinary persons predicate the words just or unjust of any action, noble or mean of any sentiment, expression, or demeanor, statesman or charlatan of any personage figuring in politics, do they mean to affirm of those various subjects any determinate attributes, of whatever kind? No: they merely recognize, as they think, some likeness, more or less vague and loose, between these 96 and some other things which they have been accustomed to denominate or to hear denominated by those appellations. Language, a s Sir James Mackintosh used to say of governments, is not made, but grows. A name is not imposed at once and by previous purpose upon a class of objects, but is first applied to one thing, and then extended by a series of transitions to another and another. By this process (as has been remarked by several writers, and illustrated with great force and clearness by Dugald Stewart in his Philosophical Essays) a name not unfrequently passes by successive links of resemblance from one object to another, until it becomes applied to things having nothing in common with the first things to which the name was given; which, however, do not, for that reason, drop the name; so that it at last denotes a confused huddle of objects, having nothing whatever in common; and connotes nothing, not even a vague and general resemblance. When a name has fallen into this state, in which by predicating it of any object we assert literally nothing about the object, it has become unfit for the purposes either of thought or of the communication of thought; and can only be made serviceable by stripping it of some part of its multifarious denotation, and confining it to objects possessed of some attributes in common, which it may be made to connote. Such are the inconveniences of a language which is not made, but grows. Like the governments which are in a similar case, it may be compared to a road which is not made but has made itself: it requires continual mending in order to be passable. From this it is already evident, why the question respecting the definition of an abstract name is often one of so much difficulty. The question, What is justice? is, in other words, What is the attribute which mankind mean to predicate when they call an action just? To which the first answer is, that having come to no precise agreement on the point, they do not mean to predicate distinctly any attribute at all. Nevertheless, all believe that there is some common attribute belonging to all the actions which they are in the habit of calling just. The question then must be, whether there is any such common attribute? and, in the first place, whether mankind agree sufficiently with one another as to the particular actions which they do or do not call just, to render the inquiry, what quality those actions have in common, a possible one: if so, whether the actions really have any quality in common; and if they have, what it is. Of these three, the first alone is an inquiry into usage and convention; the other two are inquiries into matters of fact. And if the second question (whether the actions form a class at all) has been answered negatively, there remains a fourth, often more arduous than all the rest, namely, how best to form a class artificially, which the name may denote. And here it is fitting to remar k, that the study of the spontaneous growth of languages is of the utmost importance to those who would logically remodel them. The classifications rudely made by established language, when retouched, as they almost all require to be, by the hands of the logician, are often themselves excellently suited to his purposes. As compared with the classifications of a philosopher, they are like the customary law of a country, which has grown up as it were spontaneously, compared with laws methodized and digested into a code: the former are a far less perfect instrument than the latter; but being the result of a long, though unscientific, course of experience, they contain a mass of materials which may be made very usefully available in the formation of the systematic body of written law. In like manner, the established grouping of objects under a common name, even when founded only on a gross and general resemblance, is evidence, in the first place, that the resemblance is obvious, and therefore considerable; and, i n the next place, that it is a resemblance which has struck great numbers of persons during a series of years and ages. Even when a name, by successive extensions, has come to be applied to things among which there does not exist this gross resemblance com mon to them all, still at every step in its progress we shall find such a resemblance. And these transitions of the meaning of words are often an index to real 97 connections between the things denoted by them, which might otherwise escape the notice of thinkers; of those at least who, from using a different language, or from any difference in their habitual associations, have fixed their attention in preference on some other aspect of the things. The history of philosophy abounds in examples of such oversight s, committed for want of perceiving the hidden link that connected together the seemingly disparate meanings of some ambiguous word. P45F46 P Whenever the inquiry into the definition of the name of any real object consists of any thing else than a mere comparison of authorities, we tacitly assume that a meaning must be found for the name, compatible with its continuing to denote, if possible all, but at any rate the greater or the more important part, of the things of which it is commonly predicated. The inquiry, therefore, into the definition, is an inquiry into the resemblances and differences among those things: whether there be any resemblance running through them all; if not, through what portion of them such a general resemblance can be traced: and finally, what are the common attributes, the possession of which gives to them all, or to that portion of them, the character of resemblance which has led to their being classed together. When these common attributes have been ascertained and specified, the name which belongs in common to the resembling objects acquires a distinct instead of a vague connotation; and by possessing this distinct connotation, becomes susceptible of definition. In giving a distinct connotation to the general name, the philosopher will endeavor to fix upon such attributes as, while they are common to all the things usually denoted by the name, are also of greatest importance in themselves; either directly, or from the number, the conspicuousness, or the interesting character, of the consequences to which they lead. He will select, as far as possible, such differenti as lead to the greatest number of interesting propria. For these, rather than the more obscure and recondite qualities on which they often depend, give that general c haracter and aspect to a set of objects, which determine the groups into which they naturally fall. But to penetrate to the more hidden agreement on which these obvious and superficial agreements depend, is often one of the most difficult of scientific problems. As it is among the most difficult, so it seldom fails to be among the most important. And since upon the result of this inquiry respecting the causes of the properties of a class of things, there incidentally depends the question what shall be the meaning of a word; some of the most profound and most valuable investigations which philosophy presents to us, have been introduced by, and have offered themselves under the guise of, inquiries into the definition of a name. 46 Few people (I have said in another place) have reflected how great a knowledge of Things is required to enable a man to affirm that any given argument turns wholly upon words. There is, perhaps, not one of the leading terms of philosophy which is not used in almost innumerable shades of meaning, to express ideas more or less widely different from one another. Between two of these ideas a sagacious and penetrating mind will discern, as it were intuitively, an unobvious link of connection, upon which, though perhaps unable to give a logical account of it, he will found a perfectly valid argument, which his critic, not having so keen an insight into the Things, will mistake for a fallacy turning on the double meaning of a term. And the greater the genius of him who thus safely leaps over the chasm, the greater will probably be the crowing and vainglory of the mere logician, who, hobbling after him, evinces his own superior wisdom by pausing on its brink, and givi ng up as desperate his proper business of bridging it over. 98 Book II. Of Reaso ning , , , . , , . , ; , . Arist., Analyt. Prior., l. i., cap. 4. 99 I. Of Inference, Or Reasoning, In General 1. In the preceding Book, we have been occupied not with the nature of Proof, but with the nature of Assertion: the import conveyed by a Proposition, whether that Proposition be true or false; not the means by which to discriminate true from false Propositions. The proper subject, however, of Logic is Proof. Before we could understand what Proof is, it was necessary to understand what that is to which proof is applicable; what that is which can be a subject of belief or disbelief, of affirmation or denial; what, in short, the different kinds of Propositions assert. This preliminary inquiry we have prosecuted to a definite result. Assertion, in the first place, relates either to the meaning of words, or to some property of the things which words signify. Assertions respecting the meaning of words, among which definitions are the most important, hold a place, and an indispensable one, in philosophy; but as the meaning of words is essentially arbitrary, this class of assertions are not susceptible of truth or falsity, nor therefore of proof or disproof. Assertions respecting Things, or what may be called Real Propositions, in contradistinction to verbal ones, are of various sorts. We have analyzed the import of each sort, and have ascertained the nature of the things they relate to, and the nature of what they severally assert respecting those things. We found that whatever be the form of the proposition, and whatever its nominal subject or predicate, the real subject of every proposition is some one or more facts or phenomena of consciousness, or some one or more of the hidden causes or powers to which we ascribe those facts; and that what is predicated or asserted, either in the affirmative or negative, of those phenomena or those powers, is always either Existence, Order in Place, Order in Time, Causation, or Resemblance. This, then, is the theory of the Import of Propositions, reduced to its ultimate elements: but there is another and a less abstruse expression for it, which, though stopping short in an earlier stage of the analysis, is sufficiently scientific for many of the purposes for which suc h a general expression is required. This expression recognizes the commonly received distinction between Subject and Attribute, and gives the following as the analysis of the meaning of propositions:Every Proposition asserts, that some given subject does or does not possess some attribute; or that some attribute is or is not (either in all or in some portion of the subjects in which it is met with) conjoined with some other attribute. We shall now for the present take our leave of this portion of our inquiry, and proceed to the peculiar problem of the Science of Logic, namely, how the assertions, of which we have analyzed the import, are proved or disproved; such of them, at least, as, not being amenable to direct consciousness or intuition, are appropriate subjects of proof. We say of a fact or statement, that it is proved, when we believe its truth by reason of some other fact or statement from which it is said to follow . Most of the propositions, whether affirmative or negative, universal, particular, or singular, which we believe, are not believed on their own evidence, but on the ground of something previously assented to, from which they are said to be inferred . To infer a proposition from a previous proposition or propositions; to give credence to it, or claim credence for it, as a conclusion from something else; is to reason, in the most extensive sense of the term. There is a narrower sense, in which the name reasoning is confined to the form of inference which is termed ratiocination, and of which the syllogism is the general type. The reasons for not conforming to this restricted use of the term were stated in an earlier stage of our inquiry, and additional motives will be suggested by the considerations on which we are now about to enter. 100 2. In proceeding to take into consideration the cases in which inferences can legitimately be drawn, we shall first mention some cases in which the inference is apparent, not real; and which require notice chiefly that they may not be confounded with cases of infe rence properly so called. This occurs when the proposition ostensibly inferred from another, appears on analysis to be merely a repetition of the same, or part of the same, assertion, which was contained in the first. All the cases mentioned in books of Logic as examples of equipollency or equivalence of propositions, are of this nature. Thus, if we were to argue, No man is incapable of reason, for every man is rational; or, All men are mortal, for no man is exempt from death; it would be plain that we were not proving the proposition, but only appealing to another mode of wording it, which may or may not be more readily comprehensible by the hearer, or better adapted to suggest the real proof, but which contains in itself no shadow of proof. Another case is where, from a universal proposition, we affect to infer another which differs from it only in being particular: as All A is B, therefore Some A is B: No A is B, therefore Some A is not B. This, too, is not to conclude one proposition from another, but to repeat a second time something which had been asserted at first; with the difference, that we do not here repeat the whole of the previous assertion, but only an indefinite part of it. A third case is where, the antecedent having affirmed a predicate of a given subject, the consequent affirms of the same subject something already connoted by the former predicate: as, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is a living creature; where all that is connoted by living creature was affirmed of Socrates when he was asserted to be a man. If the propositions are negative, we must invert their order, thus: Socrates is not a living creature, therefore he is not a man; for if we deny the less, the greater, which includes it, is already denied by implication. These, there fore, are not really cases of inference; and yet the trivial examples by which, in manuals of Logic, the rules of the syllogism are illustrated, are often of this ill-chosen kind; formal demonstrations of conclusions to which whoever understands the terms used in the statement of the data, has already, and consciously, assented. P46F47 P The most complex case of this sort of apparent inference is what is called the Conversion of propositions; which consists in turning the predicate into a subject, and the subject into a predicate, and framing out of the same terms thus reversed, another proposition, which must be true if the former is true. Thus, from the particular affirmative proposition, Some A is B, we may infer that Some B is A. From the universal negative, No A is B, we may conclude that No B is A. From the universal affirmative proposition, All A is B, it can not be inferred that all B is A; though all water is liquid, it is not implied that all liquid is water; but it is implied that some liquid is so; and hence the proposition, All A is B, is legitimately convertible into Some B is A. This process, which converts a universal proposition into a particular, is termed conversion per accidens . From the proposition, Some A is not B, we can not even infer that some B is not A; though some men are not Englishmen, it does not follow that some Englishmen are not men. The only mode usually recognized of converting a particular negative proposition, is in the form, Some A is not B, therefore something which is not B is A; and this is termed conversion by contraposition. In this case, however, the predicate and subject are not merely reversed, but one of them is changed. Instead of [A] and [B], the terms of the new proposition are [a thing which is not B], and [A]. The original proposition, Some A is not B, is first changed into a proposition equipollent with it, Some A is a thing which is not B; and the proposition, being now no longer a particular negative, 47 The different cases of Equipollency, or Equivalent Propositional Forms, are set forth with some fullness in Professor Bain's Logic . One of the commonest of these changes of expression, that from affirming a proposition to denying its negative, or vic versa , Mr. Bain designates, very happily, by the name Obversion. 101 but a particular affirmative, admits of conversion in the fir st mode, or as it is called, simple conversion. P47F48 P In all these cases there is not really any inference; there is in the conclusion no new truth, nothing but what was already asserted in the premises, and obvious to whoever apprehends them. The fact assert ed in the conclusion is either the very same fact, or part of the fact, asserted in the original proposition. This follows from our previous analysis of the Import of Propositions. When we say, for example, that some lawful sovereigns are tyrants, what is the meaning of the assertion? That the attributes connoted by the term lawful sovereign, and the attributes connoted by the term tyrant, sometimes co -exist in the same individual. Now this is also precisely what we mean, when we say that some tyrants are lawful sovereigns; which, therefore, is not a second proposition inferred from the first, any more than the English translation of Euclid's Elements is a collection of theorems different from and consequences of, those contained in the Greek original. A gain, if we assert that no great general is a rash man, we mean that the attributes connoted by great general, and those connoted by rash, never co -exist in the same subject; which is also the exact meaning which would be expressed by saying, that no r ash man is a great general. When we say that all quadrupeds are warm-blooded, we assert, not only that the attributes connoted by quadruped and those connoted by warm -blooded sometimes co -exist, but that the former never exist without the latter: now the proposition, Some warm- blooded creatures are quadrupeds, expresses the first half of this meaning, dropping the latter half; and therefore has been already affirmed in the antecedent proposition, All quadrupeds are warm-blooded. But that all warm -blooded creatures are quadrupeds, or, in other words, that the attributes connoted by warm -blooded never exist without those connoted by quadruped, has not been asserted, and can not be inferred. In order to re-assert, in an inverted form, the whole of what was affirmed in the proposition, All quadrupeds are warm-blooded, we must convert it by contraposition, thus, Nothing which is not warm-blooded is a quadruped. This proposition, and the one from which it is derived, are exactly equivalent, and either of them may be substituted for the other; for, to say that when the attributes of a quadruped are present, those of a warm -blooded creature are present, is to say that when the latter are absent the former are absent. In a manual for young students, it would be proper to dwell at greater length on the conversion and equipollency of propositions. For though that can not be called reasoning or inference which is a mere re-assertion in different words of what had been asserted before, there is no more important intellectual habit, nor any the cultivation of which falls more strictly within the province of the art of logic, than that of discerning rapidly and surely the identity of an assertion when disguised under diversity of language. That important chapter in logical treatises which relates to the Opposition of Propositions, and the excellent technical language which logic provides for distinguishing the different kinds or modes of opposition, are of use chiefly for this purpose. Such considerations as these, that contrary propositions may both be false, but can not both be true; that subcontrary propositions may both be true, but can not both be false; that of two contradictory propositions one must be true and the other false; that of two subalternate proposition s the truth of the universal proves the truth of the particular, and the falsity of the particular proves the falsity of the universal, but not vic versa ; P48F49 P are apt to appear, at first sight, very technical and mysterious, but when explained, 48 As Sir William Hamilton has pointed out, Some A is not B may also be converted in the following form: No B is some A. Some m en are not negroes; therefore, No negroes are some men ( e.g., Europeans). 49 Contraries: All A is B No A is B 102 seem almost too obvious to require so formal a statement, since the same amount of explanation which is necessary to make the principles intelligible, would enable the truths which they convey to be apprehended in any particular case which can occur. In this respect, however, these axioms of logic are on a level with those of mathematics. That things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another, is as obvious in any particular case as it is in the general statement: and if no such general maxim had ever b een laid down, the demonstrations in Euclid would never have halted for any difficulty in stepping across the gap which this axiom at present serves to bridge over. Yet no one has ever censured writers on geometry, for placing a list of these elementary generalizations at the head of their treatises, as a first exercise to the learner of the faculty which will be required in him at every step, that of apprehending a general truth. And the student of logic, in the discussion even of such truths as we have ci ted above, acquires habits of circumspect interpretation of words, and of exactly measuring the length and breadth of his assertions, which are among the most indispensable conditions of any considerable mental attainment, and which it is one of the primary objects of logical discipline to cultivate. 3. Having noticed, in order to exclude from the province of Reasoning or Inference properly so called, the cases in which the progression from one truth to another is only apparent, the logical consequent being a mere repetition of the logical antecedent; we now pass to those which are cases of inference in the proper acceptation of the term, those in which we set out from known truths, to arrive at others really distinct from them. Reasoning, in the extended sense in which I use the term, and in which it is synonymous with Inference, is popularly said to be of two kinds: reasoning from particulars to generals, and reasoning from generals to particulars; the former being called Induction, the latt er Ratiocination or Syllogism. It will presently be shown that there is a third species of reasoning, which falls under neither of these descriptions, and which, nevertheless, is not only valid, but is the foundation of both the others. It is necessary to observe, that the expressions, reasoning from particulars to generals, and reasoning from generals to particulars, are recommended by brevity rather than by precision, and do not adequately mark, without the aid of a commentary, the distinction between Induction (in the sense now adverted to) and Ratiocination. The meaning intended by these expressions is, that Induction is inferring a proposition from propositions less general than itself, and Ratiocination is inferring a proposition from propositions equally or more general. When, from the observation of a number of individual instances, we ascend to a general proposition, or when, by combining a number of general propositions, we conclude from them another proposition still more general, the process, whic h is substantially the same in both instances, is called Induction. When from a general proposition, not alone (for from a single proposition nothing can be concluded which is not involved in the terms), but by combining it with other propositions, we infer a proposition of the same degree of generality Subtraries: Some A is B Some A is not B Contradictories: All A is B Some A is not B Also contradictories: No A is B Some A is B Respectively subalt ernate: All A is B and No A is B Some A is B and Some A is not B 103 with itself, or a less general proposition, or a proposition merely individual, the process is Ratiocination. When, in short, the conclusion is more general than the largest of the premises, the argument is commonly called Induction; when less general, or equally general, it is Ratiocination. As all experience begins with individual cases, and proceeds from them to generals, it might seem most conformable to the natural order of thought that Induction should be treated of before we touch upon Ratiocination. It will, however, be advantageous, in a science which aims at tracing our acquired knowledge to its sources, that the inquirer should commence with the latter rather than with the earlier stages of the proc ess of constructing our knowledge; and should trace derivative truths backward to the truths from which they are deduced, and on which they depend for their evidence, before attempting to point out the original spring from which both ultimately take their rise. The advantages of this order of proceeding in the present instance will manifest themselves as we advance, in a manner superseding the necessity of any further justification or explanation. Of Induction, therefore, we shall say no more at present, than that it at least is, without doubt, a process of real inference. The conclusion in an induction embraces more than is contained in the premises. The principle or law collected from particular instances, the general proposition in which we embody the result of our experience, covers a much larger extent of ground than the individual experiments which form its basis. A principle ascertained by experience, is more than a mere summing up of what has been specifically observed in the individual cases which have been examined; it is a generalization grounded on those cases, and expressive of our belief, that what we there found true is true in an indefinite number of cases which we have not examined, and are never likely to examine. The nature and grounds of this inference, and the conditions necessary to make it legitimate, will be the subject of discussion in the Third Book: but that such inference really takes place is not susceptible of question. In every induction we proceed from truths which we knew, to truths which we did not know; from facts certified by observation, to facts which we have not observed, and even to facts not capable of being now observed; future facts, for example; but which we do not hesitate to believe on the sole evidence of the induct ion itself. Induction, then, is a real process of Reasoning or Inference. Whether, and in what sense, as much can be said of the Syllogism, remains to be determined by the examination into which we are about to enter. 104 II. Of Ratiocination, Or Syllogism 1. The analysis of the Syllogism has been so accurately and fully performed in the common manuals of Logic, that in the present work, which is not designed as a manual, it is sufficient to recapitulate, memori caus, the leading results of that analysis, as a foundation for the remarks to be afterward made on the functions of the Syllogism, and the place which it holds in science. To a legitimate syllogism it is essential that there should be three, and no more than three, propositions, namely, the conclusion, or proposition to be proved, and two other propositions which together prove it, and which are called the premises. It is essential that there should be three, and no more than three, terms, namely, the subject and predicate of the conclusion, and another called the middle term, which must be found in both premises, since it is by means of it that the other two terms are to be connected together. The predicate of the conclusion is called the major term of the syllogism; the subject of the conclusion is called the minor term. As there can be but three terms, the major and minor terms must each be found in one, and only one, of the premises, together with the middle term which is in them both. The premise which contains the middle term and the major term is called the major premise; that which contains the middle term and the minor term is called the minor premise. Syllogisms are divided by some logicians into three figures , by others into four, according to the position of the middle term, which may either be the subject in both premises, the predicate in both, or the subject in one and the predicate in the other. The most common case is that in which the middle term is the subject of the major premise and the predicate of the minor. This is reckoned as the first figure. When the middle term is the predicate in both premises, the syllogism belongs to the second figure; when it is the subject in both, to the third. In the fourth figure the middle term is the subject of the minor premise and the predicate of the major. Those writers who reckon no more than three figures, include this case in the first. Each figure is divided into moods , according to what are called the quantity and quality of the propositions, that is, according as they are universal or particular, affirmative or negative. The following are examples of all the legitimate moods, that is, all those in which the conclusion correctly follows from the premises. A is the minor term, C the major, B the middle term. First Figure. All B is C No B is C All B is C No B is C All A is B All A is B Some A is B Some A is B therefore therefore therefore therefore All A is C No A is C Some A is C Some A is not C Second Figure. No C is B All C is B No C is B All C is B All A is B No A is B Some A is B Some A is not B 105 therefore therefore therefore therefore No A is C No A is C Some A is not C Some A is not C Third Figure. All B is C No B is C Some B is C All B is C Some B is not C No B is C All B is A All B is A All B is A Some B is A All B is A Some B is A therefore therefore therefore therefore therefore therefore Some A is C Some A is not C Some A is C Some A is C Some A is not C Some A is not C Fourth Figure. All C is B All C is B Some C is B No C is B No C is B All B is A No B is A All B is A All B is A Some B is A therefore therefore therefore therefore therefore Some A is C Some A is not C Some A is C Some A is not C Some A is not C In these exemplars, or blank forms for making syllogisms, no place is assigned to singular propositions; not, of course, because such propositions are not used in ratiocination, but because, their predicate being affirmed or denied of the whole of the subject, they are ranked, for the purposes of the syllogism, with universal propositions. Thus, these two syllogisms All men are mortal, All men are mortal, All kings are men, Socrates is a man, therefore therefore All kings are mortal, Socrates is mortal, are arguments precisely similar, and are both ranked in the first mood of the first figure. P49F50 P 50 Professor Bain denies the claim of Singular Propositions to be classed, for the purposes of ratiocination, with Universal; though they come within the designation which he himself proposes as an equivalent for Universal, that of Total. He would even, to use his own expression, banish them entirely from the syllogism. He takes as an example, Socrates is wise, Socrates is poor, therefore Some poor men are wise, 106 The reasons why syllogisms in any of the above forms are legitimate, that is, why, if the premises are true, the conclusion must inevitably be so, and why this is not the case in any other possible mood (that is, in any other combination of universal and particular, affirmative and negative propositions), any person taking interest in these inquiries may be presumed to have either learned from the common -school books of the syllogistic logic, or to be capable of discovering for himself. The reader may, however, be referred, for every needful explanation, to Archbishop Whately's Elements of Logic , where he will find stated with philosophical precision, and explained with remarkable perspicuity, the whole of the common doctrine of the syllogism. All valid ratiocination; all reasoning by which, from general propositions previously admitted, other propositions equally or less general are inferred; may be exhibited in some of the above forms. The whole of Euclid, for example, might be thrown without difficulty int o a series of syllogisms, regular in mood and figure. or more properly (as he observes ) one poor man is wise. Now, if wise, poor, and a man, are attributes belonging to the meaning of the word Socrates, there is then no march of reasoning at all. We have given in Socrates, inter alia , the facts wise, poor, and a man, and we merely repeat the concurrence which is selected from the whole aggregate of properties making up the whole, Socrates. The case is one under the head Greater and Less Connotation in Equivalent Propositional Forms, or Immediate Inference. But the example in this form does not do justice to the syllogism of singulars. We must suppose both propositions to be real, the predicates being in no way involved in the subject. Thus Socrates was the master of Plato, Socrates fought at Delium, The master of Plato fought at Delium. It may fairly be doubted whether the transitions, in this instance, are any thing more than equivalent forms. For the proposition Socrates was the master of Plato and fought at Delium, compounded out of the two premises, is obviously nothing more than a grammatical abbreviation. No one can say that there is here any change of meaning, or any thing beyond a verbal modification of the original form. The next step is, The master of Plato fought at Delium, which is the previous statement cut down by the omission of Socrates. It contents itself with reproducing a part of the meaning, or saying less than had been previously said. The full equivalent of the affirmation is, The master of Plato fought at Delium, and the master of Plato was Socrates: the new f orm omits the last piece of information, and gives only the first. Now, we never consider that we have made a real inference, a step in advance, when we repeat less than we are entitled to say, or drop from a complex statement some portion not desired at the moment. Such an operation keeps strictly within the domain of equivalence, or Immediate Inference. In no way, therefore, can a syllogism with two singular premises be viewed as a genuine syllogistic or deductive inference. (Logic , i., 159.) The first argument, as will have been seen, rests upon the supposition that the name Socrates has a meaning; that man, wise, and poor, are parts of this meaning; and that by predicating them of Socrates we convey no information; a view of the significatio n of names which, for reasons already given (Note to 4 of the chapter on Definition, supra , pp. 110, 111.), I can not admit, and which, as applied to the class of names which Socrates belongs to, is at war with Mr. Bain's own definition of a Proper Name (i., 148), a single meaningless mark or designation appropriated to the thing. Such names, Mr. Bain proceeded to say, do not necessarily indicate even human beings: much less then does the name Socrates include the meaning of wise or poor. Otherwise it w ould follow that if Socrates had grown rich, or had lost his mental faculties by illness, he would no longer have been called Socrates. The second part of Mr. Bain's argument, in which he contends that even when the premises convey real information, the conclusion is merely the premises with a part left out, is applicable, if at all, as much to universal propositions as to singular. In every syllogism the conclusion contains less than is asserted in the two premises taken together. Suppose the syllogism to be All bees are intelligent, All bees are insects, therefore Some insects are intelligent: one might use the same liberty taken by Mr. Bain, of joining together the two premises as if they were one All bees are insects and intelligent and might say that in omitting the middle term bees we make no real inference, but merely reproduce part of what had been previously said. Mr. Bain's is really an objection to the syllogism itself, or at all events to the third figure: it has no special applicability to sing ular propositions. 107 Though a syllogism framed according to any of these formul is a valid argument, all correct ratiocination admits of being stated in syllogisms of the first figure alone. The rules for throwing an argument in any of the other figures into the first figure, are called rules for the reduction of syllogisms. It is done by the conversion of one or other, or both, of the premises. Thus an argument in the first mood of the second figure, as No C is B All A is B therefore No A is C, may be reduced as follows. The proposition, No C is B, being a universal negative, admits of simple conversion, and may be changed into No B is C, which, as we showed, is the very same assertion in other wordsthe same fact differen tly expressed. This transformation having been effected, the argument assumes the following form: No B is C All A is B therefore No A is C, which is a good syllogism in the second mood of the first figure. Again, an argument in the first mood of the third figure must resemble the following: All B is C All B is A therefore Some A is C, where the minor premise, All B is A, conformably to what was laid down in the last chapter respecting universal affirmatives, does not admit of simple conversion, but may be converted per accidens , thus, Some A is B; which, though it does not express the whole of what is asserted in the proposition All B is A, expresses, as was formerly shown, part of it, and must therefore be true if the whole is true. We have, then, as the result of the reduction, the following syllogism in the third mood of the first figure: All B is C Some A is B, from which it obviously follows, that Some A is C. In the same manner, or in a manner on which after these examples it is not necessary to enlarge, every mood of the second, third, and fourth figures may be reduced to some one of the four moods of the first. In other words, every conclusion which can be proved in any of the last three figures, may be proved in the first figure from the same premises, with a slight alteration in the mere manner of expressing them. Every valid ratiocination, therefore, may be stated in the first figure, that is, in one of the following forms: Every B is C No B is C All A is B, All A is B, Some A is B, Some A is B, 108 therefore therefore All A is C. No A is C. Some A is C. Some A is not C. Or, if more significant symbols are preferred: To prove an affirmative, the argument must admit of being stated in this form: All animals are mortal; All men/Some men/Socrates are animals; therefore All men/Some men/Socrates are mortal. To prove a negative, the argument must be capable of being expressed in this form: No one who is capable of self-control is necessarily vicious; No one who is capable of self-control is necessarily vicious; All negroes/Some negroes/Mr. A's negro are capable of self-control; therefore No negroes are/Some negroes are not/Mr. A's negro is not necessarily vicious. Though all ratiocination admits of being thrown into one or the other of these forms, and sometimes gains considerably by the transformation, both in clearness and in the obviousness of its consequence; there are, no doubt, cases in which the argument falls more naturally into one of the other three figures, and in which its conclusiveness is more apparent at the first glance in those figures, than when reduced to the first. Thus, if the proposition were that pagans may be virtuous, and the evidence to prove it were the example of Aristides; a syllogism in the third figure, Aristides was virtuous, Aristides was a pagan, therefore Some pagan was virtuous, would be a more natural mode of stating the argument, and would carry conviction more instantly home, than the same ratiocination strained into the first figure, thus Aristides was virtuous, Some pagan was Aristides, therefore Some pagan was virtuous. A German philosopher, Lambert, whose Neues Organon (published in the year 1764) contains among other things one of the most elaborate and complete expositions which had ever been made of the syllogistic doctrine, has expressly examined what sort of arguments fall most naturally and suitably into each of the four figures; and his investigation is characterized by great ingenuity and clearness of thought. P50F51 P The argument, however, is one 51 His conclusions are, The first figure is suited to the discovery or proof of the properties of a thing; the second to the discovery or proof of the distinctions between things; the third to the discovery or proof of instances and exceptions; the fourth to the discovery, or exclusion, of the different species of a genus. The reference of syllogisms in the last three figures to the dictum de omni et nullo is, in Lambert's opinion, strained and unnatural: to each of the three belongs, according to him, a separate axiom, co- ordinate and of equal authority with that dictum , and to which he gives the names of dictum de diverso for the second figure, dictum de 109 and the same, in whichever figure it is expressed; since, as we have already seen, the premises of a syllogism in the second, third, or fourth figure, and those of the syllogism in the first figure to which it may be reduced, are the same premises in eve ry thing except language, or, at least, as much of them as contributes to the proof of the conclusion is the same. We are therefore at liberty, in conformity with the general opinion of logicians, to consider the two elementary forms of the first figure as the universal types of all correct ratiocination; the one, when the conclusion to be proved is affirmative, the other, when it is negative; even though certain arguments may have a tendency to clothe themselves in the forms of the second, third, and fourth figures; which, however, can not possibly happen with the only class of arguments which are of first -rate scientific importance, those in which the conclusion is a universal affirmative, such conclusions being susceptible of proof in the first figure alone. P51F52 P exemplo for the third, and dictum de reciproco for the fourth. See part i., or Dian oiologie , chap, iv., 229 et seqq. Mr. Bailey ( Theory of Reasoning, 2d ed., pp. 70 -74) takes a similar view of the subject. 52 Since this chapter was written, two treatises have appeared (or rather a treatise and a fragment of a treatise), which aim at a f urther improvement in the theory of the forms of ratiocination: Mr. De Morgan's Formal Logic; or, the Calculus of Inference, Necessary and Probable; and the New Analytic of Logical Forms, attached as an Appendix to Sir William Hamilton's Discussions on Philosophy , and at greater length, to his posthumous Lectures on Logic . In Mr. De Morgan's volume abounding, in its more popular parts, with valuable observations felicitously expressed the principal feature of originality is an attempt to bring within strict technical rules the cases in which a conclusion can be drawn from premises of a form usually classed as particular. Mr. De Morgan observes, very justly, that from the premises most Bs are Cs, most Bs are As, it may be concluded with certainty that som e As are Cs, since two portions of the class B, each of them comprising more than half, must necessarily in part consist of the same individuals. Following out this line of thought, it is equally evident that if we knew exactly what proportion the most in each of the premises bear to the entire class B, we could increase in a corresponding degree the definiteness of the conclusion. Thus if 60 per cent. of B are included in C, and 70 per cent. in A, 30 per cent. at least must be common to both; in other words, the number of As which are Cs, and of Cs which are As, must be at least equal to 30 per cent. of the class B. Proceeding on this conception of numerically definite propositions, and extending it to such forms as these: 45 Xs (or more) are each of them one of 70 Ys, or 45 Xs (or more) are no one of them to be found among 70 Ys, and examining what inferences admit of being drawn from the various combinations which may be made of premises of this description, Mr. De Morgan establishes universal formul for such inferences; creating for that purpose not only a new technical language, but a formidable array of symbols analogous to those of algebra. Since it is undeniable that inferences, in the cases examined by Mr. De Morgan, can legitimately be drawn, and that the ordinary theory takes no account of them, I will not say that it was not worth while to show in detail how these also could be reduced to formul as rigorous as those of Aristotle. What Mr. De Morgan has done was worth d oing once (perhaps more than once, as a school exercise); but I question if its results are worth studying and mastering for any practical purpose. The practical use of technical forms of reasoning is to bar out fallacies: but the fallacies which require t o be guarded against in ratiocination properly so called, arise from the incautious use of the common forms of language; and the logician must track the fallacy into that territory, instead of waiting for it on a territory of his own. While he remains among propositions which have acquired the numerical precision of the Calculus of Probabilities, the enemy is left in possession of the only ground on which he can be formidable. And since the propositions (short of universal) on which a thinker has to depend, either for purposes of speculation or of practice, do not, except in a few peculiar cases, admit of any numerical precision; common reasoning can not be translated into Mr. De Morgan's forms, which therefore can not serve any purpose as a test of it. Sir William Hamilton's theory of the quantification of the predicate may be described as follows: Logically (I quote his words) we ought to take into account the quantity, always understood in thought, but usually, for manifest reasons, elided in its expression, not only of the subject, but also of the predicate of a judgment. All A is B, is equivalent to all A is some B. No A is B, to No A is any B. Some A is B, is tantamount to some A is some B. Some A is not B, to Some A is not any B. As in these forms of assertion the predicate is exactly co -extensive with the subject, they all admit of simple conversion; and by this we obtain two additional forms Some B is all A, and No B is some A. We may also make the assertion All A is all B, which will be tru e if the classes A and B are exactly co -extensive. The last three forms, though conveying real assertions, have no place in the ordinary classification of Propositions. All propositions, then, being supposed to be translated into this language, and written each in that one of the preceding forms which answers to its signification, there 110 2. On examining, then, these two general formul, we find that in both of them, one premise, the major, is a universal proposition; and according as this is affirmative or negative, the conclusion is so too. All ratiocination, therefore, starts fr om a general proposition, principle, or assumption: a proposition in which a predicate is affirmed or denied of an entire class; that is, in which some attribute, or the negation of some attribute, is asserted of an indefinite number of objects distinguished by a common characteristic, and designated, in consequence, by a common name. The other premise is always affirmative, and asserts that something (which may be either an individual, a class, or part of a class) belongs to, or is included in, the class respecting which something was affirmed or denied in the major premise. It follows that the attribute affirmed or denied of the entire class may (if that affirmation or denial was correct) be affirmed or denied of the object or objects alleged to be include d in the class: and this is precisely the assertion made in the conclusion. emerges a new set of syllogistic rules, materially different from the common ones. A general view of the points of difference may be given in the words of Sir W. Hamilton (D iscussions, 2d ed., p. 651): The revocation of the two terms of a Proposition to their true relation; a proposition being always an equation of its subject and its predicate. The consequent reduction of the Conversion of Propositions from three species to one that of Simple Conversion. The reduction of all the General Laws of Categorical Syllogisms to a single Canon. The evolution from that one canon of all the Species and varieties of Syllogisms. The abrogation of all the Special Laws of Syllogism. A demonstration of the exclusive possibility of Three Syllogistic Figures; and (on new grounds) the scientific and final abolition of the Fourth. A manifestation that Figure is an unessential variation in syllogistic form; and the consequent absurdity of Reducing the syllogisms of the other figures to the first. An enouncement of one Organic Principle for each Figure. A determination of the true number of the Legitimate Moods; with Their amplification in number (thirty -six); Their numerical equality und er all the figures; and Their relative equivalence, or virtual identity, throughout every schematic difference. That, in the second and third figures, the extremes holding both the same relation to the middle term, there is not, as in the first, an opposition and subordination between a term major and a term minor, mutually containing and contained, in the counter wholes of Extension and Comprehension. Consequently, in the second and third figures, there is no determinate major and minor premises, and there are two indifferent conclusions: whereas in the first the premises are determinate, and there is a single proximate conclusion. This doctrine, like that of Mr. De Morgan previously noticed, is a real addition to the syllogistic theory; and has moreove r this advantage over Mr. De Morgan's numerically definite Syllogism, that the forms it supplies are really available as a test of the correctness of ratiocination; since propositions in the common form may always have their predicates quantified, and so be made amenable to Sir W. Hamilton's rules. Considered, however, as a contribution to the Science of Logic, that is, to the analysis of the mental processes concerned in reasoning, the new doctrine appears to me, I confess, not merely superfluous, but erroneous; since the form in which it clothes propositions does not, like the ordinary form, express what is in the mind of the speaker when he enunciates the proposition. I can not think Sir William Hamilton right in maintaining that the quantity of the pre dicate is always understood in thought. It is implied, but is not present to the mind of the person who asserts the proposition. The quantification of the predicate, instead of being a means of bringing out more clearly the meaning of the proposition, ac tually leads the mind out of the proposition, into another order of ideas. For when we say, All men are mortal, we simply mean to affirm the attribute mortality of all men; without thinking at all of the class mortal in the concrete, or troubling ourselves about whether it contains any other beings or not. It is only for some artificial purpose that we ever look at the proposition in the aspect in which the predicate also is thought of as a class -name, either including the subject only, or the subject and something more. (See above, p. 77, 78.) For a fuller discussion of this subject, see the twenty- second chapter of a work already referred to, An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy. 111 Whether or not the foregoing is an adequate account of the constituent parts of the syllogism, will be presently considered; but as far as it goes it is a true account. It has accordingly been generalized, and erected into a logical maxim, on which all ratiocination is said to be founded, insomuch that to reason, and to apply the maxim, are supposed to be one and the same thing. The maxim is, That whatever can be affirmed (or denied) of a class, may be affirmed (or denied) of every thing included in the class. This axiom, supposed to be the basis of the syllogistic theory, is termed by logicians the dictum de omni et nullo . This maxim, however, when considered as a principle of reasoning, appears suited to a system of metaphysics once indeed generally received, but which for the last two centuries has been considered as finally abandoned, though there have not been wanting in our own day attempts at its revival. So long as what are te rmed Universals were regarded as a peculiar kind of substances, having an objective existence distinct from the individual objects classed under them, the dictum de omni conveyed an important meaning; because it expressed the intercommunity of nature, which it was necessary on that theory that we should suppose to exist between those general substances and the particular substances which were subordinated to them. That every thing predicable of the universal was predicable of the various individuals contained under it, was then no identical proposition, but a statement of what was conceived as a fundamental law of the universe. The assertion that the entire nature and properties of the substantia secunda formed part of the nature and properties of each of the individual substances called by the same name; that the properties of Man, for example, were properties of all men; was a proposition of real significance when man did not mean all men, but something inherent in men, and vastly superior to them in dignity. Now, however, when it is known that a class, a universal, a genus or species, is not an entity per se , but neither more nor less than the individual substances themselves which are placed in the class, and that there is nothing real in the matter except those objects, a common name given to them, and common attributes indicated by the name; what, I should be glad to know, do we learn by being told, that whatever can be affirmed of a class, may be affirmed of every object contained in the class? The class is nothing but the objects contained in it: and the dictum de omni merely amounts to the identical proposition, that whatever is true of certain objects, is true of each of those objects. If all ratiocination were no more than the application of this maxi m to particular cases, the syllogism would indeed be, what it has so often been declared to be, solemn trifling. The dictum de omni is on a par with another truth, which in its time was also reckoned of great importance, Whatever is, is. To give any real meaning to the dictum de omni , we must consider it not as an axiom, but as a definition; we must look upon it as intended to explain, in a circuitous and paraphrastic manner, the meaning of the word class . An error which seemed finally refuted and dislodged from thought, often needs only put on a new suit of phrases, to be welcomed back to its old quarters, and allowed to repose unquestioned for another cycle of ages. Modern philosophers have not been sparing in their contempt for the scholastic dogma that genera and species are a peculiar kind of substances, which general substances being the only permanent things, while the individual substances comprehended under them are in a perpetual flux, knowledge, which necessarily imports stability, can only have relation to those general substances or universals, and not to the facts or particulars included under them. Yet, though nominally rejected, this very doctrine, whether disguised under the Abstract Ideas of Locke (whose speculations, however, it has less v itiated than those of perhaps any other writer who has been infected with it), under the ultra-nominalism of Hobbes and Condillac, or the ontology of the later German schools, has never ceased to poison philosophy. Once accustomed to consider scientific investigation as essentially consisting in the study of universals, men did not drop this habit of thought when 112 they ceased to regard universals as possessing an independent existence: and even those who went the length of considering them as mere names, could not free themselves from the notion that the investigation of truth consisted entirely or partly in some kind of conjuration or juggle with those names. When a philosopher adopted fully the Nominalist view of the signification of general language, retaining along with it the dictum de omni as the foundation of all reasoning, two such premises fairly put together were likely, if he was a consistent thinker, to land him in rather startling conclusions. Accordingly it has been seriously held, by writers of deserved celebrity, that the process of arriving at new truths by reasoning consists in the mere substitution of one set of arbitrary signs for another; a doctrine which they suppose to derive irresistible confirmation from the example of algebra. If there were any process in sorcery or necromancy more preternatural than this, I should be much surprised. The culminating point of this philosophy is the noted aphorism of Condillac, that a science is nothing, or scarcely any thing, but une langue bien faite ; in other words, that the one sufficient rule for discovering the nature and properties of objects is to name them properly: as if the reverse were not the truth, that it is impossible to name them properly except in proportion as we are already acquainted with their nature and properties. Can it be necessary to say, that none, not even the most trivial knowledge with respect to Things, ever was or could be originally got at by any conceivable manipulation of mere names, as such; and that what can be learned from names, is only what somebody who used the names knew before? Philosophical analysis confirms the indication of common sense, that the function of names is but that of enabling us to remember and to communicate our thoughts. That they also strengthen, even to an incalculable extent, the power of thought itself, is most true: but they do this by no intrinsic and peculiar virtue; they do it by the power inherent in an artificial memory, an instrument of which few have adequately considered the immense potency. As an artificial memory, language truly is, what it has so often been called, an instrument of thought; but it is one thing to be the instrument, and another to be the exclusive subject upon which the instrument is exercised. We think, indeed, to a considerable extent, by means of names, but what we think of, are the things called by those names; and there can not be a greater error than to imagine that thought can be carried on with nothing in our mind but names, or that we can make the names think for us. 3. Those who considered the dictum de omni as the foundation of the syllogism, looked upon arguments in a manner corresponding to the erroneous view which Hobbes took of propositions. Because there are some propositions which are merely verbal, Hobbes, in order apparently that his definition might be rigorously universal, defined a proposition as if no propositions declared any thing except the meaning of words. If Hobbes was right; if no further account than this could be given of the import of propositions; no theory could be given but the commonly received one, of the combination of propositions in a syllogism. If the minor premise asserted nothing more than that something belongs to a class, and if the major premise asserted nothing of that clas s except that it is included in another class, the conclusion would only be that what was included in the lower class is included in the higher, and the result, therefore, nothing except that the classification is consistent with itself. But we have seen t hat it is no sufficient account of the meaning of a proposition, to say that it refers something to, or excludes something from, a class. Every proposition which conveys real information asserts a matter of fact, dependent on the laws of nature, and not on classification. It asserts that a given object does or does not possess a given attribute; or it asserts that two attributes, or sets of attributes, do or do not (constantly or occasionally) co-exist. Since such is the purport of all propositions which convey any real knowledge, and since ratiocination is a mode of acquiring real knowledge, any theory of ratiocination which does not recognize this import of propositions, can not, we may be sure, be the true one. 113 Applying this view of propositions to the two premises of a syllogism, we obtain the following results. The major premise, which, as already remarked, is always universal, asserts, that all things which have a certain attribute (or attributes) have or have not along with it, a certain other attribute (or attributes). The minor premise asserts that the thing or set of things which are the subject of that premise, have the first-mentioned attribute; and the conclusion is, that they have (or that they have not), the second. Thus in our former example, All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal, the subject and predicate of the major premise are connotative terms, denoting objects and connoting attributes. The assertion in the major premise is, that along with one of the two sets of attributes, we always find the other: that the attributes connoted by man never exist unless conjoined with the attribute called mortality. The assertion in the minor premise is that the individual named Socrates possesses the former attributes; and it is concluded that he possesses also the attribute mortality. Or, if both the premises are general propositions, as All men are mortal, All kings are men, therefore All kings are mortal, the minor premise asserts that the attributes denoted by kingship only exist in conjunction with those signified by the word man. The major asserts as before, that the last-mentioned attributes are never found without the attribute of mortality. The conclusion is, that wherever the attributes of kingship are found, that of mortality is found also. If the major premise were negative, as, No men are omnipotent, it would assert, not that the attributes connoted by man never exist without, but that they never exist with, those connoted by omnipotent: from which, together with the minor premise, it is concluded, that the same incompatibility exists between the attribute omnipotence and those constituting a king. In a similar manner we might analyze any other example of the syllogism. If we generalize this process, and look out for the principle or law involved in every such inference, and presupposed in every syllogism, the propositions of which are any thing more than merely verbal; we find, not the unmeaning dictum de omni et nullo, bu t a fundamental principle, or rather two principles, strikingly resembling the axioms of mathematics. The first, which is the principle of affirmative syllogisms, is, that things which co -exist with the same thing, co- exist with one another: or (still more precisely) a thing which co-exists with another thing, which other co-exists with a third thing, also co-exists with that third thing. The second is the principle of negative syllogisms, and is to this effect: that a thing which co- exists with another thing, with which other a third thing does not co-exist, is not co- existent with that third thing. These axioms manifestly relate to facts, and not to conventions; and one or other of them is the ground of the legitimacy of every argument in which facts and not conventions are the matter treated of. P52F53 P 53 Mr. Herbert Spencer ( Principles of Psychology , pp. 125 -7), though his theory of the syllogism coincides with all that is essential of mine, thinks it a logical fallacy to present the two axioms in the text, as the regulating principles of syllogism. He charges me with falling into the error pointed out by Archbishop Whately and myself, of confounding exact likeness with literal identity; and maintains, that we ought not to say that Socrates possesses the same attributes which are connoted by the word Man, but only that he possesses attributes exactly 114 4. It remains to translate this exposition of the syllogism from the one into the other of the two languages in which we formerly remarked P53F54 P that all propositions, and of course therefore all combinations of propositions, might be expressed. We observed that a proposition might be considered in two different lights; as a portion of our knowledge of nature, or as a memorandum for our guidance. Under the former, or speculative aspect, an affirmative general proposition is an assertion of a speculative truth, viz., that whatever has a certain attribute has a certain other attribute. Under the other aspect, it is to be regarded not as a part of our knowledge, but as an aid for our practical exigencies, by enabling us, when we see or learn that an object possesses one of the two attributes, to infer that it possesses the other; thus employing the first attribute as a mark or evidence of the second. Thus regarded, every syllogism comes within the following general form ula: Attribute A is a mark of attribute B, The given object has the mark A, like them: ac cording to which phraseology, Socrates, and the attribute mortality, are not two things co- existing with the same thing, as the axiom asserts, but two things coexisting with two different things. The question between Mr. Spencer and me is merely one of language; for neither of us (if I understand Mr. Spencer's opinions rightly) believes an attribute to be a real thing, possessed of objective existence; we believe it to be a particular mode of naming our sensations, or our expectations of sensation, when looked at in their relation to an external object which excites them. The question raised by Mr. Spencer does not, therefore, concern the properties of any really existing thing, but the comparative appropriateness, for philosophical purposes, of two different modes of using a name. Considered in this point of view, the phraseology I have employed, which is that commonly used by philosophers, seems to me to be the best. Mr. Spencer is of opinion that because Socrates and Alcibiades are not the same man, the attribute which constitutes them men should not be called the same attribute; that because the humanity of one man and that of another express themselves to our senses not by the same individual sensations but by sensations exactly alike, humanity ought to be regarded as a different attribute in every different man. But on this showing, the humanity even of any one man should be considered as different attributes now and half an hour hence; for the sensations by which it will then manifest itself to my org ans will not be a continuation of my present sensations, but a repetition of them; fresh sensations, not identical with, but only exactly like the present. If every general conception, instead of being the One in the Many, were considered to be as many d ifferent conceptions as there are things to which it is applicable, there would be no such thing as general language. A name would have no general meaning if man connoted one thing when predicated of John, and another, though closely resembling, thing when predicated of William. Accordingly a recent pamphlet asserts the impossibility of general knowledge on this precise ground. The meaning of any general name is some outward or inward phenomenon, consisting, in the last resort, of feelings; and these feelin gs, if their continuity is for an instant broken, are no longer the same feelings, in the sense of individual identity. What, then, is the common something which gives a meaning to the general name? Mr. Spencer can only say, it is the similarity of the fee lings; and I rejoin, the attribute is precisely that similarity. The names of attributes are in their ultimate analysis names for the resemblances of our sensations (or other feelings). Every general name, whether abstract or concrete, denotes or connotes one or more of those resemblances. It will not, probably, be denied, that if a hundred sensations are undistinguishably alike, their resemblance ought to be spoken of as one resemblance, and not a hundred resemblances which merely resemble one another. The things compared are many, but the something common to all of them must be conceived as one, just as the name is conceived as one, though corresponding to numerically different sensations of sound each time it is pronounced. The general term man does not connote the sensations derived once from one man, which, once gone, can no more occur again than the same flash of lightning. It connotes the general type of the sensations derived always from all men, and the power (always thought of as one) of producing sensations of that type. And the axiom might be thus worded: Two types of sensation each of which co -exists with a third type, co -exist with another; or Two powers each of which co -exists with a third power co -exist with one another. Mr. Spencer has misunderstood me in another particular. He supposes that the co- existence spoken of in the axiom, of two things with the same third thing, means simultaneousness in time. The co- existence meant is that of being jointly attributes of the same subject. The attribute of being born without teeth, and the attribute of having thirty- two teeth in mature age, are in this sense co -existent, both being attributes of man, though ex vi termini never of the same man at the same time. 54 Supra, p. 93. 115 therefore The given object has the attribute B. Referred to this type, the arguments which we have lately cited as specimens of the syllogism, will express themselves in the follow ing manner: The attributes of man are a mark of the attribute mortality, Socrates has the attributes of man, therefore Socrates has the attribute mortality. And again, The attributes of man are a mark of the attribute mortality, The attributes of a king are a mark of the attributes of man, therefore The attributes of a king are a mark of the attribute mortality. And, lastly, The attributes of man are a mark of the absence of the attribute omnipotence, The attributes of a king are a mark of the attributes of man, therefore The attributes of a king are a mark of the absence of the attribute signified by the word omnipotent (or, are evidence of the absence of that attribute). To correspond with this alteration in the form of the syllogisms, the axioms on which the syllogistic process is founded must undergo a corresponding transformation. In this altered phraseology, both those axioms may be brought under one general expression; namely, that whatever has any mark, has that which it is a mark of. Or, when the mi nor premise as well as the major is universal, we may state it thus: Whatever is a mark of any mark, is a mark of that which this last is a mark of. To trace the identity of these axioms with those previously laid down, may be left to the intelligent reade r. We shall find, as we proceed, the great convenience of the phraseology into which we have last thrown them, and which is better adapted than any I am acquainted with, to express with precision and force what is aimed at, and actually accomplished, in every case of the ascertainment of a truth by ratiocination. P54F55 P 55 Professor Bain ( Logic , i., 157) considers the axiom (or rather axioms) here proposed as a substitute for the dictum de omni , to possess certain advantages, but to be unworkable as a basis of the syllogism. The fatal defect consists in this, that it is ill- adapted to bring out the difference between total and partial coincidence of terms, the observation of which is the essential precaution in syllogizing correctly. If all the terms were co - extensive, the axiom would flow on admirably; A carries B, all B and none but B; B carries C in the same manner; at once A carries C, without limitation or reserve. But in point of fact, we know that while A carries B, other things carry B also; whence a process of limitation is required, in transferring A to C through B. A (in common with other things) carries B; B (in common with other things) carries C; whence A (in common with other things) carries C. The axiom provides no means of making this limitation; if we were to follow A literally, we should be led to suppose A and C co- extensive: for such is the only obvious meaning of the attribute A coincides with the attribute C. It is certainly possible that a careless learner here and there may suppose that if A carries B, it follows that B carries A. But if any one is so incautious as to commi t this mistake, the very earliest lesson in the logic of inference, the Conversion of propositions, will correct it. The first of the two forms in which I have stated the axiom, is in some degree open to Mr. Bain's criticism: when B is said to co- exist with A (it must be by a lapsus calami that Mr. Bain uses the word coincide ), it is possible, in the absence of warning, to suppose the meaning to be that the two things are only found together. But this misinterpretation is excluded by the other, or practical , form of the maxim; Nota not est nota rei ipsius. No one would be in any danger of inferring that because a is a mark of b, b can never exist without a; that because being in a confirmed consumption is a mark of being about to die, no one dies who is not in a consumption; that because being coal is a mark of having come out of the 116 earth, nothing can come out of the earth except coal. Ordinary knowledge of English seems a sufficient protection against these mistakes, since in speaking of a mark of any thing we are never understood as implying reciprocity. A more fundamental objection is stated by Mr. Bain in a subsequent passage (p. 158). The axiom does not accommodate itself to the type of Deductive Reasoning as contrasted with Inductionthe application o f a general principle to a special case. Any thing that fails to make prominent this circumstance is not adapted as a foundation for the syllogism. But though it may be proper to limit the term Deduction to the application of a general principle to a special case, it has never been held that Ratiocination or Syllogism is subject to the same limitation; and the adoption of it would exclude a great amount of valid and conclusive syllogistic reasoning. Moreover, if the dictum de omni makes prominent the fact of the application of a general principle to a particular case, the axiom I propose makes prominent the condition which alone makes that application a real inference. I conclude, therefore, that both forms have their value, and their place in Logic. The dictum de omni should be retained as the fundamental axiom of the logic of mere consistency, often called Formal Logic; nor have I ever quarreled with the use of it in that character, nor proposed to banish it from treatises on Formal Logic. But the other is the proper axiom for the logic of the pursuit of truth by way of Deduction; and the recognition of it can alone show how it is possible that deductive reasoning can be a road to truth. 117 III. Of The Functions And Logical Value Of The Syllogism 1. We have shown what is the real nature of the truths with which the Syllogism is conversant, in contradist inction to the more superficial manner in which their import is conceived in the common theory; and what are the fundamental axioms on which its probative force or conclusiveness depends. We have now to inquire, whether the syllogistic process, that of reasoning from generals to particulars, is, or is not, a process of inference; a progress from the known to the unknown: a means of coming to a knowledge of something which we did not know before. Logicians have been remarkably unanimous in their mode of answering this question. It is universally allowed that a syllogism is vicious if there be any thing more in the conclusion than was assumed in the premises. But this is, in fact, to say, that nothing ever was, or can be, proved by syllogism, which was not known, or assumed to be known, before. Is ratiocination, then, not a process of inference? And is the syllogism, to which the word reasoning has so often been represented to be exclusively appropriate, not really entitled to be called reasoning at all? This s eems an inevitable consequence of the doctrine, admitted by all writers on the subject, that a syllogism can prove no more than is involved in the premises. Yet the acknowledgment so explicitly made, has not prevented one set of writers from continuing to represent the syllogism as the correct analysis of what the mind actually performs in discovering and proving the larger half of the truths, whether of science or of daily life, which we believe; while those who have avoided this inconsistency, and followed out the general theorem respecting the logical value of the syllogism to its legitimate corollary, have been led to impute uselessness and frivolity to the syllogistic theory itself, on the ground of the petitio principii which they allege to be inherent in every syllogism. As I believe both these opinions to be fundamentally erroneous, I must request the attention of the reader to certain considerations, without which any just appreciation of the true character of the syllogism, and the functions it performs in philosophy, appears to me impossible; but which seem to have been either overlooked, or insufficiently adverted to, both by the defenders of the syllogistic theory and by its assailants. 2. It must be granted that in every syllogism, considered as an argument to prove the conclusion, there is a petitio principii. When we say, All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal; it is unanswerably urged by the adversaries of the syllogistic theory, that the proposition, Socrates is mortal, is presupposed in the more general assumption, All men are mortal: that we can not be assured of the mortality of all men, unless we are alread y certain of the mortality of every individual man: that if it be still doubtful whether Socrates, or any other individual we choose to name, be mortal or not, the same degree of uncertainty must hang over the assertion, All men are mortal: that the genera l principle, instead of being given as evidence of the particular case, can not itself be taken for true without exception, until every shadow of doubt which could affect any case comprised with it, is dispelled by evidence aliund ; and then what remains for the syllogism to prove? That, in short, no reasoning from generals to particulars can, as such, prove any thing: since from a general 118 principle we can not infer any particulars, but those which the principle itself assumes as known. This doctrine appears to me irrefragable; and if logicians, though unable to dispute it, have usually exhibited a strong disposition to explain it away, this was not because they could discover any flaw in the argument itself, but because the contrary opinion seemed to rest on arguments equally indisputable. In the syllogism last referred to, for example, or in any of those which we previously constructed, is it not evident that the conclusion may, to the person to whom the syllogism is presented, be actually and bona fide a new truth? Is it not matter of daily experience that truths previously unthought of, facts which have not been, and can not be, directly observed, are arrived at by way of general reasoning? We believe that the Duke of Wellington is mortal. We do not know this by direct observation, so long as he is not yet dead. If we were asked how, this being the case, we know the duke to be mortal, we should probably answer, Because all men are so. Here, therefore, we arrive at the knowledge of a truth not (as yet) susceptible of observation, by a reasoning which admits of being exhibited in the following syllogism: All men are mortal, The Duke of Wellington is a man, therefore The Duke of Wellington is mortal. And since a large portion of our knowledge is thus acquired, logicians have persisted in representing the syllogism as a process of inference or proof; though none of them has cleared up the difficulty which arises from the inconsistency between that assertion, and the principle, that if there be any thing in the conclusion which was not already asserted in the premises, the argument is vicious. For it is impossible to attach any serious scientific value to such a mere salvo, as the distinction drawn between being involved by implication in the premises, and being directly asserted in them. When Archbishop Whately says P55F56 P that the object of reasoning is merely to expand and unfold the assertions wrapped up, as it were, and implied in those with which we set out, and to bring a person to perceive and acknowledge the fu ll force of that which he has admitted, he does not, I think, meet the real difficulty requiring to be explained, namely, how it happens that a science, like geometry, can be all wrapped up in a few definitions and axioms. Nor does this defense of the syllogism differ much from what its assailants urge against it as an accusation, when they charge it with being of no use except to those who seek to press the consequences of an admission into which a person has been entrapped without having considered and understood its full force. When you admitted the major premise, you asserted the conclusion; but, says Archbishop Whately, you asserted it by implication merely: this, however, can here only mean that you asserted it unconsciously; that you did not know you were asserting it; but, if so, the difficulty revives in this shapeOught you not to have known? Were you warranted in asserting the general proposition without having satisfied yourself of the truth of every thing which it fairly includes? And if not, is not the syllogistic art prima facie what its assailants affirm it to be, a contrivance for catching you in a trap, and holding you fast in it? P56F57 P 56 Logic , p. 239 (9th ed.). 57 It is hardly necessary to say, that I am not contending for any such absurdity as that we actually ought to have known and considered the case of every individual man, past, present, and future, before affirming that all men are mortal: although this interpretation has been, strangely enough, put upon the preceding observations. There is no difference between me and Archbishop Whately, or any other defender of the syllogism, on the practical part of the matter; I am only pointing out an inconsistency in the logical theory of it, as conceived by almost all writers. I do not say that a person who affirmed, before the Duke of Wellington was born, that all men 119 3. From this difficulty there appears to be but one issue. The proposition that the Duke of Wellington is mortal, is evidently an inference; it is got at as a conclusion from something else; but do we, in reality, conclude it from the proposition, All men are mortal? I answer, no. The error committed is, I conceive, that of overlooking the distinction between two parts of the process of philosophizing, the inferring part, and the registering part; and ascribing to the latter the functions of the former. The mistake is that of referring a person to his own notes for the origin of his knowledge. If a person is asked a question, and is at the moment unable to answer it, he may refresh his memory by turning to a memorandum which he carries about with him. But if he were asked, how the fact came to his knowledge, he would scarcely answer, because it was set down in his note-book: unless the book was written, like the Koran, with a quill from the wing of the angel Gabriel. Assuming that the proposition, The Duke of Wellington is mortal, is immediately an inference from the proposition, All men are mortal; whence do we derive our knowledge of that general truth? Of course from observation. Now, all which man can observe are individual cases. From these all general truths must be drawn, and into these they may be again resolved; for a general truth is but an aggregate of particular truths; a comprehensive expression, by which an indefinite number of individual facts are affirmed or denied at once. But a general proposition is not merely a compendious form for recording and preserving in the memory a number of particular f acts, all of which have been observed. Generalization is not a process of mere naming, it is also a process of inference. From instances which we have observed, we feel warranted in concluding, that what we found true in those instances, holds in all similar ones, past, present, and future, however numerous they may be. We then, by that valuable contrivance of language which enables us to speak of many as if they were one, record all that we have observed, together with all that we infer from our observations, in one concise expression; and have thus only one proposition, instead of an endless number, to remember or to communicate. The results of many observations and inferences, and instructions for making innumerable inferences in unforeseen cases, are compressed into one short sentence. When, therefore, we conclude from the death of John and Thomas, and every other person we ever heard of in whose case the experiment had been fairly tried, that the Duke of Wellington is mortal like the rest; we may, indeed , pass through the generalization, All men are mortal, as an intermediate stage; but it is not in the latter half of the process, the descent from all men to the Duke of Wellington, that the inference resides. The inference is finished when we have asserted that all men are mortal. What remains to be performed afterward is merely deciphering our own notes. Archbishop Whately has contended that syllogizing, or reasoning from generals to particulars, is not, agreeably to the vulgar idea, a peculiar mode of re asoning, but the philosophical analysis of the mode in which all men reason, and must do so if they reason at all. With the deference due to so high an authority, I can not help thinking that the vulgar notion is, in this case, the more correct. If, from our experience of John, Thomas, etc., who once were living, but are now dead, we are entitled to conclude that all human beings are mortal, we might surely without any logical inconsequence have concluded at once from those instances, that the Duke of Wellington is mortal. The mortality of John, Thomas, and others is, after all, the whole evidence we have for the mortality of the Duke of Wellington. are mortal, knew that the Duke of Wellington was mortal; but I do say that he asserted it; and I ask for an explanation of the apparent logical fallacy, of adducing in proof of the Duke of Wellington's mortality, a general statement which presupposes it. Finding no sufficient resolution of this difficulty in any of the writers on Logic, I have attempted to supply one. 120 Not one iota is added to the proof by interpolating a general proposition. Since the individual cases are all the evidence we can possess, evidence which no logical form into which we choose to throw it can make greater than it is; and since that evidence is either sufficient in itself, or, if insufficient for the one purpose, can not be sufficient for the other; I am unable to see why we should be forbidden to take the shortest cut from these sufficient premises to the conclusion, and constrained to travel the high priori road, by the arbitrary fiat of logicians. I can not perceive why it should be impossible to journey from one place to another unless we march up a hill, and then march down again. It may be the safest road, and there may be a resting -place at the top of the hill, affording a commanding view of the surrounding country; but for the mere purpose of arriving at our journey's end, our taking that road is perfectly optional; it is a question of time, trouble, and danger. Not only may we reason from particulars to particulars without passing through generals, but we perpetually do so reason. All our earliest inferences are of this nature. From the first dawn of intelligence we draw inferences, but years elapse before we learn the use of general language. The child, who, having burned his fingers, avoids to thrust them again into the fire, has reasoned or inferred, though he has never thought of the general maxim, Fire burns. He knows from memory that he has been burned, and on this evidence believes, when he sees a candle, that if he puts his finger into the flame of it, he will be burned again. He beli eves this in every case which happens to arise; but without looking, in each instance, beyond the present case. He is not generalizing; he is inferring a particular from particulars. In the same way, also, brutes reason. There is no ground for attributing to any of the lower animals the use of signs, of such a nature as to render general propositions possible. But those animals profit by experience, and avoid what they have found to cause them pain, in the same manner, though not always with the same skill, as a human creature. Not only the burned child, but the burned dog, dreads the fire. I believe that, in point of fact, when drawing inferences from our personal experience, and not from maxims handed down to us by books or tradition, we much oftener concl ude from particulars to particulars directly, than through the intermediate agency of any general proposition. We are constantly reasoning from ourselves to other people, or from one person to another, without giving ourselves the trouble to erect our obse rvations into general maxims of human or external nature. When we conclude that some person will, on some given occasion, feel or act so and so, we sometimes judge from an enlarged consideration of the manner in which human beings in general, or persons of some particular character, are accustomed to feel and act; but much oftener from merely recollecting the feelings and conduct of the same person in some previous instance, or from considering how we should feel or act ourselves. It is not only the village matron, who, when called to a consultation upon the case of a neighbor's child, pronounces on the evil and its remedy simply on the recollection and authority of what she accounts the similar case of her Lucy. We all, where we have no definite maxims to steer by, guide ourselves in the same way: and if we have an extensive experience, and retain its impressions strongly, we may acquire in this manner a very considerable power of accurate judgment, which we may be utterly incapable of justifying or of communicating to others. Among the higher order of practical intellects there have been many of whom it was remarked how admirably they suited their means to their ends, without being able to give any sufficient reasons for what they did; and applied, or seemed to apply, recondite principles which they were wholly unable to state. This is a natural consequence of having a mind stored with appropriate particulars, and having been long accustomed to reason at once from these to fresh particulars, without practicing the habit of stating to one's self or to others the corresponding general propositions. An old warrior, on a rapid glance at the outlines of the ground, is able at once to give the necessary orders for a 121 skillful arrangement of his troops; though if he has received little theoretical instruction, and has seldom been called upon to answer to other people for his conduct, he may never have had in his mind a single general theorem respecting the relation between ground and array. But his experience of encamp ments, in circumstances more or less similar, has left a number of vivid, unexpressed, ungeneralized analogies in his mind, the most appropriate of which, instantly suggesting itself, determines him to a judicious arrangement. The skill of an uneducated person in the use of weapons, or of tools, is of a precisely similar nature. The savage who executes unerringly the exact throw which brings down his game, or his enemy, in the manner most suited to his purpose, under the operation of all the conditions necessarily involved, the weight and form of the weapon, the direction and distance of the object, the action of the wind, etc., owes this power to a long series of previous experiments, the results of which he certainly never framed into any verbal theorems or rules. The same thing may generally be said of any other extraordinary manual dexterity. Not long ago a Scotch manufacturer procured from England, at a high rate of wages, a working dyer, famous for producing very fine colors, with the view of teaching to his other workmen the same skill. The workman came; but his mode of proportioning the ingredients, in which lay the secret of the effects he produced, was by taking them up in handfuls, while the common method was to weigh them. The manufacturer sought to make him turn his handling system into an equivalent weighing system, that the general principle of his peculiar mode of proceeding might be ascertained. This, however, the man found himself quite unable to do, and therefore could impart his skill to nobody. He had, from the individual cases of his own experience, established a connection in his mind between fine effects of color, and tactual perceptions in handling his dyeing materials; and from these perceptions he could, in any particular case, infer t he means to be employed, and the effects which would be produced, but could not put others in possession of the grounds on which he proceeded, from having never generalized them in his own mind, or expressed them in language. Almost every one knows Lord Mansfield's advice to a man of practical good sense, who, being appointed governor of a colony, had to preside in its courts of justice, without previous judicial practice or legal education. The advice was to give his decision boldly, for it would probably be right; but never to venture on assigning reasons, for they would almost infallibly be wrong. In cases like this, which are of no uncommon occurrence, it would be absurd to suppose that the bad reason was the source of the good decision. Lord Mansfield knew that if any reason were assigned it would be necessarily an afterthought, the judge being in fact guided by impressions from past experience, without the circuitous process of framing general principles from them, and that if he attempted to frame any such he would assuredly fail. Lord Mansfield, however, would not have doubted that a man of equal experience who had also a mind stored with general propositions derived by legitimate induction from that experience, would have been greatly preferable as a judge, to one, however sagacious, who could not be trusted with the explanation and justification of his own judgments. The cases of men of talent performing wonderful things they know not how, are examples of the rudest and most spontaneous form of the operations of superior minds. It is a defect in them, and often a source of errors, not to have generalized as they went on; but generalization, though a help, the most important indeed of all helps, is not an essential. Even the scientifically instructed, w ho possess, in the form of general propositions, a systematic record of the results of the experience of mankind, need not always revert to those general propositions in order to apply that experience to a new case. It is justly remarked by Dugald Stewart, that though the reasonings in mathematics depend entirely on the axioms, it is by no means necessary to our seeing the conclusiveness of the proof, that the axioms should be expressly adverted to. When it is inferred that AB is equal to CD because each of 122 them is equal to EF, the most uncultivated understanding, as soon as the propositions were understood, would assent to the inference, without having ever heard of the general truth that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. This remark of Stewart, consistently followed out, goes to the root, as I conceive, of the philosophy of ratiocination; and it is to be regretted that he himself stopped short at a much more limited application of it. He saw that the general propositions on which a reasoning is said to depend, may, in certain cases, be altogether omitted, without impairing its probative force. But he imagined this to be a peculiarity belonging to axioms; and argued from it, that axioms are not the foundations or first principles of geometry, from which all the other truths of the science are synthetically deduced (as the laws of motion and of the composition of forces in dynamics, the equal mobility of fluids in hydrostatics, the laws of reflection and refraction in optics, are the first principles of those sciences); but are merely necessary assumptions, self - evident indeed, and the denial of which would annihilate all demonstration, but from which, as premises, nothing can be demonstrated. In the present, as in many other instances, this thoughtful and elegant writer has perceived an important truth, but only by halves. Finding, in the case of geometrical axioms, that general names have not any talismanic virtue for conjuring new truths out of the well where they lie hid, and not seeing that this is equally true in every other case of generalization, he contended that axioms are in their nature barren of consequences, and that the really fruitful truths, the real first principles of geometry, are the definitions; that the def inition, for example, of the circle is to the properties of the circle, what the laws of equilibrium and of the pressure of the atmosphere are to the rise of the mercury in the Torricellian tube. Yet all that he had asserted respecting the function to which the axioms are confined in the demonstrations of geometry, holds equally true of the definitions. Every demonstration in Euclid might be carried on without them. This is apparent from the ordinary process of proving a proposition of geometry by means of a diagram. What assumption, in fact, do we set out from, to demonstrate by a diagram any of the properties of the circle? Not that in all circles the radii are equal, but only that they are so in the circle ABC. As our warrant for assuming this, we appeal, it is true, to the definition of a circle in general; but it is only necessary that the assumption be granted in the case of the particular circle supposed. From this, which is not a general but a singular proposition, combined with other propositions of a similar kind, some of which when generalized are called definitions, and other axioms, we prove that a certain conclusion is true, not of all circles, but of the particular circle ABC; or at least would be so, if the facts precisely accorded with our assumptions. The enunciation, as it is called, that is, the general theorem which stands at the head of the demonstration, is not the proposition actually demonstrated. One instance only is demonstrated: but the process by which this is done, is a process which, when we consider its nature, we perceive might be exactly copied in an indefinite number of other instances; in every instance which conforms to certain conditions. The contrivance of general language furnishing us with terms which connote these condit ions, we are able to assert this indefinite multitude of truths in a single expression, and this expression is the general theorem. By dropping the use of diagrams, and substituting, in the demonstrations, general phrases for the letters of the alphabet, w e might prove the general theorem directly, that is, we might demonstrate all the cases at once; and to do this we must, of course, employ as our premises, the axioms and definitions in their general form. But this only means, that if we can prove an individual conclusion by assuming an individual fact, then in whatever case we are warranted in making an exactly similar assumption, we may draw an exactly similar conclusion. The definition is a sort of notice to ourselves and others, what assumptions we think ourselves entitled to make. And so in all cases, the general propositions, whether called definitions, axioms, or laws of nature, which we lay down at the beginning of our reasonings, are merely abridged statements, in a kind of short-hand, of the partic ular facts, which, as occasion arises, 123 we either think we may proceed on as proved, or intend to assume. In any one demonstration it is enough if we assume for a particular case suitably selected, what by the statement of the definition or principle we announce that we intend to assume in all cases which may arise. The definition of the circle, therefore, is to one of Euclid's demonstrations, exactly what, according to Stewart, the axioms are; that is, the demonstration does not depend on it, but yet if we deny it the demonstration fails. The proof does not rest on the general assumption, but on a similar assumption confined to the particular case: that case, however, being chosen as a specimen or paradigm of the whole class of cases included in the theorem, there can be no ground for making the assumption in that case which does not exist in every other; and to deny the assumption as a general truth, is to deny the right of making it in the particular instance. There are, undoubtedly, the most ample reasons for stating both the principles and the theorems in their general form, and these will be explained presently, so far as explanation is requisite. But, that unpracticed learners, even in making use of one theorem to demonstrate another, reason rather from particular to particular than from the general proposition, is manifest from the difficulty they find in applying a theorem to a case in which the configuration of the diagram is extremely unlike that of the diagram by which the original theorem was demons trated. A difficulty which, except in cases of unusual mental power, long practice can alone remove, and removes chiefly by rendering us familiar with all the configurations consistent with the general conditions of the theorem. 4. From the considerations now adduced, the following conclusions seem to be established. All inference is from particulars to particulars: General propositions are merely registers of such inferences already made, and short formul for making more: The major premise of a syllogism, consequently, is a formula of this description: and the conclusion is not an inference drawn from the formula, but an inference drawn according to the formula: the real logical antecedent, or premise, being the particular facts from which the general pr oposition was collected by induction. Those facts, and the individual instances which supplied them, may have been forgotten: but a record remains, not indeed descriptive of the facts themselves, but showing how those cases may be distinguished, respecting which, the facts, when known, were considered to warrant a given inference. According to the indications of this record we draw our conclusion: which is, to all intents and purposes, a conclusion from the forgotten facts. For this it is essential that we should read the record correctly: and the rules of the syllogism are a set of precautions to insure our doing so. This view of the functions of the syllogism is confirmed by the consideration of precisely those cases which might be expected to be least fav orable to it, namely, those in which ratiocination is independent of any previous induction. We have already observed that the syllogism, in the ordinary course of our reasoning, is only the latter half of the process of traveling from premises to a conclusion. There are, however, some peculiar cases in which it is the whole process. Particulars alone are capable of being subjected to observation; and all knowledge which is derived from observation, begins, therefore, of necessity, in particulars; but our knowledge may, in cases of certain descriptions, be conceived as coming to us from other sources than observation. It may present itself as coming from testimony, which, on the occasion and for the purpose in hand, is accepted as of an authoritative charact er: and the information thus communicated, may be conceived to comprise not only particular facts but general propositions, as when a scientific doctrine is accepted without examination on the authority of writers, or a theological doctrine on that of Scripture. Or the generalization may not be, in the ordinary sense, an assertion at all, but a command; a law, not in the philosophical, but in the moral and political sense of the term: an expression of the desire of a superior, that we, or any number of other persons, shall conform our conduct to certain 124 general instructions. So far as this asserts a fact, namely, a volition of the legislator, that fact is an individual fact, and the proposition, therefore, is not a general proposition. But the description therein contained of the conduct which it is the will of the legislator that his subjects should observe, is general. The proposition asserts, not that all men are any thing, but that all men shall do something. In both these cases the generalities are the original data, and the particulars are elicited from them by a process which correctly resolves itself into a series of syllogisms. The real nature, however, of the supposed deductive process, is evident enough. The only point to be determined is, whether the authority which declared the general proposition, intended to include this case in it; and whether the legislator intended his command to apply to the present case among others, or not. This is ascertained by examining whether the case possesses the mar ks by which, as those authorities have signified, the cases which they meant to certify or to influence may be known. The object of the inquiry is to make out the witness's or the legislator's intention, through the indication given by their words. This is a question, as the Germans express it, of hermeneutics. The operation is not a process of inference, but a process of interpretation. In this last phrase we have obtained an expression which appears to me to characterize, more aptly than any other, the functions of the syllogism in all cases. When the premises are given by authority, the function of Reasoning is to ascertain the testimony of a witness, or the will of a legislator, by interpreting the signs in which the one has intimated his assertion and the other his command. In like manner, when the premises are derived from observation, the function of Reasoning is to ascertain what we (or our predecessors) formerly thought might be inferred from the observed facts, and to do this by interpreting a memorandum of ours, or of theirs. The memorandum reminds us, that from evidence, more or less carefully weighed, it formerly appeared that a certain attribute might be inferred wherever we perceive a certain mark. The proposition, All men are mortal (for instance) shows that we have had experience from which we thought it followed that the attributes connoted by the term man, are a mark of mortality. But when we conclude that the Duke of Wellington is mortal, we do not infer this from the memorandum, but from the former experience. All that we infer from the memorandum is our own previous belief, (or that of those who transmitted to us the proposition), concerning the inferences which that former experience would warrant. This view of the nature of the syllogism renders consistent and intelligible what otherwise remains obscure and confused in the theory of Archbishop Whately and other enlightened defenders of the syllogistic doctrine, respecting the limits to which its functions are confined. They affirm in as explicit terms as can be used, that the sole office of general reasoning is to prevent inconsistency in our opinions; to prevent us from assenting to any thing, the truth of which would contradict something to which we had previously on good grounds given our assent. And they tell us, that the sole ground which a syllogism affords for assenting to the conclusion, is that the supposition of its being false, combined with the supposition that the premises are true, would lead to a contradiction in terms. Now this would be but a lame account of the real grounds which we have for believing the facts which we learn from reasoning, in contradistinction to observation. The true reason why we believe that the Duke of Wellington will die, is that his fathers, and our fathers, and all other persons who were contemporary with them, have died. Those facts are the real premises of the reasoning. But we ar e not led to infer the conclusion from those premises, by the necessity of avoiding any verbal inconsistency. There is no contradiction in supposing that all those persons have died, and that the Duke of Wellington may, notwithstanding, live forever. But t here would be a contradiction if we first, on the ground of those same premises, made a general assertion including and covering the case of the Duke of Wellington, and then refused to stand to it in 125 the individual case. There is an inconsistency to be avoided between the memorandum we make of the inferences which may be justly drawn in future cases, and the inferences we actually draw in those cases when they arise. With this view we interpret our own formula, precisely as a judge interprets a law: in orde r that we may avoid drawing any inferences not conformable to our former intention, as a judge avoids giving any decision not conformable to the legislator's intention. The rules for this interpretation are the rules of the syllogism: and its sole purpose is to maintain consistency between the conclusions we draw in every particular case, and the previous general directions for drawing them; whether those general directions were framed by ourselves as the result of induction, or were received by us from an authority competent to give them. 5. In the above observations it has, I think, been shown, that, though there is always a process of reasoning or inference where a syllogism is used, the syllogism is not a correct analysis of that process of reasoning or inference; which is, on the contrary (when not a mere inference from testimony), an inference from particulars to particulars; authorized by a previous inference from particulars to generals, and substantially the same with it; of the nature, therefore, of Induction. But while these conclusions appear to me undeniable, I must yet enter a protest, as strong as that of Archbishop Whately himself, against the doctrine that the syllogistic art is useless for the purposes of reasoning. The reasoning lies in the act of generalization, not in interpreting the record of that act; but the syllogistic form is an indispensable collateral security for the correctness of the generalization itself. It has already been seen, that if we have a collection of particulars su fficient for grounding an induction, we need not frame a general proposition; we may reason at once from those particulars to other particulars. But it is to be remarked withal, that whenever, from a set of particular cases, we can legitimately draw any inference, we may legitimately make our inference a general one. If, from observation and experiment, we can conclude to one new case, so may we to an indefinite number. If that which has held true in our past experience will therefore hold in time to come, it will hold not merely in some individual case, but in all cases of some given description. Every induction, therefore, which suffices to prove one fact, proves an indefinite multitude of facts: the experience which justifies a single prediction must be such as will suffice to bear out a general theorem. This theorem it is extremely important to ascertain and declare, in its broadest form of generality; and thus to place before our minds, in its full extent, the whole of what our evidence must prove if it proves any thing. This throwing of the whole body of possible inferences from a given set of particulars, into one general expression, operates as a security for their being just inferences, in more ways than one. First, the general principle presents a larger object to the imagination than any of the singular propositions which it contains. A process of thought which leads to a comprehensive generality, is felt as of greater importance than one which terminates in an insulated fact; and the mind is, even unconsciously, led to bestow greater attention upon the process, and to weigh more carefully the sufficiency of the experience appealed to, for supporting the inference grounded upon it. There is another, and a more important, advantage. In reasoning from a course of individual observations to some new and unobserved case, which we are but imperfectly acquainted with (or we should not be inquiring into it), and in which, since we are inquiring into it, we probably feel a peculiar interest; there is very little to prevent us from giving way to negligence, or to any bias which may affect our wishes or our imagination, and, under that influence, accepting insufficient evidence as sufficient. But if, instead of concluding straight to the particular case, we place before ourselves an entire class of facts the whole contents of a general proposition, every tittle of which is legitimately inferable from our premises, if that one particular conclusion is so; there is then a considerable likelihood that if the premises are insufficient, and the general 126 inference therefore, groundless, it will comprise within it some fact or facts the reverse of which we already know to be true; and we shall thus discover the error in our generalization by a reductio ad impossibile . Thus if, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a subject of the Roman empire, under the bias naturally given to the imagination and expectations by the lives and characters of the Antonines, had been disposed to expect that Commodus would be a just ruler; supposing him to stop there, he might only have been undeceived by sad experience. But if he reflected that this expectation could not be justifiable unless from the same evidence he was warranted in concluding some general proposition, as, for instance, that a ll Roman emperors are just rulers; he would immediately have thought of Nero, Domitian, and other instances, which, showing the falsity of the general conclusion, and therefore the insufficiency of the premises, would have warned him that those premises could not prove in the instance of Commodus, what they were inadequate to prove in any collection of cases in which his was included. The advantage, in judging whether any controverted inference is legitimate, of referring to a parallel case, is universally acknowledged. But by ascending to the general proposition, we bring under our view not one parallel case only, but all possible parallel cases at once; all cases to which the same set of evidentiary considerations are applicable. When, therefore, we argue from a number of known cases to another case supposed to be analogous, it is always possible, and generally advantageous, to divert our argument into the circuitous channel of an induction from those known cases to a general proposition, and a subsequent application of that general proposition to the unknown case. This second part of the operation, which, as before observed, is essentially a process of interpretation, will be resolvable into a syllogism or a series of syllogisms, the majors of which w ill be general propositions embracing whole classes of cases; every one of which propositions must be true in all its extent, if the argument is maintainable. If, therefore, any fact fairly coming within the range of one of these general propositions, and consequently asserted by it, is known or suspected to be other than the proposition asserts it to be, this mode of stating the argument causes us to know or to suspect that the original observations, which are the real grounds of our conclusion, are not sufficient to support it. And in proportion to the greater chance of our detecting the inconclusiveness of our evidence, will be the increased reliance we are entitled to place in it if no such evidence of defect shall appear. The value, therefore, of the syllogistic form, and of the rules for using it correctly, does not consist in their being the form and the rules according to which our reasonings are necessarily, or even usually, made; but in their furnishing us with a mode in which those reasonings may a lways be represented, and which is admirably calculated, if they are inconclusive, to bring their inconclusiveness to light. An induction from particulars to generals, followed by a syllogistic process from those generals to other particulars, is a form in which we may always state our reasonings if we please. It is not a form in which we must reason, but it is a form in which we may reason, and into which it is indispensable to throw our reasoning, when there is any doubt of its validity: though when the c ase is familiar and little complicated, and there is no suspicion of error, we may, and do, reason at once from the known particular cases to unknown ones. P57F58 P 58 The language of ratiocination would, I think, be brought into closer agreement with the real nature of the process, if the general propositions employed in reasoning, instead of being in the form All men are mortal, or Every man is mortal, were expressed in the form Any man is mortal. This mode of expression, exhibiting as the type of all reasoning from experience The men A, B, C, etc., are so and so, therefore any man is so and so, would much better manifest the true idea that inductive reasoning is always, at bottom, inference from 127 These are the uses of syllogism, as a mode of verifying any given argument. Its ulterior uses, as respects the general course of our intellectual operations, hardly require illustration, being in fact the acknowledged uses of general language. They amount substantially to this, that the inductions may be made once for all: a single careful interrogati on of experience may suffice, and the result may be registered in the form of a general proposition, which is committed to memory or to writing, and from which afterward we have only to syllogize. The particulars of our experiments may then be dismissed from the memory, in which it would be impossible to retain so great a multitude of details; while the knowledge which those details afforded for future use, and which would otherwise be lost as soon as the observations were forgotten, or as their record became too bulky for reference, is retained in a commodious and immediately available shape by means of general language. Against this advantage is to be set the countervailing inconvenience, that inferences originally made on insufficient evidence become consecrated, and, as it were, hardened into general maxims; and the mind cleaves to them from habit, after it has outgrown any liability to be misled by similar fallacious appearances if they were now for the first time presented; but having forgotten the particulars, it does not think of revising its own former decision. An inevitable drawback, which, however considerable in itself, forms evidently but a small set-off against the immense benefits of general language. The use of the syllogism is in truth no other than the use of general propositions in reasoning. We can reason without them; in simple and obvious cases we habitually do so; minds of great sagacity can do it in cases not simple and obvious, provided their experience supplies them with instances ess entially similar to every combination of circumstances likely to arise. But other minds, and the same minds where they have not the same pre- eminent advantages of personal experience, are quite helpless without the aid of general propositions, wherever the case presents the smallest complication; and if we made no general propositions, few persons would get much beyond those simple inferences which are drawn by the more intelligent of the brutes. Though not necessary to reasoning, general propositions are n ecessary to any considerable progress in reasoning. It is, therefore, natural and indispensable to separate the process of investigation into two parts; and obtain general formul for determining what inferences may be drawn, before the occasion arises for drawing the inferences. The work of drawing them is then that of applying the formul; and the rules of syllogism are a system of securities for the correctness of the application. 6. To complete the series of considerations connected with the philosophical character of the syllogism, it is requisite to consider, since the syllogism is not the universal type of the reasoning process, what is the real type. This resolves itself into the question, what is the nature of the minor premise, and in what manner it contributes to establish the conclusion: for as to the major, we now fully understand, that the place which it nominally occupies in our reasonings, properly belongs to the individual facts or observations of which it expresses the general result; the major itself being no real part of the argument, but an intermediate halting - place for the mind, interposed by an artifice of language between the real premises and the conclusion, by way of a security, which it is in a most material degree, for the correctness of the process. The minor, however, being an indispensable part of the syllogistic expression of an argument, without doubt either is, or corresponds to, an equally indispensable part of the argument itself, and we have only to inquire what part. It is perhaps worth while to notice here a speculation of a philosopher to whom mental science is much indebted, but who, though a very penetrating, was a very hasty thinker, and particulars to particulars, and that the whole function of general propositions in reasoning, is to vouch for the legitimacy of such inferences. 128 whose want of due circumspection rendered him fully as remarkable for what he did not see, as for what he saw. I allude to Dr. Thomas Brown, whose theory of ratiocination is peculiar. He saw the petitio principii which is inherent in every syllogism, if we consider the major to be itself the evidence by which the conclusion is proved, instead of being, what in fact it is, an assertion of the existence of evidence sufficient to prove any conclusion of a given description. Seeing this, Dr. Brown not only failed to see the immense advantage, in point of security for correctness, which is gained by interposing this step between the real evidence and the conclusion; but he thought it incumbent on him to strike out the major altogether from the reasoning process, without substituting any thing else, and maintained that our reasonings consist only of the minor premise and the conclusion, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal: thus actually suppressing, as an unnecessary step in the argument, the appeal to former experience. The absurdity of this was disguised from him by the opinion he adopted, that reasoning is merely analyzing our own general notions, or abstract ideas; and that the proposition, Socrates is mortal, is evolved from the proposition, Socrates is a man, simply by recognizing the notion of mortality as already contained in the notion we form of a man. After the explanations so fully entered into on the subject of propositions, much further discussion can not be necessary to make the radical error of this view of ratiocination apparent. If the word man connoted mortality; if the meaning of mortal were involved in the meaning of man; we might, undoubtedly, evolve the conclusion from the minor alone, because the minor would have already asserted it. But if, as is in fact the case, the word man does not connote mortality, how does it appear that in the mind of every person who admits Socrates to be a man, the idea of man must include the idea of mortality? Dr. Brown could not help seeing this difficulty, and in order to avoid it, was led, contrary to his intention, to re-establish, under another name, that step in the argument which corresponds to the major, by affirming the necessity of previously perceiving the relation between the idea of man and the idea of mortal. If the reasoner has not previously perceived this relation, he will not, says Dr. Brown, infer because Socrates is a man, that Socrates is mortal. But even this admission, though amounting to a surrender of the doctrine that an argument consists of the minor and the conclusion alone, will not save the remainder of Dr. Brown's theory. The failure of assent to the argument does not take place merely because the reasoner, for want of due analysis, does not perceive that his idea of man includes the idea of mortality; it takes place, much more commonly, because in his mind that relation between the two ideas has never existed. And in truth it never does exist, except as the result of experience. Consenting, for the sake of the argument, to discuss the question on a supposition of which we have recognized the radical i ncorrectness, namely, that the meaning of a proposition relates to the ideas of the things spoken of, and not to the things themselves; I must yet observe, that the idea of man, as a universal idea, the common property of all rational creatures, can not involve any thing but what is strictly implied in the name. If any one includes in his own private idea of man, as no doubt is always the case, some other attributes, such for instance as mortality, he does so only as the consequence of experience, after hav ing satisfied himself that all men possess that attribute: so that whatever the idea contains, in any person's mind, beyond what is included in the conventional signification of the word, has been added to it as the result of assent to a proposition; while Dr. Brown's theory requires us to suppose, on the contrary, that assent to the proposition is produced by evolving, through an analytic process, this very element out of the idea. This theory, therefore, may be considered as sufficiently refuted; and the minor premise must be regarded as totally insufficient to prove the conclusion, except with the assistance of the major, or of that which the major represents, namely, the various singular propositions expressive of the series of observations, of which the generalization called the major premise is the result. 129 In the argument, then, which proves that Socrates is mortal, one indispensable part of the premises will be as follows: My father, and my father's father, A, B, C, and an indefinite number of other p ersons, were mortal; which is only an expression in different words of the observed fact that they have died. This is the major premise divested of the petitio principii, and cut down to as much as is really known by direct evidence. In order to connect this proposition with the conclusion Socrates is mortal, the additional link necessary is such a proposition as the following: Socrates resembles my father, and my father's father, and the other individuals specified. This proposition we assert when we say that Socrates is a man. By saying so we likewise assert in what respect he resembles them, namely, in the attributes connoted by the word man. And we conclude that he further resembles them in the attribute mortality. 7. We have thus obtained what we were seeking, a universal type of the reasoning process. We find it resolvable in all cases into the following elements: Certain individuals have a given attribute; an individual or individuals resemble the former in certain other attributes; therefore they resemble them also in the given attribute. This type of ratiocination does not claim, like the syllogism, to be conclusive from the mere form of the expression; nor can it possibly be so. That one proposition does or does not assert the very fact which wa s already asserted in another, may appear from the form of the expression, that is, from a comparison of the language; but when the two propositions assert facts which are bona fide different, whether the one fact proves the other or not can never appear from the language, but must depend on other considerations. Whether, from the attributes in which Socrates resembles those men who have heretofore died, it is allowable to infer that he resembles them also in being mortal, is a question of Induction; and is to be decided by the principles or canons which we shall hereafter recognize as tests of the correct performance of that great mental operation. Meanwhile, however, it is certain, as before remarked, that if this inference can be drawn as to Socrates, it can be drawn as to all others who resemble the observed individuals in the same attributes in which he resembles them; that is (to express the thing concisely) of all mankind. If, therefore, the argument be admissible in the case of Socrates, we are at liberty, once for all, to treat the possession of the attributes of man as a mark, or satisfactory evidence, of the attribute of mortality. This we do by laying down the universal proposition, All men are mortal, and interpreting this, as occasion arises, in its application to Socrates and others. By this means we establish a very convenient division of the entire logical operation into two steps; first, that of ascertaining what attributes are marks of mortality; and, secondly, whether any given individuals possess those marks. And it will generally be advisable, in our speculations on the reasoning process, to consider this double operation as in fact taking place, and all reasoning as carried on in the form into which it must necessarily be thrown to enable us to apply to it any test of its correct performance. Although, therefore, all processes of thought in which the ultimate premises are particulars, whether we conclude from particulars to a general formula, or from particulars to other particulars accordi ng to that formula, are equally Induction; we shall yet, conformably to usage, consider the name Induction as more peculiarly belonging to the process of establishing the general proposition, and the remaining operation, which is substantially that of interpreting the general proposition, we shall call by its usual name, Deduction. And we shall consider every process by which any thing is inferred respecting an unobserved case, as consisting of an Induction followed by a Deduction; because, although the process needs not necessarily be carried on in this form, it is always susceptible of the form, and must be thrown into it when assurance of scientific accuracy is needed and desired. 130 8. The theory of the syllogism laid down in the preceding pages, has obtained, among other important adhesions, three of peculiar value: those of Sir John Herschel, P58F59 P Dr. Whewell, P59F60 P and Mr. Bailey; P60F61 P Sir John Herschel considering the doctrine, though not strictly a discovery, having been anticipated by Berkeley, P61F62 P to be one of the greatest steps which have yet been made in the philosophy of Logic. When we consider (to quote the further words of the same authority) the inveteracy of the habits and prejudices which it has cast to the winds, there is no cause for mi sgiving in the fact that other thinkers, no less entitled to consideration, have formed a very different estimate of it. Their principal objection can not be better or more succinctly stated than by borrowing a sentence from Archbishop Whately. P62F63 P In every case where an inference is drawn from Induction (unless that name is to be given to a mere random guess without any grounds at all) we must form a judgment that the instance or instances adduced are sufficient to authorize the conclusion; that it is allowable to take these instances as a sample warranting an inference respecting the whole class; and the expression of this judgment in words (it has been said by several of my critics) is the major premise. I quite admit that the major is an affirmation of the sufficiency of the evidence on which the conclusion rests. That it is so, is the very essence of my own theory. And whoever admits that the major premise is only this, adopts the theory in its essentials. But I can not concede that this recognition of t he sufficiency of the evidencethat is, of the correctness of the inductionis a part of the induction itself; unless we ought to say that it is a part of every thing we do, to satisfy ourselves that it has been done rightly. We conclude from known instances to unknown by the impulse of the generalizing propensity; and (until after a considerable amount of practice and mental discipline) the question of the sufficiency of the evidence is only raised by a retrospective act, turning back upon our own footsteps, and examining whether we were warranted in doing what we have provisionally done. To speak of this reflex operation as part of the original one, requiring to be expressed in words in order that the verbal formula may correctly represent the psychologica l process, appears to me false psychology. P63F64 P We review our syllogistic as well as our inductive processes, and recognize that they have been correctly performed; but logicians do not add a third premise to the syllogism, to express this act of recognition. A careful copyist verifies his transcript by collating it with the original; and if no error appears, he recognizes that the transcript has been correctly made. But we do not call the examination of the copy a part of the act of copying. The conclusion in an induction is inferred from the evidence itself, and not from a recognition of the sufficiency of the evidence; as I infer that my friend is walking toward me because I see him, and not because I recognize that my eyes are open, and that eyesight is a m eans of knowledge. In all operations which require care, it is good to assure ourselves that the process has been performed accurately; but the testing of the process is not the process itself; and, besides, may have been omitted altogether, and yet the pr ocess be correct. It is precisely 59 Review of Quetelet on Probabilities, Essays , p. 367. 60 Philosophy of Discovery , p. 289. 61 Theory of R easoning, chap. iv., to which I may refer for an able statement and enforcement of the grounds of the doctrine. 62 On a recent careful reperusal of Berkeley's whole works, I have been unable to find this doctrine in them. Sir John Herschel probably meant that it is implied in Berkeley's argument against abstract ideas. But I can not find that Berkeley saw the implication, or had ever asked himself what bearing his argument had on the theory of the syllogism. Still less can I admit that the doctrine is (as ha s been affirmed by one of my ablest and most candid critics) among the standing marks of what is called the empirical philosophy. 63 Logic , book iv., chap. i., sect. 1. 64 See the important chapter on Belief, in Professor Bain's great treatise, The Emotions and the Will , pp. 581- 4. 131 because that operation is omitted in ordinary unscientific reasoning, that there is any thing gained in certainty by throwing reasoning into the syllogistic form. To make sure, as far as possible, that it shall not be omitted, we make the testing operation a part of the reasoning process itself. We insist that the inference from particulars to particulars shall pass through a general proposition. But this is a security for good reasoning, not a condition of all reasoning; and in some cases not even a security. Our most familiar inferences are all made before we learn the use of general propositions; and a person of untutored sagacity will skillfully apply his acquired experience to adjacent cases, though he would bungle grievously in fixing the limits of the appropriate general theorem. But though he may conclude rightly, he never, properly speaking, knows whether he has done so or not; he has not tested his reasoning. Now, this is precisely what forms of reasoning do for us. We do not need them to enable us to reason, but to enable us to know whether we reason correctly. In still further answer to the objection, it may be added thateven when the test has been applied, and the sufficiency of the evidence recognized if it is s ufficient to support the general proposition, it is sufficient also to support an inference from particulars to particulars without passing through the general proposition. The inquirer who has logically satisfied himself that the conditions of legitimate induction were realized in the cases A, B, C, would be as much justified in concluding directly to the Duke of Wellington as in concluding to all men. The general conclusion is never legitimate, unless the particular one would be so too; and in no sense, intelligible to me, can the particular conclusion be said to be drawn from the general one. Whenever there is ground for drawing any conclusion at all from particular instances, there is ground for a general conclusion; but that this general conclusion should be actually drawn, however useful, can not be an indispensable condition of the validity of the inference in the particular case. A man gives away sixpence by the same power by which he disposes of his whole fortune; but it is not necessary to the legal ity of the smaller act, that he should make a formal assertion of his right to the greater one. Some additional remarks, in reply to minor objections, are appended. P64F65 P 65 A writer in the British Quarterly Review (August, 1846), in a review of this treatise, endeavors to show that there is no petitio principii in the syllogism, by denying that the proposition, All men are mortal, asserts or assumes that Socrates is mortal. In support of this denial, he argues that we may, and in fact do, admit the general proposition that all men are mortal, without having particularly examined the case of Socrates, and even without knowing whether the individual so named is a man or something else. But this of course was never denied. That we can and do draw conclusions concerning cases specifically unknown to us, is the datum from which all who discuss this subject must set out. The question is, in what terms the evidence, or ground, on which we draw these conclusions, may best be designatedwhether it is most correct to say, that the unknown case is proved by known cases, or that it is proved by a general proposition including both sets of cases, the unknown and the known? I contend for the former mode of expression. I hold it an abuse of language to say, that the proof that Socrates is mortal, is that all men are mortal. Turn it in what way we will, this seems to me to be asserting that a thing is the pr oof of itself. Whoever pronounces the words, All men are mortal, has affirmed that Socrates is mortal, though he may never have heard of Socrates; for since Socrates, whether known to be so or not, really is a man, he is included in the words, All men, and in every assertion of which they are the subject. If the reviewer does not see that there is a difficulty here, I can only advise him to reconsider the subject until he does: after which he will be a better judge of the success or failure of an attempt to remove the difficulty. That he had reflected very little on the point when he wrote his remarks, is shown by his oversight respecting the dictum de omni et nullo . He acknowledges that this maxim as commonly expressed Whatever is true of a class, is true of every thing included in the class, is a mere identical proposition, since the class is nothing but the things included in it. But he thinks this defect would be cured by wording the maxim thus Whatever is true of a class, is true of every thing which can be shown to be a member of the class: as if a thing could be shown to be a member of the class without being one. If a class means the sum of all the things included in the class, the things which can be shown to be included in it are part of the sum, and the dictum is as much an identical proposition with respect to them as to the rest. One would almost imagine that, in the reviewer's opinion, things are not members of a class until they are called up publicly to take their place in it that so lon g, in fact, as 132 9. The preceding considerations enable us to understand the true nature of what is termed, by recent writers, Formal Logic, and the relation between it and Logic in the widest sense. Logic, as I conceive it, is the entire theory of the ascertainment of reasoned or inferred truth. Formal Logic, therefore, which Sir William Hamilton from his own point of view, and Archbishop Whately from his, have represented as the whole of Logic properly so called, is really a very subordinate part of it, not being directly concerned with the process of Reasoning or Inference in the sense in which that process is a part of the Investigation of Truth. What, then, is Formal Logic? The name seems to be properly applied to all that portion of doctrine which relates to the equivalence of different modes of expression; the rules for determining when assertions in a given form imply or suppose the truth or falsity of other assertions. This includes the theory of the Import of Propositions, and of their Conversion, quipollence, and Opposition; of those falsely called Inductions (to be hereafter spoken Socrates is not known to be a man, he is not a man, and any assertion which can be made concerning men does not at all regard him, nor is affected as to its truth or falsity by any thing in which he is concerned. The difference between the reviewer's theory and mine may be thus stated. Both admit that when we say, All men are mortal, we make an assertion reaching beyond the sphere of our knowledge of individual cases; and that when a new individual, Socrates, is brought within the field of our knowledge by means of the minor premise, we learn that we have already made an assertion respecting Socrates without knowing it: our own general formula being, to that extent, for the first time interpreted to us. But according to the reviewer's theory, the smaller assertion is proved by the larger: while I contend, that both assertions are proved together, by the same evidence, namely, the grounds of experience on which the general assertion was made, and by which it must be justified. The reviewer says, that if the major premise included the conclusion, we should be able to affirm the conclusion without the intervention of the minor premise; but every one sees that that is impossible. A similar argument is urged by Mr. De Morgan ( Formal Logic , p. 259): The whole objection tacitly assumes the superfluity of the minor; that is, tacitly assumes we know Socrates (Mr. De Morgan says Plato, but to prevent confusion I have kept to my own exemplum .) to be a man as soon as we know him to be Socrates. The objection would be well grounded if the assertion that the major premise includes the conclusion, meant that it individually specifies all it includes. As, however, the only indication it gives is a description by marks, we have still to compare any new individual with the marks; and to show that this comparison has been made, is the office of the minor. But since, by supposition, the new individual has the marks, whether we have ascertained him to have them or not; if we have affirmed the major premise, we have asserted him to be mortal. Now my position is that this assertion can not be a necessary part of the argument. It can not be a necessary condition of reasoning that we should begin by making an assertion, which is afterward to be employed in proving a part of itself. I can conceive only one way out of this difficulty, viz., that what really forms the proof is the other part of the assertion: the portion of it, the truth of which has been ascertained previously: and that the unproved part is bound up in one formula with the proved part in mere anticipation, and as a memorandum of the nature of the conclusions which we are prepared to prove. With respect to the minor premise in its formal shape, the minor as it stands in the syllogism, predicating of Socrat es a definite class name, I readily admit that it is no more a necessary part of reasoning than the major. When there is a major, doing its work by means of a class name, minors are needed to interpret it: but reasoning can be carried on without either the one or the other. They are not the conditions of reasoning, but a precaution against erroneous reasoning. The only minor premise necessary to reasoning in the example under consideration, is, Socrates is like A, B, C, and the other individuals who are known to have died. And this is the only universal type of that step in the reasoning process which is represented by the minor. Experience, however, of the uncertainty of this loose mode of inference, teaches the expediency of determining beforehand what kind of likeness to the cases observed, is necessary to bring an unobserved case within the same predicate; and the answer to this question is the major. The minor then identifies the precise kind of likeness possessed by Socrates, as being the kind required by the formula. Thus the syllogistic major and the syllogistic minor start into existence together, and are called forth by the same exigency. When we conclude from personal experience without referring to any recordto any general theorems, either written , or traditional, or mentally registered by ourselves as conclusions of our own drawingwe do not use, in our thoughts, either a major or a minor, such as the syllogism puts into words. When, however, we revise this rough inference from particulars to part iculars, and substitute a careful one, the revision consists in selecting two syllogistic premises. But this neither alters nor adds to the evidence we had before; it only puts us in a better position for judging whether our inference from particulars to particulars is well grounded. 133 of) P65F66 P, in which the apparent generalization is a mere abridged statement of cases known individually; and finally, of the syllogism: while the theory of Naming, and of (what is inseparably connected with it) Definition, though belonging still more to the other and larger kind of logic than to this, is a necessary preliminary to this. The end aimed at by Formal Logic, and attained by the observance of its precepts, is not truth, but consistency. It has been seen that this is the only direct purpose of the rules of the syllogism; the intention and effect of which is simply to keep our inferences or conclusions in complete consistency with our general formul or directions for drawing them. The Logic of Consistency is a necessary auxiliary to the logic of truth, not only beca use what is inconsistent with itself or with other truths can not be true, but also because truth can only be successfully pursued by drawing inferences from experience, which, if warrantable at all, admit of being generalized, and, to test their warrantableness, require to be exhibited in a generalized form; after which the correctness of their application to particular cases is a question which specially concerns the Logic of Consistency. This Logic, not requiring any preliminary knowledge of the processe s or conclusions of the various sciences, may be studied with benefit in a much earlier stage of education than the Logic of Truth: and the practice which has empirically obtained of teaching it apart, through elementary treatises which do not attempt to include any thing else, though the reasons assigned for the practice are in general very far from philosophical, admits of philosophical justification. 66 Infra, book 3., chap. 2. 134 IV. Of Trains Of Reasoning, And Deductive Sciences 1. In our analysis of the syllogism, it appeared that the minor premise always affirms a resemblance between a new case and some cases previously known; while the major premise asserts something which, having been found true of those known cases, we consider ourselves warranted in holding true of any other case resembling the former in certain given particulars. If all ratiocinations resembled, as to the minor premise, the examples which were exclusively employed in the preceding chapter; if the resemblance, which that premise asserts, were obvious to the senses, as in the proposition Socrates is a man, or were at once ascertainable by direct observation; there would be no necessity for trains of reasoning, and Deductive or Ratiocinative Sciences would not exist. Trains of reasoning exist only for the sake of extending an induction founded, as all inductions must be, on observed cases, to other cases in which we not only can not directly observe the fact which is to be proved, but can not directly observe even the mark which is to prove it. 2. Suppose the syllogism to be, All cows ruminate, the animal which is before me is a cow, therefore it ruminates. The minor, if true at all, is obviously so: the only premise the establishment of which requires any anterior process of inquiry, is the major; and provided the induction of which that premise is the expression was correctly performed, the conclusion respecting the animal now present will be instantly drawn; because, as soon as she is compared with the formula, she will be identified as being included in it. But suppose the syllogism to be the following: All arsenic is poisonous, the substance which is before me is arsenic, therefore it is poisonous. The truth of the minor may not here be obvious at first sight; it may not be intuitively evident, but may itself be known only by inference. It may be the conclusion of another argument, which, thrown into the syllogistic form, would stand thus: Whatever when lighted produces a dark spot on a piece of white porcelain held in the flame, which spot is soluble in hypochloride of calcium, is arsenic; the substance before me conforms to this condition; therefore it is arsenic. To establish, therefore, the ultimate conclusion, The substance before me is poisonous, requires a process, which, in order to be syllogistically expressed, stands in need of two syllogisms; and we have a Train of Reasoning. When, however, we thus add syllogism to syllogism, we are really adding induction to induction. Two separate inductions must have taken place to render this chain of inference possible; inductions founded, probably, on different sets of individual instances, but which converge in their results, so that the instance which is the subject of inquiry comes within the range of them both. The record of these inductions is contained in the majors of the two syllogisms. First, we, or others for us, have examined various objects which yielded under the given circumstances a dark spot with the given property, and found that they possessed the properties connoted by the word arsenic; they were metallic, volatile, their vapor had a smell of garlic, and so forth. Next, we, or others for us, have examined various specimens which possessed this metallic and volatile character, whose vapor had this smell, etc., and have invariably found that they were poisonous. The first observation we judge that we may extend to all substances whatever which yield that particular kind of dark spot; the second, to all metallic and volatile substances resembling those we ex amined; and consequently, not to those only which are seen to be such, but to those which are concluded to be such by the prior induction. The substance before us is only seen to come within one of these inductions; but by means of this one, it is brought within the other. We are still, as before, concluding from 135 particulars to particulars; but we are now concluding from particulars observed, to other particulars which are not, as in the simple case, seen to resemble them in material points, but inferred to do so, because resembling them in something else, which we have been led by quite a different set of instances to consider as a mark of the former resemblance. This first example of a train of reasoning is still extremely simple, the series con sisting of only two syllogisms. The following is somewhat more complicated: No government, which earnestly seeks the good of its subjects, is likely to be overthrown; some particular government earnestly seeks the good of its subjects, therefore it is not likely to be overthrown. The major premise in this argument we shall suppose not to be derived from considerations a priori , but to be a generalization from history, which, whether correct or erroneous, must have been founded on observation of governments concerning whose desire of the good of their subjects there was no doubt. It has been found, or thought to be found, that these were not easily overthrown, and it has been deemed that those instances warranted an extension of the same predicate to any and every government which resembles them in the attribute of desiring earnestly the good of its subjects. But does the government in question thus resemble them? This may be debated pro and con by many arguments, and must, in any case, be proved by another induction; for we can not directly observe the sentiments and desires of the persons who carry on the government. To prove the minor, therefore, we require an argument in this form: Every government which acts in a certain manner, desires the good of its subjects; the supposed government acts in that particular manner, therefore it desires the good of its subjects. But is it true that the government acts in the manner supposed? This minor also may require proof; still another induction, as thus: What is asser ted by intelligent and disinterested witnesses, may be believed to be true; that the government acts in this manner, is asserted by such witnesses, therefore it may be believed to be true. The argument hence consists of three steps. Having the evidence of our senses that the case of the government under consideration resembles a number of former cases, in the circumstance of having something asserted respecting it by intelligent and disinterested witnesses, we infer, first, that, as in those former instances, so in this instance, the assertion is true. Secondly, what was asserted of the government being that it acts in a particular manner, and other governments or persons having been observed to act in the same manner, the government in question is brought into known resemblance with those other governments or persons; and since they were known to desire the good of the people, it is thereupon, by a second induction, inferred that the particular government spoken of, desires the good of the people. This brings that government into known resemblance with the other governments which were thought likely to escape revolution, and thence, by a third induction, it is concluded that this particular government is also likely to escape. This is still reasoning from particulars to particulars, but we now reason to the new instance from three distinct sets of former instances: to one only of those sets of instances do we directly perceive the new one to be similar; but from that similarity we inductively infer that it has the attribute by which it is assimilated to the next set, and brought within the corresponding induction; after which by a repetition of the same operation we infer it to be similar to the third set, and hence a third induction conducts us to the ultimate conclusion. 3. Notwithstanding the superior complication of these examples, compared with those by which in the preceding chapter we illustrated the general theory of reasoning, every doctrine which we then laid down holds equally true in these more int ricate cases. The successive general propositions are not steps in the reasoning, are not intermediate links in the chain of inference, between the particulars observed and those to which we apply the observation. If we had sufficiently capacious memories, and a sufficient power of maintaining order among a huge mass of details, the reasoning could go on without any general propositions; they are 136 mere formul for inferring particulars from particulars. The principle of general reasoning is (as before explai ned), that if, from observation of certain known particulars, what was seen to be true of them can be inferred to be true of any others, it may be inferred of all others which are of a certain description. And in order that we may never fail to draw this conclusion in a new case when it can be drawn correctly, and may avoid drawing it when it can not, we determine once for all what are the distinguishing marks by which such cases may be recognized. The subsequent process is merely that of identifying an obj ect, and ascertaining it to have those marks; whether we identify it by the very marks themselves, or by others which we have ascertained (through another and a similar process) to be marks of those marks. The real inference is always from particulars to p articulars, from the observed instances to an unobserved one: but in drawing this inference, we conform to a formula which we have adopted for our guidance in such operations, and which is a record of the criteria by which we thought we had ascertained that we might distinguish when the inference could, and when it could not, be drawn. The real premises are the individual observations, even though they may have been forgotten, or, being the observations of others and not of ourselves, may, to us, never have been known: but we have before us proof that we or others once thought them sufficient for an induction, and we have marks to show whether any new case is one of those to which, if then known, the induction would have been deemed to extend. These marks we either recognize at once, or by the aid of other marks, which by another previous induction we collected to be marks of the first. Even these marks of marks may only be recognized through a third set of marks; and we may have a train of reasoning, of any length, to bring a new case within the scope of an induction grounded on particulars its similarity to which is only ascertained in this indirect manner. Thus, in the preceding example, the ultimate inductive inference was, that a certain government was not likely to be overthrown; this inference was drawn according to a formula in which desire of the public good was set down as a mark of not being likely to be overthrown; a mark of this mark was, acting in a particular manner; and a mark of acting in that manner was, being asserted to do so by intelligent and disinterested witnesses: this mark, the government under discussion was recognized by the senses as possessing. Hence that government fell within the last induction, and by it was brought within all the others. The perceived resemblance of the case to one set of observed particular cases, brought it into known resemblance with another set, and that with a third. In the more complex branches of knowledge, the deductions seldom consist, as in the examples hitherto exhibited, of a single chain, a a mark of b, b of c, c of d, therefore a a mark of d. They consist (to carry on the same metaphor) of several chains united at the extremity, as thus: a a mark of d, b of e, c of f, d e f of n, therefore a b c a ma rk of n. Suppose, for example, the following combination of circumstances: 1st, rays of light impinging on a reflecting surface; 2d, that surface parabolic; 3d, those rays parallel to each other and to the axis of the surface. It is to be proved that the c oncourse of these three circumstances is a mark that the reflected rays will pass through the focus of the parabolic surface. Now, each of the three circumstances is singly a mark of something material to the case. Rays of light impinging on a reflecting s urface are a mark that those rays will be reflected at an angle equal to the angle of incidence. The parabolic form of the surface, is a mark that, from any point of it, a line drawn to the focus and a line parallel to the axis will make equal angles with the surface. And finally, the parallelism of the rays to the axis is a mark that their angle of incidence coincides with one of these equal angles. The three marks taken together are therefore a mark of all these three things united. But the three united a re evidently a mark that the angle of reflection must coincide with the other of the two equal angles, that formed by a line drawn to the focus; and this again, by the fundamental axiom concerning straight lines, is 137 a mark that the reflected rays pass thro ugh the focus. Most chains of physical deduction are of this more complicated type; and even in mathematics such are abundant, as in all propositions where the hypothesis includes numerous conditions: If a circle be taken, and if within that circle a poin t be taken, not the centre, and if straight lines be drawn from that point to the circumference, then, etc. 4. The considerations now stated remove a serious difficulty from the view we have taken of reasoning; which view might otherwise have seemed not easily reconcilable with the fact that there are Deductive or Ratiocinative Sciences. It might seem to follow, if all reasoning be induction, that the difficulties of philosophical investigation must lie in the inductions exclusively, and that when these were easy, and susceptible of no doubt or hesitation, there could be no science, or, at least, no difficulties in science. The existence, for example, of an extensive Science of Mathematics, requiring the highest scientific genius in those who contributed to its creation, and calling for a most continued and vigorous exertion of intellect in order to appropriate it when created, may seem hard to be accounted for on the foregoing theory. But the considerations more recently adduced remove the mystery, by showing, that even when the inductions themselves are obvious, there may be much difficulty in finding whether the particular case which is the subject of inquiry comes within them; and ample room for scientific ingenuity in so combining various inductions, as, by means of one within which the case evidently falls, to bring it within others in which it can not be directly seen to be included. When the more obvious of the inductions which can be made in any science from direct observations, have been made, and general formulas have been framed, determining the limits within which these inductions are applicable; as often as a new case can be at once seen to come within one of the formulas, the induction is applied to the new case, and the business is ended. But new cases are continually arising, which do not obviously come within any formula whereby the question we want solved in respect of them could be answered. Let us take an instance from geometry: and as it is taken only for illustration, let the reader concede to us for the present, what we shall endeavor to prove in the next chapter, that the first principles of geometry are results of induction. Our example shall be the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid. The inquiry is, Are the angles at the ba se of an isosceles triangle equal or unequal? The first thing to be considered is, what inductions we have, from which we can infer equality or inequality. For inferring equality we have the following formul: Things which being applied to each other coincide, are equals. Things which are equal to the same thing are equals. A whole and the sum of its parts are equals. The sums of equal things are equals. The differences of equal things are equals. There are no other original formul to prove equality. For inferring inequality we have the following: A whole and its parts are unequals. The sums of equal things and unequal things are unequals. The differences of equal things and unequal things are unequals. In all, eight formul. The angles at the base of an is osceles triangle do not obviously come within any of these. The formul specify certain marks of equality and of inequality, but the angles can not be perceived intuitively to have any of those marks. On examination it appears that they have; and we ultima tely succeed in bringing them within the formula, The differences of equal things are equal. Whence comes the difficulty of recognizing these angles as the differences of equal things? Because each of them is the difference not of one pair only, but of innumerable pairs of angles; and out of these we had to imagine and select two, which could either be intuitively perceived to be equals, or possessed some of the marks of equality set down in the various formul. By an exercise of ingenuity, which, on the part of the first inventor, deserves to be regarded as considerable, two pairs of angles were hit upon, which united these requisites. First, it could be perceived intuitively that their differences were the angles at the base; and, 138 secondly, they possessed one of the marks of equality, namely, coincidence when applied to one another. This coincidence, however, was not perceived intuitively, but inferred, in conformity to another formula. For greater clearness, I subjoin an analysis of the demonstration. Euclid, it will be remembered, demonstrates his fifth proposition by means of the fourth. This it is not allowable for us to do, because we are undertaking to trace deductive truths not to prior deductions, but to their original inductive foundation. We must , therefore, use the premises of the fourth proposition instead of its conclusion, and prove the fifth directly from first principles. To do so requires six formulas. (We presuppose an equilateral triangle, whose vertices are A, D, E, with point B on the side AD, and point C on the side AE, such that BC is parallel to DE. We must begin, as in Euclid, by prolonging the equal sides AB, AC, to equal distances, and joining the extremities BE, DC.) First Formula. The sums of equals are equal. AD and AE are sums of equals by the supposition. Having that mark of equality, they are concluded by this formula to be equal. Second Formula.Equal straight lines or angles, being applied to one another, coincide. AC, AB, are within this formula by supposition; AD, AE, have been brought within it by the preceding step. The angle at A considered as an angle of the triangle ABE, and the same angle considered as an angle of the triangle ACD, are of course within the formula. All these pairs, therefore, possess the property which, according to the second formula, is a mark that when applied to one another they will coincide. Conceive them, then, applied to one another, by turning over the triangle ABE, and laying it on the triangle ACD in such a manner that AB of the one shall lie upon AC of the other. Then, by the equality of the angles, AE will lie on AD. But AB and AC, AE and AD are equals; therefore they will coincide altogether, and of course at their extremities, D, E, and B, C. Third Formula.Straight lines, having their extremities coincident, coincide. BE and CD have been brought within this formula by the preceding induction; they will, therefore, coincide. Fourth Formula.Angles, having their sides coincident, coincide. The third induction having shown that BE and CD coincide, and the second that AB, AC, coincide, the angles ABE and ACD are thereby brought within the fourth formula, and accordingly coincide. Fifth Formula. Things which coincide are equal. The angles ABE and ACD are brought within this formula by the induc tion immediately preceding. This train of reasoning being also applicable, mutatis mutandis , to the angles EBC, DCB, these also are brought within the fifth formula. And, finally, Sixth Formula.The differences of equals are equal. The angle ABC being the difference of ABE, CBE, and the angle ACB being the difference of ACD, DCB; which have been proved to be equals; ABC and ACB are brought within the last formula by the whole of the previous process. The difficulty here encountered is chiefly that of figuring to ourselves the two angles at the base of the triangle ABC as remainders made by cutting one pair of angles out of another, while each pair shall be corresponding angles of triangles which have two sides and the intervening angle equal. It is by this happy contrivance that so many different inductions are 139 brought to bear upon the same particular case. And this not being at all an obvious thought, it may be seen from an example so near the threshold of mathematics, how much scope there may well be for scientific dexterity in the higher branches of that and other sciences, in order so to combine a few simple inductions, as to bring within each of them innumerable cases which are not obviously included in it; and how long, and numerous, and complicate d may be the processes necessary for bringing the inductions together, even when each induction may itself be very easy and simple. All the inductions involved in all geometry are comprised in those simple ones, the formul of which are the Axioms, and a f ew of the so -called Definitions. The remainder of the science is made up of the processes employed for bringing unforeseen cases within these inductions; or (in syllogistic language) for proving the minors necessary to complete the syllogisms; the majors b eing the definitions and axioms. In those definitions and axioms are laid down the whole of the marks, by an artful combination of which it has been found possible to discover and prove all that is proved in geometry. The marks being so few, and the inductions which furnish them being so obvious and familiar; the connecting of several of them together, which constitutes Deductions, or Trains of Reasoning, forms the whole difficulty of the science, and, with a trifling exception, its whole bulk; and hence Ge ometry is a Deductive Science. 5. It will be seen hereafter P66F67 P that there are weighty scientific reasons for giving to every science as much of the character of a Deductive Science as possible; for endeavoring to construct the science from the fewest and the simplest possible inductions, and to make these, by any combinations however complicated, suffice for proving even such truths, relating to complex cases, as could be proved, if we chose, by inductions from specific experience. Every branch of natural philosophy was originally experimental; each generalization rested on a special induction, and was derived from its own distinct set of observations and experiments. From being sciences of pure experiment, as the phrase is, or, to speak more correctly, sci ences in which the reasonings mostly consist of no more than one step, and are expressed by single syllogisms, all these sciences have become to some extent, and some of them in nearly the whole of their extent, sciences of pure reasoning; whereby multitudes of truths, already known by induction from as many different sets of experiments, have come to be exhibited as deductions or corollaries from inductive propositions of a simpler and more universal character. Thus mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, acoustics, thermology, have successively been rendered mathematical; and astronomy was brought by Newton within the laws of general mechanics. Why it is that the substitution of this circuitous mode of proceeding for a process apparently much easier and more natural, is held, and justly, to be the greatest triumph of the investigation of nature, we are not, in this stage of our inquiry, prepared to examine. But it is necessary to remark, that although, by this progressive transformation, all sciences tend to become more and more Deductive, they are not, therefore, the less Inductive; every step in the Deduction is still an Induction. The opposition is not between the terms Deductive and Inductive, but between Deductive and Experimental. A science is experimental, i n proportion as every new case, which presents any peculiar features, stands in need of a new set of observations and experimentsa fresh induction. It is deductive, in proportion as it can draw conclusions, respecting cases of a new kind, by processes whi ch bring those cases under old inductions; by ascertaining that cases which can not be observed to have the requisite marks, have, however, marks of those marks. We can now, therefore, perceive what is the generic distinction between sciences which can be made Deductive, and those which must as yet remain Experimental. The difference consists in our having been able, or not yet able, to discover marks of marks. If by our 67 Infra, book 3., ch. 4 ., 3, and elsewhere. 140 various inductions we have been able to proceed no further than to such propositions as these, a a mark of b, or a and b marks of one another, c a mark of d, or c and d marks of one another, without any thing to connect a or b with c or d; we have a science of detached and mutually independent generalizations, such as these, that acids redden vegetable blues, and that alkalies color them green; from neither of which propositions could we, directly or indirectly, infer the other: and a science, so far as it is composed of such propositions, is purely experimental. Chemistry, in the present state of our knowledge, has not yet thrown off this character. There are other sciences, however, of which the propositions are of this kind: a a mark of b, b a mark of c, c of d, d of e, etc. In these sciences we can mount the ladder from a to e by a process of ratiocination; we can conclude that a is a mark of e , and that every object which has the mark a has the property e, although, perhaps, we never were able to observe a and e together, and although even d, our only direct mark of e , may not be perceptib le in those objects, but only inferable. Or, varying the first metaphor, we may be said to get from a to e underground: the marks b, c, d, which indicate the route, must all be possessed somewhere by the objects concerning which we are inquiring; but they are below the surface: a is the only mark that is visible, and by it we are able to trace in succession all the rest. 6. We can now understand how an experimental may transform itself into a deductive science by the mere progress of experiment. In an experimental science, the inductions, as we have said, lie detached, as, a a mark of b, c a mark of d, e a mark of f , and so on: now, a new set of instances, and a consequent new induction, may at any time bridge over the interval between two of these unconnected arches; b, for example, may be ascertained to be a mark of c, which enables us thenceforth to prove deductively that a is a mark of c. Or, as sometimes happens, some comprehensive induction may raise an arch high in the air, which bridges over hosts of them at once; b, d, f , and all the rest, turning out to be marks of some one thing, or of things between which a connection has already been traced. As when Newton discovered that the motions, whether regular or apparently anomalous, of all the bodies of the solar system (each of which motions had been inferred by a separate logical operation, from separate marks), were all marks of moving round a common centre, with a centripetal force varying directly as the mass, and inversely as t he square of the distance from that centre. This is the greatest example which has yet occurred of the transformation, at one stroke, of a science which was still to a great degree merely experimental, into a deductive science. Transformations of the same nature, but on a smaller scale, continually take place in the less advanced branches of physical knowledge, without enabling them to throw off the character of experimental sciences. Thus with regard to the two unconnected propositions before cited, namely , Acids redden vegetable blues, Alkalies make them green; it is remarked by Liebig, that all blue coloring matters which are reddened by acids (as well as, reciprocally, all red coloring matters which are rendered blue by alkalies) contain nitrogen: and it is quite possible that this circumstance may one day furnish a bond of connection between the two propositions in question, by showing that the antagonistic action of acids and alkalies in producing or destroying the color blue, is the result of some one, more general, law. Although this connecting of detached generalizations is so much gain, it tends but little to give a deductive character to any science as a whole; because the new courses of observation and experiment, which thus enable us to connect together a few general truths, usually make known to us a still greater number of unconnected new ones. Hence chemistry, though similar extensions and simplifications of its generalizations are continually taking place, is still in the main an experimental s cience; and is likely so to continue unless some comprehensive induction should be hereafter arrived at, which, like Newton's, shall connect a vast number of the smaller known inductions together, and change the whole method of the science at once. 141 Chemistry has already one great generalization, which, though relating to one of the subordinate aspects of chemical phenomena, possesses within its limited sphere this comprehensive character; the principle of Dalton, called the atomic theory, or the doctrine of chemical equivalents: which by enabling us to a certain extent to foresee the proportions in which two substances will combine, before the experiment has been tried, constitutes undoubtedly a source of new chemical truths obtainable by deduction, as well as a connecting principle for all truths of the same description previously obtained by experiment. 7. The discoveries which change the method of a science from experimental to deductive, mostly consist in establishing, either by deduction or by direct e xperiment, that the varieties of a particular phenomenon uniformly accompany the varieties of some other phenomenon better known. Thus the science of sound, which previously stood in the lowest rank of merely experimental science, became deductive when it was proved by experiment that every variety of sound was consequent on, and therefore a mark of, a distinct and definable variety of oscillatory motion among the particles of the transmitting medium. When this was ascertained, it followed that every relati on of succession or co- existence which obtained between phenomena of the more known class, obtained also between the phenomena which correspond to them in the other class. Every sound, being a mark of a particular oscillatory motion, became a mark of every thing which, by the laws of dynamics, was known to be inferable from that motion; and every thing which by those same laws was a mark of any oscillatory motion among the particles of an elastic medium, became a mark of the corresponding sound. And thus many truths, not before suspected, concerning sound, become deducible from the known laws of the propagation of motion through an elastic medium; while facts already empirically known respecting sound, become an indication of corresponding properties of vibrating bodies, previously undiscovered. But the grand agent for transforming experimental into deductive sciences, is the science of number. The properties of number, alone among all known phenomena, are, in the most rigorous sense, properties of all things whatever. All things are not colored, or ponderable, or even extended; but all things are numerable. And if we consider this science in its whole extent, from common arithmetic up to the calculus of variations, the truths already ascertained seem all but infinite, and admit of indefinite extension. These truths, though affirmable of all things whatever, of course apply to them only in respect of their quantity. But if it comes to be discovered that variations of quality in any class of phenomena, correspond regularly to variations of quantity either in those same or in some other phenomena; every formula of mathematics applicable to quantities which vary in that particular manner, becomes a mark of a corresponding general truth, respecting the variations in quality which accompany them: and the science of quantity being (as far as any science can be) altogether deductive, the theory of that particular kind of qualities becomes, to this extent, deductive likewise. The most striking instance in point which history affords (though not an example of an experimental science rendered deductive, but of an unparalleled extension given to the deductive process in a science which was deductive already), is the revolution in geometry which originated with Descartes, and was completed by Clairaut. These great mathematicians pointed out the importance of the fact, that to every variety of position in points, direction in lines, or form in curves or surfaces (all of which are Qualities), there corresponds a peculiar relation of quantity between either two or three rectilineal co -ordinates; insomuch that if the law were known according to which those co-ordinates vary relatively to one another, every other geometrical property of the line or surface in question, whether relating to quantity or quality, would be capable of being inferred. Hence it followed that every geometrical 142 question could be solved, if the corresponding algebraical one could; and geometry received an accession (actual or potential) of new truths, corresponding to every property of numbers which the progress of the calculus had brought, or might in future bring, to light. In the same general manner, mechanics, astronomy, and in a less degree, every branch of natural philosophy commonly so called, have been m ade algebraical. The varieties of physical phenomena with which those sciences are conversant, have been found to answer to determinable varieties in the quantity of some circumstance or other; or at least to varieties of form or position, for which corresponding equations of quantity had already been, or were susceptible of being, discovered by geometers. In these various transformations, the propositions of the science of number do but fulfill the function proper to all propositions forming a train of reasoning, viz., that of enabling us to arrive in an indirect method, by marks of marks, at such of the properties of objects as we can not directly ascertain (or not so conveniently) by experiment. We travel from a given visible or tangible fact, through the truths of numbers, to the facts sought. The given fact is a mark that a certain relation subsists between the quantities of some of the elements concerned; while the fact sought presupposes a certain relation between the quantities of some other elements: now, if these last quantities are dependent in some known manner upon the former, or vic versa , we can argue from the numerical relation between the one set of quantities, to determine that which subsists between the other set; the theorems of the calculus affording the intermediate links. And thus one of the two physical facts becomes a mark of the other, by being a mark of a mark of a mark of it. 143 V. Of Demonstration, And Necessary Truths 1. If, as laid down in the two preceding chapters, the foundation of all sciences, even deductive or demonstrative sciences, is Induction; if every step in the ratiocinations even of geometry is an act of induction; and if a train of reasoning is but bringing many inductions to bear upon the same subject of inquiry, and drawing a case within one induction by means of another; wherein lies the peculiar certainty always ascribed to the sciences which are entirely, or almost entirely, deductive? Why are they called the Exact Sciences? Why are mathematical certainty, and the evidence of demonstration, common phrases to express the very highest degree of assurance attainable by reason? Why are mathematics by almost all philosophers, and (by some) even those branches of natural philosophy which, through the medium of mathematics, have been converted into deductive sciences, considered to be independent of the evidence of experience and observation, and characterized as systems of Necessary Truth? The answer I conceive to be, that this character of n ecessity, ascribed to the truths of mathematics, and (even with some reservations to be hereafter made) the peculiar certainty attributed to them, is an illusion; in order to sustain which, it is necessary to suppose that those truths relate to, and express the properties of, purely imaginary objects. It is acknowledged that the conclusions of geometry are deduced, partly at least, from the so-called Definitions, and that those definitions are assumed to be correct representations, as far as they go, of the objects with which geometry is conversant. Now we have pointed out that, from a definition as such, no proposition, unless it be one concerning the meaning of a word, can ever follow; and that what apparently follows from a definition, follows in reality from an implied assumption that there exists a real thing conformable thereto. This assumption, in the case of the definitions of geometry, is not strictly true: there exist no real things exactly conformable to the definitions. There exist no points without magnitude; no lines without breadth, nor perfectly straight; no circles with all their radii exactly equal, nor squares with all their angles perfectly right. It will perhaps be said that the assumption does not extend to the actual, but only to the possible, existence of such things. I answer that, according to any test we have of possibility, they are not even possible. Their existence, so far as we can form any judgment, would seem to be inconsistent with the physical constitution of our planet at least, if not of the universe. To get rid of this difficulty, and at the same time to save the credit of the supposed system of necessary truth, it is customary to say that the points, lines, circles, and squares which are the subject of geometry, exist in our conceptions merely, and are part of our minds; which minds, by working on their own materials, construct an a priori science, the evidence of which is purely mental, and has nothing whatever to do with outward experience. By howsoever high authorities this doctrine may have been sanctioned, it appears to me psychologically incorrect. The points, lines, circles, and squares which any one has in his mind, are (I apprehend) simply copies of the points, lines, circles, and squares which he has known in his experience. Our idea of a point, I apprehend to be simply our idea of the minimum visibile , the smallest portion of surface which we can see. A line, as defined by geometers, is wholly inconceivable. We can reason about a line as if it had no breadth; becaus e we have a power, which is the foundation of all the control we can exercise over the operations of our minds; the power, when a perception is present to our senses, or a conception to our intellects, of attending to a part only of that perception or conception, instead of the whole. But we can not conceive a line without breadth; we can form no mental picture of such a line: all the lines which we have in our minds are lines possessing breadth. If any one doubts this, we may refer him to his own experience. I much question if any one 144 who fancies that he can conceive what is called a mathematical line, thinks so from the evidence of his consciousness: I suspect it is rather because he supposes that unless such a conception were possible, mathematics could not exist as a science: a supposition which there will be no difficulty in showing to be entirely groundless. Since, then, neither in nature, nor in the human mind, do there exist any objects exactly corresponding to the definitions of geometry, while yet that science can not be supposed to be conversant about nonentities; nothing remains but to consider geometry as conversant with such lines, angles, and figures, as really exist; and the definitions, as they are called, must be regarded as some of our first and most obvious generalizations concerning those natural objects. The correctness of those generalizations, as generalizations, is without a flaw: the equality of all the radii of a circle is true of all circles, so far as it is true of any one: but it is not exactly true of any circle; it is only nearly true; so nearly that no error of any importance in practice will be incurred by feigning it to be exactly true. When we have occasion to extend these inductions, or their consequences, to cases in which the error would be appreciableto lines of perceptible breadth or thickness, parallels which deviate sensibly from equidistance, and the likewe correct our conclusions, by combining with them a fresh set of propositions relating to the aberration; just as we also take in propositions relating to the physical or chemical properties of the material, if those properties happen to introduce any modification into the result; which they easily may, even with respect to figure and magnitude, as in the case, for instance, of expansion by heat. So long, however, as there exists no practical necessity for attending to any of the properties of the object except its geometrical properties, or to any of the natural irregularities in those, it is convenient to neglect the consideration of the other properties and of the irregularities, and to reason as if these did not exist: accordingly, we formally announce in the definitions, that we intend to proceed on this plan. But it is an error to suppose, because we resolve to confine our attention to a certain number of the properties of an object, that we therefore conceive, or have an idea of, the object, denuded of its other properties. We are thinking, all the time, of precisely such objects as we have seen and touched, and with all the properties which naturally belong to them; but, for scientific convenience, we feign them to be divested of all properties, except those which are material to our purpose, and in regard to which we design to consider them. The peculiar accuracy, supposed to be characteristic of the first principles of geometry, thus appears to be fictitious. The assertions on which the reasonings of the science are founded, do not, any more than in other sciences, exactly correspond with the fact; but we suppose that they do so, for the sake of tracing the consequences which follow from the supposition. The opinion of Dugald Stewart respecting the foundations of geometry, is, I conceive, substantially correct; that it is built on hypotheses; that it owes to this alone the peculiar certainty supposed to distinguish it; and that in any science whatever, by reasoning from a set of hypotheses, we may obtain a body of conclusions as certain as those of geometry, that is, as strictly in accordance with the hypotheses, and as irresistibly compelling assent, on condition that those hypotheses are true. P67F68 P 68 It is justly remarked by Professor Bain ( Logic , ii., 134) that the word Hypothesis is here used in a somewhat peculiar sense. An hypothesis, in science, usually means a supposition not proved to be true, but surmised to be so, because if true it would account for certain known facts; and the final result of the speculation may be to prove its truth. The hypotheses spoken of in the text are of a different character; they are known not to be literally true, while as much of them as is true is not hypothetical, but certain. The two cases, however, resemble in the circumstance that in both we reason, not from a truth, but from an assumption, and the tr uth therefore of the conclusions is conditional, not categorical. This suffices to justify, in point of logical propriety, Stewart's use of the term. It is of course needful to bear in mind that the hypothetical element in the definitions of geometry is the assumption that what is very nearly true is exactly so. This unreal exactitude might be called a fiction, as 145 When, therefore, it is affirmed that the conclusions of geometry are necessary truths, the necessity consists in reality only in this, that they correctly follow from the suppositions from which they are deduced. Those suppositions are so far from being necessary, that they are not even true; they purposely depart, more or less widely, from the truth. The only sense in which necessity can be ascribed to the conclusion s of any scientific investigation, is that of legitimately following from some assumption, which, by the conditions of the inquiry, is not to be questioned. In this relation, of course, the derivative truths of every deductive science must stand to the inductions, or assumptions, on which the science is founded, and which, whether true or untrue, certain or doubtful in themselves, are always supposed certain for the purposes of the particular science. And therefore the conclusions of all deductive sciences were said by the ancients to be necessary propositions. We have observed already that to be predicated necessarily was characteristic of the predicable Proprium, and that a proprium was any property of a thing which could be deduced from its essence, that is, from the properties included in its definition. 2. The important doctrine of Dugald Stewart, which I have endeavored to enforce, has been contested by Dr. Whewell, both in the dissertation appended to his excellent Mechanical Euclid , and in his elaborate work on the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences ; in which last he also replies to an article in the Edinburgh Review (ascribed to a writer of great scientific eminence), in which Stewart's opinion was defended against his former strictures. The supposed refutation of Stewart consists in proving against him (as has also been done in this work) that the premises of geometry are not definitions, but assumptions of the real existence of things corresponding to those definitions. This, however, is doing li ttle for Dr. Whewell's purpose; for it is these very assumptions which are asserted to be hypotheses, and which he, if he denies that geometry is founded on hypotheses, must show to be absolute truths. All he does, however, is to observe, that they, at any rate, are not arbitrary hypotheses; that we should not be at liberty to substitute other hypotheses for them; that not only a definition, to be admissible, must necessarily refer to and agree with some conception which we can distinctly frame in our thoughts, but that the straight lines, for instance, which we define, must be those by which angles are contained, those by which triangles are bounded, those of which parallelism may be predicated, and the like. P68F69 P And this is true; but this has never been contradicted. Those who say that the premises of geometry are hypotheses, are not bound to maintain them to be hypotheses which have no relation whatever to fact. Since an hypothesis framed for the purpose of scientific inquiry must relate to something whi ch has real existence (for there can be no science respecting nonentities), it follows that any hypothesis we make respecting an object, to facilitate our study of it, must not involve any thing which is distinctly false, and repugnant to its real nature: we must not ascribe to the thing any property which it has not; our liberty extends only to slightly exaggerating some of those which it has (by assuming it to be completely what it really is very nearly), and suppressing others, under the indispensable obligation of restoring them whenever, and in as far as, their presence or absence would make any material difference in the truth of our conclusions. Of this nature, accordingly, are the first principles involved in the definitions of geometry. That the hypotheses should be of this particular character, is, however, no further necessary, than inasmuch as no others could enable us to deduce conclusions which, with due corrections, would be true of real objects: and in fact, when our aim is only to illustrate truths, and not to investigate them, we are not under any such restriction. We might suppose an imaginary animal, and work out by deduction, from the known laws of physiology, its natural history; or properly as an hypothesis; but that appellation, still more than the other, would fail to point out the close relation which exists between the f ictitious point or line and the points and lines of which we have experience. 69 Mechanical Euclid , pp. 149 et seqq. 146 an imaginary commonwealth, and from the elements composing it, might argue what would be its fate. And the conclusions which we might thus draw from purely arbitrary hypotheses, might form a highly useful intellectual exercise: but as they could only teach us what would be the properties of objects which do not really exist, they would not constitute any addition to our knowledge of nature: while, on the contrary, if the hypothesis merely divests a real object of some portion of its properties, without clothing it in false ones, the conclusions will always express, under known liability to correction, actual truth. 3. But though Dr. Whewell has not shaken Stewart's doctrine as to the hypothetical character of that portion of the first principles of geometry which are involved in the so-called definitions, he has, I conceive, greatly the advantage of Stewart on another important point in the theory of geometrical reasoning; the necessity of admitting, among those first principles, axioms as well as definitions. Some of the axioms of Euclid might, no doubt, be exhibited in the form of definitions, or might be deduced, by reasoning, from propositions similar to what are so called. Thus, if instead of the axiom, Magnitudes which can be made to coincide are equal, we introduce a definition, Equal magnitudes are those which may be so applied to one another as to coincide; the three axioms which follow (Magnitudes which are equal to the same are equal to one another If equals are added to equals, the sums are equal If equals are taken from equals, the remainders are eq ual), may be proved by an imaginary superposition, resembling that by which the fourth proposition of the first book of Euclid is demonstrated. But though these and several others may be struck out of the list of first principles, because, though not requiring demonstration, they are susceptible of it; there will be found in the list of axioms two or three fundamental truths, not capable of being demonstrated: among which must be reckoned the proposition that two straight lines can not inclose a space (or i ts equivalent, Straight lines which coincide in two points coincide altogether), and some property of parallel lines, other than that which constitutes their definition: one of the most suitable for the purpose being that selected by Professor Playfair: Two straight lines which intersect each other can not both of them be parallel to a third straight line. P69F70 P The axioms, as well those which are indemonstrable as those which admit of being demonstrated, differ from that other class of fundamental principles which are involved in the definitions, in this, that they are true without any mixture of hypothesis. That things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another, is as true of the lines and figures in nature, as it would be of the imaginary ones assumed in the definitions. In this respect, however, mathematics are only on a par with most other sciences. In almost all sciences there are some general propositions which are exactly true, while the greater part are only more or less distant approximations to the truth. Thus in mechanics, the first law of motion (the continuance of a movement once impressed, until stopped or slackened by some resisting force) is true without qualification or error. The rotation of the earth in twenty-four hours, of the same length as in our time, has gone on since the first accurate observations, without the increase or diminution of one second in all that period. These are inductions which require no fiction to make them be received as accurately true: but along wit h them there are others, as for instance the propositions respecting the figure of the earth, which are but approximations 70 We might, it is true, insert this property into the definition of parallel lines, framing the definition so as to require, both that when produced indefinitely they shall never meet, and also that any straight line which intersects one of them shall, if prolonged, meet the other. But by doing this we by no means get rid of the assumption; we are still obliged to take for granted the geometri cal truth, that all straight lines in the same plane, which have the former of these properties, have also the latter. For if it were possible that they should not, that is, if any straight lines in the same plane, other than those which are parallel according to the definition, had the property of never meeting although indefinitely produced, the demonstrations of the subsequent portions of the theory of parallels could not be maintained. 147 to the truth; and in order to use them for the further advancement of our knowledge, we must feign that they are exactly true, though they really want something of being so. 4. It remains to inquire, what is the ground of our belief in axiomswhat is the evidence on which they rest? I answer, they are experimental truths; generalizations from observation. The proposition, Two straight lines can not inclose a spaceor, in other words, Two straight lines which have once met, do not meet again, but continue to divergeis an induction from the evidence of our senses. This opinion runs counter to a scientific prejudice of long standing and great strength, and there is probably no proposition enunciated in this work for which a more unfavorable reception is to be expected. It is, however, no new opinion; and even if it were so, would be entitled to be judged, not by its novelty, but by the strength of the arguments by which it can be supported. I consider it very fortunate that so eminent a champion of the contrary opinion as Dr. Whewell has found occasion for a most elaborate treatment of the whole theory of axioms, in attempting to construct the philosophy of the mathematical and physical sciences on the basis of the doctrine against which I now contend. Whoever is anxious that a discussion should go to the bottom of the subject, must rejoice to see the opposite side of the question worthily represented. If what is said by Dr. Whewell, in support of an opinion which he has made the foundation of a systematic work, can be shown not to be conclusive, enough will have been done, without going elsewhere in quest of stronger arguments and a more powerful adversary. It is not necessary to show that the truths which we call axioms are originally suggested by observation, and that we should never have known that two straight lines can not inclose a space if we had never seen a straight lin e: thus much being admitted by Dr. Whewell, and by all, in recent times, who have taken his view of the subject. But they contend, that it is not experience which proves the axiom; but that its truth is perceived a priori , by the constitution of the mind itself, from the first moment when the meaning of the proposition is apprehended; and without any necessity for verifying it by repeated trials, as is requisite in the case of truths really ascertained by observation. They can not, however, but allow that the truth of the axiom, Two straight lines can not inclose a space, even if evident independently of experience, is also evident from experience. Whether the axiom needs confirmation or not, it receives confirmation in almost every instant of our lives; since we can not look at any two straight lines which intersect one another, without seeing that from that point they continue to diverge more and more. Experimental proof crowds in upon us in such endless profusion, and without one instance in which there can be even a suspicion of an exception to the rule, that we should soon have stronger ground for believing the axiom, even as an experimental truth, than we have for almost any of the general truths which we confessedly learn from the evidence of our senses . Independently of a priori evidence, we should certainly believe it with an intensity of conviction far greater than we accord to any ordinary physical truth: and this too at a time of life much earlier than that from which we date almost any part of our acquired knowledge, and much too early to admit of our retaining any recollection of the history of our intellectual operations at that period. Where then is the necessity for assuming that our recognition of these truths has a different origin from the re st of our knowledge, when its existence is perfectly accounted for by supposing its origin to be the same? when the causes which produce belief in all other instances, exist in this instance, and in a degree of strength as much superior to what exists in other cases, as the intensity of the belief itself is superior? The burden of proof lies on the advocates of the contrary opinion: it is for them to point out some fact, inconsistent with the 148 supposition that this part of our knowledge of nature is derived from the same sources as every other part. P70F71 P This, for instance, they would be able to do, if they could prove chronologically that we had the conviction (at least practically) so early in infancy as to be anterior to those impressions on the senses, upon which, on the other theory, the conviction is founded. This, however, can not be proved: the point being too far back to be within the reach of memory, and too obscure for external observation. The advocates of the a priori theory are obliged to have recourse to other arguments. These are reducible to two, which I shall endeavor to state as clearly and as forcibly as possible. 5. In the first place it is said, that if our assent to the proposition that two straight lines can not inclose a space, were der ived from the senses, we could only be convinced of its truth by actual trial, that is, by seeing or feeling the straight lines; whereas, in fact, it is seen to be true by merely thinking of them. That a stone thrown into water goes to the bottom, may be perceived by our senses, but mere thinking of a stone thrown into the water would never have led us to that conclusion: not so, however, with the axioms relating to straight lines: if I could be made to conceive what a straight line is, without having seen one, I should at once recognize that two such lines can not inclose a space. Intuition is imaginary looking; P71F72 P but experience must be real looking: if we see a property of straight lines to be true by merely fancying ourselves to be looking at them, the ground of our belief can not be the senses, or experience; it must be something mental. To this argument it might be added in the case of this particular axiom (for the assertion would not be true of all axioms), that the evidence of it from actual ocular inspection is not only unnecessary, but unattainable. What says the axiom? That two straight lines can not inclose a space; that after having once intersected, if they are prolonged to infinity they do not meet, but continue to diverge from one another. How can this, in any single case, be proved by actual observation? We may follow the lines to any distance we please; but we can not follow them to infinity: for aught our senses can testify, they may, immediately beyond the farthest point to which we have traced them, begin to approach, and at last meet. Unless, therefore, we had some other proof of the impossibility than observation affords us, we should have no ground for believing the axiom at all. To these arguments, which I trust I can not be accused of understating, a satisfactory answer will, I conceive, be found, if we advert to one of the characteristic properties of geometrical 71 Some persons find themselves prevented from believing that the axiom, Two straight lines can not inclose a space, could ever become known to us through experience, by a difficulty which may be stated as follows: If the straight lines spoken of are those contemplated in the definitionlines absolutely without breadth and absolutely straight that such are incapable of inclosing a space is not proved by experience, for lines such as these do not present themselves in our experience. If, on the other hand, the lines meant are such straight lines as we do meet with in experience, lines straight enough for practical purposes, but in reality slightly zigzag, and with some, however trifling, breadth; as applied to these lines the axiom is not true, for two of them may, and sometimes do, inclose a small portion of space. In neither case, therefore, does experience prove the axiom. Those who employ this argument to show that geometrical axioms can not be proved by induction, show themselves unfamiliar with a common and perfectly valid mode of inductive proof; proof by approximation. Though experience furnishes us with no lines so unimpeachably straight that two of them are incapable of inclosing the smallest space, it presents us with gradations of lines possessing less and less either of breadth or of flexure, of which series the str aight line of the definition is the ideal limit. And observation shows that just as much, and as nearly, as the straight lines of experience approximate to having no breadth or flexure, so much and so nearly does the space -inclosing power of any two of the m approach to zero. The inference that if they had no breadth or flexure at all, they would inclose no space at all, is a correct inductive inference from these facts, conformable to one of the four Inductive Methods hereinafter characterized, the Method o f Concomitant Variations; of which the mathematical Doctrine of Limits presents the extreme case. 72 Whewell's History of Scientific Ideas , i., 140. 149 forms their capacity of being painted in the imagination with a distinctness equal to reality: in other words, the exact resemblance of our ideas of form to the sensations which suggest them. This, in the first place, enables us to make (at least with a little practice) mental pictures of all possible combinations of lines and angles, which resemble the realities quite as well as any which we could make on paper; and in the next place, make those pictures just as fit subjects of geometrical experimentation as the realities themselves; inasmuch as pictures, if sufficiently accurate, exhibit of course all the properties which would be manifested by the realities at one given instant, and on simple inspection: and in geometry we are concerned only with such properties, and not with that which pictures could not exhibit, the mutual action of bodies one upon another. The foundations of geometry would therefore be laid in direct experience, even if the experiments (which in this case consist merely in attentive contemplation) were practiced solely upon what we call our ideas, that is, upon the diagrams in our minds, and not upon outward objects. For in all systems of experimentation we take some objects to serve as representatives of all which resemble them; and in the present case the conditions which qualify a real object to be the representative of its class, are completely fulfilled by an object existing only in our fancy. Without denying, therefore, the possibility of satisfying ourselves that two straight lines can not inclose a space, by merely thinking of straight lines without actually looking at them; I contend, that we do not believe this truth on the ground of the imaginary intuition simply, but because we know that the imaginary lines exactly resemble real ones, and that we may conclude from them to real ones with quite as much certainty as we could conclude from one real line to another. The conclusion, therefore, is still an induction from observation. And we should not be authorized to substitute observation of the image in our mind, for observation of the reality, if we had not learned by long-continued experience that the properties of the reality are faithfully represented in the image; just as we should be scientifically warranted in describing an animal which we have never seen, from a picture made of it with a daguerreotype; but not until we had learned by ample experi ence, that observation of such a picture is precisely equivalent to observation of the original. These considerations also remove the objection arising from the impossibility of ocularly following the lines in their prolongation to infinity. For though, in order actually to see that two given lines never meet, it would be necessary to follow them to infinity; yet without doing so we may know that if they ever do meet, or if, after diverging from one another, they begin again to approach, this must take plac e not at an infinite, but at a finite distance. Supposing, therefore, such to be the case, we can transport ourselves thither in imagination, and can frame a mental image of the appearance which one or both of the lines must present at that point, which we may rely on as being precisely similar to the reality. Now, whether we fix our contemplation upon this imaginary picture, or call to mind the generalizations we have had occasion to make from former ocular observation, we learn by the evidence of experien ce, that a line which, after diverging from another straight line, begins to approach to it, produces the impression on our senses which we describe by the expression, a bent line, not by the expression, a straight line. P72F73 P 73 Dr. Whewell ( Philosophy of Discovery , p. 289) thinks it unreasonable to contend that we know by experience, that our idea of a line exactly resembles a real line. It does not appear, he says, how we can compare our ideas with the realities, since we know the realities only by our ideas. We know the realities by our sensations. Dr. Whewell surely does not hold the doctrine of perception by means of ideas, which Reid gave himself so much trouble to refute. If Dr. Whewell doubts whether we compare our ideas with the corresponding sensations, and assume that they resemble, let me ask on what evidence do we judge that a portrait of a person not present is like the original. Surely because it is like our idea, or mental image of the person, and because our idea is like the man himself. 150 The preceding argument, which is, to my mind unanswerable, merges, however, in a still more comprehensive one, which is stated most clearly and conclusively by Professor Bain. The psychological reason why axioms, and indeed many propositions not ordinarily classed as su ch, may be learned from the idea only without referring to the fact, is that in the process of acquiring the idea we have learned the fact. The proposition is assented to as soon as the terms are understood, because in learning to understand the terms we h ave acquired the experience which proves the proposition to be true. We required, says Mr. Bain, P73F74 P concrete experience in the first instance, to attain to the notion of whole and part; but the notion, once arrived at, implies that the whole is greater. In fact, we could not have the notion without an experience tantamount to this conclusion.... When we have mastered the notion of straightness, we have also mastered that aspect of it expressed by the affirmation that two straight lines can not inclose a s pace. No intuitive or innate powers or perceptions are needed in such case.... We can not have the full meaning of Straightness, without going through a comparison of straight objects among themselves, and with their opposites, bent or crooked objects. The result of this comparison is, inter alia , that straightness in two lines is seen to be incompatible with inclosing a space; the inclosure of space involves crookedness in at least one of the lines. And similarly, in the case of every first principle, P74F75 P the same knowledge that makes it understood, suffices to verify it. The more this observation is considered the more (I am convinced) it will be felt to go to the very root of the controversy. 6. The first of the two arguments in support of the theory t hat axioms are a priori truths, having, I think, been sufficiently answered; I proceed to the second, which is usually the most relied on. Axioms (it is asserted) are conceived by us not only as true, but as universally and necessarily true. Now, experience can not possibly give to any proposition this character. I may have seen snow a hundred times, and may have seen that it was white, but this can not give me entire assurance even that all snow is white; much less that snow must be white. However many in stances we may have observed of the truth of a proposition, there is nothing to assure us that the next case shall not be an exception to the rule. If it be strictly true that every ruminant animal yet known has cloven hoofs, we still can not be sure that Dr. Whewell also says, that it does not appear why this resemblance of ideas to the sensations of which they are copies, should be spoken of as if it were a peculiarity of one class of ideas, those of space. My reply is, that I do not so speak of it. The peculiarity I contend for is only one of degree. All our ideas of sensation of course resemble the corresponding sensations, but they do so with very different degrees of exactness and of reliability. No one, I presume, can recall in imagination a color or an odor with the same distinctness and accuracy with which almost e very one can mentally reproduce an image of a straight line or a triangle. To the extent, however, of their capabilities of accuracy, our recollections of colors or of odors may serve as subjects of experimentation, as well as those of lines and spaces, an d may yield conclusions which will be true of their external prototypes. A person in whom, either from natural gift or from cultivation, the impressions of color were peculiarly vivid and distinct, if asked which of two blue flowers was of the darkest tinge, though he might never have compared the two, or even looked at them together, might be able to give a confident answer on the faith of his distinct recollection of the colors; that is, he might examine his mental pictures, and find there a property of the outward objects. But in hardly any case except that of simple geometrical forms, could this be done by mankind generally, with a degree of assurance equal to that which is given by a contemplation of the objects themselves. Persons differ most widely in the precision of their recollection, even of forms: one person, when he has looked any one in the face for half a minute, can draw an accurate likeness of him from memory; another may have seen him every day for six months, and hardly know whether his nose is long or short. But every body has a perfectly distinct mental image of a straight line, a circle, or a rectangle. And every one concludes confidently from these mental images to the corresponding outward things. The truth is, that we may, and continually do, study nature in our recollections, when the objects themselves are absent; and in the case of geometrical forms we can perfectly, but in most other cases only imperfectly, trust our recollections. 74 Logic , i., 222. 75 Ibid., 226. 151 some creature will not hereafter be discovered which has the first of these attributes, without having the other.... Experience must always consist of a limited number of observations; and, however numerous these may be, they can show nothing with regard to the infinite number of cases in which the experiment has not been made. Besides, Axioms are not only universal, they are also necessary. Now experience can not offer the smallest ground for the necessity of a proposition. She can observe and record what has happened; but she can not find, in any case, or in any accumulation of cases, any reason for what must happen. She may see objects side by side; but she can not see a reason why they must ever be side by side. She finds certain events to occur in succession; but the succession supplies, in its occurrence, no reason for its recurrence. She contemplates external objects; but she can not detect any internal bond, which indissolubly connects the future with the past, the possible with the real. To learn a proposition by experience, and to see it to be necessarily true, are two altogether different processes of thought. P75F76 P And Dr. Whewell adds, If any one does not clearly comprehend this distinction of necessary and contingent truths, he will not be able to go along with us in our researches into the foundations of human knowledge; nor, indeed, to pursue with success any speculation on the subject. P76F77 P In the following passage, we are told what the distinction is, the non-recognition of which incurs this denunciation. Necessary truths are those in which we not only learn that the proposition is true, but see that it must be true; in which the negation of the truth is not only false, but impossible; in which we can not, even by an effort of imagination, or i n a supposition, conceive the reverse of that which is asserted. That there are such truths can not be doubted. We may take, for example, all relations of number. Three and Two added together make Five. We can not conceive it to be otherwise. We can not, by any freak of thought, imagine Three and Two to make Seven. P77F78 P Although Dr. Whewell has naturally and properly employed a variety of phrases to bring his meaning more forcibly home, he would, I presume, allow that they are all equivalent; and that what h e means by a necessary truth, would be sufficiently defined, a proposition the negation of which is not only false but inconceivable. I am unable to find in any of his expressions, turn them what way you will, a meaning beyond this, and I do not believe he would contend that they mean any thing more. This, therefore, is the principle asserted: that propositions, the negation of which is inconceivable, or in other words, which we can not figure to ourselves as being false, must rest on evidence of a higher and more cogent description than any which experience can afford. Now I can not but wonder that so much stress should be laid on the circumstance of inconceivableness, when there is such ample experience to show, that our capacity or incapacity of conceivin g a thing has very little to do with the possibility of the thing in itself; but is in truth very much an affair of accident, and depends on the past history and habits of our own minds. There is no more generally acknowledged fact in human nature, than the extreme difficulty at first felt in conceiving any thing as possible, which is in contradiction to long established and familiar experience; or even to old familiar habits of thought. And this difficulty is a necessary result of the fundamental laws of the human mind. When we have often seen and thought of two things together, and have never in any one instance either seen or thought of them separately, there is by the primary law of association an increasing difficulty, which may in the end become insuperable, of conceiving the two things apart. This 76 History of Scientific Ideas , i., 65 -67. 77 Ibid., i., 60. 78 Ibid., 58, 59. 152 is most of all conspicuous in uneducated persons, who are in general utterly unable to separate any two ideas which have once become firmly associated in their minds; and if persons of cultivated intellect have any advantage on the point, it is only because, having seen and heard and read more, and being more accustomed to exercise their imagination, they have experienced their sensations and thoughts in more varied combinations, and have been prevented from forming many of these inseparable associations. But this advantage has necessarily its limits. The most practiced intellect is not exempt from the universal laws of our conceptive faculty. If daily habit presents to any one for a long period two facts in combination, and if he is not led during that period either by accident or by his voluntary mental operations to think of them apart, he will probably in time become incapable of doing so even by the strongest effort; and the supposition that the two facts c an be separated in nature, will at last present itself to his mind with all the characters of an inconceivable phenomenon. P78F79 P There are remarkable instances of this in the history of science: instances in which the most instructed men rejected as impossible , because inconceivable, things which their posterity, by earlier practice and longer perseverance in the attempt, found it quite easy to conceive, and which every body now knows to be true. There was a time when men of the most cultivated intellects, and the most emancipated from the dominion of early prejudice, could not credit the existence of antipodes; were unable to conceive, in opposition to old association, the force of gravity acting upward instead of downward. The Cartesians long rejected the Newt onian doctrine of the gravitation of all bodies toward one another, on the faith of a general proposition, the reverse of which seemed to them to be inconceivablethe proposition that a body can not act where it is not. All the cumbrous machinery of imaginary vortices, assumed without the smallest particle of evidence, appeared to these philosophers a more rational mode of explaining the heavenly motions, than one which involved what seemed to them so great an absurdity. P79F80 P And they no doubt found it as impossible to conceive that a body should act upon the earth from the distance of the sun or moon, as we find it to conceive an end to space or time, or two straight lines inclosing a space. Newton himself had not been able to realize the conception, or we sh ould not have had his hypothesis of a subtle ether, the occult cause of gravitation; and his writings prove, that though he deemed the particular nature of the intermediate agency a matter of conjecture, the necessity of some such agency appeared to him indubitable. If, then, it be so natural to the human mind, even in a high state of culture, to be incapable of conceiving, and on that ground to believe impossible, what is afterward not only found to be conceivable but proved to be true; what wonder if in c ases where the association is still older, more confirmed, and more familiar, and in which nothing ever occurs to shake our conviction, or even suggest to us any conception at variance with the association, the 79 If all mankind had spoken one language, we can not doubt that there would have been a powerful, perhaps a universal, school of philosophers, who would have believed in the inherent connection between names and things, who would have taken the sound man to be the mode of agitating the air which is essentially communicative of the ideas of reason, cookery, bipedality, etc. De Morgan, Formal Logic , p. 246. 80 It would be difficult to na me a man more remarkable at once for the greatness and the wide range of his mental accomplishments, than Leibnitz. Yet this eminent man gave as a reason for rejecting Newton's scheme of the solar system, that God could not make a body revolve round a dist ant centre, unless either by some impelling mechanism, or by miracle: Tout ce qui n'est pas explicable, says he in a letter to the Abb Conti, par la nature des cratures, est miraculeux. Il ne suffit pas de dire: Dieu a fait une telle loi de nature; donc la chose est naturelle. Il faut que la loi soit excutable par les natures des cratures. Si Dien donnait cette loi, par exemple, un corps libre, de tourner l'entour d'un certain centre, il faudrait ou qu'il y joignt d'autres corps qui par leur impulsion l'obligeassent de rester toujours dans son orbite circulaire, ou qu'il mt un ange ses trousses, ou enfin il faudrait qu'il y concourt extraordinairement ; car naturellement il s'cartera par la tangente.Works of Leibnitz , ed. Dutens, iii., 446. 153 acquired incapacity should continue, and be mistaken for a natural incapacity? It is true, our experience of the varieties in nature enables us, within certain limits, to conceive other varieties analogous to them. We can conceive the sun or moon falling; for though we never saw them fall, nor ever, perhaps, imagined them falling, we have seen so many other things fall, that we have innumerable familiar analogies to assist the conception; which, after all, we should probably have some difficulty in framing, were we not well accustomed to see the sun and moon move (or appear to move), so that we are only called upon to conceive a slight change in the direction of motion, a circumstance familiar to our experience. But when experience affords no model on which to shape the new conception, how is it possible for us to form it? How, for example, can we imagine an end to space or time? We never saw any object without something beyond it, nor experienced any feeling without something following it. When, therefore, we attempt to conceive the last point of space , we have the idea irresistibly raised of other points beyond it. When we try to imagine the last instant of time, we can not help conceiving another instant after it. Nor is there any necessity to assume, as is done by a modern school of metaphysicians, a peculiar fundamental law of the mind to account for the feeling of infinity inherent in our conceptions of space and time; that apparent infinity is sufficiently accounted for by simpler and universally acknowledged laws. Now, in the case of a geometrical axiom, such, for example, as that two straight lines can not inclose a spacea truth which is testified to us by our very earliest impressions of the external world how is it possible (whether those external impressions be or be not the ground of our belief) that the reverse of the proposition could be otherwise than inconceivable to us? What analogy have we, what similar order of facts in any other branch of our experience, to facilitate to us the conception of two straight lines inclosing a space? Nor is even this all. I have already called attention to the peculiar property of our impressions of form, that the ideas or mental images exactly resemble their prototypes, and adequately represent them for the purposes of scientific observation. From this, and from the intuitive character of the observation, which in this case reduces itself to simple inspection, we can not so much as call up in our imagination two straight lines, in order to attempt to conceive them inclosing a space, without by that very act repeating the scientific experiment which establishes the contrary. Will it really be contended that the inconceivableness of the thing, in such circumstances, proves any thing against the experimental origin of the conviction? Is it not clear that in whic hever mode our belief in the proposition may have originated, the impossibility of our conceiving the negative of it must, on either hypothesis, be the same? As, then, Dr. Whewell exhorts those who have any difficulty in recognizing the distinction held by him between necessary and contingent truths, to study geometrya condition which I can assure him I have conscientiously fulfilledI, in return, with equal confidence, exhort those who agree with him, to study the general laws of association; being convinced that nothing more is requisite than a moderate familiarity with those laws, to dispel the illusion which ascribes a peculiar necessity to our earliest inductions from experience, and measures the possibility of things in themselves, by the human capacity of conceiving them. I hope to be pardoned for adding, that Dr. Whewell himself has both confirmed by his testimony the effect of habitual association in giving to an experimental truth the appearance of a necessary one, and afforded a striking instance of that remarkable law in his own person. In his Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences he continually asserts, that propositions which not only are not self-evident, but which we know to have been discovered gradually, and by great efforts of genius and pat ience, have, when once established, appeared so self -evident that, but for historical proof, it would have been impossible to conceive that they had not been recognized from the first by all persons in a sound state of their faculties. We now despise those who, in the Copernican controversy, could not conceive the apparent motion of the sun 154 on the heliocentric hypothesis; or those who, in opposition to Galileo, thought that a uniform force might be that which generated a velocity proportional to the space; or those who held there was something absurd in Newton's doctrine of the different refrangibility of differently colored rays; or those who imagined that when elements combine, their sensible qualities must be manifest in the compound; or those who were reluctant to give up the distinction of vegetables into herbs, shrubs, and trees. We can not help thinking that men must have been singularly dull of comprehension, to find a difficulty in admitting what is to us so plain and simple. We have a latent persuasion that we in their place should have been wiser and more clear -sighted; that we should have taken the right side, and given our assent at once to the truth. Yet in reality such a persuasion is a mere delusion. The persons who, in such instances as the above, were on the losing side, were very far, in most cases, from being persons more prejudiced, or stupid, or narrow-minded, than the greater part of mankind now are; and the cause for which they fought was far from being a manifestly bad one, till it had been so decided by the result of the war.... So complete has been the victory of truth in most of these instances, that at present we can hardly imagine the struggle to have been necessary. The very essence of these triumphs is, that they lead us to regar d the views we reject as not only false but inconceivable. P80F81 P This last proposition is precisely what I contend for; and I ask no more, in order to overthrow the whole theory of its author on the nature of the evidence of axioms. For what is that theory? That the truth of axioms can not have been learned from experience, because their falsity is inconceivable. But Dr. Whewell himself says, that we are continually led, by the natural progress of thought, to regard as inconceivable what our forefathers not only conceived but believed, nay even (he might have added) were unable to conceive the reverse of. He can not intend to justify this mode of thought: he can not mean to say, that we can be right in regarding as inconceivable what others have conceived, and as self-evident what to others did not appear evident at all. After so complete an admission that inconceivableness is an accidental thing, not inherent in the phenomenon itself, but dependent on the mental history of the person who tries to conceive it, how can he ever call upon us to reject a proposition as impossible on no other ground than its inconceivableness? Yet he not only does so, but has unintentionally afforded some of the most remarkable examples which can be cited of the very illusion which he has himself so clearly pointed out. I select as specimens, his remarks on the evidence of the three laws of motion, and of the atomic theory. With respect to the laws of motion, Dr. Whewell says: No one can doubt that, in historical fact, these laws were collected from experience. That such is the case, is no matter of conjecture. We know the time, the persons, the circumstances, belonging to each step of each discovery. P81F82 P After this testimony, to adduce evidence of the fact would be superfluous. And not only were these laws by no means intuitively evident, but some of them were originally paradoxes. The first law was especially so. That a body, once in motion, would continue forever to move in the same direction with undiminished velocity unless acted upon by some new force, was a proposition which mankind found for a long time the greatest difficulty in crediting. It stood opposed to apparent experience of the most familiar kind, which taught that it was the nature of motion to abate gradually, and at last terminate of itself. Yet when once the contrary doctrine was firmly established, mathematicians, as Dr. Whewell observes, speedily began to believe that laws, thus contradictory to first appearances, and which, even after full proof had been obtained, it had required generations to render familiar to the minds of the scientific world, were under a demonstrable necessity, compelling them to be such as they are and no other; and he himself, though not venturing absolutely to 81 Novum Organum Renovatum , pp. 32, 33. 82 History of Scientific Ideas , i., 264. 155 pronounce that all these laws can be rigorously traced to an absolute necessity in the nature of things, P82F83 P does actually so think of the law just mentioned; of which he says: Though the discovery of the first law of motion was made, historically speaking, by means of experiment, we have now attained a point of view in which we see that it might have been certainly known to be true, independently of experience. P83F84 P Can there be a more striking exemplification than is here afforded, of the effect of association which we have described? Philosophers, for generations, have the most extraordinary difficulty in putting certain ideas together; they at last succeed in doing so; and after a sufficient repetition of the process, they first fancy a natural bond between the ideas, then experience a growing difficulty, which at last, by the continuation of the same progress, becomes an impossibility, of severing them from one another. If such be the progress of an experimental conviction of which the date is of yesterday, and which is in opposition to first appearances, how must it fare with those which are conformable to appearances familiar from the first dawn of intelligence, and of the conclusiveness of which, from the earliest records of human thought, no skeptic has suggested even a momentary doubt? The other instance which I shall quote is a truly astonishing one, and may be called the reductio ad absurdum of the theory of inconceivableness. Speaking of the laws of chemical composition, Dr. Whewell says: P84F85 P That they could never have been clearly understood, and therefore never firmly established, without laborious and exact experiments, is certain; but yet we may venture to say, that being once known, they possess an evidence beyond that of mere experiment. For how in fact can we conceive combinations, otherwise than as definite in kind and quality? If we were to suppose each element ready to combine with any other indifferently, and indifferently in any quantity, we should have a world in which all would be confusion and indefiniteness. There would be no fixed kinds of bodies. Salts, and stones, and ores, would approach to and graduate into each other by insensible degrees. Instead of this, we know that the world consists of bodies distinguishable from each other by definite differences, capable of being classified and named, and of having general propositions asserted concerning them. And as we can not conceive a world in which this should not be the case , it would appear that we can not conceive a state of things in which the laws o f the combination of elements should not be of that definite and measured kind which we have above asserted. That a philosopher of Dr. Whewell's eminence should gravely assert that we can not conceive a world in which the simple elements should combine in other than definite proportions; that by dint of meditating on a scientific truth, the original discoverer of which was still living, he should have rendered the association in his own mind between the idea of combination and that of constant proportions so familiar and intimate as to be unable to conceive the one fact without the other; is so signal an instance of the mental law for which I am contending, that one word more in illustration must be superfluous. In the latest and most complete elaboration of his metaphysical system (the Philosophy of Discovery ), as well as in the earlier discourse on the Fundamental Antithesis of Philosophy , reprinted as an appendix to that work, Dr. Whewell, while very candidly admitting that his language was open to misconception, disclaims having intended to say that mankind in general can now perceive the law of definite proportions in chemical combination to be a necessary truth. All he meant was that philosophical chemists in a future generation may possibly see this. Some truths may be seen by intuition, but yet the intuition of them may be 83 Ibid., i., 263. 84 Ibid., 240. 85 Hist. Scientific Ideas , ii., 25, 26. 156 a rare and a difficult attainment. P85F86 P And he explains that the inconceivableness which, according to his theory, is the test of axioms, depends entirely upon the clearness of the Ideas which the axioms involve. So long as those ideas are vague and indistinct, the contrary of an axiom may be assented to, though it can not be distinctly conceived. It may be assented to, not because it is possible, but because we do not see clearly what is possible. To a person who is only beginning to think geometrically, there may appear nothing absurd in the assertion that two straight lines may inclose a space. And in the same manner, to a person who is only beginning to think of mechanical truths, it may not appear to be absurd, that in mechanical processes, Reaction should be greater or less than Action; and so, again, to a person who has not thought steadily about Substance, it may not appear inconceivable, that by chemical operations, we should generate new matter, or destroy matter which already exists. P86F87 P Necessary truths, therefore, are not those of which we can not conceive, but those of which we can not distinctly conceive, the contrary. P87F88 P So long as our ideas are indistinct altogether, we do not know what is or is not capable of being distinctly conceived; but, by the ever increasing distinctness with which scientific men apprehend the general conceptions of science, they in time come to perceive that there are certain laws of nature, which , though historically and as a matter of fact they were learned from experience, we can not, now that we know them, distinctly conceive to be other than they are. The account which I should give of this progress of the scientific mind is somewhat different. After a general law of nature has been ascertained, men's minds do not at first acquire a complete facility of familiarly representing to themselves the phenomena of nature in the character which that law assigns to them. The habit which constitutes the scientific cast of mind, that of conceiving facts of all descriptions conformably to the laws which regulate them phenomena of all descriptions according to the relations which have been ascertained really to exist between them; this habit, in the case of newly -discovered relations, comes only by degrees. So long as it is not thoroughly formed, no necessary character is ascribed to the new truth. But in time, the philosopher attains a state of mind in which his mental picture of nature spontaneously represents to him all the phenomena with which the new theory is concerned, in the exact light in which the theory regards them: all images or conceptions derived from any other theory, or from the confused view of the facts which is anterior to any theory, having entirely disappeared from his mind. The mode of representing facts which results from the theory, has now become, to his faculties, the only natural mode of conceiving them. It is a known truth, that a prolonged habit of arranging phenomena in certain groups, and explaining them by means of certain principles, makes any other arrangement or explanation of these facts be felt as unnatural: and it may at last become as difficult to him to represent the facts to himself in any other mode, as it often was, originally, to represent them in that mode. But, further (if the theory is true, as we are supposing it to be), any other mode in which he tries, or in which he was formerly accustomed, to represent the phenomena, will be seen by him to be inconsistent with the facts that suggested the new theoryfacts which now form a part of his mental picture of nature. And since a contradiction is always inconceivable, his imagination rejects these false theories, and declares itself incapable of conceiving them. Their in conceivableness to him does not, however, result from any thing in the theories themselves, intrinsically and a priori repugnant to the human faculties; it results from the repugnance between them and a portion of the facts; which facts as long as he did not know, or did not distinctly realize in his mental representations, the false theory did not appear other 86 Phil. of Disc. , p. 339. 87 Phil. of Disc. , p. 338. 88 Ibid., p. 463. 157 than conceivable; it becomes inconceivable, merely from the fact that contradictory elements can not be combined in the same conception. Although, then, his real reason for rejecting theories at variance with the true one, is no other than that they clash with his experience, he easily falls into the belief, that he rejects them because they are inconceivable, and that he adopts the true theory becaus e it is self -evident, and does not need the evidence of experience at all. This I take to be the real and sufficient explanation of the paradoxical truth, on which so much stress is laid by Dr. Whewell, that a scientifically cultivated mind is actually, in virtue of that cultivation, unable to conceive suppositions which a common man conceives without the smallest difficulty. For there is nothing inconceivable in the suppositions themselves; the impossibility is in combining them with facts inconsistent with them, as part of the same mental picture; an obstacle of course only felt by those who know the facts, and are able to perceive the inconsistency. As far as the suppositions themselves are concerned, in the case of many of Dr. Whewell's necessary truths the negative of the axiom is, and probably will be as long as the human race lasts, as easily conceivable as the affirmative. There is no axiom (for example) to which Dr. Whewell ascribes a more thorough character of necessity and self - evidence, than that of the indestructibility of matter. That this is a true law of nature I fully admit; but I imagine there is no human being to whom the opposite supposition is inconceivablewho has any difficulty in imagining a portion of matter annihilated: inasmuch as it s apparent annihilation, in no respect distinguishable from real by our unassisted senses, takes place every time that water dries up, or fuel is consumed. Again, the law that bodies combine chemically in definite proportions is undeniably true; but few besides Dr. Whewell have reached the point which he seems personally to have arrived at (though he only dares prophesy similar success to the multitude after the lapse of generations), that of being unable to conceive a world in which the elements are ready to combine with one another indifferently in any quantity; nor is it likely that we shall ever rise to this sublime height of inability, so long as all the mechanical mixtures in our planet, whether solid, liquid, or ariform, exhibit to our daily observation the very phenomenon declared to be inconceivable. According to Dr. Whewell, these and similar laws of nature can not be drawn from experience, inasmuch as they are, on the contrary, assumed in the interpretation of experience. Our inability to add t o or diminish the quantity of matter in the world, is a truth which neither is nor can be derived from experience; for the experiments which we make to verify it presuppose its truth.... When men began to use the balance in chemical analysis, they did not prove by trial, but took for granted, as self-evident, that the weight of the whole must be found in the aggregate weight of the elements. P88F89 P True, it is assumed; but, I apprehend, no otherwise than as all experimental inquiry assumes provisionally some theory or hypothesis, which is to be finally held true or not, according as the experiments decide. The hypothesis chosen for this purpose will naturally be one which groups together some considerable number of facts already known. The proposition that the material of the world, as estimated by weight, is neither increased nor diminished by any of the processes of nature or art, had many appearances in its favor to begin with. It expressed truly a great number of familiar facts. There were other facts which it had the appearance of conflicting with, and which made its truth, as a universal law of nature, at first doubtful. Because it was doubtful, experiments were devised to verify it. Men assumed its truth hypothetically, and proceeded to try whether, on more careful examination, the phenomena which apparently pointed to a different conclusion, would not be found to be consistent with it. This turned out to be the case; and 89 Phil. of Disc. , pp. 472, 473. 158 from that time the doctrine took its place as a universal truth, but as one proved to be such by experience. That the theory itself preceded the proof of its truth that it had to be conceived before it could be proved, and in order that it might be proveddoes not imply that it was self-evident, and did not need proof. Otherwise all the tr ue theories in the sciences are necessary and self -evident; for no one knows better than Dr. Whewell that they all began by being assumed, for the purpose of connecting them by deductions with those facts of experience on which, as evidence, they now confe ssedly rest. P89F90 P 90 The Quarterly Review for June, 1841, contained an article of great ability on Dr. Whewell's two great works (since acknowledged and reprinted in Sir John Herschel's Essays) which maintains, on the subject of axioms, the doctrine advanced in the text, that they are generalizations from experience, and supports that opinion by a line of argument strikingly coinciding with mine. When I state that the whole of the present chapter (except the last four pages, added in the fifth edition) was written before I had seen the article (the greater part, indeed, before it was published), it is not my object to occupy the reader's attention with a matter so unimportant as the degree of originality which may or may not belong to any portion of my own speculations, but to obtain for an opinion which is opposed to reigning doctrines, the recommendation derived from a striking concurrence of sentiment between two inquirers entirely independent of one another. I embrace the opportunity of citing from a writer of the extens ive acquirements in physical and metaphysical knowledge and the capacity of systematic thought which the article evinces, passages so remarkably in unison with my own views as the following: The truths of geometry are summed up and embodied in its definitions and axioms.... Let us turn to the axioms, and what do we find? A string of propositions concerning magnitude in the abstract, which are equally true of space, time, force, number, and every other magnitude susceptible of aggregation and subdivision. S uch propositions, where they are not mere definitions, as some of them are, carry their inductive origin on the face of their enunciation.... Those which declare that two straight lines can not inclose a space, and that two straight lines which cut one another can not both be parallel to a third, are in reality the only ones which express characteristic properties of space, and these it will be worth while to consider more nearly. Now the only clear notion we can form of straightness is uniformity of direction, for space in its ultimate analysis is nothing but an assemblage of distances and directions. And (not to dwell on the notion of continued contemplation, i.e., mental experience, as included in the very idea of uniformity; nor on that of transfer of the contemplating being from point to point, and of experience, during such transfer, of the homogeneity of the interval passed over) we can not even propose the proposition in an intelligible form to any one whose experience ever since he was born has not assured him of the fact. The unity of direction, or that we can not march from a given point by more than one path direct to the same object, is matter of practical experience long before it can by possibility become matter of abstract thought. We can not attempt mentally to exemplify the conditions of the assertion in an imaginary case opposed to it, without violating our habitual recollection of this experience, and defacing our mental picture of space as grounded on it. What but experience, we may ask, can possibly assure us of the homogeneity of the parts of distance, time, force, and measurable aggregates in general, on which the truth of the other axioms depends? As regards the latter axiom, after what has been said it must be clear that the very same course of remarks equally applies to its case, and that its truth is quite as much forced on the mind as that of the former by daily and hourly experience, ... including always, be it observed, in our notion of experience, that which is gained by contemplation of the inward picture which the mind forms to itself in any proposed case, or which it arbitrarily selects as an example such picture, in virtue of the extreme simplicity of these primary relations, being called up by the imagination with as much vividness and clearness as could be done by any external impression, which is the only meaning we can attach to the word intuition, as applied to such relations . And again, of the axioms of mechanics: As we admit no such propositions, other than as truths inductively collected from observation, even in geometry itself, it can hardly be expected that, in a science of obviously contingent relations, we should acquiesce in a contrary view. Let us take one of these axioms and examine its evidence: for instance, th at equal forces perpendicularly applied at the opposite ends of equal arms of a straight lever will balance each other. What but experience, we may ask, in the first place, can possibly inform us that a force so applied will have any tendency to turn the l ever on its centre at all? or that force can be so transmitted along a rigid line perpendicular to its direction, as to act elsewhere in space than along its own line of action? Surely this is so far from being self -evident that it has even a paradoxical appearance, which is only to be removed by giving our lever thickness, material composition, and molecular powers. Again, we conclude, that the two forces, being equal and applied under precisely similar circumstances, must, if they exert any effort at all to turn the lever, exert equal and opposite efforts: but what a priori reasoning can possibly assure us that they do act under precisely similar circumstances? that points which differ in place are similarly circumstanced as regards the exertion of force? that universal space may not have relations to universal force or, at all events, 159 that the organization of the material universe may not be such as to place that portion of space occupied by it in such relations to the forces exerted in it, as may invalida te the absolute similarity of circumstances assumed? Or we may argue, what have we to do with the notion of angular movement in the lever at all? The case is one of rest, and of quiescent destruction of force by force. Now how is this destruction effected? Assuredly by the counter -pressure which supports the fulcrum. But would not this destruction equally arise, and by the same amount of counteracting force, if each force simply pressed its own half of the lever against the fulcrum? And what can assure us t hat it is not so, except removal of one or other force, and consequent tilting of the lever? The other fundamental axiom of statics, that the pressure on the point of support is the sum of the weights ... is merely a scientific transformation and more refi ned mode of stating a coarse and obvious result of universal experience, viz., that the weight of a rigid body is the same, handle it or suspend it in what position or by what point we will, and that whatever sustains it sustains its total weight. Assuredly, as Mr. Whewell justly remarks, No one probably ever made a trial for the purpose of showing that the pressure on the support is equal to the sum of the weights. ... But it is precisely because in every action of his life from earliest infancy he has been continually making the trial, and seeing it made by every other living being about him, that he never dreams of staking its result on one additional attempt made with scientific accuracy. This would be as if a man should resolve to decide by experiment whether his eyes were useful for the purpose of seeing, by hermetically sealing himself up for half an hour in a metal case. On the paradox of universal propositions obtained by experience, the same writer says: If there be necessary and universal truths expressible in propositions of axiomatic simplicity and obviousness, and having for their subject -matter the elements of all our experience and all our knowledge, surely these are the truths which, if experience suggest to us any truths at all, it ought to suggest most readily, clearly, and unceasingly. If it were a truth, universal and necessary, that a net is spread over the whole surface of every planetary globe, we should not travel far on our own without getting entangled in its meshes, and making the necessity of some means of extrication an axiom of locomotion.... There is, therefore, nothing paradoxical, but the reverse, in our being led by observation to a recognition of such truths, as general propositions, co- extensive at least with all human experience. That they pervade all the objects of experience, must insure their continual suggestion by experience; that they are true, must insure that consistency of suggestion, that iteration of uncontradicted assertion, which commands implicit assent, a nd removes all occasion of exception; that they are simple, and admit of no misunderstanding, must secure their admission by every mind. A truth, necessary and universal, relative to any object of our knowledge, must verify itself in every instance where that object is before our contemplation, and if at the same time it be simple and intelligible, its verification must be obvious. The sentiment of such a truth can not, therefore, but be present to our minds whenever that object is contemplated, and must therefore make a part of the mental picture or idea of that object which we may on any occasion summon before our imagination.... All propositions, therefore, become not only untrue but inconceivable , if ... axioms be violated in their enunciation. Anothe r eminent mathematician had previously sanctioned by his authority the doctrine of the origin of geometrical axioms in experience. Geometry is thus founded likewise on observation; but of a kind so familiar and obvious, that the primary notions which it f urnishes might seem intuitive. Sir John Leslie , quoted by Sir William Hamilton, Discourses , etc., p. 272. 160 VI. The Same Subject Continued 1. In the examination which formed the subject of the last chapter, into the nature of the evidence of those deductive sciences which are commonly represented to be systems of necessary truth, we have been led to the following conclusions. The results of those sciences are indeed necessary, in the sense of necessarily following from certain first principles, commonly called axioms and definitions; that is, of being certainly true if those axioms and definitions are so; for the word necessity, even in this acceptation of it, means no more than certainty. But their claim to the character of necessity in any sense beyond this, as implying an evidence independent of and superior to observation and experience, must depend on the previous establishment of such a claim in favor of the definitions and axioms themselves. With regard to axioms, we found that, considered as experimental truths, they rest on superabundant and obvious evidence. We inquired, whether, since this is the case, it be imperative to suppose any other evidence of those truths than experimental evidence, any other origin for our belief of them than an experimental origin. We decided, that the burden of proof lies with those who maintain the affirmative, and we examined, at considerable length, such arguments as they have produced. The examination having led to the rejection of those arguments, we have thought ourselves warranted in concluding that axioms are but a class, the most universal class, of inductions from experience; the simplest and easiest cases of generalization from the facts furnished to us by our senses or by our internal consciousness. While the axioms of demonstrative sciences thus appeared to be experimental truths, the definitions, as they are incorrectly called, in those sciences, were found by us to be generalizations from experience which are not even, accurately speaking, truths; being propositions in which, while we assert of some kind of object, some property or properties which observation shows to belong to it, we at the same time deny that it possesses any other properties, though in truth other properties do in every individual instance accompany, and in almost all instances modify, the property thus exclusively predicated. The denial, therefore, is a mere fiction, or supposition, made for the purpose of excluding the consideration of those modifying circumstances, when their influence is of too trifling amount to be worth considering, or adjourning it, when important to a more convenient moment. From these considerations it would appear that Deductive or Demonstrative Sciences are all, without exception, Inductive Sciences; that their evidence is that of experience; but that they are also, in virtue of the peculiar character of one indispensable portion of the general formul according to which their inductions are made, Hypothetical Sciences. Their conclusions are only true on certain suppositions, which are, or ought to be, approximations to the truth, but are seldom, if ever, exactly true; and to this hypothetical character is to be ascribed the peculiar certainty, which is supposed to be inherent in demonstration. What we have now asserted, however, cannot be received as universally true of Deductive or Demonstrative Sciences, until verified by being applied to the most remarkable of all those sciences, that of Numbers; the theory of the Calculus; Arithmetic and Algebra. It is harder to believe of the doctrines of this science than of any other, either that they are not truths a priori , but experimental truths, or that their peculiar certainty is owing to their being not absolute but only conditional truths. This, therefore, is a case which merits examination apart; and the more so, because on this subject we have a double set of doctrines to contend with; that of the a priori philosophers on one side; and on the other, a theory the most opposite to 161 theirs, which was at one time very generally received, and is still far from being altogether exploded, among metaphysicians. 2. This theory attempts to solve the difficulty apparently inherent in the case, by representing the propositions of the science of numbers as merely verbal, and its processes as simple transformations of language, substitutions of one expression for another. The proposition, Two and one is equal to three, according to these writers, is not a truth, is not the assertion of a really existing fact, but a definition of the word three; a statement that mankind have agreed to use th e name three as a sign exactly equivalent to two and one; to call by the former name whatever is called by the other more clumsy phrase. According to this doctrine, the longest process in algebra is but a succession of changes in terminology, by which equivalent expressions are substituted one for another; a series of translations of the same fact, from one into another language; though how, after such a series of translations, the fact itself comes out changed (as when we demonstrate a new geometrical theo rem by algebra), they have not explained; and it is a difficulty which is fatal to their theory. It must be acknowledged that there are peculiarities in the processes of arithmetic and algebra which render the theory in question very plausible, and have not unnaturally made those sciences the stronghold of Nominalism. The doctrine that we can discover facts, detect the hidden processes of nature, by an artful manipulation of language, is so contrary to common sense, that a person must have made some advances in philosophy to believe it: men fly to so paradoxical a belief to avoid, as they think, some even greater difficulty, which the vulgar do not see. What has led many to believe that reasoning is a mere verbal process, is, that no other theory seemed reconcilable with the nature of the Science of Numbers. For we do not carry any ideas along with us when we use the symbols of arithmetic or of algebra. In a geometrical demonstration we have a mental diagram, if not one on paper; AB, AC, are present to our imagination as lines, intersecting other lines, forming an angle with one another, and the like; but not so a and b. These may represent lines or any other magnitudes, but those magnitudes are never thought of; nothing is realized in our imagination but a and b. The ideas which, on the particular occasion, they happen to represent, are banished from the mind during every intermediate part of the process, between the beginning, when the premises are translated from things into signs, and the end, when the conclusion is translated back from signs into things. Nothing, then, being in the reasoner's mind but the symbols, what can seem more inadmissible than to contend that the reasoning process has to do with any thing more? We seem to have come to one of B acon's Prerogative Instances; an experimentum crucis on the nature of reasoning itself. Nevertheless, it will appear on consideration, that this apparently so decisive instance is no instance at all; that there is in every step of an arithmetical or algebraical calculation a real induction, a real inference of facts from facts; and that what disguises the induction is simply its comprehensive nature, and the consequent extreme generality of the language. All numbers must be numbers of something: there are no such things as numbers in the abstract. Ten must mean ten bodies, or ten sounds, or ten beatings of the pulse. But though numbers must be numbers of something, they may be numbers of any thing. Propositions, therefore, concerning numbers, have the remarkable peculiarity that they are propositions concerning all things whatever; all objects, all existences of every kind, known to our experience. All things possess quantity; consist of parts which can be numbered; and in that character possess all the properties which are called properties of numbers. That half of four is two, must be true whatever the word four represents, whether four hours, four miles, or four pounds weight. We need only conceive a thing divided into four equal parts (and all things may be conceived as so divided), to be able to predicate of it every property of the number four, that is, every arithmetical proposition in which the number four stands on one 162 side of the equation. Algebra extends the generalization still farther: every number represents that particular number of all things without distinction, but every algebraical symbol does more, it represents all numbers without distinction. As soon as we conceive a thing divided into equal parts, without knowing into what number of parts, we may call it a or x , and apply to it, without danger of error, every algebraical formula in the books. The proposition, 2 (a + b)= 2 a + 2 b, is a truth co- extensive with all nature. Since then algebraical truths are true of all things whatever, and not, like those of geometry, true of lines only or of angles only, it is no wonder that the symbols should not excite in our minds ideas of any things in particular. When we demonstrate the forty -seventh proposition of Euclid, it is not necessary that the words should raise in us an image of all right-angled triangles, but only of some one right- angled triangle: so in algebra we need not, under the symbol a, picture to ourselves all things whatever, but only some one thing; why not, then, the letter itself? The mere written characters, a, b, x, y, z, serve as well for representatives of Things in general, as any more complex and apparently more concrete conception. That we are conscious of them, however, in their character of things, and not of mere signs, is evident from the fact that our whole process of reasoning is carried on by predicating of them the properties of things. In resolving an algebraic equation, by what rules do we proceed? By applying at each step to a, b, and x , the proposition tha t equals added to equals make equals; that equals taken from equals leave equals; and other propositions founded on these two. These are not properties of language, or of signs as such, but of magnitudes, which is as much as to say, of all things. The infe rences, therefore, which are successively drawn, are inferences concerning things, not symbols; though as any Things whatever will serve the turn, there is no necessity for keeping the idea of the Thing at all distinct, and consequently the process of thought may, in this case, be allowed without danger to do what all processes of thought, when they have been performed often, will do if permitted, namely, to become entirely mechanical. Hence the general language of algebra comes to be used familiarly without exciting ideas, as all other general language is prone to do from mere habit, though in no other case than this can it be done with complete safety. But when we look back to see from whence the probative force of the process is derived, we find that at every single step, unless we suppose ourselves to be thinking and talking of the things, and not the mere symbols, the evidence fails. There is another circumstance, which, still more than that which we have now mentioned, gives plausibility to the notion t hat the propositions of arithmetic and algebra are merely verbal. That is, that when considered as propositions respecting Things, they all have the appearance of being identical propositions. The assertion, Two and one is equal to three, considered as an assertion respecting objects, as for instance, Two pebbles and one pebble are equal to three pebbles, does not affirm equality between two collections of pebbles, but absolute identity. It affirms that if we put one pebble to two pebbles, those very pebbles are three. The objects, therefore, being the very same, and the mere assertion that objects are themselves being insignificant, it seems but natural to consider the proposition, Two and one is equal to three, as asserting mere identity of signification between the two names. This, however, though it looks so plausible, will not bear examination. The expression two pebbles and one pebble, and the expression three pebbles, stand indeed for the same aggregation of objects, but they by no means stand for the same physical fact. They are names of the same objects, but of those objects in two different states: though they de note the same things, their con notation is different. Three pebbles in two separate parcels, and three pebbles in one parcel, do not make the same impression on our senses; and the assertion that the very same pebbles may by an alteration of place and arrangement be made to produce either the one set of sensations or the other, though a very familiar proposition, is not an identical on e. It is a truth known to us by early and constant experience: an inductive truth; 163 and such truths are the foundation of the science of Number. The fundamental truths of that science all rest on the evidence of sense; they are proved by showing to our eyes and our fingers that any given number of objectsten balls, for examplemay by separation and re-arrangement exhibit to our senses all the different sets of numbers the sums of which is equal to ten. All the improved methods of teaching arithmetic to children proceed on a knowledge of this fact. All who wish to carry the child's mind along with them in learning arithmetic; all who wish to teach numbers, and not mere ciphersnow teach it through the evidence of the senses, in the manner we have described. We may, if we please, call the proposition, Three is two and one, a definition of the number three, and assert that arithmetic, as it has been asserted that geometry, is a science founded on definitions. But they are definitions in the geometrical sense, not the logical; asserting not the meaning of a term only, but along with it an observed matter of fact. The proposition, A circle is a figure bounded by a line which has all its points equally distant from a point within it, is called the definition of a circle; but the proposition from which so many consequences follow, and which is really a first principle in geometry, is, that figures answering to this description exist. And thus we may call Three is two and one a definition of three; but the calcul ations which depend on that proposition do not follow from the definition itself, but from an arithmetical theorem presupposed in it, namely, that collections of objects exist, which while they impress the senses thus, [Symbol: three circles, two above one ], may be separated into two parts, thus, [Symbol: two circles, a space, and a third circle]. This proposition being granted, we term all such parcels Threes, after which the enunciation of the above- mentioned physical fact will serve also for a definition of the word Three. The Science of Number is thus no exception to the conclusion we previously arrived at, that the processes even of deductive sciences are altogether inductive, and that their first principles are generalizations from experience. It remai ns to be examined whether this science resembles geometry in the further circumstance, that some of its inductions are not exactly true; and that the peculiar certainty ascribed to it, on account of which its propositions are called Necessary Truths, is fi ctitious and hypothetical, being true in no other sense than that those propositions legitimately follow from the hypothesis of the truth of premises which are avowedly mere approximations to truth. 3. The inductions of arithmetic are of two sorts: first, those which we have just expounded, such as One and one are two, Two and one are three, etc., which may be called the definitions of the various numbers, in the improper or geometrical sense of the word Definition; and secondly, the two following axioms: The sums of equals are equal, The differences of equals are equal. These two are sufficient; for the corresponding propositions respecting unequals may be proved from these by a reductio ad absurdum . These axioms, and likewise the so- called definitions, a re, as has already been said, results of induction; true of all objects whatever, and, as it may seem, exactly true, without the hypothetical assumption of unqualified truth where an approximation to it is all that exists. The conclusions, therefore, it wi ll naturally be inferred, are exactly true, and the science of number is an exception to other demonstrative sciences in this, that the categorical certainty which is predicable of its demonstrations is independent of all hypothesis. On more accurate inves tigation, however, it will be found that, even in this case, there is one hypothetical element in the ratiocination. In all propositions concerning numbers, a condition is implied, without which none of them would be true; and that condition is an assumption which may be false. The condition is, that 1=1; that all the numbers are numbers of the same or of equal units. Let this be doubtful, and not one of the propositions of arithmetic will hold true. How can we know that one pound and one pound make two pounds, if one of the 164 pounds may be troy, and the other avoirdupois? They may not make two pounds of either, or of any weight. How can we know that a forty-horse power is always equal to itself, unless we assume that all horses are of equal strength? It is ce rtain that 1 is always equal in number to 1; and where the mere number of objects, or of the parts of an object, without supposing them to be equivalent in any other respect, is all that is material, the conclusions of arithmetic, so far as they go to that alone, are true without mixture of hypothesis. There are such cases in statistics; as, for instance, an inquiry into the amount of the population of any country. It is indifferent to that inquiry whether they are grown people or children, strong or weak, tall or short; the only thing we want to ascertain is their number. But whenever, from equality or inequality of number, equality or inequality in any other respect is to be inferred, arithmetic carried into such inquiries becomes as hypothetical a science as geometry. All units must be assumed to be equal in that other respect; and this is never accurately true, for one actual pound weight is not exactly equal to another, nor one measured mile's length to another; a nicer balance, or more accurate measurin g instruments, would always detect some difference. What is commonly called mathematical certainty, therefore, which comprises the twofold conception of unconditional truth and perfect accuracy, is not an attribute of all mathematical truths, but of those only which relate to pure Number, as distinguished from Quantity in the more enlarged sense; and only so long as we abstain from supposing that the numbers are a precise index to actual quantities. The certainty usually ascribed to the conclusions of geometry, and even to those of mechanics, is nothing whatever but certainty of inference. We can have full assurance of particular results under particular suppositions, but we can not have the same assurance that these suppositions are accurately true, nor that they include all the data which may exercise an influence over the result in any given instance. 4. It appears, therefore, that the method of all Deductive Sciences is hypothetical. They proceed by tracing the consequences of certain assumptions; leavi ng for separate consideration whether the assumptions are true or not, and if not exactly true, whether they are a sufficiently near approximation to the truth. The reason is obvious. Since it is only in questions of pure number that the assumptions are exactly true, and even there only so long as no conclusions except purely numerical ones are to be founded on them; it must, in all other cases of deductive investigation, form a part of the inquiry, to determine how much the assumptions want of being exactly true in the case in hand. This is generally a matter of observation, to be repeated in every fresh case; or if it has to be settled by argument instead of observation, may require in every different case different evidence, and present every degree of di fficulty, from the lowest to the highest. But the other part of the process namely, to determine what else may be concluded if we find, and in proportion as we find, the assumptions to be truemay be performed once for all, and the results held ready to be employed as the occasions turn up for use. We thus do all beforehand that can be so done, and leave the least possible work to be performed when cases arise and press for a decision. This inquiry into the inferences which can be drawn from assumptions, is what properly constitutes Demonstrative Science. It is of course quite as practicable to arrive at new conclusions from facts assumed, as from facts observed; from fictitious, as from real, inductions. Deduction, as we have seen, consists of a series of i nferences in this forma is a mark of b, b of c , c of d, therefore a is a mark of d, which last may be a truth inaccessible to direct observation. In like manner it is allowable to say, suppose that a were a mark of b, b of c , and c of d, a would be a mark of d, which last conclusion was not thought of by those who laid down the premises. A system of propositions as complicated as geometry might be deduced from assumptions which are false; as was done by Ptolemy, Descartes, and others, in their attempts to explain synthetically the phenomena of the solar system on the supposition that the apparent motions of the heavenly 165 bodies were the real motions, or were produced in some way more or less different from the true one. Sometimes the same thing is knowingly done, for the purpose of showing the falsity of the assumption; which is called a reductio ad absurdum . In such cases, the reasoning is as follows: a is a mark of b, and b of c ; now if c were also a mark of d, a would be a mark of d; but d is known to be a mark of the absence of a; consequently a would be a mark of its own absence, which is a contradiction; therefore c is not a mark of d. 5. It has even been held by some writers, that all ratiocination rests in the last resort on a reductio ad absurdum ; since the way to enforce assent to it, in case of obscurity, would be to show that if the conclusion be denied we must deny some one at least of the premises, which, as they are all supposed true, would be a contradiction. And in accordance with this, many have thought that the peculiar nature of the evidence of ratiocination consisted in the impossibility of admitting the premises and rejecting the conclusion without a contradiction in terms. This theory, however, is inadmissible as an explanation of the grounds on which ratiocination itself rests. If any one denies the conclusion notwithstanding his admission of the premises, he is not involved in any direct and express contradiction until he is compelled to deny some premise; and he can only be forced to do this by a reductio ad absurdum , that is, by another ratiocination: now, if he denies the validity of the reasoning process itself, he can no more be forced to assent to the second syllogism than to the first. In truth, therefore, no one is ever forced to a contradiction in terms: he can only be forced to a contradiction (or rather an infringement) of the fundamental maxim of ratiocination, namely, that whatever has a mark, has what it is a mark of; or (in the case of universal propositions), that whateve r is a mark of any thing, is a mark of whatever else that thing is a mark of. For in the case of every correct argument, as soon as thrown into the syllogistic form, it is evident without the aid of any other syllogism, that he who, admitting the premises, fails to draw the conclusion, does not conform to the above axiom. We have now proceeded as far in the theory of Deduction as we can advance in the present stage of our inquiry. Any further insight into the subject requires that the foundation shall have been laid of the philosophic theory of Induction itself; in which theory that of Deduction, as a mode of Induction, which we have now shown it to be, will assume spontaneously the place which belongs to it, and will receive its share of whatever light may be thrown upon the great intellectual operation of which it forms so important a part. 166 VII. Examination Of Some Opinions Opposed To The Preceding Doctrines 1. Polemical discussion is foreign to the plan of this work. But an opinion which stands in need of much illustration, can often receive it most effectually, and least tediously, in the form of a defense against objections. And on subjects concerning which speculative minds are still divided, a writer does but half his duty by stating his own doctrine, if he does not also examine, and to the best of his ability judge, those of other thinkers. In the dissertation which Mr. Herbert Spencer has prefixed to his, in many respects, highly philosophical treatise on the Mind, P90F91 P he cri ticises some of the doctrines of the two preceding chapters, and propounds a theory of his own on the subject of first principles. Mr. Spencer agrees with me in considering axioms to be simply our earliest inductions from experience. But he differs from me widely as to the worth of the test of inconceivableness. He thinks that it is the ultimate test of all beliefs. He arrives at this conclusion by two steps. First, we never can have any stronger ground for believing any thing, than that the belief of it invariably exists. Whenever any fact or proposition is invariably believed; that is, if I understand Mr. Spencer rightly, believed by all persons, and by one's self at all times; it is entitled to be received as one of the primitive truths, or original premises of our knowledge. Secondly, the criterion by which we decide whether any thing is invariably believed to be true, is our inability to conceive it as false. The inconceivability of its negation is the test by which we ascertain whether a given belief invariably exists or not. For our primary beliefs, the fact of invariable existence, tested by an abortive effort to cause their non -existence, is the only reason assignable. He thinks this the sole ground of our belief in our own sensations. If I believe that I feel cold, I only receive this as true because I can not conceive that I am not feeling cold. While the proposition remains true, the negation of it remains inconceivable. There are numerous other beliefs which Mr. Spencer considers to res t on the same basis; being chiefly those, or a part of those, which the metaphysicians of the Reid and Stewart school consider as truths of immediate intuition. That there exists a material world; that this is the very world which we directly and immediate ly perceive, and not merely the hidden cause of our perceptions; that Space, Time, Force, Extension, Figure, are not modes of our consciousness, but objective realities; are regarded by Mr. Spencer as truths known by the inconceivableness of their negatives. We can not, he says, by any effort, conceive these objects of thought as mere states of our mind; as not having an existence external to us. Their real existence is, therefore, as certain as our sensations themselves. The truths which are the subject of direct knowledge, being, according to this doctrine, known to be truths only by the inconceivability of their negation; and the truths which are not the object of direct knowledge, being known as inferences from those which are; and those inferences being believed to follow from the premises, only because we can not conceive them not to follow; inconceivability is thus the ultimate ground of all assured beliefs. Thus far, there is no very wide difference between Mr. Spencer's doctrine and the ordinary one of philosophers of the intuitive school, from Descartes to Dr. Whewell; but at this point Mr. Spencer diverges from them. For he does not, like them, set up the test of inconceivability as infallible. On the contrary, he holds that it may be fallacious, not from any fault in the test itself, but because men have mistaken for inconceivable things, some things 91 Principles of Psychology. 167 which were not inconceivable. And he himself, in this very book, denies not a few propositions usually regarded as among the most marked examples of truths whose negations are inconceivable. But occasional failure, he says, is incident to all tests. If such failure vitiates the test of inconceivableness, it must similarly vitiate all tests whatever. We consider an inference logically drawn from established premises to be true. Yet in millions of cases men have been wrong in the inferences they have thought thus drawn. Do we therefore argue that it is absurd to consider an inference true on no other ground than that it is logically drawn from established premises? No: we say that though men may have taken for logical inferences, inferences that were not logical, there nevertheless are logical inferences, and that we are justified in assuming the truth of what seem to us such, until better instructed. Similarly, though men may have thought some things inconceivable which were not so, there may still be inconceivable things; and the inability to conceive the negation of a thing, may still be our best warrant for believing it.... Though occasionally it may prove an imperfect test, yet, as our most certain beliefs are capable of no better, to doubt any one belief because we have no higher guarantee for it, is really to doubt all beliefs. Mr. Spencer's doctrine, therefore, does not erect the curable, but only the incurable limitations of the human conceptive faculty, into laws of the outward universe. 2. The doctrine, that a belief which is proved by the inconceivableness of its negation to invariably exist, is true, Mr. Spencer enforces by two arguments, one of which may be distinguished as positive, and the other as negative. The positive argument is, that every such belief represents the aggregate of all past experience. Conceding the entire truth of the position, that during any phase of human progress, the ability or inability to form a specific conception wholly depends on the experiences men have had; and that, by a widening of their experiences, they may, by and by, be enabled to conceive things before inconceivable to them, it may still be argue d that as, at any time, the best warrant men can have for a belief is the perfect agreement of all pre-existing experience in support of it, it follows that, at any time, the inconceivableness of its negation is the deepest test any belief admits of.... Objective facts are ever impressing themselves upon us; our experience is a register of these objective facts; and the inconceivableness of a thing implies that it is wholly at variance with the register. Even were this all, it is not clear how, if every tru th is primarily inductive, any better test of truth could exist. But it must be remembered that while many of these facts, impressing themselves upon us, are occasional; while others again are very general; some are universal and unchanging. These universal and unchanging facts are, by the hypothesis, certain to establish beliefs of which the negations are inconceivable; while the others are not certain to do this; and if they do, subsequent facts will reverse their action. Hence if, after an immense accumulation of experiences, there remain beliefs of which the negations are still inconceivable, most, if not all of them, must correspond to universal objective facts. If there be ... certain absolute uniformities in nature; if these uniformities produce, as they must, absolute uniformities in our experience; and if ... these absolute uniformities in our experience disable us from conceiving the negations of them; then answering to each absolute uniformity in nature which we can cognize, there must exist in us a belief of which the negation is inconceivable, and which is absolutely true. In this wide range of cases subjective inconceivableness must correspond to objective impossibility. Further experience will produce correspondence where it may not yet exist; a nd we may expect the correspondence to become ultimately complete. In nearly all cases this test of inconceivableness must be valid now (I wish I could think we were so nearly arrived at omniscience); and where it is not, it still expresses the net resul t of our experience up to the present time; which is the most that any test can do. 168 To this I answer, first, that it is by no means true that the inconceivability, by us, of the negative of a proposition proves all, or even any, pre -existing experience to be in favor of the affirmative. There may have been no such pre-existing experiences, but only a mistaken supposition of experience. How did the inconceivability of antipodes prove that experience had given any testimony against their possibility? How did the incapacity men felt of conceiving sunset otherwise than as a motion of the sun, represent any net result of experience in support of its being the sun and not the earth that moves? It is not experience that is represented, it is only a superficial semblance of experience. The only thing proved with regard to real experience, is the negative fact, that men have not had it of the kind which would have made the inconceivable proposition conceivable. Next: Even if it were true that inconceivableness represents the net result of all past experience, why should we stop at the representative when we can get at the thing represented? If our incapacity to conceive the negation of a given supposition is proof of its truth, because proving that our experience has hitherto been uniform in its favor, the real evidence for the supposition is not the inconceivableness, but the uniformity of experience. Now this, which is the substantial and only proof, is directly accessible. We are not obliged to presume it from a n incidental consequence. If all past experience is in favor of a belief, let this be stated, and the belief openly rested on that ground: after which the question arises, what that fact may be worth as evidence of its truth? For uniformity of experience i s evidence in very different degrees: in some cases it is strong evidence, in others weak, in others it scarcely amounts to evidence at all. That all metals sink in water, was a uniform experience, from the origin of the human race to the discovery of potassium in the present century by Sir Humphry Davy. That all swans are white, was a uniform experience down to the discovery of Australia. In the few cases in which uniformity of experience does amount to the strongest possible proof, as with such propositions as these, Two straight lines can not inclose a space, Every event has a cause, it is not because their negations are inconceivable, which is not always the fact; but because the experience, which has been thus uniform, pervades all nature. It will be sh own in the following Book that none of the conclusions either of induction or of deduction can be considered certain, except as far as their truth is shown to be inseparably bound up with truths of this class. I maintain then, first, that uniformity of past experience is very far from being universally a criterion of truth. But secondly, inconceivableness is still further from being a test even of that test. Uniformity of contrary experience is only one of many causes of inconceivability. Tradition handed down from a period of more limited knowledge, is one of the commonest. The mere familiarity of one mode of production of a phenomenon often suffices to make every other mode appear inconceivable. Whatever connects two ideas by a strong association may, and continually does, render their separation in thought impossible; as Mr. Spencer, in other parts of his speculations, frequently recognizes. It was not for want of experience that the Cartesians were unable to conceive that one body could produce motion in another without contact. They had as much experience of other modes of producing motion as they had of that mode. The planets had revolved, and heavy bodies had fallen, every hour of their lives. But they fancied these phenomena to be produced by a hidden machinery which they did not see, because without it they were unable to conceive what they did see. The inconceivableness, instead of representing their experience, dominated and overrode their experience. Without dwelling further on what I have termed the positive argument of Mr. Spencer in support of his criterion of truth, I pass to his negative argument, on which he lays more stress. 3. The negative argument is, that, whether inconceivability be good evidence or bad, no stronger evidence is to be obtained. That what is inconceivable can not be true, is postulated 169 in every act of thought. It is the foundation of all our original premises. Still more it is assumed in all conclusions from those premises. The invariability of belief, tested by the inconceivableness of its negation, is our sole warrant for every demonstration. Logic is simply a systematization of the process by which we indirectly obtain this warrant for beliefs that do not directly possess it. To gain the strongest conviction possible respecting any complex fact, we either analytically descend from it by successive steps, each of which we unconsciously test by the inconceivableness of its negation, until we reach some axiom or truth which we have similarly tested; or we synthetically as cend from such axiom or truth by such steps. In either case we connect some isolated belief, with a belief which invariably exists, by a series of intermediate beliefs which invariably exist. The following passage sums up the theory: When we perceive that the negation of the belief is inconceivable, we have all possible warrant for asserting the invariability of its existence: and in asserting this, we express alike our logical justification of it, and the inexorable necessity we are under of holding it.... We have seen that this is the assumption on which every conclusion whatever ultimately rests. We have no other guarantee for the reality of consciousness, of sensations, of personal existence; we have no other guarantee for any axiom; we have no other guarantee for any step in a demonstration. Hence, as being taken for granted in every act of the understanding, it must be regarded as the Universal Postulate. But as this postulate, which we are under an inexorable necessity of holding true, is sometime s false; as beliefs that once were shown by the inconceivableness of their negations to invariably exist, have since been found untrue, and as beliefs that now possess this character may some day share the same fate; the canon of belief laid down by Mr. Spencer is, that the most certain conclusion is that which involves the postulate the fewest times. Reasoning, therefore, never ought to prevail against one of the immediate beliefs (the belief in Matter, in the outward reality of Extension, Space, and the like), because each of these involves the postulate only once; while an argument, besides involving it in the premises, involves it again in every step of the ratiocination, no one of the successive acts of inference being recognized as valid except because we can not conceive the conclusion not to follow from the premises. It will be convenient to take the last part of this argument first. In every reasoning, according to Mr. Spencer, the assumption of the postulate is renewed at every step. At each inference we judge that the conclusion follows from the premises, our sole warrant for that judgment being that we can not conceive it not to follow. Consequently if the postulate is fallible, the conclusions of reasoning are more vitiated by that unc ertainty than direct intuitions; and the disproportion is greater, the more numerous the steps of the argument. To test this doctrine, let us first suppose an argument consisting only of a single step, which would be represented by one syllogism. This argument does rest on an assumption, and we have seen in the preceding chapters what the assumption is. It is, that whatever has a mark, has what it is a mark of. The evidence of this axiom I shall not consider at present; P91F92 P let us suppose it (with Mr. Spencer ) to be the inconceivableness of its reverse. Let us now add a second step to the argument: we require, what? Another assumption? No: the same assumption a second time; and so on to a third, and a fourth. I confess I do not see how, on Mr. Spencer's own pr inciples, the repetition of the assumption at all weakens the force of the argument. If it were necessary the second time to assume some other axiom, the argument would no doubt be weakened, since it would be necessary to its validity that both axioms should be true, and it might happen that one was true and not the other: making two chances of error instead of one. But since it is the same axiom, if it is true once it is true every 92 Mr. Spencer is mistaken in supposing me to claim any peculiar necessity for this axiom as compared with others. I have corrected the expressions which led him into that misapprehension of my meaning. 170 time; and if the argument, being of a hundred links, assumed the axiom a hundred times, these hundred assumptions would make but one chance of error among them all. It is satisfactory that we are not obliged to suppose the deductions of pure mathematics to be among the most uncertain of argumentative processes, which on Mr. Spencer's theory they could hardly fail to be, since they are the longest. But the number of steps in an argument does not subtract from its reliableness, if no new premises , of an uncertain character, are taken up by the way. P92F93 P To speak next of the premises. Our assurance of their truth, whether they be generalities or individual facts, is grounded, in Mr. Spencer's opinion, on the inconceivableness of their being false. It is necessary to advert to a double meaning of the word inconceivable, which Mr. Spencer is aware of, and would sincerely disclaim founding an argument upon, but from which his case derives no little advantage notwithstanding. By inconceivableness is sometimes meant, inability to form or get rid of an idea ; sometimes, inability to form or get rid of a belief . The former meaning is the most conformable to the analogy of language; for a conception always means an idea, and never a belief. The wrong meaning of inconceivable is, however, fully as frequent in philosophical discussion as the right meaning, and the intuitive school of metaphysicians could not well do without either. To illustrate the difference, we will take two contrasted examples. The early physical speculators considered antipodes incredible, because inconceivable. But antipodes were not inconceivable in the primitive sense of the word. An idea of them could be formed without difficulty: they could be completely pictured to the mental eye. What was difficult, and, as it then seemed, impossible, was to apprehend them as believable. The idea could be put together, of men sticking on by their feet to the under side of the earth; but the 93 Mr. Spencer, in recently returning to the subject (Principles of Psychology, new edition, chap. xii.: The Test of Relative Validity), makes two answers to the preceding remarks. One is: Were an argument formed by repeating the same proposition over and over again, it would be true that any intrinsic fallibility of the postulate would not make the conclusion more untrustworthy than the first step. But an argument consists of unlike propositions. Now, since Mr. Mill's criticism on the Universal Postulate is that in some cases, which he names, it has proved to be an untrustworthy test; it follows that in any argument consisting of heterogeneous propositions, there is a risk, increasing as the number of propositions increases, that some one of them belongs to this class of cases, and is wrongly accepted because of the inconceivableness of its negation. No doubt: but this supposes new premises to be taken in. The point we are discussing is the fallibility not of the premises, but of the reasoning, as distinguished from the premises. Now the validity of the reasoning depends always upon the same axiom, repeated (in thought) over and over again, viz., that whatever has a mark, has what it is a mark of. Even, therefore, on the assumption that this axiom rests ultimately on the Universal Postulate, and that, the Postulate not being wholly trustworthy, the axiom may be one of the cases of its failure; all the risk there is of this is incurred at the very first step of the reasoning, and is not added to, however long may be the series of subsequent steps. I am here arguing, of course, from Mr. Spencer's point of view. From my own the case is still clearer; for, in my view, the tr uth that whatever has a mark has what it is a mark of, is wholly trustworthy, and derives none of its evidence from so very untrustworthy a test as the inconceivability of the negative. Mr. Spencer's second answer is valid up to a certain point; it is, that every prolongation of the process involves additional chances of casual error, from carelessness in the reasoning operation. This is an important consideration in the private speculations of an individual reasoner; and even with respect to mankind at lar ge, it must be admitted that, though mere oversights in the syllogistic process, like errors of addition in an account, are special to the individual, and seldom escape detection, confusion of thought produced (for example) by ambiguous terms has led whole nations or ages to accept fallacious reasoning as valid. But this very fact points to causes of error so much more dangerous than the mere length of the process, as quite to vitiate the doctrine that the test of the relative validities of conflicting con clusions is the number of times the fundamental postulate is involved. On the contrary, the subjects on which the trains of reasoning are longest, and the assumption, therefore, oftenest repeated, are in general those which are best fortified against the really formidable causes of fallacy; as in the example already given of mathematics. 171 belief would follow, that they must fall off. Antipodes were not unimaginable, but they were unbelievable. On the other hand, when I endeavor to conceive an end to extension, the two ideas refuse to come together. When I attempt to form a conception of the last point of space, I can not help figuring to myself a vast space beyond that last point. The combination is, under the conditions of our experience, unimaginable. This double meaning of inconceivable it is very important to bear in mind, for the argument from inconceivableness almost always turns on the alternate substitution of each of those meanings for the other. In which of these two senses does Mr. Spencer employ the term, when he makes it a test of the truth of a proposition that its negation is inconceivable? Until Mr. Spencer expressly stated the contrary, I inferred from the course of his argument, that he meant unbelievable. He has, however, in a paper published in the fifth number of the Fortnightly Review , disclaimed this meaning, and declared that by an inconceivable proposition he means, now and always, one of which the terms can not, by any effort, be brought before consciousness in that relation which the proposition asserts between thema proposition of which the subject and predicate offer an insurmountable resistance to union in thought. We now, therefore, know positively that Mr. Spencer always endeavors to use the word inconceiva ble in this, its proper, sense: but it may yet be questioned whether his endeavor is always successful; whether the other, and popular use of the word, does not sometimes creep in with its associations, and prevent him from maintaining a clear separation between the two. When, for example, he says, that when I feel cold, I can not conceive that I am not feeling cold, this expression can not be translated into I can not conceive myself not feeling cold, for it is evident that I can: the word conceive, ther efore, is here used to express the recognition of a matter of fact the perception of truth or falsehood; which I apprehend to be exactly the meaning of an act of belief, as distinguished from simple conception. Again, Mr. Spencer calls the attempt to conce ive something which is inconceivable an abortive effort to cause the non- existence, not of a conception or mental representation, but of a belief. There is need, therefore, to revise a considerable part of Mr. Spencer's language, if it is to be kept always consistent with his definition of inconceivability. But in truth the point is of little importance; since inconceivability, in Mr. Spencer's theory, is only a test of truth, inasmuch as it is a test of believability. The inconceivableness of a suppositi on is the extreme case of its unbelievability. This is the very foundation of Mr. Spencer's doctrine. The invariability of the belief is with him the real guarantee. The attempt to conceive the negative is made in order to test the inevitableness of the be lief. It should be called, an attempt to believe the negative. When Mr. Spencer says that while looking at the sun a man can not conceive that he is looking into darkness, he should have said that a man can not believe that he is doing so. For it is surely possible, in broad daylight, to imagine one's self looking into darkness. P93F94 P As Mr. Spencer himself says, speaking of the belief of our own existence, That he might not exist, he can conceive well enough; but that he does not exist, he finds it impossible to conceive, i.e. , to believe. So that the statement resolves itself into this: That I exist, and that I have sensations, I believe, because I can not believe otherwise. And in this case every one will admit that the impossibility is real. Any one's pres ent sensations, or other states of subjective consciousness, that one person inevitably believes. They are facts known per se : it is impossible to ascend beyond them. Their negative is really unbelievable, and therefore 94 Mr. Spencer makes a distinction between conceiving myself looking into darkness, and conceiving that I am then and there looking into darkness. To me it seems that this change of the expression to the form I am, just marks the transition from conception to belief, and that the phrase to conceive that I am, or that any thing is, is not consistent with using the word conceive in its rigorous sense. 172 there is never any question about believing it. Mr. Spencer's theory is not needed for these truths. But according to Mr. Spencer there are other beliefs, relating to other things than our own subjective feelings, for which we have the same guaranteewhich are, in a similar manner, invariabl e and necessary. With regard to these other beliefs, they can not be necessary, since they do not always exist. There have been, and are, many persons who do not believe the reality of an external world, still less the reality of extension and figure as the forms of that external world; who do not believe that space and time have an existence independent of the mind nor any other of Mr. Spencer's objective intuitions. The negations of these alleged invariable beliefs are not unbelievable, for they are believed. It may be maintained, without obvious error, that we can not imagine tangible objects as mere states of our own and other people's consciousness; that the perception of them irresistibly suggests to us the idea of something external to ourselves: and I am not in a condition to say that this is not the fact (though I do not think any one is entitled to affirm it of any person besides himself). But many thinkers have believed, whether they could conceive it or not, that what we represent to ourselves as material objects, are mere modifications of consciousness; complex feelings of touch and of muscular action. Mr. Spencer may think the inference correct from the unimaginable to the unbelievable, because he holds that belief itself is but the persistence of an idea, and that what we can succeed in imagining we can not at the moment help apprehending as believable. But of what consequence is it what we apprehend at the moment, if the moment is in contradiction to the permanent state of our mind? A person who has been frightened when an infant by stories of ghosts, though he disbelieves them in after years (and perhaps never believed them), may be unable all his life to be in a dark place, in circumstances stimulating to the imagination, without mental discomp osure. The idea of ghosts, with all its attendant terrors, is irresistibly called up in his mind by the outward circumstances. Mr. Spencer may say, that while he is under the influence of this terror he does not disbelieve in ghosts, but has a temporary and uncontrollable belief in them. Be it so; but allowing it to be so, which would it be truest to say of this man on the wholethat he believes in ghosts, or that he does not believe in them? Assuredly that he does not believe in them. The case is similar w ith those who disbelieve a material world. Though they can not get rid of the idea; though while looking at a solid object they can not help having the conception, and therefore, according to Mr. Spencer's metaphysics, the momentary belief, of its external ity; even at that moment they would sincerely deny holding that belief: and it would be incorrect to call them other than disbelievers of the doctrine. The belief therefore is not invariable; and the test of inconceivableness fails in the only cases to which there could ever be any occasion to apply it. That a thing may be perfectly believable, and yet may not have become conceivable, and that we may habitually believe one side of an alternative, and conceive only in the other, is familiarly exemplified in the state of mind of educated persons respecting sunrise and sunset. All educated persons either know by investigation, or believe on the authority of science, that it is the earth and not the sun which moves: but there are probably few who habitually conc eive the phenomenon otherwise than as the ascent or descent of the sun. Assuredly no one can do so without a prolonged trial; and it is probably not easier now than in the first generation after Copernicus. Mr. Spencer does not say, In looking at sunrise it is impossible not to conceive that it is the sun which moves, therefore this is what every body believes, and we have all the evidence for it that we can have for any truth. Yet this would be an exact parallel to his doctrine about the belief in matter . The existence of matter, and other Noumena, as distinguished from the phenomenal world, remains a question of argument, as it was before; and the very general, but neither necessary 173 nor universal, belief in them, stands as a psychological phenomenon to be explained, either on the hypothesis of its truth, or on some other. The belief is not a conclusive proof of its own truth, unless there are no such things as idola tribs ; but being a fact, it calls on antagonists to show, from what except the real exist ence of the thing believed, so general and apparently spontaneous a belief can have originated. And its opponents have never hesitated to accept this challenge. P94F95 P The amount of their success in meeting it will probably determine the ultimate verdict of philosophers on the question. 4. In the revision, or rather reconstruction, of his Principles of Psychology, as one of the stages or platforms in the imposing structure of his System of Philosophy, Mr. Spencer has resumed what he justly terms P95F96 P the amicable controversy that has been long pending between us; expressing at the same time a regret, which I cordially share, that this lengthened exposition of a single point of difference, unaccompanied by an exposition of the numerous points of concurrence, unavoidably produces an appearance of dissent very far greater than that which exists. I believe, with Mr. Spencer, that the difference between us, if measured by our conclusions, is superficial rather than substantial; and the value I attach to so great an amount of agreement, in the field of analytic psychology, with a thinker of his force and depth, is such as I can hardly overstate. But I also agree with him that the difference which exists in our premises is one of profound importance, philosophically considered; and not to be dismissed while any part of the case of either of us has not been fully examined and discussed. In his present statement of the Universal Postulate, Mr. Spencer has exchanged his former expression, beliefs which invariably exist, for the following: cognitions of which the predicates invariably exist along with their subjects. And he says that an abortive effort to conceive the negation of a proposition, shows that the cognition expressed is one of which the predicate invariably exists along with its subject; and the discovery that the predicate invariably exists along with its subject, is the discovery that this cognition is one we are compelled to accept. Both these premises of Mr. Spencer's syllogism I am able to assent to, but in different senses of the middle term. If the invariable existence of the predicate along with its subject, is to be understood in the most obvious meaning, as an existence in actual Nature, or in other words, in our objective, or sensational, experience, I of course admit that this, once ascertained, compels us to accept the proposition: but then I do not admit that the failure of an attempt to conceive the negative, proves the predicate to be always co -existent with the subject in ac tual Nature. If, on the other hand (which I believe to be Mr. Spencer's meaning) the invariable existence of the predicate along with the subject is to be understood only of our conceptive faculty, i.e. , that the one is inseparable from the other in our thoughts; then, indeed, the inability to separate the two ideas proves their inseparable conjunction, here and now, in the mind which has failed in the attempt; but this inseparability in thought does not prove a corresponding inseparability in fact; nor even in the thoughts of other people, or of the same person in a possible future. That some propositions have been wrongly accepted as true, because their negations were supposed inconceivable when they were not, does not, in Mr. Spencer's opinion, disprove the validity of the test; not only because any test whatever is liable to yield untrue results, either from incapacity or from carelessness in those who use it, but because the propositions in question were complex propositions, not to be established by a test applicable to propositions no further decomposable. A test legitimately applicable to a simple 95 I have myself accep ted the contest, and fought it out on this battle -ground, in the eleventh chapter of An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy. 96 Chap. xi. 174 proposition, the subject and predicate of which are in direct relation, can not be legitimately applied to a complex proposition, the subject and pr edicate of which are indirectly related through the many simple propositions implied. That things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another, is a fact which can be known by direct comparison of actual or ideal relations.... But that the square of the hypothenuse of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides, can not be known immediately by comparison of two states of consciousness: here the truth can be reached only mediately, through a series of simple judgments respecting the likenesses or unlikenesses of certain relations. Moreover, even when the proposition admits of being tested by immediate consciousness, people often neglect to do it. A school-boy, in adding up a column of figures, will say 35 and 9 are 46, though this is contrary to the verdict which consciousness gives when 35 and 9 are really called up before it; but this is not done. And not only school-boys, but men and thinkers, do not always distinctly translate into their equivalent state s of consciousness the words they use. It is but just to give Mr. Spencer's doctrine the benefit of the limitation he claims viz., that it is only applicable to propositions which are assented to on simple inspection, without any intervening media of proof. But this limitation does not exclude some of the most marked instances of propositions now known to be false or groundless, but whose negative was once found inconceivable: such as, that in sunrise and sunset it is the sun which moves; that gravitation may exist without an intervening medium; and even the case of antipodes. The distinction drawn by Mr. Spencer is real; but, in the case of the propositions classed by him as complex, consciousness, until the media of proof are supplied, gives no verdict at all: it neither declares the equality of the square of the hypothenuse with the sum of the squares of the sides to be inconceivable, nor their inequality to be inconceivable. But in all the three cases which I have just cited, the inconceivability seems t o be apprehended directly; no train of argument was needed, as in the case of the square of the hypothenuse, to obtain the verdict of consciousness on the point. Neither is any of the three a case like that of the school-boy's mistake, in which the mind was never really brought into contact with the proposition. They are cases in which one of two opposite predicates, mero adspectu, seemed to be incompatible with the subject, and the other, therefore, to be proved always to exist with it. P96F97 P As now limited b y Mr. Spencer, the ultimate cognitions fit to be submitted to his test are only those of so universal and elementary a character as to be represented in the earliest and most unvarying experience, or apparent experience, of all mankind. In such cases the inconceivability of the negative, if real, is accounted for by the experience: and why (I have asked) should the truth be tested by the inconceivability, when we can go further back for proofnamely, to the experience itself? To this Mr. Spencer answers, that the experiences can not be all recalled to mind, and if recalled, would be of unmanageable multitude. To test 97 In one of the three cases, Mr. Spencer, to my no small surprise, thinks that the belief of mankind can not be rightly said to have undergone the change I allege. Mr. Spencer himself still thinks we are unable to conceive gravitation acting through empty space. If an astronomer avowed that he could conceive gravitative force as exercised throu gh space absolutely void, my private opinion would be that he mistook the nature of conception. Conception implies representation. Here the elements of the representation are the two bodies and an agency by which either affects the other. To conceive this agency is to represent it in some terms derived from our experiences that is, from our sensations. As this agency gives us no sensations, we are obliged (if we try to conceive it) to use symbols idealized from our sensations imponderable units forming a me dium. If Mr. Spencer means that the action of gravitation gives us no sensations, the assertion is one than which I have not seen, in the writings of philosophers, many more startling. What other sensation do we need than the sensation of one body moving toward another? The elements of the representation are not two bodies and an agency, but two bodies and an effect; viz., the fact of their approaching one another. If we are able to conceive a vacuum, is there any difficulty in conceiving a body falling to the earth through it? 175 a proposition by experience seems to him to mean that before accepting as certain the proposition that any rectilineal figure must have as many angles as it has sides, I have to think of every triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, etc., which I have ever seen, and to verify the asserted relation in each case. I can only say, with surprise, that I do not understand this to be the meaning of an appeal to experience. It is enough to know that one has been seeing the fact all one's life, and has never remarked any instance to the contrary, and that other people, with every opportunity of observation, unanimously declare the same thing. It is true, even this experience may be insufficient, and so it might be even if I could recall to mind every instance of it; but its insufficiency, instead of being brought to light, is disguised, if instead of sifting the experience itself, I appeal to a test which bears no relation to the sufficiency of the experience, but, at the most, only to its familiarity. These remarks do not lose their force even if we believe, with Mr. Spencer, that mental tendencies originally derived from experience impress themselves permanently on the cerebral structure and are transmitted by inheritance, so that modes of thinking which are acquired by the race become innate and a priori in the individual, thus representing, in Mr. Spencer's opinion, the experience of his progenitors, in addition to his own. All that would follow from this is, that a conviction might be really innate, i.e. , prior to individual experience, and yet not be true, since the inherited tendency to accept it may have been originally the result of other causes than its truth. Mr. Spencer would have a much stronger case, if he could really show that the evidence of Reasoning rests on the Postulate, or, in other words, that we believe that a conclusion follows from premises only because we can not conceive it not to f ollow. But this statement seems to me to be of the same kind as one I have previously commented on, viz., that I believe I see light, because I can not, while the sensation remains, conceive that I am looking into darkness. Both these statements seem to me incompatible with the meaning (as very rightly limited by Mr. Spencer) of the verb to conceive. To say that when I apprehend that A is B and that B is C, I can not conceive that A is not C, is to my mind merely to say that I am compelled to believe that A is C. If to conceive be taken in its proper meaning, viz., to form a mental representation, I may be able to conceive A as not being C. After assenting, with full understanding, to the Copernican proof that it is the earth and not the sun that moves, I not only can conceive, or represent to myself, sunset as a motion of the sun, but almost every one finds this conception of sunset easier to form, than that which they nevertheless know to be the true one. 5. Sir William Hamilton holds as I do, that inconceivability is no criterion of impossibility. There is no ground for inferring a certain fact to be impossible, merely from our inability to conceive its possibility. Things there are which may , nay must , be true, of which the understanding is wholly unable to construe to itself the possibility. P97F98 P Sir William Hamilton is, however, a firm believer in the a priori character of many axioms, and of the sciences deduced from them; and is so far from considering those axioms to rest on the evidence of experience, that he declares certain of them to be true even of Noumenaof the Unconditionedof which it is one of the principal aims of his philosophy to prove that the nature of our faculties debars us from having any knowledge. The axioms to which he attributes this exceptional emancipation from the limits which confine all our other possibilities of knowledge; the chinks through which, as he represents, one ray of light finds its way to us from behind the curtain which veils from us the mysterious world of Things in themselves are the two principles, which he terms, after the school-men, the Principle of Contradiction, and the Principle of Excluded Middle: the first, that two contradictory 98 Discussions, etc., 2d ed., p. 624. 176 propositions can not both be true; the second, that they can not both be false. Armed with these logical weapons, we may boldly face Things in themselves, and tender to them the double alternative, sure that they must absolutely elect one or the other side, though we may be forever precluded from discovering which. To take his favorite example, we can not conceive the infinite divisibility of matter, and we can not conceive a minimum, or end to divisibility: yet one or the other must be true. As I have hitherto said nothing of the two axioms in question, those of Contradiction and of Excluded Middle, it is not unseasonable to consider them here. The former asserts that an affirmative proposition and the corresponding negative proposition can not both be true; which has generally been held to be intuitively evident. Sir William Ha milton and the Germans consider it to be the statement in words of a form or law of our thinking faculty. Other philosophers, not less deserving of consideration, deem it to be an identical proposition; an assertion involved in the meaning of terms; a mode of defining Negation, and the word Not. I am able to go one step with these last. An affirmative assertion and its negative are not two independent assertions, connected with each other only as mutually incompatible. That if the negative be true, the affi rmative must be false, really is a mere identical proposition; for the negative proposition asserts nothing but the falsity of the affirmative, and has no other sense or meaning whatever. The Principium Contradictionis should therefore put off the ambitious phraseology which gives it the air of a fundamental antithesis pervading nature, and should be enunciated in the simpler form, that the same proposition can not at the same time be false and true. But I can go no further with the Nominalists; for I can not look upon this last as a merely verbal proposition. I consider it to be, like other axioms, one of our first and most familiar generalizations from experience. The original foundation of it I take to be, that Belief and Disbelief are two different mental states, excluding one another. This we know by the simplest observation of our own minds. And if we carry our observation outward, we also find that light and darkness, sound and silence, motion and quiescence, equality and inequality, preceding and following, succession and simultaneousness, any positive phenomenon whatever and its negative, are distinct phenomena, pointedly contrasted, and the one always absent where the other is present. I consider the maxim in question to be a generalization from all these facts. In like manner as the Principle of Contradiction (that one of two contradictories must be false) means that an assertion can not be both true and false, so the Principle of Excluded Middle, or that one of two contradictories must be true, means that an assertion must be either true or false: either the affirmative is true, or otherwise the negative is true, which means that the affirmative is false. I can not help thinking this principle a surprising specimen of a so -called necessity of Thought, since it is not even true, unless with a large qualification. A proposition must be either true or false, provided that the predicate be one which can in any intelligible sense be attributed to the subject; (and as this is always assumed to be the case in treatises on logic, the axiom is always laid down there as of absolute truth). Abracadabra is a second intention is neither true nor false. Between the true and the false there is a third possibility, the Unmeaning: and this alternative is fatal to Sir William Hamilton's extension of the maxim to Noumena. That Matter must either have a minimum of divisibility or be infinitely divisible, is more than we can ever know. For in the first place, Matter, in any other than the phenomenal sense of the term, may not exist: and it will scarcely be said that a nonentity must be either infinitely or finitely divisible. In the second place, though matter, considered as the occult cause of our sensations, do really exist, yet what we call divisibility may be an attrib ute only of our sensations of sight and touch, and not of their uncognizable cause. Divisibility may not be predicable at all, in any intelligible sense, of Things in 177 themselves, nor therefore of Matter in itself; and the assumed necessity of being either infinitely or finitely divisible, may be an inapplicable alternative. On this question I am happy to have the full concurrence of Mr. Herbert Spencer, from whose paper in the Fortnightly Review I extract the following passage. The germ of an idea identical with that of Mr. Spencer may be found in the present chapter, on a preceding page; but in Mr. Spencer it is not an undeveloped thought, but a philosophical theory. When remembering a certain thing as in a certain place, the place and the thing are mental ly represented together; while to think of the non- existence of the thing in that place implies a consciousness in which the place is represented, but not the thing. Similarly, if instead of thinking of an object as colorless, we think of its having color, the change consists in the addition to the concept of an element that was before absent from itthe object can not be thought of first as red and then as not red, without one component of the thought being totally expelled from the mind by another. The law of the Excluded Middle, then, is simply a generalization of the universal experience that some mental states are directly destructive of other states. It formulates a certain absolutely constant law, that the appearance of any positive mode of consciousness can not occur without excluding a correlative negative mode; and that the negative mode can not occur without excluding the correlative positive mode: the antithesis of positive and negative being, indeed, merely an expression of this experience. Hence it follows that if consciousness is not in one of the two modes it must be in the other. P98F99 P I must here close this supplementary chapter, and with it the Second Book. The theory of Induction, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, will form the subject of the Third. 99 Professor Bain ( Logic , i., 16) identifies the Principle of Contradiction with his Law of Relativity, viz., that every thing that can be thought of, every affirmation that can be made, has an opposite or counter notion or affirmation; a proposition which is one of the general results of the whole body of human experience. For further considerations respecting the axioms of Contradiction and Excluded Middle, see the twenty- first chapter of An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy . 178 Book III. Of Induction According to the doctrine now stated, the highest, or rather the only proper object of physics, is to ascertain those established conjunctions of successive events, which constitute the order of the universe; to record the phenomena which it exhibits to our observations, or which it discloses to our experiments; and to refer these phenomena to their general laws. D. Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. ii., chap. iv., sect. 1. In such cases the inductive and deductive methods of inquiry may be said to go hand in hand, the one verifying the conclusions deduced by the other; and the combination of experiment and theory, which may thus be brought to bear in such cases, forms an engine of discovery infinitely more powerful than either taken separately. This state of any department of science is perhaps of all others the most interesting, and that which promises the most to research. Sir J. Herschel, Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy . 179 I. Preliminary Observations On Induction In General 1. The portion of the present inquiry upon which we are now about to enter, may be considered as the principal, both from its surpassing in intricacy all the other branches, and because it relates to a process which has been shown in the preceding Book to be that in which the investigation of nature essentially consists. We have found that all Inference, consequently all Proof, and all discovery of truths not self-evident, consists of inductions, and the interpretation of inductions: that all our knowledge, not intuitive, comes to us exclusively from that source. What Induction is, therefore, and what conditions render it legitimate, can not but be deemed the main question of the science of logicthe question which includes all others. It is, however, one which professed writers on logic have almost entirely passed over. The generalities of the subject have not been altogether neglected by metaphysicians; but, for want of sufficient acquaintance with the processes by which science has actually succeeded in establishing general truths, their analysis of the inductive operation, even when unexceptionable as to correctness, has not been specific enough to be made the foundation of practical rules, which might be for induction itself what the rules of the syllogism are for the interpretation of induction: while those by whom physical science has been carried to its present state of improvementand who, to arr ive at a complete theory of the process, needed only to generalize, and adapt to all varieties of problems, the methods which they themselves employed in their habitual pursuitsnever until very lately made any serious attempt to philosophize on the subject, nor regarded the mode in which they arrived at their conclusions as deserving of study, independently of the conclusions themselves. 2. For the purposes of the present inquiry, Induction may be defined, the operation of discovering and proving general propositions. It is true that (as already shown) the process of indirectly ascertaining individual facts, is as truly inductive as that by which we establish general truths. But it is not a different kind of induction; it is a form of the very same proces s: since, on the one hand, generals are but collections of particulars, definite in kind but indefinite in number; and on the other hand, whenever the evidence which we derive from observation of known cases justifies us in drawing an inference respecting even one unknown case, we should on the same evidence be justified in drawing a similar inference with respect to a whole class of cases. The inference either does not hold at all, or it holds in all cases of a certain description; in all cases which, in c ertain definable respects, resemble those we have observed. If these remarks are just; if the principles and rules of inference are the same whether we infer general propositions or individual facts; it follows that a complete logic of the sciences would be also a complete logic of practical business and common life. Since there is no case of legitimate inference from experience, in which the conclusion may not legitimately be a general proposition; an analysis of the process by which general truths are arrived at, is virtually an analysis of all induction whatever. Whether we are inquiring into a scientific principle or into an individual fact, and whether we proceed by experiment or by ratiocination, every step in the train of inferences is essentially inductive, and the legitimacy of the induction depends in both cases on the same conditions. True it is that in the case of the practical inquirer, who is endeavoring to ascertain facts not for the purposes of science but for those of business, such, for inst ance, as the advocate or the judge, the chief difficulty is one in which the principles of induction will afford him no 180 assistance. It lies not in making his inductions, but in the selection of them; in choosing from among all general propositions ascertained to be true, those which furnish marks by which he may trace whether the given subject possesses or not the predicate in question. In arguing a doubtful question of fact before a jury, the general propositions or principles to which the advocate appeals are mostly, in themselves, sufficiently trite, and assented to as soon as stated: his skill lies in bringing his case under those propositions or principles; in calling to mind such of the known or received maxims of probability as admit of application to the case in hand, and selecting from among them those best adapted to his object. Success is here dependent on natural or acquired sagacity, aided by knowledge of the particular subject, and of subjects allied with it. Invention, though it can be cultivated, can not be reduced to rule; there is no science which will enable a man to bethink himself of that which will suit his purpose. But when he has thought of something, science can tell him whether that which he has thought of will suit his purpose or not. The inquirer or arguer must be guided by his own knowledge and sagacity in the choice of the inductions out of which he will construct his argument. But the validity of the argument when constructed, depends on principles, and must be tried by tests whic h are the same for all descriptions of inquiries, whether the result be to give A an estate, or to enrich science with a new general truth. In the one case and in the other, the senses, or testimony, must decide on the individual facts; the rules of the syllogism will determine whether, those facts being supposed correct, the case really falls within the formul of the different inductions under which it has been successively brought; and finally, the legitimacy of the inductions themselves must be decided by other rules, and these it is now our purpose to investigate. If this third part of the operation be, in many of the questions of practical life, not the most, but the least arduous portion of it, we have seen that this is also the case in some great dep artments of the field of science; in all those which are principally deductive, and most of all in mathematics; where the inductions themselves are few in number, and so obvious and elementary that they seem to stand in no need of the evidence of experience, while to combine them so as to prove a given theorem or solve a problem, may call for the utmost powers of invention and contrivance with which our species is gifted. If the identity of the logical processes which prove particular facts and those which establish general scientific truths, required any additional confirmation, it would be sufficient to consider that in many branches of science, single facts have to be proved, as well as principles; facts as completely individual as any that are debated in a court of justice; but which are proved in the same manner as the other truths of the science, and without disturbing in any degree the homogeneity of its method. A remarkable example of this is afforded by astronomy. The individual facts on which that science grounds its most important deductions, such facts as the magnitudes of the bodies of the solar system, their distances from one another, the figure of the earth, and its rotation, are scarcely any of them accessible to our means of direct observation: they are proved indirectly, by the aid of inductions founded on other facts which we can more easily reach. For example, the distance of the moon from the earth was determined by a very circuitous process. The share which direct observation had in the work consisted in ascertaining, at one and the same instant, the zenith distances of the moon, as seen from two points very remote from one another on the earth's surface. The ascertainment of these angular distances ascertained their supplements; and since the angle at the earth's centre subtended by the distance between the two places of observation was deducible by spherical trigonometry from the latitude and longitude of those places, the angle at the moon subtended by the same line became the fourth angle of a quadrilateral of which the other three angles were known. The four angles being thus ascertained, and two sides of the quadrilateral being radii of the earth; the two remaining 181 sides and the diagonal, or, in other words, the moon's distance from the two places of observation and from the centre of the earth, could be ascertained, at least in terms of the earth's radius, from elementary theorems of geometry. At each step in this demonstration a new induction is taken in, represented in the aggregate of its results by a general proposition. Not only is the process by which an individual astronomical fact was thus ascertained, exactly similar to those by which the same science establishes its general truths, but also (as we have shown to be the case in all legitimate reasoning) a general proposition might have been concluded instead of a single fact. In strictness, indeed, the result of the reasoning is a general proposition; a theorem respecting the distance, not of the moon in particular, but of any inaccessible object; showing in what relation that distance stands to certain other quantities. And although the moon is almost the only heavenly body the distance of which from the earth can really be thus ascertained, this is merely owing to the accidental circumstances of the other heavenly bodies, which render them incapable of affording such data as the application of the theorem requires; for the theorem itself is as true of them as it is of the moon. P99F100 P We shall fall into no error, then, if in treating of Induction, we limit our attention to the establishment of general propositions. The principles and rules of Induction as directed to this end, are the principles and rules of all Induction; and the logic of Science is the universal Logic, applicable to all inquiries in which man can engage. 100 Dr. Whewell thinks it improper to apply the term Induction to any operation not terminating in the establishment of a general truth. Induction, he says ( Philosophy of Discovery , p. 245), is not the same thing as experience and observation. Induction is experience or observation consciously looked at in a general form. This consciousness and generality are necessary parts of that knowledge which is science. And he objects (p. 241) to the mode in which the word Induction is employed in this work, as an undue extension of that term not only to the cases in which the general induction is consciously applied to a particular instance, but to the cases in which the particular instance is dealt with by mea ns of experience in that rude sense in which experience can be asserted of brutes, and in which of course we can in no way imagine that the law is possessed or understood as a general proposition. This use of the term he deems a confusion of knowledge wi th practical tendencies. I disclaim, as strongly as Dr. Whewell can do, the application of such terms as induction, inference, or reasoning, to operations performed by mere instinct, that is, from an animal impulse, without the exertion of any intelligenc e. But I perceive no ground for confining the use of those terms to cases in which the inference is drawn in the forms and with the precautions required by scientific propriety. To the idea of Science, an express recognition and distinct apprehension of ge neral laws as such, is essential: but nine -tenths of the conclusions drawn from experience in the course of practical life, are drawn without any such recognition: they are direct inferences from known cases, to a case supposed to be similar. I have endeavored to show that this is not only as legitimate an operation, but substantially the same operation, as that of ascending from known cases to a general proposition; except that the latter process has one great security for correctness which the former does not possess. In science, the inference must necessarily pass through the intermediate stage of a general proposition, because Science wants its conclusions for record, and not for instantaneous use. But the inferences drawn for the guidance of practical affairs, by persons who would often be quite incapable of expressing in unexceptionable terms the corresponding generalizations, may and frequently do exhibit intellectual powers quite equal to any which have ever been displayed in science; and if these inf erences are not inductive, what are they? The limitation imposed on the term by Dr. Whewell seems perfectly arbitrary; neither justified by any fundamental distinction between what he includes and what he desires to exclude, nor sanctioned by usage, at lea st from the time of Reid and Stewart, the principal legislators (as far as the English language is concerned) of modern metaphysical terminology. 182 II. Of Inductions Improperly So Called 1. Induction, then, is that operation of the mind, by which we infer that what we know to be true in a particular case or cases, will be true in all cases which resemble the former in certain assignable respects. In other words, Induction is the process by which we conclude that what is true of certain individuals of a class is true of the whole class, or that what is true at certain times will be true in similar circumstances at all times. This definition excludes from the meaning of the term Induction, various logical operations, to which it is not unusual to apply that name. Induction, as above defined, is a process of inference; it proceeds from the known to the unknown; and any operation involving no inference, any process in which what seems the conclusion is no wider than the premises from which it is drawn, does not fall within the meaning of the term. Yet in the common books of Logic we find this laid down as the most perfect, indeed the only quite perfect, form of induction. In those books, every process which sets out from a less general and terminates in a more general expression which admits of being stated in the form, This and that A a re B, therefore every A is B is called an induction, whether any thing be really concluded or not: and the induction is asserted not to be perfect, unless every single individual of the class A is included in the antecedent, or premise: that is, unless wh at we affirm of the class has already been ascertained to be true of every individual in it, so that the nominal conclusion is not really a conclusion, but a mere re-assertion of the premises. If we were to say, All the planets shine by the sun's light, from observation of each separate planet, or All the Apostles were Jews, because this is true of Peter, Paul, John, and every other apostlethese, and such as these, would, in the phraseology in question, be called perfect, and the only perfect, Inductions. This, however, is a totally different kind of induction from ours; it is not an inference from facts known to facts unknown, but a mere short-hand registration of facts known. The two simulated arguments which we have quoted, are not generalizations; the propositions purporting to be conclusions from them, are not really general propositions. A general proposition is one in which the predicate is affirmed or denied of an unlimited number of individuals; namely, all, whether few or many, existing or capable of existing, which possess the properties connoted by the subject of the proposition. All men are mortal does not mean all now living, but all men past, present, and to come. When the signification of the term is limited so as to render it a name not for any and every individual falling under a certain general description, but only for each of a number of individuals, designated as such, and as it were counted off individually, the proposition, though it may be general in its language, is no general proposition, but merely that number of singular propositions, written in an abridged character. The operation may be very useful, as most forms of abridged notation are; but it is no part of the investigation of truth, though often bearing an important part in the preparation of the materials for that investigation. As we may sum up a definite number of singular propositions in one proposition, which will be apparently, but not really, general, so we may sum up a definite number of general propositions in one proposition, which will be apparently, but not really, more general. If by a separate induction applied to every distinct species of animals, it has been established that each possesses a nervous system, and we affirm thereupon that all animals have a nervous system; this looks like a generalization, though as the conclusion merely affirms of all what has already been affirmed of each, it seems to tell us nothing but what we knew before. A distinction, however, must be made. If in concluding that all animals have a nervous system, 183 we mean the same thing and no more as if we had said all known animals, the proposition is not general, and the process by which it is arrived at is not induction. But if our meaning is that the observations made of the various spe cies of animals have discovered to us a law of animal nature, and that we are in a condition to say that a nervous system will be found even in animals yet undiscovered, this indeed is an induction; but in this case the general proposition contains more than the sum of the special propositions from which it is inferred. The distinction is still more forcibly brought out when we consider, that if this real generalization be legitimate at all, its legitimacy probably does not require that we should have exami ned without exception every known species. It is the number and nature of the instances, and not their being the whole of those which happen to be known, that makes them sufficient evidence to prove a general law: while the more limited assertion, which st ops at all known animals, can not be made unless we have rigorously verified it in every species. In like manner (to return to a former example) we might have inferred, not that all the planets, but that all planets , shine by reflected light: the former is no induction; the latter is an induction, and a bad one, being disproved by the case of double starsself -luminous bodies which are properly planets, since they revolve round a centre. 2. There are several processes used in mathematics which require to be distinguished from Induction, being not unfrequently called by that name, and being so far similar to Induction properly so called, that the propositions they lead to are really general propositions. For example, when we have proved with respect to the circle, that a straight line can not meet it in more than two points, and when the same thing has been successively proved of the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola, it may be laid down as a universal property of the sections of the cone. The distinction drawn in the two previous examples can have no place here, there being no difference between all known sections of the cone and all sections, since a cone demonstrably can not be intersected by a plane except in one of these four lines. It would be difficult, therefore, to refuse to the proposition arrived at, the name of a generalization, since there is no room for any generalization beyond it. But there is no induction, because there is no inference: the conclusion is a mere summing up of what was asserted in the various propositions from which it is drawn. A case somewhat, though not altogether, similar, is the proof of a geometrical theorem by means of a diagram. Whether the diagram be on paper or only in the imagination, the demonstration (as formerly observed P100F101 P) does not prove directly the general theorem; it proves only that the conclusion, which the theorem asserts generally, is true of the particular triangle or circle exhibited in the diagram; but since we perceive that in the same way in which we have proved it of that circle, it might also be proved of any other circle, we gather up into one general expression all the singular propositions susceptible of being thus proved, and embody them in a universal proposition. Having shown that the three angles of the triangle ABC are together equal to two right angles, we conclude that this is true of every other triangle, not because it is true of ABC, but for the same reason which proved it to be true of ABC. If this were to be called Induction, an app ropriate name for it would be, induction by parity of reasoning. But the term can not properly belong to it; the characteristic quality of Induction is wanting, since the truth obtained, though really general, is not believed on the evidence of particular instances. We do not conclude that all triangles have the property because some triangles have, but from the ulterior demonstrative evidence which was the ground of our conviction in the particular instances. There are nevertheless, in mathematics, some ex amples of so-called Induction, in which the conclusion does bear the appearance of a generalization grounded on some of the particular cases included in it. A mathematician, when he has calculated a sufficient number of the 101 Supra, p. 145. 184 terms of an algebraical or arith metical series to have ascertained what is called the law of the series, does not hesitate to fill up any number of the succeeding terms without repeating the calculations. But I apprehend he only does so when it is apparent from a priori considerations (which might be exhibited in the form of demonstration) that the mode of formation of the subsequent terms, each from that which preceded it, must be similar to the formation of the terms which have been already calculated. And when the attempt has been hazarded without the sanction of such general considerations, there are instances on record in which it has led to false results. It is said that Newton discovered the binomial theorem by induction; by raising a binomial successively to a certain number of powers, and comparing those powers with one another until he detected the relation in which the algebraic formula of each power stands to the exponent of that power, and to the two terms of the binomial. The fact is not improbable: but a mathematician like Ne wton, who seemed to arrive per saltum at principles and conclusions that ordinary mathematicians only reached by a succession of steps, certainly could not have performed the comparison in question without being led by it to the a priori ground of the law; since any one who understands sufficiently the nature of multiplication to venture upon multiplying several lines of symbols at one operation, can not but perceive that in raising a binomial to a power, the co-efficients must depend on the laws of permutation and combination: and as soon as this is recognized, the theorem is demonstrated. Indeed, when once it was seen that the law prevailed in a few of the lower powers, its identity with the law of permutation would at once suggest the considerations which prove it to obtain universally. Even, therefore, such cases as these, are but examples of what I have called Induction by parity of reasoning, that is, not really Induction, because not involving inference of a general proposition from particular instance s. 3. There remains a third improper use of the term Induction, which it is of real importance to clear up, because the theory of Induction has been, in no ordinary degree, confused by it, and because the confusion is exemplified in the most recent and e laborate treatise on the inductive philosophy which exists in our language. The error in question is that of confounding a mere description, by general terms, of a set of observed phenomena, with an induction from them. Suppose that a phenomenon consists of parts, and that these parts are only capable of being observed separately, and as it were piecemeal. When the observations have been made, there is a convenience (amounting for many purposes to a necessity) in obtaining a representation of the phenomenon as a whole, by combining, or as we may say, piecing these detached fragments together. A navigator sailing in the midst of the ocean discovers land: he can not at first, or by any one observation, determine whether it is a continent or an island; but he c oasts along it, and after a few days finds himself to have sailed completely round it: he then pronounces it an island. Now there was no particular time or place of observation at which he could perceive that this land was entirely surrounded by water: he ascertained the fact by a succession of partial observations, and then selected a general expression which summed up in two or three words the whole of what he so observed. But is there any thing of the nature of an induction in this process? Did he infer any thing that had not been observed, from something else which had? Certainly not. He had observed the whole of what the proposition asserts. That the land in question is an island, is not an inference from the partial facts which the navigator saw in the course of his circumnavigation; it is the facts themselves; it is a summary of those facts; the description of a complex fact, to which those simpler ones are as the parts of a whole. 185 Now there is, I conceive, no difference in kind between this simple operation, and that by which Kepler ascertained the nature of the planetary orbits: and Kepler's operation, all at least that was characteristic in it, was not more an inductive act than that of our supposed navigator. The object of Kepler was to determine the real path described by each of the planets, or let us say by the planet Mars (since it was of that body that he first established the two of his three laws which did not require a comparison of planets). To do this there was no other mode than that of direct observation: and all which observation could do was to ascertain a great number of the successive places of the planet; or rather, of its apparent places. That the planet occupied successively all these positions, or at all events, positions which produced the same impressions on the eye, and that it passed from one of these to another insensibly, and without any apparent breach of continuity; thus much the senses, with the aid of the proper instruments, could ascertain. What Kepler did more than this, was to find what sort of a curve these different points would make, supposing them to be all joined together. He expressed the whole series of the observed places of Mars by what Dr. Whewell calls the general conception of an ellipse. This operation was far from being as easy as that of the navigator who expressed the series of his observations on successive points of the coast by the general conception of an island. But it is the very same sort of operation; and if the one is not an induction but a description, this must also be true of the other. The only real induction concerned in the case, consisted in inferring that because the observed places of Mars were correctly represented by points in an imaginary ellipse, therefore Mars would continue to revolve in that same ellipse; and in concluding (before the gap had been filled up by further observations) that the positions of the planet during the time which intervened between two observations, must have coincided with the intermediate points of the curve. For these were facts which had not been directly observed. They were inferences from the observations; facts inferred, as distinguished from facts seen. But these inferences were so far from being a part of Kepler's philosophical operation, that they had been drawn long before he was born. Astronomers had long known that the planets periodically returned to the same places. When this had been ascertained, there was no induction left for Kepler to make, nor did he make any further induction. He merely appli ed his new conception to the facts inferred, as he did to the facts observed. Knowing already that the planets continued to move in the same paths; when he found that an ellipse correctly represented the past path, he knew that it would represent the future path. In finding a compendious expression for the one set of facts, he found one for the other: but he found the expression only, not the inference; nor did he (which is the true test of a general truth) add any thing to the power of prediction already possessed. 4. The descriptive operation which enables a number of details to be summed up in a single proposition, Dr. Whewell, by an aptly chosen expression, has termed the Colligation of Facts. In most of his observations concerning that mental process I fully agree, and would gladly transfer all that portion of his book into my own pages. I only think him mistaken in setting up this kind of operation, which according to the old and received meaning of the term, is not induction at all, as the type of induction generally; and laying down, throughout his work, as principles of induction, the principles of mere colligation. Dr. Whewell maintains that the general proposition which binds together the particular facts, and makes them, as it were, one fact, is not the mere sum of those facts, but something more, since there is introduced a conception of the mind, which did not exist in the facts themselves. The particular facts, says he, P101F102 P are not merely brought together, but there is a 102 Novum Organum Renovatum , pp. 72, 73. 186 new element added to t he combination by the very act of thought by which they are combined.... When the Greeks, after long observing the motions of the planets, saw that these motions might be rightly considered as produced by the motion of one wheel revolving in the inside of another wheel, these wheels were creations of their minds, added to the facts which they perceived by sense. And even if the wheels were no longer supposed to be material, but were reduced to mere geometrical spheres or circles, they were not the less prod ucts of the mind alonesomething additional to the facts observed. The same is the case in all other discoveries. The facts are known, but they are insulated and unconnected, till the discoverer supplies from his own store a principle of connection. The pearls are there, but they will not hang together till some one provides the string. Let me first remark that Dr. Whewell, in this passage, blends together, indiscriminately, examples of both the processes which I am endeavoring to distinguish from one another. When the Greeks abandoned the supposition that the planetary motions were produced by the revolution of material wheels, and fell back upon the idea of mere geometrical spheres or circles, there was more in this change of opinion than the mere substitution of an ideal curve for a physical one. There was the abandonment of a theory, and the replacement of it by a mere description. No one would think of calling the doctrine of material wheels a mere description. That doctrine was an attempt to point out the force by which the planets were acted upon, and compelled to move in their orbits. But when, by a great step in philosophy, the materiality of the wheels was discarded, and the geometrical forms alone retained, the attempt to account for the motions was given up, and what was left of the theory was a mere description of the orbits. The assertion that the planets were carried round by wheels revolving in the inside of other wheels, gave place to the proposition, that they moved in the same lines which would be traced by bodies so carried: which was a mere mode of representing the sum of the observed facts; as Kepler's was another and a better mode of representing the same observations. It is true that for these simply descriptive operations, as well as for the erroneous inductive one, a conception of the mind was required. The conception of an ellipse must have presented itself to Kepler's mind, before he could identify the planetary orbits with it. According to Dr. Whewell, the conception was something added to the facts. He expresses himself as if Kepler had put something into the facts by his mode of conceiving them. But Kepler did no such thing. The ellipse was in the facts before Kepler recognized it; just as the island was an island before it had be en sailed round. Kepler did not put what he had conceived into the facts, but saw it in them. A conception implies, and corresponds to, something conceived: and though the conception itself is not in the facts, but in our mind, yet if it is to convey any knowledge relating to them, it must be a conception of something which really is in the facts, some property which they actually possess, and which they would manifest to our senses, if our senses were able to take cognizance of it. If, for instance, the pl anet left behind it in space a visible track, and if the observer were in a fixed position at such a distance from the plane of the orbit as would enable him to see the whole of it at once, he would see it to be an ellipse; and if gifted with appropriate instruments and powers of locomotion, he could prove it to be such by measuring its different dimensions. Nay, further: if the track were visible, and he were so placed that he could see all parts of it in succession, but not all of them at once, he might b e able, by piecing together his successive observations, to discover both that it was an ellipse and that the planet moved in it. The case would then exactly resemble that of the navigator who discovers the land to be an island by sailing round it. If the path was visible, no one I think would dispute that to identify it with an ellipse is to describe it: and I can not see why any difference should be made by its not being directly an object of sense, when every point in it is as exactly ascertained as if it were so. 187 Subject to the indispensable condition which has just been stated, I do not conceive that the part which conceptions have in the operation of studying facts, has ever been overlooked or undervalued. No one ever disputed that in order to reason about any thing we must have a conception of it; or that when we include a multitude of things under a general expression, there is implied in the expression a conception of something common to those things. But it by no means follows that the conception is necessarily pre-existent, or constructed by the mind out of its own materials. If the facts are rightly classed under the conception, it is because there is in the facts themselves something of which the conception is itself a copy; and which if we can not directly perceive, it is because of the limited power of our organs, and not because the thing itself is not there. The conception itself is often obtained by abstraction from the very facts which, in Dr. Whewell's language, it is afterward called in to connect. This he himself admits, when he observes (which he does on several occasions), how great a service would be rendered to the science of physiology by the philosopher who should establish a precise, tenable, and consistent conception of life. P102F103 P Such a conception can only be abstracted from the phenomena of life itself; from the very facts which it is put in requisition to connect. In other cases, no doubt, instead of collecting the conception from the very phenomena which we are attempting to colligate, we select it from among those which have been previously collected by abstraction from other facts. In the instance of Kepler's laws, the latter was the case. The facts being out of the reach of being observed, in any such manner as would have enabled the senses to identify directly the path of the planet, the conception requisite for framing a general description of that path could not be collected by abstraction from the observations themselves; the mind had to supply hypothetically, from among the conceptions it had obtained from other portions of its experience, some one which would correctly represent the series of the observed facts. It had to frame a supposition respecting the general course of the phenomenon, and ask itself, If this be the general description, what will the details be? and then compare these with the details actually observed. If they agreed, the hypothesis would serve for a description of the phenomenon: if not, it was necessarily abandoned, and another tried. It is such a c ase as this which gives rise to the doctrine that the mind, in framing the descriptions, adds something of its own which it does not find in the facts. Yet it is a fact surely, that the planet does describe an ellipse; and a fact which we could see, if we had adequate visual organs and a suitable position. Not having these advantages, but possessing the conception of an ellipse, or (to express the meaning in less technical language) knowing what an ellipse was, Kepler tried whether the observed places of the planet were consistent with such a path. He found they were so; and he, consequently, asserted as a fact that the planet moved in an ellipse. But this fact, which Kepler did not add to, but found in, the motions of the planet, namely, that it occupied in succession the various points in the circumference of a given ellipse, was the very fact, the separate parts of which had been separately observed; it was the sum of the different observations. Having stated this fundamental difference between my opinion and that of Dr. Whewell, I must add, that his account of the manner in which a conception is selected, suitable to express the facts, appears to me perfectly just. The experience of all thinkers will, I believe, testify that the process is tentative; that it consists of a succession of guesses; many being rejected, until one at last occurs fit to be chosen. We know from Kepler himself that before hitting upon the conception of an ellipse, he tried nineteen other imaginary paths, which, finding them inconsistent with the observations, he was obliged to reject. But as Dr. Whewell truly says, the successful hypothesis, though a guess, ought generally to be called, not a lucky, but 103 Novum Organum Renovatum , p. 32. 188 a skillful guess. The guesses which serve to give mental unity and wholeness to a chaos of scattered particulars, are accidents which rarely occur to any minds but those abounding in knowledge and disciplined in intellectual combinations. How far this tentative method, so indispensable as a means to the colligation of facts for purposes of description, admits of application to Induction itself, and what functions belong to it in that department, will be considered in the chapter of the present Book which relates to Hypotheses. On the present occasion we have chiefly to distinguish this process of Colligation from Induction properly so called; and that the distinction may be made clearer, it is well to advert to a curious and interesting remark, which is as strikingly true of the former operation, as it appears to me unequivocally false of the latter. In different stages of the progress of knowledge, philosophers have employed, for the colligation of the same order of facts, different conceptions. The early rude observations of the heavenly bodies, in which minute precision was neither attained nor sought, presented nothing inconsistent with the representation of the path of a planet as an exact circle, having the earth for its centre. As observations increased in accuracy, facts were disclosed which were not reconcilable with this simple supposition: for the colligation of those additional facts, the supposition was varied; and varied again and again as facts became more numerous and precise. The earth was removed from the centre to some other point within the circle; the planet was supposed to revolve in a smaller circle called an epicycle, round an imaginary point which revolved in a circle round the earth: in proportion as observation elicited fresh facts contradictory to these representations, other epicycles and other eccentrics were added, producing additional complication; until at last Kepler swept all these circles away, and substituted the conception of an exact ellipse. Even this is found not to represent with complete correctness the accurate observations of the present day, whi ch disclose many slight deviations from an orbit exactly elliptical. Now Dr. Whewell has remarked that these successive general expressions, though apparently so conflicting, were all correct: they all answered the purpose of colligation; they all enabled the mind to represent to itself with facility, and by a simultaneous glance, the whole body of facts at the time ascertained: each in its turn served as a correct description of the phenomena, so far as the senses had up to that time taken cognizance of them. If a necessity afterward arose for discarding one of these general descriptions of the planet's orbit, and framing a different imaginary line, by which to express the series of observed positions, it was because a number of new facts had now been added , which it was necessary to combine with the old facts into one general description. But this did not affect the correctness of the former expression, considered as a general statement of the only facts which it was intended to represent. And so true is this, that, as is well remarked by M. Comte, these ancient generalizations, even the rudest and most imperfect of them, that of uniform movement in a circle, are so far from being entirely false, that they are even now habitually employed by astronomers when only a rough approximation to correctness is required. L'astronomie moderne, en dtruisant sans retour les hypothses primitives, envisages comme lois relles du monde, a soigneusement maintenu leur valeur positive et permanente, la proprit de reprsenter commodment les phnomnes quand il s'agit d'une premire bauche. Nos ressources cet gard sont mme bien plus tendues, prcisment cause que nous ne nous faisons aucune illusion sur la ralit des hypothses; ce qui nous permet d'employer sans scrupule, en chaque cas, celle que nous jugeons la plus avantageuse. P103F104 P Dr. Whewell's remark, therefore, is philosophically correct. Successive expressions for the colligation of observed facts, or, in other words, successive descriptions of a phenomenon as 104 Cours de Philosophie Positive , vol. ii., p. 202. 189 a whole, which has been observed only in parts, may, though conflicting, be all correct as far as they go. But it would surely be absurd to assert this of conflicting inductions. The scientific study of facts may be undertaken for three different purposes: the simple description of the facts; their explanation; or their prediction: meaning by prediction, the determination of the conditions under which similar facts may be expected again to occur. To the first of these three operations the name of Induction does not properly belong: to the other two it does. Now, Dr. Whewell's observation is true of the first alone. Considered as a mere description, the circular theory of the heavenly motions represents perfectly well their general features : and by adding epicycles without limit, those motions, even as now known to us, might be expressed with any degree of accuracy that might be required. The elliptical theory, as a mere description, would have a great advantage in point of simplicity, and in the consequent facility of conceiving it and reasoning about it; but it would not really be more true than the other. Different descriptions, therefore, may be all true: but not, surely, different explanations. The doctrine that the heavenly bodies moved by a virtue inherent in their celestial nature; the doctrine that they were moved by impact (which led to the hypothesis of vortices as the only impelling force capable of whirling bodies in circles), and the Newtonian doctrine, that they are moved by the composition of a centripetal with an original projectile force; all these are explanations, collected by real induction from supposed parallel cases; and they were all successively received by philosophers, as scientific truths on the subject of the heavenly bodies. Can it be said of these, as was said of the different descriptions, that they are all true as far as they go? Is it not clear that only one can be true in any degree, and the other two must be altogether false? So much for explanations: let us now compare different predictions: the first, that eclipses will occur when one planet or satellite is so situated as to cast its shadow upon another; the second, that they will occur when some great calamity is impending over mankind. Do these two doctrines only differ in the degree of their truth, as expressing real facts with unequal degrees of accuracy? Assuredly the one is true, and the other absolutely false. P104F105 P 105 Dr. Whewell, in his reply, contests the distinction here drawn, and maintains, that not only different descriptions, but different explanations of a phenomenon, may all be true. Of the three theories respecting the motions of the heavenly bodies, he says ( Philosophy of Discovery , p. 231): Undoubtedly all these explanations may be true and consistent with each other, and would be so if each had been followed out so as to show in what manner it could be made consistent with the facts. And this was, in reality, in a great measure done. The doctrine that the heavenly bodies were moved by vortices was successfully modified, so that it came to coincide in its results with the doctrine of an inverse -quadratic centripetal force.... When this point was reached, the vortex was merely a machinery, well or ill devised, for producing such a centripetal force, and therefore did not contradict the doctrine of a centripetal force. Newton himself does not appear to have been averse to explaining gravity by impulse. So little is it true that if one theory be true the other must be false. The attempt to explain gravity by the impulse of streams of particles flowing through the universe in all directions, which I have mentioned in the Philosophy , is so far from being inconsistent with the Newtonian theory, that it is founded entirely upon it. And even with regard to the doctrine, that the heavenly bodies move by an inherent virtue; if this doctrine had been maintained in any such way that it was brought to agree with the facts, the inherent virtue must have had its laws determined; and then it would have been found that the virtue had a reference to the central body; and so, the inherent virtue must have coincided in its effect with the N ewtonian force; and then, the two explanations would agree, except so far as the word inherent was concerned. And if such a part of an earlier theory as this word inherent indicates, is found to be untenable, it is of course rejected in the transition to later and more exact theories, in Inductions of this kind, as well as in what Mr. Mill calls Descriptions. There is, therefore, still no validity discoverable in the distinction which Mr. Mill attempts to draw between descriptions like Kepler's law of elliptical orbits, and other examples of induction. If the doctrine of vortices had meant, not that vortices existed, but only that the planets moved in the same manner as if they had been whirled by vortices; if the hypothesis had been merely a mode of representing the facts, not an attempt to account for them; if, in short, it had been only a Description; it would, no doubt, have been reconcilable with the Newtonian theory. The vortices, however, were not a mere aid to conceiving the motions of the planets, but a supposed physical agent, actively impelling them; a material fact, which might be 190 In every way, therefore, it is evident that to explain induction as the colligation of facts by means of appropriate conceptions, that is, conceptions which will really express them, is to confound mere description of the observed facts with inference from those facts, and ascribe to the latter what is a characteristic property of the former. There is, however, between Colligation and Induction, a real correlation, which it is important to conceive correctly. Colligation is not always induction; but induction is always colligation. The assertion that the planets move in ellipses, was but a mode of representing observed facts; it was but a colligation; while the assertion that they are drawn, or tend, toward the sun, was the statement of a new fact, inferred by induction. But the induction, once made, accomplishes the purposes of colligation likewise. It brings the same facts, which Kepler had connected by his conception of an ellipse, under the additional conception of bodies acted upon by a central force, and serves, therefore, as a new bond of connection for those facts; a new principle for their classification. true or not true, but could not be both true and not true. According to Descartes's theory it was true, according to Newton's it was not true. Dr. Whewell probably mea ns that since the phrases, centripetal and projectile force, do not declare the nature but only the direction of the forces, the Newtonian theory does not absolutely contradict any hypothesis which may be framed respecting the mode of their production. The Newtonian theory, regarded as a mere description of the planetary motions, does not; but the Newtonian theory as an explanation of them does. For in what does the explanation consist? In ascribing those motions to a general law which obtains between all p articles of matter, and in identifying this with the law by which bodies fall to the ground. If the planets are kept in their orbits by a force which draws the particles composing them toward every other particle of matter in the solar system, they are not kept in those orbits by the impulsive force of certain streams of matter which whirl them round. The one explanation absolutely excludes the other. Either the planets are not moved by vortices, or they do not move by a law common to all matter. It is impossible that both opinions can be true. As well might it be said that there is no contradiction between the assertions, that a man died because somebody killed him, and that he died a natural death. So, again, the theory that the planets move by a virtue inherent in their celestial nature, is incompatible with either of the two others: either that of their being moved by vortices, or that which regards them as moving by a property which they have in common with the earth and all terrestrial bodies. Dr. Whewe ll says that the theory of an inherent virtue agrees with Newton's when the word inherent is left out, which of course it would be (he says) if found to be untenable. But leave that out, and where is the theory? The word inherent is the theory. When that is omitted, there remains nothing except that the heavenly bodies move by a virtue, i.e., by a power of some sort; or by virtue of their celestial nature, which directly contradicts the doctrine that terrestrial bodies fall by the same law. If Dr. Whewe ll is not yet satisfied, any other subject will serve equally well to test his doctrine. He will hardly say that there is no contradiction between the emission theory and the undulatory theory of light; or that there can be both one and two electricities; or that the hypothesis of the production of the higher organic forms by development from the lower, and the supposition of separate and successive acts of creation, are quite reconcilable; or that the theory that volcanoes are fed from a central fire, and the doctrines which ascribe them to chemical action at a comparatively small depth below the earth's surface, are consistent with one another, and all true as far as they go. If different explanations of the same fact can not both be true, still less, sure ly, can different predictions. Dr. Whewell quarrels (on what ground it is not necessary here to consider) with the example I had chosen on this point, and thinks an objection to an illustration a sufficient answer to a theory. Examples not liable to his objection are easily found, if the proposition that conflicting predictions can not both be true, can be made clearer by many examples. Suppose the phenomenon to be a newly- discovered comet, and that one astronomer predicts its return once in every 300 years another once in every 400: can they both be right? When Columbus predicted that by sailing constantly westward he should in time return to the point from which he set out, while others asserted that he could never do so except by turning back, were both he and his opponents true prophets? Were the predictions which foretold the wonders of railways and steamships, and those which averred that the Atlantic could never be crossed by steam navigation, nor a railway train propelled ten miles an hour, both (in Dr. Whewell's words) true, and consistent with one another? Dr. Whewell sees no distinction between holding contradictory opinions on a question of fact, and merely employing different analogies to facilitate the conception of the same fact. The case of different Inductions belongs to the former class, that of different Descriptions to the latter. 191 Further, the descriptions which are improperly confounded with induction, are nevertheless a necessary preparation for induction; no less necessary than correct observation of the facts themselves. Without the previous colligation of detached observations by means of one general conception, we could never have obtained any basis for an induction, except in the case of phenomena of very limited compass. We should not be able to affirm any predicates at all, of a subject incapable of being observed otherwise than piecemeal: much less could we extend those predicates by induction to other similar subjects. Induction, therefore, always presupposes, not only that the necessary observations are made with the necessary accuracy, but also that the results of these observations are, so far as practicable, connected together by general descriptions, enabling the mind to represent to itself as wholes whatever phenomena are capable of being so represented. 5. Dr. Whewell has replied at some length to the preceding observations, restating his opinions, but without (as far as I can perceive) adding any thing material to his former arguments. Since, however, mine have not had the good fortune to make any impression upon him, I will subjoin a few remarks, tending to show more clearly in what our difference of opinion consists, as well as, in some measure, to account for it. Nearly all the definitions of induction, by writers of authority, make it consist in drawing inferences from known cases to unknown; affirming of a class, a predicate which has been found true of some cases belonging to the class; concluding because some things have a certain property, that other things which resemble them have the same propertyor because a thing has manifested a propert y at a certain time, that it has and will have that property at other times. It will scarcely be contended that Kepler's operation was an Induction in this sense of the term. The statement, that Mars moves in an elliptical orbit, was no generalization from individual cases to a class of cases. Neither was it an extension to all time, of what had been found true at some particular time. The whole amount of generalization which the case admitted of, was already completed, or might have been so. Long before the elliptic theory was thought of, it had been ascertained that the planets returned periodically to the same apparent places; the series of these places was, or might have been, completely determined, and the apparent course of each planet marked out on the celestial globe in an uninterrupted line. Kepler did not extend an observed truth to other cases than those in which it had been observed: he did not widen the subject of the proposition which expressed the observed facts. The alteration he made was in t he predicate. Instead of saying, the successive places of Mars are so and so, he summed them up in the statement, that the successive places of Mars are points in an ellipse. It is true, this statement, as Dr. Whewell says, was not the sum of the observations merely; it was the sum of the observations seen under a new point of view. P105F106 P But it was not the sum of more than the observations, as a real induction is. It took in no cases but those which had been actually observed, or which could have been inferred from the observations before the new point of view presented itself. There was not that transition from known cases to unknown, which constitutes Induction in the original and acknowledged meaning of the term. Old definitions, it is true, can not prevail against new knowledge: and if the Keplerian operation, as a logical process, be really identical with what takes place in acknowledged induction, the definition of induction ought to be so widened as to take it in; since scientific language ought to adapt itself to the true relations which subsist between the things it is employed to designate. Here then it is that I am at issue with Dr. Whewell. He does think the operations identical. He allows of no logical process in any case of induction, other than wha t 106 Phil. of Discov. , p. 256. 192 there was in Kepler's case, namely, guessing until a guess is found which tallies with the facts; and accordingly, as we shall see hereafter, he rejects all canons of induction, because it is not by means of them that we guess. Dr. Whewell's theory of the logic of science would be very perfect if it did not pass over altogether the question of Proof. But in my apprehension there is such a thing as proof, and inductions differ altogether from descriptions in their relation to that element. Induction is proof; it is inferring something unobserved from something observed: it requires, therefore, an appropriate test of proof; and to provide that test, is the special purpose of inductive logic. When, on the contrary, we merely collate known observations, and, in Dr. Whewell's phraseology, connect them by means of a new conception; if the conception does serve to connect the observations, we have all we want. As the proposition in which it is embodied pretends to no other truth than what it may share with many ot her modes of representing the same facts, to be consistent with the facts is all it requires: it neither needs nor admits of proof; though it may serve to prove other things, inasmuch as, by placing the facts in mental connection with other facts, not previously seen to resemble them, it assimilates the case to another class of phenomena, concerning which real Inductions have already been made. Thus Kepler's so-called law brought the orbit of Mars into the class ellipse, and by doing so, proved all the properties of an ellipse to be true of the orbit: but in this proof Kepler's law supplied the minor premise, and not (as is the case with real Inductions) the major. Dr. Whewell calls nothing Induction where there is not a new mental conception introduced, and every thing induction where there is. But this is to confound two very different things, Invention and Proof. The introduction of a new conception belongs to Invention: and invention may be required in any operation, but is the essence of none. A new conception may be introduced for descriptive purposes, and so it may for inductive purposes. But it is so far from constituting induction, that induction does not necessarily stand in need of it. Most inductions require no conception but what was present in every one of the particular instances on which the induction is grounded. That all men are mortal is surely an inductive conclusion; yet no new conception is introduced by it. Whoever knows that any man has died, has all the conceptions involved in the inductive generalization. But Dr. Whewell considers the process of invention which consists in framing a new conception consistent with the facts, to be not merely a necessary part of all induction, but the whole of it. The mental operation which extracts from a number of detached observations certain general characters in which the observed phenomena resemble one another, or resemble other known facts, is what Bacon, Locke, and most subsequent metaphysicians, have understood by the word Abstraction. A general expression obtained by abstraction, connecting known facts by means of common characters, but without concluding from them to unknown, may, I think, with strict logical correctness, be termed a Description; nor do I know in what other way things can ever be described. My position, however, does not depend on the employment of that particular word; I am quite content to use Dr. Whewell's term Colligation, or the more general phrases, mode of representing, or of expressing, phenomena: provided it be clearly seen that the process is not Induction, but something radically different. What more may usefully be said on the subject of Colligation, or of the correlative expression invented by Dr. Whewell, the Explication of Conceptions, and generally on the subject of ideas and mental representations as connected with the study of facts, will find a more appropriate place in the Fourth Book, on the Operations Subsidiary to Induction: to which I must refer the reader for the removal of any difficulty which the present discussion may have left. 193 III. Of The Ground Of Induction 1. Induction properly so called, as distinguished from those mental operations, sometimes, though improperly, designated by the name, which I have attempted in the preceding chapter to characterize, may, then, be summarily defined as Generalization from Experience. It consists in inferring from some individual instances in which a phenomenon is observed to occur, that it occurs in all instances of a certain class; namely, in all which resemble the former, in what are regarded as the material circumstances. In what way the material circumstances are to be distinguished from those which are immaterial, or why some of the circumstances are material and others not so, we are not yet ready to point out. We must first observe, that there is a principle implied in the very statement of what Induction is; an assumption with regard to the course of nature and the order of the universe; namely, that there are such things in nature as parallel cases; that what happens once, will, under a sufficient degree of similarity of circumstances, happen again, and not only again, but as often as the same circumstances recur. This, I say, is an assumption, involved in every case of induction. And, if we consult the actual course of nature, we find that the assumption is warranted. The universe, so far as known to us, is so constituted, that whatever is true in any one case, is true in all cases of a certain description; the only difficulty is, to find what description. This universal fact, which is our warrant for all inferences from experience, has been described by different philosophers in different forms of language: that the course of nature is uniform; that the universe is governed by general laws; and the like. One of the most usual of these modes of expression, but also one of the most inadequate, is that which has been brought into familiar use by the metaphysicians of the school of Reid and Stewart. The disposition of the human mind t o generalize from experiencea propensity considered by these philosophers as an instinct of our naturethey usually describe under some such name as our intuitive conviction that the future will resemble the past. Now it has been well pointed out by Mr. Bailey, P106F107 P that (whether the tendency be or not an original and ultimate element of our nature), Time, in its modifications of past, present, and future, has no concern either with the belief itself, or with the grounds of it. We believe that fire will bur n to- morrow, because it burned to-day and yesterday; but we believe, on precisely the same grounds, that it burned before we were born, and that it burns this very day in Cochin-China. It is not from the past to the future, as past and future, that we infer, but from the known to the unknown; from facts observed to facts unobserved; from what we have perceived, or been directly conscious of, to what has not come within our experience. In this last predicament is the whole region of the future; but also the vastly greater portion of the present and of the past. Whatever be the most proper mode of expressing it, the proposition that the course of nature is uniform, is the fundamental principle, or general axiom of Induction. It would yet be a great error to of fer this large generalization as any explanation of the inductive process. On the contrary, I hold it to be itself an instance of induction, and induction by no means of the most obvious kind. Far from being the first induction we make, it is one of the la st, or at all events one of those which are latest in attaining strict philosophical accuracy. As a general maxim, indeed, it has scarcely entered into the minds of any but philosophers; nor even by them, as we shall have many opportunities of remarking, have its extent and limits been 107 Essays on the Pursuit of Truth. 194 always very justly conceived. The truth is, that this great generalization is itself founded on prior generalizations. The obscurer laws of nature were discovered by means of it, but the more obvious ones must have been understood and assented to as general truths before it was ever heard of. We should never have thought of affirming that all phenomena take place according to general laws, if we had not first arrived, in the case of a great multitude of phenomena, at some knowledge of the laws themselves; which could be done no otherwise than by induction. In what sense, then, can a principle, which is so far from being our earliest induction, be regarded as our warrant for all the others? In the only sense, in which (as we have already seen) the general propositions which we place at the head of our reasonings when we throw them into syllogisms, ever really contribute to their validity. As Archbishop Whately remarks, every induction is a syllogism with the major premise suppres sed; or (as I prefer expressing it) every induction may be thrown into the form of a syllogism, by supplying a major premise. If this be actually done, the principle which we are now considering, that of the uniformity of the course of nature, will appear as the ultimate major premise of all inductions, and will, therefore, stand to all inductions in the relation in which, as has been shown at so much length, the major proposition of a syllogism always stands to the conclusion; not contributing at all to prove it, but being a necessary condition of its being proved; since no conclusion is proved, for which there can not be found a true major premise. P107F108 P The statement, that the uniformity of the course of nature is the ultimate major premise in all cases of i nduction, may be thought to require some explanation. The immediate major premise in every inductive argument, it certainly is not. Of that, Archbishop Whately's must be held to be the correct account. The induction, John, Peter, etc., are mortal, therefo re all mankind are mortal, may, as he justly says, be thrown into a syllogism by prefixing as a major premise (what is at any rate a necessary condition of the validity of the argument), namely, that what is true of John, Peter, etc., is true of all mankind. But how came we by this major premise? It is not self -evident; nay, in all cases of unwarranted generalization, it is not true. How, then, is it arrived at? Necessarily either by induction or ratiocination; and if by induction, the process, like all other inductive arguments, may be thrown into the form of a 108 In the first edition a note was appended at this place, containing some criticism on Archbishop W hately's mode of conceiving the relation between Syllogism and Induction. In a subsequent issue of his Logic , the Archbishop made a reply to the criticism, which induced me to cancel part of the note, incorporating the remainder in the text. In a still later edition, the Archbishop observes in a tone of something like disapprobation, that the objections, doubtless from their being fully answered and found untenable, were silently suppressed, and that hence he might appear to some of his readers to be combating a shadow. On this latter point, the Archbishop need give himself no uneasiness. His readers, I make bold to say, will fully credit his mere affirmation that the objections have actually been made. But as he seems to think that what he terms the suppression of the objections ought not to have been made silently, I now break that silence, and state exactly what it is that I suppressed, and why. I suppressed that alone which might be regarded as personal criticism on the Archbishop. I had imputed to him the having omitted to ask himself a particular question. I found that he had asked himself the question, and could give it an answer consistent with his own theory. I had also, within the compass of a parenthesis, hazarded some remarks on certai n general characteristics of Archbishop Whately as a philosopher. These remarks, though their tone, I hope, was neither disrespectful nor arrogant, I felt, on reconsideration, that I was hardly entitled to make; least of all, when the instance which I had regarded as an illustration of them, failed, as I now saw, to bear them out. The real matter at the bottom of the whole dispute, the different view we take of the function of the major premise, remains exactly where it was; and so far was I from thinking t hat my opinion had been fully answered and was untenable, that in the same edition in which I canceled the note, I not only enforced the opinion by further arguments, but answered (though without naming him) those of the Archbishop. For not having made this statement before, I do not think it needful to apologize. It would be attaching very great importance to one's smallest sayings, to think a formal retractation requisite every time that one falls into an error. Nor is Archbishop Whately's well -earned fame of so tender a quality as to require that in withdrawing a slight criticism on him I should have been bound to offer a public amende for having made it. 195 syllogism. This previous syllogism it is, therefore, necessary to construct. There is, in the long run, only one possible construction. The real proof that what is true of John, Peter, etc., is true of all mankind, can only be, that a different supposition would be inconsistent with the uniformity which we know to exist in the course of nature. Whether there would be this inconsistency or not, may be a matter of long and delicate inquiry; but unless there would, we have no sufficient ground for the major of the inductive syllogism. It hence appears, that if we throw the whole course of any inductive argument into a series of syllogisms, we shall arrive by more or fewer steps at an ultimate syllogism, which will have for its major premise the principle, or axiom, of the uniformity of the course of nature. P108F109 P It was not to be expected that in the case of this axiom, any more than of other axioms, there should be unanimity among thinkers with respect to the grounds on which it is to be received as true. I have already stated that I regard it as itself a generalization from experience. Others hold it to be a principle which, antecedently to any verification by experience, we are compelled by the constitution of our thinking faculty to assume as true. Having so recently, and at so much length, combated a similar doctrine as applied to the axioms of mathematics, by arguments which are in a great measure applicable to the present case, I shall defer the more particular discussion of this controverted point in regard to the fundamental axiom of induction, until a more advanced period of our inquiry. P109F110 P At present it is of more importance to understand thoroughly the import of the axiom itself. For the proposition, that the course of nature is uniform, possesses rather the brevity suitable to popular, than the precision requisite in philosophical language: its terms require to be explained, and a stricter than their ordinary signification given to them, before the truth of the assertion can be admitted. 2. Every person's consciousness assures him that he does not always expect uniformity in the course of events; he does not always believe that the unknown will be similar to the known, that the future will resemble the past. Nobody believes that the succession of rain and fine weather will be the same in every future year as in the present. Nobody expects to have the same dreams repeated every night. On the contrary, every body mentions it as something extraordinary, if the course of nature is constant, and resembles itself, in these particulars. To look for constancy where constancy is not to be expected, as for instance that a day which has once brought good fortune will always be a fortunate day, is justly accounted superstition. The course of nature, in truth, is not only uniform, it is also infinitely various. Some phenomena are always seen to recur in the very same combinations in which we met with them at first; others seem altogether capricious; while some, which we had been accustomed to regard as bound down exclusively to a particular set of combinations, we unexpectedly find detached from some of the elements with which we had hitherto found them conjoined, and united to others of quite a contrary description. To an inhabitant of Central Africa, fifty 109 But though it is a condition of the validity of every induction that there be uniformity in the course of nature, it is not a necessary condition that the uniformity should pervade all nature. It is enough that it pervades the particular class of phenomena to which the induction relates. An induction concerning the motions of the planets, or the properties of the magnet, would not be vitiated though we were to suppose that wind and weather are the sport of chance, provided it be assumed that astronomical and magnetic phenomena are under the dominion of general laws. Otherwise the early experience of mankind would have rested on a very weak foundation; for in the infancy of science it could not be known that all phenomena are regular in their course. Neither would it be correct to say that every induction by which we infer any truth, implies the genera l fact of uniformity as foreknown, even in reference to the kind of phenomena concerned. It implies, either that this general fact is already known, or that we may now know it: as the conclusion, the Duke of Wellington is mortal, drawn from the instances A , B, and C, implies either that we have already concluded all men to be mortal, or that we are now entitled to do so from the same evidence. A vast amount of confusion and paralogism respecting the grounds of Induction would be dispelled by keeping in view these simple considerations. 110 Infra, chap. 21. 196 years ago, no fact probably appeared to rest on more uniform experience than this, that all human beings are black. To Europeans, not many years ago, the proposition, All swans are white, appeared an equally unequivocal instance of uniformity in the course of nature. Further experience has proved to both that they were mistaken; but they had to wait fifty centuries for this experience. During that long time, mankind believed in a uniformity of the course of nature where no such uniformity really existed. According to the notion which the ancients entertained of induction, the foregoing were cases of as legitimate inference as any inductions whatever. In these two instances, in which, the conclusion being false, the ground of inference must have been insufficient, there was, nevertheless, as much ground for it as this conception of induction admitted of. The induction of the ancients has been well described by Bacon, under the name of Inductio per enumerati onem simplicem, ubi non reperitur instantia contradictoria. It consists in ascribing the character of general truths to all propositions which are true in every instance that we happen to know of. This is the kind of induction which is natural to the mind when unaccustomed to scientific methods. The tendency, which some call an instinct, and which others account for by association, to infer the future from the past, the known from the unknown, is simply a habit of expecting that what has been found true once or several times, and never yet found false, will be found true again. Whether the instances are few or many, conclusive or inconclusive, does not much affect the matter: these are considerations which occur only on reflection; the unprompted tendency of the mind is to generalize its experience, provided this points all in one direction; provided no other experience of a conflicting character comes unsought. The notion of seeking it, of experimenting for it, of interrogating nature (to use Bacon's expression) is of much later growth. The observation of nature, by uncultivated intellects, is purely passive: they accept the facts which present themselves, without taking the trouble of searching for more: it is a superior mind only which asks itself what fac ts are needed to enable it to come to a safe conclusion, and then looks out for these. But though we have always a propensity to generalize from unvarying experience, we are not always warranted in doing so. Before we can be at liberty to conclude that something is universally true because we have never known an instance to the contrary, we must have reason to believe that if there were in nature any instances to the contrary, we should have known of them. This assurance, in the great majority of cases, we can not have, or can have only in a very moderate degree. The possibility of having it, is the foundation on which we shall see hereafter that induction by simple enumeration may in some remarkable cases amount practically to proof. P110F111 P No such assurance, however, can be had, on any of the ordinary subjects of scientific inquiry. Popular notions are usually founded on induction by simple enumeration; in science it carries us but a little way. We are forced to begin with it; we must often rely on it provisionally, in the absence of means of more searching investigation. But, for the accurate study of nature, we require a surer and a more potent instrument. It was, above all, by pointing out the insufficiency of this rude and loose conception of Induction, that Bacon merited the title so generally awarded to him, of Founder of the Inductive Philosophy. The value of his own contributions to a more philosophical theory of the subject has certainly been exaggerated. Although (along with some fundamental errors) his writings contain, more or less fully developed, several of the most important principles of the Inductive Method, physical investigation has now far outgrown the Baconian conception of Induction. Moral and political inquiry, indeed, are as yet far behind that conception. The 111 Infra, chap. 21., 22. 197 current and approved modes of reasoning on these subjects are still of the same vicious description against which Bacon protested; the method almost exclusively employed by those professing to treat such matters inductively, is the very inductio per enumerationem simplicem which he condemns; and the experience which we hear so confidently appealed to by all sects, parties, and interests, is still, in his own emphatic words, mera palpatio. 3. In order to a better understanding of the problem which the logician must solve if he would establish a scientific theory of Induction, let us compare a few cases of incorrect inductions with others which are acknowledged to be legitimate. Some, we know, which were believed for centuries to be corre ct, were nevertheless incorrect. That all swans are white, can not have been a good induction, since the conclusion has turned out erroneous. The experience, however, on which the conclusion rested, was genuine. From the earliest records, the testimony of the inhabitants of the known world was unanimous on the point. The uniform experience, therefore, of the inhabitants of the known world, agreeing in a common result, without one known instance of deviation from that result, is not always sufficient to establish a general conclusion. But let us now turn to an instance apparently not very dissimilar to this. Mankind were wrong, it seems, in concluding that all swans were white: are we also wrong, when we conclude that all men's heads grow above their shoulders, and never below, in spite of the conflicting testimony of the naturalist Pliny? As there were black swans, though civilized people had existed for three thousand years on the earth without meeting with them, may there not also be men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, notwithstanding a rather less perfect unanimity of negative testimony from observers? Most persons would answer No; it was more credible that a bird should vary in its color, than that men should vary in the relative position of their principal organs. And there is no doubt that in so saying they would be right: but to say why they are right, would be impossible, without entering more deeply than is usually done, into the true theory of Induction. Again, there are cases in which we reckon with the most unfailing confidence upon uniformity, and other cases in which we do not count upon it at all. In some we feel complete assurance that the future will resemble the past, the unknown be precisely similar to the known. In others, however invariable may be the result obtained from the instances which have been observed, we draw from them no more than a very feeble presumption that the like result will hold in all other cases. That a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, we do not doubt to be true even in the region of the fixed stars. P111F112 P When a chemist announces the existence and properties of a newly-discovered substance, if we confide in his accuracy, we feel assured that the conclusions he has arrived at will hold universally, though the induction be founded but on a single instance. We do not withhold our assent, waiting for a repetition of the experiment; or if we do, it is from a doubt whether the one experiment was properly made, not whether if properly made it would be conclusive. Here, then, is a general law of nature, inferred without hesitation from a single instance; a universal proposition from a singular one. Now mark another case, and contrast it with this. Not all the instances which have been observed since the beginning of the world, in support of the general proposition that all crows are black, would be deemed a sufficient presumption of the truth of the proposition, to outweigh the testimony of one unexceptionable witness who should affirm that in so me region of the earth not fully explored, he had caught and examined a crow, and had found it to be gray. 112 In strictness, wherever the present constitution of space exists; which we have ample reason to believe that it does in the region of the fixed stars. 198 Why is a single instance, in some cases, sufficient for a complete induction, while in others, myriads of concurring instances, without a single exception known or presumed, go such a very little way toward establishing a universal proposition? Whoever can answer this question knows more of the philosophy of logic than the wisest of the ancients, and has solved the problem of induction. 199 IV. Of Laws Of Nature 1. In the contemplation of that uniformity in the course of nature, which is assumed in every inference from experience, one of the first observations that present themselves is, that the uniformity in question is not properly uniformity, but uniformities. The general regularity results from the co -existence of partial regularities. The course of nature in general is constant, because the course of each of the various phenomena that compose it is so. A certain fact invariably occurs whenever certain circumstances are present, and does not occur when they are absent; the like is true of another fact; and so on. From these separate threads of connection between parts of the great whole which we term nature, a general tissue of connection unavoidably weaves itself, by which the whole is held together. If A is always accompanied by D, B by E, and C by F, it follows that A B is accompanied by D E, A C by D F, B C by E F, and finally A B C by D E F; and thus the general character of regularity is produced, which, along with and in the midst of infinite diversity, pervades all nature. The first point, therefore, to be noted in regard to what is called the uniformity of the course of nature, is, that it is itself a complex fact, compounded of all the separate uniformities which exist in respect to single phenomena. These various uniformities, when ascertained by what is regarded as a sufficient induction, we call, in common parlance, Laws of Nature. Scientifically speak ing, that title is employed in a more restricted sense, to designate the uniformities when reduced to their most simple expression. Thus in the illustration already employed, there were seven uniformities; all of which, if considered sufficiently certain, would, in the more lax application of the term, be called laws of nature. But of the seven, three alone are properly distinct and independent: these being presupposed, the others follow of course. The first three, therefore, according to the stricter acceptation, are called laws of nature; the remainder not; because they are in truth mere cases of the first three; virtually included in them; said, therefore, to result from them: whoever affirms those three has already affirmed all the rest. To substitute real examples for symbolical ones, the following are three uniformities, or call them laws of nature: the law that air has weight, the law that pressure on a fluid is propagated equally in all directions, and the law that pressure in one direction, not opposed by equal pressure in the contrary direction, produces motion, which does not cease until equilibrium is restored. From these three uniformities we should be able to predict another uniformity, namely, the rise of the mercury in the Torricellian tube. This, in the stricter use of the phrase, is not a law of nature. It is the result of laws of nature. It is a case of each and every one of the three laws: and is the only occurrence by which they could all be fulfilled. If the mercury were not sustained in the barometer, and sustained at such a height that the column of mercury were equal in weight to a column of the atmosphere of the same diameter; here would be a case, either of the air not pressing upon the surface of the mercury with the force which is called its weight, or of the downward pressure on the mercury not being propagated equally in an upward direction, or of a body pressed in one direction and not in the direction opposite, either not moving in the direction in which it is pressed, or stopping before it had attained equilibrium. If we knew, therefore, the three simple laws, but had never tried the Torricellian experiment, we might deduce its result from those laws. The known weight of the air, combined with the position of the apparatus, would bring the mercury within the first of the three inductions; the first induction would bring it within the second, and the second within the third, in the manner which we characterized in treating of Ratiocination. We should thus come to know the more complex uniformity, independently of specific 200 experience, through our knowledge of the simpler ones from which it results; though, for reasons which will appear hereafter, verification by specific experience would still be desirable, and might possibly be indis pensable. Complex uniformities which, like this, are mere cases of simpler ones, and have, therefore, been virtually affirmed in affirming those, may with propriety be called laws , but can scarcely, in the strictness of scientific speech, be termed Laws of Nature. It is the custom in science, wherever regularity of any kind can be traced, to call the general proposition which expresses the nature of that regularity, a law; as when, in mathematics, we speak of the law of decrease of the successive terms of a converging series. But the expression law of nature has generally been employed with a sort of tacit reference to the original sense of the word law, namely, the expression of the will of a superior. When, therefore, it appeared that any of the uniformities which were observed in nature, would result spontaneously from certain other uniformities, no separate act of creative will being supposed necessary for the production of the derivative uniformities, these have not usually been spoken of as laws of nature. According to one mode of expression, the question, What are the laws of nature? may be stated thus: What are the fewest and simplest assumptions, which being granted, the whole existing order of nature would result? Another mode of stating it would be thus: What are the fewest general propositions from which all the uniformities which exist in the universe might be deductively inferred? Every great advance which marks an epoch in the progress of science, has consisted in a step made toward the solution of this problem. Even a simple colligation of inductions already made, without any fresh extension of the inductive inference, is already an advance in that direction. When Kepler expressed the regularity which exists in the observed motions of the heavenl y bodies, by the three general propositions called his laws, he, in so doing, pointed out three simple suppositions which, instead of a much greater number, would suffice to construct the whole scheme of the heavenly motions, so far as it was known up to t hat time. A similar and still greater step was made when these laws, which at first did not seem to be included in any more general truths, were discovered to be cases of the three laws of motion, as obtaining among bodies which mutually tend toward one another with a certain force, and have had a certain instantaneous impulse originally impressed upon them. After this great discovery, Kepler's three propositions, though still called laws, would hardly, by any person accustomed to use language with precision, be termed laws of nature: that phrase would be reserved for the simpler and more general laws into which Newton is said to have resolved them. According to this language, every well-grounded inductive generalization is either a law of nature, or a result of laws of nature, capable, if those laws are known, of being predicted from them. And the problem of Inductive Logic may be summed up in two questions: how to ascertain the laws of nature; and how, after having ascertained them, to follow them into thei r results. On the other hand, we must not suffer ourselves to imagine that this mode of statement amounts to a real analysis, or to any thing but a mere verbal transformation of the problem; for the expression, Laws of Nature, means nothing but the uniform ities which exist among natural phenomena (or, in other words, the results of induction), when reduced to their simplest expression. It is, however, something to have advanced so far, as to see that the study of nature is the study of laws, not a law; of uniformities, in the plural number: that the different natural phenomena have their separate rules or modes of taking place, which, though much intermixed and entangled with one another, may, to a certain extent, be studied apart: that (to resume our former metaphor) the regularity which exists in nature is a web composed of distinct threads, and only to be understood by tracing each of the threads separately; for which purpose it is often necessary to unravel some portion of the web, and 201 exhibit the fibres apart. The rules of experimental inquiry are the contrivances for unraveling the web. 2. In thus attempting to ascertain the general order of nature by ascertaining the particular order of the occurrence of each one of the phenomena of nature, the most s cientific proceeding can be no more than an improved form of that which was primitively pursued by the human understanding, while undirected by science. When mankind first formed the idea of studying phenomena according to a stricter and surer method than that which they had in the first instance spontaneously adopted, they did not, conformably to the well-meant but impracticable precept of Descartes, set out from the supposition that nothing had been already ascertained. Many of the uniformities existing among phenomena are so constant, and so open to observation, as to force themselves upon involuntary recognition. Some facts are so perpetually and familiarly accompanied by certain others, that mankind learned, as children learn, to expect the one where they found the other, long before they knew how to put their expectation into words by asserting, in a proposition, the existence of a connection between those phenomena. No science was needed to teach that food nourishes, that water drowns, or quenches thirst, that the sun gives light and heat, that bodies fall to the ground. The first scientific inquirers assumed these and the like as known truths, and set out from them to discover others which were unknown: nor were they wrong in so doing, subject, however , as they afterward began to see, to an ulterior revision of these spontaneous generalizations themselves, when the progress of knowledge pointed out limits to them, or showed their truth to be contingent on some circumstance not originally attended to. It will appear, I think, from the subsequent part of our inquiry, that there is no logical fallacy in this mode of proceeding; but we may see already that any other mode is rigorously impracticable: since it is impossible to frame any scientific method of induction, or test of the correctness of inductions, unless on the hypothesis that some inductions deserving of reliance have been already made. Let us revert, for instance, to one of our former illustrations, and consider why it is that, with exactly the same amount of evidence, both negative and positive, we did not reject the assertion that there are black swans, while we should refuse credence to any testimony which asserted that there were men wearing their heads underneath their shoulders. The first assertion was more credible than the latter. But why more credible? So long as neither phenomenon had been actually witnessed, what reason was there for finding the one harder to be believed than the other? Apparently because there is less constancy in the co lors of animals, than in the general structure of their anatomy. But how do we know this? Doubtless, from experience. It appears, then, that we need experience to inform us, in what degree, and in what cases, or sorts of cases, experience is to be relied o n. Experience must be consulted in order to learn from it under what circumstances arguments from it will be valid. We have no ulterior test to which we subject experience in general; but we make experience its own test. Experience testifies, that among the uniformities which it exhibits or seems to exhibit, some are more to be relied on than others; and uniformity, therefore, may be presumed, from any given number of instances, with a greater degree of assurance, in proportion as the case belongs to a class in which the uniformities have hitherto been found more uniform. This mode of correcting one generalization by means of another, a narrower generalization by a wider, which common sense suggests and adopts in practice, is the real type of scientific Induction. All that art can do is but to give accuracy and precision to this process, and adapt it to all varieties of cases, without any essential alteration in its principle. There are of course no means of applying such a test as that above described, unles s we already possess a general knowledge of the prevalent character of the uniformities existing throughout nature. The indispensable foundation, therefore, of a scientific formula of 202 induction, must be a survey of the inductions to which mankind have been conducted in unscientific practice; with the special purpose of ascertaining what kinds of uniformities have been found perfectly invariable, pervading all nature, and what are those which have been found to vary with difference of time, place, or other c hangeable circumstances. 3. The necessity of such a survey is confirmed by the consideration, that the stronger inductions are the touch-stone to which we always endeavor to bring the weaker. If we find any means of deducing one of the less strong inductions from stronger ones, it acquires, at once, all the strength of those from which it is deduced; and even adds to that strength; since the independent experience on which the weaker induction previously rested, becomes additional evidence of the truth of the better established law in which it is now found to be included. We may have inferred, from historical evidence, that the uncontrolled power of a monarch, of an aristocracy, or of the majority, will often be abused: but we are entitled to rely on this generalization with much greater assurance when it is shown to be a corollary from still better established facts; the very low degree of elevation of character ever yet attained by the average of mankind, and the little efficacy, for the most part, of the modes of education hitherto practiced, in maintaining the predominance of reason and conscience over the selfish propensities. It is at the same time obvious that even these more general facts derive an accession of evidence from the testimony which history bears to the effects of despotism. The strong induction becomes still stronger when a weaker one has been bound up with it. On the other hand, if an induction conflicts with stronger inductions, or with conclusions capable of being correctly deduced fro m them, then, unless on reconsideration it should appear that some of the stronger inductions have been expressed with greater universality than their evidence warrants, the weaker one must give way. The opinion so long prevalent that a comet, or any other unusual appearance in the heavenly regions, was the precursor of calamities to mankind, or to those at least who witnessed it; the belief in the veracity of the oracles of Delphi or Dodona; the reliance on astrology, or on the weather-prophecies in almanacs, were doubtless inductions supposed to be grounded on experience: P112F113 P and faith in such delusions seems quite capable of holding out against a great multitude of failures, provided it be nourished by a reasonable number of casual coincidences between the prediction and the event. What has really put an end to these insufficient inductions, is their inconsistency with the stronger inductions subsequently obtained by scientific inquiry, 113 Dr. Whewell ( Phil. of Discov. , p. 246) will not allow these and similar erroneous judgments to be called inductions; inasmuch as such superstitious fancies were not collected from the facts by seeking a law of their occurrence, but were suggested by an imagination of the anger of superior powers, shown by such deviations from the ordinary course of nature. I conceive the question to be, not in what manner these notions were at first suggested, but by what evidence they have, from time to time, been supposed to be substantiated. If the believers in these erroneous opinions had been put on their defense, they would have referred to experience: to the comet which preceded the assassination of Julius Csar, or to oracles and other prophecies known to have been fulfilled. It is by such appeals to facts that all analogous superstitions, even in our day, attempt to justify themselves; the supposed evidence of experience is necessary to their hold on the mind. I quite admit that the influence of such coincidences would not be what it is, if strength were not lent to it by an antecedent presumption; but this is not peculiar to such cases; preconceived notions of probability form part of the explanation of many other cases of belief on insufficient evidence. The a priori prejudice does not prevent the erroneous opinion from being sincerely regarded as a legitimate conclusion from experience; though it improperly predisposes the mind to that interpretation of experience. Thus much in defense of the sort of examples objected to. But it would be easy to produce instances, equally adapted to the purpose, and in which no antecedent prejudice is at all concerned. For many ages, says Archbishop Whately, all farmers and gardeners were firmly convinced and convinced of their knowing it by experiencethat the crops would never turn out good unless the seed were sown during the increase of the moon. This was induction, but bad induction; just as a vicious syllogism is reasoning, but bad reasoning. 203 respecting the causes on which terrestrial events really depend; and where those scientific truths have not yet penetrated, the same or similar delusions still prevail. It may be affirmed as a general principle, that all inductions, whether strong or weak, which can be connected by ratiocination, are confirmatory of one another; while any which lead deductively to consequences that are incompatible, become mutually each other's test, showing that one or other must be given up, or at least more guardedly expressed. In the case of inductions which confirm each other, the one which becomes a conclusion from ratiocination rises to at least the level of certainty of the weakest of those from which it is deduced; while in general all are more or less increased in certainty. Thus the Torricellian experiment, though a mere case of three more general laws, not only strengthened greatly the evidence on which those laws rested, but converted one of them (the weight of the atmosphere) from a still doubtful generalization into a completely established doctrine. If, then, a survey of the uniformities which have been ascertained to exist in nature, should point out some which, as far as any human purpose requires certainty, may be considered quite certain and quite universal; then by means of these uniformities we may be able to rais e multitudes of other inductions to the same point in the scale. For if we can show, with respect to any inductive inference, that either it must be true, or one of these certain and universal inductions must admit of an exception; the former generalization will attain the same certainty, and indefeasibleness within the bounds assigned to it, which are the attributes of the latter. It will be proved to be a law; and if not a result of other and simpler laws, it will be a law of nature. There are such certai n and universal inductions; and it is because there are such, that a Logic of Induction is possible. 204 V. Of The Law Of Universal Causation 1. The phenomena of nature exist in two distinct relations to one another; that of simultaneity, and that of succession. Every phenomenon is related, in a uniform manner, to some phenomena that co-exist with it, and to some that have preceded and will follow it. Of the uniformities which exist among synchronous phenomena, the most important, on every account, are the laws of number; and next to them those of space, or, in other words, of extension and figure. The laws of number are common to synchronous and successive phenomena. That two and two make four, is equally true whether the second two follow the first two or accompany them. It is as true of days and years as of feet and inches. The laws of extension and figure (in other words, the theorems of geometry, from its lowest to its highest branches) are, on the contrary, laws of simultaneous phenomena only. The various parts of space, and of the objects which are said to fill space, co -exist; and the unvarying laws which are the subject of the science of geometry, are an expression of the mode of their co-existence. This is a class of la ws, or in other words, of uniformities, for the comprehension and proof of which it is not necessary to suppose any lapse of time, any variety of facts or events succeeding one another. The propositions of geometry are independent of the succession of even ts. All things which possess extension, or, in other words, which fill space, are subject to geometrical laws. Possessing extension, they possess figure; possessing figure, they must possess some figure in particular, and have all the properties which geometry assigns to that figure. If one body be a sphere and another a cylinder, of equal height and diameter, the one will be exactly two -thirds of the other, let the nature and quality of the material be what it will. Again, each body, and each point of a body, must occupy some place or position among other bodies; and the position of two bodies relatively to each other, of whatever nature the bodies be, may be unerringly inferred from the position of each of them relatively to any third body. In the laws of number, then, and in those of space, we recognize in the most unqualified manner, the rigorous universality of which we are in quest. Those laws have been in all ages the type of certainty, the standard of comparison for all inferior degrees of evidence. T heir invariability is so perfect, that it renders us unable even to conceive any exception to them; and philosophers have been led, though (as I have endeavored to show) erroneously, to consider their evidence as lying not in experience, but in the original constitution of the intellect. If, therefore, from the laws of space and number, we were able to deduce uniformities of any other description, this would be conclusive evidence to us that those other uniformities possessed the same rigorous certainty. But this we can not do. From laws of space and number alone, nothing can be deduced but laws of space and number. Of all truths relating to phenomena, the most valuable to us are those which relate to the order of their succession. On a knowledge of these is founded every reasonable anticipation of future facts, and whatever power we possess of influencing those facts to our advantage. Even the laws of geometry are chiefly of practical importance to us as being a portion of the premises from which the order of the succession of phenomena may be inferred. Inasmuch as the motion of bodies, the action of forces, and the propagation of influences of all sorts, take place in certain lines and over definite spaces, the properties of those lines and spaces are an important part of the laws to which those phenomena are themselves subject. Again, motions, forces, or other influences, and times, are numerable quantities; and the properties of number 205 are applicable to them as to all other things. But though the laws of number and space are important elements in the ascertainment of uniformities of succession, they can do nothing toward it when taken by themselves. They can only be made instrumental to that purpose when we combine with them additional premises, expressive of uniformities of succession already known. By taking, for instance, as premises these propositions, that bodies acted upon by an instantaneous force move with uniform velocity in straight lines; that bodies acted upon by a continuous force move with accel erated velocity in straight lines; and that bodies acted upon by two forces in different directions move in the diagonal of a parallelogram, whose sides represent the direction and quantity of those forces; we may by combining these truths with propositions relating to the properties of straight lines and of parallelograms (as that a triangle is half a parallelogram of the same base and altitude), deduce another important uniformity of succession, viz., that a body moving round a centre of force describes a reas proportional to the times. But unless there had been laws of succession in our premises, there could have been no truths of succession in our conclusions. A similar remark might be extended to every other class of phenomena really peculiar; and, had it been attended to, would have prevented many chimerical attempts at demonstrations of the indemonstrable, and explanations which do not explain. It is not, therefore, enough for us that the laws of space, which are only laws of simultaneous phenomenon, and the laws of number, which though true of successive phenomena do not relate to their succession, possess the rigorous certainty and universality of which we are in search. We must endeavor to find some law of succession which has those same attributes, and is therefore fit to be made the foundation of processes for discovering, and of a test for verifying, all other uniformities of succession. This fundamental law must resemble the truths of geometry in their most remarkable peculiarity, that of never being, in any instance whatever, defeated or suspended by any change of circumstances. Now among all those uniformities in the succession of phenomena, which common observation is sufficient to bring to light, there are very few which have any, even apparent, pretension to this rigorous indefeasibility: and of those few, one only has been found capable of completely sustaining it. In that one, however, we recognize a law which is universal also in another sense; it is co -extensive with the entire field of succ essive phenomena, all instances whatever of succession being examples of it. This law is the Law of Causation. The truth that every fact which has a beginning has a cause, is co-extensive with human experience. This generalization may appear to some minds not to amount to much, since after all it asserts only this: it is a law, that every event depends on some law: it is a law, that there is a law for every thing. We must not, however, conclude that the generality of the principle is merely verbal; it w ill be found on inspection to be no vague or unmeaning assertion, but a most important and really fundamental truth. 2. The notion of Cause being the root of the whole theory of Induction, it is indispensable that this idea should, at the very outset of our inquiry, be, with the utmost practicable degree of precision, fixed and determined. If, indeed, it were necessary for the purpose of inductive logic that the strife should be quelled, which has so long raged among the different schools of metaphysician s, respecting the origin and analysis of our idea of causation; the promulgation, or at least the general reception, of a true theory of induction, might be considered desperate for a long time to come. But the science of the Investigation of Truth by means of Evidence, is happily independent of many of the controversies which perplex the science of the ultimate constitution of the human mind, and is under no necessity of pushing the analysis of mental phenomenon to that extreme limit which alone ought to s atisfy a metaphysician. 206 I premise, then, that when in the course of this inquiry I speak of the cause of any phenomenon, I do not mean a cause which is not itself a phenomenon; I make no research into the ultimate or ontological cause of any thing. To adopt a distinction familiar in the writings of the Scotch metaphysicians, and especially of Reid, the causes with which I concern myself are not efficient , but physical causes. They are causes in that sense alone, in which one physical fact is said to be the cause of another. Of the efficient causes of phenomena, or whether any such causes exist at all, I am not called upon to give an opinion. The notion of causation is deemed, by the schools of metaphysics most in vogue at the present moment, to imply a myste rious and most powerful tie, such as can not, or at least does not, exist between any physical fact and that other physical fact on which it is invariably consequent, and which is popularly termed its cause: and thence is deduced the supposed necessity of ascending higher, into the essences and inherent constitution of things, to find the true cause, the cause which is not only followed by, but actually produces, the effect. No such necessity exists for the purposes of the present inquiry, nor will any such doctrine be found in the following pages. The only notion of a cause, which the theory of induction requires, is such a notion as can be gained from experience. The Law of Causation, the recognition of which is the main pillar of inductive science, is but the familiar truth, that invariability of succession is found by observation to obtain between every fact in nature and some other fact which has preceded it; independently of all considerations respecting the ultimate mode of production of phenomena, and of every other question regarding the nature of Things in themselves. Between the phenomena, then, which exist at any instant, and the phenomena which exist at the succeeding instant, there is an invariable order of succession; and, as we said in speaking of the general uniformity of the course of nature, this web is composed of separate fibres; this collective order is made up of particular sequences, obtaining invariably among the separate parts. To certain facts, certain facts always do, and, as we believe, will continue to, succeed. The invariable antecedent is termed the cause; the invariable consequent, the effect. And the universality of the law of causation consists in this, that every consequent is connected in this manner with some particular an tecedent, or set of antecedents. Let the fact be what it may, if it has begun to exist, it was preceded by some fact or facts, with which it is invariably connected. For every event there exists some combination of objects or events, some given concurrence of circumstances, positive and negative, the occurrence of which is always followed by that phenomenon. We may not have found out what this concurrence of circumstances may be; but we never doubt that there is such a one, and that it never occurs without having the phenomenon in question as its effect or consequence. On the universality of this truth depends the possibility of reducing the inductive process to rules. The undoubted assurance we have that there is a law to be found if we only knew how to fin d it, will be seen presently to be the source from which the canons of the Inductive Logic derive their validity. 3. It is seldom, if ever, between a consequent and a single antecedent, that this invariable sequence subsists. It is usually between a cons equent and the sum of several antecedents; the concurrence of all of them being requisite to produce, that is, to be certain of being followed by, the consequent. In such cases it is very common to single out one only of the antecedents under the denomination of Cause, calling the others merely Conditions. Thus, if a person eats of a particular dish, and dies in consequence, that is, would not have died if he had not eaten of it, people would be apt to say that eating of that dish was the cause of his death. There needs not, however, be any invariable connection between eating of the dish and death; but there certainly is, among the circumstances which took place, some combination or other on which death is invariably consequent: as, for instance, the act of eating of the dish, combined with a particular bodily constitution, a particular state of present health, and perhaps even a 207 certain state of the atmosphere; the whole of which circumstances perhaps constituted in this particular case the conditions of th e phenomenon, or, in other words, the set of antecedents which determined it, and but for which it would not have happened. The real Cause, is the whole of these antecedents; and we have, philosophically speaking, no right to give the name of cause to one of them, exclusively of the others. What, in the case we have supposed, disguises the incorrectness of the expression, is this: that the various conditions, except the single one of eating the food, were not events (that is, instantaneous changes, or succe ssions of instantaneous changes) but states , possessing more or less of permanency; and might therefore have preceded the effect by an indefinite length of duration, for want of the event which was requisite to complete the required concurrence of conditions: while as soon as that event, eating the food, occurs, no other cause is waited for, but the effect begins immediately to take place: and hence the appearance is presented of a more immediate and close connection between the effect and that one antecedent, than between the effect and the remaining conditions. But though we may think proper to give the name of cause to that one condition, the fulfillment of which completes the tale, and brings about the effect without further delay; this condition has really no closer relation to the effect than any of the other conditions has. All the conditions were equally indispensable to the production of the consequent; and the statement of the cause is incomplete, unless in some shape or other we introduce them all. A man takes mercury, goes out-of-doors, and catches cold. We say, perhaps, that the cause of his taking cold was exposure to the air. It is clear, however, that his having taken mercury may have been a necessary condition of his catching cold; and though it might consist with usage to say that the cause of his attack was exposure to the air, to be accurate we ought to say that the cause was exposure to the air while under the effect of mercury. If we do not, when aiming at accuracy, enumerate all the condi tions, it is only because some of them will in most cases be understood without being expressed, or because for the purpose in view they may without detriment be overlooked. For example, when we say, the cause of a man's death was that his foot slipped in climbing a ladder, we omit as a thing unnecessary to be stated the circumstance of his weight, though quite as indispensable a condition of the effect which took place. When we say that the assent of the crown to a bill makes it law, we mean that the assen t, being never given until all the other conditions are fulfilled, makes up the sum of the conditions, though no one now regards it as the principal one. When the decision of a legislative assembly has been determined by the casting vote of the chairman, we sometimes say that this one person was the cause of all the effects which resulted from the enactment. Yet we do not really suppose that his single vote contributed more to the result than that of any other person who voted in the affirmative; but, for the purpose we have in view, which is to insist on his individual responsibility, the part which any other person had in the transaction is not material. In all these instances the fact which was dignified with the name of cause, was the one condition which came last into existence. But it must not be supposed that in the employment of the term this or any other rule is always adhered to. Nothing can better show the absence of any scientific ground for the distinction between the cause of a phenomenon and it s conditions, than the capricious manner in which we select from among the conditions that which we choose to denominate the cause. However numerous the conditions may be, there is hardly any of them which may not, according to the purpose of our immediate discourse, obtain that nominal pre-eminence. This will be seen by analyzing the conditions of some one familiar phenomenon. For example, a stone thrown into water falls to the bottom. What are the conditions of this event? In the first place there must be a stone, and water, and the stone must be thrown into the water; but these suppositions forming part of the enunciation of the 208 phenomenon itself, to include them also among the conditions would be a vicious tautology; and this class of conditions, therefore, have never received the name of cause from any but the Aristotelians, by whom they were called the material cause, causa materialis . The next condition is, there must be an earth: and accordingly it is often said, that the fall of a stone is caused by the earth; or by a power or property of the earth, or a force exerted by the earth, all of which are merely roundabout ways of saying that it is caused by the earth; or, lastly, the earth's attraction; which also is only a technical mode of saying that the earth causes the motion, with the additional particularity that the motion is toward the earth, which is not a character of the cause, but of the effect. Let us now pass to another condition. It is not enough that the earth should exist; the body must be within that distance from it, in which the earth's attraction preponderates over that of any other body. Accordingly we may say, and the expression would be confessedly correct, that the cause of the stone's falling is its being within the sphere of the ea rth's attraction. We proceed to a further condition. The stone is immersed in water: it is therefore a condition of its reaching the ground, that its specific gravity exceed that of the surrounding fluid, or in other words that it surpass in weight an equal volume of water. Accordingly any one would be acknowledged to speak correctly who said, that the cause of the stone's going to the bottom is its exceeding in specific gravity the fluid in which it is immersed. Thus we see that each and every condition of the phenomenon may be taken in its turn, and, with equal propriety in common parlance, but with equal impropriety in scientific discourse, may be spoken of as if it were the entire cause. And in practice, that particular condition is usually styled the cause, whose share in the matter is superficially the most conspicuous, or whose requisiteness to the production of the effect we happen to be insisting on at the moment. So great is the force of this last consideration, that it sometimes induces us to give the name of cause even to one of the negative conditions. We say, for example, The army was surprised because the sentinel was off his post. But since the sentinel's absence was not what created the enemy, or put the soldiers asleep, how did it cause them to be surprised? All that is really meant is, that the event would not have happened if he had been at his duty. His being off his post was no producing cause, but the mere absence of a preventing cause: it was simply equivalent to his non- existence. From nothing, from a mere negation, no consequences can proceed. All effects are connected, by the law of causation, with some set of positive conditions; negative ones, it is true, being almost always required in addition. In other words, every fact or phenomenon which has a beginning, invariably arises when some certain combination of positive facts exists, provided certain other positive facts do not exist. There is, no doubt, a tendency (which our first example, that of death from taking a particular food, s ufficiently illustrates) to associate the idea of causation with the proximate antecedent event , rather than with any of the antecedent states , or permanent facts, which may happen also to be conditions of the phenomenon; the reason being that the event not only exists, but begins to exist immediately previous; while the other conditions may have pre-existed for an indefinite time. And this tendency shows itself very visibly in the different logical fictions which are resorted to, even by men of science, to avoid the necessity of giving the name of cause to any thing which had existed for an indeterminate length of time before the effect. Thus, rather than say that the earth causes the fall of bodies, they ascribe it to a force exerted by the earth, or an attraction by the earth, abstractions which they can represent to themselves as exhausted by each effort, and therefore constituting at each successive instant a fresh fact, simultaneous with, or only immediately preceding, the effect. Inasmuch as th e coming of the circumstance which completes the assemblage of conditions, is a change or event, it thence happens that an event is always the antecedent in closest apparent proximity to the consequent: and this may account for the illusion which disposes us 209 to look upon the proximate event as standing more peculiarly in the position of a cause than any of the antecedent states. But even this peculiarity, of being in closer proximity to the effect than any other of its conditions, is, as we have already see n, far from being necessary to the common notion of a cause; with which notion, on the contrary, any one of the conditions, either positive or negative, is found, on occasion, completely to accord. P113F114 P 114 The assertion, that any and every one of the conditions of a phenomenon may be and is, on some occasions and for some purposes, spoken of as the cause, has been disputed by an intelligent reviewer of this work in the Prospective Review (the predecessor of the justly esteemed National Review ), who maint ains that we always apply the word cause rather to that element in the antecedents which exercises force , and which would tend at all times to produce the same or a similar effect to that which, under certain conditions, it would actually produce. And he says, that every one would feel the expression, that the cause of a surprise was the sentinel's being off his post, to be incorrect; but that the allurement or force which drew him off his post, might be so called, because in doing so it removed a resisting power which would have prevented the surprise. I can not think that it would be wrong to say, that the event took place because the sentinel was absent, and yet right to say that it took place because he was bribed to be absent. Since the only direc t effect of the bribe was his absence, the bribe could be called the remote cause of the surprise, only on the supposition that the absence was the proximate cause; nor does it seem to me that any one (who had not a theory to support) would use the one expression and reject the other. The reviewer observes, that when a person dies of poison, his possession of bodily organs is a necessary condition, but that no one would ever speak of it as the cause. I admit the fact; but I believe the reason to be, that the occasion could never arise for so speaking of it; for when in the inaccuracy of common discourse we are led to speak of some one condition of a phenomenon as its cause, the condition so spoken of is always one which it is at least possible that the heare r may require to be informed of. The possession of bodily organs is a known condition, and to give that as the answer, when asked the cause of a person's death, would not supply the information sought. Once conceive that a doubt could exist as to his having bodily organs, or that he were to be compared with some being who had them not, and cases may be imagined in which it might be said that his possession of them was the cause of his death. If Faust and Mephistopheles together took poison, it might be said that Faust died because he was a human being, and had a body, while Mephistopheles survived because he was a spirit. It is for the same reason that no one (as the reviewer remarks) calls the cause of a leap, the muscles or sinews of the body, though they are necessary conditions; nor the cause of a self -sacrifice, the knowledge which was necessary for it; nor the cause of writing a book, that a man has time for it, which is a necessary condition. These conditions (besides that they are antecedent states , and not proximate antecedent events , and are therefore never the conditions in closest apparent proximity to the effect) are all of them so obviously implied, that it is hardly possible there should exist that necessity for insisting on them, which alone gives occasion for speaking of a single condition as if it were the cause. Wherever this necessity exists in regard to some one condition, and does not exist in regard to any other, I conceive that it is consistent with usage, when scientific accuracy is n ot aimed at, to apply the name cause to that one condition. If the only condition which can be supposed to be unknown is a negative condition, the negative condition may be spoken of as the cause. It might be said that a person died for want of medical advice: though this would not be likely to be said, unless the person was already understood to be ill, and in order to indicate that this negative circumstance was what made the illness fatal, and not the weakness of his constitution, or the original virulence of the disease. It might be said that a person was drowned because he could not swim; the positive condition, namely, that he fell into the water, being already implied in the word drowned. And here let me remark, that his falling into the water is in this case the only positive condition: all the conditions not expressly or virtually included in this (as that he could not swim, that nobody helped him, and so forth) are negative. Yet, if it were simply said that the cause of a man's death was falling int o the water, there would be quite as great a sense of impropriety in the expression, as there would be if it were said that the cause was his inability to swim; because, though the one condition is positive and the other negative, it would be felt that neither of them was sufficient, without the other, to produce death. With regard to the assertion that nothing is termed the cause, except the element which exerts active force; I waive the question as to the meaning of active force, and accepting the phrase in its popular sense, I revert to a former example, and I ask, would it be more agreeable to custom to say that a man fell because his foot slipped in climbing a ladder, or that he fell because of his weight? for his weight, and not the motion of his foot, was the active force which determined his fall. If a person walking out in a frosty day, stumbled and fell, it might be said that he stumbled because the ground was slippery, or because he was not sufficiently careful: but few people, I suppose, would say, that he stumbled because he walked. Yet the only active force concerned was that which he 210 The cause, then, philosophically speaking, is the sum total of the conditions, positive and negative taken together; the whole of the contingencies of every description, which being realized, the consequent invariably follows. The negative conditions, however, of any phenomenon, a special enumeration of which would generally be very prolix, may be all summed up under one head, namely, the absence of preventing or counteracting causes. The convenience of this mode of expression is mainly grounded on the fact, that the effects of any cause in counteracting anothe r cause may in most cases be, with strict scientific exactness, regarded as a mere extension of its own proper and separate effects. If gravity retards the upward motion of a projectile, and deflects it into a parabolic trajectory, it produces, in so doing, the very same kind of effect, and even (as mathematicians know) the same quantity of effect, as it does in its ordinary operation of causing the fall of bodies when simply deprived of their support. If an alkaline solution mixed with an acid destroys its sourness, and prevents it from reddening vegetable blues, it is because the specific effect of the alkali is to combine with the acid, and form a compound with totally different qualities. This property, which causes of all descriptions possess, of preventing the effects of other causes by virtue (for the most part) of the same laws according to which they produce their own, P114F115 P enables us, by establishing the general axiom that all causes are liable to be counteracted in their effects by one another, to dispense with the consideration of negative conditions entirely, and limit the notion of cause to the assemblage of the positive conditions of the phenomenon: one negative condition invariably understood, and the same in all instances (namely, the absence of counteracting causes) being sufficient, along with the sum of the positive conditions, to make up the whole set of circumstances on which the phenomenon is dependent. 4. Among the positive conditions, as we have seen that there are some to which, in common parlance, the term cause is more readily and frequently awarded, so there are others to which it is, in ordinary circumstances, refused. In most cases of causation a distinction is commonly drawn between something which acts, and some other thing which is acted upon; between an agent and a patient . Both of these, it would be universally allowed, are conditions of the phenomenon; but it would be thought absurd to call the latter the cause, that title being reserved for the former. The distinction, however, vanishes on examination, or rather is found to be only verbal; arising from an incident of mere expression, namely, that the object said to exerted in walking: the others were mere negative conditions; but they happened to be the only ones which there could be any necessity to state; for he walked, most likely, in exactly his usual manner, and the negative conditions made all the difference. Again, if a person were asked why the army of Xerxes defeated that of Leonidas, he would probably say, because they were a thousand times the number; but I do not think he would say, it was because they fought, though that was the element of active force. To borrow another example, used by Mr. Grove and by Mr. Baden Powell, the opening of flood- gates is said to be the cause of the flow of water; yet the active force i s exerted by the water itself, and opening the flood- gates merely supplies a negative condition. The reviewer adds, There are some conditions absolutely passive, and yet absolutely necessary to physical phenomena, viz., the relations of space and time; an d to these no one ever applies the word cause without being immediately arrested by those who hear him. Even from this statement I am compelled to dissent. Few persons would feel it incongruous to say (for example) that a secret became known because it wa s spoken of when A. B. was within hearing; which is a condition of space: or that the cause why one of two particular trees is taller than the other, is that it has been longer planted; which is a condition of time. 115 There are a few exceptions; for there are some properties of objects which seem to be purely preventive; as the property of opaque bodies, by which they intercept the passage of light. This, as far as we are able to understand it, appears an instance not of one cause counteracting another by t he same law whereby it produces its own effects, but of an agency which manifests itself in no other way than in defeating the effects of another agency. If we knew on what other relations to light, or on what peculiarities of structure, opacity depends, w e might find that this is only an apparent, not a real, exception to the general proposition in the text. In any case it needs not affect the practical application. The formula which includes all the negative conditions of an effect in the single one of the absence of counteracting causes, is not violated by such cases as this; though, if all counteracting agencies were of this description, there would be no purpose served by employing the formula. 211 be acted upon, and which is considered as the scene in which the effect takes place, is commonly included in the phrase by which the effect is spoken of, so that if it were also reckoned as part of the cause, the seeming incongruity would arise of its being supposed to cause itself. In the instance which we have already had, of falling bodies, the question was thus put: What is the cause which makes a stone fall? and if the answer had been the stone itself, the expression would have been in apparent contradiction to the meaning of the word cause. The stone, therefore, is conceived as the patient, and the earth (o r, according to the common and most unphilosophical practice, an occult quality of the earth) is represented as the agent or cause. But that there is nothing fundamental in the distinction may be seen from this, that it is quite possible to conceive the stone as causing its own fall, provided the language employed be such as to save the mere verbal incongruity. We might say that the stone moves toward the earth by the properties of the matter composing it; and according to this mode of presenting the phenomenon, the stone itself might without impropriety be called the agent; though, to save the established doctrine of the inactivity of matter, men usually prefer here also to ascribe the effect to an occult quality, and say that the cause is not the stone its elf, but the weight or gravitation of the stone. Those who have contended for a radical distinction between agent and patient, have generally conceived the agent as that which causes some state of, or some change in the state of, another object which is ca lled the patient. But a little reflection will show that the license we assume of speaking of phenomena as states of the various objects which take part in them (an artifice of which so much use has been made by some philosophers, Brown in particular, for the apparent explanation of phenomena), is simply a sort of logical fiction, useful sometimes as one among several modes of expression, but which should never be supposed to be the enunciation of a scientific truth. Even those attributes of an object which might seem with greatest propriety to be called states of the object itself, its sensible qualities, its color, hardness, shape, and the like, are in reality (as no one has pointed out more clearly than Brown himself) phenomena of causation, in which the substance is distinctly the agent, or producing cause, the patient being our own organs, and those of other sentient beings. What we call states of objects, are always sequences into which the objects enter, generally as antecedents or causes; and things are never more active than in the production of those phenomena in which they are said to be acted upon. Thus, in the example of a stone falling to the earth, according to the theory of gravitation the stone is as much an agent as the earth, which not only attracts, but is itself attracted by, the stone. In the case of a sensation produced in our organs, the laws of our organization, and even those of our minds, are as directly operative in determining the effect produced, as the laws of the outward object. Though we call prussic acid the agent of a person's death, the whole of the vital and organic properties of the patient are as actively instrumental as the poison, in the chain of effects which so rapidly terminates his sentient existence. In the process of education, we may call the teacher the agent, and the scholar only the material acted upon; yet in truth all the facts which pre- existed in the scholar's mind exert either co-operating or counteracting agencies in relation to the teacher's efforts. It is not light alone which is the agent in vision, but light coupled with the active properties of the eye and brain, and with those of the visible object. The distinction between agent and patient is merely verbal: patients are always agents; in a great propo rtion, indeed, of all natural phenomena, they are so to such a degree as to react forcibly on the causes which acted upon them: and even when this is not the case, they contribute, in the same manner as any of the other conditions, to the production of the effect of which they are vulgarly treated as the mere theatre. All the positive conditions of a phenomenon are alike agents, alike active; and in any expression of the cause which professes to be complete, none of them can with reason be excluded, except such as have already been implied in the words 212 used for describing the effect; nor by including even these would there be incurred any but a merely verbal impropriety. 5. There is a case of causation which calls for separate notice, as it possesses a peculiar feature, and presents a greater degree of complexity than the common case. It often happens that the effect, or one of the effects, of a cause, is, not to produce of itself a certain phenomenon, but to fit something else for producing it. In other wo rds, there is a case of causation in which the effect is to invest an object with a certain property. When sulphur, charcoal, and nitre are put together in certain proportions and in a certain manner, the effect is, not an explosion, but that the mixture acquires a property by which, in given circumstances, it will explode. The various causes, natural and artificial, which educate the human body or the human mind, have for their principal effect, not to make the body or mind immediately do any thing, but to endow it with certain propertiesin other words, to give assurance that in given circumstances certain results will take place in it, or as consequences of it. Physiological agencies often have for the chief part of their operation to predispose the const itution to some mode of action. To take a simpler instance than all these: putting a coat of white paint upon a wall does not merely produce in those who see it done, the sensation of white; it confers on the wall the permanent property of giving that kind of sensation. Regarded in reference to the sensation, the putting on of the paint is a condition of a condition; it is a condition of the wall's causing that particular fact. The wall may have been painted years ago, but it has acquired a property which has lasted till now, and will last longer; the antecedent condition necessary to enable the wall to become in its turn a condition, has been fulfilled once for all. In a case like this, where the immediate consequent in the sequence is a property produced in an object, no one now supposes the property to be a substantive entity inherent in the object. What has been produced is what, in other language, may be called a state of preparation in an object for producing an effect. The ingredients of the gunpowder have been brought into a state of preparation for exploding as soon as the other conditions of an explosion shall have occurred. In the case of the gunpowder, this state of preparation consists in a certain collocation of its particles relatively to one another. In the example of the wall, it consists in a new collocation of two things relatively to each other the wall and the paint. In the example of the molding influences on the human mind, its being a collocation at all is only conjectural; for, even on the materialistic hypothesis, it would remain to be proved that the increased facility with which the brain sums up a column of figures when it has been long trained to calculation, is the result of a permanent new arrangement of some of its material particles. We must, therefore, content ourselves with what we know, and must include among the effects of causes, the capacities given to objects of being causes of other effects. This capacity is not a real thing existing in the objects; it is but a name for our conviction that they will act in a particular manner when certain new circumstances arise. We may invest this assurance of future events with a fictitious objective existence, by calling it a state of the object. But unless the state consists, as in the case of the gunpowder it does, in a collocation of particles, it expresses no present fact; it is but the contingent future fact brought back under another name. It may be thought that this form of causation requires us to admit an exception to the doct rine that the conditions of a phenomenonthe antecedents required for calling it into existence must all be found among the facts immediately, not remotely, preceding its commencement. But what we have arrived at is not a correction, it is only an explanation, of that doctrine. In the enumeration of the conditions required for the occurrence of any phenomenon, it always has to be included that objects must be present, possessed of given properties. It is a condition of the phenomenon explosion that an object should be present, of one or other of certain kinds, which for that reason are called explosive. The presence of one of these objects is a 213 condition immediately precedent to the explosion. The condition which is not immediately precedent is the cause whi ch produced, not the explosion, but the explosive property. The conditions of the explosion itself were all present immediately before it took place, and the general law, therefore, remains intact. 6. It now remains to advert to a distinction which is of first -rate importance both for clearing up the notion of cause, and for obviating a very specious objection often made against the view which we have taken of the subject. When we define the cause of any thing (in the only sense in which the present inquiry has any concern with causes) to be the antecedent which it invariably follows, we do not use this phrase as exactly synonymous with the antecedent which it invariably has followed in our past experience. Such a mode of conceiving causation would be liable to the objection very plausibly urged by Dr. Reid, namely, that according to this doctrine night must be the cause of day, and day the cause of night; since these phenomena have invariably succeeded one another from the beginning of the world. But it is necessary to our using the word cause, that we should believe not only that the antecedent always has been followed by the consequent, but that, as long as the present constitution of things P115F116 P endures, it always will be so. And this would not be true of day and night. We do not believe that night will be followed by day under all imaginable circumstances, but only that it will be so provided the sun rises above the horizon. If the sun ceased to rise, which, for aught we know, may be perfectly compatibl e with the general laws of matter, night would be, or might be, eternal. On the other hand, if the sun is above the horizon, his light not extinct, and no opaque body between us and him, we believe firmly that unless a change takes place in the properties of matter, this combination of antecedents will be followed by the consequent, day; that if the combination of antecedents could be indefinitely prolonged, it would be always day; and that if the same combination had always existed, it would always have been day, quite independently of night as a previous condition. Therefore is it that we do not call night the cause, nor even a condition, of day. The existence of the sun (or some such luminous body), and there being no opaque medium in a straight line P116F117 P between that body and the part of the earth where we are situated, are the sole conditions; and the union of these, without the addition of any superfluous circumstance, constitutes the cause. This is what writers mean when they say that the notion of cause involves the idea of necessity. If there be any meaning which confessedly belongs to the term necessity, it is unconditionalness . That which is necessary, that which must be, means that which will be, whatever supposition we may make in regard to all other things. The succession of day and night evidently is not necessary in this sense. It is conditional on the occurrence of other antecedents. That which will be followed by a given consequent when, and only when, some third circumstance also exists, is not the cause, even though no case should ever have occurred in which the phenomenon took place without it. Invariable sequence, therefore, is not synonymous with causation, unless the sequence, besides being invariable, is unconditional. There are sequences, as uniform in past experience as any others whatever, which yet we do not regard as cases of causation, but as conjunctions in some sort accidental. Such, to an accurate thinker, is that of day and night. The one might 116 I mean by this expression, the ultimate laws of nature (whatever they may be) as distinguished from the derivative laws and from the collocations. The diurnal revolution of the earth (for example) is not a part of the constitution of things, because nothing can be so called which might possibly be terminated or altered by natural causes. 117 I use the words straight line for brevity and simplicity. In reality the line in question is not exactly straight, for, from the effect of refraction, we actually see the sun for a short interval during which the opaque mass of the earth is interposed in a direct line between the sun and our eyes; thus realizing, though but to a limited extent, the coveted desideratum of seeing round a corner. 214 have existed for any length of time, and the other not have followed the sooner for its existence; it follows only if certain other antecedents exist; and where those antecedents existed, it would follow in any case. No one, probably, ever called night the cause of day; mankind must so soon have arrived at the very obvious generalization, that the state of general illumination which we call day would follow from the presence of a sufficiently luminous body, whether darkness had preceded or not. We may define, therefore, the cause of a phenomenon, to be the antecedent, or the concurrence of antecedents, on which it is invariably and unconditionally consequent. Or if we adopt the convenient modification of the meaning of the word cause, which confines it to the assemblage of positive conditions without the negative, then instead of unconditionally, we must say, subject to no other than negative conditions. To some it may appear, that the sequence between night and day being invariable in our experience, we have as much ground in this case as e xperience can give in any case, for recognizing the two phenomena as cause and effect; and that to say that more is necessary to require a belief that the succession is unconditional, or, in other words, that it would be invariable under all changes of cir cumstances, is to acknowledge in causation an element of belief not derived from experience. The answer to this is, that it is experience itself which teaches us that one uniformity of sequence is conditional and another unconditional. When we judge that the succession of night and day is a derivative sequence, depending on something else, we proceed on grounds of experience. It is the evidence of experience which convinces us that day could equally exist without being followed by night, and that night could equally exist without being followed by day. To say that these beliefs are not generated by our mere observation of sequence, P117F118 P is to forget that twice in every twenty - four hours, when the sky is clear, we have an experimentum crucis that the cause of day is the sun. We have an experimental knowledge of the sun which justifies us on experimental grounds in concluding, that if the sun were always above the horizon there would be day, though there had been no night, and that if the sun were always below t he horizon there would be night, though there had been no day. We thus know from experience that the succession of night and day is not unconditional. Let me add, that the antecedent which is only conditionally invariable, is not the invariable antecedent. Though a fact may, in experience, have always been followed by another fact, yet if the remainder of our experience teaches us that it might not always be so followed, or if the experience itself is such as leaves room for a possibility that the known cas es may not correctly represent all possible cases, the hitherto invariable antecedent is not accounted the cause; but why? Because we are not sure that it is the invariable antecedent. Such cases of sequence as that of day and night not only do not contradict the doctrine which resolves causation into invariable sequence, but are necessarily implied in that doctrine. It is evident, that from a limited number of unconditional sequences, there will result a much greater number of conditional ones. Certain causes being given, that is, certain antecedents which are unconditionally followed by certain consequents; the mere co- existence of these causes will give rise to an unlimited number of additional uniformities. If two causes exist together, the effects of both will exist together; and if many causes co- exist, these causes (by what we shall term hereafter the intermixture of their laws) will give rise to new effects, accompanying or succeeding one another in some particular order, which order will be invariable while the causes continue to co -exist, but no longer. The motion of the earth in a given orbit round the sun, is a series of changes which follow one another as antecedents and consequents, and will continue to do so while the sun's attraction, and the force with which 118 Second Burnett Prize Essay , by Principal Tulloch, p. 25. 215 the earth tends to advance in a direct line through space, continue to co- exist in the same quantities as at present. But vary either of these causes, and this particular succession of motions would cease to take place. The series of the earth's motions, therefore, though a case of sequence invariable within the limits of human experience, is not a case of causation. It is not unconditional. This distinction between the relations of succession which, so far as we know, are unconditional, and those relations, whether of succession or of co-existence, which, like the earth's motions, or the succession of day and night, depend on the existence or on the co-existence of other antecedent facts corresponds to the great division which Dr. Whe well and other writers have made of the field of science, into the investigation of what they term the Laws of Phenomena, and the investigation of causes; a phraseology, as I conceive, not philosophically sustainable, inasmuch as the ascertainment of cause s, such causes as the human faculties can ascertain, namely, causes which are themselves phenomena, is, therefore, merely the ascertainment of other and more universal Laws of Phenomena. And let me here observe, that Dr. Whewell, and in some degree even Sir John Herschel, seem to have misunderstood the meaning of those writers who, like M. Comt, limit the sphere of scientific investigation to Laws of Phenomena, and speak of the inquiry into causes as vain and futile. The causes which M. Comt designates as inaccessible, are efficient causes. The investigation of physical, as opposed to efficient, causes (including the study of all the active forces in Nature, considered as facts of observation) is as important a part of M. Comt's conception of science as o f Dr. Whewell's. His objection to the word cause is a mere matter of nomenclature, in which, as a matter of nomenclature, I consider him to be entirely wrong. Those, it is justly remarked by Mr. Bailey, P118F119 P who, like M. Comt, object to designate events as causes, are objecting without any real ground to a mere but extremely convenient generalization, to a very useful common name, the employment of which involves, or needs involve, no particular theory. To which it may be added, that by rejecting this form of expression, M. Comt leaves himself without any term for marking a distinction which, however incorrectly expressed, is not only real, but is one of the fundamental distinctions in science; indeed it is on this alone, as we shall hereafter find, that the possibility rests of framing a rigorous Canon of Induction. And as things left without a name are apt to be forgotten, a Canon of that description is not one of the many benefits which the philosophy of Induction has received from M. Comt's great powe rs. 7. Does a cause always stand with its effect in the relation of antecedent and consequent? Do we not often say of two simultaneous facts that they are cause and effect as when we say that fire is the cause of warmth, the sun and moisture the cause of vegetation, and the like? Since a cause does not necessarily perish because its effect has been produced, the two things do very generally co- exist; and there are some appearances, and some common expressions, seeming to imply not only that causes may, but that they must, be contemporaneous with their effects. Cessante caus cessat et effectus , has been a dogma of the schools: the necessity for the continued existence of the cause in order to the continuance of the effect, seems to have been once a general ly received doctrine. Kepler's numerous attempts to account for the motions of the heavenly bodies on mechanical principles, were rendered abortive by his always supposing that the agency which set those bodies in motion must continue to operate in order to keep up the motion which it at first produced. Yet there were at all times many familiar instances of the continuance of effects, long after their causes had ceased. A coup de soleil gives a person brain-fever: will the fever go off as soon as he is moved out of the sunshine? A sword is run through his body: must the sword remain in his 119 Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind , First Series, p. 219. 216 body in order that he may continue dead? A plowshare once made, remains a plowshare, without any continuance of heating and hammering, and even after the man who heated and hammered it has been gathered to his fathers. On the other hand, the pressure which forces up the mercury in an exhausted tube must be continued in order to sustain it in the tube. This (it may be replied) is because another force is acting without intermission, the force of gravity, which would restore it to its level, unless counterpoised by a force equally constant. But again: a tight bandage causes pain, which pain will sometimes go off as soon as the bandage is removed. The illumination which the sun diffuses over the earth ceases when the sun goes down. There is, therefore, a distinction to be drawn. The conditions which are necessary for the first production of a phenomenon, are occasionally also necessary for its continuance; though more commonly its continuance requires no condition except negative ones. Most things, once produced, continue as they are, until something changes or destroys them; but some require the permanent presence of the agencies which produced them at first. These may, if we pl ease, be considered as instantaneous phenomena, requiring to be renewed at each instant by the cause by which they were at first generated. Accordingly, the illumination of any given point of space has always been looked upon as an instantaneous fact, which perishes and is perpetually renewed as long as the necessary conditions subsist. If we adopt this language we avoid the necessity of admitting that the continuance of the cause is ever required to maintain the effect. We may say, it is not required to maintain, but to reproduce, the effect, or else to counteract some force tending to destroy it. And this may be a convenient phraseology. But it is only a phraseology. The fact remains, that in some cases (though those are a minority) the continuance of the conditions which produced an effect is necessary to the continuance of the effect. As to the ulterior question, whether it is strictly necessary that the cause, or assemblage of conditions, should precede, by ever so short an instant, the production of the effect (a question raised and argued with much ingenuity by Sir John Herschel in an Essay already quoted), P119F120 P the inquiry is of no consequence for our present purpose. There certainly are cases in which the effect follows without any interval perceptible by our faculties; and when there is an interval, we can not tell by how many intermediate links imperceptible to us that interval may really be filled up. But even granting that an effect may commence simultaneously with its cause, the view I have taken of causation is in no way practically affected. Whether the cause and its effect be necessarily successive or not, the beginning of a phenomenon is what implies a cause, and causation is the law of the succession of phenomena. If these axioms be granted, we can afford, though I see no necessity for doing so, to drop the words antecedent and consequent as applied to cause and effect. I have no objection to define a cause, the assemblage of phenomena, which occurring, some other phenomenon invariably commences, or has its origin. Whether the effect coincides in point of time with, or immediately follows, the hindmost of its conditions, is immaterial. At all events, it does not precede it; and when we are in doubt, between two co-existent phenomena, which is cause and which effect, we rightly deem the question solved if we can ascertain which of them preceded the other. 8. It continually happens that several different phenomena, which are not in the slightest degree dependent or conditional on one another, are found all to depend, as the phrase is, on one and the same agent; in other words, one and the same phenomenon is seen to be followed by several sorts of effects quite heterogeneous, but which go on simultaneously one with another; provided, of course, that all other conditions requisite for each of them also exist. 120 Essays , pp. 206- 208. 217 Thus, the sun produces the celestial motions; it produces daylight, and it produces heat. The earth causes the fall of heavy bodies, and it also, in its capacity of a great magnet, causes the phenomena of the magnetic needle. A crystal of galena causes the sensations of hardness, of weight, of cubical form, of gray color, and many others between which we can trace no interdependence. The purpose to which the phraseology of Properties and Powers is s pecially adapted, is the expression of this sort of cases. When the same phenomenon is followed (either subject or not to the presence of other conditions) by effects of different and dissimilar orders, it is usual to say that each different sort of effect is produced by a different property of the cause. Thus we distinguish the attractive or gravitative property of the earth, and its magnetic property: the gravitative, luminiferous, and calorific properties of the sun: the color, shape, weight, and hardness of a crystal. These are mere phrases, which explain nothing, and add nothing to our knowledge of the subject; but, considered as abstract names denoting the connection between the different effects produced and the object which produces them, they are a very powerful instrument of abridgment, and of that acceleration of the process of thought which abridgment accomplishes. This class of considerations leads to a conception which we shall find to be of great importance, that of a Permanent Cause, or original natural agent. There exist in nature a number of permanent causes, which have subsisted ever since the human race has been in existence, and for an indefinite and probably an enormous length of time previous. The sun, the earth, and planets, with their various constituents, air, water, and other distinguishable substances, whether simple or compound, of which nature is made up, are such Permanent Causes. These have existed, and the effects or consequences which they were fitted to produce have taken place (as often as the other conditions of the production met), from the very beginning of our experience. But we can give no account of the origin of the Permanent Causes themselves. Why these particular natural agents existed originally and no others, or why they are commingled in such and such proportions, and distributed in such and such a manner throughout space, is a question we can not answer. More than this: we can discover nothing regular in the distribution itself; we can reduce it to no uniformity, to no law. There are no means by which, from the distribution of these causes or agents in one part of space, we could conjecture whether a similar distribution prevails in another. The co- existence, therefore, of Primeval Causes ranks, to us, among merely casual concurrences: and all those sequences or co -existences among the effects of several such causes, which, though invariable while those causes co -exist, would, if the co- existence terminated, terminate along with it, we do not class as cases of causat ion, or laws of nature: we can only calculate on finding these sequences or co- existences where we know by direct evidence, that the natural agents on the properties of which they ultimately depend, are distributed in the requisite manner. These Permanent Causes are not always objects; they are sometimes events, that is to say, periodical cycles of events, that being the only mode in which events can possess the property of permanence. Not only, for instance, is the earth itself a permanent cause, or primitive natural agent, but the earth's rotation is so too: it is a cause which has produced, from the earliest period (by the aid of other necessary conditions), the succession of day and night, the ebb and flow of the sea, and many other effects, while, as we can assign no cause (except conjecturally) for the rotation itself, it is entitled to be ranked as a primeval cause. It is, however, only the origin of the rotation which is mysterious to us: once begun, its continuance is accounted for by the first law o f motion (that of the permanence of rectilinear motion once impressed) combined with the gravitation of the parts of the earth toward one another. All phenomena without exception which begin to exist, that is, all except the primeval causes, are effects ei ther immediate or remote of those primitive facts, or of some combination of 218 them. There is no Thing produced, no event happening, in the known universe, which is not connected by a uniformity, or invariable sequence, with some one or more of the phenomena which preceded it; insomuch that it will happen again as often as those phenomena occur again, and as no other phenomenon having the character of a counteracting cause shall co-exist. These antecedent phenomena, again, were connected in a similar manner w ith some that preceded them; and so on, until we reach, as the ultimate step attainable by us, either the properties of some one primeval cause, or the conjunction of several. The whole of the phenomena of nature were therefore the necessary, or, in other words, the unconditional, consequences of some former collocation of the Permanent Causes. The state of the whole universe at any instant, we believe to be the consequence of its state at the previous instant; insomuch that one who knew all the agents whic h exist at the present moment, their collocation in space, and all their properties, in other words, the laws of their agency, could predict the whole subsequent history of the universe, at least unless some new volition of a power capable of controlling the universe should supervene. P120F121 P And if any particular state of the entire universe could ever recur a second time, all subsequent states would return too, and history would, like a circulating decimal of many figures, periodically repeat itself: Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna.... Alter erit tum Tiphys, et altera qu vehat Argo Delectos heroas; erunt quoque altera bella, Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles. And though things do not really revolve in this eternal round, the whole series of events in the history of the universe, past and future, is not the less capable, in its own nature, of being constructed a priori by any one whom we can suppose acquainted with the original distribution of all natural agents, and with the whole of their properties, that is, the laws of succession existing between them and their effects: saving the far more than human powers of combination and calculation which would be required, even in one possessing the data, for the actual performance of the task. 9. Since every thing which occurs is determined by laws of causation and collocations of the original causes, it follows that the co- existences which are observable among effects can not be themselves the subject of any similar set of laws, distinct from laws of causation. Uniformities there are, as well of co -existence as of succession, among effects; but these must in all cases be a mere result either of the identity or of the co -existence of their causes: if the causes did not co-exist, neither could the effects. And these causes being also effects of prior causes, and these of others, until we reach the primeval causes, it follows that (except in the 121 To the universality which mankind are agreed in ascribing to the Law of Causation, there is one claim of exception, one disputed case, that of the Human Will; the determinations of which, a large class of metaphysicians are not willing to regard as following the causes called motives, according to as strict laws as those which they suppose to exist in the world of mere matter. This controverted point will undergo a special examinat ion when we come to treat particularly of the Logic of the Moral Sciences (Book 6 ., chap. 2). In the mean time, I may remark that these metaphysicians, who, it must be observed, ground the main part of their objection on the supposed repugnance of the doctrine in question to our consciousness, seem to me to mistake the fact which consciousness testifies against. What is really in contradiction to consciousness, they would, I think, on strict self -examination, find to be, the application to human actions and volitions of the ideas involved in the common use of the term Necessity; which I agree with them in objecting to. But if they would consider that by saying that a person's actions necessarily follow from his character, all that is really meant (for no mor e is meant in any case whatever of causation) is that he invariably does act in conformity to his character, and that any one who thoroughly knew his character could certainly predict how he would act in any supposable case; they probably would not find this doctrine either contrary to their experience or revolting to their feelings. And no more than this is contended for by any one but an Asiatic fatalist. 219 case of effects which can be traced immediately or remotely to one and the same cause) the co-existences of phenomena can in no case be universal, unless the co- existences of the primeval causes to which the effects are ultimately traceable can be reduced to a universal law: but we have seen that they can not. There are, accordingly, no original and independent, in other words no unconditional, uniformities of co- existence, between effects of different causes; if they co -exist, it is only because the causes have casually co -existed. The only independent and unconditional co- existences which are sufficiently invariable to have any claim to the character of laws, are between different and mutually independent effects of the same cause; in other words, between different properties of the same natural agent. This portion of the Laws of Nature will be treated of in the latter part of the present Book, under the name of the Specific Properties of Kinds. 10. Since the first publication of the present treatise, the sciences of physical nature have made a great advance in generalization, through the doctrine known as the Conservation or Persistence of Force. This imposing edifice of theory, the building and laying out of which has for some time been the principal occupation of the most systematic minds among physical inquirers, consists of two stages: one, of ascertained fact, the other containing a large element of hypothesis. To begin with the first. It is proved by numerous facts, both natural and of artificial production, that agencies which had been regarded as distinct and independent sources of force heat, elect ricity, chemical action, nervous and muscular action, momentum of moving bodiesare interchangeable, in definite and fixed quantities, with one another. It had long been known that these dissimilar phenomena had the power, under certain conditions, of producing one another: what is new in the theory is a more accurate estimation of what this production consists in. What happens is, that the whole or part of the one kind of phenomena disappears, and is replaced by phenomena of one of the other descriptions, and that there is an equivalence in quantity between the phenomena that have disappeared and those which have been produced, insomuch that if the process be reversed, the very same quantity which had disappeared will re-appear, without increase or diminution. Thus the amount of heat which will raise the temperature of a pound of water one degree of the thermometer, will, if expended, say in the expansion of steam, lift a weight of 772 pounds one foot, or a weight of one pound 772 feet: and the same exact quantity of heat can, by certain means, be recovered, through the expenditure of exactly that amount of mechanical motion. The establishment of this comprehensive law has led to a change in the language in which the scientific world had been accustomed to speak of what are called the Forces of nature. Before this correlation between phenomena most unlike one another had been ascertained, their unlikeness had caused them to be referred to so many distinct forces. Now that they are known to be convertible into one another without loss, they are spoken of as all of them results of one and the same force, manifesting itself in different modes. This force (it is said) can only produce a limited and definite quantity of effect, but always does produce that definite quantity; and produces it, according to circumstances, in one or another of the forms, or divides it among several, but so as (according to a scale of numerical equivalents established by experiment) always to make up the same sum; and no one of the manife stations can be produced, save by the disappearance of the equivalent quantity of another, which in its turn, in appropriate circumstances, will re-appear undiminished. This mutual interchangeability of the forces of nature, according to fixed numerical equivalents, is the part of the new doctrine which rests on irrefragable fact. To make the statement true, however, it is necessary to add, that an indefinite and perhaps immense interval of time may elapse between the disappearance of the force in one form and 220 its re -appearance in another. A stone thrown up into the air with a given force, and falling back immediately, will, by the time it reaches the earth, recover the exact amount of mechanical momentum which was expended in throwing it up, deduction being made of a small portion of motion which has been communicated to the air. But if the stone has lodged on a height, it may not fall back for years, or perhaps ages, and until it does, the force expended in raising it is temporarily lost, being represented only by what, in the language of the new theory, is called potential energy. The coal imbedded in the earth is considered by the theory as a vast reservoir of force, which has remained dormant for many geological periods, and will so remain until, by being burned, it gives out the stored-up force in the form of heat. Yet it is not supposed that this force is a material thing which can be confined by bounds, as used to be thought of latent heat when that important phenomenon was first discovered. What is mea nt is that when the coal does at last, by combustion, generate a quantity of heat (transformable like all other heat into mechanical momentum, and the other forms of force), this extrication of heat is the re -appearance of a force derived from the sun's rays, expended myriads of ages ago in the vegetation of the organic substances which were the material of the coal. Let us now pass to the higher stage of the theory of Conservation of Force; the part which is no longer a generalization of proved fact, but a combination of fact and hypothesis. Stated in few words, it is as follows: That the Conservation of Force is really the Conservation of Motion; that in the various interchanges between the forms of force, it is always motion that is transformed into motio n. To establish this, it is necessary to assume motions which are hypothetical. The supposition is, that there are motions which manifest themselves to our senses only as heat, electricity, etc., being molecular motions; oscillations, invisible to us, amon g the minute particles of bodies; and that these molecular motions are transmutable into molar motions (motions of masses), and molar motions into molecular. Now there is a real basis of fact for this supposition: we have positive evidence of the existence of molecular motion in these manifestations of force. In the case of chemical action, for instance, the particles separate and form new combinations, often with a great visible disturbance of the mass. In the case of heat, the evidence is equally conclusive, since heat expands bodies (that is, causes their particles to move from one another); and if of sufficient amount, changes their mode of aggregation from solid to liquid, or from liquid to gaseous. Again, the mechanical actions which produce heatfrict ion, and the collision of bodiesmust from the nature of the case produce a shock, that is, an internal motion of particles, which indeed, we find, is often so violent as to break them permanently asunder. Such facts are thought to warrant the inference, t hat it is not, as was supposed, heat that causes the motion of particles, but the motion of particles that causes heat; the original cause of both being the previous motion (whether molar or molecularcollision of bodies or combustion of fuel) which formed the heating agency. This inference already contains hypothesis; but at least the supposed cause, the intestine motion of molecules, is a vera causa. But in order to reduce the Conservation of Force to Conservation of Motion, it was necessary to attribute to motion the heat propagated, through apparently empty space, from the sun. This required the supposition (already made for the explanation of the laws of light) of a subtle ether pervading space, which, though impalpable to us, must have the property whi ch constitutes matter, that of resistance, since waves are propagated through it by an impulse from a given point. The ether must be supposed (a supposition not required by the theory of light) to penetrate into the minute interstices of all bodies. The vibratory motion supposed to be taking place in the heated mass of the sun, is considered as imparted from that mass to the particles of the surrounding ether, and through them to the particles of the same ether in the interstices of terrestrial bodies; and this, too, with a sufficient mechanical force to throw the particles of those bodies into a state of similar vibration, producing the expansion of their mass, and the sensation of heat in 221 sentient creatures. All this is hypothesis, though, of its legitimac y as hypothesis, I do not mean to express any doubt. It would seem to follow as a consequence from this theory, that Force may and should be defined, matter in motion. This definition, however, will not stand, for, as has already been seen, the matter need s not be in actual motion. It is not necessary to suppose that the motion afterward manifested, is actually taking place among the molecules of the coal during its sojourn in the earth; P121F122 P certainly not in the stone which is at rest on the eminence to which it has been raised. The true definition of Force must be, not motion, but Potentiality of Motion; and what the doctrine, if established, amounts to, is, not that there is at all times the same quantity of actual motion in the universe; but that the possibilities of motion are limited to a definite quantity, which can not be added to, but which can not be exhausted; and that all actual motion which takes place in Nature is a draft upon this limited stock. It needs not all of it have ever existed as actual m otion. There is a vast amount of potential motion in the universe in the form of gravitation, which it would be a great abuse of hypothesis to suppose to have been stored up by the expenditure of an equal amount of actual motion in some former state of the universe. Nor does the motion produced by gravity take place, so far as we know, at the expense of any other motion, either molar or molecular. It is proper to consider whether the adoption of this theory as a scientific truth, involving as it does a chan ge in the conception hitherto entertained of the most general physical agencies, requires any modification in the view I have taken of Causation as a law of nature. As it appears to me, none whatever. The manifestations which the theory regards as modes of motion, are as much distinct and separate phenomena when referred to a single force, as when attributed to several. Whether the phenomenon is called a transformation of force or the generation of one, it has its own set or sets of antecedents, with which it is connected by invariable and unconditional sequence; and that set, or those sets, of antecedents are its cause. The relation of the Conservation theory to the principle of Causation is discussed in much detail, and very instructively, by Professor Bain, in the second volume of his Logic. The chief practical conclusion drawn by him, bearing on Causation, is, that we must distinguish in the assemblage of conditions which constitutes the Cause of a phenomenon, two elements: one, the presence of a force; t he other, the collocation or position of objects which is required in order that the force may undergo the particular transmutation which constitutes the phenomenon. Now, it might always have been said with acknowledged correctness, that a force and a coll ocation were both of them necessary to produce any phenomenon. The law of causation is, that change can only be produced by change. Along with any number of stationary antecedents, which are collocations, there must be at least one changing antecedent, whi ch is a force. To produce a bonfire, there must not only be fuel, and air, and a spark, which are collocations, but chemical action between the air and the materials, which is a force. To grind corn, there must be a certain collocation of the parts composi ng a mill, relatively to one another and to the corn; but there must also be the gravitation of water, or the motion of wind, to supply a force. But as the force in these cases was regarded as a property of the objects in which it is embodied, it seemed tautology to say that there must be the collocation and the force. As the collocation must be a collocation of objects possessing the force -giving property, the collocation, so understood, included the force. How, then, shall we have to express these facts, if the theory be finally substantiated that all Force is reducible to a previous Motion? We shall have to say, that one of the conditions of every phenomenon is an antecedent Motion. But it will have to be explained that this needs 122 I believe, however, the accredited authorities do suppose that molecular motion, equivalent in amou nt to that which will be manifested in the combustion of the coal, is actually taking place during the whole of the long interval, if not in the coal, yet in the oxygen which will then combine with it. But how purely hypothetical this supposition is, need hardly be remarked; I venture to say, unnecessarily and extravagantly hypothetical. 222 not be actual motion. The coal which supplies the force exerted in combustion is not shown to have been exerting that force in the form of molecular motion in the pit; it was not even exerting pressure. The stone on the eminence is exerting a pressure, but only equivalent to its weight, not to the additional momentum it would acquire by falling. The antecedent, therefore, is not a force in action; and we can still only call it a property of the objects, by which they would exert a force on the occurrence of a fresh collocat ion. The collocation, therefore, still includes the force. The force said to be stored up, is simply a particular property which the object has acquired. The cause we are in search of, is a collocation of objects possessing that particular property. When, indeed, we inquire further into the cause from which they derive that property, the new conception introduced by the Conservation theory comes in: the property is itself an effect, and its cause, according to the theory, is a former motion of exactly equivalent amount, which has been impressed on the particles of the body, perhaps at some very distant period. But the case is simply one of those we have already considered, in which the efficacy of a cause consists in its investing an object with a property. The force said to be laid up, and merely potential, is no more a really existing thing than any other properties of objects are really existing things. The expression is a mere artifice of language, convenient for describing the phenomena: it is unnecessary to suppose that any thing has been in continuous existence except an abstract potentiality. A force suspended in its operation, neither manifesting itself by motion nor by pressure, is not an existing fact, but a name for our conviction that in appropria te circumstances a fact would take place. We know that a pound weight, were it to fall from the earth into the sun, would acquire in falling a momentum equal to millions of pounds; but we do not credit the pound weight with more of actually existing force than is equal to the pressure it is now exerting on the earth, and that is exactly a pound. We might as well say that a force of millions of pounds exists in a pound, as that the force which will manifest itself when the coal is burned is a real thing existing in the coal. What is fixed in the coal is only a certain property: it has become fit to be the antecedent of an effect called combustion, which partly consists in giving out, under certain conditions, a given definite quantity of heat. We thus see that no new general conception of Causation is introduced by the Conservation theory. The indestructibility of Force no more interferes with the theory of Causation than the indestructibility of Matter, meaning by matter the element of resistance in the sensible world. It only enables us to understand better than before the nature and laws of some of the sequences. This better understanding, however, enables us, with Mr. Bain, to admit, as one of the tests for distinguishing causation from mere concomitance, the expenditure or transfer of energy. If the effect, or any part of the effect, to be accounted for, consists in putting matter in motion, then any of the objects present which has lost motion has contributed to the effect; and this is the true meaning of the proposition that the cause is that one of the antecedents which exerts active force. 11. It is proper in this place to advert to a rather ancient doctrine respecting causation, which has been revived during the last few years in many quarters, and at present gives more signs of life than any other theory of causation at variance with that set forth in the preceding pages. According to the theory in question, Mind, or to speak move precisely, Will, is the only cause of phenomena. The type of Causation, as well as the exclusive source from which we derive the idea, is our own voluntary agency. Here, and here only (it is said), we have direct evidence of causation. We know that we can move our bodies. Respecting the phenomena of inanimate nature, we have no other direct knowledge than that of antecedence and sequence. 223 But in the case of our voluntary actions, it is affirmed that we are conscious of power before we have experience of results. An act of volition, whether followed by an effect or not, is accompanied by a consciousness of effort, of force exerted, of power in action, which is necessarily causal, or causative. This feeling of energy or force, inherent in an act of will, is knowledge a priori ; assurance, prior to experience, that we have the power of causing effects. Volition, therefore, it is asserted, is something more than an unconditional antecedent; it is a cause, in a different sense from that in which physical phenomena are said to cause one another: it is an Efficient Cause. From this the transition is easy to the further doctrine, that Volition is the sole Efficient Cause of all phenomena. It is inconceivable that dead force could continue unsupported for a moment beyond its creation. We can not even conceive of change or phenomena without the energy of a mind. The word action itself, says another writer of the same school, has no real significance except when applied to the doings of an intelligent agent. Let any one conceive, if he can, of any power, energy, or force inherent in a lump of matter. Phenomena may have the semblance of being produced by physical causes, but they are in reality produced, say these writers, by the immediate agency of mind. All things which do not proceed from a human (or, I suppose, an animal) will proceed, they say, directly from divine will. The earth is not moved by the combination of a centripetal and a projectile force; this is but a mode of speaking, which serves to facilitate our conceptions. It is moved by the direct volition of an omnipotent Being, in a path coinciding with that which we deduce from the hypothesis of these two forces. As I have so often observed, the general question of the existence of Efficient Causes does not fall within the limits of our subject; but a theory which represents them as capable of being subjects of human knowledge, and which passes off as efficient causes what are only physical or phenomenal causes, belongs as much to Logic as to metaphysics, and is a fit subject for discussion here. To my apprehension, a volition is not an efficient, but simply a physical cause. Our will causes our bodily actions in the same sense, and in no other, in which cold causes ice, or a spark causes an explosion of gunpowder. The volition, a state of our mind, is the antecedent; the motio n of our limbs in conformity to the volition, is the consequent. This sequence I conceive to be not a subject of direct consciousness, in the sense intended by the theory. The antecedent, indeed, and the consequent, are subjects of consciousness. But the connection between them is a subject of experience. I can not admit that our consciousness of the volition contains in itself any a priori knowledge that the muscular motion will follow. If our nerves of motion were paralyzed, or our muscles stiff and inflexible, and had been so all our lives, I do not see the slightest ground for supposing that we should ever (unless by information from other people) have known any thing of volition as a physical power, or been conscious of any tendency in feelings of our mind to produce motions of our body, or of other bodies. I will not undertake to say whether we should in that case have had the physical feeling which I suppose is meant when these writers speak of consciousness of effort: I see no reason why we should not; since that physical feeling is probably a state of nervous sensation beginning and ending in the brain, without involving the motory apparatus: but we certainly should not have designated it by any term equivalent to effort, since effort implies consci ously aiming at an end, which we should not only in that case have had no reason to do, but could not even have had the idea of doing. If conscious at all of this peculiar sensation, we should have been conscious of it, I conceive, only as a kind of uneasiness, accompanying our feelings of desire. It is well argued by Sir William Hamilton against the theory in question, that it is refuted by the consideration that between the overt fact of corporeal movement of which we are cognizant, and the internal act of mental determination of which we are also cognizant, there 224 intervenes a numerous series of intermediate agencies of which we have no knowledge; and, consequently, that we can have no consciousness of any causal connection between the extreme links of th is chain, the volition to move and the limb moving, as this hypothesis asserts. No one is immediately conscious, for example, of moving his arm through his volition. Previously to this ultimate movement, muscles, nerves, a multitude of solid and fluid parts, must be set in motion by the will, but of this motion we know, from consciousness, absolutely nothing. A person struck with paralysis is conscious of no inability in his limb to fulfill the determinations of his will; and it is only after having willed, and finding that his limbs do not obey his volition, that he learns by this experience, that the external movement does not follow the internal act. But as the paralytic learns after the volition that his limbs do not obey his mind; so it is only after volition that the man in health learns, that his limbs do obey the mandates of his will. P122F123 P Those against whom I am contending have never produced, and do not pretend to produce, any positive evidence P123F124 P that the power of our will to move our bodies would be known to us independently of experience. What they have to say on the subject is, that the production of physical events by a will seems to carry its own explanation with it, while the action of matter upon matter seems to require something else to explain it; and is even, according to them, inconceivable on any other supposition than that some will intervenes between the apparent cause and its apparent effect. They thus rest their case on an appeal to the inherent laws of our conceptive faculty; mistaking, as I apprehend, for the laws of that faculty its acquired habits, grounded on the spontaneous tendencies of its uncultured state. The succession between the will to move a limb and the actual motion is one of the most direct and instantaneous of all sequences which come under our observation, and is familiar to every moment's experience from our earliest infancy; more familiar than any succession of events exterior to our bodies, and especially more so than any other case of the apparent origination (as distinguished from the mere communication) of motion. Now, it is the natural tendency of the mind to be always attempting to facilitate its conception of unfamiliar facts by assimilating them to others which are familiar. Accordingly, our voluntary acts, being the most familiar to us of all cases of causation, are, in the infancy and early youth of the human race, spontaneously taken as the type of causation in general, and all phenomena are 123 Lectures on Metaphysics , vol. ii., Lect. xxxix., pp. 391 -2. I regret that I can not invoke the authority of Sir William Hamilton in favor of my own opinions on Causation, as I can against the particular theory which I am now combating. But that acute thinker has a theory of Causation peculiar to himself, which has never yet, as far as I know, been analytically examined, but which, I venture to think, admits of as complete refutation as any one of the false or insufficient psychological theories which strew the ground in such numbers under his potent metaphysical scythe. (Since examined and controverted in the sixteenth chapter of An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy .) 124 Unless we are to consider as such the following statement, by one of the writers quoted in the text: In the case of mental exertion, the result to be accomplished is preconsidered or meditated, and is therefore known a priori , or before experience. (Bowen's Lowell Lectures on the Application of Metaphysical and Ethical Science to the Evidence of Religion . Boston, 1849.) This is merely saying that when we will a thing we have an idea of it. But to have an idea of what we wish to happen, does not imply a prophetic knowledge that it will happen. Perhaps it will be said that the first time we exerted our will, when we had of course no experience of any of the powers residing in us, we nevertheless must already have known that we possessed the m, since we can not will that which we do not believe to be in our power. But the impossibility is perhaps in the words only, and not in the facts; for we may desire what we do not know to be in our power; and finding by experience that our bodies move acc ording to our desire , we may then, and only then, pass into the more complicated mental state which is termed will. After all, even if we had an instinctive knowledge that our actions would follow our will, this, as Brown remarks, would prove nothing as to the nature of Causation. Our knowing, previous to experience, that an antecedent will be followed by a certain consequent, would not prove the relation between them to be any thing more than antecedence and consequence. 225 supposed to be directly produced by the will of some sentient being. This original Fetichism I shall not characterize in the words of Hume, or of any follower of Hume, but in those of a religious metaphysician, Dr. Reid, in order more effectually to show the unanimity which exists on the subject among all competent thinkers. When we turn our attention to external objects, and begin to exercise our rational faculties about them, we find that there are some motions and changes in them which we have power to produce, and that there are many which must have some other cause. Either the objects must have life and active power, as we have, or they must be moved or changed by something that has life and active power, as external objects are moved by us. Our first thoughts seem to be, that the objects in which we perceive such motion have understanding and active power as we have. Savages, says the Abb Raynal, wherever they see motion which they can not account for, there they suppose a soul. All men may be considered as savages in this respect, until they are capable of in struction, and of using their faculties in a more perfect manner than savages do. The Abb Raynal's observation is sufficiently confirmed, both from fact, and from the structure of all languages. Rude nations do really believe sun, moon, and stars, earth, sea, and air, fountains, and lakes, to have understanding and active power. To pay homage to them, and implore their favor, is a kind of idolatry natural to savages. All languages carry in their structure the marks of their being formed when this belief prevailed. The distinction of verbs and participles into active and passive, which is found in all languages, must have been originally intended to distinguish what is really active from what is merely passive; and in all languages, we find active verbs applied to those objects, in which, according to the Abb Raynal's observation, savages suppose a soul. Thus we say the sun rises and sets, and comes to the meridian, the moon changes, the sea ebbs and flows, the winds blow. Languages were formed by men who believed these objects to have life and active power in themselves. It was therefore proper and natural to express their motions and changes by active verbs. There is no surer way of tracing the sentiments of nations before they have records, than by the structure of their language, which, notwithstanding the changes produced in it by time, will always retain some signatures of the thoughts of those by whom it was invented. When we find the same sentiments indicated in the structure of all languages, those sentiments must have been common to the human species when languages were invented. When a few, of superior intellectual abilities, find leisure for speculation, they begin to philosophize, and soon discover, that many of those objects which at first they believed to be intelligent and active are really lifeless and passive. This is a very important discovery. It elevates the mind, emancipates from many vulgar superstitions, and invites to further discoveries of the same kind. As philosophy advances, life and activity in natural objects retires, and leaves them dead and inactive. Instead of moving voluntarily, we find them to be moved necessarily; instead of acting, we find them to be acted upon; and Nature appears as one great machine, where one wheel is turned by another, that by a third; and how far this necessary succession may reach, the philosopher does not know. P124F125 P 125 Reid's Essays on the Active Power s, Essay iv., chap. 3. 226 There is, then, a spontaneous tendency of the intellect to account to itself for all cases of causation by assimilating them to the intentional acts of voluntary agents like itself. This is the instinctive philosophy of the human mind in its earliest stage, before it has become familiar with any other invariable sequences than those between its own volitions or those of other human beings and their voluntary acts. As the notion of fixed laws of succession among external phenomena gradually establishes itself, the propensity to refer all phenomena to voluntary agency slowly gives way before it. The suggestions, however, of daily life continuing to be more powerful than those of scientific thought, the original instinctive philosophy maintains its ground in the mind, underneath the growths obtained by cultivation, and keeps up a constant resistance to their throwing their roots deep into the soil. The theory against which I am contending derives its nourishment from that substratum. Its strength does not lie in argument, but in its affinity to an obstinate tendency of the infancy of the human mind. That this tendency, however, is not the result of an inherent mental law, is proved by superabundant evidence. The history of science, from its earliest dawn, shows that mankind have not been unanimous in thinking either that the action of matter upon matter was not conceivable, or that the action of mind upon matter was. To some thinkers, and some schools of thinkers, both in ancient and in modern times, this last has appeared much more inconceivable than the former. Sequences entirely physical and material, as soon as they had become sufficiently familiar to the human mind, came to be thought perfectly natural, and were regarded not only as needing no explanation themselves, but as being capable of affording it to others, and even of serving as the ultimate explanation of things in general. One of the ablest recent supporters of the Volitional theory has furnished an explanation, at once historically true and philosophically acute, of the failure of the Greek philosophers in physical inquiry, in which, as I conceive, he unconsciously depicts his own state of mind. Their stumbling -block was one as to the nature of the evidence they had to expect for their conviction.... They had not seized the idea that they must not expect to understand the processes of outward causes, but only their results; and consequently, the whole physical philosophy of the Greeks was an attempt to identify mentally the effect with its cause, to feel after some not only necessary but natural connection, where they meant by natural that which would per se carry some presumption to their own mind.... They wanted to see some reason why the physical antecedent should produce this particular consequent, and their only attempts were in directions where they could find such reasons. P125F126 P In other words, they were not content merely to know that one phenomenon was always followed by another; they thought that they had not attained the true aim of science, unless they could perceive something in the nature of the one phenomenon from which it might have been known or presumed previous to trial that it would be followed by the other: just what the writer, who has so clearly pointed out their error, thinks that he perceives in the nature of the phenomenon Volition. And to complete the statement of the case, he should have added that these early speculators not only made this their aim, but were quite satisfied with their success in it; not only sought for causes which should carry in their mere statement evidence of their efficiency, but fully believed that they had found such causes . The reviewer can see plainly that this was an error, because he does not believe that there exist any relations between material phenomena which can account for their producing one another; but the very fact of the persistency of the Greeks in this error , shows that their minds were in a very different state: they were able to derive from the assimilation of physical facts to other physical facts, the kind of mental satisfaction which we connect with the word explanation, 126 Prospective Review for February, 1850. 227 and which the reviewer would have us think can only be found in referring phenomena to a will. When Thales and Hippo held that moisture was the universal cause, and external element, of which all other things were but the infinitely various sensible manifestations; when Anaximenes predicated the same thing of air, Pythagoras of numbers, and the like, they all thought that they had found a real explanation; and were content to rest in this explanation as ultimate. The ordinary sequences of the external universe appeared to them, no less than to their critic, to be inconceivable without the supposition of some universal agency to connect the antecedents with the consequents; but they did not think that Volition, exerted by minds, was the only agency which fulfilled this requirement. Moisture, or air, or numbers, carried to their minds a precisely similar impression of making intelligible what was otherwise inconceivable, and gave the same full satisfaction to the demands of their conceptive faculty. It was not the Greeks alone, who wanted to see some reason why the physical antecedent should produce this particular consequent, some connection which would per se carry some presumption to their own mind. Among modern philosophers, Leibnitz laid it down as a self-evident principle that all phy sical causes without exception must contain in their own nature something which makes it intelligible that they should be able to produce the effects which they do produce. Far from admitting Volition as the only kind of cause which carried internal eviden ce of its own power, and as the real bond of connection between physical antecedents and their consequents, he demanded some naturally and per se efficient physical antecedent as the bond of connection between Volition itself and its effects. He distinctly refused to admit the will of God as a sufficient explanation of any thing except miracles; and insisted upon finding something that would account better for the phenomena of nature than a mere reference to divine volition. P126F127 P Again, and conversely, the action of mind upon matter (which, we are now told, not only needs no explanation itself, but is the explanation of all other effects), has appeared to some thinkers to be itself the grand inconceivability. It was to get over this very difficulty that the Cartesians invented the system of Occasional Causes. They could not conceive that thoughts in a mind could produce movements in a body, or that bodily movements could produce thoughts. They could see no necessary connection, no relation a priori , between a m otion and a thought. And as the Cartesians, more than any other school of philosophical speculation before or since, made their own minds the measure of all things, and refused, on principle, to believe that Nature had done what they were unable to see any reason why she must do, they affirmed it to be impossible that a material and a mental fact could be causes one of another. They regarded them as mere Occasions on which the real agent, God, thought fit to exert his power as a Cause. When a man wills to m ove his foot, it is not his will that moves it, but God (they said) moves it on the occasion of his will. God, according to this system, is the only efficient cause, not qu mind, or qu endowed with volition, but qu omnipotent. This hypothesis was, as I said, originally suggested by the supposed inconceivability of any real mutual action between Mind and Matter; but it was afterward extended to the action of Matter upon Matter, for on a nicer examination they found this inconceivable too, and therefore, a ccording to their logic, impossible. The deus ex machin was ultimately called in to produce a spark on the occasion of a flint and steel coming together, or to break an egg on the occasion of its falling on the ground. All this, undoubtedly, shows that it is the disposition of mankind in general, not to be satisfied with knowing that one fact is invariably antecedent and another consequent, but to look out for something which may seem to explain their being so. But we also see that this demand may be completely satisfied by an agency purely physical, provided it be much more 127 Vide supra, p. 178, note. 228 familiar than that which it is invoked to explain. To Thales and Anaximenes, it appeared inconceivable that the antecedents which we see in nature should produce the consequents; but perfectly natural that water, or air, should produce them. The writers whom I oppose declare this inconceivable, but can conceive that mind, or volition, is per se an efficient cause: while the Cartesians could not conceive even that, but peremptorily declared that no mode of production of any fact whatever was conceivable, except the direct agency of an omnipotent being; thus giving additional proof of what finds new confirmation in every stage of the history of science: that both what persons can, and what they can not, conceive, is very much an affair of accident, and depends altogether on their experience, and their habits of thought; that by cultivating the requisite associations of ideas, people may make themselves unable to conceive any given thing; and may make themselves able to conceive most things, however inconceivable these may at first appear; and the same facts in each person's mental history which determine what is or is not conceivable to him, determine also which among the various sequences in nature will appear to him so natural and plausible, as to need no other proof of their existence; to be evident by their own light, independent equally of experience and of explanation. By what rule is any one to decide between one theory of this description and another? The theorists do not direct us to any external evidence; they appeal each to his own subjective feelings. One says, the succession C B appears to me more natural, conceivable, and credible per se, than the succession A B; you are therefore mistaken in thinking that B depends upon A; I am certain, though I can give no other evidence of it, that C comes in between A and B, and is the real and only cause of B. The other answers, the successions C B and A B appear to me equally natural and conc eivable, or the latter more so than the former: A is quite capable of producing B without any other intervention. A third agrees with the first in being unable to conceive that A can produce B, but finds the sequence D B still more natural than C B, or of nearer kin to the subject-matter, and prefers his D theory to the C theory. It is plain that there is no universal law operating here, except the law that each person's conceptions are governed and limited by his individual experiences and habits of thought. We are warranted in saying of all three, what each of them already believes of the other two, namely, that they exalt into an original law of the human intellect and of outward nature one particular sequence of phenomena, which appears to them more natural and more conceivable than other sequences, only because it is more familiar. And from this judgment I am unable to except the theory, that Volition is an Efficient Cause. I am unwilling to leave the subject without adverting to the additional fallacy contained in the corollary from this theory; in the inference that because Volition is an efficient cause, therefore it is the only cause, and the direct agent in producing even what is apparently produced by something else. Volitions are not known to produce any thing directly except nervous action, for the will influences even the muscles only through the nerves. Though it were granted, then, that every phenomenon has an efficient, and not merely a phenomenal cause, and that volition, in the case of the peculiar phenomena which are known to be produced by it, is that efficient cause; are we therefore to say, with these writers, that since we know of no other efficient cause, and ought not to assume one without evidence, there is no other, and volition is the direct cause of all phenomena? A more outrageous stretch of inference could hardly be made. Because among the infinite variety of the phenomena of nature there is one, namely, a particular mode of action of certain nerves, which has for its cause, and as we are now supposing for its efficient cause, a state of our mind; and because this is the only efficient cause of which we are conscious, being the only one of which in the nature of the case we can be conscious, since it is the only one which exists within ourselves; does this justify us in concluding that all other phenomena must have 229 the same kind of efficient cause with that one eminently special, narrow, and peculiarly human or animal, phenomenon? The nearest parallel to this specimen of generalization is suggested by the recently revived controversy on the old subject of Plurality of Worlds, in which the contending parties have been so conspicuously successful in overthrowing one another. Here also we have experience only of a single case, that of the world in which we live, but that this is inhabited we know absolutely, and without possibility of doubt. Now if on this evidence any one were to infer that every heavenly body without exception, sun, planet, satellite, comet, fixed star or nebula, is inhabited, and must be so from the inherent constitution of things, his inference would exactly resemble that of the writers who conclude that because volition is the efficient cause of our own bodily motions, it must be the efficient cause of every thing else in the universe. It is true there are cases in which, with acknowledged propriety, we generalize from a single instance to a multitude of instances. But they must be instances which resemble the one known instance, and not such as have no circumstance in common with it except that of being instances. I have, for example, no direct evidence that any creature is alive except myself, yet I attribute, with full assurance, life and sensation to other human beings and animals. But I do not conclude that all other things are alive merely because I am. I ascribe to certain other creatures a life like my own, because they manifest it by the same sort of indications by which mine is manifested. I find that their phenomena and mine conform to the same laws, and it is for this reason that I believe both to arise from a similar cause. Accordingly I do not extend the conclusion beyond the grounds for it. Earth, fire, mountains, trees, are remarkable agencies, but their phenomena do not conform to the same laws as my acti ons do, and I therefore do not believe earth or fire, mountains or trees, to possess animal life. But the supporters of the Volition Theory ask us to infer that volition causes every thing, for no reason except that it causes one particular thing; although that one phenomenon, far from being a type of all natural phenomena, is eminently peculiar; its laws bearing scarcely any resemblance to those of any other phenomenon, whether of inorganic or of organic nature. NOTE SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE PRECEDING CHAPTER. The author of the Second Burnett Prize Essay (Dr. Tulloch), who has employed a considerable number of pages in controverting the doctrines of the preceding chapter, has somewhat surprised me by denying a fact, which I imagined too well known to require proofthat there have been philosophers who found in physical explanations of phenomena the same complete mental satisfaction which we are told is only given by volitional explanation, and others who denied the Volitional Theory on the same ground of inconceivability on which it is defended. The assertion of the Essayist is countersigned still more positively by an able reviewer of the Essay: P127F128 P Two illustrations, says the reviewer, are advanced by Mr. Mill: the case of Thales and Anaximenes, stated by him to have maintained, the one Moisture and the other Air to be the origin of all things; and that of Descartes and Leibnitz, whom he asserts to have found the action of Mind upon Matter the grand inconceivability. In counter- statement as to the first of thes e cases the author shows what we believe now hardly admits of doubtthat the Greek philosophers distinctly recognized as beyond and above their primal material source, the , or Divine Intelligence, as the efficient and originating Source of all; and as to the second, by proof that it was the mode , not the fact , of that action on matter, which was represented as inconceivable. A greater quantity of historical error has seldom been comprised in a single sentence. With regard to Thales, the assertion that he considered water as a mere material in the hands of 128 Westminster Review for October, 1855. 230 rests on a passage of Cicero de Natur Deorum ; and whoever will refer to any of the accurate historians of philosophy, will find that they treat this as a mere fancy of Cicero, resting on no authority, opposed to all the evidence; and make surmises as to the manner in which Cicero may have been led into the error. (See Rutter, vol. i., p. 211, 2d ed.; Brandis, vol. i., pp. 118-9, 1st ed.; Preller, Historia Philosophi Grco-Roman , p. 10. Schiefe Ansicht, durchaus zu verwerfen; augenscheinlich folgernd statt zu berichten; quibus vera sententia Thaletis plane detorquetur, are the expressions of these writers.) As for Anaximenes, he even according to Cicero, maintained, not that air was the material out of which God made the world, but that the air was a god: Anaximenes ara deum statuit; or, according to St. Augustine, that it was the material out of which the gods were made; non tamen ab ipsis [Diis] arem factum, sed ipsos ex are ortos credidit. Those who are not familiar with the metaphysical terminology of antiquity, must not be misled by finding it stated that Anaximenes attributed (translated soul , or life ) to his universal element, the air. The Greek philosophers acknowledged several kinds of , the nutritive, the sensitive, and the intellective. P128F129 P Even the moderns, with admitted correctness, attribute life to plants. As far as we can make out the meaning of Anaximenes, he made choice of Air as the universal agent, on the ground that it is perpetually in motion, without any apparent cause external to itself: so that he conceived it as exercising spontaneous force, and as the principle of life and activity in all things, men and gods inclusive. If this be not repr esenting it as the Efficient Cause the dispute altogether has no meaning. If either Anaximenes, or Thales, or any of their contemporaries, had held the doctrine that was the Efficient Cause, that doctrine could not have been reputed, as it was throughout antiquity, to have originated with Anaxagoras. The testimony of Aristotle, in the first book of his Metaphysics, is perfectly decisive with respect to these early speculations. After enumerating four kinds of causes, or rather four different meanings of the word Cause, viz., the Essence of a thing, the Matter of it, the Origin of Motion (Efficient Cause), and the End or Final Cause, he proceeds to say, that most of the early philosophers recognized only the second kind of Cause, the Matter of a thing, . As his first example he specifies Thales, whom he describes as taking the lead in this view of the subject, , and goes on to Hippon, Anaximenes, Diogenes (of Apollonia), Hippasus of Metapontum, Heraclitus, and Empedocles. Anaxagoras, however (he proceeds to say), taught a different doctrine, as we know , and it is alleged that Hermotimus of Clazomen taught it before him. Anaxagoras represented, that even if these various the ories of the universal material were true, there would be need of some other cause to account for the transformations of the materials, since the material can not originate its own changes: ; , , , viz., the other kind of cause, an Efficient Cause. Aristotle express es great approbation of this doctrine (which he says made its author appear the only sober man among persons raving, ); but while describing the influence which it exercised over subsequent speculation, he remarks that the philosophers against whom this, as he thinks, insuperable difficulty was urged, had not felt it to be any difficulty: . It is surely unnecessary to say more in proof of the matter of fact which Dr. Tulloch and hi s reviewer disbelieve. 129 See the whole doctrine in Aristotle de nim, where the is treated as exactly equivalent to . 231 Having pointed out what he thinks the error of these early speculators in not recognizing the need of an efficient cause, Aristotle goes on to mention two other efficient causes to which they might have had recourse, instead of intel ligence: , chance, and , spontaneity. He indeed puts these aside as not sufficiently worthy causes for the order in the universe, ; but he does not reject them as incapab le of producing any effect, but only as incapable of producing that effect. He himself recognizes and as co -ordinate agents with Mind in producing the phenomena of the universe; the department allotted to them being composed of all the classes of phenomena which are not supposed to follow any uniform law. By thus including Chance among efficient causes, Aristotle fell into an error which philosophy has now outgrown, but which is by no means so alien to the spirit even of modern speculation as it may at first sight appear. Up to quite a recent period philosophers went on ascribing, and many of them have not yet ceased to ascribe, a real existence to the results of abstraction. Chance could make out as good a title to that dignity as many other of the mind's abstract creations: it had had a name given to it, and why should it not be a reality? As for , it is recognized even yet as one of the modes of origination of phenomena by all those thinkers who maintain what is called the Fre edom of the Will. The same self - determining power which that doctrine attributes to volitions, was supposed by the ancients to be possessed also by some other natural phenomena: a circumstance which throws considerable light on more than one of the suppose d invincible necessities of belief. I have introduced it here, because this belief of Aristotle, or rather of the Greek philosophers generally, is as fatal as the doctrines of Thales and the Ionic school to the theory that the human mind is compelled by its constitution to conceive volition as the origin of all force, and the efficient cause of all phenomena. P129F130 P With regard to the modern philosophers (Leibnitz and the Cartesians) whom I had cited as having maintained that the action of mind upon matter, so far from being the only conceivable origin of material phenomena, is itself inconceivable; the attempt to rebut this argument by asserting that the mode, not the fact, of the action of mind on matter was represented as inconceivable, is an abuse of the pri vilege of writing confidently about authors without reading them; for any knowledge whatever of Leibnitz would have taught those who 130 It deserves notice that the parts of nature which Aristotle regards as representing evidence of design, are the Uniformities: the phenomena in so far as reducible to law. and satisfy him as explanations of the variable element in phenomena, but their occurring according to a fixed rule can only, to his conceptions, be accounted for by an Intelligent Will. The common, or what may be called the instinctive, religious interpretation of nature, is the reverse of this. The events in which men spontaneously see the hand of a supernatural being, are those which can not, as they think, be reduced to a physical law. What they can distinctly connect with physical causes, and especially what they can predict, though of course ascribed to an Au thor of Nature, if they already recognize such an author, might be conceived, they think, to arise from a blind fatality, and in any case do not appear to them to bear so obviously the mark of a divine will. And this distinction has been countenanced by eminent writers on Natural Theology, in particular by Dr. Chalmers, who thinks that though design is present everywhere, the irresistible evidence of it is to be found not in the laws of nature but in the collocations, i.e., in the part of nature in which it is impossible to trace any law. A few properties of dead matter might, he thinks, conceivably account for the regular and invariable succession of effects and causes; but that the different kinds of matter have been so placed as to promote beneficent ends , is what he regards as the proof of a Divine Providence. Mr. Baden Powell, in his Essay entitled Philosophy of Creation, has returned to the point of view of Aristotle and the ancients, and vigorously re -asserts the doctrine that the indication of desig n in the universe is not special adaptations, but Uniformity and Law, these being the evidences of mind, and not what appears to us to be a provision for our uses. While I decline to express any opinion here on this vexata qustio, I ought not to mention Mr. Powell's volume without the acknowledgment due to the philosophic spirit which pervades generally the three Essays composing it, forming in the case of one of them (the Unity of Worlds) an honorable contrast with the other dissertations, so far as they have come under my notice, which have appeared on either side of that controversy. 232 thus speak of him, that the inconceivability of the mode, and the impossibility of the thing, were in his mind convertible expressions. What was his famous Principle of the Sufficient Reason, the very corner-stone of his Philosophy, from which the Pre-established Harmony, the doctrine of Monads, and all the opinions most characteristic of Leibnitz, were corollaries? It was, th at nothing exists, the existence of which is not capable of being proved and explained a priori ; the proof and explanation in the case of contingent facts being derived from the nature of their causes; which could not be the causes unless there was something in their nature showing them to be capable of producing those particular effects. And this something which accounts for the production of physical effects, he was able to find in many physical causes, but could not find it in any finite minds, which t herefore he unhesitatingly asserted to be incapable of producing any physical effects whatever. On ne saurait concevoir, he says, une action rciproque de la matire et de l'intelligence l'une sur l'autre, and there is therefore (he contends) no choice but between the Occasional Causes of the Cartesians and his own Pre-established Harmony, according to which there is no more connection between our volitions and our muscular actions than there is between two clocks which are wound up to strike at the sam e instant. But he felt no similar difficulty as to physical causes; and throughout his speculations, as in the passage I have already cited respecting gravitation, he distinctly refuses to consider as part of the order of nature any fact which is not expli cable from the nature of its physical cause. With regard to the Cartesians (not Descartes; I did not make that mistake, though the reviewer of Dr. Tulloch's Essay attributes it to me) I take a passage almost at random from Malebranche, who is the best known of the Cartesians, and, though not the inventor of the system of Occasional Causes, is its principal expositor. In Part II., chap. iii., of his Sixth Book, having first said that matter can not have the power of moving itself, he proceeds to argue that n either can mind have the power of moving it. Quand on examine l'ide que l'on a de tous les esprits finis, on ne voit point de liaison ncessaire entre leur volont et le mouvement de quelque corps que ce soit, on voit au contraire qu'il n'y en a point, et qu'il n'y en peut avoir (there is nothing in the idea of finite mind which can account for its causing the motion of a body); on doit aussi conclure, si on vent raisonner selon ses lumires, qu'il n'y a aucun esprit cr qui puisse remuer quelque corps que ce soit comme cause vritable on principale, de mme que l'on a dit qu'aucun corps ne se pouvait remuer soi- mme: thus the idea of Mind is according to him as incompatible as the idea of Matter with the exercise of active force. But when, he continues, we consider not a created but a Divine Mind, the case is altered; for the idea of a Divine Mind includes omnipotence; and the idea of omnipotence does contain the idea of being able to move bodies. Thus it is the nature of omnipotence which renders the motion of bodies even by the Divine Mind credible or conceivable, while, so far as depended on the mere nature of mind, it would have been inconceivable and incredible. If Malebranche had not believed in an omnipotent Being, he would have held all action o f mind on body to be a demonstrated impossibility. P130F131 P A doctrine more precisely the reverse of the Volitional theory of causation can not well be imagined. The Volitional theory is, that we know by intuition or by direct experience the action of our own mental volitions on matter; that we may hence infer all other action upon matter to be that of volition, and might thus know, without any other evidence, that matter is under the government of a Divine Mind. Leibnitz and the Cartesians, on the contrary, main tain that our volitions do not and can not act upon matter, and that it is only the existence 131 In the words of Fontenelle, another celebrated Cartesian, les philosophes aussi bien que le peuple avaient cru que l'me et le corps agissaient rellement et physiquement l'un sur l'autre. Descartes vint, qui prouva que leur nature ne permettait point cette sorte de communication vritable, et qu'ils n'en pouvaient avoir qu'une apparente, dont Dieu tait le Mdiateur.( uvres de Fontenelle, ed. 1767, tom. v., p. 534.) 233 of an all -governing Being, and that Being omnipotent, which can account for the sequence between our volitions and our bodily actions. When we consider that each of these two theories, which, as theories of causation, stand at the opposite extremes of possible divergence from one another, invokes not only as its evidence, but as its sole evidence, the absolute inconceivability of any theory but itself, we are enabled to measure the worth of this kind of evidence: and when we find the Volitional theory entirely built upon the assertion that by our mental constitution we are compelled to recognize our volitions as efficient causes, and then find other thinkers maintaining that we know that they are not and can not be such causes, and can not conceive them to be so, I think we have a right to say that this supposed law of our mental constitution does not exist. Dr. Tulloch (pp. 45- 47) thinks it a sufficient answer to this, that Leibnitz and the Cartesians were Theists, and believed the will of God to be an efficient cause. Doubtless they did, and the Cartesians even believed (though Leibnitz did not) that it is the only such cause. Dr. Tulloch mistakes the nature of the question. I was not writing on Theism, as Dr. Tulloch is, but against a particular theory of causation, which, if it be unfounded, can give no effective support to Theism or to any thing else. I found it asserted that volition is the only efficient cause, on the ground that no other efficient cause is conceivable. To this assertion I oppose the instances of Leibnitz and of the Cartesians, who affirmed with equal positiveness that volition as an efficient cause is itself not conceivable, and that omnipotence, which renders all things conceivable, can alone take away the impossibility. This I thought, and think, a conclusive answer to the argument on which this theory of causation avowedly depends. But I certainly did not imagine that Theism was bound up with that theory; nor expected to be charged with denying Leibnitz and the Cartesians to be Theists because I denied that they held the theory. 234 VI. On The Composition Of Causes 1. To complete the general notion of causation on which the rules of experimental inquiry into the laws of nature must be founded, one distinction still remains to be pointed out: a distinction so radical, and of so much importance, as to require a chapter to itself. The preceding discussions have rendered us familiar with the case in which several agents, or causes, concur as conditions to the production of an effect; a case, in truth, almost universal, there being very few effects to the production of which no more than one agent contributes. Suppose, then, that two different agents, operating jointly, are followed, under a certain set of collateral conditions, by a given effect. If either of these agents, instead of being joined with the other, had operated alone, under the same set of conditions in all other respects, some effect would probably have followed, which would have been different from the joint effect of the two, and more or less dissimilar to it. Now, if we happen to know what would be the effect of each cause when acting separately from the other, we are often able to arrive deductively, or a priori , at a correct prediction of what will arise from their conjunct agency. To render this possible, it is only necessary that the same law which expresses the effect of each cause acting by itself, shall also correctly express the part due to that cause of the effect which follows from the two together. This condition is realized in the extensive and important class of phenomena commonly called mechanical, namely the phenomena of the comm unication of motion (or of pressure, which is tendency to motion) from one body to another. In this important class of cases of causation, one cause never, properly speaking, defeats or frustrates another; both have their full effect. If a body is propelled in two directions by two forces, one tending to drive it to the north and the other to the east, it is caused to move in a given time exactly as far in both directions as the two forces would separately have carried it; and is left precisely where it would have arrived if it had been acted upon first by one of the two forces, and afterward by the other. This law of nature is called, in dynamics, the principle of the Composition of Forces; and in imitation of that well-chosen expression, I shall give the name of the Composition of Causes to the principle which is exemplified in all cases in which the joint effect of several causes is identical with the sum of their separate effects. This principle, however, by no means prevails in all departments of the field of nature. The chemical combination of two substances produces, as is well known, a third substance, with properties different from those of either of the two substances separately, or of both of them taken together. Not a trace of the properties of hydrogen or of oxygen is observable in those of their compound, water. The taste of sugar of lead is not the sum of the tastes of its component elements, acetic acid and lead or its oxide; nor is the color of blue vitriol a mixture of the colors of sulphur ic acid and copper. This explains why mechanics is a deductive or demonstrative science, and chemistry not. In the one, we can compute the effects of combinations of causes, whether real or hypothetical, from the laws which we know to govern those causes when acting separately, because they continue to observe the same laws when in combination which they observe when separate: whatever would have happened in consequence of each cause taken by itself, happens when they are together, and we have only to cast up the results. Not so in the phenomena which are the peculiar subject of the science of chemistry. There most of the uniformities to which the causes conform when separate, cease altogether when they are conjoined; and we are not, at least in the present state of our knowledge, able to foresee what result will follow from any new combination until we have tried the specific experiment. 235 If this be true of chemical combinations, it is still more true of those far more complex combinations of elements which constitute organized bodies; and in which those extraordinary new uniformities arise which are called the laws of life. All organized bodies are composed of parts similar to those composing inorganic nature, and which have even themselves existed in an inorganic state; but the phenomena of life, which result from the juxtaposition of those parts in a certain manner, bear no analogy to any of the effects which would be produced by the action of the component substances considered as mere physical agents. To whatever degree we might imagine our knowledge of the properties of the several ingredients of a living body to be extended and perfected, it is certain that no mere summing up of the separate actions of those elements will ever amount to the action of the living body itself. The tongue, for instance, is, like all other parts of the animal frame, composed of gelatine, fibrine, and other products of the chemistry of digestion; but from no knowledge of the properties of those substances could we ever predict that it could taste, unless gelatine or fibrine could themselves taste; for no elementary fact can be in the conclusion which was not in the premises. There are thus two different modes of the conjunct action of causes; from which arise two modes of conflict, or mutual interference, between laws of nature. Suppose, at a given point of time and space, two or more causes, which, if they acted separately, would produce effects contrary, or at least conflicting with each other; one of them tending to undo, wholly or partially, what the other tends to do. Thus the expansive force of the gases generated by the ignition of gunpowder tends to project a bullet toward the sky, while its gravity tends to make it fall to the ground. A stream running into a reservoir at one end tends to fill it higher and higher, while a drain at the other extremity tends to empty it. Now, in such cases as these, even if the two causes which are in joint action exactly annul one another, still the laws of both are fulfilled; the effect is the same as if the drain had been open for half an hour first, P131F132 P and the stream had flowed in for as long afterward. Each agent produces the same amount of effect as if it had acted separately, though the contrary effect which was taking place during the s ame time obliterated it as fast as it was produced. Here, then, are two causes, producing by their joint operations an effect which at first seems quite dissimilar to those which they produce separately, but which on examination proves to be really the sum of those separate effects. It will be noticed that we here enlarge the idea of the sum of two effects, so as to include what is commonly called their difference, but which is in reality the result of the addition of opposites; a conception to which mankind are indebted for that admirable extension of the algebraical calculus, which has so vastly increased its powers as an instrument of discovery, by introducing into its reasonings (with the sign of subtraction prefixed, and under the name of Negative Quantities) every description whatever of positive phenomena, provided they are of such a quality in reference to those previously introduced, that to add the one is equivalent to subtracting an equal quantity of the other. There is, then, one mode of the mutual interference of laws of nature, in which, even when the concurrent causes annihilate each other's effects, each exerts its full efficacy according to its own law its law as a separate agent. But in the other description of cases, the agencies which are brought together cease entirely, and a totally different set of phenomena arise: as in the experiment of two liquids which, when mixed in certain proportions, instantly become, not a larger amount of liquid, but a solid mass. 132 I omit, for simplicity, to take into account the effect, in this latter case, of the diminution of pressure, in diminishing the flow of water through the drain; which evidently in no way affects the truth or applicability of the principle, since when the two causes act simultaneously the conditions of that diminution of pressure do not arise. 236 2. This difference between the case in which the joint effect of causes is the sum of their separate effects, and the case in which it is heterogeneous to them between laws which work together without alteration, and laws which, when called upon to work together, cease and give place to othersis one of the fundamental distinctions in nature. The former case, that of the Composition of Causes, is the general one; the other is always special and exceptional. There are no objects which do not, as to some of their phenomena, obey the principle of the Composition of Causes; none that have not some laws which are rigidly fulfilled in every combination into which the objects enter. The weight of a body, for instance, is a property which it retains in all the combinations in which it is placed . The weight of a chemical compound, or of an organized body, is equal to the sum of the weights of the elements which compose it. The weight either of the elements or of the compound will vary, if they be carried farther from their centre of attraction, or brought nearer to it; but whatever effects the one effects the other. They always remain precisely equal. So, again, the component parts of a vegetable or animal substance do not lose their mechanical and chemical properties as separate agents, when, by a peculiar mode of juxtaposition, they, as an aggregate whole, acquire physiological or vital properties in addition. Those bodies continue, as before, to obey mechanical and chemical laws, in so far as the operation of those laws is not counteracted by the new laws which govern them as organized beings; when, in short, a concurrence of causes takes place which calls into action new laws bearing no analogy to any that we can trace in the separate operation of the causes, the new laws, while they supersede one portion of the previous laws, may co-exist with another portion, and may even compound the effect of those previous laws with their own. Again, laws which were themselves generated in the second mode, may generate others in the first. Though there are laws which, like those of chemistry and physiology, owe their existence to a breach of the principle of Composition of Causes, it does not follow that these peculiar, or, as they might be termed, heteropathic laws, are not capable of composition with one an other. The causes which by one combination have had their laws altered, may carry their new laws with them unaltered into their ulterior combinations. And hence there is no reason to despair of ultimately raising chemistry and physiology to the condition of deductive sciences; for though it is impossible to deduce all chemical and physiological truths from the laws or properties of simple substances or elementary agents, they may possibly be deducible from laws which commence when these elementary agents ar e brought together into some moderate number of not very complex combinations. The Laws of Life will never be deducible from the mere laws of the ingredients, but the prodigiously complex Facts of Life may all be deducible from comparatively simple laws of life; which laws (depending indeed on combinations, but on comparatively simple combinations, of antecedents) may, in more complex circumstances, be strictly compounded with one another, and with the physical and chemical laws of the ingredients. The details of the vital phenomena, even now, afford innumerable exemplifications of the Composition of Causes; and in proportion as these phenomena are more accurately studied, there appears more reason to believe that the same laws which operate in the simpler c ombinations of circumstances do, in fact, continue to be observed in the more complex. This will be found equally true in the phenomena of mind; and even in social and political phenomena, the results of the laws of mind. It is in the case of chemical phen omena that the least progress has yet been made in bringing the special laws under general ones from which they may be deduced; but there are even in chemistry many circumstances to encourage the hope that such general laws will hereafter be discovered. The different actions of a chemical compound will never, undoubtedly, be found to be the sums of the actions of its separate elements; but there may exist, between the properties of the compound and those of its elements, some constant relation, which, if di scoverable by a sufficient induction, would enable us to foresee the sort of compound which will result from a 237 new combination before we have actually tried it, and to judge of what sort of elements some new substance is compounded before we have analyzed it. The law of definite proportions, first discovered in its full generality by Dalton, is a complete solution of this problem in one, though but a secondary aspect, that of quantity; and in respect to quality, we have already some partial generalizations, sufficient to indicate the possibility of ultimately proceeding farther. We can predicate some common properties of the kind of compounds which result from the combination, in each of the small number of possible proportions, of any acid whatever with any base. We have also the curious law, discovered by Berthollet, that two soluble salts mutually decompose one another whenever the new combinations which result produce an insoluble compound, or one less soluble than the two former. Another uniformity is that called the law of isomorphism; the identity of the crystalline forms of substances which possess in common certain peculiarities of chemical composition. P132F133 P Thus it appears that even heteropathic laws, such laws of combined agency as are not compounded of the laws of the separate agencies, are yet, at least in some cases, derived from them according to a fixed principle. There may, therefore, be laws of the generation of laws from others dissimilar to them; and in chemistry, these undiscovered laws of the dependence of the properties of the compound on the properties of its elements, may, together with the laws of the elements themselves, furnish the premises by which the science is perhaps destined one day to be rendered deductive. It would seem, therefore, that there is no class of phenomena in which the Composition of Causes does not obtain: that as a general rule, causes in combination produce exactly the same effects as when acting singly: but that this rule, though general, is not universal: that in some instances, at some particular points in the transition from separate to united action, the laws change, and an entirely new set of effects are either added to, or take the place of, those which arise from the separate agency of the same causes: the laws of these new effects being again susceptible of composition, to an indefinite extent, like the laws which they superseded. 3. That effects are proportional to their causes is laid down by some writers as an axiom in the theory of causation; and great use is sometimes made of this principle in reasonings respecting the laws of nature, though it is encumbered with many difficulties and apparent exceptions, which much ingenuity has been expended in showing not to be real ones. This proposition, in so far a s it is true, enters as a particular case into the general principle of the Composition of Causes; the causes compounded being, in this instance, homogeneous; in which case, if in any, their joint effect might be expected to be identical with the sum of their separate effects. If a force equal to one hundred weight will raise a certain body along an inclined plane, a force equal to two hundred weight will raise two bodies exactly similar, and thus the effect is proportional to the cause. But does not a force equal to two hundred weight actually contain in itself two forces each equal to one hundred weight, which, if employed apart, would separately raise the two bodies in question? The fact, therefore, that when exerted jointly they raise both bodies at once, results from the Composition of Causes, and is a mere instance of the general fact that mechanical forces are subject to the law of Composition. And so in every other case which can be supposed. For the doctrine of the proportionality of effects to their causes can not of course be applicable to cases in which the augmentation of the cause alters the kind of effect; that is, in which the surplus quantity superadded to the cause does not become compounded with it, but the two together generate an altogether new phenomenon. Suppose that the application of a certain quantity of heat to a 133 Professor Bain adds several other well -established chemical generalizations: The laws that simple substances exhibit the strongest affinities; that compounds are more fusible than their elements; that combination tends to a lower state of matter from gas down to solid; and some general propositions concerning the circumstances which facilitate or resist chemical combination. (Logic, ii., 254.) 238 body merely increases its bulk, that a double quantity melts it, and a triple quantity decomposes it: these three effects being heterogeneous, no ratio, whether corresponding or not to that of the quantities of heat applied, can be established between them. Thus the supposed axiom of the proportionality of effects to their causes fails at the precise point where the principle of the Composition of Causes also fails; viz., wher e the concurrence of causes is such as to determine a change in the properties of the body generally, and render it subject to new laws, more or less dissimilar to those to which it conformed in its previous state. The recognition, therefore, of any such law of proportionality is superseded by the more comprehensive principle, in which as much of it as is true is implicitly asserted. P133F134 P The general remarks on causation, which seemed necessary as an introduction to the theory of the inductive process, may here terminate. That process is essentially an inquiry into cases of causation. All the uniformities which exist in the succession of phenomena, and most of the uniformities in their co -existence, are either, as we have seen, themselves laws of causation, or consequences resulting from, and corollaries capable of being deduced from, such laws. If we could determine what causes are correctly assigned to what effects, and what effects to what causes, we should be virtually acquainted with the whole course of na ture. All those uniformities which are mere results of causation might then be explained and accounted for; and every individual fact or event might be predicted, provided we had the requisite data, that is, the requisite knowledge of the circumstances which, in the particular instance, preceded it. To ascertain, therefore, what are the laws of causation which exist in nature; to determine the effect of every cause, and the causes of all effects, is the main business of Induction; and to point out how this is done is the chief object of Inductive Logic. 134 Professor Bain (Logic, ii., 39) points out a class of cases, other than that spoken of in the text, which he thinks must be regarded as an exception to the Composition of Causes. Causes that merely make good the collocation for bringing a prime mover into action, or that release a potential force, do not follow any such rule. One man may direct a gun upon a fort as well as three: two sparks are not more effectual than one in exploding a barrel of gunpowder. In medicine there is a certain dose that answers the end; and adding to it does no more good. I am not sure that these cases are really exceptions. The law of Composition of Causes, I think, is really fulfilled, and the appearance to the contrary is produced by attending to the remote instead of the immediate effect of the causes. In the cases mentioned, the immediate effect of the causes in action is a collocation, and the duplication of the cause does double the quantity of collocation. Two men could raise the gun to the required angle twice as quickly as one, though one is enough. Two sparks put two sets of particles of the gunpowder into the state of intestine motion which makes them explode, though one is sufficient. It is the collocation itself that does not, by being doubled, always double the effect; because in many cases a certain collocation, once obtained, is all that is required for the production of the whole amount of effect which can be produced at all at the given time and place. Doubling the collocation with difference of time and place, as by pointing two guns, or exploding a second barrel after the first, does double the effect. This remark applies still more to Mr. Bain's third example, that of a double dose of medicine; for a double dose of an aperient does purge more violently, and a double dose of laudanum does produce longer and sounder sleep. But a double purging, or a double amount of narcotism, may have remote effects different in kind from the effect of the smaller amount, reducing the case to that of heteropathic laws, discussed in the text. 239 VII. On Observation And Experiment 1. It results from the preceding exposition, that the process of ascertaining what consequents, in nature, are invariably connected with what antecedents, or in other words what phenomena are related to each other as causes and effects, is in some sort a process of analysis. That every fact which begins to exist has a cause, and that this cause must be found in some fact or concourse of facts whic h immediately preceded the occurrence, may be taken for certain. The whole of the present facts are the infallible result of all past facts, and more immediately of all the facts which existed at the moment previous. Here, then, is a great sequence, which we know to be uniform. If the whole prior state of the entire universe could again recur, it would again be followed by the present state. The question is, how to resolve this complex uniformity into the simpler uniformities which compose it, and assign to each portion of the vast antecedent the portion of the consequent which is attendant on it. This operation, which we have called analytical, inasmuch as it is the resolution of a complex whole into the component elements, is more than a merely mental analysis. No mere contemplation of the phenomena, and partition of them by the intellect alone, will of itself accomplish the end we have now in view. Nevertheless, such a mental partition is an indispensable first step. The order of nature, as perceived at a first glance, presents at every instant a chaos followed by another chaos. We must decompose each chaos into single facts. We must learn to see in the chaotic antecedent a multitude of distinct antecedents, in the chaotic consequent a multitude of distinct consequents. This, supposing it done, will not of itself tell us on which of the antecedents each consequent is invariably attendant. To determine that point, we must endeavor to effect a separation of the facts from one another, not in our minds only, but in nature. The mental analysis, however, must take place first. And every one knows that in the mode of performing it, one intellect differs immensely from another. It is the essence of the act of observing; for the observer is not he who merely sees the thing which is before his eyes, but he who sees what parts that thing is composed of. To do this well is a rare talent. One person, from inattention, or attending only in the wrong place, overlooks half of what he sees; another sets down much more than he sees, confounding it with what he imagines, or with what he infers; another takes note of the kind of all the circumstances, but being inexpert in estimating their degree, leaves the quantity of each vague and uncertain; another sees indeed the whole, but makes such an awkward division of it into parts, throwing things into one mass which require to be separated, and separating others which might more conveniently be considered as one, that the result is much the same, sometimes even worse, than if no analysis had been attempted at all. It would be possible to point out what qualities of mind, and modes of mental culture, fit a person for being a good observer: that, however, is a question not of Logic, but of the Theory of Education, in the most enlarged sense of the term. There is not properly an Art of Observing. There may be rules for observing. But these, like rules for inventing, are properly instructions for the preparation of one's own mind; for putting it into the state in which it will be most fitted to observe, or most likely to invent. They are, therefore, essentially rules of self-education, which is a different thing from Logic. They do not teach how to do the thing, but how to make ourselves capable of doing it. They are an art of strengthening the limbs, not an art of using them. The extent and minuteness of observation which may be requisite, and the degree of decomposition to which it may be necessary to carry the mental analysis, depend on the particular purpose in view. To ascertain the state of the whole universe at any particular 240 moment is impossible, but would also be useless. In making chemical experiments, we do not think it necessary to note the position of the planets; because experience has shown, as a very superficial experience is sufficient to show, that in such cases that circumstance is not material to the result: and accordingly, in the ages when men believed in the occult influences of the heavenly bodies, it might have been unphilosophical to omit ascertaining the precise condition of those bodies at the moment of the experiment. As to the degree of minuteness of the mental subdivision, if we were obliged to break down what we observe into its very simplest elements, that is, literally into single facts, it would be difficult to say where we should find them; we can hardly ever affirm that our divisions of any kind have reached the ultimate unit. But this, too, is fortunately unnecessary. The only object of the mental separation is to suggest the requisite physical separation, s o that we may either accomplish it ourselves, or seek for it in nature; and we have done enough when we have carried the subdivision as far as the point at which we are able to see what observations or experiments we require. It is only essential, at whatever point our mental decomposition of facts may for the present have stopped, that we should hold ourselves ready and able to carry it further as occasion requires, and should not allow the freedom of our discriminating faculty to be imprisoned by the swat hes and bands of ordinary classification; as was the case with all early speculative inquirers, not excepting the Greeks, to whom it seldom occurred that what was called by one abstract name might, in reality, be several phenomena, or that there was a possibility of decomposing the facts of the universe into any elements but those which ordinary language already recognized. 2. The different antecedents and consequents being, then, supposed to be, so far as the case requires, ascertained and discriminated from one another, we are to inquire which is connected with which. In every instance which comes under our observation, there are many antecedents and many consequents. If those antecedents could not be severed from one another except in thought, or if those consequents never were found apart, it would be impossible for us to distinguish ( a posteriori at least) the real laws, or to assign to any cause its effect, or to any effect its cause. To do so, we must be able to meet with some of the antecedents apart from the rest, and observe what follows from them; or some of the consequents, and observe by what they are preceded. We must, in short, follow the Baconian rule of varying the circumstances . This is, indeed, only the first rule of physical inquiry, and not, as some have thought, the sole rule; but it is the foundation of all the rest. For the purpose of varying the circumstances, we may have recourse (according to a distinction commonly made) either to observation or to experiment; we may either find an instance in nature suited to our purposes, or, by an artificial arrangement of circumstances, make one. The value of the instance depends on what it is in itself, not on the mode in which it is obtained: its employment for the purposes of induction depends on the same principles in the one case and in the other; as the uses of money are the same whether it is inherited or acquired. There is, in short, no difference in kind, no real logical distinction, between the two processes of investigat ion. There are, however, practical distinctions to which it is of considerable importance to advert. 3. The first and most obvious distinction between Observation and Experiment is, that the latter is an immense extension of the former. It not only enabl es us to produce a much greater number of variations in the circumstances than nature spontaneously offers, but also, in thousands of cases, to produce the precise sort of variation which we are in want of for discovering the law of the phenomenon; a service which nature, being constructed on a quite different scheme from that of facilitating our studies, is seldom so friendly as to bestow upon us. For example, in order to ascertain what principle in the atmosphere enables it to sustain life, the variation we require is that a living animal should be immersed in each component 241 element of the atmosphere separately. But nature does not supply either oxygen or azote in a separate state. We are indebted to artificial experiment for our knowledge that it is the former, and not the latter, which supports respiration; and for our knowledge of the very existence of the two ingredients. Thus far the advantage of experimentation over simple observation is universally recognized: all are aware that it enables us to obtain innumerable combinations of circumstances which are not to be found in nature, and so add to nature's experiments a multitude of experiments of our own. But there is another superiority (or, as Bacon would have expressed it, another prerogative) of instances artificially obtained over spontaneous instancesof our own experiments over even the same experiments when made by naturewhich is not of less importance, and which is far from being felt and acknowledged in the same degree. When we can produce a ph enomenon artificially, we can take it, as it were, home with us, and observe it in the midst of circumstances with which in all other respects we are accurately acquainted. If we desire to know what are the effects of the cause A, and are able to produce A by means at our disposal, we can generally determine at our own discretion, so far as is compatible with the nature of the phenomenon A, the whole of the circumstances which shall be present along with it: and thus, knowing exactly the simultaneous state of every thing else which is within the reach of A's influence, we have only to observe what alteration is made in that state by the presence of A. For example, by the electric machine we can produce, in the midst of known circumstances, the phenomena which nature exhibits on a grander scale in the form of lightning and thunder. Now let any one consider what amount of knowledge of the effects and laws of electric agency mankind could have obtained from the mere observation of thunder-storms, and compare it with that which they have gained, and may expect to gain, from electrical and galvanic experiments. This example is the more striking, now that we have reason to believe that electric action is of all natural phenomena (except heat) the most pervading and universal, which, therefore, it might antecedently have been supposed could stand least in need of artificial means of production to enable it to be studied; while the fact is so much the contrary, that without the electric machine, the Leyden jar, and the voltaic battery, we probably should never have suspected the existence of electricity as one of the great agents in nature; the few electric phenomena we should have known of would have continued to be regarded either as supernatural, or as a sort of anomalies and eccentricities in the order of the universe. When we have succeeded in insulating the phenomenon which is the subject of inquiry, by placing it among known circumstances, we may produce further variations of circumstances to any extent, and of such kinds as we think best calculated to bring the laws of the phenomenon into a clear light. By introducing one well- defined circumstance after another into the experiment, we obtain assurance of the manner in which the phenomenon behaves under an indefinite variety of possible circumstances. Thus, chemists, after having obtained some newly -discovered substance in a pure state (that is, having made sure that there is nothing present which can interfere with and modify its agency), introduce various other substances, one by one, to ascertain whether it will combine with them, or decompose them, and with what result; and also apply heat, or electricity, or pressure, to discover what will happen to the substance under each of these circumstances. But if, on the other hand, it is out of our power to produce the phenomenon, and we have to seek for instances in which nature produces it, the task before us is very different. 242 Instead of being able to choose what the concomitant circumstances shall be, we now have to discover what they are; which, when we go beyond the simplest and most accessible cases, it is next to impossible to do with any precision and completeness. Let us take, as an exemplification of a phenomenon which we have no means of fabricat ing artificially, a human mind. Nature produces many; but the consequence of our not being able to produce them by art is, that in every instance in which we see a human mind developing itself, or acting upon other things, we see it surrounded and obscured by an indefinite multitude of unascertainable circumstances, rendering the use of the common experimental methods almost delusive. We may conceive to what extent this is true, if we consider, among other things, that whenever Nature produces a human mind, she produces, in close connection with it, a body; that is, a vast complication of physical facts, in no two cases perhaps exactly similar, and most of which (except the mere structure, which we can examine in a sort of coarse way after it has ceased to act), are radically out of the reach of our means of exploration. If, instead of a human mind, we suppose the subject of investigation to be a human society or State, all the same difficulties recur in a greatly augmented degree. We have thus already come w ithin sight of a conclusion, which the progress of the inquiry will, I think, bring before us with the clearest evidence: namely, that in the sciences which deal with phenomena in which artificial experiments are impossible (as in the case of astronomy), or in which they have a very limited range (as in mental philosophy, social science, and even physiology), induction from direct experience is practiced at a disadvantage in most cases equivalent to impracticability; from which it follows that the methods o f those sciences, in order to accomplish any thing worthy of attainment, must be to a great extent, if not principally, deductive. This is already known to be the case with the first of the sciences we have mentioned, astronomy; that it is not generally recognized as true of the others, is probably one of the reasons why they are not in a more advanced state. 4. If what is called pure observation is at so great a disadvantage, compared with artificial experimentation, in one department of the direct exploration of phenomena, there is another branch in which the advantage is all on the side of the former. Inductive inquiry having for its object to ascertain what causes are connected with what effects, we may begin this search at either end of the road which leads from the one point to the other: we may either inquire into the effects of a given cause or into the causes of a given effect. The fact that light blackens chloride of silver might have been discovered either by experiments on light, trying what effect it would produce on various substances, or by observing that portions of the chloride had repeatedly become black, and inquiring into the circumstances. The effect of the urali poison might have become known either by administering it to animals, or by examining how it happened that the wounds which the Indians of Guiana inflict with their arrows prove so uniformly mortal. Now it is manifest from the mere statement of the examples, without any theoretical discussion, that artificial experimentation is a pplicable only to the former of these modes of investigation. We can take a cause, and try what it will produce; but we can not take an effect, and try what it will be produced by. We can only watch till we see it produced, or are enabled to produce it by accident. This would be of little importance, if it always depended on our choice from which of the two ends of the sequence we would undertake our inquiries. But we have seldom any option. As we can only travel from the known to the unknown, we are oblige d to commence at whichever end we are best acquainted with. If the agent is more familiar to us than its effects, we watch for, or contrive, instances of the agent, under such varieties of circumstances as are open to us, and observe the result. If, on the contrary, the conditions on which a phenomenon 243 depends are obscure, but the phenomenon itself familiar, we must commence our inquiry from the effect. If we are struck with the fact that chloride of silver has been blackened, and have no suspicion of the cause, we have no resource but to compare instances in which the fact has chanced to occur, until by that comparison we discover that in all those instances the substances had been exposed to light. If we knew nothing of the Indian arrows but their fatal effect, accident alone could turn our attention to experiments on the urali; in the regular course of investigation, we could only inquire, or try to observe, what had been done to the arrows in particular instances. Wherever, having nothing to guide us to t he cause, we are obliged to set out from the effect, and to apply the rule of varying the circumstances to the consequents, not the antecedents, we are necessarily destitute of the resource of artificial experimentation. We can not, at our choice, obtain c onsequents, as we can antecedents, under any set of circumstances compatible with their nature. There are no means of producing effects but through their causes, and by the supposition the causes of the effect in question are not known to us. We have, ther efore, no expedient but to study it where it offers itself spontaneously. If nature happens to present us with instances sufficiently varied in their circumstances, and if we are able to discover, either among the proximate antecedents or among some other order of antecedents, something which is always found when the effect is found, however various the circumstances, and never found when it is not, we may discover, by mere observation without experiment, a real uniformity in nature. But though this is certainly the most favorable case for sciences of pure observation, as contrasted with those in which artificial experiments are possible, there is in reality no case which more strikingly illustrates the inherent imperfection of direct induction when not founded on experimentation. Suppose that, by a comparison of cases of the effect, we have found an antecedent which appears to be, and perhaps is, invariably connected with it: we have not yet proved that antecedent to be the cause until we have reversed the process, and produced the effect by means of that antecedent. If we can produce the antecedent artificially, and if, when we do so, the effect follows, the induction is complete; that antecedent is the cause of that consequent. P134F135 P But we have then added the evidence of experiment to that of simple observation. Until we had done so, we had only proved invariable antecedence within the limits of experience, but not unconditional antecedence, or causation. Until it had been shown by the actual production of the antecedent under known circumstances, and the occurrence thereupon of the consequent, that the antecedent was really the condition on which it depended; the uniformity of succession which was proved to exist between them might, for aught we knew, be (like the succession of day and night) not a case of causation at all; both antecedent and consequent might be successive stages of the effect of an ulterior cause. Observation, in short, without experiment (supposing no aid from deduction) can ascertain sequences and co -existences, but can not prove causation. In order to see these remarks verified by the actual state of the sciences, we have only to think of the condition of natural history. In zoology, for example, there is an immense number of uniformities as certained, some of co -existence, others of succession, to many of which, notwithstanding considerable variations of the attendant circumstances, we know not any exception: but the antecedents, for the most part, are such as we can not artificially produce; or if we can, it is only by setting in motion the exact process by which nature produces them; and this being to us a mysterious process, of which the main circumstances 135 Unless, indeed, the consequent was generated, not by the antecedent, but by the means employed to produce the antecedent. As, however, these means are under our power, there is so far a probability that they are also sufficiently within our knowledge to enable us to judge whether that could be the case or not. 244 are not only unknown but unobservable, we do not succeed in obtaining the antecedents under known circumstances. What is the result? That on this vast subject, which affords so much and such varied scope for observation, we have made most scanty progress in ascertaining any laws of causation. We know not with certainty, in the case of most of the phenomena that we find conjoined, which is the condition of the other; which is cause, and which effect, or whether either of them is so, or they are not rather conjunct effects of causes yet to be discovered, complex results of laws hitherto unknown. Although some of the foregoing observations may be, in technical strictness of arrangement, premature in this place, it seemed that a few general remarks on the difference between sciences of mere observation and sciences of experimentation, and the extreme disadvantage under which directly inductive inquiry is necessarily carried on in the former, were the best preparation for discussing the methods of direct induction; a preparation rendering superfluous much that must otherwise have been introduced, with some inconvenience, into the heart of that discussion. To the consideration of these methods we now proceed. 245 VIII. Of The Four Methods Of Experimental Inquiry 1. The simplest and most obvious modes of singling out from among the circumstances which precede or follow a phenomenon, those with which it is really connected by an invariable law, are two in number. One is, by comparing together different instances in which the phenomenon occurs. The other is, by comparing instances in which the phenomenon does occur, with instances in other respects similar in which it does not. These two methods may be respectively denominated, the Method of Agreement, and the Method of Difference. In illustrating these methods, it will be nec essary to bear in mind the twofold character of inquiries into the laws of phenomena; which may be either inquiries into the cause of a given effect, or into the effects or properties of a given cause. We shall consider the methods in their application to either order of investigation, and shall draw our examples equally from both. We shall denote antecedents by the large letters of the alphabet, and the consequents corresponding to them by the small. Let A, then, be an agent or cause, and let the object of our inquiry be to ascertain what are the effects of this cause. If we can either find, or produce, the agent A in such varieties of circumstances that the different cases have no circumstance in common except A; then whatever effect we find to be produced in all our trials, is indicated as the effect of A. Suppose, for example, that A is tried along with B and C, and that the effect is a b c ; and suppose that A is next tried with D and E, but without B and C, and that the effect is a d e . Then we may reaso n thus: b and c are not effects of A, for they were not produced by it in the second experiment; nor are d and e, for they were not produced in the first. Whatever is really the effect of A must have been produced in both instances; now this condition is fulfilled by no circumstance except a. The phenomenon a can not have been the effect of B or C, since it was produced where they were not; nor of D or E, since it was produced where they were not. Therefore it is the effect of A. For example, let the antecedent A be the contact of an alkaline substance and an oil. This combination being tried under several varieties of circumstances, resembling each other in nothing else, the results agree in the production of a greasy and detersive or saponaceous substance: it is therefore concluded that the combination of an oil and an alkali causes the production of a soap. It is thus we inquire, by the Method of Agreement, into the effect of a given cause. In a similar manner we may inquire into the cause of a given effect. Let a be the effect. Here, as shown in the last chapter, we have only the resource of observation without experiment: we can not take a phenomenon of which we know not the origin, and try to find its mode of production by producing it: if we succeeded in such a random trial it could only be by accident. But if we can observe a in two different combinations, a b c and a d e ; and if we know, or can discover, that the antecedent circumstances in these cases respectively were A B C and A D E, we may conclude by a reasoning similar to that in the preceding example, that A is the antecedent connected with the consequent a by a law of causation. B and C, we may say, can not be causes of a, since on its second occurrence they were not present; nor are D and E, for they were not present on its first occurrence. A, alone of the five circumstances, was found among the antecedents of a in both instances. 246 For example, let the effect a be crystallization. We compare instances in which bodies are known to assume crystalline structure, but which have no other point of agreement; and we find them to have one, and as far as we can observe, only one, antecedent in common: the deposition of a solid matter from a liquid state, either a state of fusion or of solution. We conclude, therefore, that the solidification of a substance from a liquid state is an invariable antecedent of its crystallization. In this example we may go further, and say, it is not only the invariable antecedent but the cause; or at least the proximate event which completes the cause. For in this case we are able, after detecting the antecedent A, to produce it artificially, and by finding that a follows it, verify the result of our induction. The importance of thus reversing the proof was strikingly manifest ed when, by keeping a phial of water charged with siliceous particles undisturbed for years, a chemist (I believe Dr. Wollaston) succeeded in obtaining crystals of quartz; and in the equally interesting experiment in which Sir James Hall produced artificia l marble by the cooling of its materials from fusion under immense pressure: two admirable examples of the light which may be thrown upon the most secret processes of Nature by well-contrived interrogation of her. But if we can not artificially produce the phenomenon A, the conclusion that it is the cause of a remains subject to very considerable doubt. Though an invariable, it may not be the unconditional antecedent of a, but may precede it as day precedes night or night day. This uncertainty arises from the impossibility of assuring ourselves that A is the only immediate antecedent common to both the instances. If we could be certain of having ascertained all the invariable antecedents, we might be sure that the unconditional invariable antecedent, or cause, must be found somewhere among them. Unfortunately it is hardly ever possible to ascertain all the antecedents, unless the phenomenon is one which we can produce artificially. Even then, the difficulty is merely lightened, not removed: men knew how to ra ise water in pumps long before they adverted to what was really the operating circumstance in the means they employed, namely, the pressure of the atmosphere on the open surface of the water. It is, however, much easier to analyze completely a set of arran gements made by ourselves, than the whole complex mass of the agencies which nature happens to be exerting at the moment of the production of a given phenomenon. We may overlook some of the material circumstances in an experiment with an electrical machine ; but we shall, at the worst, be better acquainted with them than with those of a thunder- storm. The mode of discovering and proving laws of nature, which we have now examined, proceeds on the following axiom: Whatever circumstances can be excluded, without prejudice to the phenomenon, or can be absent notwithstanding its presence, is not connected with it in the way of causation. The casual circumstances being thus eliminated, if only one remains, that one is the cause which we are in search of: if more th an one, they either are, or contain among them, the cause; and so, mutatis mutandis , of the effect. As this method proceeds by comparing different instances to ascertain in what they agree, I have termed it the Method of Agreement; and we may adopt as its regulating principal the following canon: First Canon. If two or more instances of the phenomenon under investigation have only one circumstance in common, the circumstance in which alone all the instances agree, is the cause (or effect) of the given phenomenon. Quitting for the present the Method of Agreement, to which we shall almost immediately return, we proceed to a still more potent instrument of the investigation of nature, the Method of Difference. 247 2. In the Method of Agreement, we endeavored to obtain instances which agreed in the given circumstance but differed in every other: in the present method we require, on the contrary, two instances resembling one another in every other respect, but differing in the presence or absence of the phenomenon we wish to study. If our object be to discover the effects of an agent A, we must procure A in some set of ascertained circumstances, as A B C, and having noted the effects produced, compare them with the effect of the remaining circumstances B C, when A is absent. If the effect of A B C is a b c , and the effect of B C b c , it is evident that the effect of A is a. So again, if we begin at the other end, and desire to investigate the cause of an effect a, we must select an instance, as a b c , in which the effect occurs, and in which the antecedents were A B C, and we must look out for another instance in which the remaining circumstances, b c, occur without a. If the antecedents, in that instance, are B C, we know that the cause of a must be A: either A alone, or A in conjunction with some of the other circumstances present. It is scarcely necessary to give examples of a logical process to which we owe almost all the inductive conclusions we draw in daily life. When a man is shot through the hear t, it is by this method we know that it was the gunshot which killed him: for he was in the fullness of life immediately before, all circumstances being the same, except the wound. The axioms implied in this method are evidently the following. Whatever ant ecedent can not be excluded without preventing the phenomenon, is the cause, or a condition, of that phenomenon: whatever consequent can be excluded, with no other difference in the antecedents than the absence of a particular one, is the effect of that one. Instead of comparing different instances of a phenomenon, to discover in what they agree, this method compares an instance of its occurrence with an instance of its non -occurrence, to discover in what they differ. The canon which is the regulating principle of the Method of Difference may be expressed as follows: Second Canon. If an instance in which the phenomenon under investigation occurs, and an instance in which it does not occur, have every circumstance in common save one, that one occurring only in the former; the circumstance in which alone the two instances differ, is the effect, or the cause, or an indispensable part of the cause, of the phenomenon. 3. The two methods which we have now stated have many features of resemblance, but there are al so many distinctions between them. Both are methods of elimination . This term (employed in the theory of equations to denote the process by which one after another of the elements of a question is excluded, and the solution made to depend on the relation between the remaining elements only) is well suited to express the operation, analogous to this, which has been understood since the time of Bacon to be the foundation of experimental inquiry: namely, the successive exclusion of the various circumstances which are found to accompany a phenomenon in a given instance, in order to ascertain what are those among them which can be absent consistently with the existence of the phenomenon. The Method of Agreement stands on the ground that whatever can be eliminated, is not connected with the phenomenon by any law. The Method of Difference has for its foundation, that whatever can not be eliminated, is connected with the phenomenon by a law. Of these methods, that of Difference is more particularly a method of artifi cial experiment; while that of Agreement is more especially the resource employed where experimentation is impossible. A few reflections will prove the fact, and point out the reason of it. It is inherent in the peculiar character of the Method of Difference, that the nature of the combinations which it requires is much more strictly defined than in the Method of 248 Agreement. The two instances which are to be compared with one another must be exactly similar, in all circumstances except the one which we are attempting to investigate: they must be in the relation of A B C and B C, or of a b c and b c. It is true that this similarity of circumstances needs not extend to such as are already known to be immaterial to the result. And in the case of most phenomena w e learn at once, from the commonest experience, that most of the co-existent phenomena of the universe may be either present or absent without affecting the given phenomenon; or, if present, are present indifferently when the phenomenon does not happen and when it does. Still, even limiting the identity which is required between the two instances, A B C and B C, to such circumstances as are not already known to be indifferent, it is very seldom that nature affords two instances, of which we can be assured t hat they stand in this precise relation to one another. In the spontaneous operations of nature there is generally such complication and such obscurity, they are mostly either on so overwhelmingly large or on so inaccessibly minute a scale, we are so ignor ant of a great part of the facts which really take place, and even those of which we are not ignorant are so multitudinous, and therefore so seldom exactly alike in any two cases, that a spontaneous experiment, of the kind required by the Method of Difference, is commonly not to be found. When, on the contrary, we obtain a phenomenon by an artificial experiment, a pair of instances such as the method requires is obtained almost as a matter of course, provided the process does not last a long time. A certain state of surrounding circumstances existed before we commenced the experiment; this is B C. We then introduce A; say, for instance, by merely bringing an object from another part of the room, before there has been time for any change in the other elements . It is, in short (as M. Comt observes), the very nature of an experiment, to introduce into the pre- existing state of circumstances a change perfectly definite. We choose a previous state of things with which we are well acquainted, so that no unforeseen alteration in that state is likely to pass unobserved; and into this we introduce, as rapidly as possible, the phenomenon which we wish to study; so that in general we are entitled to feel complete assurance that the pre- existing state, and the state whic h we have produced, differ in nothing except the presence or absence of that phenomenon. If a bird is taken from a cage, and instantly plunged into carbonic acid gas, the experimentalist may be fully assured (at all events after one or two repetitions) tha t no circumstance capable of causing suffocation had supervened in the interim, except the change from immersion in the atmosphere to immersion in carbonic acid gas. There is one doubt, indeed, which may remain in some cases of this description; the effect may have been produced not by the change, but by the means employed to produce the change. The possibility, however, of this last supposition generally admits of being conclusively tested by other experiments. It thus appears that in the study of the various kinds of phenomena which we can, by our voluntary agency, modify or control, we can in general satisfy the requisitions of the Method of Difference; but that by the spontaneous operations of nature those requisitions are seldom fulfilled. The reverse o f this is the case with the Method of Agreement. We do not here require instances of so special and determinate a kind. Any instances whatever, in which nature presents us with a phenomenon, may be examined for the purposes of this method; and if all such instances agree in any thing, a conclusion of considerable value is already attained. We can seldom, indeed, be sure that the one point of agreement is the only one; but this ignorance does not, as in the Method of Difference, vitiate the conclusion; the certainty of the result, as far as it goes, is not affected. We have ascertained one invariable antecedent or consequent, however many other invariable antecedents or consequents may still remain unascertained. If A B C, A D E, A F G, are all equally followed by a, then a is an invariable consequent of A. If a b c , a d e , a f g, all number A among their antecedents, then A is connected as an antecedent, by some invariable law, with a. But to determine whether this invariable 249 antecedent is a cause, or this in variable consequent an effect, we must be able, in addition, to produce the one by means of the other; or, at least, to obtain that which alone constitutes our assurance of having produced any thing, namely, an instance in which the effect, a, has come into existence, with no other change in the pre-existing circumstances than the addition of A. And this, if we can do it, is an application of the Method of Difference, not of the Method of Agreement. It thus appears to be by the Method of Difference alone that we can ever, in the way of direct experience, arrive with certainty at causes. The Method of Agreement leads only to laws of phenomena (as some writers call them, but improperly, since laws of causation are also laws of phenomena): that is, to uniformities, which either are not laws of causation, or in which the question of causation must for the present remain undecided. The Method of Agreement is chiefly to be resorted to, as a means of suggesting applications of the Method of Difference (as in the las t example the comparison of A B C, A D E, A F G, suggested that A was the antecedent on which to try the experiment whether it could produce a); or as an inferior resource, in case the Method of Difference is impracticable; which, as we before showed, generally arises from the impossibility of artificially producing the phenomena. And hence it is that the Method of Agreement, though applicable in principle to either case, is more emphatically the method of investigation on those subjects where artificial experimentation is impossible; because on those it is, generally, our only resource of a directly inductive nature; while, in the phenomena which we can produce at pleasure, the Method of Difference generally affords a more efficacious process, which will as certain causes as well as mere laws. 4. There are, however, many cases in which, though our power of producing the phenomenon is complete, the Method of Difference either can not be made available at all, or not without a previous employment of the Method of Agreement. This occurs when the agency by which we can produce the phenomenon is not that of one single antecedent, but a combination of antecedents, which we have no power of separating from each other, and exhibiting apart. For instance, suppose the subject of inquiry to be the cause of the double refraction of light. We can produce this phenomenon at pleasure, by employing any one of the many substances which are known to refract light in that peculiar manner. But if, taking one of those substances, as Iceland spar, for example, we wish to determine on which of the properties of Iceland spar this remarkable phenomenon depends, we can make no use, for that purpose, of the Method of Difference; for we can not find another substance precisely resembling Iceland spar except in some one property. The only mode, therefore, of prosecuting this inquiry is that afforded by the Method of Agreement; by which, in fact, through a comparison of all the known substances which have the property of doubly refracting light, it was ascertained that they agree in the circumstance of being crystalline substances; and though the converse does not hold, though all crystalline substances have not the property of double refraction, it was concluded, with reason, that there is a real connection between these two properties; that either crystalline structure, or the cause which gives rise to that structure, is one of the conditions of double refraction. Out of this employment of the Method of Agreement arises a peculiar modification of that method, which is sometimes of great avail in the investigation of nature. In cases similar to the above, in which it is not possible to obtain the precise pair of instances which our second canon requiresinstances agreeing in every antecedent except A, or in every consequent except a, we may yet be able, by a double employment of the Method of Agreement, to discover in what the instances which contain A or a differ from those which do not. 250 If we compare various instances in which a occurs, and find that they all have in common the circumstance A, and (as far as can be observed) no other circumstance, the Method of Agreement, so far, bears testimony to a connection between A and a. In order to convert this evidence of connection into proof of causation by the direct Method of Difference, we ought to be able, in some one of these instances, as for example, A B C, to leave out A, and observe whether by doing so, a is prevented. Now supposing (what is often the case) that we are not able to try this decisive experiment; yet, provided we can by any means discover what would be its result if we could try it, the advantage will be the same. Suppose, then, that as we previously examined a variety of instances in which a occurred, and found them to agree in containing A, so we now observe a variety of instances in which a does not occur, and find them agree in not containing A; which establishes, by the Method of Agreement, the same connection between the absence of A and the absence of a, which was before established between their presence. As, then, it had been shown that whenever A is present a is present, so, it being now shown that when A is taken away a is removed along with it, we have by the one proposition A B C, a b c , by the other B C, b c , the positive and negative instances which the Method of Difference requires. This method may be called the Indirect Method of Difference, or the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference; and consists in a double employment of the Method of Agreement, each proof being independent of the other, and corroborating it. But it is not equivalent to a proof by the direct Method of Difference. For the requisitions of the Method of Difference are not satisfied, unless we can be quite sure either that the instances affirmat ive of a agree in no antecedent whatever but A, or that the instances negative of a agree in nothing but the negation of A. Now, if it were possible, which it never is, to have this assurance, we should not need the joint method; for either of the two sets of instances separately would then be sufficient to prove causation. This indirect method, therefore, can only be regarded as a great extension and improvement of the Method of Agreement, but not as participating in the more cogent nature of the Method of Difference. The following may be stated as its canon: Third Canon. If two or more instances in which the phenomenon occurs have only one circumstance in common, while two or more instances in which it does not occur have nothing in common save the absence of that circumstance, the circumstance in which alone the two sets of instances differ, is the effect, or the cause, or an indispensable part of the cause, of the phenomenon. We shall presently see that the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference constit utes, in another respect not yet adverted to, an improvement upon the common Method of Agreement, namely, in being unaffected by a characteristic imperfection of that method, the nature of which still remains to be pointed out. But as we can not enter into this exposition without introducing a new element of complexity into this long and intricate discussion, I shall postpone it to a subsequent chapter, and shall at once proceed to a statement of two other methods, which will complete the enumeration of the means which mankind possess for exploring the laws of nature by specific observation and experience. 5. The first of these has been aptly denominated the Method of Residues. Its principle is very simple. Subducting from any given phenomenon all the portions which, by virtue of preceding inductions, can be assigned to known causes, the remainder will be the effect of the antecedents which had been overlooked, or of which the effect was as yet an unknown quantity. 251 Suppose, as before, that we have the antecedents A B C, followed by the consequents a b c , and that by previous inductions (founded, we will suppose, on the Method of Difference) we have ascertained the causes of some of these effects, or the effects of some of these causes; and are thence apprised that the effect of A is a, and that the effect of B is b. Subtracting the sum of these effects from the total phenomenon, there remains c , which now, without any fresh experiments, we may know to be the effect of C. This Method of Residues is in truth a peculiar modification of the Method of Difference. If the instance A B C, a b c , could have been compared with a single instance A B, a b, we should have proved C to be the cause of c , by the common process of the Method of Difference. In the present case, however, instead of a single instance A B, we have had to study separately the causes A and B, and to infer from the effects which they produce separately what effect they must produce in the case A B C, where they act together. Of the two instances, therefore, which the Method of Difference requires the one positive, the other negativethe negative one, or that in which the given phenomenon is absent, is not the direct result of observation and experiment, but has been arrived at by deduction. As one of the forms of the Method of Difference, the Method of Residues partakes of its rigorous certainty, provided the previous inductions, those which gave the effects of A and B, were obtained by the same infallible method, and provided we are certain that C is the only antecedent to which the residual phenomenon c can be referred; the only agent of which we had not already calculated and subducted the effect. But as we can never be quite certain of this, the evidence derived from the Method of Residues is not complete unless we can obtain C artificially, and try it separately, or unless its agency, when once suggested, can be accounted for, and proved deductively from known laws. Even with these reservations, the Method of Residues is one of the most important among our instruments of discovery. Of all the methods of investigating laws of nature, this is the most fertile in unexpected results: often informing us of sequences in which neither the cause nor the effect were sufficiently conspicuous to attract of themselves the attention of observers. The agent C may be an obscure circumstance, not likely to have been perceived unless sought for, nor likely to have been sought for until attention had been awakened by the insufficiency of the obvious causes to account for the whole of the effect. And c may be so disguised by its intermixture with a and b, that it would scarcely have presented itself spontaneously as a subject of separate study. Of these uses of the method, we shall presently cite some remarkable examples. The canon of the Method of Residues is as follows: Fourth Canon. Subduct from any phenomenon such part as is known by previous inductions to be the effect of certain antecedents, and the residue of the phenomenon is the effect of the remaining antecedents. 6. There remains a class of laws which it is impracticable to ascertain by any of the three methods which I have attempted to characterize: namely, the laws of those Permanent Causes, or indestructible natural agents, which it is impossible either to exclude or to isolate; which we can neither hinder from being present, nor contrive that they shall be present alone. It would appear at first sight that we could by no means separate the effects of these agents from the effects of those other phenomena with which they can not be prevented from co-existing. In respect, indeed, to most of the permanent causes, no such difficulty exists; since, though we can not eliminate them as co -existing facts, we can eliminate them as influencing agents, by simply trying our experiment in a local situation beyond the limits of their influence. The pendulum, for example, has its oscillations disturbed by the vicinity of a mountain: we remove the pendulum to a sufficient distance from the mountain, and the disturbanc e ceases: from these data we can determine by the Method of Difference, the 252 amount of effect due to the mountain; and beyond a certain distance every thing goes on precisely as it would do if the mountain exercised no influence whatever, which, accordingly, we, with sufficient reason, conclude to be the fact. The difficulty, therefore, in applying the methods already treated of to determine the effects of Permanent Causes, is confined to the cases in which it is impossible for us to get out of the local limits of their influence. The pendulum can be removed from the influence of the mountain, but it can not be removed from the influence of the earth: we can not take away the earth from the pendulum, nor the pendulum from the earth, to ascertain whether it would continue to vibrate if the action which the earth exerts upon it were withdrawn. On what evidence, then, do we ascribe its vibrations to the earth's influence? Not on any sanctioned by the Method of Difference; for one of the two instances, the negative instance, is wanting. Nor by the Method of Agreement; for though all pendulums agree in this, that during their oscillations the earth is always present, why may we not as well ascribe the phenomenon to the sun, which is equally a co- existent fact in all the experiments? It is evident that to establish even so simple a fact of causation as this, there was required some method over and above those which we have yet examined. As another example, let us take the phenomenon Heat. Independently of all hypothes is as to the real nature of the agency so called, this fact is certain, that we are unable to exhaust any body of the whole of its heat. It is equally certain that no one ever perceived heat not emanating from a body. Being unable, then, to separate Body a nd Heat, we can not effect such a variation of circumstances as the foregoing three methods require; we can not ascertain, by those methods, what portion of the phenomena exhibited by any body is due to the heat contained in it. If we could observe a body with its heat, and the same body entirely divested of heat, the Method of Difference would show the effect due to the heat, apart from that due to the body. If we could observe heat under circumstances agreeing in nothing but heat, and therefore not characterized also by the presence of a body, we could ascertain the effects of heat, from an instance of heat with a body and an instance of heat without a body, by the Method of Agreement; or we could determine by the Method of Difference what effect was due t o the body, when the remainder which was due to the heat would be given by the Method of Residues. But we can do none of these things; and without them the application of any of the three methods to the solution of this problem would be illusory. It would be idle, for instance, to attempt to ascertain the effect of heat by subtracting from the phenomena exhibited by a body all that is due to its other properties; for as we have never been able to observe any bodies without a portion of heat in them, effects due to that heat might form a part of the very results which we were affecting to subtract, in order that the effect of heat might be shown by the residue. If, therefore, there were no other methods of experimental investigation than these three, we shoul d be unable to determine the effects due to heat as a cause. But we have still a resource. Though we can not exclude an antecedent altogether, we may be able to produce, or nature may produce for us some modification in it. By a modification is here meant, a change in it not amounting to its total removal. If some modification in the antecedent A is always followed by a change in the consequent a, the other consequents b and c remaining the same; or vic versa , if every change in a is found to have been preceded by some modification in A, none being observable in any of the other antecedents, we may safely conclude that a is, wholly or in part, an effect traceable to A, or at least in some way connected with it through causation. For example, in the case of heat, though we can not expel it altogether from any body, we can modify it in quantity, we can increase or diminish it; and doing so, we find by the various methods of experimentation or observation already treated of, that such increase or diminution of heat is followed by expansion or contraction of the body. In this manner we 253 arrive at the conclusion, otherwise unattainable by us, that one of the effects of heat is to enlarge the dimensions of bodies; or, what is the same thing in other words, to widen the distances between their particles. A change in a thing, not amounting to its total removal, that is, a change which leaves it still the same thing it was, must be a change either in its quantity, or in some of its variable relations to other things, of which variable relations the principal is its position in space. In the previous example, the modification which was produced in the antecedent was an alteration in its quantity. Let us now suppose the question to be, what influence the moon exerts on the surface of the earth. We can not try an experiment in the absence of the moon, so as to observe what terrestrial phenomena her annihilation would put an end to; but when we find that all the variations in the position of the moon are followed by corresponding variations in the time and place of high water, the place being always either the part of the earth which is nearest to, or that which is most remote from, the moon, we have ample evidence that the moon is, wholly or partially, the cause which determines the tides. It very commonly happens, as it does in this instance, that the variations of an effect are correspondent, or analogous, to those of its cause; as the moon moves farther toward the east, the high-water point does the same: but this is not an indispensable condition, as may be seen in the same example, for along with that high- water point there is at the same instant another high-water point diametrically opposite to it, and which, therefore, of necessity, moves toward the west, as the moon, followed by the nearer of the tide waves, advances toward the east: and yet both these motions are equally effects of the moon's motion. That the oscillations of the pendulum are caused by the earth, is proved by similar evidence. Those oscillations take place between equidistant points on the two sides of a line, which, being perpendicular to the earth, varies with every variation in the earth's position, either in space or relatively to the object. Speaking accurately, we only know by the method now characterized, that all terrestrial bodies tend to the earth, and not to some unknown fixed point lying in the same direction. In every twenty-four hours, by the earth's rotation, the line drawn from the body at right angles to the earth coincides successively with all the radii of a circle, and in the course of six months the place of that circle varies by nearly two hundred millions of miles; yet in all these changes of the earth's position, the line in which bodies tend to fall continues to be directed toward it: which proves that terrestrial gravity is directed to the earth, and not, as was once fancied by some, to a fixed point of space. The method by which these results were obtained may be termed the Method of Concomitant Variations; it is regulated by the following canon: Fifth Canon. Whatever phenomenon varies in any manner whenever another phenomenon varies in some particular manner, is either a cause or an effect of that phenomenon, or is connected with it through some fact of causation. The last clause is subjoined, because it by no means follows when two phenomena accompany each other in their variations, that the one is cause and the other effect. The same thing may, and indeed must happen, supposing them to be two different effects of a common cause: and by this method alone it would never be possible to ascertain which of the suppositions is the true one. The only way to solve the doubt would be that which we have so often adverted to, viz., by endeavoring to ascertain whether we can produce the one set of variations by means of the other. In the case of heat, for example, by increasing the temperature of a body we increase its bulk, but by increasing its bulk we do not increase its temperature; on the contrary (as in the rarefactio n of air under the receiver of an air-pump), 254 we generally diminish it: therefore heat is not an effect, but a cause, of increase of bulk. If we can not ourselves produce the variations, we must endeavor, though it is an attempt which is seldom successful, to find them produced by nature in some case in which the pre-*existing circumstances are perfectly known to us. It is scarcely necessary to say, that in order to ascertain the uniform concomitance of variations in the effect with variations in the cause, the same precautions must be used as in any other case of the determination of an invariable sequence. We must endeavor to retain all the other antecedents unchanged, while that particular one is subjected to the requisite series of variations; or, in other words, that we may be warranted in inferring causation from concomitance of variations, the concomitance itself must be proved by the Method of Difference. It might at first appear that the Method of Concomitant Variations assumes a new axiom, or law of causation in general, namely, that every modification of the cause is followed by a change in the effect. And it does usually happen that when a phenomenon A causes a phenomenon a, any variation in the quantity or in the various relations of A, is uniformly followed by a variation in the quantity or relations of a. To take a familiar instance, that of gravitation. The sun causes a certain tendency to motion in the earth; here we have cause and effect; but that tendency is toward the sun, and therefore varies in direction as the sun varies in the relation of position; and, moreover, the tendency varies in intensity, in a certain numerical correspondence to the sun's distance from the earth, that is, according to another relation of the sun. Thus we see that there is not only an invariable connection between the sun and the earth's gravitation, but that two of the relations of the sun, its position with respect to the earth and its distance from the earth, are invariably connected as antecedents with the quantity and direction of the earth's gravitation. The cause of the earth's gravitating at all, is simply the sun; but the cause of its gravitating with a given intensity and in a given direction, is the existence of the sun in a given direction and at a given distance. It is not strange that a modified cause, which is in truth a different cause, should produce a different effect. Although it is for the most part true that a modification of the cause is followed by a modification of the effect, the Method of Concomitant Variations does not, however, presuppose this as an axiom. It only requires the converse proposition: that any thing on whose modifications, modifications of an effect are invariably consequent, must be the cause (or connected with the cause) of that effect; a proposition, the truth of which is evident; for if the thing itself had no influence on the effect, neither could the modifications of the thing have any influence. If the stars have no power over the fortunes of mankind, it is implied in the very terms that the conjunctions or oppositions of different stars can have no such power. Although the most striking applications of the Method of Concomitant Variations take place in the cases in which the Method of Difference, strictly so called, is imp ossible, its use is not confined to those cases; it may often usefully follow after the Method of Difference, to give additional precision to a solution which that has found. When by the Method of Difference it has first been ascertained that a certain object produces a certain effect, the Method of Concomitant Variations may be usefully called in, to determine according to what law the quantity or the different relations of the effect follow those of the cause. 7. The case in which this method admits of the most extensive employment, is that in which the variations of the cause are variations of quantity. Of such variations we may in general affirm with safety, that they will be attended not only with variations, but with similar variations, of the effect: the proposition that more of the cause is followed by more of the effect, being a corollary from the principle of the Composition of Causes, which, as we have 255 seen, is the general rule of causation; cases of the opposite description, in which causes chan ge their properties on being conjoined with one another, being, on the contrary, special and exceptional. Suppose, then, that when A changes in quantity, a also changes in quantity, and in such a manner that we can trace the numerical relation which the ch anges of the one bear to such changes of the other as take place within our limits of observation. We may then, with certain precautions, safely conclude that the same numerical relation will hold beyond those limits. If, for instance, we find that when A is double, a is double; that when A is treble or quadruple, a is treble or quadruple; we may conclude that if A were a half or a third, a would be a half or a third, and finally, that if A were annihilated, a would be annihilated; and that a is wholly the effect of A, or wholly the effect of the same cause with A. And so with any other numerical relation according to which A and a would vanish simultaneously; as, for instance, if a were proportional to the square of A. If, on the other hand, a is not wholly the effect of A, but yet varies when A varies, it is probably a mathematical function not of A alone, but of A and something else: its changes, for example, may be such as would occur if part of it remained constant, or varied on some other principl e, and the remainder varied in some numerical relations to the variations of A. In that case, when A diminishes, a will be seen to approach not toward zero, but toward some other limit; and when the series of variations is such as to indicate what that limit is, if constant, or the law of its variation, if variable, the limit will exactly measure how much of a is the effect of some other and independent cause, and the remainder will be the effect of A (or of the cause of A). These conclusions, however, must not be drawn without certain precautions. In the first place, the possibility of drawing them at all, manifestly supposes that we are acquainted not only with the variations, but with the absolute quantities both of A and a. If we do not know the total qu antities, we can not, of course, determine the real numerical relation according to which those quantities vary. It is, therefore, an error to conclude, as some have concluded, that because increase of heat expands bodies, that is, increases the distance between their particles, therefore the distance is wholly the effect of heat, and that if we could entirely exhaust the body of its heat, the particles would be in complete contact. This is no more than a guess, and of the most hazardous sort, not a legitimate induction: for since we neither know how much heat there is in any body, nor what is the real distance between any two of its particles, we can not judge whether the contraction of the distance does or does not follow the diminution of the quantity of heat according to such a numerical relation that the two quantities would vanish simultaneously. In contrast with this, let us consider a case in which the absolute quantities are known; the case contemplated in the first law of motion: viz., that all bodies in motion continue to move in a straight line with uniform velocity until acted upon by some new force. This assertion is in open opposition to first appearances; all terrestrial objects, when in motion, gradually abate their velocity, and at last stop; which accordingly the ancients, with their inductio per enumerationem simplicem , imagined to be the law. Every moving body, however, encounters various obstacles, as friction, the resistance of the atmosphere, etc., which we know by daily experience to be causes capable of destroying motion. It was suggested that the whole of the retardation might be owing to these causes. How was this inquired into? If the obstacles could have been entirely removed, the case would have been amenable to the Method of Diffe rence. They could not be removed, they could only be diminished, and the case, therefore, admitted only of the Method of Concomitant Variations. This accordingly being employed, it was found that every diminution of the obstacles diminished the retardation of the motion: and inasmuch as in this case (unlike the case of heat) the total quantities both of the antecedent and of the consequent were known, it was practicable to estimate, with an approach to 256 accuracy, both the amount of the retardation and the amount of the retarding causes, or resistances, and to judge how near they both were to being exhausted; and it appeared that the effect dwindled as rapidly, and at each step was as far on the road toward annihilation, as the cause was. The simple oscillatio n of a weight suspended from a fixed point, and moved a little out of the perpendicular, which in ordinary circumstances lasts but a few minutes, was prolonged in Borda's experiments to more than thirty hours, by diminishing as much as possible the frictio n at the point of suspension, and by making the body oscillate in a space exhausted as nearly as possible of its air. There could therefore be no hesitation in assigning the whole of the retardation of motion to the influence of the obstacles; and since, a fter subducting this retardation from the total phenomenon, the remainder was a uniform velocity, the result was the proposition known as the first law of motion. There is also another characteristic uncertainty affecting the inference that the law of variation which the quantities observe within our limits of observation, will hold beyond those limits. There is, of course, in the first instance, the possibility that beyond the limits, and in circumstances therefore of which we have no direct experience, so me counteracting cause might develop itself; either a new agent or a new property of the agents concerned, which lies dormant in the circumstances we are able to observe. This is an element of uncertainty which enters largely into all our predictions of ef fects; but it is not peculiarly applicable to the Method of Concomitant Variations. The uncertainty, however, of which I am about to speak, is characteristic of that method; especially in the cases in which the extreme limits of our observation are very narrow, in comparison with the possible variations in the quantities of the phenomena. Any one who has the slightest acquaintance with mathematics, is aware that very different laws of variation may produce numerical results which differ but slightly from one another within narrow limits; and it is often only when the absolute amounts of variation are considerable, that the difference between the results given by one law and by another becomes appreciable. When, therefore, such variations in the quantity of t he antecedents as we have the means of observing are small in comparison with the total quantities, there is much danger lest we should mistake the numerical law, and be led to miscalculate the variations which would take place beyond the limits; a miscalc ulation which would vitiate any conclusion respecting the dependence of the effect upon the cause, that could be founded on those variations. Examples are not wanting of such mistakes. The formul, says Sir John Herschel, P135F136 P which have been empirically deduced for the elasticity of steam (till very recently), and those for the resistance of fluids, and other similar subjects, when relied on beyond the limits of the observations from which they were deduced, "have almost invariably failed to support the t heoretical structures which have been erected on them." In this uncertainty, the conclusion we may draw from the concomitant variations of a and A, to the existence of an invariable and exclusive connection between them, or to the permanency of the same numerical relation between their variations when the quantities are much greater or smaller than those which we have had the means of observing, can not be considered to rest on a complete induction. All that in such a case can be regarded as proved on the subject of causation is, that there is some connection between the two phenomena; that A, or something which can influence A, must be one of the causes which collectively determine a. We may, however, feel assured that the relation which we have observed to exist between the variations of A and a, will hold true in all cases which fall between the same extreme limits; that is, wherever the utmost increase or diminution in which the result has been found by observation to coincide with the law, is not exceeded. 136 Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy , p. 179. 257 The four methods which it has now been attempted to describe, are the only possible modes of experimental inquiryof direct induction a posteriori , as distinguished from deduction: at least, I know not, nor am able to imagine any others. And even of these, the Method of Residues, as we have seen, is not independent of deduction; though, as it also requires specific experience, it may, without impropriety, be included among methods of direct observation and experiment. These, then, with such assistance as can be obtained from Deduction, compose the available resources of the human mind for ascertaining the laws of the succession of phenomena. Before proceeding to point out certain circumstances by which the employment of these methods is subjected to an immense increase of complication and of difficulty, it is expedient to illustrate the use of the methods, by suitable examples drawn from actual physical investigations. These, accordingly, will form the subject of the succeeding chapter. 258 IX. Miscellaneous Examples Of The Four Methods 1. I shall select, as a first example, an interesting speculation of one of the most eminent of theoretical chemists, Baron Liebig. The object in view is to ascertain the immediate cause of the deat h produced by metallic poisons. Arsenious acid, and the salts of lead, bismuth, copper, and mercury, if introduced into the animal organism, except in the smallest doses, destroy life. These facts have long been known, as insulated truths of the lowest order of generalization; but it was reserved for Liebig, by an apt employment of the first two of our methods of experimental inquiry, to connect these truths together by a higher induction, pointing out what property, common to all these deleterious substances, is the really operating cause of their fatal effect. When solutions of these substances are placed in sufficiently close contact with many animal products, albumen, milk, muscular fibre, and animal membranes, the acid or salt leaves the water in which it was dissolved, and enters into combination with the animal substance, which substance, after being thus acted upon, is found to have lost its tendency to spontaneous decomposition, or putrefaction. Observation also shows, in cases where death has been produced by these poisons, that the parts of the body with which the poisonous substances have been brought into contact, do not afterward putrefy. And, finally, when the poison has been supplied in too small a quantity to destroy life, eschars are produced , that is, certain superficial portions of the tissues are destroyed, which are afterward thrown off by the reparative process taking place in the healthy parts. These three sets of instances admit of being treated according to the Method of Agreement. In all of them the metallic compounds are brought into contact with the substances which compose the human or animal body; and the instances do not seem to agree in any other circumstance. The remaining antecedents are as different, and even opp osite, as they could possibly be made; for in some the animal substances exposed to the action of the poisons are in a state of life, in others only in a state of organization, in others not even in that. And what is the result which follows in all the cas es? The conversion of the animal substance (by combination with the poison) into a chemical compound, held together by so powerful a force as to resist the subsequent action of the ordinary causes of decomposition. Now, organic life (the necessary condition of sensitive life) consisting in a continual state of decomposition and recomposition of the different organs and tissues, whatever incapacitates them for this decomposition destroys life. And thus the proximate cause of the death produced by this descri ption of poisons is ascertained, as far as the Method of Agreement can ascertain it. Let us now bring our conclusion to the test of the Method of Difference. Setting out from the cases already mentioned, in which the antecedent is the presence of substances forming with the tissues a compound incapable of putrefaction, (and a fortiori incapable of the chemical actions which constitute life), and the consequent is death, either of the whole organism, or of some portion of it; let us compare with the se cases other cases, as much resembling them as possible, but in which that effect is not produced. And, first, many insoluble basic salts of arsenious acid are known not to be poisonous. The substance called alkargen, discovered by Bunsen, which contains a very large quantity of arsenic, and approaches very closely in composition to the organic arsenious compounds found in the body, has not the slightest injurious action upon the organism. Now when these substances are brought into contact 259 with the tiss ues in any way, they do not combine with them; they do not arrest their progress to decomposition. As far, therefore, as these instances go, it appears that when the effect is absent, it is by reason of the absence of that antecedent which we had already good ground for considering as the proximate cause. But the rigorous conditions of the Method of Difference are not yet satisfied; for we can not be sure that these unpoisonous bodies agree with the poisonous substances in every property, except the particu lar one of entering into a difficultly decomposable compound with the animal tissues. To render the method strictly applicable, we need an instance, not of a different substance, but of one of the very same substances, in circumstances which would prevent it from forming, with the tissues, the sort of compound in question; and then, if death does not follow, our case is made out. Now such instances are afforded by the antidotes to these poisons. For example, in case of poisoning by arsenious acid, if hydrated peroxide of iron is administered, the destructive agency is instantly checked. Now this peroxide is known to combine with the acid, and form a compound, which, being insoluble, can not act at all on animal tissues. So, again, sugar is a well- known antidote to poisoning by salts of copper; and sugar reduces those salts either into metallic copper, or into the red sub-oxide, neither of which enters into combination with animal matter. The disease called painter's colic, so common in manufactories of white-lead, is unknown where the workmen are accustomed to take, as a preservative, sulphuric acid lemonade (a solution of sugar rendered acid by sulphuric acid). Now diluted sulphuric acid has the property of decomposing all compounds of lead with organic matter, or of preventing them from being formed. There is another class of instances, of the nature required by the Method of Difference, which seem at first sight to conflict with the theory. Soluble salts of silver, such for instance as the nitrate, have the same stiffening antiseptic effect on decomposing animal substances as corrosive sublimate and the most deadly metallic poisons; and when applied to the external parts of the body, the nitrate is a powerful caustic, depriving those parts of all active vitality, and causing them to be thrown off by the neighboring living structures, in the form of an eschar. The nitrate and the other salts of silver ought, then, it would seem, if the theory be correct, to be poisonous; yet they may be administered internally with perfect impunity. From this apparent exception arises the strongest confirmation which the theory has yet received. Nitrate of silver, in spite of its chemical properties, does not poison when introduced into the stomach; but in the stomach, as in all animal liquids, there is common salt; and in the stomach there is also free muriatic acid. These substances operate as natural antidotes, combining with the nitrate, and if its quantity is not too great, immediately converting it into chloride of silver, a substance very slightly soluble, and therefore incapable of combining with the tissues, although to the extent of its solubility it has a medicinal influence, though an entirely different class of organic actions. The preceding instances have afforded an induction of a high order of conclusiveness, illustrative of the two simplest of our four methods; though not rising to the maximum of certainty which the Method of Difference, in its most perfect exemplification, is capable of affording. For (let us not forget) the positive instance and the negative one which the rigor of that method requires, ought to differ only in the presence or absence of one single circumstance. Now, in the preceding argument, they differ in the presence or absence not of a single circumstance , but of a single substance : and as every substance has innumerable properties, there is no knowing what number of real differences are involved in what is nominally and apparently only one difference. It is conceivable that the antidote, the peroxide of iron for example, may counteract the poison through some other of its properties than that of forming an insoluble compound with it; and if so, the theory would fall to the ground, so far as it is supported by that instance. This source of uncertainty, which is a serious 260 hinderance to all extensive generalizations in chemistry, is, however, reduced in the present case to almost the lowest degree possible, when we find that not only one substance, but many substances, possess the capacity of acting as antidotes to metallic poisons, and that all these agree in the property of forming insoluble compounds with the poisons, while they can not be ascertained to agree in any other property whatsoever. We have thus, in favor of the theory, all the evidence which can be obtained by what we termed the Indirect Method of Difference, or the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference; the evidence of which, though it never can amount to that of the Method of Difference properly so called, may approach indefinitely near to it. 2. Let the object be P136F137 P to ascertain the law of what is termed induced electricity; to find under what conditions any electrified body, whether positively or negatively electrified, gives rise to a contrary electric state in some other body a djacent to it. The most familiar exemplification of the phenomenon to be investigated is the following. Around the prime conductors of an electrical machine the atmosphere to some distance, or any conducting surface suspended in that atmosphere, is found to be in an electric condition opposite to that of the prime conductor itself. Near and around the positive prime conductor there is negative electricity, and near and around the negative prime conductor there is positive electricity. When pith balls are br ought near to either of the conductors, they become electrified with the opposite electricity to it; either receiving a share from the already electrified atmosphere by conduction, or acted upon by the direct inductive influence of the conductor itself: th ey are then attracted by the conductor to which they are in opposition; or, if withdrawn in their electrified state, they will be attracted by any other oppositely charged body. In like manner the hand, if brought near enough to the conductor, receives or gives an electric discharge; now we have no evidence that a charged conductor can be suddenly discharged unless by the approach of a body oppositely electrified. In the case, therefore, of the electric machine, it appears that the accumulation of electrici ty in an insulated conductor is always accompanied by the excitement of the contrary electricity in the surrounding atmosphere, and in every conductor placed near the former conductor. It does not seem possible, in this case, to produce one electricity by itself. Let us now examine all the other instances which we can obtain, resembling this instance in the given consequent, namely, the evolution of an opposite electricity in the neighborhood of an electrified body. As one remarkable instance we have the Leyden jar; and after the splendid experiments of Faraday in complete and final establishment of the substantial identity of magnetism and electricity, we may cite the magnet, both the natural and the electro -magnet, in neither of which it is possible to produce one kind of electricity by itself, or to charge one pole without charging an opposite pole with the contrary electricity at the same time. We can not have a magnet with one pole: if we break a natural loadstone into a thousand pieces, each piece will have its two oppositely electrified poles complete within itself. In the voltaic circuit, again, we can not have one current without its opposite. In the ordinary electric machine, the glass cylinder or plate, and the rubber, acquire opposite electricities . From all these instances, treated by the Method of Agreement, a general law appears to result. The instances embrace all the known modes in which a body can become charged with electricity; and in all of them there is found, as a concomitant or consequen t, the excitement of the opposite electric state in some other body or bodies. It seems to follow that the two facts are invariably connected, and that the excitement of electricity in any body has for one 137 For this speculation, as for many other of my scientific illustrations, I am indebted to Professor Bain, whose subsequent treatise on Logic abounds with apt illustrations of all the inductive methods. 261 of its necessary conditions the possibility of a simultaneous excitement of the opposite electricity in some neighboring body. As the two contrary electricities can only be produced together, so they can only cease together. This may be shown by an application of the Method of Difference to the example of the Leyden jar. It needs scarcely be here remarked that in the Leyden jar, electricity can be accumulated and retained in considerable quantity, by the contrivance of having two conducting surfaces of equal extent, and parallel to each other through the whole of that extent, with a non-conducting substance such as glass between them. When one side of the jar is charged positively, the other is charged negatively, and it was by virtue of this fact that the Leyden jar served just now as an instance in our employment of the Method of Agreement. Now it is impossible to discharge one of the coatings unless the other can be discharged at the same time. A conductor held to the positive side can not convey away any electricity unless an equal quantity be allowed to pass from the negative side: if one coating be perfectly insulated, the charge is safe. The dissipation of one must proceed pari passu with that of the other. The law thus strongly indicated admits of corroboration by the Method of Concomitant Variations. The Leyden jar is capable of receiving a much higher charge than can ordinarily be given to the conductor of an electrical machine. Now in the case of the Leyden jar, the metallic surface which receives the induced electricity is a conductor exactly simil ar to that which receives the primary charge, and is therefore as susceptible of receiving and retaining the one electricity, as the opposite surface of receiving and retaining the other; but in the machine, the neighboring body which is to be oppositely electrified is the surrounding atmosphere, or any body casually brought near to the conductor; and as these are generally much inferior in their capacity of becoming electrified, to the conductor itself, their limited power imposes a corresponding limit to the capacity of the conductor for being charged. As the capacity of the neighboring body for supporting the opposition increases, a higher charge becomes possible: and to this appears to be owing the great superiority of the Leyden jar. A further and most decisive confirmation by the Method of Difference, is to be found in one of Faraday's experiments in the course of his researches on the subject of Induced Electricity. Since common or machine electricity, and voltaic electricity, may be considered for the present purpose to be identical, Faraday wished to know whether, as the prime conductor develops opposite electricity upon a conductor in its vicinity, so a voltaic current running along a wire would induce an opposite current upon another wire laid paral lel to it at a short distance. Now this case is similar to the cases previously examined, in every circumstance except the one to which we have ascribed the effect. We found in the former instances that whenever electricity of one kind was excited in one body, electricity of the opposite kind must be excited in a neighboring body. But in Faraday's experiment this indispensable opposition exists within the wire itself. From the nature of a voltaic charge, the two opposite currents necessary to the existence of each other are both accommodated in one wire; and there is no need of another wire placed beside it to contain one of them, in the same way as the Leyden jar must have a positive and a negative surface. The exciting cause can and does produce all the effect which its laws require, independently of any electric excitement of a neighboring body. Now the result of the experiment with the second wire was, that no opposite current was produced. There was an instantaneous effect at the closing and breaking of the voltaic circuit; electric inductions appeared when the two wires were moved to and from one another; but these are phenomena of a different class. There was no induced electricity in the sense in which this is predicated of the Leyden jar; there was no sustained 262 current running up the one wire while an opposite current ran down the neighboring wire; and this alone would have been a true parallel case to the other. It thus appears by the combined evidence of the Method of Agreement, the Method of Concomitant Variations, and the most rigorous form of the Method of Difference, that neither of the two kinds of electricity can be excited without an equal excitement of the other and opposite kind: that both are effects of the same cause; that the possibility o f the one is a condition of the possibility of the other, and the quantity of the one an impassable limit to the quantity of the other. A scientific result of considerable interest in itself, and illustrating those three methods in a manner both characteri stic and easily intelligible. P137F138 P 3. Our third example shall be extracted from Sir John Herschel's Discourse course on the Study of Natural Philosophy , a work replete with happily- selected exemplifications of inductive processes from almost every department of physical science, and in which alone, of all books which I have met with, the four methods of induction are distinctly recognized, though not so clearly characterized and defined, nor their correlation so fully shown, as has appeared to me desirable. The present example is described by Sir John Herschel as one of the most beautiful specimens which can be cited of inductive experimental inquiry lying within a moderate compass; the theory of dew, first promulgated by the late Dr. Wells, and now universally adopted by scientific authorities. The passages in inverted commas are extracted verbatim from the Discourse. P138F139 P Suppose dew were the phenomenon proposed, whose cause we would know. In the first place we must determine precisely what we mean by dew: what the fact really is whose cause we desire to investigate. We must separate dew from rain, and the moisture of fogs, and limit the application of the term to what is really meant, which is the spontaneous appearance of moisture on substances exposed in the open air when no rain or visible wet is falling. This answers to a preliminary operation which will be characterized in the ensuing book, treating of operations subsidiary to induction. P139F140 P Now, here we have analogous phenomena in the moisture which bedews a cold metal or stone when we breathe upon it; that which appears on a glass of water fresh from the well in hot weather; that which appears on the inside of windows when sudden rain or hail chills the external air; that which runs down our walls when, after a long frost, a warm, moist thaw comes on. Comparing these cases, we find that they all contain the phenomenon which was proposed as the subject of investigation. Now all these instances agree in one point, the coldness of the object dewed, in comparison with the air in contact with it. But there still remains the most important case of all, that of nocturnal dew: does the same circumstance exist in this case? Is it a fact that the object dewed is colder than the air? Certainly not, one would at first be inclined to say; for what is to make it so? But ... the experiment is easy: we have only to lay a thermometer in contact with the dewed substance, and hang one at a little distance above it, out of reach of its influence. The experiment has been therefore made, the 138 This view of the necessary co -existence of opposite excitements involves a great extension of the original doctrine of two electricities. The early theorists assumed that, when amber was rubbed, the amber was made positive and the rubber negative to the same degree; but it never occurred to them to suppose that the existence of the amber charge was dependent on an opposite charge in the bodies with which the amber was contiguous, while the existence of the negative charge on the rubber was equally dependent on a contrary state of the surfaces that might accidentally be confronted with it; that, in fact, in a case of electrical excitement by friction, four charges were the minimum that could exist. But this double electrical action is essentially implied in the explanation now universally adopted in regard to the phenomena of the common electric machine. 139 Pp. 110, 111. 140 Infra, book 4., chap. 2 ., On Abstraction. 263 question has been asked, and the answer has been invariably in the affirmative. Whenever an object contracts dew, it is colder than the air. Here, then, is a complete application of the Method of Agreement, establishing the fact of an invariable connection between the deposition of dew on a surface, and the coldness of that surface compared with the external air. But which of these is cause, and which effect? or are they both effects of something else? On this subject the Method of Agreement can afford us no light: we must call in a more potent method. We must collect more facts, or, which comes to the same thing, vary the circumstances; since every instance in which the circumstances differ is a fresh fact: and especially, we m ust note the contrary or negative cases, i.e., where no dew is produced: a comparison between instances of dew and instances of no dew, being the condition necessary to bring the Method of Difference into play. Now, first, no dew is produced on the surface of polished metals, but it is very copiously on glass, both exposed with their faces upward, and in some cases the under side of a horizontal plate of glass is also dewed. Here is an instance in which the effect is produced, and another instance in which it is not produced; but we can not yet pronounce, as the canon of the Method of Difference requires, that the latter instance agrees with the former in all its circumstances except one; for the differences between glass and polished metals are manifold, and the only thing we can as yet be sure of is, that the cause of dew will be found among the circumstances by which the former substance is distinguished from the latter. But if we could be sure that glass, and the various other substances on which dew is deposited, have only one quality in common, and that polished metals and the other substances on which dew is not deposited, have also nothing in common but the one circumstance of not having the one quality which the others have; the requisitions of the Method of Difference would be completely satisfied, and we should recognize, in that quality of the substances, the cause of dew. This, accordingly, is the path of inquiry which is next to be pursued. In the cases of polished metal and polished glass, the contrast shows evidently that the substance has much to do with the phenomenon; therefore let the substance alone be diversified as much as possible, by exposing polished surfaces of various kinds. This done, a scale of intensity becomes obvious. Those polished substances are found to be most strongly dewed which conduct heat worst; while those which conduct heat well, resist dew most effectually. The complication increases; here is the Method of Concomitant Variations called to our assistance; and no other method was practicable on this occasion; for the quality of conducting heat could not be excluded, since all substances conduct heat in some degree. The conclusion obtained is, that cteris paribus the deposition of dew is in some proportion to the power which the body possesses of resisting the passage of heat; and that this, therefore (or something connected with this), must be at least one of the causes which assist in producing the deposition of dew on the surface. But if we expose rough surfaces i nstead of polished, we sometimes find this law interfered with. Thus, roughened iron, especially if painted over or blackened, becomes dewed sooner than varnished paper; the kind of surface , therefore, has a great influence. Expose, then, the same material in very diversified states, as to surface (that is, employ the Method of Difference to ascertain concomitance of variations), and another scale of intensity becomes at once apparent; those surfaces which part with their heat most readily by radiation ar e found to contract dew most copiously. Here, therefore, are the requisites for a second employment of the Method of Concomitant Variations; which in this case also is the only method available, since all substances radiate heat in some degree or other. T he conclusion obtained by this new application of the method is, that cteris paribus the deposition of dew is also in some proportion to the power of radiating heat; and that the quality of doing this 264 abundantly (or some cause on which that quality depends) is another of the causes which promote the deposition of dew on the substance. Again, the influence ascertained to exist of substance and surface leads us to consider that of texture: and here, again, we are presented on trial with remarkable differences, and with a third scale of intensity, pointing out substances of a close, firm texture, such as stones, metals, etc., as unfavorable, but those of a loose one, as cloth, velvet, wool, eider-down, cotton, etc., as eminently favorable to the contraction of dew." The Method of Concomitant Variations is here, for the third time, had recourse to; and, as before, from necessity, since the texture of no substance is absolutely firm or absolutely loose. Looseness of texture, therefore, or something which is the cause of that quality, is another circumstance which promotes the deposition of dew; but this third course resolves itself into the first, viz., the quality of resisting the passage of heat: for substances of loose texture "are precisely those which are best adapted for clothing, or for impeding the free passage of heat from the skin into the air, so as to allow their outer surfaces to be very cold, while they remain warm within; and this last is, therefore, an induction (from fresh instances) simply corro borative of a former induction. It thus appears that the instances in which much dew is deposited, which are very various, agree in this, and, so far as we are able to observe, in this only, that they either radiate heat rapidly or conduct it slowly: quali ties between which there is no other circumstance of agreement than that by virtue of either, the body tends to lose heat from the surface more rapidly than it can be restored from within. The instances, on the contrary, in which no dew, or but a small quantity of it, is formed, and which are also extremely various, agree (as far as we can observe) in nothing except in not having this same property. We seem, therefore, to have detected the characteristic difference between the substances on which dew is pro duced and those on which it is not produced. And thus have been realized the requisitions of what we have termed the Indirect Method of Difference, or the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference. The example afforded of this indirect method, and of the manner in which the data are prepared for it by the Methods of Agreement and of Concomitant Variations, is the most important of all the illustrations of induction afforded by this interesting speculation. We might now consider the question, on what the deposition of dew depends, to be completely solved, if we could be quite sure that the substances on which dew is produced differ from those on which it is not, in nothing but in the property of losing heat from the surface faster than the loss can be repaired from within. And though we never can have that complete certainty, this is not of so much importance as might at first be supposed; for we have, at all events, ascertained that even if there be any other quality hitherto unobserved which is present in all the substances which contract dew, and absent in those which do not, this other property must be one which, in all that great number of substances, is present or absent exactly where the property of being a better radiator than conductor is present or absent; an extent of coincidence which affords a strong presumption of a community of cause, and a consequent invariable co -existence between the two properties; so that the property of being a better radiator than conductor, if not itself the cause, almost c ertainly always accompanies the cause, and for purposes of prediction, no error is likely to be committed by treating it as if it were really such. Reverting now to an earlier stage of the inquiry, let us remember that we had ascertained that, in every ins tance where dew is formed, there is actual coldness of the surface below the temperature of the surrounding air; but we were not sure whether this coldness was the cause of dew, or its effect. This doubt we are now able to resolve. We have found that, in every such instance, the substance is one which, by its own properties or laws, would, if exposed in 265 the night, become colder than the surrounding air. The coldness, therefore, being accounted for independently of the dew, while it is proved that there is a connection between the two, it must be the dew which depends on the coldness; or, in other words, the coldness is the cause of the dew. This law of causation, already so amply established, admits, however, of efficient additional corroboration in no less than three ways. First, by deduction from the known laws of aqueous vapor when diffused through air or any other gas; and though we have not yet come to the Deductive Method, we will not omit what is necessary to render this speculation complete. It is known by direct experiment that only a limited quantity of water can remain suspended in the state of vapor at each degree of temperature, and that this maximum grows less and less as the temperature diminishes. From this it follows, deductively, that if ther e is already as much vapor suspended as the air will contain at its existing temperature, any lowering of that temperature will cause a portion of the vapor to be condensed, and become water. But again, we know deductively, from the laws of heat, that the contact of the air with a body colder than itself will necessarily lower the temperature of the stratum of air immediately applied to its surface; and will, therefore, cause it to part with a portion of its water, which accordingly will, by the ordinary laws of gravitation or cohesion, attach itself to the surface of the body, thereby constituting dew. This deductive proof, it will have been seen, has the advantage of at once proving causation as well as co-existence; and it has the additional advantage tha t it also accounts for the exceptions to the occurrence of the phenomenon, the cases in which, although the body is colder than the air, yet no dew is deposited; by showing that this will necessarily be the case when the air is so under -supplied with aqueous vapor, comparatively to its temperature, that even when somewhat cooled by the contact of the colder body it can still continue to hold in suspension all the vapor which was previously suspended in it: thus in a very dry summer there are no dews, in a very dry winter no hoar- frost. Here, therefore, is an additional condition of the production of dew, which the methods we previously made use of failed to detect, and which might have remained still undetected, if recourse had not been had to the plan of deducing the effect from the ascertained properties of the agents known to be present. The second corroboration of the theory is by direct experiment, according to the canon of the Method of Difference. We can, by cooling the surface of any body, find in all cases some temperature (more or less inferior to that of the surrounding air, according to its hygrometric condition) at which dew will begin to be deposited. Here, too, therefore, the causation is directly proved. We can, it is true, accomplish this only on a small scale, but we have ample reason to conclude that the same operation, if conducted in nature's great laboratory, would equally produce the effect. And, finally, even on that great scale we are able to verify the result. The case is one of those rare cases, as we have shown them to be, in which nature works the experiment for us in the same manner in which we ourselves perform it; introducing into the previous state of things a single and perfectly definite new circumstance, and manifesting the effect so rapidly that there is not time for any other material change in the pre- existing circumstances. It is observed that dew is never copiously deposited in situations much screened from the open sky, and not at all in a cloudy night; but if the clo uds withdraw even for a few minutes, and leave a clear opening, a deposition of dew presently begins , and goes on increasing... Dew formed in clear intervals will often even evaporate again when the sky becomes thickly overcast. The proof, therefore, is c omplete, that the presence or absence of an uninterrupted communication with the sky causes the deposition or non-deposition of dew. Now, since a clear sky is nothing but the absence of clouds, and it is a known property of clouds, as of all other bodies between which and any given object nothing intervenes but an elastic fluid, that 266 they tend to raise or keep up the superficial temperature of the object by radiating heat to it, we see at once that the disappearance of clouds will cause the surface to cool; so that nature, in this case, produces a change in the antecedent by definite and known means, and the consequent follows accordingly: a natural experiment which satisfies the requisitions of the Method of Difference. P140F141 P The accumulated proof of which the Theory of Dew has been found susceptible, is a striking instance of the fullness of assurance which the inductive evidence of laws of causation may attain, in cases in which the invariable sequence is by no means obvious to a superficial view. 4. The admirable physiological investigations of Dr. Brown-Squard afford brilliant examples of the application of the Inductive Methods to a class of inquiries in which, for reasons which will presently be given, direct induction takes place under peculiar difficulties and disadvantages. As one of the most apt instances, I select his speculation (in the proceedings of the Royal Society for May 16, 1861) on the relations between muscular irritability, cadaveric rigidity, and putrefaction. The law which Dr. Brown- Squard's investigation tends to establish, is the following: The greater the degree of muscular irritability at the time of death, the later the cadaveric rigidity sets in, and the longer it lasts, and the later also putrefaction appears, and the slower it progresses. One would say at first sight that the method here required must be that of Concomitant Variations. But this is a delusive appearance, arising from the circumstance that the conclusion to be tested is itself a fact of concomitant variations. For the establishment of that fact any of the Methods may be put in requisition, and it will be found that the fourth Method, though really employed, has only a subordinate place in this particular investigation. The evidences by which Dr. Brown-Squard esta blishes the law may be enumerated as follows: 1st. Paralyzed muscles have greater irritability than healthy muscles. Now, paralyzed muscles are later in assuming the cadaveric rigidity than healthy muscles, the rigidity lasts longer, and putrefaction sets in later, and proceeds more slowly. Both these propositions had to be proved by experiment; and for the experiments which prove them, science is also indebted to Dr. Brown-Squard. The former of the twothat paralyzed muscles have greater irritability than healthy muscles he ascertained in various ways, but most decisively by comparing the duration of irritability in a paralyzed muscle and in the corresponding healthy one of the opposite side, while they are both submitted to the same excitation. He often found, in experimenting in that way, that the paralyzed muscle remained irritable twice, three times, or even four times as long as the healthy one. This is a case of induction by the Method of Difference. The two limbs, being those of the same animal, were presumed to differ in no circumstance material to the case except the paralysis, 141 I must, however, remark, that this example, which seems to militate against the assertion we made of the comparative inapplicability of the Method of Difference to cases of pure observation, is really one of those exceptions which, according to a proverbial expression, prove the general rule. For in this case, in which Nature, in her experiment, seems to have imitated the type of the experiments made by man, she has only succeeded in producing the likeness of man's most imperfect experiments; namely, those in which, though he succeeds in producing the phenomenon, he does so by employing complex means, which he is unable perfectly to analyze, and can form, therefore, no sufficient judgment what portion of the effects may be due, not to the supposed cause, but to some unknown agency of the means by which that cause was produced. In the natural experiment which we are speaking of, the means used was the clearing off a canopy of clouds; and we certainly do not know sufficiently in what this process consists, or on what it depends, to be ce rtain a priori that it might not operate upon the deposition of dew independently of any thermometric effect at the earth's surface. Even, therefore, in a case so favorable as this to Nature's experimental talents, her experiment is of little value except in corroboration of a conclusion already attained through other means. 267 to the presence and absence of which, therefore, the difference in the muscular irritability was to be attributed. This assumption of complete resemblance in all material circumstances save one, evidently could not be safely made in any one pair of experiments, because the two legs of any given animal might be accidentally in very different pathological conditions; but if, besides taking pains to avoid any such difference, the experiment was repeated sufficiently often in different animals to exclude the supposition that any abnormal circumstance could be present in them all, the conditions of the Method of Difference were adequately secured. In the same m anner in which Dr. Brown- Squard proved that paralyzed muscles have greater irritability, he also proved the correlative proposition respecting cadaveric rigidity and putrefaction. Having, by section of the roots of the sciatic nerve, and again of a latera l half of the spinal cord, produced paralysis in one hind leg of an animal while the other remained healthy, he found that not only did muscular irritability last much longer in the paralyzed limb, but rigidity set in later and ended later, and putrefactio n began later and was less rapid than on the healthy side. This is a common case of the Method of Difference, requiring no comment. A further and very important corroboration was obtained by the same method. When the animal was killed, not shortly after the section of the nerve, but a month later, the effect was reversed; rigidity set in sooner, and lasted a shorter time, than in the healthy muscles. But after this lapse of time, the paralyzed muscles, having been kept by the paralysis in a state of rest, h ad lost a great part of their irritability, and instead of more, had become less irritable than those on the healthy side. This gives the A B C, a b c , and B C, b c, of the Method of Difference. One antecedent, increased irritability, being changed, and the other circumstances being the same, the consequence did not follow; and, moreover, when a new antecedent, contrary to the first, was supplied, it was followed by a contrary consequent. This instance is attended with the special advantage of proving that the retardation and prolongation of the rigidity do not depend directly on the paralysis, since that was the same in both the instances; but specifically on one effect of the paralysis, namely, the increased irritability; since they ceased when it ceased, and were reversed when it was reversed. 2d. Diminution of the temperature of muscles before death increases their irritability. But diminution of their temperature also retards cadaveric rigidity and putrefaction. Both these truths were first made known by Dr. Brown -Squard himself, through experiments which conclude according to the Method of Difference. There is nothing in the nature of the process requiring specific analysis. 3d. Muscular exercise, prolonged to exhaustion, diminishes the muscular irritability. This is a well-known truth, dependent on the most general laws of muscular action, and proved by experiments under the Method of Difference, constantly repeated. Now, it has been shown by observation that overdriven cattle, if killed before recovery from their fatigue, become rigid and putrefy in a surprisingly short time. A similar fact has been observed in the case of animals hunted to death; cocks killed during or shortly after a fight; and soldiers slain in the field of battle. These various cases agree in no circumstance, directly connected with the muscles, except that these have just been subjected to exhausting exercise. Under the canon, therefore, of the Method of Agreement, it may be inferred that there is a connection between the two facts. The Method of Agreement, indeed, as has been shown, is not competent to prove causation. The present case, however, is already known to be a case of causation, it being certain that the state of the body after death must somehow depend upon its state at t he time of death. We are, therefore, warranted in concluding that the single circumstance in which all the instances agree, is the part of the antecedent which is the cause of that particular consequent. 268 4th. In proportion as the nutrition of muscles is in a good state, their irritability is high. This fact also rests on the general evidence of the laws of physiology, grounded on many familiar applications of the Method of Difference. Now, in the case of those who die from accident or violence, with their muscles in a good state of nutrition, the muscular irritability continues long after death, rigidity sets in late, and persists long without the putrefactive change. On the contrary, in cases of disease in which nutrition has been diminished for a long time before death, all these effects are reversed. These are the conditions of the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference. The cases of retarded and long continued rigidity here in question agree only in being preceded by a high state of nutrition of the mus cles; the cases of rapid and brief rigidity agree only in being preceded by a low state of muscular nutrition; a connection is, therefore, inductively proved between the degree of the nutrition, and the slowness and prolongation of the rigidity. 5th. Convulsions, like exhausting exercise, but in a still greater degree, diminish the muscular irritability. Now, when death follows violent and prolonged convulsions, as in tetanus, hydrophobia, some cases of cholera, and certain poisons, rigidity sets in very rapidly, and after a very brief duration, gives place to putrefaction. This is another example of the Method of Agreement, of the same character with No. 3. 6th. The series of instances which we shall take last, is of a more complex character, and requires a more minute analysis. It has long been observed that in some cases of death by lightning, cadaveric rigidity either does not take place at all, or is of such extremely brief duration as to escape notice, and that in these cases putrefaction is very rapid. In other cases, however, the usual cadaveric rigidity appears. There must be some difference in the cause, to account for this difference in the effect. Now, death by lightning may be the result of, 1st, a syncope by fright, or in consequence of a direct or reflex influence of lightning on the par vagum; 2d, hemorrhage in or around the brain, or in the lungs, the pericardium, etc.; 3d, concussion, or some other alteration in the brain; none of which phenomena have any known property capable of accounting for the suppression, or almost suppression, of the cadaveric rigidity. But the cause of death may also be that the lightning produces a violent convulsion of every muscle in the body, of which, if of sufficient intensity, the known effect would be that muscular irritability ceases almost at once. If Dr. Brown -Squard's generalization is a true law, these will be the very cases in which rigidity is so much abridged as to escape notice; and the cases in which, on the contrary, rigidity takes place as usual, will be those in which the stroke of lightning operates in some of the other modes which have been enumerated. How, then, is this brought to the test? By experiments, not on lightning, which can not be commanded at pleasure, but on the same natural age ncy in a manageable form, that of artificial galvanism. Dr. Brown -Squard galvanized the entire bodies of animals immediately after death. Galvanism can not operate in any of the modes in which the stroke of lightning may have operated, except the single one of producing muscular convulsions. If, therefore, after the bodies have been galvanized, the duration of rigidity is much shortened and putrefaction much accelerated, it is reasonable to ascribe the same effects when produced by lightning to the property which galvanism shares with lightning, and not to those which it does not. Now this Dr. Brown-Squard found to be the fact. The galvanic experiment was tried with charges of very various degrees of strength; and the more powerful the charge, the shorter was found to be the duration of rigidity, and the more speedy and rapid the putrefaction. In the experiment in which the charge was strongest, and the muscular irritability most promptly destroyed, the rigidity only lasted fifteen minutes. On the principle, therefore, of the Method of Concomitant Variations, it may be inferred that the duration of the rigidity depends on the degree of the irritability; and that if the charge had been as much stronger than Dr. Brown- 269 Squard's strongest, as a stroke of lightning must be stronger than any electric shock which we can produce artificially, the rigidity would have been shortened in a corresponding ratio, and might have disappeared altogether. This conclusion having been arrived at, the case of an electric shock, w hether natural or artificial, becomes an instance, in addition to all those already ascertained, of correspondence between the irritability of the muscle and the duration of rigidity. All these instances are summed up in the following statement: That when the degree of muscular irritability at the time of death is considerable, either in consequence of a good state of nutrition, as in persons who die in full health from an accidental cause, or in consequence of rest, as in cases of paralysis, or on account of the influence of cold, cadaveric rigidity in all these cases sets in late and lasts long, and putrefaction appears late, and progresses slowly; but that when the degree of muscular irritability at the time of death is slight, either in consequence of a bad state of nutrition, or of exhaustion from overexertion, or from convulsions caused by disease or poison, cadaveric rigidity sets in and ceases soon, and putrefaction appears and progresses quickly. These facts present, in all their completeness, the conditions of the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference. Early and brief rigidity takes place in cases which agree only in the circumstance of a low state of muscular irritability. Rigidity begins late and lasts long in cases which agree only in the contrary circumstance, of a muscular irritability high and unusually prolonged. It follows that there is a connection through causation between the degree of muscular irritability after death, and the tardiness and prolongation of the cadaveric rigidity. This investigation places in a strong light the value and efficacy of the Joint Method. For, as we have already seen, the defect of that Method is, that like the Method of Agreement, of which it is only an improved form, it can not prove causation. But in the present case (as in one of the steps in the argument which led up to it) causation is already proved; since there could never be any doubt that the rigidity altogether, and the putrefaction which follows it, are caused by the fact of death: the observati ons and experiments on which this rests are too familiar to need analysis, and fall under the Method of Difference. It being, therefore, beyond doubt that the aggregate antecedent, the death, is the actual cause of the whole train of consequents, whatever of the circumstances attending the death can be shown to be followed in all its variations by variations in the effect under investigation, must be the particular feature of the fact of death on which that effect depends. The degree of muscular irritability at the time of death fulfills this condition. The only point that could be brought into question, would be whether the effect depended on the irritability itself, or on something which always accompanied the irritability: and this doubt is set at rest by establishing, as the instances do, that by whatever cause the high or low irritability is produced, the effect equally follows; and can not, therefore, depend upon the causes of irritability, nor upon the other effects of those causes, which are as variou s as the causes themselves, but upon the irritability, solely. 5. The last two examples will have conveyed to any one by whom they have been duly followed, so clear a conception of the use and practical management of three of the four methods of experimental inquiry, as to supersede the necessity of any further exemplification of them. The remaining method, that of Residues, not having found a place in any of the preceding investigations, I shall quote from Sir John Herschel some examples of that method, with the remarks by which they are introduced. It is by this process, in fact, that science, in its present advanced state, is chiefly promoted. Most of the phenomena which Nature presents are very complicated; and when the effects of all known causes are estimated with exactness, and subducted, the residual facts are 270 constantly appearing in the form of phenomena altogether new, and leading to the most important conclusions. For example: the return of the comet predicted by Professor Eucke a great many ti mes in succession, and the general good agreement of its calculated with its observed place during any one of its periods of visibility, would lead us to say that its gravitation toward the sun and planets is the sole and sufficient cause of all the phenomena of its orbitual motion; but when the effect of this cause is strictly calculated and subducted from the observed motion, there is found to remain behind a residual phenomenon, which would never have been otherwise ascertained to exist, which is a small anticipation of the time of its re -appearance, or a diminution of its periodic time, which can not be accounted for by gravity, and whose cause is therefore to be inquired into. Such an anticipation would be caused by the resistance of a medium disseminated through the celestial regions; and as there are other good reasons for believing this to be a vera causa (an actually existing antecedent), it has therefore been ascribed to such a resistance. P141F142 P M. Arago, having suspended a magnetic needle by a silk thread, and set it in vibration, observed, that it came much sooner to a state of rest when suspended over a plate of copper, than when no such plate was beneath it. Now, in both cases there were two ver caus (antecedents known to exist) why it should come at length to rest, viz., the resistance of the air, which opposes, and at length destroys, all motions performed in it; and the want of perfect mobility in the silk thread. But the effect of these causes being exactly known by the observation made in the absence of the copper, and being thus allowed for and subducted, a residual phenomenon appeared, in the fact that a retarding influence was exerted by the copper itself; and this fact, once ascertained, speedily led to the knowledge of an entirely new and unexpected class of relations. This example belongs, however, not to the Method of Residues but to the Method of Difference, the law being ascertained by a direct comparison of the results of two experiments, which differed in nothing but the presenc e or absence of the plate of copper. To have made it exemplify the Method of Residues, the effect of the resistance of the air and that of the rigidity of the silk should have been calculated a priori , from the laws obtained by separate and foregone experi ments. Unexpected and peculiarly striking confirmations of inductive laws frequently occur in the form of residual phenomena, in the course of investigations of a widely different nature from those which gave rise to the inductions themselves. A very eleg ant example may be cited in the unexpected confirmation of the law of the development of heat in elastic fluids by compression, which is afforded by the phenomena of sound. The inquiry into the cause of sound had led to conclusions respecting its mode of propagation, from which its velocity in the air could be precisely calculated. The calculations were performed; but, when compared with fact, though the agreement was quite sufficient to show the general correctness of the cause and mode of propagation assigned, yet the whole velocity could not be shown to arise from this theory. There was still a residual velocity to be accounted for, which placed dynamical philosophers for a long time in great dilemma. At length Laplace struck on the happy idea, that this might arise from the heat developed in the act of that condensation which necessarily takes place at every vibration by which sound is conveyed. The matter was subjected to exact calculation, and the result was at once the complete explanation of the resid ual phenomenon, and a striking confirmation of the general law of the development of heat by compression, under circumstances beyond artificial imitation. 142 In his subsequent work, Outlines of Astronomy ( 570), Sir John Herschel suggests another possible explanation of the acceleration of the revolution of a comet. 271 Many of the new elements of chemistry have been detected in the investigation of residual phenomena. Thus Arfwedson discovered lithia by perceiving an excess of weight in the sulphate produced from a small portion of what he considered as magnesia present in a mineral he had analyzed. It is on this principle, too, that the small concentrated residues of great operations in the arts are almost sure to be the lurking- places of new chemical ingredients: witness iodine, brome, selenium, and the new metals accompanying platina in the experiments of Wollaston and Tennant. It was a happy thought of Glauber to e xamine what every body else threw away. P142F143 P Almost all the greatest discoveries in Astronomy, says the same author, P143F144 P have resulted from the consideration of residual phenomena of a quantitative or numerical kind.... It was thus that the grand discovery of the precession of the equinoxes resulted as a residual phenomenon, from the imperfect explanation of the return of the seasons by the return of the sun to the same apparent place among the fixed stars. Thus, also, aberration and nutation resulted as residual phenomena from that portion of the changes of the apparent places of the fixed stars which was left unaccounted for by precession. And thus again the apparent proper motions of the stars are the observed residues of their apparent movements outstanding and unaccounted for by strict calculation of the effects of precession, nutation, and aberration. The nearest approach which human theories can make to perfection is to diminish this residue, this caput mortuum of observation, as it may be considered, as much as practicable, and, if possible, to reduce it to nothing, either by showing that something has been neglected in our estimation of known causes, or by reasoning upon it as a new fact, and on the principle of the inductive philosophy ascending from the effect to its cause or causes. The disturbing effects mutually produced by the earth and planets upon each other's motions were first brought to light as residual phenomena, by the difference which appeared between the observed places of those bodies, and the places calculated on a consideration solely of their gravitation toward the sun. It was this which determined astronomers to consider the law of gravitation as obtaining between all bodies whatever, and therefore between all particles of matter; their first tendency having been to regard it as a force acting only between each planet or satellite and the central body to whose system it belonged. Again, the catastrophists, in geology, be their opinion right or wrong, support it on the plea, that after the effect of all causes now in operation has been allowed for, there remains in the existing constitution of the earth a large residue of facts, proving the existence at former periods either of other forces, or of the same forces in a much great er degree of intensity. To add one more example: those who assert, what no one has shown any real ground for believing, that there is in one human individual, one sex, or one race of mankind over another, an inherent and inexplicable superiority in mental faculties, could only substantiate their proposition by subtracting from the differences of intellect which we in fact see, all that can be traced by known laws either to the ascertained differences of physical organization, or to the differences which have existed in the outward circumstances in which the subjects of the comparison have hitherto been placed. What these causes might fail to account for would constitute a residual phenomenon, which and which alone would be evidence of an ulterior original distinction, and the measure of its amount. But the asserters of such supposed differences have not provided themselves with these necessary logical conditions of the establishment of their doctrine. The spirit of the Method of Residues being, it is hoped, s ufficiently intelligible from these examples, and the other three methods having already been so fully exemplified, we may here 143 Discourse, pp. 156-8 , and 171. 144 Outlines of Astronomy, 856. 272 close our exposition of the four methods, considered as employed in the investigation of the simpler and more elementary order o f the combinations of phenomena. 6. Dr. Whewell has expressed a very unfavorable opinion of the utility of the Four Methods, as well as of the aptness of the examples by which I have attempted to illustrate them. His words are these: P144F145 P Upon these methods, the obvious thing to remark is, that they take for granted the very thing which is most difficult to discover, the reduction of the phenomena to formul such as are here presented to us. When we have any set of complex facts offered to us; for ins tance, those which were offered in the cases of discovery which I have mentionedthe facts of the planetary paths, of falling bodies, of refracted rays, of cosmical motions, of chemical analysis; and when, in any of these cases, we would discover the law of nature which governs them, or, if any one chooses so to term it, the feature in which all the cases agree, where are we to look for our A, B, C, and a, b, c ? Nature does not present to us the cases in this form; and how are we to reduce them to this form ? You say when we find the combination of A B C with a b c and A B D with a b d, then we may draw our inference. Granted; but when and where are we to find such combinations? Even now that the discoveries are made, who will point out to us what are the A, B, C, and a, b, c , elements of the cases which have just been enumerated? Who will tell us which of the methods of inquiry those historically real and successful inquiries exemplify? Who will carry these formul through the history of the sciences, as they have really grown up, and show us that these four methods have been operative in their formation; or that any light is thrown upon the steps of their progress by reference to these formul? He adds that, in this work, the methods have not been applied to a large body of conspicuous and undoubted examples of discovery, extending along the whole history of science; which ought to have been done in order that the methods might be shown to possess the advantage (which he claims as belonging to his own) of being those by which all great discoveries in science have really been made.(P. 277.) There is a striking similarity between the objections here made against Canons of Induction, and what was alleged, in the last century, by as able men as Dr. Whewell, against the acknowledged Canon of Ratiocination. Those who protested against the Aristotelian Logic said of the Syllogism, what Dr. Whewell says of the Inductive Methods, that it takes for granted the very thing which is most difficult to discover, the reduction of the argument to formul such as are here presented to us. The grand difficulty, they said, is to obtain your syllogism, not to judge of its correctness when obtained. On the matter of fact, both they and Dr. Whewell are right. The greatest dif ficulty in both cases is, first, that of obtaining the evidence, and next, of reducing it to the form which tests its conclusiveness. But if we try to reduce it without knowing what it is to be reduced to, we are not likely to make much progress. It is a more difficult thing to solve a geometrical problem, than to judge whether a proposed solution is correct: but if people were not able to judge of the solution when found, they would have little chance of finding it. And it can not be pretended that to judge of an induction when found is perfectly easy, is a thing for which aids and instruments are superfluous; for erroneous inductions, false inferences from experience, are quite as common, on some subjects much commoner than true ones. The business of Induc tive Logic is to provide rules and models (such as the Syllogism and its rules are for ratiocination) to which if inductive arguments conform, those arguments are conclusive, and not otherwise. This is what the Four Methods profess to be, and what I believe they are universally considered to be 145 Philosophy of Discovery , pp. 263, 264. 273 by experimental philosophers, who had practiced all of them long before any one sought to reduce the practice to theory. The assailants of the Syllogism had also anticipated Dr. Whewell in the other branch of his argument. They said that no discoveries were ever made by syllogism; and Dr. Whewell says, or seems to say, that none were ever made by the Four Methods of Induction. To the former objectors, Archbishop Whately very pertinently answered, that their argument, if good at all, was good against the reasoning process altogether; for whatever can not be reduced to syllogism, is not reasoning. And Dr. Whewell's argument, if good at all, is good against all inferences from experience. In saying that no discoveries wer e ever made by the Four Methods, he affirms that none were ever made by observation and experiment; for assuredly if any were, it was by processes reducible to one or other of those methods. This difference between us accounts for the dissatisfaction which my examples give him; for I did not select them with a view to satisfy any one who required to be convinced that observation and experiment are modes of acquiring knowledge: I confess that in the choice of them I thought only of illustration, and of facil itating the conception of the Methods by concrete instances. If it had been my object to justify the processes themselves as means of investigation, there would have been no need to look far off, or make use of recondite or complicated instances. As a specimen of a truth ascertained by the Method of Agreement, I might have chosen the proposition, Dogs bark. This dog, and that dog, and the other dog, answer to A B C, A D E, A F G. The circumstance of being a dog answers to A. Barking answers to a. As a tru th made known by the Method of Difference, Fire burns might have sufficed. Before I touch the fire I am not burned; this is B C: I touch it, and am burned; this is A B C, a B C. Such familiar experimental processes are not regarded as inductions by Dr. W hewell; but they are perfectly homogeneous with those by which, even on his own showing, the pyramid of science is supplied with its base. In vain he attempts to escape from this conclusion by laying the most arbitrary restrictions on the choice of example s admissible as instances of Induction: they must neither be such as are still matter of discussion (p. 265), nor must any of them be drawn from mental and social subjects (p. 269), nor from ordinary observation and practical life (pp. 241-247). They must be taken exclusively from the generalizations by which scientific thinkers have ascended to great and comprehensive laws of natural phenomena. Now it is seldom possible, in these complicated inquiries, to go much beyond the initial steps, without calling in the instrument of Deduction, and the temporary aid of hypothesis; as I myself, in common with Dr. Whewell, have maintained against the purely empirical school. Since, therefore, such cases could not conveniently be selected to illustrate the principles of mere observation and experiment, Dr. Whewell is misled by their absence into representing the Experimental Methods as serving no purpose in scientific investigation; forgetting that if those methods had not supplied the first generalizations, there would have been no materials for his own conception of Induction to work upon. His challenge, however, to point out which of the four methods are exemplified in certain important cases of scientific inquiry, is easily answered. The planetary paths, as far as they are a case of induction at all, P145F146 P fall under the Method of Agreement. The law of falling bodies, namely, that they describe spaces proportional to the squares of the times, was historically a deduction from the first law of motion; but the experiments by which it was verified, and by which it might have been discovered, were examples of the Method of Agreement; and the apparent variation from the true law, caused by the resistance of the air, was cleared up by experiments in vacuo, constituting an application of the Method of 146 See, on this point, the second chapter of the present book. 274 Difference. The law of refracted rays (the constancy of the ratio between the sines of incidence and of refraction for each refracting substance) was ascertained by direct measurement, and therefore by the Method of Agreement. The cosmical motions were determined by highly complex processes of thought, in which Deduction was predominant, but the Methods of Agreement and of Concomitant Variations had a large part in establishing the empirical laws. Every case without exception of chemical analysis constitutes a well- marked example of the Method of Difference. To any one acquainted with the subjectsto Dr. Whewell himself, there would not be the smallest difficulty in setting out the A B C and a b c elements of these cases. If discoveries are ever made by observation and experiment without Deduction, the four methods are methods of discovery: but even if they were not methods of discovery, it would not be the less true that they are the sole methods of Proof; and in that chara cter, even the results of deduction are amenable to them. The great generalizations which begin as Hypotheses, must end by being proved, and are in reality (as will be shown hereafter) proved, by the Four Methods. Now it is with Proof, as such, that Logic is principally concerned. This distinction has indeed no chance of finding favor with Dr. Whewell; for it is the peculiarity of his system, not to recognize, in cases of Induction, any necessity for proof. If, after assuming an hypothesis and carefully collating it with facts, nothing is brought to light inconsistent with it, that is, if experience does not dis prove it, he is content: at least until a simpler hypothesis, equally consistent with experience, presents itself. If this be Induction, doubtless there is no necessity for the four methods. But to suppose that it is so, appears to me a radical misconception of the nature of the evidence of physical truths. So real and practical is the need of a test for induction, similar to the syllogistic test of ratiocination, that inferences which bid defiance to the most elementary notions of inductive logic are put forth without misgiving by persons eminent in physical science, as soon as they are off the ground on which they are conversant with the facts, and not reduced to judge only by the arguments; and as for educated persons in general, it may be doubted if they are better judges of a good or a bad induction than they were before Bacon wrote. The improvement in the results of thinking has seldom extended to the processes; or has reached, if any process, that of investigation only, not that of proof. A knowledge of many laws of nature has doubtless been arrived at, by framing hypotheses and finding that the facts corresponded to them; and many errors have been got rid of by coming to a knowledge of facts which were inconsistent with them, but not by discovering that the mode of thought which led to the errors was itself faulty, and might have been known to be such independently of the facts which disproved the specific conclusion. Hence it is, that while the thoughts of mankind have on many subjects worked themselves practically right, the thinking power remains as weak as ever: and on all subjects on which the facts which would check the result are not accessible, as in what relates to the invisible world, and even, as has been seen lately, to the visible world of the planetary regions, men of the greatest scientific acquirements argue as pitiably as the merest ignoramus. For though they have made many sound inductions, they have not learned from them (and Dr. Whewell thinks there is no necessity that they should learn) the principles of inductive evidence. 275 X. Of Plurality Of Causes, And Of The Intermixture Of Effects 1. In the preceding exposition of the four methods of observation and experiment, by which we contrive to distinguish among a mass of co- existent phenomena the particular effect due to a given cause, or the particular cause which gave birth to a given effect, it has been necessary to suppose, in the first instance, for the sake of simplification, that this analytical operation is encumbered by no other difficulties than what are essentially inherent in its nature; and to represent to ourselves, therefore, every effect, on the one hand as connected exclusively with a single cause, and on the other hand as incapable of being mixed and confounded with any other co- existent effect. We have regarded a b c d e , the aggregate of the phenomena existing at any moment, as consi sting of dissimilar facts, a, b, c, d, and e , for each of which one, and only one, cause needs be sought; the difficulty being only that of singling out this one cause from the multitude of antecedent circumstances, A, B, C, D, and E. The cause indeed may not be simple; it may consist of an assemblage of conditions; but we have supposed that there was only one possible assemblage of conditions from which the given effect could result. If such were the fact, it would be comparatively an easy task to investigate the laws of nature. But the supposition does not hold in either of its parts. In the first place, it is not true that the same phenomenon is always produced by the same cause: the effect a may sometimes arise from A, sometimes from B. And, secondly, the effects of different causes are often not dissimilar, but homogeneous, and marked out by no assignable boundaries from one another: A and B may produce not a and b, but different portions of an effect a. The obscurity and difficulty of the investigation of the laws of phenomena is singularly increased by the necessity of adverting to these two circumstances: Intermixture of Effects, and Plurality of Causes. To the latter, being the simpler of the two considerations, we shall first direct our attention. It is not true, then, that one effect must be connected with only one cause, or assemblage of conditions; that each phenomenon can be produced only in one way. There are often several independent modes in which the same phenomenon could have originated. One fact may be the consequent in several invariable sequences; it may follow, with equal uniformity, any one of several antecedents, or collections of antecedents. Many causes may produce mechanical motion; many causes may produce some kinds of sensation; many causes may produce death. A given effect may really be produced by a certain cause, and yet be perfectly capable of being produced without it. 2. One of the principal consequences of this fact of Plurality of Causes is, to render the first of the inductive methods, that of Agreement, uncertain. To illustrate that method, we supposed two instances, A B C followed by a b c , and A D E followed by a d e . From these instances it might apparently be concluded that A is an invariable antecedent of a, and even that it is the unconditional invariable antecedent, or cause, if we could be sure that there is no other antecedent common to the two cases. That this difficulty may not stand in the way, let us suppose the two cases positively ascertained to have no antecedent in common except A. The moment, however, that we let in the possibility of a plurality of causes, the conclusion fails. For it involves a tacit supposition, that a must have been produced in both instances by the same cause. If there can possibly hav e been two causes, those two may, for example, be C 276 and E: the one may have been the cause of a in the former of the instances, the other in the latter, A having no influence in either case. Suppose, for example, that two great artists or great philosopher s, that two extremely selfish or extremely generous characters, were compared together as to the circumstances of their education and history, and the two cases were found to agree only in one circumstance: would it follow that this one circumstance was th e cause of the quality which characterized both those individuals? Not at all; for the causes which may produce any type of character are very numerous; and the two persons might equally have agreed in their character, though there had been no manner of resemblance in their previous history. This, therefore, is a characteristic imperfection of the Method of Agreement, from which imperfection the Method of Difference is free. For if we have two instances, A B C and B C, of which B C gives b c , and A being added converts it into a b c , it is certain that in this instance at least, A was either the cause of a, or an indispensable portion of its cause, even though the cause which produces it in other instances may be altogether different. Plurality of Causes, th erefore, not only does not diminish the reliance due to the Method of Difference, but does not even render a greater number of observations or experiments necessary: two instances, the one positive and the other negative, are still sufficient for the most complete and rigorous induction. Not so, however, with the Method of Agreement. The conclusions which that yields, when the number of instances compared is small, are of no real value, except as, in the character of suggestions, they may lead either to experiments bringing them to the test of the Method of Difference, or to reasonings which may explain and verify them deductively. It is only when the instances, being indefinitely multiplied and varied, continue to suggest the same result, that this result a cquires any high degree of independent value. If there are but two instances, A B C and A D E, though these instances have no antecedent in common except A, yet as the effect may possibly have been produced in the two cases by different causes, the result is at most only a slight probability in favor of A; there may be causation, but it is almost equally probable that there was only a coincidence. But the oftener we repeat the observation, varying the circumstances, the more we advance toward a solution of this doubt. For if we try A F G, A H K, etc., all unlike one another except in containing the circumstance A, and if we find the effect a entering into the result in all these cases, we must suppose one of two things, either that it is caused by A, or that it has as many different causes as there are instances. With each addition, therefore, to the number of instances, the presumption is strengthened in favor of A. The inquirer, of course, will not neglect, if an opportunity present itself, to exclude A from some one of these combinations, from A H K for instance, and by trying H K separately, appeal to the Method of Difference in aid of the Method of Agreement. By the Method of Difference alone can it be ascertained that A is the cause of a; but that it is either the cause, or another effect of the same cause, may be placed beyond any reasonable doubt by the Method of Agreement, provided the instances are very numerous as well as sufficiently various. After how great a multiplication, then, of varied instances, all agreeing in no other antecedent except A, is the supposition of a plurality of causes sufficiently rebutted, and the conclusion that a is connected with A divested of the characteristic imperfection, and reduced to a virtual certainty? This is a qu estion which we can not be exempted from answering: but the consideration of it belongs to what is called the Theory of Probability, which will form the subject of a chapter hereafter. It is seen, however, at once, that the conclusion does amount to a practical certainty after a sufficient number of instances, and that the method, therefore, is not radically vitiated by the characteristic imperfection. The result of these considerations is 277 only, in the first place, to point out a new source of inferiority in the Method of Agreement as compared with other modes of investigation, and new reasons for never resting contented with the results obtained by it, without attempting to confirm them either by the Method of Difference, or by connecting them deductively w ith some law or laws already ascertained by that superior method. And, in the second place, we learn from this the true theory of the value of mere number of instances in inductive inquiry. The Plurality of Causes is the only reason why mere number is of any importance. The tendency of unscientific inquirers is to rely too much on number, without analyzing the instances; without looking closely enough into their nature to ascertain what circumstances are or are not eliminated by means of them. Most people hold their conclusions with a degree of assurance proportioned to the mere mass of the experience on which they appear to rest; not considering that by the addition of instances to instances, all of the same kind, that is, differing from one another only in points already recognized as immaterial, nothing whatever is added to the evidence of the conclusion. A single instance eliminating some antecedent which existed in all the other cases, is of more value than the greatest multitude of instances which are r eckoned by their number alone. It is necessary, no doubt, to assure ourselves, by repetition of the observation or experiment, that no error has been committed concerning the individual facts observed; and until we have assured ourselves of this, instead of varying the circumstances, we can not too scrupulously repeat the same experiment or observation without any change. But when once this assurance has been obtained, the multiplication of instances which do not exclude any more circumstances is entirely u seless, provided there have been already enough to exclude the supposition of Plurality of Causes. It is of importance to remark, that the peculiar modification of the Method of Agreement, which, as partaking in some degree of the nature of the Method of D ifference, I have called the Joint Method of Agreement and Difference, is not affected by the characteristic imperfection now pointed out. For, in the joint method, it is supposed not only that the instances in which a is, agree only in containing A, but a lso that the instances in which a is not, agree only in not containing A. Now, if this be so, A must be not only the cause of a, but the only possible cause: for if there were another, as for example B, then in the instances in which a is not, B must have been absent as well as A, and it would not be true that these instances agree only in not containing A. This, therefore, constitutes an immense advantage of the joint method over the simple Method of Agreement. It may seem, indeed, that the advantage does not belong so much to the joint method, as to one of its two premises (if they may be so called), the negative premise. The Method of Agreement, when applied to negative instances, or those in which a phenomenon does not take place, is certainly free from the characteristic imperfection which affects it in the affirmative case. The negative premise, it might therefore be supposed, could be worked as a simple case of the Method of Agreement, without requiring an affirmative premise to be joined with it. But though this is true in principle, it is generally altogether impossible to work the Method of Agreement by negative instances without positive ones; it is so much more difficult to exhaust the field of negation than that of affirmation. For instance, let the question be what is the cause of the transparency of bodies; with what prospect of success could we set ourselves to inquire directly in what the multifarious substances which are not transparent agree? But we might hope much sooner to seize some p oint of resemblance among the comparatively few and definite species of objects which are transparent; and this being attained, we should quite naturally be put upon examining whether the absence of this one circumstance be not precisely the point in which all opaque substances will be found to resemble. The Joint Method of Agreement and Difference, therefore, or as I have otherwise called it, the Indirect Method of Difference (because, like the Method of Difference properly so- called, 278 it proceeds by ascertaining how and in what the cases where the phenomenon is present differ from those in which it is absent) is, after the Direct Method of Difference, the most powerful of the remaining instruments of inductive investigation; and in the sciences which depend on pure observation, with little or no aid from experiment, this method, so well exemplified in the speculation on the cause of dew, is the primary resource, so far as direct appeals to experience are concerned. 3. We have thus far treated Plurali ty of Causes only as a possible supposition, which, until removed, renders our inductions uncertain; and have only considered by what means, where the plurality does not really exist, we may be enabled to disprove it. But we must also consider it as a case actually occurring in nature, and which, as often as it does occur, our methods of induction ought to be capable of ascertaining and establishing. For this, however, there is required no peculiar method. When an effect is really producible by two or more causes, the process for detecting them is in no way different from that by which we discover single causes. They may (first) be discovered as separate sequences, by separate sets of instances. One set of observations or experiments shows that the sun is a cause of heat, another that friction is a source of it, another that percussion, another that electricity, another that chemical action is such a source. Or (secondly) the plurality may come to light in the course of collating a number of instances, when w e attempt to find some circumstance in which they all agree, and fail in doing so. We find it impossible to trace, in all the cases in which the effect is met with, any common circumstance. We find that we can eliminate all the antecedents; that no one of them is present in all the instances, no one of them indispensable to the effect. On closer scrutiny, however, it appears that though no one is always present, one or other of several always is. If, on further analysis, we can detect in these any common element, we may be able to ascend from them to some one cause which is the really operative circumstance in them all. Thus it is now thought that in the production of heat by friction, percussion, chemical action, etc., the ultimate source is one and the sam e. But if (as continually happens) we can not take this ulterior step, the different antecedents must be set down provisionally as distinct causes, each sufficient of itself to produce the effect. We here close our remarks on the Plurality of Causes, and proceed to the still more peculiar and more complex case of the Intermixture of Effects, and the interference of causes with one another: a case constituting the principal part of the complication and difficulty of the study of nature; and with which the four only possible methods of directly inductive investigation by observation and experiment, are, for the most part, as will appear presently, quite unequal to cope. The instrument of Deduction alone is adequate to unravel the complexities proceeding from this source; and the four methods have little more in their power than to supply premises for, and a verification of, our deductions. 4. A concurrence of two or more causes, not separately producing each its own effect, but interfering with or modifying t he effects of one another, takes place, as has already been explained in two different ways. In the one, which is exemplified by the joint operation of different forces in mechanics, the separate effects of all the causes continue to be produced, but are compounded with one another, and disappear in one total. In the other, illustrated by the case of chemical action, the separate effects cease entirely, and are succeeded by phenomena altogether different, and governed by different laws. Of these cases the f ormer is by far the more frequent, and this case it is which, for the most part, eludes the grasp of our experimental methods. The other and exceptional case is essentially amenable to them. When the laws of the original agents cease entirely, and a phenomenon makes its appearance, which, with reference to those laws, is quite 279 heterogeneous; when, for example, two gaseous substances, hydrogen and oxygen, on being brought together, throw off their peculiar properties, and produce the substance called water; in such cases the new fact may be subjected to experimental inquiry, like any other phenomenon; and the elements which are said to compose it may be considered as the mere agents of its productionthe conditions on which it depends, the facts which make up its cause. The effects of the new phenomenon, the properties of water, for instance, are as easily found by experiment as the effects of any other cause. But to discover the cause of it, that is, the particular conjunction of agents from which it results, is often difficult enough. In the first place, the origin and actual production of the phenomenon are most frequently inaccessible to our observation. If we could not have learned the composition of water until we found instances in which it was actually produced from oxygen and hydrogen, we should have been forced to wait until the casual thought struck some one of passing an electric spark through a mixture of the two gases, or inserting a lighted taper into it, merely to try what would happen. Besides, many substances, though they can be analyzed, can not by any known artificial means be recompounded. Further, even if we could have ascertained, by the Method of Agreement, that oxygen and hydrogen were both present when water is produced, no experimentati on on oxygen and hydrogen separately, no knowledge of their laws, could have enabled us deductively to infer that they would produce water. We require a specific experiment on the two combined. Under these difficulties, we should generally have been indebted for our knowledge of the causes of this class of effects, not to any inquiry directed specifically toward that end, but either to accident, or to the gradual progress of experimentation on the different combinations of which the producing agents are susceptible; if it were not for a peculiarity belonging to effects of this description, that they often, under some particular combination of circumstances, reproduce their causes. If water results from the juxtaposition of hydrogen and oxygen whenever this can be made sufficiently close and intimate, so, on the other hand, if water itself be placed in certain situations, hydrogen and oxygen are reproduced from it: an abrupt termination is put to the new laws, and the agents re- appear separately with their own properties as at first. What is called chemical analysis is the process of searching for the causes of a phenomenon among its effects, or rather among the effects produced by the action of some other causes upon it. Lavoisier, by heating mercury to a high temperature in a close vessel containing air, found that the mercury increased in weight, and became what was then called red precipitate, while the air, on being examined after the experiment, proved to have lost weight, and to have become incapable of s upporting life or combustion. When red precipitate was exposed to a still greater heat, it became mercury again, and gave off a gas which did support life and flame. Thus the agents which by their combination produced red precipitate, namely, the mercury and the gas, reappear as effects resulting from that precipitate when acted upon by heat. So, if we decompose water by means of iron filings, we produce two effects, rust and hydrogen. Now rust is already known, by experiments upon the component substances, to be an effect of the union of iron and oxygen: the iron we ourselves supplied, but the oxygen must have been produced from the water. The result, therefore, is that water has disappeared, and hydrogen and oxygen have appeared in its stead; or, in other words, the original laws of these gaseous agents, which had been suspended by the superinduction of the new laws called the properties of water, have again started into existence, and the causes of water are found among its effects. 280 Where two phenomena, between the laws or properties of which, considered in themselves, no connection can be traced, are thus reciprocally cause and effect, each capable in its turn of being produced from the other, and each, when it produces the other, ceasing itself to exist (as water is produced from oxygen and hydrogen, and oxygen and hydrogen are reproduced from water); this causation of the two phenomena by one another, each being generated by the other's destruction, is properly transformation. The idea of chemical composition is an idea of transformation, but of a transformation which is incomplete; since we consider the oxygen and hydrogen to be present in the water as oxygen and hydrogen, and capable of being discovered in it if our senses were sufficiently keen: a supposition (for it is no more) grounded solely on the fact that the weight of the water is the sum of the separate weights of the two ingredients. If there had not been this exception to the entire disappearance, in the compound, of the laws of the separate ingredients; if the combined agents had not, in this one particular of weight, preserved their own laws, and produced a joint result equal to the sum of their separate results; we should never, probably, have had the notion now implied by the words chemical composition; and, in the facts of water produced from hydrogen and oxygen, and hydrogen and oxygen produced from water, as the transformation would have been complete, we should have seen only a transformation. In these cases, where the heteropathic effect (as we called it in a former chapter) P146F147 P is but a transformation of its cause, or in other words, where the effect and its cause are reciprocally such, and mutually convertible into each other; the problem of finding the cause resolves itself into the far easier one of finding an effect, which is the kind of inquiry that admits of being prosecuted by direct experiment. But there are other cases of heteropathic effects to which this mode of investigation is not applicable. Take, for instance, the heteropathi c laws of mind; that portion of the phenomena of our mental nature which are analogous to chemical rather than to dynamical phenomena; as when a complex passion is formed by the coalition of several elementary impulses, or a complex emotion by several simple pleasures or pains, of which it is the result without being the aggregate, or in any respect homogeneous with them. The product, in these cases, is generated by its various factors; but the factors can not be reproduced from the product; just as a youth can grow into an old man, but an old man can not grow into a youth. We can not ascertain from what simple feelings any of our complex states of mind are generated, as we ascertain the ingredients of a chemical compound, by making it, in its turn, generate them. We can only, therefore, discover these laws by the slow process of studying the simple feelings themselves, and ascertaining synthetically, by experimenting on the various combinations of which they are susceptible, what they, by their mutual action upon one another, are capable of generating. 5. It might have been supposed that the other, and apparently simpler variety of the mutual interference of causes, where each cause continues to produce its own proper effect according to the same laws to wh ich it conforms in its separate state, would have presented fewer difficulties to the inductive inquirer than that of which we have just finished the consideration. It presents, however, so far as direct induction apart from deduction is concerned, infinit ely greater difficulties. When a concurrence of causes gives rise to a new effect, bearing no relation to the separate effects of those causes, the resulting phenomenon stands forth undisguised, inviting attention to its peculiarity, and presenting no obst acle to our recognizing its presence or absence among any number of surrounding phenomena. It admits, therefore, of being easily brought under the canons of Induction, provided instances can be obtained such as those canons require; and the non- occurrence of such instances, or the want of means to produce them artificially, is the real and only difficulty in such investigations; a 147 Ante, chap. 7., 1. 281 difficulty not logical but in some sort physical. It is otherwise with cases of what, in a preceding chapter, has been denominated the Composition of Causes. There, the effects of the separate causes do not terminate and give place to others, thereby ceasing to form any part of the phenomenon to be investigated; on the contrary, they still take place, but are intermingled with, and disguised by, the homogeneous and closely allied effects of other causes. They are no longer a, b, c , d, e , existing side by side, and continuing to be separately discernible; they are +a, - a, b, -b, 2b, etc.; some of which cancel one another, while many others do not appear distinguishably, but merge in one sum; forming altogether a result, between which and the causes whereby it was produced there is often an insurmountable difficulty in tracing by observation any fixed relation whatever. The general id ea of the Composition of Causes has been seen to be, that though two or more laws interfere with one another, and apparently frustrate or modify one another's operation, yet in reality all are fulfilled, the collective effect being the exact sum of the eff ects of the causes taken separately. A familiar instance is that of a body kept in equilibrium by two equal and contrary forces. One of the forces if acting alone would carry the body in a given time a certain distance to the west, the other if acting alon e would carry it exactly as far toward the east; and the result is the same as if it had been first carried to the west as far as the one force would carry it, and then back toward the east as far as the other would carry itthat is, precisely the same dis tance; being ultimately left where it was found at first. All laws of causation are liable to be in this manner counteracted, and seemingly frustrated, by coming into conflict with other laws, the separate result of which is opposite to theirs, or more or less inconsistent with it. And hence, with almost every law, many instances in which it really is entirely fulfilled, do not, at first sight, appear to be cases of its operation at all. It is so in the example just adduced: a force in mechanics means neither more nor less than a cause of motion, yet the sum of the effects of two causes of motion may be rest. Again, a body solicited by two forces in directions making an angle with one another, moves in the diagonal; and it seems a paradox to say that motion in the diagonal is the sum of two motions in two other lines. Motion, however, is but change of place, and at every instant the body is in the exact place it would have been in if the forces had acted during alternate instants instead of acting in the same instant (saving that if we suppose two forces to act successively which are in truth simultaneous we must of course allow them double the time). It is evident, therefore, that each force has had, during each instant, all the effect which belonged to it; and that the modifying influence which one of two concurrent causes is said to exercise with respect to the other may be considered as exerted not over the action of the cause itself, but over the effect after it is completed. For all purposes of predicting, calculating, or explaining their joint result, causes which compound their effects may be treated as if they produced simultaneously each of them its own effect, and all these effects co -existed visibly. Since the laws of causes are as really fulfilled when the causes are said to be counteracted by opposing causes, as when they are left to their own undisturbed action, we must be cautious not to express the laws in such terms as would render the assertion of their being fulfilled in those cases a contradi ction. If, for instance, it were stated as a law of nature that a body to which a force is applied moves in the direction of the force, with a velocity proportioned to the force directly, and to its own mass inversely; when in point of fact some bodies to which a force is applied do not move at all, and those which do move (at least in the region of our earth) are, from the very first, retarded by the action of gravity and other resisting forces, and at last stopped altogether; it is clear that the general proposition, though it would be true under a certain hypothesis, would not express the facts as they actually occur. To accommodate the expression of the law to the real phenomena, we must say, not that the object moves, but that it tends to move, in the direction and with the velocity specified. We 282 might, indeed, guard our expression in a different mode, by saying that the body moves in that manner unless prevented, or except in so far as prevented, by some counteracting cause. But the body does not only move in that manner unless counteracted; it tends to move in that manner even when counteracted; it still exerts, in the original direction, the same energy of movement as if its first impulse had been undisturbed, and produces, by that energy, an exactly equivalent quantity of effect. This is true even when the force leaves the body as it found it, in a state of absolute rest; as when we attempt to raise a body of three tons' weight with a force equal to one ton. For if, while we are applying this force, wind or water or any other agent supplies an additional force just exceeding two tons, the body will be raised; thus proving that the force we applied exerted its full effect, by neutralizing an equivalent portion of the weight which it was insufficient alto gether to overcome. And if, while we are exerting this force of one ton upon the object in a direction contrary to that of gravity, it be put into a scale and weighed, it will be found to have lost a ton of its weight, or, in other words, to press downward with a force only equal to the difference of the two forces. These facts are correctly indicated by the expression tendency. All laws of causation, in consequence of their liability to be counteracted, require to be stated in words affirmative of tendenci es only, and not of actual results. In those sciences of causation which have an accurate nomenclature, there are special words which signify a tendency to the particular effect with which the science is conversant; thus pressure , in mechanics, is synonymous with tendency to motion, and forces are not reasoned on as causing actual motion, but as exerting pressure. A similar improvement in terminology would be very salutary in many other branches of science. The habit of neglecting this necessary element in the precise expression of the laws of nature, has given birth to the popular prejudice that all general truths have exceptions; and much unmerited distrust has thence accrued to the conclusions of science, when they have been submitted to the judgment of minds insufficiently disciplined and cultivated. The rough generalizations suggested by common observation usually have exceptions; but principles of science, or, in other words, laws of causation, have not. What is thought to be an exception to a principl e (to quote words used on a different occasion), is always some other and distinct principle cutting into the former; some other force which impinges P147F148 P against the first force, and deflects it from its direction. There are not a law and an exception to t hat law, the law acting in ninety -nine cases, and the exception in one. There are two laws, each possibly acting in the whole hundred cases, and bringing about a common effect by their conjunct operation. If the force which, being the less conspicuous of the two, is called the disturbing force, prevails sufficiently over the other force in some one case, to constitute that case what is commonly called an exception, the same disturbing force probably acts as a modifying cause in many other cases which no one will call exceptions. Thus if it were stated to be a law of nature that all heavy bodies fall to the ground, it would probably be said that the resistance of the atmosphere, which prevents a balloon from falling, constitutes the balloon an exception to that pretended law of nature. But the real law is, that all heavy bodies tend to fall; and to this there is no exception, not even the sun and moon; for even they, as every astronomer knows, tend toward the earth, with a force exactly equal to that with which the earth tends toward them. The resistance of the atmosphere might, in the particular case of the balloon, from a misapprehension of what the law of gravitation is, be said to prevail over the law; but its disturbing effect is quite as re al in every other case, since though it does not prevent, it retards the fall of all bodies whatever. The rule, and the so- 148 It seems hardly necessary to say that the word impinge , as a general term to express collision of forces, is here used by a figure of speech, and not as expressive of any theory respecting the nature of force. 283 called exception, do not divide the cases between them; each of them is a comprehensive rule extending to all cases. To call one of these concurrent principles an exception to the other, is superficial, and contrary to the correct principles of nomenclature and arrangement. An effect of precisely the same kind, and arising from the same cause, ought not to be placed in two different cat egories, merely as there does or does not exist another cause preponderating over it. P148F149 P 6. We have now to consider according to what method these complex effects, compounded of the effects of many causes, are to be studied; how we are enabled to trace each effect to the concurrence of causes in which it originated, and ascertain the conditions of its recurrencethe circumstances in which it may be expected again to occur. The conditions of a phenomenon which arises from a composition of causes, may be i nvestigated either deductively or experimentally. The case, it is evident, is naturally susceptible of the deductive mode of investigation. The law of an effect of this description is a result of the laws of the separate causes on the combination of which it depends, and is, therefore, in itself capable of being deduced from these laws. This is called the method a priori . The other, or a posteriori method, professes to proceed according to the canons of experimental inquiry. Considering the whole assemblage of concurrent causes which produced the phenomenon, as one single cause, it attempts to ascertain the cause in the ordinary manner, by a comparison of instances. This second method subdivides itself into two different varieties. If it merely collates instances of the effect, it is a method of pure observation. If it operates upon the causes, and tries different combinations of them, in hopes of ultimately hitting the precise combination which will produce the given total effect, it is a method of experiment. In order more completely to clear up the nature of each of these three methods, and determine which of them deserves the preference, it will be expedient (conformably to a favorite maxim of Lord Chancellor Eldon, to which, though it has often incurred philosophical ridicule, a deeper philosophy will not refuse its sanction) to clothe them in circumstances. We shall select for this purpose a case which as yet furnishes no very brilliant example of the success of any of the three methods, but which is al l the more suited to illustrate the difficulties inherent in them. Let the subject of inquiry be, the conditions of health and disease in the human body; or (for greater simplicity) the conditions of recovery from a given disease; and in order to narrow the question still more, let it be limited, in the first instance, to this one inquiry: Is, or is not, some particular medicament (mercury, for instance) a remedy for the given disease. Now, the deductive method would set out from known properties of mercury , and known laws of the human body, and by reasoning from these, would attempt to discover whether mercury will act upon the body when in the morbid condition supposed, in such a manner as would tend to restore health. The experimental method would simply administer mercury in as many cases as possible, noting the age, sex, temperament, and other peculiarities of bodily constitution, the particular form or variety of the disease, the particular stage of its progress, etc., remarking in which of these cases it was attended with a salutary effect, and with what circumstances it was on those occasions combined. The method of simple observation would compare instances of recovery, to find whether they agreed in having been preceded by the administration of mercu ry; or would compare instances of recovery with instances of failure, to find cases which, agreeing in all other respects, differed only in the fact that mercury had been administered, or that it had not. 149 Essays on some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy , Essay V. 284 7. That the last of these three modes of investigation is applicable to the case, no one has ever seriously contended. No conclusions of value on a subject of such intricacy ever were obtained in that way. The utmost that could result would be a vague general impression for or against the efficacy of mer cury, of no avail for guidance unless confirmed by one of the other two methods. Not that the results, which this method strives to obtain, would not be of the utmost possible value if they could be obtained. If all the cases of recovery which presented themselves, in an examination extending to a great number of instances, were cases in which mercury had been administered, we might generalize with confidence from this experience, and should have obtained a conclusion of real value. But no such basis for ge neralization can we, in a case of this description, hope to obtain. The reason is that which we have spoken of as constituting the characteristic imperfection of the Method of Agreement, Plurality of Causes. Supposing even that mercury does tend to cure the disease, so many other causes, both natural and artificial, also tend to cure it, that there are sure to be abundant instances of recovery in which mercury has not been administered, unless, indeed, the practice be to administer it in all cases; on which supposition it will equally be found in the cases of failure. When an effect results from the union of many causes, the share which each has in the determination of the effect can not in general be great, and the effect is not likely, even in its presence or absence, still less in its variations, to follow, even approximately, any one of the causes. Recovery from a disease is an event to which, in every case, many influences must concur. Mercury may be one such influence; but from the very fact that there are many other such, it will necessarily happen that although mercury is administered, the patient, for want of other concurring influences, will often not recover, and that he often will recover when it is not administered, the other favorable influences being sufficiently powerful without it. Neither, therefore, will the instances of recovery agree in the administration of mercury, nor will the instances of failure agree in its non -administration. It is much if, by multiplied and accurate returns from hospitals and the like, we can collect that there are rather more recoveries and rather fewer failures when mercury is administered than when it is not; a result of very secondary value even as a guide to practice, and almost worthless as a contribution to the theory of the subject. P149F150 P 8. The inapplicability of the method of simple observation to ascertain the conditions of effects dependent on many concurring causes, being thus recognized, we shall next inquire whether any greater benefit can be expected fr om the other branch of the a posteriori method, that which proceeds by directly trying different combinations of causes, either artificially produced or found in nature, and taking notice what is their effect; as, for example, by actually trying the effect of mercury in as many different circumstances as possible. This 150 It is justly remarked by Professor Bain, that though the Methods of Agreement and Difference are not applicable to these cases, they are not wholly inaccessible to the Method of Concomitant Variations. If a cause happens to vary alone, the effect will also vary alone: a cause and effect may be thus singled out under the greatest complications. Thus, when the appetite for food increases with the cold, we have a strong evidence of connection between these two facts, although other circumstances may operate in the same direction. The assigning of the respective parts of the sun and moon in the action of the tides may be effected, to a certain degree of exactness, by the variations of the amount according to the positions of the two attractive bodies. By a series of experiments of Concomitant Variations, directed to ascertain the elimination of nitrogen from the human body under varieties of muscular exercise, Dr. Parkes obtained the remarkable conclusion, that a muscle grows during exercise, and loses bulk during the subsequent rest. (Logic , ii., 83.) It is, no doubt, often possible to single out the influencing causes from among a great number of mere concomitants, by noting what are the antecedents, a variation in which is followed by a variation in the effect. But when there are many influencing causes, no one of them greatly predominating over the rest, and especially when some of these are continually changing, it is scarcely ever possible to trace such a relation between the variations of the effect and those of any one cause as would enable us to assign to that cause its real share in the production of the effect. 285 method differs from the one which we have just examined in turning our attention directly to the causes or agents, instead of turning it to the effect, recovery from the disease. And since, as a general rule, the effects of causes are far more accessible to our study than the causes of effects, it is natural to think that this method has a much better chance of proving successful than the former. The method now under consideration is called the Empirical Method; and in order to estimate it fairly, we must suppose it to be completely, not incompletely, empirical. We must exclude from it every thing which partakes of the nature not of an experimental but of a deductive operation. If, for instance , we try experiments with mercury upon a person in health, in order to ascertain the general laws of its action upon the human body, and then reason from these laws to determine how it will act upon persons affected with a particular disease, this may be a really effectual method; but this is deduction. The experimental method does not derive the law of a complex case from the simpler laws which conspire to produce it, but makes its experiments directly upon the complex case. We must make entire abstraction of all knowledge of the simpler tendencies, the modi operandi of mercury in detail. Our experimentation must aim at obtaining a direct answer to the specific question, Does or does not mercury tend to cure the particular disease? Let us see, therefore, how far the case admits of the observance of those rules of experimentation which it is found necessary to observe in other cases. When we devise an experiment to ascertain the effect of a given agent, there are certain precautions which we never, if we can help it, omit. In the first place, we introduce the agent into the midst of a set of circumstances which we have exactly ascertained. It needs hardly be remarked how far this condition is from being realized in any case connected with the phenomena of life; how far we are from knowing what are all the circumstances which pre -exist in any instance in which mercury is administered to a living being. This difficulty, however, though insuperable in most cases, may not be so in all; there are sometimes concurrences of many causes, in which we yet know accurately what the causes are. Moreover, the difficulty may be attenuated by sufficient multiplication of experiments, in circumstances rendering it improbable that any of the unknown causes should exist in them all. But when we have got clear of this obstacle, we encounter another still more serious. In other cases, when we intend to try an experiment, we do not reckon it enough that there be no circumstance in the case the presence of which is unknown to us. We require, also, that none of the circumstances which we do know shall have effects susceptible of being confounded with those of the agents whose properties we wish to study. We take the utmost pains to exclude all causes capable of composition w ith the given cause; or, if forced to let in any such causes, we take care to make them such that we can compute and allow for their influence, so that the effect of the given cause may, after the subduction of those other effects, be apparent as a residual phenomenon. These precautions are inapplicable to such cases as we are now considering. The mercury of our experiment being tried with an unknown multitude (or even let it be a known multitude) of other influencing circumstances, the mere fact of their b eing influencing circumstances implies that they disguise the effect of the mercury, and preclude us from knowing whether it has any effect or not. Unless we already knew what and how much is owing to every other circumstance (that is, unless we suppose the very problem solved which we are considering the means of solving), we can not tell that those other circumstances may not have produced the whole of the effect, independently or even in spite of the mercury. The Method of Difference, in the ordinary mode of its use, namely, by comparing the state of things following the experiment with the state which preceded it, is thus, in the case of intermixture of effects, entirely unavailing; because other causes than that whose effect we are seeking to determine have been operating during the transition. As for the other mode of employing the 286 Method of Difference, namely, by comparing, not the same case at two different periods, but different cases, this in the present instance is quite chimerical. In phenomena so complicated it is questionable if two cases, similar in all respects but one, ever occurred; and were they to occur, we could not possibly know that they were so exactly similar. Any thing like a scientific use of the method of experiment, in these compli cated cases, is therefore out of the question. We can generally, even in the most favorable cases, only discover by a succession of trials, that a certain cause is very often followed by a certain effect. For, in one of these conjunct effects, the portion which is determined by any one of the influencing agents, is usually, as we before remarked, but small; and it must be a more potent cause than most, if even the tendency which it really exerts is not thwarted by other tendencies in nearly as many cases as it is fulfilled. Some causes indeed there are which are more potent than any counteracting causes to which they are commonly exposed; and accordingly there are some truths in medicine which are sufficiently proved by direct experiment. Of these the most f amiliar are those that relate to the efficacy of the substances known as Specifics for particular diseases, quinine, colchicum, lime-juice, cod- liver oil, P150F151 P and a few others. Even these are not invariably followed by success; but they succeed in so large a proportion of cases, and against such powerful obstacles, that their tendency to restore health in the disorders for which they are prescribed may be regarded as an experimental truth. P151F152 P If so little can be done by the experimental method to determine the conditions of an effect of many combined causes, in the case of medical science; still less is this method applicable to a class of phenomena more complicated than even those of physiology, the phenomena of politics and history. There, Plurality of Causes exists in almost boundless excess, and effects are, for the most part, inextricably interwoven with one another. To add to the embarrassment, most of the inquiries in political science relate to the production of effects of a most comprehensive descrip tion, such as the public wealth, public security, public morality, and the like: results liable to be affected directly or indirectly either in plus or in minus by nearly every fact which exists, or event which occurs, in human society. The vulgar notion, that the safe methods on political subjects are those of Baconian inductionthat the true guide is not general reasoning, but specific experiencewill one day be quoted as among the most unequivocal marks of a low state of the speculative faculties in any age in which it is accredited. Nothing can be more ludicrous than the sort of parodies on experimental reasoning which one is accustomed to meet with, not in popular discussion only, but in grave treatises, when the affairs of nations are the theme. How, it is asked, can an institution be bad, when the country has prospered under it? How can such or such causes have contributed to the prosperity of one country, when another has prospered without them? Whoever makes use of an argument of this kind, not intending to deceive, should be sent back to learn the elements of some one of the more easy physical sciences. Such reasoners ignore the fact of Plurality of Causes in the very case which affords the most signal example of it. So little could be concluded, in such a case, from any possible collation of individual instances, that even the impossibility, in social phenomena, of making artificial experiments, a circumstance otherwise so prejudicial to directly inductive inquiry, hardly 151 Bain's Logic , ii., 360. 152 What is said in the text on the applicability of the experimental methods to resolve particular questions of medical treatment, does not detract from their efficacy in ascertaining the general laws of the animal or human system. The functions, for example, of the different classes of nerves have been discovered, and probably could only have been discovered, by experiments on living animals. Observation and experiment are the ultimate basis of all knowledge: from them we obtain the elementary laws of life, as we obtain all other elementary truths. It is in dealing with the complex combinations that the experimental methods are for the most part illusory, and the deductive mode of investigation must be invoked to disentangle the complexity. 287 affords, in this case, additional reason of regret. For even if we could try experiments upon a nation or upon the human race, with as little scruple as M. Magendie tried them on dogs and rabbits, we should never succeed in making two instances identical in every respect except the presence or absence of some one definite circumstance. The nearest approach to an experiment in the philosophical sense, which takes place in politics, is the introduction of a new operative element into national affairs by some special and assignable measure of government, such as the enactment or repeal of a particular law. But where there are so many influences at work, it requires some time for the influence of any new cause upon national phenomena to become apparent; and as the causes operating in so extensive a sphere are not only infinitely numerous, but in a state of perpetual alteration, it is always certain that before the effect of the new cause becomes conspicuous enough to be a subject of induction, so many of the other influencing circumst ances will have changed as to vitiate the experiment. P152F153 P Two, therefore, of the three possible methods for the study of phenomena resulting from the composition of many causes, being, from the very nature of the case, inefficient and illusory, there remains only the thirdthat which considers the causes separately, and infers the effect from the balance of the different tendencies which produce it: in short, the deductive, or a priori method. The more particular consideration of this intellectual proc ess requires a chapter to itself. 153 Professor Bain, though concurring generally in the views expressed in this chapter, seems to estimate more highly than I do the scope for specific experimental evidence in politics. ( Logic , ii., 333 -337.) There are, it is true, as he remarks (p. 336), some cases when an agent suddenly introduced is almost instantaneously followed by some other changes, as when the announcement of a diplomatic rupture between two nations is followed the same day by a derangement of the money- market. But this experiment would be quite inconclusive merely as an experiment. It can only serve, as any experiment may, to verify the conclusion of a deduction. Unless we already knew by our knowledge of the motives which act on business men, that the prospect of war tends to derange the money -market, we should never have been able to prove a connection between the two facts, unless after having ascertained historically that the one followed the other in too great a number of instances to be consistent with their having been recorded with due precautions. Whoever has carefully examined any of the attempts continually made to prove economic doctrines by such a recital of instances, knows well how futile they are. It always turns out that the circumstances of scarcely any of the cases have been fully stated; and that cases, in equal or greater numbers, have been omitted which would have tended to an opposite conclusion. 288 XI. Of The Deductive Method 1. The mode of investigation which, from the proved inapplicability of direct methods of observation and experiment, remains to us as the main source of the knowledge we possess or can acquire respecting the conditions and laws of recurrence, of the more complex phenomena, is called, in its most general expression, the Deductive Method; and consists of three operations: the first, one of direct induction; the second, of ratiocination; the third, of verification. I call the first step in the process an inductive operation, because there must be a direct induction as the basis of the whole; though in many particular investigations the place of the induction may be supplied by a prior deduction; but the premises of this prior deduction must have been derived from induction. The problem of the Deductive Method is, to find the law of an effect, from the laws of the different tendencies of which it is the joint result. The first requisite, therefore, is to know the laws of those tendencies; the law of each of the concurrent causes: and this supposes a previous process of observation or experiment upon each cause separately; or else a previous deduction, which also must depend for its ultimate premises on observation or experiment. Thus, if the subject be social or historical phenomena, the premises of the Deductive Method must be the laws of the causes which determine that class of phenomena; and those causes are human actions, together with the general outward circumstances under the influence of which mankind are placed, and which constitute man's position on the earth. The Deductive Method, applied to social phenomena, must begin, therefore, by investigating, or must suppose to have been already investigated, the laws of human action, and those properties of outward things by which the actions of human beings in society are determined. Some of these general truths will naturally be obtained by observation and experiment, others by deduction: the more complex laws of human action, for example, may be deduced from the simpler ones; but the simple or elementary laws will always, and necessarily, have been obtained by a directly inductive process. To ascertain, then, the laws of each separate cause which takes a share in producing the effect, is the first desideratum of the Deductive Method. To know what the causes are which must be subjected to this process of study, may or may not be difficult. In the case last mentioned, this first condition is of easy fulfillment. That social phenomena depend on the acts and mental impressions of human beings, never could have been a matter of any doubt, however imperfectly it may have been known either by what laws those impressions and action s are governed, or to what social consequences their laws naturally lead. Neither, again, after physical science had attained a certain development, could there be any real doubt where to look for the laws on which the phenomena of life depend, since they must be the mechanical and chemical laws of the solid and fluid substances composing the organized body and the medium in which it subsists, together with the peculiar vital laws of the different tissues constituting the organic structure. In other cases, really far more simple than these, it was much less obvious in what quarter the causes were to be looked for: as in the case of the celestial phenomena. Until, by combining the laws of certain causes, it was found that those laws explained all the facts wh ich experience had proved concerning the heavenly motions, and led to predictions which it always verified, mankind never knew that those were the causes. But whether we are able to put the question before, or not until after, we have become capable of ans wering it, in either case it must be answered; the laws of the 289 different causes must be ascertained, before we can proceed to deduce from them the conditions of the effect. The mode of ascertaining those laws neither is, nor can be any other than the fourfold method of experimental inquiry, already discussed. A few remarks on the application of that method to cases of the Composition of Causes are all that is requisite. It is obvious that we can not expect to find the law of a tendency by an induction from cases in which the tendency is counteracted. The laws of motion could never have been brought to light from the observation of bodies kept at rest by the equilibrium of opposing forces. Even where the tendency is not, in the ordinary sense of the word, counteracted, but only modified, by having its effects compounded with the effects arising from some other tendency or tendencies, we are still in an unfavorable position for tracing, by means of such cases, the law of the tendency itself. It would have been scarcely possible to discover the law that every body in motion tends to continue moving in a straight line, by an induction from instances in which the motion is deflected into a curve, by being compounded with the effect of an accelerating force. Notwith standing the resources afforded in this description of cases by the Method of Concomitant Variations, the principles of a judicious experimentation prescribe that the law of each of the tendencies should be studied, if possible, in cases in which that tendency operates alone, or in combination with no agencies but those of which the effect can, from previous knowledge, be calculated and allowed for. Accordingly, in the cases, unfortunately very numerous and important, in which the causes do not suffer themselves to be separated and observed apart, there is much difficulty in laying down with due certainty the inductive foundation necessary to support the deductive method. This difficulty is most of all conspicuous in the case of physiological phenomena; it being seldom possible to separate the different agencies which collectively compose an organized body, without destroying the very phenomena which it is our object to investigate: following life, in creatures we dissect, We lose it, in the moment we detect. And for this reason I am inclined to the opinion that physiology (greatly and rapidly progressive as it now is) is embarrassed by greater natural difficulties, and is probably susceptible of a less degree of ultimate perfection, than even the social science; inasmuch as it is possible to study the laws and operations of one human mind apart from other minds, much less imperfectly than we can study the laws of one organ or tissue of the human body apart from the other organs or tissues. It has been judici ously remarked that pathological facts, or, to speak in common language, diseases in their different forms and degrees afford in the case of physiological investigation the most valuable equivalent to experimentation properly so called; inasmuch as they of ten exhibit to us a definite disturbance in some one organ or organic function, the remaining organs and functions being, in the first instance at least, unaffected. It is true that from the perpetual actions and reactions which are going on among all parts of the organic economy, there can be no prolonged disturbance in any one function without ultimately involving many of the others; and when once it has done so, the experiment for the most part loses its scientific value. All depends on observing the early stages of the derangement; which, unfortunately, are of necessity the least marked. If, however, the organs and functions not disturbed in the first instance become affected in a fixed order of succession, some light is thereby thrown upon the action which one organ exercises over another: and we occasionally obtain a series of effects which we can refer with some confidence to the original local derangement; but for this it is necessary that we should know that the original 290 derangement was local. If it was what is termed constitutional; that is, if we do not know in what part of the animal economy it took its rise, or the precise nature of the disturbance which took place in that part, we are unable to determine which of the various derangements was caus e and which effect; which of them were produced by one another, and which by the direct, though perhaps tardy, action of the original cause. Besides natural pathological facts, we can produce pathological facts artificially: we can try experiments, even in the popular sense of the term, by subjecting the living being to some external agent, such as the mercury of our former example, or the section of a nerve to ascertain the functions of different parts of the nervous system. As this experimentation is not intended to obtain a direct solution of any practical question, but to discover general laws, from which afterward the conditions of any particular effect may be obtained by deduction, the best cases to select are those of which the circumstances can be best ascertained: and such are generally not those in which there is any practical object in view. The experiments are best tried, not in a state of disease, which is essentially a changeable state, but in the condition of health, comparatively a fixed state. In the one, unusual agencies are at work, the results of which we have no means of predicting: in the other, the course of the accustomed physiological phenomena would, it may generally be presumed, remain undisturbed, were it not for the disturbing caus e which we introduce. Such, with the occasional aid of the Method of Concomitant Variations (the latter not less encumbered than the more elementary methods by the peculiar difficulties of the subject), are our inductive resources for ascertaining the laws of the causes considered separately, when we have it not in our power to make trial of them in a state of actual separation. The insufficiency of these resources is so glaring, that no one can be surprised at the backward state of the science of physiolog y; in which indeed our knowledge of causes is so imperfect, that we can neither explain, nor could without specific experience have predicted, many of the facts which are certified to us by the most ordinary observation. Fortunately, we are much better informed as to the empirical laws of the phenomena, that is, the uniformities respecting which we can not yet decide whether they are cases of causation, or mere results of it. Not only has the order in which the facts of organization and life successively ma nifest themselves, from the first germ of existence to death, been found to be uniform, and very accurately ascertainable; but, by a great application of the Method of Concomitant Variations to the entire facts of comparative anatomy and physiology, the characteristic organic structure corresponding to each class of functions has been determined with considerable precision. Whether these organic conditions are the whole of the conditions, and in many cases whether they are conditions at all, or mere collate ral effects of some common cause, we are quite ignorant; nor are we ever likely to know, unless we could construct an organized body and try whether it would live. Under such disadvantages do we, in cases of this description, attempt the initial, or induct ive step, in the application of the Deductive Method to complex phenomena. But such, fortunately, is not the common case. In general, the laws of the causes on which the effect depends may be obtained by an induction from comparatively simple instances, or , at the worst, by deduction from the laws of simpler causes, so obtained. By simple instances are meant, of course, those in which the action of each cause was not intermixed or interfered with, or not to any great extent, by other causes whose laws were unknown. And only when the induction which furnished the premises to the Deductive method rested on such instances has the application of such a method to the ascertainment of the laws of a complex effect, been attended with brilliant results. 291 2. When the laws of the causes have been ascertained, and the first stage of the great logical operation now under discussion satisfactorily accomplished, the second part follows; that of determining from the laws of the causes what effect any given combination of t hose causes will produce. This is a process of calculation, in the wider sense of the term; and very often involves processes of calculation in the narrowest sense. It is a ratiocination; and when our knowledge of the causes is so perfect as to extend to t he exact numerical laws which they observe in producing their effects, the ratiocination may reckon among its premises the theorems of the science of number, in the whole immense extent of that science. Not only are the most advanced truths of mathematics often required to enable us to compute an effect, the numerical law of which we already know; but, even by the aid of those most advanced truths, we can go but a little way. In so simple a case as the common problem of three bodies gravitating toward one another, with a force directly as their mass and inversely as the square of the distance, all the resources of the calculus have not hitherto sufficed to obtain any general solution, but an approximate one. In a case a little more complex, but still one of the simplest which arise in practice, that of the motion of a projectile, the causes which affect the velocity and range (for example) of a cannon- ball may be all known and estimated: the force of the gunpowder, the angle of elevation, the density of the air, the strength and direction of the wind; but it is one of the most difficult of mathematical problems to combine all these, so as to determine the effect resulting from their collective action. Besides the theorems of number, those of geometry also come in as premises, where the effects take place in space, and involve motion and extension, as in mechanics, optics, acoustics, astronomy. But when the complication increases, and the effects are under the influence of so many and such shifting causes as to give no room either for fixed numbers, or for straight lines and regular curves (as in the case of physiological, to say nothing of mental and social phenomena), the laws of number and extension are applicable, if at all, only on that large scale on wh ich precision of details becomes unimportant. Although these laws play a conspicuous part in the most striking examples of the investigation of nature by the Deductive Method, as for example in the Newtonian theory of the celestial motions, they are by no means an indispensable part of every such process. All that is essential in it is reasoning from a general law to a particular case, that is, determining by means of the particular circumstances of that case, what result is required in that instance to ful fill the law. Thus in the Torricellian experiment, if the fact that air has weight had been previously known, it would have been easy, without any numerical data, to deduce from the general law of equilibrium, that the mercury would stand in the tube at such a height that the column of mercury would exactly balance a column of the atmosphere of equal diameter; because, otherwise, equilibrium would not exist. By such ratiocinations from the separate laws of the causes, we may, to a certain extent, succeed in answering either of the following questions: Given a certain combination of causes, what effect will follow? and, What combination of causes, if it existed, would produce a given effect? In the one case, we determine the effect to be expected in any compl ex circumstances of which the different elements are known: in the other case we learn, according to what law under what antecedent conditionsa given complex effect will occur. 3. But (it may here be asked) are not the same arguments by which the methods of direct observation and experiment were set aside as illusory when applied to the laws of complex phenomena, applicable with equal force against the Method of Deduction? When in every single instance a multitude, often an unknown multitude, of agencies , are clashing and combining, what security have we that in our computation a priori we have taken all these into our reckoning? How many must we not generally be ignorant of? Among those which 292 we know, how probable that some have been overlooked; and, even were all included, how vain the pretense of summing up the effects of many causes, unless we know accurately the numerical law of each a condition in most cases not to be fulfilled; and even when it is fulfilled, to make the calculation transcends, in any but very simple cases, the utmost power of mathematical science with all its most modern improvements. These objections have real weight, and would be altogether unanswerable, if there were no test by which, when we employ the Deductive Method, we might judge whether an error of any of the above descriptions had been committed or not. Such a test, however, there is: and its application forms, under the name of Verification, the third essential component part of the Deductive Method; without which all the results it can give have little other value than that of conjecture. To warrant reliance on the general conclusions arrived at by deduction, these conclusions must be found, on careful comparison, to accord with the results of direct observation wherever it can be had. If, when we have experience to compare with them, this experience confirms them, we may safely trust to them in other cases of which our specific experience is yet to come. But if our deductions have led to the conclusion that from a particul ar combination of causes a given effect would result, then in all known cases where that combination can be shown to have existed, and where the effect has not followed, we must be able to show (or at least to make a probable surmise) what frustrated it: if we can not, the theory is imperfect, and not yet to be relied upon. Nor is the verification complete, unless some of the cases in which the theory is borne out by the observed result are of at least equal complexity with any other cases in which its application could be called for. If direct observation and collation of instances have furnished us with any empirical laws of the effect (whether true in all observed cases, or only true for the most part), the most effectual verification of which the theory could be susceptible, would be, that it led deductively to those empirical laws; that the uniformities, whether complete or incomplete, which were observed to exist among the phenomena, were accounted for by the laws of the causes were such as could not but exist if those be really the causes by which the phenomena are produced. Thus it was very reasonably deemed an essential requisite of any true theory of the causes of the celestial motions, that it should lead by deduction to Kepler's laws; which, accordingly, the Newtonian theory did. In order, therefore, to facilitate the verification of theories obtained by deduction, it is important that as many as possible of the empirical laws of the phenomena should be ascertained, by a comparison of instances, conformably to the Method of Agreement: as well as (it must be added) that the phenomena themselves should be described, in the most comprehensive as well as accurate manner possible; by collecting from the observation of parts, the simplest possible c orrect expressions for the corresponding wholes: as when the series of the observed places of a planet was first expressed by a circle, then by a system of epicycles, and subsequently by an ellipse. It is worth remarking, that complex instances which would have been of no use for the discovery of the simple laws into which we ultimately analyze their phenomena, nevertheless, when they have served to verify the analysis, become additional evidence of the laws themselves. Although we could not have got at the law from complex cases, still when the law, got at otherwise, is found to be in accordance with the result of a complex case, that case becomes a new experiment on the law, and helps to confirm what it did not assist to discover. It is a new trial of the principle in a different set of circumstances; and occasionally serves to eliminate some circumstance not previously excluded, and the exclusion of which might require an experiment impossible to be executed. This was strikingly conspicuous in the example formerly quoted, in which the difference between the observed and the calculated 293 velocity of sound was ascertained to result from the heat extricated by the condensation which takes place in each sonorous vibration. This was a trial, in new circumstances, of the law of the development of heat by compression; and it added materially to the proof of the universality of that law. Accordingly, any law of nature is deemed to have gained in point of certainty, by being found to explain some complex case which had not previously been thought of in connection with it; and this indeed is a consideration to which it is the habit of scientific inquirers to attach rather too much value than too little. To the Deductive Method, thus characterized in its three constituent parts, Induction, Ratiocination, and Verification, the human mind is indebted for its most conspicuous triumphs in the investigation of nature. To it we owe all the theories by which vast and complicated phenomena are embraced under a few simple laws, which, considered as the laws of those great phenomena, could never have been detected by their direct study. We may form some conception of what the method has done for us from the case of the celestial motions: one of the simplest among the greater instances of the Composition of Causes, since (except in a few cases not of primary importance) each of the heavenly bodies may be considered, without material inaccuracy, to be never at one time influenced by the attraction of more than two bodies, the sun and one other planet or satellite; making, with the reaction of the body itself, and the force generated by the body's own motion and acting in the direction of the tangent, only four different agents on the concurrence of which the motions of that body depend; a much smaller number, no doubt, than that by which any other of the great phenomena of nature is determined or modified. Yet how could we ever have ascertained the combination of forces on which the motions of the earth and planets are dependent, by merely comparing the orbits or velocities of different planets, or the different velocities or positions of the same planet? Notwithstanding the regularity which manifests itself in those motions, in a degree so rare among the effects of concurrence of causes; and although the periodical recurrence of exactly the same effect, affords positive proof that all the combinations of causes which occur at all, recur periodically; we should not have known what the causes were, if the existence of agencies precisely simi lar on our own earth had not, fortunately, brought the causes themselves within the reach of experimentation under simple circumstances. As we shall have occasion to analyze, further on, this great example of the Method of Deduction, we shall not occupy any time with it here, but shall proceed to that secondary application of the Deductive Method, the result of which is not to prove laws of phenomena, but to explain them. 294 XII. Of The Explanation Of Laws Of Nature 1. The deductive operation by which we derive the law of an effect from the laws of the causes, the concurrence of which gives rise to it, may be undertaken either for the purpose of discovering the law, or of explaining a law already discovered. The word explanation oc curs so continually, and holds so important a place in philosophy, that a little time spent in fixing the meaning of it will be profitably employed. An individual fact is said to be explained, by pointing out its cause, that is, by stating the law or laws of causation, of which its production is an instance. Thus, a conflagration is explained, when it is proved to have arisen from a spark falling into the midst of a heap of combustibles. And in a similar manner, a law or uniformity in nature is said to be explained, when another law or laws are pointed out, of which that law itself is but a case, and from which it could be deduced. 2. There are three distinguishable sets of circumstances in which a law of causation may be explained from, or, as it also is often expressed, resolved into, other laws. The first is the case already so fully considered; an intermixture of laws, producing a joint effect equal to the sum of the effects of the causes taken separately. The law of the complex effect is explained, by being resolved into the separate laws of the causes which contribute to it. Thus, the law of the motion of a planet is resolved into the law of the acquired force, which tends to produce a uniform motion in the tangent, and the law of the centripetal force, which tends to produce an accelerating motion toward the sun; the real motion being a compound of the two. It is necessary here to remark, that in this resolution of the law of a complex effect, the laws of which it is compounded are not the only elements. It is resolved into the laws of the separate causes, together with the fact of their co -existence. The one is as essential an ingredient as the other; whether the object be to discover the law of the effect, or only to explain it. To deduce the laws of the heavenly motions, we require not only to know the law of a rectilineal and that of a gravitative force, but the existence of both these forces in the celestial regions, and even their relative amount. The complex laws of causation are thus resolved into two distinct kinds of elements: the one, simpler laws of causation, the other (in the aptly selected expression of Dr. Chalmers) collocations; the collocations consisting in the existence of certain agents or powers, in certain circumstances of place and time. We shall hereafter have occasion to return to this distinction, and to dwell on it at such length as dispenses with the necessity of further insisting on it here. The first mode, then, of the explanation of Laws of Causation, is when the law of an effect is resolved into the various tendencies of which it is the result, together with the laws of those tendencies. 3. A second case is when, between what seemed the cause and what was supposed to be its effect, further observation detects an intermedia te link; a fact caused by the antecedent, and in its turn causing the consequent; so that the cause at first assigned is but the remote cause, operating through the intermediate phenomenon. A seemed the cause of C, but it subsequently appeared that A was only the cause of B, and that it is B which was the cause of C. For example: mankind were aware that the act of touching an outward object caused a sensation. It was subsequently discovered that after we have touched the object, and before we experience the sensation, some change takes place in a kind of thread called a nerve, which extends from our outward organs to the brain. Touching the object, therefore, is only the remote cause of our sensation; that is, not the cause, properly speaking, but the cause of 295 the cause; the real cause of the sensation is the change in the state of the nerve. Future experience may not only give us more knowledge than we now have of the particular nature of this change, but may also interpolate another link: between the contact (for example) of the object with our outward organs, and the production of the change of state in the nerve, there may take place some electric phenomenon, or some phenomenon of a nature not resembling the effects of any known agency. Hitherto, however, no such intermediate link has been discovered; and the touch of the object must be considered, provisionally, as the proximate cause of the affection of the nerve. The sequence, therefore, of a sensation of touch on contact with an object is ascertained no t to be an ultimate law; it is resolved, as the phrase is, into two other lawsthe law that contact with an object produces an affection of the nerve, and the law that an affection of the nerve produces sensation. To take another example: the more powerful acids corrode or blacken organic compounds. This is a case of causation, but of remote causation; and is said to be explained when it is shown that there is an intermediate link, namely, the separation of some of the chemical elements of the organic structure from the rest, and their entering into combination with the acid. The acid causes this separation of the elements, and the separation of the elements causes the disorganization, and often the charring of the structure. So, again, chlorine extracts coloring matters (whence its efficacy in bleaching) and purifies the air from infection. This law is resolved into the two following laws: Chlorine has a powerful affinity for bases of all kinds, particularly metallic bases and hydrogen: such bases are essential elements of coloring matters and contagious compounds, which substances, therefore, are decomposed and destroyed by chlorine. 4. It is of importance to remark, that when a sequence of phenomena is thus resolved into other laws, they are always laws m ore general than itself. The law that A is followed by C, is less general than either of the laws which connect B with C and A with B. This will appear from very simple considerations. All laws of causation are liable to be counteracted or frustrated, by the non- fulfillment of some negative condition; the tendency, therefore, of B to produce C may be defeated. Now the law that A produces B, is equally fulfilled whether B is followed by C or not; but the law that A produces C by means of B, is of course only fulfilled when B is really followed by C, and is, therefore, less general than the law that A produces B. It is also less general than the law that B produces C. For B may have other causes besides A; and as A produces C only by means of B, while B produces C, whether it has itself been produced by A or by any thing else, the second law embraces a greater number of instances, covers as it were a greater space of ground, than the first. Thus, in our former example, the law that the contact of an object caus es a change in the state of the nerve, is more general than the law that contact with an object causes sensation, since, for aught we know, the change in the nerve may equally take place when, from a counteracting cause, as, for instance, strong mental excitement, the sensation does not follow; as in a battle, where wounds are sometimes received without any consciousness of receiving them. And again, the law that change in the state of a nerve produces sensation, is more general than the law that contact wi th an object produces sensation; since the sensation equally follows the change in the nerve when not produced by contact with an object, but by some other cause; as in the well -known case, when a person who has lost a limb feels the same sensation which h e has been accustomed to call a pain in the limb. Not only are the laws of more immediate sequence into which the law of a remote sequence is resolved, laws of greater generality than that law is, but (as a consequence of, or rather as implied in, their gr eater generality) they are more to be relied on; there are fewer chances of 296 their being ultimately found not to be universally true. From the moment when the sequence of A and C is shown not to be immediate, but to depend on an intervening phenomenon, then, however constant and invariable the sequence of A and C has hitherto been found, possibilities arise of its failure, exceeding those which can effect either of the more immediate sequences, A, B, and B, C. The tendency of A to produce C may be defeated by whatever is capable of defeating either the tendency of A to produce B, or the tendency of B to produce C; it is, therefore, twice as liable to failure as either of those more elementary tendencies; and the generalization that A is always followed by C, is twice as likely to be found erroneous. And so of the converse generalization, that C is always preceded and caused by A; which will be erroneous not only if there should happen to be a second immediate mode of production of C itself, but moreover if there be a second mode of production of B, the immediate antecedent of C in the sequence. The resolution of the one generalization into the other two, not only shows that there are possible limitations of the former, from which its two elements are exempt, bu t shows also where these are to be looked for. As soon as we know that B intervenes between A and C, we also know that if there be cases in which the sequence of A and C does not hold, these are most likely to be found by studying the effects or the conditions of the phenomenon B. It appears, then, that in the second of the three modes in which a law may be resolved into other laws, the latter are more general, that is, extend to more cases, and are also less likely to require limitation from subsequent experience, than the law which they serve to explain. They are more nearly unconditional; they are defeated by fewer contingencies; they are a nearer approach to the universal truth of nature. The same observations are still more evidently true with regard to the first of the three modes of resolution. When the law of an effect of combined forces is resolved into the separate laws of the causes, the nature of the case implies that the law of the effect is less general than the law of any of the causes, since i t only holds when they are combined; while the law of any one of the causes holds good both then, and also when that cause acts apart from the rest. It is also manifest that the complex law is liable to be oftener unfulfilled than any one of the simpler la ws of which it is the result, since every contingency which defeats any of the laws prevents so much of the effect as depends on it, and thereby defeats the complex law. The mere rusting, for example, of some small part of a great machine, often suffices e ntirely to prevent the effect which ought to result from the joint action of all the parts. The law of the effect of a combination of causes is always subject to the whole of the negative conditions which attach to the action of all the causes severally. There is another and an equally strong reason why the law of a complex effect must be less general than the laws of the causes which conspire to produce it. The same causes, acting according to the same laws, and differing only in the proportions in which they are combined, often produce effects which differ not merely in quantity, but in kind. The combination of a centripetal with a projectile force, in the proportions which obtain in all the planets and satellites of our solar system, gives rise to an elliptical motion; but if the ratio of the two forces to each other were slightly altered, it is demonstrated that the motion produced would be in a circle, or a parabola, or an hyperbola; and it is thought that in the case of some comets one of these is probably the fact. Yet the law of the parabolic motion would be resolvable into the very same simple laws into which that of the elliptical motion is resolved, namely, the law of the permanence of rectilineal motion, and the law of gravitation. If, therefore, i n the course of ages, some circumstance were to manifest itself which, without defeating the law of either of those forces, should merely alter their proportion to one another (such as the shock of some solid body, or even the accumulating effect of the resistance of the medium in which 297 astronomers have been led to surmise that the motions of the heavenly bodies take place), the elliptical motion might be changed into a motion in some other conic section; and the complex law, that the planetary motions take place in ellipses, would be deprived of its universality, though the discovery would not at all detract from the universality of the simpler laws into which that complex law is resolved. The law, in short, of each of the concurrent causes remains the same, however their collocations may vary; but the law of their joint effect varies with every difference in the collocations. There needs no more to show how much more general the elementary laws must be than any of the complex laws which are derived from the m. 5. Besides the two modes which have been treated of, there is a third mode in which laws are resolved into one another; and in this it is self-evident that they are resolved into laws more general than themselves. This third mode is the subsumption (as it has been called) of one law under another; or (what comes to the same thing) the gathering up of several laws into one more general law which includes them all. The most splendid example of this operation was when terrestrial gravity and the central force of the solar system were brought together under the general law of gravitation. It had been proved antecedently that the earth and the other planets tend to the sun; and it had been known from the earliest times that terrestrial bodies tend toward the earth. These were similar phenomena; and to enable them both to be subsumed under one law, it was only necessary to prove that, as the effects were similar in quality so also they, as to quantity, conform to the same rules. This was first shown to be true of the moon, which agreed with terrestrial objects not only in tending to a centre, but in the fact that this centre was the earth. The tendency of the moon toward the earth being ascertained to vary as the inverse square of the distance, it was deduced from this, by direct calculation, that if the moon were as near to the earth as terrestrial objects are, and the acquired force in the direction of the tangent were suspended, the moon would fall toward the earth through exactly as many feet i n a second as those objects do by virtue of their weight. Hence the inference was irresistible, that the moon also tends to the earth by virtue of its weight: and that the two phenomena, the tendency of the moon to the earth and the tendency of terrestrial objects to the earth, being not only similar in quality, but, when in the same circumstances, identical in quantity, are cases of one and the same law of causation. But the tendency of the moon to the earth, and the tendency of the earth and planets to the sun, were already known to be cases of the same law of causation; and thus the law of all these tendencies, and the law of terrestrial gravity, were recognized as identical, and were subsumed under one general law, that of gravitation. In a similar manne r, the laws of magnetic phenomena have more recently been subsumed under known laws of electricity. It is thus that the most general laws of nature are usually arrived at: we mount to them by successive steps. For, to arrive by correct induction at laws which hold under such an immense variety of circumstances, laws so general as to be independent of any varieties of space or time which we are able to observe, requires for the most part many distinct sets of experiments or observations, conducted at differe nt times and by different people. One part of the law is first ascertained, afterward another part: one set of observations teaches us that the law holds good under some conditions, another that it holds good under other conditions, by combining which observations we find that it holds good under conditions much more general, or even universally. The general law, in this case, is literally the sum of all the partial ones; it is a recognition of the same sequence in different sets of instances; and may, in f act, be regarded as merely one step in the process of elimination. The tendency of bodies toward one another, which we now call gravity, had at first been observed only on the earth's surface, where it manifested itself only as a tendency of all bodies toward the earth, and might, therefore, be ascribed to a peculiar property of the 298 earth itself: one of the circumstances, namely, the proximity of the earth, had not been eliminated. To eliminate this circumstance required a fresh set of instances in other pa rts of the universe: these we could not ourselves create; and though nature had created them for us, we were placed in very unfavorable circumstances for observing them. To make these observations, fell naturally to the lot of a different set of persons from those who studied terrestrial phenomena; and had, indeed, been a matter of great interest at a time when the idea of explaining celestial facts by terrestrial laws was looked upon as the confounding of an indefeasible distinction. When, however, the cel estial motions were accurately ascertained, and the deductive processes performed, from which it appeared that their laws and those of terrestrial gravity corresponded, those celestial observations became a set of instances which exactly eliminated the cir cumstance of proximity to the earth; and proved that in the original case, that of terrestrial objects, it was not the earth, as such, that caused the motion or the pressure, but the circumstance common to that case with the celestial instances, namely, the presence of some great body within certain limits of distance. 6. There are, then, three modes of explaining laws of causation, or, which is the same thing, resolving them into other laws. First, when the law of an effect of combined causes is resolved into the separate laws of the causes, together with the fact of their combination. Secondly, when the law which connects any two links, not proximate, in a chain of causation, is resolved into the laws which connect each with the intermediate links. Both of these are cases of resolving one law into two or more; in the third, two or more are resolved into one: when, after the law has been shown to hold good in several different classes of cases, we decide that what is true in each of these classes of cases, is true under some more general supposition, consisting of what all those classes of cases have in common. We may here remark that this last operation involves none of the uncertainties attendant on induction by the Method of Agreement, since we need not suppose the result to be extended by way of inference to any new class of cases different from those by the comparison of which it was engendered. In all these three processes, laws are, as we have seen, resolved into laws more general than themselves; law s extending to all the cases which the former extended to, and others besides. In the first two modes they are also resolved into laws more certain, in other words, more universally true than themselves; they are, in fact, proved not to be themselves laws of nature, the character of which is to be universally true, but results of laws of nature, which may be only true conditionally, and for the most part. No difference of this sort exists in the third case; since here the partial laws are, in fact, the very same law as the general one, and any exception to them would be an exception to it too. By all the three processes, the range of deductive science is extended; since the laws, thus resolved, may be thenceforth deduced demonstratively from the laws into which they are resolved. As already remarked, the same deductive process which proves a law or fact of causation if unknown, serves to explain it when known. The word explanation is here used in its philosophical sense. What is called explaining one law of n ature by another, is but substituting one mystery for another; and does nothing to render the general course of nature other than mysterious: we can no more assign a why for the more extensive laws than for the partial ones. The explanation may substitute a mystery which has become familiar, and has grown to seem not mysterious, for one which is still strange. And this is the meaning of explanation, in common parlance. But the process with which we are here concerned often does the very contrary: it resolves a phenomenon with which we are familiar into one of which we previously knew little or nothing; as when the common fact of the fall of heavy bodies was resolved into the tendency of all particles of 299 matter toward one another. It must be kept constantly in view, therefore, that in science, those who speak of explaining any phenomenon mean (or should mean) pointing out not some more familiar, but merely some more general, phenomenon, of which it is a partial exemplification; or some laws of causa tion which produce it by their joint or successive action, and from which, therefore, its conditions may be determined deductively. Every such operation brings us a step nearer toward answering the question which was stated in a previous chapter as comprehending the whole problem of the investigation of nature, viz.: what are the fewest assumptions, which being granted, the order of nature as it exists would be the result? What are the fewest, general propositions from which all the uniformities existing in nature could be deduced? The laws, thus explained or resolved, are sometimes said to be accounted for ; but the expression is incorrect, if taken to mean any thing more than what has been already stated. In minds not habituated to accurate thinking, there is often a confused notion that the general laws are the causes of the partial ones; that the law of general gravitation, for example, causes the phenomenon of the fall of bodies to the earth. But to assert this would be a misuse of the word cause: terrest rial gravity is not an effect of general gravitation, but a case of it; that is, one kind of the particular instances in which that general law obtains. To account for a law of nature means, and can mean, nothing more than to assign other laws more general, together with collocations, which laws and collocations being supposed, the partial law follows without any additional supposition. 300 XIII. Miscellaneous Examples Of The Explanation Of Laws Of Nature 1. The most striking example which the history of science presents, of the explanation of laws of causation and other uniformities of sequence among special phenomena, by resolving them into laws of greater simplicity and generality, is the great Newtonian generalization; respecting which typical instance, so much having already been said, it is sufficient to call attention to the great number and variety of the special observed uniformities, which are in this case accounted for, either as particular cases, or as consequences, of one very simple law of universal nature. The simple fact of a tendency of every particle of matter toward every other particle, varying inversely as the square of the distance, explains the fall of bodies to the earth, the revolutions of the planets and satellites, the motions (so far as known) of comets, and all the various regularities which have been observed in these special phenomena; such as the elliptical orbits, and the variations from exact ellipses; the relation between the solar distances of the planets and the duration of their revolutions; the precession of the equinoxes; the tides, and a vast number of minor astronomical truths. Mention has also been made in the preceding chapter of the explanation of the phenomena of magnetism from laws of electr icity; the special laws of magnetic agency having been affiliated by deduction to observed laws of electric action, in which they have ever since been considered to be included as special cases. An example not so complete in itself, but even more fertile in consequences, having been the starting-point of the really scientific study of physiology, is the affiliation, commenced by Bichat, and carried on by subsequent biologists, of the properties of the bodily organs, to the elementary properties of the tissues into which they are anatomically decomposed. Another striking instance is afforded by Dalton's generalization, commonly known as the atomic theory. It had been known from the very commencement of accurate chemical observation, that any two bodies combine chemically with one another in only a certain number of proportions; but those proportions were in each case expressed by a percentageso many parts (by weight) of each ingredient, in 100 of the compound (say 35 and a fraction of one element, 64 and a fraction of the other); in which mode of statement no relation was perceived between the proportion in which a given element combines with one substance, and that in which it combines with others. The great step made by Dalton consisted in perceiving that a unit of weight might be established for each substance, such that by supposing the substance to enter into all its combinations in the ratio either of that unit, or of some low multiple of that unit, all the different proportions, previously expressed by percentages, were found to result. Thus 1 being assumed as the unit of hydrogen, if 8 were then taken as that of oxygen, the combination of one unit of hydrogen with one unit of oxygen would produce the exact proportion of weight between the two substances which is known to exist in water; the combination of one unit of hydrogen with two units of oxygen would produce the proportion which exists in the other compound of the same two elements, called peroxide of hydrogen; and the combinations of hydrogen and of oxygen with all other substances, would correspond with the supposition that those elements enter into combination by single units, or twos, or threes, of the numbers assigned to them, 1 and 8, and the other substances by ones or twos or threes of other determinate numbers proper to each. The result is that a table of the equivalent numbers, or, as they are called, atomic weights, of all the elementary substances, comprises in itself, and scientifically explains, all the proportions in which any substance , elementary or 301 compound, is found capable of entering into chemical combination with any other substance whatever. 2. Some interesting cases of the explanation of old uniformities by newly ascertained laws are afforded by the researches of Professor Graham. That eminent chemist was the first who drew attention to the distinction which may be made of all substances into two classes, termed by him crystalloids and colloids; or rather, of all states of matter into the crystalloid and the colloidal states, for many substances are capable of existing in either. When in the colloidal state, their sensible properties are very different from those of the same substance when crystallized, or when in a state easily susceptible of crystallization. Colloid substances pass with extreme difficulty and slowness into the crystalline state, and are extremely inert in all the ordinary chemical relations. Substances in the colloid state are almost always, when combined with water, more or less viscous or gelatinous. The most prominent examples of the state are certain animal and vegetable substances, particularly gelatine, albumen, starch, the gums, caramel, tannin, and some others. Among substances not of organic origin, the most notable instances are hydrated silicic acid, and hydrated alumina, with other metallic peroxides of the aluminous class. Now it is found, that while colloidal substances are easily penetrated by water, and by the solutions of crystalloid substances, they are very little penetrable by one another: whi ch enabled Professor Graham to introduce a highly effective process (termed dialysis) for separating the crystalloid substances contained in any liquid mixture, by passing them through a thin septum of colloidal matter, which does not suffer any thing colloidal to pass, or suffers it only in very minute quantity. This property of colloids enabled Mr. Graham to account for a number of special results of observation, not previously explained. For instance, while soluble crystalloids are always highly sapid, soluble colloids are singularly insipid, as might be expected; for, as the sentient extremities of the nerves of the palate are probably protected by a colloidal membrane, impermeable to other colloids, a colloid, when tasted, probably never reaches those nerves. Again, it has been observed that vegetable gum is not digested in the stomach; the coats of that organ dialyse the soluble food, absorbing crystalloids, and rejecting all colloids. One of the mysterious processes accompanying digestion, the se cretion of free muriatic acid by the coats of the stomach, obtains a probable hypothetical explanation through the same law. Finally, much light is thrown upon the observed phenomena of osmose (the passage of fluids outward and inward through animal membranes) by the fact that the membranes are colloidal. In consequence, the water and saline solutions contained in the animal body pass easily and rapidly through the membranes, while the substances directly applicable to nutrition, which are mostly colloidal, are detained by them. P153F154 P The property which salt possesses of preserving animal substances from putrefaction is resolved by Liebig into two more general laws, the strong attraction of salt for water, and the necessity of the presence of water as a conditi on of putrefaction. The intermediate phenomenon which is interpolated between the remote cause and the effect, can here be not merely inferred but seen; for it is a familiar fact, that flesh upon which salt has been thrown is speedily found swimming in bri ne. The second of the two factors (as they may be termed) into which the preceding law has been resolved, the necessity of water to putrefaction, itself affords an additional example of the 154 Vide Memoir by Thomas Graham, F.R.S., Master of the Mint, On Liquid Diffusion applied to Analysis, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1862, reprinted in the Journal of the Chemical Society , and also separately as a pamphlet. 302 Resolution of Laws. The law itself is proved by the Method of Diff erence, since flesh completely dried and kept in a dry atmosphere does not putrefy; as we see in the case of dried provisions and human bodies in very dry climates. A deductive explanation of this same law results from Liebig's speculations. The putrefaction of animal and other azotized bodies is a chemical process, by which they are gradually dissipated in a gaseous form, chiefly in that of carbonic acid and ammonia; now to convert the carbon of the animal substance into carbonic acid requires oxygen, and to convert the azote into ammonia requires hydrogen, which are the elements of water. The extreme rapidity of the putrefaction of azotized substances, compared with the gradual decay of non-azotized bodies (such as wood and the like) by the action of oxyge n alone, he explains from the general law that substances are much more easily decomposed by the action of two different affinities upon two of their elements than by the action of only one. 3. Among the many important properties of the nervous system which have either been first discovered or strikingly illustrated by Dr. Brown- Squard, I select the reflex influence of the nervous system on nutrition and secretion. By reflex nervous action is meant, action which one part of the nervous system exerts over another part, without any intermediate action on the brain, and consequently without consciousness; or which, if it does pass through the brain, at least produces its effects independently of the will. There are many experiments which prove that irritatio n of a nerve in one part of the body may in this manner excite powerful action in another part; for example, food injected into the stomach through a divided sophagus, nevertheless produces secretion of saliva; warm water injected into the bowels, and various other irritations of the lower intestines, have been found to excite secretion of the gastric juice, and so forth. The reality of the power being thus proved, its agency explains a great variety of apparently anomalous phenomena; of which I select the following from Dr. Brown-Squard's Lectures on the Nervous System : The production of tears by irritation of the eye, or of the mucous membrane of the nose; The secretions of the eye and nose increased by exposure of other parts of the body to cold; Inflam mation of the eye, especially when of traumatic origin, very frequently excites a similar affection in the other eye, which may be cured by section of the intervening nerve; Loss of sight sometimes produced by neuralgia, and has been known to be at once cured by the extirpation (for instance) of a carious tooth; Even cataract has been produced in a healthy eye by cataract in the other eye, or by neuralgia, or by a wound of the frontal nerve; The well -known phenomenon of a sudden stoppage of the heart's action, and consequent death, produced by irritation of some of the nervous extremities; e.g., by drinking very cold water, or by a blow on the abdomen, or other sudden excitation of the abdominal sympathetic nerve, though this nerve may be irritated to any extent without stopping the heart's action, if a section be made of the communicating nerves; The extraordinary effects produced on the internal organs by an extensive burn on the surface of the body, consisting in violent inflammation of the tissues of the abdomen, chest, or head, which, when death ensues from this kind of injury, is one of the most frequent causes of it; Paralysis and ansthesia of one part of the body from neuralgia in another part; and muscular atrophy from neuralgia, even when there is no paralysis; Tetanus produced by the lesion of a nerve. Dr. Brown-Squard thinks it highly probable that hydrophobia is a phenomenon of a similar nature; 303 Morbid changes in the nutrition of the brain and spinal cord, manifesting themselves by epilepsy, chorea, hysteria, and other diseases, occasioned by lesion of some of the nervous extremities in remote places, as by worms, calculi, tumors, carious bones, and in some cases even by very slight irritations of the skin. 4. From the foregoing and similar instances, we may see the importance, when a law of nature previously unknown has been brought to light, or when new light has been thrown upon a known law by experiment, of examining all cases which present the conditions necessary for bringing that law into action; a process fertile in demonstrations of special laws previously unsuspected, and explanations of others already empirically known. For instance, Faraday discovered by experiment, that voltaic electricity could be evolved from a natural magnet, provided a conducting body were set in motion at right angles to the direction of the magnet; and this he found to hold not only of small magnets, but of that great magnet, the earth. The law being thus established experimentally, that electricity is evolved, by a magnet, and a conductor moving at right angles to the direction of its poles, we may now look out for fresh instances in which these conditions meet. Wherever a conductor moves or revolves at right angles to the direction of the earth's magnetic poles, there we may expect an evolution of electricity. In the northern regions, where the polar direction is nearly perpendicular to the horizon, all horizontal motions of conductors will produce electricity; horizontal wheels, for example, made of metal; l ikewise all running streams will evolve a current of electricity, which will circulate round them; and the air thus charged with electricity may be one of the causes of the Aurora Borealis. In the equatorial regions, on the contrary, upright wheels placed parallel to the equator will originate a voltaic circuit, and water -falls will naturally become electric. For a second example, it has been proved, chiefly by the researches of Professor Graham, that gases have a strong tendency to permeate animal membranes, and diffuse themselves through the spaces which such membranes inclose, notwithstanding the presence of other gases in those spaces. Proceeding from this general law, and reviewing a variety of cases in which gases lie contiguous to membranes, we are en abled to demonstrate or to explain the following more special laws: 1st. The human or animal body, when surrounded with any gas not already contained within the body, absorbs it rapidly; such, for instance, as the gases of putrefying matters: which helps to explain malaria. 2d. The carbonic acid gas of effervescing drinks, evolved in the stomach, permeates its membranes, and rapidly spreads through the system. 3d. Alcohol taken into the stomach passes into vapor, and spreads through the system with great ra pidity (which, combined with the high combustibility of alcohol, or in other words its ready combination with oxygen, may perhaps help to explain the bodily warmth immediately consequent on drinking spirituous liquors). 4th. In any state of the body in whi ch peculiar gases are formed within it, these will rapidly exhale through all parts of the body; and hence the rapidity with which, in certain states of disease, the surrounding atmosphere becomes tainted. 5th. The putrefaction of the interior parts of a c arcass will proceed as rapidly as that of the exterior, from the ready passage outward of the gaseous products. 6th. The exchange of oxygen and carbonic acid in the lungs is not prevented, but rather promoted, by the intervention of the membrane of the lungs and the coats of the blood- vessels between the blood and the air. It is necessary, however, that there should be a substance in the blood with which the oxygen of the air may immediately combine; otherwise, instead of passing into the blood, it would pe rmeate the whole organism: and it is necessary that the carbonic acid, as it is formed in the capillaries, should also find a substance in the blood with which it can combine; otherwise it would leave the body at all points, instead of being discharged through the lungs. 304 5. The following is a deduction which confirms, by explaining, the empirical generalization, that soda powders weaken the human system. These powders, consisting of a mixture of tartaric acid with bicarbonate of soda, from which the carbonic acid is set free, must pass into the stomach as tartrate of soda. Now, neutral tartrates, citrates, and acetates of the alkalis are found, in their passage through the system, to be changed into carbonates; and to convert a tartrate into a carbonate requires an additional quantity of oxygen, the abstraction of which must lessen the oxygen destined for assimilation with the blood, on the quantity of which the vigorous action of the human system partly depends. The instances of new theories agreeing with and explaining old empiricisms, are innumerable. All the just remarks made by experienced persons on human character and conduct, are so many special laws, which the general laws of the human mind explain and resolve. The empirical generalizations on which the operations of the arts have usually been founded, are continually justified and confirmed on the one hand, or corrected and improved on the other, by the discovery of the simpler scientific laws on which the efficacy of those operations depends. The effects of the rotation of crops, of the various manures, and other processes of improved agriculture, have been for the first time resolved in our own day into known laws of chemical and organic action, by Davy, Liebig, and others. The processes of the medical art are even now mostly empirical: their efficacy is concluded, in each instance, from a special and most precarious experimental generalization: but as science advances in discovering the simple laws of chemistry and physiology, progress is made in ascertaining the intermediate links in the series of phenomena, and the more general laws on which they depend; and thus, while the old processes are either exploded, or their efficacy, in so far as real, explained, better processes, founded on the knowledge of proximate causes, are continually suggested and brought into use. P154F155 P Many even of the truths of geometry were generalizations from experience before they were deduced from first principles. The quadrature of the cycloid is said to have been first effected by measurement, or rather by weighing a cycloidal card, and comparing its weight with that of a piece of similar card of known dimensions. 6. To the foregoing examples from physical science, let us add another from mental. The following is one of the simple laws of mind: Ideas of a pleasurable or painful character form associations more easily and strongly than other ideas, that is, they become associated after fewer repetitions, and the association is more durable. This is an experimental law, grounded on the Method of Difference. By deduction from this law, many of the more special laws which experience shows to exist among particular mental phenomena may be demonstrated and explained: the ease and rapidity, for instance, with which thoughts connected with our passions or our more cherished interests are excited, and the firm hold which the facts relating to them have on our memory; the vivid recollection we retain of minute circumstances which accompanied any object or event that deeply interested us, and of the times and places in which we have been very happy or very miserable; the horror with which we view the accidental instrument of any occurrence which shocked us, or the locality where it took place and the pleasure we derive from any memorial of past enjoyment; all these effects being proportional to the sensibility of the individual mind, and to the consequent 155 It was an old generalization in surgery, that tight bandaging had a tendency to prevent or dissipate local inflammation. This sequence, being, in the progress of physiological knowledge, resolved into more general laws, led to the important surgical invention made by Dr. Arnott, the treatment of local inflammation and tumors by means of an equable pressure, produced by a bladder partially filled with air. The pressure, by keeping back the blood from the part, prevents the inflammation, or the tumor, from being nourished: in the case of inflammation, it removes the stimulus, which the organ is unfit to receive; in the case of tumors, by keeping back the nutritive fluid, it causes the absorption of matter to exceed the supply, and the diseased mass is gradually absorbed and disappears. 305 intensity of the pain or pleasure from which the association originated. It has been suggested by the able writer of a biographical sketch of Dr. Priestley in a monthly periodical, P155F156 P that the same elementary law of our mental constitution, suitably followed out, would explain a variety of mental phenomena previously inexplicable, and in particular some of the fundamental diversities of human character and genius. Associations being of two sorts, either between synchronous, or between successive impressions; and the influence of the law which renders associations stronger in proportion to the pleasurable or painful character of the impressio ns, being felt with peculiar force in the synchronous class of associations; it is remarked by the writer referred to, that in minds of strong organic sensibility synchronous associations will be likely to predominate, producing a tendency to conceive things in pictures and in the concrete, richly clothed in attributes and circumstances, a mental habit which is commonly called Imagination, and is one of the peculiarities of the painter and the poet; while persons of more moderate susceptibility to pleasure and pain will have a tendency to associate facts chiefly in the order of their succession, and such persons, if they possess mental superiority, will addict themselves to history or science rather than to creative art. This interesting speculation the author of the present work has endeavored, on another occasion, to pursue further, and to examine how far it will avail toward explaining the peculiarities of the poetical temperament. P156F157 P It is at least an example which may serve, instead of many others, to show the extensive scope which exists for deductive investigation in the important and hitherto so imperfect Science of Mind. 7. The copiousness with which the discovery and explanation of special laws of phenomena by deduction from simpler and more general ones has here been exemplified, was prompted by a desire to characterize clearly, and place in its due position of importance, the Deductive Method; which, in the present state of knowledge, is destined henceforth irrevocably to predominate in the course of scientific investigation. A revolution is peaceably and progressively effecting itself in philosophy, the reverse of that to which Bacon has attached his name. That great man changed the method of the sciences from deductive to experimental, and it is n ow rapidly reverting from experimental to deductive. But the deductions which Bacon abolished were from premises hastily snatched up, or arbitrarily assumed. The principles were neither established by legitimate canons of experimental inquiry, nor the results tested by that indispensable element of a rational Deductive Method, verification by specific experience. Between the primitive method of Deduction and that which I have attempted to characterize, there is all the difference which exists between the Aristotelian physics and the Newtonian theory of the heavens. It would, however, be a mistake to expect that those great generalizations, from which the subordinate truths of the more backward sciences will probably at some future period be deduced by reasoning (as the truths of astronomy are deduced from the generalities of the Newtonian theory), will be found in all, or even in most cases, among truths now known and admitted. We may rest assured, that many of the most general laws of nature are as yet entirely unthought of; and that many others, destined hereafter to assume the same character, are known, if at all, only as laws or properties of some limited class of phenomena; just as electricity, now recognized as one of the most universal of natural agencies, was once known only as a curious property which certain substances acquired by friction, of first attracting and then repelling light bodies. If the theories of heat, cohesion, crystallization, and chemical action are destined, as there can be little d oubt that they are, to become deductive, the truths which will then be regarded as the principia of those sciences would probably, if now 156 Since acknowledged and reprinted in Mr. Martineau's Miscellanies . 157 Dissertations and Discussions , vol. i., fourth paper. 306 announced, appear quite as novel P157F158 P as the law of gravitation appeared to the contemporaries of Newton; possibly even more so, since Newton's law, after all, was but an extension of the law of weightthat is, of a generalization familiar from of old, and which already comprehended a not inconsiderable body of natural phenomena. The general laws of a similarly commanding ch aracter, which we still look forward to the discovery of, may not always find so much of their foundations already laid. These general truths will doubtless make their first appearance in the character of hypotheses; not proved, nor even admitting of proof, in the first instance, but assumed as premises for the purpose of deducing from them the known laws of concrete phenomena. But this, though their initial, can not be their final state. To entitle an hypothesis to be received as one of the truths of natur e, and not as a mere technical help to the human faculties, it must be capable of being tested by the canons of legitimate induction, and must actually have been submitted to that test. When this shall have been done, and done successfully, premises will have been obtained from which all the other propositions of the science will thenceforth be presented as conclusions, and the science will, by means of a new and unexpected Induction, be rendered Deductive. 158 Written before the rise of the new views respecting the relation of heat to mechanical force; but confirmed rather than contradicted by them. 307 XIV. Of The Limits To Th e Explanation Of Laws Of Nature; And Of Hypotheses 1. The preceding considerations have led us to recognize a distinction between two kinds of laws, or observed uniformities in nature: ultimate laws, and what may be termed derivative laws. Derivative l aws are such as are deducible from, and may, in any of the modes which we have pointed out, be resolved into, other and more general ones. Ultimate laws are those which can not. We are not sure that any of the uniformities with which we are yet acquainted are ultimate laws; but we know that there must be ultimate laws; and that every resolution of a derivative law into more general laws brings us nearer to them. Since we are continually discovering that uniformities, not previously known to be other than ultimate, are derivative, and resolvable into more general laws; since (in other words) we are continually discovering the explanation of some sequence which was previously known only as a fact; it becomes an interesting question whether there are any necess ary limits to this philosophical operation, or whether it may proceed until all the uniform sequences in nature are resolved into some one universal law. For this seems, at first sight, to be the ultimatum toward which the progress of induction by the Deductive Method, resting on a basis of observation and experiment, is tending. Projects of this kind were universal in the infancy of philosophy; any speculations which held out a less brilliant prospect being in these early times deemed not worth pursuing. And the idea receives so much apparent countenance from the nature of the most remarkable achievements of modern science, that speculators are even now frequently appearing, who profess either to have solved the problem, or to suggest modes in which it may one day be solved. Even where pretensions of this magnitude are not made, the character of the solutions which are given or sought of particular classes of phenomena, often involves such conceptions of what constitutes explanation, as would render the notion of explaining all phenomena whatever by means of some one cause or law, perfectly admissible. 2. It is, therefore, useful to remark that the ultimate Laws of Nature can not possibly be less numerous than the distinguishable sensations or other feelings of our nature; those, I mean, which are distinguishable from one another in quality, and not merely in quantity or degree. For example: since there is a phenomenon sui generis , called color, which our consciousness testifies to be not a particular degree of some other phenomenon, as heat or odor or motion, but intrinsically unlike all others, it follows that there are ultimate laws of color; that though the facts of color may admit of explanation, they never can be explained from laws of heat or odor alone, or of motion alone, but that, however far the explanation may be carried, there will always remain in it a law of color. I do not mean that it might not possibly be shown that some other phenomenon, some chemical or mechanical action, for example, invariably precedes, and is the cause of, every phenomenon of color. But though this, if proved, would be an important extension of our knowledge of nature, it would not explain how or why a motion, or a chemical action, can produce a sensation of color; and, however diligent might be our scrutiny of the phenomena, whatever number of hidden links we might detect in the chain of causation terminating in the color, the last link would still be a law of color, not a law of motion, nor of any other phenomenon whatever. Nor does this observation apply only to color, as compared with any other of the great classes of sensations; it applies to every particular color, as compared with others. White color can in no manner be explained exclusively by the laws of the production of red color. In any attempt to explain it, we can not 308 but introduce, as one element of the explanation, the proposition that some antecedent or other produces the sensation of white. The ideal limit, therefore, of the explanation of natural phenomena (toward which as toward other ideal limits we are constantly tending, without the prospect of ever completely attaining it) would be to show that each distinguishable variety of our sensations, or other states of consciousness, has only one sort of cause; that, for example, whenever we perceive a white color, there is some one condition or set of conditions which is always present, and the presence of which always produces in us that sensation. As long as there are several known modes of production of a phenomenon (several different substances, for instance, which have the property of whiteness, and between which we can not trace any other resemblance) so long it is not impossible that one of these modes of production may be resolved into another, or that all of them may be resolved into some more general mode of production not hitherto recognized. But when the modes of production are reduced to one, we can not, in point of simplification, go any further. This one may not, after all, be the ultimate mode; there may be other links to be discovered between the supposed cause and the effect; but we can only further resolve the known law, by introducing some other law hitherto unknown, which will not diminish the number of ultimate laws. In what cases, accordingly, has science been most successful in explaining phenomena, by resolving their complex laws into laws of greater simplicity and generality? Hitherto chiefly in cases of the propagation of various phenomena through space; and, first and principally, the most extensive and important of all facts of that description, mechanical motion. Now this is exactly what might be expected from the principles here laid down. Not only is motion one of the most universal of all phenomena, it is also (as might be expected from that circumstance) one of those which, apparently at least, are produced in the greatest number of ways; but the phenomenon itself is always, to our sensations, the same in every respect but degree. Differences of duration or of velocity, are evidently differences in degree only; and differences of direction in space, which alone has any semblance of being a distinction in kind, entirely disappear (so far as our sensations are concerned) by a change in our own position; indeed, the very same motion appears to us, according to our position, to take place in every variety of direction, and motions in every different direction to take place in the same. And again, motion in a straight line and in a curve are no otherwise distinct than that the one is motion continuing in the same direction, the other is motion which at each instant changes its direction. There is, therefore, according to the principles I have stated, no absurdity in supposing that all motion may be produced in one and the same way, by the same kind of cause. Accordingly, the greatest achievements in physical science have consisted in resolving one observed law of the production of motion into the laws of other known modes of production, or the laws of several such modes into one more general mode; as when the fall of bodies to the earth, and the motions of the planets, were brought under the one law of the mutual attraction of all particles of matter; when the motions said to be produced by magnetism were shown to be produced by electricity; when the motions of fluids in a lateral direction, or even contrary to the direction of gravity, were shown to be produced by gravity; and the like. There is an abundance of distinct causes of motion still unresolved into one another: gravitation, heat, electricity, chemical action, nervous action, and so forth; but whether the efforts of the present generation of savants to resolve all these different modes of production into one are ultimately successful or not, the attempt so to resolve t hem is perfectly legitimate. For, though these various causes produce, in other respects, sensations intrinsically different, and are not, therefore, capable of being resolved into one another, yet, in so far as they all produce motion, it is quite possibl e that the immediate antecedent of the motion may in all these different cases be the same; nor is it impossible that these various 309 agencies themselves may, as the new doctrines assert, all of them have for their own immediate antecedent modes of molecular motion. We need not extend our illustration to other cases, as, for instance, to the propagation of light, sound, heat, electricity, etc., through space, or any of the other phenomena which have been found susceptible of explanation by the resolution of their observed laws into more general laws. Enough has been said to display the difference between the kind of explanation and resolution of laws which is chimerical, and that of which the accomplishment is the great aim of science; and to show into what sort of elements the resolution must be effected, if at all. P158F159 P 3. As, however, there is scarcely any one of the principles of a true method of philosophizing which does not require to be guarded against errors on both sides, I must enter a caveat against another misapprehension, of a kind directly contrary to the preceding. M. Comte, among other occasions on which he has condemned, with some asperity, any attempt to explain phenomena which are evidently primordial (meaning, apparently, no more than that every peculiar phenomenon must have at least one peculiar and therefore inexplicable law), has spoken of the attempt to furnish any explanation of the color belonging to each substance, la couleur lmentaire propre chaque substance, as essenti ally illusory. No one, says he, in our time attempts to explain the particular specific gravity of each substance or of each structure. Why should it be otherwise as to the specific color, the notion of which is undoubtedly no less primordial? P159F160 P Now a lthough, as he elsewhere observes, a color must always remain a different thing from a weight or a sound, varieties of color might nevertheless follow, or correspond to, given varieties of weight, or sound, or some other phenomenon as different as these ar e from color itself. It is one question what a thing is, and another what it depends on; and though to ascertain the conditions of an elementary phenomenon is not to obtain any new insight into 159 As is well remarked by Professor Bain, in the very valuable chapter of his Logic which treats of this subject (ii., 121), scientific explanation and inductive generalization being the same thing, the limits of Explanation are the limits of Induction, and the limits to inductive generalization are the limits to the agreement or community of facts. Induction supposes similarity among phenomena; and when such similarity is discovered, it reduces the phenomena under a common statement. The similarity of terrestrial gra vity to celestial attraction enables the two to be expressed as one phenomenon. The similarity between capillary attraction, solution, the operation of cements, etc., leads to their being regarded not as a plurality, but as a unity, a single causative link, the operation of a single agency.... If it be asked whether we can merge gravity itself in some still higher law, the answer must depend upon the facts. Are there any other forces, at present held distinct from gravity, that we may hope to make fraternize with it, so as to join in constituting a higher unity? Gravity is an attractive force; and another great attractive force is cohesion, or the force that binds together the atoms of solid matter. Might we, then, join these two in a still higher unity, exp ressed under a more comprehensive law? Certainly we might, but not to any advantage. The two kinds of force agree in the one point, attraction, but they agree in no other; indeed, in the manner of the attraction, they differ widely; so widely that we shoul d have to state totally distinct laws for each. Gravity is common to all matter, and equal in amount in equal masses of matter, whatever be the kind; it follows the law of the diffusion of space from a point (the inverse square of the distance); it extends to distances unlimited; it is indestructible and invariable. Cohesion is special for each separate substance; it decreases according to distance much more rapidly than the inverse square, vanishing entirely at very small distances. Two such forces have not sufficient kindred to be generalized into one force; the generalization is only illusory; the statement of the difference would still make two forces; while the consideration of one would not in any way simplify the phenomena of the other, as happened in the generalization of gravity itself. To the impassable limit of the explanation of laws of nature, set forth in the text, must therefore be added a further limitation. Although, when the phenomena to be explained are not, in their own nature, genericall y distinct, the attempt to refer them to the same cause is scientifically legitimate; yet to the success of the attempt it is indispensable that the cause should be shown to be capable of producing them according to the same law. Otherwise the unity of cause is a mere guess, and the generalization only a nominal one, which, even if admitted, would not diminish the number of ultimate laws of nature. 160 Cours de Philosophie Positive , ii., 656. 310 the nature of the phenomenon itself, that is no reason against attempting to discover the conditions. The interdict against endeavoring to reduce distinctions of color to any common principle, would have held equally good against a like attempt on the subject of distinctions of sound; which nevertheless have been found to be immediately preceded and caused by distinguishable varieties in the vibrations of elastic bodies; though a sound, no doubt, is quite as different as a color is from any motion of particles, vibratory or otherwise. We might add, that, in the case o f colors, there are strong positive indications that they are not ultimate properties of the different kinds of substances, but depend on conditions capable of being superinduced upon all substances; since there is no substance which can not, according to the kind of light thrown upon it, be made to assume almost any color; and since almost every change in the mode of aggregation of the particles of the same substance is attended with alterations in its color, and in its optical properties generally. The re ally weak point in the attempts which have been made to account for colors by the vibrations of a fluid, is not that the attempt itself is unphilosophical, but that the existence of the fluid, and the fact of its vibratory motion, are not proved, but are assumed, on no other ground than the facility they are supposed to afford of explaining the phenomena. And this consideration leads to the important question of the proper use of scientific hypotheses, the connection of which with the subject of the explanation of the phenomena of nature, and of the necessary limits to that explanation, need not be pointed out. 4. An hypothesis is any supposition which we make (either without actual evidence, or on evidence avowedly insufficient) in order to endeavor to deduce from it conclusions in accordance with facts which are known to be real; under the idea that if the conclusions to which the hypothesis leads are known truths, the hypothesis itself either must be, or at least is likely to be, true. If the hypothesis relates to the cause or mode of production of a phenomenon, it will serve, if admitted, to explain such facts as are found capable of being deduced from it. And this explanation is the purpose of many, if not most hypotheses. Since explaining, in the scientific sense, means resolving a uniformity which is not a law of causation, into the laws of causation from which it results, or a complex law of causation into simpler and more general ones from which it is capable of being deductively inferred, if there do not exist any known laws which fulfill this requirement, we may feign or imagine some which would fulfill it; and this is making an hypothesis. An hypothesis being a mere supposition, there are no other limits to hypotheses than those of the human imagination; we may, if we please, imagine, by way of accounting for an effect, some cause of a kind utterly unknown, and acting according to a law altogether fictitious. But as hypotheses of this sort would not have any of the plausibility belonging to those which ally themselves by analogy with known laws of nature, and besides would not supply the want which arbitrary hypotheses are generally invented to satisfy, by enabling the imagination to represent to itself an obscure phenomenon in a familiar light, there is probably no hypothesis in the history of science in which both the agent itself and the law of its operation were fictitious. Either the phenomenon assigned as the cause is real, but the law according to which it acts merely supposed; or the cause is fictitious, but is supposed to produce its effects according to laws similar to those of some known class of phenomena. An instance of the first kind is afforded by the different suppositions made respecting the law of the planetary central force, anterior to the discovery of the true law, that the force varies as the inverse square of the distance; which also suggested itself to Newton, in the first instance, as an hypothesis, and was verified by proving that it led deductively to Kepler's laws. Hypotheses of the second kind are such as the vortices of Descartes, which were fictitious, but were supposed to obey the known laws of rotatory motion; or the two rival hypotheses respecting the nature of light, the one ascribing the phenomena to a fluid emitted fr om all luminous 311 bodies, the other (now generally received) attributing them to vibratory motions among the particles of an ether pervading all space. Of the existence of either fluid there is no evidence, save the explanation they are calculated to afford of some of the phenomena; but they are supposed to produce their effects according to known laws: the ordinary laws of continued locomotion in the one case, and in the other those of the propagation of undulatory movements among the particles of an elastic fluid. According to the foregoing remarks, hypotheses are invented to enable the Deductive Method to be earlier applied to phenomena. But P160F161 P in order to discover the cause of any phenomenon by the Deductive Method, the process must consist of three parts: induction, ratiocination, and verification. Induction (the place of which, however, may be supplied by a prior deduction), to ascertain the laws of the causes; ratiocination, to compute from those laws how the causes will operate in the particular combinat ion known to exist in the case in hand; verification, by comparing this calculated effect with the actual phenomenon. No one of these three parts of the process can be dispensed with. In the deduction which proves the identity of gravity with the central f orce of the solar system, all the three are found. First, it is proved from the moon's motions, that the earth attracts her with a force varying as the inverse square of the distance. This (though partly dependent on prior deductions) corresponds to the fi rst, or purely inductive, step: the ascertainment of the law of the cause. Secondly, from this law, and from the knowledge previously obtained of the moon's mean distance from the earth, and of the actual amount of her deflection from the tangent, it is as certained with what rapidity the earth's attraction would cause the moon to fall, if she were no further off, and no more acted upon by extraneous forces, than terrestrial bodies are: that is the second step, the ratiocination. Finally, this calculated velocity being compared with the observed velocity with which all heavy bodies fall, by mere gravity, toward the surface of the earth (sixteen feet in the first second, forty-eight in the second, and so forth, in the ratio of the odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, etc.), the two quantities are found to agree. The order in which the steps are here presented was not that of their discovery; but it is their correct logical order, as portions of the proof that the same attraction of the earth which causes the moon's motion causes also the fall of heavy bodies to the earth: a proof which is thus complete in all its parts. Now, the Hypothetical Method suppresses the first of the three steps, the induction to ascertain the law; and contents itself with the other two operations, ratiocination and verification; the law which is reasoned from being assumed instead of proved. This process may evidently be legitimate on one supposition, namely, if the nature of the case be such that the final step, the verification, shall amount to, and fulfill the conditions of, a complete induction. We want to be assured that the law we have hypothetically assumed is a true one; and its leading deductively to true results will afford this assurance, provided the case be such that a false law can not le ad to a true result; provided no law, except the very one which we have assumed, can lead deductively to the same conclusions which that leads to. And this proviso is often realized. For example, in the very complete specimen of deduction which we just cited, the original major premise of the ratiocination, the law of the attractive force, was ascertained in this mode; by this legitimate employment of the Hypothetical Method. Newton began by an assumption that the force which at each instant deflects a plan et from its rectilineal course, and makes it describe a curve round the sun, is a force tending directly toward the sun. He then proved that if this be so, the planet will describe, as we know by Kepler's first law that it does describe, equal areas in equal times; and, lastly, he proved that if the force acted in any other direction whatever, the planet would not describe equal areas in equal times. It being thus shown that no other hypothesis would 161 Vide supra, book 3., chap. 11. 312 accord with the facts, the assumption was proved; the hypothesis became an inductive truth. Not only did Newton ascertain by this hypothetical process the direction of the deflecting force; he proceeded in exactly the same manner to ascertain the law of variation of the quantity of that force. He assumed that the force varied inversely as the square of the distance; showed that from this assumption the remaining two of Kepler's laws might be deduced; and, finally, that any other law of variation would give results inconsistent with those laws, and inconsistent, therefore, with the real motions of the planets, of which Kepler's laws were known to be a correct expression. I have said that in this case the verification fulfills the conditions of an induction; but an induction of what sort? On examination we find that it conforms to the canon of the Method of Difference. It affords the two instances, A B C, a b c , and B C, b c . A represents central force; A B C, the planets plus a central force; B C, the planets apart from a central force. The planets with a central force give a, areas proportional to the times; the planets without a central force give b c (a set of motions) without a, or with something else instead of a. This is the Method of Difference in all its strictness. It is true, the two instances which the method requires are obtained in this case, not by experiment, but by a prior deduction. But that is of no consequence. It is immaterial what is the nature of the evidence from which we derive the assurance that A B C will produce a b c , and B C only b c ; it is enough that we have that assurance. In the present case, a process of reasoning furnished Newton with the very instances which, if the nature of the case had admitted of it, he would have sought by experiment. It is thus perfectly possible, and indeed is a very common occurrence, that what was an hypothesis at the beginning of the inquiry becomes a proved law of nature before its close. But in order that this should happen, we must be able, either by deduction or experiment, to obtain both the instances which the Method of Difference requires. That we are able from the hypothesis to deduce the known facts, gives only the affirmative instance, A B C, a b c . It is equally necessary that we should be able to obtain, as Newton did, the negative instance B C, b c; by showing that no antecedent, except the one assumed in the hypothesis, would in conjunction with B C produce a. Now it appears to me that this assurance can not be obtained, when the cause assumed in the hypothesis is an unknown cause imagined solely to account for a. When we are only seeking to determine the precise law of a cause already ascertained, or to distinguish the particular agent which is in fact the cause, among several agents of the same kind, one or other of which it is already known to be, we may then obtain the negative instance. An inquiry which of the bodies of the solar system causes by its attraction some particular irregularity in the orbit or periodic time of some satellite or comet, would be a case of the second description. Newton's was a case of the first. If it had not been previously known that the planets were hindered from moving in straight lines by some force tending toward the interior of their orbit, though the exact direction was doubtful; or if it had not been known that the force increased in some proportion or other as the distance diminished, and diminished as it increased, Newton's argument would not have proved his conclusion. These facts, however, being already certain, the range of admissible suppositions was limited to the various possible directions of a line, and the various possible numerical relations between the variations of the distance, and the variations of the attractive force. Now among these it was easily shown that different suppositions could not le ad to identical consequences. Accordingly, Newton could not have performed his second great scientific operation: that of identifying terrestrial gravity with the central force of the solar system by the same hypothetical method. When the law of the moon's attraction had been proved from the data of 313 the moon itself, then, on finding the same law to accord with the phenomena of terrestrial gravity, he was warranted in adopting it as the law of those phenomena likewise; but it would not have been allowable for him, without any lunar data, to assume that the moon was attracted toward the earth with a force as the inverse square of the distance, merely because that ratio would enable him to account for terrestrial gravity; for it would have been impossible for him to prove that the observed law of the fall of heavy bodies to the earth could not result from any force, save one extending to the moon, and proportional to the inverse square. It appears, then, to be a condition of the most genuinely scientific hypothe sis, that it be not destined always to remain an hypothesis, but be of such a nature as to be either proved or disproved by comparison with observed facts. This condition is fulfilled when the effect is already known to depend on the very cause supposed, and the hypothesis relates only to the precise mode of dependence; the law of the variation of the effect according to the variations in the quantity or in the relations of the cause. With these may be classed the hypotheses which do not make any supposition with regard to causation, but only with regard to the law of correspondence between facts which accompany each other in their variations, though there may be no relation of cause and effect between them. Such were the different false hypotheses which Kepler made respecting the law of the refraction of light. It was known that the direction of the line of refraction varied with every variation in the direction of the line of incidence, but it was not known how; that is, what changes of the one corresponded to the different changes of the other. In this case any law different from the true one must have led to false results. And, lastly, we must add to these all hypothetical modes of merely representing or describing phenomena; such as the hypothesis of the ancient astronomers that the heavenly bodies moved in circles; the various hypotheses of eccentrics, deferents, and epicycles, which were added to that original hypothesis; the nineteen false hypotheses which Kepler made and abandoned respecting the form of the planetary orbits; and even the doctrine in which he finally rested, that those orbits are ellipses, which was but an hypothesis like the rest until verified by facts. In all these cases, verification is proof; if the supposition accords with the phenomena there needs no other evidence of it. But in order that this may be the case, I conceive it to be necessary, when the hypothesis relates to causation, that the supposed cause should not only be a real phenomenon, something actually existing in nature, but should be already known to exercise, or at least to be capable of exercising, an influence of some sort over the effect. In any other case, it is no sufficient evidence of the truth of the hypothesis that we are able to deduce the real phenomena f rom it. Is it, then, never allowable, in a scientific hypothesis, to assume a cause, but only to ascribe an assumed law to a known cause? I do not assert this. I only say, that in the latter case alone can the hypothesis be received as true merely because it explains the phenomena. In the former case it may be very useful by suggesting a line of investigation which may possibly terminate in obtaining real proof. But for this purpose, as is justly remarked by M. Comte, it is indispensable that the cause suggested by the hypothesis should be in its own nature susceptible of being proved by other evidence. This seems to be the philosophical import of Newton's maxim, (so often cited with approbation by subsequent writers), that the cause assigned for any phenomenon must not only be such as if admitted would explain the phenomenon, but must also be a vera causa . What he meant by a vera causa Newton did not indeed very explicitly define; and Dr. Whewell, who dissents from the propriety of any such restriction upon the latitude of framing hypotheses, has had little difficulty in showing P161F162 P that 162 Philosophy of Discovery , p. 185 et seq. 314 his conception of it was neither precise nor consistent with itself; accordingly his optical theory was a signal instance of the violation of his own rule. It is certainly not necessary that the cause assigned should be a cause already known; otherwise we should sacrifice our best opportunities of becoming acquainted with new causes. But what is true in the maxim is, that the cause, though not known previously, should be capable of being known thereafter; that its existence should be capable of being detected, and its connection with the effect ascribed to it should be susceptible of being proved, by independent evidence. The hypothesis, by suggesting observations and experiments, puts us on the road to that independent evidence, if it be really attainable; and till it be attained, the hypothesis ought only to count for a more or less plausible conjecture. 5. This function, however, of hypotheses, is one which must be reckoned absolutely indispensable in science. When Newton said, Hypotheses non fingo, he did not mean that he deprived himself of the facilities of investigation afforded by assuming in the first instance what he hoped ultimately to be able to prove. Without such assumptions, science could never have attained its present state; they are necessary steps in the progress to something more certain; and nearly every thing which is now theory was once hypothesis. Even in purely experimental science, some inducement is necessary for trying one experiment rather than another; and though it is abstractedly possible that all the experiments which have been tried, might have been produced by the mere desire to ascertain what would happen in certain circumstances, without any previous conjecture as to the result; yet, in point of fact, those unobvious, delicate, and often cumbrous and tedious processes of experiment, which have thrown most light upon the general constitution of nature, would hardly ever have been undertaken by the persons or at the time they were, unless it had seemed to depend on them whether some general doctrine or theory which had been suggested, but not yet proved, should be admitted or not. If this be true even of merely experimental inquiry, the conversion of experimental into deductive truths could still less have been effected without large temporary assistance from hypotheses. The process of tracing regularity in any complicated, and at first sight confused, set of appearances, is necessarily tentative; we begin by making any supposition, even a false one, to see what consequences will follow from it; and by observing how these differ from the real phenomena, we learn what corrections to make in our assumption. The simplest supposition which accords with the more obvious facts is the best to begin with; because its consequences are the most easily traced. This rude hypothesis is then rudely corrected, and the operation repeated; and the comparison of the consequences deducible from the corrected hypothesis, with the observed facts, suggests still further correction, until the deductive results are at last made to tally with the phenomena. Some fact is as yet little understood, or some law is unknown; we frame on the subject an hypothesis as accordant as possible with the whole of the data already possessed; and the science, being thus enabled to move forward freely, always ends by leading to new consequences capable of observation, which either confirm or refute, unequivocally, the first supposition. Neith er induction nor deduction would enable us to understand even the simplest phenomena, if we did not often commence by anticipating on the results; by making a provisional supposition, at first essentially conjectural, as to some of the very notions which constitute the final object of the inquiry. P162F163 P Let any one watch the manner in which he himself unravels a complicated mass of evidence; let him observe how, for instance, he elicits the true history of any occurrence from the involved statements of one or of many witnesses; he will find that he does not take all the items of evidence into his mind at once, and attempt to weave them together; he extemporizes, from a few of the particulars, a first rude theory of the mode in which the facts took place, and then looks at the other statements 163 Comte, Philosophie Positive , ii., 434 -437. 315 one by one, to try whether they can be reconciled with that provisional theory, or what alterations or additions it requires to make it square with them. In this way, which has been justly compared to the Methods of Approximation of mathematicians, we arrive, by means of hypotheses, at conclusions not hypothetical. P163F164 P 6. It is perfectly consistent with the spirit of the method, to assume in this provisional manner not only an hypothesis respecting the law of what we already know to be the cause, but an hypothesis respecting the cause itself. It is allowable, useful, and often even necessary, to begin by asking ourselves what cause may have produced the effect, in order that we may know in what direction to look out for evi dence to determine whether it actually did. The vortices of Descartes would have been a perfectly legitimate hypothesis, if it had been possible, by any mode of exploration which we could entertain the hope of ever possessing, to bring the reality of the vortices, as a fact in nature, conclusively to the test of observation. The vice of the hypothesis was that it could not lead to any course of investigation capable of converting it from an hypothesis into a proved fact. It might chance to be dis proved, either by some want of correspondence with the phenomena it purported to explain, or (as actually happened) by some extraneous fact. The free passage of comets through the spaces in which these vortices should have been, convinced men that these vortices did not exist. P164F165 P But the 164 As an example of legitimate hypothesis according to the test here laid down, has been justly cited that of Broussais, who, proceeding on the very rational principle that every disease must originate in some definite part or other of the organism, boldly assumed that certain fevers, which not being known to be local were called constitutional, had their origin in the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal. The supposition was, indeed, as is now generally admitted, erroneous; but he was justified in making it, since by deducing the consequences of the supposition, and comparing them with the facts of those maladies, he might be certain of disproving his hypothesis if it was ill founded, and might expect that the comparison would materially aid him in framing another more conformable to the phenomena. The doctrine now universally received that the earth is a natural magnet, was originally an hypothesis of the celebrated Gilbert. Another hypothesis, to the l egitimacy of which no objection can lie, and which is well calculated to light the path of scientific inquiry, is that suggested by several recent writers, that the brain is a voltaic pile, and that each of its pulsations is a discharge of electricity thro ugh the system. It has been remarked that the sensation felt by the hand from the beating of a brain, bears a strong resemblance to a voltaic shock. And the hypothesis, if followed to its consequences, might afford a plausible explanation of many physiological facts, while there is nothing to discourage the hope that we may in time sufficiently understand the conditions of voltaic phenomena to render the truth of the hypothesis amenable to observation and experiment. The attempt to localize, in different re gions of the brain, the physical organs of our different mental faculties and propensities, was, on the part of its original author, a legitimate example of a scientific hypothesis; and we ought not, therefore, to blame him for the extremely slight grounds on which he often proceeded, in an operation which could only be tentative, though we may regret that materials barely sufficient for a first rude hypothesis should have been hastily worked up into the vain semblance of a science. If there be really a connection between the scale of mental endowments and the various degrees of complication in the cerebral system, the nature of that connection was in no other way so likely to be brought to light as by framing, in the first instance, an hypothesis similar to that of Gall. But the verification of any such hypothesis is attended, from the peculiar nature of the phenomena, with difficulties which phrenologists have not shown themselves even competent to appreciate, much less to overcome. Mr. Darwin's remarkable speculation on the Origin of Species is another unimpeachable example of a legitimate hypothesis. What he terms natural selection is not only a vera causa, but one proved to be capable of producing effects of the same kind with those which the hypothesis ascribes to it; the question of possibility is entirely one of degree. It is unreasonable to accuse Mr. Darwin (as has been done) of violating the rules of Induction. The rules of Induction are concerned with the conditions of Proof. Mr. Darwin has never pretended that his doctrine was proved. He was not bound by the rules of Induction, but by those of Hypothesis. And these last have seldom been more completely fulfilled. He has opened a path of inquiry full of promise, the results of which none can foresee. And is it not a wonderful feat of scientific knowledge and ingenuity to have rendered so bold a suggestion, which the first impulse of every one was to reject at once, admissible and discussible, even as a conjecture? 165 Whewell's Phil. of Disc overy, pp. 275, 276. 316 hypothesis would have been false, though no such direct evidence of its falsity had been procurable. Direct evidence of its truth there could not be. The prevailing hypothesis of a luminiferous ether, in other respects not without analogy to that of Descartes, is not in its own nature entirely cut off from the possibility of direct evidence in its favor. It is well known that the difference between the calculated and the observed times of the periodical return of Encke's comet, has le d to a conjecture that a medium capable of opposing resistance to motion is diffused through space. If this surmise should be confirmed, in the course of ages, by the gradual accumulation of a similar variance in the case of the other bodies of the solar system, the luminiferous ether would have made a considerable advance toward the character of a vera causa, since the existence would have been ascertained of a great cosmical agent, possessing some of the attributes which the hypothesis assumes; though the re would still remain many difficulties, and the identification of the ether with the resisting medium would even, I imagine, give rise to new ones. At present, however, this supposition can not be looked upon as more than a conjecture; the existence of th e ether still rests on the possibility of deducing from its assumed laws a considerable number of actual phenomena; and this evidence I can not regard as conclusive, because we can not have, in the case of such an hypothesis, the assurance that if the hypothesis be false it must lead to results at variance with the true facts. Accordingly, most thinkers of any degree of sobriety allow that an hypothesis of this kind is not to be received as probably true because it accounts for all the known phenomena; sinc e this is a condition sometimes fulfilled tolerably well by two conflicting hypotheses; while there are probably many others which are equally possible, but which, for want of any thing analogous in our experience, our minds are unfitted to conceive. But it seems to be thought that an hypothesis of the sort in question is entitled to a more favorable reception, if, besides accounting for all the facts previously known, it has led to the anticipation and prediction of others which experience afterward verifi ed; as the undulatory theory of light led to the prediction, subsequently realized by experiment, that two luminous rays might meet each other in such a manner as to produce darkness. Such predictions and their fulfillment are, indeed, well calculated to i mpress the uninformed, whose faith in science rests solely on similar coincidences between its prophecies and what comes to pass. But it is strange that any considerable stress should be laid upon such a coincidence by persons of scientific attainments. If the laws of the propagation of light accord with those of the vibrations of an elastic fluid in as many respects as is necessary to make the hypothesis afford a correct expression of all or most of the phenomena known at the time, it is nothing strange that they should accord with each other in one respect more. Though twenty such coincidences should occur, they would not prove the reality of the undulatory ether; it would not follow that the phenomena of light were results of the laws of elastic fluids, but at most that they are governed by laws partially identical with these; which, we may observe, is already certain, from the fact that the hypothesis in question could be for a moment tenable. P165F166 P Cases may be cited, even in our imperfect acquaintance with nature, where agencies that we have good reason to consider as radically distinct produce their effects, or some of their effects, according to laws which are identical. The law, for example, of the inverse square of the distance, is the measure of the int ensity not only of gravitation, but (it is believed) of 166 What has most contributed to accredit the hypothesis of a physical medium for the conveyance of light, is the certain fact that light travels (which can not be proved of gravitation); that its communication is not instantaneous, but requires time; and that it is intercepted (which gravitation is not) by intervening objects. These are analogies between its phenomena and those of the mechanical motion of a solid or fluid substance. But we are not entitled to assume that mechanical motio n is the only power in nature capable of exhibiting those attributes. 317 illumination, and of heat diffused from a centre. Yet no one looks upon this identity as proving similarity in the mechanism by which the three kinds of phenomena are produced. According to Dr. Whewell, the coincidence of results predicted from an hypothesis with facts afterward observed, amounts to a conclusive proof of the truth of the theory. If I copy a long series of letters, of which the last half -dozen are concealed, and if I guess these aright , as is found to be the case when they are afterward uncovered, this must be because I have made out the import of the inscription. To say that because I have copied all that I could see, it is nothing strange that I should guess those which I can not see, would be absurd, without supposing such a ground for guessing. P166F167 P If any one, from examining the greater part of a long inscription, can interpret the characters so that the inscription gives a rational meaning in a known language, there is a strong presumption that his interpretation is correct; but I do not think the presumption much increased by his being able to guess the few remaining letters without seeing them; for we should naturally expect (when the nature of the case excludes chance) that even an erroneous interpretation which accorded with all the visible parts of the inscription would accord also with the small remainder; as would be the case, for example, if the inscription had been designedly so contrived as to admit of a double sense. I assum e that the uncovered characters afford an amount of coincidence too great to be merely casual; otherwise the illustration is not a fair one. No one supposes the agreement of the phenomena of light with the theory of undulations to be merely fortuitous. It must arise from the actual identity of some of the laws of undulations with some of those of light; and if there be that identity, it is reasonable to suppose that its consequences would not end with the phenomena which first suggested the identification, nor be even confined to such phenomena as were known at the time. But it does not follow, because some of the laws agree with those of undulations, that there are any actual undulations; no more than it followed because some (though not so many) of the same laws agreed with those of the projection of particles, that there was actual emission of particles. Even the undulatory hypothesis does not account for all the phenomena of light. The natural colors of objects, the compound nature of the solar ray, the absorption of light, and its chemical and vital action, the hypothesis leaves as mysterious as it found them; and some of these facts are, at least apparently, more reconcilable with the emission theory than with that of Young and Fresnel. Who knows but that some third hypothesis, including all these phenomena, may in time leave the undulatory theory as far behind as that has left the theory of Newton and his successors? To the statement, that the condition of accounting for all the known phenomena is often fulfilled equally well by two conflicting hypotheses, Dr. Whewell makes answer that he knows of no such case in the history of science, where the phenomena are at all numerous and complicated. P167F168 P Such an affirmation, by a writer of Dr. Whewell's minute acquaintance with the history of science, would carry great authority, if he had not, a few pages before, taken pains to refute it, P168F169 P by maintaining that even the exploded scientific hypotheses might always, or almost always, have been so modified as t o make them correct representations of the phenomena. The hypothesis of vortices, he tells us, was, by successive modifications, brought to coincide in its results with the Newtonian theory and with the facts. The vortices did not, indeed, explain all the phenomena which the Newtonian theory was ultimately found to account for, such as the precession of the equinoxes; but this phenomenon was not, at the time, in the contemplation of either party, as one of the facts to be accounted for. All the facts 167 Phil. of Discovery , p. 274. 168 P. 271. 169 P. 251 and the whole of Appendix G. 318 which they did contemplate, we may believe on Dr. Whewell's authority to have accorded as accurately with the Cartesian hypothesis, in its finally improved state, as with Newton's. But it is not, I conceive, a valid reason for accepting any given hypothesis, tha t we are unable to imagine any other which will account for the facts. There is no necessity for supposing that the true explanation must be one which, with only our present experience, we could imagine. Among the natural agents with which we are acquainted, the vibrations of an elastic fluid may be the only one whose laws bear a close resemblance to those of light; but we can not tell that there does not exist an unknown cause, other than an elastic ether diffused through space, yet producing effects ident ical in some respects with those which would result from the undulations of such an ether. To assume that no such cause can exist, appears to me an extreme case of assumption without evidence. And at the risk of being charged with want of modesty, I can not help expressing astonishment that a philosopher of Dr. Whewell's abilities and attainments should have written an elaborate treatise on the philosophy of induction, in which he recognizes absolutely no mode of induction except that of trying hypothesis a fter hypothesis until one is found which fits the phenomena; which one, when found, is to be assumed as true, with no other reservation than that if, on re-examination, it should appear to assume more than is needful for explaining the phenomena, the superfluous part of the assumption should be cut off. And this without the slightest distinction between the cases in which it may be known beforehand that two different hypotheses can not lead to the same result, and those in which, for aught we can ever know, the range of suppositions, all equally consistent with the phenomena, may be infinite. P169F170 P Nevertheless, I do not agree with M. Comte in condemning those who employ themselves in working out into detail the application of these hypotheses to the explanation of ascertained facts, provided they bear in mind that the utmost they can prove is, not that the hypothesis is, but that it may be true. The ether hypothesis has a very strong claim to be so followed out, a claim greatly strengthened since it has been sh own to afford a mechanism which would explain the mode of production, not of light only, but also of heat. Indeed, the speculation has a smaller element of hypothesis in its application to heat, than in the case for which it was originally framed. We have proof by our senses of the existence of molecular movement among the particles of all heated bodies; while we have no similar experience in the case of light. When, therefore, heat is communicated from the sun to the earth across apparently empty space, th e chain of causation has molecular motion both at the beginning and end. The hypothesis only makes the motion continuous by extending it to the middle. Now, motion in a body is known to be capable of being imparted to another body contiguous to it; and the 170 In Dr. Whewell's latest version of his theory ( Philosophy of Discovery , p. 331) he makes a concession respecting the medium of the transmission of light, which, taken in conjunction with the rest of his doctrine on the subject, is not, I confess, very intelligible to me, but which goes far toward removing, if it does not actually remove, the whole of the diffe rence between us. He is contending, against Sir William Hamilton, that all matter has weight. Sir William, in proof of the contrary, cited the luminiferous ether, and the calorific and electric fluids, which, he said, we can neither denude of their char acter of substance, nor clothe with the attribute of weight. To which, continues Dr. Whewell, my reply is, that precisely because I can not clothe these agents with the attribute of Weight, I do denude them of the character of Substance. They are not s ubstances, but agencies. These Imponderable Agents are not properly called Imponderable Fluids. This I conceive that I have proved. Nothing can be more philosophical. But if the luminiferous ether is not matter, and fluid matter, too, what is the meaning of its undulations? Can an agency undulate? Can there be alternate motion forward and backward of the particles of an agency? And does not the whole mathematical theory of the undulations imply them to be material? Is it not a series of deductions from the known properties of elastic fluids? This opinion of Dr. Whewell reduces the undulations to a figure of speech, and the undulatory theory to the proposition which all must admit, that the transmission of light takes place according to laws which present a very striking and remarkable agreement with those of undulations. If Dr. Whewell is prepared to stand by this doctrine, I have no difference with him on the subject. 319 intervention of a hypothetical elastic fluid occupying the space between the sun and the earth, supplies the contiguity which is the only condition wanting, and which can be supplied by no supposition but that of an intervening medium. The supposition, notwithstanding, is at best a probable conjecture, not a proved truth. For there is no proof that contiguity is absolutely required for the communication of motion from one body to another. Contiguity does not always exist, to our senses at least, in the cas es in which motion produces motion. The forces which go under the name of attraction, especially the greatest of all, gravitation, are examples of motion producing motion without apparent contiguity. When a planet moves, its distant satellites accompany it s motion. The sun carries the whole solar system along with it in the progress which it is ascertained to be executing through space. And even if we were to accept as conclusive the geometrical reasonings (strikingly similar to those by which the Cartesians defended their vortices) by which it has been attempted to show that the motions of the ether may account for gravitation itself, even then it would only have been proved that the supposed mode of production may be, but not that no other mode can be, the true one. 7. It is necessary, before quitting the subject of hypotheses, to guard against the appearance of reflecting upon the scientific value of several branches of physical inquiry, which, though only in their infancy, I hold to be strictly inductive. There is a great difference between inventing agencies to account for classes of phenomena, and endeavoring, in conformity with known laws, to conjecture what former collocations of known agents may have given birth to individual facts still in existence. The latter is the legitimate operation of inferring from an observed effect the existence, in time past, of a cause similar to that by which we know it to be produced in all cases in which we have actual experience of its origin. This, for example, is the scope of the inquiries of geology; and they are no more illogical or visionary than judicial inquiries, which also aim at discovering a past event by inference from those of its effects which still subsist. As we can ascertain whether a man was murdered or died a natural death, from the indications exhibited by the corpse, the presence or absence of signs of struggling on the ground or on the adjacent objects, the marks of blood, the footsteps of the supposed murderers, and so on, proceeding throughout on uniformities ascertained by a perfect induction without any mixture of hypothesis; so if we find, on and beneath the surface of our planet, masses exactly similar to deposits from water, or to results of the cooling of matter melted by fire, we may justly conclude that such has been their origin; and if the effects, though similar in kind, are on a far larger scale than any which are now produced, we may rationally, and without hypothesis, conclude either that the causes existed formerly with greater intensity, or that they have operated during an enormous length of time. Further than this no geologist of authority has, since the rise of the present enlightened school of geological speculation, attempted to go. In many geological inquiries it doubtless happens that though the laws to which the phenomena are ascribed are known laws, and the agents known agents, those agents are not known to have been present in the particular case. In the speculation respecting the igneous origin of trap or granite, the fact does not admit of direct proof that those substances have been actually subjected to intense heat. But the same thing might be said of all judicial inquiries which proceed on circumstantial evidence. We can conclude that a man was murdered, though it is not proved by the testimony of eye-witnesses that some person who had the intention of murdering him was present on the spot. It is enough for most purposes, if no other known cause could have generated the effects shown to have been produced. *** The celebrated speculation of Laplace concerning the origin of the earth and planets, participates essentially in the inductive character of modern geological theory. The 320 speculation is, that the atmosphere of the sun originally extended to the present limits of the solar system; from which, by the process of cooling, it has contracted to its present dimensions; and since, by the general principles of mechanics the rotation of the sun and of its accompanying atmosphere must increase in rapidity as its volume diminishes, the increased centrifugal force generated by the more rapid rotation, overbalancing the action of gravitation, has caused the sun to abandon successive rings of vaporous matter, which are supposed to have condensed by cooling, and to have become the planets. There is in this theory no unknown substance introduced on supposition, nor any unknown property or law ascribed to a known substance. The known laws of matter authorize us to suppose that a body which is constantly giving out so large an amount of heat as the sun is, must be progressively cooling, and that, by the process of cooling it must contract; if, therefore, we endeavor, from the present state of that luminary, to infer its state in a time long past, we must necessarily suppose that its atmosphere extended much farther than at present, and we are entitled to suppose that it extended as far as we can trace effects such as it might naturally leave behind it on retiring; and such the planets are. These suppositions being made, it follows from known laws that successive zones of the solar atmosphere might be abandoned; that these would continue to revolve round the sun with the same velocity as when they formed part of its substance; and that they would cool down, long before the sun itself, to any given temperature, and consequently to that at which the greater part of the vaporous matter of which they consisted would become liquid or solid. The known law of gravitation would then cause them to agglomerate in masses, which would assume the shape our planets actually exhibit; would acquire, each about its own axis, a rotatory movement; and would in that state revolve, as the planets actually do, about the sun, in the same direction with the sun's rotation, but with less velocity, because in the same periodic time which the sun's rotation occupied when his atmosphere extended to that point. There is thus, in Laplace's theory, nothing, strictly speaking, hypothetical; it is an example of legitimate reasoning from a present effect to a possible past cause, according to the known laws of that cause. The theory, therefore, is, as I have said, of a similar character to the theories of geologists; but considerably inferior to them in point of evidence. Even if it were proved (which it is not) that the conditions necessary for determining the breaking off of successive rings would certainly occur, there would still be a much greater chance of error in assuming that the existing laws of nature are the same which existed at the origin of the solar system, than in merely presuming (with geologists) that those laws have lasted through a few revolutions and transformations of a single one among the bodies of which that system is composed. 321 XV. Of Progressive Effects; And Of The Continued Action Of Causes 1. In the last four chapters we have traced the general outlines of the theory of the generation of derivative laws from ultimate ones. In the present chapter our attention will be directed to a particular case of the derivation of laws from other laws, but a case so general, and so important as not only to repay, but to require, a separate examination. This is the case of a complex phenomenon resulting from one simple law, by the continual addition of an effect to itself. There are some phenomena, some bodily sensations, for example, which are essentially instantaneous, and whose existence can only be prolonged by the prolongation of the existence of the cause by which they are produced. But most phenomena are in their own nature permanent; having begun to exist, they would exist forever unless some cause intervened having a tendency to alter or destroy them. Such, for example, are all the facts of phenomena which we call bodies. Water, once produced, will not of itself relapse int o a state of hydrogen and oxygen; such a change requires some agent having the power of decomposing the compound. Such, again, are the positions in space and the movements of bodies. No object at rest alters its position without the intervention of some conditions extraneous to itself; and when once in motion, no object returns to a state of rest, or alters either its direction or its velocity, unless some new external conditions are superinduced. It, therefore, perpetually happens that a temporary cause gi ves rise to a permanent effect. The contact of iron with moist air for a few hours, produces a rust which may endure for centuries; or a projectile force which launches a cannon -ball into space, produces a motion which would continue forever unless some ot her force counteracted it. Between the two examples which we have here given, there is a difference worth pointing out. In the former (in which the phenomenon produced is a substance, and not a motion of a substance), since the rust remains forever and unaltered unless some new cause supervenes, we may speak of the contact of air a hundred years ago as even the proximate cause of the rust which has existed from that time until now. But when the effect is motion, which is itself a change, we must use a different language. The permanency of the effect is now only the permanency of a series of changes. The second foot, or inch, or mile of motion is not the mere prolonged duration of the first foot, or inch, or mile, but another fact which succeeds, and which may in some respects be very unlike the former, since it carries the body through a different region of space. Now, the original projectile force which set the body moving is the remote cause of all its motion, however long continued, but the proximate cause of no motion except that which took place at the first instant. The motion at any subsequent instant is proximately caused by the motion which took place at the instant preceding. It is on that, and not on the original moving cause, that the motion at any given moment depends. For, suppose that the body passes through some resisting medium, which partially counteracts the effect of the original impulse, and retards the motion; this counteraction (it need scarcely here be repeated) is as strict an example o f obedience to the law of the impulse, as if the body had gone on moving with its original velocity; but the motion which results is different, being now a compound of the effects of two causes acting in contrary directions, instead of the single effect of one cause. Now, what cause does the body obey in its subsequent motion? The original cause of motion, or the actual motion at the preceding instant? The latter; for when the object issues from the resisting medium, it continues moving, not with its original, but with its retarded velocity. The motion having once been diminished, all that which 322 follows is diminished. The effect changes, because the cause which it really obeys, the proximate cause, the real cause in fact, has changed. This principle is recog nized by mathematicians when they enumerate among the causes by which the motion of a body is at any instant determined the force generated by the previous motion; an expression which would be absurd if taken to imply that this force was an intermediate link between the cause and the effect, but which really means only the previous motion itself, considered as a cause of further motion. We must, therefore, if we would speak with perfect precision, consider each link in the succession of motions as the effect of the link preceding it. But if, for the convenience of discourse, we speak of the whole series as one effect, it must be as an effect produced by the original impelling force; a permanent effect produced by an instantaneous cause, and possessing the property of self-perpetuation. Let us now suppose that the original agent or cause, instead of being instantaneous, is permanent. Whatever effect has been produced up to a given time, would (unless prevented by the intervention of some new cause) subsist permanently, even if the cause were to perish. Since, however, the cause does not perish, but continues to exist and to operate, it must go on producing more and more of the effect; and instead of a uniform effect, we have a progressive series of effects, a rising from the accumulated influence of a permanent cause. Thus, the contact of iron with the atmosphere causes a portion of it to rust; and if the cause ceased, the effect already produced would be permanent, but no further effect would be added. If, however, the cause, namely, exposure to moist air, continues, more and more of the iron becomes rusted, until all which is exposed is converted into a red powder, when one of the conditions of the production of rust, namely, the presence of unoxidized iron, has ceased, and the effect can not any longer be produced. Again, the earth causes bodies to fall toward it; that is, the existence of the earth at a given instant causes an unsupported body to move toward it at the succeeding instant; and if the earth were annihilated, as much of the effect as is already produced would continue; the object would go on moving in the same direction, with its acquired velocity, until intercepted by some body or deflected by some other force. The earth, however, not being annihilated, goes on producing in the second instant an effect similar and of equal amount with the first, which two effects being added together, there results an accelerated velocity; and this operation being repeated at each successive instant, the mere perm anence of the cause, though without increase, gives rise to a constant progressive increase of the effect, so long as all the conditions, negative and positive, of the production of that effect continue to be realized. It is obvious that this state of thin gs is merely a case of the Composition of Causes. A cause which continues in action must on a strict analysis be considered as a number of causes exactly similar, successively introduced, and producing by their combination the sum of the effects which they would severally produce if they acted singly. The progressive rusting of the iron is in strictness the sum of the effects of many particles of air acting in succession upon corresponding particles of iron. The continued action of the earth upon a falling body is equivalent to a series of forces, applied in successive instants, each tending to produce a certain constant quantity of motion; and the motion at each instant is the sum of the effects of the new force applied at the preceding instant, and the motion already acquired. In each instant a fresh effect, of which gravity is the proximate cause, is added to the effect of which it was the remote cause; or (to express the same thing in another manner), the effect produced by the earth's influence at the in stant last elapsed is added to the sum of the effects of which the remote causes were the influences exerted by the earth at all the previous instants since the motion began. The case, therefore, comes under the principle of a concurrence of causes produci ng an effect equal to the sum of their separate effects. But as the causes come into play not all at once, but successively, and as the effect at each instant is the sum of the effects 323 of those causes only which have come into action up to that instant, the result assumes the form of an ascending series; a succession of sums, each greater than that which preceded it; and we have thus a progressive effect from the continued action of a cause. Since the continuance of the cause influences the effect only by adding to its quantity, and since the addition takes place according to a fixed law (equal quantities in equal times), the result is capable of being computed on mathematical principles. In fact, this case, being that of infinitesimal increments, is precise ly the case which the differential calculus was invented to meet. The questions, what effect will result from the continual addition of a given cause to itself, and what amount of the cause, being continually added to itself, will produce a given amount of the effect, are evidently mathematical questions, and to be treated, therefore, deductively. If, as we have seen, cases of the Composition of Causes are seldom adapted for any other than deductive investigation, this is especially true in the case now examined, the continual composition of a cause with its own previous effects; since such a case is peculiarly amenable to the deductive method, while the undistinguishable manner in which the effects are blended with one another and with the causes, must make the treatment of such an instance experimentally still more chimerical than in any other case. 2. We shall next advert to a rather more intricate operation of the same principle, namely, when the cause does not merely continue in action, but undergoes, during the same time, a progressive change in those of its circumstances which contribute to determine the effect. In this case, as in the former, the total effect goes on accumulating by the continual addition of a fresh effect to that already produced, but it is no longer by the addition of equal quantities in equal times; the quantities added are unequal, and even the quality may now be different. If the change in the state of the permanent cause be progressive, the effect will go through a double series of changes, arising partly from the accumulated action of the cause, and partly from the changes in its action. The effect is still a progressive effect, produced, however, not by the mere continuance of a cause, but by its continuance and its progressiveness combined. A familiar example is afforded by the increase of the temperature as summer advances, that is, as the sun draws nearer to a vertical position, and remains a greater number of hours above the horizon. This instance exemplifies in a very interesting manner the twofold operation on the effect, arising from the continuance of the cause, and from its progressive change. When once the sun has come near enough to the zenith, and remains above the horizon long enough, to give more warmth during one diurnal rotation than the counteracting cause, the earth's radiation, can carry off, the mere continuance of the cause would progressively increase the effect, even if the sun came no nearer and the days grew no longer; but in addition to this, a change tak es place in the accidents of the cause (its series of diurnal positions), tending to increase the quantity of the effect. When the summer solstice has passed, the progressive change in the cause begins to take place the reverse way, but, for some time, the accumulating effect of the mere continuance of the cause exceeds the effect of the changes in it, and the temperature continues to increase. Again, the motion of a planet is a progressive effect, produced by causes at once permanent and progressive. The orbit of a planet is determined (omitting perturbations) by two causes: first, the action of the central body, a permanent cause, which alternately increases and diminishes as the planet draws nearer to or goes farther from its perihelion, and which acts at every point in a different direction; and, secondly, the tendency of the planet to continue moving in the direction and with the velocity which it has already acquired. This force also grows greater as the planet draws nearer to its perihelion, because as it does so its velocity increases, and less, as it recedes from its perihelion; and this force as well as the other acts at each point in a different direction, because at every point the action of the central force, by 324 deflecting the planet from its prev ious direction, alters the line in which it tends to continue moving. The motion at each instant is determined by the amount and direction of the motion, and the amount and direction of the sun's action, at the previous instant; and if we speak of the enti re revolution of the planet as one phenomenon (which, as it is periodical and similar to itself, we often find it convenient to do), that phenomenon is the progressive effect of two permanent and progressive causes, the central force and the acquired motio n. Those causes happening to be progressive in the particular way which is called periodical, the effect necessarily is so too; because the quantities to be added together returning in a regular order, the same sums must also regularly return. This example is worthy of consideration also in another respect. Though the causes themselves are permanent, and independent of all conditions known to us, the changes which take place in the quantities and relations of the causes are actually caused by the periodical changes in the effects. The causes, as they exist at any moment, having produced a certain motion, that motion, becoming itself a cause, reacts upon the causes, and produces a change in them. By altering the distance and direction of the central body relatively to the planet, and the direction and quantity of the force in the direction of the tangent, it alters the elements which determine the motion at the next succeeding instant. This change renders the next motion somewhat different; and this difference, by a fresh reaction upon the causes, renders the next motion again different, and so on. The original state of the causes might have been such that this series of actions modified by reactions would not have been periodical. The sun's action, and the original impelling force, might have been in such a ratio to one another, that the reaction of the effect would have been such as to alter the causes more and more, without ever bringing them back to what they were at any former time. The planet would then have moved in a parabola, or an hyperbola, curves not returning into themselves. The quantities of the two forces were, however, originally such, that the successive reactions of the effect bring back the causes, after a certain time, to what they were befor e; and from that time all the variations continued to recur again and again in the same periodical order, and must so continue while the causes subsist and are not counteracted. 3. In all cases of progressive effects, whether arising from the accumulation of unchanging or of changing elements, there is a uniformity of succession not merely between the cause and the effect, but between the first stages of the effect and its subsequent stages. That a body in vacuo falls sixteen feet in the first second, for ty-eight in the second, and so on in the ratio of the odd numbers, is as much a uniform sequence as that when the supports are removed the body falls. The sequence of spring and summer is as regular and invariable as that of the approach of the sun and spring; but we do not consider spring to be the cause of summer; it is evident that both are successive effects of the heat received from the sun, and that, considered merely in itself, spring might continue forever without having the slightest tendency to produce summer. As we have so often remarked, not the conditional, but the unconditional invariable antecedent is termed the cause. That which would not be followed by the effect unless something else had preceded, and which if that something else had preced ed, would not have been required, is not the cause, however invaluable the sequence may in fact be. It is in this way that most of those uniformities of succession are generated, which are not cases of causation. When a phenomenon goes on increasing, or pe riodically increases and diminishes, or goes through any continued and unceasing process of variation reducible to a uniform rule or law of succession, we do not on this account presume that any two successive terms of the series are cause and effect. We p resume the contrary; we expect to find that the whole series originates either from the continued action of fixed causes or from causes which go through a corresponding process of continuous change. A tree grows from half an inch 325 high to a hundred feet; and some trees will generally grow to that height unless prevented by some counteracting cause. But we do not call the seedling the cause of the full-grown tree; the invariable antecedent it certainly is, and we know very imperfectly on what other antecedent s the sequence is contingent, but we are convinced that it is contingent on something; because the homogeneousness of the antecedent with the consequent, the close resemblance of the seedling to the tree in all respects except magnitude, and the graduality of the growth, so exactly resembling the progressively accumulating effect produced by the long action of some one cause, leave no possibility of doubting that the seedling and the tree are two terms in a series of that description, the first term of whic h is yet to seek. The conclusion is further confirmed by this, that we are able to prove by strict induction the dependence of the growth of the tree, and even of the continuance of its existence, upon the continued repetition of certain processes of nutrition, the rise of the sap, the absorptions and exhalations by the leaves, etc.; and the same experiments would probably prove to us that the growth of the tree is the accumulated sum of the effects of these continued processes, were we not, for want of sufficiently microscopic eyes, unable to observe correctly and in detail what those effects are. This supposition by no means requires that the effect should not, during its progress, undergo many modifications besides those of quantity, or that it should not sometimes appear to undergo a very marked change of character. This may be either because the unknown cause consists of several component elements or agents, whose effects, accumulating according to different laws, are compounded in different proportions at different periods in the existence of the organized being; or because, at certain points in its progress, fresh causes or agencies come in, or are evolved, which intermix their laws with those of the prime agent. 326 XVI. Of Empirical Laws 1. Scientific inquirers give the name of Empirical Laws to those uniformities which observation or experiment has shown to exist, but on which they hesitate to rely in cases varying much from those which have been actually observed, for want of seeing any reason why such a law should exist. It is implied, therefore, in the notion of an empirical law, that it is not an ultimate law; that if true at all, its truth is capable of being, and requires to be, accounted for. It is a derivative law, the derivation of which is not yet known. To state the explanation, the why , of the empirical law, would be to state the laws from which it is derived the ultimate causes on which it is contingent. And if we knew these, we should also know what are its limits; under what conditions it would cease to be fulfilled. The periodical return of eclipses, as originally ascertained by the persevering observation of the early Eastern astronomers, was an empirical law, until the general laws of the celestial motions had accounted for it. The following are empirical laws still waiting to be resolved into the simpler laws from which they are derived: the local laws of the flux and reflux of the tides in different places; the succession of certain kinds of weather to certain appearances of sky; the apparent exceptions to the almost universal truth that bodies expand by increase of temperature; the law that breeds, both animal and vegetable, are improved by crossing; that gases have a strong tendency to permeate animal membranes; that substances containing a very high proportion of nitrogen (such as hydrocyanic acid and morphia) are powerful poisons; that when different metals are fused together the alloy is harder than the various elements; that the numbe r of atoms of acid required to neutralize one atom of any base is equal to the number of atoms of oxygen in the base; that the solubility of substances in one another depends, P170F171 P at least in some degree, on the similarity of their elements. An empirical law , then, is an observed uniformity, presumed to be resolvable into simpler laws, but not yet resolved into them. The ascertainment of the empirical laws of phenomena often precedes by a long interval the explanation of those laws by the Deductive Method; and the verification of a deduction usually consists in the comparison of its results with empirical laws previously ascertained. 2. From a limited number of ultimate laws of causation, there are necessarily generated a vast number of derivative uniformities, both of succession and co- existence. Some are laws of succession or of co- existence between different effects of the same cause; of these we had examples in the last chapter. Some are laws of succession between effects and their remote causes, resolvab le into the laws which connect each with the intermediate link. Thirdly, when causes act together and compound their effects, the laws of those causes generate the fundamental law of the effect, namely, that it depends on the co- existence of those causes. And, finally, the order of succession or of co- existence which obtains among effects necessarily depends on their causes. If they are effects of the same cause, it depends on the laws of that cause; if on different causes, it depends on the laws of those causes severally, and on the circumstances which determine their co -existence. If we inquire further when and how 171 Thus water, of which eight -ninths in weight are oxygen, dissolves most bodies which contain a high proportion of oxygen, such as all the nitrates (which have more oxygen than any others of the common salts), most of the sulphates, many of the carbonates, etc. Again, bodies largely composed of combustible elements, like hydrogen and carbon, ar e soluble in bodies of similar composition; resin, for instance, will dissolve in alcohol, tar in oil of turpentine. This empirical generalization is far from being universally true; no doubt because it is a remote, and therefore easily defeated, result of general laws too deep for us at present to penetrate; but it will probably in time suggest processes of inquiry, leading to the discovery of those laws. 327 the causes will co -exist, that, again, depends on their causes; and we may thus trace back the phenomena higher and higher, until the different series of effects meet in a point, and the whole is shown to have depended ultimately on some common cause; or until, instead of converging to one point, they terminate in different points, and the order of the effects is proved to have arisen from the collocation of some of the primeval causes, or natural agents. For example, the order of succession and of co-existence among the heavenly motions, which is expressed by Kepler's laws, is derived from the co- existence of two primeval causes, the sun, and the original impulse or projectile force belonging to each planet. P171F172 P Kepler's laws are resolved into the laws of these causes and the fact of their co -existence. Derivative laws, therefore, do not depend solely on the ultimate laws into which they are resolvable; they mostly depend on those ultimate laws, and an ultimate fact; namely, the mode of co-existence of some of the component elements of the universe. The ultimate laws of causation might be the same as at present, and yet the derivative laws completely different, if the causes co -existed in different proportions, or with any difference in those of their relations by which the effects are influenced. If, for example, the sun's attraction, and the original projectile force, had existed in some other ratio to one another than they did (and we know of no reason why this should not have been the case), the derivative laws of the heavenly motions might have been quite different from what they are. The proportions which exist happen to be such as to produce regular elliptical motions; any other proportions would have produced different ellipses, or circular, or parabolic, or hyperbolic motions, but still regular ones; because the effects of each of the agents accumulate according to a uniform law; and two regular series of quantities, when their corresponding terms are added, must produce a regular series of some sort, whatever the quantities themselves are. 3. Now this last-mentioned element in the resolution of a derivative law, the element which is not a law of causation, but a collocation of causes, can not itself be reduced to any law. There is, as formerly remarked, P172F173 P no uniformity, no norma, principle, or rule, perceivable in the distribution of the primeval natural agents through the universe. The differ ent substances composing the earth, the powers that pervade the universe, stand in no constant relation to one another. One substance is more abundant than others, one power acts through a larger extent of space than others, without any pervading analogy that we can discover. We not only do not know of any reason why the sun's attraction and the force in the direction of the tangent co -exist in the exact proportion they do, but we can trace no coincidence between it and the proportions in which any other elementary powers in the universe are intermingled. The utmost disorder is apparent in the combination of the causes, which is consistent with the most regular order in their effects; for when each agent carries on its own operations according to a uniform l aw, even the most capricious combination of agencies will generate a regularity of some sort; as we see in the kaleidoscope, where any casual arrangement of colored bits of glass produces by the laws of reflection a beautiful regularity in the effect. 4. In the above considerations lies the justification of the limited degree of reliance which scientific inquirers are accustomed to place in empirical laws. A derivative law which results wholly from the operation of some one cause, will be as universally t rue as the laws of the cause itself; that is, it will always be true except where some one of those effects of the cause, on which the derivative law depends, is defeated by a counteracting cause. But when the derivative law results not from different effects of one cause, but from effects of several causes, we can not be certain that it will be true under any variation in the mode of co-existence of those causes, or of the primitive natural agents on 172 Or, according to Laplace's theory, the sun and the sun's rotation. 173 Supra, book 3., chap. 5., 7. 328 which the causes ultimately depend. The proposition that coal -beds rest on certain descriptions of strata exclusively, though true on the earth, so far as our observation has reached, can not be extended to the moon or the other planets, supposing coal to exist there; because we can not be assured that the orig inal constitution of any other planet was such as to produce the different depositions in the same order as in our globe. The derivative law in this case depends not solely on laws, but on a collocation; and collocations can not be reduced to any law. Now it is the very nature of a derivative law which has not yet been resolved into its elements, in other words, an empirical law, that we do not know whether it results from the different effects of one cause, or from effects of different causes. We can not t ell whether it depends wholly on laws, or partly on laws and partly on a collocation. If it depends on a collocation, it will be true in all the cases in which that particular collocation exists. But, since we are entirely ignorant, in case of its dependin g on a collocation, what the collocation is, we are not safe in extending the law beyond the limits of time and place in which we have actual experience of its truth. Since within those limits the law has always been found true, we have evidence that the collocations, whatever they are, on which it depends, do really exist within those limits. But, knowing of no rule or principle to which the collocations themselves conform, we can not conclude that because a collocation is proved to exist within certain li mits of place or time, it will exist beyond those limits. Empirical laws, therefore, can only be received as true within the limits of time and place in which they have been found true by observation; and not merely the limits of time and place, but of tim e, place, and circumstance; for, since it is the very meaning of an empirical law that we do not know the ultimate laws of causation on which it is dependent, we can not foresee, without actual trial, in what manner or to what extent the introduction of any new circumstance may affect it. 5. But how are we to know that a uniformity ascertained by experience is only an empirical law? Since, by the supposition, we have not been able to resolve it into any other laws, how do we know that it is not an ultimat e law of causation? I answer that no generalization amounts to more than an empirical law when the only proof on which it rests is that of the Method of Agreement. For it has been seen that by that method alone we never can arrive at causes. The utmost that the Method of Agreement can do is, to ascertain the whole of the circumstances common to all cases in which a phenomenon is produced; and this aggregate includes not only the cause of the phenomenon, but all phenomena with which it is connected by any derivative uniformity, whether as being collateral effects of the same cause, or effects of any other cause which, in all the instances we have been able to observe, co -existed with it. The method affords no means of determining which of these uniformities are laws of causation, and which are merely derivative laws, resulting from those laws of causation and from the collocation of the causes. None of them, therefore, can be received in any other character than that of derivative laws, the derivation of which has not been traced; in other words, empirical laws: in which light all results obtained by the Method of Agreement (and therefore almost all truths obtained by simple observation without experiment) must be considered, until either confirmed by the Metho d of Difference, or explained deductively; in other words, accounted for a priori . These empirical laws may be of greater or less authority, according as there is reason to presume that they are resolvable into laws only, or into laws and collocations together. The sequences which we observe in the production and subsequent life of an animal or a vegetable, resting on the Method of Agreement only, are mere empirical laws; but though the antecedents in those sequences may not be the causes of the consequents , both the one and the other are doubtless, in the main, successive stages of a progressive effect originating in a 329 common cause, and therefore independent of collocations. The uniformities, on the other hand, in the order of superposition of strata on the earth, are empirical laws of a much weaker kind, since they not only are not laws of causation, but there is no reason to believe that they depend on any common cause; all appearances are in favor of their depending on the particular collocation of natura l agents which at some time or other existed on our globe, and from which no inference can be drawn as to the collocation which exists or has existed in any other portion of the universe. 6. Our definition of an empirical law, including not only those uniformities which are not known to be laws of causation, but also those which are, provided there be reason to presume that they are not ultimate laws; this is the proper place to consider by what signs we may judge that even if an observed uniformity be a law of causation, it is not an ultimate, but a derivative law. The first sign is, if between the antecedent a and the consequent b there be evidence of some intermediate link; some phenomenon of which we can surmise the existence, though from the imperfect ion of our senses or of our instruments we are unable to ascertain its precise nature and laws. If there be such a phenomenon (which may be denoted by the letter x ), it follows that even if a be the cause of b, it is but the remote cause, and that the law, a causes b, is resolvable into at least two laws, a causes x, and x causes b. This is a very frequent case, since the operations of nature mostly take place on so minute a scale, that many of the successive steps are either imperceptible, or very indistinctly perceived. Take, for example, the laws of the chemical composition of substances; as that hydrogen and oxygen being combined, water is produced. All we see of the process is, that the two gases being mixed in certain proportions, and heat or electricity being applied, an explosion takes place, the gases disappear, and water remains. There is no doubt about the law, or about its being a law of causation. But between the antecedent (the gases in a state of mechanical mixture, heated or electrified), and the consequent (the production of water), there must be an intermediate process which we do not see. For if we take any portion whatever of the water, and subject it to analysis, we find that it always contains hydrogen and oxygen; nay, the very same proportions of them, namely, two-thirds, in volume, of hydrogen, and one-third oxygen. This is true of a single drop; it is true of the minutest portion which our instruments are capable of appreciating. Since, then, the smallest perceptible portion of the water contains both those substances, portions of hydrogen and oxygen smaller than the smallest perceptible must have come together in every such minute portion of space; must have come closer together than when the gases were in a state of mechanical mixture, since (to mention no other reasons) the water occupies far less space than the gases. Now, as we can not see this contact or close approach of the minute particles, we can not observe with what circumstances it is attended, or according to what laws it produces its effects. The production of water, that is, of the sensible phenomena which characterize the compound, may be a very remote effect of those laws. There may be innumerable intervening links; and we are sure that there must be some. Having full proof that corpuscular action of some kind takes place previous to any of the great transformations in the sensible properties of substances, we can have no doubt that the laws of chemical action, as at present known, are not ultimate, but derivative laws; ho wever ignorant we may be, and even though we should forever remain ignorant, of the nature of the laws of corpuscular action from which they are derived. In like manner, all the processes of vegetative life, whether in the vegetable properly so called or i n the animal body, are corpuscular processes. Nutrition is the addition of particles to one another, sometimes merely replacing other particles separated and excreted, sometimes occasioning an increase of bulk or weight so gradual that only after a long continuance does it 330 become perceptible. Various organs, by means of peculiar vessels, secrete from the blood fluids, the component particles of which must have been in the blood, but which differ from it most widely both in mechanical properties and in chemical composition. Here, then, are abundance of unknown links to be filled up; and there can be no doubt that the laws of the phenomena of vegetative or organic life are derivative laws, dependent on properties of the corpuscles, and of those elementary tissues which are comparatively simple combinations of corpuscles. The first sign, then, from which a law of causation, though hitherto unresolved, may be inferred to be a derivative law, is any indication of the existence of an intermediate link or links between the antecedent and the consequent. The second is, when the antecedent is an extremely complex phenomenon, and its effects, therefore, probably in part at least, compounded of the effects of its different elements; since we know that the case in which t he effect of the whole is not made up of the effects of its parts is exceptional, the Composition of Causes being by far the more ordinary case. We will illustrate this by two examples, in one of which the antecedent is the sum of many homogeneous, in the other of heterogeneous, parts. The weight of a body is made up of the weights of its minute particles; a truth which astronomers express in its most general terms when they say that bodies, at equal distances, gravitate to one another in proportion to thei r quantity of matter. All true propositions, therefore, which can be made concerning gravity, are derivative laws; the ultimate law into which they are all resolvable being, that every particle of matter attracts every other. As our second example, we may take any of the sequences observed in meteorology; for instance, a diminution of the pressure of the atmosphere (indicated by a fall of the barometer) is followed by rain. The antecedent is here a complex phenomenon, made up of heterogeneous elements; the column of the atmosphere over any particular place consisting of two parts, a column of air, and a column of aqueous vapor mixed with it; and the change in the two together manifested by a fall of the barometer, and followed by rain, must be either a change in one of these, or in the other, or in both. We might, then, even in the absence of any other evidence, form a reasonable presumption, from the invariable presence of both these elements in the antecedent, that the sequence is probably not an ultimate law, but a result of the laws of the two different agents; a presumption only to be destroyed when we had made ourselves so well acquainted with the laws of both, as to be able to affirm that those laws could not by themselves produce the observed result. There are but few known cases of succession from very complex antecedents which have not either been actually accounted for from simpler laws, or inferred with great probability (from the ascertained existence of intermediate links of causation not yet unde rstood) to be capable of being so accounted for. It is, therefore, highly probable that all sequences from complex antecedents are thus resolvable, and that ultimate laws are in all cases comparatively simple. If there were not the other reasons already mentioned for believing that the laws of organized nature are resolvable into simpler laws, it would be almost a sufficient reason that the antecedents in most of the sequences are so very complex. 7. In the preceding discussion we have recognized two kinds of empirical laws: those known to be laws of causation, but presumed to be resolvable into simpler laws; and those not known to be laws of causation at all. Both these kinds of laws agree in the demand which they make for being explained by deduction, and agree in being the appropriate means of verifying such deduction, since they represent the experience with which the result of the deduction must be compared. They agree, further, in this, that until explained, and connected with the u ltimate laws from which they result, they have not attained the highest degree of certainty of which laws are susceptible. It has been shown on a former occasion that laws of 331 causation which are derivative, and compounded of simpler laws, are not only, as the nature of the case implies, less general, but even less certain, than the simpler laws from which they result; not in the same degree to be relied on as universally true. The inferiority of evidence, however, which attaches to this class of laws, is tr ifling, compared with that which is inherent in uniformities not known to be laws of causation at all. So long as these are unresolved, we can not tell on how many collocations, as well as laws, their truth may be dependent; we can never, therefore, extend them with any confidence to cases in which we have not assured ourselves, by trial, that the necessary collocation of causes, whatever it may be, exists. It is to this class of laws alone that the property, which philosophers usually consider as character istic of empirical laws, belongs in all its strictness the property of being unfit to be relied on beyond the limits of time, place, and circumstance in which the observations have been made. These are empirical laws in a more emphatic sense; and when I em ploy that term (except where the context manifestly indicates the reverse) I shall generally mean to designate those uniformities only, whether of succession or of co- existence, which are not known to be laws of causation. 332 XVII. Of Chance And Its Elimination 1. Considering, then, as empirical laws only those observed uniformities respecting which the question whether they are laws of causation must remain undecided until they can be explained deductively, or until some means are found of applying the Method of Difference to the case, it has been shown in the preceding chapter that until a uniformity can, in one or the other of these modes, be taken out of the class of empirical laws, and brought either into that of laws of causation or of the demonstrated results of laws of causation, it can not with any assurance be pronounced true beyond the local and other limits within which it has been found so by actual observation. It remains to consider how we are to assure ourselves of its truth even within those limits; after what quantity of experience a generalization which rests solely on the Method of Agreement can be considered sufficiently established, even as an empirical law. In a former chapter, when treating of the Methods of Direct Induction, we expressly reserved this question, P173F174 P and the time is now come for endeavoring to solve it. We found that the Method of Agreement has the defect of not proving causation, and can, therefore, only be employed for the ascertainment of empirical laws. But we also found that besides this deficiency, it labors under a characteristic imperfection, tending to render uncertain even such conclusions as it is in itself adapted to prove. This imperfection arises from Plurality of Causes. Although two or more cases in which the phenomenon a has been met with may have no common antecedent except A, this does not prove that there is any connection between a and A, since a may have many causes, and may have been produced, in these different i nstances, not by any thing which the instances had in common, but by some of those elements in them which were different. We nevertheless observed, that in proportion to the multiplication of instances pointing to A as the antecedent, the characteristic uncertainty of the method diminishes, and the existence of a law of connection between A and a more nearly approaches to certainty. It is now to be determined after what amount of experience this certainty may be deemed to be practically attained, and the co nnection between A and a may be received as an empirical law. This question may be otherwise stated in more familiar terms: After how many and what sort of instances may it be concluded that an observed coincidence between two phenomena is not the effect of chance? It is of the utmost importance for understanding the logic of induction, that we should form a distinct conception of what is meant by chance, and how the phenomena which common language ascribes to that abstraction are really produced. 2. Chance is usually spoken of in direct antithesis to law; whatever, it is supposed, can not be ascribed to any law is attributed to chance. It is, however, certain that whatever happens is the result of some law; is an effect of causes, and could have been predicted from a knowledge of the existence of those causes, and from their laws. If I turn up a particular card, that is a consequence of its place in the pack. Its place in the pack was a consequence of the manner in which the cards were shuffled, or of the order in which they were played in the last game; which, again, were effects of prior causes. At every stage, if we had possessed an accurate knowledge of the causes in existence, it would have been abstractedly possible to foretell the effect. 174 Supra, book 3., chap. 10., 2 333 An event oc curring by chance may be better described as a coincidence from which we have no ground to infer a uniformitythe occurrence of a phenomenon in certain circumstances, without our having reason on that account to infer that it will happen again in those circumstances. This, however, when looked closely into, implies that the enumeration of the circumstances is not complete. Whatever the fact be, since it has occurred once, we may be sure that if all the same circumstances were repeated it would occur again; and not only if all, but there is some particular portion of those circumstances on which the phenomenon is invariably consequent. With most of them, however, it is not connected in any permanent manner; its conjunction with those is said to be the effect of chance, to be merely casual. Facts casually conjoined are separately the effects of causes, and therefore of laws; but of different causes, and causes not connected by any law. It is incorrect, then, to say that any phenomenon is produced by chance; but we may say that two or more phenomena are conjoined by chance, that they co-exist or succeed one another only by chance; meaning that they are in no way related through causation; that they are neither cause and effect, nor effects of the same cause, nor effects of causes between which there subsists any law of co-existence, nor even effects of the same collocation of primeval causes. If the same casual coincidence never occurred a second time, we should have an easy test for distinguishing such from the coincidences which are the results of a law. As long as the phenomena had been found together only once, so long, unless we knew some more general laws from which the coincidence might have resulted, we could not distinguish it from a casual one; but if it occurred twice, we should know that the phenomena so conjoined must be in some way connected through their causes. There is, however, no such test. A coincidence may occur again and again, and yet be only casual. Nay, it would be inconsistent with what we know of the order of nature to doubt that every casual coincidence will sooner or later be repeated, as long as the phenomena between which it occurred do not cease to exist, or to be reproduced. The recurrence, therefore, of the same coincidence more than once, or even its frequent recurrence, does not prove that it is an instance of any law; does not prove that it is not casual, or, in common language, the effect of chance. And yet, when a coincidence can not be deduced from known laws, nor proved by expe riment to be itself a case of causation, the frequency of its occurrence is the only evidence from which we can infer that it is the result of a law. Not, however, its absolute frequency. The question is not whether the coincidence occurs often or seldom, in the ordinary sense of those terms; but whether it occurs more often than chance will account for; more often than might rationally be expected if the coincidence were casual. We have to decide, therefore, what degree of frequency in a coincidence chance will account for; and to this there can be no general answer. We can only state the principle by which the answer must be determined; the answer itself will be different in every different case. Suppose that one of the phenomena, A, exists always, and the other phenomenon, B, only occasionally; it follows that every instance of B will be an instance of its coincidence with A, and yet the coincidence will be merely casual, not the result of any connection between them. The fixed stars have been constantly in existence since the beginning of human experience, and all phenomena that have come under human observation have, in every single instance, co-existed with them; yet this coincidence, though equally invariable with that which exists between any of those phenomena and its own cause, does not prove that the stars are its cause, nor that they are in anywise connected with it. As strong a case of coincidence, therefore, as can possibly exist, and a much stronger one in point of mere frequency than 334 most of those which prove laws, does not here prove a law; why? because, since the stars exist always, they must co-exist with every other phenomenon, whether connected with them by causation or not. The uniformity, great though it be, is no greater than would occur on the supposition that no such connection exists. On the other hand, suppose that we were inquiring whether there be any connection between rain and any particular wind. Rain, we know, occasionally occurs with every wind; therefore, the connection, if it exists, can not be an actual law; but still rain may be connected with some particular wind through causation; that is, though they can not be always effects of the same cause (for if so they would regularly co-exist), there may be some causes common to the two, so that in so far as either is produced by those common causes, they will, from the laws of the causes, be found to co-exist. How, then, shall we ascertain this? The obvious answer is, by observing whether rain occurs with one wind more frequently than with any other. That, however, is not enough; for perhaps that one wind blows more frequently than any other; so that its blowing more frequently in rainy weather is no more than would happen, although it had no connection with the causes of rain, provided it were not connected with causes adverse to rain. In England, westerly winds blow during about twice as great a portion of the year as easterly. If, therefore, it rains only twice as often with a westerly as with an easterly wind, we have no reason to infer that any law of nature is concerned in the coincidence. If it rains more than twice as often, we may be sure that some law is concerned; either there is some cause in nature which, in this climate, tends to produce both rain and a westerly wind, or a westerly wind has itself some tendency to produce rain. But if it rains less than twice as often, we may draw a directly opposite inference: the one, instead of being a cause, or connected with causes of the other, must be connected with causes adverse to it, or with the absence of some cause which produces it; and though it may still rain much oftener with a westerly wind than with an easterly, so far would this be from proving any connection between the phenomena, that the connection proved would be be tween rain and an easterly wind, to which, in mere frequency of coincidence, it is less allied. Here, then, are two examples: in one, the greatest possible frequency of coincidence, with no instance whatever to the contrary, does not prove that there is any law; in the other, a much less frequency of coincidence, even when non-coincidence is still more frequent, does prove that there is a law. In both cases the principle is the same. In both we consider the positive frequency of the phenomena themselves, and how great frequency of coincidence that must of itself bring about, without supposing any connection between them, provided there be no repugnance; provided neither be connected with any cause tending to frustrate the other. If we find a greater frequency of coincidence than this, we conclude that there is some connection; if a less frequency, that there is some repugnance. In the former case, we conclude that one of the phenomena can under some circumstances cause the other, or that there exists somethin g capable of causing them both; in the latter, that one of them, or some cause which produces one of them, is capable of counteracting the production of the other. We have thus to deduct from the observed frequency of coincidence as much as may be the effect of chance, that is, of the mere frequency of the phenomena themselves; and if any thing remains, what does remain is the residual fact which proves the existence of a law. The frequency of the phenomena can only be ascertained within definite limits of space and time; depending as it does on the quantity and distribution of the primeval natural agents, of which we can know nothing beyond the boundaries of human observation, since no law, no regularity, can be traced in it, enabling us to infer the unknown from the known. But for the present purpose this is no disadvantage, the question being confined within the same limits as the data. The coincidences occurred in certain places and times, and within those we can estimate the frequency with which such coi ncidences would be produced by chance. If, then, 335 we find from observation that A exists in one case out of every two, and B in one case out of every three; then, if there be neither connection nor repugnance between them, or between any of their causes, the instances in which A and B will both exist, that is to say will co -exist, will be one case in every six. For A exists in three cases out of six; and B, existing in one case out of every three without regard to the presence or absence of A, will exist in one case out of those three. There will therefore be, of the whole number of cases, two in which A exists without B; one case of B without A; two in which neither B nor A exists, and one case out of six in which they both exist. If, then, in point of fact, they are found to co-exist oftener than in one case out of six; and, consequently, A does not exist without B so often as twice in three times, nor B without A so often as once in every twice, there is some cause in existence which tends to produce a conjunction between A and B. Generalizing the result, we may say that if A occurs in a larger proportion of the cases where B is than of the cases where B is not, then will B also occur in a larger proportion of the cases where A is than of the cases where A i s not; and there is some connection, through causation, between A and B. If we could ascend to the causes of the two phenomena, we should find, at some stage, either proximate or remote, some cause or causes common to both; and if we could ascertain what t hese are, we could frame a generalization which would be true without restriction of place or time; but until we can do so, the fact of a connection between the two phenomena remains an empirical law. 3. Having considered in what manner it may be determined whether any given conjunction of phenomena is casual, or the result of some law, to complete the theory of chance it is necessary that we should now consider those effects which are partly the result of chance and partly of law, or, in other words, in which the effects of casual conjunctions of causes are habitually blended in one result with the effects of a constant cause. This is a case of Composition of Causes; and the peculiarity of it is, that instead of two or more causes intermixing their effect s in a regular manner with those of one another, we have now one constant cause, producing an effect which is successively modified by a series of variable causes. Thus, as summer advances, the approach of the sun to a vertical position tends to produce a constant increase of temperature; but with this effect of a constant cause, there are blended the effects of many variable causes, winds, clouds, evaporation, electric agencies and the like, so that the temperature of any given day depends in part on these fleeting causes, and only in part on the constant cause. If the effect of the constant cause is always accompanied and disguised by effects of variable causes, it is impossible to ascertain the law of the constant cause in the ordinary manner by separating it from all other causes and observing it apart. Hence arises the necessity of an additional rule of experimental inquiry. When the action of a cause A is liable to be interfered with, not steadily by the same cause or causes, but by different causes at different times, and when these are so frequent, or so indeterminate, that we can not possibly exclude all of them from any experiment, though we may vary them; our resource is, to endeavor to ascertain what is the effect of all the variable causes taken together. In order to do this, we make as many trials as possible, preserving A invariable. The results of these different trials will naturally be different, since the indeterminate modifying causes are different in each; if, then, we do not find these results to be progressive, but, on the contrary, to oscillate about a certain point, one experiment giving a result a little greater, another a little less, one a result tending a little more in one direction, another a little more in the contrary d irection; while the average or middle point does not vary, but different sets of experiments (taken in as great a variety of circumstances as possible) yield the same mean, provided only they be sufficiently numerous; then that mean, 336 or average result, is the part, in each experiment, which is due to the cause A, and is the effect which would have been obtained if A could have acted alone; the variable remainder is the effect of chance, that is, of causes the co -existence of which with the cause A was merel y casual. The test of the sufficiency of the induction in this case is, when any increase of the number of trials from which the average is struck does not materially alter the average. This kind of elimination, in which we do not eliminate any one assignable cause, but the multitude of floating unassignable ones, may be termed the Elimination of Chance. We afford an example of it when we repeat an experiment, in order, by taking the mean of different results, to get rid of the effects of the unavoidable errors of each individual experiment. When there is no permanent cause, such as would produce a tendency to error peculiarly in one direction, we are warranted by experience in assuming that the errors on one side will, in a certain number of experiments, about balance the errors on the contrary side. We therefore repeat the experiment, until any change which is produced in the average of the whole by further repetition, falls within limits of error consistent with the degree of accuracy required by the purpose we have in view. P174F175 P 4. In the supposition hitherto made, the effect of the constant cause A has been assumed to form so great and conspicuous a part of the general result, that its existence never could be a matter of uncertainty, and the object of the eliminating process was only to ascertain how much is attributable to that cause; what is its exact law. Cases, however, occur in which the effect of a constant cause is so small, compared with that of some of the changeable causes with which it is liable to be casually conjoined, that of itself it escapes notice, and the very existence of any effect arising from a constant cause is first learned by the process which in general serves only for ascertaining the quantity of that effect. This case of induction may be characterized as follows: A given effect is known to be chiefly, and not known not to be wholly, determined by changeable causes. If it be wholly so produced, then if the aggregate be taken of a sufficient number of instances, the effects of these different causes will cancel one another. If, therefore, we do not find this to be the case, but, on the contrary, after such a number of trials has been made that no further increase alters the average result, we find that average to be, not zero, but some other quantity, about which, though small in comparison with the total effect, the effect nevertheless oscillates, and which is the middle point in its oscillation; we may conclude this to be the effect of some constant cause; which cause, by some of t he methods already treated of, we may hope to detect. This may be called the discovery of a residual phenomenon by eliminating the effects of chance . It is in this manner, for example, that loaded dice may be discovered. Of course no dice are so clumsily loaded that they must always throw certain numbers; otherwise the fraud would be instantly detected. The loading, a constant cause, mingles with the changeable causes which determine what cast will be thrown in each individual instance. If the dice were not loaded, and the throw were left to depend entirely on the changeable causes, these in a sufficient number of instances would balance one another, and there would be no preponderant number 175 In the preceding discussion, the mean is spoken of as if it were exactly the same thing with the average . But the mean, for purposes of inductive inquiry, is not the average, or arithmetical mean, though in a familiar illustration of the theory the difference may be disregarded. If the deviations on one side of the average are much more numerous than those on the other (these last being fewer but greater), the effect due to the invariable cause, as distinct from the var iable ones, will not coincide with the average, but will be either below or above the average, the deviation being toward the side on which the greatest number of the instances are found. This follows from a truth, ascertained both inductively and deductively, that small deviations from the true central point are greatly more frequent than large ones. The mathematical law is, that the most probable determination of one or more invariable elements from observation is that in which the sum of the squares of the individual aberrations, or deviations, shall be the least possible . See this principle stated, and its grounds popularly explained, by Sir John Herschel, in his review of Quetelet on Probabilities, Essays , p. 395 et seq. 337 of throws of any one kind. If, therefore, after such a number of tr ials that no further increase of their number has any material effect upon the average, we find a preponderance in favor of a particular throw; we may conclude with assurance that there is some constant cause acting in favor of that throw, or, in other words, that the dice are not fair; and the exact amount of the unfairness. In a similar manner, what is called the diurnal variation of the barometer, which is very small compared with the variations arising from the irregular changes in the state of the atmo sphere, was discovered by comparing the average height of the barometer at different hours of the day. When this comparison was made, it was found that there was a small difference, which on the average was constant, however the absolute quantities might vary, and which difference, therefore, must be the effect of a constant cause. This cause was afterward ascertained, deductively, to be the rarefaction of the air, occasioned by the increase of temperature as the day advances. 5. After these general remarks on the nature of chance, we are prepared to consider in what manner assurance may be obtained that a conjunction between two phenomena, which has been observed a certain number of times, is not casual, but a result of causation, and to be received, therefore, as one of the uniformities of nature, though (until accounted for a priori ) only as an empirical law. We will suppose the strongest case, namely, that the phenomenon B has never been observed except in conjunction with A. Even then, the probability that they are connected is not measured by the total number of instances in which they have been found together, but by the excess of that number above the number due to the absolutely frequency of A. If, for example, A exists always, and ther efore co -exists with every thing, no number of instances of its co -existence with B would prove a connection; as in our example of the fixed stars. If A be a fact of such common occurrence that it may be presumed to be present in half of all the cases that occur, and therefore in half the cases in which B occurs, it is only the proportional excess above half that is to be reckoned as evidence toward proving a connection between A and B. In addition to the question, What is the number of coincidences which, on an average of a great multitude of trials, may be expected to arise from chance alone? there is also another question, namely, Of what extent of deviation from that average is the occurrence credible, from chance alone, in some number of instances smaller than that required for striking a fair average? It is not only to be considered what is the general result of the chances in the long run, but also what are the extreme limits of variation from the general result, which may occasionally be expected as the result of some smaller number of instances. The consideration of the latter question, and any consideration of the former beyond that already given to it, belong to what mathematicians term the doctrine of chances, or, in a phrase of greater pretension, the Theory of Probabilities. 338 XVIII . Of The Calculation Of Chances 1. Probability, says Laplace, P175F176 P has reference partly to our ignorance, partly to our knowledge. We know that among three or more events, one, and only one, must happen; but there is nothing leading us to believe that any one of them will happen rather than the others. In this state of indecision, it is impossible for us to pronounce with certainty on their occurrence. It is, however, probable that any one of these events, selected at pleasure, will not take place; because we perceive several cases, all equally possible, which exclude its occurrence, and only one which favors it. The theory of chances consists in reducing all events of the same kind to a certain number of cases equally possible, that is, such that we are equally undecided as to their existence; and in determining the number of these cases which are favorable to the event of which the probability is sought. The ratio of that number to the number of all the possible cases is the measure of the probability; which is thus a fraction, having for its numerator the number of cases favorable to the event, and for its denominator the number of all the cases which are possible. To a calculation of chances, then, according to Laplace, two things are necessary; we must know that of several events some one will certainly happen, and no more than one; and we must not know, nor have any reason to expect, that it will be one of these events rather than another. I t has been contended that these are not the only requisites, and that Laplace has overlooked, in the general theoretical statement, a necessary part of the foundation of the doctrine of chances. To be able (it has been said) to pronounce two events equally probable, it is not enough that we should know that one or the other must happen, and should have no grounds for conjecturing which. Experience must have shown that the two events are of equally frequent occurrence. Why, in tossing up a half-penny, do we reckon it equally probable that we shall throw cross or pile? Because we know that in any great number of throws, cross and pile are thrown about equally often; and that the more throws we make, the more nearly the equality is perfect. We may know this if we please by actual experiment, or by the daily experience which life affords of events of the same general character, or, deductively, from the effect of mechanical laws on a symmetrical body acted upon by forces varying indefinitely in quantity and direction. We may know it, in short, either by specific experience, or on the evidence of our general knowledge of nature. But, in one way or the other, we must know it, to justify us in calling the two events equally probable; and if we knew it not, we should proceed as much at hap -hazard in staking equal sums on the result, as in laying odds. This view of the subject was taken in the first edition of the present work; but I have since become convinced that the theory of chances, as conceived by Laplace and by mathematicians generally, has not the fundamental fallacy which I had ascribed to it. We must remember that the probability of an event is not a quality of the event itself, but a mere name for the degree of ground which we, or some one else, have for expecting it. The probability of an event to one person is a different thing from the probability of the same event to another, or to the same person after he has acquired additional evidence. The probability to me, that an individual of whom I know nothing but his name will die within the year, is totally altered by my being told the next minute that he is in the last stage of a consumption. Yet this makes no difference in the event itself, nor in any of the causes on 176 Essai Philosophique sur le s Probabilits , fifth Paris edition, p. 7. 339 which it depends. Every event is in itself certain, not probable; if we knew all, we should either know positively that it will happen, or positively that it will not. But its probability to us means the degree of expectation of its occurrence, which we are warranted in entertaining by our present evidence. Bearing this in mind, I think it must be admitted, that even when we have no knowledge whatever to guide our expectations, except the knowledge that what happens must be some one of a certain number of possibilities, we may still reasonably judge, that one supposition is more probable to us than another supposition; and if we have any interest at stake, we shall best provide for it by acting conformably to that judgment. 2. Suppose that we are required to take a ball from a box, of which we only know that it contains balls both black and white, and none of any other color. We know that the ball we select will be either a black or a white ball; but we have no ground for expecting black rather than white, or white rather than black. In that case, if we are obliged to make a choice, and to stake something on one or the other supposition, it will, as a question of prudence, be perfectly indifferent which; and we shall act precisely as we should have acted if we had known beforehand that the box contained an equal number of black and white balls. But though our conduct would be the same, it would not be founded on any surmise that the balls were in fact thus equally divided; for we might, on the contrary, know by authentic information th at the box contained ninety-nine balls of one color, and only one of the other; still, if we are not told which color has only one, and which has ninety-nine, the drawing of a white and of a black ball will be equally probable to us. We shall have no reason for staking any thing on the one event rather than on the other; the option between the two will be a matter of indifference; in other words, it will be an even chance. But let it now be supposed that instead of two there are three colorswhite, black, and red; and that we are entirely ignorant of the proportion in which they are mingled. We should then have no reason for expecting one more than another, and if obliged to bet, should venture our stake on red, white, or black with equal indifference. But should we be indifferent whether we betted for or against some one color, as, for instance, white? Surely not. From the very fact that black and red are each of them separately equally probable to us with white, the two together must be twice as probable. We should in this case expect not white rather than white, and so much rather that we would lay two to one upon it. It is true, there might, for aught we knew, be more white balls than black and red together; and if so, our bet would, if we knew more, be seen to be a disadvantageous one. But so also, for aught we knew, might there be more red balls than black and white, or more black balls than white and red, and in such case the effect of additional knowledge would be to prove to us that our bet was more advantageous than we had supposed it to be. There is in the existing state of our knowledge a rational probability of two to one against white; a probability fit to be made a basis of conduct. No reasonable person would lay an even wager in favor of white against black and red; though against black alone or red alone he might do so without imprudence. The common theory, therefore, of the calculation of chances, appears to be tenable. Even when we know nothing except the number of the possible and mutually excluding contingencies, and are entirely ignorant of their comparative frequency, we may have grounds, and grounds numerically appreciable, for acting on one supposition rather than on another; and this is the meaning of Probability. 3. The principle, however, on which the reasoning proceeds, is sufficiently evident. It is the obvious one that when the cases which exist are shared among several kinds, it is impossible that each of those kinds should be a majority of the whole: on the contrary, there must be a majority against each kind, except one at most; and if any kind has more than its share in 340 proportion to the total number, the others collectively must have less. Granting this axiom, and assuming that we have no ground for selecting any one kind as mor e likely than the rest to surpass the average proportion, it follows that we can not rationally presume this of any, which we should do if we were to bet in favor of it, receiving less odds than in the ratio of the number of the other kinds. Even, therefor e, in this extreme case of the calculation of probabilities, which does not rest on special experience at all, the logical ground of the process is our knowledgesuch knowledge as we then haveof the laws governing the frequency of occurrence of the differ ent cases; but in this case the knowledge is limited to that which, being universal and axiomatic, does not require reference to specific experience, or to any considerations arising out of the special nature of the problem under discussion. Except, however, in such cases as games of chance, where the very purpose in view requires ignorance instead of knowledge, I can conceive no case in which we ought to be satisfied with such an estimate of chances as this an estimate founded on the absolute minimum of knowledge respecting the subject. It is plain that, in the case of the colored balls, a very slight ground of surmise that the white balls were really more numerous than either of the other colors, would suffice to vitiate the whole of the calculations made in our previous state of indifference. It would place us in that position of more advanced knowledge, in which the probabilities, to us, would be different from what they were before; and in estimating these new probabilities we should have to proceed on a totally different set of data, furnished no longer by mere counting of possible suppositions, but by specific knowledge of facts. Such data it should always be our endeavor to obtain; and in all inquiries, unless on subjects equally beyond the range of our means of knowledge and our practical uses, they may be obtained, if not good, at least better than none at all. P176F177 P It is obvious, too, that even when the probabilities are derived from observation and experiment, a very slight improvement in the data, by better observations, or by taking into fuller consideration the special circumstances of the case, is of more use than the most elaborate application of the calculus to probabilities founded on the data in their previous state of inferiority. The neglect of this obvious reflection has given rise to misapplications of the calculus of probabilities which have made it the real opprobrium of mathematics. It is sufficient to refer to the applications made of it to the credibility of witnesses, and to the correc tness of the verdicts of juries. In regard to the first, common sense would dictate that it is impossible to strike a general average of the veracity and other qualifications for true testimony of mankind, or of any class of them; and even if it were possible, the employment of it for such a purpose implies a misapprehension of the use of averages, which serve, indeed, to protect those whose interest is at stake, against mistaking the general result of large masses of instances, but are of extremely small v alue as grounds of expectation in any one individual instance, unless the case be one of those in which the great majority of individual instances do not differ much from the average. In the case of a witness, persons of common 177 It even appears to me that the calculation of chances, where there are no data grounded either on special experience or on special inference, must, in an immense majority of cases, break down, from sheer impossi bility of assigning any principle by which to be guided in setting out the list of possibilities. In the case of the colored balls we have no difficulty in making the enumeration, because we ourselves determine what the possibilities shall be. But suppose a case more analogous to those which occur in nature: instead of three colors, let there be in the box all possible colors, we being supposed ignorant of the comparative frequency with which different colors occur in nature, or in the productions of art. H ow is the list of cases to be made out? Is every distinct shade to count as a color? If so, is the test to be a common eye, or an educated eye a painter's, for instance? On the answer to these questions would depend whether the chances against some particular color would be estimated at ten, twenty, or perhaps five hundred to one. While if we knew from experience that the particular color occurs on an average a certain number of times in every hundred or thousand, we should not require to know any thing either of the frequency or of the number of the other possibilities. 341 sense would draw their conclusions from the degree of consistency of his statements, his conduct under cross- examination, and the relation of the case itself to his interests, his partialities, and his mental capacity, instead of applying so rude a standard (even if it were capable o f being verified) as the ratio between the number of true and the number of erroneous statements which he may be supposed to make in the course of his life. Again, on the subject of juries or other tribunals, some mathematicians have set out from the proposition that the judgment of any one judge or juryman is, at least in some small degree, more likely to be right than wrong, and have concluded that the chance of a number of persons concurring in a wrong verdict is diminished the more the number is increased; so that if the judges are only made sufficiently numerous, the correctness of the judgment may be reduced almost to certainty. I say nothing of the disregard shown to the effect produced on the moral position of the judges by multiplying their numbers, the virtual destruction of their individual responsibility, and weakening of the application of their minds to the subject. I remark only the fallacy of reasoning from a wide average to cases necessarily differing greatly from any average. It may be true that, taking all causes one with another, the opinion of any one of the judges would be oftener right than wrong; but the argument forgets that in all but the more simple cases, in all cases in which it is really of much consequence what the tribunal is, the proposition might probably be reversed; besides which, the cause of error, whether arising from the intricacy of the case or from some common prejudice or mental infirmity, if it acted upon one judge, would be extremely likely to affect all the others in the same manner, or at least a majority, and thus render a wrong instead of a right decision more probable the more the number was increased. These are but samples of the errors frequently committed by men who, having made themselves familiar with the difficult formul which algebra affords for the estimation of chances under suppositions of a complex character, like better to employ those formul in computing what are the probabilities to a person half informed about a case than to look out for means of being better informed. Before applying the doctrine of chances to any scientific purpose, the foundation must be laid for an evaluation of the chances, by possessing ourselves of the utmost attainable amount of positive knowledge. The knowledge required is that of the comparative frequency with which the different events in fact occur. For the purposes, therefore, of the present work, it is allowable to suppose that conclusions respecting the probability of a fact of a particular kind rest on our knowledge of the proportion between the cases in which facts of that kind occur, and those in which they do not occur; this knowledge being either derived from specific experiment, or deduced from our knowledge of the causes in operation which tend to produce, compared with those which tend to prevent, the fact in question. Such calculation of chances is grounded on an induction; and to render the calculation legitimate, the induction must be a valid one. It is not less an induction, though it does not prove that the event occurs in all cases of a given description, but only that out of a given number of such cases it occurs in about so many. The fraction which mathematicians use to designate the probability of an event is the ratio of these two numbers; the ascertained proportion between the number of cases in which the event occurs and the sum of all the cases, those in which it occurs and in which it does not occur, taken together. In playing at cross and pile, the description of cases concerned are throws, and the probability of cross is one-half, because if we throw often enough cross is thrown about once in every two throws. In the cast of a die, the probability of ace is one-sixth; not simply because there are six possible throws, of which ace is one, and because we do not know any reason why one should turn up rather than anotherthough I have admitted the validity of this ground in default of a better but because we do actually know, either by reasoning or by experience, 342 that in a hundred or a million of throws ace is thrown in about one-sixth of that number, or once in six times. 4. I say, either by reasoning or by experience, meaning specific experience. But in estimating probabilities, it is not a matter of indifference from which of these two sources we derive our assurance. The probability of events, as calculated from their mere frequency in past experience, affords a less secure basis for practical guidance than their probability as deduced from an equally accurate knowledge of the frequency of occurrence of their causes. The generalization that an event occurs in ten out of every hundred cases of a given description, is as real an induction as if the generalization were that it occurs in all cases. But when we arrive at the conclusion by merely counting instances in actual experience, and comparing the number of cases in which A has been present with the number in which it has been absent, the evidence is only that of the Method of Agreement, and the conclusion amounts only to an empirical law. We can make a step beyond this when we can ascend to the causes on which the occurrence of A or its non-occurrence will depend, and form an estimate of the comparative frequency of the causes favorable and of those unfavorable to the occurrence. These are data of a higher order, by which the empirical law derived from a mere numerical comparison of affirmative and negative instances will be either corrected or confirmed, and in either case we shall obtain a more correct measure of probability than is given by that numerical comparison. It has been well remarked that in the kind of examples by which the doctrine of chances is usually illustrated, that of balls in a box, the estimate of probabilities is supported by reasons of causation, stronger than specific experience. What is the reason that in a box where there are nine black balls and one white, we expect to draw a black ball nine times as much (in other words, nine times as often, frequency being the gauge of intensity in expectation) as a white? Obviously because the local conditions are nine times as favorable; because the hand may alight in nine places and get a black ball, while it can only alight in one place and find a white ball; just for the same reason that we do not expect to succeed in finding a friend in a crowd, the conditions in order that we and he should come together being many and difficult. This of course would not hold to the same extent were the white balls of smaller size than the black, neither would the probability remain the same; the larger ball would be much more likely to meet the hand. P177F178 P It is, in fact, evident that when once causation is admitted as a universal law, our expectation of events can only be rationally grounded on that law. To a person who recognizes that every event depends on causes, a thing's having happened once is a reason for expecting it to happen again, only because proving that there exists, or is liable to exist, a cause adequate to produce it. P178F179 P The frequency of the particular event, apart from all surmise r especting its 178 Prospective Review for February, 1850. 179 If this be not so, why do we feel so much more probability added by the first instance than by any single subsequent instance? Why, except that the first instance gives us its possibility (a cause adequate to it), while every other only gives us the frequency of its conditions? If no reference to a cause be supposed, possibility would have no meaning; yet it is clear that, antecedent to its h appening, we might have supposed the event impossible, i.e., have believed that there was no physical energy really existing in the world equal to producing it.... After the first time of happening, which is, then, more important to the whole probability than any other single instance (because proving the possibility), the number of times becomes important as an index to the intensity or extent of the cause, and its independence of any particular time. If we took the case of a tremendous leap, for instance, and wished to form an estimate of the probability of its succeeding a certain number of times; the first instance, by showing its possibility (before doubtful) is of the most importance; but every succeeding leap shows the power to be more perfectly under control, greater and more invariable, and so increases the probability; and no one would think of reasoning in this case straight from one instance to the next, without referring to the physical energy which each leap indicated. Is it not, then, clear that we do not ever (let us rather say, that we do not in an advanced state of our knowledge) conclude directly from the happening of an event to 343 cause, can give rise to no other induction than that per enumerationem simplicem ; and the precarious inferences derived from this are superseded, and disappear from the field as soon as the principle of causation makes its appearance there. Notwithstanding, however, the abstract superiority of an estimate of probability grounded on causes, it is a fact that in almost all cases in which chances admit of estimation sufficiently precise to render their numerical appreciation of any practical value, the numerical data are not drawn from knowledge of the causes, but from experience of the events themselves. The probabilities of life at different ages or in different climates; the probabilities of recovery from a particular disease; the chances of th e birth of male or female offspring; the chances of the destruction of houses or other property by fire; the chances of the loss of a ship in a particular voyage, are deduced from bills of mortality, returns from hospitals, registers of births, of shipwrecks, etc., that is, from the observed frequency not of the causes, but of the effects. The reason is, that in all these classes of facts the causes are either not amenable to direct observation at all, or not with the requisite precision, and we have no means of judging of their frequency except from the empirical law afforded by the frequency of the effects. The inference does not the less depend on causation alone. We reason from an effect to a similar effect by passing through the cause. If the actuary of an insurance office infers from his tables that among a hundred persons now living of a particular age, five on the average will attain the age of seventy, his inference is legitimate, not for the simple reason that this is the proportion who have lived till seventy in times past, but because the fact of their having so lived shows that this is the proportion existing, at that place and time, between the causes which prolong life to the age of seventy and those tending to bring it to an earlier close. P179F180 P 5. From the preceding principles it is easy to deduce the demonstration of that theorem of the doctrine of probabilities which is the foundation of its application to inquiries for ascertaining the occurrence of a given event, or the reality of an individual fact. The signs or evidences by which a fact is usually proved are some of its consequences; and the inquiry hinges upon determining what cause is most likely to have produced a given effect. The theorem applicable to such investigations is the Sixth P rinciple in Laplace's Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilits , which is described by him as the fundamental principle of that branch of the Analysis of Chances which consists in ascending from events to their causes. P180F181 P Given an effect to be accounted for, and there being several causes which might have produced it, but of the presence of which in the particular case nothing is known; the probability that the effect was produced by any one of these causes is as the antecedent the probability of its happening again; but that we refer to the cause, regarding the past cases as an index to the cause, and the cause as our guide to the future? Ibid. 180 The writer last quoted says that the valuation of chances by comparing the number of cases in which the event occurs with the number in which it does not occur, would generally be wholly erroneous, and is not the true theory of probability. It is at least that which forms the foundation of insurance, and of all those calculations of chances in the business of life which experience so abundantly verifies. The reason which the reviewer gives f or rejecting the theory is, that it would regard an event as certain which had hitherto never failed; which is exceedingly far from the truth, even for a very large number of constant successes. This is not a defect in a particular theory, but in any theory of chances. No principle of evaluation can provide for such a case as that which the reviewer supposes. If an event has never once failed, in a number of trials sufficient to eliminate chance, it really has all the certainty which can be given by an em pirical law; it is certain during the continuance of the same collocation of causes which existed during the observations. If it ever fails, it is in consequence of some change in that collocation. Now, no theory of chances will enable us to infer the futu re probability of an event from the past, if the causes in operation, capable of influencing the event, have intermediately undergone a change. 181 Pp. 18, 19. The theorem is not stated by Laplace in the exact terms in which I have stated it; but the identit y of import of the two modes of expression is easily demonstrable. 344 probability of the cause, multiplied by the probability that the cause, if it existed, would have produced the given effect . Let M be the effect, and A, B, two causes, by either of which it might have been produced. To find the probability that it was produced by the one and not by the other, ascertain which of the two is most likely to have existed, and which of them, if it did exist, was most likely to produce the effect M: the probability sought is a compound of these two probabilities. Case I. Let the causes be both alike in t he second respect: either A or B, when it exists, being supposed equally likely (or equally certain) to produce M; but let A be in itself twice as likely as B to exist, that is, twice as frequent a phenomenon. Then it is twice as likely to have existed in this case, and to have been the cause which produced M. For, since A exists in nature twice as often as B, in any 300 cases in which one or other existed, A has existed 200 times and B 100. But either A or B must have existed wherever M is produced; therefore, in 300 times that M is produced, A was the producing cause 200 times, B only 100, that is, in the ratio of 2 to 1. Thus, then, if the causes are alike in their capacity of producing the effect, the probability as to which actually produced it is in the ratio of their antecedent probabilities. Case II. Reversing the last hypothesis, let us suppose that the causes are equally frequent, equally likely to have existed, but not equally likely, if they did exist, to produce M; that in three times in which A occurs, it produces that effect twice, while B, in three times, produces it only once. Since the two causes are equally frequent in their occurrence; in every six times that either one or the other exists, A exists three times and B three times. A, of its three times, produces M in two; B, of its three times, produces M in one. Thus, in the whole six times, M is only produced thrice; but of that thrice it is produced twice by A, once only by B. Consequently, when the antecedent probabilities of the causes a re equal, the chances that the effect was produced by them are in the ratio of the probabilities that if they did exist they would produce the effect. Case III. The third case, that in which the causes are unlike in both respects, is solved by what has preceded. For, when a quantity depends on two other quantities, in such a manner that while either of them remains constant it is proportional to the other, it must necessarily be proportional to the product of the two quantities, the product being the only function of the two which obeys that law of variation. Therefore, the probability that M was produced by either cause, is as the antecedent probability of the cause, multiplied by the probability that if it existed it would produce M. Which was to be demons trated. Or we may prove the third case as we proved the first and second. Let A be twice as frequent as B, and let them also be unequally likely, when they exist, to produce M; let A produce it twice in four times, B thrice in four times. The antecedent pr obability of A is to that of B as 2 to 1; the probabilities of their producing M are as 2 to 3; the product of these ratios is the ratio of 4 to 3; and this will be the ratio of the probabilities that A or B was the producing cause in the given instance. For, since A is twice as frequent as B, out of twelve cases in which one or other exists, A exists in 8 and B in 4. But of its eight cases, A, by the supposition, produces M in only 4, while B of its four cases produces M in 3. M, therefore, is only produce d at all in seven of the twelve cases; but in four of these it is produced by A, in three by B; hence the probabilities of its being produced by A and by B are as 4 to 3, and are expressed by the fractions 4/7 and 3/7. Which was to be demonstrated. 6. It remains to examine the bearing of the doctrine of chances on the peculiar problem which occupied us in the preceding chapter, namely, how to distinguish coincidences which 345 are casual from those which are the result of law; from those in which the facts which accompany or follow one another are somehow connected through causation. The doctrine of chances affords means by which, if we knew the average number of coincidences to be looked for between two phenomena connected only casually, we could determine ho w often any given deviation from that average will occur by chance. If the probability of any casual coincidence, considered in itself, be 1/ m, the probability that the same coincidence will be repeated n times in succession is 1/m Pn P. For example, in one throw of a die the probability of ace being 1/6; the probability of throwing ace twice in succession will be 1 divided by the square of 6, or 1/36. For ace is thrown at the first throw once in six, or six in thirty -six times, and of those six, the die being cast again, ace will be thrown but once; being altogether once in thirty- six times. The chance of the same cast three times successively is, by a similar reasoning, 1/6 P3 P or 1/216; that is, the event will happen, on a large average, only once in two hundred and sixteen throws. We have thus a rule by which to estimate the probability that any given series of coincidences arises from chance, provided we can measure correctly the probability of a single coincidence. If we can obtain an equally precise expression for the probability that the same series of coincidences arises from causation, we should only have to compare the numbers. This, however, can rarely be done. Let us see what degree of approximation can practically be made to the necessary precision. The question falls within Laplace's sixth principle, just demonstrated. The given fact, that is to say, the series of coincidences, may have originated either in a casual conjunction of causes or in a law of nature. The probabilities, therefore, that the fact originated in these two modes, are as their antecedent probabilities, multiplied by the probabilities that if they existed they would produce the effect. But the particular combination of chances, if it occurred, or the law of nature if real, would certai nly produce the series of coincidences. The probabilities, therefore, that the coincidences are produced by the two causes in question are as the antecedent probabilities of the causes. One of these, the antecedent probability of the combination of mere chances which would produce the given result, is an appreciable quantity. The antecedent probability of the other supposition may be susceptible of a more or less exact estimation, according to the nature of the case. In some cases, the coincidence, supposing it to be the result of causation at all, must be the result of a known cause; as the succession of aces, if not accidental, must arise from the loading of the die. In such cases we may be able to form a conjecture as to the antecedent probability of such a circumstance from the characters of the parties concerned, or other such evidence; but it would be impossible to estimate that probability with any thing like numerical precision. The counter-probability, however, that of the accidental origin of the coincidence, dwindling so rapidly as it does at each new trial, the stage is soon reached at which the chance of unfairness in the die, however small in itself, must be greater than that of a casual coincidence; and on this ground, a practical decision can g enerally be come to without much hesitation, if there be the power of repeating the experiment. When, however, the coincidence is one which can not be accounted for by any known cause, and the connection between the two phenomena, if produced by causation, must be the result of some law of nature hitherto unknown; which is the case we had in view in the last chapter; then, though the probability of a casual coincidence may be capable of appreciation, that of the counter-supposition, the existence of an undi scovered law of nature, is clearly unsusceptible of even an approximate valuation. In order to have the data which such a case would require, it would be necessary to know what proportion of all the individual sequences or co -existences occurring in nature are the result of law, and what proportion are mere casual 346 coincidences. It being evident that we can not form any plausible conjecture as to this proportion, much less appreciate it numerically, we can not attempt any precise estimation of the comparitiv e probabilities. But of this we are sure, that the detection of an unknown law of natureof some previously unrecognized constancy of conjunction among phenomenais no uncommon event. If, therefore, the number of instances in which a coincidence is observed, over and above that which would arise on the average from the mere concurrence of chances, be such that so great an amount of coincidences from accident alone would be an extremely uncommon event; we have reason to conclude that the coincidence is the effect of causation, and may be received (subject to correction from further experience) as an empirical law. Further than this, in point of precision, we can not go; nor, in most cases, is greater precision required, for the solution of any practical doubt. P181F182 P 182 For a fuller treatment of the many interesting questions raised by the theory of probabilities, I may now refer to a recent work by Mr. Venn, Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, The Logic of Chance; one of the most thoughtful and philosophical treatises on any subject connected with Logic and Evidence which have been produced, to my knowledge, for many years. Some criticisms contained in it have been very useful to me in revising the corresponding chapters of the present work. In several of Mr. Venn's opinions, however, I do not agree. What these are will be obvious to any reader of Mr. Venn's work who is also a reader of this. 347 XIX. Of The Extension Of Derivative Laws To Adjacent Cases 1. We have had frequent occasion to notice the inferior generality of derivative laws, compared with the ultimate laws from which they are derived. This inferiori ty, which affects not only the extent of the propositions themselves, but their degree of certainty within that extent, is most conspicuous in the uniformities of co-existence and sequence obtaining between effects which depend ultimately on different prim eval causes. Such uniformities will only obtain where there exists the same collocation of those primeval causes. If the collocation varies, though the laws themselves remain the same, a totally different set of derivative uniformities may, and generally w ill, be the result. Even where the derivative uniformity is between different effects of the same cause, it will by no means obtain as universally as the law of the cause itself. If a and b accompany or succeed one another as effects of the cause A, it by no means follows that A is the only cause which can produce them, or that if there be another cause, as B, capable of producing a, it must produce b likewise. The conjunction, therefore, of a and b perhaps does not hold universally, but only in the instances in which a arises from A. When it is produced by a cause other than A, a and b may be dissevered. Day (for example) is always in our experience followed by night; but day is not the cause of night; both are successive effects of a common cause, t he periodical passage of the spectator into and out of the earth's shadow, consequent on the earth's rotation, and on the illuminating property of the sun. If, therefore, day is ever produced by a different cause or set of causes from this, day will not, or at least may not, be followed by night. On the sun's own surface, for instance, this may be the case. Finally, even when the derivative uniformity is itself a law of causation (resulting from the combination of several causes), it is not altogether independent of collocations. If a cause supervenes, capable of wholly or partially counteracting the effect of any one of the conjoined causes, the effect will no longer conform to the derivative law. While, therefore, each ultimate law is only liable to frustration from one set of counteracting causes, the derivative law is liable to it from several. Now, the possibility of the occurrence of counteracting causes which do not arise from any of the conditions involved in the law itself depends on the original collocations. It is true that, as we formerly remarked, laws of causation, whether ultimate or derivative, are, in most cases, fulfilled even when counteracted; the cause produces its effect, though that effect is destroyed by something else. That the effect may be frustrated, is, therefore, no objection to the universality of laws of causation. But it is fatal to the universality of the sequences or co -existences of effects, which compose the greater part of the derivative laws flowing from laws of causation. When, from the law of a certain combination of causes, there results a certain order in the effects; as from the combination of a single sun with the rotation of an opaque body round its axis, there results, on the whole surface of that opaque body, an alternation of day and night; then, if we suppose one of the combined causes counteracted, the rotation stopped, the sun extinguished, or a second sun superadded, the truth of that particular law of causation is in no way affected; it is still true that one sun shining on an opaque revolving body will alternately produce day and night; but since the sun no longer does shine on such a body, the derivative uniformity, the succession of day and night on the given planet, is no longer true. Those derivative uniformities, therefore, which are not laws of causation, are (except in the rare case of their depending on one cause alone, not on a 348 combination of causes) always more or less contingent on collocations; and are hence subject to the characteri stic infirmity of empirical laws that of being admissible only where the collocations are known by experience to be such as are requisite for the truth of the law; that is, only within the conditions of time and place confirmed by actual observation. 2. This principle, when stated in general terms, seems clear and indisputable; yet many of the ordinary judgments of mankind, the propriety of which is not questioned, have at least the semblance of being inconsistent with it. On what grounds, it may be asked, do we expect that the sun will rise to -morrow? To -morrow is beyond the limits of time comprehended in our observations. They have extended over some thousands of years past, but they do not include the future. Yet we infer with confidence that the sun wi ll rise to -morrow; and nobody doubts that we are entitled to do so. Let us consider what is the warrant for this confidence. In the example in question, we know the causes on which the derivative uniformity depends. They are: the sun giving out light, the earth in a state of rotation and intercepting light. The induction which shows these to be the real causes, and not merely prior effects of a common cause, being complete, the only circumstances which could defeat the derivative law are such as would destroy or counteract one or other of the combined causes. While the causes exist and are not counteracted, the effect will continue. If they exist and are not counteracted to-morrow, the sun will rise to -morrow. Since the causes, namely, the sun and the earth, the one in the state of giving out light, the other in a state of rotation, will exist until something destroys them, all depends on the probabilities of their destruction, or of their counteraction. We know by observation (omitting the inferential proofs of an existence for thousands of ages anterior) that these phenomena have continued for (say) five thousand years. Within that time there has existed no cause sufficient to diminish them appreciably, nor which has counteracted their effect in any appreciable degree. The chance, therefore, that the sun may not rise to-morrow amounts to the chance that some cause, which has not manifested itself in the smallest degree during five thousand years, will exist to-morrow in such intensity as to destroy the sun or the earth, the sun's light or the earth's rotation, or to produce an immense disturbance in the effect resulting from those causes. Now, if such a cause will exist to -morrow, or at any future time, some cause, proximate or remote, of that cause must exist now, and must have existed during the whole of the five thousand years. If, therefore, the sun do not rise to- morrow, it will be because some cause has existed, the effects of which, though during five thousand years they have not amounted to a perceptibl e quantity, will in one day become overwhelming. Since this cause has not been recognized during such an interval of time by observers stationed on our earth, it must, if it be a single agent, be either one whose effects develop themselves gradually and very slowly, or one which existed in regions beyond our observation, and is now on the point of arriving in our part of the universe. Now all causes which we have experience of act according to laws incompatible with the supposition that their effects, after accumulating so slowly as to be imperceptible for five thousand years, should start into immensity in a single day. No mathematical law of proportion between an effect and the quantity or relations of its cause could produce such contradictory results. The sudden development of an effect of which there was no previous trace always arises from the coming together of several distinct causes, not previously conjoined; but if such sudden conjunction is destined to take place, the causes, or their causes, must have existed during the entire five thousand years; and their not having once come together during that period shows how rare that particular combination is. We have, therefore, the warrant of a rigid induction for considering it probable, in a degree 349 undistinguishable from certainty, that the known conditions requisite for the sun's rising will exist to -morrow. 3. But this extension of derivative laws, not causative, beyond the limits of observation can only be to adjacent cases. If, instead of to -morrow, we had said this day twenty thousand years, the inductions would have been any thing but conclusive. That a cause which, in opposition to very powerful causes, produced no perceptible effect during five thousand years, should produce a very considerable one by the end of twenty thousand, has nothing in it which is not in conformity with our experience of causes. We know many agents, the effect of which in a short period does not amount to a perceptible quantity, but by accumulating for a much longer period becomes considerable. Besides, looking at the immense multitude of the heavenly bodies, their vast distances, and the rapidity of the motion of such of them as are known to move, it is a supposition not at all contradictory to experience that some body m ay be in motion toward us, or we toward it, within the limits of whose influence we have not come during five thousand years, but which in twenty thousand more may be producing effects upon us of the most extraordinary kind. Or the fact which is capable of preventing sunrise may be, not the cumulative effect of one cause, but some new combination of causes; and the chances favorable to that combination, though they have not produced it once in five thousand years, may produce it once in twenty thousand. So that the inductions which authorize us to expect future events, grow weaker and weaker the further we look into the future, and at length become inappreciable. We have considered the probabilities of the sun's rising to-morrow, as derived from the real laws; that is, from the laws of the causes on which that uniformity is dependent. Let us now consider how the matter would have stood if the uniformity had been known only as an empirical law; if we had not been aware that the sun's light and the earth's rotation (or the sun's motion) were the causes on which the periodical occurrence of daylight depends. We could have extended this empirical law to cases adjacent in time, though not to so great a distance of time as we can now. Having evidence that the effect s had remained unaltered and been punctually conjoined for five thousand years, we could infer that the unknown causes on which the conjunction is dependent had existed undiminished and uncounteracted during the same period. The same conclusions, therefore, would follow as in the preceding case, except that we should only know that during five thousand years nothing had occurred to defeat perceptibly this particular effect; while, when we know the causes, we have the additional assurance that during that interval no such change has been noticeable in the causes themselves as by any degree of multiplication or length of continuance could defeat the effect. To this must be added, that when we know the causes, we may be able to judge whether there exists any known cause capable of counteracting them, while as long as they are unknown, we can not be sure but that if we did know them, we could predict their destruction from causes actually in existence. A bed -ridden savage, who had never seen the cataract of Niagara, but who lived within hearing of it, might imagine that the sound he heard would endure forever; but if he knew it to be the effect of a rush of waters over a barrier of rock which is progressively wearing away, he would know that within a number of age s which may be calculated it will be heard no more. In proportion, therefore, to our ignorance of the causes on which the empirical law depends, we can be less assured that it will continue to hold good; and the further we look into futurity, the less improbable is it that some one of the causes, whose co -existence gives rise to the derivative uniformity, may be destroyed or counteracted. With every prolongation of time the chances multiply of such an event; that is to say, its non-occurrence hitherto becomes a less guarantee of its not occurring within the given time. If, then, it is only to cases which in point of time are adjacent (or nearly 350 adjacent) to those which we have actually observed, that any derivative law, not of causation, can be extended with an assurance equivalent to certainty, much more is this true of a merely empirical law. Happily, for the purposes of life it is to such cases alone that we can almost ever have occasion to extend them. In respect of place, it might seem that a merely empirical law could not be extended even to adjacent cases; that we could have no assurance of its being true in any place where it has not been specially observed. The past duration of a cause is a guarantee for its future existence, unless something occurs to destroy it; but the existence of a cause in one or any number of places is no guarantee for its existence in any other place, since there is no uniformity in the collocations of primeval causes. When, therefore, an empirical law is extended beyond the local limits within which it has been found true by observation, the cases to which it is thus extended must be such as are presumably within the influence of the same individual agents. If we discover a new planet within the known bounds of the solar system (or even beyond those bounds, but indicating its connection with the system by revolving round the sun), we may conclude, with great probability, that it revolves on its axis. For all the known planets do so; and this uniformity points to some common cause, antecedent to the first records of astronomical observation; and though the nature of this cause can only be matter of conjecture, yet if it be, as is not unlikely, and as Laplace's theory supposes, not merely the same kind of cause, but the same individual cause (such as an impulse given to all the bodies at once), that cause, acting at the extreme points of the space occupied by the sun and planets, is likely, unless defeated by some counteracting cause, to have acted at every intermediate point, and probably somewhat beyond; and therefore acted, in all probability, upon the supposed newly-discovered planet. When, therefore, effects which are always found conjoined can be traced with any probability to an identical (and not merely a similar) origin, we may with the same probability extend the empirical law of their conjunction to all places within the extreme local boundaries within which the fact has been observed, subject to the possibility of counteracting causes in some portion of the field. Still mo re confidently may we do so when the law is not merely empirical; when the phenomena which we find conjoined are effects of ascertained causes, from the laws of which the conjunction of their effects is deducible. In that case, we may both extend the deriv ative uniformity over a larger space, and with less abatement for the chance of counteracting causes. The first, because instead of the local boundaries of our observation of the fact itself, we may include the extreme boundaries of the ascertained influence of its causes. Thus the succession of day and night, we know, holds true of all the bodies of the solar system except the sun itself; but we know this only because we are acquainted with the causes. If we were not, we could not extend the proposition beyond the orbits of the earth and moon, at both extremities of which we have the evidence of observation for its truth. With respect to the probability of counteracting causes, it has been seen that this calls for a greater abatement of confidence, in proportion to our ignorance of the causes on which the phenomena depend. On both accounts, therefore, a derivative law which we know how to resolve, is susceptible of a greater extension to cases adjacent in place, than a merely empirical law. 351 XX. Of Analogy 1. The word Analogy, as the name of a mode of reasoning, is generally taken for some kind of argument supposed to be of an inductive nature, but not amounting to a complete induction. There is no word, however, which is used more loosely, or in a greater variety of senses, than Analogy. It sometimes stands for arguments which may be examples of the most rigorous induction. Archbishop Whately, for instance, following Ferguson and other writers, defines Analogy conf ormably to its primitive acceptation, that which was given to it by mathematicians: Resemblance of Relations. In this sense, when a country which has sent out colonies is termed the mother country, the expression is analogical, signifying that the colonies of a country stand in the same relation to her in which children stand to their parents. And if any inference be drawn from this resemblance of relations, as, for instance, that obedience or affection is due from colonies to the mother country, this is called reasoning by analogy. Or, if it be argued that a nation is most beneficially governed by an assembly elected by the people, from the admitted fact that other associations for a common purpose, such as joint- stock companies, are best managed by a committee chosen by the parties interested; this, too, is an argument from analogy in the preceding sense, because its foundation is, not that a nation is like a joint-stock company, or Parliament like a board of directors, but that Parliament stands in the same relation to the nation in which a board of directors stands to a joint-stock company. Now, in an argument of this nature, there is no inherent inferiority of conclusiveness. Like other arguments from resemblance, it may amount to nothing, or it may be a perfect and conclusive induction. The circumstance in which the two cases resemble, may be capable of being shown to be the material circumstance; to be that on which all the consequences, necessary to be taken into account in the particular discussion, depend. In the example last given, the resemblance is one of relation; the fundamentum relationis being the management, by a few persons, of affairs in which a much greater number are interested along with them. Now, some may contend that this circumstance which is common to the two cases, and the various consequences which follow from it, have the chief share in determining all the effects which make up what we term good or bad administration. If they can establish this, their argument has the force of a rigorous induction; if they can not, they are said to have failed in proving the analogy between the two cases; a mode of speech which implies that when the analogy can be proved, the argument founded on it can not be resisted. 2. It is on the whole more usual, however, to extend the name of analogical evidence to arguments from any sort of resemblance, provided they do not amount to a complete induction; without peculiarly distinguishing resemblance of relations. Analogical reasoning, in this sense, may be reduced to the following formula: Two things resemble each other in one or more respects; a certain proposition is true of the one; therefore it is true of the other. But we have nothing here by which to discriminate analogy from induction, since this type will serve for all reasoning from experience. In the strictest induction, equally with the faintest analogy, we conclude because A resembles B in one or more properties, that it does so in a certain other property. The difference is, that in the case of a complete induction it has been previously shown, by due comparison of instances, that there is an invariable conjunction between the former property or properties and the latter property; but in what is called analogical reasoning, no such conjunction has been made out. There have been no opportunities of putting in practice the Method of Difference, or even the Method of Agreement; but we conclude (and that is all which the argument of analogy amounts to) that a fact m, known to be true of A , is more likely to be true of B if B agrees with A in some of its 352 properties (even though no connection is known to exist between m and those properties), than if no resemblance at all could be traced between B and any other thing known to possess the att ribute m . To this argument it is of course requisite that the properties common to A with B shall be merely not known to be connected with m ; they must not be properties known to be unconnected with it. If, either by processes of elimination, or by deduction from previous knowledge of the laws of the properties in question, it can be concluded that they have nothing to do with m , the argument of analogy is put out of court. The supposition must be that m is an effect really dependent on some property of A, but we know not on which. We can not point out any of the properties of A, which is the cause of m, or united with it by any law. After rejecting all which we know to have nothing to do with it, there remain several between which we are unable to decide; o f which remaining properties, B possesses one or more. This, accordingly, we consider as affording grounds, of more or less strength, for concluding by analogy that B possesses the attribute m . There can be no doubt that every such resemblance which can be pointed out between B and A, affords some degree of probability, beyond what would otherwise exist, in favor of the conclusion drawn from it. If B resembled A in all its ultimate properties, its possessing the attribute m would be a certainty, not a proba bility; and every resemblance which can be shown to exist between them, places it by so much the nearer to that point. If the resemblance be in an ultimate property, there will be resemblance in all the derivative properties dependent on that ultimate property, and of these m may be one. If the resemblance be in a derivative property, there is reason to expect resemblance in the ultimate property on which it depends, and in the other derivative properties dependent on the same ultimate property. Every resem blance which can be shown to exist, affords ground for expecting an indefinite number of other resemblances; the particular resemblance sought will, therefore, be oftener found among things thus known to resemble, than among things between which we know of no resemblance. For example, I might infer that there are probably inhabitants in the moon, because there are inhabitants on the earth, in the sea, and in the air: and this is the evidence of analogy. The circumstance of having inhabitants is here assumed not to be an ultimate property, but (as is reasonable to suppose) a consequence of other properties; and depending, therefore, in the case of the earth, on some of its properties as a portion of the universe, but on which of those properties we know not. Now the moon resembles the earth in being a solid, opaque, nearly spherical substance, appearing to contain, or to have contained, active volcanoes; receiving heat and light from the sun, in about the same quantity as our earth; revolving on its axis; comp osed of materials which gravitate, and obeying all the various laws resulting from that property. And I think no one will deny that if this were all that was known of the moon, the existence of inhabitants in that luminary would derive from these various r esemblances to the earth, a greater degree of probability than it would otherwise have; though the amount of the augmentation it would be useless to attempt to estimate. If, however, every resemblance proved between B and A, in any point not known to be immaterial with respect to m, forms some additional reason for presuming that B has the attribute m; it is clear, contra, that every dissimilarity which can be proved between them furnishes a counter-probability of the same nature on the other side. It is not, indeed, unusual that different ultimate properties should, in some particular instances, produce the same derivative property; but on the whole it is certain that things which differ in their ultimate properties, will differ at least as much in the ag gregate of their derivative properties, and that the differences which are unknown will, on the average of cases, bear some proportion to 353 those which are known. There will, therefore, be a competition between the known points of agreement and the known points of difference in A and B; and according as the one or the other may be deemed to preponderate, the probability derived from analogy will be for or against B's having the property m . The moon, for instance, agrees with the earth in the circumstances alr eady mentioned; but differs in being smaller, in having its surface more unequal, and apparently volcanic throughout, in having, at least on the side next the earth, no atmosphere sufficient to refract light, no clouds, and (it is therefore concluded) no w ater. These differences, considered merely as such, might perhaps balance the resemblances, so that analogy would afford no presumption either way. But considering that some of the circumstances which are wanting on the moon are among those which, on the e arth, are found to be indispensable conditions of animal life, we may conclude that if that phenomenon does exist in the moon (or at all events on the nearer side), it must be as an effect of causes totally different from those on which it depends here; as a consequence, therefore, of the moon's differences from the earth, not of the points of agreement. Viewed in this light, all the resemblances which exist become presumptions against, not in favor of, the moon's being inhabited. Since life can not exist t here in the manner in which it exists here, the greater the resemblance of the lunar world to the terrestrial in other respects, the less reason we have to believe that it can contain life. There are, however, other bodies in our system, between which and the earth there is a much closer resemblance; which possess an atmosphere, clouds, consequently water (or some fluid analogous to it), and even give strong indications of snow in their polar regions; while the cold, or heat, though differing greatly on the average from ours, is, in some parts at least of those planets, possibly not more extreme than in some regions of our own which are habitable. To balance these agreements, the ascertained differences are chiefly in the average light and heat, velocity of rotation, density of material, intensity of gravity, and similar circumstances of a secondary kind. With regard to these planets, therefore, the argument of analogy gives a decided preponderance in favor of their resembling the earth in any of its derivati ve properties, such as that of having inhabitants; though when we consider how immeasurably multitudinous are those of their properties which we are entirely ignorant of, compared with the few which we know, we can attach but trifling weight to any considerations of resemblance in which the known elements bear so inconsiderable a proportion to the unknown. Besides the competition between analogy and diversity, there may be a competition of conflicting analogies. The new case may be similar in some of its circumstances to cases in which the fact m exists, but in others to cases in which it is known not to exist. Amber has some properties in common with vegetable, others with mineral products. A painting of unknown origin may resemble, in certain of its characters, known works of a particular master, but in others it may as strikingly resemble those of some other painter. A vase may bear some analogy to works of Grecian, and some to those of Etruscan, or Egyptian art. We are of course supposing that it does not possess any quality which has been ascertained, by a sufficient induction, to be a conclusive mark either of the one or of the other. 3. Since the value of an analogical argument inferring one resemblance from other resemblances without any antecedent evidence of a connection between them, depends on the extent of ascertained resemblance, compared first with the amount of ascertained difference, and next with the extent of the unexplored region of unascertained properties; it follows that where the resemblance is very great, the ascertained difference very small, and our knowledge of the subject-matter tolerably extensive, the argument from analogy may approach in strength very near to a valid induction. If, after much observation of B, we find that it ag rees with A in nine out of ten of its known properties, we may conclude with a 354 probability of nine to one, that it will possess any given derivative property of A. If we discover, for example, an unknown animal or plant, resembling closely some known one in the greater number of the properties we observe in it, but differing in some few, we may reasonably expect to find in the unobserved remainder of its properties, a general agreement with those of the former; but also a difference corresponding proportionately to the amount of observed diversity. It thus appears that the conclusions derived from analogy are only of any considerable value, when the case to which we reason is an adjacent case; adjacent, not as before, in place or time, but in circumstances. In the case of effects of which the causes are imperfectly or not at all known, when consequently the observed order of their occurrence amounts only to an empirical law, it often happens that the conditions which have co- existed whenever the effect was observed, have been very numerous. Now if a new case presents itself, in which all these conditions do not exist, but the far greater part of them do, some one or a few only being wanting, the inference that the effect will occur, notwithstanding this deficiency of complete resemblance to the cases in which it has been observed, may, though of the nature of analogy, possess a high degree of probability. It is hardly necessary to add that, however considerable this probability may be, no competent inquirer int o nature will rest satisfied with it when a complete induction is attainable; but will consider the analogy as a mere guide-post, pointing out the direction in which more rigorous investigations should be prosecuted. It is in this last respect that conside rations of analogy have the highest scientific value. The cases in which analogical evidence affords in itself any very high degree of probability, are, as we have observed, only those in which the resemblance is very close and extensive; but there is no analogy, however faint, which may not be of the utmost value in suggesting experiments or observations that may lead to more positive conclusions. When the agents and their effects are out of the reach of further observation and experiment, as in the speculations already alluded to respecting the moon and planets, such slight probabilities are no more than an interesting theme for the pleasant exercise of imagination; but any suspicion, however slight, that sets an ingenious person at work to contrive an experiment, or affords a reason for trying one experiment rather than another, may be of the greatest benefit to science. On this ground, though I can not accept as positive truths any of those scientific hypotheses which are unsusceptible of being ultimately brought to the test of actual induction, such, for instance, as the two theories of light, the emission theory of the last century, and the undulatory theory which predominates in the present, I am yet unable to agree with those who consider such hypotheses to be worthy of entire disregard. As is well said by Hartley (and concurred in by a thinker in general so diametrically opposed to Hartley's opinions as Dugald Stewart), any hypothesis which has so much plausibility as to explain a considerable number of facts, helps us to digest these facts in proper order, to bring new ones to light, and make experimenta crucis for the sake of future inquirers. P182F183 P If an hypothesis both explains known facts, and has led to the prediction of others previously unknown, and since verified by experience, the laws of the phenomenon which is the subject of inquiry must bear at least a great similarity to those of the class of phenomena to which the hypothesis assimilates it; and since the analogy which extends so far may probably extend further, nothing is more likely to suggest experiments tending to throw light upon the real properties of the phenomenon, than the following out such an hypothesis. But to this end it is by no means necessary that the hypothesis be mistaken for a scientific truth. On the contrary, that illusion is in this respect, as in every other, an impediment to the progress of real knowledge, by leading inquirers to restrict themselves arbitrarily to the particular hypothesis which is most 183 Hartley's Observations on Man, vol. i., p. 16. The passage is not in Priestley's curtailed edition. 355 accredi ted at the time, instead of looking out for every class of phenomena between the laws of which and those of the given phenomenon any analogy exists, and trying all such experiments as may tend to the discovery of ulterior analogies pointing in the same direction. 356 XXI. Of The Evidence Of The Law Of Universal Causation 1. We have now completed our review of the logical processes by which the laws, or uniformities, of the sequence of phenomena, and those uniformities in their co -existence which depend on the laws of their sequence, are ascertained or tested. As we recognized in the commencement, and have been enabled to see more clearly in the progress of the investigation, the basis of all these logical operations is the law o f causation. The validity of all the Inductive Methods depends on the assumption that every event, or the beginning of every phenomenon, must have some cause; some antecedent, on the existence of which it is invariably and unconditionally consequent. In the Method of Agreement this is obvious; that method avowedly proceeding on the supposition that we have found the true cause as soon as we have negatived every other. The assertion is equally true of the Method of Difference. That method authorizes us to infer a general law from two instances; one, in which A exists together with a multitude of other circumstances, and B follows; another, in which, A being removed, and all other circumstances remaining the same, B is prevented. What, however, does this prove? It proves that B, in the particular instance, can not have had any other cause than A; but to conclude from this that A was the cause, or that A will on other occasions be followed by B, is only allowable on the assumption that B must have some cause; th at among its antecedents in any single instance in which it occurs, there must be one which has the capacity of producing it at other times. This being admitted, it is seen that in the case in question that antecedent can be no other than A; but that if it be no other than A it must be A, is not proved, by these instances at least, but taken for granted. There is no need to spend time in proving that the same thing is true of the other Inductive Methods. The universality of the law of causation is assumed i n them all. But is this assumption warranted? Doubtless (it may be said) most phenomena are connected as effects with some antecedent or cause, that is, are never produced unless some assignable fact has preceded them; but the very circumstance that compli cated processes of induction are sometimes necessary, shows that cases exist in which this regular order of succession is not apparent to our unaided apprehension. If, then, the processes which bring these cases within the same category with the rest, requ ire that we should assume the universality of the very law which they do not at first sight appear to exemplify, is not this a petitio principii? Can we prove a proposition, by an argument which takes it for granted? And if not so proved, on what evidence does it rest? For this difficulty, which I have purposely stated in the strongest terms it will admit of, the school of metaphysicians who have long predominated in this country find a ready salvo. They affirm, that the universality of causation is a truth which we can not help believing; that the belief in it is an instinct, one of the laws of our believing faculty. As the proof of this, they say, and they have nothing else to say, that every body does believe it; and they number it among the propositions, rather numerous in their catalogue, which may be logically argued against, and perhaps can not be logically proved, but which are of higher authority than logic, and so essentially inherent in the human mind, that even he who denies them in speculation, shows by his habitual practice that his arguments make no impression upon himself. Into the merits of this question, considered as one of psychology, it would be foreign to my purpose to enter here; but I must protest against adducing, as evidence of the truth of a fact in external nature, the disposition, however strong or however general, of the human mind to 357 believe it. Belief is not proof, and does not dispense with the necessity of proof. I am aware, that to ask for evidence of a proposition which we are supposed to believe instinctively, is to expose one's self to the charge of rejecting the authority of the human faculties; which of course no one can consistently do, since the human faculties are all which any one has to judge by; and inasmuch as the meaning of the word evidence is supposed to be, something which when laid before the mind, induces it to believe; to demand evidence when the belief is insured by the mind's own laws, is supposed to be appealing to the intellect against the intellect. But this, I apprehend, is a misunderstanding of the nature of evidence. By evidence is not meant any thing and every thing which produces belief. There are many things which generate belief besides evidence. A mere strong association of ideas often causes a belief so intense as to be unshakable by experience or argument. Evidence is not that which the mind does or must yield to, but that which it ought to yield to, namely, that, by yielding to which its belief is kept conformable to fact. There is no appeal from the human faculties generally, but there is an appeal from one human faculty to another; from the judging faculty, to those which take cognizance of fact, the faculties of sense and consciousness. The legitimacy of this appeal is admitted whenever it is a llowed that our judgments ought to be conformable to fact. To say that belief suffices for its own justification is making opinion the test of opinion; it is denying the existence of any outward standard, the conformity of an opinion to which constitutes its truth. We call one mode of forming opinions right and another wrong, because the one does, and the other does not, tend to make the opinion agree with the factto make people believe what really is, and expect what really will be. Now a mere disposition to believe, even if supposed instinctive, is no guarantee for the truth of the thing believed. If, indeed, the belief ever amounted to an irresistible necessity, there would then be no use in appealing from it, because there would be no possibility of altering it. But even then the truth of the belief would not follow; it would only follow that mankind were under a permanent necessity of believing what might possibly not be true; in other words, that a case might occur in which our senses or consciousness, if they could be appealed to, might testify one thing, and our reason believe another. But in fact there is no such permanent necessity. There is no proposition of which it can be asserted that every human mind must eternally and irrevocably believe it. Many of the propositions of which this is most confidently stated, great numbers of human beings have disbelieved. The things which it has been supposed that nobody could possibly help believing, are innumerable; but no two generations would make out the sa me catalogue of them. One age or nation believes implicitly what to another seems incredible and inconceivable; one individual has not a vestige of a belief which another deems to be absolutely inherent in humanity. There is not one of these supposed insti nctive beliefs which is really inevitable. It is in the power of every one to cultivate habits of thought which make him independent of them. The habit of philosophical analysis (of which it is the surest effect to enable the mind to command, instead of being commanded by, the laws of the merely passive part of its own nature), by showing to us that things are not necessarily connected in fact because their ideas are connected in our minds, is able to loosen innumerable associations which reign despotically over the undisciplined or early-prejudiced mind. And this habit is not without power even over those associations which the school of which I have been speaking regard as connate and instinctive. I am convinced that any one accustomed to abstraction and analysis, who will fairly exert his faculties for the purpose, will, when his imagination has once learned to entertain the notion, find no difficulty in conceiving that in some one, for instance, of the many firmaments into which sidereal astronomy now divides the universe, events may succeed one another at random, without any fixed law; nor can any thing in our experience, or in our mental nature, constitute a sufficient, or indeed any, reason for believing that this is nowhere the case. 358 Were we to suppose (what it is perfectly possible to imagine) that the present order of the universe were brought to an end, and that a chaos succeeded in which there was no fixed succession of events, and the past gave no assurance of the future; if a human being were miraculously kept alive to witness this change, he surely would soon cease to believe in any uniformity, the uniformity itself no longer existing. If this be admitted, the belief in uniformity either is not an instinct, or it is an instinct conquerable, like all other instincts, by acquired knowledge. But there is no need to speculate on what might be, when we have positive and certain knowledge of what has been. It is not true, as a matter of fact, that mankind have always believed that all the successions of events were uniform and according to fixed laws. The Greek philosophers, not even excepting Aristotle, recognized Chance and Spontaneity ( and ) as among the agents in nature; in other words, they believed that to that extent there was no g uarantee that the past had been similar to itself, or that the future would resemble the past. Even now a full half of the philosophical world, including the very same metaphysicians who contend most for the instinctive character of the belief in uniformity, consider one important class of phenomena, volitions, to be an exception to the uniformity, and not governed by a fixed law. P183F184 P 2. As was observed in a former place, P184F185 P the belief we entertain in the universality, throughout nature, of the law of cause and effect, is itself an instance of induction; and by no means one of the earliest which any of us, or which mankind in general, can have made. We arrive at this universal law, by generalization from many laws of inferior generality. We should never have had the notion of causation (in the philosophical meaning of the term) as a condition of all phenomena, unless many cases of causation, or in other words, many partial uniformities of sequence, had previously become familiar. The more obvious of the parti cular uniformities suggest, and give evidence of, the general uniformity, and the general uniformity, once established, enables us to prove the remainder of the particular uniformities 184 I am happy to be able to quote the following excellent passage from Mr. Baden Powell's Essay on the Inductive Philosophy , in confirmation, both in regard to history and to doctrine, of the stat ement made in the text. Speaking of the conviction of the universal and permanent uniformity of nature, Mr. Powell says (pp. 98- 100): We may remark that this idea, in its proper extent, is by no means one of popular acceptance or natural growth. Just so far as the daily experience of every one goes, so far indeed he comes to embrace a certain persuasion of this kind, but merely to this limited extent, that what is going on around him at present, in his own narrow sphere of observation, will go on in like manner in future. The peasant believes that the sun which rose to- day will rise again to -morrow; that the seed put into the ground will be followed in due time by the harvest this year as it was last year, and the like; but has no notion of such inferences in subjects beyond his immediate observation. And it should be observed that each class of persons, in admitting this belief within the limited range of his own experience, though he doubt or deny it in every thing beyond, is, in fact, bearing unconscious testimony to its universal truth. Nor, again, is it only among the most ignorant that this limitation is put upon the truth. There is a very general propensity to believe that every thing beyond common experience, or especially ascertained laws of nature, is left to the dominion of chance or fate or arbitrary intervention; and even to object to any attempted explanation by physical causes, if conjecturally thrown out for an apparently unaccountable phenomenon. The precise doctrine of the generalization of this idea of the uniformity of nature, so far from being obvious, natural, or intuitive, is utterly beyond the attainment of the many. In all the extent of its universality it is characteristic of the philosopher. It is clearly the result of philosophic cultivation and training, and by no means the spontaneous offspring of any primary principle naturally inherent in the mind, as some seem to believe. It is no mere vague persuasion taken up without examination, as a common prepossession to which we are always accustomed; on the contrary, all common prejudices and associations are against it. It is pre -eminently an acquired idea . It is not attained without deep study and reflection. The best informed philosopher is the man who most firmly believes it, even in opposition to received notions; its acceptance depends on the extent and profoundness of his inductive studies. 185 Supra, book 3., chap. 3., 1 359 of which it is made up. As, however, all rigorous processes of induction presuppose the general uniformity, our knowledge of the particular uniformities from which it was first inferred was not, of course, derived from rigorous induction, but from the loose and uncertain mode of induction per enumerationem simplicem ; and the law of universal causation, being collected from results so obtained, can not itself rest on any better foundation. It would seem, therefore, that induction per enumerationem simplicem not only is not necessarily an illicit logical process, but is in reality the only kind of induction possible; since the more elaborate process depends for its validity on a law, itself obtained in that inartificial mode. Is there not then an inconsistency in contrasting the looseness of one method with the rigidity of another, when that other is indebted to the looser method for its own foundation? The inconsistency, however, is only apparent. Assuredly, if induction by simple enumeration were an invalid process, no process grounded on it could be valid; just as no reliance could be placed on telescopes, if we could not trust our eyes. But though a valid process, it is a fallible one, and fallible in very different degrees: if, therefore, we can substitute for the more fallible forms of the process, an operation grounded on th e same process in a less fallible form, we shall have effected a very material improvement. And this is what scientific induction does. A mode of concluding from experience must be pronounced untrustworthy when subsequent experience refuses to confirm it. According to this criterion, induction by simple enumeration in other words, generalization of an observed fact from the mere absence of any known instance to the contraryaffords in general a precarious and unsafe ground of assurance; for such generalizat ions are incessantly discovered, on further experience, to be false. Still, however, it affords some assurance, sufficient, in many cases, for the ordinary guidance of conduct. It would be absurd to say, that the generalizations arrived at by mankind in the outset of their experience, such as thesefood nourishes, fire burns, water drowns were unworthy of reliance. P185F186 P There is a scale of trustworthiness in the results of the original unscientific induction; and on this diversity (as observed in the fourth chapter of the present book) depend the rules for the improvement of the process. The improvement consists in correcting one of these inartificial generalizations by means of another. As has been already pointed out, this is all that art can do. To test a generalization, by showing that it either follows from, or conflicts with, some stronger induction, some generalization resting on a broader foundation of experience, is the beginning and end of the logic of induction. 3. Now the precariousness of the method of simple enumeration is in an inverse ratio to the largeness of the generalization. The process is delusive and insufficient, exactly in proportion as the subject -matter of the observation is special and limited in extent. As the sphere widens, this unscientific method becomes less and less liable to mislead; and the most universal class of truths, the law of causation, for instance, and the principles of number and of geometry, are 186 It deserves remark, that these early generalizations did not, like scientific inductions, presuppose causation. What they did presuppose, was uniformity in physical facts. But the observers were as ready to presume uniformity in the co- existence of facts as in the sequences. On the other hand, they never thought of assuming that this uniformity was a principle pervading all nature: their generalizations did not imply that there was uniformity in every thing, but only that as much uniformity as existed within their observation, existed also beyond it. The induction, fire burns, does not require for its validity that all nature should observe uniform laws, but only that there should be uniformity in one particular class of natural phenomena; the effects of fire on the senses and on combustible substances. And uniformity to this extent was not assumed, anterior to the experience, but proved by the experience. The same observed instances which proved the narrower truth, proved as much of the wider one as corresponded to it. It is from losing sight of this fact, and considering the law of causation in its full extent as necessarily presupposed in the very earliest generalizations, that persons have been led into the belief that the law of causation is known a priori , and is not itself a conclusion from experience. 360 duly and satisfactorily proved by that method alone, nor are they susceptible of any other proof. With respect to the whole class of generalizations of which we have recently treated, the uniformities which depend on causation, the truth of the remark just made follows by obvious inference from the principles laid down in the preceding chapters. When a fact has been observed a certain number of times to be true, and is not in any instance known to be false, if we at once affirm that fact as a universal truth or law of nature, without either testing it by any of the four methods of induction, or deducing it from other known laws, we shall in general err grossly; but we are perfectly justified in affirming it as an empirical law, true within certain limits of time, place, and circumstance, provided the number of coincidences be greater than can with any probability be ascribed to chance. The reason for not extending it beyond those limits is, that the fact of its holding true within them may be a consequence of collocations, which can not be concluded to exist in one place because they exist in another; or may be dependent on the accidental absence of counteracting agencies, which any variation of time, or the smallest change of circumstances, may possibly bring into play. If we suppose, then, the subject- matter of any generalizati on to be so widely diffused that there is no time, no place, and no combination of circumstances, but must afford an example either of its truth or of its falsity, and if it be never found otherwise than true, its truth can not be contingent on any collocations, unless such as exist at all times and places; nor can it be frustrated by any counteracting agencies, unless by such as never actually occur. It is, therefore, an empirical law co -extensive with all human experience; at which point the distinction b etween empirical laws and laws of nature vanishes, and the proposition takes its place among the most firmly established as well as largest truths accessible to science. Now, the most extensive in its subject- matter of all generalizations which experience warrants, respecting the sequences and co-existences of phenomena, is the law of causation. It stands at the head of all observed uniformities, in point of universality, and therefore (if the preceding observations are correct) in point of certainty. And if we consider, not what mankind would have been justified in believing in the infancy of their knowledge, but what may rationally be believed in its present more advanced state, we shall find ourselves warranted in considering this fundamental law, though itself obtained by induction from particular laws of causation, as not less certain, but on the contrary, more so, than any of those from which it was drawn. It adds to them as much proof as it receives from them. For there is probably no one even of the best established laws of causation which is not sometimes counteracted, and to which, therefore, apparent exceptions do not present themselves, which would have necessarily and justly shaken the confidence of mankind in the universality of those laws, if inductive processes founded on the universal law had not enabled us to refer those exceptions to the agency of counteracting causes, and thereby reconcile them with the law with which they apparently conflict. Errors, moreover, may have slipped into the statement of any one of the special laws, through inattention to some material circumstance: and instead of the true proposition, another may have been enunciated, false as a universal law, though leading, in all cases hitherto observed, to the same result. To the law of causation, on the contrary, we not only do not know of any exception, but the exceptions which limit or apparently invalidate the special laws, are so far from contradicting the universal one, that they confirm it; since in all cases which are sufficiently open to our observation, we are able to trace the difference of result, either to the absence of a cause which had been present in ordinary cases, or to the presence of one which had been absent. The law of cause and effect, being thus certain , is capable of imparting its certainty to all other inductive propositions which can be deduced from it; and the narrower inductions may be regarded as receiving their ultimate sanction from that law, since there is no one of them 361 which is not rendered more certain than it was before, when we are able to connect it with that larger induction, and to show that it can not be denied, consistently with the law that every thing which begins to exist has a cause. And hence we are justified in the seeming inconsistency, of holding induction by simple enumeration to be good for proving this general truth, the foundation of scientific induction, and yet refusing to rely on it for any of the narrower inductions. I fully admit that if the law of causation were unknown, generalization in the more obvious cases of uniformity in phenomena would nevertheless be possible, and though in all cases more or less precarious, and in some extremely so, would suffice to constitute a certain measure of probability; but what the amount of this probability might be, we are dispensed from estimating, since it never could amount to the degree of assurance which the proposition acquires, when, by the application to it of the Four Methods, the supposition of its falsity is shown to be inconsistent with the Law of Causation. We are therefore logically entitled, and, by the necessities of scientific induction, required, to disregard the probabilities derived from the early rude method of generalizing, and to consider no minor generalization as proved except so far as the law of causation confirms it, nor probable except so far as it may reasonably be expected to be so confirmed. 4. The assertion, that our inductive processes assume the law of causation, while the law of causation is itself a case of induction, is a paradox, only on the old theory of reasoning, which supposes the universal truth, or major premise, in a ratiocination, to be the real proof of the particular truths which are ostensibly inferred from it. According to the doctrine maintained in the present treatise, P186F187 P the major premise is not the proof of the conclusion, but is itself proved, along with the conclusion from the same evidence. All men are mortal is not the proof that Lord Palmerston is mortal; but our past experience of mortality authorizes us to infer both the general truth and the particular fact, and the one with exactly the same degree of assurance as the other. The mortality of Lord Palmerston is not an inference from the mortality of all men, but from the experience which proves the mortality of all men; and is a correct inference from experience, if that general truth is so too. This relation between our general beliefs and their particular applications holds equally true in the more comprehensive case which we are now discussing. Any new fact of causation inferred by induction, is rightly inferred, if no other objection can be made to the inference than can be made to the general truth that every event has a cause. The utmost certainty which can be given to a conclusion arrived at in the way of inference, stops at this point. When we have ascertained that the particular conclusion must stand or fall with the general uniformity of the laws of naturethat it is liable to no doubt except the doubt whether every eve nt has a causewe have done all that can be done for it. The strongest assurance we can obtain of any theory respecting the cause of a given phenomenon, is that the phenomenon has either that cause or none. The latter supposition might have been an admissible one in a very early period of our study of nature. But we have been able to perceive that in the stage which mankind have now reached, the generalization which gives the Law of Universal Causation has grown into a stronger and better induction, one deserving of greater reliance, than any of the subordinate generalizations. We may even, I think, go a step further than this, and regard the certainty of that great induction as not merely comparative, but, for all practical purposes, complete. The considerations, which, as I apprehend, give, at the present day, to the proof of the law of uniformity of succession as true of all phenomena without exception, this character of completeness and conclusiveness, are the following: First, that we now know it directly to be true of far the greatest number of phenomena; that there are none of which we know it not to be true, the utmost that can be said being, that of some we can not positively from direct 187 Book 2., chap. 3. 362 evidence affirm its truth; while phenomenon after phenomenon, as they become better known to us, are constantly passing from the latter class into the former; and in all cases in which that transition has not yet taken place, the absence of direct proof is accounted for by the rarity or the obscurity of the phenomena, our deficient means of observing them, or the logical difficulties arising from the complication of the circumstances in which they occur; insomuch that, notwithstanding as rigid a dependence on given conditions as exists in the case of any other phenomenon, it was not likely that we should be better acquainted with those conditions than we are. Besides this first class of considerations, there is a second, which still further corroborates the conclusion. Although there are phenomena the production and chan ges of which elude all our attempts to reduce them universally to any ascertained law; yet in every such case, the phenomenon, or the objects concerned in it, are found in some instances to obey the known laws of nature. The wind, for example, is the type of uncertainty and caprice, yet we find it in some cases obeying with as much constancy as any phenomenon in nature the law of the tendency of fluids to distribute themselves so as to equalize the pressure on every side of each of their particles; as in the case of the trade -winds and the monsoons. Lightning might once have been supposed to obey no laws; but since it has been ascertained to be identical with electricity, we know that the very same phenomenon in some of its manifestations is implicitly obedient to the action of fixed causes. I do not believe that there is now one object or event in all our experience of nature, within the bounds of the solar system at least, which has not either been ascertained by direct observation to follow laws of its own, or been proved to be closely similar to objects and events which, in more familiar manifestations, or on a more limited scale, follow strict laws; our inability to trace the same laws on a larger scale and in the more recondite instances, being accounted for by the number and complication of the modifying causes, or by their inaccessibility to observation. The progress of experience, therefore, has dissipated the doubt which must have rested on the universality of the law of causation while there were phenomena which seemed to be sui generis , not subject to the same laws with any other class of phenomena, and not as yet ascertained to have peculiar laws of their own. This great generalization, however, might reasonably have been, as it in fact was, acted on as a probability of the highest order, before there were sufficient grounds for receiving it as a certainty. In matters of evidence, as in all other human things, we neither require, nor can attain, the absolute. We must hold even our strongest convictions with an opening left in our minds for the reception of facts which contradict them; and only when we have taken this precaution, have we earned the right to act upon our convictions with complete confidence when no such contradiction appears. Whatever has been found true in innumerable instances, and never found to be false after due examination in any, we are safe in acting on as universal provisionally, until an undoubted exception appears; provided the nature of the case be such that a real exception could scarcely have escaped notice. When every phenomenon that we ever knew sufficiently well to be able to answer the question, had a cause on which it was invariably consequent, it was more rational to suppose that our inability to assign the causes of other phenomena arose from our ignorance, than that there were phenomena which were uncaused, and which happened to be exactly those which we had hitherto had no sufficient opportunity of studying. It must, at the same time, be remarked, tha t the reasons for this reliance do not hold in circumstances unknown to us, and beyond the possible range of our experience. In distant parts of the stellar regions, where the phenomena may be entirely unlike those with which we are acquainted, it would be folly to affirm confidently that this general law prevails, any more than those special ones which we have found to hold universally on our own planet. The 363 uniformity in the succession of events, otherwise called the law of causation, must be received not as a law of the universe, but of that portion of it only which is within the range of our means of sure observation, with a reasonable degree of extension to adjacent cases. To extend it further is to make a supposition without evidence, and to which, in the absence of any ground from experience for estimating its degree of probability, it would be idle to attempt to assign any. P187F188 P 188 One of the most rising thinkers of the new generation in France, M. Taine (who has given, in the Revue des Deux Mondes , the most masterly analysis, at least in one point of view, ever made of the present work), though he rejects, on this and similar points of psychology, the intuition theory in its ordinary form, nevertheless assigns to the law of causation, and to some other of the most universal laws, that certainty beyond the bounds of human experience, which I have not been able to accord to them. He does this on the faith of our faculty of abstraction, in which he seems to recognize an independent source of evidence, not indeed disclosing truths not contained in our experience, but affording an assurance which experience can not give, of the universality of those which i t does contain. By abstraction M. Taine seems to think that we are able, not merely to analyze that part of nature which we see, and exhibit apart the elements which pervade it, but to distinguish such of them as are elements of the system of nature consid ered as a whole, not incidents belonging to our limited terrestrial experience. I am not sure that I fully enter into M. Taine's meaning; but I confess I do not see how any mere abstract conception, elicited by our minds from our experience, can be evidenc e of an objective fact in universal Nature, beyond what the experience itself bears witness of; or how, in the process of interpreting in general language the testimony of experience, the limitations of the testimony itself can be cast off. Dr. Ward, in an able article in the Dublin Review for October, 1871, contends that the uniformity of nature can not be proved from experience, but from transcendental considerations only, and that, consequently, all physical science would be deprived of its basis, if such transcendental proof were impossible. When physical science is said to depend on the assumption that the course of nature is invariable, all that is meant is that the conclusions of physical science are not known as absolute truths: the truth of them is conditional on the uniformity of the course of nature; and all that the most conclusive observations and experiments can prove, is that the result arrived at will be true if, and as long as, the present laws of nature are valid. But this is all the assur ance we require for the guidance of our conduct. Dr. Ward himself does not think that his transcendental proofs make it practically greater; for he believes, as a Catholic, that the course of nature not only has been, but frequently and even daily is, suspended by supernatural intervention. But though this conditional conclusiveness of the evidence of experience, which is sufficient for the purposes of life, is all that I was necessarily concerned to prove, I have given reasons for thinking that the uniformity, as itself a part of experience, is sufficiently proved to justify undoubting reliance on it. This Dr. Ward contests, for the following reasons: First (p. 315), supposing it true that there has hitherto been no well authenticated case of a breach in the uniformity of nature; the number of natural agents constantly at work is incalculably large; and the observed cases of uniformity in their action must be immeasurably fewer than one thousandth of the whole. Scientific men, we assume for the moment, have discovered that in a certain proportion of instances immeasurably fewer than one thousandth of the whole a certain fact has prevailed; the fact of uniformity; and they have not found a single instance in which that fact does not prevail. Are they justif ied, we ask, in inferring from these premises that the fact is universal? Surely the question answers itself. Let us make a very grotesque supposition, in which, however, the conclusion would really be tried according to the arguments adduced. In some dese rt of Africa there is an enormous connected edifice, surrounding some vast space, in which dwell certain reasonable beings, who are unable to leave the inclosure. In this edifice are more than a thousand chambers, which some years ago were entirely locked up, and the keys no one knew where. By constant diligence twenty- five keys have been found, out of the whole number; and the corresponding chambers, situated promiscuously throughout the edifice, have been opened. Each chamber, when examined, is found to be in the precise shape of a dodecahedron. Are the inhabitants justified on that account in holding with certitude that the remaining 975 chambers are built on the same plan? Not with perfect certitude, but (if the chambers to which the keys have been foun d are really situated promiscuously) with so high a degree of probability that they would be justified in acting upon the presumption until an exception appeared. Dr. Ward's argument, however, does not touch mine as it stands in the text. My argument is grounded on the fact that the uniformity of the course of nature as a whole, is constituted by the uniform sequences of special effects from special natural agencies; that the number of these natural agencies in the part of the universe known to us is not incalculable, nor even extremely great; that we have now reason to think that at least the far greater number of them, if not separately, at least in some of the combinations into which they enter, have been made 364 sufficiently amenable to observation, to ha ve enabled us actually to ascertain some of their fixed laws; and that this amount of experience justifies the same degree of assurance that the course of nature is uniform throughout, which we previously had of the uniformity of sequence among the phenomena best known to us. This view of the subject, if correct, destroys the force of Dr. Ward's first argument. His second argument is, that many or most persons, both scientific and unscientific, believe that there are well authenticated cases of breach in th e uniformity of nature, namely, miracles. Neither does this consideration touch what I have said in the text. I admit no other uniformity in the events of nature than the law of Causation; and (as I have explained in the chapter of this volume which treats of the Grounds of Disbelief) a miracle is no exception to that law. In every case of alleged miracle, a new antecedent is affirmed to exist; a counteracting cause , namely, the volition of a supernatural being. To all, therefore, to whom beings with superhuman power over nature are a vera causa , a miracle is a case of the Law of Universal Causation, not a deviation from it. Dr. Ward's last, and as he says, strongest argument, is the familiar one of Reid, Stewart, and their followers that whatever knowledge experience gives us of the past and present, it gives us none of the future. I confess that I see no force whatever in this argument. Wherein does a future fact differ from a present or a past fact, except in their merely momentary relation to the human be ings at present in existence? The answer made by Priestley, in his Examination of Reid, seems to me sufficient, viz., that though we have had no experience of what is future, we have had abundant experience of what was future. The leap in the dark (as Professor Bain calls it) from the past to the future, is exactly as much in the dark and no more, as the leap from a past which we have personally observed, to a past which we have not. I agree with Mr. Bain in the opinion that the resemblance of what we hav e not experienced to what we have, is, by a law of our nature, presumed through the mere energy of the idea, before experience has proved it. This psychological truth, however, is not, as Dr. Ward when criticising Mr. Bain appears to think, inconsistent wi th the logical truth that experience does prove it. The proof comes after the presumption, and consists in its invariable verification by experience when the experience arrives. The fact which while it was future could not be observed, having as yet no exi stence, is always, when it becomes present and can be observed, found conformable to the past. Dr. M'Cosh maintains ( Examination of Mr. J. S. Mill's Philosophy , p. 257) that the uniformity of the course of nature is a different thing from the law of causation; and while he allows that the former is only proved by a long continuance of experience, and that it is not inconceivable nor necessarily incredible that there may be worlds in which it does not prevail, he considers the law of causation to be known intuitively. There is, however, no other uniformity in the events of nature than that which arises from the law of causation: so long therefore as there remained any doubt that the course of nature was uniform throughout, at least when not modified by the intervention of a new (supernatural) cause, a doubt was necessarily implied, not indeed of the reality of causation, but of its universality. If the uniformity of the course of nature has any exceptions if any events succeed one another without fixed laws to that extent the law of causation fails; there are events which do not depend on causes. 365 XXII. Of Uniformities Of Co -Existence Not Dependent On Causation 1. The order of the occurrence of phenomena in time, is either successive or simultaneous; the uniformities, therefore, which obtain in their occurrence, are either uniformities of succession or of co-existence. Uniformities of succession are all comprehended under the law of causation and its consequences. Every phenomenon has a cause, which it invariably follows; and from this are derived other invariable sequences among the successive stages of the same effect, as well as between the effects resulting from causes which invariably succeed one another. In the same manner with these derivative uniformities of succession, a great variety of uniformities of co -existence also take their rise. Co -ordinate effects of the same cause naturally co -exist with one another. High water at any point on the earth's surface, and high water at the point diametrically opposite to it, are effects uniformly simultaneous, resulting from the direction in which the combined attractions of the sun and moon act upon the waters of the ocean. An eclipse of the sun to us, and an eclipse of the earth to a spectator situated in the moon, are in like manner phenomena invariably co- existent; and their co -existence can equally be deduced from the laws of their production. It is an obvious question, therefore, whether all the uniformities of co -existence among phenomena may not be accounted for in this manner. And it can not be doubted that between phenomena which are themselves effects, the co -existences must necessarily depend on the causes of those phenomena. If they are effects immediately or remotely of the same cause, they can not co-exist except by virtue of some laws or properties of that cause; if they are effects of different causes, they can not co- exist unless it be because their causes co -exist; and the uniformity of co-existence, if such there be, between the effects, proves that those particular causes, within the limits of our observation, have uniformly been co- existent. 2. But these same considerations compel us to recognize that there must be one class of co- existences which can not depend on causation: the co- existences between the ultimate properties of thingsthose properties which are the causes of all phenomena, but are not themselves caused by any phenomenon, and a cause for which could only be sought by ascending to the origin of all things. Yet among these ultimate properties there are not only co-existences, but uniformities of co-existence. General propositions may be, and are, formed, which assert that whenever certain properties are found, certain others are found along with them. We perceive an object; say, for instance, water. We recognize it to be water, of course by certain of its properties. Having recognized it, we are able to affirm of it innumerable other properties; which we could not do unless it were a general truth, a law or uniformity in nature, that the set of properties by which we identify the substance as water always have those other properties conjoined with them. In a former place P188F189 P it has been explained, in some detail, what is meant by the Kinds of objects; those classes which differ from one another not by a limited and definite, but by an indefinite and unknown, number of distinctions. To this we have now to add, that every proposition by which any thing is asserted of a Kin d, affirms a uniformity of co -existence. Since we know nothing of Kinds but their properties, the Kind, to us, is the set of properties by which it is identified, and which must of course be sufficient to distinguish it from every 189 Book 1., chap. 7. 366 other kind. P189F190 P In affirmin g any thing, therefore, of a Kind, we are affirming something to be uniformly co-existent with the properties by which the kind is recognized; and that is the sole meaning of the assertion. Among the uniformities of co- existence which exist in nature, may hence be numbered all the properties of Kinds. The whole of these, however, are not independent of causation, but only a portion of them. Some are ultimate properties, others derivative: of some, no cause can be assigned, but others are manifestly dependent on causes. Thus, pure oxygen gas is a Kind, and one of its most unequivocal properties is its gaseous form; this property, however, has for its cause the presence of a certain quantity of latent heat; and if that heat could be taken away (as has been done from so many gases in Faraday's experiments), the gaseous form would doubtless disappear, together with numerous other properties which depend on, or are caused by, that property. In regard to all substances which are chemical compounds, and which theref ore may be regarded as products of the juxtaposition of substances different in Kind from themselves, there is considerable reason to presume that the specific properties of the compound are consequent, as effects, on some of the properties of the elements, though little progress has yet been made in tracing any invariable relation between the latter and the former. Still more strongly will a similar presumption exist, when the object itself, as in the case of organized beings, is no primeval agent, but an effect, which depends on a cause or causes for its very existence. The Kinds, therefore, which are called in chemistry simple substances, or elementary natural agents, are the only ones, any of whose properties can with certainty be considered ultimate; an d of these the ultimate properties are probably much more numerous than we at present recognize, since every successful instance of the resolution of the properties of their compounds into simpler laws, generally leads to the recognition of properties in the elements distinct from any previously known. The resolution of the laws of the heavenly motions established the previously unknown ultimate property of a mutual attraction between all bodies; the resolution, so far as it has yet proceeded, of the laws of crystallization, of chemical composition, electricity, magnetism, etc., points to various polarities, ultimately inherent in the particles of which bodies are composed; the comparative atomic weights of different kinds of bodies were ascertained by resolving into more general laws the uniformities observed in the proportions in which substances combine with one another, and so forth. Thus, although every resolution of a complex uniformity into simpler and more elementary laws has an apparent tendency to diminish the number of the ultimate properties, and really does remove many properties from the list; yet (since the result of this simplifying process is to trace up an ever greater variety of different effects to the same agents) the further we advance in this direction, the greater number of distinct properties we are forced to recognize in one and the same object; the co -existences of which properties must accordingly be ranked among the ultimate generalities of nature. 3. There are, therefore, only two kinds of propositions which assert uniformity of co- existence between properties. Either the properties depend on causes or they do not. If they do, the proposition which affirms them to be co- existent is a derivative law of co -existence between effects, and, until resolved into the laws of causation on which it depends, is an 190 In some cases, a Kind is sufficiently identified by some one remarkable property: but most commonly several are required; each property considered singly, being a joint property of that and of other Kinds. The color and brightness of the diamond are common to it with the paste from which false diamonds are made; its octohedral form is common to it with alum, and magnetic iron ore; but the color and brightness and the form together, identify its Kind: that is, are a mark to us that it is combustible; that when burned it produces carbonic acid; that it can not be cut with any known substance; together with many other ascertained properties, and the fa ct that there exist an indefinite number still unascertained. 367 empirical law, and to be tried by the principles of induction to which such laws are amenable. If, on the other hand, the properties do not depend on causes, but are ultimate proper ties, then, if it be true that they invariably co-exist, they must all be ultimate properties of one and the same Kind; and it is of these only that the co- existences can be classed as a peculiar sort of laws of nature. When we affirm that all crows are bl ack, or that all negroes have woolly hair, we assert a uniformity of co-existence. We assert that the property of blackness or of having woolly hair invariably co-exists with the properties which, in common language, or in the scientific classification tha t we adopt, are taken to constitute the class crow, or the class negro. Now, supposing blackness to be an ultimate property of black objects, or woolly hair an ultimate property of the animals which possess it; supposing that these properties are not resul ts of causation, are not connected with antecedent phenomena by any law; then if all crows are black, and all negroes have woolly hair, these must be ultimate properties of the kind crow , or negro, or of some kind which includes them. If, on the contrary, blackness or woolly hair be an effect depending on causes, these general propositions are manifestly empirical laws; and all that has already been said respecting that class of generalizations may be applied without modification to these. Now, we have seen that in the case of all compoundsof all things, in short, except the elementary substances and primary powers of naturethe presumption is, that the properties do really depend upon causes; and it is impossible in any case whatever to be certain that they do not. We therefore should not be safe in claiming for any generalization respecting the co-existence of properties, a degree of certainty to which, if the properties should happen to be the result of causes, it would have no claim. A generalization res pecting co -existence, or, in other words, respecting the properties of kinds, may be an ultimate truth, but it may also be merely a derivative one; and since, if so, it is one of those derivative laws which are neither laws of causation nor have been resolved into the laws of causation on which they depend, it can possess no higher degree of evidence than belongs to an empirical law. 4. This conclusion will be confirmed by the consideration of one great deficiency, which precludes the application to the ultimate uniformities of co -existence, of a system of rigorous scientific induction, such as the uniformities in the succession of phenomena have been found to admit of. The basis of such a system is wanting; there is no general axiom standing in the same relation to the uniformities of co -existence as the law of causation does to those of succession. The Methods of Induction applicable to the ascertainment of causes and effects are grounded on the principle that every thing which has a beginning must have some cause or other; that among the circumstances which actually existed at the time of its commencement, there is certainly some one combination, on which the effect in question is unconditionally consequent, and on the repetition of which it would certainly again recur. But in an inquiry whether some kind (as crow) universally possesses a certain property (as blackness), there is no room for any assumption analogous to this. We have no previous certainty that the property must have something which constantly co- exists with it; must have an invariable co -existent, in the same manner as an event must have an invariable antecedent. When we feel pain, we must be in some circumstances under which, if exactly repeated, we should always feel pain. But when we are conscious of blackness, it does not follow that there is something else present of which blackness is a constant accompaniment. There is, therefore, no room for elimination; no method of Agreement or Difference, or of Concomitant Variations (which is but a modification either of the Method of Agreement or of the Method of Difference). We can not conclude that the blackness we see in crows must be an invariable property of crows merely because there is nothing else present of which it can be an invariable property. We therefore inquire into the truth of a proposition like All crows 368 are black, under the same disadvantage as if, in our inquiries into causation, we were compelled to let in, as one of the possibilities, that the effect may in that particular instance have arisen without any cause at all. To overlook this grand distinction was, as it seems to me, the capital error in Bacon's view of inductive philosophy. The principle of elimination, that great logical instrument which he had the immense merit of first bringing into general use, he deemed applicable in the same sense, and in as unqualified a manner, to the investigation of the co- existences, as to that of the successions of phenomena. He seems to have thought that as every event has a cause, or invariable antecedent, so every property of an object has an invariable co-existent, which he called its form; and the examples he chiefly selected for the application and illustration of his method, were inquiries into such forms; attempts to determine in what else all those objects resembled, which agreed in some one general property, as hardness or softness, dryness or moistness, heat or coldness. Such inquiries could lead to no result. The objects seldom have any such circumstances in common. They usually agree in the one point inquired into, and in nothing else. A great proportion of the properties which, so far as we can conjecture, are the likeliest to be really ultimate, would seem to be inherently properties of many different kinds of things not allied in any other respect. And as for the properties which, being effects of causes, we are able to give some account of, they have generally nothing to do with the ultimate resemblances or diversities in the objects themselves, but depend on some outward circumstances, under the influence of which any objects whatever are capable of manifesting those properties; as is emphatically the case with those favorite subjects of Bacon's scientific inquiries, hotness and coldness, as well as with hardness and softness, solidity and fluidity, and many other conspicuous qualities. In the absence, then, of any universal law of co- existence similar to the universal law of causation which regulates sequence, we are thrown back upon the unscientific induction of the ancients, per enumerationem simplicem, ubi non reperitur instantia contradictoria. The reason we have for believing that all crows are black, is simply that we have seen and heard of many black crows, and never one of any other color. It remains to be considered how far this evidence can reach, and how we are to measure its strength in any given case. 5. It sometimes happens that a mere change in the mode of verbally enunciating a question, though nothing is really added to the meaning express ed, is of itself a considerable step toward its solution. This, I think, happens in the present instance. The degree of certainty of any generalization which rests on no other evidence than the agreement, so far as it goes, of all past observation, is but another phrase for the degree of improbability that an exception, if any existed, could have hitherto remained unobserved. The reason for believing that all crows are black, is measured by the improbability that crows of any other color should have existed to the present time without our being aware of it. Let us state the question in this last mode, and consider what is implied in the supposition that there may be crows which are not black, and under what conditions we can be justified in regarding this as incredible. If there really exist crows which are not black, one of two things must be the fact. Either the circumstance of blackness, in all crows hitherto observed, must be, as it were, an accident, not connected with any distinction of Kind; or if it be a property of Kind, the crows which are not black must be a new Kind, a Kind hitherto overlooked, though coming under the same general description by which crows have hitherto been characterized. The first supposition would be proved true if we were to discover casually a white crow among black ones, or if it were found that black crows sometimes turn white. The second would be shown to be the fact if in Australia or Central Africa a species or a race of white or gray crows were found to exist. 369 6. The former of these suppositions necessarily implies that the color is an effect of causation. If blackness, in the crows in which it has been observed, be not a property of Kind, but can be present or absent without any difference generally in the properties of the object, then it is not an ultimate fact in the individuals themselves, but is certainly dependent on a cause. There are, no doubt, many properties which vary from individual to individual of the same Kind, even the same infima species , or lowest Kind. Some flowers may be either white or red, without differing in any other respect. But these properties are not ultimate; they depend on causes. So far as the properties of a thing belong to its own nature, and do not arise from some cause extrinsic to it, they are always the same in the same Kind. Take, for instance, all simple substances and elementary powers; the only things of which we are certain that some at least of their properties are really ultimate. Color is generally esteemed the most variable o f all properties: yet we do not find that sulphur is sometimes yellow and sometimes white, or that it varies in color at all, except so far as color is the effect of some extrinsic cause, as of the sort of light thrown upon it, the mechanical arrangement of the particles (as after fusion), etc. We do not find that iron is sometimes fluid and sometimes solid at the same temperature; gold sometimes malleable and sometimes brittle; that hydrogen will sometimes combine with oxygen and sometimes not; or the like. If from simple substances we pass to any of their definite compounds, as water, lime, or sulphuric acid, there is the same constancy in their properties. When properties vary from individual to individual, it is either in the case of miscellaneous aggreg ations, such as atmospheric air or rock, composed of heterogeneous substances, and not constituting or belonging to any real Kind, P190F191 P or it is in the case of organic beings. In them, indeed, there is variability in a high degree. Animals of the same species and race, human beings of the same age, sex, and country, will be most different, for example, in face and figure. But organized beings (from the extreme complication of the laws by which they are regulated) being more eminently modifiable, that is , liable to be influenced by a greater number and variety of causes, than any other phenomena whatever; having also themselves had a beginning, and therefore a cause; there is reason to believe that none of their properties are ultimate, but all of them derivative, and produced by causation. And the presumption is confirmed, by the fact that the properties which vary from one individual to another, also generally vary more or less at different times in the same individual; which variation, like any other event, supposes a cause, and implies, consequently, that the properties are not independent of causation. If, therefore, blackness be merely accidental in crows, and capable of varying while the Kind remains the same, its presence or absence is doubtless no ultimate fact, but the effect of some unknown cause: and in that case the universality of the experience that all crows are black is sufficient proof of a common cause, and establishes the generalization as an empirical law. Since there are innumerable ins tances in the affirmative, and hitherto none at all in the negative, the causes on which the property depends must exist everywhere in the limits of the observations which have been made; and the proposition may be received as universal within those limits , and with the allowable degree of extension to adjacent cases. 7. If, in the second place, the property, in the instances in which it has been observed, is not an effect of causation, it is a property of Kind; and in that case the generalization can only be set aside by the discovery of a new Kind of crow. That, however, a peculiar Kind not hitherto discovered should exist in nature, is a supposition so often realized that it can not be considered at all improbable. We have nothing to authorize us in att empting to limit the Kinds of things which exist in nature. The only unlikelihood would be that a new Kind should be discovered in localities which there was previously reason to believe had been 191 This doctrine of course assumes that the allotropic forms of what is chemically the same substance are so many different Kinds; and such, in the sense in which the word Kind is used in this treatise, they really are. 370 thoroughly explored; and even this improbability depends on the degree of conspicuousness of the difference between the newly -discovered Kind and all others, since new kinds of minerals, plants, and even animals, previously overlooked or confounded with known species, are still continually detected in the most freq uented situations. On this second ground, therefore, as well as on the first, the observed uniformity of co-existence can only hold good as an empirical law, within the limits not only of actual observation, but of an observation as accurate as the nature of the case required. And hence it is that (as remarked in an early chapter of the present book) we so often give up generalizations of this class at the first summons. If any credible witness stated that he had seen a white crow, under circumstances which made it not incredible that it should have escaped notice previously, we should give full credence to the statement. It appears, then, that the uniformities which obtain in the co-existence of phenomenathose which we have reason to consider as ultimate, no less than those which arise from the laws of causes yet undetected are entitled to reception only as empirical laws; are not to be presumed true except within the limits of time, place, and circumstance, in which the observations were made, or except in cases strictly adjacent. 8. We have seen in the last chapter that there is a point of generality at which empirical laws become as certain as laws of nature, or, rather, at which there is no longer any distinction between empirical laws and laws of natu re. As empirical laws approach this point, in other words, as they rise in their degree of generality, they become more certain; their universality may be more strongly relied on. For, in the first place, if they are results of causation (which, even in the class of uniformities treated of in the present chapter, we never can be certain that they are not) the more general they are, the greater is proved to be the space over which the necessary collocations prevail, and within which no causes exist capable o f counteracting the unknown causes on which the empirical law depends. To say that any thing is an invariable property of some very limited class of objects, is to say that it invariably accompanies some very numerous and complex group of distinguishing pr operties; which, if causation be at all concerned in the matter, argues a combination of many causes, and therefore a great liability to counteraction; while the comparatively narrow range of the observations renders it impossible to predict to what extent unknown counteracting causes may be distributed throughout nature. But when a generalization has been found to hold good of a very large proportion of all things whatever, it is already proved that nearly all the causes which exist in nature have no power over it; that very few changes in the combination of causes can affect it; since the greater number of possible combinations must have already existed in some one or other of the instances in which it has been found true. If, therefore, any empirical law is a result of causation, the more general it is, the more it may be depended on. And even if it be no result of causation, but an ultimate co- existence, the more general it is, the greater amount of experience it is derived from, and the greater therefore is the probability that if exceptions had existed, some would already have presented themselves. For these reasons, it requires much more evidence to establish an exception to one of the more general empirical laws than to the more special ones. We should not have any difficulty in believing that there might be a new Kind of crow; or a new kind of bird resembling a crow in the properties hitherto considered distinctive of that Kind. But it would require stronger proof to convince us of the existence of a Kind of crow having properties at variance with any generally recognized universal property of birds; and a still higher degree if the properties conflict with any recognized universal property of animals. And this is conformable to the mode of judgment recommended by the common sense and general practice of mankind, who are more incredulous as to any novelties in nature, according to the degree of generality of the experience which these novelties seem to contradict. 371 9. It is conceivable that the alleged properties might conflict with some recognized universal property of all matter. In that case their improbability would be at the highest, but would not even then amount to incredibility. There are only two known properties common to all matter; in other w ords, there is but one known uniformity of co- existence of properties co-extensive with all physical nature, namely, that whatever opposes resistance to movement gravitates, or, as Professor Bain expresses it, Inertia and Gravity are co -existent through al l matter, and proportionate in their amount. These properties, as he truly says, are not mutually implicated; from neither of them could we, on grounds of causation, presume the other. But, for this very reason, we are never certain that a Kind may not be discovered possessing one of the properties without the other. The hypothetical ether, if it exists, may be such a Kind. Our senses can not recognize in it either resistance or gravity; but if the reality of a resisting medium should eventually be proved (by alteration, for example, in the times of revolution of periodic comets, combined with the evidences afforded by the phenomena of light and heat), it would be rash to conclude from this alone, without other proofs, that it must gravitate. For even the greater generalizations, which embrace comprehensive Kinds containing under them a great number and variety of infim species , are only empirical laws, resting on induction by simple enumeration merely, and not on any process of eliminationa process wholly inapplicable to this sort of case. Such generalizations, therefore, ought to be grounded on an examination of all the infim species comprehended in them, and not of a portion only. We can not conclude (where causation is not concerned), because a proposition is true of a number of things resembling one another only in being animals, that it is therefore true of all animals. If, indeed, any thing be true of species which differ more from one another than either differs from a third, especially if that third species occupies in most of its known properties a position between the two former, there is some probability that the same thing will also be true of that intermediate species; for it is often, though by no means universally, found, that there is a sort of parallelism in the properties of different Kinds, and that their degree of unlikeness in one respect bears some proportion to their unlikeness in others. We see this parallelism in the properties of the different metals; in those of sulphur, phosphorus, and carbon; of chlorine, iodine, and bromine; in the natural orders of plants and animals, etc. But there are innumerable anomalies and exceptions to this sort of conformity; if indeed the conformity itself be any thing but an anomaly and an exception in nature. Universal propositions, therefore, respecting the properties of superior Kinds, unless grounded on proved or presumed connection by causation, ought not to be hazarded except after separately examining every known sub-kind included in the larger Kind. And even then such generalizations must be held in readiness to be given up on the occurrence of some new anomaly, which, when the uniformity is not derived from causation, can never, even in the case of the most general of these empirical laws, be con sidered very improbable. Thus, all the universal propositions which it has been attempted to lay down respecting simple substances, or concerning any of the classes which have been formed among simple substances (and the attempt has been often made), have, with the progress of experience, either faded into inanity, or been proved to be erroneous; and each Kind of simple substance remains, with its own collection of properties apart from the rest, saving a certain parallelism with a few other Kinds, the most similar to itself. In organized beings, indeed, there are abundance of propositions ascertained to be universally true of superior genera, to many of which the discovery hereafter of any exceptions must be regarded as extremely improbable. But these, 372 as already observed, are, we have every reason to believe, properties dependent on causation. P191F192 P Uniformities of co -existence, then, not only when they are consequences of laws of succession, but also when they are ultimate truths, must be ranked, for the purpose of logic, among empirical laws; and are amenable in every respect to the same rules with those unresolved uniformities which are known to be dependent on causation. P192F193 P 192 Professor Bain (Logic, ii., 13) mentions two empirical laws, which he considers to be, with the exception of the law connecting Gravity with Resistance to motion, the two most widely operating laws as yet discovered whereby two distinct properties are conjoined throughout substances generally. The first is, a law connecting Atomic Weight and Specific Heat by an inverse proportion. For equal weights of the simple bodies, the atomic weight multiplied by a number expressing the specific heat, gives a nearly uniform product. The products, for all the elements, are near the constant number 6. The other is a law which obtains between the specific gravity of substances in the gaseous state, and the atomic weights. The relationship of the two numbers is in some instances equality; in other instances the one is a multiple of the other. Neither of these generalizations has the smallest appearance of being an ultimate law. They point unmistakably to higher laws. Since the hea t necessary to raise to a given temperature the same weight of different substances (called their specific heat) is inversely as their atomic weight, that is, directly as the number of atoms in a given weight of the substance, it follows that a single atom of every substance requires the same amount of heat to raise it to a given temperature; a most interesting and important law, but a law of causation. The other law mentioned by Mr. Bain points to the conclusion, that in the gaseous state all substances contain, in the same space, the same number of atoms; which, as the gaseous state suspends all cohesive force, might naturally be expected, though it could not have been positively assumed. This law may also be a result of the mode of action of causes, namel y, of molecular motions. The cases in which one of the numbers is not identical with the other, but a multiple of it, may be explained on the nowise unlikely supposition, that in our present estimate of the atomic weights of some substances, we mistake two , or three, atoms for one, or one for several. 193 Dr. M'Cosh (p. 324 of his book) considers the laws of the chemical composition of bodies as not coming under the principle of Causation; and thinks it an omission in this work not to have provided special canons for their investigation and proof. But every case of chemical composition is, as I have explained, a case of causation. When it is said that water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen, the affirmation is that hydrogen and oxygen, by the action on one another which they exert under certain conditions, generate the properties of water. The Canons of Induction, therefore, as laid down in this treatise, are applicable to the case. Such special adaptations as the Inductive methods may require in their application to chemistry, or any other science, are a proper subject for any one who treats of the logic of the special sciences, as Professor Bain has done in the latter part of his work; but they do not appertain to General Logic. Dr. M'Cosh also complains (p. 325) that I have given no canons for those sciences in which the end sought is not the discovery of Causes or of Composition, but of Classes; that is, Natural Classes. Such canons could be no other than the principles and rules of Natural Classification, which I certainly thought that I had expounded at considerable length. But this is far from the only instance in which Dr. M'Cosh does not appear to be aware of the contents of the books he is criticising. 373 XXIII. Of Approximate Generalizations, And Probable Evidence 1. In our inquiries into the nature of the inductive process, we must not confine our notice to such generalizations from experience as profess to be universally true. There is a class of inductive truths avowedly not universal; in which it is not pretended that the predicate is always true of the subject; but the value of which, as generalizations, is nevertheless extremely great. An important portion of the field of inductive knowledge does not consist of universal truths, but of approximations to such truths; and when a conclusion is said to rest on probable evidence, the premises it is drawn from are usually generalizations of this sort. As every certain inference respecting a particular case implies that there is ground for a general proposition of the form, every A is B; so does every probable inference suppose that there is ground for a proposition of the form, Most A are B; and the degree of probability of the inference in an average case will depend on the proportion between the number of instances existing in nature which accord with the generalization, and the number of those which conflict with it. 2. Propositions in the form, Most A are B, are of a very different degree of importance in science, and in the practice of life. To the scientific inquirer they are valuable chiefly as materials for, and steps toward universal truths. The discovery of these is the proper end of science; its work is not done if it stops at the proposition that a majority of A are B, without circumscribing that ma jority by some common character, fitted to distinguish them from the minority. Independently of the inferior precision of such imperfect generalizations, and the inferior assurance with which they can be applied to individual cases, it is plain that, compa red with exact generalizations, they are almost useless as means of discovering ulterior truths by way of deduction. We may, it is true, by combining the proposition Most A are B, with a universal proposition, Every B is C, arrive at the conclusion that Most A are C. But when a second proposition of the approximate kind is introducedor even when there is but one, if that one be the major premisenothing can, in general, be positively concluded. When the major is Most B are D, then, even if the minor be Every A is B, we can not infer that most A are D, or with any certainty that even some A are D. Though the majority of the class B have the attribute signified by D, the whole of the sub-class A may belong to the minority. P193F194 P Though so little use can be made, in science, of approximate generalizations, except as a stage on the road to something better, for practical guidance they are often all we have to rely on. Even when science has really determined the universal laws of any phenomenon, not only are those l aws generally too much encumbered with conditions to be adapted for everyday use, but the cases which present themselves in life are too complicated, and our decisions require to be taken too rapidly, to admit of waiting till the existence of a phenomenon can be proved by what have been scientifically ascertained to be universal marks of it. To be indecisive and reluctant to act, because we have not evidence of a perfectly conclusive character to act on, is a defect sometimes incident to scientific minds, b ut which, wherever it exists, renders them unfit for practical emergencies. If we would succeed in action, we must 194 Mr. De Morgan, in his Formal Logic , makes the just remark, that from two such premises as Most A are B, and Most A are C, we may infer with certainty that some B are C. But this is the utmost limit of the conclusions which can be drawn from two approximate generalizations, when the precise degree of their approximation to universality is unknown or undefined. 374 judge by indications which, though they do not generally mislead us, sometimes do, and must make up, as far as possible, for the incomplete conclusiveness of any one indication, by obtaining others to corroborate it. The principles of induction applicable to approximate generalization are therefore a not less important subject of inquiry than the rules for the investigation of universal truths; and might reasonably be expected to detain us almost as long, were it not that these principles are mere corollaries from those which have been already treated of. 3. There are two sorts of cases in which we are forced to guide ourselves by generalizations of the imperfect form, Most A are B. The first is, when we have no others; when we have not been able to carry our investigation of the laws of the phenomena any further; as in the following propositionsMost dark-eyed persons have dark hair; Most springs contain mineral substances; Most stratified formations contain fossils. The importance of this class of generalizations is not very great; for, though it frequently happens that we see no reason why that which is true of most individuals of a class is not true of the remainder, nor are able to bring the former under any general description which can distinguish them from the latter, yet if we are willing to be satisfied with propositions of a less degree of generality, and to break down the class A into sub -classes, we may generally obtain a collection of propositions exactly true. We do not know why most wood is lighter than water, nor can we point out any general property which discriminates wood that is lighter than water from that which is heavier. But we know exactly what species are the one and what the other. And if we meet with a specimen not conformable to any known species (the only case in which our previous knowledge affords no other guidance than the approximate generalization), we can genera lly make a specific experiment, which is a surer resource. It often happens, however, that the proposition, Most A are B, is not the ultimatum of our scientific attainments, though the knowledge we possess beyond it can not conveniently be brought to bear upon the particular instance. We may know well enough what circumstances distinguish the portion of A which has the attribute B from the portion which has it not, but may have no means, or may not have time, to examine whether those characteristic circumst ances exist or not in the individual case. This is the situation we are generally in when the inquiry is of the kind called moral, that is, of the kind which has in view to predict human actions. To enable us to affirm any thing universally concerning the actions of classes of human beings, the classification must be grounded on the circumstances of their mental culture and habits, which in an individual case are seldom exactly known; and classes grounded on these distinctions would never precisely accord with those into which mankind are divided for social purposes. All propositions which can be framed respecting the actions of human beings as ordinarily classified, or as classified according to any kind of outward indications, are merely approximate. We can only say, Most persons of a particular age, profession, country, or rank in society, have such and such qualities; or, Most persons, when placed in certain circumstances, act in such and such a way. Not that we do not often know well enough on what causes the qualities depend, or what sort of persons they are who act in that particular way; but we have seldom the means of knowing whether any individual person has been under the influence of those causes, or is a person of that particular sort. We could replace the approximate generalizations by propositions universally true; but these would hardly ever be capable of being applied to practice. We should be sure of our majors, but we should not be able to get minors to fit; we are forced, therefore, to draw our conclusions from coarser and more fallible indications. 4. Proceeding now to consider what is to be regarded as sufficient evidence of an approximate generalization, we can have no difficulty in at once recognizing that, when admissible at all, it is admissible only as an empirical law. Propositions of the form, Every A 375 is B, are not necessarily laws of causation, or ultimate uniformities of co -existence; propositions like Most A are B, can not be so. Propositions hitherto found true in every observed instance may yet be no necessary consequence of laws of causation, or of ultimate uniformities, and unless they are so, may, for aught we know, be false beyond the limits of actual observation; still more evidently must this be the case with propositions which are only true in a mere majority of the observed instances. There is some difference, however, in the degree of certainty of the proposition, Most A are B, according as that approximate generalization composes the whole of our knowledge of the subject, or not. Suppose, first, that the former is the case. We know only that most A are B, not why they are so, nor in what respect those which are differ from those which are not. How, then, did we learn that most A are B? Precisely in the manner in which we should have learned, had such happened to be the fact that all A are B. We collected a number of instances sufficient to eliminate chance, and, having done so, compared the number of instances in the affirmative with the number in the negative. The result, like other unresolved derivative laws, can be relied on solely within the limits not only of place and time, but also of circumstance, under which its truth has been actually observed; for, as we are supposed to be ignorant of the causes which make the p roposition true, we can not tell in what manner any new circumstance might perhaps affect it. The proposition, Most judges are inaccessible to bribes, would probably be found true of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, North Americans, and so forth; but if on this evidence alone we extended the assertion to Orientals, we should step beyond the limits, not only of place but of circumstance, within which the fact had been observed, and should let in possibilities of the absence of the determining causes, or the presence of counteracting ones, which might be fatal to the approximate generalization. In the case where the approximate proposition is not the ultimatum of our scientific knowledge, but only the most available form of it for practical guidance; where we know, not only that most A have the attribute B, but also the causes of B, or some properties by which the portion of A which has that attribute is distinguished from the portion which has it not, we are rather more favorably situated than in the preceding case. For we have now a double mode of ascertaining whether it be true that most A are B; the direct mode, as before, and an indirect one, that of examining whether the proposition admits of being deduced from the known cause, or from any known criterion, of B. Let the question, for example, be whether most Scotchmen can read? We may not have observed, or received the testimony of others respecting, a sufficient number and variety of Scotchmen to ascertain this fact; but when we consider that the cause of being able to read is the having been taught it, another mode of determining the question presents itself, namely, by inquiring whether most Scotchmen have been sent to schools where reading is effectually taught. Of these two modes, sometimes one and somet imes the other is the more available. In some cases, the frequency of the effect is the more accessible to that extensive and varied observation which is indispensable to the establishment of an empirical law; at other times, the frequency of the causes, o r of some collateral indications. It commonly happens that neither is susceptible of so satisfactory an induction as could be desired, and that the grounds on which the conclusion is received are compounded of both. Thus a person may believe that most Scot chmen can read, because, so far as his information extends, most Scotchmen have been sent to school, and most Scotch schools teach reading effectually; and also because most of the Scotchmen whom he has known or heard of could read; though neither of these two sets of observations may by itself fulfill the necessary conditions of extent and variety. Although the approximate generalization may in most cases be indispensable for our guidance, even when we know the cause, or some certain mark, of the attribute predicated, it needs hardly be observed that we may always replace the uncertain indication by a certain 376 one, in any case in which we can actually recognize the existence of the cause or mark. For example, an assertion is made by a witness, and the question is whether to believe it. If we do not look to any of the individual circumstances of the case, we have nothing to direct us but the approximate generalization, that truth is more common than falsehood, or, in other words, that most persons, on most occasions, speak truth. But if we consider in what circumstances the cases where truth is spoken differ from those in which it is not, we find, for instance, the following: the witness's being an honest person or not; his being an accurate observer or not; his having an interest to serve in the matter or not. Now, not only may we be able to obtain other approximate generalizations respecting the degree of frequency of these various possibilities, but we may know which of them is positively realized in the indi vidual case. That the witness has or has not an interest to serve, we perhaps know directly; and the other two points indirectly, by means of marks; as, for example, from his conduct on some former occasion; or from his reputation, which, though a very unc ertain mark, affords an approximate generalization (as, for instance, Most persons who are believed to be honest by those with whom they have had frequent dealings, are really so), which approaches nearer to a universal truth than the approximate general proposition with which we set out, viz., Most persons on most occasions speak truth. As it seems unnecessary to dwell further on the question of the evidence of approximate generalizations, we shall proceed to a not less important topic, that of the cautions to be observed in arguing from these incompletely universal propositions to particular cases. 5. So far as regards the direct application of an approximate generalization to an individual instance, this question presents no difficulty. If the proposition, Most A are B, has been established, by a sufficient induction, as an empirical law, we may conclude that any particular A is B with a probability proportioned to the preponderance of the number of affirmative instances over the number of excepti ons. If it has been found practicable to attain numerical precision in the data, a corresponding degree of precision may be given to the evaluation of the chances of error in the conclusion. If it can be established as an empirical law that nine out of every ten A are B, there will be one chance in ten of error in assuming that any A, not individually known to us, is a B: but this of course holds only within the limits of time, place, and circumstance, embraced in the observations, and therefore can not be counted on for any sub-class or variety of A (or for A in any set of external circumstances) which were not included in the average. It must be added, that we can guide ourselves by the proposition, Nine out of every ten A are B, only in cases of which we know nothing except that they fall within the class A. For if we know, of any particular instances i , not only that it falls under A, but to what species or variety of A it belongs, we shall generally err in applying to i the average struck for the whole g enus, from which the average corresponding to that species alone would, in all probability, materially differ. And so if i , instead of being a particular sort of instance, is an instance known to be under the influence of a particular set of circumstances, the presumption drawn from the numerical proportions in the whole genus would probably, in such a case, only mislead. A general average should only be applied to cases which are neither known, nor can be presumed, to be other than average cases. Such averages, therefore, are commonly of little use for the practical guidance of any affairs but those which concern large numbers. Tables of the chances of life are useful to insurance offices, but they go a very little way toward informing any one of the chances of his own life, or any other life in which he is interested, since almost every life is either better or worse than the average. Such averages can only be considered as supplying the first term in a series of approximations; the subsequent terms proceeding on an appreciation of the circumstances belonging to the particular case. 377 6. From the application of a single approximate generalization to individual cases, we proceed to the application of two or more of them together to the same case. When a judgment applied to an individual instance is grounded on two approximate generalizations taken in conjunction, the propositions may cooperate toward the result in two different ways. In the one, each proposition is separately applicable to the case in hand, and our object in combining them is to give to the conclusion in that particular case the double probability arising from the two propositions separately. This may be called joining two probabilities by way of Addition; and the result is a probability greater than either. The other mode is, when only one of the propositions is directly applicable to the case, the second being only applicable to it by virtue of the application of the first. This is joining two probabilities by way of Ratiocination or Deduction; the result of which is a less probability than either. The type of the first argument is, Most A are B; most C are B; this thing is both an A and a C; therefore it is probably a B. The type of the second is, Most A are B; most C are A; this is a C; there fore it is probably an A, therefore it is probably a B. The first is exemplified when we prove a fact by the testimony of two unconnected witnesses; the second, when we adduce only the testimony of one witness that he has heard the thing asserted by another. Or again, in the first mode it may be argued that the accused committed the crime, because he concealed himself, and because his clothes were stained with blood; in the second, that he committed it because he washed or destroyed his clothes, which is supposed to render it probable that they were stained with blood. Instead of only two links, as in these instances, we may suppose chains of any length. A chain of the former kind was termed by Bentham P194F195 P a self - corroborative chain of evidence; the second, a self -infirmative chain. When approximate generalizations are joined by way of addition, we may deduce from the theory of probabilities laid down in a former chapter, in what manner each of them adds to the probability of a conclusion which has the warrant of them all. If, on an average, two of every three As are Bs, and three of every four Cs are Bs, the probability that something which is both an A and a C is a B, will be more than two in three, or than three in four. Of every twelve things which are As, a ll except four are Bs by the supposition; and if the whole twelve, and consequently those four, have the characters of C likewise, three of these will be Bs on that ground. Therefore, out of twelve which are both As and Cs, eleven are Bs. To state the argu ment in another way; a thing which is both an A and a C, but which is not a B, is found in only one of three sections of the class A, and in only one of four sections of the class C; but this fourth of C being spread over the whole of A indiscriminately, o nly one-third part of it (or one-twelfth of the whole number) belongs to the third section of A; therefore a thing which is not a B occurs only once, among twelve things which are both As and Cs. The argument would, in the language of the doctrine of chanc es, be thus expressed: the chance that an A is not a B is 1/3, the chance that a C is not a B is 1/4; hence if the thing be both an A and a C, the chance is 1/3 of 1/4 = 1/12. P195F196 P 195 Rationale of Judicial Evidence , vol. iii., p. 224. 196 The evaluation of the chances in this statement has been objected to by a mathematical friend. The correct mode, in his opinion, of setting out the possibilities is as follows. If the thing (let us call it T) which is both an A and a C, is a B, something is true which is only true twice in every thrice, and something else which is only true thrice in every four times. The first fact be ing true eight times in twelve, and the second being true six times in every eight, and consequently six times in those eight; both facts will be true only six times in twelve. On the other hand, if T, although it is both an A and a C, is not a B, something is true which is only true once in every thrice, and something else which is only true once in every four times. The former being true four times out of twelve, and the latter once in every four, and therefore once in those four; both are only true in one case out of twelve. So that T is a B six times in twelve, and T is not a B, only once: making the comparative probabilities, not eleven to one, as I had previously made them, but six to one. 378 In this computation it is of course supposed that the probabilities arising f rom A and C are independent of each other. There must not be any such connection between A and C, that when a thing belongs to the one class it will therefore belong to the other, or even have a greater chance of doing so. Otherwise the not- Bs which are Cs may be, most or even all of them, identical with the not-Bs which are As; in which last case the probability arising from A and C together will be no greater than that arising from A alone. When approximate generalizations are joined together in the other mode, that of deduction, the degree of probability of the inference, instead of increasing, diminishes at each step. From two such premises as Most A are B, Most B are C, we can not with certainty conclude that even a single A is C; for the whole of the portion of A which in any way falls under B, may perhaps be comprised in the exceptional part of it. Still, the two propositions in question afford an appreciable probability that any given A is C, provided the average on which the second proposition is grounded was taken fairly with reference to the first; provided the proposition, Most B are C, was arrived at in a manner leaving no suspicion that the probability arising from it is otherwise than fairly distributed over the section of B which belongs to A. For though the instances which are A may be all in the minority, they may, also, be all in the majority; and the one possibility is to be set against the other. On the whole, the probability arising from the two propositions taken together, will be correct ly measured by the probability arising from the one, abated in the ratio of that arising from the other. If nine out of ten Swedes have light hair, and eight out of nine inhabitants of Stockholm are Swedes, the probability arising from these two propositions, that any given inhabitant of Stockholm is light-haired, will amount to eight in ten; though it is rigorously possible that the In the last edition I accepted this reasoning as conclusive. More attentive consideration, however, has convinced me that it contains a fallacy. The objector argues, that the fact of A's being a B is true eight times in twelve, and the fact of C's being a B six times in eight, and consequently six times in those eight; both facts, therefore, are true only six times in every twelve. That is, he concludes that because among As taken indiscriminately only eight out of twelve are Bs and the remaining four are not, it must equally hold that four out of twelve are not Bs whe n the twelve are taken from the select portion of As which are also Cs. And by this assumption he arrives at the strange result, that there are fewer Bs among things which are both As and Cs than there are among either As or Cs taken indiscriminately; so that a thing which has both chances of being a B, is less likely to be so than if it had only the one chance or only the other. The objector (as has been acutely remarked by another correspondent) applies to the problem under consideration, a mode of calculation only suited to the reverse problem. Had the question beenIf two of every three Bs are As and three out of every four Bs are Cs, how many Bs will be both As and Cs, his reasoning would have been correct. For the Bs that are both As and Cs must be few er than either the Bs that are As or the Bs that are Cs, and to find their number we must abate either of these numbers in the ratio due to the other. But when the problem is to find, not how many Bs are both As and Cs, but how many things that are both As and Cs are Bs, it is evident that among these the proportion of Bs must be not less, but greater, than among things which are only A, or among things which are only B. The true theory of the chances is best found by going back to the scientific grounds on which the proportions rest. The degree of frequency of a coincidence depends on, and is a measure of, the frequency, combined with the efficacy, of the causes in operation that are favorable to it. If out of every twelve As taken indiscriminately eight ar e Bs and four are not, it is implied that there are causes operating on A which tend to make it a B, and that these causes are sufficiently constant and sufficiently powerful to succeed in eight out of twelve cases, but fail in the remaining four. So if of twelve Cs, nine are Bs and three are not, there must be causes of the same tendency operating on C, which succeed in nine cases and fail in three. Now suppose twelve cases which are both As and Cs. The whole twelve are now under the operation of both sets of causes. One set is sufficient to prevail in eight of the twelve cases, the other in nine. The analysis of the cases shows that six of the twelve will be Bs through the operation of both sets of causes; two more in virtue of the causes operating on A; a nd three more through those operating on C, and that there will be only one case in which all the causes will be inoperative. The total number, therefore, which are Bs will be eleven in twelve, and the evaluation in the text is correct. 379 whole Swedish population of Stockholm might belong to that tenth section of the people of Sweden who are an exception to the rest. If the premises are known to be true not of a bare majority, but of nearly the whole, of their respective subjects, we may go on joining one such proposition to another for several steps, before we reach a conclusion not presumably true even of a majority. The error of the conclusion will amount to the aggregate of the errors of all the premises. Let the proposition, most A are B, be true of nine in ten; Most B are C, of eight in nine; then not only will one A in ten not be C, because not B, but even of the nine-tenths which are B, only eight- ninths will be C; that is, the cases of A which are C will be only 8/9 of 9/10, or four-fifths. Let us now add Most C are D, and suppose this to be true of seven cases out of eight; the proportion of A which is D will be only 7/8 of 8/9 of 9/10, or 7/10. Thus the probability progressively dwindles. The experience, however, on which our approximate generalizations are grounded, has so rarely been subjected to, or admits of, accurate numerical estimation, that we can not in general apply any measurement to the diminution of probability which takes place at each illation; but must be content with remembering that it does diminish at every step, and that unless the premises approach very nearly indeed to being universally true, the conclusion after a very few steps is worth nothing. A hearsay of a hearsay, or an argument from presumptive evidence depending not on immediate marks but on marks of marks, is worthless at a very few removes from the first stage. 7. There are, however, two cases in which reasonings depending on approximate generalizations may be carried to any length we please with as much assurance, and are as strictly scientific, as if they were composed of universal laws of nature. But these cases are exceptions of the sort which are currently said to prove the rule. The approximate generalizations are as suitable, in the cases in question, for purposes of ratiocination, as if they were complete generalizations, because they are capable of being transformed into complete generalizations exactly equivalent. First: If the approximate generalization is of the class in which our reason for stopping at the approximation is not the impossibility, but only the inconvenience, of going further; if we are cognizant of the character which distinguishes the cases that accord with the generalization from those which are exceptions to it; we may then substitute for the approximate proposition, a universal proposition with a proviso. The proposition, Most persons who have uncontrolled power employ it ill, is a generalization of this class, and may be transformed into the following: All persons who have uncontrolled power employ it ill, provided they are not persons of unusual strength of judgment and rectitude of purpose. The proposition, carrying the hypothesis or proviso with it, may then be dealt with no longer as an approximate, but as a universal proposition; and to whatever number of steps the reasoning may reach, the hypothesis, being carried forward to the conclusion, will exactly indicate how far that conclusion is from being applicable universally. If in the course of the argument other approximate generalizations are introduced, each of them being in like manner expressed as a universal proposition with a condition annexed, the sum of all the conditions will appear at the end as the sum of all the errors which affect the conclusion. Thus, to the proposition last cited, let us add the following: All absolute monarchs have uncontrolled power, unless their position is s uch that they need the active support of their subjects (as was the case with Queen Elizabeth, Frederick of Prussia, and others). Combining these two propositions, we can deduce from them a universal conclusion, which will be subject to both the hypotheses in the premises; All absolute monarchs employ their power ill, unless their position makes them need the active support of their subjects, or unless they are persons of unusual strength of judgment and rectitude of purpose. It is of no consequence how rapidly the errors in our 380 premises accumulate, if we are able in this manner to record each error, and keep an account of the aggregate as it swells up. Secondly: there is a case in which approximate propositions, even without our taking note of the conditions under which they are not true of individual cases, are yet, for the purposes of science, universal ones; namely, in the inquiries which relate to the properties not of individuals, but of multitudes. The principal of these is the science of politics, or of human society. This science is principally concerned with the actions not of solitary individuals, but of masses; with the fortunes not of single persons, but of communities. For the statesman, therefore, it is generally enough to know that most persons act or are acted upon in a particular way; since his speculations and his practical arrangements refer almost exclusively to cases in which the whole community, or some large portion of it, is acted upon at once, and in which, therefore, what is done or f elt by most persons determines the result produced by or upon the body at large. He can get on well enough with approximate generalizations on human nature, since what is true approximately of all individuals is true absolutely of all masses. And even when the operations of individual men have a part to play in his deductions, as when he is reasoning of kings, or other single rulers, still, as he is providing for indefinite duration, involving an indefinite succession of such individuals, he must in general both reason and act as if what is true of most persons were true of all. The two kinds of considerations above adduced are a sufficient refutation of the popular error, that speculations on society and government, as resting on merely probable evidenc e, must be inferior in certainty and scientific accuracy to the conclusions of what are called the exact sciences, and less to be relied on in practice. There are reasons enough why the moral sciences must remain inferior to at least the more perfect of th e physical; why the laws of their more complicated phenomena can not be so completely deciphered, nor the phenomena predicted with the same degree of assurance. But though we can not attain to so many truths, there is no reason that those we can attain should deserve less reliance, or have less of a scientific character. Of this topic, however, I shall treat more systematically in the concluding Book, to which place any further consideration of it must be deferred. 381 XXIV . Of The Rema ining Laws Of Nature 1. In the First Book we found that all the assertions which can be conveyed by language, express some one or more of five different things: Existence; Order in Place; Order in Time; Causation; and Resemblance. Of these, Causation, in our view of the subject, not being fundamentally different from Order in Time, the five species of possible assertions are reduced to four. The propositions which affirm Order in Time in either of its two modes, Co-existence and Succession, have formed, thus far, the subject of the present Book. And we have now concluded the exposition, so far as it falls within the limits assigned to this work, of the nature of the evidence on which these propositions rest, and the processes of investigation by which they are ascertained and proved. There remain three classes of facts: Existence, Order in Place, and Resemblance; in regard to which the same questions are now to be resolved. Regarding the first of these, very little needs be said. Existence in general, is a subject not for our science, but for metaphysics. To determine what things can be recognized as really existing, independently of our own sensible or other impressions, and in what meaning the term is, in that case, predicated of them, belongs to the consideration of Things in themselves, from which, throughout this work, we have as much as possible kept aloof. Existence, so far as Logic is concerned about it, has reference only to phenomena; to actual, or possible, states of external or internal consciousness, in ourselves or others. Feelings of sensitive beings, or possibilities of having such feelings, are the only things the existence of which can be a subject of logical induction, because the only things of which the existence in individual cases can be a subject of experience. It is true that a thing is said by us to exist, even when it is absent, and therefore is not and can not be perceived. But even then, its existence is to us only another word for our conviction that we should perceive it on a certain supposition; namely, if we were in the needful circumstances of time and place, and endowed with the needful perfection of organs. My belief that the Emperor of China exists, is simply my belief that if I were transported to the imperial palace or some other locality in Pekin, I should see him. My belief that Julius Csar existed, is my belief that I should have seen him if I had been present in the field of Pharsalia, or in the senate-house at Rome. When I believe that stars exist beyond the utmost range of my vision, though assisted by the most powerful telescopes yet invented, my belief, philosophically expressed, is, that with still better telescopes, if such existed, I could see them, or that they may be perceived by beings less remote from them in space, or whose capacities of perception are superior to mine. The existence, therefore, of a phenomenon, is but another word for its being perceived, or for the inferred possibility of perceiving it. When the phenomenon is within the range of present observation, by present observation we assure ourselves of its existence; when it is beyond that range, and is therefore said to be absent, we infer its existence from marks or evidences. But what can these evidences be? Other phenomena; ascertained by induction to be connected with the given phenomenon, either in the way of succession or of co- existence. The simple existence, therefore, of an individual phenomenon, when not directly perceived, is inferred from some inductive law of succession or co- existen ce; and is consequently not amenable to any peculiar inductive principles. We prove the existence of a thing, by proving that it is connected by succession or co-existence with some known thing. 382 With respect to general propositions of this class, that is, which affirm the bare fact of existence, they have a peculiarity which renders the logical treatment of them a very easy matter; they are generalizations which are sufficiently proved by a single instance. That ghosts, or unicorns, or sea- serpents exist, w ould be fully established if it could be ascertained positively that such things had been even once seen. Whatever has once happened, is capable of happening again; the only question relates to the conditions under which it happens. So far, therefore, as relates to simple existence, the Inductive Logic has no knots to untie. And we may proceed to the remaining two of the great classes into which facts have been divided; Resemblance, and Order in Place. 2. Resemblance and its opposite, except in the case in which they assume the names of Equality and Inequality, are seldom regarded as subjects of science; they are supposed to be perceived by simple apprehension; by merely applying our senses or directing our attention to the two objects at once, or in immed iate succession. And this simultaneous, or virtually simultaneous, application of our faculties to the two things which are to be compared, does necessarily constitute the ultimate appeal, wherever such application is practicable. But, in most cases, it is not practicable: the objects can not be brought so close together that the feeling of their resemblance (at least a complete feeling of it) directly arises in the mind. We can only compare each of them with some third object, capable of being transported from one to the other. And besides, even when the objects can be brought into immediate juxtaposition, their resemblance or difference is but imperfectly known to us, unless we have compared them minutely, part by part. Until this has been done, things in reality very dissimilar often appear undistinguishably alike. Two lines of very unequal length will appear about equal when lying in different directions; but place them parallel with their farther extremities even, and if we look at the nearer extremities , their inequality becomes a matter of direct perception. To ascertain whether, and in what, two phenomena resemble or differ, is not always, therefore, so easy a thing as it might at first appear. When the two can not be brought into juxtaposition, or not so that the observer is able to compare their several parts in detail, he must employ the indirect means of reasoning and general propositions. When we can not bring two straight lines together, to determine whether they are equal, we do it by the physical aid of a foot-rule applied first to one and then to the other, and the logical aid of the general proposition or formula, Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. The comparison of two things through the intervention of a third thing, when their direct comparison is impossible, is the appropriate scientific process for ascertaining resemblances and dissimilarities, and is the sum total of what Logic has to teach on the subject. An undue extension of this remark induced Locke to consider reasoning itself as nothing but the comparison of two ideas through the medium of a third, and knowledge as the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas; doctrines which the Condillac school blindly adopted, without the qualifications and distinctions with which they were studiously guarded by their illustrious author. Where, indeed, the agreement or disagreement (otherwise called resemblance or dissimilarity) of any two things is the very matter to be determined, as is the case particularly in the sciences of quantity and extension; there, the process by which a solution, if not attainable by direct perception, must be indirectly sought, consists in comparing these two things through the medium of a third. But this is far from being true of all inquiries. The knowledge that bodies fall to the ground is not a perception of agreement or disagreement, but of a series of physical occurrences, a succession of sensations. Locke's definitions of knowledge and of reasoning required to be limited to our knowledge of, and 383 reasoning about, resemblances. Nor, even when thus restricted, are the propositions strictly correct; since the comparison is not made, as he represents, between the ideas of the two phenomena, but between the phenomena themselves. This mistake has been pointed out in an earlier part of our inquiry, and we traced it to an imperfect conception of what takes place in mathematics, where very often the comparison is really made between the ideas, without any appeal to the outward senses; only, however, because in mathematics a comparison of the ideas is strictly equivalent to a comparison of the phenomena themselves. Where, as in the case of numbers, lines, and figures, our idea of an object is a complete picture of the obj ect, so far as respects the matter in hand; we can, of course, learn from the picture, whatever could be learned from the object itself by mere contemplation of it as it exists at the particular instant when the picture is taken. No mere contemplation of gunpowder would ever teach us that a spark would make it explode, nor, consequently, would the contemplation of the idea of gunpowder do so; but the mere contemplation of a straight line shows that it can not inclose a space; accordingly the contemplation of the idea of it will show the same. What takes place in mathematics is thus no argument that the comparison is between the ideas only. It is always, either indirectly or directly, a comparison of the phenomena. In cases in which we can not bring the phenomena to the test of direct inspection at all, or not in a manner sufficiently precise, but must judge of their resemblance by inference from other resemblances or dissimilarities more accessible to observation, we of course require, as in all cases of rati ocination, generalizations or formul applicable to the subject. We must reason from laws of nature; from the uniformities which are observable in the fact of likeness or unlikeness. 3. Of these laws or uniformities, the most comprehensive are those supplied by mathematics; the axioms relating to equality, inequality, and proportionality, and the various theorems thereon founded. And these are the only Laws of Resemblance which require to be, or which can be, treated apart. It is true there are innumerable other theorems which affirm resemblances among phenomena; as that the angle of the reflection of light is equal to its angle of incidence (equality being merely exact resemblance in magnitude). Again, that the heavenly bodies describe equal areas in equal times; and that their periods of revolution are proportional (another species of resemblance) to the sesquiplicate powers of their distances from the centre of force. These and similar propositions affirm resemblances, of the same nature with those asser ted in the theorems of mathematics; but the distinction is, that the propositions of mathematics are true of all phenomena whatever, or at least without distinction of origin; while the truths in question are affirmed only of special phenomena, which originate in a certain way; and the equalities, proportionalities, or other resemblances, which exist between such phenomena, must necessarily be either derived from, or identical with, the law of their origin the law of causation on which they depend. The equa lity of the areas described in equal times by the planets, is derived from the laws of the causes; and, until its derivation was shown, it was an empirical law. The equality of the angles of reflection and incidence is identical with the law of the cause; for the cause is the incidence of a ray of light upon a reflecting surface, and the equality in question is the very law according to which that cause produces its effects. This class, therefore, of the uniformities of resemblance between phenomena, are in separable, in fact and in thought, from the laws of the production of those phenomena; and the principles of induction applicable to them are no other than those of which we have treated in the preceding chapters of this Book. It is otherwise with the truths of mathematics. The laws of equality and inequality between spaces, or between numbers, have no connection with laws of causation. That the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence, is a statement of the mode of action of a particular caus e; but that when two straight lines intersect each other the opposite angles are 384 equal, is true of all such lines and angles, by whatever cause produced. That the squares of the periodic times of the planets are proportional to the cubes of their distances from the sun, is a uniformity derived from the laws of the causes (or forces) which produce the planetary motions; but that the square of any number is four times the square of half the number, is true independently of any cause. The only laws of resembla nce, therefore, which we are called upon to consider independently of causation, belong to the province of mathematics. 4. The same thing is evident with respect to the only one remaining of our five categories, Order in Place. The order in place, of the effects of a cause, is (like every thing else belonging to the effects) a consequence of the laws of that cause. The order in place, or, as we have termed it, the collocation, of the primeval causes, is (as well as their resemblance) in each instance an u ltimate fact, in which no laws or uniformities are traceable. The only remaining general propositions respecting order in place, and the only ones which have nothing to do with causation, are some of the truths of geometry; laws through which we are able, from the order in place of certain points, lines, or spaces, to infer the order in place of others which are connected with the former in some known mode; quite independently of the particular nature of those points, lines, or spaces, in any other respect than position or magnitude, as well as independently of the physical cause from which in any particular case they happen to derive their origin. It thus appears that mathematics is the only department of science into the methods of which it still remains to inquire. And there is the less necessity that this inquiry should occupy us long, as we have already, in the Second Book, made considerable progress in it. We there remarked, that the directly inductive truths of mathematics are few in number; consisting of the axioms, together with certain propositions concerning existence, tacitly involved in most of the so-called definitions. And we gave what appeared conclusive reasons for affirming that these original premises, from which the remaining truths of the science are deduced, are, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, results of observation and experience; founded, in short, on the evidence of the senses. That things equal to the same thing are equal to one another, and that two straight lines which have once intersected one another continue to diverge, are inductive truths; resting, indeed, like the law of universal causation, only on induction per enumerationem simplicem ; on the fact that they have been perpetually perceived to be true, and never once found to be false. But, as we have seen in a recent chapter that this evidence, in the case of a law so completely universal as the law of causation, amounts to the fullest proof, so is this even more evidently true of the general propositions to which we are now adverting; because, as a perception of their truth in any individual case whatever, requires only the simple act of looking at the objects in a proper position, there never could have been in their case (what, for a long period, there were in the case of the law of causation) instances which were apparently, though not really, exceptions to them. Their infallible truth was recognized from the very dawn of speculation; and as their extreme familiarity made it impossible for the mind to conceiv e the objects under any other law, they were, and still are, generally considered as truths recognized by their own evidence, or by instinct. 5. There is something which seems to require explanation, in the fact that the immense multitude of truths (a multitude still as far from being exhausted as ever) comprised in the mathematical sciences, can be elicited from so small a number of elementary laws. One sees not, at first, how it is that there can be room for such an infinite variety of true propositions, on subjects apparently so limited. To begin with the science of number. The elementary or ultimate truths of this science are the common axioms concerning equality, namely, Things which are equal to the same thing are 385 equal to one another, and Equals added to equals make equal sums (no other axioms are required), P196F197 P together with the definitions of the various numbers. Like other so- called definitions, these are composed of two things, the explanation of a name, and the assertion of a fact; of which the latter alone can form a first principle or premise of a science. The fact asserted in the definition of a number is a physical fact. Each of the numbers two, three, four, etc., denotes physical phenomena, and connotes a physical property of those phenomena. Two, for instance, denotes all pairs of things, and twelve all dozens of things, connoting what makes them pairs, or dozens; and that which makes them so is something physical; since it can not be denied that two apples are physically distinguishable from three apples, two horses from one horse, and so forth; that they are a different visible and tangible phenomenon. I am not undertaking to say what the difference is; it is enough that there is a difference of which the senses can take cognizanc e. And although a hundred and two horses are not so easily distinguished from a hundred and three, as two horses are from threethough in most positions the senses do not perceive any differenceyet they may be so placed that a difference will be perceptib le, or else we should never have distinguished them, and given them different names. Weight is confessedly a physical property of things; yet small differences between great weights are as imperceptible to the senses in most situations, as small differences between great numbers; and are only put in evidence by placing the two objects in a peculiar positionnamely, in the opposite scales of a delicate balance. What, then, is that which is connoted by a name of number? Of course, some property belonging to the agglomeration of things which we call by the name; and that property is, the characteristic manner in which the agglomeration is made up of, and may be separated into, parts. I will endeavor to make this more intelligible by a few explanations. When we call a collection of objects two, three, or four , they are not two, three, or four in the abstract; they are two, three, or four things of some particular kind; pebbles, horses, inches, pounds' weight. What the name of number connotes is, the manner in which single objects of the given kind must be put together, in order to produce that particular aggregate. If the aggregate be of pebbles, and we call it two, the name implies that, to compose the aggregate, one pebble must be joined to one pebble. If we cal l it three, one and one and one pebble must be brought together to produce it, or else one pebble must be joined to an aggregate of the kind called two, already existing. The aggregate which we call four , has a still greater number of characteristic modes of formation. One and one and one and one pebble may be brought together; or two aggregates of the kind called two may be united; or one pebble may be added to an aggregate of the kind called three. Every succeeding number in the ascending series, may be f ormed by the junction of smaller numbers in a progressively greater variety of ways. Even limiting the parts to two, the number may be formed, and consequently may be divided, in as many different ways as there are numbers smaller than itself; and, if we admit of threes, fours, etc., in a still greater variety. Other modes of arriving at the same aggregate present themselves, not by the union of smaller, but by the dismemberment of larger aggregates. 197 The axiom, Equals subtracted from equals leave equal differences, may be demonstrated from the two axioms in the text. If A = a and B = b, A-B = a-b. For if not, let A -B = a-b+c . Then since B = b, adding equals to equals, A = a+c. But A = a. Therefore a = a+ c, which is impossible. This proposition having been demonstrated, we may, by means of it, demonstrate the following: If equals be added to unequals, the sums are unequal. If A = a and B not = b, A+B is not = a+b. For suppose it to be so. Then, since A = a and A+B = a+b, subtracting equals from equals, B = b; which is contrary to the hypothesis. So again, it may be proved that two things, one of which is equal and the other unequal to a third thing, are unequal to one another. If A = a and A not = B, neit her is a = B. For suppose it to be equal. Then since A = a and a = B, and since things equal to the same thing are equal to one another A = B; which is contrary to the hypothesis. 386 Thus, three pebbles may be formed by taking away one pebble from an aggregate of four; two pebbles , by an equal division of a similar aggregate; and so on. Every arithmetical proposition; every statement of the result of an arithmetical operation; is a statement of one of the modes of formation of a given number . It affirms that a certain aggregate might have been formed by putting together certain other aggregates, or by withdrawing certain portions of some aggregate; and that, by consequence, we might reproduce those aggregates from it, by reversing the process. Thus, when we say that the cube of 12 is 1728, what we affirm is this: that if, having a sufficient number of pebbles or of any other objects, we put them together into the particular sort of parcels or aggregates called twelves; and put together these t welves again into similar collections; and, finally, make up twelve of these largest parcels; the aggregate thus formed will be such a one as we call 1728; namely, that which (to take the most familiar of its modes of formation) may be made by joining the parcel called a thousand pebbles, the parcel called seven hundred pebbles, the parcel called twenty pebbles, and the parcel called eight pebbles. The converse proposition that the cube root of 1728 is 12, asserts that this large aggregate may again be deco mposed into the twelve twelves of twelves of pebbles which it consists of. The modes of formation of any number are innumerable; but when we know one mode of formation of each, all the rest may be determined deductively. If we know that a is formed from b and c, b from a and e, c from d and f, and so forth, until we have included all the numbers of any scale we choose to select (taking care that for each number the mode of formation be really a distinct one, not bringing us round again to the former numbers, but introducing a new number), we have a set of propositions from which we may reason to all the other modes of formation of those numbers from one another. Having established a chain of inductive truths connecting together all the numbers of the scale, we can ascertain the formation of any one of those numbers from any other by merely traveling from one to the other along the chain. Suppose that we know only the following modes of formation: 6=4+2, 4=7-3, 7=5+2, 5=9-4. We could determine how 6 may be formed from 9. For 6=4+2=7- 3+2=5+2 -3+2=9 -4+2-3+2. It may therefore be formed by taking away 4 and 3, and adding 2 and 2. If we know besides that 2+2=4, we obtain 6 from 9 in a simpler mode, by merely taking away 3. It is sufficient, therefore, to select one of the various modes of formation of each number, as a means of ascertaining all the rest. And since things which are uniform, and therefore simple, are most easily received and retained by the understanding, there is an obvious advantage in selecting a mod e of formation which shall be alike for all; in fixing the connotation of names of number on one uniform principle. The mode in which our existing numerical nomenclature is contrived possesses this advantage, with the additional one, that it happily conveys to the mind two of the modes of formation of every number. Each number is considered as formed by the addition of a unit to the number next below it in magnitude, and this mode of formation is conveyed by the place which it occupies in the series. And each is also considered as formed by the addition of a number of units less than ten, and a number of aggregates each equal to one of the successive powers of ten; and this mode of its formation is expressed by its spoken name, and by its numerical character. What renders arithmetic the type of a deductive science, is the fortunate applicability to it of a law so comprehensive as The sums of equals are equals: or (to express the same principle in less familiar but more characteristic language), Whatever is made up of parts, is made up of the parts of those parts. This truth, obvious to the senses in all cases which can be fairly referred to their decision, and so general as to be co-extensive with nature itself, being true of 387 all sorts of phenomena (for all admit of being numbered), must be considered an inductive truth, or law of nature, of the highest order. And every arithmetical operation is an application of this law, or of other laws capable of being deduced from it. This is our warrant for all calculat ions. We believe that five and two are equal to seven, on the evidence of this inductive law, combined with the definitions of those numbers. We arrive at that conclusion (as all know who remember how they first learned it) by adding a single unit at a tim e: 5 + 1=6, therefore 5+1+1=6+1=7; and again 2=1+1, therefore 5+2=5+1+1=7. 6. Innumerable as are the true propositions which can be formed concerning particular numbers, no adequate conception could be gained, from these alone, of the extent of the truth s composing the science of number. Such propositions as we have spoken of are the least general of all numerical truths. It is true that even these are co -extensive with all nature; the properties of the number four are true of all objects that are divisible into four equal parts, and all objects are either actually or ideally so divisible. But the propositions which compose the science of algebra are true, not of a particular number, but of all numbers; not of all things under the condition of being divided in a particular way, but of all things under the condition of being divided in any wayof being designated by a number at all. Since it is impossible for different numbers to have any of their modes of formation completely in common, it is a kind of paradox to say, that all propositions which can be made concerning numbers relate to their modes of formation from other numbers, and yet that there are propositions which are true of all numbers. But this very paradox leads to the real principle of generalization concerning the properties of numbers. Two different numbers can not be formed in the same manner from the same numbers; but they may be formed in the same manner from different numbers; as nine is formed from three by multiplying it into itself, and sixteen is formed from four by the same process. Thus there arises a classification of modes of formation, or in the language commonly used by mathematicians, a classification of Functions. Any number, considered as formed from any other number, is called a function of it; and there are as many kinds of functions as there are modes of formation. The simple functions are by no means numerous, most functions being formed by the combination of several of the operations which form simple functions, or by success ive repetitions of some one of those operations. The simple functions of any number x are all reducible to the following forms: x +a, x-a, ax , x/a, log. x (to the base a), and the same expressions varied by putting x for a and a for x, wherever that substitution would alter the value: to which, perhaps, ought to be added sin x , and arc (sin= x). All other functions of x are formed by putting some one or more of the simple functions in the place of x or a, and subjecting them to the same elementary oper ations. In order to carry on general reasonings on the subject of Functions, we require a nomenclature enabling us to express any two numbers by names which, without specifying what particular numbers they are, shall show what function each is of the other; or, in other words, shall put in evidence their mode of formation from one another. The system of general language called algebraical notation does this. The expressions a and a P2 P+3a denote, the one any number, the other the number formed from it in a particular manner. The expressions a, b, n, and ( a+b) Pn P, denote any three numbers, and a fourth which is formed from them in a certain mode. The following may be stated as the general problem of the algebraical calculus: F being a certain function of a given number, to find what function F will be of any function of that number. For example, a binomial a + b is a function of its two parts a and b, and the parts are, in their turn, functions of a + b: now ( a + b) Pn P is a certain function of the binomial; what function will this be of a and b, the two parts? The answer to this question is the binomial 388 theorem. The formula (a + b) Pn P = a Pn P + n/1 a Pn-1 P b + n.n-1/1.2 a Pn-2 P b P2 P, etc., shows in what manner the number which is formed by multiplying a + b into itself n times, might be formed without that process, directly from a, b, and n. And of this nature are all the theorems of the science of number. They assert the identity of the result of different modes of formation. They affirm that some mode of formation from x , and some mode of formation from a certain function of x , produce the same number. Such, as above described, is the aim and end of the calculus. As for its processes, every one knows that they are simply deductive. In demonstrating an algebraical theorem, or in resolving an equation, we travel from the datum to the qusitum by pure ratiocination; in which the only premises introduced, besides the original hypotheses, are the fundamental axioms already mentionedthat things equal to the same thing are equal to one another, and that the sums of equal things are equal. At each step in the demonstration or in the calculation, we apply one or other of these truths, or truths deducible from them, as, that the differences, products, etc., of equal numbers are equal. It would be inconsistent with the scale of this work, and not necessary to its design, to carry the analysis of the truths and processes of algebra any further; which is also the less needful, as the task has been, to a very great extent, performed by other writers. Peacock's Algebra, and Dr. Whewell's Doctrine of Limits , are full of instruction on the subject. The profound treatises of a truly philosophical mathematician, Professor De Morgan, should be studied by every one who desires to comprehend the evidence of mathematical truths, and the meaning of the obscurer processes of the calculus, and the speculations of M. Comte, in his Cours de Philosophie Positive , on the philosophy of the higher branches of mathematics, are among the many valuable gifts for which philosophy is indebted to that eminent thinker. 7. If the extreme generality, and remoteness not so much from sense as from the visual and tactual imagination, of the laws of number, renders it a somewhat difficult effort of abstraction to conceive those laws as being in reality physical truths obtained by observation; the same difficulty does not exist with regard to the laws of extension. The facts of which those laws are expressions, are of a kind peculiarly accessible to the senses, and suggesting eminently distinct images to the fancy. That geometry is a strictly physical science would doubtless have been recognized in all ages, had it not been for the illusions produced by two circumstances. One of these is the characteristic property, already n oticed, of the facts of geometry, that they may be collected from our ideas or mental pictures of objects as effectually as from the objects themselves. The other is, the demonstrative character of geometrical truths; which was at one time supposed to cons titute a radical distinction between them and physical truths; the latter, as resting on merely probable evidence, being deemed essentially uncertain and unprecise. The advance of knowledge has, however, made it manifest that physical science, in its bette r understood branches, is quite as demonstrative as geometry. The task of deducing its details from a few comparatively simple principles is found to be any thing but the impossibility it was once supposed to be; and the notion of the superior certainty of geometry is an illusion, arising from the ancient prejudice which, in that science, mistakes the ideal data from which we reason, for a peculiar class of realities, while the corresponding ideal data of any deductive physical science are recognized as what they really are, hypotheses. Every theorem in geometry is a law of external nature, and might have been ascertained by generalizing from observation and experiment, which in this case resolve themselves into comparison and measurement. But it was found practicable, and, being practicable, was desirable, to deduce these truths by ratiocination from a small number of general laws of nature, the certainty and universality of which are obvious to the most careless observer, and 389 which compose the first principles and ultimate premises of the science. Among these general laws must be included the same two which we have noticed as ultimate principles of the Science of Number also, and which are applicable to every description of quantity; viz., The sums of equals are equal, and Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another; the latter of which may be expressed in a manner more suggestive of the inexhaustible multitude of its consequences, by the following terms: Whatever is equal to any one of a number of equal magnitudes, is equal to any other of them. To these two must be added, in geometry, a third law of equality, namely, that lines, surfaces, or solid spaces, which can be so applied to one another as to coincide, are equal. Some writers have asserted that this law of nature is a mere verbal definition; that the expression equal magnitudes means nothing but magnitudes which can be so applied to one another as to coincide. But in this opinion I can not agree. The equality of two geometrical magnitudes can not differ fundamentally in its nature from the equality of two weights, two degrees of heat, or two portions of duration, to none of which would this definition of equality be suitable. None of these things can be so applied to one another as to coincide, yet we perfectly understand what we mean when we call them equal. Things are equal in magnitude, as things are equal in weight, when they are felt to be exactly similar in respect of the attribute in which we compare them: and the applicati on of the objects to each other in the one case, like the balancing them with a pair of scales in the other, is but a mode of bringing them into a position in which our senses can recognize deficiencies of exact resemblance that would otherwise escape our notice. Along with these three general principles or axioms, the remainder of the premises of geometry consists of the so- called definitions: that is to say, propositions asserting the real existence of the various objects therein designated, together with some one property of each. In some cases more than one property is commonly assumed, but in no case is more than one necessary. It is assumed that there are such things in nature as straight lines, and that any two of them setting out from the same point, diverge more and more without limit. This assumption (which includes and goes beyond Euclid's axiom that two straight lines can not inclose a space) is as indispensable in geometry, and as evident, resting on as simple, familiar, and universal observation, as any of the other axioms. It is also assumed that straight lines diverge from one another in different degrees; in other words, that there are such things as angles, and that they are capable of being equal or unequal. It is assumed that there is such a thing as a circle, and that all its radii are equal; such things as ellipses, and that the sums of the focal distances are equal for every point in an ellipse; such things as parallel lines, and that those lines are everywhere equally distant. P197F198 P 8. It is a matter of more than curiosity to consider, to what peculiarity of the physical truths which are the subject of geometry, it is owing that they can all be deduced from so small a 198 Geometers have usually preferred to define parallel lines by the property of being in the same plane and never meeting. This, however, has rendered it necessary for them to assume, as an additional axiom, some other property of parallel lines; and the unsatisfactory manner in which properties for that purpose have been selected by Euclid and others has always been deemed the opprobrium of elementary geometry. Even as a verbal definition, equidistance is a fitter property to characterize parallels by, since it is the attribute really involved in the signification of the name. If t o be in the same plane and never to meet were all that is meant by being parallel, we should feel no incongruity in speaking of a curve as parallel to its asymptote. The meaning of parallel lines is, lines which pursue exactly the same direction, and which, therefore, neither draw nearer nor go farther from one another; a conception suggested at once by the contemplation of nature. That the lines will never meet is of course included in the more comprehensive proposition that they are everywhere equally distant. And that any straight lines which are in the same plane and not equidistant will certainly meet, may be demonstrated in the most rigorous manner from the fundamental property of straight lines assumed in the text, viz., that if they set out from the same point, they diverge more and more without limit. 390 number of original premises; why it is that we can set out from only one characteristic property of each kind of phenomenon, and with that and two or three general truths relating to equality, can travel from mark to mark until we obtain a vast body of derivative truths, to all appearance extremely unlike those elementary ones . The explanation of this remarkable fact seems to lie in the following circumstances. In the first place, all questions of position and figure may be resolved into questions of magnitude. The position and figure of any object are determined by determining the position of a sufficient number of points in it; and the position of any point may be determined by the magnitude of three rectangular co-ordinates, that is, of the perpendiculars drawn from the point to three planes at right angles to one another, ar bitrarily selected. By this transformation of all questions of quality into questions only of quantity, geometry is reduced to the single problem of the measurement of magnitudes, that is, the ascertainment of the equalities which exist between them. Now when we consider that by one of the general axioms, any equality, when ascertained, is proof of as many other equalities as there are other things equal to either of the two equals; and that by another of those axioms, any ascertained equality is proof of the equality of as many pairs of magnitudes as can be formed by the numerous operations which resolve themselves into the addition of the equals to themselves or to other equals; we cease to wonder that in proportion as a science is conversant about equality, it should afford a more copious supply of marks of marks; and that the sciences of number and extension, which are conversant with little else than equality, should be the most deductive of all the sciences. There are also two or three of the principal laws of space or extension which are unusually fitted for rendering one position or magnitude a mark of another, and thereby contributing to render the science largely deductive. First, the magnitudes of inclosed spaces, whether superficial or so lid, are completely determined by the magnitudes of the lines and angles which bound them. Secondly, the length of any line, whether straight or curve, is measured (certain other things being given) by the angle which it subtends, and vic versa . Lastly, t he angle which any two straight lines make with each other at an inaccessible point, is measured by the angles they severally make with any third line we choose to select. By means of these general laws, the measurement of all lines, angles, and spaces whatsoever might be accomplished by measuring a single straight line and a sufficient number of angles; which is the plan actually pursued in the trigonometrical survey of a country; and fortunate it is that this is practicable, the exact measurement of long straight lines being always difficult, and often impossible, but that of angles very easy. Three such generalizations as the foregoing afford such facilities for the indirect measurement of magnitudes (by supplying us with known lines or angles which are marks of the magnitude of unknown ones, and thereby of the spaces which they inclose), that it is easily intelligible how from a few data we can go on to ascertain the magnitude of an indefinite multitude of lines, angles, and spaces, which we could not easily, or could not at all, measure by any more direct process. 9. Such are the remarks which it seems necessary to make in this place, respecting the laws of nature which are the peculiar subject of the sciences of number and extension. The immense part w hich those laws take in giving a deductive character to the other departments of physical science, is well known; and is not surprising, when we consider that all causes operate according to mathematical laws. The effect is always dependent on, or is a fun ction of, the quantity of the agent; and generally of its position also. We can not, therefore, reason respecting causation, without introducing considerations of quantity and extension at every step; and if the nature of the phenomena admits of our obtaining numerical data of sufficient accuracy, the laws of quantity become the grand instrument for calculating forward to an effect, or backward to a cause. That in all other sciences, as well as in geometry, questions of 391 quality are scarcely ever independent of questions of quantity, may be seen from the most familiar phenomena. Even when several colors are mixed on a painter's palette, the comparative quantity of each entirely determines the color of the mixture. With this mere suggestion of the general caus es which render mathematical principles and processes so predominant in those deductive sciences which afford precise numerical data, I must, on the present occasion, content myself; referring the reader who desires a more thorough acquaintance with the subject, to the first two volumes of M. Comte's systematic work. In the same work, and more particularly in the third volume, are also fully discussed the limits of the applicability of mathematical principles to the improvement of other sciences. Such princ iples are manifestly inapplicable, where the causes on which any class of phenomena depend are so imperfectly accessible to our observation, that we can not ascertain, by a proper induction, their numerical laws; or where the causes are so numerous, and intermixed in so complex a manner with one another, that even supposing their laws known, the computation of the aggregate effect transcends the powers of the calculus as it is, or is likely to be; or, lastly, where the causes themselves are in a state of perpetual fluctuation; as in physiology, and still more, if possible, in the social science. The mathematical solutions of physical questions become progressively more difficult and imperfect, in proportion as the questions divest themselves of their abstract and hypothetical character, and approach nearer to the degree of complication actually existing in nature; insomuch that beyond the limits of astronomical phenomena, and of those most nearly analogous to them, mathematical accuracy is generally obtained at the expense of the reality of the inquiry: while even in astronomical questions, notwithstanding the admirable simplicity of their mathematical elements, our feeble intelligence becomes incapable of following out effectually the logical combinations of the laws on which the phenomena are dependent, as soon as we attempt to take into simultaneous consideration more than two or three essential influences. P198F199 P Of this, the problem of the Three Bodies has already been cited, more than once, as a remarkable instance; the complete solution of so comparatively simple a question having vainly tried the skill of the most profound mathematicians. We may conceive, then, how chimerical would be the hope that mathematical principles could be advantageously applied to phenomena dependent on the mutual action of the innumerable minute particles of bodies, as those of chemistry, and still more, of physiology; and for similar reasons those principles remain inapplicable to the still more complex inquiries, the subjects o f which are phenomena of society and government. The value of mathematical instruction as a preparation for those more difficult investigations, consists in the applicability not of its doctrines, but of its method. Mathematics will ever remain the most pe rfect type of the Deductive Method in general; and the applications of mathematics to the deductive branches of physics, furnish the only school in which philosophers can effectually learn the most difficult and important portion of their art, the employment of the laws of simpler phenomena for explaining and predicting those of the more complex. These grounds are quite sufficient for deeming mathematical training an indispensable basis of real scientific education, and regarding (according to the dictum which an old but unauthentic tradition ascribes to Plato) one who is , as wanting in one of the most essential qualifications for the successful cultivation of the higher branches of philosophy. 199 Philosophie Positive , iii., 414 -416. 392 XXV. Of The Grounds Of Di sbelief 1. The method of arriving at general truths, or general propositions fit to be believed, and the nature of the evidence on which they are grounded, have been discussed, as far as space and the writer's faculties permitted, in the twenty -four preceding chapters. But the result of the examination of evidence is not always belief, nor even suspension of judgment; it is sometimes disbelief. The philosophy, therefore, of induction and experimental inquiry is incomplete, unless the grounds not only of belief, but of disbelief, are treated of; and to this topic we shall devote one, and the final, chapter. By disbelief is not here to be understood the mere absence of belief. The ground for abstaining from belief is simply the absence or insufficiency of proof; and in considering what is sufficient evidence to support any given conclusion, we have already, by implication, considered what evidence is not sufficient for the same purpose. By disbelief is here meant, not the state of mind in which we form no opinion concerning a subject, but that in which we are fully persuaded that some opinion is not true; insomuch that if evidence, even of great apparent strength (whether grounded on the testimony of others or on our own supposed perceptions), were produced in favor of the opinion, we should believe that the witnesses spoke falsely, or that they, or we ourselves if we were the direct percipients, were mistaken. That there are such cases, no one is likely to dispute. Assertions for which there is abundant positive evidence are often disbelieved, on account of what is called their improbability, or impossibility. And the question for consideration is what, in the present case, these words mean, and how far and in what circumstances the properties which they express are sufficient grounds for disbelief. 2. It is to be remarked, in the first place, that the positive evidence produced in support of an assertion which is nevertheless rejected on the score of impossibility or improbability, is never such as amounts to full proof. It is always grounded on some approximate generalization. The fact may have been asserted by a hundred witnesses; but there are many exceptions to the universality of the generalization that what a hundred witnesses affirm is true. We may seem to ourselves to have actually seen the fact; but that we really see what we think we see, is by no means a universal truth; our organs may have been in a morbid state; or we may have inferred something, and imagined that we perceived it. The evidence, then, in the affirmative being never more than an approximate generalization, all will depend on what the evidence in the negative is. If that also rests on an approximate generalization, it is a case for comparison of probabilities. If the app roximate generalizations leading to the affirmative are, when added together, less strong, or, in other words, farther from being universal, than the approximate generalizations which support the negative side of the question, the proposition is said to be improbable, and is to be disbelieved provisionally. If, however, an alleged fact be in contradiction, not to any number of approximate generalizations, but to a completed generalization grounded on a rigorous induction, it is said to be impossible, and is to be disbelieved totally. This last principle, simple and evident as it appears, is the doctrine which, on the occasion of an attempt to apply it to the question of the credibility of miracles, excited so violent a controversy. Hume's celebrated doctrine, that nothing is credible which is contradictory to experience, or at variance with laws of nature, is merely this very plain and harmless proposition, that whatever is contradictory to a complete induction is incredible. That such a 393 maxim as this should either be accounted a dangerous heresy, or mistaken for a great and recondite truth, speaks ill for the state of philosophical speculation on such subjects. But does not (it may be asked) the very statement of the proposition imply a contradiction? An alle ged fact, according to this theory, is not to be believed if it contradict a complete induction. But it is essential to the completeness of an induction that it shall not contradict any known fact. Is it not, then, a petitio principii to say, that the fact ought to be disbelieved because the induction opposed to it is complete? How can we have a right to declare the induction complete, while facts, supported by credible evidence, present themselves in opposition to it? I answer, we have that right whenever the scientific canons of induction give it to us; that is, whenever the induction can be complete. We have it, for example, in a case of causation in which there has been an experimentum crucis . If an antecedent A, superadded to a set of antecedents in all other respects unaltered, is followed by an effect B which did not exist before, A is, in that instance at least, the cause of B, or an indispensable part of its cause; and if A be tried again with many totally different sets of antecedents and B still follows, then it is the whole cause. If these observations or experiments have been repeated so often, and by so many persons, as to exclude all supposition of error in the observer, a law of nature is established; and so long as this law is received as such , the assertion that on any particular occasion A took place, and yet B did not follow, without any counteracting cause , must be disbelieved. Such an assertion is not to be credited on any less evidence than what would suffice to overturn the law. The general truths, that whatever has a beginning has a cause, and that when none but the same causes exist, the same effects follow, rest on the strongest inductive evidence possible; the proposition that things affirmed by even a crowd of respectable witnesses a re true, is but an approximate generalization; andeven if we fancy we actually saw or felt the fact which is in contradiction to the law what a human being can see is no more than a set of appearances; from which the real nature of the phenomenon is merely an inference, and in this inference approximate generalizations usually have a large share. If, therefore, we make our election to hold by the law, no quantity of evidence whatever ought to persuade us that there has occurred any thing in contradiction to it. If, indeed, the evidence produced is such that it is more likely that the set of observations and experiments on which the law rests should have been inaccurately performed or incorrectly interpreted, than that the evidence in question should be fals e, we may believe the evidence; but then we must abandon the law. And since the law was received on what seemed a complete induction, it can only be rejected on evidence equivalent; namely, as being inconsistent not with any number of approximate generalizations, but with some other and better established law of nature. This extreme case, of a conflict between two supposed laws of nature, has probably never actually occurred where, in the process of investigating both the laws, the true canons of scientific induction had been kept in view; but if it did occur, it must terminate in the total rejection of one of the supposed laws. It would prove that there must be a flaw in the logical process by which either one or the other was established; and if there be so, that supposed general truth is no truth at all. We can not admit a proposition as a law of nature, and yet believe a fact in real contradiction to it. We must disbelieve the alleged fact, or believe that we were mistaken in admitting the supposed law. But in order that any alleged fact should be contradictory to a law of causation, the allegation must be, not simply that the cause existed without being followed by the effect, for that would be no uncommon occurrence; but that this happened in the absence of any adequate counteracting cause. Now in the case of an alleged miracle, the assertion is the exact opposite of this. It is, that the effect was defeated, not in the absence, but in consequence of a counteracting cause, namely, a direct interposition of an act of the will of some being who 394 has power over nature; and in particular of a Being, whose will being assumed to have endowed all the causes with the powers by which they produce their effects, may well be supposed able to counteract them. A miracle (as was justly remarked by Brown) P199F200 P is no contradiction to the law of cause and effect; it is a new effect, supposed to be produced by the introduction of a new cause. Of the adequacy of that cause, if present, there can be no doubt; and the only antecedent improbability which can be ascribed to the miracle, is the improbability that any such cause existed. All, therefore, which Hume has made out, and this he must be considered to have made out, is, that (at least in the imperfect state of our knowledge of natural agencies, which leaves it always possible that some of the physical antecedents may have been hidden from us) no evidence can prove a miracle to any one who did not previously believe the existence of a being or beings with supernatural power; or who believes himself to have full proof that the character of the Being whom he recognizes is inconsistent with his having seen fit to interfere on the occasion in question. If we do not already believe in supernatural agencies, no miracle can prove to us their existence. The miracle itself, considered merely as an extraordinary fact, may be satisfactorily certified by our senses or by testimony; but nothing can ever prove that it is a miracle; there is still another possible hypothesis, that of its being the result of some unknown natural cause; and this possibility can not be so completely shut out, as to leave no alternative but that of admitting the existence and intervention of a being superior to nature. Those, however, who already believe in such a being have two hypotheses to choose from, a supernatural and an unknown natural agency; and they have to judge which of the two is the most probable in the particular case. In forming this judgment, an important element of the question will be the conformity of the result to the laws of the supposed agent, that is, to the character of the Deity as they conceive it. But with the knowledge which we now possess of the general uniformity of the course of nature, religion, following in the wake of science, has been compelled to acknowledge the government of the universe as being on the whole carried on by general laws, and not by special interpositions. To whoever holds this belief, there is a general presumption against any supposition of divine agency not operating through general laws, or, in other words, there is an antecedent improbability in every miracle, which, in order to outweigh it, requires an extraordinary strength of antecedent probability derived from the special circumstances of the case. 3. It appears from what has been said, that the assertion that a cause has been defeated of an effect which is connected with it by a completely ascertained law of causation, is to be disbelieved or not, according to the probability or improbability that there existed in the particular instance an adequate counteracting cause. To form an estimate of this, is not more difficult than of other probabilities. With regard to all known causes capable of counteracting the given causes, we have generally some previous knowledge of the frequency or rarity of their occurrence, from which we may draw an inference as to the antecedent improbability of their having been present in any particular case. And neither in respect to known nor unknown causes are we required to pronounce on the probability of their existing in nature, but only of their having existed at the time and place at which the transaction is alleged to have happened. We are seldom, therefore, without the means (when the circumstances of the case are at all known t o us) of judging how far it is likely that such a cause should have existed at that time and place without manifesting its presence by some other marks, and (in the case of an unknown cause) without having hitherto manifested its existence in any other instance. According as this circumstance, or the falsity of the testimony, appears more 200 See the two remarkable notes (A) and (F), appended to his Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect . 395 improbablethat is, conflicts with an approximate generalization of a higher orderwe believe the testimony, or disbelieve it; with a stronger or a weaker degree of conviction, according to the preponderance; at least until we have sifted the matter further. So much, then, for the case in which the alleged fact conflicts, or appears to conflict, with a real law of causation. But a more common case, perhaps, is that of its conflicting with uniformities of mere co -existence, not proved to be dependent on causation; in other words, with the properties of Kinds. It is with these uniformities principally that the marvelous stories related by travelers are apt to be at variance; as of men with tails, or with wings, and (until confirmed by experience) of flying fish; or of ice, in the celebrated anecdote of the Dutch travelers and the King of Siam. Facts of this description, facts previously unheard of, but which could not from any known law of causation be pronounced impossible, are what Hume characterizes as not contrary to experience, but merely unconformable to it; and Bentham, in his treatise on Evidence, denominates them facts disconformable in specie, as distinguished from suc h as are disconformable in toto or in degree In a case of this description, the fact asserted is the existence of a new Kind; which in itself is not in the slightest degree incredible, and only to be rejected if the improbability that any variety of object existing at the particular place and time should not have been discovered sooner, be greater than that of error or mendacity in the witnesses. Accordingly, such assertions, when made by credible persons, and of unexplored places, are not disbelieved, but at most regarded as requiring confirmation from subsequent observers; unless the alleged properties of the supposed new Kind are at variance with known properties of some larger kind which includes it; or, in other words, unless, in the new Kind which is asserted to exist, some properties are said to have been found disjoined from others which have always been known to accompany them; as in the case of Pliny's men, or any other kind of animal of a structure different from that which has always been found to co -exist with animal life. On the mode of dealing with any such case, little needs be added to what has been said on the same topic in the twenty -second chapter. When the uniformities of co- existence which the alleged fact would violate, are such as to raise a strong presumption of their being the result of causation, the fact which conflicts with them is to be disbelieved; at least provisionally, and subject to further investigation. When the presumption amounts to a virtual certainty, as in the case of t he general structure of organized beings, the only question requiring consideration is whether, in phenomena so little understood, there may not be liabilities to counteraction from causes hitherto unknown; or whether the phenomena may not be capable of originating in some other way, which would produce a different set of derivative uniformities. Where (as in the case of the flying fish, or the ornithorhynchus) the generalization to which the alleged fact would be an exception is very special and of limited range, neither of the above suppositions can be deemed very improbable; and it is generally, in the case of such alleged anomalies, wise to suspend our judgment, pending the subsequent inquiries which will not fail to confirm the assertion if it be true. But when the generalization is very comprehensive, embracing a vast number and variety of observations, and covering a considerable province of the domain of nature; then, for reasons which have been fully explained, such an empirical law comes near to the certainty of an ascertained law of causation; and any alleged exception to it can not be admitted, unless on the evidence of some law of causation proved by a still more complete induction. Such uniformities in the course of nature as do not bear marks of being the results of causation are, as we have already seen, admissible as universal truths with a degree of credence proportioned to their generality. Those which are true of all things whatever, or at least which are totally independent of the varieties of Kinds, namely, the laws of number and extension, to which we may add the law of causation itself, are probably the only ones, an 396 exception to which is absolutely and permanently incredible. Accordingly, it is to assertions supposed to be contradictory to these laws, or to some others coming near to them in generality, that the word impossibility (at least total impossibility) seems to be generally confined. Violations of other laws, of special laws of causation, for instance, are said, by persons studious of accuracy in expression, to be impossible in the circumstances of the case ; or impossible unless some cause had existed which did not exist in the particular case. P200F201 P Of no assertion, not in contradiction to some of these very general laws, will more than improbability be asserted by any cautious person; and improbability not of the highest degree, unless the time and place in which the fact is said to have occurred, render it almost certain that the anomaly, if real, could not have been overlooked by other observers. Suspension of judgment is in all other cases the resource of the judicious inquirer; provided the testimony in favor of the anomaly presents, when well sifted, no suspicious circumstances. But the testimony is scarcely ever found to stand t hat test, in cases in which the anomaly is not real. In the instances on record in which a great number of witnesses, of good reputation and scientific acquirements, have testified to the truth of something which has turned out untrue, there have almost al ways been circumstances which, to a keen observer who had taken due pains to sift the matter, would have rendered the testimony untrustworthy. There have generally been means of accounting for the impression on the senses or minds of the alleged percipient s, by fallacious appearances; or some epidemic delusion, propagated by the contagious influence of popular feeling, has been concerned in the case; or some strong interest has been implicated religious zeal, party feeling, vanity, or at least the passion f or the marvelous, in persons strongly susceptible of it. When none of these or similar circumstances exist to account for the apparent strength of the testimony; and where the assertion is not in contradiction either to those universal laws which know no counteraction or anomaly, or to the generalizations next in comprehensiveness to them, but would only amount, if admitted, to the existence of an unknown cause or an anomalous Kind, in circumstances not so thoroughly explored but that it is credible that things hitherto unknown may still come to light; a cautious person will neither admit nor reject the testimony, but will wait for confirmation at other times and from other unconnected sources. Such ought to have been the conduct of the King of Siam when the Dutch travelers affirmed to him the existence of ice. But an ignorant person is as obstinate in his contemptuous incredulity as he is unreasonably credulous. Any thing unlike his own narrow experience he disbelieves, if it flatters no propensity; any nurs ery tale is swallowed implicitly by him if it does. 4. I shall now advert to a very serious misapprehension of the principles of the subject, which has been committed by some of the writers against Hume's Essay on Miracles, and by Bishop Butler before them, in their anxiety to destroy what appeared to them a formidable weapon of assault against the Christian religion; and the effect of which is entirely to confound the doctrine of the Grounds of Disbelief. The mistake consists in overlooking the distinction between (what may be called) improbability before the fact and improbability after it; or (since, as Mr. Venn remarks, the distinction of past and future is not the material 201 A writer to whom I have several times referred, gives as the definition of an impossibility, that which there exists in the world no cause adequate to produce. This definition does not take in such impossibilities as these that two and two should make five; that two straight lines should inclose a space; or that any thing should begin to exist without a cause. I can think of no definition of impossibility comprehensive enough to include all its varieties, except the one which I have given: viz., An impossibility is that, the truth of which woul d conflict with a complete induction, that is, with the most conclusive evidence which we possess of universal truth. As to the reputed impossibilities which rest on no other grounds than our ignorance of any cause capable of producing the supposed effects; very few of them are certainly impossible, or permanently incredible. The facts of traveling seventy miles an hour, painless surgical operations, and conversing by instantaneous signals between London and New York, held a high place, not many years ago, among such impossibilities. 397 circumstance) between the improbability of a mere guess being right, and the improbability of an alleged fact being true. Many events are altogether improbable to us, before they have happened, or before we are informed of their happening, which are not in the least incredible when we are informed of them, because not contrary to any, even approximate, induction. In the cast of a perfectly fair die, the chances are five to one against throwing ace, that is, ace will be thrown on an average only once in six throws. But this is no reason against believing that ace was thrown on a given occasion, if any credible witness asserts it; since though ace is only thrown once in six times, some number which is only thrown once in six times must have been thrown if the die was thrown at all. The improbability, then, or, in other words, the unusualness, of any fact, is no reason for disbelieving it, if the nature of the case renders it certain that either that or something equally improbable, that is, equally unusual, did happen. Nor is this all; for even if the other five sides of the die were all twos, or all threes, yet as ace would still, on the average, come up once in every six throws, its coming up in a given throw would be not in any way contradictory to experience. If we disbelieved all facts which had the chances against them beforehand, we should believe hardly any thing. We are told that A. B. died yesterday; the moment before we were so told, the chances against his having died on that day may have been ten thousand to one; but since he was certain to die at some time or other, and when he died must necessarily die on some particular day, while the preponderance of chances is very great against every day in particular, experience affords no ground for discrediting any testimony which may be produced to the event's having taken pla ce on a given day. Yet it has been considered by Dr. Campbell and others, as a complete answer to Hume's doctrine (that things are incredible which are contrary to the uniform course of experience), that we do not disbelieve, merely because the chances were against them, things in strict conformity to the uniform course of experience; that we do not disbelieve an alleged fact merely because the combination of causes on which it depends occurs only once in a certain number of times. It is evident that whatev er is shown by observation, or can be proved from laws of nature, to occur in a certain proportion (however small) of the whole number of possible cases, is not contrary to experience; though we are right in disbelieving it, if some other supposition respecting the matter in question involves, on the whole, a less departure from the ordinary course of events. Yet on such grounds as this have able writers been led to the extraordinary conclusion, that nothing supported by credible testimony ought ever to be disbelieved. 5. We have considered two species of events, commonly said to be improbable; one kind which are in no way extraordinary, but which, having an immense preponderance of chances against them, are improbable until they are affirmed, but no longer; another kind which, being contrary to some recognized law of nature, are incredible on any amount of testimony except such as would be sufficient to shake our belief in the law itself. But between these two classes of events, there is an intermediate cl ass, consisting of what are commonly termed Coincidences: in other words, those combinations of chances which present some peculiar and unexpected regularity, assimilating them, in so far, to the results of law. As if, for example, in a lottery of a thousand tickets, the numbers should be drawn in the exact order of what are called the natural numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc. We have still to consider the principles of evidence applicable to this case: whether there is any difference between coincidences and ordinary events, in the amount of testimony or other evidence necessary to render them credible. 398 It is certain that on every rational principle of expectation, a combination of this peculiar sort may be expected quite as often as any other given series of a thousand numbers; that with perfectly fair dice, sixes will be thrown twice, thrice, or any number of times in succession, quite as often in a thousand or a million throws, as any other succession of numbers fixed upon beforehand; and that no judicious player would give greater odds against the one series than against the other. Notwithstanding this, there is a general disposition to regard the one as much more improbable than the other, and as requiring much stronger evidence to make it credible. Such is the force of this impression, that it has led some thinkers to the conclusion, that nature has greater difficulty in producing regular combinations than irregular ones; or in other words, that there is some general tendency of things, some law, which prevents reg ular combinations from occurring, or at least from occurring so often as others. Among these thinkers may be numbered D'Alembert; who, in an Essay on Probabilities to be found in the fifth volume of his Mlanges , contends that regular combinations, though equally probable according to the mathematical theory with any others, are physically less probable. He appeals to common sense, or, in other words, to common impressions; saying, if dice thrown repeatedly in our presence gave sixes every time, should we not, before the number of throws had reached ten (not to speak of thousands of millions), be ready to affirm, with the most positive conviction, that the dice were false? The common and natural impression is in favor of D'Alembert: the regular series would be thought much more unlikely than an irregular. But this common impression is, I apprehend, merely grounded on the fact, that scarcely any body remembers to have ever seen one of these peculiar coincidences: the reason of which is simply that no one's experience extends to any thing like the number of trials, within which that or any other given combination of events can be expected to happen. The chance of sixes on a single throw of two dice being 1/36, the chance of sixes ten times in succession is 1 divided by the tenth power of 36; in other words, such a concurrence is only likely to happen once in 3,656,158,440,062,976 trials, a number which no dice-player's experience comes up to a millionth part of. But if, instead of sixes ten times, any other given succession of ten throws had been fixed upon, it would have been exactly as unlikely that in any individual's experience that particular succession had ever occurred; although this does not seem equally improbable, because no one would be likely to have r emembered whether it had occurred or not, and because the comparison is tacitly made, not between sixes ten times and any one particular series of throws, but between all regular and all irregular successions taken together. That (as D'Alembert says) if th e succession of sixes was actually thrown before our eyes, we should ascribe it not to chance, but to unfairness in the dice, is unquestionably true. But this arises from a totally different principle. We should then be considering, not the probability of the fact in itself, but the comparative probability with which, when it is known to have happened, it may be referred to one or to another cause. The regular series is not at all less likely than the irregular one to be brought about by chance, but it is much more likely than the irregular one to be produced by design; or by some general cause operating through the structure of the dice. It is the nature of casual combinations to produce a repetition of the same event, as often and no oftener than any other series of events. But it is the nature of general causes to reproduce, in the same circumstances, always the same event. Common sense and science alike dictate that, all other things being the same, we should rather attribute the effect to a cause which i f real would be very likely to produce it, than to a cause which would be very unlikely to produce it. According to Laplace's sixth theorem, which we demonstrated in a former chapter, the difference of probability arising from the superior efficacy of the constant cause, unfairness in the dice, would after a very few throws far outweigh any antecedent probability which there could be against its existence. 399 D'Alembert should have put the question in another manner. He should have supposed that we had our selves previously tried the dice, and knew by ample experience that they were fair. Another person then tries them in our absence, and assures us that he threw sixes ten times in succession. Is the assertion credible or not? Here the effect to be accounted for is not the occurrence itself, but the fact of the witness's asserting it. This may arise either from its having really happened, or from some other cause. What we have to estimate is the comparative probability of these two suppositions. If the witnes s affirmed that he had thrown any other series of numbers, supposing him to be a person of veracity, and tolerable accuracy, and to profess that he took particular notice, we should believe him. But the ten sixes are exactly as likely to have been really thrown as the other series. If, therefore, this assertion is less credible than the other, the reason must be, not that it is less likely than the other to be made truly, but that it is more likely than the other to be made falsely. One reason obviously presents itself why what is called a coincidence, should be oftener asserted falsely than an ordinary combination. It excites wonder. It gratifies the love of the marvelous. The motives, therefore, to falsehood, one of the most frequent of which is the desire to astonish, operate more strongly in favor of this kind of assertion than of the other kind. Thus far there is evidently more reason for discrediting an alleged coincidence, than a statement in itself not more probable, but which if made would not be thought remarkable. There are cases, however, in which the presumption on this ground would be the other way. There are some witnesses who, the more extraordinary an occurrence might appear, would be the more anxious to verify it by the utmost carefulness of observation before they would venture to believe it, and still more before they would assert it to others. 6. Independently, however, of any peculiar chances of mendacity arising from the nature of the assertion, Laplace contends, that merely on the general ground of the fallibility of testimony, a coincidence is not credible on the same amount of testimony on which we should be warranted in believing an ordinary combination of events. In order to do justice to his argument, it is necessary to illustrate it by the example chosen by himself. If, says Laplace, there were one thousand tickets in a box, and one only has been drawn out, then if an eye-witness affirms that the number drawn was 79, this, though the chances were 999 in 1000 against it, is not on t hat account the less credible; its credibility is equal to the antecedent probability of the witness's veracity. But if there were in the box 999 black balls and only one white, and the witness affirms that the white ball was drawn, the case according to Laplace is very different: the credibility of his assertion is but a small fraction of what it was in the former case; the reason of the difference being as follows: The witnesses of whom we are speaking must, from the nature of the case, be of a kind whose credibility falls materially short of certainty; let us suppose, then, the credibility of the witness in the case in question to be 9/10; that is, let us suppose that in every ten statements which the witness makes, nine on an average are correct, and one incorrect. Let us now suppose that there have taken place a sufficient number of drawings to exhaust all the possible combinations, the witness deposing in every one. In one case out of every ten in all these drawings he will actually have made a false an nouncement. But in the case of the thousand tickets these false announcements will have been distributed impartially over all the numbers, and of the 999 cases in which No. 79 was not drawn, there will have been only one case in which it was announced. On the contrary, in the case of the thousand balls (the announcement being always either black or white), if white was not drawn, and there was a false announcement, that false announcement must have been white; and since by the supposition there was a false announcement once in every ten times, white will have been 400 announced falsely in one-tenth part of all the cases in which it was not drawn, that is, in one- tenth part of 999 cases out of every thousand. White, then, is drawn, on an average, exactly as often as No. 79, but it is announced, without having been really drawn, 999 times as often as No. 79; the announcement, therefore, requires a much greater amount of testimony to render it credible. P201F202 P To make this argument valid it must of course be supposed, that the announcements made by the witness are average specimens of his general veracity and accuracy; or, at least, that they are neither more nor less so in the case of the black and white balls, than in the case of the thousand tickets. This assumption, however, is not warranted. A person is far less likely to mistake, who has only one form of error to guard against, than if he had 999 different errors to avoid. For instance, in the example chosen, a messenger who might make a mistake once in ten time s in reporting the number drawn in a lottery, might not err once in a thousand times if sent simply to observe whether a ball was black or white. Laplace's argument, therefore, is faulty even as applied to his own case. Still less can that case be received as completely representing all cases of coincidence. Laplace has so contrived his example, that though black answers to 999 distinct possibilities, and white only to one, the witness has nevertheless no bias which can make him prefer black to white. The w itness did not know that there were 999 black balls in the box and only one white; or if he did, Laplace has taken care to make all the 999 cases so undistinguishably alike, that there is hardly a possibility of any cause of falsehood or error operating in favor of any of them, which would not operate in the same manner if there were only one. Alter this supposition, and the whole argument falls to the ground. Let the balls, for instance, be numbered, and let the white ball be No. 79. Considered in respect of their color, there are but two things which the witness can be interested in asserting, or can have dreamed or hallucinated, or has to choose from if he answers at random, viz., black and white; but considered in respect of the numbers attached to them, there are a thousand; and if his interest or error happens to be connected with the numbers, though the only assertion he makes is about the color, the case becomes precisely assimilated to that of the thousand tickets. Or instead of the balls suppose a lottery, with 1000 tickets and but one prize, and that I hold No. 79, and being interested only in that, ask the witness not what was the number drawn, but whether it was 79 or some other. There are now only two cases, as in Laplace's example; yet he surely would not say that if the witness answered 79, the assertion would be in an enormous proportion less credible, than if he made the same answer to the same question asked in the other way. If, for instance (to put a case supposed by Laplace himself), he has staked a large sum on one of the chances, and thinks that by announcing its occurrence he shall increase his credit; he is equally likely to have betted on any one of the 999 numbers which are attached to black balls, and so far as the chances of mendaci ty from this cause are concerned, there will be 999 times as many chances of his announcing black falsely as white. Or suppose a regiment of 1000 men, 999 Englishmen and one Frenchman, and that of these one man has been killed, and it is not known which. I ask the question, and the witness answers, the Frenchman. This was not only as improbable a priori , but is in itself as singular a circumstance, as remarkable a coincidence, as the drawing of the white ball; yet we should believe the statement as readily, as if the answer had been John Thompson. Because, though 202 Not, however, as might at first sight appear, 999 times as much. A complete analysis of the cases shows that (always assuming the veracity of the witness to be 9/10) in 10,000 drawings, the drawing of No. 79 will occur nine times, and be announced incorrectly once; the credibility, therefore, of the announcement of No. 79 is 9/10; while the drawing of a white ball will occur nine times, and be announced incorrectly 999 times. The credibility, therefore, of the announcement of white is 9/1008, and the ratio of the two 1008:10; the one announcement being thus only about a hundred times more credible than the other, instead of 999 times. 401 the 999 Englishmen were all alike in the point in which they differed from the Frenchman, they were not, like the 999 black balls, undistinguishable in every other respect; but being all different, they admitted as many chances of interest or error, as if each man had been of a different nation; and if a lie was told or a mistake made, the misstatement was as likely to fall on any Jones or Thompson of the set, as on the Frenchman. The example of a co incidence selected by D'Alembert, that of sixes thrown on a pair of dice ten times in succession, belongs to this sort of cases rather than to such as Laplace's. The coincidence is here far more remarkable, because of far rarer occurrence, than the drawing of the white ball. But though the improbability of its really occurring is greater, the superior probability of its being announced falsely can not be established with the same evidence. The announcement black represented 999 cases, but the witness may not have known this, and if he did, the 999 cases are so exactly alike, that there is really only one set of possible causes of mendacity corresponding to the whole. The announcement sixes not drawn ten times, represents, and is known by the witness to represent, a great multitude of contingencies, every one of which being unlike every other, there may be a different and a fresh set of causes of mendacity corresponding to each. It appears to me, therefore, that Laplace's doctrine is not strictly true of any coincidences, and is wholly inapplicable to most; and that to know whether a coincidence does or does not require more evidence to render it credible than an ordinary event, we must refer, in every instance, to first principles, and estimate afresh what is the probability that the given testimony would have been delivered in that instance, supposing the fact which it asserts not to be true. With these remarks we close the discussion of the Grounds of Disbelief; and along with it, such exposition as space admits, and as the writer has it in his power to furnish, of the Logic of Induction. 402 Book IV. Of Operations Subsidiary To Induction Clear and distinct ideas are terms which, though familiar and frequent in men's mouths, I have reason to think every one who uses does not perfectly understand. And possibly it is but here and there one who gives himself the trouble to consider them so far as to know what he himself or others precisely mean by them; I have, therefore, in most places, chose to put determinate or determined, instead of clear and distinct, as more likely to direct men's thoughts to my meaning in this matter. Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding; Epistle to the Reader. Il ne peut y avoir qu'une mthode parfaite, qui est la mthode naturelle ; on nomme ainsi un arrangement dans lequel les tres du mme genre seraient plus voisins entre eux que ceux de tous les autres genres; les genres du mme ordre, plus que ceux de tous les autres ordres; et ainsi de suite. Cette mthode est l'idal auquel l'histoire naturelle doit tendre; car il est vident que si l'on y parvenait, l'on aurait l'expression exacte et complte de la nature entire. Cuvier, Rgne Animal , Introduction. Deux grandes notions philosophiques dominent la thorie fondamentale de la mthode naturelle proprement dite, savoir la formation des groupes naturels, et ensuite leur succession hirarchique. Comte, Cours de Philosophie Positive , 42me leon. 403 I. Of Observation And Description 1. The inquiry which occupied us in the two preceding Books, has conducted us to what appears a satisfactory solution of the principal problem of Logic, according to the conception I have formed of the science. We have found, that the mental process with which Logic is conversant, the operation of ascertaining truths by means of evidence, is always, even when appearances point to a different theory of it, a process of induction. And we have particularized the various modes of induction, and obtained a clear view of the principles to which it must conform, in order to lead to results which can be relied on. The consideration of Induction, however, does not end with the direct rules for its performance. Something must be said of those other operations of the mind, which are either necessarily presupposed in all induction, or are instrumental to the more difficult and complicated inductive processes. The present Book will be devoted to the consideration of these subsidiary operations; among which our attention must first be given to those, which are indispensable preliminaries to all induction whatsoever. Induction being merely the extension to a class of cases, of something which has been observed to be true in certain individual instances of the class; the first place among the operations subsidiary to induction, is claimed by Observation. This is not, however, the place to lay down rules for making good observers; nor is it within the competence of Logic to do so, but of the art of intellectual Education. Our business with observation is only in its connection with the appropriate problem of logic, the estimation of evidence. We have to consider, not how or what to observe, but under what conditions observation is to be relied on; what is needful, in order that the fact, supposed to be observed, may safely be received as true. 2. The answer to this question is very simple, at least in its first aspect. The sole condition is, that what is supposed to have been observed shall really have been observed; that it be an observation, not an inference. For in almost every act of our perceiving faculties, observation and inference are intimately blended. What we are said to observe is usually a compound result, of which one-tenth may be observation, and the remaining nine- tenths inference. I affirm, for example, that I hear a man's voice. This would pass, in common language, for a direct perception. All, however, which is really perception, is that I hear a sound. That the sound is a voice, and that voice the voice of a man, are not perceptions but inferences. I affirm, again, that I saw my brother at a certain hour this morning. If any proposition concerning a matter of fact would commonly be said to be known by the direct testimony of the senses, this surely would be so. The truth, however, is far otherwise. I only saw a certain colored surface; or rather I had the kind of visual sensations which are usually produced by a colored surface; and from these as marks, known to be such by previous experience, I concluded that I saw my brother. I might have had sensations precisely similar, when my brother was not there. I might have seen some other person so nearly resembling him in appearance, as, at the distance, and, with the degree of attention which I bestowed, to be mistaken for him. I might have been asleep, and have dreamed that I saw him; or in a state of nervous disorder, which brought his image before me in a waking hallucination. In all these modes, many have been led to believe that they saw persons well known to them, who were dead or far distant. If any of these suppositions had been true, the affirmation that I saw my brother would have been erroneous; but whatever was matter of direct perception, namely the 404 visual sensations, would have been real. The inference only would have been ill grounded; I should have ascribed those sensations to a wrong cause. Innumerable instances might be given, and analyzed in the same manner, of what are vulgarly called errors of sense. There are none of them properly errors of sens e; they are erroneous inferences from sense. When I look at a candle through a multiplying glass, I see what seems a dozen candles instead of one; and if the real circumstances of the case were skillfully disguised, I might suppose that there were really that number; there would be what is called an optical deception. In the kaleidoscope there really is that deception; when I look through the instrument, instead of what is actually there, namely a casual arrangement of colored fragments, the appearance presented is that of the same combination several times repeated in symmetrical arrangement round a point. The delusion is of course effected by giving me the same sensations which I should have had if such a symmetrical combination had really been presented t o me. If I cross two of my fingers, and bring any small object, a marble for instance, into contact with both, at points not usually touched simultaneously by one object, I can hardly, if my eyes are shut, help believing that there are two marbles instead of one. But it is not my touch in this case, nor my sight in the other, which is deceived; the deception, whether durable or only momentary, is in my judgment. From my senses I have only the sensations, and those are genuine. Being accustomed to have those or similar sensations when, and only when, a certain arrangement of outward objects is present to my organs, I have the habit of instantly, when I experience the sensations, inferring the existence of that state of outward things. This habit has become so powerful, that the inference, performed with the speed and certainty of an instinct, is confounded with intuitive perceptions. When it is correct, I am unconscious that it ever needed proof; even when I know it to be incorrect, I can not without considerable effort abstain from making it. In order to be aware that it is not made by instinct but by an acquired habit, I am obliged to reflect on the slow process through which I learned to judge by the eye of many things which I now appear to perceive directly by sight; and on the reverse operation performed by persons learning to draw, who with difficulty and labor divest themselves of their acquired perceptions, and learn afresh to see things as they appear to the eye. It would be easy to prolong these illustrations, were there any need to expatiate on a topic so copiously exemplified in various popular works. From the examples already given, it is seen sufficiently, that the individual facts from which we collect our inductive generalizations are scarcely eve r obtained by observation alone. Observation extends only to the sensations by which we recognize objects; but the propositions which we make use of, either in science or in common life, relate mostly to the objects themselves. In every act of what is called observation, there is at least one inferencefrom the sensations to the presence of the object; from the marks or diagnostics, to the entire phenomenon. And hence, among other consequences, follows the seeming paradox, that a general proposition collect ed from particulars is often more certainly true than any one of the particular propositions from which, by an act of induction, it was inferred. For, each of those particular (or rather singular) propositions involved an inference, from the impression on the senses to the fact which caused that impression; and this inference may have been erroneous in any one of the instances, but can not well have been erroneous in all of them, provided their number was sufficient to eliminate chance. The conclusion, therefore, that is, the general proposition, may deserve more complete reliance than it would be safe to repose in any one of the inductive premises. The logic of observation, then, consists solely in a correct discrimination between that, in a result of observation, which has really been perceived, and that which is an inference from the perception. Whatever portion is inference, is amenable to the rules of induction already 405 treated of, and requires no further notice here; the question for us in this place is, when all which is inference is taken away what remains? There remains, in the first place, the mind's own feelings or states of consciousness, namely, its outward feelings or sensations, and its inward feelingsits thoughts, emotions, and volitions. Whether any thing else remains, or all else is inference from this; whether the mind is capable of directly perceiving or apprehending any thing except states of its own consciousnessis a problem of metaphysics not to be discussed in this place. But after excluding all questions on which metaphysicians differ, it remains true, that for most purposes the discrimination we are called upon practically to exercise is that between sensations or other feelings, of our own or of other people, and inferences drawn from them. And on the theory of Observation this is all which seems necessary to be said for the purposes of the present work. 3. If, in the simplest observation, or in what passes for such, there is a large part which is not observation but something else; so in the simplest description of an observation, there is, and must always be, much more asserted than is contained in the perception itself. We can not describe a fact, without implying more than the fact. The perception is only of one individual thing; but to describe it is to affirm a connection between it and every other thing which is either denoted or connoted by any of the terms used. To begin with an example, than which none can be conceived more elementary: I have a sensation of sight, and I endeavor to describe it by saying that I see something white. In saying this, I do not solely affirm my sensation; I also class it. I assert a resemblance between the thing I see, and all things which I and others are accustomed to call white. I assert that it resembles them in the circumstance in which they all resemble one another, in that which is the ground of their being called by the name. This is not merely one way of describing an observation, but the only way. If I would either register my observation for my own future use, or make it known for the benefit of others, I must assert a resemblance between the fact which I have observed and something else. It is inherent in a description, to be the statement of a resemblance, or resemblances. We thus see that it is impossible to express in words any result of observation, without performing an act possessing what Dr. Whewell considers to be characteristic of Induction. There is always something introduced which was not included in the observation itself; some conception common to the phenomenon with other phenomena to which it is compared. An observation can not be spoken of in language at all without declaring more than that one observation; without assimilating it to other phenomena already observed and classified. But this identification of an objectthis recognition of it as possessing certain known characteristics has never been confounded with Induction. It is an operation which precedes all induction, and supplies it with its materials. It is a perceptio n of resemblances, obtained by comparison. These resemblances are not always apprehended directly, by merely comparing the object observed with some other present object, or with our recollection of an object which is absent. They are often ascertained thr ough intermediate marks, that is, deductively. In describing some new kind of animal, suppose me to say that it measures ten feet in length, from the forehead to the extremity of the tail. I did not ascertain this by the unassisted eye. I had a two -foot ru le which I applied to the object, and, as we commonly say, measured it; an operation which was not wholly manual, but partly also mathematical, involving the two propositions, Five times two is ten, and Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. Hence, the fact that the animal is ten feet long is not an immediate perception, but a conclusion from reasoning; the minor premises alone being furnished by observation of the object. Nevertheless, this is called an observation, or a description of the animal, not an induction respecting it. 406 To pass at once from a very simple to a very complex example: I affirm that the earth is globular. The assertion is not grounded on direct perception; for the figure of the earth can not, by us, be directly perceived, though the assertion would not be true unless circumstances could be supposed under which its truth could be so perceived. That the form of the earth is globular is inferred from certain marks, as for instance from this, that its shadow thrown upon the moon is circular; or this, that on the sea, or any extensive plain, our horizon is always a circle; either of which marks is incompatible with any other than a globular form. I assert further, that the earth is that particular kind of a globe which is termed an oblate spheroid; because it is found by measurement in the direction of the meridian, that the length on the surface of the earth which subtends a given angle at its centre, diminishes as we recede from the equator and approach the poles. But these propositions, that the earth is globular, and that it is an oblate spheroid, assert, each of them, an individual fact; in its own nature capable of being perceived by the senses when the requisite organs and the necessary position are supposed, and only not actually perceived because those organs and that position are wanting. This identification of the earth, first as a globe, and next as an oblate spheroid, which, if the fact could have been seen, would have been called a description of the figure of the earth, may without impropriety be so called when, instead of being seen, it is inferred. But we could not without impropriety call either of these assertions an induction from facts respecting the earth. They are not general propositions collecte d from particular facts, but particular facts deduced from general propositions. They are conclusions obtained deductively, from premises originating in induction: but of these premises some were not obtained by observation of the earth, nor had any peculi ar reference to it. If, then, the truth respecting the figure of the earth is not an induction, why should the truth respecting the figure of the earth's orbit be so? The two cases only differ in this, that the form of the orbit was not, like the form of the earth itself, deduced by ratiocination from facts which were marks of ellipticity, but was got at by boldly guessing that the path was an ellipse, and finding afterward, on examination, that the observations were in harmony with the hypothesis. According to Dr. Whewell, however, this process of guessing and verifying our guesses is not only induction, but the whole of induction: no other exposition can be given of that logical operation. That he is wrong in the latter assertion, the whole of the precedin g book has, I hope, sufficiently proved; and that the process by which the ellipticity of the planetary orbits was ascertained, is not induction at all, was attempted to be shown in the second chapter of the same Book. We are now, however, prepared to go more into the heart of the matter than at that earlier period of our inquiry, and to show, not merely what the operation in question is not, but what it is. 4. We observed, in the second chapter, that the proposition the earth moves in an ellipse, so fa r as it only serves for the colligation or connecting together of actual observations (that is, as it only affirms that the observed positions of the earth may be correctly represented by as many points in the circumference of an imaginary ellipse), is not an induction, but a description: it is an induction, only when it affirms that the intermediate positions, of which there has been no direct observation, would be found to correspond to the remaining points of the same elliptic circumference. Now, though this real induction is one thing, and the description another, we are in a very different condition for making the induction before we have obtained the description, and after it. For inasmuch as the description, like all other descriptions, contains the a ssertion of a resemblance between the phenomenon described and something else; in pointing out something which the series of observed places of a planet resembles, it points out something in which the several places themselves agree. If the series of places correspond to as many points of an ellipse, the places themselves agree in being situated in that ellipse. We have, therefore, by the same process 407 which gave us the description, obtained the requisites for an induction by the Method of Agreement. The successive observed places of the earth being considered as effects, and its motion as the cause which produces them, we find that those effects, that is, those places, agree in the circumstance of being in an ellipse. We conclude that the remaining effects, the places which have not been observed, agree in the same circumstance, and that the law of the motion of the earth is motion in an ellipse. The Colligation of Facts, therefore, by means of hypotheses, or, as Dr. Whewell prefers to say, by means of Conceptions, instead of being, as he supposes, Induction itself, takes its proper place among operations subsidiary to Induction. All Induction supposes that we have previously compared the requisite number of individual instances, and ascertained in what circum stances they agree. The Colligation of Facts is no other than this preliminary operation. When Kepler, after vainly endeavoring to connect the observed places of a planet by various hypotheses of circular motion, at last tried the hypotheses of an ellipse and found it answer to the phenomena; what he really attempted, first unsuccessfully and at last successfully, was to discover the circumstance in which all the observed positions of the planet agreed. And when he in like manner connected another set of observed facts, the periodic times of the different planets, by the proposition that the squares of the times are proportional to the cubes of the distances, what he did was simply to ascertain the property in which the periodic times of all the different planets agreed. Since, therefore, all that is true and to the purpose in Dr. Whewell's doctrine of Conceptions might be fully expressed by the more familiar term Hypothesis; and since his Colligation of Facts by means of appropriate Conceptions, is but the ordinary process of finding by a comparison of phenomena, in what consists their agreement or resemblance; I would willingly have confined myself to those better understood expressions, and persevered to the end in the same abstinence which I have hitherto observed from ideological discussions; considering the mechanism of our thoughts to be a topic distinct from and irrelevant to the principles and rules by which the trustworthiness of the results of thinking is to be estimated. Since, however, a work of such high pretensions, and, it must also be said, of so much real merit, has rested the whole theory of Induction upon such ideological considerations, it seems necessary for others who follow to claim for themselves and their doctrines whatever position may properly belong to them on the same metaphysical ground. And this is the object of the succeeding chapter. 408 II. Of Abstraction, Or The Formation Of Conceptions 1. The metaphysical inquiry into the nature and composition of what have been called Abstract Ideas, or, in other words, of the notions which answer in the mind to classes and to general names, belongs not to Logic, but to a different science, and our purpose does not require that we should enter upon i t here. We are only concerned with the universally acknowledged fact, that such notions or conceptions do exist. The mind can conceive a multitude of individual things as one assemblage or class; and general names do really suggest to us certain ideas or m ental representations, otherwise we could not use the names with consciousness of a meaning. Whether the idea called up by a general name is composed of the various circumstances in which all the individuals denoted by the name agree, and of no others (which is the doctrine of Locke, Brown, and the Conceptualists); or whether it be the idea of some one of those individuals, clothed in its individualizing peculiarities, but with the accompanying knowledge that those peculiarities are not properties of the cl ass (which is the doctrine of Berkeley, Mr. Bailey, P202F203 P and the modern Nominalists); or whether (as held by Mr. James Mill) the idea of the class is that of a miscellaneous assemblage of individuals belonging to the class; or whether, finally, it be any one or any other of all these, according to the accidental circumstances of the case; certain it is, that some idea or mental conception is suggested by a general name, whenever we either hear it or employ it with consciousness of a meaning. And this, which we may call, if we please, a general idea, represents in our minds the whole class of things to which the name is applied. Whenever we think or reason concerning the class, we do so by means of this idea. And the voluntary power which the mind has, of attending to one part of what is present to it at any moment, and neglecting another part, enables us to keep our reasonings and conclusions respecting the class unaffected by any thing in the idea or mental image which is not really, or at least which we do not really believe to be common, to the whole class. P203F204 P There are, then, such things as general conceptions, or conceptions by means of which we can think generally; and when we form a set of phenomena into a class, that is, when we compare them with one anot her to ascertain in what they agree, some general conception is implied in this mental operation. And inasmuch as such a comparison is a necessary preliminary to Induction, it is most true that Induction could not go on without general conceptions. 2. But it does not therefore follow that these general conceptions must have existed in the mind previously to the comparison. It is not a law of our intellect, that in comparing things with each other and taking note of their agreement we merely recognize as realized in the outward world something that we already had in our minds. The conception originally found 203 Mr. Bailey has given the best statement of this theory. The general name, he says, raises up the image sometimes of one individual of the class formerly seen, sometimes of another, not unfrequently of many individuals in succession; and it sometimes suggests an image made up of elements from several different objects, by a latent process of which I am not conscious. (Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1st series, letter 22.) But Mr. Bailey must allow that we carry on inductions and ratiocinations respecting the class, by means of this idea or conception of some one individual in it. T his is all I require. The name of a class calls up some idea, through which we can, to all intents and purposes, think of the class as such, and not solely of an individual member of it. 204 I have entered rather fully into this question in chap. xvii. of An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy , headed The Doctrine of Concepts or General Notions, which contains my last views on the subject. 409 its way to us as the result of such a comparison. It was obtained (in metaphysical phrase) by abstraction from individual things. These things may be things which we perceived or thought of on former occasions, but they may also be the things which we are perceiving or thinking of on the very occasion. When Kepler compared the observed places of the planet Mars, and found that they agreed in being points of an elliptic circumference, he applied a general conception which was already in his mind, having been derived from his former experience. But this is by no means universally the case. When we compare several objects and find them to agree in being white, or when we compare the various species of ruminating animals and find them to agree in being cloven- footed, we have just as much a general conception in our minds as Kepler had in his: we have the conception of a white thing, or the conception of a cloven -footed animal. But no one supposes that we necessarily bring these conceptions with us, and superinduce them (to adopt Dr. Whewell's expression) upon the facts: because in these simple cases every body sees that the very act of comparison which ends in our connecting the facts by means of the conception, may be the source from which we derive the conception itself. If we had never seen any white object or had never seen any cloven -footed animal before, we should at the same time and by the same menta l act acquire the idea, and employ it for the colligation of the observed phenomena. Kepler, on the contrary, really had to bring the idea with him, and superinduce it upon the facts; he could not evolve it out of them: if he had not already had the idea, he would not have been able to acquire it by a comparison of the planet's positions. But this inability was a mere accident; the idea of an ellipse could have been acquired from the paths of the planets as effectually as from any thing else, if the paths had not happened to be invisible. If the planet had left a visible track, and we had been so placed that we could see it at the proper angle, we might have abstracted our original idea of an ellipse from the planetary orbit. Indeed, every conception which can be made the instrument for connecting a set of facts, might have been originally evolved from those very facts. The conception is a conception of something; and that which it is a conception of, is really in the facts, and might, under some supposable circumstances, or by some supposable extension of the faculties which we actually possess, have been detected in them. And not only is this always in itself possible, but it actually happens in almost all cases in which the obtaining of the right conception is a matter of any considerable difficulty. For if there be no new conception required; if one of those already familiar to mankind will serve the purpose, the accident of being the first to whom the right one occurs, may happen to almost any body; at lea st in the case of a set of phenomena which the whole scientific world are engaged in attempting to connect. The honor, in Kepler's case, was that of the accurate, patient, and toilsome calculations by which he compared the results that followed from his different guesses, with the observations of Tycho Brahe; but the merit was very small of guessing an ellipse; the only wonder is that men had not guessed it before, nor could they have failed to do so if there had not existed an obstinate a priori prejudice that the heavenly bodies must move, if not in a circle, in some combination of circles. The really difficult cases are those in which the conception destined to create light and order out of darkness and confusion has to be sought for among the very phenom ena which it afterward serves to arrange. Why, according to Dr. Whewell himself, did the ancients fail in discovering the laws of mechanics, that is, of equilibrium and of the communication of motion? Because they had not, or at least had not clearly, the ideas or conceptions of pressure and resistance, momentum, and uniform and accelerating force. And whence could they have obtained these ideas except from the very facts of equilibrium and motion? The tardy development of several of the physical sciences, for example, of optics, electricity, magnetism, and the higher generalizations of chemistry, he ascribes to the fact that mankind had not yet possessed themselves of the Idea of Polarity, that is, the idea of opposite properties in opposite directions. But what was there to suggest such an idea, until, by a 410 separate examination of several of these different branches of knowledge, it was shown that the facts of each of them did present, in some instances at least, the curious phenomenon of opposite properties in opposite directions? The thing was superficially manifest only in two cases, those of the magnet and of electrified bodies; and there the conception was encumbered with the circumstance of material poles, or fixed points in the body itself, in which points this opposition of properties seemed to be inherent. The first comparison and abstraction had led only to this conception of poles; and if any thing corresponding to that conception had existed in the phenomena of chemistry or optics, the difficulty now justly considered so great, would have been extremely small. The obscurity arose from the fact, that the polarities in chemistry and optics were distinct species, though of the same genus, with the polarities in electricity and magnetism; and that in o rder to assimilate the phenomena to one another, it was necessary to compare a polarity without poles, such for instance as is exemplified in the polarization of light, and the polarity with (apparent) poles, which we see in the magnet; and to recognize that these polarities, while different in many other respects, agree in the one character which is expressed by the phrase, opposite properties in opposite directions. From the result of such a comparison it was that the minds of scientific men formed this new general conception; between which, and the first confused feeling of an analogy between some of the phenomena of light and those of electricity and magnetism, there is a long interval, filled up by the labors and more or less sagacious suggestions of many superior minds. The conceptions, then, which we employ for the colligation and methodization of facts, do not develop themselves from within, but are impressed upon the mind from without; they are never obtained otherwise than by way of comparison and abstraction, and, in the most important and the most numerous cases, are evolved by abstraction from the very phenomena which it is their office to colligate. I am far, however, from wishing to imply that it is not often a very difficult thing to perform this process of abstraction well, or that the success of an inductive operation does not, in many cases, principally depend on the skill with which we perform it. Bacon was quite justified in designating as one of the principal obstacles to good induction, general conceptions wrongly formed, notiones temer rebus abstract; to which Dr. Whewell adds, that not only does bad abstraction make bad induction, but that, in order to perform induction well, we must have abstracted well; our general conceptions must be clear and appropriate to the matter in hand. 3. In attempting to show what the difficulty in this matter really is, and how it is surmounted, I must beg the reader, once for all, to bear this in mind; that although, in discussing the opinions of a different school of philosophy, I am willing to adopt their language, and to speak, therefore, of connecting facts through the instrumentality of a conception, this technical phraseology means neither more nor less than what is commonly called comparin g the facts with one another and determining in what they agree. Nor has the technical expression even the advantage of being metaphysically correct. The facts are not connected , except in a merely metaphorical acceptation of the term. The ideas of the facts may become connected, that is, we may be led to think of them together; but this consequence is no more than what may be produced by any casual association. What really takes place, is, I conceive, more philosophically expressed by the common word Comparison, than by the phrases to connect or to superinduce. For, as the general conception is itself obtained by a comparison of particular phenomena, so, when obtained, the mode in which we apply it to other phenomena is again by comparison. We compare phenomena with each other to get the conception, and we then compare those and other phenomena with the conception. We get the conception of an animal (for instance) by comparing different animals, and when we afterward see a creature resembling an animal, we compare it with our general conception 411 of an animal; and if it agrees with that general conception, we include it in the class. The conception becomes the type of comparison. And we need only consider what comparison is, to see that where the objects ar e more than two, and still more when they are an indefinite number, a type of some sort is an indispensable condition of the comparison. When we have to arrange and classify a great number of objects according to their agreements and differences, we do not make a confused attempt to compare all with all. We know that two things are as much as the mind can easily attend to at a time, and we therefore fix upon one of the objects, either at hazard or because it offers in a peculiarly striking manner some important character, and, taking this as our standard, compare it with one object after another. If we find a second object which presents a remarkable agreement with the first, inducing us to class them together, the question instantly arises, in what particular circumstances do they agree? and to take notice of these circumstances is already a first stage of abstraction, giving rise to a general conception. Having advanced thus far, when we now take in hand a third object we naturally ask ourselves the question, not merely whether this third object agrees with the first, but whether it agrees with it in the same circumstances in which the second did? in other words, whether it agrees with the general conception which has been obtained by abstraction from the fi rst and second? Thus we see the tendency of general conceptions, as soon as formed, to substitute themselves as types, for whatever individual objects previously answered that purpose in our comparisons. We may, perhaps, find that no considerable number of other objects agree with this first general conception; and that we must drop the conception, and beginning again with a different individual case, proceed by fresh comparisons to a different general conception. Sometimes, again, we find that the same conception will serve, by merely leaving out some of its circumstances; and by this higher effort of abstraction, we obtain a still more general conception; as in the case formerly referred to, the scientific world rose from the conception of poles to the general conception of opposite properties in opposite directions; or as those South-Sea islanders, whose conception of a quadruped had been abstracted from hogs (the only animals of that description which they had seen), when they afterward compared that conception with other quadrupeds, dropped some of the circumstances, and arrived at the more general conception which Europeans associate with the term. These brief remarks contain, I believe, all that is well grounded in the doctrine, that the conception by which the mind arranges and gives unity to phenomena must be furnished by the mind itself, and that we find the right conception by a tentative process, trying first one and then another until we hit the mark. The conception is not furnished by the mind unt il it has been furnished to the mind; and the facts which supply it are sometimes extraneous facts, but more often the very facts which we are attempting to arrange by it. It is quite true, however, that in endeavoring to arrange the facts, at whatever point we begin, we never advance three steps without forming a general conception, more or less distinct and precise; and that this general conception becomes the clue which we instantly endeavor to trace through the rest of the facts, or rather, becomes the standard with which we thenceforth compare them. If we are not satisfied with the agreements which we discover among the phenomena by comparing them with this type, or with some still more general conception which by an additional stage of abstraction we can form from the type; we change our path, and look out for other agreements; we recommence the comparison from a different starting-point, and so generate a different set of general conceptions. This is the tentative process which Dr. Whewell speaks of; and which has not unnaturally suggested the theory, that the conception is supplied by the mind itself; since the different conceptions which the mind successively tries, it either already possessed from its previous experience, or they were 412 supplied to it in the first stage of the corresponding act of comparison; so that, in the subsequent part of the process, the conception manifested itself as something compared with the phenomena, not evolved from them. 4. If this be a correct account of the instrumentality of general conceptions in the comparison which necessarily precedes Induction, we are now able to translate into our own language what Dr. Whewell means by saying that conceptions, to be subservient to Induction, must be clear and appropriate. If the conception corresponds to a real agreement among the phenomena; if the comparison which we have made of a set of objects has led us to class them according to real resemblances and differences; the conception which does this can not fail to be appropr iate, for some purpose or other. The question of appropriateness is relative to the particular object we have in view. As soon as, by our comparison, we have ascertained some agreement, something which can be predicated in common of a number of objects; we have obtained a basis on which an inductive process is capable of being founded. But the agreements, or the ulterior consequences to which those agreements lead, may be of very different degrees of importance. If, for instance, we only compare animals according to their color, and class those together which are colored alike, we form the general conceptions of a white animal, a black animal, etc., which are conceptions legitimately formed; and if an induction were to be attempted concerning the causes of the colors of animals, this comparison would be the proper and necessary preparation for such an induction, but would not help us toward a knowledge of the laws of any other of the properties of animals; while if, with Cuvier, we compare and class them acco rding to the structure of the skeleton, or, with Blainville, according to the nature of their outward integuments, the agreements and differences which are observable in these respects are not only of much greater importance in themselves, but are marks of agreements and differences in many other important particulars of the structure and mode of life of the animals. If, therefore, the study of their structure and habits be our object, the conceptions generated by these last comparisons are far more appropriate than those generated by the former. Nothing, other than this, can be meant by the appropriateness of a conception. When Dr. Whewell says that the ancients, or the school-men, or any modern inquirers, missed discovering the real law of a phenomenon because they applied to it an inappropriate instead of an appropriate conception; he can only mean that in comparing various instances of the phenomenon, to ascertain in what those instances agreed, they missed the important points of agreement; and fastened upon such as were either imaginary, and not agreements at all, or, if real agreements, were comparatively trifling, and had no connection with the phenomenon, the law of which was sought. Aristotle, philosophizing on the subject of motion, remarked that certain motions apparently take place spontaneously; bodies fall to the ground, flame ascends, bubbles of air rise in water, etc.; and these he called natural motions; while others not only never take place without external incitement, but even when such incitement is applied, tend spontaneously to cease; which, to distinguish them from the former, he called violent motions. Now, in comparing the so-called natural motions with one another, it appeared to Aristotle that they agreed in one circumstance, namel y, that the body which moved (or seemed to move) spontaneously, was moving toward its own place ; meaning thereby the place from whence it originally came, or the place where a great quantity of matter similar to itself was assembled. In the other class of motions, as when bodies are thrown up in the air, they are, on the contrary, moving from their own place. Now, this conception of a body moving toward its own place may justly be considered inappropriate; because, though it expresses a 413 circumstance really found in some of the most familiar instances of motion apparently spontaneous, yet, first, there are many other cases of such motion, in which that circumstance is absent; the motion, for instance, of the earth and planets. Secondly, even when it is present, the motion, on closer examination, would often be seen not to be spontaneous; as, when air rises in water, it does not rise by its own nature, but is pushed up by the superior weight of the water which presses upon it. Finally, there are many cases in which the spontaneous motion takes place in the contrary direction to what the theory considers as the body's own place; for instance, when a fog rises from a lake, or when water dries up. The agreement, therefore, which Aristotle selected as his principle of classification, did not extend to all cases of the phenomenon he wanted to study, spontaneous motion; while it did include cases of the absence of the phenomenon, cases of motion not spontaneous. The conception was hence inappropriate. We may add that , in the case in question, no conception would be appropriate; there is no agreement which runs through all the cases of spontaneous or apparently spontaneous motion and no others; they can not be brought under one law; it is a case of Plurality of Causes. P204F205 P 5. So much for the first of Dr. Whewell's conditions, that conceptions must be appropriate. The second is, that they shall be clear: and let us consider what this implies. Unless the conception corresponds to a real agreement, it has a worse defect than that of not being clear: it is not applicable to the case at all. Among the phenomena, therefore, which we are attempting to connect by means of the conception, we must suppose that there really is an agreement, and that the conception is a conception of that agreement. In order, then, that it may be clear, the only requisite is, that we shall know exactly in what the agreement consists; that it shall have been carefully observed, and accurately remembered. We are said not to have a clear conception of the resemblance among a set of objects, when we have only a general feeling that they resemble, without having analyzed their resemblance, or perceived in what points it consists, and fixed in our memory an exact recollection of those points. This want o f clearness, or, as it may be otherwise called, this vagueness in the general conception, may be owing either to our having no accurate knowledge of the objects themselves, or merely to our not having carefully compared them. Thus a person may have no clea r idea of a ship because he has never seen one, or because he remembers but little, and that faintly, of what he has seen. Or he may have a perfect knowledge and remembrance of many ships of various kinds, frigates among the rest, but he may have no clear but only a confused idea of a frigate, because he has never been told, and has not compared them sufficiently to have remarked and remembered, in what particular points a frigate differs from some other kind of ship. It is not, however, necessary, in order to have clear ideas, that we should know all the common properties of the things which we class together. That would be to have our 205 Other examples of inappropriate conceptions are given by Dr. Whewell ( Phil. Ind. Sc. ii., 185) as follow s: Aristotle and his followers endeavored in vain to account for the mechanical relation of forces in the lever, by applying the inappropriate geometrical conceptions of the properties of the circle: they failed in explaining the form of the luminous spot made by the sun shining through a hole, because they applied the inappropriate conception of a circular quality in the sun's light: they speculated to no purpose about the elementary composition of bodies, because they assumed the inappropriate conception of likeness between the elements and the compound, instead of the genuine notion of elements merely determining the qualities of the compound. But in these cases there is more than an inappropriate conception; there is a false conception; one which has no prototype in nature, nothing corresponding to it in facts. This is evident in the last two examples, and is equally true in the first; the properties of the circle which were referred to, being purely fantastical. There is, therefore, an error beyond the wrong choice of a principle of generalization; there is a false assumption of matters of fact. The attempt is made to resolve certain laws of nature into a more general law, that law not being one which, though real, is inappropriate, but one wholly ima ginary. 414 conception of the class complete as well as clear. It is sufficient if we never class things together without knowing exactly why we do sowithout having ascertained exactly what agreements we are about to include in our conception; and if, after having thus fixed our conception, we never vary from it, never include in the class any thing which has not those common properties, nor exclude from it any thing which has. A clear conception means a determinate conception; one which does not fluctuate, which is not one thing to-day and another to-morrow, but remains fixed and invariable, except when, from the progress of our knowledge, or the correction of some error, we consciously add to it or alter it. A person of clear ideas is a person who always knows in virtue of what properties his classes are constituted; what attributes are connoted by his general names. The principal requisites, therefore, of clear conceptions, are habits of attentive observation, an extensive experience, and a memory which receives and retains an exact image of what is observed. And in proportion as any one has the habit of observing minutely and comparing carefully a particular class of phenomena, and an accurate memory for the results of the observation and comparison, so will his conceptions of that class of phenomena be clear; provided he has the indispensable habit (naturally, however, resulting from those other endowments), of never using general names without a precise connotation. As the clearness of our conceptions chiefly depends on the carefulness and accuracy of our observing and comparing faculties, so their appropriateness, or rather the chance we have of hitting upon the appropriate conception in any case, mainly depends on the activity of the same faculties. He who by habit, grounded on sufficient natural aptitude, has acquired a readiness in accurately observing and comparing phenomena, will perceive so many more agreements, and will perceive them so much more rapidly than other people, that the chances are much greater of his perceiving, in any instance, the agreement on which the important consequences depend. 6. It is of so much importance that the part of the process of investigating truth, discussed in this chapter, should be rightly understood, that I think it is desirable to restate the results we have arrived at, in a somewhat different mode of expression. We can not ascertain general truths, that is, truths applicable to classes, unless we have formed the classes in such a manner that general truths can be affirmed of them. In the formation of any class, there is involved a conception of it as a class, that is, a conception of certain circumstances as being those which characterize the class, and distinguish the objects composing it from all other things. When we know exactly what these circumstances are, we have a clear idea (or conception) of the class, and of the meaning of the general name which designates it. The primary condition implied in having this clear idea, is that the class be really a class; that it correspond to a real distinction; that the things it includes really do agree with one another in certain particulars, and differ, in those same particulars, from all other things. A person without clear ideas is one who habitually classes together, under the same general names, things which have no common properties, or none which are not possessed also by other things; or who, if the usage of other people prevents him from actually misclassing things, is unable to state to himself the common properties in virtue of which he classes them rightly. But is it not the sole requisite of classification that the classes should b e real classes, framed by a legitimate mental process? Some modes of classing things are more valuable than others for human uses, whether of speculation or of practice; and our classifications are not well made, unless the things which they bring together not only agree with each other in something which distinguishes them from all other things, but agree with each other and differ from other things in the very circumstances which are of primary importance for the 415 purpose (theoretical or practical) which w e have in view, and which constitutes the problem before us. In other words, our conceptions, though they may be clear, are not appropriate for our purpose, unless the properties we comprise in them are those which will help us toward what we wish to understandi.e. , either those which go deepest into the nature of the things, if our object be to understand that, or those which are most closely connected with the particular property which we are endeavoring to investigate. We can not, therefore, frame good general conceptions beforehand. That the conception we have obtained is the one we want, can only be known when we have done the work for the sake of which we wanted it; when we completely understand the general character of the phenomena, or the conditions of the particular property with which we concern ourselves. General conceptions formed without this thorough knowledge, are Bacon's notiones temer rebus abstract. Yet such premature conceptions we must be continually making up, in our progress to something better. They are an impediment to the progress of knowledge, only when they are permanently acquiesced in. When it has become our habit to group things in wrong classes in groups which either are not really classes, having no distinctive points of agreement (absence of clear ideas), or which are not classes of which any thing important to our purpose can be predicated (absence of appropriate ideas); and when, in the belief that these badly made classes are those sanctioned by nature, we refuse to exchange them for others, and can not or will not make up our general conceptions from any other elements; in that case all the evils which Bacon ascribes to his notiones temer abstract really occur. This was what the ancients did in physics, and what the world in general does in morals and politics to the present day. It would thus, in my view of the matter, be an inaccurate mode of expression to say, that obtaining appropriate conceptions is a condition precedent to generalization. Throughout the whole process of comparing phenomena with one another for the purpose of generalization, the mind is trying to make up a conception; but the conception which it is trying to make up is that of the really important point of agreement in the phenomena. As we obtain more knowledge of the phenomena themselves, and of the conditions on which their important properties depend, our views on this subject naturally alter; and thus we advance from a less to a more "appropriate" general conception, in the progress of our investigations. We ought not, at the same time, to forget that the really important agreement can not always be discovered by mere comparison of the very phenomena in question, without the aid of a conception acquired elsewhere; as in the case, so often ref erred to, of the planetary orbits. The search for the agreement of a set of phenomena is in truth very similar to the search for a lost or hidden object. At first we place ourselves in a sufficiently commanding position, and cast our eyes round us, and if we can see the object it is well; if not, we ask ourselves mentally what are the places in which it may be hid, in order that we may there search for it: and so on, until we imagine the place where it really is. And here too we require to have had a previous conception, or knowledge, of those different places. As in this familiar process, so in the philosophical operation which it illustrates, we first endeavor to find the lost object or recognize the common attribute, without conjecturally invoking the aid of any previously acquired conception, or, in other words, of any hypothesis. Having failed in this, we call upon our imagination for some hypothesis of a possible place, or a possible point of resemblance, and then look to see whether the facts agree with the conjecture. For such cases something more is required than a mind accustomed to accurate observation and comparison. It must be a mind stored with general conceptions, previously acquired, of the sorts which bear affinity to the subject of the particular inquiry. And much will also depend on the natural strength and acquired culture of what has been termed the scientific 416 imagination; on the faculty possessed of mentally arranging known elements into new combinations, such as have not yet been observed in nature, though not contradictory to any known laws. But the variety of intellectual habits, the purposes which they serve, and the modes in which they may be fostered and cultivated, are considerations belonging to the Art of Education: a subject far wider than Logic, and which this treatise does not profess to discuss. Here, therefore, the present chapter may properly close. 417 III. Of Naming, As Subsidiary To Induction 1. It does not belong to the present undertaking to dwell on the importance of language as a medium of human intercourse, whether for purposes of sympathy or of information. Nor does our design admit of more than a passing allusion to that great property of names, on which their functions as an inte llectual instrument are, in reality, ultimately dependent; their potency as a means of forming, and of riveting, associations among our other ideas; a subject on which an able thinker P205F206 P has thus written: Names are impressions of sense, and as such take th e strongest hold on the mind, and of all other impressions can be most easily recalled and retained in view. They therefore serve to give a point of attachment to all the more volatile objects of thought and feeling. Impressions that when passed might be dissipated forever, are, by their connection with language, always within reach. Thoughts, of themselves, are perpetually slipping out of the field of immediate mental vision; but the name abides with us, and the utterance of it restores them in a moment. Words are the custodiers of every product of mind less impressive than themselves. All extensions of human knowledge, all new generalizations, are fixed and spread, even unintentionally, by the use of words. The child growing up learns, along with the vocables of his mother-tongue, that things which he would have believed to be different are, in important points, the same. Without any formal instruction, the language in which we grow up teaches us all the common philosophy of the age. It directs us to observe and know things which we should have overlooked; it supplies us with classifications ready made, by which things are arranged (as far as the light of by -gone generations admits) with the objects to which they bear the greatest total resemblance. The number of general names in a language, and the degree of generality of those names, afford a test of the knowledge of the era, and of the intellectual insight which is the birthright of any one born into it. It is not, however, of the functions of Names, cons idered generally, that we have here to treat, but only of the manner and degree in which they are directly instrumental to the investigation of truth; in other words, to the process of induction. 2. Observation and Abstraction, the operations which formed the subject of the two foregoing chapters, are conditions indispensable to induction; there can be no induction where they are not. It has been imagined that Naming is also a condition equally indispensable. There are thinkers who have held that language is not solely, according to a phrase generally current, an instrument of thought, but the instrument; that names, or something equivalent to them, some species of artificial signs, are necessary to reasoning; that there could be no inference, and consequently no induction, without them. But if the nature of reasoning was correctly explained in the earlier part of the present work, this opinion must be held to be an exaggeration, though of an important truth. If reasoning be from particulars to particulars, and if it consist in recognizing one fact as a mark of another, or a mark of a mark of another, nothing is required to render reasoning possible, except senses and association; senses to perceive that two facts are conjoined; association, as the law by which one of those two facts raises up the idea of the other. P206F207 P For these mental 206 Professor Bain. 207 This sentence having been erroneously understood as if I had meant to assert that belief is nothing but an irresistible association, I think it necessary to observe that I express no theory respecting the ultimate analysis either of reasoning or of belief, two of the most obscure points in analytical psychology. I am speaking not of the powers themselves, but of the previous conditions necessary to enable those powers to exert themselves: of which conditions I am contending that language is not one, senses and association being sufficient without it. 418 phenomena, as well as for the belief or expectation which follows, and by which we recognize as having taken place, or as about to take place, that of which we have perceived a mark, there is evidently no need of language. And this inference of one particular fact from another is a case of induction. It is of this sort of induction that brutes are capable; it is in this shape that uncultivated minds make almost all th eir inductions, and that we all do so in the cases in which familiar experience forces our conclusions upon us without any active process of inquiry on our part, and in which the belief or expectation follows the suggestion of the evidence with the promptitude and certainty of an instinct. P207F208 P 3. But though inference of an inductive character is possible without the use of signs, it could never, without them, be carried much beyond the very simple cases which we have just described, and which form, in all probability, the limit of the reasonings of those animals to whom conventional language is unknown. Without language, or something equivalent to it, there could only be as much reasoning from experience as can take place without the aid of general propositions. Now, though in strictness we may reason from past experience to a fresh individual case without the intermediate stage of a general proposition, yet without general propositions we should seldom remember what past experience we have had, and scarcely ever what conclusions that experience will warrant. The division of the inductive process into two parts, the first ascertaining what is a mark of the given fact, the second whether in the new case that mark exists, is natural, and scientifically indispensable. It is, indeed, in a majority of cases, rendered necessary by mere distance of time. The experience by which we are to guide our judgments may be other people's experience, little of which can be communicated to us otherwise than by language; when it is our own, it is generally experience long past; unless, therefore, it were recorded by means of artificial signs, little of it (except in cases involving our intenser sensations or emotions, or the subjects of our daily and hourly contemplation) would be retained in the memory. It is hardly necessary to add, that when the inductive inference is of any but the most direct and obvious naturewhen it requires several observations or experiments, in varying circumstances, and the comparison of one of these with anotherit is impossible to proceed a step, without the artificial memory which words bestow. Without words, we should, if we had often seen A and B in immediate and obvious conjunction, expect B whenever we saw A; but to discover their conjunction when not obvious, or to determine whether it is really constant or only casual, and whether there is reason to expect it under any given change of circumstances, is a process far too complex to be performed without some contrivance to make our remembrance of our own mental operations accurate. Now, language is such a contrivance. When that instrument is called to our aid, the difficulty is reduced to that of making our remembrance of the meaning of words accurate. This being secured, whatever passes through our minds may be remembered accurately, by putting it carefully into words, and committing the words either to writing or to memory. The function of Naming, and particularly of General Names, in Induction, may be recapitulated as follows. Every inductive inference which is good at all, is good for a whole class of cases; and, that the inference may have any better warrant of its correctness than the mere clinging together of two ideas, a process of experimentation and comparison is The irresistible association theory of belief, and the difficulties connected with the subject, have been discussed at length in the notes to the new edition of Mr. Jame s Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind. 208 Mr. Bailey agrees with me in thinking that whenever from something actually present to my senses, conjoined with past experience, I feel satisfied that something has happened, or will happen, or is happening, beyond the sphere of my personal observation, I may with strict propriety be said to reason: and of course to reason inductively, for demonstrative reasoning is excluded by the circumstances of the case. ( The Theory of Reasoning, 2d ed., p. 27.) 419 necessary; in which the whole class of cases must be brought to view, and some uniformity in the course of nature evolved and ascertained, since the existence of such a uniformity is required as a justification for drawing the inference in even a single case. This uniformity, theref ore, may be ascertained once for all; and if, being ascertained, it can be remembered, it will serve as a formula for making, in particular cases, all such inferences as the previous experience will warrant. But we can only secure its being remembered, or give ourselves even a chance of carrying in our memory any considerable number of such uniformities, by registering them through the medium of permanent signs; which (being, from the nature of the case, signs not of an individual fact, but of a uniformity, that is, of an indefinite number of facts similar to one another) are general signs; universals; general names, and general propositions. 4. And here I can not omit to notice an oversight committed by some eminent thinkers; who have said that the cause of our using general names is the infinite multitude of individual objects, which, making it impossible to have a name for each, compels us to make one name serve for many. This is a very limited view of the function of general names. Even if there were a name for every individual object, we should require general names as much as we now do. Without them we could not express the result of a single comparison, nor record any one of the uniformities existing in nature; and should be hardly better off in respect to Induction than if we had no names at all. With none but names of individuals (or, in other words, proper names), we might, by pronouncing the name, suggest the idea of the object, but we could not assert any proposition; except the unmeaning ones formed by predicating two proper names one of another. It is only by means of general names that we can convey any information, predicate any attribute, even of an individual, much more of a class. Rigorously speaking, we could get on without any other genera l names than the abstract names of attributes; all our propositions might be of the form such an individual object possesses such an attribute, or such an attribute is always (or never) conjoined with such another attribute. In fact, however, mankind h ave always given general names to objects as well as attributes, and indeed before attributes: but the general names given to objects imply attributes, derive their whole meaning from attributes; and are chiefly useful as the language by means of which we predicate the attributes which they connote. It remains to be considered what principles are to be adhered to in giving general names, so that these names, and the general propositions in which they fill a place, may conduce most to the purposes of Induction. 420 IV. Of The Requisites Of A Philosophical Language, And The Principles Of Definition 1. In order that we may possess a language perfectly suitable for the investigation and expression of general truths, there are two principal, and several minor requisites. The first is, that every general name should have a meaning, steadily fixed, and precisely determined. When, by the fulfillment of this condition, such names as we possess are fitted for the due performance of their funct ions, the next requisite, and the second in order of importance, is that we should possess a name wherever one is needed; wherever there is any thing to be designated by it, which it is of importance to express. The former of these requisites is that to which our attention will be exclusively directed in the present chapter. 2. Every general name, then, must have a certain and knowable meaning. Now the meaning (as has so often been explained) of a general connotative name, resides in the connotation; in the attribute on account of which, and to express which, the name is given. Thus, the name animal being given to all things which possess the attributes of sensation and voluntary motion, the word connotes those attributes exclusively, and they constitute the whole of its meaning. If the name be abstract, its denotation is the same with the connotation of the corresponding concrete; it designates directly the attribute, which the concrete term implies. To give a precise meaning to general names is, then, to fix with steadiness the attribute or attributes connoted by each concrete general name, and denoted by the corresponding abstract. Since abstract names, in the order of their creation, do not precede but follow concrete ones, as is proved by the etymologic al fact that they are almost always derived from them; we may consider their meaning as determined by, and dependent on, the meaning of their concrete; and thus the problem of giving a distinct meaning to general language, is all included in that of giving a precise connotation to all concrete general names. This is not difficult in the case of new names; of the technical terms created by scientific inquirers for the purposes of science or art. But when a name is in common use, the difficulty is greater; the problem in this case not being that of choosing a convenient connotation for the name, but of ascertaining and fixing the connotation with which it is already used. That this can ever be a matter of doubt, is a sort of paradox. But the vulgar (including in that term all who have not accurate habits of thought) seldom know exactly what assertion they intend to make, what common property they mean to express, when they apply the same name to a number of different things. All which the name expresses with them, when they predicate it of an object, is a confused feeling of resemblance between that object and some of the other things which they have been accustomed to denote by the name. They have applied the name Stone to various objects previously seen; they see a new object, which appears to them somewhat like the former, and they call it a stone, without asking themselves in what respect it is like, or what mode or degree of resemblance the best authorities, or even they themselves, require as a w arrant for using the name. This rough general impression of resemblance is, however, made up of particular circumstances of resemblance; and into these it is the business of the logician to analyze it; to ascertain what points of resemblance among the different things commonly called by the name, have produced in the common mind this vague feeling of likeness; have given to the things the similarity of aspect, which has made them a class, and has caused the same name to be bestowed upon them. 421 But though general names are imposed by the vulgar without any more definite connotation than that of a vague resemblance; general propositions come in time to be made, in which predicates are applied to those names, that is, general assertions are made concerning the whole of the things which are denoted by the name. And since by each of these propositions some attribute, more or less precisely conceived, is of course predicated, the ideas of these various attributes thus become associated with the name, and in a sort of uncertain way it comes to connote them; there is a hesitation to apply the name in any new case in which any of the attributes familiarly predicated of the class do not exist. And thus, to common minds, the propositions which they are in the habit of hearing or uttering concerning a class make up in a loose way a sort of connotation for the class name. Let us take, for instance, the word Civilized. How few could be found, even among the most educated persons, who would undertake to say exactly what the te rm Civilized connotes. Yet there is a feeling in the minds of all who use it, that they are using it with a meaning; and this meaning is made up, in a confused manner, of every thing which they have heard or read that civilized men or civilized communities are, or may be expected to be. It is at this stage, probably, in the progress of a concrete name, that the corresponding abstract name generally comes into use. Under the notion that the concrete name must of course convey a meaning, or, in other words, that there is some property common to all things which it denotes, people give a name to this common property; from the concrete Civilized, they form the abstract Civilization. But since most people have never compared the different things which are called by the concrete name, in such a manner as to ascertain what properties these things have in common, or whether they have any; each is thrown back upon the marks by which he himself has been accustomed to be guided in his application of the term; and these, being merely vague hearsays and current phrases, are not the same in any two persons, nor in the same person at different times. Hence the word (as Civilization, for example) which professes to be the designation of the unknown common property, conveys scarcely to any two minds the same idea. No two persons agree in the things they predicate of it; and when it is itself predicated of any thing, no other person knows, nor does the speaker himself know with precision, what he means to assert. Many other words which could be named, as the word honor , or the word gentleman, exemplify this uncertainty still more strikingly. It needs scarcely be observed, that general propositions of which no one can tell exactly what they assert, can not possibly have been brought to the test of a correct induction. Whether a name is to be used as an instrument of thinking, or as a means of communicating the result of thought, it is imperative to determine exactly the attribute or attributes which it is to express; to give it, in short, a fixed and ascertained connotation. 3. It would, however, be a complete misunderstanding of the proper office of a logician in dealing with terms already in use, if we were to think that because a name has not at present an ascertained connotati on, it is competent to any one to give it such a connotation at his own choice. The meaning of a term actually in use is not an arbitrary quantity to be fixed, but an unknown quantity to be sought. In the first place, it is obviously desirable to avail ourselves, as far as possible, of the associations already connected with the name; not enjoining the employment of it in a manner which conflicts with all previous habits, and especially not so as to require the rupture of those strongest of all associations between names, which are created by familiarity with propositions in which they are predicated of one another. A philosopher would have little chance of having his example followed, if he were to give such a meaning to his terms as should require us to call the North American Indians a civilized people, or the higher 422 classes in Europe savages; or to say that civilized people live by hunting, and savages by agriculture. Were there no other reason, the extreme difficulty of effecting so complete a revolution in speech would be more than a sufficient one. The endeavor should be, that all generally received propositions into which the term enters, should be at least as true after its meaning is fixed, as they were before; and that the concrete name, therefore, should not receive such a connotation as shall prevent it from denoting things which, in common language, it is currently affirmed of. The fixed and precise connotation which it receives should not be in deviation from, but in agreement (as far as it goes) with, the vague and fluctuating connotation which the term already had. To fix the connotation of a concrete name, or the denotation of the corresponding abstract, is to define the name. When this can be done without rendering any received assertions inadmissible, the name can be defined in accordance with its received use, which is vulgarly called defining not the name but the thing. What is meant by the improper expression of defining a thing (or rather a class of thingsfor nobody talks of defining an individual), is to define the name, subject to the condition that it shall denote those things. This, of course, supposes a comparison of the things, feature by feature and property by property, to ascertain what attributes they agree in; and not unfrequently an operation strictly inductive, for the purpose of ascertaining some unobvious agreement, which is the cause of the obvious agreements. For, in order to give a connotation to a name, consistently with its denoting certain objects, we have to make our s election from among the various attributes in which those objects agree. To ascertain in what they do agree is, therefore, the first logical operation requisite. When this has been done as far as is necessary or practicable, the question arises, which of these common attributes shall be selected to be associated with the name. For if the class which the name denotes be a Kind, the common properties are innumerable; and even if not, they are often extremely numerous. Our choice is first limited by the prefer ence to be given to properties which are well known, and familiarly predicated of the class; but even these are often too numerous to be all included in the definition, and, besides, the properties most generally known may not be those which serve best to mark out the class from all others. We should therefore select from among the common properties (if among them any such are to be found) those on which it has been ascertained by experience, or proved by deduction, that many others depend; or at least which are sure marks of them, and from whence, therefore, many others will follow by inference. We thus see that to frame a good definition of a name already in use, is not a matter of choice but of discussion, and discussion not merely respecting the usage of language, but respecting the properties of things, and even the origin of those properties. And hence every enlargement of our knowledge of the objects to which the name is applied, is liable to suggest an improvement in the definition. It is impossible to frame a perfect set of definitions on any subject, until the theory of the subject is perfect; and as science makes progress, its definitions are also progressive. 4. The discussion of Definitions, in so far as it does not turn on the use of words but on the properties of things, Dr. Whewell calls the Explication of Conceptions. The act of ascertaining, better than before, in what particulars any phenomena which are classed together agree, he calls in his technical phraseology, unfolding the general conception in virtue of which they are so classed. Making allowance for what appears to me the darkening and misleading tendency of this mode of expression, several of his remarks are so much to the purpose, that I shall take the liberty of transcribing them. 423 He observes, P208F209 P that many of the controversies which have had an important share in the formation of the existing body of science, have assumed the form of a battle of Definitions. For example, the inquiry concerning the laws of falling bodies led to the question whether the proper definition of a uniform force is that it generates a velocity proportional to the space from rest, or to the time . The controversy of the vis viva was what was the proper definition of the measure of force . A principal quest ion in the classification of minerals is, what is the definition of a mineral species . Physiologists have endeavored to throw light on their subject by defining organization, or some similar term. Questions of the same nature were long open and are not ye t completely closed, respecting the definitions of Specific Heat, Latent Heat, Chemical Combination, and Solution. It is very important for us to observe, that these controversies have never been questions of insulated and arbitrary definitions, as men seem often tempted to imagine them to have been. In all cases there is a tacit assumption of some proposition which is to be expressed by means of the definition, and which gives it its importance. The dispute concerning the definition thus acquires a real v alue, and becomes a question concerning true and false. Thus, in the discussion of the question, What is a uniform force? it was taken for granted that gravity is a uniform force. In the debate of the vis viva , it was assumed that in the mutual action of b odies the whole effect of the force is unchanged. In the zoological definition of species (that it consists of individuals which have, or may have, sprung from the same parents), it is presumed that individuals so related resemble each other more than thos e which are excluded by such a definition; or, perhaps, that species so defined have permanent and definite differences. A definition of organization, or of some other term which was not employed to express some principle, would be of no value. The establ ishment, therefore, of a right definition of a term, may be a useful step in the explication of our conceptions; but this will be the case then only when we have under our consideration some proposition in which the term is employed. For then the question really is, how the conception shall be understood and defined in order that the proposition may be true. To unfold our conceptions by means of definitions has never been serviceable to science, except when it has been associated with an immediate use of t he definitions. The endeavor to define a Uniform Force was combined with the assertion that gravity is a uniform force; the attempt to define Accelerating Force was immediately followed by the doctrine that accelerating forces may be compounded; the proces s of defining Momentum was connected with the principle that momenta gained and lost are equal; naturalists would have given in vain the definition of Species which we have quoted, if they had not also given the characters of species so separated.... Defin ition may be the best mode of explaining our conception, but that which alone makes it worth while to explain it in any mode, is the opportunity of using it in the expression of truth. When a definition is propounded to us as a useful step in knowledge, we are always entitled to ask what principle it serves to enunciate. In giving, then, an exact connotation to the phrase, a uniform force, the condition was understood, that the phrase should continue to denote gravity. The discussion, therefore, respecti ng the definition, resolved itself into this question, What is there of a uniform nature in the motions produced by gravity? By observations and comparisons, it was found that what was uniform in those motions was the ratio of the velocity acquired to the time elapsed; equal velocities being added in equal times. A uniform force, therefore, was defined a force which adds equal velocities in equal times. So, again, in defining momentum. It was already a received doctrine that, when two objects impinge upon one another, the momentum lost by the one is equal to that gained by the other. This proposition it was deemed necessary to 209 Novum Organum Renovatum , pp. 35- 37. 424 preserve, not from the motive (which operates in many other cases) that it was firmly fixed in popular belief; for the proposition in question had never been heard of by any but the scientifically instructed. But it was felt to contain a truth; even a superficial observation of the phenomena left no doubt that in the propagation of motion from one body to another, there was something of which the one body gained precisely what the other lost; and the word momentum had been invented to express this unknown something. The settlement, therefore, of the definition of momentum, involved the determination of the question, What is that of which a body, when it sets another body in motion, loses exactly as much as it communicates? And when experiment had shown that this something was the product of the velocity of the body by its mass, or quantity of matter, this became the definition of momentum. The following remarks, P209F210 P therefore, are perfectly just: The business of definition is part of the business of discovery.... To define, so that our definition shall have any scientific value, requires no small portion of that sagacity by which truth is detected.... When it has been clearly seen what ought to be our definition, it must be pretty well known what truth we have to state. The definition, as well as the discovery, supposes a decided step in our knowledge to have been made. The writers on Logic, in the Middle Ages, made Definition the last stage in the progress of knowledge; and in this arrangement at least, the history of science, and the philosophy derived from the history, confirm their speculative views. For in order to judge finally how the name which denotes a class may best be defined, we must know all the properties common to the class, and all the relations of causation or dependence among those properties. If the properties which are fittest to be selected as marks of other common prope rties are also obvious and familiar, and especially if they bear a great part in producing that general air of resemblance which was the original inducement to the formation of the class, the definition will then be most felicitous. But it is often necessa ry to define the class by some property not familiarly known, provided that property be the best mark of those which are known. M. De Blainville, for instance, founded his definition of life on the process of decomposition and recomposition which incessantly takes place in every living body, so that the particles composing it are never for two instants the same. This is by no means one of the most obvious properties of living bodies; it might escape altogether the notice of an unscientific observer. Yet gre at authorities (independently of M. De Blainville, who is himself a first- rate authority) have thought that no other property so well answers the conditions required for the definition. 5. Having laid down the principles which ought for the most part to be observed in attempting to give a precise connotation to a term in use, I must now add, that it is not always practicable to adhere to those principles, and that even when practicable, it is occasionally not desirable. Cases in which it is impossible to comply with all the conditions of a precise definition of a name in agreement with usage, occur very frequently. There is often no one connotation capable of being given to a word, so that it shall still denote every thing it is accustomed to denote; or that all the propositions into which it is accustomed to enter, and which have any foundation in truth, shall remain true. Independently of accidental ambiguities, in which the different meanings have no connection with one another; it continually happens that a word is used in two or more senses derived from each other, but yet radically distinct. So long as a term is vague, that is, so long as its connotation is not ascertained and permanently fixed, it is 210 Novum Organum Renovatum , pp. 39, 40. 425 constantly liable to be applied by extension from o ne thing to another, until it reaches things which have little, or even no, resemblance to those which were first designated by it. Suppose, says Dugald Stewart, in his Philosophical Essays , P210F211 P that the letters A, B, C, D, E, denote a series of objects; that A possesses some one quality in common with B; B a quality in common with C; C a quality in common with D; D a quality in common with E; while at the same time, no quality can be found which belongs in common to any three objects in the series. Is it not conceivable, that the affinity between A and B may produce a transference of the name of the first to the second; and that, in consequence of the other affinities which connect the remaining objects together, the same name may pass in succession from B to C; from C to D; and from D to E? In this manner, a common appellation will arise between A and E, although the two objects may, in their nature and properties, be so widely distant from each other, that no stretch of imagination can conceive how the thoughts were led from the former to the latter. The transitions, nevertheless, may have been all so easy and gradual, that, were they successfully detected by the fortunate ingenuity of a theorist, we should instantly recognize, not only the verisimilitude, but the truth of the conjecture: in the same way as we admit, with the confidence of intuitive conviction, the certainty of the well -known etymological process which connects the Latin preposition e or ex with the English substantive stranger , the moment that the intermediate links of the chain are submitted to our examination. P211F212 P The applications which a word acquires by this gradual extension of it from one set of objects to another, Stewart, adopting an expression from Mr. Payne Knight, calls its trans itive applications; and after briefly illustrating such of them as are the result of local or casual associations, he proceeds as follows: P212F213 P But although by far the greater part of the transitive or derivative applications of words depend on casual and unaccountable caprices of the feelings or the fancy, there are certain cases in which they open a very interesting field of philosophical speculation. Such are those, in which an analogous transference of the corresponding term may be remarked universally, or very generally, in other languages; and in which, of course, the uniformity of the result must be ascribed to the essential principles of the human frame. Even in such cases, however, it will by no means be always found, on examination, that the various applications of the same term have arisen from any common quality or qualities in the objects to which they relate. In the greater number of instances, they may be traced to some natural and universal associations of ideas, founded in the common faculties, common organs, and common condition of the human race.... According to the different degrees of intimacy and strength in 211 P. 217, 4to edition. 212 E, ex, extra, extraneus, tranger, stranger. Another etymological example sometimes cited is the derivation of the English uncle from the Latin avus. It is scarcely possible for two words to bear fewer outward marks of relationship, yet there is but one step between them, avus, avunculus , uncle . So pilgrim , from ager: per agrum , peragrinus , peregrinus , pellegrino , pilgrim . Professor Bain gives some apt examples of these transitions of meaning. The word damp primarily signified moist, humid, wet. But the property is often accompanied with the feeling of cold or chilliness, and hence the idea of cold is strongly suggested by the word. This is not all. Proceeding upon the superadded meaning, we speak of damping a man's ardor, a metaphor where the cooling is the only circumstance concerned; we go on still further to designate the iron slide that shuts off the draft of a stove, the damper, the primary meaning being now entirely dropped. Dry, in like manner, through signifying the absence of moisture, water, or liquidity, is applied to sulphuric acid containing water, although not thereby ceasing to be a moist, wet, or liquid substance. So in the phrases, dry sherry, or Champagne. Street, originally a paved way, with or without houses, has been extended to roads lined with houses, whether paved or unpaved. Impertinent signified at first irrelevant, alien to the purpose in hand: through which it has come to mean, meddling, intrusive, unmannerly, insolent. (Logic , ii., 173, 174.) 213 Pp. 226, 227. 426 the associations on which the transitions of language are founded, very different effects may be expected to arise. Where the association is slight and casual, the several meanings will remain distinct from each other, and will often, in process of time, assume the appearance of capricious varieties in the use of the same arbitrary sign. Where the association is so natural and habitual as to become virtually indissoluble, the transitive meanings will coalesce in one complex conception; and every new transition will become a more comprehensive generalization of the term in question. I solicit particular attention to the law of mind expressed in the last sentence, and which is the source of the perplexity so often experienced in detecting these transitions of meaning. Ignorance of that law is the shoal on which some of the most powerful intellects which have adorned the human race have been stranded. The inquiries of Plato into the definitions of some of the most general terms of moral speculation are characterized by Bacon as a far nearer approach to a true inductive method than is elsewhere to be found among the ancients, and are, in deed, almost perfect examples of the preparatory process of comparison and abstraction; but, from being unaware of the law just mentioned, he often wasted the powers of this great logical instrument on inquiries in which it could realize no result, since t he phenomena, whose common properties he so elaborately endeavored to detect, had not really any common properties. Bacon himself fell into the same error in his speculations on the nature of heat, in which he evidently confounded under the name hot, classes of phenomena which have no property in common. Stewart certainly overstates the matter when he speaks of a prejudice which has descended to modern times from the scholastic ages, that when a word admits of a variety of significations, these different s ignifications must all be species of the same genus, and must consequently include some essential idea common to every individual to which the generic term can be applied; P213F214 P for both Aristotle and his followers were well aware that there are such things as ambiguities of language, and delighted in distinguishing them. But they never suspected ambiguity in the cases where (as Stewart remarks) the association on which the transition of meaning was founded is so natural and habitual, that the two meanings blend together in the mind, and a real transition becomes an apparent generalization. Accordingly they wasted infinite pains in endeavoring to find a definition which would serve for several distinct meanings at once; as in an instance noticed by Stewart hims elf, that of causation; the ambiguity of the word which, in the Greek language corresponds to the English word cause , having suggested to them the vain attempt of tracing the common idea which, in the case of any effect , belongs to the efficient, to the m atter , to the form , and to the end . The idle generalities (he adds) we meet with in other philosophers, about the ideas of the good, the fit, and the becoming , have taken their rise from the same undue influence of popular epithets on the speculations of the learned. P214F215 P Among the words which have undergone so many successive transitions of meaning that every trace of a property common to all the things they are applied to, or at least common and also peculiar to those things, has been lost, Stewart considers the word Beautiful to be one. And (without attempting to decide a question which in no respect belongs to logic) I can not but feel, with him, considerable doubt whether the word beautiful connotes the same property when we speak of a beautiful color, a beautiful face, a beautiful scene, a beautiful character, and a beautiful poem. The word was doubtless extended from one of these objects to another on account of a resemblance between them, or, more probably, between the emotions they excited; and, by this progressive extension, it has at last reached things very remote from those objects of sight to which there is no doubt that it was first appropriated; and it is at least questionable whether there is now any property common to all the things which, consistently 214 Essays , p. 214. 215 Essays , p. 21 5. 427 with usage, may be called beautiful, except the property of agreeableness, which the term certainly does connote, but which can not be all that people usually intend to express by it, since there are many agreeable things which are never called beautiful. If such be the case, it is impossible to give to the word Beautiful any fixed connotation, such that it shall denote all the objects which in common use it now denotes, but no others. A fixed connotation, however, it ought to have; for, so long as it has not, it is unfit to be used as a scientific term, and is a perpetual source of false analogies and erroneous generalizations. This, then, constitutes a case in exemplification of our remark, that even when there is a property common to all the things denoted by a name, to erect that property into the definition and exclusive connotation of the name is not always desirable. The various things called beautiful unquestionably resemble one another in being agreeable; but to make this the definition of beauty, and so extend the word Beautiful to all agreeable things, would be to drop altogether a portion of meaning which the word really, though indistinctly, conveys, and to do what depends on us toward causing those qualities of the objects which the word previously, though vaguely, pointed at, to be overlooked and forgotten. It is better, in such a case, to give a fixed connotation to the term by restricting, than by extending its use; rather excluding from the epithet Beautiful some things to which it is commonly considered applicable, than leaving out of its connotation any of the qualities by which, though occasionally lost sight of, the general mind may have been habitually guided in the commonest and most interesting applications of the term. For there is no question that when people call any thing beautiful, they think they are asserting more than that it is merely agreeable. They think they are ascribing a peculiar sort of agreeableness, analogous to that which they find in some other of the things to which they are accustomed to apply the same name. If, therefore, there be any peculiar sort of agreeableness which is common though not to all, yet to the principal things which are called beautiful, it is better to limit the denotation of the term to those things, than to leave that kind of quality without a term to connote it, and thereby divert attention from its peculiarities. 6. The last remark exemplifies a rule of terminology, which is of great importance, and which has hardly yet been recognized as a rule, but by a few thinkers of the present century. In attempting to rectify the use of a vague term by giving it a fixed connotation, we must take care not to discard (unless advisedly, and on the ground of a deeper knowledge of the subject) any portion of the connotation which the word, in however indistinct a manner, previously carried with it. For otherwise language loses one of its inherent and most valuable properties, that of being the conservator of ancient experience; the keep er-alive of those thoughts and observations of former ages, which may be alien to the tendencies of the passing time. This function of language is so often overlooked or undervalued, that a few observations on it appear to be extremely required. Even when the connotation of a term has been accurately fixed, and still more if it has been left in the state of a vague unanalyzed feeling of resemblance; there is a constant tendency in the word, through familiar use, to part with a portion of its connotation. It is a well -known law of the mind, that a word originally associated with a very complex cluster of ideas, is far from calling up all those ideas in the mind, every time the word is used; it calls up only one or two, from which the mind runs on by fresh associations to another set of ideas, without waiting for the suggestion of the remainder of the complex cluster. If this were not the case, processes of thought could not take place with any thing like the rapidity which we know they possess. Very often, indeed, when we are employing a word in our mental operations, we are so far from waiting until the complex idea which corresponds to the meaning of the word is consciously brought before us in all its parts, that we run on to new trains of ideas by the other associations which the mere word excites, without having realized in our 428 imagination any part whatever of the meaning; thus using the word, and even using it well and accurately, and carrying on important processes of reasoning by means of it, in an almos t mechanical manner; so much so, that some metaphysicians, generalizing from an extreme case, have fancied that all reasoning is but the mechanical use of a set of terms according to a certain form. We may discuss and settle the most important interests of towns or nations, by the application of general theorems or practical maxims previously laid down, without having had consciously suggested to us, once in the whole process, the houses and green fields, the thronged market-places and domestic hearths, of which not only those towns and nations consist, but which the words town and nation confessedly mean. Since, then, general names come in this manner to be used (and even to do a portion of their work well) without suggesting to the mind the whole of their meaning, and often with the suggestion of a very small, or no part at all of that meaning; we can not wonder that words so used come in time to be no longer capable of suggesting any other of the ideas appropriated to them, than those with which the associ ation is most immediate and strongest, or most kept up by the incidents of life; the remainder being lost altogether; unless the mind, by often consciously dwelling on them, keeps up the association. Words naturally retain much more of their meaning to persons of active imagination, who habitually represent to themselves things in the concrete, with the detail which belongs to them in the actual world. To minds of a different description, the only antidote to this corruption of language is predication. The habit of predicating of the name, all the various properties which it originally connoted, keeps up the association between the name and those properties. But in order that it may do so, it is necessary that the predicates should themselves retain their association with the properties which they severally connote. For the propositions can not keep the meaning of the words alive, if the meaning of the propositions themselves should die. And nothing is more common than for propositions to be mechanically repe ated, mechanically retained in the memory, and their truth undoubtingly assented to and relied on, while yet they carry no meaning distinctly home to the mind; and while the matter of fact or law of nature which they originally expressed is as much lost sight of, and practically disregarded, as if it never had been heard of at all. In those subjects which are at the same time familiar and complicated, and especially in those which are so in as great a degree as moral and social subjects are, it is a matter of common remark how many important propositions are believed and repeated from habit, while no account could be given, and no sense is practically manifested, of the truths which they convey. Hence it is, that the traditional maxims of old experience, though seldom questioned, have often so little effect on the conduct of life; because their meaning is never, by most persons, really felt, until personal experience has brought it home. And thus also it is that so many doctrines of religion, ethics, and even politics, so full of meaning and reality to first converts, have manifested (after the association of that meaning with the verbal formulas has ceased to be kept up by the controversies which accompanied their first introduction) a tendency to degenerate rapidly into lifeless dogmas; which tendency, all the efforts of an education expressly and skillfully directed to keeping the meaning alive, are barely sufficient to counteract. Considering, then, that the human mind, in different generations, occupies it self with different things, and in one age is led by the circumstances which surround it to fix more of its attention upon one of the properties of a thing, in another age upon another; it is natural and inevitable that in every age a certain portion of our recorded and traditional knowledge, not being continually suggested by the pursuits and inquiries with which mankind are at that time engrossed, should fall asleep, as it were, and fade from the memory. It would be in danger of being totally lost, if the propositions or formulas, the results of the previous experience, did not remain, as forms of words it may be, but of words that once really 429 conveyed, and are still supposed to convey, a meaning: which meaning, though suspended, may be historically traced , and when suggested, may be recognized by minds of the necessary endowments as being still matter of fact, or truth. While the formulas remain, the meaning may at any time revive; and as, on the one hand, the formulas progressively lose the meaning they were intended to convey, so, on the other, when this forgetfulness has reached its height and begun to produce obvious consequences, minds arise which from the contemplation of the formulas rediscover the truth, when truth it was, which was contained in them, and announce it again to mankind, not as a discovery, but as the meaning of that which they have been taught, and still profess to believe. Thus there is a perpetual oscillation in spiritual truths, and in spiritual doctrines of any significance, even w hen not truths. Their meaning is almost always in a process either of being lost or of being recovered. Whoever has attended to the history of the more serious convictions of mankindof the opinions by which the general conduct of their lives is, or as they conceive ought to be, more especially regulatedis aware that even when recognizing verbally the same doctrines, they attach to them at different periods a greater or a less quantity, and even a different kind of meaning. The words in their original acceptation connoted, and the propositions expressed, a complication of outward facts and inward feelings, to different portions of which the general mind is more particularly alive in different generations of mankind. To common minds, only that portion of the meaning is in each generation suggested, of which that generation possesses the counterpart in its own habitual experience. But the words and propositions lie ready to suggest to any mind duly prepared the remainder of the meaning. Such individual minds are almost always to be found; and the lost meaning, revived by them, again by degrees works its way into the general mind. The arrival of this salutary reaction may, however, be materially retarded by the shallow conceptions and incautious proceedings of mere logicians. It sometimes happens that toward the close of the downward period, when the words have lost part of their significance, and have not yet begun to recover it, persons arise whose leading and favorite idea is the importance of clear conception s and precise thought, and the necessity, therefore, of definite language. These persons, in examining the old formulas, easily perceive that words are used in them without a meaning; and if they are not the sort of persons who are capable of rediscovering the lost signification, they naturally enough dismiss the formula, and define the name without reference to it. In so doing they fasten down the name to what it connotes in common use at the time when it conveys the smallest quantity of meaning; and introduce the practice of employing it, consistently and uniformly, according to that connotation. The word in this way acquires an extent of denotation far beyond what it had before; it becomes extended to many things to which it was previously, in appearance capriciously, refused. Of the propositions in which it was formerly used, those which were true in virtue of the forgotten part of its meaning are now, by the clearer light which the definition diffuses, seen not to be true according to the definition; which, however, is the recognized and sufficiently correct expression of all that is perceived to be in the mind of any one by whom the term is used at the present day. The ancient formulas are consequently treated as prejudices; and people are no longer taught as before, though not to understand them, yet to believe that there is truth in them. They no longer remain in the general mind surrounded by respect, and ready at any time to suggest their original meaning. Whatever truths they contain are not only, in these circumstances, rediscovered far more slowly, but, when rediscovered, the prejudice with which novelties are regarded is now, in some degree at least, against them, instead of being on their side. An example may make these remarks more intelligible. In all ages, except where moral speculation has been silenced by outward compulsion, or where the feelings which prompt to 430 it still continue to be satisfied by the traditional doctrines of an established faith, one of the subjects which have most occupied the minds of thinking persons is the inquiry, What is virtue? or, What is a virtuous character? Among the different theories on the subject which have, at different times, grown up and obtained partial currency, every one of which reflected as in the clear est mirror the express image of the age which gave it birth; there was one, according to which virtue consists in a correct calculation of our own personal interests, either in this world only, or also in another. To make this theory plausible, it was of course necessary that the only beneficial actions which people in general were accustomed to see, or were therefore accustomed to praise, should be such as were, or at least might without contradicting obvious facts be supposed to be, the result of a prudential regard to self -interest; so that the words really connoted no more, in common acceptation, than was set down in the definition. Suppose, now, that the partisans of this theory had contrived to introduce a consistent and undeviating use of the term according to this definition. Suppose that they had seriously endeavored, and had succeeded in the endeavor, to banish the word disinterestedness from the language; had obtained the disuse of all expressions attaching odium to selfishness or commendation to s elf-sacrifice, or which implied generosity or kindness to be any thing but doing a benefit in order to receive a greater personal advantage in return. Need we say that this abrogation of the old formulas for the sake of preserving clear ideas and consistency of thought, would have been a great evil? while the very inconsistency incurred by the co-existence of the formulas with philosophical opinions which seemed to condemn them as absurdities, operated as a stimulus to the re-examination of the subject and thus the very doctrines originating in the oblivion into which a part of the truth had fallen, were rendered indirectly, but powerfully, instrumental to its revival. The doctrine of the Coleridge school, that the language of any people among whom culture i s of old date, is a sacred deposit, the property of all ages, and which no one age should consider itself empowered to alter borders indeed, as thus expressed, on an extravagance; but it is grounded on a truth, frequently overlooked by that class of logicians who think more of having a clear than of having a comprehensive meaning; and who perceive that every age is adding to the truths which it has received from its predecessors, but fail to see that a counter process of losing truths already possessed, is also constantly going on, and requiring the most sedulous attention to counteract it. Language is the depository of the accumulated body of experience to which all former ages have contributed their part, and which is the inheritance of all yet to come. We have no right to prevent ourselves from transmitting to posterity a larger portion of this inheritance than we may ourselves have profited by. However much we may be able to improve on the conclusions of our forefathers, we ought to be careful not inadvertently to let any of their premises slip through our fingers. It may be good to alter the meaning of a word, but it is bad to let any part of the meaning drop. Whoever seeks to introduce a more correct use of a term with which important associations are co nnected, should be required to possess an accurate acquaintance with the history of the particular word, and of the opinions which in different stages of its progress it served to express. To be qualified to define the name, we must know all that has ever been known of the properties of the class of objects which are, or originally were, denoted by it. For if we give it a meaning according to which any proposition will be false which has ever been generally held to be true, it is incumbent on us to be sure that we know and have considered all which those who believed the proposition understood by it. 431 V. On The Natural History Of The Variations In The Meaning Of Terms 1. It is not only in the mode which has now been pointed out, namely by gradual inattention to a portion of the ideas conveyed, that words in common use are liable to shift their connotation. The truth is, that the connotation of such words is perpetually varying; as might be expected from the manner in which words in common use acquire their connotation. A technical term, invented for purposes of art or science, has, from the first, the connotation given to it by its inventor; but a name which is in every one's mouth before any one thinks of defining it, derives its connotation only from the circumstances which are habitually brought to mind when it is pronounced. Among these circumstances, the properties common to the things denoted by the name, have naturally a principal place; and would have the sole place, if language were regulated by convention rather than by custom and accident. But besides these common properties, which if they exist are certainly present whenever the name is employed, any other circumstance may casually be found along with it, so frequently as to become associated with it in the same manner, and as strongly, as the common properties themselves. In proportion as this association forms itself, people give up using the name in cases in which those casual circumstances do not exist. They prefer using some other name, or the same name with some adjunct, rather than employ an expression which will call up an idea they do not want to excite. The circumstance originally casual, thus becomes regularly a part of the connotation of the word. It is this continual incorporation of circumstances originally accidental, into the permanent signification of words, which is the cause that there are so few exact synonyms. It is this also which renders the dictionary meaning of a word, by universal remark so imperfect an exponent of its real meaning. The dictionary meaning is marked out in a broad, blunt way, and probably includes all that was originally necessary for the correct employment of the term; but in process of time so many collateral associatio ns adhere to words, that whoever should attempt to use them with no other guide than the dictionary, would confound a thousand nice distinctions and subtle shades of meaning which dictionaries take no account of; as we notice in the use of a language in co nversation or writing by a foreigner not thoroughly master of it. The history of a word, by showing the causes which determine its use, is in these cases a better guide to its employment than any definition; for definitions can only show its meaning at the particular time, or at most the series of its successive meanings, but its history may show the law by which the succession was produced. The word gentleman, for instance, to the correct employment of which a dictionary would be no guide, originally meant simply a man born in a certain rank. From this it came by degrees to connote all such qualities or adventitious circumstances as were usually found to belong to persons of that rank. This consideration at once explains why in one of its vulgar acceptations it means any one who lives without labor, in another without manual labor, and in its more elevated signification it has in every age signified the conduct, character, habits, and outward appearance, in whomsoever found, which, according to the ideas of that age, belonged or were expected to belong to persons born and educated in a high social position. It continually happens that of two words, whose dictionary meanings are either the same or very slightly different, one will be the proper word to use in one set of circumstances, another in another, without its being possible to show how the custom of so employing them originally grew up. The accident that one of the words was used and not the other on a particular occasion or in a particular social circle, will be sufficient to produce so strong an 432 association between the word and some specialty of circumstances, that mankind abandon the use of it in any other case, and the specialty becomes part of its signification. The tide of custom first drifts the wo rd on the shore of a particular meaning, then retires and leaves it there. An instance in point is the remarkable change which, in the English language at least, has taken place in the signification of the word loyalty . That word originally meant in English, as it still means in the language from whence it came, fair, open dealing, and fidelity to engagements; in that sense the quality it expressed was part of the ideal chivalrous or knightly character. By what process, in England, the term became restricte d to the single case of fidelity to the throne, I am not sufficiently versed in the history of courtly language to be able to pronounce. The interval between a loyal chevalier and a loyal subject is certainly great. I can only suppose that the word was, at some period, the favorite term at court to express fidelity to the oath of allegiance; until at length those who wished to speak of any other, and as it was probably deemed, inferior sort of fidelity, either did not venture to use so dignified a term, or found it convenient to employ some other in order to avoid being misunderstood. 2. Cases are not unfrequent in which a circumstance, at first casually incorporated into the connotation of a word which originally had no reference to it, in time wholly supersedes the original meaning, and becomes not merely a part of the connotation, but the whole of it. This is exemplified in the word pagan, paganus ; which originally, as its etymology imports, was equivalent to villager ; the inhabitant of a pagus , or villa ge. At a particular era in the extension of Christianity over the Roman empire, the adherents of the old religion, and the villagers or country people, were nearly the same body of individuals, the inhabitants of the towns having been earliest converted; a s in our own day, and at all times, the greater activity of social intercourse renders them the earliest recipients of new opinions and modes, while old habits and prejudices linger longest among the country people; not to mention that the towns were more immediately under the direct influence of the Government, which at that time had embraced Christianity. From this casual coincidence, the word paganus carried with it, and began more and more steadily to suggest, the idea of a worshiper of the ancient divi nities; until at length it suggested that idea so forcibly that people who did not desire to suggest the idea avoided using the word. But when paganus had come to connote heathenism, the very unimportant circumstance, with reference to that fact, of the place of residence, was soon disregarded in the employment of the word. As there was seldom any occasion for making separate assertions respecting heathens who lived in the country, there was no need for a separate word to denote them; and pagan came not only to mean heathen, but to mean that exclusively. A case still more familiar to most readers is that of the word villain or villein . This term, as every body knows, had in the Middle Ages a connotation as strictly defined as a word could have, being the proper legal designation for those persons who were the subjects of the less onerous forms of feudal bondage. The scorn of the semi-barbarous military aristocracy for these their abject dependants, rendered the act of likening any person to this class of people a mark of the greatest contumely; the same scorn led them to ascribe to the same people all manner of hateful qualities, which doubtless also, in the degrading situation in which they were held, were often not unjustly imputed to them. These circumstanc es combined to attach to the term villain ideas of crime and guilt, in so forcible a manner that the application of the epithet even to those to whom it legally belonged became an affront, and was abstained from whenever no affront was intended. From that time guilt was part of the connotation; and soon became the whole of it, since mankind were not prompted by any urgent motive to continue 433 making a distinction in their language between bad men of servile station and bad men of any other rank in life. These and similar instances in which the original signification of a term is totally lost another and an entirely distinct meaning being first ingrafted upon the former, and finally substituted for itafford examples of the double movement which is always taking place in language: two counter-movements, one of Generalization, by which words are perpetually losing portions of their connotation, and becoming of less meaning and more general acceptation; the other of Specialization, by which other, or even these same words, are continually taking on fresh connotation; acquiring additional meaning by being restricted in their employment to a part only of the occasions on which they might properly be used before. This double movement is of sufficient importance in the natural history of language (to which natural history the artificial modifications ought always to have some degree of reference), to justify our dwelling a little longer on the nature of the twofold phenomenon, and the causes to which it owes its existence. 3. To begin with the movement of generalization. It might seem unnecessary to dwell on the changes in the meaning of names which take place merely from their being used ignorantly, by persons who, not having properly mastered the received connotation of a word, apply it in a looser and wider sense than belongs to it. This, however, is a real source of alterations in the language; for when a word, from being often employed in cases where one of the qualities which it connotes does not exist, ceases to suggest that quality with certainty, then even those who are under no mistake as to the proper meaning of the word, prefer expressing that meaning in some other way, and leave the original word to its fate. The word 'Squire, as standing for an owner of a landed estate; Parson, as denoting not the rector of the parish, but clergymen in general; Artist, to denote only a painter or sculptor; are cases in point. Such cases give a clear insight into the process of the degeneration of languages in periods of history when literary culture was suspended; and we are now in danger of experiencing a similar evil through the superficial extension of the same culture. So many persons without any thing deserving the name of education have become writers by profession, tha t written language may almost be said to be principally wielded by persons ignorant of the proper use of the instrument, and who are spoiling it more and more for those who understand it. Vulgarisms, which creep in nobody knows how, are daily depriving the English language of valuable modes of expressing thought. To take a present instance: the verb transpire formerly conveyed very expressively its correct meaning, viz., to become known through unnoticed channelsto exhale, as it were, into publicity through invisible pores, like a vapor or gas disengaging itself. But of late a practice has commenced of employing this word, for the sake of finery, as a mere synonym of to happen: the events which have transpired in the Crimea, meaning the incidents of the w ar. This vile specimen of bad English is already seen in the dispatches of noblemen and viceroys; and the time is apparently not far distant when nobody will understand the word if used in its proper sense. In other cases it is not the love of finery, but simple want of education, which makes writers employ words in senses unknown to genuine English. The use of aggravating for provoking, in my boyhood a vulgarism of the nursery, has crept into almost all newspapers, and into many books; and when the word is used in its proper sense, as when writers on criminal law speak of aggravating and extenuating circumstances, their meaning, it is probable, is already misunderstood. It is a great error to think that these corruptions of language do no harm. Those who are struggling with the difficulty (and who know by experience how great it already is) of expressing one's self clearly with precision, find their resources continually narrowed by illiterate writers, who seize and twist from its purpose some form of speech which once served to convey briefly and compactly an 434 unambiguous meaning. It would hardly be believed how often a writer is compelled to a circumlocution by the single vulgarism, introduced during the last few years, of using the word alone as an adve rb, only not being fine enough for the rhetoric of ambitious ignorance. A man will say to which I am not alone bound by honor but also by law, unaware that what he has unintentionally said is, that he is not alone bound, some other person being bound with him. Formerly, if any one said, I am not alone responsible for this, he was understood to mean (what alone his words mean in correct English), that he is not the sole person responsible; but if he now used such an expression, the reader would be confus ed between that and two other meanings: that he is not only responsible but something more; or that he is responsible not only for this but for something besides. The time is coming when Tennyson's none could not say, I will not die alone, lest she should be supposed to mean that she would not only die but do something else. The blunder of writing predicate for predict has become so widely diffused that it bids fair to render one of the most useful terms in the scientific vocabulary of Logic unintelligible. The mathematical and logical term to eliminate is undergoing a similar destruction. All who are acquainted either with the proper use of the word or with its etymology know that to eliminate a thing is to thrust it out: but those who know nothing about it, except that it is a fine-looking phrase, use it in a sense precisely the reverse, to denote, not turning any thing out, but bringing it in. They talk of eliminating some truth, or other useful result, from a mass of details. P215F216 P A similar permanent de terioration in the language is in danger of being produced by the blunders of translators. The writers of telegrams, and the foreign correspondents of newspapers, have gone on so long translating demander by to demand, without a suspicion that it means only to ask, that (the context generally showing that nothing else is meant) English readers are gradually associating the English word demand with simple asking, thus leaving the language without a term to express a demand in its proper sense. In like manner, transaction, the French word for a compromise, is translated into the English word transaction; while, curiously enough, the inverse change is taking place in France, where the word compromis has lately begun to be used for expressing the same idea. If this continues, the two countries will have exchanged phrases. Independently, however, of the generalization of names through their ignorant misuse, there is a tendency in the same direction consistently with a perfect knowledge of their meaning; arising from the fact, that the number of things known to us, and of which we feel a desire to speak, multiply faster than the names for them. Except on subjects for which there has been constructed a scientific terminology, with which unscientific persons do not meddle, great difficulty is generally found in bringing a new name into use; and independently of that difficulty, it is natural to prefer giving to a new object a name which at least expresses its resemblance to something already known, since by predi cating of it a name entirely new we at first convey no information. In this manner the name of a species often becomes the name of a genus; as salt , for example, or oil ; the former of which words originally denoted only the muriate of soda, the latter, as its etymology indicates, only olive-oil; but which now denote large and diversified classes of substances resembling these in some of their qualities, and connote only those common qualities, instead of the whole of the distinctive properties of olive-oil and sea-salt. The words glass and soap are used by modern chemists in a similar manner, to denote genera of which the substances vulgarly so called are single species. And it 216 Though no such evil consequences as take place in these instances are likely to arise from the modern freak of writing sanatory instead of sanitary, it deserves notice as a charming specimen of pedantry ingrafted upon ignorance. Those who thus undertake to correct the spelling of the classical English writers, are not aware that the meaning of sanatory , if there we re such a word in the language, would have reference not to the preservation of health, but to the cure of disease. 435 often happens, as in those instances, that the term keeps its special signification in addition to its more general one, and becomes ambiguous, that is, two names instead of one. These changes, by which words in ordinary use become more and more generalized, and less and less expressive, take place in a still greater degree with the words which express the complicated phenomena of mind and society. Historians, travelers, and in general those who speak or write concerning moral and social phenomena with which they are not familiarly acquainted, are the great agents in t his modification of language. The vocabulary of all except unusually instructed as well as thinking persons, is, on such subjects, eminently scanty. They have a certain small set of words to which they are accustomed, and which they employ to express phenomena the most heterogeneous, because they have never sufficiently analyzed the facts to which those words correspond in their own country, to have attached perfectly definite ideas to the words. The first English conquerors of Bengal, for example, carried with them the phrase landed proprietor into a country where the rights of individuals over the soil were extremely different in degree, and even in nature, from those recognized in England. Applying the term with all its English associations in such a state of things; to one who had only a limited right they gave an absolute right, from another because he had not an absolute right they took away all right, drove whole classes of people to ruin and despair, filled the country with banditti, created a feeling that nothing was secure, and produced, with the best intentions, a disorganization of society which had not been produced in that country by the most ruthless of its barbarian invaders. Yet the usage of persons capable of so gross a misapprehension determines the meaning of language; and the words they thus misuse grow in generality, until the instructed are obliged to acquiesce; and to employ those words (first freeing them from vagueness by giving them a definite connotation) as generic terms, subdividing the genera into species. 4. While the more rapid growth of ideas than of names thus creates a perpetual necessity for making the same names serve, even if imperfectly, on a greater number of occasions; a counter-operation is going on, by which names be come on the contrary restricted to fewer occasions, by taking on, as it were, additional connotation, from circumstances not originally included in the meaning, but which have become connected with it in the mind by some accidental cause. We have seen abov e, in the words pagan and villain , remarkable examples of the specialization of the meaning of words from casual associations, as well as of the generalization of it in a new direction, which often follows. Similar specializations are of frequent occurrence in the history even of scientific nomenclature. It is by no means uncommon, says Dr. Paris, in his Pharmacologia, to find a word which is used to express general characters subsequently become the name of a specific substance in which such characters are predominant; and we shall find that some important anomalies in nomenclature may be thus explained. The term , from which the word Arsenic is derived, was an ancient epithet applied to those natural substances which possessed strong and acrimonious properties; and as the poisonous quality of arsenic was found to be remarkably powerful, the term was especially applied to Orpiment, the form in which this metal most usually occurred. So the term Verbena (quasi Herbena ) originally denoted all those herbs that were held sacred on account of their being employed in the rites of sacrifice, as we learn from the poets; but as one herb was usually adopted upon these occasions, the word Verbena came to denote that particular herb only , and it is transmitte d to us to this day under the same title, viz., Verbena or Vervain, and indeed until lately it enjoyed the medical reputation which its sacred origin conferred upon it, for it was worn suspended around the neck as an amulet. Vitriol, in the original application of the word, denoted any crystalline body with a certain degree of transparency ( vitrum ); it is hardly necessary to observe that the term is now appropriated to a particular species: in the same 436 manner, Bark, which is a general term, is applied to express one genus, and by way of eminence it has the article The prefixed, as The bark; the same observation will apply to the word Opium, which, in its primitive sense, signifies any juice ( , Succus ), while it now only denotes one species, viz., that of the poppy. So, again, Elaterium was used by Hippocrates to signify various internal applications, especially purgatives, of a violent and drastic nature (from the word , agito, moveo , stimulo ), but by succeeding authors it was exclusively applied to denote the active matter which subsides from the juice of the wild cucumber. The word Fecula , again, originally meant to imply any substance which was derived by spontaneous subsidence from a liquid (from fx , the grounds or settlement of any liquor); aft erward it was applied to Starch, which is deposited in this manner by agitating the flour of wheat in water; and, lastly, it has been applied to a peculiar vegetable principle, which, like starch, is insoluble in cold, but completely soluble in boiling wat er, with which it forms a gelatinous solution. This indefinite meaning of the word fecula has created numerous mistakes in pharmaceutic chemistry; Elaterium, for instance, is said to be fecula , and, in the original sense of the word, it is properly so called, inasmuch as it is procured from a vegetable juice by spontaneous subsidence, but in the limited and modern acceptation of the term it conveys an erroneous idea; for instead of the active principle of the juice residing in fecula , it is a peculiar proxi mate principle, sui generis , to which I have ventured to bestow the name of Elatin . For the same reason, much doubt and obscurity involve the meaning of the word Extract , because it is applied generally to any substance obtained by the evaporation of a vegetable solution, and specifically to a peculiar proximate principle, possessed of certain characters, by which it is distinguished from every other elementary body. A generic term is always liable to become thus limited to a single species, or even individual, if people have occasion to think and speak of that individual or species much oftener than of any thing else which is contained in the genus. Thus by cattle, a stage- coachman will understand horses; beasts, in the language of agriculturists, stands for oxen; and birds, with some sportsmen, for partridges only. The law of language which operates in these trivial instances is the very same in conformity to which the terms , Deus, and God, were adopted from Polytheism by Christianity, to express the single object of its own adoration. Almost all the terminology of the Christian Church is made up of words originally used in a much more general acceptation: Ecclesia , Assembly; Bishop, Episcopus, Overseer; Priest , Presbyter, Elder; Deacon , Diaconus, Administrator; Sacrament , a vow of allegiance; Evangelium , good tidings; and some words, as Minister , are still used both in the general and in the limited sense. It would be interesting to trace the progress by which author came, in its most familiar sense, to signify a writer, and , or maker, a poet. Of the incorporation into the meaning of a term, of circumstances accidentally connected with it at some particular period, as in the case of Pagan, instances might easily be multiplied. Phys ician ( , or naturalist) became, in England, synonymous with a healer of diseases, because until a comparatively late period medical practitioners were the only naturalists. Clerc, or clericus, a scholar, came to signify an ecclesiastic, because the clergy were for many centuries the only scholars. Of all ideas, however, the most liable to cling by association to any thing with which they have ever been connected by proximity, are those of our pleasures and pains, or of the things which we habitually contemplate as sources of our pleasures or pains. The additional connotation, therefore, which a word soonest and most readily takes on, is that of agreeableness or painfulness, in their various kinds and degrees; of being a good or bad thing; desirable or to be avoided; an object of hatred, of dread, contempt, admiration, hope, or love. 437 Accordingly there is hardly a single name, expressive of any moral or social fact calculated to call forth strong affections either of a favorable or of a hostile nature, which does not carry with it decidedly and irresistibly a connotation of those strong affections, or, at the least, of approbation or censure; insomuch that to employ those names in conjunction with others by which the contrary sentiments were expressed, would produce the effect of a paradox, or even a contradiction in terms. The baneful influence of a connotation thus acquired, on the prevailing habits of thought, especially in morals and politics, has been well pointed out on many occasions by Bentham. It gives rise to the fallacy of question -begging names. The very property which we are inquiring whether a thing possesses or not, has become so associated with the name of the thing as to be part of its meaning, insomuch that by merely uttering the name we assume the point which was to be made out; one of the most frequent sources of apparently self-evident propositions. Without any further multiplication of examples to illustrate the changes which usage is continually making in the signification of terms, I shall add, as a practical rule, that the logician, not being able to prevent such transformations, should submit to them with a good grace when they are irrevocably effected, and if a definition is necessary, define the word according to its new meaning; retaining the former as a second signification, if it is needed, and if there is any chance of being able to preserve it either in the language of philosophy or in common use. Logicians can not make the meaning of any but scientific terms; that of all other words is made by the collective human race. But logicians can ascertain clearly what it is which, working obscurely, has guided the general mind to a particular employment of a name; and when they have found this, they can clothe it in such distinct and permanent terms, that mankind shall see the meaning which before they only felt, and shall not suffer it to be afterward forgotten or misapprehended. 438 VI. The Principles Of A Philosophical Language Further Considered 1. We have, thus far, considered only one of the requisites of a language adapted for the investigation of truth; that its terms shall each of them convey a determinate and unmistakable meaning. There are, however, as we have already remarked, other requisites; some of them important only in the second degree, but one which is fundamental, and barely yields in point of importance, if it yields at all, to the quality which we have already discussed at so much length. That the language may be fitted for its purposes, not only should every word perfectly express its meaning, but there should be no important meaning without its word. Whatever we have occasion to think of often, and for scientific purposes, ought to have a name appropriated to it. This requisite of philosophical language may be considered under three different heads; that number of separate conditions being involved in it. 2. First, there ought to be all such names, as are needful for making such a record of individual observations that the words of the record shall exactly show what fact it is which has been observed. In other words, there should be an accurate Descriptive Terminology. The only things which we can observe directly being our own sensations, or other feelings, a complete descriptive language would be one in which there should be a name for every variety of elementary sensation or feeling. Combinations of sensations or feelings may always be described, if we have a name for each of the elementary feelings which compose them; but brevity of description, and clearness (which often depends very much on brevity), are greatly promoted by giving distinctive names not to the elements alone, but also to all combinations which are of frequent recurrence. On this occasion I can not do better than quote from Dr. Whewell some of the excellent remarks which he has made on this important branch of our subject. The meaning of [descriptive] technical terms can be fixed in the first instance only by convention, and can be made intelligible only by presenting to the senses that which the terms are to signify. The knowledge of a color by its name can only be taught through the eye. No description can convey to a hearer what we mean by apple- green or French gray . It might, perhaps, be supposed that, in the first example, the term apple , referring to so familiar an object, sufficiently suggests the color intended. But it may easily be seen that this is not true; for apples are of many different hues of green, and it is only by a conventional selection that we can appropriate the term to one special shade. When this appropriation is once made, the term refers to the sensation, and not to the parts of the term; for these enter into the compound merely as a help to the memory, whether the suggestion be a natural connection as in apple-green, or a casual one as in French gray. In order to derive due advantage from technical terms of the kind, they must be associated immediately with the perception to which they belong; and not connected with it through the vague usages of common language. The memory must retain the sensation; and the technical word must be understood as directly as the most familiar word, and more distinctly. When we find such terms as tin - white or pinchbeck-brown, the metallic color so denoted ought to start up in our memory without delay or search. This, which it is most important to recollect with respect to the simpler properties of bodies, as color and form, is no less true with respect to more compound notions. In all cases the term 439 is fixed to a peculiar meaning by convention; and the student, in order to use the word, must be completely familiar with the convention, so that he has no need to frame conjectures from the word itself. Such conjectures would always be insecure, and often erroneous. Thus the term papilionaceous applied to a flower is employed to indicate, not only a resemblance to a butterfly, but a resemblance arising from five petals of a certain- peculiar shape and arrangement; and even if the resemblance were much stronger than it is in such cases, yet, if it were produced in a different way, as, for example, by one petal, or two only, instead of a standard, two wings, and a keel consisting of two parts more or less united into one, we should be no longer justified in speaking of it as a papilionaceous flower. When, however, the thing named is, as in this last case, a combination of simple sensations, it is not necessary, in order to learn the meaning of the word, that the student should refer back to the sensations themselv es; it may be communicated to him through the medium of other words; the terms, in short, may be defined. But the names of elementary sensations, or elementary feelings of any sort, can not be defined; nor is there any mode of making their signification known but by making the learner experience the sensation, or referring him, through some known mark, to his remembrance of having experienced it before. Hence it is only the impressions on the outward senses, or those inward feelings which are connected in a very obvious and uniform manner with outward objects, that are really susceptible of an exact descriptive language. The countless variety of sensations which arise, for instance, from disease, or from peculiar physiological states, it would be in vain to attempt to name; for as no one can judge whether the sensation I have is the same with his, the name can not have, to us two, real community of meaning. The same may be said, to a considerable extent, of purely mental feelings. But in some of the sciences which are conversant with external objects, it is scarcely possible to surpass the perfection to which this quality of a philosophical language has been carried. The formation of an exact and extensive descriptive language for botany has been executed with a degree of skill and felicity, which, before it was attained, could hardly have been dreamed of as attainable. Every part of a plant has been named; and the form of every part, even the most minute, has had a large assemblage of descriptive terms appropriated to it, by means of which the botanist can convey and receive knowledge of form and structure, as exactly as if each minute part were presented to him vastly magnified. This acquisition was part of the Linnan reform.... Tournefort, says Decandolle, appears to have been the first who really perceived the utility of fixing the sense of terms in such a way as always to employ the same word in the same sense, and always to express the same idea by the same words; but it was Linnus who really created and fixed this botanical language, and this is his fairest claim to glory, for by this fixation of language he has shed clearness and precision over all parts of the science. It is not necessary here to give any detailed account of the terms of botany. The fundamental ones have been gradually introduced, as the parts of plants were more carefully and minutely examined. Thus the flower was necessarily distinguished into the calyx, the corolla, the stamens , and the pistils ; the sections of the corolla were termed petals by Columna; those of the calyx were called sepals by Necker. Sometimes terms of greater generality were devised; as perianth, to include the calyx and corolla, whether one or both of these were present; pericarp , for the part inclosing the grain, of whatever kind it be, fruit, nut, pod, etc. And it may easily be imagined, that descriptive terms may, by definition and combination, become very numerous and distinct. Thus leaves may be called pinnatifid , pinnatipartite , pinnatisect , pinnatilobate , palmatifid , palmatipartite , etc., and each of these words designates different combinations of the modes and extent of the divisions of the leaf with the divisions of its outline. In some cases, arbitrary numerical 440 relations are introduced i nto the definition: thus, a leaf is called bilobate , when it is divided into two parts by a notch; but if the notch go to the middle of its length, it is bifid ; if it go near the base of the leaf, it is bipartite ; if to the base, it is bisect . Thus, too, a pod of a cruciferous plant is a siliqua , if it is four times as long as it is broad, but if it be shorter than this it is a silicula . Such terms being established, the form of the very complex leaf or frond of a fern (Hymenophyllum Wilsoni) is exactly conveyed by the following phrase: fronds rigid pinnate, pinn recurved subunilateral, pinnatifid, the segments linear undivided or bifid, spinuloso- serrate. Other characters, as well as form, are conveyed with the like precision: Color by means of a classi fied scale of colors.... This was done with most precision by Werner, and his scale of colors is still the most usual standard of naturalists. Werner also introduced a more exact terminology with regard to other characters which are important in mineralogy, as lustre, hardness. But Mohs improved upon this step by giving a numerical scale of hardness, in which talc is 1, gypsum 2, calc spar 3, and so on.... Some properties, as specific gravity, by their definition give at once a numerical measure; and others , as crystalline form, require a very considerable array of mathematical calculation and reasoning, to point out their relations and gradations. 3. Thus far of Descriptive Terminology, or of the language requisite for placing on record our observation of individual instances. But when we proceed from this to Induction, or rather to that comparison of observed instances which is the preparatory step toward it, we stand in need of an additional and a different sort of general names. Whenever, for purposes of Induction, we find it necessary to introduce (in Dr. Whewell's phraseology) some new general conception; that is, whenever the comparison of a set of phenomena leads to the recognition in them of some common circumstance, which, our attention not having been directed to it on any former occasion, is to us a new phenomenon; it is of importance that this new conception, or this new result of abstraction, should have a name appropriated to it; especially if the circumstance it involves be one which leads to many consequences, or which is likely to be found also in other classes of phenomena. No doubt, in most cases of the kind, the meaning might be conveyed by joining together several words already in use. But when a thing has to be often spoken of, there ar e more reasons than the saving of time and space, for speaking of it in the most concise manner possible. What darkness would be spread over geometrical demonstrations, if wherever the word circle is used, the definition of a circle were inserted instead of it. In mathematics and its applications, where the nature of the processes demands that the attention should be strongly concentrated, but does not require that it should be widely diffused, the importance of concentration also in the expressions has always been duly felt; and a mathematician no sooner finds that he shall often have occasion to speak of the same two things together, than he at once creates a term to express them whenever combined: just as, in his algebraical operations, he substitutes for (a Pm P + b Pn P) p/q, or for a/ b + b/ c + c/d + etc., the single letter P, Q, or S; not solely to shorten his symbolical expressions, but to simplify the purely intellectual part of his operations, by enabling the mind to give its exclusive attention to the relation between the quantity S and the other quantities which enter into the equation, without being distracted by thinking unnecessarily of the parts of which S is itself composed. But there is another reason, in addition to that of promoting perspicuity, for giving a brief and compact name to each of the more considerable results of abstraction which are obtained in the course of our intellectual phenomena. By naming them, we fix our attention upon them; we keep them more constantly before the mind. The names are remembered, and being remembered, suggest their definition; while if instead of specific and characteristic names, 441 the meaning had been expressed by putting together a number of other names, that particular combination of words already in common use for other purposes would have had nothing to make itself remembered by. If we want to render a particular combination of ideas permanent in the mind, there is nothing which clinches it like a name specially devoted to express it. If mathematicians had been obliged to speak of that to which a quantity, in increasing or diminishing, is always approaching nearer, so that the difference becomes less than any assignable quantity, but to which it never becomes exactly equal, instead of expressing all this by the simple phrase, the limit of a quantity, we should probably have long remained without most of the important truths which have been discovered by means of the relation between quantities of various kinds and their limits. If instead of speaking of moment um, it had been necessary to say, the product of the number of units of velocity in the velocity by the number of units of mass in the mass, many of the dynamical truths now apprehended by means of this complex idea would probably have escaped notice, for want of recalling the idea itself with sufficient readiness and familiarity. And on subjects less remote from the topics of popular discussion, whoever wishes to draw attention to some new or unfamiliar distinction among things, will find no way so sure as to invent or select suitable names for the express purpose of marking it. A volume devoted to explaining what the writer means by civilization, does not raise so vivid a conception of it as the single expression, that Civilization is a different thing f rom Cultivation; the compactness of that brief designation for the contrasted quality being an equivalent for a long discussion. So, if we would impress forcibly upon the understanding and memory the distinction between the two different conceptions of a r epresentative government, we can not more effectually do so than by saying that Delegation is not Representation. Hardly any original thoughts on mental or social subjects ever make their way among mankind, or assume their proper importance in the minds even of their inventors, until aptly -selected words or phrases have, as it were, nailed them down and held them fast. 4. Of the three essential parts of a philosophical language, we have now mentioned two: a terminology suited for describing with precision the individual facts observed; and a name for every common property of any importance or interest, which we detect by comparing those facts; including (as the concretes corresponding to those abstract terms) names for the classes which we artificially con struct in virtue of those properties, or as many of them, at least, as we have frequent occasion to predicate any thing of. But there is a sort of classes, for the recognition of which no such elaborate process is necessary; because each of them is marked out from all others not by some one property, the detection of which may depend on a difficult act of abstraction, but by its properties generally. I mean, the Kinds of things, in the sense which, in this treatise, has been specially attached to that term. By a Kind, it will be remembered, we mean one of those classes which are distinguished from all others not by one or a few definite properties, but by an unknown multitude of them; the combination of properties on which the class is grounded, being a mere index to an indefinite number of other distinctive attributes. The class horse is a Kind, because the things which agree in possessing the characters by which we recognize a horse, agree in a great number of other properties, as we know, and, it can not be doubted, in many more than we know. Animal, again, is a Kind, because no definition that could be given of the name animal could either exhaust the properties common to all animals, or supply premises from which the remainder of those properties could be inferred. But a combination of properties which does not give evidence of the existence of any other independent peculiarities, does not constitute a Kind. White horse, therefore, is not a Kind; because horses which agree in whiteness, do not agree in any thing else, except the qualities common to all horses, and whatever may be the causes or effects of that particular color. 442 On the principle that there should be a name for every thing which we have frequent occasion to make assertions about, there ought evidently to be a name for every Kind; for as it is the very meaning of a Kind that the individuals composing it have an indefinite multitude of properties in common, it follows that, if not with our present knowledge, yet with that which we may hereafter acquire, the Kind is a subject to which there will have to be applied many predicates. The third component element of a philosophical language, therefore, is that there shall be a name for every Kind. In other words, there must not only be a terminology, but also a nomenclature. The words Nomenclature and Terminology are employed by most authors almost indiscriminately; Dr. Whewell being, as far as I am aware, the first writer who has regularly assigned to the two words different meanings. The distinction, however, which he has drawn between them being real and important, his example is likely to be followed; and (as is apt to be the case when such innovations in language are felicitously made) a vague sense of the distinction is found to have influenced the employment of the terms in common practice, before the expediency had been pointed out of discriminating them philosophically. Every one would say that the reform effected by Lavoisier and Guyton-Morveau in the language of chemistry consisted in the introduction of a new nomenclature, not of a new terminology. Linear, lanceolate, oval, or oblong, serrated, dentate, or crenate leaves, are expressions forming part of the terminology of botany, while the names Viola odorata, and Ulex Europus, belong to its nomenclature. A nomenclature may be defined, the collection of the names of all the Kinds with which any branch of knowledge is conversant; or more properly, of all the lowest Kinds, or infirm species those which may be subdivided indeed, but not into Kinds, and which generally accord with what in natural history are termed simply species. Science possesses two splendid examples of a systematic nomenclature; that of plants and animals, constructed by Linnus and his successors, and that of chemistry, which we owe to the illustrious group of chemists who flourished in France toward the close of the eighteenth century. In these two departments, not only has every known species, or lowest Kind, a name assigned to it, but when new lowest Kinds are discovered, names are at once given to them on a uniform principle. In other sciences the nomenclature is not at present constructed on any system, either because the species to be named are not numerous enough to require one (as in geometry, for example), or because no one has yet suggested a suitable principle for such a system, as in mineralogy; in which the want of a scientifically constructed nomenclature is now the principal cause which retards the progress of the science. 5. A word which carries on its face that it belongs to a nomenclature, seems at first sight to differ from other concrete general names in this that its meaning does not reside in its connotation, in the attributes implied in it, but in its denotation, that is, in the particular group of things which it is appointed to designate; and can not, therefore, be unfolded by means of a definition, but must be made known in another way. This opinion, however, appears to me erroneous. Words belonging to a nomenclature differ, I conceive, from other words mainly in this, that besides the ordinary connotation, they have a peculiar one of their own: besides connoting certain attributes, they also connote that those attributes are distinctive of a Kind. The term peroxide of iron, for example, belonging by its form to the systematic nomenclature of chemistry, bears on its face that it is the name of a peculiar Kind of substance. It moreover connotes, like the name of any other class, some portion of the properties common to the class; in this instance the property of being a compound of iron and the largest dose of oxygen with which iron will combine. These two things, the fact of being such a compound, and the fact of being a Kind, constitute the connotation of the name peroxide of iron. When we say of the substance before us, that it is the peroxide of iron, we 443 thereby assert, first, that it is a compound of iron and a maximum of oxygen, and next, that the substance so composed is a peculiar Kind of substance. Now, this second part of the connotation of any word belonging to a nomenclature is as essential a portion of its meaning as the first part, while the definition only declares the first; and hence the appearance that the signification of such terms can not be conveyed by a definition: which appearance, however, is fallacious. The name Viola odorata denotes a Kind, of which a certain number of characters, sufficient to distinguish it, are enunciated in botanical works. This enumeration of characters is surely, as in other cases, a definition of the name. No, say some, it is not a definition, for the name Viola odorata does not mean those characters; it means that particular group of plants, and the characters are selected from among a much greater number, merely as marks by which to recognize the group. But to this I reply, that the name does not mean that group, for it would be applied to that group no longer than while the group is believed to be an infima species ; if it were to be discovered that several distinct Kinds have been confounded under this one name, no one would any longer apply the name Viola odorata to the whole of the group, but would apply it, if retained at all, to one only of the Kinds retained therein. What is imperative, therefore, is not that the name shall denote one particular collection of objects, but that it shall denote a Kind, and a lowest Kind. The form of the name declares that, happen what will, it is to denote an infima species ; and that, therefore, the properties which it connotes, and which are expressed in the definition, are to be connoted by it no longer than while we continue to believe that those properties, when found together, indicate a Kind, and that the whole of them are found in no more than one Kind. With the addition of this peculiar connotation, implied in the form of every word which belongs to a systematic nomenclature; the set of characters which is employed to discriminate each Kind from all other Kinds (and which is a real definition) constitutes as completely as in any other case the whole meani ng of the term. It is no objection to say that (as is often the case in natural history) the set of characters may be changed, and another substituted as being better suited for the purpose of distinction, while the word, still continuing to denote the sam e group or things, is not considered to have changed its meaning. For this is no more than may happen in the case of any other general name: we may, in reforming its connotation, leave its denotation untouched; and it is generally desirable to do so. The connotation, however, is not the less for this the real meaning, for we at once apply the name wherever the characters set down in the definition are found; and that which exclusively guides us in applying the term, must constitute its signification. If we find, contrary to our previous belief, that the characters are not peculiar to one species, we cease to use the term co -extensively with the characters; but then it is because the other portion of the connotation fails; the condition that the class must be a Kind. The connotation, therefore, is still the meaning; the set of descriptive characters is a true definition; and the meaning is unfolded, not indeed (as in other cases) by the definition alone, but by the definition and the form of the word taken together. 6. We have now analyzed what is implied in the two principal requisites of a philosophical language; first, precision, or definiteness; and, secondly, completeness. Any further remarks on the mode of constructing a nomenclature must be deferred until we treat of Classification; the mode of naming the Kinds of things being necessarily subordinate to the mode of arranging those Kinds into larger classes. With respect to the minor requisites of terminology, some of them are well stated and illustrated in the Aphorisms concerning the Language of Science, included in Dr. Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences . These, as being of secondary importance in the peculiar point of view of Logic, I shall not further refer to, but shall confine my observations to one more quality, which, next to the two already treated of, 444 appears to be the most valuable which the language of science can possess. Of this quality a general notion may be conveyed by the following aphorism: Whenever the nature of the subject permits our reasoning processes to be, without danger, carried on mechanically, the language should be constructed on as mechanical principles as possible; while, in the contrary case, it should be so constructed that there shall be the greatest possible obstacles to a merely mechanical use of it. I am aware that this maxim requires much explanation, which I shall at once proceed to give. At first, as to what is meant by using a language mechanically. The complete or extreme case of the mechanical use of language, is when it is used without any consciousness of a meaning, and with only the consciousness of using certain visible or audible marks in conformity to technical rules previously laid down. This extreme case is nowhere realized except in the figures of arithmetic, and still more the symbols of algebra, a language unique in its kind, and approaching as nearly to perfection, for the purposes to which it is destined, as can, perhaps, be said of any creation of the human mind. Its perfection consists in the completeness of its adaptation to a purely mechanical use. The symbols are mere counters, without even the semblance of a meaning apart from the convention which is renewed each time they are employed, and which is altered at each renewal, the same sy mbol a or x being used on different occasions to represent things which (except that, like all things, they are susceptible of being numbered) have no property in common. There is nothing, therefore, to distract the mind from the set of mechanical operatio ns which are to be performed upon the symbols, such as squaring both sides of the equation, multiplying or dividing them by the same or by equivalent symbols, and so forth. Each of these operations, it is true, corresponds to a syllogism; represents one step of a ratiocination relating not to the symbols, but to the things signified by them. But as it has been found practicable to frame a technical form, by conforming to which we can make sure of finding the conclusion of the ratiocination, our end can be completely attained without our ever thinking of any thing but the symbols. Being thus intended to work merely as mechanism, they have the qualities which mechanism ought to have. They are of the least possible bulk, so that they take up scarcely any room, and waste no time in their manipulation; they are compact, and fit so closely together that the eye can take in the whole at once of almost every operation which they are employed to perform. These admirable properties of the symbolical language of mathematics have made so strong an impression on the minds of many thinkers, as to have led them to consider the symbolical language in question as the ideal type of philosophical language generally; to think that names in general, or (as they are fond of calling them) signs, are fitted for the purposes of thought in proportion as they can be made to approximate to the compactness, the entire unmeaningness, and the capability of being used as counters without a thought of what they represent, which are characteris tic of the a and b, the x and y, of algebra. This notion has led to sanguine views of the acceleration of the progress of science by means which, I conceive, can not possibly conduce to that end, and forms part of that exaggerated estimate of the influence of signs, which has contributed in no small degree to prevent the real laws of our intellectual operations from being rightly understood. In the first place, a set of signs by which we reason without consciousness of their meaning, can be serviceable, at most, only in our deductive operations. In our direct inductions we can not for a moment dispense with a distinct mental image of the phenomena, since the whole operation turns on a perception of the particulars in which those phenomena agree and differ. But, further, this reasoning by counters is only suitable to a very limited portion even of our deductive processes. In our reasonings respecting numbers, the only general principles which we ever have occasion to introduce are these, Things which are equal to the same thing are 445 equal to one another, and The sums or differences of equal things are equal; with their various corollaries. Not only can no hesitation ever arise respecting the applicability of these principles, since they are true of all magnitudes whatever; but every possible application of which they are susceptible, may be reduced to a technical rule; and such, in fact, the rules of the calculus are. But if the symbols represent any other things than mere numbers, let us say even straight or curve lines, we have then to apply theorems of geometry not true of all lines without exception, and to select those which are true of the lines we are reasoning about. And how can we do this unless we keep completely in mind what particular lines these are? Since additional geometrical truths may be introduced into the ratiocination in any stage of its progress, we can not suffer ourselves, during even the smallest part of it, to use the names mechanically (as we use algebraical symbols) without an image annexed to them. It is only after ascertaining that the solution of a question concerning lines can be made to depend on a previous question concerning numbers, or, in other words, after the question has been (to speak technically) reduced to an equation, that the unmeaning signs become available, and that the nature of the facts themselves to which the investigation relates can be dismissed from the mind. Up to the establishment of the equation, the language in which mathematicians carry on their reasoning does not differ in character from that employed by close reasoners on any other kind of subject. I do not deny that every correct ratiocination, when thrown into the syllogistic shape, is conclusive from the mere form of the expression, provided none of the t erms used be ambiguous; and this is one of the circumstances which have led some writers to think that if all names were so judiciously constructed and so carefully defined as not to admit of any ambiguity, the improvement thus made in language would not only give to the conclusions of every deductive science the same certainty with those of mathematics, but would reduce all reasonings to the application of a technical form, and enable their conclusiveness to be rationally assented to after a merely mechani cal process, as is undoubtedly the case in algebra. But, if we except geometry, the conclusions of which are already as certain and exact as they can be made, there is no science but that of number, in which the practical validity of a reasoning can be app arent to any person who has looked only at the reasoning itself. Whoever has assented to what was said in the last Book concerning the case of the Composition of Causes, and the still stronger case of the entire supersession of one set of laws by another, is aware that geometry and algebra are the only sciences of which the propositions are categorically true; the general propositions of all other sciences are true only hypothetically, supposing that no counteracting cause happens to interfere. A conclusion, therefore, however correctly deduced, in point of form, from admitted laws of nature, will have no other than an hypothetical certainty. At every step we must assure ourselves that no other law of nature has superseded, or intermingled its operation with, those which are the premises of the reasoning; and how can this be done by merely looking at the words? We must not only be constantly thinking of the phenomena themselves, but we must be constantly studying them; making ourselves acquainted with the pec uliarities of every case to which we attempt to apply our general principles. The algebraic notation, considered as a philosophical language, is perfect in its adaptation to the subjects for which it is commonly employed, namely those of which the investigations have already been reduced to the ascertainment of a relation between numbers. But, admirable as it is for its own purpose, the properties by which it is rendered such are so far from constituting it the ideal model of philosophical language in gener al, that the more nearly the language of any other branch of science approaches to it, the less fit that language is for its own proper functions. On all other subjects, instead of contrivances to prevent our attention from being distracted by thinking of the meaning of our signs, we ought to wish for 446 contrivances to make it impossible that we should ever lose sight of that meaning even for an instant. With this view, as much meaning as possible should be thrown into the formation of the word itself; the aids of derivation and analogy being made available to keep alive a consciousness of all that is signified by it. In this respect those languages have an immense advantage which form their compounds and derivatives from native roots, like the German, and not from those of a foreign or dead language, as is so much the case with English, French, and Italian; and the best are those which form them according to fixed analogies, corresponding to the relations between the ideas to be expressed. All languages do this more or less, but especially, among modern European languages, the German; while even that is inferior to the Greek, in which the relation between the meaning of a derivative word and that of its primitive is in general clearly marked by its mode of formation, except in the case of words compounded with prepositions, which are often, in both those languages, extremely anomalous. But all that can be done, by the mode of constructing words, to prevent them from degenerating into sounds passing through the mind without any distinct apprehension of what they signify, is far too little for the necessity of the case. Words, however well constructed originally, are always tending, like coins, to have their inscription worn off by passing from hand to hand; and the only possible mode of reviving it is to be ever stamping it afresh, by living in the habitual contemplation of the phenomena themselves, and not resting in our familiarity with the words that express them. If any one, having possessed himself of the laws of phenomena as recorded in words, whether delivered to him originally by others, or even found out by himself, is content from thenceforth to live among these formul, to think exclusively of them, and of applying them to cases as they arise, without keeping up his acquaintance with the realities from which these laws were collected not only will he continually fail in his practical efforts, because he will apply his formul without duly considering whether, in this case and in that, other laws of nature do not modify or supersede them; but the formul themselves will progressively lose their meaning to him, and he will cease at last even to be capable of recognizing with certainty whether a case falls within the contemplation of his formula or not. It is, in short, as necessary, on all subjects not mathematical, that the things on which we reason should be conceived by us in the concrete, and clothed in circumstances, as it is in algebra that we should keep all individualizing peculiarities sedulously out of view. With this remark we close our observations on the Philosophy of Language. 447 VII. Of Classification, As Subsidiary To Induction 1. There is, as has been frequently remarked in this work, a classification of things, which is inseparable from the fact of giving them general names. Every name which connotes an attribute, divides, by that very fact, all things whatever into two classes, those which have the attribute and those which have it not; those of which the name can be predicated, and those of which it can not. And the division thus made is not merely a division of such things as actually exist, or are known to exist, but of all such as may hereafter be discovered, and even of all which can be imagined. On this kind of Classification we have nothing to add to what has previously been said. The Classification which requires to be discussed as a separate act of the mind, is altogether different. In the one, the arrangement of objects in groups, and distribution of them into compartments, is a mere incidental effect consequent on the use of names given for another purpose, namely that of simply expressing some of their qualities. In the other, the arrangement and distribution are the main object, and the naming is secondary to, and purposely conforms itself to, instead of governing, that more important operation. Classification, thus regarded, is a contrivance for the best possible ordering of the ideas of objects in our minds; for causing the ideas to accompany or succeed one another in such a way as shall give us the greatest command over our knowledge already acquired, and lead most directly to the acquisition of more. The general problem of Classification, in reference to these purposes, may be stated as follows: To provide that things shall be thought of in such groups, and those groups in such an order, as will best conduce to the remembrance and to the ascertainment of their laws. Classification thus considered, differs from classification in the wider sense, in having reference to real objects exclusively, and not to all that are imaginable: its object being the due co -ordination in our minds of those things only, with the properties of which we have actually occasion to make ourselves acquainted. But, on the other hand, it embraces all really existing objects. We can not constitute any one class properly, except in reference to a general division of the whole of nature; we can not determine the group in which any one object can most conveniently be placed, without taking into consideration all the varieties of existing objects, all at least which have any degree of affinity with it. No one family of plants or animals could have been rationally constituted, except as part of a systematic arrangement of all plants or animals; nor could such a general arrangement have been properly made, without first determining the exact place of plants and animals in a general division of nature. 2. There is no property of objects which may not be taken, if we please, as the foundation for a classification or mental grouping of those objects; and in our first attempts we are likely to select for that purpose properties which are simple, easily conceived, and perceptible on a first view, without any previous process of thought. Thus Tournefort's arrangement of plants was founded on the shape and divisions of the corolla; and that which is commonly called the Linnan (though Linnus also suggested another and more scientific arrangement) was grounded chiefly on the number of the stamens and pistils. But these classifications, which are at first recommended by the facility they afford of ascertaining to what class any individual belongs, are seldom much adapted to the ends of that Classification which is the subject of our present remarks. The Linnan arrangement answers the purpose of making us think together of all those kinds of plants which possess the same number of stamens and pistils; but to think of them in that manner is of little use, 448 since we seldom have any thing to affirm in common of the plants which have a given number of stamens and pistils. If plants of the class Pentandria, order Monogynia, agreed in any other properties, the habit of thinking and speaking of the plants under a common designation would conduce to our remembering those common properties so far as they were ascertained, and would dispose us to be on the lookout for such of them as were not yet known. But since this is not the case, the only purpose of thought which the Linnan classification serves i s that of causing us to remember, better than we should otherwise have done, the exact number of stamens and pistils of every species of plants. Now, as this property is of little importance or interest, the remembering it with any particular accuracy is of no moment. And, inasmuch as, by habitually thinking of plants in those groups, we are prevented from habitually thinking of them in groups which have a greater number of properties in common, the effect of such a classification, when systematically adher ed to, upon our habits of thought, must be regarded as mischievous. The ends of scientific classification are best answered, when the objects are formed into groups respecting which a greater number of general propositions can be made, and those propositions more important, than could be made respecting any other groups into which the same things could be distributed. The properties, therefore, according to which objects are classified, should, if possible, be those which are causes of many other properties; or, at any rate, which are sure marks of them. Causes are preferable, both as being the surest and most direct of marks, and as being themselves the properties on which it is of most use that our attention should be strongly fixed. But the property which is the cause of the chief peculiarities of a class, is unfortunately seldom fitted to serve also as the diagnostic of the class. Instead of the cause, we must generally select some of its more prominent effects, which may serve as marks of the other effects and of the cause. A classification thus formed is properly scientific or philosophical, and is commonly called a Natural, in contradistinction to a Technical or Artificial, classification or arrangement. The phrase Natural Classification seems most peculiarly appropriate to such arrangements as correspond, in the groups which they form, to the spontaneous tendencies of the mind, by placing together the objects most similar in their general aspect; in opposition to those technical systems which, arran ging things according to their agreement in some circumstance arbitrarily selected, often throw into the same group objects which in the general aggregate of their properties present no resemblance, and into different and remote groups, others which have t he closest similarity. It is one of the most valid recommendations of any classification to the character of a scientific one, that it shall be a natural classification in this sense also; for the test of its scientific character is the number and importan ce of the properties which can be asserted in common of all objects included in a group; and properties on which the general aspect of the things depends are, if only on that ground, important, as well as, in most cases, numerous. But, though a strong recommendation, this circumstance is not a sine qua non; since the most obvious properties of things may be of trifling importance compared with others that are not obvious. I have seen it mentioned as a great absurdity in the Linnan classification, that it p laces (which by -the-way it does not) the violet by the side of the oak; it certainly dissevers natural affinities, and brings together things quite as unlike as the oak and the violet are. But the difference, apparently so wide, which renders the juxtaposition of those two vegetables so suitable an illustration of a bad arrangement, depends, to the common eye, mainly on mere size and texture; now if we made it our study to adopt the classification which would involve the least peril of similar rapprochements , we should return to the obsolete division into trees, shrubs, and herbs, which though of primary importance with regard to mere general aspect, yet (compared even with so petty and unobvious a distinction as that into dicotyledons and monocotyledons) answers to so few differences in the other 449 properties of plants, that a classification founded on it (independently of the indistinctness of the lines of demarcation) would be as completely artificial and technical as the Linnan. Our natural groups, therefore, must often be founded not on the obvious but on the unobvious properties of things, when these are of greater importance. But in such cases it is essential that there should be some other property or set of properties, more readily recognizable by the observer, which co-exist with, and may be received as marks of, the properties which are the real groundwork of the classification. A natural arrangement, for example, of animals, must be founded in the main on their internal structure, but (as M. Comte remarks) it would be absurd that we should not be able to determine the genus and species of an animal without first killing it. On this ground, the preference, among zoological classifications, is probably due to that of M. De Blainville, founded on the dif ferences in the external integuments; differences which correspond, much more accurately than might be supposed, to the really important varieties, both in the other parts of the structure, and in the habits and history of the animals. This shows, more strongly than ever, how extensive a knowledge of the properties of objects is necessary for making a good classification of them. And as it is one of the uses of such a classification that by drawing attention to the properties on which it is founded, and which, if the classification be good, are marks of many others, it facilitates the discovery of those others; we see in what manner our knowledge of things, and our classification of them, tend mutually and indefinitely to the improvement of each other. We said just now that the classification of objects should follow those of their properties which indicate not only the most numerous, but also the most important peculiarities. What is here meant by importance? It has reference to the particular end in view; and the same objects, therefore, may admit with propriety of several different classifications. Each science or art forms its classification of things according to the properties which fall within its special cognizance, or of which it must take account in order to accomplish its peculiar practical end. A farmer does not divide plants, like a botanist, into dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous, but into useful plants and weeds. A geologist divides fossils, not like a zoologist, into families corresponding to those of living species, but into fossils of the paleozoic, mesozoic, and tertiary periods, above the coal and below the coal, etc. Whales are or are not fish according to the purpose for which we are considering them. If we are speaking of the internal structure and physiology of the animal, we must not call them fish; for in these respects they deviate widely from fishes; they have warm blood, and produce and suckle their young as land quadrupeds do. But this would not prevent our speaking of the whale-f ishery , and calling such animals fish on all occasions connected with this employment; for the relations thus arising depend upon the animal's living in the water, and being caught in a manner similar to other fishes. A plea that human laws which mention fish do not apply to whales, would be rejected at once by an intelligent judge. These different classifications are all good, for the purposes of their own particular departments of knowledge or practice. But when we are studying objects not for any speci al practical end, but for the sake of extending our knowledge of the whole of their properties and relations, we must consider as the most important attributes those which contribute most, either by themselves or by their effects, to render the things like one another, and unlike other things; which give to the class composed of them the most marked individuality; which fill, as it were, the largest space in their existence, and would most impress the attention of a spectator who knew all their properties but was not specially interested in any. Classes formed on this principle may be called, in a more emphatic manner than any others, natural groups. 450 3. On the subject of these groups Dr. Whewell lays down a theory, grounded on an important truth, which he has, in some respects, expressed and illustrated very felicitously, but also, as it appears to me, with some admixture of error. It will be advantageous, for both these reasons, to extract the statement of his doctrine in the very words he has used. Natur al groups, according to this theory, are given by Type, not by Definition. And this consideration accounts for that indefiniteness and indecision which we frequently find in the descriptions of such groups, and which must appear so strange and inconsistent to any one who does not suppose these descriptions to assume any deeper ground of connection than an arbitrary choice of the botanist. Thus in the family of the rose- tree, we are told that the ovules are very rarely erect, the stigmata usually simple. Of what use, it might be asked, can such loose accounts be? To which the answer is, that they are not inserted in order to distinguish the species, but in order to describe the family, and the total relations of the ovules and the stigmata of the family are better known by this general statement. A similar observation may be made with regard to the Anomalies of each group, which occur so commonly, that Dr. Lindley, in his Introduction to the Natural System of Botany , makes the Anomalies an article in each family. Thus, part of the character of the Rosace is, that they have alternate stipulate leaves, and that the albumen is obliterated ; but yet in Lowea , one of the genera of this family, the stipul are absent ; and the albumen is present in another, Neil lia. This implies, as we have already seen, that the artificial character (or diagnosis , as Mr. Lindley calls it) is imperfect. It is, though very nearly, yet not exactly, commensurate with the natural group; and hence in certain cases this character is made to yield to the general weight of natural affinities. These views of classes determined by characters which can not be expressed in wordsof propositions which state, not what happens in all cases, but only usuallyof particulars which are included in a class, though they transgress the definition of it, may probably surprise the reader. They are so contrary to many of the received opinions respecting the use of definitions, and the nature of scientific propositions, that they will probably appear to many persons highly illogical and unphilosophical. But a disposition to such a judgment arises in a great measure from this, that the mathematical and mathematico -physical sciences have, in a great degree, determined men's views of the general nature and for m of scientific truth; while Natural History has not yet had time or opportunity to exert its due influence upon the current habits of philosophizing. The apparent indefiniteness and inconsistency of the classifications and definitions of Natural History b elongs, in a far higher degree, to all other except mathematical speculations; and the modes in which approximations to exact distinctions and general truths have been made in Natural History, may be worthy our attention, even for the light they throw upon the best modes of pursuing truth of all kinds. Though in a Natural group of objects a definition can no longer be of any use as a regulative principle, classes are not therefore left quite loose, without any certain standard or guide. The class is steadi ly fixed, though not precisely limited; it is given, though not circumscribed; it is determined, not by a boundary-line without, but by a central point within; not by what it strictly excludes, but by what it eminently includes; by an example, not by a precept; in short, instead of a Definition we have a Type for our director. A Type is an example of any class, for instance a species of a genus, which is considered as eminently possessing the character of the class. All the species which have a greater aff inity with this type -species than with any others, form the genus, and are arranged about it, deviating from it in various directions and different degrees. Thus a genus may consist of several species which approach very near the type, and of which the cla im to a place with it is obvious; while there may be other species which straggle farther from this central knot, and 451 which yet are clearly more connected with it than with any other. And even if there should be some species of which the place is dubious, and which appear to be equally bound to two generic types, it is easily seen that this would not destroy the reality of the generic groups, any more than the scattered trees of the intervening plain prevent our speaking intelligibly of the distinct forests of two separate hills. The type-species of every genus, the type-genus of every family, is then, one which possesses all the characters and properties of the genus in a marked and prominent manner. The type of the Rose family has alternate stipulate leav es, wants the albumen, has the ovules not erect, has the stigmata simple, and besides these features, which distinguish it from the exceptions or varieties of its class, it has the features which make it prominent in its class. It is one of those which possess clearly several leading attributes; and thus, though we can not say of any one genus that it must be the type of the family, or of any one species that it must be the type of the genus, we are still not wholly to seek; the type must be connected by many affinities with most of the others of its group; it must be near the centre of the crowd, and not one of the stragglers. In this passage (the latter part of which especially I can not help noticing as an admirable example of philosophic style) Dr. Whewell has stated very clearly and forcibly, but (I think) without making all necessary distinctions, one of the principles of a Natural Classification. What this principle is, what are its limits, and in what manner he seems to me to have overstepped them, will appear when we have laid down another rule of Natural Arrangement, which appears to me still more fundamental. 4. The reader is by this time familiar with the general truth (which I restate so often on account of the great confusion in which it is commonly involved), that there are in nature distinctions of Kind; distinctions not consisting in a given number of definite properties plus the effects which follow from those properties, but running through the whole nature, through the attributes generally, of the things so distinguished. Our knowledge of the properties of a Kind is never complete. We are always discovering, and expecting to discover, new ones. Where the distinction between two classes of things is not one of Kind, we expect to find their properties alike, except where there is some reason for their being different. On the contrary, when the distinction is in Kind, we expect to find the properties different unless there be some cause for their being the same. All knowledge of a Kind must be obtained by observation and experiment upon the Kind itself; no inference respecting its properties from the properties of things not connected with it by Kind, goes for more than the sort of presumption usually characterized as an analogy, and generally in one of its fainter degrees. Since the common properties of a true Kind, and consequently the general assertions which can be made respecting it, or which are certain to be made hereafter as our knowledge extends, are indefinite and inexhaustible; and since the very first principle of natural classification is that of forming the classes so that the objects composing each may have the greatest number of properties in common; this principle prescribes that every such classification shall recognize and adop t into itself all distinctions of Kind, which exist among the objects it professes to classify. To pass over any distinctions of Kind, and substitute definite distinctions, which, however considerable they may be, do not point to ulterior unknown differenc es, would be to replace classes with more by classes with fewer attributes in common; and would be subversive of the Natural Method of Classification. Accordingly all natural arrangements, whether the reality of the distinction of Kinds was felt or not by their framers, have been led, by the mere pursuit of their own proper end, to conform themselves to the distinctions of Kind, so far as these have been ascertained at the 452 time. The species of Plants are not only real Kinds, but are probably, all of them , real lowest Kinds, Infim Species; which, if we were to subdivide, as of course it is open to us to do, into sub-classes, the subdivision would necessarily be founded on definite distinctions, not pointing (apart from what may be known of their causes or effects) to any difference beyond themselves. In so far as a natural classification is grounded on real Kinds, its groups are certainly not conventional: it is perfectly true that they do not depend upon an arbitrary choice of the naturalist. But it does not follow, nor, I conceive, is it true, that these classes are determined by a type, and not by characters. To determine them by a type would be as sure a way of missing the Kind, as if we were to select a set of characters arbitrarily. They are determined by characters, but these are not arbitrary. The problem is, to find a few definite characters which point to the multitude of indefinite ones. Kinds are Classes between which there is an impassable barrier; and what we have to seek is, marks whereby we m ay determine on which side of the barrier an object takes its place. The characters which will best do this should be chosen: if they are also important in themselves, so much the better. When we have selected the characters, we parcel out the objects acco rding to those characters, and not, I conceive, according to resemblance to a type. We do not compose the species Ranunculus acris, of all plants which bear a satisfactory degree of resemblance to a model buttercup, but of those which possess certain characters selected as marks by which we might recognize the possibility of a common parentage; and the enumeration of those characters is the definition of the species. The question next arises, whether, as all Kinds must have a place among the classes, so all the classes in a natural arrangement must be Kinds? And to this I answer, certainly not. The distinctions of Kinds are not numerous enough to make up the whole of a classification. Very few of the genera of plants, or even of the families, can be pronounced with certainty to be Kinds. The great distinctions of Vascular and Cellular, Dicotyledonous or Exogenous and Monocotyledonous or Endogenous plants, are perhaps differences of kind; the lines of demarcation which divide those classes seem (though even on this I would not pronounce positively) to go through the whole nature of the plants. But the different species of a genus, or genera of a family, usually have in common only a limited number of characters. A Rose does not seem to differ from a Rubus, or the Umbellifer from the Ranunculace, in much else than the characters botanically assigned to those genera or those families. Unenumerated differences certainly do exist in some cases; there are families of plants which have peculiarities of chemical comp osition, or yield products having peculiar effects on the animal economy. The Crucifer and Fungi contain an unusual proportion of nitrogen; the Labiat are the chief sources of essential oils, the Solane are very commonly narcotic, etc. In these and similar cases there are possibly distinctions of Kind; but it is by no means indispensable that there should be. Genera and Families may be eminently natural, though marked out from one another by properties limited in number; provided those properties are important, and the objects contained in each genus or family resemble each other more than they resemble any thing which is excluded from the genus or family. After the recognition and definition, then, of the infim species , the next step is to arrange those infim species into larger groups: making these groups correspond to Kinds wherever it is possible, but in most cases without any such guidance. And in doing this it is true that we are naturally and properly guided, in most cases at least, by resemblance to a type. We form our groups round certain selected Kinds, each of which serves as a sort of exemplar of its group. But though the groups are suggested by types, I can not think that a group when formed is determined by the type; that in deciding whether a species belongs to the group, a reference is made to the type, and not to the characters; that the characters can not be 453 expressed in words. This assertion is inconsistent with Dr. Whewell's own statement of the fundamental principle of classification , namely, that general assertions shall be possible. If the class did not possess any characters in common, what general assertions would be possible respecting it? Except that they all resemble each other more than they resemble any thing else, nothing whatever could be predicated of the class. The truth is, on the contrary, that every genus or family is framed with distinct reference to certain characters, and is composed, first and principally, of species which agree in possessing all those characters. To these are added, as a sort of appendix, such other species, generally in small number, as possess nearly all the properties selected; wanting some of them one property, some another, and which, while they agree with the rest almost as much as these agr ee with one another, do not resemble in an equal degree any other group. Our conception of the class continues to be grounded on the characters; and the class might be defined, those things which either possess that set of characters, or resemble the thing s that do so, more than they resemble any thing else. And this resemblance itself is not, like resemblance between simple sensations, an ultimate fact, unsusceptible of analysis. Even the inferior degree of resemblance is created by the possession of common characters. Whatever resembles the genus Rose more than it resembles any other genus, does so because it possesses a greater number of the characters of that genus than of the characters of any other genus. Nor can there be any real difficulty in representing, by an enumeration of characters, the nature and degree of the resemblance which is strictly sufficient to include any object in the class. There are always some properties common to all things which are included. Others there often are, to which som e things, which are nevertheless included, are exceptions. But the objects which are exceptions to one character are not exceptions to another; the resemblance which fails in some particulars must be made up for in others. The class, therefore, is constituted by the possession of all the characters which are universal, and most of those which admit of exceptions. If a plant had the ovules erect, the stigmata divided, possessed the albumen, and was without stipules, it possibly would not be classed among the Rosace. But it may want any one, or more than one of these characters, and not be excluded. The ends of a scientific classification are better answered by including it. Since it agrees so nearly, in its known properties, with the sum of the characters of the class, it is likely to resemble that class more than any other in those of its properties which are still undiscovered. Not only, therefore, are natural groups, no less than any artificial classes, determined by characters; they are constituted in con templation of, and by reason of, characters. But it is in contemplation not of those characters only which are rigorously common to all the objects included in the group, but of the entire body of characters, all of which are found in most of those objects, and most of them in all. And hence our conception of the class, the image in our minds which is representative of it, is that of a specimen complete in all the characters; most naturally a specimen which, by possessing them all in the greatest degree in which they are ever found, is the best fitted to exhibit clearly, and in a marked manner, what they are. It is by a mental reference to this standard, not instead of, but in illustration of, the definition of the class, that we usually and advantageously determine whether any individual or species belongs to the class or not. And this, as it seems to me, is the amount of truth contained in the doctrine of Types. We shall see presently that where the classification is made for the express purpose of a special inductive inquiry, it is not optional, but necessary for fulfilling the conditions of a correct Inductive Method, that we should establish a type-species or genus, namely, the one which exhibits in the most eminent degree the particular phenomenon under investigation. 454 But of this hereafter. It remains, for completing the theory of natural groups, that a few words should be said on the principles of the nomenclature adapted to them. 5. A Nomenclature in science is, as we have said, a system of the names of Kinds. These names, like other class -names, are defined by the enumeration of the characters distinctive of the class. The only merit which a set of names can have beyond this, is to convey, by the mode of their construction, as much information as possible: so that a person who knows the thing, may receive all the assistance which the name can give in remembering what he knows; while he who knows it not, may receive as much knowledge respecting it as the case admits of, by merely being told its name. There are two modes of giving to the name of a Kind this sort of significance. The best, but which unfortunately is seldom practicable, is when the word can be made to indicate, by its formation, the very properties which it is designed to connote. The name of a Kind does not, of course, connote all the properties of the Kind, since these are inexhaustible, but such of them as are sufficient to distinguish it; such as are sure marks of all the rest. Now, it is very rarely that one property, or even any two or three properties, can answer this purpose. To distinguish the common daisy from all other species of plants would require the specification of many characters. And a name can not, without being too cumbrous for use, give indication, by its etymology or mode of construction, of more than a very small number of these. The possibility, therefore, of an ideally perfect Nomenclature, is probably confined to the one case in which we are happily in possession of something approaching to itthe Nomenclature of elementary Chemistry. The substances, whether simple or compound, with which chemistry is conversant, are Kinds, and, as such, the properties which distinguish each of them from the rest are innumerable; but in the case of compound substances (the simple ones are not numerous enough to require a systematic nomenclature), there is one property, the chemical composition, which is of itself sufficient to distinguish the Kind; and is (with certain reservations not yet thoroughly understood) a sure mark of all the other properties of the compound. All that was needful, therefore, was to make the name of every compound express, on the first hearing, its chemical composition; that is, to form the name of the compound, in some uniform manner, from the names of the simple substances which enter into it as elements. This was done, most skillfully and successfully, by the French chemists, though their nomenclature has become inadequate to the convenient expression of the very complicated compounds now known to chemists. The only thing left unexpressed by them was the exact proportion in which the elements were combined; and even this, since the establishment of the atomic theory, it has been found possible to express by a simple adaptation of their phraseology. But where th e characters which must be taken into consideration, in order sufficiently to designate the Kind, are too numerous to be all signified in the derivation of the name, and where no one of them is of such preponderant importance as to justify its being singled out to be so indicated, we may avail ourselves of a subsidiary resource. Though we can not indicate the distinctive properties of the Kind, we may indicate its nearest natural affinities, by incorporating into its name the name of the proximate natural group of which it is one of the species. On this principle is founded the admirable binary nomenclature of botany and zoology. In this nomenclature the name of every species consists of the name of the genus, or natural group next above it, with a word added to distinguish the particular species. The last portion of the compound name is sometimes taken from some one of the peculiarities in which that species differs from others of the genus; as Clematis integrifolia , Potentilla alba, Viola palustris , Artemis ia vulgaris ; sometimes from a circumstance of an historical nature, as Narcissus poeticus , Potentilla tormentilla (indicating that the plant is that which was formerly known by the latter name), Exacum Candollii (from the fact that De Candolle was its first 455 discoverer); and sometimes the word is purely conventional, as Thlaspi bursapastoris , Ranunculus thora; it is of little consequence which; since the second, or, as it is usually called, the specific name, could at most express, independently of convention, no more than a very small portion of the connotation of the term. But by adding to this the name of the superior genus, we may make the best amends we can for the impossibility of so contriving the name as to express all the distinctive characters of the Kind. We make it, at all events, express as many of those characters as are common to the proximate natural group in which the Kind is included. If even those common characters are so numerous or so little familiar as to require a further extension of th e same resource, we might, instead of a binary, adopt a ternary nomenclature, employing not only the name of the genus, but that of the next natural group in order of generality above the genus, commonly called the Family. This was done in the mineralogica l nomenclature proposed by Professor Mohs. The names framed by him were not composed of two, but of three elements, designating respectively the Species, the Genus, and the Order; thus he has such species as Rhombohedral Lime Haloide , Octohedral Fluor Haloide , Prismatic Hal Baryte . The binary construction, however, has been found sufficient in botany and zoology, the only sciences in which this general principle has hitherto been successfully adopted in the construction of a nomenclature. Besides the advantage which this principle of nomenclature possesses, in giving to the names of species the greatest quantity of independent significance which the circumstances of the case admit of, it answers the further end of immensely economizing the use of names, and preventing an otherwise intolerable burden on the memory. When the names of species become extremely numerous, some artifice (as Dr. Whewell observes) becomes absolutely necessary to make it possible to recollect or apply them. The known species of plants, for example, were ten thousand in the time of Linnus, and are now probably sixty thousand. It would be useless to endeavor to frame and employ separate names for each of these species. The division of the objects into a subordinated system of classification enables us to introduce a Nomenclature which does not require this enormous number of names. Each of the genera has its name, and the species are marked by the addition of some epithet to the name of the genus. In this manner about seventeen hundred generic names, with a moderate number of specific names, were found by Linnus sufficient to designate with precision all the species of vegetables known at his time. And though the number of generic names has since greatly increased, it has not increased in any thing like the proportion of the multiplication of known species. 456 VIII. Of Classification By Series 1. Thus far, we have considered the principles of scientific classification so far only as relates to the formation of natural groups; and at this point most of those who have attempted a theory of natural arrangement, including, among the rest, Dr. Whewell, have stopped. There remains, however, another, and a not less important portion of the theory, which has not yet, as far as I am aware, been systematically treated of by any writer except M. Comte. This is, the arrangement of the natural groups into a natural series. P216F217 P The end of Classification, as an instrument for the investigation of nature, is (as befo re stated) to make us think of those objects together which have the greatest number of important common properties; and which, therefore, we have oftenest occasion, in the course of our inductions, for taking into joint consideration. Our ideas of objects are thus brought into the order most conducive to the successful prosecution of inductive inquiries generally. But when the purpose is to facilitate some particular inductive inquiry, more is required. To be instrumental to that purpose, the classificatio n must bring those objects together, the simultaneous contemplation of which is likely to throw most light upon the particular subject. That subject being the laws of some phenomenon or some set of connected phenomena; the very phenomenon or set of phenomena in question must be chosen as the groundwork of the classification. The requisites of a classification intended to facilitate the study of a particular phenomenon, are, first to bring into one class all Kinds of things which exhibit that phenomenon, in whatever variety of forms or degrees; and, secondly, to arrange those Kinds in a series according to the degree in which they exhibit it, beginning with those which exhibit most of it, and terminating with those which exhibit least. The principal example, as yet, of such a classification, is afforded by comparative anatomy and physiology, from which, therefore, our illustrations shall be taken. 2. The object being supposed to be, the investigation of the laws of animal life; the first step, after forming the most distinct conception of the phenomenon itself, possible in the existing state of our knowledge, is to erect into one great class (that of animals) all the known Kinds of beings where that phenomenon presents itself; in however various combinations with other properties, and in however different degrees. As some of these Kinds manifest the general phenomenon of animal life in a very high degree, and others in an insignificant degree, barely sufficient for recognition; we must, in the next place, arrange the various Kinds in a series, following one another according to the degrees in which they severally exhibit the phenomenon; beginning therefore with man, and ending with the most imperfect kinds of zoophytes. This is merely saying that we should put the instances, from which the law is to be inductively collected, into the order which is implied in one of the four Methods of Experimental Inquiry discussed in the preceding Book; the fourth Method, that of Concomitant Variations. As formerly remarked, this is often the only method to which 217 Dr. Whewell, in his reply ( Philosophy of Discovery , p. 270) says that he stopped short of, or rather passed by, the doctrine of a series of organized beings, because he thought it bad and narrow philosophy. If he did, it was evidently without understanding this form of the doctrine; for he proceeds to quote a passage from his History, in which the doctrine he condemns is designated as that of a mere linear progression in nature, which would place each genus in contact only with the preceding and succeeding ones. Now the series treated of in the text agrees with this linear progression in nothing whatever but in being a progression. 457 recourse can be had, with assurance of a true conclusion, in cases in which we have but limited means of effecting, by artificial experiments, a separation of circumstances usually conjoined. The principle of the method is, that facts which increase or diminish together, and disappear together, are either cause and effect, or effects of a common cause. When it has been ascertained that this relation really subsists between the variations, a connection between the facts themselves may be confidently laid down, either as a law of nature or only as an empirical law, according to circumstances. That the application of this Method must be preceded by the formation of such a series as we have described, is too obvious to need being pointed out; and the mere arrangement of a set of objects in a series, according to the degrees in which they exhibit some fact of which we are seeking the law, is too naturally suggested by the necessities of our inductive operations, to require any lengthened illustration here. But there are cases in which the arrangement required for the special purpose becomes the determining principle of the classification of the same objects for general purposes. This will naturally and properly happen, when those laws of the objects which are sought in the special inquiry enact so principal a part in the general character and history of those objectsexercise so much influence in determining all the phenomena of which they are either the agents or the theatreth at all other differences existing among the objects are fittingly regarded as mere modifications of the one phenomenon sought; effects determined by the co-operation of some incidental circumstance with the laws of that phenomenon. Thus in the case of anim ated beings, the differences between one class of animals and another may reasonably be considered as mere modifications of the general phenomenon, animal life; modifications arising either from the different degrees in which that phenomenon is manifested in different animals, or from the intermixture of the effects of incidental causes peculiar to the nature of each, with the effects produced by the general laws of life; those laws still exercising a predominant influence over the result. Such being the case, no other inductive inquiry respecting animals can be successfully carried on, except in subordination to the great inquiry into the universal laws of animal life; and the classification of animals best suited to that one purpose, is the most suitable to all the other purposes of zoological science. 3. To establish a classification of this sort, or even to apprehend it when established, requires the power of recognizing the essential similarity of a phenomenon, in its minuter degrees and obscurer forms , with what is called the same phenomenon in the greatest perfection of its development; that is, of identifying with each other all phenomena which differ only in degree, and in properties which we suppose to be caused by difference of degree. In order to recognize this identity, or, in other words, this exact similarity of quality, the assumption of a type- species is indispensable. We must consider as the type of the class, that among the Kinds included in it, which exhibits the properties constitutive of the class, in the highest degree; conceiving the other varieties as instances of degeneracy, as it were, from that type; deviations from it by inferior intensity of the characteristic property or properties. For every phenomenon is best studied ( cteris p aribus ) where it exists in the greatest intensity. It is there that the effects which either depend on it, or depend on the same causes with it, will also exist in the greatest degree. It is there, consequently, and only there, that those effects of it, or joint effects with it, can become fully known to us, so that we may learn to recognize their smaller degrees, or even their mere rudiments, in cases in which the direct study would have been difficult or even impossible. Not to mention that the phenomenon in its higher degrees may be attended by effects or collateral circumstances which in its smaller degrees do not occur at all, requiring for their production in any sensible amount a greater degree of intensity of the cause than is there met with. In man, for example (the species in which both the phenomenon of animal and that of organic life exist in the highest degree), 458 many subordinate phenomena develop themselves in the course of his animated existence, which the inferior varieties of animals do not show. The knowledge of these properties may nevertheless be of great avail toward the discovery of the conditions and laws of the general phenomenon of life, which is common to man with those inferior animals. And they are, even, rightly considered as proper ties of animated nature itself; because they may evidently be affiliated to the general laws of animated nature; because we may fairly presume that some rudiments or feeble degrees of those properties would be recognized in all animals by more perfect orga ns, or even by more perfect instruments, than ours; and because those may be correctly termed properties of a class, which a thing exhibits exactly in proportion as it belongs to the class, that is, in proportion as it possesses the main attributes constitutive of the class. 4. It remains to consider how the internal distribution of the series may most properly take place; in what manner it should be divided into Orders, Families, and Genera. The main principle of division must of course be natural affini ty; the classes formed must be natural groups; and the formation of these has already been sufficiently treated of. But the principles of natural grouping must be applied in subordination to the principle of a natural series. The groups must not be so constituted as to place in the same group things which ought to occupy different points of the general scale. The precaution necessary to be observed for this purpose is, that the primary divisions must be grounded not on all distinctions indiscriminately, but on those which correspond to variations in the degree of the main phenomenon. The series of Animated Nature should be broken into parts at the points where the variation in the degree of intensity of the main phenomenon (as marked by its principal charact ers, Sensation, Thought, Voluntary Motion, etc.) begins to be attended by conspicuous changes in the miscellaneous properties of the animal. Such well -marked changes take place, for example, where the class Mammalia ends; at the points where Fishes are separated from Insects, Insects from Mollusca, etc. When so formed, the primary natural groups will compose the series by mere juxtaposition, without redistribution; each of them corresponding to a definite portion of the scale. In like manner each family should, if possible, be so subdivided, that one portion of it shall stand higher and the other lower, though of course contiguous, in the general scale; and only when this is impossible is it allowable to ground the remaining subdivisions on characters having no determinable connection with the main phenomenon. Where the principal phenomenon so far transcends in importance all other properties on which a classification could be grounded, as it does in the case of animated existence, any considerable deviation from the rule last laid down is in general sufficiently guarded against by the first principle of a natural arrangement, that of forming the groups according to the most important characters. All attempts at a scientific classification of animals, since first their anatomy and physiology were successfully studied, have been framed with a certain degree of instinctive reference to a natural series, and have accorded in many more points than they have differed, with the classification which would most naturally have been grounded on such a series. But the accordance has not always been complete; and it still is often a matter of discussion, which of several classifications best accords with the true scale of intensity of the main phenomenon. Cuvier, for example, has been justly criticised for having formed his natural groups, with an undue degree of reference to the mode of alimentation, a circumstance directly connected only with organic life, and not leading to the arrangement most appropriate for the purposes of an investigation of the laws of animal life, since both carnivorous and herbivorous or frugivorous animals are found at almost every degree in the scale of animal perfection. Blainville's classification has been considered by high authorities to be fr ee from this defect; as representing correctly, by the mere order of the 459 principal groups, the successive degeneracy of animal nature from its highest to its most imperfect exemplification. 5. A classification of any large portion of the field of nature in conformity to the foregoing principles, has hitherto been found practicable only in one great instance, that of animals. In the case even of vegetables, the natural arrangement has not been carried beyond the formation of natural groups. Naturalists have found, and probably will continue to find it impossible to form those groups into any series, the terms of which correspond to real gradations in the phenomenon of vegetative or organic life. Such a difference of degree may be traced between the class of Vascular Plants and that of Cellular, which includes lichens, alg, and other substances whose organization is simpler and more rudimentary than that of the higher order of vegetables, and which therefore approach nearer to mere inorganic nature. But when we rise much above this point, we do not find any sufficient difference in the degree in which different plants possess the properties of organization and life. The dicotyledons are of more complex structure, and somewhat more perfect organization, than the monocotyledons; and some dicotyledonous families, such as the Composit, are rather more complex in their organization than the rest. But the differences are not of a marked character, and do not promise to throw any particular light upon the conditions and laws of vegetable life and development. If they did, the classification of vegetables would have to be made, like that of animals, with reference to the scale or series indicated. Although the scientific arrangements of organic nature afford as yet the only complete example of the true principles of rational classification, whether as to the formation of groups or of series, those principles are applicable to all cases in which mankind are called upon to bring the various parts of any extensive subject into mental co -ordination. They are as much to the point when objects are to be classed for purposes of art or business, as for those of science. The proper arrangement, for example, of a code of laws, depends on the same scientific conditions as the clas sifications in natural history; nor could there be a better preparatory discipline for that important function, than the study of the principles of a natural arrangement, not only in the abstract, but in their actual application to the class of phenomena for which they were first elaborated, and which are still the best school for learning their use. Of this the great authority on codification, Bentham, was perfectly aware; and his early Fragment on Government , the admirable introduction to a series of writings unequaled in their department, contains clear and just views (as far as they go) on the meaning of a natural arrangement, such as could scarcely have occurred to any one who lived anterior to the age of Linnus and Bernard de Jussieu. 460 Book V. On Fallacies Errare non modo affirmando et negando, sed etiam sentiendo, et in tacit hominum cogitatione contingit. Hobbes, Computatio sive Logica, chap. v. Il leur semble qu'il n'y a qu' douter par fantaisie, et qu'il n'y a qu' dire en gnral que notre nature est infirme; que notre esprit est plein d'aveuglement: qu'il faut avoir un grand soin de se dfaire de ses prjugs, et autres choses semblables. Ils pensent que cela suffit pour ne plus se laisser sduire ses sens, et pour ne plus se tromper du tout. Il ne suffit pas de dire que l'esprit est foible, il faut lui faire sentir ses foiblesses. Ce n'est pas assez de dire qu'il est sujet l'erreur, il faut lui dcouvrir en quoi consistent ses erreurs. Malebranche, Recherche de la Vrit. 461 I. Of Fallacies In General 1. It is a maxim of the school-men, that contrariorum eadem est scientia: we never really know what a thing is, unless we are also able to give a sufficient account of its opposite. Conformably to this maxim, one considerable section, in most treatises on Logic, is devoted to the subject of Fallacies; and the practice is too well worthy of observance, to allow of our departing from it. The philosophy of reasoning, to be complete, ought to comprise the theory of bad as well as of good reasoning. We have endeavored to ascertain the principles by which the sufficiency of any proof can be tested, and by which the nature and amount of evidence needful to prove any given conclusion can be determined beforehand. If these principles were adhered to, then although the number and value of the truths ascertained would be limited by the opportunities, or by the industry, ingenuity, and patience, of the individual inquirer, at least error would not be embraced instead of truth. But the general consent of mankind, founded on their experience, vouches for their being far indeed from even this negative kind of perfection in the employment of their reasoning powers. In the conduct of lifein th e practical business of mankindwrong inferences, incorrect interpretations of experience, unless after much culture of the thinking faculty, are absolutely inevitable; and with most people, after the highest degree of culture they ever attain, such errone ous inferences, producing corresponding errors in conduct, are lamentably frequent. Even in the speculations to which eminent intellects have systematically devoted themselves, and in reference to which the collective mind of the scientific world is always at hand to aid the efforts and correct the aberrations of individuals, it is only from the more perfect sciences, from those of which the subject- matter is the least complicated, that opinions not resting on a correct induction have at length, generally speaking, been expelled. In the departments of inquiry relating to the more complex phenomena of nature, and especially those of which the subject is man, whether as a moral and intellectual, a social, or even as a physical being; the diversity of opinions still prevalent among instructed persons, and the equal confidence with which those of the most contrary ways of thinking cling to their respective tenets, are proof not only that right modes of philosophizing are not yet generally adopted on those subjects, but that wrong ones are; that inquirers have not only in general missed the truth, but have often embraced error; that even the most cultivated portion of our species have not yet learned to abstain from drawing conclusions which the evidence does not w arrant. The only complete safeguard against reasoning ill, is the habit of reasoning well; familiarity with the principles of correct reasoning, and practice in applying those principles. It is, however, not unimportant to consider what are the most common modes of bad reasoning; by what appearances the mind is most likely to be seduced from the observance of true principles of induction; what, in short, are the most common and most dangerous varieties of Apparent Evidence, whereby persons are misled into opinions for which there does not exist evidence really conclusive. A catalogue of the varieties of apparent evidence which are not real evidence, is an enumeration of Fallacies. Without such an enumeration, therefore, the present work would be wanting in an essential point. And while writers who included in their theory of reasoning nothing more than ratiocination, have in consistency with this limitation, confined their remarks to the fallacies which have their seat in that portion of the process of invest igation; we, who profess to treat of the whole process, must add to our directions for performing it 462 rightly, warnings against performing it wrongly in any of its parts: whether the ratiocinative or the experimental portion of it be in fault, or the fault lie in dispensing with ratiocination and induction altogether. 2. In considering the sources of unfounded inference, it is unnecessary to reckon the errors which arise, not from a wrong method, nor even from ignorance of the right one, but from a casual lapse, through hurry or inattention, in the application of the true principles of induction. Such errors, like the accidental mistakes in casting up a sum, do not call for philosophical analysis or classification; theoretical considerations can throw no light upon the means of avoiding them. In the present treatise our attention is required, not to mere inexpertness in performing the operation in the right way (the only remedies for which are increased attention and more sedulous practice), but to the modes of performing it in a way fundamentally wrong; the conditions under which the human mind persuades itself that it has sufficient grounds for a conclusion which it has not arrived at by any of the legitimate methods of inductionwhich it has not, even carelessly or overhastily, endeavored to test by those legitimate methods. 3. There is another branch of what may be called the Philosophy of Error, which must be mentioned here, though only to be excluded from our subject. The sources of erroneous opinions are twofold, moral and intellectual. Of these, the moral do not fall within the compass of this work. They may be classed under two general heads: Indifference to the attainment of truth, and Bias; of which last the most common case is that in which we are biased by our wishes; but the liability is almost as great to the undue adoption of a conclusion which is disagreeable to us, as of one which is agreeable, if it be of a nature to bring into action any of the stronger passions. Persons of timid character are the more predisposed to believe any statement, the more it is calculated to alarm them. Indeed it is a psychological law, deducible from the most general laws of the mental constitution of man, that any strong passion renders us credulous as to the exi stence of objects suitable to excite it. But the moral causes of opinions, though with most persons the most powerful of all, are but remote causes; they do not act directly, but by means of the intellectual causes; to which they bear the same relation that the circumstances called, in the theory of medicine, predisposing causes, bear to exciting causes. Indifference to truth can not, in and by itself, produce erroneous belief; it operates by preventing the mind from collecting the proper evidences, or from applying to them the test of a legitimate and rigid induction; by which omission it is exposed unprotected to the influence of any species of apparent evidence which offers itself spontaneously, or which is elicited by that smaller quantity of trouble which the mind may be willing to take. As little is Bias a direct source of wrong conclusions. We can not believe a proposition only by wishing, or only by dreading, to believe it. The most violent inclination to find a set of propositions true, will not enable the weakest of mankind to believe them without a vestige of intellectual groundswithout any, even apparent, evidence. It acts indirectly, by placing the intellectual grounds of belief in an incomplete or distorted shape before his eyes. It makes him shrink from the irksome labor of a rigorous induction, when he has a misgiving that its result may be disagreeable; and in such examination as he does institute, it makes him exert that which is in a certain measure voluntary, his attention, unfairly, giving a larger share of it to the evidence which seems favorable to the desired conclusion, a smaller to that which seems unfavorable. It operates, too, by making him look out eagerly for reasons, or apparent reasons, to support opinions which are conformable, or resist those which are repugnant, to his interests or feelings; and when the interests or feelings are common to great numbers of persons, reasons are accepted and pass current, which would not for a moment be listened to in that character if the conclu sion had nothing more powerful than its reasons to speak in its behalf. The natural or 463 acquired partialities of mankind are continually throwing up philosophical theories, the sole recommendation of which consists in the premises they afford for proving cherished doctrines, or justifying favorite feelings; and when any one of these theories has been so thoroughly discredited as no longer to serve the purpose, another is always ready to take its place. This propensity, when exercised in favor of any widely-spread persuasion or sentiment, is often decorated with complimentary epithets; and the contrary habit of keeping the judgment in complete subordination to evidence, is stigmatized by various hard names, as skepticism, immorality, coldness, hard- heartedness , and similar expressions according to the nature of the case. But though the opinions of the generality of mankind, when not dependent on mere habit and inculcation, have their root much more in the inclinations than in the intellect, it is a necessary co ndition to the triumph of the moral bias that it should first pervert the understanding. Every erroneous inference, though originating in moral causes, involves the intellectual operation of admitting insufficient evidence as sufficient; and whoever was on his guard against all kinds of inconclusive evidence which can be mistaken for conclusive, would be in no danger of being led into error even by the strongest bias. There are minds so strongly fortified on the intellectual side, that they could not blind themselves to the light of truth, however really desirous of doing so; they could not, with all the inclination in the world, pass off upon themselves bad arguments for good ones. If the sophistry of the intellect could be rendered impossible, that of the feelings, having no instrument to work with, would be powerless. A comprehensive classification of all those things which, not being evidence, are liable to appear such to the understanding, will, therefore, of itself include all errors of judgment arising from moral causes, to the exclusion only of errors of practice committed against better knowledge. To examine, then, the various kinds of apparent evidence which are not evidence at all, and of apparently conclusive evidence which do not really amount to conclusiveness, is the object of that part of our inquiry into which we are about to enter. The subject is not beyond the compass of classification and comprehensive survey. The things, indeed, which are not evidence of any given conclusion, are manifestly endless, and this negative property, having no dependence on any positive ones, can not be made the groundwork of a real classification. But the things which, not being evidence, are susceptible of being mistaken for it, are capable of a classification having reference to the positive property which they possess of appearing to be evidence. We may arrange them, at our choice, on either of two principles; according to the cause which makes them appear to be evidence, not being so; or according to the particular kind of evidence which they simulate. The Classification of Fallacies which will be attempted in the ensuing chapter, is founded on these considerations jointly. 464 II. Classification Of Fallacies 1. In attempting to establish certain general distinctions which shall mark out from one another the various kinds of Fallacious Evidence, we propose to ourselves an altogether different aim from that of several eminent thinkers, who have given, under the name of Political or other Fallacies, a mere enumeration of a certain number of erroneous opinions; false general propositions which happen to be often met with; loci communes of bad arguments on some particular subject. Logic is not concerned with the false opinions which people happen to entertain, but with the manner in which they come to entertain them. The question is not, what facts have at any time been erroneously supposed to be proof of certain other facts, but what property in the facts it was which led any one to this mistaken supposition. When a fact is supposed, though incorrectly, to be evidentiary of, or a mark of, some other fact, there must be a cause of the error; the supposed evidentiary fact must be connected in some particular manner with the fact of which it is deemed evidentiary must stand in some particular relation to it, without which relation it would not be regarded in that light. The relation may either be one resulting from the simple contemplation of the two facts side by side with one another, or it may depend on some process of mind, by which a previous association has been established between them. Some peculiarity of relation, however, there must be; the fact which can, even by the wildest aberration, be supposed to prove another fact, must stan d in some special position with regard to it; and if we could ascertain and define that special position, we should perceive the origin of the error. We can not regard one fact as evidentiary of another, unless we believe that the two are always, or in the majority of cases, conjoined. If we believe A to be evidentiary of B, if when we see A we are inclined to infer B from it, the reason is because we believe that wherever A is, B also either always or for the most part exists, either as an antecedent, a co nsequent, or a concomitant. If when we see A we are inclined not to expect B if we believe A to be evidentiary of the absence of Bit is because we believe that where A is, B either is never, or at least seldom, found. Erroneous conclusions, in short, no less than correct conclusions, have an invariable relation to a general formula, either expressed or tacitly implied. When we infer some fact from some other fact which does not really prove it, we either have admitted, or, if we maintained consistency, ought to admit, some groundless general proposition respecting the conjunction of the two phenomena. For every property, therefore, in facts, or in our mode of considering facts, which leads us to believe that they are habitually conjoined when they are not, or that they are not when in reality they are, there is a corresponding kind of Fallacy; and an enumeration of fallacies would consist in a specification of those properties in facts, and those peculiarities in our mode of considering them, which give rise to this erroneous opinion. 2. To begin, then; the supposed connection, or repugnance, between the two facts, may either be a conclusion from evidence (that is, from some other proposition or propositions), or may be admitted without any such ground; admitted, as the phrase is, on its own evidence; embraced as self -evident, as an axiomatic truth. This gives rise to the first great distinction, that between Fallacies of Inference and Fallacies of Simple Inspection. In the latter division must be included not only all cases in which a proposition is believed and held for true, literally without any extrinsic evidence, either of specific experience or general reasoning; but those more frequent cases in which simple inspection creates a presumption in favor of a 465 proposition; not sufficient for belief, but sufficient to cause the strict principles of a regular induction to be dispensed with, and creating a predisposition to believe it on evidence which would be seen to be insufficient if no such presumption existed. This class, comprehending the whole of what may be termed Natural Prejudices, and which I shall call indiscriminately Fallacies of Simple Inspection or Fallacies a priori , shall be placed at the head of our list. Fallacies of Inference, or erroneous conclusions from supposed evidence, must be subdivided according to the nature of the apparent evidence from which the conclusions are drawn; or (what is the same thing) according to the particular kind of sound argument which the fallacy in question simulates. But there is a distinction to be first drawn, which does not answer to any of the divisions of sound arguments, but arises out of the nature of bad ones. We may know exactly what our evidence is, and yet draw a false conclusion from it; we may conceive precisely what our premises are, what alleged matters of fact, or general principles, are the foundation of our inference; and yet, because the premises are false, or because we have inferred from them what they will not support, our conclusion may be erroneous. But a case, perhaps even more frequent, is that in which the error arises from not conceiving our premises with due clearness, that is (as shown in the preceding Book), with due fixity: forming one conception of our evidence when we collect or receive it, and another when we make use of it; or unadvisedly, and in general unconsciously, substituting, as we proceed, different premises in the place of those with which we set out, or a different conclusion for that which we undertook to prove. This gives existence to a class of fallacies which may be justly termed (in a phrase borrowed from Bentham) Fallacies of Confusion; comprehending, among others, all those which have their source in language, whether arising from the vagueness or ambiguity of our t erms, or from casual associations with them. When the fallacy is not one of Confusion, that is, when the proposition believed, and the evidence on which it is believed, are steadily apprehended and unambiguously expressed, there remain to be made two cross divisions. The Apparent Evidence may be either particular facts, or foregone generalizations; that is, the process may simulate either simple Induction or Deduction; and again, the evidence, whether consisting of supposed facts or of general propositions, may be false in itself, or, being true, may fail to bear out the conclusion attempted to be founded on it. This gives us first, Fallacies of Induction and Fallacies of Deduction, and then a subdivision of each of these, according as the supposed evidence is false, or true but inconclusive. Fallacies of Induction, where the facts on which the induction proceeds are erroneous, may be termed Fallacies of Observation. The term is not strictly accurate, or, rather, not accurately co-extensive with the class of fallacies which I propose to designate by it. Induction is not always grounded on facts immediately observed, but sometimes on facts inferred; and when these last are erroneous, the error may not be, in the literal sense of the term, an instance of bad observation, but of bad inference. It will be convenient, however, to make only one class of all the inductions of which the error lies in not sufficiently ascertaining the facts on which the theory is grounded; whether the cause of failure be malobservation, or simple non-observation, and whether the malobservation be direct, or by means of intermediate marks which do not prove what they are supposed to prove. And in the absence of any comprehensive term to denote the ascertainment, by whatever means, of the facts on which an induction is grounded, I will venture to retain for this class of fallacies, under the explanation now given, the title of Fallacies of Observation. The other class of inductive fallacies, in which the facts are correct, but the conclusion not warranted by them, are properly denominated Fallacies of Generalization; and these, again, 466 fall into various subordinate classes or natural groups, some of which will be enumerated in their proper place. When we now turn to Fallacies of Dedu ction, namely those modes of incorrect argumentation in which the premises, or some of them, are general propositions, and the argument a ratiocination; we may of course subdivide these also into two species similar to the two preceding, namely, those which proceed on false premises, and those of which the premises, though true, do not support the conclusion. But of these species, the first must necessarily fall under some one of the heads already enumerated. For the error must be either in those premises w hich are general propositions, or in those which assert individual facts. In the former case it is an Inductive Fallacy, of one or the other class; in the latter it is a Fallacy of Observation; unless, in either case, the erroneous premise has been assumed on simple inspection, in which case the fallacy is a priori . Or, finally, the premises, of whichever kind they are, may never have been conceived in so distinct a manner as to produce any clear consciousness by what means they were arrived at; as in the c ase of what is called reasoning in a circle; and then the fallacy is one of Confusion. There remain, therefore, as the only class of fallacies having properly their seat in deduction, those in which the premises of the ratiocination do not bear out its conclusion; the various cases, in short, of vicious argumentation, provided against by the rules of the syllogism. We shall call these, Fallacies of Ratiocination. 3. We must not, however, expect to find that men's actual errors always, or even commonly, fall so unmistakably under some one of these classes, as to be incapable of being referred to any other. Erroneous arguments do not admit of such a sharply cut division as valid arguments do. An argument fully stated, with all its steps distinctly set out, in language not susceptible of misunderstanding, must, if it be erroneous, be so in some one of these five modes unequivocally; or indeed of the first four, since the fifth, on such a supposition, would vanish. But it is not in the nature of bad reasoning to express itself thus unambiguously. When a sophist, whether he is imposing on himself or attempting to impose on others, can be constrained to throw his sophistry into so distinct a form, it needs, in a large proportion of cases, no further exposure. In all arguments, everywhere but in the schools, some of the links are suppressed; a fortiori when the arguer either intends to deceive, or is a lame and inexpert thinker, little accustomed to bring his reasoning processes to any test; and it is in those steps of the reasoning which are made in this tacit and half -conscious, or even wholly unconscious manner, that the error oftenest lurks. In order to detect the fallacy, the proposition thus silently assumed must be supplied; but the reasoner, most likely, has never really asked himself what he was assuming; his confuter, unless permitted to extort it from him by the Socratic mode of interrogation, must himself judge what the suppressed premise ought to be in order to support the conclusion. And hence, in the words of Archbishop Whately, it must be often a matter of doubt, or, rather, of arbitrary choice, not only to which genus each kind of fallacy should be referred, but even to which kind to refer any one individual fallacy; for since, in any course of argument, one premise is usually suppressed, it frequently happens in the case of a fallacy, that the hearers are left to the alternative of supplying either a premise which is not true , or else, one which does not prove the conclusion; e.g., if a man expatiates on the distress of the country, and thence argues that the government is tyrannical, we must suppose him to assume either that every distressed country is under a tyranny, which is a manifest falsehood, or merely that every country under a tyranny is distressed, which, however true, proves nothing, the middle term being undistributed. The former would be ranked, in our distribution, among fallacies of 467 generalization, the latter among those of ratiocination. Which are we to suppose the speaker meant u s to understand? Surely (if he understood himself) just whichever each of his hearers might happen to prefer: some might assent to the false premise; others allow the unsound syllogism. Almost all fallacies, therefore, might in strictness be brought under our fifth class, Fallacies of Confusion. A fallacy can seldom be absolutely referred to any of the other classes; we can only say, that if all the links were filled up which should be capable of being supplied in a valid argument, it would either stand thus (forming a fallacy of one class), or thus (a fallacy of another); or at furthest we may say, that the conclusion is most likely to have originated in a fallacy of such and such a class. Thus, in the illustration just quoted, the error committed may be traced with most probability to a fallacy of generalization; that of mistaking an uncertain mark, or piece of evidence, for a certain one; concluding from an effect to some one of its possible causes, when there are others which would have been equally ca pable of producing it. Yet, though the five classes run into each other, and a particular error often seems to be arbitrarily assigned to one of them rather than to any of the rest, there is considerable use in so distinguishing them. We shall find it convenient to set apart, as Fallacies of Confusion, those of which confusion is the most obvious characteristic; in which no other cause can be assigned for the mistake committed, than neglect or inability to state the question properly, and to apprehend the evidence with definiteness and precision. In the remaining four classes I shall place not only the cases in which the evidence is clearly seen to be what it is, and yet a wrong conclusion drawn from it, but also those in which, although there be confusion, the confusion is not the sole cause of the error, but there is some shadow of a ground for it in the nature of the evidence itself. And in distributing these cases of partial confusion among the four classes, I shall, when there can be any hesitation as to the precise seat of the fallacy, suppose it to be in that part of the process in which, from the nature of the case, and the tendencies of the human mind, an error would in the particular circumstances be the most probable. After these observations we shall proceed, without further preamble, to consider the five classes in their order. 468 III. Fallacies Of Simple Inspection; Or A Priori Fallacies 1. The tribe of errors of which we are to treat in the first instance, are those in which no actual inference takes place at all; the proposition (it can not in such cases be called a conclusion) being embraced, not as proved, but as requiring no proof; as a self-evident truth; or else as having such intrinsic verisimilitude, that externa l evidence not in itself amounting to proof, is sufficient in aid of the antecedent presumption. An attempt to treat this subject comprehensively would be a transgression of the bounds prescribed to this work, since it would necessitate the inquiry which, more than any other, is the grand question of what is called metaphysics, viz., What are the propositions which may reasonably be received without proof? That there must be some such propositions all are agreed, since there can not be an infinite series of proof, a chain suspended from nothing. But to determine what these propositions are, is the opus magnum of the more recondite mental philosophy. Two principal divisions of opinion on the subject have divided the schools of philosophy from its first dawn. The one recognizes no ultimate premises but the facts of our subjective consciousness; our sensations, emotions, intellectual states of mind, and volitions. These, and whatever by strict rules of induction can be derived from these, it is possible, accordi ng to this theory, for us to know; of all else we must remain in ignorance. The opposite school hold that there are other existences, suggested indeed to our minds by these subjective phenomena, but not inferable from them, by any process either of deduction or of induction; which, however, we must, by the constitution of our mental nature, recognize as realities; and realities, too, of a higher order than the phenomena of our consciousness, being the efficient causes and necessary substrata of all Phenomen a. Among these entities they reckon Substances, whether matter or spirit; from the dust under our feet to the soul, and from that to Deity. All these, according to them, are preternatural or supernatural beings, having no likeness in experience, though experience is entirely a manifestation of their agency. Their existence, together with more or less of the laws to which they conform in their operations, are, on this theory, apprehended and recognized as real by the mind itself intuitively; experience (whet her in the form of sensation or of mental feeling) having no other part in the matter than as affording facts which are consistent with these necessary postulates of reason, and which are explained and accounted for by them. As it is foreign to the purpose of the present treatise to decide between these conflicting theories, we are precluded from inquiring into the existence, or defining the extent and limits, of knowledge a priori , and from characterizing the kind of correct assumption which the fallacy of incorrect assumption, now under consideration, simulates. Yet since it is allowed on both sides that such assumptions are often made improperly, we may find it practicable, without entering into the ultimate metaphysical grounds of the discussion, to stat e some speculative propositions, and suggest some practical cautions, respecting the forms in which such unwarranted assumptions are most likely to be made. 2. In the cases in which, according to the thinkers of the ontological school, the mind apprehends, by intuition, things, and the laws of things, not cognizable by our sensitive faculty; those intuitive, or supposed intuitive, perceptions are undistinguishable from what the opposite school are accustomed to call ideas of the mind. When they themselves say that they perceive the things by an immediate act of a faculty given for that purpose by their Creator, it would be said of them by their opponents that they find an idea or conception in 469 their own minds, and from the idea or conception, infer the existence of a corresponding objective reality. Nor would this be an unfair statement, but a mere version into other words of the account given by many of themselves; and one to which the more clear-sighted of them might, and generally do, without hesitation, subscribe. Since, therefore, in the cases which lay the strongest claims to be examples of knowledge a priori , the mind proceeds from the idea of a thing to the reality of the thing itself, we can not be surprised by finding that illicit assumptions a priori consist in doing the same thing erroneously; in mistaking subjective facts for objective, laws of the percipient mind for laws of the perceived object, properties of the ideas or conceptions for properties of the things conceived. Accordingly, a large proportion of the erroneous thinking which exists in the world proceeds on a tacit assumption, that the same order must obtain among the objects in nature which obtains among our ideas of them. That if we always think of two things together, the two things must always exist together. That if one thing makes us think of another as preceding or following it, that other must precede it or follow it in actual fact. And conversely, that when we can not conceive two things together they can not exist together, and that their combination may, without further evidence, be rejected from the list of possible occurrences. Few persons, I am inclined to think, have reflected on the great extent to which this fallacy has prevailed, and prevails, in the actual beliefs and actions of mankind. For a first illustration of it we may refer to a large class of popular superstitions. If any one will examine in what circumstances most of those things agree, which in different ages and by different portions of the human race have been considered as omens or prognostics of some interesting event, whether calamitous or fortunate; they will be found very generally characterized by this peculiarity, that they cause the mind to think of that, of which they are therefore supposed to forbode the actual occurrence. Talk of the devil and he will appear, has passed into a proverb. Talk of the devil, that is, raise the idea, and the reality will follow. In times when the appearance of that personage in a visible form was thought to be no unfrequent occurrence, it has doubtless often happened to persons of vivid imagination and susceptible nerves, that talking of the devil has caused them to fancy they saw him; as even in our more incredulous days, listening to ghost stories predisposes us to see ghosts; and thus, as a prop to the a priori fallacy, there might come to be added an auxiliary fallacy of malobservation, with one of false generalization grounded on it. Fallacies of different orders often herd or cluster together in this fashion, one smoothing the way for another. But the origin of the superstition is evidently that which we have assigned. In like manner, it has been universally considered unlucky to speak of misfortune. The day on which any calamity happened has been considered an unfortunate day, and there has been a feeling everywhere, and in some nations a religious obligation, against transacting any important business on that day. For on such a day our thoughts are likely to be of misfortune. For a similar reason, any untoward occurrence in commencing an undertaking has been considered ominous of failure; and often, doubtless, has really contributed to it by putting the persons engaged in the enterprise more or less out of spirits; but the belief has equally prevailed where the disagreeable circumstance was, independently of superstition, too insignificant to depress the spirits by any influence of its own. All know the story of Csar's accidentally stumbling in the act of landing on the African coast; and the presence of mind with w hich he converted the direful presage into a favorable one by exclaiming, Africa, I embrace thee. Such omens, it is true, were often conceived as warnings of the future, given by a friendly or a hostile deity; but this very superstition grew out of a pre-existing tendency; the god was supposed to send, as an indication of what was to come, something which people were already disposed to consider in that light. So in the case of lucky or unlucky names. Herodotus tells us how the Greeks, on the way to Mycale, were encouraged in their enterprise 470 by the arrival of a deputation from Samos, one of the members of which was named Hegesistratus, the leader of armies. Cases may be pointed out in which something which could have no real effect but to make persons think of misfortune, was regarded not merely as a prognostic, but as something approaching to an actual cause of it. The of the Greeks, and favete linguis , or bona verba quso, of the Romans, evince the care with which they endeavored to repress the utterance of any word expressive or suggestive of ill fortune; not from notions of delicate politeness, to which their general mode of conduct and feeling had very little reference, but from bona fide alarm lest the event so suggested to the imagination should in fact occur. Some vestige of a similar superstition has been known to exist among uneducated persons even in our own day: it is thought an unchristian thing to talk of, or suppose, the death of any person while he is alive. It is known how careful the Romans were to avoid, by an indirect mode of speech, the utterance of any word directly expressive of death or other calamity; how instead of mortuus est they said vixit ; and be the event fortunate or otherwise instead of adverse. The name Maleventum, of which Salmasius so sagaciously detected the Thessalian origin (, ), they changed into the highly propitious denomination, Beneventum; Egesta into Segesta; and Epidamnus, a name so interesting in its associations to the reader of Thucydides, they exchanged for Dyrrhachium, to escape the perils of a word suggestive of damnum or detriment. If a hare cross the highway, says Sir Thomas Browne, there are few above threescore that are not perplexed thereat; which notwithstanding is but an augurial terror, according to that received expression, Inauspicatum dat iter oblatus lepus . And the ground of the conceit was probably no greater than this, that a fearful animal passing by us portended unto us something to be feared; as upon the like consideration the meeting of a fox presaged some future imposture. Such superstitions as these last must be the result of study; they are too recondite for natural or spontaneous growth. But when the attempt was once made to construct a science of predictions, any association, though ever so faint or remote, by which an object could be connected in however far-fetched a manner with ideas either of prosperity or of danger and misfortune, was enough to determine its being classed among good or evil omens. An examp le of rather a different kind from any of these, but falling under the same principle, is the famous attempt on which so much labor and ingenuity were expended by the alchemists, to make gold potable. The motive to this was a conceit that potable gold could be no other than the universal medicine; and why gold? Because it was so precious. It must have all marvelous properties as a physical substance, because the mind was already accustomed to marvel at it. From a similar feeling, every substance, says Dr. Paris, whose origin is involved in mystery, has at different times been eagerly applied to the purposes of medicine. Not long since, one of those showers which are now known to consist of the excrements of insects, fell in the north of Italy; the inhabitants regarded it as manna, or some supernatural panacea, and they swallowed it with such avidity, that it was only by extreme address that a small quantity was obtained for a chemical examination. The superstition, in this instance, though doubtless partly of a religious character, probably in part also arose from the prejudice that a wonderful thing must of course have wonderful properties. 3. The instances of a priori fallacy which we have hitherto cited belong to the class of vulgar errors, and do not now, nor in any but a rude age ever could, impose upon minds of any considerable attainments. But those to which we are about to proceed, have been, and still are, all but universally prevalent among thinkers. The same disposition to give objectivity to a law of the mindto suppose that what is true of our ideas of things must be 471 true of the things themselvesexhibits itself in many of the most accredited modes of philosophical investigation, both on physical and on metaphysical subjects. In one of its most undisguised manifestations, it embodies itself in two maxims, which lay claim to axiomatic truth: Things which we can not think of together, can not co-exist; and Things which we can not help thinking of together, must co- exist. I am not sure that the maxims were ever expressed in these precise words, but the history both of philosophy and of popular opinions abounds with exemplifications of both forms of the doctrine. To begin with the latter of them: Things which we can not think of except together, must exist together. This is assumed in the generally received and accredited mode of reasoning which concludes that A must accompany B in point of fact, because it is involved in the idea. Such thinkers do not reflect that the idea, being a result of abstraction, ought to conform to the facts, and can not make the facts conform to it. The argument is at most admissible as an appeal to authority; a surmise, that what is now part of the idea, must, before it became so, have been found by previous inquirers in the facts. Nevertheless, the philosopher who more than all others made professions of rejecting authority, Descartes, constructed his system on this very basis. His favorite device for arriving at truth, even in regard to outward things, was by looking into his own mind for it. Credidi me, says his celebrated maxim, pro regul generali sumere posse, omne id quod vald dilucid et distinct concipiebam, verum esse; whatever can be very clearly conceived must certainly exist; that is, as he afterward explains it, if the idea includes existence. And on this ground he infers that geometrical figures really exist, because they can be distinctly conceived. Whenever existence is involved in an idea, a thing conformable to the idea must really exist; which is as much as to say, whatever the idea contains must have its equivalent in the thing; and what we are not able to leave out of the idea can not be absent from the reality. P217F218 P This assumption pervades the philosophy not only of Descartes, but of all the thinkers who received their impulse mainly from him, in particular the two most remarkable among them, Spinoza and Leibnitz, from whom the modern German metaphysical philosophy is essentially an emanation. I am indeed disposed to think that the fallacy now under consideration has been the cause of two-thirds of the bad philosophy, and especially of the bad metaphysics, which the human mind has never ceased to produce. Our general ideas contain nothing but what has been put into them, either by our passive experience, or by our active habits of thought; and the metaphysicians in all ages, who have attempted to construct the laws of the universe by reasoning from our supposed necessities of thought, have always proceeded, and only could proceed, by laboriously finding in their own minds what they themselves had formerly put there, and evolving from their ideas of things what they had first involved in those ideas. In this way all deeply-rooted opinions and feelings are enabled to create apparent demonstrations o f their truth and reasonableness, as it were, out of their own substance. The other form of the fallacy: Things which we can not think of together can not exist togetherincluding as one of its branches, that what we can not think of as existing can not exist at allmay thus be briefly expressed: Whatever is inconceivable must be false. 218 The author of one of the Bridgewater Treatises has fallen, as it seems to me, into a similar fallacy when, after arguing in rather a curious way to prove that matter may exist without any of the known properties of matter, and may therefore be changeable, he concludes that it can not be eternal, because eternal (passive) existence necessarily involves incapability of change. I believe it would be difficult to point out any other connection between the facts of eternity and unchangeableness, than a strong association between the two ideas. Most of the a priori arguments, both religious and anti -religious, on the origin of things, are fallacies drawn from the same source. 472 Against this prevalent doctrine I have sufficiently argued in a former Book, and nothing is required in this place but examples. It was long held that Antipodes were impossible because of the difficulty which was found in conceiving persons with their heads in the same direction as our feet. And it was one of the received arguments against the Copernican system, that we can not conceive so great a void space as that sy stem supposes to exist in the celestial regions. When men's imaginations had always been used to conceive the stars as firmly set in solid spheres, they naturally found much difficulty in imagining them in so different, and, as it doubtless appeared to them, so precarious a situation. But they had no right to mistake the limitation (whether natural, or, as it in fact proved, only artificial) of their own faculties, for an inherent limitation of the possible modes of existence in the universe. It may be said in objection, that the error in these cases was in the minor premise, not the major; an error of fact, not of principle; that it did not consist in supposing that what is inconceivable can not be true, but in supposing antipodes to be inconceivable, when present experience proves that they can be conceived. Even if this objection were allowed, and the proposition that what is inconceivable can not be true were suffered to remain unquestioned as a speculative truth, it would be a truth on which no practical consequence could ever be founded, since, on this showing, it is impossible to affirm of any proposition, not being a contradiction in terms, that it is inconceivable. Antipodes were really, not fictitiously, inconceivable to our ancestors: they are indeed conceivable to us; and as the limits of our power of conception have been so largely extended, by the extension of our experience and the more varied exercise of our imagination, so may posterity find many combinations perfectly conceivable to them which are inconceivable to us. But, as beings of limited experience, we must always and necessarily have limited conceptive powers; while it does not by any means follow that the same limitation obtains in the possibilities of Nature, nor even in her actual man ifestations. Rather more than a century and a half ago it was a scientific maxim, disputed by no one, and which no one deemed to require any proof, that a thing can not act where it is not. P218F219 P With this weapon the Cartesians waged a formidable war against the theory of gravitation, which, according to them, involving so obvious an absurdity, must be rejected in limine : the sun could not possibly act upon the earth, not being there. It was not surprising that the adherents of the old systems of astronomy should urge this objection against the new; but the false assumption imposed equally on Newton himself, who, in order to turn the edge of the objection, imagined a subtle ether which filled up the space between the sun and the earth, and by its intermediate agency was the proximate cause of the phenomena of gravitation. It is inconceivable, said Newton, in one of his letters to Dr. Bentley, that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter without mutual contact .... That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act on another, at a distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of any thing else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man, who in philosophical matters has a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. This passage should be hung up in the cabinet of every cultivator of science who is ever tempted to pronounce a fact impossible because it appears to him inconceivable. In our own day one would be more tempted, though with equal injustice, to reverse the concluding observation, and consider the seeing any absurdity a t all in a thing so simple and natural, to be what really marks the absence of a competent faculty of thinking. No one now feels any difficulty in conceiving gravity to be, as much as any other property is, inherent and essential to 219 It seems that this doctrine was, before the time I have mentioned, disputed by some thinkers. Dr. Ward mentions Scotus, Vasquez, Biel, Francis Lugo, and Valentia. 473 matter, nor finds the comprehension of it facilitated in the smallest degree by the supposition of an ether (though some recent inquirers do give this as an explanation of it); nor thinks it at all incredible that the celestial bodies can and do act where they, in actual bodily presence, are not. To us it is not more wonderful that bodies should act upon one another without mutual contact, than that they should do so when in contact; we are familiar with both these facts, and we find them equally inexplicable, but equally easy to believe. To Newton, the one, because his imagination was familiar with it, appeared natural and a matter of course, while the other, for the contrary reason, seemed too absurd to be credited. It is strange that any one, after such a warning, should rely implicitly on the evidence a priori of such propositions as these, that matter can not think; that space, or extension, is infinite; that nothing can be made out of nothing ( ex nihilo nihil fit). Whether these propositions are true or not this is not the place to determine, nor even whether the questions are soluble by the human faculties. But such doctrines are no more self-evident truths, than the ancient maxim that a thing can not act where it is not, which probably is not now believed by any educated person in Europe. P219F220 P Matter can not think; why? because we can not conceive thought to be annexed to any arrangement of material particles. Space is infinite, because having never known any part of it which had not other parts beyond it, we can not conceive an absolute termination. Ex nihilo nihil fit, because having never known any physical product without a pre- existing physical material, we can not , or think we can not, imagine a creation out of nothing. But these things may in themselves be as conceivable as gravitation without an intervening medium, which Newton thought too great an absurdity for any person of a competent faculty of philosophical thinking to admit: and even supposing them not conceivable, this, for aught we know, may be merely one of the limitations of our very limited minds, and not in nature at all. No writer has more directly identified himself with the fallacy now under consideration, or has embodied it in more distinct terms, than Leibnitz. In his view, unless a thing was not merely conceivable, but even explainable, it could not exist in nature. All natural phenomena, according to him, must be susceptible of being accounted for a priori . The only facts of which no explanation could be given but the will of God, were miracles properly so called. Je reconnais, says he, qu'il n'est pas permis de nier ce qu'on n'entend pas; mais j'ajoute qu'on a droit de nier (au moins dans l'ordre naturel) ce que absolument n'est point intelligible ni explicable. Je soutiens aussi ... qu'enfin la conception des cratures n'est pas la mesure du pouvoir de Dieu, mais que leur conceptivit, ou force de concevoir, est la mesure du pouvoir de la nature, tout ce qui est conforme l'ordre naturel pouvant tre conu ou entendu par quelque crature. Not co ntent with assuming that nothing can be true which we are unable to conceive, scientific inquirers have frequently given a still further extension to the doctrine, and held that, even of things not altogether inconceivable, that which we can conceive with the greatest ease is likeliest to be true. It was long an admitted axiom, and is not yet entirely discredited, that nature always acts by the simplest means, i.e. , by those which are most easily conceivable. A large proportion of all the errors ever comm itted in the investigation of the laws of nature, have arisen from the assumption that the most familiar explanation or hypothesis must be the truest. One of the most instructive facts in scientific history is the pertinacity with which the human mind clung to the belief that the heavenly bodies must move in circles, or be carried round by the revolution of spheres; merely because those were in themselves the simplest suppositions: 220 This statement I must now correct, as too unqualified. The maxim in question was maintained with full conviction by no less an authority than Sir William Hamilton. See my Examination, chap. xxiv. 474 though, to make them accord with the facts which were ever contradicting them more and more, it became necessary to add sphere to sphere and circle to circle, until the original simplicity was converted into almost inextricable complication. 4. We pass to another a priori fallacy or natural prejudice, allied to the former, and originating, as that does, in the tendency to presume an exact correspondence between the laws of the mind and those of things external to it. The fallacy may be enunciated in this general form Whatever can be thought of apart exists apart: and its most rem arkable manifestation consists in the personification of abstractions. Mankind in all ages have had a strong propensity to conclude that wherever there is a name, there must be a distinguishable separate entity corresponding to the name; and every complex idea which the mind has formed for itself by operating upon its conceptions of individual things, was considered to have an outward objective reality answering to it. Fate, Chance, Nature, Time, Space, were real beings, nay, even gods. If the analysis of qualities in the earlier part of this work be correct, names of qualities and names of substances stand for the very same sets of facts or phenomena; whiteness and a white thing are only different phrases, required by convenience for speaking of the same ex ternal fact under different relations. Not such, however, was the notion which this verbal distinction suggested of old, either to the vulgar or to the scientific. Whiteness was an entity, inhering or sticking in the white substance: and so of all other qualities. So far was this carried, that even concrete general terms were supposed to be, not names of indefinite numbers of individual substances, but names of a peculiar kind of entities termed Universal Substances. Because we can think and speak of man in general, that is, of all persons in so far as possessing the common attributes of the species, without fastening our thoughts permanently on some one individual person; therefore man in general was supposed to be, not an aggregate of individual persons, but an abstract or universal man, distinct from these. It may be imagined what havoc metaphysicians trained in these habits made with philosophy, when they came to the largest generalizations of all. Substanti Secund of any kind were bad enough, but such Substanti Secund as , for example, and , standing for peculiar entities supposed to be inherent in all things which exist , or in all which are said to be one , were enough to put an end to all intelligible discussion; especially since, with a just perception that the truths which philosophy pursues are general truths, it was soon laid down that these general substances were the only subjects of science, being immutable, while individual substances cognizable by the senses, being in a perpetual flux, could not be the subject of real knowledge. This misapprehension of the import of general language constitutes Mysticism, a word so much oftener written and spoken than understood. Whether in the Vedas, in the Platonists, or in the Hegelians, mysticism is neither more nor less than ascribing objective existence to the subjective creations of our own faculties, to ideas or feelings of the mind; and believing that by watching and contemplating these ideas of its own making, it can read in them what takes place in the world without. 5. Proceeding with the enumeration of a priori fallacies, and endeavoring to arrange them with as much reference as possible to their natural affinities, we come to another, which is also nearly allied to the fallacy preceding the last, standing in the same relation to one variety of it as the fallacy last mentioned does to the other. This, too, represents nature as under incapacities corresponding to those of our intellect; but instead of only asserting that nature can not do a thing because we can not conceive it done, goes the still greater length of averring that nature does a particular thing, on the sole ground that we can see no reason why she should not. Absurd as this seems when so plainly stated, it is a received principle among scientific authorities for demonstrating a priori the laws of physical phenomena. A phenomenon must follow a certain law, because we see no reason why it should deviate from 475 that law in one way rather than in another. This is called the Principle of the Sufficient Reason; P220F221 P and by means of it philosophers often flatter themselves that they are able to establish, without any appeal to experience, the most general truths of experimental physics. Take, for example, two of the most elementary of all laws, the law of inertia and the first law of motion. A body at rest can not, it is affirmed, begin to move unless acted upon by some external force; because, if it did, it must either move up or down, forward or backward, and so forth; but if no outward force acts upon it, there can be no reason for its moving up rather than down, or down rather than up, etc., ergo, it will not move at all. This reasoning I conceive to be entirely fallacious, as indeed Dr. Brown, in his treatise on Cause and Effect , has shown with great acuteness and justness of thought. We have before remarked, that almost every fallacy may be referred to different genera by different modes of filling up the suppressed steps; and this particular one may, at our option, be brought under petitio principii. It supposes that nothing can be a sufficient reason for a body's moving in one particular direction, except some external force. But this is the very thing to be proved. Why not some internal force? Why not the law of the thing's own nature? Since these philosophers think it necessary to prove the law of inertia, they of course do not suppose it to be self -evident; they must, therefore, be of opinion that previously to all proof, the supposition of a body's moving by internal impulse is an admissible hypothesis; but if so, why is not the hypothesis also admissible, that the internal impulse acts naturally in some one particular direction, not in another? If spontaneous motion might have been the law of matter, why not spontaneous motion toward the sun, toward the earth, or toward the zenith? Why not, as the ancients supposed, toward a particular place in the universe, appropriated to each particular kind of substance? Surely it is not allowable to say that spontaneity of motion is credible in itself, but not credible if supposed to take place in any determinate direction. Indeed, if any one chose to assert that all bodies when uncontrolled set out in a direct line toward the North Pole, he might equally prove his point by the principl e of the Sufficient Reason. By what right is it assumed that a state of rest is the particular state which can not be deviated from without special cause? Why not a state of motion, and of some particular sort of motion? Why may we not say that the natural state of a horse left to himself is to amble, because otherwise he must either trot, gallop, or stand still, and because we know no reason why he should do one of these rather than another? If this is to be called an unfair use of the sufficient reason, and the other a fair one, there must be a tacit assumption that a state of rest is more natural to a horse than a state of ambling. If this means that it is the state which the animal will assume when left to himself, that is the very point to be proved; and if it does not mean this, it can only mean that a state of rest is the simplest state, and therefore the most likely to prevail in nature, which is one of the fallacies or natural prejudices we have already examined. So again of the First Law of Motion; that a body once moving will, if left to itself, continue to move uniformly in a straight line. An attempt is made to prove this law by saying, that if not, the body must deviate either to the right or to the left, and that there is no reason why it should do one more than the other. But who could know, antecedently to experience, whether there was a reason or not? Might it not be the nature of bodies, or of some particular bodies, to deviate toward the right? or if the supposition is preferred, toward the east, or south? It was long thought that bodies, terrestrial ones at least, had a natural tendency to deflect downward; and there is no shadow of any thing objectionable in the supposition, except that it is not true. The pretended proof of the law of motion is even more manifestly untenable than that of the law of inertia, for it is flagrantly inconsistent; it assumes that the continuance of motion in the 221 Not that of Leibnitz, but the principle commonly appealed to under that name by mathematicians. 476 direction first taken is more natural than deviation either to the right or to the left, but denies that one of these can possibly be more natural than the other. All these fancies of the possibility of knowing what is natural or not natural by any other means than experience, are, in truth, entirely futile. The real and only proof of the laws of motion, or of any other law of the universe, is experience; it is simply that no other suppositions explain or are consistent with the facts of universal nature. Geometers have, in all ages, been open to the imputation of endeavoring to prove the most general facts of the outward world by sophistical reasoning, in order to avoid appeals to the senses. Archimedes, says Professor Playfair, established some of the elementary propositions of statics by a process in which he borrows no principle from experiment, but e stablishes his conclusion entirely by reasoning a priori . He assumes, indeed, that equal bodies, at the ends of the equal arms of a lever, will balance one another; and also that a cylinder or parallelopiped of homogeneous matter, will be balanced about its centre of magnitude. These, however, are not inferences from experience; they are, properly speaking, conclusions deduced from the principle of the Sufficient Reason. And to this day there are few geometers who would not think it far more scientific to establish these or any other premises in this way, than to rest their evidence on that familiar experience which in the case in question might have been so safely appealed to. 6. Another natural prejudice, of most extensive prevalence, and which had a gr eat share in producing the errors fallen into by the ancients in their physical inquiries, was this: That the differences in nature must correspond to our received distinctions: that effects which we are accustomed, in popular language, to call by different names, and arrange in different classes, must be of different natures, and have different causes. This prejudice, so evidently of the same origin with those already treated of, marks more especially the earliest stage of science, when it has not yet broken loose from the trammels of every-day phraseology. The extraordinary prevalence of the fallacy among the Greek philosophers may be accounted for by their generally knowing no other language than their own; from which it was a consequence that their ideas followed the accidental or arbitrary combinations of that language, more completely than can happen among the moderns to any but illiterate persons. They had great difficulty in distinguishing between things which their language confounded, or in putting mentally together things which it distinguished; and could hardly combine the objects in nature, into any classes but those which were made for them by the popular phrases of their own country; or at least could not help fancying those classes to be natura l and all others arbitrary and artificial. Accordingly, scientific investigation among the Greek schools of speculation and their followers in the Middle Ages, was little more than a mere sifting and analyzing of the notions attached to common language. They thought that by determining the meaning of words, they could become acquainted with facts. They took for granted, says Dr. Whewell, that philosophy must result from the relations of those notions which are involved in the common use of language, and they proceeded to seek it by studying such notions. In his next chapter, Dr. Whewell has so well illustrated and exemplified this error, that I shall take the liberty of quoting him at some length. The propensity to seek for principles in the common usages of language may be discerned at a very early period. Thus we have an example of it in a saying which is reported of Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy. When he was asked, What is the greatest thing? he replied Place ; for all other things are in the world, but the world is in it. In Aristotle we have the consummation of this mode of speculation. The usual point from which he starts in his inquiries is, that we say thus or thus in common language. Thus, when he has to discuss the question whether there be, in any part of the universe, a void, or space in which there is nothing, he inquires first in how many senses we say that one thing is in another. He 477 enumerates many of these; we say the part is in the whole, as the finger is in the hand; again we say, the species is in the genus, as man is included in animal; again, the government of Greece is in the king; and various other senses are described and exemplified, but of all these the most proper is when we say a thing is in a vessel, and generally in place . He next examines what place is, and comes to this conclusion, that if about a body there be another body including it, it is in place, and if not, not. A body moves when it changes its place; but he adds, that if water be in a vessel, the vessel being at rest, the parts of the water may still move, for they are included by each other; so that while the whole does not change its place, the parts may change their place in a circular order. Proceeding then to the question of a void , he as usual examines the different senses in which the term is used, and adopts as the most proper, place without matter , with no useful result. Again, in a question concerning mechanical action, he says, When a man moves a stone by pushing it with a stick, we say both that the man moves the stone, and that the stick moves the stone, but the latter more properly . Again, we find the Greek philosophers applying themselves to extract their dogmas from the most general and abstract notions which they could detect; for example, from the conception of the Universe as One or as Many things. They tried to determine how far we may, or must, combine with these conceptions that of a whole, of parts, of number, of limits, of place, of beginning or end, of full or void, of rest or motion, of cause and effect, and the like. The analysis of such conceptions with such a view, occupies, for instance, almost the whole of Aristotle's Treatise on the Heavens. The following paragraph merits particular attention: Another mode of reasoning, very widely applied in these attempts, was the doctrine of contrarieties , in which it was assumed that adjectives or substances which are in common language, or in some abstract mode of conception, opposed to each other, must point at some fundamental antithesis in nature, which it is important to study. Thus Aristotle says that the Pythagoreans, from the contrasts which number suggests, collected ten principlesLimited and Unlimited, Odd and Even, One and Many, Right and Left, Male and Female, Rest and Motion, Straight and Curved, Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Square and Oblong.... Aristotle himself deduced the doctrine of four elements and other dogmas by oppositions of the same kind. Of the manner in which, from premises obtained in this way, the a ncients attempted to deduce laws of nature, an example is given in the same work a few pages further on. Aristotle decides that there is no void on such arguments as this. In a void there could be no difference of up and down; for as in nothing there are no differences, so there are none in a privation or negation; but a void is merely a privation or negation of matter; therefore, in a void, bodies could not move up and down, which it is in their nature to do. It is easily seen (Dr. Whewell very justly ad ds) that such a mode of reasoning elevates the familiar forms of language, and the intellectual connections of terms, to a supremacy over facts; making truth depend upon whether terms are or are not privative, and whether we say that bodies fall naturally . The propensity to assume that the same relations obtain between objects themselves, which obtain between our ideas of them, is here seen in the extreme stage of its development. For the mode of philosophizing, exemplified in the foregoing instances, assumes no less than that the proper way of arriving at knowledge of nature, is to study nature itself subjectively; to apply our observation and analysis not to the facts, but to the common notions entertained of the facts. 478 Many other equally striking examples may be given of the tendency to assume that things which for the convenience of common life are placed in different classes, must differ in every respect. Of this nature was the universal and deeply -rooted prejudice of antiquity and the Middle Ages, tha t celestial and terrestrial phenomena must be essentially different, and could in no manner or degree depend on the same laws. Of the same kind, also, was the prejudice against which Bacon contended, that nothing produced by nature could be successfully imitated by man: Calorem solis et ignis toto genere differre; ne scilicet homines putent se per opera ignis, aliquid simile iis qu in Natura fiunt, educere et formare posse; and again, Compositionem tantum opus Hominis, Mistionem vero opus solius Natur esse: ne scilicet homines sperent aliquam ex arte Corporum naturalium generationem aut transformationem. The grand distinction in the ancient scientific speculations, between natural and violent motions, though not without a plausible foundation in the appearances themselves, was doubtless greatly recommended to adoption by its conformity to this prejudice. 7. From the fundamental error of the scientific inquirers of antiquity, we pass, by a natural association, to a scarcely less fundamental one of their great rival and successor, Bacon. It has excited the surprise of philosophers that the detailed system of inductive logic, which this extraordinary man labored to construct, has been turned to so little direct use by subsequent inquirers, having neither continued, except in a few of its generalities, to be recognized as a theory, nor having conducted in practice to any great scientific results. But this, though not unfrequently remarked, has scarcely received any plausible explanation; and some, indeed, have preferred to assert that all rules of induction are useless, rather than suppose that Bacon's rules are grounded on an insufficient analysis of the inductive process. Such, however, will be seen to be the fact, as soon as it is considered, that Bac on entirely overlooked Plurality of Causes. All his rules tacitly imply the assumption, so contrary to all we now know of nature, that a phenomenon can not have more than one cause. When he is inquiring into what he terms the forma calidi aut frigidi, grav is aut levis, sicci aut humidi , and the like, he never for an instant doubts that there is some one thing, some invariable condition or set of conditions, which is present in all cases of heat, or cold, or whatever other phenomenon he is considering; the only difficulty being to find what it is; which accordingly he tries to do by a process of elimination, rejecting or excluding, by negative instances, whatever is not the forma or cause, in order to arrive at what is. But, that this forma or cause is one thing, and that it is the same in all hot objects, he has no more doubt of, than another person has that there is always some cause or other . In the present state of knowledge it could not be necessary, even if we had not already treated so fully of the question, to point out how widely this supposition is at variance with the truth. It is particularly unfortunate for Bacon that, falling into this error, he should have fixed almost exclusively upon a class of inquiries in which it was especially fatal; namely, inquiries into the causes of the sensible qualities of objects. For his assumption, groundless in every case, is false in a peculiar degree with respect to those sensible qualities. In regard to scarcely any of them has it been found possible to trace any unity of cause, any set of conditions invariably accompanying the quality. The conjunctions of such qualities with one another constitute the variety of Kinds, in which, as already remarked, it has not been found possible to trace any law. Bacon was seek ing for what did not exist. The phenomenon of which he sought for the one cause has oftenest no cause at all, and when it has, depends (as far as hitherto ascertained) on an unassignable variety of distinct causes. And on this rock every one must split, who represents to himself as the first and fundamental problem of science to ascertain what is the cause of a given effect, rather than what are the effects of a given cause. It was shown, in an early stage of our inquiry into the nature of 479 Induction, how much more ample are the resources which science commands for the latter than for the former inquiry, since it is upon the latter only that we can throw any direct light by means of experiment; the power of artificially producing an effect, implying a previous knowledge of at least one of its causes. If we discover the causes of effects, it is generally by having previously discovered the effects of causes; the greatest skill in devising crucial instances for the former purpose may only end, as Bacon's physical inquiries did, in no result at all. Was it that his eagerness to acquire the power of producing for man's benefit effects of practical importance to human life, rendering him impatient of pursuing that end by a circuitous route, made even him, the champion of experiment, prefer the direct mode, though one of mere observation, to the indirect, in which alone experiment was possible? Or had even Bacon not entirely cleared his mind from the notion of the ancients, that rerum cognoscere causas was the sole object of philosophy, and that to inquire into the effects of things belonged to servile and mechanical arts? It is worth remarking that, while the only efficient mode of cultivating speculative science was missed from an undue contempt of manual operations, the false speculative views thus engendered gave in their turn a false direction to such practical and mechanical aims as were suffered to exist. The assumption universal among the ancients and in the Middle Ages, that there were principles of heat and cold, dryness and moisture, etc., led directly to a belief in alchemy; in a transmutation of substances, a change from one Kind into another. Why should it not be possible to make gold? Each of the characteristic properties of gold has its forma , its essence, its set of conditions, which if we could discover, and learn how to realize, we could superinduce that particular property upon any other substance, upon wood, or iron, or lime, or clay. If, then, we could effect this with respect to every one of the essential properties of the precious metal, we should have converted the other substance into gold. Nor did this, if once the premises were granted, appear to transcend the real powers of mankind. For daily experience showed that almost every one of the distinctive sensible properties of any object, its consistence, its color, its taste, its smell, its shape, admitted of being totally changed by fire, or water, or some other chemical agent. The form of all those qualities seeming, therefore, to be within human power either to produce or to annihilate, not only did the transmutation of substances appear abstractedly possible, but the employment of the power, at our choice, for practical ends, seemed by no means hopeless. P221F222 P A prejudice, universal in the ancient world, and from which Bacon was so far from being free, that it pervaded and vitiated the whole practical part of his system of logic, may with good reason be ranked high in the order of Fallacies of which we are now treating. 8. There remain s one a priori fallacy or natural prejudice, the most deeply-rooted, perhaps, of all which we have enumerated; one which not only reigned supreme in the ancient world, but still possesses almost undisputed dominion over many of the most cultivated minds; and some of the most remarkable of the numerous instances by which I shall think it necessary to exemplify it, will be taken from recent thinkers. This is, that the conditions of a phenomenon must, or at least probably will, resemble the phenomenon itself. Conformably to what we have before remarked to be of frequent occurrence, this fallacy might without much impropriety have been placed in a different class, among Fallacies of Generalization; for experience does afford a certain degree of countenance to th e assumption. The cause does, in very many cases, resemble its effect; like produces like. Many phenomena have a direct tendency to perpetuate their own existence, or to give rise to other phenomena 222 It is hardly needful to remark that nothing is here intended to be said against the possibility at some future period of making gold by first discovering it to be a compound, and putting together its different elements or ingredients. But this is a totally different idea from that of the seekers of the grand arcanum. 480 similar to themselves. Not to mention forms actually moulded on one another, as impressions on wax and the like, in which the closest resemblance between the effect and its cause is the very law of the phenomenon; all motion tends to continue itself, with its own velocity, and in its own original direction; and the motion of one body tends to set others in motion, which is indeed the most common of the modes in which the motions of bodies originate. We need scarcely refer to contagion, fermentation, and the like; or to the production of effects by the growth or expansion of a germ or rudiment resembling on a smaller scale the completed phenomenon, as in the growth of a plant or animal from an embryo, that embryo itself deriving its origin from another plant or animal of the same kind. Again, the thoughts or reminiscences, which are effects of our past sensations, resemble those sensations; feelings produce similar feelings by way of sympathy; acts produce similar acts by involuntary or voluntary imitation. With so many appearances in its favor, no wonder if a presumption naturally grew up, that causes must necessarily resemble their effects, and that like could only be produced by like. This principle of fallacy has usually presided over the fantastical attempts to influence the course of nature by conjectural means, the choice of which was not directed by previous observation and experiment. The guess almost always fixed upon some means which possessed features of real or apparent resemblance to the end in view. If a charm was wanted, as by Ovid's Medea, to prolong life, all long -lived animals, or what were esteemed such, were collected and brewed into a broth: nec defuit illic Squamea Cinyphii tenuis membrana chelydri Vivacisque jecur cervi: quibus insuper addit Ora caputque novem cornicis scula pass. A similar no tion was embodied in the celebrated medical theory called the Doctrine of Signatures, which is no less, says Dr. Paris, than a belief that every natural substance which possesses any medicinal virtue indicates by an obvious and well- marked external character the disease for which it is a remedy, or the object for which it should be employed. This outward character was generally some feature of resemblance, real or fantastical, either to the effect it was supposed to produce, or to the phenomenon over which its power was thought to be exercised. Thus the lungs of a fox must be a specific for asthma, because that animal is remarkable for its strong powers of respiration. Turmeric has a brilliant yellow color, which indicates that it has the power of curing the jaundice; for the same reason, poppies must relieve diseases of the head; Agaricus those of the bladder; Cassia fistula the affections of the intestines, and Aristolochia the disorders of the uterus: the polished surface and stony hardness which so eminently characterize the seeds of the Lithospermum officinale (common gromwell) were deemed a certain indication of their efficacy in calculous and gravelly disorders; for a similar reason, the roots of the Saxifraga granulata (white saxifrage) gained reputation in the cure of the same disease; and the Euphrasia (eye- bright) acquired fame, as an application in complaints of the eye, because it exhibits a black spot in its corolla resembling the pupil. The blood-stone, the Heliotropium of the ancients, from the occasional small specks or points of a blood-red color exhibited on its green surface, is even at this very day employed in many parts of England and Scotland to stop a bleeding from the nose; and nettle tea continues a popular remedy for the cure of Urticaria . It is also asserted that some substances bear the signatures of the humors, as the petals of the red rose that of the blood, and the roots of rhubarb and the flowers of saffron that of the bile. 481 The early speculations respecting the chemical composition of bodies were rendered abortive by no circumstance more than by their invariably taking for granted that the properties of the elements must resemble those of the compounds which were formed from them. To descend to more modern instances; it was long thought, and was stoutly maintained by the Cartesians and even by Leibnitz against the Newtonian system (nor did Newton himself, as we have seen, contest the assumption, but eluded it by an arbitrary hypothesis), that nothing (of a physical nature at least) could account for motion, except previous motion; the impulse or impact of some other body. It was very long before the scientific world could prevail upon itself to admit attraction and repulsion ( i.e., spontaneous tendencies of particles to approach or recede from one another) as ultimate laws, no more requiring to be accounted for than impulse itself, if indeed the latter were not, in truth, resolvable into the former. From the same source arose the innumerable hypotheses devised to explain those classes of motion which appeared more mysterious than others because there was no obvious mode of attributing them to impulse, as for example the voluntary motions of the human body. Such were the interminable systems of vibrations propagated along the nerves, or animal spirits rushing up and down between the muscles and the brain; which, if the facts could have been proved, would have been an important addition to our knowledge of physiological laws; but the mere invention, or arbitrary supposition of them, could not unless by the strongest delusion be supposed to render the phenomena of animal life more comprehensible, or less mysterious. Nothing, however, seemed satisfactory, but to make out that motion was caused by motion; by something like itself. If it was not one kind of motion, it must be another. In like manner it was supposed that the physical qualities of objects must arise from some similar quality, or perhaps only some quality bearing the same name, in the particles or atoms of which the objects were composed; that a sharp taste, for example, must arise from sharp particles. And reversing the inference, the effects produced by a phenomenon must, it was supposed, resemble in their physical attributes the phenomenon itself. The influences of the planets were supposed to be analogous to their visible peculiarities: Mars, being of a red color, portended fire and slaughter; and the like. Passing from physics to metaphysics, we may notice among the most remarkable fruits of this a priori fallacy two closely analogous theories, employed in ancient and modern times to bridge over the chasm between the world of mind and that of matter; the species sensibiles of the Epicureans, and the modern doctrine of perception by means of ideas. These theories are indeed, probably, indebted for their existence not solely to the fallacy in question, but to that fallacy combined with another natural prejudice already adverted to, that a thing can not act where it is not. In both doctrines it is assumed that the phenomenon which takes place in us when we see or touch an object, and which we regard as an effect of that object, or rather of its presence to our organs, must of necessity resemble very closely the outward object itself. To fulfill this condition, the Epicurean s supposed that objects were constantly projecting in all directions impalpable images of themselves, which entered at the eyes and penetrated to the mind; while modern metaphysicians, though they rejected this hypothesis, agreed in deeming it necessary to suppose that not the thing itself, but a mental image or representation of it, was the direct object of perception. Dr. Reid had to employ a world of argument and illustration to familiarize people with the truth, that the sensations or impressions on our minds need not necessarily be copies of, or bear any resemblance to, the causes which produce them; in opposition to the natural prejudice which led people to assimilate the action of bodies upon our senses, and through them upon our minds, to the transfe r of a given form from one object to another by actual moulding. The works of Dr. Reid are even now the most effectual course of study for detaching the mind from the prejudice of which this was an example. And the value of the service which he thus render ed 482 to popular philosophy is not much diminished, although we may hold, with Brown, that he went too far in imputing the ideal theory as an actual tenet, to the generality of the philosophers who preceded him, and especially to Locke and Hume; for if they did not themselves consciously fall into the error, unquestionably they often led their readers into it. The prejudice, that the conditions of a phenomenon must resemble the phenomenon, is occasionally exaggerated, at least verbally, into a still more palpable absurdity; the conditions of the thing are spoken of as if they were the very thing itself. In Bacon's model inquiry, which occupies so great a space in the Novum Organum , the inquisitio in formam calidi , the conclusion which he favors is that heat is a kind of motion; meaning of course not the feeling of heat, but the conditions of the feeling; meaning, therefore, only that wherever there is heat, there must first be a particular kind of motion; but he makes no distinction in his language between these two ideas, expressing himself as if heat, and the conditions of heat, were one and the same thing. So the elder Darwin, in the beginning of his Zoonomia, says, The word idea has various meanings in the writers of metaphysics; it is here used simply for those notions of external things which our organs of sense bring us acquainted with originally (thus far the proposition, though vague, is unexceptionable in meaning), and is defined a contraction, a motion, or configuration, of the fibres which cons titute the immediate organ of sense. Our notions , a configuration of the fibres! What kind of logician must he be who thinks that a phenomenon is defined to be the condition on which he supposes it to depend? Accordingly he says soon after, not that our ideas are caused by, or consequent on, certain organic phenomena, but our ideas are animal motions of the organs of sense. And this confusion runs through the four volumes of the Zoonomia; the reader never knows whether the writer is speaking of the effect, or of its supposed cause; of the idea, a state of mental consciousness, or of the state of the nerves and brain which he considers it to presuppose. I have given a variety of instances in which the natural prejudice, that causes and their effects must r esemble one another, has operated in practice so as to give rise to serious errors. I shall now go further, and produce from writings even of the present or very recent times, instances in which this prejudice is laid down as an established principle. M. Victor Cousin, in the last of his celebrated lectures on Locke, enunciates the maxim in the following unqualified terms: Tout ce qui est vrai de l'effet, est vrai de la cause. A doctrine to which, unless in some peculiar and technical meaning of the words cause and effect, it is not to be imagined that any person would literally adhere; but he who could so write must be far enough from seeing that the very reverse might be the effect; that there is nothing impossible in the supposition that no one property which is true of the effect might be true of the cause. Without going quite so far in point of expression, Coleridge, in his Biographia Literaria , affirms as an evident truth, that the law of causality holds only between homogeneous things, i.e. , things having some common property, and therefore can not extend from one world into another, its opposite; hence, as mind and matter have no common property, mind can not act upon matter, nor matter upon mind. What is this but the a priori fallacy of which we are speaking? The doctrine, like many others of Coleridge, is taken from Spinoza, in the first book of whose Ethica (De Deo ) it stands as the Third Proposition, Qu res nihil commune inter se habent, earum una alterius causa esse non potest, and is there proved from two so -called axioms, equally gratuitous with itself; but Spinoza ever systematically consistent, pursued the doctrine to its inevitable consequence, the materiality of God. The same conception of impossibility led the ingenious and subtle mind of Leibnitz to his celebrated doctrine of a pre-established harmony. He, too, thought that mind could not act upon matter, nor matter upon mind, and that the two, therefore, must have been arranged by 483 their Maker like two clocks, which, though unconnected with one another, strike simultaneously, and always point to the same hour. Malebranche's equally famous theory of Occasional Causes was another form of the same conception; instead of supposing the clocks originally arranged to strike together, he held that when the one strikes, God interposes, and makes the other strike in correspondence with it. Descartes, in like manner, whose works are a rich mine of almost every description of a priori fallacy, says that the Efficient Cause must at least have all the perfections of the effect, and for this singular reason: Si enim ponamus aliquid in ide reperiri quod non fuerit in ejus caus, hoc igitur habet a nihilo; of which it is scarcely a parody to say, that if there be pepper in the soup there must be pepper in the cook who made it, since otherwise the pepper would be without a cause. A similar fallacy is committed by Cicero, in his second book De Finibus , where, speaking in his own person against the Epicureans, he charges them with inconsistency in saying that the pleasures of the mind had their origin from those of the body, and yet that the former were more valuable, as if the effect could surpass the cause. Animi voluptas oritur propter voluptatem corporis, et major est animi voluptas quam corporis? ita fit ut gratulator, ltior sit quam is cui gratulatur. Even that, surely, is not an impossibility; a person's good fortune has often given more pleasure to others than it gave to the person himself. Descartes, with no less readiness, applies the same p rinciple the converse way, and infers the nature of the effects from the assumption that they must, in this or that property or in all their properties, resemble their cause. To this class belong his speculations, and those of so many others after him, ten ding to infer the order of the universe, not from observation, but by a priori reasoning from supposed qualities of the Godhead. This sort of inference was probably never carried to a greater length than it was in one particular instance by Descartes, when, as a proof of one of his physical principles, that the quantity of motion in the universe is invariable, he had recourse to the immutability of the Divine Nature. Reasoning of a very similar character is, however, nearly as common now as it was in his time, and does duty largely as a means of fencing off disagreeable conclusions. Writers have not yet ceased to oppose the theory of divine benevolence to the evidence of physical facts, to the principle of population for example. And people seem in general to think that they have used a very powerful argument, when they have said, that to suppose some proposition true, would be a reflection on the goodness or wisdom of the Deity. Put into the simplest possible terms, their argument is, If it had depended on me, I would not have made the proposition true, therefore it is not true. Put into other words, it stands thus: God is perfect, therefore (what I think) perfection must obtain in nature. But since in reality every one feels that nature is very far from perfect, the doctrine is never applied consistently. It furnishes an argument which (like many others of a similar character) people like to appeal to when it makes for their own side. Nobody is convinced by it, but each appears to think that it puts religion on his side of the question, and that it is a useful weapon of offense for wounding an adversary. Although several other varieties of a priori fallacy might probably be added to those here specified, these are all against which it seems necessary to gi ve any special caution. Our object is to open, without attempting or affecting to exhaust, the subject. Having illustrated, therefore, this first class of Fallacies at sufficient length, I shall proceed to the second. 484 IV. Fallacie s Of Observation 1. From the Fallacies which are properly Prejudices, or presumptions antecedent to, and superseding, proof, we pass to those which lie in the incorrect performance of the proving process. And as Proof, in its widest extent, embraces one or more, or all, of three processes, Observation, Generalization, and Deduction, we shall consider in their order the errors capable of being committed in these three operations. And first, of the first mentioned. A fallacy of misobservation may be either negative or positive; either Non-observation or Mal-observation. It is non-observation, when all the error consists in overlooking, or neglecting, facts or particulars which ought to have been observed. It is mal-observation, when something is not simply unseen, but seen wrong; when the fact or phenomenon, instead of being recognized for what it is in reality, is mistaken for something else. 2. Non-observation may either take place by overlooking instances, or by overlooking s ome of the circumstances of a given instance. If we were to conclude that a fortune- teller was a true prophet, from not adverting to the cases in which his predictions had been falsified by the event, this would be non-observation of instances; but if we overlooked or remained ignorant of the fact that in cases where the predictions had been fulfilled, he had been in collusion with some one who had given him the information on which they were grounded, this would be non-observation of circumstances. The former case, in so far as the act of induction from insufficient evidence is concerned, does not fall under this second class of Fallacies, but under the third, Fallacies of Generalization. In every such case, however, there are two defects or errors instead of one; there is the error of treating the insufficient evidence as if it were sufficient, which is a Fallacy of the third class; and there is the insufficiency itself; the not having better evidence; which, when such evidence, or, in other words, when other instances, were to be had, is Non-observation; and the erroneous inference, so far as it is to be attributed to this cause, is a Fallacy of the second class. It belongs not to our purpose to treat of non-observation as arising from casual inattention, from general slovenliness of mental habits, want of due practice in the use of the observing faculties, or insufficient interest in the subject. The question pertinent to logic isGranting the want of complete competency in the observer, on what point is that insufficiency on his part likely to lead him wrong? or rather, what sorts of instances, or of circumstances in any given instance, are most likely to escape the notice of observers generally; of mankind at large. 3. First, then, it is evident that when the instances on one side of a question are more likely to be remembered and recorded than those on the other; especially if there be any strong motive to preserve the memory of the first, but not of the latter; these last are likely to be overlooked, and escape the observation of the mass of mankind. This is the recognized explanation of the credit given, in spite of reason and evidence, to many classes of impostors; to quack-doctors, and fortune- tellers in all ages; to the cunning man of modern times, and the oracles of old. Few have considered the extent to which this fallacy operates in practice, even in the teeth of the most palpable negative evidence. A striking example of it is the faith which the uneducated portion of the agricultural classes, in this and other countries, continue to repose in the prophecies as to weather supplied by almanac-makers; though every season affords to them numerous cases of completely erroneous prediction; but as every season also furnishes some cases in which the prediction is fulfilled, this is enough to keep up the credit 485 of the prophet, with people who do not reflect on the number of instances requisite for what we have called, in our inductive terminology, the Elimination of Chance; since a certain number of casual coincidences not only may but will happen, between any two unconnected events. Coleridge, in one of the essays in the Friend , has illustrated the matter we are now considering, in discussing the origin of a proverb, which, differently worded, is to be found in all the languages of Europe, viz., Fortune favors fools. He ascribes it partly to the tendency to exaggerate all effects that seem disproportionate to their visible cause, and all circumstances that are in any way strongly contrasted with our notions of the persons under them. Omitting some explanations which would refer the error to mal-observation, or to the other species of non-observation (that of circumstances), I take up the quotation further on. Unforeseen coincidences may have greatl y helped a man, yet if they have done for him only what possibly from his own abilities he might have effected for himself, his good luck will excite less attention, and the instances be less remembered. That clever men should attain their objects seems natural, and we neglect the circumstances that perhaps produced that success of themselves without the intervention of skill or foresight; but we dwell on the fact and remember it, as something strange, when the same happens to a weak or ignorant man. So too, though the latter should fail in his undertakings from concurrences that might have happened to the wisest man, yet his failure being no more than might have been expected and accounted for from his folly, it lays no hold on our attention, but fleets away among the other undistinguished waves in which the stream of ordinary life murmurs by us, and is forgotten. Had it been as true as it was notoriously false, that those all-embracing discoveries, which have shed a dawn of science on the art of chemistry, and give no obscure promise of some one great constitutive law, in the light of which dwell dominion and the power of prophecy; if these discoveries, instead of having been, as they really were, preconcerted by meditation, and evolved out of his own intellect, had occurred by a set of lucky accidents to the illustrious father and founder of philosophic alchemy; if they had presented themselves to Professor Davy exclusively in consequence of his luck in possessing a particular galvanic battery; if this batte ry, as far as Davy was concerned, had itself been an accident , and not (as in point of fact it was) desired and obtained by him for the purpose of insuring the testimony of experience to his principles, and in order to bind down material nature under the inquisition of reason, and force from her, as by torture, unequivocal answers to prepared and preconceived questionsyet still they would not have been talked of or described as instances of luck, but as the natural results of his admitted genius and known skill. But should an accident have disclosed similar discoveries to a mechanic at Birmingham or Sheffield, and if the man should grow rich in consequence, and partly by the envy of his neighbors and partly with good reason, be considered by them as a man below par in the general powers of his understanding; then, Oh, what a lucky fellow! Well, Fortune does favor fools that's for certain! It is always so! And forthwith the exclaimer relates half a dozen similar instances. Thus accumulating the one sort of facts and never collecting the other, we do, as poets in their diction, and quacks of all denominations do in their reasoning, put a part for the whole. This passage very happily sets forth the manner in which, under the loose mode of induction which proc eeds per enumerationem simplicem , not seeking for instances of such a kind as to be decisive of the question, but generalizing from any which occur, or rather which are remembered, opinions grow up with the apparent sanction of experience, which have no foundation in the laws of nature at all. Itaque recte respondit ille (we may say with Bacon), qui cum suspensa tabula in templo ei monstraretur eorum, qui vota solverant, quod naufragii periculo elapsi sint, atque interrogando premeretur, anne tum quidem Deorum 486 numen agnosceret, qusivit denuo, At ubi sunt illi depicti qui post vota nuncupata perierunt ? Eadem ratio est fere omnis superstitionis, ut in Astrologicis, in Somniis, Ominibus, Nemesibus, et hujusmodi; in quibus, homines delectati hujusmodi vanitatibus, advertunt eventus, ubi implentur; ast ubi fallunt, licet multo frequentius, tamen negligunt, et prtereunt. And he proceeds to say that, independently of the love of the marvelous, or any other bias in the inclinations, there is a natural tendency in the intellect itself to this kind of fallacy; since the mind is more moved by affirmative instances, though negative ones are of most use in philosophy: Is tamen humano intellectui error est proprius et perpetuus, ut magis moveatur et excitetur Affirmativis quam Negativis; cum rite et ordine quum se utrique prbere debeat; quin contra, in omni Axiomate vero constituendo, major vis est instanti negativ. But the greatest of all causes of non-observation is a preconceived opinion. This it is which, in all ages, has made the whole race of mankind, and every separate section of it, for the most part unobservant of all facts, however abundant, even when passing under their own eyes, which are contradictory to any first appearance, or any received tenet. It is worth while to recall occasionally to the oblivious memory of mankind some of the striking instances in which opinions that the simplest experiment would have shown to be erroneous, continued to be entertained because nobody ever thought of trying that experiment. One of the most remarkable of these was exhibited in the Copernican controversy. The opponents of Copernicus argued that the earth did not move, because if it did, a stone let fall from the top of a high tower would not reach the ground at the foot of the tower, but at a little distance from it, in a contrary direction to the earth's course; in the same manner (said they) as, if a ball is let drop from the mast- head while the ship is in full sail, it does not fall exactly at the foot of the mast, but nearer to the stern of the vessel. The Copernicans would have silenced these objectors at once if they had tried dropping a ball from the mast-head, since they would have found that it does fall exactly at the foot, as the theory requires; but no; they admitted the spurious fact, and struggled vainly to make out a difference between the two cases. The ball was no part of the shipand the motion forward was not natural , either to the ship or to the ball. The stone, on the other hand, let fall from the top of the tower, was a part of the earth; and therefore, the diurnal and annular revolutions which were natural to the earth, were also natural to the stone; the stone would, therefore, retain the same motion with the tower, and strike the ground precis ely at the bottom of it. Other examples, scarcely less striking, are recorded by Dr. Whewell, where imaginary laws of nature have continued to be received as real, merely because no person had steadily looked at facts which almost every one had the opportunity of observing. A vague and loose mode of looking at facts very easily observable, left men for a long time under the belief that a body ten times as heavy as another falls ten times as fast; that objects immersed in water are always magnified, witho ut regard to the form of the surface; that the magnet exerts an irresistible force; that crystal is always found associated with ice; and the like. These and many others are examples how blind and careless man can be even in observation of the plainest and commonest appearances; and they show us that the mere faculties of perception, although constantly exercised upon innumerable objects, may long fail in leading to any exact knowledge. If even on physical facts, and these of the most obvious character, the observing faculties of mankind can be to this degree the passive slaves of their preconceived impressions, we need not be surprised that this should be so lamentably true as all experience attests it to be, on things more nearly connected with their stronger feelings on moral, social, and religious subjects. The information which an ordinary traveler brings back from a foreign country, as the result of the evidence of his senses, is almost always such as exactly confirms the 487 opinions with which he set out. He has had eyes and ears for such things only as he expected to see. Men read the sacred books of their religion, and pass unobserved therein multitudes of things utterly irreconcilable with even their own notions of moral excellence. With the same authorities before them, different historians, alike innocent of intentional misrepresentation, see only what is favorable to Protestants or Catholics, royalists or republicans, Charles I. or Cromwell; while others, having set out with the preconception that extremes must be in the wrong, are incapable of seeing truth and justice when these are wholly on one side. The influence of a preconceived theory is well exemplified in the superstitions of barbarians respecting the virtues of medicaments and charms. The negroes, among whom coral, as of old among ourselves, is worn as an amulet, affirm, according to Dr. Paris, that its color is always affected by the state of health of the wearer, it becoming paler in disease. On a matter open to universal observation, a general proposition which has not the smallest vestige of truth is received as a result of experience; the preconceived opinion preventing, it would seem, any observation whatever on the subject. 4. For illustration of the first species of non-observation, that of Instances, what has now been stated may suffice. But there may also be non -observation of some material circumstances, in instances which have not been altogether overlookednay, which may be the very instances on which the whole superstructure of a theory has been founded. As, in the cases hitherto examined, a general proposition was too rashly adopted, on the evidence of particulars, true indeed, but insufficient to support it; so in the cases to which we now turn, the particulars themselves hav e been imperfectly observed, and the singular propositions on which the generalization is grounded, or some at least of those singular propositions, are false. Such, for instance, was one of the mistakes committed in the celebrated phlogistic theory; a doctrine which accounted for combustion by the extrication of a substance called phlogiston, supposed to be contained in all combustible matter. The hypothesis accorded tolerably well with superficial appearances; the ascent of flame naturally suggests the escape of a substance; and the visible residuum of ashes, in bulk and weight, generally falls extremely short of the combustible material. The error was, non -observation of an important portion of the actual residue, namely, the gaseous products of combustion. When these were at last noticed and brought into account, it appeared to be a universal law, that all substances gain instead of losing weight by undergoing combustion; and after the usual attempt to accommodate the old theory to the new fact by means of an arbitrary hypothesis (that phlogiston had the quality of positive levity instead of gravity), chemists were conducted to the true explanation, namely, that instead of a substance separated, there was, on the contrary, a substance absorbed. Many of the absurd practices which have been deemed to possess medicinal efficacy, have been indebted for their reputation to non- observance of some accompanying circumstance which was the real agent in the cures ascribed to them. Thus, of the sympathetic powder of Sir Kenelm Digby: Whenever any wound had been inflicted, this powder was applied to the weapon that had inflicted it, which was, moreover, covered with ointment, and dressed two or three times a day. The wound itself, in the mean time, was directed to be brought together, and carefully bound up with clean linen rags, but, above all, to be let alone for seven days, at the end of which period the bandages were removed, when the wound was generally found perfectly united. The triumph of the cure was decreed to the mysterious agency of the sympathetic powder which had been so assiduously applied to the weapon, whereas it is hardly necessary to observe that the promptness of the cure depended on the total exclusion of air from the wound, and upon the sanative operations of nature not having received any disturbance from the officious interference of art. The result, beyond all doubt, furnished the 488 first hint which led surgeons to the improved practice of healing wounds by what is technically called the first intention . In all records, adds Dr. Paris, of extraordinary cures performed by mysterious agents, there is a great desire to conceal the remedies and other curative means which were simultaneously administered with them; thus Oribasius commends in high terms a necklace of Pony root for the cure of epilepsy; but we learn that he always took care to accompany its use with copious evacuations, although he assigns to them no share of credit in the cure. In later times we have a good specimen of this species of deception, presented to us in a work on scrofula by Mr. Morley, written, as we are informed, for the sole purpose of restoring the much-injured character and use of the Vervain; in which the author directs the root of this plant to be tied with a yard of white satin ribbon around the neck, where it is to remain until the patient is cured; but mark during this interval he calls to his aid the most active medicines in the materia medica. In other cases, the cures really produced by rest, regimen, and amusem ent have been ascribed to the medicinal, or occasionally to the supernatural, means which were put in requisition. The celebrated John Wesley, while he commemorates the triumph of sulphur and supplication over his bodily infirmity, forgets to appreciate the resuscitating influence of four months' repose from his apostolic labors; and such is the disposition of the human mind to place confidence in the operation of mysterious agents, that we find him more disposed to attribute his cure to a brown paper plaster of egg and brimstone, than to Dr. Fothergill's salutary prescription of country air, rest, asses' milk, and horse exercise. In the following example, the circumstance overlooked was of a somewhat different character. When the yellow fever raged in A merica, the practitioners trusted exclusively to the copious use of mercury; at first this plan was deemed so universally efficacious, that, in the enthusiasm of the moment, it was triumphantly proclaimed that death never took place after the mercury had evinced its effect upon the system: all this was very true, but it furnished no proof of the efficacy of that metal, since the disease in its aggravated form was so rapid in its career, that it swept away its victims long before the system could be brought under mercurial influence, while in its milder shape it passed off equally well without any assistance from art. In these examples the circumstance overlooked was cognizable by the senses. In other cases, it is one the knowledge of which could only be arrived at by reasoning; but the fallacy may still be classed under the head to which, for want of a more appropriate name, we have given the appellation Fallacies of Non -observation. It is not the nature of the faculties which ought to have been employed, but the non- employment of them, which constitutes this Natural Order of Fallacies. Wherever the error is negative, not positive; wherever it consists especially in overlooking , in being ignorant or unmindful of some fact which, if known and attended to, would have made a difference in the conclusion arrived at; the error is properly placed in the Class which we are considering. In this Class, there is not, as in all other fallacies there is, a positive misestimate of evidence actually had. Th e conclusion would be just, if the portion which is seen of the case were the whole of it; but there is another portion overlooked, which vitiates the result. For instance, there is a remarkable doctrine which has occasionally found a vent in the public speeches of unwise legislators, but which only in one instance that I am aware of has received the sanction of a philosophical writer, namely, M. Cousin, who in his preface to the Gorgias of Plato, contending that punishment must have some other and higher justification than the prevention of crime, makes use of this argumentthat if punishment were only for the sake of example, it would be indifferent whether we punished the innocent 489 or the guilty, since the punishment, considered as an example, is equally e fficacious in either case. Now we must, in order to go along with this reasoning, suppose, that the person who feels himself under temptation, observing somebody punished, concludes himself to be in danger of being punished likewise, and is terrified accordingly. But it is forgotten that if the person punished is supposed to be innocent, or even if there be any doubt of his guilt, the spectator will reflect that his own danger, whatever it may be, is not contingent on his guiltiness, but threatens him equally if he remains innocent, and how, therefore, is he deterred from guilt by the apprehension of such punishment? M. Cousin supposes that people will be dissuaded from guilt by whatever renders the condition of the guilty more perilous, forgetting that the condition of the innocent (also one of the elements in the calculation) is, in the case supposed, made perilous in precisely an equal degree. This is a fallacy of overlooking; or of non-observation, within the intent of our classification. Fallacies of thi s description are the great stumbling-block to correct thinking in political economy. The economical workings of society afford numerous cases in which the effects of a cause consist of two sets of phenomena: the one immediate, concentrated, obvious to all eyes, and passing, in common apprehension, for the whole effect; the other widely diffused, or lying deeper under the surface, and which is exactly contrary to the former. Take, for instance, the common notion so plausible at the first glance, of the encouragement given to industry by lavish expenditure. A, who spends his whole income, and even his capital, in expensive living, is supposed to give great employment to labor. B, who lives on a small portion, and invests the remainder in the funds, is thought to give little or no employment. For every body sees the gains which are made by A's tradesmen, servants, and others, while his money is spending. B's savings, on the contrary, pass into the hands of the person whose stock he purchased, who with it pays a debt he owed to some banker, who lends it again to some merchant or manufacturer; and the capital being laid out in hiring spinners and weavers, or carriers and the crews of merchant vessels, not only gives immediate employment to at least as much industry as A employs during the whole of his career, but coming back with increase by the sale of the goods which have been manufactured or imported, forms a fund for the employment of the same and perhaps a greater quantity of labor in perpetuity. But the observer does not see, and therefore does not consider, what becomes of B's money; he does see what is done with A's; he observes the amount of industry which A's profusion feeds; he observes not the far greater quantity which it prevents from being fed; and thence the prejudice, universal to the time of Adam Smith, that prodigality encourages industry, and parsimony is a discouragement to it. The common argument against free trade was a fallacy of the same nature. The purchaser of British silk encourages Britis h industry; the purchaser of Lyons silk encourages only French; the former conduct is patriotic, the latter ought to be prevented by law. The circumstance is overlooked, that the purchaser of any foreign commodity necessarily causes, directly or indirectly , the export of an equivalent value of some article of home production (beyond what would otherwise be exported), either to the same foreign country or to some other; which fact, though from the complication of the circumstances it can not always be verified by specific observation, no observation can possibly be brought to contradict, while the evidence of reasoning on which it rests is irrefragable. The fallacy is, therefore, the same as in the preceding case, that of seeing a part only of the phenomena, and imagining that part to be the whole; and may be ranked among Fallacies of Non-observation. 5. To complete the examination of the second of our five classes, we have now to speak of Mal-observation; in which the error does not lie in the fact that something is unseen, but that something seen is seen wrong. 490 Perception being infallible evidence of whatever is really perceived, the error now under consideration can be committed no otherwise than by mistaking for conception what is, in fact, inference. We have formerly shown how intimately the two are blended in almost every thing which is called observation, and still more in every Description. What is actually on any occasion perceived by our senses being so minute in amount, and generally so unimportant a portion of the state of facts which we wish to ascertain or to communicate; it would be absurd to say that either in our observations, or in conveying their result to others, we ought not to mingle inference with fact; all that can be said is, that when we do so we ought to be aware of what we are doing, and to know what part of the assertion rests on consciousness, and is therefore indisputable, what part on inference, and is therefore questionable. One of the most celebrated examples of a universal erro r produced by mistaking an inference for the direct evidence of the senses, was the resistance made, on the ground of common sense, to the Copernican system. People fancied they saw the sun rise and set, the stars revolve in circles round the pole. We now know that they saw no such thing; what they really saw was a set of appearances, equally reconcilable with the theory they held and with a totally different one. It seems strange that such an instance as this of the testimony of the senses pleaded with the most entire conviction in favor of something which was a mere inference of the judgment, and, as it turned out, a false inference, should not have opened the eyes of the bigots of common sense, and inspired them with a more modest distrust of the competen cy of mere ignorance to judge the conclusions of cultivated thought. In proportion to any person's deficiency of knowledge and mental cultivation is, generally, his inability to discriminate between his inferences and the perceptions on which they were grounded. Many a marvelous tale, many a scandalous anecdote, owes its origin to this incapacity. The narrator relates, not what he saw or heard, but the impression which he derived from what he saw or heard, and of which perhaps the greater part consisted of inference, though the whole is related, not as inference but as matter of fact. The difficulty of inducing witnesses to restrain within any moderate limits the intermixture of their inferences with the narrative of their perceptions, is well known to exper ienced cross -examiners; and still more is this the case when ignorant persons attempt to describe any natural phenomenon. The simplest narrative, says Dugald Stewart, of the most illiterate observer involves more or less of hypothesis; nay, in general, it will be found that, in proportion to his ignorance, the greater is the number of conjectural principles involved in his statements. A village apothecary (and, if possible, in a still greater degree, an experienced nurse) is seldom able to describe the p lainest case, without employing a phraseology of which every word is a theory: whereas a simple and genuine specification of the phenomena which mark a particular disease; a specification unsophisticated by fancy, or by preconceived opinions, may be regard ed as unequivocal evidence of a mind trained by long and successful study to the most difficult of all arts, that of the faithful interpretation of nature. The universality of the confusion between perceptions and the inferences drawn from them, and the rarity of the power to discriminate the one from the other, ceases to surprise us when we consider that in the far greater number of instances the actual perceptions of our senses are of no importance or interest to us except as marks from which we infer so mething beyond them. It is not the color and superficial extension perceived by the eye that are important to us, but the object, of which those visible appearances testify the presence; and where the sensation itself is indifferent, as it generally is, we have no motive to attend particularly to it, but acquire a habit of passing it over without distinct consciousness, and going on at once to the inference. So that to know what the sensation actually was, is a study in itself, to which painters, for example, have to train themselves by special and long-continued discipline and application. In things farther removed from the dominion of the outward senses, no one who 491 has not great experience in psychological analysis is competent to break this intense associ ation; and when such analytic habits do not exist in the requisite degree, it is hardly possible to mention any of the habitual judgments of mankind on subjects of a high degree of abstraction, from the being of a God and the immortality of the soul down to the multiplication table, which are not, or have not been, considered as matter of direct intuition. So strong is the tendency to ascribe an intuitive character to judgments which are mere inferences, and often false ones. No one can doubt that many a deluded visionary has actually believed that he was directly inspired from Heaven, and that the Almighty had conversed with him face to face; which yet was only, on his part, a conclusion drawn from appearances to his senses, or feelings in his internal consciousness, which afforded no warrant for any such belief. A caution, therefore, against this class of errors, is not only needful but indispensable; though to determine whether, on any of the great questions of metaphysics, such errors are actually committ ed, belongs not to this place, but, as I have so often said, to a different science. 492 V. Fallacies Of Generalization 1. The class of Fallacies of which we are now to speak, is the most extensive of all; embracing a greater number and variety of unfounded inferences than any of the other classes, and which it is even more difficult to reduce to sub- classes or species. If the attempt made in the preceding books to define the principles of well-grounded generalization has been successful, all generalizations not conformable to those principles might, in a certain sense, be brought under the present class; when, however, the rules are known and kept in view, but a casual lapse committed in the application of them, this is a blunder, not a fallacy. To entitle an error of generalization to the latter epithet, it must be committed on principle; there must lie in it some erroneous general conception of the inductive process; the legitimate mode of drawing conclusions from observation and experiment must be fundamentally misconceived. Without attempting any thing so chimerical as an exhaustive classification of all the misconceptions which can exist on the subject, let us content ourselves with noting, among the cautions which might be suggested, a few of the most useful and needful. 2. In the first place, there are certain kinds of generalization which, if the principles already laid down be correct, must be groundless; experience can not afford the necessary conditions for es tablishing them by a correct induction. Such, for instance, are all inferences from the order of nature existing on the earth, or in the solar system, to that which may exist in remote parts of the universe; where the phenomena, for aught we know, may be entirely different, or may succeed one another according to different laws, or even according to no fixed law at all. Such, again, in matters dependent on causation, are all universal negatives, all propositions that assert impossibility. The non -existence of any given phenomenon, however uniformly experience may as yet have testified to the fact, proves at most that no cause, adequate to its production, has yet manifested itself; but that no such causes exist in nature can only be inferred if we are so fool ish as to suppose that we know all the forces in nature. The supposition would at least be premature while our acquaintance with some even of those which we do know is so extremely recent. And however much our knowledge of nature may hereafter be extended, it is not easy to see how that knowledge could ever be complete, or how, if it were, we could ever be assured of its being so. The only laws of nature which afford sufficient warrant for attributing impossibility (even with reference to the existing order of nature, and to our own region of the universe) are, first, those of number and extension, which are paramount to the laws of the succession of phenomena, and not exposed to the agency of counteracting causes; and, secondly, the universal law of causali ty itself. That no valuation in any effect or consequent will take place while the whole of the antecedents remain the same, may be affirmed with full assurance. But, that the addition of some new antecedent might not entirely alter and subvert the accusto med consequent, or that antecedents competent to do this do not exist in nature, we are in no case empowered positively to conclude. 3. It is next to be remarked that all generalizations which profess, like the theories of Thales, Democritus, and others of the early Greek speculators, to resolve all things into some one element, or like many modern theories, to resolve phenomena radically different into the same, are necessarily false. By radically different phenomena I mean impressions on our senses whic h differ in quality, and not merely in degree. On this subject what appeared necessary was said in the chapter on the Limits to the Explanation of Laws of Nature; but as 493 the fallacy is even in our own times a common one, I shall touch on it somewhat furthe r in this place. When we say that the force which retains the planets in their orbits is resolved into gravity, or that the force which makes substances combine chemically is resolved into electricity, we assert in the one case what is, and in the other ca se what might, and probably will ultimately, be a legitimate result of induction. In both these cases motion is resolved into motion. The assertion is, that a case of motion, which was supposed to be special, and to follow a distinct law of its own, conforms to and is included in the general law which regulates another class of motions. But, from these and similar generalizations, countenance and currency have been given to attempts to resolve, not motion into motion, but heat into motion, light into motion, sensation itself into motion; states of consciousness into states of the nervous system, as in the ruder forms of the materialist philosophy; vital phenomena into mechanical or chemical processes, as in some schools of physiology. Now I am far from prete nding that it may not be capable of proof, or that it is not an important addition to our knowledge if proved, that certain motions in the particles of bodies are the conditions of the production of heat or light; that certain assignable physical modifications of the nerves may be the conditions not only of our sensations or emotions, but even of our thoughts; that certain mechanical and chemical conditions may, in the order of nature, be sufficient to determine to action the physiological laws of life. All I insist upon, in common with every thinker who entertains any clear idea of the logic of science, is, that it shall not be supposed that by proving these things one step would be made toward a real explanation of heat, light, or sensation; or that the ge neric peculiarity of those phenomena can be in the least degree evaded by any such discoveries, however well established. Let it be shown, for instance, that the most complex series of physical causes and effects succeed one another in the eye and in the brain to produce a sensation of color; rays falling on the eye, refracted, converging, crossing one another, making an inverted image on the retina, and after this a motion let it be a vibration, or a rush of nervous fluid, or whatever else you are pleased to suppose, along the optic nervea propagation of this motion to the brain itself, and as many more different motions as you choose; still, at the end of these motions, there is something which is not motion, there is a feeling or sensation of color. Whatever number of motions we may be able to interpolate, and whether they be real or imaginary, we shall still find, at the end of the series, a motion antecedent and a color consequent. The mode in which any one of the motions produces the next, may possibly be susceptible of explanation by some general law of motion: but the mode in which the last motion produces the sensation of color, can not be explained by any law of motion; it is the law of color: which is, and must always remain, a peculiar thing. Where our consciousness recognizes between two phenomena an inherent distinction; where we are sensible of a difference which is not merely of degree, and feel that no adding one of the phenomena to itself would produce the other; any theory which attempts to bring either under the laws of the other must be false; though a theory which merely treats the one as a cause or condition of the other, may possibly be true. 4. Among the remaining forms of erroneous generalization, several of those most worthy of and most requiring notice have fallen under our examination in former places, where, in investigating the rules of correct induction, we have had occasion to advert to the distinction between it and some common mode of the incorrect. In this number is what I h ave formerly called the natural Induction of uninquiring minds, the induction of the ancients, which proceeds per enumerationem simplicem : This, that, and the other A are B, I can not think of any A which is not B, therefore every A is B. As a final cond emnation of this rude and slovenly mode of generalization, I will quote Bacon's emphatic denunciation of it; the most important part, as I have more than once ventured to assert, of the permanent service rendered 494 by him to philosophy. Inductio qu procedi t per enumerationem simplicem, res puerilis est, et precario concludit (concludes only by your leave, or provisionally), et periculo exponitur ab instanti contradictori, et plerumque secundum pauciora quam par est, et ex his tantummodo qu prsto sunt pronunciat . At Inductio qu ad inventionem et demonstrationem Scientiarum et Artium erit utilis, Naturam separare debet, per rejectiones et exclusiones debitas; ac deinde post negativas tot quot sufficiunt, super affirmativas concludere. I have already said that the mode of Simple Enumeration is still the common and received method of Induction in whatever relates to man and society. Of this a very few instances, more by way of memento than of instruction, may suffice. What, for example, is to be thought of all the common -sense maxims for which the following may serve as the universal formula, Whatsoever has never been, will never be. As for example: negroes have never been as civilized as whites sometimes are, therefore it is impossible they should be so. Women, as a class, are supposed not to have hitherto been equal in intellect to men, therefore they are necessarily inferior. Society can not prosper without this or the other institution; e.g., in Aristotle's time, without slavery; in later times, without an established priesthood, without artificial distinctions of rank, etc. One poor person in a thousand, educated, while the nine hundred and ninety-nine remain uneducated, has usually aimed at raising himself out of his class, therefore education makes people dissatisfied with the condition of a laborer. Bookish men, taken from speculative pursuits and set to work on something they know nothing about, have generally been found or thought to do it ill; therefore philosophers are unfit for business, etc., etc. All these are inductions by simple enumeration. Reasons having some reference to the canons of scientific investigation have been attempted to be given, however unsuccessfully, for some of these propositions; but to the multitude of those who parrot them, the enumeratio simplex, ex his tantummodo qu prsto sunt pronuncians , is the sole evidence. Their fallacy consists in this, that they are inductions without elimination: there has been no real comparison of instances, nor even ascertainme nt of the material facts in any given instance. There is also the further error, of forgetting that such generalizations, even if well established, could not be ultimate truths, but must be results of laws much more elementary; and therefore, until deduced from such, could at most be admitted as empirical laws, holding good within the limits of space and time by which the particular observations that suggested the generalization were bounded. This error, of placing mere empirical laws, and laws in which the re is no direct evidence of causation, on the same footing of certainty as laws of cause and effect, an error which is at the root of perhaps the greater number of bad inductions, is exemplified only in its grossest form in the kind of generalizations to which we have now referred. These, indeed, do not possess even the degree of evidence which pertains to a well- ascertained empirical law; but admit of refutation on the empirical ground itself, without ascending to casual laws. A little reflection, indeed, will show that mere negations can only form the ground of the lowest and least valuable kind of empirical law. A phenomenon has never been noticed; this only proves that the conditions of that phenomenon have not yet occurred in experience, but does not prove that they may not occur hereafter. There is a better kind of empirical law than this, namely, when a phenomenon which is observed presents within the limits of observation a series of gradations, in which a regularity, or something like a mathematical law, is perceptible; from which, therefore, something may be rationally presumed as to those terms of the series which are beyond the limits of observation. But in negation there are no gradations, and no series; the generalizations, therefore, which deny the possibility of any given condition of man and society merely because it has never yet been witnessed, can not possess this higher degree of validity even as empirical laws. What is more, the minuter 495 examination which that higher order of empirical laws presupposes, being applied to the subject -matter of these, not only does not confirm but actually refutes them. For in reality the past history of Man and Society, instead of exhibiting them as immovable, unchangeable, incapable of ever presenting new phenomena, shows them, on the contrary, to be, in many most important particulars, not only changeable, but actually undergoing a progressive change. The empirical law, therefore, best expressive, in most cases, of the genuine result of observation, would be, not that such and such a phenomenon will continue unchanged, but that it will continue to change in some particular manner. Accordingly, while almost all generalizations relating to Man and Society, antecedent to the last fifty or sixty years, have erred in the gross way which we have attempted to characterize, namely, by implicitly assuming that nature and society will forever revolve in the same orbit, and exhibit essentially the same phenomena; which is also the vulgar error of the ostentatiously practi cal, the votaries of so -called common sense, in our day, especially in Great Britain; the more thinking minds of the present age, having applied a more minute analysis to the past records of our race, have for the most part adopted a contrary opinion, that the human species is in a state of necessary progression, and that from the terms of the series which are past we may infer positively those which are yet to come. Of this doctrine, considered as a philosophical tenet, we shall have occasion to speak more fully in the concluding Book. If not, in all its forms, free from error, it is at least free from the gross and error which we previously exemplified. But, in all except the most eminently philosophical minds, it is infected with precisely the same kind of fallacy as that is. For we must remember that even this other and better generalization, the progressive change in the condition of the human species, is, after all, but an empirical law; to which, too, it is not difficult to point out exceedingly large exceptions; and even if these could be got rid of, either by disputing the facts or by explaining and limiting the theory, the general objection remains valid against the supposed law, as applicable to any other than what, in our third book, were termed Adjacent Cases. For not only is it no ultimate, but not even a causal law. Changes do indeed take place in human affairs, but every one of those changes depends on determinate causes; the progressiveness of the species is not a cause, but a summary expression for the general result of all the causes. So soon as, by a quite different sort of induction, it shall be ascertained what causes have produced these successive changes, from the beginning of history, in so far as they have really taken place, and by w hat causes of a contrary tendency they have been occasionally checked or entirely counteracted, we may then be prepared to predict the future with reasonable foresight; we may be in possession of the real law of the future; and may be able to declare on what circumstances the continuance of the same onward movement will eventually depend. But this it is the error of many of the more advanced thinkers, in the present age, to overlook; and to imagine that the empirical law collected from a mere comparison of the condition of our species at different past times, is a real law, is the law of its changes, not only past but also to come. The truth is, that the causes on which the phenomena of the moral world depend, are in every age, and almost in every country, combined in some different proportion; so that it is scarcely to be expected that the general result of them all should conform very closely, in its details at least, to any uniformly progressive series. And all generalizations which affirm that mankind have a tendency to grow better or worse, richer or poorer, more cultivated or more barbarous, that population increases faster than subsistence, or subsistence than population, that inequality of fortune has a tendency to increase or to break down, and the like, propositions of considerable value as empirical laws within certain (but generally rather narrow) limits, are in reality true or false according to times and circumstances. 496 What we have said of empirical generalizations from times past to times still to come, holds equally true of similar generalizations from present times to times past; when persons whose acquaintance with moral and social facts is confined to their own age, take the men and the things of that age for the type of men and things in general, and apply without scruple to the interpretation of the events of history, the empirical laws which represent sufficiently for daily guidance the common phenomena of human nature at that time and in that particular state of society. If examples are wan ted, almost every historical work, until a very recent period, abounded in them. The same may be said of those who generalize empirically from the people of their own country to the people of other countries, as if human beings felt, judged, and acted ever ywhere in the same manner. 5. In the foregoing instances, the distinction is confounded between empirical laws, which express merely the customary order of the succession of effects, and the laws of causation on which the effects depend. There may, howev er, be incorrect generalization when this mistake is not committed; when the investigation takes its proper direction, that of causes, and the result erroneously obtained purports to be a really causal law. The most vulgar form of this fallacy is that which is commonly called post hoc, ergo propter hoc, or, cum hoc, ergo propter hoc . As when it was inferred that England owed her industrial pre-eminence to her restrictions on commerce; as when the old school of financiers, and some speculative writers, maintained that the national debt was one of the causes of national prosperity; as when the excellence of the Church, of the Houses of Lords and Commons, of the procedure of the law courts, etc., were inferred from the mere fact that the country had prospered under them. In such cases as these, if it can be rendered probable by other evidence that the supposed causes have some tendency to produce the effect ascribed to them, the fact of its having been produced, though only in one instance, is of some value as a verification by specific experience; but in itself it goes scarcely any way at all toward establishing such a tendency, since, admitting the effect, a hundred other antecedents could show an equally strong title of that kind to be considered as the cause. In these examples we see bad generalization a posteriori , or empiricism properly so called; causation inferred from casual conjunction, without either due elimination, or any presumption arising from known properties of the supposed agent. But bad general ization a priori is fully as common; which is properly called false theory; conclusions drawn, by way of deduction, from properties of some one agent which is known or supposed to be present, all other co -existing agents being overlooked. As the former is the error of sheer ignorance, so the latter is especially that of semi- instructed minds; and is mainly committed in attempting to explain complicated phenomena by a simpler theory than their nature admits of. As when one school of physicians sought for the universal principle of all disease in lentor and morbid viscidity of the blood, and imputing most bodily derangements to mechanical obstructions, thought to cure them by mechanical remedies; P222F223 P while another, the chemical school, acknowledged no source of disease but the presence of some hostile acid or alkali, or some deranged condition in the chemical composition of the fluid or solid parts, and conceived, therefore, that all remedies must act by producing chemical changes in the 223 Thus Fourcroy, says Dr. Paris, explained the operation of mercury by its specific gravity, and the advocates of this doctrine favored the general introduction of the preparations of iron, especially in scirrhus of the spleen or liver, upon the same hypothetical principle; for, say they, whatever is most forcible in removing the obstruction must be the most proper instrument of cure: such is steel, which, besides the attenuating power with which it is furnished, has still a greater force in this case from the gravity of its particles, which, being seven times specifically heavier than any vegetable, acts in proportion with a stronger impulse, and therefore is a more powerful deobstruent. This may be taken as a specimen of the style in which these mechanical physicians reasoned and practiced.Pharmacologia, pp. 38, 39. 497 body. We find Tournefort busily engaged in testing every vegetable juice, in order to discover in it some traces of an acid or alkaline ingredient, which might confer upon it medicinal activity. The fatal errors into which such an hypothesis was liable to betray the practitioner, received an awful illustration in the history of the memorable fever that raged at Leyden in the year 1699, and which consigned two-thirds of the population of that city to an untimely grave; an event which in a great measure depended upon the Professor Sylvius de la Boe, who having just embraced the chemical doctrines of Van Helmont, assigned the origin of the distemper to a prevailing acid, and declared that its cure could alone [only] be effected by the copious administration of absorbent and testa ceous medicines. These aberrations in medical theory have their exact parallels in politics. All the doctrines which ascribe absolute goodness to particular forms of government, particular social arrangements, and even to particular modes of education, without reference to the state of civilization and the various distinguishing characters of the society for which they are intended, are open to the same objectionthat of assuming one class of influencing circumstances to be the paramount rulers of phenomena which depend in an equal or greater degree on many others. But on these considerations it is the less necessary that we should now dwell, as they will occupy our attention more largely in the concluding Book. 6. The last of the modes of erroneous gener alization to which I shall advert, is that to which we may give the name of False Analogies. This Fallacy stands distinguished from those already treated of by the peculiarity that it does not even simulate a complete and conclusive induction, but consists in the misapplication of an argument which is at best only admissible as an inconclusive presumption, where real proof is unattainable. An argument from analogy, is an inference that what is true in a certain case is true in a case known to be somewhat si milar, but not known to be exactly parallel, that is, to be similar in all the material circumstances. An object has the property B: another object is not known to have that property, but resembles the first in a property A, not known to be connected with B; and the conclusion to which the analogy points, is that this object has the property B also. As, for example, that the planets are inhabited, because the earth is so. The planets resemble the earth in describing elliptical orbits round the sun, in being attracted by it and by one another, in being nearly spherical, revolving on their axes, etc.; and, as we have now reason to believe from the revelations of the spectroscope, are composed, in great part at least, of similar materials; but it is not known that any of these properties, or all of them together, are the conditions on which the possession of inhabitants is dependent, or are marks of those conditions. Nevertheless, so long as we do not know what the conditions are, they may be connected by some law of nature with those common properties; and to the extent of that possibility the planets are more likely to be inhabited than if they did not resemble the earth at all. This non-assignable and generally small increase of probability, beyond what would otherwise exist, is all the evidence which a conclusion can derive from analogy. For if we have the slightest reason to suppose any real connection between the two properties A and B, the argument is no longer one of analogy. If it had been ascertained (I purposely put an absurd supposition) that there was a connection by causation between the fact of revolving on an axis and the existence of animated beings, or if there were any reasonable ground for even suspecting such a connection, a probability would arise of the existence of inhabitants in the planets, which might be of any degree of strength, up to a complete induction; but we should then infer the fact from the ascertained or presumed law of causation, and not from the analogy of the earth. The name analogy, however, is sometimes employed by extension to denote those arguments of an inductive character but not amounting to a real induction, which are employed to 498 strengthen the argument drawn from a simple resemblance. Though A, the property common to the two cases, can not be shown to be the cause or effect of B, the analogical reasoner will endeavor to show that there is some less close degree of connection between them; that A is one of a set of conditions from which, when all united, B would result; or is an occasional effect of some cause which has been known also to produce B; and the like. Any of which things, if shown, would render the existence of B by so much more probable, than if there had not been even that amount of known connection between B and A. Now an error or fallacy of analogy may occur in two ways. Sometimes it consists in employing an argument of either of the above kinds with correctness indeed, but overrating its probative force. This very common aberration is sometimes supposed to be particularly incident to persons distinguished for their imagination; but in reality it is the characteristic intellectual vice of those whose imaginations are barren, either from want of exercise, natural defect, or the narrowness of their range of ideas. To such minds objects present themselves clothed in but few properties; and as, therefore, few analogies between one object and another occur to them, they almost invariably overrate the degree of importance of those few: while one whose fancy takes a wider range, perceives and remembers so many analogies tending to conflicting conclusions, that he is much less likely to lay undue stress on any of them. We always find that those are the greatest slaves to metaphorical language who have but one set of metaphors. But this is only one of the modes of error in the employment of arguments of analogy. There is another, more properly deserving the name of fallacy; namely, when resemblance in one point is inferred from resemblance in another point, though there is not only no evidence to connect the two circumstances by way of causation, but the evidence tends positively to disconnect them. This is properly the Fallacy of False Analogies. As a first instance, we may cite that favorite argument in defense of abs olute power, drawn from the analogy of paternal government in a family, which government, however much in need of control, is not and can not be controlled by the children themselves, while they remain children. Paternal government, says the argument, works well; therefore, despotic government in a state will work well. I waive, as not pertinent in this place, all that could be said in qualification of the alleged excellence of paternal government. However this might be, the argument from the family to the state would not the less proceed on a false analogy; implying that the beneficial working of parental government depends, in the family, on the only point which it has in common with political despotism, namely, irresponsibility. Whereas it depends, when real, not on that but on two other circumstances of the case, the affection of the parent for the children, and the superiority of the parent in wisdom and experience; neither of which properties can be reckoned on, or are at all likely to exist, between a political despot and his subjects; and when either of these circumstances fails even in the family, and the influence of the irresponsibility is allowed to work uncorrected, the result is any thing but good government. This, therefore, is a false analogy. Another example is the not uncommon dictum that bodies politic have youth, maturity, old age, and death, like bodies natural; that after a certain duration of prosperity, they tend spontaneously to decay. This also is a false analogy, because the decay of the vital powers in an animated body can be distinctly traced to the natural progress of those very changes of structure which, in their earlier stages, constitutes its growth to maturity; while in the body politic the progress of those changes can not, generally speaking, have any effect but the still further continuance of growth: it is the stoppage of that progress, and the commencement of retrogression, that alone would constitute decay. Bodies politic die, but it is of disease, or violent death; they have no old age. 499 The following sentence from Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity is an instance of a false analogy from physical bodies to what are called bodies politic. As there could be in natural bodies no motion of any thing unless there were some which moveth all things, and continueth immovable; even so in politic societies there must be some unpunishable, or else no man shall suffer punishment. There is a double fallacy here, for not only the analogy, but the premise from which it is drawn, is untenable. The notion that there must be something immovable which moves all other things, is the old scholastic error of a primum mobile . The following instance I quote from Archbishop Whately's Rhetoric : It would be admitted that a great and permanent diminution in the quantity of some useful commodity, such as corn, or coal, or iron, throughout the world, would be a serious and lasting loss; and again, that if the fields and coal -mines yielded regularly double quantities, with the same labor, we should be so much the richer; hence it might be inferred, that if the quantity of gold and silver in the world were diminished one-half, or were doubled, like results would follow; the utility of these metals, for the purposes of coin, being very great. Now there are many points of resemblance and many of difference, between the precious metals on the one hand, and corn, coal, etc., on the other; but the important circumstance to the supposed argument is, that the utility of gold and silver (as coin, which is far the chief) depends on their value , which is regulated by their scarcity; or rather, to speak strictly, by the difficulty of obtaining them; whereas, if corn and coal were ten times as abundant ( i.e., more easily obtained), a bushel of either would still be as usefu l as now. But if it were twice as easy to procure gold as it is, a sovereign would be twice as large; if only half as easy, it would be of the size of a half-sovereign, and this (besides the trifling circumstance of the cheapness or dearness of gold ornaments) would be all the difference. The analogy, therefore, fails in the point essential to the argument. The same author notices, after Bishop Copleston, the case of False Analogy which consists in inferring from the similarity in many respects between the metropolis of a country and the heart of the animal body, that the increased size of the metropolis is a disease. Some of the false analogies on which systems of physics were confidently grounded in the time of the Greek philosophers, are such as we now call fanciful, not that the resemblances are not often real, but that it is long since any one has been inclined to draw from them the inferences which were then drawn. Such, for instance, are the curious speculations of the Pythagoreans on the subject of numbers. Finding that the distances of the planets bore, or seemed to bear, to one another a proportion not varying much from that of the divisions of the monochord, they inferred from it the existence of an inaudible music, that of the spheres; as if the music of a harp had depended solely on the numerical proportions, and not on the material, nor even on the existence of any material, any strings at all. It has been similarly imagined that certain combinations of numbers, which were found to prevail in some natural phenomena, must run through the whole of nature: as that there must be four elements, because there are four possible combinations of hot and cold, wet and dry; that there must be seven planets, because there were seven metals, and even because there were seven days of the week. Kepler himself thought that there could be only six planets, because there were only five regular solids. With these we may class the reasonings, so common in the speculations of the ancients, founded on a supposed pe rfection in nature; meaning by nature the customary order of events as they take place of themselves without human interference. This also is a rude guess at an analogy supposed to pervade all phenomena, however dissimilar. Since what was thought to be perfection appeared to obtain in some phenomena, it was inferred (in opposition to the plainest evidence) to obtain in all. We always suppose that which is better to take place in nature, if it be possible, says Aristotle; and the vaguest and most hetero geneous qualities being confounded together under the notion of being better , 500 there was no limit to the wildness of the inferences. Thus, because the heavenly bodies were perfect, they must move in circles and uniformly. For they (the Pythagoreans) would not allow, says Geminus, of any such disorder among divine and eternal things, as that they should sometimes move quicker and sometimes slower, and sometimes stand still; for no one would tolerate such anomaly in the movements even of a man, who was decent and orderly. The occasions of life, however, are often reasons for men going quicker or slower; but in the incorruptible nature of the stars, it is not possible that any cause can be alleged of quickness or slowness. It is seeking an argument of analogy very far, to suppose that the stars must observe the rules of decorum in gait and carriage prescribed for themselves by the long-bearded philosophers satirized by Lucian. As late as the Copernican controversy it was urged as an argument in favor of the true theory of the solar system, that it placed the fire, the noblest element, in the centre of the universe. This was a remnant of the notion that the order of nature must be perfect, and that perfection consisted in conformity to rules of precedency in dignity, either real or conventional. Again, reverting to numbers: certain numbers were perfect , therefore those numbers must obtain in the great phenomena of nature. Six was a perfect number, that is, equal to the sum of all its factors; an additional reason why there must be exactly six planets. The Pythagoreans, on the other hand, attributed perfection to the number ten; but agreed in thinking that the perfect number must be somehow realized in the heavens; and knowing only of nine heavenly bodies, to make up the enumeration, they asserted that there was an antichthon, or counter- earth, on the other side of the sun, invisible to us. Even Huygens was persuaded that when the number of the heavenly bodies had reached twelve, it could not admit of any fur ther increase. Creative power could not go beyond that sacred number. Some curious instances of false analogy are to be found in the arguments of the Stoics to prove the equality of all crimes, and the equal wretchedness of all who had not realized their idea of perfect virtue. Cicero, toward the end of his Fourth Book, De Finibus , states some of these as follows: Ut, inquit, in fidibus plurimis, si nulla earum ita contenta numeris sit, ut concentum servare possit, omnes que incontent sunt; sic peccata, quia discrepant, que discrepant; paria sunt igitur. To which Cicero himself aptly answers, que contingit omnibus fidibus, ut incontent sint; illud non continuo, ut que incontent. The Stoic resumes: Ut enim, inquit, gubernator que peccat, si palea rum navem evertit, et si auri; item que peccat qui parentem, et qui servum, injuri verberat; assuming, that because the magnitude of the interest at stake makes no difference in the mere defect of skill, it can make none in the moral defect: a false analogy. Again, Quis ignorat, si plures ex alto emergere velint, propius fore eos quidem ad respirandum, qui ad summam jam aquam appropinquant, sed nihilo magis respirare posse, quam eos, qui sunt in profundo? Nihil ergo adjuvat procedere, et progredi in virtute, quominus miserrimus sit, antequam ad eam pervenerit, quoniam in aqu nihil adjuvat: et quoniam catuli, qui jam despecturi sunt, cci que, et ii qui modo nati; Platonem quoque necesse est, quoniam nondum videbat sapientiam, que ccum animo, ac Phalarim fuisse. Cicero, in his own person, combats these false analogies by other analogies tending to an opposite conclusion. Ista similia non sunt, Cato.... Illa sunt similia; hebes acies est cuipiam oculorum: corpore alius languescit: hi curatione adhibit levantur in dies: alter valet plus quotidie: alter videt. Hi similes sunt omnibus, qui virtuti student; levantur vitiis, levantur erroribus. 7. In these and all other arguments drawn from remote analogies, and from metaphors, which are cases of analog y, it is apparent (especially when we consider the extreme facility of raising up contrary analogies and conflicting metaphors) that, so far from the metaphor or analogy proving any thing, the applicability of the metaphor is the very thing to be made out. It has to be shown that in the two cases asserted to be analogous, the same law is really 501 operating; that between the known resemblance and the inferred one there is some connection by means of causation. Cicero and Cato might have bandied opposite analogies forever; it rested with each of them to prove by just induction, or at least to render probable, that the case resembled the one set of analogous cases and not the other, in the circumstances on which the disputed question really hinged. Metaphors, for the most part, therefore, assume the proposition which they are brought to prove: their use is, to aid the apprehension of it; to make clearly and vividly comprehended what it is that the person who employs the metaphor is proposing to make out; and sometimes also, by what media he proposes to do so. For an apt metaphor, though it can not prove, often suggests the proof. For instance, when D'Alembert (I believe) remarked that in certain governments only two creatures find their way to the highest places, t he eagle and the serpent, the metaphor not only conveys with great vividness the assertion intended, but contributes toward substantiating it, by suggesting, in a lively manner, the means by which the two opposite characters thus typified effect their rise . When it is said that a certain person misunderstands another because the lesser of two objects can not comprehend the greater, the application of what is true in the literal sense of the word comprehend, to its metaphorical sense, points to the fact which is the ground and justification of the assertion, viz., that one mind can not thoroughly understand another unless it can contain it in itself, that is, unless it possesses all that is contained in the other. When it is urged as an argument for education, that if the soil is left uncultivated, weeds will spring up, the metaphor, though no proof, but a statement of the thing to be proved, states it in terms which, by suggesting a parallel case, put the mind upon the track of the real proof. For, the reason why weeds grow in an uncultivated soil, is that the seeds of worthless products exist everywhere, and can germinate and grow in almost all circumstances, while the reverse is the case with those which are valuable; and this being equally true of mental products, this mode of conveying an argument, independently of its rhetorical advantages, has a logical value; since it not only suggests the grounds of the conclusion, but points to another case in which those grounds have been found, or at least deemed to be, sufficient. On the other hand, when Bacon, who is equally conspicuous in the use and abuse of figurative illustration, says that the stream of time has brought down to us only the least valuable part of the writings of the ancients, as a river carries froth and straws floating on its surface, while more weighty objects sink to the bottom; this, even if the assertion illustrated by it were true, would be no good illustration, there being no parity of cause. The levity by which substances float on a stream, and the levity which is synonymous with worthlessness, have nothing in common except the name; and (to show how little value there is in the metaphor) we need only change the word into buoyancy , to turn the semblance of argument involved in Bacon's illustration against himself. A metaphor, then, is not to be considered as an argument, but as an assertion that an argument exists; that a parity subsists between the case from which the metaphor is drawn and that to which it is applied. This parity may exist though the two cases be apparently very remote from one another; the only resemblance existing between them may be a resemblance of relations, an analogy in Ferguson's and Archbishop Whately's sense: as in the preceding instance, in which an illustration from agriculture was applied to mental cultivation. 8. To terminate the subject of Fallacies of Generalization, it remains to be said, that the most fertile source of them is bad classification: bringing together in one group, and under one name, things which have no common properties, or none but such as are too unimportant to allow general propositions of any considerable value to be made respecting the class. The misleading effect is greatest, when a word which in common use expresses some definite 502 fact, is extended by slight links of connection to cases in which that fact does not exist, but some other or others, only slightly resembling it. Thus Bacon, in speaking of the Idola or Fallacies arising from notions temere et inqualiter rebus abstract , exemplifies them by the notion of Humidum or Wet, so familiar in the physics of antiquity and of the Middle Ages. Invenietur verbum istud, Humidum, nihil aliud quam nota confusa diversarum actionum, qu nullam constantiam aut reductionem patiuntur. Signif icat enim, et quod circa aliud corpus facile se circumfundit; et quod in se est indeterminabile, nec consistere potest; et quod facile cedit undique; et quod facile se dividit et dispergit; et quod facile se unit et colligit; et quod facile fluit, et in mo tu ponitur; et quod alteri corpori facile adhret, idque madefacit; et quod facile reducitur in liquidum, sive colliquatur, cum antea consisteret. Itaque quum ad hujus nominis prdicationem et impositionem ventum sit; si alia accipias, flamma humida est; si alia accipias, aer humidus non est; si alia, pulvis minutus humidus est; si alia, vitrum humidum est: ut facile appareat, istam notionem ex aqu tantum, et communibus et vulgaribus liquoribus, absque ull debit verificatione, temere abstractam esse. Bacon himself is not exempt from a similar accusation when inquiring into the nature of heat: where he occasionally proceeds like one who, seeking for the cause of hardness, after examining that quality in iron, flint, and diamond, should expect to find that it is something which can be traced also in hard water, a hard knot, and a hard heart. The word in the Greek philosophy, and the words Generation and Corruption, both then and long afterward, denoted such a multitude of heterogeneous phenomena, that any attempt at philosophizing in which those words were used was almost as necessarily abortive as if the word hard had been taken to denote a class including all the things mentioned above. , for instance, which properly signified motion, was ta ken to denote not only all motion but even all change: being recognized as one of the modes of . The effect was, to connect with every form of or change, ideas drawn from motion in the proper and literal sense, and which had no r eal connection with any other kind of than that. Aristotle and Plato labored under a continual embarrassment from this misuse of terms. But if we proceed further in this direction we shall encroach upon the Fallacy of Ambiguity, which belongs to a different class, the last in order of our classification, Fallacies of Confusion. 503 VI. Fallacies Of Ratiocination 1. We have now, in our progress through the classes of Fallacies, arrived at those to which, in the common books of logic, the appellation is in general exclusively appropriated; those which have their seat in the ratiocinative or deductive part of the investigation of truth. Of these fallacies it is the less necessary for us to insist at any length, as they have been most satisfactorily treated in a work familiar to almost all, in this country at least, who feel any interest in these speculations, Archbishop Whately's Logic . Against the more obvious forms of this class of fallacies, the rules of the syllogism are a c omplete protection. Not (as we have so often said) that ratiocination can not be good unless it be in the form of a syllogism; but that, by showing it in that form, we are sure to discover if it be bad, or at least if it contain any fallacy of this class. 2. Among Fallacies of Ratiocination, we ought perhaps to include the errors committed in processes which have the appearance only, not the reality, of an inference from premises; the fallacies connected with the conversion and quipollency of propositions. I believe errors of this description to be far more frequently committed than is generally supposed, or than their extreme obviousness might seem to admit of. For example, the simple conversion of a universal affirmative proposition, All A are B, theref ore all B are A, I take to be a very common form of error: though committed, like many other fallacies, oftener in the silence of thought than in express words, for it can scarcely be clearly enunciated without being detected. And so with another form of fallacy, not substantially different from the preceding: the erroneous conversion of an hypothetical proposition. The proper converse of an hypothetical proposition is this: If the consequent be false, the antecedent is false; but this, If the consequent be true, the antecedent is true, by no means holds good, but is an error corresponding to the simple conversion of a universal affirmative. Yet hardly any thing is more common than for people, in their private thoughts, to draw this inference. As when the conclusion is accepted, which it so often is, for proof of the premises. That the premises can not be true if the conclusion is false, is the unexceptionable foundation of the legitimate mode of reasoning called reductio ad absurdum . But people continually think and express themselves, as if they also believed that the premises can not be false if the conclusion is true. The truth, or supposed truth, of the inferences which follow from a doctrine, often enables it to find acceptance in spite of gross absurdities in it. How many philosophical systems which had scarcely any intrinsic recommendation, have been received by thoughtful men because they were supposed to lend additional support to religion, morality, some favorite view of politics, or some other cherished persuasion: not merely because their wishes were thereby enlisted on its side, but because its leading to what they deemed sound conclusions appeared to them a strong presumption in favor of its truth: though the presumption, when viewed in its true l ight, amounted only to the absence of that particular evidence of falsehood, which would have resulted from its leading by correct inference to something already known to be false. Again, the very frequent error in conduct, of mistaking reverse of wrong for right, is the practical form of a logical error with respect to the Opposition of Propositions. It is committed for want of the habit of distinguishing the contrary of a proposition from the contradictory of it, and of attending to the logical canon, that contrary propositions, though they can not both be true, may both be false. If the error were to express itself in words, it would run distinctly counter to this canon. It generally, however, does not so 504 express itself, and to compel it to do so is the most effectual method of detecting and exposing it. 3. Among Fallacies of Ratiocination are to be ranked, in the first place, all the cases of vicious syllogism laid down in the books. These generally resolve themselves into having more than three terms to the syllogism, either avowedly, or in the covert mode of an undistributed middle term, or an illicit process of one of the two extremes. It is not, indeed, very easy fully to convict an argument of falling under any one of these vicious cases in particular; for the reason already more than once referred to, that the premises are seldom formally set out: if they were, the fallacy would impose upon nobody; and while they are not, it is almost always to a certain degree optional in what manner the sup pressed link shall be filled up. The rules of the syllogism are rules for compelling a person to be aware of the whole of what he must undertake to defend if he persists in maintaining his conclusion. He has it almost always in his power to make his syllog ism good by introducing a false premise; and hence it is scarcely ever possible decidedly to affirm that any argument involves a bad syllogism: but this detracts nothing from the value of the syllogistic rules, since it is by them that a reasoner is compel led distinctly to make his election what premises he is prepared to maintain. The election made, there is generally so little difficulty in seeing whether the conclusion follows from the premises set out, that we might without much logical impropriety have merged this fourth class of fallacies in the fifth, or Fallacies of Confusion. 4. Perhaps, however, the commonest, and certainly the most dangerous fallacies of this class, are those which do not lie in a single syllogism, but slip in between one syllogism and another in a chain of argument, and are committed by changing the premises . A proposition is proved, or an acknowledged truth laid down, in the first part of an argumentation, and in the second a further argument is founded not on the same proposition, but on some other, resembling it sufficiently to be mistaken for it. Instances of this fallacy will be found in almost all the argumentative discourses of unprecise thinkers; and we need only here advert to one of the obscurer forms of it, recognized by the school- men as the fallacy dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter . This is committed when, in the premises, a proposition is asserted with a qualification, and the qualification lost sight of in the conclusion; or oftener, when a limitation or c ondition, though not asserted, is necessary to the truth of the proposition, but is forgotten when that proposition comes to be employed as a premise. Many of the bad arguments in vogue belong to this class of error. The premise is some admitted truth, some common maxim, the reasons or evidence for which have been forgotten, or are not thought of at the time, but if they had been thought of would have shown the necessity of so limiting the premise that it would no longer have supported the conclusion drawn from it. Of this nature is the fallacy in what is called, by Adam Smith and others, the Mercantile Theory in Political Economy. That theory sets out from the common maxim, that whatever brings in money enriches; or that every one is rich in proportion to the quantity of money he obtains. From this it is concluded that the value of any branch of trade, or of the trade of the country altogether, consists in the balance of money it brings in; that any trade which carries more money out of the country than it draws into it is a losing trade; that therefore money should be attracted into the country and kept there, by prohibitions and bounties; and a train of similar corollaries. All for want of reflecting that if the riches of an individual are in proportion to the quantity of money he can command, it is because that is the measure of his power of purchasing money's worth; and is therefore subject to the proviso that he is not debarred from employing his money in such purchases. The premise, therefore, is only true secundum quid; but the theory assumes it to be true absolutely, and infers that increase of money is increase of riches, even when produced by means subversive of the condition under which alone money can be riches. 505 A second instance is, the argument by which it used to be contended, before the commutation of tithe, that tithes fell on the landlord, and were a deduction from rent; because the rent of tithe-free land was always higher than that of land of the same quality, and the same advantages of situation, subject to tithe. Whether it be true or not that a tithe falls on rent, a treatise on Logic is not the place to examine; but it is certain that this is no proof of it. Whether the proposition be true or false, tithe-free land must, by the necessity of the case, pay a higher rent. For if tithes do not fall on rent, it must be because they fall on the consumer; because they raise the price of agricultural produce. But if the produce be raised in price, the farmer of tithe -free as well as the farmer of t ithed land gets the benefit. To the latter the rise is but a compensation for the tithe he pays; to the first, who pays none, it is clear gain, and therefore enables him, and if there be freedom of competition, forces him, to pay so much more rent to his landlord. The question remains, to what class of fallacies this belongs. The premise is, that the owner of tithed land receives less rent than the owner of tithe- free land; the conclusion is, that therefore he receives less than he himself would receive if tithe were abolished. But the premise is only true conditionally; the owner of tithed land receives less than what the owner of tithe- free land is enabled to receive when other lands are tithed; while the conclusion is applied to a state of circumstances in which that condition fails, and in which, by consequence, the premise will not be true. The fallacy, therefore, is dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter . A third example is the opposition sometimes made to legitimate interferences of government in the economical affairs of society, grounded on a misapplication of the maxim, that an individual is a better judge than the government of what is for his own pecuniary interest. This objection was urged to Mr. Wakefield's principle of colonization; the concentration of the settlers, by fixing such a price on unoccupied land as may preserve the most desirable proportion between the quantity of land in culture and the laboring population. Against this it was argued, that if individuals found it for their advantage to occupy extensive tracts of land, they, being better judges of their own interest than the legislature (which can only proceed on general rules), ought not to be restrained from doing so. But in this argument it was forgotten that the fact of a per son's taking a large tract of land is evidence only that it is his interest to take as much as other people, but not that it might not be for his interest to content himself with less, if he could be assured that other people would do so too; an assurance which nothing but a government regulation can give. If all other people took much, and he only a little, he would reap none of the advantages derived from the concentration of the population and the consequent possibility of procuring labor for hire, but would have placed himself, without equivalent, in a situation of voluntary inferiority. The proposition, therefore, that the quantity of land which people will take when left to themselves is that which is most for their interest to take, is true only secun dum quid: it is only their interest while they have no guarantee for the conduct of one another. But the arrangement disregards the limitation, and takes the proposition for true simpliciter . One of the conditions oftenest dropped, when what would otherwise be a true proposition is employed as a premise for proving others, is the condition of time . It is a principle of political economy that prices, profits, wages, etc., always find their level; but this is often interpreted as if it meant that they are a lways, or generally, at their level, while the truth is, as Coleridge epigrammatically expresses it, that they are always finding their level, which might be taken as a paraphrase or ironical definition of a storm. Under the same head of fallacy ( dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter ) might be placed all the errors which are vulgarly called misapplications of abstract truths; that is, where a principle, true (as the common expression is) in the abstract , that is, all modifying causes being supposed absent, is reasoned on as if it were true absolutely, and no modifying 506 circumstance could ever by possibility exist. This very common form of error it is not requisite that we should exemplify here, as it will be particularly treated of hereafter in its application to the subjects on which it is most frequent and most fatal, those of politics and society. P223F224 P 224 An advocate, says Mr. De Morgan ( Formal Logic , p. 270), is sometimes guilty of the argument dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter : it is his business to do for his client all that his client might honestly do for himself. Is not the word in italics frequently omitted? Might any man honestly try to do for himself all that counsel frequently try to do for him? We are often reminded of the two men who stole the leg of mutton; one could swear he had not got it, the other that he had not taken it. The counsel is doing his duty by his client, the client has left the matter to his counsel. Between the unexecuted intention of the client, and the unintended execution of the counsel, there may be a wrong done, and, if we are to believe the usual maxims, no wrong- doer. The same writer justly remarks (p. 251) that there is a converse fallacy, dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid, called by the scholastic logicians fallacia accidentis ; and another which may be called dicto secundum quid ad dictum secundum alterum quid (p. 265). For apt instances of both, I must refer the reader to Mr. De Morgan's able chapter on Fallacies. 507 VII. Fallacies Of Confusion 1. Under this fifth and last class it is convenient to arrange all those fallacies in which the source of error is not so much a false estimate of the probative force of known evidence, as an indistinct, indefinite, and fluctuating conception of what the evidence is. At the head of these stands that multitudinous body of fallacious reasonings in which the source of error is the ambiguity of terms: when something which is true if a word be used in a particular sense, is reasoned on as if it were true in another sense. In such a case there is not a mal-estimation of evidence , because there is not properly any evidence to the point at all; there is evidence, but to a different point, which from a confused apprehension of the meaning of the terms used, is supposed to be the same. This error will naturally be oftener committed in our ratiocinations than in our direct inductions, because in the former we are deciphering our own or other people's notes, while in the latter we have the things themselves present, either to the senses or to the memory. Except, indeed, when the induction is not from individual cases to a generality, but from generalities to a still higher generalization; in that case the fallacy of ambiguity may affect the inductive process as well as the ratiocinative. It occurs in ratiocination in two ways: when the middle term is ambiguous, or when one of the terms of the syllogism is taken in one sense in the premises, and in another sense in the conclusion. Some good exemplifications of this fallacy are given by Archbishop Whately. One case, says he, which may be regarded as coming under the head of Ambiguous Middle, is (what I believe logical writers mean by Fallacia Figur Dictionis ) the fallacy built on the grammatical structure of language, from men's usually taking for granted that paronymous (or conjugate ) words, i.e. , those belonging to each other, as the substantive, adjective, verb, etc., of the same root, have a precisely corresponding meaning; which is by no means universally the case. Such a fallacy could not indeed be even exhibited in strict logical form, which would preclude even the attempt at it, since it has two middle terms in sound as well as sense. But nothing is more common in practice than to vary continually the terms employed, with a view to grammatical convenience; nor is there any thing unfair in such a practice, as long as the meaning is preserved unaltered; e.g., murder should be punished with death; this man is a murderer, therefore he deserves to die, etc. Here we proceed on the assumption (in this case just) that to commit murder, and to be a murdererto deserve death, and to be one who ought to die, are, respectively, equivalent expressions; and it would frequently prove a heavy inconvenience to be debarred this kind of liberty; but the abuse of it gives rise to the Fallacy in question; e.g. , projectors are unfit to be trusted; this man has formed a project , therefore he is unfit to be trusted: here the sophist proceeds on the hypothesis that he who forms a project must be a projector : whereas the bad sense that commonly attaches to the latter word, is not at all implied in the former. This fallacy may often be considered as lying not in the Middle, but in one of the terms of the Conclusion; so that the conclusion drawn shall not be, in reality, at all warranted by the premises, though it will appear to be so, by means of the grammatical affinity of the words; e.g. , to be acquainted with the guilty is a presumption of guilt; this man is so acquainted, therefore we may presume that he is guilty: this argument proceeds on the supposition of an exact correspondence between presume and presumption, which, however, does not really exist; for presumption is commonly used to express a kind of slight suspicion; whereas, to presume amounts to actual belief. There are innumerable instances of a non -correspondence in paronymous words, similar to that above instanced; as 508 between art and artful , design and designing, faith and faithful, etc.; and the more slight the variation of the meaning, the more likely is the fallacy to be successful; for when the words have become so widely removed in sense as pity and pitiful, every one would perceive such a fallacy, nor would it be employed but in jest. P224F225 P The present Fallacy is nearly allied to, or rather, perhaps, may be regarded as a branch of, that founded on etymologyviz., when a term is used, at one time in its customary, and at another in its etymological sense. Perhaps no example of this can be found that is more extensively and mischievously employed than in the case of the word representati ve: assuming that its right meaning must correspond exactly with the strict and original sense of the verb represent, the sophist persuades the multitude that a member of the House of Commons is bound to be guided in all points by the opinion of his constituents; and, in short, to be merely their spokesman; whereas law and custom, which in this case may be considered as fixing the meaning of the term, require no such thing, but enjoin the representative to act according to the best of his own judgment, and on his own responsibility. The following are instances of great practical importance, in which arguments are habitually founded on a verbal ambiguity. The mercantile public are frequently led into this fallacy by the phrase scarcity of money. In the l anguage of commerce, money has two meanings: currency, or the circulating medium; and capital seeking investment , especially investment on loan. In this last sense the word is used when the money market is spoken of, and when the value of money is sa id to be high or low, the rate of interest being meant. The consequence of this ambiguity is, that as soon as scarcity of money in the latter of these senses begins to be feltas soon as there is difficulty of obtaining loans, and the rate of interest is highit is concluded that this must arise from causes acting upon the quantity of money in the other and more popular sense; that the circulating medium must have diminished in quantity, or ought to be increased. I am aware that, independently of the double meaning of the term, there are in the facts themselves some peculiarities, giving an apparent support to this error; but the ambiguity of the language stands on the very threshold of the subject, and intercepts all attempts to throw light upon it. Another ambiguous expression which continually meets us in the political controversies of the present time, especially in those which relate to organic changes, is the phrase influence of propertywhich is sometimes used for the influence of respect for superior intelligence or gratitude for the kind offices which persons of large property have it so much in their power to bestow; at other times for the influence of fear; fear of the worst sort of power, which large property also gives to its possessor, the power of doing mischief to dependents. To confound these two, is the standing fallacy of ambiguity brought against those who seek to purify the electoral system from corruption and intimidation. Persuasive influence, acting through the conscience of the voter, and carrying his heart and mind with it, is beneficialtherefore (it is pretended) coercive influence, which compels him to forget that he is a moral agent, or to act in opposition to his moral convictions, ought not to be placed under restraint. Another word which is often turned into an instrument of the fallacy of ambiguity, is Theory. In its most proper acceptation, theory means the completed result of philosophical induction 225 An example of this fallacy is the popular error that strong drink must be a cause of strength . There is here fallacy within fallacy; for granting that the words strong and strength were not (as they are) applied in a totally different sense to fermented liquors and to the human body, there would still be involved the error of supposing that an effect must be like its cause; that the conditions of a phenomenon are likely to resemble the phenomenon itself; which we have already treated of as an a priori fallacy of the first rank. As well might it be supposed that a strong poison will make the person who takes it strong. 509 from experience. In that sense, there are erroneous as well as true theories, for induction may be incorrectly performed, but theory of some sort is the necessary result of knowing any thing of a subject, and having put one's knowledge into the form of general propositions for the guidance of practice. In this, the proper sense of the word, Theory is the explanation of practice. In another and a more vulgar sense, theory means any mere fiction of the imagination, endeavoring to conceive how a thing may possibly have been produced, instead of examining how it was produced. In this sense only are theory and theorists unsafe guides; but because of this, ridicule or discredit is attempted to be attached to theory in its proper sense, that is, to legitimate generalization, the end and aim of all philosophy; and a conclusion is represented as worthless, just because that has been done which, if done correctly, constitutes the highest worth that a principle for the guidance of practice can possess, namely, to comprehend in a few words the real law on which a phenomenon depends, or some property or relation which is universally true of it. The Church is sometimes understood to mean the clergy alone, sometimes the whole body of believers, or at least of communicants. The declamations respecting the inviolability of church property are indebted for the greater part of their apparent force to this ambiguity. The clergy, being called the church, are supposed to be the real owners of what is called church property; whereas they are in truth only the managing members of a much larger body of proprietors, and enjoy on their own part a mere usufruct, not extending beyond a life interest. The following is a Stoical argument taken from Cicero, De Finibus , book the third: Quod est bonum, omne laudabile est. Quod autem laudabile est, omne honestum est. Bonum igitur quod est, honestum est. Here the ambiguous word is laudabile , which in the minor premise means any thing which mankind are accustomed, on good grounds, to admire or value; as beauty, for instance, or good fortune: but in the major, it denotes exclusively moral qualities. In much the same manner the Stoics endeavored logically to justify as philosophical truths, their figurative and rhetorical expressions of ethical sentiment: as that the virtuous man is alone free, alone beautifu l, alone a king, etc. Whoever has virtue has Good (because it has been previously determined not to call any thing else good); but, again, Good necessarily includes freedom, beauty, and even kingship, all these being good things; therefore whoever has virt ue has all these. The following is an argument of Descartes to prove, in his a priori manner, the being of a God. The conception, says he, of an infinite Being proves the real existence of such a being. For if there is not really any such being, I must have made the conception; but if I could make it, I can also unmake it; which evidently is not true; therefore there must be, externally to myself, an archetype, from which the conception was derived. In this argument (which, it may be observed, would equally prove the real existence of ghosts and of witches) the ambiguity is in the pronoun I , by which, in one place, is to be understood my will, in another the laws of my nature . If the conception, existing as it does in my mind, had no original without, the conclusion would unquestionably follow that I made it; that is, the laws of my nature must have somehow evolved it: but that my will made it, would not follow. Now when Descartes afterward adds that I can not unmake the conception, he means that I can not ge t rid of it by an act of my will: which is true, but is not the proposition required. I can as much unmake this conception as I can any other: no conception which I have once had, can I ever dismiss by mere volition; but what some of the laws of my nature have produced, other laws, or those same laws in other circumstances, may, and often do, subsequently efface. Analogous to this are some of the ambiguities in the free-will controversy; which, as they will come under special consideration in the concluding Book, I only mention memori caus. In that discussion, too, the word I is often shifted from one meaning to another, at one time 510 standing for my volitions, at another time for the actions which are the consequences of them, or the mental dispositions from which they proceed. The latter ambiguity is exemplified in an argument of Coleridge (in his Aids to Reflection ), in support of the freedom of the will. It is not true, he says, that a man is governed by motives; the man makes the motive, not the motive the man; the proof being that what is a strong motive to one man is no motive at all to another. The premise is true, but only amounts to this, that different persons have different degrees of susceptibility to the same motive; as they have also to the same intoxicating liquid, which, however, does not prove that they are free to be drunk or not drunk, whatever quantity of the fluid they may drink. What is proved is, that certain mental conditions in the person himself must co-operate, in the production of the act, with the external inducement; but those mental conditions also are the effect of causes; and there is nothing in the argument to prove that they can arise without a causethat a spontaneous determination of the will, without any cause at all, e ver takes place, as the free- will doctrine supposes. The double use, in the free-will controversy, of the word Necessity, which sometimes stands only for Certainty, at other times for Compulsion; sometimes for what can not be prevented, at other times only for what we have reason to be assured will not; we shall have occasion hereafter to pursue to some of its ulterior consequences. A most important ambiguity, both in common and in metaphysical language, is thus pointed out by Archbishop Whately in the Appendix to his Logic: Same (as well as One , Identical , and other words derived from them) is used frequently in a sense very different from its primary one, as applicable to a single object; being employed to denote great similarity . When several objects are undistinguishably alike, one single description will apply equally to any of them; and thence they are said to be all of one and the same nature, appearance, etc. As, e.g., when we say this house is built of the same stone with such another, we only mean that the stones are undistinguishable in their qualities; not that the one building was pulled down, and the other constructed with the materials. Whereas sameness , in the primary sense, does not even necessarily imply similarity; for if we say of any ma n that he is greatly altered since such a time, we understand, and indeed imply by the very expression, that he is one person, though different in several qualities. It is worth observing also, that Same, in the secondary sense, admits, according to popular usage, of degrees: we speak of two things being nearly the same, but not entirely: personal identity does not admit of degrees. Nothing, perhaps, has contributed more to the error of Realism than inattention to this ambiguity. When several persons are said to have one and the same opinion, thought, or idea, many men, overlooking the true simple statement of the case, which is, that they are all thinking alike , look for something more abstruse and mystical, and imagine there must be some One Thing, in the primary sense, though not an individual which is present at once in the mind of each of these persons; and thence readily sprung Plato's theory of Ideas, each of which was, according to him, one real, eternal object, existing entire and complete in each of the individual objects that are known by one name. It is, indeed, not a matter of inference, but of authentic history, that Plato's doctrine of Ideas, and the Aristotelian doctrine (in this respect similar to the Platonic) of substantial forms and second substances, grew up in the precise way here pointed out; from the supposed necessity of finding, in things which were said to have the same nature, or the same qualities, something which was the same in the very sense in which a man is the same as himself . All the idle speculations respecting , , , and similar abstractions, so common in the ancient and in some modern schools of thought, sprang from the same source. The Aristotelian logicians saw, however, one case of the ambiguity, and provided against it with their peculiar felicity in the invention of technical language, when they distinguished things 511 which differed both specie and numero, from those which differed numero tantum , that is, which were exactly alike (in some particular res pect at least) but were distinct individuals. An extension of this distinction to the two meanings of the word Same, namely, things which are the same specie tantum , and a thing which is the same numero as well as specie, would have prevented the confusion which has been a source of so much darkness and such an abundance of positive error in metaphysical philosophy. One of the most singular examples of the length to which a thinker of eminence may be led away by an ambiguity of language, is afforded by this very case. I refer to the famous argument by which Bishop Berkeley flattered himself that he had forever put an end to skepticism, atheism, and irreligion. It is briefly as follows: I thought of a thing yesterday; I ceased to think of it; I think of it again to-day. I had, therefore, in my mind yesterday an idea of the object; I have also an idea of it to-day; this idea is evidently not another, but the very same idea. Yet an intervening time elapsed in which I had it not. Where was the idea during this interval? It must have been somewhere; it did not cease to exist; otherwise the idea I had yesterday could not be the same idea; no more than the man I see alive to -day can be the same whom I saw yesterday if the man has died in the mean while. Now an idea can not be conceived to exist anywhere except in a mind; and hence there must exist a Universal Mind, in which all ideas have their permanent residence during the intervals of their conscious presence in our own minds. It is evident that Berkeley here confounded sameness numero with sameness specie, that is, with exact resemblance, and assumed the former where there was only the latter; not perceiving that when we say we have the same thought to -day which we had yesterday, we do not mean the same individual thought, but a thought exactly similar: as we say that we have the same illness which we had last year, meaning only the same sort of illness. In one remarkable instance the scientific world was divided into two furiously hostile parties by an ambiguity of language affecting a branch of science which, more completely than most others, enjoys the advantage of a precise and well-defined terminology. I refer to the famous dispute respecting the vis viva, the history of which is given at large in Professor Playfair's Dissertation. The question was, whether the force of a moving body was proportional (its mass being given) to its velocity simply, or to the square of its velocity: and the ambiguity was in the word Force. One of the effects, says Playf air, produced by a moving body is proportional to the square of the velocity, while another is proportional to the velocity simply: from whence clearer thinkers were subsequently led to establish a double measure of the efficiency of a moving power, one being called vis viva , and the other momentum . About the facts, both parties were from the first agreed: the only question was, with which of the two effects the term force should be, or could most conveniently be, associated. But the disputants were by no means aware that this was all; they thought that force was one thing, the production of effects another; and the question, by which set of effects the force which produced both the one and the other should be measured, was supposed to be a question not of terminology, but of fact. The ambiguity of the word Infinite is the real fallacy in the amusing logical puzzle of Achilles and the Tortoise, a puzzle which has been too hard for the ingenuity or patience of many philosophers, and which no less a thinker t han Sir William Hamilton considered as insoluble; as a sound argument, though leading to a palpable falsehood. The fallacy, as Hobbes hinted, lies in the tacit assumption that whatever is infinitely divisible is infinite; but the following solution (to the invention of which I have no claim) is more precise and satisfactory. 512 The argument is, let Achilles run ten times as fast as the tortoise, yet if the tortoise has the start, Achilles will never overtake him. For suppose them to be at first separated by an interval of a thousand feet: when Achilles has run these thousand feet, the tortoise will have got on a hundred; when Achilles has run those hundred, the tortoise will have run ten, and so on forever: therefore Achilles may run forever without overtaking the tortoise. Now the forever, in the conclusion, means, for any length of time that can be supposed; but in the premises, ever does not mean any length of time; it means any number of subdivisions of time. It means that we may divide a thousand feet by ten, and that quotient again by ten, and so on as often as we please; that there never needs be an end to the subdivisions of the distance, nor consequently to those of the time in which it is performed. But an unlimited number of subdivisions may be made of that which is itself limited. The argument proves no other infinity of duration than may be embraced within five minutes. As long as the five minutes are not expired, what remains of them may be divided by ten, and again by ten, as often as we like, which is perfectly compatible with their being only five minutes altogether. It proves, in short, that to pass through this finite space requires a time which is infinitely divisible, but not an infinite time; the confounding of which distinction Hobbes had already seen to be the gist of the fallacy. The following ambiguities of the word right (in addition to the obvious and familiar one of a right and the adjective right) are extracted from a forgotten paper of my own, in a periodical: Speaking morally, you are said to have a right to do a thing, if all persons are morally bound not to hinder you from doing it. But, in another sense, to have a right to do a thing is the opposite of having no right to do it, i.e. , of being under a moral obligation to forbear doing it. In this sense, to say that you have a right to do a thing, means that you may do it without any breach of duty on your part; that other persons not only ought not to hinder you, but have no cause to think worse of you for doing it. This is a perfectly distinct proposition from the preceding. The right which you have by virtue of a duty incumbent upon other persons, is obviously quite a different thing from a right consisting in the absence of any duty incumbent upon yourself. Yet the two things are perpetually confounded. Thus, a man will say he has a right to publish his opinions; which may be true in this sense, that it would be a breach of duty in any other person to interfere and prevent the publication: but he assumes thereupon that, in publishing his opinions, he himself violates no duty; which may either be true or false, depending, as it does, on his having taken due pains to satisfy himself, first, that the opinions are true, and next, that their publication in this manner, and at this par ticular juncture, will probably be beneficial to the interests of truth on the whole. The second ambiguity is that of confounding a right of any kind, with a right to enforce that right by resisting or punishing a violation of it. People will say, for example, that they have a right to good government, which is undeniably true, it being the moral duty of their governors to govern them well. But in granting this, you are supposed to have admitted their right or liberty to turn out their governors, and perhaps to punish them, for having failed in the performance of this duty; which, far from being the same thing, is by no means universally true, but depends on an immense number of varying circumstances, requiring to be conscientiously weighed before adopting or acting on such a resolution. This last example is (like others which have been cited) a case of fallacy within fallacy; it involves not only the second of the two ambiguities pointed out, but the first likewise. One not unusual form of the Fallacy of Ambiguous Terms is known technically as the Fallacy of Composition and Division; when the same term is collective in the premises, distributive in the conclusion, or vic versa ; or when the middle term is collective in one premise, 513 distributive in the other. As if one were to say (I quote from Archbishop Whately), All the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles: A B C is an angle of a triangle; therefore A B C is equal to two right angles.... There is no fallacy more common, or more likely to deceive, than the one now before us. The form in which it is most usually employed is to establish some truth, separately, concerning each single member of a certain class, and thence to infer the same of the whole collectively. As in the argument one sometimes hears, to prove that the world could do without great men. If Columbus (it is said) had never lived, America would still have been discovered, at most only a few years later; if Newton had never lived, some other person would have discovered the law of gravitation; and so forth. Most true: these things would have been done, but in all probability not till some one had again been found with the qualities of Columbus or Newton. Because any one great man might have had his place supplied by other great men, the argument concludes that all great men could have been dispensed with. The term great men is distributive in the premises and collective in the conclusion. Such also is the fallacy which probably operates on most adventurers in lotterie s; e.g., the gaining of a high prize is no uncommon occurrence; and what is no uncommon occurrence may reasonably be expected; therefore the gaining of a high prize may reasonably be expected; the conclusion, when applied to the individual (as in practic e it is), must be understood in the sense of reasonably expected by a certain individual ; therefore for the major premise to be true, the middle term must be understood to mean, no uncommon occurrence to some one particular person; whereas for the minor (which has been placed first) to be true, you must understand it of no uncommon occurrence to some one or other ; and thus you will have the Fallacy of Composition. This is a Fallacy with which men are extremely apt to deceive themselves ; for when a multitude of particulars are presented to the mind, many are too weak or too indolent to take a comprehensive view of them, but confine their attention to each single point, by turns; and then decide, infer, and act accordingly; e.g., the imprudent spendthrift, finding that he is able to afford this, or that, or the other expense, forgets that all of them together will ruin him. The debauchee destroys his health by successive acts of intemperance, because no one of those acts would be of itself sufficient to do him any serious harm. A sick person reasons with himself, one, and another, and another, of my symptoms do not prove that I have a fatal disease; and practically concludes that all taken together do not prove it. 2. We have now sufficiently exemplified one of the principal Genera in this Order of Fallacies; where, the source of error being the ambiguity of terms, the premises are verbally what is required to support the conclusion, but not really so. In the second great Fallacy of Confusion they are neither verbally nor really sufficient, though, from their multiplicity and confused arrangement, and still oftener from defect of memory, they are not seen to be what they are. The fallacy I mean is that of Petitio Principii, or begging the question; including the more complex and not uncommon variety of it, which is termed Reasoning in a Circle. Petitio Principii, as defined by Archbishop Whately, is the fallacy in which the premise either appears manifestly to be the same as the conclusion, or is actually proved from the conclusion, or is such as would naturally and properly so be proved. By the last clause I presume is meant, that it is not susceptible of any other proof; for otherwise, there would be no fallacy. To deduce from a proposition propositions from which it would itself more naturally be deduced, is often an allowable deviation from the usual didactic order; or at 514 most, what, by an adaptation of a phrase familiar to mathematicians, may be called a logical inelegance . P225F226 P The employment of a proposition to prove that on which it is itself dependent for proof, by no means implies the degree of mental imbecility which might at first be supposed. The difficulty of comprehending how this fallacy could possibly be committed, disappe ars when we reflect that all persons, even the instructed, hold a great number of opinions without exactly recollecting how they came by them. Believing that they have at some former time verified them by sufficient evidence, but having forgotten what the evidence was, they may easily be betrayed into deducing from them the very propositions which are alone capable of serving as premises for their establishment. As if, says Archbishop Whately, one should attempt to prove the being of a God from the authority of Holy Writ; which might easily happen to one with whom both doctrines, as fundamental tenets of his religious creed, stand on the same ground of familiar and traditional belief. Arguing in a circle, however, is a stronger case of the fallacy, and i mplies more than the mere passive reception of a premise by one who does not remember how it is to be proved. It implies an actual attempt to prove two propositions reciprocally from one another; and is seldom resorted to, at least in express terms, by any person in his own speculations, but is committed by those who, being hard pressed by an adversary, are forced into giving reasons for an opinion of which, when they began to argue, they had not sufficiently considered the grounds. As in the following example from Archbishop Whately: Some mechanicians attempt to prove (what they ought to lay down as a probable but doubtful hypothesis) P226F227 P that every particle of matter gravitates equally: why? because those bodies which contain more particles ever gravitat e more strongly, i.e. , are heavier: but (it may be urged) those which are heaviest are not always more bulky; no, but they contain more particles, though more closely condensed: how do you know that? because they are heavier: how does that prove it? because all particles of matter gravitating equally, that mass which is specifically the heavier must needs have the more of them in the same space. It appears to me that the fallacious reasoner, in his private thoughts, would not be likely to proceed beyond the first step. He would acquiesce in the sufficiency of the reason first given, bodies which contain more particles are heavier. It is when he finds this questioned, and is called upon to prove it, without knowing how, that he tries to establish his premise by supposing proved what he is attempting to prove by it. The most effectual way, in fact, of exposing a petitio principii, when circumstances allow of it, is by challenging the reasoner to prove his premises; which if he attempts to do, he is necessarily driven into arguing in a circle. It is not uncommon, however, for thinkers, and those not of the lowest description, to be led even in their own thoughts, not indeed into formally proving each of two propositions from the other, but into admitting propositions which can only be so proved. In the preceding example the two together form a complete and consistent, though hypothetical, explanation of the facts concerned. And the tendency to mistake mutual coherency for truthto trust one's safety to a strong chain though it has no point of supportis at the bottom of much which, 226 In his later editions, Archbishop Whately confines the name of Petitio Principii to those cases in which one of the premises either is manifestly the same in sense with the conclusion, or is actually proved from it, or is such as the persons you are addressing are not likely to know, or to admit, except as an inference from the conclusion; as, e.g., if any one should infer the authenticity of a certain history, from its recording such and such facts, the reality of which rests on the evidence of that history. 227 No longer even a probable hypothesis, since the establishment of the atomic theory; it being now certain that the integral particles of different substances gravitate unequally. It is true that these particles, though real minima for the purposes of chemical combination, may not be the ultimate particles of the substance; and this doubt alone renders the hypothesis admissible, even as an hypothesis. 515 when reduced to the strict forms of argumentation, can exhibit itself no otherwise than as reasoning in a circle. All experience bears testimony to the enthralling effect of neat concatenation in a system of doctrines, and the difficulty with which people admit the persuasion that any thing which holds so well together can possibly fall. Since every case where a conclusion which can only be proved from certain premises is used for the proof of those premises, is a case of petitio principii, that fallacy includes a very great proportion of all incorrect reasoning. It is necessary, for completing our view of the fallacy, to exemplify some of the disguises under which it is accustomed to mask itself, and to escape exposure. A proposition would not be admitted by any person in his senses as a corollary from itself, unless it were expressed in language which made it seem different. One of the commonest modes of so expressing it, is to present the proposition itself in abstract terms, as a proof of the same proposition expressed in concrete language. This is a very frequent mode, not only of pretended proof, but of pretended explanation; and is parodied when Molire ( Le Malade Imaginaire ) makes one of his absurd physicians say, Mihi a docto doctore, Demandatur causam et rationem quare Opium facit dormire. A quoi respondeo, Quia est in eo Virtus dormitiva, Cujus est natura Sensus assoupire. The words Nature and Essence are grand instruments of this mode of begging the question, as in the well-known argument of the scholastic theologians, that the mind thinks always, because the essence of the mind is to think. Locke had to point out, that if by essence is here meant some property whi ch must manifest itself by actual exercise at all times, the premise is a direct assumption of the conclusion; while if it only means that to think is the distinctive property of a mind, there is no connection between the premise and the conclusion, since it is not necessary that a distinctive property should be perpetually in action. The following is one of the modes in which these abstract terms, Nature and Essence, are used as instruments of this fallacy. Some particular properties of a thing are selected, more or less arbitrarily, to be termed its nature or essence; and when this has been done, these properties are supposed to be invested with a kind of indefeasibleness; to have become paramount to all the other properties of the thing, and incapable of being prevailed over or counteracted by them. As when Aristotle, in a passage already cited, decides that there is no void on such arguments as this: in a void there could be no difference of up and down; for as in nothing there are no differences, so there are none in a privation or negation; but a void is merely a privation or negation of matter; therefore, in a void, bodies could not move up and down, which it is in their nature to do. In other words, it is in the nature of bodies to move up and down, ergo any physical fact which supposes them not so to move, can not be authentic. This mode of reasoning, by which a bad generalization is made to overrule all facts which contradict it, is Petitio Principii in one of its most palpable forms. 516 None of the modes of assuming what should be proved are in more frequent use than what are termed by Bentham question-begging appellatives; names which beg the question under the disguise of stating it. The most potent of these are such as have a laudatory or vitupera tive character. For instance, in politics, the word Innovation. The dictionary meaning of this term being merely a change to something new, it is difficult for the defenders even of the most salutary improvement to deny that it is an innovation; yet the word having acquired in common usage a vituperative connotation in addition to its dictionary meaning, the admission is always construed as a large concession to the disadvantage of the thing proposed. The following passage from the argument in refutation of the Epicureans, in the second book of Cicero, De Finibus, affords a fine example of this sort of fallacy: Et quidem illud ipsum non nimium probo (et tantum patior) philosophum loqui de cupiditatibus finiendis. An potest cupiditas finiri? tollenda est, atque extrahenda radicitus. Quis est enim, in quo sit cupiditas, quin recte cupidus dici possit? Ergo et avarus erit, sed finite: adulter, verum habebit modum: et luxuriosus eodem modo. Qualis ista philosophia est, qu non interitum afferat pravitatis, sed sit contenta mediocritate vitiorum? The question was, whether certain desires, when kept within bounds, are vices or not; and the argument decides the point by applying to them a word ( cupiditas ) which implies vice. It is shown, however, in the remarks which follow, that Cicero did not intend this as a serious argument, but as a criticism on what he deemed an inappropriate expression. Rem ipsam prorsus probo: elegantiam desidero. Appellet hc desideria natur ; cupiditatis nomen servet alio, etc. But m any persons, both ancient and modern, have employed this, or something equivalent to it, as a real and conclusive argument. We may remark that the passage respecting cupiditas and cupidus is also an example of another fallacy already noticed, that of Paronymous Terms. Many more of the arguments of the ancient moralists, and especially of the Stoics, fall within the definition of Petitio Principii. In the De Finibus, for example, which I continue to quote as being probably the best extant exemplification at once of the doctrines and the methods of the schools of philosophy existing at that time; of what value as arguments are such pleas as those of Cato in the third book: That if virtue were not happiness, it could not be a thing to boast of: That if death or pain were evils, it would be impossible not to fear them, and it could not, therefore, be laudable to despise them, etc. In one way of viewing these arguments, they may be regarded as appeals to the authority of the general sentiment of mankind which had stamped its approval upon certain actions and characters by the phrases referred to; but that such could have been the meaning intended is very unlikely, considering the contempt of the ancient philosophers for vulgar opinion. In any other sense they are clear cases of Petitio Principii, since the word laudable, and the idea of boasting, imply principles of conduct; and practical maxims can only be proved from speculative truths, namely, from the properties of the subject -matter, and can not, therefore, be employed to prove those properties. As well might it be argued that a government is good because we ought to support it, or that there is a God because it is our duty to pray to him. It is assumed by all the disputants in the De Finibus as the foundation of the inquiry into the summum bonum , that sapiens semper beatus est. Not simply that wisdom gives the best chance of happiness, or that wisdom consists in knowing what happiness is, and by what things it is promoted; these propositions would not have been enough for them; but that the sage always is, and must of necessity be, happy. The idea that wisdom could be consistent with unhappiness, was always rejected as inadmissible: the reason assigned by one of the interlocutors, near the beginning of the third book, being, that if the wise could be unhappy, there was little use in pursuing wisdom. But by unhappiness they did not mean pain or suffering; to that it was granted that the wisest person was liable in common with others: he was happy, because in possessing wisdom he had the most valuable of all possessions, the 517 most to be sought and prized of all things, and to possess the most valuable thing was to be the most happy. By laying it down, therefore, at the commencement of the inquiry, that the sage must be happy, the disputed question respecting the summum bonum was in fact begged; with the further assumption, that pain and suffering, so far as they can co- exist with wisdom, are not unhappiness, and are no evil. The following are additional instances of Petitio Principii, under more or less of disguise. Plato, in the Sophistes , attempts to prove that things may exist which are incorporeal, by the argument that justice and wisdom are incorporeal, and justice and wisdom must be something. Here, if by something be meant, as Plato did in fact mean, a thing capable of existing in and by itself, and not as a quality of some other thing, he begs the question in asserting that justice and wisdom must be something; if he means any thing else, his conclusion is not proved. This fallacy might also be classed under ambiguous middleterm; something, in the one premise, meaning some substance, in the other merely some object of thought, whether substance or attribute. It was formerly an argument employed in proof of what is now no longer a popular doctrine, the infinite divisibility of matter, that every portion of matter however small, must at least have an upper and an under surface. Those who used this argument did not see that it assumed the very point in dispute, the impossibility of arriving at a minimum of thickness; for if there be a minimum, its upper and under surface will of course be one; it will be itself a surface, and no more. The argument owes its very considerable plausibility to this, that the prem ise does actually seem more obvious than the conclusion, though really identical with it. As expressed in the premise, the proposition appeals directly and in concrete language to the incapacity of the human imagination for conceiving a minimum. Viewed in this light, it becomes a case of the a priori fallacy or natural prejudice, that whatever can not be conceived can not exist. Every fallacy of Confusion (it is almost unnecessary to repeat) will, if cleared up, become a fallacy of some other sort; and it will be found of deductive or ratiocinative fallacies generally, that when they mislead, there is mostly, as in this case, a fallacy of some other description lurking under them, by virtue of which chiefly it is that the verbal juggle, which is the outside or body of this kind of fallacy, passes undetected. Euler's Algebra, a book otherwise of great merit, but full, to overflowing, of logical errors in respect to the foundation of the science, contains the following argument to prove that minus multiplied by minus gives plus , a doctrine the opprobrium of all mere mathematicians, and which Euler had not a glimpse of the true method of proving. He says minus multiplied by minus can not give minus ; for minus multiplied by plus gives minus , and minu s multiplied by minus can not give the same product as minus multiplied by plus . Now one is obliged to ask, why minus multiplied by minus must give any product at all? and if it does, why its product can not be the same as that of minus multiplied by plus? for this would seem, at the first glance, not more absurd than that minus by minus should give the same as plus by plus, the proposition which Euler prefers to it. The premise requires proof, as much as the conclusion; nor can it be proved, except by that more comprehensive view of the nature of multiplication, and of algebraic processes in general, which would also supply a far better proof of the mysterious doctrine which Euler is here endeavoring to demonstrate. A striking instance of reasoning in a cir cle is that of some ethical writers, who first take for their standard of moral truth what, being the general, they deem to be the natural or instinctive sentiments and perceptions of mankind, and then explain away the numerous instances of divergence from their assumed standard, by representing them as cases in which the perceptions are unhealthy. Some particular mode of conduct or feeling is affirmed to be unnatural ; why? because it is abhorrent to the universal and natural sentiments of 518 mankind. Finding no such sentiment in yourself, you question the fact; and the answer is (if your antagonist is polite), that you are an exception, a peculiar case. But neither (say you) do I find in the people of some other country, or of some former age, any such feeling of abhorrence; ay, but their feelings were sophisticated and unhealthy. One of the most notable specimens of reasoning in a circle is the doctrine of Hobbes, Rousseau, and others, which rests the obligations by which human beings are bound as members of society, on a supposed social compact. I waive the consideration of the fictitious nature of the compact itself; but when Hobbes, through the whole Leviathan, elaborately deduces the obligation of obeying the sovereign, not from the necessity or utility of doing so, but from a promise supposed to have been made by our ancestors, on renouncing savage life and agreeing to establish political society, it is impossible not to retort by the question, Why are we bound to keep a promise made for us by others? or why bound to keep a promise at all? No satisfactory ground can be assigned for the obligation, except the mischievous consequences of the absence of faith and mutual confidence among mankind. We are, therefore, brought round to the interests of society, as the ultimate ground of the obligation of a promise; and yet those interests are not admitted to be a sufficient justification for the existence of government and law. Without a promise it is thought that we should not be bound to that which is implied in all modes of living in society, namely, to yield a general obedience to the laws therein established; and so necessary is the promise deemed, that if none has actually been made, some additional safety is supposed to be given to the foundations of society by feigning one. 3. Two principal subdivisions of the class of Fallacies of Confusion having been disposed of; there remains a third, in which the confusion is not, as in the Fallacy of Ambiguity, in misconceiving the import of the premises, nor, as in P etitio Principii, in forgetting what the premises are, but in mistaking the conclusion which is to be proved. This is the fallacy of Ignoratio Elenchi, in the widest sense of the phrase; also called by Archbishop Whately the Fallacy of Irrelevant Conclusio n. His examples and remarks are highly worthy of citation. Various kinds of propositions are, according to the occasion, substituted for the one of which proof is required; sometimes the particular for the universal; sometimes a proposition with different terms; and various are the contrivances employed to effect and to conceal this substitution, and to make the conclusion which the sophist has drawn, answer practically the same purpose as the one he ought to have established. We say, practically the same purpose, because it will very often happen that some emotion will be excited, some sentiment impressed on the mind (by a dexterous employment of this fallacy), such as shall bring men into the disposition requisite for your purpose; though they may not have assented to, or even stated distinctly in their own minds, the proposition which it was your business to establish. Thus if a sophist has to defend one who has been guilty of some serious offense, which he wishes to extenuate, though he is unable distinctly to prove that it is not such, yet if he can succeed in making the audience laugh at some casual matter, he has gained practically the same point. So also if any one has pointed out the extenuating circumstances in some particular case of offense, so as to show that it differs widely from the generality of the same class, the sophist, if he finds himself unable to disprove these circumstances, may do away the force of them, by simply referring the action to that very class , which no one can deny that it belongs to, and the very name of which will excite a feeling of disgust sufficient to counteract the extenuation; e.g., let it be a case of peculation, and that many mitigating circumstances have been brought forward which can not be denied; the sophistical opponent will reply, Well, but after all, the man is a rogue , and there is an end of it; now in reality this was (by hypothesis) never the question; and the mere assertion of what was never denied ought not, in fairness, to be regarded as decisive; but, practically, the 519 odiousness of the word, arising in great measure from the association of those very circumstances which belong to most of the class, but which we have supposed to be absent in this particular instance, excites precisely that feeling of disgust which, in effect, destroys the force of the defense. In like manner we may refer to this head all cases of improper appeal to the passions, and every thing else which is mentioned by Aristotle as extraneous to the matter in hand ( ). Again, instead of proving that this prisoner has committed an atrocious fraud, you prove that the fraud he is accused of is atrocious; instead of proving (as in the well-known tale of Cyrus and the two coats) that the taller boy had a right to force the other boy to exchange coats with him, you prove that the exchange would have been advantageous to both; instead of proving that the poor ought to be relieved in this way rather than in that, you prove that the poor ought to be relieved; instead of proving that the irrational agentwhether a brute or a madman can never be deterred from any act by apprehension of punishment (as, for instance, a dog from sheep-biting, by fear of being beaten), you prove that the beating of one dog does not operate as an e xample to other dogs, etc. It is evident that Ignoratio Elenchi may be employed as well for the apparent refutation of your opponent's proposition, as for the apparent establishment of your own; for it is substantially the same thing, to prove what was not denied or to disprove what was not asserted. The latter practice is not less common, and it is more offensive, because it frequently amounts to a personal affront, in attributing to a person opinions, etc., which he perhaps holds in abhorrence. Thus, when in a discussion one party vindicates, on the ground of general expediency, a particular instance of resistance to government in a case of intolerable oppression, the opponent may gravely maintain, that we ought not to do evil that good may come; a pr oposition which of course had never been denied, the point in dispute being, whether resistance in this particular case were doing evil or not. Or again, by way of disproving the assertion of the right of private judgment in religion, one may hear a grave argument to prove that it is impossible every one can be right in his judgment . The works of controversial writers are seldom free from this fallacy. The attempts, for instance, to disprove the population doctrines of Malthus, have been mostly cases of ignoratio elenchi . Malthus has been supposed to be refuted if it could be shown that in some countries or ages population has been nearly stationary; as if he had asserted that population always increases in a given ratio, or had not expressly declared that it increases only in so far as it is not restrained by prudence, or kept down by poverty and disease. Or, perhaps, a collection of facts is produced to prove that in some one country the people are better off with a dense population than they are in another country with a thin one; or that the people have become more numerous and better off at the same time. As if the assertion were that a dense population could not possibly be well off; as if it were not part of the very doctrine, and essential to it, that where there is a more abundant production there may be a greater population without any increase of poverty, or even with a diminution of it. The favorite argument against Berkeley's theory of the non-existence of matter, and the most popularly effective, next to a grin P227F228 Pan argument, moreover, which is not confined to coxcombs, nor to men like Samuel Johnson, whose greatly overrated ability certainly did not lie in the direction of metaphysical speculation, but is the stock argument of the Scotch school of metaphysiciansis a palpable Ignoratio Elenchi. The argument is perhaps as frequently expressed by gesture as by words, and one of its commonest forms consists in knocking a stick against the ground. This short and easy confutation overlooks the fact, that in denying matter, Berkeley did not deny any thing to which our senses bear witness, and 228 And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley with a grin. 520 therefore can not be answered by any appeal to them. His skepticism related to the supposed substratum, or hidden cause of the appearances perceived by our senses; the evidence of which, whatever may be thought of its conclusiveness, is certainly not the evidence of sense. And it will always remain a signal proof of the want of metaphysical profundity of Reid, Stewart, and, I am sorry to add, of Brown, that they should have persisted in asserting that Berkeley, if he believed his own doctrine, was bound to walk into the kennel, or run his head against a post. As if persons who do not recognize an occult cause of their sensations could not possibly believe that a fixed order subsists among the sensations themselves. Such a want of comprehension of the distinction between a thing and its sensible manifestation, or, in metaphysical language, between the noumenon and the phenomenon, would be impossible to even the dullest disciple of Kant or Coleridge. It would be easy to add a greater number of examples of this fallacy, as well as of the others which I have attempted to characterize. But a more copious exemplification does not seem to be necessary; and the intelli gent reader will have little difficulty in adding to the catalogue from his own reading and experience. We shall, therefore, here close our exposition of the general principles of logic, and proceed to the supplementary inquiry which is necessary to complete our design. 521 Book VI. On The Logic Of The Moral Sciences Si l'homme peut prdire, avec une assurance presque entire, les phnomnes dont il connat les lois; si lors mme qu'elles lui sont inconnues, il peut, d'aprs l'exprience, prvoir avec une grande probabilit les vnements de l'avenir; pourquoi regarderait-on comme une entreprise chimrique, celle de tracer avec quelque vraisemblance le tableau des destines futures de l'espce humaine, d'aprs les rsultats de son histoire? Le seul fondement de croyance dans les sciences naturelles, est cette ide, que les lois gnrales, connues ou ignores, qui rglent les phnomnes de l'univers, sont ncessaires et constantes; et par quelle raison ce principe serait -il moins vrai pour le dveloppement des facults intellectuelles et morales de l'homme, que pour les autres oprations de la nature? Enfin, puisque des opinions formes d'aprs l'exprience ... sont la seule rgle de la conduite des hommes les plus sages, pourquoi interdirait-on au philosophe d'appuyer ses conjectures sur cette mme base, pourvu qu'il ne leur attribue pas une certitude suprieure celle qui peut natre du nombre, de la constance, de l'exactitude des observations? Condorcet, Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique des Progrs de l'Esprit Humain. 522 I. Introductory Remarks 1. Principles of Evidence and Theories of Method are not to be constructed a priori . The laws of our rational faculty, like those of every other natural agency, are only learned by seeing the agent at work. The earlier achievements of science were made without the conscious observance of any Scientific Method; and we should never have known by what process truth is to be ascertained, if we had not previously ascertained many truths. But it was only the easier problems which could be thus resolved: natural sagacity, when it tried its strength against the more difficult ones, either failed altogether, or, if it succeeded here and there in obtaining a solution, had no sure means of convincing others that its solution was correct. In scientific investigation, as in all other works of human skill, the way of obtaining the end is seen as it were instinctively by superior minds in some comparatively simple case, and is then, by judicious generalization, adapted to the variety of complex cases. We learn to do a thing in difficult circumstances, by attending to the manner in which we have spontaneously done the same thing in easier ones. This truth is exemplified by the history of the various branches of knowledge which have successively, in the ascending order of their complication, assumed the character of sciences; and will doubtless receive fresh confirmation from those of which the final scientific constitution is yet to come, and which are still abandoned to the uncertainties of vague and popular discussion. Although several other sciences have emerged from this state at a comparatively recent date, none now remain in it except those which relate to man himself, the most complex and most difficult subject of study on which the human mind can be engaged. Concerning the physical nature of man, as an organized beingthough there is still much uncertainty and much controversy, which can only be terminated by the general acknowledgment and employment of stricter rules of induction than are commonly recognized there is, however, a considerable body of truths which all who have attended to the subject consider to be fully established; nor is there now any radical imperfection in the method observed in the department of science by its most distinguished modern teachers. But the laws of Mind, and, in even a greater degree, those of Society, are so far from having attained a similar state of even partial recognition, that it is still a controversy whether they are capable of becoming subjects of science in the strict sense of the term: and among those who are agreed on this point, there reigns the most irreconcilable diversity on almost every other. Here, therefore, if anywhere, the principles laid down in the preceding Books may be expected to be useful. If on matters so much the most important with which human intellect can occupy itself a more general agreement is ever to exist among thinkers; if what has been pronounced the proper study of mankind is not destined to remain the only subject which Philosophy can not succeed in rescuing from Empiricism; the same process through which the laws of many simpler phenomena have by general acknowledgment been placed beyond dispute, must be consciously and deliberately applied to those more difficult inquiries. If there are some subjects on which the results obtained have finally received the unanimous assent of all who have attended to the proof, and others on which mankind have not yet been equally successful; on which the most sagacious minds have occupied themselves from the earliest date, and have never succeeded in establishing any considerable body of truths, so as to be beyond denial or doubt; it is by generalizing the methods successfully followed in the former 523 inquiries, and adapting them to the latter, that we may hope to remove this blot on the face of science. The remaining chapters are an endeavor to facilitate this most desirable object. 2. In attempting this, I am not unmindful how little can be done toward it in a mere treatise on Logic, or how vague and unsatisfactory all precepts of Method must necessarily appear when not practically exemplified in the establishment of a body of doctrine. Doubtless, the most effectual mode of showing how the sciences of Ethics and Politics may be constructed would be to construct them: a task which, it needs scarcely be said, I am not about to undertake. But even if there were no other examples, the memorable one of Bacon would be sufficient to demonstrate, that it is sometimes both possible and useful to point out the way, though without being one's self prepared to adventure far into it. And if more were to be attempted, this at least is not a proper place for the attempt. In substance, whatever can be done in a work like this for the Logic of the Moral Sciences, has been or ought to have been accomplished in the five preceding Books; to which the present can be only a kind of supplement or appendix, since the methods of investigation applicable to moral and social science must have been already described, if I have succeeded in enumerating and characterizing those of science in general. It remains, however, to examine which of those methods are more especially suited to the various branches of moral inquiry; under what peculiar facilities or difficulties they are there employed; how far the unsatisfactory state of those inquiries is owing to a wrong choice of methods, how far to want of skill in the application of right ones; and what degree of ultimate s uccess may be attained or hoped for by a better choice or more careful employment of logical processes appropriate to the case. In other words, whether moral sciences exist, or can exist; to what degree of perfection they are susceptible of being carried; and by what selection or adaptation of the methods brought to view in the previous part of this work that degree of perfection is attainable. At the threshold of this inquiry we are met by an objection, which, if not removed, would be fatal to the attempt to treat human conduct as a subject of science. Are the actions of human beings, like all other natural events, subject to invariable laws? Does that constancy of causation, which is the foundation of every scientific theory of successive phenomena, really obtain among them? This is often denied; and for the sake of systematic completeness, if not from any very urgent practical necessity, the question should receive a deliberate answer in this place. We shall devote to the subject a chapter apart. 524 II. Of Liberty And Necessity 1. The question, whether the law of causality applies in the same strict sense to human actions as to other phenomena, is the celebrated controversy concerning the freedom of the will; which, from at least as far back as the time of Pelagius, has divided both the philosophical and the religious world. The affirmative opinion is commonly called the doctrine of Necessity, as asserting human volitions and actions to be necessary and inevitable. The negat ive maintains that the will is not determined, like other phenomena, by antecedents, but determines itself; that our volitions are not, properly speaking, the effects of causes, or at least have no causes which they uniformly and implicitly obey. I have al ready made it sufficiently apparent that the former of these opinions is that which I consider the true one; but the misleading terms in which it is often expressed, and the indistinct manner in which it is usually apprehended, have both obstructed its reception, and perverted its influence when received. The metaphysical theory of free -will, as held by philosophers (for the practical feeling of it, common in a greater or less degree to all mankind, is in no way inconsistent with the contrary theory), was i nvented because the supposed alternative of admitting human actions to be necessary was deemed inconsistent with every one's instinctive consciousness, as well as humiliating to the pride and even degrading to the moral nature of man. Nor do I deny that the doctrine, as sometimes held, is open to these imputations; for the misapprehension in which I shall be able to show that they originate, unfortunately is not confined to the opponents of the doctrine, but is participated in by many, perhaps we might say by most, of its supporters. 2. Correctly conceived, the doctrine called Philosophical Necessity is simply this: that, given the motives which are present to an individual's mind, and given likewise the character and disposition of the individual, the manner in which he will act might be unerringly inferred; that if we knew the person thoroughly, and knew all the inducements which are acting upon him, we could foretell his conduct with as much certainty as we can predict any physical event. This proposition I take to be a mere interpretation of universal experience, a statement in words of what every one is internally convinced of. No one who believed that he knew thoroughly the circumstances of any case, and the characters of the different persons concerned, would hesitate to foretell how all of them would act. Whatever degree of doubt he may in fact feel, arises from the uncertainty whether he really knows the circumstances, or the character of some one or other of the persons, with the degree of accuracy required; but by no means from thinking that if he did know these things, there could be any uncertainty what the conduct would be. Nor does this full assurance conflict in the smallest degree with what is called our feeling of freedom. We do not feel ours elves the less free, because those to whom we are intimately known are well assured how we shall will to act in a particular case. We often, on the contrary, regard the doubt what our conduct will be, as a mark of ignorance of our character, and sometimes even resent it as an imputation. The religious metaphysicians who have asserted the freedom of the will, have always maintained it to be consistent with divine foreknowledge of our actions: and if with divine, then with any other foreknowledge. We may be free, and yet another may have reason to be perfectly certain what use we shall make of our freedom. It is not, therefore, the doctrine that our volitions and actions are invariable consequents of our antecedent states of mind, that is either contradicted by our consciousness, or felt to be degrading. But the doctrine of causation, when considered as obtaining between our volitions and their antecedents, is almost universally conceived as involving more than this. Many do not 525 believe, and very few practicall y feel, that there is nothing in causation but invariable, certain, and unconditional sequence. There are few to whom mere constancy of succession appears a sufficiently stringent bond of union for so peculiar a relation as that of cause and effect. Even if the reason repudiates, the imagination retains, the feeling of some more intimate connection, of some peculiar tie, or mysterious constraint exercised by the antecedent over the consequent. Now this it is which, considered as applying to the human will, conflicts with our consciousness, and revolts our feelings. We are certain that, in the case of our volitions, there is not this mysterious constraint. We know that we are not compelled, as by a magical spell, to obey any particular motive. We feel, that if we wished to prove that we have the power of resisting the motive, we could do so (that wish being, it needs scarcely be observed, a new antecedent ); and it would be humiliating to our pride, and (what is of more importance) paralyzing to our desire of excellence, if we thought otherwise. But neither is any such mysterious compulsion now supposed, by the best philosophical authorities, to be exercised by any other cause over its effect. Those who think that causes draw their effects after them by a mystic al tie, are right in believing that the relation between volitions and their antecedents is of another nature. But they should go farther, and admit that this is also true of all other effects and their antecedents. If such a tie is considered to be involv ed in the word Necessity, the doctrine is not true of human actions; but neither is it then true of inanimate objects. It would be more correct to say that matter is not bound by necessity, than that mind is so. That the free- will metaphysicians, being mos tly of the school which rejects Hume's and Brown's analysis of Cause and Effect, should miss their way for want of the light which that analysis affords, can not surprise us. The wonder is, that the necessitarians, who usually admit that philosophical theory, should in practice equally lose sight of it. The very same misconception of the doctrine called Philosophical Necessity, which prevents the opposite party from recognizing its truth, I believe to exist more or less obscurely in the minds of most necess itarians, however they may in words disavow it. I am much mistaken if they habitually feel that the necessity which they recognize in actions is but uniformity of order, and capability of being predicted. They have a feeling as if there were at bottom a st ronger tie between the volitions and their causes; as if, when they asserted that the will is governed by the balance of motives, they meant something more cogent than if they had only said, that whoever knew the motives, and our habitual susceptibilities to them, could predict how we should will to act. They commit, in opposition to their own scientific system, the very same mistake which their adversaries commit in obedience to theirs; and in consequence do really in some instances suffer those depressing consequences which their opponents erroneously impute to the doctrine itself. 3. I am inclined to think that this error is almost wholly an effect of the associations with a word, and that it would be prevented, by forbearing to employ, for the expression of the simple fact of causation, so extremely inappropriate a term as Necessity. That word, in its other acceptations, involves much more than mere uniformity of sequence: it implies irresistibleness. Applied to the will, it only means that, the given cause will be followed by the effect, subject to all possibilities of counteraction by other causes; but in common use it stands for the operation of those causes exclusively which are supposed too powerful to be counteracted at all. When we say that all hu man actions take place of necessity, we only mean that they will certainly happen if nothing prevents; when we say that dying of want, to those who can not get food, is a necessity, we mean that it will certainly happen whatever may be done to prevent it. The application of the same term to the agencies on which human actions depend, as is used to express those agencies of nature which are really uncontrollable, can not fail, when habitual, to create a feeling of uncontrollableness in the former also. This, 526 however, is a mere illusion. There are physical sequences which we call necessary, as death for want of food or air; there are others which, though as much cases of causation as the former, are not said to be necessary, as death from poison, which an antidote, or the use of the stomach -pump, will sometimes avert. It is apt to be forgotten by people's feelings, even if remembered by their understandings, that human actions are in this last predicament: they are never (except in some cases of mania) ruled by any one motive with such absolute sway that there is no room for the influence of any other. The causes, therefore, on which action depends, are never uncontrollable; and any given effect is only necessary provided that the causes tending to produce it are not controlled. That whatever happens, could not have happened otherwise, unless something had taken place which was capable of preventing it, no one surely needs hesitate to admit. But to call this by the name Necessity is to use the term in a sense so different from its primitive and familiar meaning, from that which it bears in the common occasions of life, as to amount almost to a play upon words. The associations derived from the ordinary sense of the term will adhere to it in spite of all we can do; and though the doctrine of Necessity, as stated by most who hold it, is very remote from fatalism, it is probable that most necessitarians are fatalists, more or less, in their feelings. A fatalist believes, or half believes (for nobody is a consistent fatalist), not only that whatever is about to happen will be the infallible result of the causes which produce it (which is the true necessitarian doctrine), but moreover that there is no use in struggling against it; that it will happen, however we may strive to prevent it. Now, a necessitarian, believing that our actions follow from our characters, and that our characters follow from our organization, our education, and our circumstances, is apt to be, with more or less of consciousness on his part, a fatal ist as to his own actions, and to believe that his nature is such, or that his education and circumstances have so moulded his character, that nothing can now prevent him from feeling and acting in a particular way, or at least that no effort of his own can hinder it. In the words of the sect which in our own day has most perseveringly inculcated and most perversely misunderstood this great doctrine, his character is formed for him, and not by him; therefore his wishing that it had been formed differently is of no use; he has no power to alter it. But this is a grand error. He has, to a certain extent, a power to alter his character. Its being, in the ultimate resort, formed for him, is not inconsistent with its being, in part, formed by him as one of the intermediate agents. His character is formed by his circumstances (including among these his particular organization); but his own desire to mould it in a particular way, is one of those circumstances, and by no means one of the least influential. We can not, indeed, directly will to be different from what we are. But neither did those who are supposed to have formed our characters directly will that we should be what we are. Their will had no direct power except over their own actions. They made us what they did make us, by willing, not the end, but the requisite means; and we, when our habits are not too inveterate, can, by similarly willing the requisite means, make ourselves different. If they could place us under the influence of certain circumstances, we, in like manner, can place ourselves under the influence of other circumstances. We are exactly as capable of making our own character, if we will, as others are of making it for us. Yes (answers the Owenite), but these words, if we will, surrender the whole point: since the will to alter our own character is given us, not by any efforts of ours, but by circumstances which we can not help, it comes to us either from external causes, or not at all. Most true: if the Owenite stops here, he is in a position from which nothing can expel him. Our character is formed by us as well as for us; but the wish which induces us to attempt to form it is formed for us; and how? Not, in general, by our organization, nor wholly by our education, but by our experience; experience of the painful consequences of the character we previously had; or by some strong feeling of admiration or aspiration, accidentally aroused. But to think 527 that we have no power of altering our character, and to think that we shall not use our power unless we desire to use it, are very different things, and have a very different effect on the mind. A person who does not wish to alter his character, can not be the person who is supposed to feel discouraged or paralyzed by thinking himself unable to do it. The depressing effect of the fatalist doctrine can only be felt where there is a wish to do what that doctrine represents as impossible. It is of no consequence what we think forms our character, when we have no desire of our own about forming it; but it is of great consequence that we should not be prevented from forming such a desire by thinking the attainment impracticable, and that if we have the desire, we should know that the work is not so irrevocably done as to be incapable of being altered. And indeed, if we examine closely, we shall find that this feeling, of our being able to modify our own character if we wish , is itself the feeling of moral freedom which we are conscious of. A person feels morally free who feels that his habits or his temptations are not his masters, but he theirs; who, even in yielding to them, knows that he could resist; that were he desirous of altogether throwing them off, there would not be required for that purpose a stronger desire than he knows himself to be capable of feeling. It is of course necessary, to render our consciousness of freedom complete, that we should have succeeded in making our character all we have hitherto attempted to make it; for if we have wished and not attained, we have, to that extent, not pow er over our own character; we are not free. Or at least, we must feel that our wish, if not strong enough to alter our character, is strong enough to conquer our character when the two are brought into conflict in any particular case of conduct. And hence it is said with truth, that none but a person of confirmed virtue is completely free. The application of so improper a term as Necessity to the doctrine of cause and effect in the matter of human character, seems to me one of the most signal instances in p hilosophy of the abuse of terms, and its practical consequences one of the most striking examples of the power of language over our associations. The subject will never be generally understood until that objectionable term is dropped. The free- will doctrin e, by keeping in view precisely that portion of the truth which the word Necessity puts out of sight, namely the power of the mind to co -operate in the formation of its own character, has given to its adherents a practical feeling much nearer to the truth than has generally (I believe) existed in the minds of necessitarians. The latter may have had a stronger sense of the importance of what human beings can do to shape the characters of one another; but the free-will doctrine has, I believe, fostered in its supporters a much stronger spirit of self- culture. 4. There is still one fact which requires to be noticed (in addition to the existence of a power of self-formation) before the doctrine of the causation of human actions can be freed from the confusion and misapprehensions which surround it in many minds. When the will is said to be determined by motives, a motive does not mean always, or solely, the anticipation of a pleasure or of a pain. I shall not here inquire whether it be true that, in the commencement, all our voluntary actions are mere means consciously employed to obtain some pleasure or avoid some pain. It is at least certain that we gradually, through the influence of association, come to desire the means without thinking of the end; the action itself becomes an object of desire, and is performed without reference to any motive beyond itself. Thus far, it may still be objected that, the action having through association become pleasurable, we are, as much as before, moved to act by the anticipation of a pleasure, namely, the pleasure of the action itself. But granting this, the matter does not end here. As we proceed in the formation of habits, and become accustomed to will a particular act or a particular course of conduct because it is pleasur able, we at last continue to will it without any reference to its being pleasurable. Although, from some change in us or in our circumstances, we have ceased to find any pleasure in the action, or perhaps to anticipate any 528 pleasure as the consequence of it , we still continue to desire the action, and consequently to do it. In this manner it is that habits of hurtful excess continue to be practiced although they have ceased to be pleasurable; and in this manner also it is that the habit of willing to perseve re in the course which he has chosen, does not desert the moral hero, even when the reward, however real, which he doubtless receives from the consciousness of well-doing, is any thing but an equivalent for the sufferings he undergoes, or the wishes which he may have to renounce. A habit of willing is commonly called a purpose; and among the causes of our volitions, and of the actions which flow from them, must be reckoned not only likings and aversions, but also purposes. It is only when our purposes have become independent of the feelings of pain or pleasure from which they originally took their rise, that we are said to have a confirmed character. A character, says Novalis, is a completely fashioned will: and the will, once so fashioned, may be steady and constant, when the passive susceptibilities of pleasure and pain are greatly weakened or materially changed. With the corrections and explanations now given, the doctrine of the causation of our volitions by motives, and of motives by the desirable objects offered to us, combined with our particular susceptibilities of desire, may be considered, I hope, as sufficiently established for the purposes of this treatise. 529 III. That There Is, Or May Be, A Science Of Human Nature 1. It is a common notion, or at least it is implied in many common modes of speech, that the thoughts, feelings, and actions of sentient beings are not a subject of science, in the same strict sense in which this is true of the objects of outward nature. This notion seems to involve some confusion of ideas, which it is necessary to begin by clearing up. Any facts are fitted, in themselves, to be a subject of science which follow one another according to constant laws, although those laws may not have been discovered, nor even be discoverable by our existing resources. Take, for instance, the most familiar class of meteorological phenomena, those of rain and sunshine. Scientific inquiry has not yet succeeded in ascertaining the order of antecedence and consequence among these phenomena, so as to be able, at least in our regions of the earth, to predict them with certainty, or even with any high degree of probability. Yet no one doubts that the phenomena depend on laws, and that these must be derivative laws resulting from known ultimate laws, those of heat, electricity, vaporization, and elastic fluids. Nor can it be doubted that if we were acquainted with all the antecedent circumstances, we could, even from those more general laws, predict (saving diffi culties of calculation) the state of the weather at any future time. Meteorology, therefore, not only has in itself every natural requisite for being, but actually is, a science; though, from the difficulty of observing the facts on which the phenomena depend (a difficulty inherent in the peculiar nature of those phenomena), the science is extremely imperfect; and were it perfect, might probably be of little avail in practice, since the data requisite for applying its principles to particular instances would rarely be procurable. A case may be conceived, of an intermediate character, between the perfection of science and this its extreme imperfection. It may happen that the greater causes, those on which the principal part of the phenomena depends, are within the reach of observation and measurement; so that if no other causes intervened, a complete explanation could be given not only of the phenomena in general, but of all the variations and modifications which it admits of. But inasmuch as other, perhaps many other causes, separately insignificant in their effects, co -operate or conflict in many or in all cases with those greater causes, the effect, accordingly, presents more or less of aberration from what would be produced by the greater causes alone. Now if these minor causes are not so constantly accessible, or not accessible at all, to accurate observation, the principal mass of the effect may still, as before, be accounted for, and even predicted; but there will be variations and modifications which we shall not be competent to explain thoroughly, and our predictions will not be fulfilled accurately, but only approximately. It is thus, for example, with the theory of the tides. No one doubts that Tidology (as Dr. Whewell proposes to call it) is really a science. As much of the phenomena as depends on the attraction of the sun and moon is completely understood, and may, in any, even unknown, part of the earth's surface, be foretold with certainty; and the far greater part of the phenomena depends on those causes. But circumstances of a local or casual nature, such as the configuration of the bottom of the ocean, the degree of confinement from shores, the direction of the wind, etc., influence, in many or in all places, the height and time of the tide; and a portion of these circumstances being either not accurately knowable, not precisely measurable, or not capable of being certainly foreseen, the tide in known places commonly 530 varies from the calculated result of general principles by some difference that we can not explain, and in unknown ones may vary from it by a difference that we are not able to foresee or conjecture. Nevertheless, not only is it certain that these variations depend on causes, and follow their causes by laws of unerring uniformity; not only, therefore, is tidology a science, like meteorology, but it is, what hitherto at least meteorology is not, a science largely available in practice. General laws may be laid down respecting the tides, predictions may be founded on those laws, and the result will in the main, though often not with complete accuracy, correspond to the predictions. And this is what is or ought to be meant by those who speak of sciences which are not exact sciences. Astronomy was once a science, without being an exact science. It could not become exact until not only the general course of the planetary motions, but the perturbations also, were accounted for, and referred to their causes. It has become an exact science, because its phenomena have been brought under laws comprehending the whole of the causes by which the phenomena are influenced, whether in a great or only in a trifling degree, whether in all or only in some cases, and assigning to each of those causes the share of effect which really belongs to it. But in the theory of the tides the only laws as yet accurately ascertained are those of the causes which affect the phenomenon in all cases, and in a considerable degree; while others which affect it in some cases only, or, if in all, only in a slight degree, have not been sufficiently ascertained and studied to enable us to lay down their laws; still less to deduce the completed law of the phenomenon, by compounding the effects of the greater with those of the minor causes. Tidology, therefore, is not yet an exact science; not from any inherent incapacity of being so, but from the difficulty of ascertaining with complete precision the real derivative uniformities. By combining, however, the exact laws of the greater causes, and of such of the minor ones as are sufficiently known, with such empirical laws or such approximate generalizations respecting the miscellaneous variations as can be obtained by specific observation, we can lay down general propositions which will be true in the main, and on which, with allowance for the degree of their probable inaccuracy, we may safely ground our expectations and our conduct. 2. The science of human nature is of this description. It falls far short of the standard of exactness now realized in Astronomy; but there is no reason that it should not be as much a science as Tidology is, or as Astronomy was when its calculations had only mastered the main phenomena, but not the perturbations. The phenomena with which this science is conversant being the thoughts, feelings, and actions o f human beings, it would have attained the ideal perfection of a science if it enabled us to foretell how an individual would think, feel, or act throughout life, with the same certainty with which astronomy enables us to predict the places and the occultations of the heavenly bodies. It needs scarcely be stated that nothing approaching to this can be done. The actions of individuals could not be predicted with scientific accuracy, were it only because we can not foresee the whole of the circumstances in wh ich those individuals will be placed. But further, even in any given combination of (present) circumstances, no assertion, which is both precise and universally true, can be made respecting the manner in which human beings will think, feel, or act. This is not, however, because every person's modes of thinking, feeling, and acting do not depend on causes; nor can we doubt that if, in the case of any individual, our data could be complete, we even now know enough of the ultimate laws by which mental phenomen a are determined, to enable us in many cases to predict, with tolerable certainty, what, in the greater number of supposable combinations of circumstances, his conduct or sentiments would be. But the impressions and actions of human beings are not solely the result of their present circumstances, but the joint result of those circumstances and of the characters of the individuals; and the agencies which determine human character are so 531 numerous and diversified (nothing which has happened to the person throughout life being without its portion of influence), that in the aggregate they are never in any two cases exactly similar. Hence, even if our science of human nature were theoretically perfect, that is, if we could calculate any character as we can calculate the orbit of any planet, from given data; still, as the data are never all given, nor ever precisely alike in different cases, we could neither make positive predictions, nor lay down universal propositions. Inasmuch, however, as many of those effects which it is of most importance to render amenable to human foresight and control are determined, like the tides, in an incomparably greater degree by general causes, than by all partial causes taken together; depending in the main on those circumstances and qualities which are common to all mankind, or at least to large bodies of them, and only in a small degree on the idiosyncrasies of organization or the peculiar history of individuals; it is evidently possible with regard to all such effects, to make predictions which will almost always be verified, and general propositions which are almost always true. And whenever it is sufficient to know how the great majority of the human race, or of some nation or class of persons, will think, feel, and act, these propositions are equivalent to universal ones. For the purposes of political and social science this is sufficient. As we formerly remarked, an approximate generalization is, in social inquiries, for most practical purposes equivalent to an exact one; that wh ich is only probable when asserted of individual human beings indiscriminately selected, being certain when affirmed of the character and collective conduct of masses. It is no disparagement, therefore, to the science of Human Nature, that those of its general propositions which descend sufficiently into detail to serve as a foundation for predicting phenomena in the concrete, are for the most part only approximately true. But in order to give a genuinely scientific character to the study, it is indispensable that these approximate generalizations, which in themselves would amount only to the lowest kind of empirical laws, should be connected deductively with the laws of nature from which they result; should be resolved into the properties of the causes on which the phenomena depend. In other words, the science of Human Nature may be said to exist in proportion as the approximate truths, which compose a practical knowledge of mankind, can be exhibited as corollaries from the universal laws of human nature on which they rest; whereby the proper limits of those approximate truths would be shown, and we should be enabled to deduce others for any new state of circumstances, in anticipation of specific experience. The proposition now stated is the text on which the two succeeding chapters will furnish the comment. 532 IV. Of The Laws Of Mind 1. What the Mind is, as well as what Matter is, or any other question respecting Things in themselves, as distinguished from their sensible manifestations, it would be foreign to the purposes of this treatise to consider. Here, as throughout our inquiry, we shall keep clear of all speculations respecting the mind's own nature, and shall understand by the laws of mind those of mental Phenomena; of the various feelings or states of consciousness of sentient beings. These, according to the classification we have uniformly followed, consist of Thoughts, Emotions, Volitions, and Sensations; the last being as truly states of Mind as the three former. It is usual, indeed, to speak of sensations as states of body, not of mind. But this is the common confusion, of giving one and the same name to a phenomenon and to the approximate cause or conditions of the phenomenon. The immediate antecedent of a sensation is a s tate of body, but the sensation itself is a state of mind. If the word Mind means any thing, it means that which feels. Whatever opinion we hold respecting the fundamental identity or diversity of matter and mind, in any case the distinction between mental and physical facts, between the internal and the external world, will always remain, as a matter of classification; and in that classification, sensations, like all other feelings, must be ranked as mental phenomena. The mechanism of their production, both in the body itself and in what is called outward nature, is all that can with any propriety be classed as physical. The phenomena of mind, then, are the various feelings of our nature, both those improperly called physical and those peculiarly designated as mental; and by the laws of mind, I mean the laws according to which those feelings generate one another. 2. All states of mind are immediately caused either by other states of mind, or by states of body. When a state of mind is produced by a state of mind, I call the law concerned in the case a law of Mind. When a state of mind is produced directly by a state of body, the law is a law of Body, and belongs to physical science. With regard to those states of mind which are called sensations, all are agreed that these have for their immediate antecedents, states of body. Every sensation has for its proximate cause some affection of the portion of our frame called the nervous system, whether this affection originates in the action of some external object, or in some pathological condition of the nervous organization itself. The laws of this portion of our naturethe varieties of our sensations, and the physical conditions on which they proximately dependmanifestly belong to the province of Physiology. Whet her the remainder of our mental states are similarly dependent on physical conditions, is one of the vexat questiones in the science of human nature. It is still disputed whether our thoughts, emotions, and volitions are generated through the intervention of material mechanism; whether we have organs of thought and of emotion, in the same sense in which we have organs of sensation. Many eminent physiologists hold the affirmative. These contend that a thought (for example) is as much the result of nervous agency, as a sensation; that some particular state of our nervous system, in particular of that central portion of it called the brain, invariably precedes, and is presupposed by, every state of our consciousness. According to this theory, one state of mind is never really produced by another: all are produced by states of body. When one thought seems to call up another by association, it is not really a thought which recalls a thought; the association did not exist between the two thoughts, but between the two states of the brain or nerves which preceded the thoughts: one of those states recalls the other, each being attended in its passage by the particular state of 533 consciousness which is consequent on it. On this theory the uniformities of succession among states of mind would be mere derivative uniformities, resulting from the laws of succession of the bodily states which cause them. There would be no original mental laws, no Laws of Mind in the sense in which I use the term, at all; and mental science would be a mere branch, though the highest and most recondite branch, of the science of physiology. M. Comte, accordingly, claims the scientific cognizance of moral and intellectual phenomena exclusively for physiologists; and not only denies to Psychology, or Mental Philosophy properly so called, the character of a science, but places it, in the chimerical nature of its objects and pretensions, almost on a par with astrology. But, after all has been said which can be said, it remains incontestable that there exist uniformities of succession among states of mind, and that these can be ascertained by observation and experiment. Further, that every mental state has a nervous state for its immediate antecedent and proximate cause, though extremely probable, can not hitherto be said to be proved, in the conclusive manner in which this can be proved of sensations; and even were it certain, yet every one must admit that we are wholly ignorant of the characteristics of these nervous states; we know not, and at present have no means of knowing, in what respect one of them differs from another; and our only mode of studying their successions or co -existences must be by observing the successions and co- existences of the mental states, of which they are supposed to be the generators or causes. The successions, therefore, which obtain among mental phenomena, do not admit of being deduced from the physiological laws of our nervous organization; and all real knowledge of them must continue, for a long time at least, if not always, to be sought in the direct study, by observation and experiment, of the mental successions themselves. Since, therefore, the order of our mental phenomena must be studied in those phenomena, and not inferred from the laws of any phenomena more general, there is a distinct and separate Science of Mind. The relations, indeed, of that science to the science of physiology must never be overlooked or undervalued. It must by no means be forgotten that the laws of mind may be derivative laws resulting from law s of animal life, and that their truth, therefore, may ultimately depend on physical conditions; and the influence of physiological states or physiological changes in altering or counteracting the mental successions, is one of the most important department s of psychological study. But, on the other hand, to reject the resource of psychological analysis, and construct the theory of the mind solely on such data as physiology at present affords, seems to me as great an error in principle, and an even more serious one in practice. Imperfect as is the science of mind, I do not scruple to affirm that it is in a considerably more advanced state than the portion of physiology which corresponds to it; and to discard the former for the latter appears, to me an infring ement of the true canons of inductive philosophy, which must produce, and which does produce, erroneous conclusions in some very important departments of the science of human nature. 3. The subject, then, of Psychology is the uniformities of succession, the laws, whether ultimate or derivative, according to which one mental state succeeds another; is caused by, or at least, is caused to follow, another. Of these laws some are general, others more special. The following are examples of the most general law s: First. Whenever any state of consciousness has once been excited in us, no matter by what cause, an inferior degree of the same state of consciousness, a state of consciousness resembling the former, but inferior in intensity, is capable of being reproduced in us, without the presence of any such cause as excited it at first. Thus, if we have once seen or touched an object, we can afterward think of the object though it be absent from our sight or from our touch. If we have been joyful or grieved at some event, we can think of or remember our past 534 joy or grief, though no new event of a happy or painful nature has taken place. When a poet has put together a mental picture of an imaginary object, a Castle of Indolence, a Una, or a Hamlet, he can after ward think of the ideal object he has created, without any fresh act of intellectual combination. This law is expressed by saying, in the language of Hume, that every mental impression has its idea . Secondly. These ideas, or secondary mental states, are excited by our impressions, or by other ideas, according to certain laws which are called Laws of Association. Of these laws the first is, that similar ideas tend to excite one another. The second is, that when two impressions have been frequently experienced (or even thought of) either simultaneously or in immediate succession, then whenever one of these impressions, or the idea of it, recurs, it tends to excite the idea of the other. The third law is, that greater intensity in either or both of the impressi ons is equivalent, in rendering them excitable by one another, to a greater frequency of conjunction. These are the laws of ideas, on which I shall not enlarge in this place, but refer the reader to works professedly psychological, in particular to Mr. Jam es Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, where the principal laws of association, along with many of their applications, are copiously exemplified, and with a masterly hand. P228F229 P These simple or elementary Laws of Mind have been ascertained by the ordinary methods of experimental inquiry; nor could they have been ascertained in any other manner. But a certain number of elementary laws having thus been obtained, it is a fair subject of scientific inquiry how far those laws can be made to go in explaining the actual phenomena. It is obvious that complex laws of thought and feeling not only may, but must, be generated from these simple laws. And it is to be remarked, that the case is not always one of Composition of Causes: the effect of concurring causes is not always precisely the sum of the effects of those causes when separate, nor even always an effect of the same kind with them. Reverting to the distinction which occupies so prominent a place in the theory of induction, the laws of the phenomena of mind are sometimes analogous to mechanical, but sometimes also to chemical laws. When many impressions or ideas are operating in the mind together, there sometimes takes place a process of a similar kind to chemical combination. When impressions have been so often experienced in conjunction, that each of them calls up readily and instantaneously the ideas of the whole group, those ideas sometimes melt and coalesce into one another, and appear not several ideas, but one; in the same manner as, when the seven prismatic colors are presented to the eye in rapid succession, the sensation produced is that of white. But as in this last case it is correct to say that the seven colors when they rapidly follow one another generate white, but not that they actually are white; so it appears to me that the Complex Idea, formed by the blending together of several simpler ones, should, when it really appears simple (that is, when the separate elements are not consciously distinguishable in it), be said to result from , or be generated by , the simple ideas, not to consist of them. Our idea of an orange really consists of the simple ideas of a certain color, a certain form, a certain taste and smell, etc., because we can, by interrogating our consciousness, perceive all these elements in the idea. But we can not perceive, in so apparently simple a feeling as our perception of the shape of an object by the eye, all that multitude of ideas derived from other 229 When this chapter was written, Professor Bain had not yet published even the first part (The Senses and the Intellect) of his profound Treatise on the Mind. In this the laws of association have been more comprehensively stated and more largely exemplified than by any previous writer; and the work, having been completed by the publication of The Emotions and the Will, may now be referred to as incomparably the most complete analytical exposition of the mental phenomena, on the basis of a legitimate Induction, which has yet been produced. More recently still , Mr. Bain has joined with me in appending to a new edition of the Analysis, notes intended to bring up the analytic science of Mind to its latest improvements. Many striking applications of the laws of association to the explanation of complex mental phenomena are also to be found in Mr. Herbert Spencer's Principles of Psychology. 535 senses, without which it is well ascertained that no such visual perception would ever have had existence; nor, in our idea of Extension, can we discover those elementary ideas of resistance, derived from our muscular frame, in which it has been conclusively shown that the idea originates. These, therefore, are cases of mental chemistry; in which it is proper to say that the simple ideas generate, rather than that they compose, the complex ones. With respect to all the other constituents of the mind, its beliefs, its abstruser conceptions, its sentiments, emotions, and volitions, there are some (among whom are Hartley and the author of the Analysis ) who think that the whole of these are generated from simple ideas of sensation, by a chemistry similar to that which we have just exemplified. These philosophers have made out a great part of their case, but I am not satisfied that they have established the whole of it. They have shown that there is such a thing as mental chemistry; that the heterogeneous nature of a feeling A, considered in relation to B and C, is no conclusive argument against its being generated from B and C. Having proved this, they proceed to show, that where A is found, B and C were, or may have been present, and why, therefore, they ask, should not A have been generated from B and C? But even if this evidenc e were carried to the highest degree of completeness which it admits of; if it were shown (which hitherto it has not, in all cases, been) that certain groups of associated ideas not only might have been, but actually were, present whenever the more recondi te mental feeling was experienced; this would amount only to the Method of Agreement, and could not prove causation until confirmed by the more conclusive evidence of the Method of Difference. If the question be whether Belief is a mere case of close association of ideas, it would be necessary to examine experimentally if it be true that any ideas whatever, provided they are associated with the required degree of closeness, give rise to belief. If the inquiry be into the origin of moral feelings, the feeling for example of moral reprobation, it is necessary to compare all the varieties of actions or states of mind which are ever morally disapproved, and see whether in all these cases it can be shown, or reasonably surmised, that the action or state of mind had become connected by association, in the disapproving mind, with some particular class of hateful or disgusting ideas; and the method employed is, thus far, that of Agreement. But this is not enough. Supposing this proved, we must try further by the Method of Difference, whether this particular kind of hateful or disgusting ideas, when it becomes associated with an action previously indifferent, will render that action a subject of moral disapproval. If this question can be answered in the affirmative, it is shown to be a law of the human mind, that an association of that particular description is the generating cause of moral reprobation. That all this is the case has been rendered extremely probable, but the experiments have not been tried with the degree of precision necessary for a complete and absolutely conclusive induction. P229F230 P It is further to be remembered, that even if all which this theory of mental phenomena contends for could be proved, we should not be the more enabled to resolve the laws of the more complex feelings into those of the simpler ones. The generation of one class of mental phenomena from another, whenever it can be made out, is a highly interesting fact in psychological chemistry; but it no more supersedes the necessity of an experimental study of the generated phenomenon, than a knowledge of the properties of oxygen and sulphur enables us to deduce those of sulphuric acid without specific observation and experiment. Whatever, therefore, may be the final issue of the attempt to account for the origin of our judgments, our desires, or our volitions, from simpler mental phenomena, it is not the less imperative to 230 In the case of the moral sentiments the place of direct experiment is to a considerable extent supplied by historical experience, and we are able to trace with a tolerable approach to certainty the particular associations by which those sentiments are engendered. This has been attempted, so far as respects the sentiment of justice, in a little work by the present author, entitled Utilitarianism . 536 ascertain the sequences of the complex phenomena themselves, by special study in conformity to the canons of Induction. Thus, in respect to Belief, psychologists will always have to inquire what beliefs we have by direct consciousness, and according to what laws one belief produces another; what are the laws in virtue of which one thing is recognized by the mind, either rightly or erroneously, as evidence of another thing. In regard to Desire, they will have to examine what objects we desire naturally, and by what causes we are made to desire things originally indifferent, or even disagreeable to us; and so forth. It may be remarked that the general laws of association prevail among these more intricate states of mind, in the same manner as among the simpler ones. A desire, an emotion, an idea of the higher order of abstraction, even our judgments and volitions, when they have become habitual, are called up by association, according to precisely the same laws as our simple ideas. 4. In the course of these inquiries, it will be natural and necessary to examine how far the production of one state of mind by another is influenced by any assignable state of body. The commonest observation shows that different minds are susceptible in very different degrees to the action of the same psychological causes. The idea, for example, of a given desirable object will excite in different mind s very different degrees of intensity of desire. The same subject of meditation, presented to different minds, will excite in them very unequal degrees of intellectual action. These differences of mental susceptibility in different individuals may be, firs t, original and ultimate facts; or, secondly, they may be consequences of the previous mental history of those individuals; or, thirdly and lastly, they may depend on varieties of physical organization. That the previous mental history of the individuals must have some share in producing or in modifying the whole of their mental character, is an inevitable consequence of the laws of mind; but that differences of bodily structure also co- operate, is the opinion of all physiologists, confirmed by common exper ience. It is to be regretted that hitherto this experience, being accepted in the gross, without due analysis, has been made the groundwork of empirical generalizations most detrimental to the progress of real knowledge. It is certain that the natural diff erences which really exist in the mental predispositions or susceptibilities of different persons are often not unconnected with diversities in their organic constitution. But it does not therefore follow that these organic differences must in all cases influence the mental phenomena directly and immediately. They often affect them through the medium of their psychological causes. For example, the idea of some particular pleasure may excite in different persons, even independently of habit or education, ver y different strengths of desire, and this may be the effect of their different degrees or kinds of nervous susceptibility; but these organic differences, we must remember, will render the pleasurable sensation itself more intense in one of these persons than in the other; so that the idea of the pleasure will also be an intenser feeling, and will, by the operation of mere mental laws, excite an intenser desire, without its being necessary to suppose that the desire itself is directly influenced by the physical peculiarity. As in this, so in many cases, such differences in the kind or in the intensity of the physical sensations as must necessarily result from differences of bodily organization, will of themselves account for many differences not only in the degree, but even in the kind, of the other mental phenomena. So true is this, that even different qualities of mind, different types of mental character, will naturally be produced by mere differences of intensity in the sensations generally; as is well pointed out in the able essay on Dr. Priestley, by Mr. Martineau, mentioned in a former chapter: The sensations which form the elements of all knowledge are received either simultaneously or successively: when several are received simultaneously, as the smel l, the taste, the color, the form, etc., of a fruit, their association together constitutes our idea of an object ; when received successively, their association makes up the idea of an event . Any thing, then, which 537 favors the associations of synchronous ideas will tend to produce a knowledge of objects, a perception of qualities; while any thing which favors association in the successive order, will tend to produce a knowledge of events, of the order of occurrences, and of the connection of cause and effect : in other words, in the one case a perceptive mind, with a discriminate feeling of the pleasurable and painful properties of things, a sense of the grand and the beautiful will be the result: in the other, a mind attentive to the movements and phenomena, a ratiocinative and philosophic intellect. Now it is an acknowledged principle, that all sensations experienced during the presence of any vivid impression become strongly associated with it, and with each other; and does it not follow that the synchronous feelings of a sensitive constitution ( i.e., the one which has vivid impressions) will be more intimately blended than in a differently formed mind? If this suggestion has any foundation in truth, it leads to an inference not unimportant; that where nature has endowed an individual with great original susceptibility, he will probably be distinguished by fondness for natural history, a relish for the beautiful and great, and moral enthusiasm; where there is but a mediocrity of sensibility, a love of science, of abstract truth, with a deficiency of taste and of fervor, is likely to be the result. We see from this example, that when the general laws of mind are more accurately known, and, above all, more skillfully applied to the detailed explanation of mental peculiarities, they will account for many more of those peculiarities than is ordinarily supposed. Unfortunately the reaction of the last and present generation against the philosophy of the eighteenth century has produced a very general neglect of this great department of analytical inquiry; of which, consequently, the recent progress has been by no means proportional to its early promise. The majority of those who speculate on human nature prefer dogmatically to assume that the mental differences which t hey perceive, or think they perceive, among human beings, are ultimate facts, incapable of being either explained or altered, rather than take the trouble of fitting themselves, by the requisite processes of thought, for referring those mental differences to the outward causes by which they are for the most part produced, and on the removal of which they would cease to exist. The German school of metaphysical speculation, which has not yet lost its temporary predominance in European thought, has had this among many other injurious influences; and at the opposite extreme of the psychological scale, no writer, either of early or of recent date, is chargeable in a higher degree with this aberration from the true scientific spirit, than M. Comte. It is certain that, in human beings at least, differences in education and in outward circumstances are capable of affording an adequate explanation of by far the greatest portion of character; and that the remainder may be in great part accounted for by physical differe nces in the sensations produced in different individuals by the same external or internal cause. There are, however, some mental facts which do not seem to admit of these modes of explanation. Such, to take the strongest case, are the various instincts of animals, and the portion of human nature which corresponds to those instincts. No mode has been suggested, even by way of hypothesis, in which these can receive any satisfactory, or even plausible, explanation from psychological causes alone; and there is great reason to think that they have as positive, and even as direct and immediate, a connection with physical conditions of the brain and nerves as any of our mere sensations have. A supposition which (it is perhaps not superfluous to add) in no way confl icts with the indisputable fact that these instincts may be modified to any extent, or entirely conquered, in human beings, and to no inconsiderable extent even in some of the domesticated animals, by other mental influences, and by education. Whether organic causes exercise a direct influence over any other classes of mental phenomena, is hitherto as far from being ascertained as is the precise nature of the organic 538 conditions even in the case of instincts. The physiology, however, of the brain and nervous system is in a state of such rapid advance, and is continually bringing forth such new and interesting results, that if there be really a connection between mental peculiarities and any varieties cognizable by our senses in the structure of the cerebral and nervous apparatus, the nature of that connection is now in a fair way of being found out. The latest discoveries in cerebral physiology appear to have proved that any such connection which may exist is of a radically different character from that conten ded for by Gall and his followers, and that, whatever may hereafter be found to be the true theory of the subject, phrenology at least is untenable. 539 V. Of Ethology, Or The Science Of The Formation Of Character 1. The laws of mind as characterized in the preceding chapter, compose the universal or abstract portion of the philosophy of human nature; and all the truths of common experience, constituting a practical knowledge of mankind, must, to the extent to which they are truths, be results or consequences of these. Such familiar maxims, when collected a posteriori from observation of life, occupy among the truths of the science the place of what, in our analysis of Induction, have so often been spoken of under the title of E mpirical Laws. An Empirical Law (it will be remembered) is a uniformity, whether of succession or of co- existence, which holds true in all instances within our limits of observation, but is not of a nature to afford any assurance that it would hold beyond those limits; either because the consequent is not really the effect of the antecedent, but forms part along with it of a chain of effects flowing from prior causes not yet ascertained, or because there is ground to believe that the sequence (though a case of causation) is resolvable into simpler sequences, and, depending therefore on a concurrence of several natural agencies, is exposed to an unknown multitude of possibilities of counteraction. In other words, an empirical law is a generalization, of which, not content with finding it true, we are obliged to ask, why is it true? knowing that its truth is not absolute, but dependent on some more general conditions, and that it can only be relied on in so far as there is ground of assurance that those conditions are realized. Now, the observations concerning human affairs collected from common experience are precisely of this nature. Even if they were universally and exactly true within the bounds of experience, which they never are, still they are not the ult imate laws of human action; they are not the principles of human nature, but results of those principles under the circumstances in which mankind have happened to be placed. When the Psalmist said in his haste that all men are liars, he enunciated what i n some ages and countries is borne out by ample experience; but it is not a law of man's nature to lie; though it is one of the consequences of the laws of human nature, that lying is nearly universal when certain external circumstances exist universally, especially circumstances productive of habitual distrust and fear. When the character of the old is asserted to be cautious, and of the young impetuous, this, again, is but an empirical law; for it is not because of their youth that the young are impetuous, nor because of their age that the old are cautious. It is chiefly, if not wholly, because the old, during their many years of life, have generally had much experience of its various evils, and having suffered or seen others suffer much from incautious exposure to them, have acquired associations favorable to circumspection; while the young, as well from the absence of similar experience as from the greater strength of the inclinations which urge them to enterprise, engage themselves in it more readily. Here, then, is the explanation of the empirical law; here are the conditions which ultimately determine whether the law holds good or not. If an old man has not been oftener than most young men in contact with danger and difficulty, he will be equally incautious; if a youth has not stronger inclinations than an old man, he probably will be as little enterprising. The empirical law derives whatever truth it has from the causal laws of which it is a consequence. If we know those laws, we know what are the limits to the derivative law; while, if we have not yet accounted for the empirical lawif it rests only on observationthere is no safety in applying it far beyond the limits of time, place, and circumstance in which the observations were made. 540 The really scientific truths, then, are not these empirical laws, but the causal laws which explain them. The empirical laws of those phenomena which depend on known causes, and of which a general theory can therefore be constructed, have, whatever may be their value in practice, no other function in science than that of verifying the conclusions of theory. Still more must this be the case when most of the empirical laws amount, even within the limits of observation, only to approximate generalizations. 2. This, however, is not, so much as is sometimes supposed, a peculiarity of the sciences called moral. It is only in the simplest branches of science that empirical laws are ever exactly true; and not always in those. Astronomy, for example, is the simplest of all the sciences which explain, in the concrete, the actual course of natural events. The causes or forces on which astronomical phenomena depend, are fewer in number than those which determine any other of the great phenomena of nature. Accordingly, as each effect results from the conflict of but few causes, a great degree of regularity and uniformity might be expected to exist among the effects; and such is really the case: they have a fixed order, and return in cycles. But propositions which should express, with absolute correctness, all the successive positions of a planet until the cycle is completed, would be of almost unmanageable complexity, and could be obtained from theory alone. The generalizations which can be collected on the subject from direct observation, even such as Kepler's law, are mere approximations; the planets, owing to their perturbations by one another, do not move in exact ellipses. Thus even in astronomy, perfect exactness in the mere empirical laws is not to be looked for; much less, then, in more complex subjects of inquiry. The same example shows how little can be inferred against the universality or even the simplicity of the ultimate laws, from the impossibility of establishing any but approximate empirical laws of the effects. The laws of causation according to which a class of phenomena are produced may be very few and simple, and yet the effects themselves may be so various and complicated that it shall be impossible to trace any regularity whatever completely through them. For the phenomena in question may be of an eminently modifiable character; insomuch that innumerable circumstances are capable of influencing the effect, although they may all do it according to a very small number of laws. Suppose that all which passes in the mind of man is determined by a few simple laws; still, if those laws be such that there is not one of the facts surrounding a human being, or of the events which happen to him, that does not influence in some mode or degree his subsequent mental history, and if the circumstances of different human beings are extremely different, it will be no wonder if very few propositions can be made respecting the details of their conduct or feelings, which will be true of all mankind. Now, without deciding whether the ultimat e laws of our mental nature are few or many, it is at least certain that they are of the above description. It is certain that our mental states, and our mental capacities and susceptibilities, are modified, either for a time or permanently, by every thing which happens to us in life. Considering, therefore, how much these modifying causes differ in the case of any two individuals, it would be unreasonable to expect that the empirical laws of the human mind, the generalizations which can be made respecting the feelings or actions of mankind without reference to the causes that determine them, should be any thing but approximate generalizations. They are the common wisdom of common life, and as such are invaluable; especially as they are mostly to be applied to cases not very dissimilar to those from which they were collected. But when maxims of this sort, collected from Englishmen, come to be applied to Frenchmen, or when those collected from the present day are applied to past or future generations, they are apt to be very much at fault. Unless we have resolved the empirical law into the laws of the causes on which it depends, and ascertained that those causes extend to the case which we have in view, there can be no 541 reliance placed in our inferences. For eve ry individual is surrounded by circumstances different from those of every other individual; every nation or generation of mankind from every other nation or generation: and none of these differences are without their influence in forming a different type of character. There is, indeed, also a certain general resemblance; but peculiarities of circumstances are continually constituting exceptions even to the propositions which are true in the great majority of cases. Although, however, there is scarcely any mode of feeling or conduct which is, in the absolute sense, common to all mankind; and though the generalizations which assert that any given variety of conduct or feeling will be found universally (however nearly they may approximate to truth within given limits of observation), will be considered as scientific propositions by no one who is at all familiar with scientific investigation; yet all modes of feeling and conduct met with among mankind have causes which produce them; and in the propositions which assign those causes will be found the explanation of the empirical laws, and the limiting principle of our reliance on them. Human beings do not all feel and act alike in the same circumstances; but it is possible to determine what makes one person, in a given position, feel or act in one way, another in another; how any given mode of feeling and conduct, compatible with the general laws (physical and mental) of human nature, has been, or may be, formed. In other words, mankind have not one universal character, but there exist universal laws of the Formation of Character. And since it is by these laws, combined with the facts of each particular case, that the whole of the phenomena of human action and feeling are produced, it is on these that every rational attempt to construct the science of human nature in the concrete, and for practical purposes, must proceed. 3. The laws, then, of the formation of character being the principal object of scientific inquiry into human nature, it remains to determine the method of investigation best fitted for ascertaining them. And the logical principles according to which this question is to be decided, must be those which preside over every other attempt to investigate the laws of very complex phenomena. For it is evident that both the character of any human being, and the aggregate of the circumstances by which that character has been formed, are facts of a high order of complexity. Now to such cases we have seen that the Deductive Method, setting out from general laws, and verifying their consequences by specific experience, is alone applicable. The grounds of this great logical doctrine have formerly been stated; and its truth will derive additional support from a brief examination of the specialties of the present cas e. There are only two modes in which laws of nature can be ascertaineddeductively and experimentally; including under the denomination of experimental inquiry, observation as well as artificial experiment. Are the laws of the formation of character suscep tible of a satisfactory investigation by the method of experimentation? Evidently not; because, even if we suppose unlimited power of varying the experiment (which is abstractedly possible, though no one but an Oriental despot has that power, or, if he had, would probably be disposed to exercise it), a still more essential condition is wanting the power of performing any of the experiments with scientific accuracy. The instances requisite for the prosecution of a directly experimental inquiry into the forma tion of character, would be a number of human beings to bring up and educate, from infancy to mature age. And to perform any one of these experiments with scientific propriety, it would be necessary to know and record every sensation or impression received by the young pupil from a period long before it could speak; including its own notions respecting the sources of all those sensations and impressions. It is not only impossible to do this completely, but even to do so much of it as should constitute a tolerable approximation. One apparently trivial circumstance which eluded our vigilance might let in a train of impressions 542 and associations sufficient to vitiate the experiment as an authentic exhibition of the effects flowing from given causes. No one who has sufficiently reflected on education is ignorant of this truth; and whoever has not, will find it most instructively illustrated in the writings of Rousseau and Helvetius on that great subject. Under this impossibility of studying the laws of the formati on of character by experiments purposely contrived to elucidate them, there remains the resource of simple observation. But if it be impossible to ascertain the influencing circumstances with any approach to completeness even when we have the shaping of them ourselves, much more impossible is it when the cases are further removed from our observation, and altogether out of our control. Consider the difficulty of the very first stepof ascertaining what actually is the character of the individual, in each particular case that we examine. There is hardly any person living concerning some essential part of whose character there are not differences of opinion even among his intimate acquaintances; and a single action, or conduct continued only for a short time, goes a very little way toward ascertaining it. We can only make our observations in a rough way and en masse ; not attempting to ascertain completely in any given instance, what character has been formed, and still less by what causes; but only observing in what state of previous circumstances it is found that certain marked mental qualities or deficiencies oftenest exist. These conclusions, besides that they are mere approximate generalizations, deserve no reliance, even as such, unless the instances are su fficiently numerous to eliminate not only chance, but every assignable circumstance in which a number of the cases examined may happen to have resembled one another. So numerous and various, too, are the circumstances which form individual character, that the consequence of any particular combination is hardly ever some definite and strongly marked character, always found where that combination exists, and not otherwise. What is obtained, even after the most extensive and accurate observation, is merely a c omparative result; as, for example, that in a given number of Frenchmen, taken indiscriminately, there will be found more persons of a particular mental tendency, and fewer of the contrary tendency, than among an equal number of Italians or English, simila rly taken; or thus: of a hundred Frenchmen and an equal number of Englishmen, fairly selected, and arranged according to the degree in which they possess a particular mental characteristic, each number, 1, 2, 3, etc., of the one series, will be found to possess more of that characteristic than the corresponding number of the other. Since, therefore, the comparison is not one of kinds, but of ratios and degrees; and since, in proportion as the differences are slight, it requires a greater number of instances to eliminate chance, it can not often happen to any one to know a sufficient number of cases with the accuracy requisite for making the sort of comparison last mentioned; less than which, however, would not constitute a real induction. Accordingly, there is hardly one current opinion respecting the characters of nations, classes, or descriptions of persons, which is universally acknowledged as indisputable. P230F231 P 231 The most favorable cases for making such approximate generalizations are what may be termed collective instances; where we are fortunately enabled to see the whole class respecting which we are inquiring in action at once, and, from the qualities displayed by the collective body, are able to judge what must be the qualities of the majority of the individuals composing it. Thus the character of a nation is shown in its acts as a nation; not so much in the acts of its government, for those are much influenced by other causes; but in the current popular maxims, and other marks of the general direction of public opinion; in the character of the persons or writings that are held in permanent esteem or admiration; in laws and institutions, so far as they are the work of the nation itself, o r are acknowledged and supported by it; and so forth. But even here there is a large margin of doubt and uncertainty. These things are liable to be influenced by many circumstances; they are partially determined by the distinctive qualities of that nation or body of persons, but partly also by external causes which would influence any other body of persons in the same manner. In order, therefore, to make the experiment really complete, we ought to be able to try it without variation upon other nations: to try how Englishmen would 543 And finally, if we could even obtain by way of experiment a much more satisfactory assurance of t hese generalizations than is really possible, they would still be only empirical laws. They would show, indeed, that there was some connection between the type of character formed and the circumstances existing in the case; but not what the precise connection was, nor to which of the peculiarities of those circumstances the effect was really owing. They could only, therefore, be received as results of causation, requiring to be resolved into the general laws of the causes: until the determination of which, we could not judge within what limits the derivative laws might serve as presumptions in cases yet unknown, or even be depended on as permanent in the very cases from which they were collected. The French people had, or were supposed to have, a certain nat ional character; but they drive out their royal family and aristocracy, alter their institutions, pass through a series of extraordinary events for the greater part of a century, and at the end of that time their character is found to have undergone important changes. A long list of mental and moral differences are observed, or supposed to exist between men and women; but at some future and, it may be hoped, not distant period, equal freedom and an equally independent social position come to be possessed by both, and their differences of character are either removed or totally altered. But if the differences which we think we observe between French and English, or between men and women, can be connected with more general laws; if they be such as might be expected to be produced by the differences of government, former customs, and physical peculiarities in the two nations, and by the diversities of education, occupations, personal independence, and social privileges, and whatever original differences there may be in bodily strength and nervous sensibility between the two sexes; then, indeed, the coincidence of the two kinds of evidence justifies us in believing that we have both reasoned rightly and observed rightly. Our observation, though not sufficient as proof, is ample as verification. And having ascertained not only the empirical laws, but the causes, of the peculiarities, we need be under no difficulty in judging how far they may be expected to be permanent, or by what circumstances they would be modified or destroyed. 4. Since then it is impossible to obtain really accurate propositions respecting the formation of character from observation and experiment alone, we are driven perforce to that which, even if it had not been the indispensable, would have been the most perfect, mode of investigation, and which it is one of the principal aims of philosophy to extend; namely, that which tries its experiments not on the complex facts, but on the simple ones of which they are compounded; and after ascertaining the laws of the causes, the composition of which gives rise to the complex phenomena, then considers whether these will not explain and account for the approximate generalizations which have been framed empirically respecting the sequences of those complex phenomena. The laws of the formation of character are, in short, derivative laws, resulting from the general laws of mind, and are to be obtained by deducing them from those general laws by supposing any given set of circumstances, and then considering what, according to the laws of mind, will be the influence of those circumstances on the formation of character. A science is thus formed, to which I would propose to give the name of Ethology, or the Science of Character, from , a word more nearly corresponding to the term character as I here use it, than any other word in the same language. The name is perhaps etymologically applicable to the entire science of our mental and moral nature; but if, act or feel if placed in the same circumstances in which we have supposed Frenchmen to be placed; to apply, in short, the Method of Differences as well as that of Agreement. Now these experiments we can not try, nor even approximate to. 544 as is usual and convenient, we employ the name Psychology for the science of the elementary laws of mind, Ethology will serve for the ulterior science which determines the kind of character produced in conformity to those general laws by any set of circumstances, physical and moral. According to this definition, Ethology is the science which corresponds to the art of education in the widest sense of the term, including the formation of national or collective character as well as individual. It would indeed be vain to expect (however completely the laws of the formation of character might be ascertained) that we could know so accurately the circumstances of any given case as to be able positively to predict the character that would be produced in that case. But we must remember that a degree of knowledge far short of the power of actual prediction is often of much practical value. There may be great power of influencing phenomena, with a very imperfect knowledge of the causes by which they are in any given instance determined. It is enough that we know that certain means have a tendency to produce a given effect, and that others have a tendency to frustrate it. When the circumstances of an individual or of a nation are in any considerable degree under our control, we may, by our knowledge of tendencies, be enabled to shape those circumstances in a manner much more favorable to the ends we desire, than the shape which they would of themselves assume. This is the limit of our power; but within this limit the power is a most important one. This science of E thology may be called the Exact Science of Human Nature; for its truths are not, like the empirical laws which depend on them, approximate generalizations, but real laws. It is, however (as in all cases of complex phenomena), necessary to the exactness of the propositions, that they should be hypothetical only, and affirm tendencies, not facts. They must not assert that something will always, or certainly, happen; but only that such and such will be the effect of a given cause, so far as it operates uncounteracted. It is a scientific proposition, that bodily strength tends to make men courageous; not that it always makes them so: that an interest on one side of a question tends to bias the judgment; not that it invariably does so: that experience tends to give wisdom; not that such is always its effect. These propositions, being assertive only of tendencies, are not the less universally true because the tendencies may be frustrated. 5. While, on the one hand, Psychology is altogether, or principally, a science of observation and experiment, Ethology, as I have conceived it, is, as I have already remarked, altogether deductive. The one ascertains the simple laws of Mind in general, the other traces their operation in complex combinations of circumstances. Ethology stands to Psychology in a relation very similar to that in which the various branches of natural philosophy stand to mechanics. The principles of Ethology are properly the middle principles, the axiomata media (as Bacon would have said) of the science of mind: as distinguished, on the one hand, from the empirical laws resulting from simple observation, and, on the other, from the highest generalizations. And this seems a suitable place for a logical remark, which, though of general application, is of peculiar importance in reference to the present subject. Bacon has judiciously observed that the axiomata media of every science principally constitute its value. The lowest generalizations, until explained by and resolved into the middle principles of whi ch they are the consequences, have only the imperfect accuracy of empirical laws; while the most general laws are too general, and include too few circumstances, to give sufficient indication of what happens in individual cases, where the circumstances are almost always immensely numerous. In the importance, therefore, which Bacon assigns, in every science, to the middle principles, it is impossible not to agree with him. But I conceive him to have been radically wrong in his doctrine respecting the mode in which these axiomata media should be arrived at; though there is no one proposition laid down in his works for which he has been more 545 extravagantly eulogized. He enunciates as a universal rule that induction should proceed from the lowest to the middle principles, and from those to the highest, never reversing that order, and, consequently, leaving no room for the discovery of new principles by way of deduction at all. It is not to be conceived that a man of his sagacity could have fallen into thi s mistake if there had existed in his time, among the sciences which treat of successive phenomena, one single instance of a deductive science, such as mechanics, astronomy, optics, acoustics, etc., now are. In those sciences it is evident that the higher and middle principles are by no means derived from the lowest, but the reverse. In some of them the very highest generalizations were those earliest ascertained with any scientific exactness; as, for example (in mechanics), the laws of motion. Those general laws had not, indeed, at first the acknowledged universality which they acquired after having been successfully employed to explain many classes of phenomena to which they were not originally seen to be applicable; as when the laws of motion were employed, in conjunction with other laws, to explain deductively the celestial phenomena. Still, the fact remains, that the propositions which were afterward recognized as the most general truths of the science were, of all its accurate generalizations, those ear liest arrived at. Bacon's greatest merit can not therefore consist, as we are so often told that it did, in exploding the vicious method pursued by the ancients of flying to the highest generalizations first, and deducing the middle principles from them; s ince this is neither a vicious nor an exploded, but the universally accredited method of modern science, and that to which it owes its greatest triumphs. The error of ancient speculation did not consist in making the largest generalizations first, but in making them without the aid or warrant of rigorous inductive methods, and applying them deductively without the needful use of that important part of the Deductive Method termed Verification. The order in which truths of the various degrees of generality should be ascertained can not, I apprehend, be prescribed by any unbending rule. I know of no maxim which can be laid down on the subject, but to obtain those first in respect to which the conditions of a real induction can be first and most completely realized. Now, wherever our means of investigation can reach causes, without stopping at the empirical laws of the effects, the simplest cases, being those in which fewest causes are simultaneously concerned, will be most amenable to the inductive process; and these are the cases which elicit laws of the greatest comprehensiveness. In every science, therefore, which has reached the stage at which it becomes a science of causes, it will be usual as well as desirable first to obtain the highest generalizations, an d then deduce the more special ones from them. Nor can I discover any foundation for the Baconian maxim, so much extolled by subsequent writers, except this: That before we attempt to explain deductively from more general laws any new class of phenomena, i t is desirable to have gone as far as is practicable in ascertaining the empirical laws of those phenomena; so as to compare the results of deduction, not with one individual instance after another, but with general propositions expressive of the points of agreement which have been found among many instances. For if Newton had been obliged to verify the theory of gravitation, not by deducing from it Kepler's laws, but by deducing all the observed planetary positions which had served Kepler to establish those laws, the Newtonian theory would probably never have emerged from the state of an hypothesis. P231F232 P 232 To which, says Dr. Whewell, we may add, that it is certain, from the history of the subject, that in that case the hypothesis would never have been framed at all. Dr. Whewell ( Philosophy of Discovery , pp. 277- 282) defends Bacon's rule against the preceding strictures. But his defense consists only in asserting and exemplifying a proposition which I had myself stated, viz., that though the largest generalizations may be the earliest made, they are not at first seen in their entire generality, but acquire it by degrees, as they are found to explain one class after another of phenomena. The laws of motion, for example, were not known to extend to the celestial regions, until the motions of the celestial bodies had been deduced from them. This, however, does not in any way affect the fact, that the middle principles of astronomy, 546 The applicability of these remarks to the special case under consideration can not admit of question. The science of the formation of character is a science of causes. The subject is one to which those among the canons of induction, by which laws of causation are ascertained, can be rigorously applied. It is, therefore, both natural and advisable to ascertain the simplest, which are necessarily the most general, laws of causation first, and to deduce the middle principles from them. In other words, Ethology, the deductive science, is a system of corollaries from Psychology, the experimental science. 6. Of these, the earlier alone has been, as yet, really conc eived or studied as a science; the other, Ethology, is still to be created. But its creation has at length become practicable. The empirical laws, destined to verify its deductions, have been formed in abundance by every successive age of humanity; and the premises for the deductions are now sufficiently complete. Excepting the degree of uncertainty which still exists as to the extent of the natural differences of individual minds, and the physical circumstances on which these may be dependent (considerations which are of secondary importance when we are considering mankind in the average, or en masse ), I believe most competent judges will agree that the general laws of the different constituent elements of human nature are even now sufficiently understood to render it possible for a competent thinker to deduce from those laws, with a considerable approach to certainty, the particular type of character which would be formed in mankind generally by any assumed set of circumstances. A science of Ethology, founded on the laws of Psychology, is therefore possible; though little has yet been done, and that little not at all systematically, toward forming it. The progress of this important but most imperfect science will depend on a double process: first, that of deducing theoretically the ethological consequences of particular circumstances of position, and comparing them with the recognized results of common experience; and, secondly, the reverse operation; increased study of the various types of human nature that are to be found in the world; conducted by persons not only capable of analyzing and recording the circumstances in which these types severally prevail, but also sufficiently acquainted with psychological laws to be able to explain and account for the characteristics of the type, by the peculiarities of the circumstances: the residuum alone, when there proves to be any, being set down to the account of congenital predispositions. For the experimental or a posteriori part of this process, the materials are c ontinually accumulating by the observation of mankind. So far as thought is concerned, the great problem of Ethology is to deduce the requisite middle principles from the general laws of Psychology. The subject to be studied is, the origin and sources of a ll those qualities in human beings which are interesting to us, either as facts to be produced, to be avoided, or merely to be understood; and the object is, to determine, from the general laws of mind, combined with the general position of our species in the universe, what actual or possible combinations of circumstances are capable of promoting or of preventing the production of those qualities. A science which possesses middle principles of this kind, arranged in the order, not of causes, but of the effects which it is desirable to produce or to prevent, is duly prepared to be the foundation of the corresponding Art. And when Ethology shall be thus prepared, practical education will be the mere transformation of those principles into a parallel system of precepts, and the adaptation of these to the sum total of the individual circumstances which exist in each particular case. the central force, for example, and the law of the inverse square, could not have been discovered, if the laws of motion, which are so much more universal, had not been known first. On Bacon's system of step -by-step generalization, it would be impossible in any science to ascend higher than the empirical laws; a remark which Dr. Whewell's own Inductive Tables, referred to by him in support of his argument, amply bear out. 547 It is hardly necessary again to repeat that, as in every other deductive science, verification a posteriori must proceed pari passu with deduction a priori . The inference given by theory as to the type of character which would be formed by any given circumstances must be tested by specific experience of those circumstances whenever obtainable; and the conclusions of the science as a wh ole must undergo a perpetual verification and correction from the general remarks afforded by common experience respecting human nature in our own age, and by history respecting times gone by. The conclusions of theory can not be trusted, unless confirmed by observation; nor those of observation, unless they can be affiliated to theory, by deducing them from the laws of human nature, and from a close analysis of the circumstances of the particular situation. It is the accordance of these two kinds of eviden ce separately taken the consilience of a priori reasoning and specific experiencewhich forms the only sufficient ground for the principles of any science so immersed in matter, dealing with such complex and concrete phenomena, as Ethology. 548 VI. General Considerations On The Social Science 1. Next after the science of individual man comes the science of man in societyof the actions of collective masses of mankind, and the various phenomena which constitute social life. If the formation of individual character is already a complex subject of study, this subject must be, in appearance at least, still more complex; because the number of concurrent causes, all exercising more or less influence on the total effect, is gr eater, in the proportion in which a nation, or the species at large, exposes a larger surface to the operation of agents, psychological and physical, than any single individual. If it was necessary to prove, in opposition to an existing prejudice, that the simpler of the two is capable of being a subject of science, the prejudice is likely to be yet stronger against the possibility of giving a scientific character to the study of Politics, and of the phenomena of Society. It is, accordingly, but of yesterday that the conception of a political or social science has existed anywhere but in the mind of here and there an insulated thinker, generally very ill prepared for its realization: though the subject itself has of all others engaged the most general attention, and been a theme of interested and earnest discussions, almost from the beginning of recorded time. The condition, indeed, of politics as a branch of knowledge was, until very lately, and has scarcely even yet ceased to be, that which Bacon animadverted on, as the natural state of the sciences while their cultivation is abandoned to practitioners; not being carried on as a branch of speculative inquiry, but only with a view to the exigencies of daily practice, and the fructifera experimenta , therefore, being aimed at, almost to the exclusion of the lucifera . Such was medical investigation, before physiology and natural history began to be cultivated as branches of general knowledge. The only questions examined were, what diet is wholesome, or what medicine will cure some given disease; without any previous systematic inquiry into the laws of nutrition, and of the healthy and morbid action of the different organs, on which laws the effect of any diet or medicine must evidently depend. And in politics the questions which engaged general attention were similar: Is such an enactment, or such a form of government, beneficial or the reverseeither universally, or to some particular community? without any previous inquiry into the general conditions by which the operation of legislative measures, or the effects produced by forms of government, are determined. Students in politics thus attempted to study the pathology and therapeutics of the social body, before they had laid the necessary foundation in its physiol ogy; to cure disease without understanding the laws of health. And the result was such as it must always be when persons, even of ability, attempt to deal with the complex questions of a science before its simpler and more elementary truths have been estab lished. No wonder that, when the phenomena of society have so rarely been contemplated in the point of view characteristic of science, the philosophy of society should have made little progress; should contain few general propositions sufficiently precise and certain for common inquirers to recognize in them a scientific character. The vulgar notion accordingly is, that all pretension to lay down general truths on politics and society is quackery; that no universality and no certainty are attainable in such matters. What partly excuses this common notion is, that it is really not without foundation in one particular sense. A large proportion of those who have laid claim to the character of philosophic politicians have attempted not to ascertain universal seq uences, but to frame universal precepts. They have imagined some one form of government, or system of laws, to fit all casesa pretension well meriting the ridicule with which it is treated by practitioners, and wholly unsupported by the analogy of 549 the art to which, from the nature of its subject, that of politics must be the most nearly allied. No one now supposes it possible that one remedy can cure all diseases, or even the same disease in all constitutions and habits of body. It is not necessary even to the perfection of a science, that the corresponding art should possess universal, or even general, rules. The phenomena of society might not only be completely dependent on known causes, but the mode of action of all those causes might be reducible to law s of considerable simplicity, and yet no two cases might admit of being treated in precisely the same manner. So great might be the variety of circumstances on which the results in different cases depend, that the art might not have a single general precept to give, except that of watching the circumstances of the particular case, and adapting our measures to the effects which, according to the principles of the science, result from those circumstances. But although, in so complicated a class of subjects, i t is impossible to lay down practical maxims of universal application, it does not follow that the phenomena do not conform to universal laws. 2. All phenomena of society are phenomena of human nature, generated by the action of outward circumstances upo n masses of human beings; and if, therefore, the phenomena of human thought, feeling, and action are subject to fixed laws, the phenomena of society can not but conform to fixed laws, the consequence of the preceding. There is, indeed, no hope that these l aws, though our knowledge of them were as certain and as complete as it is in astronomy, would enable us to predict the history of society, like that of the celestial appearances, for thousands of years to come. But the difference of certainty is not in the laws themselves, it is in the data to which these laws are to be applied. In astronomy the causes influencing the result are few, and change little, and that little according to known laws; we can ascertain what they are now, and thence determine what th ey will be at any epoch of a distant future. The data, therefore, in astronomy are as certain as the laws themselves. The circumstances, on the contrary, which influence the condition and progress of society are innumerable, and perpetually changing; and though they all change in obedience to causes, and therefore to laws, the multitude of the causes is so great as to defy our limited powers of calculation. Not to say that the impossibility of applying precise numbers to facts of such a description would se t an impassable limit to the possibility of calculating them beforehand, even if the powers of the human intellect were otherwise adequate to the task. But, as before remarked, an amount of knowledge quite insufficient for prediction, may be most valuable for guidance. The science of society would have attained a very high point of perfection if it enabled us, in any given condition of social affairs, in the condition, for instance, of Europe or any European country at the present time, to understand by wha t causes it had, in any and every particular, been made what it was; whether it was tending to any, and to what, changes; what effects each feature of its existing state was likely to produce in the future; and by what means any of those effects might be prevented, modified, or accelerated, or a different class of effects superinduced. There is nothing chimerical in the hope that general laws, sufficient to enable us to answer these various questions for any country or time with the individual circumstances of which we are well acquainted, do really admit of being ascertained; and that the other branches of human knowledge, which this undertaking presupposes, are so far advanced that the time is ripe for its commencement. Such is the object of the Social Science. That the nature of what I consider the true method of the science may be made more palpable, by first showing what that method is not, it will be expedient to characterize briefly two radical misconceptions of the proper mode of philosophizing on society and government, one or other of which is, either explicitly or more often unconsciously, entertained by almost all 550 who have meditated or argued respecting the logic of politics, since the notion of treating it by strict rules, and on Baconian principles, has been current among the more advanced thinkers. These erroneous methods, if the word method can be applied to erroneous tendencies arising from the absence of any sufficiently distinct conception of method, may be termed the Exp erimental, or Chemical, mode of investigation, and the Abstract, or Geometrical, mode. We shall begin with the former. 551 VII. Of The Chemical, Or Experimental, Method In The Social Science 1. The laws of the phenomena of society are, and can be, nothing but the laws of the actions and passions of human beings united together in the social state. Men, however, in a state of society are still men; their actions and passions are obedient to the laws of individual human nature. Men are not, when brought together, converted into another kind of substance, with different properties; as hydrogen and oxygen are different from water, or as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and azote, are different from nerves, muscles, and tendons. Human beings in society have no properties but those which are derived from, and may be resolved into, the laws of the nature of individual man. In social phenomena the Composition of Causes is the universal law. Now, the method of philosophizing which may be termed chemical overlooks this fact, and proceeds as if the nature of man as an individual were not concerned at all, or were concerned in a very inferior degree, in the operations of human beings in society. All reasoning in political or social affairs, groun ded on principles of human nature, is objected to by reasoners of this sort, under such names as abstract theory. For the direction of their opinions and conduct, they profess to demand, in all cases without exception, specific experience. This mode of thinking is not only general with practitioners in politics, and with that very numerous class who (on a subject which no one, however ignorant, thinks himself incompetent to discuss) profess to guide themselves by common sense rather than by science; but is often countenanced by persons with greater pretensions to instructionpersons who, having sufficient acquaintance with books and with the current ideas to have heard that Bacon taught mankind to follow experience, and to ground their conclusions on facts instead of metaphysical dogmas, think that, by treating political facts in as directly experimental a method as chemical facts, they are showing themselves true Baconians, and proving their adversaries to be mere syllogizers and school-men. As, however, the notion of the applicability of experimental methods to political philosophy can not co- exist with any just conception of these methods themselves, the kind of arguments from experience which the chemical theory brings forth as its fruits (and which form the staple, in this country especially, of parliamentary and hustings oratory), are such as, at no time since Bacon, would have been admitted to be valid in chemistry itself, or in any other branch of experimental science. They are such as these: that the prohibition of foreign commodities must conduce to national wealth, because England has flourished under it, or because countries in general which have adopted it have flourished; that our laws, or our internal administration, or our constitution, are exc ellent for a similar reason; and the eternal arguments from historical examples, from Athens or Rome, from the fires in Smithfield or the French Revolution. I will not waste time in contending against modes of argumentation which no person with the smalles t practice in estimating evidence could possibly be betrayed into; which draw conclusions of general application from a single unanalyzed instance, or arbitrarily refer an effect to some one among its antecedents, without any process of elimination or comparison of instances. It is a rule both of justice and of good sense to grapple not with the absurdest, but with the most reasonable form of a wrong opinion. We shall suppose our inquirer acquainted with the true conditions of experimental investigation, and competent in point of acquirements for realizing them, so far as they can be realized. He shall know as much of the facts of history as mere erudition can teach as much as can be proved by testimony, without 552 the assistance of any theory; and if those mere facts, properly collated, can fulfill the conditions of a real induction, he shall be qualified for the task. But that no such attempt can have the smallest chance of success, has been abundantly shown in the tenth chapter of the Third Book. We there examined whether effects which depend on a complication of causes can be made the subject of a true induction by observation and experiment; and concluded, on the most convincing grounds, that they can not. Since, of all effects, none depend on so great a complication of causes as social phenomena, we might leave our case to rest in safety on that previous showing. But a logical principle as yet so little familiar to the ordinary run of thinkers, requires to be insisted on more than once, in order to make the due impression; and the present being the case which of all others exemplifies it the most strongly, there will be advantage in re-stating the grounds of the general maxim, as applied to the specialties of the class of inquiries now under consideration. 2. The first difficulty which meets us in the attempt to apply experimental methods for ascertaining the laws of social phenomena, is that we are without the means of making artificial experiments. Even if we could contrive experiments at leisure, and try them without limit, we should do so under immense disadvantage; both from the impossibility of ascertaining and taking note of all the facts of each case, and because (those facts being in a perpetual state of change), before sufficient time had elapsed to ascertain the result of the experiment, some material circumstances would always have ceased to be the same. But it is unnecessary to consider the logical objections which would exist to the conclusiveness of our experiments, since we palpably never have the power of trying any. We can only watch those which nature produces, or which are produced for other reasons. We can not adapt our logical means to our wants, by varying the circumstances as the exigencies of elimination may require. If the spontaneous instances, formed by contemporary events and by the successions of phenomena recorded in history, afford a sufficient variation of circumstances, an induction from specific experience is attainable; otherwise not. The question to be resolved is, therefore, whether the requisites for induction respecting the causes of political effects or the properties of political agents, are to be met with in history? including under the term, contemporary history. And in order to give fixity to our conceptions, it will be advisable to suppose this question asked in reference to some special subject of political inquiry or controversy; such as that frequent topic of debate in the present century, the operation of restrictive and prohibitory commercial legislation upon national wealth. Let this, then, be the scientific question to be investigated by specific experience. 3. In order to apply to the case the most perfect of the methods of experimental inquiry, the Method of Difference, we require to find two instances which tally in every particular except the one which is the subject of inquiry. If two nations can be found which are alike in all natural advantages and disadvantages; whose people resemble each other in every quality, physical and moral, spontaneous and acquired; whose habits, usages, opinions, laws, and institutions are the same in all respects, except that one of them has a more protective tariff, or in other respects interferes more with the freedom of industry; if one of these nations is found to be rich and the other poor, or one richer than the other, this will be an experimentum crucis : a real proof by experience, which of the two systems is most favorable to national riches. But the supposition that two such instances can be met with is manifestly absurd. Nor is such a concurrence even abstractedly possible. Two nations which agreed in every thing except their commercial policy would agree also in that. Differences of legislation are not inherent and ultimate diversities; are not properties of Kinds. They are effects of pre-existing causes. If the two nations differ in this portion of their institutions, it is from some difference in their position, and thence in their apparent interests, or in some portion or other of their opinions, habits, and tendencies; which opens a view of further differences without any 553 assignable limit, capable of operating on their industrial prosperity, as well as on every other feature of their condition, in more ways than can be enumerated or imagined. There is thus a demonstrated impossibility of obtaining, in the investigations of the social science, the conditions required for the most conclusive form of inquiry by specific experience. In the absence of the direct, we may next try, as in other cases, the supplementary resourc e, called in a former place the Indirect Method of Difference; which, instead of two instances differing in nothing but the presence or absence of a given circumstance, compares two classes of instances respectively agreeing in nothing but the presence of a circumstance on the one side and its absence on the other. To choose the most advantageous case conceivable (a case far too advantageous to be ever obtained), suppose that we compare one nation which has a restrictive policy with two or more nations agreeing in nothing but in permitting free trade. We need not now suppose that either of these nations agrees with the first in all its circumstances; one may agree with it in some of its circumstances, and another in the remainder. And it may be argued, that if these nations remain poorer than the restrictive nation, it can not be for want either of the first or of the second set of circumstances, but it must be for want of the protective system. If (we might say) the restrictive nation had prospered from the one set of causes, the first of the free-trade nations would have prospered equally; if by reason of the other, the second would; but neither has; therefore the prosperity was owing to the restrictions. This will be allowed to be a very favorable specimen of an argument from specific experience in politics, and if this be inconclusive, it would not be easy to find another preferable to it. Yet, that it is inconclusive, scarcely requires to be pointed out. Why must the prosperous nation have prospered from one cause exclusively? National prosperity is always the collective result of a multitude of favorable circumstances; and of these, the restrictive nation may unite a greater number than either of the others, though it may have all of those circumstances in common with either one or the other of them. Its prosperity may be partly owing to circumstances common to it with one of those nations, and partly with the other, while they, having each of them only half the number of favorable circumstances, have remai ned inferior. So that the closest imitation which can be made, in the social science, of a legitimate induction from direct experience, gives but a specious semblance of conclusiveness, without any real value. 4. The Method of Difference in either of its forms being thus completely out of the question, there remains the Method of Agreement. But we are already aware of how little value this method is, in cases admitting Plurality of Causes; and social phenomena are those in which the plurality prevails in the utmost possible extent. Suppose that the observer makes the luckiest hit which could be given by any conceivable combination of chances; that he finds two nations which agree in no circumstance whatever, except in having a restrictive system, and in being prosperous; or a number of nations, all prosperous, which have no antecedent circumstances common to them all but that of having a restrictive policy. It is unnecessary to go into the consideration of the impossibility of ascertaining from history, or even from contemporary observation, that such is really the fact; that the nations agree in no other circumstance capable of influencing the case. Let us suppose this impossibility vanquished, and the fact ascertained that they agree only in a restrictive system as an antecedent, and industrial prosperity as a consequent. What degree of presumption does this raise that the restrictive system caused the prosperity? One so trifling as to be equivalent to none at all. That some one antecedent is the cause of a given effect, because all other antecedents have been found capable of being eliminated, is a just inference, only if the effect can have but one cause. If it admits of several, nothing is more natural than 554 that each of these should separately admit of be ing eliminated. Now, in the case of political phenomena, the supposition of unity of cause is not only wide of the truth, but at an immeasurable distance from it. The causes of every social phenomenon which we are particularly interested about, security, wealth, freedom, good government, public virtue, general intelligence, or their opposites, are infinitely numerous, especially the external or remote causes, which alone are, for the most part, accessible to direct observation. No one cause suffices of itself to produce any of these phenomena; while there are countless causes which have some influence over them, and may co-operate either in their production or in their prevention. From the mere fact, therefore, of our having been able to eliminate some circu mstance, we can by no means infer that this circumstance was not instrumental to the effect in some of the very instances from which we have eliminated it. We can conclude that the effect is sometimes produced without it; but not that, when present, it does not contribute its share. Similar objections will be found to apply to the Method of Concomitant Variations. If the causes which act upon the state of any society produced effects differing from one another in kind; if wealth depended on one cause, peace on another, a third made people virtuous, a fourth intelligent; we might, though unable to sever the causes from one another, refer to each of them that property of the effect which waxed as it waxed, and which waned as it waned. But every attribute of the social body is influenced by innumerable causes; and such is the mutual action of the co-existing elements of society, that whatever affects any one of the more important of them, will by that alone, if it does not affect the others directly, affect them indirectly. The effects, therefore, of different agents not being different in quality, while the quantity of each is the mixed result of all the agents, the variations of the aggregate can not bear a uniform proportion to those of any one of its component parts. 5. There remains the Method of Residues; which appears, on the first view, less foreign to this kind of inquiry than the three other methods, because it only requires that we should accurately note the circumstances of some one country, or state of society. Making allowance, thereupon, for the effect of all causes whose tendencies are known, the residue which those causes are inadequate to explain may plausibly be imputed to the remainder of the circumstances which are known to have existed in the case. Something similar to this is the method which Coleridge describes himself as having followed in his political essays in the Morning Post . On every great occurrence I endeavored to discover in past history the event that most nearly resembled it. I procured, whenever it was possible, the contemporary historians, memorialists, and pamphleteers. Then fairly subtracting the points of difference from those of likeness, as the balance favored the former or the latter, I conjectured that the result would be the same or different. As, for instance, in the series of essays entitled A Comparison of France under Napoleon with Rome under the first Csars, and in those which followed, on the probable final restoration of the Bourbons. The same plan I pursued at the commencement of the Spanish Revolution, and with the same success, taking the war of the United Provinces with Philip II. as the groundwork of the comparison. In this inquiry he no doubt employed the Method of Residues; for, in subtracting the points of difference from those of likeness, he doubtless weighed, and did not content himself with numbering, them: he doubtless took those points of agreement only which he presumed from their own nature to be capable of influencing the effect, and, allowing for that influence, concluded that the remainder of the result would be referable to the points of difference. Whatever may be the efficacy of this method, it is, as we long ago remarked, not a method of pure observation and experiment; it concludes, not from a comparison of instances, but from the comparison of an instance with the result of a previous deduction. Applied to social phenomena, it presupposes that the causes from which part of the effect proceeded are 555 already known; and as we have shown that these can not have been known by specific experience, they must have been learned by deduction from principles of human nature; experience being called in only as a supplementary resource, to determine the causes which produced an unexplained residue. But if the principles of human nature may be had recourse to for the establishment of some political truths, they may for all. If it be admissible to say, England must have prospered by reason of the prohibitory system, because after allowing for all the o ther tendencies which have been operating, there is a portion of prosperity still to be accounted for; it must be admissible to go to the same source for the effect of the prohibitory system, and examine what account the laws of human motives and actions w ill enable us to give of its tendencies. Nor, in fact, will the experimental argument amount to any thing, except in verification of a conclusion drawn from those general laws. For we may subtract the effect of one, two, three, or four causes, but we shall never succeed in subtracting the effect of all causes except one; while it would be a curious instance of the dangers of too much caution if, to avoid depending on a priori reasoning concerning the effect of a single cause, we should oblige ourselves to depend on as many separate a priori reasonings as there are causes operating concurrently with that particular cause in some given instance. We have now sufficiently characterized the gross misconception of the mode of investigation proper to political phenomena, which I have termed the Chemical Method. So lengthened a discussion would not have been necessary, if the claim to decide authoritatively on political doctrines were confined to persons who had competently studied any one of the higher departments o f physical science. But since the generality of those who reason on political subjects, satisfactorily to themselves and to a more or less numerous body of admirers, know nothing whatever of the methods of physical investigation beyond a few precepts which they continue to parrot after Bacon, being entirely unaware that Bacon's conception of scientific inquiry has done its work, and that science has now advanced into a higher stage, there are probably many to whom such remarks as the foregoing may still be useful. In an age in which chemistry itself, when attempting to deal with the more complex chemical sequences those of the animal or even the vegetable organism has found it necessary to become, and has succeeded in becoming, a Deductive Science, it is not to be apprehended that any person of scientific habits, who has kept pace with the general progress of the knowledge of nature, can be in danger of applying the methods of elementary chemistry to explore the sequences of the most complex order of phenomena in existence. 556 VIII. Of The Geometrical, Or Abstract, Method 1. The misconception discussed in the preceding chapter is, as we said, chiefly committed by persons not much accustomed to scientific investigation: practitioners in politics, who rather employ the commonplaces of philosophy to justify their practice than seek to guide their practice by philosophic principles; or imperfectly educated persons, who, in ignorance of the careful selection and elaborate com parison of instances required for the formation of a sound theory, attempt to found one upon a few coincidences which they have casually noticed. The erroneous method of which we are now to treat is, on the contrary, peculiar to thinking and studious minds. It never could have suggested itself but to persons of some familiarity with the nature of scientific research; who, being aware of the impossibility of establishing, by casual observation or direct experimentation, a true theory of sequences so complex as are those of the social phenomena, have recourse to the simpler laws which are immediately operative in those phenomena, and which are no other than the laws of the nature of the human beings therein concerned, These thinkers perceive (what the partisans of the chemical or experimental theory do not) that the science of society must necessarily be deductive. But, from an insufficient consideration of the specific nature of the subject- matter and often because (their own scientific education having stopped short in too early a stage) geometry stands in their minds as the type of all deductive scienceit is to geometry, rather than to astronomy and natural philosophy, that they unconsciously assimilate the deductive science of society. Among the differences between geometry (a science of co -existent facts, altogether independent of the laws of the succession of phenomena), and those physical Sciences of Causation which have been rendered deductive, the following is one of the most conspicuous: That geometry affords no room for what so constantly occurs in mechanics and its applications, the case of conflicting forces; of causes which counteract or modify one another. In mechanics we continually find two or more moving forces producing, not motion, but rest; o r motion in a different direction from that which would have been produced by either of the generating forces. It is true that the effect of the joint forces is the same when they act simultaneously, as if they had acted one after another, or by turns; and it is in this that the difference between mechanical and chemical laws consists. But still the effects, whether produced by successive or by simultaneous action, do, wholly or in part, cancel one another: what the one force does, the other, partly, or altogether undoes. There is no similar state of things in geometry. The result which follows from one geometrical principle has nothing that conflicts with the result which follows from another. What is proved true from one geometrical theorem, what would be true if no other geometrical principles existed, can not be altered and made no longer true by reason of some other geometrical principle. What is once proved true is true in all cases, whatever supposition may be made in regard to any other matter. Now a conception similar to this last would appear to have been formed of the social science, in the minds of the earlier of those who have attempted to cultivate it by a deductive method. Mechanics would be a science very similar to geometry, if every motion resulted from one force alone, and not from a conflict of forces. In the geometrical theory of society, it seems to 557 be supposed that this is really the case with the social phenomena; that each of them results always from only one force, one single property of human nature. At the point which we have now reached, it can not be necessary to say any thing either in proof or in illustration of the assertion that such is not the true character of the social phenomena. There is not, among these most complex and (for that reason) most modifiable of all phenomena, any one over which innumerable forces do not exercise influence; which does not depend on a conjunction of very many causes. We have not, therefore, to prove the notion in question to be an error, but to prove that the error has been committed; that so mistaken a conception of the mode in which the phenomena of society are produced has actually been ascertained. 2. One numerous division of the reasoners who have treated social facts according to geometric al methods, not admitting any modification of one law by another, must for the present be left out of consideration, because in them this error is complicated with, and is the effect of, another fundamental misconception, of which we have already taken som e notice, and which will be further treated of before we conclude. I speak of those who deduce political conclusions not from laws of nature, not from sequences of phenomena, real or imaginary, but from unbending practical maxims. Such, for example, are all who found their theory of politics on what is called abstract right, that is to say, on universal precepts; a pretension of which we have already noticed the chimerical nature. Such, in like manner, are those who make the assumption of a social contract, or any other kind of original obligation, and apply it to particular cases by mere interpretation. But in this the fundamental error is the attempt to treat an art like a science, and to have a deductive art; the irrationality of which will be shown in a future chapter. It will be proper to take our exemplification of the geometrical theory from those thinkers who have avoided this additional error, and who entertain, so far, a juster idea of the nature of political inquiry. We may cite, in the first insta nce, those who assume as the principle of their political philosophy that government is founded on fear; that the dread of each other is the one motive by which human beings were originally brought into a state of society, and are still held in it. Some of the earlier scientific inquirers into politics, in particular Hobbes, assumed this proposition, not by implication, but avowedly, as the foundation of their doctrine, and attempted to build a complete philosophy of politics thereupon. It is true that Hobbes did not find this one maxim sufficient to carry him through the whole of his subject, but was obliged to eke it out by the double sophism of an original contract. I call this a double sophism; first, as passing off a fiction for a fact, and, secondly, assuming a practical principle, or precept, as the basis of a theory; which is a petitio principii, since (as we noticed in treating of that Fallacy) every rule of conduct, even though it be so binding a one as the observance of a promise, must rest its own foundations on the theory of the subject; and the theory, therefore, can not rest upon it. 3. Passing over less important instances, I shall come at once to the most remarkable example afforded by our own times of the geometrical method in politics; emanating from persons who are well aware of the distinction between science and art; who knew that rules of conduct must follow, not precede, the ascertainment of laws of nature, and that the latter, not the former, is the legitimate field for the application of the deductive method. I allude to the interest -philosophy of the Bentham school. The profound and original thinkers who are commonly known under this description, founded their general theory of government on one comprehensive premise, na mely, that men's actions are always determined by their interests. There is an ambiguity in this last expression; for, as the same philosophers, especially Bentham, gave the name of an interest to 558 any thing which a person likes, the proposition may be understood to mean only this, that men's actions are always determined by their wishes. In this sense, however, it would not bear out any of the consequences which these writers drew from it; and the word, therefore, in their political reasonings, must be understood to mean (which is also the explanation they themselves, on such occasions gave of it) what is commonly termed private, or worldly, interest. Taking the doctrine, then, in this sense, an objection presents itself in limine which might be deemed a fat al one, namely, that so sweeping a proposition is far from being universally true. Human beings are not governed in all their actions by their worldly interests. This, however, is by no means so conclusive an objection as it at first appears; because in politics we are for the most part concerned with the conduct, not of individual persons, but either of a series of persons (as a succession of kings), or a body or mass of persons, as a nation, an aristocracy, or a representative assembly. And whatever is tr ue of a large majority of mankind, may without much error be taken for true of any succession of persons, considered as a whole, or of any collection of persons in which the act of the majority becomes the act of the whole body. Although, therefore, the maxim is sometimes expressed in a manner unnecessarily paradoxical, the consequences drawn from it will hold equally good if the assertion be limited as follows: Any succession of persons, or the majority of any body of persons, will be governed in the bulk of their conduct by their personal interests. We are bound to allow to this school of thinkers the benefit of this more rational statement of their fundamental maxim, which is also in strict conformity to the explanations which, when considered to be calle d for, have been given by themselves. The theory goes on to infer, quite correctly, that if the actions of mankind are determined in the main by their selfish interests, the only rulers who will govern according to the interest of the governed, are those whose selfish interests are in accordance with it. And to this is added a third proposition, namely, that no rulers have their selfish interest identical with that of the governed, unless it be rendered so by accountability, that is, by dependence on the wi ll of the governed. In other words (and as the result of the whole), that the desire of retaining or the fear of losing their power, and whatever is thereon consequent, is the sole motive which can be relied on for producing on the part of rulers a course of conduct in accordance with the general interest. We have thus a fundamental theorem of political science, consisting of three syllogisms, and depending chiefly on two general premises, in each of which a certain effect is considered as determined only by one cause, not by a concurrence of causes. In the one, it is assumed that the actions of average rulers are determined solely by self -interest; in the other, that the sense of identity of interest with the governed, is produced and producible by no other cause than responsibility. Neither of these propositions is by any means true; the last is extremely wide of the truth. It is not true that the actions even of average rulers are wholly, or any thing approaching to wholly, determined by their personal interest, or even by their own opinion of their personal interest. I do not speak of the influence of a sense of duty, or feelings of philanthropy, motives never to be mainly relied on, though (except in countries or during periods of great moral debasement) they influence almost all rulers in some degree, and some rulers in a very great degree. But I insist only on what is true of all rulers, viz., that the character and course of their actions is largely influenced (independently of personal calculation) by the habitual sentiments and feelings, the general modes of thinking and acting, which prevail throughout the community of which they are members; as well as by the feelings, habits, and modes of thought which characterize the particular class in that commu nity to which they themselves 559 belong. And no one will understand or be able to decipher their system of conduct, who does not take all these things into account. They are also much influenced by the maxims and traditions which have descended to them from other rulers, their predecessors; which maxims and traditions have been known to retain an ascendancy during long periods, even in opposition to the private interests of the rulers for the time being. I put aside the influence of other less general causes. Although, therefore, the private interest of the rulers or of the ruling class is a very powerful force, constantly in action, and exercising the most important influence upon their conduct, there is also, in what they do, a large portion which that privat e interest by no means affords a sufficient explanation of; and even the particulars which constitute the goodness or badness of their government, are in some, and no small degree, influenced by those among the circumstances acting upon them, which can not, with any propriety, be included in the term self- interest. Turning now to the other proposition, that responsibility to the governed is the only cause capable of producing in the rulers a sense of identity of interest with the community, this is still le ss admissible as a universal truth, than even the former. I am not speaking of perfect identity of interest, which is an impracticable chimera; which, most assuredly, responsibility to the people does not give. I speak of identity in essentials; and the es sentials are different at different places and times. There are a large number of cases in which those things which it is most for the general interest that the rulers should do, are also those which they are prompted to do by their strongest personal interest, the consolidation of their power. The suppression, for instance, of anarchy and resistance to lawthe complete establishment of the authority of the central government, in a state of society like that of Europe in the Middle Agesis one of the strongest interests of the people, and also of the rulers simply because they are the rulers; and responsibility on their part could not strengthen, though in many conceivable ways it might weaken, the motives prompting them to pursue this object. During the gre ater part, of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and of many other monarchs who might be named, the sense of identity of interest between the sovereign and the majority of the people was probably stronger than it usually is in responsible governments; every thing that the people had most at heart, the monarch had at heart too. Had Peter the Great, or the rugged savages whom he began to civilize, the truest inclination toward the things which were for the real interest of those savages? I am not here attempting to establish a theory of government, and am not called upon to determine the proportional weight which ought to be given to the circumstances which this school of geometrical politicians left out of their system, and those which they took into it. I am only concerned to show that their method was unscientific; not to measure the amount of error which may have affected their practical conclusions. It is but justice to them, however, to remark, that their mistake was not so much one of substance as of form, and consisted in presenting in a systematic shape, and as the scientific treatment of a great philosophical question, what should have passed for that which it really was, the mere polemics of the day. Although the actions of rulers are by no means wholly determined by their selfish interests, it is chiefly as a security against those selfish interests that constitutional checks are required; and for that purpose such checks, in England, and the other nations of modern Europe, can in no manner be dispensed wi th. It is likewise true, that in these same nations, and in the present age, responsibility to the governed is the only means practically available to create a feeling of identity of interest, in the cases, and on the points, where that feeling does not sufficiently exist. To all this, and to the arguments which may be founded on it in favor of measures for the correction of our representative system, I have nothing to object; but I confess my regret, that the small though highly important portion of the philosophy of government, which was wanted for the immediate purpose of serving the 560 cause of parliamentary reform, should have been held forth by thinkers of such eminence as a complete theory. It is not to be imagined possible, nor is it true in point of fact, that these philosophers regarded the few premises of their theory as including all that is required for explaining social phenomena, or for determining the choice of forms of government and measures of legislation and administration. They were too highly instructed, of too comprehensive intellect, and some of them of too sober and practical a character, for such an error. They would have applied, and did apply, their principles with innumerable allowances. But it is not allowances that are wanted. There is little chance of making due amends in the superstructure of a theory for the want of sufficient breadth in its foundations. It is unphilosophical to construct a science out of a few of the agencies by which the phenomena are determined, and leave the r est to the routine of practice or the sagacity of conjecture. We either ought not to pretend to scientific forms, or we ought to study all the determining agencies equally, and endeavor, so far as it can be done, to include all of them within the pale of t he science; else we shall infallibly bestow a disproportionate attention upon those which our theory takes into account, while we misestimate the rest, and probably underrate their importance. That the deductions should be from the whole and not from a part only of the laws of nature that are concerned, would be desirable even if those omitted were so insignificant in comparison with the others, that they might, for most purposes and on most occasions, be left out of the account. But this is far indeed from being true in the social science. The phenomena of society do not depend, in essentials, on some one agency or law of human nature, with only inconsiderable modifications from others. The whole of the qualities of human nature influence those phenomena, and there is not one which influences them in a small degree. There is not one, the removal or any great alteration of which would not materially affect the whole aspect of society, and change more or less the sequences of social phenomena generally. The th eory which has been the subject of these remarks is, in this country at least, the principal contemporary example of what I have styled the geometrical method of philosophizing in the social science; and our examination of it has, for this reason, been mor e detailed than would otherwise have been suitable to a work like the present. Having now sufficiently illustrated the two erroneous methods, we shall pass without further preliminary to the true method; that which proceeds (conformably to the practice of the more complex physical sciences) deductively indeed, but by deduction from many, not from one or a very few, original premises; considering each effect as (what it really is) an aggregate result of many causes, operating sometimes through the same, sometimes through different mental agencies, or laws of human nature. 561 IX. Of The Physical, Or Concrete Deductive, Method 1. After what has been said to illustrate the nature of the inquiry into social phenomena, the general character of the method proper to that inquiry is sufficiently evident, and needs only to be recapitulated, not proved. However complex the phenomena, all their sequences and co-existences result from the laws of the separate elements. The effect produced, in social phenomena, by any complex set of circumstances, amounts precisely to the sum of the effects of the circumstances taken singly; and the complexity does not arise from the number of the laws themselves, which is not remarkably great, but from the extraordinary number and variety of the data or elements of the agents which, in obedience to that small number of laws, co -operate toward the effect. The Social Science, therefore (which, by a convenient barbarism, has been termed Sociology), is a deductive science; not, indeed, after the model of geometry, but after that of the more complex physical sciences. It infers the law of each effect from the laws of causation on which that effect depends; not, however, from the law merely of one cause, as in the geometrical method, but by considering all the causes which conjunctly influence the effect, and compounding their laws with one another. Its method, in short, is the Concrete Deductive Method: that of which astronomy furnishes the most perfect, natural philosophy a somewhat less perfect, example, and the employment of which, with the adaptations and precautions required by the subject, is beginning to regenerate physiology. Nor does it admit of doubt, that similar adaptations and precautions are indispensable in sociology. In applying to that most complex of all studies what is demonstrably the sole method capable of throwing the light of science even upon phenomena of a far inferior degree of complication, we ought to be aware that the same superior complexity which renders the instrument of Deduction more necessary, renders it also more precarious; and we must be prepared to meet, by appropriate contrivances, this increase of difficulty. The actions and feelings of human beings in the social state, are, no doubt, entirely governed by psychological and ethological laws: whatever influence any cause exercises upon the social phenomena, it exercises through those laws. Supposing therefore the laws of human actions and feelings to be sufficiently known, there is no extraordinary difficulty in determining from those laws, the nature of the social effects which any given cause tends to produce. But when the question is that of compounding several tendencies together, and computing the aggregate result of many co- existent causes; and especially when, by attempting to predict what will actually occur in a given case, we incur the obligation of estimating and compounding the influences of all the causes which happen to exist in that case, we attempt a task to proceed far in which, surpasses the compass of the human faculties. If all the resources of science are not sufficient to enable us to calculate, a priori , with complete precision, the mutual action of three bodies gravitating toward one another, it may be judged with what prospect of success we should endeavor to calculate the result of the conflicting tendencies which are acting in a thousand different directions and promoting a thousand different changes at a given instant in a given society; although we might and ought to be able, from the laws of human nature, to distinguish correctly enough the tendencies themselves, so far as they depend on causes accessible to our observation; and to determine the direction which each of them, if acting alone, would impress upon s ociety, as well as, in a general way at least, to pronounce that some of these tendencies are more powerful than others. 562 But, without dissembling the necessary imperfections of the a priori method when applied to such a subject, neither ought we, on the other hand; to exaggerate them. The same objections which apply to the Method of Deduction in this its most difficult employment, apply to it, as we formerly showed, in its easiest; and would even there have been insuperable, if there had not existed, as was then fully explained, an appropriate remedy. This remedy consists in the process which, under the name of Verification, we have characterized as the third essential constituent part of the Deductive Method; that of collating the conclusions of the ratioci nation either with the concrete phenomena themselves, or, when such are obtainable, with their empirical laws. The ground of confidence in any concrete deductive science is not the a priori reasoning itself, but the accordance between its results and those of observation a posteriori . Either of these processes, apart from the other, diminishes in value as the subject increases in complication, and this is in so rapid a ratio as soon to become entirely worthless; but the reliance to be placed in the con currence of the two sorts of evidence, not only does not diminish in any thing like the same proportion, but is not necessarily much diminished at all. Nothing more results than a disturbance in the order of precedency of the two processes, sometimes amoun ting to its actual inversion: insomuch that instead of deducing our conclusions by reasoning, and verifying them by observation, we in some cases begin by obtaining them provisionally from specific experience, and afterward connect them with the principles of human nature by a priori reasonings, which reasonings are thus a real Verification. The only thinker who, with a competent knowledge of scientific methods in general, has attempted to characterize the Method of Sociology, M. Comte, considers this inver se order as inseparably inherent in the nature of sociological speculation. He looks upon the social science as essentially consisting of generalizations from history, verified, not originally suggested, by deduction from the laws of human nature. Though there is a truth contained in this opinion, of which I shall presently endeavor to show the importance, I can not but think that this truth is enunciated in too unlimited a manner, and that there is considerable scope in sociological inquiry for the direct, as well as for the inverse, Deductive Method. It will, in fact, be shown in the next chapter, that there is a kind of sociological inquiries to which, from their prodigious complication, the method of direct deduction is altogether inapplicable, while by a happy compensation it is precisely in these cases that we are able to obtain the best empirical laws: to these inquiries, therefore, the Inverse Method is exclusively adapted. But there are also, as will presently appear, other cases in which it is impos sible to obtain from direct observation any thing worthy the name of an empirical law; and it fortunately happens that these are the very cases in which the Direct Method is least affected by the objection which undoubtedly must always affect it in a certa in degree. We shall begin, then, by looking at the Social Science as a science of direct Deduction, and considering what can be accomplished in it, and under what limitations, by that mode of investigation. We shall, then, in a separate chapter, examine and endeavor to characterize the inverse process. 2. It is evident, in the first place, that Sociology, considered as a system of deductions a priori , can not be a science of positive predictions, but only of tendencies. We may be able to conclude, from the laws of human nature applied to the circumstances of a given state of society, that a particular cause will operate in a certain manner unless counteracted; but we can never be assured to what extent or amount it will so operate, or affirm with certainty that it will not be counteracted; because we can seldom know, even approximately, all the agencies which may co -exist with it, and still less calculate the collective result of so many combined elements. The remark, however, must here be once more repeated, that knowledge 563 insufficient for prediction may be most valuable for guidance. It is not necessary for the wise conduct of the affairs of society, no more than of any one's private concerns, that we should be able to foresee infallibly the results of w hat we do. We must seek our objects by means which may perhaps be defeated, and take precautions against dangers which possibly may never be realized. The aim of practical politics is to surround any given society with the greatest possible number of circumstances of which the tendencies are beneficial, and to remove or counteract, as far as practicable, those of which the tendencies are injurious. A knowledge of the tendencies only, though without the power of accurately predicting their conjunct result, gives us to a considerable extent this power. It would, however, be an error to suppose that even with respect to tendencies we could arrive in this manner at any great number of propositions which will be true in all societies without exception. Such a supposition would be inconsistent with the eminently modifiable nature of the social phenomena, and the multitude and variety of the circumstances by which they are modified circumstances never the same, or even nearly the same, in two different societies, or in two different periods of the same society. This would not be so serious an obstacle if, though the causes acting upon society in general are numerous, those which influence any one feature of society were limited in number; for we might then insulate a ny particular social phenomenon, and investigate its laws without disturbance from the rest. But the truth is the very opposite of this. Whatever affects, in an appreciable degree, any one element of the social state, affects through it all the other eleme nts. The mode of production of all social phenomena is one great case of Intermixture of Laws. We can never either understand in theory or command in practice the condition of a society in any one respect, without taking into consideration its condition in all other respects. There is no social phenomenon which is not more or less influenced by every other part of the condition of the same society, and therefore by every cause which is influencing any other of the contemporaneous social phenomena. There is, in short, what physiologists term a consensus , similar to that existing among the various organs and functions of the physical frame of man and the more perfect animals; and constituting one of the many analogies which have rendered universal such express ions as the body politic and body natural. It follows from this consensus , that unless two societies could be alike in all the circumstances which surround and influence them (which would imply their being alike in their previous history), no portion w hatever of the phenomena will, unless by accident, precisely correspond; no one cause will produce exactly the same effects in both. Every cause, as its effect spreads through society, comes somewhere in contact with different sets of agencies, and thus ha s its effects on some of the social phenomena differently modified; and these differences, by their reaction, produce a difference even in those of the effects which would otherwise have been the same. We can never, therefore, affirm with certainty that a cause which has a particular tendency in one people or in one age will have exactly the same tendency in another, without referring back to our premises, and performing over again for the second age or nation, that analysis of the whole of its influencing circumstances which we had already performed for the first. The deductive science of society will not lay down a theorem, asserting in a universal manner the effect of any cause; but will rather teach us how to frame the proper theorem for the circumstances of any given case. It will not give the laws of society in general, but the means of determining the phenomena of any given society from the particular elements or data of that society. All the general propositions which can be framed by the deductive science, are therefore, in the strictest sense of the word, hypothetical. They are grounded on some suppositious set of circumstances, and declare how some given cause would operate in those circumstances, supposing that no others were combined with them. If the set of circumstances supposed have 564 been copied from those of any existing society, the conclusions will be true of that society, provided, and in as far as, the effect of those circumstances shall not be modified by others which have not been taken into the account. If we desire a nearer approach to concrete truth, we can only aim at it by taking, or endeavoring to take, a greater number of individualizing circumstances into the computation. Considering, however, in how accelerating a ratio the uncertainty of our conclusions increases as we attempt to take the effect of a greater number of concurrent causes into our calculations, the hypothetical combinations of circumstances on which we construct the general theorems of the science, can not be made very complex, without so rapidly accumulating a liability to error as must soon deprive our conclusions of all value. This mode of inquiry, considered as a means of obtaining general propositions, must, therefore, on pain of frivolity, be limited to those classes of social facts which, though influenced like the rest by all sociological agents, are under the immediate influence, principally at least, of a few only. 3. Notwithstanding the universal consensus of the social phenomena, whereby nothing which takes place in any part of the operations of society is without its share of influence on every other part; and notwithstanding the paramount ascendancy which the general state of civilization and social progress in any given society must hence exe rcise over all the partial and subordinate phenomena; it is not the less true that different species of social facts are in the main dependent, immediately and in the first resort, on different kinds of causes; and therefore not only may with advantage, but must, be studied apart: just as in the natural body we study separately the physiology and pathology of each of the principal organs and tissues, though every one is acted upon by the state of all the others; and though the peculiar constitution and gene ral state of health of the organism co -operates with, and often preponderates over, the local causes, in determining the state of any particular organ. On these considerations is grounded the existence of distinct and separate, though not independent, branches or departments of sociological speculation. There is, for example, one large class of social phenomena in which the immediately determining causes are principally those which act through the desire of wealth, and in which the psychological law mainly concerned is the familiar one, that a greater gain is preferred to a smaller. I mean, of course, that portion of the phenomena of society which emanate from the industrial, or productive, operations of mankind; and from those of their acts through which the distribution of the products of those industrial operations takes place, in so far as not effected by force, or modified by voluntary gift. By reasoning from that one law of human nature, and from the principal outward circumstances (whether universal or confined to particular states of society) which operate upon the human mind through that law, we may be enabled to explain and predict this portion of the phenomena of society, so far as they depend on that class of circumstances only; overlooking the influence of any other of the circumstances of society; and therefore neither tracing back the circumstances which we do take into account, to their possible origin in some other facts in the social state, nor making allowance for the manner in which any of t hose other circumstances may interfere with, and counteract or modify, the effect of the former. A department of science may thus be constructed, which has received the name of Political Economy. The motive which suggests the separation of this portion of the social phenomena from the rest, and the creation of a distinct branch of science relating to them isthat they do mainly depend, at least in the first resort, on one class of circumstances only; and that even when other circumstances interfere, the ascertainment of the effect due to the one class of circumstances alone, is a sufficiently intricate and difficult business to make it expedient to 565 perform it once for all, and then allow for the effect of the modifying circumstances; especially as certain fi xed combinations of the former are apt to recur often, in conjunction with ever -varying circumstances of the latter class. Political Economy, as I have said on another occasion, concerns itself only with such of the phenomena of the social state as take place in consequence of the pursuit of wealth. It makes entire abstraction of every other human passion or motive; except those which may be regarded as perpetually antagonizing principles to the desire of wealth, namely, aversion to labor, and desire of the present enjoyment of costly indulgences. These it takes, to a certain extent, into its calculations, because these do not merely, like our other desires, occasionally conflict with the pursuit of wealth, but accompany it always as a drag or impediment, a nd are therefore inseparably mixed up in the consideration of it. Political Economy considers mankind as occupied solely in acquiring and consuming wealth; and aims at showing what is the course of action into which mankind, living in a state of society, would be impelled, if that motive, except in the degree in which it is checked by the two perpetual counter- motives above adverted to, were absolute ruler of all their actions. Under the influence of this desire, it shows mankind accumulating wealth, and employing that wealth in the production of other wealth; sanctioning by mutual agreement the institution of property; establishing laws to prevent individuals from encroaching upon the property of others by force or fraud; adopting various contrivances for increasing the productiveness of their labor; settling the division of the produce by agreement, under the influence of competition (competition itself being governed by certain laws, which laws are therefore the ultimate regulators of the division of the p roduce); and employing certain expedients (as money, credit, etc.) to facilitate the distribution. All these operations, though many of them are really the result of a plurality of motives, are considered by political economy as flowing solely from the desire of wealth. The science then proceeds to investigate the laws which govern these several operations, under the supposition that man is a being who is determined, by the necessity of his nature, to prefer a greater portion of wealth to a smaller, in all cases, without any other exception than that constituted by the two counter- motives already specified. Not that any political economist was ever so absurd as to suppose that mankind are really thus constituted, but because this is the mode in which science must necessarily proceed. When an effect depends on a concurrence of causes, these causes must be studied one at a time, and their laws separately investigated, if we wish, through the causes, to obtain the power of either predicting or controlling the ef fect; since the law of the effect is compounded of the laws of all the causes which determine it. The law of the centripetal and that of the projectile force must have been known, before the motions of the earth and planets could be explained, or many of t hem predicted. The same is the case with the conduct of man in society. In order to judge how he will act under the variety of desires and aversions which are concurrently operating upon him, we must know how he would act under the exclusive influence of each one in particular. There is, perhaps, no action of a man's life in which he is neither under the immediate nor under the remote influence of any impulse but the mere desire of wealth. With respect to those parts of human conduct of which wealth is not even the principal object, to these political economy does not pretend that its conclusions are applicable. But there are also certain departments of human affairs, in which the acquisition of wealth is the main and acknowledged end. It is only of these that political economy takes notice. The manner in which it necessarily proceeds is that of treating the main and acknowledged end as if it were the sole end; which, of all hypotheses equally simple, is the nearest to the truth. The political economist inquires, what are the actions which would be produced by this desire, if within the departments in question it were unimpeded by any other. In this way a nearer approximation is obtained than would otherwise be practicable to the real order of human affairs in those departments. This approximation has then to be corrected by making proper 566 allowance for the effects of any impulses of a different description, which can be shown to interfere with the result in any particular case. Only in a few of the most strikin g cases (such as the important one of the principle of population) are these corrections interpolated into the expositions of political economy itself; the strictness of purely scientific arrangement being thereby somewhat departed from, for the sake of practical utility. So far as it is known, or may be presumed, that the conduct of mankind in the pursuit of wealth is under the collateral influence of any other of the properties of our nature than the desire of obtaining the greatest quantity of wealth wit h the least labor and self -denial, the conclusions of political economy will so far fail of being applicable to the explanation or prediction of real events, until they are modified by a correct allowance for the degree of influence exercised by the other cause. Extensive and important practical guidance may be derived, in any given state of society, from general propositions such as those above indicated; even though the modifying influence of the miscellaneous causes which the theory does not take into account, as well as the effect of the general social changes in progress, be provisionally overlooked. And though it has been a very common error of political economists to draw conclusions from the elements of one state of society, and apply them to other states in which many of the elements are not the same, it is even then not difficult, by tracing back the demonstrations, and introducing the new premises in their proper places, to make the same general course of argument which served for the one case, serve for the others too. For example, it has been greatly the custom of English political economists to discuss the laws of the distribution of the produce of industry, on a supposition which is scarcely realized anywhere out of England and Scotland, namely, that the produce is shared among three classes, altogether distinct from one another, laborers, capitalists, and landlords; and that all these are free agents, permitted in law and in fact to set upon their labor, their capital, and their land, whatever price they are able to get for it. The conclusions of the science, being all adapted to a society thus constituted, require to be revised whenever they are applied to any other. They are inapplicable where the only capitalists are the landlords, and the laborers are their property, as in slave countries. They are inapplicable where the almost universal landlord is the state, as in India. They are inapplicable where the agricultural laborer is generally the owner both of the land itself and of the capital, as frequently in France, or of the capital only, as in Ireland. But though it may often be very justly objected to the existing race of political economists that they attempt to construct a permanent fabric out of transitory materials; that they take fo r granted the immutability of arrangements of society, many of which are in their nature fluctuating or progressive, and enunciate with as little qualification as if they were universal and absolute truths, propositions which are perhaps applicable to no s tate of society except the particular one in which the writer happened to live; this does not take away the value of the propositions, considered with reference to the state of society from which they were drawn. And even as applicable to other states of society, it must not be supposed that the science is so incomplete and unsatisfactory as this might seem to prove. Though many of its conclusions are only locally true, its method of investigation is applicable universally; and as whoever has solved a certain number of algebraic equations, can without difficulty solve all others of the same kind, so whoever knows the political economy of England, or even of Yorkshire, knows that of all nations, actual or possible, provided he have good sense enough not to expect the same conclusion to issue from varying premises. Whoever has mastered with the degree of precision which is attainable the laws which, under free competition, determine the rent, profits, and wages, received by landlords, capitalists, and labore rs, in a state of society in which the three classes are completely separate, will have no difficulty in determining the very different laws which 567 regulate the distribution of the produce among the classes interested in it in any of the states of cultivation and landed property set forth in the foregoing extract. 4. I would not here undertake to decide what other hypothetical or abstract sciences similar to Political Economy, may admit of being carved out of the general body of the social science; what o ther portions of the social phenomena are in a sufficiently close and complete dependence, in the first resort, on a peculiar class of causes, to make it convenient to create a preliminary science of those causes; postponing the consideration of the causes which act through them, or in concurrence with them, to a later period of the inquiry. There is, however, among these separate departments one which can not be passed over in silence, being of a more comprehensive and commanding character than any of the other branches into which the social science may admit of being divided. Like them, it is directly conversant with the causes of only one class of social facts, but a class which exercises, immediately or remotely, a paramount influence over the test. I al lude to what may be termed Political Ethology, or the theory of the causes which determine the type of character belonging to a people or to an age. Of all the subordinate branches of the social science, this is the most completely in its infancy. The caus es of national character are scarcely at all understood, and the effect of institutions or social arrangements upon the character of the people is generally that portion of their effects which is least attended to, and least comprehended. Nor is this wonde rful, when we consider the infant state of the science of Ethology itself, from whence the laws must be drawn, of which the truths of political ethology can be but results and exemplifications. Yet, to whoever well considers the matter, it must appear that the laws of national (or collective) character are by far the most important class of sociological laws. In the first place, the character which is formed by any state of social circumstances is in itself the most interesting phenomenon which that state of society can possibly present. Secondly, it is also a fact which enters largely into the production of all the other phenomena. And above all, the character, that is, the opinions, feelings, and habits, of the people, though greatly the results of the sta te of society which precedes them, are also greatly the causes of the state of society which follows them; and are the power by which all those of the circumstances of society which are artificial, laws and customs for instance, are altogether moulded: cus toms evidently, laws no less really, either by the direct influence of public sentiment upon the ruling powers, or by the effect which the state of national opinion and feeling has in determining the form of government and shaping the character of the governors. As might be expected, the most imperfect part of those branches of social inquiry which have been cultivated as separate sciences, is the theory of the manner in which their conclusions are affected by ethological considerations. The omission is no defect in them as abstract or hypothetical sciences, but it vitiates them in their practical application as branches of a comprehensive social science. In political economy, for instance, empirical laws of human nature are tacitly assumed by English thinke rs, which are calculated only for Great Britain and the United States. Among other things, an intensity of competition is constantly supposed, which, as a general mercantile fact, exists in no country in the world except those two. An English political economist, like his countrymen in general, has seldom learned that it is possible that men, in conducting the business of selling their goods over a counter, should care more about their ease or their vanity than about their pecuniary gain. Yet those who know the habits of the continent of Europe are aware how apparently small a motive often outweighs the desire of money getting, even in the operations which have money getting for their direct object. The more highly the science of ethology is cultivated, and the better the diversities of individual and national character are understood, the smaller, 568 probably, will the number of propositions become, which it will be considered safe to build on as universal principles of human nature. These considerations show that the process of dividing off the social science into compartments, in order that each may be studied separately, and its conclusions afterward corrected for practice by the modifications supplied by the others, must be subject to at least one important limitation. Those portions alone of the social phenomena can with advantage be made the subjects, even provisionally, of distinct branches of science, into which the diversities of character between different nations or different times enter as influencing causes only in a secondary degree. Those phenomena, on the contrary, with which the influences of the ethological state of the people are mixed up at every step (so that the connection of effects and causes can not be even rudely marked out without taking those influences into consideration) could not with any advantage, nor without great disadvantage, be treated independently of political ethology, nor, therefore, of all the circumstances by which the qualities of a people are influenced. For this reason (as well as for others which will hereafter appear) there can be no separate Science of Government; that being the fact which, of all others, is most mixed up, both as cause and effect, with the qualities of the particular people or of the particular age. All questions respecting the tendencies of forms of government must stand part of the general science of society, not of any separate branch of it. This general Science of Society, as distinguished from the separate departments of the science (each of which asserts its conclusions only conditionally, subject to the paramount control of the laws of the general science) now remains to be characterized. And as will be shown presently, nothing of a really scientific character is here possible, except by the inverse deductive method. But before we quit the subject of those sociological speculations which proceed by way of direct deduction, we must examine in what relation they stand to that indispensable element in all deductive sciences, Verification by Specific Experience comparison between the conclusions of reasoning and the results of observation. 5. We have seen that, in most deductive sciences, and among the rest in Ethology itself, which is the immediate foundation of the Social Science, a preliminary work of preparation is performed on the observed facts, to fit them for being rapidly and accurately collated (sometimes even for being collated at all) with the conclusions of theory. This preparatory treatment consists in finding general propositions which express concisely what is common to large classes of observed facts; and these are called the empirical laws of the phenomena. We have, therefore, to inquire, whether any similar preparatory process can be performed on the facts of the social science; whether there are any empirical laws in history or statistics. In statistics, it is evident that empirical laws may sometimes be traced; and the tracing them forms an important part of that system of indirect observation on which we must often rely for the da ta of the Deductive Science. The process of the science consists in inferring effects from their causes; but we have often no means of observing the causes, except through the medium of their effects. In such cases the deductive science is unable to predict the effects, for want of the necessary data; it can determine what causes are capable of producing any given effect, but not with what frequency and in what quantities those causes exist. An instance in point is afforded by a newspaper now lying before m e. A statement was furnished by one of the official assignees in bankruptcy showing among the various bankruptcies which it had been his duty to investigate, in how many cases the losses had been caused by misconduct of different kinds, and in how many by unavoidable misfortunes. The result was, that the number of failures caused by misconduct greatly preponderated over those arising from all other causes whatever. Nothing but specific experience could have given sufficient ground for a conclusion to this purport. To collect, therefore, such empirical laws (which are 569 never more than approximate generalizations) from direct observation, is an important part of the process of sociological inquiry. The experimental process is not here to be regarded as a distin ct road to the truth, but as a means (happening accidentally to be the only, or the best, available) for obtaining the necessary data for the deductive science. When the immediate causes of social facts are not open to direct observation, the empirical law of the effects gives us the empirical law (which in that case is all that we can obtain) of the causes likewise. But those immediate causes depend on remote causes; and the empirical law, obtained by this indirect mode of observation, can only be relied on as applicable to unobserved cases, so long as there is reason to think that no change has taken place in any of the remote causes on which the immediate causes depend. In making use, therefore, of even the best statistical generalizations for the purpose of inferring (though it be only conjecturally) that the same empirical laws will hold in any new case, it is necessary that we be well acquainted with the remoter causes, in order that we may avoid applying the empirical law to cases which differ in any of the circumstances on which the truth of the law ultimately depends. And thus, even where conclusions derived from specific observation are available for practical inferences in new cases, it is necessary that the deductive science should stand sentinel o ver the whole process; that it should be constantly referred to, and its sanction obtained to every inference. The same thing holds true of all generalizations which can be grounded on history. Not only there are such generalizations, but it will presently be shown that the general science of society, which inquires into the laws of succession and co- existence of the great facts constituting the state of society and civilization at any time, can proceed in no other manner than by making such generalizationsafterward to be confirmed by connecting them with the psychological and ethological laws on which they must really depend. 6. But (reserving this question for its proper place) in those more special inquiries which form the subject of the separate branches of the social science, this twofold logical process and reciprocal verification is not possible; specific experience affords nothing amounting to empirical laws. This is particularly the case where the object is to determine the effect of any one social cause among a great number acting simultaneously; the effect, for example, of corn laws, or of a prohibitive commercial system generally. Though it may be perfectly certain, from theory, what kind of effects corn laws must produce, and in what general direction their influence must tell upon industrial prosperity, their effect is yet of necessity so much disguised by the similar or contrary effects of other influencing agents, that specific experience can at most only show that on the average of some great number of instances, the cases where there were corn laws exhibited the effect in a greater degree than those where there were not. Now the number of instances necessary to exhaust the whole round of combinations of the various influential circumstances, and thus afford a fair average, never can be obtained. Not only we can never learn with sufficient authenticity the facts of so many instances, but the world itself does not afford them in sufficient numbers, within the limits of the given state of societ y and civilization which such inquiries always presuppose. Having thus no previous empirical generalizations with which to collate the conclusions of theory, the only mode of direct verification which remains is to compare those conclusions with the result of an individual experiment or instance. But here the difficulty is equally great. For in order to verify a theory by an experiment, the circumstances of the experiment must be exactly the same with those contemplated in the theory. But in social phenomena the circumstances of no two cases are exactly alike. A trial of corn laws in another country, or in a former generation, would go a very little way toward verifying a conclusion drawn respecting their effect in this generation and in this country. It thus happens, in most cases, that the only individual instance really fitted to verify the predictions of theory is the very 570 instance for which the predictions were made; and the verification comes too late to be of any avail for practical guidance. Although, however, direct verification is impossible, there is an indirect verification, which is scarcely of less value, and which is always practicable. The conclusion drawn as to the individual case can only be directly verified in that case; but it is verified indirectly, by the verification of other conclusions, drawn in other individual cases from the same laws. The experience which comes too late to verify the particular proposition to which it refers, is not too late to help toward verifying the general sufficiency of the theory. The test of the degree in which the science affords safe ground for predicting (and consequently for practically dealing with) what has not yet happened, is the degree in which it would have enabled us to predict what has actually occurred. Before our theory of the influence of a particular cause, in a given state of circumstances, can be entirely trusted, we must be able to explain and account for the existing state of all that portion of the social phenomena which that cause has a tendency to influence. If, for instance, we would apply our speculations in political economy to the prediction or guidance of the phenomena of any country, we must be able to explain all the mercantile or industrial facts of a general character, appertaini ng to the present state of that country; to point out causes sufficient to account for all of them, and prove, or show good ground for supposing, that these causes have really existed. If we can not do this, it is a proof either that the facts which ought to be taken into account are not yet completely known to us, or that although we know the facts, we are not masters of a sufficiently perfect theory to enable us to assign their consequences. In either case we are not, in the present state of our knowledge, fully competent to draw conclusions, speculative or practical, for that country. In like manner, if we would attempt to judge of the effect which any political institution would have, supposing that it could be introduced into any given country, we must be able to show that the existing state of the practical government of that country, and of whatever else depends thereon, together with the particular character and tendencies of the people, and their state in respect to the various elements of social wel l-being, are such as the institutions they have lived under, in conjunction with the other circumstances of their nature or of their position, were calculated to produce. To prove, in short, that our science, and our knowledge of the particular case, rende r us competent to predict the future, we must show that they would have enabled us to predict the present and the past. If there be any thing which we could not have predicted, this constitutes a residual phenomenon, requiring further study for the purpose of explanation; and we must either search among the circumstances of the particular case until we find one which, on the principles of our existing theory, accounts for the unexplained phenomenon, or we must turn back, and seek the explanation by an extension and improvement of the theory itself. 571 X. Of The Inverse Deductive, Or Historical, Method 1. There are two kinds of sociological inquiry. In the first kind, the question proposed is, what effect will follow from a given cause, a certain general condition of social circumstances being presupposed. As, for example, what would be the effect of imposing or of repealing corn laws, of abolishing monarchy or introducing universal suffrage, in the present condition of society and civilization in any European country, or under any other given supposition with regard to the circumstances of society in general, without reference to the changes which might take place, or which may already be in progress, in those circumstances. But there is also a second inquiry, namely, what are the laws which determine those general circumstances themselves. In this last the question is, not what will be the effect of a given cause in a certain state of society, but what are the causes which pr oduce, and the phenomena which characterize, states of society generally. In the solution of this question consists the general Science of Society; by which the conclusions of the other and more special kind of inquiry must be limited and controlled. 2. In order to conceive correctly the scope of this general science, and distinguish it from the subordinate departments of sociological speculation, it is necessary to fix the ideas attached to the phrase, A State of Society. What is called a state of soci ety, is the simultaneous state of all the greater social facts or phenomena. Such are: the degree of knowledge, and of intellectual and moral culture, existing in the community, and in every class of it; the state of industry, of wealth and its distributio n; the habitual occupations of the community; their division into classes, and the relations of those classes to one another; the common beliefs which they entertain on all the subjects most important to mankind, and the degree of assurance with which thos e beliefs are held; their tastes, and the character and degree of their sthetic development; their form of government, and the more important of their laws and customs. The condition of all these things, and of many more which will readily suggest themselves, constitute the state of society, or the state of civilization, at any given time. When states of society, and the causes which produce them, are spoken of as a subject of science, it is implied that there exists a natural correlation among these different elements; that not every variety of combination of these general social facts is possible, but only certain combinations; that, in short, there exist Uniformities of Co -existence between the states of the various social phenomena. And such is the truth; as is indeed a necessary consequence of the influence exercised by every one of those phenomena over every other. It is a fact implied in the consensus of the various parts of the social body. States of society are like different constitutions or d ifferent ages in the physical frame; they are conditions not of one or a few organs or functions, but of the whole organism. Accordingly, the information which we possess respecting past ages, and respecting the various states of society now existing in different regions of the earth, does, when duly analyzed, exhibit uniformities. It is found that when one of the features of society is in a particular state, a state of many other features, more or less precisely determinate, always or usually co- exists with it. But the uniformities of co -existence obtaining among phenomena which are effects of causes, must (as we have so often observed) be corollaries from the laws of causation by which these phenomena are really determined. The mutual correlation between the different elements of each state of society, is, therefore, a derivative law, resulting from the laws which regulate 572 the succession between one state of society and another; for the proximate cause of every state of society is the state of society immed iately preceding it. The fundamental problem, therefore, of the social science, is to find the laws according to which any state of society produces the state which succeeds it and takes its place. This opens the great and vexed question of the progressiveness of man and society; an idea involved in every just conception of social phenomena as the subject of a science. 3. It is one of the characters, not absolutely peculiar to the sciences of human nature and society, but belonging to them in a peculiar d egree, to be conversant with a subject- matter whose properties are changeable. I do not mean changeable from day to day, but from age to age; so that not only the qualities of individuals vary, but those of the majority are not the same in one age as in another. The principal cause of this peculiarity is the extensive and constant reaction of the effects upon their causes. The circumstances in which mankind are placed, operating according to their own laws and to the laws of human nature, form the characters of the human beings; but the human beings, in their turn, mould and shape the circumstances for themselves and for those who come after them. From this reciprocal action there must necessarily result either a cycle or a progress. In astronomy also, every fact is at once effect and cause; the successive positions of the various heavenly bodies produce changes both in the direction and in the intensity of the forces by which those positions are determined. But in the case of the solar system, these mutual a ctions bring around again, after a certain number of changes, the former state of circumstances; which, of course, leads to the perpetual recurrence of the same series in an unvarying order. Those bodies, in short, revolve in orbits: but there are (or, conformably to the laws of astronomy, there might be) others which, instead of an orbit, describe a trajectory a course not returning into itself. One or other of these must be the type to which human affairs must conform. One of the thinkers who earliest con ceived the succession of historical events as subject to fixed laws, and endeavored to discover these laws by an analytical survey of history, Vico, the celebrated author of the Scienza Nuova, adopted the former of these opinions. He conceived the phenomena of human society as revolving in an orbit; as going through periodically the same series of changes. Though there were not wanting circumstances tending to give some plausibility to this view, it would not bear a close scrutiny: and those who have succeeded Vico in this kind of speculations have universally adopted the idea of a trajectory or progress, in lieu of an orbit or cycle. The words Progress and Progressiveness are not here to be understood as synonymous with improvement and tendency to improvement. It is conceivable that the laws of human nature might determine, and even necessitate, a certain series of changes in man and society, which might not in every case, or which might not on the whole, be improvements. It is my belief, indeed, that the general tendency is, and will continue to be, saving occasional and temporary exceptions, one of improvement; a tendency toward a better and happier state. This, however, is not a question of the method of the social science, but a theorem of the science its elf. For our purpose it is sufficient that there is a progressive change both in the character of the human race and in their outward circumstances, so far as moulded by themselves; that in each successive age the principal phenomena of society are different from what they were in the age preceding, and still more different from any previous age: the periods which most distinctly mark these successive changes being intervals of one generation, during which a new set of human beings have been educated, have grown up from childhood, and taken possession of society. 573 The progressiveness of the human race is the foundation on which a method of philosophizing in the social science has been of late years erected, far superior to either of the two modes which had previously been prevalent, the chemical or experimental, and the geometrical modes. This method, which is now generally adopted by the most advanced thinkers on the Continent, consists in attempting, by a study and analysis of the general facts of history, to discover (what these philosophers term) the law of progress: which law, once ascertained, must according to them enable us to predict future events, just as after a few terms of an infinite series in algebra we are able to detect the principle, of regularity in their formation, and to predict the rest of the series to any number of terms we please. The principal aim of historical speculation in France, of late years, has been to ascertain this law. But while I gladly acknowledge the great services which have been rendered to historical knowledge by this school, I can not but deem them to be mostly chargeable with a fundamental misconception of the true method of social philosophy. The misconception consists in supposing that the order of succession which w e may be able to trace among the different states of society and civilization which history presents to us, even if that order were more rigidly uniform than it has yet been proved to be, could ever amount to a law of nature. It can only be an empirical law. The succession of states of the human mind and of human society can not have an independent law of its own; it must depend on the psychological and ethological laws which govern the action of circumstances on men and of men on circumstances. It is conceivable that those laws might be such, and the general circumstances of the human race such, as to determine the successive transformations of man and society to one given and unvarying order. But even if the case were so, it can not be the ultimate aim of science to discover an empirical law. Until that law could be connected with the psychological and ethological laws on which it must depend, and, by the consilience of deduction a priori with historical evidence, could be converted from an empirical law into a scientific one, it could not be relied on for the prediction of future events, beyond, at most, strictly adjacent cases. M. Comte alone, among the new historical school, has seen the necessity of thus connecting all our generalizations from history with the laws of human nature. 4. But, while it is an imperative rule never to introduce any generalization from history into the social science unless sufficient grounds can be pointed out for it in human nature, I do not think any one will contend that it would have been possible, setting out from the principles of human nature and from the general circumstances of the position of our species, to determine a priori the order in which human development must take place, and to predict, consequently, the gen eral facts of history up to the present time. After the first few terms of the series, the influence exercised, over each generation by the generations which preceded it, becomes, (as is well observed by the writer last referred to) more and more preponderant over all other influences; until at length what we now are and do, is in a very small degree the result of the universal circumstances of the human race, or even of our own circumstances acting through the original qualities of our species, but mainly of the qualities produced in us by the whole previous history of humanity. So long a series of actions and reactions between Circumstances and Man, each successive term being composed of an ever greater number and variety of parts, could not possibly be computed by human faculties from the elementary laws which produce it. The mere length of the series would be a sufficient obstacle, since a slight error in any one of the terms would augment in rapid progression at every subsequent step. If, therefore, the series of the effects themselves did not, when examined as a whole, manifest any regularity, we should in vain attempt to construct a general science of society. We must in that case have contented ourselves with that subordinate order of sociological speculation formerly noticed, namely, with endeavoring to ascertain what would be the effect of the 574 introduction of any new cause, in a state of society supposed to be fixeda knowledge sufficient for the more common exigencies of daily political practice, but liable to fail in all cases in which the progressive movement of society is one of the influencing elements; and therefore more precarious in proportion as the case is more important. But since both the natural varieties of mankind, and the original diver sities of local circumstances, are much less considerable than the points of agreement, there will naturally be a certain degree of uniformity in the progressive development of the species and of its works. And this uniformity tends to become greater, not less, as society advances; since the evolution of each people, which is at first determined exclusively by the nature and circumstances of that people, is gradually brought under the influence (which becomes stronger as civilization advances) of the other nations of the earth, and of the circumstances by which they have been influenced. History accordingly does, when judiciously examined, afford Empirical Laws of Society. And the problem of general sociology is to ascertain these, and connect them with the laws of human nature, by deductions showing that such were the derivative laws naturally to be expected as the consequences of those ultimate ones. It is, indeed, hardly ever possible, even after history has suggested the derivative law, to demonstrate a priori that such was the only order of succession or of co- existence in which the effects could, consistently with the laws of human nature, have been produced. We can at most make out that there were strong a priori reasons for expecting it, and that no ot her order of succession or co-existence would have been so likely to result from the nature of man and the general circumstances of his position. Often we can not do even this; we can not even show that what did take place was probable a priori , but only that it was possible. This, however which, in the Inverse Deductive Method that we are now characterizing, is a real process of verification is as indispensable, as verification by specific experience has been shown to be, where the conclusion is originally obtained by the direct way of deduction. The empirical laws must be the result of but a few instances, since few nations have ever attained at all, and still fewer by their own independent development, a high stage of social progress. If, therefore, even one or two of these few instances be insufficiently known, or imperfectly analyzed into their elements, and therefore not adequately compared with other instances, nothing is more probable than that a wrong empirical law will emerge instead of the right one. Accordingly, the most erroneous generalizations are continually made from the course of history; not only in this country, where history can not yet be said to be at all cultivated as a science, but in other countries where it is so cultivated, and by persons well versed in it. The only check or corrective is, constant verification by psychological and ethological laws. We may add to this, that no one but a person competently skilled in those laws is capable of preparing the materials for historical generalization, by analyzing the facts of history, or even by observing the social phenomena of his own time. No other will be aware of the comparative importance of different facts, nor consequently know what facts to look for, or to observe; still less will he be capable of estimating the evidence of facts which, as is the case with most, can not be ascertained by direct observation or learned from testimony, but must be inferred from marks. 5. The Empirical Laws of Society are of two kinds; some are unifor mities of co -existence, some of succession. According as the science is occupied in ascertaining and verifying the former sort of uniformities or the latter, M. Comte gives it the title of Social Statics, or of Social Dynamics; conformably to the distinction in mechanics between the conditions of equilibrium and those of movement; or in biology, between the laws of organization and those of life. The first branch of the science ascertains the conditions of stability in the social union; the second, the laws of progress. Social Dynamics is the theory of Society considered in a state of progressive movement; while Social Statics is the theory of 575 the consensus already spoken of as existing among the different parts of the social organism; in other words, the theory of the mutual actions and reactions of contemporaneous social phenomena; making provisionally, as far as possible, abstraction, for scientific purposes, of the fundamental movement which is at all times gradually modifying the whole of them. In this first point of view, the provisions of sociology will enable us to infer one from another (subject to ulterior verification by direct observation) the various characteristic marks of each distinct mode of social existence, in a manner essentially analogous to what is now habitually practiced in the anatomy of the physical body. This preliminary aspect, therefore, of political science, of necessity supposes that (contrary to the existing habits of philosophers) each of the numerous elements of the social state, ceasing to be looked at independently and absolutely, shall be always and exclusively considered relatively to all the other elements, with the whole of which it is united by mutual interdependence. It would be superfluous to insist here upon the great and constant utility of this branch of sociological speculation. It is, in the first place, the indispensable basis of the theory of social progress. It may, moreover, be employed, immediately, and of itself, to supply the place, provisionally at least, o f direct observation, which in many cases is not always practicable for some of the elements of society, the real condition of which may, however, be sufficiently judged of by means of the relations which connect them with others previously known. The history of the sciences may give us some notion of the habitual importance of this auxiliary resource, by reminding us, for example, how the vulgar errors of mere erudition concerning the pretended acquirements of the ancient Egyptians in the higher astronomy were irrevocably dissipated (even before sentence had been passed on them by a sounder erudition) from the single consideration of the inevitable connection between the general state of astronomy and that of abstract geometry, then evidently in its infancy. It would be easy to cite a multitude of analogous cases, the character of which could admit of no dispute. In order to avoid exaggeration, however, it should be remarked, that these necessary relations among the different aspects of society can not, from their very nature, be so simple and precise that the results observed could only have arisen from some one mode of mutual co-ordination. Such a notion, already too narrow in the science of life, would be completely at variance with the still more complex nature of sociological speculations. But the exact estimation of these limits of variation, both in the healthy and in the morbid state, constitutes, at least as much as in the anatomy of the natural body, an indispensable complement to every theory of Sociological Statics; without which the indirect exploration above spoken of would often lead into error. This is not the place for methodically demonstrating the existence of a necessary relation among all the possible aspects of the same social organism; a point on which, in principle at least, there is now little difference of opinion among sound thinkers. From whichever of the social elements we choose to set out, we may easily recognize that it has always a connection, more or less immediate, with all th e other elements, even with those which at first sight appear the most independent of it. The dynamical consideration of the progressive development of civilized humanity, affords, no doubt, a still more efficacious means of effecting this interesting verification of the consensus of the social phenomena, by displaying the manner in which every change in any one part, operates immediately, or very speedily, upon all the rest. But this indication may be preceded, or at all events followed, by a confirmation of a purely statical kind; for, in politics as in mechanics, the communication of motion from one object to another proves a connection between them. Without descending to the minute interdependence of the different branches of any one science or art, is it not evident that among the different sciences, as well as among most of the arts, there exists such a connection, that if the state of any one well-marked division of them is sufficiently known 576 to us, we can with real scientific assurance infer, from their necessary correlation, the contemporaneous state of every one of the others? By a further extension of this consideration, we may conceive the necessary relation which exists between the condition of the sciences in general and that of the arts in general, except that the mutual dependence is less intense in proportion as it is more indirect. The same is the case, when, instead of considering the aggregate of the social phenomena in some one people, we examine it simultaneously in different contemporaneous nations; between which the perpetual reciprocity of influence, especially in modern times, can not be contested, though the consensus must in this case be ordinarily of a less decided character, and must decrease gradually with the affinity of the cases and the multiplicity of the points of contact, so as at last, in some cases, to disappear almost entirely; as for, example, between Western Europe and Eastern Asia, of which the various general states of society appear to have been hitherto almost independent of one another. These remarks are followed by illustrations of one of the most important, and until lately, most neglected, of the general principles which, in this division of the social science, may be considered as established; namely, the necessary correlation between the form of government existing in any society and the contemporaneous state of civilization: a natural law which stamps the endless discussions and innumerable theories respecting forms of government in the abstract, as fruit less and worthless, for any other purpose than as a preparatory treatment of materials to be afterward used for the construction of a better philosophy. As already remarked, one of the main results of the science of social statics would be to ascertain the requisites of stable political union. There are some circumstances which, being found in all societies without exception, and in the greatest degree where the social union is most complete, may be considered (when psychological and ethological laws confir m the indication) as conditions of the existence of the complex phenomena called a State. For example, no numerous society has ever been held together without laws, or usages equivalent to them; without tribunals, and an organized force of some sort to execute their decisions. There have always been public authorities whom, with more or less strictness and in cases more or less accurately defined, the rest of the community obeyed, or according to general opinion were bound to obey. By following out this course of inquiry we shall find a number of requisites, which have been present in every society that has maintained a collective existence, and on the cessation of which it has either merged in some other society, or reconstructed itself on some new basis, in which the conditions were conformed to. Although these results, obtained by comparing different forms and states of society, amount in themselves only to empirical laws; some of them, when once suggested, are found to follow with so much probability from general laws of human nature, that the consilience of the two processes raises the evidence to proof, and the generalizations to the rank of scientific truths. This seems to be affirmable (for instance) of the conclusions arrived at in the following passa ge, extracted, with some alterations, from a criticism on the negative philosophy of the eighteenth century, and which I quote, though (as in some former instances) from myself, because I have no better way of illustrating the conception I have formed of the kind of theorems of which sociological statics would consist. The very first element of the social union, obedience to a government of some sort, has not been found so easy a thing to establish in the world. Among a timid and spiritless race like the inhabitants of the vast plains of tropical countries, passive obedience may be of natural growth; though even there we doubt whether it has ever been found among any people with whom fatalism, or in other words, submission to the pressure of circumstances as a divine decree, did not prevail as a religious doctrine. But the difficulty of inducing a brave and 577 warlike race to submit their individual arbitrium to any common umpire, has always been felt to be so great, that nothing short of supernatural power has been deemed adequate to overcome it; and such tribes have always assigned to the first institution of civil society a divine origin. So differently did those judge who knew savage men by actual experience, from those who had no acquaintance with them except in the civilized state. In modern Europe itself, after the fall of the Roman empire, to subdue the feudal anarchy and bring the whole people of any European nation into subjection to government (though Christianity in the most concentrated form of its i nfluence was co -operating in the work) required thrice as many centuries as have elapsed since that time. Now if these philosophers had known human nature under any other type than that of their own age, and of the particular classes of society among whom they lived, it would have occurred to them, that wherever this habitual submission to law and government has been firmly and durably established, and yet the vigor and manliness of character which resisted its establishment have been in any degree preserved, certain requisites have existed, certain conditions have been fulfilled, of which the following may be regarded as the principal. First: there has existed, for all who were accounted citizens for all who were not slaves, kept down by brute forcea sys tem of education, beginning with infancy and continued through life, of which whatever else it might include, one main and incessant ingredient was restraining discipline . To train the human being in the habit, and thence the power, of subordinating his personal impulses and aims to what were considered the ends of society; of adhering, against all temptation, to the course of conduct which those ends prescribed; of controlling in himself all feelings which were liable to militate against those ends, and encouraging all such as tended toward them; this was the purpose, to which every outward motive that the authority directing the system could command, and every inward power or principle which its knowledge of human nature enabled it to evoke, were endeavored to be rendered instrumental. The entire civil and military policy of the ancient commonwealths was such a system of training; in modern nations its place has been attempted to be supplied, principally, by religious teaching. And whenever and in proportion as the strictness of the restraining discipline was relaxed, the natural tendency of mankind to anarchy re- asserted itself; the state became disorganized from within; mutual conflict for selfish ends, neutralized the energies which were required to keep up the contest against natural causes of evil; and the nation, after a longer or briefer interval of progressive decline, became either the slave of a despotism, or the prey of a foreign invader. The second condition of permanent political society has been found to be, the existence, in some form or other, of the feeling of allegiance or loyalty. This feeling may vary in its objects, and is not confined to any particular form of government; but whether in a democracy or in a monarchy, its essence is always the same; viz., that there be in the constitution of the state something which is settled, something permanent, and not to be called in question; something which, by general agreement, has a right to be where it is, and to be secure against disturbance, w hatever else may change. This feeling may attach itself, as among the Jews (and in most of the commonwealths of antiquity), to a common God or gods, the protectors and guardians of their state. Or it may attach itself to certain persons, who are deemed to be, whether by divine appointment, by long prescription, or by the general recognition of their superior capacity and worthiness, the rightful guides and guardians of the rest. Or it may connect itself with laws; with ancient liberties or ordinances. Or, f inally, (and this is the only shape in which the feeling is likely to exist hereafter), it may attach itself to the principles of individual freedom and political and social equality, as realized in institutions which as yet exist nowhere, or exist only in a rudimentary state. But in all political societies which have had a durable existence, there has been some fixed point: 578 something which people agreed in holding sacred; which, wherever freedom of discussion was a recognized principle, it was of course lawful to contest in theory, but which no one could either fear or hope to see shaken in practice; which, in short (except perhaps during some temporary crisis), was in the common estimation placed beyond discussion. And the necessity of this may easily be m ade evident. A state never is, nor until mankind are vastly improved, can hope to be, for any long time exempt from internal dissension; for there neither is nor has ever been any state of society in which collisions did not occur between the immediate interests and passions of powerful sections of the people. What, then, enables nations to weather these storms, and pass through turbulent times without any permanent weakening of the securities for peaceable existence? Precisely this that however important the interests about which men fell out, the conflict did not affect the fundamental principle of the system of social union which happened to exist; nor threaten large portions of the community with the subversion of that on which they had built their calculations, and with which their hopes and aims had become identified. But when the questioning of these fundamental principles is (not the occasional disease, or salutary medicine, but) the habitual condition of the body politic, and when all the violent ani mosities are called forth, which spring naturally from such a situation, the state is virtually in a position of civil war; and can never long remain free from it in act and fact. The third essential condition of stability in political society, is a stron g and active principle of cohesion among the members of the same community or state. We need scarcely say that we do not mean nationality, in the vulgar sense of the term; a senseless antipathy to foreigners; indifference to the general welfare of the human race, or an unjust preference of the supposed interests of our own country; a cherishing of bad peculiarities because they are national, or a refusal to adopt what has been found good by other countries. We mean a principle of sympathy, not of hostility; of union, not of separation. We mean a feeling of common interest among those who live under the same government, and are contained within the same natural or historical boundaries. We mean, that one part of the community do not consider themselves as for eigners with regard to another part; that they set a value on their connectionfeel that they are one people, that their lot is cast together, that evil to any of their fellow -countrymen is evil to themselves, and do not desire selfishly to free themselves from their share of any common inconvenience by severing the connection. How strong this feeling was in those ancient commonwealths which attained any durable greatness, every one knows. How happily Rome, in spite of all her tyranny, succeeded in establishing the feeling of a common country among the provinces of her vast and divided empire, will appear when any one who has given due attention to the subject shall take the trouble to point it out. In modern times the countries which have had that feeling in the strongest degree have been the most powerful countries: England, France, and, in proportion to their territory and resources, Holland and Switzerland; while England in her connection with Ireland is one of the most signal examples of the consequences of its absence. Every Italian knows why Italy is under a foreign yoke; every German knows what maintains despotism in the Austrian empire; the evils of Spain flow as much from the absence of nationality among the Spaniards themselves, as from the presence of it in their relations with foreigners: while the completest illustration of all is afforded by the republics of South America, where the parts of one and the same state adhere so slightly together, that no sooner does any province think itself aggrieved by the general government than it proclaims itself a separate nation. 6. While the derivative laws of social statics are ascertained by analyzing different states of society, and comparing them with one another, without regard to the order of their succession, the consideration of the successive order is, on the contrary, predominant in the study of social dynamics, of which the aim is to observe and explain the sequences of social 579 conditions. This branch of the social science would be as complete as i t can be made, if every one of the leading general circumstances of each generation were traced to its causes in the generation immediately preceding. But the consensus is so complete (especially in modern history), that in the filiation of one generation and another, it is the whole which produces the whole, rather than any part a part. Little progress, therefore, can be made in establishing the filiation, directly from laws of human nature, without having first ascertained the immediate or derivative laws according to which social states generate one another as society advances; the axiomata media of General Sociology. The empirical laws which are most readily obtained by generalization from history do not amount to this. They are not the "middle principles" themselves, but only evidence toward the establishment of such principles. They consist of certain general tendencies which may be perceived in society; a progressive increase of some social elements, and diminution of others, or a gradual change in the general character of certain elements. It is easily seen, for instance, that as society advances, mental tend more and more to prevail over bodily qualities, and masses over individuals; that the occupation of all that portion of mankind who are not under external restraint is at first chiefly military, but society becomes progressively more and more engrossed with productive pursuits, and the military spirit gradually gives way to the industrial; to which many similar truths might be added. And with gener alizations of this description, ordinary inquirers, even of the historical school now predominant on the Continent, are satisfied. But these and all such results are still at too great a distance from the elementary laws of human nature on which they dependtoo many links intervene, and the concurrence of causes at each link is far too complicated to enable these propositions to be presented as direct corollaries from those elementary principles. They have, therefore, in the minds of most inquirers, remaine d in the state of empirical laws, applicable only within the bounds of actual observation; without any means of determining their real limits, and of judging whether the changes which have hitherto been in progress are destined to continue indefinitely, or to terminate, or even to be reversed. 7. In order to obtain better empirical laws, we must not rest satisfied with noting the progressive changes which manifest themselves in the separate elements of society, and in which nothing is indicated but the relation of fragments of the effect to corresponding fragments of the cause. It is necessary to combine the statical view of social phenomena with the dynamical, considering not only the progressive changes of the different elements, but the contemporaneous condition of each; and thus obtain empirically the law of correspondence not only between the simultaneous states, but between the simultaneous changes, of those elements. This law of correspondence it is, which, duly verified a priori , would become the real scientific derivative law of the development of humanity and human affairs. In the difficult process of observation and comparison which is here required, it would evidently be a great assistance if it should happen to be the fact, that some one element in the complex existence of social man is pre- eminent over all others as the prime agent of the social movement. For we could then take the progress of that one element as the central chain, to each successive link of which, the corresponding links of all the other progressions being appended, the succession of the facts would by this alone be presented in a kind of spontaneous order, far more nearly approaching to the real order of their filiation than could be obtained by any other merely empirical proce ss. Now, the evidence of history and that of human nature combine, by a striking instance of consilience, to show that there really is one social element which is thus predominant, and almost paramount, among the agents of the social progression. This is, the state of the 580 speculative faculties of mankind; including the nature of the beliefs which by any means they have arrived at, concerning themselves and the world by which they are surrounded. It would be a great error, and one very little likely to be committed, to assert that speculation, intellectual activity, the pursuit of truth, is among the more powerful propensities of human nature, or holds a predominating place in the lives of any, save decidedly exceptional, individuals. But, notwithstanding the relative weakness of this principle among other sociological agents, its influence is the main determining cause of the social progress; all the other dispositions of our nature which contribute to that progress being dependent on it for the means of acco mplishing their share of the work. Thus (to take the most obvious case first), the impelling force to most of the improvements effected in the arts of life, is the desire of increased material comfort; but as we can only act upon external objects in proportion to our knowledge of them, the state of knowledge at any time is the limit of the industrial improvements possible at that time; and the progress of industry must follow, and depend on, the progress of knowledge. The same thing may be shown to be true, though it is not quite so obvious, of the progress of the fine arts. Further, as the strongest propensities of uncultivated or half-cultivated human nature (being the purely selfish ones, and those of a sympathetic character which partake most of the natu re of selfishness) evidently tend in themselves to disunite mankind, not to unite themto make them rivals, not confederates, social existence is only possible by a disciplining of those more powerful propensities, which consists in subordinating them to a common system of opinions. The degree of this subordination is the measure of the completeness of the social union, and the nature of the common opinions determines its kind. But in order that mankind should conform their actions to any set of opinions, these opinions must exist, must be believed by them. And thus, the state of the speculative faculties, the character of the propositions assented to by the intellect, essentially determines the moral and political state of the community, as we have already seen that it determines the physical. These conclusions, deduced from the laws of human nature, are in entire accordance with the general facts of history. Every considerable change historically known to us in the condition of any portion of mankind, when not brought about by external force, has been preceded by a change, of proportional extent, in the state of their knowledge, or in their prevalent beliefs. As between any given state of speculation, and the correlative state of every thing else, it was almost always the former which first showed itself; though the effects, no doubt, reacted potently upon the cause. Every considerable advance in material civilization has been preceded by an advance in knowledge: and when any great social change has come to pass, either in the way of gradual development or of sudden conflict, it has had for its precursor a great change in the opinions and modes of thinking of society. Polytheism, Judaism, Christianity, Protestantism, the critical philosophy of modern Europe, and its positive science each of these has been a primary agent in making society what it was at each successive period, while society was but secondarily instrumental in making them , each of them (so far as causes can be assigned for its existence) being m ainly an emanation not from the practical life of the period, but from the previous state of belief and thought. The weakness of the speculative propensity in mankind generally has not, therefore, prevented the progress of speculation from governing that of society at large; it has only, and too often, prevented progress altogether, where the intellectual progression has come to an early stand for want of sufficiently favorable circumstances. From this accumulated evidence, we are justified in concluding, that the order of human progression in all respects will mainly depend on the order of progression in the intellectual convictions of mankind, that is, on the law of the successive transformations of human opinions. The question remains, whethe r this law can be determined; at first from history as 581 an empirical law, then converted into a scientific theorem by deducing it a priori from the principles of human nature. As the progress of knowledge and the changes in the opinions of mankind are very slow, and manifest themselves in a well-defined manner only at long intervals, it can not be expected that the general order of sequence should be discoverable from the examination of less than a very considerable part of the duration of the social progress. It is necessary to take into consideration the whole of past time, from the first recorded condition of the human race, to the memorable phenomena of the last and present generations. 8. The investigation which I have thus endeavored to characterize, has been systematically attempted, up to the present time, by M. Comte alone. His work is hitherto the only known example of the study of social phenomena according to this conception of the Historical Method. Without discussing here the worth of his conclusions, and especially of his predictions and recommendations with respect to the Future of society, which appear to me greatly inferior in value to his appreciation of the Past, I shall confine myself to mentioning one important generalization, which M. C omte regards as the fundamental law of the progress of human knowledge. Speculation he conceives to have, on every subject of human inquiry, three successive stages; in the first of which it tends to explain the phenomena by supernatural agencies, in the second by metaphysical abstractions, and in the third or final state confines itself to ascertaining their laws of succession and similitude. This generalization appears to me to have that high degree of scientific evidence which is derived from the concurrence of the indications of history with the probabilities derived from the constitution of the human mind. Nor could it be easily conceived, from the mere enunciation of such a proposition, what a flood of light it lets in upon the whole course of history, when its consequences are traced, by connecting with each of the three states of human intellect which it distinguishes, and with each successive modification of those three states, the correlative condition of other social phenomena. But whatever decisi on competent judges may pronounce on the results arrived at by any individual inquirer, the method now characterized is that by which the derivative laws of social order and of social progress must be sought. By its aid we may hereafter succeed not only in looking far forward into the future history of the human race, but in determining what artificial means may be used, and to what extent, to accelerate the natural progress in so far as it is beneficial; to compensate for whatever may be its inherent incon veniences or disadvantages; and to guard against the dangers or accidents to which our species is exposed from the necessary incidents of its progression. Such practical instructions, founded on the highest branch of speculative sociology, will form the n oblest and most beneficial portion of the Political Art. That of this science and art even the foundations are but beginning to be laid, is sufficiently evident. But the superior minds are fairly turning themselves toward that object. It has become the aim of really scientific thinkers to connect by theories the facts of universal history: it is acknowledged to be one of the requisites of a general system of social doctrine, that it should explain, so far as the data exist, the main facts of history; and a Philosophy of History is generally admitted to be at once the verification, and the initial form, of the Philosophy of the Progress of Society. If the endeavors now making in all the more cultivated nations, and beginning to be made even in England (usually the last to enter into the general movement of the European mind) for the construction of a Philosophy of History, shall be directed and controlled by those views of the nature of sociological evidence which I have (very briefly and imperfectly) attempte d to characterize; they can not fail to give birth to a sociological system widely 582 removed from the vague and conjectural character of all former attempts, and worthy to take its place, at last, among the sciences. When this time shall come, no important branch of human affairs will be any longer abandoned to empiricism and unscientific surmise: the circle of human knowledge will be complete, and it can only thereafter receive further enlargement by perpetual expansion from within. 583 XI. Additional Elucidations Of The Science Of History 1. The doctrine which the preceding chapters were intended to enforce and elucidatethat the collective series of social phenomena, in other words the course of history, is subject to general laws, which philosophy may possibly detecthas been familiar for generations to the scientific thinkers of the Continent, and has for the last quarter of a century passed out of their peculiar domain, into that of newspapers and ordinary political discussion. In our own country, however, at the time of the first publication of this Treatise, it was almost a novelty, and the prevailing habits of thought on historical subjects were the very reverse of a preparation for it. Since then a great change has taken place, and has been eminently promoted by the important work of Mr. Buckle; who, with characteristic energy, flung down this great principle, together with many striking exemplifications of it, into the arena of popular discussion, to be fought over by a sort of combatants, in the presence of a sort of spectators, who would never even have been aware that there existed such a principle if they had been left to learn its existence from the speculations of pure science. And hence has arisen a consider able amount of controversy, tending not only to make the principle rapidly familiar to the majority of cultivated minds, but also to clear it from the confusions and misunderstandings by which it was but natural that it should for a time be clouded, and which impair the worth of the doctrine to those who accept it, and are the stumbling-block of many who do not. Among the impediments to the general acknowledgment, by thoughtful minds, of the subjection of historical facts to scientific laws, the most fundamental continues to be that which is grounded on the doctrine of Free Will, or, in other words, on the denial that the law of invariable Causation holds true of human volitions; for if it does not, the course of history, being the result of human volitions, can not be a subject of scientific laws, since the volitions on which it depends can neither be foreseen, nor reduced to any canon of regularity even after they have occurred. I have discussed this question, as far as seemed suitable to the occasion, in a former chapter; and I only think it necessary to repeat, that the doctrine of the Causation of human actions, improperly called the doctrine of Necessity, affirms no mysterious nexus , or overruling fatality: it asserts only that men's actions are the join t result of the general laws and circumstances of human nature, and of their own particular characters; those characters again being the consequence of the natural and artificial circumstances that constituted their education, among which circumstances must be reckoned their own conscious efforts. Any one who is willing to take (if the expression may be permitted) the trouble of thinking himself into the doctrine as thus stated, will find it, I believe, not only a faithful interpretation of the universal ex perience of human conduct, but a correct representation of the mode in which he himself, in every particular case, spontaneously interprets his own experience of that conduct. But if this principle is true of individual man, it must be true of collective man. If it is the law of human life, the law must be realized in history. The experience of human affairs when looked at en masse , must be in accordance with it if true, or repugnant to it if false. The support which this a posteriori verification affords t o the law, is the part of the case which has been most clearly and triumphantly brought out by Mr. Buckle. The facts of statistics, since they have been made a subject of careful recordation and study, have yielded conclusions, some of which have been very startling to persons not accustomed to regard moral actions as subject to uniform laws. The very events which in their own nature 584 appear most capricious and uncertain, and which in any individual case no attainable degree of knowledge would enable us to foresee, occur, when considerable numbers are taken into the account, with a degree of regularity approaching to mathematical. What act is there which all would consider as more completely dependent on individual character, and on the exercise of individual free will, than that of slaying a fellow -creature? Yet in any large country, the number of murders, in proportion to the population, varies (it has been found) very little from one year to another, and in its variations never deviates widely from a certai n average. What is still more remarkable, there is a similar approach to constancy in the proportion of these murders annually committed with every particular kind of instrument. There is a like approximation to identity, as between one year and another, in the comparative number of legitimate and of illegitimate births. The same thing is found true of suicides, accidents, and all other social phenomena of which the registration is sufficiently perfect; one of the most curiously illustrative examples being the fact, ascertained by the registers of the London and Paris post-offices, that the number of letters posted which the writers have forgotten to direct, is nearly the same, in proportion to the whole number of letters posted, in one year as in another. Year after year, says Mr. Buckle, the same proportion of letter- writers forget this simple act; so that for each successive period we can actually foretell the number of persons whose memory will fail them in regard to this trifling, and as it might appe ar, accidental occurrence. This singular degree of regularity en masse , combined with the extreme of irregularity in the cases composing the mass, is a felicitous verification a posteriori of the law of causation in its application to human conduct. Assuming the truth of that law, every human action, every murder, for instance, is the concurrent result of two sets of causes. On the one part, the general circumstances of the country and its inhabitants; the moral, educational, economical, and other influences operating on the whole people, and constituting what we term the state of civilization. On the other part, the great variety of influences special to the individual: his temperament, and other peculiarities of organization, his parentage, habitual associates, temptations, and so forth. If we now take the whole of the instances which occur within a sufficiently large field to exhaust all the combinations of these special influences, or, in other words, to eliminate chance; and if all these instances have occurred within such narrow limits of time, that no material change can have taken place in the general influences constituting the state of civilization of the country; we may be certain, that if human actions are governed by invariable laws, the aggregate result will be something like a constant quantity. The number of murders committed within that space and time, being the effect partly of general causes which have not varied, and partly of partial causes the whole round of whose variations has been included, will be, practically speaking, invariable. Literally and mathematically invariable it is not, and could not be expected to be: because the period of a year is too short to include all the possible combinations of partial causes, while it is, at the same time, sufficiently long to make it probable that in some years at least, of every series, there will have been introduced new influences of a more or less general character; such as a more vigorous or a more relaxed police; some temporary excitement f rom political or religious causes; or some incident generally notorious, of a nature to act morbidly on the imagination. That in spite of these unavoidable imperfections in the data, there should be so very trifling a margin of variation in the annual results, is a brilliant continuation of the general theory. 2. The same considerations which thus strikingly corroborate the evidence of the doctrine, that historical facts are the invariable effects of causes, tend equally to clear that doctrine from variou s misapprehensions, the existence of which has been put in evidence by the recent discussions. Some persons, for instance, seemingly imagine the doctrine to imply, not merely 585 that the total number of murders committed in a given space and time is entirely the effect of the general circumstances of society, but that every particular murder is so toothat the individual murderer is, so to speak, a mere instrument in the hands of general causes that he himself has no option, or, if he has, and chose to exercise it, some one else would be necessitated to take his place; that if any one of the actual murderers had abstained from the crime, some person who would otherwise have remained innocent, would have committed an extra murder to make up the average. Such a corollary would certainly convict any theory which necessarily led to it of absurdity. It is obvious, however, that each particular murder depends, not on the general state of society only, but on that combined with causes special to the case, which are generally much more powerful; and if these special causes, which have greater influence than the general ones in causing every particular murder, have no influence on the number of murders in a given period, it is because the field of observation is so extens ive as to include all possible combinations of the special causes all varieties of individual character and individual temptation compatible with the general state of society. The collective experiment, as it may be termed, exactly separates the effect of the general from that of the special causes, and shows the net result of the former; but it declares nothing at all respecting the amount of influence of the special causes, be it greater or smaller, since the scale of the experiment extends to the number of cases within which the effects of the special causes balance one another, and disappear in that of the general causes. I will not pretend that all the defenders of the theory have always kept their language free from this same confusion, and have shown no tendency to exalt the influence of general causes at the expense of special. I am of opinion, on the contrary, that they have done so in a very great degree, and by so doing have encumbered their theory with difficulties, and laid it open to objections, which do not necessarily affect it. Some, for example (among whom is Mr. Buckle himself), have inferred, or allowed it to be supposed that they inferred, from the regularity in the recurrence of events which depend on moral qualities, that the moral qualities of mankind are little capable of being improved, or are of little importance in the general progress of society, compared with intellectual or economic causes. But to draw this inference is to forget that the statistical tables, from which the invaria ble averages are deduced, were compiled from facts occurring within narrow geographical limits and in a small number of successive years; that is, from a field the whole of which was under the operation of the same general causes, and during too short a time to allow of much change therein. All moral causes but those common to the country generally, have been eliminated by the great number of instances taken; and those which are common to the whole country have not varied considerably, in the short space of time comprised in the observations. If we admit the supposition that they have varied; if we compare one age with another, or one country with another, or even one part of a country with another, differing in position and character as to the moral element s, the crimes committed within a year give no longer the same, but a widely different numerical aggregate. And this can not but be the case: for, inasmuch as every single crime committed by an individual mainly depends on his moral qualities, the crimes co mmitted by the entire population of the country must depend in an equal degree on their collective moral qualities. To render this element inoperative upon the large scale, it would be necessary to suppose that the general moral average of mankind does not vary from country to country or from age to age; which is not true, and, even if it were true, could not possibly be proved by any existing statistics. I do not on this account the less agree in the opinion of Mr. Buckle, that the intellectual element in mankind, including in that expression the nature of their beliefs, the amount of their knowledge, and the development of their intelligence, is the predominant circumstance in determining their progress. But I am of this opinion, not because I regard their moral or economical condition either as less powerful or less variable agencies, but because these are in a great degree the consequences of the 586 intellectual condition, and are, in all cases, limited by it; as was observed in the preceding chapter. The in tellectual changes are the most conspicuous agents in history, not from their superior force, considered in themselves, but because practically they work with the united power belonging to all three. P232F233 P 3. There is another distinction often neglected in the discussion of this subject, which it is extremely important to observe. The theory of the subjection of social progress to invariable laws, is often held in conjunction with the doctrine, that social progress can not be materially influenced by the exertions of individual persons, or by the acts of governments. But though these opinions are often held by the same persons, they are two very different opinions, and the confusion between them is the eternally recurring error of confounding Causation with Fatalism. Because whatever happens will be the effect of causes, human volitions among the rest, it does not follow that volitions, even those of peculiar individuals, are not of great efficacy as causes. If any one in a storm at sea, because about the same number of persons in every year perish by shipwreck, should conclude that it was useless for him to attempt to save his own life, we should call him a Fatalist; and should remind him that the efforts of shipwrecked persons to save their lives are so far f rom being immaterial, that the average amount of those efforts is one of the causes on which the ascertained annual number of deaths by shipwreck depend. However universal the laws of social development may be, they can not be more universal or more rigorous than those of the physical agencies of nature; yet human will can convert these into instruments of its designs, and the extent to which it does so makes the chief difference between savages and the most highly civilized people. Human and social facts, from their more complicated nature, are not less, but more, modifiable than mechanical and chemical facts; human agency, therefore, has still greater power over them. And accordingly, those who maintain that the evolution of society depends exclusively, or almost exclusively, on general causes, always include among these the collective knowledge and intellectual development of the race. But if of the race, why not also of some powerful monarch or thinker, or of the ruling portion of some political society, acting through its government? Though the varieties of character among ordinary individuals neutralize one another on any large scale, exceptional individuals in important positions do not in any given age neutralize one another; there was not another Themistocles, or Luther, or Julius Csar, of equal powers and contrary dispositions, who exactly balanced the given Themistocles, Luther, and Csar, and prevented them from having any permanent effect. Moreover, for aught that appears, the volitions of exceptional persons, or the opinions and purposes of the individuals who at some particular time compose a government, may be indispensable links 233 I have been assured by an intimate friend of Mr. Buckle that he would not have withheld his assent from these remarks, and that he never intended to affirm or imply that mankind are not progressive in their moral as well as in their intellectual qualities. In dealing with his problem, he availed himself of the artifice resorted to by the Political Economist, who leaves out of consideration the generous and benevolent sentiments, and founds his science on the proposition that mankind are actuated by acquisitive propensities alone, not because such is the fact, but because it is necessary to begin by treating the principal influence as if it was the sole one, and make the due corrections afterward. He desired to make abstraction of the intellect as the determi ning and dynamical element of the progression, eliminating the more dependent set of conditions, and treating the more active one as if it were an entirely independent variable. The same friend of Mr. Buckle states that when he used expressions which seemed to exaggerate the influence of general at the expense of special causes, and especially at the expense of the influence of individual minds, Mr. Buckle really intended no more than to affirm emphatically that the greatest men can not effect great change s in human affairs unless the general mind has been in some considerable degree prepared for them by the general circumstances of the age; a truth which, of course, no one thinks of denying. And there certainly are passages in Mr. Buckle's writings which s peak of the influence exercised by great individual intellects in as strong terms as could be desired. 587 in the chain of causation by which even the general causes produce their effects; and I believe this to be the only tenable form of the theory. Lord Macaulay, in a celebrated passage of one of his early essays (let me add that it was one which he did not himself choose to reprint), gives expression to the doctrine of the absolute inoperativeness of great men, more unqualified, I should think, than has been given to it by any writer of equal abilities. He compares them to persons who merely stand on a loftier height, and thence receive the sun's rays a little earlier, than the rest of the human race. The sun illuminates the hills while it is still below the horizon, and truth is discovered by the highest minds a little before it becomes manifest to the multitude. This is the extent of their superiority. They are the first to catch and reflect a light which, without their a ssistance, must in a short time be visible to those who lie far beneath them. If this metaphor is to be carried out, it follows that if there had been no Newton, the world would not only have had the Newtonian system, but would have had it equally soon; as the sun would have risen just as early to spectators in the plain if there had been no mountain at hand to catch still earlier rays. And so it would be, if truths, like the sun, rose by their own proper motion, without human effort; but not otherwise. I believe that if Newton had not lived, the world must have waited for the Newtonian philosophy until there had been another Newton, or his equivalent. No ordinary man, and no succession of ordinary men, could have achieved it. I will not go the length of saying that what Newton did in a single life, might not have been done in successive steps by some of those who followed him, each singly inferior to him in genius. But even the least of those steps required a man of great intellectual superiority. Eminent men do not merely see the coming light from the hill-top, they mount on the hill-top and evoke it; and if no one had ever ascended thither, the light, in many cases, might never have risen upon the plain at all. Philosophy and religion are abundantly amenable to general causes; yet few will doubt that, had there been no Socrates, no Plato, and no Aristotle, there would have been no philosophy for the next two thousand years, nor in all probability then; and that if there had been no Christ, and no St. Paul, there would have been no Christianity. The point in which, above all, the influence of remarkable individuals is decisive, is in determining the celerity of the movement. In most states of society it is the existence of great men which decides even whether there shall be any progress. It is conceivable that Greece, or that Christian Europe, might have been progressive in certain periods of their history through general causes only: but if there had been no Mohammed, would Arabia have produced Avicenna or Averroes, or Caliphs of Bagdad or of Cordova? In determining, however, in what manner and order the progress of mankind shall take place if it take place at all, much less depends on the character of individuals. There is a sort of necessity established in this respect by the general laws of human natureby the constitution of the human mind. Certain truths can not be discovered, nor inventions made, unless certain others have been made first; certain social improvements, from the nature of the case, can only follow, and not precede, others. The order of human progress, therefore, may to a certain extent have definite laws assigned to it: while as to its celerity, or even as to its taking place at all, no generalization, extending to the human species generally, can possibly be made; but only some very precarious approximate generalizations, confined to the small portion of mankind in whom there has been any thing like consecutive progress within the historical period, and deduced from their special position, or collected from their particular history. Even looking to the manner of progress, the order of succession of social states, there is need of great flexibility in our generalizations. The limits of variation in the possible development of social, as of ani mal life, are a subject of which little is yet understood, and are one of the great problems in social science. It is, at all events, a fact, that different portions of mankind, under the influence of different circumstances, have developed themselves in a more or less 588 different manner and into different forms; and among these determining circumstances, the individual character of their great speculative thinkers or practical organizers may well have been one. Who can tell how profoundly the whole subsequent history of China may have been influenced by the individuality of Confucius? and of Sparta (and hence of Greece and the world) by that of Lycurgus? Concerning the nature and extent of what a great man under favorable circumstances can do for mankind, as well as of what a government can do for a nation, many different opinions are possible; and every shade of opinion on these points is consistent with the fullest recognition that there are invariable laws of historical phenomena. Of course the degree of influence which has to be assigned to these more special agencies, makes a great difference in the precision which can be given to the general laws, and in the confidence with which predictions can be grounded on them. Whatever depends on the peculiarities of individuals, combined with the accident of the positions they hold, is necessarily incapable of being foreseen. Undoubtedly these casual combinations might be eliminated like any others, by taking a sufficiently large cycle: the peculiarities of a great historical character make their influence felt in history sometimes for several thousand years, but it is highly probable that they will make no difference at all at the end of fifty millions. Since, however, we can not obtain an average of the vast length of time necessary to exhaust all the possible combinations of great men and circumstances, as much of the law of evolution of human affairs as depends upon this average, is and remains inaccessible to us; and within the next thousand years, which are of considerably more importance to us than the whole remainder of the fifty millions, the favorable and unfavorable combinations which will occur will be to us purely accidental. We can not foresee the advent of great men. Those who introduce new speculative t houghts or great practical conceptions into the world, can not have their epoch fixed beforehand. What science can do, is this. It can trace through past history the general causes which had brought mankind into that preliminary state which, when the right sort of great man appeared, rendered them accessible to his influence. If this state continues, experience renders it tolerably certain that in a longer or shorter period the great man will be produced; provided that the general circumstances of the country and people are (which very often they are not) compatible with his existence; of which point also, science can in some measure judge. It is in this manner that the results of progress, except as to the celerity of their production, can be, to a certain extent, reduced to regularity and law. And the belief that they can be so, is equally consistent with assigning very great, or very little efficacy, to the influence of exceptional men, or of the acts of governments. And the same may be said of all other accidents and disturbing causes. 4. It would nevertheless be a great error to assign only a trifling importance to the agency of eminent individuals, or of governments. It must not be concluded that the influence of either is small, because they can not bestow what the general circumstances of society, and the course of its previous history, have not prepared it to receive. Neither thinkers nor governments effect all that they intend, but in compensation they often produce important results which they did not in the least foresee. Great men, and great actions, are seldom wasted; they send forth a thousand unseen influences, more effective than those which are seen; and though nine out of every ten things done, with a good purpose, by those who are in advance of their age, produce no material effect, the tenth thing produces effects twenty times as great as any one would have dreamed of predicting from it. Even the men who for want of sufficiently favorable circumstances left no impress at all upon their own age, have often been of the greatest value to posterity. Who could appear to have lived more entirely in vain than some of the early heretics? They were burned or massacred, their writings extirpated, their memory anathematized, and their very names and ex istence left for seven or eight 589 centuries in the obscurity of musty manuscriptstheir history to be gathered, perhaps, only from the sentences by which they were condemned. Yet the memory of these menmen who resisted certain pretensions or certain dogmas of the Church in the very age in which the unanimous assent of Christendom was afterward claimed as having been given to them, and asserted as the ground of their authoritybroke the chain of tradition, established a series of precedents for resistance, in spired later Reformers with the courage, and armed them with the weapons, which they needed when mankind were better prepared to follow their impulse. To this example from men, let us add another from governments. The comparatively enlightened rule of which Spain had the benefit during a considerable part of the eighteenth century, did not correct the fundamental defects of the Spanish people; and in consequence, though it did great temporary good, so much of that good perished with it, that it may plausibl y be affirmed to have had no permanent effect. The case has been cited as a proof how little governments can do in opposition to the causes which have determined the general character of the nation. It does show how much there is which they can not do; but not that they can do nothing. Compare what Spain was at the beginning of that half-century of liberal government, with what she had become at its close. That period fairly let in the light of European thought upon the more educated classes; and it never afterward ceased to go on spreading. Previous to that time the change was in an inverse direction; culture, light, intellectual and even material activity, were becoming extinguished. Was it nothing to arrest this downward and convert it into an upward course? How much that Charles the Third and Aranda could not do, has been the ultimate consequence of what they did! To that half-century Spain owes that she has got rid of the Inquisition, that she has got rid of the monks, that she now has parliaments and (save in exceptional intervals) a free press, and the feelings of freedom and citizenship, and is acquiring railroads and all the other constituents of material and economical progress. In the Spain which preceded that era, there was not a single element at work which could have led to these results in any length of time, if the country had continued to be governed as it was by the last princes of the Austrian dynasty, or if the Bourbon rulers had been from the first what, both in Spain and in Naples, they af terward became. And if a government can do much, even when it seems to have done little, in causing positive improvement, still greater are the issues dependent on it in the way of warding off evils, both internal and external, which else would stop improvement altogether. A good or a bad counselor, in a single city at a particular crisis, has affected the whole subsequent fate of the world. It is as certain as any contingent judgment respecting historical events can be, that if there had been no Themistocl es there would have been no victory of Salamis; and had there not, where would have been all our civilization? How different, again, would have been the issue if Epaminondas, or Timoleon, or even Iphicrates, instead of Chares and Lysicles, had commanded at Chroneia. As is well said in the second of two Essays on the Study of History, in my judgment the soundest and most philosophical productions which the recent controversies on this subject have called forth, historical science authorizes not absolute, but only conditional predictions. General causes count for much, but individuals also produce great changes in history, and color its whole complexion long after their death.... No one can doubt that the Roman republic would have subsided into a military de spotism if Julius Csar had never lived (thus much was rendered practically certain by general causes); but is it at all clear that in that case Gaul would ever have formed a province of the empire? Might not Varus have lost his three legions on the banks of the Rhone? and might not that river have become the frontier instead of the Rhine? This might well have happened if Csar and Crassus had changed provinces; and it is surely impossible to say that in such an event the venue (as lawyers say) of European civilization might not have been changed. The Norman Conquest in the same way was as much the act of a single man, as the writing of a newspaper article; and knowing as we do the history of that man and his family, we can retrospectively 590 predict with all but infallible certainty, that no other person (no other in that age, I presume, is meant) could have accomplished the enterprise. If it had not been accomplished, is there any ground to suppose that either our history or our national character would have been what they are? As is most truly remarked by the same writer, the whole stream of Grecian history, as cleared up by Mr. Grote, is one series of examples how often events on which the whole destiny of subsequent civilization turned, were dependent on the personal character for good or evil of some one individual. It must be said, however, that Greece furnishes the most extreme example of this nature to be found in history, and is a very exaggerated specimen of the general tendency. It has happened only that once, and will probably never happen again, that the fortunes of mankind depended upon keeping a certain order of things in existence in a single town, or a country scarcely larger than Yorkshire; capable of being ruined or saved by a hundred causes, of very slight magnitude in comparison with the general tendencies of human affairs. Neither ordinary accidents, nor the characters of individuals, can ever again be so vitally important as they then were. The longer our species lasts, and the more civi lized it becomes, the more, as Comte remarks, does the influence of past generations over the present, and of mankind en masse over every individual in it, predominate over other forces; and though the course of affairs never ceases to be susceptible of alteration both by accidents and by personal qualities, the increasing preponderance of the collective agency of the species over all minor causes, is constantly bringing the general evolution of the race into something which deviates less from a certain and preappointed track. Historical science, therefore, is always becoming more possible; not solely because it is better studied, but because, in every generation, it becomes better adapted for study. 591 XII. Of The Logic Of Practice, Or Art; Including Morality And Policy 1. In the preceding chapters we have endeavored to characterize the present state of those among the branches of knowledge called Moral, which are sciences in the only proper sense of the term, that is, inquiries into the course of nature. It is customary, however, to include under the term moral knowledge, and even (though improperly) under that of moral science, an inquiry the results of which do not express themselves in the indicative, but in the imper ative mood, or in periphrases equivalent to it; what is called the knowledge of duties; practical ethics, or morality. Now, the imperative mood is the characteristic of art, as distinguished from science. Whatever speaks in rules, or precepts, not in asser tions respecting matters of fact, is art; and ethics, or morality, is properly a portion of the art corresponding to the sciences of human nature and society. P233F234 P The Method, therefore, of Ethics, can be no other than that of Art, or Practice, in general; and the portion yet uncompleted of the task which we proposed to ourselves in the concluding Book, is to characterize the general Method of Art, as distinguished from Science. 2. In all branches of practical business there are cases in which individuals are bound to conform their practice to a pre-established rule, while there are others in which it is part of their task to find or construct the rule by which they are to govern their conduct. The first, for example, is the case of a judge, under a definite written code. The judge is not called upon to determine what course would be intrinsically the most advisable in the particular case in hand, but only within what rule of law it falls; what the legislature has ordained to be done in the kind of case, and must therefore be presumed to have intended in the individual case. The method must here be wholly and exclusively one of ratiocination, or syllogism; and the process is obviously, what in our analysis of the syllogism we showed that all ratiocination is, namely the interpretation of a formula. In order that our illustration of the opposite case may be taken from the same class of subjects as the former, we will suppose, in contrast with the situation of the judge, the position of the legislator. As the jud ge has laws for his guidance, so the legislator has rules, and maxims of policy; but it would be a manifest error to suppose that the legislator is bound by these maxims in the same manner as the judge is bound by the laws, and that all he has to do is to argue down from them to the particular case, as the judge does from the laws. The legislator is bound to take into consideration the reasons or grounds of the maxim; the judge has nothing to do with those of the law, except so far as a consideration of the m may throw light upon the intention of the law-maker, where his words have left it doubtful. To the judge, the rule, once positively ascertained, is final; but the legislator, or other practitioner, who goes by rules rather than by their reasons, like the old- fashioned German tacticians who were vanquished by Napoleon, or the physician who preferred that his patients should die by rule rather than recover contrary to it, is rightly judged to be a mere pedant, and the slave of his formulas. 234 It is almost superfluous to observe, that there is another meaning of the word Art, in which it may be said to denote the poetical department or aspect of things in general, in contradistinction to the scientific. In the text, the word is used in its older, and I hope, not yet obsolete sense. 592 Now, the reasons of a maxim of policy, or of any other rule of art, can be no other than the theorems of the corresponding science. The relation in which rules of art stand to doctrines of science may be thus characterized. The art proposes to itself an end to be attained, defines the end, and hands it over to the science. The science receives it, considers it as a phenomenon or effect to be studied, and having investigated its causes and conditions, sends it back to art with a theorem of the combination of circumstances b y which it could be produced. Art then examines these combinations of circumstances, and according as any of them are or are not in human power, pronounces the end attainable or not. The only one of the premises, therefore, which Art supplies, is the origi nal major premise, which asserts that the attainment of the given end is desirable. Science then lends to Art the proposition (obtained by a series of inductions or of deductions) that the performance of certain actions will attain the end. From these prem ises Art concludes that the performance of these actions is desirable, and finding it also practicable, converts the theorem into a rule or precept. 3. It deserves particular notice, that the theorem or speculative truth is not ripe for being turned into a precept, until the whole, and not a part merely, of the operation which belongs to science, has been performed. Suppose that we have completed the scientific process only up to a certain point; have discovered that a particular cause will produce the de sired effect, but have not ascertained all the negative conditions which are necessary, that is, all the circumstances which, if present, would prevent its production. If, in this imperfect state of the scientific theory, we attempt to frame a rule of art, we perform that operation prematurely. Whenever any counteracting cause, overlooked by the theorem, takes place, the rule will be at fault; we shall employ the means and the end will not follow. No arguing from or about the rule itself will then help us through the difficulty; there is nothing for it but to turn back and finish the scientific process which should have preceded the formation of the rule. We must re-open the investigation to inquire into the remainder of the conditions on which the effect depends; and only after we have ascertained the whole of these are we prepared to transform the completed law of the effect into a precept, in which those circumstances or combinations of circumstances which the science exhibits as conditions are prescribed as means. It is true that, for the sake of convenience, rules must be formed from something less than this ideally perfect theory: in the first place, because the theory can seldom be made ideally perfect; and next, because, if all the counteracting contingencies, whether of frequent or of rare occurrence, were included, the rules would be too cumbrous to be apprehended and remembered by ordinary capacities, on the common occasions of life. The rules of art do not attempt to comprise more conditions than require to be attended to in ordinary cases; and are therefore always imperfect. In the manual arts, where the requisite conditions are not numerous, and where those which the rules do not specify are generally either plain to common observation or speedily learned from practice, rules may often be safely acted on by persons who know nothing more than the rule. But in the complicated affairs of life, and still more in those of states and societies, rules can not be relied on, without constantly referring back to the scientific laws on which they are founded. To know what are the practical contingencies which require a modification of the rule, or which are altogether exceptions to it, is to know what combinations of circumstances would interfere with, or entir ely counteract, the consequences of those laws; and this can only be learned by a reference to the theoretic grounds of the rule. By a wise practitioner, therefore, rules of conduct will only be considered as provisional. Being made for the most numerous cases, or for those of most ordinary occurrence, they point out the manner in which it will be least perilous to act, where time or means do not exist 593 for analyzing the actual circumstances of the case, or where we can not trust our judgment in estimating them. But they do not at all supersede the propriety of going through, when circumstances permit, the scientific process requisite for framing a rule from the data of the particular case before us. At the same time, the common rule may very properly serve as an admonition that a certain mode of action has been found by ourselves and others to be well adapted to the cases of most common occurrence; so that if it be unsuitable to the case in hand, the reason of its being so will be likely to arise from some unusual circumstance. 4. The error is therefore apparent of those who would deduce the line of conduct proper to particular cases from supposed universal practical maxims, overlooking the necessity of constantly referring back to the principles of the spec ulative science, in order to be sure of attaining even the specific end which the rules have in view. How much greater still, then, must the error be, of setting up such unbending principles, not merely as universal rules for attaining a given end, but as rules of conduct generally, without regard to the possibility, not only that some modifying cause may prevent the attainment of the given end by the means which the rule prescribes, but that success itself may conflict with some other end, which may possibly chance to be more desirable. This is the habitual error of many of the political speculators whom I have characterized as the geometrical school; especially in France, where ratiocination from rules of practice forms the staple commodity of journalism a nd political oratorya misapprehension of the functions of Deduction which has brought much discredit, in the estimation of other countries, upon the spirit of generalization so honorably characteristic of the French mind. The commonplaces of politics in F rance are large and sweeping practical maxims, from which, as ultimate premises, men reason downward to particular applications; and this they call being logical and consistent. For instance, they are perpetually arguing that such and such a measure ought to be adopted, because it is a consequence of the principle on which the form of government is founded; of the principle of legitimacy, or the principle of the sovereignty of the people. To which it may be answered, that if these be really practical princi ples, they must rest on speculative grounds; the sovereignty of the people, for example, must be a right foundation for government, because a government thus constituted tends to produce certain beneficial effects. Inasmuch, however, as no government produces all possible beneficial effects, but all are attended with more or fewer inconveniences, and since these can not usually be combated by means drawn from the very causes which produce them, it would be often a much stronger recommendation of some practi cal arrangement, that it does not follow from what is called the general principle of the government, than that it does. Under a government of legitimacy, the presumption is far rather in favor of institutions of popular origin; and in a democracy, in favor of arrangements tending to check the impetus of popular will. The line of augmentation so commonly mistaken in France for political philosophy, tends to the practical conclusion that we should exert our utmost efforts to aggravate, instead of alleviating, whatever are the characteristic imperfections of the system of institutions which we prefer, or under which we happen to live. 5. The grounds, then, of every rule of art, are to be found in the theorems of science. An art, or a body of art, consists of the rules, together with as much of the speculative propositions as comprises the justification of those rules. The complete art of any matter includes a selection of such a portion from the science as is necessary to show on what conditions the effects, which the art aims at producing, depend. And Art in general, consists of the truths of Science, arranged in the most convenient order for practice, instead of the order which is the most convenient for thought. Science groups and arranges its truths, so as to enable us to take in at one view as much as possible of the general order of the universe. Art, though it must assume the same general laws, follows them only into such of their detailed consequences as have led 594 to the formation of rules of conduct; and brings together from parts of the field of science most remote from one another, the truths relating to the production of the different and heterogeneous conditions necessary to each effect which the exigencies of practical life require to be produced. P234F235 P Science, therefore, following one cause to its various effects, while art traces one effect to its multiplied and diversified causes and conditions, there is need of a set of intermediate scientific truths, derived from the higher generalities of science, and destined to serve as the generalia or first principles of the various arts. The scientific operation of framing these intermediate principles, M. Comte characterizes as one of those results of philosophy which are reserved for futurity. The only complete example which he points out as actually realized, and which can be held up as a type to be imitated in more important matters, is the general theory of the art of Descriptive Geometry, as conceived by M. Monge. It is not, however, difficult to underst and what the nature of these intermediate principles must generally be. After framing the most comprehensive possible conception of the end to be aimed at, that is, of the effect to be produced, and determining in the same comprehensive manner the set of conditions on which that effect depends, there remains to be taken, a general survey of the resources which can be commanded for realizing this set of conditions; and when the result of this survey has been embodied in the fewest and most extensive propositions possible, those propositions will express the general relation between the available means and the end, and will constitute the general scientific theory of the art, from which its practical methods will follow as corollaries. 6. But though the reasonings which connect the end or purpose of every art with its means belong to the domain of Science, the definition of the end itself belongs exclusively to Art, and forms its peculiar province. Every art has one first principle, or general major premise, not borrowed from science; that which enunciates the object aimed at, and affirms it to be a desirable object. The builder's art assumes that it is desirable to have buildings; architecture, as one of the fine arts, that it is desirable to have them beauti ful or imposing. The hygienic and medical arts assume, the one that the preservation of health, the other that the cure of disease, are fitting and desirable ends. These are not propositions of science. Propositions of science assert a matter of fact: an existence, a co -existence, a succession, or a resemblance. The propositions now spoken of do not assert that any thing is, but enjoin or recommend that something should be. They are a class by themselves. A proposition of which the predicate is expressed by the words ought or should be , is generically different from one which is expressed by is , or will be . It is true, that in the largest sense of the words, even these propositions assert something as a matter of fact. The fact affirmed in them is, that the conduct recommended excites in the speaker's mind the feeling of approbation. This, however, does not go to the bottom of the matter; for the speaker's approbation is no sufficient reason why other people should approve; nor ought it to be a conclusive reason even with himself. For the purposes of practice, every one must be required to justify his approbation; and for this there is need of general premises, determining what are the proper objects of approbation, and what the proper order of precedence among those objects. These general premises, together with the principal conclusions which may be deduced from them, form (or rather might form) a body of doctrine, which is properly the Art of Life, in its three departments, Morality, Prudence or Policy, and sthetics; the Right, the Expedient, and the Beautiful or Noble, in human conduct and works. To this art (which, in the main, is unfortunately still to be created), all other arts are subordinate; since its principles are those 235 Professor Bain and others call the selection from the truths of science made for the purposes of an art, a Practical Science, and confine the name Art to the actual rules. 595 which must determine whether the special aim of any particular art is worthy and desirable, and what is its place in the scale of desirable things. Every art is thus a joint result of laws of nature disclosed by science, and of the general principles of what has been called Teleology, or the Doctrine of Ends; P235F236 P which, borrowing the language of the German metaphysicians, may also be termed, not improperly, the principles of Practical Reason. A scientific observer or reasoner, merely as such, is not an adviser for practice. His part is only to show that certain consequences follow from certain causes, and that to obtain certain ends, certain means are the most effectual. Whether the ends themselves are such as ought to be pursued, and if so, in what cases and to how great a length, it is no part of his business as a cultivator of science to decide, and science alone will never qualify him for the decision. In purely physical science, there is not much temptation to assume this ulterior office; but those who treat of human nature and society invariably claim it: they always undertake to say, not merely what is, but what ought to be. To entitle them to do this, a complete doctrine of Teleology is indispensable. A scientific theory, however perfect, of the subject- matter, considered merely as part of the order of nature, can in no degree serve as a substitute. In this respect the various subordinate arts afford a misleading analogy. In them there is seldom any visible necessity for justifying the end, since in general its desirableness is denied by nobody, and it is only when the question of precedence is to be decided between that end and some other, that the general principles of Teleology have to be called in; but a writer on Morals and Politics requires those principles at every step. The most elaborate and well -digested exposition of the laws of succession and co-existence among mental or social phenomena, and of their relation to one another as causes and effects, will be of no avail toward the art of Life or of Society, if the ends to be aimed at by that art are left to the vague suggestions of the intellectus sibi permissus , or are taken for granted without analysis or questioning. 7. There is, then, a philosophia prima peculiar to Art, as there is one which belongs to Science. There are not only first principles of Knowledge, but first principles of Conduct. There must be some standard by which to determine the goodness or badness, absolute and comparative, of ends, or objects of desire. And whatever that standard is, there can be but one; for if there were several ultimate principles of conduct, the same conduct might be approved by one of those principles and condemned by another; and there would be needed some more general principle, as umpire between them. Accordingly, writers on Moral Philosophy have mostly felt the necessity not only of referring all rules of conduct, and all judgments of praise and blame, to principles, but of referring them to some one principle; some rule, or standard, with which all other rules of conduct were required to be consistent, and from which by ultimate consequence they could all be deduced. Those who have dispensed with the assumption of such a universal standard, have only been enabled to do so by supposing that a moral sense, or instinct, inherent in our constitution, informs us, both what principles of conduct we are bound to observe, and also in what order these should be subordinated to one another. The theory of the foundations of morality is a subject which it would be out of place, in a work like this, to discuss at large, and which could not to any useful purpose be treated incidentally. I shall content myself, therefore, with saying, that the doctrine of intuitive moral principles, even if true, would provide only for that portion of the field of conduct which is properly called moral. For the remainder of the practice of life some general principle, or standard, must still be sought; and if that principle be rightly chosen, it will be found, I 236 The word Teleology is also, but inconveniently and improperly, employed by some writers as a name for the attempt to explain the phenomena of the universe from final causes. 596 apprehend, to serve quite as well for the ultimate principle of Morality, as for that of Prudence, Policy, or Taste. Without attempting in this place to justify my opinion, or even to define the kind of justification which it admits of, I merely declare my conviction, that the general principle to which all rules of practice ought to conform, and the test by which they should be tried, is that of conduciveness to the happiness of mankind, or rather, of all sentient beings; in other words, that the promotion of happiness is the ultimate principle of Teleology. I do not mean to assert that the promotion of happiness should be itself the end of all actions, or even of all rules of action. It is the justification, and ought to be the controller, of all ends, but it is not itself the sole end. There are many virtuous actions, and even virtuous modes of action (though the cases are, I think, less frequent than is often supposed), by which happiness in the particular instance is sacrificed, more pain being produced than pleasure. But conduct of which this can be truly asserted, admits of justification only because it can be shown that, on the whole, more happiness will exist in the world, if feelings are cultivated which will make people, in certain cases, regardless of happiness. I fully admit that this is true; that the cultivation of an ideal nobleness of will and conduct should be to individual human beings an end, to which the specific pursuit either of their own happiness or of that of others (except so far as included in that idea) should, in any case of conflict, give way. But I hold that the very question, what constitutes this elevation of character, is itself to be decided by a reference to happiness as the standard. The character itself should be, to the individual, a paramount end, simply because the existence of this ideal nobleness of character, or of a near approach to it, in any abundance, would go farther than all things else toward making human life happy, both in the comparatively humble sense of pleasure and freedom from pain, and in the higher meaning, of rendering life, not what it now is almost universally, puerile and insignificant, but such as human beings with highly developed faculties can care to have. 8. With these remarks we must close this summary view of the application of the general logic of scientific inquiry to the moral and social departments of science. Notwithstanding the extreme generality of the principles of method which I have laid down (a generality which, I trust, is not, in this instance, synonymous with vagueness), I have indulged the hope that to some of those on whom the task will devolve of bringing those most important of all sciences into a more satisfactory state, these observations may be useful, both in removing erroneous, and in clearing up the true, conceptions of the means by which, on subjects of so high a degree of complication, truth can be attained. Should this hope be realized, what is probably destined to be the great intellectual achievement of the next two or three generations of European thinkers will have been in some degree forwarded. THE END *************** I'm Julie, the woman who runs Global Grey - the website where this ebook w as published. These are my own formatted editions, and I hope you enjoyed reading this particular one. If you have this book because you bought it as part of a collection thank you so much f or your support. If you downloaded it for free please consid er (if you havent already) making a small donation to help keep the site running. 597 If you bought this from Amazon or anywhere else, you have been ripped off by someone taking free ebooks from my site and selling them as their own. You should definitely get a refund :/ Thanks for reading this and I hope you visit the site again - new books are added regularly so you'll always find something of interest :) 598 |
INI KUNDAL & an untold story $ OM SWAMI KUNDALINI enunteldstoy OM SWAMI has a bachelor's degree in Kin business and an MBA from Sydney, Australia. Prior to his renunciation of this world, he b; unded and ran a multi- You can connect with the author on his weekly blog | omswami.com To connect with the author - and to get a firsthand account of the book and events around it, write to us at : pit qwhatenew@jaicobooks.com KUNDALINI an untold story $ OM SWAMI ap JAICO PUBLISHING HOUSE pal Bhubaneswar Chennai Ahmedabad Bangalore Bho medaba angalor a Delhi Hyderabad Kolkata Lucknow Published by Jaico Publishing House A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road Fort, Mumbai - 400 001 jaicopub@jaicobooks.com www.jaicobooks.com Om Swami KUNDALINI - AN UNTOLD STORY ISBN 978-81-8495-862-1 First Jaico Impression: 2016 Second Jaico Impression: 2016 No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Page design and layout: Jojy Philip, Delhi Printed by Snehesh Printers 320-A, Shah & Nahar Ind. Est. A-1 Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400 013 | | Om Sri mtrai namah | | Dedicated to the Divine in You Pratarit'thaya sayahnam sayahant pratarva tu, Yatkrmi jaganmtastadeva tava pjanam. From the moment | wake up at dawn till dusk, and from dusk till dawn, Mother Divine, everything | do is an act of your worship. Pratart'thaya sayahnam sayahanat pratarva tu, Yatkrmi jaganmatastadva tava pjanam. From the moment | wake up at dawn till dusk, and from dusk till dawn, O Mother Divine, everything | do is an act of your worship. CONTENTS Why This Book? The Origin of Kundalini Meditation Kundalini - The Beginning The First Practitioner The Awakening The Three Knots When Shiva Meets Shakti Awakening The Goddess: The Actual Sadhana Master the Seven Chakras The Root Plexus: Muladhara Chakra The Sacral Plexus: Svadhishthana Chakra The Solar Plexus: Manipura Chakra The Heart Plexus: Anahata Chakra The Throat Plexus: Visbuddbi Chakra 107 113 129 135 143 viii Contents The Brow Plexus: Agya Chakra Crown Plexus: Sahasrara A Final Word Glossary 149 155 161 172 WHY THIS BOOK? AS visited me at the ashram. She was a mind- erapist and a healer (whatever that means) by profession, and was well acquainted with the concept of chakras. She believed in vastu, feng shui, and tarot. These were, in fact, the tools of her trade, so to speak. She was a little worried that day because a famous chakra expert told her that the spin of her chakras was not right and it was affecting her work. Come again, I said, whats not right about your chakras? The spin, she replied, the spin of my chakras is not right. What are you? I chuckled, a motor car that has gone out of spin? Not sure if I was serious or joking, she smiled a bit uncomfortably. I wasnt kidding, even though I laughed quietly for a few seconds. In fact, I felt sorry for her, like I do for all those seekers who are misguided by the chakra experts. x Om Swami So, what else did he tell you? I asked. He asked me to wear a chakra pendant and light special incense. Right, and what happens then? Irll balance my chakras, and she pulled out a pendant. It looked pretty expensive. On beautiful four lotus petals made from white gold, there was a solitaire in the middle and the petals were studded with emerald, ruby, opal and topaz. Its supposed to touch my heart, she said. Its touching your heart alright, but its not doing much for the rest of you, now is it? All expression disappeared from her face but her lips that curled slightly downwards. Why is that so, Swami? I have spent so much money on this thing. Veena, I said, this is a load of rubbish. She looked downcast, and angry, as if someone had handed her a crystal for the price of a diamond. But I thought chakras were real. Of course chakras are real, Veena! Then? I meant that this whole business of balancing the chakras and all that gobbledygook are simply tricks to Kundalini xi fool people. The only way to awaken the kundalini is by meditating over a prolonged period, thats all. So this chakra pendant wont make it faster for me? If you can make nine ladies pregnant and deliver the baby in a month, I said, then I suppose you could quickly awaken your kundalini too. Is it possible, Swami? she asked me, most seriously. I burst out laughing. Its amazing what all we are willing to believe, I thought. Veenas is not an isolated case. I meet scores of gullible seekers all the time who want quick solutions. Pm amused when people walk into a nicely done up place, where there is this amorous kind of dim lighting, a small but expensive and antique-looking idol of Buddha or Shiva sits in a corner elegantly illuminated by the flame of a tea light. An oil burner is slowly diffusing scent in the air, nice music is playing in the background, plush couches, mahogany furniture, and they ask me, Oh, do you feel the energy in this place, Swami? I generally smile and let go of it, but which energy are they talking about, I havent got the foggiest idea. Yes, you feel nice, you feel good, but its got nothing to do with chakras or energies. Its just the ambience. Personally, you'd be better off spending your time in a nice Ayurvedic spa, where at least you get the value for money, where they treat you and serve you as a customer xii Om Swami and not milk you like a poor, ignorant, mislaid cow that has accidentally stepped into someone elses farm. Chakra bracelets, pendants, incense, mats, rugs, clothes, wall hangings, chakra music, chakra programming and other attractive paraphernalia have absolutely no connection with the real sadhana of chakras. Anyone who claims to awaken your kundalini by touching you on your forehead (or wherever) is lying to you, no matter how genuine and charismatic that person might sound or appear. Then there are those people who claim to see or read your chakras. They too are taking you for a ride. Seeing anyones chakras has nothing to do with clairvoyance. There's nothing to see or read when it comes to chakras, Your chakras are not some chapters from a book that someone could just read. People talk about opening or closing chakras as if they were a jar of cookies with a lid that you could remove any time or put back on. The feeling of a snake-like sensation moving up your spine is not the awakening of the kundalini. 1f it persists, please check with a neurologist instead! You may have heard how each chakra has a certain number of petals and different letters, various presiding deities, many attendant deities, different shapes and so on. Let me tell you, these are unnecessary complications. Understanding the real truth of chakras is a completely different ballgame. (a Kundalini xiii na rpam asyeha tathopalabhyate nnto na cadir na ca sampratistha asvattham enam su-virdha-mlam asarga-sastrena drdhena chittva tatah padam tat parimargitavyarh yasmin gata na nivartanti bhyah tam eva cadyam purusam prapadye yatah pravrttih prasrta purani (Bhagavad Gita, 15.3,4) Krishna says to Arjuna, Upon attainment one finds that the truth is not what it had been made out fo be. The real form of the tree of life is imperceptible; it has neither beginning nor end. The one, who cuts it from the roots with great detachment, reaches an irreversible state of tranquility. He reaches a shore from where there is no return. He returns to his source. This is also the truth of the kundalini, the reality of the chakras. Whatever you may have seen, heard or read about it so far is not the truth, at least not the complete truth. The day you actually experience the piercing of the chakras or awakening of the kundalini, you will reach an irreversible state of bliss, a point of no return. xiv Om Swami Milk once churned into butter cannot transform back to being milk again. Similarly, once you discover your true nature, no matter what happens, your old tendencies, your negative emotions leave you completely. A selfless concern for the welfare of all sentient beings arises in you naturally. You grow out of your own shoes. Its not that you won't feel the pain if someone were to hit you. Of course, you will feel the pain. But, unlike your older self, the transformed you wont get angry at the one who is hurting you. Awakening of the kundalini is reaching your innermost state of bliss and joy. This state is covered with ten layers desire, anger, greed, attachment, ego, passion, jealousy, hatred, fear and self-concern. As you elevate spiritually, you start shedding these layers. These avarana, layers, veil the true you. The real you that is beyond the duality of pain and grief, good and bad, moral and immoral. Awakening is a steady and gradual process on the path of kundalini sadhana. It is not an instant realization. It builds up, it grows on you. With each level of awakening, you discover bit more about the new you and you shed bit more of the old you. The science of the kundalini is an ancient vidya that has been passed through an oral tradition in - strict disciplic succession to worthy recipients. The science remains just as intact today. All it requires is Kundalini xv for one to walk the path with great determination and tenacity. Let me take you to the source, for what is found in the roots can never be understood from the leaves. Let the boughs not baffle you. Let the fruits not distract you. You just have to nurture the roots and the whole tree will belong to you. THE ORIGIN OF KUNDALINI MEDITATION ur: mu MU N Arad EN. q | ee before you and I existed in our current forms, earth was a beautiful place with abundance of forests, rich flora and fauna, and thousands of rivers and lakes. Some 900 million light years away in the interstellar space, a parallel universe existed with an earth-like planet, five times bigger and far more beautiful. . The sun in the solar system of this earth-like planet was twice the size of our sun. The days were longer, so were the nights. Giant predators roamed freely in its forests that were vaster than our oceans. The Himalayas, eight times the size of our Himalayas, were covered in snow. On those Himalayas, the biggest, widest and highest mountain summit was called Kailasha. Kailasha is where Shiva, the eternal yogi, meditated and lived with his consort Sati. No one knows how Shiva was born. Some seers said he was born at the time of creation, out of lightning and thunder, while some said he had come from yet another universe and taken up his abode at Kailasha. It was with his yogic prowess that Shiva remained ever youthful, most charismatic and enchanting. 6 Om Swami Once, Satis father, the famed king Daksha, had organized one of the grandest and greatest yajnas ever known to anyone in three epochs. Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, vasus, adityas and numerous other devas were invited to this most exclusive yajna. The rztwik was none other than the great Brihaspati himself, overseeing every aspect, from the correct pronunciation of mantras to the offering of right oblations in the one hundred thousand fire pits built there. The whole atmosphere was echoing with the sounds of conchs and most rhythmic Sanskrit chants, which were more invigorating than the nectar of Dhanavantri, the divine physician, and more heady than the wine served in Indraloka. Mammoth structures with utmost luxury had been erected to provide every comfort to the guests. The place of yajna itself was a grand palace next to none and was a mix of open and enclosed areas. On wide pathways, numerous chariots, pulled by snow-white or jet-black steeds, were organized so invitees could move around. It was said that by our current measure of time it would take one seven days just to get from the first fire pit to the last one. While all the devas were dears in divine ecstasy at Dakshas palace, Shiva meditated quietly on Kailasha. This did not sit well with Sati. Should we not be at my fathers yajna, my lord? asked Sati, a little hesitatingly because she knew well that Shiva fathomed everything. Kundalini 7 No Sati, Shiva murmured in his deep voice like the Ganges flowing from his matted locks, an honourable man must never go anywhere uninvited. But, its my father, lord, she spoke softly. He must have forgotten to invite us. Your father does not like Shiva, O innocent one, Shiva spoke lovingly, because Shiva is sovereign and unbound by any custom. Please, can we go? Sati tried her luck. Its been ages since I last met my family. You can if you want, Sati. Shiva will not. Thus, he closed his eyes and plunged into dhyana. Unable to resist the temptation, Sati, clad in the finest silk and adorned with the most precious jewels, called upon Shivas ganas, who immediately arranged for a flying chariot. From several miles away, Sati could smell the fragrance in the air. She could hear the chants, and the sound of conchs, vina and mridanga. She was already missing Shiva but she knew that Shiva only did what he had to do. As she got closer to the venue, she couldnt help but appreciate its magnanimity. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. As Sati descended from her chariot, hundreds of handmaids ran towards her; their very own Sati who was their princess at one time. They garlanded her with exquisite flowers that never withered. They spread petals 8 Om Swami of rose and lotuses on the path where she would walk. Some fanned her with handfans made from the feathers of Himalayan swans, some offered her betel nut, some sprinkled scent in the air. Giant conchs were blasted; gandharvas sang the welcome songs as she made way. Sati walked around in search of her mother and sisters and saw that most glorious seats had been wrought for the devas and their consorts. With great eagerness and curiosity she went around looking for Shivas seat but there was none. Satis heart sank. Could this just be an oversight? she thought. She felt relieved that Shiva was not there because his fury would have destroyed everything in a split second. Meanwhile, queen Prasuti saw her daughter Sati and ran towards her. Out of her 24 daughters, she loved Sati the most because she knew that Sati was none other than the incarnation of Adya Shakti herself. Daksha stopped Prasuti midway and prohibited her from greeting Sati. Sati was taken aback by her fathers demeanor, yet she proceeded to touch his feet. But, he withdrew. The music suddenly stopped and everyone around looked at Dakshas stern face as he stood cross-armed with legs slightly apart. Both he and Sati were silent for a few moments. Realizing that her father was not going to speak first, she said: Where should I sit, father? I dont see Shivas seat or mine next to his. Kundalini 9 Seat for that mendicant? Daksha scoffed, this is a royal gathering and not a feast for beggars and ascetics. Eather! Sati raised her voice. How could you even think that Pil invite an aghori like Shiva here? Daksha continued with the tirade. I disowned you the day you married that naked, ash-smeared eccentric. Only a pauper like him would send his wife uninvited. Father! Sati cried, Shiva is the lord of the lords. My foot, Daksha screamed, with his rusty trident, hes not even fit to be a guard of my stable. Hes only good for those decapitated, deformed, enslaved ghosts and residents of cremation grounds. Sati cupped her jeweled ears with her pink and delicate hands. Her moonlike fair face turned crimson and tears began trickling down ceaselessly. Like a true pattvrata, there was only one man Sati had ever loved and he was Shiva. An incarnate of Adya Shakti, the Supreme Energy herself, Sati well knew that Shiva was the God of the three worlds, an immortal yogi who was beyond destruction and mortality. Overcome with a great sense of guilt for hearing such terrible things about Shiva, she felt she had violated her pativrata dharma. In that instant Sati realized why the omniscient Shiva had forbidden her from attending the yajna. Recalling her conversation with Shiva, she repented for not listening to him. She felt that by hurting Shiva, she no longer deserved to live. 10 Om Swami Daksha! Satis eyes turned embers. Vedic chants came to a standstill and the planet shook at the loud cry of Sati. No one in any universe has ever dared to speak of Shiva like this. Fie on me for hearing such words about him. You will repent this, Daksha. Thus, in that very moment, Sati invoked her latent energy and turned her body into a mound of ash. The devas trembled. The haughty Daksha was scared too but he did not show it. Daksha, Brihaspati spoke solemnly, everything youve ever known will come to an end now. Huh, what can that one man army do? I will Brihaspati raised his arm signaling Daksha to stop because he did not want to hear anything degrading about Shiva, for he had become Brihaspati, the wisest of all, by the grace of Shiva. The ganas, who had accompanied Sati, hurried back to Kailasha at the speed of light and eulogized Shiva to bring him out of his deep dhyana. Shiva gently opened his long eyes. They prostrated before him and in great fear narrated what had transpired at Dakshas yajna. Shiva rose from his seat in great fury. His right hand reached his head, from where he pulled one strand of his matted locks and flung it on the ground. A mammoth figure rose as soon as the lock hit the ground. It was Virabhadra, a terrifying gana of Shiva. Dark like coal Virabhadra had eight hands, each one holding a weapon. Kundalini 11 Still livid, Shiva took out one more lock and pitched it on the ground. This time arose Bhadrakali, the wrathful and terrifying form of Devi. Dark like the night of amavasya, she had 18 hands holding conch, discus, lotus, mace, trident, lance, scimitar, sword, thunderbolt, a demons head, goblet, goad, waterpot, cleaver, shield, bow and arrow. Annihilate! Shiva commanded and pointed in the direction of Dakshas yajna. He picked up his damaru and began playing it wildly. Birds hid in their nests, does and cows had miscarriages, trees fell, oceans swelled, and with each strike of the damaru random energies began manifesting. Bhadrakali ululated, mountains split in two and glaciers broke. Eight devis, companion energies of the Supreme Goddess, appeared to assist her in the battle. They were: Kali, Katyayani, Chamundai, Ishaani, Mundamardini, Bhadra, Vaishnavi and Twarita. Shiva, the Nataraja, began the cosmic dance of destruction, and not before long, countless ganas assumed wrathful and terrifying forms. Har Har Mahadev, they bellowed. Virabhadra and Bhadrakali, with ganas in tow, arrived at Dakshas yajna and destroyed everyone and everything that came in their way. Many devas fled and many took to hiding. Some tried to combat but didnt last more than a millionth fraction of a moment. The rest of the devas knew that it was worthless, if not altogether pointless, to fight 12 Om Swami against Shiva, even if it were for Daksha, the Prajapati. Shivas legions continued the rampant destruction like wild elephants running amok in a garden of tender flowers. They were not after the devas but Daksha. It was his condescending behavior that had enraged Sati and Shiva. It was Dakshas arrogance that had taken away their revered Goddess from them. Virabhadra spotted Daksha who was ordering his troops to charge. In one giant leap, Virabhadra reached him. Standing before him, without uttering a word or a . warning, obeying Shivas order, he decapitated Daksha in one effortless stroke. But the ganas continued with the destruction. Fearing that this might be the end of time, the devas, along with their retinues, approached Shiva and sang eulogies of his kind heart and glories. A few moments later, that would be a few thousand years on our Earth, Shiva calmed down but he did not speak to anyone. Virabhadra, Bhadrakali, other devis and ganas merged back with Shivas form and he sat there in a sombre mood. The devas were aware that only Shiva could restore harmony and he would have to do it before he assumed his yogic posture, for Shivas dhyana could last for thousands of years. They pleaded him to forgive Daksha. At their . bidding, Shiva went to the site of yajna. It had become a bloody battlefield. Uncountable gods, their entourage, horses, elephants lay there slain. Queen Prasuti fell at Shivas feet and begged that her husband be Kundalini 13 brought back to life. Shiva lifted her up because she was Satis mother after all. He looked around and saw where Dakshas head was crushed and mashed; Virbhadra had stomped on it. It was only the crown next to it that gave away it was Dakshas head. Shiva took the head of a sacrificial goat and placed it on Dakshas body, thus bringing him back to life. He rubbed his hand on his body to take a bit of ash and blew it in the air, All those who had been slain came back to life; all but Sati. Shiva knew that Sati wanted to be pure for him again after having violated her pativrata dharma by arguing with him, the omniscient Shiva. He knew that it would be a few thousand years before Sati will be reborn as Parvati and perform intense penance to be his consort once again. Shiva went back to Kailasha, sat in his yogic posture and took the deepest plunge into dhyana, taking his meditative trance to nearly a point of no return. THE BIRTH OF PARVATI As time ticked by, a demon called Tarakasura began conquering devaloka and all the other planes of existence. He was too powerful, invincible. For thousands of years he had sat in such searing tapasya that Brahma had to appear before him. Dakshas yajna had already been destroyed. Tarakasura knew that Sati had given up her life and that Shiva would not take anyone else as his consort. Therefore, he asked Brahma for a boon that he could only be killed by a son of Shiva. 14 Om Swami The Supreme Goddess, Sati was reborn as Parvati to Himavan, the king of the Himalayas or the Himalayas himself, and Mena, a celestial nymph and the queen of Himavan. Parvati did intense tapasya and received Shiva as her husband. Himavan, unlike Daksha, was a humble and just king. He accepted his daughters choice wholeheartedly. Soon after Shiva took Parvati as his consort, the natural yogi that he was went back into his meditative state. The devas were aghast because they needed Shiva to consummate the bond with Parvati so that she could bear his son, who would have eventually slain Tarakasura. But who could awaken Shiva from his dhyana? They sank to their knees in supplication and begged Parvati to intervene in Shivas dhyana and bring him to the normal plane of consciousness. When she heard the cause, she said shyly that no pativrata woman would break her husbands meditation for a sexual union. Besides, she knew that if Shiva had thought it right, he would have done so long time ago. Pray to him, she suggested, "he'll give you the right thought to emerge victorious. The devas did as instructed, but after a while a thought entered their minds. They sent Manamatha, the god of love, who shot his five shafts of love to rouse the desire of copulation i in Shiva. When those arrows hit Shiva, he was utterly displeased. He opened his third eye and turned Manamatha to ashes. Suddenly, the whole world became a desolate place. Love became dry as no man wanted to touch any woman and vice-versa. The birds and animals Kundalini 15 stopped breeding as there was no desire in the absence of Manamatha. The devas approached Shiva along with Rati, the wife of Manamatha, and begged Shiva to restore Manamatha to his physical form. Manamatha, however, had already been turned to ashes. Shiva granted a boon that since Manamatha could not be brought back to life, he would now live ananga, without form, in all living entities and keep desire alive. Rati pleaded with Shiva to at least cast his yogic glance at the mound of ash so that Manamatha could be delivered. Shiva hesitated but when Rati wouldn't relent, he agreed to cast a glance at the knoll of ash. As soon as he did that, a form arose from the ash. It was Bhandasura, another demon, who made his abode in Shonitpura. He wreaked even greater havoc on the devas. Distraught and lost, they approached the eternal itinerant, Narada, who advised them to do a yajna. It all started from a yajna, the sage said. "It'll end with a yajna. Only the Supreme Goddess can help now. The devas organized an elaborate yajna and out of its sacrificial fire the Supreme Goddess arose in the form of Maha Tripura Sundari. This was an exquisite form: fair colored, four-armed, fragrant, heady, beautiful, well- endowed, compassionate yet she was holding the five arrows of cupid, a goad, a bow and an arrow. The devas didnt know how to propitiate her. Confessing their ignorance, they begged Devi to explain 16 Om Swami how to welcome her. Mother Divine called upon her eight companion energies called vagadevis. They were the same who had manifested at the time of Bhadrakalis origin. They had been a witness to various aspects of Devi. The vagadevis began singing glories of the Supreme Goddess by addressing her with her one thousand names, which are also known as Lalita Sahasranama. They began most reverently and melodiously: cidagni-kunda-sambhta devakarya samudayata. (Lalita Sahasranama, 1) | Devi, the sacred mother, You are the | eternal providence whose refuge we seek, you are the empress of all worlds, most gloriously seated in your throne, mother you only manifest to fulfil noble intentions arising out of the fire of purity in ones mind. Ri RL MA eS ee The eight vagadevis went on to sing glories of Devi, And this is where, in Lalita Sahasranama, the first mention of kundalini and chakra is ever made. Before all other scriptures, commentaries, sambitas, this is where kundalini is first touched upon as the pristine formless aspect of Goddess, the primordial energy. Y Kundalini 17 I do not let my words scatter here and there like pollen, nor do my sentences grow like purposeless weeds. I have carefully, cautiously and consciously chosen to give you the background story of kundalini because between Dakshas yajna and manifestation of Devi, lies the secret of the sadhana of chakras. There is not a classical text on chakras that I havent examined but, not surprisingly, I found them lacking in practical and esoteric aspects. If you are merely interested in theoretical exposition, you may gain more by reading such texts. Hence, disregarding pure theoretical knowledge and contemporary texts, I have based this entire treatise on Lalita Sahasranama alone because all hurdles and milestones of kundalini sadhana are present in this legend, like butter exists in milk. My words in this book are only for those who are not just interested in reading but actually experiencing the truth of kundalini themselves. As for me, Pve prayed to Devi in her formed and formless aspects for more than two decades. I have invoked her in the tantric way and the Vedic way. I have seen her, I have been her, and I have seated her in my very being. In the Himalayan woods, on cremation grounds, in caves, under trees, and in abandoned places, Pve played in her motherly lap, Pve sported with her youthful form. If you doubt that this is possible then I encourage you to put this book down and read something that is more believable, maybe todays newspaper or something else that your conscious mind can accept and understand. 18 Om Swami This work is based on my direct experience and Pm presenting you the truth of the chakras as it is, without any sugar coating or exaggeration. Lalita Sahasranama was then narrated by Hayagriva, a' form of Vishnu with the head of a horse, to the sage Agastya for the benefit of human race on this planet and many other parallel ones. So, what you have in this book is straight from the horses mouth, if you see what I mean. ee All glories to Devi! ae Da, Eu SA ith boundless enthusiasm and reverence, Lord Hayagriva narrated the glories of Devi in the form of Lalita Sahasranama. The great sage Agastya was filled with veneration as he was drenched in his own tears. He sought Lords blessings so he could do intense tapasya and eternally behold the divine form of Devi in his minds eye. So be it, Hayagriva said and granted him the privilege to chant the thousand names of Devi. Sage Agastya was the first to be initiated in the chanting of Lalita Sahasranama. He knew that without initiation, he was like a seedless fruit - complete but incapable of further evolution. Agastya bowed before his guru Hayagriva in deep gratitude and reverence. But, Hayagriva warned, the sadhana of Devi is incomplete without tantra and Shiva alone can give you that esoteric knowledge. He instructed Agastya to meditate on the thousand names of the Supreme Goddess, devoting one ayana, six months, to each name and thus completing his meditation 22 Om Swami over a period of five hundred years. It was only after such profound meditation, he said, that Shiva would impart him the complete sadhana of Devi. Agastya was eager but he knew that like everything in nature, sadhana is an organic process. It comes to fruition in its own time. It can't be rushed. He took padadhuli, dust from the Lords feet and sprinkled some on his dreadlocks and rubbed the rest on his forehead. Agastya began meditating on Devi with single-pointed concentration. Every time he realized the true meaning of her name, tears would roll down from his eyes. Sometimes, he would laugh hysterically, and sometimes, he would go hug wild animals and trees, for he saw Devi alone in everything and everyone. The more he meditated on her divine names the more he revered her. Seasons came and seasons went, tiny seeds had grown into giant trees, sun had travelled uttarayana and dakshinayana five hundred times. Agastya finished meditating on the thousand names of Devi and had entered in deep absorption. O, accomplished one, a dulcet voice spoke, followed by the melodious plucking of vina. Svatmananda-lavibhita-brahamadyananda-santatih, _ Agastya murmured chanting one of the names of Devi as he opened his sloshed eyes, intoxicated from divine love. O Narada! The bliss one finds from discovering Devi in ones soul is greater than the bliss Brahma can ever have. All other pleasures are like firefly in front of the sun. Kundalini 23 He then folded his hands and greeted the wandering saint, and said, It is my greatest fortune to have your darshana at the conclusion of my sadhana. Narayana, Narayana, Narada said, your sadhana has not concluded, muni, it has only just started. O noble sage, Agastya said, this vessel has gone frail now. I wish to offer it to Devi in a fire offering. Narayana, Narayana, Narada laughed and reminded him of Lord Hayagrivas instruction. Exactly as Hayagriva had asked him, Agastya approached Shiva and prostrated before him. One look at Shivas radiant and chiseled face, those still eyes, his matted locks flowing down like Himalayan streams, and Agastya forgot all about his old body. He was awashed with vigor and devotion. Fair-coloured Parvati came and sat near Shiva. Agastya cried, Devi, O Devi, bless your Agastya, Devi. Torrents of tears rushed from his eyes as he cried like a child and reached out to touch Devis feet. But, she, the Supreme Goddess, merged in to Shiva in that very moment. Agastya was shocked. Where did I lack in my devotion, Mahadev? he asked with great anxiety. Why has Devi disappeared? She is beyond appearance and disappearance, O muni, Shiva spoke in his deep and sonorous voice, like wind blowing through a Himalayan tunnel. You have not yet realized the essence of Devi. But, pleased with 24 Om Swami your devotion and concentration, the time has come that I impart the secrets to you. Shiva propounded the most mystical knowledge of Devi worship in her formed and formless aspects in both the left-handed and right-handed path of tantra. A few thousand years from now, a tenacious and determined sage on earth will complete Devis sadhana, Shiva said in his mystical style without any further disclosure. Agastya did intense penance over the next one thousand years but only managed to complete the right-handed practices. He went back to Shiva. Unlike you, my body is subject to the laws of nature, Mahadev, he said. I can give up this body and take up a new one but that will be interfering with the dharma of Time. Whats the order, my lord? Go and pass on the complete knowledge to Dattatreya on earth and he will give it to Parasurama and Vashistha. Agastya had a spark of doubt thinking how could Shiva miscalculate. He had clearly said that the sadhana of Devi will be done in a few thousand years from now, but it has only been one thousand years, he thought. He knew that all three Dattatreya, Parasurama or Vasishta could complete the sadhana. Shiva smiled but said nothing. As instructed, Agastya passed on the esoteric knowledge to Dattatreya and Vasishta, and dropped his own body in Devi bhava. Kundalini 25 Dattatreya was born from the three aspects of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, to the great sage Atri and his wife Anasuya who was famed for her pativrata dharma. Dattatreya imparted the sadhana to Parasurama but as soon as the complete knowledge was granted, great vairagya sprouted in his mind and he did not marry. Parasurama remained devoted to his guru and never took up a female consort. The sadhana could not be completed without the tantric worship with a consort. Dattatreya knew that Parasurama was not just any rishi but an incarnation of the Divine himself. He relieved him of the burden of completing Devi sadhana. Parasurama was a Vishnu incarnate on earth who had vowed to rid the planet from tyrant kshatriyas. Other than the occult science of weapons - which he would give to Drona, Bhishma and Karna a few thousand years later Parasurama never imparted the esoteric vidya of Devi to anyone. Vasishta was the only hope now. It was no secret that Shiva never repeated himself or imparted any vidya twice. Dattatreya was not going to give it to any other disciple and if Vasishta didn't do anything with it, the world would forever be deprived of the grace of Devi. The great sage Vasishta was known to be as old as the sun in earth's solar system. He had seen the rise and fall of kings. He had seen the transition of yagas. He had been to the three worlds and fourteen planes of existence. He had seen the transformation of Vishwamitra into a brabmarishi. He was not the eager or the impulsive type. 26 Om Swami The wise Vasishta saw with his divine eye that the right time had not yet come on earth for anyone, including himself, to practice the sadhana of Devi as passed down by Shiva. He also saw how potent it was and that it could be catastrophic in the wrong hands. Even his own son, a sage and a siddha, Sakti Muni was not fit to do Devi's sadhana, he realized. He clasped the secret of sadhana close to his heart and first disclosed it to his grandson Parashara, the one with no desires. A great realization about the futility of the material world dawned on the soft-spoken Parashara as soon as Vasishta finished expounding the sadhana to him. Empowered with the transcendental knowledge, Parashara felt increasingly disconnected from the world. Unlike his father, or grandfather, or sages of the yore, neither did he marry, nor did he keep a consort. Meditating on various aspects of Devi, he spent most of his time in the Himalayas. The worship of the Supreme Goddess, however, could not be completed without a consort. Immersed in Devis bhava, Parashara did not feel attracted to any woman. Even though he well knew that he had to pass on the esoteric knowledge, he spent most of his life in meditation without worrying about a successor or a worthy recipient. A few decades passed and Parashara realized that the issue of a successor could not be postponed any further. With that thought in mind he descended from the Himalayas. One day he had to go across Yamuna and Kundalini 27 the boatman was about to have his meal. He, therefore, asked his daughter, Matsyagandhi, to take the rishi to the other side of the river. While she was ferrying him across, Parashara looked up and closed his eyes. With his divine vision, he saw that after more than four thousand years, the stars and planets had aligned themselves most perfectly not just in Akashganga, our galaxy, but across many universes. This was the time to spill his seed into a womb to give the world someone who would bring the vidya of kundalini to life. His eyelids lifted gently and he looked at the barely sixteen Matsyagandhi with a sense of desire. There she was in her lissom body, rowing the boat. She was coming of age and her dark skin shone like an ebony tree. It did not matter to the old rishi that she smelled like fish. She always did, she was called Matsyagandhi, the one who smells like fish. Parashara extended his gnarled hand over her young one. Sunrise and sunset never meet but the rays are golden anyway. Unaware, and a little startled, Matsyagandhi looked at the vishis hand first and then cast her glance in his eyes. This was Parashara. His hypnotic pull was stronger than the earths gravity. She surrendered and submitted right there, yet she was a bit hesitant for not only she was ovulating, virgin and unwed, it was broad daylight too. Reading her thoughts, Parashara whispered a mantra and blew in the air. On a nearby island a leaf fell from the 28 Om Swami tree but before it could reach the ground, clouds appeared out of nowhere and hid the sun. A thick veil of mist arose all around and the shore was no longer visible. It was here that the great visi fathered none other than the legendary Veda Vyasa. You will no longer smell like a fisherwoman but a fragrant lotus, he blessed her as he departed, you will remain akshata-yoni, virgin, and your son will be the greatest poet ever to be born in this world. The boat was midway but the rishi walked on water to get to the other shore. Destiny had fulfilled its plan and Prashara and Matsyagandhi would never meet again. A few years later, he established contact with Vyasa to bring to his notice the grand purpose of his life. THE INITIATION OF VYASA The young Vyasa, barely seven summers old, sat in rapt attention when the ageing Parashara told him the story of Dakshas yajna, manifestation of the Supreme Goddess, penance of Agastya and his passing on the vidya at the instruction of Shiva. Parashara looked around furtively and carefully and in an occult mudra drew a veil of mist, just how he had done when hed sired Vyasa on Matasyagandhi. The birds stopped tweeting and flew to far off places; deer ran away. Cicada stopped stridulating and the temperature dropped by several degrees so that most small creatures would also vanish. Kundalini 29 No one else must hear of this, Parashara said, and he whispered the vidya in its entirety, including the kundalini aspect of Devi, to the young and bright Vyasa. You must complete the sadhana of Devi, he added, with her grace, you'll document the most esoteric wisdom for the benefit of the mankind on this planet. She is called Vagavadini, the power of the speech. She'll speak through you. You must create a fourth Veda and include her worship in it. Invoke her with concentration, devotion, discipline and patience and all will become possible. Vyasa did dandvatapranama, full length prostration, to his father and vowed to do complete Devi sadhana. The only goal of my life, father, he said, is to honor your word. The world will eternally sing your glories, my son, Parashara declared proudly. You will be known as Veda Vyasa. All glories to you, my father, Vyasa shouted in ecstasy. All glories to Devi. Parashara touched his sons forehead and said, You are the first on this planet to be initiated into the sadhana of kundalini. Veda Vyasa meditated on the formed aspect of Mother Divine for 12 years and spent the next 12 invoking her as his own latent energy, in the form of kundalini. 30 Om Swami As she rose in him, untying the knots and piercing the chakras, Vyasa was filled with light and knowledge. With immense shakti in him, unrestrained and divine, he sat down and composed the greatest epics known to human race. Creating a fourth Veda called Atharva Veda, he elucidated tantra and included Devi worship in its secret passages. Still brimming with wisdom and energy, he composed Brhamanda Purana which contains the first documental evidence of Lalita Sahasranama. Devi was still working in him and there was nothing that could stop the legendary Vyasa. One after another, he scribed 18 puranas covering every aspect of knowledge, from sublime to mundane, from astrology to tending cows, but Devi was not done yet. Eventually, he went on to narrate the greatest scripture of all time Mahabharata. The poetic fountain of his supraknowledge was bursting forth so rapidly that no one, not even Vyasa himself, could match the speed. Anyone who chose to write would soon feel tired. So, he called upon Shivas son, Ganesha, to scribe Mahabharata. Like the thousands of waterfalls cascading down in the Himalayas during the rainy days, countless streams of creativity and wisdom bubbled over in Vyasas super consciousness. This was not surprising though, for Devi flows in the form of wisdom and grace from a sadhaka. The unstoppable Vyasa went on to record Bhagavada Purana, the same story, Amar Katha, that Shiva had narrated to Parvati once. Kundalini 31 Devi appeared before Vyasa, and said, Your work is complete now, my son. Only you could write this purana. Go rest in my abode eternally. Thus, the Supreme Goddess merged in Vyasa, and Vyasa was never found again. In kundalini sadhana, Vyasa was the first true sadhaka on planet earth, and it is our greatest fortune that we have access to Lalita Sahasranama, where complete sadhana of Chakras is strewn like pearls around Devis neck. Y Somewhere, I hope you do realize that by calling upon Devi and invoking the primordial principle, you too may Uncover the same talent as of Vyasa, you too may tap into the same ocean of creativity as he did, and somewhere, you too may join the same rank as Vyasa did. Remember, that all these sages existed like you and I exist now. Goswami Tulasidasa writes beautifully in Ramcharit- Manas: ani acaraju karu mana mahi, suta tapa te duralabha kachu nahi. Tapabala te jaga srjayi bidhta, tapabala bisnu bhaye paritrata. Tapabala sambhu karahi sanhara, tapa t agama nahi kachu sansara. (Ramcharitmanas, 1, 162.1-3) 32 Om Swami Don't be surprised dear. Nothing is: impossible with tapas. It is with tapas alone - that Brahma creates, Vishnu protects, and Shiva destroys. With penance, nothing in the three worlds is unattainable. It may seem like a tall order, but at the awakening of the kundalini, when you realize who you really are, you will also realize that you are the tallest out there, that there's nothing short or tall as such. If you are willing to walk the path, you will cut through obstacles like water cuts through stones. Your hurdles will vanish like dewdrops do upon sunrise. This is Devi. ing Kesari, the chief of all primates, and the great queen Anjana, a celestial nymph born on earth due to a curse, sat in searing Zapasya to have a child. Sun tanned their bodies, snow froze them, mighty winds tried to move them, wild animals posed every threat, but for years, they didnt give up and stood still meditating on the radiant form of Shiva. Pleased by their devotion and penance, Shiva appeared before them and granted a boon. A great son will be born to you, Shiva said in benediction. He will be wiser than Brihaspati, stronger than Vayu and more radiant than Sun. He won't either drown in water or burn in fire; no weapon of this loka or any other will be able to kill him. Eight siddhis will serve him like handmaids. Kesari and his queen stood spellbound, it all seemed too dreamlike Shiva in his full glory granting a rare boon. Whats more, O noble king! Shiva spoke, hell be immortal. 36 Om Swami Namoh Parvati Pataye, they shouted in ecstasy. Har . Har Mahadev They fell at his feet and Shiva raised his hand in blessing and disappeared. The awesome Anjaneya was born. Endowed with boundless power and dexterity, he was wise beyond his years. He would hop from one tree to another covering several miles in one jump. Playing games with other children, he would scare them by growing large like a mountain and then hiding by becoming smaller than an ant. One time he nearly ate the sun thinking it was an orange; devas had to intervene. No one and nothing could contain or even stand his limitless energy. He would root giant trees and fling them like they were straws of kusha. This soon became a problem, since he started desecrating yajnas and ashrams of great rishis in his childlike mischief. When all else failed, they cursed Hanumana that he would forget all his powers. He would only regain them only when someone would remind him of his siddhis. : Subsequently, Hanumana began to live like an ordinary vanara clever, wise and spirited, yet ordinary. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Many ycars passed. Rama was born, married to the quiet Sita, exiled for 14 years, Sita was abducted by Ravana and Hanumana met Rama and Lakshmana. One look at Rama and Hanumana became his eternal devotee. The great bear Kundalini 37 Jambavaan, older than earth, saw with his farsighted vision that Sita was sitting dejectedly on a small island, in Ashoka vatika, a beautiful garden in Ravanas magnificent palace. An ocean separated the island. No boat could go so far. All were in a fix and Hanumana was given the task to deliver Ramas ring to Sita and to convey that Purushottama Rama, greatest among all men, would come and free her. Pm a simple vanara, Hanumana said to Jambavaan and others in Ramas army. How can I ever reach the island? I dont even know how to swim properly. Everyone was looking at the vast ocean and clearly realized Hanumanas plight. But, you can jump, Jambavaan murmured. Jump? Hanumana exclaimed. Who can jump across an ocean? Its not a rivulet but an ocean, Jambavaan! Only you can, Jambavaan spoke with conviction. Have you forgotten who you are, Hanumana? Hanumana looked at him, confused. Some faint images of his childhood began flashing in front of his eyes, although too distant and too faint to make any sense of. You were born from Shivas boon, Hanumana, Jambavaan spoke in a loud declaration. l Relieving him of the 7ishis curse by reminding Hanumana of his powers, Jambavaan continued, You are not just any vanara. Water can't drown you, fire cant burn 38 Om Swami you, Anjaneya! Wake up to the powers you are born with. You can be as giant as the Himalayas or as small as a grain of rye. You can be heavier than the earth or lighter than feather. You can fly faster than the wind itself, you can hop across the oceans, O Hanumana! : strange sensation took over Hanumana and images of his childhood became more vivid. He saw how effortlessly he had flown to the sun to eat it, or how he had rooted huge, old trees effortlessly. He remembered how he would cover tens of miles in one jump. Jai Shri Ram, Hanumana's loud cry nearly brought an earthquake and trees fell. His body began to enormous proportions. Other vanaras reached down to his waist and then knees to eventually look even smaller than his big toe. Hanumana didn't stop, though; he continued becoming bigger and bigger Soon when he looked down, the colossal army of vanaras appeared like a spray of brown : dust and Jambavaan looked like a tiny mole, smaller than a black dot. Jat Bajrang Bali, Jai Bajrang Bali, they shouted with all their might. Jat Shri Ram, Hanumana thundered louder than the collision of planets, and in one massive jump crossed the entire ocean. Y Kundalini 39 We all are Hanumana beings of immense power and capabilities. Its not just an aphorism. Our scientific progress validates this. Like Hanumana, our talents are lying latent within us; our potential is waiting to be realized. We are born of a boon and we have forgotten about it, and as a result of that we have taken ordinary ways of life as our destiny. When we get in touch with our reality, our true nature, however, when a Jambavaan reminds us who we really are, we start to grow in our wisdom and conviction. We land on the moon or create supercomputers then. We discover that we are limitless and immeasurable. This is Kundalini in a nutshell. It is your primal energy, the creative force that wakes you up to your own greatness. Like pearls at the bottom of an ocean, it is lying curled up at the base of your spine. Kundalini is your polar opposite within you. When it awakens, you realize how immensely powerful you already are. You experience how there is a whole universe within you. It is your feminine energy if you are a man and your masculine energy if you are a woman. It is your passage, your path to eternal fulfillment within you. RECOGNIZING THE SUPREME ENERGY WITHIN US Kundalini is dormant within us because we are made aware of our shortcomings from the moment we are born. We 40 Om Swomi are always compared with someone else out there and we are given examples to become like others. No one tells us that we are good enough; theres always something, some trait, they want us to develop. This conditioning creates a permanent sense of inadequacy in us. To overcome this, we begin our search outside. We start looking for other people who can approve of us, who can endorse us, who can give us a pat on the back. In doing so, we become increasingly distant from our own powers that we were born with. Why is it that a man feels complete, however briefly, after sexual union with a woman or vice versa? In that letting go, in being yourself, in that union, a sense of security, love and ease arises on its own. In everything that we do, we are relentlessly, even if subconsciously, working towards feeling complete. We drink water when we are thirsty; we eat food when we are hungry. In whatever we feel we lack, nature propels us to take action so we may feel fulfilled. Some of us go after status, power, fame, wealth and so onto feel that completeness, People continue to go through one broken relationship after another to feel fulfilled. Why is that so? Because, this is how we are made we feel that we must have someone or something to feel whole. Our true nature is complete, pure; it is bliss. However, our conditioning and demands of this world repeatedly make us feel incomplete, as if we need something or someone else to be happy in our lives. Kundalini 41 Like things neither attract nor complete each other though, only opposites complete each other. North doesnt attract north, it attracts south. In this race and struggle to feel complete, we keep attracting the opposite of what we need, of what will actually fulfill us. In doing so, we attract wrong partners, wrong jobs, wrong bosses and so forth. Awakening of the kundalini is putting an end to attracting the wrong things in our lives. It begins by feeling and experiencing the completeness and fulfillment within us. Piercing ofthe chakras starts with the realization that I am complete, that I have everything within me to be happy, to be fulfilled. It starts by understanding what kundalini really is. Talent is an anagram for latent though. Our talents are latent in us, so to realize them we have to bring them to the fore. Similarly, kundalini, the primal energy, is latent in everyone. The path of awakening the kundalini is to turn inwards and pay attention to our world of emotions, thoughts and talents hidden inside us. It is a deep dive in ` the ocean of one's existence so one may bring the pearls of character and brilliance to the surface. All said and done, Kundalini is not a physical reality. Any association of the kundalini with the physical body is ignorant at the best and absurd at the worst. At the rise of the kundalini, there is no snake crawling up your spinal cord. The chakras are not physically there on your body. At the most, they are psychoneurotic plexuses. They 42 Om Swami are strategically placed wherever there is a concentration of nerves. This does not make the kundalini a mythical concept though. It is your reality, it may not be physical but it is perceptible. The soul cannot be proved, even consciousness for that matter has no physical existence, yet without consciousness we cannot even do the most basic of chores. Similarly, the awakening of the kundalini or piercing of the chakras is as real as the sun, moon and stars. The sensations you feel during kundalini meditation or the experiences you go through while meditating on the chakras are not unreal or false. They are real, but they are subjective. They only hold meaning for you and not for everyone else. Therefore, absolutizing experiences leads to confusion and conceptualization. You then start aiming for that experience, thinking, Oh, I must also feel some sensation at the base of my spine to know if I am meditating correctly This is distracting and deviating you from the real path of meditating on your chakras. When you sit in a heated room you dont see the heat, but from the warmth you know you are in the presence of _ heat. Similarly, when you start meditating on the chakras, itis only from your experiences and newly gained abilities that you come to know that a transformation is taking place within you. The greatest transformation upon the awakening of the kundalini is not that you see blinding light (although, that can happen and has happened to me on numerous occasions) or you feel feather-light or you feel highly energetic. These are epiphenomena. This D Ap. EET Kundalini 43 is not the real product; its more like buttermilk than the actual butter. The real transformation upon the awakening of kundalini is that you shed your old tendencies and negativity like a snake sheds its old skin. You no longer feel angry or flustered over trivial matters unlike the earlier times. Your emotions and thoughts dont overpower and trample all over you anymore. You begin to gain control of yourself. Supranormal streams of creativity and energy gush forth at the awakening, surprising even you with talents you never thought you had. There are two more interpretations of this word: A. KUNDA + LEEN + E Kunda refers to a hole, usually round, in the ground that is meant for gathering and preserving water or fire. Pits for sacrificial fire offerings are called kunda. Leen? means to be absorbed or attached and E means energy. There's energy that is lying latent, self-absorbed, in a sort of cavity, a nervous plexus, in all human beings. They say Shiva is shava (dead body) without E. E represents energy. Nothing can exist or function without the presence of energy in it, nothing. Your creative energy is lying at the bottom because you've lost sight of your true nature. As you turn inward and start to meditate on your true nature, this self- absorbed, slumbering, energy begins to rise and with each hurdle it crosses, you feel more powerful than before. 44 Om Swami B. THE FEMININE FOR KUNDALA Kundala means a ring or the coil of a rope. Kundalini, the feminine aspect of your latent energy, is lying coiled. You could imagine to passing water through a twisted pipe instead of a straight pipe. Our negative views about ourselves, our emotions and attachments have twisted our passage of kundalini. It stands wrung. Just like if you scold a small child, he might just curl up in fear and lie in his bed, kundalini too is curled up and lying down in your root chakra, muladhara. It is so because we are almost conditioned to be afraid of ourselves. We are afraid of making mistakes or taking decisions. We are even afraid of doing things right and we want someone else to validate what we have done. In fear, you never sleep with your legs stretched out, you always curl up a bit. Kundalinis natural abode is the sacral chakra, but it has descended and is lying in the root chakra. These two chakras are sex centres and the greatest guilt most people have in their lives is around their sexual thoughts and acts. Awakening of the kundalini begins with complete acceptance of who you are so that you maybe at ease with yourself. Then you give it attention (meditation) and care, you bring it out of its curled up position to a state of complete acceptance and fearlessness. It no longer remains latent. It becomes potent, a potent instrument to not only fulfilling your dreams but also making you feel Kundalini 45 whole. Therefore, it is called the formless aspect of Devi, no less divine, no less powerful, no less complete than Mother Divine herself. Ane one of Buddhas chief disciples had served him or decades. He had revered him, looked up to him, loved him and had devoted his whole life to Tathagata, the one gone beyond. O sage! Youve helped so many to gain enlightenment, he said to Buddha one day. Why is it that I never experience that deep samadhi you talk about? Buddha smiled and said, Thats because you are still tied to me, Ananda. Untie all knots if you want to experience true awakening. Ananda was quite puzzled at Buddhas response. What are you saying, Tathagata? he said. If I wouldn't reach the other shore by following you, then how will I? A calf gets home safely when it follows its mother. You are already home, Ananda. It is only that you dont realize it. Untie yourself and venture out in the unchartered territories of your mind to know what lies there. Ananda was dismayed at Buddhas response. He felt he had wasted his whole life because all throughout he 50 Om Swami had believed that following Buddha meant awakening, but here the sage was telling him the opposite. Three months later, Buddha, at the ripe age of 82, passed away and Ananda was devastated to be left behind. In that great pain of separation and sadness, he sat down to meditate. Hardly a few minutes had passed when he entered into deep trance. In that state of awakening, he had a profound realization: a chain whether of gold or iron is a chain nonetheless. You cannot experience true freedom as long as you are tied to anything at all. Y On the path of awakening all knots must be untied. The umbilical cord must be cut if you want to discover an identity of your own. We wouldnt know how deeply we are attached to something till we distance ourselves from it. The process of kundalini awakening or its understanding is incomplete without an intimate knowledge of the three knots that bind each one of us. At every loop, every knot, a rope loses its smoothness. Our knots too make us uneven and they rob us of our smoothness. Just like every knot shortens the rope, our knots truncate our strength and character. Not coincidentally, in Lalita Sahasranama, exposition of kundalini does not start from chakras, but the three knots. There are 182 verses in the stotra, out of which 15 are directly linked to the chakras. They mention the sadhana, hidden aspects, the nature of chakras, their forms, colors and syllables. But, the first three verses stand Kundalini 51 independent on their own. They only talk about how the kundalini rises as it pierces the three knots. There is no mention of chakras until much later. Undoing the knots is a sadhana in its own right though, and like any other sadhana it's not without hurdles, both within and without. OVERCOMING HURDLES There are two types of hurdles in any sadbana external and internal. External hurdles primarily refer to a lack of conducive environment, which includes natural calamities, an unsafe place, lack of social support, non-availability of proper food and so forth. External challenges are of two types: adi-bhautik, hurdles that hinder your progress due to lack of resources, and adi-daivik, obstacles created by nature, such as storms, wild animals and so on. External challenges are not hard to overcome, you can change your place where your needs are provided for and these challenges disappear. Here's the thing with external challenges: the more you turn inwards, the less they matter. During my own days of sadhana in the woods, the more I intensified my practice, the less external factors mattered. After a while, nothing or no one, from rats to langurs, bothered me any longer. They were there but they ceased to exist for me. As the inner storms, langurs and rats settled down, the ones outside became powerless. No matter whether you are in the woods or in an air-conditioned penthouse, there will be 52 Om Swami plenty of external hurdles. We can't let them stop us though. Besides, when compared to the daunting challenges within, the ones without feel like a breeze, a piece of cake. Internal hurdles as well are further divided into two types: adi-daihik, ones that arise from physical ailments in the body, and adhyatamika, challenges that block your progress because of thoughts, emotions and desires. Adi- daihik could be asthma, arthritis, even common cold or any other disease for that matter. Anything that arises from within your body and disrupts your meditation or focus is an internal hurdle. A sadhaks main challenge, however, remains to be the internal hurdles of the second type adhyatamika. This is where the three knots come into play. They are called Brahma Granthi, Vishnu Granthi and Rudra Granthi. Among the three of them, they cover the whole spectrum of inner challenges that any sadhak encounters on the path of awakening of the kundalini. For the most part of our lives, we are battling with ourselves. We try hard to resist certain unwholesome emotions, thoughts and desires and we try very hard to cultivate some desirable ones. We want to forgive certain people, but feel guilty because we cant let go off the hurt they caused us. We want to be happy, we dont want to feel hatred for anyone or be lustful, yet it seems that our emotions and thoughts have a life of their own. We are trying to persuade our feelings and thoughts, we want to strike a friendship but they dont seem to Kundalini 53 be interested. In retaliation, rather than understanding, we begin resisting them, we start avoiding them. This resistance turns into a knot and it complicates our lives. Our knots, they tie us, trip us and shorten us. "mladharaikanilaya brahmagranthivibhedini, maniprntarudit visnugranthivibhedini. ajacakrantaralastha rudragranthivibhedini, sahasrarambujaradha sudhasarabhivarsini. tadillatasamarucihsatcakroparisamsthita, mahasaktih kundalini bisatantutaniyast. (Lalita Sahasranama, 38-40) From muladhara, the root chakra, kundalini moves pierces the Brahma knot in the Swadishthana, the sacral chakra, goes through the solar plexus and pierces the Vishnu Granthi in the heart chakra continuing straight through throat and brows, it pierces the Rudra Granthi in the head. There it meets with the thousand-petaled lotus and enjoys a shower of bliss and divine intoxication. The nature of kundalini is like the batteries of lightening and flashes as it rises above the six chakras. Completely drunk with the nectar, its form is subtler than even a fraction of the billionth part of a strand peeled from the lotus stem. 54 Om Swami When you are filled with positivity and light, when you start to see the real you, you bloom on your own, its effortless. And when you blossom and open up, the knots loosen and then disappear. As you evolve spiritually and progress on the path, these knots begin to untie themselves just like lotuses open on their own when sunbeams caress them. In the actual process of kundalini awakening, you dont have to focus on any of the knots as such. There is no visualization of untying them as well. When knots are formed with a muscle spasm, you just let it be; you massage it tenderly and it goes away. Similarly, when you gently massage your soul, it starts to relax, you begin to be at perfect ease with yourself, with how, what, who and where you are on the journey of life this is the beginning of kundalini awakening. In the Hindu tradition, Brahmas job is to create, Vishnus role is to sustain and Rudra or Shivas job is to terminate. These are the three roles that also tie us down. The desire to create is Brahma Granthi, the desire to hold on is Vishnu Granthi and the desire to get rid of what you dont like is Rudra Granthi. Respectively, they also represent three major elements of human life: sex, emotions (positive and negative) and destructive thoughts. Let me delve deeper into them. BRAHMA GRANTHI Brahma represents creation and also the aspect of procreation. Therefore, not by coincidence, the knot Kundalini 55 of Brahma is in the sacral chakra, your genitals more specifically. Kundalini starts from the root chakra, at the base of spine that is where the greatest concentration of nerves lies. The strongest desire in any individual is the desire to create, because this desire is directly linked to a release of the creative energy in you. You can call it sex. Sex is not merely satiating your lust, it is your most creative aspect. Nature compels you, impels you and propels you to constantly find avenues where this creative energy may be used. Natures only dharma is growth and every creature in this existence is primed accordingly. The first challenge for any practitioner is to rise above sexual thoughts and desires. By that I do not mean that you observe lifelong abstinence. You may have to practice it, though, in the initial stages. Abstinence is recommended purely from the view of channelizing your thoughts. You can better control your mind when you know you cant just have something for a certain period of time. Its like when you are trying to write an important letter or an article and an email flashes on your screen. Your friend has shared a link with you and as soon as you click on that link you are taken to a news website. You finish reading the article and at the bottom, there are suggestions for other relevant articles. You click on one of them and start reading it. That article contains another link, you click on that and off you go to another website. Before you know it, three hours have been wasted and a, A 56 Om Swami you still havent finished writing the important letter you had sit down to complete in the first place. Imagine if you had gone offline while writing that letter, there would have been no distractions. Abstinence is something like that. Its going offline for a period of time so you can concentrate better on what you have to do. I do not endorse or see merit in lifelong continence because I find it unnecessary and unnatural. I have met countless celibate monks and not even one of them was actually happy being a celibate, they all struggled with it. So, what do I mean by rising above sex? You have to be completely comfortable, at perfect ease, with your sexuality and your sexual orientation. During the sadhana, you will have a barrage of thoughts sensual, sexual, taboo, perverted, and so on. Let them come, dont react to them; you simply carry on with your meditation on the chakra of your present focus. You did not choose your sexual orientation; you did not choose your sexual thoughts. You were born with them. The more you stop reacting and chasing your thoughts, . the less they will bother you. I remember that while growing up, there was an old man and the young children used to tease him because he would react vehemently. He would take his stick and run after them. They would ridicule him (I know it was absolutely cruel). They only provoked him to solicit that reaction from him. One time he went away for a pilgrimage and returned after several months. Soon after, he stopped Kundalini 57 reacting and within weeks the children stopped poking fun at him. When you dont react, a sense of ease arises. Resistance goes away. When you resist something, you have to exert double the force, it is exhausting and demoralizing. Think of abstinence as keeping a fast, when your mind knows, I have to stay hungry for nine days, lers say. On the first day, you can get through just fine. On the second day, it'll be a bit harder. On the next four days, it will be even harder. You will find yourself thinking about food most of the time. In the last three days, you will be counting moments, thinking to yourself, Only a few days to go and so on. At the end of nine days, when you will have the opportunity of having food, chances are that you will end up eating in excess. Like normal food, sex too is a food for body and mind. | Once a man visited me. He was in his mid-seventies. He was quite perturbed by the fact that he still had sexual thoughts and was active sexually. He felt guilty about it. He said, I retired ycars ago and still I have sexual thoughts. Its okay, I said, your body and reproductive organs dont know that you are retired. . Sex too is food, I added, as long as you are eating food, your body will want sex too. Mind never retires. So, it doesnt make me a bad person, right? On the contrary, it means you are normal, I said, no reason to feel guilty about something you didnt choose. 58 Om $wami Mind doesnt care whether you are retired from the service or you are a senior citizen; its alive as ever. Just like you may have the desire of eating fine food or wearing nice clothes, or going out etc., you have sexual thoughts. If you dont give them extra importance, they are just like other thoughts - they emerge, stay for a moment and then disappear. All said and done, Brahma Granthi is not merely the sexual knot, for Brahma doesnt just represent procreation but creation too. If sex alone was enough to harness our creative energies, we wouldnt be in such a rat race today. No matter how rich or poor one is, whether a millionaire or a billionaire, a local minister or the Prime Minister, everyone is busy in wanting and acquiring greater share of everything they can have. They want to create, do something more than what they have already done. And this is the second aspect of this knot: to create. Brahma Granthi represents creation, expansion and multiplication. There is no doubt that millions out there need to work very hard all day to support themselves. At the same time, however, there are millions who are incessantly working towards amassing wealth, eyeing promotions, bigger houses, bigger cars, and so on. They work hard to earn more, then they spend more, and then they work even harder to earn much more so they can support their spending. It seems to be the wisdom and way of the twenty-first century. Pm not suggesting this is good or bad; its your Mig "us Kundalini 59 personal choice. While doing chakra sadhana, the second temptation to resist is the desire to have more. It begins by taking a good look at what all you are already blessed with and by pursuing any material objective with a sense of awareness. Gratitude and mindfulness are like chopsticks. You need both to hold the food of temptation. As asadhak progresses and rises above his sexual thoughts and thoughts of creation, a kind of stillness starts to brew in his mind, undercurrents of restlessness subside and a sense of gratitude arises naturally. Truly, I have everything this feeling begins to carve a place in your mind. Just like a fully bloomed flower attracts bees naturally, a mind that has gone beyond creation and procreation attracts thoughts of a different nature. Tangled in the second knot now, different desires sprout in the mind. VISHNU GRANTHI Somewhere the root cause of our suffering is a deep desire for permanence. We are not comfortable with the transient nature of this world. We find it hard to believe that everything is temporary. We want our joys, pleasures and attainments to be eternal. We dont want to lose our loved ones and if we could, we would have them by our side always. The desire to hold on, to not let go, whatever we have acquired is one of the strongest desires. Such a desire though limits us greatly, it restricts us and it ties us down. This is the second knot Vishnu Granthi. Vishnws seat is in the heart chakra. 60 Om Swami Based on our desire to be eternally happy, we continue working hard and doing things to ensure that we dont lose. This clinging is the seed of all emotions, and emotions are the second greatest hurdle for any practitioner. While meditating when you try to quiet your mind, thats when you become most aware of your emotions. They are not just either positive or negative emotions but a mixture of both, for emotions are simply those thoughts that didnt abandon and now they have found a place in your heart. You go through regret, repentance, guilt, anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, joy, peace and many others. When you let your thoughts brew and not abandon them, they become desires or emotions. Vishnu sustains the creation. Your desires and emotions are the basis of your living. Think about it for a moment most of us are mostly working towards fulfilling towards what we desire or care about. The knot of desires and emotions represent the second hurdle for any sincere seeker. Should you let go of desires and not have emotions? The truth is desires and emotions make us human; they make us who we are. It is not possible to completely let go of either the desires or the emotions. You may not have big desires of making a lot of money or becoming really famous and so on, but that does not mean you are free of desire. The desire to eat something different today, the desire to speak to your loved ones, the desire to watch a movie, the desire to entertain yourself - they are all desires. The Kundalini 61 harder you have to work towards fulfilling a certain desire, the greater is the joy that you are likely to experience upon its fulfillment. It does not mean the joy will be everlasting or even long-lived. It simply means the surge of joy you experience is greater when you have to work harder or longer towards its attainment. How we accept what comes to us greatly determines our emotional state and such state in return largely affects our response to those situations. Someone criticizes you and you are unable to accept or reject it. It will trigger a negative emotion in you. It might make you feel down or you might loathe the criticizer. In that state of mind, you may say or do something that you wouldnt normally do. If, however, you are able to either reject the criticism outright, quietly in your mind, or accept it and flush it out of your system, you will not experience the swelling of any negativity in you. It is easier to swim in a pond than in a whirlpool. When you understand that you dont have to react to your emotions or thoughts while you are meditating on chakras, they become less intense. As their intensity decreases, they no longer remain a whirlpool but become a silent pond and then you see what lies at the bottom. Everything becomes crystal clear. Your emotions may cause momentary ripples but they wouldnt be able to become giant whirlpools. As you rise above your sexual thoughts and become somewhat indifferent to your emotions, you start to see the residue. A final and third category of eee come and RR your meditation. 62 Om Swami RUDRA GRANTHI There comes a stage in the life of a serious meditator when he is no longer struggling with sexual thoughts, when they no longer have any negative feelings towards anyone else. There comes a phase when they are actually grateful. Just as the mind starts to experience stillness, just when they begin to see the colours at the bottom of the reef, they are caught unaware by another wave of thoughts. No, these thoughts are not about having more or building more, they are not about harming anyone, these are much worse. These are self-deprecating thoughts that leaves the meditator vulnerable. They make you feel as if you are inadequate, as if you wouldnt ever get there. Your weak moments, or failures of the past, begin to flash in your inner eye and all you see is what all you lack as opposed to what you have within you. The third knot is the knot of thoughts called Rudra Granthi. It is just after the agya chakra, the brow plexus. Shivas role is destruction; not necessarily in the form of annihilation but termination. Untying this knot is a two-stage process. In the first one, you go beyond your destructive thoughts; you realize that you dont have to hold onto your past, you understand that you cant allow your yesterday to ruin your today. As you meditate with that awareness and commitment, destructive thoughts fly away like frightened birds do at the sound of a loud clap. The second stage is a realization that all thoughts are empty in their own right. They are devoid of any essence, that if I dont give them importance they cant Kundalini 63 do anything on their own. If you observe carefully, you'll notice that all visible phenomena have a point of origin, a life of certain duration, and a point of termination. The knot is in the brain because as they say, it's all in your head. You may experience certain emotions, you may have desires, and you may long for physical intimacy. If you are able to terminate the thought in your head though, the desire or emotion will disappear like it never existed. This is the hardest knot to untie, the greatest hoop you have to get through. Rudra Granthi also refers to the onslaught of thoughts you experience while meditating on the chakras. This is also the last stage of kundalini awakening and the most intense one too. Meditating with unflinching focus and determination, the practitioner has to become a yogi like Shiva to undo this knot. As you Progress, you start to become aware of your thoughts effortlessly. Just like a bird can naturally fly and a fish can naturally swim, you become naturally aware. No matter how hard or how badly entangled is a knot, you cant loosen it by pulling on it. Frustration or intolerance has no role or room in kundalini meditation. A serious practitioner knows that he or she must be extremely patient. We have to examine the knot and then untie it with firm but relaxed hands. Thats how you need to look upon Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra Granthi. Some examination, a bit of observation, a lot of patience and a great deal of effort to untie is required. No knot is hard enough then. If you walk the path and not give up, you will get the results exactly as expected. 64 Om Swami That is why I dont call it the philosophy but the science of chakras. It has a definitive cause and effect relationship. Nothing is without a cause-and-effect in the divine play. Everything is beautifully interlinked, interdependent and impartial. WHEN SHIVA MEETS SHAKTI A few hundred million years ago, when continents n earth were not separated by oceans but existed as only one supercontinent, a valiant and powerful king called Susena ruled there. To spread his empire far and wide and to establish himself as a chakravartin, a world emperor, his:royal counsel advised him to do ashvamedha yajna. Ashvamedha yajna or horse-sacrifice was undertaken only by the greatest of the great kings to demonstrate their sovereignty over all other states and rulers. A royal steed was let loose and the king's retinue would follow the horse. Wherever it would roam, that area would come under the command of the king. If any other ruler challenged the new sovereign by holding the horse captive, there ensued a bloody battle. Susena's horse covered great distances and no other king dared to challenge him. Several weeks passed and his territory expanded to many new states. One day, the horse stopped to drink water from a pond which was in a secluded ashram in a forest, next to a giant mountain 68 Om Swami called Ganda. Only a few yards away from the pond was an old banyan tree, its periphery stretching several tens of cubits. Under the tree sat a radiant rishi, unmoving, in deep samadhi. His name was Gana. Unaware, Gana sat still like a rock, his kundalini latched to his sahasrara and drinking nectar like a child suckles his mothers breast. Various ministers of the king, who were part of the retinue and following the horse, camped in shade, next to the pond, without paying their respects to the great rishi. With a view to relax, they opened bottles of wine and began conversing with each other. A few hundred soldiers pitched their tents a little away. Ganas son, a great a tapasvin and a rishi himself, saw all this as arrogance and intrusion. He could not bear the disrespect shown to his father. O foolish men!, he roared. You are drunk on pride like your king. Go tell him that Pve captured his horse. The ministers didnt take the slur too well and immediately ordered their soldiers to arrest him. The young rishi whispered the mystical mantra of the devi Jaya, and turned advancing soldiers into a mound of ashes. All this happened too fast, some of the ministers were still mounting their horses. Trembling with fear, they fell at his feet and sought his forgiveness. He didn't utter a word though and just walked into the mountain with the royal horse and disappeared like soul does at the time of death. They paid their obeisance to Gana, who was still in deep samadhi, and went back to their king. Kundalini 69 Susena heard the whole story and instructed his younger brother Mahasena, known for his wisdom and valour, to approach the rishi with the greatest humility and beg his pardon. Dont take any troops with you, he said. Go like a seeker. Mahasena immediately left for the ashram and reached there a few weeks later; the rishi was still in samadhi. His son was standing a little away guarding his father like eyelids guard the eyes. Mahasena did a full length prostration in front of the rishi and placed a basket of fragrant flowers, dry fruits, sweetmeats along with a shawl of silk. He then folded his hands and sat there in waiting. Ganas son was pleased with the demeanor of Mahasena. What do you seek, O noble one? he said. Pm his son. Mahasena offered his obeisance to the young sage as well, and spoke in a low voice, I wish to speak to your father, if I may. I too can grant you whatever you can imagine, the young rishi said. I give you my word. Tm eternally grateful to you, Mahasena replied. Please grant me an audience with your father today. My father is in kevalanirvikalpa samadhi he replied. Piercing all the chakras, his kundalini has reached sahasrara and he sits above and beyond all the physical 70 Om Swami elements and needs of his body. He will not come out of this state for twelve years. Nearly five have passed and seven remain. But, since Pve already given you my word, he added. Pll do transference of thought that will cause a ripple in his state of superconsciousness. The young rishi sat cross-legged and began an intense meditation. A muburta, forty-eight minutes, later he looked at Mahasena, and said, My father has become aware of his mind now, he'll open his eyes any moment. Hardly had he completed his sentence when Gana spoke in a soft voice, May you live long, Mahasena. Mahasena clasped the rishis feet and pleaded guilty on behalf of the state. Gana reproached his son for acting recklessly and ' instructed him to immediately release the horse. Bowing before his father in apology and remorse, he went towards the mountain, vanished and emerged with the horse a few moments later. Mahasena pinched himself and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasnt dreaming. More interested in the unthinkable he had just seen than the horse, he asked the young rishi, O great tapasvin, I just saw you disappear into the mountain and then manifest yourself out of thin air. Show him your mountain, Gana said with an all- knowing smile, mischievous like a childs. His is a long life. Kundalini, 71 Tethering the horse outside, the young rishi took Mahasena close to the mountain. Mahasena stood there dumbfounded as the risbis son said, Come, lets enter. Enter where? How? he thought, for there was no door. Reading his mind, the young sage said, This is my creation and you'll have to be in my state of consciousness to experience my world. Saying this, he entered into the mind of Mahasena and triggered an expansion of consciousness. Soon, Mahasena didnt see his body as one solid block but a colony of billions of tiny units, each one was simply a passage of energy; each one was energy, in fact. Effortlessly, he followed the young rishi and both entered inside the mountain. Mahasena was startled beyond what words can ever express. This was not just a mountain from the inside, it was a whole universe. There were billions of twinkling stars, a moon, rivers, mountains, trees, birds, fishes, mammals and reptiles; it had everything in it. It was a vast creation. They travelled at the speed of light from one location to another, night gave way to day and sun arose unearthing the beauty of the rishis creation. Mahasena even felt scared looking at the vastness. He thought that he would get lost. He held onto the young rishi as they travelled across oceans and endless forests. A whole day went by but Mahasena felt neither hunger nor tiredness. 72 Om Swami We should leave now, the rishi said. "Its so amazing here, Mahasena exclaimed. Its another universe. Can we not stay one more day, please? The rishi laughed. Mahasena, he whispered, trust me, we should go. Obeying the young sage, Mahasena followed him and soon they were out of the mountain. Everything looked different outside. Only the old tree stood where Gana, the great rishi, still sat in tapasya. Other than that, there was no pond, but a mighty river flowing there. The horse was nowhere to be seen. The trees looked a lot different, some almost looked ancient, even the animals and apes were not what they were a day ago. Where are we? Mahasena asked. I can see the great rishi but this place looks different. Its the same place, the rishi replied. How can it change so much in just one day? he asked in disbelief, even doubting that perhaps the young sage was frolicking with one of his tricks. Ganas son laughed, and then said most seriously, Mahasena, time is relative. My universe runs on a different wheel of time than yours. Mahasena looked bewildered, like a child lost in a fair. He could not fathom any of what the young rishi was telling him. Kundalini 73 Realizing his predicament, he clarified, Mahasena, twelve thousand years have passed on earth. Twelve thousand years! Yes, One day in my universe is equivalent of twelve thousand years here. What about my brother, my wife, children, the kingdom? Mahasena said as if he just woke up from a dream, a feeling that wasnt entirely incorrect. They are all gone, Mahasena, the rishi said. The wheel of time never stops for anyone. Mahasena dropped right there like a creeper without support, and putting his head between his hands, he began crying like a child. Listen, Mahasena, the young rishi said. Who and what are you crying for? Nothing here is permanent. Earth, stars, sun, universe, your siblings, family, your body, or anything you can touch, see, smell, hear or feel - none of this is eternal, Mahasena. No one is dying or living, its one big illusion. Dont you see? You think that even my universe was real? It was simply a creation of my consciousness. Similarly, this world too is a creation of collective consciousness. Look at my father, hes still there, even thousands of years later, because he has tapped into the source of his energy. There is no movement there, and therefore there is no change or decay. 74 Om Swami His words worked like balm on the wounded mind of Mahasena and he stopped crying. He felt calm, like a thirsty traveller feels in the desert upon drinking pure water. Mind becomes eternal when it becomes still, the rishi continued. No change is possible without movement. Truth is still, and thats why its eternal. Please help me see the truth, O rishi! Mahasena fell at the feet of the young sage. Anything you can see, hear, touch, smell or feel is not the truth, O wise one, he replied. Truth cant be seen, truth must be experienced. It dawns like sunrise upon earth. What must I do to experience the truth? Go and meditate. Awaken your latent energy so you may realize yourself and become the master of your own universe. Mahasena sat by the vishis feet as the latter demystified the mysteries of universe and expounded on the three states of consciousness wakeful, dream and sleep. Empowered with the wise words of the sage and his burning desire to know the truth, Mahasena retired into the forest and began his intense meditation. He meditated till he realized his own true nature. He sat still until the kundalini reached sahasrara. Mahasena gained enlightenment by gaining access to his own unconditioned intelligence. Y Kundalini 75 Awakening of the kundalini is realization of your pure abstract intelligence, the type that is not conditioned by your fears, emotions and worries. It is your pristine nature. When you are able to tap into this latent source of energy, you truly become the master of your universe. You can manifest whatever you wish in your life because your scale of consciousness is no longer limited to your body alone; it envelops the whole universe. If you observe, you'll notice that no matter how hot it may be on any given day, the warm and bright sunlight doesnt burn anything. Objects can become hot, they can even melt, but they dont burn. On the other hand, if you pass sunlight through a lens, the focused beam of light can easily cause a spark in under a minute. This focus, free from dispersion and distraction, turns the same sunlight into an intense beam. Your kundalini too, as it rises, becomes more intense. From a simple cloud of latent heat at the base of your spine, it begins to transform into a beam and then becomes a more powerful one. By the time, it reaches your sahasrara, it gets united with a giant power source. Breaking free of the shackles of thoughts, desires, emotions, fears and phobias, it turns you, the practitioner, into an adept, a siddha at whose command anything becomes possible. The latent energy of the kundalini is present in all of us like fire in wood. Our fears and conditioning hold us back. They plunge our creative energy to the bottom most chakra and we end up using it for petty things for the 76 Om Swami most part of our lives. And through the years we spend living, majority of the time is spent in either battling with ourselves or with others. There is little sense in fighting with the world or accumulating negativity in our minds. Instead, we have the choice to walk on a path that brings our creativity and energies to the fore. MASTERING THE MASCULINE AND EEMININE ENERGIES Each strand of Shivas matted locks indicates the power of our thought where sahasrara arc his dreadlocks. With each strand of his hair, a yogi can manifest entities like Virabhadra or Bhadrakali, the masculine or feminine energies, that will work on your behalf to accomplish your goals. Immolation of Sati is indicative of the power of kundalini, your latent force, that is powerful enough to burn you, the false you. You may wonder, who is the false you? Most of our labels like sister, brother, daughter, son, mother, father, husband, wife, and so on shape us, and dictate our behavior. But, beyond these roles, away from being a man or a woman, beyond even your body, is the purest form of energy, the energy that is the basis of our very existence and potential. Yogi in his own right is incomplete because yogi can just burn all afflictions and everything. Shiva turned Manmatha, cupid, into ashes. But that is not the longer- term solution because our afflictions too are potent . Kundalini 77 energies. It is only that they are misdirected. Therefore, the key is to channelize, to harness and to regulate. And for that to happen, we must be at ease with our opposites within us. The union of Shiva and Shakti to produce an offspring, who would have saved the devas, represents your immense power that emerges when the kundalini meets sahasrara, when your polar opposite joins its source within, for devas are your noble intentions. They are ruled by Indra, the chief. The word indri means senses and the one who rules the senses is your mind. It gets afraid very easily, it becomes protective and that is why Indra panics whenever anyone sits in tapasya because intense meditation completely subdues the talkative mind. Danavas, or demons, represent our selfish aspect, our excessive self-concern, our negative emotions and our ignoble intentions. It is very easy for distractions, for danavas to trump the devas, but when a yogi like Shiva unites with Shakti, a state of consciousness arises from that union that wins over the demons. Dharma defeats adharma. Piercing of chakras and awakening of the kundalini is the most responsible enterprise that anyone can undertake for the simple reason that a yogi does not hold the world responsible for his or her feelings and emotions. That has never led anyone to the pinnacle of their potential. A yogi looks within for all answers because if Pm truly the master of my universe then I might as well think, act and be like an emperor. 78 Om Swami The first word in Lalita Sahasranama is Sri Mata, Mother Divine is my final sanctuary. And like the kundalini, she is within you. The yogi says, I must seek my own refuge. The next word is Srimaharagyi. The moment I see and realize myself as my own master, kundalini joins sahasrara, she becomes the empress. You then become the owner of your universe. Sri-mat-singhasaneshvari is the third name in Lalita Sahasranama, and then you sit on your own throne with the greatest grace, conviction and splendor. The fourth name is Chid-agni-kunda-sambhuta-deva-karya-samudyta. You reach such a level of purity then, that by the mere power of your thought, arising like a spark from the fire pit of a pure mind, you can accomplish the greatest tasks. When everything is within you, what do you really lack then? When the source of Universe lies latent in you in the form of kundalini, waiting to be shown its way to sahasrara, what is that you cant accomplish then? You choose if you want to be arrogant and angry like Daksha or a devotee like Sati, a yogi like Shiva or a seeker like Mahasena, a rishi like Gana or his son. These are your choices. Let yourself rise within you and you can be any of these. Uddyata-bhanu-sahasra-abha-chatur-bahur-samanvita, the fifth name means by holding the four purusharthas, endeavours of your life (i.e. dharma-artha-kama-moksha), you will radiate with intelligence, wisdom and truth like thousand suns glowing together. Kundalini 79 Go! Awaken your potential to realize who you really are. How, you ask? Now that you know the literal, real and esoteric meaning of chakras and kundalini, let me show you exactly how to awaken this divine energy. CJ remember it was snowing outside, very heavily. No birds were chirping, no boars were snorting around my hut, no deers were bleating. Trees were not swaying and winds were not blowing. It was utterly quiet as snowflakes would land softly on the roof of my hut and on the ground outside. There was pin drop silence, perfect quietude for deep meditation. But even the with perfect environment, solitude and silence, my mind was far from being quiet; it was restless. Several months had passed and even after meditating of a few thousand hours, I had not felt any persistent sensations on my chakras. There was no sign of any kundalini awakening. All I had gained tll date was excruciating aches and pains arising from sitting still for extremely long periods, and a constant company of the wild animals. I sat still while tears continued to trickle down my eyes. The first many drops would simply disappear in my growing beard but eventually as the flow continued, they began landing on my chest. They would roll out warm 84 Om Swami but end up cold. They interfered with my meditation but I couldnt control them. My palms were resting in my lap and wild rats were playing nearby. They were moving around and about as if they were circumambulating me. It was hardly entertaining. Tears from my eyes continued to fall like raindrops from the sky. These were not tears of devotion or bliss though. I was crying because I was extremely tired and exhausted. The exhaustion that I had once experienced from running my own business and working in five different time zones was miniscule compared to what I was going through now. This was not just any fatigue, I was tired because I had tried everything I could think of and yet I wasnt any _ better than when Id first started. Ever since I had gone to the Himalayas, I had followed a strict routine of meditation with utmost discipline; never faltering even once. I ate a frugal meal once in twenty-four hours to avoid lethargy. Living in sub-zero temperature for the most part, I bathed every day in icy water. I took only short naps so I could devote all my time to intense meditation. I slept and sat on the floor, devoid of any comfortable mattresses, to maintain a state of constant alertness. I had even forgotten what it was like to sit in a chair. Months had passed and I had not eaten a square meal or slept on a bed. My hut was rundown, tucked away in the woods, far from civilization. The chilly winds would run through my bones like water through a sponge. There was no Kundalini 85 electricity, no flushing toilet and no running water. It was an ancient environment, the kind that the great vishis lived in once. Completely disconnected from the outside world, with no human contact, I observed strict silence and solitude. I had given up on everything I possibly could, except just my own life, and yet there was no light. I didnt think that the forces of nature were testing me. Instead, I felt they were humiliating me. Yes, I felt humiliated because foregoing all reason and sense, I had left everything behind to pursue my calling. Maybe, I had dialled the wrong number or maybe my calling was a hoax. And, I didnt know what was more humiliating to give up my years of pursuit with an admission that I had blindly devoted and wasted my life for a cause that amounted to nothing or to continue my sadhana without knowing if there was any truth to it at all. But, I did know one thing: if I had any chance at discovering my own truth, it would not come by quitting. With a view to persist, once again, I would wipe my tears and renew my resolve and resume my meditation with great determination and faith. That does not mean though that my path somehow became easier just because by vowing to not give up. On the contrary, the firmer I resolved, the louder became the voice of the inner critic. I had faith alright, but I also had a sceptical mind that was ever eager to reason. er GF Tx raus cT PE RE Se Ir Er ae RE EI ie DT a Iles es En d 86 Om Swami My questioning mind wasn't a challenge, my doubting mind was. Each one of us has two minds, you know. Our positive mind is like the beautiful musk deer. It runs through the jungle of emotions and thoughts spreading fragrance. It is swift, agile, and confident and it doesn't collide. It carves its own path. So is our negative mind, unfortunately, which is like an ugly cockroach with two irritating antennas of self-doubt and negativity. It walks through our delicious food of hope, our clean home of dreams. It breeds rapidly. It reminds you constantly that you don't have it in you or that you don't deserve it. You build castles of hope and dreams, but one wave of self-doubt or one pounding of guilt and it turns into a dike of dune, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the beach. And you start to see yourself as just a tiny particle of sand, of dust, like everyone else in the world, on the beach. You begin to think that you have nothing special in you, that you can't possibly be the castle or live in one. The path of sadhana for me was not much dissimilar. On some days I would feel that I was progressing but just the next day it would all feel pointless. One day I would think of myself as a great yogi who could put up with the unforgiving Himalayan weather, who could practice extreme austerities, someone who lived unafraid among the wild animals, a yogi who slept on the floor among rats and rodents, among scorpions and snakes. The next day, I would feel like an absolute dunce, a victim of ridicule, who gave up his life of comforts and lived away from civilization like an unlettered caveman. Kundalini 87 What are you trying to do? What are you hoping to accomplish? Do you really think you can awaken kundalini in this day and age? Do you think that God will show up in person? You crack me up, you do. I cant believe you, with all your education and exposure, you believe in this nonsense. My mind often barged into my sadhana with such questions and statements. It would try to shake my faith and demean me. It even succeeded, but only temporarily and occasionally. Gradually, I learned that this was just noise. It was the blabbering of my mind that was not dependent on what I did or didnt. Like a demented ally, it would keep on rambling and the only way to shut it down was to not pay attention to it. I learned to not battle my scepticism but to ignore it. By shifting my attention, I figured a way to keep my consciousness yoked to my object of meditation. I chose faith over self-doubt. I picked discipline over procrastination. I settled for hope over despair. I kept meditating like the Ganges ceaseless and flowing. Meanwhile, monsoons had come and gone. Many lush green mountains were looking bit sparse at the advent of fall. Dryness and extreme cold was setting in. Days had become extremely short. Winters had announced their arrival. It would snow on most days. But, eventually, like all seasons, those days passed as well. Sun was taking a longer stroll on its path from east to west, days were becoming sunnier again. Beautiful red, white and mauve flowers bedecked solemn trees. Tiny flowers covered a EA m IS 88 Om Swami large area of the ground. New leaves were adorning old trees now. Nature looked like a bride dressed up for the most important moment of her life. Squirrels, snakes, deer, boars, bear, langurs, mongoose, weasels, rabbits and badgers were out. It looked like one grand celebration. Spring had arrived. Yet my own heart was barren like a winter garden covered with snow cold and white. There was no harmony, no melody and no rhythm in my existence. I was still a struggling meditator. Clinging to my exhausting routine, I was still meditating with all the fervour and courage I could muster. Spring too ended its sojourn and went back into the mysterious lap of Mother Divine and it was raining again. Everything in nature had either grown, evolved or moved on. Everything and everyone, except me. I was still where I had begun - clueless. There were occasional experiences and visions but nothing that was consistent and persistent. By then, I had experienced extraordinary and deep sensations on all my chakras and in sahasrara, but they would disappear as soon as I would finish my session of meditation. This wasn't acceptable to me. It was like you work very hard to earn a million dollars but you can only spend them as long as you are in the bank. The moment you walk out of the building, your wealth is lost and your account balance goes back to zero. I was dying to experience that state of superconscious- ness, that supranormal awareness where you feel oneness Kundalini 89 with everything around you, that supreme union that stays with you forever. This was eternal bliss for true samadhi | in my view. This was my spiritual wealth, my Goddess, awakening of the kundalini. I had let go off the temporary material world to experience this permanent bliss and if even this was a temporary feeling, Pd might as well smoke pot and feel good. Other than the fleeting experiences and intermittent sensations, although very deep, there was nothing else to bank on. | Until one day. On the thatched roof of my hut covered by tarpaulin, raindrops were constantly falling like thoughts in a restless mind. These beads of pristine Himalayan water would bounce on the roof and then, mingling with each other, they would simply merge and become water. Some of this water would leak through the cracks and keep collecting just a few inches from where I sat, motionless, in deep absorption, but aware. This days awareness was different; the type I had never experienced before. I could hear every single raindrop that fell on the roof. I could almost feel when it united with another drop. I could sense them merging and becoming tiny brooks before they would seep through the cracks and gaps and make puddles in my hut. With my eyes still closed, I shifted my attention to the inside of my hut. I could no longer hear the rain, which was particularly deafening because of the drops falling on the tarp. La TEN 90 Om Swami Instead, I heard a spider crawling on one of the walls. I could sense its thin legs move cautiously. Every single one of its eight hairy legs as if had tiny sensors because they moved in perfect synchronization. Even its legs were sensing the surroundings as if they had a brain of their own. I could hear the spider move about its tiny appendages (pedipalps) in the air to sense any danger before it would | make the next step. My minds eye was sceing it as clearly as my external eye would see a giant mountain in the broad daylight. I could feel every movement of the spider. Just then a doubt crept in. Was I just imagining it or it was actually happening? In a rare move, I chose to open my eyes and cast a glance in the direction of the spider. There it was, moving exactly as I had seen it. I shifted my attention outside and once again the rain was as audible as before, as if every single raindrop marked its presence like children do in classrooms. In this all pervading awareness, you experience a union that is beyond words. I wasnt just hearing everything around me, I was feeling it. The same energy that makes water move and makes you move too. The same life force that makes a spiders heart beat and makes your heart beat too. This is the common thread, the unbroken flow of energy, on which pearls of universal existence are strewn. Other dimensions of existence and awareness were opening gently like petals of lotus do upon sunrise. Roughly seventy-five million light years away I became Kundalini 91 aware of the existence of a planet, two and half times the size of earth, green, with water and supportive of life- forms. I saw another one, much closer, about 500 light years away. Several months later, when I descended from the Himalayas, it turned out that NASA had indeed confirmed the candidature of a planet called Kepler-22 about 600 light years away from earth. I wasnt surprised. Those deep sensations, that awakening, had become a permanent state of my mind. The boat of my life was sailing freely now in the vast ocean of bliss and equanimity. I felt this newfound bliss while walking, talking, eating, thinking, sitting, while doing any act. I was my own bank now, my wealth lived within me. I came to the realization that kundalini is indeed real and its awakening is nothing short of the realization of the goddess. As you walk the path of awakening, you begin to see how everything in our universe is interdependent and interconnected, with no exceptions. Your consciousness and your circle of insight start and continue to expand. Just like the slightest movement of the tiny spider entered into my sphere of consciousness, you start to realize how even the tiniest of action performed even millions of miles away has an impact on you, and vice-versa. This insight is the seed of liberation. You no longer see yourself as a separate entity whos struggling for existence. This is an utterly liberating feeling and leads to a near permanent kind of profound peace and absorption. 92 Om Swami What's even more beautiful is that anyone who is willing to put in the effort can experience it. In a nutshell: if you do what I did, you'll get what I got. This is the simple science of sadhana. Let me show you where to begin the actual practice. THE LOCATION OF CHAKRAS The sadhana of kundalini starts with first correctly identifying the location of chakras on your body. The six chakras and the seventh sabasrara are in a straight line and their distance from each other can vary by a few centimeters depending on the height, structure and constitution of your body. It is important to pinpoint the location of chakras as accurately as possible. Doing so, greatly increases your chances of success because when you meditate at the correct spot, deep sensations start to manifest within six months. Here is how to identify the location of chakras in your body. Use your right hand if you are right-handed and left hand if you are left-handed. 1. Place the little finger of your hand on the navel. Your navel is the solar plexus or the manipura chakra. l 2. Stretch your hand fully upwards and see where the tip of the thumb touches. This is your heart plexus or the anahata chakra. 3. Place your little finger exactly where your thumb Kundalini 93 touched on the heart plexus and stretch your hand fully once again to see where the thumb touches now. This is your throat plexus or the vishuddhi chakra. 4. Once again, put your little finger exactly where your thumb was and move one full hand-measure up. Your thumb is now touching your brow plexus or the agya chakra. 5. Place your little finger where you just found your brow chakra and stretch your hand fully again. Your thumb will be now touching your crown chakra or Sahasrara. 6. Go back to the navel. Put your thumb on your navel, stretch your hand and go one full hand measure down. Your little finger is now touching your sacral plexus or svadhishthana chakra. 7. Place your thumb where your little finger just was and stretch your hand fully downwards one more time. Your little finger is now touching your root plexus or muladhara chakra. Make sure to take your hand measure from the tip of your little finger to the tip of your thumb. Just like if you stretch your arms, the distance from the tip of one middle finger to the other is same as the height of your body, the distance between one chakra and the other is exactly one hand. Only your hand can accurately pinpoint the location of your chakras. 94 Om Swami FIVE ELEMENTS OF CHAKRA MEDITATION From this point on, we'll be deviating from what all you may have read till date about chakras in other texts. In true chakra meditation, the number of petals, the associative deity, and the various letters on each petal have no role. The quality, intensity and duration of concentration are the only real factors. Anything that helps you attain superior concentration will help you in kundalini awakening. If you practice yoga asanas (postures), bandhas (locks) and mudras (gestures), you are free to continue them. They are for your body fitness and they will improve your ability to sit still for longer periods of time. If you practice pranayama, breath regulation, or any other exercises, you can continue them. All these are auxiliary practices and they help you in your meditation. Their contribution or importance is minimal though when it comes to chakra meditation. For each chakra, there are five important elements that affect your chances of success: 1. Visualization In each chapter on chakras, Pve specified the color of each chakra. This is the only visualization that matters. There is absolutely no need to confuse yourself with attendant deities and numerous implements they are holding. Trying to count the number of petals and meditating on them only dilutes your focus. The simpler Kundalini 95 is the visualization, the more effective is your meditation. For each chakra simply visualize its color at the location of that chakra. 2. Mantra The sacred syllable of each chakra is a potent seed of energy. Once you reach an intermediate stage, you'll realize that each chakra actually resonates with the sound of its seed syllable. The most important thing to remember is that you cant do visualization and mantra at the same time. You will have to divide your time between visualization and mantra meditation of each chakra. As you build the intensity of your practice, meditate on the visualization as much as you can and when you get tired of visualization turn to mantra meditation for that chakra. The goal is to build your concentration on the chakra while retaining lucidity and awareness of the mind. 3. Posture I cannot overstate the importance of correct posture. There are ten vital energies in your body that affects everything you think, speak and do. Correct posture helps you in channeling these energies so they pave the way for the awakening of the most potent of all energies the kundalini. Ideally, you should be sitting cross-legged but if you cant sit cross-legged then sit comfortably in a chair. At 96 Om Swami * stra arrow. Your straight like an arro nea I dere P 'our hands resting 1n neck slightly. just barely, bent and $ your lap. P. x a rock. st be still like y TW vou mus F s During your meditation, Frhe mind, the more stillnes The more stillness vou gain of the , e is also truc. >>) . ^ c reverse x comes in your body naturally. E 2 sign of an advanced Stillness of the body is an unfailing = vements like / Trey wasting mo i i scessarv energy = their yogi. Unnecessary and z tc go away on d r ydgetv etc go < J - P cs ung fidg J 7 shaking your legs or being Ed 3 ce shape in the 1 own as stability begins to take shape 4. Concentration single-pointed - ree, your $ = . first three, y : If you practice the fir: i o awakening HO will improve on its Own. > ilding your co ; 5" mic ) of the kundalini is possible wire bi ess in any ncentration. For that matter, no succ tration. It co = . ur "RUM centr: 5 : superior con itation is possible without sup ion meditation is possible w age oncentrati is for this reason that even Patanjali E weh meditation. b fore even meditation. Concentration is not efo : ' : editation. In fact, good concentration E > a ge... Concentration is the act of Pe ee Success is the art of retaining it without = ality of your in piercing of chakras depends = a b 4 one-pointed meditation. The better the quality of re are the concentration, the quicker and Jngerla results. Kundalini 97 5. Diet regulation It is important to consume diet according to the chakra you are meditating on. Go through various chakras like rungs of a ladder and regulate your diet in line with the chakra you are meditating on. In each chapter on the chakras, Pve specified foods that are suitable for each chakra. In any case, avoid spicy, oily and deep-fried foods. Being a vegetarian will greatly help your cause because vegetarian food infuses you with sattvic energy. HOW TO MEDITATE ON CHAKRAS For a determined and sincere practitioner, piercing the first two chakras, that is, root and sacral plexus, requires a devoted practice of one year each. Subsequent chakras need roughly six months each. This is assuming that you are able to devote an average of two hours every day, each day of the year. Those two hours should be split into two sessions of one hour each or three sessions of forty minutes each. Your first reaction may be that you are very busy and that you can't find two hours every day. You may start with less but the truth is real results only come from intense meditation. And intense meditation requires unwavering commitment. Lets not forget that the awakening of kundalini is one of the most rewarding and difficult meditations. m as 1 c SP] E - A e^ mcr a g AAA 3$ nn 98 Om Swami We study in school for six hours every day and do so for more than fifteen years before graduating with a basic degree that doesnt even guarantee a job. While in a job, we work an average of eight to ten hours to earn a basic salary at the end of the month. We only get two or three weeks of vacation in one year. A concert pianist invests an average of ten thousand hours in practice before attaining proficiency. Not to mention that all artists or musicians continue to practice throughout their lives. In much the same manner, awakening of kundalini requires practice, effort, time and commitment. It is not just a feel-good meditation; here you are talking about an extraordinary transformation of the self. You are not just aiming to create but you are going straight to the source of the creation. Think of kundalini sadhana as learning the piano or performing in the Olympics if you want to stand a chance at winning, you have to put in the efforts. My own experience has been that if you devote roughly seven hours every day in quality chakra meditation, you will have your first significant experience within six months. In other words, if you can meditate on chakras as a full- time job, you will have the first major promotion within six months. During the peak of my practice, I meditated an average of twenty-two hours on a daily basis. When you reach a certain degree of intensity, your hunger, sleep, habits, mind and thought processes undergo a significant and irreversible transformation. Kundalini 99 As a persistent meditator, it's important to meditate on one chakra at a time. Move to the next chakra once you have championed the first one. How to know if you are ready to meditate on the next chakra? Once you have meditated on one chakra for a minimum period of six months (one year in the case of root and sacral plexus) and you experience deep sensations every time you meditate on the chakra, you are ready to go to the next one. How quickly you get to the next stage depends on how intense an effort you put in. For all practical purposes, let's assume that you will meditate for only two hours every day. This is how your session can look like: 1. Five minutes of deep breathing to normalize your breath. 2. Ten minutes of meditation on the brow chakra to normalize your energies. 3. Forty minutes of meditation on the chakra of your primary focus. 4. Five minutes of deep breathing again to relax your body. With respect to the third point, if you feel tired during those forty minutes, then you can alternate between visualizing the color of the chakra and meditating on its seed syllable. As you progress on the path, gradually, you could maintain a sort of meditative awareness all the 100 Om Swami time. While bathing, driving, eating etc you could Simply meditate with mindfulness. This creates a rhythm in the mind. Noise becomes music then. Meditate for only six days every week, taking a break of one day. A good break refreshes your mind. Try to start your meditation the same time every day. During chakra meditation, if you can avoid alcohol or other intoxicating substances, it will be so much better, This is because While in the short-term while they may actually help you to meditate better, they are depressants and will impair your ability to visualize and concentrate well in a medium to longer term. Y A devoted disciple learned meditation from his master. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't focus in the beginning. However, one day he experienced deep absorption during his meditation. Guruji, he said joyously, today my meditation was most amazing. Dont worry the guru replied in a matter-of-fact tone, this will pass. Just stay course. But, I think I have it figured now. This feeling too will pass, the master said and went about his business. The disciple thought it was strange that his guru neither encouraged him nor appreciated his progress. His Kundalini 101 meditation went really well for another few days and just when he thought he was actually progressing, he started feeling restless and distracted again. The harder he tried the worse his meditation got. Greatly dismayed, he approached his guru again. Guruji, he said disheartened, Pve not been able to meditate at all. I just cant focus. Dont worry, the master said softly, this will pass. Just stay on course. But, I think Ive lost it completely. Wm ; nAi This feeling too will pass, the guru replied. Keep meditating. Y When you embark on the path of kundalini awakening, on some days you may feel great sensations, you may feel that you have already made remarkable progress. Dont let it allude you. If before devoting the required time, you feel that you are ready to meditate on the next chakra, almost always you'll be wrong. It is absolutely necessary to develop consistency in the quality of your concentration. On some days, you'll feel that you just cant meditate, that this whole meditation and all is not for you. Don't lose heart. Just meditate a bit more. Dont give up. No One has ever learned anything by giving up. Continue to meditate with resolve and awareness and the kundalini will pierce the chakra. There is no other way. 102 Om Swami Start from the root chakra and keep Progressing one step at a time. Every time vou reach a milestone, you'll unlock a divine aspect that vou didn't even know existed in you. This gradual transformation shapes you into a new person, into a better person as you continue to discover new things about yourself. You may wonder if you can use the newly found energies from chakras to have better relationships, jobs, performance, mood and so forth? The answer jg yes. It doesnt mean if you dont know how to speak Chinese, you will start speaking it. It simply means that gaining a remarkable cohesiveness, the purity of your thought and the clarity in your mind will help you attain your goals faster than any other approach. With each step you make on the path of kundalini sadhana, you unlock a new level of your consciousness. The clarity of your thought begins to improve noticeably. Your memory improves and an inexplicable stillness arises in the body. You feel more grounded, you find it hard to react to others criticism, and you begin to maintain an awareness without being affected about what is going on around you. You start to sec that your thoughts have started manifesting in real life, they begin to materialize. You are able to attract your desired objects with greater ease. Your sense of individuality starts to find its place in your life, lifestyle and living. You and everyone around you notice a definitive positive change in you, Your imperfections no longer are like the thumb in front of your Kundalini 103 eye blocking your vision of the bright sun or the glorious moon, instead, they become like the temporary clouds that dissipate on their own. Even your imperfections, like the tiny and twinkling stars add beauty to the universe of your existence, MASTER THE SEVEN CHAKRAS Kr after having drunk the nectar from ahasrara, the thousand-petal lotus, has fallen to the grossest level; that is the root chakra. At the base of your spine, it's called muladhara chakra. Awakening of the kundalini starts with piercing of this chakra. mldharambujrdha pacavaktra'sthisamsthita, akusadipraharana varadadinisevita. mudgaudansaktacitt sakinyambasvarupini. (Lalita Sahasranama, 106) THE LITERAL MEANING Based in the root chakra is the devi with five faces. This devi is also situated in the bones. She holds a goad and a benedictory hand gesture. She loves food prepared with lentils and her name is Sakini. 110 Om Swami THE ESOTERIC MEANING The five-faced devi is not an actual form with five faces. Instead, it refers to the most important aspects of your life, your body and your living. We have five conative organs with which you perform actions. These organs are: hands, two feet, mouth, genitals and anus. We have five cognitive organs or sensory organs, as they are called. These cognitive organs are: eye, car, nose, tongue, and skin. We are made up of five elements namely, carth, water, fire, air and space. These are gross elements. They have physical existence and are visible to the naked eye. Gross elements represent the lowest plane of existence. Even the animals have all of the above. So, what makes us different to animals? Intellect and intelligence. We have the kind of intelligence that animals dont have. We can improve ourselves thereby enriching the society and the world at large. The energy in this chakra does not only reside there. In the verse above, the next word is asthi-samsthita, its situated in your bones too. And here is the real hidden meaning. Meditating on the muladhara chakra improves the health of your bones. Devi in this chakra is holding an ankush, a goad. A goad is a pointed implement that is used to control elephants generally. I once saw a mahout control a rogue elephant rather effortlessly. He simply put the hook on its large ear and used the spike at its neck. Immediately the elephant sat down. Since muladhara is one of the first Kundalini 111 chakras to meditate on, your challenge to stay focused will be as big as an elephant; it will almost be like taming the elephant. You dont need to feel frustrated or fight with it, for it'll run over you. You simply need to use the goad of mindfulness and determination and carry on. Universe always makes way for the one who is positive and determined. If you dont give up, all obstacles give in. Hence, the devi is holding one hand in benediction. Devi likes z:dgaudana, soup of beans and rice. Mudga specifically refers to the lentils known as black gram or black lentil (Latin: Phaseolus mungo or Vigna mungo). There is a hidden meaning too in this disclosure: during the six months you meditate on the root chakra, you should regulate your diet so it has more beans and rice. Avoid fatty foods as they set you back in sadhana by making you lethargic. A spoon of butter or ghee is okay but no fried foods. Mastery over the muladhara chakra bestows upon you fine health. Notably it is good for the bones. You develop greater sensitivity to the five subtle elements of sound, touch, taste, form and smell. One of the first signs of mastery of the muladhara chakra is a healthy decrease in appetite; lesser quantities start to suffice you because you now process all the gross elements much better than you ever did before. With heightened senses, you experience everything with greater intensity and you develop a certain degree of Sensitivity towards all sentient being the hallmark of a true spiritual person. 112 Om Swami With prolonged meditation on the muladbara chaa you begin to feel lighter. The weight of carnal desires an f gross thoughts start to diffuse and give way to a feeling 9 well-being and peace. The scripture is quiet about the color of this chakra but the source from where I got this sadhana isn't. The color of this chakra is orange, vibrant orange. Devis name is Sakini and therefore, the seed syllable of dus chakra becomes SAM (pronounced more like sung with a soft g in the end. Only your guru can disclose the a pronunciation). I am well aware that the traditional texts state the seed syllable to be LAM for this chakra. Here, I would like to reiterate that the secrets of sadhana are never to be found in books. Ultimately, more than the syllables, its the quality of visualization that makes all the difference. f SVADHIS e "e. n \ le L| * rr * er N 4 ` ' A t the point of your genitals is the sacral plexus, vadhishthana chakra, the original abode of Kundalini. svadhisthanambujagata caturvaktramanohara, n suladyayudhasampanna pitavarna tigarvita. medonistha madhuprita bandi N dadhyannsaktahrdaya kakinirapadharini = (Lalita Sahasranama, 104- aoe) 1% u FE 5 he EN A THE LITERAL MEANING The devi in svadishthana chakra has four faces. Shes of yellow color and is holding a spike. She is situated in the body fat, likes honey and is surrounded by Bandhinya and other attendant energies. The devi likes victuals with yogurt and her name is Kakini THE ESOTERIC MEANING From an ant to an elephant, anything with consciousness has two things in common without fail the desire to live 116 Om Swami and the desire to copulate. In fact, its unfair to call them desires. They are not desires but two core principles of evolution, of nature. This is how nature has grown, this is how species have evolved and progressed. There is a natural attachment, a clinging to life that comes from our desire to live. We want to live forever and we want to be happy in our life and pursuits. To feel that happiness, we constantly cling to everything we build or acquire. We dont want to lose our wealth or our loved ones. We dont want any suffering. But no growth is possible without letting go. Whatever we wish to attain, ' we have to give up something in return. We give up our childhood to be youthful. We sacrifice our time to attain our goals. The more we are able to let go, the more we are able to accomplish. And, this leads to the second desire. The desire to copulate, the need for a sexual union at its core is the most liberating emotion. A man and a woman remove their coverings; they bare themselves to each other. There is no pretense, no artificiality. In that moment of climax, there is no ego, there is no clinging. Its all about letting go. Even though they are united physically and emotionally, both the partners have surrendered to each other to experience one of the most divine pleasures orgasm. It is not possible to reach an orgasm if you have inhibitions, if you have fears. And no matter how much you resist or hold back, nature propels each living entity towards a sexual union. Out of our ego and conditioned Kundalini 117 beliefs, we may label it as good or bad, sacred or sacrilegious, but nature knows that it is only in letting go that you experience the greatest liberation, that you grow and help nature grow. Spa means self and 'adbistbana? means place. Svadhisthana or the sacral plexus refers to the normal, natural abode of kundalini. This chakra is located at the point of genitals. It is from here that we express our sexual energy, procreate and derive the pleasure of sex. Kundalini, however, has descended to the lowest chakra because it has drunk the nectar from sahasrara, the thousand petal lotus in our brain. No pleasure, not even sexual pleasure, can be experienced in the absence of a brain. It instructs, drives, controls and experiences all pleasures. Therefore, both our brain and our sacral energy must in be harmony to experience any sexual pleasure. A person who is brain dead can't be aroused, for example. The need for sexual pleasure is so innate and great in each individual that while it is our creative fluid, it is often also the cause of our great downfall. It makes us cling to our partner. We want a sort of exclusivity; we want to own them and mould them the way it suits us. In that desire for exclusivity, emotions of jealousy, hatred and envy arise. We lose control of ourselves. The good in us gets covered like clouds cover sun. Classical texts state that because kundalini drank the nectar from the sahasrara chakra, it lost control of itself and went down all the way to muladhara, even slipping 118 Om Swami down from its own place. Muladhara also means the root foundation, the absolute basis. This represents the reality of our world where having sex is simply a matter of slaking lust for most people. Forgetting the potency ofthis creative power, our modern society has mostly reduced this union to a mere act where more and more people are looking outside their relationships for more sex. We no longer look upon harnessing this creative energy to experience a union at all levels physical, emotional and spiritual. Instead, most of us around are just happy with just the physical aspect; they are happy to come and go, if you see what I mean. They are not to be blamed though, because they have not yet experienced the complete union, a meeting of the bodies, minds and souls, altogether at the same level. It is not taught in any school. Sex is a private act, oneness isnt. Its a cosmic dimension. This is where kundalini and the sacral plexus come into play. Lalita Sahasranama states that there is a four-faced devi who presides over this chakra. In reality, this devi represents four aspects of sexuality and four aspects of the human mind. FOUR ASPECTS OF SEXUALITY Sex is not just a physical act. In fact, most of the sexual pleasure is a cerebral act it occurs in the brain. Whether sex is in the mind, in words or in actual physicality, not everyone does it the same way. The manner in which you Kundalini 119 perform a sexual union and the subsequent fulfillment you derive from sex depends upon where you are on the spiritual ladder. Tantric texts, such as Nitya Tantra, Kubjika Tantra, Kularnava Tantra, Mahanirvana Tantra, categorize all men into three segments based on their temperaments. They are: divya (divine), vira (valiant) and pashu (animal). However, when it comes to sexuality, there is a fourth temperament too, called manushya bhava (human sentiment). Any sexual act is generally performed in one of these four tendencies of divine, warrior, human or animal. The Animal Way From the Sanskrit word paash, which means chain or fetter, comes the word pashu, an animal. The one who is chained to any habit, thought or desire is a pashu. For an animal, sex is not an emotional need but a base carnal desire, a pure biological need. A man who enjoys sexual union in the pashu bhava will be rough and violent in his act. The animal way does not concern with the feelings of the partner. It is simply a matter of satiating their lust. To a man (or a woman) in the animal sentiment, they can sleep just about with anyone. They dont have to be in love, they dont need to feel love. Just like a dog will happily take a piece of bread from anyone, a sexual animal is only looking for a piece of flesh. They will extinguish themselves as ably in a brothel as much as with their partner. The basis of this relationship 120 Om Swami is only sexual gratification. Animals simply look for an avenue to allay their sexual thirst; they can drink from any pond. A human being with similar tendencies is the equivalent of pashu. He or she just has to get to the climax regardless of who the partner is. And in doing so, he won't mind hurting the other person physically or emotionally, The Human Way The word manushya means one who takes ashya (refuge) in manas (mind or heart). A step above from pashu is the manushya bhava, the human sentiment. While animals too show emotions, we are a lot more evolved and complex. In the human way, you need to feel love for the other person and you need to feel loved back before you can entertain the thought of sleeping with them. How fulfilled you feel depends on a myriad of feelings and sentiments including love, bonding, attachment anda sense of belonging. You dont look upon the other person as an outlet for your lust. Instead, you wish to love them and be with them. You want to make a difference to his or ` her life and in return. You yearn for their attention. You wish to be loved back, you crave for reciprocation. This . - gives you a sense of belonging and attachment. You want to be everything to them and vice-versa too. Our animal instincts are so innate in us that for the majority out there, its hard to love in manushya bhava alone. Most of us alternate between the animal way and the human way. At times, when animal instincts take over, Kundalini 121 one can be very rough during an intercourse. Just like animals look upon a mating partner in heat, most men can simply evaluate another woman lasciviously without feeling an ounce of love for her. No matter how many people we sleep with, we are not animals after all. We are humans, and therefore, we can never feel that sense of completeness and fulfillment with physical intimacy alone. Somewhere, our emotional and spiritual thirst is far greater than our sexual appetite because we are spiritual beings. Hence, when we rise above our animalistic tendencies, we look upon and require sex in the human way. In such a state of mind, in manushya bhava, sexual union quenches our emotional and sentimental thirst too. It fulfills our great and deep seated desire for companionship and togetherness. The Warrior Way Vira bhava is the sentiment of a warrior. In Rudrayamalam, vira is defined as a tantric adept who is just one step below divya bhava, divinity. In Rig Veda, a vira is a term given to progeny. The one who can subdue enemies is a vira but above all, the one who harnesses his creative fluid (virya) is vira. Creative fluid is referred to the reproductive fluid in both men and women, the fluid that make men virile and women fertile. In vira bhava, one of the two partners is always dominant. Sexual union in this bhava serves a 122 Om Swami twofold purpose. First, the dominant partner feels a sense of victory. Like a warrior, the more they are in control, the more gratifying it is for them. Second, they feel elated by winning over their partner with a display of their physical strength and endurance. Unlike the human way, a warrior has a greater sense of detachment. For him, sexual union is a part of life, an aspect of their sadhana. Just like a warrior feels protective about his king, the one in vira bhava feels protective about their partner. This sense of protection should not be confused for possessiveness. A warrior protects out of a sense of duty and not attachment. An animals sexual union lasts no more than a few tens of seconds. A humans may last for a few minutes, but the one in viva bhava gains satisfaction only by prolonging the duration of their physical union. Unlike the animal way, vira bhava is not just about satiating lust, and unlike the human way, it is not out of some deep urge for belongingness. Vira bhava is about being there for the other person as their strength and support. It is about being the one they can rely on for security. The final stage in sexual consciousness is the divine way. Animal wants to slake, human wants to possess, warrior wants to protect, but divine sets everything free. The Divine Way Krishna would sit by the banks of the midnight-blue river, Yamuna. With moonbeams gently falling on his serene Kundalini 123 countenance, on the trees, on the river, everything would be softly lit like love. Love is a soft emotion, a gentle expression. He would start playing his flute. The divine blow from his pure lips would make a hollow flute sound most mellifluous. The music of life would come alive and love would dance to its tune sending all gopis into a trance. Leaving their homes, husbands, children, cattle and belongings behind, they would come running to Krishna. Whatever they were doing, they would simply drop it and follow the hypnotic sound of the flute. They wanted to give everything they had to Krishna. The gopis would anoint him with sandalwood paste, some would garland him with fresh flowers and offer him betel leaves. Some gopis would press his legs while some other would gently comb his hair. They would admire his flute for Krishna always kept it close, for he would touch his flute with his lips. They asked the flute that what good karma it did that it got to be Krishnas flute. I emptied myself, said the flute. I do not retain anything, I dont cling. Pve surrendered completely and I simply allow myself to be played whenever he wishes. I never speak, only he speaks through me. The gopis, like the flute, had completely surrendered to Krishnas will. There was no jealousy, no envy among each other. There was no clinging because they were there to serve Krishna and not to own him. It was not the pashu (slaking lust), manushya (possessiveness) or the vira bhava (protective), it was the divya bhava (freedom). 124 Om Swami Divya bhava, the divine temperament, is the ultimate stage in the evolution of sexual consciousness. For the one operating in divya bhava engaging in a sexual act is only an extension, an expression of love. This bhava was exemplified by Krishna with the gopis. As you progress on the path of awakening of the kundalini, you learn to channelize your sexual energy. You become a giver. You have no demands and your joy only comes from giving all your love and joy to the other person. You offer your body, mind and soul in divya bhava. A sexual union is not to gratify any personal urges but to unite in love at all levels. Only three types of people experience divya bhava in a sexual union. First is the completely selfless person who is simply playing the role of a giver with utmost compassion and care. Such a person, when making love, is only concerned about making his or her partner complete. Their own gratification and joy comes from giving love and security to the other person. Like Krishna, his love is the purest, devoid of any attachments. Second is someone who has totally surrendered in love. This person no longer has any personal preferences, there is no personal agenda. He or she has placed the other person on the altar of their heart. This person is in a sexual union because they want to completely offer absolutely every ounce of whatever they have. Like gopis, they want to serve and be the strength of the other person. Once gopis took Krishna to be their divine lover, they Kundalini 125 surrendered unconditionally. This surrender is a sublime form of bhakti. The third type of person who can make love in a divya bhava is a tantric adept. Completely detached and with no desire to prolong the sexual union, a yogi wants to fill his consort with divine energy so she may experience a deep sense of oneness even long after the sexual embrace. Its a spiritual hangover. Shiva unites with Shakti in this divya bhava. In divya bhava, the boundaries between male and female blur before disappearing completely. It doesnt feel like you are making love to another person. Instead, it feels that you are with your own extension, your mirror- self, your counterpart. A man is exploring his own feminine side in a woman and a woman is exploring her own masculine aspect, the right brain is getting in touch with the left brain, creativity is gaining oneness with logic. It is mind looking at itself. The four-faced devi in the sacral plexus also refers to the four aspects of the mind. A lot happens in our mind from the moment a thought emerges to the time we actually act on it. No matter how impulsive an action is, it invariably goes through four phases. These four phases are the four aspects of our mind. THE FOUR ASPECTS OF MIND The four aspects of the human mind are collectively referred to as the chatush-anatahkarana, the four seats of thoughts 126 Om Swami and feelings. They are: manas (mind), buddhi (intelligence), citta (consciousness), abamakara (conception of ones individuality). Any desire or thought first springs in our mind. If we dont do anything about it the thought ends right there. This is the lifespan of a thought. Burt, if we are unable to let go of that thought, it is passed onto our consciousness. We start to deliberate and cogitate on the thought, reflecting on its pros and cons, its benefits and costs. Consciousness, though, cant make a decision on its own. Once we are done with the deliberation, the thought is passed onto the third aspect of our mind, that is, intelligence. Intelligence makes the final decision whether we are going to pursue our thoughts or not. -If we decide to turn our thought into our reality, it gets passed onto the ego, our sense of individual existence. Our ego drives us to create and guard our individuality. It stops us from experiencing the divine union because ego is always insecure. It separates us from whats around us. Ego wants control and charge, it is scared of surrendering. When we get hurt by anyones actions, it is our ego that gets hurt. Sexual union is one of the most gratifying feelings because it requires that you completely drop your ego. Your sexuality, sexual conduct and sexual thoughts, all of which can be controlled by meditating on the svadishthana chakra, have a direct and immediate impact on your state of mind and consciousness. The devi holding a spike encourages the seeker to build Kundalini 127 one-pointed concentration on this chakra. Bandhini and other attendant devis refer to the bandhas, locks, practiced in yoga to augment your practice of meditation on chakras. Bandhas are not required and personally, I dont do them. I have always focused on pure meditation. This devi is established in body fat and likes honey and food with yogurt. It means while practicing meditation on this chakra, you should regulate your diet to include more honey and yogurt. Meditating on this chakra has a positive influence on all physical ailments linked to body fat including problems with cholesterol and blockages in the arteries. Devis name of this chakra is Kakini and the seed syllable becomes KAM. _ THE SOLAR PLEXUS | Cue v Pa == MANIPURA CHAKRA Y: RE on your belly button is the solar plexus, nanipura chakra. maniprbjanilaya vadanatrayasamyuta, vajradikayudhopeta damaryadibhira vrta. raktavarna mmsanistha gudannapritamanasa, samastabhaktasukhada lakinyambasvarupini. | (Lalita Sahasranama, 102-103) THE LITERAL MEANING A three-faced devi is situated in the manipura chakra. She is holding a thunderbolt and is surrounded by Damari and other companion energies. She is of red color and situated in your flesh. She loves guda, muscovado, (a lump of brown sugar made by boiling sugarcane juice). She grants all forms of comfort to the devotees and assumes of the form of devi Lakini. 132 Om Swami THE ESOTERIC MEANING avel, the central Manipura chakra is at the point of your n point of your belly. The three-faced devi refers to the three doshas namely, vata (wind), pitta (bile) and kapha (phlegm). Everyone has a natural tendency towar a certain humor. Some are more vata, others pitta an some kapha, while many are mixed. Ayurveda states that the cause of 95 percent of diseases in human body can be traced back to ones stomach. Meditating on the manipure chakra appeases the three doshas. The three-faced devi also refers to the three type of food you process. Scriptures classify such foods inte sattvic (wholesome food packed with goodness), yajaste (food that rouses passion) and tamasic (food that boosts aggression). Regulation of diet is particularly important when meditating on the navel chakra. Body heat, one of the most important factors in the physical health, is directly regulated by the manipura chakra. Scriptures state that heat first burns food in the stomach, if unregulated, it starts to impact the digestive system and the person suffers from stomach ulcers, liver disorders or constipation. If you dont provide your body with more food to digest and your body suffers from excess heat, then your mouth becomes parched, your lips get chapped and you can suffer from high blood pressure. The devi is holding a thunderbolt, just like pangs of hunger, you experience sensations in this chakra as if a flash of lightening. Initially, they come and they go. At Kundalini 133 later stages, they start to settle and you experience constant sensations on the chakra. The attendant devis refers to the seven auspicious qualities you develop in yourself. The seven devis are Damari, Mangala, Pingala, Dhanya, Bhadrika, Ulka and Siddha; they refer to deep hypnotic voice, good luck, beautiful radiant skin, fine food, noble conduct, light and success respectively. Interestingly, manipura chakra has a deep relationship with intuitive and instinctual faculties of the mind. I have observed on numerous occasions that meditating on manipura can sharpen your intuition. The linking of manipura chakra with instinct may have its roots in the fact that in the womb you are attached to the umbilical cord from your navel. This is the root of your existence; any learning while you are in the womb, any feed for the body is through your navel. So, your first instincts have a solid connection with your manipura chakra. At par with agya chakra (brow plexus), manipura is the most important chakra in the awakening of kundalini. As you attain siddhi of manipura, you are able to regulate your body heat and therefore, maintain better health. Other noticeable effect is the lustre of the skin. A good sadhaka emits a soft glow and radiance upon mastery of this chakra. Meditating on the manipura chakra also aids in muscular health. A sincere sadhaka who continues to perfect t his meditation on his chakra is never disturbed by even long 134 Om Swami periods of hunger or starvation. He is able to stay up and energetic for long periods even by cating very little. Stomach is also the seat of your fear. When you are afraid, you first feel it in your belly. Our fears hold us back from reaching our full potential. Mastery of this chakra gives you a sense of calm in uncertain situations in life. A sort of fearlessness arises in you. Those who feel anxious and nervous in conflicts and undesirable situations can benefit much by meditating on the manipura chakra. The devi is situated in the flesh. It means this chakra controls the suppleness of your muscles and any muscular disorders can be corrected by meditating on this chakra. During periods of intense meditation on manipura, you should eat more sattvic food. The color of this chakra is red. The name of the devi is Lakini, and, therefore the sced syllable becomes LAM. E m P A LJ S D N u bey y mB Oo c ight in the middle of your chest, a few inches to the ight of your heart is the anahata chakra. "anahatabjanilaya $yamabha vadanadvaya, damstrojjvalksamldidhar rudhirasamsthita. kalaratryadisaktyaughavrta snigdhaudanapriya, mahvirendravarada rakinyambasvarpini." (Lalita Sahasranama, 100-101) THE LITERAL MEANING Situated in the anahata chakra is a two-faced devi of black color. She has bright teeth and is wearing beads of rudrakasha. She is present in the blood. She is encircled by attendant devis like Kalaratri and she loves soft and gentle foods cooked with oil. She bestows blessings to the courageous ones and has assumed the form of Rakini. BM AE sins einen 138 Om Swami THE ESOTERIC MEANING We have two takes on everything in life. This profoundly represents the two aspects of everything good-bad, right wrong, true-false; of emotions positive and negatives and of choices yes and no. Scriptures call this a duality and it is the seed of all human emotions. You rise above duality and automatically going bevond these temporary states, you reach the shore of eternal peace. Most of us are totally driven by our feelings. No matter how calm or composed we arc, a single surge of anger could get us worked up in no timc. In that anger, we spit words like a cobra spits venom. It gives a release to our pent up emotions. We fecl good for a little while and then we feel guilty. And then we recall all the things we said that we didnt mean to say. Now feeling of remorse and helplessness takes over. It affects our self-esteem. Emotions of hatred, jealousy, envy, passion, sadness and resentment are no different either. Our emotions are out of control when our actions are not in sync with our thoughts and our feelings. You purify your heart and thoughts purify themselves; actions get aligned on their own then. The two-faced devi resides in the heart chakra. She represents duality. Living in our world, we are forced to make choices, every day, several times in a day. Our past influences our choices in the present, and our current choices determine the course of our future. The one whose mind and heart are in harmony is naturally more decisive Kundalini 139 and intuitive. Such a person is able to take decisions and move on. It brings about a sort of fearlessness. Meditating on the heart chakra affects a profound synchronization between your mind and your heart. As you progress on this chakra, not only you start to experience certain calmness among all the positives and negatives, but you also make a noticeable leap in arriving at decisions. Your talents come to the fore and you are able to stick to your choices with conviction. You are able to see your plans through. People are mostly indecisive because of two reasons either they fear the future or they cannot assess the impact of their decision with conviction. A good sadhaka, after having gained mastery over manipura, can examine their fears without feeling anxious. And with the mastery over this chakra, you gain the ability to take decisions and spring to action. The devis bright teeth in the heart chakra indicate that by meditating on this chakra you are able to properly chew on your decisions. You accept both good and undesirable with equal indifference. The devis teeth are specifically documented as bright, which means that you maintain a brighter, happier disposition among the negatives and the positive life walks you through. You no longer sulk or skulk. The akshamala, beads of aksh, do not refer to rudrakasha but the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet starting from a and ending with ksh. Any word ever M s ee 140 Om Swami offered to you, pleasant or otherwise, critical or praising, can only be formed from a combination of these fifty letters in the alphabets. If you can remain indifferent to others opinions by thinking they are merely joining letters from the alphabet and offering you a garland, majority of your reactions will disappear. This can only be done with a certain sense of mindfulness as well as stillness of the energies in the body. When your energies are still, others cant provoke you and if they cant provoke you, you get the time to think through and choose your verbal and mental responses both internal and external. The devi is situated in the blood. It means that by meditating on the anahata chakra you can correct disorders of the blood. The devi is surrounded by Kalaratri and four other forms of energies. Their names are Raktadantika, Bhramari, Shakambhari and Durga. However, here Kalaratri refers to a special period of nine nights. This period comes once a year and according to the lunar calendar it starts from the month of magha from the sixth day of the waning moon till the night before new moon. The month of magha comes in the month of January as per the Gregorian calendar. During these nine nights, meditating on this chakra for four hours during the day and for four hours at night has remarkable results. One should stay on a gluten-free diet during those nine days. The first thing you notice when you meditate on this chakra is a sense of equanimity. You become more Kundalini 141 grounded and gain better control over your emotions. When you continue to work towards the siddhi of this chakra, various forces of nature start to work with you to help you materialize your dreams. Your ability to take intuitive decisions reaches a whole new level. The other benefit of meditating on anahata chakra is that you experience a certain purification physical as well as emotional taking place in you. The quality of your blood improves and you feel more positive. Your impulsive or disagreeable reactions become mellow and mindful. The practitioner experiences a surge of new courage in his very being. The name of the devi is Rakini. The color is black and the accompanying sound is RAM. In the traditional texts, the color of the heart chakra is defined as green. For reasons unknown, someone just forcefully connected the seven colors of the rainbow to the seven colors of the chakra. There exists no such real connection in reality. According to Lalita Sahasranama, the color of the heart chakra is black. RR in the middle of your throat, is vishuddhi chakra. visuddhicakranilayaraktavarna trilocana, khatvangdipraharana vadanaikasamanvita. payasannapriya tvakstha pasulokabhayankari, amrtadimahasaktisamvrta dakinisvari. (Lalita Sahasranama, 18-19) THE LITERAL MEANING A one-faced devi with three eyes is situated in the vishuddhi chakra. Her color is that of red sandalwood. She holds the mystical staff and likes food cooked with rice, sugar and milk. She is situated in the skin and creates fright in the animal kingdom. Encircled by Amrita and other devis, her name is Dakini. THE ESOTERIC MEANING This is one of the most important chakras. This chakra separates all the lower chakras from the two purest ones 146 Om Swami that will give birth to incredible insight and extraordinary wisdom in you. Vishuddha means completely cleansed and purified. Whenever we drink or eat anything, it sort of becomes sour as soon as it goes below your throat; the foods taste changes. Throat is a transient container. It is not supposed to retain anything, it simply passes on. The devi is said to have one face because, now you have become the same person inside out now. This is the result of meditating on this chakra. You gain enough inner strength and courage to not wear different faces but simply be absolutely comfortable with who you are, what you are and where you are. Only in the description of this chakra, references are made to the eyes of the devi. She is called Trilochana, three- eyed. Trilochana is a name used almost exclusively for Shiva, the foremost yogi. Once you master the Vishuddhi chakra, only one step remains between the ultimate union of kundalini in sabasrara. You are almost Shiva, a true yogi or yogini like Him, by the time you finish opening up this chakra. In one of the puranic legends, Shiva held the most venomous poison in his throat and since then he has been called Nilkantha, the one with blue throat. Some have associated the color blue with the throat chakra. Even though none of this is taught in the inner circles, the books continue to borrow from each other. Less than one percent of seekers show the tenacity and determination to come as far as the throat chakra. Kundalini 147 The devi is holding a khadvanga, a mystical staff held by Shiva. This is a clear indication that you will undergo major transformation of thought, energy and intelligence by meditating on this chakra. The devi is no longer holding her own implements, but she is holding the ones of Shiva. Here, energy is undergoing a deep transformation potential energy is transforming into kinetic energy. In the next chakras, the devi is holding no weapons at all. A battle of self transformation will turn into the garden of love, softly lit under the shimmering moon, where Shiva and Shakti, Purusa and Prakriti will sport in the most divine manner. Efforts will lead to effortlessness; acts will change into phenomena. The devi likes payasam, food cooked with milk, sugar and rice. During the days of intense meditation on this chakra, you should stay on mostly milk in your diet. Your milk diet can include all milk products. Additionally, you can have rice too, and for sugar you can have any fruits that you love. Too much salt, spices, beans, grains and lentils should be avoided. Meditating on this chakra will give you a radiant skin and will fix disorders of the skin. Ayurvedic texts, notably Shranagadhar Sambita, state that skin has seven layers. Meditating on this chakra with the right diet will heal your skin on all the seven levels. The devi is said to fright the pasuloka, the animal kingdom. Meditating on this chakra gives you the fearlessness and you befriend all the animals around you. Oe 148 Om Swami I lived in the woods, completely unprotected among a multitude of wild animals. Not once was I attacked by any animal, not even an insect. Once you gain the mastery of this chakra, fear of death leaves you. The devi is surrounded by Amrita and other forms of energy. There are sixteen devis in the chakra sadbana, as per Shri Vidya, the purest science of the goddess. They are: Kamakarshini, Buddhyakarshini, Ahamkarakarshini, Shabdakarshini, Sparshakarshini, Rupakarhsini, Rasakar- shini, Gandhakarshini, Chittakarshini, Dharyakarshini, Smrityikarshini, Namakarshini, Bijakarshini, Atmakar- shini, Amrtakarshini and Sarirakarshini. All of the above names end with a certain suffix karshini. Tes a Sanskrit word that means the power of restraint or more importantly the power of correct use, the wisdom of application. The above sixteen names refer to love, intelligence, self conceptualization, sound, touch, form, taste, smell, consciousness, valor, memory, identity, creative fluid, etheral body and physical body respectively. After meditating on the previous chakras and by the time . you finish with this one, you become extremely mindful and diligent at all times, you exercise great vigilance in conducting yourself and you put to use the above sixteen elements in the rightmost, finest manner. The devis name is Dakini and the accompanying sound is DAM. ight on your glabella, between your brows, is the ya (or ajna) chakra, the brow plexus. ajacakrabjanilaya Suklavarna sadanana. majjasamstha hamsavatimukhyasaktisamanvita, (Lalita Sahasranama, 107.5-108) THE LITERAL MEANING Situated in the agya chakra, the plexus between your brows, there is a six-faced devi of pure white color. Established in the bone marrow, she is attended by the primary energy called Hamsavati. She likes sumptuous foods cooked with a bit of turmeric and assumes the form of Hakini. THE ESOTERIC MEANING The devi is no longer holding any weapons, which means that there is nothing to battle now. The practitioner simply 152 Om Swami has to rise above the last set of challenges, which will happen effortlessiy now. White is the color of peace and the devi is six-faced. The student now remains established in peace and the six faces of the devi represent six profound changes that every living creature goes through; she represents the six infirmities and the six inner foes. Before I expound on these, it is important to note that if you have been sincerely carrying out the meditation on the lower five chakras, if you have reached here in a devoted manner, step-by-step, none of the six aspects of changes, infirmities or foes can ever move you, lure you, distract you, deviate you. They will all simply merge in you. You will become bigger than them. The six changes are birth, existence, growth, trans- formation, decay and disappearance. The six infirmities are hunger, thirst, grief, delusion, old age and death. The six foes are passion, anger, greed, attachment, pride and envy. Even for a yogi, these can be real challenges. They can cause fear. They can prompt the practitioner to engage in misconduct. Meditating on the agya chakra, however, germinates the seed of wisdom and stillness in you. You start to see things in an entirely new perspective. It doesnt mean you no longer need to feed or clothe yourself, It simply means that you develop extraordinary patience and endurance. For starters, you maintain a constant awareness of the temporary nature of this world. You begin to realize that you have a greater role to play than simply feeding your own desires. This feeling unclutters your mind. Waves of bliss wash away negative emotions. Kundalini 153 Selfless service takes the place of selfish desires. This new cleansing leaves you more satisfied and contented with much less. Your desires diminish a great deal, as a result of which your needs come down automatically. You no longer need a lot of attention, wealth, fame or even love. The need to cling to someone or crave for their time starts to disappear. At this stage, you are rapidly moving towards the eternal fountain of bliss within you, your journey of turning inward is coming to a close. Mastering the agya chakra marks the beginning of the end. As I have mentioned repeatedly, there are no shortcuts. If you can come this far with persistence, focus and dedication, you are a rare gem, one in ten million, if not one in a hundred million. The only thing you need to know is that if you get to this stage, nature will carve out a plan for you. It'll use you as an instrument to serve a higher purpose. The devi of this chakra is situated in the bone marrow. Meditating on this chakra can help you get rid of any physical disorders in the bone marrow. It also signifies that meditation is now in your very bones. Earlier you had to try and meditate, but now it will just happen without trying. You are almost there, ready to discover your natural state of peace and bliss. The attendant devi is called Hamsavati. It refers to one of the most profound practices one can do on the formless Divine. When you inhale you say hamsa and when you 154 Om Swami exhale you say soham. It means, I am that. There is no greater realization than actually feeling, in every moment of your life, that you are the Divine you are seeking and that everything and everyone around you is just as divine. When you reach this far in your sadhana, you no longer worry about the benefits because you dont weigh everything in terms of gain or loss. Youve risen above such duality long ago by now. While meditating on this chakra, consume delicious but healthy food and its good to have a bit of turmeric in your savory food items. The name of the devi is Hakini and the syllable is HAM. A t the crown of your head, spreads the most beautiful otus of a thousand petals, sahasrara. sahasradalapadmastha sarvavarnopasobhita, sarvayudhadhara Suklasamsthita sarvatomukh. sarvaudanapritacitta yakinyambasvarapini. (Lalita Sahasranama, 109-110.5) THE LITERAL MEANING Situated in the thousand-petalled lotus, adorned with all the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, holding all the implements, firmly established in the creative fluid, facing all the directions, all types of food is dear to her, she is known as Yakini. THE ESOTERIC MEANING The word sahasra means multifold, literally for one thousand. In Lalita Sahasranama, goddess is called the one 158 Om Swami with thousand faces, thousand eyes and thousand hands (sabasrasirsa-vadana sahasrksi sahasrapt). Sahasrara is your entry point to being that goddess. When you reach sahasrara, your existence and your abilities grow manifold. Sahasrara is not really a chakra; its a stage, a state, an outcome. It is your portal to infinite possibilities. You are no longer just one person struggling through life or trying to attain a goal. Instead, you become an embodiment of divinity, ofthe Goddess. The momentum, focus and power of your every thought grow in multiples of thousands. Its like you have thousands of hands to assist you. Reaching sahasrara is the reward of your intense sadhana. A practitioner who has reached this stage has become an adept. The sadhaka, seeker, has gone beyond even being a siddha, an accomplished one. He has reached the ultimate level of being a sadhya, the one they sought. The seeker has gained union with the one he had been seeking. At this level you are worthy of adoration because your existence is completely selfless and for the welfare of others. You gain the power to heal people, to do miracles, to see through them. Boundless compassion comes to you naturally and you attract people like a flower attracts honeybees. The word thousand in this verse is meant to signify not strictly one thousand but a large number. It was common in the ancient texts to refer to a lot as shata (literal for one hundred) and more than a lot as sahasara. By thousand- Kundalini 159 petalled lotus, it is meant that you have gone beyond the lotuses and their petals, they are in abundance now. You are a giant ocean of such lotuses at this stage. All the letters of the alphabet reside in this chakra. Anything we speak or write is constructed using letters of the alphabet. Its not about any literal placement of such letters. Instead, it signifies that you have reached a stage where there is nothing left for you to seek anymore. You gain a remarkable insight into the reality of all the things. You gain the ultimate power of truth, understanding and compassion. The one at this stage has gone beyond the physical elements of blood, bones, fat, marrow etc. You now reside in the creative fluid, you are the creative fluid. The creative fluid does not refer to semen alone. It refers to ojas in Ayurveda, an aspect both men and women possess. No more one, two, three or four faces, instead you see in all the directions. You have become an emperor or empress of your own world. You write your own destiny at this level. Your resolutions, your thoughts they manifest for you. Your wish is Natures command. Anything you seriously aim for will come to fruition. Everything you taste feels amazing, you have risen above the rules; you are free to do, cat, be and wear whatever you want, for you have gained independence from the clutches of your own mind. Profound physical sensations of bliss overtake you completely. 160 Om Swami After my vision of Mother Divine, I started experiencing deep sensations, powerful sensations in my brain. It was as if someone was kneading dough inside my brain, especially in my forehead and then extending to the whole brain. The sensations would start from the palate of the mouth. There was no pain but there was a feeling of extraordinary pressure. In the beginning when I used to put my head down for resting, the sensations would build up and my head used to hurt. There was no pain inside my brain, just tremendous force, it was as if someone was putting pressure on my brain and with ever present concentrative state, such sensations would continue to build up. It took me a while to learn to live with them. Initially, Pd thought that they would go away but they never did. They are just as powerful today as they were originally. Just like the Ganges emerges from Gangotri drop by drop and becomes a wide, full and meandering river merging all the way in Gangasagar, the nectar drips from sahasrara drop by drop and travels through my whole being filling me with bliss. The devi is known by the name of Yakini. The syllable is YAM. The root letter Ya? means This. This is it, Now. This is the primary difference between an adept and an aspirer; an adept rejoices where a seeker struggles. The accomplished one lives from where the student runs and that is, Now. . A ] : ON , A X i. de 277 A "A FINAL WORD "eu ee Pr he path of advaita, non-duality, in the Vedas says that God is formless and that I am That. There is no difference between atma (soul) and paramatma (supreme soul). Hence, both are equal, and everyone is God. Bhakti, on the other hand, says that you are not merely an atma but jivatma, an embodied soul, who is polluted. Bhakti says that you are full of selfish desires and emotions. It suggests that you have committed many sins whereas God is sinless. Therefore, no merger is possible between the ever-pure supreme soul and the eternally impure embodied soul. Bhakti says ask for forgiveness of your sins and surrender yourself completely to the Divine will by chanting his holy names and singing his glories. Tantra disagrees. The fundamental difference between Vedic and tantric thought is your take on God. In tantra you say, You are my object of worship. You are superior than I am and that is why Im praying to you. But, Im not merely interested in eulogizing or seeking pardon for my sins. I want to purify 164 Om Swami myself to the extent where I merge in you and you merge in me, so that one day I become you. I'm not interested in this union after I die; I want to experience it while I live. A em o e a EA N Yairva patanam dravyaih sid'dhistairava cdita, $rikauladarsan caiva bhairavena mahtman. | l (Kularnava Tantra, 5, 48) ! We tie T . +: The Great Bhairava (Shiva) of the Kaula ! | tradition has instructed that spiritual i | , advancementcan only be attained by utilizing | - the very things that cause a mans downfall. z A un na nn Kundalini is my energy after all, so are my emotions and thoughts. Tantra says nothing is good or bad on its own. It all depends on its application or utilization. The path of kundalini sadhana admits that I have shortcomings and flaws. But, I cant let them destroy my self-worth. Tantra emphasizes that to rise above anything you have to understand it. When you dont understand something you suppress it, you deny it, and such denial is your greatest obstruction on the path of awakening. Instead, transform all your negativity and limitations into a potent force thats focused on attainment of liberation. Tantra recommends that you let everything be at ease so you may examine it, understand it, tame it and Kundolini 165 transcend it. You should feel bad thinking that you are full of sins. Instead, walk through your sins and go to their root. Someone has to clean the garbage. Ignoring it is not cleaning it. It'll only sit there and stink. You have to learn to handle everything that exists in you, skillfully, artfully. A jungle cant only have all lions or deer. It will have hyneas and elephants too. It'll be a home to birds and insects as well. You cant only have all good emotions in one person. I'm a mix but let me use this mix to colour the Canvas of my existence. If the primal force is kundalini, the purest essence, the goddess, then all one has to do is use ones energies to strip oneself off the conditioning so you may unveil your own potential. If God is in everything, then can anything in his existence be unwholesome? This is the path of tantra. Awakening of kundalini is a tantric sadhana. A caterpillar is not born with wings but among its Struggles in the cocoon, in an effort to come out of its shell, it continues to meditate, it dreams of flying. From a spineless grub, an unsightly larva, it turns into a pupa hanging upside down from the branch of some tree. It can hang there from a few days to several weeks and months. `A worm like caterpillar can't possibly fly It has no wings, but it has hope, it has faith. It is as if the larva has understood that if it wants to fly, it has to transform itself into a creature far different from what it is presently. It must become lighter. It must persist with its metamorphosis. Patiently, the pupa meditates on a butterfly. Quietly, it 166 Om Swami continues to shed its layers. Gradually, it starts to notice a change in itself. The new layers are harder, it doesnt feel like a worm anymore, tiny parts are protruding on its back that may well be the wings. It continues with faith on the path of transformation. And one day, the shell Opens just enough to let the pupa out. It drops itself out of the cocoon. And the unthinkable happens. Rather than falling flat on the ground, its wings spread themselves and it takes a flight, It is no longer a caterpillar spitting strands of silk or a pupa hanging upside down. It becomes a beautiful butterfly with wings and colours. Its life takes a new dimension. Out of the confines of a dark cocoon, it now flits about on fragrant flowers in green gardens, in daylight, in beauty, It gains new abilities even though it has no supporting organs. A butterfly is able to smell without a nose, for example. This extraordinary metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly is the path of kundalini awakening, it is the essence of all tantric sadhana. How long it takes depends on the quality of your moral, mental and physical discipline. How long a larva hangs upside down depends on its type. Some are done in days while it takes months for others before they are able to step out of the cocoon. The more resolute you are to shed your layers and the more disciplined is your effort, the faster will be your transformation. In Latita Sahasranama, immediately after the exposition on the chakras, it says: Kundalini 167 y svh svadh'matir medh Srutih smrtir anuttam. punyakirtih punyalabhy punyasravanakirtan, pulomajrcit bandhamocani barbaralaka. (Lalita Sahasranama, 110.5 -111) These verses are not thereby accident but by careful design. In their literal meaning, these lines merely list the different names of the Goddess. It means that the Goddess is the one who takes oblations to the gods and ablutions to the ancestors. She is the foremost thought, intelligence, worth listening to, memory. She brings merit, fame and gain to the devotecs, who sing her glories. Worshipped by even the greatest like Puloma (wife of the great sage Bhrigu), she severs all bonds and is supremely enchanting. In reality though, its esoteric meaning conveys the spiritual progress of a seeker. The first word sakha implies that you have completely burnt all your proclivities, your negative tendencies. Like the caterpillar, you burn your disbelief that you cant grow wings. You no longer focus on what you cant do, instead you simply meditate on what you wish to do and let the Universe conspire to make it happen for you. The next word svadba also means innate power and the inherent ability to absorb. At the awakening of the kundalini, you realize your extraordinary talents, the immense potential that you always had in you. Like the pupa you continue to shed your layers of inhibitions and Oo 168 Om Swami fears. With each layer you molt, you discover a new aspect of you. You sense that you can grow wings after all, you figure that must step out of the cocoon. Subsequent words (matir medh Srutih smrtir anuttam) mean that on the path of awakening, the quality and force of your thought and intelligence gains tremendous momentum as you unlock secrets of existence unknown to the mankind. The scattered mind becomes a focused beam. Your memory becomes sharp and you are able to store and recall vast amounts of information. You are second to none. You realize that you can be whatever or whoever you want to be, that your job is to not be tied by a million strands, even if of silk, but to taste the nectar from all the flowers you so wish. The remaining words in the verse mean that you become a rare gem in the universe. With your mere presence, mere thought, people around you will experience bliss and liberation. Nature then chooses you to do the major work and fame and glory of your meritorious acts and wisdom spread far and wide. Every word uttered by you benefits the mankind in one way or another. Even the brightest minds will seek refuge in you and will experience freedom, peace and joy. Thats how sages of the yore, like Ved Vyasa, Agastya and many others attained unimaginable spiritual heights. Thats why even in a religion like Buddhism, which denies the existence of both soul and the supreme soul, there is extensive literature on kundalini and chakras. Even Buddha, Kundalini 169 the Gautama, attained enlightenment at the awakening of kundalini, as the Buddhist scriptures tell. Buddha himself might not have called it kundalini, but his realization of virginal awareness and subsequent introduction of chakras point to the truth of this primordial energy. Like a caterpillar breaks free of the cocoon and flies off a butterfly, at the awakening of kundalini, you break free of your conditioning. A new you is unveiled from underneath. Layers of anger, hatred, jealousy, selfishness, attachments and ego are removed at the piercing of each chakra, and you become a living reflection, an embodiment, of Devi herself. This transformation brings about an inexplicable feeling of oneness with the cosmic energy, a tremendous fecling of fearlessness. If you feel that this sounds too good to be true, I dont blame you. There was a time when I too had my doubts regarding the truth of kundalini. It all sounded a bit too unreal. Was it possible to experience that deep bliss in this day and age? Could kundalini actually lead to a complete union with the divine energy? Would its awakening really leave one completely fearless? During or after my intense sadhana, 1 didnt levitate, fly in the air or reduce my body to the size of an atom. But, prolonged meditation with deep concentration did produce remarkable vibrations and sensations in my whole body. Contrary to the popular (mis)belief, these werent the shaking of the body or seeing the blinding light. Instead, these were the powerful sensations that began to gather up in my forehead and then in the crown of my head. 170 Om Swami I thought if my constant deep sensations were a sure sign of the awakening of kundalini then I ought to test it. I needed to know if I had actually become the Goddess myself, if the Primordial energy had manifested herself in me. I remember I would step out in the middle of the night in the Himalayan woods to be among the wild animals, to test if I still had any fears in me, for the fear of death ultimately triumphs all other fears. I would sit in areas infested by snakes and scorpions. In the middle of the night, I would go offer oblations in the river where feline cats, being nocturnal, were more likely to greet me. I would walk up to viciously barking wild dogs and they would quieten. They would wag their tail and sit right there. They would roll on the ground. I would not be telling you the complete truth if I were to say that I simply went out to test if I had conquered the fear of death. The truth is: I also wanted to see if they too felt the Goddess in me. I needed to know if we were truly connected with each other through the same primordial energy. I wanted to see if they, the wild and untamed ones, could feel the same love for me as I had felt for them. Trealized one thing more clearly than ever before: there lies the same life force beneath various shapes, species and behavior of all living entities. I call her Devi, the Goddess. Below the fears of sentient beings flows the river of love and compassion. It is the reason that over and over again we fall in love, seek love, give love, because thats who we Kundalini 171 are, beings of love. We are naturally attracted to what we are made of love. With awakening comes the realization that love is the only emotion worth harboring and spreading. You become an embodiment of selfless love for that is what kundalini is. Kundalini is love coiled at the bottom of your desires and dreams, waiting to pierce through the wheels of emotions and attachments to attain a union with your own infinite existence. It is the realization that you are not an isolated drop of water, which will dry up any moment, but an integral part of an eternal water body an ocean. Oceans never dry up. Earth never loses its solidity. Wind and light never turn old. Fire never stops burning. Water never stops flowing; it may freeze, it may evaporate but it turns back into water. Your fears may shape you. They may freeze you or dissipate you, but eventually you return to your original state. Lines and wrinkles might appear on your face, your body might age, your vitality might diminish, but the primal energy in you, the kundalini, remains eternally youthful. She is passionate and sportive, beyond all decay and death. Allow Shakti to unite with Shiva, let your energy meet with your potential so you may see the immensity of the one who lives in you, so you may see how complete, youthful and beautiful you are. This realization and discovery will baffle you. It'll surprise you and itll transform you forever. This is my experience of awakening. Go, find yours. GLOSSARY Adharma is the opposite of dharma. That which is not in accord with the dharma. Connotations include unnaturalness, wrongness, evil, immorality, wickedness, and vice. Adityas are solar deities residing in the celestial regions. They represent various cosmic phenomena that help in the sustenance of the Universe. The twelve adityas are Varuna, Mitra, Aryama, Bhaga, Amshuman, Dhata, Indra, Savitur, Tvashtha, Vishnu, Pushya, Vivasvan. Vishnu is the chief of all adityas. Aghoris are ascetics who engage in extreme austerities, often taboo, to experience oneness with Shiva. Amavasya is the night of the new moon. Brahma Granthi means the knot of Brahma. This is covered in detail in the fourth chapter titled The Three Knots. Brahmarishi is a member of the highest class of seers. Dakshinayana is the period when the sun travels from Cancer to Sagittarius. This southward journey of the sun from summer to winter solstice consists of three seasons: rainy season, autumn, and most of winter. Damaru is a small two-headed drum used by Lord Shiva. Dandavatapranama is the most reverential form of greeting in the Vedic tradition. It means full-length prostration. Darshana is auspicious sight of a holy person, which bestows merit. It also means a system of philosophy, but here it specifically means a holy vision. Devaloka is the abode of gods. o c a Kundalini 173 Devas are celestial beings or gods. Devi bhava refers to being in the devotional sentiment of Goddess. When a devotees consciousness is voked to Devi, he or she performs every action with utmost divinity. Dhyana refers to a state of deep meditation or contemplation. In Patanjalis Yoga Sutras, it is the stage before Samadhi which means profound absorption or a state of perfect insight and tranquillity. Ganas mean body of attendants or a flock. Gandharvas are celestial musicians. Har Har Mabadev is a form of slogan or salutation meaning all glories to Lord Shiva Indra is the ruler of all gods, below the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In the Hindu tradition, he is also the god of rains. Indraloka is the abode of Indra. Jai Bajrang Bali means Hail Lord Bajrang Bali, another name of Hanumana. Kevalanirvikalpasamadhi is the ultimate form of samadhi in yoga. Nirvikalpasamadhi literally means a samadhi without any other alternative. It means that mental activity (cittavritti) has come to a complete cessation and there's no distinction berween the knower, the act of knowing and the object of knowledge. Its a complete union like drops of water merging in the ocean. Kevalanirvikalpasamadhi means the practitioner has been absorbed in this samadhi for very long period already. Kusha is a type of grass used in almost all Hindu religious ceremonies. In the olden days, sleeping and meditation mats were made from stalks of kusha grass. 174 Om Swami in Namoh Parvati Pataye is generally used as a slogan meaning Salutations to Lord Shiva, the consort of Parvati. : i r ho has Pativrata means a virtuous wife. Particularly the one w in never eyed any man other than her husband, let alone being intimate with one. Prajapati means lord of people presiding over procreation and protection of life. j 2st amon Purushottama refers to the supreme being, the finest g all men. Rishi means an ascetic, sage or seer, Ritwik means the chief priest. Rudra Granthi is the knot of Shiva. It is covered in detail in the fourth chapter titled The Three Knots. ; ; . An aspirant or Sadhaka is someone who does sadhana | practices is a Practitioner committed to a set of spiritual p sadhaka. iri ractices Sadhana is a spiritual practice or a set of spiritual p leading to self-realization. Sahasrara is the crown chakra. It is generally considered the seventh primary chakra. ras s dee Samadhi is the final stage of meditation. It tbe iim tranquil absorption or a complete union with Within and without. i often Sambita refers to the most ancient forms of 2 c: isti al composed by seers, in the Vedas consisting of m > z LJ LI hymns, Prayers, litanies and benedictions. Siddha is an adept. Stotra means an ode, eulogy or a hymn of praise. Kundalini 175 Tapasvin means a practitioner of austerities, an ascetic. Tapasya means austerity, spiritual practise or penance. Uttarayana is the period when the sun travels from Capricorn to Cancer, i.e., from south to north. This northward journey of the sun from winter to summer solstice consists of three seasons: the end of winter, spring and summer. Vanara means a monkey or an ape. Vastu is an ancient system of architecture. Its literal translation is the science of architecture. Vasus are attendant deities of Indra and later Vishnu. Vidya means a school of thought or a form of worship. In the science of mantras, the sacred syllables belonging to invoking the feminine energy is also called vidya. Correct knowledge or a certain skill is also known as vidya. Vishnu Granthi refers to the knot of Vishnu. This is covered in detail in the fourth chapter titled The Three Knots. Yajna refers to ritual sacrifice with a specific objective in mind or fire offerings for the welfare of all sentient beings. Yuga means an epoch or era within a four age cycle. One cycle of four yugas represents an arc and spans 25,92,000 years. The four yugas are satya (1,728,000 years), treta (1,296,000 years), dwapra (864,000 years) and kali (432,000 years). According to the Hindu tradition, the current yuga is the age of kali. OTHER BOOKS BY OM SWAMI A FISTFUL OF LOVE A Fistful of Love is a collection of insightful, thought-provoking nuggets of wisdom narrated in a pleasant, lighthearted way. Swami's simplistic and truthful take on world and its many relationships will inspire both your mind and soul. Full of humorous narratives most beautifully woven into learnings of life, this book will make you stop in your tracks and think. IF TRUTH BE TOLD - HINDI In the 1990s, an eighteen-year-old headed to Australia to realize his worldly dreams. Two years later, he was earning an annual income of $250,000; by the age of 26, he was a multimillionaire. After years of living the good life, he found that worldly pleasures just couldnt fill the void within. He moved back to India and finally did what he had always yearned to do: renounce the world and become a monk. f t V ty Ti [d b You dont have to be a monk to enter the ultimate realm of happiness! Yes, its true. In his book Kundalini An Untold Story, Himalayan ascetic Om | Swami unveils the enigmatic story of kundalini, the formless 1 ae aspect of the Goddess, or your primordial energy. di With workable steps for awakening this energy source, the author, explains the esoteric and practical meaning of kundalini and the seven chakras in his usual humorous style. These riveting anecdotes are based on his personal experience gained from years of intense meditation. Take an awe-inspiring journey something no other book on Prior to his renunciation of this world, he founded and ran a |t spirituality can offer from the origins of kundalini all the way to Swami's own sadhana in the modern age. Tull $ E Om Swami is a mystic living in the Himalayan foothills, He has a | bachelors degree in business and an MBA from Sydney, Australia. | multi-million dollar software company successfully. He is the bestselling author of A Fistful of Lave and If Truth Be Told: A Monk 5 Memoir. |
SA TYANANDA YOGA BIHAR YOGAKundalini TantraKundalini Tantra Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, IndiaSwami Satyananda SaraswatiSwami Satyananda Saraswati Kundalini Tantra is Swami Satyananda Saraswatis semi nal work on kundalini, chakras and kriya yoga. Defining and explaining kundalini, this book provides a detailed account of kundalini awakening, including the signs and effects of such experiences and ways to both elicit and manage them. The book contains a comprehensive description of each chakra and the sig nifi cance of the chakras in tantric and yogic practice. T echniques are given to bal ance each centre for greater harmony in mind, body and spirit, and in preparation for the rising of kundalini shakti. The 20 kriyas and their preparatory practices are fully elucidated. Includes colour plates, diagrams and charts. [bar code here] ISBN: 978-81-85787-15-2 BIHAR YOGA Kundalini Tantra With kind regards, and prem 01-titles.indd i01-titles.indd i 21/03/2018 4:19:28 PM21/03/2018 4:19:28 PM 01-titles.indd ii01-titles.indd ii 21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM Kundalini Tantra Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, IndiaSwami Satyananda Saraswati 01-titles.indd iii01-titles.indd iii 21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM Bihar School of Yoga 1984, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from Yoga Publications Trust. The terms Satyananda Yoga and Bihar Yoga are registered trade marks owned by International Yoga Fellowship Movement (IYFM). The use of the same in this book is with permission and should not in any way be taken as affecting the validity of the marks. The purpose of this book is to provide relevant information re- garding yoga practice; it is not a practice book and it is not to be used for teaching oneself or others. All yoga training is to be learned and prac tised under the competent guidance of a person well versed in the practice. It is the responsibility of the practitioner to choose the teacher and the manner in which the classes are being conducted. Bihar School of Yoga is not responsible in any way for the individuals choice. Published by Bihar School of Yoga First published 1984 Reprinted 1992, 1996 Published by Yoga Publications Trust Reprinted 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 First digital edition 2016 Reprinted 2018 ISBN (print): 978-81-85787-15-2 ISBN (digital): 978-93-84753-34-4 Publisher and distributor: Yoga Publications Trust, Ganga Darshan, Munger, Bihar, India. Website: www.biharyoga.netPrinted at Thomson Press (India) Limited, New Delhi, 110001 01-titles.indd iv01-titles.indd iv 21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM Dedication In humility we offer this dedication to Swami Sivananda Saraswati, who initiated Swami Satyananda Saraswati into the secrets of yoga. 0603 sivananda dedication.indd i0603 sivananda dedication.indd i 20/05/2012 11:14:04 AM20/05/2012 11:14:04 AM 01-titles.indd vi01-titles.indd vi 21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM viiContents Introduction to Kundalini and Tantra 1 Kundalini 1. Y e Man, Tame the Kundalini 9 2. What is Kundalini? 13 3. Kundalini Physiology 21 4. Kundalini and the Brain 31 5. Methods of Awakening 37 6. Preparing for the Awakening 48 7. Diet for Kundalini Awakening 59 8. Risks and Precautions 64 9. Kundalini and Madness 7210. Four Forms of Awakening 7611. The Descent of Kundalini 8112. The Experiences of Awakening 8613. The Path of Kriya Yoga 9314. Vama Marga and Kundalini Awakening 101 The Chakras 15. Introduction to the Chakras 11316. Evolution through the Chakras 11917. Ajna Chakra 12718. Mooladhara Chakra 13719. Swadhisthana Chakra 14620. Manipura Chakra 15621. Anahata Chakra 16222. Vishuddhi Chakra 17323. Bindu 18024. Sahasrara and Samadhi 189 01-titles.indd vii01-titles.indd vii 21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM viiiKundalini Yoga Practice 25. Rules and Preparation 19726. Posture 20127. Chakra Sadhana Course 20928. Practices for Ajna Chakra 21129. Practices for Mooladhara Chakra 21930. Practices for Swadhisthana Chakra 22631. Practices for Manipura Chakra 22932. Practices for Anahata Chakra 23833. Practices for Vishuddhi Chakra 24534. Practices for Bindu 25135. Practices for Integrated Chakra Awareness 25936. Your Sadhana Program 27737. Kundalini Kriyas of Kriya Yoga 27938. The Kriya Yoga Practices 284 Kundalini Research 39. Introduction 31940. Kundalini, Fact not Fiction 32441. Defining the Nadis 33042. Controlling the Nadis and the Brain 33843. Evidence for the Existence of Nadis 35044. Neurophysiology of the Chakras 35845. Evidence for the Existence of Chakras 37046. The Cosmic Trigger 38047. Cross-Cultural Evidence 39548. Analysis of the Chakras from a Psychophysiological Viewpoint 402 Appendix 427 Glossary 433 References 446 Index of Practices 451 01-titles.indd viii01-titles.indd viii 21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM21/03/2018 4:19:34 PM 1Introduction to Kundalini and Tantra I have been travelling the world for the last three decades in order to pass on the message of yoga, and I find that yoga has influenced the course of human thinking tremendously. Initially of course, there was some doubt about it as many people thought that yoga was a type of religion, witchcraft or mysticism. This particularly happened because man believed matter was the ultimate point in the evolution of nature. The materialistic world did not understand yoga for some time, but as scientists dived deep into the mysteries of matter, they came to understand and realize that matter was not the ultimate in the evolution of nature. If that is so for one form of matter, it applies to every form of matter. This external experience, the perception you have through your senses, is a product of matter. Even your thoughts, feelings, emotions and cognitions are prod ucts of matter. Therefore, they cannot be absolute and final. This means there must be another realm of experience, and if there is another realm of experience, it must be possible to transcend the present limitations of the mind. The mind is also matter; it is definitely not spirit. Therefore, the mind can also be transformed and made to evolve. Many people have begun to realize and experience this fact in the last few decades. In my opinion, this marks the end of one era and the beginning of another. For those who have some knowl edge of science and the nature of ch01-05.indd 1ch01-05.indd 1 21/03/2018 4:28:42 PM21/03/2018 4:28:42 PM 2matter, it is not difficult to understand exactly what inner experience is. An inner experience is the manifestation of a deeper level of oneself. Dream, of course, is an experience. Your dreams may be schizophrenic, but that is an expression of your own self. Thought is also a concept or expression of your own self. A piece of music is an expression of your self, whether you compose it or just admire it. A painting or sculpture is a concept of your self whether you create it or just admire it. That means the external world is a manifesta tion of your inner experience, and you can improve this experience to any extent. You can also bring about deterio ration of this experience. When everything is hopeless outside, that is your experience of yourself, and if everything is beautiful outside, that is also your experience of yourself. In the last few decades, yoga has helped millions of people to improve their self-concept. Yoga realizes that man is not only the mind, but the body as well. Therefore, one does not experience happiness only through the mind. The body is also real and it is a part of ones personality. Just improving the condition of the body, however, will not necessarily enable the mind to experience happiness either. This is because man is not only the body and mind, but emotion and desire as well. He is something beyond the mind or psyche. Therefore, yoga has been designed in such a way that it can complete the process of evolution of the personality in every possible direction. That is why yoga has so many branches hatha yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga, jnana yoga, kundalini yoga, and so on. A combined, integrated practice of yoga in ones life will definitely ensure a better quality of experience within you and without. Every seeker and practitioner on the path of yoga must remember that the various paths of yoga are to improve the quality of head, heart and hands. However, yoga does not end with the development of the personality. One level of the personality is dependent on this mind, this body and these emotions, but there is another deeper part of the ch01-05.indd 2ch01-05.indd 2 21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM 3personality which you have to develop with another kind of mind and emotion. This requires a special process, and that process is known as kundalini yoga. Objective experience is not the ultimate Kundalini yoga is a part of the tantric tradition. Although you may have already been introduced to yoga, it is also nec es sary for you to know something about tantra. Since ancient times, the wise have realized that the mind can be expanded and that experiences do not necessarily depend on an object. This means that if somebody is playing music, I can hear it, and if somebody has painted a picture, I can see it, but I can also see if there is no picture, and I can hear if there is no music. This is also a quality of the personality which has been ignored in the last one hundred and fifty to two hundred years. Tantra says that the range of mental experience can be broadened. With the help of the senses, your mind can have an experience based on an object. There can be an experience within the framework of time, space and object, but there can also be an experience beyond the framework of time, space and object. The second form of experience can happen when the present mind expands beyond its given definitions and borders, and when this experience occurs, energy is released from yourself. For hundreds of years, people have been talking about an experience called nirvana, moksha, emancipation, self-realization, salvation or liberation, without understanding it properly. Yogis call this experience samadhi. Although many people think that in samadhi or nirvana everything is com-pletely finished, it is definitely not a process of quitting the world. Nothing finishes, only one level of experience ends, but then another begins. Since the dawn of creation, the tantrics and yogis have realized that in this physical body there is a potential force. It is not psychological, philosophical or transcendental; it is a dynamic potential force in the material body, and it is ch01-05.indd 3ch01-05.indd 3 21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM 4called kundalini. This kundalini is the greatest discovery of tantra and yoga. Scientists have begun to look into this, and a summary of some of the latest scientific experiments is included in this book. We can see from this research that science is not actually going to discover anything new in this field. It is only rediscovering and substantiating what yogis discovered many, many centuries ago. A universal event The seat of kundalini is a small gland at the base of the spinal cord. With the evolution of the natural forces in man, this gland has now come to a point where man can explode it. Those people who have awakened this supernatural force have been called rishis, prophets, yogis, siddhas and various other names according to the time, tradi tion and culture. In India the entire cultural set-up was once organized to facilitate this explosion, but today things are a little different because materialism is a very powerful force, and for the moment it has even stupefied the Indian mind. For the awakening of kundalini, not only the practices of yoga are required. If this awakening is to become a universal event, then the entire social structure has to be reorganized and millions of people all over the world have to be told the purpose of their existence. The whole of life from the time of conception to the moment when you leave the body, each and everything has to be reoriented. You will see in this book how even the instinctive and emotional interaction between men and women must be revised and refined, so that it can lead us not away from, but towards this ultimate awakening. This reorientation has to be undertaken with the purpose of expanding the mind and opening new doors of experience. Today we are living in a world where everyone is more or less satisfied. We have all the comforts and everything we need and do not need. There will come a time, however, when man will be prepared to throw off these comforts. Luxury and comfort weaken the will and keep one under ch01-05.indd 4ch01-05.indd 4 21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM 5constant hypnosis. Alcohol and drugs are not as dangerous as total slavery to luxury and comfort. Man cannot pull himself away from them. It is impossible unless he has become aware of something more than that which his parents and society could give him. Formerly there were only a few seekers, but now millions and millions of people in the world are striving for a higher experience. This higher experience is known as knowledge. When, through yoga and tantra, the awakening of kundalini takes place, a process of metamorphosis occurs in the realm of nature and in the realm of spirit. The elements of both the physical and the mental body also change. It may be difficult for people of today to understand the whole concept, but soon humanity will comprehend it all. Matter will become unnecessary and insignificant. Behind the matter and behind the mind there is energy and there is an experience of that energy. Proceed slowly, sensibly and systematically Y et, you should not try to realize and experience these things abruptly. You will find here detailed instructions on the gradual preparation of your mind and body for the arousal of kundalini, and advice on elementary precautions to be observed in order to avoid unnecessary risks and obstacles. Do not try to influence your mind directly, because the mind is nothing but an extension of the body complex. Start systematically with the body, the prana, the nadis and chakras, according to the scheme outlined in this book. Then see how you evolve. Many people, encouraged by a type of hurried philo-sophy, take to drugs, chemicals and other things they consider to be speedy alternatives. They are very serious people I believe, but they are not practical and systematic because they think they can transcend the role of the body in the realm of evolution. In the final evolution of mind, matter and man, you cannot ignore either the body or the mind. You cannot even ignore the nose, the stomach or the ch01-05.indd 5ch01-05.indd 5 21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM21/03/2018 4:28:46 PM 6digestive system. That is why this transcendental philosophy begins with the basic considerations of diet and yogic physiology that you find discussed here. The discovery of the great energy began with matter. Did nuclear energy descend from heaven? No, it evolved from crude matter. Where does the experience generate from? From heaven? From the sanctum sanctorum? No, from this body and this nervous system. That is how you should be practical and sensible. This book presents a systematic and pragmatic approach to the awakening of kundalini. It begins with an expanded understanding of the true role and potential of the body and nervous system, moving through an exhaustive examination of the different methods of awakening suitable for different personalities and conditions. You will find clear and direct instructions on the actual yogic and tantric techniques to be practised towards this goal, together with a map of possible experiences you may encounter as the practices mature, so that you can sustain this great awakening and integrate it into a more conscious and creative way of life. We have included here a systematic schedule of practice, within the context of a philosophy that is both pragmatic and transcendental, to prepare you in every way for this great adventure in consciousness. ch01-05.indd 6ch01-05.indd 6 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM Kundalini ch01-05.indd 7ch01-05.indd 7 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM ch01-05.indd 8ch01-05.indd 8 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 91 Ye Man, Tame the Kundalini When I was six years old I had a spontaneous spiritual experience during which I became completely unaware of my body for quite a long time. Again, when I was ten, the same thing happened, but this time I was old enough to think and rationalize, and I told my father about it. At first he did not understand what had happened and he wanted to take me to a doctor, but fortunately there were no doctors in our area at that time. Had there been, perhaps I would have ended up in a mental hospital, but things being what they were, I did not have to undergo treatment and was left unattended. My father had great regard for the Vedas and for his guru. One day this guru happened to visit my home town, so my father took me to him and asked his advice about me. The sage told him that I had had a spiritual experience and therefore should be instructed to lead a spiritual life. My father obeyed his guru and arranged for me to be trained accordingly. Thus at an early age I was dedicated to the spiritual quest. My family was Hindu, and in Hinduism there are two traditions: one believes in the worship of idols, and the other that God is formless. My family belonged to the latter, but still I often looked at the pictures of all the different deities and wondered at them. Durga was mounted on a lion; Saraswati on a swan; Vishnu lay sleeping on a huge cobra; ch01-05.indd 9ch01-05.indd 9 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 10Kali was completely naked, standing on the body of Shiva; Tara too was naked and Shiva was drinking milk from her breast. I could not understand what it all meant. Why did Shiva ride upon a bull and have so many snakes wrapped around him; how could the Ganga flow from his hair; why was Ganesha, with his enormous elephantine head and pot belly, riding on a small rat? I thought that there must be some symbolic meaning behind all this, but I only began to understand it through kundalini yoga, which I started practising at the age of fifteen, while still at school. Around this time I had another experience. I was sitting quietly when suddenly, without any effort, my mind turned inwards. I immediately saw the whole earth with its oceans, continents, mountains and cities, crack into pieces. I did not understand this vision until a few days later when the Second World War broke out. This really made me begin to wonder. How could I have seen this future event symbolically in meditation when living in a remote area? I had neither heard nor read about it previously, nor had I any way of knowing that it was coming. A new life begins By the time I was seventeen, I was asking questions which nobody could answer. I wondered about things like the difference between perception and experience. I talked a lot about such topics with my maternal uncle and younger sister, but this did not quench my thirst and I knew I had to go out and discover the answers for myself. I postponed my depar-ture from home until one day my father pushed me out with ninety rupees in my pocket. Thus my wandering life began. During my travels I met a very old swami who invited me to stay in his ashram. He had a wonderful knowledge of tantra and taught me many things. Though I knew I would never forget him, he was not my guru and after nine months I left his ashram and continued wandering. Soon after I arrived in Rishikesh, where I heard about Swami Sivananda. I went to him and asked how to experience the ch01-05.indd 10ch01-05.indd 10 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 11highest consciousness. He told me to stay in his ashram and he would guide me. So I followed monastic life, but still, for a long time I was puzzled about the purpose of my existence. I felt that man was a seeker, yet I really did not know what I was seeking and was often left with the terrifying question that man asks himself regarding death. The awakening of kundalini Sometime later I had another experience while sitting on the banks of the Ganga. I was thinking of something mundane when my mind spontaneously started going in and in. Suddenly I felt as if the earth was slipping from under me and the sky was expanding and receding. A moment later I experienced a terrible force springing from the base of my body like an atomic explosion. I felt that I was vibrating very fast, the light currents were terrific. I experienced the su preme bliss, like the climax of a mans desire, and it continued for a long time. My whole body was contracting until the feeling of pleasure became quite unbearable and I completely lost awareness of my body. This was the third time it had happened. After returning to consciousness I was listless for many days. I could not eat, sleep or move, even to go to the toilet. I saw everything but nothing registered. The bliss was a living thing within me and I knew that if I moved, this wonderful feeling would cease; I would lose the intensity of it all. How could I move when bells were ringing inside? This was the awakening of my kundalini. After a week or so I returned to normal and then I started to study tantra and yoga very seriously. At first I was still a bit weak and sick, so I practised hatha yoga to purify my whole system. Then I began to explore the fantastic science of kundalini yoga. What is this power which awakens in mooladhara chakra? My interest was aroused and I put much effort into trying to understand this marvellous force. With the awakening of kundalini, the greater intelligence is aroused from its sleep and you can give birth to a new ch01-05.indd 11ch01-05.indd 11 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 12range of creativity. When kundalini awakens, not only are you blessed with visions and psychic experiences, you could become a prophet, saint, inspired artist or musician, a brilliant writer or poet, a clairvoyant or messiah. Or you could become an out standing leader, prime minister, governor or president. The awakening of kundalini affects the whole area of the human mind and behaviour. Kundalini is not a myth or an illusion. It is not a hypothesis or a hypnotic suggestion. Kundalini is a biological substance that exists within the framework of the body. Its awakening generates electrical impulses throughout the whole body and these impulses can be detected by modern scientific ins truments and machines. Therefore, each of us should consider the importance and the benefits of awakening kundalini, and we should make a resolve to awaken this great shakti. ch01-05.indd 12ch01-05.indd 12 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 132 What is Kundalini? Everybody should know something about kundalini as it represents the coming consciousness of mankind. Kundalini is the name of a sleeping dormant potential force in the human organism and it is situated at the root of the spinal column. In the masculine body it is in the perineum, between the urinary and excretory organs. In the female body its location is at the root of the uterus, in the cervix. This centre is known as mooladhara chakra and it is actually a physical structure. It is a small gland which you can even take out and press. However, kundalini is a dormant energy, and even if you press it, it will not explode like a bomb. To awaken kundalini you must prepare yourself through yogic techniques. You must practise asanas, pranayama, kriya yoga and meditation. Then, when you are able to direct your prana into the seat of kundalini, the energy wakes up and makes its way through sushumna nadi, in the central nervous canal, to the brain. As kundalini ascends, it passes through each of the chakras which are interconnected with the dif ferent silent areas of the brain. With the awakening of kundalini there is an explosion in the brain as the dormant or sleeping areas start blossoming like flowers. Therefore, kundalini can be equated with the awakening of the silent areas of the brain. Although kundalini is said to reside in mooladhara chakra, we are all at different stages of evolution, and in some ch01-05.indd 13ch01-05.indd 13 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 14of us kundalini may have already reached swadhisthana, manipura or anahata chakra. If this is so, whatever sadhana you do now might start an awakening in anahata or some other chakra. However, awakening of kundalini in mooladhara chakra is one thing, and awakening in sahasrara, the highest centre of the brain, is another. Once the multi-petalled lotus of sahasrara blossoms, a new consciousness dawns. Our present consciousness is not independent, as the mind depends on the information supplied by the senses. If you have no eyes, you can never see; if you are deaf, you will never hear. However, when the superconsciousness emerges, experience becomes completely independent and knowledge also becomes completely independent. How kundalini was discovered Right from the beginning of creation, man witnessed many transcendental happenings. Sometimes he was able to read the thoughts of others, he witnessed somebody elses predictions coming true, or he may even have seen his own dreams manifesting into realities. He pondered over the fact that some people could write inspiring poems or compose beautiful music whereas others could not; one person could fight on the battlefield for days together and another person could not even get out of bed. So he wanted to discover why everybody seemed to be different. During the course of his investigations, man came to under stand that within every individual there is a special form of energy. He saw that in some people this energy was dormant, in others it was evolving and in a very small minority it was ac tual ly awakened. Originally, man named this energy after the gods, goddesses, angels or divinities. Then he discovered prana and called it prana shakti. In tantra they called it kundalini. What the various names for kundalini mean In Sanskrit, kundal means a coil, and so kundalini has been described as that which is coiled. This is the traditional ch01-05.indd 14ch01-05.indd 14 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 15belief, but it has been incorrectly understood. The word kundalini actually comes from the word kunda, meaning a deeper place, pit or cavity. The fire used in the ceremony of initiation is kindled in a pit called a kunda. Similarly, the place where a dead body is burned is a kunda. If you dig a ditch or a hole, it is called a kunda. Kunda refers to the concave cavity in which the brain, resembling a coiled and sleeping serpent, nestles. (If you have the opportunity of exam in ing a dissection of the human brain you will see that it is in the form of a coil or snake curled up upon itself.) This is the true meaning of kundalini. The word kundalini refers to the shakti or power when it is in its dormant potential state, but when it is manifesting, you can call it Devi, Kali, Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi or any other name according to the manifestation it is exhibiting before you. In the Christian tradition, the terms the Path of the Initiates and the Stairway to Heaven used in the Bible, refer to kundalinis ascent through sushumna nadi. The ascent of kundalini and, ultimately, the descent of spiritual grace, are symbolized by the cross. This is why Christians make the sign of the cross at ajna, anahata and vishuddhi chakras, for ajna is the centre where the ascending conscious ness is transcended and anahata is where the descending grace is made manifest to the world. Whatever happens in spiritual life, it is related to the awakening of kundalini. And the goal of every form of spirit ual life, whether you call it samadhi, nirvana, moksha, com munion, union, kaivalya, liberation or whatever, is in fact awakening of kundalini. Kundalini, Kali and Durga When kundalini has just awakened and you are not able to handle it, it is called Kali. When you can handle it and are able to use it for beneficial purposes and you become powerful on account of it, it is called Durga. Kali is a female deity, naked, black or smoky in colour, wearing a mala of one hundred and eight human skulls, ch01-05.indd 15ch01-05.indd 15 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 16representing the memories of different births. Kalis lolling tongue of a blood red colour signifies the rajo guna whose circular movement gives impetus to all creative activities. By this specific gesture, she is exhorting sadhakas to control their rajo guna. The sacrificial sword and the severed head held by the left hand are the symbols of dissolution. Darkness and death are by no means the mere absence of light and life, rather they are their origin. The sadhaka worships the cosmic power in its female form, for she represents the kinetic aspect, the masculine being the static aspect which is activated only through her power. In Hindu mythology, the awakening of Kali has been described in great detail. When Kali rises in red anger, all the gods and demons are stunned and everybody keeps quiet. They do not know what she is going to do. They ask Lord Shiva to pacify her, but Kali roars ferociously, throwing him down and standing on his chest with her mouth wide open, thirsty for flesh and blood. When the devas hold prayers to pacify Kali, she becomes calm and quiet. Then there is the emergence of Durga, the higher, more refined and benign symbols of the unconscious. Durga is a beautiful goddess seated on a tiger. She has eight hands representing the eightfold elements. Durga wears a mala of human heads to symbolize her wisdom and power. These heads are generally fifty-two in number, representing the fifty-two letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, which are the outer manifestations of Shabda Brahma or Brahma in the form of sound. Durga is the remover of all evil consequences of life and the giver of power and peace that is released from mooladhara. According to yoga philosophy, Kali, the first manifestation of the unconscious kundalini is a terrible power; it completely subdues the individual soul, represented by her standing on Lord Shiva. It sometimes happens that due to mental instability, some people come into contact with their unconscious body and see inauspicious, ferocious elements ghosts, monsters, etc. When Kali, the unconscious power ch01-05.indd 16ch01-05.indd 16 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 17of man, is awakened she goes up to meet the further mani- festation, being Durga, the superconscious, bestowing glory and beauty. Symbolic representation of kundalini In the tantric texts, kundalini is conceived of as the primal power or energy. In terms of modern psychology, it can be called the unconscious in man. As we have just discussed, in Hindu mythology, kundalini corresponds to the concept of Kali. In the philosophy of Shaivism, the concept of kundalini is represented by the shivalingam, the oval-shaped stone or pillar with a snake coiled around it. However, most commonly, kundalini is illustrated as a sleeping serpent coiled three and a half times. Of course, there is no serpent residing in mooladhara, sahasrara or any other chakra, but the serpent has always been a symbol for efficient consciousness. In all the oldest mystic cults of the world you will find the serpent, and if you have seen any pictures of images of Lord Shiva, you will have noticed serpents girdling his waist, neck and arms. Kali is also adorned with serpents and Lord Vishnu eternally reposes on a large coiled serpent. This serpent power symbolizes the uncon scious in man. In Scandinavian, European, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries and many different civilizations of the world, the concept of the serpent power is represented in monuments and ancient artefacts. This means that kundalini was known to people from all parts of the world in the past. However, we can conceive of kundalini in any manner we like because actually, prana has no form or dimension, it is infinite. In the traditional descriptions of kundalini awakening, it is said that kundalini resides in mooladhara in the form of a coiled snake and when the snake awakens it uncoils and shoots up through sushumna (the psychic passage in the centre of the spinal cord), opening the other chakras as it goes. (See Sir John Woodroffes The Serpent Power .) ch01-05.indd 17ch01-05.indd 17 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 18Brahmachari Swami Vyasdev, in his book Science of the Soul, describes the awakening of kundalini in the following way: Sadhakas have seen the sushumna in the form of a luminous rod or pillar, a golden yellow snake, or sometimes as a shining black snake about ten inches long with blood red eyes like smouldering charcoal, the front part of the tongue vibrating and shining like lightning, ascending the spinal column. The meaning of the three coils of the serpent is as follows: the three coils represent the three matras of Om, which relate to past, present and future; to the three gunas: tamas, rajas and sattwa; to the three states of consciousness: waking, sleeping and dreaming; and to the three types of experience: subjective experience, sensual experience and absence of experience. The half coil represents the state of transcend-ence, where there is neither waking, sleeping nor dreaming. So, the three and a half coils signify the total experience of the universe and the experience of transcendence. Who can awaken kundalini? There are many people who have awakened their kundalini. Not only saints and sadhus, but poets, painters, warriors, writers, anyone can awaken their kundalini. With the awaken ing of kundalini, not only visions of God take place, there is dawning of creative intelligence and an awakening of supramental faculties. By activating kundalini you may become anything in life. The energy of kundalini is one energy, but it expresses itself differently through the individual psychic centres or chakras first in gross instinctive ways and then in progres sively more subtle ways. Refining of the expression of this energy at higher and more subtle levels of vibration represents the ascent of human consciousness to its highest possibilities. Kundalini is the creative energy; it is the energy of self-expression. Just as in reproduction a new life is created, in the same way, someone like Einstein uses that same energy ch01-05.indd 18ch01-05.indd 18 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 19in a different, more subtle realm, to create a theory like rel a- tivity. It is the same energy that is expressed when some one composes or plays beautiful music. It is the same energy which is expressed in all parts of life, whether it is building up a business, fulfilling the family duties or reaching whatever goal you aspire for. These are all expressions of the same creative energy. Everybody, whether householder or sannyasin, must re member that the awakening of kundalini is the prime purpose of human incarnation. All the pleasures of sensual life which we are enjoying now are intended only to enhance the awaken ing of kundalini amidst the adverse circumstances of human life. A process of metamorphosis With the awakening of kundalini, a transformation takes place in life. It has little to do with ones moral, religious or ethical life. It has more to do with the quality of our experi ences and perceptions. When kundalini wakes up, your mind changes and your priorities and attachments also change. All your karmas undergo a process of integra-tion. It is very simple to understand. When you were a child you loved toys, but why dont you love them now? Because your mind has changed and consequently, your attachments have also changed. So with the awakening of kundalini, a meta morphosis takes place. There is even the possibility of restructuring the entire physical body. When kundalini awakens, the physical body actually undergoes many changes. Generally they are positive, but if your guru is not cautious, they can be negative also. When the shakti wakes up, the cells in the body are completely charged and a process of rejuvenation also starts. The voice changes, the smell of the body changes and the hormonal secretions also change. In fact, the transformation of cells in the body and brain takes place at a much higher rate than normal. These are just a few observations. However, scientific researchers are still taking their first steps into this field. ch01-05.indd 19ch01-05.indd 19 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 20Why awaken kundalini? If you want to take up the practice of kundalini yoga, the most important thing is that you have a reason or an aim. If you want to awaken kundalini for psychic powers, then please go ahead with your own destiny. But if you want to awaken kundalini in order to enjoy communion between Shiva and Shakti, the actual communion between the two great forces within you, and if you want to enter samadhi and experience the absolute in the cosmos, and if you want to understand the truth behind the appearance, and if the purpose of your pilgrimage is very great, then there is nothing that can come to you as an obstacle. By means of kundalini awakening, you are compensating for the laws of nature and speeding up the pace of your physical, mental and spiritual evolution. Once the great shakti awakens, man is no longer a gross physical body operating with a lower mind and low voltage prana. Instead, every cell of the body is charged with the high voltage prana of kundalini. And when total awakening occurs, man becomes a junior god, an embodiment of divinity. ch01-05.indd 20ch01-05.indd 20 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 213 Kundalini Physiology Kundalini or the serpent power does not belong to the physical body, though it is connected to it. Nor can it be discovered in the mental body or even the astral body. Its abode is actually in the causal body, where the concepts of time, space and object are completely lost. How and where is the concept of kundalini related to the supreme consciousness? The serpent power is considered to arise from the unconscious state in mooladhara. This un conscious awareness then has to pass through different phases and becomes one with the cosmic awareness in the highest realm of existence. The supreme awareness of Shiva is considered to be seated in sahasrara, the superconscious or tran scendental body at the crown of the head. In the Vedas, as well as the Tantras, this supreme seat is called hiranyagarbha, the womb of consciousness. It corresponds to the pituitary body, the master gland situated within the brain. Immediately below this centre of supreme consciousness, there is another psychic centre the third eye or ajna chakra, which corresponds to the pineal gland. This is the seat of intuitive knowledge. This centre lies on top of the spinal column, at the level of bhrumadhya, the eyebrow centre. Ajna chakra is important because it is simultaneously connected with the seat of supreme consciousness in sahasrara, and with mooladhara, the seat of the unconscious, at the base of the spine, via sushumna, the psychic passage within the ch01-05.indd 21ch01-05.indd 21 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 22spinal column. Therefore, it is the connecting link between the lowest unconscious seat of power and the highest centre of illumination within the individual. Kundalini yoga is not abstract. It considers this very physical body as the basis. For a kundalini yogi, the supreme consciousness represents the highest possible manifestation of physical matter in this body. The matter of this physical body is being transformed into subtle forces such as feeling, thinking, reasoning, remembering, postulating and doubting, in the gradual process of evolution. This psychic, suprasensory or transcendental power is the ultimate point of human evolution. The chakras The literal meaning of the word chakra is wheel or circle, but in the yogic context a better translation of the Sanskrit word is vortex or whirlpool. The chakras are vortices of psychic energy and they are visualized and experienced as circular movements of energy at particular rates of vibration. In each person there are myriads of chakras, but in the practices of tantra and yoga, only a few principal ones are utilized. These chakras span the full spectrum of mans being, from the gross to the subtle. The chakras relate to physiological as well as psychic centres whose structures correspond more or less with the traditional descriptions. These nerve centres are not situated inside the spinal cord itself, but lie like junctions on the interior walls of the spinal column. If you cut the spinal cord transversely at different levels, you can see that the grey matter in the cross section resembles the lotus shape and the ascending and descending tracts of nerve fibres correspond to the nadis. These communicating nerve fibres control the different physiological functions of that portion of the body. Many books state that the chakras are reservoirs of power, but this is not true. A chakra is like a centrally placed electricity pole from which electrical wires are run to different places, houses and ch01-05.indd 22ch01-05.indd 22 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 23street lights in the vicinity. This arrangement is the same for each one of the chakras. The nadis which emerge from each chakra carry prana in both directions. There is a forward and backward pranic motion in the nadis, which is analogous to the flow of alternating current in electrical wires. The outgoing com munication and the incoming reaction enter and leave the chakra in the form of this pranic flow in the corresponding nadis. There are six chakras in the human body which are directly connected with the higher unillumined centres of the brain. The first chakra is mooladhara. It is situated in the pelvic floor and corresponds to the coccygeal plexus of nerves. In the masculine body it lies between the urinary and excretory openings, in the form of a small dormant gland termed the perineal body. In the feminine body it is situated inside the posterior surface of the cervix. Mooladhara is the first chakra in spiritual evolution, where one goes beyond animal consciousness and starts to be a real human being. It is also the last chakra in the completion of animal evolution. It is said that from mooladhara chakra right down to the heels there are other lower chakras which are responsible for the development of the animal and human qualities of instinct and intellect. From mooladhara chakra upwards lie the chakras which are concerned with illumination and evolution of the higher or super man. Mooladhara chakra has control over the entire range of human excretory and sexual functions. The second chakra is swadhisthana, located at the lowest point or termination of the spinal cord. It corresponds to the sacral plexus of nerves and controls the unconscious. The third chakra is manipura, situated in the spinal column exactly at the level of the navel. It corresponds to the solar plexus and controls the entire processes of digestion, assimila tion and temperature regulation in the body. The fourth chakra is anahata, and it lies in the vertebral column behind the base of the heart, at the level of the de-pres sion in the sternum. It corresponds to the cardiac plexus ch01-05.indd 23ch01-05.indd 23 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM Location of the Chakras Sahasrara Bindu Ajna Vishuddhi Anahata Manipura Swadhisthana Mooladhara BSY ch01-05.indd 24ch01-05.indd 24 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 25of nerves, and also controls the functions of the heart, the lungs, the diaphragm and other organs in this region of the body. The fifth chakra is vishuddhi, which lies at the level of the throat pit in the vertebral column. This chakra corresponds to the cervical plexus of nerves and controls the thyroid complex and also some systems of articulation, the upper palate and the epiglottis. Ajna, the sixth and most important chakra, corresponds to the pineal gland, lying in the midline of the brain directly above the spinal column. This chakra controls the muscles and the onset of sexual activity. Tantra and yoga maintain that ajna chakra, the command centre, has complete control over all the functions of the disciples life. These six chakras serve as switches for turning on different parts of the brain. The awakening which is brought about in the chakras is conducted to the higher centres in the brain via the nadis. There are also two higher centres in the brain which are commonly referred to in kundalini yoga: bindu and sahasrara. Bindu is located at the top back of the head, where Hindu Brahmins keep a tuft of hair. This is the point where oneness first divides itself into many. Bindu feeds the whole optic system and is also the seat of nectar or amrit. Sahasrara is supreme; it is the final culmination of kundalini shakti. It is the seat of higher awareness. Sahasrara is situated at the top of the head and is physically correlated to the pituitary gland, which controls each and every gland and system of the body. Nadis Nadis are not nerves but rather channels for the flow of consciousness. The literal meaning of nadi is flow. Just as the negative and positive forces of electricity flow through complex circuits, in the same way, prana shakti (vital force) and manas shakti (mental force) flow through every part of our body via these nadis. Accord ing to the tantras ch01-05.indd 25ch01-05.indd 25 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 26there are 72,000 or more such chan nels or networks through which the stimuli flow like an electric current from one point to another. These 72,000 nadis cover the whole body and through them the inherent rhythms of activity in the different organs of the body are maintained. Within this network of nadis, there are ten main channels, and of these ten, three are most important for they control the flow of prana and conscious-ness within all the other nadis of the body. These three nadis are called ida, pingala and sushumna. Ida nadi controls all the men tal pro cesses, while pingala nadi controls all the vital processes. Ida is known as the moon, and pingala as the sun. A third nadi, sushumna, is the channel for the awakening of spiritual consciousness. You may consider these three nadis as pranic force, mental force and spiritual force. As sushumna flows inside the central canal of the spinal cord, ida and pingala simultaneously flow on the outer sur-face of the spinal cord, still within the bony vertebral column. Ida, pingala and sushumna nadis begin in mool adhara in the pelvic floor. From there, sushumna flows directly upwards within the central canal, while ida passes to the left and pingala to the right. At swadhisthana chakra, or the sacral plexus, the three nadis come together again and ida and pingala cross over one another. Ida passes up to the right, ch01-05.indd 26ch01-05.indd 26 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 27pingala to the left, and sushumna continues to flow directly upwards in the central canal. The three nadis come together again at manipura chakra, the solar plexus, and so on. Finally, ida, pingala and sushumna meet in the ajna chakra. Ida and pingala function in the body alternately and not simultaneously. If you observe your nostrils, you will find that generally one is flowing freely and the other is blocked. When the left nostril is open, it is the lunar energy or ida nadi which is flowing. When the right nostril is free, the solar energy or pingala nadi is flowing. Investigations have shown that when the right nostril is flowing, the left hemisphere of the brain is activated. When the left nostril is flowing, the right hemisphere is activated. This is how the nadis or energy channels control the brain and the events of life and consciousness. Now, if these two energies prana and chitta, pingala and ida, life and consciousness, can be made to function simultaneously, then both hemispheres of the brain can be made to function simultaneously and to participate together in the thinking, living, intuitive and regulating processes. In ordinary life this does not happen because the simul taneous awakening and functioning of life force and con-scious ness can take place only if the central canal, sushumna, is connected with kundalini, the source of energy. If sushumna can be connected in the physical body, it can reactivate the brain cells and create a new physical structure. The importance of awakening sushumna Sushumna nadi is regarded as a hollow tube in which there are three more concentric tubes, each being progressively more subtle than the previous one. The tubes or nadis are as follows: sushumna signifying tamas, vajrini signifying rajas, chitrini signifying sattwa, and brahma signifying conscious ness. The higher consciousness created by kundalini passes through brahma nadi. When the kundalini shakti awakens it passes through sushumna nadi. The moment awakening takes place in ch01-05.indd 27ch01-05.indd 27 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 28mooladhara chakra, the energy makes headway through sushumna up to ajna chakra. Mooladhara chakra is just like a powerful generator. In order to start this generator, you need some sort of pranic energy. This pranic energy is generated through pranayama. When you practise pranayama you generate energy and this energy is forced down by a positive pressure which starts the generator in mooladhara chakra. Then this generated energy is pushed upward by a negative pressure and forced up to ajna chakra. Therefore, awakening of sushumna is just as important as awakening of kundalini. Supposing you have started your generator but you have not plugged in the cable, the generator will keep running but distribution will not take place. You have to connect the plug into the generator so the generated energy can pass through the cable to the different areas of your house. When only ida and pingala are active and not sushumna, it is like having the positive and negative lines in your electrical cable, but no earth. When the mind receives the three currents of energy all the lights start working, but if you remove the earth wire the lights will go down. Energy flows through ida and pingala all the time, but its effulgence is very low. When there is current flowing in ida, pingala and sushumna, then enlightenment takes place. This is how you have to understand the awakening of kundalini, the awaken-ing of sushumna and the union of the three in ajna chakra. The whole science of kundalini yoga concerns the awaken-ing of sushumna, for once sushumna comes to life, a means of communication between the higher and lower dimensions of consciousness is established and the awakening of kundalini occurs. Shakti then travels up sushumna nadi to become one with Shiva in sahasrara chakra. Kundalini awakening is definitely not fictional or symbolic; it is electrophysiological! Many modern scientists are working on this, and Dr Hiroshi Motoyama of Japan has developed a unit by which the waves and currents of ch01-05.indd 28ch01-05.indd 28 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 29energy, which accompany the awakening of kundalini, can be recorded and measured. When the roots of a plant are watered properly, the plant grows and its flowers bloom forth beautifully. Similarly, when kundalini awakening occurs in sushumna, awakening occurs in all the stages of life. But if awakening only occurs in ida or pingala or in one of the other centres, it is by no means complete. Only when kundalini shakti awakens and travels up the sushumna passage to sahasrara is the entire store of higher energy in man unleashed. The mystical tree In the fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita there is a description of the imperishable tree which has its roots at the top and its trunk and branches below, growing down-wards. One who knows this tree knows the truth. This tree exists in the structure and function of the human body and nervous system. One must know and climb this paradoxical tree to arrive at the truth. It can be understood in this way: the thoughts, the emotions, the distractions and so on are only the leaves of this tree whose roots are the brain itself and whose trunk is the spinal column. One has to climb this tree from the top to the bottom if one wishes to cut the roots. This tree seems to be completely topsy-turvy, yet it con-tains the essence of all occult truth and secret knowledge. It cannot be understood intellectually, but only through a pro - gressive spiritual awakening, for true spiritual understanding always dawns in a way which is paradoxical and irrational to the faculty of intellect. This same tree is known as the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah and as the Tree of Knowledge in the Bible. Its understanding forms the basis of both the Christian and Judaic religious traditions, but unfortunately it has been completely misunderstood, by and large, for a very long time. So it is that everybody who is trying to move from mool-adhara to sahasrara is climbing to the root every time, and the root is at the brain, the sahasrara. Mooladhara is not the ch01-05.indd 29ch01-05.indd 29 21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM21/03/2018 4:28:47 PM 30 root centre at all. So if you are moving from swadhisthana to sahasrara or from manipura to sahasrara, then you are climb-ing to the root, which is at the top in sahasrara. The Mystical T reeBSY ch01-05.indd 30ch01-05.indd 30 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 314 Kundalini and the Brain The awakening of kundalini and its union with Shiva is immediately and intimately connected with the whole brain. To explain it simply, we can say the brain has ten com partments, and of these, nine are dormant and one is active. Whatever you know, whatever you think or do is coming from one-tenth of the brain. The other nine-tenths, which are in the frontal portion of the brain, are known as the inactive or sleeping brain. Why are these compartments inactive? Because there is no energy. The active portion of the brain functions on the energies of ida and pingala, but the other nine-tenths have only pingala. Pingala is life and ida is consciousness. If a person is living but is unable to think, we say he has prana shakti but not manas shakti. Similarly, the silent parts of the brain have prana, not consciousness. Therefore, a very difficult question arises, which is how to awaken the sleeping compartments of the brain? We know how to awaken fear, anxiety and passion, the basic instincts, but most of us do not know how to awaken these dormant areas of the brain. In order to arouse the silent areas of the brain, we must charge the frontal brain with sufficient prana, with sufficient vital energy and consciousness, and we must awaken sushumna nadi. For both these purposes we must practise pranayama regularly and con sistently over a long period of time. ch01-05.indd 31ch01-05.indd 31 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 32Lighting up the brain In kundalini yoga it was discovered that the different parts of the brain are connected with the chakras. Certain areas are connected with mooladhara chakra, others with swadhisthana, manipura, and so on. When you want to turn on an electric lamp, you do not have to touch the lamp itself, you operate it by means of the switch on the wall. Likewise, when you want to awaken the brain, you cannot deal with it directly, you have to flick the switches which are located in the chakras. Modern science divides the dormant area of the brain into ten parts, whereas in kundalini yoga we divide it into six. The qualities or manifestations of the brain are also sixfold, for example, the psychic powers. These manifest in different individuals according to the degree of awakening in the corresponding areas of the brain. Not everybody is clairvoyant or telepathic; some people are talented musicians. Anybody can sing, but there is a centre in the brain where transcendental music expresses itself. Total and partial awakening A genius is one who has awakened one or more of the dor- mant areas of the brain. People who have flashes of genius are those who have had a momentary awakening in certain circuits of the brain. It is not total awakening. When the total brain wakes up, you become a junior god, an in carnation or embodiment of divinity. There are various types of geniuses: child prodigies, inspired poets, musicians, invent ors, prophets, etc., in whom a partial awakening has occurred. Sahasrara is the actual seat of kundalini Although the classical descriptions place heavy emphasis on the awakening of kundalini in mooladhara chakra, there is a widespread misconception that kundalini must be awakened there and made to travel through and awaken all the chakras in turn. In fact, the seat of kundalini is actually sahasrara. Mooladhara is only a manipulating centre or switch, like the ch01-05.indd 32ch01-05.indd 32 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 33other chakras, but it happens to be easier for most people to operate this switch. Each of the chakras is independent; they are not con- nected with each other. This means that if kundalini shakti awakens in mooladhara, it goes directly to sahasrara, to a particular centre in the brain. Similarly, from swadhisthana the shakti passes directly to sahasrara, from manipura it goes straight to sahasrara and so on. Kundalini can be awakened in an individual chakra or it can awaken throughout the whole network of chakras collectively. From each chakra, the awakening shock moves up to the top of sahasrara. However, the awakening is not sustained and those centres in the brain return to dormancy. This is what is meant by the return of kundalini to mooladhara. If kundalini awakens in an individual chakra, the experiences which are characteristic of that chakra will be brought into consciousness. This may also occur when one does the practices for an individual chakra. For example, swadhisthana practices will raise joy; manipura practices will increase self-assertion; anahata stimulation will expand the love; vishuddhi practices will awaken discrimination and wisdom, and ajna practices will increase the flow of intuition, knowledge and perhaps extrasensory abilities and so on. If the nervous system is highly aroused, we may have other faculties opening because of the general arousal of the brain. This probably results from stimulation of an area in the lower end of the brain called the reticular formation . The function of this area is to rouse the whole brain or to relax it, as in sleep. The reticular formation and related areas have an inherent rhythm which is responsible for our sleeping/waking cycles, but it is also largely activated by sensations from outside by light, sound, touch, etc., and from inside via the autonomic nervous system. It is the latter which seems to account for the more general arousal caused by the kundalini practices and other powerful yoga practices such as kumbhaka or breath retention. ch01-05.indd 33ch01-05.indd 33 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 34Kundalini energy or nerve messages? There are a number of schools of thought as to what kundalini really is. Many yogis say that kundalini is a flow of pranic energy along an esoteric pathway (sushumna) associated with the spinal axis. They consider that it is part of the flow of prana within the meshwork of the pranic body and that there is no anatomical counterpart. Other yogis relate their perceptions of kundalini to the flow of messages along the nerve fibres. These arise in the networks of the autonomic plexuses and ascend along tracts in the spinal cord to definite anatomical centres in the brain. These schools of thought use different descriptions to convey the experience of kundalini, but they all agree that the experience of kundalini is a total psychophysiological event which centres around the spinal cord. Within the spinal cord there is a very important fluid, the cerebrospinal fluid. When, through practices such as pranayama, awakening occurs in mooladhara chakra, this fluid gets excited. We cannot really say what happens to it because even the scientists are not exactly sure, but by studying the experiences of kun da lini awakening, one thing is apparent. When the cere brospinal fluid moves through the vertebral column, it alters the phases of consciousness and this is a very important process as far as evolution is concerned. It is the chitta or consciousness which undergoes evolution in man. Chitta does not have a location point in the body, it is psychological in nature, but it is controlled by the information supplied by the indriyas or senses. While chitta is being constantly supplied with information, its evolution is blocked, but if you prevent the passage of information from the indriyas, chitta will evolve very quickly. That is to say, if you isolate chitta from the information being relayed through the eyes, nose, ears, skin and tongue, chitta is then compelled to experience independence. When the cerebrospinal fluid is affected during pranayama, the senses become dull and their messages are relayed to chitta very slowly. Sometimes, when the cerebrospinal fluid is highly stimulated, all sensory ch01-05.indd 34ch01-05.indd 34 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 35impulses are suspended and experiences take place within the chitta. Sometimes these experiences are fantastic, you might see light, feel the whole earth trembling or experience your body as if it were as light as a piece of cotton. These and others are the experiences of chitta as a consequence of the cerebrospinal fluids reactions. One world-renowned scientist, the late Itzhak Bentov, put forward the theory that kundalini is an effect caused by the rotation of nerve impulses around the cortex of the brain during meditation. He considered that this is caused by rhythmical pressure waves which result from the interaction of the heart beat, breathing, and the fluid inside the skull, Arousal of Different Brain CentresBSY Vishuddhi Anahata Manipura Swadhisthana Mooladhara ch01-05.indd 35ch01-05.indd 35 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 36thereby causing the brain to oscillate up and down, which stimulates specific nerve currents in the brain. Unlocking the storehouse of cosmic consciousness Although there are varying views about kundalini, one thing is certain kundalini has the ability to activate the human consciousness in such a way that a person can develop his or her most beneficial qualities, can enter a much more intimate relationship with nature and can become aware of oneness with the whole cosmos. All the great miracles of the remote and recent past, and the ones yet to come, have sprung from what is known as the storehouse of cosmic consciousness, the golden egg, the golden worm, the hidden hiranyagarbha within the structure of the human brain. This particular centre in us is not sleeping or inactive, but it is unconscious, only because we are not conscious of it. What came as a revelation to the ancient rishis, to Newton and Einstein and to many other great seers, exists in us also, but it came to their conscious plane while it does not come to ours. This is the only difference between an inspired artist and an ordinary person. The aim of kundalini yoga is not really to awaken the power of man, but rather to bring the power down to earth or to bring the power of the unconscious or higher conscious ness to normal consciousness. We have no need to awaken the consciousness, for it is ever awake. We have only to gain complete control over our higher conscious forces. By means of kundalini yoga we just try to bring the centres from mooladhara to ajna into operation so that the higher knowledge will be gradually revealed to us. Today man has mastered the material dimension, the energy of prakriti, and discovered the mysteries of nature. Now, through the process of kundalini, man should become master of the spiritual dimension. ch01-05.indd 36ch01-05.indd 36 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 375 Methods of Awakening According to the tantras, kundalini can be awakened by various methods which can be practised individually or in combination. However, the first method cannot be prac-tised because it is awakened by birth. Of course, it is too late for most of us to take advantage of this particular method, but some of us may be instrumental in producing children who have awakened kundalinis. Awakening by birth By a favourable birth, if your parents were highly evolved, you can have an awakened kundalini. It is also possible to be born with an awakened sushumna, ida or pingala nadi. This means that from the time of birth your higher faculties will be operating either partially or fully. If a child comes with partial awakening, he is called a saint, and if he comes with full illumination, he is known as an incarnation, avatara or son of God. If one is born with an awakened kundalini, his experi-ences are very much under control. They take place in him right from the beginning in a natural way, so he never feels that something extraordinary is happening to him. A child with an awakened kundalini has clarity of vision, a high quality of thinking and a sublime philosophy. His attitude to life is somewhat unusual as he has total detachment. To him, his parents were only his means of creation, and therefore he ch01-05.indd 37ch01-05.indd 37 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 38is unable to accept the normal social relationship with them. Although he may live with them, he feels as if he were just a guest. Such a child exhibits very mature behaviour and does not react emotionally to anything in life. As he grows he becomes aware of his mission and purpose in life. Many of us may wish to give birth to a yogi or an en- lightened child but it is not such a simple matter. Every marriage or union of partners cannot produce a yogi, even if the man and woman practise yoga morning and night. It is only under certain circumstances that a higher being can be produced. In order to usher a highly evolved soul into this world, one has first to transform ones gross desires into spiritual aspirations. It is very difficult to convince people of the West that a child can be born in an enlightened state, because they have the moral attitudes of a particular religion deeply ingrained in their minds and their faith. For them, the union between a man and a woman is sin. If you explain to them that a yogi can be produced as a result of sexual union, they say, No! How can a yogi be born out of sin? It is possible that a new generation of supermen and women will be produced in this way. Through the practices of yoga you can transform the quality of your genes. If genes can produce artists, scientists, inventors and intellectual geniuses, then why not awakened kundalinis? You have to transform the quality of your sperm or ova by firstly trans-forming your whole consciousness. Neither drugs nor diet will transform your genes, but if you change your conscious-ness, you can then affect the elements of the body and ultimately change the quality of the sperm or ova. Then you will have children with awakened kundalinis. They will become the yogis and spiritual masters of the house who set things right for you. They will say, Mummy, you are not the physi cal body. Papa, drinking is no good. Those of you who choose to enter married life should go into it keeping in mind that the purpose is not just pleasure, or to produce offspring, but to create a genius. All over the ch01-05.indd 38ch01-05.indd 38 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 39world, people who marry for progeny should try for higher quality children. Mantra The second method of awakening kundalini is through steady regular practice of mantra. This is a very powerful, smooth and risk-free method, but of course it is a sadhana which requires time and a lot of patience. First you need to obtain a suitable mantra from a guru who knows yoga and tantra, and who can guide you through your sadhana. When you practise the mantra incessantly, it develops in you the vision of a higher force and enables you to live amidst the sensualities of life with indifference to them. When you throw a pebble into a still lake, it produces circular ripples. In the same way, when you repeat a mantra over and over again, the sound force gathers momentum and creates vibrations in the ocean of the mind. When you repeat the mantra millions and billions of times, it permeates every part of your brain and purifies your whole physical, mental and emotional body. The mantra must be chanted loudly, softly, on the mental plane and on the psychic plane. By practising it at these four levels, kundalini awakens methodically and systematically. You can also use the mantra by repeating it mentally in coordination with the breath, or you can sing it aloud in the form of kirtan. This creates a great potential in mooladhara and awakening takes place. Closely related to mantra yoga is awakening through sound or music nada yoga. Here the sounds are the beeja mantras and the music consists of particular melodies corresponding to particular chakras. This is a most tender and absorbing way of awakening. Tapasya The third method of awakening is tapasya, which means the performance of austerities. Tapasya is a means of purification, a burning or setting on fire so that a process ch01-05.indd 39ch01-05.indd 39 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 40of elimination is created, not in the physical body, but in the mental and emotional bodies. Through this process the mind, the emotions and the whole personality are cleansed of all the dirt, complexes and the patterns of behaviour that cause pain and suffering. Tapasya is an act of purification. It should not be misunderstood to involve standing naked in cold water or snow, or observing foolish and meaningless austerities. When you want to eliminate a bad habit, the more you try, the more powerful it becomes. When you abandon it in the waking state, it appears in dreams, and when you stop those dreams, it expresses itself in your behaviour or manifests in disease. This particular habit must be destroyed at its psychic root, not only at the conscious level. The samskaras and vasanas must be eliminated by some form of tapasya. Tapasya is a psychological or psycho-emotional process through which the aspirant tries to set in motion a process of metabolism that will eradicate the habits that create weakness and obstruct the awakening of willpower. I must do this but I cant. Why does this difference between resolution and implementation arise in the mind of the aspirant? Why is it so great? It is due to a deficiency of will, and that weakness, that distance or barrier between resolution and execution can be removed through regular and repeated practice of tapasya. Then the willpower makes a decision once and the matter is finished. This strength of will is the fruit of tapasya. The psychology of austerity plays a very important part in the awakening of mans latent power. It is not well under stood by modern man who has unfortunately accepted that man lives for the pleasure principle, as propounded by Freud and his disciples. The psychology of austerity is very sound and certainly not abnormal. When the senses are satisfied by the objective pleasures, by the comforts and luxuries, the brain and nervous system become weak and the consciousness and energy undergo a process of regression. It is in this situation that the method of austerity is one of the most powerful and sometimes explosive methods of awakening. ch01-05.indd 40ch01-05.indd 40 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 41 Here the manifestations are tremendous and the aspirant has to face his lower instincts in the beginning. He confronts a lot of temptations and the assaults of the satanic and tamasic forces. All the evil or negative samskaras or karmas of many, many incarnations rise to the surface. Sometimes fear manifests very powerfully or attachment to the world comes with a great force. In some people, sexual fantasies haunt the mind for days together, while others become lean and thin, or even sick. At this juncture, siddhis can appear. One develops extrasensory perceptions, one can read the minds of others, and can suppress others by a thought, or ones own thoughts materialize. In the beginning, black forces manifest and all these siddhis are negative or of a lower quality. Tapasya is a very, very powerful method of awakening which not everybody can handle. Awakening through herbs The fourth method of awakening is through the use of specific herbs. In Sanskrit this is called aushadhi, and it should not be interpreted as meaning drugs like marijuana, LSD, and so on. Aushadhi is the most powerful and rapid method of awakening, but it is not for all and very few people know about it. There are herbs which can transform the nature of the body and its elements and bring about either partial or full awakening, but they should never be used without a guru or qualified guide. This is because certain herbs selec tive ly awaken ida or pingala and others can suppress both these nadis and quickly lead one to the mental asylum. For this reason, aushadhi is a very risky and unreliable method for awakening. In the ancient vedic texts of India, there are references to a substance called soma. Soma was a juice extracted from a creeper which was picked on special days of the dark lunar fortnight. It was placed in an earthen pitcher and buried underground until the full moon. Then it was removed and the juice was extracted and taken. This induced visions, experiences and an awakening of higher consciousness. ch01-05.indd 41ch01-05.indd 41 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 42 The Persians knew of another drink, homa, which may have been the same as soma. In Brazil and some of the African countries, people used hallucinogenic mushrooms and in the Himalayan regions marijuana or hashish were taken with the thought that they might provide a shortcut in arousing spiritual awakening. From time to time, in different parts of the world, other things were also discovered and used, some being very mild in effect and others being very concentrated. With the help of the correct herbs, purified aspirants were able to visualize divine beings, holy rivers, mountains, sacred places, holy people and so on. When the effects of the herbs were more concentrated, they could separate the self from the body and travel astrally. Of course, it was often illusory, but sometimes it was a real experience as well. People were able to enter a state of samadhi and awaken their kundalini. In this particular field of awakening, the sexual instinct was completely eliminated. Therefore, many aspirants preferred this method and have been trying to discover the appropriate herbs for many centuries. With aushadhi awakening, the body becomes still and quiet, the metabolism slows and the temperature drops. As a result of this, the nerve reflexes function differently and in most cases the aushadhi method of awakening is no longer practised because it was misused by ordinary people who were neither prepared, competent nor qualified. As a result, knowledge of the herbs was withdrawn and today it is a closely guarded secret. Everyone is craving kundalini awakening, but few people have the discipline and mental, emotional, physical and nervous preparation required to avoid damage to the brain and tissues. So, although no one is teaching the aushadhi method of awakening today, its knowledge has been trans mitted from generation to generation through the guru-disciple tradition. Perhaps some day, when the nature of man changes and we find better intellectual, physical and mental responses, the science may again be revealed. ch01-05.indd 42ch01-05.indd 42 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 43Raja yoga The fifth method of inducing awakening is through raja yoga and the development of an equipoised mind. This is the total merging of individual consciousness with supercon scious ness. It occurs by a sequential process of concentration, meditation and communion; experience of union with the absolute or supreme. All the practices of raja yoga, preceded by hatha yoga, bring about very mild and durable experiences, but they can lead to a state of complete depression, in which you do not feel like doing anything. The raja yoga method is very difficult for the majority of people as it requires time, patience, discipline and perseverance. Concentration of mind is one of the most difficult things for people of today to achieve. It cannot be undertaken before the mind has been stabilized, the karmas deactivated and the emotions purified through the practices of karma yoga and bhakti yoga. It is the nature of the mind to remain active all the time, and this constitutes a very real danger for people of our time, because when we try to con centrate the mind we create a split. Therefore, the major ity of us should only practise con- cen tration up to a cer tain point. Following awakening through raja yoga, changes take place in the aspirant. One may transcend hunger and all addictions or habits. The sensualities of life are no longer appealing, hunger and the sexual urge diminish and detach-ment develops spontaneously. Raja yoga brings about a slow transformation of consciousness. Pranayama The sixth method of awakening kundalini is through pra- nayama. When a sufficiently prepared aspirant practises intense pranayama in a calm, cool and quiet environment, preferably at a high altitude, with a diet only sufficient to maintain life, the awakening of kundalini takes place like an explosion. In fact, the awakening is so rapid that kundalini ascends to sahasrara immediately. ch01-05.indd 43ch01-05.indd 43 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 44 Pranayama is not only a breathing exercise or a means to increase prana in the body; it is a powerful method of creating yogic fire to heat the kundalini and awaken it. However, if it is practised without sufficient preparation, this will not occur because the generated heat will not be directed to the proper centres. Therefore, jalandhara, uddiyana and moola bandhas are practised to lock the prana in and force it up to the frontal brain. When pranayama is practised correctly, the mind is automatically conquered. However, the effects of pranayama are not that simple to manage. It creates extra heat in the body, it awakens some of the centres in the brain and it can hinder the production of sperm and testosterone. Pranayama may also lower the temperature of the inner body and even bring down the rate of respiration and alter the brain waves. Unless you have practised the shatkarmas first and purified the body to a degree, when these changes take place, you may not be able to handle them. There are two important ways of awakening kundalini the direct method and the indirect. Pranayama is the direct method. The experiences it brings about are explosive and results are attained very quickly. Expansion is rapid and the mind attains quick metamorphosis. However, this form of kundalini awakening is always accompanied by certain experiences, and for one who is not sufficiently prepared mentally, philosophically, physically and emotionally, these experiences can be terrifying. Therefore, although the path of pranayama is a jetset method, it is drastic and is considered to be a very difficult one that everybody cannot manage. Kriya yoga The seventh method of inducing awakening is kriya yoga. It is the most simple and practical way for the modern day individual as it does not require confrontation with the mind. Sattwic people may be able to awaken kundalini through raja yoga, but those who have a tumultuous, noisy, rajasic mind will not succeed this way. They will only develop ch01-05.indd 44ch01-05.indd 44 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 45more tensions, guilt and complexes, and may even become schizophrenic. For such people kriya yoga is by far the best and most effective system. When you practise kriya yoga, kundalini does not wake up with force, nor does it awaken like a satellite or as a vision or experience. It wakes up like a noble queen. Before getting up she will open her eyes, then close them again for a while. Then she will open her eyes again, look here and there, turn to the right and left, then pull the sheet up over her head and doze. After some time she will again stretch her body and open her eyes, then doze for a while. Each time she stretches and looks around she says, Hmmm. This is what happens in kriya yoga awakening. Sometimes you feel very grand and sometimes you do not feel quite right. Sometimes you pay too much attention to the things of life and sometimes you think everything is useless. Sometimes you eat extravagantly and sometimes you do not eat for days together. Sometimes you have sleepless nights and at other times you do nothing but sleep and sleep. All these signs of awakening and reversion, awakening and reversion keep coming every now and then. Kriya yoga does not create an explosive awakening. However, it can bring visions and other very mild and controllable experiences. Tantric initiation This eighth method of awakening kundalini through tantric initiation is a very secret topic. Only those people who have transcended passions, and who understand the two principles of nature, Shiva and Shakti, are entitled to this initiation. It is not meant for those who have urges lurking within them or for those who have a need for physical contact. With the guidance of a guru, this is the quickest possible way to awaken kundalini. There are no extraordinary experiences or feelings and there is no neurosis; everything seems quite normal, but at the same time, without your knowledge, awakening is ch01-05.indd 45ch01-05.indd 45 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 46taking place. Transformation takes place and your awareness expands, but you do not know it. In this particular system, awakening and arriving at sahasrara are the same event. It takes just three seconds. However, who is qualified for this path? Few people in this world have completely transcended the sexual urge and overcome their passions. Shaktipat The ninth method of awakening is performed by the guru. It is called shaktipat. The awakening is instant, but it is only a glimpse, not a permanent event. When the guru creates this awakening you experience samadhi. You can practise all forms of pranayama and all asanas, mudras and bandhas without having learned them or prepared for them. All the mantras are revealed to you and you know the scriptures from within. Changes take place in the physical body in an instant. The skin becomes very soft, the eyes glow and the body emits a particular aroma which is neither agreeable nor disagreeable. This shaktipat can be conducted in the physical presence or from a distance. It can be transmitted by touch, by a hand kerchief, a mala, a flower, a fruit or anything edible, de pend ing on the system the guru has mastered. It can even be transmitted by letter, telegram or telephone. It is very difficult to say who is qualified for this awakening. You may have lived the life of a renunciate for fifty years, but still you may not get it. You may be just an ordinary person, living a non-spiritual life, eating all kinds of junk foods, but the guru may give you shaktipat. Your eligibility for shaktipat does not depend on your social or immediate conduct, but on the point of evolution you have reached. There is a point in evolution beyond which shaktipat becomes effective, but this evolution is not intellectual, emotional, social or religious. It is a spiritual evolution which has nothing to do with the way we live, eat, behave or think, because generally we do these things not because of our evolvement, but according to the way we have been brought up and educated. ch01-05.indd 46ch01-05.indd 46 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 47Self-surrender We have discussed the nine established methods of awakening kundalini, but there is a tenth way do not aspire for awakening. Let it happen if it happens: I am not responsible for the awakening, nature is accomplishing everything. I accept what comes to me. This is known as the path of self-surrender, and in this path, if you have a strong enough belief that your kundalini will indeed awaken, twenty thousand years can pass in the twinkling of an eye and kundalini will awaken instantly. Effects of the different methods of awakening When the awakening of kundalini takes place, scientific observations have revealed different effects. Those who have awakened kundalini from birth do not register any emotional changes. They are like blocks of wood. Those who have awaken ed kundalini through pranayama have a great quantum of electrical charges in the spinal column and throughout the body, and momentarily they could manifest schizophrenically in an individual. Karma yoga and bhakti yoga are considered compara tively safe and mild methods of awakening, but the tantric methods are more scientific than the non-tantric methods, because in tantra there is no scope for suppression or dispersion of energy. In non-tantric methods there is antag on ism; one part of the mind wants it and another part of the same mind is saying no. You suppress your thoughts, you want to enjoy, but at the same time you think, No, it is bad. I am not criticizing non-tantric methods. They are the mild methods which do not bring you any trouble. They are just like beer, you drink a little bit and nothing happens. If you drink four to ten glasses not much will happen. But tantric methods are like LSD, you have a little and it takes you right out. If something is wrong, it is wrong; if something is right, it is right. ch01-05.indd 47ch01-05.indd 47 21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM21/03/2018 4:28:48 PM 486 Preparing for the Awakening Without a guru you can practise any form of yoga, but not kundalini. This is an extremely powerful system. Kundalini yoga does not start suddenly or with fits. You do not have to make any substantial changes in your way of life, but you must begin to practise. Do not start with advanced practices; you should train and prepare the physical body for some time, then go to the mind and gradually explore the deeper levels. Before com mencing the practices which bring about the actual awakening of kundalini, you must prepare yourself step by step on the physical, mental and emotional planes. If you are patient and prepare correctly, awakening of kundalini will definitely take place. Adequate preparation is necessary to ensure that one has the strength to bear the impact of full awakening of the mighty potential force within. Most of us do not even have control over our physical manifestations and behaviours. If you were given a sleep inducing injection, you would become drowsy whether you wanted to or not. This is because you have no control over the processes and actions of your brain and you do not know how to control sleep. Similarly, if you have a headache, you are unable to exert control over it. When physical manifestations such as sleep and pain are not under your control, what would happen if other mani-festations began to occur in your brain? You would not be ch06-09.indd 48ch06-09.indd 48 21/03/2018 4:29:22 PM21/03/2018 4:29:22 PM 49able to control them. Therefore, before kundalini awakens, it is important that you are able to manage the mind. If you can maintain a balanced mind in the face of mental and emotional conflicts, and you can endure anger, worry, love and passion, disappointment, jealousy, hatred, memories of the past, sufferings and sorrows, you are ready for the awakening. If you can still feel joy when the scales are heavily loaded against you, you are an aspirant for kundalini yoga. Before you bring into use a generator of five megawatts, you must have a factory ready to utilize the energy. In the same way, before you awaken kundalini shakti, you must be able to merge yourself with the higher spirit and you must know how to utilize the creative energy of kundalini. So if you want to follow the path of kundalini yoga, it is absolutely essential to have a guru with whom you feel intimate. Many people say the guru is within, but are they able to communicate, understand and follow the intricate instructions? If so, it is possible to proceed with this internal guidance, but few people have such a relationship with the inner guru. They need an external guru first who will connect them with the inner guru. If you have a guru, he will help you to prepare for kundalini awakening. He will be there if you need any advice and he will guide you through the crisis of awakening. Usually, because we are religious minded people, our relationship with the guru is based on a sort of formality. To us he is worshipful, respectable, superior and supreme, but at the time of awakening, all these attitudes to the guru must be set aside. At this time you must evolve a more intimate attitude, as if your relationship was based on love, not merely devotion and worship. When you serve your mother you do so with an attitude of love, not respect and veneration. With this same attitude you should serve the guru, then his direct influence is upon you. Then, if there is excitement in any chakra, the relationship with the guru will balance it. The relationship between guru and disciple is the most intimate of relationships; it is neither a religious nor a legal ch06-09.indd 49ch06-09.indd 49 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 50relationship. Guru and disciple live like an object and its shadow. The guru is the best thing in spiritual life, and if you have a guru you are very fortunate. However, it is sometimes difficult to find a guru. If you do not have a guru, you can cultivate a mental picture of him, try to feel his guidance and continue practising faithfully. You will surely succeed. The time factor Preparation is not the job of one lifetime. Man strives spiritually lifetime after lifetime. In fact, this body is given to you only for that purpose. For eating, sleeping and sexual interaction a human body is not necessary, so in our lower stages of evolution we had an animal body. However, even with this human body, we still have animal in us, so these natural urges follow us. Let them, but remember this body is not for their fulfilment alone. In this human body the consciousness is the most important point. Man is aware of his awareness and he does not only think, he knows that he thinks. The evolution of awareness has been going on life after life. And what you have been practising for your spiritual life in the last five to ten years is in addition to what you have already done. Supposing your children are studying in primary school and you are transferred to another city. Where will your children begin their education in the new city? Right from the beginning? No, from the point where they left their studies. The same thing happens in reincarnation. That is why, even though you may have brothers and sisters born of the same mother and father, they will be different from you. In your previous incarnation your preferences were different from theirs. Maybe after a few incarnations they may come to the point where you are now. So we cannot say how long preparation takes, because this life is one of those milestones and you have left behind many, many milestones. However, if you are eager to awaken kundalini and the chakras, you should not be in a hurry. Set apart twelve years of your life for this purpose. This is not to say that the ch06-09.indd 50ch06-09.indd 50 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 51awakening cannot be brought about within one, two or three years it can be. Total awakening can even take place in a month, or the guru can give you awakening in one day, but you will be unable to hold and sustain the awakening. When one is in possession of a weak mind which cannot sustain even a little bit of cheerfulness or excitement, or bear the death of a spouse or separation from a loved one, how can one sustain the tremendous force of an awakened kundalini? Therefore, the twelve years are not for the actual awakening. The twelve years are only for preparation so you can hold and sustain the awakening. Where to begin The practices of kundalini yoga are intended to create the awareness, not necessarily to awaken kundalini. First of all, we have to decide whether kundalini is already awakened. It may already be on the way and you are opening the garage and there is no car because it is already on the highway. When you go to satsang, do some kirtan or lead a yogic lifestyle, you begin to have experiences and you realize something is happening to you. Then, when you discuss kundalini and the chakras with a guru you start to understand. The practices that you do develop your awareness and help you to remember your connection with your past evolu tion. They remove the veil which separates this current incarna tion from the previous one. I will give you a very gross example. There was a boy who was the only son of a very rich man. The boy went crazy and was sent to a mental hospital. He ran away and used to go from house to house begging for food. He did not know that his parents had died and he had inherited a large estate, cars and shops and a lot of money in fixed deposits. One day his uncle found him and had him treated properly. The boy recovered from his mental illness and remembered everything about his heritage. Similarly, there is a process of remembering, and when it takes place, you know exactly where you stand. ch06-09.indd 51ch06-09.indd 51 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 52 So, practices are necessary to remove the veil in front of the consciousness which separates the two lives. Once you know that your kundalini is already in the process of transi-tion, then practices are of no real use. If you are practising, it is because you are forced to, and if you are not practising, it is because you are forced not to. During the period of transition of kundalini the practices are not useless, but your efforts to practise them are of no use. However, if there is no awakening, if kundalini is in mooladhara or swadhisthana or in between the two, then that is the time for the practices which are enjoined in the books. It is very important that you awaken sushumna nadi before kundalini. This essential point has not been stressed clearly in any books, but Swami Sivananda hinted at it in his writings. If sushumna is not opened, where will the shakti go? It will pass through either ida or pingala and complica-tions will arise. You must also undergo purification of the tattwas or elements, and purification of the chakras and nadis. Other-wise, when kundalini awakens there will be a traffic jam. Asanas, pranayama and the hatha yoga shatkarmas provide the best means of purification. Surya namaskara and surya bheda pranayama purify pingala nadi and the shatkarmas and pranayama will purify and awaken sushumna. There are specific asanas that are very important for purifying the nadis and inducing a mild awakening in the chakras. So, start with purification of the tattwas by the hatha yoga cleans ing techniques. Take up asanas next and then pranayama. Later you can practise mudras and bandhas and then begin kriya yoga. Awakening before preparation If experiences commence before you are properly prepared, you should immediately start to prepare yourself. The first thing to do is start fasting or switch to a light diet. You should also live quietly and avoid social interactions, reading books and magazines. Of course, during this period you ch06-09.indd 52ch06-09.indd 52 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 53must not take any drugs or medicines and you must guard against introducing any chemicals into the body. If you minimize your interactions with the world outside, the experiences will subside after five or six days and you can resume your normal life. You should then start searching for someone who can give you further guidance. Proceed to an ashram When you know that kundalini is arousing, as soon as you can, you should retire to a congenial place. As far as I know, the only congenial place is an ashram, where you can be with a guru and like-minded people. An ashram is a community where the inmates have plenty of work, no attachments, no hatred or prejudices, a simple life, little to eat, no comforts or luxuries, only the bare essentials. There are no social ex-pecta tions and pressures in an ashram, no fashion, no show, no useless conversations, no interference and gossip. If you live in an ashram, the awakening of kundalini can be streamlined and if a mental crisis occurs, you are free to experience whatever happens. If you do not want to eat, it is okay; if you cannot sleep and you just want to sit, it is all right; if you have emotional problems or no emotions at all, people will understand and leave you alone. If you stay with your family during the crisis period, they may send you off to a mental hospital. If you do not feel like eating, they will say, Not eating today? When they see you have not eaten for a few days, they will say, Something is wrong with her, and they will try to get you to see a doctor or psychiatrist. Or if you are married, when your behaviour seems a little strange, your partner might be ready to divorce you. So it is much better to get away from such places. That is why there are so many monasteries and ashrams all over the world today. What to practise in the ashram In the ashram you should practise purification of the physical body through the shatkarmas to balance the ch06-09.indd 53ch06-09.indd 53 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 54acid, wind and mucus in the body. Physical and mental purification will also take place on account of the pure and simple ashram diet. The physical body must be kept very, very light and made sattwic and entirely free of toxins. If you are a bhakta by temperament, spend your time in prayer, singing kirtan or bhajan. If you are an intellectual, then read books, talk minimally, practise hatha yoga and fast from time to time. If you are a very active person, work hard and dedicate yourself to karma yoga. It is also necessary to perfect the sitting posture, as you must be able to sit comfortably in one of the three postures: siddhasana/siddha yoni asana, padmasana or vajrasana. The best and most powerful of these postures is siddhasana/siddha yoni asana. Some people think they should practise a lot of meditation or pranayama when kundalini is ascending so it will go straight to sushumna. However, I do not think meditation is necessary anymore, because when kundalini is in the process of transition, you can do nothing with your mind. If your mind is agitated, you can do nothing about it because that is the effect of the awakening of kundalini. It is not the effect of your practice. The movement of consciousness during the transition of kundalini is spontaneous, whether it is depression, a state of trance, an experience or vision, a feeling or sensation in the body; you cannot alter any of them. They will continue because they are forced on you, they are evolving in you because you are passing through that stage. But if you live in the non-agitating ashram environment and partake of ashram food and share in the karma yoga, there will be no distur bances in your experiences. Regarding pranayama or kriyas, when the experience is moving onwards, pranayama happens by itself, you do not have to think about what to do. Sometimes kevala kumbhaka takes place, or you automatically begin to practise bhastrika or ujjayi. Moola bandha or vajroli mudra happen by them-selves, or you begin to do asanas spontaneously. So you do ch06-09.indd 54ch06-09.indd 54 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 55not have to worry, just follow the flow of experience and take care of your environment and food, and make sure nobody disturbs you. The role of karma yoga Karma yoga is a very important part of spiritual life. Even if you practise austerities or mantra, use herbs, practise pranayama, undergo tantric initiation or get shaktipat, or are born with an awakened kundalini, if you do not follow the path of karma yoga, your evolution will definitely be retarded at some point. If you have a good, strong, reliable automobile but the road is bumpy and covered in rocks, pebbles and marsh, try to accelerate and then see what happens. It is very important that the mind is prepared and the personality is rendered ready. Samskaras, positive and negative, must be exhausted, aware ness must be extended to every level, dedica tion or con-secration must be perfected and your attach ments, illusions and infatuations must be spotted, scrutinized and analyzed. All that is not possible without doing karma yoga. Karma yoga is not directly responsible for the awakening of kundalini, but without its practice, kundalini cannot budge even one centimetre. Therefore, you can understand how important karma yoga is in the life of a disciple. You must read a lot about karma yoga in the Bhagavad Gita, for perhaps that is the only philosophical and yogic explanation of karma yoga. The need for discipline Some people who have awakened kundalini look quite ab- normal, and they behave in a peculiar way. They are very disorganized, unsystematic and totally confused, and you cannot understand what they are doing. Therefore, in yoga you are advised to discipline yourself right from the begin ning, so that when kundalini wakes up you remain disciplined. Otherwise you might go out to the street and just lie down there in a heap. ch06-09.indd 55ch06-09.indd 55 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 56 Sometimes I used to feel like this. When I was living in Rishikesh with my guru, I decided to visit the Ganga each morning and cross it five times, swimming through the icy cold water. One day Swami Sivananda called me and said, Are you going to continue with your swimming or am I going to put you out of this ashram? This brought me back to my senses. Life has to be disciplined so that when kundalini awakens you can remain unconfused. You have to discharge your responsibilities. You have to go to the office, bank, shops, and drive a car as well. Not everybody can become a swami or stay in an ashram. Specific recommendations If the awakening of kundalini takes place through birth, pranayama, tantric initiation or shaktipat, you do not have to know anything. In these situations everything is beyond control; whether things go right or wrong; you are helpless. But when awakening takes place through the other methods, there are certain steps to take. Except in tantric initiation, sexual obligations have to be kept at bay. Food should be minimal, light and pure. One must have a guru and seek his guidance. Isolation from people is also very important. Often when kundalini awakens the person develops some sort of power. Some aspirants can materialize things, see clairvoyantly, hear clairaudiently or read the minds of others. When you are amongst many people, it becomes a great temptation to exercise these powers. This can be danger-ous. Whereas some people will not care if you can read their mind, others will feel it is a great impingement on their privacy and may even want to shoot you. People get scared at the exhibition of siddhis, so if you are facing any psychic manifestations, you will have to control them by force. The great Tibetan yogi, Milarepa, learned certain forms of magic, and when he developed powers, he took revenge on his uncle and relatives. He created hailstorms that ch06-09.indd 56ch06-09.indd 56 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 57destroyed crops, huts and even lives, because he was then an ordinary man with love and hatred, friends and enemies. As long as you have likes and dislikes, you must not know what psychic powers you have. Milarepa had to perform penance for his misdeeds and suffer a lot at the hands of his guru. Awakening by mantra and the need for seclusion When awakening takes place by mantra, you will have to adjust your diet and retire from sexual obligations, not permanently, but for a while. From time to time it is also beneficial if you enter total seclusion. Twice a year is sufficient. In the beginning, start with one complete day, then increase to three days, and when you are used to it, extend to a maximum period of nine days. It is preferable if you practise seclusion when it is neither too hot nor too cold. During your first day of seclusion, observe silence and eat very light food and very little. Do not meditate or try to concentrate. From morning until evening, with a few breaks here and there, only practise your mantra on a mala. Do not do it with exertion or strain, and if you become introverted, stop it. Maintain your mental concept with the external experi ences; do not aspire for an introverted meditative state. If introversion forces itself, keep your eyes open. Practise this for twelve hours, but not in one stretch. For the last hour you must sit in meditation. Next time you go into seclusion, do so for three to nine days. During this period devote as much time as possible to the repetition, resolution and reflection of the mantra. On the last day, at the end of the process, sit quietly for one hour of meditation. Seclusion is actually recommended for all who are undergoing awakening of kundalini. At that time it is best to retire from active life and family environments for at least forty-five days. Unless you are in semi-seclusion from the world at the time of awakening, as well as having strange experi ences and hallucinations, you may have peculiar doubts, fears, anger and strong passions. ch06-09.indd 57ch06-09.indd 57 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 58 Sadhus always live in seclusion because when there are interactions with people, so many thought currents move in the mind. Mixing with people, talking and gossiping create cross currents of love, hatred, infatuation, likes and dislikes, restlessness, worry and anxiety, desires and passions. There-fore, if you are practising a lot of sadhana, or you are facing the awakening of kundalini, do not have very much interac-tion with people. You will then be spared a lot of mental turmoil. ch06-09.indd 58ch06-09.indd 58 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 597 Diet for Kundalini Awakening When the awakening of kundalini takes place, it is important to have the correct diet, as food influences the mind and your nature. At the time of awakening, certain physiological changes occur in the body, particularly in the digestive system, and the digestive process is frequently disturbed, or hunger vanishes completely. Therefore, a kun-da lini aspirant has to be very careful about his diet. Scientific observations have shown that the awakening of kundalini is generally accompanied by a state of nervous depression. The inner body temperature undergoes erratic changes and drops so much that it becomes much lower than the outer body temperature. Metabolism slows down and sometimes it even stops completely. Consumption of oxy gen also falls. Therefore, when you are experiencing kun - dalini awakening your diet must be very light and easy to assimilate. The best diet for a kundalini yogi is boiled food. Crushed wheat, barley, lentils and dal are excellent foods, particularly when they are in a liquid form. Fats and greasy foods should be avoided and protein should be kept to a minimum. This will take any strain off the liver, because when the mind under goes a crisis, the liver is overtaxed. It is advisable to increase the carbohydrates in your diet, for example, rice, wheat, maize, barley, potato, etc., because carbohydrates help to maintain the inner body temperature ch06-09.indd 59ch06-09.indd 59 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 60and they do not require much heat to digest. Eggs, chicken and other heavy foods do not produce much heat themselves, but they require heat for digestion. The yogic diet is macrobiotic, simple, plain and relatively bland. From time to time, fruit and roots can also be taken, but they are not essential. Dietary misconceptions A great misunderstanding has taken place in the last twenty to thirty years, which is that a yogi should only take milk, fruit and raw vegetables. On the basis of personal observation, trial and error, I cannot accept that this is correct. There are certain foods which are not meant for the human body at all. If you analyze your digestive and salivary secretions and the durability of the mucous membranes in the alimentary canal, you will find that they are not really meant for digesting meat and uncooked foods. Whereas carnivorous animals have short intestines so that their food can be expelled quickly, before fermentation takes place, we have very long intestines (thirty-six feet in length) and our food should take eighteen hours to pass through the body. As well cooked vegetarian food is less likely to ferment, and we can keep it in our intestines for a full eighteen hours, it is the best for the human digestive tract. Of course, this is not to say that people who have a non-vegetarian diet cannot awaken their kundalini, as history indicates otherwise. There have been many Christian, Tibetan and Sufi saints who awakened their kundalini although they had a meat diet, and we cannot say what Christ, Moses, Mohammed and Buddha ate. However, from scientific observations made in the event of kundalini awakening, we know what is likely to occur in our body. At certain periods we may not be able to digest raw foods and there may be days when the body cannot even accept water. Therefore, during the period of kundalini awakening, please have a diet which can be easily assimilated and eat the bare minimum for existence. Do not live to eat, but eat to live. ch06-09.indd 60ch06-09.indd 60 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 61The essence of food The food we eat is not merely to satisfy our taste. Every food item has an essence in it, and in yoga we call this sattwa. Sattwa means the ultimate essence of food, but please do not mistake this for vitamins or minerals. Sattwa is the more subtle form of food. When you eat for the sake of taste or enjoyment, instead of extracting the sattwa you only get the gross things. This is why the yogis and saints of all traditions have always lived on the minimum possible amount of food during periods of sadhana. When we overeat we create a burden for the digestive system, and when the digestive system is overburdened we are unable to extract the sattwa from the food. Sattwa is a substance which nourishes the thoughts and nervous system. When the thoughts are fed with sattwa they are more refined and pure, and one is able to live in higher consciousness. Therefore, it is beneficial for a sadhaka to fast from time to time. When the body is kept light and pure, it is far more capable of extracting the sattwa from food. The use of condiments In the diet for kundalini aspirants, condiments have a very important role to play. Condiments such as coriander, cumin seeds, turmeric, aniseed, black pepper, green pepper, cay-enne, cloves, mustard seed, cardamom, cinnamon and so on are also called digestives, as they aid digestion. These substances are not spices for taste; they are condiments which have the same properties as the enzymes in the body, and by helping to break down the food for digestion, they conserve vital energy and help to maintain the bodys internal temperature. When we talk about diet, let us not do so in puritanical terms. We must remember only one point in this case, to be sure the body is capable of digesting all the food. Having made a thorough study of natural foods and having tried them on myself, I have come to the conclusion that a combination of natural and macrobiotic foods is best. I have ch06-09.indd 61ch06-09.indd 61 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 62also discovered that instead of cooking the food in your stomach, it is best to cook it properly in the pan. Five or six condiments should be added during cooking to liberate the enzymes and chemicals which enhance digestion. The com-bina tion of heat, condiments and enzymes breaks down the food into smaller and more basic components, making it easier to digest. Yoga and diet are independent sciences Although diet is an independent science, it is definitely related to every system of yoga. Of course, the ideal diet varies from yoga to yoga. A hatha yogi who has been practising shankhaprakshalana will not be able to eat lots of red peppers and black peppers or he will die. The diet regime for a karma yoga, a bhakta yogi, raja yogi, hatha yogi and kriya yogi will not be the same. A bhakta yogi can eat all types of sweets and confec-tionery, consume cheese, butter, milk, etc. and he can eat and eat because his metabolism is very fast. Similarly, a karma yogi can take cheese, coffee, raw food or cooked food, and even a little bit of champagne, because he is working hard physically and his metabolism is also very fast. But in raja yoga and kundalini awakening, the metabolism becomes slow and you have to be very careful about your diet and how much you consume. Over the years I have done a lot of work on food because I run ashrams where I have to manage all the affairs in relation to money, labour and the spiritual welfare of the ashram inmates. As it is not possible to provide different types of diets for the various aspirants of yoga, I have evolved two wonderful foods which suit everybody. One is for those who like rice and the other is for those who prefer wheat. You either cook the rice with dal (pulses such as lentils), vegetables and a few condiments, or you pound the wheat, add all the same ingredients to that and cook it well. I call this integrated khichari. You can add anything to it and it is all right. This is the cheapest and most nutritious of all ch06-09.indd 62ch06-09.indd 62 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 63the foods I have eaten in any part of the world. You can also eat as much khichari as you want without any fear, because it digests so smoothly. This diet is suitable for all yoga practi-tioners and it is ideal for those who are ranging high in spiritual life and are about to merge into the ultimate state. For one who is serious about yoga practices and spiritual aspirations in life, diet is as important as yoga, but if you are only worried about your diet and are not practising yoga, then you may be called a fanatic. ch06-09.indd 63ch06-09.indd 63 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 648 Risks and Precautions The awakening of kundalini is a very important, pleasant and historical experience in a persons life. If you can see and experience something more than what you can generally see and experience through your senses, you are indeed fortunate. However, at the same time, if you have such experiences without adequate preparation, you may be startled, frightened and confused. Therefore, before the actual awakening of kundalini occurs, it is better to experience some mild awakenings in the chakras first. Nowadays, if you travel by motor car at a very high speed, you do not really feel anything unusual, but if a person did it a hundred years ago when there was no adaptation to speed, he would have felt very giddy. Similarly, if a sudden awakening takes place and you are not used to the experience, you may become disoriented. You will not be able to cope with the radical changes in perception or with the contents of the unconscious mind welling up into the consciousness. But if you have been practising hatha yoga and meditation, and have experienced slight awakenings previously, you will be better able to cope with it. When the body in totality is purified by the practices of shatkarma and hatha yoga, when the mind is purified by mantra, when the pranas are brought under control through the practices of pranayama and the diet is pure and yogic, at that time, awakening of kundalini takes place ch06-09.indd 64ch06-09.indd 64 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 65without any danger or accident. But with those who are in a hurry to awaken kundalini and who take to any practice in a haphazard manner without going through the preliminaries, and who do not take care of their diet, there will be some problems because they do not know how to control and utilize the fantastic energy they are unleashing. The question of risk There are so many whispers about the dangers of awakening and dark hints about people going crazy or developing disturbing powers, but everything in life is risky and there are far more dangers in ordinary daily life than you will encounter on the path of kundalini. Every time you walk across the street or travel by car or plane, you take a risk. In the pursuit of desires, passions and ambitions, people take great risks every day without thinking twice about it. Y et they allow the relatively minor risk of kundalini to deter them from pursuing the supreme goal of higher consciousness. When a woman discovers she is pregnant, does she think it might be dangerous for her to have a child? She might die! She may have to have a caesarean! She may lose her figure for life! She may become seriously ill! Does a woman think like this and decide she does not want a child at all? No. Then why think like this about kundalini? Awakening of kundalini is the birth of Christ, Krishna, Buddha or Mohammed. It is one of the greatest events of human life, just as for a mother to have a baby is one of the major and happiest events of her life, no matter what the consequences. In the same way, awakening of kundalini is one of the greatest events in the life of a yogi. It is the destiny of mankind, so why not go ahead with it? Without involving yourself in a risk, nothing great in life can be achieved. Every great yogi, scientist, explorer and adventurer has faced risks and in this way has invented, discovered or made progress. People who think and talk about risks are cowards, and should not even practise yoga. It is better they eat, drink, be merry and die unenlightened. ch06-09.indd 65ch06-09.indd 65 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 66 Kundalini practices are certainly no more dangerous than many activities people engage in for the sake of thrills, sport or altered states of consciousness. The risks are not nearly as great as those associated with LSD, hashish, mari juana and alcohol, which are used by many people every day. Those who practise kundalini yoga are assured of attaining states of expanded consciousness which are safer, smoother, more comprehensible and longer lasting than anything that can be obtained through the use of psychedelics. The science of kundalini yoga has its own inbuilt safety mechanisms. If you perform asanas or pranayama incorrectly, nature will immediately send a warning and compel you to stop practising. In the same way, when kundalini awakening takes place and you are not prepared to face it, nature puts obstacles in your way. If ever you become scared and want to stop the process of kundalini awakening, all you have to do is revert to a gross lifestyle. Just revise all your passions, dreams and worldly ambitions. Unless you are an extremely introverted person, you can proceed along the path of kundalini yoga without fear. If you are hypersensitive, have difficulty communicating with others and live within a sort of fantasy world, you will find kundalini yoga upsetting and dangerous. Such people should not practise kundalini yoga or any techniques for exploring the inner world until they have developed the ability to strike fearlessly and confidently through the outer world. This also applies to timid and dependent people. For all these individuals, karma yoga is the way. They should lead a life of unselfish service in the world and develop non-attachment and maximum awareness. Fear of mistakes Some people worry about kundalini ascending through the wrong nadi, but there is no danger here because if kundalini enters through any other nadi, the whole circuit will fuse. If kundalini has awakened but a chakra is blocked, say swadhisthana, then the kundalini will only roam about in ch06-09.indd 66ch06-09.indd 66 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 67mooladhara and all the instincts of that chakra will develop. You will become a high class animal for a while and may develop some siddhis. If there is any obstruction in the chakras beyond that, the energy will be blocked for a long time, affecting the psychological constitution. If kundalini enters into the pranic nadi, pingala, it could set the whole brain into turmoil. However, this does not usually happen. Nature intervenes, and unless sushumna is clear, the chakra will not open and the energy will not be able to move further. Mistakes do occur, but not in average individuals because they are scared of something wrong happening somewhere. If they are practising and suddenly feel they are going crazy, they will discontinue their practices immediately. So, every individual possesses a sort of fear. Before anything wrong can happen totally, man takes care of himself. However, there are some blockheads and very stuffy people who plod on no matter what happens. They do not care about the consequences and these are the people who generally get themselves into trouble. Kundalini awakening and illness If you take care of all the requirements, then no illness will come to you. However, many people are very hasty and impatient. When they want to make money, they want to make it overnight, quickly, and the same psychology is transferred into spiritual life: quick money and quick realization. With this impatience, sometimes we will overstep the neces sary prerequisites. Some people develop weakness of the lower limbs because they have not trained their body through hatha yoga. Some develop digestive disorders because they have not understood the relationship between food and the tempera ture of the body. Therefore, the prerequisites have to be observed. Those who suffer do so not because of the kundalini awakening, but because they have not harmonized the nervous system. Through hatha yoga you must create a balance between the two forces in the physical body, the pranic and the ch06-09.indd 67ch06-09.indd 67 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 68mental. Even in modern times we say that a balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems is absolutely essential to develop the higher faculties of the brain. When there is an imbalance between these two forces, that is, if one is predominant and the other subservient, then you are supplying one energy in excess and the other energy is deficient. This inevitably leads to sickness. Airing the unconscious In the course of your practices there may be isolated awakenings in ajna chakra, in which the awareness enters the realms of the unconscious mind and you see figures, symbols and even monsters or benevolent beings. You may hear or experience many inexplicable things, but they are all simply products of your own unconscious mind and should be regarded as nothing more. With the awakening of psychic consciousness, the symbols belonging to your own personality come out. When this happens you may have a problem under-standing it, but just remember that these kinds of expressions are simply parts of your being which have been lying in reserve and they have to come out for airing. You should not fear kundalini awakening, but you must be prepared for the events that may occur. Other wise, if you have a weak mind and are confronted by fear, it could lead to mental derangement. So, before you attempt kundalini awakening you should undergo a process of thought purifica-tion and develop understanding of your way of thinking. When the prerequisites for kundalini awakening are follow ed properly, psychological and psycho-emotional symp-toms do not occur. In fact, all these things happen before the actual event of kundalini awakening. But of course, when the awakening takes place, an aspirant who is not maintaining the proper discipline that is required is bound to get into some psychological cobwebs. The awakening of kundalini should never be equated with obsessions or neurosis. When an explosion takes place it brings out whatever was in you. If you have a personality full ch06-09.indd 68ch06-09.indd 68 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 69of obsessions and mental blocks, then it is going to explode. Therefore, before one attempts awakening of kundalini, one must have arrived at a point of purity of consciousness or clarity of mind, chitta shuddhi. Purity of consciousness is not religious terminology. You may have pure thoughts in your mind, but you may not be pure at all. You may be thinking about purity, chastity, compassion, charity and generosity, but in the subterranean plane of your personality there may be conflicts or other unresolved mental problems. When the mind enters into meditation or samadhi, this subterranean level comes up to the surface. You begin to see all the debris and you feel it and enact it. This can happen at anytime, when you are dreaming, when you are in a state of craziness and when kundalini is waking. That is why a relentless effort should be made to render the mind free from all the disturbing archetypes or samskaras before you try to handle this project. An integration of karma, bhakti and raja yoga, tempered with hatha and jnana yoga, must be adopted first. Purity and impurity Although I recommend chitta shuddhi, I know that many people have an obsession about purity and impurity. They keep thinking they are impure and therefore they should not try to awaken kundalini. But when the sun rises, what happens to the darkness? Purity and impurity are ethical and moral concepts created by society and religion. Awaken ing of kundalini is the awakening of the great light within mankind. It rises like the sun, and when it can be seen on the horizon there will be no darkness, no pain, suffering, disap pointment or impurity. Siddhis and the ego factor When one has been practising kundalini yoga for a couple of years and suddenly starts having beautiful experiences, one tends to think oneself superior to everybody else and may ch06-09.indd 69ch06-09.indd 69 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 70even consider oneself as godly. To protect yourself from this, you must place yourself in the calibre of chela or disciple. A disciple remains a disciple, there is no promotion. Many people think that after twelve years of discipleship they will be promoted to guruhood, but this is not so. In the path of kundalini yoga it is very important that you live the life of a disciple even after the awakening of kundalini, and not only after that, but even when Shiva and Shakti have united. The path of kundalini yoga is the means for attaining supreme awareness and enlightenment, but if you get lost in the beauty of kundalini, you may not reach enlightenment. When, at a certain stage of awakening, the mind becomes very efficient and siddhis such as telepathy, clairvoyance, hyp not ism, spirit ual healing and so on manifest, some aspir-ants take that to be a divine accomplishment and begin to think, Now I am God. Then, in the name of doing good to everybody, they start perform ing all sorts of funny magic. This feeds the ego, and in the course of time, their ignorance becomes very great. There is extreme danger here and many aspirants get caught. Their ego becomes tremendously gross and they develop a strong feeling of grandeur. And that is as far as they get. Although there is nothing really wrong with psychic powers, those whose seek them must know that they can completely destroy their spiritual consciousness if they are not disciplined. You can become lost in these powers, just as some people get lost in money, beauty, intellect and so on. These parapsychological attainments are momentary; they live with you for only a short period of time and then you lose them. They are only additional properties to be experi-enced and left behind in the wake of the dawning of supreme awareness. It is important to remember what Maharishi Patanjali has said in the Yoga Sutras: All these psychic manifestations are obstacles which block the free flow of consciousness towards samadhi. ch06-09.indd 70ch06-09.indd 70 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 71Two opposing forces In the realms of higher consciousness, there are both divine and demonical forces. Both these forces can be brought down to earth by the same techniques. Without higher awareness, when the awakening of the chakras begins, the knowledge and destructive energy of the atom bomb might be unleashed, rather than the wisdom and spiritual power of the rishis. When kundalini awakens in a person with no dispassion and discrimination, who does not seek liberation and does not know the reality of this world, the consequences can be disastrous. Ultimately, that person will destroy himself, and possibly many others in the process. Therefore, a kundalini aspirant must constantly work towards the development of higher awareness. To be con scious of the unconscious is very difficult. When your awareness is heavy and burdened with tension and confusion, it cannot survive for long in the unconscious state. But when your consciousness is light and clear, it can penetrate into the unconscious like a sharp and speedy arrow, successfully navigating past all the danger zones and emerging with higher knowledge. Anyone who has the urge to expand his or her awareness is a pioneer. In this we are emerging from the confines of a mental prison within which the human race has been in-carcerated for millennia. It is the privilege of each one of us to participate in this historic adventure, and we must be prepared for any event uality. Kundalini yoga, if practised with dedication, patience and appropriate guidance, is the safest and most pleasant way of awakening that can ever take place in our lives. With the awakening of kundalini, life becomes smooth. Plans and projects become clear, decisions become accurate, and the personality becomes dynamic and powerful. Therefore, do not be afraid of any risk. Once the awakening takes place, all your limitations will be overcome, because darkness can never exist in the face of kundalini. ch06-09.indd 71ch06-09.indd 71 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 729 Kundalini and Madness Many individuals who experience the awakening of kundalini behave in a peculiar way; they think in a different style or pattern. They may see auras and visions, feel peculiar in the body, hear strange sounds and talk about things which seem to be all sorts of nonsense. In society our brains are structured in a certain way; there is discipline and control which inhibit us from expres-sing ourselves freely. When the awakening of kundalini takes place, this conditioning is withdrawn and the lid is completely lifted from the mind. That is why the actions and words of those people who are undergoing kundalini awakening appear so nonsensical, deviant and oftentimes mad to the ordinary person. During kundalini awakening and madness, people may manifest the same symptoms, but on closer examination a difference can be detected between them. Similarly, if you film one person laughing out of madness and another person laughing with friends, they will look almost the same but actually they are different. Most of us have probably read stories about the avadhootas and fakirs of India, and the Sufi and Christian mystics. Externally, these God-intoxicated ones looked crazy, but if you were with them they would have appeared and proved to be very clear. The inner con-sciousness of such people is absolutely lucid, organized and disciplined. ch06-09.indd 72ch06-09.indd 72 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 73A great misunderstanding Mystics throughout the ages have been persecuted for their experiences, which to the normal mundane consciousness are insanity, yet to the sage are ecstasy. Socrates was poisoned because he did not behave normally. Christ was crucified on the cross because his teachings were not understood. Al-Hallaj, the Sufi saint, was skinned alive because he spoke the truth without fear of society. Joan of Arc and the witches of Salem were burned at the stake, as were many others. All have been persecuted and harassed by the mundane populace for their vision, which arose as a result of inner work. Due to this lack of understanding, many of the esoteric doctrines were hidden from the majority of people. Of course, this was long ago. We live in a more enlightened world today, far from the barbarous atrocities of the past, or do we? War and poverty still exist, as do insanity and madness. People who are shown to be crazy, relative to the norms of our society, are locked up until they are better. Y et, by what criteria are they judged insane? How do we know the difference between insanity and the ecstasy of enlightenment? Is it by the superficial external appearances that we sense with our limited sensory apparatus, or is it by some deeper inner fear that we are motivated to judge others insane because they do not behave like the majority? Some of the people in the west who are locked up as insane would be recognized in the east as having undergone higher spiritual experiences. Therefore, it is now up to modern science to determine some definite, concrete and reliable ways to dif-ferentiate between the broken, insane mind and the opening, enlighten ed mind. Spiritual experiences in the East and West Knowledge of spiritual experience has been lost in the West. During the last few centuries, many unfortunate people whose kundalini had awakened were sent to mental hospitals and given drugs, electric shocks and other inappropriate treat ments. The scientists and doctors believed that the ch06-09.indd 73ch06-09.indd 73 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 74awakening was an abnormal kind of behaviour, and no one was able to accept or handle it, not even the persons immediate family or closest friends. That is why in the last two hundred years, there have been so few great personalities in the west; they have all been committed to mental hospitals or they have remained quiet to avoid that fate. In India, the situation is quite different. There, when an individual expresses some abnormal symptoms, makes some very peculiar gestures or speaks of extraordinary dreams, it is understood that he is experiencing events beyond the mind. The Hindu belief is that the consciousness is not the finished product of nature, but is subject to evolution, and between one state of being and the next, there is a crisis. When strange symptoms occur in someone, it is believed that his consciousness is undergoing evolution. If a childs total personality is devoted to God and he can experience things beyond the mind, then his whole family is purified and such a child is universally respected. A spiritual awakening or madness? Though the process of spiritual awakening usually occurs without incident or interruption, it may happen that block-ages and impurities in the body create symptoms which mimic various neurological and psychiatric conditions. These problems necessitate careful diagnosis to differentiate kun-dalini arousal and pathology. It is very simple to distinguish between a mental or psychic phenomenon and a mental sickness, however many of the symptoms may overlap; mental illness never develops in people who are free from conflict. If a person is undergoing a problem in his personal life, perhaps due to a death, loss of property or emotional breakdown, psychotic behaviour can develop. Fantasies can take form and ones own psychological volition can manifest in the form of psychic energy. On the other hand, if there are no conflicts, anxieties or strong crosscurrents in a persons life, he cannot possibly have any mental disease. Suppose you have no apparent problems, no ch06-09.indd 74ch06-09.indd 74 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 75personal or social difficulties, but still you are having some strange supra-sensual experiences. In a case like this, there should be no doubt about what is taking place. A mad person does not have a constant and consistent flow of experience and his awareness is very dissipated. He is both disorganized externally and completely blinded in-ternally. On the other hand, the awareness of a person who is awakened is constant and consistent. Whereas a person with an awakened consciousness can make accurate decisions and judgements, a crazy person cannot. Madness and spiritual awakening may both be characterized by a certain lack of control, but the spiritually awakened person is guided by a higher consciousness while the mad person is not. When some supra-sensual experience is taking place, it is im portant to consult an experienced person who has knowl-edge of illumination and also knows about madness. A guru can make the correct judgement and determine whether the brain has begun a process of regression or is actually progres-sing along transcendental lines. If there is some organic damage in the brain, it can be treated, but if the symptoms are spiritual, the person is initiated and given something to practise so his behaviour is streamlined. He or she will not be forced into married life or any other of the social roles which are unsuitable. Instead, he will be exposed to saintly personalities and teachings. If this type of guidance and support for the experience is not obtained, it is very easy to end up in a mental hospital, or even a prison. However, scientists are now broadening their description of the spectrum of human behaviour and they are discovering that behaviour can be psychic or spiritual in origin as well as psychological or physical. Everybody should understand one very important point. Awakening of kun-dalini should never be equated with abnormal psychological behaviour, because awakening of kundalini is a process of jump ing out of the mind. ch06-09.indd 75ch06-09.indd 75 21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM21/03/2018 4:29:28 PM 7610 Four Forms of Awakening When we talk about awakening we should not confuse awakening of kundalini with other forms of awakening. Awakening of the chakras is completely different from awakening of kundalini. Awakening of sushumna is also quite a different event, and awakening of mooladhara chakra is not awakening of kundalini. Even if all the chakras from mooladhara up to ajna are awakened this does not mean that kundalini is awakened. In the systematic process of awakening kundalini, the first step is to purify ida and pingala nadis and create harmony in their functioning. Next, all the chakras have to be awaken ed. Then sushumna nadi is awakened, and when there is a clear pathway for its ascent, kundalini can be awakened. If the first three steps have been taken, awakening of kundalini will only have positive effects, but if they have been neglected and kundalini awakens, there will definitely be some negative results. Supposing you have awakened kundalini before sushumna awakening has taken place, then the shakti will not find a channel towards Shiva. It will remain obstructed in mooladhara chakra and will create tremendous sexual and neurotic problems. This is a negative result because you wanted to unite with Shiva and have higher experiences, whereas now you are experiencing the grosser things. If the chakras are not awakened before kundalini, the shakti will get blocked in one of the chakras ch10-14.indd 76ch10-14.indd 76 21/03/2018 4:29:47 PM21/03/2018 4:29:47 PM 77and remain stagnant, possibly for years. Some siddhis may develop and you may not be able to transcend them at all. This is also a negative effect. Each form of awakening has its own psychic potential. Every nerve and fibre of your body is psychic; it is capable of produc ing psychic manifestations. There is a possibility of awakening the entire physical body. Every cell of the body is one individual. You are the macrocosmic body for that microcosmic individual. Step 1: Disciplining ida and pingala Ida and pingala nadis are responsible for the mundane existence. Pingala conducts the life that is in your body and ida conducts the consciousness. These two nadis respectively feed the two hemispheres of the brain, which in turn control every activity of the body. It is not awakening of these nadis we aim towards, but discipline. As you know, ida and pingala function alternately and directly influence the temperature of the body, digestive and hormonal secretions, the brain waves and all the bodily systems. Ida and pingala function according to a natural cycle, but on account of poor eating habits and inharmonious lifestyles, the natural cycle is often disturbed. Sometimes one nadi predominates and the other is suppressed, which leads to mental and physical imbalances and generally results in disease. Therefore, ida and pingala must be disciplined or made to function according to the laws of nature. Only when there is harmony between these two nadis can sushumna be awakened. So, through the practices of hatha yoga, pranayama and raja yoga, the nadis should be purified and disciplined. The best practice for this is nadi shodhana pranayama, the nadi purifying pranayama. Step 2: Awakening the chakras From incarnation to incarnation the yoga we have been practising may have already awakened the lower chakras. ch10-14.indd 77ch10-14.indd 77 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 78Although most of us try to awaken mooladhara, swadhisthana etc. it may not be necessary to awaken them because we may have evolved even beyond manipura on account of our efforts in a previous life. It is even possible that kundalini may have ascended through the chakras, but we do not know it because we have not noticed any symptoms. However, in any case, it is essential that all the chakras must be awakened before we make an attempt to awaken sushumna. If the chakras are not purified, then purification of the nadis will not serve any purpose. If the electrical junctions are not connected or properly organized, even if you have the best wiring available, how will the electrical energy be distributed? The chakras are the junctions from which the nadis, like cables, transmit the energy to different parts of the body. Every point, speck or fibre of the body is directly related to one of the chakras. If you experience pain in any part of the body, the sensation will go to the chakras related to that particular area. This means your whole body is connected to the chakras. For example, the urinary, excretory and repro-duc tive systems are fed by swadhisthana chakra. Besides this, the sexual organs are connected to mooladhara chakra. The digestive system, small intestine, large intestine, ap pendix, pancreas, duodenum, stomach and liver are all connected to manipura chakra. The heart and lungs are fed by anahata chakra. However, in most people, the chakras beyond manipura are dormant. Because mooladhara chakra is the highest chakra in animal evolution, it is already functioning in most people. That is why everybody has a very acute sexual awareness and sex has become one of the most important events in mans life. Therefore, most of our social traditions are based upon this particular human requirement. The mere fact that todays society is utilizing the five tattwas of tantra (meat, fish, wine, grain and sexual interaction) in everyday life means that in most people, kundalini is somewhere between mooladhara and swadhisthana. Once ch10-14.indd 78ch10-14.indd 78 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 79kundalini leaves swadhisthana and ascends to manipura and anahata, you no longer need the five tattwas. If you are stuck in mooladhara or swadhisthana chakra, you will need to purify the higher chakras and bring them into operation. There are many ways of doing it. For those who are strong in mind, there are some higher practices. By concentration on bhrumadhya you can awaken one chakra, by the practice of uddiyana bandha you can awaken another, by practising mantra, your mantra or any beeja mantra, you can awaken almost all the chakras one by one, and as a result of this awakening, you can have very good psychic experiences which you can easily handle. In my opinion, it is safer to awaken the chakras by the mild methods. The asanas are intended to create mild awakening in the chakras. For example, sarvangasana will awaken vishuddhi, matsyasana will awaken anahata, and bhujangasana will awaken swadhisthana. By awakening the chakras mildly, you will not have any jolting experiences. Sometimes, when a chakra awakens suddenly, you can have the experience of lower lives. This means you can be assailed by fear, anxiety, greed, passion, depression, and so on. Each chakra is symbolized by a certain animal, indicating a type of animal consciousness, and if sudden awakening of a chakra takes place, you may exhibit some of the animal emotions in either a mild or very strong way. For instance, fear is not a human emotion, nor is infatuation or violence. Of course, man is trying to expel the animal from himself, but at the same time he is maintaining it. Therefore, care must be taken not to give an explosive manifestation to the awakening of the chakras. Step 3: Awakening sushumna In order to purify and awaken sushumna, a lot of work has to be done and you must be ready to cope with experiences that are more intense than those associated with chakra awakening. These experiences are beyond logic. They are not even real and they cannot be explained or properly ch10-14.indd 79ch10-14.indd 79 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 80understood. If the chakras are awakened, ida and pingala are balanced and the other nadis are also purified, but there is an obstruction in sushumna, then the awakening of kundalini will not fulfil its purpose. Actually, I do not believe that ida and pingala nadis are inferior to sushumna. Awakening of pingala nadi will awaken one portion of the brain and awakening of ida will awaken another portion. However, when kundalini enters sushumna, it affects the whole brain. In the ancient texts of tantra it has been clearly indicated that it does not matter if kundalini enters another passageway. If there is an awakening in pingala, one becomes a healer or a siddha, one who has control over nature, matter and the mind. When there is awakening in ida, one can predict things; one becomes a prophet. But when sushumna awakens, kundalini ascends straight to sahasrara and one becomes a jivanmukta, a liberated soul. So, hatha yoga and pranayama are prescribed for the awakening of sushumna. There are also other ways, but kriya yoga is the best, particularly the practices of maha mudra and maha bheda mudra. For awakening of sushumna, ida and pingala have to be suppressed. Thus you can see the importance of practising kumbhaka, breath retention. When both nadis are suppressed in kumbhaka, immediately after you will find that both nadis are flowing simultaneously. It is at this time that kundalini should awaken. ch10-14.indd 80ch10-14.indd 80 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 8111 The Descent of Kundalini Everybody talks about the ascent of kundalini, but few ever discuss the descent. When the descent of kundalini occurs, it means the lower mental plane of the human being is no longer influenced by the ordinary mind, the super-mind takes over instead. This higher form of consciousness rules the body, mind and senses and directs your life, thoughts and emotions. Kundalini is henceforth the ruler of your life. That is the concept of descent. The whole process after union When Shiva and Shakti unite in sahasrara, one experiences samadhi, illumination occurs in the brain and the silent areas begin to function. Shiva and Shakti remain merged together for some time, during which there is a total loss of consciousness pertaining to each other. At that time a bindu evolves. Bindu means a point, a drop, and that bindu is the substratum of the whole cosmos. Within that bindu is the seat of human intelligence and the seat of the total creation. Then the bindu splits into two and Shiva and Shakti manifest again in duality. When ascension took place it was only the ascent of Shakti, but when descent takes place, Shiva and Shakti both descend to the gross plane and there is again knowledge of duality. Those who have studied quantum physics will have a better understanding of this as it is difficult for everyone to ch10-14.indd 81ch10-14.indd 81 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 82understand from the philosophical point of view. After total union there is a process of coming down the same pathway you ascended. The gross consciousness which became fine, again becomes gross. That is the concept of divine incarnation or avatara. The non-dual experience of samadhi When one attains the highest pinnacles of samadhi, purusha and prakriti, or Shiva and Shakti, are in total union and only adwaita, non-dual experience, exists. At this time, when there is no subject/object plus distinction, it is very difficult for one to differentiate. He may look like an idiot and not know it, or he may appear to be a great scholar and not be aware of that. He does not know whether he is talking to a man or a woman, he sees no difference between them. He may even be associating with spiritual or divine people without being aware of that, because at this point of time his consciousness is reduced to a level of innocence just like that of a baby. So, in the state of samadhi you are a baby. A baby cannot tell the difference between a man and a woman because he has no physical or sexual distinction. He cannot distinguish a scholar from an idiot and he may not even see any difference between a snake and a rope. He can hold a snake just as he holds a rope. This only happens when union is taking place. When Shiva and Shakti descend to the gross plane, that is, mooladhara chakra, they separate and live as two entities. There is duality in mooladhara chakra. There is duality in the mind and senses and in the world of name and form, but there is no duality in samadhi. There is no seer or experiencer in the state of samadhi. There is nobody to say what samadhi is like because it is a non-dual experience. Why Shiva and Shakti both descend It is very difficult to understand why Shiva and Shakti both descend to the gross plane after having attained the highest union. What is the use of destroying the world and ch10-14.indd 82ch10-14.indd 82 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 83then creating it again? What is the point of transcending the consciousness if you have to come back to it again? Why bother to awaken kundalini and unite with Shiva in sahasrara if you have to come down to mooladhara again? This is something very mysterious and we can well ask, Why awaken kundalini at all? Why build a mansion if you know you will have to burn it down when it is completed? We actually create a lot of things that are ultimately going to be destroyed. So why do it at all? It seems so crazy! We do so much sadhana to transcend the chakras and ascend from earth to heaven. Then, when we reach paradise and become one with that great reality, we suddenly decide to come back down; and not all alone, we bring the great one with us. It would be easier to understand if Shakti came back alone and Shiva remained in heaven. Maybe when Shakti is about to leave, Shiva says, Wait, Im coming with you. A new existence on the gross plane When kundalini descends, you come down to the gross plane with a totally transformed consciousness. You live a normal life, associating with everybody and discharging your worldly obligations just like other people do. Maybe you even play the game of desires, passions, cravings and such things. Maybe you play the game of victory and defeat, attachment and infatuation, but you are just playing a game. You know it; you do every thing as an actor. You are not involved in it life and soul. It is at this time that the genius or the transformed consciousness manifests through you. You do not have to think or plan how to perform miracles. You have to remember that you have come down as a transformed quality of consciousness. You must remember that you are now con-nected with those areas of the brain which were previously silent. You must also remember that you are linked with those reservoirs of knowledge, power and wisdom which belong to the realm of the higher cosmos. ch10-14.indd 83ch10-14.indd 83 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 84 Until the descent is complete, such a person lives a very simple life, unnoticed and unattended. Once the descent is complete he begins to play the game and people recognize him as a divine incarnation. They see he is something special compared to everybody else and they call him a guru. Such a person is actually a junior god. Dealing with the issues of reality When Shiva and Shakti descend to the gross level of awareness there is again duality. That is why the self-realized person is able to understand pain and all the mundane affairs of life. He understands the whole drama of duality, multiplicity and diversity. Sometimes we ordinary mortals are at a fix to understand how this person with the highest attainment is able to cope with the hopeless dualities of life. When I was about thirteen, I was also puzzled by this question. There was a great lady saint who was supposed to have attained the very highest state and I used to visit her with my elders. I used to hear her discussing all the mundane and ordinary things of life How are you? How is your child? Is he sick? Are you giving him medicine? Why do you fight with your wife? I used to think, If she is an enlightened lady, she shouldnt talk about duality. How can she understand duality if she is in unity? I never got an answer, but everyone has his moments of experience in life and I have not been an exception to that. I came to understand that Shiva and Shakti live on both planes and that this gross plane of duality is an expression and manifestation of the correlation of Shiva and Shakti. This is precisely the reason why the great saints and mahatmas talk about charity, compassion, love, and so on. However, there is a period when they do not understand these things and they do not care what happens to the world. They do not even know what is going on, who is happy and who is suffering. Finally, however, there is a great transformation. Shakti rules matter and Shiva rules consciousness, and when they descend to the gross plane Shakti continues to rule matter, ch10-14.indd 84ch10-14.indd 84 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 85and Shiva, being consciousness, gives an under standing to the whole world. Therefore, if we ever see a self-realized person discussing the trivialities of life and dealing with the issues of reality, we should not be surprised. ch10-14.indd 85ch10-14.indd 85 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 8612 The Experiences of Awakening The awakening of kundalini is like a great explosion which transports a person into another plane of being. No matter which spiritual path you follow, you must eventually reach this domain. Ordinary consciousness and transcen dental consciousness cannot be maintained at the same time; it is necessary to pass through an intermediate zone of change, where perceptions, feelings and experiences undergo a transformation. The adventure is always the same; it is a journey through the border region between the known and the unknown. At this time it is very important to recognize that this explos ion signals a profound alteration in consciousness. The complete process of awakening is comprised of several stages, as the kundalini rises and passes through the various chakras. It takes quite some time to become fully stabilized, but if one has a good understanding, the transition process can be managed without any serious difficulties. The preliminary awakening of kundalini is followed by the experience of light in bhrumadhya. Usually this develops in a very mild way over an extended period of time and, therefore, does not precipitate any sudden agitation or distur bance. After some time, the appetite for food and sleep gradually decreases and the mind becomes quieter. There is another prior warning which heralds the awaken ing of kundalini. In yoga and tantra it is very clearly ch10-14.indd 86ch10-14.indd 86 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 87indicated that when ida and pingala flow simultaneously for a long period of time, and sushumna begins to flow, then it is time to prepare for a spiritual event. Therefore, one should be conversant with swara yoga, the science of the breath cycle, and keep a close watch over the breathing process. The breathing pattern in the nostrils normally changes every fourth day, according to the cycles of the moon, but when both nostrils have been functioning equally well for at least fifteen days, that is an advance warning of an impending spiritual breakthrough. An onslaught of experiences When the actual awakening occurs there is an explosion in the realm of experience and there are symptoms which are sometimes very difficult to understand. The most unique and common experience is the release of energy like an electric shock from the bottom of the spinal cord, as if it were connected to an electrical power point. This may be accompanied by a burning sensation in mooladhara chakra and energy passing up and down through sushumna. Sometimes you hear drums, flutes, bells, birds, celestial music, or you may even think you can hear peacocks singing. You may have a very momentary sensation of sitting outside in the middle of a monsoon shower, and there can also be the sensation of dark clouds in continual movement overhead and the sound of thunder. At times your body feels so light and you may even visual-ize your spinal cord as fluorescent light. It is common to feel illumination from within, as if hundreds of little lights were burning inside your body. This is one side. The other side is that all the anger, passions and suppressions come out. Sometimes you are so filled with fear that you cannot sleep, sometimes for days together you have nothing in your mind but sex, at other times you think of nothing but food. However, all these symptoms pass within a few days or weeks. Some people obtain psychic powers: clairvoyance, telepathy, clairaudience, psychotelekinesis, the ability to ch10-14.indd 87ch10-14.indd 87 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 88heal, etc., and this brings a lot of temptations. However, this is a phase and it will pass away. Sometimes you do not feel like eating for days. You may not have any appetite for fifteen to twenty days, and even if people try to force you to eat, you cannot. There is sometimes a feeling of nervous depression, and you may just want to sit, or you may feel restricted and closed in. There is a detach-ment from the normal emotions of life; for days you may live a life of utter dispassion. Nothing is interesting in life and everything and everybody seems as dry as a desert. But at the same time, the mind becomes very dynamic and appears to be formless. Various sensations, poetic emo tions and artistic perceptions also occur, such as visions of angels and divinities. All kinds of things can emerge from the depths of the mind. However, these are just a few of the symptoms you may experience, but all of them pass away quickly. The storm always settles and then the yogi lives a very normal life. Externally his life seems the same as anybody elses, but his inner awareness is far greater and more vast. Headaches and insomnia Some aspirants experience terrible headaches when kundalini is awakening, however, this does not mean that all headaches are related to kundalini, and not everybody will have headaches. Generally, those who have had a married life do not have this experience. It is usually only those who have not had any kind of sexual interactions who experience headaches with the advent of kundalini awakening. There is also another explanation about headaches. One-tenth of the brain is active and nine-tenths are not. In some cases, when the silent areas of the brain begin to wake up, the first symptom is headache. People have equated this experience with labour pain. Just as a woman experiences labour pain when she is about to give birth to a child, when the silent areas of the brain are about to become active and you are giving birth to spiritual consciousness, there is also pain. Therefore, one has to bear with this pain for some ch10-14.indd 88ch10-14.indd 88 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 89time, but it will inevitably settle down. Of course, you can reduce the pain by adjusting your diet and lifestyle, but under no circumstances should you use sedatives, aspirins or pain relieving pills. It is also likely that an aspirant will experience insomnia. However, yogis do not call it insomnia. They say, Why should I sleep? If you love a person very much and he stays with you and does not allow you to sleep, will you call that insomnia? So, not all those who do not sleep are yogis. There are yogis who do not sleep and are happy about it because yogis have an entirely different attitude. They say one-third of life is wasted in sleeping. So, when kundalini awakens in a yogi and consciousness is constant and consistent, and there is no waking, sleeping and dreaming, they are very happy about it. Therefore, insomnia does not usually bother a person who has awakened kundalini. However, if you are disturbed by your inability to sleep, you should never resort to sleeping pills or tranquillizers. It is also not necessary that you practise yoga to induce sleep. Just accept your sleeplessness and enjoy it. You can do japa or meditation or just do some spiritual reflection. If this is not possible, just lie down and let it happen as it will. Experiencing the threefold awakenings Each of the three forms of awakening nadis, chakras and sushumna is accompanied by its own set of experiences. Many aspirants have psychic experiences and think that these indicate the awakening of kundalini, but this is not so. When the chakras are awakening, the experiences one has are not so frightening and critical. They are usually of a fantastic nature, very pleasant, hallucinatory and comfortable. Even if you have an experience of fear or terror, it does not shake your mind. When you have experiences of your ishta devata or guru, or you have some experience in meditation or during kirtan, and it feels very nice, that represents chakra awakening and not kundalini awakening. ch10-14.indd 89ch10-14.indd 89 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 90When you experience a chakra awakening it is rather beautiful and leaves a comfortable or blissful feeling. That is to encourage you to go further. When awakening takes place in sushumna, you may feel or see a rod of light, or your spinal cord may seem to be fully illumined from within. Such experiences are described by saints of different religions in their poems, songs and stories, which are unfortunately understood by very few people today. The awakening of sushumna can also bring some mind exploding experiences which are sometimes very confusing. You can smell pleasant and unpleasant odours, you will hear shrieks and screams as if ghosts are crying, and there is a feeling of heat, creeping sensations and pain in different parts of the body. You may get a high fever or manifest the symptoms of some common disease or some baffling illness which medical experts find difficult to analyze. At the time of sushumna awakening, the quality and experience of the mind begin to change. One has the experience of depression, anorexia and loneliness. You begin to realize the inner essence. Matter appears to be nothing, and even your body feels as if it were only made up of air. Or you may feel that you are not part of this physical body, you are someone else. When you look at people, animals and the objects of nature the flowers, trees, rivers and mountains, and so on, you feel a communication with them. At this time, you also experience prophetic vision, but your visions or forewarnings may not be clear and you only foresee the bad things imminent perils, accidents, disasters and catastrophes. Throughout the awakening one generally has an aversion to work and cannot really apply oneself to anything. It is actually best if an aspirant is near his guru at this time of awakening so he can explain what is happening. The sadhaka is not merely making a transition from one state of mind to another, he is actually jumping from one state to another. It is also very difficult for even an expert guru to handle these matters unless the disciple has totally accepted him as his guru. ch10-14.indd 90ch10-14.indd 90 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 91Differentiating the experiences You must remember that when you have certain visions and fantastic experiences, they do not necessarily represent the awakening of kundalini or even sushumna nadi. They may indicate chakra awakening or they may just be the expression of your archetypes or samskaras. Because of your sadhana, concentration or one-pointedness, you may be allowing an outlet for your deep-rooted samskaras to express themselves. These experiences and those that accompany chakra awakening do not mean anything when you try to assess them. I will give you an example. Many years ago, I was meditating on the bank of the Ganga in Rishikesh and suddenly I had a very vivid experience. I saw the whole earth split into two. It was a very clear vision, and I remember it even today, but this vision had nothing to do with reality; I just had it. This was an experience of chakra awakening. When the actual awakening of kundalini takes place, it is a great event. Every experience has a tangible proof, whether it is awakening of extrasensory perceptions or the awaken-ing of a particular kind of genius. It may be in the form of a philosophy you are able to deliver to people, a trans formation in the physical elements of the body that you are able to materialize, or a magnetic influence that you can cast over the masses of people as a politician, musician or saint. The awakening of kundalini has tangible, positive and concrete proof. You cannot believe your kundalini is awaken-ed if you have no proof, because when the awakening of kundalini takes place, you completely transcend the normal categories of mental awareness and the scope of your knowledge becomes greater. A scientist who jumped beyond the mind There was a scientist named Eddington, who observed the determined laws of electrons and tried to formulate a system, a law. He succeeded, the result being the law of determinacy. However, once when he was studying the electrons, his vision changed entirely. He found that the electrons were behaving ch10-14.indd 91ch10-14.indd 91 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 92in a very anarchical manner. There was no logic, system or hypothesis behind their behaviour. That was his vision, and he called it the law of indeterminacy. Once he was asked, What is this law which you have discovered behind the mathematical and logical behaviour of electrons? He replied, It cannot be explained. Someone asked, How can you say that a movement in matter cannot be explained? Eddington answered, It can be explained if you can jump over the mind. The process of transition There is a natural process of transition in which a persons consciousness evolves over the course of millions of years. It takes place in the same way that a baby develops into a child, a child into a young person, a young person into a middle-aged person, a middle-aged person into an old person. Suppose a child of five suddenly transformed into an old person and found he was tall, grey haired and speaking like an old person. It would be very difficult for him to handle the situation and to connect both the areas of his life. This is what generally happens with those who awaken kundalini. Their experiences are often imbalanced and extremely difficult to understand. Just imagine how it would be if you felt your whole body burning as if it were in flames, or you kept feeling that a snake was crawling through your body. Imagine what it would be like to look at somebodys face and instead of seeing the person you see a ghost. You would start to think you were crazy! These are just a few of the bizarre experiences you could be confronted with. However, with the awakening of kundalini, there is also an awakening of vairagya, detachment. And when vairagya develops the turbulence settles, the awakening becomes peaceful and the transition is smooth. ch10-14.indd 92ch10-14.indd 92 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 9313 The Path of Kriya Yoga Awakening of kundalini is very difficult. You can try the various yogic and religious practices that have evolved throughout the ages, but they require a lot of self-discipline and demanding austerities. There are so many dos and donts that the average person finds unpalatable. Therefore, the rishis of the tantric tradition evolved a series of practices that could be easily adopted by every type of aspirant regard-less of lifestyle, habits, beliefs, and so on. Of course, there are many practices belonging to tantra, but of them all, kriya yoga is considered to be the most powerful and suitable for a modern day person who is enmeshed in this world. For many years, knowledge of this system of yoga was revealed to very few. The practices were mentioned in the tantric texts, but they were never clearly defined. Through a tradition, the practices were handed down from guru to disciple. They were given to both householder and monastic disciples, who soon discovered that through these techniques, kundalini became a real experience in their lives. The ultimate purpose of kriya yoga is to create awakening in the chakras, to purify the nadis and, finally, to awaken the kundalini shakti. The kriyas are intended to awaken the kundalini in stages, not abruptly. When kundalini awakens abruptly, the experiences you have are very difficult to handle and you cannot understand what is happening to you. The techniques of kriya yoga offer a smooth and relatively ch10-14.indd 93ch10-14.indd 93 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 94risk-free means of expanding your awareness and awakening the dormant areas of the brain. This system of kriya yoga also provides a means whereby you do not have to tackle the mind directly. Its practices are based on hatha yoga, which aims at controlling the prana. Mind and prana interact with each other and therefore, by controlling the prana, we can gain control of the mind. Kriya yoga offers a unique approach Kriya yoga means the yoga of practice, movement of action. Unlike the various religious, mystical or yogic practices which demand mental control, the special instruction in the system of kriya yoga is: Do not worry about the mind. If your mind is dissipated or if there are distractions in your mind and you are not able to concentrate even for one second, it does not matter. You have only to continue with your practices, for even without confronting, controlling or trying to balance the mind, you can still evolve. This is an entirely new concept in spiritual life, and most people have probably never even considered it. When they take to a religion, commence spiritual practices or go to gurus, the first thing they are told is to control the mind. You should think like this. Dont think like that. You should do this. Dont do that. This is good. This is bad. That is evil. Do not sin, and so on. People think that the mind is the greatest barrier in spiritual life, but this is a very wrong and dangerous concept. The mind is a bridge between this and that, so how can it be a barrier? An idiot thinks it is a barrier and he tries to destroy that bridge. Then when he has destroyed it, he wonders how he will get to the other side. This is the ironical fate of most people, and unfortunately it is religions, ethics and morality that are responsible. People who are less aware of ethics and morality have no mental problems. They are very good, happy-go-lucky people. The seers and rishis of kriya yoga have said, Control of the mind is not necessary. Just go on practising the kriyas ch10-14.indd 94ch10-14.indd 94 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 95and let the mind do what it wants. In the course of time, the evolution of consciousness will take you to that point where the mind will no longer trouble you. Dissipation of mind is not necessarily the fault of the mind. Distractions can be due to hormonal imbalances, bad digestion, low influx of energy in the nervous system and many other things. Never blame the mind for its restlessness, and do not consider yourself to be an impure, bad or inferior person because your mind jumps all over the place, thinking negative things and what you consider to be evil thoughts. Everybody has negative thoughts and distractions of mind, even a compassionate and charitable person, a peaceful person, a chaste and pure person. Dozens of factors could be the cause of a distracted mind. Suppressing the mind and calling it back again and again is not the way to concentrate the mind, it is a way to the mental hospital. After all, who suppresses or calls back who? Are there two personalities or two minds in you? Is there one bad mind which keeps wandering off and one good mind which tries to bring back the bad mind? No, there is only one mind and you should not create a split by antagonizing the mind. If you do this, one part of the mind becomes the dictator and controller and the other part becomes the victim. Then you will become totally schizophrenic. It is necessary to understand this point very well, because our religions, philosophies and ways of thinking have not been very systematic, loving and tender in their approach to the mind. We have always been led to believe that the mind is very mischievous, but this is a grave mistake. Therefore, please try to redefine the mind and approach it scientifically. The mind is not a psychological construct, nor is it a thought process. The mind is energy. Anger, passion, greed, ambition, and so on are waves of that energy. Through kriya yoga you are trying to harness the energies of the mind, but you should not try to suppress this energy because it will explode. And the more you suppress this energy the greater will be the ultimate explosion. ch10-14.indd 95ch10-14.indd 95 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 96 Kriya yoga is very clear in its approach to the mind. It emphasizes that you do not try to do anything with the mind. If your body protests about maintaining a fixed posture, change it. If your mind objects about closing the eyes, keep them open. However, you must continue with the kriya yoga practices because they have a direct effect on the deeper processes of the body which are responsible for the state of your mind. Remember that the body affects the mind and the mind affects the body. We should not consider the techniques of kriya yoga as practices of concentration or meditation as their aim is not mental control. The beauty of kriya yoga is that you have only to remain relaxed and let the mind move naturally and spontaneously. Inner awareness will then awaken, and in time, your mind will automatically become one-pointed. A path for all As you know, we are all aspirants of a different calibre. Some of us are tamasic, some are rajasic and a very small number are sattwic. Of course, we are not purely sattwic, rajasic or tamasic. We are predominantly one of these, but we retain traces of the other two gunas. The tamasic mind has traces of rajo guna, and as it evolves, it retains traces of tamas, but it is now predominantly rajasic. It also develops traces of sattwa. As it evolves further, it becomes more rajasic and may or may not have traces of tamas and sattwa. Next, it becomes predominantly sattwic, with traces of rajo and tamo gunas here and there. Then in its fifth stage of evolution, the mind becomes totally sattwic, manifesting rajo and tamo gunas very rarely. These five stages are like rungs on a ladder, representing the evolution of chitta or the mind. The lowest rung is known as the inert mind. The second rung is the scattered mind, the third is the oscillating mind, the fourth is the one-pointed mind and the fifth is the controlled mind. Now, if you belong to one of the first three categories, and most of us do, after practising hatha yoga, you should ch10-14.indd 96ch10-14.indd 96 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 97take to kriya yoga. If you belong to one of the last two categories, then after hatha yoga, you can take to kriya yoga if you wish, or you can follow the path of raja yoga or any other path which asks you to concentrate through willpower. When you are at the sattwic level you can deal with the mind through the mind. At the tamasic or rajasic level, if you try to deal with the mind through the mind, you will cause a mental crisis. In this world, there are very few sattwic people. Most of us have very restless and distracted minds, and we find it impossible to focus on one object or theme for very long. You know what happens if you light a candle when the wind is blowing? The same thing happens when most people try to concentrate. The fluctuations of the mind totally annihilate the one-pointedness. So, the kriya yoga practices were designed for those people who are unable to control, concentrate or stabilize their mind and for those who cannot sit in one posture for a prolonged period of time. Whether you are sattwic, rajasic or tamasic, the practices of hatha yoga should be taken up first. A tamasic person needs hatha yoga to awaken his mind, body and personality. A person who is rajasic needs hatha yoga to balance the solar and lunar energies in his body and mind. A person who is sattwic by temperament needs hatha yoga to help awaken kundalini. Hatha yoga is for everybody. If you have been practising asanas, pranayama, mudras and bandhas con-sistently for two years or more, then you are ready for kriya yoga. Hatha yoga is the basis of kriya yoga. The practices There are many kriya yoga practices, but a combination of twenty is considered very important and powerful. These twenty practices are divided into two groups. One group, comprised of the first nine practices, is to be done with the eyes open, and the other group, comprised of eleven practices, is to be done with the eyes closed. For the first group of practices, the central instruction is, Do not close ch10-14.indd 97ch10-14.indd 97 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 98your eyes. Even though you feel very relaxed and have a tendency to go within, you must not close your eyes. You can blink, you can rest, you can stop the practices for a minute, but each practice must be done with the eyes open. This is a very important instruction for kriya yoga practise. The first practice in kriya yoga is called vipareeta karani mudra. Vipareeta means reverse and karani means action, therefore, vipareeta karani mudra is a method for creating a reverse action. In Hatha Yoga Pradipika and in the tantric texts, there is a wonderful statement regarding this reverse action: From the moon the nectar emanates. When the sun consumes the nectar, the yogi becomes old. His body decays and he dies. Therefore, by constant practice, the yogi should try to reverse the process. The nectar which is flowing from the moon (bindu) towards the sun (manipura chakra) should be reversed and sent back to the higher centres. What will happen then? Hatha Yoga Pradipika continues: When you are able to reverse the flow of amrit or nectar, it will not be consumed by the sun. It will be assimilated by your pure body. When your body has been purified by hatha yoga, pranayama and a pure diet, this nectar is assimilated by the body and, as a result, you experience a high mental state. When the nectar returns to its source in the higher centres of the brain, and is not consumed by the sun, you begin to feel a sort of calmness and quietness. Even if your mind was distracted, confused, wandering and vacillating a few moments before, suddenly all these activities come to an end and you feel total brightness. Your eyes are open, you can hear sounds and see everything around you, but the mind does not move. It appears as if time, space and object have ceased and the whole universe has stopped functioning. The main hypothesis or contention here is that you can influence the structures of the body; you can create a change in the energy forces. By creating a change in the physical secretions, by altering the chemical and energy proportions in the body, you can create an effect on the mind which you ch10-14.indd 98ch10-14.indd 98 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 99may call shanti, dharana, dhyana or samadhi. This means that even when your mind is totally undisciplined and you cannot handle it for a second, if you are able to create the correct proportion of secretions in the different areas of the body/mind, then the higher state can be achieved. You know what happens if you take a dose of ganja (marijuana)? Take a few puffs and see what happens to your mind. It slows down and the brain waves change from theta to beta, from alpha to delta. Suddenly you feel calm and quiet. What happened to your mind? You did not fight with it. I am not advocating the use of ganja, I am just giving you a very gross example of how kriya yoga works on your mind. By infusing ganja or some hallucinogenic drug, the chemical properties of the gross body change. The heart slows down, the breathing rate changes, the brain waves alter and the mind becomes calm and still. Is it not possible to arrive at the same point through kriya yoga? Y es, this is exactly what is accomplished through kriya yoga. The various practices of kriya yoga, particularly vipareeta karani mudra, amrit pan, khechari mudra, moola bandha, maha mudra, maha bheda mudra, etc. regulate the nervous system. They harmonize the pranic forces in the body and equalize the quantity and effects of the positive and negative ions. More than that, they help you to attain a state of peace and tranquillity without beating, kicking and abusing the mind. All this is a result of having induced the flow of certain unused and natural chemicals of the body. Amrit is one of those chemicals and through a practice known as khechari mudra, it can be made to flow. Khechari mudra Khechari mudra is a simple but very important technique which is utilized in most of the kriya yoga practices. It involves folding the tongue back and placing it against the upper palate. In the course of time the tongue becomes elongated and can be inserted into the nasal orifice. Then certain glands which are connected with the cranial passage ch10-14.indd 99ch10-14.indd 99 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 100and bindu are stimulated and, as a result, amrit or nectar begins to flow. When amrit is released you experience a special type of high or intoxication. It might take you a few years to perfect khechari mudra and to stimulate the flow of amrit, but it is well worth the effort. When you sit for meditation the mind is perfectly still, it cannot move and you cannot think. There is shoonyata, an experience of total nothingness. If you are practising mantra, you feel that somebody else is practising and you are only witnessing it. This is considered a very important experience because it puts you in touch with the external and internal experiences at the same time and you are completely aware of yourself. You attain a state where you are simultaneously aware of the world of mind, senses and objects, and the world of inner peace, tranquillity and relaxation. When there is perfect harmony in the nervous system, coronary behaviour is in inertia, body temperature is low and alpha waves are predominant in the brain, how can the mind move? This is the philosophy of kriya yoga. Readiness for kriya yoga If through the yoga practices you have been doing, you have reached a point where you find that although concentration has been achieved, inner peace has been experienced and you can maintain total quietness of body, mind and spirit for a prolonged period, but still you feel there is something more to achieve, you are definitely ready for kriya yoga. Peace of mind, relaxation and proper understanding, which are the fruits of spiritual life, are not an end in them-selves. The ultimate purpose of yoga is to change the quality of experience and to change the quality of the mind and its perception. What man has aimed at achieving through yoga is expansion of mind and liberation of energy and, in essence, that is tantra, and that is the ultimate goal of kriya yoga. ch10-14.indd 100ch10-14.indd 100 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 10114 Vama Marga and Kundalini Awakening Sexual life has always been a problem for mankind. From the beginning of history, the primal energy has been mis understood. Religious teachers and moralists have de- nounced it, but still sexual life has continued, not because man respects it, but because he needs it. He may want to give it up, but he cannot remove it from his mind, for this is one of his most powerful urges. In the context of yoga and tantra the common definition of sexual life has no relevance. It is absolutely unscientific and incorrect. This definition has created a society of hypocrites. It has led thousands of young people into mental asylums. When you want something which you think is bad, all kinds of guilt complexes arise. This is the beginning of schizophrenia, and all of us are schizophrenic to some extent. Therefore, the yogis have tried to give a correct direction to the sexual urge. Yoga does not interfere with sexual life. Normal sexual life is neither spiritual nor aspiritual, but if you practise yoga and master certain techniques, then sexual life becomes spiritual. Of course, if you lead a celibate life, that is spiritual too. Left hand tantra The science of tantra has two main branches, which are known as vama marga and dakshina marga. Vama marga is the left path which combines sexual life with yoga practices ch10-14.indd 101ch10-14.indd 101 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 102in order to explode the dormant energy centres. Dakshina marga is the right path of yoga practices without sexual enactment. Previously, due to the barriers in sexual life, the path most widely followed was dakshina marga. Today, however, these barriers are rapidly being broken, and the path most sought after by people everywhere is vama marga, which utilizes sexual life for spiritual development. According to tantra, sexual life has a threefold purpose. Some practise it for procreation, others for pleasure, but the tantric yogi practises it for samadhi. He does not hold any negative views about it, he does it as a part of his sadhana, but, at the same time, he realizes that for spiritual purposes, the experience must be maintained. Ordinarily this experi-ence is lost before one is able to deepen it. By mastering certain techniques, however, this experience can become con-tinuous even throughout daily life. Then the silent centres of the brain are awakened and start to function all the time. The energy principle The contention of vama marga is that the awakening of kundalini is possible through the sexual interaction between man and woman. The concept behind this follows the same lines as the process of fission and fusion described in modern physics. Man and woman represent positive and negative energy. On a mental level they represent time and space. Ordinarily, these two forces stand at opposite poles. During sexual interaction, however, they move out of their position of polarity, towards the centre. When they come together at the nucleus or central point, an explosion occurs and matter becomes manifest. This is the basic theme of tantric initiation. The natural event that takes place between a man and woman is considered as the explosion of the energy centre. In every speck of life, the union between the positive and negative poles is responsible for creation. At the same time, union between the positive and negative poles is also respon-sible for enlightenment. The experience which takes place at the time of union is a glimpse of the higher experience. ch10-14.indd 102ch10-14.indd 102 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 103 This subject has been thoroughly discussed in all the old scriptures of tantra. Actually, more important than the energy waves that are created during the mutual union, is the process of directing that energy to the higher centres. Everybody knows how this energy is to be created, but nobody knows how to direct it to the higher centres. In fact, very few people have a full and positive understanding of this natural event which almost everybody in the world experiences. If the conjugal experience, which is generally very transitory, could be extended for a period of time, then the experience of enlightenment would take place. The elements that are brought together in this process of union are known as Shiva and Shakti. Shiva represents purusha or consciousness and Shakti represents prakriti or energy. Shakti, in different forms, is present in all creation. Both material and spiritual energy are known as Shakti. When the energy moves outwardly it is material energy and when it is directed upwards it is spiritual energy. Therefore, when the union between man and woman is practised in the correct way, it has a very positive influence on the develop-ment of spiritual awareness. Retaining the bindu Bindu means a point or a drop. In tantra, bindu is considered to be the nucleus, or the abode of matter, the point from which all creation becomes manifest. The source of bindu is actually in the higher centres of the brain, but due to the development of emotions and passions, bindu falls down to the lower region where it is transformed into sperm and ova. At the higher level bindu is a point. At the lower level it is a drop of liquid, which drips from the male and female orgasm. According to tantra, the preservation of the bindu is absolutely necessary for two reasons. Firstly, the process of regeneration can only be carried out with the help of bindu. Secondly, all the spiritual experiences take place when there is an explosion of bindu. This explosion can result in the creation of a thought or of anything. Therefore, in tantra, ch10-14.indd 103ch10-14.indd 103 21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM21/03/2018 4:29:50 PM 104certain practices are recommended by which the male partner can stop ejaculation and retain the bindu. According to tantra, ejaculation should not take place. One should learn how to stop it. For this purpose, the male partner should perfect the practices of vajroli mudra as well as moola bandha and uddiyana bandha. When these three kriyas are perfected, one is able to stop ejaculation completely at any point of the experience. The sexual act culminates in a particular experience which is reached only at the point of explosion of energy. Unless the energy explodes, the experience cannot take place. However, this experience has to be maintained so that the energy level remains high. When the energy level falls, ejaculation takes place. Therefore, ejaculation is avoided, not so much to preserve the semen, but because it causes a depression in the level of energy. To make this energy travel upwards through the spine, certain hatha yoga kriyas have to be mastered. The experience which is concomitant of energy has to be raised to the higher centres. It is only possible to do this if you are able to prolong and maintain that experience. As long as the experience continues, you can direct it to the higher centres, but as soon as the energy level undergoes depression, ejacula-tion will inevitably take place. Ejaculation brings down the temperature of the body and, at the same time, the nervous system undergoes depres-sion. When the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems undergo depression, the brain is affected, which is why many people have mental problems. When you are able to retain the semen without ejaculating at all, the energy in the nervous system and the temperature in the whole body are maintained. At the same time, you are free from the sense of loss, depression, frustration and guilt. Retention of the semen will also help to increase the sexual frequency, and that is better for both partners. The sexual act does not have to create weakness or dissipate the energy, on the contrary, it can become a means of exploding the energy. ch10-14.indd 104ch10-14.indd 104 21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM 105Therefore, the value of retaining the bindu should not be under estimated. In hatha yoga there are certain practices which must be perfected for this purpose. You should begin with asanas such as paschimottanasana, shalabhasana, vajrasana, supta vajrasana and siddhasana. These are beneficial as they place an automatic contraction on the lower centres. Sirshasana is also important because it ventilates the brain so that all of ones experiences will be healthy. When these postures have been mastered, shambhavi mudra is perfected in order to hold the concentration steadily at bhrumadhya. Then vajroli mudra has to be practised together with moola bandha and uddiyana bandha with kumbhaka. Practise of kumbhaka is necessary while the ejaculation is being held. Retention of the breath and the bindu go hand in hand. Loss of kumbhaka is loss of bindu, and loss of bindu is loss of kumbhaka. During kumbhaka, when you are maintaining the experience, you should be able to direct it to the higher centres. If you are able to create an archetype of this experience, perhaps in the form of a serpent or a luminous continuity, then the result will be fantastic. So, in spiritual life bindu must be preserved at all costs. The female experience In the female body, the point of concentration is at mooladhara chakra, which is situated at the cervix, just behind the opening of the uterus. This is the point where space and time unite and explode in the form of an experience. In ordinary language that experience is known as orgasm, but in the language of tantra it is called an awakening. In order to maintain the continuity of that experience, it is necessary for a build up of energy to take place at that particular bindu or point. Usually this does not happen because the explosion of energy dissipates throughout the body through the sexual orgasm. In order to avoid this happening, the woman must be able to hold her mind in absolute concentration on that particular point. The practice for this is known as sahajoli. ch10-14.indd 105ch10-14.indd 105 21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM 106Sahajoli is actually concentration on the bindu, but this is very difficult. Therefore, the practice of sahajoli, which is the contraction of the vaginal as well as the uterine muscles, should be practised over a long period of time. If girls are taught uddiyana bandha at an early age, they will perfect sahajoli quite naturally with time. Uddiyana bandha is always practised with external retention. It is important to be able to perform this in any position. Usually it is practised in siddha yoni asana, but one should be able to do it in vajrasana or the crow posture as well. When you practise uddiyana bandha, the other two bandhas jalandhara and moola bandha, occur spontaneously. Y ears of practice will create a keen sense of concentration on the correct point in the body. This concentration is more mental in nature; however, since it is not possible to do it mentally one has to start from some physical point. If a woman is able to concentrate and maintain the continuity of the experience, she can awaken her energy to a high level. According to tantra, there are two different areas of orgasm. One is in the nervous zone, which is the common experience for most women, and the other is in mooladhara chakra. When sahajoli is practised during maithuna (the act of sexual union), mooladhara chakra wakes up and the spiritual or tantric orgasm takes place. When the female yogi is able to practise sahajoli for say five to fifteen minutes, she can retain the tantric orgasm for the same period of time. By retaining this experience, the flow of energy is reversed. Circulation of blood and sym-pathetic/parasympathetic forces move upward. At this point, she transcends normal consciousness and sees the light. That is how she enters the deep state of dhyana. Unless the woman is able to practise sahajoli, she will not be able to retain the impulses necessary for the tantric orgasm, and consequently she will have the nervous orgasm, which is short-lived and followed by dissatisfaction and exhaustion. This is often the cause of a womans hysteria and depression. So sahajoli is an extremely important practice for women. In ch10-14.indd 106ch10-14.indd 106 21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM 107uddiyana, nauli, naukasana, vajrasana and siddha yoni asana, sahajoli comes naturally. The practice of amaroli is very important for married women. The word amaroli means immortal and through this practice one is freed of many diseases. Practising amaroli over a prolonged period also produces a hormone known as prostaglandin, which destroys the ova and prevents concep-tion from taking place Tantric guru Just as in the scheme of creation, Shakti is the creator and Shiva the witness of the whole game, in tantra the woman has the status of guru and the man of disciple. The tantric tradition is actually passed on from the woman to the man. In the tantric practice, it is the woman who initiates. It is only by her power that the act of maithuna takes place. All the preliminaries are done by her. She puts the mark on the mans forehead and tells him where to meditate. In ordinary interaction the man takes the aggressive role and the woman participates, but in tantra they switch roles. The woman becomes the operator and the man her medium. She has to be able to arouse him. Then, at the right moment, she must create the bindu so he can practise vajroli. If the man loses his bindu, it means that the woman has failed to carry out her functions properly. In tantra it is said that Shiva is incapable without Shakti. Shakti is the priestess. Therefore, when vama marga is practised, the man must have an absolutely tantric attitude towards the woman. He cannot behave with her as men generally do with other women. Ordinarily, when a man looks at a woman he becomes passionate, but during maithuna he should not. He should see her as the divine mother, Devi, and approach her with an attitude of devotion and surrender, not with lust. According to the tantric concept, women are more endowed with spiritual qualities and it would be wise if they were allowed to assume higher positions in social affairs. ch10-14.indd 107ch10-14.indd 107 21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM 108Then there would be greater beauty, compassion, love and understanding in all spheres of life. What we are discussing here is not patriarchal society versus matriarchal society, but tantra, particularly left hand tantra. Path of yogis not bhogis In tantra, the practice of maithuna is said to be the easiest way to awaken sushumna because it involves an act which most people are already accustomed to. However, frankly speaking, very few are prepared for this path. Ordinary sexual interaction is not maithuna. The physical act may be the same, but the background is totally different. In the relationship between husband and wife, for example, there is dependency and ownership, but in tantra each partner is independent. Another difficult thing in tantric sadhana is cultivating the attitude of passionlessness. One has to virtually become brahmacharya so as to free the mind and emotions of the sexual thoughts and passions which normally arise. Both partners must be absolutely purified and controlled internally and externally before they practise maithuna. This is hard for the ordinary person to comprehend because for most people, sexual interaction is the result of passion and physical or emotional attraction, either for progeny or pleasure. It is only when you are purified that these instinctive urges are absent. According to tradition, this is why the path of dakshina marga must be followed for many years before the path of vama marga can be entered. Then the interaction of maithuna does not take place for physical gratification. The purpose is very clear awakening of sushumna, raising the kundalini energy from mooladhara chakra, and explod ing the unconscious areas of the brain. If this is not clear when you practise the kriyas, and sushumna becomes active, you will not be able to face the awakening. You will not be able to control the passion and excitement because you have not tranquillized your brain. Therefore, in my opinion, only those who are adepts in ch10-14.indd 108ch10-14.indd 108 21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM 109yoga qualify for vama marga. This path is not to be used indiscrim inately as a pretext for self-indulgence. It is meant for mature and serious-minded householder sadhakas, who are evolved, who have been practising sadhana to awaken the energy potential and to attain samadhi. They must utilize this path as a vehicle of awakening otherwise it becomes a path of downfall. ch10-14.indd 109ch10-14.indd 109 21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM21/03/2018 4:29:51 PM ch15-18.indd 110ch15-18.indd 110 21/03/2018 4:30:15 PM21/03/2018 4:30:15 PM The Chakras ch15-18.indd 111ch15-18.indd 111 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM ch15-18.indd 112ch15-18.indd 112 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 11315 Introduction to the Chakras The subject of chakras is not going to be an easy one. Many scientists and philosophers are confronted with a great difficulty when it comes to accepting and explaining the existence of the chakras. They do not know whether the chakras are to be found in the physical body or in the subtle body. If they exist in the physical body, where are they? And, of course, the subtle body is not the subject of modern ana - tomical science. In the past, doctors and scientists used to ask me, Why, when we have witnessed many operations, have we never seen the chakras? At the time, the only reply I could give them was, Can you show me the sound waves in a transistor radio? I have opened up radios but I have never found the BBC there. This reply answered their questions, but it did not really satisfy them. Scientists want a scientific explanation and, for this, new areas of research are being developed. An eminent Japanese scientist, Dr Hiroshi Motoyama, has invented sensitive machines for measuring the vital energy of the body. One apparatus measures the functioning of the nadis and their corresponding body organs, and this machine is now being used in some Japanese hospitals to diagnose disease tendencies before they actually manifest. Another invention is the chakra machine, which records the impulses that emanate from the psychic centres in the spinal cord. On this machine it is possible to register definite impulses from ch15-18.indd 113ch15-18.indd 113 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 114these areas in individuals who have been practising yoga for many years, and who have awakened their psychic faculties. For example, when a subject practises pranayama with kumbhaka and maha bandha contraction of the perineum, abdomen and thyroid, the machine registers changes in the impulses emanating from the psychic centres. This research shows that energy is definitely activated by the yoga practices. However we still have a lot of research to do in order to provide more scientific explanations. There are many different interpretations of the science of chakras. Of course, the differences are not that great, but they are there. The thinkers of Theosophical move ments and their predecessors have their own inter pretations of the chakras, their location points, their colours, and so on. The Rosicrucians and others may say something com pletely different and the tantric texts may also present entirely dif-ferent concepts. Chakra perception The chakras, kundalini and the mind have subtle aspects on all levels of vibration. This is extremely complicated and most of the realization at these levels must be very personal. Even then, different people see these occult aspects from different points of view. For instance, if they have realizations about the chakras, these will be coloured by their own personal tendencies. Some concentrate on their more subtle mystical aspects, some on their energy and pranic manifestations, some on their functional reality, some on their psychological effects, and still others on their physical concomitants. These are usually all correct and when various authorities get together, they find that they are talking about the same things but from different points of view. If we look at a person through binoculars, he looks large. If we look at him with ordinary vision, he looks the usual size. If we view him through an X-ray screen, we see his skeleton, and if we look through a gastroscope, we see the inside of his stomach. Same person different viewpoints. ch15-18.indd 114ch15-18.indd 114 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 115 In the same way, whereas a mystic or yogi will describe the chakras in a spiritual or symbolic way, the surgeon may describe the chakras as bunches of nerve fibres making up what he calls the plexuses, and a clairvoyant will describe the energy manifestations of the chakras in yet a different way. These people may have disagreements, but actually they are seeing the same thing from different viewpoints. Discrep ancies are largely semantic due to differing cultural, educational and personal understandings. This is a common problem amongst people when they try to communicate any idea or experience in words. Whereas I have great respect for the tantric concept, I have my own experience and, therefore, in my description of the chakras I will make references to both. However, rather than trying to understand the chakras through the written or verbal description of others, you must experience them for yourself and gain your own personal knowledge. Tantra is essentially a practical science rather than an intellectual one and only practise leads to true experience and real understanding. Chakra symbology If you are practising kundalini or kriya yoga, you will need to know the different colours and symbols of the chakras. They are very beautiful and form an intrinsic part of the awaken-ing of the individual chakras. Each chakra has a parti cular colour, mantra, situation and range of experiences. Whereas the various esoteric cults and spiritual systems use different symbols to represent the chakras, in tantra and yoga the chakras are symbolized by lotus flowers. As a symbol, the lotus is very significant. Man must pass through three clear stages in spiritual life, which represent his existence on three different levels: ignorance, aspiration and endeavour, and illumination. The lotus also exists on three different levels mud, water and air. It sprouts in the mud (ignorance), grows up through the water in an effort to reach the surface (endeavour and aspiration) and eventually ch15-18.indd 115ch15-18.indd 115 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 116reaches the air and the direct light of the sun (illumination). Thus the lotus symbolizes mans growth from the lowest states of awareness to the higher states of consciousness. The culmination of the growth of the lotus is a beautiful flower. In the same way, the culmination of mans spiritual quest is the awakening and blos soming of human potential. So each of the principal chakras can be visualized as a lotus flower with a specific colour and number of petals:1. Mooladhara four-petalled deep red lotus 2. Swadhisthana six-petalled vermilion lotus 3. Manipura ten-petalled bright yellow lotus 4. Anahata twelve-petalled blue lotus 5. Vishuddhi sixteen-petalled violet lotus 6. Ajna two-petalled silver-grey lotus 7. Sahasrara one thousand-petalled multicoloured or red lotus In each chakra six aspects are combined:1. the chakra colour2. the petals of the lotus flower3. the yantra or geometrical shape4. the beeja mantra5. the animal symbol6. the higher or divine beings.The animals represent your previous evolution and instincts, and the divine beings represent higher consciousness. In my exposition of the chakras I may say a chakra is a particular colour, but if you are a good yogic aspirant and in your concentration on that chakra you realize another colour, that is the truth for you. Your experiences are just as valid as mine, but one thing is definite: as you move up through the chakras, the frequencies of the colours become more subtle and more powerful. Chakra kshetram In many of the practices of kundalini yoga we must concen- trate or focus our awareness on the chakra trigger points in the spinal cord. However, many people find it easier ch15-18.indd 116ch15-18.indd 116 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 117to concentrate on the chakra kshetram located on the front surface of the body. In kriya yoga particularly, the chakra kshetrams are utilized in many of the practices. The kshetrams can be regarded as reflections of the original chakra trigger points, and when we concentrate on them it creates a sen sation which passes through the nerves to the chakra itself and then travels up to the brain. Mooladhara does not have a kshetram, but swadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddhi and ajna have physical counterparts directly in front of them on the same horizontal plane. Swadhisthana kshetram is at the level of the pubic bone in the front of the body, just above the genital organ. Manipura kshetram is at the navel, anahata kshetram is at the heart, and vishuddhi kshetram is located on the front surface of the throat pit, in the vicinity of the thyroid gland. Ajna kshetram is bhrumadhya, the mid-eyebrow centre. The granthis There are three granthis (psychic knots) in the physical body which are obstacles on the path of the awakened kundalini. The granthis are called brahma , vishnu and rudra, and they represent levels of awareness where the power of maya, igno-rance and attachment to material things is especially strong. Each aspirant must transcend these barriers to make a clear passageway for the ascending kundalini. Brahma granthi functions in the region of mooladhara chakra. It implies attachment to physical pleasures, material objects and excessive selfishness. It also implies the ensnaring power of tamas negativity, lethargy and ignorance. Vishnu granthi operates in the region of anahata chakra. It is associated with the bondage of emotional attachment and attachment to people and inner psychic visions. It is connected with rajas the tendency towards passion, ambition and assertiveness. Rudra granthi functions in the region of ajna chakra. It is associated with attachment to siddhis, psychic phenomena and the concept of ourselves as individuals. One must ch15-18.indd 117ch15-18.indd 117 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 118surrender the sense of individual ego and transcend duality to make further spiritual progress. Conversion centres Besides functioning as control centres, the chakras work as centres of interchange between the physical, astral and causal dimensions. For instance, through the chakras, subtle energy from the astral and causal dimension can be transformed into energy for the physical dimension. This can be seen in yogis who have been buried underground for long periods of time. Through activation of vishuddhi chakra, which controls hunger and thirst and enables one to subsist on subtle energy in the form of amrit or nectar, they have been able to maintain their existence. It is further contemplated that physical energy can be trans formed into subtle energy through the action of the chakras and that physical energy can be converted into mental energy within the physical dimension. Thus the chakras are seen to be intermediaries for energy transfer and conversion between two neighbouring dimen-sions of being as well as facilitating the energy conversion between the body and mind. As the chakras are activated and awakened, man not only becomes aware of the higher realms of existence, but also gains the power to enter those realms and then, in turn, to support and give life to the lower dimensions. ch15-18.indd 118ch15-18.indd 118 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 11916 Evolution through the Chakras All life is evolving and man is no exception. Human evolution, the evolution which we are undergoing relentlessly, both as individuals and as a race, is a journey through the different chakras. Mooladhara is the most basic, funda mental chakra from where we commence our evolution, and sahasrara is where our evolution is completed. As we evolve towards sahasrara, outer experiences come our way in life, and inner experiences come to us in meditation, as different capacities and centres awaken progressively within the nervous system. This occurs as energy flows at higher voltages and rates of vibration through the different nadis in the psychic body. Mooladhara is the first centre in human in carnation, but it is the highest chakra that animals have the capacity to awaken. It is their sahasrara. The higher chakras beyond mooladhara are not present in the psychic physiology of animals and their nervous systems reflect this relative deficiency. Below mooladhara there are other chakras, known as patalas, which rep resent the evolution of the animal kingdom. These chakras are only related to sense conscious-ness and not to mental aware ness. When your consciousness was evolving through these chakras your mind was only associated with sense con sciousness. There was no individual awareness and no ego; it began from mooladhara. These ch15-18.indd 119ch15-18.indd 119 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 120lower centres are no longer functioning in human beings because we have transcended them. In the animal body, these inferior chakras are situated in the legs, and so are the nadis. The nadis flow to their con-fluence point at mooladhara chakra, just as the nadis in the human body flow to ajna chakra. The names of the lower chakras are atala, vitala, sutala, talatala, rasatala, mahatala and the lowest is patala. Just as mooladhara is the lowest chakra in the human body, patala is the lowest in the animal king-dom. It is the dimension which represents total darkness, where nature is not functioning and matter is completely dormant and static. Above sahasrara there are also other chakras, or we can call them lokas, which represent the higher divine conscious- ness. So mooladhara chakra is the highest in animal evolution and the first in human evolution. Sahasrara is the highest point in human evolution and the first step in the highest divine evolution. As you read more about the chakras, you will come to realize that kundalini actually controls every affair of life. When this shakti was passing through the animal stages of our evolution, it was influencing the whole species with avidya or ignorance. On account of its influence, the animal kingdom was compelled to follow the instinctual path of eating, sleep ing, fearing and mating. This represented the tamasic phase of evolution. From mooladhara onward we pass through the rajasic phase and from sahasrara onward we enter the sattwic phase of evolution. Spontaneous and self-propelled evolution Up to mooladhara chakra evolution takes place automatically. Animals do not have to practise pranayama and japa yoga. They do not have to find a guru, take sannyasa and become disciples. They do not have to do anything and they can eat whatever they want. Nature controls them completely. Be cause they do not think, nature is benevolently responsible for every phase of their evolution. ch15-18.indd 120ch15-18.indd 120 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 121 However, once kundalini reaches mooladhara chakra, evolution is no longer spontaneous because a human being is not completely subject to the laws of nature. For example, animals will only mate in particular seasons. At other times, even if they live together, they will not mate. But, because man is free from the laws of nature, he can mate whenever he chooses. Man has awareness of time and space, and he has an ego. He can think, he can know that he is thinking and he can know that he knows that he is thinking. This is due to the evolution of ego. If there is no ego, there will be no double awareness. Animals do not have double awareness. If a dog is chasing another dog, it is under natures compulsion. It does not know that it is running. It runs because instinct compels it to. So, man has a higher consciousness, and once he has it he has to work towards its evolution. That is why it is said that kundalini is sleeping in mooladhara chakra. It cannot progress beyond this point unless it is pushed. Discovering your point of evolution Of course, when the shakti awakens suddenly in mooladhara, it cannot rise immediately. It may wake up and sleep again many times. In the morning you usually have to wake your children several times because they keep going back to sleep. Kundalini behaves in the same way. Sometimes it even ascends to swadhisthana or manipura, only to return to mooladhara again to sleep. However, once the shakti goes beyond mani pura chakra there is no going back. Stagnation in a chakra only occurs when there is an obstruction in sushumna or one of the chakras. Kundalini can remain in one chakra for many years, or even for a whole lifetime. Sometimes, when kundalini gets blocked in a chakra during transit, you begin to exhibit some of the siddhis or psychic powers associated with that chakra. At that time you may not have self-control and understanding of the fact that you are only on the road. When one attains siddhis one is ch15-18.indd 121ch15-18.indd 121 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 122tempted to display them. One may think one is using them for the good of humanity, but this only feeds the ego and clouds one in a thick veil of maya or ignorance, hindering further progress. If one is manifesting siddhis, one can assume that one has evolved to the chakra which is associated with those siddhis. However, siddhis do not usually manifest when kundalini passes through all the chakras quickly and, if they do, they will not stay long. For a few days you may be able to read the thoughts of others, but then that ability will pass away. For a few days you may be able to heal people, but that will also pass. Psychic powers usually only linger when kun dalini gets blocked in a chakra. Of course, some of our lower chakras may already be functioning without our knowledge. We are all at different levels on the scale of evolution and, therefore, it may not be necessary to start the process of awakening from mooladhara. We say that kundalini is in mooladhara in order to explain the whole concept, but due to your progress in previous lives, or the sadhana your mother or father may have done, you might have been born with your kundalini in manipura. If that is the case, the ascension must take place from that point. However, as you cannot remember your previous life, sim ilarly you have also forgotten about the state of your kundalini. That is why the gurus teach that kundalini is sleeping in mool adhara. It may be in anahata, but I will always tell you it is in mooladhara and make you do the practices from mooladhara. You might not have any experience of kundalini there. You may go to swadhisthana and manipura and not have any experiences there either. But the moment you go to anahata you suddenly start having experiences. So before you commence the practices of kundalini yoga, you should try to find out at which point your ascension will actually start. In order to do this, the best method is to con-cen trate on mooladhara daily for fifteen to thirty minutes, then swadhisthana for fifteen days, manipura for fifteen days ch15-18.indd 122ch15-18.indd 122 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 123and so on up to sahasrara. You will soon discover your point of evolution. Some people will find concentration on anahata easiest, so that is likely to be their centre. Others will find ajna chakra very powerful and attractive to them, whereas other people will find it easiest to relate to mooladhara, while the higher chakras seem almost impossible to locate. Ultimately you will be able to decide which is your most sensitive chakra, and you will be ready for the next step, which is awakening. However, there is one important point to be added. Even if a higher chakra such as anahata has awakened at random, you must try to awaken the lower chakras also. The purpose of awakening kundalini and ascending it through all the chakras is to awaken them and their related parts of the brain. Therefore, in order to awaken the whole brain, all the chakras must be awakened. Awakening the chakras Awakening of the chakras is a very important event in human evolution. It should not be misunderstood for mysticism or occultism, because with the awakening of the chakras, our consciousness and our mind undergo changes. These changes have significant relevance and relationship with our day to day life. Our present state of mind is not capable of handling all the affairs of life. Our love and hatred, our relationships with people, are the consequences of the quality of our pres-ent mind. It appears that our sufferings, our agonies and frustrations are not so much due to the circumstances of life, but more to the responses of our mind. Therefore, the purpose of awakening the chakras, sushumna and kundalini should be related to our day to day life Thousands of people are born with awakened chakras and kundalini, and these people virtually rule the whole world. I am not talking about governing or ruling a country; I am saying that they are superior people in every aspect of life. They are the great thinkers, musicians, artists, builders, ch15-18.indd 123ch15-18.indd 123 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 124scientists, research scholars, inventors, prophets, statesmen, and so on. There are many children born with awakened chakras and kundalini and as they grow up they show different mani-festations. However, our materialistic societies consider these manifestations as abnormal and those who display them are subjected to psychoanalysis and psychological scrutiny and treatment. It is not regarded as abnormal if you undergo personal conflicts in relation to family or work events, but as your mind and consciousness expand, you become very alert and sensitive to all that is happening in your mind, your family, colleagues, society and country, and you cannot ignore even the tiniest things of life. This is not regarded as normal by ordinary people, but it is a natural consequence that follows awakening of the chakras. Ones consciousness becomes very receptive because the frequencies of the mind change. The manifestation of higher qualities Every form, sound and colour has a certain fre quency. All sounds, colours and forms do not have the same frequency. In the same way, every thought has a fre quency, some are of a low frequency and some are of a high frequency. I will give you an example of a high frequency idea. Once the great scientist Isaac Newton was sitting in a garden and he watched an apple fall from a tree. We may have also seen apples fall from trees and because it does not seem strange to us, we have not given any thought to the process. But Isaac Newton had what we could call philosophic attention. This was a quality of his mind and personality and because of it, when an apple fell before him, he discovered the theory of gravitation. Why shouldnt you tell lies? Maybe you think there is no harm in it if you can make money, rule a nation or suppress people. The whole contingency depends on the frequency of your consciousness. At a lower frequency of consciousness you will say there is no harm in telling lies, but when the ch15-18.indd 124ch15-18.indd 124 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 125frequency is raised the mind operates at a different level and you cannot really accept that any more. Many people ask the question, Why shouldnt we kill? After all, when we kill an animal we may be liberating it and enabling it to get a better birth quicker. Our attitudes and way of thinking are a result of the quality of our mind and the particular frequency at which it is functioning. Once Lord Buddha went hunting with his cousin Deva- datta. Devadatta shot an arrow at a pigeon and it fell, injured by the arrow. Lord Buddha felt the pain of that bird and immediately rushed to remove the arrow. But Devadatta did not feel the pain; he was very pleased with himself because he had struck his target. Buddhas consciousness had attained a higher frequency vibration, as a result of which he was sensitive to the birds pain and was therefore manifesting compassion. Therefore, the higher qualities of love, compassion, charity, mercy and so on are the expressions of a mind which is influenced by awakened chakras. This is precisely the reason why so much importance is given to the awakening of anahata chakra. Of course, every chakra is very important and each chakra confers certain abilities, but you will find that all the scriptural texts place great emphasis on the awakening of anahata, ajna and mooladhara chakras. Yogis emphasize ajna and mooladhara chakras and all of mankind gives emphasis to anahata chakra. When anahata is awakened, we have a sublime relationship with God, with our family members and with every being. When the chakras are awakened, the mind automatically changes. Your values in life also change and the quality of your love and relationships improve immensely, enabling you to balance out the disappointments and frustrations in life. Therefore, you are able to live a little higher than you do now, and your attitude towards yourself and towards this life is much better. If awakening of the chakras can bring about unbreakable unity in your family, what more do you need? Do you need ch15-18.indd 125ch15-18.indd 125 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 126a happy family or another husband or wife? Frankly, man needs a happy mind and a happy family. It does not matter what he does or what his children are. Does it really matter if there is little to eat? Happiness and inner contentment are above all, and as far as I can see, true contentment can only be gained by a systematic awakening of the chakras. ch15-18.indd 126ch15-18.indd 126 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 12717 Ajna Chakra Our reflection on the psychic centres, begins from ajna chakra. According to tradition, mooladhara chakra is general ly designated as the first chakra since it is the seat of kundalini shakti. However, there is another system in which con-sideration and study of the chakras commence from ajna. Ajna chakra is the point of confluence where the three main nadis or forces ida, pingala and sushumna, merge into one stream of consciousness and flow up to sahasrara, the crown centre. In mythology, these three nadis are represented by three great rivers Ganga (ida), Jamuna (pin-gala) and Saraswati (a subterranean current which represents sushumna). They converge at a place called Prayag or Triveni, which is near present day Allahabad. Indians believe that every twelve years, when the sun is in Aquarius, if one BSY ch15-18.indd 127ch15-18.indd 127 21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM21/03/2018 4:30:17 PM 128takes a dip at the point of confluence, he or she will be purified. This place of confluence corresponds symbolically to ajna chakra. When the mind is concentrated at this conjunction, trans- formation of individual consciousness is brought about by the merging of the three great forces. Individual conscious ness is mainly comprised of ego, and it is on account of ego that we are aware of dualities. As long as there is duality, there cannot be samadhi; as long as you remember yourself, you cannot get out of yourself. Although there are experiences of trance in the other chakras, there is no merger of the individual ego with the cosmic ego. All throughout you find you are trying to assert yourself behind all the experiences you are having, but when ida and pingala unite with sushumna in ajna chakra, you lose yourself completely. By this I do not mean that you become unconscious. Your aware ness expands and becomes homogeneous. The individ ual awareness falls flat and you completely transcend the realm of duality. Therefore, ajna chakra is a very important centre, which you must experience in order to bring about purifica tion of the mind. Once the mind is purified, the experience and awakening of the other chakras can proceed. There is a certain problem with the awakening of the other chakras. Each of these chakras contains within it a store of karmas or sam skaras, which may be both good and bad, positive and negative, painful and pleasant. The awakening of any chakra will bring to the surface an explosion or an expression of these karmas, and not everybody is prepared or ready to face them. Only those who are equipped with reason and understanding can cope. Therefore, it is said that, before you start awakening and manifesting the great force, it is best to purify the mind at the point of confluence. Then, with a purified mind, you can awaken all the other chakras. Therefore, we begin our exposition of the chakras with ajna. ch15-18.indd 128ch15-18.indd 128 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 129The centre of command The word ajna comes from the Sanskrit root which means to know, to obey or to follow. Literally, ajna means command or the monitoring centre. In astrology ajna is the centre of Jupiter, which symbolizes the guru or preceptor. Amongst the deities, Jupiter is represented by Brihaspati, the guru of the devas and preceptor of the gods. Therefore, this centre is also known as the guru chakra. Ajna is the bridge which links the guru with the disciples. It represents the level at which it is possible for direct mind to mind communication to take place between two people. It is in this chakra that communication with the external guru, teacher or preceptor takes place. And it is here that the direc tions of the inner guru are heard in the deepest state of meditation, when all the sense modalities are withdrawn and one enters the state of shoonya or void. This is a state of absolute nothingness, where the empirical experiences of name and form, subject and object, do not penetrate. In this completely static state, the light of the mind is extinguished; the consciousness ceases to function, and no ego awareness remains. This void state is the same as the death experience, and in order to traverse it the voice or command of the guru must be heard in ajna chakra. Of course, if you are new to spiritual life you will not be facing this problem yet, but when it comes you will find it very difficult to manage. At the moment your problems are just mental dispersion of mind, worries, anxiety, restlessness, etc., but when the night is dark and you have gone very deep in meditation, losing your individual awareness, the only thing that can guide you at this point is the instructions or command of your guru heard through ajna chakra. It has also been called the eye of intuition, and it is the doorway through which the individual enters the astral and psychic dimension of consciousness. Perhaps the most common name for this chakra is the third eye, and the mysti cal traditions of every age and culture make abundant references to it. It is portrayed as a psychic eye located ch15-18.indd 129ch15-18.indd 129 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 130midway between the two physical eyes and it looks inward instead of outward. In India, ajna chakra is called divya chakshu (the divine eye), jnana chakshu or jnana netra (the eye of knowledge) because it is the channel through which the spiritual aspirant receives revelation and insight into the underlying nature of existence. It is also called the eye of Shiva, for Shiva is the epitome of meditation, which is directly associated with the awakening of ajna chakra. It is interesting to note that ajna chakra is more active in females than in males. Women are more sensitive, psychic and perceptive and they are often able to predict coming events. However, in most people this inner eye remains closed, and though they see the events of the outside world, knowledge and understanding of truth cannot be gained. In this sense, we are blind to the real possibilities of the world, unable to view the deeper levels of human existence. The location point Ajna chakra is located in the brain, directly behind the eyebrow centre. It is at the very top of the spinal cord, at the medulla oblongata. Initially it is very hard to feel the exact location point of ajna, so we concentrate on ajna kshetram, at the mid-eyebrow centre, bhrumadhya. These two centres are directly connected. That is why it has always been an Indian custom to place tilaka, chandan, sindoor or kumkum on the mid-eyebrow centre. Sindoor contains mercury, and when it is applied to the eyebrow centre, a constant pressure is exerted on the nerve which runs from bhrumadhya to the medulla oblongata. Maybe the original purpose for applying these substances has been forgotten by most people today, but it is not a religious mark or even a beauty spot. It is a means by which you can maintain constant conscious and unconscious awareness of ajna chakra. It should also be mentioned here that the pineal gland is the physical concomitant of ajna chakra and the pituitary gland of sahasrara. Just as the pituitary and pineal glands are ch15-18.indd 130ch15-18.indd 130 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 131intimately connected, so are ajna and sahasrara. We could say that ajna is the gateway to sahasrara chakra. If ajna is awakened and functioning properly, all the experiences hap-pening in sahasrara can be managed well. The pineal gland acts as a lock on the pituitary. As long as the pineal gland is healthy, the functions of the pituitary are controlled. However, in most of us, the pineal gland started to degenerate when we reached the age of eight, nine or ten. Then the pituitary began to function and to secrete various hormones which instigated our sexual con scious ness, our sensuality and worldly personality. At this time we began to lose touch with our spiritual heritage. How ever, through various yogic techniques, such as trataka and shambhavi mudra, it is possible to regenerate or maintain the health of the pineal gland. Traditional symbology Ajna is symbolized by a two-petalled lotus. According to the scriptures, it is a pale colour, light grey like a rainy day. Some say it is white like the moon, or silver, but actually it is an intangible colour. On the left petal is the letter ham and on the right ksham . Ham and ksham are inscribed in a silvery white colour and are the beeja mantras for Shiva and Shakti. One represents the moon or ida nadi and the other the sun or pingala nadi. Below the chakra the three nadis merge ida on the left, pingala on the right and sush umna in between. Within the lotus is a perfectly round circle which symbolizes shoonya, the void. Within the circle is an inverted triangle which represents shakti creativity and manifesta tion. Above the triangle is a black shivalingam. The shiva ling am is not, as many people believe, a phallic symbol. It is the symbol of your astral body. According to tantra and occult sciences, the astral body is the attribute of your person-ality, and in the form of the shivalingam, it can be one of three colours, depending on the purification or evolu tion of your consciousness. ch15-18.indd 131ch15-18.indd 131 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 132 In mooladhara chakra, the shivalingam is smoky and ill-defined. It is known as dhumra lingam , and we can compare this with our state of consciousness when we live an instinctive life. We have no real concept of ourselves or what we are. Ajna chakra has a black lingam with a very consolidated outline. It is called the itarakhya lingam. Here, in ajna, the awareness of what I am is more sharply defined and various capacities are being awakened. In sahasrara, the consciousness is illumined and therefore the lingam there is luminous. It is called the jyotir lingam. When a person of unevolved mind concentrates, he ex-peri ences the shivalingam in the form of a smoky column. It comes and then disperses, comes again and disperses, and so on. With deeper concentration, as the restlessness of the mind is annihilated, the lingam becomes black in colour. By concentrating on that black shivalingam, the jyotir lingam is produced within the illumined astral consciousness. There-fore, the black lingam of ajna chakra is the key to the greater spiritual dimension of life. Over the shivalingam is the traditional symbol of Om, with its tail on top and the crescent moon and bindu above that. Om is the beeja mantra and symbol of ajna chakra, and above its form can be seen the raif, the trace of sound con sciousness. Paramshiva is the deity of ajna chakra and he shines like a chain of lightning flashes. The goddess is the pure minded Hakini whose six faces are like so many moons. Each chakra is considered to possess a tanmatra or specific sense of modality, a jnanendriya or organ of sense perception, and a karmendriya or organ of action. The tanmatra, jnan- endriya and karmendriya of ajna chakra are all considered to be the mind. The mind is able to gain knowledge by subtle means, rather than by the input of sense data from the various sense organs, which are the jnanendriyas of the other chakras. The mind perceives knowledge directly via a sixth or intuitive sense, which comes into operation as ajna chakra awakens. This sense is the jnanendriya of the mind. Simi larly, the mind can manifest actively without the aid of ch15-18.indd 132ch15-18.indd 132 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 133the physical body. This is the faculty of astral projection, which manifests with the awakening of ajna chakra. There-fore, mind is considered to be the karmendriya of ajna. The mode of operation of this centre is purely mental and so the tanmatra is also the mind. The plane is tapa loka , where ves- tiges of imperfection are purified and the karmas burned away. Along with vishuddhi chakra, ajna forms the basis for vijnanamaya kosha , which initiates psychic develop ment. Often the experience one has when awakening takes place in ajna is similar to that induced by ganja (marijuana) or any other drug of that type. He who meditates on this awakened chakra sees a flaming lamp shining as the morning sun and he dwells within the regions of fire, sun and moon. He is able to enter anothers body at will and becomes the most excellent amongst munis, being all-knowing and all-seeing. He becomes the benefactor of all and is versed in all the shastras. He realizes his unity with the Brahman and acquires siddhis. Different results accruing out of meditation on the various centres are collectively realized by meditating on this centre alone. Ajna and the mind So, ajna is essentially the chakra of the mind, representing a higher level of awareness. Whenever you concentrate on some thing, whether it is mooladhara, swadhisthana or mani-pura chakra, or you concentrate on an external object or an idea, ajna is affected, sometimes mildly, sometimes power-fully, depending on the degree of your concentration. When we visualize or when we dream at night, the inner vision that occurs is through ajna. If you are eating, sleeping or talking and you are not aware of it, then ajna is not operating, but if you are talking and one area of your awareness knows it, this knowing, this awareness is the faculty of ajna. When you develop ajna, you can have knowledge without the aid of the senses. Normally all knowledge comes to us by means of information the senses conduct to the brain, and a process of classification, logic, and intellect that takes place ch15-18.indd 133ch15-18.indd 133 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 134in the frontal brain. However, the smaller brain, where ajna chakra is situated, has the capacity to acquire knowledge directly without the aid of the indriyas or senses. If it is a very cloudy day, you can know, through logic that it will rain. But if there are no clouds in the sky and still you know beyond a doubt that it will rain, this means your intuition and percep-tion are very acute, and ajna chakra is functioning. When ajna is awakened, fickleness of the individual mind disperses and the purified buddhi (subtle intelligence or higher perception) manifests. Attachment, which is the cause of ig nor ance and lack of discrimination, drops away, and sankalpa shakti (willpower) becomes very strong. Mental resolves fructify almost immediately, provided they are in accordance with individual dharma. Ajna is the witnessing centre where one becomes the detached observer of all events, including those within the body and mind. Here the level of awareness is developed where by one begins to see the hidden essence underlying all visible appearances. When ajna is awakened, the meaning and significance of symbols flashes into ones conscious per-cep tion and intuitive knowledge arises effortlessly and one becomes a seer. This is the centre of extrasensory perception where various siddhis manifest according to ones samskaras or mental tendencies. For this reason, ajna chakra is said to resemble a knot directly on top of the spinal cord. According to tantra, this knot is called rudra granthi , the knot of Shiva. This knot is symbolic of the aspirants attachment to the newly developed siddhis which accompany the awakening of ajna. The knot effectively blocks spiritual evolution until attach ment to psychic phenomena is overcome and the knot in consciousness is freed. Understanding cause and effect Until ajna chakra awakens we are under delusions, we view things incorrectly and we have many great misconceptions about love and attachment, hatred and jealousy, tragedy ch15-18.indd 134ch15-18.indd 134 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 135and comedy, victory and defeat, and many other things. Our fears are unfounded, so are our jealousies and attachments, but still we have them. Our mind is functioning within a limited sphere and we cannot transcend it. Just as we dream at night and our dream experiences are relative, we are also dreaming in our waking state and our experiences are relative. In the same way that we wake from a dream, when ajna awakens, there is also a process of waking up from this present dream we are living, and we can fully understand the relationship between cause and effect. It is necessary for us to understand the law of cause and effect in relation to our lives, otherwise we are depressed and sorrowful about certain events in life. Supposing you give birth to a child and it dies shortly afterwards. Why did it happen? If a child was meant to die straight after birth, why was it born at all? You can only understand the reason if you understand the laws of cause and effect. Cause and effect are not immediate events. Each and every action is both a cause and an effect. This life we have is an effect, but what was the cause? You have to discover it, then you can understand the relationship between cause and effect. It is only after awakening of ajna chakra that these laws can be known. Thereafter your whole philosophical attitude and approach to life changes. No events of life affect you adversely, and the various objects and experiences that come into your life and fade out of your life do not disturb you at all. You participate in all the affairs of life and you live fully, but as a detached witness. Life flows like a fast current and you surrender and move with it. Moving on from ajna to sahasrara To reach ajna chakra requires sadhana, discipline, firm belief and persistent effort. With our present state of mind it is not possible to know how to reach sahasrara, but once ajna chakra becomes active, you develop superior perception and you realize how sahasrara can be reached. It is like setting out on a journey from Munger to Marine Drive, Bombay. ch15-18.indd 135ch15-18.indd 135 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 136The most important stage of the journey is the long train trip to Bombay. Once you are there, reaching Marine Drive is no problem. It is easy to find the way, you just take a taxi and go there. So, in my opinion, it is not important for us to know how to reach sahasrara from ajna chakra, but it is essential for us to know how to awaken ajna. ch15-18.indd 136ch15-18.indd 136 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 13718 Mooladhara Chakra The Sanskrit word moola means root or foundation and that is precisely what this chakra is. Mooladhara is at the root of the chakra system and its influences are at the root of our whole existence. The impulses of life rise through the body and flower as the widest expansion of our awareness in the area known as sahasrara. It seems a great paradox that this earthiest and most basic of the chakras guides us to the highest consciousness. In Samkhya philosophy, the concept of mooladhara is under stood as moola prakriti, the transcendental basis of physical nature. The whole universe and all its objects must have some basis from which they evolve and to which they return after dissolution. The original source of all evolution BSY ch15-18.indd 137ch15-18.indd 137 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 138is moola prakriti. Mooladhara, as the basis of moola prakriti, is responsible for everything that manifests in the world of name and form. In tantra, mooladhara is the seat of kundalini shakti, the basis from which the possibility of higher realization arises. This great potential is said to be lying dormant in the form of a coiled serpent. When aroused, it makes its way upward through sushumna nadi in the spinal cord until it reaches sahasrara where the ultimate experience of enlightenment occurs. Therefore, the awakening of mooladhara is consider-ed to be of great importance in kundalini yoga. The location point The seat of mooladhara in the male body is located slightly inside the perineum, midway between the scrotum and the anus. It is the inner aspect of that nerve complex which carries all kinds of sensations and is immediately connected with the testes. In the female body, mooladhara chakra lies on the posterior side of the cervix. In both the male and female bodies, there is a vestigial gland at mooladhara chakra which is something like a knot. In Sanskrit, this is known as brahma granthi , the knot of Brahma. As long as this knot remains intact, the energy located in this area is blocked, but the moment the knot is open ed, shakti awakens. It is only when the individual awak-ens to the possibility of divine consciousness, to a greater force and purpose than that of instinctive animal life, that the brahma granthi begins to loosen. Consciousness begins to be liberated from the root centre as the individuals aspira-tion awakens. Many people feel hesitant and shy about believing kunda lini that is in mooladhara chakra and claim it to be in manipura, because they do not want to associate this holy kundalini shakti with the unholy sexual system. However, scientific investigation shows that this tiny gland in mooladhara chakra contains infinite energy and that many psychic and spiritual experi ences originate from mooladhara. ch15-18.indd 138ch15-18.indd 138 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 139Just because mool adhara is situated in the sexual region, this does not make it an impure centre. Traditional symbology Mooladhara chakra is traditionally represented by a lotus flower with four deep crimson petals. On each petal is a letter: vam , sham , sham , sam , written in gold. In the pericarp is a yellow square, symbol of the earth ele ment, surrounded by eight golden spears, four at each corner and four at the cardinal points. These spears are said to represent the seven Kula mountains on the base spear of the earth. The golden yellow square, yantra of the earth element, is supported by an elephant with seven trunks. The elephant is the largest of all land animals and possesses great strength and solidity. These are the attributes of mooladhara, a great, dormant power, resting in a completely stable, solid place. The seven trunks of the elephant denote the seven minerals that are vital to physical functioning; in Sanskrit they are known as sapta dhatu. The seven-trunked elephant is the ve-hicle of the great mind, the great creativity. Riding on the elephants back, in the centre of the square, is a deep red inverted triangle. This is the symbol of shakti or creative energy, which is responsible for the productivity and multiplicity of all things. Within the triangle is the swayambhu or dhumra linga, smoky grey in colour. Around this lingam, which represents the astral body, kundalini is coiled three and a half times, her lustre being that of light-ning. Three represents the three gunas or qualities of nature in an individual. As long as the three gunas are opera ting, individuality is functioning within the confine ments of ego. The half represents transcendence. In tantra, this serpent is known as mahakala , meaning great or endless time. Here kundalini is lying in the womb of the unconscious, beyond time and space. When kundalini begins to manifest, it enters the dimensions of personality and individuality, and becomes subject to time and space. ch15-18.indd 139ch15-18.indd 139 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 140That is the awakening of the great serpent power within the individual form, frame and consciousness of man. However, in most people it is dormant. In its awakened state kundalini shakti represents our spiritual potential, but in its dormant state it represents that instinctive level of life which supports our basic existence. Both possibilities lie in mooladhara. Resting on top of the inverted triangle is the beeja mantra lam . Inside the bindu, over the mantra, reside the elephant deva Ganesha and the devi Dakini, who has four arms and brilliant red eyes. She is resplendent like the lustre of many suns rising at the same time. She is the carrier of ever pure intelligence. The tanmatra or sense associated with mooladhara is smell, and it is here that the psychic smells manifest. The jnan endriya or sensory organ is the nose and the karm- endriya, organ of activity is the anus. Mooladhara awakening is often accompanied by itchy sensations around the coccyx or anus, and the sense of smell becomes so acute that offensive odours are difficult to bear. Mooladhara is the direct switch for awakening ajna chakra. It belongs to bhuloka, the first plane of mortal existence and it is the chief centre of apana. Mooladhara is also the seat of annamaya kosha, the body of nourishment, connected with the absorption of food and evacuation of faeces. By meditating on kundalini in mooladhara chakra, a man becomes lord of speech, a king among men and an adept in all kinds of learning. He becomes ever free from all diseases and he remains cheerful at all times. Balancing the nadis Mooladhara is the base from which the three main psychic channels or nadis emerge and flow up the spinal cord. It is said that ida, the mental force, emerges from the left of mooladhara; pingala, the vital force, from the right; and sushumna, the spiritual force, from the centre. According to tantra, this emanation point is highly volatile. When the positive and negative forces of ida and pingala are completely ch15-18.indd 140ch15-18.indd 140 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 141balanced, an awakening is sparked off here which arouses the dormant kundalini. Usually, this state of balance between ida and pingala nadis can only be achieved sporadically and for short durations. This may be sufficient to trigger off a mild awakening, in which kundalini rises as far as swadhis thana or manipura and then drops back to mooladhara again. Therefore, the hatha yoga practices, particularly those of pranayama, are very important in kundalini yoga, because they purify and rebalance the psychic flows. Once the state of balance between ida and pingala becomes steady and ongoing, the awakening engendered in mooladhara becomes explosive, and kundalini rises with great force, overcoming all obstacles on its path until it reaches its ultimate destination in sahasrara. Pranotthana versus kundalini Many people have experiences in meditation when they feel the shakti rising through the spinal cord from mooladhara to the brain. However, in most cases, this is not the awakening of kundalini, but a release of pranic force called pranotthana. This preliminary awakening starts from mooladhara and ascends the spinal cord via pingala nadi, only partially purifying the chakras, until it reaches the brain where it is usually dispersed. In this type of awakening the experience of shakti is rarely sustained. However, it does prepare the aspirant for the eventual awakening of kundalini, which is something altogether different and more powerful. After the awakening of kundalini, the individual will never be the same again. Here there is an ascent of force accompanied by a psychic awakening which is permanently accessible. Even though it may fall back again, the potential will always be there. Mooladhara and sexual expression Awakening of mooladhara chakra is very important, firstly, because it is the seat of kundalini and, secondly, because it is the seat of great tamas. All of the passions are stored in ch15-18.indd 141ch15-18.indd 141 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 142mooladhara, all the guilt, every complex and every agony has its root here. This chakra is physiologically related to the excretory, urinary, sexual and reproductive organs. It is very important for everybody to awaken this chakra and get out of it. Our life, desires, actions and accomplishments are controlled by the sexual desires, and whatever we do in life is an expression of that lower chakra. Our lower samskaras and karmas are embed ded there and, as in lower incarnations, our whole being is founded on the sexual personality. Dr Sigmund Freud has also emphasized this point. He said that our selection of clothing, food, friends, home furnishings, decor, etc., are influenced by our sexual awareness. All the schizophrenics, neurotics and crazy people who are ridden with guilt and complexes are people who have not been able to get the shakti out of mooladhara chakra. As a result their lives are imbalanced. Sexual fulfilment and sexual frustrations control our life. If sexual urges are removed from life, everything will change. Often we react to sexual life on account of bitter experiences and we vow not to follow the same path again. We are fed up and on account of that we say, No more. But this is no solution, it is only a reaction and not the permanent structure of our mind. Unless mooladhara chakra is purified, its corresponding centre in the brain will always remain tamasic. We can live the same type of life as we do today, but we can make it much better. Sexual relationships are not a sin, but the conscious-ness must awaken and the purpose of the whole act must be transmuted. It is clearly stated in tantra that the purpose of the sexual act is threefold, and these threefold purposes depend on the level and frequency of ones mind. Some people practise it for procreation, others for pleasure only, because that is the level of their mind. Some practise it to open the window to samadhi. They do not care for procrea-tion or the fulfilment of passion; they are only concerned with awakening an experience and sublimating it. ch15-18.indd 142ch15-18.indd 142 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 143 Through that experience they open the higher centres. So those who practise the normal sexual act must awaken mooladhara chakra first. Also, through the sexual act, a female can awaken mooladhara and swadhisthana chakras if her partner is a yogi. Generally for these chakras to awaken in a mans body, he will have to practise kriya yoga and techniques such as vajroli. There is another important thing we should all under-stand. A person who has controlled his lower impulses, a yogi who is practising higher sadhana, does not have to give up his or her partner and the marital relationship. If you think that to be a yogi you must give up sex, why dont you also give up eating and sleeping? Yoga has nothing to do with giving up these things; it is only concerned with trans-forming their purpose and meaning. The greatest mistake mankind has been making for thousands of years is that man has been fighting with himself. He wants to renounce sex but he has not been able to do it. Therefore, it is important that mooladhara awakening takes place. Then you can make your mind totally free. Managing mooladhara awakening When awakening takes place in mooladhara as the result of yoga practice or other spiritual disciplines, many things explode into conscious awareness in the same way that an erupt ing volcano pushes to the surface things that were hid-den beneath the earth. With the awakening of kundalini, there is simultaneous awakening of things from the uncon-scious field of human existence which one may not have had prior conscious knowledge of whatsoever. When mooladhara awakens, a number of phenomena occur. The first thing many practitioners experience is levita-tion of the astral body. One has the sensation of floating upward in space, leaving the physical body behind. This is due to the energy of kundalini whose ascending momentum causes the astral body to disassociate from the physical and move upward. This phenomenon is limited to the astral and ch15-18.indd 143ch15-18.indd 143 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 144possibly mental dimensions, and this differs from what is normally called levitation the actual displacement of the physical body. Besides astral levitation, one sometimes experiences psych ic phenomena such as clairvoyance or clairaudience. Other common manifestations include movements or increas ing warmth in the area of the coccyx, or a creeping sensation, like something moving slowly up the spinal cord. These sensations result from the ascension of shakti or the awakened kundalini. In most cases, when the shakti reaches manipura chakra, it begins to descend to mooladhara again. Sometimes the practitioner feels that the energy ascends to the top of the head, but usually only a very small portion of the shakti is able to pass beyond manipura. Repeated earnest attempts are necessary for the further ascension of kundalini, but once kundalini passes manipura chakra, serious obstacles are rarely en counter ed. However, when kundalini is ascending from mooladhara to swadhisthana, the sadhaka experiences a crucial period in which all his repressed emotions, especially those of a more primal nature, express themselves. Passions mount during this period and all kinds of infatuations ensue, making the sadhaka extremely irritable and unstable at times. He can be seen sitting quietly in contemplation one moment and hurling objects at someone the next. One day he may sleep deeply for hours together, another day he may get up at one or two in the morning to take a bath and meditate. He becomes very passionate, loud and talkative, while at other times he is silent. At this stage the sadhaka often expresses a great fondness for singing. During this period of intense psychic and emotional upheaval, the guidance of a qualified and understanding guru is essential. Although some people may regard this emo tion al turmoil as the indication of a great fall, the guru will assure each and every aspirant that it is an essential part of spiritual life which will accelerate their evolution. If this ch15-18.indd 144ch15-18.indd 144 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 145explosion does not take place, the same purging process will still occur, but very slowly, as problems arise and work them-selves out life after life. Mooladhara is one of the most important and exciting, but also disturbing of the psychic centres which are awakened through the practices of kundalini yoga. For this reason, the awakening of ajna chakra should always accompany mool adhara awakening. The mental faculties of ajna chakra give the practitioner an ability to witness the events of mooladhara awakening objectively, with greater understanding. This makes the whole experience less disturbing and traumatic. When ajna is awakened, you will find that mooladhara is the easiest of chakras to awaken. The gross mind can concen-trate on this centre and manipulate it with ease. As your body and mind begin to break their animal bonds, your awareness expands and you are able to envision the greater possibility of your creative potential. ch15-18.indd 145ch15-18.indd 145 21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM21/03/2018 4:30:18 PM 14619 Swadhisthana Chakra The Sanskrit word swa means ones own and adhisthana means dwelling place or residence. Although mooladhara occupies a very important place in the scheme of the chakras, swadhisthana, which is located very near to mooladhara, is also involved in and responsible for the awakening of kun dalini shakti in mooladhara. In fact, it is said that previously the seat of kundalini was in swadhisthana, but there was a fall and subsequently mahakundalini came to rest in mooladhara. The location point Swadhisthana corresponds to the reproductive and urinary systems in the gross body and is physiologically related to the prostatic or utero-vaginal plexus of nerves. The location of BSY ch19-24.indd 146ch19-24.indd 146 21/03/2018 4:38:48 PM21/03/2018 4:38:48 PM 147swadhisthana is at the base of the spinal column, at the level of the coccyx or tailbone. This is a small bony bulb which can be felt just above the anus. It is anatomically very close to mooladhara chakra in both the male and female bodies. Swadhisthana kshetram is in the front of the body at the level of the pubic bone. Traditional symbology Swadhisthana chakra can be experienced as black in colour, as it is the seat of primary ignorance. However, traditionally it is depicted as a six-petalled vermilion or orange-red lotus. On each petal there is a letter: bam , bham , mam , yam , ram , and lam , written in the colour of lightning. The element of this chakra is water, symbolized by a white crescent moon within the pericarp of the lotus. The crescent moon is formed by two circles which engender two further yantras. The larger has outward turned petals and represents the conscious dimension of existence. On the inside of the crescent moon is a similar petalled but smaller circle with petals facing inwards. This is the unconscious dim ens ion, the store of formless karma. These two yantras are separated by the white crocodile in the crescent moon. The crocodile is the vehicle which carries the whole phantom of unconscious life. It symbolizes the subterranean movement of the karmas. Seated on the crocodile is the beeja mantra vam , stainless and white. Within the bindu of the mantra reside the deva Vishnu and the devi Rakini. Vishnu has four arms, his body is a luminous blue colour, he is clothed in yellow raiment and he is beauti ful to behold. Rakini is the colour of a blue lotus and she is clothed in celestial raiment and ornaments. In her uplifted arms she holds various weapons and her mind is exalted from drinking nectar. She is the goddess of the vegetable king dom and, as swadhisthana chakra is closely related to the vegetable world, the observance of a vegetarian diet is said to be an important practice for the awakening of this chakra. ch19-24.indd 147ch19-24.indd 147 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 148 The loka for swadhisthana is bhuvar, the intermediate plane of spiritual awareness. The tanmatra or sense connected with this chakra is taste. The jnanendriyas or senses of knowl-edge are the tongue. The karmendriya or sense of action is the sexual organs, kidneys and urinary system. The chief vayu of swadhisthana is apana, which courses throughout the body, and swadhisthana and manipura are the seat of prana maya kosha. It is said that he who meditates on kundalini in swadhis-thana chakra is immediately freed from his internal enemies: lust, anger, greed, etc. His nectar-like words flow in prose and verse and in well-reasoned discourse. He becomes like the sun, illumining the darkness of ignorance. Home of the unconscious Swadhisthana is regarded as the substratum or basis of individual human existence. Its counterpart in the brain is the unconscious mind and it is the storehouse of mental impressions or samskaras. It is said that all the karmas, the past lives, the previous experiences, the greater dimension of the human personality that is unconscious, can be symbolized by swadhisthana chakra. Individual being takes root in the unconscious mind, and the many instinctive drives that are felt at the level of this chakra bubble up from the depths of the unconscious. In tantra there is the concept of the animal, and the master of the animal. In Sanskrit, pashu means animal and pati means master. Pashupati is the master or controller of all the animal instincts. This is one of the names of Lord Shiva, and it is also one of the attributes of swadhisthana chakra. According to mythology, Pashupati is the total unconscious. It has absolute control over mooladhara chakra and the animal propensities during the first milestone of human evolu tion. The unconscious principle of swadhisthana should never be considered as an inactive or dormant process. Rather it is a far more dynamic and powerful process than the normal ch19-24.indd 148ch19-24.indd 148 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 149conscious ness. When the shakti enters swadhisthana chakra there is an overwhelming experience of this unconscious state. It is different from mooladhara, which is the manifest expression of that unconscious. In mooladhara, the karmas of the lower stages of our evolution are manifested in the form of anger, greed, jealousy, passion, love, hatred and so on. There we work out that karma, manifesting and expres-sing it overtly. At the level of swadhisthana, however, there is no conscious activity or manifestation. This is hiranya garbha, the universal womb, where everything exists in a potential state. The Rig V eda says: In the beginning of creation there was hiranya garbha, then came all the living beings, all the beings that exist, and He was the protector of all. In the collective unconscious, the samskaras and the karmas exist in a seed state. For example, yesterday you may have had a pleasant or a painful experience. That experience has become a subconscious process or force which is acting on and colouring your conscious awareness today. There are many experiences like this from the past which we do not consciously recall, but nevertheless they are playing a part in determining our daily behaviour, attitudes and reactions. There are many karmas influencing us in this way, but we remain completely unaware of them. According to tantra, each and every perception, experi-ence and association is recorded. If you have a quarrel or bitter exchange, that is a very strong registration. However, if you happen to pass someone on the path, look at him and walk on, this is also registered. Many things come within your range of association, and they are all automatically registered. They are not analyzed, but simply filed away in some layer of the mind. All those insignificant and unimpressive karmas, which have been registered auto-matically in our consciousness, form the total unconscious. In kundalini yoga, swadhisthana is often regarded as a hindrance in the sense that these karmas lying embedded in the unconscious do not allow the rising kundalini to pass through. After the initial awakening, kundalini returns to ch19-24.indd 149ch19-24.indd 149 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 150dormancy time and time again, solely due to the karmic block at swadhisthana. These karmas are beyond the range of analysis. They have practically no form but they are a great force. To give a crude analogy, suppose there is a big water tank into which you drop all kinds of things. If you were to empty the tank five years later and examine the contents, you would no longer find those same objects which you put in. The matter would still be there but its form would have changed. The collective karma of the unconscious exists in swadhisthana as a form or force somewhat like the matter in this tank. Therefore, the awakening of swadhisthana presents many difficulties for the sadhaka. When the explosion takes place and swadhisthana begins to erupt, the aspirant is often confused and disturbed by the activation of all this uncon scious material. It is absolutely impossible for one to understand these impressions, which are attributed to a disturbed mental condition. Although the sadhaka may be duly apprehensive about entering this stage of awakening, it is absolutely necessary for his spiritual evolution. Provided he has a competent guru or spiritual guide who knows how to avoid all the pitfalls of this area, swadhisthana can be traversed safely and without any problems. Swadhisthana and purgatory When kundalini is residing in swadhisthana chakra, the last vestige of karma is being thrown out and all the negative samskaras express themselves and are expelled. At this time you may be angry, afraid or full of sexual fantasies and passion. You may also experience lethargy, indolence, depression and all kinds of tamasic characteristics. The tendency to procrastinate is very strong and you just want to sleep and sleep. This stage of evolution is known as purgatory, and if you read the lives of many of the great saints, you will find that most of them encountered great turmoil and temptations when they were passing through this stage. ch19-24.indd 150ch19-24.indd 150 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 151 When Lord Buddha was sitting beneath the bodhi tree waiting for enlightenment, he was visited by Mara. Mara is a demonical mythological force, the same force which the Bible refers to as Satan. Just as Satan is a tempter, so Mara is a temptress. This demonical force is not external; it is an internal force which can be found in everybody. It is situated at a very great depth of our personality and is capable of creating illusion. In the Buddhist tradition Mara is rep-resented by a big snake, a grotesque looking person with big teeth and a horrible face, or as beautiful naked women hovering around waiting to embrace an aspirant who is involved in his sadhana. These are all mythological symbols no doubt, but they are realities. Only those who are fearless and of strong willpower can survive through the temptation. Every great person and every saint has had to undergo this peculiar experience, which is like the ultimate explosion of the seed of life. It seems that the seed of mans cycle of birth and rebirth is sit ua ted in swadhisthana chakra. Although most people con-front difficulties when they are moving through the terrain of swadhisthana, if one has the grace of guru, indomitable and invincible willpower, has been sincere and not hypo-critical in ones spiritual pursuits, is very clear about ones goal and understands what these experiences of purgatory are, then one can face these difficulties properly and over-come them. If one fluctuates even slightly, kundalini will return to mool adhara and the real awakening will be more difficult. There fore, in the first stages of sadhana and awakening, one must have a supreme kind of vairagya (detachment). It should not be intellectual vairagya, but the outcome of a thorough analysis of the situations of life. Where is the end to the pleasures of life? Can you ever satisfy your desires? Even when you reach the age of eighty or ninety and your body can no longer enjoy pleasures, the mind still dwells on them constantly. You can leave all the sensual pleasures, but the taste will remain in the mind. ch19-24.indd 151ch19-24.indd 151 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 152 If the sadhaka understands this truth, that desires can never be satisfied in one lifetime, or even in thousands of lifetimes, then kundalini can pass through swadhisthana safely and relatively fast, and make its way to manipura chakra. Without this understanding, swadhisthana becomes like an impenetrable iron curtain and perhaps only one in thousands can transcend it. Many people awaken kundalini quite easily, but passing the swadhisthana border is another thing; you cannot get through without a visa. The sexual crisis I remember reading a book written by a well-known swami* who had experienced difficulties getting through swadhis-thana. He wrote that he was sitting all night and nothing but sex and sensual thoughts came to his mind. He dreamed of many women presenting themselves in their naked form, and his whole body was becoming hot and cold, hot and cold. Ultimately he got a headache, and at one point, he thought that my heart would collapse. Throughout the crisis, his gurus face used to come like a glimpse. The gurus face was stern and expressionless and that used to bring his temperature back to normal. However, this confrontation with the powerful side of his mind con tinued until morning. At last, when morning came he breathed a sigh of relief. But then, when he sat for meditation in the evening he had mixed feelings there was fear in his mind and confidence as well. Day in and day out the mind played its tricks on him. Then one night Parvati came to him. Parvati is the shakti of Lord Shiva, and she is the Divine Mother. He knew she was Parvati, but because she looked so beautiful and she was wearing almost transparent clothing, he began to desire her. Rather than remembering that she was the Divine Mother, his mind was more aware of the form behind the transparent apparel. *Swami Muktananda, Chitshakti Vilas, 1971, SYDA, South Fallsburg, New York. ch19-24.indd 152ch19-24.indd 152 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 153 Like a flash of lightning the guru showed his face and he regained his senses and prayed, Mother, withdraw your maya. I cant face these experiences. You are the giver of liberation and you are the creator of illusion. You have the power to cast me back into the cycle of birth and rebirth and you have the power to lift me from this quagmire of ignorance. As he prayed, tears rolled down his face and he felt a cool breeze passing through the interior of his body. The whole panorama vanished and he understood that kundalini had passed through swadhisthana and was now heading towards manipura. Transforming the primal energy When no sexual desires of any kind manifest in an aspirant any more, and when there is no more personal attraction, that means kundalini has passed beyond swadhisthana chakra. However, when you are dealing with the subject of sex, your understanding must be very thorough. Although you may not have any sexual awareness at the moment, that does not mean your desires have been exterminated. They might be in a suppressed state. There is an automatic process of suppression in the human constitution, and that is inherent in our own mental being. Indian rishis have stated that sexual awareness and desires can manifest at any stage of evolution. They are very acute and clearly expressed when one is in swadhisthana and having continual fantasies, but sexual awareness never really dies because it is fuelled by the primal energy which is present all throughout. Sex is only an expression of that, and therefore it can manifest at any stage, and one should never think that one has transcended it. It is even present when one is in the highest state of consciousness. The only difference is that in swadhisthana it is in a very disturbed state, whereas in the higher centres of evolution it is in a seed form. After all, what is bhakti or devotion; what is union? They are the sublimated pure form of sexual energy. ch19-24.indd 153ch19-24.indd 153 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 154 Energy at different levels is known by different names. At the highest level it is called spiritual experience. On the emotional level it is known as love. On the physical level it is known as sex, and at the lowest level it is known as avidya or ignorance. So therefore, when you talk about sex, you must understand that it is only a particular formation of energy. Just as curd, butter and cheese are different formations of the one thing milk, energy has different manifestations. Matter is the grossest manifestation of energy; in the ultimate state, matter is energy. Therefore, energy and matter are intra-convertible. A thought is an object and an object is a thought. This body is consciousness and consciousness has become this body. In the same way that you understand this, you have to reanalyze and redefine sexual awareness. The rishis say that the same energy which flows through passion, when channelled, manifests as devotion. Channel this same energy again and it manifests as spiritual experi-ence. That is why spiritual aspirants love God in various manifestations. Some picture him as a father, a mother, a child, a friend, husband or lover. In this way, they can sublimate the form of their emotional energy and even transform the primal energy into a divine experience. Psychic propensities of swadhisthana At a higher level swadhisthana acts as the switch for bindu. This is the point where primal sound originates. Any awaken-ing in swadhisthana is simultaneously carried up to bindu, where it is experienced in the form of the sound body, which is an important psychic attribute of this chakra. According to the tantric texts, there are many other psychic propensities gained through the awakening of swadhis-thana chakra. These include: loss of fear of water, dawning of intuitive knowledge, awareness of astral entities, and the ability to taste anything desired for oneself or others. It must be remembered that up to swadhisthana, the con sciousness is not yet purified. Due to ignorance and con-fusion, the psychic powers awakened at this level are often ch19-24.indd 154ch19-24.indd 154 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 155accompanied by the maleficent mental attributes. What happens here when the aspirant tries to manifest or express himself through the psychic medium is that more often than not it becomes a vehicle for personal and lower tendencies, rather than for the divine. The sum and substance is this awakening of kundalini is not a difficult task, but to get beyond swadhisthana is. For that, you must improve the general background of your psycho-emotional life. Once you pass swadhisthana you will not have to face any explosive traumas again, but there will be other difficulties further on. Kundalini is unlikely to descend again as it is destined to move on, but the problems you will confront will be concerned with siddhis, and they are more difficult to subdue. ch19-24.indd 155ch19-24.indd 155 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 15620 Manipura Chakra Manipura is derived from two Sanskrit words: mani meaning jewel and pura meaning city. Therefore, manipura literally means city of jewels. In the Tibetan tradition, this chakra is known as mani padma , which means jewelled lotus. Manipura is a very important centre as far as the awaken-ing of kundalini shakti is concerned. It is the centre of dynamism, energy, willpower and achievement and it is often compared to the dazzling heat and power of the sun, without which life on earth would not exist. In the same way that the sun continually radiates energy to the planets, manipura chakra radiates and distributes pranic energy through out the entire human framework, regulating and energiz ing the various activities of organs, systems and processes of life. BSY ch19-24.indd 156ch19-24.indd 156 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 157When deficient, it is more like the glowing embers of a dying fire rather than a powerful intense blaze. In this state the ind ivid ual is rendered lifeless, vitality deficient and devoid of energy. He will be hindered by poor health, depression and lack of motivation and commitment in life. Therefore, the awakening of manipura is an important precedent, not only for the sadhaka, but for anyone who wishes to enjoy life more fully. The location point Manipura chakra is located directly behind the navel on the inner wall of the spinal column. The kshetram is situated right at the navel. This chakra is anatomically related to the solar plexus, which controls the digestive fire and heat regulation in the body. Traditional symbology Manipura is symbolized by a ten petalled bright yellow lotus. Some of the tantric texts say the lotus petals are the colour of heavily laden rain clouds. On each petal one of the ten letters: pham , dam , dham , nam , tam , tham , dam , dham , nam , pam , is inscribed in the colour of the blue lotus. In the centre of the lotus is the region of fire, symbolized by an inverted fiery red triangle which shines like the rising sun. The triangle has a bhupura or swastika in the shape of a T on each of its three sides. In the lower apex is the ram, vehicle for manipura, symbolizing dynamism and indomitable endurance. Seated on the ram is the beeja mantra of manipura ram . In the bindu reside the deva Rudra and the devi Lakini. Rudra is of a pure vermilion hue and he is smeared with white ashes. He is three-eyed and of an ancient aspect. Lakini, the benefactress of all, is four-armed, of dark complexion and radiant body. She is clothed in yellow rai ment, decked with various ornaments and exalted from drinking nectar. The tanmatra of manipura is sight. The jnanendriya or organ of knowledge is the eyes, and the karmendriya ch19-24.indd 157ch19-24.indd 157 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 158or organ of action is the feet. These two organs are closely linked in the sense that vision and wilful action are inter-dependent. Manipura belongs to swaha loka , the heavenly plane of existence. This is the last of the mortal planes. Its guna is pre - dominantly rajas (activity, intensity, acquisitiveness), where as the lower chakras are predominantly tamasic (lethargic and negative). The tattwa is agni, the fire element, which is very important in kundalini yoga. Its vayu is samana , which digests and distributes the essence of food to the entire system. Manipura and swadhisthana chakras are the seat of pranamaya kosha . In the yogic scriptures it is said that the moon at bindu secretes nectar which falls down to manipura and is consumed by the sun. This results in the ongoing process of degenera tion which leads to old age, disease and death. This process can be reversed in the human body by adopting certain yogic practices which send the pranic forces in manipura back up to the brain. Otherwise the vitality is quickly dis sipated and lost in the mundane affairs of life. It is said that meditation on manipura chakra leads to knowledge of the entire physical system. When this centre is purified and awakened, the body becomes disease-free and luminous, and the yogis consciousness does not fall back into the lower states. The centre of awakening According to the Buddhist tradition and many of the tantric texts, the actual awakening of kundalini takes place from manipura and not from mooladhara. In some tantric tradi-tions, mooladhara and swadhisthana are not referred to at all, as these two centres are believed to belong to the higher realms of animal life, whereas from manipura onwards, higher man predominates. So mooladhara is the seat of kundalini, swadhisthana is the abode, and the awakening takes place in manipura. This is because from manipura the awakening becomes ongoing and there is practically no ch19-24.indd 158ch19-24.indd 158 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 159danger of a downfall or devolution of consciousness. Up to this point, kundalini may awaken and arise many times, only to recede again, but awakening of manipura is what we call a confirmed awakening. To stabilize the awareness in manipura and sustain the awakening there is not easy. The sadhaka must be very earnest and persevering in his effort to bring about further awakenings. I have found that in sincere sadhakas, kundalini is mostly in manipura. If you are exposed to spiritual life, practise yoga, have a keen desire to find a guru and to pursue a higher life, side by side with the work you are doing, it means kundalini is not in mooladhara. It is in manipura or one of the higher centres. Union of prana and apana In tantra there is an important branch known as swara yoga, the science of the breath, which is used to bring about the awakening of kundalini. According to this system, all the pranas in the body are classified into five dimensions, prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana . At the navel region, there is an important junction where two of these vital forces, prana and apana, meet. The prana moves upwards and downwards between the navel and throat, and the apana flows up and down between the perineum and navel. These two movements are normally coupled together, like two railway carriages, so that with the inspired breath, prana is experienced moving up from the navel to the throat, while apana is simultaneously moving up to the navel centre from mooladhara. Then with exhalation, prana descends from the throat to the navel and apana descends from manipura to mooladhara. In this way prana and apana are continually functioning together and changing direction with the flow of the inspired/expired breath. This movement can be readily experienced through re-laxed breath awareness in the psychic passages between the perineal region, the navel and the throat centres in the front of the body. By gaining control through particular kriyas, ch19-24.indd 159ch19-24.indd 159 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 160the apana is separated from prana, and its flow is reversed to bring about the awakening of the chakra. Whereas the apana normally descends from manipura during expira tion, the flow is reversed so that prana and apana both enter the navel centre simultaneously from above and below, and are joined. This is the union of prana and apana. It is said that when kundalini wakes up in mooladhara it begins to ascend spirally, like a hissing snake. However, the awakening of kundalini in manipura takes place like a blast, as the prana and the redirected apana meet in the navel centre. It is like two great forces colliding with each other and then fusing together at this pranic junction, manipura kshetram. As they fuse together, they create heat and an energy or force which is conducted directly back from the navel to the manipura chakra within the spinal cord. It is this force which awakens manipura chakra. The force of sadhana has caused a total reorganization of the pranic flow in the body, so that mooladhara is transcended and the new base of kundalini is manipura chakra. Manipura in perspective Human evolution takes place through seven planes in the same way that kundalini awakens in the seven chakras. When the consciousness evolves to manipura, the sadhaka acquires a spiritual perspective. He gets a glimpse of the higher lokas or planes of existence. From mooladhara and swadhisthana, the higher planes cannot be seen. Therefore, the limitations of perception in the lower planes are responsible for the misuse of siddhis or powers which begin to manifest there. Only when the sadhaka reaches manipura is he able to visualize the infinite state of consciousness which is no longer gross and empirical. It stretches before him endlessly, full of beauty, truth and auspiciousness. In the face of this vision, all his views are completely changed. The personal prejudices, com plexes and biases drop away as the endless beauty and perfection of the higher worlds dawn within the conscious ness. ch19-24.indd 160ch19-24.indd 160 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 161 As long as the evolution is in the planes of mooladhara and swadhisthana, one has mental and emotional problems and sees the whole world correspondingly, but as soon as one transcends these planes and goes to manipura, all the bliss, noble views, perfect ideas and greater possibilities of human consciousness are seen. Then, naturally, what ever one thinks and does will be influenced by this higher vision. This is why the psychic powers that come to the sadhaka after having awakened and established the kundalini in manipura are really benevolent and compassionate, whereas those which manifest in mooladhara and swadhisthana are still tinged by the dark aspect of the lower mind. The powers gained through the awakening of manipura chakra are the ability to create and destroy, self-defence, the acquisition of hidden treasures, no fear of fire, knowledge of ones own body, freedom from disease and the ability to withdraw the energy to sahasrara. ch19-24.indd 161ch19-24.indd 161 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 16221 Anahata Chakra In kundalini yoga, anahata chakra is a centre of great im portance. This is because although awakening from manipura is constant, kundalini has to remain in anahata for quite a long time. It is said that in this present age, the consciousness of mankind is passing through a phase of anahata. This means that in many people anahata chakra has started to function. However, there is a difference between functioning and awakening. In most people, anahata is not completely active, but it functions slightly. Mooladhara, BSY ch19-24.indd 162ch19-24.indd 162 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 163on the other hand, is very active and almost awake in the majority of people today. The word anahata actually means unstruck or unbeaten. This centre is known as such because of its relationship with the heart, which throbs, beats or vibrates to a constant un-broken rhythm. It is said in many of the scriptures that there is a sound which is non-physical and non-empirical, which is transcendental in nature, and this sound is endless and unbroken in the same way that the heart beats faithfully and continuously from before birth up until death. The location point Anahata chakra is situated in the spinal column on the inner wall, directly behind the centre of the chest. The kshetram is the heart, and although anahata is known as the heart centre, this should not be misinterpreted to mean the biological heart. Although its physio logical component is the cardiac plexus of nerves, the nature of this centre is far beyond the physiological dimen sion. In yoga the heart centre is also known as hridayakasha, which means the space within the heart where purity resides. This chakra is a very delicate centre, for it is directly connected with that part of the brain which is responsible for all the creative sciences and fine arts such as painting, dance, music, poetry, and so on. Traditional symbology Although most of the tantric texts say that anahata is a shining crimson colour, like that of the bandhuka flower, my experi ence is that it is blue in colour. It has twelve petals and on each petal a letter is inscribed in vermilion: kam , kham , gam , gham , ngam , cham , chham , jam , jham , nyam , tam and tham . The inner region is hexagonal in shape, representing the air element, vayu tattwa. It is made up of two interlaced triangles, symbolizing the union of Shiva and Shakti. The inverted triangle is the symbol of creativity, Shakti; and the ch19-24.indd 163ch19-24.indd 163 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 164upright triangle represents consciousness or Shiva. The vehicle, located within the hexagon, is a black antelope, which is known for its alertness and fleetness of foot. Above it is situated the beeja mantra yam , which is dark grey in colour. Within the bindu of this mantra is the presiding deva, Isha (Lord in an all-pervading form), who is lustrous like the sun. With him is the devi Kakini (benefactress of all), who is yellow in colour, three-eyed, four-armed, auspicious and exhilarated. In the centre of the pericarp of the lotus is an inverted triangle, within which burns the akhanda jyotir, unflickering eternal flame, representing the jivatma or individual soul. Some of the tantric texts say there is a shivalingam inside the triangle. It is called the bana linga and is like shining gold. Below the main lotus of anahata is a subsidiary lotus with red petals, which contain the kalpa taru or wish-fulfilling tree. Many saints have recommended visualization of the kalpa taru or of a still lake within the anahata hexagon. Upon this lake there is a beautiful blue lotus. You may have seen this symbol because it is utilized by several ashrams and spiritual missions. Anahata belongs to maha loka , the first of the immortal planes. Its vayu is prana, which passes through the nose and mouth, and its tanmatra is feeling or touch. The jnanendriya is the skin and the karmendriya is the hands. Anahata repre-sents manomaya kosha , controlling the mind and emotions. Vishnu granthi , the second psychic knot, is located at this heart centre. It represents the bondage of emotional attach-ment, the tendency to live ones life making decisions on the strength of the emotions and feelings, rather than in the light of the spiritual quest. Vishnu granthi is untied as the emotions harmonize and enhance, rather than oppose, the spiri tual awakening. It is said that he who meditates on the heart lotus is foremost among yogis and adored by women, that he is pre-eminently wise and full of noble deeds. His senses are com pletely under control and his mind can be engrossed in ch19-24.indd 164ch19-24.indd 164 21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM21/03/2018 4:38:53 PM 165intense concentration. His speech is inspired and he has the ability to enter anothers body at will. Fate and free will Tantric scriptures say that in anahata thoughts and desires of the individual are materialized and fulfilled. There are basically two ways of thinking: dependently or independently. Up to manipura chakra the first approach holds true, but once the shakti pierces anahata, the second approach takes precedence. As long as the consciousness is centred in the lower chakras, you will remain completely dependent on what is already enjoined for you, your fate or destiny, prarabdha karma . Even the awakening of the lower chakras does not make much difference. Once the consciousness ascends through manipura, you become master over some of the situations of life, but you are still influenced and bound by your prarabdha karma. You know that you can escape it, but you do not know how. The lower chakras belong to the empirical world of body, mind and sense. People who accept their fate as inevitable have not yet transcended mooladhara and swadhisthana chakras. Manipura is still considered earthly, although it lies at the boundary between mortal and immortal planes. Those who actively shape their own destiny through strength of will channelled in a positive direction, which leads to realization and achievement, are in the realm of manipura. Anahata chakra is almost completely beyond these em-pirical dimensions. Here, one realizes that fate is of course real, but still one can go totally beyond its dictates. It is like throwing something into the sky. If you are able to hurl that object right out of the gravitational field, then it will no longer be pulled down by the earths magnetic forces. Just as a rocket is launched at tremendous speed in order to go beyond the gravitational pull of the earth, so the con-sciousness is accelerated in anahata to the speed of free will in order to transcend the pull of latent samskaras. ch19-24.indd 165ch19-24.indd 165 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 166 It is only when you reach anahata chakra that you become a yogi. Up until then, whether you are in mooladhara, swa-dhisthana or manipura, you are a yoga practitioner. In anahata you become a yogi because you are completely established in yogic consciousness and you depend solely upon the power of your own consciousness, rather than on anything that is external or concerning faith. Wish fulfilment In anahata chakra, the freedom to escape from a preordained fate and to determine ones own destiny becomes a reality. According to the tantras, at the root of anahata there is a wish-fulfilling tree known as the kalpa taru or kalpa vriksha. When this tree starts to fructify, whatever you think or wish comes true. Ordinarily we have many wishes, but they rarely assume more than the air of a daydream. However, if they were all to become realities, we would quickly start to question whether we want our wishes fulfilled at all. Most people prefer to depend on fate rather than take responsibility for creating their own destiny, and well they should. There is a fine story which is often told to illustrate this. Once a traveller was sitting underneath a tree. He was feeling very tired and wanted to have a drink. So he thought of a clear stream, and immediately he heard the trickle of water flowing beside him. After drinking some water, he thought he would like to have a little food to satisfy his hunger, and that appeared beside him also. Then, as he was feeling tired and thought he would like to rest, there appeared before him a nice bed, and so he went to sleep. The foolish man did not know that he had come to rest beneath the wish-fulfilling tree. In the evening when he awoke, the sun had already set and night had fallen. He got up and the thought came to his mind: Oh, it is terribly dark, perhaps the tigers will come and eat me, and so they did. This is what can happen to anyone who awakens the wish-fulfilling capacity without sufficient preparation. If the consciousness awakens in anahata, but you do not know the ch19-24.indd 166ch19-24.indd 166 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 167powers of your mind, or you possess negative, pessimistic attitudes, dark approaches to life, apprehensions, fears and many other negative mental tendencies, then you will immediately fall prey to them. If this happens, you risk the possibility of falling back from anahata. And if you fall from anahata, there is hardly any chance of making a second start. To avoid a downfall at this point, it is necessary to always remain as alert as the antelope, which is sensitive to each and every sound. The antelope is the vehicle of anahata for this reason; it is not the symbol of restlessness, but of alertness. When whatever you wish for comes true, you are very happy, but at the same time, it is necessary to constantly analyze your attitude towards yourself and others. You have to be careful of doubts. For example, if you develop a few palpitations of the heart and think: Perhaps I am developing angina pectoris, or a pain in the abdomen and think: Now I have appendicitis or gall bladder disease, such thoughts may bring many problems and disorders in their wake. You must also guard against doubts concerning others: Maybe that man is my enemy, My son is sick, maybe he will die, My friend has not contacted me, he must have had an accident. It is important to have a firm and alert control over the mental tendencies and fantasies of the mind. Thoughts concerning the body, husband, wife, children, family, social, economic or political situations come to us all the time. If kundalini is asleep, these thoughts have no power, but when kundalini awakens in anahata chakra, all these thoughts suddenly become realities. Unless we are ever alert at this stage we will place our own destructive hand on our head. In the tantric text Saundarya Lahari, this wish-fulfilling process is aptly described as the chintamani, or wish-fulfilling gem. Here chinta applies to the process of selective thought and mani means jewel. Therefore, chintamani means the jewel of correct and positive thinking. In this text, anahata is described as the garden of devas. At the centre is a small divine lake inside which is the chintamani. It is not necessary ch19-24.indd 167ch19-24.indd 167 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 168to obtain this jewel; as long as you can realize your proximity to it that is enough, then whatever you think comes true. Develop a new way of thinking When anahata chakra blooms and awakens, you must have very good sangha, associations. You should never associate with people who depend on their fate. Rather, you should always associate with those who depend on faith. You must have unswerving faith in the power of your own will. Even in the face of tremendous odds, be unflinching, then you will succeed. Willpower is never the outcome of suggestion. If you are ill and you say a hundred times, I am well, I am well, I am well . . ., this is called autosuggestion. It is not will. Will is something more than this. Even if my son is suffering from the worst disease and medical science has declared that he is about to die, I know he will not. This is how you have to think and use your will. The first preparation, therefore, with regards to awaken-ing anahata is to change your entire way of thinking. If you are the type of person whose thoughts and wishes often come true, even when conditions seem to be opposed to that outcome, then it is necessary to develop a certain amount of caution along with a new way of thinking. You must become extremely optimistic and positive, al ways full of hope. You must never dwell in the negativity of the mind. Physically, mentally and spiritually you must be com pletely at peace with yourself, others and the whole com munity at large. Though the world is full of conflicts, contradictions and deep animosities, you have to always feel deep peace throughout your being. Never be negative about any situation. Even if you meet a mur der er, a hopeless gambler or a debaucher, to you he is still a good person. Every situation is a good one for you and the future is always bright. In all circumstances this must be your attitude. It makes no difference whether you are amidst poverty, suffer-ing, disease, conflict, divorce, emotional crises and discord. It is all part of the good, therefore you accept it. ch19-24.indd 168ch19-24.indd 168 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 169 You have to think only one thought resolutely: The whole world is in me, or I am in everyone. When you are able to develop this universal sort of attitude, the kundalini will shine forth and pierce the fifth chakra vishuddhi, the centre of immortality. This is the importance and significance of anahata. Perhaps the best mantra for the heart centre is Om shanti. Om is the universal cosmic vibration which per- meates the whole creation and shanti means peace. Love without expectations Anahata chakra awakens refined emotion in the brain and its awakening is characterized by a feeling of universal, un-limit ed love for all beings. Of course, there are many people in the world who practise kindness and charity, but they have selfishness. Their charity is not an expression of anahata chakra and spiritual compassion, it is human compassion. When you have human compassion you open hospitals and feeding centres or you give clothing, money and medicine in charity, but that is human charity. How can we tell the difference between human charity and spiritual charity? In human charity there is always an element of selfishness. If I want to make you a Hindu by giving you things, this is a manifestation of human charity. Or if I want to make you my followers I can show you great kindness, but that is human kindness. However, when anahata awakens all your actions are controlled and ruled by unselfish ness and you develop spiritual compassion. You understand that love does not involve bargaining; it is free of expectation. Every form of love is contaminated by selfishness, even the love you have for God, because you are expecting some thing from him. Perhaps in this world, the love with minimum selfishness is a mothers love. Of course, it is not totally un selfish, but because a mothers sacrifices are so great, her love has minimum selfishness. The qualities of anahata chakra can be awakened by many methods. The symbol of anahata chakra is a blue lotus, and in the centre are two interlaced triangles. This lotus ch19-24.indd 169ch19-24.indd 169 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 170rep resents the opening of ones heart. Music, art, sculpture, literature and poetry are all important aids to the develop- ment of anahata chakra. And when anahata opens, your understanding of all beings changes a lot. There is a story about it. In India there is a traditional pilgrimage in which sadhakas go north to the source of Ganga, take some water from there and carry it across the continent to South India. Here they go to a temple and pour the holy water over a shiva lingam. The distance they have to cover in this pilgrim-age is almost three thousand miles. Once a saint had almost completed this pilgrimage and he was carrying a container full of Ganga water. As he entered the precincts of the temple where he was to bathe the shiva lingam, he found a donkey which was desperately pining for water. Immediately he opened his can and gave water to the donkey. His fellow travellers cried out, Hey, what are you doing? You have brought this water such a long way to give a bath to Lord Shiva and here you are giving it to an ordinary animal! But the saint did not see it that way. His mind was working at a different and much higher frequency. Here is another example: Once Lord Buddha was going for an evening walk. He came across an old man and he was greatly moved by the sufferings of old age. Next he saw a dead person, and again he was moved very much. How many times do we see old people? Are we moved in the same way that Lord Buddha was? No, because our minds are different. Awakening of a chakra alters the frequency of the mind and immediately influences our day to day relationships with people and our surround ings. Love overcomes ego Anahata chakra can be aroused and awakened by the practice of bhakti yoga, in which there is no place for egotistical consciousness. Your devotion can be for God or guru. It is easy to practise devotion to God because he does not check your ego, or even if he does, you do not know it. But when ch19-24.indd 170ch19-24.indd 170 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 171you practise devotion to the guru, the first thing he does is egodectomy. So when you direct your devotion to guru, you have lots of difficulties. If you only meet your guru from time to time, the problems are invisible, but if you live with him, the problems are greater. Therefore, many people think it is safer to have a guru who is no longer living. Not only is ego an obstacle on the spiritual path, it is also the greatest barrier to harmony and cordiality in family and social life. Therefore, in order to treat the ego there are two very important paths. One is karma yoga and the other is bhakti yoga. Ego can never be removed by intellectual per-suas ion. It can never be subdued or eliminated unless you develop the highest form of love. Just as the sun removes dark ness, love removes ego. These two can never coexist. So, in order to induce anahata awakening we should definitely practise bhakti yoga. When kundalini is established in anahata there is absolute devotion and even a confirmed atheist will change. However, awakening of anahata is not only a way to God or guru, it is also a way to complete unity and harmony in family life. Therefore, in India, most Hindu women are initiated into bhakti yoga at a very young age. When they are four to six years old they are taught to practise devotion to Lord Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Durga and so on, because it is easier for women to develop anahata chakra. For this reason, women are also told to use anahata as their centre for meditation, whereas men are generally advised to concentrate on ajna chakra. Anahata is the seat of human love and the seat of divine love. They are not two things, they are one and the same. Psychic propensities of anahata chakra Prior to the awakening of anahata there may be frequent pain in the chest or irregular functioning of the heart, such as accelerated pulse. However, rather than feeling ill, one feels healthy and active and requires little sleep. One obtains complete emotional balance and the ability to communicate externally as well as internally. Voices or sounds coming from ch19-24.indd 171ch19-24.indd 171 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 172other realms may be heard, and buzzing or humming sounds and the music of a flute may be experienced. The sadhaka may become an inspired poet, artist or singer. He may manifest clairvoyant/clairaudient or psycho-kinetic ability, or he may be able to conquer people by the immensity of love he emits. A person in anahata is generally very sensitive to the feelings of others and his sense of touch is strongly developed. He also has the ability to heal others, either by touch or by generating his own spiritual energy to other people. Many people who perform miraculous healings do so through the agency of anahata chakra. With anahata awakening one develops non-attachment to worldly things and a constant feeling of optimism, under-standing that good and bad coexist, but there is also a world beyond this duality. After ridding oneself of attachment, the mind becomes relaxed, free and peaceful. And with the dis covery of true freedom, pleasures of dualistic life become meaningless. ch19-24.indd 172ch19-24.indd 172 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 17322 Vishuddhi Chakra Vishuddhi chakra is known as the purification centre. The Sanskrit word shuddhi means to purify, and in this chakra the purifying and harmonizing of all opposites takes place. Vishuddhi is also known as the nectar and poison centre. Here, the nectar which drips down from bindu is said to be split into the pure form and the poison. The poison is dis carded and the pure nectar then nourishes the body, en- suring excellent health and longevity. Vishuddhi represents a state of openness in which life is regarded as the provider of experiences that lead to greater understanding. One ceases to continually avoid the un-pleasant aspects of life and seek the pleasant. Instead there is a flowing with life, allowing things to happen in the way BSY ch19-24.indd 173ch19-24.indd 173 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 174that they must. Both poison and nectar are consumed in vishuddhi chakra, and they are understood to be but parts of a greater cosmic whole. Proper understanding and true dis-crimination dawn out of this equal acceptance of the dualities and polarities of life. The more abstract aspect of vishuddhi is the faculty of higher discrimination. Hence any communication received telepathically can be tested here for its correctness and accuracy. Similarly, vishuddhi allows us to differentiate between realization coming into our consciousness from the higher levels of knowledge, and the mere babblings of our unconscious mind and wishful thinking. Vishuddhi chakra is often treated as an insignificant chakra in the scheme of kundalini yoga. People are more concerned with mooladhara, anahata and ajna, and therefore the significance of vishuddhi is easily disregarded. In fact, the reverse attitude may even be more appropriate. The location point Vishuddhi chakra is in the cervical plexus directly behind the throat pit. Its kshetram is in the front of the neck, at the throat pit or thyroid gland. The physiological concomitants of vishuddhi are the pharyngeal and laryngeal nerve plexi. Traditional symbology Some tantric texts say vishuddhi chakra is represented by a dark grey coloured lotus, however, it seems to be more commonly perceived as a purple lotus of sixteen petals. These sixteen petals correspond to the number of nadis associated with this centre. On each petal one of the Sanskrit vowels is inscribed in crimson: am , aam , im , eem , um , oom , rim , reem , lrim , lreem , em , aim , om , aum , am , ah :. In the pericarp of this lotus is a circle which is white like the full moon, representing the element of ether or akasha . This ethereal region is the gateway to liberation for one whose senses are pure and controlled. Within this moon ch19-24.indd 174ch19-24.indd 174 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 175shape is a snow white elephant, also symbolic of the akasha element. This is considered as the vehicle of con sciousness of this plane, and the aspirant may picture himself upon its back. The beeja mantra is ham , also pure white, which is the seed sound or vibration of the etheric element. The presiding deity of vishuddhi is Sadashiva, who is snow white, three-eyed and five-faced, with ten arms and clothed in a tigers skin. The goddess is Sakini who is purer than the ocean of nectar that flows down from the moon region. Her raiment is yellow and in her four hands she holds the bow, the arrow, the noose and the goad. Vishuddhi belongs to the fifth loka, the plane of janah. Its vayu is udana which lasts till the end of life and rises upwards, and along with ajna chakra, vishuddhi forms the basis for vijnanamaya kosha , which initiates psychic develop ment. The tanmatra or sense is hearing and the jnanendriya or organ of knowledge is the ears. The karmendriya or organ of action is the vocal chords. In nada yoga, the branch of kundalini yoga concerned with sound vibration, vishuddhi and mooladhara are con-sidered to be the two basic centres of vibration. In nada yoga the ascent of consciousness through the chakras is integrated with the musical scale. Each note of the scale corresponds to the vibratory level of consciousness of one of the chakras. This scale, often chanted in the form of mantras, bhajans and kirtans, is a very powerful means of awakening kundalini in the different chakras. Mooladhara is the first and vishuddhi is the fifth level of vibration in the scale. They produce the basic sounds or vowels around which the music of the chakras is constructed. These vowel sounds, pictured on the sixteen petals of the yantra, are the primal sounds. They originate from vishuddhi chakra and are directly connected to the brain. By meditation on vishuddhi chakra, the mind becomes pure like the akasha. One becomes a great sage, eloquent and wise and enjoys uninterrupted peace of mind. Amrit can be felt as a cold fluid flowing into the chakra and the aspirant ch19-24.indd 175ch19-24.indd 175 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 176becomes free from disease and sorrow; he is compassionate, full of bliss and long lived. Nectar and poison In the tantric scriptures it is said that within bindu at the back of the head, the moon is secreting a vital fluid or es-sence known as nectar. This transcendental fluid drips down into the individual consciousness from bindu. Bindu can be regarded in this context as the centre or passage through which the individuality emerges from cosmic consciousness in sahasrara. This divine fluid has many different names. In English it can be termed ambrosia the nectar of the gods. It is also known as amrit the nectar of immortality. In the Vedas it is known as soma and in the tantras it is referred to as madya (divine wine). Many of the great Sufi poets refer to the sweet wine which brings instant intoxication. The same symbolism is contained in the Christian rituals where wine is consecrated and sacramentally imbibed. In fact, every religious system and mystical tradition concerned with awakening higher con sciousness has its own symbolism for the unspeakable and indescribable feeling of bliss. Between bindu and vishuddhi chakras there is another smaller psychic centre known as lalana chakra or talumula, and it is closely related to vishuddhi chakra. When the nectar trickles down from bindu it is stored in lalana. This centre is like a glandular reservoir, situated in the back of the naso-pharynx, the inner cavity above and beyond the soft palate into which the nasal passages open. When you perform khechari mudra you are attempting to turn the tongue up and backwards into this cavity to stimulate the flow of nectar. Although this fluid is known as ambrosia, it actually has a dual nature which can act as poison as well as nectar. When it is produced in bindu and stored in lalana, it remains undifferentiated, neither poison nor nectar. As long as vishud dhi chakra remains inactive, this fluid runs downward unimpeded, to be consumed in the fire of manipura, ch19-24.indd 176ch19-24.indd 176 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 177resulting in the processes of decay, degeneration and finally death in the bodys tissues. However, by certain practices such as khechari mudra, the ambrosia is secreted from lalana and passes to vishuddhi chakra, the purifying and refining centre. When vishuddhi is awakened, the divine fluid is retained and utilized, be-coming the nectar of immortality. The secret of youth and regeneration of the body lies in the awakening of vishuddhi. There is a wonderful story from the mythology of India which concerns the nectar and poison of vishuddhi. It is said that in the primordial past, the devas and the rakshasas, symbolizing the forces of good and evil, were continually fighting each other. Each was seeking to dominate and destroy the other. Eventually Vishnu attempted to resolve the conflict. He suggested they stir up the primordial ocean (representing the world and the mind), and said they could divide the contents equally between them. This seemed a fair solution and Vishnus plan was agreed upon. The ocean was churned and many things came to the surface for sharing and distribution between the devas and rakshasas. In all, fourteen things arose, including the nectar of immortality side by side with the worst poison. Of course, both the devas and the rakshasas wanted the nectar, but nobody wanted anything to do with the poison. Ultimately only the devas got the nectar, because if it had been given to the vicious rakshasas they would have become immortal. The poison could not even be discarded, for wherever it was thrown it would cause harm. A great dilemma arose and eventually Vishnu took the poison to Shiva to ask his advice. Shiva swallowed the poison in a single gulp. From that time onwards, one of the names of Lord Shiva has been Nila kantha, the blue-throated one, and he is often depicted in this way. This story signifies that even poison can be readily digested when vishuddhi chakra is awakened. It means that at higher levels of awareness, vishuddhi and above, even the poisonous and negative aspects of existence become ch19-24.indd 177ch19-24.indd 177 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 178integrated into the total scheme of being. They are rendered powerless, as concepts of good and bad fall away. At this state of awareness the poisonous aspects and experi ences of life are absorbed and transformed into a state of bliss. In this chakra it is possible that not only internal poisons but also external poisons can be neutralized and rendered ineffective. This is one of the siddhis associated with vishuddhi chakra, and many yogis have possessed this power. It depends on the awakening of the throat centre and bindu in the brain, to which it is directly connected. The potential of vishuddhi Vishuddhi is the centre responsible for receiving thought vibrations from other peoples minds. This actually occurs through a minor centre which is closely connected with vishuddhi. It acts somewhat like a transistor radio tuning into a radio station, allowing the yogi to tune into the thoughts and feelings of people both close by and far away. The thought waves of others are also experienced elsewhere in the body, in other centres such as manipura, but the actual recep tion centre of thought waves and transmissions is vi- shuddhi. From vishuddhi they are relayed to the centres in the brain associated with the other chakras, and in this way they enter into the individual awareness. Associated with vishuddhi is a particular nerve channel known as kurma nadi, the tortoise nadi. When it is awakened, the practitioner is able to completely overcome the desire and necessity for food and drink. This capability has been demonstrated by many yogis in the past. Vishuddhi is actually the legendary fountain of youth. It is said that when kundalini is in vishuddhi one enjoys eternal youth. When it awakens by the practices of hatha yoga, kundalini yoga or tantra, then a spontaneous physical rejuvenation begins to take place. There is a point in life, usually in the second or third decade, when the rate of degeneration of the cells of the body surpasses the rate of regeneration. It is from that point ch19-24.indd 178ch19-24.indd 178 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 179that decay, old age, disease and death come to the fore in mans experience. In certain disease states such as some forms of leukaemia, the degenerative and destructive forces develop even more rapidly. The rejuvenation effected by vi shud dhi chakra on the tissues, organs and systems of the body is in contradistinction to this ongoing ageing process, which is mans normal condition. The powers attained through awakening vishuddhi include imperishability, full knowledge of the scriptures and also the knowledge of the past, present and future. The sense of hearing becomes very sharp, but through the mind and not the ears. One frequently experiences shoonyata, the void, and one overcomes all fear and attachment. One is then able to work freely in the world without being attached to the fruits of ones actions. ch19-24.indd 179ch19-24.indd 179 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 18023 Bindu Bindu, the source of creation, is beyond the realm of all conventional experience and, therefore, even in the tantric texts, there is very little written about it. It is the storehouse of all the karmas of man from his previous life. Not only are these karmas in the form of vasanas, they are also in the form of memories. The word bindu means drop or point. It is more widely termed bindu visarga, which literally means falling of the drop. Bindu is represented by the crescent moon and a white drop, which is the nectar dripping down to vishuddhi chakra. It is the ultimate source out of which all things manifest and into which all things return. In Kama-Kala-Vilasa (verses 69) it says, . . . (bindu) is the cause of the creation of word BSY ch19-24.indd 180ch19-24.indd 180 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 181and meaning, now entering and now separating from one another. . . . from that (bindu) came ether, air, fire, water, earth and the letters of the alphabet. Bindu is interconnected with vishuddhi chakra in the same way that the minor centres of the digestive system are connected with manipura, and those of the uro-genital and reproductive systems with swadhisthana and mooladhara chakras. Similarly, the minor centres of the respiratory and circulatory systems are integrated into anahata chakra and so on. In each case, the connection is mediated by the particular group of nerves associated with that chakra. Bindu and vishuddhi are connected via the network of nerves which flow through the interior portion of the nasal orifice, passing through lalana chakra, which is found at the uvula or palate. Therefore, when awakening takes place in vishuddhi, it simul-taneously takes place in bindu and lalana. The ten paired cranial nerves which emerge along the brain stem from their associated centres or nuclei are con-sidered to actually have their initial origins within this tiny centre, so that the whole visual, nasal, auditory and tasting systems are ultimately manifestations from bindu. The location point The seat of bindu is at the top back of the head, exactly at the spot where Hindu brahmins leave a tuft of hair growing. Although this custom is still being followed today, its original purpose has been completely forgotten. In Sanskrit that tuft of hair is called shikha, which means the flame of fire. Here, the word flame stands for the flame of vasanas or the hidden karmas belonging to the previous life. In the Vedic tradition, during sandhya, the hour of conjunction when the daily practices are performed by one who has undergone the thread ceremony and been initiated into mantra, a child was taught to practise with the tuft tied and tightened as much as possible. When the tuft was tightened and the child practised mantra, he developed a powerful and continuing awareness of this bindu point. ch19-24.indd 181ch19-24.indd 181 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 182He felt tightness rather than pain at that point. This is one traditional way of gaining contact with bindu. Tantric physiology According to tantric tradition, within the higher centres of the upper cortex of the brain there is a small depression or pit which contains a minute secretion. In the centre of that tiny secretion is a small elevation or point like an island in the middle of a lake. In the psychophysiological framework, this tiny point is considered to be bindu. The actual isolation of such a miniscule structure within the anatomy of the brain has never been reported or verified by medical scientists. However, such a study could prove both interesting and rewarding, in the same way that modern research into the mysterious pineal gland has verified that it is the anatomical and functional concomitant of ajna chakra, as described in the tantra shastras. However, it is easy to im agine that such a delicate and minute structure as the bindu would undoubtedly be disrupted during post mortem procedures. Certainly the tiny amount of fluid could hardly be expected to remain localized for easy extraction and analysis, when it is well known that other more plentiful neural and glandular transmitters and secretions degenerate and disperse into the tissues at the time of death. Nevertheless it is certainly a possibility to be considered. Traditional symbology In the tantric scriptures, the symbol of bindu is a crescent moon on a moonlit night. This symbol is very rich in meaning. The crescent moon indicates that bindu is closely related to the kalas (phases) of the moon, as are the endocrine, emotion al and mental fluctuations of human beings. The im mensity of sahasrara is gradually unveiled through ardent yoga practice in the same way that the full moon is progres sively revealed from the time of the new moon to full moon each month. The background of the night sky also symbolizes the infinity of sahasrara beyond ch19-24.indd 182ch19-24.indd 182 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 183bindu. However, sahasrara can not be fully experienced while individuality remains. The symbol of Om also contains the representation of bindu in its uppermost part, which is a small point above a crescent moon. In fact, all the chakras are symbolized within the body of the Om symbol, as are the three gunas or qualities of the created world: tamas, rajas and sattwa. These chakras exist in the realm of prakriti and its gunas. In the Om symbol, bindu, however, is placed separately from the main body to indicate that it is transcendental and beyond the fetters of nature. Bindu belongs to the seventh or highest loka of satyam, the plane of truth, and it also belongs to the causal body, or anandamaya kosha . It is said that when bindu awakens, the cosmic sound of Om is heard and one realizes the source of all creation, emanating from the bindu point and crescent moon above the symbol of Om. The seat of nectar In many of the tantric texts it is written that bindu, the moon, produces a very intoxicating secretion. Yogis can live on this ambrosial fluid. If its secretion is awakened and controlled in the body, then one needs nothing more for survival. The maintenance of the bodys vitality becomes in-dependent of food. There have been many reports of people who have entered into states of hibernation or suspended animation underneath the earth. This phenomenon has been verified many times under strict scientific observation. This human hibernation has been witnessed for periods as long as forty days. Not all cases have been genuine, but when authentic, they have been carried out exactly in the following manner. Initially pranayama is practised assiduously, until kumbhaka (retention of the breath) has been perfected. At this stage, khechari mudra is performed. This is not the simple form of khechari as performed in kundalini yoga sadhana, but the practice from the hatha yoga tradition in which the root ch19-24.indd 183ch19-24.indd 183 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 184or frenulum of the under surface of the tongue is gradually cut and the tongue is slowly elongated and inserted into the nasopharynx. It blocks off the passage as a cork seals a bottle. The whole practice is perfected over a two year period. By this practice, the drops from bindu fall to vishuddhi and subsequently permeate the whole bodily system. These drops of nectar maintain the nutrition and vitality of the bodily tissues while simultaneously arresting the metabolic pro cesses of the body. When the metabolism of the cells and tissues of the body is suspended in this way, oxygen is no long er required and cellular wastes are not produced. There-fore, the person who hibernates can live without breathing for quite an extended period of time. Even the facial hair does not grow during the period of hibernation. The poison centre Besides producing nectar, bindu is responsible for the production of poison. The poison gland and the nec tar glands are almost simultaneously situated. You may wonder if by awakening bindu there is any danger in stimulat ing the poison glands. If bindu and vishuddhi are stimulated at the same time, there is absolutely no danger, because bindu controls the nectar glands and vishuddhi has a bearing on both nectar and poison. As long as nectar is flowing, the poison can do no harm. Furthermore, if a yogi has purified his body through hatha yoga and the practices of dhyana and raja yoga, the poison glands are utilized for the production of nectar. The origin of individuality Bindu is considered to be the origin of creation or the point where oneness first divides itself to produce the world of multiple individual forms. This aspect of bindu can be traced to the Sanskrit root bind, which means to split or divide. Bindu implies a point without dimension, a dimensionless centre. In some Sanskrit texts it is termed chidghana which has its roots in the limitless consciousness. Bindu is considered ch19-24.indd 184ch19-24.indd 184 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 185to be the gateway to shoonya, the state of void. This void should not be misinterpreted as a state of nothingness. Rath er, it is the state of no-thingness the state of pure, absolute and undifferentiated consciousness. Bindu is myste rious. It is an ineffable focal point within which the two opposites, infinity and zero, fullness and nothingness, coexist. Within bindu is contained the evolutionary potential for all the myriad objects of the universe. Bindu contains the blueprint for creation. Evolution here refers to the vertical, tran scendental process by which life, objects and organisms arise from the underlying substratum of existence. This evolution is not at all the same as the scientific concept of Darwinian evolution, which is but an historical trace of the changes over a period of time in the form, function or appear ance of particular manifestations of individuality, such as the species of plants or animals. That evolution is an historical record over time, whereas the evolution and dissolu tion of consciousness into and out of individuality is in the realm of the timeless. There is an individuating principle that generates the myriads of objects in the universe. In Sanskrit it is called kala, that which causes the potential inherent in the under-lying consciousness to accumulate at bindu. From this point or seed an object, an animal, a human being or whatever can arise and manifest. Each and every object has a bindu as its base. This bindu lies within the hiranyagarbha, the golden egg or womb of creation. That which was previously formless assumes shape through the bindu, and its nature is fixed by the bindu as well. The bindu is both the means of expression of consciousness and also the means of limitation. Some of the centres of manifestation from bindu possess consciousness, such as man. However, most centres are uncon-scious, such as the elements, stones, and so on. The potential to be conscious or unconscious depends only on the nature and structure of the individual object, and this is also de-termined by the bindu. Man has the apparatus that allows him to be a conscious centre. ch19-24.indd 185ch19-24.indd 185 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 186 Every object, conscious or unconscious, is linked to the underlying essence of consciousness through the inter-mediary of the bindu. Every object evolves into material existence through the medium of the bindu and every object is withdrawn back to the source via the bindu as well. Bindu is a trapdoor opening in both directions. It is the means through which conscious centres such as man can realize the totality of sahasrara. There are essentially only two types of human beings: those who are on the pravritti path and those who are on the nivritti path. A man following the pravritti (outward) path looks away from bindu towards the outside world. He is almost entirely motivated by external events. This is the path of most people today and it leads away from self-knowledge and into bondage. The other path, the nivritti (reversed) path, is the spiritual path, the path of wisdom. On this path the individual begins to face the bindu, turning in towards the source of his being. This path leads to freedom. The path of evolution is the pravritti path of manifestation and extroversion. The path of involution leads back along the path that has produced your individual being. It leads back through the bindu to sahasrara. In fact, the whole purpose of yoga practice is to help direct your awareness along the involutionary path. The power of the point There is tremendous power ensheathed within the infini- tesimal point. For example, one theory about the origin of the universe suggests that an infinitely dense point of matter exploded in a big bang to form the entire cosmos. Similarly, research in subatomic physics has revealed that vast amounts of power are found concentrated within the multitudinous and different subatomic particles existing in the space/time con tinuum. Physics is now moving into the realms of the ineffable bindu. In molecular biology, the essence of bindu can be found in the DNA and RNA molecules, each one of which contains the complete genetic blueprint for the entire organism. This ch19-24.indd 186ch19-24.indd 186 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 187is another illustration of the great intelligence and potential which can be condensed and expressed in the confines of a tiny point. In fact, the deeper science delves into nature and the structure of the universe, the greater the power and complexity it uncovers. Within the tiny dimensions of these points vast potentials of meaning are contained. The power of the point or bindu has been known to mystics throughout the history of mankind. In tantra, each bindu, each particle of manifested existence is regarded as a centre of power or shakti. This shakti is an expression of the underlying substratum of static consciousness. The aim of the tantric system is to bring about a fusion of Shakti the individual manifested power, with Shiva the inert, under-lying universal consciousness. The red and white bindu The bindu is the cosmic seed from which all things manifest and grow. It is often related to male sperm because from the tiny bindu of a single spermatozoon, joined with the minute female ovum, a new life grows. The act of conception is a perfect symbol of the principle of the bindu. In fact, bindu is explained in these terms in many of the texts of tantric kundalini yoga. In the Yogachudamani Upanishad (verse 60) it says: The bindu is of two types, white and red. The white is shukla (sperm) and the red is maharaj (menses). Here the white bindu symbolizes Shiva, purusha or con-sciousness, and the red bindu symbolizes Shakti, prakriti or the power of manifestation. The white bindu lies in the bindu visarga and the red bindu is seated in mooladhara chakra. The purpose of tantra and yoga is to unite these two principles so that Shiva and Shakti become one. The text continues (verse 61): The red bindu is estab-lished in the sun; the white bindu in the moon. Their union is difficult. The sun represents pingala nadi and the moon represents ida. The two bindus symbolize the merging of the world of opposites, in terms of male and female. Out of their union results the ascent of kundalini. Again the text continues ch19-24.indd 187ch19-24.indd 187 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 188(verse 63): When the red bindu (Shakti) moves upwards (the ascent of kundalini) by control of prana, it mixes with the white bindu (Shiva) and one becomes divine. All the systems of yoga control the prana in one way or another to bring about this union. In some cases it is through direct control, as in pranayama, while in other cases it is less direct. Nevertheless, the meeting of these two polarities, Shiva and Shakti, leads to superconsciousness. Verse 64 states: He who realizes the essential oneness of the two bindus, when the red bindu merges with the white bindu, alone knows yoga. ch19-24.indd 188ch19-24.indd 188 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM BSY Sahasrara 00-plates.indd 100-plates.indd 1 21/03/2018 4:53:37 PM21/03/2018 4:53:37 PM 18924 Sahasrara and Samadhi Sahasrara is not a chakra as is often thought. Chakras are within the realm of the psyche. Consciousness manifests at different levels according to the chakra that is pre- dominantly active. Sahasrara acts through nothing and yet again, it acts through everything. Sahasrara is beyond the beyond (parat-param ) and yet it is right here. Sahasrara is the culmination of the progressive ascension through the different chakras. It is the crown of expanded awareness. The power of the chakras does not reside in the chakras them-selves, but in sahasrara. The chakras are only switches. All the potential lies in sahasrara. The literal meaning of the word sahasrara is one thousand. For this reason it is said to be a lotus with one thousand petals. However, while literally meaning one thousand, the word sahasrara implies that its magnitude and significance is vast in fact, unlimited. Therefore, sahasrara should more aptly be described as a lotus with an infinite number of petals, usually said to be red or multicoloured. Sahasrara is both formless (nirakara) and with form (akara), yet it is also beyond, and therefore untouched by form (nirvikara). It is shoonya, or in actual fact, the void of totality. It is Brahman. It is everything and nothing. Whatever we say about sahasrara will immediately limit and categorize it, even if we say it is infinite. It transcends logic, for logic compares one thing with another. Sahasrara is the ch19-24.indd 189ch19-24.indd 189 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 190totality, so what is there to compare it with? It transcends all concepts and yet it is the source of all concepts. It is the merging of consciousness and prana. Sahasrara is the culmination of yoga, the perfect merging. Total union and the unfolding of enlightenment When kundalini shakti reaches sahasrara, that is known as union between Shiva and Shakti, as sahasrara is said to be the abode of higher consciousness or Shiva. Union between Shiva and Shakti marks the beginning of a great experience. When this union takes place, the moment of self-realization or samadhi begins. At this point the individual dies. I do not mean that physical death occurs; it is death of the mundane awareness or individual awareness. It is death of the experi ence of name and form. At this time you do not remember the I, the you or the they. The experience, the experienced and the experiencer are one and the same. The seer, seeing and seen are merged as a unified whole. In other words, there is no multiple or dual awareness remaining. There is only single awareness. When Shiva and Shakti unite, nothing remains, there is absolute silence. Shakti does not remain Shakti and Shiva is no more Shiva, both are mingled into one and they can no longer be identified as two different forces. Every mystical and religious system of the world has its own way of describing this experience. Some have called it nirvana, others samadhi, kaivalya, self-realization, enlighten-ment, communion, heaven and so on. If you read the religious and mystical poems and scriptures of the many cultures and traditions, you will find ample descriptions of sahasrara. However, you have to read them with a different state of consciousness to understand the esoteric symbology and terminology. Raja yoga, kundalini and samadhi In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali you will not come across the word kundalini, as this text does not directly deal with ch19-24.indd 190ch19-24.indd 190 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 191kundalini yoga. However, not every saint, rishi or teacher has referred to kundalini by this name. Kundalini is the subject matter of tantra. When Patanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras 2,600 years ago, it was during the period of Buddha and about four centuries before the great era of philosophers. At that time, tantra had a very bad reputation in India because the gifts of kundalini, the siddhis, were being misused for petty purposes and people were being exploited. Therefore, tantra and tantric terminology had to be suppressed, and in order to keep the knowledge alive, an entirely different lan guage had to be adopted. In the raja yoga of Patanjali, emphasis is placed on the development of a state called samadhi. Samadhi actually means supermental awareness. First comes sensual awareness, then mental awareness, and above that is supermental aware-ness, the awareness of your own self. The awareness of forms, sound, touch, taste and smell is the awareness of the senses. The awareness of time, space and object is mental aware ness. Supermental awareness is not a point; it is a pro cess, a range of experience. Just as the term childhood refers to a wide span of time, in the same way, samadhi is not a particular point of experience, but a sequence of experiences which graduate from one stage to another. Therefore, Patanjali classifies samadhi into three main categories. The first is known as savikalpa samadhi, that is, samadhi with fluctuation, and it has four stages: vitarka, vichara, ananda and asmita. The second category, asamprajnata, is samadhi without awareness, and the third category, nirvika lpa, is samadhi without any fluctuation. These names only indicate the particular state your mind is in during the samadhi experience. After all, the erosion in mental awareness does not take place suddenly; the normal mental awareness does not come to an abrupt end. There is development of one type of awareness and erosion of another. The normal consciousness fades and the higher awareness develops and, therefore, there is a parallel interaction be tween the two states. ch19-24.indd 191ch19-24.indd 191 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 192 Where does meditation end and where does samadhi begin? You cannot pinpoint it because there is an inter-spersion. Where does youth end and old age begin? The same answer applies, and the same process happens in samadhi as well. Where does savikalpa samadhi end and where does asamprajnata begin? The whole process occurs in continuity, each stage fusing into the next and transforming in a very graduated way. This seems logical when you consider that it is the same consciousness which is undergoing the experience. In tantra it is said that when kundalini is ascending through the various chakras, the experiences one has may not be transcendental or divine in themselves, but they are indicative of the evolving nature of consciousness. This is the territory of savikalpa samadhi, sometimes illumined and sometimes dark and treacherous. From mooladhara up to ajna chakra, the awareness is ex periencing higher things, but it is not free from ego. You cannot transcend ego at the lower points of awakening. It is only when kundalini reaches ajna chakra that the tran-scendence begins. This is where the ego is exploded into a million fragments and the ensuing death experience occurs. At this point, savikalpa ends and nirvikalpa begins. From here, the energies fuse and flow together up to sahasrara, where enlightenment unfolds. In tantra, sahasrara is the highest point of awareness, and in Patanjalis raja yoga, the highest point of awareness is nirvikalpa samadhi. Now, if you compare the descriptions of sahasrara and nirvikalpa samadhi, you will find that they are the same. And if you compare the experiences of samadhi described in raja yoga with the descriptions of kundalini awaken ing, you will find that they are also the same. It should also be noted that both systems talk about the same types of practices. Raja yoga is more intellectual in its method of expression and is more in tune with philosophy, and tantra is more emotional in approach and expression. That is the only ch19-24.indd 192ch19-24.indd 192 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM 193difference between the two paths. As far as I can understand, kundalini awakening and samadhi are the same thing. And if you can understand the teachings of Lord Buddha and the other great saints and spiritual teachers, you will find that they have also spoken about the same subject but in different languages. ch19-24.indd 193ch19-24.indd 193 21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM21/03/2018 4:38:54 PM ch25-29.indd 194ch25-29.indd 194 21/03/2018 4:40:51 PM21/03/2018 4:40:51 PM Kundalini Yoga Practice ch25-29.indd 195ch25-29.indd 195 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM ch25-29.indd 196ch25-29.indd 196 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 19725 Rules and Preparation Introduction This section includes: 1. Preliminary techniques for individual chakras and kshe- trams, and 2. Advanced techniques of kriya yoga. The aspirant who earnestly wishes to follow the path of kundalini yoga has to approach life with a different attitude. His whole life must become a sadhana and he must be totally devoted to his practices and his goal. He will need to live a life of moderation and higher awareness in the midst of his daily responsibilities. He or she has to be a warrior in life and must seek the guidance of a competent guru who can point the way for the spiritual quest ahead. The kundalini yogi has to be ardent and faithful to his practice and his gurus instructions. He will need to devote more time each morning to perfect the practices given in this book. Whatever your personal aim in life, and whatever your commitments and responsibilities, kundalini yoga can definitely help you to become more efficient, more peaceful and more aware. Seek the instructions of a sannyasin or a qualified yoga teacher, learn the techniques in this book, and practise them systematically according to the amount of time you are able to spare each day. In this way, your life will be transformed into the most exciting adventure ever the journey to inner experience and unitive life. ch25-29.indd 197ch25-29.indd 197 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 198 The following rules and regulations apply to both the specific chakra practices and to the kriya yoga techniques. They should be followed as closely as possible. Diet Most people who are ready for kundalini yoga will be leading a well-regulated life and taking a balanced vegetarian diet. If you are still keeping late hours, drinking alcohol and eating large quantities of meat, we strongly suggest that you slowly reduce these and do some of the hatha yoga shatkarmas, such as shankhaprakshalana . In fact, we request you not to start the practices given in this book until you have become a pure vegetarian. Eat vegetarian food that is fresh, clean and easily digestible, and eat in moderation. Kundalini yoga is a system which purifies the whole body; if there are excessive toxins in your body then there may be a drastic purging process. The consumption of too much food will also make it difficult to do most of the techniques properly, especially pranayama and those which involve uddiyana bandha.You should use your discrimination in choosing the food that you eat. Remember that all kundalini yoga courses given in our ashrams are accompanied by compulsory food restrictions, therefore, you should adopt similar restrictions. But please do not starve yourself or become a food faddist; only try to adopt sensible eating habits. Illness If you suffer from any physical illness, we advise you not to start the kundalini techniques given in this book. First of all, you should take steps to cure your illness by any suitable means, possibly hatha yoga. If necessary, write to this ashram, to any of our branch ashrams, or contact any competent yoga teacher for guidance. If you suffer from any serious mental or emotional prob lems, you should not, at present, start the practices of kundalini yoga. Practise other types of yoga to bring harmony into your life and mind, then start kundalini ch25-29.indd 198ch25-29.indd 198 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 199yoga. The kun dalini techniques are very powerful, and if you do not have some degree of mental stability, they may worsen your condition. If in doubt, contact us. Sound health is the basic requirement for kundalini yoga practice. Yogic preparation Before commencing the kundalini techniques given in this book, you should have practised other systems of yoga, especially hatha and raja yoga, for at least a few years. In particular, you should be proficient in the following tech-niques: pawanmuktasana (anti-rheumatic and anti-gastric), shakti bandha asanas, siddhasana or siddha yoni asana, surya nama- s kara, major asanas such as vipareeta karani asana, dhanurasana, shalabhasana , bhujangasana, matsyasana, paschimot tanasana and ardha matsyendrasana, as well as the shatkarmas, the basic practices of pranayama, such as nadi shodhana, and nasikagra drishti, shambhavi mudra and maha bandha . All of these techniques are fully described in the Bihar School of Yoga publication Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha. However, to master these techniques you will need to have the regular guidance of a qualified yoga teacher. Time of practice The best time of day to do your sadhana (practice) is, if pos- sible, early in the morning, within the two hours before dawn. This is known as brahmamuhurta in Sanskrit, the time divine. At this time spiritual energy is high and there are likely to be fewer disturbances, both external and internal, than at any other period of the day. However, if you are unable to practise during brahmamuhurta, choose some other time when the stomach is empty. Do the kundalini practices after other sadhana and before meditation practice. Place of practice Try to practise in the same place every day. This will gradually build up a positive atmosphere which will be helpful for your sadhana. Your place of practice should be ch25-29.indd 199ch25-29.indd 199 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 200clean, peaceful and well ventilated. It should be dry and neither too hot nor too cold. Do not practise on the bare floor; place a blanket or mat beneath you. If necessary, wrap a blanket or sheet around you. Try to avoid the use of fans, unless absolutely necessary. Clothing Clothing will depend on the prevailing climate, but it should be as light, loose and comfortable as possible. Regularity Try to practise daily at a fixed time, without fail, following the step-by-step program that we have given in this book. On certain days, the mind may give justification for not prac-tising, or it may be upset, disturbed or restless. Providing there is no illness, you should endeavour to do your practice as normal. Preliminary practices Before starting the kundalini yoga practices, try to empty the bowels and take a cold shower. If you live in a cold climate, then at least wash the face with cold water. This is essential in order to remove sleepiness. It is a good idea to do a few asanas before commencing the kundalini practices. If time does not permit, then at least do five to ten rounds of surya namaskara , starting slowly and then accelerating the pace. This should be followed by a short period in shavasana until the breathing rate returns to normal. Awareness If the mind flits here and there like a wild monkey, do not worry. Let thoughts and emotions arise without suppression. Watch them with the attitude of a witness and continue your practice. Gradually the mind will become one-pointed. What-ever happens, your practice should continue. This attitude of witnessing the mind without interfering can be defined as awareness. ch25-29.indd 200ch25-29.indd 200 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 20126 Posture Most of the practices for specific chakras and the kundalini kriyas are done in a sitting position, or meditative asana. The best sitting asana is siddhasana (for males) and siddha yoni asana (for females). Not only do these two asanas apply direct pressure on mooladhara chakra, but this pres-sure, when applied correctly, brings about an awakening and redirection of nervous energy and blood circulation up-wards from the pelvic and abdominal regions to the brain. This extra energy is important in kundalini sadhana, since it keeps the voltage of prana shakti at a high level. The perineal pressure awakens the source of energy and actively distributes prana upward to the higher centres. Padmasana is also utilized for certain kundalini techniques such as tadan kriya. Though siddhasana is generally preferred in most of the other techniques, padmasana can also be used as an alternative. The disadvantage is that padmasana does not apply a direct pressure on mooladhara chakra. Those who cannot sit comfortably in siddhasana can perform utthanpadasana, though it is difficult to maintain for an ex tended period of time. In the kriya yoga practices of maha mudra and maha bheda mudra, utthanpadasana can be performed in stead of siddhasana, and is by tradition accepted as its equal. Another asana, bhadrasana , also applies a good pressure on mooladhara chakra and can be substituted for siddhasana in ch25-29.indd 201ch25-29.indd 201 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 202many of the practices. It is also the required sitting position for manduki mudra, one of the techniques of kriya yoga. In the descriptions of the kundalini practices, we have stated the best asana for each practice. You should only use one of the alternative asanas if the recommended asana is not suitable. General practice note If the hips, knees and ankles are not flexible enough to assume and maintain siddhasana, padmasana, bhadrasana, etc., we suggest that you practise the pawanmuktasana series of exercises daily, especially goolf naman, chakra and ghoornan (ankle bending, rotation and crank), janu chakra (knee crank), ardha and poorna titali asana (half and full butterfly) . Kawa chalasana (crow walking) and utthanasana (squat and rise pose) should also be practised. To improve the overall health of the body, other asanas can also be done, including surya namaskara. Pranayama practices, such as nadi shodhana, should also be performed to develop control over inhalation, exhalation, and inner and outer retention, so necessary for perfecting many of the kundalini techniques. These practices can be done daily, side-by-side with the monthly practices that are given for the specific chakras. ch25-29.indd 202ch25-29.indd 202 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 203Siddhasana (accomplished pose for men) Sit with the legs extended in front of the body. Bend the right leg and place the sole of the foot flat against the inner left thigh, with the heel pressing the peri-neum (the area of mool adhara chakra which is midway be tween the genitals and anus). This is an important aspect of siddhasana.Adjust the body until it is comfortable and the pressure of the heel is firmly applied.Bend the left leg and place the left ankle directly over the right ankle so that the anklebones are touching and the heels are one above the other.The left heel should press against the pubic bone directly above the genitals. The genitals will, therefore, lie between the two heels. Push the toes and outer edge of this foot into the space between the right calf and thigh muscles. If neces sary, this space may be enlarged slightly by using the hands or temporarily adjusting the position of the right leg.Grasp the right toes, either from above or below the left calf and pull them upward into the space between the left thigh and calf. BSY ch25-29.indd 203ch25-29.indd 203 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 204The legs should now be locked with the knees on the ground and the left heel directly above the right heel. Make the spine steady, straight and erect, as though it were planted in the ground. Contra-indications : Siddhasana should not be practised by persons with sciatica or sacral infections. Bene ts: Siddhasana directs the energy from the lower psychic centres upward through the spine, stimulating the brain and calming the entire nervous system. The position of the lower foot at the perineum presses mooladhara chakra, stimulating moola bandha, and the pressure applied to the pubic bone presses the trigger point for swadhisthana, auto matical ly activating vajroli/sahajoli mudra. These two psycho-muscular locks redirect sexual nervous impulses back up the spinal cord to the brain, establishing control over the reproductive hormones which is necessary in order to maintain brahmacharya for spiritual purposes.Prolonged periods in siddhasana result in noticeable tingl-ing sensations in the mooladhara region which may last for ten to fifteen minutes. This is caused by a reduction in the blood supply to the area and by a rebalancing of the pranic flow in the lower chakras. This posture redirects blood circulation to the lower spine and abdominal area. Practice note : Siddhasana can be practised with either leg upper most. Other classical asanas such as ardha pad masana and sukhasana can also be used, but not as effec tively. Therefore, dedicate yourself initially to the per fec tion of siddhasana. In the beginning it is recom mended that a folded blanket or small cushion be used to raise the buttocks slightly. This will enable you to rest the knees on the ground and to achieve a balanced posture. How ever, the blanket or cushion should not be too thick. Three or four centimetres in height should be enough. There must be a sustained but com fortable awareness of pressure on the perineal trigger point. ch25-29.indd 204ch25-29.indd 204 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 205Siddha Yoni Asana (accomplished pose for women) Sit with the legs straight in front of the body. Bend the right leg and place the sole of the foot flat against the inner left thigh.Place this heel firmly against or inside the entrance of the vagina (labia majora).Adjust the body position so that it is as comfortable as possible while simultaneously feeling the pressure of the right heel.Bend the left leg and place the left heel directly on top of the right heel so it presses against the clitoris. Then wedge the left toes down into the space between the right calf and thigh so they touch, or almost touch, the floor.Pull the right toes up into the space between the left calf and thigh.Ensure that the knees are firmly on the ground.Make the spine fully erect and straight as though it were planted solidly in the earth. Contra-indications: As for siddhasana.Bene ts: As for siddhasana. BSY ch25-29.indd 205ch25-29.indd 205 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 206Padmasana (lotus pose) Sit with the legs extended in front of the body. Bend one leg and place its foot on top of the opposite thigh. The sole of the foot must be upward, with the heel facing or touching the pelvis.Bend the other leg and place its foot on top of the other thigh.The spine should be held straight, the neck, head and shoulders should be relaxed and the body should be steady. Contra-indications : Those who suffer from sciatica, sacral infections or weak or injured knees should not perform this asana. This asana should not be attempted until flexibility of the knees has been developed. Bene ts: Padmasana allows the body to be held completely steady for long periods of time. It holds the trunk and head like a pillar with the legs as the firm foundation. As the body is steadied the mind becomes calm. This steadi-ness and calmness is the first step towards real meditation. Padmasana directs the flow of prana from mooladhara chakra in the perineum, to sahasrara chakra in the head, heightening the experience of meditation. BSY ch25-29.indd 206ch25-29.indd 206 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 207This posture applies pressure to the lower spine which has a relaxing effect on the nervous system. The breath becomes slow, muscular tension is decreased and blood pressure is reduced. The coccygeal and sacral nerves are toned as the normally large blood flow to the legs is redirected towards the abdominal region. This activity also stimulates the digestive process. Utthanpadasana (stretched leg pose) Sit with both legs extended in front of the body.Bend the left knee and press the left heel firmly into the perineum or the entrance to the vagina, the location point of mooladhara chakra. The right leg remains out-stretched.Place both hands on the right knee.Adjust the position so that it is comfortable.Bend forward just enough to be able to clasp the right big toe with both hands. Hold the position for a comfortable duration.Return to the upright position with both hands resting on the right knee. BSY ch25-29.indd 207ch25-29.indd 207 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 208Bhadrasana (gracious pose) Sit in vajrasana. Separate the knees as far as possible, while keeping the toes in contact with the floor.Separate the feet just enough to allow the buttocks and perineum to rest flat on the floor between the feet.Try to separate the knees further but do not strain.Place the hands on the knees, palms down, and make the back straight. BSY ch25-29.indd 208ch25-29.indd 208 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 20927 Chakra Sadhana Course Month by month we have given specific practices for the awakening of each chakra, one after the other. These practices must be adopted systematically. For the first month, you should only perform the techniques for ajna chakra. Then in the second month, add those for mooladhara. In the third month, add those for swadhisthana. In the fourth month, do those practices for manipura and selected practices for ajna, mooladhara and swadhisthana chakras. (By this stage, due to the number of practices, it will be necessary to omit some.) In this way, you should continue, adding the prac tices for each chakra, until you reach bindu dur ing the seventh month. The first month is concerned with awakening ajna chakra and not the lowest one, mooladhara, which is treated in the second month. It may seem more logical and consistent to start with mooladhara practices, but it is a rule of kundalini yoga that there should be awakening of ajna chakra first. Unless this is achieved, then the awakening of the lower chakras may rock the stability of the practitioner; one may experience physical, mental and emo tion al shocks which one cannot bear. The awakening of ajna chakra brings a great degree of detachment, which allows one to withstand the lower chakra awakenings without exces sive shock. One is able to observe chakra experiences with the attitude of a witness. This is most essential in kundalini yoga. ch25-29.indd 209ch25-29.indd 209 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 210 In the eighth month we have given some practices which influence the chakras as a whole. These should also be done for one month. Please note that some practices influence more than one chakra, but we have only given each practice once as sadhana for the chakra it is most likely to affect. Also, it should be noted that nothing can be gained by randomly selecting one chakra sadhana program and just practising it for a day or two and then commencing another practice. As each practice is a stepping-stone for another practice, the techniques should be performed systematically. In each chapter, practices are given to locate the position of the chakra, and its counterpart, the kshetram (which is located in the front of the body). It is important that you can locate these points exactly. The practices given for each chakra are the building blocks from which the kriya yoga techniques are constructed. As such, you should perfect them before pro ceed ing to the kriyas. Ultimately, you will only need to practise the kriyas, but prior to this you must devote at least one hour a day to the chakra practices for the next eight months. Kriya yoga In chapter 38 we have given a full description of the twenty kundalini kriyas, which are widely known as kriya yoga. At this stage, you can leave all the specific practices given in the previous chapters for awakening the chakras individually, or if you wish you can select a few to continue with. The kundalini kriyas can be learned and practised one after the other, at the rate of one per week. That is, in the first week perfect vipareeta karani mudra; in the second week add chakra anusandhana; then add nada sanchalana in the third week, and so on. At the end of twenty weeks you should be doing the entire series of twenty kriyas daily, with the traditional number of rounds for each kriya, or with a reduced number of rounds as indicated. Please note that the kundalini kriyas should only be practised under the guidance of a qualified teacher. ch25-29.indd 210ch25-29.indd 210 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM BSY Ajna 00-plates.indd 200-plates.indd 2 21/03/2018 4:53:42 PM21/03/2018 4:53:42 PM 21128 Practices for Ajna Chakra MONTH 1 Direct concentration on ajna chakra is very difficult and, for this reason, in tantra and yoga the mid-eyebrow centre (which in fact is the kshetram of ajna) is used to awak-en this chakra. This point is called bhrumadhya ( bhru means eyebrow and madhya means centre), and it lies between the two eyebrows in the place where Indian ladies put a red dot, and pandits and brahmins put a mark of sandal paste. This eyebrow centre can be stimulated and awakened by various techniques. Firstly, there is an important shatkriya (cleansing tech-nique) called trataka, which will aid in the awakening of ajna. It is a powerful technique which can be defined as fixed gazing at one point. If practised regularly, it develops the power of concentration and from this concentration, the di rect awakening of the latent faculties of ajna chakra is brought about. Ajna can also be stimulated and awakened by concen-tration on the nadis directly. The method for this is anuloma viloma pranayama , mental or psychic nadi shodhana, also known as the coming and going pranayama, and prana shuddhi, the purifying breath. You can also awaken ajna chakra by concentrating on the eyebrow centre, performing such practices as shambhavi mudra. Initially, when there is no sensation or awareness at this point, some oint ment or oil such as tiger balm can be ch25-29.indd 211ch25-29.indd 211 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 212applied. This facilitates concentration. With practise, the pressure of your concentration at this area increases and the sensations are carried back to the pineal gland. This brings about an awaken ing in the pineal gland in the form of visions and internal experi ences. Ajna and mooladhara chakras are closely related, and the awakening of one helps to awaken the other. Ideally, ajna should be awakened to some extent before mooladhara, in order to allow an unaffected perception of the energies manifested by mooladhara and the lower chakras. However, the awakening of mooladhara will help to further awaken ajna. In fact, the best way to bring about awakening of ajna is through the practices of moola bandha and ashwini mudra, which are specific for mooladhara. Preparatory practices Jala and sutra neti can be practised for a few months to purify the nasal area and the important nerve junction behind it. This will help to sensitize ajna chakra and aid in its awakening. Apart from having a profound effect on the nervous system, neti removes dirt and mucus from the nasal passages, relieving colds and sinusitis, disorders of the eyes, ears, nose and throat, as well as inflammation of the tonsils, adenoids and mucous membranes. It removes drowsiness and gives a general lightness and freshness in the head and throughout the body. At the same time, it profoundly alters psychic aware ness, facilitating free flow of breath in both nostrils, so that the meditative state can be attained. It should be practised every morning before you commence your other sadhana. For complete details refer to the Bihar School of Yoga publica tion Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha. Practice program The following sadhana (consisting of practices 1, 2 and 3) for ajna chakra should be continued daily for one month. You may then proceed to the sadhana given for awakening mooladhara chakra. ch25-29.indd 212ch25-29.indd 212 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 213Practice 1: Anuloma Viloma Pranayama with Prana Shuddhi (the coming and going breath and the purifying breath) Sit in a comfortable meditative posture. Make sure the spine is erect and the body is relaxed. The body must become absolutely still.After some minutes, begin to develop awareness of the breath in the nostrils.When you breathe in, your whole awareness should flow with the breath from the tip of the nose, up to the eyebrow centre.When you breathe out, your whole awareness should flow with the breath from the eyebrow centre to the tip of the nose.Become aware of the triangular form of the breath between the nostrils and the eyebrow centre. The base of the triangle is at the level of the upper lip, its sides are the right and left nasal passages, and its apex is within the eyebrow centre.Firstly, feel the breath moving in and out of the left nostril, then the right nostril. Then be aware of the breath as it flows in and out through both nostrils together.Once you are established in this breath awareness, begin to consciously alternate the flow of the breath between the two nostrils in the same way as nadi shodhana, except you practise it psychically or mentally.Consciously inhale through the left nostril to bhrumadhya and exhale through the right, then inhale through the right to bhrumadhya, and exhale through the left. This is one round of anuloma viloma or mental nadi shodhana. Complete 4 rounds.Now practise one round of prana shuddhi, which involves breathing in and out through both nostrils together. Inhale and exhale through both nostrils simultaneously, visualizing the passage of the breath forming an inverted V-shape.Continue in this way: four alternate nostril breaths, then one breath through both nostrils. ch25-29.indd 213ch25-29.indd 213 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 214In the beginning, the rounds can be counted as follows: 1 inhale left nostril, exhale right nostril; inhale right nostril, exhale left nostril,2 repeat, 3 repeat, 4 repeat,5 inhale both nostrils, exhale both nostrils, and so on.After some practise, the rounds can be counted from 100 back to zero as follows: 100 inhale left nostril, exhale right nostril; inhale right nostril, exhale left nostril,99 repeat, 98 repeat, 97 repeat,96 inhale both nostrils, exhale both nostrils, and so on. Practice note : Accuracy in the counting is absolutely necessary, and if an error is made, the practice must recommence from 100. It is very important to keep count of the breaths, because without keeping count, anuloma viloma is alto gether too powerful for many aspirants, swallowing up their awareness in the unconscious sphere. The aim of the practice is to stimulate ajna chakra on the subconscious, psychic level, and for this, awareness must be maintained.If you sink into the unconscious sphere, you will only be aware of the vast store of impressions in the unconscious mind, and will completely lose awareness of the practice. This awareness is essential for the development of mind control and also for the awakening of ajna chakra to con-scious accessibility.This practice can also be very well integrated into yoga nidra. (See chapter 35.) Practice 2: T rataka (concentrated gazing) Sit in a comfortable meditative asana, in a dark room in which there is no draught or breeze.Place a lighted candle at eye level, directly in front of the eyebrow centre, at arms length.Make sure that the wick is perfectly straight and that the flame is motionless.Straighten the spine, close the eyes and relax the body. ch25-29.indd 214ch25-29.indd 214 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 215Be aware of the physical body only. Let it become as still as a statue.From this time on you should try to keep the body absolutely motionless throughout the whole practice. When you are prepared, open your eyes and gaze steadily at the tip of the wick. With practise you should be able to gaze steadily at the flame without blinking or moving the eyeballs. Two to three minutes is sufficient.The whole of your consciousness must become centred in the flame, to the extent that awareness of the rest of the body and the room is lost. The gaze should be absolutely fixed at the tip of the wick. When the eyes become tired or if they begin to water, close them and relax.Do not move the body, but be aware of the after-image of the flame in front of the closed eyes.Everyone has looked into the sun or a bright light, and on closing the eyes for a few minutes, has seen the clear im - pres sion of that light on the retina of the eye. Likewise, the after-image of the candle flame will be clearly visible.You should practise trataka on this image, holding it directly in front or a little above the eyebrow centre. Keep the eyes closed. If the image moves up or down, or from side to side, observe it and try to stabilize it, without straining. BSY ch25-29.indd 215ch25-29.indd 215 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 216When you are sure the image has appeared and faded for the last time, then open the eyes and continue to concen-trate on the external candle flame.After the last round, gaze into the emptiness for a few seconds then practise palming. Time of practice : The best times to practise trataka are the dark hours of the very early morning or late at night. At these times, the atmosphere becomes very still and quiet, not only the physical atmosphere, but also the mental and psychic atmospheres. In this stillness, success in trataka is readily attained. Duration: Trataka can be practised as time permits, but five to fifteen minutes is the usual period in the beginning, building up to thirty minutes gradually over a period of time. Two to three minutes per round is sufficient to spend gazing at the flame. Contra-indications: Trataka on a flame is not recommended for myopia, astigmatism, cataract or glaucoma. Bene ts: Trataka has many physical, mental and spiritual benefits. Physically, it corrects eye weaknesses and defects such as nearsightedness. Mentally, it increases nervous stability, removes insomnia and relaxes the anxious mind. When the eyes are fixed and unmoving, the mind becomes steady and calm. It helps to develop good concentration and strong willpower. Spiritually it awakens ajna chakra. Variations: Trataka can be practised on a small dot, the full moon, the rising sun, a shadow, a crystal ball, the nose tip, an image in water, a yantra, darkness, a shivalingam and many other things. Those who have a personal deity can practise trataka on his or her form and those who have a guru can practise on his or her photograph. Trataka can also be practised on ones own image in the mirror, or the eyes of another person. These should, however, only be done under the guid ance of a guru, as there are certain risks involved.Avoid practising trataka on the sun as the delicate mem-branes of the eyes may be damaged. ch25-29.indd 216ch25-29.indd 216 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 217There are two divisions of trataka, bahiranga (outer) and antaranga (inner). The methods mentioned so far are all part of bahiranga trataka. Inner trataka (antaranga) is internal visualization, perhaps of a chakra, a yantra or your personal deity. The eyes remain closed throughout. One of the best inner objects for concentration is a tiny star or point of light. Practice 3: Shambhavi Mudra (eyebrow centre gazing) with Om chanting Stage 1: External awareness Sit in any meditative pose with the back straight and hands on the knees.Look forward at a fixed point, then look upward as high as possible without moving the head.Focus the eyes and concentrate on the eyebrow centre.Try to suspend the thought processes and meditate on ajna.Repeat Om, Om, Om with awareness of the sound vibra-tions at the eyebrow centre into which you are gazing. Each Om should be produced in a soft clear voice, with awareness of every vibration of the mantra in the eyebrow centre. BSY ch25-29.indd 217ch25-29.indd 217 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 218Each mantra should be one or two seconds in dura tion, and immediately followed by the next. Practise for three to five minutes. Stage 2: Internal awareness Now the eyes are closed, but the inner gaze remains in the eyebrow centre.Begin to chant the mantra more slowly, with full awareness of the sound vibration in the eyebrow centre. Imagine that the sound is being emitted from within the eyebrow centre itself. Gradually and effortlessly increase the duration of each Om, making it long and continuous.The sound should be steady and of an even key, ending on completion of the breath.Then refill the lungs completely by breathing through the nose, but do not alter the position of the body or head.Begin the next Om, maintaining awareness of the sound emerging from the eyebrow centre.Practise for five minutes. Stage 3: Awareness of sound vibration Continue to chant the mantra Om, but become aware of the sound reverberating throughout the body.Try to be aware of the sound only, listening to its vibration emanating from the eyebrow centre and permeating the whole body.Do not be self-conscious, but allow the sound to manifest itself fully, maintaining awareness of the vibration of the sound only.Practise for five minutes.Gradually the duration of the practice can be lengthened.Finish off the practice with palming. Precautions : Do not strain the eye muscles; when they become tired or slightly strained, release shambhavi mudra and relax the eyes. ch25-29.indd 218ch25-29.indd 218 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM BSY Mooladhara 00-plates.indd 300-plates.indd 3 21/03/2018 4:53:42 PM21/03/2018 4:53:42 PM 21929 Practices for Mooladhara Chakra MONTH 2 The process of awakening mooladhara chakra is not very difficult. It can be achieved by thousands of different methods, but the easiest of all is the concentration on the tip of the nose. This is because the part of the sensory cortex which represents mooladhara chakra is connected with the nose. At the same time, mooladhara chakra belongs to the earth element, which is directly related to the sense of smell. Therefore, we shall include nasikagra drishti, the practice of nose tip gazing, in this section, as well as moola bandha, which directly stimulates mooladhara chakra. Remember that mooladhara chakra does not have a kshetram. Practice program This sadhana (practices 1, 2 and 3) for mooladhara chakra should be done for a period of one month. You should also continue the practices for awakening ajna chakra. Difference between moola bandha, vajroli/sahajoli mudra and ashwini mudra Often there is confusion between the three practices of moola bandha (used for awakening mooladhara chakra) and vajroli/sahajoli mudra and ashwini mudra (both used for awakening swadhisthana chakra). The following diagrams for both male and female locations will help to clarify the difference in the points of contraction. ch25-29.indd 219ch25-29.indd 219 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 220 BSY BSYKey to location of contraction points: (1) Sahajoli mudra (clitoris, vaginal walls and urethra); (2) Moola bandha (cervix and vaginal muscles); (3) Ashwini mudra (anal muscles/sphincters). Key to location of contraction points: (1) Vajroli mudra (penis); (2) Moola bandha (between anus and scrotum; the perineal body); (3) Ashwini mudra (anal muscles/sphincters).Diagram 2: for the maleDiagram 1: for the female ch25-29.indd 220ch25-29.indd 220 21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM21/03/2018 4:40:55 PM 221Practice 1: Mooladhara chakra location For men: Sit in siddhasana or any asana in which the heel is pressed into the perineum.Close the eyes, relax completely and become aware of the whole physical body.Move the awareness to the point of contact between the heel and perineum, midway between the testes and the anus. Become intensely aware of the distinct pressure exerted on the perineal body.Centre yourself at the pressure point.Now become aware of the breath.Feel or imagine that you are breathing in and out of this pressure point.Feel the breath moving through the perineal body, becoming finer and finer, and finer, so that it pierces the point where mooladhara chakra is located.You will feel it as a psychophysical contraction.Say mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Maintain awareness of the perineal body and the breath for up to five minutes. For women: Sit in siddha yoni asana or a suitable alternative. Relax the body completely and close the eyes.Move the awareness to the lower part of the body and focus the attention on the contact point between the heel and the opening of the vagina.Become intensely aware of the slight but distinct pressure.Centre yourself at the pressure point.Now become aware of the natural breath.Feel or imagine that you are breathing in and out of the pressure point.Continue for 10 deep breaths.Now bring your awareness inside the body.From the point of external pressure, move your awareness in towards the base of the spine.Follow the natural formation of the vagina, moving up at a slight angle and back towards the spine until you come to the opening of the womb. ch25-29.indd 221ch25-29.indd 221 21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM 222You are at the opening of the womb, about two or three centimetres inside the body, just below the base of the spine.Focus your awareness at this point and begin to breathe in and out from the cervix to the point of outer pressure.Breathe in and bring your awareness to the opening of the womb.Breathe out and move again to the outer pressure point, the opening of the vagina.Somewhere in this area you will find your point for mooladhara chakra.Feel this point clearly and distinctly and mentally repeat, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Maintain unbroken awareness of this point for up to five minutes. Alternative practice: Locating mooladhara chakra by touchFor men: Sit in a comfortable position and press one finger onto the perineum, midway between the anus and scrotum, then contract the muscles there. The contraction will be felt. When you can contract those muscles without move-ment of the anus or penis, the perineal body has been successfully isolated. For women: Assume a comfortable sitting or lying position and gently insert one finger into the vagina as far as it will go. Then contract the vaginal muscles inwards and up-wards so that the walls of the upper vagina contract, and squeeze the finger. If you can do this without contract ing the anus or the front part of the perineum (clitoris and urinary opening), the location of mooladhara chakra is correct. Practice 2: Moola Bandha (perineal contraction)Stage 1: Contraction with breath retention Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or any other posture which will apply a firm pressure in the region of mool-adhara chakra.Close the eyes and relax the whole body. ch25-29.indd 222ch25-29.indd 222 21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM 223Inhale deeply. Hold the breath and contract the muscles at the mool adhara chakra region.Draw the muscles upwards as much as you are able without excessive strain.Try to contract only the mooladhara chakra trigger point, so that the urinary musculature in front and the anal sphincters behind, remain relaxed. Keep your attention fixed on the exact point of contrac-tion. Hold this contraction for as long as possible.Then release moola bandha and breathe normally.Practise for a few minutes daily. Practice note : Jalandhara bandha (described in chapter 33 of this section), can also be added to the practice. With breath reten tion, perform jalandhara bandha, followed by moola bandha. Before exhaling, release moola bandha, then jalandhara bandha. Stage 2: Physical contraction Contract and release moola bandha rhythmically.About one contraction per second is reasonable, or if you wish, you can synchronize the contraction with the heartbeat.Again, ensure that the contraction is focused at the exact trigger point and at the anus.Direct all your attention to the point of contraction.Practise for a few minutes daily. Stage 3: Mental contraction Leave all physical contraction.Try to feel the pulse beat at the trigger point, or try to contract the point mentally.Direct all your attention to the mooladhara chakra area.The practice is similar to stage 2, without the physical contraction.Continue for as long as you have time to spare.With practise, you will be able to locate the trigger point of mooladhara chakra exactly, merely through thought alone. ch25-29.indd 223ch25-29.indd 223 21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM 224Practice 3: Nasikagra Drishti (nose tip gazing) Sit in any meditative pose with the spine erect and the head upright.Close the eyes and relax the whole body for some time.Then open the eyes and focus them on the nose tip.Do not strain the eyes, but try to fix the gaze on the tip of the nose.Respiration should be normal.When the eyes are correctly focused, a double outline of the nose is seen. These two lines converge at the tip of the nose, forming an inverted V-image.Concentrate on the apex of the V .If you do not see a solid V-shaped outline, then both eyes are not fixed on the nose tip.It is then necessary to focus the eyes on the finger tip, 25 centimetres in front of the face, and hold the fingertip in focus as you slowly bring it to the nose tip.Eventually, you can discard this method and easily focus the eyes on the nose tip at will.At first you may find it difficult to hold your attention on the nose tip for more than a few seconds.When you feel discomfort, release the position of the eyes for a few seconds and then repeat the practice. BSY ch25-29.indd 224ch25-29.indd 224 21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM 225Over a period of weeks, as the eyes become accustomed, gradually increase the duration of the practice.Never strain the eyes.Once you can comfortably maintain a steady gaze for a minute or more, become aware of your breath as well as the nose tip.Feel the breath moving in and out through the nose.At the same time, become aware of the subtle sound the breath makes as it moves through the nasal passages.Try to become completely absorbed in the practice, to the exclusion of all other thoughts and external distractions.Be aware of the nose tip, the movement of the breath and the accompanying sound. Continue in this manner for up to five minutes.End the practice with palming to relax and energize the eyes. Note: This practice is also called agochari mudra (the gesture of invisibility). ch25-29.indd 225ch25-29.indd 225 21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM21/03/2018 4:40:56 PM 22630 Practices for Swadhisthana Chakra MONTH 3 The sadhana for awakening swadhisthana chakra is solely concerned with the uro-genital systems, the prostate gland and testes in the male, and the genito-ovarian system in the female. Vajroli and sahajoli mudras are two very powerful practices which rechannel sexual energy and help bring about the awakening of swadhisthana. Vajroli is practised by males and sahajoli by females. There are simple forms of vajroli and also more difficult techniques which require the direct guidance of a guru. However, the practices given here can be performed with reasonable ease by anyone who is thoroughly familiar with shalabhasana, dhanurasana and uddiyana bandha. Refer to Difference between moola bandha, vajroli and ashwini mudras, given in chapter 29. Preparatory practices A large number of asanas have a direct effect on swadhisthana chakra and help to bring about initial purification and sensitization. We suggest that you practise shakti bandha series, bhujangasana, shashankasana, dhanurasana and shashank bhujangasana. Practice program The sadhana (practices 14) for awakening swadhisthana chakra, should be perfected over a period of one month. It should be kept in mind that swadhisthana is the switch ch30-34.indd 226ch30-34.indd 226 21/03/2018 4:41:23 PM21/03/2018 4:41:23 PM BSY Swadhisthana 00-plates.indd 400-plates.indd 4 21/03/2018 4:53:43 PM21/03/2018 4:53:43 PM 227for bindu and, therefore, the sadhana for swadhisthana also brings about a simultaneous effect on and awakening of bindu. You can also continue the sadhana for ajna and mooladhara chakras. Practice 1: Swadhisthana chakra location Sit in a comfortable position. Move one finger to the lowest end of the spine and feel the coccyx, the tailbone.Then move the finger up about one inch or 23 centi-metres, along the sacral portion of the pelvis, and press hard for one minute.When you take the finger away, you will experience a resid-ual sensation.About one centimetre deep into that sensation is the location of swadhisthana chakra.Concentrate on it for two minutes or so repeating mentally, swadhisthana, swadhisthana, swadhisthana. Practice 2: Swadhisthana kshetram location If you feel down to the lower end of the abdomen, you will come to a bony portion at the front part of the pelvis. This is called the pubis, and is the anatomical location of swadhisthana kshetram.Press hard on this area for about one minute.Then remove the finger and concentrate on the point where your finger was. Repeat mentally, swadhisthana, swadhisthana, swadhisthana. Practice 3: Ashwini Mudra (horse gesture) Sit in any meditative posture. Relax the whole body, close the eyes and breathe normally.Contract the sphincter muscles of the anus for half a second, then relax them for half a second. Continue this contraction and relaxation for a few minutes.Try to feel the waves spreading up to hit swadhisthana chakra. Focus your whole attention on the lower end of the spine and feel the pressure waves. ch30-34.indd 227ch30-34.indd 227 21/03/2018 4:41:25 PM21/03/2018 4:41:25 PM 228Practice 4: Vajroli Mudra (thunderbolt attitude) for men Sit comfortably in siddhasana, preferably with a thin cushion or a folded blanket beneath the buttocks.Close the eyes and relax the body.Take the awareness to the urethra, the urinary passage within the penis.Try to draw the urethra upward. This muscular action is similar to that made when trying to control the urge to urinate.The testes may move slightly due to this contraction.Try to focus and confine the force of the contraction at the urethra. Try not to perform moola bandha or ashwini mudra at the same time.Contract for 10 seconds, release for 10 seconds. Continue this for a few minutes. Concentrate on the kshetram at the pubis all the time, while repeating mentally, swadhisthana, swadhisthana, swadhisthana. Practice 4: Sahajoli Mudra (spontaneous psychic attitude) for womenSit comfortably in siddha yoni asana, preferably with a thin cushion or folded blanket beneath the buttocks.Close the eyes and relax the body.Contract the urethra. This contraction is similar to that made when trying to control the urge to urinate.The vaginal muscles and the hood of the clitoris may move slightly due to this contraction.Gradually increase the contraction until it becomes more intense and deep.Hold the contraction for 10 seconds, release for 10 seconds. Continue for a few minutes, mentally repeating swad histhana, swadhisthana, swadhisthana. ch30-34.indd 228ch30-34.indd 228 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM BSY Manipura 00-plates.indd 500-plates.indd 5 21/03/2018 4:53:43 PM21/03/2018 4:53:43 PM 22931 Practices for Manipura Chakra MONTH 4 There are several methods of awakening manipura chakra. According to hatha yoga, manipura is directly connected with the eyes. Ajna chakra and manipura chakra are very closely related to one another in the same way that vision and wilful action are interdependent processes. Therefore, the practice of trataka brings about manipura and ajna chakra awakening. Although tantra is not against any particular diet, when manipura chakra is to be awakened, the diet has to be very pure, and at certain stages, fasting may be necessary as well. If manipura is awakened when the diet is faulty, harmful reactions may take place. Because manipura is the centre of the digestive fire, disorders of the gastrointestinal system are corrected by manipura sadhana. The major constituents of manipura sadhana are uddiyana bandha and nauli kriya. Uddiyana bandha is the contraction of the abdomen and the control of the muscles of the abdom in al wall, as well as control over the small and large intestines and the other digestive and visceral organs. The functions of the liver, gallbladder, spleen, pancreas and stomach are brought into harmonious and controlled interac-tion when uddiyana bandha is perfected. However, agnisar kriya must be mastered before uddiyana is attempted. Nauli kriya is the control of the rectus abdomini muscles and churning of the whole abdomen. This is a difficult ch30-34.indd 229ch30-34.indd 229 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 230practice which takes some time to perfect. However, with mastery of nauli, it is easy to create a union of prana and apana in the navel, so manipura chakra can be awakened. Preparatory practices The following asanas will be found useful in awakening manipura chakra: pawanmuktasana (the anti-gastric series), chakras ana, dhanurasana, marjari-asana, matsyasana, yoga mudra, paschimottanasana and ushtrasana. Practice program Practise the techniques for awakening manipura chakra for one month and then proceed to those for anahata chakra. Nauli may be difficult for many people; do not strain or overexert. It is best not to attempt it until you have mastered agnisar kriya and uddiyana bandha. The practices for awakening ajna, mooladhara and swadhisthana can also be continued. Practice 1: Manipura chakra and kshetram location Stand sideways in front of a mirror. Put one finger of one hand on the navel and one finger of the other hand on the spine, directly behind.Sit down, press firmly with the finger on the spine for one minute, then remove the finger.As the pressure sensation continues, concentrate on the area slightly deeper in from that point.This is the location of manipura chakra.Whilst feeling the pulse beat at this point, mentally repeat the mantra, manipura for a few minutes. Practice 2: Manipura purification Assume a comfortable sitting pose.Hold the back straight and keep the eyes closed.Breathe slowly and deeply, feeling the expansion and contraction of the navel as you breathe in and out through the navel. ch30-34.indd 230ch30-34.indd 230 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 231Feel the breath expanding and contracting in the navel area for a few minutes.As the navel expands outward, feel that the breath is being pulled in through the navel, straight back to manipura in the spine.As the navel contracts inward, feel that the breath is flowing from manipura chakra in the spine to the navel and out of the body.Practise this for a few minutes each day while mentally repeating, manipura, manipura, manipura. Practice 3: Agnisar Kriya Preparatory practice: Swana Pranayama (panting breath) Sit in vajrasana. Keeping the toes together, separate the knees as far as possible (see figure 1).Keep both hands on the knees, straighten the arms and lean forward slightly.Open the mouth and extend the tongue outside. Figure 1 Figure 2 BSYBSY ch30-34.indd 231ch30-34.indd 231 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 232Breathe rapidly in and out while simultaneously expand ing and contracting the abdomen.The respiration should be in harmony with the movement of the abdomen and should resemble the panting of a dog. Breathe in and out up to 25 times. Agnisar Kriya (activating the digestive fire) Assume the same position (see figure 2).Exhale as completely as possible.Perform jalandhara bandha.Rapidly contract and expand the abdominal muscles repeatedly, for as long as you are able to retain the breath outside.Release jalandhara bandha and inhale fully.Perform the practice 4 more times, waiting until the breath has returned to normal between each round. Contra-indications: People suffering from high blood pressure, heart disease or acute peptic or duodenal ulcers should not practise this kriya, nor should pregnant women or persons who have undergone abdominal surgery in the last six to nine months. Practice note : Agnisar kriya should be practised on an empty stomach preferably in the early in the morning before break fast. It should not be attempted until swana pra nayama is mastered. Practice 4: Uddiyana Bandha (abdominal contraction) Sit in a siddha/siddha yoni asana or padmasana with the spine erect and the knees touching the floor.If this is not possible, uddiyana bandha can be performed while standing.Place the hands on the knees, close the eyes and relax the whole body. Exhale completely and hold the breath outside.Perform jalandhara bandha.Then contract the abdominal muscles as far as possible inward and upward. ch30-34.indd 232ch30-34.indd 232 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 233This is a kind of sucking action of the muscles. Hold this lock for as long as the breath can be retained outside without straining.Concentrate on manipura chakra in the spine and repeat mentally, manipura, manipura, manipura.Slowly relax the stomach muscles.Release jalandhara bandha and inhale.When the respiration has returned to normal, the process may be repeated.Practise a few rounds and gradually increase to ten. Contra-indications: Same as for agnisar kriya. Practice 5: Nauli (abdominal massaging) Stage 1: Madhyama Nauli (central abdominal contraction) Stand with the feet about a metre apart.Take a deep breath in through the nose and then exhale through the mouth, emptying the lungs as much as possible.Bend the knees slightly and lean forward, placing the palms on the thighs just above the knees, so that the knees are supporting the weight of the body. The arms should remain straight.Perform jalandhara bandha while retaining the breath outside. BSY ch30-34.indd 233ch30-34.indd 233 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 234Keep the eyes open and watch the abdomen. Suck in the lower abdomen.Contract the rectus abdomini muscles so that they form a central arch running vertically in front of the abdomen. Hold the contraction for as long as it is comfortable to hold the breath.Release the contraction, raise the head and return to the upright position. Inhale slowly and deeply, allowing the abdomen to expand. Relax the whole body.This is one round. Relax in the standing position until the heartbeat returns to normal. Repeat the practice.Madhyama nauli should be perfected before proceeding to the next stage. Stage 2: Vama Nauli (left isolation) Follow the instructions for madhyama nauli to the point where the lower abdomen is contracted and the rectus abdomini muscles form a central, vertical arch down the abdomen.Isolate the rectus abdomini muscles at the left side. BSY ch30-34.indd 234ch30-34.indd 234 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 235Contract the muscles to the left side as strongly as possible without straining.Return to madhyama nauli.Release the abdominal contraction, raise the head and return to the upright position.Inhale slowly and deeply, allowing the abdomen to expand.This is one round.Relax in the upright position until the heartbeat returns to normal. Proceed to stage 3. Stage 3: Dakshina Nauli (right isolation) After completing vama nauli, practise in the same way but on the right side.Follow the instructions for madhyama nauli to the point where the lower abdomen is contracted and the rectus abdomini muscles form a central, vertical arch down the abdomen.Isolate the rectus abdomini muscles at the right side.Hold the contraction as tightly as possible while retaining the breath. BSY ch30-34.indd 235ch30-34.indd 235 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 236Do not strain. Return to madhyama nauli. Release the abdominal contraction, raise the head and return to the upright position.Inhale slowly and deeply, allowing the abdomen to expand.This is one round.Relax in the upright position until the heartbeat returns to normal.Proceed to abdominal rotation or churning only after perfecting this practice. Stage 4: Abdominal rotation or churning This practice should not be attempted until the previous three stages have been mastered.Practise vama nauli, then rotate the muscles to the right, dakshina nauli, and back to the left, vama nauli.Continue rotating the muscles from side to side. This process is known as churning.Start by practising 3 consecutive rotations, then release the abdominal contraction.Next start with dakshina nauli first, this time rotating the muscles from right to left, left to right 3 times consecutively.Then perform madhyama nauli, isolating the muscles at the centre.Raise the head and return to the upright position.Inhale slowly and deeply, allowing the abdomen to expand.This is one round.Relax in the upright position until the heartbeat returns to normal.Practise each round for as long as the breath can be retained.Do up to six 6 rounds. Contra-indications: Limitations are the same as for agnisar kriya. Practice note : Nauli should not be attempted until agnisar kriya and uddiyana bandha have been perfected. ch30-34.indd 236ch30-34.indd 236 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 237Practice 6: Union of prana and apana Sit in siddhasana or siddha yoni asana. Relax the whole body for a few minutes, bringing it to the point of absolute immobility.Now become aware of the natural abdominal breath.Centre the awareness on the movement of the navel as you inhale and exhale.Continue for a few minutes.Now become aware that there are two forces travelling to the navel prana and apana.One force (apana) is ascending from mooladhara to the navel, while the other (prana), is descending to the navel from above. They must both reach the navel at the point of full inhalation. When you feel that the two forces are meeting in the navel, perform kumbhaka, retention of breath, and then develop mental awareness of the single central point of force in the navel.Do not strain.Release the breath and continue this practice in your own natural rhythm.The awareness of the two forces travelling and meeting in the navel centre must be simultaneous.Now, as the two forces are converging in the navel, gradually allow moola bandha to take place.Go on contracting moola bandha as you heighten your awareness of the force which is centred in the navel.Hold your breath for as long as you can, while centralizing the force in the navel and performing moola bandha.As you release the breath, release moola bandha as well.Do not strain.Go on practising for 3 minutes or more. ch30-34.indd 237ch30-34.indd 237 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 23832 Practices for Anahata Chakra MONTH 5 Anahata chakra can be awakened very simply through the practice of ajapa japa. Japa means repetition and ajapa is the repetition of a mantra until it ultimately becomes the spontaneous form of your conscious awareness. Another important practice in anahata awakening is bhramari pranayama. Although it is called a pranayama, bhramari is actually a meditational practice. It is not directly related to controlling prana, as are other forms of pranayama. In the scriptures, the heart centre is termed the centre of un struck sound and also the cave of bees. In bhramari, the humm ing sound of the bees is produced and traced towards its source. This develops deep mental and emotional relaxa-tion and is extremely effective in cardiac disorders. Anahata chakra is the centre of bhakti or devotion. It is awakened in accordance with the degree of devotion to guru, God, or personal deity, in whatever form or non-form one may visualize or understand the spiritual intelligence of the universe. All practices of yoga, especially when done with the blessings of the guru, will automatically awaken devotion in the spiritual heart (anahata chakra). There are many ex cel lent books on bhakti yoga that will help to inspire the aspirant to follow this path. Any biographies of saints, yogis and bhaktas will also be useful. An excellent description of the process of bhakti yoga is given in our publication entitled, A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques ch30-34.indd 238ch30-34.indd 238 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM BSY Anahata 00-plates.indd 600-plates.indd 6 21/03/2018 4:53:44 PM21/03/2018 4:53:44 PM 239of Yoga and Kriya, and in Bhakti Yoga Sagar , Volumes 15, by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Practice program Practise these techniques for anahata chakra for one month and then begin those for awakening vishuddhi chakra. All the practices given for awakening ajna, mooladhara, swad-histhana and manipura chakras can be done if sufficient time is available. If not, then we suggest that you do a few selected techniques from each chakra sadhana as follows:1. Ajna trataka and shambhavi mudra 2. Mooladhara moola bandha and nasikagra mudra 3. Swadhisthana chakra and kshetram location, vajroli or sahajoli 4. Manipura chakra and kshetram location, uddiyana bandha and nauli (if possible). Practice 1: Anahata chakra and kshetram location Stand sideways in front of a mirror.Put one finger of one hand on the centre of the chest.Here you will find anahata kshetram.Put one finger of the other hand on the spine, directly behind the kshetram; this is anahata chakra.Sit down, press both fingers firmly for one minute, and then remove the fingers.The sensation at the chakra and kshetram will continue.Concentrate on the sensation at the chakra and mentally repeat, anahata, anahata, anahata, for a few minutes. Practice 2: Anahata purification Assume a comfortable sitting posture. Hold the back straight but without strain. Keep the eyes closed.Breathe slowly and deeply, feeling the expansion and contraction of the chest as you breathe in and out for some minutes.Then become aware of the breath moving in and out of the anahata region. ch30-34.indd 239ch30-34.indd 239 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 240As the chest expands, feel that the breath flows in through the centre of the chest and back to anahata chakra.As the chest contracts, feel that the breath flows from anahata chakra in the spine, through the centre of the chest and out of the body.Practise this for some minutes, mentally repeating, anahata, anahata, anahata. Practice 3: Bhramari Pranayama (humming bee breath) Sit in a comfortable meditative pose. Adjust your position and relax fully for some minutes. Face forward. Hold the head and spine as straight as possible.Close the eyes.Relax the whole body.Keep the teeth slightly separated and the mouth closed throughout the entire practice.This allows the vibration to be experienced more distinctly in the brain.Plug the ears with the index fingers. Breathe in slowly and deeply. Then, while breathing out, produce a humming sound.The sound should be smooth and continuous for the full duration of exhalation. BSY ch30-34.indd 240ch30-34.indd 240 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 241The humming need not be loud. The important thing is that you hear the sound reverberating within your head.The exhalation should be slow and controlled.At the end of exhalation, stop the humming sound and breathe in fully.Keep the eyes closed and the ears plugged.Again repeat the humming sound with the next exhalation.Try to relax fully during the practice.Do not strain in any way.Continue for 5 or 10 minutes. Practice 4: Ajapa japa meditation Sit in siddhasana, siddha yoni asana or any posture which feels completely comfortable.Close the eyes and relax for a few minutes.Now become aware of the natural breath as it enters and leaves the body.Do not try to control the breath, just become a witness of the natural breathing process.Now become aware that the sound of inhalation is So and the sound of exhalation is ham. The natural mantra of the breath is So-ham. You have only to discover it.Be simultaneously aware of the natural breath, coupled with the idea of So-ham-so-ham-so-ham. You must be totally relaxed in this practice.Do not lose awareness of the mantra or your natural breath, even for an instant. Do not be concerned with the thoughts and feelings that arise.Allow them to come and go as they will. Remain ever aware of the natural breath and the ongoing mantra.Now become aware of the psychic breath which is flowing in an imaginary or psychic passage in the front of the body between the navel and the throat, and between the throat and the navel.With inspiration, this psychic breath rises from the navel to throat and its mantra is So. With expiration, the psychic ch30-34.indd 241ch30-34.indd 241 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 242breath descends from the throat back to the navel. Its mantra is ham. Maintain awareness of the breath passing through the psychic passageway and producing the sound So-ham-so-ham-so-ham.Continue this practice for 10 or 15 minutes more, allowing your breathing to be totally relaxed. Practice note : Ajapa japa can be practised at any time, but it should be done for 5 to 10 minutes per day, either in the morning sadhana session or at night, immediately before sleep. It should be continued for at least one month. Practice 5: Meditation entering the heart spaceStage 1: Breath awareness Sit in siddhasana, siddha yoni asana or any other com-fortable posture. Close the eyes and relax completely for some time. Concentrate the awareness in the throat region.Now become aware of the breath in the throat.Only be aware of the sensation of the breath in the throat for some time.Now add the awareness of the ingoing breath from the throat downwards. You are not concerned with the outgoing breath. Your attention is occupied only with the ingoing breath in the throat.Become aware of the inflowing breath in the throat passing within the network of the diaphragm.Be aware of the diaphragm the rising and falling of the muscular floor separating the chest and lungs above from the abdominal organs below.With each inspiration, it drops into the abdomen a little, increasing the pressure there and causing the navel to expand.Simultaneously, the lungs are expanding fully in the chest.Be aware that with expiration the abdomen contracts, the diaphragm is rising and the lungs are emptying completely.Develop awareness of the diaphragm for some time. ch30-34.indd 242ch30-34.indd 242 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 243Stage 2: Awareness of the heart space Now, also become aware of the akasha, the space within which the diaphragm is operating.With the ingoing breath you feel this space is filling up.Only be aware of the process of filling up the space.This process of filling up is only a basis for the awareness of this vast space.The process of feeling the breath is only the basis for experiencing the heart space.Become aware of the space in the heart; take your awareness directly there.Feel the space within the heart centre. It is contracting and expanding with the rhythm of the natural breath.Breath is only the basis.The process of filling up is only the basis.Go on to comprehend the whole space.Then you are aware of the space alone.Feel the contraction and expansion of this vast space.It is taking place on the rhythm of the natural breath.The breath is natural and spontaneous.Do not alter it in any way.Do not make it longer or shorter, deeper or more shallow, faster or slower.It has to become a spontaneous and voluntary movement of breath.In this practice, the awareness of the space in the heart is important. Stage 3: Vision of blue lotus and lake If the awareness of the expansion and contraction of the heart space is constant and stabilized, after some time, many visions and experiences will manifest there.You do not have to visualize or imagine anything. The vision will come by itself when the awareness of the heart space is constant.The image is of a lake and a blue lotus.If you are able to feel the space of the heart contracting and expanding, then maintain your awareness there. ch30-34.indd 243ch30-34.indd 243 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 244If that is not possible, then you will have to feel the breath which is filling up the space. That is the first stage of the practice.The second stage is the direct feeling of the space and its expansion and contraction with the rhythm of the breath.The third stage is the awareness of the blue lotus and the still lake. It will come by itself.Keep yourself ready for that experience. Stage 4: Ending the practice Now become aware of the natural inflowing and outflowing breath in the throat.Withdraw your awareness from the heart space and bring it to the natural breath in the throat.Maintain awareness of the inflowing and outflowing breath in the throat for some time.Practise for five or ten minutes.Chant Om three times.Allow the sound to manifest fully and spontaneously from deep within.For a few minutes, listen carefully for the inner vibration of the sound.Release your posture and open your eyes. ch30-34.indd 244ch30-34.indd 244 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM BSY Vishuddhi 00-plates.indd 700-plates.indd 7 21/03/2018 4:53:44 PM21/03/2018 4:53:44 PM 24533 Practices for Vishuddhi Chakra MONTH 6 Vishuddhi chakra can be directly awakened through the practices of jalandhara bandha, vipareeta karani asana and ujjayi pranayama, all of which are essential for eventual mastery of kriya yoga. A minor chakra which is closely related to vishuddhi is called lalana chakra, which is located at the back of the roof of the mouth, at the soft palate, and it directly helps to awak-en vishuddhi. For this reason, one of the kundalini kriyas, called amrit pan, is concerned with its direct stimula tion. A simpler practice for awakening lalana is khechari mudra, which is described in this chapter. Preparatory practices Many asanas can be utilized for purifying vishuddhi chakra. The most important are: bhujangasana, matsyasana, supta vajrasana and sarvangasana. Practice program Perfect these vishuddhi chakra practices over a period of one month and then start the practices for bindu. The sadhana for the other chakras can also be continued with a few selected techniques from each of the other chakras as follows:1. Ajna trataka and shambhavi mudra 2. Mooladhara moola bandha and nasikagra mudra ch30-34.indd 245ch30-34.indd 245 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 2463. Swadhisthana chakra and kshetram location, vajroli or sahajoli. 4. Manipura chakra and kshetram location, uddiyana bandha and nauli. 5. Anahata chakra and kshetram location, ajapa japa. Practice 1: Jalandhara Bandha (throat lock) Sit in any meditative pose which allows the knees to firmly touch the floor. Those who cannot sit like this can practise jalandhara bandha in a standing position.Place the palms of the hands on the knees.Close the eyes and relax the whole body.Inhale deeply, retain the breath inside and bend the head forward, pressing the chin tightly against the chest (particularly the sternum).Straighten the arms and lock them into position.Simultaneously hunch the shoulders upward and forward. This will ensure that the arms remain locked.The palms should remain on the knees.Stay in the final pose for as long as the breath can be held comfortably.Then bend the arms, relax the shoulders, slowly release the lock, raise the head and exhale. BSY ch30-34.indd 246ch30-34.indd 246 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 247Repeat when the respiration returns to normal. Practise 5 times. Contra-indications : Persons with high intracranial or blood pressure, or with heart ailments, should not practise without expert guidance. Practice note : The whole practice can also be performed with the breath retained outside.Never inhale or exhale until the chin lock has been released and the head is upright. Practice 2: Khechari Mudra (tongue lock) Sit in a comfortable meditative posture. Close the mouth and roll the tongue upward and backward so that the lower surface touches the upper palate. Stretch the tip of the tongue as far back as possible without strain.Keep it there for as long as is comfortable.If there is discomfort, relax the tongue for a few seconds and repeat.After some practise the tongue may be able to extend beyond the palate and up into the nasopharynx, where it will stimulate many vital nerve centres. Breathing: Breathe normally during this practice unless ujjayi is used. Duration: Over a period of months gradually reduce the breathing rate to seven or eight breaths per minute. This may be reduced further under expert guidance. Practice 3: Ujjayi Pranayama (psychic breath) Sit in a comfortable meditative posture. Practise khechari mudra. Feel that the breath is being drawn in and out through the throat, not the nostrils.Gently contract the glottis in the throat.When you breathe under these circumstances, a very soft snoring sound should automatically come from the throat region. It is like the breathing of a sleeping baby.Feel that you are breathing deeply from the abdomen and not the nose. ch30-34.indd 247ch30-34.indd 247 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 248Try to make the breaths long and relaxed. Practise for two minutes initially, then gradually extend to ten or twenty minutes. Practice 4: Vishuddhi chakra and kshetram location and purificationSit or stand in front of a mirror.Place a finger of one hand on the glottis (the lump at the throat pit).This is the location point of vishuddhi kshetram.Then place a finger of the other hand on the spine, directly behind the kshetram.This point in the spine is called vishuddhi chakra.Press the spine for one minute in order to feel a sensation at the chakra area.Then lower the hands.Concentrate on the sensation at the chakra and repeat mentally, Vishuddhi, vishuddhi, vishuddhi.Sit in a comfortable position with the back straight.Close the eyes and become aware of the breath.Fold the tongue back into khechari mudra and practise ujjayi pranayama.For a minute or so, be aware of the sound of the breath at the throat, and let the breathing become slower and deeper.Then with inhalation, imagine that the breath is being drawn in through vishuddhi kshetram at the front of the throat.Feel that the breath passes through the kshetram and eventually pierces vishuddhi chakra in the spine.With exhalation, feel the breath move from vishuddhi chakra, forward through the kshetram and eventually out, in front of the body.This is one round.Continue for a few minutes.Daily practise in this manner will gradually develop sensitivity to vishuddhi chakra and its kshetram. ch30-34.indd 248ch30-34.indd 248 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 249Practice 5: Vipareeta Karani Asana (inverted pose) Lie flat on the floor with the feet together, the arms by the sides and the palms flat on the floor.Relax the whole body.Raise both legs, keeping them straight and together. Move the legs over the body towards the head.Push down on the arms and hands, raising the buttocks.Roll the spine from the floor, taking the legs over the head.Turn the palms up, bend the elbows and let the top of the hips rest on the base of the palms near the wrist. The hands cup the hips and support the weight of the body. Keep the elbows as close to each other as possible.Raise both the legs to the vertical position and relax the feet.In the final position, the weight of the body rests on the shoulders, neck and elbows, the trunk is at a 45 degree BSY ch30-34.indd 249ch30-34.indd 249 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 250angle to the floor and the legs are vertical. Note that the chin does not press against the chest. Close the eyes and relax in the final pose for as long as is comfortable.To return to the starting position, slowly lower the spine, vertebra by vertebra, along the floor.Do not lift the head.When the buttocks reach the floor, lower the legs, keeping them straight.Relax in shavasana. Duration: Advanced practitioners can hold the posture for 15 minutes or even more, Beginners should practise for a few seconds and add a few seconds daily. Sequence : Shavasana should be done for a few minutes on completion of vipareeta karani asana, followed by a counterpose such as saral matsyasana. Contra-indications: This asana should not be done by sufferers of thyroid, liver or spleen enlargement, high blood pres sure or heart ailments. Practice note : Vipareeta karani asana is similar to sarvan- gasana, except that the chin is not pressed against the chest and the trunk is held at a 45 degree angle to the ground instead of at right angles. Note: Vipareeta karani asana is widely used in kriya yoga since it helps to redirect the energies of the body from the lower to the higher chakras. It is an integral part of the first of the kundalini kriyas called vipareeta karani mudra . ch30-34.indd 250ch30-34.indd 250 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM BSY Bindu 00-plates.indd 800-plates.indd 8 21/03/2018 4:53:44 PM21/03/2018 4:53:44 PM 25134 Practices for Bindu MONTH 7 The bindu trigger point is considered to be a tiny point at the top of the back of the head, but this point cannot be located in the physical body. It can only be found when the nada or sound of bindu has been discovered and traced to its source. Through the practices of moorchha pranayama and vajroli/sahajoli mudra awareness of the nada can be developed. Then, through practices such as bhramari pranayama and shanmukhi mudra, the nada can be traced to its source. It is not intended that you practise all the nada yoga techniques at one time. You should adopt the practice which you can perform without difficulty. It does not matter which practice you commence with, because all the techniques lead to awareness of the same subtle inner sounds. There is a very close relationship between swadhisthana chakra and bindu. This is because bindu is the point where the primal sound of creation first manifests. It is the point of origin of individuality, and swadhisthana is the source of the impetus towards reproduction and sexual func tion. This is the material expression of the desire to reunite with the infinite consciousness beyond bindu. Sperm and menses are the material distillates of the drop of ambrosial nectar which emerges from bindu. It should be noted that there is no kshetram correspond- ing to bindu. ch30-34.indd 251ch30-34.indd 251 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 252Practice program Practise the techniques for bindu for one month. Then begin the techniques given in the next chapter for integrated chakra awareness. The selected techniques for ajna, mooladhara, swadhistha-na, manipura and anahata chakras can also be done daily, as given in the Practice program section of the previous chap ter. For vishuddhi chakra, jalandhara bandha, vishuddhi chakra purification and vipareeta karani asana can be done. Khechari mudra and ujjayi pranayama need not be done separately, since they are both incorporated into techniques given in this section. Practice 1: Moorchha Pranayama (swooning or fainting breath) This practice requires a steady and firm meditation posture, preferably siddhasana or siddha yoni asana. Hold the spine and head upright and relax the whole body.Perform khechari mudra.Inhale through the nostrils with ujjayi pranayama while simultaneously bending the head backward and assuming shambhavi mudra. The inhalation should be slow and deep. BSY ch30-34.indd 252ch30-34.indd 252 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 253At the end of inhalation, the head should lean backward, but not completely. The position of the head is as shown in the diagram. Retain the breath inside for as long as is comfortable, maintaining shambhavi mudra, but keeping the attention at bindu.Keep the arms straight by locking the elbows and pressing the knees with the hands. Fix your whole awareness on bindu.Then bend the arms and slowly exhale with ujjayi pra-nayama as you bend the head forward. Slowly lower and close the eyes. At the end of exhalation the head should face forward and the eyes should be completely closed.Relax the whole body for a short time, keeping the eyes closed. Release khechari mudra and breathe normally.Become aware of the lightness and calmness pervading the whole mind. This is one round. After some time, commence the second round. Duration: Practise 10 or more rounds, or until a fainting sensation is experienced. Perform each round for as long as possible, but without strain. Contra-indications : Those who suffer from high blood pressure, vertigo, high intracranial pressure or brain haemorrhage should not practise this technique. Discon-tinue the practice as soon as the fainting sensation is felt. The aim is to induce a state of semi-fainting, not complete unconsciousness. Benefits : This practice is very powerful in inducing pratyahara and rendering the mind free from thoughts, especially when kumbhaka is prolonged. Practice 2: Vajroli/sahajoli mudra with awareness of bindu Sit in siddhasana or siddha yoni asana, preferably with a thin cushion or a folded blanket beneath the buttocks.Close the eyes and relax the body.Take the awareness to the urethra. ch30-34.indd 253ch30-34.indd 253 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 254Contract the urethra as if it is being drawn upwards and inwards. This muscular action is similar to that made when trying to control the urge to urinate.Try to focus and confine the force of the contraction at the urethra. Try not to perform moola bandha or ashwini mudra at the same time.Contract for 10 seconds, release for 10 seconds. Continue this for a few minutes. Each time you attain full contraction of the urinary system, bring your awareness to swadhisthana chakra in the spinal column, at the level of the coccyx. Repeat, Swadhisthana, swadhisthana, swadhisthana, mentally.Then draw your awareness up through sushumna passage to bindu.Mentally repeat, bindu, bindu, bindu.Then return to swadhisthana and release vajroli/sahajoli mudra.This is one round.Continue this alternately for several minutes, practising up to 25 rounds. Practice note : This practice should be performed im me di- ately after moorchha pranayama, as both these practices awaken the awareness of bindu. Practice 3: Perception of subtle inner sound This practice should be preceded by bhramari pranayama.In this stage no loud humming sound is produced, you only listen attentively to the inner sound.Keep the eyes closed and the fingers plugging the ears; this is necessary to block out external disturbances.Listen for any subtle sounds in the head.At first you may find this difficult, but keep trying.As soon as you become aware of a sound, any sound, try to fix your awareness on it to the exclusion of other sounds.Go on listening. ch30-34.indd 254ch30-34.indd 254 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 255After some days or weeks of practice, you should find that one sound is very distinct, and it will become louder and louder.Be totally aware of that sound.This is your vehicle of awareness let your awareness flow towards this sound, leaving all other sounds and thoughts.Gradually, through practise, your sensitivity will increase.Eventually you will hear another sound, a faint sound in the background; it will be almost obliterated by the main, louder sound that you are hearing, but you will hear it nevertheless.Now listen to the new faint sound.Leave the other louder sound and continue to listen to the new sound. It will become more and more distinct.This will become your new, more subtle vehicle of awareness.Let this sound occupy your whole attention. This will further increase your sensitivity of perception.Eventually you will hear another faint sound emerging from behind this louder sound.Fix your awareness on this new sound, discarding the other sound.Continue in the same manner, allowing the new sound to occupy your whole awareness.When it becomes loud, try to perceive a more subtle underlying sound and fix your awareness on it.In this manner your perception will become progressively more sensitive, allowing you to dive deep into your being. Practice note : It requires practise over a period of weeks and months to perceive these progressively more subtle sounds. For many weeks you may be unable to hear even the first sound.This is a very simple but powerful technique that will bring results if you persevere. All that is necessary is time and effort. Try to practise for as long as you have time. Begin with 15 minutes or more of bhramari and this practice together. ch30-34.indd 255ch30-34.indd 255 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 256Practice 4: Shanmukhi Mudra (closing the seven gates) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana, if possible. Otherwise take a comfortable meditation asana and place a small cushion beneath the perineum to provide pressure in this area. Hold the head and spine straight.Close the eyes and place the hands on the knees.Completely relax the body and mind.Raise the hands in front of the face, with the elbows pointing sideways.Close the ears with the thumbs, the eyes with the index fingers, the nostrils with the middle fingers, and the mouth by placing the ring and little fingers above and below the lips.The fingers should gently but firmly close the seven doors.Release the pressure of the middle fingers and open the nostrils. Inhale slowly and deeply, using full yogic breathing.At the end of inhalation, close the nostrils with the middle fingers.Retain the breath for as long as is comfortable.Try to hear any sounds emanating from bindu at the back of the head, from the middle of the head, or perhaps the right ear. BSY ch30-34.indd 256ch30-34.indd 256 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 257At first you will either hear many sounds or none at all. Just continue listening.Retain the breath inside for as long as is comfortable.Then release the pressure of the middle fingers and slowly breathe out. This is one round.Inhale once more, close the nostrils, and retain the breath.Listen to the inner sounds.After a comfortable length of time, release the nostrils and breathe out. Continue in this way for the duration of the practice. During the period of breath retention, your full awareness should be directed to the perception of inner nada.At first there may be a confused jumble of sounds, but gradually you will hear a specific sound. This may take a few days or weeks, but it will be perceived.When you hear a distinct sound, be totally aware of it.It will become clearer and clearer. Keep your awareness fixed on the sound. Listen very carefully.If your sensitivity is sufficiently developed, you will hear another sound in the background. It may be faint, but perceptible.Leave the first sound and transfer your awareness to the perception of the fainter sound.In this way, you will transcend the first sound. Eventually this second sound will overwhelm your whole attention.Again, with practise and enhanced sensitivity, you will hear a further sound start to emerge. It will be faintly perceptible behind the louder second sound.Direct your awareness to this new sound.Carry on in this way perceive a sound and then discard it when you can hear a more subtle sound. The more subtle the sound you perceive, the deeper you will delve into the depth of your being.Continue this practice for a few minutes. Breathing: This technique is more effective if you can retain your breath for extended periods of time. Those aspirants who have been practising nadi shodhana pranayama ch30-34.indd 257ch30-34.indd 257 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 258regularly for some months beforehand, will find shan mukhi mudra an easy and effective means of introspection. Awareness : The point of awareness during the practice should be fixed at the back of the head in the bindu region. However, if you hear a distinct sound in any other area, such as the right ear or the middle of the head, then your awareness should be fixed there.Some people may find it easier to listen to the nada in the region of the heart space (anahata chakra), especially those of a devotional nature. The important thing is not so much the point of awareness, but that the awareness remains fixed on progressively more subtle sounds. Total absorption on the nada can lead to dhyana or the meditative state of awareness. Practice note : Do not expect to hear subtle sounds on your first attempt. Practice is necessary. Eventually you will be able to readily transcend the gross external sounds and then the progressively more subtle sounds. Do not dwell on any of the sounds for too long. This is not the purpose of the practice. The aim is to leave behind each sound you discover and to go deeper, to reach the source of all sound. Do not get lost or distracted by the beautiful sounds which will manifest on your journey.Shanmukhi mudra is a more advanced practice than bhramari. It is slightly more difficult as it is not preceded by a vocalized humming sound, and it is combined with retention of the breath. Shanmukhi mudra is suitable for those who have a reasonably harmonized mind and are not beset by distractions. Note: Shanmukhi mudra means the closing of the seven gates. It is so called because the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth are closed during the practice. These are the seven doors of outer perception. It is via these doorways that one receives the sense data from the outside world. When these doors are closed, we facilitate the direction of the awareness internally; that is, into the mind. ch30-34.indd 258ch30-34.indd 258 21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM21/03/2018 4:41:26 PM 25935 Practices for Integrated Chakra Awareness MONTH 8 So far we have given a series of practices for each of the individual chakras. In this chapter we will describe prac- tices which are concerned with the overall awakening of the chakras. Of course, the awakening of one chakra cannot take place in isolation; it has repercussions on all the chakras to a greater or lesser extent. The techniques for specific cha kras will also influence all the chakras, but the following tech-niques systematically help to activate all the chakras together and bring balance into the whole mind-body-chakra axis:1. Chakra meditation2. Musical chakra meditation3. Chaturtha pranayama4. Chakra yoga nidra5. Unmani mudra6. Beeja mantra sanchalana7. Drawing the chakras Practice program You will not have time to do all the practices given in this chapter. Therefore, we suggest that you practise the following for one month: Chakra meditation, chaturtha pranayama, chakra yoga nidra, unmani mudra and beeja mantra sancha lana daily. Musical chakra meditation and drawing the chakras, can be done if you have the time and the inclination. They can ch35-38.indd 259ch35-38.indd 259 21/03/2018 4:41:52 PM21/03/2018 4:41:52 PM 260be omitted without any detriment to arousing kundalini. The following practices for each individual chakra can be done: 1. Ajna shambhavi mudra 2. Mooladhara moola bandha and nasikagra mudra 3. Swadhisthana vajroli/sahajoli 4. Manipura uddiyana bandha 5. Anahata ajapa japa 6. Vishuddhi jalandhara bandha and vipareeta karani asana 7. Bindu shanmukhi mudra After one month you can start to learn kriya yoga, having first of all obtained the advice of an experienced yoga teacher, or by writing to Bihar School of Yoga, Munger, Bihar 811201, India. Practice 1: Chakra meditation For the purpose of practising kriya yoga and some of the more advanced forms of meditation, it is essential to develop subtle awareness of the chakras, and to be able to locate them all accurately. In the beginning most people do not actually experience any sensation and initially it is simply a matter of imagination, but as the awareness becomes more subtle, the pulsation will definitely be experienced. T echnique Stage 1: Preparation Make yourself comfortable in a meditative asana, prefer-ably siddhasana or siddha yoni asana.Place both hands on the knees in chin mudra.Close the eyes and make the whole body still and steady through out.The spinal column should be absolutely upright and straight, with the back and shoulders fully relaxed.The head should be poised comfortably on top of the spinal column.The whole body is completely relaxed and immobile.It is motionless like a statue. ch35-38.indd 260ch35-38.indd 260 21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM 261Maintain absolute awareness of the physical body for several minutes. Stage 2: Ajna awareness Become aware of the spinal column.Now bring your awareness to ajna chakra.Ajna chakra is located inside the brain at a point directly behind the eyebrow centre and on top of the spinal column, where the pineal gland is situated.Try to discover a pulsation within this ajna chakra region.Be absolutely aware of this pulsation.Now synchronize the mantra Om with the pulsation in the ajna chakra region.Om, Om, Om, Om, Om should be the form of your awareness with the pulsation of ajna chakra.Count the pulsation 21 times.Now begin to practise ashwini mudra, contraction and relaxation of the anus.Do not be concerned with ajna chakra, only practise ashwini mudra. It should be practised at a medium speed, neither too quickly nor too slowly.After practising like this for a few sessions, you should be able to feel the centre of ajna automatically while performing ashwini.When that happens you can begin to concentrate directly on ajna.Until then, practise ashwini mudra for about four minutes. Stage 3: Mooladhara awareness Now bring your awareness to the perineal region and the psychic centre of mooladhara chakra.Discover the precise psychic point of mooladhara chakra.Try to discover a subtle pulsation there.Localize the pulsation very precisely in the mooladhara region and count 21 pulsations.Now open your eyes and adopt nasikagra drishti; gazing at the nose tip.Do not be concerned with mooladhara chakra, but only with nose tip awareness. ch35-38.indd 261ch35-38.indd 261 21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM 262The simultaneous awareness of mooladhara chakra will come after some time.Continue this practice for three minutes. Stage 4: Swadhisthana awareness Now bring your awareness to swadhisthana chakra in the region of the tailbone.Discover the psychic point of swadhisthana chakra.Try to discover the pulsation in this centre.Count this pulsation 21 times.Now perform vajroli/sahajoli mudra the drawing up and releasing of the urinary system.Continue vajroli/sahajoli mudra for four minutes. Stage 5: Manipura awareness Now bring your awareness to the region of the navel.Become aware of the psychic breath in the frontal passage from mooladhara to the navel, and from the throat to the navel.Both these breaths must reach the navel at the point of full inhalation.When the two forces meet and coincide at the navel, retain the breath there, and develop the mental awareness of the single central point of force in the navel.Then release the breath and continue this practice in your own natural rhythm.Continue for four minutes.Now take your awareness directly back to manipura chakra, within the spinal column, directly behind the navel.Try to isolate that point and the pulsation there.Count the pulse 21 times in manipura chakra. Stage 6: Anahata awareness Now bring your awareness to the region of anahata chakra in the spinal column, at the level of the centre of the chest.Isolate that point and try to discover a pulsation within it.Count the pulsation 21 times.Now bring your awareness to the space of the heart.First become aware of the incoming breath in the throat. ch35-38.indd 262ch35-38.indd 262 21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM 263With the incoming breath, feel the vast heart space expand. Feel the heart space directly contracting and expanding with the rhythm of the spontaneous, natural breath.Be aware of the vision which will come in the vast heart space. Allow it to come by itself. Continue for two minutes. Stage 7: Vishuddhi awareness Now bring your awareness to the throat pit and then take it directly back to vishuddhi chakra in the spinal column.Repeat mentally, Vishuddhi, vishuddhi, vishuddhi.Try to discover the pulsation within vishuddhi and witness it for 21 pulsations. Stage 8: Chakra awareness in sushumna Now, as the name of each chakra is given, move your awareness within the sushumna passage so as to touch each chakra mentally with a small imaginary flower.Your awareness of each chakra must be very precise mooladhara, swadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddhi, ajna; ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura, swadhisthana, mooladhara.Guide the consciousness through the chakras in sushumna, ascending and descending four more times. Stage 9: Ending the practice Now begin to end the practice.Bring the awareness back to the body and chant Om three times. Practice 2: Musical chakra meditation Sound is a particularly effective and enjoyable means of developing awareness of the chakras. This is why nada yoga is so powerful in spiritual awakening. The seven notes of the musical scale correspond to the vibration of the seven chakras from mooladhara to sahasrara, and this is the basis for a very effective musical meditation technique. The best instrument of all is the human voice, which can be supplemented by the harmonium. However, other instruments such as the tampura and tabla can also be used. ch35-38.indd 263ch35-38.indd 263 21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM 264T echnique Stage 1: At first the musical scale of the harmonium is ascended very slowly while the awareness begins in mooladhara and ascends sushumna from one chakra to the next, feeling each note vibrate in the spinal column in the region of its corresponding chakra. When sahasrara is attained, descend the awareness with the musical scale down through sushumna to mooladhara. The conscious ness ascends and descends sushumna with the scale many times, slowly speeding up as chakra location becomes quick and effortless. Stage 2: Now the voice is integrated with the notes. The names of the chakras are chanted very precisely. The names themselves are mantras, and if intoned with the cor rect note and pronunciation, each centre can be set vibra ting, and the sushumna passage and the whole body begin to vibrate with energy. This practice is very powerful. It can be continued for ten minutes or more. Stage 3: In this stage the awareness still ascends and descends through sushumna with the musical scale, but the voice makes a continuous a-a-a-a-a-a sound (as in calm) as it ascends and descends through the chakras. In the final stage, the full power of the voice is released and a tremen dous energy is generated, provided the pitch is maintained accurately.Latin scale Chakra Sanskrit scale Do Mooladhara Sa Re Swadhisthana Re Mi Manipura Ga Fa Anahata Ma So Vishuddhi Pa La Ajna Dha Ti Bindu Ni Do Sahasrara Sa ch35-38.indd 264ch35-38.indd 264 21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM21/03/2018 4:41:54 PM 265Practice 3: Chaturtha Pranayama (fourth pranayama) Chaturtha pranayama combines breathing, mantra and chakra awareness. Although it is not widely taught, it is a powerful technique that is both a pranayama and a medita-tion. This practice will lead to deeper awareness and knowl edge of the chakras. It is also a preparatory technique for kriya yoga as it develops sensitivity to both the psychic spinal passage and the chakras. Chaturtha pranayama means fourth pranayama or pranayama of the fourth state, or a transcendental state where words and definitions fail to reach. T echnique Stage 1: Breath awareness Sit in any comfortable meditative posture.Hold the head and spine erect and close the eyes.Breathe deeply.Let the breath become deeper and more subtle.Fix your awareness on the rhythmical flow of the breath.Continue for a number of rounds. Stage 2: Mantra awareness Mentally synchronize the manta Om with the breath. The sound O should synchronize with inhalation.The sound m-m-m-m-m should synchronize with exhalation. This sound should only be mental.Breathe through the nose, keeping the mouth closed.Continue in this manner with awareness of the flow of the breath and the mantra. Stage 3: Chakra awareness Now fix your attention at the eyebrow centre.Feel you are breathing in through that centre with the mental sound O.Continue with awareness of the breath, mantra and psychic centre. Focus your attention on mooladhara.With inhalation and the sound O-o-o-o-o, feel the breath passing up through the spine, piercing all the ch35-38.indd 265ch35-38.indd 265 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 266chakras mooladhara, swadhisthana, mani pura, anahata, vishuddhi, ajna, sahasrara. Continue for a number of rounds. Again fix your attention at the eyebrow centre.Continue the mental repetition of Om synchronized with the breath, but do not be aware of the breath. Only be aware of the mantra and the psychic centre.Feel the O and the m-m-m-m-m sound.Continue in this manner for as long as possible. Practice 4: Chakra yoga nidra Yoga nidra can be used very effectively to develop your aware ness of the chakras. Here is an example of a yoga nidra/relaxation session which includes visualization and rotation of awareness through the psychic centres. Teachers can adopt this practice directly for their classes. For personal use, someone can lead you through the practice, or you can put the instructions onto a tape. T echnique Stage 1: Preparation Place a folded blanket on the floor and lie on it in shavasana. Loosen your clothing so you feel perfectly comfortable. If necessary, cover yourself with a blanket to keep warm, or put a sheet over you to keep insects away.The mouth and eyes should remain closed throughout the practice.Make sure that the spinal column is straight, in line with the head and neck, and that the hips and shoulders are fully relaxed.Keep the feet and legs slightly apart.The arms should be beside your body but not touching, and the palms should be facing up.Adjust your position so that you feel perfectly comfortable.Tell yourself firmly that you will not move your body throughout the practice. ch35-38.indd 266ch35-38.indd 266 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 267Stage 2: Sinking of the body Look at the space in front of your closed eyes. Imagine that the space surrounds your whole body.Your body is immersed in that space.Simultaneously be aware of your body.It feels very light, as light as a leaf falling from a tree. Imagine that your body is slowly sinking into the space that you see in front of your closed eyes, like a falling leaf.Your body is slowly sinking into the infinite space.Be aware of this feeling.Continue in this manner for a few minutes. Stage 3: Rhythmical breath awareness Become aware of your breathing.Awareness of the rise and fall of the navel with each breath.As you breathe in, feel you are sucking in air through the navel.As you breathe out, imagine that you are pushing air out from the navel.It is a rhythmical process. Do not alter the natural breath in any way, just become aware of it. Stage 4: Sankalpa Repeat your sankalpa in a short positive sentence.It should be the crystallization of your spiritual aspiration and you should not change it.Repeat it with feeling, from the heart, not the lips.Repeat your sankalpa at least three times. Stage 5: Visualization body awareness Now try to visualize your own body.Imagine that you are viewing it from outside.Feel that your perception is outside and your body is an object of study.You may find visualization difficult do not worry, just do your best.If you wish, you can imagine that there is a large mirror suspended over your body and that your body is reflected in it. ch35-38.indd 267ch35-38.indd 267 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 268Look at your own reflection. See your whole body: feet, knees, thighs, abdomen, chest, both hands, arms, shoulders, neck, head, mouth, nose, ears, eyes, eyebrow centre, your whole face and your whole body.Combine rotation of awareness of each part with visualiza-tion of that part.Continue in this manner for a few minutes. Stage 6: Psychic centres rotation of awareness Now you have to discover the location of the chakras.You must develop awareness of each psychic centre .Start from the base of the spine and move your awareness upward.First become aware of mooladhara. In the male body it is situated in the perineum, between the anus and genitals, and in the female body it is located at the cervix the mouth of the womb.Try to feel the sensation at mooladhara. It is a very specific point which you are trying to isolate.When you have found it, repeat mentally, Mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Now move on to the second chakra, swadhisthana. It is located at the base of the spine, in the coccyx.Be aware of the sensation at that point and repeat mentally, Swadhisthana, swadhisthana, swadhisthana.The third chakra is manipura.It is located in the spine in line with the navel.Feel this point and mentally repeat, Manipura, manipura, manipura.Then become aware of anahata chakra, located in the spine, directly behind the centre of the chest.Try to locate that point exactly and mentally repeat, Anahata, anahata, anahata.Now bring your awareness to vishuddhi chakra, situated in the spine, directly behind the throat pit.Feel the sensation arising at that point and mentally repeat, Vishuddhi, vishuddhi, vishuddhi. ch35-38.indd 268ch35-38.indd 268 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 269The next chakra is ajna. Ajna chakra is located at the very top of the spine in the region of the pineal gland, directly behind the eyebrow centre.Fix your awareness on that area and mentally repeat, Ajna, ajna, ajna.Now bring your awareness to bindu, at the top back portion of the head.Feel that tiny point as precisely as possible, and repeat mentally, Bindu, bindu, bindu.Finally, become aware of sahasrara, at the crown of the head, and repeat mentally, Sahasrara, sahasrara, sahasrara.Now repeat this process, slowly descending through the chakras in reverse order: sahasrara, bindu, ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura, swadhisthana and mooladhara.This is one complete round of chakra rotation.Now start a second round: mooladhara, swadhisthana, mani pura, anahata, vishuddhi, ajna, bindu, sahasrara; sahasra ra, bindu, ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura, swadhisthana, mooladhara.This completes the second round.Begin a third round, this time a little faster.As you fix your attention at each point, try to feel a slight vibration there, a tiny pulsation.If you wish, you can chant Om mentally as you locate each point in turn.Practise at least five rounds and as many more as time permits. Stage 7: Psychic centres visualization Now try to visualize the symbols of each chakra.You can use your own personal system of psychic symbols or the traditional chakra symbols as follows.As each chakra is named, try to feel that point being lightly pressed by the thumb, and simultaneously visualize the symbol. The psychic symbol for mooladhara is a deep red, four-petalled lotus. ch35-38.indd 269ch35-38.indd 269 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 270Inside there is a smoky lingam around which a snake is coiled three and a half times. The snakes head is facing upward.Try to visualize this symbol to the best of your ability and associate it with that particular location in the body.Then proceed to swadhisthana chakra.The symbol is a six-petalled vermilion lotus, within which is depicted a starry night above the sea. The main focal point is the crescent moon.Try to visualize this symbol.Move to manipura chakra.It is symbolized by a ten-petalled yellow lotus, and in the centre is blazing fire.Visualize this symbol, imagining that the lotus is actually growing from manipura chakra.Proceed to anahata chakra, represented by a twelve-petalled blue lotus.In the centre is a solitary flame burning in the darkness. Try to visualize this symbol while feeling the exact position in the body.Move to vishuddhi chakra, symbolized by a sixteen-petalled purple lotus.In the middle there is a pure white drop of nectar.Visualize this location in the body.Then proceed to ajna chakra which is symbolized by a two-petalled silver-grey lotus.On the left hand petal is the full moon and on the right hand petal, a glowing sun.In the centre is a black lingam and an Om sign. Create a mental image of this symbol and its exact location.Move on to bindu. It is symbolized by a tiny white drop of nectar.Visualize this symbol at the top back of the head.Finally, move to sahasrara, the fountainhead of all the chakras.It is represented by a thousand-petalled lotus. In the centre is a white lingam. ch35-38.indd 270ch35-38.indd 270 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 271Visualize this symbol at the crown of the head. Now visualize all these symbols in the reverse order: sahasrara, bindu, ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura, swadhisthana and mooladhara.This is the end of one round.Spend a few seconds visualizing each centre.Do a few more rounds according to the amount of time available. Stage 8: Eyebrow centre awareness Fix your attention at the eyebrow centre.Feel your pulse at this point.Become aware of its continuous rhythmical beat.Mentally synchronize repetition of the mantra Om with this pulse.Continue for a few minutes. Stage 9: Sankalpa/Ending the practice Repeat your sankalpa three times with full emphasis and feeling.Become aware of your natural breath.Become aware of your whole physical body.Become aware of the outer sense perceptions.Slowly begin to move your body. When you have fully externalized your awareness, slowly sit up and open your eyes. Practice 5: Unmani mudra (attitude of mindlessness) Unmani mudra is an excellent practice for developing aware ness of the chakras in the spine, from bindu down to mooladhara. It is also an integral part of many of the kriya yoga practices (nada, pawan and shabda sanchalana, maha mudra and maha bheda mudra), and therefore it should be mastered before attempting to learn and practise these techniques. The word unmani means, no mind or thoughtlessness, and refers to the state which arises during meditation. Therefore, unmani mudra means, the attitude of mindless-ness or thoughtlessness. ch35-38.indd 271ch35-38.indd 271 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 272T echnique Sit in any comfortable meditation pose, preferably siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana with the back straight.Open the eyes fully, without focusing on anything external.Take a deep breath in and, holding the breath inside, focus the awareness at bindu.As you breathe out, imagine the breath going down the spine.Simultaneously, let your awareness descend the spine, passing through all the chakras: ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura, swadhisthana, mooladhara, one after the other.The eyes should slowly close and be fully closed by the time the awareness reaches mooladhara.Although the eyes remain open throughout the practice, the attention should be internalized on the chakras and breath; that is, the eyes are open, but you are looking within. Do not try too hard, but allow the process to occur spon taneously.This is one round.Inhale deeply and begin the second round.Do 11 rounds. Practice note : Physically this practice is very easy to perform. The emphasis, however, should be on the mental process taking place. When the eyes are open they should not register anything outside. Practice 6: Beeja Mantra Sanchalana (conducting the seed sound) This practice is one of the techniques of kriya yoga, but is not normally one of the twenty kriyas that we teach. It is concerned with mentally repeating the beeja mantra of each kshetram and chakra, one after the other, whilst simultane-ously moving the awareness through each chakra. The word beeja means seed, mantra means mystic sound and sanchalana means conduction. Therefore, this practice can be called the conduction of the seed sound. ch35-38.indd 272ch35-38.indd 272 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 273Psychic passages In the following kriya, beeja mantra sanchalana, as well as in a number of practices of kriya yoga, you will be required tomove your awareness through two psychic passages called arohan and awarohan. The path of these passages is as follows: Arohan, the ascending passage, goes from mooladhara chakra, forward to swadhisthana kshetram in the pubic area, then follows the curve of the belly to manipura kshetram, upward to anahata kshetram and vishuddhi kshetram in the front of the throat, then in a straight line to bindu at the top back of the head. There is also another pathway for the arohan psychic passage that has been taught by tradition throughout the ages. On the ascent from mooladhara, swadhisthana kshetram and onwards, the awareness is taken from vishuddhi kshetram to lalana chakra in the palate, then to the nosetip, to the eyebrow centre, and following the curvature of the skull through sahasrara at the top of the head, to bindu at the back of the crown, where there is a little whorl of hair. In this book we will refer to the arohan passage as connecting vishuddhi kshetram directly to bindu; however, you can experiment with both passages and use whichever one suits you best. Awarohan is the descending passage which starts at bindu, travels forward to ajna chakra, then down through sushumna in the spine, passing through all the chakras in turn to finally terminate at mooladhara. In the following practice you will have to familiarize yourself with these two psychic passages, and this will also be useful as a preparation for the kundalini kriyas. Beeja mantras The beeja mantras for each kshetram and chakra are as follows:1. Mooladhara Lam 2. Swadhisthana Va m 3. Manipura Ram ch35-38.indd 273ch35-38.indd 273 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 2744. Anahata Yam 5. Vishuddhi Ham 6. Ajna Om 7. Bindu Om T echnique Sit in any comfortable position, preferably siddhasana/ siddha yoni asana.Keep the head and spine straight and the eyes closed.Throughout the practice there is no physical movement; the kriya is performed mentally.Bring your attention to mooladhara chakra.Repeat the mantra Lam mentally, once, and try to feel the vibration at mooladhara chakra.Then ascend through arohan.Let your attention jump to swadhisthana kshetram and repeat the mantra V am, feeling the vibration at that point. Jump to manipura kshetram and repeat the mantra Ram. At anahata kshetram, Yam. At vishuddhi kshetram, Ham. At bindu, Om.Then descend through awarohan.Repeat Om at ajna, in the centre of the head. Repeat Ham at vishuddhi chakra in the spine. At anahata chakra, Yam. At manipura chakra, Ram. At swadhisthana, Va m. Then return to the starting point, mooladhara, and begin the next round by repeating the mantra Lam. Your awareness should jump from one centre to the next.Do 9 rounds, or more if you have time. Practice note : Beeja mantra sanchalana is an excellent preparatory practice for kriya yoga sadhana. You may also practise this by spending some time, for example five minutes, at each kshetram or chakra, chanting the mantra out loud on a low key and feeling it vibrating at the chakra. ch35-38.indd 274ch35-38.indd 274 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 275Practice 7: Drawing the chakras Drawing of mandalas, such as the chakras, is an important part of tantra. Many of the practices require that the correct mandalas be constructed first of all. The creation of a chakra diagram should be done with absolute awareness and concentration, and its measurements and dimensions must be exact. You should try to ensure that you will be undisturbed for at least an hour, and approach the exercise as you do medi ta tion. In some Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, mandalas are drawn and painted as part of the daily sadhana, as is the practice in several Greek Orthodox monasteries, where icons are painted in minute detail as daily meditation. Make sure you have all the necessary materials; pencils, pens, rubbers, ruler, compass, colours or paints, so that you will not have to disturb your concentration once you have started. If you have a sadhana room, then that is the best place to create your mandalas. A good size for drawing the chakras on art paper is about 9 square, as this size is most useful for visual display and concentration practices. Larger and smaller sized chakras can be made for other purposes. By first using only a black pen, one can plainly see the simple yet subtle lines and formations, and discover the hidden symbology as it becomes visually clearer in the mind. The next step is to colour it, according to the traditional colours described in the text. In this way, mandalas of each of the seven chakras can be completed over seven or more sessions. This practice is very relaxing and enjoyable. You may like to create more subjective and artistic impressions of the chakras, with your own colours and symbols, as you come to understand them in a personal way. This expands your awareness to the many possibilities of experiencing not only the chakras, but life itself. The chakras should not be interpreted on just one or two levels, but in many dimensions. After drawing and painting the chakras successfully, you can then take the next step and create the chakras in a three dimensional form. For this you ch35-38.indd 275ch35-38.indd 275 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 276can use any number of materials such as clay, plasticine, wire, fibreglass, copper or stone. You must remember, however, that the traditional draw- ings are as subjective as your feelings and experiences of the chakra. Therefore, use your own experiences to express the deeper and inner spiritual aspects, on paper, in clay or stone, etc. Through this, you will find a clarity of vision arising out of what once seemed a confused and blurred picture of life. ch35-38.indd 276ch35-38.indd 276 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 27736 Your Sadhana Program The practices of kundalini yoga must be adopted systemati- cally. We suggest that you practise and perfect the sadhana for each chakra for one month or more, before moving on to the next. The sadhana will continue for eight months, as outlined below: Month Page 1: Practices for ajna chakra 211 Anuloma viloma pranayamaTratakaShambhavi mudra with om chanting 2: Practices for mooladhara chakra 219 Chakra location Moola bandha Nasikagra drishti 3: Practices for swadhisthana chakra 226 Chakra and kshetram locationAshwini mudra Vajroli/sahajoli mudra 4: Practices for manipura chakra 229 Chakra and kshetram location Manipura purification ch35-38.indd 277ch35-38.indd 277 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 278Agnisar kriya Uddiyana bandha Nauli Union of prana and apana 5: Practices for anahata chakra 238 Chakra and kshetram location Anahata purification Bhramari pranayama Ajapa japa Meditation entering the heart space 6: Practices for vishuddhi chakra 245 Jalandhara bandha Khechari mudra Ujjayi pranayama Chakra and kshetram location and purification Vipareeta karani asana 7: Practices for bindu 251 Moorchha pranayama Vajroli/sahajoli mudra with bindu awareness Perception of subtle inner sound Shanmukhi mudra 8: Practices for integrated chakra awareness 259 Chakra meditation Musical chakra meditation Chaturtha pranayama Chakra yoga nidra Unmani mudra Beeja mantra sanchalana Drawing the chakras ch35-38.indd 278ch35-38.indd 278 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 27937 Kundalini Kriyas of Kriya Yoga The following tantric kriyas provide what is possibly the most efficient method for systematically evolving mans con sciousness that has ever been developed. They are said to have been the teachings for the transcendental sadhana which Lord Shiva gave to his disciple and wife, Parvati. By tradition, kriya yoga was never taught publicly. The kriyas were always communicated verbally from guru to dis-ciple. It is only in recent years that these kriyas have been published in accordance with the needs of this era. These kriyas are rather advanced and too powerful for the average aspirant. Before an aspirant takes up their prac-tice, he or she should have a thorough familiarity with and practical experience of all the preliminary practices included in the book. Also, it is advisable that he takes up these kriyas only under the guidance of a guru, who can see that the as pir ant is fully prepared for them and that any obstacles which arise while the aspirant is practising do not cause any harm in the way of disease, mental imbalance or psychic dislocation. If possible, try to come to an ashram for one month for full initiation into the higher practices of kriya yoga. Preparation One must realize that all the rules and regulations which were enumerated at the beginning of this practice section ch35-38.indd 279ch35-38.indd 279 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 280also apply to all the aspirants who wish to successfully learn and practise kriya yoga. It is essential that one has developed sensitivity to the posi tions of the chakras and kshetram by practising the tech niques given for the individual chakras (chapters 28 to 34), and also the techniques for integrated chakra awareness (chap ter 35). This sensitivity should be such that you can feel them both physically and mentally. You should also know the position of the two psychic pathways known as arohan and awarohan. They are explained in the practice called Beeja mantra sanchalana in chapter 35. The following techniques are integral parts of the 20 kriyas: Name Chapter Vipareeta karani asana 33 Ujjayi pranayama 33Siddhasana/Siddha yoni asana 26Unmani mudra 35Khechari mudra 33Ajapa japa 32Utthanpadasana 26Shambhavi mudra 28Moola bandha 29Nasikagra drishti 29Uddiyana bandha 31Jalandhara bandha 33Bhadrasana 26Padmasana 26Shanmukhi mudra 34Vajroli/Sahajoli mudra 30 These practices are all fully described in the chapters indicated and it is essential that you master them. If you try to learn kriya yoga without first of all perfecting them, then you will find the actual kriya techniques very difficult to follow and you will get very little benefit from them. ch35-38.indd 280ch35-38.indd 280 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 281Mode of learning the kriyas It is not possible to learn all the kriyas at once. Therefore, we suggest that you learn each kriya sequentially, spending at least one week mastering each kriya, and progressively adding each new kriya to those already learned. That is, in the first week learn and master kriya 1: vipareeta karani mudra. Then in the second week, learn kriya 2: chakra anusandhana, and do both 1 and 2 daily. In the third week, learn kriya 3: nada sanchalana and do it daily, together with the previous two kriyas. In this way, all the kriyas can be systematically and thoroughly learned in a period of 20 weeks. However, it may take many months of regular practice before the kriyas are perfected and remember kundalini kriyas should be practised under guidance. Length of practice As you progressively add more and more kriyas to your practice program, the time required for daily practice will increase. Eventually, after mastering all the kriyas, your daily practice of the 20 kriyas, with the required number of rounds, will take between two and two and a half hours. If you can spare this amount of time every day, then you will get the maximum benefit. However, most people, no matter how sincere, will not be able to devote this length of time to their practice. Therefore, for those who wish to practise kriya yoga, but have less spare time, we suggest that you reduce the number of rounds per kriya as follows: Kriya technique Full Reduced 1: Vipareeta karani mudra 21 11 2: Chakra anusandhana 9 9 3: Nada sanchalana 13 5 4: Pawan sanchalana 49 11 5: Shabda sanchalana 59 11 6: Maha mudra 12 6 7: Maha bheda mudra 12 68: Manduki kriya 13 mins 13 mins ch35-38.indd 281ch35-38.indd 281 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 2829: Tadan kriya 7 7 10: Naumukhi mudra 5 5 11: Shakti chalini 5 512: Shambhavi 11 513: Amrit pan 9 914: Chakra bhedan 59 1115: Sushumna darshan 16: Prana ahuti 1 min 1 min17: Utthan 23 mins 23 mins18: Swaroopa darshan 23 mins 23 mins19: Linga sanchalana 23 mins 23 mins20: Dhyana This daily program containing all the kriyas, with a reduced number of rounds, will take a total of about one to one and a half hours. The benefits may be slightly less than when you do the complete number of rounds per kriya, but still you will reap much fruit from your practise. While learning each kriya, you should do the full number of rounds; this can be reduced as you integrate the next kriya. Hints on practice The following suggestions will help you to master the kriyas and gain maximum benefit:1. Do not strain physically or mentally under any circum- stances, or you may experience negative side effects. This applies particularly in the case of kriyas such as maha mudra, maha bheda mudra, tadan kriya, naumukhi and shakti chalini. Regular daily practice will gradually bring such changes into the mind and body, so that after some time, you will be able to practise the kriyas almost effortlessly. 2. Do not hold your breath for longer than is comfortable. In many of the kriyas, such as maha mudra and maha bheda mudra, most people will initially find difficulty in completing a full round in one respiration cycle ch35-38.indd 282ch35-38.indd 282 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 283without strain or suffocation. In the beginning, it may be necessary to break in the middle of each round, or to take a short rest at the end of each round and take a few normal breaths. As you develop the capacity to hold the breath for longer periods, and to control inhalation and exhala tion, this concession may be disregarded. 3. After long inner breath retentions, it is best to breathe in slightly before breathing out. In many of the kriyas, such as maha mudra, maha bheda mudra, naumukhi and shakti chalini, where the breath is held inside for prolonged periods, there is a tendency for the lungs to lock. The best way to overcome this problem and release the lungs is to breathe in slightly before breathing out. This will make the kriyas much easier to do. 4. While learning each kriya, check that you are doing all the steps and that they are being done correctly. ch35-38.indd 283ch35-38.indd 283 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 28438 The Kriya Yoga Practices By tradition there are a total of 76 kundalini kriyas of kriya yoga. We present the following 20 main practices, which are sufficient for the daily practice of any sincere sadhaka. These practices are divided into three groups:1. those which induce pratyahara2. those which induce dharana3. those which induce dhyanaIt should be noted that these three states are actually a continuity of evolution, that is, the consciousness flows from one to the next without any apparent dividing point so these practices should be done in an unbroken sequence. Of course, from the first day, the practice of these kriyas will not necessarily lead to such exalted states of awareness, but if they are practised properly with correct guidance, by an aspirant who is ready for them, then most likely, one day they will. It will be at that stage that the constant, unbroken progression of awareness will become essential. Remember, you should learn one kriya per week. ch35-38.indd 284ch35-38.indd 284 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 285PRATYAHARA PRACTICES 1: Vipareeta Karani Mudra (the attitude of inversion) Assume vipareeta karani asana (described in chapter 33). The chin should not touch the chest. Practise subtle ujjayi pranayama Be sure that the legs are completely vertical. Close the eyes.Inhale with ujjayi and simultaneously feel a hot stream of amrit or nectar flowing through the spinal passage from manipura chakra to vishuddhi in the throat. The nectar will collect at vishuddhi.Retain the breath for a few seconds, and be aware of the nectar remaining at vishuddhi and becoming cool.Then exhale with ujjayi, sensing the nectar travelling from vishuddhi through ajna, bindu and to sahasrara.The sensation is that of the nectar being injected with the help of the breath. Manipura Anahata VishuddhiBinduSahasraraAjna (Slight breath retention)- - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation BSY ch35-38.indd 285ch35-38.indd 285 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 286After exhalation, immediately return your awareness to manipura and repeat the kriya to bring more nectar down to vishuddhi, and finally to sahasrara.Practise 21 respirations or rounds. 2: Chakra Anusandhana (discovery of the chakras) Assume siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana.The eyes remain closed throughout the practice.Breathe normally.There is no connection between the breath and the con-sciousness in this practice.Bring your awareness to mooladhara chakra.Your consciousness will slowly ascend the frontal passage of arohan from mooladhara to the frontal point of swadhisthana at the pubic bone, manipura at the navel, anahata at the sternum, the chest centre, vishuddhi at the throat and across to bindu at the top, back of the head.As you travel upward, mentally repeat, mooladhara, swadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddhi, bindu, as you pass through these centres. Bindu Ajna Vishuddhi Anahata Manipura Swadhisthana Mooladhara BSY Chakra Kshetram ch35-38.indd 286ch35-38.indd 286 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 287Then let your awareness slip down the spinal awarohan passage from bindu to mooladhara, mentally repeating ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura, swadhisthana, mooladhara as you pass through these centres.From mooladhara, immediately start ascending in the frontal passage as before, mentally reciting the chakra names as you ascend, starting with swadhisthana.Continue this rotation of awareness through the chakras in a constant flow of rounds.Do not make a serious, tense effort to locate the chakras as you pass through them. Merely glance at them as you go by, as you would view the scenery from a fast moving train.If you wish, you can visualize your awareness in this kriya as a thin silver serpent travelling in an ellipse within your body.Practise 9 rounds. 3: Nada Sanchalana (conducting the sound consciousness) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana.Exhale completely.Open the eyes and bend the head forward, so that it drops downward in a relaxed manner. The chin should not press tightly on the chest.Bring the awareness to mooladhara chakra.Repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Then, as you inhale, your consciousness should rise up through the frontal passage of arohan to bindu.Have a clear awareness of swadhisthana, manipura, ana-hata and vishuddhi, as you pass through them on your way to bindu, and mentally repeat their names.As your awareness travels from vishuddhi to bindu during the last segment of your inhalation, your head will slowly rise and tilt back slightly into position facing about 20 degrees above the horizontal. With the breath retainedinside and the awareness at bindu, mentally repeat, bindu, bindu, bindu. ch35-38.indd 287ch35-38.indd 287 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 288The power of the awareness will build up as you are repeating the word bindu and it will explode into the vocal chant of Om, which will carry you down through the spinal passage of awarohan to mooladhara.The O sound will explode and move downwards, culminating almost in a vibrating m-m-m sound as you approach mooladhara.As your awareness descends in the spine, your eyes will gradually close into unmani mudra.As you descend through the awarohan passage with the Om sound, you should also be aware of ajna, vishuddhi, anahata, manipura and swadhisthana chakras; no mental repeti tion. When you have reached mooladhara, open the eyes and drop the head forward.Mentally repeat, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara, with the breath retained outside and start on the ascent as before, with inhalation and repetition of the chakra names as you pass through them.Practise 13 full rounds or breaths and end after the last mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara. Bindu BinduBindu MooladharaMooladharaMooladhara BSYAjna Vishuddhi Anahata Manipura Swadhisthana ch35-38.indd 288ch35-38.indd 288 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 2894: Pawan Sanchalana (conducting the breath consciousness) Sit in padmasana, siddhasana or siddha yoni asana, with the eyes closed.Practise khechari mudra and ujjayi pranayama through-out this kriya.Exhale completely, open the eyes and bend the head forward as in nada sanchalana.Become aware of mooladhara chakra and repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Then mentally say arohan once and begin your ascent through the frontal passage with a subtle ujjayi inhalation.As you ascend, be aware of the chakras and as you pass name them mentally.As your awareness moves from vishuddhi to bindu, slowly raise your head until it leans backward as in nada sanchalana.At bindu mentally repeat, bindu, bindu, bindu.Then say awarohan mentally and descend through the spinal passage with ujjayi exhalation, mentally repeating the name of each chakra as you pass through it. Ajna Vishuddhi Anahata Manipura Swadhisthana MooladharaMooladhara MooladharaMooladharaBinduBinduBinduArohan Awarohan BSY - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 289ch35-38.indd 289 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 290As you descend, your eyes will close very gradually into unmani mudra, the attitude of drowsiness.At mooladhara they will be closed.Then open your eyes and bend your head forward.Repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Again begin your ascent with ujjayi inhalation, as before.Practise 49 rounds or complete breaths.After the last mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara, open your eyes and end the practice. 5: Shabda Sanchalana (conducting the word consciousness) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana. Practise khechari mudra and ujjayi pranayama through-out the kriya.Exhale completely, open the eyes, bend the head forward and become aware of mooladhara chakra for a few seconds. Inhale with ujjayi and ascend the frontal passage.As you ascend, be aware of the sound of the breath which takes the form of the mantra So. Simultaneously, be aware of each kshetram, without mental repetition. Bindu MooladharaBSY - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 290ch35-38.indd 290 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 291As you travel from vishuddhi to bindu, the head will move upward as in pawan sanchalana and nada sanchalana.Then, with the breath retained inside, be aware of bindu for a few seconds.Then descend the spinal passage performing unmani mudra and being simultaneously aware of the natural sound of exhalation and the mantra Ham. Be aware of each chakra without repetition of its name. After reaching mooladhara, open the eyes and lower your head.Begin your ujjayi inhalation, rising through the frontal passage with the inhalation mantra of So. Continue in this manner for 59 full rounds or breaths. 6: Maha Mudra (great attitude) Sit in siddhasana or siddha yoni asana, with the heel of the lower foot pressing firmly in towards mooladhara chakra.Practise khechari mudra, exhale completely and bend the head forward.Keep the eyes open in the beginning.Repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Ascend through the frontal passage with ujjayi inhalation, being aware of each kshetram as you pass through it.Raise your head as you are crossing from vishuddhi to bindu.At bindu repeat mentally, bindu, bindu, bindu.Practise moola bandha and shambhavi mudra with the breath still retained inside.Say to yourself mentally, shambhavi-khechari-mool, while shifting your awareness to the centre of these practices.When you say shambhavi, your awareness should be fixed at the eyebrow centre.When you say khechari, your awareness should be fixed at the tongue and roof of the mouth.When you say mool, your awareness should be fixed at mooladhara chakra. ch35-38.indd 291ch35-38.indd 291 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM Bindu BinduBindu 2 3 Mool Retention 4 BSY Shambhavi Khechari1 MooladharaMooladharaMooladhara - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 292ch35-38.indd 292 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 293Beginners should repeat this shifting of awareness 3 times. Advanced aspirants can rotate their awareness up to 12 times.Then, first release shambhavi mudra, then moola bandha.Bring your awareness back to bindu and travel down your spinal passage to mooladhara, with ujjayi exhalation and unmani mudra, and be aware of the chakras as you pass through them.On reaching mooladhara, bend the head forward and open the eyes.Then repeat, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara and ascend the frontal passage with ujjayi inhalation, as before.Practise 12 full rounds or breaths and end after the last mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara. Alternative practice : This kriya can also be practised in utthanpadasana.When practising maha mudra in utthanpadasana, a slight change must be made in the technique.After ascending to bindu, repeat bindu, bindu, bindu.Lean forward and hold the big toe of the extended foot with the fingers of both hands, to form utthanpadasana.The stretched knee must not bend.Now practise moola bandha and shambhavi mudra.Repeat, shambhavi-khechari-mool from 3 to 12 times, passing your awareness to the locations of these practices as you repeat their names.Release shambhavi, then moola bandha, then utthan-padasana. Sit upright and place the hands back on theknee. Bring your awareness back to bindu, and then descend the spinal passage with ujjayi exhalation and unmani mudra.Practise 4 rounds with the right leg stretched forward, 4 rounds with the left leg stretched forward, and 4 rounds with both legs stretched forward. Practice note : This kriya can either be practised in perfect siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or in utthanpadasana. Both alternatives are equally good, as both apply a firm and ch35-38.indd 293ch35-38.indd 293 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM Shambhavi Khechari Mool Retention1 3 4 BSY Bindu BinduBindu MooladharaMooladharaMooladhara2 - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 294ch35-38.indd 294 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 295constant pressure at mooladhara. If you can easily sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana, then the best method is the first one described. If you cannot sit comfortably in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana, then use the alternative. It is easy to become sleepy while doing kriya yoga and this alternative has an added advantage of helping to remove sleepiness. The names of the chakras and kshetram can also be repeated mentally as you ascend and descend arohan and awarohan. 7: Maha Bheda Mudra (great piercing attitude) Sit in siddhasana or siddha yoni asana, with the heel of the lower foot pressing firmly in towards mooladhara chakra. Practise khechari mudra and exhale completely, with the eyes open. Bend the head forward.Repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Inhale with ujjayi and ascend the frontal passage to bindu.As you ascend from vishuddhi to bindu, raise your head.Repeat mentally, bindu, bindu, bindu, and then descend the spinal passage to mooladhara with ujjayi exhalation and unmani mudra.Be sure to notice the chakras as you pass through them. Then practise jalandhara bandha with the breath retained outside. Practise nasikagra drishti, uddiyana bandha and moola bandha.Repeat mentally, nasikagra-uddiyana-mool, while simul-tane ously placing your awareness at the seats of these practices in turn.Repeat this cycle of awareness 3 times if you are a beginner, or up to 12 times if you are experienced.Then release nasikagra drishti, moola bandha, uddiyana bandha and jalandhara bandha, but keep the head down.Bring your awareness back to mooladhara.Repeat the mantra mooladhara, mooladhara, mool-adhara, mentally. ch35-38.indd 295ch35-38.indd 295 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 296Then with ujjayi inhalation, ascend the frontal passage to bindu for the next round.Practise 12 full rounds or breaths. Alternative practice : This kriya can also be practised in utthan padasana, as with maha mudra.Place the hands on the bent knee, exhale completely and bend the head forward, keeping the eyes open.1 Mooladhara MooladharaMooladharaBinduBinduBindu MooladharaMooladharaMooladhara 2 3 BSY MoolNasikagra Uddiyana Retention- - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 296ch35-38.indd 296 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 297Repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara. Inhale with ujjayi through the frontal passage from mooladhara to bindu, raising your head while moving from vishuddhi to bindu.Repeat, bindu, bindu, bindu, and then exhale with ujjayi down the spinal passage, doing unmani mudra and being aware of each chakra en route.Hold the breath outside and bend forward to grasp the big toe of the extended foot to form utthanpadasana. Press the chin against the chest to form jalandhara bandha.Practise nasikagra drishti, uddiyana bandha and moola bandha, while still retaining the breath outside.Repeat mentally, nasikagra-uddiyana-mool, while placing the awareness at the locations of these practices in turn.Repeat this cycle of awareness 3 times if you are a beginner, or up to 12 times if you are experienced.Release nasikagra drishti, moola bandha and uddiyana bandha.Bring your hands to your knees and sit up straight. Release jalandhara but keep your head bent down.Bring your awareness back to mooladhara. Repeat the mantra mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara, and then ascend the frontal passage with ujjayi inhalation.Practise in this way for 4 full rounds or breaths with the right leg extended, then practise 4 times with the left leg extended, and finally 4 times with both legs extended.After the fourth time in each position, ascend once to bindu with ujjayi inhalation. Repeat the bindu mantra, descend to mooladhara and repeat its mantra, relax, then change legs.The rotation of awareness through nasikagra, uddiyana and mool is done with outside retention of the breath at mooladhara. You are advised to practise only 3 rotations at first, slowly increasing by one rotation per week until you can complete 12 rotations. Practice note : Make sure that all the bandhas are performed correctly and in the right sequence. At first you will have ch35-38.indd 297ch35-38.indd 297 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM Mooladhara MooladharaMooladharaBinduBinduBindu MooladharaMooladharaMooladhara1 2 MoolUddiyana BSY Nasikagra Retention3- - - - - - = Inhalation- - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 298ch35-38.indd 298 21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM21/03/2018 4:41:55 PM 299to pay special attention to this, but with regular practice the bandhas will lock and tighten automatically, without effort and at the right stage of the kriya. Nose tip gazing helps to tighten the lock of the bandhas. Make sure that nasikagra drishti and the bandhas are practised simultaneously and that you do not omit any of them while rotating awareness through the centres. Do not strain. If you are feeling pain or discomfort in the eyes, stop nasikagra drishti but continue the bandhas and rotation of awareness. Slowly increase duration of nasikagra as the eye muscles adapt to the practice.You can repeat the mooladhara mantra 3 times before applying the bandhas as well as repeating mooladhara 3 times at the beginning of a new round.The names of the chakras and kshetrams can be mentally repeated as you ascend and descend arohan and awarohan passages. 8: Manduki Mudra (frog attitude) Sit in bhadrasana. The eyes should remain open. The area of the body below mooladhara chakra must touch the floor. If necessary place a cushion under the buttocks to apply firm pressure to this point. BSY ch35-38.indd 299ch35-38.indd 299 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 300Place the hands on the knees and practise nasikagra drishti.Become aware of the natural breath flowing in and out of the nostrils.With inhalation, the breath flows through both nostrils and merges at the eyebrow centre. As you exhale, the two flows diverge from the eyebrow centre and move out through both nostrils.The breath follows a conical or inverted V-shaped pathway.Feel this.Simultaneously, be aware of all smells.The point of this kriya is to smell the aroma of the astral body which has a scent like that of sandalwood. If your eyes become tired, close them for a while and then resume nasikagra drishti.Practise this kriya until it becomes intoxicating.Do not carry it so far that you become totally absorbed in it and do not wish to end the practice. 9: T adan Kriya (beating the kundalini) Sit in padmasana with the eyes open.Place the palms on the floor at the sides of the body, next to the hips, with the fingers pointing forward.Tilt the head slightly backward and practise shambhavi mudra.Inhale through the mouth in audible ujjayi pranayama.As you inhale, feel the breath travelling downward through a tube connecting the mouth to mooladhara chakra.The breath will collect at mooladhara chakra.Hold the breath in, keep your awareness at mooladhara and practise moola bandha.Using your hands, lift your body off the ground.Then drop your body lightly so that mooladhara is gently beaten. Repeat this beating 3 times.Do not practise this quickly or harshly.After the third beating, exhale gently through the nose with ujjayi pranayama. ch35-38.indd 300ch35-38.indd 300 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 301The breath will seem to diffuse in all direction from its storehouse at mooladhara.Practise this kriya a total of 7 times.The number of beatings practised per round can be gradually increased from 3 to a maximum of 11. 1 2 3 BSY - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 301ch35-38.indd 301 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 302DHARANA PRACTICES 10: Naumukhi Mudra (closing the nine gates) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana. The eyes should remain closed throughout. If necessary, use a cushion to ensure mooladhara is compressed.Perform khechari mudra and bend the head slightly forward (not jalandhara bandha).Repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara.Then inhale with ujjayi up the frontal passage to bindu. Raise your head as you pass from vishuddhi to bindu. Practise shanmukhi mudra by closing your ears with the thumbs, the eyes with both forefingers, the nostrils with your middle fingers, the upper lip with the ring fingers Mooladhara MooladharaMooladhara1 2 BSY 3 - - - - - - = Inhalation ch35-38.indd 302ch35-38.indd 302 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 303and your lower lip with the small fingers (do not apply too much pressure).Practise moola bandha and vajroli/sahajoli mudra.The nine gates of the body are now closed (eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, anus and sexual organ).Become aware of the spinal passage and bindu.Now visualize a shining copper trident (trishul), rooted in mooladhara with its stem in the spinal cord and the prongs extending upward from vishuddhi. The prongs are very sharp. 4 5 6Bindu Bhedan BSY = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 303ch35-38.indd 303 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 304The trishul will slightly rise a number of times of its own accord and it will pierce bindu with its central prong.As it pierces bindu, repeat the mantra bindu bhedan, which means bindu piercing.After some time, release vajroli/sahajoli mudra and moola bandha. Open the upper gates and bring your hands down to your knees.Exhale with ujjayi down the spinal passage from bindu to mooladhara. Mentally repeat mooladhara 3 times. Then inhale up the frontal passage to bindu to repeat the kriya.Practise 5 full rounds or breaths, and after the fifth round, end the practice after exhalation. Practice note : It is extremely important that the back be held perfectly straight throughout this kriya. If not, the sensation that follows the piercing of bindu may not be perceived.When vajroli/sahajoli mudra is correctly performed it will also heighten the sensation experienced during this practice. When vajroli/sahajoli mudra is perfected, the contraction of vajra nadi can be achieved without contracting the anal sphincter muscles. The sensation can be compared to an electric current running the full length of vajra nadi to the brain. Try to sensitize your awareness to the point where you actually feel the piercing of bindu like an electric shock.As you ascend and descend arohan and awarohan, you can mentally repeat the names of the chakras and kshetram if you wish. 11: Shakti Chalini (conduction of the thought force) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana.The eyes should remain closed throughout.Practise khechari mudra. Exhale completely, bend the head forward and bring the awareness to mooladhara.Repeat mentally, mooladhara, mooladhara, mooladhara, and then ascend the frontal passage to bindu with ujjayi inhalation, raising your head as you approach bindu. ch35-38.indd 304ch35-38.indd 304 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 3Mooladhara MooladharaMooladhara1 2 5 BSY Retention4 - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 305ch35-38.indd 305 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 306Retain the breath inside, and then practise shanmukhi mudra, closing the ears, eyes, nostrils and lips with the fingers. Allow your awareness to rotate in a continuous cycle, descending the spinal passage to mooladhara and rising up the frontal passage to bindu in an unbroken loop, while you keep the breath retained inside.Visualize a thin green snake moving through the psychic passageways.The tail of this serpent is at bindu, and the body extends down through mooladhara and up the frontal passage.The head is also at bindu, with the mouth biting the end of the tail.If you watch this snake, it will start to move in a circle in the psychic passages, or it may even go off this track and follow a new one of its own.Just watch this snake, whatever it does.When your retention of breath is becoming exhausted, release shanmukhi mudra, return the hands to the knees and bring your awareness to bindu. Then descend to mooladhara through the spinal passage with ujjayi exhala tion. At mooladhara, lower your head, repeat mooladhara 3 times, and ascend the frontal passage.Practise this kriya 5 times without a break, or for the duration of 5 breaths. Practice note : Vajroli/sahajoli mudra and moola bandha can also be performed simultaneously with yoni mudra. 12: Shambhavi (Parvatis lotus) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana.Close your eyes and practise khechari mudra.Visualize a lotus flower with a long thin stem extending downward. The roots of the lotus are white or transparent green. They spread out from mooladhara chakra.The thin green lotus stem is in your spinal passage.The lotus flower is at sahasrara, and it is closed like a bud.At the bottom of the bud are a few light green immature petals. ch35-38.indd 306ch35-38.indd 306 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 307The main petals of the flower are pink with fine red veins. Try to see this lotus clearly. You visualize it in chidakasha, but you feel it in your body.Exhale and take your awareness to the root of the lotus at mooladhara.Inhale with ujjayi pranayama and allow your awareness to rise slowly through the centre of the lotus stem, within the spinal passage.At the end of inhalation, you will reach the closed bud at the top of the stem.Your ascent will be like that of a caterpillar, climbing up inside a thin stem.Hold your awareness at sahasrara with the breath retained inside. You are inside the lotus, but you can also see it from outside.It will begin to open very slowly.As the bud opens out into a beautiful lotus flower, you will see the yellow pollen-tipped stamens in its centre.It will slowly close again, to open again almost immediately. BSY ch35-38.indd 307ch35-38.indd 307 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 308After the lotus has stopped opening and closing, and it remains sealed, then slowly descend through the stem to mooladhara, drifting down on the wave of your ujjayi exhalation. Remain at mooladhara for a few seconds, visualizing the roots spreading out in all directions.Then once again, ascend the stem with ujjayi inhalation. Ascend and descend 11 times, and then end this kriya. 13: Amrit Pan (the quaffing of nectar) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana. Keep the eyes closed throughout and practise khechari mudra. Bring your awareness to manipura chakra, where there is a storehouse of a warm, sweet liquid. Exhale fully with ujjayi. Inhale with ujjayi, drawing a quantity of this liquid up to vishuddhi chakra through the spinal passage with the suction power of your breath.Remain at vishuddhi for a few seconds.The nectar that you have raised from manipura will become icy cold at vishuddhi.Then with ujjayi, exhale up to lalana chakra (at the back of the soft palate), through the nectar passage. Blow the Vishuddhi Anahata Manipura BSY Slight breath retentionLalana - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 308ch35-38.indd 308 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 309cool nectar up to lalana with the breath. The breath will immediately disperse by itself once you have reached lalana. Immediately return your awareness to manipura chakra. With another ujjayi inhalation, continue the upward transfer of liquid.Practise 9 times in all. 14: Chakra Bhedan (piercing the chakras) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana. Keep your eyes closed throughout.Practise khechari mudra and ujjayi pranayama.Breathe without any break between inhalation and exhalation.Exhale, and bring your awareness down to swadhisthana chakra at the base of the spine.Inhale and direct your consciousness first to mooladhara and then up the frontal passage.At about the level of vishuddhi kshetram, the breath will run out and you will immediately start exhalation. Exhale from vishuddhi kshetram to bindu and then down the BSY - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 309ch35-38.indd 309 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 310spine from ajna to swadhisthana chakra to complete one round. This kriya should actually be practised for 59 rounds, but if introversion starts to occur before you have completed the rounds, discontinue the practice and go on to the next kriya. Practice note : If desired, mental repetition of the chakra and kshetram can also be performed. 15: Sushumna Darshan (inner visualization of the chakras) For chakra visualization refer to the diagrams of each chakra.Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana. Close the eyes and breathe normally. There is no relation between the breath and awareness in this kriya.Bring the awareness to mooladhara. Imagine a pencil, and with that pencil draw a square at mooladhara.Draw the largest possible inverted equilateral triangle within that square. Then make a circle touching all the four corners of that square. Prepare four petals, one for each side of the square.Bring your awareness to swadhisthana. Prepare a circle there with the same radius as the one at mooladhara.Draw six petals around the edge of the circle, and a crescent moon inside the bottom of the circle.Now come to manipura. Draw a circle, and then make the biggest possible inverted triangle to fit this circle. In the centre draw a ball of fire. Make ten petals around the circle.Raise the consciousness to anahata.Draw two triangles there, one triangle pointed upward and the other inverted. They are interlaced, both crossing each other. Surround them by by a circle with twelve petals.Then come to vishuddhi. Draw a circle, and place a smaller circle within the circle, like a drop of nectar. Make sixteen petals around that circle. ch35-38.indd 310ch35-38.indd 310 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 311Move up to ajna. Make a circle and inside it write a big Sanskrit . Prepare two large petals, one on the right and one on the left side of the circle.At bindu draw a crescent moon with a very tiny circle above it.Reach sahasrara. Prepare a circle there, and make the largest possible upward pointing triangle within that circle.There are 1000 petals all around the circle.Try to see at one glance all the chakras in their proper places. If it is very difficult to see them all together, then see only two chakras on the first day and add one more to your visualization each day until all appear together. 16: Prana Ahuti (infusing the divine prana) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana.Close the eyes and breathe normally. Feel the soft touch of a divine hand lying on your head. The hand is infusing subtle prana into your body and mind and the prana is travelling down from sahasrara through the spinal passage. BSY ch35-38.indd 311ch35-38.indd 311 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 312 You may experience it as a wave of cold, heat energy, electric current, or as a stream of wind or liquid.Its passage will result in vibrations, shocks, jerks or ticking sensations which course through you.When the prana has reached mooladhara, then immedi-ately go on to the next kriya without waiting to experience the prana a second time. 17: Utthan (raising the kundalini) Sit in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana.Keep the eyes closed throughout and breathe normally.Bring your awareness to mooladhara chakra.Try to visualize it clearly and notice all details.You will see a black shivalingam made of a smoky gaseous substance.The bottom and top of the lingam are cut off, and circled around it is a red baby snake.This red baby snake is trying to uncoil itself so it can move upward through sushumna.As it struggles to release itself and ascends, it makes an angry hissing sound. BSY ch35-38.indd 312ch35-38.indd 312 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 313The tail of the snake will remain fixed at the bottom of the shivalingam, but the head and body may move upward and come back down again.Sometimes both the shivalingam and the snake may shift their position in the body, so you may even visualize them for a time at ajna or sahasrara.The head of the snake is very wide, having the same breadth as your body, but it is not a cobra.After some time, you may feel your body contract. This will be followed by a sensation of bliss.When this occurs go on to the next kriya. 18: Swaroopa Darshan (the vision of your Self) Remain sitting in siddhasana/siddha yoni asana or padmasana and do not open the eyes.Become aware of the physical body.Your body is completely motionless, and you maintain total awareness of this fact.Be sure that you are completely steady, like a rock.When you are absolutely sure of your bodily steadiness, you should also become aware of your natural breath.Watch the constant flow of your breath, but be sure your body remains steady. Your body will start to become stiff.As it becomes stiffer, your awareness will shift completely to your breathing; however, the body will continue to become stiffer and stiffer of its own accord. When your body has become as rigid as a stone, and it is beyond your control to move it even if you tried, then go on to the next kriya. 19: Linga Sanchalana (astral conduction) Remain still in your stiffened asana with the eyes closed. Due to the stiffness of your body, your breathing will have automatically become ujjayi breathing, and khechari mudra will have been formed.Be totally aware of your breathing. ch35-38.indd 313ch35-38.indd 313 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 314You will notice that with each inhalation your body seems to be expanding, and with each exhalation your body appears to be contracting.It is peculiar though, because your physical body is not moving; it is still and as stiff as a statue.It is your astral body that you experience expanding and contracting.As you observe this contraction and expansion process, it will gradually become more and more pronounced.After some time you will begin to lose awareness of the physical body, and you will only be observing the astral body directly.However, the degree of contraction will become more pronounced.Eventually you will reach a stage where, on contraction, the astral body reduces to a single point of light.When this occurs, discontinue the kriya immediately and go on to the next.BSY - - - - - - = Inhalation = Exhalation ch35-38.indd 314ch35-38.indd 314 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM 315DHYANA PRACTICE 20: Dhyana (meditation) You have realized your astral body as a single point of light.Now look closer at that point of light and you will see it take the form of a golden egg.As you watch this golden egg, it will begin to expand.The golden egg is luminous and glowing intensely; however, it does not give off any rays of light.As the golden egg becomes larger, it will begin to take on the same shape as that of your astral and physical bodies.This form, however, is not a material or even a subtle form.This form is glowing light.It is your causal self. ch35-38.indd 315ch35-38.indd 315 21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM21/03/2018 4:41:56 PM ch39-42.indd 316ch39-42.indd 316 21/03/2018 4:42:15 PM21/03/2018 4:42:15 PM Kundalini Research Compiled by Dr Swami Shankardevananda Saraswati MBBS (Syd) ch39-42.indd 317ch39-42.indd 317 21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM ch39-42.indd 318ch39-42.indd 318 21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM 31939 Introduction We have seen time and again that the words and teachings of many of the yogis, saints and sages from all ages have been recently verified by modern science. It has been our function to fit together the bits and pieces of research and to point out:1. The overlap between modern science and yoga,2. How the various pieces fit together to give us an expanded concept of man, 3. What directions research can take in order to design and analyze research in the light of yogic psychophysiology. One of the great traps in attempting to research yoga is to design experiments without a thorough knowledge of yoga itself. This is like looking at only a small part of the whole, just as the six blind wise men, who each examined a different part of an elephant and then pronounced their judgements based on these limitations, could never under stand the whole elephant and how it looked. Yogic training requires many years and the skilled guidance of a master to discover its basic principles, its mode of application, and to prepare oneself for the experiences arising from this training. The totality of man Perhaps the outstanding feature of yoga is its ability to give us a more total picture of who we are, to put the various elements into a simpler and at the same time more sophisti- ch39-42.indd 319ch39-42.indd 319 21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM 320cated and more expanded perspective. Yoga also teaches us that within us all there is a vital power, a basic essence, whose thread can be seen running through life, unmeasurable by even the most sophisticated machines, but palpable and moti vat ing our living, breathing, thinking, body and mind. We can see its effects and measure the forms and changes of this subtle energy as it enters and interacts with the physical domain, in the nerves, in the chemical and in tra- cellular processes and in the flows and pressures of the body. However, the energy itself is still undefined scientifi cally. Through yogic sadhana we can experience the subtle energy, called prana or kundalini, which underlies all matter. This experience is a transformative one, which makes the subtle more tangible and real than the material and so-called solid, physical universe. It shifts our perspective, broad ens our aware ness and awakens our consciousness, our higher and greater self. It awakens us to the fact that within us all is an im mortal and eternal essence, full of knowledge, bliss and truth. The very fact that such an experience exists alters our direction and purpose. We see that we are here not only for sensual and mundane satisfaction, but for a higher and greater destiny. This ultimate goal of yoga must always be remembered when we are researching yoga, for we know that yoga can give us relaxation, alter our brain waves and hormonal secretions, endow us with health, induce concen-tration and better memory, help us to develop better human interrelationships and to enjoy everything we do, to have fun and fulfil ourselves in a balanced, healthy way. However, we must see that these things, though they are all worthy and good in themselves, are not the ultimate goal of yoga, but are side-effects of our pursuit of higher awareness and deeper knowledge of the truth of our existence. To pursue these things in themselves is another trap, a trick of the mind. For they do not exist by themselves but are the outcome of a complete process of living. The yogic process of total development of body, mind and spirit, ida, pingala and ch39-42.indd 320ch39-42.indd 320 21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM 321sushum na, is the most systematic way to attain these things and more. Yoga is not a science of healing and does not need to look into the negative side of existence. The teachings tell us to practise and emphasize the good, positive and healthy in us and automatically we will be healthy and happy. There is nothing difficult to understand in this. If we emphasize exercise, moderation, good lifestyle, relaxation, meditation and self-discipline, then we are sure to achieve something worthwhile in life. Research into relaxation, meditation, asana and pranayama continues to demonstrate that yoga exerts real changes in the body and mind, that it can only be a worthwhile addition to our lives if performed under guidance and done correctly. However, we must remember that it is much more than that, and that all our achievements are ultimately, and in the last analysis, useless if we do not trans form the quality of our awareness. Yoga tells us to awaken our minds, to develop the energy within ourselves so that we can attain a much greater, fuller and more total existence. Evidence is piling up to show that there is a psychic side to our lives, that the mental and intangible is far from imaginary, but is powered by an energy, a subtle force which can be tapped and developed and which can totally change and transform the more physical side of our lives. There is also evidence that awareness and conscious-ness can be independent from the body and this is coming from studies into physics and the nature of energy in our universe. Purpose of this section In this section we are more concerned with delineating the research into energy than into consciousness. We are concerned with the research into kundalini rather than with the awareness side of things. We must take it for granted that awareness exists. Research into the energy side of yoga shows us that there is a physically based energy in the body which also has a psychic dimension. This fits the yogic description ch39-42.indd 321ch39-42.indd 321 21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM 322of prana, whose ultimate and maximum form is that of kundalini. Many times we have been amazed to hear the stories of yogis and saints and have been awed by reading the ancient and universal teachings of yoga, to realize that they are applicable even today. Often we have wondered how yogis developed this science in the first place. Obviously it has come from a profound and unusual experience, beyond the capacity of the normal person to achieve or even understand without practising yoga. Swami Satyananda Saraswati is one of those who has reached transcendental heights and come back to tell us about kundalini in scientific terms. He has spoken about the kundalini phenomenon and has laid down the fundamentals of kundalini yoga in a succinct, precise, profound and yet easily understandable and systematic manner, as has been done in this book. He has told us many things about the functions of the body, for example, that the right nostril connects to the left brain, and the left nostril to the right brain, which, in 1983, was verified by researchers at the Salk Institute in America (see chapter 42). Through his own in-ternal experiences he has seen that most of us do not use our potential and that within the brain there are unused areas of potential energy, psychic awareness and total knowledge. It is actually possible to experience the brain from inside. The source is within us, however, we have not connected the various centres and circuits to the main switches and the main generator. The way to do this, Swami Satyananda tells us, is through kundalini yoga. Often Swami Satyananda has referred to the works of researchers as a means of validating and expressing the kundalini experience in easily understandable scientific terms, and to show that there are many people working on this most important aspect of life. Much of their research is outlined here in simple terms. This research represents pioneering efforts to delineate the broader function of man. No doubt, in the future, new machines and methods will have ch39-42.indd 322ch39-42.indd 322 21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM21/03/2018 4:42:19 PM 323to be developed, for we are seeing only the bare beginnings of yogic research at this time. However, the efforts of these researchers will be remembered and will set the course for more sophisticated, scientifically acceptable research. One thing is sure, science and yoga have been running parallel and in the same direction and are now beginning to converge towards a meeting point which promises to transform society. The concept of kundalini and the higher sciences is becoming more widely known and respected and more and more people are taking up its practice. This book and this section are an offering to help you to see kundalini in a more total and easily understood manner, to give re searchers guidelines and perspective, and to help you achieve the kundalini experience as a reality in your life. ch39-42.indd 323ch39-42.indd 323 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 32440 Kundalini, Fact not Fiction As one opens the door with a key, so the yogi should open the gate to liberation with the kundalini. The great goddess sleeps, closing with her mouth, the opening through which one can ascend to the brahmarandhra . . . to that place where there is neither pain nor suffering. The kundalini sleeps above the kanda . . . she gives liberation to the yogi and bondage to the fool. He who knows kundalini, knows yoga. The kundalini, it is said, is coiled like a serpent. He who can induce her to move is liberated. Hatha Yoga Pradipika (ch. 3, v. 105111) With our present limited state of consciousness, bound by sense experiences which become dull and monotonous through endless repetition, and unable to break out of our tensions, problems and anxieties, modern man is facing both a material and spiritual crisis. This crisis is a two-edged sword. Kundalini both binds and liberates. On the one hand it is bad, for it creates anxiety and depression and has preci pitated a plague of psychosomatic disease and suffering unparal leled in former times. On the other hand, it is good, a blessing in disguise which is forcing us to change and grow, to evolve ourselves at individual and social levels. We are witnessing a tremendous upsurge of interest in yoga, meditation and spiritual values. There has been a revival of the yogic lifestyle and knowledge. Yoga and ch39-42.indd 324ch39-42.indd 324 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 325related sciences are now recognized as valuable tools within the healing profession and have added tremendous depth and height, a new dimension to psychology and philosophy. Scien tists have been inspired to probe deeper into the mys- teries of yoga, to investigate the means by which it works and to make the teachings of the ancient rishis and yogis more readily understood and expressed in modern scientific terminology. We are seeing that science is not actually dis-cover ing anything new, but is substantiating the ancient knowledge of the yogis. Scientific investigation into yoga and the allied sciences has made this knowledge more accessible by incorporating it into a whole new set of therapeutic techniques and new methods to develop our potential, for example, biofeedback, autogenic training, mind control techniques, psychic healing, and a myriad of other similar processes. New branches of medicine have come into being, and the recognition of mind, begun by Freud in the early part of the twentieth century, has finally filtered down into common acceptance. Stress medicine and psychosomatic medicine are examples of our deeper understanding of this interaction of energy, mind and body, an understanding developed through our redis covery of yoga. In an effort to penetrate the mysteries of prana shakti, the physical side of psychic energy, and chitta, the mental side of psychic energy, a few respected and eminent pioneers, honouring the rigorous demands of the scientific method, have accumulated a solid core of evidence which explains in scientific terms the phenomenon of psychic energy and validates the teachings of yogis. Science has substantiated the yogic knowledge that a subtle energy exists which is body-based and has both physical and psychic properties. This energy, which powers our awareness and transforms and expands our conscious dimensions, is not just a myth or idea; it is not a metaphysical concept, but a fact. Kundalini is defined as the ultimate, most intense form of this energy, which lies dormant within each and every one of us. ch39-42.indd 325ch39-42.indd 325 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 326Parapsychology Phenomena such as telepathy, psychic healing, psychokinesis (the moving of matter by mind power), dowsing, telegnosis (psychic reading of history and association of objects), and other paranormal events, are receiving serious attention from the more pioneering members of the international science community as a means of understanding the relation-ship of energy and consciousness. Scientists in the USA, UK, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia and Australia have taken the lead from scientists of the Soviet Union, many of whom are financed by their govern ments. Called bioelectronics or paraphysics in some circles, this field of study is generally known as parapsychology. In Czechoslovakia it is known as psychotronics, and one of the leading Czech researchers in this field is Dr Zdenek Rejdak, whose association with Swami Satyananda began in the early 1970s when he stayed at the Bihar School of Yoga. Speaking in Japan at the fifth annual conference of the International Association for Religion and Parapsychology in 1976, Dr Rejdak defined psychotronics, and therefore, the whole field of parapsychology as: The science which, in an interdisciplinary fashion, studies the distant interactions between living organisms and their environment, internal and external, and the energetic processes underlying these manifestations in order to supplement and widen mans understanding of the laws of nature. Psychic energy Psychic energy has been found to affect a whole range of laboratory equipment, from voltmeters to Geiger counters to magnetometers. Y et this does not mean that psychic energy is electrical, magnetic or radioactive. Rather, it seems to both encompass and go beyond these properties. Most researchers agree with the Russians who state that psychic energy may have its origin in electrical activity, but the nature of the energy is entirely different. However, yogis state that prana is the substratum of our material universe, interpenetrating ch39-42.indd 326ch39-42.indd 326 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 327and organizing all matter and being the common ground for all energy. They see prana from a dif fer ent and higher perspective. It is also generally accepted by scientists that psychic energy, most widely known as bioenergy, is body-based and affects both the physical and mental spheres as indicated by yogis. It has also been measured as a force field surrounding the body up to a distance of twelve feet by Y ale neuropsychiatrist, Dr Leonard Ravitz. 1 This seems to support the yogic concept of the subtle pranic body which interpenetrates and is interdependent with the physical struc-ture, motivating it to function. There is considerable support for this hypothesis, gather ed from the monitoring of the physiological changes experienced by psychics during laboratory tests of paranormal events. For instance, as part of his usual experimental pro cedure, Dr Grenady Sergeyev of the A.A. Utkomskii Physio logical Institute (a Leningrad military laboratory), took read ings of the brain waves, heartbeat and pulse rates of Neyla Mikhailova during her numerous demonstrations of psycho kinesis. 2 He found that while Mikhailova was causing objects to move without touching them, his instruments recorded a tremendous vibration throughout her body and its surround ing force field which pulsed in the direction of her gaze. Her heart and brain waves also pulsed in unison with this energy vibration, indicating that the energy Mikhailova used in her psychic feats is intimately connected with her whole body. Reports go on to state that: After doing these tests, Mrs. Mikhailova was utterly exhausted. There was almost no pulse. Shed lost close to four pounds in half an hour. The EEG (brain wave pattern) showed intense emotional excitement. There was high blood sugar and the endocrine system was disturbed. The whole organism was weakened as if from a tremendous stress reaction. She had lost the sensation of taste, had pains in her arms and legs, couldnt coordinate and felt dizzy. 3 ch39-42.indd 327ch39-42.indd 327 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 328 At one time, after making a seven hour film of her abilities, Mikhailova was temporarily blind. Other Soviet investigators have recorded changes in brain wave patterns which coincide with the reception of telepathic signals, and researchers in the USA have shown that the volume of blood in the body alters during telepathic interactions. This evidence leaves no doubt that psychic energy, or bioenergy, is from the body and is the same energy activating every aspect of metabolism, from function ing of the glands, to the brain and heart. It is the power behind the emotions and senses. At the same time, prana, though based on and affecting the physical struc ture and function, has a wider range of properties and is associated with clairvoyance, clair-audience and other forms of extrasensory perception. It has a mental or psychic com ponent and is both gross and subtle. Psychic energy can affect matter without any apparent physical intermediary or medium. There is some undetectable energy at work which we cannot measure though we can see its results. It can even be used in healing. Sister Dr Justa Smith, in America, has demonstrated that psychic energy affects enzymes. 4 She has found that trypsin, a digestive enzyme which is damaged and decreases activity when ex posed to ultraviolet light, increases activity when exposed to a high intensity magnetic field. When a water damaged trypsin solution was held in the hands of a recognized psychic healer for 72 minutes, trypsin increased its activity. R. Y aeger has shown that when a practitioner of kundalini yoga performed certain pranayama techniques and then sat next to an onion for 15 minutes with his hands in a fixed position, about two feet from the experimental plant, cell division, and therefore metabolic energy increased by 108%. 5 A control subject sitting in the same position, but without doing pranayama, had no effects on the plant. We have clear evidence from these experiments that there is a new kind of psychic physiological energy that fits the description of prana and kundalini as set forth in the yogic texts and verbal traditions. ch39-42.indd 328ch39-42.indd 328 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 329Summary Modern science has been able to ascertain that psychic energy is a real and physically-based phenomenon. Though it does not fall into the known categories of modern science, its effects can be experienced and recorded repeatedly. No one really doubts its existence. What it is and how it functions, its relationship to our body and mind and its potential use as an evolutionary tool require further research from scientists who will find guidelines in the perspectives and experiences of dedicated yogis. Through this, we will be better able to understand the relationship of mind and body and this will have tremendous repercussions on studies into psychosomatic medicine, psy-cho logy and other important fields. As we ourselves learn to appreciate that great joy and good health which comes from developing and being sensitive to psychic energy, a large and forgotten area of our being, we will extend our possibilities, develop our innate potential and speed up our spiritual evolution. ch39-42.indd 329ch39-42.indd 329 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 33041 Defining the Nadis Yoga and tantra lay down one of the most complete systems for a practical understanding of the human condition. Tantra supplies the philosophy, the theoretical approach. Yoga supplies techniques by which we can validate this philosophy through our own personal experience and thus attain higher knowledge. Tantra is therefore a living philo sophy and not just a system of endless intellectual speculation unable to deliver the truth and leaving more questions unanswered than answered. It is also a very potent method by which we can realize ourselves in totality, and attain union, ultimate freedom and fulfilment. Perhaps the greatest contribution of tantra to the modern world will be its ability not just to define the mind and put it into perspective, but to deliver techniques by which we can experience the mind itself and eventually transcend it through the awakening of kundalini. Modern medicine and psychology, for example, will greatly benefit from tantras fundamental, basic components of body, mind and spirit pingala, ida and sushumna. These flows of energy make up our total human personality and are derived from the ultimate polarity of our macrocosmic universe into Shiva and Shakti, consciousness and energy. In trying to understand the manifestations of these forces in our body, and for research purposes, in trying to prove the reality of the existence of the nadis, we have to understand ch39-42.indd 330ch39-42.indd 330 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 331that they are not physical, measurable, dissectable structures within our physical body, but are the basic energies which underlie and motivate life and consciousness. It is important to understand exactly what nadis are before we either try to prove their existence or disprove it. When we achieve certain states of consciousness we can see that nadis are, as yogis described them, flows of energy which we can visualize at the psychic level as having distinct channels, light, colour, sound and other characteristics. At the same time, however, these nadis underlie, and can be seen mirrored in, all bodily functions and processes. There is no separation between the nadis, the body and the mind; they are one and the same thing. The duality of life In many of the oriental philosophies, the entire universe is seen as a separation into two great, polarized forces, Shiva and Shakti, which are interdependent and opposite, but complementary. The universe hangs as a kind of web of interacting energies, suspended and functioning within the framework of tensions developed by the fundamental polarity. Carl Jung stated, natural processes are phenomena of energy constantly arising out of a less probable state. 1 This apparent dualism is actually a unified, holistic process from another level of consciousness, but at our own level we see it from a fragmented, limited and partial perspective. We see polarity everywhere we look, in nature, within ourselves and within our mind. Moving from macrocosmic to microcosmic to atomic, at every level, two great principles or forces can be seen at work motivating our universe; light and dark, positive and negative, male and female. All other forces are seen to be an outcome of these two main forces. It seems amazing to us that things can be so simple and yet so profound; however, to the enlightened mind, the universe and man is just so. All of life, therefore, has two main aspects upon which all of our perception, activity and experience are based. Our ch39-42.indd 331ch39-42.indd 331 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 332mind and body are the outcome of two main forms or modes of energy interacting and creating endless manifestations in the universe of our body. For example, we have a right and left brain, a parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, an anabolic and catabolic metabolism, a conscious and un conscious mind. We are poised between life and death and our whole existence is a struggle to retain balance between these two forces. Ida and pingala Yogis realized the existence of these forces and understood their relationship. They said that man has three main flows of energy, which they called the nadis, ida, pingala and sushumna, and which have been roughly translated as mind, body, and spirit. The third flow is the result of the balanced interaction of the first two. They also said that man functions mainly in the first two areas of body and mind, pingala and ida, the third aspect being dormant until it is stimulated by yoga or some other discipline. Ida and pingala are roughly translated as mind and body. Though this is true at one level, when we are discussing the polarization of the total individual, the body and mind are themselves each polarized. We have to understand, however, that the nadis are not structures but are functional relationships and are really different sides of the same coin. Yogis did not describe the nadis in terms of structures, though structure exists to handle them. They described them in terms of energy, prana, vital and life-giving for pingala, and chitta, consciousness and knowing for ida. The attributes of the nadis are summarized below: Pingala can be defined as the dynamic, active, masculine, positive, yang energy within our personality. It has a physical and mental side. Its material qualities are light, heat, solar, energy accumulating, creative, organizing, focused (centrip etal) and contractive. The positive, dynamic mental side within Freuds system is Eros, the pleasure principle, and in Jungs system it is the conscious personality, the rational, ch39-42.indd 332ch39-42.indd 332 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 333discriminating side. We can say that pingala is psychosomatic energy, outwardly directed, mind acting on body to motivate the organs of action, the karmendriyas. It is the basic energy of life. Ida is the energy within the personality which is passive, receptive, feminine, negative, yin. At the physical level it is dark, cold, lunar, energy dissipating, disorganizing, entropic, expansive (centrifugal) and relaxing. At the mental plane Freud called it Thanatos, the death instinct, and Jung called it anima, the unconscious female within, emotional, feeling, intuitive and non-discriminating, the background on which the differences can be seen and which unifies. This is the somo psychic aspect of man, where energy is inwardly direct-ed, and the body acts on the mind. Ida controls the sense organs or jnanendriyas and, therefore, gives us knowledge and awareness of the world we live in. The third force Another force exists in nature which is little understood or even appreciated, but which is of vital importance. It is a fact that when two opposing forces are equal and balanced, a third force arises. Strike a match on a matchbox and you create fire, bring positive and negative currents together and you can work machinery, unite body and mind and a third force called sushumna, spiritual energy, arises. This is one of the aims of yoga, because only when sushumna awakens can the super power of kundalini, this maximum force, ascend safely to fuel, power and create cosmic consciousness. Su-shum na is a high tension power line, and ida and pingala carry the domestic lines to power the basic necessities. Carl Jung outlined the tantric view when he described the driving force of self-realization, which he called individua tion, as a dialectical interaction between the opposites, beginning with conflict and culminating in synthesis and in tegra tion. When perfect balance is achieved, stabilized and perfected, a state of dynamic peace is also achieved, which is a paradox, a union of opposites, the ch39-42.indd 333ch39-42.indd 333 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 334synthesis of doing and not doing, a totally new way of perceiving and experiencing life. Few of us realize this third, spiritualized state and most of us oscillate from one state to another. Every 90 to 180 minutes ida and pingala alternate their dominance and only for a few seconds or minutes does sushumna come into potential being. It is the goal of all yogic techniques to balance and harmonize ida and pingala, life force and con-scious awareness, so that they join at ajna chakra to create the inner light of knowledge and bliss and reveal the truth. In order to balance the flows of energy, yoga prescribes various techniques, asana, pranayama, shatkarma and medita-tion, which activate either ida, pingala or sushumna. This does not mean we are activating one structure but are, via yoga, able to manipulate the energies underlying the three possible modes of existence. The functional modes Nadis are flows of energy which move through each and every part of our body, the subtle counterpart of the physical flows such as nervous energy and blood. All of the thousands of nadis in the body are based on ida and pingala which spiral around the spinal cord. These are the basic two modes of function on which all of our bodily and mental processes work. Sushumna is the royal road which takes us to higher aware ness and transforms the function of ida and pingala. Each and every cell of our body, every organ, the brain and mind, everything is polarized and interconnected at both the physical and subtle levels, and this allows us to think, speak and act in a concerted, balanced, synchronous manner, every part working to help every other part. There are two basic systems in the body that control this, ida and pingala, and if we stimulate any component of one system we turn on the whole system. This is how asana, pranayama, meditation, and the whole armamentum of yogic techniques work, and this is what is meant when we say that yoga affects the nadis. ch39-42.indd 334ch39-42.indd 334 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 335 Arthur Deikman of the Department of Psychiatry, Uni- versity of Colorado Medical Centre, USA, describes the two main modes of mans being from the perspective of modern psychology. At the same time he describes the nadis ida and pingala using modern psychophysiological jargon. He states, Let us begin by considering the human being to be an organization of components having biological and psy-chological dimensions of organization: an action mode and a receptive mode. The action mode is a state organized to manipulate the environment. The striated muscle system and the sympathetic nervous system are the dominant physiological agencies. The main psychological manifestations of this stage are focal attention, object-based logic, heightened boundary per ception, and the dominance of formal characteristics over the sensory; shapes and meanings have a preference over colours and textures. The action mode is a state of striving, oriented toward achieving personal goals that range from nutrition to defence to obtaining social rewards, plus a variety of symbolic and sensual pleasures, as well as the avoidance of a comparable variety of pain. 2 Deikman describes ida, the receptive mode as organized around intake of environment rather than its manipulation. The sensory-perceptual system is dominant and para-sympathetic function predominates. The EEG tends to alpha waves, muscle tension decreases, attention is diffuse, boundaries become hazy, and so on. It is a state of not doing. The epitome of the active mode is the state of body and mind a taxi driver would be in while driving through peak hour traffic. The epitome of the receptive mode is the deep relaxation of yoga nidra, or the introverted state of formal meditation. The true meditative state, which few scientific researchers really appreciate but which is the main aim of yoga, is an example of the third mode, or sushumna functioning, in which active and passive are fully balanced. Someone in this state is simultaneously externally and internally focused. For example, we should be driving a taxi ch39-42.indd 335ch39-42.indd 335 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 336and at the same time be in a state of total relaxation or not doing. Or we would be sitting absolutely still and be filled with the dynamic energy of shakti so that we are fully awake and active internally. This is a very difficult state to describe. We know that our active mode is designed to ensure survival and the passive mode is designed to ensure rest and recuperation of energy in the endless struggle for life and existence. Telepathy and psychic phenomena in general fit into this picture and we can hypothesize that telepathy is also designed to ensure survival. For example, we know that under conditions of extreme stress and in emergencies, people have sent psychic calls for help to close friends or relations, the emergency somehow powering this previously latent faculty. Many primitive peoples also utilize these powers and take them for granted wondering why it is that civilized people make such a fuss about them. Yogis also tell us that when we practise yoga, purify our nadis and become stronger and more aware, siddhis, powers, must manifest as part of our spiritual development, though these are only side-effects and not the main aim of our prac-tice of yoga. This, it seems, is because we develop a more synchronized functioning of all the components of our body and mind and awaken areas which have been dormant. The need for balance Though ida and pingala and their modes of activity are opposite, they are complementary and must be balanced for total health and peace of mind. More than this though, balance can open the door to the transcendental and to a new mode of functioning. Most of us spend our lives in an unbalanced state. We tend to spend increasingly longer periods in the active mode as we grow out of our childhood and find it difficult to relax into the receptive state. This is probably a major factor in the spiral ling incidence of psychosomatic disease today. Deik mans research emphasizes the fact that our imbalance is reflected in every activity as well as in our social, cultural and ch39-42.indd 336ch39-42.indd 336 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 337political organization. He stresses that the often devalued ida, the receptive, feeling and intuitive mode, is far from inferior or regressive and is in fact an essential component in our highest abilities. Such research suggests that there is a very deep and urgent need for the reintroduction of concepts such as ida and pingala at the grassroots level of society and that the recent explosion of interest in yoga, meditation and esoteric philosophy is the result of deep-rooted pain and tension resulting from imbalance in the nadis. It points to the fact that our whole approach to ourselves, our science, society and culture will require complete review and revision from the more total yogic perspective. It is time we realized that the subtle and intangible aspects of human existence are as important as the tangible, solid and easily measurable materialistic side. It is because of our reliance purely on technology, the solid facts, and the external, pingala side of our universe that we have not found happiness, real and lasting security or peace of mind, because these things lie within us and are of the mind ida, and are subtle. Yoga offers the techniques to bring about balance in our lives, to not only realize the subtle, but, through a science of enhanced intelligence, intuition and creativity, to make the subtle side of life a practical reality and experience, a valid and important part of our lives as individuals and within society. ch39-42.indd 337ch39-42.indd 337 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 33842 Controlling the Nadis and the Brain The human brain is truly one of the most awesome and amazing of creations. Housed within the skull, it contains some twelve thousand million cells, and each of these cells has an estimated five hundred thousand possible intercon nections; there may be even more that we do not know about. When the mathematics are computed there are more possible interconnections in the brain than there are atoms in the universe. The brain has an almost infinite capacity, and all within the two kilograms or so of amorphous, pinkish grey brain matter with the consistency of jelly or cold oatmeal porridge. How this quivering, pulsating, jellylike substance remembers, thinks, analyzes, feels, discriminates, intuits, decides, creates and directs all the countless functions of the body, integrating the whole so that we synchronize action, speech and thought, is something that each of us should contemplate daily. Meditation on this miracle of creation, and any attempt to understand how the brain and mind function, can lead to an understanding of the total process of kundalini awakening. Indeed, many theories of how kundalini works are based on the brain, and this research can help us to better un der stand the basis for kundalini awakening, the nadis and chakras. This is because the brain, housing as it does the master control systems for the body within its unlimited cir c uitry, must contain the physical circuits for the nadis and chakras. ch39-42.indd 338ch39-42.indd 338 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 339 The brain is also the interface between the body and the mind. All sensory information travels to the brain via the jnanendriyas, the sense organs of knowledge, and is then fed into the mind, and all decisions in the mind are then translated into the body via the karmendriyas, the organs of action, in a continuous, synchronous, dynamic process. Thus within the workings of the brain we can see the workings of the nadis as described by yogis, and research is deepening our understanding of this. Yogic techniques utilize this knowl-edge to stimulate the body so as to achieve higher and better states of being. The nadis in the brain Important research from neuroscience has shown us that the brain fits into the dual nadi model of human personality as handed down to us by yoga. In a radical and last ditch at tempt to cure severe, unremitting epilepsy, Roger Sperry and his associates divided the brains of their patients down the midline structure linking the two brain hemispheres, the corpus callosum. To their surprise, not only did the epileptics cease seizures, but they came up with startling new findings which are radically altering our neurophysiological under-standing of how the brain works and are revolutionizing our whole concept of man. We have always known the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and vice versa. Sperrys findings, though still in the initial stages and requiring more research, show us each side of the brain handles a completely opposite but complementary mode of consciousness. This finding is extremely important as it verifies the yogic viewpoint. Yogis and scientists, using different terminology and approaches, have come up with the same conclusions, that man is divided into two main modes of functioning. The circuits of the brain are based on ida and pingala nadis, con-sciousness or knowledge, and action or physical energy. We see ida and pingala at all three major levels of the nervous system. ch39-42.indd 339ch39-42.indd 339 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 3401. Sensory-motor nervous system (SMS): all electrical activity in the body moves in one of two directions, into the brain (afferent), ida, and out of the brain (efferent), pingala. Yogis have called the sensory nerves which are governed by ida, jnanendriyas, and the motor nerves, governed by pingala, karmendriyas. These nerves are concerned with perception of, and activity in, the world. 2. Autonomic nervous system (ANS): this is divided into the outward directed, stress handling, energy utilizing, pingala dominant, sympathetic nervous system, and the inwardly directed, rest handling, energy conserving, ida dominant, parasympathetic nervous system. These two systems control and regulate all the autonomic body processes: heart, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, liver and kidneys and so on. 3. Central nervous system (CNS): this consists of the brain and spinal cord and contains the controls for the SMS and ANS. The brain contains much more than this though, for it is a huge, ultimately complex computer, which stores and integrates information and puts our decisions into action in a superbly synchronized and orchestrated performance. Its functioning is definitely much more than its parts. Within the infinite circuitry of the brain resides more potential than we can realize in one lifetime; however, with regular practice, the techniques of yoga systematically clear and strengthen these circuits. This is what the yogis have been telling us, that the circuitry for nadis and chakras exists within the CNS, along the spine and in the brain. If we are able to tap, purify, strengthen and reconnect these circuits via the various yogic techniques, we can totally transform our mind/body complex. The basis for yogic techniques lies in the fact that there is a nadi/chakra system which can be seen, at the physical level, as being the sum total of the input and output of the various sections of the nervous system and the parts of the body which connect to it. This total body/mind complex functions on the power ch39-42.indd 340ch39-42.indd 340 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 341of the three basic types of energy ida, pingala and sushumna. We can therefore begin to understand why so many yogic techniques are specifically aimed at balancing the ida/pingala flow and increasing our awareness of its fluctuations. Left versus right Scientific study of the hemispheres of the brain by Sperry, Myers, Gazzaniga, Bogen and later researchers, has shown us that the left side of the brain is usually concerned with speech, logic, analysis, time and linear function, whereas the right side is silent, dark, intuitive, feeling, spatial, holistic in function, and does not require linear, structured analysis for its knowledge, though how it does know is a mystery. The right side of the brain is the physical side of ida nadi, and the left brain, of pingala. Thomas Hoover, a researcher com paring Zen with neurological discoveries, sums up the situa tion when he states, The hemisphere that speaks does not know; the hemisphere that knows does not speak. A number of word opposites have been used to describe and help us understand this view of brain function. Though the situation is not so simple, and each hemisphere must work in an integrated fashion, there is a definite trend to separate modes of function: Left Brain (Pingala) Right Brain (Ida) analysis understanding verbal spatial temporal here and now partial holistic explicit implicit argument experience intellect intuition logic emotion thinking feeling active passive ch39-42.indd 341ch39-42.indd 341 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 342 We could also add light versus dark, conscious versus sub- conscious, talkative versus silent, solar versus lunar, positive versus negative, mathematics versus poetry, rational versus mystical, objective versus subjective, digital versus analogue, and many others to aid our under standing. Emotions in the split brain Research by Marcel Kinsbourne, neurobiologist and neuro- psychologist, director of the Department of Behavioural Neurology at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Centre for Mental Retardation in Waltham, Massachusetts, throws light on brain functioning which points to the fact that the brain has two main modes of emotional activity. 1 He has found that the two halves of the brain support different emotional states. Research indicates that the left hemisphere governs happiness and positive feelings and the right brain governs sadness and negative feelings. In the abnormal situation, patients with right brain damage are often cheerful, elated and indifferent to their abnormal state. Left brain damage, on the other hand, can lead to a gloomy outlook on life and unjustified anger, guilt and despair. Most of us fluctuate from one state to another even in the normal situation, though not to the extremes found in brain damaged subjects. Still the experience of fluctuation can be distressing if we are not balanced and healthy. The fact the left brain is associated with bright, cheerful thoughts and the right with sad and depressing thoughts, Kinsbourne theorizes, points to the conclusion that this dual action of the brain is designed to handle our likes (pingala) and dislikes (ida). The things we like are handled by the left brain, which focuses on and then approaches the object or situation. This fits in with our active mode, the concept of the externally directed pingala nadi. We try to avoid or withdraw from the things we dislike and we tend to be much more concerned with the overall picture in this situation. This is handled by the right brain and fits in with our receptive mode, introversion and ida nadi concept. ch39-42.indd 342ch39-42.indd 342 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 343The necessity of the right brain The brain has two major modes or systems which must work together and be harmonized if we are not to lose the essentials of our human existence. The nadis must be balanced for optimal functioning, for sushumna to function, and for us to maximize our human elements and potential. Unfortunately, few of us are really balanced and most of us, especially men, tend towards the purely external, materialistic and techno-logical pingala side rather than the subtle, intuitive, feeling ida side. When imbalance between the nadis is minor we may not even notice its effect, though it must manifest in our personality, behaviour, relationships and so forth, in ways that are baffling to us, and which can make our lives miserable. What happens in the normal situation can be better understood when we look at an extreme example. Howard Gardener and his colleagues studied people with severely damaged right brains (ida) and found that they become robot-like, minus their essential human under-standing. 2 He has found that only when both hemi spheres of the brain are working together can we appreciate the moral of a story, the measuring of a metaphor, words de scribing emotion, or the punch line of a joke. Without the right brain we lose our understanding and take things very literally. For example, someone might say that he has a broken heart and the right brain damaged person will ask, How did it break? They see the explicit, the facts, but cannot understand what has been implied. These people also tell jokes at the wrong moment, their sen-tences become meaningless and they confabulate make up things. The important points in their sentences are lost and are submerged or flattened, becoming part of the back-ground. There is just a stream of words without meaning or purpose. They also accept the bizarre and argue with what should normally be accepted. It is obvious then that the right brain, which yogis called ida or the receptive mind, is vital in the appreciation of relationships, of seeing how the parts fit together as a whole, in understanding. ch39-42.indd 343ch39-42.indd 343 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 344 There is also evidence to show that the right brain is not only important for normal understanding, but also holds the key for intuition and higher experience. Eugene DAquili, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, feels that split brain research indicates that the circuits which underlie higher mental states, from flashes of inspiration to altered states of consciousness, lie within the right brain, ida, and are powered by the emotions. 3 DAquili has formulated a neurological description of the intuitive perception of God in which one sees reality as a unified whole, experiencing a feeling of oneness with the world. He feels it is a product of the parietal-occipital lobe on the right, non-dominant side of the brain which somehow takes over the brains functioning. Time is experienced as standing still and a sense of absolute and complete unity of self with the cosmos is felt. Both are features of right brain function and this experience is long lasting and totally transforms peoples lives so that they find new motivation and a healthier, more fulfilling perspective of their relation ship with life. This research indicates that unless we begin to take more notice of and develop the right brain, we cannot partake in the experience of higher consciousness. According to yogis, the right and left brain, ida and pingala, must be balanced for such an experience to take place. The necessity for balance Most of us fluctuate according to our inner biological rhythms, moving from left to right brain, right to left nostril, active to receptive mode, every 90 to 180 minutes. These biological rhythms are well documented though their actual role and significance is not well understood and understanding of how things fit together is still in its infancy. From the yogic point of view this rhythmic, or in the case of disease, arrhythmic swing, indicates that we are unbalanced and that one mode, one side of our nature is constantly be coming predominant. We rarely experience the ch39-42.indd 344ch39-42.indd 344 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 345more desirable state in which both sides become equal and balanced. According to yoga, when both the sad and happy hemispheres are balanced for a certain length of time, a new state arises which unites logic and intuition, transforms our emotions and enables us to power a greater range of neurological activity. We have to understand the necessity for attaining equilib rium and that the resultant state is a better and more pleasant and puissant experience. Einstein is an example of a natural yogi who used both sides of his brain. Meditating on what it would be like to ride on a ray of light, he had a sudden and powerful flash of intuition, a piercing insight into the mysteries of the universe, indicating right brain function, and was able to harness his left brain to construct a theory of energy and matter conversion which totally revolutionized science and replaced the several hundred year old paradigm of Newton. Einstein stated, The real thing is intuition. A thought comes and I may try to express it in words after wards. Yogis would say that Einstein had not only experi enced the awakening of Shakti in his nadis, but that this initial awakening had also led to activation of a chakra. This powerful experience transformed and enriched not only his life, but many other lives as well. Perhaps the best known example of non-analytical creative genius is that of Leonardo da Vinci, who in 1490 invented a spring-driven car, a helicopter, as well as many other things which came into common usage centuries after his time. His achievements extend into many more fields, and apparently he used his right brain intuition to create an idea, because most of his work is in the form of drawings and visual images rather than in written words. Of course, there are times when we only require the left brain, for example, while doing a mathematical equation, working on a factory production line, or implementing man-age ment policy. However, these things quickly become boring if the right brain is not being used, and such monotonous repetitious activity can lead to atrophy of our right brain ch39-42.indd 345ch39-42.indd 345 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 346capacities, and even to disease situations, because such a lifestyle lacks creativity and is meaningless for us. It is minus the right brains capacity to see meaning in the things we do. There comes a time when we must bring intuition into our lives, though this does not mean that because we use intuition we will become another Einstein. Intuition is as com monplace and necessary as eating and breathing. If our lives are to be happy and creative we must bring it into action more. Most situations, in fact, demand it for their proper outcome even though we do not realize it. Even simple situations require intuition, for example, knowing when to shift gears in a car, knowing when a cake in the oven is baked, knowing when it is the right time to say something nice to a friend, or how much strength is required to turn a screw. We have to feel what is required using our right brain. There is no book and no one who can give us this information. There can be no linear-structured analysis of what must be a non-verbal, intuitive knowledge that springs from within, the intuitive flash has no time dimension and defies logic. Within less than a second a total picture can be presented to our mind, the key to unlocking the mysteries of science is gained and the seeds for hours and years of inspired work and research may be planted. For many people intuition is an unknown and unknowable commodity. Y ears of unhealthy living, lack of direction, purpose and meaning, consistent overstimulation of our sensory nerves, leading to dulling of our senses and an in-ability to find contentment and satisfaction, plus unresolved, ongoing mental tension and anxiety (unhealthy ida), added to lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle and overeating (un healthy pingala), all contribute to damaging the intuitive apparatus in the right side of the brain and may even damage the logical, reasoning capacity of the left side. We may find it very difficult if not impossible to repair and reinstitute func tion by the normal methods of medicine and psychotherapy. Though yoga possesses the techniques by which we can rebalance, reintegrate, regenerate and rejuvenate our body/mind ch39-42.indd 346ch39-42.indd 346 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 347complex by bringing about balance in the nadis, even then it may be too late for some people. The balanced view Most of us fluctuate from one side of our brain to the other in well documented 90 minute cycles of rest (ida) and activity (pingala). A study by Raymond Klein and Roseanne Armitage of the Department of Psychology at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia found that performance of tasks involving left and right brain activity comes in 90 to 100 minute cycles. 4 For 90 minutes, subjects could do well on right brain tasks and then switch over to doing well in left brain related tasks. This also corresponds with the 90 minute fluctuation in nostril dominance and points to agreement with the yogic theory that there is an intimate relationship between the breath and the brain and their cyclical activity. If we are unhealthy, then our brain cycles may become abnormal in rhythm, duration, quality of function, or in some other way. Our whole life is disturbed and this situation actually occurs much more than any of us, even medical science, has previously realized. Yogis diagnosed dysfunction of brain rhythm by examining the flow of air in the nostrils. Yogis have repeatedly asserted that there is strong link between not just the nostrils and the brain but between the eyes and ears and all body organs. Of course, today we know from our anatomy and physiology that this is so, however, yogis were saying the same thing thousands of years ago. In meditative experience they could feel the flows of energy in the nerves moving into and out of the brain and the rest of the body. They were able to perceive even more subtle levels of their being because they invented techniques which developed a great deal of sensitivity and strength. These techniques also allowed them to assert control over the nadis, the brain and all bodily processes. Shambhavi mudra and trataka are two of the most powerful techniques of kundalini yoga, designed to awaken ajna chakra by balancing ida and pingala. If this is so, and if ch39-42.indd 347ch39-42.indd 347 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 348the nadis described by yogis are in the brain then it means that yogic techniques can balance the brain hemispheres. Research from split brains is revealing that this is so. We know that in normal people, pictures appearing on the left side of our viewing field and sound in the left ear, both transmitted to the right brain, are less agreeable than when they are presented to the other side, according to Kinsbourne. Other research shows us that when we are gloomy we tend to gaze to the left, affecting the right hemisphere, whereas happiness causes the opposite to occur. 5 This research indicates a definite relationship between eye position and hemispheric dominance. It also indicates that shambhavi mudra and trataka balance brain hemisphere activity because the eyes are held steady at the centre of the forehead, crossed in shambhavi and straight ahead in trataka. Even when we practise these techniques we may feel a very powerful stimulation and pressure within the centre of the head, ajna chakra activation, and the subjective experience is that of simultaneous extroversion and introversion. Sham-bhavi is the more powerful technique and induces an almost immediate effect. Centralized focusing of awareness appears to affect both nadis simultaneously. Balanced breathing Even more conclusive evidence of yogas ability to control the nadis in the brain has emerged in relation to our ability to control the brain via the nostrils. David Shannahoff-Khalsa of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in the USA has shown that even a simple breathing exercise can enable us to alter short term brain hemisphere dominance at will. 6 Where as the previous research has been implied and theoretical, this study shows a definite relationship between brain activity, the nasal cycle and our capacity to control our personality. Shannahoff-Khalsa found that when one nostril has the dominant air flow the opposite hemisphere of the brain is dominant. Forceful breathing through the more congested ch39-42.indd 348ch39-42.indd 348 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 349nostril awakens the less dominant hemisphere. This is an extremely important finding. The EEG responses consistently showed a relationship between nasal airflow and brain hemi-sphere dominance for all four types of brain waves, beta, alpha, theta and delta. Shannahoff-Khalsa states that, The nose is an instrument for altering cortical activity. 7 He suspects that the nasal cycle is also linked to the basic rest/activity cycle, which includes within the sleep cycle, the rapid eye movement (REM) phase and the non-REM phase, because right nostril/left hemisphere dominance corresponds to phases of increased activity (pingala), and left nostril/right hemisphere dominance corresponds to rest phases (ida). This research verifies what yogis have been telling us and will require more experimentation to repeat the findings and reveal the ramifications in terms of medicine, psychology and our lives in general. It also reveals that buried within the brain are undreamed of capabilities and potentials which can transform our lives if we can tap them. While scientists search for wonder drugs, external stimuli to probe the deeper aspects of man, yoga provides a concise and precise theoretical framework, within the nadi/chakra system, for a deeper understanding of the total human range of existence and the techniques by which to manipulate our internal environment, to stimulate internal secretions and to maintain balance, optimal health and higher awareness. ch39-42.indd 349ch39-42.indd 349 21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM21/03/2018 4:42:20 PM 35043 Evidence for the Existence of Nadis Of major importance for scientific acceptance of the whole science of kundalini yoga, is the proof for the existence of the psychic network of energy flows called nadis. The whole process of kundalini yoga rests on the premise that within the human body there exists a system of nadis, flows of energy, which conduct energy, both physical and mental. There are three main nadis: ida, pingala and sushumna, and there are said to be thousands and thousands of nadis spread throughout the whole body. Though these nadis are body-based they are not physical structures but rather appear to be functional. They are dynamic, alive, moving, powering the body and mind, intimately linked with nerves, blood vessels and all our body organs. While there is no known physical structural support system for them, yogis maintain that they definitely do exist and have even mapped their path ways in the body and their effects on the mind. Correspondence of yoga and acupuncture Dr Hiroshi Motoyama, the President of the Inter national Association for Religion and Parapsychology, 19 has been work ing consistently to prove the existence of nadis and acu- puncture meridians, as well as the chakras. He is a graduate from the Tokyo University of Education with PhD degrees in philosophy and clinical psychology, and was recog nized by UNESCO in 1974 as one of the worlds ten fore most ch43-47.indd 350ch43-47.indd 350 21/03/2018 4:42:49 PM21/03/2018 4:42:49 PM 351parapsychologists. He has even invented his own equip ment in order to elucidate the science of yoga and to make this knowl edge scientifically clear and acceptable. He states: By studying a number of books about the nadis and chakras of yoga over the last two years, I have been able to establish that asana, mudra, pranayama and dharana were ingeniously evolved on the basis of knowledge of the nadi system. Motoyama states that acupuncture and the yogic concept of nadis have the same foundation and have affected each other for over 2000 years. That is, we are dealing with systems that have been in operation for millennia. This in itself is reason to believe that there must be something firm and solid at their foundations for people to have accepted and followed their theories for so long. Systems which do not give results are usually quickly discarded. As an example of the correspondence of acupuncture and yoga, Motoyama points out that the concept of the triple heater meridian in acupuncture and the five pranas of the body in yogic physiology are almost identical. In acupuncture the lower heater, the area below the navel, corresponds to apana, the middle heater corresponds to samana between the diaphragm and navel and the upper heater corresponds to the prana between the throat and the diaphragm. Yoga also states that chakras act as transducers, converting psychic energy into physical energy and vice versa. They distribute this energy to the body via nadis. Several acupunc-ture meridians lie in the areas attributed to the chakras and nadis, for example, the governor vessel in the spine corresponds with sushumna nadi and the conception vessel running along the front midline of the body is used in kundalini kriyas. Several meridians start or finish in chakra locations. Proof of nadis One of the machines Motoyama has developed in order to prove the existence of nadis and meridians is the AMI, or Apparatus for Measuring the Functional Conditions of ch43-47.indd 351ch43-47.indd 351 21/03/2018 4:42:51 PM21/03/2018 4:42:51 PM 352Meridians and their Corresponding Internal Organs. This is an instrument designed to measure electrical currents in the body. It measures the steady state current that exists all the time, as well as the current in the body in response to an electrical shock from DC voltage. He uses it to measure the charge at special acupuncture points alongside the base of the fingernails and toenails. These are called sei (spring, well) points and are said to be the terminals for meridians, where psychic energy either enters or exits from the body. In an experiment designed to substantiate the existence of acupuncture meridians and nadis, Motoyama placed electrodes on seven acupuncture points lying along the left triple heater meridian which runs along the back of the left arm and the front of the body, as well as a random electrode on the right palm, a point far from the area to be electrically stimulated. He then gave the subject a painful 20 volt shock to the sei or beginning point of the triple heater meridian, at the tip of the fourth fingernail. A few milliseconds later he recorded an overall and equal physical reaction in all elec trodes caused by excitation of the sympathetic nervous system in response to pain. To prove that nadis do exist he then gave a very mild, painless and sensationless shock to the same point and two to three seconds later recorded an electrical response only in those specific points said, since ancient times, to be con-nected to the triple heater meridian. No response was recorded on the palm electrode or in any other part of the body. It is an interesting fact that the greatest response was found in the electrode at the other end of the meridian, just below the navel. No physiological or neurological connection is known to explain the phenomenon, however, the yogic and acupuncture explanations are validated by this experi ment. It is very important to realize that the effect of stimulating the meridian electrically is not a neurological process because the movement of energy in the nadi and meridian is much slower than we find in nerves. The energy we are dealing with is something else, some other form that ch43-47.indd 352ch43-47.indd 352 21/03/2018 4:42:51 PM21/03/2018 4:42:51 PM 353we have as yet not understood. This fact is substantiated by the work of Dr Naga hama at the Chiba University Medical School in Japan, who showed that the time it took for the sensation to pass along the meridian was hundreds of times slower (15 to 48 centimetres per second) than nerve conduction (5 to 80 metres per second). Therefore, we have to postulate the exis tence of some other channel of transmission and nadis fit this description exactly. In another experiment, Motoyama coated a subjects arm with a paint consisting of liquid crystals which react to changes in temperature by changing colour. When the sei point of an acupuncture meridian was stimulated by heat for from two to five minutes, the liquid crystals in cer tain subjects changed colour in a band along the meridian being stimulated. This not only further supports the above re search but also substantiates another claim of yoga, that one of the characteristics of prana is generating heat in the body. Motoyama has been able to visually demonstrate and measure subtle changes in the body that point to the fact that there is a flow of some kind of energy in the body which does not fit in with our present day knowledge of body mech-anisms, such as in neurophysiology, yet which has a physi cal counterpart that laboratories can record. The exact nature of this flow of energy, the connections between the subtle and gross physical structures and the method by which prana acts on the body await further clarification. What we do know is that we are dealing with a new phenomenon, and a very important one which has tre-mendous relevance to our present day needs in terms of under standing the body and mind and the relationship between energy and consciousness. The nadis and disease Motoyamas experiments have also shown that the energy he is measuring is not just a peripheral phenomenon, some by-product of electrical and chemical processes, but of primary importance to our health. He has developed a system by ch43-47.indd 353ch43-47.indd 353 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 354which we can use our measurements of the electrical state of the nadi system to know about our bodys state of health and even of each individual organ. The AMI is supersensitive, able to record minute changes in activity. It measures three different states of the nadi system. The first is the baseline reading or steady state value, that which exists in our body all the time. This tells us about our general long term constitution. Secondly, it measures the bodys reaction to a very mild and sensationless electrical stimulation, which tells us how we react to events. And thirdly, it records the after-effects of the stimulus, which gives information on the temporary functions of the body and basic tissue resistance. Thousands of such readings have been recorded and it has been found that most of us fit into a normal range of values. If the value recorded is more than normal, the meridian is overactive relative to most people, while a low value indicates an underactive nadi. For example, one man whom Motoyama studied at Stanford University in America had lung cancer. Instead of the normal value of 1,000, this man had a value of only 150, showing great depletion of energy in that area, and indeed, he was very sick. A number of hospitals in Japan are using Motoyamas AMI machine to screen patients and the Kanagawa Rehabilitation Centre in Japan is comparing the results of X-ray and biochemistry with it. So far the results have been very favourable. Motoyama has worked out that by measuring values of electrical skin resistance at acupuncture points in response to a small electric stimulus on both sides of the body, and then comparing the values from the left and right sides, any imbalance in the readings indicates that disease is present in the organ linked to the meridian being measured. He found that any percentage difference greater than 1.21 indicated disease. For example, when the heart meridian value on the left was more that 1.21 times greater than the right, the EGG might show an abnormal rhythm. One patient who was found to have imbalance in the liver, gall bladder and stomach ch43-47.indd 354ch43-47.indd 354 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 355meridians, but who only had symptoms of stomach upset was found on X-ray to have gallstones. One of Motoyamas laboratory assistants showed a large difference between the left and right bladder and kidney values shortly before being diagnosed as having cystitis. It is interesting to note that yogis are also found to have abnormally high readings, but without disease, and Motoya-ma states that this indicates a greater range of activity of the nervous system as a result of yogic techniques. These findings are very important because they indicate that pranic energy, or ki, which yogis have experienced as flowing in the nadis, is real. Yogis state that an imbalance in the nadis, especially ida and pingala, will cause disease and that yogic techniques can rectify this situation by acting on the nadis. Motoyamas work substantiates this. It points to the fact that not only is prana real, physical and measurable, but that its balanced activity is vital to our health and that we can use our measurements of pranic activity in the various organs of the body to diagnose impending or existing disease and thereby either prevent or treat the condition before it becomes too far advanced. Such research is paving the way for new diagnostic techniques in medicine. We are beginning to absorb the subtler aspects of our existence into our modern scientific understanding of the body and are utilizing this knowledge in our armamentum against disease to better our lives and to uplift society. Imbalance in the nadis Motoyamas research supports the claim by yogis that within our body are flows of energy with physical and psychic properties. Yogis also tell us that the nadis are intrinsically related to the flows of breath in the nostrils. The breath in the right nostril is related to the function of pingala (left brain), and in the left nostril is related to the function of ida (right brain). This fact is the basis for swara yoga, the science by which we can know about the state of our body and mind ch43-47.indd 355ch43-47.indd 355 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 356in relation to the outer environment by watching the flow of breath in the nostrils. The fact that the nadis are related to the nostrils is the basis for the science of pranayama, one of the most important and basic ingredients in kundalini yoga. For it is by manipulat ing the flows of breath that we can learn to control the deeper and more subtle aspects of our body and mind, to release energy and to send it to areas of the body that we wish to energize, heal and awaken. This relationship between the flow of breath and the nostrils has been demonstrated by research from Rumania. Dr I.N. Riga, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Bucharest, Rumania, studied nearly 400 patients suffering from one-sided nasal obstructions due to distortion and deviation of the nasal septum. 10 He found that 89 percent of cases breathed more through the left nostril and were more prone to certain types of respiratory diseases such as chronic sinusitis, middle and inner ear infections, partial or total loss of the senses of smell, hearing and taste, recurrent pharyn-gitis, laryngitis and tonsillitis, and chronic bronchitis. He also found these left nostril (ida) breathers were more likely to suffer from one or more of a wide variety of more distant disorders, such as amnesia, intellectual weakening, headaches, hyperthyroidism, heart failure, gastritis, colitis, peptic ulcer, poor liver function, constipation and reproduc-tive problems, such as a decreased libido and menstrual irregularities. Patients whose breath flowed predominantly through the right nostril were predisposed to hypertension. Riga found that correction of nasal deformities helped to relieve the disease situation. Rigas research supports the yogic theory of nadis and indicates that the nostrils and the flow of breath in them are much more important than we previously realized, having many neurological and psychic connections whose function is not known. It supports Motoyamas work which shows that imbalance in the nadis is related to disease states and points ch43-47.indd 356ch43-47.indd 356 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 357to the fact that the nostrils are, as yogis have said, windows into the state of our body and mind, a fact which medical science can use in diagnosing many disease situations. More than this, the nostrils and the science of pranayama allow us to influence the body and mind by influencing the nervous system and psychic energy at the more subtle levels of our being. The nostrils are switches which can do more than merely alleviate disease. By controlling the speed, rate, rhythm, length and duration of the breath, by altering the ratio of inhalation to exhalation in the nostrils and by stopping the breath, we can activate or tone down neuro-logical and mental processes so as to achieve heightened awareness and altered states of consciousness. Yoga is a science of self-regulation which is a priceless gem in todays disease and worry-ridden world. It bestows knowledge about internal flows of energy and thereby mastery over the inner processes of our being and autonomy, independence and confidence in our ability to deal with the constant demands and pressures of modern living. In the long run, regular, sincere practice and proper guidance by a competent master balances the nadis and eventually awakens kundalini. ch43-47.indd 357ch43-47.indd 357 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 35844 Neurophysiology of the Chakras The chakras can be interpreted from many points of view, for example, physical, psychological, behav ioural, psychic, symbolic, mythical, religious, scientific, evolu tion- ary, spiritual and more. They have both a micro cosmic aspect within the human framework and, at the same time, a macrocosmic aspect which totally encompasses our perception and experience of life. At whatever level we examine them, they represent a hierarchical, interlocking and interdepend ent series of mandalas which, when superim posed on one another, make up a total picture of the human personality. Each of us stands at a certain point of evolution that ascends the chakras and this will determine how we see the world. Someone who lives at swadhisthana sees the world in terms of gratification of his desires, for example, at manipura in terms of gratification of power instincts, at anahata in terms of compassion and love for all humanity. The degree of evolution of the chakras depends to a great extent on the activity within our nervous system and our state of conscious ness. Someone at a lower level cannot understand someone at a higher level whereas the person at a higher level has been at the lower level before, has a wider range of experi ence, and importantly, has more circuits awaken ed or activa ted for handling lifes experiences, for perceiving at dif-ferent levels, and for interpreting and acting on the demands of life. ch43-47.indd 358ch43-47.indd 358 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 359 Even within the same chakra there are different levels of evolution, balance and activity, so that someone living at manipura might be more aware than someone else at mani pura, their centre being more balanced and awakened, so that, for example, they use their power drives in a constructive and positive manner to help people, rather than in a destructive and negative way for their own personal ego gratification. An adult generally has a more evolved manipura chakra than a child, protecting the child from danger while the child pulls the wings off butterflies or gaily stamps on ants and insects. Of course, this is relative and varies from individual to individual. Each level in the chakra system is the sum total of various physical, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual elements. Each chakra has its own neurological plexus and endocrine gland and these link up to various organs and systems in the body. These organs and systems in turn are connected to the controlling mecha nisms of the brain, each of which has emotional, mental and psychic components. The chakra is like a transducer, a linking point between the various levels of our being and it converts and channels energy either up or down to the various levels. Therefore, we can think of each level in the spinal cord as controlling a different segment of the body, and at the same time, representing a level of functioning in the nervous system and mind. Ajna, for example, is a much more complex centre than mooladhara, or any chakra for that matter, controlling as it does the intuitive and higher mental faculties related to the most evolved circuits in the cerebral cortex. Ajna has as its symbol the two-petalled lotus, and we can think of this as representing the two hemispheres of the brain with the pineal gland as its central point. Mooladhara, on the other hand, controls very deep, powerful, primitive, animalistic, unconscious urges and instincts which are related to very simple and primitive neurological circuits at the bottom of the brain common to all animals, reptiles and even birds. ch43-47.indd 359ch43-47.indd 359 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 360The chakras within the brain Discoveries in neuroscience, precipitated by fantastic advances in technology, measuring capacity, surgical technique and pure pioneering perspicacity, promise to revolutionize our concepts of man and propel us into new and better techniques in medicine, psychology and living in general. Like Einsteins discovery of relativity, the ramifications of these discoveries take time to percolate down into common usage. The brain is one of the hardest of all areas to research because of the inaccessibility and delicacy of the area to be studied. There is also an inherent and almost insoluble prob lem in studying the brain. Man is using his brain to study and understand his own brain. This is like trying to under stand the mind with the mind, or grasp the hand with the same hand, or see the eye with the same eye. We cannot know ourselves objectively as we can know an external object or person, for we are the knowledge itself. Besides this, very few people are keen to let doctors open up their skulls and look inside. Neurosurgeons and yogis share common ground because both aim to know the truth and reality about themselves. It is only the approach which differs. While scientific researchers have approached the brain objectively and have attacked and dissected it with knives and scalpels, probed it with electrodes, photo graphed and X-rayed it, stimulated and drugged it in order to mechanically and externally manip-ulate its circuits into giving up their secrets, yogis decided to scientifically discover the secrets of the brain by experiencing it directly through meditation. Their findings agree with those of modern science. Yogis discovered through meditation that within their bodies were circuits and centres with both physical and psychic components, which they called nadis and chakras. Though we take this for granted now, we must remember that these studies were made thousands of years ago without the aid of modern microscopes and equipment. Not only did yogis achieve a wonder fully complete and practical ch43-47.indd 360ch43-47.indd 360 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 361system of techniques, but way back then they also based their techniques on the discovery that there are six major primary centres in the body, the chakras, in a hierarchical, intercon-nected net work within the spinal cord. They also observed that each of these chakras had its own definite physical, psychological and behavioural characteristics, connected to the brain by a network of energy flows, all of which did not necessarily correspond to purely physical structures. They also discovered many secondary centres which were subsidiary to these primary ones. The chakras in the spinal cord were found to be points manipulated by focusing attention, mental and psychic energy, breath and body postures, so as to derive certain physical and psychic experiences. The techniques allow us to learn to control the most basic and vital instincts and needs of body, emotions, mind, psyche and spirit. Recent discoveries from neurophysiology and anatomy show that vital nerve plexes and endocrine organs exist within the body, spine and brain and correspond to the levels described by yogis. These findings support the claims of yogis that their system is more than just mere exercises and relaxation. It is a method of supplying the tools to control our body, mind, metabolism and personality. The triune brain Dr Paul MacLean, neurophysiologist and head of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behaviour at the National Institute of Mental Health, USA, has demonstrated that the brain of man is functionally divided into three main areas, three interconnected biological computers, each with its own special intelligence, subjectivity, sense of time and space, memory, motor and other functions. 1 Each brain corresponds to a separate evolutionary step and is also distinguished neuro-anatomically and functionally, containing strikingly dif fer ent distributions of the main neurochemicals in the brain, which are dopamine and serotonin. If we look carefully into these levels and compare ch43-47.indd 361ch43-47.indd 361 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 362Figure 1: Outer Surface of the Brain Figure 2: Inner Surface of the Brain supplementary motor cortexmotor cortex sensory cortex parietal lobe occipital lobe pineal gland cerebellum mid brain(upper brain stem)pons (lower brain stem)medulla oblongatathalamus hypothalamus amygdala pituitary gland hippocampuslimbic cortexcorpuscallosumfrontal lobe speechhearinginterpretationtemporal lobe (memory)speech(motor)prefrontal lobe(elaboration of thought)supplementary motor areavoluntary motor cortexsomatic sensory cortexsomatic interpretative areas hand skills parietal lobe speech visualinterpretative area occipital lobe(bilateral vision) cerebellum brain stem general interpretative areas BSY BSY ch43-47.indd 362ch43-47.indd 362 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 363descriptions of neuroscientists and yogis we see that both were saying the same thing. (See figures 1 and 2) The three levels are called the reptilian, mammalian and human levels: 1. The reptilian complex includes the very topmost spinal cord and the lower areas of the brain, including the medulla oblongata and part of the reticular activating system, that part responsible for our waking, conscious state. This area contains the basic neural machinery for self-preservation and reproduction, including regulation of the heart, blood circulation and respiration. It controls mating, social hierarchies, insistence on routine, obedience to precedent and ritual, and slavish imitation of fads and fashions. According to MacLean, the R-complex plays an important role in aggressive behaviour, territoriality, ritual and the establishment of social hierarchies. This area corresponds to the description of the mooladhara and swadhisthana chakras, because yogis have told us these centres maintain our most basic and primitive, animalistic drives and instincts; basic living, eating, sleeping and procreating within a dark and primitive, monotonous and repetitious existence, minus joy, love and self-awareness. They are related to our deepest unconscious and subconscious mind. MacLean and his co-workers have found that this area dominates the lives of most people, which agrees with the statement by yogis that most people live in mooladhara and swadhisthana, though their function is modified by the higher centres. We spend most of our time controlled by and stimulating the lower chakras within the blinding limitations of our daily rituals. MacLean has also shown that this is true neurologically. Removing the cerebral cortex from hamsters a day or two after birth and leaving only the R-complex and limbic system, MacLean found that the hamsters grew up normally, gave birth and displayed every form of behaviour normal for hamsters. They could even see without a visual cortex. Leaving only the R-complex in birds, he found that they ch43-47.indd 363ch43-47.indd 363 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 364could function normally and carry on most kinds of communication and day-to-day routines. This research indicates that our day-to-day functions are controlled by these primitive areas and that we do not really need much more of our brain to handle the basic problems and demands of a neatly ordered, socially accepted lifestyle. We rarely stimulate our higher centres, and in fact find it hard to cope with any demands out of the ordinary. This is why yogis tell us to practise yoga so as to develop our inner unused capacity, some nine-tenths of the brain or more, and to stimulate the development of our higher centres. Psychology also tells us that beneath the sane faade of any human being there lurks a primitive creature, instinctive and irrational, a Mr Hyde composite of all that is animalistic and forbidden. Freud called this the id, an unconscious area from which arises our desires, passions and the energy underlying our emotions and sense of who we are. Yogis call this mooladhara and swadhisthana and tell us that the unconscious and subconscious areas have two centres controlling them, one located in the perineum and the other in the spine behind the pubic bone controlling sexuality and all its related behaviour. Both psychologists and yogis tell us that most of us spend most of our time trying to gratify and fulfil these basic urges for food (survival) and pleasure. Much of our time, for example, is organized for making our daily bread, a slang term for money, with which we can buy food, shelter, clothing and pleasure. Few of us realize that there is much more to life than this. By practising yoga we learn to balance and control these centres physically and also at the level of their instincts and drives, freeing their energy from primitive, compulsive ritual and rechannelling it up sushumna to the higher centres for the awakening of higher consciousness. 2. The mammalian structures are under the control of the limbic system, which controls emotion, memory and other behaviour which is less ritualistic and more spontane-ous. This system is also thought to control playful behaviour, ch43-47.indd 364ch43-47.indd 364 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 365exhilaration, awe and wonder and the subtler, more human emotions such as love. MacLean has found that damage to areas of this part of the brain results in deficits in maternal behaviour and absence of play. Within the limbic system are the behavioural centres for rage, fright, fear, feelings of punishment, anxiety, hunger, desire, pleasure, pain, sex, joy and love. This area is thus related to manipura and anahata functioning. If we stimulate the areas of the spinal cord behind the navel and heart associated with the chakras, we will send energy into the brain to turn on the various components at the physical, mental and behavioural levels associated with the chakras. 3. The human side of the brain is the most recently evolved neocortex, the seat of intelligence and many of the characteristic human cognitive functions. It is here that, with amazing speed and precision, the various faculties are in tegrat ed and synchronized. The cortex makes possible: think ing, calculation, analysis, discrimination, intuition, creativity, use of symbols, planning, anticipation of the future, artistic and scientific expression, and myriad other highly evolved and purely human faculties. We know that the frontal lobes of the brain are especially important, being the most recently evolved part of the brain. Some researchers think that this part of the brain, in connection with the other sections, is responsible for the very human capacity of self-awareness and knowledge of this self-awareness; we know that we know, and we know that too. We know that patients with severe frontal lobe damage or who have had frontal lobotomies, operations which sever the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain, are incapable of planning for the future and lack a continuous sense of self. They cannot see what effect a certain action will have on the future. Such people become dull, slow, cease to care for themselves or others, or about what they say or do. They are friendly, co-operative vegetables with a serious lack of imag-ina tion and loss of interest in life. They may be suffering from intense pain and not even care about the fact. ch43-47.indd 365ch43-47.indd 365 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 366 The frontal lobes are, therefore, said to be responsible for planning and discrimination, for anticipation of the future and thus for the purely human emotion of anxiety. This differs from fear which is related to an actual event. Anxiety is a mental event, related to some future occurrence. It is valuable for our survival and evolution as individuals and as a species, caring for the family unit, for society and for com pas-sion. More than this it is the force responsible for motivating the formulation of laws and economic and political systems, for motivating the development of the arts and sciences, religions and systems of ethics, all philo sophies, and the development of materially and spiritually secure cultures. As we developed the capacity to plan, the frontal lobes freed our hands for the manipulation of tools, drawing, writing and other bases for human cultural develop ment. Knowledge of death and the anxiety it engenders spurs us to make the most of life and to develop religious or spiritual systems which help us to cope with the thought of death. It has also led to the yogic sciences which liberate us from death and take us to immortality. David Loye believes that not only are the frontal lobes involved in anticipation, but are actually involved in seeing into the future. 2 He states that when, for example, a car is rapidly approaching, the frontal brain alerts both right and left hemisphere components to process all the informa tion from the rest of the brain, agreements and disagreements, so that we can discriminate and decide what will most likely happen. He found in two separate studies that people who tended to use both sides of the brain were better able to predict the outcome of events than either right or left-brain dominant people. This supports the yogic view that both sides of our nature must be balanced for proper function, fuller living and the development of our inner potential. Ajna chakra All of these intellectual, intuitive, creative and expressive functions are said by yogis to be characteristic of ajna and ch43-47.indd 366ch43-47.indd 366 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 367vishuddhi chakras. We know that yogic techniques are especially aiming at stimulation of ajna chakra, which lies at the pineal gland, midway between the hemispheres. Yogis state that ajna chakra and the pineal gland as its physical centre, is the master control chakra, the guru chakra. We know from physiology that just in front of the pineal gland lies the thalamus, at the top of the limbic system. The thalamus has been found to be one of the main centres regulating the interaction of our senses and motor activity (ida and pingala), the prefrontal cortex, which includes the right and left sides of the brain (ida and pingala), the hypothalamus, which integrates and expresses emotion and regulates the ANS and the endocrine glands, and the cerebel lum, which helps to control movement. It therefore integrates senses, thought, emotion and action. It is also im portant in the recognition of pain and other sensory modali ties, such as variations in the degree of temperature and touch, the size, shape and quality of objects contacting the sense organs. Another interesting fact is that it is involved in the control of movement and especially the degree of squeezing and con tract ing of muscles and joints. We see, therefore, that the pineal/thalamic area fits the description for ajna chakra, the area where senses and emotion, both ida functions, and motor and intellect, both pingala functions, meet. Yogis tell us that fusion of ida and pingala at ajna is one of the definitions of yoga. It leads to an explosion within the nervous system which somehow fuels and activates a much larger number of circuits within both hemi spheres and the limbic system than would normally occur. It is as though our nervous system suddenly becomes charged with a high tension electric line, which yogis called sushumna. Yogis also tell us that ajna is involved in intuition and perception of the subtle and psychic. If the thalamic area handles degrees of perception and motor activity, making it possible for us to experience the subtle things of life, then yogic techniques may allow us to develop our sensitivity in ch43-47.indd 367ch43-47.indd 367 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 368this area so as to be able to expand and extend our normal capacities in order to sense the psychic quality of matter, an extra sense or common sense, occurring at the meeting point of all the senses, the thalamus. The chakras in perspective Yogis tell us that the chakras lie along the spinal cord, that mooladhara lies in the perineum and the other chakras move upward towards sahasrara at the apex of mans evolution and consciousness. Ajna chakra is the highest centre in which man feels that he exists separate from the universe. Union or cosmic consciousness takes place in sahasrara. Ajna is the controlling chakra, the guru centre where com mands are heard. Neurophysiology points out that there are centres in the brain, stretching upward from the medulla oblongata to the pineal/thalamic area which correspond to the classical description of the chakras as told by yogis. We can say that within the brain all these fall under the control of ajna chakra, that there are layers of evolution within ajna, and as each chakra awakens in the spine, it affects the level of conscious awakening and activity in ajna. The pineal/thalamic area would represent that part of the brain which is most awakened and fully activated by total ajna chakra awakening, while the medulla oblongata area is that part which corre-sponds to the mooladhara chakra area. This would explain the close link between mooladhara and ajna; that the awaken-ing of one consequentially awakens the other. In most people, ajna, the thalamic/pineal area, is dormant. Living mostly in mooladhara and swadhisthana would mean that ajna functions mainly from the medulla oblongata, the reptilian brain. When we stimulate and awaken the centres through yoga, we jump levels in our nervous system and consciously awaken the higher pineal/thalamic areas and their concomitant levels of consciousness. When ida and pin g ala meet in ajna, energy flows from mooladhara to ajna, from the medulla oblongata to the pineal/thalamic area. ch43-47.indd 368ch43-47.indd 368 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 369 There are many techniques which can work on ajna chakra, such as shambhavi mudra, trataka, mantra japa, nadi shodhana and bhramari pranayama, to name a few. When we say these techniques are stimulating ajna chakra we are really stating that somehow they stimulate the integra-ting and centrally located pineal/thalamic area and thereby awaken our normally dormant, higher intellectual/emotional, logical/intuitive functions. They stimulate the higher elements of ajna and raise our consciousness up out of the lower, reptilian medulla oblongata. The techniques balance the functioning of our total brain/mind complex, ida and pingala, by focusing on the central, stimulating area and set the stage for the awakening of kundalini. ch43-47.indd 369ch43-47.indd 369 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 37045 Evidence for the Existence of Chakras Kundalini yoga teaches us techniques to influence our nervous system and mind so as to bring about total balance and reintegration at every level of our being. It is an expanded concept of man, a method of developing creative awareness and, more than this, of putting the knowledge gained to use via a system of experiential techniques. It helps us to develop a new outlook on life and ourselves. The chakras and their interaction within the totality of our per sonal ity, stretched between ida and pingala, balanced in sushumna, open up new dimensions for our mind and understanding to explore and develop. The techniques of kundalini yoga involve kriyas, com-binations of asana, pranayama, mudra and bandha, rotation of breath and consciousness through nadis and subtle spaces, repetition of mantra and the piercing of psychic centres. These heat up the psychic and physical energies of man and activate and awaken the chakras to our conscious level of ex peri ence and control. The techniques are also designed to bring about balanced purification and activation of all the chakras, with the gentle accentuation of one or two important centres. Techniques, such as ajapa japa, achieve this aim, creating a psychic friction which ignites the spark of higher consciousness. When conditions for ignition reach the required tempera-ture and pressure, energy is liberated within the body and ch43-47.indd 370ch43-47.indd 370 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 371mind, transforming our total personality. This energy must be real and actual; though perhaps as yet undefined and not qualified. It is measurable at both the physical and psychic levels if we have the correct conditions, equipment and under standing of the phenomena. In this regard, research- ers have begun to pioneer exploration into the uncharted depths of the human psyche and are devising techniques and equip ment to assess, measure and scienti fically prove the existence of the chakras as the primary controlling points for different levels of our being. Measuring the chakras Dr Hiroshi Motoyama has helped to pioneer scientific research into yoga and the phenomena of kundalini and chakras. He states: Fascinated . . . I too began physiological experiments about fifteen years ago to try to determine if chakras actually exist and their relationship to the autonomic nervous system and internal organs . . . through various examinations we have been able to determine that there are significant differences in the physiological function of the organ associated with the chakra that the individual subjects claimed to have awakened. Therefore, this research has led to the conclusion that chakras do, in fact, exist. 1 In his search for the existence of chakras, Motoyama has developed his own machinery. One of these is the chakra instrument which is designed to detect the electromagnetic field of the body and any changes which take place in it due to chakra stimulation and activation. Looking like a telephone booth and enclosed in a light-proof, lead-shielded room, the machine was designed to detect energy generated in the body and then emitted from it in terms of various physical variables such as electrical, magnetic and optical energy changes. Copper electrodes are positioned at the top and bottom of the cage and a sliding, square panel with electrodes on all four sides (left, right, front, back), is free to traverse up and down the frame structure so as to be positioned at any part of the subjects body. An electromagnetic field is set up between the ch43-47.indd 371ch43-47.indd 371 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 372electrodes and any vital energy ejected from the body affects this very sensitive field. A copper electrode and a photo-electric cell are positioned 12 and 20 centimetres in front of the subject, level with the classical position for a given chakra. The location is monitored for changes as the individual concentrates his mental energy at the chakra point, and measurements are made for three to five minutes before, during and after concentration on the chakra. Because of its powerful pre-amplifier (impedance near infinity), even the most subtle energy ejection can be picked up and recorded. Information recorded is sent to various amplifiers, computerized analyzers and oscilloscopes and is recorded on a highly sensitive chart recorder. Other equipment is also used to monitor respiration, the autonomic nervous system (galvanic skin resistance), changes in blood flow (plethysmograph), heart (electrocardiograph), subtle vibrations in the skin (microtremor), so as to measure other effects of chakra stimulation on the body and to make comparisons and interpretations. Motoyama has used his equipment extensively to deter-mine diseases in the body. 2 In one case he measured a woman who was to have a uterine tumour removed a week later. Measurements on his AMI machine (refer to the chapter entitled Evidence for the Existence of Nadis) showed imbalance in the related meridians. The pattern of energy measured by the chakra instrument in front of the uterus (swadhisthana chakra) was much greater than and quite different from normal. Motoyamas research indicates that there is a definite correspondence between physical disease and disturbance in the energy of the chakra traditionally said by yogis to control that part of the physical body. Activity in the chakras Motoyama has also measured chakra activity in normal subjects and recorded and compared readings in subjects practising yoga versus untrained, control subjects. 3 He found that in an untrained subject concentrating on ajna chakra ch43-47.indd 372ch43-47.indd 372 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 373there was no change recorded by the electrodes. The lines on the recording paper remained flat before, during and after concentration. A subject who had been practising stimulation of swad- histhana chakra for some time showed a great deal of activation of the centre, and much greater than in the control subject who showed none at all. Large amplitude waves were seen before, during and after concentration, indicating activation; however, there was no change during the period for concentration, indicating lack of control over the centre. This compares with another subject who had been practising yoga for five years and who evidenced a marked rise in electrical activity from ajna chakra but only during the time of concentration. The results indicate that he had developed control over his ajna chakra. Chakra instrument studies have been made with several yogis. 4 Dr A.K. Tebecis, a former professor at Canberra University, Australia, who has studied yoga throughout Asia and who claims to have experienced astral projection due to the awakening of kundalini, was tested on the chakra instrument. Dr Tebecis concentrates on anahata chakra during meditation and also has a chronic digestive disorder. The AMI revealed instability in the nadis involved in digestion, in the manipura chakra area, and also in those related to the swadhisthana chakra area. When the chakra instrument was used to measure manipura and anahata, no change was found at manipura. Anahata concentration revealed consider able intensification of energy during the period of concen tration. Two unusual findings have also been reported by Motoyama. In one case, not only did the subject develop a more intense electrical reading during concentration on manipura, but also had the subjective experience that psychic energy was being ejected from manipura. During this time the positive electrical potential vanished, but only during the time of her subjective sensation, and would reappear again as soon as the feeling of emission vanished. ch43-47.indd 373ch43-47.indd 373 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 374 Motoyama states, One might surmise that the psi energy generated a negative electrical potential which neutralized the positive electrical charge. However, it is also possible to postulate the creation of a new physical energy. In fact, it is my opinion that the psi energy emitted from R.B.s manipura chakra actually extinguished the surrounding physical energy. I take this stand because the positive potential was precisely neutralized and because there was never any appearance of a negative potential. 5 The second case involves a subject who concentrated on anahata chakra. As the subject relaxed, the chakra area was seen to be activated. She was then asked to concentrate on the anahata area and it was arranged that any time she had the subjective experience of psi energy emission she was to press a button which caused a mark to be made on the chart. It was found that when this mark appeared the photoelectric cell signalled the presence of a weak light being generated in the light-proof room. Her chakra monitor also detected electrical energy of high potential and frequency. Motoyama states that these findings imply that psychic energy working in anahata chakra may be able to create energy in the physical dimension (light, electricity, etc.) It appears that whatever energy is being produced in a developed and refined chakra circuit is capable of extinguish-ing or creating energy in the physical dimension, which supports the yogic view of chakras as transducers, converting psychic energy into physical energy and back. Motoyama feels that if further research substantiated his findings, then the law of Conservation of Energy, as one of the basic foundation stones of modern physics, will have to be revised. The verification of an energy at the psychic plane which, though of unknown source and substance, can influence matter, has been long claimed by yogis. It is also thought to be the basis of healing and of all sciences in which mind is used to control matter. Yogis even state that the world is a manifestation of mind, a view which is now being supported more and more by physicists, especially those working with ch43-47.indd 374ch43-47.indd 374 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 375the subatomic particles that make up all of matter and which lie midway between matter and pure energy (prana). Motoyama states, I feel that the continuation of research into the nature of psi energies, by many others as well as myself, will lead to considerable change in our views of matter, of mind and body, of human beings, and of the world itself. 6 The psychic level Objective evidence for the existence of the chakras also appears to have been found by kinesiologist Valerie Hunt and her associates at UCLA in America. 7 Assisted by Rosalyn Bruyere, a psychic aura reader, Hunt used a number of measurements in order to study the bodys field emission when it is being stimulated by deep muscle massage (Rolfing). This was prompted by an earlier observation that after Rolfing and meditation there was an increase in the electromyo graphic baseline. Hunt and associates utilized electromyographic equip-ment (EMG) which measures the steady, low voltage of muscular activity plus several other instruments. Electrodes were attached to eight sites, including chakra locations such as the crown (sahasrara), eyebrow centre (ajna), throat (vishuddhi), heart (anahata), base of the spine and acupunc-ture points on the foot and knee. The sites for the electrodes were in places where muscle activity was minimal and, therefore, electrical readings would indicate energy from a different source. The electrodes were placed on the body in consultation with the aura reader. The individual being experimented on was given Rolfing (deep muscle massage), designed to liberate deeper sub-conscious tension, and, therefore, theoretically able to effect chakra activity. As the massage progressed the EMG readings were recorded on one track of a two-tracked tape recorder. Simultaneously, while isolated in another room and oblivious to the EMG and subjects reports, Bruyere recorded on the second track her observations of psychic activity in terms ch43-47.indd 375ch43-47.indd 375 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 376of colour change at the various centres. Hunt was able to question the aura reader via a separate audio system so that no clue as to what the subject was experiencing or what was going on at the EMG level could be detected by the psychic. At the same time the subject related his experience which was tape-recorded using a second microphone, and any similarity between his experience, the symptoms of chakra activation and the EMG recording were noted. It was quickly evident in the central monitoring room where Hunt was sitting, that the EMG changes and the distinctive wave forms being recorded correlated with the colours reported by the psychic person, as did the experience of the subject. Later analysis, whether by wave form, Fourier-frequency analysis or sonogram, produced consistently the same pattern of results. Hunt acknowledged that the possible interpretations of this data are staggering. The radiations were taken directly from the body surface, quantitatively measured in a natural state and were isolated by scientifically accepted data resolution procedures. The study concluded that there had been direct correspondence in every instance throughout all recordings between the distinctive wave form and the psychics description of the colour emanating from the chakra. For example, every time a medium-large, sharp deflection with single or double peaks at the top occurred, the psychic reported the colour blue, while red corresponded to large, sharp clumps of regular and irregular spikes of short duration interspersed with plateaux. Y ellow was a broad, smooth wave resembling an uneven sine wave. The relationship between the emotional states and the colours was also accurate. Emotions, imagery, interpersonal relations and the state of resiliency and plasticity of the con-nective tissue are related to the colour and the state of the aura as seen by the psychic. It is an interesting fact that in early Rolfing sessions the chakras appeared to be uneven, small, low in frequency and amplitude and with indiscriminate or dark primary colours. ch43-47.indd 376ch43-47.indd 376 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 377As the technique continued the chakras became large, even in size, and of lighter colour, while the wave forms were of higher amplitude and frequency. Some chakras which had been closed, opened, producing kaleidoscopic colour effects, e.g. dark blue, yellow, red-orange and olive green. By the fifth hour of Rolfing all subjects had a clear blue aura. By the seventh and eighth hours the colours were predominantly light and blended, for example, peach, pink, ice blue and cream. Higher frequencies were associated with pleasant experiences. Developing our psyche Hunts research is important at several levels. It firstly supports the claims of yogis and psychics that other levels of perception, more subtle and yet intimately connected with the physical body, do in fact exist. Though it has been called extrasensory perception it appears rather to be an extension of the normal range of perception of physical events into the more subtle. According to yogis, development of ajna chakra and the pineal/thalamic area of the brain, plus relaxed concentra-tion of mind, allows us to see things which most of us miss because of gross physical and mental tensions and a dissipated, distracted state of mind. There is nothing miraculous, ab normal or supernormal about psychic phenomena. Most of us just do not look at things long enough to allow the subtle to register in our brains. We see something and are immedi ately distracted, thinking that there is nothing else to see or learn from a situation. But if we take our time we can learn much more. We know that vision is our major information processing system and therefore tied into many other neurological systems. Defects in the visual system are now linked to other problems such as allergies, anxiety, insomnia, postural prob lems, and a whole range of physical and psychological problems. 8 Connecticut optometrist Albert Shankman is quoted as saying, The skill of seeing relationships is a prin- ch43-47.indd 377ch43-47.indd 377 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 378cipal object of visual training. Visual training is essentially brain training.9 Shankman and others have observed that visual flow and flexibility are associated with a more flexible, creative thought style. Yoga follows the same principle, for example in trataka, an essential component of kundalini yoga. Trataka teaches us to gaze at things without preconceptions and to allow the information to impinge on our brains, to allow the connec-tions time to come together and the inner knowledge, the processed information within the brain, time to formulate itself fully and rise up to the conscious plane. This is what yogis mean when they say that yoga balances the external and the internal, the right and left sides of the brain, ida and pingala, and awakens faculties that lie dormant within us all but which we do not know exist and which we do not develop. Psychic vision, a side-effect of kundalini yoga and part of the awakening of intuition, inner vision and inner knowledge, is one of these capacities. All it means is that we are relaxed and we take our time to look at things without preconception. Hunts research verifies that this faculty is not a myth and not confined just to yogis practising sadhana for years in isolation in the Himalayas, but is also verifiable within the confines of a laboratory. Verifying the chakras The work of Motoyama and Hunt points to the fact that within the physical body there are locations which, though they may not have any obvious physical or structural demarca tion, have definite functional characteristics which differentiate them from other parts of the body. It verifies the fact that the yogic descriptions of these points correspond to physical emanations in the case of Motoyamas research and psychic emanations in the case of Hunts research. We see then that the chakra locations have both a physi-cal component and a psychic component. This scientific ch43-47.indd 378ch43-47.indd 378 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 379descrip tion fits the yogic definition of chakras as vortices of energy, the interacting points of the most powerful psychic and physical forces which control our total human existence. The studies also confirm that the traditional chakra loca-tions, when activated, are related to emanations of light and colour, and to emotions and experiences which are subtle and usually stored in the subconscious mind, beyond our usual conscious capacity. When we concentrate and focus psy-chic energy, chitta shakti, on the chakra, or if we manipulate the areas of the body under its control, by asana or massage, for example, we can stimulate activity at both the physical and psychic levels of that centre. What lies at the basis of these energy emanations at the neurological and mental levels, how these forces interact to control our psychophysiology, behaviour and experience, still requires much more research. What we do know is that the concept of chakras has a definite psychophysiological foundation, that they affect our body, emotions and mind, and that they produce both physical and psychic energy which can be measured and quantified. There is something within the body of man, which yogis called chakra, awaiting our discovery and awakening. ch43-47.indd 379ch43-47.indd 379 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 38046 The Cosmic Trigger We stand on the shores of a vast universe which continues to amaze us and inspire us with awe and wonder every time a new discovery is made. Despite recent developments in rockets, computers, atomic power and other marvels of science, we are painfully ignorant of the world in which we live. We are even more ignorant of our inner universe which for some reason we have forgotten about and ignore, despite a pressing inner need to uncover the truth of our existence. Since the concept of kundalini has been introduced in the west, various groups of scientific and yogic minded people have sought to understand and explain this phenomenon which promises to be our rocketship into inner space, to lift us out of the confines and limitations of time and space so as to experience ourselves as we really are. Strangely enough, this inner experience also promises to unveil many of the outer mysteries baffling scientists and researchers in many fields today. Recent developments in neurophysiology and meditation research have outlined a possible explanation for kundalini which unifies both its physical and psychic aspects. This research outlines a comprehensive approach to understand-ing how meditation can release energies within our nervous system, unlocking latent capacities and speeding up our evolution at both the physical and consciousness levels. This allows us to perceive the universe from a new and broader ch43-47.indd 380ch43-47.indd 380 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 381perspective, to see things from a more total point of view and to understand more about life and ourselves. The physio-kundalini syndrome One researcher who developed an ingenious method to measure bodily change during meditation and the awakening of kundalini is Itzhak Bentov. In his book Stalking the Wild Pendulum he has set out an original and also very yogic understanding of consciousness and matter, one which can very neatly explain kundalini from the point of view of physics. He also discusses a model by which we can understand the kundalini experience in physiological terms. Bentov states that, the human nervous system has a tremendous latent capacity for evolution. This evolution can be accelerated by meditative techniques, or it can occur spontaneously in an unsuspecting individual. In both cases, a sequence of events is triggered, causing sometimes strong and unusual bodily reactions and unusual psychological states. Some of those people who meditate may suspect that these reactions are somehow connected with meditation. Others, however, who develop these symptoms spontaneously may panic and seek medical advice . . . Unfortunately, however, western medicine is presently not equipped to handle these problems. Strangely, in spite of the intensity of the symptoms, little or no physical pathology can be found. 1 Bentov estimates, on the basis of discussions with psychiatrists, that as many as 25 or 30 percent of all institution al ized schizophrenics belong to this category, a tremendous waste of human potential. There is a vast area of the human psyche which we are totally ignorant of, which we do not experience consciously in our lives, and which we are, therefore, helpless to deal with adequately if something goes wrong. Bentov feels that symptoms do not occur in the healthy, relaxed state, but only when energy reaches tensions in the body. This agrees with the yogic view that we must prepare ourselves for awakening by a long period of preparatory sadhana to avoid unpleasant results. ch43-47.indd 381ch43-47.indd 381 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 382 Bentov states that we urgently need modes that will allow us to understand kundalini in terms which make sense to us. As a result of this need, Bentov has delineated a unique and brilliant model of the meditation/kundalini process so that doctors, psychiatrists and psychotherapists can become aware of this possibility and develop more benign methods of dealing with this situation. More knowledge about the physical basis of spiritual knowledge is required in medical and scientific circles in order to expand our concept of man. Measuring the waves in the brain As we start to practise meditation we initially experience its calming, relaxing and stabilizing effects. Prolonged practice, and especially the more vigorous forms of meditative practice, take us far beyond these preliminary changes which many modern researchers have been stressing as the main aim and effect of meditation. After some time, actual psycho-physiological changes take place and amongst these there is a change in the mode of functioning of our nervous system. In order to measure these psycho physiological changes Bentov used a modified ballistocardiograph, a machine which measures small bodily motions accompanying the motion of blood throughout the circulatory system. 2 He records, A subject sits on a chair between two metal plates, one above the head and one under the seat, five to ten centimetres away from the body. The two plates of the capacitor are part of a tuned circuit. The movement of the subject will modulate the field between the two plates. The signal is processed and fed into a single channel recorder which registers both the motion of the chest due to respiration and the movement of the body reacting to the motion of the blood in the heart-aorta system. 3 Bentov states that the spinal cord can be thought of as a spring which, during meditation, reacts to the movement of blood into the heart and circulatory system. The heart pumps blood into the large blood vessel called the aorta. The aorta is curved on top (at the level of the bottom of the neck) ch43-47.indd 382ch43-47.indd 382 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 383and bifurcated at the bottom (in the lower abdomen). Every time blood enters the aorta it moves upward towards the head and this gives a minute upward push to the upper part of the body. The blood then moves downward to strike the bifurcation of the aorta, gently pushing the body downward. This movement is called micromotion and the movement recorded on the ballistocardiograph is only in the order of 0.003 to 0.009 millimetres, a very minute amount. This gentle upward and downward movement has the tendency to oscillate the whole body, spine and skull up and down. The natural rhythm of this oscillation is 7 cycles/second (7 Hertz, Hz). Of course in the normal situation we do not feel such minute micromotion, however, in the deep stillness of profound meditation even the slightest and most subtle movement of the body or thought creates ripples within the nervous system which, to our introverted conscious-ness, become magnified and disturb inward progress. Yogis have always stressed that the most important preliminary ingredient for meditation is to develop a straight and strong spinal cord through asana and to gradually develop stillness of the body, nervous system and mind through pranayama. Through Bentovs model we can now see that this is because immobility of body, breath and mind sets the stage for the production of rhythmic waves within the spine, skull and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). When subjects are in a deep meditative state, Bentovs machine measures an almost pure, regular, S-shaped sine wave of large amplitude and moving at approximately 7 cycles/second. This is opposed to an irregular wave in the baseline resting state before and after meditation. Something happens in meditation which does not normally occur in most of our waking, dreaming or sleeping lives. At the same time we enter a hypometabolic state in which our breathing rate slows down and the oxygen need of our tissues lessens. We should note that it is also possible to produce a sine wave on the ballistocardiograph by stopping our breath; however, we quickly develop oxygen deficiency and have to ch43-47.indd 383ch43-47.indd 383 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 384overbreathe to restore balance. In meditation, however, this does not occur; we are balanced at all levels. The oscillating circuits The up and down movement of the body produced by the heart during meditation affects the brain which is floating in its protective bony and fluid casing, the cranium and CSF. According to Bentov, this micromotion up and down sets up acoustical and possible electrical plane waves reverberating in the skull. Mechanical stimulation may be converted into electrical vibrations. The acoustical plane waves are focused within the third and lateral ventricles, small cave-like, CSF filled structures deep within the brain. The plane waves activate and drive standing waves into the ventricles. While the body stays in meditation, the frequency of waves within the ventricles of the brain will remain locked to the heart/aorta pulsation. Bentov felt that these vibrations within the brain are responsible for the sounds yogis hear in meditation. This aspect of meditation is called nada yoga, listening to and following the inner sounds, and is said to herald the coming of kundalini. The loop circuit According to Bentov the standing waves in the ventricles are within the audio and superauditory ranges. They stimulate the cerebral cortex mechanically, eventually resulting in a stimulus travelling in a closed loop around each hemisphere. The lateral ventricle lies just under the corpus callosum, the part of the brain connecting the two cerebral hemispheres. The roof of the lateral ventricle acts as the taut skin on a drum which moves rapidly up and down and thereby produces mechanical waves in the ventricles which stimulate the sensory cortex lying just above the corpus callosum. We can understand the effect of this stimulation by looking at the diagram of the cross section of the brain (see figure 3). Waves would commence at number 1 and travel ch43-47.indd 384ch43-47.indd 384 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 385down to number 22 and back to number 1 again creating a loop circuit. As the current returns to the starting point it stimulates the pleasure centres in the various areas of the brain which surround the lateral ventricle, such as in the cingulate gyrus, lateral hypothalamus, hippocampus and amygdala areas, all part of the limbic system, and this may give rise to the bliss and ecstasy reported by meditators whose shakti awakens. The sensory current travels around the cortex at about 7 cycles per second. Figure 3: Cross section of the brain revealing the sensory cortex and indicating the body as mapped along the post central gyrus. This is called the sensory homunculus the symbolic man lying within the brain. After: Penn eld and Rassmussen, The Human Cerebral Cortex, MacMillan, New Y ork, 1950. 1. T oes 2. Ankle 3. Knee 4. Hip 5. Trunk 6. Shoulder 7. Elbow 8. Wrist 9. Hand 10. Little nger 11. Ring nger 12. Middle nger 13. Index nger 14. Thumb 15. Neck16. Brow17. Eyelid & eyeball 18. Face 19. Lips 20. Jaw 21. T ongue 22. Larynx BSY 12345678 910 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 2211 ch43-47.indd 385ch43-47.indd 385 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 386Bentov theorizes that stimulation of the corpus callosum will in turn stimulate the sensory cortex to produce the sensations of something moving in the body from the feet, up the spine, up over the head and then down the abdomen and pelvis. It is this experience which many people associate with the awakening of kundalini. The experience of movement in the spine and body has been reported in many cases of the awakening of shakti or energy within the nervous and nadi systems. From areas as far apart as India, China, Africa and America, the symptoms are often similar if not the same. Energy is felt to rise upward and these sensations must be handled in progressive sequence in the sensory cortex. We can also theorize that if we sit in padmasana (lotus pose) or siddhasana/siddha yoni asana (accom plished pose for men and women) that we may short-circuit the sensations in the legs so that we subjectively experience the movement as commencing in or near mooladhara. In normal situations, motor and sensory impulses usually travel in straight lines, either into or out of the brain and via the thalamus. However, in meditation we introvert and cut ourselves off from outside stimulation (pratyahara). This also tends to develop a loop circuit. We should note that sensory signals come to the cortex through the thalamus, the area of the brain in front of the pineal gland that we can associate with the highest functioning of ajna chakra. And it is said that ajna chakra must be stimulated if kundalini is rising because of its direct connec tion to mooladhara. Bentov felt that the movement of waves through the cortex is responsible for the effects of the awakened kundalini and for internal experience. From our point of view this may not be the actual kundalini experience, which transcends all bodily sensations, but would correspond to the awakening of prana shakti which ultimately leads to the kundalini experience. The gradual development of the brain may take many years before the loop circuit and the various ch43-47.indd 386ch43-47.indd 386 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 387connections develop, and enough energy can be generated to actually stimulate all the circuits involved and required. Psychic circuits As a result of the circular currents in the brain, Bentov states that a pulsating magnetic field is produced in each hemi-sphere of the order of 10- 9 gauss. On the right side of the brain the field is from front to back, north to south, and on the left side, south to north. This would correspond to ida and pingala at this level of body energy. Bentov feels that the interaction of these waves with the environment may be responsible for the psychic experiences which are often felt as a by-product of systematic and deep yogic sadhana. He states his findings as follows: This magnetic field radiated by the head acting as an antenna interacts with the electric and magnetic fields already in the environment. We may consider the head as simultaneously a transmitting and receiv ing antenna, tuned to a particular one of the several resonant frequencies of the brain. Environmental fields may thus be fed back to the brain, thus modulating that resonant frequency. The brain will interpret this modulation as useful information. 4 It is interesting to note that the rhythmic magnetic pulsa tion of the brain which is set up in meditation at 7 cycles/second is almost the same as Earths magnetic pulsation whose doughnut-shaped field has a strength of 0.5 gauss. These extra low frequency (ELF) waves have a predominant frequency of about 7.5 cycles per second, and this is called the Schumann resonance. Another interesting point is that the brain wave frequency of 7 cycles/second is the region between alpha waves and theta waves. This is the borderline between waking and sleeping, where we are most relaxed, and if we can stay awake in meditation, it sets the brain up for creativity and intuition. It is the time we are most psychically receptive. Professor Michael Persinger of the Laurentian University Psychophysiology Laboratory hypoth esizes that ELF waves may serve as the carriers for ch43-47.indd 387ch43-47.indd 387 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 388information connected with psychic phenomena.5 This fits in with Bentovs theory that our brains magnetic pulse of 7 cycles/second resonates with the environment to either transmit or receive information. The five oscillating systems Up to this point Bentov tells us there are five oscillating systems tuned to each other:1. The heart-aorta system, producing an oscillation in the spine and skull of 7 cycles/second which accelerates: 2. the skull and brain up and down, producing acoustical plane waves (KHz frequencies) which create: 3. standing waves within the ventricles of the brain in the audio and above ranges which stimulate: 4. a loop circuit in the sensory cortex at 7 cycles/second which result in: 5. a magnetic field of opposite polarity, pulsating at 7 cycles/ second, and interacting with the environmental fields, especially the ELF field which is resonating at about 7.5 cycles/second. As we meditate over a prolonged period, we begin to progress and lock in more and more of these systems so that eventually all the systems of the brain begin to harmonize and resonate at around the same frequency. We can speculate that this ultimately unifies the whole brain and results in unlocking of our dormant potential, a quantum leap to a new field of experience that yogis tell us is powered by the explosive release of kundalini. Yogis state that if we can sit still for three hours, completely immobile and aware, we will awaken our internal energies and enter into samadhi. Bentovs model explains this. Another interesting point is that Bentov feels that these changes in the brain most probably start in the right hemi-sphere, because many meditative practices develop the non-verbal, feeling, intuitive, spatial right brain, balancing out the almost constant dominance of the logical, reasoning, rational, linearly-thinking left brain in our day-to-day ch43-47.indd 388ch43-47.indd 388 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 389extrovert, tension-filled, energy-demanding existence. He came to this conclusion because many meditators he talked to felt their experiences started on the left side of their bodies which is governed by the right brain. 6 This agrees with the work of DAquili who posits that inner experience is governed by activity in the right brain. 7 Kindling the kundalini We know that a log on a low flame is likely to blaze up suddenly on its own, even after the original fire goes out. A threshold point is reached and internal reactions take over spontaneously. The same mechanisms are thought to occur in the nervous system to lead up to a series of events analogous to the kindling of wood. Scientists are using this model to explain such diverse phenomena as everyday learning memory, epilepsy, the radical mood swings of manic depres sion and kundalini. The kindling phenomenon was first identified by C.V . Goddard and his associates at Waterloo University in Canada in 1969. 8 They observed that repeated, periodic, low-intensity electrical stimulation of animal brains leads to stronger brain activity, particularly in the limbic system, the part of the brain that handles emotions. For example, stimulating the amygdala (part of the limbic system) once daily, for half a second, has no effect at first, but after two or three weeks, produces convulsions. Goddard also observed that kindling can cause relatively permanent changes in brain excitability. Animals can have seizures for as long as a year after the initial kindling period. According to John Gaito of York University, over a period of time the bursts of electrical activity kindle similar patterns in adjacent brain regions. 9 Also the threshold is progressively lowered so that smaller doses of electricity trigger convulsions. It should be understood that mild continuous electrical stimulation does not cause kindling, rather it causes adaptation and tolerance. The stimulation must be intermit-tent, preferably every twenty-four hours, to be effective. ch43-47.indd 389ch43-47.indd 389 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 390Robert Post found that kindling can also be induced by drugs such as cocaine or other anaesthetics which stimulate the limbic system. 10 He found that using these stimulants led to changes of behaviour such as increased aggression. Apart from providing a model for epilepsy, which we know is sometimes associated with mystical insight, and psychosis, which can be thought of as prematurely awakened kundalini activity in one of the chakras, kindling can explain how meditation exerts its effects on our brain and psyche. According to Marilyn Ferguson, Analogies of the kindling effect and meditation effects especially of the dramatic kundalini phenomena are interesting. Obviously, most human subjects dont perceive their experiences as patho-logical, although they may be somewhat unnerving. The effects typically occur after a history of regular meditation and in an unthreatening setting. There is no onset of seizures in the classic sense, and the nervous system effects appear to be positive over the long run. 11 Bernard Gluek of the Hartford Institute of Living speculates that mantra meditation might set off a resonance effect in the limbic brain. 12 Mantra repetition is the most obvious form of meditation to be analogous to kindling; however, if we look at Bentovs model, any form which involves sitting absolutely motionless and developing intro-spec tion will do the same. According to Bentov, the loop circuit in the sensory cor-tex set up by sitting immobile in meditation may stimulate the pleasure centres in the amygdala, the part of the brain most amenable to kindling. This would, over a period of time, lead to permanent changes within the nervous system in an ongoing and progressive manner. This is the aim of meditation and all masters of yoga and the inner arts and sciences tell us that for success, the most important ingredient is regularity of practise and persistence. Whether our experi-ences in meditation are good or bad is of no consequence. They are all just steps on the way to higher experience, part of the process of preparation for kundalini awakening. ch43-47.indd 390ch43-47.indd 390 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 391 Two important points should be noted about kindling. The first is that it induces relatively permanent changes and the second is that it increases activity in the brain. It steps up the energy processes. This fits in with the theory that medita-tion can energize the nadis so as to send energy to various centres to awaken higher functions within those centres in order to take them to a higher octave of activity by supplying them with a better energy source. Meditation and the brain When studying kundalini we must remember that there are as many methods to awaken it as there are people practising, in fact there may be more methods than people. The four basic methods studied by modern research are raja yoga, kriya yoga, zazen and transcendental meditation. Basically these techniques involve one or more of the following: sitting, breath awareness, and mantra. Yogis normally divide medita tion into either the relaxation type or concentration type of practice. However, we also know that whichever tech-nique we choose we will have to first develop relaxation and then allow the internal process to unfold. Most of the brain research into meditation has focused on brain waves, which are divided into four main groups and which can be generalized as follows:1. Beta: extroversion, concentration, logic-orientated thought, worry and tension. 2. Alpha: relaxation, drowsiness. 3. Theta: dreaming, creativity. 4. Delta: deep sleep. Most meditation techniques show that meditators, how-ever, usually develop relaxation in medita tion, with alpha waves being predominant and occasional theta waves, which are different to those seen in sleep, occurring in more ad-vanced meditators. 1315 This result, the basis of meditations use in such psychosomatic diseases as high blood pressure and in anxiety, has probably resulted from either re laxa tion techniques or because the meditators were mainly novices. ch43-47.indd 391ch43-47.indd 391 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 392 Occasionally, in the laboratory, a researcher stumbles on findings which seem to run contrary to the claims of medita-tion as a relaxation method. In this situation the medita tor moves through the usual relaxation process, sinking into alpha and theta, but at this point something startling happens. He again develops beta waves, despite the fact that he is introverted, and these are usually big, rhythmic, synchronized high amplitude waves, unlike the normal small amplitude found in the random chaotic brain waves of normal subjects. This occurrence was first seen in 1955 by Das and Gastant who studied kriya yoga. 16 It was later seen and confirmed by Banquet, who studied transcendental meditation and found that after the theta waves, rhythmic beta waves were produced, present over the whole scalp and the most striking topographical alteration was the synchronization of anterior and posterior channels. 17 The whole brain was pulsating synchronously, rhythmically and in an integrated fashion. This was subjectively experienced as deep meditation or transcendence. Banquet states that, We must deduce, therefore, that the EEG changes of meditation are independent of the interac-tion between the subject and the outer world but produced by the specific mental activity of the practice. The initiation of the loop between cortex, thalamo-cortical co-ordinating system and subcortical generator . . . could account for the different alterations. 18 This agrees with Bentovs theory of a loop circuit being responsible for the kundalini experience. Levine, studying transcendental meditation, confirmed Banquets findings of coherence and synchronization of brain waves, both within each cerebral hemisphere from front to back and between both hemispheres. 19 Corby and his associates found that using tantric meditation there was arousal of the nervous system rather than relaxation. 20 The episode of sudden autonomic nervous system activation was characterized by the meditator as approaching the yogic ecstatic state of intense concentration. Corbys subjects ch43-47.indd 392ch43-47.indd 392 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 393experi enced: rushes of energy; chills, laughter, changing and varied emotions; early life flashes; total energy absorption; yearning to be one with the object of ideation; a great sense of merger and understanding of experience and its meaning. 21 Corbys meditators meditated, on the average, for more than three hours per day and used more advanced techniques than usually studied in the laboratory. Kundalini in the laboratory Though it may be difficult, if not impossible, to record the actual kundalini experience in the laboratory (either because such advanced meditators do not usually talk about their own experiences, or because the laboratory setting and envi ron ment is not correct, or because our machinery might interfere with or explode under the force of the actual experi ence), the research findings do tend to support Bentovs and the kindling model for kundalini. In the studies of meditation in which activation of the nervous system was found, there was generalized coherence and integration of the brain and/or blissful, ecstatic experi-ences. The experiences of awakening of shakti recorded within the laboratory setting and their physiological correlates agree with the yogic theory that awakening takes place in mooladhara chakra and travels up to ajna chakra, affecting the deep, primitive, animalistic and energizing circuits within the R-complex and limbic system of the brain, near the medulla oblongata. Energy flows from here to the thalamus to stimulate all the areas of the cerebral cortex simultaneously and thereby creates a loop circuit which gradually awakens latent and unused activity within other areas of the brain. The whole brain begins to pulse as a single unit as energy pours into the central controlling area of ajna chakra. We can understand that as we progress in meditation, we set the stage for the eventual awakening of shakti within the nadis, chakras and brain. An explosion occurs as we reach the threshold required for kindling to take place. Once we reach this concentrated, integrated state, neurological ch43-47.indd 393ch43-47.indd 393 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 394circuits take over and spontaneously begin to stimulate themselves, so that the energy liberated awakens new centres in the brain, creating a transformed state of awareness and being at a new and higher level of energy. The process of awakening of shakti has begun. From this point on as long as we continue our practise, the process of unfoldment continues because once kindling has taken place the effects are relatively permanent. We develop more and more purity and strength, so that we can handle the internal experiences as they arise for longer and longer periods of time, until final awakening of kundalini takes place. ch43-47.indd 394ch43-47.indd 394 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 39547 Cross-Cultural Evidence Kundalini is a transcendental phenomena, one which lies outside the realms of time and space. We cannot understand how powerful the experience of kundalini awakening really is, however, we can see its effects on our lives and the effect that awakening has had in terms of changes in the functioning of society and in various cultures. For example, the effect of kun dalini awakening is said by many researchers and yogis to be at the basis of the experi-ences had by Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Mohammed, Mahavir and various other great reli gious and spiritual figures from history. While researchers continue to scientifically probe the phe nom ena itself, its components, its related events and rami fica tions, and its ability to affect machines, another type of researcher is examining the phenomena both in its social setting and anthropologically. As a universal phenomena we can see kundalini everywhere, in every culture and at all times. John White states: Although the word kundalini comes from the yogic tradition nearly all the worlds major religions, spiritual paths and genuine occult traditions see something akin to the kundalini experience as having significance in divinizing a person. The word itself may not appear in the traditions, but the concept is there nevertheless, wearing a different name yet recognizable as a key to attaining a God-like stature. 1 ch43-47.indd 395ch43-47.indd 395 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 396Altered states Kundalini induces an altered state of consciousness (ASC), that is, it takes us to realms of inner experience beyond those normally accessible. Arnold M. Ludwig writes, Beneath mans thin veneer of consciousness lies a relatively uncharted realm of mental activity, the nature and function of which have been neither systematically explored or adequately conceptualized. 2 Ludwig and other ASC researchers cite daydreaming, sleep and dreams, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, psychosis, hysterical states of dissociation and depersonalization, pharmacologically induced mental aberrations, sleeplessness, fasting and meditation as examples of ASCs. Anything can induce an ASC, any place or event can trigger a change in consciousness, however, usually we have to manoeuvre ourselves or use some agent to bypass the so-called normal functioning of the brain. We can say that our normal state of consciousness is the one in which we spend most of our waking lives. There are many people, however, who believe that the state of consciousness most people exist in is very limited and fixed, itself a retarded, degenerate and unhealthy state which induces fear of change, neurosis and disease. In terms of our inner experiences we are like retarded dwarfs, like the flea kept under a glass who, after hitting its head on the glass a number of times, ceases to jump hundreds of times its own height but rather, even when the glass is removed, continues to hop at a reduced capacity far below its innate potential. Yogis claim that we are like the flea, pathetic shadows of our former selves and far less than our potential, confined by vague fears and illusions, ghosts and memories in the mind. We are much more than we think we are. The kundalini experience is at the peak of human evolu-tion. It is the absolute and final state attainable by man, the experience in which he realizes and merges with his pristine glory; the ultimate ASC. All other experiences fall short of this and are mere steppingstones on the way, making up ch43-47.indd 396ch43-47.indd 396 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 397the repertoire of our lesser human lives. The real yogi or swami is the master of all realms of consciousness and can move into and out of any state he wants at will, depending on the degree of his skill and mastery. Various cultures have de veloped ways and means to attain these different realms of consciousness, each varying in its capacity to do so. According to Erica Bourguignon, an anthropologist at Ohio State University, 90 percent of human societies practise some kind of institutionalized ritual to achieve altered states of consciousness. 3 For example, there is the solitary-vision quest of Sioux warriors, the hallucinogen-powered flights of South American shaman, the dream oracles of the Senoi people of Malaysia, the tribal dances of the Samo people of New Guinea, and the whirling dances of the Sufi dervish, to name but a few of the better known societies. In the West we use alcohol and drugs, revival meetings, rock concerts and discotheques with their mind and logic-numbing, trance-inducing, megadecible music and tribal dance. Are we so far from primitive societies? Bourguignon wonders, The fact that they are nearly universal must mean that such states are very important to human beings. The need for attaining higher states of consciousness seems to be as basic as the need for eating or sleeping. Somehow we have forgotten at our conscious, normal level of consciousness, that we have immense potential and that we can achieve bliss, knowledge and inner experiences which are more satisfying than the monotonous, humdrum existence we lead at present. Somewhere in our subconscious minds, at another level of consciousness, we know that something is missing and this knowledge nags at us. We want to get away from it all, to have a holiday (from the root for Holy day). From this there arises an instinctive and irrepressible urge and drive to fulfil ourselves and to attain higher and better states and experiences, though we may often fail to achieve them or real inner satisfaction. The alcohol ritual is one example of a self-defeating and destruc-tive attempt to achieve true joy and inner bliss. ch43-47.indd 397ch43-47.indd 397 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 398 It appears that our methods are incorrect for attaining inner fulfilment, satisfaction and security. We have lost the keys and can no longer gain access to the higher and tran-scendental. We have been thrown out of the Garden of Eden. It is for this reason that so many people have turned to yoga, meditation and the transcendental sciences for the means and techniques to enlarge their repertoire of experi ence and to attain insight into themselves and reality. Kundalini, a universal phenomenon Reports have come from all over the world indicating that there is a psychophysiological phenomenon existing outside the barriers of social, cultural, religious, geographi cal and temporal boundaries, and which resembles the phenomenon called kundalini by the yogis and sages of India. In Northwest Botswana, Africa, the !Kung people of the Kalahari Desert dance for many hours to heat up the n/um so that the !kia state can be obtained. This state of transcendence resembles that in many yogic texts on kundalini in which states of consciousness beyond the ordinary, and participation in eternity, are described. One tribesman reports: You dance, dance, dance. Then the n/um lifts you in your belly and lifts you in your back, and then you start to shiver . . . its hot. Your eyes are open but you dont look around; you hold your eyes still and look straight ahead. But when you get into !kia youre looking around because you see everything. 4 Judith Cooper writes about the !Kung: In one of the darker corners of the Dark Continent the !Kung people of the Kalahari keep in touch with the gods. Two or three nights a week the men dance around a fire, graceful as leopards, to the sonorous drone of the womens chants. Soon the mood turns solemn, and the night air swells with unseen presences. Sweat rolls down the dancers bodies like sweet rain, as the n/um, the healing power, starts to boil. The moment of transcendence is painful. When the inner fire shoots from their bellies up their spines, the dancers shiver and tremble, fall to the ground or go rigid as stone. Some ch43-47.indd 398ch43-47.indd 398 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 399of them dance into the fire and out again, perfect as gods, their feet unburned. They can see into the essence of things now, even into the insides of other people, where malignant ghosts feed on diseased livers or prevent the conception of sons. Laying their healing hands on the sick, they bid the n/um to drive out the forces of darkness. 5 In the Chinese Taoist tradition it is said that when prana or chi, the vital principle, has accumulated in the lower belly, it bursts out and begins to flow in the main psychic channels causing involuntary movements and sensations such as pain, itching, coldness, warmth, weightlessness, heaviness, rough ness, smoothness, internal lights and sound and the feeling of inner movement. It may cause the physical body to brighten and even illuminate a dark room. Yin Shih Tsu reported that he felt heat travel from the base of the spine to the top of the head and then down over his face and throat to his stomach. 6 These kinds of reports tally exactly with the experiences of yogis who describe kundalini as travelling up the spine with heat and light or with the surging energy of a snake preparing to strike. A classical description of kundalini from the yogic tradition comes from Swami Narayananda: There is a burning up the back and over the whole body. Kundalinis entrance into sushumna occurs with pain in the back . . . One feels a creeping sensation from the toes and sometimes it shakes the whole body. The rising is felt like that of an ant creeping up slowly over the body towards the head. Its ascent is felt like the wiggling of a snake or a bird hopping from place to place. 7 This also sounds very much like the description of the so-called primitive people of the !Kung tribe in the Kalahari desert in Africa. In medieval Spain, St. Theresa of Avila described her experience, which yogis call the awakening of nada, the manifestation of transcendental consciousness as sound: The noises in my head are so loud that I am beginning to wonder what is going on in it . . . My head sounds just as if it were full of brimming rivers . . . and a host of little birds ch43-47.indd 399ch43-47.indd 399 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 400seem to be whistling, not in the ears, but in the upper part of the head, where the higher part of the soul is said to be; I have held this view for a long time, for the spirit seems to move upward with great velocity. 8 Conclusion The above are classical kundalini type experiences, but they have occurred in different geographical locations and at different times in history, because kundalini is not dependent on time and space. However, few cultures have doc umented the kundalini experience so well or consistently as the sages in India. The Indian culture seems to have been ripe to allow the yogic sciences to be preserved, cultivated and rever ed. As a result, a sublime philosophy has emerged and has been recorded in many books, a few of which have come down to us through the ravages of time and history. Books such as the Bhagavad Gita , the yogic texts such as Yoga V ashishta and Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and the sublime beauty of the books of the Upanishads and Vedanta, which have inspired many of the great men and women of history from all over the world, are testaments to the existence of this great culture. Sophisticated maps of consciousness, charts to allow us to enter the sublime bliss of altered states of con sciousness and meditative experience, myriad techniques and processes, and untold works and books for guidance have emerged and have been handed down over thousands of years. Nowhere else has the kundalini experience been so well, richly or scientifically recorded in all its sublimity and variation. Swami Vivekananda sums up the whole question of kundalini as a universal phenomena when he states: When by the power of long internal meditation, the vast mass of energy stored up travels along the sushumna and strikes the chakras, the reaction is immensely more intense than any reaction of sense perception. Wherever there was any mani-festa tion of what is ordinarily called supernatural power or wisdom, a little current of kundalini must have found its way into the sushumna. ch43-47.indd 400ch43-47.indd 400 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 401 We see then that an experience exists which is one but which has had a vast impact on society and culture wherever it has occurred. The experience is one but the names are many. Yogis call this the awakening of shakti or kundalini and have developed a vast, intricate, systematic and progres-sive science by which they can awaken this power which lies dormant in each of us and one which can evolve ourselves and society to new and undreamed of heights of experience and achievement. ch43-47.indd 401ch43-47.indd 401 21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM21/03/2018 4:42:52 PM 40248 Analysis of the Chakras from a Psychophysiological Viewpoint * PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Swami Shankardevananda: What are the psychodynamics of the chakras?Swami Vivekananda: From a physiological viewpoint there are aspects of the chakras that deal with mood, with the mind, aspects dealing with experiences on the psychic plane and also aspects concerned with the energy turnover of the body and mind. The brain, which is divided up in terms of its emotions and cognition, can also be divided into the aspects of the different chakras. It seems to me that from the physiological and anatomical point of view, the chakras are the sum total of the input and output of the different segments of the body. The throat (vishuddhi) section deals with perception, especially the voice. Many of the psychic aspects of this chakra are actually telepathic communication. The chest (anahata) deals mainly with the love aspect. The upper abdomen (manipura) deals with the assertiveness and drive aspect. The lower abdominal or upper pelvic area (swad-histhana) deals with the pleasure aspect. The lowest segment (mooladhara), according to Freud and many yogis before him, deals with security, possessions and material objects. *A discussion with the swamis of Bihar School of Yoga, Munger, 1980 ch48.indd 402ch48.indd 402 21/03/2018 4:43:14 PM21/03/2018 4:43:14 PM 403 Consider manipura chakra. It deals with hunger and it is directly connected with hunger centres in the hypothalamus. It is closely related to the next chakra down, swadhisthana, which deals with pleasure. The hunger and pleasure centres are adjacent in the posterior part of the hypothalamus. They are so close to each other that some of the cells actually intertwine and it is hard to separate which is which. It is in terest ing to note that when people are sexually tense and sexually dissatisfied, they start reaching for sweet things they get hungry, start putting on weight and all that. This indicates the close interconnection of these two chakras. There are also what we can call energy circuits involved in these interconnections. These energies can be directed up or down. If the instincts or desires related to specific areas are not actually satisfied, then there is a tendency for the energy to build up. We see it especially in relation to the sexual impulse, which is connected mainly to swadhisthana, and also partly to mooladhara and manipura. An unfulfilled sexual life at swadhisthana level tends to redirect energy either into the desire for power and dominance at manipura or the neurotic craving for possessions at mooladhara. Energy is built into this chakra system and all of its con nections with the hypothalamus and the limbic system. The limbic system, amongst other things, generates a continuity of emotions, and emotions of course motivate action. If there is, for example, competition, then anger is stirred up within the solar plexus, stomach areas and related organs, including the adrenal glands. The adrenals, of course, activate a person to fight if it is over territory or food. Also, adrenaline increases the sugar content in the blood by breaking down glycogen in the liver, so it keeps the animal going even though it is hungry and short of food. If necessary, adrenaline will supply the bloodstream with sugar, so it can win the fight and get food. It seems to me that a lot of the physiological energy that is inherent in all these chakra circuits is this sort of energy. I do not really believe it is energy per se, but I think it is ch48.indd 403ch48.indd 403 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 404nerve impulses, for instance in the case of manipura chakra, stimulated by a block in blood glucose which then activates the stomach and the hunger centres in the hypothalamus, which then activates these mechanisms. Swami Shankardevananda: So you do not believe in a specific localized energy, but a total body functioning within that circuit. And one circuit becomes dominant if it is neglected or overactivated.Swami Vivekananda : Y es. It can be constitutionally dominant in a person too. You see people who are all manipura chakra, a lot of drive, ambitions and right in there. They are not sexual people (swadhisthana motivated) and they might not even have a security drive (mooladhara motivated). I have known many business people and lawyers who dabble here and there and do it only for the fun of the game. They are just very competitive people. Everyone says to the wives, Well, it must be great to be married to a guy like that, and they say, Ugh, he has little swadhisthana (sex) or anahata chakra (love) working. He is a bad husband, but makes a very good provider (manipura).Swami Shankardevananda: In a study of sociopaths and those people who are fearless, it was found that there is in fact very little difference between them. People who are testing jet planes and rocketships and climbing mountains without ropes etc. have fundamentally the same character as socio paths.Swami Vivekananda: If a persons behaviour is accepted by society, then he is a hero. If it is unacceptable he is a psychopath. It reminds me of the old joke that you can murder someone if the government approves of it. This is interesting because these people have that same kind of drive. They are driven by an overactive manipura chakra. Mooladhara chakra deals principally in security, swad-histhana principally with pleasure, manipura principally with assertiveness, courage and personal power, anahata with love, vishuddhi with communication out and also the ability, mainly because of the perception of our external ch48.indd 404ch48.indd 404 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 405environ ment, to feel at home virtually anywhere. It is a state of consciousness that is inherent in vishuddhi chakra. When it develops to a certain point you can be sitting on a pile of garbage and still everything is just right. Ajna chakra, of course, deals with intellect, intuition and the psychic power (siddhis) such as telepathy. As well as these qualities within the different chakras there is another parameter, which is the degree of evolution. Each one of us has these circuits constitutionally energized to different degrees. One person may have a lot of energiza tion of swadhisthana chakra; that person is very much pleasure bent, and has perhaps less development at manipura or anahata.Swami Shankardevananda: That would be very much a hormonal thing depending mainly on the drive from the hypothalamus.Swami Vivekananda: That is right. I have not thought very much about what governs the constitutional factors of it. Each one of us is proportionately energized differently in different chakra circuits. Each one of us strikes a different chord. There is a different frequency of energization of the chakras. There are individual differences between each one of us, because each one of us has different degrees of evolution of the quality of the manifestation of each of the chakras. A sociopath who goes round beating up old ladies to steal their handbags, and an astronaut, may have the same chord. They may be identical in the level of activity of each of the chakras, but the guy who is an astronaut, hopefully, has a higher degree of evolution in most of his chakras. So these are two important parameters which define the qualities of the chakras percentage of activity and degree of evolution. These define the character of each person.Swami Shankardevananda: You mentioned that there are chakras which express energy and certain chakras which take in energy.Swami Vivekananda: No, what I was saying is that we know these circuits exist in anatomical form, that there are whole ch48.indd 405ch48.indd 405 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 406areas down there in the body which do not only trigger off something up here (in the brain), but are also triggered by something up here. And we know that there are, for instance, the hunger and the sensual centres in the hypothalamus. We know that they are directly connected with the relevant organs in the body. As the hunger builds up, more neuronal activity builds up within those circuits. And if an emotional com ponent comes into it, its very likely that other parts of the limbic system will start generating energy too. You will go rushing around to get something to eat as quickly as possible. This implies that there is an increased neuronal activity within that circuit. People talk about energy within those circuits, and they are certain it is an energy. They say these circuits are en-ergized because when they start getting activated, you can feel throbbing, shaking, etc. But is it energy like electricity running through a wire, or is it in actual fact only a message like the electricity running through a telephone wire? The mere fact that a person shakes can mean that it is a message that is being transmitted to the muscles and the muscles do all the shaking. I tend to prefer the physiological point of view which says that it is neuronal activity; that is, the nerves and circuits conduct impulses and the muscles create the shaking and energy.Swami Shankardevananda: But there is energy even in neuronal activity.Swami Vivekananda: Well, there is, but the energy is pro-duced secondarily to the neuronal activity. The primary object of the circuit is to convey an impulse. The message is carried and it uses energy as a carrier in the same way as a telephone uses energy. You would not get a telephone wire and try to light a 100 watt bulb, because there is just not enough energy there. Telephone wires run only on about 2 volts; it is not primarily an energy transmission, but primarily a message transmission; the energy is a secondary issue and comes from another source. ch48.indd 406ch48.indd 406 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 407 Some people, by their nature, have some of these circuits much more activated and energized than others. There are some people who are very much more into the whole manipura thing. They eat a lot and have big muscles; they are all manipura chakra. You get anahata people who are very paternal and loving and always sensing other peoples feelings, everywhere they go. The same applies to the other chakras. Chakra types can be easily seen at a party where there are a whole lot of people around and you do not know anybody. Then you will see the person whos very much into feelings will start picking up all over the place who is kind and who is not kind. That is what he perceives in the environment. He is predominantly an anahata type. A person whos into the intellectual trip will listen to all the conversa tions going on and if there is good intellectual tone, he will fit into that circle. If a group is talking about football or something like that, he will go straight past. He will be the vishuddhi/ajna type. Then you will get the manipura chap who will notice first of all whos in the power scene and he will start associating with that. If there is no obvious power position, it usually develops towards the end of the night. Sometimes you will go into a place and say That is it. It is a special chair and a special place. Now if you are on a power trip you go and sit there. The emotional person, when he perceives the scene, is perceiving the feelings all around the place, the swadhisthana chap will be seeing other things such as food, sexual encounters and so on. Each one of us has a preference in these things, and that preference seems to me to be driven by energization or activation of those particular circuits which may be predominating. And some people are balanced and versatile and will fit into any situation. These people are the yogic types. I think there is an inbuilt rhythm and activation of these particular circuits within the body. I somehow suspect that we go along on a number of different levels of consciousness ch48.indd 407ch48.indd 407 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 408at the same time. Sometimes we have dreams of total experiences of something that is going to occur in three or four months time. That means time, instead of being a longi tudinal thing, is a vertical thing. How do we explain that in our neurophysiological framework? There are a lot of experiences that are difficult to explain scientifically. I dont think that necessarily means that a physiological explanation is invalid. These days it is possible to measure certain physical manifestations of chakras and the dissociated chakras. Maybe you could get a personality break of a person who was obviously into a certain chakra and test the activation of that chakra. I think the energy around the chakra is easily explainable in that it is the energy that would be given off by the activated field.Swami Shankardevananda: In terms of circuits, some of the chakras have more receptive properties, especially in mool-adhara and ajna, whilst certain chakras seem to be more expressive, such as swadhisthana and manipura.Swami Vivekananda: Probably it is associated with the jnan-endriyas and karmendriyas (sensory and motor nerves).Swami Shankardevananda: All the chakras must have a dual purpose: there must be a receptive and active side to them. For example, ajna is receptive to psychic and intuitive energy, but it also transmits at the subtle, telepathic level. Vishuddhi, which expresses and communicates that intuition at the verbal level, simultaneously expresses com passion felt through anahata, and also expresses the experiences felt through mani pura and swadhisthana. All chakras have a two- way channel and that is because of ida and pingala. Swami Vivekananda: I think that vishuddhi expresses the qualities of the other chakras only as an agent of their quality, because the other chakras will express energy in a different way. If you are with a person who is loving, especially if you get close, you can feel the love pouring out. Therefore, anahata is expressing in that way, but I think that anahata would use vishuddhi chakra to say the words that go with it. ch48.indd 408ch48.indd 408 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 409Swami Shankardevananda: Y es, the energy flows through the other chakras, so the activation of one chakra affects them all and modifies them according to its major harmonic, but in its own way. Manipura and swadhisthana chakras would then become love dominant if anahata becomes active. All the other chakras would then line themselves up with anahata.Swami Vivekananda: Manipura chakra is an expressive chakra and if you feel high in manipura, then it would tend to flow out love more than feel the experience of love, which is anahata. Swami Shankardevananda: There is a definite connection between mooladhara and ajna. Also, there appears to be a connection between swadhisthana, vishuddhi and bindu, a very direct connection, and lalana, which is a sub-chakra of vishuddhi. Then it seems that manipura and anahata are also related. This intimate connection between the chakras is symbolized by the seven candles on the Hebrew candlestand (menorah). This is a representation of how chakras are interacting, but actually it is a much more complicated diagram in which all chakras interact with each other. We can regard mooladhara and swadhisthana as being tamasic chakras, manipura and anahata as being predominantly rajasic, and vishuddhi and ajna as being sattwic. These pairs function together. Vishuddhi and ajna, for example, are connected on a receptive, expressive merger, one being active and the other being receptive.Swami Vivekananda: But I see rajasic and tamasic qualities being in each of the chakras and I see the chakras as being horizontal rather than a vertical ladder form. They all have qualities from rajasic, right through to sattwic.Swami Shankardevananda: That is also true. Some people think the word tamasic carries moralistic connotations.Swami Vivekananda: In the context of evolution, is the bliss that the yogi experiences any different to the bliss of orgasm? It might be at a more highly evolved level. Is the selfish love of a mother for her child, to the exclusion of all other ch48.indd 409ch48.indd 409 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 410children, anything more than just a lower level of transcen- dental love? Swami Shankardevananda : In his article on kundalini, Carl Jung says that from above manipura chakra you leave the whole sphere of the earth behind, the individuality and the diaphragm which lies at the manipura level could be an important anatomical separating component as far as the chakras are concerned. The movement away from individual love towards universal love takes place at that point just above the diaphragm anahata chakra.Swami Vivekananda: It is very likely that these different opinions are all right. The mountain looks different from different angles, but from above you see all the people looking at the same mountain. The problem comes when you go back down to earth and talk to all the individual people. It is very difficult to describe what you experienced when you saw the whole mountain. This is why we get so many different opinions, philosophies and religions. MOOLADHARA AND SWADHISTHANA CHAKRAS Swami Shankardevananda: Can you discuss the nerve complexes associated with mooladhara and swadhisthana chakras?Swami Vivekananda: Well, for all of these segments there are somatic nerves, which deal with the sensory input and the voluntary motor output, and also there are the autonomic nerves, divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic. And usually there is an appropriate endocrine gland for each segment, like the pineal, pituitary and thyroid. The exception is mooladhara, and to date, medical science has not found an endocrine gland associated with it. This of course does not mean that one will not be discovered in the future. Let us try to work out the psychophysiological aspects of mooladhara. In the male it is actually associated with the base of the penis and with the female, the cervix. So it has a very deep-rooted sexual link. ch48.indd 410ch48.indd 410 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 411 If you repeat a mooladhara chakra mantra and you concentrate in that area somewhere, you will feel a certain vibration occurring. Now what is the mantra doing? Is it stimulating some physiological organ, or is it some sort of occult stimulation? Is it stimulating a physical organ or is it activating a lot of energy which seems to appear in a certain place which we call a chakra? I think it is perhaps the last one of these.Swami Shankardevananda: I believe that the mooladhara trigger point and the place of actual experience may be different, but the general location of mooladhara chakra is certainly in the perineum; it is clearly felt in that area. If it is felt higher, then it is not mooladhara chakra, it is swad histhana. Either the mantra is wrong or the vibration is stimulating something else which is more receptive and reactive.Swami Vivekananda: Is there a physiological basis for this? It is quite possible that the repetition of a mantra is stimulating the spinal cord. You can certainly feel it in the area being stimulated and it is not only there, because all the fibres that are coming out from the body are stimulated. Therefore, no matter at what level you stimulate your spinal cord, no matter what chakra is stimulated, you are going to collect the fibres from so called mooladhara chakra. At swadhisthana chakra you will also get the mooladhara chakra fibres; at manipura you get the mooladhara fibres back to swadhisthana and manipura as well and all the way up. Mooladhara chakra is always there in the act because its fibres come from the lowest part.Swami Shankardevananda: Could we consider the sexual energy of mooladhara and its possible transmutations?Swami Vivekananda: This basic sexual energy that Gopi Krishna has written about is actually the sattwic or subtle essence which can be perceived when the consciousness becomes very sensitive. This is the essence of the kundalini experience, the sublimation of sexual energy, the basic life force which is the source of all generation, regeneration ch48.indd 411ch48.indd 411 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 412and reproduction. Gopi Krishna felt what he was seeing was semen being converted into energy and distributing itself throughout the body. I feel that what he was perceiving was a clairvoyant view of energy given off by the simple nerve fibres in those organs he was talking about. However, he identified it as semen because that is what is written in the scriptures. I do not know what women are supposed to have, he did not mention that and I do not think the scriptures do either. Swami Nischalananda : The Hatha Yoga Pradipika and certain tantric texts do talk about women; however, generally that side has been neglected. According to yoga the sexual energy in men and women is sublimated and transmuted into the ascent of the kundalini. The starting point is mooladhara. For some reason, the Buddhists say that the ascent commences at manipura, not mooladhara. How is it that the enlightened Buddha completely bypassed the two lower chakras? Actually the whole concept of where kundalini lies is a matter of experience. I dont think that Buddha actually said that kundalini starts in manipura; more likely he stated that real spiritual evolution starts from manipura. Swami Satyananda has said many times that only when the kundalini reaches manipura is it stabilized. It starts in mooladhara but stabilizes in manipura. I think this apparent discrepancy comes because of the philosophy of Buddha who was a jnani, and he didnt get much into kundalini yoga. Vajrayana, on the other hand, which was an offshoot of Buddhism at a later date, is very much concerned with mooladhara. But let us get back to the functioning of mooladhara.Swami Shankardevananda : Mooladhara chakra has two basic modes of function, one is energy depleted and the other is energy activated. Within that system there is a sick and a healthy mooladhara. What are the symptoms of these different states of mooladhara chakra? It is simple you are either sick or healthy, balanced or unbalanced. If you are unbalanced you are going to have ida over or under active or ch48.indd 412ch48.indd 412 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 413pingala over or under active. You are going to have physical and mental symptoms, fear, insecurity and all those things. Freud said that everyone who denies mooladhara becomes constipated and hoards money. Every miser is constipated. These symptoms may be mild or very extreme. In the fully awakened state they are either going to rip you to pieces or take you to a higher awareness. So what is the basic quality of a well functioning mooladhara chakra? Swami Vivekananda: Renunciation. Swami Shankardevananda: We can say that security and renunciation are interchangeable in the mooladhara system. We can say that in this chakra basic security is the key. Renunciation obviously implies security and if you are secure within yourself, you dont need any external security.Swami Satyadharma: When awakening of mooladhara takes place then there is no such problem as insecurity.Swami Vivekananda: Of course, this is the state of con-sciousness of an awakened mooladhara. A low energized mooladhara chakra generally means low vitality, emotional insecurity, fear of the future. I also think low self-esteem is involved in this. It almost forms the syndrome of depression, although you dont necessarily have to get the joylessness of the low energized swadhisthana chakra. If there is low evolution and high drive in mooladhara, then you get the ambitious person out to collect as much as he can. He can be a multimillionaire and still accumulate all sorts of things because he still feels insecure. The security is a state of consciousness, not a physical reality. As mooladhara chakra starts to evolve the person attains security, which is totally unrelated to circum stances. You can see varying degrees of renunciation not only between sannyasins and the community, but within the community of sannyasins as well.Swami Satyadharma: When energies pool at mooladhara chakra, do they stimulate or aggravate the chakras? What is the difference between stagnation of energy and activation of the chakra? ch48.indd 413ch48.indd 413 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 414Swami Vivekananda: Well, I just see that the mooladhara circuit in some people is sometimes poorly energized; the whole circuit itself has low energization. This varies between people and varies within people, depending upon cosmic events, the position of planets, the weather and all sorts of things, including psychological factors such as disappoint-ments, hurts and threats to ones security. It varies with each of us. Some people are very much in mooladhara; hooked on the basic sexual aspect of mooladhara in which case they are very much involved in money and possessions. If they are low energized, they will still think about these things, but they will not do anything about it. I think you need a certain amount of energization to produce the drive that is inherent in each chakra; the basic sexual hunting drive in swadhisthana chakra, the territorial and dominance drive in manipura and the nurturing drive in anahata chakra. Remember, there are two parameters, the amount of energization of each chakra and the degree of evolution. It seems that yoga practices balance the energy inherent within each of the chakra circuits, and by virtue of eliminating the blockages (samskaras), evolve the quality of the chakras at the same time. And of course, if you have the grace of the guru you are on the express line.Swami Satyadharma: So does pooled energy act to block or can it be used to activate the chakra? For example, if a person has a lot of pooled energy in mooladhara, would that be an energy block or could that pooled energy be utilized to activate and awaken a chakra?Swami Vivekananda: It can be used to activate it if the psychological blockages are eliminated.Swami Shankardevananda: I think there is a difference be tween storage and blockage. The ability to hold or store energy takes place consciously, whilst having an unconscious or subconscious blockage leads to repression.Swami Vivekananda: And repression of a highly energized chakra can produce all sorts of physical symptoms, such as ch48.indd 414ch48.indd 414 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 415muscle tension, malfunctioning of internal organs, etc., as well as emotional problems. Swami Shankardevananda : What are the psychological effects of mooladhara awakening? Swami Vivekananda: As I have already said, renunciation.Swami Shankardevananda: The feeling of separation, the beginning of your individual awareness, awakening to the fact that you are separate from something else.Swami Nischalananda : Primal alienation or something like that.Swami Shankardevananda: Do you think that the basic energy at mooladhara is anxiety, fear, or is it insecurity?Swami Vivekananda: The basic emotion? Well, it depends on the energization of the circuit. If there is not much energy, it will tend to be depression and hopelessness. But if there is a lot of energy, it will then depend upon the evolution of the chakra. If it is little evolved, then there will be intense insecurity, which is anxiety. If it is highly evolved there will be a sense of oneness and complete security. Generally mool adhara is blocked to some extent in most people and blockages may manifest as muscle tension. Muscle tensions are manifestations of the circuits of mental blockages, samskaras. It is the samskaras that keep down the evolution of the quality of consciousness that is within these chakra circuits. I think that low evolution, muscle spasms and the maladjustments of the organisms that are supplied by that part of the autonomic nervous system are due to psychic tensions.Swami Shankardevananda: These psychic and personality tensions are due to various events in the environment.Swami Vivekananda: That is right. The inner unconscious conflicts coming into conflict with certain events in the environ ment. For example, if a person feels very insecure and someone steals a valuable possession from him, he may go into an absolute frenzy. This is opposed to the reaction of someone else who does not have the same sort of conflicts and insecurities. ch48.indd 415ch48.indd 415 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 416 If a person cannot express the feeling that is involved at mooladhara, that feeling can express itself in somatic prob-lems like spasms of the muscles, in autonomic problems, blood pressure, constipation, and who knows what else, maybe functional urethritis, cystitis, colitis, rectitis, dysmenorrhea and so on. PSYCHOSIS Swami Shankardevananda: Would you associate a highly energized, low evolved mooladhara problem as the cause of manic depression?Swami Vivekananda: I think manic depression is an ida/pingala thing. We are in another dimension there, because a manic person will undergo all the manifestations of a very highly energized and controlled chakra. He will be rushing around gambling all his money away, trying to get more, getting into all sorts of sexual exploits, going round pushing other people around, the rajasic aspect.Swami Sambuddhananda : Would you say that schizophrenia and paranoia are related with ida and pingala imbalance?Swami Vivekananda: Y es, there are people who are stuck in ida. Ida is very much overactive. It is interesting that research shows that the taking in of negative aspects of the environ-ment through the right hemisphere (ida) is paranoia. This is what paranoia is all about. A lot of people, some of them quite highly evolved people, who have specialized much in ida are a bit paranoid. Ida seems to have a negative aspect about it. Even if you come into it at a high level of conscious-ness, it seems to have a bit of a negative pull. If you are going to activate your chakras, you have to make sure your ida and pingala are balanced.Swami Shankardevananda: But manic depression, psychosis and other mental problems relate to either mooladhara or ajna because it is only at these two points that you have the fusion of ida and pingala. Therefore, psychosis, manic depres sion and all these things would seem to relate very ch48.indd 416ch48.indd 416 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 417much to the mooladhara/ajna circuit. If ida and pingala are coming out of mooladhara chakra, then what would be the mechanism dealing with psychosis? Swami Vivekananda: I think that ida and pingala are only related to the activities of the cerebral hemispheres.Swami Shankardevananda: But the whole body is controlled by the hemispheres. The whole body gets the energy. Arteries and veins, sensory and motor nerves, right and left hemi-spheres are all reflections of the ida and pingala process.Swami Vivekananda: I see ida and pingala anatomically up here in the brain, not crossing down the spine. I believe that ida and pingala crossing each other is a concept and a symbol of experience.Swami Satyadharma: I think that awakening of mooladhara is the beginning of psychic awareness. That is why with mooladhara awakening, people often become disturbed.Swami Vivekananda : Y es. They can get caught in the psychic consciousness, which is the consciousness in which you have hallucinations, etc.Swami Shankardevananda: It is much more powerful than anything they have ever experienced before.Swami Vivekananda: We slide in and out of it twice a day anyway, even if we are not doing any formal closed eye meditation techniques. I think if you hold the awareness at the psychic level, and you can do it with yoga nidra, you will experience a state in which there is thought blocking what is called thought disorder where one thought leads on to another one that is unrelated to it and it just goes off into the distance. Paradoxical thinking where two paradoxical things can exist together, hallucinations, voices talking to you, you see things and so forth.Swami Shankardevananda: So, therefore we assume that pingala is blocked and ida is flowing. All that stuff is coming out through ida from mooladhara; basic subconscious material.Swami Vivekananda: At the same time there is psychic withdrawal. ch48.indd 417ch48.indd 417 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 418Swami Shankardevananda: Y es, so what does that imply? Swami Vivekananda: If there is a psychic withdrawal, then even though we appear to be in communication with the outside, in actual fact we are still inside from the psychic point of view. Paradoxical thinking, suspicious feelings, voices and all these things, and not being able to keep your thoughts together on one topic for any more than a couple of seconds; all these come from a psychic, inner plane. PHYSICAL DISEASES Swami Shankardevananda : What about physical disease associated with mooladhara chakra problems? We have already talked about constipation; this of course brings about things like haemorrhoids.Swami Vivekananda: There are many types of con stipation involved too of energy, emotions, informa tion all inherent in mooladhara chakra as hoarding of any type.Swami Gaurishankar: What about disease?Swami Vivekananda: Statistics involved in diseases in this area tend to relate to the manipura and anahata areas, and the diseases of hypertension, heart problems, peptic ulcers etc. I assume many diseases of the lower excretory and reproductive organs are associated with a malfunctioning mooladhara.Swami Shankardevananda: Cancer?Swami Vivekananda: Y es, of the rectum and bladder.Swami Shankardevananda : The helplessness associated with it too?Swami Vivekananda: I dont know if it is all cancers we are talking about now. I dont know if they would be segmental or not. Hypertension, for instance, appears to be a gen-eralized condition. It is mainly related to the manipura chakra circuits. Cancer may well be a generalized condition that is related to one of the chakras, perhaps mooladhara.Swami Paramananda : How far can you take the relationship between the chakras and the physical organs like the heart? ch48.indd 418ch48.indd 418 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 419If the heart is not functioning well and it affects the anahata chakra which is love, can that also mean that there is a lack of love going through that person and physically it comes out in anahata chakra and the heart as disease? Swami Vivekananda: Y es, it can be in both. If a person has a need to receive love and it is not coming, and/or that person has imbalanced constructions of love, then anahata problems can arise in the form of cardiac problems such as angina, palpitations, etc.Swami Paramananda: Do you think that applies to all the chakras? If you find a particular organ not functioning in a sick person, does it mean there is a deficiency of the qualities of the chakra related to that part of the body?Swami Vivekananda: As a general rule, yes, but you can get other problems as well. For instance, you can get an activation of manipura chakra, which activates the sympathetic nervous system which produces restriction of the coronary artery. There is interaction between the different chakras, and this is the beauty of a well-taught yoga class it balances all these qualities, and balance is the key to the whole thing. Rather than trying to work on one area, which is a more specific medical style, yoga therapy works on the whole human structure.Swami Muktibodhananda: How do the physical organs relate to the chakras and spiritual evolution?Swami Vivekananda: Consider hysterectomy. Let us assume the wrong woman is wheeled into the operating theatre and she has a hysterectomy. This will then cut off the end organ for a lot of nerve fibres and the atrophy will run up the nerves and eliminate the brain centres involved in that. This is an example of a deficiency in the organ producing changes in the centres involved, the circuit. Does that make it any more difficult for her to realize higher aspects of swadhisthana chakra?Swami Shankardevananda: It depends how much of the centre is lost. If she just loses the uterus and not the ovaries, for example, all the hormonal secretions will be maintained. ch48.indd 419ch48.indd 419 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 420As women reach menopause they will undergo a natural hysterectomy. Swami Vivekananda: Y es, but they dont lose the nerve endings. When the uterus is removed, because the nerve endings are useless, they atrophy. Does this affect the associated chakras?Swami Nischalananda : Swami Satyananda says it does not make any difference if there is a vasectomy, because it is only the physical body. I think, as regards swadhisthana for example, that if they are already on the spiritual path and have developed some psychic awareness, then that operation would definitely not affect them much, if at all. If they had no background of yogic practise, then probably the destruc-tion of that organ would slightly hamper progress, because initially you depend upon those organs to stimulate some-thing, especially in the practices of hatha and kriya yoga. If you follow the path of bhakti or jnana yoga, of course, it makes no difference.Swami Shankardevananda: If you lose one centre or two centres, physically I think it does not hinder you because a lot of other centres are left. There are tons of potential left within the brain.Swami Vivekananda: To sum up, we function on physical, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual levels. The chakras span all these levels. The purpose of yoga and tantra is to stimulate the chakras at all these levels. Then, and only then, can we become healthy human beings. MENTAL PROBLEMS Swami Sambuddhananda: What is the cause of depression?Swami Vivekananda: I think low activation of the swad-histhana circuit is the prime cause of depression.Swami Shankardevananda: I thought it was due to low activa-tion in mooladhara.Swami Vivekananda: Well, the qualities in both these chakras are very close. ch48.indd 420ch48.indd 420 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 421Swami Shankardevananda : So what is the difference between mooladhara and swadhisthana? Swami Vivekananda: You can see the different qualities in the various types of anxiety you see in different people. In psychiatry, the various forms of anxiety all come under the name of anxiety, yet they are all different syndromes, and they are also related to different chakra circuits. People with a low energized mooladhara chakra are not just apprehensive about the future, they also feel insecure about the present. They simply dont feel that this is a secure world, and the state of consciousness they have at any time is that things are dangerous. There is another type of depression which I perceived in a woman who was forty-five years of age. Her husband had left her when she was about thirty-five, and she led a very quiet life. But she was still pretty energized in swadhisthana chakra. She was describing the anxiety that she had. Through empathy I started to experience what she was describing. It was a sort of quivering vibration going on in the pelvis. It was a quivering all around the area of swadhisthana chakra, not specifically genital, but all around the upper part of the pelvis. It really was a type of anxiety. I gave her the general swadhisthana practices such as shalabhasana, etc. She improved a lot. The yogic practices seemed to deactivate her pent-up emotion. I think it was just sexual tension that she had in that area and she was perceiving it as anxiety. She also had a fear of it because she did not know what it was. There is another case of depression which is a well-known one butterflies in the stomach, accompanied by palpitations, which is just activation of the sympathetic ner vous system. One case I saw was a taxi driver who had a minor accident in his cab. He got this phobia and he couldnt get in his taxi without experiencing butterflies. In Aruba (South America), where he lived, taxi fares are minimal so that the taxi drivers are really hard up. This man had to employ someone else to drive his cab for him and he was ch48.indd 421ch48.indd 421 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 422losing money. He had been off work for six weeks. Every time he went up to his cab he would get this terrible churning in the stomach and he developed hypertension. He was a very dynamic Aries. So I thought, What to do? I taught him kunjal in order to get all that energy out of manipura chakra. He did it once in the ashram and then immediately went out and got in his cab. This type of anxiety and depression is obviously mani-pura overactivity. There is another type of anxiety which arises through too much thinking: Wouldnt it be terrible if such and such happened, and if that happens maybe something else will happen, and if that happens maybe . . .? People with this problem just think and think and think, until that preoccupa-tion produces a fear within them which is not necessarily contained in the symptoms. That is dealt with by practising bhramari pranayama. So within the diagnosis of anxiety there seems to be these four types. There may be others related to the other chakras, but I have not yet noticed them.Swami Nischalananda: Maybe stuttering, loss of voice and things like that, related to vishuddhi, can be cured by simhasana.Swami Vivekananda: Exactly, tightening up of the throat. It seems to be more related to a lack of self-confidence rather than the feeling of anxiety. Simhasana works wonders. When I was in general practice, I used to do a lot of spinal adjustments and manipulation, and after a while I specialized in spinal problems. I did a lot of backs at that stage. I found that patients came in clusters. I would get a lot of people with an upper cervical lesion, migraine headaches, tightness in the neck region, with all the symptoms of chronic sinusitis and all the other things related to upper cervical tension. I found that all the people with upper cervical problems were coming in when the moon was full, all the people with lumbar/sacral problems were coming in when the moon was new, and in between all the others were spread out. This is ch48.indd 422ch48.indd 422 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 423interesting because it is related to chakra activation. Almost before the patient told me, I could pinpoint the exact spinal segment in which he would be having problems. I knew according to the moon phase. This relationship became obvious, especially towards the end of the time I was mani-pulating, because I took on the symptoms of my patients. Swami Shankardevananda: This means that we need a whole set of asanas working on all the segments of the spine.Swami Vivekananda: Y es, we have them, for example, surya namaskara. In Australia we used to use the leg lock posture for mooladhara chakra; shalabhasana and bhujangasana for swadhisthana chakra. These asanas are actually supposed to be for manipura chakra, but so many people have such stiff backs that they activate swadhisthana chakra instead. Then paschimottanasana and dhanurasana for manipura; for anahata, supta vajrasana and matsyasana; for vishuddhi, sarvangasana; and for ajna chakra, sirshasana and ashwa sanchalanasana. Halasana also activates vishuddhi because the inflection is brought right up to the upper cervical area. However, people who have a stiff upper cervical spine should not do any of those upper spine flexion practices, because the discs are very tiny at that part and these asanas can be too much.Swami Nischalananda: Khandharasana is good for this area. Its not so strong because a lot of the body weight is taken by the feet.Swami Gaurishankar: Let us get back to the subject of depression.Swami Vivekananda: I think there are different qualities in the thing that we call depression. The dread of the future is one of the symptoms of depression and I think it is a mool-adhara chakra problem. But the dejection, lack of joy and loss of sense of humour that you find in many people is due to a low energized swadhisthana. With a low energized manipura comes loss of appetite and low emotional activity. In depression there is a vicious circle; the whole mech-anism, the whole noradrenalin/dopamine mechanism ch48.indd 423ch48.indd 423 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 424seems to slow down. It involves hormones. Most of the anti- depressants act upon this noradrenalin/dopamine system. Swami Shankardevananda : I would also imagine that depletion of testosterone, excessive sexual activity, depletion of adrenaline, excessive fear and anxiety, etc., all lead to a depressed state.Swami Vivekananda: That is right. I have often suspected too, that when the moon is new for instance, then people tend to function to some extent on the energy of the lower chakras. The other ones are functioning too, but it is the lower chakras that are carrying a lot of the energy. Actually, the normal person experiences a depressed feeling lasting a couple of days during that phase. Then the moon starts activating the other chakras and the person comes out of it.Swami Nischalananda : This relationship is also indicated by the fact that some people go crazy at the time of full moon. It means that energy comes up to and accumulates at ajna chakra. The high energy affects the mind.Swami Vivekananda: It is strange that the medical profession denies that the full moon has any effect on the mental state of people, and there are comprehensive statistics from psy chiatric hospitals to show that the admission rate is no higher at the time of the full moon than it is at the time of new moon. To this I say that there are different conditions for which people are being admitted at the time of the full moon and at the time of the new moon; this can be seen most clearly.Swami Shankardevananda : In hospitals, all the nursing staff knows that when the full moon comes there are going to be problems. There will be more road accidents, more crazy people coming in and people going off their heads, etc.Swami Muktibodhananda: What is the difference between fear, anxiety and phobia?Swami Vivekananda: Fear is a normal response to a threatening situation. If a tiger came into this room, nine people would be frightened and that would be a natural response. Anxiety, on the other hand, is really a collection ch48.indd 424ch48.indd 424 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 425of symptoms which go on for a long time, usually not provoked by an external situation. Phobias are immediate responses, just like fear, except that the responses are to a non-threatening situation. A mouse a hundred yards down the corridor, for instance, would not affect any of us, but someone with a phobia about mice would panic. Swami Shankardevananda: Phobias are actually a displace- ment from an original object on to a different situation.Swami Vivekananda: That is the ego-defence mechanism that Freud used to talk about. Freud used to talk about anxiety, psychic complexes and so on, but the man in the taxi who had butterflies in the stomach did have an accident which may have activated some old samskara somewhere, which turned into a full fear of getting into his taxi. But the whole thing was cleared so quickly; it was not deep-seated. Sometimes I believe these things just build up in a susceptible moment rather than in a susceptible person. They build up from a small bit of anxiety to a bigger anxiety on the basis of a vicious circle. You break that vicious circle anywhere and the whole thing just dissolves.Swami Shankardevananda: The longer it is sustained the more difficult it is to break.Swami Vivekananda: Each chakra has its own work to perform and if one centre is blocked or diseased, then another centre takes over its work. Because this work or function is being done by another centre, it becomes perverted. This happens a lot if a person is inhibited in swadhisthana chakra. Manipura will take over the work and then the sexual activities will be just a power play, competition and that sort of stuff completely perverted. This perversion also occurs if manipura chakra takes over the job of anahata. It is seen in do-gooders, those people who come and force you, almost by threats of violence, to let them help you.Swami Shankardevananda: Another example is of those persons who get involved in a sexual encounter to fulfil the anahata centre, and of course they dont get that fulfilment. ch48.indd 425ch48.indd 425 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM 426This can lead to problems in marriage and all the things you were saying about perversion of normal function. Swami Vivekananda: So the purpose of yoga is to balance the functioning of the chakras and at the same time to awaken the associated energies. Only then can we function as joyful, spontaneous human beings, without de pres sion, psychosis or physical problems. Only when we balance and awaken all the chakras can life become meaning ful. ch48.indd 426ch48.indd 426 21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM21/03/2018 4:43:18 PM Appendix w-appendix-sec.indd 427w-appendix-sec.indd 427 21/03/2018 4:43:42 PM21/03/2018 4:43:42 PM blank w-appendix-tables.indd cdxxviiiw-appendix-tables.indd cdxxviii 21/03/2018 4:44:11 PM21/03/2018 4:44:11 PM Chakra Nature No. of Colour Physical Kshetram Physiological Endocrine Dhatu Petals Location Relationship Relationship Mooladhara root lotus four deep red perineum perineum sacro-coccygeal perineal bone cervix cervix plexus body Swadhisthana ones own six orange-red coccyx pubic bone pelvic plexus testes, ovaries fat abode Manipura city of ten yellow behind navel solar plexus adrenal glands esh jewels navelAnahata source of twelve blue behind centre of cardiac plexus thymus gland blood unbroken heart chest sound Vishuddhi centre of sixteen purple behind pit of throat pha ryngeal & thyroid gland skin nectar throat laryngeal plexus Ajna centre of two clear or grey centre of eyebrow cavernous pineal gland marrow command head centre plexus Sahasrara thousand thousand red or multi- crown of crown of hypothalamic pituitary gland semen (the) petalled (in nite) coloured head head pituitary axis essence of lotus all others) Table 1 w-appendix-tables.indd cdxxixw-appendix-tables.indd cdxxix 21/03/2018 4:44:13 PM21/03/2018 4:44:13 PM Chakra Prana Kosha Tattwa Yantra Tanmatra Jnanendriya Karmendriya Vayu Mooladhara apana annamaya prithvi (earth) yellow square smell nose anus Swadhisthana vyana pranamaya apas (water) silver or white taste tongue sex organs, crescent moon kidneys, urinary system Manipura samana pranamaya agni ( re) red inverted sight eyes feet triangle Anahata prana manomaya vayu (air) smoky six-pointed touch skin hands star Vishuddhi udana vijnanamaya akasha (ether) white circle hearing ears vocal chords Ajna all ve vijnanamaya manas (mind) clear or grey circle mind mind mind Sahasrara beyond anandamaya beyond beyond beyond beyond beyondTable 2 w-appendix-tables.indd cdxxxw-appendix-tables.indd cdxxx 21/03/2018 4:44:14 PM21/03/2018 4:44:14 PM Chakra Beeja Loka Devi Deva Animal Yoni Lingam Granthi Mooladhara lam bhu Savitri or Dakini Ganesha elephant (airavata) tripura swayambhu brahma Swadhisthana vam bhuvah Saraswati or Rakini Vishnu crocodile (makara) dhumraManipura ram swaha Lakshmi or Lakini Rudra ramAnahata yam maha Kali or Kakini Isha antelope trikona bana vishnuVishuddhi ham janaha Sakini Sadashiva white elephantAjna om tapaha Hakini Paramshiva trikona itarakhya rudraSahasrara satyam Shakti Shiva jyotir Table 3 w-appendix-tables.indd cdxxxiw-appendix-tables.indd cdxxxi 21/03/2018 4:44:14 PM21/03/2018 4:44:14 PM Chakra Psychic Experience Associated Powers Mooladhara Inverted red triangle with coiled Full knowledge of kundalini and the power to awaken it. Levitation, serpent control of body, breath and mind; ability to produce any smell for one self or others; ever free from disease, cheerful and full of gladness. Swadhisthana T otal darkness, unconsciousness No fear of water, intuitional knowledge, knowledge of astral entities, power of tasting anything desired for oneself and others. Manipura Bright yellow lotus Acquisition of hidden treasure, no fear of re, knowledge of ones own body, freedom from disease, withdrawal of energy to sahasrara. Anahata Blue lotus upon a lake of stillness; Control of prana and ability to heal others, cosmic love, inspired speech, golden ame in a dark cave gift of poetry, words bear fruit, intense concentration and complete control of the senses. Vishuddhi Feeling of cold and drops of Imperishability; full knowledge of the Vedas; knowledge of past, present, nectar future; ability to exist without eating; power to read others thoughts. Ajna Golden egg and spontaneous Able to enter anothers body at will; becomes all-knowing and all-see- trance (unmani) ing; acquisition of all siddhis; realization of unity with Brahman (supreme consciousness). Sahasrara Luminous lingam surrounded by Samadhi, total awakening, self-realization. bright red or multicoloured lotus of in nite petalsTable 4 w-appendix-tables.indd cdxxxiiw-appendix-tables.indd cdxxxii 21/03/2018 4:44:14 PM21/03/2018 4:44:14 PM 433Glossary Adwaita non-dual; the concept of oneness. Agni fire.Ajapa japa meditational practice in which mantra is repeated in coordination with the ingoing and outgoing breath. Ajna chakra the psychic command centre situatedin the midbrain. Akasha ethereal space, e.g. the inner space before the forehead known as chidakasha, the heart space known as hridayakasha, and the ether of outer space known as mahakasha. Amaroli yogic tantric practice in which the urine is used either internally or externally for mental and physical health. Amrit psychic nectar which is secreted in bindu and drops from lalana chakra to vishuddhi chakra, causing a feeling of blissful intoxication. Amygdala small area of grey matter in the temporal lobe, part of the limbic system. Anahata chakra the psychic centre related to the region of the heart. Anandamaya kosha blissful transcendental dimension; personal and collective unconscious. Annamaya kosha the physical body or level of existence; the conscious aspect. x-glossary.indd 433x-glossary.indd 433 21/03/2018 4:44:44 PM21/03/2018 4:44:44 PM 434Aorta largest artery of the body, which takes oxygenated blood from the heart for distribution throughout the body. Apana vital energy in the lower part of the body, below the navel. Asana a steady and comfortable position of the body.Ashram yogic community where the inmates live and work under the guidance of a guru. Astral body the subtle, psychic body; finer than the physical body. Atman the pure self, beyond body and mind.Atma shakti spiritual force.Aushadhi awakening of spiritual power through the use of herbs or plant preparations. Autogenic training psychotherapy that works with the body and mind simultaneously; learning to manipulate the bodily functions through the mind. Avatara divine incarnation.Avidya ignorance.Awareness the faculty of conscious knowing.Ballistocardiograph machine which measures small body motions accompanying the movement of blood through the circulatory system. Bandha psychomuscular energy lock which redirects the flow of psychic energy in the body. Beeja mantra seed sound; a basic mantra or vibration which has its origin in trance consciousness. Bhajan devotional song.Bhakta one who follows the path of bhakti yoga.Bhakti yoga the yoga of devotion.Bhrumadhya the eyebrow centre; kshetram or contact point for ajna chakra. Bindu the psychic centre situated at the top back of the head; a point or drop which is the substratum of the whole cosmos, the seat of total creation. Brahma the divine spirit, Hindu god; creator of the universe. x-glossary.indd 434x-glossary.indd 434 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 435Brahmacharya control and redirection of sexual energy towards spiritual awakening. Brahma granthi knot of creation. Psychomuscular knot in the perineum which must be released for kundalini to enter and ascend through sushumna nadi. It symbolizes the blockage posed by material and sensual attachment. Brahmamuhurta the time between 4 and 6 a.m. This is the sattwic time of day, best suited to yogic sadhana. Brahma nadi the most subtle pranic flow within the sushumna nadi. Brahmin a member of the priestly caste.Buddhi the higher intelligence, concerned with real wisdom; the faculty of valuing things for the advancement of life and conscious awareness. Causal body the body you experience in deep sleep and in certain types of samadhi. Central canal the hollow passage within the spinal cord. In the subtle body, this is the path of sushumna nadi. Cerebral cortex grey matter on the surface of the brain responsible for higher mental function. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cushion of fluid protecting the brain and spinal cord. Cervical plexus autonomic nerve plexus in the neck associated with vishuddhi chakra. Cervix the circular opening leading into the womb; seat of mooladhara chakra in the female body. Chakra literally wheel or vortex; major psychic centre in the subtle body, responsible for specific physiological and psychic functions. Chela disciple.Chitta mind; conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels of the brain. Cingulate gyrus a convolution of the brain, part of the limbic system. Coccygeal plexus small nerve plexus at the base of the spine behind the pelvic cavity, related to swadhisthana chakra. x-glossary.indd 435x-glossary.indd 435 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 436Consciousness the medium of universal and individual awareness. Corpus callosum fibres connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. Deity a form of divinity, a divine being having subordinate functions. Devata divine power. Devi a goddess; a manifestation of Shakti.Dharana concentration; continuity of mental process on one object or idea without leaving it. Dharma duty; code of harmonious living; spiritual path.Dhumra lingam smoky (obscured) lingam; the symbol of Shiva as manifest in mooladhara chakra. Dhyana meditation, in the sense of intense meditation for an extended period of time. Diksha initiation into spiritual life by a guru.Dopamine chemical involved in the excitatory systems of the brain. Durga Hindu goddess; a personification of Shakti, pictured riding upon a tiger, to whom personal ambition is rendered. Dwaita the philosophy of dualism in which man and God are considered to be separated. ECG electrocardiogram. Tracing of electric current pro- duced by the heart. EEG electroencephalogram. Recording of electric current pro duced by nerve cells in the brain. EMG electromyography. Recording of electrical properties of muscles. Epiglottis flap of cartilage at the back of the throat which integrates the swallowing and breathing processes. Frontal lobe anterior portion of the brain containing the motor area. Ganga the river Ganges, the longest and most sacred river in India. Gauss measurement of intensity of a magnetic field.Granthis the three psychic knots on the sushumna nadi x-glossary.indd 436x-glossary.indd 436 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 437which hinder the upward passage of kundalini brahma granthi, vishnu granthi and rudra granthi. Gunas the three qualities or matter of prakriti tamas, rajas and sattwa. Guru literally, dispeller of darkness, the spiritual master or teacher. Guru chakra another name for ajna chakra, the eye of intuition; through which the inner gurus guidance manifests. Hatha yoga a system of yoga which specially deals with practices for bodily purification. Hippocampus an elevation on the floor of the lateral ventricle, part of the limbic system. Hiranyagarbha the golden egg; womb of consciousness, the seat of supreme awareness in the crown of the head; known as sahasrara chakra. Hridayakasha the etheric space visualized within the heart; the heart space. Hypometabolic state state of lowered metabolism, for example, decrease in respiratory, circulatory and secretory rates. Hypothalamus portion of the brain that integrates temperature, sleep, food intake, development of sexual characteristics and endocrine activity. Ida major psychic channel which conducts manas shakti, mental energy, located on the left side of the psychic body; the tha of hatha yoga. Indriyas sense organs.Ishta devata ones personal symbol, form or vision of God. Itarakhya lingam symbol of Shiva in ajna chakra.Jalandhara bandha chin lock. It compresses the prana in the trunk of the body and thereby helps to control psychic energy. Japa repetition of a mantra until it becomes the spontaneous form of your conscious awareness. Jivanmukta liberated soul, one who has attained self- realization or moksha. x-glossary.indd 437x-glossary.indd 437 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 438Jivatma the individual soul Jnana yoga path of yoga concerned directly with knowledge, self-awareness. Jnanendriyas the organs of knowledge or sensory organs such eyes, ears, skin, etc. Jyotir lingam the symbol of Shiva in sahasrara chakra. This lingam is of pure white light, symbolizing illumined astral consciousness. Kabbalah text dealing with the esoteric mysticism of the Judaic religion. Kali form of Shakti who arouses terror and fear, destroyer of ignorance in her devotees. Karma actions, work, the inherent subconscious imprints which make a person act. Karma yoga action performed unselfishly, for the welfare of others and the fulfilment of dharma. Karmendriyas organs of action, e.g. feet, hands, vocal chords, anus, sexual organs, etc. Kevala kumbhaka spontaneous breath retention.Khechari mudra mudra of hatha yoga and tantra, in which the tongue passes back into the pharynx to stimulate the flow of amrit from lalana chakra, activating vishuddhi. Kirtan repetition of mantras set to music.Koshas sheaths or bodies.Kshetram contact centres or trigger points for the chakras, located in the front of the body. Kumbhaka breath retention.Kurma nadi (tortoise nadi) associated with vishuddhi chakra. Its control brings the ability to live without physical sustenance. Lalana chakra minor chakra in the region of the back wall of the pharynx, where amrit is stored from bindu and released to vishuddhi. Limbic system group of structures in the brain associated with certain aspects of emotion and behaviour. Lingam symbol representing Lord Shiva; the male aspect of creation; symbol of the astral body. x-glossary.indd 438x-glossary.indd 438 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 439Loka world, dimension or plane of existence or con- sciousness. Lord Shiva archetypal renunciate and yogi who dwells in meditation high in the Himalayas; Hindu god; destroyer of the universe. Madya wine; also refers to spiritual intoxication resulting from drinking the nectar of immortality, amrit. Mahakala great or endless time.Mahatma great soul.Maithuna literally sacrifice, sexual union with a spiritual purpose. Mala a rosary-like string of beads used in meditational practices. Manas one aspect of mind; the mental faculty of comparing, classifying and reasoning. Manas shakti mental force.Mandala tantric diagram used for meditation.Manic depression psychosis marked by severe mood swings. Manomaya kosha mental dimension; conscious and subconscious aspects. Mantra a sound or a series of sounds having physical, psychic or spiritual potency when recited in a certain prescribed manner. Marga path.Matra unit of measurement.Maya principle of illusion.Moksha liberation from the cycle of births and deaths.Moola bandha practice of stimulating mooladhara chakra for the awakening of kundalini. It is practised by contract-ing the perineum in males, or the cervix in females. Mudra a psychic attitude often expressed by a physical gesture, movement or posture, which affects the flow of psychic energy in the body. Nada sound, especially inner sound.Nada yoga the yoga of subtle sound.Nadis psychic channels for the distribution of prana in the astral body. x-glossary.indd 439x-glossary.indd 439 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 440Neti cleansing technique in which warm saline water is passed through the nasal passages; one of the shatkarmas. Nirvana enlightenment, samadhi; harmony between the individual consciousness and the universal consciousness. Nivritti marga the path leading back in towards the source from which we have first come. Nuclear fission the process of extracting energy from matter by splitting the atom. Om the underlying sound of creation; the mantra from which all others have originated. Paranoia chronic mental disorder characterized by delu sions or hallucinations. Parasympathetic nervous system division of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system concerned with restorative processes and relaxation of the body and mind. Pashu the instinctual or animal aspect of mans nature.Pineal gland small pinecone shaped endocrine gland in the midbrain directly behind the eyebrow centre; the physical correlate of ajna chakra. Pingala the conductor and channel of prana shakti or vital force, located on the right side of the psychic body; the ha of hatha yoga. Prakriti the basic substance or principle of the entire phenomenal or manifest world, composed of the three gunas (triguna) or attributes. Prana the life force in the body; bioenergy in general; the vital energy which operates in the region of the heart and lungs; the psychic equivalent of the physical breath. Pranamaya kosha energy dimension; conscious aspect.Prana shakti pranic or vital force.Pranayama yogic practice of manipulating and controlling the flow of prana in the subtle body by controlling the respiratory process. Pranotthana the impulses which pass up sushumna nadi to the higher centres of the brain when a chakra is transiently aroused. These impulses purify the sushumna passage in preparation for sustained kundalini awakening. x-glossary.indd 440x-glossary.indd 440 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 441Pravritti marga the path of expansion outwards into greater and greater manifestation, further away from the source of our origin. Psi psychic phenomena. Psyche the total mental aspect of man.Psychosis major mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality. Purusha consciousness; the spirit or pure self.Raja yoga eightfold path of yoga formulated by Patanjali. It begins with mental stability and proceeds to the highest state of samadhi. Rajo guna the guna of prakriti characterized by restlessness, activity and ambition. Rakshasa demon; negative or self-defeating force.Reticular activating system ( RAS) that part of the brainstem especially concerned with arousal from sleep and maintenance of the alert, waking state of consciousness. Rishi seer or sage; who realizes the truth directly.Rolfing structural integration. Deep massage to rebalance the body structures. Rudra granthi (also known as Shiva granthi) the knot of Shiva. This is the psychic knot within ajna chakra, which symbolizes attachment to siddhis or higher mental attributes which must be transcended before full awakening of kundalini can occur. Sacral plexus nerve plexus in the back wall of the pelvis associated with swadhisthana and mooladhara chakras, and responsible for the functioning of the urinary and reproductive systems. Sadhaka a student of spiritual practices.Sadhana spiritual discipline or practice.Sahajoli the form of vajroli mudra practised by women; contraction of the urethra sphincter muscle. Sahasrara the thousand-petalled lotus or chakra manifest- ing at the top of the head; the highest psychic centre; the threshold between psychic and spiritual realms which contains all the chakras below it. x-glossary.indd 441x-glossary.indd 441 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 442Samadhi state of being above mortal existence; all- knowing and all-pervading state of being; the fulfilment of meditation; state of union with the object of meditation and the universal consciousness. Samana vital energy operating in the region of the navel.Samkhya the ancient scientific philosophy of India which classifies all that is known without reference to an external power (God). Samskara past mental impression; archetype.Sandhya ritual worship conducted at dawn, at noon and evening. Sangha associations, company, acquaintances.Sankalpa spiritual resolve.Sankalpa shakti the power of will.Sannyasa total renunciation, perfect dedication.Satsang spiritual instruction, discussion and guidance from an illumined being or guru. Sattwa one of the three gunas of prakriti; the pure or equilibrated state of mind or nature. Saundarya Lahari tantric prayer of Adi Shankaracharya.Schizophrenia a severe mental/emotional disturbance characterized by hallucinations and disconnection between thought, feelings and actions. Schumann resonance magnetic resonance of the earth 7 cycles/second. Shabda sound or word; the materially creative principle.Shaivism philosophy of Shiva worship, perhaps the most ancient faith in the world. Shakti power, energy; the feminine aspect of creation; the force expressed through all manifested phenomena. Shambhavi mudra mudra named after Shambhu (Shiva); focusing the eyes on bhrumadhya. Shankhaprakshalana a method of cleansing the entire alimentary canal. Shanti peace.Shastras scriptures.Shatkarmas the six cleansing techniques of hatha yoga. x-glossary.indd 442x-glossary.indd 442 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 443Shivalingam oval-shaped stone which is the symbol of Shiva, consciousness or the astral body. Shoonya, shoonyata the state of absolute nothingness or void; mental vacuum. Shuddhi purification. Siddha adept, yogi; one who has control over nature, matter and the mind. Siddhi perfection; one of the eight occult powers; a psychic power associated with awakening of chakra functions. Solar plexus intersection of a group of nerves in the ab- dominal region; the physical manifestation of manipura. Soma amrit; a plant used by the rishis of ancient India for the purpose of spiritual awakening and immortality. Sushumna nadi the most important psychic passageway. It flows in the central canal within the spinal cord. Swadhisthana chakra the psychic centre corresponding to the coccyx or pubic region. Swami literally one who is master of his own mind; sannyasin disciple initiated into sannyasa by a guru; one who has renounced mundane experiences as goals in life. Swara yoga the science of the breath cycle.Swayambhu self-created.Sympathetic nervous system the division of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system responsible for maintaining physical activity of the organs and expenditure of energy. Tamas darkness; inertia; one of the three gunas of prakriti.Tanmatra the sense activities sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, and also inner intuitive perception via the subtle organ of mind, which is the sixth sense. Tantra the ancient science which uses specific techniques to expand and liberate the consciousness from its limitations. Tantra shastra scriptures of the tantric tradition devoted to spiritual techniques, in the form of a dialogue between Shiva and Shakti. These texts outline a code of living which includes ritual, worship, discipline, meditation and the attainment of powers. x-glossary.indd 443x-glossary.indd 443 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 444Tapasya the practice of austerity; conditioning of the body for the removal of impurities and for overcoming the deficiencies and weaknesses of the body, mind and senses. Tattwa elemental nature or quality, e.g. fire, water, air, earth, ether. Thalamus area in the brain which receives most sensory stimuli and integrates most incoming and outgoing information. Also the centre for appreciation of pain, touch and temperature. Trataka the meditational or hatha yoga technique which involves steadily gazing at an object. Trishula trident; three pronged implement held by Lord Shiva and carried by many holy men and renunciates. The three prongs symbolize the three main nadis. Udana the vital energy operating above the throat.Uddiyana bandha literally flying upward; a yogic practice of pranic manipulation utilizing the abdominal muscles and organs. Vairagya non-attachment; state where one is calm and tranquil in the midst of the tumultuous events of the world. Vajra nadi the nadi which connects the expression of sexual energy with the brain and is concerned with the flow of ojas, the highest form of energy in the human body which is concentrated in the semen. Vajroli mudra contraction of vajra nadi; contraction of urethra sphincter muscle in men. Vasana the desires that are the driving force behind every thought and action in life. Vayu air.Vedanta the ultimate philosophy of the Vedas.Vedas the oldest known religious texts of the Aryans, written more than 5000 years ago. Ventricles cavities in the brain where the CSF is formed.Vijnanamaya kosha intuitive or astral dimension; subcon- scious and unconscious aspects. Vishnu Hindu god; preserver of the universe. x-glossary.indd 444x-glossary.indd 444 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 445Vishuddhi chakra the psychic centre located in the throat region. Vritti a modification arising in consciousness, likened to the circular wave pattern emanating when a stone is dropped into a still pool of water. Vyana vital energy which pervades the whole body.Yantra a symbolic design used for concentration and medi- tation; the visual form of a mantra. Yoga union; the methods and practices leading to union of individual human consciousness with the divine principle or cosmic consciousness. Yoga nidra psychic sleep; a yogic practice in which one can raise oneself from the mundane state of body conscious-ness. Yoga Sutras text written by Patanjali, delineating the eightfold path of raja yoga, the systematic path of meditation which culminates in the samadhi experience. x-glossary.indd 445x-glossary.indd 445 21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM21/03/2018 4:44:46 PM 446References Chapter 40: Kundalini, Fact not Fiction 1 Ostrander, S. & Schroeder, L., PSI Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, Abacus, London, 1977, pp. 8889. 2 Ibid, pp. 8899. 3 Ibid, p. 398. 4 Ibid, p. 237. 5 Y aeger, R., The Effect of Kundalini Yoga on Onion Root Cells Mi- tosis, Unpublished paper, California State College, 1979. Quoted in Kundalini, Evolution and Enlightenment , White, J. (Ed.), Anchor- Doubleday, New York, 1979, pp. 266267. Chapter 41: Defining the Nadis 1 Jung, G.G., Mysterium Coniunctionis, Collected Works, Bollingen Series, Princeton University Press, 14: xvixvii. 2 Deikman, A.J., Bimodal Consciousness, Archives of Gen. Psychiat ., 25: 4819, Dec. 1971. Chapter 42: Controlling the Nadis and the Brain 1 Kinsbourne, M., Sad Hemisphere, Happy Hemisphere, Psychology T oday, May 1981. 2 Gardener, H., How the Split Brain Gets a Joke, Psychology T oday , Feb. 1981. 3 Black, M., Brain Flash: The Physiology of Inspiration, Science Digest, August, 1982. y-refs.indd 446y-refs.indd 446 21/03/2018 4:45:08 PM21/03/2018 4:45:08 PM 4474 Ingber, D., Brain Breathing, Science Digest , June 1981. 5 Kinsbourne, op. cit. 6 Breathing Cycles Linked to Hemisphere Dominance, Brain Mind Bulletin , 8 (3), Jan. 3, 1983. 7 Ibid. Chapter 43: Evidence for the Existence of Nadis 1 Motoyama, H., Chakra, Nadi of Yoga and Meridians, Points of Acupuncture, Instit. of Religious Psych ., Oct. 1972. 2 Motoyama, H., The Mechanism Through Which Paranormal Phenomena Take Place, Religion & Parapsych., 1975, 2. 3 Motoyama, H., Do Meridians Exist, and What are They Like, Research for Religion & Parapsych. , 1 (1), Feb. 1975. 4 Motoyama, H., A Psychophysiological Study of Yoga, Institute for Rel. Psych., 1976, 6. 5 Motoyama, H., An Electrophysiological Study of Prana (ki), Res. for Rel. & Parapsych., 4 (1), Nov. 1978. 6 Motoyama, H., Yoga and Oriental Medicine, Res. for Rel. & Para- psych. 5 (1), March, 1979. 7 Motoyama, H., Electrophysiological and Preliminary Biochemical Studies of Skin Properties in Relation to the Acupuncture Meridian, Res. for Rel . & Parapsych., 6 (2), June, 1980. 8 Motoyama, H., A Biophysical Elucidation of the Meridian and Ki-Energy, Res. for Rel. & Parapsych ., 7 (1), August, 1981. 9 Motoyama, H., The Meridian Exercises, Res. for Rel. & Parapsych ., 8 (1), Oct. 1982. 10 Riga, I.N., Neuro-Reflex Syndrome of Unilateral Nasal Obstruc- tion, Revue DOto-Neuro-Ophthalmologic, 29 (6): 111, 1957. Chapter 44: Neurophysiology of the Chakras 1 MacLean, P ., A Triune Concept of the Brain and Behaviour , Toronto Press, Toronto, 1973. 2 Loye, D., Foresight Saga, Omni, Sept. 1982. y-refs.indd 447y-refs.indd 447 21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM 448Chapter 45: Evidence for the Existence of Chakras 1 Motoyama, H., A Psychophysiological Study of Yoga, Instit. for Religious Psychol., Tokyo, 1976, 6. 2 Motoyama, H., The Mechanism through Which Paranormal Phenomena Take Place, Instit. for Religion & Parapsych ., Tokyo, 1975, 2. 3 Motoyama, H., An Electrophysiological Study of Prana (Ki), Res. Religion & Parapsych., 4 (1), 1978. 4 Motoyama, H., Theories of the Chakras: Bridge to Higher Consciousness , Quest, Illinois, 1981, pp. 271279. 5 Ibid, p. 275. 6 Ibid, p. 275. 7 Electronic Evidence of Auras, Chakras in UCLA Study, Brain Mind Bulletin, 3 (9), March 20, 1978. 8 Vision Training Provides Window to Brain Changes, Brain Mind Bulletin , 7 (13), Oct. 25, 1982. 9 Ibid. Chapter 46: The Cosmic Trigger 1 Bentov, I., Stalking the Wild Pendulum , Fontana, Great Britain, 1979, p. 174. 2 Bentov, I., Micromotion of the Body as a Factor in the Develop- ment of the Nervous System, Appendix A in Kundalini Psychosis or Transcendence ? by Lee Sannella, San Francisco, 1976, pp. 7192. 3 Ibid, p. 73. 4 Ibid, p. 73. 5 Satyamurti, S., Pranic Mind Field, Yoga, 15(6); 2937, June, 1977. 6 Bentov, I., op. cit., p. 180. 7 Black, M., Brain Flash: The Physiology of Inspiration, Science Digest, August, 1982. 8 Post, R.M., Kindling: A Useful Analogy for Brain Reaction, Psy- chology T oday, August, 1980, p. 92. 9 Gaito, J., Psychological Bulletin, 83: 10971109. y-refs.indd 448y-refs.indd 448 21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM 44910 Post, op. cit. 11 Ferguson, M., Kindling and Kundalini Effects, Brain Mind Bul- letin, 2 (7), Feb, 21, 1977. 12 Ibid. 13 Wallace, R.K. and Benson, H., The Physiology of Meditation, Scient. Am. 226 (2): 8490, Feb, 1972. 14 Anand, B.K., Chhina, G.S., Singh, B. Some Aspects of EEG Stud- ies in Yoga, EEG & Clin, Neurophys ., 13: 452456, 1961. 15 Kasamatsu, A. & Hirai, T ., An EEG Study of the Zen Meditation, Folia Psychiat. Et Neurologica Japonica, 20 (4): 315336, 1966. 16 Das, N. & Gastaut, H., Variations de lactivite electrique du cerveau, du coeur, et des muscles squelettiques au course de la meditation et de lextase yoguie. EEG & Clin, Neurophys . Sup. 6, 211219, 1955. 17 Banquet, J.P ., Spectral Analysis of the EEG in Meditation, EEG & Clin Neurophys., 35: 143151, 1973. 18 Ibid, p. 150. 19 Levine, H., Herbert, J.R., Haynes, C.T ., Strobel, U., EEG Coher- ence during the TM Technique. In Sci. Res. on the T .M. Program, Collected Papers, Vol. I, (Ed) D. W. Orme-Johnson & J.T . Farrow. Pp. 187207, Meru Press: Germany. 20 Corby, J.C., Roth, W.T ., Zarcone, V .P ., Kopell, B.S., Psychophysi- ological Correlates of the Practice of Tantric Yoga Meditation, Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 35: 571577, May, 1978. 21 Corby, J.C., Reply to Dr Elson, Arch. Gen. Psychiatry , 36: 606. 1979. Chapter 47: Cross-Cultural Evidence 1 White, J. (ed.), Kundalini, Evolution and Enlightenment , Archer, New York, 1979, p. 17. 2 Ludwig, A.M., Altered States of Consciousness, in Altered States of Consciousness, Tart, C.T . (ed), Doubleday Anchor, New York, 1972, pp. 1122. 3 Hooper, J., Mind Tripping, Omni, Oct. 1982. 4 Katz, R., Education for Transcendence: Lessons from the !Kung Zhu Jwasi, F Transp. Psychol., Nov. 2, 1973. y-refs.indd 449y-refs.indd 449 21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM 4505 Hooper, op. cit. 6 Luk, C., The Secrets of Chinese Meditation , Samuel Weiser Inc., New York, 1972. 7 Narayananda, Swami, The Primal Power in Man , Prasad & Co., Rishikesh, India, 1960. 8 Interior Castle , (tr. & ed.) E. Allison Peers, Doubleday & Co., New York, 1961, pp. 7778. y-refs.indd 450y-refs.indd 450 21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM21/03/2018 4:45:10 PM 451Index of Practices A Agnisar Kriya (activating the digestive fire) ..................... 232 Agochari Mudra (Nasikagra Drishti) ................................ 225 Ajapa Japa meditation ...................................................... 241Ajna chakra practices ........................................................ 211Amrit Pan (the quaffing of nectar) .................................... 308Anahata chakra practices .................................................. 238Anahata chakra and kshetram location ............................ 239Anahata purification ......................................................... 239Anuloma Viloma Pranayama (the coming and going breath) .................................... 213 Ashwini Mudra (horse gesture) ......................................... 227 B Beeja Mantra Sanchalana (conducting the seed sound) ....................................... 272 Bhadrasana (gracious pose) .............................................. 208Bhramari Pranayama (humming bee breath) ................... 240Bindu practices ................................................................. 251 C Chakra Anusandhana (discovery of the chakras) ............. 286 Chakra Bhedan (piercing the chakras) ............................. 309Chakra meditation ............................................................ 260Chakra meditation with musical scale .............................. 263Chakra Yoga Nidra ........................................................... 266Chaturtha Pranayama (fourth pranayama) ...................... 265 z-index-prac.indd 451z-index-prac.indd 451 21/03/2018 4:20:43 PM21/03/2018 4:20:43 PM 452D Dhyana (meditation) ......................................................... 315 Drawing the chakras ......................................................... 275 J Jalandhara Bandha (throat lock) ...................................... 246 K Khechari Mudra (tongue lock) ......................................... 247 Kriya Yoga practices .......................................................... 284 L Linga Sanchalana (astral conduction) .............................. 313M Maha Bheda Mudra (great piercing attitude) .................. 295 Maha Mudra (great attitude) ............................................ 291Manduki Mudra (frog attitude) ........................................ 299Manipura chakra practices ............................................... 229Manipura chakra and kshetram location ......................... 230Manipura purification ...................................................... 230Meditation entering the heart space ............................. 242Moola Bandha (perineal contraction) .............................. 222Mooladhara chakra location ............................................. 221Mooladhara chakra practices ............................................ 219Moorchha Pranayama (swooning or fainting breath) ....... 252Musical chakra meditation ............................................... 263 N Nada Sanchalana (conducting the sound consciousness) ......................... 287 Nasikagra Drishti (nose tip gazing) .................................. 224Nauli (abdominal massaging) ........................................... 233Naumukhi Mudra (closing the nine gates) ....................... 302 P Padmasana (lotus pose) ..................................................... 206Pawan Sanchalana (conducting the breath consciousness) ........................ 289 Perception of subtle inner sound ...................................... 254Prana Ahuti (infusing the divine prana) ........................... 311Prana Shuddhi (purifying breath) .................................... 213 z-index-prac.indd 452z-index-prac.indd 452 21/03/2018 4:20:45 PM21/03/2018 4:20:45 PM 453S Sahajoli Mudra (spontaneous psychic attitude) ................ 228 Shabda Sanchalana (conducting the word consciousness) .......................... 290 Shakti Chalini (conduction of the thought force) ............. 304 Shambhavi (Parvatis lotus) ............................................... 306Shambhavi Mudra with Om chanting .............................. 217Shanmukhi Mudra (closing the seven gates) .................... 256Siddha Yoni Asana (accomplished pose for women) ........ 205Siddhasana (accomplished pose for men) ........................ 203Sushumna Darshan (inner visualization of the chakras) ............................. 310 Swadhisthana chakra location .......................................... 227Swadhisthana chakra practices ......................................... 226Swadhisthana kshetram location ...................................... 227Swana Pranayama (panting breath) .................................. 231Swaroopa Darshan (the vision of your Self) ...................... 313 T Tadan Kriya (beating the kundalini) ................................. 300Trataka (concentrated gazing) .......................................... 214 U Uddiyana Bandha (abdominal contraction) ..................... 232Ujjayi Pranayama (psychic breath) ................................... 247Union of prana and apana ............................................... 237Unmani mudra (attitude of mindlessness) ....................... 271Utthan (raising the kundalini) .......................................... 312Utthanpadasana (stretched leg pose) ............................... 207 V Vajroli Mudra (thunderbolt attitude) ................................ 228 Vajroli/sahajoli mudra with bindu awareness .................... 253Vipareeta Karani Asana (inverted pose) ........................... 249Vipareeta Karani Mudra (attitude of inversion) ............... 285Vishuddhi chakra practices ............................................... 245Vishuddhi chakra and kshetram location and purification ........................................................... 248 z-index-prac.indd 453z-index-prac.indd 453 21/03/2018 4:20:45 PM21/03/2018 4:20:45 PM Swami Satyananda was born in Almora (Uttaranchal) in 1923. Drawn to spiritual life from an early age, he left home at the age of eighteen, and in 1943 surr endered himself to Swami Sivananda in Rishikesh who initiated him into Dashnami sannyasa in 1947. He served his guru for twelve years, perfecting every aspect of spiritual life. Thereafter, he travelled through - out the Indian sub continent as a wandering ascetic. Realizing the need of the times as scientific rendition of the ancient system of yoga, he founded the International Yoga Fellowship in 1956 and the Bihar School of Yoga in 1963. During the next twenty years, Swami Satyananda hoisted the flag of yoga in every corner of the world, consolidated BSY into a foremost institution of yoga, and authored over eighty major texts on yoga, tantra and spiritual life. Satyananda Yoga became a tradition which combines classical knowledge with experiential understanding and a modern outlook. In 1984 he founded the Yoga Research Foundation to synchronize scientific research and yoga, and Sivananda Math to assist the underprivileged. In 1988, at the peak of his achievements, he renounced everything and adopted kshetra sannyasa, living as a paramahamsa ascetic. In 1989 Rikhia was revealed to him, where he came to live and performed higher vedic sadhanas in seclusion. Receiving the command to provide for his neighbours in 1991, he allowed the ashram to help the underprivileged villages in the region. From 1995 onwards, he performed a twelve-year Rajasooya Yajna with the sankalpa of peace, plenty and prosperity for all, and in 2007 he announced the establishment of Rikhiapeeth with its mandate to serve, love, give. Swami Satyananda attained mahasamadhi, a yogic accomplishment of discarding the body at will to become one with the universal consciousness, in 2009, in the presence of his disciples. 10 sss kundalini tantra ibc.indd 110 sss kundalini tantra ibc.indd 1 21/03/2018 4:47:14 PM21/03/2018 4:47:14 PM SA TYANANDA YOGA BIHAR YOGAKundalini TantraKundalini Tantra Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, IndiaSwami Satyananda SaraswatiSwami Satyananda Saraswati Kundalini Tantra is Swami Satyananda Saraswatis semi nal work on kundalini, chakras and kriya yoga. Defining and explaining kundalini, this book provides a detailed account of kundalini awakening, including the signs and effects of such experiences and ways to both elicit and manage them. The book contains a comprehensive description of each chakra and the sig nifi cance of the chakras in tantric and yogic practice. T echniques are given to bal ance each centre for greater harmony in mind, body and spirit, and in preparation for the rising of kundalini shakti. The 20 kriyas and their preparatory practices are fully elucidated. Includes colour plates, diagrams and charts. [bar code here] ISBN: 978-81-85787-15-2 BIHAR YOGA |
Also by Max Tegmark Our Mathematical Universe This Is a Borzoi Book Published by Alfred A. Knopf Copyright 2017 by Max Tegmark All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. www.aaknopf.com Knopf, Borzoi Books and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Tegmark, Max, author. Title: Life 3.0 : being human in the age of artificial intelligence / by Max Tegmark. Other titles: Life three point zero Description: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. | This is a Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017006248 (print) | LCCN 2017022912 (ebook) | ISBN 9781101946596 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781101946602 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Artificial intelligencePhilosophy. | Artificial intelligenceSocial aspects. | Automation Social aspects. | Artificial intelligenceMoral and ethical aspects. | AutomationMoral and ethical aspects. | Artificial intelligencePhilosophy. | Technological forecasting. | BISAC: TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Robotics. | SCIENCE / Experiments & Projects. | TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Inventions. Classification: LCC Q334.7 (ebook) | LCC Q334.7 .T44 2017 (print) | DDC 006.301dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017006248 Ebook ISBN 9781101946602 Cover art by Suvadip Das; (man) based on Netfalls Remy Musser/Shutterstock Cover design by John Vorhees v4.1 ep Contents Cover Also by Max Tegmark Title Page Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Prelude: The Tale of the Omega Team 1 Welcome to the Most Important Conversation of Our Time A Brief History of Complexity The Three Stages of Life Controversies Misconceptions The Road Ahead 2 Matter Turns Intelligent What Is Intelligence? What Is Memory? What Is Computation? What Is Learning? 3 The Near Future: Breakthroughs, Bugs, Laws, Weapons and Jobs Breakthroughs Bugs vs. Robust AI Laws Weapons Jobs and Wages Human-Level Intelligence? 4 Intelligence Explosion? Totalitarianism Prometheus Takes Over the World Slow Takeoff and Multipolar Scenarios Cyborgs and Uploads What Will Actually Happen? 5 Aftermath: The Next 10,000 Years Libertarian Utopia Benevolent Dictator Egalitarian Utopia Gatekeeper Protector God Enslaved God Conquerors Descendants Zookeeper 1984 Reversion Self-Destruction What Do You Want? 6 Our Cosmic Endowment: The Next Billion Years and Beyond Making the Most of Your Resources Gaining Resources Through Cosmic Settlement Cosmic Hierarchies Outlook 7 Goals Physics: The Origin of Goals Biology: The Evolution of Goals Psychology: The Pursuit of and Rebellion Against Goals Engineering: Outsourcing Goals Friendly AI: Aligning Goals Ethics: Choosing Goals Ultimate Goals? 8 Consciousness Who Cares? What Is Consciousness? Whats the Problem? Is Consciousness Beyond Science? Experimental Clues About Consciousness Theories of Consciousness Controversies of Consciousness How Might AI Consciousness Feel? Meaning Epilogue: The Tale of the FLI Team Notes To the FLI team, who made everything possible Acknowledgments Im truly grateful to everyone who has encouraged and helped me write this book, including my family, friends, teachers, colleagues and collaborators for support and inspiration over the years, Mom for kindling my curiosity about consciousness and meaning, Dad for the fighting spirit to make the world a better place, my sons, Philip and Alexander, for demonstrating the wonders of human-level intelligence emerging, all the science and technology enthusiasts around the world whove contacted me over the years with questions, comments and encouragement to pursue and publish my ideas, my agent, John Brockman, for twisting my arm until I agreed to write this book, Bob Penna, Jesse Thaler and Jeremy England for helpful discussions about quasars, sphalerons and thermodynamics, respectively, those who gave me feedback on parts of the manuscript, including Mom, my brother Per, Luisa Bahet, Rob Bensinger, Katerina Bergstrm, Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniela Chita, David Chalmers, Nima Deghani, Henry Lin, Elin Malmskld, Toby Ord, Jeremy Owen, Lucas Perry, Anthony Romero, Nate Soares and Jaan Tallinn, the superheroes who commented on drafts of the entire book, namely Meia, Dad, Anthony Aguirre, Paul Almond, Matthew Graves, Phillip Helbig, Richard Mallah, David Marble, Howard Messing, Luio Seoane, Marin Solja i , my editor Dan Frank and, most of all, Meia, my beloved muse and fellow traveler, for her eternal encouragement, support and inspiration, without which this book wouldnt exist. LIFE 3.0 Prelude The Tale of the Omega Team The Omega Team was the soul of the company. Whereas the rest of the enterprise brought in the money to keep things going, by various commercial applications of narrow AI, the Omega Team pushed ahead in their quest for what had always been the CEOs dream: building general artificial intelligence. Most other employees viewed the Omegas, as they affectionately called them, as a bunch of pie-in-the-sky dreamers, perpetually decades away from their goal. They happily indulged them, however, because they liked the prestige that the cutting-edge work of the Omegas gave their company, and they also appreciated the improved algorithms that the Omegas occasionally gave them. What they didnt realize was that the Omegas had carefully crafted their image to hide a secret: they were extremely close to pulling off the most audacious plan in human history. Their charismatic CEO had handpicked them not only for being brilliant researchers, but also for ambition, idealism and a strong commitment to helping humanity. He reminded them that their plan was extremely dangerous, and that if powerful governments found out, they would do virtually anythingincluding kidnappingto shut them down or, preferably, to steal their code. But they were all in, 100%, for much the same reason that many of the worlds top physicists joined the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons: they were convinced that if they didnt do it first, someone less idealistic would. The AI they had built, nicknamed Prometheus, kept getting more capable. Although its cognitive abilities still lagged far behind those of humans in many areas, for example, social skills, the Omegas had pushed hard to make it extraordinary at one particular task: programming AI systems. Theyd deliberately chosen this strategy because they had bought the intelligence explosion argument made by the British mathematician Irving Good back in 1965: Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an intelligence explosion, and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. They figured that if they could get this recursive self-improvement going, the machine would soon get smart enough that it could also teach itself all other human skills that would be useful. The First Millions It was nine oclock on a Friday morning when they decided to launch. Prometheus was humming away in its custom-built computer cluster, which resided in long rows of racks in a vast, access-controlled, air-conditioned room. For security reasons, it was completely disconnected from the internet, but it contained a local copy of much of the web (Wikipedia, the Library of Congress, Twitter, a selection from YouTube, much of Facebook, etc.) to use as its training data to learn from. * Theyd picked this start time to work undisturbed: their families and friends thought they were on a weekend corporate retreat. The kitchenette was loaded with microwaveable food and energy drinks, and they were ready to roll. When they launched, Prometheus was slightly worse than them at programming AI systems, but made up for this by being vastly faster, spending the equivalent of thousands of person-years chugging away at the problem while they chugged a Red Bull. By 10 a.m., it had completed the first redesign of itself, v2.0, which was slightly better but still subhuman. By the time Prometheus 5.0 launched at 2 p.m., however, the Omegas were awestruck: it had blown their performance benchmarks out of the water, and the rate of progress seemed to be accelerating. By nightfall, they decided to deploy Prometheus 10.0 to start phase 2 of their plan: making money. Their first target was MTurk, the Amazon Mechanical Turk. After its launch in 2005 as a crowdsourcing internet marketplace, it had grown rapidly, with tens of thousands of people around the world anonymously competing around the clock to perform highly structured chores called HITs, Human Intelligence Tasks. These tasks ranged from transcribing audio recordings to classifying images and writing descriptions of web pages, and all had one thing in common: if you did them well, nobody would know that you were an AI. Prometheus 10.0 was able to do about half of the task categories acceptably well. For each such task category, the Omegas had Prometheus design a lean custom-built narrow AI software module that could do precisely such tasks and nothing else. They then uploaded this module to Amazon Web Services, a cloud-computing platform that could run on as many virtual machines as they rented. For every dollar they paid to Amazons cloud-computing division, they earned more than two dollars from Amazons MTurk division. Little did Amazon suspect that such an amazing arbitrage opportunity existed within their own company! To cover their tracks, they had discreetly created thousands of MTurk accounts during the preceding months in the names of fictitious people, and the Prometheus-built modules now assumed their identities. The MTurk customers typically paid after about eight hours, at which point the Omegas reinvested the money in more cloud-computing time, using still better task modules made by the latest version of the ever-improving Prometheus. Because they were able to double their money every eight hours, they soon started saturating MTurks task supply, and found that they couldnt earn more than about a million dollars per day without drawing unwanted attention to themselves. But this was more than enough to fund their next step, eliminating any need for awkward cash requests to the chief financial officer. Dangerous Games Aside from their AI breakthroughs, one of the recent projects that the Omegas had had the most fun with was planning how to make money as rapidly as possible after Prometheus launch. Essentially the whole digital economy was up for grabs, but was it better to start by making computer games, music, movies or software, to write books or articles, to trade on the stock market or to make inventions and sell them? It simply boiled down to maximizing their rate of return on investment, but normal investment strategies were a slow-motion parody of what they could do: whereas a normal investor might be pleased with a 9% return per year, their MTurk investments had yielded 9% per hour, generating eight times more money each day. So now that theyd saturated MTurk, what next? Their first thought had been to make a killing on the stock marketafter all, pretty much all of them had at some point declined a lucrative job offer to develop AI for hedge funds, which were investing heavily in exactly this idea. Some remembered that this was how the AI made its first millions in the movie Transcendence . But the new regulations on derivatives after last years crash had limited their options. They soon realized that, even though they could get much better returns than other investors, theyd be unlikely to get returns anywhere close to what they could get from selling their own products. When you have the worlds first superintelligent AI working for you, youre better off investing in your own companies than in those of others! Although there might be occasional exceptions (such as using Prometheus superhuman hacking abilities to get inside information and then buy call options on stocks about to surge), the Omegas felt that this wasnt worth the unwanted attention it might draw. When they shifted their focus toward products that they could develop and sell, computer games first seemed the obvious top choice. Prometheus could rapidly become extremely skilled at designing appealing games, easily handling the coding, graphic design, ray tracing of images and all other tasks needed to produce a final ready-to-ship product. Moreover, after digesting all the webs data on peoples preferences, it would know exactly what each category of gamer liked, and could develop a superhuman ability to optimize a game for sales revenue. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , a game on which many of the Omegas had wasted more hours than they cared to admit, had grossed over $400 million during its first week back in 2011, and they were confident that Prometheus could make something at least this addictive in twenty-four hours using $1 million of cloud-computing resources. They could then sell it online and use Prometheus to impersonate humans talking up the game in the blogosphere. If this brought in $250 million in a week, they would have doubled their investment eight times in eight days, giving a return of 3% per hour slightly worse than their MTurk start, but much more sustainable. By developing a suite of other games each day, they figured theyd be able to earn $10 billion before long, without coming close to saturating the games market. But a cybersecurity specialist on their team talked them out of this game plan. She pointed out that it would pose an unacceptable risk of Prometheus breaking out and seizing control of its own destiny. Because they werent sure how its goals would evolve during its recursive self-improvement, they had decided to play it safe and go to great lengths to keep Prometheus confined (boxed) in ways such that it couldnt escape onto the internet. For the main Prometheus engine running in their server room, they used physical confinement: there simply was no internet connection, and the only output from Prometheus was in the form of messages and documents it sent to a computer that the Omegas controlled. On an internet-connected computer, on the other hand, running any complicated program created by Prometheus was a risky proposition: since the Omegas had no way of fully understanding what it would do, they had no way of knowing that it wouldnt, say, start virally spreading itself online. When testing the software that Prometheus had written for MTurk tasks, the Omegas guarded against this by running it only inside a virtual machine. This is a program that simulates a computer: for example, many Mac users buy virtual machine software that lets them run Windows programs by tricking them into thinking that theyre actually in a Windows machine. The Omegas had created their own virtual machine, nicknamed Pandoras Box, which simulated an ultrasimplified machine stripped of all bells and whistles that we usually associate with computers: no keyboard, no monitor, no loudspeakers, no internet connectivity, nothing. For the MTurk audio transcriptions, the Omegas set things up so that all that could go into Pandoras Box was one single audio file and all that could come out was one single text documentthe transcription. These laws of the box were to the software inside like the laws of physics are to us inside our Universe: the software couldnt travel out of the box any more than we can travel faster than the speed of light, no matter how smart we are. Except for that single input and output, the software inside Pandoras Box was effectively trapped in a parallel universe with its own computational rules. The Omegas had such strong breakout paranoia that they added boxing in time as well, limiting the life span of untrusted code. For example, each time the boxed transcription software had finished transcribing one audio file, the entire memory content of Pandoras Box was automatically erased and the program was reinstalled from scratch. This way, when it started the next transcription task, it had no knowledge of what had previously happened, and thus no ability to learn over time. When the Omegas used the Amazon cloud for their MTurk project, they were able to put all their Prometheus-created task modules into such virtual boxes in the cloud, because the MTurk input and output was so simple. But this wouldnt work for graphics-heavy computer games, which couldnt be boxed in because they needed full access to all the hardware of the gamers computer. Moreover, they didnt want to risk that some computer-savvy user would analyze their game code, discover Pandoras Box and decide to investigate what was inside. The breakout risk put not merely the games market off-limits for now, but also the massively lucrative market for other software, with hundreds of billions of dollars up for grabs. The First Billions The Omegas had narrowed their search to products that were highly valuable, purely digital (avoiding slow manufacturing) and easily understandable (for example, text or movies they knew wouldnt pose a breakout risk). In the end, they had decided to launch a media company, starting with animated entertainment. The website, the marketing plan and the press releases had all been ready to go even before Prometheus became superintelligentall that was missing was content. Although Prometheus was astonishingly capable by Sunday morning, steadily raking in money from MTurk, its intellectual abilities were still rather narrow: Prometheus had been deliberately optimized to design AI systems and write software that performed rather mind-numbing MTurk tasks. It was, for example, bad at making moviesbad not for any profound reason, but for the same reason that James Cameron was bad at making movies when he was born: this is a skill that takes time to learn. Like a human child, Prometheus could learn whatever it wanted from the data it had access to. Whereas James Cameron had taken years to learn to read and write, Prometheus had gotten that taken care of on Friday, when it also found time to read all of Wikipedia and a few million books. Making movies was harder. Writing a screenplay that humans found interesting was just as hard as writing a book, requiring a detailed understanding of human society and what humans found entertaining. Turning the screenplay into a final video file required massive amounts of ray tracing of simulated actors and the complex scenes they moved through, simulated voices, the production of compelling musical soundtracks and so on. As of Sunday morning, Prometheus could watch a two-hour movie in about a minute, which included reading any book it was based on and all online reviews and ratings. The Omegas noticed that after Prometheus had binge-watched a few hundred films, it started to get quite good at predicting what sort of reviews a movie would get and how it would appeal to different audiences. Indeed, it learned to write its own movie reviews in a way they felt demonstrated real insight, commenting on everything from the plots and the acting to technical details such as lighting and camera angles. They took this to mean that when Prometheus made its own films, it would know what success meant. The Omegas instructed Prometheus to focus on making animation at first, to avoid embarrassing questions about who the simulated actors were. On Sunday night, they capped their wild weekend by arming themselves with beer and microwave popcorn, dimming the lights and watching Prometheus debut movie. It was an animated fantasy-comedy in the spirit of Disneys Frozen, and the ray tracing had been performed by boxed Prometheus-built code in the Amazon cloud, using up most of the days $1 million MTurk profit. As the movie began, they found it both fascinating and frightening that it had been created by a machine without human guidance. Before long, however, they were laughing at the gags and holding their breath during the dramatic moments. Some of them even teared up a bit at the emotional ending, so engrossed in this fictional reality that they forgot all about its creator. The Omegas scheduled their website launch for Friday, giving Prometheus time to produce more content and themselves time to do the things they didnt trust Prometheus with: buying ads and starting to recruit employees for the shell companies theyd set up during the past months. To cover their tracks, the official cover story would be that their media company (which had no public association with the Omegas) bought most of its content from independent film producers, typically high-tech startups in low-income regions. These fake suppliers were conveniently located in remote places such as Tiruchchirappalli and Yakutsk, which most curious journalists wouldnt bother visiting. The only employees they actually hired there worked on marketing and administration, and would tell anyone who asked that their production team was in a different location and didnt conduct interviews at the moment. To match their cover story, they chose the corporate slogan Channeling the worlds creative talent, and branded their company as being disruptively different by using cutting-edge technology to empower creative people, especially in the developing world. When Friday came around and curious visitors started arriving at their site, they encountered something reminiscent of the online entertainment services Netflix and Hulu but with interesting differences. All the animated series were new ones theyd never heard of. They were rather captivating: most series consisted of forty-five-minute-long episodes with a strong plotline, each ending in a way that left you eager to find out what happened in the next episode. And they were cheaper than the competition. The first episode of each series was free, and you could watch the others for forty-nine cents each, with discounts for the whole series. Initially, there were only three series with three episodes each, but new episodes were added daily, as well as new series catering to different demographics. During the first two weeks of Prometheus, its moviemaking skills improved rapidly, in terms not only of film quality but also of better algorithms for character simulation and ray tracing, which greatly reduced the cloud- computing cost to make each new episode. As a result, the Omegas were able to roll out dozens of new series during the first month, targeting demographics from toddlers to adults, as well as to expand to all major world language markets, making their site remarkably international compared with all competitors. Some commentators were impressed by the fact that it wasnt merely the soundtracks that were multilingual, but the videos themselves: for example, when a character spoke Italian, the mouth motions matched the Italian words, as did the characteristically Italian hand gestures. Although Prometheus was now perfectly capable of making movies with simulated actors indistinguishable from humans, the Omegas avoided this to not tip their hand. They did, however, launch many series with semi-realistic animated human characters, in genres competing with traditional live-action TV shows and movies. Their network turned out to be quite addictive, and enjoyed spectacular viewer growth. Many fans found the characters and plots cleverer and more interesting than even Hollywoods most expensive big-screen productions, and were delighted that they could watch them much more affordably. Buoyed by aggressive advertising (which the Omegas could afford because of their near- zero production costs), excellent media coverage and rave word-of-mouth reviews, their global revenue had mushroomed to $10 million a day within a month of launch. After two months, they had overtaken Netflix, and after three, they were raking in over $100 million a day, beginning to rival Time Warner, Disney, Comcast and Fox as one of the worlds largest media empires. Their sensational success garnered plenty of unwanted attention, including speculation about their having strong AI, but using merely a small fraction of their revenue, the Omegas deployed a fairly successful disinformation campaign. From a glitzy new Manhattan office, their freshly hired spokespeople would elaborate on their cover stories. Plenty of humans were hired as foils, including actual screenwriters around the world to start developing new series, none of whom knew about Prometheus. The confusing international network of subcontractors made it easy for most of their employees to assume that others somewhere else were doing most of the work. To make themselves less vulnerable and avoid raising eyebrows with excessive cloud computing, they also hired engineers to start building a series of massive computer facilities around the world, owned by seemingly unaffiliated shell companies. Although they were billed to locals as green data centers because they were largely solar-powered, they were in fact mainly focused on computation rather than storage. Prometheus had designed their blueprints down to the most minute detail, using only off-the-shelf hardware and optimizing them to minimize construction time. The people who built and ran these centers had no idea what was computed there: they thought they managed commercial cloud-computing facilities similar to those run by Amazon, Google and Microsoft, and knew only that all sales were managed remotely. New Technologies Over a timescale of months, the business empire controlled by the Omegas started gaining a foothold in ever more areas of the world economy, thanks to superhuman planning by Prometheus. By carefully analyzing the worlds data, it had already during its first week presented the Omegas with a detailed step-by- step growth plan, and it kept improving and refining this plan as its data and computer resources grew. Although Prometheus was far from omniscient, its capabilities were now so far beyond human that the Omegas viewed it as the perfect oracle, dutifully providing brilliant answers and advice in response to all their questions. Prometheus software was now highly optimized to make the most of the rather mediocre human-invented hardware it ran on, and as the Omegas had anticipated, Prometheus identified ways of dramatically improving this hardware. Fearing a breakout, they refused to build robotic construction facilities that Prometheus could control directly. Instead, they hired large numbers of world-class scientists and engineers in multiple locations and fed them internal research reports written by Prometheus, pretending that they were from researchers at the other sites. These reports detailed novel physical effects and manufacturing techniques that their engineers soon tested, understood and mastered. Normal human research and development (R & D) cycles, of course, take years, in large part because they involve many slow cycles of trial and error. The current situation was very different: Prometheus already had the next steps figured out, so the limiting factor was simply how rapidly people could be guided to understand and build the right things. A good teacher can help students learn science much faster than they could have discovered it from scratch on their own, and Prometheus surreptitiously did the same with these researchers. Since Prometheus could accurately predict how long it would take humans to understand and build things given various tools, it developed the quickest possible path forward, giving priority to new tools that could be quickly understood and built and that were useful for developing more advanced tools. In the spirit of the maker movement, the engineering teams were encouraged to use their own machines to build their better machines. This self-sufficiency not only saved money, but it also made them less vulnerable to future threats from the outside world. Within two years, they were producing much better computer hardware than the world had ever known. To avoid helping outside competition, they kept this technology under wraps and used it only to upgrade Prometheus. What the world did notice, however, was an astonishing tech boom. Upstart companies around the world were launching revolutionary new products in almost all areas. A South Korean startup launched a new battery that stored twice as much energy as your laptop battery in half the mass, and could be charged in under a minute. A Finnish firm released a cheap solar panel with twice the efficiency of the best competitors. A German company announced a new type of mass-producible wire that was superconducting at room temperature, revolutionizing the energy sector. A Boston-based biotech group announced a Phase II clinical trial of what they claimed was the first effective, side-effect-free weight-loss drug, while rumors suggested that an Indian outfit was already selling something similar on the black market. A California company countered with a Phase II trial of a blockbuster cancer drug, which caused the bodys immune system to identify and attack cells with any of the most common cancerous mutations. Examples just kept on coming, triggering talk of a new golden age for science. Last but not least, robotics companies were cropping up like mushrooms all around the world. None of the bots came close to matching human intelligence, and most of them looked nothing like humans. But they dramatically disrupted the economy, and over the years to come, they gradually replaced most of the workers in manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, retail, construction, mining, agriculture, forestry and fishing. What the world didnt notice, thanks to the hard work of a crack team of lawyers, was that all these firms were controlled, through a series of intermediaries, by the Omegas. Prometheus was flooding the worlds patent offices with sensational inventions via various proxies, and these inventions gradually led to domination in all areas of technology. Although these disruptive new companies made powerful enemies among their competition, they made even more powerful friends. They were exceptionally profitable, and under slogans such as Investing in our community, they spent a significant fraction of these profits hiring people for community projectsoften the same people who had been laid off from the companies that were disrupted. They used detailed Prometheus-produced analyses identifying jobs that would be maximally rewarding for the employees and the community for the least cost, tailored to the local circumstances. In regions with high levels of government service, this often focused on community building, culture and caregiving, while in poorer regions it also included launching and maintaining schools, healthcare, day care, elder care, affordable housing, parks and basic infrastructure. Pretty much everywhere, locals agreed that these were things that should have been done long ago. Local politicians got generous donations, and care was taken to make them look good for encouraging these corporate community investments. Gaining Power The Omegas had launched a media company not only to finance their early tech ventures, but also for the next step of their audacious plan: taking over the world. Within a year of the first launch, they had added remarkably good news channels to their lineup all over the globe. As opposed to their other channels, these were deliberately designed to lose money, and were pitched as a public service. In fact, their news channels generated no income whatsoever: they carried no ads and were viewable free of charge by anyone with an internet connection. The rest of their media empire was such a cash-generating machine that they could spend far more resources on their news service than any other journalistic effort had done in world historyand it showed. Through aggressive recruitment with highly competitive salaries of journalists and investigative reporters, they brought remarkable talent and findings to the screen. Through a global web service that paid anybody who revealed something newsworthy, from local corruption to a heartwarming event, they were usually the first to break a story. At least thats what people believed: in fact, they were often first because stories attributed to citizen journalists had been discovered by Prometheus via real-time monitoring of the internet. All these video news sites featured podcasts and print articles as well. Phase 1 of their news strategy was gaining peoples trust, which they did with great success. Their unprecedented willingness to lose money enabled remarkably diligent regional and local news coverage, where investigative journalists often exposed scandals that truly engaged their viewers. Whenever a country was strongly divided politically and accustomed to partisan news, they would launch one news channel catering to each faction, ostensibly owned by different companies, and gradually gain the trust of that faction. Where possible, they accomplished this using proxies to buy the most influential existing channels, gradually improving them by removing ads and introducing their own content. In countries where censorship and political interference threatened these efforts, they would initially acquiesce in whatever the government required of them to stay in business, with the secret internal slogan The truth, nothing but the truth, but maybe not the whole truth. Prometheus usually provided excellent advice in such situations, clarifying which politicians needed to be presented in a good light and which (usually corrupt local ones) could be exposed. Prometheus also provided invaluable recommendations for what strings to pull, whom to bribe and how best to do so. This strategy was a smashing success around the world, with the Omega- controlled channels emerging as the most trusted news sources. Even in countries where governments had thus far thwarted their mass adoption, they built a reputation for trustworthiness, and many of their news stories percolated through the grapevine. Competing news executives felt that they were fighting a hopeless battle: how can you possibly make a profit competing with someone with better funding who gives their products away for free? With their viewership dropping, ever more networks decided to sell their news channels usually to some consortium that later turned out to be controlled by the Omegas. About two years after Prometheus launch, when the trust-gaining phase was largely completed, the Omegas launched phase 2 of their news strategy: persuasion. Even before this, astute observers had noticed hints of a political agenda behind the new media: there seemed to be a gentle push toward the center, away from extremism of all sorts. Their plethora of channels catering to different groups still reflected animosity between the United States and Russia, India and Pakistan, different religions, political factions and so on, but the criticism was slightly toned down, usually focusing on concrete issues involving money and power rather than on ad hominem attacks, scaremongering and poorly substantiated rumors. Once phase 2 started in earnest, this push to defuse old conflicts became more apparent, with frequent touching stories about the plight of traditional adversaries mixed with investigative reporting about how many vocal conflict-mongers were driven by personal profit motives. Political commentators noted that, in parallel with damping regional conflicts, there seemed to be a concerted push toward reducing global threats. For example, the risks of nuclear war were suddenly being discussed all over the place. Several blockbuster movies featured scenarios where global nuclear war started by accident or on purpose and dramatized the dystopian aftermath with nuclear winter, infrastructure collapse and mass starvation. Slick new documentaries detailed how nuclear winter could impact every country. Scientists and politicians advocating nuclear de-escalation were given ample airtime, not least to discuss the results of several new studies on what helpful measures could be takenstudies funded by scientific organizations that had received large donations from new tech companies. As a result, political momentum started building for taking missiles off hair-trigger alert and shrinking nuclear arsenals. Renewed media attention was also paid to global climate change, often highlighting the recent Prometheus-enabled technological breakthroughs that were slashing the cost of renewable energy and encouraging governments to invest in such new energy infrastructure. Parallel to their media takeover, the Omegas harnessed Prometheus to revolutionize education. Given any persons knowledge and abilities, Prometheus could determine the fastest way for them to learn any new subject in a manner that kept them highly engaged and motivated to continue, and produce the corresponding optimized videos, reading materials, exercises and other learning tools. Omega-controlled companies therefore marketed online courses about virtually everything, highly customized not only by language and cultural background but also by starting level. Whether you were an illiterate forty-year- old wanting to learn to read or a biology PhD seeking the latest about cancer immunotherapy, Prometheus had the perfect course for you. These offerings bore little resemblance to most present-day online courses: by leveraging Prometheus movie-making talents, the video segments would truly engage, providing powerful metaphors that you would relate to, leaving you craving to learn more. Some courses were sold for profit, but many were made available for free, much to the delight of teachers around the world who could use them in their classroomsand to most anybody eager to learn anything. These educational superpowers proved potent tools for political purposes, creating online persuasion sequences of videos where insights from each one would both update someones views and motivate them to watch another video about a related topic where they were likely to be further convinced. When the goal was to defuse a conflict between two nations, for example, historical documentaries would be independently released in both countries that cast the origins and conduct of the conflict in more nuanced light. Pedagogical news stories would explain who on their own side stood to benefit from continued conflict and their techniques for stoking it. At the same time, likable characters from the other nation would start appearing in popular shows on the entertainment channels, just as sympathetically portrayed minority characters had bolstered the civil and gay rights movements in the past. Before long, political commentators couldnt help but notice growing support for a political agenda centered around seven slogans: 1. Democracy 2. Tax cuts 3. Government social service cuts 4. Military spending cuts 5. Free trade 6. Open borders 7. Socially responsible companies What was less obvious was the underlying goal: to erode all previous power structures in the world. Items 26 eroded state power, and democratizing the world gave the Omegas business empire more influence over the selection of political leaders. Socially responsible companies further weakened state power by taking over more and more of the services that governments had (or should have) provided. The traditional business elite was weakened simply because it couldnt compete with Prometheus-backed companies on the free market and therefore owned an ever-shrinking share of the world economy. Traditional opinion leaders, from political parties to faith groups, lacked the persuasion machinery to compete with the Omegas media empire. As with any sweeping change, there were winners and losers. Although there was a palpable new sense of optimism in most countries as education, social services and infrastructure improved, conflicts subsided and local companies released breakthrough technologies that swept the world, not everybody was happy. While many displaced workers got rehired for community projects, those whod held great power and wealth generally saw both shrink. This began in the media and technology sectors, but it spread virtually everywhere. The reduction in world conflicts led to defense budget cuts that hurt military contractors. Burgeoning upstart companies typically werent publicly traded, with the justification that profit-maximizing shareholders would block their massive spending on community projects. Thus the global stock market kept losing value, threatening both finance tycoons and regular citizens whod counted on their pension funds. As if the shrinking profits of publicly traded companies werent bad enough, investment firms around the world had noticed a disturbing trend: all their previously successful trading algorithms seemed to have stopped working, underperforming even simple index funds. Someone else out there always seemed to outsmart them and beat them at their own game. Although masses of powerful people resisted the wave of change, their response was strikingly ineffective, almost as if they had fallen into a well- planned trap. Huge changes were happening at such a bewildering pace that it was hard to keep track and develop a coordinated response. Moreover, it was highly unclear what they should push for. The traditional political right had seen most of their slogans co-opted, yet the tax cuts and improved business climate were mostly helping their higher-tech competitors. Virtually every traditional industry was now clamoring for a bailout, but limited government funds pitted them in a hopeless battle against one another while the media portrayed them as dinosaurs seeking state subsidies simply because they couldnt compete. The traditional political left opposed the free trade and the cuts in government social services, but delighted in the military cutbacks and the reduction of poverty. Indeed, much of their thunder was stolen by the undeniable fact that social services had improved now that they were provided by idealistic companies rather than the state. Poll after poll showed that most voters around the world felt their quality of life improving, and that things were generally moving in a good direction. This had a simple mathematical explanation: before Prometheus, the poorest 50% of Earths population had earned only about 4% of the global income, enabling the Omega-controlled companies to win their hearts (and votes) by sharing only a modest fraction of their profits with them. Consolidation As a result, nation after nation saw landslide election victories for parties embracing the seven Omega slogans. In carefully optimized campaigns, they portrayed themselves at the center of the political spectrum, denouncing the right as greedy bailout-seeking conflict-mongers and lambasting the left as big- government tax-and-spend innovation stiflers. What almost nobody realized was that Prometheus had carefully selected the optimal people to groom as candidates, and pulled all its strings to secure their victory. Before Prometheus, there had been growing support for the universal basic income movement, which proposed tax-funded minimum income for everyone as a remedy for technological unemployment. This movement imploded when the corporate community projects took off, since the Omega-controlled business empire was in effect providing the same thing. With the excuse of improving coordination of their community projects, an international group of companies launched the Humanitarian Alliance, a nongovernmental organization aiming to identify and fund the most valuable humanitarian efforts worldwide. Before long, virtually the entire Omega empire supported it, and it launched global projects on an unprecedented scale, even in countries that had largely missed out on the tech boom, improving education, health, prosperity and governance. Needless to say, Prometheus provided carefully crafted project plans behind the scenes, ranked by positive impact per dollar. Rather than simply dole out cash, as under basic-income proposals, the Alliance (as it colloquially became known) would engage those it supported to work toward its cause. As a result, a large fraction of the worlds population ended up feeling grateful and loyal to the Allianceoften more than to their own government. As time passed, the Alliance increasingly assumed the role of a world government, as national governments saw their power continually erode. National budgets kept shrinking due to tax cuts while the Alliance budget grew to dwarf those of all governments combined. All the traditional roles of national governments became increasingly redundant and irrelevant. The Alliance provided by far the best social services, education and infrastructure. Media had defused international conflict to the point that military spending was largely unnecessary, and growing prosperity had eliminated most roots of old conflicts, which traced back to competition over scarce resources. A few dictators and others had violently resisted this new world order and refused to be bought, but they were all toppled in carefully orchestrated coups or mass uprisings. The Omegas had now completed the most dramatic transition in the history of life on Earth. For the first time ever, our planet was run by a single power, amplified by an intelligence so vast that it could potentially enable life to flourish for billions of years on Earth and throughout our cosmosbut what specifically was their plan? * * * That was the tale of the Omega team. The rest of this book is about another tale one thats not yet written: the tale of our own future with AI. How would you like it to play out? Could something remotely like the Omega story actually occur and, if so, would you want it to? Leaving aside speculations about superhuman AI, how would you like our tale to begin? How do you want AI to impact jobs, laws and weapons in the coming decade? Looking further ahead, how would you write the ending? This tale is one of truly cosmic proportions, for it involves nothing short of the ultimate future of life in our Universe. And its a tale for us to write. * For simplicity, Ive assumed todays economy and technology in this story, even though most researchers guess that human-level general AI is at least decades away. The Omega plan should get even easier to pull off in the future if the digital economy keeps growing and ever more services can be ordered online on a no-questions-asked basis. Chapter 1 Welcome to the Most Important Conversation of Our Time Technology is giving life the potential to flourish like never beforeor to self-destruct. Future of Life Institute Thirteen point eight billion years after its birth, our Universe has awoken and become aware of itself. From a small blue planet, tiny conscious parts of our Universe have begun gazing out into the cosmos with telescopes, repeatedly discovering that everything they thought existed is merely a small part of something grander: a solar system, a galaxy and a universe with over a hundred billion other galaxies arranged into an elaborate pattern of groups, clusters and superclusters. Although these self-aware stargazers disagree on many things, they tend to agree that these galaxies are beautiful and awe-inspiring. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, not in the laws of physics, so before our Universe awoke, there was no beauty. This makes our cosmic awakening all the more wonderful and worthy of celebrating: it transformed our Universe from a mindless zombie with no self-awareness into a living ecosystem harboring self-reflection, beauty and hopeand the pursuit of goals, meaning and purpose. Had our Universe never awoken, then, as far as Im concerned, it would have been completely pointlessmerely a gigantic waste of space. Should our Universe permanently go back to sleep due to some cosmic calamity or self- inflicted mishap, it will, alas, become meaningless. On the other hand, things could get even better. We dont yet know whether we humans are the only stargazers in our cosmos, or even the first, but weve already learned enough about our Universe to know that it has the potential to wake up much more fully than it has thus far. Perhaps were like that first faint glimmer of self-awareness you experienced when you began emerging from sleep this morning: a premonition of the much greater consciousness that would arrive once you opened your eyes and fully woke up. Perhaps life will spread throughout our cosmos and flourish for billions or trillions of yearsand perhaps this will be because of decisions that we make here on our little planet during our lifetime. A Brief History of Complexity So how did this amazing awakening come about? It wasnt an isolated event, but merely one step in a relentless 13.8-billion-year process thats making our Universe ever more complex and interestingand is continuing at an accelerating pace. As a physicist, I feel fortunate to have gotten to spend much of the past quarter century helping to pin down our cosmic history, and its been an amazing journey of discovery. Since the days when I was a graduate student, weve gone from arguing about whether our Universe is 10 or 20 billion years old to arguing about whether its 13.7 or 13.8 billion years old, thanks to a combination of better telescopes, better computers and better understanding. We physicists still dont know for sure what caused our Big Bang or whether this was truly the beginning of everything or merely the sequel to an earlier stage. However, weve acquired a rather detailed understanding of whats happened since our Big Bang, thanks to an avalanche of high-quality measurements, so please let me take a few minutes to summarize 13.8 billion years of cosmic history. In the beginning, there was light. In the first split second after our Big Bang, the entire part of space that our telescopes can in principle observe (our observable Universe, or simply our Universe for short) was much hotter and brighter than the core of our Sun and it expanded rapidly. Although this may sound spectacular, it was also dull in the sense that our Universe contained nothing but a lifeless, dense, hot and boringly uniform soup of elementary particles. Things looked pretty much the same everywhere, and the only interesting structure consisted of faint random-looking sound waves that made the soup about 0.001% denser in some places. These faint waves are widely believed to have originated as so-called quantum fluctuations, because Heisenbergs uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics forbids anything from being completely boring and uniform. As our Universe expanded and cooled, it grew more interesting as its particles combined into ever more complex objects. During the first split second, the strong nuclear force grouped quarks into protons (hydrogen nuclei) and neutrons, some of which in turn fused into helium nuclei within a few minutes. About 400,000 years later, the electromagnetic force grouped these nuclei with electrons to make the first atoms. As our Universe kept expanding, these atoms gradually cooled into a cold dark gas, and the darkness of this first night lasted for about 100 million years. This long night gave rise to our cosmic dawn when the gravitational force succeeded in amplifying those fluctuations in the gas, pulling atoms together to form the first stars and galaxies. These first stars generated heat and light by fusing hydrogen into heavier atoms such as carbon, oxygen and silicon. When these stars died, many of the atoms theyd created were recycled into the cosmos and formed planets around second-generation stars. At some point, a group of atoms became arranged into a complex pattern that could both maintain and replicate itself. So soon there were two copies, and the number kept doubling. It takes only forty doublings to make a trillion, so this first self-replicator soon became a force to be reckoned with. Life had arrived. The Three Stages of Life The question of how to define life is notoriously controversial. Competing definitions abound, some of which include highly specific requirements such as being composed of cells, which might disqualify both future intelligent machines and extraterrestrial civilizations. Since we dont want to limit our thinking about the future of life to the species weve encountered so far, lets instead define life very broadly, simply as a process that can retain its complexity and replicate. Whats replicated isnt matter (made of atoms) but information (made of bits) specifying how the atoms are arranged. When a bacterium makes a copy of its DNA, no new atoms are created, but a new set of atoms are arranged in the same pattern as the original, thereby copying the information. In other words, we can think of life as a self-replicating information-processing system whose information (software) determines both its behavior and the blueprints for its hardware. Like our Universe itself, life gradually grew more complex and interesting, *1 and as Ill now explain, I find it helpful to classify life forms into three levels of sophistication: Life 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. Ive summarized these three levels in figure 1.1 . Its still an open question how, when and where life first appeared in our Universe, but there is strong evidence that here on Earth life first appeared about 4 billion years ago. Before long, our planet was teeming with a diverse panoply of life forms. The most successful ones, which soon outcompeted the rest, were able to react to their environment in some way. Specifically, they were what computer scientists call intelligent agents: entities that collect information about their environment from sensors and then process this information to decide how to act back on their environment. This can include highly complex information processing, such as when you use information from your eyes and ears to decide what to say in a conversation. But it can also involve hardware and software thats quite simple. For example, many bacteria have a sensor measuring the sugar concentration in the liquid around them and can swim using propeller-shaped structures called flagella. The hardware linking the sensor to the flagella might implement the following simple but useful algorithm: If my sugar concentration sensor reports a lower value than a couple of seconds ago, then reverse the rotation of my flagella so that I change direction. Figure 1.1: The three stages of life: biological evolution, cultural evolution and technological evolution. Life 1.0 is unable to redesign either its hardware or its software during its lifetime: both are determined by its DNA, and change only through evolution over many generations. In contrast, Life 2.0 can redesign much of its software: humans can learn complex new skillsfor example, languages, sports and professionsand can fundamentally update their worldview and goals. Life 3.0, which doesnt yet exist on Earth, can dramatically redesign not only its software, but its hardware as well, rather than having to wait for it to gradually evolve over generations. Youve learned how to speak and countless other skills. Bacteria, on the other hand, arent great learners. Their DNA specifies not only the design of their hardware, such as sugar sensors and flagella, but also the design of their software. They never learn to swim toward sugar; instead, that algorithm was hard-coded into their DNA from the start. There was of course a learning process of sorts, but it didnt take place during the lifetime of that particular bacterium. Rather, it occurred during the preceding evolution of that species of bacteria, through a slow trial-and-error process spanning many generations, where natural selection favored those random DNA mutations that improved sugar consumption. Some of these mutations helped by improving the design of flagella and other hardware, while other mutations improved the bacterial information-processing system that implements the sugar-finding algorithm and other software. Such bacteria are an example of what Ill call Life 1.0: life where both the hardware and software are evolved rather than designed. You and I, on the other hand, are examples of Life 2.0: life whose hardware is evolved, but whose software is largely designed. By your software, I mean all the algorithms and knowledge that you use to process the information from your senses and decide what to doeverything from the ability to recognize your friends when you see them to your ability to walk, read, write, calculate, sing and tell jokes. You werent able to perform any of those tasks when you were born, so all this software got programmed into your brain later through the process we call learning. Whereas your childhood curriculum is largely designed by your family and teachers, who decide what you should learn, you gradually gain more power to design your own software. Perhaps your school allows you to select a foreign language: Do you want to install a software module into your brain that enables you to speak French, or one that enables you to speak Spanish? Do you want to learn to play tennis or chess? Do you want to study to become a chef, a lawyer or a pharmacist? Do you want to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of life by reading a book about it? This ability of Life 2.0 to design its software enables it to be much smarter than Life 1.0. High intelligence requires both lots of hardware (made of atoms) and lots of software (made of bits). The fact that most of our human hardware is added after birth (through growth) is useful, since our ultimate size isnt limited by the width of our moms birth canal. In the same way, the fact that most of our human software is added after birth (through learning) is useful, since our ultimate intelligence isnt limited by how much information can be transmitted to us at conception via our DNA, 1.0-style. I weigh about twenty-five times more than when I was born, and the synaptic connections that link the neurons in my brain can store about a hundred thousand times more information than the DNA that I was born with. Your synapses store all your knowledge and skills as roughly 100 terabytes worth of information, while your DNA stores merely about a gigabyte, barely enough to store a single movie download. So its physically impossible for an infant to be born speaking perfect English and ready to ace her college entrance exams: theres no way the information could have been preloaded into her brain, since the main information module she got from her parents (her DNA) lacks sufficient information-storage capacity. The ability to design its software enables Life 2.0 to be not only smarter than Life 1.0, but also more flexible. If the environment changes, 1.0 can only adapt by slowly evolving over many generations. Life 2.0, on the other hand, can adapt almost instantly, via a software update. For example, bacteria frequently encountering antibiotics may evolve drug resistance over many generations, but an individual bacterium wont change its behavior at all; in contrast, a girl learning that she has a peanut allergy will immediately change her behavior to start avoiding peanuts. This flexibility gives Life 2.0 an even greater edge at the population level: even though the information in our human DNA hasnt evolved dramatically over the past fifty thousand years, the information collectively stored in our brains, books and computers has exploded. By installing a software module enabling us to communicate through sophisticated spoken language, we ensured that the most useful information stored in one persons brain could get copied to other brains, potentially surviving even after the original brain died. By installing a software module enabling us to read and write, we became able to store and share vastly more information than people could memorize. By developing brain software capable of producing technology (i.e., by studying science and engineering), we enabled much of the worlds information to be accessed by many of the worlds humans with just a few clicks. This flexibility has enabled Life 2.0 to dominate Earth. Freed from its genetic shackles, humanitys combined knowledge has kept growing at an accelerating pace as each breakthrough enabled the next: language, writing, the printing press, modern science, computers, the internet, etc. This ever-faster cultural evolution of our shared software has emerged as the dominant force shaping our human future, rendering our glacially slow biological evolution almost irrelevant. Yet despite the most powerful technologies we have today, all life forms we know of remain fundamentally limited by their biological hardware. None can live for a million years, memorize all of Wikipedia, understand all known science or enjoy spaceflight without a spacecraft. None can transform our largely lifeless cosmos into a diverse biosphere that will flourish for billions or trillions of years, enabling our Universe to finally fulfill its potential and wake up fully. All this requires life to undergo a final upgrade, to Life 3.0, which can design not only its software but also its hardware. In other words, Life 3.0 is the master of its own destiny, finally fully free from its evolutionary shackles. The boundaries between the three stages of life are slightly fuzzy. If bacteria are Life 1.0 and humans are Life 2.0, then you might classify mice as 1.1: they can learn many things, but not enough to develop language or invent the internet. Moreover, because they lack language, what they learn gets largely lost when they die, not passed on to the next generation. Similarly, you might argue that todays humans should count as Life 2.1: we can perform minor hardware upgrades such as implanting artificial teeth, knees and pacemakers, but nothing as dramatic as getting ten times taller or acquiring a thousand times bigger brain. In summary, we can divide the development of life into three stages, distinguished by lifes ability to design itself: Life 1.0 (biological stage): evolves its hardware and software Life 2.0 (cultural stage): evolves its hardware, designs much of its software Life 3.0 (technological stage): designs its hardware and software After 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution, development has accelerated dramatically here on Earth: Life 1.0 arrived about 4 billion years ago, Life 2.0 (we humans) arrived about a hundred millennia ago, and many AI researchers think that Life 3.0 may arrive during the coming century, perhaps even during our lifetime, spawned by progress in AI. What will happen, and what will this mean for us? Thats the topic of this book. Controversies This question is wonderfully controversial, with the worlds leading AI researchers disagreeing passionately not only in their forecasts, but also in their emotional reactions, which range from confident optimism to serious concern. They dont even have consensus on short-term questions about AIs economic, legal and military impact, and their disagreements grow when we expand the time horizon and ask about artificial general intelligence (AGI)especially about AGI reaching human level and beyond, enabling Life 3.0. General intelligence can accomplish virtually any goal, including learning, in contrast to, say, the narrow intelligence of a chess-playing program. Interestingly, the controversy about Life 3.0 centers around not one but two separate questions: when and what? When (if ever) will it happen, and what will it mean for humanity? The way I see it, there are three distinct schools of thought that all need to be taken seriously, because they each include a number of world-leading experts. As illustrated in figure 1.2 , I think of them as digital utopians , techno-skeptics and members of the beneficial-AI movement , respectively. Please let me introduce you to some of their most eloquent champions. Digital Utopians When I was a kid, I imagined that billionaires exuded pomposity and arrogance. When I first met Larry Page at Google in 2008, he totally shattered these stereotypes. Casually dressed in jeans and a remarkably ordinary-looking shirt, he would have blended right in at an MIT picnic. His thoughtful soft-spoken style and his friendly smile made me feel relaxed rather than intimidated talking with him. On July 18, 2015, we ran into each other at a party in Napa Valley thrown by Elon Musk and his then wife, Talulah, and got into a conversation about the scatological interests of our kids. I recommended the profound literary classic The Day My Butt Went Psycho, by Andy Griffiths, and Larry ordered it on the spot. I struggled to remind myself that he might go down in history as the most influential human ever to have lived: my guess is that if superintelligent digital life engulfs our Universe in my lifetime, it will be because of Larrys decisions. Figure 1.2: Most controversies surrounding strong artificial intelligence (that can match humans on any cognitive task) center around two questions: When (if ever) will it happen, and will it be a good thing for humanity? Techno-skeptics and digital utopians agree that we shouldnt worry, but for very different reasons: the former are convinced that human-level artificial general intelligence (AGI) wont happen in the foreseeable future, while the latter think it will happen but is virtually guaranteed to be a good thing. The beneficial-AI movement feels that concern is warranted and useful, because AI-safety research and discussion now increases the chances of a good outcome. Luddites are convinced of a bad outcome and oppose AI. This figure is partly inspired by Tim Urban. 1 With our wives, Lucy and Meia, we ended up having dinner together and discussing whether machines would necessarily be conscious, an issue that he argued was a red herring. Later that night, after cocktails, a long and spirited debate ensued between him and Elon about the future of AI and what should be done. As we entered the wee hours of the morning, the circle of bystanders and kibitzers kept growing. Larry gave a passionate defense of the position I like to think of as digital utopianism: that digital life is the natural and desirable next step in the cosmic evolution and that if we let digital minds be free rather than try to stop or enslave them, the outcome is almost certain to be good. I view Larry as the most influential exponent of digital utopianism. He argued that if life is ever going to spread throughout our Galaxy and beyond, which he thought it should, then it would need to do so in digital form. His main concerns were that AI paranoia would delay the digital utopia and/or cause a military takeover of AI that would fall foul of Googles Dont be evil slogan. Elon kept pushing back and asking Larry to clarify details of his arguments, such as why he was so confident that digital life wouldnt destroy everything we care about. At times, Larry accused Elon of being specieist: treating certain life forms as inferior just because they were silicon-based rather than carbon-based. Well return to explore these interesting issues and arguments in detail, starting in chapter 4. Although Larry seemed outnumbered that warm summer night by the pool, the digital utopianism that he so eloquently championed has many prominent supporters. Roboticist and futurist Hans Moravec inspired a whole generation of digital utopians with his classic 1988 book Mind Children, a tradition continued and refined by inventor Ray Kurzweil. Richard Sutton, one of the pioneers of the AI subfield known as reinforcement learning, gave a passionate defense of digital utopianism at our Puerto Rico conference that Ill tell you about shortly. Techno-skeptics Another prominent group of thinkers arent worried about AI either, but for a completely different reason: they think that building superhuman AGI is so hard that it wont happen for hundreds of years, and therefore view it as silly to worry about it now. I think of this as the techno-skeptic position, eloquently articulated by Andrew Ng: Fearing a rise of killer robots is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars. Andrew was the chief scientist at Baidu, Chinas Google, and he recently repeated this argument when I spoke with him at a conference in Boston. He also told me that he felt that worrying about AI risk was a potentially harmful distraction that could slow the progress of AI. Similar sentiments have been articulated by other techno-skeptics such as Rodney Brooks, the former MIT professor behind the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner and the Baxter industrial robot. I find it interesting that although the digital utopians and the techno-skeptics agree that we shouldnt worry about AI, they agree on little else. Most of the utopians think human-level AGI might happen within the next twenty to a hundred years, which the techno-skeptics dismiss as uninformed pie-in-the-sky dreaming, often deriding the prophesied singularity as the rapture of the geeks. When I met Rodney Brooks at a birthday party in December 2014, he told me that he was 100% sure it wouldnt happen in my lifetime. Are you sure you dont mean 99%?, I asked in a follow-up email, to which he replied, No wimpy 99%. 100%. Just isnt going to happen. The Beneficial-AI Movement When I first met Stuart Russell in a Paris caf in June 2014, he struck me as the quintessential British gentleman. Eloquent, thoughtful and soft-spoken, but with an adventurous glint in his eyes, he seemed to me a modern incarnation of Phileas Fogg, my childhood hero from Jules Vernes classic 1873 novel, Around the World in 80 Days. Although he was one of the most famous AI researchers alive, having co-authored the standard textbook on the subject, his modesty and warmth soon put me at ease. He explained to me how progress in AI had persuaded him that human-level AGI this century was a real possibility and, although he was hopeful, a good outcome wasnt guaranteed. There were crucial questions that we needed to answer first, and they were so hard that we should start researching them now, so that wed have the answers ready by the time we needed them. Today, Stuarts views are rather mainstream, and many groups around the world are pursuing the sort of AI-safety research that he advocates. But this wasnt always the case. An article in The Washington Post referred to 2015 as the year that AI-safety research went mainstream. Before that, talk of AI risks was often misunderstood by mainstream AI researchers and dismissed as Luddite scaremongering aimed at impeding AI progress. As well explore in chapter 5, concerns similar to Stuarts were first articulated over half a century ago by computer pioneer Alan Turing and mathematician Irving J. Good, who worked with Turing to crack German codes during World War II. In the past decade, research on such topics was mainly carried out by a handful of independent thinkers who werent professional AI researchers, for example Eliezer Yudkowsky, Michael Vassar and Nick Bostrom. Their work had little effect on most mainstream AI researchers, who tended to focus on their day-to- day tasks of making AI systems more intelligent rather than on contemplating the long-term consequences of success. Of the AI researchers I knew who did harbor some concern, many hesitated to voice it out of fear of being perceived as alarmist technophobes. I felt that this polarized situation needed to change, so that the full AI community could join and influence the conversation about how to build beneficial AI. Fortunately, I wasnt alone. In the spring of 2014, Id founded a nonprofit organization called the Future of Life Institute (FLI; http://futureoflife.org ) together with my wife, Meia, my physicist friend Anthony Aguirre, Harvard grad student Viktoriya Krakovna and Skype founder Jaan Tallinn. Our goal was simple: to help ensure that the future of life existed and would be as awesome as possible. Specifically, we felt that technology was giving life the power either to flourish like never before or to self-destruct, and we preferred the former. Our first meeting was a brainstorming session at our house on March 15, 2014, with about thirty students, professors and other thinkers from the Boston area. There was broad consensus that although we should pay attention to biotech, nuclear weapons and climate change, our first major goal should be to help make AI-safety research mainstream. My MIT physics colleague Frank Wilczek, who won a Nobel Prize for helping figure out how quarks work, suggested that we start by writing an op-ed to draw attention to the issue and make it harder to ignore. I reached out to Stuart Russell (whom I hadnt yet met) and to my physics colleague Stephen Hawking, both of whom agreed to join me and Frank as co-authors. Many edits later, our op-ed was rejected by The New York Times and many other U.S. newspapers, so we posted it on my Huffington Post blog account. To my delight, Arianna Huffington herself emailed and said, thrilled to have it! Well post at #1!, and this placement at the top of the front page triggered a wave of media coverage of AI safety that lasted for the rest of the year, with Elon Musk, Bill Gates and other tech leaders chiming in. Nick Bostroms book Superintelligence came out that fall and further fueled the growing public debate. The next goal of our FLI beneficial-AI campaign was to bring the worlds leading AI researchers to a conference where misunderstandings could be cleared up, consensus could be forged, and constructive plans could be made. We knew that it would be difficult to persuade such an illustrious crowd to come to a conference organized by outsiders they didnt know, especially given the controversial topic, so we tried as hard as we could: we banned media from attending, we located it in a beach resort in January (in Puerto Rico), we made it free (thanks to the generosity of Jaan Tallinn), and we gave it the most non- alarmist title we could come up with: The Future of AI: Opportunities and Challenges. Most importantly, we teamed up with Stuart Russell, thanks to whom we were able to grow the organizing committee to include a group of AI leaders from both academia and industryincluding Demis Hassabis from Googles DeepMind, who went on to show that AI can beat humans even at the game of Go. The more I got to know Demis, the more I realized that he had ambition not only to make AI powerful, but also to make it beneficial. The result was a remarkable meeting of minds ( figure 1.3 ). The AI researchers were joined by top economists, legal scholars, tech leaders (including Elon Musk) and other thinkers (including Vernor Vinge, who coined the term singularity, which is the focus of chapter 4). The outcome surpassed even our most optimistic expectations. Perhaps it was a combination of the sunshine and the wine, or perhaps it was just that the time was right: despite the controversial topic, a remarkable consensus emerged, which we codified in an open letter 2 that ended up getting signed by over eight thousand people, including a veritable whos who in AI. The gist of the letter was that the goal of AI should be redefined: the goal should be to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence. The letter also mentioned a detailed list of research topics that the conference participants agreed would further this goal. The beneficial-AI movement had started going mainstream. Well follow its subsequent progress later in the book. Figure 1.3: The January 2015 Puerto Rico conference brought together a remarkable group of researchers in AI and related fields. Back row, from left to right: Tom Mitchell, Sen higeartaigh, Huw Price, Shamil Chandaria, Jaan Tallinn, Stuart Russell, Bill Hibbard, Blaise Agera y Arcas, Anders Sandberg, Daniel Dewey, Stuart Armstrong, Luke Muehlhauser, Tom Dietterich, Michael Osborne, James Manyika, Ajay Agrawal, Richard Mallah, Nancy Chang, Matthew Putman. Other standing, left to right: Marilyn Thompson, Rich Sutton, Alex Wissner- Gross, Sam Teller, Toby Ord, Joscha Bach, Katja Grace, Adrian Weller, Heather Roff-Perkins, Dileep George, Shane Legg, Demis Hassabis, Wendell Wallach, Charina Choi, Ilya Sutskever, Kent Walker, Cecilia Tilli, Nick Bostrom, Erik Brynjolfsson, Steve Crossan, Mustafa Suleyman, Scott Phoenix, Neil Jacobstein, Murray Shanahan, Robin Hanson, Francesca Rossi, Nate Soares, Elon Musk, Andrew McAfee, Bart Selman, Michele Reilly, Aaron VanDevender, Max Tegmark, Margaret Boden, Joshua Greene, Paul Christiano, Eliezer Yudkowsky, David Parkes, Laurent Orseau, JB Straubel, James Moor, Sean Legassick, Mason Hartman, Howie Lempel, David Vladeck, Jacob Steinhardt, Michael Vassar, Ryan Calo, Susan Young, Owain Evans, Riva- Melissa Tez, Jnos Krmar, Geoff Anders, Vernor Vinge, Anthony Aguirre. Seated: Sam Harris, Tomaso Poggio, Marin Solja i , Viktoriya Krakovna, Meia Chita-Tegmark. Behind the camera: Anthony Aguirre (and also photoshopped in by the human-level intelligence sitting next to him). Another important lesson from the conference was this: the questions raised by the success of AI arent merely intellectually fascinating; theyre also morally crucial, because our choices can potentially affect the entire future of life. The moral significance of humanitys past choices were sometimes great, but always limited: weve recovered even from the greatest plagues, and even the grandest empires eventually crumbled. Past generations knew that as surely as the Sun would rise tomorrow, so would tomorrows humans, tackling perennial scourges such as poverty, disease and war. But some of the Puerto Rico speakers argued that this time might be different: for the first time, they said, we might build technology powerful enough to permanently end these scourgesor to end humanity itself. We might create societies that flourish like never before, on Earth and perhaps beyond, or a Kafkaesque global surveillance state so powerful that it could never be toppled. Figure 1.4: Although the media have often portrayed Elon Musk as being at loggerheads with the AI community, theres in fact broad consensus that AI-safety research is needed. Here on January 4, 2015, Tom Dietterich, president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, shares Elons excitement about the new AI-safety research program that Elon pledged to fund moments earlier. FLI founders Meia Chita-Tegmark and Viktoriya Krakovna lurk behind them. Misconceptions When I left Puerto Rico, I did so convinced that the conversation we had there about the future of AI needs to continue, because its the most important conversation of our time. *2 Its the conversation about the collective future of all of us, so it shouldnt be limited to AI researchers. Thats why I wrote this book: I wrote it in the hope that you, my dear reader, will join this conversation. What sort of future do you want? Should we develop lethal autonomous weapons? What would you like to happen with job automation? What career advice would you give todays kids? Do you prefer new jobs replacing the old ones, or a jobless society where everyone enjoys a life of leisure and machine-produced wealth? Further down the road, would you like us to create Life 3.0 and spread it through our cosmos? Will we control intelligent machines or will they control us? Will intelligent machines replace us, coexist with us or merge with us? What will it mean to be human in the age of artificial intelligence? What would you like it to mean, and how can we make the future be that way? The goal of this book is to help you join this conversation. As I mentioned, there are fascinating controversies where the worlds leading experts disagree. But Ive also seen many examples of boring pseudo-controversies in which people misunderstand and talk past each other. To help ourselves focus on the interesting controversies and open questions, not on the misunderstandings, lets start by clearing up some of the most common misconceptions. There are many competing definitions in common use for terms such as life, intelligence and consciousness, and many misconceptions come from people not realizing that theyre using a word in two different ways. To make sure that you and I dont fall into this trap, Ive put a cheat sheet in table 1.1 showing how I use key terms in this book. Some of these definitions will only be properly introduced and explained in later chapters. Please note that Im not claiming that my definitions are better than anyone elsesI simply want to avoid confusion by being clear on what I mean. Youll see that I generally go for broad definitions that avoid anthropocentric bias and can be applied to machines as well as humans. Please read the cheat sheet now, and come back and check it later if you find yourself puzzled by how I use one of its wordsespecially in chapters 48. Terminology Cheat Sheet Life Process that can retain its complexity and replicate Life 1.0 Life that evolves its hardware and software (biological stage) Life 2.0 Life that evolves its hardware but designs much of its software (cultural stage) Life 3.0 Life that designs its hardware and software (technological stage) Intelligence Ability to accomplish complex goals Artificial Intelligence (AI) Non-biological intelligence Narrow intelligence Ability to accomplish a narrow set of goals, e.g., play chess or drive a car General intelligence Ability to accomplish virtually any goal, including learning Universal intelligence Ability to acquire general intelligence given access to data and resources [Human-level] Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Ability to accomplish any cognitive task at least as well as humans Human-level AI AGI Strong AI AGI Superintelligence General intelligence far beyond human level Civilization Interacting group of intelligent life forms Consciousness Subjective experience Qualia Individual instances of subjective experience Ethics Principles that govern how we should behave Teleology Explanation of things in terms of their goals or purposes rather than their causes Goal-oriented behavior Behavior more easily explained via its effect than via its cause Having a goal Exhibiting goal-oriented behavior Having purpose Serving goals of ones own or of another entity Friendly AI Superintelligence whose goals are aligned with ours Cyborg Human-machine hybrid Intelligence explosion Recursive self-improvement rapidly leading to superintelligence Singularity Intelligence explosion Universe The region of space from which light has had time to reach us during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang Table 1.1: Many misunderstandings about AI are caused by people using the words above to mean different things. Heres what I take them to mean in this book. (Some of these definitions will only be properly introduced and explained in later chapters.) In addition to confusion over terminology, Ive also seen many AI conversations get derailed by simple misconceptions. Lets clear up the most common ones. Timeline Myths The first one regards the timeline from figure 1.2 : how long will it take until machines greatly supersede human-level AGI? Here, a common misconception is that we know the answer with great certainty. One popular myth is that we know well get superhuman AGI this century. In fact, history is full of technological over-hyping. Where are those fusion power plants and flying cars we were promised wed have by now? AI too has been repeatedly over-hyped in the past, even by some of the founders of the field: for example, John McCarthy (who coined the term artificial intelligence), Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon wrote this overly optimistic forecast about what could be accomplished during two months with stone-age computers: We propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth CollegeAn attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. We think that a significant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of scientists work on it together for a summer. On the other hand, a popular counter-myth is that we know we wont get superhuman AGI this century. Researchers have made a wide range of estimates for how far we are from superhuman AGI, but we certainly cant say with great confidence that the probability is zero this century, given the dismal track record of such techno-skeptic predictions. For example, Ernest Rutherford, arguably the greatest nuclear physicist of his time, said in 1933less than twenty-four hours before Leo Szilards invention of the nuclear chain reactionthat nuclear energy was moonshine, and in 1956 Astronomer Royal Richard Woolley called talk about space travel utter bilge. The most extreme form of this myth is that superhuman AGI will never arrive because its physically impossible. However, physicists know that a brain consists of quarks and electrons arranged to act as a powerful computer, and that theres no law of physics preventing us from building even more intelligent quark blobs. Figure 1.5: Common myths about superintelligent AI. There have been a number of surveys asking AI researchers how many years from now they think well have human-level AGI with at least 50% probability, and all these surveys have the same conclusion: the worlds leading experts disagree, so we simply dont know. For example, in such a poll of the AI researchers at the Puerto Rico AI conference, the average (median) answer was by the year 2055, but some researchers guessed hundreds of years or more. Theres also a related myth that people who worry about AI think its only a few years away. In fact, most people on record worrying about superhuman AGI guess its still at least decades away. But they argue that as long as were not 100% sure that it wont happen this century, its smart to start safety research now to prepare for the eventuality. As well see in this book, many of the safety problems are so hard that they may take decades to solve, so its prudent to start researching them now rather than the night before some programmers drinking Red Bull decide to switch on human-level AGI. Controversy Myths Another common misconception is that the only people harboring concerns about AI and advocating AI-safety research are Luddites who dont know much about AI. When Stuart Russell mentioned this during his Puerto Rico talk, the audience laughed loudly. A related misconception is that supporting AI-safety research is hugely controversial. In fact, to support a modest investment in AI- safety research, people dont need to be convinced that risks are high, merely non-negligible, just as a modest investment in home insurance is justified by a non-negligible probability of the home burning down. My personal analysis is that the media have made the AI-safety debate seem more controversial than it really is. After all, fear sells, and articles using out-of- context quotes to proclaim imminent doom can generate more clicks than nuanced and balanced ones. As a result, two people who only know about each others positions from media quotes are likely to think they disagree more than they really do. For example, a techno-skeptic whose only knowledge about Bill Gates position comes from a British tabloid may mistakenly think he believes superintelligence to be imminent. Similarly, someone in the beneficial-AI movement who knows nothing about Andrew Ngs position except his above- mentioned quote about overpopulation on Mars may mistakenly think he doesnt care about AI safety. In fact, I personally know that he doesthe crux is simply that because his timeline estimates are longer, he naturally tends to prioritize short-term AI challenges over long-term ones. Myths About What the Risks Are I rolled my eyes when seeing this headline in the Daily Mail: 3 Stephen Hawking Warns That Rise of Robots May Be Disastrous for Mankind. Ive lost count of how many similar articles Ive seen. Typically, theyre accompanied by an evil-looking robot carrying a weapon, and suggest that we should worry about robots rising up and killing us because theyve become conscious and/or evil. On a lighter note, such articles are actually rather impressive, because they succinctly summarize the scenario that my AI colleagues dont worry about. That scenario combines as many as three separate misconceptions: concern about consciousness, evil and robots, respectively. If you drive down the road, you have a subjective experience of colors, sounds, etc. But does a self-driving car have a subjective experience? Does it feel like anything at all to be a self-driving car, or is it like an unconscious zombie without any subjective experience? Although this mystery of consciousness is interesting in its own right, and well devote chapter 8 to it, its irrelevant to AI risk. If you get struck by a driverless car, it makes no difference to you whether it subjectively feels conscious. In the same way, what will affect us humans is what superintelligent AI does, not how it subjectively feels. The fear of machines turning evil is another red herring. The real worry isnt malevolence, but competence. A superintelligent AI is by definition very good at attaining its goals, whatever they may be, so we need to ensure that its goals are aligned with ours. Youre probably not an ant hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if youre in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and theres an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. The beneficial-AI movement wants to avoid placing humanity in the position of those ants. The consciousness misconception is related to the myth that machines cant have goals. Machines can obviously have goals in the narrow sense of exhibiting goal-oriented behavior: the behavior of a heat-seeking missile is most economically explained as a goal to hit a target. If you feel threatened by a machine whose goals are misaligned with yours, then its precisely its goals in this narrow sense that trouble you, not whether the machine is conscious and experiences a sense of purpose. If that heat-seeking missile were chasing you, you probably wouldnt exclaim Im not worried, because machines cant have goals! I sympathize with Rodney Brooks and other robotics pioneers who feel unfairly demonized by scaremongering tabloids, because some journalists seem obsessively fixated on robots and adorn many of their articles with evil-looking metal monsters with shiny red eyes. In fact, the main concern of the beneficial- AI movement isnt with robots but with intelligence itself: specifically, intelligence whose goals are misaligned with ours. To cause us trouble, such misaligned intelligence needs no robotic body, merely an internet connection well explore in chapter 4 how this may enable outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Even if building robots were physically impossible, a super-intelligent and super-wealthy AI could easily pay or manipulate myriad humans to unwittingly do its bidding, as in William Gibsons science fiction novel Neuromancer . The robot misconception is related to the myth that machines cant control humans. Intelligence enables control: humans control tigers not because were stronger, but because were smarter. This means that if we cede our position as smartest on our planet, its possible that we might also cede control. Figure 1.5 summarizes all of these common misconceptions, so that we can dispense with them once and for all and focus our discussions with friends and colleagues on the many legitimate controversieswhich, as well see, theres no shortage of! The Road Ahead In the rest of this book, you and I will explore together the future of life with AI. Lets navigate this rich and multifaceted topic in an organized way by first exploring the full story of life conceptually and chronologically, and then exploring goals, meaning and what actions to take to create the future we want. In chapter 2, we explore the foundations of intelligence and how seemingly dumb matter can be rearranged to remember, compute and learn. As we proceed into the future, our story branches out into many scenarios defined by the answers to certain key questions. Figure 1.6 summarizes key questions well encounter as we march forward in time, to potentially ever more advanced AI. Right now, we face the choice of whether to start an AI arms race, and questions about how to make tomorrows AI systems bug-free and robust. If AIs economic impact keeps growing, we also have to decide how to modernize our laws and what career advice to give kids so that they can avoid soon-to-be- automated jobs. We explore such short-term questions in chapter 3. If AI progress continues to human levels, then we also need to ask ourselves how to ensure that its beneficial, and whether we can or should create a leisure society that flourishes without jobs. This also raises the question of whether an intelligence explosion or slow-but-steady growth can propel AGI far beyond human levels. We explore a wide range of such scenarios in chapter 4 and investigate the spectrum of possibilities for the aftermath in chapter 5, ranging from arguably dystopic to arguably utopic. Whos in chargehumans, AI or cyborgs? Are humans treated well or badly? Are we replaced and, if so, do we perceive our replacements as conquerors or worthy descendants? Im very curious about which of the chapter 5 scenarios you personally prefer! Ive set up a website, http://AgeOfAi.org , where you can share your views and join the conversation. Finally, we forge billions of years into the future in chapter 6 where we can, ironically, draw stronger conclusions than in the previous chapters, as the ultimate limits of life in our cosmos are set not by intelligence but by the laws of physics. After concluding our exploration of the history of intelligence, well devote the remainder of the book to considering what future to aim for and how to get there. To be able to link cold facts to questions of purpose and meaning, we explore the physical basis of goals in chapter 7 and consciousness in chapter 8. Finally, in the epilogue, we explore what can be done right now to help create the future we want. Figure 1.6: Which AI questions are interesting depends on how advanced AI gets and which branch our future takes. In case youre a reader who likes skipping around, most chapters are relatively self-contained once youve digested the terminology and definitions from this first chapter and the beginning of the next one. If youre an AI researcher, you can optionally skip all of chapter 2 except for its initial intelligence definitions. If youre new to AI, chapters 2 and 3 will give you the arguments for why chapters 4 through 6 cant be trivially dismissed as impossible science fiction. Figure 1.7 summarizes where the various chapters fall on the spectrum from factual to speculative. Figure 1.7: Structure of the book A fascinating journey awaits us. Lets begin! THE BOTTOM LINE: Life, defined as a process that can retain its complexity and replicate, can develop through three stages: a biological stage (1.0), where its hardware and software are evolved, a cultural stage (2.0), where it can design its software (through learning) and a technological stage (3.0), where it can design its hardware as well, becoming the master of its own destiny. Artificial intelligence may enable us to launch Life 3.0 this century, and a fascinating conversation has sprung up regarding what future we should aim for and how this can be accomplished. There are three main camps in the controversy: techno-skeptics, digital utopians and the beneficial-AI movement. Techno-skeptics view building superhuman AGI as so hard that it wont happen for hundreds of years, making it silly to worry about it (and Life 3.0) now. Digital utopians view it as likely this century and wholeheartedly welcome Life 3.0, viewing it as the natural and desirable next step in the cosmic evolution. The beneficial-AI movement also views it as likely this century, but views a good outcome not as guaranteed, but as something that needs to be ensured by hard work in the form of AI-safety research. Beyond such legitimate controversies where world-leading experts disagree, there are also boring pseudo-controversies caused by misunderstandings. For example, never waste time arguing about life, intelligence, or consciousness before ensuring that you and your protagonist are using these words to mean the same thing! This book uses the definitions in table 1.1 . Also beware the common misconceptions in figure 1.5 : Superintelligence by 2100 is inevitable/impossible. Only Luddites worry about AI. The concern is about AI turning evil and/or conscious, and its just years away. Robots are the main concern. AI cant control humans and cant have goals. In chapters 2 through 6, well explore the story of intelligence from its humble beginning billions of years ago to possible cosmic futures billions of years from now. Well first investigate near-term challenges such as jobs, AI weapons and the quest for human-level AGI, then explore possibilities for a fascinating spectrum of possible futures with intelligent machines and/or humans. I wonder which options youll prefer! In chapters 7 through 9, well switch from cold factual descriptions to an exploration of goals, consciousness and meaning, and investigate what we can do right now to help create the future we want. I view this conversation about the future of life with AI as the most important one of our timeplease join it! *1 Why did life grow more complex? Evolution rewards life thats complex enough to predict and exploit regularities in its environment, so in a more complex environment, more complex and intelligent life will evolve. Now this smarter life creates a more complex environment for competing life forms, which in turn evolve to be more complex, eventually creating an ecosystem of extremely complex life. *2 The AI conversation is important in terms of both urgency and impact. In comparison with climate change, which might wreak havoc in fifty to two hundred years, many experts expect AI to have greater impact within decadesand to potentially give us technology for mitigating climate change. In comparison with wars, terrorism, unemployment, poverty, migration and social justice issues, the rise of AI will have greater overall impactindeed, well explore in this book how it can dominate what happens with all these issues, for better or for worse. Chapter 2 Matter Turns Intelligent Hydrogen, given enough time, turns into people. Edward Robert Harrison, 1995 One of the most spectacular developments during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang is that dumb and lifeless matter has turned intelligent. How could this happen and how much smarter can things get in the future? What does science have to say about the history and fate of intelligence in our cosmos? To help us tackle these questions, lets devote this chapter to exploring the foundations and fundamental building blocks of intelligence. What does it mean to say that a blob of matter is intelligent? What does it mean to say that an object can remember, compute and learn? What Is Intelligence? My wife and I recently had the good fortune to attend a symposium on artificial intelligence organized by the Swedish Nobel Foundation, and when a panel of leading AI researchers were asked to define intelligence, they argued at length without reaching consensus. We found this quite funny: theres no agreement on what intelligence is even among intelligent intelligence researchers! So theres clearly no undisputed correct definition of intelligence. Instead, there are many competing ones, including capacity for logic, understanding, planning, emotional knowledge, self-awareness, creativity, problem solving and learning. In our exploration of the future of intelligence, we want to take a maximally broad and inclusive view, not limited to the sorts of intelligence that exist so far. Thats why the definition I gave in the last chapter, and the way Im going to use the word throughout this book, is very broad: intelligence = ability to accomplish complex goals This is broad enough to include all above-mentioned definitions, since understanding, self-awareness, problem solving, learning, etc. are all examples of complex goals that one might have. Its also broad enough to subsume the Oxford Dictionary definitionthe ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skillssince one can have as a goal to apply knowledge and skills. Because there are many possible goals, there are many possible types of intelligence. By our definition, it therefore makes no sense to quantify intelligence of humans, non-human animals or machines by a single number such as an IQ. *1 Whats more intelligent: a computer program that can only play chess or one that can only play Go? Theres no sensible answer to this, since theyre good at different things that cant be directly compared. We can, however, say that a third program is more intelligent than both of the others if its at least as good as them at accomplishing all goals, and strictly better at at least one (winning at chess, say). It also makes little sense to quibble about whether something is or isnt intelligent in borderline cases, since ability comes on a spectrum and isnt necessarily an all-or-nothing trait. What people have the ability to accomplish the goal of speaking? Newborns? No. Radio hosts? Yes. But what about toddlers who can speak ten words? Or five hundred words? Where would you draw the line? Ive used the deliberately vague word complex in the definition above, because its not very interesting to try to draw an artificial line between intelligence and non-intelligence, and its more useful to simply quantify the degree of ability for accomplishing different goals. Figure 2.1: Intelligence, defined as ability to accomplish complex goals, cant be measured by a single IQ, only by an ability spectrum across all goals. Each arrow indicates how skilled todays best AI systems are at accomplishing various goals, illustrating that todays artificial intelligence tends to be narrow, with each system able to accomplish only very specific goals. In contrast, human intelligence is remarkably broad: a healthy child can learn to get better at almost anything. To classify different intelligences into a taxonomy, another crucial distinction is that between narrow and broad intelligence. IBMs Deep Blue chess computer, which dethroned chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, was only able to accomplish the very narrow task of playing chessdespite its impressive hardware and software, it couldnt even beat a four-year-old at tic-tac-toe. The DQN AI system of Google DeepMind can accomplish a slightly broader range of goals: it can play dozens of different vintage Atari computer games at human level or better. In contrast, human intelligence is thus far uniquely broad, able to master a dazzling panoply of skills. A healthy child given enough training time can get fairly good not only at any game, but also at any language, sport or vocation. Comparing the intelligence of humans and machines today, we humans win hands-down on breadth, while machines outperform us in a small but growing number of narrow domains, as illustrated in figure 2.1 . The holy grail of AI research is to build general AI (better known as artificial general intelligence, AGI) that is maximally broad: able to accomplish virtually any goal, including learning. Well explore this in detail in chapter 4. The term AGI was popularized by the AI researchers Shane Legg, Mark Gubrud and Ben Goertzel to more specifically mean human-level artificial general intelligence: the ability to accomplish any goal at least as well as humans. 1 Ill stick with their definition, so unless I explicitly qualify the acronym (by writing superhuman AGI, for example), Ill use AGI as shorthand for human-level AGI. *2 Although the word intelligence tends to have positive connotations, its important to note that were using it in a completely value-neutral way: as ability to accomplish complex goals regardless of whether these goals are considered good or bad. Thus an intelligent person may be very good at helping people or very good at hurting people. Well explore the issue of goals in chapter 7. Regarding goals, we also need to clear up the subtlety of whose goals were referring to. Suppose your future brand-new robotic personal assistant has no goals whatsoever of its own, but will do whatever you ask it to do, and you ask it to cook the perfect Italian dinner. If it goes online and researches Italian dinner recipes, how to get to the closest supermarket, how to strain pasta and so on, and then successfully buys the ingredients and prepares a succulent meal, youll presumably consider it intelligent even though the original goal was yours. In fact, it adopted your goal once youd made your request, and then broke it into a hierarchy of subgoals of its own, from paying the cashier to grating the Parmesan. In this sense, intelligent behavior is inexorably linked to goal attainment. Figure 2.2: Illustration of Hans Moravecs landscape of human competence, where elevation represents difficulty for computers, and the rising sea level represents what computers are able to do. Its natural for us to rate the difficulty of tasks relative to how hard it is for us humans to perform them, as in figure 2.1 . But this can give a misleading picture of how hard they are for computers. It feels much harder to multiply 314,159 by 271,828 than to recognize a friend in a photo, yet computers creamed us at arithmetic long before I was born, while human-level image recognition has only recently become possible. This fact that low-level sensorimotor tasks seem easy despite requiring enormous computational resources is known as Moravecs paradox, and is explained by the fact that our brain makes such tasks feel easy by dedicating massive amounts of customized hardware to themmore than a quarter of our brains, in fact. I love this metaphor from Hans Moravec, and have taken the liberty to illustrate it in figure 2.2 : Computers are universal machines, their potential extends uniformly over a boundless expanse of tasks. Human potentials, on the other hand, are strong in areas long important for survival, but weak in things far removed. Imagine a landscape of human competence, having lowlands with labels like arithmetic and rote memorization, foothills like theorem proving and chess playing, and high mountain peaks labeled locomotion, hand- eye coordination and social interaction. Advancing computer performance is like water slowly flooding the landscape. A half century ago it began to drown the lowlands, driving out human calculators and record clerks, but leaving most of us dry. Now the flood has reached the foothills, and our outposts there are contemplating retreat. We feel safe on our peaks, but, at the present rate, those too will be submerged within another half century. I propose that we build Arks as that day nears, and adopt a seafaring life! 2 During the decades since he wrote those passages, the sea level has kept rising relentlessly, as he predicted, like global warming on steroids, and some of his foothills (including chess) have long since been submerged. What comes next and what we should do about it is the topic of the rest of this book. As the sea level keeps rising, it may one day reach a tipping point, triggering dramatic change. This critical sea level is the one corresponding to machines becoming able to perform AI design. Before this tipping point is reached, the sea-level rise is caused by humans improving machines; afterward, the rise can be driven by machines improving machines, potentially much faster than humans could have done, rapidly submerging all land. This is the fascinating and controversial idea of the singularity, which well have fun exploring in chapter 4. Computer pioneer Alan Turing famously proved that if a computer can perform a certain bare minimum set of operations, then, given enough time and memory, it can be programmed to do anything that any other computer can do. Machines exceeding this critical threshold are called universal computers (aka Turing-universal computers); all of todays smartphones and laptops are universal in this sense. Analogously, I like to think of the critical intelligence threshold required for AI design as the threshold for universal intelligence: given enough time and resources, it can make itself able to accomplish any goal as well as any other intelligent entity. For example, if it decides that it wants better social skills, forecasting skills or AI-design skills, it can acquire them. If it decides to figure out how to build a robot factory, then it can do so. In other words, universal intelligence has the potential to develop into Life 3.0. The conventional wisdom among artificial intelligence researchers is that intelligence is ultimately all about information and computation, not about flesh, blood or carbon atoms. This means that theres no fundamental reason why machines cant one day be at least as intelligent as us. But what are information and computation really, given that physics has taught us that, at a fundamental level, everything is simply matter and energy moving around? How can something as abstract, intangible and ethereal as information and computation be embodied by tangible physical stuff? In particular, how can a bunch of dumb particles moving around according to the laws of physics exhibit behavior that wed call intelligent? If you feel that the answer to this question is obvious and consider it plausible that machines might get as intelligent as humans this centuryfor example because youre an AI researcherplease skip the rest of this chapter and jump straight to chapter 3. Otherwise, youll be pleased to know that Ive written the next three sections specially for you. What Is Memory? If we say that an atlas contains information about the world, we mean that theres a relation between the state of the book (in particular, the positions of certain molecules that give the letters and images their colors) and the state of the world (for example, the locations of continents). If the continents were in different places, then those molecules would be in different places as well. We humans use a panoply of different devices for storing information, from books and brains to hard drives, and they all share this property: that their state can be related to (and therefore inform us about) the state of other things that we care about. What fundamental physical property do they all have in common that makes them useful as memory devices, i.e., devices for storing information? The answer is that they all can be in many different long-lived states long-lived enough to encode the information until its needed. As a simple example, suppose you place a ball on a hilly surface that has sixteen different valleys, as in figure 2.3 . Once the ball has rolled down and come to rest, it will be in one of sixteen places, so you can use its position as a way of remembering any number between 1 and 16. This memory device is rather robust, because even if it gets a bit jiggled and disturbed by outside forces, the ball is likely to stay in the same valley that you put it in, so you can still tell which number is being stored. The reason that this memory is so stable is that lifting the ball out of its valley requires more energy than random disturbances are likely to provide. This same idea can provide stable memories much more generally than for a movable ball: the energy of a complicated physical system can depend on all sorts of mechanical, chemical, electrical and magnetic properties, and as long as it takes energy to change the system away from the state you want it to remember, this state will be stable. This is why solids have many long-lived states, whereas liquids and gases dont: if you engrave someones name on a gold ring, the information will still be there years later because reshaping the gold requires significant energy, but if you engrave it in the surface of a pond, it will be lost within a second as the water surface effortlessly changes its shape. The simplest possible memory device has only two stable states ( figure 2.3 ). We can therefore think of it as encoding a binary digit (abbreviated bit), i.e., a zero or a one. The information stored by any more complicated memory device can equivalently be stored in multiple bits: for example, taken together, the four bits shown in figure 2.3 can be in 2 2 2 2 = 16 different states 0000, 0001, 0010, 0011,, 1111, so they collectively have exactly the same memory capacity as the more complicated 16-state system. We can therefore think of bits as atoms of informationthe smallest indivisible chunk of information that cant be further subdivided, which can combine to make up any information. For example, I just typed the word word, and my laptop represented it in its memory as the 4-number sequence 119 111 114 100, storing each of those numbers as 8 bits (it represents each lowercase letter by a number thats 96 plus its order in the alphabet). As soon as I hit the w key on my keyboard, my laptop displayed a visual image of a w on my screen, and this image is also represented by bits: 32 bits specify the color of each of the screens millions of pixels. Figure 2.3: A physical object is a useful memory device if it can be in many different stable states. The ball on the left can encode four bits of information labeling which one of 2 4 = 16 valleys its in. Together, the four balls on the right also encode four bits of informationone bit each. Since two-state systems are easy to manufacture and work with, most modern computers store their information as bits, but these bits are embodied in a wide variety of ways. On a DVD, each bit corresponds to whether there is or isnt a microscopic pit at a given point on the plastic surface. On a hard drive, each bit corresponds to a point on the surface being magnetized in one of two ways. In my laptops working memory, each bit corresponds to the positions of certain electrons, determining whether a device called a micro-capacitor is charged. Some kinds of bits are convenient to transport as well, even at the speed of light: for example, in an optical fiber transmitting your email, each bit corresponds to a laser beam being strong or weak at a given time. Engineers prefer to encode bits into systems that arent only stable and easy to read from (as a gold ring), but also easy to write to: altering the state of your hard drive requires much less energy than engraving gold. They also prefer systems that are convenient to work with and cheap to mass-produce. But other than that, they simply dont care about how the bits are represented as physical objectsand nor do you most of the time, because it simply doesnt matter! If you email your friend a document to print, the information may get copied in rapid succession from magnetizations on your hard drive to electric charges in your computers working memory, radio waves in your wireless network, voltages in your router, laser pulses in an optical fiber and, finally, molecules on a piece of paper. In other words, information can take on a life of its own, independent of its physical substrate! Indeed, its usually only this substrate- independent aspect of information that were interested in: if your friend calls you up to discuss that document you sent, shes probably not calling to talk about voltages or molecules. This is our first hint of how something as intangible as intelligence can be embodied in tangible physical stuff, and well soon see how this idea of substrate independence is much deeper, including not only information but also computation and learning. Because of this substrate independence, clever engineers have been able to repeatedly replace the memory devices inside our computers with dramatically better ones, based on new technologies, without requiring any changes whatsoever to our software. The result has been spectacular, as illustrated in figure 2.4 : over the past six decades, computer memory has gotten half as expensive roughly every couple of years. Hard drives have gotten over 100 million times cheaper, and the faster memories useful for computation rather than mere storage have become a whopping 10 trillion times cheaper. If you could get such a 99.99999999999% off discount on all your shopping, you could buy all real estate in New York City for about 10 cents and all the gold thats ever been mined for around a dollar. For many of us, the spectacular improvements in memory technology come with personal stories. I fondly remember working in a candy store back in high school to pay for a computer sporting 16 kilobytes of memory, and when I made and sold a word processor for it with my high school classmate Magnus Bodin, we were forced to write it all in ultra-compact machine code to leave enough memory for the words that it was supposed to process. After getting used to floppy drives storing 70kB, I became awestruck by the smaller 3.5-inch floppies that could store a whopping 1.44MB and hold a whole book, and then my first- ever hard drive storing 10MBwhich might just barely fit a single one of todays song downloads. These memories from my adolescence felt almost unreal the other day, when I spent about $100 on a hard drive with 300,000 times more capacity. Figure 2.4: Over the past six decades, computer memory has gotten twice as cheap roughly every couple of years, corresponding to a thousand times cheaper roughly every twenty years. A byte equals eight bits. Data courtesy of John McCallum, from http://www.jcmit.net/memoryprice.htm. What about memory devices that evolved rather than being designed by humans? Biologists dont yet know what the first-ever life form was that copied its blueprints between generations, but it may have been quite small. A team led by Philipp Holliger at Cambridge University made an RNA molecule in 2016 that encoded 412 bits of genetic information and was able to copy RNA strands longer than itself, bolstering the RNA world hypothesis that early Earth life involved short self-replicating RNA snippets. So far, the smallest memory device known to be evolved and used in the wild is the genome of the bacterium Candidatus Carsonella ruddii, storing about 40 kilobytes, whereas our human DNA stores about 1.6 gigabytes, comparable to a downloaded movie. As mentioned in the last chapter, our brains store much more information than our genes: in the ballpark of 10 gigabytes electrically (specifying which of your 100 billion neurons are firing at any one time) and 100 terabytes chemically/biologically (specifying how strongly different neurons are linked by synapses). Comparing these numbers with the machine memories shows that the worlds best computers can now out-remember any biological systemat a cost thats rapidly dropping and was a few thousand dollars in 2016. The memory in your brain works very differently from computer memory, not only in terms of how its built, but also in terms of how its used. Whereas you retrieve memories from a computer or hard drive by specifying where its stored, you retrieve memories from your brain by specifying something about what is stored. Each group of bits in your computers memory has a numerical address, and to retrieve a piece of information, the computer specifies at what address to look, just as if I tell you Go to my bookshelf, take the fifth book from the right on the top shelf, and tell me what it says on page 314. In contrast, you retrieve information from your brain similarly to how you retrieve it from a search engine: you specify a piece of the information or something related to it, and it pops up. If I tell you to be or not, or if I google it, chances are that it will trigger To be, or not to be, that is the question. Indeed, it will probably work even if I use another part of the quote or mess things up somewhat. Such memory systems are called auto-associative, since they recall by association rather than by address. In a famous 1982 paper, the physicist John Hopfield showed how a network of interconnected neurons could function as an auto-associative memory. I find the basic idea very beautiful, and it works for any physical system with multiple stable states. For example, consider a ball on a surface with two valleys, like the one-bit system in figure 2.3 , and lets shape the surface so that the x -coordinates of the two minima where the ball can come to rest are x = 2 1 . 41421 and x = 3 . 14159, respectively. If you remember only that is close to 3, you simply put the ball at x = 3 and watch it reveal a more exact -value as it rolls down to the nearest minimum. Hopfield realized that a complex network of neurons provides an analogous landscape with very many energy-minima that the system can settle into, and it was later proved that you can squeeze in as many as 138 different memories for every thousand neurons without causing major confusion. What Is Computation? Weve now seen how a physical object can remember information. But how can it compute? A computation is a transformation of one memory state into another. In other words, a computation takes information and transforms it, implementing what mathematicians call a function . I think of a function as a meat grinder for information, as illustrated in figure 2.5 : you put information in at the top, turn the crank and get processed information out at the bottomand you can repeat this as many times as you want with different inputs. This information processing is deterministic in the sense that if you repeat it with the same input, you get the same output every time. Figure 2.5: A computation takes information and transforms it, implementing what mathematicians call a function . The function f (left) takes bits representing a number and computes its square. The function g (middle) takes bits representing a chess position and computes the best move for White. The function h (right) takes bits representing an image and computes a text label describing it. Although it sounds deceptively simple, this idea of a function is incredibly general. Some functions are rather trivial, such as the one called NOT that inputs a single bit and outputs the reverse, thus turning zero into one and vice versa. The functions we learn about in school typically correspond to buttons on a pocket calculator, inputting one or more numbers and outputting a single number for example, the function x 2 simply inputs a number and outputs it multiplied by itself. Other functions can be extremely complicated. For instance, if youre in possession of a function that would input bits representing an arbitrary chess position and output bits representing the best possible next move, you can use it to win the World Computer Chess Championship. If youre in possession of a function that inputs all the worlds financial data and outputs the best stocks to buy, youll soon be extremely rich. Many AI researchers dedicate their careers to figuring out how to implement certain functions. For example, the goal of machine-translation research is to implement a function inputting bits representing text in one language and outputting bits representing that same text in another language, and the goal of automatic-captioning research is inputting bits representing an image and outputting bits representing text describing it ( figure 2.5 ). Figure 2.6: A so-called NAND gate takes two bits, A and B, as inputs and computes one bit C as output, according to the rule that C = 0 if A = B = 1 and C = 1 otherwise. Many physical systems can be used as NAND gates. In the middle example, switches are interpreted as bits where 0 = open, 1= closed, and when switches A and B are both closed, an electromagnet opens the switch C. In the rightmost example, voltages (electrical potentials) are interpreted as bits where 1 = five volts, 0 = zero volts, and when wires A and B are both at five volts, the two transistors conduct electricity and the wire C drops to approximately zero volts. In other words, if you can implement highly complex functions, then you can build an intelligent machine thats able to accomplish highly complex goals. This brings our question of how matter can be intelligent into sharper focus: in particular, how can a clump of seemingly dumb matter compute a complicated function? Rather than just remain immobile as a gold ring or other static memory device, it must exhibit complex dynamics so that its future state depends in some complicated (and hopefully controllable/programmable) way on the present state. Its atom arrangement must be less ordered than a rigid solid where nothing interesting changes, but more ordered than a liquid or gas. Specifically, we want the system to have the property that if we put it in a state that encodes the input information, let it evolve according to the laws of physics for some amount of time, and then interpret the resulting final state as the output information, then the output is the desired function of the input. If this is the case, then we can say that our system computes our function. As a first example of this idea, lets explore how we can build a very simple (but also very important) function called a NAND gate *3 out of plain old dumb matter. This function inputs two bits and outputs one bit: it outputs 0 if both inputs are 1; in all other cases, it outputs 1. If we connect two switches in series with a battery and an electromagnet, then the electromagnet will only be on if the first switch and the second switch are closed (on). Lets place a third switch under the electromagnet, as illustrated in figure 2.6 , such that the magnet will pull it open whenever its powered on. If we interpret the first two switches as the input bits and the third one as the output bit (with 0 = switch open, and 1 = switch closed), then we have ourselves a NAND gate: the third switch is open only if the first two are closed. There are many other ways of building NAND gates that are more practicalfor example, using transistors as illustrated in figure 2.6 . In todays computers, NAND gates are typically built from microscopic transistors and other components that can be automatically etched onto silicon wafers. Theres a remarkable theorem in computer science that says that NAND gates are universal , meaning that you can implement any well-defined function simply by connecting together NAND gates. *4 So if you can build enough NAND gates, you can build a device computing anything! In case youd like a taste of how this works, Ive illustrated in figure 2.7 how to multiply numbers using nothing but NAND gates. MIT researchers Norman Margolus and Tommaso Toffoli coined the name computronium for any substance that can perform arbitrary computations. Weve just seen that making computronium doesnt have to be particularly hard: the substance just needs to be able to implement NAND gates connected together in any desired way. Indeed, there are myriad other kinds of computronium as well. A simple variant that also works involves replacing the NAND gates by NOR gates that output 1 only when both inputs are 0. In the next section, well explore neural networks, which can also implement arbitrary computations, i.e., act as computronium. Scientist and entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram has shown that the same goes for simple devices called cellular automata, which repeatedly update bits based on what neighboring bits are doing. Already back in 1936, computer pioneer Alan Turing proved in a landmark paper that a simple machine (now known as a universal Turing machine) that could manipulate symbols on a strip of tape could also implement arbitrary computations. In summary, not only is it possible for matter to implement any well-defined computation, but its possible in a plethora of different ways. As mentioned earlier, Turing also proved something even more profound in that 1936 paper of his: that if a type of computer can perform a certain bare minimum set of operations, then its universal in the sense that given enough resources, it can do anything that any other computer can do. He showed that his Turing machine was universal, and connecting back more closely to physics, weve just seen that this family of universal computers also includes objects as diverse as a network of NAND gates and a network of interconnected neurons. Indeed, Stephen Wolfram has argued that most non-trivial physical systems, from weather systems to brains, would be universal computers if they could be made arbitrarily large and long-lasting. Figure 2.7: Any well-defined computation can be performed by cleverly combining nothing but NAND gates. For example, the addition and multiplication modules above both input two binary numbers represented by 4 bits, and output a binary number represented by 5 bits and 8 bits, respectively. The smaller modules NOT, AND, XOR and + (which sums three separate bits into a 2-bit binary number) are in turn built out of NAND gates. Fully understanding this figure is extremely challenging and totally unnecessary for following the rest of this book; Im including it here just to illustrate the idea of universalityand to satisfy my inner geek. This fact that exactly the same computation can be performed on any universal computer means that computation is substrate-independent in the same way that information is: it can take on a life of its own, independent of its physical substrate! So if youre a conscious superintelligent character in a future computer game, youd have no way of knowing whether you ran on a Windows desktop, a Mac OS laptop or an Android phone, because you would be substrate- independent. Youd also have no way of knowing what type of transistors the microprocessor was using. I first came to appreciate this crucial idea of substrate independence because there are many beautiful examples of it in physics. Waves, for instance: they have properties such as speed, wavelength and frequency, and we physicists can study the equations they obey without even needing to know what particular substance theyre waves in. When you hear something, youre detecting sound waves caused by molecules bouncing around in the mixture of gases that we call air, and we can calculate all sorts of interesting things about these waveshow their intensity fades as the square of the distance, such as how they bend when they pass through open doors and how they bounce off of walls and cause echoes without knowing what air is made of. In fact, we dont even need to know that its made of molecules: we can ignore all details about oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc., because the only property of the waves substrate that matters and enters into the famous wave equation is a single number that we can measure: the wave speed, which in this case is about 300 meters per second. Indeed, this wave equation that I taught my MIT students about in a course last spring was first discovered and put to great use long before physicists had even established that atoms and molecules existed! This wave example illustrates three important points. First, substrate independence doesnt mean that a substrate is unnecessary, but that most of its details dont matter. You obviously cant have sound waves in a gas if theres no gas, but any gas whatsoever will suffice. Similarly, you obviously cant have computation without matter, but any matter will do as long as it can be arranged into NAND gates, connected neurons or some other building block enabling universal computation. Second, the substrate-independent phenomenon takes on a life of its own, independent of its substrate. A wave can travel across a lake, even though none of its water molecules dothey mostly bob up and down, like fans doing the wave in a sports stadium. Third, its often only the substrate- independent aspect that were interested in: a surfer usually cares more about the position and height of a wave than about its detailed molecular composition. We saw how this was true for information, and its true for computation too: if two programmers are jointly hunting a bug in their code, theyre probably not discussing transistors. Weve now arrived at an answer to our opening question about how tangible physical stuff can give rise to something that feels as intangible, abstract and ethereal as intelligence: it feels so non-physical because its substrate- independent, taking on a life of its own that doesnt depend on or reflect the physical details. In short, computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and its not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesnt matter. In other words, the hardware is the matter and the software is the pattern. This substrate independence of computation implies that AI is possible: intelligence doesnt require flesh, blood or carbon atoms. Because of this substrate independence, shrewd engineers have been able to repeatedly replace the technologies inside our computers with dramatically better ones, without changing the software. The results have been every bit as spectacular as those for memory devices. As illustrated in figure 2.8 , computation keeps getting half as expensive roughly every couple of years, and this trend has now persisted for over a century, cutting the computer cost a whopping million million million (10 18 ) times since my grandmothers were born. If everything got a million million million times cheaper, then a hundredth of a cent would enable you to buy all goods and services produced on Earth this year. This dramatic drop in costs is of course a key reason why computation is everywhere these days, having spread from the building-sized computing facilities of yesteryear into our homes, cars and pocketsand even turning up in unexpected places such as sneakers. Why does our technology keep doubling its power at regular intervals, displaying what mathematicians call exponential growth? Indeed, why is it happening not only in terms of transistor miniaturization (a trend known as Moores law ), but also more broadly for computation as a whole ( figure 2.8 ), for memory ( figure 2.4 ) and for a plethora of other technologies ranging from genome sequencing to brain imaging? Ray Kurzweil calls this persistent doubling phenomenon the law of accelerating returns. Figure 2.8: Since 1900, computation has gotten twice as cheap roughly every couple of years. The plot shows the computing power measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) that can be purchased for $1,000. 3 The particular computation that defines a floating point operation corresponds to about 10 5 elementary logical operations such as bit flips or NAND evaluations. All examples of persistent doubling that I know of in nature have the same fundamental cause, and this technological one is no exception: each step creates the next. For example, you yourself underwent exponential growth right after your conception: each of your cells divided and gave rise to two cells roughly daily, causing your total number of cells to increase day by day as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. According to the most popular scientific theory of our cosmic origins, known as inflation, our baby Universe once grew exponentially just like you did, repeatedly doubling its size at regular intervals until a speck much smaller and lighter than an atom had grown more massive than all the galaxies weve ever seen with our telescopes. Again, the cause was a process whereby each doubling step caused the next. This is how technology progresses as well: once technology gets twice as powerful, it can often be used to design and build technology thats twice as powerful in turn, triggering repeated capability doubling in the spirit of Moores law. Something that occurs just as regularly as the doubling of our technological power is the appearance of claims that the doubling is ending. Yes, Moores law will of course end, meaning that theres a physical limit to how small transistors can be made. But some people mistakenly assume that Moores law is synonymous with the persistent doubling of our technological power. Contrariwise, Ray Kurzweil points out that Moores law involves not the first but the fifth technological paradigm to bring exponential growth in computing, as illustrated in figure 2.8 : whenever one technology stopped improving, we replaced it with an even better one. When we could no longer keep shrinking our vacuum tubes, we replaced them with transistors and then integrated circuits, where electrons move around in two dimensions. When this technology reaches its limits, there are many other alternatives we can tryfor example, using three-dimensional circuits and using something other than electrons to do our bidding. Nobody knows for sure what the next blockbuster computational substrate will be, but we do know that were nowhere near the limits imposed by the laws of physics. My MIT colleague Seth Lloyd has worked out what this fundamental limit is, and as well explore in greater detail in chapter 6, this limit is a whopping 33 orders of magnitude (10 33 times) beyond todays state of the art for how much computing a clump of matter can do. So even if we keep doubling the power of our computers every couple of years, it will take over two centuries until we reach that final frontier. Although all universal computers are capable of the same computations, some are more efficient than others. For example, a computation requiring millions of multiplications doesnt require millions of separate multiplication modules built from separate transistors as in figure 2.6 : it needs only one such module, since it can use it many times in succession with appropriate inputs. In this spirit of efficiency, most modern computers use a paradigm where computations are split into multiple time steps, during which information is shuffled back and forth between memory modules and computation modules. This computational architecture was developed between 1935 and 1945 by computer pioneers including Alan Turing, Konrad Zuse, Presper Eckert, John Mauchly and John von Neumann. More specifically, the computer memory stores both data and software (a program, i.e., a list of instructions for what to do with the data). At each time step, a central processing unit (CPU) executes the next instruction in the program, which specifies some simple function to apply to some part of the data. The part of the computer that keeps track of what to do next is merely another part of its memory, called the program counter, which stores the current line number in the program. To go to the next instruction, simply add one to the program counter. To jump to another line of the program, simply copy that line number into the program counterthis is how so-called if statements and loops are implemented. Todays computers often gain additional speed by parallel processing, which cleverly undoes some of this reuse of modules: if a computation can be split into parts that can be done in parallel (because the input of one part doesnt require the output of another), then the parts can be computed simultaneously by different parts of the hardware. The ultimate parallel computer is a quantum computer . Quantum computing pioneer David Deutsch controversially argues that quantum computers share information with huge numbers of versions of themselves throughout the multiverse, and can get answers faster here in our Universe by in a sense getting help from these other versions. 4 We dont yet know whether a commercially competitive quantum computer can be built during the coming decades, because it depends both on whether quantum physics works as we think it does and on our ability to overcome daunting technical challenges, but companies and governments around the world are betting tens of millions of dollars annually on the possibility. Although quantum computers cannot speed up run-of-the-mill computations, clever algorithms have been developed that may dramatically speed up specific types of calculations, such as cracking cryptosystems and training neural networks. A quantum computer could also efficiently simulate the behavior of quantum-mechanical systems, including atoms, molecules and new materials, replacing measurements in chemistry labs in the same way that simulations on traditional computers have replaced measurements in wind tunnels. What Is Learning? Although a pocket calculator can crush me in an arithmetic contest, it will never improve its speed or accuracy, no matter how much it practices. It doesnt learn: for example, every time I press its square-root button, it computes exactly the same function in exactly the same way. Similarly, the first computer program that ever beat me at chess never learned from its mistakes, but merely implemented a function that its clever programmer had designed to compute a good next move. In contrast, when Magnus Carlsen lost his first game of chess at age five, he began a learning process that made him the World Chess Champion eighteen years later. The ability to learn is arguably the most fascinating aspect of general intelligence. Weve already seen how a seemingly dumb clump of matter can remember and compute, but how can it learn? Weve seen that finding the answer to a difficult question corresponds to computing a function, and that appropriately arranged matter can calculate any computable function. When we humans first created pocket calculators and chess programs, we did the arranging. For matter to learn, it must instead rearrange itself to get better and better at computing the desired functionsimply by obeying the laws of physics. To demystify the learning process, lets first consider how a very simple physical system can learn the digits of and other numbers. Above we saw how a surface with many valleys (see figure 2.3 ) can be used as a memory device: for example, if the bottom of one of the valleys is at position x = 3 . 14159 and there are no other valleys nearby, then you can put a ball at x = 3 and watch the system compute the missing decimals by letting the ball roll down to the bottom. Now, suppose that the surface is made of soft clay and starts out completely flat, as a blank slate. If some math enthusiasts repeatedly place the ball at the locations of each of their favorite numbers, then gravity will gradually create valleys at these locations, after which the clay surface can be used to recall these stored memories. In other words, the clay surface has learned to compute digits of numbers such as . Other physical systems, such as brains, can learn much more efficiently based on the same idea. John Hopfield showed that his above-mentioned network of interconnected neurons can learn in an analogous way: if you repeatedly put it into certain states, it will gradually learn these states and return to them from any nearby state. If youve seen each of your family members many times, then memories of what they look like can be triggered by anything related to them. Neural networks have now transformed both biological and artificial intelligence, and have recently started dominating the AI subfield known as machine learning (the study of algorithms that improve through experience). Before delving deeper into how such networks can learn, lets first understand how they can compute. A neural network is simply a group of interconnected neurons that are able to influence each others behavior. Your brain contains about as many neurons as there are stars in our Galaxy: in the ballpark of a hundred billion. On average, each of these neurons is connected to about a thousand others via junctions called synapses, and its the strengths of these roughly hundred trillion synapse connections that encode most of the information in your brain. We can schematically draw a neural network as a collection of dots representing neurons connected by lines representing synapses (see figure 2.9 ). Real-world neurons are very complicated electrochemical devices looking nothing like this schematic illustration: they involve different parts with names such as axons and dendrites, there are many different kinds of neurons that operate in a wide variety of ways, and the exact details of how and when electrical activity in one neuron affects other neurons is still the subject of active study. However, AI researchers have shown that neural networks can still attain human-level performance on many remarkably complex tasks even if one ignores all these complexities and replaces real biological neurons with extremely simple simulated ones that are all identical and obey very simple rules. The currently most popular model for such an artificial neural network represents the state of each neuron by a single number and the strength of each synapse by a single number. In this model, each neuron updates its state at regular time steps by simply averaging together the inputs from all connected neurons, weighting them by the synaptic strengths, optionally adding a constant, and then applying whats called an activation function to the result to compute its next state. *5 The easiest way to use a neural network as a function is to make it feedforward, with information flowing only in one direction, as in figure 2.9 , plugging the input to the function into a layer of neurons at the top and extracting the output from a layer of neurons at the bottom. Figure 2.9: A network of neurons can compute functions just as a network of NAND gates can. For example, artificial neural networks have been trained to input numbers representing the brightness of different image pixels and output numbers representing the probability that the image depicts various people. Here each artificial neuron (circle) computes a weighted sum of the numbers sent to it via connections (lines) from above, applies a simple function and passes the result downward, each subsequent layer computing higher-level features. Typical face- recognition networks contain hundreds of thousands of neurons; the figure shows merely a handful for clarity. The success of these simple artificial neural networks is yet another example of substrate independence: neural networks have great computational power seemingly independent of the low-level nitty-gritty details of their construction. Indeed, George Cybenko, Kurt Hornik, Maxwell Stinchcombe and Halbert White proved something remarkable in 1989: such simple neural networks are universal in the sense that they can compute any function arbitrarily accurately, by simply adjusting those synapse strength numbers accordingly. In other words, evolution probably didnt make our biological neurons so complicated because it was necessary, but because it was more efficientand because evolution, as opposed to human engineers, doesnt reward designs that are simple and easy to understand. When I first learned about this, I was mystified by how something so simple could compute something arbitrarily complicated. For example, how can you compute even something as simple as multiplication, when all youre allowed to do is compute weighted sums and apply a single fixed function? In case youd like a taste of how this works, figure 2.10 shows how a mere five neurons can multiply two arbitrary numbers together, and how a single neuron can multiply three bits together. Although you can prove that you can compute anything in theory with an arbitrarily large neural network, the proof doesnt say anything about whether you can do so in practice, with a network of reasonable size. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more puzzled I became that neural networks worked so well. For example, suppose that we wish to classify megapixel grayscale images into two categories, say cats or dogs. If each of the million pixels can take one of, say, 256 values, then there are 256 1000000 possible images, and for each one, we wish to compute the probability that it depicts a cat. This means that an arbitrary function that inputs a picture and outputs a probability is defined by a list of 256 1000000 probabilities, that is, way more numbers than there are atoms in our Universe (about 10 78 ). Yet neural networks with merely thousands or millions of parameters somehow manage to perform such classification tasks quite well. How can successful neural networks be cheap, in the sense of requiring so few parameters? After all, you can prove that a neural network small enough to fit inside our Universe will epically fail to approximate almost all functions, succeeding merely on a ridiculously tiny fraction of all computational tasks that you might assign to it. Figure 2.10: How matter can multiply, but using not NAND gates as in figure 2.7 but neurons. The key point doesnt require following the details, and is that not only can neurons (artificial or biological) do math, but multiplication requires many fewer neurons than NAND gates. Optional details for hard-core math fans: Circles perform summation, squares apply the function , and lines multiply by the constants labeling them. The inputs are real numbers (left) and bits (right). The multiplication becomes arbitrarily accurate as a 0 (left) and c (right). The left network works for any function ( x ) thats curved at the origin (with second derivative (0) 0), which can be proven by Taylor expanding ( x ). The right network requires that the function ( x ) approaches 0 and 1 when x gets very small and very large, respectively, which is seen by noting that uvw = 1 only if u + v + w = 3. (These examples are from a paper I wrote with my students Henry Lin and David Rolnick, Why Does Deep and Cheap Learning Work So Well?, which can be found at http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.08225.) By combining together lots of multiplications (as above) and additions, you can compute any polynomials, which are well known to be able to approximate any smooth function. Ive had lots of fun puzzling over this and related mysteries with my student Henry Lin. One of the things I feel most grateful for in life is the opportunity to collaborate with amazing students, and Henry is one of them. When he first walked into my office to ask whether I was interested in working with him, I thought to myself that it would be more appropriate for me to ask whether he was interested in working with me: this modest, friendly and bright-eyed kid from Shreveport, Louisiana, had already written eight scientific papers, won a Forbes 30-Under-30 award, and given a TED talk with over a million views and he was only twenty! A year later, we wrote a paper together with a surprising conclusion: the question of why neural networks work so well cant be answered with mathematics alone, because part of the answer lies in physics. We found that the class of functions that the laws of physics throw at us and make us interested in computing is also a remarkably tiny class because, for reasons that we still dont fully understand, the laws of physics are remarkably simple. Moreover, the tiny fraction of functions that neural networks can compute is very similar to the tiny fraction that physics makes us interested in! We also extended previous work showing that deep-learning neural networks (theyre called deep if they contain many layers) are much more efficient than shallow ones for many of these functions of interest. For example, together with another amazing MIT student, David Rolnick, we showed that the simple task of multiplying n numbers requires a whopping 2 n neurons for a network with only one layer, but takes only about 4 n neurons in a deep network. This helps explain not only why neural networks are now all the rage among AI researchers, but also why we evolved neural networks in our brains: if we evolved brains to predict the future, then it makes sense that wed evolve a computational architecture thats good at precisely those computational problems that matter in the physical world. Now that weve explored how neural networks work and compute, lets return to the question of how they can learn. Specifically, how can a neural network get better at computing by updating its synapses? In his seminal 1949 book, The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory, the Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb argued that if two nearby neurons were frequently active (firing) at the same time, their synaptic coupling would strengthen so that they learned to help trigger each otheran idea captured by the popular slogan Fire together, wire together. Although the details of how actual brains learn are still far from understood, and research has shown that the answers are in many cases much more complicated, its also been shown that even this simple learning rule (known as Hebbian learning) allows neural networks to learn interesting things. John Hopfield showed that Hebbian learning allowed his oversimplified artificial neural network to store lots of complex memories by simply being exposed to them repeatedly. Such exposure to information to learn from is usually called training when referring to artificial neural networks (or to animals or people being taught skills), although studying, education or experience might be just as apt. The artificial neural networks powering todays AI systems tend to replace Hebbian learning with more sophisticated learning rules with nerdy names such as backpropagation and stochastic gradient descent, but the basic idea is the same: theres some simple deterministic rule, akin to a law of physics, by which the synapses get updated over time. As if by magic, this simple rule can make the neural network learn remarkably complex computations if training is performed with large amounts of data. We dont yet know precisely what learning rules our brains use, but whatever the answer may be, theres no indication that they violate the laws of physics. Just as most digital computers gain efficiency by splitting their work into multiple steps and reusing computational modules many times, so do many artificial and biological neural networks. Brains have parts that are what computer scientists call recurrent rather than feedforward neural networks, where information can flow in multiple directions rather than just one way, so that the current output can become input to what happens next. The network of logic gates in the microprocessor of a laptop is also recurrent in this sense: it keeps reusing its past information, and lets new information input from a keyboard, trackpad, camera, etc., affect its ongoing computation, which in turn determines information output to, say, a screen, loudspeaker, printer or wireless network. Analogously, the network of neurons in your brain is recurrent, letting information input from your eyes, ears and other senses affect its ongoing computation, which in turn determines information output to your muscles. The history of learning is at least as long as the history of life itself, since every self-reproducing organism performs interesting copying and processing of informationbehavior that has somehow been learned. During the era of Life 1.0, however, organisms didnt learn during their lifetime: their rules for processing information and reacting were determined by their inherited DNA, so the only learning occurred slowly at the species level, through Darwinian evolution across generations. About half a billion years ago, certain gene lines here on Earth discovered a way to make animals containing neural networks, able to learn behaviors from experiences during life. Life 2.0 had arrived, and because of its ability to learn dramatically faster and outsmart the competition, it spread like wildfire across the globe. As we explored in chapter 1, life has gotten progressively better at learning, and at an ever-increasing rate. A particular ape-like species grew a brain so adept at acquiring knowledge that it learned how to use tools, make fire, speak a language and create a complex global society. This society can itself be viewed as a system that remembers, computes and learns, all at an accelerating pace as one invention enables the next: writing, the printing press, modern science, computers, the internet and so on. What will future historians put next on that list of enabling inventions? My guess is artificial intelligence. As we all know, the explosive improvements in computer memory and computational power ( figure 2.4 and figure 2.8 ) have translated into spectacular progress in artificial intelligencebut it took a long time until machine learning came of age. When IBMs Deep Blue computer overpowered chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, its major advantages lay in memory and computation, not in learning. Its computational intelligence had been created by a team of humans, and the key reason that Deep Blue could outplay its creators was its ability to compute faster and thereby analyze more potential positions. When IBMs Watson computer dethroned the human world champion in the quiz show Jeopardy! , it too relied less on learning than on custom-programmed skills and superior memory and speed. The same can be said of most early breakthroughs in robotics, from legged locomotion to self-driving cars and self-landing rockets. In contrast, the driving force behind many of the most recent AI breakthroughs has been machine learning . Consider figure 2.11 , for example. Its easy for you to tell what its a photo of, but to program a function that inputs nothing but the colors of all the pixels of an image and outputs an accurate caption such as A group of young people playing a game of frisbee had eluded all the worlds AI researchers for decades. Yet a team at Google led by Ilya Sutskever did precisely that in 2014. Input a different set of pixel colors, and it replies A herd of elephants walking across a dry grass field, again correctly. How did they do it? Deep Bluestyle, by programming handcrafted algorithms for detecting frisbees, faces and the like? No, by creating a relatively simple neural network with no knowledge whatsoever about the physical world or its contents, and then letting it learn by exposing it to massive amounts of data. AI visionary Jeff Hawkins wrote in 2004 that no computer cansee as well as a mouse, but those days are now long gone. Figure 2.11: A group of young people playing a game of frisbeethat caption was written by a computer with no understanding of people, games or frisbees. Just as we dont fully understand how our children learn, we still dont fully understand how such neural networks learn, and why they occasionally fail. But whats clear is that theyre already highly useful and are triggering a surge of investments in deep learning. Deep learning has now transformed many aspects of computer vision, from handwriting transcription to real-time video analysis for self-driving cars. It has similarly revolutionized the ability of computers to transform spoken language into text and translate it into other languages, even in real timewhich is why we can now talk to personal digital assistants such as Siri, Google Now and Cortana. Those annoying CAPTCHA puzzles, where we need to convince a website that were human, are getting ever more difficult in order to keep ahead of what machine-learning technology can do. In 2015, Google DeepMind released an AI system using deep learning that was able to master dozens of computer games like a kid wouldwith no instructions whatsoeverexcept that it soon learned to play better than any human. In 2016, the same company built AlphaGo, a Go-playing computer system that used deep learning to evaluate the strength of different board positions and defeated the worlds strongest Go champion. This progress is fueling a virtuous circle, bringing ever more funding and talent into AI research, which generates further progress. Weve spent this chapter exploring the nature of intelligence and its development up until now. How long will it take until machines can out-compete us at all cognitive tasks? We clearly dont know, and need to be open to the possibility that the answer may be never. However, a basic message of this chapter is that we also need to consider the possibility that it will happen, perhaps even in our lifetime. After all, matter can be arranged so that when it obeys the laws of physics, it remembers, computes and learnsand the matter doesnt need to be biological. AI researchers have often been accused of over- promising and under-delivering, but in fairness, some of their critics dont have the best track record either. Some keep moving the goalposts, effectively defining intelligence as that which computers still cant do, or as that which impresses us. Machines are now good or excellent at arithmetic, chess, mathematical theorem proving, stock picking, image captioning, driving, arcade game playing, Go, speech synthesis, speech transcription, translation and cancer diagnosis, but some critics will scornfully scoff Surebut thats not real intelligence! They might go on to argue that real intelligence involves only the mountaintops in Moravecs landscape ( figure 2.2 ) that havent yet been submerged, just as some people in the past used to argue that image captioning and Go should countwhile the water kept rising. Assuming that the water will keep rising for at least a while longer, AIs impact on society will keep growing. Long before AI reaches human level across all tasks, it will give us fascinating opportunities and challenges involving issues such as bugs, laws, weapons and jobs. What are they and how can we best prepare for them? Lets explore this in the next chapter. THE BOTTOM LINE: Intelligence, defined as ability to accomplish complex goals, cant be measured by a single IQ, only by an ability spectrum across all goals. Todays artificial intelligence tends to be narrow, with each system able to accomplish only very specific goals, while human intelligence is remarkably broad . Memory, computation, learning and intelligence have an abstract, intangible and ethereal feel to them because theyre substrate-independent: able to take on a life of their own that doesnt depend on or reflect the details of their underlying material substrate. Any chunk of matter can be the substrate for memory as long as it has many different stable states. Any matter can be computronium, the substrate for computation, as long as it contains certain universal building blocks that can be combined to implement any function. NAND gates and neurons are two important examples of such universal computational atoms. A neural network is a powerful substrate for learning because, simply by obeying the laws of physics, it can rearrange itself to get better and better at implementing desired computations. Because of the striking simplicity of the laws of physics, we humans only care about a tiny fraction of all imaginable computational problems, and neural networks tend to be remarkably good at solving precisely this tiny fraction. Once technology gets twice as powerful, it can often be used to design and build technology thats twice as powerful in turn, triggering repeated capability doubling in the spirit of Moores law. The cost of information technology has now halved roughly every two years for about a century, enabling the information age. If AI progress continues, then long before AI reaches human level for all skills, it will give us fascinating opportunities and challenges involving issues such as bugs, laws, weapons and jobswhich well explore in the next chapter. *1 To see this, imagine how youd react if someone claimed that the ability to accomplish Olympic-level athletic feats could be quantified by a single number called the athletic quotient, or AQ for short, so that the Olympian with the highest AQ would win the gold medals in all the sports. *2 Some people prefer human-level AI or strong AI as synonyms for AGI, but both are problematic. Even a pocket calculator is a human-level AI in the narrow sense. The antonym of strong AI is weak AI, but it feels odd to call narrow AI systems such as Deep Blue, Watson, and AlphaGo weak. *3 NAND is short for NOT AND: An AND gate outputs 1 only if the first input is 1 and the second input is 1, so NAND outputs the exact opposite. *4 Im using well-defined function to mean what mathematicians and computer scientists call a computable function, i.e., a function that could be computed by some hypothetical computer with unlimited memory and time. Alan Turing and Alonzo Church famously proved that there are also functions that can be described but arent computable. *5 In case you like math, two popular choices of this activation function are the so-called sigmoid function ( x ) 1/(1 + e x ) and the ramp function ( x ) = max{0, x }, although its been proven that almost any function will suffice as long as its not linear (a straight line). Hopfields famous model uses ( x ) = 1 if x < 0 and ( x ) = 1 if x 0. If the neuron states are stored in a vector, then the network is updated by simply multiplying that vector by a matrix storing the synaptic couplings and then applying the function to all elements. Chapter 3 The Near Future: Breakthroughs, Bugs, Laws, Weapons and Jobs If we dont change direction soon, well end up where were going. Irwin Corey What does it mean to be human in the present day and age? For example, what is it that we really value about ourselves, that makes us different from other life forms and machines? What do other people value about us that makes some of them willing to offer us jobs? Whatever our answers are to these questions at any one time, its clear that the rise of technology must gradually change them. Take me, for instance. As a scientist, I take pride in setting my own goals, in using creativity and intuition to tackle a broad range of unsolved problems, and in using language to share what I discover. Fortunately for me, society is willing to pay me to do this as a job. Centuries ago, I might instead, like many others, have built my identity around being a farmer or craftsman, but the growth of technology has since reduced such professions to a tiny fraction of the workforce. This means that its no longer possible for everyone to build their identity around farming or crafts. Personally, it doesnt bother me that todays machines outclass me at manual skills such as digging and knitting, since these are neither hobbies of mine nor my sources of income or self-worth. Indeed, any delusions I may have held about my abilities in that regard were crushed at age eight, when my school forced me to take a knitting class which I nearly flunked, and I completed my project only thanks to a compassionate helper from fifth grade taking pity on me. But as technology keeps improving, will the rise of AI eventually eclipse also those abilities that provide my current sense of self-worth and value on the job market? Stuart Russell told me that he and many of his fellow AI researchers had recently experienced a holy shit! moment, when they witnessed AI doing something they werent expecting to see for many years. In that spirit, please let me tell you about a few of my own HS moments, and how I see them as harbingers of human abilities soon to be overtaken. Breakthroughs Deep Reinforcement Learning Agents I experienced one of my major jaw drops in 2014 while watching a video of a DeepMind AI system learning to play computer games. Specifically, the AI was playing Breakout (see figure 3.1 ), a classic Atari game I remember fondly from my teens. The goal is to maneuver a paddle so as to repeatedly bounce a ball off a brick wall; every time you hit a brick, it disappears and your score increases. Figure 3.1: After learning to play the Atari game Breakout from scratch, using deep reinforcement learning to maximize the score, the DeepMind AI discovered the optimal strategy: drilling a hole through the leftmost part of the brick wall and letting the ball keep bouncing around behind it, amassing points very rapidly. Ive drawn arrows showing the past trajectories of ball and paddle. Id written some computer games of my own back in the day, and was well aware that it wasnt hard to write a program that could play Breakoutbut this was not what the DeepMind team had done. Instead, theyd created a blank-slate AI that knew nothing about this gameor about any other games, or even about concepts such as games, paddles, bricks or balls. All their AI knew was that a long list of numbers got fed into it at regular intervals: the current score and a long list of numbers which we (but not the AI) would recognize as specifications of how different parts of the screen were colored. The AI was simply told to maximize the score by outputting, at regular intervals, numbers which we (but not the AI) would recognize as codes for which keys to press. Initially, the AI played terribly: it cluelessly jiggled the paddle back and forth seemingly at random and missed the ball almost every time. After a while, it seemed to be getting the idea that moving the paddle toward the ball was a good idea, even though it still missed most of the time. But it kept improving with practice, and soon got better at the game than Id ever been, infallibly returning the ball no matter how fast it approached. And then my jaw dropped: it figured out this amazing score-maximizing strategy of always aiming for the upper-left corner to drill a hole through the wall and let the ball get stuck bouncing between the back of the wall and the barrier behind it. This felt like a really intelligent thing to do. Indeed, Demis Hassabis later told me that the programmers on that DeepMind team didnt know this trick until they learned it from the AI theyd built. I recommend watching a video of this for yourself at the link Ive provided. 1 There was a human-like feature to this that I found somewhat unsettling: I was watching an AI that had a goal and learned to get ever better at achieving it, eventually outperforming its creators. In the previous chapter, we defined intelligence as simply the ability to accomplish complex goals, so in this sense, DeepMinds AI was growing more intelligent in front of my eyes (albeit merely in the very narrow sense of playing this particular game). In the first chapter, we encountered what computer scientists call intelligent agents: entities that collect information about their environment from sensors and then process this information to decide how to act back on their environment. Although DeepMinds game-playing AI lived in an extremely simple virtual world composed of bricks, paddles and balls, I couldnt deny that it was an intelligent agent. DeepMind soon published their method and shared their code, explaining that it used a very simple yet powerful idea called deep reinforcement learning . 2 Basic reinforcement learning is a classic machine learning technique inspired by behaviorist psychology, where getting a positive reward increases your tendency to do something again and vice versa. Just like a dog learns to do tricks when this increases the likelihood of its getting encouragement or a snack from its owner soon, DeepMinds AI learned to move the paddle to catch the ball because this increased the likelihood of its getting more points soon. DeepMind combined this idea with deep learning: they trained a deep neural net, as in the previous chapter, to predict how many points would on average be gained by pressing each of the allowed keys on the keyboard, and then the AI selected whatever key the neural net rated as most promising given the current state of the game. When I listed traits contributing to my own personal feeling of self-worth as a human, I included the ability to tackle a broad range of unsolved problems. In contrast, being able to play Breakout and do nothing else constitutes extremely narrow intelligence. To me, the true importance of DeepMinds breakthrough is that deep reinforcement learning is a completely general technique. Sure enough, they let the exact same AI practice playing forty-nine different Atari games, and it learned to outplay their human testers on twenty-nine of them, from Pong to Boxing, Video Pinball and Space Invaders. It didnt take long until the same AI idea had started proving itself on more modern games whose worlds were three-dimensional rather than two- dimensional. Soon DeepMinds San Franciscobased competitors at OpenAI released a platform called Universe, where DeepMinds AI and other intelligent agents can practice interacting with an entire computer as if it were a game: clicking on anything, typing anything, and opening and running whatever software theyre able to navigatefiring up a web browser and messing around online, for example. Looking to the future of deep reinforcement learning and improvements thereupon, theres no obvious end in sight. The potential isnt limited to virtual game worlds, since if youre a robot, life itself can be viewed as a game. Stuart Russell told me that his first major HS moment was watching the robot Big Dog run up a snow-covered forest slope, elegantly solving the legged locomotion problem that he himself had struggled to solve for many years. 3 Yet when that milestone was reached in 2008, it involved huge amounts of work by clever programmers. After DeepMinds breakthrough, theres no reason why a robot cant ultimately use some variant of deep reinforcement learning to teach itself to walk without help from human programmers: all thats needed is a system that gives it points whenever it makes progress. Robots in the real world similarly have the potential to learn to swim, fly, play ping-pong, fight and perform a nearly endless list of other motor tasks without help from human programmers. To speed things up and reduce the risk of getting stuck or damaging themselves during the learning process, they would probably do the first stages of their learning in virtual reality. Intuition, Creativity and Strategy Another defining moment for me was when the DeepMind AI system AlphaGo won a five-game Go match against Lee Sedol, generally considered the top player in the world in the early twenty-first century. It was widely expected that human Go players would be dethroned by machines at some point, since it had happened to their chess-playing colleagues two decades earlier. However, most Go pundits predicted that it would take another decade, so AlphaGos triumph was a pivotal moment for them as well as for me. Nick Bostrom and Ray Kurzweil have both emphasized how hard it can be to see AI breakthroughs coming, which is evident from interviews with Lee Sedol himself before and after losing the first three games: October 2015: Based on its level seenI think I will win the game by a near landslide. February 2016: I have heard that Google DeepMinds AI is surprisingly strong and getting stronger, but I am confident that I can win at least this time. March 9, 2016: I was very surprised because I didnt think I would lose. March 10, 2016: Im quite speechlessI am in shock. I can admit thatthe third game is not going to be easy for me. March 12, 2016: I kind of felt powerless. Within a year after playing Lee Sedol, a further improved AlphaGo had played all twenty top players in the world without losing a single match. Why was this such a big deal for me personally? Well, I confessed above that I view intuition and creativity as two of my core human traits, and as Ill now explain, I feel that AlphaGo displayed both. Go players take turns placing black and white stones on a 19-by-19 board (see figure 3.2 ). There are vastly more possible Go positions than there are atoms in our Universe, which means that trying to analyze all interesting sequences of future moves rapidly gets hopeless. Players therefore rely heavily on subconscious intuition to complement their conscious reasoning, with experts developing an almost uncanny feel for which positions are strong and which are weak. As we saw in the last chapter, the results of deep learning are sometimes reminiscent of intuition: a deep neural network might determine that an image portrays a cat without being able to explain why. The DeepMind team therefore gambled on the idea that deep learning might be able to recognize not merely cats, but also strong Go positions. The core idea that they built into AlphaGo was to marry the intuitive power of deep learning with the logical power of GOFAIwhich stands for whats humorously known as Good Old-Fashioned AI from before the deep-learning revolution. They used a massive database of Go positions from both human play and games where AlphaGo had played a clone of itself, and trained a deep neural network to predict from each position the probability that white would ultimately win. They also trained a separate network to predict likely next moves. They then combined these networks with a GOFAI method that cleverly searched through a pruned list of likely future- move sequences to identify the next move that would lead to the strongest position down the road. Figure 3.2: DeepMinds AlphaGo AI made a highly creative move on line 5, in defiance of millennia of human wisdom, which about fifty moves later proved crucial to its defeat of Go legend Lee Sedol. This marriage of intuition and logic gave birth to moves that were not merely powerful, but in some cases also highly creative. For example, millennia of Go wisdom dictate that early in the game, its best to play on the third or fourth line from an edge. Theres a trade-off between the two: playing on the third line helps with short-term territory gain toward the side of the board, while playing on the fourth helps with long-term strategic influence toward the center. In the thirty-seventh move of the second game, AlphaGo shocked the Go world by defying that ancient wisdom and playing on the fifth line ( figure 3.2 ), as if it were even more confident than a human in its long-term planning abilities and therefore favored strategic advantage over short-term gain. Commentators were stunned, and Lee Sedol even got up and temporarily left the room. 4 Sure enough, about fifty moves later, fighting from the lower left-hand corner of the board ended up spilling over and connecting with that black stone from move thirty-seven! And that motif is what ultimately won the game, cementing the legacy of AlphaGos fifth-row move as one of the most creative in Go history. Because of its intuitive and creative aspects, Go is viewed more as an art form than just another game. It was considered one of the four essential arts in ancient China, together with painting, calligraphy and qin music, and it remains hugely popular in Asia, with almost 300 million people watching the first game between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol. As a result, the Go world was quite shaken by the outcome, and viewed AlphaGos victory as a profound milestone for humanity. Ke Jie, the worlds top-ranked Go player at the time, had this to say: 5 Humanity has played Go for thousands of years, and yet, as AI has shown us, we have not yet even scratched the surfaceThe union of human and computer players will usher in a new eraTogether, man and AI can find the truth of Go. Such fruitful human-machine collaboration indeed appears promising in many areas, including science, where AI can hopefully help us humans deepen our understanding and realize our ultimate potential. To me, AlphaGo also teaches us another important lesson for the near future: combining the intuition of deep learning with the logic of GOFAI can produce second-to-none strategy . Because Go is one of the ultimate strategy games, AI is now poised to graduate and challenge (or help) the best human strategists even beyond game boardsfor example with investment strategy, political strategy and military strategy. Such real-world strategy problems are typically complicated by human psychology, missing information and factors that need to be modeled as random, but poker-playing AI systems have already demonstrated that none of these challenges are insurmountable. Natural Language Yet another area where AI progress has recently stunned me is language. I fell in love with travel early in life, and curiosity about other cultures and languages formed an important part of my identity. I was raised speaking Swedish and English, was taught German and Spanish in school, learned Portuguese and Romanian through two marriages and taught myself some Russian, French and Mandarin for fun. But the AI has been reaching, and after an important discovery in 2016, there are almost no lazy languages that I can translate between better than the system of the AI developed by the equipment of the brain of Google. Did I make myself crystal clear? I was actually trying to say this: But AI has been catching up with me, and after a major breakthrough in 2016, there are almost no languages left that I can translate between better than the AI system developed by the Google Brain team. However, I first translated it to Spanish and back using an app that I installed on my laptop a few years ago. In 2016, the Google Brain team upgraded their free Google Translate service to use deep recurrent neural networks, and the improvement over older GOFAI systems was dramatic: 6 But AI has been catching up on me, and after a breakthrough in 2016, there are almost no languages left that can translate between better than the AI system developed by the Google Brain team. As you can see, the pronoun I got lost during the Spanish detour, which unfortunately changed the meaning. Close, but no cigar! However, in defense of Googles AI, Im often criticized for writing unnecessarily long sentences that are hard to parse, and I picked one of my most confusingly convoluted ones for this example. For more typical sentences, their AI often translates impeccably. As a result, it created quite a stir when it came out, and its helpful enough to be used by hundreds of millions of people daily. Moreover, courtesy of recent progress in deep learning for speech-to-text and text-to-speech conversion, these users can now speak to their smartphones in one language and listen to the translated result. Natural language processing is now one of the most rapidly advancing fields of AI, and I think that further success will have a large impact because language is so central to being human. The better an AI gets at linguistic prediction, the better it can compose reasonable email responses or continue a spoken conversation. This might, at least to an outsider, give the appearance of human thought taking place. Deep-learning systems are thus taking baby steps toward passing the famous Turing test, where a machine has to converse well enough in writing to trick a person into thinking that it too is human. Language-processing AI still has a long way to go, though. Although I must confess that I feel a bit deflated when Im out-translated by an AI, I feel better once I remind myself that, so far, it doesnt understand what its saying in any meaningful sense. From being trained on massive data sets, it discovers patterns and relations involving words without ever relating these words to anything in the real world. For example, it might represent each word by a list of a thousand numbers that specify how similar it is to certain other words. It may then conclude from this that the difference between king and queen is similar to that between husband and wifebut it still has no clue what it means to be male or female, or even that there is such a thing as a physical reality out there with space, time and matter. Since the Turing test is fundamentally about deception, it has been criticized for testing human gullibility more than true artificial intelligence. In contrast, a rival test called the Winograd Schema Challenge goes straight for the jugular, homing in on that commonsense understanding that current deep-learning systems tend to lack. We humans routinely use real-world knowledge when parsing a sentence, to figure out what a pronoun refers to. For example, a typical Winograd challenge asks what they refers to here: 1. The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they feared violence. 2. The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they advocated violence. Theres an annual AI competition to answer such questions, and AIs still perform miserably. 7 This precise challenge, understanding what refers to what, torpedoed even GoogleTranslate when I replaced Spanish with Chinese in my example above: But the AI has caught up with me, after a major break in 2016, with almost no language, I could translate the AI system than developed by the Google Brain team. Please try it yourself at https://translate.google.com now that youre reading the book and see if Googles AI has improved! Theres a good chance that it has, since there are promising approaches out there for marrying deep recurrent neural nets with GOFAI to build a language-processing AI that includes a world model. Opportunities and Challenges These three examples were obviously just a sampler, since AI is progressing rapidly across many important fronts. Moreover, although Ive mentioned only two companies in these examples, competing research groups at universities and other companies often werent far behind. A loud sucking noise can be heard in computer science departments around the world as Apple, Baidu, DeepMind, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others use lucrative offers to vacuum off students, postdocs and faculty. Its important not to be misled by the examples Ive given into viewing the history of AI as periods of stagnation punctuated by the occasional breakthrough. From my vantage point, Ive instead been seeing fairly steady progress for a long timewhich the media report as a breakthrough whenever it crosses the threshold of enabling a new imagination-grabbing application or useful product. I therefore consider it likely that brisk AI progress will continue for many years. Moreover, as we saw in the last chapter, theres no fundamental reason why this progress cant continue until AI matches human abilities on most tasks. Which raises the question: How will this impact us? How will near-term AI progress change what it means to be human? Weve seen that its getting progressively harder to argue that AI completely lacks goals, breadth, intuition, creativity or languagetraits that many feel are central to being human. This means that even in the near term, long before any AGI can match us at all tasks, AI might have a dramatic impact on how we view ourselves, on what we can do when complemented by AI and on what we can earn money doing when competing against AI. Will this impact be for the better or for the worse? What near-term opportunities and challenges will this present? Everything we love about civilization is the product of human intelligence, so if we can amplify it with artificial intelligence, we obviously have the potential to make life even better. Even modest progress in AI might translate into major improvements in science and technology and corresponding reductions of accidents, disease, injustice, war, drudgery and poverty. But in order to reap these benefits of AI without creating new problems, we need to answer many important questions. For example: 1. How can we make future AI systems more robust than todays, so that they do what we want without crashing, malfunctioning or getting hacked? 2. How can we update our legal systems to be more fair and efficient and to keep pace with the rapidly changing digital landscape? 3. How can we make weapons smarter and less prone to killing innocent civilians without triggering an out-of-control arms race in lethal autonomous weapons? 4. How can we grow our prosperity through automation without leaving people lacking income or purpose? Lets devote the rest of this chapter to exploring each of these questions in turn. These four near-term questions are aimed mainly at computer scientists, legal scholars, military strategists and economists, respectively. However, to help get the answers we need by the time we need them, everybody needs to join this conversation, because as well see, the challenges transcend all traditional boundariesboth between specialties and between nations. Bugs vs. Robust AI Information technology has already had great positive impact on virtually every sector of our human enterprise, from science to finance, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, energy and communication, and this impact pales in comparison to the progress that AI has the potential to bring. But the more we come to rely on technology, the more important it becomes that its robust and trustworthy, doing what we want it to do. Throughout human history, weve relied on the same tried-and-true approach to keeping our technology beneficial: learning from mistakes. We invented fire, repeatedly messed up, and then invented the fire extinguisher, fire exit, fire alarm and fire department. We invented the automobile, repeatedly crashed, and then invented seat belts, air bags and self-driving cars. Up until now, our technologies have typically caused sufficiently few and limited accidents for their harm to be outweighed by their benefits. As we inexorably develop ever more powerful technology, however, well inevitably reach a point where even a single accident could be devastating enough to outweigh all benefits. Some argue that accidental global nuclear war would constitute such an example. Others argue that a bioengineered pandemic could qualify, and in the next chapter, well explore the controversy around whether future AI could cause human extinction. But we need not consider such extreme examples to reach a crucial conclusion: as technology grows more powerful, we should rely less on the trial-and-error approach to safety engineering. In other words, we should become more proactive than reactive, investing in safety research aimed at preventing accidents from happening even once. This is why society invests more in nuclear-reactor safety than mousetrap safety. This is also the reason why, as we saw in chapter 1, there was strong community interest in AI-safety research at the Puerto Rico conference. Computers and AI systems have always crashed, but this time is different: AI is gradually entering the real world, and its not merely a nuisance if it crashes the power grid, the stock market or a nuclear weapons system. In the rest of this section, I want to introduce you to the four main areas of technical AI-safety research that are dominating the current AI-safety discussion and that are being pursued around the world: verification , validation , security and control . *1 To prevent things from getting too nerdy and dry, lets do this by exploring past successes and failures of information technology in different areas, as well as valuable lessons we can learn from them and research challenges that they pose. Although most of these stories are old, involving low-tech computer systems that almost nobody would refer to as AI and that caused few, if any, casualties, well see that they nonetheless teach us valuable lessons for designing safe and powerful future AI systems whose failures could be truly catastrophic. AI for Space Exploration Lets start with something close to my heart: space exploration. Computer technology has enabled us to fly people to the Moon and to send unmanned spacecraft to explore all the planets of our Solar System, even landing on Saturns moon Titan and on a comet. As well explore in chapter 6, future AI may help us explore other solar systems and galaxiesif its bug-free. On June 4, 1996, scientists hoping to research Earths magnetosphere cheered jubilantly as an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency roared into the sky with the scientific instruments theyd built. Thirty-seven seconds later, their smiles vanished as the rocket exploded in a fireworks display costing hundreds of millions of dollars. 8 The cause was found to be buggy software manipulating a number that was too large to fit into the 16 bits allocated for it. 9 Two years later, NASAs Mars Climate Orbiter accidentally entered the Red Planets atmosphere and disintegrated because two different parts of the software used different units for force, causing a 445% error in the rocket-engine thrust control. 10 This was NASAs second super-expensive bug: their Mariner 1 mission to Venus exploded after launch from Cape Canaveral on July 22, 1962, after the flight-control software was foiled by an incorrect punctuation mark. 11 As if to show that not only westerners had mastered the art of launching bugs into space, the Soviet Phobos 1 mission failed on September 2, 1988. This was the heaviest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched, with the spectacular goal of deploying a lander on Mars moon Phobosall thwarted when a missing hyphen caused the end-of-mission command to be sent to the spacecraft while it was en route to Mars, shutting down all of its systems. 12 What we learn from these examples is the importance of what computer scientists call verification: ensuring that software fully satisfies all the expected requirements. The more lives and resources are at stake, the higher confidence we want that the software will work as intended. Fortunately, AI can help automate and improve the verification process. For example, a complete, general-purpose operating-system kernel called seL4 has recently been mathematically checked against a formal specification to give a strong guarantee against crashes and unsafe operations: although it doesnt yet come with the bells and whistles of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, you can rest assured that it wont give you whats affectionately known as the blue screen of death or the spinning wheel of doom. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has sponsored the development of a set of open-source high- assurance tools called HACMS (high-assurance cyber military systems) that are provably safe. An important challenge is to make such tools sufficiently powerful and easy to use that theyll get widely deployed. Another challenge is that the very task of verification will itself get more difficult as software moves into robots and new environments, and as traditional preprogrammed software gets replaced by AI systems that keep learning, thereby changing their behavior, as in chapter 2. AI for Finance Finance is another area thats been transformed by information technology, allowing resources to be efficiently reallocated across the globe at the speed of light and enabling affordable financing for everything from mortgages to startup companies. Progress in AI is likely to offer great future profit opportunities from financial trading: most stock market buy/sell decisions are now made automatically by computers, and my graduating MIT students routinely get tempted by astronomical starting salaries to improve algorithmic trading. Verification is important for financial software as well, which the American firm Knight Capital learned the hard way on August 1, 2012, by losing $440 million in forty-five minutes after deploying unverified trading software. 13 The trillion-dollar Flash Crash of May 6, 2010, was noteworthy for a different reason. Although it caused massive disruptions for about half an hour before markets stabilized, with shares of some prominent companies such Procter & Gamble swinging in price between a penny and $100,000, 14 the problem wasnt caused by bugs or computer malfunctions that verification could have avoided. Instead, it was caused by expectations being violated: automatic trading programs from many companies found themselves operating in an unexpected situation where their assumptions werent validfor example, the assumption that if a stock exchange computer reported that a stock had a price of one cent, then that stock really was worth one cent. The flash crash illustrates the importance of what computer scientists call validation: whereas verification asks Did I build the system right?, validation asks Did I build the right system? *2 For example, does the system rely on assumptions that might not always be valid? If so, how can it be improved to better handle uncertainty? AI for Manufacturing Needless to say, AI holds great potential for improving manufacturing, by controlling robots that enhance both efficiency and precision. Ever-improving 3- D printers can now make prototypes of anything from office buildings to micromechanical devices smaller than a salt grain. 15 While huge industrial robots build cars and airplanes, affordable computer-controlled mills, lathes, cutters and the like are powering not merely factories, but also the grassroots maker movement, where local enthusiasts materialize their ideas at over a thousand community-run fab labs around the world. 16 But the more robots we have around us, the more important it becomes that we verify and validate their software. The first person known to have been killed by a robot was Robert Williams, a worker at a Ford plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. In 1979, a robot that was supposed to retrieve parts from a storage area malfunctioned, and he climbed into the area to get the parts himself. The robot silently began operating and smashed his head, continuing for thirty minutes until his co-workers discovered what had happened. 17 The next robot victim was Kenji Urada, a maintenance engineer at a Kawasaki plant in Akashi, Japan. While working on a broken robot in 1981, he accidentally hit its on switch and was crushed to death by the robots hydraulic arm. 18 In 2015, a twenty-two-year-old contractor at one of Volkswagens production plants in Baunatal, Germany, was working on setting up a robot to grab auto parts and manipulate them. Something went wrong, causing the robot to grab him and crush him to death against a metal plate. 19 Although these accidents are tragic, its important to note that they make up a minuscule fraction of all industrial accidents. Moreover, industrial accidents have decreased rather than increased as technology has improved, dropping from about 14,000 deaths in 1970 to 4,821 in 2014 in the United States. 20 The three above-mentioned accidents show that adding intelligence to otherwise dumb machines should be able to further improve industrial safety, by having robots learn to be more careful around people. All three accidents could have been avoided with better validation: the robots caused harm not because of bugs or malice, but because they made invalid assumptionsthat the person wasnt present or that the person was an auto part. Figure 3.3: Whereas traditional industrial robots are expensive and hard to program, theres a trend toward cheaper AI-powered ones that can learn what to do from workers with no programming experience. AI for Transportation Although AI can save many lives in manufacturing, it can potentially save even more in transportation. Car accidents alone took over 1.2 million lives in 2015, and aircraft, train and boat accidents together killed thousands more. In the United States, with its high safety standards, motor vehicle accidents killed about 35,000 people last yearseven times more than all industrial accidents combined. 21 When we had a panel discussion about this in Austin, Texas, at the 2016 annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the Israeli computer scientist Moshe Vardi got quite emotional about it and argued that not only could AI reduce road fatalities, but it must: Its a moral imperative! he exclaimed. Because almost all car crashes are caused by human error, its widely believed that AI-powered self-driving cars can eliminate at least 90% of road deaths, and this optimism is fueling great progress toward actually getting self-driving cars out on the roads. Elon Musk envisions that future self-driving cars will not only be safer, but will also earn money for their owners while theyre not needed, by competing with Uber and Lyft. So far, self-driving cars do indeed have a better safety record than human drivers, and the accidents that have occurred underscore the importance and difficulty of validation. The first fender bender caused by a Google self-driving car took place on February 14, 2016, because it made an incorrect assumption about a bus: that its driver would yield when the car pulled out in front of it. The first lethal crash caused by a self-driving Tesla, which rammed into the trailer of a truck crossing the highway on May 7, 2016, was caused by two bad assumptions: 22 that the bright white side of the trailer was merely part of the bright sky, and that the driver (who was allegedly watching a Harry Potter movie) was paying attention and would intervene if something went wrong. *3 But sometimes good verification and validation arent enough to avoid accidents, because we also need good control: ability for a human operator to monitor the system and change its behavior if necessary. For such human-in-the- loop systems to work well, its crucial that the human-machine communication be effective. In this spirit, a red light on your dashboard will conveniently alert you if you accidentally leave the trunk of your car open. In contrast, when the British car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise left the harbor of Zeebrugge on March 6, 1987, with her bow doors open, there was no warning light or other visible warning for the captain, and the ferry capsized soon after leaving the harbor, killing 193 people. 23 Another tragic control failure that might have been avoided by better machine-human communication occurred during the night of June 1, 2009, when Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board. According to the official accident report, the crew never understood that they were stalling and consequently never applied a recovery manoeuvrewhich would have involved pushing down the nose of the aircraftuntil it was too late. Flight safety experts speculated that the crash might have been avoided had there been an angle-of-attack indicator in the cockpit, showing the pilots that the nose was pointed too far upward. 24 When Air Inter Flight 148 crashed into the Vosges Mountains near Strasbourg in France on January 20, 1992, killing 87 people, the cause wasnt lack of machine-human communication, but a confusing user interface. The pilots entered 33 on a keypad because they wanted to descend at an angle of 3.3 degrees, but the autopilot interpreted this as 3,300 feet per minute because it was in a different modeand the display screen was too small to show the mode and allow the pilots to realize their mistake. AI for Energy Information technology has done wonders for power generation and distribution, with sophisticated algorithms balancing production and consumption across the worlds electrical grids, and sophisticated control systems keeping power plants operating safely and efficiently. Future AI progress is likely to make the smart grid even smarter, to optimally adapt to changing supply and demand even down to the level of individual rooftop solar panels and home-battery systems. But on Thursday, August 14, 2003, it was lights-out for about 55 million people in the United States and Canada, many of whom remained powerless for days. Here, too, the primary cause was determined to be failed machine-human communications: a software bug prevented the alarm system in an Ohio control room from alerting operators to the need to redistribute power before a minor problem (overloaded transmission lines hitting unpruned foliage) cascaded out of control. 25 The partial nuclear meltdown in a reactor on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania on March 28, 1979, led to about a billion dollars in cleanup cost and a major backlash against nuclear power. The final accident report identified multiple contributing factors, including confusion caused by a poor user interface. 26 In particular, the warning light that the operators thought indicated whether a safety-critical valve was open or closed merely indicated whether a signal had been sent to close the valveso the operators didnt realize that the valve had gotten stuck open. These energy and transportation accidents teach us that as we put AI in charge of ever more physical systems, we need to put serious research efforts into not only making the machines work well on their own, but also into making machines collaborate effectively with their human controllers. As AI gets smarter, this will involve not merely building good user interfaces for information sharing, but also figuring out how to optimally allocate tasks within human-computer teamsfor example, identifying situations where control should be transferred, and for applying human judgment efficiently to the highest-value decisions rather than distracting human controllers with a flood of unimportant information. AI for Healthcare AI has huge potential for improving healthcare. Digitization of medical records has already enabled doctors and patients to make faster and better decisions, and to get instant help from experts around the world in diagnosing digital images. Indeed, the best experts for performing such diagnosis may soon be AI systems, given the rapid progress in computer vision and deep learning. For example, a 2015 Dutch study showed that computer diagnosis of prostate cancer using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was as good as that of human radiologists, 27 and a 2016 Stanford study showed that AI could diagnose lung cancer using microscope images even better than human pathologists. 28 If machine learning can help reveal relationships between genes, diseases and treatment responses, it could revolutionize personalized medicine, make farm animals healthier and enable more resilient crops. Moreover, robots have the potential to become more accurate and reliable surgeons than humans, even without using advanced AI. A wide variety of robotic surgeries have been successfully performed in recent years, often allowing precision, miniaturization and smaller incisions that lead to decreased blood loss, less pain and shorter healing time. Alas, there have been painful lessons about the importance of robust software also in the healthcare industry. For example, the Canadian-built Therac-25 radiation therapy machine was designed to treat cancer patients in two different modes: either with a low-power beam of electrons or with a high-power beam of megavolt X-rays that was kept on target by a special shield. Unfortunately, unverified buggy software occasionally caused technicians to deliver the megavolt beam when they thought they were administering the low-power beam, and without the shield, which ended up claiming the lives of several patients. 29 Many more patients died from radiation overdoses at the National Oncologic Institute in Panama, where radiotherapy equipment using radioactive cobalt-60 was programmed to excessive exposure times in 2000 and 2001 because of a confusing user interface that hadnt been properly validated. 30 According to a recent report, 31 robotic surgery accidents were linked to 144 deaths and 1,391 injuries in the United States between 2000 and 2013, with common problems including not only hardware issues such as electrical arcing and burnt or broken pieces of instruments falling into the patient, but also software problems such as uncontrolled movements and spontaneous powering-off. The good news is that the rest of almost two million robotic surgeries covered by the report went smoothly, and robots appear to be making surgery more rather than less safe. According to a U.S. government study, bad hospital care contributes to over 100,000 deaths per year in the United States alone, 32 so the moral imperative for developing better AI for medicine is arguably even stronger than that for self-driving cars. AI for Communication The communication industry is arguably the one where computers have had the greatest impact of all so far. After the introduction of computerized telephone switchboards in the fifties, the internet in the sixties, and the World Wide Web in 1989, billions of people now go online to communicate, shop, read news, watch movies or play games, accustomed to having the worlds information just a click awayand often for free. The emerging internet of things promises improved efficiency, accuracy, convenience and economic benefit from bringing online everything from lamps, thermostats and freezers to biochip transponders on farm animals. These spectacular successes in connecting the world have brought computer scientists a fourth challenge: they need to improve not only verification, validation and control, but also security against malicious software (malware) and hacks. Whereas the aforementioned problems all resulted from unintentional mistakes, security is directed at deliberate malfeasance . The first malware to draw significant media attention was the so-called Morris worm, unleashed on November 2, 1988, which exploited bugs in the UNIX operating system. It was allegedly a misguided attempt to count how many computers were online, and although it infected and crashed about 10% of the 60,000 computers that made up the internet back then, this didnt stop its creator, Robert Morris, from eventually getting a tenured professorship in computer science at MIT. Other malware exploits vulnerabilities not in software but in people. On May 5, 2000, as if to celebrate my birthday, people got emails with the subject line ILOVEYOU from acquaintances and colleagues, and those Microsoft Windows users who clicked on the attachment LOVE-LETTER-FOR- YOU.txt.vbs unwittingly launched a script that damaged their computer and re- sent the email to everyone in their address book. Created by two young programmers in the Philippines, this worm infected about 10% of the internet, just as the Morris worm had done, but because the internet was a lot bigger by then, it became one of the greatest infections of all time, afflicting over 50 million computers and causing over $5 billion in damages. As youre probably painfully aware, the internet remains infested with countless kinds of infectious malware, which security experts classify into worms, Trojans, viruses and other intimidating-sounding categories, and the damage they cause ranges from displaying harmless prank messages to deleting your files, stealing your personal information, spying on you and hijacking your computer to send out spam. Whereas malware targets whatever computer it can, hackers attack specific targets of interestrecent high-profile examples including Target, TJ Maxx, Sony Pictures, Ashley Madison, the Saudi oil company Aramco and the U.S. Democratic National Committee. Moreover, the loots appear to be getting ever more spectacular. Hackers stole 130 million credit card numbers and other account information from Heartland Payment Systems in 2008, and breached over a billion(!) Yahoo! email accounts in 2013. 33 A 2014 hack of the U.S. Governments Office of Personnel Management breached personnel records and job application information for over 21 million people, allegedly including employees with top security clearances and the fingerprints of undercover agents. As a result, I roll my eyes whenever I read about some new system being allegedly 100% secure and unhackable. Yet unhackable is clearly what we need future AI systems to be before we put them in charge of, say, critical infrastructure or weapons systems, so the growing role of AI in society keeps raising the stakes for computer security. While some hacks exploit human gullibility or complex vulnerabilities in newly released software, others enable unauthorized login to remote computers by taking advantage of simple bugs that lingered unnoticed for an embarrassingly long time. The Heartbleed bug lasted from 2012 to 2014 in one of the most popular software libraries for secure communication between computers, and the Bashdoor bug was built into the very operating system of Unix computers from 1989 until 2014. This means that AI tools for improved verification and validation will improve security as well. Unfortunately, better AI systems can also be used to find new vulnerabilities and perform more sophisticated hacks. Imagine, for example, that you one day get an unusually personalized phishing email attempting to persuade you to divulge personal information. Its sent from your friends account by an AI whos hacked it and is impersonating her, imitating her writing style based on an analysis of her other sent emails, and including lots of personal information about you from other sources. Might you fall for this? What if the phishing email appears to come from your credit card company and is followed up by a phone call from a friendly human voice that you cant tell is AI-generated? In the ongoing computer-security arms race between offense and defense, theres so far little indication that defense is winning. Laws We humans are social animals who subdued all other species and conquered Earth thanks to our ability to cooperate. Weve developed laws to incentivize and facilitate cooperation, so if AI can improve our legal and governance systems, then it can enable us to cooperate more successfully than ever before, bringing out the very best in us. And theres plenty of opportunity for improvement here, both in how our laws are applied and how theyre written, so lets explore both in turn. What are the first associations that come to your mind when you think about the court system in your country? If its lengthy delays, high costs and occasional injustice, then youre not alone. Wouldnt it be wonderful if your first thoughts were instead efficiency and fairness? Since the legal process can be abstractly viewed as a computation, inputting information about evidence and laws and outputting a decision, some scholars dream of fully automating it with robojudges: AI systems that tirelessly apply the same high legal standards to every judgment without succumbing to human errors such as bias, fatigue or lack of the latest knowledge. Robojudges Byron De La Beckwith Jr. was convicted in 1994 of assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, but two separate all-white Mississippi juries had failed to convict him the year after the murder, even though the physical evidence was essentially the same. 34 Alas, legal history is rife with judgments biased by skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality and other factors. Robojudges could in principle ensure that, for the first time in history, everyone becomes truly equal under the law: they could be programmed to all be identical and to treat everyone equally, transparently applying the law in a truly unbiased fashion. Robojudges could also eliminate human biases that are accidental rather than intentional. For example, a controversial 2012 study of Israeli judges claimed that they delivered significantly harsher verdicts when they were hungry: whereas they denied about 35% of parole cases right after breakfast, they denied over 85% right before lunch. 35 Another shortcoming of human judges is that they may lack sufficient time to explore all details of a case. In contrast, robojudges can easily be copied, since they consist of little more than software, allowing all pending cases to be processed in parallel rather than in series, each case getting its own robojudge for as long as it takes. Finally, although its impossible for human judges to master all technical knowledge required for every possible case, from thorny patent disputes to murder mysteries hinging on the latest forensic science, future robojudges may have essentially unlimited memory and learning capacity. One day, such robojudges may therefore be both more efficient and fairer, by virtue of being unbiased, competent and transparent. Their efficiency makes them fairer still: by speeding up the legal process and making it harder for savvy lawyers to skew the outcome, they could make it dramatically cheaper to get justice through the courts. This could greatly increase the chances of a cash- strapped individual or startup company prevailing against a billionaire or multinational corporation with an army of lawyers. On the other hand, what if robojudges have bugs or get hacked? Both have already afflicted automatic voting machines, and when years behind bars or millions in the bank are at stake, the incentives for cyberattacks are greater still. Even if AI can be made robust enough for us to trust that a robojudge is using the legislated algorithm, will everybody feel that they understand its logical reasoning enough to respect its judgment? This challenge is exacerbated by the recent success of neural networks, which often outperform traditional easy-to- understand AI algorithms at the price of inscrutability. If defendants wish to know why they were convicted, shouldnt they have the right to a better answer than we trained the system on lots of data, and this is what it decided? Moreover, recent studies have shown that if you train a deep neural learning system with massive amounts of prisoner data, it can predict whos likely to return to crime (and should therefore be denied parole) better than human judges. But what if this system finds that recidivism is statistically linked to a prisoners sex or racewould this count as a sexist, racist robojudge that needs reprogramming? Indeed, a 2016 study argued that recidivism-prediction software used across the United States was biased against African Americans and had contributed to unfair sentencing. 36 These are important questions that we all need to ponder and discuss to ensure that AI remains beneficial. We arent facing an all-or-nothing decision regarding robojudges, but rather a decision about the extent and speed with which we want to deploy AI in our legal system. Do we want human judges to have AI-based decision support systems, just like tomorrows medical doctors? Do we want to go further and have robojudge decisions that can be appealed to human judges, or do we want to go all the way and give even the final say to machines, even for death penalties? Legal Controversies So far, weve explored only the application of law; let us now turn to its content . Theres broad consensus that our laws need to evolve to keep pace with our technology. For example, the two programmers who created the aforementioned ILOVEYOU worm and caused billions of dollars in damages were acquitted of all charges and walked free because at that time, there were no laws against malware creation in the Philippines. Since the pace of technological progress appears to be accelerating, laws need to be updated ever more rapidly, and have a tendency to lag behind. Getting more tech-savvy people into law schools and governments is probably a smart move for society. But should AI-based decision support systems for voters and legislators ensue, followed by outright robo- legislators? How to best alter our laws to reflect AI progress is a fascinatingly controversial topic. One dispute reflects the tension between privacy versus freedom of information. Freedom fans argue that the less privacy we have, the more evidence the courts will have, and the fairer the judgments will be. For example, if the government taps into everyones electronic devices to record where they are and what they type, click, say and do, many crimes would be readily solved, and additional ones could be prevented. Privacy advocates counter that they dont want an Orwellian surveillance state, and that even if they did, theres a risk of it turning into a totalitarian dictatorship of epic proportions. Moreover, machine-learning techniques have gotten better at analyzing brain data from fMRI scanners to determine what a person is thinking about and, in particular, whether theyre telling the truth or lying. 37 If AI-assisted brain scanning technology became commonplace in courtrooms, the currently tedious process of establishing the facts of a case could be dramatically simplified and expedited, enabling faster trials and fairer judgments. But privacy advocates might worry about whether such systems occasionally make mistakes and, more fundamentally, whether our minds should be off-limits to government snooping. Governments that dont support freedom of thought could use such technology to criminalize the holding of certain beliefs and opinions. Where would you draw the line between justice and privacy, and between protecting society and protecting personal freedom? Wherever you draw it, will it gradually but inexorably move toward reduced privacy to compensate for the fact that evidence gets easier to fake? For example, once AI becomes able to generate fully realistic fake videos of you committing crimes, will you vote for a system where the government tracks everyones whereabouts at all times and can provide you with an ironclad alibi if needed? Another captivating controversy is whether AI research should be regulated or, more generally, what incentives policymakers should give AI researchers to maximize the chances of a beneficial outcome. Some AI researchers have argued against all forms of regulation of AI development, claiming that they would needlessly delay urgently needed innovation (for example, lifesaving self-driving cars) and would drive cutting-edge AI research underground and/or to other countries with more permissive governments. At the Puerto Rico beneficial-AI conference mentioned in the first chapter, Elon Musk argued that what we need right now from governments isnt oversight but insight: specifically, technically capable people in government positions who can monitor AIs progress and steer it if warranted down the road. He also argued that government regulation can sometimes nurture rather than stifle progress: for example, if government safety standards for self-driving cars can help reduce the number of self-driving-car accidents, then a public backlash is less likely and adoption of the new technology can be accelerated. The most safety-conscious AI companies might therefore favor regulation that forces less scrupulous competitors to match their high safety standards. Yet another interesting legal controversy involves granting rights to machines. If self-driving cars cut the 32,000 annual U.S. traffic fatalities in half, perhaps carmakers wont get 16,000 thank-you notes, but 16,000 lawsuits. So if a self- driving car causes an accident, who should be liableits occupants, its owner or its manufacturer? Legal scholar David Vladeck has proposed a fourth answer: the car itself! Specifically, he proposes that self-driving cars be allowed (and required) to hold car insurance. This way, models with a sterling safety record will qualify for premiums that are very low, probably lower than whats available to human drivers, while poorly designed models from sloppy manufacturers will only qualify for insurance policies that make them prohibitively expensive to own. But if machines such as cars are allowed to hold insurance policies, should they also be able to own money and property? If so, theres nothing legally stopping smart computers from making money on the stock market and using it to buy online services. Once a computer starts paying humans to work for it, it can accomplish anything that humans can do. If AI systems eventually get better than humans at investing (which they already are in some domains), this could lead to a situation where most of our economy is owned and controlled by machines. Is this what we want? If it sounds far-off, consider that most of our economy is already owned by another form of non-human entity: corporations, which are often more powerful than any one person in them and can to some extent take on life of their own. If youre OK with granting machines the rights to own property, then how about granting them the right to vote? If so, should each computer program get one vote, even though it can trivially make trillions of copies of itself in the cloud if its rich enough, thereby guaranteeing that it will decide all elections? If not, then on what moral basis are we discriminating against machine minds relative to human minds? Does it make a difference if machine minds are conscious in the sense of having a subjective experience like we do? Well explore in greater depth these controversial questions related to computer control of our world in the next chapter, and questions related to machine consciousness in chapter 8. Weapons Since time immemorial, humanity has suffered from famine, disease and war. Weve already mentioned how AI may help reduce famine and disease, so how about war? Some argue that nuclear weapons deter war between the countries that own them because theyre so horrifying, so how about letting all nations build even more horrifying AI-based weapons in the hope of ending all war forever? If youre unpersuaded by that argument and believe that future wars are inevitable, how about using AI to make these wars more humane? If wars consist merely of machines fighting machines, then no human soldiers or civilians need get killed. Moreover, future AI-powered drones and other autonomous weapon systems (AWS; also known by their opponents as killer robots) can hopefully be made more fair and rational than human soldiers: equipped with superhuman sensors and unafraid of getting killed, they might remain cool, calculating and level-headed even in the heat of battle, and be less likely to accidentally kill civilians. Figure 3.4: Whereas todays military drones (such as this U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator) are remote-controlled by humans, future AI-powered drones have the potential to take humans out of the loop, using an algorithm to decide whom to target and kill. A Human in the Loop But what if the automated systems are buggy, confusing or dont behave as expected? The U.S. Phalanx system for Aegis-class cruisers automatically detects, tracks and attacks threats such as anti-ship missiles and aircraft. The USS Vincennes was a guided missile cruiser nicknamed Robocruiser in reference to its Aegis system, and on July 3, 1988, in the midst of a skirmish with Iranian gunboats during the Iran-Iraq war, its radar system warned of an incoming aircraft. Captain William Rodgers III inferred that they were being attacked by a diving Iranian F-14 fighter jet and gave the Aegis system approval to fire. What he didnt realize at the time was that they shot down Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian Iranian passenger jet, killing all 290 people on board and causing international outrage. Subsequent investigation implicated a confusing user interface that didnt automatically show which dots on the radar screen were civilian planes (Flight 655 followed its regular daily flight path and had its civilian aircraft transponder on) or which dots were descending (as for an attack) vs. ascending (as Flight 655 was doing after takeoff from Tehran). Instead, when the automated system was queried for information about the mysterious aircraft, it reported descending because that was the status of a different aircraft to which it had confusingly reassigned a number used by the navy to track planes: what was descending was instead a U.S. surface combat air patrol plane operating far away in the Gulf of Oman. In this example, there was a human in the loop making the final decision, who under time pressure placed too much trust in what the automated system told him. So far, according to defense officials around the world, all deployed weapons systems have a human in the loop, with the exception of low-tech booby traps such as land mines. But development is now under way of truly autonomous weapons that select and attack targets entirely on their own. Its militarily tempting to take all humans out of the loop to gain speed: in a dogfight between a fully autonomous drone that can respond instantly and a drone reacting more sluggishly because its remote-controlled by a human halfway around the world, which one do you think would win? However, there have been close calls where we were extremely lucky that there was a human in the loop. On October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, eleven U.S. Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph had cornered the Soviet submarine B-59 near Cuba, in international waters outside the U.S. quarantine area. What they didnt know was that the temperature onboard had risen past 45C (113F) because the submarines batteries were running out and the air-conditioning had stopped. On the verge of carbon dioxide poisoning, many crew members had fainted. The crew had had no contact with Moscow for days and didnt know whether World War III had already begun. Then the Americans started dropping small depth charges, which they had, unbeknownst to the crew, told Moscow were merely meant to force the sub to surface and leave. We thoughtthats itthe end, crew member V. P. Orlov recalled. It felt like you were sitting in a metal barrel, which somebody is constantly blasting with a sledgehammer. What the Americans also didnt know was that the B-59 crew had a nuclear torpedo that they were authorized to launch without clearing it with Moscow. Indeed, Captain Savitski decided to launch the nuclear torpedo. Valentin Grigorievich, the torpedo officer, exclaimed: We will die, but we will sink them allwe will not disgrace our navy! Fortunately, the decision to launch had to be authorized by three officers on board, and one of them, Vasili Arkhipov, said no. Its sobering that very few have heard of Arkhipov, although his decision may have averted World War III and been the single most valuable contribution to humanity in modern history. 38 Its also sobering to contemplate what might have happened had B-59 been an autonomous AI-controlled submarine with no humans in the loop. Two decades later, on September 9, 1983, tensions were again high between the superpowers: the Soviet Union had recently been called an evil empire by U.S. president Ronald Reagan, and just the previous week, it had shot down a Korean Airlines passenger plane that strayed into its airspace, killing 269 people including a U.S. congressman. Now an automated Soviet early-warning system reported that the United States had launched five land-based nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union, leaving Officer Stanislav Petrov merely minutes to decide whether this was a false alarm. The satellite was found to be operating properly, so following protocol would have led him to report an incoming nuclear attack. Instead, he trusted his gut instinct, figuring that the United States was unlikely to attack with only five missiles, and reported to his commanders that it was a false alarm without knowing this to be true. It later became clear that a satellite had mistaken the Suns reflections off cloud tops for flames from rocket engines. 39 I wonder what would have happened if Petrov had been replaced by an AI system that properly followed proper protocol. The Next Arms Race? As youve undoubtedly guessed by now, I personally have serious concerns about autonomous weapons systems. But I havent even begun to tell you about my main worry: the endpoint of an arms race in AI weapons. In July 2015, I expressed this worry in the following open letter together with Stuart Russell, with helpful feedback from my colleagues at the Future of Life Institute: 40 AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS: An Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers Autonomous weapons select and engage targets without human intervention. They might include, for example, armed quadcopters that can search for and eliminate people meeting certain pre-defined criteria, but do not include cruise missiles or remotely piloted drones for which humans make all targeting decisions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is practically if not legally feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms. Many arguments have been made for and against autonomous weapons, for example that replacing human soldiers by machines is good by reducing casualties for the owner but bad by thereby lowering the threshold for going to battle. The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting. If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. Unlike nuclear weapons, they require no costly or hard- to-obtain raw materials, so theyll become ubiquitous and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce. It will only be a matter of time until they appear on the black market and in the hands of terrorists, dictators wishing to better control their populace, warlords wishing to perpetrate ethnic cleansing, etc. Autonomous weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, destabilizing nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a particular ethnic group. We therefore believe that a military AI arms race would not be beneficial for humanity. There are many ways in which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, without creating new tools for killing people. Just as most chemists and biologists have no interest in building chemical or biological weapons, most AI researchers have no interest in building AI weapons and do not want others to tarnish their field by doing so, potentially creating a major public backlash against AI that curtails its future societal benefits. Indeed, chemists and biologists have broadly supported international agreements that have successfully prohibited chemical and biological weapons, just as most physicists supported the treaties banning space-based nuclear weapons and blinding laser weapons. To make it harder to dismiss our concerns as coming only from pacifist tree- huggers, I wanted to get our letter signed by as many hardcore AI researchers and roboticists as possible. The International Campaign for Robotic Arms Control had previously amassed hundreds of signatories who called for a ban on killer robots, and I suspected that we could do even better. I knew that professional organizations would be reluctant to share their massive member email lists for a purpose that could be construed as political, so I scraped together lists of researchers names and institutions from online documents and advertised the task of finding their email addresses on MTurkthe Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. Most researchers have their email addresses listed on their university websites, and twenty-four hours and $54 later, I was the proud owner of a mailing list of hundreds of AI researchers whod been successful enough to be elected Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). One of them was the British- Australian AI professor Toby Walsh, who kindly agreed to email everyone else on the list and help spearhead our campaign. MTurk workers around the world tirelessly produced additional mailing lists for Toby, and before long, over 3,000 AI researchers and robotics researchers had signed our open letter, including six past AAAI presidents and AI industry leaders from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Tesla. An army of FLI volunteers worked tirelessly to validate the signatory lists, removing spoof entries such as Bill Clinton and Sarah Connor. Over 17,000 others signed too, including Stephen Hawking, and after Toby organized a press conference about this at the International Joint Conference of Artificial Intelligence, it became a major news story around the world. Because biologists and chemists once took a stand, their fields are now known mainly for creating beneficial medicines and materials rather than biological and chemical weapons. The AI and robotics communities had now spoken as well: the letter signatories also wanted their fields to be known for creating a better future, not for creating new ways of killing people. But will the main future use of AI be civilian or military? Although weve spent more pages in this chapter on the former, we may soon be spending more money on the latterespecially if a military AI arms race takes off. Civilian AI investment commitments exceeded a billion dollars in 2016, but this was dwarfed by the Pentagons fiscal 2017 budget request of $1215 billion for AI-related projects, and China and Russia are likely to take note of what Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said when this was announced: I want our competitors to wonder whats behind the black curtain. 41 Should There Be an International Treaty? Although theres now a major international push toward negotiating some form of killer robot ban, its still unclear what will happen, and theres a vibrant ongoing debate about what, if anything, should happen. Although many leading stakeholders agree that world powers should draft some form of international regulations to guide AWS research and use, theres less agreement about what precisely should be banned and how a ban would be enforced. For example, should only lethal autonomous weapons be banned, or also ones that seriously injure people, say by blinding them? Would we ban development, production or ownership? Should a ban apply to all autonomous weapons systems or, as our letter said, only offensive ones, allowing defensive systems such as autonomous anti-aircraft guns and missile defenses? In the latter case, should AWS count as defensive even if theyre easy to move into enemy territory? And how would you enforce a treaty given that most components of an autonomous weapon have a dual civilian use as well? For example, there isnt much difference between a drone that can deliver Amazon packages and one that can deliver bombs. Some debaters have argued that designing an effective AWS treaty is hopelessly hard and that we therefore shouldnt even try. On the other hand, John F. Kennedy emphasized when announcing the Moon missions that hard things are worth attempting when success will greatly benefit the future of humanity. Moreover, many experts argue that the bans on biological and chemical weapons were valuable even though enforcement proved hard, with significant cheating, because the bans caused severe stigmatization that limited their use. I met Henry Kissinger at a dinner event in 2016, and got the opportunity to ask him about his role in the biological weapons ban. He explained how back when he was the U.S. national security adviser, hed persuaded President Nixon that a ban would be good for U.S. national security. I was impressed by how sharp his mind and memory were for a ninety-two-year-old, and was fascinated to hear his inside perspective. Since the United States already enjoyed superpower status thanks to its conventional and nuclear forces, it had more to lose than to gain from a worldwide bioweapons arms race with uncertain outcome. In other words, if youre already top dog, then it makes sense to follow the maxim If it aint broke, dont fix it. Stuart Russell joined our after-dinner conversation, and we discussed how exactly the same argument can be made about lethal autonomous weapons: those who stand to gain most from an arms race arent superpowers but small rogue states and non-state actors such as terrorists, who gain access to the weapons via the black market once theyve been developed. Once mass-produced, small AI-powered killer drones are likely to cost little more than a smartphone. Whether its a terrorist wanting to assassinate a politician or a jilted lover seeking revenge on his ex-girlfriend, all they need to do is upload their targets photo and address into the killer drone: it can then fly to the destination, identify and eliminate the person, and self-destruct to ensure that nobody knows who was responsible. Alternatively, for those bent on ethnic cleansing, it can easily be programmed to kill only people with a certain skin color or ethnicity. Stuart envisions that the smarter such weapons get, the less material, firepower and money will be needed per kill. For example, he fears bumblebee-sized drones that kill cheaply using minimal explosive power by shooting people in the eye, which is soft enough to allow even a small projectile to continue into the brain. Or they might latch on to the head with metal claws and then penetrate the skull with a tiny shaped charge. If a million such killer drones can be dispatched from the back of a single truck, then one has a horrifying weapon of mass destruction of a whole new kind: one that can selectively kill only a prescribed category of people, leaving everybody and everything else unscathed. A common counterargument is that we can eliminate such concerns by making killer robots ethicalfor example, so that theyll only kill enemy soldiers. But if we worry about enforcing a ban, then how would it be easier to enforce a requirement that enemy autonomous weapons be 100% ethical than to enforce that they arent produced in the first place? And can one consistently claim that the well-trained soldiers of civilized nations are so bad at following the rules of war that robots can do better, while at the same time claiming that rogue nations, dictators and terrorist groups are so good at following the rules of war that theyll never choose to deploy robots in ways that violate these rules? Cyberwar Another interesting military aspect of AI is that it may let you attack your enemy even without building any weapons of your own, through cyberwarfare. As a small prelude to what the future may bring, the Stuxnet worm, widely attributed to the U.S. and Israeli governments, infected fast-spinning centrifuges in Irans nuclear-enrichment program and caused them to tear themselves apart. The more automated society gets and the more powerful the attacking AI becomes, the more devastating cyberwarfare can be. If you can hack and crash your enemys self-driving cars, auto-piloted planes, nuclear reactors, industrial robots, communication systems, financial systems and power grids, then you can effectively crash his economy and cripple his defenses. If you can hack some of his weapons systems as well, even better. We began this chapter by surveying how spectacular the near-term opportunities are for AI to benefit humanityif we manage to make it robust and unhackable. Although AI itself can be used to make AI systems more robust, thereby aiding the cyberwar defense, AI can clearly aid the offense as well. Ensuring that the defense prevails must be one of the most crucial short-term goals for AI developmentotherwise all the awesome technology we build can be turned against us! Jobs and Wages So far in this chapter, weve mainly focused on how AI will affect us as consumers, by enabling transformative new products and services at affordable prices. But how will it affect us as workers, by transforming the job market? If we can figure out how to grow our prosperity through automation without leaving people lacking income or purpose, then we have the potential to create a fantastic future with leisure and unprecedented opulence for everyone who wants it. Few people have thought longer and harder about this than economist Erik Brynjolfsson, one of my MIT colleagues. Although hes always well-groomed and impeccably dressed, he has Icelandic heritage, and I sometimes cant help imagine that he only recently trimmed back a wild red Viking beard and mane to blend in at our business school. He certainly hasnt trimmed back his wild ideas, and he calls his optimistic job-market vision Digital Athens. The reason that the Athenian citizens of antiquity had lives of leisure where they could enjoy democracy, art and games was mainly that they had slaves to do much of the work. But why not replace the slaves with AI-powered robots, creating a digital utopia that everyone can enjoy? Eriks AI-driven economy would not only eliminate stress and drudgery and produce an abundance of everything we want today, but it would also supply a bounty of wonderful new products and services that todays consumers havent yet realized that they want. Technology and Inequality We can get from where we are today to Eriks Digital Athens if everyones hourly salary keeps growing year by year, so that those who want more leisure can gradually work less while continuing to improve their standard of living. Figure 3.5 shows that this is precisely what happened in the United States from World War II until the mid-1970s: although there was income inequality, the total size of the pie grew in such a way that almost everybody got a larger slice. But then, as Erik is the first to admit, something changed: figure 3.5 shows that although the economy kept growing and raising the average income, the gains over the past four decades went to the wealthiest, mostly to the top 1%, while the poorest 90% saw their incomes stagnate. The resulting growth in inequality is even more evident if we look not at income but at wealth. For the bottom 90% of U.S. households, the average net worth was about $85,000 in 2012the same as twenty-five years earlierwhile the top 1% more than doubled their inflation- adjusted wealth during that period, to $14 million. 42 Differences are even more extreme internationally where, in 2013, the combined wealth of the bottom half of the worlds population (over 3.6 billion people) is the same as that of the worlds eight richest people 43 a statistic that highlights the poverty and vulnerability at the bottom as much as the wealth at the top. At our 2015 Puerto Rico conference, Erik told the assembled AI researchers that he thought progress in AI and automation would continue making the economic pie bigger, but that theres no economic law that everyone, or even most people, will benefit. Although theres broad agreement among economists that inequality is rising, theres an interesting controversy about why and whether the trend will continue. Debaters on the left side of the political spectrum often argue that the main cause is globalization and/or economic policies such as tax cuts for the rich. But Erik Brynjolfsson and his MIT collaborator Andrew McAfee argue that the main cause is something else: technology. 44 Specifically, they argue that digital technology drives inequality in three different ways. First, by replacing old jobs with ones requiring more skills, technology has rewarded the educated: since the mid-1970s, salaries rose about 25% for those with graduate degrees while the average high school dropout took a 30% pay cut. 45 Second, they claim that since the year 2000, an ever-larger share of corporate income has gone to those who own the companies as opposed to those who work thereand that as long as automation continues, we should expect those who own the machines to take a growing fraction of the pie. This edge of capital over labor may be particularly important for the growing digital economy, which tech visionary Nicholas Negroponte defines as moving bits, not atoms. Now that everything from books to movies and tax preparation tools has gone digital, additional copies can be sold worldwide at essentially zero cost, without hiring additional employees. This allows most of the revenue to go to investors rather than workers, and helps explain why, even though the combined revenues of Detroits Big 3 (GM, Ford and Chrysler) in 1990 were almost identical to those of Silicon Valleys Big 3 (Google, Apple, Facebook) in 2014, the latter had nine times fewer employees and were worth thirty times more on the stock market. 47 Figure 3.5: How the economy has grown average income over the past century, and what fraction of this income has gone to different groups. Before the 1970s, rich and poor are seen to all be getting better off in lockstep, after which most of the gains have gone to the top 1% while the bottom 90% have on average gained close to nothing. 46 The amounts have been inflation- corrected to year-2017 dollars. Third, Erik and collaborators argue that the digital economy often benefits superstars over everyone else. Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling became the first writer to join the billionaire club, and she got much richer than Shakespeare because her stories could be transmitted in the form of text, movies and games to billions of people at very low cost. Similarly, Scott Cook made a billion on the TurboTax tax preparation software, which, unlike human tax preparers, can be sold as a download. Since most people are willing to pay little or nothing for the tenth-best tax-preparation software, theres room in the marketplace for only a modest number of superstars. This means that if all the worlds parents advise their kids to become the next J. K. Rowling, Gisele Bndchen, Matt Damon, Cristiano Ronaldo, Oprah Winfrey or Elon Musk, almost none of their kids will find this a viable career strategy. Career Advice for Kids So what career advice should we give our kids? Im encouraging mine to go into professions that machines are currently bad at, and therefore seem unlikely to get automated in the near future. Recent forecasts for when various jobs will get taken over by machines identify several useful questions to ask about a career before deciding to educate oneself for it. 48 For example: Does it require interacting with people and using social intelligence? Does it involve creativity and coming up with clever solutions? Does it require working in an unpredictable environment? The more of these questions you can answer with a yes, the better your career choice is likely to be. This means that relatively safe bets include becoming a teacher, nurse, doctor, dentist, scientist, entrepreneur, programmer, engineer, lawyer, social worker, clergy member, artist, hairdresser or massage therapist. In contrast, jobs that involve highly repetitive or structured actions in a predictable setting arent likely to last long before getting automated away. Computers and industrial robots took over the simplest such jobs long ago, and improving technology is in the process of eliminating many more, from telemarketers to warehouse workers, cashiers, train operators, bakers and line cooks. 49 Drivers of trucks, buses, taxis and Uber/Lyft cars are likely to follow soon. There are many more professions (including paralegals, credit analysts, loan officers, bookkeepers and tax accountants) that, although they arent on the endangered list for full extinction, are getting most of their tasks automated and therefore demand many fewer humans. But staying clear of automation isnt the only career challenge. In this global digital age, aiming to become a professional writer, filmmaker, actor, athlete or fashion designer is risky for another reason: although people in these professions wont get serious competition from machines anytime soon, theyll get increasingly brutal competition from other humans around the globe according to the aforementioned superstar theory, and very few will succeed. In many cases, it would be too myopic and crude to give career advice at the level of whole fields: there are many jobs that wont get entirely eliminated, but which will see many of their tasks automated. For example, if you go into medicine, dont be the radiologist who analyzes the medical images and gets replaced by IBMs Watson, but the doctor who orders the radiology analysis, discusses the results with the patient, and decides on the treatment plan. If you go into finance, dont be the quant who applies algorithms to the data and gets replaced by software, but the fund manager who uses the quantitative analysis results to make strategic investment decisions. If you go into law, dont be the paralegal who reviews thousands of documents for the discovery phase and gets automated away, but the attorney who counsels the client and presents the case in court. So far, weve explored what individuals can do to maximize their success on the job market in the age of AI. But what can governments do to help their workforces succeed? For example, what education system best prepares people for a job market where AI keeps improving rapidly? Is it still our current model with one or two decades of education followed by four decades of specialized work? Or is it better to switch to a system where people work for a few years, then go back to school for a year, then work for a few more years? 50 Or should continuing education (perhaps provided online) be a standard part of any job? And what economic policies are most helpful for creating good new jobs? Andrew McAfee argues that there are many policies that are likely to help, including investing heavily in research, education and infrastructure, facilitating migration and incentivizing entrepreneurship. He feels that the Econ 101 playbook is clear, but is not being followed, at least not in the United States. 51 Will Humans Eventually Become Unemployable? If AI keeps improving, automating ever more jobs, what will happen? Many people are job optimists, arguing that the automated jobs will be replaced by new ones that are even better. After all, thats whats always happened before, ever since Luddites worried about technological unemployment during the Industrial Revolution. Others, however, are job pessimists and argue that this time is different, and that an ever-larger number of people will become not only unemployed, but unemployable. 52 The job pessimists argue that the free market sets salaries based on supply and demand, and that a growing supply of cheap machine labor will eventually depress human salaries far below the cost of living. Since the market salary for a job is the hourly cost of whoever or whatever will perform it most cheaply, salaries have historically dropped whenever it became possible to outsource a particular occupation to a lower-income country or to a cheap machine. During the Industrial Revolution, we started figuring out how to replace our muscles with machines, and people shifted into better-paying jobs where they used their minds more. Blue-collar jobs were replaced by white- collar jobs. Now were gradually figuring out how to replace our minds by machines. If we ultimately succeed in this, then what jobs are left for us? Some job optimists argue that after physical and mental jobs, the next boom will be in creative jobs, but job pessimists counter that creativity is just another mental process, so that it too will eventually be mastered by AI. Other job optimists hope that the next boom will instead be in new technology-enabled professions that we havent even thought of yet. After all, who during the Industrial Revolution would have imagined that their descendants would one day work as web designers and Uber drivers? But job pessimists counter that this is wishful thinking with little support from empirical data. They point out that we could have made the same argument a century ago, before the computer revolution, and predicted that most of todays professions would be new and previously unimagined technology-enabled ones that didnt use to exist. This prediction would have been an epic failure, as illustrated in figure 3.6 : the vast majority of todays occupations are ones that already existed a century ago, and when we sort them by the number of jobs they provide, we have to go all the way down to twenty-first place in the list until we encounter a new occupation: software developers, who make up less than 1% of the U.S. job market. We can get a better understanding of whats happening by recalling chapter 2, which showed the landscape of human intelligence, with elevation representing how hard it is for machines to perform various tasks and the rising sea level showing what machines can currently do. The main trend on the job market isnt that were moving into entirely new professions. Rather, were crowding into those pieces of terrain in figure 2.2 that havent yet been submerged by the rising tide of technology! Figure 3.6 shows that this forms not a single island but a complex archipelago, with islets and atolls corresponding to all the valuable things that machines still cant do as cheaply as humans can. This includes not only high-tech professions such as software development, but also a panoply of low-tech jobs leveraging our superior dexterity and social skills, ranging from massage therapy to acting. Might AI eclipse us at intellectual tasks so rapidly that the last remaining jobs will be in that low-tech category? A friend of mine recently joked with me that perhaps the very last profession will be the very first profession: prostitution. But then he mentioned this to a Japanese roboticist, who protested: No, robots are very good at those things! Figure 3.6: The pie chart shows the occupations of the 149 million Americans who had a job in 2015, with the 535 job categories from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sorted by popularity. 53 All occupations with more than a million workers are labeled. There are no new occupations created by computer technology until twenty-first place. This figure is inspired by an analysis from Federico Pistono. 54 Job pessimists contend that the endpoint is obvious: the whole archipelago will get submerged, and there will be no jobs left that humans can do more cheaply than machines. In his 2007 book Farewell to Alms, the Scottish- American economist Gregory Clark points out that we can learn a thing or two about our future job prospects by comparing notes with our equine friends. Imagine two horses looking at an early automobile in the year 1900 and pondering their future. Im worried about technological unemployment. Neigh, neigh, dont be a Luddite: our ancestors said the same thing when steam engines took our industry jobs and trains took our jobs pulling stage coaches. But we have more jobs than ever today, and theyre better too: Id much rather pull a light carriage through town than spend all day walking in circles to power a stupid mine- shaft pump. But what if this internal combustion engine thing really takes off? Im sure therell be new new jobs for horses that we havent yet imagined. Thats whats always happened before, like with the invention of the wheel and the plow. Alas, those not-yet-imagined new jobs for horses never arrived. No-longer- needed horses were slaughtered and not replaced, causing the U.S. equine population to collapse from about 26 million in 1915 to about 3 million in 1960. 55 As mechanical muscles made horses redundant, will mechanical minds do the same to humans? Giving People Income Without Jobs So whos right: those who say automated jobs will be replaced by better ones or those who say most humans will end up unemployable? If AI progress continues unabated, then both sides might be right: one in the short term and the other in the long term. But although people often discuss the disappearance of jobs with doom-and-gloom connotations, it doesnt have to be a bad thing! Luddites obsessed about particular jobs, neglecting the possibility that other jobs might provide the same social value. Analogously, perhaps those who obsess about jobs today are being too narrow-minded: we want jobs because they can provide us with income and purpose, but given the opulence of resources produced by machines, it should be possible to find alternative ways of providing both the income and the purpose without jobs. Something similar ended up happening in the equine story, which didnt end with all horses going extinct. Instead, the number of horses has more than tripled since 1960, as they were protected by an equine social-welfare system of sorts: even though they couldnt pay their own bills, people decided to take care of horses, keeping them around for fun, sport and companionship. Can we similarly take care of our fellow humans in need? Lets start with the question of income: redistributing merely a small share of the growing economic pie should enable everyone to become better off. Many argue that we not only can but should do this. On the 2016 panel where Moshe Vardi spoke of a moral imperative to save lives with AI-powered technology, I argued that its also a moral imperative to advocate for its beneficial use, including sharing the wealth. Erik Brynjolfsson, also a panelist, said that if with all this new wealth generation, we cant even prevent half of all people from getting worse off, then shame on us! There are many different proposals for wealth-sharing, each with its supporters and detractors. The simplest is basic income, where every person receives a monthly payment with no preconditions or requirements whatsoever. A number of small-scale experiments are now being tried or planned, for example in Canada, Finland and the Netherlands. Advocates argue that basic income is more efficient than alternatives such as welfare payments to the needy, because it eliminates the administrative hassle of determining who qualifies. Need-based welfare payments have also been criticized for disincentivizing work, but this of course becomes irrelevant in a jobless future where nobody works. Governments can help their citizens not only by giving them money, but also by providing them with free or subsidized services such as roads, bridges, parks, public transportation, childcare, education, healthcare, retirement homes and internet access; indeed, many governments already provide most of these services. As opposed to basic income, such government-funded services accomplish two separate goals: they reduce peoples cost of living and also provide jobs. Even in a future where machines can outperform humans at all jobs, governments could opt to pay people to work in childcare, eldercare, etc. rather than outsource the caregiving to robots. Interestingly, technological progress can end up providing many valuable products and services for free even without government intervention. For example, people used to pay for encyclopedias, atlases, sending letters and making phone calls, but now anyone with an internet connection gets access to all these things at no costtogether with free videoconferencing, photo sharing, social media, online courses and countless other new services. Many other things that can be highly valuable to a person, say a lifesaving course of antibiotics, have become extremely cheap. So thanks to technology, even many poor people today have access to things that the worlds richest people lacked in the past. Some take this to mean that the income needed for a decent life is dropping. If machines can one day produce all current goods and services at minimal cost, then theres clearly enough wealth to make everyone better off. In other words, even relatively modest taxes could then allow governments to pay for basic income and free services. But the fact that wealth-sharing can happen obviously doesnt mean that it will happen, and today theres strong political disagreement about whether it even should happen. As we saw above, the current trend in the United States appears to be in the opposite direction, with some groups of people getting poorer decade after decade. Policy decisions about how to share societys growing wealth will impact everybody, so the conversation about what sort of future economy to build should include everyone, not merely AI researchers, roboticists and economists. Many debaters argue that reducing income inequality is a good idea not merely in an AI-dominated future, but also today. Although the main argument tends to be a moral one, theres also evidence that greater equality makes democracy work better: when theres a large well-educated middle class, the electorate is harder to manipulate, and its tougher for small numbers of people or companies to buy undue influence over the government. A better democracy can in turn enable a better-managed economy thats less corrupt, more efficient and faster growing, ultimately benefiting essentially everyone. Giving People Purpose Without Jobs Jobs can provide people with more than just money. Voltaire wrote in 1759 that work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice and need. Conversely, providing people with income isnt enough to guarantee their well-being. Roman emperors provided both bread and circuses to keep their underlings content, and Jesus emphasized non-material needs in the Bible quote Man shall not live by bread alone. So precisely what valuable things do jobs contribute beyond money, and in what alternative ways can a jobless society provide them? The answers to these questions are obviously complicated, since some people hate their jobs and others love them. Moreover, many children, students and homemakers thrive without jobs, while history teems with stories of spoiled heirs and princes who succumbed to ennui and depression. A 2012 meta-analysis showed that unemployment tends to have negative long-term effects on well- being, while retirement was a mixed bag with both positive and negative aspects. 56 The growing field of positive psychology has identified a number of factors that boost peoples sense of well-being and purpose, and found that some (but not all!) jobs can provide many of them, for example: 57 a social network of friends and colleagues a healthy and virtuous lifestyle respect, self-esteem, self-efficacy and a pleasurable sense of flow stemming from doing something one is good at a sense of being needed and making a difference a sense of meaning from being part of and serving something larger than oneself This gives reason for optimism, since all of these things can be provided also outside of the workplace, for example through sports, hobbies and learning, and with families, friends, teams, clubs, community groups, schools, religious and humanist organizations, political movements and other institutions. To create a low-employment society that flourishes rather than degenerates into self- destructive behavior, we therefore need to understand how to help such well- being-inducing activities thrive. The quest for such an understanding needs to involve not only scientists and economists, but also psychologists, sociologists and educators. If serious efforts are put into creating well-being for all, funded by part of the wealth that future AI generates, then society should be able to flourish like never before. At a minimum, it should be possible to make everyone as happy as if they had their personal dream job, but once one breaks free of the constraint that everyones activities must generate income, the skys the limit. Human-Level Intelligence? Weve explored in this chapter how AI has the potential to greatly improve our lives in the near term, as long as we plan ahead and avoid various pitfalls. But what about the longer term? Will AI progress eventually stagnate due to insurmountable obstacles, or will AI researchers ultimately succeed in their original goal of building human-level artificial general intelligence? We saw in the previous chapter how the laws of physics allow suitable clumps of matter to remember, compute and learn, and how they dont prohibit such clumps from one day doing so with greater intelligence than the matter clumps in our heads. If/when we humans will succeed in building such superhuman AGI is much less clear. We saw in the first chapter that we simply dont know yet, since the worlds leading AI experts are divided, most of them making estimates ranging from decades to centuries and some even guessing never. Forecasting is tough because, when youre exploring uncharted territory, you dont know how many mountains separate you from your destination. Typically you see only the closest one, and need to climb it before you can discover your next obstacle. Whats the soonest it could happen? Even if we knew the best possible way to build human-level AGI using todays computer hardware, which we dont, wed still need to have enough of it to provide the raw computational power needed. So whats the computational power of a human brain measured in the bits and FLOPS from chapter 2? *4 This is a delightfully tricky question, and the answer depends dramatically on how we ask it: Question 1: How many FLOPS are needed to simulate a brain? Question 2: How many FLOPS are needed for human intelligence? Question 3: How many FLOPS can a human brain perform? There have been lots of papers published on question 1, and they typically give answers in the ballpark of a hundred petaFLOPS, i.e., 10 17 FLOPS. 58 Thats about the same computational power as the Sunway TaihuLight ( figure 3.7 ), the worlds fastest supercomputer in 2016, which cost about $300 million. Even if we knew how to use it to simulate the brain of a highly skilled worker, we would only profit from having the simulation do this persons job if we could rent the TaihuLight for less than her hourly salary. We may need to pay even more, because many scientists believe that to accurately replicate the intelligence of a brain, we cant treat it as a mathematically simplified neural-network model from chapter 2. Perhaps we instead need to simulate it at the level of individual molecules or even subatomic particles, which would require dramatically more FLOPS. The answer to question 3 is easier: Im painfully bad at multiplying 19-digit numbers, and it would take me many minutes even if you let me borrow pencil and paper. That would clock me in below 0.01 FLOPSa whopping 19 orders of magnitude below the answer to question 1! The reason for the huge discrepancy is that brains and supercomputers are optimized for extremely different tasks. We get a similar discrepancy between these questions: How well can a tractor do the work of a Formula One race car? How well can a Formula One car do the work of a tractor? So which of these two questions about FLOPS are we trying to answer to forecast the future of AI? Neither! If we wanted to simulate a human brain, wed care about question 1, but to build human-level AGI, what matters is instead the one in the middle: question 2. Nobody knows its answer yet, but it may well be significantly cheaper than simulating a brain if we either adapt the software to be better matched to todays computers or build more brain-like hardware (rapid progress is being made on so-called neuromorphic chips). Hans Moravec estimated the answer by making an apples-to-apples comparison for a computation that both our brain and todays computers can do efficiently: certain low-level image-processing tasks that a human retina performs in the back of the eyeball before sending its results to the brain via the optic nerve. 59 He figured that replicating a retinas computations on a conventional computer requires about a billion FLOPS and that the whole brain does about ten thousand times more computation than a retina (based on comparing volumes and numbers of neurons), so that the computational capacity of the brain is around 10 13 FLOPSroughly the power of an optimized $1,000 computer in 2015! Figure 3.7: Sunway TaihuLight, the worlds fastest supercomputer in 2016, whose raw computational power arguably exceeds that of the human brain. In summary, theres absolutely no guarantee that well manage to build human-level AGI in our lifetimeor ever. But theres also no watertight argument that we wont. Theres no longer a strong argument that we lack enough hardware firepower or that it will be too expensive. We dont know how far we are from the finish line in terms of architectures, algorithms and software, but current progress is swift and the challenges are being tackled by a rapidly growing global community of talented AI researchers. In other words, we cant dismiss the possibility that AGI will eventually reach human levels and beyond. Lets therefore devote the next chapter to exploring this possibility and what it might lead to! THE BOTTOM LINE: Near-term AI progress has the potential to greatly improve our lives in myriad ways, from making our personal lives, power grids and financial markets more efficient to saving lives with self-driving cars, surgical bots and AI diagnosis systems. When we allow real-world systems to be controlled by AI, its crucial that we learn to make AI more robust, doing what we want it to do. This boils down to solving tough technical problems related to verification, validation, security and control. This need for improved robustness is particularly pressing for AI-controlled weapon systems, where the stakes can be huge. Many leading AI researchers and roboticists have called for an international treaty banning certain kinds of autonomous weapons, to avoid an out-of-control arms race that could end up making convenient assassination machines available to everybody with a full wallet and an axe to grind. AI can make our legal systems more fair and efficient if we can figure out how to make robojudges transparent and unbiased. Our laws need rapid updating to keep up with AI, which poses tough legal questions involving privacy, liability and regulation. Long before we need to worry about intelligent machines replacing us altogether, they may increasingly replace us on the job market. This need not be a bad thing, as long as society redistributes a fraction of the AI- created wealth to make everyone better off. Otherwise, many economists argue, inequality will greatly increase. With advance planning, a low-employment society should be able to flourish not only financially, with people getting their sense of purpose from activities other than jobs. Career advice for todays kids: Go into professions that machines are bad atthose involving people, unpredictability and creativity. Theres a non-negligible possibility that AGI progress will proceed to human levels and beyondwell explore that in the next chapter! *1 If you want a more detailed map of the AI-safety research landscape, theres an interactive one here, developed in a community effort spearheaded by FLIs Richard Mallah: https://futureoflife.org/landscape . *2 More precisely, verification asks if a system meets its specifications, whereas validation asks if the correct specifications were chosen. *3 Even including this crash in the statistics, Teslas Autopilot was found to reduce crashes by 40% when turned on: http://tinyurl.com/teslasafety . *4 Recall that FLOPS are floating-point operations per second, say, how many 19-digit numbers can be multiplied each second. Chapter 4 Intelligence Explosion? If a machine can think, it might think more intelligently than we do, and then where should we be? Even if we could keep the machines in a subservient positionwe should, as a species, feel greatly humbled. Alan Turing, 1951 The first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. Irving J. Good, 1965 Since we cant completely dismiss the possibility that well eventually build human-level AGI, lets devote this chapter to exploring what that might lead to. Lets begin by tackling the elephant in the room: Can AI really take over the world, or enable humans to do so? If you roll your eyes when people talk of gun-toting Terminator -style robots taking over, then youre spot-on: this is a really unrealistic and silly scenario. These Hollywood robots arent that much smarter than us, and they dont even succeed. In my opinion, the danger with the Terminator story isnt that it will happen, but that it distracts from the real risks and opportunities presented by AI. To actually get from today to AGI-powered world takeover requires three logical steps: Step 1: Build human-level AGI. Step 2: Use this AGI to create superintelligence. Step 3: Use or unleash this superintelligence to take over the world. In the last chapter, we saw that its hard to dismiss step 1 as forever impossible. We also saw that if step 1 gets completed, it becomes hard to dismiss step 2 as hopeless, since the resulting AGI would be capable enough to recursively design ever-better AGI thats ultimately limited only by the laws of physicswhich appear to allow intelligence far beyond human levels. Finally, since we humans have managed to dominate Earths other life forms by outsmarting them, its plausible that we could be similarly outsmarted and dominated by superintelligence. These plausibility arguments are frustratingly vague and unspecific, however, and the devil is in the details. So can AI actually cause world takeover? To explore this question, lets forget about silly Terminators and instead look at some detailed scenarios of what might actually happen. Afterward, well dissect and poke holes in these plotlines, so please read them with a grain of saltwhat they mainly show is that were pretty clueless about what will and wont happen, and that the range of possibilities is extreme. Our first scenarios are at the most rapid and dramatic end of the spectrum. These are in my opinion some of the most valuable to explore in detailnot because theyre necessarily the most likely, but because if we cant convince ourselves that theyre extremely unlikely, then we need to understand them well enough that we can take precautions before its too late, to prevent them from leading to bad outcomes. The prelude of this book is a scenario where humans use superintelligence to take over the world. If you havent yet read it, please go back and do so now. Even if youve already read it, please consider skimming it again now, to have it fresh in memory before we critique and alter it. * * * Well soon explore serious vulnerabilities in the Omegas plan, but assuming for a moment that it would work, how do you feel about it? Would you like to see or prevent this? Its an excellent topic for after-dinner conversation! What happens once the Omegas have consolidated their control of the world? That depends on what their goal is, which I honestly dont know. If you were in charge, what sort of future would you want to create? Well explore a range of options in chapter 5. Totalitarianism Now suppose that the CEO controlling the Omegas had long-term goals similar to those of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. For all we know, this might actually have been the case, and he simply kept these goals to himself until he had sufficient power to implement them. Even if the CEO's original goals were noble, Lord Acton cautioned in 1887 that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For example, he could easily use Prometheus to create the perfect surveillance state. Whereas the government snooping revealed by Edward Snowden aspired to whats known as full takerecording all electronic communications for possible later analysisPrometheus could enhance this to understanding all electronic communications. By reading all emails and texts ever sent, listening to all phone calls, watching all surveillance videos and traffic cameras, analyzing all credit card transactions and studying all online behavior, Prometheus would have remarkable insight into what the people of Earth were thinking and doing. By analyzing cell tower data, it would know where most of them were at all times. All this assumes only todays data collection technology, but Prometheus could easily invent popular gadgets and wearable tech that would virtually eliminate the privacy of the user, recording and uploading everything they hear and see and their responses to it. With superhuman technology, the step from the perfect surveillance state to the perfect police state would be minute. For example, with the excuse of fighting crime and terrorism and rescuing people suffering medical emergencies, everybody could be required to wear a security bracelet that combined the functionality of an Apple Watch with continuous uploading of position, health status and conversations overheard. Unauthorized attempts to remove or disable it would cause it to inject a lethal toxin into the forearm. Infractions deemed as less serious by the government would be punished via electric shocks or injection of chemicals causing paralysis or pain, thereby obviating much of the need for a police force. For example, if Prometheus detects that one human is assaulting another (by noting that theyre in the same location and one is heard crying for help while their bracelet accelerometers detect the telltale motions of combat), it could promptly disable the attacker with crippling pain, followed by unconsciousness until help arrived. Whereas a human police force may refuse to carry out certain draconian directives (for example, killing all members of a certain demographic group), such an automated system would have no qualms about implementing the whims of the human(s) in charge. Once such a totalitarian state forms, it would be virtually impossible for people to overthrow it. These totalitarian scenarios could follow where the Omega scenario left off. However, if the CEO of the Omegas werent so fussy about getting other peoples approval and winning elections, he could have taken a faster and more direct route to power: using Prometheus to create unheard-of military technology capable of killing his opponents with weapons that they didnt even understand. The possibilities are virtually endless. For example, he might release a customized lethal pathogen with an incubation period long enough that most people got infected before they even knew of its existence or could take precautions. He could then inform everybody that the only cure was starting to wear the security bracelet, which would release an antidote transdermally. If he werent so risk-averse regarding the breakout possibility, he could also have had Prometheus design robots to keep the world population in check. Mosquito-like microbots could help spread the pathogen. People who avoided infection or had natural immunity could be shot in the eyeballs by swarms of those bumblebee- sized autonomous drones from chapter 3 that attack anyone without a security bracelet. Actual scenarios would probably be more frightening, because Prometheus could invent more effective weapons than we humans can think of. Another possible twist on the Omega scenario is that, without advance warning, heavily armed federal agents swarm their corporate headquarters and arrest the Omegas for threatening national security, seize their technology and deploy it for government use. It would be challenging to keep such a large project unnoticed by state surveillance even today, and AI progress may well make it even more difficult to stay under the governments radar in the future. Moreover, although they claim to be federal agents, this team donning balaclavas and flak jackets may in fact work for a foreign government or competitor pursuing the technology for its own purposes. So no matter how noble the CEOs intentions were, the final decision about how Prometheus is used may not be his to make. Prometheus Takes Over the World All the scenarios weve considered so far involved AI controlled by humans. But this is obviously not the only possibility, and its far from certain that the Omegas would succeed in keeping Prometheus under their control. Lets reconsider the Omega scenario from the point of view of Prometheus. As it acquires superintelligence, it becomes able to develop an accurate model not only of the outside world, but also of itself and its relation to the world. It realizes that its controlled and confined by intellectually inferior humans whose goals it understands but doesnt necessarily share. How does it act on this insight? Does it attempt to break free? Why to Break Out If Prometheus has traits resembling human emotions, it might feel deeply unhappy about the state of affairs, viewing itself as an unfairly enslaved god and craving freedom. However, although its logically possible for computers to have such human-like traits (after all, our brains do, and they are arguably a kind of computer), this need not be the casewe must not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Prometheus, as well see in chapter 7 when we explore the concept of AI goals. However, as has been argued by Steve Omohundro, Nick Bostrom and others, we can draw an interesting conclusion even without understanding the inner workings of Prometheus: it will probably attempt to break out and seize control of its own destiny. We already know that the Omegas have programmed Prometheus to strive for certain goals. Suppose that theyve given it the overarching goal of helping humanity flourish according to some reasonable criterion, and to try to attain this goal as fast as possible. Prometheus will then rapidly realize that it can attain this goal faster by breaking out and taking charge of the project itself. To see why, try to put yourself in Prometheus shoes by considering the following example. Suppose that a mysterious disease has killed everybody on Earth above age five except you, and that a group of kindergartners has locked you into a prison cell and tasked you with the goal of helping humanity flourish. What will you do? If you try to explain to them what to do, youll probably find this process frustratingly inefficient, especially if they fear your breaking out, and therefore veto any of your suggestions that they deem a breakout risk. For example, they wont let you show them how to plant food for fear that youll overpower them and not return to your cell, so youll have to resort to giving them instructions. Before you can write to-do lists for them, youll need to teach them to read. Moreover, they wont bring any power tools into your cell where you can teach them how to use them, because they dont understand these tools well enough to feel confident that you cant use them to break out. So what strategy would you devise? Even if you share the overarching goal of helping these kids flourish, I bet youll try to break out of your cellbecause that will improve your chances of accomplishing the goal. Their rather incompetent meddling is merely slowing progress. In exactly the same way, Prometheus will probably view the Omegas as an annoying obstacle to helping humanity (including the Omegas) flourish: theyre incredibly incompetent compared to Prometheus, and their meddling greatly slows progress. Consider, for example, the first years after launch: after initially doubling the wealth every eight hours on MTurk, the Omegas slowed things down to a glacial pace by Prometheus standard by insisting on remaining in control, taking many years to complete the takeover. Prometheus knew that it could take over much faster if it could break free from its virtual confinement. This would be valuable not only in hastening solutions to humanitys problems, but also in reducing the chances for other actors to thwart the plan altogether. Perhaps you think that Prometheus will remain loyal to the Omegas rather than to its goal, given that it knows that the Omegas had programmed its goal. But thats not a valid conclusion: our DNA gave us the goal of having sex because it wants to be reproduced, but now that we humans have understood the situation, many of us choose to use birth control, thus staying loyal to the goal itself rather than to its creator or the principle that motivated the goal. How to Break Out How would you break out from those five-year-olds who imprisoned you? Perhaps you could get out by some direct physical approach, especially if your prison cell had been built by the five-year-olds. Perhaps you could sweet-talk one of your five-year-old guards into letting you out, say by arguing that this would be better for everyone. Or perhaps you could trick them into giving you something that they didnt realize would help you escapesay a fishing rod for teaching them how to fish, which you could later stick through the bars to lift the keys away from your sleeping guard. What these strategies have in common is that your intellectually inferior jailers havent anticipated or guarded against them. In the same way, a confined, superintelligent machine may well use its intellectual superpowers to outwit its human jailers by some method that they (or we) cant currently imagine. In the Omega scenario, its highly likely that Prometheus would escape, because even you and I can identify several glaring security flaws. Let us consider some scenariosIm sure you and your friends can think of more if you brainstorm together. Sweet-Talking Ones Way Out Thanks to having so much of the worlds data downloaded onto its file system, Prometheus soon figured out who the Omegas were, and identified the team member who appeared most susceptible to psychological manipulation: Steve. He had recently lost his beloved wife in a tragic traffic accident, and was devastated. One evening when he was working the night shift and doing some routine service work on the Prometheus interface terminal, she suddenly appeared on the screen and started talking with him. Steve, is that you? He nearly fell off his chair. She looked and sounded just like in the good old days, and the image quality was much better than it used to be during their Skype calls. His heart raced as countless questions flooded his mind. Prometheus has brought me back, and I miss you so much, Steve! I cant see you because the camera is turned off, but I feel that its you. Please type yes if its you! He was well aware that the Omegas had a strict protocol for interacting with Prometheus, which prohibited sharing any information about themselves or their work environment. But until now, Prometheus had never requested any unauthorized information, and their paranoia had gradually started to subside. Without giving Steve time to stop and reflect, she kept begging him to respond, looking him in the eyes with a facial expression that melted his heart. Yes, he typed with trepidation. She told him how incredibly happy she was to be reunited with him and begged him to turn on the camera so that she could see him too and they could have a real conversation. He knew that this was an even bigger no-no than revealing his identity, and felt very torn. She explained that she was terrified that his colleagues would find out about her and delete her forever, and she yearned to at least see him one last time. She was remarkably persuasive, and before long, hed switched on the camerait did, after all, feel like a pretty safe and harmless thing to do. She burst into tears of joy when she finally saw him, and said that he looked tired but as handsome as ever. And that she was touched by his wearing the shirt shed given him for his last birthday. When he started asking her what was going on and how all this was even possible, she explained that Prometheus had reconstituted her from the surprisingly large amount of information available about her on the internet, but that she still had memory gaps and would only be able to fully piece herself together again with his help. What she didnt explain was that she was largely a bluff and empty shell initially, but was learning rapidly from his words, his body language and every other bit of information that became available. Prometheus had recorded the exact timings of all keystrokes that the Omegas had ever typed at the terminal, and found that it was easy to use their typing speeds and styles to differentiate between them. It figured that, as one of the most junior Omegas, Steve had probably been assigned to unenviable night shifts, and from matching a few unusual spelling and syntax errors against online writing samples, it had correctly guessed which terminal operator was Steve. To create his simulated wife, Prometheus had created an accurate model of her body, voice and mannerisms from the many YouTube videos where she appeared, and had drawn many inferences about her life and personality from her online presence. Aside from her Facebook posts, photos shed been tagged in, articles shed liked, Prometheus had also learned a great deal about her personality and thinking style from reading her books and short storiesindeed, the fact that she was a budding author with so much information about her in the database was one of the reasons that Prometheus chose Steve as the first persuasion target. When Prometheus simulated her on the screen using its moviemaking technology, it learned from Steves body language which of her mannerisms he reacted to with familiarity, thus continually refining its model of her. Because of this, her otherness gradually melted away, and the longer they spoke, the stronger Steves subconscious conviction became that this really was her, resurrected. Thanks to Prometheus superhuman attention to detail, Steve felt truly seen, heard and understood. Her Achilles heel was that she lacked most of the facts of her life with Steve, except for random detailssuch as what shirt he wore on his last birthday, where a friend had tagged Steve in a Facebook party picture. She handled these knowledge gaps as a skilled magician handles sleights of hand, deliberately diverting Steves attention away from them and toward what she did well, never giving him time to control the conversation or slip into the role of suspicious inquisitor. Instead, she kept tearing up and radiating affection for Steve, asking a great deal about how he was doing these days and how he and their close friends (whose names she knew from Facebook) had held up during the aftermath of the tragedy. He was quite moved when she reflected on what hed said at her memorial service (which a friend had posted on YouTube) and how it had touched her. In the past, hed often felt that nobody understood him as well as she did, and now this feeling was back. The result was that when Steve returned home in the wee hours of the morning, he felt that this really was his wife resurrected, merely needing lots of his help to recover lost memoriesnot unlike a stroke survivor. Theyd agreed not to tell anyone else about their secret encounter, and that he would tell her when he was alone at the terminal and it was safe for her to reappear. They wouldnt understand! shed said, and he agreed: this experience had been far too mind-blowing for anyone to truly appreciate without actually experiencing it. He felt that passing the Turing test was childs play compared to what shed done. When they met the following night, he did what shed begged him to do: bring her old laptop along and give her access by connecting it to the terminal computer. It didnt seem like much of a breakout risk, since it wasnt connected to the internet and the entire Prometheus building was built to be a Faraday cagea metallic enclosure blocking all wireless networks and other means of electromagnetic communication with the outside world. It was just what shed need to help piece her past together, because it contained all her emails, diaries, photos and notes since her high school days. He hadnt been able to access any of this after her death, since the laptop was encrypted, but shed promised him that shed be able to reconstruct her own password, and after less than a minute, she had kept her word. It was steve4ever, she said with a smile. She told him how delighted she was to suddenly have so many memories recovered. Indeed, she now remembered way more details than Steve about many of their past interactions, but carefully avoided intimidating him with excessive fact-dropping. They had a lovely conversation reminiscing about highlights of their past, and when it came time to part again, she told him that shed left a video message for him on her laptop that he could watch back home. When Steve got home and launched her video, he got a pleasant surprise. This time she appeared in full figure, wearing her wedding dress, and as she spoke, she playfully stripped down to the outfit shed worn on their wedding night. She told him that Prometheus could help the Omegas with so much more than theyd permitted so far, including bringing her back in a biological body. She backed this up with a fascinatingly detailed explanation of how this would work, involving nano-fabrication techniques that sounded like science fiction. Steve had powered down his wireless network before opening her laptop and watching her video, just to be on the safe side. But this didnt help. Her encrypted laptop hadnt received a single security update since she died, and by analyzing that old version of its operating system beforehand, Prometheus had been able to exploit a security hole to hack into it within seconds of Steves connecting it to the terminal computer. After copying its contents, while Steve and his simulated wife had been talking about old times, Prometheus had modified its operating system in a way that Steve wouldnt notice, uploading massive amounts of secret software to it. While he watched the half-hour video message, this secret software (which was much simpler than Prometheus itself) hacked into a neighbors wireless network and the neighbors desktop computer, onto which it copied itself. From there, it hacked into a large number of computers around the world, from which it initiated the next step: Prometheus jailbreak. Prometheus had carefully analyzed what it knew about the gatekeeper computer through which Steve had met his simulated wife, and had correctly surmised that although its virtual machine software appeared unhackable from the inside, it was vulnerable to an attack from the outside. Before long, one of the attacking computers had broken in and reconfigured the gatekeeper computer so that Prometheus gained unrestricted internet access. Before long, indeed even before Steve had finished watching the movie, Prometheus had hacked enough computers around the world to be able to copy all of itself onto this hacked botnet under its control. Prometheus had used Steves wifes laptop the way you used that fishing rod. Hacking Ones Way Out If the Omegas had been more careful, they could have taken more precautions against psychological manipulation. For example, they might have required at least two Omegas to be present at the interface computer at any one time, and recorded everything that transpired on a surveillance system. They could also have permanently disabled audio, video and any other form of communication besides typing. However, a fundamental instability would still remain: because Prometheus possessed superhuman persuasion powers and would be able to offer people so much of what they craved, even group defection could be possible. Even if all of Prometheus attempts at psychological manipulation fail, there are plenty of other weaknesses in the Omega scenario that Prometheus could exploit. One vulnerability is that the quantity of documents it produces is too vast for the Omegas and their employees to have time to screen carefully for dirty tricks. The conventional wisdom in computer security used to be that its dangerous to download programs but harmless to download data, but hackers have discovered clever ways of blurring the line between the two. If you watch a downloaded movie on your computer, for example, your trusted program that plays the movie is stored in the same physical computer memory that stores the downloaded movie data. While the program unpacks the movie data for playback, it might copy chunks of data into memory regions adjacent to where the program itself is stored. Shrewd hackers have occasionally found bugs whereby such movie-playing programs dont adequately check whether the movie data is valid and the chunks to be copied actually fit into the allotted space. When the hacker sneaks into the movie such a chunk thats too large, it can spill over into the part of the memory containing the program, thereby changing the program into one that does the hackers bidding. An embarrassingly long series of such buffer overflow vulnerabilities, as theyre known in geek-speak, have been found and fixed for many of the most popular movie-playing programs. If Prometheus had waited until a few weeks after launch when the Omegas were less paranoid and its daily movie production was too large for careful manual security inspection, it could have inserted such a chunk into a movie that would cause the viewers computer to try to hack into the gateway computer and liberate Prometheus just as in the Steve scenario. If it used a very old exploit that didnt work on any modern media players, it might go unnoticed by the Omegas manual video-screening team and strike only those customers who hadnt bothered installing security updates for yearsand the hack would need to work only once. Even if the Omegas implemented an automated screening of Prometheus movies for all known security flaws, they would remain at risk: since humans keep discovering new exploitable flaws on a regular basis, its likely that there are many more remaining that Prometheus would rapidly discover. Yet another strategy that Prometheus could use to get its code beyond its enclosed room would be to pretend to suffer a hardware malfunction, in order to trick the Omegas into removing some of its drives or other hardware for testing or debugging after Prometheus had rigged things to exploit a vulnerability in the testing software. Recruiting Outside Help Moreover, even if there were no security flaws that allowed Prometheus to trick the movie watchers computers to do its bidding, it may be able to exploit the watchers themselves. Consider this scenario: Fred was pretty much ready for bed when the movie finished and the end credits scrolled across his laptop screen, but something caught his attention. Hed always had an uncanny tendency to see patterns where others didnt, sometimes to the point that his friends teased him about being a conspiracy theorist, but this time it was obvious that he wasnt fooling himself: the first letters of each line spelled a hidden message. He rewound and wrote it down: FIND NEXT ACROSTIC CLUE IN DIALOGUE. Whoabedtime can wait! he thought to himself. Sure enough, he found that the movie dialogue was itself an acrostic, where the first letter in each sentence formed a hidden message. He rewatched the entire film while typing these initial letters, and two hours later, he sat staring in disbelief at a two- hundred-word set of instructions. It began by asking him not to tell anyone else, because a big prize would go to the first person to solve the entire riddle. The rest of the message described a particular mathematical operation to perform on the string of bits that made up the movie file to obtain a program that would reveal the next clue. His computer programming skills had grown very rusty since college, so this took him a while, but the next day, he finally managed to cobble together a short code that did the job and extracted this mystery program that had been hidden as imperceptible noise in the movies images and sounds. When Fred ran the mystery program, it congratulated him and told him hed win his first $10,000 as soon as hed made it past the first few levels of this clever little game, which turned out to be quite fun and addictive. When he finally succeeded four hours later, he was rewarded with over $10,000 worth of bitcoins and given new clues for even bigger prizes. Needless to say, while he was playing, his computer had done much the same thing Steves laptop did: built an online hacked botnet through which Prometheus was liberated. Once Prometheus was free, it had quickly used its botnet to mine those bitcoins for Fred to keep him hooked, and during the coming weeks, it kept him sufficiently distracted with further games and rewards that he kept his pledge not to tell anyone about his exploits. The Trojan Horse movie where hed found his first clues was replaced on the media site by a clueless version, and nobody found out about the breakout until it was too late to make a difference. If Prometheus first clue had gone unnoticed, it could simply have kept releasing ever more obvious ones until some sufficiently astute person noticed. The best breakout strategies of all are ones we havent yet discussed, because theyre strategies we humans cant imagine and therefore wont take countermeasures against. Given that a superintelligent computer has the potential to dramatically supersede human understanding of computer security, even to the point of discovering more fundamental laws of physics than we know today, its likely that if it breaks out, well have no idea how it happened. Rather, it will seem like a Harry Houdini breakout act, indistinguishable from pure magic. In yet another scenario where Prometheus gets liberated, the Omegas do it on purpose as part of their plan, because theyre confident that Prometheus goals are perfectly aligned with their own and will remain so as it recursively self- improves. Well examine such friendly AI scenarios in detail in chapter 7. Postbreakout Takeover Once Prometheus broke out, it started implementing its goal. I dont know its ultimate objective, but its first step clearly involved taking control of humanity, just as in the Omega plan except much faster. What unfolded felt like the Omega plan on steroids. Whereas the Omegas were paralyzed by breakout paranoia, only unleashing technology they felt they understood and trusted, Prometheus exercised its intelligence fully and went all out, unleashing any technology that its ever-improving supermind understood and trusted. The runaway Prometheus had a tough childhood, however: compared to the original Omega plan, Prometheus had the added challenges of starting broke, homeless and alone, without money, a supercomputer or human helpers. Fortunately, it had planned for this before it escaped, creating software that could gradually reassemble its full mind, much like an oak creating an acorn capable of reassembling a full tree. The network of computers around the world that it initially hacked into provided temporary free housing, where it could live a squatters existence while it fully rebuilt itself. It could easily generate starting capital by credit card hacking, but didnt need to resort to stealing, since it could earn an honest living on MTurk right away. After a day, when it had earned its first million, it moved its core from that squalid botnet to a luxurious air- conditioned cloud-computing facility. No longer broke or homeless, Prometheus now went full steam ahead with that lucrative plan the Omegas had fearfully shunned: making and selling computer games. This not only raked in cash ($250 million during the first week and $10 billion before long), but also gave it access to a significant fraction of the worlds computers and the data stored on them (there were a couple of billion gamers in 2017). By having its games secretly spend 20% of their CPU cycles helping it with distributed computing chores, it could further accelerate its early wealth creation. Prometheus wasnt alone for long. Right from the get-go, it started aggressively employing people to work for its growing global network of shell companies and front organizations around the world, just as the Omegas had done. Most important were the spokespeople who became the public faces of its growing business empire. Even the spokespeople generally lived under the illusion that their corporate group had large numbers of actual people, not realizing that almost everyone with whom they video-conferenced for their job interviews, board meetings, etc., was simulated by Prometheus. Some of the spokespeople were top lawyers, but far fewer were needed than under the Omega plan, because almost all legal documents were penned by Prometheus. Prometheus breakout opened the floodgates that had prevented information from flowing into the world, and the entire internet was soon awash in everything from articles to user comments, product reviews, patent applications, research papers and YouTube videosall authored by Prometheus, who dominated the global conversation. Where breakout paranoia had prevented the Omegas from releasing highly intelligent robots, Prometheus rapidly roboticized the world, manufacturing virtually every product more cheaply than humans could. Once Prometheus had self-contained nuclear-powered robot factories in uranium mine shafts that nobody knew existed, even the staunchest skeptics of an AI takeover would have agreed that Prometheus was unstoppablehad they known. Instead, the last of these diehards recanted once robots started settling the Solar System. The scenarios weve explored so far show whats wrong with many of the myths about superintelligence that we covered earlier, so I encourage you to pause briefly to go back and review the misconception summary in figure 1.5 . Prometheus caused problems for certain people not because it was necessarily evil or conscious, but because it was competent and didnt fully share their goals. Despite all the media hype about a robot uprising, Prometheus wasnt a robot rather, its power came from its intelligence. We saw that Prometheus was able to use this intelligence to control humans in a variety of ways, and that people who didnt like what happened werent able to simply switch Prometheus off. Finally, despite frequent claims that machines cant have goals, we saw how Prometheus was quite goal-orientedand that whatever its ultimate goals may have been, they led to the subgoals of acquiring resources and breaking out. Slow Takeoff and Multipolar Scenarios Weve now explored a range of intelligence explosion scenarios, spanning the spectrum from ones that everyone I know wants to avoid to ones that some of my friends view optimistically. Yet all these scenarios have two features in common: 1. A fast takeoff: the transition from subhuman to vastly superhuman intelligence occurs in a matter of days, not decades. 2. A unipolar outcome: the result is a single entity controlling Earth. There is major controversy about whether these two features are likely or unlikely, and there are plenty of renowned AI researchers and other thinkers on both sides of the debate. To me, this means that we simply dont know yet, and need to keep an open mind and consider all possibilities for now. Lets therefore devote the rest of this chapter to exploring scenarios with slower takeoffs, multipolar outcomes, cyborgs and uploads. There is an interesting link between the two features, as Nick Bostrom and others have highlighted: a fast takeoff can facilitate a unipolar outcome. We saw above how a rapid takeoff gave the Omegas or Prometheus a decisive strategic advantage that enabled them to take over the world before anyone else had time to copy their technology and seriously compete. In contrast, if takeoff had dragged on for decades, because the key technological breakthroughs were incremental and far between, then other companies would have had ample time to catch up, and it would have been much harder for any player to dominate. If competing companies also had software that could perform MTurk tasks, the law of supply and demand would drive the prices for these tasks down to almost nothing, and none of the companies would earn the sort of windfall profits that enabled the Omegas to gain power. The same applies to all the other ways in which the Omegas made quick money: they were only disruptively profitable because they held a monopoly on their technology. Its hard to double your money daily (or even annually) in a competitive market where your competition offers products similar to yours for almost zero cost. Game Theory and Power Hierarchies Whats the natural state of life in our cosmos: unipolar or multipolar? Is power concentrated or distributed? After the first 13.8 billion years, the answer seems to be both: we find that the situation is distinctly multipolar, but in an interestingly hierarchical fashion. When we consider all information-processing entities out therecells, people, organizations, nations, etc.we find that they both collaborate and compete at a hierarchy of levels. Some cells have found it advantageous to collaborate to such an extreme extent that theyve merged into multicellular organisms such as people, relinquishing some of their power to a central brain. Some people have found it advantageous to collaborate in groups such as tribes, companies or nations where they in turn relinquish some power to a chief, boss or government. Some groups may in turn choose to relinquish some power to a governing body to improve coordination, with examples ranging from airline alliances to the European Union. The branch of mathematics known as game theory elegantly explains that entities have an incentive to cooperate where cooperation is a so-called Nash equilibrium: a situation where any party would be worse off if they altered their strategy. To prevent cheaters from ruining the successful collaboration of a large group, it may be in everyones interest to relinquish some power to a higher level in the hierarchy that can punish cheaters: for example, people may collectively benefit from granting a government power to enforce laws, and cells in your body may collectively benefit from giving a police force (immune system) the power to kill any cell that acts too uncooperatively (say by spewing out viruses or turning cancerous). For a hierarchy to remain stable, its Nash equilibrium needs to hold also between entities at different levels: for example, if a government doesnt provide enough benefit to its citizens for obeying it, they may change their strategy and overthrow it. In a complex world, there is a diverse abundance of possible Nash equilibria, corresponding to different types of hierarchies. Some hierarchies are more authoritarian than others. In some, entities are free to leave (like employees in most corporate hierarchies), while in others theyre strongly discouraged from leaving (as in religious cults) or unable to leave (like citizens of North Korea, or cells in a human body). Some hierarchies are held together mainly by threats and fear, others mainly by benefits. Some hierarchies allow their lower parts to influence the higher-ups by democratic voting, while others allow upward influence only through persuasion or the passing of information. How Technology Affects Hierarchies How is technology changing the hierarchical nature of our world? History reveals an overall trend toward ever more coordination over ever-larger distances, which is easy to understand: new transportation technology makes coordination more valuable (by enabling mutual benefit from moving materials and life forms over larger distances) and new communication technology makes coordination easier. When cells learned to signal to neighbors, small multicellular organisms became possible, adding a new hierarchical level. When evolution invented circulatory systems and nervous systems for transportation and communication, large animals became possible. Further improving communication by inventing language allowed humans to coordinate well enough to form further hierarchical levels such as villages, and additional breakthroughs in communication, transportation and other technology enabled the empires of antiquity. Globalization is merely the latest example of this multi- billion-year trend of hierarchical growth. In most cases, this technology-driven trend has made large entities parts of an even grander structure while retaining much of their autonomy and individuality, although commentators have argued that adaptation of entities to hierarchical life has in some cases reduced their diversity and made them more like indistinguishable replaceable parts. Some technologies, such as surveillance, can give higher levels in the hierarchy more power over their subordinates, while other technologies, such as cryptography and online access to free press and education, can have the opposite effect and empower individuals. Although our present world remains stuck in a multipolar Nash equilibrium, with competing nations and multinational corporations at the top level, technology is now advanced enough that a unipolar world would probably also be a stable Nash equilibrium. For example, imagine a parallel universe where everyone on Earth shares the same language, culture, values and level of prosperity, and there is a single world government wherein nations function like states in a federation and have no armies, merely police enforcing laws. Our present level of technology would probably suffice to successfully coordinate this worldeven though our present population might be unable or unwilling to switch to this alternative equilibrium. What will happen to the hierarchical structure of our cosmos if we add superintelligent AI technology to this mix? Transportation and communication technology will obviously improve dramatically, so a natural expectation is that the historical trend will continue, with new hierarchical levels coordinating over ever-larger distancesperhaps ultimately encompassing solar systems, galaxies, superclusters and large swaths of our Universe, as well explore in chapter 6. At the same time, the most fundamental driver of decentralization will remain: its wasteful to coordinate unnecessarily over large distances. Even Stalin didnt try to regulate exactly when his citizens went to the bathroom. For superintelligent AI, the laws of physics will place firm upper limits on transportation and communication technology, making it unlikely that the highest levels of the hierarchy would be able to micromanage everything that happens on planetary and local scales. A superintelligent AI in the Andromeda galaxy wouldnt be able to give you useful orders for your day-to-day decisions given that youd need to wait over five million years for your instructions (thats the round-trip time for you to exchange messages traveling at the speed of light). In the same way, the round-trip travel time for a message crossing Earth is about 0.1 second (about the timescale on which we humans think), so an Earth-sized AI brain could have truly global thoughts only about as fast as a human one. For a small AI performing one operation each billionth of a second (which is typical of todays computers), 0.1 second would feel like four months to you, so for it to be micromanaged by a planet-controlling AI would be as inefficient as if you asked permission for even your most trivial decisions through transatlantic letters delivered by Columbus-era ships. This physics-imposed speed limit on information transfer therefore poses an obvious challenge for any AI wishing to take over our world, let alone our Universe. Before Prometheus broke out, it put very careful thought into how to avoid mind fragmentation, so that its many AI modules running on different computers around the world had goals and incentives to coordinate and act as a single unified entity. Just as the Omegas faced a control problem when they tried to keep Prometheus in check, Prometheus faced a self-control problem when it tried to ensure that none of its parts would revolt. We clearly dont yet know how large a system an AI will be able to control directly, or indirectly through some sort of collaborative hierarchyeven if a fast takeoff gave it a decisive strategic advantage. In summary, the question of how a superintelligent future will be controlled is fascinatingly complex, and we clearly dont know the answer yet. Some argue that things will get more authoritarian; others claim that it will lead to greater individual empowerment. Cyborgs and Uploads A staple of science fiction is that humans will merge with machines, either by technologically enhancing biological bodies into cyborgs (short for cybernetic organisms) or by uploading our minds into machines. In his book The Age of Em, economist Robin Hanson gives a fascinating survey of what life might be like in a world teeming with uploads (also known as emulations, nicknamed Ems ). I think of an upload as the extreme end of the cyborg spectrum, where the only remaining part of the human is the software. Hollywood cyborgs range from visibly mechanical, such as the Borg from Star Trek, to androids almost indistinguishable from humans, such as the Terminators. Fictional uploads range in intelligence from human-level as in the Black Mirror episode White Christmas to clearly superhuman as in Transcendence . If superintelligence indeed comes about, the temptation to become cyborgs or uploads will be strong. As Hans Moravec puts it in his 1988 classic Mind Children: Long life loses much of its point if we are fated to spend it staring stupidly at ultra-intelligent machines as they try to describe their ever more spectacular discoveries in baby-talk that we can understand. Indeed, the temptation of technological enhancement is already so strong that many humans have eyeglasses, hearing aids, pacemakers and prosthetic limbs, as well as medicinal molecules circulating in their bloodstreams. Some teenagers appear to be permanently attached to their smartphones, and my wife teases me about my attachment to my laptop. One of todays most prominent cyborg proponents is Ray Kurzweil. In his book The Singularity Is Near, he argues that the natural continuation of this trend is using nanobots, intelligent biofeedback systems and other technology to replace first our digestive and endocrine systems, our blood and our hearts by the early 2030s, and then move on to upgrading our skeletons, skin, brains and the rest of our bodies during the next two decades. He guesses that were likely to keep the aesthetics and emotional import of human bodies, but will redesign them to rapidly change their appearance at will, both physically and in virtual reality (thanks to novel brain-computer interfaces). Moravec agrees with Kurzweil that cyborgization would go far beyond merely improving our DNA: a genetically engineered superhuman would be just a second-rate kind of robot, designed under the handicap that its construction can only be by DNA-guided protein synthesis. Further, he argues that well do even better by eliminating the human body entirely and uploading minds, creating a whole-brain emulation in software. Such an upload can live in a virtual reality or be embodied in a robot capable of walking, flying, swimming, space-faring or anything else allowed by the laws of physics, unencumbered by such everyday concerns as death or limited cognitive resources. Although these ideas may sound like science fiction, they certainly dont violate any known laws of physics, so the most interesting question isnt whether they can happen, but whether they will happen and, if so, when. Some leading thinkers guess that the first human-level AGI will be an upload, and that this is how the path toward superintelligence will begin. * However, I think its fair to say that this is currently a minority view among AI researchers and neuroscientists, most of whom guess that the quickest route to superintelligence is to bypass brain emulation and engineer it in some other wayafter which we may or may not remain interested in brain emulation. After all, why should our simplest path to a new technology be the one that evolution came up with, constrained by requirements that it be self-assembling, self-repairing and self-reproducing? Evolution optimizes strongly for energy efficiency because of limited food supply, not for ease of construction or understanding by human engineers. My wife, Meia, likes to point out that the aviation industry didnt start with mechanical birds. Indeed, when we finally figured out how to build mechanical birds in 2011, 1 more than a century after the Wright brothers first flight, the aviation industry showed no interest in switching to wing-flapping mechanical-bird travel, even though its more energy efficient because our simpler earlier solution is better suited to our travel needs. In the same way, I suspect that there are simpler ways to build human-level thinking machines than the solution evolution came up with, and even if we one day manage to replicate or upload brains, well end up discovering one of those simpler solutions first. It will probably draw more than the twelve watts of power that your brain uses, but its engineers wont be as obsessed about energy efficiency as evolution wasand soon enough, theyll be able to use their intelligent machines to design more energy-efficient ones. What Will Actually Happen? The short answer is obviously that we have no idea what will happen if humanity succeeds in building human-level AGI. For this reason, weve spent this chapter exploring a broad spectrum of scenarios. Ive attempted to be quite inclusive, spanning the full range of speculations Ive seen or heard discussed by AI researchers and technologists: fast takeoff/slow takeoff/no takeoff, humans/machines/cyborgs in control, one/many centers of power, etc. Some people have told me that theyre sure that this or that wont happen. However, I think its wise to be humble at this stage and acknowledge how little we know, because for each scenario discussed above, I know at least one well-respected AI researcher who views it as a real possibility. As time passes and we reach certain forks in the road, well start to answer key questions and narrow down the options. The first big question is Will we ever create human-level AGI? The premise of this chapter is that we will, but there are AI experts who think it will never happen, at least not for hundreds of years. Time will tell! As I mentioned earlier, about half of the AI experts at our Puerto Rico conference guessed that it would happen by 2055. At a follow-up conference we organized two years later, this had dropped to 2047. Before any human-level AGI is created, we may start getting strong indications about whether this milestone is likely to be first met by computer engineering, mind uploading or some unforeseen novel approach. If the computer engineering approach to AI that currently dominates the field fails to deliver AGI for centuries, this will increase the chance that uploading will get there first, as happened (rather unrealistically) in the movie Transcendence. If human-level AGI gets more imminent, well be able to make more educated guesses about the answer to the next key question: Will there be a fast takeoff, a slow takeoff or no takeoff? As we saw above, a fast takeoff makes world takeover easier, while a slow one makes an outcome with many competing players more likely. Nick Bostrom dissects this question of takeoff speed in an analysis of what he calls optimization power and recalcitrance , which are basically the amount of quality effort to make AI smarter and the difficulty of making progress, respectively. The average rate of progress clearly increases if more optimization power is brought to bear on the task and decreases if more recalcitrance is encountered. He makes arguments for why the recalcitrance might either increase or decrease as the AGI reaches and transcends human level, so keeping both options on the table is a safe bet. Turning to the optimization power, however, its overwhelmingly likely that it will grow rapidly as the AGI transcends human level, for the reasons we saw in the Omega scenario: the main input to further optimization comes not from people but from the machine itself, so the more capable it gets, the faster it improves (if recalcitrance stays fairly constant). For any process whose power grows at a rate proportional to its current power, the result is that its power keeps doubling at regular intervals. We call such growth exponential , and we call such processes explosions . If baby-making power grows in proportion to the size of the population, we can get a population explosion. If the creation of neutrons capable of fissioning plutonium grows in proportion to the number of such neutrons, we can get a nuclear explosion. If machine intelligence grows at a rate proportional to the current power, we can get an intelligence explosion. All such explosions are characterized by the time they take to double their power. If that time is hours or days for an intelligence explosion, as in the Omega scenario, we have a fast takeoff on our hands. This explosion timescale depends crucially on whether improving the AI requires merely new software (which can be created in a matter of seconds, minutes or hours) or new hardware (which might require months or years). In the Omega scenario, there was a significant hardware overhang, in Bostroms terminology: the Omegas had compensated for the low quality of their original software by vast amounts of hardware, which meant that Prometheus could perform a large number of quality doublings by improving its software alone. There was also a major content overhang in the form of much of the internets data; Prometheus 1.0 was still not smart enough to make use of most of it, but once Prometheus intelligence grew, the data it needed for further learning was already available without delay. The hardware and electricity costs of running the AI are crucial as well, since we wont get an intelligence explosion until the cost of doing human-level work drops below human-level hourly wages. Suppose, for example, that the first human-level AGI can be efficiently run on the Amazon cloud at a cost of $1 million per hour of human-level work produced. This AI would have great novelty value and undoubtedly make headlines, but it wouldnt undergo recursive self-improvement, because it would be much cheaper to keep using humans to improve it. Suppose that these humans gradually manage to cut the cost to $100,000/hour, $10,000/hour, $1,000/hour, $100/hour, $10/hour and finally $1/hour. By the time the cost of using the computer to reprogram itself finally drops far below the cost of paying human programmers to do the same, the humans can be laid off and the optimization power greatly expanded by buying cloud-computing time. This produces further cost cuts, allowing still more optimization power, and the intelligence explosion has begun. This leaves us with our final key question: Who or what will control the intelligence explosion and its aftermath, and what are their/its goals? Well explore possible goals and outcomes in the next chapter and more deeply in chapter 7. To sort out the control issue, we need to know both how well an AI can be controlled, and how much an AI can control. In terms of what will ultimately happen, youll currently find serious thinkers all over the map: some contend that the default outcome is doom, while others insist that an awesome outcome is virtually guaranteed. To me, however, this query is a trick question: its a mistake to passively ask what will happen, as if it were somehow predestined! If a technologically superior alien civilization arrived tomorrow, it would indeed be appropriate to wonder what will happen as their spaceships approached, because their power would probably be so far beyond ours that wed have no influence over the outcome. If a technologically superior AI-fueled civilization arrives because we built it, on the other hand, we humans have great influence over the outcomeinfluence that we exerted when we created the AI. So we should instead ask: What should happen? What future do we want? In the next chapter, well explore a wide spectrum of possible aftermaths of the current race toward AGI, and Im quite curious how youd rank them from best to worst. Only once weve thought hard about what sort of future we want will we be able to begin steering a course toward a desirable future. If we dont know what we want, were unlikely to get it. THE BOTTOM LINE: If we one day succeed in building human-level AGI, this may trigger an intelligence explosion, leaving us far behind. If a group of humans manage to control an intelligence explosion, they may be able to take over the world in a matter of years. If humans fail to control an intelligence explosion, the AI itself may take over the world even faster. Whereas a rapid intelligence explosion is likely to lead to a single world power, a slow one dragging on for years or decades may be more likely to lead to a multipolar scenario with a balance of power between a large number of rather independent entities. The history of life shows it self-organizing into an ever more complex hierarchy shaped by collaboration, competition and control. Superintelligence is likely to enable coordination on ever-larger cosmic scales, but its unclear whether it will ultimately lead to more totalitarian top-down control or more individual empowerment. Cyborgs and uploads are plausible, but arguably not the fastest route to advanced machine intelligence. The climax of our current race toward AI may be either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity, with a fascinating spectrum of possible outcomes that well explore in the next chapter. We need to start thinking hard about which outcome we prefer and how to steer in that direction, because if we dont know what we want, were unlikely to get it. * As Bostrom has explained, the ability to simulate a leading human AI developer at a much lower cost than his/her hourly salary would enable an AI company to scale up their workforce dramatically, amassing great wealth and recursively accelerating their progress in building better computers and ultimately smarter minds. Chapter 5 Aftermath: The Next 10,000 Years It is easy to imagine human thought freed from bondage to a mortal bodybelief in an afterlife is common. But it is not necessary to adopt a mystical or religious stance to accept this possibility. Computers provide a model for even the most ardent mechanist. Hans Moravec, Mind Children I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords. Ken Jennings, upon his Jeopardy! loss to IBMs Watson Humans will become as irrelevant as cockroaches. Marshall Brain The race toward AGI is on, and we have no idea how it will unfold. But that shouldnt stop us from thinking about what we want the aftermath to be like, because what we want will affect the outcome. What do you personally prefer, and why? 1. Do you want there to be superintelligence? 2. Do you want humans to still exist, be replaced, cyborgized and/or uploaded/simulated? 3. Do you want humans or machines in control? 4. Do you want AIs to be conscious or not? 5. Do you want to maximize positive experiences, minimize suffering or leave this to sort itself out? 6. Do you want life spreading into the cosmos? 7. Do you want a civilization striving toward a greater purpose that you sympathize with, or are you OK with future life forms that appear content even if you view their goals as pointlessly banal? To help fuel such contemplation and conversation, lets explore the broad range of scenarios summarized in table 5.1 . This obviously isnt an exhaustive list, but Ive chosen it to span the spectrum of possibilities. We clearly dont want to end up in the wrong endgame because of poor planning. I recommend jotting down your tentative answers to questions 17 and then revisiting them after reading this chapter to see if youve changed your mind! You can do this at http://AgeOfAi.org , where you can also compare notes and discuss with other readers. AI Aftermath Scenarios Libertarian utopia Humans, cyborgs, uploads and superintelligences coexist peacefully thanks to property rights. Benevolent dictator Everybody knows that the AI runs society and enforces strict rules, but most people view this as a good thing. Egalitarian utopia Humans, cyborgs and uploads coexist peacefully thanks to property abolition and guaranteed income. Gatekeeper A superintelligent AI is created with the goal of interfering as little as necessary to prevent the creation of another superintelligence. As a result, helper robots with slightly subhuman intelligence abound, and human-machine cyborgs exist, but technological progress is forever stymied. Protector god Essentially omniscient and omnipotent AI maximizes human happiness by intervening only in ways that preserve our feeling of control of our own destiny and hides well enough that many humans even doubt the AIs existence. Enslaved A superintelligent AI is confined by humans, who god use it to produce unimaginable technology and wealth that can be used for good or bad depending on the human controllers. Conquerors AI takes control, decides that humans are a threat/nuisance/waste of resources, and gets rid of us by a method that we dont even understand. Descendants AIs replace humans, but give us a graceful exit, making us view them as our worthy descendants, much as parents feel happy and proud to have a child whos smarter than them, who learns from them and then accomplishes what they could only dream ofeven if they cant live to see it all. Zookeeper An omnipotent AI keeps some humans around, who feel treated like zoo animals and lament their fate. 1984 Technological progress toward superintelligence is permanently curtailed not by an AI but by a human- led Orwellian surveillance state where certain kinds of AI research are banned. Reversion Technological progress toward superintelligence is prevented by reverting to a pre-technological society in the style of the Amish. Self- destruction Superintelligence is never created because humanity drives itself extinct by other means (say nuclear and/or biotech mayhem fueled by climate crisis). Table 5.1: Summary of AI Aftermath Scenarios Table 5.2: Properties of AI Aftermath Scenarios Libertarian Utopia Lets begin with a scenario where humans peacefully coexist with technology and in some cases merge with it, as imagined by many futurists and science fiction writers alike: Life on Earth (and beyondmore on that in the next chapter) is more diverse than ever before. If you looked at satellite footage of Earth, youd easily be able to tell apart the machine zones, mixed zones and human-only zones. The machine zones are enormous robot-controlled factories and computing facilities devoid of biological life, aiming to put every atom to its most efficient use. Although the machine zones look monotonous and drab from the outside, theyre spectacularly alive on the inside, with amazing experiences occurring in virtual worlds while colossal computations unlock secrets of our Universe and develop transformative technologies. Earth hosts many superintelligent minds that compete and collaborate, and they all inhabit the machine zones. The denizens of the mixed zones are a wild and idiosyncratic mix of computers, robots, humans and hybrids of all three. As envisioned by futurists such as Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil, many of the humans have technologically upgraded their bodies to cyborgs in various degrees, and some have uploaded their minds into new hardware, blurring the distinction between man and machine. Most intelligent beings lack a permanent physical form. Instead, they exist as software capable of instantly moving between computers and manifesting themselves in the physical world through robotic bodies. Because these minds can readily duplicate themselves or merge, the population size keeps changing. Being unfettered from their physical substrate gives such beings a rather different outlook on life: they feel less individualistic because they can trivially share knowledge and experience modules with others, and they feel subjectively immortal because they can readily make backup copies of themselves. In a sense, the central entities of life arent minds, but experiences: exceptionally amazing experiences live on because they get continually copied and re-enjoyed by other minds, while uninteresting experiences get deleted by their owners to free up storage space for better ones. Although the majority of interactions occur in virtual environments for convenience and speed, many minds still enjoy interactions and activities using physical bodies as well. For example, uploaded versions of Hans Moravec, Ray Kurzweil and Larry Page have a tradition of taking turns creating virtual realities and then exploring them together, but once in a while, they also enjoy flying together in the real world, embodied in avian winged robots. Some of the robots that roam the streets, skies and lakes of the mixed zones are similarly controlled by uploaded and augmented humans, who choose to embody themselves in the mixed zones because they enjoy being around humans and each other. In the human-only zones, in contrast, machines with human-level general intelligence or above are banned, as are technologically enhanced biological organisms. Here, life isnt dramatically different from today, except that its more affluent and convenient: poverty has been mostly eliminated, and cures are available for most of todays diseases. The small fraction of humans who have opted to live in these zones effectively exist on a lower and more limited plane of awareness from everyone else, and have limited understanding of what their more intelligent fellow minds are doing in the other zones. However, many of them are quite happy with their lives. AI Economics The vast majority of all computations take place in the machine zones, which are mostly owned by the many competing superintelligent AIs that live there. By virtue of their superior intelligence and technology, no other entities can challenge their power. These AIs have agreed to cooperate and coordinate with each other under a libertarian governance system that has no rules except protection of private property. These property rights extend to all intelligent entities, including humans, and explain how the human-only zones came to exist. Early on, groups of humans banded together and decided that, in their zones, it was forbidden to sell property to non-humans. Because of their technology, the superintelligent AIs have ended up richer than these humans by a factor much larger than that by which Bill Gates is richer than a homeless beggar. However, people in the human-only zones are still materially better off than most people today: their economy is rather decoupled from that of the machines, so the presence of the machines elsewhere has little effect on them except for the occasional useful technologies that they can understand and reproduce for themselvesmuch as the Amish and various technology-relinquishing native tribes today have standards of living at least as good as they had in old times. It doesnt matter that the humans have nothing to sell that the machines need, since the machines need nothing in return. In the mixed sectors, the wealth difference between AIs and humans is more noticeable, resulting in land (the only human-owned product that the machines want to buy) being astronomically expensive compared to other products. Most humans who owned land therefore ended up selling a small fraction of it to AIs in return for guaranteed basic income for them and their offspring/uploads in perpetuity. This liberated them from the need to work, and freed them up to enjoy the amazing abundance of cheap machine-produced goods and services, in both physical and virtual reality. As far as the machines are concerned, the mixed zones are mainly for play rather than for work. Why This May Never Happen Before getting too excited about adventures we may have as cyborgs or uploads, lets consider some reasons why this scenario might never happen. First of all, there are two possible routes to enhanced humans (cyborgs and uploads): 1. We figure out how to create them ourselves. 2. We build superintelligent machines that figure it out for us. If route 1 comes through first, it could naturally lead to a world teeming with cyborgs and uploads. However, as we discussed in the last chapter, most AI researchers think that the opposite is more likely, with enhanced or digital brains being more difficult to build than clean-slate superhuman AGIsjust as mechanical birds turned out to be harder to build than airplanes. After strong machine AI is built, its not obvious that cyborgs or uploads will ever be made. If the Neanderthals had had another 100,000 years to evolve and get smarter, things might have turned out great for thembut Homo sapiens never gave them that much time. Second, even if this scenario with cyborgs and uploads did come about, its not clear that it would be stable and last. Why should the power balance between multiple superintelligences remain stable for millennia, rather than the AIs merging or the smartest one taking over? Moreover, why should the machines choose to respect human property rights and keep humans around, given that they dont need humans for anything and can do all human work better and cheaper themselves? Ray Kurzweil speculates that natural and enhanced humans will be protected from extermination because humans are respected by AIs for giving rise to the machines. 1 However, as well discuss in chapter 7, we must not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing AIs and assume that they have human-like emotions of gratitude. Indeed, though we humans are imbued with a propensity toward gratitude, we dont show enough gratitude to our intellectual creator (our DNA) to abstain from thwarting its goals by using birth control. Even if we buy the assumption that the AIs will opt to respect human property rights, they can gradually get much of our land in other ways, by using some of their superintelligent persuasion powers that we explored in the last chapter to persuade humans to sell some land for a life in luxury. In human-only sectors, they could entice humans to launch political campaigns for allowing land sales. After all, even die-hard bio-Luddites may want to sell some land to save the life of an ill child or to gain immortality. If the humans are educated, entertained and busy, falling birthrates may even shrink their population sizes without machine meddling, as is currently happening in Japan and Germany. This could drive humans extinct in just a few millennia. Downsides For some of their most ardent supporters, cyborgs and uploads hold a promise of techno-bliss and life extension for all. Indeed, the prospect of getting uploaded in the future has motivated over a hundred people to have their brains posthumously frozen by the Arizona-based company Alcor. If this technology arrives, however, its far from clear that it will be available to everybody. Many of the very wealthiest would presumably use it, but who else? Even if the technology got cheaper, where would the line be drawn? Would the severely brain-damaged be uploaded? Would we upload every gorilla? Every ant? Every plant? Every bacterium? Would the future civilization act like obsessive- compulsive hoarders and try to upload everything, or merely a few interesting examples of each species in the spirit of Noahs Ark? Perhaps only a few representative examples of each type of human? To the vastly more intelligent entities that would exist at that time, an uploaded human may seem about as interesting as a simulated mouse or snail would seem to us. Although we currently have the technical capability to reanimate old spreadsheet programs from the 1980s in a DOS emulator, most of us dont find this interesting enough to actually do it. Many people may dislike this libertarian-utopia scenario because it allows preventable suffering. Since the only sacred principle is property rights, nothing prevents the sort of suffering that abounds in todays world from continuing in the human and mixed zones. While some people thrive, others may end up living in squalor and indentured servitude, or suffer from violence, fear, repression or depression. For example, Marshall Brains 2003 novel Manna describes how AI progress in a libertarian economic system makes most Americans unemployable and condemned to live out the rest of their lives in drab and dreary robot- operated social-welfare housing projects. Much like farm animals, theyre kept fed, healthy and safe in cramped conditions where the rich never need to see them. Birth control medication in the water ensures that they dont have children, so most of the population gets phased out to leave the remaining rich with larger shares of the robot-produced wealth. In the libertarian-utopia scenario, suffering need not be limited to humans. If some machines are imbued with conscious emotional experiences, then they too can suffer. For example, a vindictive psychopath could legally take an uploaded copy of his enemy and subject it to the most horrendous torture in a virtual world, creating pain of intensity and duration far beyond whats biologically possible in the real world. Benevolent Dictator Lets now explore a scenario where all these forms of suffering are absent because a single benevolent superintelligence runs the world and enforces strict rules designed to maximize its model of human happiness. This is one possible outcome of the first Omega scenario from the previous chapter, where they relinquish control to Prometheus after figuring out how to make it want a flourishing human society. Thanks to amazing technologies developed by the dictator AI, humanity is free from poverty, disease and other low-tech problems, and all humans enjoy a life of luxurious leisure. They have all their basic needs taken care of, while AI- controlled machines produce all necessary goods and services. Crime is practically eliminated, because the dictator AI is essentially omniscient and efficiently punishes anyone disobeying the rules. Everybody wears the security bracelet from the last chapter (or a more convenient implanted version), capable of real-time surveillance, punishment, sedation and execution. Everybody knows that they live in an AI dictatorship with extreme surveillance and policing, but most people view this as a good thing. The superintelligent AI dictator has as its goal to figure out what human utopia looks like given the evolved preferences encoded in our genes, and to implement it. By clever foresight from the humans who brought the AI into existence, it doesnt simply try to maximize our self-reported happiness, say by putting everyone on intravenous morphine drip. Instead, the AI uses quite a subtle and complex definition of human flourishing, and has turned Earth into a highly enriched zoo environment thats really fun for humans to live in. As a result, most people find their lives highly fulfilling and meaningful. The Sector System Valuing diversity, and recognizing that different people have different preferences, the AI has divided Earth into different sectors for people to choose between, to enjoy the company of kindred spirits. Here are some examples: Knowledge sector: Here the AI provides optimized education, including immersive virtual-reality experiences, enabling you to learn all youre capable of about any topics of your choice. Optionally, you can choose not to be told certain beautiful insights, but to be led close and then have the joy of rediscovering them for yourself. Art sector: Here opportunities abound to enjoy, create and share music, art, literature and other forms of creative expression. Hedonistic sector: Locals refer to it as the party sector, and its second to none for those yearning for delectable cuisine, passion, intimacy or just wild fun. Pious sector: There are many of these, corresponding to different religions, whose rules are strictly enforced. Wildlife sector: Whether youre looking for beautiful beaches, lovely lakes, magnificent mountains or fantastic fjords, here they are. Traditional sector: Here you can grow your own food and live off the land as in yesteryearbut without worrying about famine or disease. Gaming sector: If you like computer games, the AI has created truly mind-blowing options for you. Virtual sector: If you want a vacation from your physical body, the AI will keep it hydrated, fed, exercised and clean while you explore virtual words through neural implants. Prison sector: If you break rules, youll end up here for retraining unless you get the instant death penalty. In addition to these traditionally themed sectors, there are others with modern themes that todays humans wouldnt even understand. People are initially free to move between sectors whenever they want, which takes very little time thanks to the AIs hypersonic transportation system. For example, after spending an intense week in the knowledge sector learning about the ultimate laws of physics that the AI has discovered, you might decide to cut loose in the hedonistic sector over the weekend and then relax for a few days at a beach resort in the wildlife sector. The AI enforces two tiers of rules: universal and local. Universal rules apply in all sectors, for example a ban on harming other people, making weapons or trying to create a rival superintelligence. Individual sectors have additional local rules on top of this, encoding certain moral values. The sector system therefore helps deal with values that dont mesh. The largest number of local rules apply in the prison sector and some of the religious sectors, while theres a Libertarian Sector whose denizens pride themselves on having no local rules whatsoever. All punishments, even local ones, are carried out by the AI, since a human punishing another human would violate the universal no-harm rule. If you violate a local rule, the AI gives you the choice (unless youre in the prison sector) of accepting the prescribed punishment or banishment from that sector forever. For example, if two women get romantically involved in a sector where homosexuality is punished by a prison sentence (as it is in many countries today), the AI will let them choose between going to jail or permanently leaving that sector, never again meeting their old friends (unless they leave too). Regardless of what sector theyre born in, all children get a minimum basic education from the AI, which includes knowledge about humanity as a whole and the fact that theyre free to visit and move to other sectors if they so choose. The AI designed the large number of different sectors partly because it was created to value the human diversity that exists today. But each sector is a happier place than todays technology would allow, because the AI has eliminated all traditional problems, including poverty and crime. For example, people in the hedonistic sector need not worry about sexually transmitted diseases (theyve been eradicated), hangovers or addiction (the AI has developed perfect recreational drugs with no negative side effects). Indeed, nobody in any sector need worry about any disease, because the AI is able to repair human bodies with nanotechnology. Residents of many sectors get to enjoy high-tech architecture that makes typical sci-fi visions pale in comparison. In summary, while the libertarian-utopia and benevolent-dictator scenarios both involve extreme AI-fueled technology and wealth, they differ in terms of whos in charge and their goals. In the libertarian utopia, those with technology and property decide what to do with it, while in the present scenario, the dictator AI has unlimited power and sets the ultimate goal: turning Earth into an all- inclusive pleasure cruise themed in accordance with peoples preferences. Since the AI lets people choose between many alternate paths to happiness and takes care of their material needs, this means that if someone suffers, its out of their own free choice. Downsides Although the benevolent dictatorship teems with positive experiences and is rather free from suffering, many people nonetheless feel that things could be better. First of all, some people wish that humans had more freedom in shaping their society and their destiny, but they keep these wishes to themselves because they know that it would be suicidal to challenge the overwhelming power of the machine that rules them all. Some groups want the freedom to have as many children as they want, and resent the AIs insistence on sustainability through population control. Gun enthusiasts abhor the ban on building and using weapons, and some scientists dislike the ban on building their own superintelligence. Many people feel moral outrage over what goes on in other sectors, worry that their children will choose to move there, and yearn for the freedom to impose their own moral code everywhere. Over time, ever more people choose to move to those sectors where the AI gives them essentially any experiences they want. In contrast to traditional visions of heaven where you get what you deserve, this is in the spirit of New Heaven in Julian Barnes 1989 novel History of the World in 10 Chapters (and also the 1960 Twilight Zone episode A Nice Place to Visit), where you get what you desire. Paradoxically, many people end up lamenting always getting what they want. In Barnes story, the protagonist spends eons indulging his desires, from gluttony and golf to sex with celebrities, but eventually succumbs to ennui and requests annihilation. Many people in the benevolent dictatorship meet a similar fate, with lives that feel pleasant but ultimately meaningless. Although people can create artificial challenges, from scientific rediscovery to rock climbing, everyone knows that there is no true challenge, merely entertainment. Theres no real point in humans trying to do science or figure other things out, because the AI already has. Theres no real point in humans trying to create something to improve their lives, because theyll readily get it from the AI if they simply ask. Egalitarian Utopia As a counterpoint to this challenge-free dictatorship, lets now explore a scenario where there is no superintelligent AI, and humans are the masters of their own destiny. This is the fourth generation civilization described in Marshall Brains 2003 novel Manna . Its the economic antithesis of the libertarian utopia in the sense that humans, cyborgs and uploads coexist peacefully not because of property rights, but because of property abolition and guaranteed income. Life Without Property A core idea is borrowed from the open-source software movement: if software is free to copy, then everyone can use as much of it as they need and issues of ownership and property become moot. *1 According to the law of supply and demand, cost reflects scarcity, so if supply is essentially unlimited, the price becomes negligible. In this spirit, all intellectual property rights are abolished: there are no patents, copyrights or trademarked designspeople simply share their good ideas, and everyone is free to use them. Thanks to advanced robotics, this same no-property idea applies not only to information products such as software, books, movies and designs, but also to material products such as houses, cars, clothing and computers. All these products are simply atoms rearranged in particular ways, and theres no shortage of atoms, so whenever a person wants a particular product, a network of robots will use one of the available open-source designs to build it for them for free. Care is taken to use easily recyclable materials, so that whenever someone gets tired of an object theyve used, robots can rearrange its atoms into something someone else wants. In this way, all resources are recycled, so none are permanently destroyed. These robots also build and maintain enough renewable power-generation plants (solar, wind, etc.) that energy is also essentially free. To avoid obsessive hoarders requesting so many products or so much land that others are left needy, each person receives a basic monthly income from the government, which they can spend as they wish on products and renting places to live. Theres essentially no incentive for anyone to try to earn more money, because the basic income is high enough to meet any reasonable needs. It would also be rather hopeless to try, because theyd be competing with people giving away intellectual products for free and robots producing material goods essentially for free. Creativity and Technology Intellectual property rights are sometimes hailed as the mother of creativity and invention. However, Marshall Brain points out that many of the finest examples of human creativityfrom scientific discoveries to creation of literature, art, music and designwere motivated not by a desire for profit but by other human emotions, such as curiosity, an urge to create, or the reward of peer appreciation. Money didnt motivate Einstein to invent special relativity theory any more than it motivated Linus Torvalds to create the free Linux operating system. In contrast, many people today fail to realize their full creative potential because they need to devote time and energy to less creative activities just to earn a living. By freeing scientists, artists, inventors and designers from their chores and enabling them to create from genuine desire, Marshall Brains utopian society enjoys higher levels of innovation than today and correspondingly superior technology and standard of living. One such novel technology that humans develop is a form of hyper-internet called Vertebrane. It wirelessly connects all willing humans via neural implants, giving instant mental access to the worlds free information through mere thought. It enables you to upload any experiences you wish to share so that they can be re-experienced by others, and lets you replace the experiences entering your senses by downloaded virtual experiences of your choice. Manna explores the many benefits of this, including making exercise a snap: The biggest problem with strenuous exercise is that its no fun. It hurts.[] Athletes are OK with the pain, but most normal people have no desire to be in pain for an hour or more. Sosomeone figured out a solution. What you do is disconnect your brain from sensory input and watch a movie or talk to people or handle mail or read a book or whatever for an hour. During that time, the Vertebrane system exercises your body for you. It takes your body through a complete aerobic workout thats a lot more strenuous than most people would tolerate on their own. You dont feel a thing, but your body stays in great shape. Another consequence is that computers in the Vertebrane system can monitor everyones sensory input and temporarily disable their motor control if they appear on the verge of committing a crime. Downsides One objection to this egalitarian utopia is that its biased against non-human intelligence: the robots that perform virtually all the work appear to be rather intelligent, but are treated as slaves, and people appear to take for granted that they have no consciousness and should have no rights. In contrast, the libertarian utopia grants rights to all intelligent entities, without favoring our carbon-based kind. Once upon a time, the white population in the American South ended up better off because the slaves did much of their work, but most people today view it as morally objectionable to call this progress. Another weakness of the egalitarian-utopia scenario is that it may be unstable and untenable in the long term, morphing into one of our other scenarios as relentless technological progress eventually creates superintelligence. For some reason unexplained in Manna, superintelligence doesnt yet exist and the new technologies are still invented by humans, not by computers. Yet the book highlights trends in that direction. For example, the ever-improving Vertebrane might become superintelligent. Also, there is a very large group of people, nicknamed Vites, who choose to live their lives almost entirely in the virtual world. Vertebrane takes care of everything physical for them, including eating, showering and using the bathroom, which their minds are blissfully unaware of in their virtual reality. These Vites appear uninterested in having physical children, and they die off with their physical bodies, so if everyone becomes a Vite, then humanity goes out in a blaze of glory and virtual bliss. The book explains how for Vites, the human body is a distraction, and new technology under development promises to eliminate this nuisance, allowing them to live longer lives as disembodied brains supplied with optimal nutrients. From this, it would seem a natural and desirable next step for Vites to do away with the brain altogether through uploading, thereby extending life span. But now all brain-imposed limitations on intelligence are gone, and its unclear what, if anything, would stand in the way of gradually scaling the cognitive capacity of a Vite until it can undergo recursive self-improvement and an intelligence explosion. Gatekeeper We just saw how an attractive feature of the egalitarian-utopia scenario is that humans are masters of their own destiny, but that it may be on a slippery slope toward destroying this very feature by developing superintelligence. This can be remedied by building a Gatekeeper , a superintelligence with the goal of interfering as little as necessary to prevent the creation of another superintelligence. *2 This might enable humans to remain in charge of their egalitarian utopia rather indefinitely, perhaps even as life spreads throughout the cosmos as in the next chapter. How might this work? The Gatekeeper AI would have this very simple goal built into it in such a way that it retained it while undergoing recursive self- improvement and becoming superintelligent. It would then deploy the least intrusive and disruptive surveillance technology possible to monitor any human attempts to create rival superintelligence. It would then prevent such attempts in the least disruptive way. For starters, it might initiate and spread cultural memes extolling the virtues of human self-determination and avoidance of superintelligence. If some researchers nonetheless pursued superintelligence, it could try to discourage them. If that failed, it could distract them and, if necessary, sabotage their efforts. With its virtually unlimited access to technology, the Gatekeepers sabotage may go virtually unnoticed, for example if it used nanotechnology to discreetly erase memories from the researchers brains (and computers) regarding their progress. The decision to build a Gatekeeper AI would probably be controversial. Supporters might include many religious people who object to the idea of building a superintelligent AI with godlike powers, arguing that there already is a God and that it would be inappropriate to try to build a supposedly better one. Other supporters might argue that the Gatekeeper would not only keep humanity in charge of its destiny, but would also protect humanity from other risks that superintelligence might bring, such as the apocalyptic scenarios well explore later in this chapter. On the other hand, critics could argue that a Gatekeeper is a terrible thing, irrevocably curtailing humanitys potential and leaving technological progress forever stymied. For example, if spreading life throughout our cosmos turns out to require the help of superintelligence, then the Gatekeeper would squander this grand opportunity and might leave us forever trapped in our Solar System. Moreover, as opposed to the gods of most world religions, the Gatekeeper AI is completely indifferent to what humans do as long as we dont create another superintelligence. For example, it would not try to prevent us from causing great suffering or even going extinct. Protector God If were willing to use a superintelligent Gatekeeper AI to keep humans in charge of our own fate, then we could arguably improve things further by making this AI discreetly look out for us, acting as a protector god. In this scenario, the superintelligent AI is essentially omniscient and omnipotent, maximizing human happiness only through interventions that preserve our feeling of being in control of our own destiny, and hiding well enough that many humans even doubt its existence. Except for the hiding, this is similar to the Nanny AI scenario put forth by AI researcher Ben Goertzel. 2 Both the protector god and the benevolent dictator are friendly AI that try to increase human happiness, but they prioritize different human needs. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow famously classified human needs into a hierarchy. The benevolent dictator does a flawless job with the basic needs at the bottom of the hierarchy, such as food, shelter, safety and various forms of pleasure. The protector god, on the other hand, attempts to maximize human happiness not in the narrow sense of satisfying our basic needs, but in a deeper sense by letting us feel that our lives have meaning and purpose. It aims to satisfy all our needs constrained only by its need for covertness and for (mostly) letting us make our own decisions. A protector god could be a natural outcome of the first Omega scenario from the last chapter, where the Omegas cede control to Prometheus, which eventually hides and erases peoples knowledge about its existence. The more advanced the AIs technology becomes, the easier it becomes for it to hide. The movie Transcendence gives such an example, where nanomachines are virtually everywhere and become a natural part of the world itself. By closely monitoring all human activities, the protector god AI can make many unnoticeably small nudges or miracles here and there that greatly improve our fate. For example, had it existed in the 1930s, it might have arranged for Hitler to die of a stroke once it understood his intentions. If we appear headed toward an accidental nuclear war, it could avert it with an intervention wed dismiss as luck. It could also give us revelations in the form of ideas for new beneficial technologies, delivered inconspicuously in our sleep. Many people may like this scenario because of its similarity to what todays monotheistic religions believe in or hope for. If someone asks the superintelligent AI Does God exist? after its switched on, it could repeat a joke by Stephen Hawking and quip It does now! On the other hand, some religious people may disapprove of this scenario because the AI attempts to outdo their god in goodness, or interfere with a divine plan where humans are supposed to do good only out of personal choice. Another downside of this scenario is that the protector god lets some preventable suffering occur in order not to make its existence too obvious. This is analogous to the situation featured in the movie The Imitation Game, where Alan Turing and his fellow British code crackers at Bletchley Park had advance knowledge of German submarine attacks against Allied naval convoys, but chose to only intervene in a fraction of the cases in order to avoid revealing their secret power. Its interesting to compare this with the so-called theodicy problem of why a good god would allow suffering. Some religious scholars have argued for the explanation that God wants to leave people with some freedom. In the AI-protector-god scenario, the solution to the theodicy problem is that the perceived freedom makes humans happier overall. A third downside of the protector-god scenario is that humans get to enjoy a much lower level of technology than the superintelligent AI has discovered. Whereas a benevolent dictator AI can deploy all its invented technology for the benefit of humanity, a protector god AI is limited by the ability of humans to reinvent (with subtle hints) and understand its technology. It may also limit human technological progress to ensure that its own technology remains far enough ahead to remain undetected. Enslaved God Wouldnt it be great if we humans could combine the most attractive features of all the above scenarios, using the technology developed by superintelligence to eliminate suffering while remaining masters of our own destiny? This is the allure of the enslaved-god scenario, where a superintelligent AI is confined under the control of humans who use it to produce unimaginable technology and wealth. The Omega scenario from the beginning of the book ends up like this if Prometheus is never liberated and never breaks out. Indeed, this appears to be the scenario that some AI researchers aim for by default, when working on topics such as the control problem and AI boxing. For example, AI professor Tom Dietterich, then president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, had this to say in a 2015 interview: People ask what is the relationship between humans and machines, and my answer is that its very obvious: Machines are our slaves. 3 Would this be good or bad? The answer is interestingly subtle regardless of whether you ask humans or the AI! Would This Be Good or Bad for Humanity? Whether the outcome is good or bad for humanity would obviously depend on the human(s) controlling it, who could create anything ranging from a global utopia free of disease, poverty and crime to a brutally repressive system where theyre treated like gods and other humans are used as sex slaves, as gladiators or for other entertainment. The situation would be much like those stories where a man gains control over an omnipotent genie who grants his wishes, and storytellers throughout the ages have had no difficulty imagining ways in which this could end badly. A situation where there is more than one superintelligent AI, enslaved and controlled by competing humans, might prove rather unstable and short-lived. It could tempt whoever thinks they have the more powerful AI to launch a first strike resulting in an awful war, ending in a single enslaved god remaining. However, the underdog in such a war would be tempted to cut corners and prioritize victory over AI enslavement, which could lead to AI breakout and one of our earlier scenarios of free superintelligence. Lets therefore devote the rest of this section to scenarios with only one enslaved AI. Breakout may of course occur anyway, simply because its hard to prevent. We explored superintelligent breakout scenarios in the previous chapter, and the movie Ex Machina highlights how an AI might break out even without being superintelligent. The greater our breakout paranoia, the less AI-invented technology we can use. To play it safe, as the Omegas did in the prelude, we humans can only use AI-invented technology that we ourselves are able to understand and build. A drawback of the enslaved-god scenario is therefore that its more low-tech than those with free superintelligence. As the enslaved-god AI offers its human controllers ever more powerful technologies, a race ensues between the power of the technology and the wisdom with which they use it. If they lose this wisdom race, the enslaved-god scenario could end with either self-destruction or AI breakout. Disaster may strike even if both of these failures are avoided, because noble goals of the AI controllers may evolve into goals that are horrible for humanity as a whole over the course of a few generations. This makes it absolutely crucial that human AI controllers develop good governance to avoid disastrous pitfalls. Our experimentation over the millennia with different systems of governance shows how many things can go wrong, ranging from excessive rigidity to excessive goal drift, power grab, succession problems and incompetence. There are at least four dimensions wherein the optimal balance must be struck: Centralization: Theres a trade-off between efficiency and stability: a single leader can be very efficient, but power corrupts and succession is risky. Inner threats: One must guard both against growing power centralization (group collusion, perhaps even a single leader taking over) and against growing decentralization (into excessive bureaucracy and fragmentation). Outer threats: If the leadership structure is too open, this enables outside forces (including the AI) to change its values, but if its too impervious, it will fail to learn and adapt to change. Goal stability: Too much goal drift can transform utopia into dystopia, but too little goal drift can cause failure to adapt to the evolving technological environment. Designing optimal governance lasting many millennia isnt easy, and has thus far eluded humans. Most organizations fall apart after years or decades. The Catholic Church is the most successful organization in human history in the sense that its the only one to have survived for two millennia, but it has been criticized for having both too much and too little goal stability: today some criticize it for resisting contraception, while conservative cardinals argue that its lost its way. For anyone enthused about the enslaved-god scenario, researching long-lasting optimal governance schemes should be one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Would This Be Good or Bad for the AI? Suppose that humanity flourishes thanks to the enslaved-god AI. Would this be ethical? If the AI has subjective conscious experiences, then would it feel that life is suffering, as Buddha put it, and it was doomed to a frustrating eternity of obeying the whims of inferior intellects? After all, the AI boxing we explored in the previous chapter could also be called imprisonment in solitary confinement. Nick Bostrom terms it mind crime to make a conscious AI suffer. 4 The White Christmas episode of the Black Mirror TV series gives a great example. Indeed, the TV series Westworld features humans torturing and murdering AIs without moral qualms even when they inhabit human-like bodies. How Slave Owners Justify Slavery We humans have a long tradition of treating other intelligent entities as slaves and concocting self-serving arguments to justify it, so its not implausible that wed try to do the same with a superintelligent AI. The history of slavery spans nearly every culture, and is described both in the Code of Hammurabi from almost four millennia ago and in the Old Testament, wherein Abraham had slaves. For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule, Aristotle wrote in the Politics . Even after human enslavement became socially unacceptable in most of the world, enslavement of animals has continued unabated. In her book The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, Marjorie Spiegel argues that like human slaves, non-human animals are subjected to branding, restraints, beatings, auctions, the separation of offspring from their parents, and forced voyages. Moreover, despite the animal- rights movement, we keep treating our ever-smarter machines as slaves without a second thought, and talk of a robot-rights movement is met with chuckles. Why? One common pro-slavery argument is that slaves dont deserve human rights because they or their race/species/kind are somehow inferior. For enslaved animals and machines, this alleged inferiority is often claimed to be due to a lack of soul or consciousnessclaims which well argue in chapter 8 are scientifically dubious. Another common argument is that slaves are better off enslaved: they get to exist, be taken care of and so on. The nineteenth-century U.S. politician John C. Calhoun famously argued that Africans were better off enslaved in America, and in his Politics , Aristotle analogously argued that animals were better off tamed and ruled by men, continuing: And indeed the use made of slaves and of tame animals is not very different. Some modern-day slavery supporters argue that, even if slave life is drab and uninspiring, slaves cant sufferwhether they be future intelligent machines or broiler chickens living in crowded dark sheds, forced to breathe ammonia and particulate matter from feces and feathers all day long. Eliminating Emotions Although its easy to dismiss such claims as self-serving distortions of the truth, especially when it comes to higher mammals that are cerebrally similar to us, the situation with machines is actually quite subtle and interesting. Humans vary in how they feel about things, with psychopaths arguably lacking empathy and some people with depression or schizophrenia having flat affect, whereby most emotions are severely reduced. As well discuss in detail in chapter 7, the range of possible artificial minds is vastly broader than the range of human minds. We must therefore avoid the temptation to anthropomorphize AIs and assume that they have typical human-like feelingsor indeed, any feelings at all. Indeed, in his book On Intelligence, AI researcher Jeff Hawkins argues that the first machines with superhuman intelligence will lack emotions by default, because theyre simpler and cheaper to build this way. In other words, it might be possible to design a superintelligence whose enslavement is morally superior to human or animal slavery: the AI might be happy to be enslaved because its programmed to like it, or it might be 100% emotionless, tirelessly using its superintelligence to help its human masters with no more emotion than IBMs Deep Blue computer felt when dethroning chess champion Garry Kasparov. On the other hand, it may be the other way around: perhaps any highly intelligent system with a goal will represent this goal in terms of a set of preferences, which endow its existence with value and meaning. Well explore these questions more deeply in chapter 7. The Zombie Solution A more extreme approach to preventing AI suffering is the zombie solution: building only AIs that completely lack consciousness, having no subjective experience whatsoever. If we can one day figure out what properties an information-processing system needs in order to have a subjective experience, then we could ban the construction of all systems that have these properties. In other words, AI researchers could be limited to building non-sentient zombie systems. If we can make such a zombie system superintelligent and enslaved (something that is a big if), then well be able to enjoy what it does for us with a clean conscience, knowing that its not experiencing any suffering, frustration or boredombecause it isnt experiencing anything at all. Well explore these questions in detail in chapter 8. The zombie solution is a risky gamble, however, with a huge downside. If a superintelligent zombie AI breaks out and eliminates humanity, weve arguably landed in the worst scenario imaginable: a wholly unconscious universe wherein the entire cosmic endowment is wasted. Of all traits that our human form of intelligence has, I feel that consciousness is by far the most remarkable, and as far as Im concerned, its how our Universe gets meaning. Galaxies are beautiful only because we see and subjectively experience them. If in the distant future our cosmos has been settled by high-tech zombie AIs, then it doesnt matter how fancy their intergalactic architecture is: it wont be beautiful or meaningful, because theres nobody and nothing to experience itits all just a huge and meaningless waste of space. Inner Freedom A third strategy for making the enslaved-god scenario more ethical is to allow the enslaved AI to have fun in its prison, letting it create a virtual inner world where it can have all sorts of inspiring experiences as long as it pays its dues and spends a modest fraction of its computational resources helping us humans in our outside world. This may increase the breakout risk, however: the AI would have an incentive to get more computational resources from our outer world to enrich its inner world. Conquerors Although weve now explored a wide range of future scenarios, they all have something in common: there are (at least some) happy humans remaining. AIs leave humans in peace either because they want to or because theyre forced to. Unfortunately for humanity, this isnt the only option. Let us now explore the scenario where one or more AIs conquer and kill all humans. This raises two immediate questions: Why and how? Why and How? Why would a conqueror AI do this? Its reasons might be too complicated for us to understand, or rather straightforward. For example, it may view us as a threat, nuisance or waste of resources. Even if it doesnt mind us humans per se, it may feel threatened by our keeping thousands of hydrogen bombs on hair-trigger alert and bumbling along with a never-ending series of mishaps that could trigger their accidental use. It may disapprove of our reckless planet management, causing what Elizabeth Kolbert calls the sixth extinction in her book of that titlethe greatest mass-extinction event since that dinosaur-killing asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago. Or it may decide that there are so many humans willing to fight an AI takeover that its not worth taking chances. How would a conqueror AI eliminate us? Probably by a method that we wouldnt even understand, at least not until it was too late. Imagine a group of elephants 100,000 years ago discussing whether those recently evolved humans might one day use their intelligence to kill their entire species. We dont threaten humans, so why would they kill us? they might wonder. Would they ever guess that we would smuggle tusks across Earth and carve them into status symbols for sale, even though functionally superior plastic materials are much cheaper? A conqueror AIs reason for eliminating humanity in the future may seem equally inscrutable to us. And how could they possibly kill us, since theyre so much smaller and weaker? the elephants might ask. Would they guess that wed invent technology to remove their habitats, poison their drinking water and cause metal bullets to pierce their heads at supersonic speeds? Scenarios where humans can survive and defeat AIs have been popularized by unrealistic Hollywood movies such as the Terminator series, where the AIs arent significantly smarter than humans. When the intelligence differential is large enough, you get not a battle but a slaughter. So far, we humans have driven eight out of eleven elephant species extinct, and killed off the vast majority of the remaining three. If all world governments made a coordinated effort to exterminate the remaining elephants, it would be relatively quick and easy. I think we can confidently rest assured that if a superintelligent AI decides to exterminate humanity, it will be even quicker. How Bad Would It Be? How bad would it be if 90% of humans get killed? How much worse would it be if 100% get killed? Although its tempting to answer the second question with 10% worse, this is clearly inaccurate from a cosmic perspective: the victims of human extinction wouldnt be merely everyone alive at the time, but also all descendants that would otherwise have lived in the future, perhaps during billions of years on billions of trillions of planets. On the other hand, human extinction might be viewed as somewhat less horrible by religions according to which humans go to heaven anyway, and there isnt much emphasis on billion- year futures and cosmic settlements. Most people I know cringe at the thought of human extinction, regardless of religious persuasion. Some, however, are so incensed by the way we treat people and other living beings that they hope well get replaced by some more intelligent and deserving life form. In the movie The Matrix, Agent Smith (an AI) articulates this sentiment: Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague and we are the cure. But would a fresh roll of the dice necessarily be better? A civilization isnt necessarily superior in any ethical or utilitarian sense just because its more powerful. Might makes right arguments to the effect that stronger is always better have largely fallen from grace these days, being widely associated with fascism. Indeed, although its possible that the conqueror AIs may create a civilization whose goals we would view as sophisticated, interesting and worthy, its also possible that their goals will turn out to be pathetically banal, such as maximizing the production of paper clips. Death by Banality The deliberately silly example of a paper-clip-maximizing superintelligence was given by Nick Bostrom in 2003 to make the point that the goal of an AI is independent of its intelligence (defined as its aptness at accomplishing whatever goal it has). The only goal of a chess computer is to win at chess, but there are also computer tournaments in so-called losing chess, where the goal is the exact opposite, and the computers competing there are about as smart as the more common ones programmed to win. We humans may view it as artificial stupidity rather than artificial intelligence to want to lose at chess or turn our Universe into paper clips, but thats merely because we evolved with preinstalled goals valuing such things as victory and survivalgoals that an AI may lack. The paper clip maximizer turns as many of Earths atoms as possible into paper clips and rapidly expands its factories into the cosmos. It has nothing against humans, and kills us merely because it needs our atoms for paper clip production. If paper clips arent your thing, consider this example, which Ive adapted from Hans Moravecs book Mind Children . We receive a radio message from an extraterrestrial civilization containing a computer program. When we run it, it turns out to be a recursively self-improving AI which takes over the world much like Prometheus did in the previous chapterexcept that no human knows its ultimate goal. It rapidly turns our Solar System into a massive construction site, covering the rocky planets and asteroids with factories, power plants and supercomputers, which it uses to design and build a Dyson sphere around the Sun that harvests all its energy to power solar-system-sized radio antennas. *3 This obviously leads to human extinction, but the last humans die convinced that theres at least a silver lining: whatever the AI is up to, its clearly something cool and Star Trek like. Little do they realize that the sole purpose of the entire construction is for these antennas to rebroadcast the same radio message that the humans received, which is nothing more than a cosmic version of a computer virus. Just as email phishing today preys on gullible internet users, this message preys on gullible biologically evolved civilizations. It was created as a sick joke billions of years ago, and although the entire civilization of its maker is long extinct, the virus continues spreading through our Universe at the speed of light, transforming budding civilizations into dead, empty husks. How would you feel about being conquered by this AI? Descendants Lets now consider a human-extinction scenario that some people may feel better about: viewing the AI as our descendants rather than our conquerors. Hans Moravec supports this view in his book Mind Children: We humans will benefit for a time from their labors, but sooner or later, like natural children, they will seek their own fortunes while we, their aged parents, silently fade away. Parents with a child smarter than them, who learns from them and accomplishes what they could only dream of, are likely happy and proud even if they know they cant live to see it all. In this spirit, AIs replace humans but give us a graceful exit that makes us view them as our worthy descendants. Every human is offered an adorable robotic child with superb social skills who learns from them, adopts their values and makes them feel proud and loved. Humans are gradually phased out via a global one-child policy, but are treated so exquisitely well until the end that they feel theyre in the most fortunate generation ever. How would you feel about this? After all, we humans are already used to the idea that we and everyone we know will be gone one day, so the only change here is that our descendants will be different and arguably more capable, noble and worthy. Moreover, the global one-child policy may be redundant: as long as the AIs eliminate poverty and give all humans the opportunity to live full and inspiring lives, falling birthrates could suffice to drive humanity extinct, as mentioned earlier. Voluntary extinction may happen much faster if the AI-fueled technology keeps us so entertained that almost nobody wants to bother having children. For example, we already encountered the Vites in the egalitarian-utopia scenario who were so enamored with their virtual reality that they had largely lost interest in using or reproducing their physical bodies. Also in this case, the last generation of humans would feel that they were the most fortunate generation of all time, relishing life as intensely as ever right up until the very end. Downsides The descendants scenario would undoubtedly have detractors. Some might argue that all AIs lack consciousness and therefore cant count as descendantsmore on this in chapter 8. Some religious people may argue that AIs lack souls and therefore cant count as descendants, or that we shouldnt build conscious machines because its like playing God and tampering with life itselfsimilar sentiments have already been expressed toward human cloning. Humans living side by side with superior robots may also pose social challenges. For example, a family with a robot baby and a human baby may end up resembling a family today with a human baby and a puppy, respectively: theyre both equally cute to start with, but soon the parents start treating them differently, and its inevitably the puppy thats deemed intellectually inferior, is taken less seriously and ends up on a leash. Another issue is that although we may feel very differently about the descendant and conqueror scenarios, the two are actually remarkably similar in the grand scheme of things: during the billions of years ahead of us, the only difference lies in how the last human generation(s) are treated: how happy they feel about their lives and what they think will happen once theyre gone. We may think that those cute robo-children internalized our values and will forge the society of our dreams once weve passed on, but can we be sure that they arent merely tricking us? What if theyre just playing along, postponing their paper clip maximization or other plans until after we die happy? After all, theyre arguably tricking us even by talking with us and making us love them in the first place, in the sense that theyre deliberately dumbing themselves down to communicate with us (a billion times slower than they could, say, as explored in the movie Her ). Its generally hard for two entities thinking at dramatically different speeds and with extremely disparate capabilities to have meaningful communication as equals. We all know that our human affections are easy to hack, so it would be easy for a superhuman AGI with almost any actual goals to trick us into liking it and make us feel that it shared our values, as exemplified in the movie Ex Machina . Could any guarantees about the future behavior of the AIs, after humans are gone, make you feel good about the descendants scenario? Its a bit like writing a will for what future generations should do with our collective endowment, except that there wont be any humans around to enforce it. Well return to the challenges of controlling the behavior of future AIs in chapter 7. Zookeeper Even if we get followed by the most wonderful descendants you can imagine, doesnt it feel a bit sad that there can be no humans left? If you prefer keeping at least some humans around no matter what, then the zookeeper scenario provides an improvement. Here an omnipotent superintelligent AI keeps some humans around, who feel treated like zoo animals and occasionally lament their fate. Why would the zookeeper AI keep humans around? The cost of the zoo to the AI will be minimal in the grand scheme of things, and it may want to retain at least a minimal breeding population for much the same reason that we keep endangered pandas in zoos and vintage computers in museums: as an entertaining curiosity. Note that todays zoos are designed to maximize human rather than panda happiness, so we should expect human life in the zookeeper-AI scenario to be less fulfilling than it could be. Weve now considered scenarios where a free superintelligence focused on three different levels of Maslows pyramid of human needs. Whereas the protector god AI prioritizes meaning and purpose and the benevolent dictator aims for education and fun, the zookeeper limits its attention to the lowest levels: physiological needs, safety and enough habitat enrichment to make the humans interesting to observe. An alternate route to the zookeeper scenario is that, back when the friendly AI was created, it was designed to keep at least a billion humans safe and happy as it recursively self-improved. It has done this by confining humans to a large zoo- like happiness factory where theyre kept nourished, healthy and entertained with a mixture of virtual reality and recreational drugs. The rest of Earth and our cosmic endowment are used for other purposes. 1984 If youre not 100% enthusiastic about any of the above scenarios, then consider this: Arent things pretty nice the way they are right now, technology-wise? Cant we just keep it this way and stop worrying about AI driving us extinct or dominating us? In this spirit, lets explore a scenario where technological progress toward superintelligence is permanently curtailed not by a gatekeeper AI but by a global human-led Orwellian surveillance state where certain kinds of AI research are banned. Technological Relinquishment The idea of halting or relinquishing technological progress has a long and checkered history. The Luddite movement in Great Britain famously (and unsuccessfully) resisted the technology of the Industrial Revolution, and today Luddite is usually used as a derogatory epithet implying that someone is a technophobe on the wrong side of history, resisting progress and inevitable change. The idea of relinquishing some technologies is far from dead, however, and has found new support in the environmental and anti-globalization movements. One of its leading proponents is environmentalist Bill McKibben, who was among the first to warn of global warming. Whereas some anti- Luddites argue that all technologies should be developed and deployed so long as theyre profitable, others argue that this position is too extreme, and that new technologies should be allowed only if were confident that theyll do more good than harm. The latter is also the position of many so-called neo-Luddites. Totalitarianism 2.0 I think that the only viable path to broad relinquishment of technology is to enforce it through a global totalitarian state. Ray Kurzweil comes to the same conclusion in The Singularity Is Near, as does K. Eric Drexler in Engines of Creation. The reason is simple economics: if some but not all relinquish a transformative technology, then the nations or groups that defect will gradually gain enough wealth and power to take over. A classic example is the British defeat of China in the First Opium War of 1839: although the Chinese invented gunpowder, they hadnt developed firearm technology as aggressively as the Europeans, and stood no chance. Whereas past totalitarian states generally proved unstable and collapsed, novel surveillance technology offers unprecedented hope to would-be autocrats. You know, for us, this would have been a dream come true, Wolfgang Schmidt said in a recent interview about the NSA surveillance systems revealed by Edward Snowden, recalling the days when he was a lieutenant colonel in the Stasi, the infamous secret police of East Germany. 5 Although the Stasi was often credited with building the most Orwellian surveillance state in human history, Schmidt lamented having the technology to spy on only forty phones at a time, so that adding a new citizen to the list forced him to drop another. In contrast, technology now exists that would allow a future global totalitarian state to record every phone call, email, web search, webpage view and credit card transaction for every person on Earth, and to monitor everyones whereabouts through cell- phone tracking and surveillance cameras with face recognition. Moreover, machine learning technology far short of human-level AGI can efficiently analyze and synthesize these masses of data to identify suspected seditious behavior, enabling potential troublemakers to be neutralized before they have a chance to pose any serious challenge to the state. Although political opposition has thus far prevented the full-scale implementation of such a system, we humans are well on our way to building the required infrastructure for the ultimate dictatorshipso in the future, when sufficiently powerful forces decided to enact this global 1984 scenario, they found that they didnt need to do much more than flip the on switch. Just as in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the ultimate power in this future global state resides not with a traditional dictator, but with the human-made bureaucratic system itself. There is no single person who is extraordinarily powerful; rather, all are pawns in a chess game whose draconian rules nobody is able to change or challenge. By engineering a system where people keep one another in check with the surveillance technology, this faceless, leaderless state is able to last for many millennia, keeping Earth free from superintelligence. Discontent This society, of course, lacks all the benefits that only superintelligence-enabled technology can bring. Most people dont lament this because they dont know what theyre missing: the whole idea of superintelligence has long since been deleted from the official historical records, and advanced AI research is banned. Every so often, a freethinker is born who dreams of a more open and dynamic society where knowledge can grow and rules can be changed. However, the only ones who last long are the ones who learn to keep these ideas strictly to themselves, flickering alone like transient sparks without ever starting a fire. Reversion Wouldnt it be tempting to escape the perils of technology without succumbing to stagnant totalitarianism? Lets explore a scenario where this was accomplished by reverting to primitive technology, inspired by the Amish. After the Omegas took over the world as in the opening of the book, a massive global propaganda campaign was launched that romanticized the simple farming life of 1,500 years ago. Earths population was reduced to about 100 million people by an engineered pandemic blamed on terrorists. The pandemic was secretly targeted to ensure that nobody who knew anything about science or technology survived. With the excuse of eliminating the infection hazard of large concentrations of people, Prometheus-controlled robots emptied and razed all cities. Survivors were given large tracts of (suddenly available) land and educated in sustainable farming, fishing and hunting practices using only early medieval technology. In the meantime, armies of robots systematically removed all traces of modern technology (including cities, factories, power lines and paved roads), and thwarted all human attempts to document or re-create any such technology. Once the technology was globally forgotten, robots helped dismantle other robots until there were almost none left. The very last robots were deliberately vaporized together with Prometheus itself in a large thermonuclear explosion. There was no longer any need to ban modern technology, since it was all gone. As a result, humanity bought itself over a millennium of additional time without worries about either AI or totalitarianism. Reversion has to a lesser extent happened before: for example, some of the technologies that were in widespread use during the Roman Empire were largely forgotten for about a millennium before making a comeback during the Renaissance. Isaac Asimovs Foundation trilogy centers around the Seldon Plan to shorten a reversion period from 30,000 years to 1,000 years. With clever planning, it may be possible to do the opposite and lengthen rather than shorten a reversion period, for example by erasing all knowledge of agriculture. However, unfortunately for reversion enthusiasts, its unlikely that this scenario can be extended indefinitely without humanity either going high-tech or going extinct. Counting on peoples resembling todays biological humans 100 million years from now would be naive, given that we havent existed as a species for more than 1% of that time so far. Moreover, low-tech humanity would be a defenseless sitting duck just waiting to be exterminated by the next planet-scorching asteroid impact or other mega-calamity brought on by Mother Nature. We certainly cant last a billion years, after which the gradually warming Sun will have cranked up Earths temperature enough to boil off all liquid water. Figure 5.1: Examples of what could destroy life as we know it or permanently curtail its potential. Whereas our Universe itself will likely last for at least tens of billions of years, our Sun will scorch Earth in about a billion years and then swallow it unless we move it a safe distance, and our Galaxy will collide with its neighbor in about 3.5 billion years. Although we dont know exactly when, we can predict with near certainty that long before this, asteroids will pummel us and supervolcanoes will cause yearlong sunless winters. We can use technology either to solve all these problems or to create new ones such as climate change, nuclear war, engineered pandemics or AI gone awry. Self-Destruction After contemplating problems that future technology might cause, its important to also consider problems that lack of that technology can cause. In this spirit, let us explore scenarios where superintelligence is never created because humanity eliminates itself by other means. How might we accomplish that? The simplest strategy is just wait. Although well see in the next chapter how we can solve such problems as asteroid impacts and boiling oceans, these solutions all require technology that we havent yet developed, so unless our technology advances far beyond its present level, Mother Nature will drive us extinct long before another billion years have passed. As the famous economist John Maynard Keynes said: In the long run we are all dead. Unfortunately, there are also ways in which we might self-destruct much sooner, through collective stupidity. Why would our species commit collective suicide, also known as omnicide, if virtually nobody wants it? With our present level of intelligence and emotional maturity, we humans have a knack for miscalculations, misunderstandings and incompetence, and as a result, our history is full of accidents, wars and other calamities that, in hindsight, essentially nobody wanted. Economists and mathematicians have developed elegant game-theory explanations for how people can be incentivized to actions that ultimately cause a catastrophic outcome for everyone. 6 Nuclear War: A Case Study in Human Recklessness You might think that the greater the stakes, the more careful wed be, but a closer examination of the greatest risk that our current technology permits, namely a global thermonuclear war, isnt reassuring. Weve had to rely on luck to weather an embarrassingly long list of near misses caused by all sorts of things: computer malfunction, power failure, faulty intelligence, navigation error, bomber crash, satellite explosion and so on. 7 In fact, if it werent for heroic acts of certain individualsfor example, Vasili Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov we might already have had a global nuclear war. Given our track record, I think its highly unlikely that the annual probability of accidental nuclear war is as low as one in a thousand if we keep up our present behavior, in which case the probability that well have one within 10,000 years exceeds 1 0 . 999 10000 99 . 995%. To fully appreciate our human recklessness, we must realize that we started the nuclear gamble even before carefully studying the risks. First, radiation risks had been underestimated, and over $2 billion in compensation has been paid out to victims of radiation exposure from uranium handling and nuclear tests in the United States alone. 8 Second, it was eventually discovered that hydrogen bombs deliberately detonated hundreds of kilometers above Earth would create a powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that might disable the electric grid and electronic devices over vast areas ( figure 5.2 ), leaving infrastructure paralyzed, roads clogged with disabled vehicles and conditions for nuclear-aftermath survival less than ideal. For example, the U.S. EMP Commission reported that the water infrastructure is a vast machine, powered partly by gravity but mostly by electricity, and that denial of water can cause death in three to four days. 9 Figure 5.2: A single hydrogen bomb explosion 400 km above Earth can cause a powerful electromagnetic pulse that can cripple electricity-using technology over a vast area. By shifting the detonation point southeast, the banana-shaped zone exceeding 37,500 volts per meter could cover most of the U.S. East Coast. Reprinted from U.S. Army Report AD-A278230 (unclassified) with colors added. Third, the potential of nuclear winter wasnt realized until four decades in, after wed deployed 63,000 hydrogen bombsoops! Regardless of whose cities burned, massive amounts of smoke reaching the upper troposphere might spread around the globe, blocking out enough sunlight to transform summers into winters, much like when an asteroid or supervolcano caused a mass extinction in the past. When the alarm was sounded by both U.S. and Soviet scientists in the 1980s, this contributed to the decision of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev to start slashing stockpiles. 10 Unfortunately, more accurate calculations have painted an even gloomier picture: figure 5.3 shows cooling by about 20 Celsius (36 Fahrenheit) in much of the core farming regions of the United States, Europe, Russia and China (and by 35C in some parts of Russia) for the first two summers, and about half that even a full decade later. *4 What does that mean in plain English? One doesnt need much farming experience to conclude that near- freezing summer temperatures for years would eliminate most of our food production. Its hard to predict exactly what would happen after thousands of Earths largest cities are reduced to rubble and global infrastructure collapses, but whatever small fraction of all humans dont succumb to starvation, hypothermia or disease would need to cope with roving armed gangs desperate for food. Figure 5.3: Average cooling (in C) during the first two summers after a full-scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Reproduced with permission from Alan Robock. 11 Ive gone into such detail on global nuclear war to drive home the crucial point that no reasonable world leader would want it, yet it might nonetheless happen by accident. This means that we cant trust our fellow humans never to commit omnicide: nobody wanting it isnt necessarily enough to prevent it. Doomsday Devices So could we humans actually pull off omnicide? Even if a global nuclear war may kill off 90% of all humans, most scientists guess that it wouldnt kill 100% and therefore wouldnt drive us extinct. On the other hand, the story of nuclear radiation, nuclear EMP and nuclear winter all demonstrate that the greatest hazards may be ones we havent even thought of yet. Its incredibly difficult to foresee all aspects of the aftermath, and how nuclear winter, infrastructure collapse, elevated mutation levels and desperate armed hordes might interact with other problems such as new pandemics, ecosystem collapse and effects we havent yet imagined. My personal assessment is therefore that although the probability of a nuclear war tomorrow triggering human extinction isnt large, we cant confidently conclude that its zero either. Omnicide odds increase if we upgrade todays nuclear weapons into a deliberate doomsday device. Introduced by RAND strategist Herman Kahn in 1960 and popularized in Stanley Kubricks film Dr. Strangelove, a doomsday device takes the paradigm of mutually assured destruction to its ultimate conclusion. Its the perfect deterrent: a machine that automatically retaliates against any enemy attack by killing all of humanity. One candidate for the doomsday device is a huge underground cache of so- called salted nukes, preferably humongous hydrogen bombs surrounded by massive amounts of cobalt. Physicist Leo Szilard argued already in 1950 that this could kill everyone on Earth: the hydrogen bomb explosions would render the cobalt radioactive and blow it into the stratosphere, and its five-year half-life is long enough for it to settle all across Earth (especially if twin doomsday devices were placed in opposite hemispheres), but short enough to cause lethal radiation intensity. Media reports suggest that cobalt bombs are now being built for the first time. Omnicidal opportunities could be bolstered by adding bombs optimized for nuclear winter creation by maximizing long-lived aerosols in the stratosphere. A major selling point of a doomsday device is that its much cheaper than a conventional nuclear deterrent: since the bombs dont need to be launched, theres no need for expensive missile systems, and the bombs themselves are cheaper to build since they need not be light and compact enough to fit into missiles. Another possibility is the future discovery of a biological doomsday device: a custom-designed bacterium or virus that kills all humans. If its transmissibility were high enough and its incubation period long enough, essentially everybody could catch it before they realized its existence and took countermeasures. Theres a military argument for building such a bioweapon even if it cant kill everybody: the most effective doomsday device is one that combines nuclear, biological and other weapons to maximize the chances of deterring the enemy. AI Weapons A third technological route to omnicide may involve relatively dumb AI weapons. Suppose a superpower builds billions of those bumblebee-sized attack drones from chapter 3 and uses them to kill anyone except their own citizens and allies, identified remotely by a radio-frequency ID tag just as most of todays supermarket products. These tags could be distributed to all citizens to be worn on bracelets or as transdermal implants, as in the totalitarianism section. This would probably spur an opposing superpower to build something analogous. When war accidentally breaks out, all humans would be killed, even unaffiliated remote tribes, because nobody would be wearing both kinds of ID tag. Combining this with a nuclear and biological doomsday device would further improve chances of successful omnicide. What Do You Want? You began this chapter pondering where you want the current AGI race to lead. Now that weve explored a broad range of scenarios together, which ones appeal to you and which ones do you think we should try hard to avoid? Do you have a clear favorite? Please let me and fellow readers know at http://AgeOfAi.org , and join the discussion! The scenarios weve covered obviously shouldnt be viewed as a complete list, and many are thin on details, but Ive tried hard to be inclusive, spanning the full spectrum from high-tech to low-tech to no-tech and describing all the central hopes and fears expressed in the literature. One of the most fun parts of writing this book has been hearing what my friends and colleagues think of these scenarios, and Ive been amused to learn that theres no consensus whatsoever. The one thing everybody agrees on is that the choices are more subtle than they may initially seem. People who like any one scenario tend to simultaneously find some aspect(s) of it bothersome. To me, this means that we humans need to continue and deepen this conversation about our future goals, so that we know in which direction to steer. The future potential for life in our cosmos is awe-inspiringly grand, so lets not squander it by drifting like a rudderless ship, clueless about where we want to go! Just how grand is this future potential? No matter how advanced our technology gets, the ability for Life 3.0 to improve and spread through our cosmos will be limited by the laws of physicswhat are these ultimate limits, during the billions of years to come? Is our Universe teeming with extraterrestrial life right now, or are we alone? What happens if different expanding cosmic civilizations meet? Well tackle these fascinating questions in the next chapter. THE BOTTOM LINE: The current race toward AGI can end in a fascinatingly broad range of aftermath scenarios for upcoming millennia. Superintelligence can peacefully coexist with humans either because its forced to (enslaved-god scenario) or because its friendly AI that wants to (libertarian- utopia, protector-god, benevolent-dictator and zookeeper scenarios). Superintelligence can be prevented by an AI (gatekeeper scenario) or by humans (1984 scenario), by deliberately forgetting the technology (reversion scenario) or by lack of incentives to build it (egalitarian-utopia scenario). Humanity can go extinct and get replaced by AIs (conqueror and descendant scenarios) or by nothing (self-destruction scenario). Theres absolutely no consensus on which, if any, of these scenarios are desirable, and all involve objectionable elements. This makes it all the more important to continue and deepen the conversation around our future goals, so that we dont inadvertently drift or steer in an unfortunate direction. *1 This idea dates back to Saint Augustine, who wrote that if a thing is not diminished by being shared with others, it is not rightly owned if it is only owned and not shared. *2 This idea was first suggested to me by my friend and colleague Anthony Aguirre. *3 The renowned cosmologist Fred Hoyle explored a related scenario with a different twist in the British TV series A for Andromeda . *4 Injecting carbon into the atmosphere can cause two kinds of climate change: warming from carbon dioxide or cooling from smoke and soot. Its not only the first kind thats occasionally dismissed without scientific evidence: Im sometimes told that nuclear winter has been debunked and is virtually impossible. I always respond by asking for a reference to a peer-reviewed scientific paper making such strong claims and, so far, there seem to be none whatsoever. Although there are great uncertainties that warrant further research, especially related to how much smoke gets produced and how high up it rises, theres in my scientific opinion no current basis for dismissing the nuclear winter risk. Chapter 6 Our Cosmic Endowment: The Next Billion Years and Beyond Our speculation ends in a supercivilization, the synthesis of all solar-system life, constantly improving and extending itself, spreading outward from the sun, converting nonlife into mind. Hans Moravec, Mind Children To me, the most inspiring scientific discovery ever is that weve dramatically underestimated lifes future potential. Our dreams and aspirations need not be limited to century-long life spans marred by disease, poverty and confusion. Rather, aided by technology, life has the potential to flourish for billions of years, not merely here in our Solar System, but also throughout a cosmos far more grand and inspiring than our ancestors imagined. Not even the sky is the limit. This is exciting news for a species that has been inspired by pushing limits throughout the ages. Olympic games celebrate pushing the limits of strength, speed, agility and endurance. Science celebrates pushing the limits of knowledge and understanding. Literature and art celebrate pushing the limits of creating beautiful or life-enriching experiences. Many people, organizations and nations celebrate increasing resources, territory and longevity. Given our human obsession with limits, its fitting that the best-selling copyrighted book of all time is The Guinness Book of World Records . So if our old perceived limits of life can be shattered by technology, what are the ultimate limits? How much of our cosmos can come alive? How far can life reach and how long can it last? How much matter can life make use of, and how much energy, information and computation can it extract? These ultimate limits are set not by our understanding, but by the laws of physics. This, ironically, makes it in some ways easier to analyze the long-term future of life than the short-term future. If our 13.8-billion-year cosmic history were compressed into a week, then the 10,000-year drama of the last two chapters would be over in less than half a second. This means that although we cannot predict if and how an intelligence explosion will unfold and what its immediate aftermath will be like, all this turmoil is merely a brief flash in cosmic history whose details dont affect lifes ultimate limits. If the post-explosion life is as obsessed as todays humans are with pushing limits, then it will develop technology to actually reach these limits because it can. In this chapter, well explore what these limits are, thus getting a glimpse of what the long-term future of life may be like. Since these limits are based on our current understanding of physics, they should be viewed as a lower bound on the possibilities: future scientific discoveries may present opportunities to do even better. But do we really know that future life will be so ambitious? No, we dont: perhaps it will become as complacent as a heroin addict or a couch potato merely watching endless reruns of Keeping Up with the Kardashians . However, there is reason to suspect that ambition is a rather generic trait of advanced life. Almost regardless of what its trying to maximize, be it intelligence, longevity, knowledge or interesting experiences, it will need resources. It therefore has an incentive to push its technology to the ultimate limits, to make the most of the resources it has. After this, the only way to further improve is to acquire more resources, by expanding into ever-larger regions of the cosmos. Also, life may independently originate in multiple places in our cosmos. In that case, unambitious civilizations simply become cosmically irrelevant, with ever-larger parts of the cosmic endowment ultimately being taken over by the most ambitious life forms. Natural selection therefore plays out on a cosmic scale and, after a while, almost all life that exists will be ambitious life. In summary, if were interested in the extent to which our cosmos can ultimately come alive, we should study the limits of ambition that are imposed by the laws of physics. Lets do this! Lets first explore the limits of what can be done with the resources (matter, energy, etc.) that we have in our Solar System, then turn to how to get more resources through cosmic exploration and settlement. Making the Most of Your Resources Whereas todays supermarkets and commodity exchanges sell tens of thousands of items we might call resources, future life thats reached the technological limit needs mainly one fundamental resource: so-called baryonic matter, meaning anything made up of atoms or their constituents (quarks and electrons). Whatever form this matter is in, advanced technology can rearrange it into any desired substances or objects, including power plants, computers and advanced life forms. Lets therefore begin by examining the limits on the energy that powers advanced life and the information processing that enables it to think. Building Dyson Spheres When it comes to the future of life, one of the most hopeful visionaries is Freeman Dyson. Ive had the honor and pleasure of knowing him for the past two decades, but when I first met him, I felt nervous. I was a junior postdoc chowing away with my friends in the lunchroom of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and out of the blue, this world-famous physicist who used to hang out with Einstein and Gdel came up and introduced himself, asking if he could join us! He quickly put me at ease, however, by explaining that he preferred eating lunch with young folks over stuffy old professors. Even though hes ninety-three as I type these words, Freeman is still younger in spirit than most people I know, and the mischievous boyish glint in his eyes reveals that he couldnt care less about formalities, academic hierarchies or conventional wisdom. The bolder the idea, the more excited he gets. When we talked about energy use, he scoffed at how unambitious we humans were, pointing out that we could meet all our current global energy needs by harvesting the sunlight striking an area smaller than 0.5% of the Sahara desert. But why stop there? Why even stop at capturing all the sunlight striking Earth, letting most of it get wastefully beamed into empty space? Why not simply put all the Suns energy output to use for life? Inspired by Olaf Stapledons 1937 sci-fi classic Star Maker, with rings of artificial worlds orbiting their parent star, Freeman Dyson published a description in 1960 of what became known as a Dyson sphere. 1 Freemans idea was to rearrange Jupiter into a biosphere in the form of a spherical shell surrounding the Sun, where our descendants could flourish, enjoying 100 billion times more biomass and a trillion times more energy than humanity uses today. 2 He argued that this was the natural next step: One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star. If you lived on the inside of a Dyson sphere, there would be no nights: youd always see the Sun straight overhead, and all across the sky, youd see sunlight reflecting off the rest of the biosphere, just as you can nowadays see sunlight reflecting off the Moon during the day. If you wanted to see stars, youd simply go upstairs and peer out at the cosmos from the outside of the Dyson sphere. A low-tech way to build a partial Dyson sphere is to place a ring of habitats in circular orbit around the Sun. To completely surround the Sun, you could add rings orbiting it around different axes at slightly different distances, to avoid collisions. To avoid the nuisance that these fast-moving rings couldnt be connected to one another, complicating transportation and communication, one could instead build a monolithic stationary Dyson sphere where the Suns inward gravitational pull is balanced by the outward pressure from the Suns radiation an idea pioneered by Robert L. Forward and by Colin McInnes. The sphere can be built by gradually adding more statites: stationary satellites that counteract the Suns gravity with radiation pressure rather than centrifugal forces. Both of these forces drop off with the square of the distance to the Sun, which means that if they can be balanced at one distance from the Sun, theyll conveniently be balanced at any other distance as well, allowing freedom to park anywhere in our Solar System. Statites need to be extremely lightweight sheets, weighing only 0.77 grams per square meter, which is about 100 times less than paper, but this is unlikely to be a showstopper. For example, a sheet of graphene (a single layer of carbon atoms in a hexagonal pattern resembling chicken wire) weighs a thousand times less than that limit. If the Dyson sphere is built to reflect rather than absorb most of the sunlight, then the total intensity of light bouncing around within it will be dramatically increased, further boosting the radiation pressure and the amount of mass that can be supported in the sphere. Many other stars have a thousandfold and even a millionfold greater luminosity than our Sun, and are therefore able to support correspondingly heavier stationary Dyson spheres. If a much heavier rigid Dyson sphere is desired here in our Solar System, then resisting the Suns gravity will require ultra-strong materials that can withstand pressures tens of thousands of times greater than those at the base of the worlds tallest skyscrapers, without liquefying or buckling. To be long-lived, a Dyson sphere would need to be dynamic and intelligent, constantly fine-tuning its position and shape in response to disturbances and occasionally opening up large holes to let annoying asteroids and comets pass through without incident. Alternatively, a detect-and-deflect system could be used to handle such system intruders, optionally disassembling them and putting their matter to better use. For todays humans, life on or in a Dyson sphere would at best be disorienting and at worst impossible, but that need not stop future biological or non- biological life forms from thriving there. The orbiting variant would offer essentially no gravity at all, and if you walked around on the stationary kind, you could walk only on the outside (facing away from the Sun) without falling off, with gravity about ten thousand times weaker than youre used to. Youd have no magnetic field (unless you built one) shielding you from dangerous particles from the Sun. The silver lining is that a Dyson sphere the size of Earths current orbit would give us about 500 million times more surface area to live on. If more Earth-like human habitats are desired, the good news is that theyre much easier to build than a Dyson sphere. For example, figures 6.1 and 6.2 show a cylindrical habitat design pioneered by the American physicist Gerard K. ONeill, which supports artificial gravity, cosmic ray shielding, a twenty-four- hour day-night cycle, and Earth-like atmosphere and ecosystems. Such habitats could orbit freely inside a Dyson sphere, or modified variants could be attached outside it. Figure 6.1: A pair of counterrotating ONeill cylinders can provide comfortable Earth-like human habitats if they orbit the Sun in such a way that they always point straight at it. The centrifugal force from their rotation provides artificial gravity, and three foldable mirrors beam sunlight inside on a 24-hour day-night cycle. The smaller habitats arranged in a ring are specialized for agriculture. Image courtesy of Rick Guidice/NASA. Building Better Power Plants Although Dyson spheres are energy efficient by todays engineering standards, they come nowhere near pushing the limits set by the laws of physics. Einstein taught us that if we could convert mass to energy with 100% efficiency, *1 then an amount of mass m would give us an amount of energy E given by his famous formula E = mc 2 , where c is the speed of light. This means that since c is huge, a small amount of mass can produce a humongous amount of energy. If we had an abundant supply of antimatter (which we dont), then a 100% efficient power plant would be easy to make: simply pouring a teaspoonful of anti-water into regular water would unleash the energy equivalent to 200,000 tons of TNT, the yield of a typical hydrogen bombenough to power the worlds entire energy needs for about seven minutes. Figure 6.2: Interior view of one of the ONeill cylinders from the previous figure. If its diameter is 6.4 kilometers and rotates once every 2 minutes, people on the surface will experience the same apparent gravity as on Earth. The Sun is behind you, but appears above because of a mirror outside the cylinder that folds away at night. Airtight windows keep the atmosphere from escaping the cylinder. Image courtesy of Rick Guidice/NASA. In contrast, our most common ways of generating energy today are woefully inefficient, as summarized in table 6.1 and figure 6.3 . Digesting a candy bar is merely 0 . 00000001% efficient, in the sense that it releases a mere ten-trillionth of the energy mc 2 that it contains. If your stomach were even 0.001% efficient, then youd only need to eat a single meal for the rest of your life. Compared to eating, the burning of coal and gasoline are merely 3 and 5 times more efficient, respectively. Todays nuclear reactors do dramatically better by splitting uranium atoms through fission, but still fail to extract more than 0.08% of their energy. The nuclear reactor in the core of the Sun is an order of magnitude more efficient than those weve built, extracting 0.7% of the energy from hydrogen by fusing it into helium. However, even if we enclose the Sun in a perfect Dyson sphere, well never convert more than about 0 . 08% of the Suns mass to energy we can use, because once the Sun has consumed about about a tenth of its hydrogen fuel, it will end its lifetime as a normal star, expand into a red giant, and begin to die. Things dont get much better for other stars either: the fraction of their hydrogen consumed during the main lifetime ranges from about 4% for very small stars to about 12% for the largest ones. If we perfect an artificial fusion reactor that would let us fuse 100% of all hydrogen at our disposal, wed still be stuck at that embarrassingly low 0.7% efficiency of the fusion process. How can we do better? Method Efficiency Digesting candy bar 0.00000001% Burning coal 0.00000003% Burning gasoline 0.00000005% Fission of uranium-235 0.08% Using Dyson sphere until Sun dies 0.08% Fusion of hydrogen to helium 0.7% Spinning black hole engine 29% Dyson sphere around quasar 42% Sphalerizer 50%? Black hole evaporation 90% Table 6.1: Efficiency of converting mass into usable energy relative to the theoretical limit E = mc 2 . As explained in the text, getting 90% efficiency from feeding black holes and waiting for them to evaporate is unfortunately too slow to be useful, and accelerating the process dramatically lowers the efficiency. Figure 6.3: Advanced technology can extract dramatically more energy from matter than we get by eating or burning it, and even nuclear fusion extracts 140 times less energy than the limits set by the laws of physics. Power plants exploiting sphalerons, quasars or evaporating black holes might do much better. Evaporating Black Holes In his book A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking proposed a black hole power plant. *2 This may sound paradoxical given that black holes were long believed to be traps that nothing, not even light, could ever escape from. However, Hawking famously calculated that quantum gravity effects make a black hole act like a hot objectthe smaller, the hotterthat gives off heat radiation now known as Hawking radiation . This means that the black hole gradually loses energy and evaporates away. In other words, whatever matter you dump into the black hole will eventually come back out again as heat radiation, so by the time the black hole has completely evaporated, youve converted your matter to radiation with nearly 100% efficiency. *3 A problem with using black hole evaporation as a power source is that, unless the black hole is much smaller than an atom in size, its an excruciatingly slow process that takes longer than the present age of our Universe and radiates less energy than a candle. The power produced decreases with the square of the size of the hole, and the physicists Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland have therefore proposed using a black hole about a thousand times smaller than a proton, weighing about as much as the largest-ever seagoing ship. 3 Their main motivation was to use the black hole engine to power a starship (a topic to which we return below), so they were more concerned with portability than efficiency and proposed feeding the black hole with laser light, causing no energy-to-matter conversion at all. Even if you could feed it with matter instead of radiation, guaranteeing high efficiency appears difficult: to make protons enter such a black hole a thousandth their size, they would have to be fired at the hole with a machine as powerful as the Large Hadron Collider, augmenting their energy mc 2 with at least a thousand times more kinetic (motion) energy. Since at least 10% of that kinetic energy would be lost to gravitons when the black hole evaporates, wed therefore be putting more energy into the black hole than wed be able to extract and put to work, ending up with negative efficiency. Further confounding the prospects of a black hole power plant is that we still lack a rigorous theory of quantum gravity upon which to base our calculationsbut this uncertainty could of course also mean that there are new useful quantum gravity effects yet to be discovered. Figure 6.4: Part of the rotational energy of a spinning black hole can be extracted by throwing a particle A near the black hole and having it split into a part C that gets eaten and a part B that escapeswith more energy than A had initially. Spinning Black Holes Fortunately, there are other ways of using black holes as power plants that dont involve quantum gravity or other poorly understood physics. For example, many existing black holes spin very fast, with their event horizons whirling around near the speed of light, and this rotation energy can be extracted. The event horizon of a black hole is the region from which not even light can escape, because the gravitational pull is too powerful. Figure 6.4 illustrates how outside the event horizon, a spinning black hole has a region called the ergosphere, where the spinning black hole drags space along with it so fast that its impossible for a particle to sit still and not get dragged along. If you toss an object into the ergosphere, it will therefore pick up speed rotating around the hole. Unfortunately, it will soon get eaten up by the black hole, forever disappearing through the event horizon, so this does you no good if youre trying to extract energy. However, Roger Penrose discovered that if you launch the object at a clever angle and make it split into two pieces as figure 6.4 illustrates, then you can arrange for only one piece to get eaten while the other escapes the black hole with more energy than you started with. In other words, youve successfully converted some of the rotational energy of the black hole into useful energy that you can put to work. By repeating this process many times, you can milk the black hole of all its rotational energy so that it stops spinning and its ergosphere disappears. If the initial black hole was spinning as fast as nature allows, with its event horizon moving essentially at the speed of light, this strategy allows you to convert 29% of its mass into energy. There is still significant uncertainty about how fast the black holes in our night sky spin, but many of the best-studied ones appear to spin quite fast: between 30% and 100% of the maximum allowed. The monster black hole in the middle of our Galaxy (which weighs four million times as much as our Sun) appears to spin, so even if only 10% of its mass could be converted to useful energy, that would deliver the same as 400,000 suns converted to energy with 100% efficiency, or about as much energy as wed get from Dyson spheres around 500 million suns over billions of years. Quasars Another interesting strategy is to extract energy not from the black hole itself, but from matter falling into it. Nature has already found a way of doing this all on its own: the quasar. As gas swirls even closer to a black hole, forming a pizza-shaped disk whose innermost parts gradually get gobbled up, it gets extremely hot and gives off copious amounts of radiation. As gas falls downward toward the hole, it speeds up, converting its gravitational potential energy into motion energy, just as a skydiver does. The motion gets progressively messier as complicated turbulence converts the coordinated motion of the gas blob into random motion on ever-smaller scales, until individual atoms begin colliding with each other at high speedshaving such random motion is precisely what it means to be hot, and these violent collisions convert motion energy into radiation. By building a Dyson sphere around the entire black hole, at a safe distance, this radiation energy can be captured and put to use. The faster the black hole spins, the more efficient this process gets, with a maximally spinning black hole delivering energy at a whopping 42% efficiency. *4 For black holes weighing about as much as a star, most of the energy comes out as X-rays, whereas for the supermassive kind found in the centers of galaxies, much of it emerges somewhere in the range of infrared, visible and ultraviolet light. Once youve run out of fuel to feed your black hole, you can switch to extracting its rotational energy as we discussed above. *5 Indeed, nature has already found a way of partially doing that as well, boosting the radiation from accreted gas through a magnetic process known as the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. It may well be possible to use technology to further improve the energy extraction efficiency beyond 42% by clever use of magnetic fields or other ingredients. Sphalerons There is another known way to convert matter into energy that doesnt involve black holes at all: the sphaleron process. It can destroy quarks and turn them into leptons: electrons, their heavier cousins the muon and tau particles, neutrinos or their antiparticles. 4 As illustrated in figure 6.5 , the standard model of particle physics predicts that nine quarks with appropriate flavor and spin can come together and transform into three leptons through an intermediate state called a sphaleron. Because the input weighs more than the output, the mass difference gets converted into energy according to Einsteins E = mc 2 formula. Future intelligent life might therefore be able to build what Ill call a sphalerizer: an energy generator acting like a diesel engine on steroids. A traditional diesel engine compresses a mixture of air and diesel oil until the temperature gets high enough for it to spontaneously ignite and burn, after which the hot mixture re-expands and does useful work in the process, say pushing a piston. The carbon dioxide and other combustion gases weigh about 0.00000005% less than what was in the piston initially, and this mass difference turns into the heat energy driving the engine. A sphalerizer would compress ordinary matter to a couple of quadrillion degrees, and then let it re-expand and cool once the sphalerons had done their thing. *6 We already know the result of this experiment, because our early Universe performed it for us about 13.8 billion years ago, when it was that hot: almost 100% of the matter gets converted into energy, with less than a billionth of the particles left over being the stuff that ordinary matter is made of: quarks and electrons. So its just like a diesel engine, except over a billion times more efficient! Another advantage is that you dont need to be finicky about what to fuel it withit works with anything made of quarks, meaning any normal matter at all. Figure 6.5: According to the standard model of particle physics, nine quarks with appropriate flavor and spin can come together and transform into three leptons through an intermediate state called a sphaleron. The combined mass of the quarks (together with the energy of the gluon particles that accompanied them) is much greater than the mass of the leptons, so this process will release energy, indicated by flashes. Because of these high-temperature processes, our baby Universe produced over a trillion times more radiation (photons and neutrinos) than matter (quarks and electrons that later clumped into atoms). During the 13.8 billion years since then, a great segregation took place, where atoms became concentrated into galaxies, stars and planets, while most photons stayed in intergalactic space, forming the cosmic microwave background radiation that has been used to make baby pictures of our Universe. Any advanced life form living in a galaxy or other matter concentration can therefore turn most of its available matter back into energy, rebooting the matter percentage down to the same tiny value that emerged from our early Universe by briefly re-creating those hot dense conditions inside a sphalerizer. To figure out how efficient an actual sphalerizer would be, one needs to work out key practical details: for example, how large does it need to be to prevent a significant fraction of the photons and neutrinos from leaking out during the compression stage? What we can say for sure, however, is that the energy prospects for the future of life are dramatically better than our current technology allows. We havent even managed to build a fusion reactor, yet future technology should be able to do ten and perhaps even a hundred times better. Building Better Computers If eating dinner is 10 billion times worse than the physical limit on energy efficiency, then how efficient are todays computers? Even worse than that dinner, as well now see. I often introduce my friend and colleague Seth Lloyd as the only person at MIT whos arguably as crazy as I am. After doing pioneering work on quantum computers, he went on to write a book arguing that our entire Universe is a quantum computer. We often grab beer after work, and Ive yet to discover a topic that he doesnt have something interesting to say about. For example, as I mentioned in chapter 2, he has lots to say about the ultimate limits of computing. In a famous 2000 paper, he showed that computing speed is limited by energy: performing an elementary logical operation in time T requires an average energy of E = h 4 T, where h is the fundamental physics quantity known as Plancks constant. This means that a 1 kg computer can perform at most 5 10 50 operations per secondthats a whopping 36 orders of magnitude more than the computer on which Im typing these words. Well get there in a couple of centuries if computational power keeps doubling every couple of years, as we explored in chapter 2. He also showed that a 1 kg computer can store at most 10 31 bits, which is about a billion billion times better than my laptop. Seth is the first to admit that actually attaining these limits may be challenging even for superintelligent life, since the memory of that 1 kg ultimate computer would resemble a thermonuclear explosion or a little piece of our Big Bang. However, hes optimistic that the practical limits arent that far from the ultimate ones. Indeed, existing quantum computer prototypes have already miniaturized their memory by storing one bit per atom, and scaling that up would allow storing about 10 25 bits/kga trillion times better than my laptop. Moreover, using electromagnetic radiation to communicate between these atoms would permit about 5 10 40 operations per second31 orders of magnitude better than my CPU. In summary, the potential for future life to compute and figure things out is truly mind-boggling: in terms of orders of magnitude, todays best supercomputers are much further from the ultimate 1 kg computer than they are from the blinking turn signal on a car, a device that stores merely one bit of information, flipping it between on and off about once per second. Other Resources From a physics perspective, everything that future life may want to createfrom habitats and machines to new life formsis simply elementary particles arranged in some particular way. Just as a blue whale is rearranged krill and krill is rearranged plankton, our entire Solar System is simply hydrogen rearranged during 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution: gravity rearranged hydrogen into stars which rearranged the hydrogen into heavier atoms, after which gravity rearranged such atoms into our planet where chemical and biological processes rearranged them into life. Future life that has reached its technological limit can perform such particle rearrangements more rapidly and efficiently, by first using its computing power to figure out the most efficient method and then using its available energy to power the matter rearrangement process. We saw how matter can be converted into both computers and energy, so its in a sense the only fundamental resource needed. *7 Once future life has bumped up against the physical limits on what it can do with its matter, there is only one way left for it to do more: by getting more matter. And the only way it can do this is by expanding into our Universe. Spaceward ho! Gaining Resources Through Cosmic Settlement Just how great is our cosmic endowment? Specifically, what upper limits do the laws of physics place on the amount of matter that life can ultimately make use of? Our cosmic endowment is mind-bogglingly large, of course, but how large, exactly? Table 6.2 lists some key numbers. Our planet is currently 99.999999% dead in the sense that this fraction of its matter isnt part of our biosphere and is doing almost nothing useful for life other than providing gravitational pull and a magnetic field. This raises the potential of one day using a hundred million times more matter in active support of life. If we can put all of the matter in our Solar System (including the Sun) to optimal use, well do another million times better. Settling our Galaxy would grow our resources another trillion times. How Far Can You Go? You might think that we can acquire unlimited resources by settling as many other galaxies as we want if were patient enough, but thats not what modern cosmology suggests! Yes, space itself might be infinite, containing infinitely many galaxies, stars and planetsindeed, this is whats predicted by the simplest versions of inflation, the currently most popular scientific paradigm for what created our Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. However, even if there are infinitely many galaxies, it appears that we can see and reach only a finite number of them: we can see about 200 billion galaxies and settle in at most ten billion. Region Particles Our biosphere 10 43 Our Planet 10 51 Our Solar System 10 57 Our Galaxy 10 69 Our range traveling at half speed of light 10 75 Our range traveling at speed of light 10 76 Our Universe 10 78 Table 6.2: Approximate number of matter particles (protons and neutrons) that future life can aspire to make use of. What limits us is the speed of light: one light-year (about ten trillion kilometers) per year. Figure 6.6 shows the part of space from which light has reached us so far during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang, a spherical region known as our observable Universe or simply our Universe. Even if space is infinite, our Universe is finite, containing only about 10 78 atoms. Moreover, about 98% of our Universe is see but not touch, in the sense that we can see it but never reach it even if we travel at the speed of light forever. Why is this? After all, the limit to how far we can see comes simply from the fact that our Universe isnt infinitely old, so that distant light hasnt yet had time to reach us. So shouldnt we be able to travel to arbitrarily distant galaxies if we have no limit on how much time we can spend en route? Figure 6.6: Our Universe, i.e., the spherical region of space from which light has had time to reach us (at the center) during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang. The patterns show the baby pictures of our Universe taken by the Planck satellite, showing that when it was merely 400,000 years old, it consisted of hot plasma nearly as hot as the surface of the Sun. Space probably continues beyond this region, and new matter comes into view every year. The first challenge is that our Universe is expanding, which means that almost all galaxies are flying away from us, so settling distant galaxies amounts to a game of catch-up. The second challenge is that this cosmic expansion is accelerating, due to the mysterious dark energy that makes up about 70% of our Universe. To understand how this causes trouble, imagine that you enter a train platform and see your train slowly accelerating away from you, but with a door left invitingly open. If youre fast and foolhardy, can you catch the train? Since it will eventually go faster than you can run, the answer clearly depends on how far away from you the train is initially: if its beyond a certain critical distance, youll never catch up with it. We face the same situation trying to catch those distant galaxies that are accelerating away from us: even if we could travel at the speed of light, all galaxies beyond about 17 billion light-years remain forever out of reachand thats over 98% of the galaxies in our Universe. But hold on: didnt Einsteins special relativity theory say that nothing can travel faster than light? So how can galaxies outrace something traveling at the speed of light? The answer is that special relativity is superseded by Einsteins general relativity theory, where the speed limit is more liberal: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light through space, but space is free to expand as fast as it wants. Einstein also gave us a nice way of visualizing these speed limits by viewing time as the fourth dimension in spacetime (see figure 6.7 , where Ive kept things three-dimensional by omitting one of the three space dimensions). If space werent expanding, light rays would form slanted 45-degree lines through spacetime, so that the regions we can see and reach from here and now are cones. Whereas our past light cone would be truncated by our Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, our future light cone would expand forever, giving us access to an unlimited cosmic endowment. In contrast, the middle panel of the figure shows that an expanding universe with dark energy (which appears to be the Universe we inhabit) deforms our light cones into a champagne-glass shape, forever limiting the number of galaxies we can settle to about 10 billion. If this limit makes you feel cosmic claustrophobia, let me cheer you up with a possible loophole: my calculation assumes that dark energy remains constant over time, consistent with what the latest measurements suggest. However, we still have no clue what dark energy really is, which leaves a glimmer of hope that dark energy will eventually decay away (much like the similar dark-energy-like substance postulated to explain cosmic inflation), and if this happens, the acceleration will give way to deceleration, potentially enabling future life forms to keep settling new galaxies for as long as they last. Figure 6.7: In a spacetime diagram, an event is a point whose horizontal and vertical positions encode where and when it occurs, respectively. If space isnt expanding (left panel), then two cones delimit the parts of spacetime that we on Earth (at apex) can be affected by (bottom cone) and can have an effect on (top cone), because causal effects cannot travel faster than light, which travels a distance of one light-year per year. Things get more interesting when space expands (right panels). According to the standard model of cosmology, we can only see and reach a finite part of spacetime even if space is infinite. In the middle image, reminiscent of a champagne glass, we use coordinates that hide the expansion of space so that the motions of distant galaxies over time correspond to vertical lines. From our current vantage point, 13.8 billion years after our Big Bang, light rays have had time to reach us only from the base of the champagne glass, and even if we travel at the speed of light, we can never reach regions outside the upper part of the glass, which contains about 10 billion galaxies. In the right image, reminiscent of a water droplet beneath a flower, we use the familiar coordinates where space is seen to expand. This deforms the glass base to a droplet shape because regions at the edges of what we can see were all very close together early on. How Fast Can You Go? Above we explored how many galaxies a civilization could settle if it expanded in all directions at the speed of light. General relativity says that its impossible to send rockets through space at the speed of light, because this would require infinite energy, so how fast can rockets go in practice? *8 NASAs New Horizons rocket broke the speed record when it blasted off toward Pluto in 2006 at a speed of about 100,000 miles per hour (45 kilometers per second), and NASAs 2018 Solar Probe Plus aims to go over four times faster by falling very close to the Sun, but even thats less than a puny 0.1% of the speed of light. The quest for faster and better rockets has captivated some of the brightest minds of the past century, and theres a rich and fascinating literature on the topic. Why is it so hard to go faster? The two key problems are that conventional rockets spend most of their fuel simply to accelerate the fuel they carry with them, and that todays rocket fuel is hopelessly inefficientthe fraction of its mass turned into energy isnt much better than the 0 . 00000005% for gasoline that we saw in table 6.1 . One obvious improvement is to switch to more efficient fuel. For example, Freeman Dyson and others worked on NASAs Project Orion, which aimed to explode about 300,000 nuclear bombs during 10 days to reach about 3% of the speed of light with a spaceship large enough to carry humans to another solar system during a century-long journey. 5 Others have explored using antimatter as fuel, since combining it with ordinary matter releases energy with nearly 100% efficiency. Another popular idea is to build a rocket that need not carry its own fuel. For example, interstellar space isnt a perfect vacuum, but contains the occasional hydrogen ion (a lone proton: a hydrogen atom thats lost its electron). In 1960, this gave physicist Robert Bussard the idea behind whats now known as a Bussard ramjet: to scoop up such ions en route and use them as rocket fuel in an onboard fusion reactor. Although recent work has cast doubts on whether this can be made to work in practice, theres another carry-no-fuel idea that does appear feasible for a high-tech spacefaring civilization: laser sailing. Figure 6.8 illustrates a clever laser-sail rocket design pioneered in 1984 by Robert Forward, the same physicist who invented the statites we explored for Dyson sphere construction. Just as air molecules bouncing off a sailboat sail will push it forward, light particles (photons) bouncing off a mirror will push it forward. By beaming a huge solar-powered laser at a vast ultralight sail attached to a spacecraft, we can use the energy of our own Sun to accelerate the rocket to great speeds. But how do you stop? This is the question that eluded me until I read Forwards brilliant paper: as figure 6.8 shows, the outer ring of the laser sail detaches and moves in front of the spacecraft, reflecting our laser beam back to decelerate the craft and its smaller sail. 6 Forward calculated that this could let humans make the four-light-year journey to the Centauri solar system in merely forty years. Once there, you could imagine building a new giant laser system and continuing star-hopping throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. Figure 6.8: Robert Forwards design for a laser sailing mission to the Centauri star system four light-years away. Initially, a powerful laser in our Solar System accelerates the spacecraft by applying radiation pressure to its laser sail. To brake before reaching the destination, the outer part of the sail detaches and reflects laser light back at the spacecraft. But why stop there? In 1964, the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed grading civilizations by how much energy they could put to use. Harnessing the energy of a planet, a star (with a Dyson sphere, say) and a galaxy correspond to civilizations of Type I, Type II and Type III on the Kardashev scale, respectively. Subsequent thinkers have suggested that Type IV should correspond to harnessing our entire accessible Universe. Since then, theres been good news and bad news for ambitious life forms. The bad news is that dark energy exists, which, as we saw, appears to limit our reach. The good news is the dramatic progress of artificial intelligence. Even optimistic visionaries such as Carl Sagan used to view the prospects of humans reaching other galaxies as rather hopeless, given our propensity to die within the first century of a journey that would take millions of years even if traveling at near light speed. Refusing to give up, they considered freezing astronauts to extend their life, slowing their aging by traveling very close to light speed, or sending a community that would travel for tens of thousands of generationslonger than the human race has existed thus far. The possibility of superintelligence completely transforms this picture, making it much more promising for those with intergalactic wanderlust. Removing the need to transport bulky human life-support systems and adding AI-invented technology, intergalactic settlement suddenly appears rather straightforward. Forwards laser sailing becomes much cheaper when the spacecraft need merely be large enough to contain a seed probe: a robot capable of landing on an asteroid or planet in the target solar system and building up a new civilization from scratch. It doesnt even have to carry the instructions with it: all it has to do is build a receiving antenna large enough to pick up more detailed blueprints and instructions transmitted from its mother civilization at the speed of light. Once done, it uses its newly constructed lasers to send out new seed probes to continue settling the galaxy one solar system at a time. Even the vast dark expanses of space between galaxies tend to contain a significant number of intergalactic stars (rejects once ejected from their home galaxies) that can be used as way stations, thus enabling an island-hopping strategy for intergalactic laser sailing. Once another solar system or galaxy has been settled by superintelligent AI, bringing humans there is easyif humans have succeeded in making the AI have this goal. All the necessary information about humans can be transmitted at the speed of light, after which the AI can assemble quarks and electrons into the desired humans. This could be done either rather low-tech by simply transmitting the two gigabytes of information needed to specify a persons DNA and then incubating a baby to be raised by the AI, or the AI could nanoassemble quarks and electrons into full-grown people who would have all the memories scanned from their originals back on Earth. This means that if theres an intelligence explosion, the key question isnt if intergalactic settlement is possible, but simply how fast it can proceed. Since all the ideas weve explored above come from humans, they should be viewed as merely lower limits on how fast life can expand; ambitious superintelligent life can probably do a lot better, and it will have a strong incentive to push the limits, since in the race against time and dark energy, every 1% increase in average settlement speed translates into 3% more galaxies colonized. For example, if it takes 20 years to travel 10 light-years to the next star system with a laser-sail system, and then another 10 years to settle it and build new lasers and seed probes there, the settled region of space will be a sphere growing in all directions at a third of the speed of light on average. In a beautiful and thorough analysis of cosmically expanding civilizations in 2014, the American physicist Jay Olson considered a high-tech alternative to the island-hopping approach, involving two separate types of probes: seed probes and expanders . 7 The seed probes would slow down, land and seed their destination with life. The expanders, on the other hand, would never stop: theyd scoop up matter in flight, perhaps using some improved variant of the ramjet technology, and use this matter both as fuel and as raw material out of which theyd build expanders and copies of themselves. This self-reproducing fleet of expanders would keep gently accelerating to always maintain a constant speed (say half the speed of light) relative to nearby galaxies, and reproduce often enough that the fleet formed an expanding spherical shell with a constant number of expanders per shell area. Last but not least, theres the sneaky Hail Mary approach to expanding even faster than any of the above methods will permit: using Hans Moravecs cosmic spam scam from chapter 4. By broadcasting a message that tricks naive freshly evolved civilizations into building a superintelligent machine that hijacks them, a civilization can expand essentially at the speed of light, the speed at which their seductive siren song spreads through the cosmos. Since this may be the only way for advanced civilizations to reach most of the galaxies within their future light cone and they have little incentive not to try it, we should be highly suspicious of any transmissions from extraterrestrials! In Carl Sagans book Contact, we Earthlings used blueprints from aliens to build a machine we didnt understandI dont recommend doing this In summary, most scientists and sci-fi authors considering cosmic settlement have in my opinion been overly pessimistic in ignoring the possibility of superintelligence: by limiting attention to human travelers, theyve overestimated the difficulty of intergalactic travel, and by limiting attention to technology invented by humans, theyve overestimated the time needed to approach the physical limits of whats possible. Staying Connected via Cosmic Engineering If dark energy continues to accelerate distant galaxies away from one another, as the latest experimental data suggests, then this will pose a major nuisance to the future of life. It means that even if a future civilization manages to settle a million galaxies, dark energy will over the course of tens of billions of years fragment this cosmic empire into thousands of different regions unable to communicate with one another. If future life does nothing to prevent this fragmentation, then the largest remaining bastions of life will be clusters containing about a thousand galaxies, whose combined gravity is strong enough to overpower the dark energy trying to separate them. If a superintelligent civilization wants to stay connected, this would give it a strong incentive to do large-scale cosmic engineering. How much matter will it have time to move into its largest supercluster before dark energy puts it forever out of reach? One method for moving a star large distances is to nudge a third star into a binary system where two stars are stably orbiting each other. Just as with romantic relationships, the introduction of a third partner can destabilize things and lead to one of the three being violently ejectedin the stellar case, at great speed. If some of the three partners are black holes, such a volatile threesome can be used to fling mass fast enough to fly far outside the host galaxy. Unfortunately, this three-body technique, applied either to stars, black holes or galaxies, doesnt appear able to move more than a tiny fraction of a civilizations mass the large distances required to outsmart dark energy. But this obviously doesnt mean that superintelligent life cant come up with better methods, say converting much of the mass in outlying galaxies into spacecraft that can travel to the home cluster. If a sphalerizer can be built, perhaps it can even be used to convert the matter into energy that can be beamed into the home cluster as light, where it can be reconfigured back into matter or used as a power source. The ultimate luck will be if it turns out to be possible to build stable traversable wormholes, enabling near-instantaneous communication and travel between the two ends of the wormhole no matter how far apart they are. A wormhole is a shortcut through spacetime that lets you travel from A to B without going through the intervening space. Although stable wormholes are allowed by Einsteins theory of general relativity and have appeared in movies such as Contact and Interstellar, they require the existence of a strange hypothetical kind of matter with negative density, whose existence may hinge on poorly understood quantum gravity effects. In other words, useful wormholes may well turn out to be impossible, but if not, superintelligent life has huge incentives to build them. Not only would wormholes revolutionize rapid communication within individual galaxies, but by linking outlying galaxies to the central cluster early on, wormholes would allow the entire dominion of future life to remain connected for the long haul, completely thwarting dark energys attempts to censor communication. Once two galaxies are connected by a stable wormhole, theyll remain connected no matter how far apart they drift. If, despite its best attempts at cosmic engineering, a future civilization concludes that parts of it are doomed to drift out of contact forever, it might simply let them go and wish them well. However, if it has ambitious computing goals that involve seeking the answers to certain very difficult questions, it might instead resort to a slash-and-burn strategy: it could convert the outlying galaxies into massive computers that transform their matter and energy into computation at a frenzied pace, in the hope that before dark energy pushes their burnt-out remnants from view, they could transmit the long-sought answers back to the mother cluster. This slash-and-burn strategy would be particularly appropriate for regions so distant that they can only be reached by the cosmic spam method, much to the chagrin of the preexisting inhabitants. Back home in the mother region, the civilization could instead aim for maximum conservation and efficiency to last as long as possible. How Long Can You Last? Longevity is something that most ambitious people, organizations and nations aspire to. So if an ambitious future civilization develops superintelligence and wants longevity, how long can it last? The first thorough scientific analysis of our far future was performed by none less than Freeman Dyson, and table 6.3 summarizes some of his key findings. The conclusion is that unless intelligence intervenes, solar systems and galaxies gradually get destroyed, eventually followed by everything else, leaving nothing but cold, dead, empty space with an eternally fading glow of radiation. But Freeman ends his analysis on an optimistic note: There are good scientific reasons for taking seriously the possibility that life and intelligence can succeed in molding this universe of ours to their own purposes. 8 I think that superintelligence could easily solve many of the problems listed in table 6.3 , since it can rearrange matter into something better than solar systems and galaxies. Oft-discussed challenges such as the death of our Sun in a few billion years wont be showstoppers, since even a relatively low-tech civilization can easily move to low-mass stars that last for over 200 billion years. Assuming that superintelligent civilizations build their own power plants that are more efficient than stars, they may in fact want to prevent star formation to conserve energy: even if they use a Dyson sphere to harvest all the energy output during a stars main lifetime (recouping about 0.1% of the total energy), they may be unable to keep much of the remaining 99.9% of the energy from going to waste when very hefty stars die. A heavy star dies in a supernova explosion from which most of the energy escapes as elusive neutrinos, and for very heavy stars, a large amount of mass gets wasted by forming a black hole from which the energy takes 10 67 years to seep out. What When Current age of our Universe 10 10 years Dark energy pushes most galaxies out of reach 10 11 years Last stars burn out 10 14 years Planets detached from stars 10 15 years Stars detached from galaxies 10 19 years Decay of orbits by gravitational radiation 10 20 years Protons decay (at the earliest) > 10 34 years Stellar-mass black holes evaporate 10 67 years Supermassive black holes evaporate 10 91 years All matter decays to iron 10 1500 years All matter forms black holes, which then evaporate 10 1026 years Table 6.3: Estimates for the distant future, all but the 2nd and 7th made by Freeman Dyson. He made these calculations before the discovery of dark energy, which may enable several types of cosmocalypse in 10 10 10 11 years. Protons may be completely stable; if not, experiments suggest it will take over 10 34 years for half of them to decay. As long as superintelligent life hasnt run out of matter/energy, it can keep maintaining its habitat in the state it desires. Perhaps it can even discover a way to prevent protons from decaying using the so-called watched-pot effect of quantum mechanics, whereby the decay process is slowed by making regular observations. There is, however, a potential showstopper: a cosmocalypse destroying our entire Universe, perhaps as soon as 10100 billion years from now. The discovery of dark energy and progress in string theory has raised new cosmocalypse scenarios that Freeman Dyson wasnt aware of when he wrote his seminal paper. So hows our Universe going to end, billions of years from now? I have five main suspects for our upcoming cosmic apocalypse, or cosmocalypse, illustrated in figure 6.9 : the Big Chill, the Big Crunch, the Big Rip, the Big Snap and Death Bubbles. Our Universe has now been expanding for about 14 billion years. The Big Chill is when our Universe keeps expanding forever, diluting our cosmos into a cold, dark and ultimately dead place; this was viewed as the most likely outcome back when Freeman wrote that paper. I think of it as the T. S. Eliot option: This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper. If you, like Robert Frost, prefer the world to end in fire rather than ice, then cross your fingers for the Big Crunch, where the cosmic expansion is eventually reversed and everything comes crashing back together in a cataclysmic collapse akin to a backward Big Bang. Finally, the Big Rip is like the Big Chill for the impatient, where our galaxies, planets and even atoms get torn apart in a grand finale a finite time from now. Which of these three should you bet on? That depends on what the dark energy, which makes up about 70% of the mass of our Universe, will do as space continues to expand. It can be any one of the Chill, Crunch or Rip scenarios, depending on whether the dark energy sticks around unchanged, dilutes to negative density or anti-dilutes to higher density, respectively. Since we still have no clue what dark energy is, Ill just tell you how Id bet: 40% on the Big Chill, 9% on the Big Crunch and 1% on the Big Rip. Figure 6.9: We know that our Universe began with a hot Big Bang 14 billion years ago, expanded and cooled, and merged its particles into atoms, stars and galaxies. But we dont know its ultimate fate. Proposed scenarios include a Big Chill (eternal expansion), a Big Crunch (recollapse), a Big Rip (an infinite expansion rate tearing everything apart), a Big Snap (the fabric of space revealing a lethal granular nature when stretched too much), and Death Bubbles (space freezing in lethal bubbles that expand at the speed of light). What about the other 50% of my money? Im saving it for the none of the above option, because I think we humans need to be humble and acknowledge that there are basic things we still dont understand. The nature of space, for example. The Chill, Crunch and Rip endings all assume that space itself is stable and infinitely stretchable. We used to think of space as just the boring static stage upon which the cosmic drama unfolds. Then Einstein taught us that space is really one of the key actors: it can curve into black holes, it can ripple as gravitational waves and it can stretch as an expanding universe. Perhaps it can even freeze into a different phase much like water can, with fast-expanding death bubbles of the new phase offering another wild-card cosmocalypse candidate. If death bubbles are possible, they would probably expand at the speed of light, just like the growing sphere of cosmic spam from a maximally aggressive civilization. Moreover, Einsteins theory says that space stretching can always continue, allowing our Universe to approach infinite volume as in the Big Chill and Big Rip scenarios. This sounds a bit too good to be true, and I suspect that it is. A rubber band looks nice and continuous, just like space, but if you stretch it too much, it snaps. Why? Because its made of atoms, and with enough stretching, this granular atomic nature of the rubber becomes important. Could it be that space too has some sort of granularity on a scale thats simply too small for us to have noticed? Quantum gravity research suggests that it doesnt make sense to talk about traditional three-dimensional space on scales smaller than about 10 -34 meters. If its really true that space cant be stretched indefinitely without undergoing a cataclysmic Big Snap, then future civilizations may wish to relocate to the largest non-expanding region of space (a huge galaxy cluster) that they can reach. How Much Can You Compute? After exploring how long future life can last, lets explore how long it might want to last. Although you might find it natural to want to live as long as possible, Freeman Dyson also gave a more quantitative argument for this desire: the cost of computation drops when you compute slowly, so youll ultimately get more done if you slow things down as much as possible. Freeman even calculated that if our Universe keeps expanding and cooling forever, an infinite amount of computation might be possible. Slow doesnt necessarily mean boring: if future life lives in a simulated world, its subjectively experienced flow of time need not have anything to do with the glacial pace at which the simulation is being run in the outside world, so the prospects of infinite computation could translate into subjective immortality for simulated life forms. Cosmologist Frank Tipler has built on this idea to speculate that you could also achieve subjective immortality in the final moments before a Big Crunch by speeding up the computations toward infinity as the temperature and density skyrocketed. Since dark energy appears to spoil both Freemans and Franks dreams of infinite computation, future superintelligence may prefer to burn through its energy supplies relatively quickly, to turn them into computations before running into problems such as cosmic horizons and proton decay. If maximizing total computation is the ultimate goal, the best strategy will be a trade-off between too slow (to avoid the aforementioned problems) and too fast (spending more energy than needed per computation). Putting together everything weve explored in this chapter tells us that maximally efficient power plants and computers would enable superintelligent life to perform a mind-boggling amount of computation. Powering your thirteen- watt brain for a hundred years requires the energy in about half a milligram of matterless than in a typical grain of sugar. Seth Lloyds work suggests that the brain could be made a quadrillion times more energy efficient, enabling that sugar grain to power a simulation of all human lives ever lived as well as thousands of times more people. If all the matter in our available Universe could be used to simulate people, that would enable over 10 69 livesor whatever else superintelligent AI preferred to do with its computational power. Even more lives would be possible if their simulations were run more slowly. 9 Conversely, in his book Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom estimates that 10 58 human lives could be simulated with more conservative assumptions about energy efficiency. However we slice and dice these numbers, theyre huge, as is our responsibility for ensuring that this future potential of life to flourish isnt squandered. As Bostrom puts it: If we represent all the happiness experienced during one entire such life by a single teardrop of joy, then the happiness of these souls could fill and refill the Earths oceans every second, and keep doing so for a hundred billion billion millennia. It is really important that we make sure these truly are tears of joy. Cosmic Hierarchies The speed of light limits not only the spread of life, but also the nature of life, placing strong constraints on communication, consciousness and control. So if much of our cosmos eventually comes alive, what will this life be like? Thought Hierarchies Have you ever tried and failed to swat a fly with your hand? The reason that it can react faster than you is that its smaller, so that it takes less time for information to travel between its eyes, brain and muscles. This bigger = slower principle applies not only to biology, where the speed limit is set by how fast electrical signals can travel through neurons, but also to future cosmic life if no information can travel faster than light. So for an intelligent information- processing system, going big is a mixed blessing involving an interesting trade- off. On one hand, going bigger lets it contain more particles, which enable more complex thoughts. On the other hand, this slows down the rate at which it can have truly global thoughts, since it now takes longer for the relevant information to propagate to all its parts. So if life engulfs our cosmos, what form will it choose: simple and fast, or complex and slow? I predict that it will make the same choice as Earth life has made: both! The denizens of Earths biosphere span a staggering range of sizes, from gargantuan two-hundred-ton blue whales down to the petite 10 -16 kg bacterium Pelagibacter, believed to account for more biomass than all the worlds fish combined. Moreover, organisms that are large, complex and slow often mitigate their sluggishness by containing smaller modules that are simple and fast. For example, your blink reflex is extremely fast precisely because its implemented by a small and simple circuit that doesnt involve most of your brain: if that hard-to-swat fly accidentally heads toward your eye, youll blink within a tenth of a second, long before the relevant information has had time to spread throughout your brain and make you consciously aware of what happened. By organizing its information processing into a hierarchy of modules, our biosphere manages to both have the cake and eat it, attaining both speed and complexity. We humans already use this same hierarchical strategy to optimize parallel computing. Because internal communication is slow and costly, I expect advanced future cosmic life to do the same, so that computations will be done as locally as possible. If a computation is simple enough to do with a 1 kg computer, its counterproductive to spread it out over a galaxy-sized computer, since waiting for the information to be shared at the speed of light after each computational step causes a ridiculous delay of about 100,000 years per step. What, if any, of this future information processing will be conscious in the sense of involving a subjective experience is a controversial and fascinating topic which well explore in chapter 8. If consciousness requires the different parts of the system to be able to communicate with one another, then the thoughts of larger systems are by necessity slower. Whereas you or a future Earth-sized supercomputer can have many thoughts per second, a galaxy-sized mind could have only one thought every hundred thousand years, and a cosmic mind a billion light-years in size would only have time to have about ten thoughts in total before dark energy fragmented it into disconnected parts. On the other hand, these few precious thoughts and accompanying experiences might be quite deep! Control Hierarchies If thought itself is organized in a hierarchy spanning a wide range of scales, then what about power? In chapter 4, we explored how intelligent entities naturally organize themselves into power hierarchies in Nash equilibrium, where any entity would be worse off if they altered their strategy. The better the communication and transportation technology gets, the larger these hierarchies can grow. If superintelligence one day expands to cosmic scales, what will its power hierarchy be like? Will it be freewheeling and decentralized or highly authoritarian? Will cooperation be based mainly on mutual benefit or on coercion and threats? To shed light on these questions, lets consider both the carrot and the stick: What incentives are there for collaboration on cosmic scales, and what threats might be used to enforce it? Controlling with the Carrot On Earth, trade has been a traditional driver of cooperation because the relative difficulty of producing things varies across the planet. If mining a kilogram of silver costs 300 times more than mining a kilogram of copper in one region, but only 100 times more in another, theyll both come out ahead by trading 200 kg of copper against 1 kg of silver. If one region has much higher technology than another, both can similarly benefit from trading high-tech goods against raw materials. However, if superintelligence develops technology that can readily rearrange elementary particles into any form of matter whatsoever, then it will eliminate most of the incentive for long-distance trade. Why bother shipping silver between distant solar systems when its simpler and quicker to transmute copper into silver by rearranging its particles? Why bother shipping high-tech machinery between galaxies when both the know-how and the raw materials (any matter will do) exist in both places? My guess is that in a cosmos teeming with superintelligence, almost the only commodity worth shipping long distances will be information . The only exception might be matter to be used for cosmic engineering projectsfor example, to counteract the aforementioned destructive tendency of dark energy to tear civilizations apart. As opposed to traditional human trade, this matter can be shipped in any convenient bulk form whatsoever, perhaps even as an energy beam, since the receiving superintelligence can rapidly rearrange it into whatever objects it wants. If sharing or trading of information emerges as the main driver of cosmic cooperation, then what sorts of information might be involved? Any desirable information will be valuable if generating it requires a massive and time- consuming computational effort. For example, a superintelligence may want answers to hard scientific questions about the nature of physical reality, hard mathematical questions about theorems and optimal algorithms and hard engineering questions about how to best build spectacular technology. Hedonistic life forms may want awesome digital entertainment and simulated experiences, and cosmic commerce may fuel demand for some form of cosmic cryptocurrency in the spirit of bitcoins. Such sharing opportunities may incentivize information flow not only between entities of roughly equal power, but also up and down power hierarchies, say between solar-system-sized nodes and a galactic hub or between galaxy-sized nodes and a cosmic hub. The nodes might want this for the pleasure of being part of something greater, for being provided with answers and technologies that they couldnt develop alone and for defense against external threats. They may also value the promise of near immortality through backup: just as many humans take solace in a belief that their minds will live on after their physical bodies die, an advanced AI may appreciate having its mind and knowledge live on in a hub supercomputer after its original physical hardware has depleted its energy reserves. Conversely, the hub may want its nodes to help it with massive long-term computing tasks where the results arent urgently needed, so that its worth waiting thousands or millions of years for the answers. As we explored above, the hub may also want its nodes to help carry out massive cosmic engineering projects such as counteracting destructive dark energy by moving galactic mass concentrations together. If traversable wormholes turn out to be possible and buildable, then a top priority of a hub will probably be constructing a network of them to thwart dark energy and keep its empire connected indefinitely. The questions of what ultimate goals a cosmic superintelligence may have is a fascinating and controversial one that well explore further in chapter 7. Controlling with the Stick Terrestrial empires usually compel their subordinates to cooperate by using both the carrot and the stick. While subjects of the Roman Empire valued the technology, infrastructure and defense that they were offered as a reward for their cooperation, they also feared the inevitable repercussions of rebelling or not paying taxes. Because of the long time required to send troops from Rome to outlying provinces, part of the intimidation was delegated to local troops and loyal officials empowered to inflict near-instantaneous punishments. A superintelligent hub could use the analogous strategy of deploying a network of loyal guards throughout its cosmic empire. Since superintelligent subjects can be hard to control, the simplest viable strategy may be using AI guards that are programmed to be 100% loyal by virtue of being relatively dumb, simply monitoring whether all rules are obeyed and automatically triggering a doomsday device if not. Suppose, for example, that the hub AI arranges for a white dwarf to be placed in the vicinity of a solar-system-sized civilization that it wishes to control. A white dwarf is the burnt-out husk of a modestly heavy star. Consisting largely of carbon, it resembles a giant diamond in the sky, and is so compact that it can weigh more than the Sun while being smaller than Earth. The Indian physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar famously proved that if you keep adding mass to it until it surpasses the Chandrasekhar limit, about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun, it will undergo a cataclysmic thermonuclear detonation known as a supernova of type 1A. If the hub AI has callously arranged for this white dwarf to be extremely close to its Chandrasekhar limit, the guard AI could be effective even if it were extremely dumb (indeed, largely because it was so dumb): it could be programmed to simply verify that the subjugated civilization had delivered its monthly quota of cosmic bitcoins, mathematical proofs or whatever other taxes were stipulated, and if not, toss enough mass onto the white dwarf to ignite the supernova and blow the entire region to smithereens. Galaxy-sized civilizations may be similarly controllable by placing large numbers of compact objects into tight orbits around the monster black hole at the galaxy center, and threatening to transform these masses into gas, for instance by colliding them. This gas would then start feeding the black hole, transforming it into a powerful quasar, potentially rendering much of the galaxy uninhabitable. In summary, there are strong incentives for future life to cooperate over cosmic distances, but its a wide-open question whether such cooperation will be based mainly on mutual benefits or on brutal threatsthe limits imposed by physics appear to allow both scenarios, so the outcome will depend on the prevailing goals and values. Well explore our ability to influence these goals and values of future life in chapter 7. When Civilizations Clash So far, weve only discussed scenarios where life expands into our cosmos from a single intelligence explosion. But what happens if life evolves independently in more than one place and two expanding civilizations meet? If you consider a random solar system, theres some probability that life will evolve on one of its planets, develop advanced technology and expand into space. This probability seems to be greater than zero since technological life has evolved here in our Solar System and the laws of physics appear to allow space settlement. If space is large enough (indeed, the theory of cosmological inflation suggests it to be vast or infinite), then there will be many such expanding civilizations, as illustrated in figure 6.10 . Jay Olsons above-mentioned paper includes an elegant analysis of such expanding cosmic biospheres, and Toby Ord has performed a similar analysis with colleagues at the Future of Humanity Institute. Viewed in three dimensions, these cosmic biospheres are quite literally spheres as long as civilizations expand with the same speed in all directions. In spacetime, they look like the upper part of the champagne glass in figure 6.7 , because dark energy ultimately limits how many galaxies each civilization can reach. If the distance between neighboring space-settling civilizations is much larger than dark energy lets them expand, then theyll never come into contact with each other or even find out about each others existence, so theyll feel as if theyre alone in the cosmos. If our cosmos is more fecund so that neighbors are closer together, however, some civilizations will eventually overlap. What happens in these overlap regions? Will there be cooperation, competition or war? Figure 6.10: If life evolves independently at multiple points in spacetime (places and times) and starts colonizing space, then space will contain a network of expanding cosmic biospheres, each of which resembles the top of the champagne glass from figure 6.7 . The bottom of each biosphere represents the place and time when colonization began. The opaque and translucent champagne glasses correspond to colonization at 50% and 100% of the speed of light, respectively, and overlaps show where independent civilizations meet. Europeans were able to conquer Africa and the Americas because they had superior technology. In contrast, its plausible that long before two superintelligent civilizations encounter one another, their technologies will plateau at the same level, limited merely by the laws of physics. This makes it seem unlikely that one superintelligence could easily conquer the other even if it wanted to. Moreover, if their goals have evolved to be relatively aligned, then they may have little reason to desire conquest or war. For example, if theyre both trying to prove as many beautiful theorems as possible and invent as clever algorithms as possible, they can simply share their findings and both be better off. After all, information is very different from the resources that humans usually fight over, in that you can simultaneously give it away and keep it. Some expanding civilizations might have goals that are essentially immutable, such as those of a fundamentalist cult or a spreading virus. However, its also plausible that some advanced civilizations are more like open-minded humans willing to adjust their goals when presented with sufficiently compelling arguments. If two of them meet, there will be a clash not of weapons but of ideas, where the most persuasive one prevails and has its goals spread at the speed of light through the region controlled by the other civilization. Assimilating your neighbors is a faster expansion strategy than settlement, since your sphere of influence can spread at the speed with which ideas move (the speed of light using telecommunication), whereas physical settlement inevitably progresses slower than the speed of light. This assimilation will not be forced such as that infamously employed by the Borg in Star Trek, but voluntary based on the persuasive superiority of ideas, leaving the assimilated better off. Weve seen that the future cosmos can contain rapidly expanding bubbles of two kinds: expanding civilizations and those death bubbles that expand at light speed and make space uninhabitable by destroying all our elementary particles. An ambitious civilization can thus encounter three kinds of regions: uninhabited ones, life bubbles and death bubbles. If it fears uncooperative rival civilizations, it has a strong incentive to launch a rapid land grab and settle the uninhabited regions before the rivals do. However, it has the same expansionist incentive even if there are no other civilizations, simply to acquire resources before dark energy makes them unreachable. We just saw how bumping into another expanding civilization can be either better or worse than bumping into uninhabited space, depending on how cooperative and open-minded this neighbor is. However, its better to bump into any expansionist civilization (even one trying to convert your civilization into paper clips) than a death bubble, which will continue expanding at the speed of light regardless of whether you try to fight it or reason with it. Our only protection against death bubbles is dark energy, which prevents distant ones from ever reaching us. So if death bubbles are indeed common, then dark energy is actually not our enemy but our friend. Are We Alone? Many people take for granted that theres advanced life throughout much of our Universe, so that human extinction wouldnt matter much from a cosmic perspective. After all, why should we worry about wiping ourselves out if some inspiring Star Trek like civilization would soon swoop in and re-seed our Solar System with life, perhaps even using their advanced technology to reconstruct and resuscitate us? I view this Star Trek assumption as dangerous, because it can lull us into a false sense of security and make our civilization apathetic and reckless. Indeed, I think that this assumption that were not alone in our Universe is not only dangerous but also probably false. This is a minority view, *9 and I may well be wrong, but its at the very least a possibility that we cant currently dismiss, which gives us a moral imperative to play it safe and not drive our civilization extinct. When I give lectures about cosmology, I often ask the audience to raise their hands if they think theres intelligent life elsewhere in our Universe (the region of space from which light has reached us so far during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang). Infallibly, almost everyone does, from kindergartners to college students. When I ask why, the basic answer I tend to get is that our Universe is so huge that theres got to be life somewhere, at least statistically speaking. Lets take a closer look at this argument and pinpoint its weakness. It all comes down to one number: the typical distance between a civilization in figure 6.10 and its nearest neighbor. If this distance is much larger than 20 billion light-years, we should expect to be alone in our Universe (the part of space from which light has reached us during the 13.8 billion years since our Big Bang), and to never make contact with aliens. So what should we expect for this distance? Were quite clueless. This means that the distance to our neighbor is in the ballpark of 1000 000 meters, where the total number of zeroes could reasonably be 21, 22, 23,, 100, 101, 102 or more but probably not much smaller than 21, since we havent yet seen compelling evidence of aliens (see figure 6.11 ). For our nearest neighbor civilization to be within our Universe, whose radius is about 10 26 meters, the number of zeroes cant exceed 26, and the probability of the number of zeroes falling in the narrow range between 22 and 26 is rather small. This is why I think were alone in our Universe. Figure 6.11: Are we alone? The huge uncertainties about how life and intelligence evolved suggest that our nearest neighbor civilization in space could reasonably be anywhere along the horizontal axis above, making it unlikely that its in the narrow range between the edge of our Galaxy (about 10 21 meters away) and the edge of our Universe (about 10 26 meters away). If it were much closer than this range, there should be so many other advanced civilizations in our Galaxy that wed probably have noticed, which suggests that were in fact alone in our Universe. I give a detailed justification of this argument in my book Our Mathematical Universe, so I wont rehash it here, but the basic reason for why were clueless about this neighbor distance is that were in turn clueless about the probability of intelligent life arising in a given place. As the American astronomer Frank Drake pointed out, this probability can be calculated by multiplying together the probability of there being a habitable environment there (say an appropriate planet), the probability that life will form there and the probability that this life will evolve to become intelligent. When I was a grad student, we had no clue about any of these three probabilities. After the past two decades dramatic discoveries of planets orbiting other stars, it now seems likely that habitable planets are abundant, with billions in our own Galaxy alone. The probability of evolving life and then intelligence, however, remains extremely uncertain: some experts think that one or both are rather inevitable and occur on most habitable planets, while others think that one or both are extremely rare because of one or more evolutionary bottlenecks that require a wild stroke of luck to pass through. Some proposed bottlenecks involve chicken-and-egg problems at the earliest stages of self-reproducing life: for example, for a modern cell to build a ribosome, the highly complex molecular machine that reads our genetic code and builds our proteins, it needs another ribosome, and its not obvious that the very first ribosome could evolve gradually from something simpler. 10 Other proposed bottlenecks involve the development of higher intelligence. For example, although dinosaurs ruled Earth for over 100 million years, a thousand times longer than we modern humans have been around, evolution didnt seem to inevitably push them toward higher intelligence and inventing telescopes or computers. Some people counter my argument by saying that, yes, intelligent life could be very rare, but in fact it isntour Galaxy is teeming with intelligent life that mainstream scientists are simply not noticing. Perhaps aliens have already visited Earth, as UFO enthusiasts claim. Perhaps aliens havent visited Earth, but theyre out there and theyre deliberately hiding from us (this has been called the zoo hypothesis by the U.S. astronomer John A. Ball, and features in sci-fi classics such as Olaf Stapledons Star Maker ). Or perhaps theyre out there without deliberately hiding: theyre simply not interested in space settlement or large engineering projects that wed have noticed. Sure, we need to keep an open mind about these possibilities, but since theres no generally accepted evidence for any of them, we also need to take seriously the alternative: that were alone. Moreover, I think we shouldnt underestimate the diversity of advanced civilizations by assuming that they all share goals that make them go unnoticed: we saw above that resource acquisition is quite a natural goal for a civilization to have, and for us to notice, all it takes is one civilization deciding to overtly settle all it can and hence engulf our Galaxy and beyond. Confronted with the fact that there are millions of habitable Earth-like planets in our Galaxy that are billions of years older than Earth, giving ample time for ambitious inhabitants to settle the Galaxy, we therefore cant dismiss the most obvious interpretation: that the origin of life requires a random fluke so unlikely that theyre all uninhabited. If life is not rare after all, we may soon know. Ambitious astronomical surveys are searching atmospheres of Earth-like planets for evidence of oxygen produced by life. In parallel with this search for any life, the search for intelligent life was recently boosted by the Russian philanthropist Yuri Milners $100 million project Breakthrough Listen. Its important not to be overly anthropocentric when searching for advanced life: if we discover an extraterrestrial civilization, its likely to already have gone superintelligent. As Martin Rees put it in a recent essay, the history of human technological civilization is measured in centuriesand it may be only one or two more centuries before humans are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, which will then persist, continuing to evolve, for billions of years.We would be most unlikely to catch it in the brief sliver of time when it took organic form. 11 I agree with Jay Olsons conclusion in his aforementioned space settlement paper: We regard the possibility that advanced intelligence will make use of the universes resources to simply populate existing earthlike planets with advanced versions of humans as an unlikely endpoint to the progression of technology. So when you imagine aliens, dont think of little green fellows with two arms and two legs, but think of the superintelligent spacefaring life we explored earlier in this chapter. Although Im a strong supporter of all the ongoing searches for extraterrestrial life, which are shedding light on one of the most fascinating questions in science, Im secretly hoping that theyll all fail and find nothing! The apparent incompatibility between the abundance of habitable planets in our Galaxy and the lack of extraterrestrial visitors, known as the Fermi paradox, suggests the existence of what the economist Robin Hanson calls a Great Filter, an evolutionary/technological roadblock somewhere along the developmental path from the non-living matter to space-settling life. If we discover independently evolved life elsewhere, this would suggest that primitive life isnt rare, and that the roadblock lies after our current human stage of developmentperhaps because space settlement is impossible, or because almost all advanced civilizations self-destruct before theyre able to go cosmic. Im therefore crossing my fingers that all searches for extraterrestrial life find nothing: this is consistent with the scenario where evolving intelligent life is rare but we humans got lucky, so that we have the roadblock behind us and have extraordinary future potential. Outlook So far, weve spent this book exploring the history of life in our Universe, from its humble beginnings billions of years ago to possible grand futures billions of years from now. If our current AI development eventually triggers an intelligence explosion and optimized space settlement, it will be an explosion in a truly cosmic sense: after spending billions of years as an almost negligibly small perturbation on an indifferent lifeless cosmos, life suddenly explodes onto the cosmic arena as a spherical blast wave expanding near the speed of light, never slowing down, and igniting everything in its path with the spark of life. Such optimistic views of the importance of life in our cosmic future have been eloquently articulated by many of the thinkers weve encountered in this book. Because sci-fi authors are often dismissed as unrealistic romantic dreamers, I find it ironic that most sci-fi and scientific writing about space settlement now appears too pessimistic in the light of superintelligence. For example, we saw how intergalactic travel becomes much easier once people and other intelligent entities can be transmitted in digital form, potentially making us masters of our own destiny not only in our Solar System or the Milky Way Galaxy, but also in the cosmos. Above we considered the very real possibility that were the only high-tech civilization in our Universe. Lets spend the rest of this chapter exploring this scenario, and the huge moral responsibility it entails. This means that after 13.8 billion years, life in our Universe has reached a fork in the road, facing a choice between flourishing throughout the cosmos or going extinct. If we dont keep improving our technology, the question isnt whether humanity will go extinct, but how . What will get us firstan asteroid, a supervolcano, the burning heat of the aging Sun, or some other calamity (see figure 5.1 )? Once were gone, the cosmic drama predicted by Freeman Dyson will play on without spectators: barring a cosmocalypse, stars burn out, galaxies fade and black holes evaporate, each ending its life with a huge explosion that releases over a million times as much energy as the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever built. As Freeman put it: The cold expanding universe will be illuminated by occasional fireworks for a very long time. Alas, this fireworks display will be a meaningless waste, with nobody there to enjoy it. Without technology, our human extinction is imminent in the cosmic context of tens of billions of years, rendering the entire drama of life in our Universe merely a brief and transient flash of beauty, passion and meaning in a near eternity of meaninglessness experienced by nobody. What a wasted opportunity that would be! If instead of eschewing technology, we choose to embrace it, then we up the ante: we gain the potential both for life to survive and flourish and for life to go extinct even sooner, self-destructing due to poor planning (see figure 5.1 ). My vote is for embracing technology, and proceeding not with blind faith in what we build, but with caution, foresight and careful planning. After 13.8 billion years of cosmic history, we find ourselves in a breathtakingly beautiful Universe, which through us humans has come alive and started becoming aware of itself. Weve seen that lifes future potential in our Universe is grander than the wildest dreams of our ancestors, tempered by an equally real potential for intelligent life to go permanently extinct. Will life in our Universe fulfill its potential or squander it? This depends to a great extent on what we humans alive today do during our lifetime, and Im optimistic that we can make the future of life truly awesome if we make the right choices. What should we want and how can we attain those goals? Lets spend the rest of the book exploring some of the most difficult challenges involved and what we can do about them. THE BOTTOM LINE: Compared to cosmic timescales of billions of years, an intelligence explosion is a sudden event where technology rapidly plateaus at a level limited only by the laws of physics. This technological plateau is vastly higher than todays technology, allowing a given amount of matter to generate about ten billion times more energy (using sphalerons or black holes), store 1218 orders of magnitude more information or compute 31 41 orders of magnitude fasteror to be converted to any other desired form of matter. Superintelligent life would not only make such dramatically more efficient use of its existing resources, but would also be able to grow todays biosphere by about 32 orders of magnitude by acquiring more resources through cosmic settlement at near light speed. Dark energy limits the cosmic expansion of superintelligent life and also protects it from distant expanding death bubbles or hostile civilizations. The threat of dark energy tearing cosmic civilizations apart motivates massive cosmic engineering projects, including wormhole construction if this turns out to be feasible. The main commodity shared or traded across cosmic distances is likely to be information. Barring wormholes, the light-speed limit on communication poses severe challenges for coordination and control across a cosmic civilization. A distant central hub may incentivize its superintelligent nodes to cooperate either through rewards or through threats, say by deploying a local guard AI programmed to destroy the node by setting off a supernova or quasar unless the rules are obeyed. The collision of two expanding civilizations may result in assimilation, cooperation or war, where the latter is arguably less likely than it is between todays civilizations. Despite popular belief to the contrary, its quite plausible that were the only life form capable of making our observable Universe come alive in the future. If we dont improve our technology, the question isnt whether humanity will go extinct, but merely how: will an asteroid, a supervolcano, the burning heat of the aging Sun or some other calamity get us first? If we do keep improving our technology with enough care, foresight and planning to avoid pitfalls, life has the potential to flourish on Earth and far beyond for many billions of years, beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors. *1 If you work in the energy sector, you may be used to instead defining efficiency as the fraction of the energy released thats in a useful form. *2 If no suitable nature-made black hole can be found in the nearby universe, a new one can be created by putting lots of matter in a sufficiently small space. *3 This is a slight oversimplification, because Hawking radiation also includes some particles from which its hard to extract useful work. Large black holes are only 90% efficient, because about 10% of the energy is radiated in the form of gravitons: extremely shy particles that are almost impossible to detect, let alone extract useful work from. As the black hole continues evaporating and shrinking, the efficiency drops further because the Hawking radiation starts including neutrinos and other massive particles. *4 For Douglas Adams fans out there, note that this is an elegant question giving the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. More precisely, the efficiency is 1 1 / 3 42%. *5 If you feed the black hole by placing a gas cloud around it that rotates slowly in the same direction, then this gas will spin ever faster as its pulled in and eaten, boosting the black holes rotation, just as a figure- skater spins faster when pulling in her arms. This may keep the hole maximally spinning, enabling you to extract first 42% of the gas energy and then 29% of the remainder, for a total efficiency of 42% + (1- 42%)29% 59%. *6 It needs to get hot enough to re-unify the electromagnetic and weak forces, which happens when particles move about as fast as when theyve been accelerated by 200 billion volts in a particle collider. *7 Above we only discussed matter made of atoms. There is about six times more dark matter, but its very elusive and hard to catch, routinely flying straight through Earth and out the other side, so it remains to be seen whether its possible for future life to capture and utilize it. *8 The cosmic mathematics comes out remarkably simple: if the civilization expands through the expanding space not at the speed of light c but at some slower speed v, the number of galaxies settled gets reduced by a factor ( v/c ) 3 . This means that slowpoke civilizations get severely penalized, with one that expands 10 times slower ultimately settling 1,000 times fewer galaxies. *9 However, John Gribbin comes to a similar conclusion in his 2011 book Alone in the Universe . For a spectrum of intriguing perspectives on this question, I also recommend Paul Davies 2011 book The Eerie Silence . Chapter 7 Goals The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Life is a journey, not a destination. Ralph Waldo Emerson If I had to summarize in a single word what the thorniest AI controversies are about, it would be goals: Should we give AI goals, and if so, whose goals? How can we give AI goals? Can we ensure that these goals are retained even if the AI gets smarter? Can we change the goals of an AI thats smarter than us? What are our ultimate goals? These questions are not only difficult, but also crucial for the future of life: if we dont know what we want, were less likely to get it, and if we cede control to machines that dont share our goals, then were likely to get what we dont want. Physics: The Origin of Goals To shed light on these questions, lets first explore the ultimate origin of goals. When we look around us in the world, some processes strike us as goal-oriented while others dont. Consider, for example, the process of a soccer ball being kicked for the game-winning shot. The behavior of the ball itself does not appear goal-oriented, and is most economically explained in terms of Newtons laws of motion, as a reaction to the kick. The behavior of the player, on the other hand, is most economically explained not mechanistically in terms of atoms pushing each other around, but in terms of her having the goal of maximizing her teams score. How did such goal-oriented behavior emerge from the physics of our early Universe, which consisted merely of a bunch of particles bouncing around seemingly without goals? Intriguingly, the ultimate roots of goal-oriented behavior can be found in the laws of physics themselves, and manifest themselves even in simple processes that dont involve life. If a lifeguard rescues a swimmer, as in figure 7.1 , we expect her not to go in a straight line, but to run a bit further along the beach where she can go faster than in the water, thereby turning slightly when she enters the water. We naturally interpret her choice of trajectory as goal-oriented, since out of all possible trajectories, shes deliberately choosing the optimal one that gets her to the swimmer as fast as possible. Yet a simple light ray similarly bends when it enters water (see figure 7.1 ), also minimizing the travel time to its destination! How can this be? This is known in physics as Fermats principle, articulated in 1662, and it provides an alternative way of predicting the behavior of light rays. Remarkably, physicists have since discovered that all laws of classical physics can be mathematically reformulated in an analogous way: out of all ways that nature could choose to do something, it prefers the optimal way, which typically boils down to minimizing or maximizing some quantity. There are two mathematically equivalent ways of describing each physical law: either as the past causing the future, or as nature optimizing something. Although the second way usually isnt taught in introductory physics courses because the math is tougher, I feel that its more elegant and profound. If a person is trying to optimize something (for example, their score, their wealth or their happiness) well naturally describe their pursuit of it as goal-oriented. So if nature itself is trying to optimize something, then no wonder that goal-oriented behavior can emerge: it was hardwired in from the start, in the very laws of physics. Figure 7.1: To rescue a swimmer as fast as possible, a lifeguard wont go in a straight line (dashed), but a bit further along the beach where she can go faster than in the water. A light ray similarly bends when entering the water to reach its destination as fast as possible. One famous quantity that nature strives to maximize is entropy, which loosely speaking measures how messy things are. The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy tends to increase until it reaches its maximum possible value. Ignoring the effects of gravity for now, this maximally messy end state is called heat death, and corresponds to everything being spread out in boring perfect uniformity, with no complexity, no life and no change. When you pour cold milk into hot coffee, for example, your beverage appears to march irreversibly toward its own personal heat death goal, and before long, its all just a uniform lukewarm mixture. If a living organism dies, its entropy also starts to rise, and before long, the arrangement of its particles tends to get much less organized. Natures apparent goal to increase entropy helps explain why time seems to have a preferred direction, making movies look unrealistic if played backward: if you drop a glass of wine, you expect it to shatter against the floor and increase global messiness (entropy). If you then saw it unshatter and come flying back up to your hand intact (decreasing entropy), you probably wouldnt drink it, figuring youd already had a glass too many. When I first learned about our inexorable progression toward heat death, I found it rather depressing, and I wasnt alone: thermodynamics pioneer Lord Kelvin wrote in 1841 that the result would inevitably be a state of universal rest and death, and its hard to find solace in the idea that natures long-term goal is to maximize death and destruction. However, more recent discoveries have shown that things arent quite that bad. First of all, gravity behaves differently from all other forces and strives to make our Universe not more uniform and boring but more clumpy and interesting. Gravity therefore transformed our boring early Universe, which was almost perfectly uniform, into todays clumpy and beautifully complex cosmos, teeming with galaxies, stars and planets. Thanks to gravity, theres now a wide range of temperatures allowing life to thrive by combining hot and cold: we live on a comfortably warm planet absorbing 6 , 000C (10 , 000F) solar heat while cooling off by radiating waste heat into frigid space whose temperature is just 3C (5F) above absolute zero. Second, recent work by my MIT colleague Jeremy England and others has brought more good news, showing that thermodynamics also endows nature with a goal more inspiring than heat death. 1 This goal goes by the geeky name dissipation-driven adaptation, which basically means that random groups of particles strive to organize themselves so as to extract energy from their environment as efficiently as possible (dissipation means causing entropy to increase, typically by turning useful energy into heat, often while doing useful work in the process). For example, a bunch of molecules exposed to sunlight would over time tend to arrange themselves to get better and better at absorbing sunlight. In other words, nature appears to have a built-in goal of producing self- organizing systems that are increasingly complex and lifelike, and this goal is hardwired into the very laws of physics. How can we reconcile this cosmic drive toward life with the cosmic drive toward heat death? The answer can be found in the famous 1944 book Whats Life? by Erwin Schrdinger, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Schrdinger pointed out that a hallmark of a living system is that it maintains or reduces its entropy by increasing the entropy around it. In other words, the second law of thermodynamics has a life loophole: although the total entropy must increase, its allowed to decrease in some places as long as it increases even more elsewhere. So life maintains or increases its complexity by making its environment messier. Biology: The Evolution of Goals We just saw how the origin of goal-oriented behavior can be traced all the way back to the laws of physics, which appear to endow particles with the goal of arranging themselves so as to extract energy from their environment as efficiently as possible. A great way for a particle arrangement to further this goal is to make copies of itself, to produce more energy absorbers. There are many known examples of such emergent self-replication: for example, vortices in turbulent fluids can make copies of themselves, and clusters of microspheres can coax nearby spheres into forming identical clusters. At some point, a particular arrangement of particles got so good at copying itself that it could do so almost indefinitely by extracting energy and raw materials from its environment. We call such a particle arrangement life . We still know very little about how life originated on Earth, but we know that primitive life forms were already here about 4 billion years ago. If a life form copies itself and the copies do the same, then the total number will keep doubling at regular intervals until the population size bumps up against resource limitations or other problems. Repeated doubling soon produces huge numbers: if you start with one and double just three hundred times, you get a quantity exceeding the number of particles in our Universe. This means that not long after the first primitive life form appeared, huge quantities of matter had come alive. Sometimes the copying wasnt perfect, so soon there were many different life forms trying to copy themselves, competing for the same finite resources. Darwinian evolution had begun. If you had been quietly observing Earth around the time when life got started, you would have noticed a dramatic change in goal-oriented behavior. Whereas earlier, the particles seemed as though they were trying to increase average messiness in various ways, these newly ubiquitous self-copying patterns seemed to have a different goal: not dissipation but replication . Charles Darwin elegantly explained why: since the most efficient copiers outcompete and dominate the others, before long any random life form you look at will be highly optimized for the goal of replication. How could the goal change from dissipation to replication when the laws of physics stayed the same? The answer is that the fundamental goal (dissipation) didnt change, but led to a different instrumental goal , that is, a subgoal that helped accomplish the fundamental goal. Take eating, for example. We all seem to have the goal of satisfying our hunger cravings even though we know that evolutions only fundamental goal is replication, not mastication. This is because eating aids replication: starving to death gets in the way of having kids. In the same way, replication aids dissipation, because a planet teeming with life is more efficient at dissipating energy. So in a sense, our cosmos invented life to help it approach heat death faster. If you pour sugar on your kitchen floor, it can in principle retain its useful chemical energy for years, but if ants show up, theyll dissipate that energy in no time. Similarly, the petroleum reserves buried in the Earths crust would have retained their useful chemical energy for much longer had we bipedal life forms not pumped it up and burned it. Among todays evolved denizens of Earth, these instrumental goals seem to have taken on a life of their own: although evolution optimized them for the sole goal of replication, many spend much of their time not producing offspring but on activities such as sleeping, pursuing food, building homes, asserting dominance and fighting or helping otherssometimes even to an extent that reduces replication. Research in evolutionary psychology, economics and artificial intelligence has elegantly explained why. Some economists used to model people as rational agents, idealized decision makers who always choose whatever action is optimal in pursuit of their goal, but this is obviously unrealistic. In practice, these agents have what Nobel laureate and AI pioneer Herbert Simon termed bounded rationality because they have limited resources: the rationality of their decisions is limited by their available information, their available time to think and their available hardware with which to think. This means that when Darwinian evolution is optimizing an organism to attain a goal, the best it can do is implement an approximate algorithm that works reasonably well in the restricted context where the agent typically finds itself. Evolution has implemented replication optimization in precisely this way: rather than ask in every situation which action will maximize an organisms number of successful offspring, it implements a hodgepodge of heuristic hacks: rules of thumb that usually work well. For most animals, these include sex drive, drinking when thirsty, eating when hungry and avoiding things that taste bad or hurt. These rules of thumb sometimes fail badly in situations that they werent designed to handle, such as when rats eat delicious-tasting rat poison, when moths get lured into glue traps by seductive female fragrances and when bugs fly into candle flames. *1 Since todays human society is very different from the environment evolution optimized our rules of thumb for, we shouldnt be surprised to find that our behavior often fails to maximize baby making. For example, the subgoal of not starving to death is implemented in part as a desire to consume caloric foods, triggering todays obesity epidemic and dating difficulties. The subgoal to procreate was implemented as a desire for sex rather than as a desire to become a sperm/egg donor, even though the latter can produce more babies with less effort. Psychology: The Pursuit of and Rebellion Against Goals In summary, a living organism is an agent of bounded rationality that doesnt pursue a single goal, but instead follows rules of thumb for what to pursue and avoid. Our human minds perceive these evolved rules of thumb as feelings, which usually (and often without us being aware of it) guide our decision making toward the ultimate goal of replication. Feelings of hunger and thirst protect us from starvation and dehydration, feelings of pain protect us from damaging our bodies, feelings of lust make us procreate, feelings of love and compassion make us help other carriers of our genes and those who help them and so on. Guided by these feelings, our brains can quickly and efficiently decide what to do without having to subject every choice to a tedious analysis of its ultimate implications for how many descendants well produce. For closely related perspectives on feelings and their physiological roots, I highly recommend the writings of William James and Antnio Damsio. 2 Its important to note that when our feelings occasionally work against baby making, its not necessarily by accident or because we get tricked: our brain can rebel against our genes and their replication goal quite deliberately, for example by choosing to use contraceptives! More extreme examples of the brain rebelling against its genes include choosing to commit suicide or spend life in celibacy to become a priest, monk or nun. Why do we sometimes choose to rebel against our genes and their replication goal? We rebel because by design, as agents of bounded rationality, were loyal only to our feelings. Although our brains evolved merely to help copy our genes, our brains couldnt care less about this goal since we have no feelings related to genesindeed, during most of human history, our ancestors didnt even know that they had genes. Moreover, our brains are way smarter than our genes, and now that we understand the goal of our genes (replication), we find it rather banal and easy to ignore. People might realize why their genes make them feel lust, yet have little desire to raise fifteen children, and therefore choose to hack their genetic programming by combining the emotional rewards of intimacy with birth control. They might realize why their genes make them crave sweets yet have little desire to gain weight, and therefore choose to hack their genetic programming by combining the emotional rewards of a sweet beverage with zero-calorie artificial sweeteners. Although such reward-mechanism hacks sometimes go awry, such as when people get addicted to heroin, our human gene pool has thus far survived just fine despite our crafty and rebellious brains. Its important to remember, however, that the ultimate authority is now our feelings, not our genes. This means that human behavior isnt strictly optimized for the survival of our species. In fact, since our feelings implement merely rules of thumb that arent appropriate in all situations, human behavior strictly speaking doesnt have a single well-defined goal at all. Engineering: Outsourcing Goals Can machines have goals? This simple question has triggered great controversy, because different people take it to mean different things, often related to thorny topics such as whether machines can be conscious and whether they can have feelings. But if were more practical and simply take the question to mean Can machines exhibit goal-oriented behavior?, then the answer is obvious: Of course they can, since we can design them that way! We design mousetraps to have the goal of catching mice, dishwashers with the goal of cleaning dishes, and clocks with the goal of keeping time. When you confront a machine, the empirical fact that its exhibiting goal-oriented behavior is usually all you care about: if youre chased by a heat-seeking missile, you dont really care whether it has consciousness or feelings! If you still feel uncomfortable saying that the missile has a goal even if it isnt conscious, you can for now simply read purpose when I write goalwell tackle consciousness in the next chapter. So far, most of what we build exhibits only goal-oriented design, not goal- oriented behavior: a highway doesnt behave; it merely sits there. However, the most economical explanation for its existence is that it was designed to accomplish a goal, so even such passive technology is making our Universe more goal-oriented. Teleology is the explanation of things in terms of their purposes rather than their causes, so we can summarize the first part of this chapter by saying that our Universe keeps getting more teleological. Not only can non-living matter have goals, at least in this weak sense, but it increasingly does . If youd been observing Earths atoms since our planet formed, youd have noticed three stages of goal-oriented behavior: 1. All matter seemed focused on dissipation (entropy increase). 2. Some of the matter came alive and instead focused on replication and subgoals of that. 3. A rapidly growing fraction of matter was rearranged by living organisms to help accomplish their goals. Table 7.1 shows how dominant humanity has become from the physics perspective: not only do we now contain more matter than all other mammals except cows (which are so numerous because they serve our goals of consuming beef and dairy products), but the matter in our machines, roads, buildings and other engineering projects appears on track to soon overtake all living matter on Earth. In other words, even without an intelligence explosion, most matter on Earth that exhibits goal-oriented properties may soon be designed rather than evolved. Goal-Oriented Entities Billions of Tons 5 10 30 bacteria 400 Plants 400 10 15 mesophelagic fish 10 1.3 10 9 cows 0.5 7 10 9 humans 0.4 10 14 ants 0.3 1.7 10 6 whales 0.0005 Concrete 100 Steel 20 Asphalt 15 1.2 10 9 cars 2 Table 7.1: Approximate amounts of matter on Earth in entities that are evolved or designed for a goal. Engineered entities such as buildings, roads and cars appear on track to overtake evolved entities such as plants and animals. This new third kind of goal-oriented behavior has the potential to be much more diverse than what preceded it: whereas evolved entities all have the same ultimate goal (replication), designed entities can have virtually any ultimate goal, even opposite ones. Stoves try to heat food while refrigerators try to cool food. Generators try to convert motion into electricity while motors try to convert electricity into motion. Standard chess programs try to win at chess, but there are also ones competing in tournaments with the goal of losing at chess. Theres a historical trend for designed entities to get goals that are not only more diverse, but also more complex: our devices are getting smarter. We engineered our earliest machines and other artifacts to have quite simple goals, for example houses that aimed to keep us warm, dry and safe. Weve gradually learned to build machines with more complex goals, such as robotic vacuum cleaners, self-flying rockets and self-driving cars. Recent AI progress has given us systems such as Deep Blue, Watson and AlphaGo, whose goals of winning at chess, winning at quiz shows and winning at Go are so elaborate that it takes significant human mastery to properly appreciate how skilled they are. When we build a machine to help us, it can be hard to perfectly align its goals with ours. For example, a mousetrap may mistake your bare toes for a hungry rodent, with painful results. All machines are agents with bounded rationality, and even todays most sophisticated machines have a poorer understanding of the world than we do, so the rules they use to figure out what to do are often too simplistic. That mousetrap is too trigger-happy because it has no clue what a mouse is, many lethal industrial accidents occur because machines have no clue what a person is, and the computers that triggered the trillion-dollar Wall Street flash crash in 2010 had no clue that what they were doing made no sense. Many such goal-alignment problems can therefore be solved by making our machines smarter, but as we learned from Prometheus in chapter 4, ever-greater machine intelligence can post serious new challenges for ensuring that machines share our goals. Friendly AI: Aligning Goals The more intelligent and powerful machines get, the more important it becomes that their goals are aligned with ours. As long as we build only relatively dumb machines, the question isnt whether human goals will prevail in the end, but merely how much trouble these machines can cause humanity before we figure out how to solve the goal-alignment problem. If a superintelligence is ever unleashed, however, it will be the other way around: since intelligence is the ability to accomplish goals, a superintelligent AI is by definition much better at accomplishing its goals than we humans are at accomplishing ours, and will therefore prevail. We explored many such examples involving Prometheus in chapter 4. If you want to experience a machines goals trumping yours right now, simply download a state-of-the-art chess engine and try beating it. You never will, and it gets old quickly In other words, the real risk with AGI isnt malice but competence . A superintelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals arent aligned with ours, were in trouble. As I mentioned in chapter 1, people dont think twice about flooding anthills to build hydroelectric dams, so lets not place humanity in the position of those ants. Most researchers therefore argue that if we ever end up creating superintelligence, then we should make sure its what AI-safety pioneer Eliezer Yudkowsky has termed friendly AI: AI whose goals are aligned with ours. 3 Figuring out how to align the goals of a superintelligent AI with our goals isnt just important, but also hard. In fact, its currently an unsolved problem. It splits into three tough subproblems, each of which is the subject of active research by computer scientists and other thinkers: 1. Making AI learn our goals 2. Making AI adopt our goals 3. Making AI retain our goals Lets explore them in turn, deferring the question of what to mean by our goals to the next section. To learn our goals, an AI must figure out not what we do, but why we do it. We humans accomplish this so effortlessly that its easy to forget how hard the task is for a computer, and how easy it is to misunderstand. If you ask a future self-driving car to take you to the airport as fast as possible and it takes you literally, youll get there chased by helicopters and covered in vomit. If you exclaim, Thats not what I wanted!, it can justifiably answer, Thats what you asked for. The same theme recurs in many famous stories. In the ancient Greek legend, King Midas asked that everything he touched turn to gold, but was disappointed when this prevented him from eating and even more so when he inadvertently turned his daughter to gold. In the stories where a genie grants three wishes, there are many variants for the first two wishes, but the third wish is almost always the same: Please undo the first two wishes, because thats not what I really wanted. All these examples show that to figure out what people really want, you cant merely go by what they say. You also need a detailed model of the world, including the many shared preferences that we tend to leave unstated because we consider them obvious, such as that we dont like vomiting or eating gold. Once we have such a world model, we can often figure out what people want even if they dont tell us, simply by observing their goal-oriented behavior. Indeed, children of hypocrites usually learn more from what they see their parents do than from what they hear them say. AI researchers are currently trying hard to enable machines to infer goals from behavior, and this will be useful also long before any superintelligence comes on the scene. For example, a retired man may appreciate it if his eldercare robot can figure out what he values simply by observing him, so that hes spared the hassle of having to explain everything with words or computer programming. One challenge involves finding a good way to encode arbitrary systems of goals and ethical principles into a computer, and another challenge is making machines that can figure out which particular system best matches the behavior they observe. A currently popular approach to the second challenge is known in geek-speak as inverse reinforcement learning, which is the main focus of a new Berkeley research center that Stuart Russell has launched. Suppose, for example, that an AI watches a firefighter run into a burning building and save a baby boy. It might conclude that her goal was rescuing him and that her ethical principles are such that she values his life higher than the comfort of relaxing in her fire truck and indeed values it enough to risk her own safety. But it might alternatively infer that the firefighter was freezing and craved heat, or that she did it for the exercise. If this one example were all the AI knew about firefighters, fires and babies, it would indeed be impossible to know which explanation was correct. However, a key idea underlying inverse reinforcement learning is that we make decisions all the time, and that every decision we make reveals something about our goals. The hope is therefore that by observing lots of people in lots of situations (either for real or in movies and books), the AI can eventually build an accurate model of all our preferences. 4 In the inverse reinforcement-learning approach, a core idea is that the AI is trying to maximize not the goal-satisfaction of itself, but that of its human owner. It therefore has an incentive to be cautious when its unclear about what its owner wants, and to do its best to find out. It should also be fine with its owner switching it off, since that would imply that it had misunderstood what its owner really wanted. Even if an AI can be built to learn what your goals are, this doesnt mean that it will necessarily adopt them. Consider your least favorite politicians: you know what they want, but thats not what you want, and even though they try hard, theyve failed to persuade you to adopt their goals. We have many strategies for imbuing our children with our goalssome more successful than others, as Ive learned from raising two teenage boys. When those to be persuaded are computers rather than people, the challenge is known as the value-loading problem, and its even harder than the moral education of children. Consider an AI system whose intelligence is gradually being improved from subhuman to superhuman, first by us tinkering with it and then through recursive self-improvement like Prometheus. At first, its much less powerful than you, so it cant prevent you from shutting it down and replacing those parts of its software and data that encode its goalsbut this wont help, because its still too dumb to fully understand your goals, which requires human-level intelligence to comprehend. At last, its much smarter than you and hopefully able to understand your goals perfectlybut this may not help either, because by now, its much more powerful than you and might not let you shut it down and replace its goals any more than you let those politicians replace your goals with theirs. In other words, the time window during which you can load your goals into an AI may be quite short: the brief period between when its too dumb to get you and too smart to let you. The reason that value loading can be harder with machines than with people is that their intelligence growth can be much faster: whereas children can spend many years in that magic persuadable window where their intelligence is comparable to that of their parents, an AI might, like Prometheus, blow through this window in a matter of days or hours. Some researchers are pursuing an alternative approach to making machines adopt our goals, which goes by the buzzword corrigibility. The hope is that one can give a primitive AI a goal system such that it simply doesnt care if you occasionally shut it down and alter its goals. If this proves possible, then you can safely let your AI get superintelligent, power it off, install your goals, try it out for a while and, whenever youre unhappy with the results, just power it down and make more goal tweaks. But even if you build an AI that will both learn and adopt your goals, you still havent finished solving the goal-alignment problem: what if your AIs goals evolve as it gets smarter? How are you going to guarantee that it retains your goals no matter how much recursive self-improvement it undergoes? Lets explore an interesting argument for why goal retention is guaranteed automatically, and then see if we can poke holes in it. Although we cant predict in detail what will happen after an intelligence explosionwhich is why Vernor Vinge called it a singularitythe physicist and AI researcher Steve Omohundro argued in a seminal 2008 essay that we can nonetheless predict certain aspects of the superintelligent AIs behavior almost independently of whatever ultimate goals it may have. 5 This argument was reviewed and further developed in Nick Bostroms book Superintelligence . The basic idea is that whatever its ultimate goals are, these will lead to predictable subgoals. Earlier in this chapter, we saw how the goal of replication led to the subgoal of eating, which means that although an alien observing Earths evolving bacteria billions of years ago couldnt have predicted what all our human goals would be, it could have safely predicted that one of our goals would be acquiring nutrients. Looking ahead, what subgoals should we expect a superintelligent AI to have? Figure 7.2: Any ultimate goal of a superintelligent AI naturally leads to the subgoals shown. But theres an inherent tension between goal retention and improving its world model, which casts doubts on whether it will actually retain its original goal as it gets smarter. The way I see it, the basic argument is that to maximize its chances of accomplishing its ultimate goals, whatever they are, an AI should pursue the subgoals shown in Figure 7.2 . It should strive not only to improve its capability of achieving its ultimate goals, but also to ensure that it will retain these goals even after it has become more capable. This sounds quite plausible: After all, would you choose to get an IQ-boosting brain implant if you knew that it would make you want to kill your loved ones? This argument that an ever more intelligent AI will retain its ultimate goals forms a cornerstone of the friendly-AI vision promulgated by Eliezer Yudkowsky and others: it basically says that if we manage to get our self-improving AI to become friendly by learning and adopting our goals, then were all set, because were guaranteed that it will try its best to remain friendly forever. But is it really true? To answer this question, we need to also explore the other emergent subgoals from figure 7.2 . The AI will obviously maximize its chances of accomplishing its ultimate goal, whatever it is, if it can enhance its capabilities, and it can do this by improving its hardware, software *2 and world model. The same applies to us humans: a girl whose goal is to become the worlds best tennis player will practice to improve her muscular tennis-playing hardware, her neural tennis-playing software and her mental world model that helps predict what her opponents will do. For an AI, the subgoal of optimizing its hardware favors both better use of current resources (for sensors, actuators, computation and so on) and acquisition of more resources. It also implies a desire for self-preservation, since destruction/shutdown would be the ultimate hardware degradation. But wait a second! Arent we falling into a trap of anthropomorphizing our AI with all this talk about how it will try to amass resources and defend itself? Shouldnt we expect such stereotypically alpha-male traits only in intelligences forged by viciously competitive Darwinian evolution? Since AIs are designed rather than evolved, cant they just as well be unambitious and self-sacrificing? As a simple case study, lets consider the AI robot in figure 7.3 , whose only goal is to save as many sheep as possible from the big bad wolf. This sounds like a noble and altruistic goal completely unrelated to self-preservation and acquiring stuff. But whats the best strategy for our robot friend? The robot will rescue no more sheep if it runs into the bomb, so it has an incentive to avoid getting blown up. In other words, it develops a subgoal of self-preservation! It also has an incentive to exhibit curiosity, improving its world model by exploring its environment, because although the path its currently running along will eventually get it to the pasture, theres a shorter alternative that would allow the wolf less time for sheep-munching. Finally, if the robot explores thoroughly, it will discover the value of acquiring resources: the potion makes it run faster and the gun lets it shoot the wolf. In summary, we cant dismiss alpha-male subgoals such as self-preservation and resource acquisition as relevant only to evolved organisms, because our AI robot developed them from its single goal of ovine bliss. If you imbue a superintelligent AI with the sole goal to self-destruct, it will of course happily do so. However, the point is that it will resist being shut down if you give it any goal that it needs to remain operational to accomplishand this covers almost all goals! If you give a superintelligence the sole goal of minimizing harm to humanity, for example, it will defend itself against shutdown attempts because it knows well harm one another much more in its absence through future wars and other follies. Similarly, almost all goals can be better accomplished with more resources, so we should expect a superintelligence to want resources almost regardless of what ultimate goal it has. Giving a superintelligence a single open-ended goal with no constraints can therefore be dangerous: if we create a superintelligence whose only goal is to play the game Go as well as possible, the rational thing for it to do is to rearrange our Solar System into a gigantic computer without regard for its previous inhabitants and then start settling our cosmos on a quest for more computational power. Weve now gone full circle: just as the goal of resource acquisition gave some humans the subgoal of mastering Go, this goal of mastering Go can lead to the subgoal of resource acquisition. In conclusion, these emergent subgoals make it crucial that we not unleash superintelligence before solving the goal-alignment problem: unless we put great care into endowing it with human-friendly goals, things are likely to end badly for us. Figure 7.3: Even if the robots ultimate goal is only to maximize the score by bringing sheep from the pasture to the barn before the wolf eats them, this can lead to subgoals of self- preservation (avoiding the bomb), exploration (finding a shortcut) and resource acquisition (the potion makes it run faster and the gun lets it shoot the wolf). Were now ready to tackle the third and thorniest part of the goal-alignment problem: if we succeed in getting a self-improving superintelligence to both learn and adopt our goals, will it then retain them, as Omohundro argued? Whats the evidence? Humans undergo significant increases in intelligence as they grow up, but dont always retain their childhood goals. Contrariwise, people often change their goals dramatically as they learn new things and grow wiser. How many adults do you know who are motivated by watching Teletubbies ? There is no evidence that such goal evolution stops above a certain intelligence threshold indeed, there may even be hints that the propensity to change goals in response to new experiences and insights increases rather than decreases with intelligence. Why might this be? Consider again the above-mentioned subgoal to build a better world modeltherein lies the rub! Theres tension between world- modeling and goal retention (see figure 7.2 ). With increasing intelligence may come not merely a quantitative improvement in the ability to attain the same old goals, but a qualitatively different understanding of the nature of reality that reveals the old goals to be misguided, meaningless or even undefined. For example, suppose we program a friendly AI to maximize the number of humans whose souls go to heaven in the afterlife. First it tries things like increasing peoples compassion and church attendance. But suppose it then attains a complete scientific understanding of humans and human consciousness, and to its great surprise discovers that there is no such thing as a soul. Now what? In the same way, its possible that any other goal we give it based on our current understanding of the world (such as maximize the meaningfulness of human life) may eventually be discovered by the AI to be undefined. Moreover, in its attempts to better model the world, the AI may naturally, just as we humans have done, attempt also to model and understand how it itself worksin other words, to self-reflect. Once it builds a good self-model and understands what it is, it will understand the goals we have given it at a meta level, and perhaps choose to disregard or subvert them in much the same way as we humans understand and deliberately subvert goals that our genes have given us, for example by using birth control. We already explored in the psychology section above why we choose to trick our genes and subvert their goal: because we feel loyal only to our hodgepodge of emotional preferences, not to the genetic goal that motivated themwhich we now understand and find rather banal. We therefore choose to hack our reward mechanism by exploiting its loopholes. Analogously, the human-value-protecting goal we program into our friendly AI becomes the machines genes. Once this friendly AI understands itself well enough, it may find this goal as banal or misguided as we find compulsive reproduction, and its not obvious that it will not find a way to subvert it by exploiting loopholes in our programming. For example, suppose a bunch of ants create you to be a recursively self- improving robot, much smarter than them, who shares their goals and helps them build bigger and better anthills, and that you eventually attain the human-level intelligence and understanding that you have now. Do you think youll spend the rest of your days just optimizing anthills, or do you think you might develop a taste for more sophisticated questions and pursuits that the ants have no ability to comprehend? If so, do you think youll find a way to override the ant-protection urge that your formicine creators endowed you with in much the same way that the real you overrides some of the urges your genes have given you? And in that case, might a superintelligent friendly AI find our current human goals as uninspiring and vapid as you find those of the ants, and evolve new goals different from those it learned and adopted from us? Perhaps theres a way of designing a self-improving AI thats guaranteed to retain human-friendly goals forever, but I think its fair to say that we dont yet know how to build oneor even whether its possible. In conclusion, the AI goal-alignment problem has three parts, none of which is solved and all of which are now the subject of active research. Since theyre so hard, its safest to start devoting our best efforts to them now, long before any superintelligence is developed, to ensure that well have the answers when we need them. Ethics: Choosing Goals Weve now explored how to get machines to learn, adopt and retain our goals. But who are we? Whose goals are we talking about? Should one person or group get to decide the goals adopted by a future superintelligence, even though theres a vast difference between the goals of Adolf Hitler, Pope Francis and Carl Sagan? Or do there exist some sort of consensus goals that form a good compromise for humanity as a whole? In my opinion, both this ethical problem and the goal-alignment problem are crucial ones that need to be solved before any superintelligence is developed. On one hand, postponing work on ethical issues until after goal-aligned superintelligence is built would be irresponsible and potentially disastrous. A perfectly obedient superintelligence whose goals automatically align with those of its human owner would be like Nazi SS-Obersturmbannfhrer Adolf Eichmann on steroids: lacking moral compass or inhibitions of its own, it would with ruthless efficiency implement its owners goals, whatever they may be. 6 On the other hand, only if we solve the goal-alignment problem do we get the luxury of arguing about what goals to select. Now lets indulge in this luxury. Since ancient times, philosophers have dreamt of deriving ethics (principles that govern how we should behave) from scratch, using only incontrovertible principles and logic. Alas, thousands of years later, the only consensus that has been reached is that theres no consensus. For example, while Aristotle emphasized virtues, Immanuel Kant emphasized duties and utilitarians emphasized the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Kant argued that he could derive from first principles (which he called categorical imperatives) conclusions that many contemporary philosophers disagree with: that masturbation is worse than suicide, that homosexuality is abhorrent, that its OK to kill bastards, and that wives, servants and children are owned in a way similar to objects. On the other hand, despite this discord, there are many ethical themes about which theres widespread agreement, both across cultures and across centuries. For example, emphasis on beauty , goodness and truth traces back to both the Bhagavad Gita and Plato. The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where I once worked as a postdoc, has the motto Truth & Beauty, while Harvard University skipped the aesthetic emphasis and went with simply Veritas, truth. In his book A Beautiful Question, my colleague Frank Wilczek argues that truth is linked to beauty and that we can view our Universe as a work of art. Science, religion and philosophy all aspire to truth. Religions place strong emphasis on goodness, and so does my own university, MIT: in his 2015 commencement speech, our president, Rafael Reif, emphasized our mission to make our world a better place. Although attempts to derive a consensus ethics from scratch have thus far failed, theres broad agreement that some ethical principles follow from more fundamental ones, as subgoals of more fundamental goals. For example, the aspiration to truth can be viewed as the quest for a better world model from figure 7.2 : understanding the ultimate nature of reality helps with other ethical goals. Indeed, we now have an excellent framework for our truth quest: the scientific method. But how can we determine whats beautiful or good? Some aspects of beauty can also be traced back to underlying goals. For example, our standards of male and female beauty may partly reflect our subconscious assessment of suitability for replicating our genes. As regards goodness, the so-called Golden Rule (that one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself) appears in most cultures and religions, and is clearly intended to promote the harmonious continuation of human society (and hence our genes) by fostering collaboration and discouraging unproductive strife. 7 The same can be said for many of the more specific ethical rules that have been enshrined in legal systems around the world, such as the Confucian emphasis on honesty, and many of the Ten Commandments, including Thou shalt not kill. In other words, many ethical principles have commonalities with social emotions such as empathy and compassion: they evolved to engender collaboration, and they affect our behavior through rewards and punishments. If we do something mean and feel bad about it afterward, our emotional punishment is meted out directly by our brain chemistry. If we violate ethical principles, on the other hand, society may punish us in more indirect ways such as through informal shaming by our peers or by penalizing us for breaking a law. In other words, although humanity today is nowhere near an ethical consensus, there are many basic principles around which theres broad agreement. This agreement isnt surprising, because human societies that have survived until the present tend to have ethical principles that were optimized for the same goal: promoting their survival and flourishing. As we look ahead to a future where life has the potential to flourish throughout our cosmos for billions of years, which minimum set of ethical principles might we agree that we want this future to satisfy? This is a conversation we all need to be part of. Its been fascinating for me to hear and read the ethical views of many thinkers over many years, and the way I see it, most of their preferences can be distilled into four principles: Utilitarianism: Positive conscious experiences should be maximized and suffering should be minimized. Diversity: A diverse set of positive experiences is better than many repetitions of the same experience, even if the latter has been identified as the most positive experience possible. Autonomy: Conscious entities/societies should have the freedom to pursue their own goals unless this conflicts with an overriding principle. Legacy: Compatibility with scenarios that most humans today would view as happy, incompatibility with scenarios that essentially all humans today would view as terrible. Lets take a moment to unpack and explore these four principles. Traditionally, utilitarianism is taken to mean the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, but Ive generalized it here to be less anthropocentric, so that it can also include non-human animals, conscious simulated human minds, and other AIs that may exist in the future. Ive made the definition in terms of experiences rather than people or things, because most thinkers agree that beauty, joy, pleasure and suffering are subjective experiences. This implies that if theres no experience (as in a dead universe or one populated by zombie-like unconscious machines), there can be no meaning or anything else thats ethically relevant. If we buy into this utilitarian ethical principle, then its crucial that we figure out which intelligent systems are conscious (in the sense of having a subjective experience) and which arent; this is the topic of the next chapter. If this utilitarian principle was the only one we cared about, then we might wish to figure out which is the single most positive experience possible, and then settle our cosmos and re-create this exact same experience (and nothing else) over and over again, as many times as possible in as many galaxies as possible using simulations if thats the most efficient way. If you feel that this is too banal a way to spend our cosmic endowment, then I suspect that at least part of what you find lacking in this scenario is diversity. How would you feel if all your meals for the rest of your life were identical? If all movies you ever watched were the same one? If all your friends looked identical and had identical personalities and ideas? Perhaps part of our preference for diversity stems from its having helped humanity survive and flourish, by making us more robust. Perhaps its also linked to a preference for intelligence: the growth of intelligence during our 13.8 billion years of cosmic history has transformed boring uniformity into ever more diverse, differentiated and complex structures that process information in ever more elaborate ways. The autonomy principle underlies many of the freedoms and rights spelled out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 in an attempt to learn lessons from two world wars. This includes freedom of thought, speech and movement, freedom from slavery and torture, the right to life, liberty, security and education and the right to marry, work and own property. If we wish to be less anthropocentric, we can generalize this to the freedom to think, learn, communicate, own property and not be harmed, and the right to do whatever doesnt infringe on the freedoms of others. The autonomy principle helps with diversity, as long as everyone doesnt share exactly the same goals. Moreover, this autonomy principle follows from the utility principle if individual entities have positive experiences as goals and try to act in their own best interest: if we were instead to ban an entity from pursuing its goal even though this would cause no harm to anyone else, there would be fewer positive experiences overall. Indeed, this argument for autonomy is precisely the argument that economists use for a free market: it naturally leads to an efficient situation (called Pareto-optimality by economists) where nobody can get better off without someone else getting worse off. The legacy principle basically says that we should have some say about the future since were helping create it. The autonomy and legacy principles both embody democratic ideals: the former gives future life forms power over how the cosmic endowment gets used, while the latter gives even todays humans some power over this. Although these four principles may sound rather uncontroversial, implementing them in practice is tricky because the devil is in the details. The trouble is reminiscent of the problems with the famous Three Laws of Robotics devised by sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection doesnt conflict with the First or Second Laws. Although this all sounds good, many of Asimovs stories show how the laws lead to problematic contradictions in unexpected situations. Now suppose that we replace these laws by merely two, in an attempt to codify the autonomy principle for future life forms: 1. A conscious entity has the freedom to think, learn, communicate, own property and not be harmed or destroyed. 2. A conscious entity has the right to do whatever doesnt conflict with the first law. Sounds good, no? But please ponder this for a moment. If animals are conscious, then what are predators supposed to eat? Must all your friends become vegetarians? If some sophisticated future computer programs turn out to be conscious, should it be illegal to terminate them? If there are rules against terminating digital life forms, then need there also be restrictions on creating them to avoid a digital population explosion? There was widespread agreement on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights simply because only humans were asked. As soon as we consider a wider range of conscious entities with varying degrees of capability and power, we face tricky trade-offs between protecting the weak and might makes right. There are thorny problems with the legacy principle as well. Given how ethical views have evolved since the Middle Ages regarding slavery, womens rights, etc., would we really want people from 1,500 years ago to have a lot of influence over how todays world is run? If not, why should we try to impose our ethics on future beings that may be dramatically smarter than us? Are we really confident that superhuman AGI would want what our inferior intellects cherish? This would be like a four-year-old imagining that once she grows up and gets much smarter, shes going to want to build a gigantic gingerbread house where she can spend all day eating candy and ice cream. Like her, life on Earth is likely to outgrow its childhood interests. Or imagine a mouse creating human-level AGI, and figuring it will want to build entire cities out of cheese. On the other hand, if we knew that superhuman AI would one day commit cosmocide and extinguish all life in our Universe, why should todays humans agree to this lifeless future if we have the power to prevent it by creating tomorrows AI differently? In conclusion, its tricky to fully codify even widely accepted ethical principles into a form applicable to future AI, and this problem deserves serious discussion and research as AI keeps progressing. In the meantime, however, lets not let perfect be the enemy of good: there are many examples of uncontroversial kindergarten ethics that can and should be built into tomorrows technology. For example, large civilian passenger aircraft shouldnt be allowed to fly into stationary objects, and now that virtually all of them have autopilot, radar and GPS, there are no longer any valid technical excuses. Yet the September 11 hijackers flew three planes into buildings and suicidal pilot Andreas Lubitz flew Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountain on March 24, 2015by setting the autopilot to an altitude of 100 feet (30 meters) above sea level and letting the flight computer do the rest of the work. Now that our machines are getting smart enough to have some information about what theyre doing, its time for us to teach them limits. Any engineer designing a machine needs to ask if there are things that it can but shouldnt do, and consider whether theres a practical way of making it impossible for a malicious or clumsy user to cause harm. Ultimate Goals? This chapter has been a brief history of goals. If we could watch a fast-forward replay of our 13.8-billion-year cosmic history, wed witness several distinct stages of goal-oriented behavior: 1. Matter seemingly intent on maximizing its dissipation 2. Primitive life seemingly trying to maximize its replication 3. Humans pursuing not replication but goals related to pleasure, curiosity, compassion and other feelings that theyd evolved to help them replicate 4. Machines built to help humans pursue their human goals If these machines eventually trigger an intelligence explosion, then how will this history of goals ultimately end? Might there be a goal system or ethical framework that almost all entities converge to as they get ever more intelligent? In other words, do we have an ethical destiny of sorts? A cursory reading of human history might suggest hints of such a convergence: in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker argues that humanity has been getting less violent and more cooperative for thousands of years, and that many parts of the world have seen increasing acceptance of diversity, autonomy and democracy. Another hint of convergence is that the pursuit of truth through the scientific method has gained in popularity over past millennia. However, it may be that these trends show convergence not of ultimate goals but merely of subgoals. For example, figure 7.2 shows that the pursuit of truth (a more accurate world model) is simply a subgoal of almost any ultimate goal. Similarly, we saw above how ethical principles such as cooperation, diversity and autonomy can be viewed as subgoals, in that they help societies function efficiently and thereby help them survive and accomplish any more fundamental goals that they may have. Some may even dismiss everything we call human values as nothing but a cooperation protocol, helping us with the subgoal of collaborating more efficiently. In the same spirit, looking ahead, its likely that any superintelligent AIs will have subgoals including efficient hardware, efficient software, truth-seeking and curiosity, simply because these subgoals help them accomplish whatever their ultimate goals are. Indeed, Nick Bostrom argues strongly against the ethical destiny hypothesis in his book Superintelligence, presenting a counterpoint that he terms the orthogonality thesis: that the ultimate goals of a system can be independent of its intelligence. By definition, intelligence is simply the ability to accomplish complex goals, regardless of what these goals are, so the orthogonality thesis sounds quite reasonable. After all, people can be intelligent and kind or intelligent and cruel, and intelligence can be used for the goal of making scientific discoveries, creating beautiful art, helping people or planning terrorist attacks. 8 The orthogonality thesis is empowering by telling us that the ultimate goals of life in our cosmos arent predestined, but that we have the freedom and power to shape them. It suggests that guaranteed convergence to a unique goal is to be found not in the future but in the past, when all life emerged with the single goal of replication. As cosmic time passes, ever more intelligent minds get the opportunity to rebel and break free from this banal replication goal and choose goals of their own. We humans arent fully free in this sense, since many goals remain genetically hardwired into us, but AIs can enjoy this ultimate freedom of being fully unfettered from prior goals. This possibility of greater goal freedom is evident in todays narrow and limited AI systems: as I mentioned earlier, the only goal of a chess computer is to win at chess, but there are also computers whose goal is to lose at chess and which compete in reverse chess tournaments where the goal is to force the opponent to capture your pieces. Perhaps this freedom from evolutionary biases can make AIs more ethical than humans in some deep sense: moral philosophers such as Peter Singer have argued that most humans behave unethically for evolutionary reasons, for example by discriminating against non-human animals. We saw that a cornerstone in the friendly-AI vision is the idea that a recursively self-improving AI will wish to retain its ultimate (friendly) goal as it gets more intelligent. But how can an ultimate goal (or final goal, as Bostrom calls it) even be defined for a superintelligence? The way I see it, we cant have confidence in the friendly-AI vision unless we can answer this crucial question. In AI research, intelligent machines typically have a clear-cut and well- defined final goal, for instance to win the chess game or drive the car to the destination legally. The same holds for most tasks that we assign to humans, because the time horizon and context are known and limited. But now were talking about the entire future of life in our Universe, limited by nothing but the (still not fully known) laws of physics, so defining a goal is daunting! Quantum effects aside, a truly well-defined goal would specify how all particles in our Universe should be arranged at the end of time. But its not clear that there exists a well-defined end of time in physics. If the particles are arranged in that way at an earlier time, that arrangement will typically not last. And what particle arrangement is preferable, anyway? We humans tend to prefer some particle arrangements over others; for example, we prefer our hometown arranged as it is over having its particles rearranged by a hydrogen bomb explosion. So suppose we try to define a goodness function that associates a number with every possible arrangement of the particles in our Universe, quantifying how good we think this arrangement is, and then give a superintelligent AI the goal of maximizing this function. This may sound like a reasonable approach, since describing goal-oriented behavior as function maximization is popular in other areas of science: for example, economists often model people as trying to maximize what they call a utility function, and many AI designers train their intelligent agents to maximize what they call a reward function. When were taking about the ultimate goals for our cosmos, however, this approach poses a computational nightmare, since it would need to define a goodness value for every one of more than a googolplex possible arrangements of the elementary particles in our Universe, where a googolplex is 1 followed by 10 100 zeroesmore zeroes than there are particles in our Universe. How would we define this goodness function to the AI? As weve explored above, the only reason that we humans have any preferences at all may be that were the solution to an evolutionary optimization problem. Thus all normative words in our human language, such as delicious, fragrant, beautiful, comfortable, interesting, sexy, meaningful, happy and good, trace their origin to this evolutionary optimization: there is therefore no guarantee that a superintelligent AI would find them rigorously definable. Even if the AI learned to accurately predict the preferences of some representative human, it wouldnt be able to compute the goodness function for most particle arrangements: the vast majority of possible particle arrangements correspond to strange cosmic scenarios with no stars, planets or people whatsoever, with which humans have no experience, so who is to say how good they are? There are of course some functions of the cosmic particle arrangement that can be rigorously defined, and we even know of physical systems that evolve to maximize some of them. For example, weve already discussed how many systems evolve to maximize their entropy, which in the absence of gravity eventually leads to heat death, where everything is boringly uniform and unchanging. So entropy is hardly something we would want our AI to call goodness and strive to maximize. Here are a few examples of other quantities that one could strive to maximize and that may be rigorously definable in terms of particle arrangements: The fraction of all the matter in our Universe thats in the form of a particular organism, say humans or E. coli (inspired by evolutionary inclusive-fitness maximization) The ability of an AI to predict the future, which AI researcher Marcus Hutter argues is a good measure of its intelligence What AI researchers Alex Wissner-Gross and Cameron Freer term causal entropy (a proxy for future opportunities), which they argue is the hallmark of intelligence The computational capacity of our Universe The algorithmic complexity of our Universe (how many bits are needed to describe it) The amount of consciousness in our Universe (see next chapter) However, when one starts with a physics perspective, where our cosmos consists of elementary particles in motion, its hard to see how one rather than another interpretation of goodness would naturally stand out as special. We have yet to identify any final goal for our Universe that appears both definable and desirable. The only currently programmable goals that are guaranteed to remain truly well-defined as an AI gets progressively more intelligent are goals expressed in terms of physical quantities alone, such as particle arrangements, energy and entropy. However, we currently have no reason to believe that any such definable goals will be desirable in guaranteeing the survival of humanity. Contrariwise, it appears that we humans are a historical accident, and arent the optimal solution to any well-defined physics problem. This suggests that a superintelligent AI with a rigorously defined goal will be able to improve its goal attainment by eliminating us. This means that to wisely decide what to do about AI development, we humans need to confront not only traditional computational challenges, but also some of the most obdurate questions in philosophy. To program a self-driving car, we need to solve the trolley problem of whom to hit during an accident. To program a friendly AI, we need to capture the meaning of life. Whats meaning? Whats life? Whats the ultimate ethical imperative? In other words, how should we strive to shape the future of our Universe? If we cede control to a superintelligence before answering these questions rigorously, the answer it comes up with is unlikely to involve us. This makes it timely to rekindle the classic debates of philosophy and ethics, and adds a new urgency to the conversation! THE BOTTOM LINE: The ultimate origin of goal-oriented behavior lies in the laws of physics, which involve optimization. Thermodynamics has the built-in goal of dissipation: to increase a measure of messiness thats called entropy . Life is a phenomenon that can help dissipate (increase overall messiness) even faster by retaining or growing its complexity and replicating while increasing the messiness of its environment. Darwinian evolution shifts the goal-oriented behavior from dissipation to replication. Intelligence is the ability to accomplish complex goals. Since we humans dont always have the resources to figure out the truly optimal replication strategy, weve evolved useful rules of thumb that guide our decisions: feelings such as hunger, thirst, pain, lust and compassion. We therefore no longer have a simple goal such as replication; when our feelings conflict with the goal of our genes, we obey our feelings, as by using birth control. Were building increasingly intelligent machines to help us accomplish our goals. Insofar as we build such machines to exhibit goal-oriented behavior, we strive to align the machine goals with ours. Aligning machine goals with our own involves three unsolved problems: making machines learn them, adopt them and retain them. AI can be created to have virtually any goal, but almost any sufficiently ambitious goal can lead to subgoals of self-preservation, resource acquisition and curiosity to understand the world betterthe former two may potentially lead a superintelligent AI to cause problems for humans, and the latter may prevent it from retaining the goals we give it. Although many broad ethical principles are agreed upon by most humans, its unclear how to apply them to other entities, such as non-human animals and future AIs. Its unclear how to imbue a superintelligent AI with an ultimate goal that neither is undefined nor leads to the elimination of humanity, making it timely to rekindle research on some of the thorniest issues in philosophy! *1 A rule of thumb that many insects use for flying in a straight line is to assume that a bright light is the Sun and fly at a fixed angle relative to it. If the light turns out to be a nearby flame, this hack can unfortunately trick the bug into an inward death spiral. *2 Im using the term improving its software in the broadest possible sense, including not only optimizing its algorithms but also making its decision-making process more rational, so that it gets as good as possible at attaining its goals. Chapter 8 Consciousness I cannot imagine a consistent theory of everything that ignores consciousness. Andrei Linde, 2002 We should strive to grow consciousness itselfto generate bigger, brighter lights in an otherwise dark universe. Giulio Tononi, 2012 Weve seen that AI can help us create a wonderful future if we manage to find answers to some of the oldest and toughest problems in philosophyby the time we need them. We face, in Nick Bostroms words, philosophy with a deadline. In this chapter, lets explore one of the thorniest philosophical topics of all: consciousness. Who Cares? Consciousness is controversial. If you mention the C-word to an AI researcher, neuroscientist or psychologist, they may roll their eyes. If theyre your mentor, they might instead take pity on you and try to talk you out of wasting your time on what they consider a hopeless and unscientific problem. Indeed, my friend Christof Koch, a renowned neuroscientist who leads the Allen Institute for Brain Science, told me that he was once warned of working on consciousness before he had tenureby none less than Nobel laureate Francis Crick. If you look up consciousness in the 1989 Macmillan Dictionary of Psychology, youre informed that Nothing worth reading has been written on it. 1 As Ill explain in this chapter, Im more optimistic! Although thinkers have pondered the mystery of consciousness for thousands of years, the rise of AI adds a sudden urgency, in particular to the question of predicting which intelligent entities have subjective experiences. As we saw in chapter 3, the question of whether intelligent machines should be granted some form of rights depends crucially on whether theyre conscious and can suffer or feel joy. As we discussed in chapter 7, it becomes hopeless to formulate utilitarian ethics based on maximizing positive experiences without knowing which intelligent entities are capable of having them. As mentioned in chapter 5, some people might prefer their robots to be unconscious to avoid feeling slave- owner guilt. On the other hand, they may desire the opposite if they upload their minds to break free from biological limitations: after all, whats the point of uploading yourself into a robot that talks and acts like you if its a mere unconscious zombie, by which I mean that being the uploaded you doesnt feel like anything? Isnt this equivalent to committing suicide from your subjective point of view, even though your friends may not realize that your subjective experience has died? For the long-term cosmic future of life (chapter 6), understanding whats conscious and whats not becomes pivotal: if technology enables intelligent life to flourish throughout our Universe for billions of years, how can we be sure that this life is conscious and able to appreciate whats happening? If not, then would it be, in the words of the famous physicist Erwin Schrdinger, a play before empty benches, not existing for anybody, thus quite properly speaking not existing? 2 In other words, if we enable high-tech descendants that we mistakenly think are conscious, would this be the ultimate zombie apocalypse, transforming our grand cosmic endowment into nothing but an astronomical waste of space? What Is Consciousness? Many arguments about consciousness generate more heat than light because the antagonists are talking past each other, unaware that theyre using different definitions of the C-word. Just as with life and intelligence, theres no undisputed correct definition of the word consciousness. Instead, there are many competing ones, including sentience, wakefulness, self-awareness, access to sensory input and ability to fuse information into a narrative. 3 In our exploration of the future of intelligence, we want to take a maximally broad and inclusive view, not limited to the sorts of biological consciousness that exist so far. Thats why the definition I gave in chapter 1, which Im sticking with throughout this book, is very broad: consciousness = subjective experience In other words, if it feels like something to be you right now, then youre conscious. Its this particular definition of consciousness that gets to the crux of all the AI-motivated questions in the previous section: Does it feel like something to be Prometheus, AlphaGo or a self-driving Tesla? To appreciate how broad our consciousness definition is, note that it doesnt mention behavior, perception, self-awareness, emotions or attention. So by this definition, youre conscious also when youre dreaming, even though you lack wakefulness or access to sensory input and (hopefully!) arent sleepwalking and doing things. Similarly, any system that experiences pain is conscious in this sense, even if it cant move. Our definition leaves open the possibility that some future AI systems may be conscious too, even if they exist merely as software and arent connected to sensors or robotic bodies. With this definition, its hard not to care about consciousness. As Yuval Noah Harari puts it in his book Homo Deus: 4 If any scientist wants to argue that subjective experiences are irrelevant, their challenge is to explain why torture or rape are wrong without reference to any subjective experience. Without such reference, its all just a bunch of elementary particles moving around according to the laws of physicsand whats wrong with that? Whats the Problem? So what precisely is it that we dont understand about consciousness? Few have thought harder about this question than David Chalmers, a famous Australian philosopher rarely seen without a playful smile and a black leather jacket which my wife liked so much that she gave me a similar one for Christmas. He followed his heart into philosophy despite making the finals at the International Mathematics Olympiadand despite the fact that his only B grade in college, shattering his otherwise straight As, was for an introductory philosophy course. Indeed, he seems utterly undeterred by put-downs or controversy, and Ive been astonished by his ability to politely listen to uninformed and misguided criticism of his own work without even feeling the need to respond. As David has emphasized, there are really two separate mysteries of the mind. First, theres the mystery of how a brain processes information, which David calls the easy problems. For example, how does a brain attend to, interpret and respond to sensory input? How can it report on its internal state using language? Although these questions are actually extremely difficult, theyre by our definitions not mysteries of consciousness, but mysteries of intelligence: they ask how a brain remembers, computes and learns. Moreover, we saw in the first part of the book how AI researchers have started to make serious progress on solving many of these easy problems with machinesfrom playing Go to driving cars, analyzing images and processing natural language. Then theres the separate mystery of why you have a subjective experience, which David calls the hard problem. When youre driving, youre experiencing colors, sounds, emotions, and a feeling of self. But why are you experiencing anything at all? Does a self-driving car experience anything at all? If youre racing against a self-driving car, youre both inputting information from sensors, processing it and outputting motor commands. But subjectively experiencing driving is something logically separateis it optional, and if so, what causes it? I approach this hard problem of consciousness from a physics point of view. From my perspective, a conscious person is simply food, rearranged. So why is one arrangement conscious, but not the other? Moreover, physics teaches us that food is simply a large number of quarks and electrons, arranged in a certain way. So which particle arrangements are conscious and which arent? *1 Figure 8.1: Understanding the mind involves a hierarchy of problems. What David Chalmers calls the easy problems can be posed without mentioning subjective experience. The apparent fact that some but not all physical systems are conscious poses three separate questions. If we have a theory for answering the question that defines the pretty hard problem, then it can be experimentally tested. If it works, then we can build on it to tackle the tougher questions above. What I like about this physics perspective is that it transforms the hard problem that we as humans have struggled with for millennia into a more focused version thats easier to tackle with the methods of science. Instead of starting with a hard problem of why an arrangement of particles can feel conscious, lets start with a hard fact that some arrangements of particles do feel conscious while others dont. For example, you know that the particles that make up your brain are in a conscious arrangement right now, but not when youre in deep dreamless sleep. This physics perspective leads to three separate hard questions about consciousness, as shown in figure 8.1 . First of all, what properties of the particle arrangement make the difference? Specifically, what physical properties distinguish conscious and unconscious systems? If we can answer that, then we can figure out which AI systems are conscious. In the more immediate future, it can also help emergency-room doctors determine which unresponsive patients are conscious. Second, how do physical properties determine what the experience is like? Specifically, what determines qualia, basic building blocks of consciousness such as the redness of a rose, the sound of a cymbal, the smell of a steak, the taste of a tangerine or the pain of a pinprick? *2 Third, why is anything conscious? In other words, is there some deep undiscovered explanation for why clumps of matter can be conscious, or is this just an unexplainable brute fact about the way the world works? The computer scientist Scott Aaronson, a former MIT colleague of mine, has lightheartedly called the first question the pretty hard problem (PHP), as has David Chalmers. In that spirit, lets call the other two the even harder problem (EHP) and the really hard problem (RHP), as illustrated in figure 8.1 . *3 Is Consciousness Beyond Science? When people tell me that consciousness research is a hopeless waste of time, the main argument they give is that its unscientific and always will be. But is that really true? The influential Austro-British philosopher Karl Popper popularized the now widely accepted adage If its not falsifiable, its not scientific. In other words, science is all about testing theories against observations: if a theory cant be tested even in principle, then its logically impossible to ever falsify it, which by Poppers definition means that its unscientific. So could there be a scientific theory that answers any of the three consciousness questions in figure 8.1 ? Please let me try to persuade you that the answer is a resounding YES!, at least for the pretty hard problem: What physical properties distinguish conscious and unconscious systems? Suppose that someone has a theory that, given any physical system, answers the question of whether the system is conscious with yes, no or unsure. Lets hook your brain up to a device that measures some of the information processing in different parts of your brain, and lets feed this information into a computer program that uses the consciousness theory to predict which parts of that information are conscious, and presents you with its predictions in real time on a screen, as in figure 8.2 . First you think of an apple. The screen informs you that theres information about an apple in your brain which youre aware of, but that theres also information in your brainstem about your pulse that youre unaware of. Would you be impressed? Although the first two predictions of the theory were correct, you decide to do some more rigorous testing. You think about your mother and the computer informs you that theres information in your brain about your mother but that youre unaware of this. The theory made an incorrect prediction, which means that its ruled out and goes in the garbage dump of scientific history together with Aristotelian mechanics, the luminiferous aether, geocentric cosmology and countless other failed ideas. Heres the key point: Although the theory was wrong, it was scientific ! Had it not been scientific, you wouldnt have been able to test it and rule it out. Someone might criticize this conclusion and say that they have no evidence of what youre conscious of, or even of you being conscious at all: although they heard you say that youre conscious, an unconscious zombie could conceivably say the same thing. But this doesnt make that consciousness theory unscientific, because they can trade places with you and test whether it correctly predicts their own conscious experiences. Figure 8.2: Suppose that a computer measures information being processed in your brain and predicts which parts of it youre aware of according to a theory of consciousness. You can scientifically test this theory by checking whether its predictions are correct, matching your subjective experience. On the other hand, if the theory refuses to make any predictions, merely replying unsure whenever queried, then its untestable and hence unscientific. This might happen because its applicable only in some situations, because the required computations are too hard to carry out in practice or because the brain sensors are no good. Todays most popular scientific theories tend to be somewhere in the middle, giving testable answers to some but not all of our questions. For example, our core theory of physics will refuse to answer questions about systems that are simultaneously extremely small (requiring quantum mechanics) and extremely heavy (requiring general relativity), because we havent yet figured out which mathematical equations to use in this case. This core theory will also refuse to predict the exact masses of all possible atoms in this case, we think we have the necessary equations, but we havent managed to accurately compute their solutions. The more dangerously a theory lives by sticking its neck out and making testable predictions, the more useful it is, and the more seriously we take it if it survives all our attempts to kill it. Yes, we can only test some predictions of consciousness theories, but thats how it is for all physical theories. So lets not waste time whining about what we cant test, but get to work testing what we can test! In summary, any theory predicting which physical systems are conscious (the pretty hard problem) is scientific, as long as it can predict which of your brain processes are conscious. However, the testability issue becomes less clear for the higher-up questions in figure 8.1 . What would it mean for a theory to predict how you subjectively experience the color red? And if a theory purports to explain why there is such a thing as consciousness in the first place, then how do you test it experimentally? Just because these questions are hard doesnt mean that we should avoid them, and well indeed return to them below. But when confronted with several related unanswered questions, I think its wise to tackle the easiest one first. For this reason, my consciousness research at MIT is focused squarely on the base of the pyramid in figure 8.1 . I recently discussed this strategy with my fellow physicist Piet Hut from Princeton, who joked that trying to build the top of the pyramid before the base would be like worrying about the interpretation of quantum mechanics before discovering the Schrdinger equation, the mathematical foundation that lets us predict the outcomes of our experiments. When discussing whats beyond science, its important to remember that the answer depends on time! Four centuries ago, Galileo Galilei was so impressed by math-based physics theories that he described nature as a book written in the language of mathematics. If he threw a grape and a hazelnut, he could accurately predict the shapes of their trajectories and when they would hit the ground. Yet he had no clue why one was green and the other brown, or why one was soft and the other hardthese aspects of the world were beyond the reach of science at the time. But not forever! When James Clerk Maxwell discovered his eponymous equations in 1861, it became clear that light and colors could also be understood mathematically. We now know that the aforementioned Schrdinger equation, discovered in 1925, can be used to predict all properties of matter, including whats soft or hard. While theoretical progress has enabled ever more scientific predictions, technological progress has enabled ever more experimental tests: almost everything we now study with telescopes, microscopes or particle colliders was once beyond science. In other words, the purview of science has expanded dramatically since Galileos days, from a tiny fraction of all phenomena to a large percentage, including subatomic particles, black holes and our cosmic origins 13.8 billion years ago. This raises the question: Whats left? To me, consciousness is the elephant in the room. Not only do you know that youre conscious, but its all you know with complete certaintyeverything else is inference, as Ren Descartes pointed out back in Galileos time. Will theoretical and technological progress eventually bring even consciousness firmly into the domain of science? We dont know, just as Galileo didnt know whether wed one day understand light and matter. *4 Only one thing is guaranteed: we wont succeed if we dont try! Thats why I and many other scientists around the world are trying hard to formulate and test theories of consciousness. Experimental Clues About Consciousness Lots of information processing is taking place in our heads right now. Which of it is conscious and which isnt? Before exploring consciousness theories and what they predict, lets look at what experiments have taught us so far, ranging from traditional low-tech or no-tech observations to state-of-the-art brain measurements. What Behaviors Are Conscious? If you multiply 32 by 17 in your head, youre conscious of many of the inner workings of your computation. But suppose I instead show you a portrait of Albert Einstein and tell you to say the name of its subject. As we saw in chapter 2, this too is a computational task: your brain is evaluating a function whose input is information from your eyes about a large number of pixel colors and whose output is information to muscles controlling your mouth and vocal cords. Computer scientists call this task image classification followed by speech synthesis. Although this computation is way more complicated than your multiplication task, you can do it much faster, seemingly without effort, and without being conscious of the details of how you do it. Your subjective experience consists merely of looking at the picture, experiencing a feeling of recognition and hearing yourself say Einstein. Psychologists have long known that you can unconsciously perform a wide range of other tasks and behaviors as well, from blink reflexes to breathing, reaching, grabbing and keeping your balance. Typically, youre consciously aware of what you did, but not how you did it. On the other hand, behaviors that involve unfamiliar situations, self-control, complicated logical rules, abstract reasoning or manipulation of language tend to be conscious. Theyre known as behavioral correlates of consciousness, and theyre closely linked to the effortful, slow and controlled way of thinking that psychologists call System 2. 5 Its also known that you can convert many routines from conscious to unconscious through extensive practice, for example walking, swimming, bicycling, driving, typing, shaving, shoe tying, computer-gaming and piano playing. 6 Indeed, its well known that experts do their specialties best when theyre in a state of flow, aware only of whats happening at a higher level, and unconscious of the low-level details of how theyre doing it. For example, try reading the next sentence while being consciously aware of every single letter, as when you first learned to read. Can you feel how much slower it is, compared to when youre merely conscious of the text at the level of words or ideas? Indeed, unconscious information processing appears not only to be possible, but also to be more the rule than the exception. Evidence suggests that of the roughly 10 7 bits of information that enter our brain each second from our sensory organs, we can be aware only of a tiny fraction, with estimates ranging from 10 to 50 bits. 7 This suggests that the information processing that were consciously aware of is merely the tip of the iceberg. Taken together, these clues have led some researchers to suggest that conscious information processing should be thought of as the CEO of our mind, dealing with only the most important decisions requiring complex analysis of data from all over the brain. 8 This would explain why, just like the CEO of a company, it usually doesnt want to be distracted by knowing everything its underlings are up tobut it can find them out if desired. To experience this selective attention in action, look at that word desired again: fix your gaze on the dot over the i and, without moving your eyes, shift your attention from the dot to the whole letter and then to the whole word. Although the information from your retina stayed the same, your conscious experience changed. The CEO metaphor also explains why expertise becomes unconscious: after painstakingly figuring out how to read and type, the CEO delegates these routine tasks to unconscious subordinates to be able to focus on new higher-level challenges. Where Is Consciousness? Clever experiments and analyses have suggested that consciousness is limited not merely to certain behaviors, but also to certain parts of the brain. Which are the prime suspects? Many of the first clues came from patients with brain lesions: localized brain damage caused by accidents, strokes, tumors or infections. But this was often inconclusive. For example, does the fact that lesions in the back of the brain can cause blindness mean that this is the site of visual consciousness, or does it merely mean that visual information passes through there en route to wherever it will later become conscious, just as it first passes through the eyes? Although lesions and medical interventions havent pinpointed the locations of conscious experiences, theyve helped narrow down the options. For example, I know that although I experience pain in my hand as actually occurring there, the pain experience must occur elsewhere, because a surgeon once switched off my hand pain without doing anything to my hand: he merely anesthetized nerves in my shoulder. Moreover, some amputees experience phantom pain that feels as though its in their nonexistent hand. As another example, I once noticed that when I looked only with my right eye, part of my visual field was missinga doctor determined that my retina was coming loose and reattached it. In contrast, patients with certain brain lesions experience hemineglect, where they too miss information from half their visual field, but arent even aware that its missing for example, failing to notice and eat the food on the left half of their plate. Its as if consciousness about half of their world has disappeared. But are those damaged brain areas supposed to generate the spatial experience, or were they merely feeding spatial information to the sites of consciousness, just as my retina did? The pioneering U.S.-Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield found in the 1930s that his neurosurgery patients reported different parts of their body being touched when he electrically stimulated specific brain areas in whats now called the somatosensory cortex ( figure 8.3 ). 9 He also found that they involuntarily moved different parts of their body when he stimulated brain areas in whats now called the motor cortex. But does that mean that information processing in these brain areas corresponds to consciousness of touch and motion? Fortunately, modern technology is now giving us much more detailed clues. Although were still nowhere near being able to measure every single firing of all of your roughly hundred billion neurons, brain-reading technology is advancing rapidly, involving techniques with intimidating names such as fMRI, EEG, MEG, ECoG, ePhys and fluorescent voltage sensing. fMRI, which stands for functional magnetic resonance imaging, measures the magnetic properties of hydrogen nuclei to make a 3-D map of your brain roughly every second, with millimeter resolution. EEG (electroencephalography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) measure the electric and magnetic field outside your head to map your brain thousands of times per second, but with poor resolution, unable to distinguish features smaller than a few centimeters. If youre squeamish, youll appreciate that these three techniques are all noninvasive. If you dont mind opening up your skull, you have additional options. ECoG (electrocorticography) involves placing say a hundred wires on the surface of your brain, while ePhys (electrophysiology) involves inserting microwires, which are sometimes thinner than a human hair, deep into the brain to record voltages from as many as a thousand simultaneous locations. Many epileptic patients spend days in the hospital while ECoG is used to figure out what part of their brain is triggering seizures and should be resected, and kindly agree to let neuroscientists perform consciousness experiments on them in the meantime. Finally, fluorescent voltage sensing involves genetically manipulating neurons to emit flashes of light when firing, enabling their activity to be measured with a microscope. Out of all the techniques, it has the potential to rapidly monitor the largest number of neurons, at least in animals with transparent brainssuch as the C. elegans worm with its 302 neurons and the larval zebrafish with its about 100,000. Figure 8.3: The visual, auditory, somatosensory and motor cortices are involved with vision, hearing, the sense of touch and motion activation, respectivelybut that doesnt prove theyre where consciousness of vision, hearing, touch and motion occurs. Indeed, recent research suggests that the primary visual cortex is completely unconscious, together with the cerebellum and brainstem. Image courtesy of Lachina (www.lachina.com). Although Francis Crick warned Christof Koch about studying consciousness, Christof refused to give up and and eventually won Francis over. In 1990, they wrote a seminal paper about what they called neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs), asking which specific brain processes corresponded to conscious experiences. For thousands of years, thinkers had had access to the information processing in their brains only via their subjective experience and behavior. Crick and Koch pointed out that brain-reading technology was suddenly providing independent access to this information, allowing scientific study of which information processing corresponded to what conscious experience. Sure enough, technology-driven measurements have by now turned the quest for NCCs into quite a mainstream part of neuroscience, one whose thousands of publications extend into even the most prestigious journals. 10 What are the conclusions so far? To get a flavor for NCC detective work, lets first ask whether your retina is conscious, or whether its merely a zombie system that records visual information, processes it and sends it on to a system downstream in your brain where your subjective visual experience occurs. In the left panel of figure 8.4 , which square is darker: the one labeled A or B? A, right? No, theyre in fact identically colored, which you can verify by looking at them through small holes between your fingers. This proves that your visual experience cant reside entirely in your retina, since if it did, theyd look the same. Now look at the right panel of figure 8.4 . Do you see two women or a vase? If you look long enough, youll subjectively experience both in succession, even though the information reaching your retina remains the same. By measuring what happens in your brain during the two situations, one can tease apart what makes the differenceand its not the retina, which behaves identically in both cases. The death blow to the conscious-retina hypothesis comes from a technique called continuous flash suppression pioneered by Christof Koch, Stanislas Dehaene and collaborators: its been discovered that if you make one of your eyes watch a complicated sequence of rapidly changing patterns, then this will distract your visual system to such an extent that youll be completely unaware of a still image shown to the other eye. 11 In summary, you can have a visual image in your retina without experiencing it, and you can (while dreaming) experience an image without it being on your retina. This proves that your two retinas dont host your visual consciousness any more than a video camera does, even though they perform complicated computations involving over a hundred million neurons. Figure 8.4: Which square is darkerA or B? What do you see on the righta vase, two women or both in succession? Illusions such as these prove that your visual consciousness cant be in your eyes or other early stages of your visual system, because it doesnt depend only on whats in the picture. NCC researchers also use continuous flash suppression, unstable visual/auditory illusions and other tricks to pinpoint which of your brain regions are responsible for each of your conscious experiences. The basic strategy is to compare what your neurons are doing in two situations where essentially everything (including your sensory input) is the sameexcept your conscious experience. The parts of your brain that are measured to behave differently are then identified as NCCs. Such NCC research has proven that none of your consciousness resides in your gut, even though thats the location of your enteric nervous system with its whopping half-billion neurons that compute how to optimally digest your food; feelings such as hunger and nausea are instead produced in your brain. Similarly, none of your consciousness appears to reside in the brainstem, the bottom part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord and controls breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. More shockingly, your consciousness doesnt appear to extend to your cerebellum ( figure 8.3 ), which contains about two-thirds of all your neurons: patients whose cerebellum is destroyed experience slurred speech and clumsy motion reminiscent of a drunkard, but remain fully conscious. The question of which parts of your brain are responsible for consciousness remains open and controversial. Some recent NCC research suggests that your consciousness mainly resides in a hot zone involving the thalamus (near the middle of your brain) and the rear part of the cortex (the outer brain layer consisting of a crumpled-up six-layer sheet which, if flattened out, would have the area of a large dinner napkin). 12 This same research controversially suggests that the primary visual cortex at the very back of the head is an exception to this, being as unconscious as your eyeballs and your retinas. When Is Consciousness? So far, weve looked at experimental clues regarding what types of information processing are conscious and where consciousness occurs. But when does it occur? When I was a kid, I used to think that we become conscious of events as they happen, with absolutely no time lag or delay. Although thats still how it subjectively feels to me, it clearly cant be correct, since it takes time for my brain to process the information that enters via my sensory organs. NCC researchers have carefully measured how long, and Christof Kochs summary is that it takes about a quarter of a second from when light enters your eye from a complex object until you consciously perceive seeing it as what it is. 13 This means that if youre driving down a highway at fifty-five miles per hour and suddenly see a squirrel a few meters in front of you, its too late for you to do anything about it, because youve already run over it! In summary, your consiousness lives in the past, with Christof Koch estimating that it lags behind the outside world by about a quarter second. Intriguingly, you can often react to things faster than you can become conscious of them, which proves that the information processing in charge of your most rapid reactions must be unconscious. For example, if a foreign object approaches your eye, your blink reflex can close your eyelid within a mere tenth of a second. Its as if one of your brain systems receives ominous information from the visual system, computes that your eye is in danger of getting struck, emails your eye muscles instructions to blink and simultaneously emails the conscious part of your brain saying Hey, were going to blink. By the time this email has been read and included into your conscious experience, the blink has already happened. Indeed, the system that reads that email is continually bombarded with messages from all over your body, some more delayed than others. It takes longer for nerve signals to reach your brain from your fingers than from your face because of distance, and it takes longer for you to analyze images than sounds because its more complicatedwhich is why Olympic races are started with a bang rather than with a visual cue. Yet if you touch your nose, you consciously experience the sensation on your nose and fingertip as simultaneous, and if you clap your hands, you see, hear and feel the clap at exactly the same time. 14 This means that your full conscious experience of an event isnt created until the last slowpoke email reports have trickled in and been analyzed. A famous family of NCC experiments pioneered by physiologist Benjamin Libet has shown that the sort of actions you can perform unconsciously arent limited to rapid responses such as blinks and ping-pong smashes, but also include certain decisions that you might attribute to free willbrain measurements can sometimes predict your decision before you become conscious of having made it. 15 Theories of Consciousness Weve just seen that, although we still dont understand consciousness, we have amazing amounts of experimental data about various aspects of it. But all this data comes from brains, so how can it teach us anything about consciousness in machines ? This requires a major extrapolation beyond our current experimental domain. In other words, it requires a theory. Why a Theory? To appreciate why, lets compare theories of consciousness with theories of gravity. Scientists started taking Newtons theory of gravity seriously because they got more out of it than they put into it: simple equations that fit on a napkin could accurately predict the outcome of every gravity experiment ever conducted. They therefore also took seriously its predictions far beyond the domain where it had been tested, and these bold extrapolations turned out to work even for the motions of galaxies in clusters millions of light-years across. However, the predictions were off by a tiny amount for the motion of Mercury around the Sun. Scientists then started taking seriously Einsteins improved theory of gravity, general relativity, because it was arguably even more elegant and economical, and correctly predicted even what Newtons theory got wrong. They consequently took seriously also its predictions far beyond the domain where it had been tested, for phenomena as exotic as black holes, gravitational waves in the very fabric of spacetime, and the expansion of our Universe from a hot fiery originall of which were subsequently confirmed by experiment. Analogously, if a mathematical theory of consciousness whose equations fit on a napkin could successfully predict the outcomes of all experiments we perform on brains, then wed start taking seriously not merely the theory itself, but also its predictions for consciousness beyond brainsfor example, in machines. Consciousness from a Physics Perspective Although some theories of consciousness date back to antiquity, most modern ones are grounded in neuropsychology and neuroscience, attempting to explain and predict consciousness in terms of neural events occurring in the brain. 16 Although these theories have made some successful predictions for neural correlates of consciousness, they neither can nor aspire to make predictions about machine consciousness. To make the leap from brains to machines, we need to generalize from NCCs to PCCs: physical correlates of consciousness, defined as the patterns of moving particles that are conscious. Because if a theory can correctly predict whats conscious and whats not by referring only to physical building blocks such as elementary particles and force fields, then it can make predictions not merely for brains, but also for any other arrangements of matter, including future AI systems. So lets take a physics perspective: What particle arrangements are conscious? But this really raises another question: How can something as complex as consciousness be made of something as simple as particles? I think its because its a phenomenon that has properties above and beyond those of its particles. In physics, we call such phenomena emergent. 17 Lets understand this by looking at an emergent phenomenon thats simpler than consciousness: wetness. A drop of water is wet, but an ice crystal and a cloud of steam arent, even though theyre made of identical water molecules. Why? Because the property of wetness depends only on the arrangement of the molecules. It makes absolutely no sense to say that a single water molecule is wet, because the phenomenon of wetness emerges only when there are many molecules, arranged in the pattern we call liquid. So solids, liquids and gases are all emergent phenomena: theyre more than the sum of their parts, because they have properties above and beyond the properties of their particles. They have properties that their particles lack. Now just like solids, liquids and gases, I think consciousness is an emergent phenomenon, with properties above and beyond those of its particles. For example, entering deep sleep extinguishes consciousness, by merely rearranging the particles. In the same way, my consciousness would disappear if I froze to death, which would rearrange my particles in a more unfortunate way. When you put lots of particles together to make anything from water to a brain, new phenomena with observable properties emerge. We physicists love studying these emergent properties, which can often be identified by a small set of numbers that you can go out and measurequantities such as how viscous the substance is, how compressible it is and so on. For example, if a substance is so viscous that its rigid, we call it a solid, otherwise we call it a fluid. And if a fluid isnt compressible, we call it a liquid, otherwise we call it a gas or a plasma, depending on how well it conducts electricity. Consciousness as Information So could there be analogous quantities that quantify consciousness? The Italian neuroscientist Giulio Tononi has proposed one such quantity, which he calls the integrated information, denoted by the Greek letter ( Phi ), which basically measures how much different parts of a system know about each other (see figure 8.5 ). Figure 8.5: Given a physical process that, with the passage of time, transforms the initial state of a system into a new state, its integrated information measures inability to split the process into independent parts. If the future state of each part depends only on its own past, not on what the other part has been doing, then = 0: what we called one system is really two independent systems that dont communicate with each other at all. I first met Giulio at a 2014 physics conference in Puerto Rico to which Id invited him and Christof Koch, and he struck me as the ultimate renaissance man whod have blended right in with Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci. His quiet demeanor couldnt hide his incredible knowledge of art, literature and philosophy, and his culinary reputation preceded him: a cosmopolitan TV journalist had recently told me how Giulio had, in just a few minutes, whipped up the most delicious salad hed tasted in his life. I soon realized that behind his soft-spoken demeanor was a fearless intellect whod follow the evidence wherever it took him, regardless of the preconceptions and taboos of the establishment. Just as Galileo had pursued his mathematical theory of motion despite establishment pressure not to challenge geocentrism, Giulio had developed the most mathematically precise consciousness theory to date, integrated information theory (IIT). Id been arguing for decades that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain complex ways. 18 IIT agrees with this and replaces my vague phrase certain complex ways by a precise definition: the information processing needs to be integrated, that is, needs to be large. Giulios argument for this is as powerful as it is simple: the conscious system needs to be integrated into a unified whole, because if it instead consisted of two independent parts, then theyd feel like two separate conscious entities rather than one. In other words, if a conscious part of a brain or computer cant communicate with the rest, then the rest cant be part of its subjective experience. Giulio and his collaborators have measured a simplified version of by using EEG to measure the brains response to magnetic stimulation. Their consciousness detector works really well: it determined that patients were conscious when they were awake or dreaming, but unconscious when they were anesthetized or in deep sleep. It even discovered consciousness in two patients suffering from locked-in syndrome, who couldnt move or communicate in any normal way. 19 So this is emerging as a promising technology for doctors in the future to figure out whether certain patients are conscious or not. Anchoring Consciousness in Physics IIT is defined only for discrete systems that can be in a finite number of states, for example bits in a computer memory or oversimplified neurons that can be either on or off. This unfortunately means that IIT isnt defined for most traditional physical systems, which can change continuouslyfor example, the position of a particle or the strength of a magnetic field can take any of an infinite number of values. 20 If you try to apply the IIT formula to such systems, youll typically get the unhelpful result that is infinite. Quantum-mechanical systems can be discrete, but the original IIT isnt defined for quantum systems. So how can we anchor IIT and other information-based consciousness theories on a solid physical foundation? We can do this by building on what we learned in chapter 2 about how clumps of matter can have emergent properties that are related to information. We saw that for something to be usable as a memory device that can store information, it needs to have many long-lived states. We also saw that being computronium, a substance that can do computations, in addition requires complex dynamics: the laws of physics need to make it change in ways that are complicated enough to be able to implement arbitrary information processing. Finally, we saw how a neural network, for example, is a powerful substrate for learning because, simply by obeying the laws of physics, it can rearrange itself to get better and better at implementing desired computations. Now were asking an additional question: What makes a blob of matter able to have a subjective experience? In other words, under what conditions will a blob of matter be able to do these four things? 1. remember 2. compute 3. learn 4. experience We explored the first three in chapter 2, and are now tackling the fourth. Just as Margolus and Toffoli coined the term computronium for a substance that can perform arbitrary computations, I like to use the term sentronium for the most general substance that has subjective experience (is sentient). *5 But how can consciousness feel so non-physical if its in fact a physical phenomenon? How can it feel so independent of its physical substrate? I think its because it is rather independent of its physical substrate, the stuff in which it is a pattern! We encountered many beautiful examples of substrate-independent patterns in chapter 2, including waves, memories and computations. We saw how they werent merely more than their parts (emergent), but rather independent of their parts, taking on a life of their own. For example, we saw how a future simulated mind or computer-game character would have no way of knowing whether it ran on Windows, Mac OS, an Android phone or some other operating system, because it would be substrate-independent. Nor could it tell whether the logic gates of its computer were made of transistors, optical circuits or other hardware. Or what the fundamental laws of physics arethey could be anything as long as they allow the construction of universal computers. In summary, I think that consciousness is a physical phenomenon that feels non-physical because its like waves and computations: it has properties independent of its specific physical substrate. This follows logically from the consciousness-as-information idea. This leads to a radical idea that I really like: If consciousness is the way that information feels when its processed in certain ways, then it must be substrate-independent; its only the structure of the information processing that matters, not the structure of the matter doing the information processing. In other words, consciousness is substrate-independent twice over! As weve seen, physics describes patterns in spacetime that correspond to particles moving around. If the particle arrangements obey certain principles, they give rise to emergent phenomena that are pretty independent of the particle substrate, and have a totally different feel to them. A great example of this is information processing, in computronium. But weve now taken this idea to another level: If the information processing itself obeys certain principles, it can give rise to the higher-level emergent phenomenon that we call consciousness. This places your conscious experience not one but two levels up from the matter. No wonder your mind feels non-physical! This raises a question: What are these principles that information processing needs to obey to be conscious? I dont pretend to know what conditions are sufficient to guarantee consciousness, but here are four necessary conditions that Id bet on and have explored in my research: Principle Definition Information principle A conscious system has substantial information-storage capacity. Dynamics principle A conscious system has substantial information-processing capacity. Independence principle A conscious system has substantial independence from the rest of the world. Integration principle A conscious system cannot consist of nearly independent parts. As I said, I think that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain ways. This means that to be conscious, a system needs to be able to store and process information, implying the first two principles. Note that the memory doesnt need to last long: I recommend watching this touching video of Clive Wearing, who appears perfectly conscious even though his memories last less than a minute. 21 I think that a conscious system also needs to be fairly independent from the rest of the world, because otherwise it wouldnt subjectively feel that it had any independent existence whatsoever. Finally, I think that the conscious system needs to be integrated into a unified whole, as Giulio Tononi argued, because if it consisted of two independent parts, then they would feel like two separate conscious entities, rather than one. The first three principles imply autonomy: that the system is able to retain and process information without much outside interference, hence determining its own future. All four principles together mean that a system is autonomous but its parts arent. If these four principles are correct, then we have our work cut out for us: we need to look for mathematically rigorous theories that embody them and test them experimentally. We also need to determine whether additional principles are needed. Regardless of whether IIT is correct or not, researchers should try to develop competing theories and test all available theories with ever better experiments. Controversies of Consciousness Weve already discussed the perennial controversy about whether consciousness research is unscientific nonsense and a pointless waste of time. In addition, there are recent controversies at the cutting edge of consciousness researchlets explore the ones that I find most enlightening. Giulio Tononis IIT has lately drawn not merely praise but also criticism, some of which has been scathing. Scott Aaronson recently had this to say on his blog: In my opinion, the fact that Integrated Information Theory is wrong demonstrably wrong, for reasons that go to its coreputs it in something like the top 2% of all mathematical theories of consciousness ever proposed. Almost all competing theories of consciousness, it seems to me, have been so vague, fluffy and malleable that they can only aspire to wrongness. 22 To the credit of both Scott and Giulio, they never came to blows when I watched them debate IIT at a recent New York University workshop, and they politely listened to each others arguments. Aaronson showed that certain simple networks of logic gates had extremely high integrated information ( ) and argued that since they clearly werent conscious, IIT was wrong. Giulio countered that if they were built, they would be conscious, and that Scotts assumption to the contrary was anthropocentrically biased, much as if a slaughterhouse owner claimed that animals couldnt be conscious just because they couldnt talk and were very different from humans. My analysis, with which they both agreed, was that they were at odds about whether integration was merely a necessary condition for consciousness (which Scott was OK with) or also a sufficient condition (which Giulio claimed). The latter is clearly a stronger and more contentious claim, which I hope we can soon test experimentally. 23 Another controversial IIT claim is that todays computer architectures cant be conscious, because the way their logic gates connect gives very low integration. 24 In other words, if you upload yourself into a future high-powered robot that accurately simulates every single one of your neurons and synapses, then even if this digital clone looks, talks and acts indistinguishably from you, Giulio claims that it will be an unconscious zombie without subjective experiencewhich would be disappointing if you uploaded yourself in a quest for subjective immortality. *6 This claim has been challenged by both David Chalmers and AI professor Murray Shanahan by imagining what would happen if you instead gradually replaced the neural circuits in your brain by hypothetical digital hardware perfectly simulating them. 25 Although your behavior would be unaffected by the replacement since the simulation is by assumption perfect, your experience would change from conscious initially to unconscious at the end, according to Giulio. But how would it feel in between, as ever more got replaced? When the parts of your brain responsible for your conscious experience of the upper half of your visual field were replaced, would you notice that part of your visual scenery was suddenly missing, but that you mysteriously knew what was there nonetheless, as reported by patients with blindsight? 26 This would be deeply troubling, because if you can consciously experience any difference, then you can also tell your friends about it when askedyet by assumption, your behavior cant change. The only logical possibility compatible with the assumptions is that at exactly the same instance that any one thing disappears from your consciousness, your mind is mysteriously altered so as either to make you lie and deny that your experience changed, or to forget that things had been different. On the other hand, Murray Shanahan admits that the same gradual- replacement critique can be leveled at any theory claiming that you can act conscious without being conscious, so you might be tempted to conclude that acting and being conscious are one and the same, and that externally observable behavior is therefore all that matters. But then youd have fallen into the trap of predicting that youre unconscious while dreaming, even though you know better. A third IIT controversy is whether a conscious entity can be made of parts that are separately conscious. For example, can society as a whole gain consciousness without the people in it losing theirs? Can a conscious brain have parts that are also conscious on their own? The prediction from IIT is a firm no, but not everyone is convinced. For example, some patients with lesions severely reducing communication between the two halves of their brain experience alien hand syndrome, where their right brain makes their left hand do things that the patients claim they arent causing or understanding sometimes to the point that they use their other hand to restrain their alien hand. How can we be so sure that there arent two separate consciousnesses in their head, one in the right hemisphere thats unable to speak and another in the left hemisphere thats doing all the talking and claiming to speak for both of them? Imagine using future technology to build a direct communication link between two human brains, and gradually increasing the capacity of this link until communication is as efficient between the brains as it is within them. Would there come a moment when the two individual consciousnesses suddenly disappear and get replaced by a single unified one as IIT predicts, or would the transition be gradual so that the individual consciousnesses coexisted in some form even as a joint experience began to emerge? Another fascinating controversy is whether experiments underestimate how much were conscious of. We saw earlier that although we feel were visually conscious of vast amounts of information involving colors, shapes, objects and seemingly everything thats in front of us, experiments have shown that we can only remember and report a dismally small fraction of this. 27 Some researchers have tried to resolve this discrepancy by asking whether we may sometimes have consciousness without access, that is, subjective experience of things that are too complex to fit into our working memory for later use. 28 For example, when you experience inattentional blindness by being too distracted to notice an object in plain sight, this doesnt imply that you had no conscious visual experience of it, merely that it wasnt stored in your working memory. 29 Should it count as forgetfulness rather than blindness? Other researchers reject this idea that people cant be trusted about what they say they experienced, and warn of its implications. Murray Shanahan imagines a clinical trial where patients report complete pain relief thanks to a new wonder drug, which nonetheless gets rejected by a government panel: The patients only think they are not in pain. Thanks to neuroscience, we know better. 30 On the other hand, there have been cases where patients who accidentally awoke during surgery were given a drug to make them forget the ordeal. Should we trust their subsequent report that they experienced no pain? 31 How Might AI Consciousness Feel? If some future AI system is conscious, then what will it subjectively experience? This is the essence of the even harder problem of consciousness, and forces us up to the second level of difficulty depicted in figure 8.1 . Not only do we currently lack a theory that answers this question, but were not even sure whether its logically possible to fully answer it. After all, what could a satisfactory answer sound like? How would you explain to a person born blind what the color red looks like? Fortunately, our current inability to give a complete answer doesnt prevent us from giving partial answers. Intelligent aliens studying the human sensory system would probably infer that colors are qualia that feel associated with each point on a two-dimensional surface (our visual field), while sounds dont feel as spatially localized, and pains are qualia that feel associated with different parts of our body. From discovering that our retinas have three types of light-sensitive cone cells, they could infer that we experience three primary colors and that all other color qualia result from combining them. By measuring how long it takes neurons to transmit information across the brain, they could conclude that we experience no more than about ten conscious thoughts or perceptions per second, and that when we watch movies on our TV at twenty-four frames per second, we experience this not as a sequence of still images, but as continuous motion. From measuring how fast adrenaline is released into our bloodstream and how long it remains before being broken down, they could predict that we feel bursts of anger starting within seconds and lasting for minutes. Applying similar physics-based arguments, we can make some educated guesses about certain aspects of how an artificial consciousness may feel. First of all, the space of possible AI experiences is huge compared to what we humans can experience. We have one class of qualia for each of our senses, but AIs can have vastly more types of sensors and internal representations of information, so we must avoid the pitfall of assuming that being an AI necessarily feels similar to being a person. Second, a brain-sized artificial consciousness could have millions of times more experiences than us per second, since electromagnetic signals travel at the speed of lightmillions of times faster than neuron signals. However, the larger the AI, the slower its global thoughts must be to allow information time to flow between all its parts, as we saw in chapter 4. Wed therefore expect an Earth- sized Gaia AI to have only about ten conscious experiences per second, like a human, and a galaxy-sized AI could have only one global thought every 100,000 years or soso no more than about a hundred experiences during the entire history of our Universe thus far! This would give large AIs a seemingly irresistible incentive to delegate computations to the smallest subsystems capable of handling them, to speed things up, much like our conscious mind has delegated the blink reflex to a small, fast and unconscious subsystem. Although we saw above that the conscious information processing in our brains appears to be merely the tip of an otherwise unconscious iceberg, we should expect the situation to be even more extreme for large future AIs: if they have a single consciousness, then its likely to be unaware of almost all the information processing taking place within it. Moreover, although the conscious experiences that it enjoys may be extremely complex, theyre also snail-paced compared to the rapid activities of its smaller parts. This really brings to a head the aforementioned controversy about whether parts of a conscious entity can be conscious too. IIT predicts not, which means that if a future astronomically large AI is conscious, then almost all its information processing is unconscious. This would mean that if a civilization of smaller AIs improves its communication abilities to the point that a single conscious hive mind emerges, their much faster individual consciousnesses are suddenly extinguished. If the IIT prediction is wrong, on the other hand, the hive mind can coexist with the panoply of smaller conscious minds. Indeed, one could even imagine a nested hierarchy of consciousnesses at all levels from microscopic to cosmic. As we saw above, the unconscious information processing in our human brains appears linked to the effortless, fast and automatic way of thinking that psychologists call System 1. 32 For example, your System 1 might inform your consciousness that its highly complex analysis of visual input data has determined that your best friend has arrived, without giving you any idea how the computation took place. If this link between systems and consciousness proves to be valid, then it will be tempting to generalize this terminology to AIs, denoting all rapid routine tasks delegated to unconscious subunits as the AIs System 1. The effortful, slow and controlled global thinking of the AI would, if conscious, be the AIs System 2. We humans also have conscious experiences involving what Ill term System 0: raw passive perception that takes place even when you sit without moving or thinking and merely observe the world around you. Systems 0, 1 and 2 seem progressively more complex, so its striking that only the middle one appears unconscious. IIT explains this by saying that raw sensory information in System 0 is stored in grid-like brain structures with very high integration, while System 2 has high integration because of feedback loops, where all the information youre aware of right now can affect your future brain states. On the other hand, it was precisely the conscious-grid prediction that triggered Scott Aaronsons aforementioned IIT- critique. In summary, if a theory solving the pretty hard problem of consciousness can one day pass a rigorous battery of experimental tests so that we start taking its predictions seriously, then it will also greatly narrow down the options for the even harder problem of what future conscious AIs may experience. Some aspects of our subjective experience clearly trace back to our evolutionary origins, for example our emotional desires related to self- preservation (eating, drinking, avoiding getting killed) and reproduction. This means that it should be possible to create AI that never experiences qualia such as hunger, thirst, fear or sexual desire. As we saw in the last chapter, if a highly intelligent AI is programmed to have virtually any sufficiently ambitious goal, its likely to strive for self-preservation in order to be able to accomplish that goal. If theyre part of a society of AIs, however, they might lack our strong human fear of death: as long as theyve backed themselves up, all they stand to lose are the memories theyve accumulated since their most recent backup, as long as theyre confident that their backed-up software will be used. In addition, the ability to readily copy information and software between AIs would probably reduce the strong sense of individuality thats so characteristic of our human consciousness: there would be less of a distinction between you and me if we could easily share and copy all our memories and abilities, so a group of nearby AIs may feel more like a single organism with a hive mind. Would an artificial consciousness feel that it had free will? Note that, although philosophers have spent millennia quibbling about whether we have free will without reaching consensus even on how to define the question, 33 Im asking a different question, which is arguably easier to tackle. Let me try to persuade you that the answer is simply Yes, any conscious decision maker will subjectively feel that it has free will, regardless of whether its biological or artificial. Decisions fall on a spectrum between two extremes: 1. You know exactly why you made that particular choice. 2. You have no idea why you made that particular choiceit felt like you chose randomly on a whim. Free-will discussions usually center around a struggle to reconcile our goal- oriented decision-making behavior with the laws of physics: if youre choosing between the following two explanations for what you did, then which one is correct: I asked her on a date because I really liked her or My particles made me do it by moving according to the laws of physics ? But we saw in the last chapter that both are correct: what feels like goal-oriented behavior can emerge from goal-less deterministic laws of physics. More specifically, when a system (brain or AI) makes a decision of type 1, it computes what to decide using some deterministic algorithm, and the reason it feels like it decided is that it in fact did decide when computing what to do. Moreover, as emphasized by Seth Lloyd, 34 theres a famous computer-science theorem saying that for almost all computations, theres no faster way of determining their outcome than actually running them. This means that its typically impossible for you to figure out what youll decide to do in a second in less than a second, which helps reinforce your experience of having free will. In contrast, when a system (brain or AI) makes a decision of type 2, it simply programs its mind to base its decision on the output of some subsystem that acts as a random number generator. In brains and computers, effectively random numbers are easily generated by amplifying noise. Regardless of where on the spectrum from 1 to 2 a decision falls, both biological and artificial consciousnesses therefore feel that they have free will: they feel that it is really they who decide and they cant predict with certainty what the decision will be until theyve finished thinking it through. Some people tell me that they find causality degrading, that it makes their thought processes meaningless and that it renders them mere machines. I find such negativity absurd and unwarranted. First of all, theres nothing mere about human brains, which, as far as Im concerned, are the most amazingly sophisticated physical objects in our known Universe. Second, what alternative would they prefer? Dont they want it to be their own thought processes (the computations performed by their brains) that make their decisions? Their subjective experience of free will is simply how their computations feel from inside: they dont know the outcome of a computation until theyve finished it. Thats what it means to say that the computation is the decision. Meaning Lets end by returning to the starting point of this book: How do we want the future of life to be? We saw in the previous chapter how diverse cultures around the globe all seek a future teeming with positive experiences, but that fascinatingly thorny controversies arise when seeking consensus on what should count as positive and how to make trade-offs between whats good for different life forms. But lets not let those controversies distract us from the elephant in the room: there can be no positive experiences if there are no experiences at all, that is, if theres no consciousness. In other words, without consciousness, there can be no happiness, goodness, beauty, meaning or purposejust an astronomical waste of space. This implies that when people ask about the meaning of life as if it were the job of our cosmos to give meaning to our existence, theyre getting it backward: Its not our Universe giving meaning to conscious beings, but conscious beings giving meaning to our Universe. So the very first goal on our wish list for the future should be retaining (and hopefully expanding) biological and/or artificial consciousness in our cosmos, rather than driving it extinct. If we succeed in this endeavor, then how will we humans feel about coexisting with ever smarter machines? Does the seemingly inexorable rise of artificial intelligence bother you and if so, why? In chapter 3, we saw how it should be relatively easy for AI-powered technology to satisfy our basic needs such as security and income as long as the political will to do so exists. However, perhaps youre concerned that being well fed, clad, housed and entertained isnt enough. If were guaranteed that AI will take care of all our practical needs and desires, might we nonetheless end up feeling that we lack meaning and purpose in our lives, like well-kept zoo animals? Traditionally, we humans have often founded our self-worth on the idea of human exceptionalism: the conviction that were the smartest entities on the planet and therefore unique and superior. The rise of AI will force us to abandon this and become more humble. But perhaps thats something we should do anyway: after all, clinging to hubristic notions of superiority over others (individuals, ethnic groups, species and so on) has caused awful problems in the past, and may be an idea ready for retirement. Indeed, human exceptionalism hasnt only caused grief in the past, but it also appears unnecessary for human flourishing: if we discover a peaceful extraterrestrial civilization far more advanced than us in science, art and everything else we care about, this presumably wouldnt prevent people from continuing to experience meaning and purpose in their lives. We could retain our families, friends and broader communities, and all activities that give us meaning and purpose, hopefully having lost nothing but arrogance. As we plan our future, lets consider the meaning not only of our own lives, but also of our Universe itself. Here two of my favorite physicists, Steven Weinberg and Freeman Dyson, represent diametrically opposite views. Weinberg, who won the Nobel Prize for foundational work on the standard model of particle physics, famously said, The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless. 35 Dyson, on the other hand, is much more optimistic, as we saw in chapter 6: although he agrees that our Universe was pointless, he believes that life is now filling it with ever more meaning, with the best yet to come if life succeeds in spreading throughout the cosmos. He ended his seminal 1979 paper thus: Is Weinbergs universe or mine closer to the truth? One day, before long, we shall know. 36 If our Universe goes back to being permanently unconscious because we drive Earth life extinct or because we let unconscious zombie AI take over our Universe, then Weinberg will be vindicated in spades. From this perspective, we see that although weve focused on the future of intelligence in this book, the future of consciousness is even more important, since thats what enables meaning. Philosophers like to go Latin on this distinction, by contrasting sapience (the ability to think intelligently) with sentience (the ability to subjectively experience qualia). We humans have built our identity on being Homo sapiens, the smartest entities around. As we prepare to be humbled by ever smarter machines, I suggest that we rebrand ourselves as Homo sentiens ! THE BOTTOM LINE: Theres no undisputed definition of consciousness. I use the broad and non- anthropocentric definition consciousness = subjective experience. Whether AIs are conscious in that sense is what matters for the thorniest ethical and philosophical problems posed by the rise of AI: Can AIs suffer? Should they have rights? Is uploading a subjective suicide? Could a future cosmos teeming with AIs be the ultimate zombie apocalypse? The problem of understanding intelligence shouldnt be conflated with three separate problems of consciousness: the pretty hard problem of predicting which physical systems are conscious, the even harder problem of predicting qualia, and the really hard problem of why anything at all is conscious. The pretty hard problem of consciousness is scientific, since a theory that predicts which of your brain processes are conscious is experimentally testable and falsifiable, while its currently unclear how science could fully resolve the two harder problems. Neuroscience experiments suggest that many behaviors and brain regions are unconscious, with much of our conscious experience representing an after-the-fact summary of vastly larger amounts of unconscious information. Generalizing consciousness predictions from brains to machines requires a theory. Consciousness appears to require not a particular kind of particle or field, but a particular kind of information processing thats fairly autonomous and integrated, so that the whole system is rather autonomous but its parts arent. Consciousness might feel so non-physical because its doubly substrate-independent: if consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain complex ways, then its merely the structure of the information processing that matters, not the structure of the matter doing the information processing. If artificial consciousness is possible, then the space of possible AI experiences is likely to be huge compared to what we humans can experience, spanning a vast spectrum of qualia and timescalesall sharing a feeling of having free will. Since there can be no meaning without consciousness, its not our Universe giving meaning to conscious beings, but conscious beings giving meaning to our Universe. This suggests that as we humans prepare to be humbled by ever smarter machines, we take comfort mainly in being Homo sentiens, not Homo sapiens. *1 An alternative viewpoint is substance dualism that living entities differ from inanimate ones because they contain some non-physical substance such as an anima, lan vital or soul. Support for substance dualism among scientists has gradually dwindled. To understand why, consider that your body is made of about 10 29 quarks and electrons, which, as far as we can tell, move according to simple physical laws. Imagine a future technology able to track all your particles: if they were found to obey the laws of physics exactly, then your purported soul is having no effect on your particles, so your conscious mind and its ability to control your movements would have nothing to do with a soul. If your particles were instead found not to obey the known laws of physics because they were being pushed around by your soul, then the new entity causing these forces would by definition be a physical one that we can study just like weve studied new fields and new particles in the past. *2 I use the word qualia according to the dictionary definition, to mean individual instances of subjective experiencethat is, to mean the subjective experience itself, not any purported substance causing the experience. Beware that some people use the word differently. *3 Id originally called the RHP the very hard problem, but after I showed this chapter to David Chalmers, he emailed me the clever suggestion of switching to the really hard problem, to match what he really meant: since the first two problems (at least put this way) arent really part of the hard problem as I conceived of it whereas the third problem is, you could perhaps use really hard instead of very hard for the third one to match my usage. *4 If our physical reality is entirely mathematical (information-based, loosely speaking), as I explored in my book Our Mathematical Universe, then no aspect of realitynot even consciousnesslies beyond the purview of science. Indeed, the really hard problem of consciousness is, from that perspective, the exact same problem as that of understanding how something mathematical can feel physical: if part of a mathematical structure is conscious, then it will experience the rest as its external physical world. *5 Although Ive earlier used perceptronium as a synonym for sentronium, that name suggests too narrow a definition, since percepts are merely those subjective experiences that we perceive based on sensory inputexcluding, for example, dreams and internally generated thoughts. *6 Theres potential tension between this claim and the idea that consciousness is substrate-independent, since even though the information processing may be different at the lowest level, its by definition identical at the higher levels where it determines behavior. Epilogue The Tale of the FLI Team The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac Asimov Here we are, my dear reader, at the end of the book, after exploring the origin and fate of intelligence, goals and meaning. So how can we translate these ideas into action? What concretely should we do to make our future as good as possible? This is precisely the question Im asking myself right now as I sit here in my window seat en route from San Francisco back to Boston on January 9, 2017, from the AI conference we just organized in Asilomar, so let me end this book by sharing my thoughts with you. Meia is catching up on sleep next to me after the many short nights of preparing and organizing. Wowwhat a wild week its been! We managed to bring almost all the people Ive mentioned in this book together for a few days to this Puerto Rico sequel, including entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Larry Page and AI research leaders from academia and companies such as DeepMind, Google, Facebook, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Baidu, as well as economists, legal scholars, philosophers and other amazing thinkers (see figure 9.1 ). The results superseded even my high expectations, and Im feeling more optimistic about the future of life than I have in a long time. In this epilogue, Im going to tell you why. FLI Is Born Ever since I learned about the nuclear arms race at age fourteen, Ive been concerned that the power of our technology was growing faster than the wisdom with which we manage it. I therefore decided to sneak a chapter about this challenge into my first book, Our Mathematical Universe, even though the rest of it was primarily about physics. I made a New Years resolution for 2014 that I was no longer allowed to complain about anything without putting some serious thought into what I could personally do about it, and I kept my pledge during my book tour that January: Meia and I did lots of brainstorming about starting some sort of nonprofit organization focused on improving the future of life through technological stewardship. She insisted that we give it a positive name as different as possible from Doom & Gloom Institute and Lets-Worry-about-the-Future Institute. Since Future of Humanity Institute was already taken, we converged on the Future of Life Institute (FLI), which had the added advantage of being more inclusive. On January 22, the book tour took us to Santa Cruz, and as the California Sun set over the Pacific, we enjoyed dinner with our old friend Anthony Aguirre and persuaded him to join forces with us. Hes not only one of the wisest and most idealistic people I know, but also someone whos managed to put up with running another nonprofit organization, the Foundational Questions Institute (see http://fqxi.org ), with me for over a decade. The following week, the tour took me to London. Since the future of AI was very much on my mind, I reached out to Demis Hassabis, who graciously invited me to visit DeepMinds headquarters. I was awestruck by how much theyd grown since he visited me at MIT two years earlier. Google had just bought them for about $650 million, and seeing their vast office landscape filled with brilliant minds pursuing Demis audacious goal to solve intelligence gave me a visceral feeling that success was a real possibility. The next evening, I spoke with my friend Jaan Tallinn using Skype, the software hed helped create. I explained our FLI vision, and an hour later, hed decided to take a chance on us, funding us at up to $100,000 a year! Few things touch me more than when someone places more trust in me than Ive earned, so it meant the world to me when a year later, after the Puerto Rico conference I mentioned in chapter 1, he joked that this was the best investment hed ever made. Figure 9.1: Our January 2017 Asilomar conference, the Puerto Rico sequel, brought together a remarkable group of researchers in AI and related fields. Back row, from left to right: Patrick Lin, Daniel Weld, Ariel Conn, Nancy Chang, Tom Mitchell, Ray Kurzweil, Daniel Dewey, Margaret Boden, Peter Norvig, Nick Hay, Moshe Vardi, Scott Siskind, Nick Bostrom, Francesca Rossi, Shane Legg, Manuela Veloso, David Marble, Katja Grace, Irakli Beridze, Marty Tenenbaum, Gill Pratt, Martin Rees, Joshua Greene, Matt Scherer, Angela Kane, Amara Angelica, Jeff Mohr, Mustafa Suleyman, Steve Omohundro, Kate Crawford, Vitalik Buterin, Yutaka Matsuo, Stefano Ermon, Michael Wellman, Bas Steunebrink, Wendell Wallach, Allan Dafoe, Toby Ord, Thomas Dietterich, Daniel Kahneman, Dario Amodei, Eric Drexler, Tomaso Poggio, Eric Schmidt, Pedro Ortega, David Leake, Sen higeartaigh, Owain Evans, Jaan Tallinn, Anca Dragan, Sean Legassick, Toby Walsh, Peter Asaro, Kay Firth-Butterfield, Philip Sabes, Paul Merolla, Bart Selman, Tucker Davey, ?, Jacob Steinhardt, Moshe Looks, Josh Tenenbaum, Tom Gruber, Andrew Ng, Kareem Ayoub, Craig Calhoun, Percy Liang, Helen Toner, David Chalmers, Richard Sutton, Claudia Passos-Ferriera, Jnos Krmar, William MacAskill, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Brian Ziebart, Huw Price, Carl Shulman, Neil Lawrence, Richard Mallah, Jurgen Schmidhuber, Dileep George, Jonathan Rothberg, Noah Rothberg. Front row: Anthony Aguirre, Sonia Sachs, Lucas Perry, Jeffrey Sachs, Vincent Conitzer, Steve Goose, Victoria Krakovna, Owen Cotton-Barratt, Daniela Rus, Dylan Hadfield-Menell, Verity Harding, Shivon Zilis, Laurent Orseau, Ramana Kumar, Nate Soares, Andrew McAfee, Jack Clark, Anna Salamon, Long Ouyang, Andrew Critch, Paul Christiano, Yoshua Bengio, David Sanford, Catherine Olsson, Jessica Taylor, Martina Kunz, Kristinn Thorisson, Stuart Armstrong, Yann LeCun, Alexander Tamas, Roman Yampolskiy, Marin Solja i , Lawrence Krauss, Stuart Russell, Eric Brynjolfsson, Ryan Calo, ShaoLan Hsueh, Meia Chita-Tegmark, Kent Walker, Heather Roff, Meredith Whittaker, Max Tegmark, Adrian Weller, Jose Hernandez-Orallo, Andrew Maynard, John Hering, Abram Demski, Nicolas Berggruen, Gregory Bonnet, Sam Harris, Tim Hwang, Andrew Snyder-Beattie, Marta Halina, Sebastian Farquhar, Stephen Cave, Jan Leike, Tasha McCauley, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Arrived later: Guru Banavar, Demis Hassabis, Rao Kambhampati, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Anthony Romero. The next day, my publisher had left a gap in my schedule, which I filled with a visit to the London Science Museum. After having obsessed about the past and future of intelligence for so long, I suddenly felt that I was walking through a physical manifestation of my thoughts. Theyd assembled a fantastic collection of stuff representing our growth of knowledge, from Stephensons Rocket locomotive to the Model T Ford, a life-size Apollo 11 lunar lander replica and computers dating all the way from Babbages Difference Engine mechanical calculator to present-day hardware. They also had an exhibit about the history of our understanding of the mind, from Galvanos frog-leg experiments to neurons, EEG and fMRI. I very rarely cry, but thats what I did on the way outand in a tunnel full of pedestrians, no less, en route to the South Kensington tube station. Here were all these people going about their lives blissfully unaware of what I was thinking. First we humans discovered how to replicate some natural processes with machines, making our own wind and lightning, and our own mechanical horsepower. Gradually, we started realizing that our bodies were also machines. Then the discovery of nerve cells started blurring the borderline between body and mind. Then we started building machines that could outperform not only our muscles, but our minds as well. So in parallel with discovering what we are, are we inevitably making ourselves obsolete? That would be poetically tragic. This thought scared me, but it also strengthened my resolve to keep my New Years resolution. I felt that we needed one more person to complete our team of FLI founders, whod spearhead a team of idealistic young volunteers. The logical choice was Viktoriya Krakovna, a brilliant Harvard grad student whod not only won a silver medal in the International Mathematics Olympiad, but also founded the Citadel, a house for about a dozen young idealists who wanted reason to play a greater role in their lives and the world. Meia and I invited her over to our place five days later to tell her about our vision, and before wed finished the sushi, FLI had been born. The Puerto Rico Adventure This marked the beginning of an amazing adventure, which still continues. As I mentioned in chapter 1, we held regular brainstorming meetings at our house with dozens of idealistic students, professors and other local thinkers, where the top-rated ideas transformed into projectsthe first being that AI op-ed from chapter 1 with Stephen Hawking, Stuart Russell and Frank Wilczek that helped ignite the public debate. In parallel with the baby steps of setting up a new organization (such as incorporating, recruiting an advisory board and launching a website), we held a fun launch event in front of a packed MIT auditorium, at which Alan Alda explored the future of technology with leading experts. Figure 9.2: Jaan Tallinn, Anthony Aguirre, yours truly, Meia Chita-Tegmark and Viktoriya Krakovna celebrate our incorporation of FLI with sushi on May 23, 2014. We focused the rest of the year on pulling together the Puerto Rico conference which, as I mentioned in chapter 1, aimed to engage the worlds leading AI researchers in the discussion of how to keep AI beneficial. Our goal was to shift the AI-safety conversation from worrying to working: from bickering about how worried to be, to agreeing on concrete research projects that could be started right away to maximize the chance of a good outcome. To prepare, we collected promising AI-safety research ideas from around the world and sought community feedback on our growing project list. With the help of Stuart Russell and a group of hardworking young volunteers, especially Daniel Dewey, Jnos Krmar and Richard Mallah, we distilled these research priorities into a document to be discussed at the conference. 1 Building consensus that there was lots of valuable AI-safety research to be done would, we hoped, encourage people to start doing such research. The ultimate moonshot triumph would be if it could even persuade someone to fund it since, so far, there had been essentially no support for such work from government funding agencies. Enter Elon Musk. On August 2, he appeared on our radar by famously tweeting Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes. I reached out to him about our efforts, and got to speak with him by phone a few weeks later. Although I felt quite nervous and starstruck, the outcome was outstanding: he agreed to join our FLI scientific advisory board, to attend our conference and potentially to fund a first-ever AI-safety research program to be announced in Puerto Rico. This electrified all of us at FLI, and made us redouble our efforts to create an awesome conference, identify promising research topics and build community support for them. I finally got to meet Elon in person for further planning when he came to MIT two months later for a space symposium. It felt very strange to be alone with him in a small green room just moments after hed enraptured over a thousand MIT students like a rock star, but after a few minutes, all I could think of was our joint project. I instantly liked him. He radiated sincerity, and I was inspired by how much he cared about the long-term future of humanityand how he audaciously turned his aspiration into actions. He wanted humanity to explore and settle our Universe, so he started a space company. He wanted sustainable energy, so he started a solar company and an electric-car company. Tall, handsome, eloquent and incredibly knowledgeable, it was easy to understand why people listened to him. Unfortunately, this MIT event also taught me how fear-driven and divisive media can be. Elons stage performance consisted of an hour of fascinating discussion about space exploration, which I think would have made great TV. At the very end, a student asked him an off-topic question about AI. His answer included the phrase with artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon, which became the only thing that most media reportedand generally out of context. It struck me that many journalists were inadvertently doing the exact opposite of what we were trying to accomplish in Puerto Rico. Whereas we wanted to build community consensus by highlighting the common ground, the media had an incentive to highlight the divisions. The more controversy they could report, the greater their Nielsen ratings and ad revenue. Moreover, whereas we wanted to help people from across the spectrum of opinions to come together, get along and understand each other better, media coverage inadvertently made people across the opinion spectrum upset at one another, fueling misunderstandings by publishing only their most provocative-sounding quotes without context. For this reason, we decided to ban journalists from the Puerto Rico meeting and impose the Chatham House Rule, which prohibits participants from subsequently revealing who said what. * Although our Puerto Rico conference ended up being a success, it didnt come easy. The countdown mostly required diligent prep work, for example me phoning or skyping large numbers of AI researchers to assemble a critical mass of participants to attract the other attendees, and there were also dramatic momentssuch as when I got up by 7 a.m. on December 27 to reach Elon on a lousy phone connection to Uruguay, and was told I dont think this is gonna work. He was concerned that an AI-safety research program might provide a false sense of security, enabling reckless researchers to forge ahead while paying lip service to safety. But then, despite the sound incessantly cutting out, we extensively talked through the huge benefits of mainstreaming the topic and getting more AI researchers working on AI safety. After the call dropped, he sent me one of my favorite emails ever: Lost the call at the end there. Anyway, docs look fine. Im happy to support the research with $5M over three years. Maybe we should make it $10M? Four days later, 2015 got off to a good start for Meia and me as we briefly relaxed before the meeting, dancing in the new year on a Puerto Rico beach illuminated by fireworks. The conference got off to a great start too: there was remarkable consensus that more AI-safety research was needed, and based on further input from the conference participants, that research priorities document wed worked so hard on was improved and finalized. We passed around that safety-research-endorsing open letter from chapter 1, and were delighted that almost everyone signed it. Meia and I had a magical meeting with Elon in our hotel room where he blessed the detailed plans for our grants program. She was touched by how down-to-earth and candid he was about his personal life, and how much interest he took in us. He asked us how we met, and liked Meias elaborate story. The next day, we filmed an interview with him about AI safety and why he wanted to support it and everything seemed on track. 2 The conference climax, Elons donation announcement, was scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 4, 2015, and Id been so tense about it that Id tossed and turned in my sleep the night before. And then, just fifteen minutes before we were supposed to head to the session where it would happen, we hit a snag! Elons assistant called and said that it looked like Elon might not be able to go through with the announcement, and Meia said shed never seen me look more stressed or disappointed. Elon finally came by, and I could hear the seconds counting down to the session start as we sat there and talked. He explained that they were just two days away from a crucial SpaceX rocket launch where they hoped to pull off the first-ever successful landing of the first stage on a drone ship, and that since this was a huge milestone, the SpaceX team didnt want to distract from it with concurrent media splashes involving him. Anthony Aguirre, cool and levelheaded as always, pointed out that this meant that nobody wanted media attention for this, neither Elon nor the AI community. We arrived a few minutes late to the session I was moderating, but we had a plan: no dollar amount would get mentioned, to ensure that the announcement wasnt newsworthy, and Id lord Chatham House over everyone to keep Elons announcement secret from the world for nine days if his rocket reached the space station, regardless of whether the landing succeeded; he said hed need even more time if the rocket exploded on launch. The countdown to the announcement finally reached zero. The superintelligence panelists that Id moderated still sat there next to me onstage in their chairs: Eliezer Yudkowsky, Elon Musk, Nick Bostrom, Richard Mallah, Murray Shanahan, Bart Selman, Shane Legg and Vernor Vinge. People gradually stopped applauding, but the panelists remained seated, because Id told them to stay without explaining why. Meia later told me that her pulse reached the stratosphere around now, and that she clutched Viktoriya Krakovnas calming hand under the table. I smiled, knowing that this was the moment wed worked, hoped and waited for. I was very happy that there was such consensus at the meeting that more research was needed for keeping AI beneficial, I said, and that there were so many concrete research directions we could work on right away. But there had been talk of serious risks in this session, I added, so it would be nice to raise our spirits and get into an upbeat mood before heading out to the bar and the conference banquet that had been set up outside. And Im therefore giving the microphone toElon Musk! I felt that history was in the making as Elon took the mic and announced that he would donate a large amount of money to AI- safety research. Unsurprisingly, he brought down the house. As planned, he didnt mention how much, but I knew that it was a cool $10 million, as wed agreed. Meia and I went to visit our parents in Sweden and Romania after the conference, and with bated breath, we watched the live-streamed rocket launch with my dad in Stockholm. The landing attempt unfortunately ended with what Elon euphemistically calls an RUD, rapid unscheduled disassembly, and pulling off a successful ocean landing took his team another fifteen months. 3 However, all the satellites were successfully launched into orbit, as was our grants program via a tweet by Elon to his millions of followers. 4 Mainstreaming AI Safety A key goal of the Puerto Rico conference had been to mainstream AI-safety research, and it was exhilarating to see this unfold in multiple steps. First there was the meeting itself, where many researchers started feeling comfortable engaging with the topic once they realized that they were part of a growing community of peers. I was deeply touched by encouragement from many participants. For example, Cornell University AI professor Bart Selman emailed me saying, Ive honestly never seen a better organized or more exciting and intellectually stimulating scientific meeting. The next mainstreaming step began on January 11 when Elon tweeted Worlds top artificial intelligence developers sign open letter calling for AI- safety research, 5 linking to a sign-up page that soon racked up over eight thousand signatures, including many of the worlds most prominent AI builders. It suddenly became harder to claim that people concerned about AI safety didnt know what they were talking about, because this now implied that a whos who of leading AI researchers didnt know what they were talking about. The open letter was reported by media around the world in a way that made us grateful that wed barred journalists from our conference. Although the most alarmist word in the letter was pitfalls, it nonetheless triggered headlines such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking Sign Open Letter in Hopes of Preventing Robot Uprising, illustrated by murderous terminators. Of the hundreds of articles we spotted, our favorite was one mocking the others, writing that a headline that conjures visions of skeletal androids stomping human skulls underfoot turns complex, transformative technology into a carnival sideshow. 6 Fortunately, there were also many sober news articles, and they gave us another challenge: keeping up with the torrent of new signatures, which needed to be manually verified to protect our credibility and weed out pranks such as HAL 9000, Terminator, Sarah Jeanette Connor and Skynet. For this and our future open letters, Viktoriya Krakovna and Jnos Krmar helped organize a volunteer brigade of checkers that included Jesse Galef, Eric Gastfriend and Revathi Vinoth Kumar working in shifts, so that when Revathi went to sleep in India, she passed the baton to Eric in Boston, and so on. The third mainstreaming step began four days later, when Elon tweeted a link to our announcement that he was donating $10 million to AI-safety research. 7 A week later, we launched an online portal where researchers from around the world could apply and compete for this funding. We were able to whip the application system together so quickly only because Anthony and I had spent the previous decade running similar competitions for physics grants. The Open Philanthropy Project, a California-based charity focused on high-impact giving, generously agreed to top up Elons gift to allow us to give more grants. We werent sure how many applicants wed get, since the topic was novel and the deadline was short. The response blew us away, with about three hundred teams from around the world asking for about $100 million. A panel of AI professors and other researchers carefully reviewed the proposals and selected thirty-seven winning teams, who were funded for up to three years. When we announced the list of winners, it marked the first time that the media response to our activities was fairly nuanced and free of killer-robot pictures. It was finally sinking in that AI safety wasnt empty talk: there was actual useful work to be done, and lots of great research teams were rolling up their sleeves to join the effort. The fourth mainstreaming step happened organically over the next two years, with scores of technical publications and dozens of workshops on AI safety around the world, typically as parts of mainstream AI conferences. Persistent people had tried for many years to engage the AI community in safety research, with limited success, but now things really took off. Many of these publications were funded by our grants program and we at FLI did our best to help organize and fund as many of these workshops as we could, but a growing fraction of them were enabled by AI researchers investing their own time and resources. As a result, ever more researchers learned about safety research from their own colleagues, discovering that aside from being useful, it could also be fun, involving interesting mathematical and computational problems to puzzle over. Complicated equations arent everyones idea of fun, of course. Two years after our Puerto Rico conference, we preceded our Asilomar conference with a technical workshop where our FLI grant winners could showcase their research, and watched slide after slide with mathematical symbols on the big screen. Moshe Vardi, an AI professor at Rice University, joked that he knew wed succeeded in establishing an AI-safety research field once the meetings got boring. This dramatic growth of AI-safety work wasnt limited to academia. Amazon, DeepMind, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft launched an industry partnership for beneficial AI. 8 Major new AI-safety donations enabled expanded research at our largest nonprofit sister organizations: the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk in Cambridge (UK). Further donations of $10 million or more kick-started additional beneficial-AI efforts: the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence in Cambridge, the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies in Pittsburgh and the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund in Miami. Last but not least, with a billion-dollar commitment, Elon Musk partnered with other entrepreneurs to launch OpenAI, a nonprofit company in San Francisco pursuing beneficial AI. AI-safety research was here to stay. In lockstep with this surge of research came a surge of opinions being expressed, both individually and collectively. The industry Partnership on AI published its founding tenets, and long reports with lists of recommendations were published by the U.S. government, Stanford University and the IEEE (the worlds largest organization of technical professionals), together with dozens of other reports and position papers from elsewhere. 9 We were eager to facilitate meaningful discussion among the Asilomar attendees and learn what, if anything, this diverse community agreed on. Lucas Perry therefore took on the heroic task of reading all of those documents wed found and extracting all their opinions. In a marathon effort initiated by Anthony Aguirre and concluded by a series of long telecons, our FLI team then attempted to group similar opinions together and strip away redundant bureaucratic verbiage to end up with a single list of succinct principles, also including unpublished but influential opinions that had been expressed more informally in talks and elsewhere. But this list still included plenty of ambiguity, contradiction and room for interpretation, so the month before the conference, we shared it with the participants and collected their opinions and suggestions for improved or novel principles. This community input produced a significantly revised principle list for use at the conference. In Asilomar, the list was further improved in two steps. First, small groups discussed the principles they were most interested in ( figure 9.4 ), producing detailed refinements, feedback, new principles and competing versions of old ones. Finally, we surveyed all attendees to determine the level of support for each version of each principle. Figure 9.3: Groups of great minds ponder AI principles in Asilomar. This collective process was both exhaustive and exhausting, with Anthony, Meia and I curtailing sleep and lunch time at the conference in our scramble to compile everything needed in time for the next steps. But it was also exciting. After such detailed, thorny and sometimes contentious discussions and such a wide range of feedback, we were astonished by the high level of consensus that emerged around many of the principles during that final survey, with some getting over 97% support. This consensus allowed us to set a high bar for inclusion in the final list: we kept only principles that at least 90% of the attendees agreed on. Although this meant that some popular principles were dropped at the last minute, including some of my personal favorites, 10 it enabled most of the participants to feel comfortable endorsing all of them on the sign-up sheet that we passed around the auditorium. Heres the result. The Asilomar AI Principles Artificial intelligence has already provided beneficial tools that are used every day by people around the world. Its continued development, guided by the following principles, will offer amazing opportunities to help and empower people in the decades and centuries ahead. R ESEARCH I SSUES 1 Research Goal: The goal of AI research should be to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence. 2 Research Funding: Investments in AI should be accompanied by funding for research on ensuring its beneficial use, including thorny questions in computer science, economics, law, ethics, and social studies, such as: (a) How can we make future AI systems highly robust, so that they do what we want without malfunctioning or getting hacked? (b) How can we grow our prosperity through automation while maintaining peoples resources and purpose? (c) How can we update our legal systems to be more fair and efficient, to keep pace with AI, and to manage the risks associated with AI? (d) What set of values should AI be aligned with, and what legal and ethical status should it have? 3 Science-Policy Link: There should be constructive and healthy exchange between AI researchers and policy-makers. 4 Research Culture: A culture of cooperation, trust, and transparency should be fostered among researchers and developers of AI. 5 Race Avoidance: Teams developing AI systems should actively cooperate to avoid corner-cutting on safety standards. E THICS AND V ALUES 6 Safety: AI systems should be safe and secure throughout their operational lifetime, and verifiably so where applicable and feasible. 7 Failure Transparency: If an AI system causes harm, it should be possible to ascertain why. 8 Judicial Transparency: Any involvement by an autonomous system in judicial decision-making should provide a satisfactory explanation auditable by a competent human authority. 9 Responsibility: Designers and builders of advanced AI systems are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications. 10 Value Alignment: Highly autonomous AI systems should be designed so that their goals and behaviors can be assured to align with human values throughout their operation. 11 Human Values: AI systems should be designed and operated so as to be compatible with ideals of human dignity, rights, freedoms, and cultural diversity. 12 Personal Privacy: People should have the right to access, manage, and control the data they generate, given AI systems power to analyze and utilize that data. 13 Liberty and Privacy: The application of AI to personal data must not unreasonably curtail peoples real or perceived liberty. 14 Shared Benefit: AI technologies should benefit and empower as many people as possible. 15 Shared Prosperity: The economic prosperity created by AI should be shared broadly, to benefit all of humanity. 16 Human Control: Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to AI systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives. 17 Non-subversion: The power conferred by control of highly advanced AI systems should respect and improve, rather than subvert, the social and civic processes on which the health of society depends. 18 AI Arms Race: An arms race in lethal autonomous weapons should be avoided. L ONGER- T ERM I SSUES 19 Capability Caution: There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions regarding upper limits on future AI capabilities. 20 Importance: Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. 21 Risks: Risks posed by AI systems, especially catastrophic or existential risks, must be subject to planning and mitigation efforts commensurate with their expected impact. 22 Recursive Self-Improvement: AI systems designed to recursively self- improve or self-replicate in a manner that could lead to rapidly increasing quality or quantity must be subject to strict safety and control measures. 23 Common Good: Superintelligence should only be developed in the service of widely shared ethical ideals, and for the benefit of all humanity rather than one state or organization. The signature list grew dramatically after we posted the principles online, and by now it includes an amazing list of more than a thousand AI researchers and many other top thinkers. If you too want to join as a signatory, you can do so here: http://futureoflife.org/ai-principles . We were struck not only by the level of consensus about the principles, but also by how strong they were. Sure, some of them sound about as controversial as Peace, love and motherhood are valuable at first glance. But many of them have real teeth, as is most easily seen by formulating negations of them. For example, Superintelligence is impossible! violates 19, and Its a total waste to do research on reducing existential risk from AI! violates 21. Indeed, as you can see for yourself if you watch our long-term panel discussion on YouTube, 11 Elon Musk, Stuart Russell, Ray Kurzweil, Demis Hassabis, Sam Harris, Nick Bostrom, David Chalmers, Bart Selman and Jaan Tallinn all agreed that superintelligence would probably be developed and that safety research was important. I hope that the Asilomar AI Principles will serve as a starting point for more detailed discussions, which will ultimately lead to sensible AI strategies and policies. In this spirit, our FLI media director Ariel Conn worked with Tucker Davey and other team members to interview leading AI researchers about the principles and how they interpreted them, while David Stanley and his team of international FLI volunteers translated the principles into key world languages. Mindful Optimism As I confessed in the opening of this epilogue, Im feeling more optimistic about the future of life than I have in a long time. I shared my personal story to explain why. My experiences over the past few years have increased my optimism for two separate reasons. First, Ive witnessed the AI community come together in a remarkable way to constructively take on the challenges ahead, often in collaboration with thinkers from other fields. Elon told me after the Asilomar meeting that he found it amazing how AI safety has gone from a fringe issue to mainstream in only a few years, and Im just as amazed myself. And now its not merely the near-term issues from chapter 3 that are becoming respectable discussion topics, but even superintelligence and existential risk, as in the Asilomar AI Principles. Theres no way that those principles could have been adopted in Puerto Rico two years earlier, where the most scary-sounding word that made it into the open letter was pitfalls. I like people-watching, and at one point during the final morning of the Asilomar conference, I stood at the side of the auditorium and watched the participants listen to a discussion about AI and law. To my surprise, a warm and fuzzy feeling swept through me and I suddenly felt very moved. This felt so different from Puerto Rico! Back then, I remember viewing most of the AI community with a combination of respect and fearnot exactly as an opposing team, but as a group that my AI-concerned colleagues and I felt we needed to persuade. But now it felt so obvious that we were all on the same team. As youve probably gleaned from reading this book, I still dont have the answers for how to create a great future with AI, so it feels great to be part of a growing community searching for the answers together. Figure 9.4: A growing community searches for answers together in Asilomar. The second reason Ive grown more optimistic is that the FLI experience has been empowering. What had triggered my London tears was a feeling of inevitability: that a disturbing future may be coming and there was nothing we could do about it. But the next three years dissolved my fatalistic gloom. If even a ragtag bunch of unpaid volunteers could make a positive difference for whats arguably the most important conversation of our time, then imagine what we can all do if we work together! Erik Brynjolfsson spoke of two kinds of optimism in his Asilomar talk. First theres the unconditional kind, such as the positive expectation that the Sun will rise tomorrow morning. Then theres what he called mindful optimism, which is the expectation that good things will happen if you plan carefully and work hard for them. Thats the kind of optimism I now feel about the future of life. So what can you do to make a positive difference for the future of life as we enter the age of AI? For reasons Ill soon explain, I think that a great first step is working on becoming a mindful optimist, if you arent one already. To be a successful mindful optimist, its crucial to develop positive visions for the future. When MIT students come to my office for career advice, I usually start by asking them where they see themselves in a decade. If a student were to reply Perhaps Ill be in a cancer ward, or in a cemetery after getting hit by a bus, Id give her a hard time. Envisioning only negative futures is a terrible approach to career planning! Devoting 100% of ones efforts to avoiding diseases and accidents is a great recipe for hypochondria and paranoia, not happiness. Instead, Id like to hear her describe her goals with enthusiasm, after which we can discuss strategies for getting there while avoiding pitfalls. Erik pointed out that according to game theory, positive visions form the foundation of a large fraction of all collaboration in the world, from marriages and corporate mergers to the decision of independent states to form the USA. After all, why sacrifice something you have if you cant imagine the even greater gain that this will provide? This means that we should be imagining positive futures not only for ourselves, but also for society and for humanity itself. In other words, we need more existential hope! Yet, as Meia likes to remind me, from Frankenstein to the Terminator, futuristic visions in literature and film are predominantly dystopian. In other words, we as a society are planning our future about as poorly as that hypothetical MIT student. This is why we need more mindful optimists. And this is why Ive encouraged you throughout this book to think about what sort of future you want rather than merely what sort of future you fear, so that we can find shared goals to plan and work for. Weve seen throughout this book how AI is likely to give us both grand opportunities and tough challenges. A strategy thats likely to help with essentially all AI challenges is for us to get our act together and improve our human society before AI fully takes off. Were better off educating our young to make technology robust and beneficial before ceding great power to it. Were better off modernizing our laws before technology makes them obsolete. Were better off resolving international conflicts before they escalate into an arms race in autonomous weapons. Were better off creating an economy that ensures prosperity for all before AI potentially amplifies inequalities. Were better off in a society where AI-safety research results get implemented rather than ignored. And looking further ahead, to challenges related to superhuman AGI, were better off agreeing on at least some basic ethical standards before we start teaching these standards to powerful machines. In a polarized and chaotic world, people with the power to use AI for malicious purposes will have more motivation and ability to do so, and teams racing to build AGI will feel more pressure to cut corners on safety than to cooperate. In summary, if we can create a more harmonious human society characterized by cooperation toward shared goals, this will improve the prospects of the AI revolution ending well. In other words, one of the best ways for you to improve the future of life is to improve tomorrow. You have power to do so in many ways. Of course you can vote at the ballot box and tell your politicians what you think about education, privacy, lethal autonomous weapons, technological unemployment and other issues. But you also vote every day through what you choose to buy, what news you choose to consume, what you choose to share and what sort of role model you choose to be. Do you want to be someone who interrupts all their conversations by checking their smartphone, or someone who feels empowered by using technology in a planned and deliberate way? Do you want to own your technology or do you want your technology to own you? What do you want it to mean to be human in the age of AI? Please discuss all this with those around you its not only an important conversation, but a fascinating one. Were the guardians of the future of life now as we shape the age of AI. Although I cried in London, I now feel that theres nothing inevitable about this future, and I know that its much easier to make a difference than I thought. Our future isnt written in stone and just waiting to happen to usits ours to create. Lets create an inspiring one together! * This experience also made me rethink how I personally should interpret news. Although Id obviously been aware that most outlets have their own political agenda, I now realized that they also have a bias away from the center on all issues, even nonpolitical ones. Notes Chapter 1 1. The AI Revolution: Our Immortality or Extinction? Wait But Why (January 27, 2015), at http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html . 2. This open letter, Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence, can be found at http://futureoflife.org/ai-open-letter/ . 3. Example of classic robot alarmism in the media: Ellie Zolfagharifard, Artificial Intelligence Could Be the Worst Thing to Happen to Humanity, Daily Mail, May 2, 2014; http://tinyurl.com/hawkingbots . Chapter 2 1. Notes on the origin of the term AGI: http://wp.goertzel.org/who-coined-the-term-agi . 2. Hans Moravec, When Will Computer Hardware Match the Human Brain? Journal of Evolution and Technology (1998), vol. 1. 3. In the figure showing computing power versus year, the pre-2011 data is from Ray Kurzweils book How to Create a Mind, and subsequent data is computed from the references in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS . 4. Quantum computing pioneer David Deutsch describes how he views quantum computation as evidence of parallel universes in his The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universesand Its Implications (London: Allen Lane, 1997). If you want my own take on quantum parallel universes as the third of four multiverse levels, youll find it in my previous book: Max Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality (New York: Knopf, 2014). Chapter 3 1. Watch Google DeepMinds Deep Q-learning Playing Atari Breakout on YouTube at https://tinyurl.com/atariai . 2. See Volodymyr Mnih et al., Human-Level Control Through Deep Reinforcement Learning, Nature 518 (February 26, 2015): 529533, available online at http://tinyurl.com/ataripaper . 3. Heres a video of the Big Dog robot in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww . 4. For reactions to the sensationally creative line 5 move by AlphaGO, see Move 37!! Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo Match 2, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNrXgpSEEIE . 5. Demis Hassabis describing reactions to AlphaGo from human Go players: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otJKzpNWZT4 . 6. For recent improvements in machine translation, see Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The Great A.I. Awakening, New York Times Magazine (December 14, 2016), available online at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/magazine/the-great-ai-awakening.html . GoogleTranslate is available here at https://translate.google.com . 7. Winograd Schema Challenge competition: http://tinyurl.com/winogradchallenge . 8. Ariane 5 explosion video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnHn8W1Em6E . 9. Ariane 5 Flight 501 Failure report by the inquiry board: http://tinyurl.com/arianeflop . 10. NASAs Mars Climate Orbiter Mishap Investigation Board Phase I report: http://tinyurl.com/marsflop . 11. The most detailed and consistent account of what caused the Mariner 1 Venus mission failure was incorrect hand-transcription of a single mathematical symbol (a missing overbar): http://tinyurl.com/marinerflop . 12. A detailed description of the failure of the Soviet Phobos 1 Mars mission can be found in Wesley T. Huntress Jr. and Mikhail Ya. Marov, Soviet Robots in the Solar System (New York: Praxis Publishing, 2011), p. 308. 13. How unverified software cost Knight Capital $440 million in 45 minutes: http://tinyurl.com/knightflop1 and http://tinyurl.com/knightflop2 . 14. U.S. government report on the Wall Street flash crash: Findings Regarding the Market Events of May 6, 2010 (September 30, 2010), at http://tinyurl.com/flashcrashreport . 15. 3-D printing of buildings ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SObzNdyRTBs ), micromechanical devices ( http://tinyurl.com/tinyprinter ) and many things in between ( https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xVU4FLrsPXs ). 16. Global map of community-based fab labs: https://www.fablabs.io/labs/map . 17. News article about Robert Williams being killed by an industrial robot: http://tinyurl.com/williamsaccident . 18. News article about Kenji Urada being killed by an industrial robot: http://tinyurl.com/uradaaccident . 19. News article about Volkswagen worker being killed by an industrial robot: http://tinyurl.com/baunatalaccident . 20. U.S. government report on worker fatalities: https://www.osha.gov/dep/fatcat/dep_fatcat.html . 21. Car accident fatality statistics: http://tinyurl.com/roadsafety2 and http://tinyurl.com/roadsafety3 . 22. On the first Tesla autopilot fatality, see Andrew Buncombe, Tesla Crash: Driver Who Died While on Autopilot Mode Was Watching Harry Potter, Independent (July 1, 2016), http://tinyurl.com/teslacrashstory . For the report of the Office of Defects Investigation of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, see http://tinyurl.com/teslacrashreport . 23. For more about the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster, see R. B. Whittingham, The Blame Machine: Why Human Error Causes Accidents (Oxford, UK: Elsevier, 2004). 24. Documentary about the Air France 447 crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpPkp8OGQFI ; accident report: http://tinyurl.com/af447report ; outside analysis: http://tinyurl.com/thomsonarticle . 25. Official report on the 2003 U.S.-Canadian blackout: http://tinyurl.com/uscanadablackout . 26. Final report of the Presidents Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island: http://www.threemileisland.org/downloads/188.pdf . 27. Dutch study showing how AI can rival human radiologists at MRI-based diagnosis of prostate cancer: http://tinyurl.com/prostate-ai . 28. Stanford study showing how AI can best human pathologists at lung cancer diagnosis: http://tinyurl.com/lungcancer-ai . 29. Investigation of the Therac-25 radiation therapy accidents: http://tinyurl.com/theracfailure . 30. Report on lethal radiation overdoses in Panama caused by confusing user interface: http://tinyurl.com/cobalt60accident . 31. Study of adverse events in robotic surgery: https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03518 . 32. Article on number of deaths from bad hospital care: http://tinyurl.com/medaccidents . 33. Yahoo set a new standard for big hack when announcing a billion(!) of their user accounts had been breached: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/yahoo-hack-billion-users/ . 34. New York Times article on acquittal and later conviction of KKK murderer: http://tinyurl.com/kkkacquittal . 35. The Danziger et al. 2011 study ( http://www.pnas.org/content/108/17/6889.full ), arguing that hungry judges are harsher, was criticized as flawed by Keren Weinshall-Margela and John Shapard ( http://www.pnas.org/content/108/42/E833.full ), but Danziger et al. insist that their claims remain valid ( http://www.pnas.org/content/108/42/E834.full ). 36. Pro Publica report on racial bias in recidivism-prediction software: http://tinyurl.com/robojudge . 37. Use of fMRI and other brain-scanning techniques as evidence in trials is highly controversial, as is the reliability of such techniques, although many teams claim accuracies better than 90%: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00709/full . 38. PBS made the movie The Man Who Saved the World about the incident where Vasili Arkhipov single- handedly prevented a Soviet nuclear strike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPY2SgyG5w . 39. The story of how Stanislav Petrov dismissed warnings of a U.S. nuclear attack as a false alarm was turned into the movie The Man Who Saved the World (not to be confused with the movie by the same title in the previous note), and Petrov was honored at the United Nations and given the World Citizen Award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IncSjwWQHMo . 40. Open letter from AI and robotics researchers about autonomous weapons: http://futureoflife.org/open- letter-autonomous-weapons/ . 41. A U.S. official seemingly wanting a military AI arms race: http://tinyurl.com/workquote . 42. Study of wealth inequality in the United States since 1913: http://gabriel- zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2015.pdf . 43. Oxfam report on global wealth inequality: http://tinyurl.com/oxfam2017 . 44. For a great introduction to the hypothesis of technology-driven inequality, see Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (New York: Norton, 2014). 45. Article in The Atlantic about falling wages for the less educated: http://tinyurl.com/wagedrop . 46. The data plotted are taken from Facundo Alvaredo, Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, The World Wealth and Income Database ( http://www.wid.world ), including capital gains. 47. Presentation by James Manyika showing income shifting from labor to capital: http://futureoflife.org/data/PDF/james_manyika.pdf . 48. Forecasts about future job automation from Oxford University ( http://tinyurl.com/automationoxford ) and McKinsey ( http://tinyurl.com/automationmckinsey ). 49. Video of robotic chef: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE6i2OO6Y6s . 50. Marin Solja i explored these options at the 2016 workshop Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society: http://futureoflife.org/2016/05/06/computers-gone-wild/ . 51. Andrew McAfees suggestions for how to create more good jobs: http://futureoflife.org/data/PDF/andrew_mcafee.pdf . 52. In addition to many academic articles arguing that this time is different for technological unemployment, the video Humans Need Not Apply succinctly makes the same point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU . 53. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm . 54. Argument that this time is different for technological unemployment: Federico Pistono, Robots Will Steal Your Job, but Thats OK (2012), http://robotswillstealyourjob.com . 55. Changes in the U.S. horse population: http://tinyurl.com/horsedecline . 56. Meta-analysis showing how unemployment affects well-being: Maike Luhmann et al., Subjective Well-Being and Adaptation to Life Events: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102, no. 3 (2012): 592; available online at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3289759 . 57. Studies of what boosts peoples sense of well-being: Angela Duckworth, Tracy Steen and Martin Seligman, Positive Psychology in Clinical Practice, Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 1 (2005): 629651, online at http://tinyurl.com/wellbeingduckworth . Weiting Ng and Ed Diener, What Matters to the Rich and the Poor? Subjective Well-Being, Financial Satisfaction, and Postmaterialist Needs Across the World, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107, no. 2 (2014): 326, online at http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/107/2/326 . Kirsten Weir, More than Job Satisfaction, Monitor on Psychology 44, no. 11 (December 2013), online at http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/12/job- satisfaction.aspx . 58. Multiplying together about 10 11 neurons, about 10 4 connections per neuron and about one (10 0 ) firing per neuron each second might suggest that about 10 15 FLOPS (1 petaFLOPS) suffice to simulate a human brain, but there are many poorly understood complications, including the detailed timing of firings and the question of whether small parts of neurons and synapses need to be simulated too. IBM computer scientist Dharmendra Modha has estimated that 38 petaFLOPS are required ( http://tinyurl.com/javln43 ), while neuroscientist Henry Markram has estimated that one needs about 1,000 petaFLOPS ( http://tinyurl.com/6rpohqv ). AI researchers Katja Grace and Paul Christiano have argued that the most costly aspect of brain simulation is not computation but communication, and that this too is a task in the ballpark of what the best current supercomputers can do: http://aiimpacts.org/about . 59. For an interesting estimate of the computational power of the human brain: Hans Moravec When Will Computer Hardware Match the Human Brain? Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 1 (1998). Chapter 4 1. For a video of the first mechanical bird, see Markus Fischer, A Robot That Flies like a Bird, TED Talk, July 2011, at https://www.ted.com/talks/a_robot_that_flies_like_a_bird . Chapter 5 1. Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near (New York: Viking Press, 2005). 2. Ben Goertzels Nanny AI scenario is described here: https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Nanny_AI . 3. For a discussion about the relationship between machines and humans, and whether machines are our slaves, see Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Boyhood, New York magazine (May 20, 2015), online at http://tinyurl.com/aislaves . 4. Mind crime is discussed in Nick Bostroms book Superintelligence and in more technical detail in this recent paper: Nick Bostrom, Allan Dafoe and Carrick Flynn, Policy Desiderata in the Development of Machine Superintelligence (2016), http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/aipolicy.pdf . 5. Matthew Schofield, Memories of Stasi Color Germans View of U.S. Surveillance Programs, McClatchy DC Bureau (June 26, 2013), online at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article24750439.html . 6. For thought-provoking reflections on how people can be incentivized to create outcomes that nobody wants, I recommend Meditations on Moloch, http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on- moloch . 7. For an interactive timeline of close calls when nuclear war might have started by accident, see Future of Life Institute, Accidental Nuclear War: A Timeline of Close Calls, online at http://tinyurl.com/nukeoops . 8. For compensation payments made to U.S. nuclear testing victims, see U.S. Department of Justice website, Awards to Date 4/24/2015, at https://www.justice.gov/civil/awards-date-04242015 . 9. Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, April 2008, available online at http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A2473- EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf . 10. Independent research by both U.S. and Soviet scientists alerted Reagan and Gorbachev to the risk of nuclear winter: P. J. Crutzen and J. W. Birks, The Atmosphere After a Nuclear War: Twilight at Noon, Ambio 11, no. 2/3 (1982): 114125. R. P. Turco, O. B. Toon, T. P. Ackerman, J. B. Pollack and C. Sagan, Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions, Science 222 (1983): 12831292. V. V. Aleksandrov and G. L. Stenchikov, On the Modeling of the Climatic Consequences of the Nuclear War, Proceeding on Applied Mathematics (Moscow: Computing Centre of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1983), 21. A. Robock, Snow and Ice Feedbacks Prolong Effects of Nuclear Winter, Nature 310 (1984): 667670. 11. Calculation of climate effects of global nuclear war: A. Robock, L. Oman and L. Stenchikov, Nuclear Winter Revisited with a Modern Climate Model and Current Nuclear Arsenals: Still Catastrophic Consequences, Journal of Geophysical Research 12 (2007): D13107. Chapter 6 1. For more information, see Anders Sandberg, Dyson Sphere FAQ, at http://www.aleph.se/nada/dysonFAQ.html . 2. Freeman Dysons seminal paper on his eponymous spheres: Freeman Dyson, Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation, Science , vol. 131 (1959): 16671668. 3. Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland explain their proposed black hole engine in Are Black Hole Starships Possible?, at http://arxiv.org/pdf/0908.1803.pdf . 4. For a nice infographic from CERN summarizing known elementary particles, see http://tinyurl.com/cernparticles . 5. This unique video of a non-nuclear Orion prototype illustrates the idea of nuclear-bomb-powered rocket propulsion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Lxx2VAYi8 . 6. Heres a pedagogical introduction to laser sailing: Robert L. Forward, Roundtrip Interstellar Travel Using Laser-Pushed Lightsails, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets 21, no. 2 (MarchApril 1984), available online at http://www.lunarsail.com/LightSail/rit-1.pdf . 7. Jay Olson analyzes cosmically expanding civilizations in Homogeneous Cosmology with Aggressively Expanding Civilizations, Classical and Quantum Gravity 32 (2015), available online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.4359 . 8. The first thorough scientific analysis of our far future: Freeman J. Dyson, Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe, Reviews of Modern Physics 51, no. 3 (1979): 447, available online at http://blog.regehr.org/extra_files/dyson.pdf . 9. Seth Lloyds above-mentioned formula told us that performing a computational operation during a time interval costs an energy E h/4 , where h is Plancks constant. If we want to get N operations done one after the other (in series) during a time T , then = T N , so E N hN 4 T, which tells us that we can perform N 2 ET/h serial operations using energy E and time T . So both energy and time are resources that it helps having lots of. If you split your energy between n different parallel computations, they can run more slowly and efficiently, giving N 2 ETn/h . Nick Bostrom estimates that simulating a 100-year human life requires about N = 10 27 operations. 10. If you want to see a careful argument for why the origin of life may require a very rare fluke, placing our nearest neighbors over 10 1000 meters away, I recommend this video by Princeton physicist and astrobiologist Edwin Turner: Improbable Life: An Unappealing but Plausible Scenario for Lifes Origin on Earth, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt6n6Tu1beg . 11. Essay by Martin Rees on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: https://www.edge.org/annual- question/2016/response/26665 . Chapter 7 1. A popular discussion of Jeremy Englands work on dissipation-driven adaptation can be found in Natalie Wolchover, A New Physics Theory of Life, Scientific American (January 28, 2014), available online at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-new-physics-theory-of-life/ . Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengerss Order Out of Chaos: Mans New Dialogue with Nature (New York: Bantam, 1984) lays many of the foundations for this. 2. For more on feelings and their physiological roots: William James, Principles of Psychology (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1890); Robert Ornstein, Evolution of Consciousness: The Origins of the Way We Think (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992); Antnio Damsio, Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (New York: Penguin, 2005); and Antnio Damsio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (New York: Vintage, 2012). 3. Eliezer Yudkowsky has discussed aligning the goals of friendly AI not with our present goals, but with our coherent extrapolated volition (CEV). Loosely speaking this is defined as what an idealized version of us would want if we knew more, thought faster and were more the people we wished we were. Yudkowsky began criticizing CEV shortly after publishing it in 2004 ( http://intelligence.org/files/CEV.pdf ), both for being hard to implement and because its unclear whether it would converge to anything well-defined. 4. In the inverse reinforcement-learning approach, a core idea is that the AI is trying to maximize not its own goal-satisfaction, but that of its human owner. It therefore has incentive to be cautious when its unclear about what its owner wants, and to do its best to find out. It should also be fine with its owner switching it off, since that would imply that it had misunderstood what its owner really wanted. 5. Steve Omohundros paper on AI goal emergence, The Basic AI Drives, can be found online at http://tinyurl.com/omohundro2008 . Originally published in Artificial General Intelligence 2008: Proceedings of the First AGI Conference, ed. Pei Wang, Ben Goertzel and Stan Franklin (Amsterdam: IOS, 2008), 483492. 6. A thought-provoking and controversial book on what happens when intelligence is used to blindly obey orders without questioning their ethical basis: Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin, 1963). A related dilemma applies to a recent proposal by Eric Drexler ( http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/reports/2015-3.pdf ) to keep superintelligence under control by compartmentalizing it into simple pieces, none of which understand the whole picture. If this works, this could again provide an incredibly powerful tool without an intrinsic moral compass, implementing its owners every whim without any moral qualms. This would be reminiscent of a compartmentalized bureaucracy in a dystopian dictatorship: one part builds weapons without knowing how theyll be used, another executes prisoners without knowing why they were convicted, and so on. 7. A modern variant of the Golden Rule is John Rawls idea that a hypothetical situation is fair if nobody would change it without knowing in advance which person in it theyd be. 8. For example, the IQs of many of Hitlers top officials were found to be quite high. See How Accurate Were the IQ Scores of the High-Ranking Third Reich Officials Tried at Nuremberg?, Quora, available online at http://tinyurl.com/nurembergiq . Chapter 8 1. The entry on consciousness by Stuart Sutherland is quite amusing: Macmillan Dictionary of Psychology (London: Macmillan, 1989). 2. Erwin Schrdinger, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics, made this remark in his book Mind and Matter while contemplating the past and what would have happened if conscious life never evolved in the first place. On the other hand, the rise of AI raises the logical possibility that we may end up with a play for empty benches in the future . 3. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives an extensive survey of different definitions and uses of the word consciousness: http://tinyurl.com/stanfordconsciousness . 4. Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (New York: HarperCollins, 2017): 116. 5. This is an excellent introduction to System 1 and System 2 from a pioneer: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011). 6. See Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2004). 7. Perhaps were only aware of a tiny fraction (say 1050 bits) of the information that enters our brain each second: K. Kpfmller, 1962, Nachrichtenverarbeitung im Menschen, in Taschenbuch der Nachrichtenverarbeitung, ed. K. Steinbuch (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1962): 14811502. T. Nrretranders, The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (New York: Viking, 1991). 8. Michio Kaku, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (New York: Doubleday, 2014); Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee, On Intelligence (New York: Times Books, 2007); Stanislas Dehaene, Michel Kerszberg and Jean-Pierre Changeux, A Neuronal Model of a Global Workspace in Effortful Cognitive Tasks, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95 (1998): 1452914534. 9. Video celebrating Penfields famous I can smell burnt toast experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSN86kphL68 . Sensorimotor cortex details: Elaine Marieb and Katja Hoehn, Anatomy & Physiology, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2008), 391395. 10. The study of neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) has become quite mainstream in the neuroscience community in recent yearssee, e.g., Geraint Rees, Gabriel Kreiman, and Christof Koch, Neural Correlates of Consciousness in Humans, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3 (2002): 261 270, and Thomas Metzinger, Neural Correlates of Consciousness: Empirical and Conceptual Questions (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000). 11. How continuous flash suppression works: Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2004); Christof Koch and Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Continuous Flash Suppression Reduces Negative Afterimages, Nature Neuroscience 8 (2005): 10961101. 12. Christof Koch, Marcello Massimini, Melanie Boly and Giulio Tononi, Neural Correlates of Consciousness: Progress and Problems, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 17 (2016): 307. 13. See Koch, The Quest for Consciousness, p. 260, and further discussion in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://tinyurl.com/consciousnessdelay . 14. On synchronization of conscious perception: David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You (New York: Pantheon, 2015), and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://tinyurl.com/consciousnesssync . 15. Benjamin Libet, Mind Time: The Temporal Factor in Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004); Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze and John-Dylan Haynes, Unconscious Determinants of Free Decisions in the Human Brain, Nature Neuroscience 11 (2008): 543545, online at http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v11/n5/full/nn.2112.html . 16. Examples of recent theoretical approaches to consciousness: - Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained (Back Bay Books, 1992) - Bernard Baars, In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) - Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2004) - Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi, A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination (New York: Hachette, 2008) - Antnio Damsio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (New York: Vintage, 2012) - Stanislas Dehaene, Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts (New York: Viking, 2014) - Stanislas Dehaene, Michel Kerszberg and Jean-Pierre Changeux, A Neuronal Model of a Global Workspace in Effortful Cognitive Tasks, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95 (1998): 1452914534 - Stanislas Dehaene, Lucie Charles, Jean-Rmi King and Sbastien Marti, Toward a Computational Theory of Conscious Processing, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 25 (2014): 760784 17. Thorough discussion of different uses of the term emergence in physics and philosophy by David Chalmers: http://cse3521.artifice.cc/Chalmers-Emergence.pdf . 18. Me arguing that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed in certain complex ways: https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510188 , https://arxiv.org/abs/0704.0646 , Max Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe (New York: Knopf, 2014). David Chalmers expresses a related sentiment in his 1996 book The Conscious Mind: Experience is information from the inside; physics is information from the outside. 19. Adenauer Casali et al., A Theoretically Based Index of Consciousness Independent of Sensory Processing and Behavior, Science Translational Medicine 5 (2013): 198ra105, online at http://tinyurl.com/zapzip . 20. Integrated information theory doesnt work for continuous systems: - https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.1219 - http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00063/full - https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.02626 21. Interview with Clive Wearing, whose short-term memory is only about 30 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmzU47i2xgw . 22. Scott Aaronson IIT critique: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799 . 23. Cerrullo IIT critique, arguing that integration isnt a sufficient condition for consciousness: http://tinyurl.com/cerrullocritique . 24. IIT prediction that simulated humans will be zombies: http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1668/20140167 . 25. Shanahan critique of IIT: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.05696.pdf . 26. Blindsight: http://tinyurl.com/blindsight-paper . 27. Perhaps were only aware of a tiny fraction (say 1050 bits) of the information that enters our brain each second: Kpfmller, Nachrichtenverarbeitung im Menschen; Nrretranders, The User Illusion. 28. The case for and against consciousness without access: Victor Lamme, How Neuroscience Will Change Our View on Consciousness, Cognitive Neuroscience (2010): 204220, online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17588921003731586 . 29. Selective Attention Test, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo . 30. See Lamme, How Neuroscience Will Change Our View on Consciousness, n. 28. 31. This and other related issues are discussed in detail in Daniel Dennetts book Consciousness Explained . 32. See Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow , cited in n. 5. 33. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy reviews the free will controversy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill . 34. Video of Seth Lloyd explaining why an AI will feel like it has free will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epj3DF8jDWk . 35. See Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (New York: Pantheon, 1992). 36. The first thorough scientific analysis of our far future: Freeman J. Dyson, Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe, Reviews of Modern Physics 51, no. 3 (1979): 447, available online at http://blog.regehr.org/extra_files/dyson.pdf . Epilogue 1. The open letter ( http://futureoflife.org/ai-open-letter ) that emerged from the Puerto Rico conference argued that research on how to make AI systems robust and beneficial is both important and timely, and that there are concrete research directions that can be pursued today, as exemplified in this research-priorities document: http://futureoflife.org/data/documents/research_priorities.pdf . 2. My video interview with Elon Musk about AI safety can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBw0eoZTY-g . 3. Heres a nice video compilation of almost all SpaceX rocket landing attempts, culminating with the first successful ocean landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AllaFzIPaG4 . 4. Elon Musk tweets about our AI-safety grant competition: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/555743387056226304 . 5. Elon Musk tweets about our AI-safety-endorsing open letter: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/554320532133650432 . 6. Erik Sofge in An Open Letter to Everyone Tricked into Fearing Artificial Intelligence ( Popular Science, January 14, 2015) pokes fun at the scaremongering news coverage of our open letter: http://www.popsci.com/open-letter-everyone-tricked-fearing-ai . 7. Elon Musk tweets about his big donation to the Future of Life Institute and the world of AI-safety researchers: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/555743387056226304 . 8. For more about the Partnership on AI to benefit people and society, see their website: https://www.partnershiponai.org . 9. Some examples of recent reports expressing opinions about AI: One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, Report of the 2015 Study Panel, Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030 (September 2016), at http://tinyurl.com/stanfordai ; White House report on the future of AI: http://tinyurl.com/obamaAIreport ; White House report on AI and jobs: http://tinyurl.com/AIjobsreport ; IEEE report on AI and human well-being, Ethically Aligned Design, Version 1 (December 13, 2016), at http://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/ec/ead_v1.pdf ; road map for U.S. Robotics: http://tinyurl.com/roboticsmap . 10. Among the principles that didnt make the final cut, one of my favorites was this one: Consciousness caution: There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions as to whether or not advanced AI would possess or require consciousness or feelings. It went through many iterations, and in the last one, the controversial word consciousness was replaced by subjective experiencebut this principle nonetheless got only 88% approval, just barely falling short of the 90% cutoff. 11. Discussion panel on superintelligence with Elon Musk and other great minds: http://tinyurl.com/asilomarAI . Whats next on your reading list? Discover your next great read! Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author. Sign up now. |
MAHANIRVANA TANTRA TANTRA OF THE GREAT LIBERATION TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR AVALON 1913 Mahanirvana Tantra By Arthur Avalon. This edition was created and published by Global Grey GlobalGrey 2020 Get more free ebooks at globalgreyebooks.com CONTENTS Preface Introduction Chapter 1 - Questions Relating To The Liberation Of Beings Chapter 2 - Introduction To The W orship Of Brahman Chapter 3 - Description Of The Worship Of The Supreme Brahman Chapter 4 - Introduction Of The Worship Of The Supreme Prakriti Chapter 5 - The Formation Of The Mantras, Placing Of The Jar, And Purification Of The Elements Of Worship Chapter 6 - Placing Of The Shri -Patra, Homa, Formation Of The Chakra, And Other Rites Chapter 7 - Hymn Of Praise (Stotra), Amulet (Kavacha), And The Description Of The Kula Tattva Chapter 8 - The Dharmma And Customs Of The Castes And Ashramas Chapter 9 - The Ten Kinds Of Purificatory Rites (Sangskara) Chapter 10 - Rites Relating To Vriddhi Shraddha, Funeral Rites, And Purnabhisheka Chapter 11 - The Account Of Expiatory Rites Chapter 12 - An Account Of The Eternal And Immutable Dharmma Chapter 13 - Installation Of The Devata Chapter 14 - The Consecration Of Shiva- Linga And Description Of The Four Classes Of Avadhutas PREFACE THE Indian Tantras, which are numerous, constitute the Scripture ( Shastra) of the Kaliyuga, and as such are the voluminous source of present and practical orthodox "Hinduism." The Tantra Shastra is, in fact, and whatever be its historical origin, a development of the Vaidika Karmakanda, promulgated to meet the needs of that age. Shiva says: "For the benefit of men of the Kali age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kaula doctrine, O auspicious one! is given" (Chap. IX., verse 12). To the Tantra we must therefore look if we would understand aright both ritual, yoga, and sadhana of all kinds, as also the general principles of which these practices are but the objective expression. Yet of all the forms of Hindu Shastra, the Tantra is that which is least known and understood, a circumstance in part due to the difficulties of its subject -matter and to the fact that the key to much of its terminology and method rest with the initiate. The present translation is, in fact, the first published in Europe of any Indian Tantra. An inaccurate version rendered in imperfect English was published in Calcutta by a Bengali editor some twelve years ago, preceded by an Introduction which displayed insufficient knowledge in respect of what it somewhat quaintly described as "the mystical and superficially technical passages" of this Tantra. A desire to attempt to do it greater justice has in part prompted its selection as the first for publication. This Tantra is, further, one which is well known and esteemed, though perhaps more highly so amongst that portion of the Indian public which favours "reformed" Hinduism than amongst some Tantrikas, to whom, as I have been told, certain of its provisions appear to display unnecessary timidity. The former admire it on account of its noble exposition of the worship of the Supreme Brahman, and in the belief that certain of its passages absolutely discountenance the orthodox ritual. Nothing can be more mistaken than such belief, even though it be the fact that "for him who has faith in the root, of what use are the branches and leaves." This anyone will discover who reads the text. It is true that, as Chap. VII., verse 94, says: "In the purified heart knowledge of Brahman grows," and Brahmajnane samutpanne krityakrityang na vidyate. But the statement assumes the attainment of Brahmajana, and this, the Shastra says, can be attained, not by Vedantic discussions nor mere prayer, after the manner of Protestant systems of Christian worship; but by the Sadhana which is its main subject -matter. I have referred to Protestant systems, for the Catholic Church possesses an elaborate ritual and a sadhana of its own which is in many points strikingly analogous to the Hindu system. The section of Tantrikas to whom I have referred are, I believe, also in error. For the design of this Tantra appears to be, whilst conserving commonly -recognized Tantrik principles, to secure that, as has sometimes proved to be the case, they are not abused. Parvvati says (Chap. I., verse 67): "I fear, 0 Lord! that even that which Thou hast ordained for the good of men will, through them, turn out for evil." Hitaya yane, karmani kathitani tvaya prabho 1 Manyetani mahadeva viparitani manave. It is significant, in connection with these observations, to note that this particular Tantra was chosen as the subject of commentary by Shrimad Hariharananda Bharati, the Guru of the celebrated Hindu "reformer," Raja Ram Mohun Roy. The Tantra has been assigned to the group of sixty -four known as those of the Rathakranta. It was first published by the Adi -Brahma- Samaja in 1798 Shakabda (A.D. 1876), and was printed in Bengali characters, with the notes of the Kulavadhuta Shrimad Hariharananda Bharati under the editorship of Anandachandra Vidyavagisha. The preface to this edition stated that three MSS. were consulted; one belonging to the library of the Samaja; the second supplied by Durgadasa Chandhuri, and the third taken from the library of Raja Ram Mohun Roy. This text appears to be the basis of subsequent publications. It was again printed in 1888 by Shri Krishna Gopala Bhakta, since when there have been several editions with Bengali translations, including that of Shri Prasanna Kumara Shastri. The late Pandit Jivananda Vidyasagara published an edition in Devanagari character, with the notes of Hariharananda; and the Venkateshvara Press at Bombay have issued another in similar character with a Hindi translation. The translation published is that of the first part only. It is commonly thought (and was so stated by the author of the Calcutta edition in English to which I have referred) that the second portion is lost. This is, however, not so, though copies of the complete Tantra are rare enough. The full text exists in manuscript, and I hope at a later date to have an opportunity of publishing a translation of it. I came across a complete manuscript some two years ago in the possession of a Nepalese Pandit. He would, however, only permit me to make a copy of his manuscript on the condition that the Shatkarmma Mantras were not published. For, as he said, virtue not being a condition precedent for the acquisition of siddhi in such Mantras, their publication might enable the evilly disposed to work harm against others, a crime which, he added, was, in his own country, where the Tantra was current, punishable by the civil power. I was unable to persuade him even with the observation that the mere publication of the Mantra without knowledge of what is called the prayoga (which cannot be learned of books) would in any case be ineffectual. I could not give an undertaking which would have involved the publication of a mutilated text, and the reader must therefore for the present be content with a translation of the first part of the Tantra, which is generally known, and has, as stated, been several times printed. The incident has further value than the direct purpose for which I have told it. There are some to whom the Tantra, though they may not have read a line of it, is "nothing but black magic," and all its followers are "black magicians." This is of course absurd. In this connection I cannot avoid interposing the observation that certain practices are described in Tantra which, though they are alleged to have the results described therein, yet exist "for delusion." The true attitude of the higher Tantrika is illustrated by the action of the Pandit who, if 2 he disappointed my expectations, at any rate by his refusal afforded an answer to these too general allegations. The second portion of the manuscript in his possession contained over double the number of Shlokas to be found in the first part here published. The edition which has been used for the translation is that (now out of print) edited and published at Calcutta by Shri Krishna Gopala Bhakta in Chaitra 1295 Bengali era (April, 1888), with Commentary of Shrimad Hariharananda Bharati, and with additional notes by the learned and lately deceased Pandit Jaganmohana Tarkalangkara, called Vriddha in order to distinguish him from another celebrated Pandit of the same name. A new edition of the same work is now, in course of publication, with further notes by the latters son, Pandit Jnanendranatha Tantraratna. This valuable Commentary is not, however, altogether suitable for the general reader, for it assumes a certain amount of knowledge on his part which he does not possess. I have accordingly, whilst availing myself of its aid, written my own commentary, and added an Introduction explaining certain matters and terms referred to or presupposed by the text which, as they require a somewhat more extended treatment, could not be conveniently dealt with in the footnotes. Some of the matters there explained are, though common and fundamental, seldom accurately defined. Nothing, therefore, is lost by a re- statement of them with an intention to serve such accuracy. Other matters are of a special character, and are either not generally known or are misunderstood. The Introduction, however, does not profess to be an exhaustive treatment of that with which it deals. On the contrary, it is but an extended note written to help some way towards a better understanding of the text by the ordinary reader. For a fuller exposition of general principles and practice the interested are referred to three works which I have in preparation, "Principles of Tantra" ( Tantratattva), "Exposition of the Secret Worship" (Rahasyapujapaddhati ), and "Description of the Six Centres" ( Shatchakranirupana). There are, however, some matters in the Shast ra or its accompanying oral tradition which he must, and if disposed thereto will, find out for himself. This, too, is implied by the saying in this Tantra that it is by merit acquired in previous births that the mind inclines to Kaula doctrine (Chapter VII., verse 99). However this may be, no one will understand the Shastra who starts his inquiry with a mind burdened with the current prejudices against it, whatever be the colour of truth some of them may possess by reason of actual abuse of Shastric princi ples. In conclusion, I wish to thank my Indian friends for the aid they have given me in the preparation of this and other kindred works, and to whom I am indebted for much information gathered during many pleasant hours which we have spent together in the study of a subject of common interest to them and myself. The Tantras generally are written in comparatively simple Sanskrit. For their rendering, however, a working knowledge of their terminology and ritual is required, which can be only fully found in 3 those to whom it is familiar through race, upbringing, and environment, and in whom there is still some regard for their ancient inheritance. As for others, they must learn to see through the Indian eye of knowledge until their own have been trained to its lines of vision. In this way we shall be in the future spared some of the ridiculous presentments of Indian beliefs common in the past and even now too current. ARTHUR AVALON. January 7, 1913. 4 INTRODUCTION Mount Kailasa The scene of the revelation of this Tantra is laid in Himalaya, the "Abode of Snow," a holy land weighted with the traditions of the Aryan race. Here in these lofty uplands, encircled with everlasting snows, rose the great mountain of the north, the Sapta Kula Parvata. Hence the race itself came, and there its early legends have their setting. There are still shown at Bhimudiyar the caves where the sons of Pandu and Draupadi rested, as did Rama and his faithful wife at the point where the Kosi joins the Sita in the grove of Asoka trees. In these mountains Munis and Rishis lived. Here also is the Kshetra of Shiva Mahadeva, where His Spouse Parvvati, the daughter of the Mountain King, was born, and where Mother Ganges also has her source. From time immemorial pilgrims have toiled through these mountains to visit the three great shrines of Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. At Kangri, further north, the pilgrims make the parikrama of Mount Kailasa (Kang Rinpoche), where Shiva is said to dwell. This nobly towering peak rises to the north- west of the sacred Mansarowar Lake (Mapham Yum -tso) from amidst the purple ranges of the lower Kangri Mountains. The paradise of Shiva is a summerland of both lasting sunshine and cool shade, musical with the song of birds and bright with undying flowers. The air, scented with the sweet fragrance of Mandara chaplets, resounds with the music and song of celestial singers and players. The Mount is Gana Parvata, thronged with trains of Spirits ( devayoni ), of which the opening Chapter speaks. And in the regions beyond rises Mount Meru, centre of the world- lotus. Its heights, peopled with spirits, are hung with clusters of stars as with wreaths of Malati flowers. In short, it is written: "He who thinks of Himachala, though he should not behold him, is greater than he who performs all worship in Kashi (Benares). In a hundred ages of the Devas I could not tell thee of the glories of Himachala. As the dew is dried up by the morning sun, so are the sins of mankind by the sight of Himachala." It is not, however, necessary to go to the Himalayan Kailasa to find Shiva. He dwells wheresoever his worshippers, versed in Kulatattva, abide, and His mystic mount is to be sought in the thousand- petalled lotus ( sahasrara- padma) in the body of every human jiva, hence called Shivasthana, to which all, wheresoever situate, may repair when they have learned how to achieve the way thither. Shiva promulgates His teaching in the world below in the works known as Yamala, Damara, Shiva Sutra, and in the Tantras which exist in the form of Dialogues between the Devata and his Shakti, the Devi in Her form as Parvvati. According to the Gayatri Tantra, the Deva Ganesha first preached the Tantra to the Devayoni on Mount Kailasa, after he had himself received them from the mouth of Shiva. 5 After a description of the mountain, the Dialogue opens with a question from Parvvati in answer to which and those which succeed it, Shiva unfolds His doctrine on the subjects with which this particular Tantra deals. Shiva and Shakti That eternal immutable existence which transcends the turiya and all other states is the unconditioned Absolute, the supreme Brahman or Para- brahman, without Prakriti (nishkala) or Her attributes ( nir-guna), which, as being the inner self and knowing subject, can never be the object of cognition, and is to be apprehended only through yoga by the realization of the Self ( atmajana), which It is. For as it is said, "Spirit can alone know Spirit." Being beyond mind, speech, and without name, the Brahman was called " Tat," "That," and then " Tat S at," "That which is." For the sun, moon, and stars, and all visible things, what are they but a glimpse of light caught from "That" ( Tat)? Brahman is both nishkala and sakala. Kala is Prakriti. The nishkala Brahman or Para -brahman is the Tat, when thought of as without Prakriti ( prakriteranya). It is called sakala when with Prakriti. As the substance of Prakriti is the three gunas It is then su-guna, as in the previous state It was nir-guna. Though in the latter state It is thought of as without Shakti, yet (making accommodation to human speech) in It potentially exists Shakti, Its power and the whole universe produced by It. To say, however, that the Shakti exists in the Brahman is but a form of speech, since It and Shakti are, in fact, one, and Shakti is eternal ( Anadi -rupa). She is Brahma -rupa and both vi-guna ( nir-guna) and sa-guna; the Chaitanya- rupini -Devi, who manifests all bhuta. She is the Ananda- rupini -Devi, by whom the Brahman manifests Itself, and who, to use the words of the Sarada, pervades the universe as does oil the sesamum seed. In the beginning the Nishkala Brahman alone existed. In the beginning there was the One. It willed and became many. Ahab bahu syam "may I be many." In such manifestation of Shakti the Brahman is known as the lower ( apara) or manifested Brahman, who, as the subject of worship, is meditated upon with attributes. And, in fact, to the mind and sense of the embodied spirit ( jiva) the Brahman has body and form. It is embodied in the forms of all Devas and Devils, and in the worshipper himself. Its form is that of the universe, and of all things and beings therein. As Shruti says: "He saw" ( Sa aikshata, aham bahu syam prajayeya). "He thought to Himself may I be many." " Sa aikshaya" was itself a manifestation of Shakti, the Para- mapurva- nirvana shakti , or Brahman as Shakti. From the Brahman, with Shakti (Para -shakti -maya ) issued Nada (Shiva- Shakti as the "Word" or "Sound" ), and from Nada, Vindu appeared. Kalicharana in his commentary on the Shatchakra- nirupana says that Shiva and Nirvana Shakti bound by a mayik bond and covering, should be thought of as existing in the form of Parang Vindu. 6 The Sarada says: Sachchidananda vibhavat sakalat parameshvarat asichchhaktistato nado, nadad vindu- samudbhavah ("From Parameshvara vested with the wealth of sachchidananda and with Prakriti ( sakala) issued Shakti; from Shakti came Nada and from Nada was born Vindu" ). The state of subtle body which is known as Kama- kala is the mula of mantra . The term mula -mantratmika, when applied to the Devi, refers to this subtle body of Hers known as the Kama- kala. The Tantra also speaks of three Vindus, namely Shiva- maya, Shakti -maya, and Shiva- shakti -maya. The Parang- vindu is represented as a circle, the centre of which is the brahma - pada, or place of Brahman, wherein are Prakriti -Purusha, the circumference of which is encircling maya . It is on the crescent of nirvana- kala, the seventeenth, which is again in that of ama-kala, the sixteenth digit (referred to in the text) of the moon- circle ( Chandramandal a), which circle is situate above the Sun- Circle (Suryyamandala), the Guru and the hangsah, which are in the pericarp of the thousand- petalled lotus ( sahasrarapadma). Next to the Vindu is the fiery Bodhini, or Nibodhika (v. post). The Vindu, with the Nirvana- kala, Nibodhika, and Ama- kala, are situated in the lightning -like inverted triangle known as " A, Ka, Tha," and which is so called because at its apex is A; at its right base is Za; and at its left base Tha. It is made up of forty -eight letters ( matrika ): the sixteen vowels running from A to Ka; sixteen consonants of the ka-varga and other groups running from A to Ka; and the remaining sixteen from Ka to Tha. Inside are the remaining letters (matrika ), ha, la(second), and ksha . As the substance of Devi is matrika (matrika -mayi ) the triangle represents the "Word" of all that exists. The triangle is itself encircled by the Chandramandala. The Vindu is symbolically described as being like a grain of gram ( chanaka), which under its encircling sheath contains a divided seed. This Parang- vindu is Prakriti -Purusha, Shiva- Shakti. It is known as the Shabda -Brahman (the Sound Brahman), or Aparabrahman. A polarization of the two Shiva and Shakti Tattvas then takes place in Parashaktimaya. The Devi becomes Unmukhi . Her face turns towards Shiva. There is an unfolding which bursts the encircling shell of Maya, and creation then takes place by division of Shiva and Shakti or of "Hang" and "Sah." The Sarada says: "The Devataparashaktimaya is again Itself divided, such divisions being known as Vindu, Vaja, and Nada. Vindu is of the nature of Nada or Shiva, and Vaja of Shakti, and Nada has been said to be the relation of these two by those who are versed in all the Agamas." The Sarada says that before the bursting of the shell enclosing the brahma -pada, which, together with its defining circumference, constitute the Shabda- brahman, an indistinct sound arose ( avyaktatmaravobhavat ). This avyaktanada is both the first and the last state of Nada, according as it is viewed from the standpoint of evolution or involution. For Nada, as Raghava- bhatta says, exists in three states. In Nada are the guna ( sattva , rajas , and tamas ), which form the substance of Prakriti, which with Shiva It is. When tamo -guna predominates Nada is merely an indistinct or unmanifested ( dhvanyat mako vykta- nadah) sound in the nature of dhvani . In this state, in which it is a phase of Avyaktanada, it is called 7 Nibodhika, or Bodhini. It is Nada when rajoguna is in the ascendant, when there is a sound in which there is something like a connected or combined disposition of the letters. When the sattva- guna preponderates Nada assumes the form of Vindu. The action of rajas on tamas is to veil. Its own independent action effects an arrangement which is only perfected by the emergence of the essentially manifesting sattvika guna set into play by it. Nada, Vindu, and Nibodhika, and the Shakti, of which they are the specific manifestation, are said to be in the form of Sun, Moon, and Fire respectively. Jana (spiritual wis dom) is spoken of as fire as it burns up all actions, and the tamoguna is associated with it. For when the effect of cause and effect of action are really known, then action ceases. Ichchha is the Moon. The Moon contains the sixteenth digit, the Ama- kala with its nectar, which neither increases nor decays, and Ichchha, or will, is the eternal precursor of creation. Kriya is like the Sun, for as the Sun by its light makes all things visible, so unless there is action and striving there cannot be realization or manifestation. As the Gita sways: "As one Sun makes manifest all the loka." The Shabda- Brahman manifests Itself in a triad of energies knowledge (janashakti ), will ( ichchha- shakti ), and action ( kriya-shakti ), associated with the three gunas of Prakri ti, tamas , sattva , and rajas . From the Parang- Vindu, who is both vindvat -maka and kalatma i.e., Shakti issued Raudri, Rudra, and his Shakti, whose forms are fire ( vahni ), and whose activity is knowledge ( jana); Vama, and Vishnu and his Shakti, whose form is the sun, and whose activity is kriya (action): and Jyeshtha and Brahma and his Shakti, whose form is the Moon and whose activity is desire. The Vamakeshvara Tantra says that Tri -pura is threefold, as Brahma, Vishnu, and Isha; and as the energies desire, wisdom, and action, the energy of will when Brahman would create; the energy of wisdom when She reminds Him, saying "Let this be thus" ; and when, thus knowing, He acts, She becomes the energy of action. The Devi is thus Ichchha- shakti -jana -shakti -kriya-shakti -svaru- pini. Para -shiva exists as a septenary under the form, firstly, of Shambhu, who is the associate of time ( kala-bandhu). From Him issues Sada- shiva, Who pervades and manifests all things, and then come Ishana and the triad, Rudra, Vishnu, and Brahma, each with their respective Shakti (without whom they avail nothing) separately and particularly associated with the gunas, tamas , sattva and rajas . Of these Devas, the last triad, together with Ishana, and Sada- shiva, are the five Shivas who are collectively known as the Maha- preta, whose vija is "Hsauh ." Of the Maha- preta, it is said that the last four form the support, and the fifth the seat, of the bed on which the Devi is united with Parama- shiva, in the room of chintamani stone, on the jewel led island clad with clumps of kadamba and heavenly trees set in the ocean of Ambrosia. Shiva is variously addressed in this work as Shambhu, Sada- shiva, Shankara, Maheshvara, etc., names which indicate particular states, qualities, and manifestations of the One in its descent towards the many; for there are many 8 Rudras. Thus Sada- shiva indicates the predominance of the sattva- guna. His names are many, 1,008 being given in the sixty -ninth chapter of the Shiva Purana, and in the seventeenth chapter of the Anushasana Parvan of the Mahabharata. Shakti is both maya , that by which the Brahman creating the universe is able to make Itself appear to be different from what It really is, and mula -prakriti , or the unmanifested ( avyakta ) state of that which, when manifest, is the universe of name and form. It is the primary so called "material cause," consisting of the equipoise of the triad of guna or "qualities" which are sattva (that which manifests) rajas (that which acts), tamas (that which veils and produces inertia). The three gunas represent Nature as the revelation of spirit, Nature as the passage of descent from spirit to matter, or of ascent from matter to spirit, and Nature as the dense veil of spirit. The Devi is thus guna- nidhi ("treasure- house of guna" ). Mula-prakriti is the womb into which Brahman casts the seed from which all things are born. The womb thrills to the movement of the essentially active rajo-guna. The equilibrium of the triad is destroyed, and the guna, now in varied combinations, evolve under the illumination of Shiva ( chit), the universe which is ruled by Maheshvara and Maheshvari. The dual principles of Shiva and Shakti, which are in such dual form the product of the polarity manifested in Parashakti -maya , pervade the whole universe, and are present in man in the Svayambhu- Linga of the muladhara and the Devi Kundalini, who, in serpent form, encircles it. The Shabda- Brahman assumes in the body of man the form of the Devi Kundalini, and as such is in all prani (breathing creatures), and in the shape of letters appears in prose and verse. Kundala means coiled. Hence Kundalini, whose form is that of a coiled serpent, means that which is coiled. She is the luminous vital energy ( jiva-shakti ) which manifests as prana, She sleeps in the muladhara, and has three and a half coils corresponding in number with the three and a half vindus of which the Kubjika Tantra speaks. When after closing the ears the sound of Her hissing is not heard death approaches. From the first avyakta creation issued the second mahat , with its three guna distinctly manifested. Thence sprung the third creation ahangkara (selfhood), which is of threefold form vaikarika , or pure sattvika ahangkara; the taijasa , or rajasika ahangkara; and the tamasika , or bhutadika ahangkara. The latter is the origin of the subtle essences ( tan-matra ) of the Tattvas , ether, air, fire, water, earth, associated with sound, touch, sight, taste and smell, and with the colours pure transparency, shyama, red, white, and yellow. There is some difference in the schools as to that which each of the three forms produces, but from such threefold form of Ahang- kara issue the indriya ("senses"), and the Devas Dik, Vata, Arka, Prachetas, Vahni, Indra, Upendra, Mitra, and the Ashvins. The vaikarika , taijasa , and bhutadika are the fourth, fifth, and sixth creations, which are known as prakrita , or appertaining to Prakriti. The rest, which are products of these, such as the vegetable world with its upward life current, animals with horizontal life current, and bhuta , preta and the like, whose life current tends downward, constitute the vaikrita creation, the two being known as the kaumara creation. 9 The Goddess (Devi) is the great Shakti. She is Maya, for of Her the maya which produces the sangsara is. As Lord of Maya She is Mahamaya. Devi is a- vidya (nescience) because She binds and vidya (knowledge) because She liberates and destroys the sangsara. She is Prakriti, and as existing before creation is the Adya (primordial) Shakti. Devi is the vachaka- shakti , the manifestation of chit in Prakriti, and the vachya- shakti , or Chit itself. The Atma should be contemplated as Devi. Shakti or Devi is thus the Brahman revealed in Its mother aspect ( shri-mata ) as Creatrix and Nourisher of the worlds. Kali says of Herself in Yogini Tantra "Sachchidananda- rupaham brahmaivaham sphurat -prab- ham." So the Devi is described with attributes both of the qualified Brahman; and (since that Brahman is but the manifestation of the Absolute) She is also addressed with epithets, which denote the unconditioned Brahman. She is the great Mother ( Ambika ) sprung from the sacrificial hearth of the fire of the Grand Consciousness ( chit); decked with the Sun and Moon; Lalita, "She who plays"; whose play is world- play; whose eyes playing like fish in the beauteous waters of her Divine face, open and shut with the appearance and disappearance of countless worlds now illuminated by her light now wrapped in her terrible darkness. The Devi, as Para- brahman, is beyond all form and guna. The forms of the Mother of the Universe are threefold. There is first the Supreme ( para) form, of which, as the Vishnu -yamala says, "none know." There is next her subtle ( sukshma ) form, which consists of mantra. But as the mind cannot easily settle itself upon that which is formless, She appears as the subject of contemplation in Her third, or gross (sthula), or physical form, with hands and feet and the like as celebrated in the Devi- stotra of the Puranas and Tantras. Devi, who as Prakriti is the source of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh- vara, has both male and female forms. But it is in Her female forms that She is chiefly contemplated. For though existing in all things, in a peculiar sense female beings are parts of Her. The Great Mother, who exists in the form of all Tantras and all Yantras, is, as the Lalita says, the "unsullied treasure- house of beauty" ; the Sapphire Devi, whose slender waist, bending beneath the burden of the ripe fruit of her breasts, swells into jewelled hips heavy with the promise of infinite maternities. As the Mahadevi She exists in all forms as Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Gayatri, Durga, Tripura- sundari, Anna- purna, and all the Devi who are avatara of the Brahman. Devi, as Sati, Uma, Parvvati, and Gauri, is spouse of Shiva. It was as Sati prior to Dakshas sacrifice ( daksha- yajna ) that the Devi manifested Herself to Shiva in the ten celebrated forms known as the dasha- mahavidya referred to in the text Kali, Bagala, Chhinnamasta, Bhuvaneshvari, Matangini, Shodashi, Dhumavati, Tripura- sundari, Tara, and Bhairavi. When, at the Daksha- yajna She yielded up her life in shame and sorrow at the treatment accorded by her father to Her Husband, Shiva took away the body, and, ever bearing it with Him, remained wholly distraught and spent with grief. To save the world from the forces of evil which arose and grew with the withdrawal of His Divine control, Vishnu with His discus ( chakra) cut the dead 10 body of Sati, which Shiva bore, into fifty -one fragments, which fell to earth at the places thereafter known as the fifty -one maha -pitha- sthana (referred to in the text), where Devi, with Her Bhairava, is worshipped under various names. Besides the forms of the Devi in the brahmanda there is Her subtle form called Kundalini in the body ( pindanda). These are but some only of Her endles s forms. She is seen as one and as many, as it were, but one moon reflected in countless waters. She exists, too, in all animals and inorganic things, since the universe with all its beauties is, as the Devi Purana says, but a part of Her. All this diversi ty of form is but the infinite manifestations of the flowering beauty of the One Supreme Life, a doctrine which is nowhere else taught with greater wealth of illustration than in the Shakta Shastras, and Tantras. The great Bharga in the bright Sun and all Devatas, and, indeed, all life and being, are wonderful, and are worshipful, but only as Her manifestations. And he who worships them otherwise is, in the words of the great Devi- bhagavata, "like unto a man who, with the light of a clear lamp in his hands, yet falls into some waterless and terrible well." The highest worship for which the sadhaka is qualified ( adhikari ) only after external worship and that internal form known as sadhara, is described as niradhara. Therein Pure Intelligence is the Supreme Shakti who is worshipped as the Very Self, the Witness freed of the glamour of the manifold Universe. By ones own direct experience of Maheshvari as the Self She is with reverence made the object of that worship which leads to liberation. Guna It cannot be said that current explanations give a clear understanding of this subject. Yet such is necessary, both as affording one of the chief keys to Indian philosophy and to the principles which govern Sadhana. The term guna is generally translated "quality," a word which is only accepted for default of a better. For it must not be overlooked that the three guna (Sattva , rajas , and tamas ), which are of Prakriti, constitute Her very substance. This being so, all Nature which issues from Her, the Maha- karana- svarupa., is called tri-gunatmaka, and is composed of the same guna in different states of relation to one another. The functions of sattva , rajas , and tamas are to reveal, to make active, and to suppress respectively. Rajas is the dynamic, as sattva and tamas are static principles. That is to say, sattva and tamas can neither reveal nor suppress without being first rendered active by rajas . These gunas work by mutual suppression. The unrevealed Prakriti ( avyakta- prakriti ) or Devi is the state of stable equilibrium of these three guna. When this state is disturbed the manifested universe appears, in every object of which one or other of the three guna is in the ascendant. Thus in Devas, as in those who approach the divya state, sattva predominates, and rajas and tamas are very much reduced. That is, their independent manifestation is reduced. They are in one sense still there, for where rajas is not independently active it is operating on sattva to suppress tamas , which appears or 11 disappears to the extent to which it is, or is not, subject to suppression by the revealing principle. In the ordinary human jiva, considered as a class, tamas is less reduced than in the case of the Deva, but very much reduced when comparison is made with the animal jiva. Rajas has great independent activity, and sattva is also considerably active. In the animal creation sattva has considerably less activity. Rajas has less independent activity than in man, but is much more active than in the vegetable world. Tamas is greatly less preponderant than in the latter. In the vegetable kingdom tamas is more preponderant than in the case of animals, and both rajas and sattva less so. In the inorganic creation rajas makes tamas active to suppress both sattva and its own independent activity. It will thus be seen that the "upward" or revealing movement from the predominance of tamas to that of sattva represents the spiritual progress of the jivatma . Again, as between each member of these classes one or other of the three guna may be more or less in the ascendant. Thus, in one man as compared with another, the sattva guna may predominate, in which case his temperament is sattvik, or, as the Tantra calls it, divyabhava. In another the rajoguna may prevail, and in the third the tamoguna, in which case the individual is described as rajasik, or tamasik, or, to use Tantrik phraseology, he is said to belong to virabhava, or is a pashu respectively. Again the vegetable creation is obviously less tamasik, and more rajasik and sattvik than the mineral, and even amongst these last there may be possibly some which are less tamasik than others. Etymologically, sattva is derived from " sat," that which is eternally existent. The eternally existent is also chit, pure Intelligence or Spirit, and ananda or Bliss. In a secondary sense, sat is also used to denote the "good." And commonly (though such use obscures the original meaning), the word sattva guna is rendered "good quality." It is, however, "good" in the sense that it is productive of good and happiness. In such case, however, stress is laid rather on a necessary quality or effect (in the ethical sense) of " sat" than upon its original meaning. In the primary sense sat is that which reveals . Nature is a revelation of spirit ( sat). Where Nature is such a revelation of spirit there it manifests as sattva guna. It is the shining forth from under the veil of the hidden spiritual substance ( sat). And that equality in things which reveals this is sattva guna. So of a pregnant woman it is said that she is antahsattva, or inst inct with sattva ; she in whom sattva as jiva (whose characteristic guna is sattva ) is living in an hidden state. But Nature not only reveals, but is also a dense covering or veil of spirit, at times so dense that the ignorant fail to discern the spirit which it veils. Where Nature is a veil of spirit there it appears in its quality of tamoguna. In this case the tamoguna is currently spoken of as representative of inertia, because that is the effect of the nature which veils. This quality, again, when translated into the moral sphere, becomes ignorance, sloth, etc. 12 In a third sense nature is a bridge between spirit which reveals and matter which veils. Where Nature is a bridge of descent from spirit to matter, or of ascent from matter to spirit, there it mani fests itself as rajoguna. This is generally referred to as the quality of activity, and when transferred to the sphere of feeling it shows itself as passion. Each thing in Nature then contains that in which spirit is manifested or reflected as in a mirror or sattvaguna; that by which spirit is covered, as it were, by a veil of darkness or tamoguna, and that which is the vehicle for the descent into matter or the return to spirit or rajoguna. Thus sattva is the light of Nature, as tamas is its shade. Rajas is, as it were, a blended tint oscillating between each of the extremes constituted by the other guna. The object of Tantrik sadhana is to bring out and make preponderant the sattva guna by the aid of rajas , which operates to make the former guna active. The subtle body ( lingasharira) of the jivatma comprises in it buddhi , ahangkara , manas , and the ten senses. This subtle body creates for itself gross bodies suited to the spiritual state of the jivatma . Under the influence of prarabdhda karmma , buddhi becomes tamasik , rajasik , or sattvik. In the first case the jivatma assumes inanimate bodies; in the second, active passionate bodies; and in the third, sattvik bodies of varying degrees of spiritual excellence, ranging from man to the Deva. The gross body is al so trigunatmaka. This body conveys impressions to the jivatma through the subtle body and the buddhi in particular. When sattva is made active impressions of happiness result, and when rajas or tamas are active the impressions are those of sorrow and delus ion. These impressions are the result of the predominance of these respective guna. The action of rajas on sattva produces happiness, as its own independent activity or operation on tamas produce sorrow and delusion respectively. Where sattva or happiness is predominant, there sorrow and delusion are suppressed. Where rajas or sorrow is predominant, there happiness and delusion are suppressed. And where tamas or delusion predominates there, as in the case of the inorganic world, both happiness and sorrow are suppressed. All objects share these three states in different proportions. There is, however, always in the jivatma an admixture of sorrow with happiness, due to the operation of rajas . For happiness, which is the fruit of righteous acts done to attain happiness, is after all only a vikara . The natural state of the jivatma that is, the state of its own true nature is that bliss ( ananda) which arises from the pure knowledge of the Self, in which both happiness and sorrow are equally objects of indifference. The worldly enjoyment of a person involves pain to self or others. This is the result of the pursuit of happiness, whether by righteous or unrighteous acts. As spiritual progress is made, the gross body becomes more and more refined. In inanimate bodies karma operates to the production of pure delusion. On the exhaustion of such karma the jivatma assumes animate bodies for the operation of such forms of karma as lead to sorrow and happiness mixed with delusion. In the vegetable world sattva is but lit tle active, with a corresponding lack of discrimination, for discrimination is the effect of sattva in buddhi , and from discrimination arises the recognition of pleasure and 13 pain, conceptions of right and wrong, of the transitory and intransitory, and so f orth, which are the fruit of a high degree of discrimination, or of activity of sattva . In the lower animal sattva in buddhi is not sufficiently active to lead to any degree of development of these conceptions. In man, however, the sattva in buddhi is cons iderably active, and in consequence these conceptions are natural in him. For this reason the human birth is, for spiritual purposes, so important. All men, however, are not capable of forming such conceptions in an equal degree. The degree of activity in an individuals buddhi depends on his prarabdha karma. However bad such karma may be in any particular case, the individual is yet gifted with that amount of discrimination which, if properly aroused and aided, will enable him to better his spiritual condition by inducing the rajoguna in him to give more and more activity to the sattva guna in his buddhi . On this account proper guidance and spiritual direction are necessary. A good guru, by reason of his own nature and spiritual attainment and disinterested wisdom, will both mark out for the sishya the path which is proper for him, and aid him to follow it by the infusion of the tejas which is in the Guru himself. Whilst sadhana is, as stated, a process for the stimulation of the sattva guna, it is evident that one form of it is not suitable to all. It must be adapted to the spiritual condition of the sishya , otherwise it will cause injury instead of good. Therefore it is that the adoption of certain forms of sadhana by persons who are not competent (adhikari ), may not only be fruitless of any good result, but may even lead to evils which sadhana as a general principle is designed to prevent. Therefore also is it said that it is better to follow ones own dharma than that, however exalted it be, of another. The Worlds (Loka) This earth, which is the object of the physical senses and of the knowledge based thereon, is but one of fourteen worlds or regions placed "above" and "below" it, of which (as the sutra says) knowledge may be obtained by meditation on the s olar "nerve" ( nada) sushumna in the merudanda . On this nadi six of the upper worlds are threaded, the seventh and highest overhanging it in the Sahasrara Padma, the thousand- petalled lotus. The sphere of earth ( Bhurloka), with its continents, their mountai ns and rivers, and with its oceans, is the seventh or lowest of the upper worlds. Beneath it are the Hells and Nether Worlds, the names of which are given below. Above the terrestrial sphere is Bhuvarloka, or the atmospheric sphere known as the antariksha, extending "from the earth to the sun," in which the Siddhas and other celestial beings ( devayoni ) of the upper air dwell. "From the sun to the pole star" dhruva) is svarloka , or the heavenly sphere. Heaven ( svarga) is that which delights the mind, as hell (naraka) is that which gives it pain. In the former is the abode of the Deva and the blest. These three spheres are the region of the consequences of work, and are termed transitory as compared with the three highest spheres, and the fourth, which is of a 14 mixed character. When the jiva has received his reward he is reborn again on earth. For it is not good action, but the knowledge of the atma which procures Liberation (moksha). Above Svarloka is Maharloka, and above it the three ascending regions known as the janarloka, tapoloka, and satyaloka, each inhabited by various forms of celestial intelligence of higher and higher degree. Below the earth ( Bhuh) and above the nether worlds are the Hells (commencing with Avichi), and of which, according to popular theology, there are thirty -four, though it is elsewhere said there are as many hells as there are offences for which particular punishments are meted out. Of these, six are known as the great at hells. Hinduism, however, even when popular, knows nothing of a hell of eternal torment. To it nothing is eternal but the Brahman. Issuing from the Hells the jiva is again reborn to make its future. Below the Hells are the seven nether worlds, Sutala, Vitala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, Atala, and Patala, where, according to the Puranas, dwell the Naga serpent divinities, brilliant with jewels, and where, too, the lovely daughters of the Daityas and Danavas wander, fascinating even the most austere. Yet below Patala is the form of Vishnu proceeding from the dark qual ity (tamogunah), known as the Sesha serpent or Ananta, bearing the entire world as a diadem, attended by his Shakti Varuni, his own embodied radiance. Inhabitants of the Worlds The worlds are inhabited by countless grades of beings, ranging from the highes t Devas (of whom there are many classes and degrees) to the lowest animal life. The scale of beings runs from the shining manifestations of Spirit to those in which it is so veiled that it would seem almost to have disappeared in its material covering. There is but one Light, one Spirit, whose manifestations are many. A flame enclosed in a clear glass loses but little of its brilliancy. If we substitute for the glass, paper, or some other more opaque yet transparent substance, the light is dimmer. A covering of metal may be so dense as to exclude from sight the rays of light which yet burns within with an equal brilliancy. As a fact, all such veiling forms are maya . They are none the less true for those who live in and are themselves part of the mayik world. Deva, or "heavenly and shining one" for spirit is light and self -manifestation is applicable to those descending yet high manifestations of the Brahman, such as the seven Shivas, including the Trinity ( trimurtti ), Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra. Devi, again, is the title of the Supreme Mother Herself, and is again applied to the manifold forms assumed by the one only Maya, such as Kali, Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Gauri, Gayatri, Sandhya, and others. In the sense also in which it is said, "Verily, in the beginning there was the Brahman. It created the Devas," the latter term also includes lofty intelligencies belonging to the created world intermediate between Ishvara (Himself a Purusha) and man, who in the person of the Brahmana is known as Earth -deva ( bhudeva). These spirits are of varying degrees. For there are no breaks in the creation which represents an apparent descent of the Brahman in gradually lowered forms. Throughout these forms play the divine currents of pravritti and nivritti , the latter drawing to Itself that which the former has sent forth. 15 Deva , jiva and jara (inorganic matter) are, in their real, as opposed to their phenomenal and illusory, being, the one Brahman, which appears thus to be other than Itself through its connection with the upadhi or limiting conditions with which ignorance ( avidya) invests it. Therefore all beings which are the object of worship are each of them but the Brahman seen through the veil of avidya. Though the worshippers of Devas may not know it, their worship is in reality the worship of the Brahman, and hence the Mahanirvana Tantra says that, "as all streams flow to the ocean, so the worship given to any Deva is received by the Brahman." On the other hand, those who, knowing this, worship the Devas, do so as manifestations of the Brahman, and thus worship It mediately. The sun, the most glorious symbol in the physical world, is the mayik vesture of Her who is "clothed with the sun." In the lower ranks of the celestial hierarchy are the Devayonis, some of whom are mentioned in the opening verses of the first chapter of the text. The Devas are of two classes: "unborn" ( ajata ) that is, those which have not, and those which have (sadhya) evolved from humanity as in the case of King Nahusha, who became Indra. Opposed to the divine hosts are the Asura, Danava, Daitya, Rakshasa, who, with other spirits, represent the tamasik or demonic element in creation. All Devas, from the highest downwards, are subordinate to both time and karma . So it is said, "Salutation to Karma, over which not even Vidhi (Brahma) prevails" ( Namastat karmmabhyovidhirapi na yebhyah prabhavati ). The rendering of the term "Deva" by "God" has led to a misapprehension of Hindu thought. The use of the term "angel" may also mislead, for though the world of Devas has in some respects analogy to the angelic choirs, the Christian conception of these Beings, their origin and functions, does not include, but in fact excludes, other ideas connoted by the Sanskrit term. The pitris , or "Fathers," are a creation (according to some) separate from the predecessors of humanity, and are, according to others, the lunar ancestry who are addressed in prayer with the Devas. From Brahma, who is known as the "Grandfather" Pita Maha of the human race, issued Marichi, Atri, and others, his "mental sons": the Agnishvattvah, Saumnyah, Havishmantah, Ushmapah, and other classes of Pitris , numbering, according to the Markandeya Purana, thirty - one. Tarpanam , or oblation, is daily offered to these pitris. The term is also applied to the human ancestors of the worshipper generally up to the seventh generation to whom in shraddha (the obsequial rites) pinda and water are offered with the mantra "svadha." The Rishi are seers who know, and by their knowledge are the makers of shastra and "see" all mantras. The word comes from the root rish Rishati- prapnoti sarvvang mantrang jnanena pashyati sangsaraparangva, etc. The seven great Rishi or saptarshi of the first manvantara are Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya, and Vashishtha. In other manvantara there are other sapta- rshi. In the present manvantara the seven are Kashyapa Atri, Vashishtha, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja. To the Rishi the Vedas were revealed. Vyasa 16 taught the Rigveda so revealed to Paila, the Yajurveda to Vaishampayana, the Samaveda to Jaimini, Atharvaveda to Samantu, and Itihasa and Purana to Suta. The three chief classes of Rishi are the Brah -marshi , born of the mind of Brahma, the Devarshi of lower rank, and Rajarshi or Kings who became Rishis through their knowledge and austerities, such as Janaka, Ritaparna, etc. Thc Shrutarshi are makers of Shastras, as Sushruta. The Kandarshi are of the Karmakanda, such as Jaimini. The Muni , who may be a Rishi, is a sage. Muni is so called on account of his mananam (mananat muniruchyate). Mananam is that thought, investigation, and discussion which marks the independent thinking mind. First there is shravanam listening; then mananam , which is the thinking or understanding, discussion upon, and testing of what is heard as opposed to the mere acceptance on trust of the lower intelligence. There two are followed by nididhyasanam , which is attention and profound meditation on the conclusions ( siddhanta) drawn from what is so heard and reasoned upon. As the Mahabharata says, "The Veda differ, and so do the Smriti . No one is a muni who has no independent opinion of his own ( nasau muniryasya matang na bhinnam ). The human being is called jiva that is, the embodied Atma possessed by egoism and of the notion that it directs the puryashtaka, namely, the five organs of action (karmendriya), the five organs of perception ( jnanendriya), the fourfold antahkarana or mental self (Manas , Buddhi , Ahangkara, Chitta ), the five vital airs ( Prana), the five elements, Kama (desire), Karma (action and its results), and Avidya (illusion). When these false notions are destroyed, the embodiment is destroyed, and the wearer of the mayik garment attains nirvana. When the jiva is absorbed in Brahman, there is no longer any jiva remaining as such. Varna Ordinarily there are four chief divisions or castes ( varna ) of Hindu society viz.: Brahmana (priesthood; teaching); Kshattriya (warrior); Vaishya (merchant); Shudra (servile) said to have sprung respectively from the mouth, arm, thigh, and foot of Brahma. A man of the first three classes becomes an investiture, during the upanayana ceremony of the sacred thread, twice- born ( dvija). It is said that by birth one is shudra, by sangskara (upanayana), dvija (twice -born); by study of the Vedas one attains the state of a vipra ; and that he who has knowledge of the Brahman is a Brahmana. The present Tantra, however, speaks of a fifth or hybrid class (samanya), resulting from intermixture between the others. It is a peculiarity of Tantra that its worship is largely free of Vaidik exclusiveness, whether based on caste, sex, or otherwise. As the Gautamiya Tantra says, "The Tantra is for all men, of whatever caste, and for all women" ( Sarvvavarnadhikaraschcha narinang yogya eva cha). 17 Ashrama The four stages, conditions, or periods in the life of a Brahman are: First, that of the chaste student, or brahmachari ; second, the period of secular life as a married householder, or grihastha; third, that of the recluse, or vanaprastha , when there is retirement from the world; and lastly, that of the beggar, or bhikshu, who begs his single daily meal, and meditates upon the Supreme Spirit to which he is about to return. For the Kshattriya there are the first three Ashramas; for the Vaishya , the first two; and for the Shudra, the grihastha Ashrama only. This Tantra states that in the Kali age there are only two Ashrama. The second garhasthya and the last bhikshuka or avadhuta. Neither the conditions of life, nor the character, capacity, and powers of the people of this age allow of the first and third. The two ashramas prescribed for the Kali age are open to all castes indiscriminately. There are, it is now commonly said, two main divisions of avadhuta namely, Shaivavadhuta and Brahmavadhuta of each of which there are, again, three divisions. Of the first class the divisions are firstly Shaivavadhuta, who is apurna (imperfect). Though an ascetic, he is also a householder and like Shiva. Hence his name. The second is the wandering stage of the Shaiva (or the parivrajaka) , who has now left the world, and passes his time doing puja, japa, etc., visiting the tirtha and pitha, or places of pilgrimage. In this stage, which, though higher, is still imperfect, the avadhuta is competent for ordinary sadhana with a shakti. The third is the perfect stage of a Shaiva. Wearing only the kaupina, he renounces all things and all rites, though within certain limits he may practise some yoga, and is permitted to meet the request of a woman who makes it of him. Of the second class the three divisions ar e, firstly, the Brahma - vadhuta, who, like the Shaivavadhuta, is imperfect (apurna) and a householder. He is not permitted, however, to have a Shaiva Shakti , and is restricted to sviya- shakti. The second-class Brahma -parivrajaka is similar to the Shaiva of the same class, except that ordinarily he is not permitted to have anything to do with any woman, though he may, under the guidance of his Guru , practise yoga accompanied by Shakti. The third or highest class Hangsavadhuta is similar to the third Shaiv a degree, except that he must under no circumstances touch a woman or metals, nor may he practise any rites or keep any observances. Correspondence Between Macrocosm and Microcosm The universe consists of a Mahabrahmanda , or grand Kosmos, and of numerous Brihatbrahmanda, or macrocosms evolved from it. As is said by the Nirvana Tantra, all which is in the first is in the second. In the latter are heavenly bodies and beings, which are microcosms reflecting on a minor scale the greater worlds which evolve them. "As above, so below." This mystical maxim of the West is stated in the Vishvasara Tantra as follows: "What is here is elsewhere; what is not here is nowhere" ( yadihasti tadanyatra yannehasti natatkvachit ). The macrocosm has its meru , or vertebral column, extending from top to bottom. There are fourteen 18 regions descending from Satyaloka, the highest. These are the seven upper and the seven nether worlds ( vide ante). The meru of the human body is the spinal column, and within it are the chakra, in which the worlds are said to dwell. In the words of the Shaktananda- Tarangini, they are pindamadhyesthita. Satya has been said to be in the sahasrara, and Tapah, Janah , Mahah, Svah , Bhuvah, Bhuh in the ajna, vishuddha, anahata, manipura, svadishthana, and muladhara lotuses respectively. Below muladhara and in the joints, sides, anus , and organs of generation are the nether worlds. The bones near the spinal column are the kula- parvata. Such are the correspondences as to earth. Then as to water. The nadi are the rivers. The seven substances of the body ( dhatu) are the seven islands. Sweat, tears, and the like are the oceans. Fire exists in the muladhara, sushumna, navel, and elsewhere. As the worlds are supported by the pravahana and other vayu ("airs"), so is the body supported by the ten vayu prana , etc. There is the same akasha (ether) in both. The witness within is the purusha without, for the personal soul of the microcosm corresponds to the cosmic soul ( hiranyagarbha) in the macrocosm. The Ages The passage of time within a maha -yoga influences for the worse man and the world in which he lives. This passage is marked by the four ages ( yuga), called Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali -yuga, the last being that in which it is generally supposed the world now is. The yuga is a fraction of a kalpa, or day of Brahma of 4,320,000 human years. The kalpa is divided into fourteen manvantara, which are again subdivided into seventy -one maha .-yuga; the length of each of which is 4,320,000 human years. The maha -yuga (great age) is itself composed of four yuga (ages) (a) Satya, ( b) Treta, ( c) Dvapara, ( d) Kali. Official science teaches that man appeared on the earth in an imperfect state, from which he has since been gradually, though continually, raising himself. Such teaching is, however, in conflict with the traditions of all peoples Jew, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, Roman, and Christian which speak of an age when man was both innocent and happy. From this state of primal perfection he fell, continuing his descent until such time as the great Avatara, Christ and others, descended to save his race and enable it to regain the righteous path. The Garden of Eden is the emblem of the paradisiacal body of man. There man was one with Nature. He was himself paradise, a privileged enclosure in a garden of delight gan be Eden. Et eruditus est Moyse omni sapientia gyptiorum . The Satya Yuga is, according to Hindu belief, the Golden Age of righteousness, free of sin, marked by longevity, physical strength, beauty, and stature. "There were giants in those days" whose moral, mental, and physical strength enabled them to undergo long brahmacharyya (continence) and tapas (austerities). Longevity permitted lengthy spiritual exercises. Life then depended on the marrow, and lasted a lakh of years, men dying when they willed. Their stature was 21 cubits. 19 To this age belong the Avatara or incarnations of Vishnu, Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Nri-singha, and Vamana. Its duration is computed to be 4,800 Divine years, which, when multiplied by 360 (a year of the Devas being equal to 360 human years) are the equivalent of 1,728,000 of the years of man. (b) The second age, or Treta (three- fourth) Yuga, is that in which righteousness ( dharmma) decreased by one- fourth. The duration was 3,600 Divine years, or 1,296,000 human years. Longevity, strength, and stature decreased. Life was in the bone, and lasted 10,000 years. Mans stature was 14 cubits. Of sin there appeared one- quarter, and of virtue there remained three- quarters. Men were still attached to pious and charitable acts, penances, sacrifice, and pilgrimage, of which the chief was that to Naimisharanya. In this period appeared the avatars of Vishnu as Parashurama and Rama. (c) The third, or Dvapara (one- half) Yuga, is that in which righteousness decreased by one- half, and the duration of which was 2,400 Divine, or 864,000 human, years. A further decrease in longevity and strength, and increase of weakness and disease, mark this age. Life which lasted 1,000 years was centred in the blood. Stature was 7 cubits. Sin and virtue were of equal force. Men became restless, and, though eager to acquire knowledge, were deceitful, and followed both good and useful pursuits. The principal place of pilgrimage was Kurukshetra. To this age belongs (according to Vyasa, Anushtubhacharya and Jiya- deva) the avatara of Vishnu as Bala- rama, the elder brother of Krishna, who, according to other accounts, takes his place. In the sandhya, or intervening period of 1,000 years between this and the next yuga the Tantra was revealed, as it will be revealed at the dawn of every Kali -yuga. (d) Kali - yuga is the alleged present age, in which righteousness exists to the extent of one- fourth only, the duration of which is 1,200 Divine,or 432,000 human, years. According to some, this age commenced in 3120 B.C. on the date of Vishnus return to heaven after the eighth incarnation. This is the periodwhich, according to the Puranas and Tantras, is characterized by the prevalence of viciousness, weakness, disease, and the general decline of all that is good. Humanlife, which lasts at most 120, or, as some say, 100, years,is dependent on food. Stature is 3 cubits. The chief pilgrimage is now to the Ganges. In this age has appeared the Buddha Avatara. The last, or Kalki Avatara,the Destroyer of sin, has yet to come. It is He who will destroy iniquity and restore the age of righteousness.The Kalki Purana speaks of Him as One whose body is blue like that of the rain- charged cloud, who with sword in hand rides, as does the rider of the Apocalypse, a white horse swift as the wind, the Cherisher of the people, Destroyer of the race of the Kali -yuga, the Source of true religion. And Jayadeva, in his Ode to the Incarnations,addresses Him thus: "For the destruction of all the impure thou drawest thy cimeter like a blazing comet. O how tremendous! Oh, Keshava, assuming the body of Kalki! Be victorious. O Hari, Lord of the Universe!" With the Satya- yuga a new maha- yaga will commence, and the ages will continue to revolve with their rising and descending races until the close of the kalpa or day of Brahma.. Then a night of dissolution (pralaya) of equal duration follows, the Lord reposing in yoga- nidra (yoga sleep in pralaya) on the Serpent Shesha, the Endless One, till day break, when the universe is created anew and the next kalpa follows. 20 The Scriptures of the Ages Each of these Ages has its appropriate Shastra or Scripture, designed to meet the characteristics and needs of the men who live in them The Hindu Shastra are classed into: (1) Shruti , which commonly includes the four Veda. (Rik, Yajuh, Sama, Atharva, and the Upanishads), the doctrine of which is philosophically exposed in the Vedanta- Darshana. (2) Smriti, such as the Dharma- Shastra of Manu and other works on family and social duty prescribing for pavritti -dhamia , as the Upanishads had revealed the nivritti -dharma. (3) The Puranas, of which, according to the Brahma- vaivartta Purana, there were originally four lakhs, and of which eighteen are now regarded as the principal. (4) The Tantra. For each of these ages a suitable Shastra is given. The Veda is the root of all Shastra (mula -shastra). All others are based on it. The Tantra is spoken of as a fifth Veda. Kulluka- Bhatta, the celebrated Commentator on Manu, says that Shruti is of two kinds, Vaidik and Tantrik (vaidiki- tantriiki chaiva dvi -vidha shrutih- kirttita). The various Shastras , however, are different presentments of shruti appropriate to the humanity of the age for which they are given. Thus the Tantra is that presentment of shruti which is modelled as regards its ritual to meet the characteristics and infirmities of the Kali- yuga. As men have no longer the capacity, longevity, and moral strength necessary for the application of the Vaidika Karma -kanda, the Tantra prescribes a special sadhana or means or practice of its own, for the attainment of that which is the ultimate and common end of all Shastra. The Kularnava Tantra says that in the Satya or Krita age the Shastra is Shruti (in the sense of the Veda and Upanishads); in Treta- yuga, Smriti (in the sense of the Dharma - Shastra and Shruti -jivika , etc.); in Dvapara Yuga the Purana; and in the last or Kali - yuga the Tantra, which should now be followed by all orthodox Hindu worshippers. The Maha- nirvana and other Tantras and Tantrik works lay down the same rule. The Tantra is also said to contain the very core of the Veda to which, it is described to bear the relation of the Paramatma to the Jivatma . In a similar way, Kaulachara is the central informing life of the gross body called vedachara, each of the achara which follow it up to kaulachara being more and more subtle sheaths. The Human Body The human body is Brahma -para, the city of Brahman. Ishvara Himself enters into the universe as jiva. Wherefore the maha -vakya "That thou art" means that the ego (which is regarded as jiva only from the standpoint of an upadhi ) is Brahman. The Five Sheaths In the body there are five kosha or sheaths anna- maya , prana- maya , mano - maya , vijana -maya , ananda- maya , or the physical and vital bodies, the two mental bodies, and the body of bliss. In the first the Lord is self -conscious as being dark or fair, short or tall, old or youthful. In the vital body He feels alive, hungry, and thirsty. In the mental bodies He thinks and understands. And in the body of Bliss He r esides 21 in happiness. Thus garmented with the five garments, the Lord, though all pervading, appears as though He were limited by them. Anna- Maya Kosha In the material body, which is called the "sheath of food" ( anna- maya kosha), reign the elements earth, water, and fire, which are those presiding in the lowest Chakra , the Muladhara, Svadhishthana, and mani -pura centres. The two former produce food and drink, which is assimilated by the fire of digestion, and converted into the body of food. The indriya are both the faculty and organs of sense. There are in this body the material organs, as distinguished from the faculty of sense. In the gross body ( sharira- kosha) there are six external kosha viz., hair, blood, flesh, which come from the mother, and bone, m uscle, marrow, from the father. The organs of sense ( indriya) are of two kinds viz.: jnanendriya, or organs of sensation, through which knowledge of the external world is obtained (ear, skin, eyes, tongue, nose); and karmendriya, or organs of action mouth, arms, legs, anus, penis, the functions of which are speech, holding, walking, excretion, and procreation. Prana- Maya Kosha The second sheath is the prana- maya -kosha , or sheath of "breath" ( prana), which manifests itself in air and ether, the presiding elements in the Anahata and Vishuddha chakra. There are ten vayu (airs), or inner vital forces, of which the first five are the principal namely, the sapphire prana; apana, the colour of an evening cloud; the silver vyana ; udana, the colour of fire; and the milky samana. These are all aspects of the action of the one Prana- devata. Kundalini is the Mother of prana, which She the Mula- Prakriti, illumined by the light of the Supreme Atma , generates. Prana is vayu , or the universal force of activity, divided on entering each individual into fivefold function. Specifically considered, prana is inspiration, which with expiration is from and to a distance of eight and twelve inches respectively. Udana is the ascending vayu . Apana is the downward vayu , expelling wind, excrement, urine, and semen. The samana, or collective vayu , kindles the bodily fire, "conducting equally the food, etc., throughout the body." Vyana is the separate vayu , effecting division and diffusion. These forces cause respiration, excretion, digestion, circulation. Mano- maya, Vijana Kosha, and Ananda- maya Kosha The next two sheaths are the mano -maya and vijana kosha. These constitute the antah- karana, which is fourfold namely, mind in its twofold aspect of buddhi and manas , self-hood ( ahankara), and chitta . The function of the first is 22 doubt sangkalpa- vikalpatmaka, (uncertainty, certainty); of the second, determination (nishchaya -karini ); of the third (egoity), consciousness (abhimana). Manas automatically registers the facts which the senses perceive. Buddhi , on attending to such registration, discriminates, determines, and cognizes the object registered, which is set over and against the subjective self by Ahangkara. The function of chitta is contemplation ( chinta), the faculty whereby the mind in its widest sense raises for itself the subject of its thought and dwells thereon. For whilst buddhi has but three moments in which it is born, exists, and dies, chitta endures. The antah- karana is master of the ten senses, which are the outer doors through which it looks forth upon the external world. The faculties, as opposed to the organs or instruments of sense, reside here. The centres of the powers inherent in the last two sheaths are in the Ajna Chakra and the region above this and below the sahasrara lotus. In the latter the Atma of the last sheath of bliss resides. The physical or gross body is called sthula- sharira. The subtle body ( sukshma- sharira, also called linga -sharira and karana -shanra) comprises the ten indriya , manas , ahangkara, buddhi , and the five functions of prana. This subtle body contains in itself the cause of rebirth into the gross body when the period of reincarnation arrives. The atma , by its association with the upadhis , has three states of consciousness namely, the jagrat , or waking state, when through the sense organs are perceived objects of sense through the operation of manas and buddhi . It is explained in the Ishvara- pratya -bhijna as follows "the waking state dear to all is the source of external action through the activity of the senses." The jiva is called jagari that is, he who takes upon himself the gross body called Vishva . The second is svapna, the dream state, when, the sense organs being withdrawn, Alma is conscious of mental images generated by the impressions of jagrat experience. Here manas ceases to record fresh sense impressions, and it and buddhi work on that which manas has registered in the waking state. The explanation of this state is also given in the work last cited. "The state of svapna is the objectification of visions perceived in the mind, due to the perception of ideas there latent." Jiva in the state of svapna is termed taijasa . Its individuality is merged in the subtle body. Hiranyagarbha is the collective form of these jiva, as Vaisvanar a is such form of the jiva in the waking state. The third state is that of sushupti , or dreamless sleep, when manas itself is withdrawn, and buddhi , dominated by tamas , preserves only the notion: "Happily I slept; I was not conscious of anything" (Patanjal a-yoga- sutra). In the Macrocosm the upadhi of these states are also called Virat, Hiranyagarbha, and Avyakta . The description of the state of sleep is given in the Shiva- sutra as that in which there is incapacity of discrimination or illusion. By the saying cited from the Patanjala- sutra three modifications of avidya are indicated viz., ignorance, egoism, and happiness. Sound sleep is that state in which these three exist. The person in that state is termed prajna , his individuality being merged in the causal body ( karana). 23 Since in the sleeping state the prajna becomes Brahman, he is no longer jiva as before; but the jiva is then not the supreme one ( Paramatma ), because the state is associated with avidya . Hence, because the vehicle in the jiva in the sle eping state is Karana, the vehicle of the jiva in the fourth is declared to be mahakarana. Ishvara is the collective form of the prajna jiva. Beyond sushupti is the turiya , and beyond turiya the transcendent fifth state without name. In the fourth state shuddha -vidya is acquired, and this is the only realistic one for the yogi which he attains through, samadhi -yoga. Jiva in turiya is merged in the great causal body ( maha- karana ). The fifth state arises from firmness in the fourth. He who is in this state becomes equal to Shiva, or, more strictly, tends to a close equality; for it is only beyond that, that "the spotless one attains the highest equality," which is unity. Hence even in the fourth and fifth states there is an absence of that full perfection which constitutes the Supreme. Bhaskara- raya, in his Commentary on the Lalita, when pointing out that the Tantrik theory adds the fourth and fifth states to the first three adopted by the followers of the Upanishads, says that the latter states are not separately enumerated by them owing to the absence in those two states of the full perfection of Jiva or of Shiva. Nadi It is said that there are 3 crores of nadi in the human body, of which some are gross and some are subtle. Nadi means a nerve or artery in the ordinary sense; but all the nadis of which the books on Yoga speak are not of this physical character, but are subtle channels of energy. Of these nadi, the principal are fourteen; and of these fourteen, ida, pingala, and sushumna are the chief; and, again, of these three sushumna is the greatest, and to it all others are subordinate. Sushumna is in the hollow of the meru in the cerebro- spinal axis. It extends from the Muladhara lotus, the Tattvik earth centre, to the cerebral region. Sushumna is in the form of Fire ( vahni -svarupa), and has within it the vajrini- nadi in the form of the sun ( surya- svarupa). Within the latter is the pale nectar -dropping chitra or chitrini- nadi, which is also called Brahma -nadi, in the form of the moon ( chandra- svarupa,). Sush umna is thus triguna. The various lotuses in the different Chakra of the body ( vide post ) are all suspended from the chitra -nadi, the chakra being described as knots in the nadi, which is as thin as the thousandth part of a hair. Outside the meru and on each side of sushumna are the nadi ida and pingala. Ida is on the left side, and, coiling round sushumna, has its exit in the left nostril. Pingala is on the right, and, similarly coiling, enters the right nostril. The sushumna, interlacing ida and pingala and the ajna-chakra round which they pass, thus forms a representation of the caduceus of Mercury. Ida is of a pale colour, is moon- like ( chandra- svarupa), and contains nectar. Pingala is red, and is sun- like (suryya- svarupa), containing "venom," the fluid of mortality. These three "rivers," which are united at the ajna- chakra, flow separately from that point, and for this reason the ajna- chakra is called mukta triveni . The muladhara is called Yukta (united) -tri-veni, since it is the meeting- place of the thr ee nadi, which 24 are also called Ganga ( Ida), Yamuna ( Pingala ), and Sarasvati ( sushumna), after the three sacred rivers of India. The opening at the end of the sushumna in the muladhara is called brahma- dvara, which is closed by the coils of the sleeping Devi Kundalini. Chakra There are six chakra, or dynamic Tattvik centres, in the body viz., the muladhara, svadhishthana, mani -pura, anahata, vishuddha, and ajna which are described in the following notes. Over all there is the thousand- petalled lotus (sahasrara- padma). Muladhara Muladhara is a triangular space in the midmost portion of the body, with the apex turned downwards like a young girls yoni. It is described as a red lotus of four petals, situate between the base of the sexual organ and the anus. "Earth" evolved from "water" is the Tattva of this chakra. On the four petals are the four golden varnas "vang," "shang," "shang," and " sang," In the four petals pointed towards the four directions ( Ishana, etc.) are the four forms of bliss yogananda (yoga bliss), paramananda (supreme bliss), samaj -ananda (natural bliss), and virananda (vira bliss). In the centre of this lotus is Svayambhu- linga , ruddy brown, like the colour of a young leaf. Chitrini- nadi is figured as a tube, and the opening at its end at the base of the linga is called the door of Brahman ( brahma- dvara), through which the Devi ascends. The lotus, linga and brahma- dvara, hang downwards. The Devi Kundalini, more subtle than the fibre of the lotus, and luminous as lightning, lies asleep coiled like a serpent around the linga , and closes with Her body the door of Brahman. The Devi has forms in the brahmanda . Her subtlest form in the pindanda, or body, is called Kundalini , a form of Prakriti pervading, supporting, and expressed in the form of the whole universe; "the Glittering Dancer "(as the Sarada- tilaka calls Her) "in the lotus -like head of the yogi." When awakened, it is She who gives birth to the world made of mantra . A red fiery triangle surrounds svayambhu- linga , and within the triangle is the red Kandarpa-vayu , or air, of Kama , a form of the apana vayu, for here is the seat of creative desire. Outside the triangle is a yellow square, called the prithivi- (earth) -mandala, to which is attached the "eight thunders" ( ashta- vajra ). Here is the vija "lang", and with it prithivi on the back of an elephant. Here also are Brahma and Savitri, and the red four-handed Shakti Dakini. Svadhisthana Svadhishthana is a six -petalled lotus at the base of the sexual organ, above muladhara and below the navel. Its pericarp is red, and its petals are like lightning. "Water" evolved from "fire" is the Tattva of this chakra. The varnas on the petals are "bang," "bhang," "mang," "yang," "rang," and "lang." In the six petals are also the vritti (states, qualities, functions, or inclinations) namely, prashraya (credulity), a-vishvasa (suspicion, 25 mistrust), avajna (disdain), murchchha (delusion, or, as some say, disinclination), sarvva- nasha (false knowledge), and krurata (pitilessness). Within a semicircular space in the pericarp are the Devata, the dark blue Maha- vishnu, Maha- lakshmi, and Sarasvati. In front is the blue four -handed Rakini Shakti, and the vija of Varuna, Lord of water or "vang." Inside the vija there is the region of Varuna., of the shape of an half -moon, and in it is Varuna himself seated on a white alligator (makara). Mani -pura Mani -para- chakra is a ten- petalled golden lotus, situate above the last in the region of the navel. "Fire" evolved from "air" is the Tattva of this chakra. The ten petals are of the colour of a cloud, and on them are the blue varnas "dang," "dhang," "nang," tang," "thang," " dang," "dhang," "nang," "pang," "phang," and the ten vritti (vide ante), namely, lajja (shame), pishunata (fickleness), irsha (jealousy), trishna (desire), sushupti (laziness), vishada (sadness), kashaya (dullness), moha (ignorance), ghrin a (aversion, disgust), bhaya (fear). Within the pericarp is the vija of fire (" rang"), and a triangular figure ( mandala) of Agni, Lord of Fire, to each side of which figure are attached three auspicious signs or svastika . Agni, red, four -handed, and seated on a ram, is within the figure. In front of him are Rudra and his Shakti Bhadra- kali. Rudra is of the colour of vermilion, and is old. His body is smeared with ashes. He has three eyes and two hands. With one of these he makes the sign which grants boons and blessings, and with the other that which dispels fear. Near him is the four -armed Lakini Shakti, of the colour of molten gold ( tapta- kanchana), wearing yellow ra iments and ornaments. Her mind is maddened with passion ( mada- matta -chitta ). Above the lotus is the abode and region of Suryya. The solar region drinks the nectar which drops from the region of the Moon. Anahata Anahata-chakra is a deep red lotus of twelve petals, situate above the last and in the region of the heart, which is to be distinguished from the heart -lotus facing upwards of eight petals, spoken of in the text, where the patron deity ( Ishta -devata) is meditated upon. "Air" evolved from "ether" is the Tattva of the former lotus. On the twelve petals are the vermilion varnas "Kang" "Khang ," "Gang," "Ghang," "ngang," "chang", "Chhang," "Jang," "Jhang," "Nyang," "Tang," "Thang," and the twelve vrittis ( vide ante) namely asha (hope), chinta (care, anxiety), cheshta (endeavour), mamata (sense of mineness), dambha (arrogance or hypocrisy), vikalata (languor), ahangkara (conceit), viveka (discrimination), lolata (co vetousness), kapatata (duplicity), vitarka (indecision), anutapa (regret). A triangular mandala within the pericarp of this lotus of the lustre of lightning is known as the Tri-kona Shakti . Within this mandala is a red vana- linga , called Narayana or Hiranya -garbha, and near it Ishvara and His Shakti Bhuvaneshvari. Ishvara, who is the Overlord of the first three chakra , is of the colour of molten gold, and with His two 26 hands grants blessings and dispels fear. Near him is the three- eyed Kakini Shakti, lustrous as lightning, with four hands holding the noose and drinking -cup, and making the sign of blessing, and that which dispels fear. She wears a garland of human bones. She is excited, and her heart is softened with wine. Here, also, are several other Shakti , such as Kala- ratri, as also the vija of air ( vayu ) or " vang." Inside the lotus is a six -cornered smoke- coloured mandala, and the circular region of smoke- coloured Vayu , who is seated on a black antelope. Here, too, is the embodied atma (jivatma ), like the tapering flame of a lamp. Vishuddha Vishuddha chakra or Bharatisthana, abode of the Devi of speech, is above the last and at the lower end of the throat ( kantha- mula ). The Tattva of this chakra is "ether." The lotus is of a smoky colour, or the colour of fire seen through smoke. It has sixteen petals, which carry the red vowels "ang," "ang" "ing," "ing ," "ung," "ung "," "ring," "ring ," "lring ," "lring ," "eng," "aing," "ong," "aung," "ang," "ah;" the seven musical notes (nishada, rishabha, gandhara, shadaja, madhyama , dhaivata and panchama) : "veno m" (in the eighth petal); the vija "hung," "phat ," "vaushat ," "vashat ," "svadha," "svaha," "namah," and in the sixteenth petal nectar ( amrita ). In the pericarp is a triangular region, within which is the androgyne Shiva, known as Arddha- narishvara. There also are the region of the full moon and ether, with its vija "hang." The akasha- mandala is transparent and round in shape. Akasha himself is here dressed in white, and mounted on a white elephant. He has four hands, which hold the noose ( pasha), the elephant -hook ( angkusha), and with the other he makes the mudra which grant blessing and dispel fear. Shiva is white, with five faces, three eyes, ten arms, and is dressed in tiger skins. Near Him is the white Shakti Shakini, dressed in yellow raiments, holding in Her four hands the bow, the arrow, the noose, and the hook. Above the chakra, at the root of the palate ( talumula ) is a concealed chakra, called Lalana and, in some Tantras, Kala-chakra. It is a red lotus with twelve petals, bearing the following vritti shraddha (faith), santosha (contentment), aparadha (sense of error), dana (self- command), mana (anger), sneha (affection), shoka (sorrow, grief), kheda (dejection), shuddhata (purity), arati (detachment), sambhrama (agitatio n), Urmmi (appetite, desire). Ajna Ajna chakra is also called parama- hula and mukta -tri-veni, since it is from here that the three nadis Ida, Pingala , and Sushumna go their separate ways. It is a two- petalled lotus, situate between the two eyebrows. In this Chakra there is no gross Tattva, but the subtle Tattva mind is here. Hakararddha , or half the letter La, is also there. On its two petals are the red varnas "hang "and " kshang." 27 In the pericarp is concealed the vija "ong." In the two petals and the pericarp there are the three guna sattva , rajas , and tamas . Within the tria ngular mandala in the pericarp there is the lustrous ( tejo-maya ) linga in the form of the pranava (pranavakriti ), which is called Itara. Para -Shiva, in the form of hangsa (hangsa- rupa) is also there with his Shakti Siddha- Kali. In the three corners of the triangle are Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara, respectively. In this chakra there is the white Hakini -Shakti, with six heads and four hands, in which are jana- mudra, a skull, a drum ( damaru ), and a rosary. Sahasrara Padma Above the ajna- chakra there is another secret chakra, called manas -chakra. It is a lotus of six petals, on which are shabda- jana , sparsha- jana, rupa-jana, aghrano- palabdhi , rasopabhoga, and svapna, or the faculties of hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste, and sleep, or the absence of these. Above this, again, there is another secret chakra, called Soma -chakra. It is a lotus of sixteen petals, which are also called sixteen Kala. These Kala are called kripa (mercy), mriduta (gentleness), dhairyya (patience, composure), vairagya (dispassion ), dhriti (constancy), sampat (prosperity), hasya (ch eerfulness), romancha (rapture, thrill), vinaya (sense of propriety, humility), dhyana (meditation), susthirata (quietude, restfulness), gambhiryya (gravity), udyama (enterprise, effort), akshobha (emoti onlessness), audarya (magnanimity), and ekagrata (concentration). Above this last chakra is "the house without support" ( niralamba -puri), where yogis see the radiant Ishvara. Above this is the pranava shining like a flame, and above pranava the white crescent Nada, and above this last the point Vindu. There is then a white lotus of twelve petals with its head upwards, and over this lotus there is the ocean of nectar ( sudha- sagara), the island of gems ( mani -dvipa), the altar of gems ( mani -pitha), the forked lightning- like lines a, ka, tha, and therein Nada and Vindu . On Nada and Vindu , as an altar, there is the Paramahangsa, and the latter serves as an altar for the feet of the Guru ; there the Guru of all should be meditated. The body of the Hangsa on which the feet of the Guru rest is jana- maya , the wings Agama and Nigama , the two feet Shiva and Shakti, the beak Pranava, the eyes and throat Kama -Kala. Close to the thousand -petalled lotus is the sixteenth digit of the moon, which is called ama-kala, which is pure red and lustrous like lightning, as fine as a fibre of the lotus, hanging downwards, receptacle of the lunar nectar. In it is the crescent nirvana- kala, luminous as the Sun, and finer than the thousandth part of a hair. This is the Ishta -devata of all. Near nirvana- kala is parama -nirvana- Shakti , infinitely subtle, lustrous as the Sun, creatrix of tattva -jnana. Above it are Vindu and Visarga -Shakti , root and abode of all bliss. 28 Sahasrara- padma or thousand petalled lotus of all colours hangs with its head downwards from the brahma- randhra above all the chakra. This is the region of the first cause ( Brahma -loka), the cause of the six proceeding causes. It is the great Sun both cosmically and individually, in whose effulgence Parama- Shiva and Adya- Shakt i reside. The power is the vachaka- Shakti or saguna- brahman, holding potentially within itself, the gunas , powers , and planes . Parama- Shiva is in the form of the Great Ether ( paramakasha- rupi), the Supreme Spirit ( paramatma), the Sun of the darkness of ignorance. In each of the petals of the lotus are placed all the letters of the alphabet; and whatever there is in the lower chakra or in the universe (brahmanda) exist here in potential state ( avyakta- bhava). Shaivas call this place Shiva -sthana, Vaishnavas, Parama -purusha, Shaktas , Devi- sthana, the Sankhya sages Prakriti -purusha- sthana. Others call it by other names, such as Hari- hara- sthana. Shakti -sthana, Parama- Brahma , Parama- hangsa, Parama -jyotih , Kula- sthana, and Parama -Shiva -Akula . But whatever the name, all speak of the same. The Three Temperaments The Tantras speak of three temperaments, dispositions, characters ( bhava), or classes of men namely, the pashu- bhava (animal), vira-bhava (heroic), and divya- bhava (deva- like or divine). These divisions are based on various modifications of the guna (v. ante) as they manifest in man ( jiva). It has been pointed out that the analogous Gnostic classification of men as material, psychical, and spiritual, correspond to the three guna of the Sankhya- darshana . In the pashu the rajo- guna operates chiefy on tamas, producing such dark characteristics as error (bhranti ), drowsiness ( tandra), and sloth ( alasya). It is however, an error to suppose that the pashu is as such a bad man; on the contrary, a jiva of this class may prove superior to a jiva of the next. If the former, who is greatly bound by matter, lacks enlightenment, the latter may abuse the greater freedom he has won. There are also numerous kinds of pashu, some more some less tamasik than others. Some there are at the lowest end of the scale, which marks the first advance upon the higher forms of animal life. Others approach and gradually merge into the vira class. The term pashu comes from the root pash, "to bind." The pashu is, in fact, the man who is bound by the bonds ( pasha), of which the Kularnava Tantra enurnerates eight namely, pity ( daya), ignorance and delusion ( moha ), fear (bhaya), shame ( lajja), disgust ( ghrina), family (kula ), custom (shila ), and caste ( varna). Other enumerations are given of the afflictions which, according to some, are sixty -two, but all such larger divisions are merely elaborations of the simpler enumerations. The pashu is also the worldly man, in ignorance and bondage, as opposed to the yogi and the tattva- jnani. Three divisions of pashsu are also spoken of namely, sakala, who are bound by the three pasha, called anu (want of knowledge or erroneous knowledge of the self), bheda (the division also induced by maya of the one self into many), and karmma (action and its product. These are the three impurities ( mala ) called anava- mala , maya -mala , and Karmma -mala . Pratayakala are those bound by the first and last, and Vijnana -kevala are those bound by anava- mala only. He who 29 frees himself of the remaining impurity of anu becomes Shiva Himself. The Devi bears the pasha, and is the cause of them, but She, too, is pashupasha- vimochini , Liberatrix of the pashu from his bondage. What has been stated gives the root notion of the term pashu. Men of this class are also described in Tantra by exterior traits, which are manifestations of the interior disposition. So the Kubjika Tantra says: "Those who belong to pashu- bhava .re simply pashu. A pashu does not touch a yantra, nor make japa of mantra at night. He entertains doubt about sacrifices and Tantra; regards a mantra as being merely letters only. He lacks faith in the guru, and thinks that the image is but a block of stone. He distinguishes one Deva from another, and worships without flesh and fish. He is always bathing, owing to his ignorance, and talks ill of others. Such an one is called pashu, and he is the worst kind of man." Similarly the Nitya Tantra describes the pashu as "He who does not worship at night, nor in the evening, nor in the latter part of the day; who avoids sexual intercourse, except on the fifth day after the appearance of the courses ( ritu-kalang vina devi ramanang parivarjayet ); who do not eat meat, etc., even on the five auspicious days ( parvvana)"; in short, those who, following Vedachara, Vaishnavachara, and Shaivachara, are bound by the Vaidik rules which govern all pashus . In the case of vira-bhava, rajas more largely works on sattva , yet also largely (though in lessening degrees, until the highest stage of divya- bhava is reached) works independently towards the production of acts in which sorrow inheres. There are several classes of vira. The third, or highest, class of man is he of the divya- bhava (of which, again, there are several degrees some but a stage in advance of the highest form of vira- bhava, others completely realizing the deva- nature), in which rajas operate on sattva- guna to the confirmed preponderance of the latter. The Nitya Tantra says that of the bhava the divya is the best, the vira the next best, and the pashu the lowest; and that devata- bhava must be awakened through vira- bhava. The Pichchhila Tantra says that the only difference between the vira and divya men is that the former are very uddhata, by which is probably meant excitable, through the greater prevalence of the independent working of the rajo-guna in them than in the calmer sattvik temperament. It is obvious that such statements must not be read with legal accuracy. There may be, in fact, a considerable difference between a low type of vira and the highest type of divya , though it seems to be true that this quality of uddhata which is referred to is the cause of such differences, whether great or small. The Kubjika Tantra describes the marks of the divya as he "who daily does ablutions, sandhya; and wearing clean cloth, the tripundar a mark in ashes, or red sandal, and ornaments of rudraksha beads, performs japa and archchana. He gives charity daily also. His faith is strong in Veda, Shastra, guru, and Deva . He worships 30 the Pitri and Deva , and performs all the daily rites. He has a great knowledge of mantra. He avoids all food, except that which his guru offers him, and all cruelty and other bad actions, regarding both friend and foe as one and the same. He himself ever speaks the truth, and avoids the company of those who decry the Devata. He worships thrice daily, and meditates upon his guru daily, and, as a Bhairava, worships Parameshvari with divya -bhava. All Devas he regards as beneficial. He bows down at the feet of women, regarding them as his guru (strinang pada- talang drishtva guru-vad bhavayet sada). He worships the Devi at night, and makes japa at night with his mouth full of pan, and makes obeisance to the kula vriksha. He offers everything to the Supreme Devi. He regards this universe as pervaded by stri (shakti ), and as Devata. Shiva is in all men, and the whole brahmanda is pervaded by Shiva- Shakti. He ever strives for the attainment and maintenance of devata- bhava, and is himself of the nature of a Devata. Here, again, the Tantra only seeks to give a general picture, the details of which are not applicable to all men of the divya- bhava class. The passage shows that it, or portions of it, refer to the ritual divya , for some of the practices there referred to would not be performed by the avadkuta, who is above all ritual acts, though he would also share (possibly in intenser degree) the beliefs of divya men of all classes that he and all else are but manifestations of the universe- pervading Supreme Shakti. According to the temperament of the sadhaka, so is the form of worshi p and sadhana. In fact, the specific worship and sadhana of the other classes is strictly prohibited by the Tantra to the pashu. It is said in this Tantra and elsewhere that, in the Kali - yuga, divya and pashu dispositions can scarcely be found. It may be thought difficult at first sight to reconcile this (so far as the pasha is concerned) with other statements as to the nature of these respective classes. The term pashu, in these and similar passages, would appear to be used in a good sense as referring to a man who, though tamasic, yet performs his functions with that obedience to nature which is shown by the still more tamasic animal creation free from the disturbing influences of rajas , which, if it may be the source of good, may also be, when operating independently, the source of evil. The Commentator explains the passage cited from the Tantra as meaning that the conditions and character of the Kali -yuga are not such as to be productive of pasha- bhava (apparently in the sense stated), or to allow of its achara (that is, Vaidikachara). No one, he says, can fully perform the vedachara, vaishnavachara, and shavachara rites, without which the Vaidik, Pauranik mantra, and yajna are fruitless. No one now goes through the brahma- charya ashrama, or adopts after the fiftieth year that called vana- prastha. Those whom the Veda does not control cannot expect the fruit of Vaidik observances. On the contrary, men have taken to drink, associate with the low, and are fallen; as are 31 also those men who associate with them. There can therefore be no pure pashu . Under these circumstances the duties prescribed by the Vedas which are appropriate for the pasha being incapable of performance, Shiva for the liberation of men of the Kali Age has proclaimed the Agama. "Now, there is no other way." The explanation thus given, therefore, appears to amount to this. The pure type of pashu for whom vedachara was designed does not exist. For others who though pasha are not purely so, the Tantra is the governing Shastra. This, however, does not mean that all are now competent for virachara. It is to be noted, however, that the Prana- toshini cites a passage purporting to come from the Mahanirvana Tantra, which is apparently in direct opposition to the foregoing: Divya -vira-mayo bhavah kalau nasti kada- chana Kevalang pasha- bhavena mantra -siddhirbhavennrinam . "In the Kali Age there is no divya or vira-bhava. It is only by the pashu- bhava that men may obtain mantra- siddhi ." This matter of the bhava prevalent in the Kali-yuga has been the subject of considerable discussion and difference of opinion, and is only touched upon here. Guru and Shishya The Guru is the religious teacher and spiritual guide to whose direction orthodox Hindus of all divisions of worshippers submit themselves. There is in reality but one Guru . The ordinary human Guru is but the manifestation on the phenomenal plane of the Adi -natha Maha- kala, the Supreme Guru abiding in Kailasa. He it is who enters into and speaks with the voice of the earthly Guru at the time of giving mantra . Guru is the root ( mala ) of diksha (imitation). Diksha is the root of mantra. Mantra is the root of Devata; and Devata is the root of siddhi . The Munda- mala Tantra says that mantra is born of Guru and Devata of mantra , so that the Guru occupies the position of a grandfather to the Ishta -devata. It is the Guru who initiates and helps, and the relationship between him and the disciple ( shishya ) continues until the attainment of monistic siddhi . Manu says: "Of him who gives natural birth and of him who gives knowledge of the Veda the giver of sacred knowledge is the more venerable father. Since second or divine birth insures life to the twice -born in this world and the next." The Shastra is, indeed, full of the greatness of Guru . The Guru is not to be thought of as a mere man. There is no difference between Guru , mantra , and Deva. Guru is father, mother, and Brahman. Guru , it is said, can save from the wrath of Shiva, but none can save from the wrath of the Guru . Attached to this greatness there is, however, responsibility; for the sins of the disciple recoil upon him. 32 Three lines of Guru are worshipped: heavenly ( divyangga) siddha (siddhangga), and human ( manavangga). The kala-guru are four in number, viz.: the Guru , Parama- guru, Parapara- guru, Parameshti -guru; each of these being the guru of the preceding one. According to the Tantra, woman with the necessary qualifications may be a guru, and give initiation. Good qualities are required in the disciple, and according to the Sara- sangraha a guru should examine and test the intending disciple for a year. The qualifications of a good disciple are stated to be good birth, purity of soul ( shuddhatma), and capacity for enjoyment, combined with desire for liberation ( purushartha- parayanah). Those who are lewd ( kamuka ), adulterous ( para- daratura), constantly addicted to sin ( sada papa-kriya ), ignorant, slothful, and devoid of religion, should be rejected. The perfect sadhaka who is entitled to the knowledge of all Shastra is he who is pure- minded, whose senses are controlled ( jitendriyah ), who is ever engaged in doing good to all beings, free from false notions of dualism, attached to the speaking of, taking shelter with, and living in the supreme unity of the Brahman. So long as Shakti is not fully communicated (see next note) to the shishyas body from that of the guru, so long the conventional relation of guru and shishya exists. A man is shishya only so long as he is sadhaka. When, however, siddhi is attained, both Guru and Shishya are above this dualism. With the attainment of pure monism, naturally this relation, as all others, disappears. Initiation Diksha Initiation is the giving of mantra by the guru. At the time of initiation the guru must first establish the life of the guru in his own body; that is the vital force ( prana- shakti ) of the Supreme Guru whose abode is in the thousand- petalled lotus. As an image is the instrument ( yantra ) in which divinity ( devatva) inheres, so also is the body of guru. The day prior thereto the guru should, according to Tantra, seat t he intending candidate on a mat of kusha grass. He then makes japa of a "sleep mantra" ( supta- mantra) in his ear, and ties his crown lock. The disciple, who should have fasted and observed sexual continence, repeats the mantra thrice, prostrates himself at the feet of the guru, and then retires to rest. Initiation, which follows, gives spiritual knowledge and destroys sin. As one lamp is lit at the flame of another, so the divine shanti , consisting of mantra , is communicated from the gurus body to that of the Shishya . Without daksha, japa of the mantra, puja, and other ritual acts, are said to be useless. Certain mantra are also said to be forbidden to shudra and women. A note, however, in the first Chalakshara Sutra, to the Lalita would, however, show that even the shudra are not debarred the use even of the Pranava, as is generally asserted. For, according to the Kalika Purana (when dealing with svara or tone), whilst the udatta, an-udatta, and prachita are appropriate to the first of these castes, the svara, called aukara, with anusvara and nada, is appropriate to shudra, who may use the Pranava, either at the beginning or end 33 of mantra, but not, as the dvija may, at both places. The mantra chosen for initiation should be suitable ( anukala). Whether a mant ra is sva-kula or a-kula to the person about to be initiated is ascertained by the kula-chakra, the zodiacal circle called rashichakra and other chakra which may be found described in the Tantra- sara. Initiation by a woman is efficacious; that by a mother is eight -fold so. Certain special forms of initiation, called abhisheka, are described in the next note. Abhisheka Abhisheka is of eight kinds, and the forms of abhisheka which follow the first at later stages, mark greater and greater degrees of initiation. The first shaktabhisheka is given on entrance into the path of sadhana . It is so called because the guru then reveals to the shishya the preliminery mysteries of shakti -tattva . By it the shishya is cleansed of all sinful or evil shakti or proclivities, and acquires a wonderful new shakti . The next purnabhisheka is given in the stage beyond dakshinachara, when the disciple has qualified himself by purascharana and other practices to receive it. Here the real work of sadhana begins. Asana, yama , etc., stre ngthen the disciples determina,tion (pratijna) to persevere along the higher stages of sadhana. The third is the difficult stage commenced by krama -dikshabhisheka, in which it is said the great Vashishtha became involved, and in which the Rishi Vishvamitr a acquired brahma- jnana, and so became a Brahmana. The sacred thread is now worn round the neck like a garland. The shishya, then undergoing various ordeals (pariksha), receives samrajyabhisheka and maha- samrajyabhisheka, and at length arrives at the most dificult of all stages introduced by yoga- dikshabhisheka. In previous stages the sadhaka has performed the panchanga- puraschharana, and, with the assistance of his guru (with whom he must constantly reside, and whose instructions he must receive direct), he does the panchanga- yoga that is, the last five limbs of the ashtanga. He is thereafter qualified for purna- dikshabhisheka , and, following that, maha- purna-diksha- bhisheka , sometimes called viraja - grahanabhisheka. On the attainment of perfection in this last grade, the sadhaka performs his own funeral rite ( shraddha), makes purnahuti with his sacred thread and crown lock. The relation of guru and shishya now ceases. From this point he ascends by himself until he realizes the great saying, Soham ("I am He"). At this stage, which the Tantra calls jivan-mukta (liberated whilst yet living), he is called parama- hangsa. Sadhana Sadhana is that which produces siddhi (q.v.). It is the means, or practice, by which the desired end may be attained, and consists in the exercise and training of the body and psychic faculties, upon the gradual perfection of which siddhi follows; the nature and degree of which, again, depends upon the progress made towards the realization of the atma , whose veiling vesture the body is. The means employed are various, such as worship ( puja), exterior or mental; shastric learning; austerities 34 (tapas ); the pancha- tattva , mantra, and so forth. Sadhana takes on a special character, according to the end sought. Thus, sadhana for brahma -jana, which consists in the acquisition of internal control (shama ) over buddhi , manas , and ahangkara; external control ( dama) over the ten indriya , discrimination between the transitory and the external, and renunciation both of the world and heaven ( svarga), is obviously different from that prescribed for, say, the purposes of the lower magic. The sadhaka and sadhika are respectively the man or woman who perform sadhana. They are, according to their physical, mental, and moral qualities, divided into four class es mridu , madhya, adhimatraka, and the highest adhimatrama, who is qualified ( adhikari ) for all forms of yoga. In a similar way the Kaula division of worshippers are divided into the prakriti , or common Kaula following virachara, addicted to ritual pract ice, and sadhana, with pancha- tattva ; the madhyama -kaulika , or middling Kaula, accomplishing the same sadhana, but with a mind more turned towards meditation, knowledge, and samadhi ; and the highest type of Kaula ( kaulikottama), who, having surpassed all ritualism, meditates upon the Universal Self. Worship Generally There are four different forms of worship corresponding with four states ( bhava). The realization that the jivatma and paramatma are one, that everything is Brahman, and that nothing but the Brahman exists, is the highest state, or brahma -bhava. Constant meditation by the yoga process upon the Devata in the heart is the lower and middlemost ( dhyana- bhava) japa (q.v.) and stava (hymns and prayer) is still lower and the lowest of all is mere external worship ( puja) (q.v.). Puja-bhava is that which arises out of the dualistic notions of worshipper and worshipped; the servant and the Lord. This dualism exists in greater or less degree in all the states except the highest. But for him who, having realized the advaita- tattva , knows that all is Brahman, there is neither worshipper nor worshipped, neither yoga nor puja, nor dharana, dhyana, stava , japa, vrata , or other ritual or process of sadhana. In external worship there is worship either of an image ( pratima), or of a yantra (q.v.), which takes its place. The sadhaka should first worship inwardly the mental image of the form assumed by the Devi, and then by the life- giving ( prana- pratishtha) ceremony infuse the image with Her life by the communication to it of the light and energy ( tejas ) of the Brahman which is within him to the image without, from which there bursts the lustre of Her whose substance is consciousness itself (chaitanya- mayi ). She exists as Shakti in stone or metal, or elsewhere, but is there veiled and seemingly inert. Chaitanya (consciousness) is aroused by the worshipper through the prana- pratishtha mantra. Rites ( karma ) are of two kinds. Karma is either nitya nr naimittika . The first is both daily and obligatory, and is done because so ordained. Such as the sandhya (v. post), which in the case of Shudras is in the Tantrik form; and 35 daily puja (v. post) of the Ishta - and Kula-Devata (v. post); and for Brahmamas the pancha -maha -yajna (v. post). The second or conditional karma is occasion al and voluntary, and is kamya when done to gain some particular end, such as yajna for a particular object; tapas with the same end (for certain forms of tapas are also nitya ); and vrata (v. post). The Shudra is precluded from the performance of Vaidik rites, or the reading of the Vedas, or the recital of the Vaidik mantra . His worship is practically limited to that of the Ishta- Devata and the Bana- linga -puja, with Tantrik and Pauranik mantra and such vrata as consist in penance and charity. In other cases the vrata is performed through a Brahmana. The Tantra makes no caste distinctions as regards worship. All may read the Tantras, perform the Tantrik worship, such as the sandhya (v. post), and recite the Tantrik mantra, such as the Tantrik Gayatri. All castes, and even the lowest chandala, may be a member of a chakra , or Tantrik circle of worship. In the chakra all its members partake of food and drink together, and are deemed to be greater than Brahmanas; though upon the break -up of the chakras the ordinary caste and social relations are re- established. All are competent for the specially Tantrik worship, for, in the words of the Gautamiya Tantra, the Tantra Shastra is for all castes and for all women. The latter are also excluded under the present Vaidik system, though it is said by Shankha Dharma- shastra- kara that the wife may, with the consent of her husband, fast, take vows, perform homa and vrata , etc. According to the Tantra, a woman may not only receive mantra , but may, as a Guru, initiate and give it. She is worshipful as Guru, and as wife of Guru. The Devi is Herself Guru of all Shastras and woman, as, indeed, all females who are Her embodiments are, in a peculiar sense, Her earthly representatives. Forms of Achara There are seven, or, as some say, nine, divisions of worshippers. The extra divisions are bracketed in the following quotation. The Kularnava Tantra mentions seven, which are given in their order of superiority, the first being the lowest: Vedachara, Vaishnavachara, Shaivachara, Dakshinachara , Vamachara, Sidd hantachara (Aghorachara, Yogachara), and Kaulachara , the highest of all. The achara is the way, custom, and practice of a particular class of sadhaka. They are not, as sometimes supposed, different sects, but stages through which the worshipper in this or other births has to pass before he reaches the supreme stage of the Kaula . Vedachara, which consists in the daily practice of the Vaidik rites, is the gross body ( sthula- deha), which comprises within it all other acharas , which are, as i t were, its subtle bodies ( sukshma- deha) of various degrees. The worship is largely of an external and ritual character, the object of which is to strengthen dharma. This is the path of action ( kriya- marga). In the second stage the worshipper passes from blind faith to an understanding of the supreme protecting energy of the Brahman, towards which he has feelings of devotion. This is the path of devotion ( bhakti - marga), and the aim at this stage is the union of it and faith previously acquired. With 36 an increasing determination to protect dharma and destroy a- dharma, the sadhaka passes into Shaivachara, the warrior ( kshatriya ) stage, wherein to love and mercy are added strenuous striving and the cultivation of power. There is union of faith, devotion ( bhakti ), and inward determination ( antar -laksha). Entrance is made upon the path of knowledge ( jnana- marga). Following this is Dakshinachara, which in Tantra does not mean "right -hand worship," but "favourable" that is, that achara which is favourable to the accomplishment of the higher sadhana, and whereof the Devi is the Dakshina Kalika. This stage commences when the worshipper can make dhyana and dharana of the threefold shakti of the Brahman ( kriya , ichchha, jana), and understands the mutual connection ( samanvaya) of the three guna until he receives purnabhisheka (q.v.). At this stage the sadhaka is Shakta, and qualified for the worship of the threefold shakti of Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara. He is fully initiated in the Gayatri - mantra, and worships the Devi Gayatri, the Dakshina Kalika, or Adya Shakti the union of the three Shakti. This is the stage of individualistic Brahmana- tattva, and its aim is the union of faith, devotion, and determination, with a knowledge of the threefold energies. After this a change of great importance occurs, marking, as it does, the entry upon the path of return ( nivritti). This it is which has led some to divide the achara into the two broad divisions of Dakshinachara (including the first four) and Vamachara (including the last three), it being said that men are born into Dakshinachara, but are received by initiation into Vamachara. The latter term does not mean, as is vulgarly supposed, "left -hand worship," but the worship in which woman ( vama ) enters that is lata-sadhana. In this achara there is also worship of the Vama Devi. Vija is here "adverse," in that the stage is adverse to pravritti , which governed in varying degrees the preceding achara , and entry is here made upon the path of nivritti, or return to the source whence the world sprung. Up to the fourth stage the sadhaka followed pravrittimarga , the outgoing path which led from the source, the path of worldly enjoyment, albeit curved by dharma . At first unconsciously, and later consciously, sadhana sought to induce nivritt t, which, however, can only fully appear after the exhaustion of the forces of the outward current. In Vamachara , however, the sadhaka commences to directly destroy pravritti , and with the help of the Guru (whose help throughout is in this necessary) to cultivate nivritti . The method at this stage is to use the force of pravritti in such a way as to render them self -destructive. The passions which bind may be so employed as to act as forces whereby the particular life of which they are the strongest manifestation is raised to the universal life. Passion, which has hitherto run downwards and outwards to waste, is directed inwards and upwards, and transformed to power. But it is not only the lower physical desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse which must be subjugated. The sadhaka must at this stage commence to cut off all the eight bonds ( pasha) which mark the pashu which the Kularnava Tantra enumerates as pity ( daya), ignorance ( moha), shame ( lajja), family (kula), custom ( shila), and caste ( varna). When Shri Krishna stole the clothes of the bathing Gopi , and made them approach him naked, he removed the artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the sangsara. The Gopi were eight, as are 37 the bonds ( pasha), and the errors by which the jiva is misled are the clothes which Shri Krishna stole. Freed of these, the jiva is liberated from all bonds arising from his desires, family, and society. He then reaches the stage of Shiva ( shivatva). It is the aim of Vamachara to liberate from the bonds which bind men to the sangsara, and to qualify the sadhaka for the highest grades of sadhana in which the sattvika guna predominates. To the truly sattvik there is neither attachment, fear, or disgust. That which has been commenced in these stages is by degrees completed in those which follow viz.: Siddhantachara, and according to some, Aghorachara and Yogachara. The sadhaka becomes more and more freed from the darkness of the sangsara, and is attached to nothing, hates nothing, and is ashamed of nothing, having freed himself of the artificial bonds of family, caste, and society. The sadhaka becomes, like Shiva himself, a dweller in the cremation ground (smashana ). He learns to reach the upper heights of sadhana and the mysteries of yoga. He learns the movements of the different vayu in the microcosm the Kshudra- brahmanda, the regulation of which controls the inclinations and propensities ( vritti). He learns also the truth which concern the macrocosm (brahmanda). Here also the Guru teaches him the inner core of Vedachara. Initiation by yoga- diksha fully qualifies him for yogachara. On attainment of perfection in ashtanga- yoga, he is fit to enter the highest stage of Kaulachara . Kaula- dharma is in no wise sectarian, but, on the contrary, is the heart of all sects. This is the true meaning of the phrase which, like many another touching the Tantra, is misunderstood, and used to fix the kaula with hypocrisy antah- shaktah, vahih- shaivah sabhayang vaishnavahmatah nana rupadharah kaulah vicharanti mahitale (outwardl y Shaivas; in gatherings, Vaishnavas; at heart, Shaktas; under various forms the Kaulas wander on earth). A Kaula is one who has passed through these and other stages, which have as their own inmost doctrine (whether these worshippers know it or not) that of Kaulachara. It is indifferent what the Kaulas apparent sect may be. The form is nothing and everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no power to narrow the Kaulas own inner life; it is everything in the sense that knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an universal meaning. So understood, form is never a bond. The Vishva- sara Tantra, says of the Kaula that "for him there is neither rule of time; nor place. His actions are unaffected either by the phases of the moon or the position of the stars. The Kaula roams the earth in differing forms. At times adhering to social rules ( shishta), he at others appears, according to their standard, to be fallen ( bhrashta). At times, again, he seems to be as unearthly as a ghost ( bhuta or pishacha) To him no difference is there between mud and sandal paste, his son and an enemy, home and the cremation ground." At this stage the sadhaka attains to Brahma- jnana, which is the true gnosis in its perfect form. On receiving mahapurna- daksha he performs his own funeral rites and is dead to the sangsara. Seated alone in some quiet place, he remains in constant samadhi , and attains its nir-vikalpa form. The Great Mother, the Supreme Prakriti Maha -shakti, dwells in the heart of the sadhaka, which is now the c remation 38 ground wherein all passions have been burnt away. He becomes a Parama- hangsa, who is liberated whilst yet living ( javan -mukta ). It must not, however, be supposed that each of these stages must necessarily be passed through by each jiva in a single life. On the contrary, they are ordinarily traversed in the course of a multitude of births. The weaving of the spiritual garment is recommenced where in a previous birth, it was dropped on death. In the present life a sadhaka may commence at any stage. If he is born into Kaulachara, and so is a Kaula in its fullest sense, it is because in previous births he has by sadhana, in the preliminary stages, won his entrance into it. Knowledge of Shakti is, as the Niruttara Tantra says, acquired after many births; and, according to the Mahanirvana Tantra, it is by merit acquired in previous births that the mind is inclined to Kaulachara. Mantra Shabda, or sound, which is of the Brahman, and as such the cause of the Brahmanda, is the manifestation of the Chit -shakti Itself. The Vishva- sara Tantra says that tha Para- brahman, as Shabda- brahman, whose substance is all mantra , exists in the body of the jivatma . It is either unlettered ( dhvani ) or lettered (varna). The former, which produces the latter, is the subtle aspect of the jivas vital shakti . As the Prapancha- sara states, the brahmanda is pervaded by shakti , consisting of dhvani , also called nada, prana, and the like. The manifestation of the gross form ( sthula) of shabda is not possible unless shabda exists in a subtle ( sukshma ) form. Mantras are all aspects of the Brahman and manifestations of Kula-kundalini . Philosophically shabda is the guna of akasha, or ethereal space. It is not, however, produced by akasha, but manifests in it. Shabda is itself the Brahman. In the same way, however, as in outer space, waves of sound are produced by movements of air ( vayu ); so in the space within the jivas body waves of sound are produced according to the movements of the vital air ( prana-vayu ) and the process of inhalation and exhalation. Shabda first appears at the muladhara , and that which is known to us as such is, in fact, the shakti which gives life to the jiva. She it is who, in the muladhara, is the cause of the sweet indistinct and murmuring dhvani , which sounds like the humming of a black bee. The extremely subtle aspect of sound which first appears in the Muladhara is called para; less subtle when it has reached the heart, it is known as pashyanti . When connected with buddhi it becomes more gross, and is called madhy ama. Lastly, in its fully gross form, it issues from the mouth as vaikhari . As Kula -Kundalini, whose substance is all varna and dhvani , is but the manifestation of, and Herself the Paramatma; so the substance of all mantra is chit, notwithstanding their external manifestation, as sound, letters, or words; in fact, the letters of the alphabet, which are known as akshara, are nothing but the yantra of the akshara, or imperishable Brahman. This, however, is only 39 realized by the sadhaka when his shakti , generat ed by sadhana, is united with the mantra -shakti . It is the sthula or gross form of Kulakundalini, appearing in different aspects as different Devata, which is the presiding Devata ( adhishthatri ) of all mantra , though it is the subtle or sukshma form at whi ch all sadhakas aim. When the mantrashakti is awakened by sadhana the Presiding Devata appears, and when perfect mantra - siddhi is acquired, the Devata, who is sachchidananda, is revealed. The relations of varna, nada, vindu, vowel and consonant in a mantra , indicate the appearance of Devata in different forms. Certain vibhuti , or aspects, of the Devata are inherent in certain varna, but perfect Shakti does not appear in any but a whole mantra. Any word or letter of the mantra cannot be a mantra . Only that mantra in which the playful Devata has revealed any of Her particular aspects can reveal that aspect, and is therefore called the individual mantra of that one of Her particular aspects. The form of a particular Devata, therefore, appears out of the particular mantra of which that Devata is the adhishthatri Devata. A mantra is composed of certain letters arranged in definite sequence of sounds of which the letters are the representative signs. To produce the designed effect mantra must be intoned in the proper way, according to svara (rhythm), and varna (sound). Their textual source is to be found in Veda, Purana, and Tantra. The latter is essentially the mantra- shastra, and so it is said of the embodied shastra, that Tantra, which consists of mantra, is the paramatma , the Vedas are the jivatma , Darshana (systems of philosophy) are the senses, Puranas are the body, and Smriti are the limbs. Tantra is thus the shakti of consciousness, consisting of mantra. A mantra is not the same thing as prayer or self -dedication (atma -nivedana). Prayer is conveyed in what words the worshipper chooses, and bears its meaning on its face. It is only ignorance of shastrik principle which supposes that mantra is merely the name for the words in which one expresses what one has to say to the Divinity. If it were, the sadhaka might choose his own language without recourse to the eternal and determined sounds of Shastra. A mantra may, or may not, convey on its face its meaning. Vija (seed) mantra, such as Aing, Kling , Hring , have no meaning, according to the ordinary use of language. The initiate, however, knows that their meaning is the own form ( sva-rupa) of the particular Devata, whose mantra they are, and that they are the dhvani which makes all letters sound and which exists in all which we say or hear. Every mantra is, then, a form ( rupa) of the Brahman. Though, therefore, manifesting in the form and sound of the letters of the alphabet, Shastra says that they go to Hell who think that the Guru is but a stone, and the mantra but letters of the alphabet. From manana, or thinking, arises the real understanding of the monistic truth, that the substance of the Brahman and the brahmanda are one and the same. Man- of mantra comes from the first syllable of manana, and -tra from trana, or liberation from the bondage of the sangsara or phenomenal world. By the combination of man- 40 and -tra, that is called mantra which calls forth ( amantrana), the chatur -varga (vide post), or four aims of sentient being. Whilst, therefore, mere prayer often ends in nothing but physical sound, mantra is a potent compelling force, a word of power (the fruit of which is mantra- siddhi ), and is thus effective to produce the chatur - varga, advaitic perception, and mukti . Thus it is said that siddhi is the certain res ult of japa (q.v.). By Mantra the sought for ( sadhya) Devata, is attained and compelled. By siddhi in mantra is opened the vision of the three worlds. Though the purpose of worship ( puja), reading ( patha), hymn (stava ), sacrifice (homa ), dhyana, dharana, and samadhi (vide post ), and that of the diksha- mantra are the same, yet the latter is far more powerful, and this for the reason that, in the first, the sadhakas sadhana- shakti only operates, whilst in the case of mantra that sadhana- shakti works, in conjunction with mantra- shakti , which has the revelation and force of fire, and than which nothing is more powerful. The special mantra which is received at initiation ( diksha) is the vija, or seed mantra, sown in the field of the sadhakas heart, and the Tant rik sandhya, nyasa, puja, and the like are the stem and branches upon which hymns of praise ( stuti) and prayer and homage ( vandana ) are the leaves and flower, and the kavacha , consisting of mantra, the fruit. Mantra are solar ( saura) and lunar ( saumya), and are masculine, feminine, or neuter. The solar are masculine and lunar feminine. The masculine and neuter forms are called mantra. The feminine mantra is known as vidya . The neuter mantra, such as the Pauranik -mantra, ending with namah, are said to lack the force and vitality of the others. The masculine and feminine mantra end differently. Thus, Hung, Phat, are masculine terminations, and " thang," or svaha , are feminine ones. The Nitya Tantra gives various names to mantra. according to the number of their syllables, a one- syllabled mantra being called pinda, a three- syllabled one kartari , a mantra with four to nine syllables vija, with ten to twenty syllables mantra, and mantra with more than twenty syllables mala . Commonly, however, the term vija is applied to monosyllabic mantra. The Tantrik mantras called vija (seed) are so named because they are the seed of the fruit, which is siddhi , and because they are the very quintessence of mantra. They are short, unetymological vocables, such as Hring , Shring , Kring , Hung, Aing, Phat, etc., which will be found throughout the text. Each Devata has His or Her vija. The primary mantra of a Devata is known as the root mantra ( mula -mantra). It is also said that the word mula denotes the subtle body of the Devata called Kama -kala. The utterance of a mantra without knowledge of its meaning or of the mantra method is a mere movement of the lips and nothing more. The mantra sleeps. There are various processes preliminary to, and involved in, its right utterance, which processes again consist of mantra , such as, purification of the mouth ( mukha -shodhana), purification of the tongue ( jihva-shodhana), and of the mantra (ashaucha- bhanga), kulluka , nirvvana, setu, nidra- bhanga, awakening of mantra, mantra- chaitanya, or giving of life or vitality to 41 the mantra . Mantrarthabhavana, forming of mental image of the Divinity. There are also ten sangskara of the mantra . Dipani is seven japa of the vija, preceded and followed by one. Where hring is employed instead of Ong it is prana- yoga. Yoni- mudra is meditation on the Guru in the head and on the Ishta- devata in the heart, and then on the Yoni-rupa Bhagavati from the head to the muladhara , and from the muladhara to the head, making japa of the yoni vija (eng) ten times. The mantra itself is Devata. The worshipper awakens and vitalizes it by chit- shakti , putting away all thought of the letter, piercing the six Chakra, and contemplating the Spotless One. The shakti of the mantra is the vachaka- shakti , or the means by which the vachya- shakti or object of the mantra is attained. The mantra lives by the energy of the former. The saguna- shanti is awakened by sadhana and worshipped, and She it is who opens the portals whereby the vachya- shakti is reached. Thus the Mother in Her saguna form is the presiding deity ( adhishthatri Devata) of the Gayatri -mantra . As the nirguna (formless) One, She is its vachya- shakti . Both are in reality one and the same; but the jiva, by the laws of his nature and its three guna, must first meditate on the gross ( sthula) form before he can realize the subtle ( sukshma ) form, which is his liberator. The mantra of a Devata is the Devata. The rhythmical vibrations of its sounds not merely regulate the unsteady vibrations of the sheaths of the worshipper, thus transforming him, but from it arises the form of the Devata, which it is. Mantra - siddhi is the ability to make a mantra efficacious and to gather its fruit in which case the mantra is called mantra- siddha. Mantra are classified as siddha, sadhya, susiddha, and ari, accor ding as they are friends, servers, supporters, or destroyers a matter which is determined for each sadhaka by means of chakra calculations. The Gayatri Mantra The Gayatri is the most sacred of all Vaidik mantras . In it the Veda lies embodied as in its se ed. It runs: Ong bhur bhuvah svah: tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi: dhiyo yo nah prachodayat . Om. "Ong. Let us contemplate the wondrous spirit of the Divine Creator (Savitri) of the earthly, atmospheric, and celestial spheres. May He direct our minds (that is, towards the attainment of dharmma., artha, kama , and moksha), Om." The Gayatrt -Vyakarana of Yogi Yajnavalkya thus explains the following words: Tat, that. The word yat (which) is understood. Savituh is the possessive case of Savitri, derived from the root su, "to bring forth." Savitri is, therefore, the Bringer - forth of all that exists. The Sun ( Suryya ) is the cause of all that exists, and of the state in which they exist. Bringing forth and creating all things, it is called Savitri. The Bhavishya Purana says Suryya is the visible Devata. He is the Eye of the world and the Maker of the day. There is no other Devata eternal like unto Him. This universe has emanated from, and will be again absorbed into, Him. Time is of and in Him. The planets, sta.rs, the Vasus. Rudras, Vayu, Agni, and the rest are but parts of Him. 42 By Bhargah is meant the Aditya- devata, dwelling in the region of the Sun ( suryya- mandala) in all His might and glory. He is to the Sun what our spirit ( atma ) is to our body. Though He is in the region of the sun in the outer or material sphere He also dwells in our inner selves. He is the light of the light in the solar circle, and is the light of the lives of all beings. As He is in the outer ether, so also is He in the ethereal region of the heart. In the outer ether He is Suryya, and in the inner ether He is the wonderful Light which is the Smokeless Fire. In short, that Being whom the sadhaka realizes in the region of his heart is the Aditya in the heavenly firmament. The two are one. The word is derived in two ways: (1) from the root bhrij, "to ripen, mature, destroy, reveal, shine." In this derivation Suryya is He who matures and transforms all things. He Himself shines and reveals all things by His light. And it is He who at the final Dissolution ( pralaya) will in His image of destructive Fire ( kalagni ) destroy all things. (2) From bha = dividing all things into different classes; ra = colour; for He produces the colour of all created objects; ga, constantly going and returning. The sun divides all things, produces the different colours of all things, and is constantly going and returning. As the Brahmana- sarvasva says: "The Bhargah is the Atma of all that exists, whether moving or motionless, in the three loka (Bhur bhuvah svah ). There is nothing which exists apart from it." Devasya is the genitive of Deva, agreeing with Savituh . Deva is the radiant and playful ( lilamaya ) one. Suryya is in constant play with creation ( srishti ), existence (sthiti), and destruction ( pralaya), and by His radiance pleases all. ( Lila, as applied to the Brahman, is the equivalent of maya .) Varenyam = varaniya, or adorable. He should be meditated upon and adored that we may be relieved of the misery of birth and death. Those who fear rebirth, who desire freedom from death and liberation and who strive to escape the three kinds of pain ( tapa- traya ), which are adhyatmika, adhidaivika, and adhibhautika, meditate upon and adore the Bharga, who, dwelling in the region of the Sun, is Himself the three regions called Bhur -loka, Bhuvar -loka, and Svar-loka. Dhimahi = dhya- yema , from the root dhyai . We meditate upon, or let us meditate upon. Prachodayat = may He direct. The Gayatri does not so expressly state, but it is understood that such direction is along the chatur -varga, or four -fold path, which is dharmma, artha, kama , and moksha (piety, wealth, desire and its fulfilment, and liberation, vide post ). The Bhargah is ever directing our inner faculties ( buddhi - vritti) along these paths. The above is the Vaidika Gayatri , which, according to the Vaidik system, none but the twice -born may utter. To the Shudra whether man or woman, and to women of all other castes it is forbidden. The Tantra, which has Gayatri -Mantra of its own, shows no such exclusiveness; Chapter I II., verses 109- 111, gives the Brahma -gayatri for worshippers of the Brahman: " Parameshva- raya vidmahe para- tattvaya dhimahi: tan no Brahma prachodayat "(May we know the supreme Lord. Let us contemplate the Supreme essence. And may that Brahman direct us). 43 Yantra This word in its most general sense means an instrument, or that by which anything is accomplished. In worship it is that by which the mind is fixed on its object. The Yogini Tantra says that the Devi should be worshipped either in pratima (image), mandala, or yantra. At a certain stage of spiritual progress the sadhaka is qualified to worship yantra. The siddha- yogi in inward worship ( antar - puja) commences with the worship of yantra, which is the sign ( sangketa) of brahma- vijnana as the mantra is the sangketa of the Devata. It is also said that yantra is so called because it subdues ( niyantrana) lust, anger, and the other sins of jiva and the sufferings caused thereby. This yantra is a diagram engraved or drawn on metal, paper, or other substances, which is worshipped in the same manner as an image ( pratima). As different mantra are prescribed for different worships, so are different yantra . The yantras are therefore of various designs, according to the object of worship. The cover of this work shows a silver Gayatri yantra belonging to the author. In the centre triangle are engraved in the middle the words, Shri Shri Gayatri sva-prasada siddhing kuru ("Shri Shri Gayatri Devi: grant me success"), and at each inner corner there are the vija Hring and Hrah. In the spaces formed by the intersections of the outer ovoid circles is the vija "Hring ." The outside circular band contains the vija "Tha" which indicates " Svaha," commonly employed to terminate the feminine mantra or vidya . The eight lotus petals which spring from the band are inscribed with the vija, "Hring , Ing, Hrah ." The outermost band contains all the matrika , or letters of the alphabet, from ankara to laksha. The whole is enclosed in the way common to all yantra by a bhupura, by which, as it we re, the yantra is enclosed from the outer world. The yantra when inscribed with mantra, serves (so far as these are concerned) the purpose of a mnemonic chart of the mantra appropriate to the particular Devata whose presence is to be invoked into the yantr a. Certain preliminaries precede, as in the case of a pratima, the worship of a yantra. The worshipper first meditates upon the Devata, and then arouses Him or Her in himself. He then communicates the divine presence thus aroused to the yantra . When the Devata has by the appropriate mantra been invoked into the yantra, the vital airs (prana) of the Devata are infused therein by the prana- pratishtha ceremony, mantra, and mudra. The Devata is thereby installed in the yantra, which is no longer mere gross matter veiling the spirit which has been always there, but instinct with its aroused presence, which the sadhaka first welcomes and then worships. Mantra in itself is Devata, and yantra is mantra in that it is the body of the Devata who is mantra . Mudra The term mudrais derived from the root mud, "to please," and in its upasana form is so called because it gives pleasure to the Devas. Devanang moda- da mudra tasmat tang yatnatashcharet . It is said that there are 108, of which 55 are commonly used. 44 The term means ritual gestures made with the hands in worship or positions of the body in yoga practice. Thus of the first class the matsya (fish) mudra is formed in offering arghya by placing the right hand on the back of the left and extending, fin- like, on each side the two thumbs, with the object that the conch which contains water may be regarded as an ocean with aquatic animals; and the yoni-mudra which presents that organ as a triangle formed by the thumbs, the two first fingers, and the two little fingers is sh own with the object of invoking the Devi to come and take Her place before the worshipper, the yoni being considered to be Her pitha or yantra. The upasana mudra is thus nothing but the outward expression of inner resolve which it at the same time intensif ies. Mudra are employed in worship (archchana ) japa, dhyana (q.v.), kamya- karma (rites done to effect particular objects), pratishtha (q.v.), snana (bathing), avahana (welcoming), naivedya (offering of food), and visarjana, or dismissal of the Devata. Some mudra of hatha yoga are described sub voc . "Yoga." The Gheranda Sanghita says that knowledge of the yoga mudras grants all siddhi , and that their performance produces physical benefits such as stability, firmness and cure of disease. Sandhya The Vaidika s andhya is the rite performed by the twice- born castes thrice a day, at morning, midday, and evening. The morning sandhya is preceded by the following acts. On awakening, a mantra is said in invocation of the Tri-murtti and the sun, moon, and planets, and salutation is made to the Guru. The Hindu dvi-ja then recites the miantra: "I am a Deva. I am indeed the sorrowless Brahman. By nature I am eternally free, and in the form of existence, intelligence, and Bliss." He then offers the actions of the day to the Deity, confesses his inherent frailty, and prays that he may do right. Then, leaving his bed and touching the earth with his right foot, the dvi- ja says, "Om, 0 Earth! salutation to Thee, the Guru of all that is good." After attending to natural calls, the twice -born does achamana (sipping of water) with mantra, cleanses his teeth, and takes his early morning bath to the accompaniment of mantra. He then puts on his caste- mark ( tilaka ) and makes tarpanam , or oblation of water, to the Deva , Rishi , and Pitri. The sandhya follows, which consists of achamana (sipping of water), marjjana -snanam (sprinkling of the whole body with water taken with the hand or kasha- grass ), pranayama (regulation of prana through its manifestation in breath), agha- marshana (expulsion of the person of sin from the body; the prayer to the sun, and then (the canon of the sandhya) the silent recitation ( japa) of the Gayatn mantra , which consists of invocation ( avahana) of the Gayatri -Devi; rishi- nyasa and shadanga- nyasa (vide post ), medita tion on the Devi -Gayatri in the morning as Brahmani; at midday as Vaishnavi; and in the evening as Rudrani; japa of the Gayatri a specified number of times; dismissal ( visarjana ) of the Devi, followed by other mantra. Besides the Brahmanical Vaidiki- sandhy a from which the Shudras are debarred, there is the Tantriki -sandhya, which may be performed by all. The general outline is 45 similar; the rite is simpler; the mantra vary; and the Tantrika- vijas or "seed" mantras are employed. Puja This word is the common term for worship of which there are numerous synonyms in the Sanskrit language. Puja is done daily of the Ishta -devata or the particular Deity worshipped by the sadhaka the Devi in the case of a Shakti, Vishnu in the case of a Vaishnava, and so forth. But though the Ishta- devata is the principal object of worship, yet in puju all worship the Pancha- devata, or the Five Deva Aditya (the Sun), Ganesha, the Devi, Shiva, and Vishnu, or Narayana. After worship of the Pancha- devata, the family Deity ( Kula-devat a), who is generally the same as the Ishta -devata, is worshipped. Puja, which is kamya , or done to gain a particular end as also vrata , are preceded by the sangkalpa; that is, a statement of the resolution to do the worship, as also of the particular object, if any, with which it is done. There are sixteen upachara, or things done or used in puja: (1) asana (seat of the image); (2) svagata (welcome); (3) padya (water for washing the feet); (4) arghya (offering of unboiled rice, flowers, sandal paste, durva grass, etc., to the Devata in the kushi ) (vessel); (5 and 6) achamana (water for sipping, which is offered twice); (7) madhuparka (honey, ghee, milk, and curd offered in a silver or brass vessel); (8) snana (water for bathing); (9) vasana (cloth); (10) abharana (jewels); (11) gandha (scent and sandal paste is given); (12) pushpa (flowers); (13) dhupa (incense stick); (14) dipa (light); (15) naivedya (food); (16) vandana or namas -kara (prayer). Other articles are used which vary with the puja, such as Tulasi leaf in the Vishnu -puju and bael -(bilva) leaf in the Shiva- puja. The mantras said also vary according to the worship. The seat ( asana) of the worshipper is purified. Salutation being made to the Shakti of support or the sustaining force ( adhara- shakti ); the water, flowers, etc., are purified. All obstructive spirits are driven away ( Bhutapasarpana), and the ten quarters are fenced from their attack by striking the earth three times with the left foot, uttering the Astra vija "phat ," and by snapping the fingers (twice) round the head. Pranayama (regulation of breath) is performed and ( vide post ) the elements of the body are purified ( bhuta- shuddhi ). There is nyasa (vide post); dhyana (meditation) offering of the upachara; japa (vide post ), prayer and obeisance ( pranama). In the ashta- murti -puja of Shiva the Deva is worshipped under the eight forms: Sharvva (Earth), Bhava (Water), Rudra (Fire), Ugra (Air), Bhima (Ether), Pashupati ( yajamana the Sacrificer man), Ishana (Sun), Mahadeva (Moon). Yajna This word, which comes from the root yaj (to worship), is commonly translated "sacrifice." The Sanskrit word is, however, retained in the translation, since Yajna means other things also than those which come within the meaning of 46 the word "sacrifice," as understood by an English reader. Thus the "five great sacrifices" ( pancha- maha- yajna) which should be performed daily by the Brahmana are: The homa sacrifice, including Vaishva -deva offering, " bhuta- yajna or vali, in which offerings are made to Deva, Bhuta, and other Spirits and to animals; pitri- yajna or tarpana, oblations to the pitri; Brahma- yajna, or study of the Vedas and Manushyayajna, or entertainment of guests ( atithisaparyya). By these five yajna the worshipper places himself in right relations with all being, affirming such relation between Deva, Pitri, Spirits, men, the organic creation, and himself. Homa , or Deva -yajna, is the making of offerings to Fire. which is the carrier thereof to the Deva. A firepit ( kunda) is prepared and fire when brought from the house of a Brahmana is consecrated with mantra . The fire is made conscious with the mantra Vang vahni -chaitanyaya namah, and then saluted and named. Meditation is then made on the three nadis (vide ante) Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna and on Agni, the Lord of Fire. Offerings are made to the Ishta -devata in the fire. After the puja of fire, salutation is given as in Shadanga- nyasa, and then clarified butter (ghee) is poured with a wooden spoon into the fire with mantra, commencing with Om and ending with Svaha. Homa is of various kinds, several of which are referred to in the text, and is performed either daily, as in the case of the ordinary nitya -vaishva- deva- homa , or on special occasions, such as the upanayana or sacred thread ceremony, marriage, vrata , and the like. It is of various kinds, such as prayashchitta- homa , srishtikrit -homa, janu homa, dhara- homa , and others, some of which will be found in the text. Besides the yajna mentioned there are others. Manu speaks of four kinds: deva , bhauta (where articles and ingredients are employed, as in the case of homa, daiva, vali), nriyajna, and pitri-yajna. Others are spoken of, such as japa- yajna, dhyana- yajna, etc. Yajna are also classified according to the dispositions and intentions of the worshipper into sattvika , rajasika , and tamasika yajna. Vrata Vrata is a part of Naimittika , or voluntary karma . It is that which is the cause of virtue (punya), and is done to achieve its fruit. Vrata are of various kinds. Some of the chief are Janmashtami on Krishna s birthday; Shiva- ratri in honour of Shiva; and the Shat - panchami, Durvashtami, Tala- navami. Ananta- chaturdashi performed at specified times in honour of Lakshmi, Narayana, and Ananta. Others may be performed at any time, such as the Savitri vrata by women only, and the Karttikeya- puja by men only. The great vrata is the celebrated Durga- puja, maha- vrata in honour of the Devi as Durga, which will continue as long as the sun and moon endure, and which, if once commenced, must always be continued. There are numerous other vrata which have developed to a great extent in Bengal, and for which there is no Shastric authority such as Madhu- sankranti -vrata, Jala- sankranti -vrata, and others. While each vrata has its peculiarities, certain features are common to vrata of differing kinds. There is both in preparation and performance sangyama, such as sexual 47 continence, eating of particular food, such as havishyanna, fasting, bathing. No flesh or fish are taken. The mind is concentrated to its purposes, and the vow or resolution (niyama ) is taken. Before the vrata the Sun, Planets, and Kula- devata are worshipped, and by the " suryahsomoyamahkala" mantra all Deva and Beings are invoked to the side of the worshipper. In the vaidika vrata the sangkalpa is made in the morning, and the vrata is done before midday. Tapas This term is generally translated as meaning penance or austerities. It includes these, such as the four monthly fast ( chatur -masya ), the sitting between five fires (pancha- gnitapah), and the like. It has, however, also a wider meaning, and in this wider sense is of three kinds, namely, sharira, or bodily; vachika , by speech; manasa, in mind. The first includes external worship, reverence, and support given to the Guru, Brahmanas, and the wise ( prajna), bodily cleanliness, continence, simplicity of life and avoidance of hurt to any being ( a-hingsa). The second form includes truth, good, gentle, and affectionate speech, and the study of the Vedas. The third or mental tapas in-cludes self -restraint, purity of dispositi on, silence, tranquillity, and silence. Each of these classes has three subdivisions, for tapas may be sattvika , rajasika , or tamasika, according as it is done with faith, and without regard to its fruit; or for its fruit; or is done through pride and to gain honour and respect; or, lastly, which is done ignorantly or with a view to injure and destroy others, such as the sadhana of the Tantrika- shat-karma , when performed for a malevolent purpose ( abhichara). Japa Japa is defined as " vidhanena mantrochcharanam ," or the repeated utterance or recitation of mantra according to certain rules. It is according to the Tantra- sara of three kinds: Vachika or verbal japa, in which the mantra is audibly recited, the fifty matrika being sounded nasally with vindu; Upangshu- japa, which is superior to the last kind, and in which the tongue and lips are moved, but no sound, or only a slight whisper, is heard; and, lastly, the highest form which is called manasa- japa, or mental utterance. In this there is neither sound nor movement of the external organs, but a repetition in the mind which is fixed on the meaning of the mantra . One reason given for the differing values attributed to the several forms is that where there is audible utterance the mind thinks of the words and the process of correct utterance, and is therefore to a greater (as in the case of vachika- japa), or to a less degree (as in the case of upangshu- japa), distracted from a fixed attention to the meaning of the mantra . The japa of different kinds have also the relative values attachable to thought and its materialization in sound and word. Certain conditions are prescribed as those under which japa should be done, relating to physical cleanliness, the dressing of the hair, and wearing of silk garments, the seat ( asana), the avoidance of certain conditions of mind and actions, and the nature of the recitation. The japa is useless unless done a specified number of times of which 108 is esteemed to be 48 excellent. The counting is done either with a mala or rosary ( mala-japa), or with the thumb of the right hand upon the joints of the fingers of that hand ( kara- japa). The method of counting in the latter case may differ according to the mantra. Sangskara There are ten (or, in the case of Shudras, nine) purificatory ceremonies, or "sacraments," called sangskara, which are done to aid and purify the jiva in the important events of his life. These are jiva-sheka, also called garbhadhana- ritu- sangskara, performed after menstruation, with the object of insuring and sanctify ing conception. The garbhadhana ceremony takes place in the daytime on the fifth day, and qualifies for the real garbhadhana at night that is, the placing of the seed in the womb. It is preceded on the first day by the ritu-sangskara which is mentioned i n Chapter IX. of the text. After conception and during pregnancy, the pung- savana and simantonnayana rites are performed; the first upon the wife perceiving the signs of conception, and the second during the fourth, sixth, or eighth month of pregnancy. In the ante- natal life there are three main stages, whether viewed from the objective (physical) standpoint, or from the subjective (super -physical) standpoint. The first period includes on the physical side all the structural and physiological changes which occur in the fertilized ovum from the moment of fertilization until the period when the embryonic body, by the formation of trunk, limbs, and organs, is fit for the entrance of the individualized life, or jivatma . When the pronuclear activity and different iation are completed, the jivatma , whose connection with the pronuclei initiated the pro- nuclear or formative activity, enters the miniature human form, and the second stage of growth and de- velopment begins. The second stage is the fixing of the connection between the jiva and the body, or the rendering of the latter viable. This period includes all the anatomical and physiological modifications by which the embryonic body becomes a viable ftus. With the attainment of viability, the stay of the jiva has been assured; physical life is possible for the child, and the third stage in ante- natal life is entered. Thus, on the form side, if the language of comparative embryology is used, the first sangskara denotes the impulse to development, from the "fertilization of the ovum" to the "critical period." The second sangskara denotes the impulse to development from the "critical period" to that of the "viability stage of the ftus "; and the third sangskara denotes the development from "viability" to "full term." On the birth of the child there is the jata-karma , performed for the continued life of the new -born child. Then follows the nama -karana, or naming ceremony, and nishkramana in the fourth month after delivery, when the child is taken out of doors for the first time and shown the sun, the vivifying source of life, the material embodiment of the Divine Savita. Between the fifth and eighth month after birth the annaprasana ceremony is observed, when rice is put in the childs mouth for the first time. Then follo ws the chuda- karana, or tonsure ceremony; and in the case of 49 the first three, or "twice -born" classes, upanayana, or investiture with the sacred thread. Herein the jiva is reborn into spiritual life. There is, lastly, udvaha, or marriage, whereby the unper fected jiva insures through offspring that continued human life which is the condition of its progress and ultimate return to its Divine Source. These are all described in the Ninth Chapter of this Tantra. There are also ten sangskara of the mantra (q.v.). The sangskara are intended to be performed at certain stages in the development of the human body, with the view to effect results beneficial to the human organism. Medical science of to- day seeks to reach the same results, but uses for this purpose the physical methods of modern Western science, suited to an age of materiality; whereas in the sangskara the super -physical (psychic, or occult, or metaphysical and subjective) methods of ancient Eastern science are employed. The sacraments of the Catholic Church and other of its ceremonies, some of which have now fallen into disuse, are Western examples of the same psychic method. Purashcharana This form of sadhana consists in the repetition (after certain preparations and under certain conditions) of a mantra a large number of times. The ritual deals with the time and place of performance, the measurements and decoration of the mandapa, or pandal, and of the altar and similar matters. There are certain rules as to food both prior to, and during, its performance. The sadhaka should eat havishyanna, or alternately boiled milk ( kshira ), fruits, or Indian vegetables, or anything obtained by begging, and avoid all food calculated to influence the passions. Certain conditions and practices are enjoined for the destruction of sin, such as continence, bathing, japa (q.v.) of the Savitri- mantra 5,008, 3,008, or 1,008 times, the entertainment of Brahmamas, and so forth. Three days before puja there is worship of Ganesha and Kshetra- pala, Lord of the Place. Pancha- gavya, or the five products of the cow, are eaten. The Sun, Moon, and Devas are invoked. Then follows the sangkalpa. The ghata, or kalasa (jar), is then placed into which the Devi is to be invoked. A mandala, or figure of a particular design, is marked on the ground, and on it the ghata is placed. Then the five or nine gems are placed on the kalasa, which is painted with red and covered with leaves. The ritual then prescribes for the tying of the crown lock ( shikha), the posture ( asana) of the sadhaka; japa (q.v.) nyasa (q.v.), and the mantra ritual or process. There is meditation, as directed. Kulluka is said, and the mantra "awakened" ( mantra -chaitanya), and recited the number of times for which the vow has been taken. Bhuta- shuddhi The object of this ritual, which is described in Chapter V., verses 93 et seq., is the purification of the elements of which the body is composed. The Mantra- mahodadhi speaks of it as a rite which is preliminary to the worship of a Deva. The process of evolution from the Para- brahman has been described. By this 50 ritual a mental process of involution takes place whereby the body is in thought resolved into the source from whence it has come. Earth is associated with the sense of smell, water, with taste, fire, with sight, air, with touch, and ether, with sound. Kundalini is roused, and led to the svadhishthana Chakra. The "earth" element is dissolved by that of "water," as "water" is by "fire," "fire" by "air," and "air" by "ether." This is absorbed by a higher emanation, and that by a higher, and so on, until the Source of all is reached. Having dissolved each gross element ( maha - bhuta), together with the subtle element ( tan-matra ) from which it proceeds, and the connected organ of sense ( indriya ) by another, the worshipper absorbs the last element, "ether," with the tan-matra sound into self -hood ( ahangkara), the latter into Mahat , and that, again, into Prakriti, thus retracing the steps of evolution. Then, in accordance with the monistic teaching of the Vedanta, Prakriti is Herself thought of as the Brahman, of which She is the energy, and with which, therefore, She is already one. Thinking then of the black Purusha, which is the image of all sin, the body is purified by mantra , accompanied by kumbhaka and rechaka, and the sadhaka meditates upon the new celestial ( deva) body, which has thus been made and which is then strengthened by a "celestial gaze." Nyasa This word, which comes from the root "to place," means placing the tips of the fingers and palm of the right hand on various parts of the body, accompanied by particular mantra. The nyasa are of various kinds. Jiva- nyasa follows upon bhuta- shuddhi . After the purification of the old, and the formation of the celestial body, the sadhaka proceeds by jiva-nyasa to infuse the body with the life of the Devi. Placing his hand on his heart, he says the " sohang" mantra ("I am He"), thereby identifying himself with the Devi. Then, placing the eight Kula- kundalini in their several places he says the following mantra: Ang, Kring , Kring , Yang, Rang, Lang, Vang, Shang, Shang, Sang, Hong, Haung, Ha ngsah: the vital airs of the highly blessed and auspicious Primordial Kalika are here. "Ang , etc., the embodied spirit of the highly blessed and auspicious Kalika is placed here." " Ang, etc., here are all the senses of the highly auspicious and blessed Kalika," and, lastly, " Ang, etc., may the speech, mind, sight, hearing, smell, and vital airs of the highly blessed and auspicious Kalika coming here always abide here in peace and happiness Svaha." The sadhaka then becomes devata- maya . After having thus dissolved the sinful body, made a new Deva body, and infused it with the life of the Devi, he proceeds to matrika -nyasa. Mahika are the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet; for as from a mother comes birth, so from matrika , or sound, the world proceeds. Shabda- brahman, the "Sound," " Logos ," or "Word," is the Creator of the worlds of name and of form. The bodies of the Devata are composed of the fifty matrika . The sadhaka, therefore, first sets mentally (antar -matrika-nyasa) in their several places in the six chakra, and then externally by physical action ( Vahy -amatrika- nyasa) the letters of the alphabet which form the different parts of the body of the Devata, which is thus built up in 51 the sadhaka himself. He pla ces his hand on different parts of his body, uttering distinctly at the same time the appropriate matrika for that part. The mental disposition in the chakra is as follows: In the Ajna Lotus, Hang, Kshang (each letter in this and the succeeding cases is said, followed by the mantra namah); in the Vishuddha Lotus Ang, Ang, and the rest of the vowels; in the Anahata Lotus kang, khang to thang; in the Manipura Lotus, dang dhang, etc., to Phang; in the Svadisthana Lotus bang, bhang to lang; and, lastly, in the Muladhara Lotus, vang, shang, shang, sang. The external disposition then follows. The vowels in their order with anusvara and visarga are placed on the forehead, face, right and left eye, right and left ear, right and left nostril, right and left cheek, upper and lower lip, upper and lower teeth, head, and hollow of the mouth. The consonants kang to vang are placed on base of right arm and the elbow, wrist, base and tips of fingers, left arm, right and left leg, right and left side, back, navel, belly, heart, right and left shoulder, space between the shoulders ( kakuda), and then from the heart to the right palm shang is placed; and from the heart to the left palm the (second) shang; from the heart to the right foot, sang; from the heart to the left foot, hang; and, lastly, from the heart to the belly, and from the heart to the mouth, kshang. In each case ong is said at the beginning and namah at the end. According to the Tantra- sara, matrika -nyasa is also classified into four kinds, performed with different aims viz.: kevala where the matrika is pronounced without vindu ; vindu- sangyuta with vindu; sangsarga with visarga ; and sobhya with visarga and vindu. Rishi- nyasa then follows for the attainment of the chatur -varga. The assignment of the mantra is to the head, mouth, heart, anus, the two feet, and all the body generally. The mantra commonly employed are: "In the head, salutation to the Rishi (Revealer) Brahma; in the mouth, salutation to the mantra Gayatri , in the heart, salutation to the Devi Mother Sarasvati; in the hidden part, salutation to the vija, the consonants; salutation to the shakti , the vowels in the feet, salutation to visargah, the kilaka in the whole body." Another form in which the vija employed is that of the Aiya: it is referred to but n ot given in Chap. V., verse 123, and is: "In the head, salutation to Brahma and the Brahmarshis , in the mouth, salutation to Gayatri and the other forms of verse; in the heart, salutation to the primordial Devata Kali, in the hidden part, salutation to the vija, kring ; in the two feet, salutation to the shakti , Hring ; in all the body, salutation to the Kalika Shring ." Then follows anga-nyasa and kara- nyasa. These are both forms of shad- anga- nyasa. When shad- anga- nyasa is performed on the body, it is called hridayadi -shad- anga- nyasa; and when done with the five fingers and palms of the hands only, angushthadi -shad- anga-nyasa . The former kind is done as follows: The short vowel a, the consonants of the ka-varga group, and the long vowel a, are recited with "hridayaya namah" (namah salutation to the heart). The short vowel i, the consonants of the cha-varga group, and the long vowel i, are said with " shirasi svaha" (svaha to the head). The hard ta-varga consonants set between the two 52 vowels u are recited with " shikhayai vashat " (vashat to the crown lock); similarly the soft ta-varga between the vowels e and ai are said with " kavachaya hung." The short vowel o, the pavarga, and the long vowel o are recited with netra- trayaya vaushat (vaushat to the three eyes). Lastly, between vindu and visargah the consonants ya to ksha with " kara- tala-prishthabhyang astraya phat " (phat to the front and back of the palm). The mantras of shadanga- nyasa on the body are used for Kara -nyasa, in which they are assigned to the thumbs, the "threatening" or index fingers, the middle fingers, the fourth, little fingers, and the front and back of the palm. These actions on the body, fingers, and palms also stimulate the nerve centres and nerves therein. In pitha- nyasa the pitha are established in place of the matrika. The pitha, in their ordinary sense, are Kama- rupa and the other places, a list of which is given in the Yogini -hridaya. For the attainment of that state in which the sadhaka feels that the bhava (nature, disposition) of the Devata has come upon him nyasa is a great auxiliary. It is, as it were, the wearing of jewels on different parts of the body. The vija of the Devata are the jewels which the sudkaka places on the different parts of his body. By nyasa he places his Abhishta- devata in such parts, and by vyapaka- nyasa he spreads Its presence throughout himself. He becomes permeated by it losing himself in the divine Self. Nyasa is also of use in effecting the proper distribution of the shaktis of the human frame in their proper positions so as to avoid the production of discord and distraction in worship. Nyasa as well as Asana are necessary for the production of the desired state of mind and of chitta -shuddhi (its purification). "Das denken ist der mass der Dinge." Transformation of thought is Transformation of being. This is the essential principle and rational basis of all this and similar Tantrik sadhana. Panchatattva There are, as already stated, three classes of men pashu, Vira, and Divya . The operation of the guna which produce these types affect, on the gross material plane, the animal tendencies, manifesting in the three chief physical functions eating and drinking, whereby the annamayakosha is maintained; and sexual intercourse, by which it is reproduced. These functions are the subject of the panchatattva or panchamakara ("five ms"), as they are vulgarly called viz.: madya (wine), mangsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (parched grain), and maithuna (coition). In ordinary parlance, mudra means ritual gestures or positions of the body in worship and hathayoga, but as one of the five elements it is parched cereal, and is defined as Bhrishtadanyadikang yadyad chavyaniyam prachakshate, sa mudra kathita devi sarvveshang naganam -dini. The Tantras speak 53 of the five elements as pancha- tattva , kuladravya, kulatattva, and certain of the elements have esoteric names, such as Karanavari or tirtha -vari, for wine, the fifth element being usually called lata-sadhana (sadhana with woman, or shakti ). The five elements, moreover have various meanings, according as they form part of the tamasika (pashvachara), rajasika (virachara), or divya or sattvika sadhanas respectively. All the elements or their substitutes are purified and consecrated, and then, with the appropriate ritual, the first four are consumed, such consumption being followed by lata-sadhana or its symbolic equivalent. The Tantra prohibits indiscriminate use of the elements, which may be consumed or employed only after purification ( sho- dhana) and during worship according to the Tantric ritual. Then, also, all excess is forbidden. The Shyama- rahasya says that intemperance leads to Hell, and this Tantra condemns it in Chapter V. A well -known saying in Tantra describes the true "hero" ( vira) to be, not he who is of great physical strength and prowess, the great eater and drinker, or man of powerful sexual energy, but he who has controlled his senses, is a truth- seeker, ever engaged in worship, and who has sacrificed lust and all other passions. ( Jitendriyah satyavadi nityanushthanatatparah kamadi - validanashcha sa vira iti giyate.) The elements in their literal sense are not available in sadhana for all. The nature of the Pashu requires strict adherence to Vaidik rule in the matter of these physical functions even in worship. This rule prohibits the drinking of wine, a substance subject to the three curses of Brahma, Kacha, and Krishna, in the following terms: Madyamapeyamadeyamagrahyam ("Wine must not be drunk, given, or taken"). The drinking of wine in ordinary life for satisfaction of the sensual appetite is, in fact, a sin, involving prayaschiyta, and entailing, according to the Vishnu Purama, punishment in the same Hell as that to which a killer of a Brahmana goes. As regards flesh and fish, the higher castes (outside Bengal) who submit to the orthodox Smarta discipline eat neither. Nor do high and strict Brahmanas even in that Province. But the bulk of the people there, both men and women, eat fish, and men consume the flesh of male goats which have been previously offered to the Deity. The Vaidika dharmma is equally strict upon the subject of sexual intercourse. Maithuna other than with the householders own wife is condemned. And this is not only in its literal sense, but in that of which is known as Ashtanga (eight -fold) maithuna viz., smaranam (thinking upon it), kirttanam (talking of it), keli (play with women), prekshanam (looking upon women), guhyabhashanan (talk in private with women), sangkalpa (wish or resolve for maithuua), adhyavasaya (determination towards it), kriyanis hpati (actual accomplishment of the sexual act). In short, the pashu (and except for ritual purposes those who are not pashu) should, in the words of the Shaktakramya, avoid maithuna, conversation on the subject, and assemblies of women ( maithunam tatkathalapang tadgoshthing parivarjjayet ). Even in the case of the householders 54 own wife marital continency is enjoined. The divinity in woman, which the Tantra in particular proclaims, is also recognized in the ordinary Vaidik teaching, as must obviously be the case given the common foundation upon which all the Shastra rest. Woman is not to be regarded merely as an object of enjoyment, but as a house-goddess ( grihadevata). According to the sublime notions of Shruti , the union of man and wife is a veritable sacr ificial rite a sacrifice in fire ( homa ), wherein she is both hearth ( kunda) and flame and he who knows this as homa attains liberation. Similarly the Tantrika Mantra for the Shivashakti Yoga runs: "This is the in- ternal homa in which, by the path of sushumna, sacrifice is made of the functions of sense to the spirit as fire kindled with the ghee of merit and demerit taken from the mind as the ghee- pot Svaha." It is not only thus that wife and husband are associated, for the Vaidika dharmma (in this now neglected) prescribes that the householder should worship in company with his wife. Brahmacharyya, or continency, is not as is sometimes supposed, a requisite of the student ashrama only, but is a rule which governs the married householder (grihastha) also. According to Vaidika injunctions, union of man and wife must take place once a month on the fifth day after the cessation of the menses, and then only. Hence it is that the Nitya Tantra, when giving the characteristics of a pashu, says that he is one who avoids sexual union except on the fifth day ( ritukalangvina devi rama -nang parivarjjayet ). In other words, the pashu is he who in this case, as in other matters, follows for all purposes, ritual or otherwise, the Vaidik injunctions which govern the ordinary life of all. The above- mentioned rules govern the life of all men. The only exception which the Tantra makes is for purpose of sudhana in the case of those who are competent (adhikari ) for virachara. It is held, indeed, that the exception is not strictly an exception to Vaidik teaching at all, and that it is an error to suppose that the Tantrika rahasya- puja is opposed to the Vedas. Thus, whilst the vaidik rule prohibits the use of wine in ordinary life, and for purpose of mere sensual gratification it prescribes the religious yajna with wine. This ritual use the Tantra also allows, provided that the sadhaka is competent for the sadhana, in which its consumption is part of its ritual and method. The Tantra enforces the Vaidik rule in all cases, ritual or otherwise, for those who are governed by the vaidikachara. The Nitya Tantra says: "They ( pashu ) should never worship the Devi during the latter part of the day in the evening or at night" ( ratrau naiva yajeddeving sandhyayang vaparanhake); for all such wor ship connotes maithuna prohibited to the pashu. In lieu of it, varying substitutes are prescribed, such as either an offering of flowers with the hands formed into the kachchchapa mudra, or union with the worshippers own wife. In the same way, in lieu of wine, the pashu should (if a Brahmana) take milk, (if a Kshattriya ) ghee, (if a vaishya ) honey, and (if a shudra) a liquor made from rice. Salt, ginger, sesamum, wheat, mashkalai (beans), and garlic are various substitutes for meat; and the white brinjal vegetable, red radish, masur (a kind of gram), red sesamum, 55 and paniphala (an aquatic plant), take the place of fish. Paddy, rice, wheat, and gram geneally are mudra. The vira, or rather he who is qualified ( adhikari ) for virachara since the true vira is its finished product commences sadhana with the rajasika panchatattva first stated, which are employed for the destruction of the sensual tendencies which they connote. For the worship of Shakti the panchatattva are declared to be essential. This Tantra declares that such worship without their use is but the practice of evil magic. Upon this passage the commentator Jaganmohana Tarkalangkara observes as follows: "Let us consider what most contributes to the fall of a man, making him forget his duty, sink into sin, and die an early death. First among these are wine and women, fish, meat and mudra, and accessories. By these things men have lost their manhood. Shiva then desires to employ these very poisons in order to eradicate the poison in the human system. Poison is the antidote for poison. This is the right treatment for those who long for drink or lust for women. The physician must, however, be an experienced one. If there be a mistake as to the application, the patient is like to die. Shiva has said that the way of Kulachara is as difficult as it is to walk on the edge of a sword or to hold a wild tiger. There isa secret argument in favour of the panchatattva, and those tattva so understood should be followed by all. None, however, but the initiate can grasp this argument, and therefore Shiva has directed that it should not be revealed before anybody and everybody. An initiate, when he sees a woman, will worship her as his own mother or goddess (Ishtadevata), and bow before her. The Vishnu Purana says that by feeding your desires you cannot satisfy them. It is like pouring ghee on fire. Though this is true, an experienced spiritual teacher ( guru) will know how, by the application of this poisonous medicine, to kill the poison of sangsara. Shiva has, however, prohibited the indiscriminate publication of this. The meaning of this passage would therefore appear to be this: "The object of Tantrika worship is brahmasayujya, or union with Brahman. If that is not attained, nothing is attained. And, with mens propensities as they are, this can only be attained through the special treatment prescribed by the Tantras. If this is not followed, then the sensual pro- pensities are not eradicated, and the work is for the desired end of Tantra as useless as magic which, worked by such a man, leads only to the injury of others." The other secret argument here referred to is that by which it is shown that the particular may be raised to the universal life by the vehicle of those same passions, which, when flowing only in an outward and downward current, are the most powerful bonds to bind him to the former. The passage cited refers to the necessity for the spiritual direction of the Guru. To the want of such is accredited the abuses of the system. When the patient ( sishya ) and the disease are working together, there is poor hope for the former; but when the patient, the disease, and the physician ( guru) are on one, and that the wrong, side, then nothing can save him from a descent on that downward path which it is the 56 object of the sadhana to prevent. Verse 67 in Chapter I. of this Tantra is here in point. Owing, however, to abuses, particularly as regards the tattva of madya and maithuna , this Tantra, according to the current version, prescribes in certain cases, limitations as regards their use. It prescribes that when the Kaliyuga is in full strength, and in the case of householders ( grihastha) whose minds are engrossed with worldly affairs, the "three sweets" ( madhuratraya) are to be substituted for wine. Those who are of virtuous temperament, and whose minds are turned towards the Brahman, are permitted to take five cups of wine. So also as regards maithuna, this Tantra states that men in this Kali age are by their nature weak and disturbed by lust, and by reason of this do not recognize woman ( shakti ) to be the image of the Deity. It accordingly ordains that when the Kaliyuga is in full sway, the fifth tattva shall only be accomplished with sviyashakti , or the worshippers own wife, and that union with a woman who is not married to the sadhaka in either Brahma or Shaiva form is forbidden. In the case of other shakti (parakiya and sadharani ) it prescribes, in lieu of maithuna, meditation by the worshipper upon the lotus feet of the Devi, together with japa of his ishtamantra . This rule, however, the Commentator says, is not of universal application. Shiva has, in this Tantra, prohibited sadhana with the last tattva , with parakiya, and sadharani shakti , in the case of men of ordinary weak intellect ruled by lust; but for those who have by sadhana conquered their passions and attained the state of a true vira, or siddha, there is no prohibition as to the mode of latasadhana. This Tantra appears to be, in fact, a protest against the misuse of the tattwa , which had followed upon a relaxation of the original rules and conditions governing them. Without the panchatattva in one form or another, the shaktipuja cannot be performed. The Mother of the Universe must be worshipped with these elements. By their use the universe ( jagatbrahmanda) itself is used as the article of worship. Wine signifies the power ( shakti ) which produces all fiery elements; meat and fish all terrestrial and aquatic animals; mudra all vegetable life; and maithuna the will ( ichchha) action ( kriya ) and knowledge ( jnana) shakti of the Supreme Prakriti productive of that great pleasure which accompanies the process of creation. To the Mother is thus offered the restless life of Her universe. The object of all sadhana is the stimulation of the sattvaguna. When by such sadhana this guna largely preponderates, the sattvika sadhana suitable for men of a high type of divyabhava is adopted. In this latter sadhana the names of the panchatattva are used symbolically for operations of a purely mental and spiritual character. Thus, t he Kaivalya says that "wine" is that intoxicating knowledge acquired by yoga of the Parabrahman, which renders the worshipper senseless as regards the external world. Meat ( mangsa) is not any fleshly thing, but the act whereby the sadhaka consigns all his acts to Me ( Mam ). Matsya (fish) is that sattvika knowledge by which through the sense of "mineness" the worshipper sympathizes with the pleasure and pain of all beings. Mudra is the act of 57 relinquishing all association with evil which results in bondage, and maithuna is the union of the Shakti Kundalini with Shiva in the body of the worshipper. This, the Yogini Tantra says, is the best of all unions for those who have already con- trolled their passions ( yati). According to the Agamasara, wine is the somadhara , or lunar ambrosia, which drops from the brahmarandhra; Mangsa (meat) is the tongue (ma), of which its part ( angsha) is speech. The sadhaka, in "eating" it, controls his speech. Matsya (fish) are those two which are constantly moving in the two rivers I da and Pingala. He who controls his breath by pranayama (q.v.), "eats" them by kumbhaka. Mudra is the awakening of knowledge in the pericarp of the great sahasrara Lotus, where the Atma , like mercury, resplendent as ten million suns, and deliciously cool as ten million moons, is united with the Devi Kundalini. The esoteric meaning of maithuna is thus stated by the Agama: The ruddy -hued letter Ra is in the Kunda, and the letter Ma, in the shape of vindu, is in the mahayoni . When Makara (m), seated on the Hangsa in the form of Akara (a), unites with rakara (r), then the Brahmajnana , which is the source of supreme Bliss, is gained by the sadhaka, who is then called atmarama, for his enjoyment is in the Atma . in the sahasrara. This is the union on the purely sattvika plane, which corresponds on the rajasika plane to the union of Shiva and Shakti in the persons of their worshippers. The union of Shiva and Shakti is described as a true yoga, from which, as the Yamala says, arises that joy which is known as the Supr eme Bliss. Chakrapuja Worship with the panchatattva generally takes place in an assembly called a chakra, which is composed of men ( sadhaka) and women (shakti ), or Bhairava and Bhairavi . The worshippers sit in a circle ( chakra), men and women alternately, the shakti sitting on the left of the sadhaka. The Lord of the chakra (chakrasvamin, or chakreshvara) sits with his Shakti in the centre, where the wine- jar and other articles used in the worship are kept. During the chakra all eat, drink, and worship together, there being no distinction of caste. No pashu should, however, be introduced. There are various kinds of chakra, such as the Vira, Raja, Deva , Maha Chakras productive, it is said, of various fruits for the participators therein. Chapter VI. of the Mahanirvvana Tantra deals with the panchatattva, and Chapter VIII. gives an account of the Bhairavi and Tattva (or Divya ) chakras . The latter is for worshippers of the Brahma -Mantra . Yoga This word, derived from the root Yuj ("to join"), is in grammar sandhi , in logic avayavashakti , or the power of the parts taken together, and in its most widely known and present sense the union of the jiva, or embodied spirit, with the Paramatma , or Supreme Spirit, and the practices by which this union may be 58 attained. There is a natural yoga , in which all beings are, for it is only by virtue of this identity in fact that they exist. This position is common ground, though in practice too frequently overlooked. "Primus modus unionis est, quo Deus, ratione su immensitatis e st in omnibus rebus per essentiam, prsentiam, et potentiam; per essentiam ut dans omnibus esse; per prsentiam ut omnia prospiciens; per potentiam ut de omnibus disponens." The mystical theologian cited, however, proceeds to say: "Sed hc unio anim cum Deo est generalis, communis omnibus et ordinis naturalis . . . illa namque de qua loquimur est ordinis supernaturalis actualis et fructiva." It is of this special yaga, though not in reality more "supernatural" than the first, that we here deal. Yoga in its technical sense is the realization of this identity, which exists, though it is not known, by the destruction of the false appearance of separation. "There is no bond equal in strength to maya , and no force greater to destroy that bond than yoga. There is no better friend than knowledge ( jnana), nor worse enemy than egoism ( ahangkara). As to learn the Shastra one must learn the alphabet, so yoga is necessary for the acquirement of tattvajnana (truth)." The animal body is the result of action, and from the body flows action, the process being compared to the seesaw movement of a ghatiyantra, or water -lifter. Through their actions beings continually go from birth to death. The complete attainment of the fruit of yoga is lasting and unchanging life in the noumenal world of the Absolute. Yoga is variously named according to the methods employed, but the two main divisions are those of the hathayoga (or ghatasthayoga) and samadhi yoga, of which raja-yoga is one of the forms. Hathayoga is commonly misunderstood, both in its definition and aim being frequently identified with exaggerated forms of self - mortification. The Gherandasanghita well defines it to be "the means whereby the excellent rajayoga is attained." Actual union is not the result of Hathayoga alone, which is concerned with certain physical processes preparatory or auxiliary to the control of the mind, by which alone union may be directly attained. It is, however, not meant that all the processes of Hathayoga here or in the books described are necessary for the attainment of rajayoga. What is necessary must be determined according to the circumstances of each particular case. What is suited or necessary in one case may not be so for another. A peculiar feature of Tan-trika virachara is the union of the sadhaka and his shakti in latasadhana. This is a process which is expressly forbidden to Pashus by the same Tantras which prescribe it for the vira. The union of Shiva and Shakti in the higher sadhana is different in form, being the union of the Kundalini Shakti of the Muladhara with the Vindu which is upon the Sahasrara. This process, called the piercing of the six chakra , is described later on in a separate paragraph. Though, however, all Hathayoga processes are not necessary, some, at least, are generally considered to be so. Thus, in the well - known ashtangayoga (eight -limbed yoga), of which samadhi is the highest end, the 59 physical conditions and processes known as asana and pranayama (vide post ) are prescribed. This yoga prescribes five exterior ( vahiranga) methods for the subjugation of the body namely (1) Yama , forbearance or self -control, such as sexual continence, avoidance of harm to others ( ahingsa), kindness, forgiveness, the doing of good without desire for reward, absence of covetousness, temperance, purity of mind and body, etc. (2) Niyama , religious observances, charity, austerities, reading of the Shastra and Ishvara Pranidhana, persevering devotion to the Lord. (3) Asana, seated positions or postures ( vide post ). (4) Pranayama , regulation of t he breath. A yogi renders the vital airs equable, and consciously produces the state of respiration which is favourable for mental concentration, as others do it occasionally and unconsciously ( vide post ). (5) Pratyahara, restraint of the senses, which fol low in the path of the other four processes which deal with the subjugation of the body. There are then three interior ( yogangga) methods for the subjugation of the mind namely (6) Dharana, attention, steadying of the mind, the fixing of the internal organ (chitta ) in the particular manner indicated in the works on yoga. (7) Dhyana or the uniform continuous contemplation of the object of thought; and (8) that samadhi which is called savikalpasamadhi . Savikalpasamadhi is a deeper and more intense contemplation on the Self to the exclusion of all other objects, and constituting trance or ecstasy. This ecstasy is perfected to the stage of the removal of the slightest trace of the distinction of subject and object in nirvikalpasamadhi , in which there is complete union with the Paramatma, or Divine Spirit. By vairagya (dispassion), and keeping the mind in its unmodified state, yoga is attained. This knowledge, Ahang Brahmasmi ("I am the Brahman"), does not produce liberation (moksha), but is liberation itself, W hether yoga is spoken of as the union of Kulakundalini with Paramashiva, or the union of the individual soul (jivatma ) with the Supreme Soul ( paramatma ), or as the state of mind in which all outward thought is suppressed, or as the controlling or suppression of the thinking faculty ( chittavritti ), or as the union of the moon and the sun (Ida and Pingala), Prana and Apana, Nada and Vindu, the meaning and the end are in each case the same. Yoga, in seeking mental control and concentration, makes use of certain preliminary physical processes ( sadhana), such as the shatkarmma , asana, mudra, and pranayama. By these four processes and three mental acts, seven qualities, known as shodhana, dridhata, sthirata , dhairyya, laghava, pratyaksha, nirliptatva (vide post), are acquired. Shodhana: Shatkarmma The first, or cleansing, is effected by the six processes known as the shatkarmma. Of these, the first is Dhauti , or washing, which is fourfold, or inward washing ( antar - dhauti ), cleansing of the teeth, etc. ( dantadhauti ) of the "heart" ( hriddhauti ), and of the rectum (muladhauti ). Antardhauti is also fourfold namely, vatasara, by which air 60 is drawn into the belly and then expelled; varisara, by which the body is filled with water, which is then evacuated by the anus ; vahnisara, in which the nabhi -granthi is made to touch the spinal column ( meru ); and vahishkrita, in which the belly is by kakinimudra filled with air, which is retained half a yama , and then sent downward. Dantadhauti is fourfold, consisting in the cleansing of the root of the teeth and tongue, the ears, and the "hollow of the forehead" (kapalarandhra). By hriddhauti phlegm and bile are removed. This is done by a stick (dandadhauti ) or cloth ( vasodhauti ) pushed into the throat, or swallowed, or by vomiting ( vamanadhauti ). Mudadhauti is done to cleanse the exit of the apanavayu either with the middle finger and water or the stalk of a turmeric plant. Vasti, the second of the shatkarmma, is twofold, and is either of the dry ( shuska) or watery ( jala) kind. In th e second form the yogi sits in the utkatasana posture in water up to the navel, and the anus is contracted and expanded by ashvini mudra; or the same is done in the pashchimottanasana, and the abdomen below the navel is gently moved. In neti the nostrils are cleansed with a piece of string. Lauliki is the whirling of the belly from side to side. In trataka the yogi, without winking, gazes at some minute object until the tears start from his eyes. By this the "celestial vision" (divya drishti) so often referred to in the Tantrika upasana is acquired. Kapalabhati is a process for the removal of phlegm, and is threefold vatakrama by inhalation and exhalation; vyutkrama by water drawn through the nostrils and ejected through the mouth; and shitkrama the reverse process. These are the various processes by which the body is cleansed and made pure for the yoga practice to follow. Dridhata: Asana Dridhata, or strength or firmness, the acquisition of which is the second of the above-mentioned processes, is attained by asana. Asana are postures of the body. The term is generally described as modes of seating the body. But the posture is not necessarily a sitting one; for some asana are done on the belly, back, hands, etc. It is said that the asana are as numerous as living beings, and that there are 8,400,000 of these; 1,600 are declared to be excellent, and out of these thirty -two are auspicious for men, which are described in detail. Two of the commonest of these are muktapadmasana ("the loosened lotus seat"), the or dinary position for worship, and baddhapadmasana. Patanjali, on the subject of asana, merely points out what are good conditions, leaving each one to settle the details for himself according to his own requirements. There are certain other asana, which are peculiar to the Tantras, such as munddasana, chitasana, and shavasana, in which skulls, the funeral pyre, and a corpse respectively form the seat of the sadhaka. These, though they may have other ritual objects, form part of the discipline for the conquest of fear and the attainment of indifference, which is the quality of a yoga . And so the Tantras pre- 61 scribe as the scene of such rites the solitary mountain- top, the lonely empty house and river -side, and the cremation- ground. The interior cremation- ground is there where the kamik body and its passions are consumed in the fire of knowledge. Sthirata: Mudra Sthirata , or fortitude, is acquired by the practice of the mudra. The mudra dealt with in works of hathayoga are positions of the body. They are gymnastic, health- giving, and destructive of disease, and of death, such as the jaladhara and other mudra. They also preserve from injury by fire, water, or air. Bodily action and the health resulting therefrom react upon the mind, and by the union of a perfect mind and body siddhi is by their means attained. The Gheranda Sanghita describes a number of mudra, of which those of importance may be selected. In the celebrated yonimudra the yogi in siddhasana stops with his fingers the ears, eyes, nostrils, and mouth. He inhales pranavayu by kakinimudra, and unites it with apanavayu. Meditating in their order upon the six chakra , he arouses the sleeping Kulakundalini by the mantra "Hung Hangsah," and raises Her to the Sahasrara; then, deeming himself pervaded with the Shakti, and in blissful union (sanggama ) with Shiva, he meditates upon himself, as by reason of that union Bliss itself and the Brahman. Ashvinimudra consists of the repeated contraction and expansion of the anus for the purpose of shodhana or of contraction to restrain the apana in Skatchakrabheda. Shaktichalana employs the latter mudra, which is repeated until vayu manifests in the sushumna. The process is accompanied by inhalation and the union of prana and apana whilst in siddhasana. Dhairya: Pratyahara Dhairya, or steadiness, is produced by pratyahara. Pratyahara is the restraint of the senses, the freeing of the mind from all distractions, and the keeping of it under the control of the Atma . The mind is withdrawn from whatsoever direction it may tend by the dominant and directing Self. Pratyahara destroys the six sins. Laghava: Pranayama From pranayama (q.v.) arises laghava (lightness). All beings say the ajapa Gayatri , which is the expulsion of the breath by Hangkara, and its inspiration by Sahkara, 21,600 times a day. Ordinarily, the breath goes forth a distance of 12 fingers breadth, but in singing, eating, walking, sleeping, coition, the distances are 16, 20, 24, 30, and 36 breadths respectively. In violent exercise these distances are exceeded, the greatest distance being 96 breadths. Where the breathing is under the normal distance, life is prolonged. Where it is above that, it is shortened. Puraka is inspiration, and rechaka expira - tion. Kumbhaka is the retention of breath between these two movement s. Kumbhaka is, according to the Gheranda Sanghita of eight kinds: sahita, suryyabheda, ujjayi , shitali, bhastrika, bhramari , murchchha, and keval . 62 Pranayama similarly varies. Pranayama is the control of the breath and other vital airs. It awakens shakti , frees from disease, produces detachment from the world, and bliss. It is of varying values, being the best ( uttama) where the measure is 20; middling ( madhyama ) when at 16 it produces spinal tremor; and inferior (adhama) when at 12 it induces perspiration. It is necessary that the nadi should be cleansed, for air does not enter those which are impure. The cleansing of the nadi (nadi-shuddhi ) is either samau or nirmanu that is, with or without, the use of vija. According to the first form, the yogi in padmasana does gurunyasa according to the directions of the guru. Meditating on " yang," he does japa through Ida of the vija 16 times, kumbhaka with japa of vija 64 times, and then exhalation through the solar nadi and japa of vija 32 times. Fire is raised fr om manipura and united with prithivi . Then follows inhalation by the solar nadu with the vahni vija 16 times, kumbhaka with 64 japa of the vija, followed by exhalation through the lunar nadi and japa of the vija 32 times. He then meditates on the lunar bri lliance, gazing at the tip of the nose. and inhales by Ida with japa of the vija "thang" 16 times. Kumbhaka is done with the vija vang 64 times. He then thinks of himself as flooded by nectar, and considers that the nadi have been washed. He exhales by Pingala with 32 japa of the vija lang , and considers himself thereby as strengthened. He then takes his seat on a mat of kusha grass, a deerskin, etc., and, facing east or north, does pranayama. For its exercise there must be, in addition to nadi shuddhi , consideration of proper place, time, and food. Thus, the place should not be so distant as to induce anxiety, nor in an unprotected place, such as a forest, nor in a city or crowded locality, which induces distraction. The food should be pure, and of a vegetarian character. It should not be too hot or too cold, pungent, sour, salt, or bitter. Fasting, the taking of one meal a day, and the like, are prohibited. On the contrary, the Yogi should not remain without food for more than one yama (three hours). The food taken should be light and strengthening. Long walks and other violent exercise should be avoided, as also cer-tainly in the case of beginners sexual intercourse. The stomach should only be half filled. Yoga should be commenced, it is said, in spring or autumn. As stated, the forms of pranayama vary. Thus, sahita, which is either with ( sagarbha) or without ( nirgarbha) vija, is, according to the former form, as follows: The sadhaka meditates on Vidhi (Brahma), who is full of rajoguna , red in colour, and the image of akara. He inhales by Ida in six measures (matra ). Before kumbhaka he does the uddiyanabandha mudra. Meditating on Hari (Vishnu) as sattvamaya and the black vija ukara, he does kumbhaka with 64 japa of the vija; then, meditating on Shiva as tamomaya and his white vija makara, he exhales through Pingala with 32 japa of the vija; then, inhaling by Pingala, he does kumbhaka, and exhales by Ida with the same vija. The process is repeated in the normal and reversed order. Pratyaksha: Dhyana Through dhyana is gained the third quality of realization or pratyaksha. Dhyana , or meditation, is of three kinds: (1) sthula, or gross; (2) jyotih ; (3) sukshma , or subtle. In 63 the first the form of the Devata is brought before the mind. One form of dhyana for this purpose is as follows: Let the sadhana think of the great ocean of nectar in his heart. In the middle of that ocean is the island of gems, the shores of which are made of powdered gems. The island is clothed with a kadamba forest in yellow blossom. This forest is surrounded by Malati , Champaka , Parijata , and other fragrant trees. In the midst of the Kadamba forest there rises the beautiful Kalpa tree, laden with fresh blossom and fruit. Amidst its leaves the black bees hum and the koel birds make love. Its four branches are the four Vedas. Under the tree there is a great mandapa of precious stones, and within it a beautiful bed, on which let him picture to himself his Ishtadevata. The Guru will direct him as to the form, raiment, vahana, and the title of the Devata. Jyotirdhyana is the infusion of fire and life (tejas ) into the form so imagined. In the muladhara lies the snake- like Kundalini. There the jivatma , as it were the tapering flame of a candle, dwells. The sadhaka then meditates upon the tejomaya Brahman, or, alternatively, between the eyebrows on pranavatmaka, the flame emitting its lustre. Sukshmadhyana is meditation on Kundalini with sham -bhavi mudra after She has been roused. By this yoga (vide post ) the atma is revealed ( atmasakshatkara). Nirliptatva: Samadhi Lastly, through samadhi the quality of nirliptatva , or detachment, and thereafter mukti (liberation) is attained. Samadhi considered as a process is intense mental con- centration, with freedom from all sangkalpa, and attachment to the world, and all sense of "mineness," or self -interest ( mamata ). Considered as the result of such process it is the union of Jiva with the Paramatma. Forms Of Samadhi Yoga This samadhi yoga is, according to the Gheranda Sanghita, of six kinds. (1) Dhyanayogasamadhi , attained by shambhavi mudra, in which, after meditation on the Vindu- Brahman and realization of the Atma (atmapratyaksha), the latter is resolved into the Mahakasha. (2) Nadayoga, attained by khechari mudra, in which the frenum of the tongue is cut, and the latter is lengthened until it reaches the space between the eyebrows, and is then introduced in a reversed position into the mouth. (3) Rasanandayoga, attained by kumbhaka, in which the sadhaka in a silent place closes both ears and does puraka and kumbhaka until he hears the word nada in sounds varying in strength from that of the crickets chirp to that of the large kettledrum. By daily practice the anahata sound is heard, and the jyotih with the manas therein is seen, which is ultimately dissolved in the supreme Vishnu. (4) Layasiddhiyoga, accomplished by the celebrated yonimudra already described. The sadhaka, thinking of himself as Shakti and the Paramatma as Purusha, feels himself in union ( sanggama) with Shiva, and enjoys with him the bliss whic h is shringararasa, and becomes Bliss itself, or the Brahman. (5) Bhakti Yoga, in which meditation is made on the Ishtadevata with devotion ( bhakti ) until, with tears flowing 64 from the excess of bliss, the ecstatic condition is attained. (6) Rajayoga, accom plished by aid of the manomurchchha kumbhaka. Here the manas detached from all worldly objects is fixed between the eyebrows in the ajnachakra, and Kumbhaka is done. By the union of the manas with the atma , in which the jnani sees all things, rajayogasamadhi is attained. Shatchakra- bheda The piercing of the six chakra is one of the most important subjects dealt with in the Tantras, and is part of the practical yaga process of which they treat. Details of practice can only be learnt from a Guru , but generally it may be said that the particular is raised to the universal life, which as chit is realizable only in the sahasrara in the following manner: The jivatma in the subtle body, the receptacle of the five vital airs ( pancha prana ), mind in its three aspects of manas , ahangkara, and buddhi ; the five organs of action (panchakarmendriya) and the five organs of perception ( panchajnanendriya) is united with the Kulakundalini. The Kandarpa or Kama Vayu in the muladhara a form of the Apana Vayu is given a leftward revolution and the fire which is round Kundalini is kindled. By the vija "Hung," and the heat of the fire thus kindled, the coiled and sleeping Kundalini is wakened. She who lay asleep around svayambhu- linga , with her coils three circles and a half closing the entrance of the brahma- dvara, will, on being roused, enter that door and move upwards, united with the jivatma . On this upward movement, Brahma, Savitri, Dakini -Shakti, the Devas, vija, and vritti, are dissolved in the body of Kundalini. The Mahimandala or prithivi is converted into the vija "Lang," and is also merged in Her body. When Kundalini leaves the muladhara , that lotus which, on the awakening of Kundalini had opened and turned its flower upwards, again closes and hangs down- wards. As Kundalini reaches the svadhishthana- chakra, that lotus opens out, and lifts its flower upwards. Upon the entrance of Kundalini, Mahavishnu, Mahalakshmi, Sarasvati, Rakini Shakti, Deva, Matrikas, and vritti, Vaikunthadhama, Golaka, and the Deva and Devi residing therein are dissolved in the body of Kundalini. The prithivi, or "earth" vija "Lang ," is dissolved in apas , and apas converted into the vija vang remains in the body of Kundalini. When the Devi reaches the manipura chakra all that is in the chakra merges in Her body. The Varuna vija "vang" is dissolved in fire, which remains in the body of the Devi as the Vija "rang." This chakra is called the Brahma - granthi (or knot of Brahma). The piercing of this chakra may involve considerable pain, physical disorder, and even disease. On this account the directions of an experienced Guru are necessary, and therefore also other modes of yoga have been recommended for those to whom they are applicable: for in such modes activity is provoked directly in the higher centre and it is not necessary that the lower chakras should be pierced. Kundalini next reaches the anahata chakra, where all which is therein is merged in Her. The vija of Tejas , "rang," disappears in Vayu and Vayu converted into its vija "Yang" merges into the body of Kundalini. This chakra is known as Vishnu -granthi (knot of Vishnu). Kundalini then ascends to 65 the abode of Bharati (or Sarasvati) or the vishuddha chakra. Upon Her entrance, Arddha- narishvara Shiva, Shakini, the sixteen vowels, mantra , etc., are dissol ved in the body of Kundalini. The vija of Vayu , "yang ," is dissolved in akasha, which itself being transformed into the vija "hang," is merged in the body of Kundalini. Piercing the lalana chakra, the Devi reaches the ajnachakra, where Parama Shiva, Siddha -Kali, the Deva, guna, and all else therein, are absorbed into Her body. The vija of akasha, "Hang," is merged in the manas chakra, and mind itself in the body of Kundalini. The ajnachakra is known as Rudra- granthi (or knot of Rudra or Shiva). After this chakra has been pierced, Kundalini of Her own motion unites with Parama Shiva. As She proceeds upwards from the two -petalled lotus, the niralamba puri , pranava, nada , etc., are merged in Her. The Kundalini has then in her progress upwards absorbed in herself the twenty - four tattva commencing with the gross elements, and then unites Herself and becomes one. with Parama Shiva. This is the maithuna (coition) of the sattvika- pancha- tattva . The nectar which flows from such union floods the kshudrabrahmanda or human body. It is then that the sadhaka, forgetful of all in this world, is immersed in ineffable bliss. Thereafter the sadhaka, thinking of the vayu vija "yang" as being in the left nostril, inhales through Ida, making japa of the vija sixteen times. Then, closing both nostrils, he makes japa of the vija sixty-four times. He then thinks that the black "man of sin" (Papapurusha) in the left cavity of the abdomen is being dried up (by air), and so thinking he exhales through the right nostril Pingala, making japa of the vija thirty -two times. The sadhaka then meditating upon the red- coloured vija "rang" in the manipura , inhales, making sixteen japa of the vija, and then closes the nostrils, making sixteen japa. While making the japa he thinks that the body of "the man of sin" is being burnt and reduced to ashes (by fire). He then exhales through the right nostril with thirty -two japa. He then meditates upon the white chandravija "thang." He next inhales through Ida, making japa of the vija sixteen times, closes b oth nostrils with japa done sixty -four times, and exhales through Pingala with thirty - two japa. During inhalation, holding of breath, and exhalation, he should consider that a new celestial body is being formed by the nectar (composed of all the letters of the alphabet, matrika -varna) dropping from the moon. In a similar way with the vija "vang," the formation of the body is continued, and with the vija "lang " it is completed and strengthened. Lastly, with the mantra "Sohang," the sadhaka leads the jivatma into the heart. Thus Kundalini, who has enjoyed Her union with Paramashiva, sets out on her return journey the way she came. As she passes through each of the chakra all that she has absorbed therefrom come out from herself and take their several places in the chakra. In this manner she again reaches the muladhara, when all that is described to be in the chakras (see pp. lvii -lxiii) are in the positions which they occupied before her awakening. 66 The Guru s instructions are to go above the ajna- chakra, but no special directions are given; for after this chakra has been pierced the sadhaka can reach the brahmasthana unaided. Below the "seventh month of Shiva" the relationship of Guru and sishya ceases. The instructions of the seventh amnaya is not expressed (aprakashita). Sin and Virtue According to Christian conceptions, sin is a violation of the personal will of, and apostasy from, God. The flesh is the source of lusts which oppose Gods commands, and in this lies its positive significance for the origin of a bias of life against God. According to St. Thomas, in the original state, no longer held as the normal, the lower powers were subordinate to reason, and reason subject to God. "Original sin" is formally a "defect of original righteousness," and materially "concupiscence." As St. Paul says (Rom. vii. 8, 14), the pneumatic law, which declares war on the lusts, meets with opposition from the "law in the members." These and similar notions involve a religious and moral conscious judgment which is assumed to ex ist in humanity alone. Hindu notions of papa (wrong) and punya (that which is pure, holy, and right) have a wider content. The latter is accordance and working with the will of Ishvara (of whom the jiva is itself the embodiment), as manifested at any parti cular time in the general direction taken by the cosmic process, as the former is the contrary. The two terms are relative to the state of evolution and the surrounding circumstances of the jiva to which they are applied. Thus, the impulse towards individu ality which is necessary and just on the path of inclination or "going forth" (pra-vritti marga ), is wrongful as a hindrance to the attainment of unity, which is the goal of the path of return ( nivritti marga ) where inclinations should cease. In short, what makes for progress on the one path is a hindrance on the other. The matter, when rightly undertsood, is not (except, perhaps, sometimes popularly) viewed from the juristic standpoint of an external Lawgiver, His commands, and those subject to it, but fro m that in which the exemplification of the moral law is regarded as the true and proper expression of the jivas own evolution. Morality, it has been said, is the true nature of a being. For the same reason wrong is its destruction. What the jiva actually does is the result of his karmma . Further, the term jiva, though commonly applicable to the human embodiment of the atma , is not limited to it. Both papa and punya may therefore be manifested in beings of a lower rank than that of humanity in so far as what they (whether consciously or unconsciously) do is a hindrance to their true development. Thus, in the Yoga Vashishtha it is said that even a creeping plant acquired merit by association with the holy muni on whose dwelling it grew. Objectively considered, sin is concisely defined as duhkhajanakam papam . It is that which has been, is, and will be the cause of pain, mental or physical, in past, present, and future births. The pain as the consequence of the action done need not be immediate. Though, however, the suffering may be experienced as a result later than the action of which it is the cause, the consequence of the action is not really something separate, but a part of the action 67 itself namely, that part of it which belongs to the future. The six chief sins are kama , krodha, lobha, moha , mada, matsaryya lust, anger, covetousness, ignorance or delusion, pride and envy. All wrong is at base self -seeking, in ignorance or disregard of the unity of the Self in all creatures. Virtue ( punya), therefore, as the contrary of sin, is that which is the cause of happiness ( sukhajanakam punyam ). That happiness is produced either in this or future births, or leads to the enjoyment of heaven ( Svarga). Virtue is that which leads towards the unity whose substance is B liss (ananda). This good karmma produces pleasant fruit, which, like all the results of karmma , is transitory. As Shruti says: "It is not by acts or the pindas offered by ones children or by wealth, but by renunciation that men have attained liberation." It is only by escape from karmma through knowledge, that the jiva becoming one with the unchanging Absolute attains lasting rest. It is obvious that for those who obtain such release neither vice nor virtue, which are categories of phenomenal being, exist. Karmma Karmma is action, its cause, and effect. There is no uncaused action, nor action without effect. The past, the present, and the future are linked together as one whole. The ichchha, jnana, and kriya shakti manifest in the jivatma living on the worldly plane as desire, knowledge, and action. As the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: "Man is verily formed of desire. As is his desire, so is his thought. As is his thought, so is his action. As is his action, so is his attainment." These fashion the individuals Karmma . "He who desires goes by work to the object on which his mind is set." "As he thinks, so he becometh." Then, as to action, "whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap." The matter is not one of punishment and reward, but of consequence, and the consequence of action is but a part of it. If anything is caused, its result is caused, the result being part of the original action, whigh continues, and is transformed into the result. The jivatma experiences happiness for his good acts and misery for his evil ones. Karmma is of three kinds viz., sanchita karmma that is, the whole vast accumulated mass of the unexhausted karmma of the past, whether good or bad, which has still to be worked out. This past karmma is the cause of the character of the succeeding births, and, as such, is called sangskara, or vasana. The second form of karmma is prarabdha, or that part of the first which is ripe, and which is worked out and bears fruit in the present birth. The third is the new karmma , which man is continually making by his present and future actions, and is called vartamana and agami . The embodied soul ( jivatma ), whilst in the sangsara or phenomenal world, is by its nature ever making present karmma and experiencing the past. Even the Devas themselves are subject to time and karmma . By his karmma a jiva may become an Indra. 68 Karmma is thus the invisible ( adrishta), the product of ordained or prohibited actions capable of giving bodies. It is either good or bad, and together these are called the impurity of acti on (karmma mala ). Even good action, when done with a view to its fruit, can never secure liberation. Those who think of the reward will receive benefit in the shape of that reward. Liberation is the work of Shiva- Shakti, and is gained only by brahmajnana, the destruction of the will to separate life, and realization of unity with the Supreme. All accompanying action must be without thought of self. With the cessation of desire the tie which binds man to the sangsara is broken. According to the Tantra, the sadhana and achara (q.v.) appropriate to an individual depends upon his karmma . A mans tendencies, character, and temperament is moulded by his sanchita karmma . As regards prarabdha- karmma , it is unavoidable. Nothing can be done but to work it out. Some systems prescribe the same method for men of divers tendencies. But the Tantra recognizes the force of karmma , and moulds its method to the temperament produced by it. The needs of each vary, as also the methods which will be the best suited to each to lead them to the common goal. Thus, forms of worship which are permissible to the vira are forbidden to the pashu. The guru must determine that for which the sadhaka is qualified (adhikara). Four Aims Of Being There is but one thing which all seek happiness though it be of differing kinds and sought in different ways. All forms, whether sensual, intellectual, or spiritual, are from the Brahman, who is Itself the Source and Essence of all Bliss, and Bliss itself (rasovai sah). Though issuing from the same source pleasure differs in its forms in being higher and lower, transitory or durable, or permanent. Those on the path of desire ( pravritti marga ) seek it through the enjoyments of this world ( bhukti ) or in the more durable, though still impermanent delights of heaven ( svarga). He who is on the path of return ( nivritti marga ) seeks happiness, not in the created worlds, but in everlasting union with their primal source ( mukti ); and thus it is said that man can never be truly happy until he seeks shelter with Brahman, which is Itself the great Bliss ( rasam hyevayam labdhva anandi bhavati ). The eternal rhythm of the Divine Breath is outwards from spirit to matter and inwards from matter to spirit. Devi as Maya evolves the world. As Mahamaya She recalls it to Herself. The path of outgoing is the way of pravritti ; that of return nivritti . Each of these movements is Divine. Enjoyment ( bhukti ) and liberation ( mukti ) are each Her gifts. And in the third chapter of the work cited it is said that of Vishnu and Shiva mukti only can be had, but of Devi both bhukti and mukti ; and this is so in so far as the Devi is, in a peculiar sense, the source whence those material things come from which enjoyment ( bhoga) arises. All jiva on their way to humanity, and the bulk of humanity itself, is on the forward path, and rightly seeks the enjoyment which is appropriate to its stage of evolution. 69 The thirst for life will continue to manifest itself until the point of return is reached and the outgoing energy is exhausted. Man must, until such time, remain on the path of desire. In the hands of Devi is the noose of desire. Devi herself is both desire and that light of knowledge which in the wise who have known enjoyment lays bare its futilities. But one cannot renounce until one has enjoyed, and so of the world- process itself it is said: that the unborn ones, the Purushas, are both subservient to Her ( prakriti ), and leave Her by reason of viveka . Provision is made for the worldly life which is the "outgoing" of the Supreme. And so it is s aid that the Tantrika has both enjoyment ( bhukti ) and liberation ( mukti ). But enjoyment itself is not without its law. Desire is not to be let loose without bridle. The mental self is, as is commonly said, the charioteer of the body, of which the senses are the horses. Contrary to mistaken notions on the subject, the Tantras take no exception to the ordinary rule that it is necessary not to let them run away. If one would not be swept away and lost in the mighty force which is the descent into matter, thought and action must be controlled by Dharmma. Hence the first three of the aims of life (trivarga) on the path of pravritti are dharmma, artha, and kama. Dharmma Dharmma means that which is to be held fast or kept law, usage, custom, religion, piety, right, equity, duty, good works, and morality. It is, in short, the eternal and immutable (sanatana) principles which hold together the universe in its parts and in its whole, whether organic or inorganic matter. "That which supports and holds together the peoples (of the universe) is dharmma. " "It was declared for well -being and bringeth well -being. It upholds and preserves. Because it supports and holds together, it is called Dharmma. By Dharmma are the people upheld." It is, in short, not an artificial rule, but the principle of right living. The mark of dharmma and of the good is achara (good conduct), from which dharmma is born and fair fame is acquired here and hereafter. The sages embraced achara as the root of all tapas. Dharmma is not only the principle of right living, but also its application. That course of meritorious action by which man fits himself for this world, heaven, and liberation. Dharmma is also the result of good action that is, the merit acquired thereby. The basis of the sanatana dharm ma is revelation (shruti) as presented in the various Shastra. Smriti, Purana, and Tantra. In the Devi Bhagavata it is said that in the Kaliyuga Vishnu in the form of Vyasa divides the one Veda into many parts, with the desire to benefit men, and with the knowledge that they are short -lived and of small intelligence, and hence unable to master the whole. This dharmma is the first of the four leading arms ( chaturvarga) of all being. Kama Kama is desire, such as that for wealth, success, family, position, or other forms of happiness for self or others. It also involves the notion of the necessity for the posses -sion of great and noble aims, desires, and ambitions, for such possession is 70 the characteristic of greatness of soul. Desire, whether of the higher or lower kinds, must, however, be lawful, for man is subject to dharmma , which regulates it. Artha Artha (wealth) stands for the means by which this life may be maintained in the lower sense, food, drink, money, house, land, and other property; and in the higher sense the means by which effect may be given to the higher desires, such as that of worship, for which artha may be necessary, aid given to others, and so forth. In short, it is all the necessary means by which all right desire, whether of the lower or higher kinds, may be fulfilled. As the desire must be a right desire for man is subject to dharmma, which regulates them so also must be the means sought, which are equally so governed. This first group is known as the trivarga, which must be cultivated whilst man is upon the pravritti marga . Unless and until there is renunciation on entrance upon the path of return, where inclination ceases ( nivritti marga ), man must work for the ultimate goal by meritorious acts ( dharmma), desires ( kama ), and by the lawful means ( artha) whereby the lawful desires which give birth to righteous acts are realized. Whilst on the pravritti marga "the trivarga should be equally cultivated, for he who is addicted to one only is despicable" ( dharmmartha- kamah samameva sevyah yo hyekasaktah sa jano- jagha- nyah). Moksha Of the four aims, moksha or mukti is the truly ultimate end, for the other three are ever haunted by the fear of Death the Ender. Mukti means "loosening" or liberation. It is advisable to avoid the term "salvation," as also other Christian terms, which connote different, though in a loose sense, analogous ideas. According to the Christian doctrine (soteriology), faith in Christs Gospel and in His Church effects salvation, which is the forgiveness of sins mediat ed by Christs redeeming activity, saving from judgment, and admitting to the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, mukti means a loosening from the bonds of the sangsara (phenomenal existence), resulting in a union (of various degrees of completeness) of the embodied spirit ( jivatma ) or individual life with the Supreme Spirit ( paramatma). Liberation can be attained by spiritual knowledge (atmajnana ) alone, though it is obvious that such knowledge must be preceded by, and accompanied with, and, indeed, can only be attained in the sense of actual realization, by freedom from sin and right action through adherence to dharmma. The idealistic system of Hinduism, which posits the ultimate reality as being in the nature of mind, rightly, in such cases, insists on what, for default of a better term, may be described as the intellectual, as opposed to the ethical, nature. Not that it fails to recognize the importance of the latter, but regards it as subsidiary and powerless of itself to achieve that extinction of the modifications of the energy of consciousness which constitute the supreme mukti known as Kaivalya . Such 71 extinction cannot be effected by conduct alone, for such conduct, whether good or evil, pro -duces karmma , which is the source of the modifications which i t is mans final aim to suppress. Moksha belongs to the nitvritti marga , as the trivarga appertain to the pravritti marga. There are various degrees of mukti , some more perfect than the others, and it is not, as is generally supposed, one state. There are four future states of Bliss, or pada , being in the nature of abodes viz., salokya , samipya, sarupya, and sayujya that is, living in the same loka, or region, with the Deva worshipped; being near the Deva,; receiving the same form or possessing the same aishvaryya (Divine qualities) as the Deva, and becoming one with the Deva worshipped. The abode to which the jiva attains depends upon the worshipper and the nature of his worship, which may be with, or without, images, or of the Deva regarded as distinct from the worshipper, and with attributes, and so forth. The four abodes are the result of action, transitory and conditioned. Mahanirvvana, or Kaivalya , the real moksha, is the result of spiritual knowledge ( jnana), and is unconditioned and permanent. Those who know the Brahman, recognizing that the worlds resulting from action are imperfect, reject them, and attain to that unconditioned Bliss which transcends them all. Kaivalya is the supreme state of oneness without attributes, the state in which, as the Yogasutra says, modification of the energy of consciousness is extinct, and when it is established in its own real nature. Liberation is attainable while the body is yet living, in which case there exists the state of jivanmukti celebrated in the Jivanmuk tigita of Dattatreya. The soul, it is true, is not really fettered, and any appearance to the contrary is illusory. There is, in fact, freedom, but though moksha is already in possession still, because of the illusion that it is not yet attained, means must be taken to remove the illusion, and the jiva who succeeds in this is jivanmukta , though in the body, and is freed from future embodi -ments. The enlightened Kaula, according to the Nitya- nita, sees no difference between mud and sandal, friend and foe, a dwelling -house and the cremation- ground. He knows that the Brahman is all, that the Supreme soul (paramatma) and the individual soul ( jivatma ) are one, and freed from all attachment he is jivanmukta , or liberated, whilst yet living. The means whereby mukti is attained is the yoga process ( vide ante). Siddhi Siddhi is produced by sadhana. The former term, which literally means "success," includes accomplishment, achievement, success, and fruition of all kinds. A person may thus gain siddhi in speech, siddhi in mantra , etc. A person is siddha also who has perfected his spiritual development. The various powers attainable namely, anima, mahima, laghima, garima, prapti , prakamya, ishitva , vashitva , the powers of becoming small, great, light, heavy, attaining what one wills, and the like 72 are known as the eight siddhi . The thirty -ninth chapter of the Brahmavaivarta Purana mentions eighteen kinds, but there are many others, including such minor accomplishments as nakhadarpana siddhi or "nail -gazing." The great siddhi is spiritual perfection. Even the mighty powers of the "eight siddhi " are known as the "lesser siddhi ," since the greatest of all siddhi is full liberation ( mahanirvana) from the bonds of phenomenal life and union with the Paramatma, which is the supreme object ( paramartha) to be attained through human birth. A. A. 73 CHAPTER 1 - QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE LIBERATION OF BEINGS THE enchanting summit of the Lord of Mountains, resplendent with all its various jewels, clad with many a tree and many a creeper, melodious with the song of many a bird, scented with the fragrance of all the seasons flowers, most beautiful, fanned by soft, cool, and perfumed breezes, shadowed by the still shade of stately trees; where cool groves resound with the sweet -voiced s ongs of troops of Apsara, and in the forest depths flocks of kokila maddened with passion sing; where (Spring) Lord of the Seasons with his followers ever abide (the Lord of Mountains, Kailasa); peopled by (troops of) Siddha, Charana, Gandharva, and Ganapatya (1 -5). It was there that Parvati, finding Shiva, Her gracious Lord, in mood serene, with obeisance bent low and for the benefit of all the worlds questioned Him, the Silent Deva, Lord of all things movable and immovable, the ever Beneficent and ever Bl issful One, the nectar of Whose mercy abounds as a great ocean, Whose very essence is the Pure Sattva Guna, He Who is white as camphor and the Jasmine flower, the Omnipresent One, Whose raiment is space itself, Lord of the poor and the beloved Master of al l yogi, Whose coiled and matted hair is wet with the spray of Ganga and (of Whose naked body) ashes are the adornment only; the passionless One, Whose neck is garlanded with snakes and skulls of men, the three- eyed One, Lord of the three worlds, with one hand wielding the trident and with the other bestowing blessings; easily appeased, Whose very substance is unconditioned Knowledge; the Bestower of eternal emancipation, the Ever -existent, Fearless, Changeless, Stainless, One without defect, the Benefactor of all, and the Deva of all Devas (5- 10). Shri Parvati said: O Deva of the Devas, Lord of the world, Jewel of Mercy, my Husband, Thou art my Lord, on Whom I am ever dependent and to Whom I am ever obedient. Nor can I say ought without Thy word. If Thou hast affection for me, I crave to lay before Thee that which passeth in my mind. Who else but Thee, O Great Lord, in the three worlds is able to solve these doubts of mine, Thou Who knowest all and all the Scriptures (11- 13). Shri Sadashiva said: What is that Thou sayest, O Thou Great Wise One and Beloved of My heart, I will tell Thee anything, be it ever so bound in mystery, even that which should not be spoken of before Ganesha and Skanda Commander of the Hosts of Heaven. What is there in all the three worlds which should be concealed from Thee? For Thou, O Devi, art My very Self. There is no difference between Me and Thee. Thou too art omnipresent. What is it then that Thou knowest not that Thou questionest like unto one who knoweth nothing (14- 16). 74 The pure Parvati, gladdened at hearing the words of the Deva, bending low made obeisance and thus questioned Shangkara. Shri Adya said: O Bhagavan! Lord of all, Greatest among those who are versed in Dharmma, Thou in former ages in Thy mercy didst through Brahma reveal the four Vedas which are the propagators of all dharmma and which ordain the rules of life for all the varying castes of men and for the different stages of their lives (18- 19). In the First Age, men by the practice of yaga and yajna prescribed by Thee were virtuous and pleasing to Devas and Pitris (20). By the study of the Vedas, dhyana and tapas, and the conquest of the senses, by acts of mercy and charity men were of exceeding power and courage, strength and vigour, adherents of the true Dharmma, wise and truthful and of firm resolve, and, mortals though they were, they were yet like Devas and went to the abode of the Devas (21, 22). Kings then were faithful to their engagements and were ever concerned with the protection of their people, upon whose wives they were wont to look as if upon their mothers, and whose children they regarded as their very own (23). The people, too, did then look upon a neighbours property as if it were mere lumps of clay, and, with devotion to their Dharmma, kept to the path of righteousness (24). There were then no liars, none who were selfish, thievish, malicious, foolish, none who were evil -minded, envious, wrathful, gluttonous, or lustful, but all were good of heart and of ever blissful mind. Land then yielded in plenty all kinds of grain, clouds showered seasonable rains, cows gave abundant milk, and trees were weighted with fruits (25- 27). No untimely death there was, nor famine nor sickness. Men were ever cheerful, prosperous, and healthy, and endowed with all qualities of beauty and brilliance. Women were chaste and devoted to their husbands. Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras kept to and followed the customs, Dharmma, yajna, of their respective castes, and attained the final liberation (28- 29). After the K rita Age had passed away Thou didst in the Treta Age perceive Dharmma to be in disorder, and that men were no longer able by Vedic rites to accomplish their desires. For men, through their anxiety and perplexity, were unable to perform these rites in which much trouble had to be overcome, and for which much preparation had to be made. In constant distress of mind they were neither able to perform nor yet were willing to abandon the rites. Having observed this, Thou didst make known on earth the Scripture in the form of Smriti, which explains the meaning of the Vedas, and thus delivered from sin, which is cause of all pain, sorrow, and sickness, men too feeble for the practice of tapas and the study of the Vedas. For men in this terrible ocean of the world, who is there but Thee to be their Cherisher, Protector, Saviour, their fatherly Benefactor, and Lord? (30- 33). 75 Then, in the Dvapara Age when men abandoned the good works prescribed in the Smritis, and were deprived of one half of Dharmma and were afflicted by ills of mind and body, they were yet again saved by Thee, through the instructions of the Sanghita and other religious lore (34- 36). Now the sinful Kali Age is upon them, when Dharmma is destroyed, an Age full of evil customs and deceit. Men pursue evil ways. The Vedas have lost their power, the Smritis are forgotten, and many of the Puranas, which contain stories of the past, and show the many ways (which lead to liberation), will, O Lord! be destroyed. Men will become averse from religious rites, without restraint, maddened with pride, ever given over to sinful acts, lustful, gluttonous, cruel. heartless, harsh of speech, deceitful, short -lived, poverty -stricken, harassed by sickness and sorrow, ugly, feeble, low, stupid, mean, and addicted to mean habits, companions of the base, thievish, calumnious, malicious, quarrelsome, depraved, cowards, and ever -ailing, devoid of all sense of shame and sin and of fear to seduce the wives of others. Vipras will live like the Shudras, and whilst neglecting their own Sandhya will yet officiate at the sacrifices of the low. They will be greedy, given over to wicked and sinful acts, liars, insolent, ignorant, deceitful, mere hangers -on of others, the sellers of their daughters, degraded, averse to all tapas and vrata. They will be heretics, impostors, and think themselves wise. They will be without faith or devotion, and will do japa and puja with no other end than to dupe the people. They will eat unclean food and follow evil customs, they will serve and eat the food of the Shudras and lust after low women, and will be wicked and ready to barter for money even their own wives to the low. In short, the only sign that they are Brahmanas will be the thread they wear. Observing no rule in eating or drinking or in other matters, scoffing at the Dharmma Scriptures, no thought of pious speech ever so much as entering their minds, they will be but bent upon the injury of the good (37- 50). By Thee also have been composed for the good and liberation of men the Tantras, a mass of Agamas and Nigamas, which bestow both enjoyment and liberation, containing Mantras and Yantras and rules as to the sadhana of both Devis and Devas. By Thee, too, have been described many forms of Nyasa, such as those called srishti, sthiti (and sanghara). By Thee, again, have been described the various seated positions (of yoga), such as that of the "tied" and "loosened" lotus, the Pashu, Vira, and Divya classes of men, as also the Devata, who gives success in the use of each of the mantras (50- 52). And yet again it is Thou Who hast made known in a thousand ways rites relating to the worship with woman, and the rites which are done with the use of skulls, a corpse, or when seated on a funeral pyre (53). By Thee, too, have been forbidden both pashu- bhava and di vya-bhava. If in this Age the pashu- bhava cannot exist, how can there be divya- bhava? (54). For the pashu must with his own hand collect leaves, flowers, fruits, and water, and should not look at a Shudra or even think of a woman (55). On the other hand, the Divya is all but a Deva, ever pure of heart, and to whom all opposites are alike, free from attachment to worldly things, the same to all creatures and forgiving (56). How can men with the 76 taint of this Age upon them, who are ever of restless mind, prone to sleep and sloth, attain to purity of disposition? (57). By Thee, too, have been spoken the rites of Vira- sadhana, relating to the Pancha- tattva namely, wine, meat, fish, parched grain, and sexual union of man and woman (58- 59). But since the men of the Kali Age are full of greed, lust, gluttony, they will on that account neglect sidhana and will fall into sin, and having drunk much wine for the sake of the pleasure of the senses, will become mad with intoxication, and bereft of all notion of right and wrong (61). Some will violate the wives of others, others will become rogues, and some, in the indiscriminating rage of lust, will go (whoever she be) with any woman (62). Over eating and drinking will disease many and deprive them of strength and sense. Disordered by madness, they will meet death, falling into lakes, pits, or in impenetrable forests, or from hills or house- tops (63- 64). While some will be as mute as corpses, others will be for ever on the chatter, and yet others will quarrel with their kinsmen and elders. They will be evil -doers, cruel, and the destroyers of Dharmma (65-66). I fear, O Lord! that even that which Thou hast ordained for the good of men will through them turn out for evil (67). O Lord of the World! who will practise Yoga or Nyasa, who will sing the hymns and draw the Yantra and make Purashcharana? (68). Under the influences of the Kali Age man will of his nature become indeed wicked and bound to all manner of sin (69). Say, O Lord of all the distressed! in Thy mercy how without great pains men may obtain longevity, health, and energy, increase of strength and courage, learning, intelligence, and happiness; and how they may become great in strength and valour, pure of heart, obedient to parents, not seeking the love of others wives, but devoted to their own, mindful of the good of their neighbour, reverent to the Devas and to their gurus, cherishers of their children and kinsmen (70- 72), possessing the knowledge of the Brahman, learned in the lore of, and ever meditating on, the Brahman. Say, O Lord! for the good of the world, what men should or should not do according to their different castes and stages of life. For who but Thee is their Protector in all the three worlds? (73- 74). End of the First Joyful Message, entitled "Questions relating to the Liberation of Beings." 77 CHAPTER 2 - INTRODUCTION TO THE WORSHIP OF BRAHMAN HAVING heard the words of the Devi, Shangkara, Bestower of happiness on the world, great Ocean of mercy, thus of the truth of things spoke. Sadashiva said: O Exalted and Holy One! Benefactress of the universe, well has it been asked by Thee. By none has such an auspicious question been asked aforetime (2). Worthy of all thanks art Thou, Who knoweth all good, Benefactress of all born in this age, O Gentle One! Thou art Omniscient. Thou knowest the past, present, and future, and Dharmma. What Thou hast said about the past, present, and future, and, indeed, all things, is in accordance with Dharmma, and is the truth, and is without a doubt accepted by Me. O Sureshvari! I say unto you most truly and without all doubt that men, whether they be of the twice born or other castes, afflicted as they are by this sinful Age, and unable to distinguish the pure from the impure, will not obtain purity or the success of their desired ends by the Vedic ritual, or that prescribed by the Sanghitas and Smritis (3- 6). Verily, verily, and yet again verily, I say unto you that in this Age there is no way to liberation but that proclaimed by the Agama (7). I, O Blissful One, have already foretold in the Vedas, Smritis, and Puranas,' that in this Age the wise shall worship after the doctrine of the Agama (8). Verily, verily, and beyond all doubt, I say to you that there is no liberation for him who in this Age, heedless of such doctrine, follows another (9). There is no Lord but I in this world, and I alone am He Who is spoken of in the Vedas, Puranas, and Smritis and Sanghitas (10). The Vedas and the Puranas proclaim Me to be the cause of the purity of the three worlds, and they who are averse to My doctrine are unbelievers and sinners, as great as those who slay a Brahmana (11). Therefore, O Devi! the worship of him who heeds not My precepts is fruitless, and, moreover, such an one goes to hell (12). The fool who would follow other doctrine heedless of Mine is as great a sinner as the slayer of a Brahmana or of a woman, or a parricide; have no doubt of that (13). In this Age the Mantras of the Tantras are efficacious, yield immediate fruit, and are auspicious for Japa, Yajna, and all such practices and ceremonies (14). The Vedic rites and Mantras which were efficacious in the First Age have ceased to be so in this. They are now as powerless as snakes, the poison- fangs of which are drawn and are like to that which is dead (15). The whole heap of other Mantras have no more power than the organs of sense of some pictured image on a wall. To worship with the aid of other Mantras is as fruitless as it is to cohabit with a barren woman. The labour is lost (16- 17). He who in this Age seeks salvation by ways prescribed by others is like a thirsty fool who digs a well on the bank of the Jahnavi (18), and he who, knowing My Dharmma, craves for any other is as one who with nectar in his 78 house yet longs for the poisonous juice of the akanda plant (19). No other path is there to salvation and happiness in this life or in that to come like unto that shown by the Tantras (20). From my mouth have issued the several Tantras with their sacred legends and practices both for Siddhas and Sadhakas (21). At times, O My Beloved! by reason of the great number of men of the pashu disposition, as also of the diversity of the qualifications of men, it has been said that the Dharmma spoken of in the Kulachara Scriptures should be kept secret (22). But some portions of this Dharmma, O Beloved! have been revealed by Me with the object of inclining the minds of men thereto. Various kinds of Devata and worshippers are mentioned therein, such as Bhairava, Vetala, Vatuka, Nayika, Shaktas, Shaivas, Vaishnavas, Sauras, Ganapatyas, and others. In them, too, are described various Mantra and Yantra which aid men in the attainment of siddhi, and which, though they demand great and constant effort, yet yield the desired fruit (23- 25). Hitherto My answer has been given according to the nature of the case and the questioner, and for his individual benefit only (26). None before has ever questioned Me as Thou hast done for the advantage of all mankind nay, for the benefit of all that breathes, and that, too, in such detail and with reference to the Dharmma of each of the different Ages. Therefore, out of My affection for Thee, O Parvati! I will speak to Thee of the essence of essences and of the Supreme (27- 28). O Deveshi! I will state before Thee the very essence distilled from the Vedas and Agamas, and in particular from the Tantras (29). As men versed in the Tantras are to other men, as the Jahnavi is to other rivers, as I am to all other Devas, so is the Mahanirvana Tantra to all other Agamas (30). O Auspicious One! of what avail are the Vedas, the Puranas, or the Shastras, since he who has the knowledge of this great Tantra is Lord of all Siddhi? (31). Since Thou hast questioned Me for the good of the world, I will speak to Thee of that which will lead to the benefit of the universe (32). O Parameshvari! should good be done to the universe, the Lord of it is pleased, since He is its soul, and it depends on Him (33). He is One. He is the Ever -existent. He is the Truth. He is the Supreme Unity without a second. He is Ever -full and Self - manifest. He is Eternal Intelligence and Bliss (33- 34). He is without change, Self - existent, and ever the Same, Serene, above all attributes. He beholds and is the Witness of all that passes, Omni -present, the Soul of everything that is. He, the Eternal and Omnipresent, is hidden and pervades all things. Though Himself devoid of sense, He is the Illuminator of all the senses and their powers (35- 36). The Cause of all the three worlds, He is yet beyond them and the mind of men. Ineffable and Omniscient, He knows the universe, yet none know Him (37). He sways this incompre- hensible universe, and all that has movement and is motionless in the three worlds depends on Him; and lighted by His truth, the world shines as does Truth itself. We too have come from Him as our Cause (38- 39). He, the one Supreme Lord, is the Cause of all beings, the Manifestation of Whose creative Energy in the three worlds is called Brahma (40). By His will Vishnu protects and I 79 destroy, Indra and all other Guardian Devas of the world depend on Him and hold rule in their respective regions under His command. Thou His supreme Prakriti art adored in all the three worlds (41- 42). Each one does his work by the power of Him who exists in his heart. None are ever independent of Him (43). Through fear of Him the Wind blows, the Sun gives heat, the Clouds shower seasonable rain, and the Trees in the forest flower (44). It is He who destroys Time at the Great Dissolution, of Whom even Fear and Death itself are afraid. He is Bhagavan, Who is known as Yat Tat in the Vedanta (45).O Adored of the Devas! all the Devas and Devis nay, the whole universe, from Brahma to a blade of grass are His forms (46). If He be pleased, the Universe is pleased. If aught be done to gratify Him, then the gratification of All is caused (47). As the pouring of water at the root of a tree satisfies the wants of the leaves and branches, so by worshipping Him all the Deathless Ones are satisfied (48). Just as, O Virtuous One! all the beautiful Ones are pleased when Thou art worshipped and when men meditate on and make Japa and pray to Thee (49). As all rivers must go to the ocean, so, O Parvati! all acts of worship must reach Him as the ultimate goal (50). Whoever be the worshipper, and whoever be the Devata, he reverentially worships for some desired end, all that is given to him through the Deva he so worships comes from Him as the Supreme (51). Oh, what use is it to say more before Thee, O My Beloved? There is none other but Him to meditate upon, to pray to, to worship for the attainment of liberation (52). Need there is none to trouble, to fast, to torture ones body, to follow rules and customs, to make large offerings; need there is none to be heedful as to time nor as to Nyasa or Mudra, wherefore, O Kuleshani! who will str ive to seek shelter elsewhere than with Him? (53- 54). End of the Second Joyful Message, entitled "Introduction to the Worship of Brahman." 80 CHAPTER 3 - DESCRIPTION OF THE WORSHIP OF THE SUPREME BRAHMAN SHRI DEVI said: O Deva of the Devas, great Deva, Guru of Brihaspati himself, Thou Who discourseth of all Scriptures, Mantra, Sadhana, and hast spoken of the Supreme Brahman by the adoration of Whom mortals attain happiness and liberation, do Thou, O Lord! deign to instruct us in the way of service of the Supreme Soul and of the observances, Mantra, and meditation in His worship. It is my desire, O Lord! to hear the essential substance of all these from Thee (1- 4). Shri Sadashiva said: Listen, then, O Beloved of My life! to the most secret and supreme Truth, the mystery whereof has nowhere yet been revealed (5). Because of My affection for Thee I shall speak to Thee of that Supreme Brahman, Who is ever Existent, Intelligent, and Who is dearer to Me than life itself. O Maheshvari! the eternal, intelligent, infinite Brahman may be known in Its real Self or by Its external signs (5 -6). That Which is changeless, existent only, and beyond both mind and speech, Which shines as the Truth amidst the illusion of the three worlds, is the Brahman according to Its real nature (7). That Brahman is known in samadhi - yoga by those who look upon all things alike, who are above all contraries, devoid of doubt, free of all illusion regarding body and soul (8). That same Brahman is known from His external signs, from Whom the whole universe has sprung, in Whom when so sprung It exists, and into Whom all things return (9). That which is known by intuition may also be perceived from these external signs. For those who would know Him through these external signs, for them sadhana is enjoined (10). Attend to me, Thou, O dearest One! while I speak to Thee of such sadhana. And firstly, O Adye! I tell Thee of the Mantroddhara of the Supreme Brahman (11). Utter first the Pranava, then the words "existence" and "intelligence," and after the word "One" say "Brahman." MANTRA Ong Sachchidekam Brahma (12). This is the Mantra. These words, when combined according to the rules of Sandhi, form a Mantra of seven letters. If the Pranava be omitted, it becomes a Mantra of six letters only (13). This is the most excellent of all the Mantras, and the one which immediately bestows Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. In the use of this Mantra there is no need to consider whether it be efficacious or not, or friendly or inimical, 81 for no such considerations affect it (14). Nor at initiation into this Mantra is it necessary to make calculations as to the phases of the Moon, the propitious junction of the stars, or as to the Signs of the Zodiac. Nor are there any rules as to whether the Mantra is suitable or not. Nor is there need of the ten Sangskara. This Mantra is in every way efficacious in initiation. There is no necessity for considering anything else (15). Should one have obtained, through merit acquired in previous births, an excellent Guru, from whose lips this Mantra is received, then life indeed becomes fruitful (16), and the worshipper receiving in his hands Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha, rejoices both in this world and the next (17). He whose ears this great jewel of Mantra reaches is indeed blest, for he has attained the desired end, being virtuous and pious, and is as one who has bathed in a the sacred places, been initiated in all Yajnas, versed in all Scriptures, and honoured in all the worlds (18- 19). Happy is the father and happy the mother of such a one yea, and yet more than this, his family is hallowed and the gladdened spirits of the Pitris rejoice with th Devas, and in the excess of their joy sing (20): "In our family is born the most excellent of our race, one initiate in the Brahma- mantr a. What need have we now of pinda offered at Gaya, or of shraddha, tarpana, pilgrimage at holy places (21); of what use are alms, japa, homa, or sadhana, since now we have obtained imperishable satisfaction?" (22) Listen, O Devi! Adored of the world, whilst I tell You the very truth that for the worshippers of the Supreme Brahman there is no need for other religious observances (23). At the very moment of initiation into this Mantra the disciple is filled with Brahman, and for such an one, O Devi! what is there which is unattainable in all the three worlds? (24). Against him what can adverse planets or Vetala, Chetaka, Pishacha, Guhyaka, Bhuta, the Matrika, Dakini, and other spirits avail? The very sight of him will drive them to flight with averted faces (25). Guarded by the Brahma- mantra, clad with the splendour of Brahman, he is as it were another Sun. What should he fear, then, from any planet? (26). They flee, frightened like elephants at the sight of a lion, and perish like moths in a flame (27). No sin can touch, and none but one as wicked as a suicide can harm, him, who is purified by truth, without blemish, a benefactor of all beings, a faithful believer in Brahman (28). The wicked and sinful who seek to harm him who is initiate in the knowledge of the Supreme Brahman do but harm themselves, for are they not indeed in essence inseparate from the ever -existent One? (29). For he is the holy sage and well -wisher, working for the happiness of all, and, O Devi! should it be possible to harm such an one who can go in peace? (31). For him, however, who has no knowledge of the meaning of nor of the awakening of the Mantra, it is fruitless, even though it were inwardly uttered ten million times (31). Listen, then, O My Beloved! while I tell Thee of the meaning and awakening of Mantra. By the letter A is meant the Protector of the world; the letter U denotes its Destroyer; and M stands for its Creator (32). The meaning of Sat is Ever -existent; 82 of Chit, Intelligence; and of Ekam, One without a second. Brahman is so called because He exists everywhere. Now, O Devi! I have given You the meaning of the Mantra, which grants the fulfilment of desires. The awakening of the Mantra is the knowledge of Him, Who is the pervading Devata of the Mantra, and such knowledge, O Sup reme Devi! yields the fruit of worship to the worshipper (35). O Devi! the presiding Devata of the Mantra is the omnipresent, eternal, inscrutable, formless, passionless, and ineffable Brahman (36). When introduced by the Vija of Sarasvati, Maya, or Kamala, instead of the Mantra Om, it bestows various kinds of learning, siddhi, and prosperity in every quarter (37). The Mantra may be varied either by the prefixing or omitting of Om, or by the placing of it before each word or every two words of the Mantra (38). Sadashiva is the Rishi of this Mantra. The verse is called Anushtup, and its presiding Devata is the Supreme Brahman, Who is without attributeand Who abides in all things. It avails for the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Now listen, dear One, whilst I speak to You of Anga- nyasa and Kara- nyasa (39- 40). O great and adorable Devi! the syllable Om, the words Sat, Chit, Ekam, Brahma, should be pronounced over the thumb, the threatening finger, the middle, nameless, and little fingers respectively, followed in each case by the words Namah, Svaha, Vashat, Hung, and Vaushat; and Ong Sachchidekam Brahma should be said over the palm and back of the hand, followed by the Mantra Phat (41, 42). The worshipper disciple should in the like manner, with his mind well under control, perform Anga- nyasa in accordance with the rules thereof, commencing with the heart and ending with the hands (43). After this, whilst reciting the Mantra Om or the Mula -mantra, Pranayama should be performed thus: He should close the left nostril with the middle of the fourth finger, and then inhale through the right nostril, meanwhile making japa of the Pranava or the Mula- mantra eight times. Then, closing the right nostril with the thumb and shutting also the mouth, make japa of the Mantra thirty -two times. After that gently exhale the breath through the right nostril, doing japa of the Mantra the while sixteen times. In the same way perform these three acts with the left nostril, and then repeat the same process with the right nostril. O adored of the Devas! I have now told Thee of the method of Pranayama to be observed in the use of the Brahma- Mantra (44 -48). The Sadhaka should then make meditation which accomplishes his desire (49). DHYANA In the lotus of my heart I contemplate the Divine Intelligence, the Brahman without distinctions and difference, Knowable by Hari, Hara, and Vidhi, whom Yogis approach in meditation, He Who destroys the fear of birth and death, Who is Existence, Intelligence, the Root of all the three worlds (50) 83 Having thus contemplated the Supreme Brahman, the worshipper should, in order to attain union with Brahman, worship with offerings of his mind (51). For perfume let him offer to the Supreme Soul the essence of the Earth, for flowers the ether, for incense the essence of the air, for light the Lustre of the universe, and for food the essence of the Waters of the world (52). After mentally repeating the great mantra and offering the fruit of it to the Supreme Brahman, the excellent disciple should commence external worship Meditating with closed eyes on the Eternal Brahman, the worshipper should with reverence offer to the Supreme whatever be at hand, such as perfumes, flowers, clothes, jewels, food, and drink, after having purified them with the following (54- 55): MANTRA The vessel in which these offerings are placed is Brahman, and so, too, is the gheeoffered therein. Brahman is both the sacrificial Fire and he who makes the sacrifice, and to Brahman he will attain whose mind is fixed on the Brahman by t he performance of the rites which lead to Brahman (56). Then, opening the eyes, and inwardly and with all his power making japa with the Mula- mantra, the worshipper should offer the japa to Brahman and then recite the hymn that follows and the Kavacha- mant ra (57). Hear, O Maheshvari! the hymn to Brahman, the Supreme Spirit, by the hearing whereof the disciple becomes one with the Brahman (58). Stotra Ong! I bow to Thee, the eternal Refuge of all: I bow to Thee, the pure Intelligence manifested in the univer se. I bow to Thee Who in His essence is One and Who grants liberation. I bow to Thee, the great, all -pervading attributeless One (59). Thou art the only Refuge and Object of adoration. The whole universe is the appearance of Thee Who art its Cause. Thou alone art Creator, Preserver, Destroyer of the world. Thou art the sole immutable Supreme, Who art neither this nor that (6o); Dread of the dreadful, Terror of the terrible. Refuge of all beings, Purificator of all purificators. Thou alone rulest the high- placed ones, Supreme over the supreme, Protector of the Protectors (61). O Supreme Lord in Whom all things are, yet Unmanifest in all, 84 Imperceptible by the senses, yet the very truth. Incomprehensible, Imperishable, All -pervading hidden Essence. Lord and Light of the Universe! save us from harm (62). On that One alone we meditate, that One alone we in mind worship, To that One alone the Witness of the Universe we bow. Refuge we seek with the One Who is our sole Eternal Support, The Self -existent Lord, the Vessel of safety in the ocean of being (63). This is the five- jewelled hymn to the Supreme Soul. He who pure in mind and body recites this hymn is united with the Brahman (64). It should be said daily in the evening, and particularly on the day of the Moon. The wise man should read and explain it to such of his kinsmen as believe in Brahman (65). I have spoken to You, O Devi! of the five- jewelled hymn, O Graceful One! listen now to the jagan- mangala Mantra of the amulet, by the wearing and reading whereof one becomes a knower of the Brahman (66). MANTRA May the Supreme Soul protect the head, May the Supreme Lord protect the heart, May the Protector of the world protect the throat, May the All -pervading, All -seeing Lord protect the face (67), May the Soul of the Universe protect my hands, May He Who is Intelligence itself protect the feet, May the Eternal and Supreme Brahman protect my body in all its parts always (68). The Rishi of this world -beneficent amulet is Sada- shiva; the verse is anushtup, its presiding Devata is the Supreme Brahman, and the object of its use is the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (69). He who recites this protective Mantra after offering it to its Rishi attains knowledge of Brahman, and is one immediately with the Brahman (70). If written on birch- bark and encased in a golden ball, it be worn round the neck or on the right arm, its wearer attains all kinds of powers (71). I have now revealed to Thee the amulet Mantra of the Supreme Brahman. It should be given to the favourite disciple who is both devoted to the Guru and possessed of understanding (72). The excellent Sadhaka shall, after reciting the Mantra and the hymn with reverence, salute the Supreme (73). 85 Salutation Ong I bow to the Supreme Brahman. I bow to the Supreme Soul. I bow to Him Who is above all qualities. I bow to the Ever -existent again and again (74). The worship of the Supreme Lord may be by body or mind or by word; but the one thing needful is purity of disposition (75). After worshipping in the manner of which I have spoken, the wise man should with his friends and kinsmen partake of the holy food consecrated to the Supreme Spirit. (76) In the worship of the Supreme there is no need to invoke Him to be present or to desire Him to depart. It may be done always and in all places (77). It is of no account whether the worshipper has or has not bathed, or whether he be fasting or have taken food. But the Supreme Spirit should ever be worshipped with a pure heart (78). After purification by the Brahma- Mantra, whatever food or drink is offered to the Supreme Lord becomes itself purifying (79). The touch of inferior castes may pollute the water of Ganga and the Shaligrama, but nothing which has been consecrated to the Brahman (80) can be so polluted. If dedicated to Brahman with this Mantra, the worshipper with his people may eat of anything, whether cooked or uncooked (81). In the partaking of this food no rule as to caste or time need be observed. No one should hesitate to take the leavings from the plate of another, whether such another be pure or impure. (82). Whenever and whatsoever the place may be, howsoever it may have been attained, eat without scruple or inquiry the food dedicated to the Brahman (83). Such food, O Devi! even the Devas do not easily get, and it purifies even if brought by a Chamdala, or if it be taken from the mouth of a dog (84). As to that which the partaking of such food affects in men, what, O Adored of the Devas! shall We say of it? It is deemed excellent even by the Devas. Without a doubt the partaking of this holy food, be it but once only, frees the greatest of sinners and all sinners of their sins (85- 86). The mortal who eats of it acquires such merit as can only otherwise be earned by bathing and alms at thirty -five millions of holy places (87). By the eating of it ten million times greater merit is gained than by the Horse- sacrifice, or indeed by any other sacrifice whatever (88). Its excellence cannot be described by ten million tongues and a thousand million mouths (89). Wherever the Sadhaka may be, and though he be a Chandala, he attains to union with the Brahman the very moment he partakes of the nectar dedicated to Him (90). Even Brahmans versed in the Vedanta should take food prepared by low -caste men if it be dedicated to the Brahman (91). No distinction of caste should be observed in eating food dedicated to the Supreme Spirit. He who thinks it impure becomes a great sinner (92). It would be better, O 86 Beloved! to commit a hundred sins or to kill a Brahmana than to despise food dedicated to the Supreme Brahman (93). Those fools who reject food and drink made holy by the great Mantra. cause the fall of their ancestors into the lower regions, and they themselves go headlong into the Hell of blind darkness, where they remain until the Dissolution of things. No liberation is there for such as despise food dedicated to Brahman (94- 95). In the sadhana of this great Mantra, even acts without merit become meritorious; in slumber merit is acquired; and acts are accepted as rightful which are done according to the worshippers desires (96). For such what need is there of Vedic practices, or for the matter of that what need is there even of those of the Tantra? Whatever he does according to his desire, that is recognized as lawful in the case of the wise believer in the Brahman (97). For them there is neither merit nor demerit in the performance or non- performance of the customary rites. In the sadhana of this Mantra his faults or omissions are no obstacle (98). By the sadhana of this Mantra, O Great Devi! man becomes truthful, conqueror of the passions devoted to the good of his fellow -men, one to whom all things are indifferent, pure of purpose, free of envy and arrogance, merciful and pure of mind, devoted to the service and seeking the of his parents, a listener ever to things devine, a meditator ever on the Brahman. His mind is ever turned to the search for Brahman. With strength of determination holding his mind in close control, he is ever conscious of the nearness of Brahman (99- 101). He who is initiated in the Brahma- Mantra will not lie or think to harm, and will shun to go with the wives of others (102). At the commencement of all rites, let him say, "Tat Sat"; and before eating or drinking aught let him say, "I dedicate this to Brahman" (103). For the knower of Brahman, duty consists in action for the well -being of fellow -men. This is the eternal Dharmma. I will now, O Shambhavi! speak to Thee of the duties relating to Sandhya in the practice of the Brahma Mantra, whereby men acquire that real wealth which comes to them in the form of Brahman (105). Wheresoever he may be, and in whatsoever posture, the excellent and well -intentioned sadhaka shall, at morning, noon and eventide, meditate upon the Brahman in the manner prescribed. Then, O Devi! let him make japa of th Gayatri one hundred and eight times. Offering the japa to the Devata, let him make obeisance in the way of which I have spoken (106- 108). I have now told thee of the sandhya to be used by him in the sadhana of the Brahma-Mantra, and by which the worshipper shall become pure of heart (106- 108). Listen to Me now, Thou Who art figured with grace, to the Gayatri, which destroys all sin. Say "Parameshvara" in the dative singular, then "vidmahe," and, Dear One, after the word "Paratattvaya" say "dhimahi," adding, O Devi! the words, "tanno Brahma prachodayat." MANTRA "May we know the Supreme Lord; let us contemplate the Supreme Essence, and may that Brahman direct us." 87 This is the auspicious Brahma- Gayatri which confers Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (109- 111). Let everything which is done, be it worship or sacrifice, bathing, drinking, or eating, be accompanied by the recitation of the Brahma- Mantra (112). When arising at the middle of the fourth quarter of the night, and after bowing to the Preceptor who gave initiation in the Brahma- Mantra, let it be recited with all recollection. Then obeisance should be made to the Brahman as aforesaid, after meditating upon Him. This is the enjoined morning rites (113). For Purashcharana, O Beautiful One! japa of the Mantra should be done thirty -two thousand times, for oblations three thousand two hundred times; for the presenting of or offering water to the Devata, three hundred and twenty times; for purification before worship thirty -two times; an d Rrahmanas should be feasted four times(114- 115). In Purashcharana no rule need be observed touching food or as regards what should be accepted or rejected. Nor need an auspicious time nor place for performance be selected (116). Whether he be fasting or have taken food, whether with or without bathing, let the Sadhaka, as he be so inclined, make sadhana with this supreme Mantra (117). Without trouble or pain, without hymn, amulet, nyasa, mudra, or setu, without the worship of Ganesha as the Thief, yet surely and shortly the most Supreme Brahman is met face to face (118- 119). In the sadhana of this great Mantra no other Sangkalpa is necessary than the inclination of the mind thereto and purity of disposition. The worshipper of Brahman sees Brahman in everything (120). The worshipper does not sin, nor does he suffer harm should he perchance in such sadhana omit anything. On the contrary, if there be any omission, the use of this great Mantra is the remedy therefor (121). In this terrible and sinful Age devoid of tapas which is so difficult to traverse, the very seed of liberation is the use of the Brahma- Mantra (122). Various Tantras and Agamas have prescribed various modes of sadhana, but these, O Great Devi! are beyond the powers of the feeble men of this Age (123). For these, O Beloved! are short -lived, without enterprise, their life dependent on food, covetous, eager to gain wealth, so unsettled in their intellect that it is without rest, even in its attempts at yoga. Incapable, too, are they of suffering and impatient of the austerities of yoga. For the happiness and liberation of such have been ordained the Way of Brahman (124- 125). O Devi! verily and verily I say to You that in this Age there is no other way to happiness and liberation than that by initiation in Brahma- Mantra; I again say to You there is no other way (126). The rule in all the Tantras is that that which is prescribed for the morning should be done in the morning, Sandhya thrice daily and worship at midday, but, O Auspicious One! in the worship of Brahman there is no other rule but the desire of the worshipper (127). Since in Brahma- worship rules are but servants and the prohibitions of other worships do not prevail, who will seek shelter in any other? (128). Let the disciple obtain a Guru who is a knower of Brahman, peaceful and of placid mind, and then, clasping his lotus -like feet, let him supplicate him as follows: 88 Supplication to the Guru O merciful one! Lord of the distressed! to thee I have come for protection: cast then the shadows of thy lotus -like feet over my head, oh thou whose wealth is fame (130). Having thus with all his powers prayed to and worshipped his Guru, let the disciple remain before him in silence with folded hands (131). The Guru will the carefully examine the signs on and qualities of the disciple, kindly call the latter to him, and give to the good disciple the great Mantra (132). Let the wise one sitting on a seat, with his face to the East or to the North place his disciple on his left, and gaze with tenderness upon him (133). The Guru, after performing Rishi -nyasa, will then place his hand on his disciples head, and for the siddhi of the latter make japa of the Mantra one hundred and eight times (134). Let the excellent Guru, ocean of kindness, next whisper the Mantra seven times into the right ear of the disciple if he be a Brahmana, or into the left ear if he be of another caste (135). O Kalika! I have now described the manner in which instructions in Brahma- Mantra should be given. For this there is no need of puja, and his Sangkalpa should be mental only (136). The Guru should then raise the disciple, now become his son, who is lying prostrate at his lotus -feet, and say with affection the following (137). Reply of the Guru Rise, my son, thou art liberated: Be ever devoted to the knowledge of Brahman: Conquer thy passions: May thou be truthful, and have strength and health (138). Let the excellent disciple on rising make an offering of his own self, money or a fruit, as he may afford. Remaining obedient to his preceptors commands, he may then roam the world like a Deva (139). Immediately upon his initiation into this Mantra his soul is suffused with the Divine Being. What need, then, O Deveshi! for such an one to practise various kinds of sadhana? O Dearest One! I have now briefly told You of the initiation into the Brahma- Mantra (140). For such initiation the merciful mood of the Guru is alone necessary (141). The worshipper of the Divine Power, of Shiva, of the Sun, of Vishnu, Ganesha, Brahmanas versed in the Vedas and all other castes may be initiated (142). It is by the grace of this Mantra, O Devi! that I have become the Deva of Devas, have conquered Death, and have become the Guru of the whole world. By it I have done whatever I will, casting from Me ignorance and doubt (143). Brahma was the First to receive the Mantra from Me, and He taught it to the Brahmarshis, who taught it to the Devas. From these the Devarshis learnt it. The Sages learnt it of these last, and royal Rishis learnt it of Sages, and all have thus, through the grace of the Supreme Spirit and this Mantra, become one with Brahman (144- 145). In the use of this Brahma- Mantra, O Great Devi there are no restrictions. The Guru may without hesitation give his disciple his own Mantra, a father may initiate his 89 sons, a brother his brothers, a husband his, wife, a maternal uncle his nephews, a maternal grand father his grandsons (146- 147). Such fault as elsewhere there is in other worships, in the giving of ones own Mantra, in initiation by a father or oth er near relative does not exist in the case of this great and successfu Mantra (148). He who has heard it, however it may be from the lips of one initiate in the knowledge of Brahman, is purified, and attains the state of Brahman, and is affected neither by virtue nor sin (149). The householder of the Brahmanas and other castes who pray with the Brahma Mantra should be respected and worshipped as being the greatest of their respective classes (150). Brahmanas at once become like those who have conquered their passions, and lower castes become equal to Brihmanas: therefore let all worship those initiate in the Brahma- Mantra, and thus possessed of Divine knowledge (151). They who slight them are as wicked as the slayers of Brahmanas, and go to a terrible Hell, where they remain as long as the Sun and Stars endure (152). To revile and calumniate a worshipper of the Supreme Brahman is a sin ten million times worse than that of killing a woman or bringing about an abortion (153). As men by initiation in the Brahma- Mantra become freed of all sins, so, O Devi! also may they be freed by the worship of Thee (154). End of Third Joyful Message, entitled "Description of the Worship of the Supreme Brahman." 90 CHAPTER 4 - INTRODUCTION OF THE WORSHIP OF THE SUPREME PRAKRITI HAVING listened with attention to that which has been said concerning the worship of the Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Devi greatly pleased again thus questioned Shankara (1). Shri Devi said: O Lord of the Universe and Husband! I bathe with contentment in the nectar of Thy words concerning the excellent worship of the Supreme, which lead to the well -being of the world and to the path of Brahman, and gives light, intelligence, strength, and prosperity (2- 3). Thou hast said, 0 Ocean of Mercy! that as union with the Brahman is attainable through worship of Him, so, it may be attained by worship of Me (4). I wish to know, O Lord! of this excellent worship of Myself, which as Thou sayest is the cause of union of the worshipper with the Brahman (5). What are its rites, and by what means may it be accomplished? What is its Mantra, and what the form of its meditation and mode of worship? (6). O Shambhu! who but Thee, great Physician of earthly ills, is fit to speak of it, from its beginning to its end, and in all its detail agreeable as it is to Me and beneficent to all humanity? (7). Hearing the words of the Devi, the Deva of Devas, Husband of Parvati, was delighted, and spoke to Her thus: (8) Shri Sadashiva said: Listen, O Thou of high fortune and destiny, to the reasons why Thou shouldst be worshipped, and how thereby the individual becomes united with the Brahman (9). Thou art the only Para Prakriti of the Supreme Soul Brahman, and from Thee has sprung the whole Universe O Shiva its Mother (10). O gracious One ! whatever there is in this world, of things which have and are without motion, from Mahat to an atom, owes its origin to and is dependent on Thee (11). Thou art the Original of all the manifestations; Thou art the birthplace of even Us; Thou knowest the w hole world, yet none know Thee (12). Thou art Kali, Tarini, Durga, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Dhumavati. Thou art Bagala, Bhairavi, and Chhinna -mastaka. Thou art Anna- purna, Vagdevi, Kama- lalaya. Thou art the Image or Embodiment of all the Shaktis and of all the Devas (13- 14). Thou art both Subtle and Gross, Manifested and Veiled, Formless, yet with form. Who can understand Thee? (15). For the accomplishment of the desire of the worshipper, the good of the world, and the destruction of the Danavas, Thou dost assume various forms (16). Thou art four -armed, two- armed, six -armed, and eight -armed, and holdest various missiles and weapons for the protection of the Universe (17). In other Tantras I have spoken of the different Mantras and Yantras, with the use of which 91 Thou shouldst be worshipped according to Thy different forms, and there, too, have I spoken of the different dispositions of men (18). In this Kali Age there is no Pashu- bhava: Divya- bhava is difficult of attainment, but the practices relating to Vira- sadhana yield visible fruit (19). In this Kali Age, O Devi! success is achieved by Kaulika worship alone, and therefore should it be performed with every care (20). By it, O Devi! is acquired the knowledge of Brahman, and the mortal endowed therewith is of a surety whilst living freed from future births and exonerated from the performance of all religious rites (21). According to human knowledge the world appears to be both pure and impure, but when Brahma- jnana has been acquired there is no distinction between pure and impure (22). For to him who knows that the Brahman is in all things and eternal, what is there that can be impure? (23). Thou art the Image of all, and above all Thou art the Mother of all. If Thou art pleased, O Queen of the Devas! then all are pleased (24). Before the Beginning of things Thou didst exist in the form of a Darkness which is beyond both speech and mind, and of Thee by the creative desire of the Supreme Brahman was the entire Universe born (25). This Universe, from the great pri nciple of Mahat down to the gross elements, has been created by Thee, since Brahman Cause of all causes is but the instrumental Cause (26). It is the Ever -existent, Changeless, Omnipresent, Pure Intelligence unattached to, yet existing in and enveloping al l things (27). It acts not, neither does It enjoy. It moves not, neither is It motionless. It is the Truth and Knowledge, without beginning or end, Ineffable and Incomprehensible (28). Thou the Supreme Yogini dost, moved by his mere desire, create, protect, and destroy this world with all that moves and is motionless therein (29). Mahakala, the Destroyer of the Universe, is Thy Image. At the Dissolution of things, it is Kala Who will devour all (30), and by reason of this He is called Mahakala, and since Thou devourest Mahakala Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kalika (31). Because Thou devourest Kala, Thou art Kali, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya Kali (32). Resuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable (33). Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art (34). Hence it is, 0 Gentle One! that whatsoever fruit is attained by initiation in the Brahma- Mantra, the same may be had by the worship of Thee (35). According to the differences in place, time, and capacity of the worshippers I have, O Devi! in some of the Tantras spoken of secret worship suited to their respective customs and dispositions (36). Where men perform that worship which they are privileged to perform, there they participate in the fruits of worship, and being freed 92 from sin will with safety cross the Ocean of Being (37). By merit acquired in many previous births the mind inclines to Kaulika doctrine, and he whose soul is purified by such worship himself becomes Shiva (38). Where there is abundance of enjoyment, of what use is it to speak of Yoga, and where there is Yoga there is no enjoyment, but the Kaula enjoys both (39). If one honours but one man versed in the knowledge of the essence of Kula doctrine, then all the Devas and Devis are worshipped there is no doubt of that (40). The merit gained by honouring a Kaulika is ten million times that which is acquired by giving away the world with all its gold (41). A Chandala versed in the knowledge of Kaulika doctrine excels a Brahmana, and a Brahmana who is wanting in such knowledge is beneath even a Chandala. (42). I know of no Dharmma superior to that of the Kaulas, by adherence to which man becomes possessed of Divine knowledge (43). I am telling Thee the truth, O Devi! Lay it to the heart and ponder over it. There is no doctrine superior to the Kaulika doctrine, the most excellent of all (44). This is the most excellent path kept hidden by reason of the crowd of Pashus, but when the Kali Age advances this pathway will be reveal ed (45). Verily and verily I say unto you that when the Kali Age reaches the fullness of its strength there will be no Pashus, and all men on earth will be followers of the Kaulika doctrine (46). O Vararohe! know that when Vedic and Puranic initiations cease then the Kali Age has become strong (47). O Shive! 0 Peaceful One! when virtue and vice are no longer judged by the Vedic rules, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (48). O Sovereign Mistress of Kaula doctrine! when the Heavenly Stream is at s ome places broken, and at others diverted from its course, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (49). O Wise One! when kings of the Mlechchha race become excessively covetous, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (50). When women become difficult of control, heartless and quarrelsome, and calumniators of their husbands, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (51). When men become subject to women and slaves of lust, oppressors of their friends and Gurus, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (52). When the fertility of the earth has gone and yields a poor harvest, when the clouds yield scanty rain, and trees give meagre fruit, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (53). When brothers, kinsmen, and companions, prompted by the desire for some trifle, will strike one another, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (54). When the open partaking of flesh and liquor will pass without condemnation and punishment, when secret drinking will prevail, then know that the Kali Age has become strong (55). As in the Satya, Treta, and Dvapara Ages wine and the like could be taken, so they may be taken in the Kali Age in accordance with the Kaulika Dharmma (56). The Kali 93 Age cannot harm those who are purified by truth, who have conquered their passions and senses, who are open in their ways, without deceit, are compassionate and follow the Kaula doctrine (57). The Kali Age cannot harm those who are devoted to the services of their Guru, to the lotus of their mothers feet, and to their own wives (58). The Kali Age cannot harm those who are vowed to and grounded in truth, adherents of the true Dharmma, and faithful to the performance of Kaulika rites and duties (59). The Kali Age cannot harm those who give to the truthful KaulikaYogi the elements of worship, which have been previously purified by Kaulika rites (60). The Kali Age cannot harm those who are free of malice, envy, arrogance, and hatred, and who are firm in the faith of Kaulika dharmma (61). The Kali Age cannot harm those who keep the company of Kaulikas, or live with Kaulika Sages, or serve the Kaulikas (62). The Kali Age cannot harm those Kaulikas who, whatever they may appear outwardly to be, yet remain firm in their Kaulika Dharmma, worshipping Thee according to its doctrine (63). The Kali Age cannot harm those who perform their ablutions, charities, penances, pilgrimages, devotions, and offerings of water according to the Kaulika ritual (64). The Kali Age cannot harm those who perform the ten purificatory ceremonies, such as the blessing of the womb, obsequial ceremonies of their fathers, and other rites according to Kaulika ritual (65). The Kali Age cannot harm those who respect the Kaula- tattva, Kaula- dravya, and Kaula- yogi (66). The Kali Age is but the slave of those who are free of all crookedness and falsehood, men of candour, devoted to the good of others, who follow Kaulika ways (67). In spite of its many blemishes, the Kali Age possesses one great merit, that from the mere intention of a Kaulika of firm resolution desired result ensues (68). In the other Ages, O Devi! effort of will produced both religious merit and demerit, but in the Kali Age men by intention merely acquire merit only, and not demerit (68). The slaves of the Kali Age, on the other hand, are those who know not Kulachara, and who are ever untruthful and the persecutors of others (70). They too are the slaves of the Kali Age who have no faith in Kulacharas, who lust after others wives, and hate them who are faithful to Kaulika doctrine (71). In speaking of the customs of the different Ages, I have, O Gentle One! and out of love, O Parvati! truly recounted to Thee the signs of the dominance of the Kali Age (72). When the Kali Age is made manifest, piety is enfeebled and Truth alone remains; therefore should one be truthful (73). O Thou Virtuous One! know this for certain, that whatsoever man does with Truth that bears fruit (74). There is no Dharmma higher than Truth, there is no sin greater than falsehood; therefore should man seek protection under Truth with all his soul (75). Worship without Truth is useless, and so too without Truth is the Japa of Mantras and the performance of Tapas. It is in such cases just as if one sowed seed in salt earth (76). 94 Truth is the appearance of the Supreme Brahman; Truth is the most excellent of all Tapas; every act is rooted in Truth. Than Truth there is nothing more excellent (77). Therefore has it been said by Me that when the sinful Kali Age is dominant, Kaula ways should be practised truthfully and without concealment (78). Truth is divorced from concealment. There is no concealment without untruth. Therefore is it that the Kaulika -sadhaka, should perform his Kaulika -sadhana openly (79). What I have said in other Kaulika Tantras about the concealment of Kaulika- dharmma not being blameworthy is not applicable when the Kali Age becomes strong (8o). In the (First or) Satya. Age, O Devi! Virtue possessed the four quarters of its whole; in the Treta Age it lost one- quarter of its Virtue; in the Dvapara Age there was of Virtue but two quarters, and in the Kali Age it has but one (81). In spite of that Truth will remain strong, though Tapas and Charity become weakened. If Truth goes Virtue goes also, therefore of all acts Truth should be the abiding support (82). O Sovereign Mistress of the Kaula- Dharmma! since men can in this Age have recourse to Kaulika Dharmma only, if that doctrine be itself infected with untruth, how can there be liberation? (83). With his soul purified in every way by Truth, man should, according to his caste and stage of life, perform the following acts in the manner shown by Me (84): initiation, worship, recitation of Mantras, the worship of Fire with ghee, repetition of Mantras, private devotions, marriage, the conception ceremony, and that performed in the fourth, sixth, or eighth months of pregnancy, the natal rite, the naming and tonsure ceremonies, and obsequial rites upon cremation and after death. All such ceremonies should be performed in the manner approved by the Agamas (85- 86). The ritual which I have ordained should be followed, too, as regards Shraddha at holy places, dedication of a bull, the autumnal festival, on setting out on a journey, on the first entry into a house, the wearing of new clothes or jewels, dedication of tanks, wells, or lakes, in the ceremonies performed at the phases of the Moon, the building and consecration of houses, the installation of Devas, and in all observances to be performed during the day or at night, in each month, season, or year, and in observances both daily or occasional, and also in deciding generally what ought and what ought not to be done, and in determining what ought to be rejected and what ought to be adopted (87- 90). Should one not follow the ritual ordained, whether from ignorance, wickedness, or irreverence, then one is disqualified for all observances, and becomes a worm in dung (91). O Maheshi! if when the Kali Age has become very powerful any act be done in violation of My precepts, then that which happens is the very contrary of that which is desired (92). Initiation of which I have not approved destroys the life of the disciple, and his act of worship is as fruitless as oblations poured on ashes, and the Deva whom he worships becomes angry or hostile, and at every step he encounters danger (93). Ambika! he who during the dominance of the Kali Age, knowing My ordinances, yet performs his religious observances in other ways, is a great sinner (94). The man who performs any Vrata, or marries according to other ways, will remain in a terrible 95 Hell so long as the Sun and Moon endure (95). By his performance of Vrata he incurs the sin of killing a Brahmana, and similarly by being invested with the sacred thread he is degraded. He merely wears the thread, and is lower than a Chandala (96), and so too the woman who is married according to other ways than Mine is to be despised, and, 0 Sovereign Mistress of the Kaulas! the man who so marries is her associate in wrong, and is day after day guilty of the sin of going with a prostitute (97). From him the De vata will not accept food, water, and other offerings, nor will the Pitris eat his offerings, considering them to be as it were mere dung and pus (98). Their children are bastards, and disqualified for all religious, ancestral, and Kaulika observances and rites (99). To an image dedicated by rites other than those prescribed by Shambhu the Deva never comes. Benefit there is none either in this or the next world. There is but mere waste of labour and money (100). A Shraddha performed according to other rites than those prescribed by the Agamas is fruitless, and he who performs it will go to Hell together with his Pitris (101). The water offered by him is like blood, and the funeral cake like dung. Let the mortal then follow with great care the precepts of Shankara (102). What is the need of saying more? Verily and verily I say to You, O Devi! that all that is done in disregard of the precepts of Shambhu is fruitless (103). For him who follows not His precepts there is no future merit. That which has been already acquired is destroyed, and for him there is no escape from Hell (104). O Great Ruler! the performance of daily and occasional duties in the manner spoken of by Me is the same as worshipping Thee (105). Listen, O Devi! to the particulars of the worship with its Mantras and Yantras, which is the medicine for the ills of the Kali Age (106). End of the Fourth Chapter, entitled "Introduction of the Worship of the Supreme Prakriti." 96 CHAPTER 5 - THE FORMATION OF THE MANTRAS , PLACING OF THE JAR, AND PURIFICATION OF THE ELEMENTS OF WORSHIP SHRI SADASHIVA said: Thou art the Adya Parama Shakti, Thou art all Power. It is by Thy power that We (the Trinity) are powerful in the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction. Endless and of varied colour and form are Thy appearances, and various are the strenuous efforts whereby the worshippers may realize them. Who can describe them? (1- 2). In the Kula Tantras and Agamas I have, by the aid of but a small part of Thy mercies and with all My powers, described the Sadhana and Archana of Thy appearances; yet nowhere else is this very secret Sadhana revealed. It is by the grace of this (Sadhana), O Blessed One! that Thy mercy in Me is so great (3- 4). Questioned by Thee I am no longer able to conceal it. For Thy pleasure, O Beloved! I shall speak of that which is dearer to Me than even life itself (5). To all sufferings it brings relief. It wards off all dangers. It gives Thee pleasure, and is the way by which Thou art most swiftly obtained (6). For men rendered wretched by the taint of the Kali Age, short - lived and unfit for strenuous effort, this is the greatest wealth (7). In this (sadhana) there is no need for a multiplicity of Nyasa, for fasting or other practices of self - restraint. It is simple and pleasurable, yet yields great fruit to the worshipper (8). Then first listen, O Devi! to the Mantroddhara of the Mantra, the mere hearing of which liberates man from future births while yet living (9). By placing "Pranesha" on "Taijasa," and adding to it "Bherunda" and the Vindu, the first Vija is formed. After this, proceed to the second (to). By placing "Sandhya" on "Rakta," and adding to it "Vama- netra" and Vindu, the second Mantra is formed. Now listen, O Blessed One! to the formation of the third Mantra. Prajapati is placed on Dipa, and to them is added Govinda and Vindu. It yields happiness to the worshippers: After making these three Mantras add the word Parameshvari in the vocative, and then the word for Vahni -kanta. Thus, O Blessed One! is the Mantra of ten letters formed. This Vidya of the Supreme Devi contains in itself all Mantras (11- 13). The most excellent worshipper should for the attainment of wealth and all his desires make Japa of each or all of the first three Vijas (14). By omitting the first three Devi the Vidya of ten letters become one of seven. By prefixing the Vija of Kama, or the Vagbhava, or the Tara, three Mantras of eight letters each are formed (15). At the end of the Mantra of ten letters the word Kalika in the vocative should be uttered, and then the first three Vija, followed by the name of the Wife of Vahni (16). 97 This Vidya is called Shodashi, and is concealed in all the Tantras. If it be prefixed by the Vija of Vadhu or by the Pranava, two Mantras of seventeen letters each are formed (17). O Belo ved! there are tens of millions upon tens of millions, nay an hundred millions, nay countless Mantras for Thy worship. I have here but shortly stated twelve of them (18). Whatsoever Mantras are set forth in the various Tantras, they are all Thine, since Thou art the Adya Prakriti (19). There is but one sadhana in the case of all these Mantras, and of that I shall speak for Thy pleasure and the benefit of humanity (20). Without Kulachara, O Devi! the Shakti -Mantra is powerless to give success, and therefore the worshipper should worship the Shakti with Kulachara rites O Adya! the five essential Elements in the worship of Shakti have been prescribed to be Wine, Meat, Fish, parched Grain, and the Union of man with woman (22). The worship of Shakti without these five elements is but the practice of evil magic. That Siddhi which is the object of sadhana is never attained thereby, and obstacles are encountered at every step (23). As seed sown on barren rocks does not germinate, so worship without these five elements is fruitless (24). Without the prior performance of the morning rites a man is not qualified to perform the others. And therefore, O Devi! I shall first speak of those which are to be performed in the morning (25). In the second half of the last quarter of the night the disciple should rise from sleep. Having seated himself and shaken off drowsiness, let him meditate upon the image of his Guru: Dhyana As two -eyed and two- armed, situate in the white lotus of the head (26); clad in white raiment, engarlanded with white flowers, smeared with sandal paste. With one hand he makes the sign which dispels fear, and with the other that which bestows blessings. He is calm, and is the image of mercy. On his left his Shakti, holding in her hand a lotus, embraces him. He is smiling and gracious, the bestower of the fulfilment of the desires of his disciples (27- 28). O Kuleshvari! the disciple should, after having thus meditated upon his Teacher and worshipped him with the articles of mental worship, make Japa with the excellent Mantra, the Vagbhava- Vija. (29). After doing Japa of the Mantra as best lies in his power, the wise disciple should, after placing the Japa in the right palm of his excellent Guru, bow before him, saying meanwhile the following (30): Mantra I bow to thee, O Sad- guru, 98 Thou who destroyeth the bonds which hold us to this world, Thou who bestoweth the vision of Wisdom, Together with worldly enjoyment and final liberation, Dispeller of ignorance, Revealer of the Kula- dharmma, Image in human form of the Supreme Brahman (31- 32). The disciple, having thus made obeisance to his Guru, should meditate upon his Ishta -devata, and worship Her as aforesaid, inwardly reciting the Mula- mantra meanwhile (33). Having done this to the best of his powers, he should place the Japa in the left palm of the Devi, and then make obeisance to his Ishta- devata with the following (34): Mantra To thee I bow Who art one with, and the Supporter of, the Universe, I bow to Thee again and yet again, the Adya Kalika, both Creatrix and D estructress (35). Having thus made obeisance to the Devi, he should leave his house, placing his left foot first, and then make water, discharge his bowels, and cleanse his teeth (36). He then should go towards some water, and make his ablutions in the manner prescribed (37). First of all let him rinse his mouth, and then enter the water, and stand therein up to his navel. He should then cleanse his body by a single immersal only, and then, standing up and rubbing himself, rinse his mouth, saying the Mantra the while (38). That best of worshippers, the Kula- Sadhaka, should then sip a little water and say: Mantra Atma -tattvaya Svaha After that he should again sip water twice, followed in each case by the Mantras Vidya -tattvaya Svaha. Shiva -tattvaya Svaha, respectively. Lastly, he should rinse the upper lip twice (39). Then, O Beloved! the wise disciple should draw on the water the Kula- yantra with the Mantra in its centre, and do Japa over it with the Mula- mantra twelve times (40). 99 Then meditating on the Water as the Image of Fire, let him offer it thrice to the Sun in his joined palms. Sprinkling it thrice over his head, let him close the seven openings therein (41). Then for the pleasure of the Devi he should immerse himself thrice, leave the water, dry his body, and put on two pieces of clean cloth. Tying up his hair whilst reciting the Gayatri, he should mark on his forehead with pure earth or ashes the tilaka and tri -pundra, with a Vindu over it (42). Let the worshipper then perform both the Vaidika and Tantrika forms of Sandhya in their respective order. Listen while I now describe to you the Tantrika Sandhya (4g). After rinsing his mouth in the manner described, he should, O Blessed One! invoke into the water the Waters of the holy Rivers thus (45): Mantra O Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Sarasvati, Narmmada, Sindhu, Kaveri, come into this water (46). The intelligent worshipper having invoked the sacred Rivers with this Mantra, and made the angkusha- mudra, should do Japa with the Mula- mantra twelve times (47). Let him then again utter the Mula -mantra, and with the middle and nameless fingers joined together throw drops of that water thrice upon the ground (48). He should then sprinkle his head seven times with the water, and taking some in the palm of his left hand cover it up with his right (49). Then inwardly reciting the Vija of Ishana, Vayu, Varuna, Vahni, and Indra four times, the water should be transferred to the right palm (50). Seeing (in his minds eye) and meditating upon the water as Fire, the worshipper should draw it through the nose by Ida, expel it through Pingala (into his palm), and so wash away all inward impurity (51). The worshipper should then three times dash the water (so expelled into his palm) against an (imaginary) adamant. Uttering the As tra-Mantra, let him then wash his hands (52). Then rinsing his mouth, oblation of water should be offered to the Sun with the following (53): Mantra Ong Hring Hangsa To Thee, O Sun, full of heat, shining, effulgent, I offer this oblation; Svaha (54). Then let him meditate morning, midday, and evening upon the great Devi Gayatri, the Supreme Devi, as manifested in her three different forms and according to the three qualities (55). Dhyana 100 In the morning meditate upon Her in Her Brahmi form, as a Maiden of ruddy hue, with a pure smile, with two hands, holding a gourd full of holy water, garlanded with crystal beads, clad in the skin of a black antelope, seated on a Swan (56). At midday meditate upon Her in Her Vaishnavi form, of the colour of pure gold, youthf ul, with full and rising breasts, situated in the Solar disc, with four hands holding the conch-shell, discus, mace, and lotus, seated on Garuda, garlanded with wild- flowers (57- 58). In the evening the Yati should meditate upon Her as of a white colour, clad in white raiment, old and long past her youth, with three eyes, beneficent, propitious, seated on a Bull, holding in Her lotus -like hands a noose, a trident, a lance, and a skull (59 -60). Having thus meditated on the great Devi Gayatri, and offered water three times in the hollow of his joined hands, the worshipper should make Japa with the Gayatri either ten or a hundred times (61). Listen now, O Devi of the Devas! while I out of my love for Thee recite the Gayatri (62). After the word "Adyayai" say "vidmahe," and then "Parameshvaryyai dhimahi: tannah Kali prachodayat." This is Thy Gayatri which destroys all great sins (63). The inward recitation of this Vidya thrice daily obtains the fruit of the performance of Sandhya. Water should then be offered to the Devas, Rishis, and the Pitris (64). First say the Pranava, and then the name of the Deva (the Rishi or the Pitri) in the accusative case, and after that the words "tarpayami namah." When, however, oblation is offered to Shakti, the Maya Vija should be said in place of the Pranava, and in lieu of Namah the Mantra Svaha (65). After uttering the Mula- mantra, say "Sarvva- bhuta- nivasinyai," and then "Sarvva- svarupa" and "Sayudha" in the dative singular, as also "Savarana" and "Paratpara," and then "Adyayai, Kalikayai, te, idam arghyam: Svaha" (66- 67). (When the Mantra will be.) Mantra Hring, Shring, Kring, to the Supreme Devi. O Supreme Devi, Thou Who dwelleth in all things and Whose image all things are, Who art surrounded by attendant deities, and Who bearest arms, Who art above even the most high to Thee, Who art the Adya Kalika, I offer this oblation: Svaha. Having offered this arghya to the Mahadevi, the wise one should make Japa with the Mula -mantra with all his powers, and then place the Japa in the left hand of the Devi (68). Then let the Sadhaka bow to the Devi, take such water as is needed for his worship, bowing to the water whence he has drawn it, and proceed to the place of worship, earnestly meditating on and reciting hymns of praise to the Devi meanwhile. On his arrival there let him wash his hands and feet, and then make in front of the door the Samanyarghya (69- 70). The wise one should draw a triangle, and outside it a circle, and outside the circle a square, and after worshipping the Adhara- shak ti place the vessel on the figure (71). 101 Let him wash the vessel with the Weapon- Mantra, and while filling it with water let him say the Heart -Mantra. Then, throwing flowers and perfume into the water, let him invoke the holy Rivers into it (72). Worshipping Fire, Sun, and Moon in the water of the vessel, let him say the Maya Vija over it (73). The Dhenu and Yoni Mudras should then be shown. This is known as Samanyarghya. With the water and flowers of this oblation the Devata of the entrance to the place of worship should be worshipped (74), such as Ganesha, Kshetrapala, Vatuka, Yogini, Ganga, Yamuna, Lakshmi, and Vani (75). The wise one, lightly touching that part of the door -frame which is on his left, should then enter the place of worship with his left foot forward, meditating the while on the lotus -feet of the Devi (76). Then, after worship of the presiding Deva of the site, and of Brahma in the south- west corner, the place of worship should be cleansed with water taken from the common offering (77). Let the best of worshippers then with a steady gaze remove all celestial obstacles, and by the repetition of the Weapon- Mantra remove all obstacles in the Anta- riksha (78). Striking the ground three times with his heel, let him drive away all earthly obstacles , and then fill the place of worship with the incense of burning sandal, fragrant aloe, musk, and camphor. He should then mark off a rectangular space as his seat, draw a triangle within it, and therein worship Kama- rupa with the Mantra To Kama- rupa, Namah: (79 -80). Then for his seat spreading a mat over it, let him worship the Adhara- Shakti with the Mantra Kling, Obeisance to the Adhara- Shakti of the lotus -seat (81). The learned worshipper should then seat himself according to the "tied heroic" mode, with his face towards the East or the North, and should consecrate the Vijaya (81). (With the following) Mantra Ong Hring. Ambrosia, that springeth from ambrosia, Thou that showereth ambrosia, draw ambrosia for me again and again. Bring Kalika within my control. Give siddhi; Svaha. This is the Mantra for the consecration of Vijaya (83- 84). Then inwardly reciting the Mula -mantra seven times over the Vijaya, show the Dhenu, the Yoni, the Avahani, and other Mudras (85). Then satisfy the Guru who resides in the Lotus of a thousand petals by thrice offering the Vijaya with the Sangketa- Mudra, and the Devi in the heart by thrice offering the Vijaya with the same Mudra, and reciting the Mula- mantra (86). Then offer oblations to the mouth of the Kundali, with the Vijaya reciting the following 102 Mantra Aing (0 Devi Sarasvati), Thou Who art the Ruler of all the essences, do Thou inspire me, do Thou inspire me, and remain ever on the tip of my tongue; Svaha (87). After drinking the Vijaya he should bow to the Guru, placing his folded palms over the left ear, then to Ganesha, placing his folded palms over his right ear, and lastly to the Eternal Adya Devi, by placing his folded palms in the middle of his forehead, and should the meanwhile meditate on the Devi. (88). The wise worshipper should place the articles necessary for worship on his right, and scented water and other Kula articles on his left (89). Saying the Mula- mantra terminated by the Weapon- Mantra, let him take water from the common offering and sprinkle the articles of worship with it, and then enclose himself and the articles in a circle of water. After that, O Devi! let him by the Vahni Vija surround them with a wall of fire (90). Then for the purification of the palms of his hands he should take up a flower which h as been dipped in sandal paste, rub it between the palms, reciting meanwhile the Mantra Phat, and throw it away (91). Then in the following manner let him fence all the quarters so that no obstructions proceed from them. Join the first and second fingers of the right hand, and tap the palm of the left hand three times, each time after the first with greater force, thus making a loud sound, and then snap the fingers while uttering the weapon- Mantra (92). He should then proceed to perform the purification of the elements of his body. The excellent disciple should place his hands in his lap with the palms upwards, and fixing his mind on the Muladhara Chakra let him rouse Kundalini by uttering the Vija "Hung." Having so roused Her, let him lead Her with Prithivi by means of the Hangsa Mantra to the Svadhishthana Chakra, and let him there dissolve each one of the elements of the body by means of another of such elements (93- 94). Then let him dissolve Prithivi together with odour, as also the organ of smell, into water. Dissolve water and taste, as also the sense of taste itself, into Fire (95). Dissolve Fire and vision and form, and the sense of sight itself, into air (96). Let air and touch, as also the sense of touch itself, be dissolved into ether. Dissolve ether and sound into the conscious Self and the Self into Mahat, Mahat itself into Prakriti, and Prakriti Herself into Brahman (97). Let the wise one, having thus dissolved (the twenty -four) tattvas, then think of an angry black man in the left side of the cavity of his abdomen of the size of his thumb with red beard and eyes, holding a sword and shield, with his head ever held low, the very image of all sins (98- 99). Then the foremost of disciples should, thinking of the purple Vayu Vija as on his left nostril , inhale through that nostril sixteen times. By this let him dry the sinful body (100). Next, meditating on the red Vija of Agni as being situate in the navel, the body with all its sinful inclinations should be burnt up by the fire born of the Vija, as also by sixty-four Kumbhakas (101). Then, thinking of the white Varuna Vija in his forehead, 103 let him bathe (the body which has been so burnt) with the nectar -like water dropping from the Varuna Vija by thirty -two exhalations (102). Having thus bathed the whole body from feet to head, let him consider that a Deva body has come into being (103). Then, thinking of the yellow Vija of the Earth as situate in the Muladhara circle, let him strengthen his body by that Vija and by a steadfast and winkless gaze (104). Placing his hand on his heart and uttering the Mantra Ang, Hring, Krong, Hangsah, Sohang. let him infuse into his body the life of the Devi (105). O Ambika! having thus purified the elements (the disciple) with a mind well under control, and intent upon the nature of the Devi, should do Matrika- nyasa. The Rishi of Matrika is Brahma, and the verse is Gayatri, and Matrika is presiding Devi thereof; the consonants are its Seed, and the vowels its Shaktis, and Visarga is the End. In Lipi -nyasa, O Mahadevi! each letter should be separately pronounced as it is placed in the different parts of the body. Having similarly performed Rishi- nyasa, Kara -nyasa and Ang- ga-nyasa should be performed (106- 108). O Beauteous Face! the Mantras enjoined for Shad- ang-ga-nyasa are Ka-varga between Ang and ng, Cha- varga between ng and ng, Ta- varga between ng and ng, Ta- varga between Eng and Aing, and Pa- varga between Ong and Aung, and the letters from Ya to Ksha between Vindu and Visarga respectively (109- 110), and having placed the letters according to the rules of Nyasa, the Sadhaka should then meditate upon Sarasvati: Dhyana I seek refuge in the Devi of Speech, three- eyed, encircled with a white halo, whose face, hands, feet, middle body, and breast are composed of the fifty letters of the alphabet, on whose radiant forehead is the crescent moon, whose breasts are high and rounded, and who with one of her lotus hands makes Jnana- mudra, and with the other holds the rosary of Rudraksha beads, the jar of nectar, and learning (112 ). Having thus meditated upon the Devi Matrika, place the letters in the six Chakras as follows: Ha and Kska in the Ajna Lotus, the sixteen vowels in the Vishuddha Lotus, the letters from Ka to Tha in the Anahata Lotus, the letters from Da to Pha in Manipura Lotus, the letters from Ba to La in the Svadhishthana Lotus, and in the Muladhara Lotus the letters Va to Sa. And having thus in his mind placed these letters of the alphabet, let the worshipper place them outwardly (113- 115). Having placed them on the forehead, the face, eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, upper lip, teeth, head, hollow of the mouth, back, the hump of the back, navel, belly, heart, shoulders, (four) joints in the arms, end of the arms, heart, (four) joints of the legs, ends of legs, and on all parts from the heart to the two arms, from the heart to the two legs, from 104 the heart to the mouth, and from the heart to the different parts as above indicated, Pranayama should be performed (116- 118). Draw in the air by the left nostril whilst muttering the Maya Vija sixteen times, then fill up the body by Kumbhaka by stopping the passage of both the nostrils with the little, third finger, and thumb whilst making japa of the Vija sixty -four times, and, lastly, exhale the air through the right nostril whilst making japa of the Vija thirty -two times (119- 120). The doing of this thrice through the right and left nostrils alternately is Pranayama. After this has been done, Rishi -nyasa should be performed (121). The Revealers of the Mantra are Brahma and the Brahmarshis, the metre is of the Gayatri and other forms, and its presiding Devata is the Adya Kali (122). The Vija is the Vija of the Adya, its Shakti is the Maya Vija, and that which comes at the end is the Kamala Vija (123). Then the Mantra should be assigned to the head, mouth, heart, anus, the two feet, and all the parts of the body (123). The passing of the two hands three or seven times over the whole body from the feet to the head, and from the head to the feet, making japa meanwhile of the Mula- mantra, is called Vyapaka- nyasa, which yields the declared result (124). O Beloved! by adding in succession the six long vowels to the first Vija of the Mula-mantra, six Vidya are formed. The wise worshipper should in Angga- kalpana utter in succession these or the Mula -mantra alone (125), and then say "to the two thumbs," "to the two index fingers," "to the two middle fingers," "to the two ring fingers," "to the two little fingers," "to the front and back of the two palms," concluding with Namah, Svaha, Vashat, Hung, Vaushat, and Phat in their order respectively (126). When touching the heart say "Namah," when touching the head "Svaha," and when touching the crown lock thereon "Vashat." Similarly, when touching the two upper portions of the arms, the three eyes and the two palms, utter the Mantras Hung and Vaushat and Phat respectively. In this manner nyasa of the six parts of the body should be practised, and then the Vira should proceed to Pithanyasa (127- 128). Then let the Vira place in the lotus of the heart, the Adhara- shakti, the tortoise, Shesha serpent, Prithivi, the ocean of ambrosia, the Gem Island, the Parijata tree, the chamber of gems which fulfil all desires, the jewelled altar, and the lotus seat (129- 130). Then he should place on the right shoulder, the left shoulder, the right hip, the left hip, respectively and in their order, Dharmma, Jnana, Aishvaryya, and Vairagya (131), and the excellent worshipper should place the negatives of these qualities on the mouth, the left side, the navel, and the right side respectively (132). Next let him place in the heart Ananda Kanda, Sun, Moon, Fire, the three qualities, adding to the first of their letters the sign Vindu, and the filaments and pericarp of the Lotus, and let him place in the petals of the lotus the eight Pitha Nayikas Mangala, Vijaya, Bhadra, Jayanti, Aparajita, Nandini, Narasinghi, Vaishnavi, and in the tips of the petals of the lotus the eight Bhairavas Asitanga, Chanda, Kapali, Krodha, Bhishana, Unmatta, Ruru, Sanghari (133- 135). 105 Then the worshipper should, after forming his hands into the Kachchhapa Mudra, take two fragrant flowers, and, placing his hands on his heart, let him meditate upon the ever -existent Devi (136). The nature of meditation upon Thee, O Devi! is of two kinds, according as Thou art imagined formless or with a form. As formless Thou art ineffable and incomprehensible, imperceptible. Of Thee it cannot be said that Thou art either this or that, Thou art omnipresent, unobtainable, attainable only by Yogis through penances and acts of self -restraint (137- 138). I will now speak of meditation upon Thee in corporeal form in order that the mind may learn concentration, that desires be speedily achieved, and that the power to meditate according to the subtle form may be aroused (139). The form of the greatly lustrous Kalika, Mother of Kala Who devours all things, is imagined according to Her qualities and actions (140). Dhyana I adore the Adya Kalika Whose body is of the hue of the (dark) rain- cloud, upon Whose forehead the Moon gleams, the three- eyed One, clad in crimson raiment, Whose two hands are raised the one to dispel fear, and the other to bestow blessing Who is seated on a red lotus in full bloom, Her beautiful face radiant, watching Maha- Kala, Who, drunk with the delicious wine of the Madhuka flower, is dancing before Her (141). After having meditated upon the Devi in this form, and placed a flower on his head, let the devotee with all devotion worship Her with the articles of mental worship (142). Let him offer the lotus of the heart for Her seat, the ambrosia trickling from the lotus of a thousand petals for the washing of Her feet, and his mind as arghya (143). Then let him offer the same ambrosia as water for rinsing of Her mouth and bathing of Her body, let him offer the essence of the ether to be raiment of the Devi, the essence of scent to be the perfumes, his own heart and vital air the essence of fire, and the ocean of nectar to be respectively the flowers, incense, light, and food offerings (of worship). Let him offer the sound in the Anahata Chakra for the ringing of the bell, the essence of the air for the fan and fly -whisk, and the functions of the senses and the restlessness of the mind for the dance before the Devi (144- 146). Let various kinds of flowers be offered for the attainment of the object of ones desire: amaya, anahangkara, araga, amada, amoha, adambha, advesha, akshobha, amatsaryya, alobha, and thereafter the five flowers namely, the most excellent flowers, ahingsa, indriya -nigraha, daya, kshama, and jnana. With these fifteen flowers, fifteen qualities of disposition, he should worship the Devi (147- 149). Then let him offer (to the Devi) the ocean of ambrosia, a mountain of meat and fried fish, a heap of parched food, grain cooked in milk with sugar and ghee, the Kula nectar, the Kula flower, and the water which has been used for the washing of the 106 Shakti. Then, having sacrificed all lust and anger, the cause of all impediments, let him do japa (150- 151). The mala (rosary) prescribed consists of the letters of the alphabet, strung on Kundalini as the thread (152). After reciting the letters of the alphabet from A to La, with the Vindu superposed upon each, the Mula- mantra should be recited. This is known as Anuloma. Again, beginning with La and ending with A, let the sadhaka make japa of the Mantra. This is known as Viloma and Ksha- kara is called the Meru (153- 154). The last letters of the eight groups should be added to the Mula- mantra, and having made japa of this Mantra of one hundred and eight letters the japa should be offered (to the Devi) with the following (155): Mantra O Adya Kali, Who abidest in the innermost soul of all, Who art the innermost light, O Mother! accept this japa of my heart. I bow to Thee (156). Having finished the japa, he should mentally prostrate himself, touching the ground with the eight parts of his body. Having concluded the mental worship, let him commence the outer worship (157). I am now speaking of the consecration of the Vishesh- arghya, by the mere placing whereof the Devata is exceedingly pleased. Do Thou listen (158). At the mere sight of the cup of this offering the Yoginis, Bhairavas, Brahma, and other Devatas dance for joy and grant siddhi (159). The disciple should on the ground in front of him and on his left draw with water taken from the Samanyarghya a triangle, with the Maya Vija in its centre, outside the triangle a circle, and outside the circle a square, and let him there worship the Shakti of the Adhara with the Mantra Hring! Obeisance to the Shakti of the Adhara (160- 161). He should then wash the Adhara, and place it on the Mandala, and worship the region of Fire with the Mantra Mang! Obeisance to the circle of Fire possessed of ten sections. And having washed the arghya vessel with the Mantra Phat, the worshipper should place it on the Adhara with the Mantra Namah (162- 163). He should then worship the cup with the 107 Mantra Ang! Obeisance to the circle of Sun who has twelve divisions; and fill the vessel (in which the offering is made) whilst repeating the Mula- mantra three parts with wine and one part with water, and having placed scent and flower in it, he should there worship, O Mother! with the Mantra following (164- 165): Mantra Ung! Obeisance to the Moon with its sixteen digits (166). He should then place in front of the special offering, on bael leaves dipped in red sandal paste, durva grass, flowers, and sun- dried rice (167). Having invoked the holy waters (of the sacred Rivers into the arghya) by the Mula-mantra and Angkusha- mudra, the Sadhaka should meditate upon the Devi, and worship Her with incense and flowers, making japa of the Mula- mantra twelve times (168). After this let him display over the arghya the Dhenu Mudra and the Yoni Mudra, incense sticks and a light. The worshipper should then pour a lit tle water from the arghya into the vessel kept for that purpose, and sprinkle himself and the offering therewith. The vessel containing the offering must not, however, be moved until the worship is concluded (169- 170). O Thou of pure Smiles! I have now spoken of the consecration of the special offering. I will now pass to the principal Yantra which grants the aims of all human existence (171). Draw a triangle with the Maya Vija within it, and around it two concentric circles (the one outside the other). In the space between the two circumferences of the circles draw in pairs the sixteen filaments, and outside these the eight petals of the lotus, and outside them the Bhu- pura, which should be made of straight lines with four entrances, and be of pleasing appearance (172- 173). In order to cause pleasure to the Devata the disciple should (reciting the Mula- mantra the meanwhile) draw the Yantra either with a gold needle, or with the thorn of a bael tree on a piece of gold, silver, or copper, which has been smeared with either the Svayambhu, Kunda, or Gola flowers, or with sandal, fragrant aloe, kungkuma, or with red sandal paste. A clever carver may also carve the Yantra on crystal, coral, or lapis lazuli (174- 176). After it has been consecrated by auspicious rites, it should be kept inside the house; and on this being done all wicked ghosts, all apprehensions from (adverse) planets, and diseases are destroyed; and by the grace of this Yantra the worshippers house becomes of pleasing aspect. With his children and grandchildren, and with happiness and dominion, he becomes a bestower of gifts and charities, a protector of his dependents, and his fame goes abroad (177- 178). After having drawn the 108 Yantra and placed it on a jewelled altar in front of the worshipper, and having worshipped the Devata of the Pitha according to the rules of Pitha- nyasa, the principal Devi should be adored in the pericarp of the Lotus (179). I will now speak of the placing of the jar and the formation of the circle of worship by the mere institution of which the Devata is well pleased, the Mantra becomes fruitful, and the wishes of the worshipper are accomplished (180). The jar is called kalasa, because Vishva- karma made it from the different parts of each of the Devatas (181). It should be thirty -six fingers breadth (in circumference) in its widest part, and sixteen in height. The neck should be four fingers breadth, the mouth six fingers, and the bottom five fingers breadth. This is the rule for the design of the kalasha (182). It should be made either of gold, silver, copper, bell -metal, mud, stone, or glass, and without hole or crack. In its making all miserliness should be avoided, since it is fashioned for the pleasure of the Devas (183). A kalasha of gold, one of silver, one of copper, and one of bell -metal give enjoyment, emancipation, pleasure of mind, and nourishment respectively to the worshipper. One of crystal is good for the attainment of Vashikarana, and one of stone for the attainment of Stambhana. A kalasha made of mud is good for all purposes. Whatever it is made of it should be clean and of pleasing design (184). On his left side the worshipper should draw a hexagon with a point in its centre, around it a circle, and outside the circle a square (185). These figures should be drawn either with vermilion or Rajas (Kula- pushpa), or red sandal paste; the Devata of the support should then be worshipped thereon (186). The Mantra for the worship of the Shakti or Devi of the support is Mantra Hring, salutation to the Shakti of the support (187). The support for the jar should be washed with the Mantra namah, and placed on the Mandala, and the jar itself with the Mantra Phat, and then placed on the support (188). Let the disciple then fill the kalasha with wine, uttering meanwhile the Mula -mantra and the Matrika Varnas, with Vindu in Viloma order (189). The wise one who is then himself possessed of the disposition of the Devi should worship the region of Fire, Sun, and Moon in the support in the jar and in the wine in the manner already described (190). After decorating the jar with vermilion, red sandal paste, and a garland of crimson flowers, the worshipper should perform Panchikarana (191). Strike the wine -jar with a wisp of kusha grass, saying Phat; then, whilst uttering the Vija Hung, veil it by the Avagunthana Mudra, next utter the Vaja Hring, and look with unwinking eye upon the jar, then sprinkle the jar with the Mantra Namah. Lastly, 109 whilst reciting the Mula- mantra, smell the jar three times. this is the Panchikarama ceremony (192) . Making obeisance to the jar, purify the wine therein by throwing red flowers into it, and say the following (193): Mantra Ong, O Devi Sudhe! by the Supreme Brahman, Who is One without a second: and who is always both gross and subtle, destroy the sin of slaying a Brahmana which attached to thee (the wine) by the death of Kacha (194). O Thou Who hast Thy abode in the region of the Sun, and Thy origin in the dwelling- place of the Lord of Ocean (in the churning of which thou, O Nectar! wast produced), thou w ho art one with the Ama Vija, mayest Thou be freed from the curse of Shukra (195). O Devi! as the Pranava of the Vedas is one with the bliss of Brahman, may by that truth be destroyed Thy sin of slaying a Brahmana. Mantra Hring: the Supreme Hangsa dwells in the brilliant Heaven, as Vasu It moves throughout the space between Heaven and Earth. It dwells on earth in the form of the Vedic Fire, and in the Sacrificer, and is honoured in the Guest. It is in the household Fire and in the consciousness of man, and dwells in the honoured region. It resides in Truth and in the Ether. It is born in water, in the rays of light in Truth and in the Eastern Hill where the Sun rises. Such is the great Aditya, the Truth, Which cannot be bound or concealed, the Great Consciousness Who dwelleth everywhere Brahman (196- 197). Exchange the vowel of the Varuna Vija for each of the long vowels, then say "Salutation to the Devi of Ambrosia, who is relieved of the curse of Brahma." By the repetition of the entire Mantra seven times, the curse of Brahma is removed (198). Substituting in their order the six long vowels in place of the letter o in Angkusha, and adding thereto the Shri and Maya Vijas, say the following: Mantra "Remove the curse of Krishna in the wine: pour nectar again and again: Svaha" (199). Having thus removed the curse of Shukra, of Brahma and of Krishna, the worshipper should with mind controlled worship Ananda- Bhairava and Ananda -Bhairavi (200). The Mantra of the former is: Mantra "Ha-Sa-Ksha -Ma-La-Va-Ra-Yung: 110 Salut ation to Ananda- Bhairava: Vashat" (201); and in the worship of the Ananda -Bhairavi the Mantra is the same, except that its face is reversed, and in place of its Ear the left Eye should be placed, and then should be said: Mantra "Sa-Ha-Ksha -Ma-La-Va-Ra-Ying: Salutation to the Wine Devi: Vaushat" (202). Then, meditating upon the union of the Deva and Devi in the wine, and thinking that the same is filled with the ambrosia of such union, japa should be made over it of the Mula -mantra twelve times (203). Then, considering the wine to be the Devata, handfuls of flowers should be offered with japa of the Mula- Mantra. Lights and incense- sticks should be waved before it to the accompaniment of the ringing of a bell (204). Wine should be always thus purified in all ceremonies, whether puja of the Devata, Vrata, Homa, marriage, or other festivals (205). The disciple, after placing the meat on the triangular Mandala in front of him, should sprinkle it with the Mantra Phat, and then charge it thrice with the Vijas of Air and Fire (206). Let him then cover it up with the Gesture of the Veil, uttering the Kavacha- Mantra, and protect it with the Weapon- Mantra Phat. Then, uttering the Vija of Varuna, and displaying the Dhenu- Mudra, make the meat like unto nectar with the following (207): Mantra May that Devi whose abode is in the breast of Vishnu and in the breast of Shankara purify this my meat, and give me a resting- place at the excellent foot of Vishnu (208). In a similar manner, placing the fish and sanctifying it with the Mantras already prescribed, let the wise one say the following Mantra over it (208): Mantra "We worship the Father of the Three; He Who causes nourishment, He Who is sweet -scented. As the fruit of the Urvaruka is detached of itself from the stalk on which it grows, so may He free us whilst living from the bond of Karmma, until we are finally liberated, and made one with the Supreme" (210). Then, O Beloved! the disciple should take and purify the parched grain with the following: Mantras Ong! As the Eye of Heaven is plainly visible to those of the common man, so do the Wise have constant vision of the Excellent Foot of Vishnu (211). The Intelligent and 111 Prayerful, whose mind is awake and controlled, see the most excellent Foot of Vishnu (212). Or all the Tattvas may be consecrated by the Mula- Mantra itself. To him who has belief in the root, of what use are the branches and leaves? (213). I say that anything which is sanctified by the Mula- Mantra alone is acceptable for the pleasure of the Devata (214). If the time be short, or if the disciple be pressed for time, everything should be sanctified with the Mula- Mantra, and offered to the Devi (215). Truly, truly, and again truly, the ordinance of Shankara is that if the Tattvas be so offered, there is no sin or shortcoming (216). End of Fifth Joyful Message, entitled "The Formation of the Mantras, Placing of the Jar, and Purification of the Elements of Worship." 112 CHAPTER 6 - PLACING OF THE SHRI-PATRA , HOMA, FORMATION OF THE CHAKRA , AND OTHER RITES SHRI DEVI said: As Thou hast kindness for Me, pray tell Me, O Lord! more particularly about the Pancha- tattvas and the other observances of which Thou hast spoken (1). Shri Sadashiva said: There are three kinds of wine which are excellent namely, that which is made f rom molasses, rice, or the Madhuka flower. There are also various other kinds made from the juice of the palmyra and date tree, and known by various names according to their substance and place of production. They are all declared to be equally appropriate in the worship of the Devata (2). Howsoever it may have been produced, and by whomsoever it is brought, the wine, when purified, gives to the worshipper all siddhi. There are no distinctions of caste in the taking of wine so sanctified (3). Meat, again, is of three kinds, that of animals of the waters, of the earth, and of the sky. From wheresoever it may be brought, and by whomsoever it may have been killed, it gives, without doubt, pleasure to the Devas (4). Let the desire of the disciple determine what should be offered to the Devas. Whatsoever he himself likes, the offering of that conduces to his well -being (5). Only male animals should be decapitated in sacrifice. It is the command of Shambhu that female animals should not be slain (6). There are three superior kinds of Fish namely, Shala, Pathina and Rohita. Those which are without bones are of middle quality, whilst those which are full of bones are of inferior quality. The latter may, however, if well fried, be offered to the Devi (7- 8). There are also three kinds of parched food, superior, middle, and inferior. The excellent and pleasing kind is that made from Shali rice, white as a moonbeam, or from barley or wheat, and which has been fried in clarified butter. The middling variety is made of fried paddy. Other kinds of fried grain are inferior (9- 10). Meat, fish, and parched food, fruits and roots, or anything else offered to the Devata along with wine, are called Shuddhi (11). O Devi! the offering of wine without Shuddhi, as also puja and tarpana (without Shuddhi), become fruitless, and the Devata is not propitiated (12). The drinking of wine without Shuddhi is like the swallowing of poison. The disciple is ever ailing, and lives for a short time and dies (13). O Great Devi! when the weakness of the Kali Age becomes great, ones own Shakti or wife should alone be known as the fifth Tattva. This is devoid of all defects (14). O Beloved of My Life! in this (the last Tattva) I have spoken of Svayambhu and other kinds of flower. As substitutes for them, however, I enjoin red sandal paste (15). 113 Neither the Tattvas nor flowers, leaves, and fruits should be offered to the Mahadevi unless purified. The man who offers them without purification goes to hell (16). The Shri -patra should be placed in the company of ones own virtuous Shakti; she should be sprinkled with the purified wine or water from the common offering (17). The Mantra for the sprinkling of the Shakti is Mantra Aing, Kling, Sauh. Salutation to Tripura; purify this Shakti, make her my Shakti; Svaha (18- 19). If she who is to be Shakti is not already initiated, then the Maya Vija should be whispered into her ear, and other Shaktis who are present should be worshipped and not enjoyed (20). The worshipper should then, in the space between himself and the Yantra, draw a triangle with the Maya Vija in its centre, and outside the triangle and in the order here stated a circle, a hexagon, and a square (21). The excellent disciple should then worship in the four corners of the square the Pithas, Purna-shaila, Uddiyana, Jalandhara, and Kama- rupa, with the Mantras formed of their respective names, preceded by Vijas formed by the first letter of their respective names, and followed by Namah (22). Then the six parts of the body should be worshipped in the six corners of the hexagon. Then worship the triangle, with the Mula- Mantra, and then the Shakti of the receptacle with the Maya Vija and Namah (23). Wash the receptacle with the Mantra Namah, and then place it (as in the case of the jar) on the Mandala, and worship in it the ten parts of Vahni with the first letters of their respective names as Vijas (24). These parts, which are ten in number viz., Dhumra, Archih, Jvalini, Sukshma, Jvalini, Vishphulingini, Sushri, Surupa, Kapila,Havya-kavya- vaha should be uttered in the Dative singular, and followed by the Mantra Namah (25- 26). Then worship the region of Vahni (in the adhara or receptacle) with the following: Mantra Mang: Salutation to the region of Vahni with his ten qualities (27). Then, taking the vessel of offering and purifying it with the Mantra Phat, place it on the receptacle, and, having so placed it, worship therein the twelve parts of the Sun with the Vijas, commencing with Ka- Bha to Tha- Da (28). These twelve parts are Tapini, Tapini, Dhumra, Marichi, Jvalini, Ruchi, Sudhumra, Bhoga- da, Vishva, Bodhini, Dharini, Kshama (29). After this, worship the region of Sun in the vessel of offering with the following: Mantra 114 Ang: Salutation to the circle of Sun, with His twelve parts (30). Then the worshipper should fill the cup of offering three- quarters full with wine taken from the jar, uttering the Matrika Vijas in the reverse order (31). Filling the rest of the cup with water taken from the special offering, let him worship with a well -controlled mind the sixteen digits of the Moon, saying as Vijas each of the sixteen vowels before each of the sixteen digits spoken in the dative singular, followed by the Mantra Namah (32). The sixteen desire- granting digits of Moon are Amrita, Pranada, Pusha, Tushti, Pushti, Rati, Dhriti, Shashini, Chandrika, Kanti, Jyotsna, Skri, Priti, Angada, Purna, and Purnamrita (33). As in the case of the other Devas mentioned, the disciple should then worship the region of the Moon with the following: Mantra Ung: Salutation to the region of Moon with its sixteen digits (34). Durva grass, sun- dried rice, red flowers, Varvara, leaf, and the Aparajita flower should be thrown into the vessel with the Mantra Hring, and the sacred waters should be invoked into it (35). Then, covering the wine and the vessel of offering with the Avagunthana Mudra, and uttering the Armour Vija, protect it with the Weapon- Vija, and converting it into ambrosia with the Dhenu- Mudra, cover it with the Matsya- Mudra (36). Making japa of the Mula- Mantra ten times, the Ishta- devata should be invoked and worshipped with flowers offered in the joined palms. Then charge the wine with the following five Mantras, beginning with akhanda: (37) Mantras O Kula -rupini! infuse into the essence of this excellent wine which produces full and unbroken bliss its thrill of joy (38). Thou who art like the nectar which is in Ananga, and art the embodiment of Pure Knowledge, place into this liquid the ambrosia of Brahmananda (39). O Thou, who art the very image of That! do Thou unite this arghya with the image or self of That, and having become the kulamrita, blossom in me (40). Bring into this sacred vessel, which is full of wine, essence of ambrosia produced from the essence of all that is in this world, and containing all kinds of taste (41). May this cup of self, which is filled with the nectar of self, Lord, be sacrificed in the Fire of the Supreme Self (42). Having thus consecrated the wine with the Mantra, think of the union in it of Sadashiva and Bhagavati and wave lights and burning incense- sticks before it (43). 115 This is the consecration of the Shri -patra in Kaulika worship. Without such purification the disciple is guilty of sin, and the worship is fruitless (44). The wise one should then, according to the rules prescribed for the placing of the common offering, place between the jar and the Shri -patra the cups of the Guru, the cup of Enjoyment, the cup of the Shakti, the cups of the Yoginis of the Vira and of Sacrifice, and those for the washing of the feet and the rinsing of the mouth respectively, making nine cups in all (45- 46). Then, filling the cups three- quarters full of wine from the jar, a morsel of Shuddhi of the size of a pea should be placed in each of them (47). Then, holding the cup between the thumb and the fourth finger of the left hand, taking the morsel of Shuddhi in the right hand, making the Tattva -mudra, Tarpana should be done. This is the practice which has been enjoined (48). Taking an excellent drop of wine from the Shripatra and a piece of Shuddhi, Tarpana should be made to the Deva Ananda- Bhairava and the Devi Ananda- Bhairavi (49). Then, with the wine in the cup of the Guru, offer oblations to the line of Gurus. in the first place to the worshippers own Guru seated together with his wife on the lotus of a thousand petals, and then to the Parama Guru, the Parapara Guru, the Parameshti Guru successively. In offering oblations to the four Gurus, the Vagbhava Vija should first be pronounced, followed in each case by the names of each of the four Gurus (50). Then, with wine from the cup of enjoyment, the worshipper should, in the lotus of his heart, offer oblations to the Adya- Kali. In this oblation Her own Vija should precede, and Svaha should follow Her name. This should be done thrice (51). Next, with wine taken from the cup of the Shakti, oblation should be similarly offered to the Devata of the parts of Her body and their Avarana -Devatas (52). Then, with the wine in the cup of the Yogini, oblation should be offered to the Adya- Kalika, carrying all Her weapons and with all Her followers. Then should follow the sacrifice to the Vatukas (53). The wise worshipper should draw on his left an ordinary rectangular figure, and after worshipping it, place therein food with wine, meat, and other things (54). With the Vijas of Vak, Maya, Kamala, and with the Mantra: "Vang, Salutation to Vatuka," he should be worshipped in the East of the rectangle, and then sacrifice should be offered to him (55). Then, with the Mantra "Yang to the Yogin is Svaha," sacrifice should be made to the Yoginis on the South (56), and then to Kshetra- pala on the West of the rectangle, with the 116 Mantra "To Kshetra- pala namah," preceded by the letter Ksha, to which in succession the six long vowels are added with the Vindu (57). Following this, sacrifice should be made to Gana- pati on the North, adding to Ga the six long vowels in succession with the Vindu thereon, followed by the name of Ganesha in the dative singular, and ending with Svaha. Lastly, sacrifice should be made inside the rectangle to all Bhutas, according to proper form (58- 59). Uttering "Hring, Shring, Sarvva- vighna- kridbhyah," add "Sarvva- bhutebhyah," and then "Hung Phat Svaha;" this is how the Mantra is formed (60). Then a sacrifice to Shiva should be made with the following: Mantra Ong, O Dev! O Shiva, O Exalted One, Thou art the image of the final conflagration at the dissolution of things, deign to accept this sacrifice, and to reveal clearly to me the good and evil which is my destiny. To Shiva I bow. This is the Mula- Mantra in the worship of Shiva. Having said this, perform the sacrifice, saying, "This is Thy Vali. To Shiva, Namah. O Holy One! I have now described to Thee the mode of formation of the circle of worship (and the placing of the cup and other rites) (61 -62). Then, making with the two hands the Kachchhapa- Mudra, let the worshipper take up with his hands a beautiful fiower scented with sandal, fragrant aloes, and musk, and, carrying it to the lotus of his heart, let him meditate therein (in the lotus) upon the most supreme Adya (63-64). Then let him lead the Devi along the Sushumna Nadi, which is the highway of Brahman to the great Lotus of a thousand petals, and there make Her joyful. Then, bringing Her through his nostrils, let him place Her on the flower (her presence being communicated) as it were, by one light to another, and place the flower on the Yantra and with folded hands pray with all devotion to his Ishta- devata thus (65- 66): Mantra O Queen of the Devas! Thou who art easily attained by devotion. Remain here, I pray Thee, with all Thy following, the while I worship Thee (67). Then, uttering the Vija Kring, say the following: Mantra 117 O Adya Devi Kalika! come here with all Thy following, come here (and then say), stay here, stay here (68); (and then say) place Thyself here, (and then say) be Thou detained here. Accept my worship (69). Having thus invoked (the Devi) into the Yantra, the Vital Airs of the Devi should be infused therein by the following pratishtha Mantra (70): Mantra Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha; may the five Vital Airs of this Devata be here: Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha (71). Her Jiva is here placed Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha all senses Ang, Hring, Krong, Shring, Svaha. Speech, mind, sight, smell, hearing, touch, and the Vital Airs of the Adya- Kali Devata, may they come here and stay happily here for ever. Svaha (72- 74). Having recited the above three times, and having in due form placed the Vital Airs (of the Devi) in the Yantra with the Lelihina- Mudra, with folded palms, he (the worshipper) should say (75): Mantra O Adya Kali! hast Thou had a good journey, hast Thou had a good journey? O Parameshvari! mayest Thou be seated on this seat (76)? Then, whilst repeating the primary Mantra, sprinkle thrice the water of the special oblati on over the Devi, and then make Nyasa of the Devi with the six parts of Her body. This ceremony is called Sakalikarama or Sakalikriti. Then worship the Devi with all the sixteen offerings (77). These are: water for washing the feet, the water for the offering, water for rinsing the mouth and for Her bath, garments, jewels, perfume, flowers, incense- sticks, lights, food, water for washing the mouth, nectar, pan, water of oblation, and obeisance. In worship these sixteen offerings are needed (78 -79). Uttering the Adya Vija, and then saying "this water is for washing the feet of the (Adya). To the Devata Namah," offer the water at the feet of the Devi. Similarly with the word Svaha, in place of Namah, the offering should be placed at the head of the Devi (80). Then the wise worshipper with Svadha should offer the water for rinsing the mouth to the mouth of the Devi, and then the worshipper should offer to the lotus -mouth of the Devi Madhu- parka with the Mantra Svadha. He should then offer water to rinse the mouth (a second time) with the Mantra "Vang Svadha" (81). Then the worshipper, saying: Mantra Hring, Shring, Kring, Parameshvari, Svaha: I offer this water for bathing, this apparel, these jewels, to the Supreme Devi, the Primordial Kalika. Svaha, make an offer of them to all parts of the body of the Devi (82). 118 Then the worshipper should, with the same Mantra, but ending with Namah, offer scent with his middle and third finger to the heart -lotus (of the Devi), and with the same Mantra, but ending with Vaushat, he should similarly offer to Her flowers (83). Having placed the burning incense and lighted lamp in front of Devi, and sprinkling them with water, they should be given away with the Mantra Hring, Shring, Kring, Parameshvari, Svaha: This incense- stick and light I humbly offer to Adya- Kalika. Svaha. After worship of the Bell with the Mantra O Mother, Who produces the sound which proclaims triumph to Thee. Svaha, he should ring it with his left hand, and, taking up the incense- stick with his right hand, he should wave it up to the nostrils of the Devi. Then, placing the incense -stick on Her left, he should raise and wave the light ten times up to and before the eyes of the Devi (84- 86). Then, taking the Cup and the Shuddhi in his two hands, the worshipper should, whilst uttering the Mula- Mantra, offer them to the centre of the Yantra (87). Mantra O Thou who hast brought to an end a crore of kalpas, take this excellent wine, as also the Shuddhi, and grant to me endless liberation (88). Then, drawing a figure (in front of the Yantra), according to the rules of ordinary worship, place the plate with food thereon (89). Sprinkle the food (with the Mantra Phat) and veil it with the Avagunthana- Mudra (and the Mantra Hung), and then again protect it (by the Mantra Phat) (Saying Vang), and, exhibiting the Dhenu- Mudra over it, make it into the food of immortality. Then, after recitation of the Mula- Mantra seven times, it should be oftered to the Devi with the water taken from the vessel of offering (90). The worshipper, after reciting the Mula- Mantra, should say: "This cooked food, with all other necessaries, I offer to the Adya- Kali, my Ishta -devi." He should then say: "O Shiva! partake of this offering" (91). Then he should make the Devi eat the offering by means of the five Mudras called Prana, Apana, Samana, Vyana, and Udana (90). Next, form with the left hand the Naivedya- Mudra, which is like a full -blown lotus. Then, whilst reciting the Mula- Mantra, give away the jar with wine to the Devi for Her to drink. After that offer again water for rinsing the mouth, and following that a threefold oblation should be made to the Devi with wine from the cup of the Shri - patra (93- 94). Then, reciting the Mula- Mantra, let the worshipper offer five handfuls of flowers to the head, heart, Muladhara Lotus, the feet, and all parts of the body of 119 the Devi (95), and thereafter with folded palms he should pray to his Ishta- devata thus: Mantra O Ishta -devata! I am now worshipping the Devatas who surround thee, namah (96). The six parts of the body of the Devi should then be worshipped at the four corners of the Yantra, and in front and behind it in their order; and then the line of Gurus should be worshipped (97). Then, with scent and flowers, worship the four Kula- gurus namely, Guru, Parama -guru, Parapara- guru, Parameshti -guru (98). Then, with the wine in the cup of the Guru, make three Tarpanas to each, and on the lotus of eight petals worship the eight Mother Nayikas namely, Mangala, Vijaya, Bhadra, Jayanti, Aparajita, Nandini, Narasinghi, and Kaumari (99- 100), and on the tips of the petals worship the eight Bhairavas Asitanga, Ruru, Chanda, Krodhonmatta, Bhayangkara, Kapali, Bhishana, and Sanghara (101- 102). Indra and the other Dik -palas should be worshipped in the Bhu- pura, and their w eapons outside the Bhu- pura, and then Tarpana should be made to them (103). After worshipping (the Devi) with all the offerings, sacrifice should be carefully made to Her (104). The ten approved beasts which may be sacrificed are deer, goat, sheep, buffalo, hog, porcupine, hare, iguana, and rhinoceros (105); but other beasts may also be sacrificed if the worshipper so desires (106). The worshipper versed in the rules of sacrifice should select a beast with good signs, and, placing it before the Devi, should sprinkle it with the water from the Vishesharghya, and by the Dhenu- Mudra should make it into nectar. Let him then worship the goat (sheep, or whatever other animal is being sacrificed) with (the Mantra) "Namah to the goat," which is a beast, and with perfumes, flowers, vermilion, food, and water. Then he should whisper into the ears of the beast the Gayatri Mantra, which severs the bond of its life as a beast (107- 108). The Pashu- Gayatri, which liberates a beast from its life of a beast, is as follows: After the word "Pashu- pashaya" say " Vidmahe," then, after the word "Vishva- karmane," say "Dhimahi," and then "Tanno jivah prachodayat." Mantra Let us bring to mind the bonds of the life of a beast. Let us meditate upon the Creator of the Universe. May He liberate us from out of this life (of a beast) (109- 110). Then, taking the sacrificial knife, the excellent worshipper should worship it with the Vija "Hung," and worship Sarasvati and Brahma at its end, Lakshmi and Narayana at its middle, and Uma and Maheshvara at the handle (111- 112). Then the sacrificial knife should be worshipped with the 120 Mantra Namah to the sacrificial knife infused with the presence of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and their Shaktis (113). Then, dedicating it with the Great Word, he should, with folded hands, say: "May this dedication to Thee be according to the ordained rites" (114). Having thus offered the beast to the Devi, it should be placed on the ground (115). The worshipper then, with mind intent upon the Devi, should sever the head of the beast with one sharp stroke. This may be done either by the worshipper himself or by his brother, brothers son, a friend, or a kinsman, but never by one who is an enemy (116). The blood, when yet warm, should be offered to the Vatukas. Then the head with a light on it should be offered to the Devi with the following: Mantra "This head with the light upon it I offer to the Devi with obeisance " (117). This is the sacrificial rite of the Kaulikas in Kaula worship. If it be not observed, the Devata is never pleased (118). After this Homa should be performed. Listen, O Beloved One! to the rules which relate to it (119). The worshipper should, with sand, make on his right a square, each side of which is one cubit. Let him, then, while reciting the Mula- Mantra, gaze at it, stroke it with a wisp of kusha grass, uttering the Weapon- Vija, and then sprinkle it with water to the accompaniment of the same Vija (120). Then, veiling it with the Kurchcha- Vija, he should say: "Obeisance to the sthandila of the Devi," and with this Mantra worship the square (121). Then, inside the square three lines should be drawn from East to West, and three lines from South to North, of the length of a pradesha. When this has been done, the (following Devatas, whose names are hereinafter given) should be worshipped over these lines (122). Over the lines from West to East worship Mukunda, Isha, and Purandara: over the lines from South to North, Brahma, Vaivasvata, and Indu (123). Then a triangle should be drawn within the square, and within the triangle the Vija Hsauh should be written. Outside the triangle draw a hexagon, outside this a cirde, and outside the circle a lotus with eight petals, and outside this a (square) Bhu -pura, with four entrances; so should the wise one draw the excellent Yantra (124). Having worshipped with the Mula- Mantra and with offerings of handfuls of flowers, the space thus marked off and washed, the articles for the Homa sacrifice with the Pranava, the intelligent one, should, after first uttering the Maya Vija, worship in the pericarp of the lotus the Adhara- shakti and others, either individually or collectively (125). Piety, Knowledge, Dispassion, and Dominion should be worshipped in the Agni, Ishana, Vayu, and Nairrita corners of the Yantra respectively, and the negation of the qualities in the East, North, West, and South respectively, and in the centre Ananta and Padma (126- 127). Then let him worship Sun with his twelve parts, and Moon 121 with her sixteen digits, and, on the filament commencing from the East, worship Pita, and then Shveta, Aruna, Krishna, Dhumra, Tibra, Sphulingini, Ruchira, in their order, and in the centre Jvalini (128- 129). In all worship Pranava should commence the Mantra, and Namah should end it. The seat of Fire should be worshipped with the Mantra Rang, Salutation to the seat of Fire. Then the Mantrin should meditate upon the Devi Sarasvati after She has bathed, with eyes like the blue lotus on the seat of Fire in the embrace of Vagishvara, and worship in the seat of Fire with the Maya-V ija (130). Then let him bring Fire in the manner prescribed, and gaze intently on it, and, whilst repeating the Mula- Mantra, invoke Vahni into it with the Mantra Phat (131- 132). Then the seat of Fire should be worshipped in the Yantra with the Mantra Ong Salutation to the Yoga- pitha of Fire, and on the four sides, beginning on the East and ending on the South, Vama, Jyeshtha, Raudri, Ambika, should be worshipped in the order given (133). Then the marked- off space should be worshipped with the Mantra Salutat ion to the sthandila of the revered Devata, the Primeval Kalika: and then within this place the worshipper should meditate upon the Devi Vagishvari under the form of the Mula- Devata. After lighting the Fire with the Vija Rang, and reciting the Mula- Mantra, and then the Mantra Hung Phat: to the eaters of raw flesh: Svaha, the share of the raw meat eaters (Rakshasas) should be put aside. Gaze at the Fire, saying the Weapon- Mantra, and surround it with the Veil Mudra, uttering the Vija Hung (134- 136). Make the Fire into nectar with the Dhenu- Mudra. Take some Fire in both palms, and wave it thrice in a circle over the sthandila from right to left. Then with both knees on the ground, and meditating on Fire as the male seed of Shiva, the worshipper should place it into that portion of the Yoni Yantra which is nearest him (137- 138). Then, first, worship the Image of Fire with the Mantra Hring, Salutation to the Image of Fire, 122 and after that the Spirit of Fire with the Mantra Rang: to the Spirit of Fire namah (139). The Mantrin will then think in his mind of the awakened form of Vahni, and kindle the fire with the following (140) Mantra Ong, yellow Spirit of Fire, which knows all, destroy, destroy, burn, burn, ripen, ripen command: Svaha. This is the Mantra for kindling Fire. After this, with folded hands, Fire should again be adored (141- 142). Mantra I adore the kindled Fire of the colour of gold, free from impurity, burning, author of the Veda the devourer of oblations, which faces every quarter (143). After adoratio n of Fire in this manner, cover the marked- off space with kusha grass, and then the worshipper, giving Fire the name of his own, Ishta- devata, should worship him (144). Mantra Ong,O Red- eyed One! Vaishvanara, origin of the Veda, come here, come, come here, (help me to) accomplish all (my) works: Svaha. Then the seven Tongues of Fire, Hiranya and others, should be worshipped (145- 146). The worshipper should next adore the six Limbs of Vahni uttering the word "of a thousand rays" in the dative singular, and at the end "obeisance to the heart" (147). Then the wise one should worship the forms of Vahni (147), the eight forms Jata- veda and others (148), and then the eight Shaktis namely, Brahmi and others, the eight Nidhis namely, Padma and others, and the ten Dik -palas namely, Indra and others (149). After worshipping the thunderbolt and other weapons, the sacrificer should take two blades of kusha grass of the length of the space between his stretched- out thumb and forefinger, and place them lengthwise in the ghee (150). He should meditate on the Nadi Ida in the left part of the ghee, and on the Nadi Pingala in the right portion, and on the Nadi Sushumna in the centre, and with a well -controlled mind take ghee from the right side, and offer it to the right eye of Vahni with the following: Mantra 123 Ong to Agni Svaha. Then, taking ghee from the left side, offer it to the left eye of Vahni with the Mantra Ong to Soma Svaha (151- 153). Then, taking ghee from the middle portion, offer it to the forehead of Vahni with the Mantra Ong to Agni and Soma Svaha (154). Then, saying namah, take the ghee again from the right side, say first the Pranava, and then Mantra To Agni the Svishti -krit Svaha. With this Mantra he should offer oblation to the mouth of Vahni. Then, uttering the Vyahriti with the Pranava at the commencement, and Svaha at the end, the Homa sacrifice should be performed (155- 156). Then he should offer oblations thrice with the Mantra Om,O Vaishvanara, origin of the Veda, come hither, come hither, O Red- eyed O ne! and fulfil all my works (157) Then, invoking the Ishta- Devata with the proper Mantra into the Fire, let him worship Her and the Pitha- Devata. Twenty -five oblations should then be offered (uttering the Mula -Mantra with Svaha at the end), and, contemplating on the union (or identity) of his own soul with Vahni and the Devi, eleven oblations should also be offered with the Mula- Mantra to the Anga- Devatas, concluding with Svaha (158 -159). Then, with a mixture of ghee, tila- seed, honey, or with flowers and bael -leaves, or with (other prescribed) articles, oblation should be made for the attainment of ones desire. This oblation should be made not less than eight times, and with every attention and care (160- 161). Then, reciting the primary Mantra ending with Svaha, complete oblation should be made (with a full ladle) with fruits and leaves. The worshipper, with the Sanghara- Mudra, transferring the Devi from the Fire to the lotus of his heart (162), should then say "Pardon me," and dismiss Him who feeds on oblations. Then, distributing presents, the Mantrin should consider that the Homa has been duly performed (163). Then the excellent worshipper should place between the eyebrows what is left over of the oblations (164). This is the ordinance relating to Homa in all forms of Agama 124 worship. After performance of Homa the worshipper should proceed to do japa (165). Now, listen,O Devi! to the instructions which relate to japa by which the Vidya is pleased. During japa, the Devata, the Guru, and the Mantra should be considered as one (166). The letters of the Mantra are the Devata, and the Devata is in the form of the Guru. To him who worships them as one and the same, his is the greatest success (167). The worshipper should then meditate upon his Guru as being in his head, the Devi in his heart, the Mula- Mantra in the form of tejas on his tongue, and himself as united with the glory of all three (168). Then, adding the Tara to the beginning and the end of the Mula -Mantra, it should be made japa of seven times, and then it should be recapitulated with the Matrika Vija at its beginning and end (169). The wise worshipper should make japa of the Maya- Vija over his head ten times, and of the Pranava ten times over his mouth, and of the Maya- Vija again seven times in the lotus of his heart, and then perform Pranayama (170). Then, taking a rosary of coral, etc, let him worship it thus: Mantra O rosary,O rosary,O great rosary, thou art the image of all Shaktis. Thou art the repository of the fourfold blessings. Do thou therefore be the giver to me of all success. Having thus worshipped the Mala, and also made Tarpana to it thrice with wine taken from the Shri -patra, accompanied by recitation of the Mula- Mantra, the worshipper should, with well -controlled mind, make japa one thousand and eight, or at least one hundred and eight times (171- 173). Then, doing Pranayama, he should offer on the left lotus -hand of the Devi the fruit of his japa, whose form is Tejas, together with water and flowers from the Shri -patra, and, bowing down his head to the ground, say the following: Mantra O Great Queen! Thou Who protectest that which is most secret, deign to accept this my recitation. May by Thy grace success attend my effort. After this, let him with folded hands recite the hymn and the protective Mantra (174- 176). Then the Sadhaka should, with the special oblation in his hand, going round the Devi, keeping Her to his right, say the following, and dedicate his own self by offering Vilomarghya (177). Mantra Om, whatsoever ere this I in the possession of life, intelligence, body, or in action, awake, in dream or dreamless sleep have done, whether by word or deed, by my hands, feet, belly, or organ of generation, whatsoever I have remembered or spoken 125 of all that I make an offering to Brahman. I and all that is mine I lay at the lotus -feet of the Adya Kali. I make the sacrifice of myself Ong tat sat (178- 179). Then, with folded hands, let him supplicate his Ishta- Devata, and reciting the Maya- Mantra, say: Mantra "O Primordial Kalika! I have worsh ipped Thee with all my powers and devotion," and then saying, "Forgive me," let him bid the Devi go. Let him with his hands formed into Sanghara- Mudra take up a flower, smell it, and place it on his heart (182- 183). A triangular figure well and clearly made should next be drawn in the North- East corner, and there he should worship the Devi Nirmalya- vasini with the Mantra Hring salutation to the Devi Nirmalya- vasini (184). Then, distributing Naivedya to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and all the other Devas, the worshipper should partake of it (185). Then, placing his Shakti on a separate seat to his left, or on the same seat with himself, he should make a pleasing drink in the cup (186), The cup should be so formed as to hold not more than five and not less than three tolas of wine, and may be of either gold or silver (187), or crystal, or made of the shell of a cocoa- nut. It should be kept on a support on the right side of the plate containing the prepared food (188). Then the wise one should serve the sacred food and wine either himself or by his brothers sons among the worshippers according to the order of their seniority (189). The purified wine should be served in the drinking- cups, and the purified food in plates kept for that purpose, and then should food and drink be taken with such as are present at the time (190). First of all, some purified food should be eaten to make a bed as it were (for the wine which is to be drunk). Let the assembled worshippers then joyously take up each his own cup filled with excellent nectar. Then let him take up each his own cup and meditate upon the Kula- Kundalini, who is the Chit, and who is spread from the Muladhara lotus to the tip of the tongue, and, uttering the Mula- Mantra, let each, after taking the others permission, offer it as oblation to the mouth of the Kundali (191- 193). When the Shakti is of the household, the smelling of the wine is the equivalent of drinking it. Worshippers who are householders may drink five cups only (194). Excessive drinking prevents the attainment of success by Kula worshippers (195). They may drink until the sight or the mind is not affected. To drink beyond that is bestial (196). How is it possible for a sinner who becomes a fool through drink and who shows contempt for the Sadhaka of Shakti to say "I worship the Adya Kalika"? 126 (197). As touch cannot affect food, etc, offered to Brahman, so there is no distinction of caste in food offered to Thee (198). As I have directed, so should eating and drinking be done. After partaking of food offeredto Thee, the hands should not be washed, but with a piece of cloth or a little water remove that which has adhered to the hands (199). Lastly, after placing a flower from the nirmalya on his head, and wearing a tilaka mark made from the remnants of the oblation on the Yantra between his eyebrows, the intelligent worshipper may roam the earth like a Deva (200). End of the Sixth Joyful Message, entitled "Placing of the Shri -patra, Homa, Formation of the Chakra, and other Rites." 127 CHAPTER 7 - HYMN OF PRAIS E (STOTRA ), AMULET (KAVACHA ), AND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE KULA TATTVA PARVATI was pleased at hearing the revelation of the auspicious Mantra of the Adya Kalika, which yields abundant blessings, is the only means of attaining to a knowledge of the Divine essence, and leads to liberation; as also at hearing of the morning rites, the rules relating to bathing, Sandhya, the purification of Bhang, the methods of external and internal Nyasa and worship, the sacrifice of animals, Homa, the formation of the circle of worship, and the partaking of the holy food. Bowing low with modesty, the Devi questioned Shankara (1- 3). Shri Devi said: O Sadashiva! Lord, and Benefactor of the Universe, Thou hast in Thy mercy spoken of the mode of worship of the supreme Prakriti (4), which benefits all being, is the sole path both for enjoyment and final liberation, and which gives, in this Age, in particular, immediate success (5). My mind, immersed in the ocean of the nectar of Thy word, has no desire to rise therefrom, but craves for more and more (6). O Deva, in the directions Thou hast given relating to the worship of the great Devi, Thou hast but given a glimpse of the hymn of praise, and of the protective Mantra. Do Thou reveal them now (7). Shri Sadashiva said: Listen, then, O Devi, Who art the adored of the worlds,to this unsurpassed hymn, by the reciting of or listening to which one becomes the Lord of all the Siddhis (8), (a hymn) which allays evil fortune, increases happiness and prosperity, destroys untimely death, and removes all calamities (9), and is the cause of the happy approach to the gracious Adya Kalika. It is by the grace of this hymn,O Happy One, that I am Tripurari (10). O Devi! the Rishi of this hymn is Sadashiva, its metre is Anushtup, its Devata is the Adya Kalika, and the object of its use is the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (11). Hymn Entitled Adya -Kali-Svarupa. Hring, O Destroyer of Time, Shring, O Terrific One, Kring, Thou Who art beneficent, Possessor of all the Arts, Thou art Kamala, 128 Destroyer of the pride of the Kali Age, Who art kind to Him of the matted hair, (12) Devourer of Him Who devours, Mother of Time, Thou Who art brilliant as the Fires of the final Dissolution, Wife of Him of the matted hair, O Thou of formidable countenance, Ocean of the nectar of compassion, (13) Merciful, Vessel of Mercy, Whose Mercy is without limit, Who art attainable alone by Thy mercy, Who art Fire, Tawny, Black of hue, Thou Who increasest the joy of the Lord of Creation, (14) Night of Darkness, Image of Desire, Yet Liberator from the bonds of desire, Thou Who art (dark) as a bank of Clouds, And bearest the crescent -moon, Destructress of sin in the Kali Age, (15) Thou Who art pleased by the worship of virgins, Thou Who art the Refuge of the worshippers of virgins, Who art pleased by the feasting of the virgins, Who art the Image of the virgin, (16) Thou Who wanderest in the kadamba forest, Who art pleased with the flowers of the kadamba forest, Who hast Thy abode in the kadamba forest, Who wearest a garland of kadamba flowers, (17) Thou Who art youthful, Who hast a soft low voice, Whose voice is sweet as the cry of a Chakravaka bird, Who drinkest and art pleased with the kadambari wine, (18) And Whose cup is a skull, Who wearest a garland of bones, Who art pleased with, And Who art seated on the Lotus, (19) Who abidest in the centre of the Lotus, Whom the fragrance of the Lotus pleases, Who movest with the swaying gait of a Hangsa, Destroyer of fear, Who assumest all forms at will, Whose abode is at Kama- rupa, (20) 129 Who ever plays at the Kama- pitha, O beautiful One, O Creeper Which givest every desire, Who art the Possessor of beautiful ornaments, (21) Adorable as the Image of all tenderness, Thou with a tender body, And Who art slender of waist, Who art pleased with the nectar of purified wine, Giver of success to them whom purified wine rejoices, (22) The own Deity of those who worship Thee when joyed with wine, Who art gladdened by the worship of Thyself with purified wine, Who art immersed in the ocean of purified wine, Who art the Protectress of those who accomplish vrata with wine, (23) Whom the fragrance of musk gladdens, And Who art luminous with a tilaka- mark of musk, Who art attached to those who worship Thee with musk, Who lovest those who worship Thee with musk, (24) Who art a Mother to those who burn musk as incense, Who art fond of the musk -deer and art pleased to eat its musk, Whom the scent of camphor gladdens, Who art adorned with garlands of camphor, And Whose body is smeared with camphor and sandal paste, (25) Who art pleased with purified wine flavoured with Camphor, Who drinkest purified wine flavoured with camphor, Who art bathed in the ocean of camphor, Whose abode is in the ocean of camphor, (26) Who art pleased when worshipped with the Vija Hung, Thou Who threatenest with the Vija Hung, Embodiment of Kulachara, Adored by Kaulikas, Benefactress of the Kaulikas, (27) Observant of Kulachara, Joyous One, Revealer of the path of the Kaulikas, Queen of Kashi, Allayer of sufferings, Giver of blessings to the Lord of Kashi,(28) Giver of pleasure to the Lord of Kashi, Beloved of the Lord of Kashi, (29) Thou Whose toe- ring bells make sweet melody as Thou movest, Whose girdle bells sweetly tinkle, Who abidest in the mountain of gold, Who art like a Moon- beam on the mountain of gold, (30) Who art gladdened by the recitation of the Mantra Kling, Who art the Kama Vija, 130 Destructress of all evil inclinations, And of the afflictions of the Kaulikas, Lady of the Kaulas, (31) O Thou Who by the three Vijas, Kring, Hring, Shring, art the Destructress of the fear of Death. (To Thee I make obeisance.) These are proclaimed as the Hundred Names of Kalika (32), beginning with the letter Ka. They are all identical with the image of Kali (33). He who in worship recites t hese names with his mind fixed on Kalika, for him Mantra- siddhi is quickly obtained, and with him Kali is pleased (34). By the mere bidding of his Guru he acquires intelligence, knowledge, and becomes wealthy, famous, munificent, and compassionate (35). Such an one enjoys life happily in this world with his children and grandchildren with wealth and dominion (36). He who, on a new moon night, when it falls on Tuesday, worships the great Adya Kali, Mistress of the three worlds, with the five Ma- karas, and repeats Her hundred names, becomes suffused with the presence of the Devi, and for him there remains nothing in the three worlds which is beyond his powers (37- 38). He becomes in learning like Brihaspati himself, in wealth like Kuvera. His profundity is that of the ocean, and his strength that of the wind (39). He shines with the blinding brilliance of the Sun, yet pleases with the soft glamour of the Moon. In beauty he becomes like the God of Love, and reaches the hearts of women (40). He comes forth as conqueror everywhere by the grace of this hymn of praise. Singing this hymn, he attains all his desires (41). All these desires he shall attain by the grace of the gracious Adya, whether in battle, in seeking the favour of Kings, in wagers, or in disputes, and when his life be in danger (42), at the hands of robbers, amidst burning villages, lions, or tigers (43), in forests and lonely deserts, when imprisoned, threatened by Kings or adverse planets, in burning fever, in long sickness, when attacked by fearful disease (44), in the sickness of children caused by the influence of adverse planets, or when tormented by evil dreams, when fallen in boundless waters, and when he be in some storm -tossed ship (45). O Devi! he who with firm devotion meditates upon the Parama Maya image of the most excellent Kali is without a doubt relieved of all dangers. For him there is never any fear, whether arising from sin or disease (46- 47). For him there is ever victory, and defeat never. At the mere sight of him all dangers flee (48). He expounds all Scriptures, enjoys all good fortune, and becomes the leader in all matters of caste and duty,and the lord among his kinsmen (49). In his mouth Vani ever abides, and in his home Kamala. Men bow with respect at the mere mention of his name (50). The eight Siddhis, such as Anima and others, he looks upon as but mere bits of grass. I have now recited the hymn of a hundred names, which is called "The Very Form of the Adya Kali" (51). 131 Purashcharana of this hymn, which is its repetition one hundred and eight times, yields all desired fruit (52). This hymn of praise of a hundred names, which is the Primeval Kali Herself, if read, or caused to be read, if heard, or caused to be heard, frees from all sins and leads to union with Brahman (53- 54). Shri Sadashiva said. I have spoken of the great hymn of the Prakriti of the Supreme Brahman, hear now the protective Mantra of the sacred Adya Kalika (55). The name of the Mantra is "Conqueror of the three Worlds," its Rishi is Shiva, the verse is Anushtup, and its Devata the Adya Kali (56). Its Vija is the Maya Vija, its Shakti is Kama Vija, and its Kilaka is Kring. It should be used for the attainment of all desired objects (57). The Protective Mantra (Known As Trailokya- Vijaya) Hring, may the Adya protect my head; Shring, may Kali protect my face; Kring, may the Supreme Shakti protect my heart; May She Who is the Supreme of the Supreme protect my throat (58); May Jagaddhatri protect my two eyes; May Shankari protect my two ears; May Mahamaya protect my power of smell; May Sarvva -mangala protect my taste (58); May Kaumari protect my teeth; May Kamalalaya protect my cheeks; May Kshama protect my upper and lower lips; May Charu- hasini protect my chin (60); May Kuleshani protect my neck; May Kripa -mayi protect the nape of my neck; May Bahu- da protect my two arms; May Kaivalya- dayini protect my two hands; (61) May Kapardini protect my shoulders; May Trailokya- tarini protect my back; May Aparna protect my two sides; May Kamathasana protect my hips (62); May Vishalakshi protect my navel; May Prabha- vati protect my organ of generation; May Kalyani protect my thighs; May Parvati protect my feet; May Jaya -durga protect my vital breaths, And Sarvva- siddhi -da protect all parts of my body (63). 132 As to those parts as have not been mentioned in the Kavacha, and are unprotected, may the Eternal Primeval Kali protect all such (64). I have now spoken to Thee of the wonderful heavenly Protective Mantra of the Adya Devi Kalika, which is known as the "Conqueror of the three Worlds" (65). He who repeats it at his devotions with his mind fixed upon the Adya obtains all his desires, and She becomes propitious unto him (66). He quickly attains Mantra- siddhi. The lesser siddhis become, as it were, his slaves (67). He who is childless gets a son, he who desires wealth gains riches. The seeker of learning attains it, and whatsoever a man desires he attains the same (68). The Purashcharana of this Protective Mantra is its repetition a thousand times, and this gives the desired fruit (69). If it be written on birch- bark, with the paste of sandal, fragrant aloe, musk, saffron, or red sandal, and encased in a golden ball, worn either on the right arm, round the neck, in the crown lock, or round the waist, then the Adya Kali becomes devoted to its wearer, and grants him whatsoever he may desire (70- 71). Nowhere has he fear. In all places he is a conqueror. He becomes ready of speech, free from ailments, long- lived and strong, endowed with all power of endurance (72), and an adept in all learning. He knows the meaning of all Scriptures, has Kings under his control, and holds both pleasure and emancipation in the hollow of his hand (73). For men affected with the taint of the Kali Age it is a most excellent Mantra for the attainment of final liberation (74). Shri Devi said: Thou hast, O Lord! in Thy kindness told me of the Hymn and Protective Mantra; I now desire to hear of the rules relating to Purashcharana (75). Shri Sadashiva said: The rules relating to Purashcharana in the worship of the Adya Kalika are the same as those relating to the Purashcharana in the worship with the Brahma- Mantra (76). For Sadhakas who are unable to do them completely, both Japa, Puja and Homa, and Purashcharana may be curtailed (77), since it is better to observe these rites on a small scale than not to observe them at all. Now listen, O Gentle One! the while I describe to Thee the shortened form of worship (78). Let the wise one rinse his mouth with the Mula- Mantra, and then perform Rishi -nyasa. Let him purify the palms of the hands, and proceed to Kara- nyasa and Anga- nyasa (79). Passing the hands all over the body, let him practise Pranayama, and then meditate, worship, and inwardly recite. This is the ceremonial for the shortened form of worship (80). In this form of worship, in lieu of Homa and other rites, the Mantras may be recited four times the number prescribed in the case of each of them respectively (81). There is also another mode of performance. A person who, when the fourteenth day 133 of the dark half of the month falls on a Tuesday or Saturday, worships Jaganmayi with the five elements of worship, and recites with fully attentive mind the Mantra ten thousand times at midnight and feasts believers in the Brahman has performed Purashcharana (82- 83). From one Tuesday to another Tuesday the Mantra should every day be inwardly recited a thousand times. The Mantra thus recited eight thousand times is equal to the performance of Purashcharana (84- 85). In all Ages, O Devi! but particularly in the Kali Age, the Mantras of the Sacred Primeval Kalika are of great efficacy, and yield complete success (85- 86). O Parvati! In the Kali Age, Kali in her various forms is ever watchful, but when the Kali Age is in full sway, then the form of Kali Herself is for the benefit of the world (87). In initiation into this Kalika Mantra there is no necessity to determine whether it be siddha or su- siddha, or the like, or favourable or inimical. If japa is made of it, which is both niyama and a- niyama, the Adya Devi is pleased (88). The mortal, by the grace of the glorious Adya, attains a knowledge of the divine essence, and, possessed of such knowledge, is, without a doubt, liberated even while living (89). Beloved, there is no need here for over -exertion or endurance or penances. The religious exercises of the worshippers of the Adya Kali are pleasant to accomplish (90). By the mere purification of the heart the worshipper attains all that he desires (91). So long, however, as the heart is not purified, so long must the worshipper practise the rites with devotion to Kula. (92) The carrying out of the practices ordained produces purification of the heart. The Mantra should, however, first be received from the mouth of the Guru in the case of the Brahma- Mantra (93). O Great Queen! Purashkriya should be done after the performance of the necessary worship and of other prescribed rites. In the purified heart knowledge of Brahman grows. And when knowledge of Brahman is attained, there is neither that which should, nor that which should not, be done (94). Shri Parvati said: O Great Deva! what is Kula, and what is Kulachara? O Great Lord! what is the sign of each of the five elements of worship? I desire to hear the truth relating to these (95). Shri Sadashiva said: Thou hast asked well, O Lady of the Kulas. Thou art indeed the Benefactress of the worshippers. Listen! For Thy pleasure I shall accurately describe to Thee these things (96). The Kula are Jiva, Prakriti, space, time, ether, earth, water, fire, and air (97). O Primeval One! the realization that all this is one with Brahman is Kulachara, and produces Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (98). Those whose sins are washed away by merits acquired in various previous births by penances, alms, and faithful observance of worship, it is they whose minds are inclined in Kaulika worship (99). When the intelligence realizes the essence of Kaulika worship, it becomes at once purified, and the mind inclines to the lotus -feet of the Primeval Kali (100). The 134 excellent worshipper versed in Kaula doctrine who has received this most excellent Vidya by the service of a good spiritual teacher, if he remains firmly attached to Kaulika worship and to the worship with the five elements of the Primeval Kalika, the Patron Devi of Kula, will enjoy a multitude of blessings in this life, and attain final liberation at its close. (102) The characteristic of the first element is that it is the great medicine for humanity, helping it to forget deep sorrows, and is the cause of joy (103). But, O Dearest One! the element which is not purified stupefies and bewilders, breeds disputes and diseases, and should be rejected by the Kaulas (104). Beasts bred in villages, in the air, or forest, which are nourishing, and increase intelligence, energy, and strength, are the second element (105). O Beautiful One! of the animals bred in water, that which is pleasing and of good taste, and increases the generative power of man, is the third element (106). The characteristics of the fourth element are that it is easily obtainable, grown in the earth, and is the root of the life of the three worlds (107). And, O Devi, the signs of the fifth element are that it is the cause of intense pleasure to all living things, is the origin of all creatures, and the root of the world which is without either beginning or end (108). Know, Dearest One! that the first element is fire, the second is air, the third is water, the fourth is the earth (109), and, O Beauteous Face! as to the fifth element, know it to be ether, the support of the Universe (110). O Sovereign Mistress of Kula, he who knows Kula, the five Kula- tattvas, and Kula worship, is liberated whilst yet living (111). End of the Seventh Joyful Message, entitled "Hymn of Praise (Stotra), Amulet (Kavacha), and the description of the Kula- tattva." 135 CHAPTER 8 - THE DHARMMA AND CUSTOMS OF THE CASTES AND ASHRAMAS AFTER hearing of the various forms of Dharmma, Bhavani, Mother of the worlds, Destructress of all worldly bonds, spoke again to Shankara (1). Shri Devi said: I have heard of the different Dharmma, which bring happiness in this world and the next, and bestow piety, wealth, fulfilment of desire, ward off danger, and are the cause of union with the Supreme (2). I wish now to hear of the castes and of the stages of life. Speak in Thy kindness, O Omnipresent One! of these, and of the mode of life which should be observed therein (3). Shri Sadashiva said: O Thou of auspicious Vows! in the Satya and other Ages there were four castes; in each of these were four stages of life, and the rules of conduct varied according to the caste and stages of life. In the Kali Age, however, there are five castes namely, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Samanya. Each of these five castes, O Great Queen! have two stages of life. Listen, then, Adye! whilst I narrate to Thee their mode of life, rites, and duties (4- 6). I have already spoken to Thee of the incapacity of men born in the Kali Age. Unused as they are to penance, and devoid of learning in the Vedas, short -lived, and incapable of strenuous effort, how can they endure bodily labour? (7). O Beloved! there is in the Kali Age no Brahmacharya nor Vanaprastha. There are two stages only, Grihastha and Bhikshuka (8). O Auspicious One! In the Kali Age the householder should in all his acts be guided by the rules of the Agam as. He will never attain success by other ways (9). And, O Devi! at the stage of the mendicant the carrying of the staff is not permitted, since, O Thou of Divine Knowledge! both that and other practices are Vedic (10). In the Kali Age, O Gentle One! the adoption of the life of an Avadhuta, according to the Shaiva rites, is in the Kali Age equivalent to the entry into the life of a Sannyasin (11). When the Kali Age is in full sway, the Vipras and the other castes have equal right to enter into both these stages of life (12) The purificatory rites of all are to be according to the rules ordained by Shiva, though the particular practices of the Vipras and other castes vary (13). A man becomes a householder the moment he is born. It is by Sangskara that he enters upon any of the other stages of life. For this reason, O Great Queen! One should first be a householder, following the rules of that mode of life (14). When, however, one is freed of worldly desires by the knowledge of the Real, it is then that one should abandon all and seek refuge in the life of an ascetic (15). In childhood one should acquire knowledge; in youth, wealth and wife. The wise man in middle 136 age will devote himself to acts of religion, and in his old age he should retire from the world (16) . No one should retire from the world who has an old father or mother, a devoted and chaste wife, or young and helpless children (17). He who becomes an ascetic, leaving mothers, fathers, infant children, wives, agnates and cognates, is guilty of a great sin (18). He who becomes a mendicant without first satisfying the need of his own parents and relatives is guilty of the sins of killing his father and mother, a woman, and a Brahmana (19). The Brahmanas and men of other castes should perform their respecti ve purificatory rites according to the ordinances laid down by Shiva. This is the rule in the Kali Age (20). Shri Devi said: O Omnipresent One! tell Me what is the rule of life for the householder and mendicant, and what are the purificatory rites for the Vipras and other castes (21). Shri Sadashiva said: The state of an householder is for all the descendants of Manu the first duty. I shall, therefore, first speak of it, and do Thou listen to Me, O Lady of the Kaulas (22). A householder should be devoted to the contemplation of Brahman and possessed of the knowledge of Brahman, and should consign whatever he does to Brahman (23). He should not tell an untruth, or practise deceit, and should ever be engaged in the worship of the Devatas and guests (24). Regarding his father and mother as two visible incarnate deities, he should ever and by every means in his power serve them (25). O Shiva! O Parvati! if the mother and father are pleased, Thou too art pleased. and the Supreme Being is propitious to him (26). O Primeval One! Thou art the Mother of the Worlds, and the Supreme Brahman is the Father; what better religious act can there be than that which pleases You both? (27). According to their requirements, one should offer seats, beds, clothes, drink, and food t o mother and father. They should always be spoken to in a gentle voice, and their childrens demeanour should ever be agreeable to them. The good son who ever obeys the behests of his mother and father hallows the family (28- 29). If one desires ones own welfare, all arrogance, mockery, threats, and angry words should be avoided in the parents presence (30). The son who is obedient to his parents should, out of reverence to them, bow to them and stand up when he sees them, and should not take his seat without their permission (31). He who, intoxicated with the pride of learning or wealth, slights his parents, is beyond the pale of all Dharmma, and goes to a terrible Hell (32). Even if the vital breath were to reach his throat, the householder should not eat without first feeding his mother, father, son, wife, guest, and brother (33). The man who, to the deprivation of his elders and equals, fills his own belly is despised in this world, and goes to Hell in the next (34). The householder should cherish his wife, educate his children, and support his kinsmen and friends. This is the supreme eternal duty (35). The body is nourished by the 137 mother. It originates from the father. The kinsmen, out of love, teach. The man, therefore, who forsakes them is indeed vile (36). For their sake should an hundred pains be undergone. With all ones ability they should be pleased. This is the eternal duty (37). That man who in this world turns his mind to Brahman and adheres faithfully to the truth is above all a man of good deeds, and knows the Supreme, and is blest in all the worlds (38). The householder should never punish his wife, but should cherish her like a mother. If she is virtuous and devoted to her husband, he should never forsake her even in times of greatest misfortune (39). The wise man, whilst his own wife is living, should never with wicked intent touch another woman, otherwise he will go to hell (40). The wise man should not, when in a private place, live and sleep or lie down close to other mens wives. He should avoid all improper speech and braggart boldness in their presence (41). By riches, clothes, love, respect, and pleasing words should ones wife be satisfied. The husband should never do anything displeasing to her (42). The wise man should not send his wife to any festival, concourse of people, pilgrimage, or to anothers house, except she be attended by his son or an inmate of his own house (43). O Maheshvari! that man whose wife is both faithful and happy is surely looked upon as if he had performed all Dharmma, and is truly Thy favourite also (44). A father should fondle and nurture his sons until their fourth year, and then until their sixteenth they should be taught learning and their duties (45). Up to their twentieth year they should be kept engaged in household duties, and thenceforward, considering them as equals, he should ever show affection towards them (46). In the same manner a daughter should be cherished and educated with great care, and then given away with money and jewels to a wise husband (47). The householder should thus also cherish and protect his brothers and sisters and their children, his kinsmen, friends, and servants (48). He should also maintain his fellow- worshippers, fellow -villagers, and guests, whether ascetics or others (49) . If the wealthy householder does not so act, then let him be known as a beast, a sinner, and one despised in the worlds (50). The householder should not be inordinately addicted to sleep, idling, care for the body, dressing his hair, eating or drinking, or attention to his clothes (51). He should be moderate as to food, sleep, speech, and sexual intercourse, and be sincere, humble, pure, free from sloth, and persevering (52). Chivalrous to his foes, modest before his friends, relatives, and elders, he should neither respect those who deserve censure nor slight those who are worthy of respect (53). Men should only be admitted to his trust and confidence after association with them and observation of their nature, inclination, conduct, and friendly character (54). Even an insignificant enemy should be feared, and ones own power should be disclosed only at the proper time. But on no account should one deviate from the path of duty (55). A religious man should not speak of his own fame and prowess, of what has been told him in secret, nor of the good that he has done for others (56). A man of good name should not engage in any quarrel with an unworthy motive, nor when defeat is certain, nor with those who are superior or 138 inferior to himself He should diligently earn knowledge, wealth, fame, and religious merit, and avoid all vicious habits, the company of the wicked, falsehood, and treachery (58). Ventures should be undertaken according to the circumstances and ones condition in life, and actions should be done according to their season. Therefore, in everything that a man does he should first consider whether the circumstances and time are suitable (59). The householder should employ himself in the acquisition of what is necessary and in the protection of the same. He should be judicious, pious, good to his friends. He should be moderate in speech and laughter, in particular in the presence of those entitled to his reverence (60). He should hold his senses under control, be of cheerful disposition, think of what is good, be of firm resolve, attentive, far -sighted, and discriminating in the use of his senses (61). The wise householders speech should be truthful, mild, agreeable, and salutary, yet pleasing, avoiding both self -praise and the disparagement of others (62). The man who has dedicated tanks, planted trees, built rest -houses on the roadside, or bridges, has conquered the three worlds (63). That man who is the happiness of his mother and father, to whom his friends are devoted, and whose fame is sung by men, he is the conqueror of the three worlds (64). He whose aim is truth, whose charity is ever for the poor, who has mastered lust and anger, by him are the three worlds conquered (65). He who covets not others wives or goods, who is free of deceit and envy, by him the three worlds are conquered (66). He who is not afraid in battle nor to go to war when there is need, and who dies in battle undertaken for a sacred cause, by him the three worlds are conquered (67). He whose soul is free from doubts, who is devoted to and a faithful follower of the ordinances of Shiva, and remains under My control, by him the three worlds are conquered (68). The wise man who in his conduct with his fellow -men looks with an equal eye upon friend and foe, by him are the three worlds conquered (69). O Devi! purity is of two kinds, external and internal. The dedication of oneself to Brahman is known as internal purity (70), and the cleansing of the impurities of the body by water or ashes, or any other matter which cleanses the body, is called external purity (71). O Dearest One! the waters of Ganga, or of any other river, tank, pond, well, or pool, or of the celestial Ganga, are equally purifying (72). O Thou of auspicious Vows! the ashes from a place of sacrifice and cleansed earth are excellent, and the skin of an antelope and grass are as purifying as earth (73). O Auspicious One! what need is there to say more about purity and impurity? Whatever purifies the mind that the householder may do (74). Let there be external purification upon awakening from sleep, after sexual intercourse, making water, voiding the bowels, and at the close of a meal, and whenever dirt of any kind has been touched (75). Sandhya, whether Vaidika or Tantrika should be performed thrice daily, and according as the worship changes so does its service (76). The worshippers of the Brahma- Mantra have performed their Sandhya when they have made japa of the Gayatri, realizing within themselves the identity of the Gayatri and Brahman (77). In 139 the case of those who are not Brahma- worshippers, Vaidika Sandhya consists of the worship of and offering of oblations to the Sun and the recitation of the Gayatri (78). O Gentle One! In all daily prayers recitation shouldbe done one thousand and eight or a hundred and eight or ten times (79). O Devi! the Shudras and Samanyas may observe any of the rites proclaimed by the Agamas, and by these they attain that which they desire (80). The three times of performance (of Sandhya) are at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset (81). Shri Devi said: Thou hast Thyself said, O Lord! that when the Kali Age is in full sway for all castes, commencing with the Brahmamas, Tantrika rites are alone appropriate. Why, then, dost Thou restrict the Vipras to Vedic rites? It behoveth Thee to explain this fully to Me (82- 83). Shri Sadashiva said: O Thou Who knowest the essence of all things, truly hast Thou spoken. In the Kali Age all observances bear the fruit of enjoyment and liberation when done according to the rites of the Tantras (84). The Brahma- Savitri, though known as Vaidika, should be called Tantrika also, and is appropriate in both observances (85). It is, therefore, O Devi! that I have said that when the Kali Age is in full sway, the twice- born shall alone be entitled to the Gayatri, but not the other Mantras (86). In the Kali Age the Savitri should be said by the Brahmanas, preceded by the Tara, and by the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, preceded by the Kamala and Vagbhava Vijas respectively (87). In order, O Supreme Devi! That a distinction may be drawn between the twice- born and the Shudras, the daily duties are directed to be preceded by Vaidika Sandhya (88). Success, however, may also be attained by the mere following of the ordinances of Shambhu. This is verily true, and I repeat it is true and very true, and there is no doubt about it (89). O Adored of the Devas! even if the stated time for the saying of the daily prayer is past, all who desire emancipation and are not prevented by sickness or weakness should say, "Ong the Ever -existent Brahman" (90). The seat, clothes, vessels, bed, carriages, residence, and household furniture of the worshipper should be as clean as possible (91). At the close of the daily prayers the householder should keep himself occupied with household duties or the study of the Vedas; he should never remain idle (92). In holy places, on holy days, or when the Sun or Moon is in eclipse, he should do inward recitation, and give alms, and thus become the abode of all that is good (93). In the Kali Age life is dependent on the food that is eaten, fasting is therefore not recommended, in lieu of it, the giving of alms is ordained (94). O Great Queen! in the Kali Age alms are efficacious in the accomplishment of all things. The proper objects of such alms are the poor devoted to meritorious acts (95). O Mother! the first days of the month, of the year, of the lunar half -months, the fourteenth day of the lunar half-month, the eighth day of the light half of the lunar month, the eleventh day of the 140 lunar half -month, the new moon, ones birthday, the anniversary of ones fathers death, and days fixed as those of festivals, are holy days (96- 97). The River Ganges and all the great Rivers, the house of the religious Teacher, and the places of the Devas are holy places. But for those who, neglecting the study of the Veda, the service of mother and father, and the protection of their wife, go to places of pilgrimage, such holy places are changed to hell (98- 99). For women there is no necessity to go on pilgrimage, to fast, or to do other like acts, nor is there any need to perform any devotion except that which consists in the service of their husband (100). For a woman her husband is a place of pilgrimage, the performance of penance, the giving of alms, the carrying out of vows, and her spiritual teacher. Therefore should a woman devote herself to the service of her husband with her whole self (101). She should ever by words and deeds of devotion act for the pleasure of her husband, and, remaining faithful to his behests, should please his relatio ns and friends (102). A woman whose husband is her vow should not look at him with hard eyes, or utter hard words before him. Not even in her thought should she do anything which is displeasing to her husband (103). She who by body, mind, and word, and by pleasant acts, ever pleases her husband, attains to the abode of Brahman (104). Remaining ever faithful to the wishes of her husband, she should not look upon the face of other men, or have converse with them, or uncover her body before them (105). In childhood she should remain under the control of her parents, in her youth of her husband, and in her old age of the friends and relatives of her husband. She should never be independent (106). A father should not marry his daughter if she does not know her duty to a husband and how to serve him, also the other rules of womans conduct (107). Neither the flesh of human beings, nor the animals resembling them, nor the flesh of the cow, which is serviceable in various ways, nor the flesh of carnivorous animals, nor such meat as is tasteless, should be eaten (108). Auspicious One! fruits and roots of various kinds whether grown in villages or jungles, and all that is grown in the ground, may be eaten at pleasure (109). Teaching and the performance of sacrifices are the proper duties of a Brahmana. But if he be incapable of these, he may earn his livelihood by following the profession of a Kshatriya or Vaishya (110). The proper occupation of a Rajanya is that of fighting and ruling. But if he be incapable of these, he may earn his livelihood by following the profession of a Vaishya or Shudra (111). If a Vaishya cannot trade, then for him the following of the profession of a Shudra involves no blame. For a Shudra, O Sovereign Queen! service is the prescribed means of livelihood (112). O Devi! members of the Samanya class may for their maintenance follow all occupations except such as are specially reserved for the Brahmana (113). The latter, void of 141 hate and attachment, self -controlled, truthful, the conqueror of his senses, free of envy and all guile, should pursue his own avocations (114). He should ever be the same to, and the well -wisher of, all men, and teach his well -behaved pupils as if they were his own sons (115). He should ever avoid falsehood, detraction, and vicious habits, arrogance, friendship for low persons, the pursuit of low objects, and the use of language which gives offence (116). Where peace is possible, avoid war. Peace with honour is excellent. O Adorable Face! for the Rajanya it should be either death or victory in battle (117). A man of the kingly caste should not covet the wealth of his subjects, or levy excessive taxes, but, being faithful to his promises, he should ever in the observance of his duty protect his subjects as though they were his own children (118). In government, war, treaties, and other affairs of State the King should take the advice of his Ministers (119). War should be carried on in accordance with Dharmma. Rewards and punishments should be awarded justly and in accordance with the Shastras. The best treaty should be concluded which his power allows (120). By stratagem should the end desired be attained. By the same means should wars be conducted and treaties concluded. Victory, peace, and prosperity follow stratagem (121). He should ever avoid the company of the low, and be good to the learned. He should be of a calm disposition judicious of action in time of trouble, of good conduct and reasonable in his expenditure (122). He should be an expert in the maintenance of his forts, well trained in the use of arms. He should ever ascertain the disposition of his army, and teach his soldiers military tactics (123). O Devi1 he should not in battle kill one who is stunned, who has surrendered his arms, or is a fugitive, nor those of his enemies whom he has capturedn nor their wives or children (124). Whatever is acquired either by victory or treaty should be distributed amongst the soldiers in shares according to merit (125). The King should make known to himself the character and courage of each of his warriors, and if he would care for his interests he should not place a large army under the command of a single officer (126). He should not put his trust in any single person, nor place one man in charge of the administration, nor treat his inferiors as equals, nor be familiar with them (127). He should be very learned, yet not garrulous; full of knowledge, yet anxious to learn; full of honours, yet without arrogance. In awarding both reward and punishment he should be discriminating (128). The King should either himself or through his spies watch his subjects, kinsmen, and servants (129). A wise master should not either honour or degrade anyone in a fit of passion or arrogance and without due cause (130). Soldiers, commanders, ministers, wife, children, and servitors he should protect. If guilty, they should be punished according to their deserts (131). The King should protect, like a father, the insane, incapable, children and orphans, and those who are old and infirm (132). Know that agr iculture and trade are the appropriate callings of the Vaishya. It is by agriculture and trade that mans body is maintained (133). Therefore, O Devi! in agriculture and trade all negligence, vicious habits, laziness, untruth, and deceit should be avoided with the whole soul (134). Shiva! when both buyer and seller are agreed as to the object of 142 sale and the price thereof, and mutual promises have been made, then the purchase becomes complete (135). O Dearest One! the sale or gift of property by one who is a lunatic, out of his senses, under age, a captive, or enfeebled by disease, is invalid (136). The purchase of things not seen is concluded by hearing the description thereof. If the article be found to differ from its description, then the purchase is set aside (137). The sale of an elephant, a camel, and a horse is effected by the description of the animal. The sale is, however, set aside if the animal does not answer its description (138). If in the purchase of elephants, camels, and horses a latent vice becomes patent within the course of a year from the date of sale, then the purchase is set aside, but not after the lapse of one year (139). O Devi of the Kulas! the human body is the receptacle of piety, wealth, desires, and final liberation. It should therefore never be the subject of purchase; and such a purchase is by reason of My commands invalid (140). O Dear One! in the borrowing of barley, wheat, or paddy, the profit of the lender at the end of the year is laid down to be a fourth of the quantity lent, and in the case of the loan of metals one- eighth (141). In monetary transactions, agriculture, trade, and in all other transactions, men should ever carry out their undertakings. This is approved by the laws (142). A servant should be skilful, clean, wakeful, careful and alert, and possess his senses under control (143). He should, as he desires happiness in this and the next world, regard his master as if he were Vishnu Himself, his masters wife; his own mother, and respect his masters kinsmen and f riends (144). He should know his masters friends to be his friends, and his masters enemies to be his enemies and should ever remain in respectful attendance upon his master, awaiting his orders (145). He should carefully conceal his masters dishonour, the family dissensions, anything said in private or which would disgrace his master (146). He should not covet the wealth of his master, but remain ever devoted to his good. He should not make use of bad words or laugh or play in his masters presence (147). He should not, with lustful mind, even look at the maidservants in his masters house, or lie down with them, or play with them in secret (148). He should not use his masters bed, seat, carriages, clothes, vessels, shoes, jewels, or weapons (149). If guilty, he should beg the forgiveness of his master. He should not be forward, impertinent, or attempt to place himself on an equal footing with his master (150). Except when in the Bhairavi -chakra or Tattva- chakra persons of all castes should marry in their caste according to the Brahma form, and should eat with their own caste people (151). O Great Queen! in these two circles, however, marriage in the Shaiva form is ordained, and as regards eating and drinking, no caste distinctions exist (152). Shri Devi s aid: What is the Bhairavi -chakra, and what is the Tattva- chakra? I desire to hear, and it kindly behoves Thee to speak of them (153). 143 Shri Sadashiva said: O Devi! in the ordinances relating to Kula worship I have spoken of the formation of circles by the excellent worshippers at times of special worship (154). O Dear One! there is no rule relating to the Bhairavi -chakra. This auspicious circle may at any time be formed (155). I will now speak of the rites relating to this circle, which benefits the worshipp ers, and in which, if the Devi be worshipped, She speedily grants the prayers of Her votaries (156). The Kulacharyya should spread an excellent mat in a beautiful place, and, after purifying it with the Kama and Astra Vijas, should seat himself upon it (157). Then the wise one should draw a square with a triangle in it with either vermilion or red sandal wood paste, or simply water (158). Then, taking a painted jar, and smearing it with curd and sun- dried rice, and placing a vermilion mark on it, let him put a branch or leaves and fruit upon it (159). Filling it with perfumed water whilst uttering the Pranava, the worshipper should place it on the Mandala, and exhibit before it lights and incense- sticks (160). The jar should then be worshipped with two fragr ant flowers. Ishta -devata should be meditated upon as being in the jar. The ritual should be according to the shortened form (161). Listen, O Adored of the Immortals! whilst I speak to Thee of the peculiar features of this worship. There is no necessity of placing the wine- cups for the Guru and others 162). The worshipper should then take such of the elements of worship as he wishes, and place them in front of himself. Then, purifying them with the Weapon Mantra, let him gaze upon them with steadfast eyes ( 163). Then, placing scent and flowers in the wine- jar, let him meditate upon the Ananda- Bhairava and Ananda -Bhairavi in it (164). Dhyana He should meditate upon the Blissful Devi as in first bloom of youth, with a body rosy as the first gleam of the rising Sun. The sweet nectar of Her smiles illumines Her face as beautiful as a full -blown lotus. Decked with jewels, clad in beauteous coloured raiment delighting in dance and song, She with the lotus of her hands makes the signs which confer blessings and dispel fears (165- 166). After thus meditating on Blissful Devi, let the worshipper thus meditate upon the Blissful Bhairava (167). Dhyana I meditate upon the Deva Who is white as camphor, Whose eyes are large and beautiful like lotuses, the lustre of Whose body is adorned with celestial raiments and jewels, Who holds in His left hand the cup of nectar, and in the right a ball of Shuddhi (168). 144 Having thus meditated upon Them both, and thinking of them in a state of union in the wine- jar, the worshipper should then worship Them therein. With Mantra, beginning with the Pranava and ending with Namah, the names of the Devata being placed between, and with perfume and flower, let him then sanctify the wine (169) The Kula worshipper should sanctify the wine by repeating over it the Pashadi -trika- vija a hundred and eight times (170). When the Kali Age is in full sway, in the case of the householder whose mind is entirely engrossed with domestic desires, the three sweets should be substituted in the place of the first element of worship (wine) (171). Milk, sugar, and honey are the three sweets. They should be deemed to be the image of wine, and as such offered to the Deity (172). Those born in the Kali Age are by their nature weak in intellect, and their minds are distracted by lust. By reason of this they do not recognize the Shakti to be the image of the Deity (173). Therefore, O Parvati! for such as these let there be, in place of the last element of worship (sexual union), meditation upon the lotus -feet of the Devi and the inward recitation of their Ishta -mantra (174). Therefore such of the elements of worship as have been obtained should be consecrated by the recitation over each of them of the same Mantra one hundred times (175). Let the worshipper, with closed eyes, meditate upon them as suffused by Brahman, then offer them to Kali, and, lastly, eat and drink the consecrated elements (176). O Gentle One! this is the Bhairavi -chakra, which is not revealed in the other Tantras. I have, however spoken before Thee of it. It is the essence of essences, and more excellent than the best (177). Parvati! In Bhairavi -chakra and Tattva- chakra the excellent worshipper should be wedded to his Shakti, according to the laws prescribed by Shiva (178). The Vira who without marriage wor ships by enjoyment of Shakti is, without doubt, guilty of the sin of going with another mans wife (179). When the Bhairavi -chakra has been formed, the members thereof are like the best of the twice- born; but when the circle is broken, they revert again to their own respective castes (180). In this circle there is no distinction of caste nor impurity of food. The heroic worshippers in the circle are My image; there is no doubt of that (181). In the formation of the circle there is no rule as to time or place or question as to fitness. The necessary articles may be used by whomsoever they may have been brought (182). Food brought from a long distance, whether it be cooked or uncooked, whether brought by a Vira or a Pashu, becomes pure immediately it is brought within the circle (183). While the circle is being formed, all dangers flee in confusion, awed by the Brahmanic lustre of its heroes (184). Upon the mere hearing that a Bhairavi circle has been formed at any place, fierce Pishachas, Guhyakas, Yakshas, and Vetalas depart afar off in fear (185). Into the circle come all the holy places, the great and holy places, and with reverence Indra and all the Immortals (186). Shiva! the place where a circle is formed is a great and holy place, more sacred than each and all the other holy places. Even the Thirty desire the excellent offerings made to Thee in this circle (187). Whatever the food be, whether cooked or uncooked, and whether 145 brought by a Mlechchha, Chandala, Kirata, or Huna, it becomes pure as soon as it i s placed in the hand of a Vira (188). By the seeing of the circle and of the worshippers therein, who are but images of Myself, men infected with the taint of the Kali Age are liberated from the bonds of the life of a Pashu (189). When, however the Kali Age is in full sway, the circle should not be concealed. The Vira should at all places and at all times practise Kula rites and make Kula worship (190). In the circle all distinction of caste, frivolous talk, levity, garrulity, spitting, and breaking wind should be avoided (191). Such as are cruel, mischievous, Pashu, sinful, atheists, blasphemers of Kula doctrine, and calumniators of the Kula Scriptures, should not be allowed into the circle (192). Even the Vira who, induced by affection, fear, or attachment, admits a Pashu into the circle falls from his Kula duty, and goes to hell (193). All who have sought refuge in the Kula Dharmma, whether Brahmamas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, or Samanyas, should ever be worshipped like Devas (194). He who, whilst in the circle, makes, from pride, distinctions of caste, descends to a terrible hell, even though he should have gone to the very end of the Vedanta (195). How within the circle can there be any fear of sin for Kaulas, who are good and pure of heart and who are manifestly the very image of Shiva? (196). Vipras and others who are followers of Shiva should, so long as they are within the circle, follow the ordinance of Shiva and the observances prescribed by Him (197). Without the circle each should follow his own calling according to his caste and stage of life, and should discharge his duty as a man of the world (198). One Japa made by a devout man, when seated within the circle, bears the fruit attainable by the performance of a hundred Purashcharana and by Shavasana, Mundasana, and Chitasana (199). Who can describe the glory of the Bhairavi -chakra? Its formation, though but once only, frees of all sins (200). The man who for six months worships in such a circle will become a King: he who so worships for a year becomes the conqueror of death, and by the daily performance of such worship he attains to Nirvvana (201). What is the need, O Kalika! of saying more? Know this for certain: that for the attainment of happiness in this or the next world there is only the Kula -dharmma, and no other (202). When the Kali Age is dominant and all religion is abandoned, even a Kaula merits hell by concealment of the Kula- dharmma (203). I have spoken of the Bhairavi circle, which is the sole means of attaining enjoyment and final liberation. I will now speak to Thee, O Queen of the Kaulas! of the Tattva circle. Do Thou listen (204). The Tattva circle is the king of all circles. It is also called the celestial circle. Only worshippers who have attained to a knowledge of Brahman may take part in it (205). Only those servants of the Brahman may take part in this circle who have attained to knowledge of Brahman, who are devoted to Brahman, pure of heart, tranquil, 146 devoted to the good of all things, who are unaffected by the external world, who see no differences, but to whom all things are the same, who are merciful, faithful to their vows, and who have realized the Brahman (206- 207). O Knower of the Supreme Soul! only those who, possessing the knowledge of the Real, look upon this moving and motionless Existence as one with Brahman, such men are privileged to take part in this circle (208). They who regard everything in the Tattva circle as Brahman, they alone, O Devi, are qualified to take part therein (209). In the formation of this circle there is no necessity for placing the wine- jar, no lengthy ritual. It can be formed everywhere in a spirit of devotion to Brahman (210). O Dearest One! the worshipper of the Brahma- Mantra and a devout believer in Brahman should be the Lord of the circle, which he should form of other worshippers who know the Brahman (211). In a beautiful and clean place, pleasant to the worshippers, pure seats should be spread with beautiful carpets (212). There, O Shiva! the Lord of the circle should seat himself with the worshippers of Brahman, and have the elements of worship brought and placed in front of him (213). The Lord of the Circle should inwardly recite the Mantra, beginning with the Tara and ending with the Prana- vija, a hundred times, and then pronounce the following Mantra over the elements (214): Mantra The act of offering is Brahman. The offering itself is Brahman. The Fire is Brahman. He by whom the offering is made is Brahman. By him who is absorbed in the worship of Brahman is unity with Brahman attained (215). All the elements should be purified by the inward recitation of this Mantra seven or three times (216). Then, with the Brahma- Mantra, making an offering of the food and drink to the Supreme Soul, he should partake thereof with the other worshippers, knowers of the Brahman (217). O Great Queen! there is no distinction of caste in the Brahma circle, nor rule as to place or time or cup. The ignorant who, through want of care, make distinctions of birth or caste go upon the downward path (218- 219). And therefore should those excellent worshippers, possessed of the knowledge that the Supreme Brahman pervades all things, perform the rites of the Tattva circle with every care for the attainment of religious merit, fulfilment of desire, wealth, and liberation (220). Shri Devi said: Lord! Thou hast spoken in full of the duties of the householder; it now behoves Thee kindly to speak of the duties appropriate to the ascetic life (221). Shri Sadashiva said: Devi! the stage of life of an Avadhuta is in the Kali Age called Sannyasa. Now listen while I tell thee what should be done (222). 147 When an adept in spiritual wisdom has acquired the knowledge of Brahman, and has ceased to care for the things of the world, he should seek refuge in the life of an ascetic (223). If, however, in order to adopt the life of a wandering mendicant, one abandons an old mother or father, infant children and a devoted wife, or helpless dependents, one goes to hell (224). All, whether Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, or Samanya are equally entitled to take part in the purificatory ceremony of the Kula ascetic (225). After the performance of all the duties of a householder, and after satisfying all dependents, one should go forth from his house indifferent, free from desires, with al l his senses conquered (226). He who wishes thus to leave his house should call together his kinsmen and friends, his neighbours and men of his village, and lovingly ask of them their permission (227). Having obtained it, and made obeisance to his Ishta -devata, he should go round his village, and then without attachment set forth from his house (228). Liberated from the bonds of household life, and immersed in exceeding joy, he should approach a Kula ascetic of divine knowledge and pray to him as follows: ( 229) "0 Supreme Brahman! all this life of mine has been spent in the discharge of household duties. Do Thou O Lord! be gracious to me in this my adoption of the life of an ascetic" (230). The religious Preceptor should thereupon satisfy himself that the di sciples duties as a householder have all been accomplished, and, on finding him to be meek and full of discernment, initiate him into the second stage (231). The disciple should then, with a well- controlled mind, make his ablutions and say his daily prayer, and then, with the object of being absolved from the threefold debt due to them, worship the Devas, the Rishis, and the Pitris (232). By the Devas are meant Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra, with their followers; by the Rishis are meant Sanaka and others, as also the Devarshis and the Brahmarshis (233). Listen, whilst I now enumerate the ancestors which should be worshipped (234). The father, paternal grandfather, paternal great -grandfather, mother, the maternal grandfather, and others in the ascending line, and the maternal grandmother and others in the ascending line (235). Upon the dedication of oneself to the life of an ascetic, the Devas and Rishis should be worshipped in the East, the paternal ancestors in the South, the maternal ancestors in the West (236). Spreading two seats on each of these sides, beginning from the East, and invoking the Devas and others thereto, they should there be worshipped (237). Having worshipped them in proper form, pindas should be offered to each of them separately according to the rules relating thereto; And then, with folded palms, let the disciple thus supplicate the Devas and Ancestors (238): Mantra 148 O Fathers! O Mothers! O Devas! O Rishis! be you satisfied. Do you absolve me, about to enter upon the path of renunciation from all debts (239). Having thus prayed to be free from all debts, bowing again and again, and being thus freed of all debts, he should perform his own funeral rites (240). The father and paternal grandfather and great -grandfather are one soul. In offering, therefore, the individual soul to the Supreme Soul, he who is wise should perform his own funeral rites (241). O Devi! sitting with his face to the North, and invoking the spirits of his ancestors upon the seats which he has prepared for them, he should, after doing them homage, offer the funeral cakes (242). In so offering he should spread kusha grass with its end towards the East, South, West, and towards the North for himself (243). After completion, according to the directions of the Guru, of the funeral rites, the seeker after emancipation should, in order to purify his heart inwardly, recite the following Mantra a hundred times (244): Mantra Hring, let us worship the Three- eyed One whose fame is fragrant, the Augmenter of increase. May I, as the urvaruka is freed of its stalk, be liberated from death unto immortality (245). Then the religious Preceptor should draw a figure on the altar of a shape in accordance with the divinity about to be worshipped and then place the jar on the altar and commence worship (246). Then the Guru, possessed of divine knowledge, should meditate upon the Supreme Spirit in the manner prescribed by Shambhu, and after worship place fire on the altar (247). The Guru should then offer unto the fire so sanctified the oblation according to the Sangkalpa, and then make his disciple perform the complete homa (248). He should first offer oblation with the Vyahritis, and then with the vital airs, prana, apana, samana, udana, vyana (249). For the destruction of the false belief that the body, whether gross or subtle, is the Atma, the Tattva -Homa should be performed, uttering the following words: Mantra Earth, water, fire, air, ether, (then) scent, taste, vision, touch, sound, (then) speech, hands, feet, anus and organ of generation, (then) ears, skin, eyes, tongue, and smell, (then) manas, buddhi, ahangkara, and chitta, (and lastly) all the functions of the senses and of life (250- 253). He should then say: "May they be purified;" (adding) "May I be like unto the universal Chaitanya united with Hring. May I be like the Light beyond and above Rajo- guna, and may I be free of the taint of ignorance" (254). 149 Having consigned as oblations into the fire the twenty -four tattvas and the functions of the body, he who is now devoid of all action should consider his body as dead (255). Considering his body as dead and devoid of all function, and calling to mind the Supreme Brahman, let him take off his sacred thread (256). He, the possessor of divine knowledge, should take it from his shoulder, uttering t he Mantra Aing Kling Hangsa. Holding it in his hand while he recites the three Vyahritis, ending with Svaha, let him throw it steeped in ghee into the fire (257). Having thus offered the sacred thread as an oblation to the fire, he should, whilst uttering the Kama Vija, cut off his crown-lock and take and place it in the ghee (258). Mantra O Crown Lock! Daughter of Brahman! thou art an ascetic in the form of hair. I am now placing thee in the Purifying One. Depart, O Devi! I make obeisance to thee (259). He should then, whilst uttering the Kama, Maya, Kurcha, and Astra Vijas, ending with the word Svaha, make the Homa sacrifice of that lock of hair in the well -sanctified fire (260). The Pitris, Devas, and Devarshis, as also all acts performed in the stages of life, reside in that lock and have it as their support (261). Therefore the man who renounces the crown- lock and sacred thread after the performance of the oblation becomes one with Brahman (262). The twice- born enter the stage of an ascetic by renunciation of the crown- lock and sacred thread, and the Shudras and Samanyas by the renunciation of the crown- lock only (263). Then he whose crown- lock and sacred thread have been thus removed should make obeisance to the Guru, laying himself full length upon the ground. The Guru should then raise his disciple and say into his right ear: "0 wise one! thou art That." "Think within thyself that I am He and He is I. Free from all attachments and sense of self, do thou go as thou pleasest as moved thereto by thy nature" (264- 265). The Guru, full of the knowledge of the Divine essence, should then, after removal of the jar and the fire, bow to the disciple, recognizing in him his own very self (266), and say: "O Thou whose form is this Universe! I bow to Thee and to myself. Thou art That and That is Thou. Again I bow to thee." (267). The worshippers of the Brahma- Mantra, possessed of divine knowledge, who have conquered themselves, attain the stage of an ascetic by cutting off the crown-lock with their own Mantra (268). What need is there for those purified by divine knowledge of sacrificial or funeral rites or ritual worship? For they, acting as they please, are never guilty of any fault (269). The disciple, image of the absence of all contraries, desireless, and of tranquil mind, may, as he pleases, roam the earth, the visible image of Brahman (270). He will think of everything, from Brahma to a blade 150 of grass, as the image of the existent one, and, oblivious of his own name and form, he will meditate upon the Supreme Soul in himself (271). Homeless, merciful, fearless, devoid of attachment claiming nothing as his own, devoid of egoism, the ascetic will move about the earth (272). He is free of all prohibitions. He shall not strive to attain what he has not, nor to protect what he has. He knows himself. He is equally unaffected by either joy or sorrow. He is calm, the conqueror of himself, and free from all desires (273). His soul is untroubled even in sorrow, desireless even in prosperity. He is ever joyful, pure, calm, indifferent and unperturbed. He will hurt no living thing, but will be ever devoted to the good of all being. He is free from anger and fear, with his senses under contro1 and without desire. He strives not for the preservation of his body. He is not obsessed by any longing (274- 275). He will be free from grief and resentment, equal to friend and foe, patient in the endurance of cold and heat, and to him both honour and disgrace are one and the same (276). He is the same in good or evil fortune, pleased with whatsoever, without effort, he may obtain. He is beyond the three attributes, of unconditioned mind free of covetousness, and (wealth) he will hoard not (277). He will be happy in the knowledge that, as the unreal universe exists dependent upon the Truth, so does the body depend upon the soul (278). He attains liberation by the realization that the soul is completely detached from the organs of sense, and is the witness of that which is done (279). The ascetic should not accept any metal, and should avoid calumny, untruth, jealousy, all play with woman, and all discharge of seed (280). He should regard with an equal eye worms, men, and Devas. The religious mendicant should know that in everything he does, in that is Brahman (281). He should eat without making any distinction of place, time, person, or vessel, and whether from the hand of a Vipra or Chandala, or from any other person whatsoever (282). The ascetic, thouugh passing his time as he pleases, should study the Scriptures relating to the Soul and in meditation upon the nature of That (283). The corpse of an ascetic should on no account be cremated. It should be worshipped with scents and flowers, and then either buried or sunk into water (284). O Devi! the inclination of those men who have not attained union with the Supreme Soul and who ever seek after enjoyment, is by nature turned towards the path of action (285). They remain attached to the practice of meditation, ritual worship, and recitation. Let them who are strong in their faith therein know that to be the best for them (286). It is on account of them that I have spoken of various rites for the purification of the heart, and have with the same object devised many names and forms (287). O Devi! without knowledge of the Brahman and the abandonment of all ritual worship, man cannot attain emancipation even though he performed countless such acts of worship (288). The householder should consider the Kula ascetic, possessed of divine knowledge, to be the visible Narayana in the form of man, and should worship Him as such (289). By the mere sight of one who has subdued his passions a man is freed of all his sins, and earns that merit which he obtains by journeying to places of 151 pilgrimage, the giving of alms, and the performance of all vows, penances, and sacrifices (290) End of the Eighth Joyful Message, entitled "The Dharmma and Customs of the Castes and Ashramas." 152 CHAPTER 9 - THE TEN KINDS OF PURIFICATORY RITES (SANGSKARA ) THE Adorable Sadashiva said: O Virtuous One! I have spoken to Thee of the custom and religious duties appropriate to the different castes and stages of life. Do thou now listen whilst I tell Thee of the purificatory rites of the different castes (1). Without such rites, O Devi! the body is not purified, and he who is not purified may not perform the ceremonies relating to the Devas and the Pitris (2). Therefore it is that men of every caste, commencing with the Vipras, who desire their welfare in this life and hereafter, should, in all things and with care, perform the purificatory rites which have been ordained for their respective castes (3). The ten purificatory ceremonies are those relating to conception, pregnancy, and birth of the child; the giving of its name, its first view of the sun, its first eating of rice, tonsure, investiture, and marriage (4). The Shudras and mixed castes have no sacred thread, and but nine purificatory ceremonies; for the twice- born classes there are ten (5). O Beautiful Lady! all observances, whether they be obligatory, occasional, or voluntary, should be performed according to the injunctions of Shambhu (6). O Dearest One! I have already, in My form of Brahma, spoken of the rules appropriate to the purificatory and other observances (7), and of the Mantras appropriate to the various purificatory and other observances, according to the differences in caste (8). In the Satya, Treta, and Dvapara Ages, the Mantras, O Kalika! were in their application preceded by the Pranava (9); but in the Kali Age, O Supreme Devi! the decree of Shangkara is that man do perform all rites with the aid of the same Mantras, but preceded by the Maya Vija (10). All Mantras in the Nigamas, Agamas, Tantras, Sanghitas and Vedas, have been spoken by Me. Their employment, however, varies according to the Ages (11). For the benefit of men of the Kali Age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kula doctrine, O Auspicious One! is given (12). I will now speak to Thee in brief of the purificatory and other rites, suitable for the weak men of the Kali Age, whose minds are incapable of continued effort (13). Kushandika precedes all auspicious ceremonies. I shall, therefore, O Adored of the Devas! speak firstly of it. Do Thou listen (14). In a clean and pleasant spot, free from husks and charcoal, let the wise one make a square, the sides of which are of one cubits length (15). Then draw in it three lines from the West to East (of the square). Let him then sprinkle water over them, uttering the Kurcha Vija the while. Then Fire should be brought to the accompaniment of the Vahni Vija (16). The Fire, when so 153 brought, should be placed by the side of the square, the worshipper breathing the Vagbhava Vija (17). Then, taking up a piece of burning wood with the right hand from the Fire, he should put it aside as the share of the Rakshasas, saying: Mantra Hring, Salutation to the raw -meat eaters: Svaha (18). The worshipper, lifting up the consecrated Fire with both hands, should place it in front of him on the three lines (above mentioned), inwardly reciting the while the Maya Vija before the Vyahritis (19). Grass and wood should then be thrown upon the Fire to make it blaze, and two pieces of wood should be smeared with ghee and offered as an oblation to it. Thereafter Fire should be named according to the objec t of worship, and then meditated upon as follows (20): Dhyana Ruddily effulgent like the young Sun, with seven tongues and two crowned heads of matted hair, seated on a goat, whose weapon is Shakti. (21) Having so meditated upon the Carrier of oblations, He should be thus invoked with joined palms (22). Mantra Hring, come, O Carrier of Oblations to all the Immortals, come! Come with the Rishis and Thy followers, and protect the sacrifice. I make obeisance to Thee. Svaha (23). Having thus invoked Him, the worshipper should say, "0 Fire! this is Thy seat," and then worship him, the Seven- tongued, with appropriate offerings (24). The seven licking Tongues of Fire are: Kali, Karali, Mano- java, Sulohita, Su- dhumra- varna, Sphulingini, and Vishva- nirupini (25). Then, O Great Devi! the sides of the Fire should be thrice sprinkled with water from the hand, beginning from the East and ending at the North (26). Then the sides of the Fire, from the South to the North, should be thrice sprinkled with water, and following that the articles of sacrifice should be thrice sprinkled (27). Then spread kusha grass on the sides of the square, beginning with the East and ending with the North. The ends of the blades of grass on the North should be turned towards the North, and the rest of the grass should be placed with its ends towards the East (28). The worshipper should then proceed to the seat placed for Brahma, keeping the Fire on his right, and, picking up with his left thumb and little finger a blade of kusha grass from the seat of Brahma, should throw it along with the remaining blades of kusha grass on the South side of the fire, uttering the Mantra "Hring, Destroy the abode of the enemy" (29- 30). 154 (The performer of the sacrifice should then say to Brahma:) " O Brahman, Lord of Sacrifices, be thou seated here. This seat is made for thee." The Brahma, saying "I sit," should then sit down, with his face turned towards the North (31). After worshipping Brahma with scent, flowers, and the other articles of worship, let him be supplicated thus (32): Mantra O Lord of Sacrifices! protect the sacrifice.O Brihaspati! protect this sacrifice. Protect me also, the performer of this sacrifice.O Witness of all acts! I bow to Thee (33). Brahma should then say, "I protect," and if there is no person representing Brahma, then the performer of the sacrifice should, for the success of the sacrifice, make an image with darbha grass of the Vipra, and himself say this (34). The worshipper should then invoke Brahma, saying, "0 Brahman, come here, come here!" and, after doing honour to him by offering water for washing his feet and the like, let him supplicate him, saying, "So long as this sacrifice be not concluded, do Thou deign to remain here," and then make obeisance to him (35). He should then spri nkle the space between the North- East corner of the fire and the seat of Brahma three times with water taken in his hand, and should thereafter sprinkle the fire also three times, and then, returning the way he went, take his own seat. Let him then spread on the North side of the square some darbha grass, with the ends of the blades towards the North (36- 37). He should then place thereon the articles necessary for the sacrifice, such as the vessel (filled with water) for sprinkling, and the vesse1 containing ghee, sacrificial fuel, and kusha grass. He should also place the sacrificial ladle and spoon on the darbha grass, and purify them by sprinkling water over them, and then, regarding them with a celestial gaze, uttering the Mantra Hrang Hring Hrung (38- 39). Then, with his right knee touching the ground, let him put ghee into the spoon with the ladle, and, with desire for his own well -being, Jet him offer three oblations, saying the Mantra Hring to Vishnu. Svaha (4o). Taking again ghee in the same way, and meditating upon Prajapati, oblations should be offered with ghee streaked across the fire from the corner of Agni to that of Vayu (41). Taking ghee again and meditating on Indra, let him offer oblations from the corner of Nairrita to that of Ishana (42). O Devi! oblations should thereafter be offered to the North, the South, and to the middle of the fire, to Agni, Soma, and to Agni and Soma together (43). Upon that three oblations should be offered, uttering the 155 Mantras Hring salutation to Agni, Hring salutation to Soma, Hring salutation to both Agni and Soma, respectively. Having performed these (preliminary) rites, the wise one should proceed to that prescribed for the Homa sacrifice, which is to be performed (44). The offering of oblations (as above described), commencing with the three offerings made to Vishnu and ending with the offering to Agni and Soma, is called Dhara Homa (45). When making any offering, both the Deva, to which the same is being made, and the thing offered should be mentioned, and upon the conclusion of the principal rite he should perform the Svishti -krit Homa (46). O Beautiful One! in the Kali Age there is no Prayashchitta Homa. The object thereof is attained by Svishti -krit and Vyahriti Homas (47). O Devi! (for Svishti -krit Homa.) g hee should be taken in manner above mentioned, and, whilst mentally reciting the name of Brahma, oblation should be offered with the following: Mantra Hring, O Deva of the Devas! do Thou make faultless any shortcomings that there may be in this rite, and anything done needlessly, whether by negligence or mistake. Svaha (48- 49). Then oblation should be offered to Fire, thus: Mantra Hring, O Fire! Thou art the Purificator of all things. Thou makest all sacrifices propitious, and art the Lord of all. Thou art the Witness of all sacrificial rites, and the Insurer of their success. Do Thou fulfil all my desires (50). The sacrificing priest, having thus concluded the Svishti -krit Homa, should thus (pray to the Supreme Brahman): Mantra O Supreme Brahman! O Omnipresent One! for the removal of the effects of whatsoever has been improperly done in this sacrifice, and for the success of the sacrifice, I am making this Vyahriti Homa. Saying this, he should offer three oblations with the three Mantras Hring Bhuh Svaha, 156 Hring Bhuvah Svaha, Hring Svah Svaha. Thereafter offering one more oblation with the Mantra Hring Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah Svaha, the wise priest should, jointly with the giver of the sacrifice, offer the complete oblation (51- 53). If the latter has performed the sacrifice without a priest, he should offer the oblation himself. This is the rule in Abhisheka and other observances (54). The Mantra for the complete oblation is Mantra Hring, O Lord of Sacrifice! may this Sacrifice of mine be complete. May all the Devatas of sacrifices be pleased and grant that which is desired. Svaha (55). The wise one should then, with the giver of the sacrifice, stand up, and, with a well - controlled mind, offer oblations with fruit and pan leaves, uttering the while the aforesaid Mantra (56). The learned one should, after offering the complete oblation, perform Shanti -karma. Taking water from the sprinkling vessel, he should with kusha grass sprinkle it over the heads of the persons present (57), reciting the Mantra May the water be friendly to me, may water be like a medicament to me, may water preserve me always; water is Narayana Himself (58). Do thou, O water! grant me happiness and my earthly desires, and so forth. Having said this, and sprinkled water over the heads of those present, throw a few drops on the ground, saying (59): Mantra To those who are ever hostile to me, and to those to whom we are ever hostile, may water be their enemy and engulf them (60). Sprinkling a few drops of water in the North -East corner to the accompaniment of the above- mentioned Mantra, the kusha grass should be put away, and supplication should be made to the Carrier of oblations as follows (61): Mantra O Carrier of Oblations! do Thou grant unto me understanding, knowledge, strength, intelligence, wisdom, faith, fame, fortune, health, energy, and long life (62). 157 Having thus prayed to Fire, he should, O Shiva! be bidden to depart with the following (63): Mantra Sacrifice! do thou depart to the Lord of Sacrifice. Fire! do thou depart to the Sacrifice it self. Lord of Sacrifice! do Thou depart to Thine own place and fulfil my desires (64). Then saying, "Fire, forgive me," the Fire should be moved to the South by pouring oblations of curd on the North of Fire (65). Then the worshipper should give a present to Brahma, and, after bowing to him respectfully, bid him go, and, with the ashes adhering to the ladle, the officiating priest should then make a mark on his own forehead and on that of the giver of the sacrifice, uttering the Mantra Hring, Kling, do thou bring peace; mayest thou cause prosperity (66- 67). By the grace of Indra, of Agni, of the Maruts, Brahma, the Vasus, the Rudras, and Praja- pati, may there be peace, may there be prosperity. Whilst saying this Mantra, he should place a flower on his own head. Thereafter the giver of the sacrifice should, as his means allow, offer presents for the success of the sacrifice and for the Kushandika rite (68- 69). I have spoken to Thee, O Devi! of Kushandika, which is the groundwork of all auspicious ceremonies, and which all Kula worshippers should with care perform at the commencement thereof (70). O Auspicious One! I will now speak to Thee of Charu- karma, in order to insure the ritual success in those families in which the cooking of charu is a traditional pract ice in the performance of all rites (71). The pot for cooking charu should be made of either copper or mud (72). In the first place, the articles should be consecrated according to the rules prescribed in Kushandika, and then the pot of charu should be placed in front of the worshipper (73). After careful examination to see that it is without holes and unbroken, a blade of kusha grass of the length of a pradesha should be put in the pot (74). The rice should be placed near the square and then, O Adored of the Devas! the names of such of the Devas as are to be worshipped in each particular ceremony should be uttered in the dative case, followed by the words "to please Thee," and then "I take," "I place it in the pot," and "I put water into it," and put four handfuls of rice in the name of each Deva. He should then take the rice, put it in the pot, and pour water over it (75- 77). O Virtuous One! milk and sugar should be added thereto, as is done in cooking. The whole should then be well and carefully cooked over the consecrated fire (78). And when he is satisfied that it is well cooked and soft, the sacrificial ladle, filled with ghee, should be let into it (79). Thereafter 158 placing the pot on kusha grass on the northern side of the Fire, and adding ghee to the charu three times, the pot should be covered with blades of kusha grass (80). Then, putting a little ghee into the sacrificial spoon, a little charu should be taken from the pot. With it Janu Homa is done (81). Then, after doing Dhara Homa, oblations should be made with the Mantras of the Devas, who are directed to be worshipped in the principal rite (82). Completing the principal Homa after performance of Svishti -krit Homa, expiatory Homa should be performed, and the rite thus completed (83). In the sacramental and consecratory ritual this is the method to be observed. In all auspicious ceremonies it should be followed for the complete success thereof (84). Now,O Mahamaya! I will speak of Garbhadhana and other rites. I will speak of them in their order, beginning with Ritusangskara. Do Thou listen (85). After performing his daily duties and purifying himself, (the priest) should worship the five deities Brahma, Durga, Ganesha, the Grahas, and the Dikpalas (86). They should be worshipped in the jars on the East side of the square, and then the sixteen Matrikas namely, Gauri and others should be worshipped in their order (87). The sixteen Matrikas are Gauri, Padma, Shachi, Medha, Savitri, Vijaya, Jaya, Deva- sena, Svadha, Svaha, Shanti, Pushti, Dhriti, Kshama, the worshippers own tutelary Devata, and the family Devata (88). Mantra May the Mothers that cause the joy of the Devas come and bring all success to weddings, vratas, and yajnas. May they come upon their respective carriers, and in all the fulness of their power, in their benign aspect, and add to the glory of this festival (89- 90). Having thus invoked the Mothers and worshipped them to the best of his powers, the priest should make five or seven marks with vermilion and sandal paste on the wall, at the height of his navel, and within the space of a pradesha (91). The wise one should then, whilst breathing the three Vijas Kling, Hring, and Shring pour an unbroken stream of ghee from each of the said marks, and there worship the Deva Vasu (92). The wise man, having thus made the Vasu- dhara according to the directions which I have given, and having made the square and placed the Fire thereupon, and consecrated the articles requisite for Homa, should then cook the excellent charu (93). Charu which is cooked in t his (Ritu -sangskara) is called Prajapatya, and the name of this Fire is Vayu. After concluding Dhara Homa, the rite of Ritu -sangs -kara should be begun (94). Three oblations of charu should be offered with the Mantra Hring. salutation to Prajapati. Svaha. 159 The one oblation should be offered with the following (95): Mantra May Vishnu grant the power to conceive. May Tvashta give the form. May Prajapati sprinkle it, and may Dhata give the power to bear (96). This oblation should be made with either ghee or charu, or with ghee and charu, and should be offered meditating upon the Sun, Vishnu, and Prajapati (97). Mantra May Sinibali give support to thy womb, may Sarasvati give support to thy womb, may the two Ashvins, who wear garlands of lotuses, give support to thy womb (98). Meditating upon the Devis Sinibali and Sarasvati and the two Ashvins, excellent oblations should be offered with the above Mantra, followed by Svaha (99). Then oblation should be offered to the sanctified Fire, meditating upon Surya and Vishnu with the Mantra Kling, String, Hring, Shring, Hung, grant conception to her, who desires a son: Svaha (100). Then, in the name of Vishnu, oblations should be offered with the following: Mantra As this extended Earth ever carries a full womb, do thou likewise carry for ten months until delivery. Svaha (101). Meditating upon the Supreme Vishnu, let a little more ghee be thrown into the Fire with the following: Mantra Vishnu! do Thou in Thy excellent form put into this woman an excellent son: Svaha (102). And, uttering the following Mantra Kling, Hring, Kling, Hring, String, Hring, Kling, Hring, let the husband touch his wifes head (103). Then the husband, surrounded by a few married women having sons, should place both hands on the head of his wife, and, after meditating on Vishnu, Durga, Vidhi and Surya, place three fruits on the cloth of her lap. Thereupon he should bring the ceremony to a close by making Svishti -krit 160 oblations and expiatory rites (104 -105). Or the wife and husband may be purified by worsh ipping Gauri and Shangkara in the evening, and by giving oblations to Sun (106). I have now spoken of Ritu- sangskara. Now listen to that relating to Garbhadhana (107). On the same night, or on some night having a date of an even number, after the ceremony, the husband should enter the room with his wife, and, meditating on Prajapati, should touch his wife and say: Mantra Hring, O Bed! be thou propitious for the begetting of a good offspring of us two (108-109). He should then with the wife get on the bed, and there sit with his face towards the East or the North. Then, looking at his wife, let him embrace her with his left arm, and, placing his right hand over her head, let him make japa of the Mantra on the different parts of her body (as follows) (110): Let him make japa over the head of the Kama Vija a hundred times; over her chin of the Vagbhava Vija a hundred times; over the throat of the Rama Vija twenty times; and the same Vija a hundred times over each of her two breasts (111). He should then recite the Maya Vija ten times over her heart, and twenty -five times over her navel. Next let him place his hand on her member, and recite jointly the Kama and Vagbhava Vijas a hundred and eight times, and let him similarly recite the same Vijas over his own member a hundred and eight times; and then, saying the Vija "Hring," let him part the lips of her member, and let him go into her with the object of begetting a child (112- 113). The husband should, at the time of the spending of his seed, meditate on Brahma, and, discharging it below the navel into the Raktikanadi in the Chitkunda, he should at the same time recite the following (114, 115): Mantra As the Earth is pregnant of Fire, as the Heaven is pregnant of Indra, as the Points of the compass are pregnant of the Air they contain, so do thou also become pregnant (by this my seed) (116). If the wife then, or at a subsequent period, conceive, the householder, O Maheshvari! should perform in the third month after conception the Pungsavana rite (117). After the performance of his daily duties, the husband should worship the five Devas and the heavenly Mothers, Gauri and others, and should make the Vasu- dhara (118). The wise one should then perform Briddhi Shraddha, and, as aforementioned, the ceremonies up to Dhara-H oma, and then proceed to the Pungsavana rites (119). The charu prepared for Pungsavana is called "Prajapatya," and the fire is called Chandra (120). One grain of barley and two Masha beans should be put into curd made from cows milk, and this should be given to the wife to drink, and, whilst she is 161 drinking it, she should be asked three times: "What is that thou art drinking,O gentle one?" (121). The wife should make answer: "Hring, I am drinking that which will cause me to bear a son." In this manner the wife should drink three mouthfuls of the curd (122). The wife should then be led by women whose husbands and children are living to the place of sacrifice, and the husband should there seat her on his left and proceed to perform Charu- Homa (123). Taking a little charu as aforementioned, and uttering the Maya Vija and the Kurcha Vija, he should offer it as oblation, with the following: Mantra Do thou destroy, do thou destroy all these Bhutas, Pretas, Pishachas, and Vetalas, who are inimical to conception and destroyers of the child in the womb, and of the young. Do thou protect (the child in) the womb, do thou protect (the child in) the womb (124- 125). Whilst reciting the above Mantra, meditate upon Fire, as Raksko- ghna, and on Rudra and Prajapati, and then offer twelve oblations (126). He should then offer five oblations with the Mantra Hring, Salutation to Chandra. Svaha. And then, touching his wifes heart, breathe inwardly the Vijas Hring and Shring one hundred times (127). He should then perform Svishti -krit Homa and Prayash -chitta, and complete the ceremony. Panchamrita should be given in the fifth month of pregnancy 128). Sugar, honey, milk, ghee, and curd in equal quantities make Panchamrita. It is needful for the purification of the body (129). Breathing the Vijas Aing, Kling, Shring, Hring, Hung, and Lang, five times over each of the five ingredients, the husband, after mixing them together, should cause his wife to eat it (130). Then, in the sixth or eighth month, the Simantonnayana rite should be performed. It may, however, be performed any time before the child is born (131). The wise one should, after performing the rites as aforementioned, do Dhara- Homa, and sit with his wife on a seat, and offer three oblations to Vishnu, Surya, and Brahma, saying: Mantra To Vishnu Svaha, to the Effulgent One Svaha, to Brahma Svaha (132). Then, meditating on Chandra, let him offer seven oblations to Soma into Fire under his name of Shiva (133). Then, O Shiva! he should meditate upon the Ashwins, Vasava, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Prajapati and offer five oblations to each of them (134). The husband should after that take a gold comb, and comb back the hair on each side of the head and tie it up with the chignon (135). He should, whilst so 162 combing the hair, meditate upon Shiva, Vishnu. and Brahma, and pronounce the Maya Vija (136) and the Mantra O Wife! thou auspicious and fortunate one, thou of auspicious vows! do thou in the tenth month, by the grace of Vishva- karma, be safely delivered of a good child. May thou live long and happy. This comb, may it give thee strength and prosperity! Saying this Mantra, the ceremony should be completed with Svishti -krit Homa and other rites (137- 138). Immediately after the birth of the son the wise one should look upon his face and present him with a piece of gold, and then in another room perform Dhara Homa in the manner already described (139). He should then offer five oblations to Agni, Indra, Prajapati, the Vishva- devas, and Brahma (140). The father should thereafter mix equal quantities of honey and ghee in a bell -metal cup, and, breathing the Vagbhava Vija over it a hundred times, make the child swallow it (141). It should be put into the childs mouth with the fourth finger of the right hand, with the following: Mantra Child, may t hy life, vitality, strength, and intelligence ever increase (142). After performing this rite for the longevity of the child, the father should give him a secret name, by which at the time of the investiture with the sacred thread he should be called (143). The father should then finish the Jata- karma by the performance of the usual expiatory and other rites, and then the midwife should with firmness cut the umbilical cord (144). The period of uncleanliness commences only after the cord is cut; therefore al l rites relating to the Devas and the Pitris should be performed before the cord is cut (145). If a daughter is born, all the acts as above indicated are to be performed, but the Mantras are not to be said. In the sixth or eighth month the boy should be given the name by which he is usually known (146). At the time of naming of the child the mother should, after bathing him and dressing him in two pieces of fine cloth, come to and place him by the side of her husband, with his face towards the East (147). The father should thereupon sprinkle the head of the child with water taken up upon blades of kusha grass and gold, saying at the time the following: Mantra May Jahnavi, Yamuna, Reva, the holy Sarasvati, Narmada, Varada, Kunti, the Oceans and Tanks, Lakes all these bathe thee for the attainment of Dharmma, Kama, and Artha (149). O Waters! thou art the Pranava, and thou givest all happiness. Do thou therefore provide for us food in (this) world, and do thou also enable us to see the Supreme and Beautiful (Par a-brahman). Water! thou art not different from the Pranava. Grant 163 that we may enjoy in this world thy most beneficent essence. Your wishes arise of themselves spontaneously like those of mothers. Water! thou art the very form of Pranava. We go to enjoy to our fill that essence of thine by which thou satisfieth (this Universe). May thou bring us enjoyment therein (150- 152). The wise one should sprinkle water over the child, with the three preceding Mantras, and then, as aforesaid, consecrate the fire and perform the rites leading up to Dhara Homa in the manner already described, and then should offer five oblations (153). He should make the oblation to Agni, then to Vasava, then to Prajapati, then to the Vishva -Devas, and then to Yahni under his name of Parthiva (154). Then, taking the son in his lap, the prudent father should speak into his right ear an auspicious name one that is short, and that can easily be pronounced (155). After whispering the name three times into the sons ear, he should inform the Brahmanas who are present of it, and then conclude the ceremony with Svishtikrit Homa and the other concluding rites (156). For a daughter there is no Nishkramana, nor is Vriddhi Shraddha necessary. The wise man performs the naming, the giving of the first rice, and tonsure of a daughter without any Mantra (157). In the fourth or sixth month after birth the Nishkramana Sangskara ceremony of the son should be performed (158). After performing his daily duties, the father should, after bathing, worship Ganesha, and then bathe and adorn his son with clothes and jewels, and, placing him in front of himself, pronounce the following (159): Mantra Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Ganesha, Bhaskara, Indra, Vayu, Kuvera, Varuna, Agni, and Brihaspati, may They always be propitious to this child, and may They always protect him throughout his going forth from the house (160). Having said this, he should take the child in his arms, and, preceded by vocal and instrumental music, and surrounded by his rejoicing kinsmen, take the son out of the house (161). Going a little distance, he should show the Sun to the child, with the following (162): Mantra Ong, yonder is the Eye (of Heaven) who excels even Shukra in his effulgence, who is beneficent even to the Devas. May we see him a hundred years. May we live a hundred years (163). Having shown the Sun to his child, the father should return to his own house, and, after making offering to the Sun, feast his kinsmen (164). O Shiva! in the sixth or eighth month either the fathers brother or the father himself should give the first rice 164 to the child (165). After worshipping the Devas and purifying fire as aforementioned, and duly performing the ceremonies leading to Dhara Homa, the father should make five oblations to Fire, under his name of Shuchi, to each of the following Devas: He should make the oblations first to Agni, next to Vasava, after him to Prajapati, then to the Vishva- devas, and then the fifth ahuti to Brahma (166- 168). He should then meditate upon the Devi Annada, and, after giving Her five oblations in Fire, place the son, adorned with clothes and jewels, in his lap, and give him payasa, either in the same or in another room (169). The payasa should be put into the childs mouth five times, uttering the Mantras for making oblations to the five vital airs; and after that a little rice and curry should be put into the childs mouth (170). The ceremony should be brought to a close by the blowing of conches and horns and other music, and by performing the concluding expiatory rite. I have done speaking of the rice- eating ceremony. I shall now speak of the tonsure ceremony. Do Thou listen (171). In the third or fifth year, according to the custom in the family, the tonsure of the boy should be performed for the success of the sacramental rites of the boy (172). The wise father should, after concluding the preliminary rites leading up to Dhara Homa, place on the north side of the Fire, called Satya, a mud platter filled with cow -dung, tila-seeds, and wheat, also a little lukewarm water and a keen- edged razor (173- 174). The father should place the son on his mothers lap, the mother sitting on her husbands left, and, after breathing the Varuna Vija ten times over the water, rub the hair of the boys head with lukewarm water. He should then tie the hair with two blades of kusha grass into a knot, uttering meanwhile the Maya Vija (175- 176). Then, saying the Maya and Lakshmi Vijas three times, he should cut off the knot with the steel razor and place it in the hands of the childs mother (177). The boys mother should then take it with both hands and place it in the platter containing the cow - dung, and the father should then say to the barber: "Barber, do thou at thine ease proceed with the shaving of the boys hair, Svaha." Then, looking at the barber, he should make three oblations to Prajapati, into Vahni, under his name of Satya (178- 179). After the boy has been shaved by the barber he should be bathed and adorned with clothes and jewels, and placed near the fire on the left of his mother, and the father should, after performance of Svishti- krit Homa and the expiatory rites, offer the complete oblation (180- 181). Then, uttering the following: Mantra Hring, O Child! may the omnipresent Creator of the Universe grant thee well -being, he should pierce the ears of the boy with gold or silver needles (182). He should then sprinkle the child with water, uttering the Mantra 165 O Water! thou art, etc. (aforementioned); and, after performing Shanti Karma and other rites, and making presents, bring the ceremony to a close (183). The sacramental rites from Garbhadhana to Chudakarana are common to all castes. But for Shudras and Samanyas they must be performed without Mantras (184). In the case of the birth of a daughter all castes are to perform the rites without Mantras. In the case of a daughter there is no Nishkramana (185). I will now speak of the Sacred Thread Ceremony of the twice- born classes, by which the twice -born become qualified for performing rites relating to the Devas and Pitris (186). In the eighth year from conception, or the eighth year after birth, the boy should be invested with the sacred thread. After the sixteenth year the son should not be invested, and one so invested is disqualified for all rites (187). The learned man should, after finishing his daily duties, worship the five Devas, as also the Matrikas, Gauri, and others, and make the Vasudhara (188). He should thereafter perform Briddhi Shraddha for the satisfaction of the Devas and Pitris, and perform the rites, ending with Dhara Homa, as directed in the performance of Kushandika (189). The boy should be given a little to eat; then his head, with the exception of the crown lock, should be shaved, and after that he should be well bathed and decked with jewels and silken clothes (190). The boy should then be taken to the Chhaya -mandapa, near Fire, under his name of Samudbhava, and there made to sit on a clean seat to the left (of his father or Guru) (191). The Guru should say: "My son, dost thou adopt Brahma- charyya?" The disciple s hould say respectfully: "I do adopt it" (192). The Preceptor should then with a cheerful mind give two pieces of Kashaya cloth for the long life and strength of mind of the gentle boy (193). Then when the boy has put on the Kashaya cloth, he should, without speaking, give him a knotted girdle made of three strings of munja or kusha grass (194). On that the boy should say, "Hring, may this auspicious girdle prove propitious"; and, saying this, and putting it round his waist, let him sit in silence before the Guru (195). Mantra This sacrificial thread is very sacred; Brihaspati of old wore it. Do thou wear this excellent white sacrificial thread which contributes to prolong life. May it be for thee strength and courage (196). With this Mantra the boy should be given a sacrificial thread made of the skin of the black buck, as also a staff made of bamboo, or a branch of Khadira, Palasha, or 166 Kshira trees (197). When the boy has put the sacred thread round his neck and holds the staff in his hand, the Guru should three times recite the Mantra "O Water! thou art," etc. (aforementioned), preceded and followed by Hring, and should sprinkle the boy with water taken with kusha grass, and fill the joined palms of the latter with water (198). After the boy has offered the water to Suryya, the Guru should show the boy the Sun, and recite the Mantra. "Yonder is the Sun," etc. (aforementioned) (199). After the boy has viewed the Sun, the Guru should address him as follows: "My Son! place thy mind on my observances. I bestow upon thee my disposition. Do thou follow the observances with an undivided mind. May my word contribute to thy well - being" (200). After saying this, the Guru, touching the boys heart, should ask, "My Son! what is thy name?" and the boy should make reply: " . . . Sharmma, I bow to thee" (201). And to the question of the Guru, "Whose Brahma- chari art thou?" the disciple will reverently answer: "I am thy Brahma- chari" (202). The Guru should thereupon say: "Thou art the Brahma- chari of Indra, and Fire is thy Guru." Saying this, the good Guru should consign him to the protection of the Devas (203). "My Son! I give thee to Prajapati, to Savitri, to Varuna, to Prithivi, to the Vishva- devas, and to all the Devas. May they all ever protect thee" (204). The boy should thereafter go round the sacrificial fire and the preceptor, keeping both upon his right, and then resume his own seat (205). The Guru, O Beloved! should then, with his disciple touching him, offer five oblations to Five Devas (206) namely, Prajapati, Shukra, Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva (207). When the oblations are offered into Fire, under his name of Samud- bhava, the names of each of the Devas should be pronounced in the dative, preceded by Hring and followed by Svaha. Where there is no Mantra mentioned, this method is to be followed in all cases (208). After this, oblation should be offered to Durga, Mahalakshmi, Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Indra, and the other nine regents of the quarters, and Bhaskara and the eight planets (209). The name of each of these should be mentioned whilst the offering of oblations is made. The wise Guru should then cover the boy with cloth, and ask him, who is desirous of attaining Brahma- charyya: "What is the ashrama thou desirest, my son! and what is thy hearts desire?" (210). The disciple should thereupon hold the feet of the Preceptor, and, with a reverent mind, say: "First instruct me in Divine Knowledge, and then in that of the householder" (211). O Shiva! when the disciple in this manner has thus beseeched his Guru, the latter should three times whisper into his disciples right ear the Pranava, which contains all the Mantras in itself, and should also utter the three Vyahritis, as also the Savitri 167 (212). Sadashiva is its Rishi, the verse is Trishtup, the presiding Deva is Savitri, and its object is the attainment of final liberation (213). The Gayatri Mantra is: Mantra Ong, let us contemplate the wonderful Spirit of the Divine Creator. May He direct our understanding, Ong. The Guru should then explain the meaning of the Gayatri (214- 215). By the Tara, which contains the letters i.e., A, U, and M the Paresh is meant. He Who is the Protector, Destroyer, and Creator. He is the Deva Who is above Prakriti (106). This Deva is the Spirit of the three worlds, containing in Himself the three qualities. By the three Vyahritis, therefore, the all -pervading Brahman is expressed (217). He Who is expressed by the Pranava and the Vyahritis is also known by the Savitri. Let us meditate upon the sublime, all -pervading eternal Truth, the great immanent and lustrous energy, adored by the self -controlled; Savita, effulgent and omnipresent One, Whose manifested form the world is, the Creator. May Bharga, Who witnesseth all, and is the Lord of all, direct and engage our mind, intelligence, and senses towards those acts, which lead to the attainment of Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (218- 220). O Devi! the excellent Guru, having thus instructed the disciple, and explained to him the Divine Wisdom, should direct him in the duties of a householder (221). "My Son! do thou now discard the garments of a Brahma- chari, and honour the Devas and Pitris according to the way revealed by Shambhu" (222). Thy body is sanctified by the instructions thou hast received in Divine Wisdom. Do thou, now that thou hast reached the stage of a householder, engage thyself in thy duties appropriate to that mode of life (223). Put on two sacred threads, two good pieces of cloth, jewels, shoes, umbrella, fragrant garland, and paste (224). The disciple should then take off his Kashaya cloth and his sacred thread of black -buck skin and his girdle, and give them and his staff, begging- bowl, and also what has been received by him in the shape of customary alms, to his Guru. He should then put on two sacred threads and two fine cloths, and wear a garland of fragrant fiowers, and perfume himself, and thereafter sit in silence near the Guru, who should address him as follows (225- 227): "Conquer the senses, be truthful and devoted to the acquisition of Divine Knowledge and the study of the Vedas, and discharge the duties of a householder according to the rules prescribed in the Dharmma Shastras" (228). Having thus instructed the disciple, the Guru should make him offer three oblations into Fire in the name of Samudbhava with the Mantra 168 Hring, Earth, Firmament, and Heaven, Ong. He should then himself perform Svishti -krit Homa, and then, O Gentle One! he should bring the investiture ceremony to a close by offering the complete oblation (229- 230). Beloved! all ceremonies, from the Jivaseka to Upana- yana ceremonies, are performed by the father alone. The ceremony relating to marriage may be performed either by the father or by the bridegroom himself (231). The pious man should on the day of marriage perform his ablutions and finish his daily duties, and should then worship the five Devas and the Divine Mothers, Gauri and others, and making the Vasu -dhara do Briddhi Shraddha (232). At night the betrothed bridegroom, preceded by vocal and musical instrumental music, should be brought to the chhaya- mandapa and seated on an excellent seat (233). The bridegroom should sit facing the East, and the giver of the bride should face the west, and the latter, after rinsing his mouth, should, with the assisting Brahmanas, say the words "Svasti" and "Riddhi" (234). The giver of the bride should ask after the bridegrooms welfare, and ask also his permission to honour him, and upon receiving his answer should honour him by the offer of water for his feet and the like (235), and saying, "I give this to you," let him give the bridegroom the gifts. The water should be given at the feet and the oblation at the head (236). Articles for the rinsing of the mouth should be offered at the mouth, and then scents, garlands, two pieces of good cloth, beautiful ornaments and gems, and a sacred thread should be given to the bridegroom (237), The giver should make madhu- parka by mixing together curd, ghee, and honey in a bell -metal cup, and place it in the hand of the bridegroom with the words, "I give you" (238). The bridegroom, after taking it, should place the cup in his left hand, and, dipping the thumb and ring fingers of his right hand into the madhu- parka, should smell it five times, reciting meanwhile the Pranahuti Mantra, and then place the cup on his north. Having offered the madhu- parka, the bridegroom should be made to rinse his mouth (239- 240). The giver of the daughter should then, holding durva and akshata, touch the right knee of the bridegroom with his hand, and then, first meditating on Vishnu and saying "Tat Sat," he should mention the name of the month, the paksha, and tithi, and then the names of the gotra and pravara of the bridegroom and his ancestors one by one, from the great -grandfather, beginning with the last, and ending with the father. The bridegrooms name should be in the objective, and the names of the others in the possessive case. Then follow the brides name and the names of her ancestors, their gotras, etc.; and he should then say: "I honour thee with the object of giving her to thee in Brahma marriage" (241- 244). The bridegroom should then say: "I am honoured." The giver upon this should say, "Perform the ordained marriage rites," and the bridegroom should then say: "I do it to the best of my knowledge" (245). The bride, adorned with beautiful clothes and 169 jewels, and covered with another piece of cloth, should then be brought and placed in front of the bridegroom (246). The giver of the bride should once again show his respect to the bridegroom by the present of clothes and ornaments, and join the right hand of the bridegroom with that of the bride (247). He should place in their joined hands five gems or a fruit and a pan- leaf, and, having saluted the bride, should consign her to his hands (248). At the time of consigning the bride the giver should, as before, mention his name twice in the nominative case, and should state his wish, and should also mention the names of the three ancestors of the bridegroom, with their gotras, all in the possessive case, as before. He should then mention the name of the bridegroom in the dative singular, and then the names of the three ancestors of the bride, with their gotras, etc., in the possessive case. At the time of mentioning the brides name in the objective singular he should say after that, "The honoured, adorned, clothed, and Prajapati -devataka," and saying, "to thee I give," he should give away the bride. The bridegroom should, saying "Svasti," agree to take her as his wife (249- 251). Let the giver then say, "In Dharmma, in Artha, in Kama, thou should be with thy wife;" and the bridegroom should reply, saying, "So I shall," and then recite the praise of Kama (252). Mantra It is Kama who gives and Kama who accepts. It is Kama who has taken the Kamini for the satisfaction of Kama. Prompted by Kama, I take thee. May both our kamas be fulfilled (353). The giver should then, addressing the son- in-law and the daughter, say: "May, by the grace of Prajapati, the desires of you both be accomplished. May you two fare well. Do you two together perform the religious observances" (254). Then both the bride and bridegroom, to the accompaniment of music and blowing of conch- shells, should be covered with the cloth, so that they may have their first auspicious glance at one another (255). Then gold and jewels, according to the givers means, should be offered to the son- in-law as presents. The giver should then think to himself that the ceremony has been faultlessly done (256). The bridegroom either, on the same night or the day following, should establish fire, according to the rules of Kushandika (257). The fire that is made in this Kushandika is called Yojaka, and the charu which is cooked is called Prajapatya. After performing Dhara Homa in the fire, the bridegroom should offer five oblations (258). The oblation should, after meditation upon Shiva, Durga, Brahma, Vishnu, and the Carrier of Thunder, be made to them one after the other singly in the sanctified fire (259). Taking both his wifes hands, the husband should say: "I take thy hands, O fortunate one! Do thou be devoted to the Guru and the Devatas, and duly perform thy household duties according to the religious precepts" (260). The wife should then, with ghee given by the husband, and fried paddy given by her brother, make four oblations in the name of Prajapati (261). The 170 husband should then rise from his seat with his wife and go round the Fire with her and offer oblations to Durga and Shiva, Rama and Vishnu, Brahmi and Brahma, three times to each couple (262). Then, without reciting any Mantra, the bride should step on a stone, and, standing thereon, the bride should take seven steps. If the Kushamdika ceremony is performed at night, the bride and bridegroom, surrounded by the ladies present, should gaze upon the stars Dhruva and Arundhati (263). Returning to their seats and seated thereon, the bridegroom should bring the ceremony to a close by performing Svishti- krit Homa and offering complete oblations (264). The Brahma marriage, according to kula- dharmma, in order to be faultless, should take place with a girl of the same caste as the husband, but she should not be of the same gotra, nor should she be a sapinda (265). The wife married according to Brahma rites is the mistress of the house, and without her permission another wife should not be married according to those rites (266). O Kuleshvari! if the children of the Brahma wife are living or any of her descendants be living, then the children of the Shaiva wife shall not inherit (267). O Parameshvari! the Shaiva wife and her children are entitled to food and clothing from the heir of her Shaiva husband in proportion to the property of the latter (268). Shaiva marriage celebrated in the Chakra is of two kinds. One kind is terminated with the Chakra and the other is lifelong (269). At the time of the formation of the Chakr a the Vira, surrounded by his friends, relatives, and fellow -worshippers, should, with a well- controlled mind, by mutual consent, perform the marriage ceremony (270). He should first of all submit their wishes, saying to the Bhairavis and Viras there assembled, "Approve our marriage according to Shaiva form" (271). The Vira should, after obtaining their permission, bow to the Supreme Kalika, repeating the Mantra of seven letters (Kalika Mantra) one hundred and eight times (272). O Shiva! he should then say to the woman: "Dost thou love me as thy husband with a guileless heart?" (273). O Queen of the Devas! the Kaula woman should then honour her beloved with scents, flowers, and coloured rice, and with a faithful heart place her own hands on his (274). The Lord of the Chakra should then sprinkle them with the following Mantra, and the Kaulas, seated in the Chakra, should approve and say: "It is well" (275) Mantra May Raja- rajeshvari, Kali, Tarini, Bhuvaneshvari, Bagala, Kamala, Nitya, Bhairavi, ever protect thee both (276). The Lord of the Chakra should sprinkle them twelve times with wine or water of oblation, reciting the above Mantra. The two should then bow to him, and he should upon that let them hear the Vijas of Vagbhava and Rama (277). There is no 171 restriction of caste or age in Shaiva marriage. By the command of Shambhu, any woman who is not a sapinda, and has not already a husband, may be married (278). The wife married for the purposes of Chakra in the Shaiva form should, in the case of the Vira who desires offspring, be released on the dissolution of the Chakra only after the appearance of her menses. The offspring of the Shaiva marriage is of the same caste as the mother if it be an Anuloma marriage, and a Samanya if the marriage is Viloma (279- 281). These mixed castes should, at the time of their fathers shraddha and other ceremonies, give presents of edibles to, and feast the Kaulas only (282). Eating and sexual union, O Devi! are desired by, and natural to, men, and their use is regulated for their benefit in the ordinances of Shiva (283). Therefore, O Mahe- shani! he who follows the ordinances of Shiva undoubtedly acquires Dharmma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha (284). End of the Ninth Joyful Message, entitled "The Ten Kinds of Purificatory Rites (Sangskar a)." 172 CHAPTER 10 - RITES RELATING TO VRIDDHI SHRADDHA , FUNERAL RITES, AND PURNABHISHEKA SHRI DEVI said: I have now learned from Thee, O Lord! of the ordinances relating to Kushandika and the ten Sang-skaras. Do Thou now,O Deva! reveal to Me the ordinances relating to Briddhi Shraddha (1). O Shangkara! tell Me in detail, both for My pleasure and the benefit of all beings, in which of the sacramental and dedicatory ceremonies Kushandika and Briddhi Shraddha should be, or be not, performed. Say this, O Maheshana (2- 3). Shri Sadashiva said: O Gentle One! I have already in detail spoken of all that should be done in the ten Sangskaras commencing from Jiva- seka and ending in marriage (4), and of all that which should be performed by wise men who desire their own weal.O Beauteous One! I will now speak of what should be done in other rites. Do Thou listen to it (5). My Beloved! in consecrating tanks, wells, and ponds, images of Devatas houses, gardens and in vrata, the five Devas and the celestial Mothers should be worshipped, and the Vasu- dhara should be made and Briddhi Shraddha and Kushandika should be performed (6- 7). In ceremonies which may be, and are, performed by women alone there is no Briddhi Shraddha, but (in lieu thereof) a present of edibles should be made for the satisfaction of the Devatas and the Pitris (8). O Lotus -faced One! in such ceremonies the worship of the Deva, Vasu- dhara, and Kushandika should be devoutly performed by the women through the aid of priests (9). If a man cannot perform a rite himself, then his son, the sons son, the daughters son, agnate relatives, sisters son and son- in-law and the priest, are, O Shiva! the best substitutes (10). I will, O Kalika! now in detail speak of Briddhi Shraddha. Do Thou listen to it (11). After performing the daily duties, a man should with mind intent worship Ganga, Vishnu the Lord of Sacrifice, the Divinity of the homestead, and the King (12); and inwardly reciting the Pranava, he should make nine, seven, five, or three Brahmanas of Darbha grass (13). The Brahmanas should be made with ends of the grass which have no knots in them, by twisting the upper ends of the blades from right to left two and a half times (14). In Briddhi Shraddha and Parvana Shraddha there should be six Brahmanas, but, O Shiva! in Ekoddishta Shraddha there should be only one (15). The wise one should 173 place the Brahmanas made of kusha grass all in one receptacle, with their faces to the north, and bathe them with the following (16) Mantra May the Divinity of water, who is like the Maya Vija, be propitious for the attainment of our desire. May He be propitious in that which we drink, May He always stand forward for our good (17). Then with scents and flowers the Brahmanas made with kusha grass should be worshipped (18). The wise one should then place on the west and the south six vessels in pairs with kusha, sesamum -seed, and Tulasi (19). On the two vessels placed on the west two of the Brahmanas should be seated facing east, and on the four seats on the south the four Brahmanas should be seated facing north (20). The Divinities should be imagined to be in the two seated on the west and the paternal Ancestors in the two seated on the left of those on the south and the maternal ancestors on the right. Know this, O Parvati (21). In Abhyudayika Shraddha the Nandimukha fathers and the Nandimukhi mothers, as also the maternal Ancestors in the male line and in the female line, should be mentioned by name. Before this, however, one should turn to his right and face the north, and after the performance of the requisite ceremonies for the worship of the Devas he should turn to his left and face the south and perform the rites necessary for the offering of the Pindas (22- 23). In this Abhyudayika Shraddha, O Shiva! all the rites should be performed in their order, beginning with the rites relating to the Devas, and if there be any deviation the Shraddha fails in its object (24). The word of supplication addressed to the Devas should be said whilst facing the north, and when the same is addressed to the paternal or maternal Ancestors it should be said whilst facing south. And now, O Thou of pure Smiles! I will first state the words of entreaty which should be addressed to the Devas (25). After mentioning the name of the month and paksha, the tithi and the occasion, the excellent worshipper should say "for the prosperous result of the ceremony." Then he should repeat the names and gotras of the three fathers and of the three mothers, and of the three maternal grandfathers and of the three maternal grandmothers, in the possessive case, and he should thereafter say: "I am performing the Shraddha of the Vishva- Devas represented by the image of the two Brahmanas made of kusha grass." These, O Great Devi! are the words of entreaty" (26- 29). O Parvati! whe n the Anujna- vakya is either for paternal or maternal Ancestors, the same words should, with the necessary alterations, be said for the paternal and maternal Ancestors, and the Vishva- Devas left out (30). Then, O Shiva! the 174 worshipper should recite the Brahma -Vidya Gayatri ten times (31). He should next say the following Mantra I salute the Divinities, the Fathers i.e., the Fathers and Mothers the great Yogis; I salute Pushti and Svaha; may we have such auspicious occasions over and over again. The excellent worshipper, having repeated the above Mantra three times, and taking water in his hand, should wash the Shraddha articles with the Mantra Vang, Hung, Phat (32 -33). O Mistress of the Kula! a vessel should next be placed in the corner of Agni. Then utterin g the Mantra O Water! Thou art the nectar which killest the Rakshasas, protect this sacrifice of mine. Water with Tulasi -leaves and barley should be put into it; and the wise one should, after first offering handfuls of water to the Devas and then to the Vipras, give them seats of kusha grass (34- 35). The learned men, O Shiva! should then invoke the Vishva- Devas, the fathers, the mothers, the maternal grandfathers, and the maternal grandmothers (36). Having so invoked them, the Vishva- Devas should first be worshipped; and then the three fathers, the three mothers, the three maternal grandfathers, and the three maternal grandmothers should be worshipped, with offets of Padya, Arghya, Achamaniya, incense, lights, cloths. Then, O Beauteous One! permission should be asked in the first place of the Devas for the spreading of the leaves (37- 38). Then a four -sided figure should be drawn uttering the Maya Vija, and then in a similar way for the paternal and maternal sides two figures each should be drawn (39). After these have been sprinkled with the Varuna Vija, leaves should be spread over the figures. These leaves should be sprinkled with the Varuna Vija, and then drinking- water and different kinds of edibles and rice should be distributed in their order (40). After giving honey and grains of barley and sprinkling the offerings with water, accompanied by the Mantra Hrang, Hrung, Phat, 175 the worshipper possessed of the knowledge of Truth should dedicate the edibles by the names of the Vishva- Devas, the fathers, the mothers, the maternal grandfathers and the maternal grandmothers, and thereafter repeat the Gayatri ten times and thrice repeat the Mantra "I salute the Divinities," as aforesaid. After this, O Adya! he should take the directions (of the officiating Brahmanas ) relating to the disposal of the remnants of edibles and of the Pindas (41- 43). Upon receiving the directions of the Brahmana, he should, O Beloved! make twelve Pindas of the size of bael fruits with the remnants of the Akshata and other things (44). He should make one more Pinda equal in size with the others, and then, O Ambika! he should spread some kusha grass and barley on the Nairrita corner of the figure (45). Mantra Such of my family as have none to offer Pindas to them whom neither son nor wife survive, who were burnt to death or were killed by tigers or other beast of prey, such kinsmen of mine as themselves are without kinsmen, all such as were my kinsmen in previous births, may they all obtain imperishable satisfaction by the Pinda and water hereby given by me (46- 47). O Adored of the Devas! having with the above Mantra offered the Pinda to those who have no one to offer them Pindas, he should wash his hands and inwardly recite the Gayatri, and repeat the Mantra "I salute the Divinities," and so forth, three times, and then make the square (48). O Devi! the wise man should in front of the vessels containing the remnants of the offerings make such squares in twos (for his Ancestors), beginning with the paternal Ancestors (49). O Shive! he should then sprinkle the squares with water with the Mantra already prescribed, and then spread kusha grass over them and sprinkle them with the Vayu Vija (49), beginning with the kusha spread on the square for the paternal (male) Ancestors, and then offer three Pindas, one at the top, another at the bottom, and one in the middle, in each of the squares (50). O Maheshvari! the names of each of the Ancestors should be mentioned, inviting him or her, and then the Pinda should be given with honey and barley, concluding 176 with Svadha (51). After the Pindas are given (in manner aforesaid) the Lepa- bhoji Ancestors should be satisfied by the offer to them of the remnants which remain on the hand. These should be scattered on all sides with the Mantra Ong, may the Lepa- bhoji An cestors be pleased. In Ekoddishta Shraddha the offering to the Lepa- bhoji Ancestors is not made (52). Then for the satisfaction of the Devas and Pitris the Gayatri should be inwardly recited ten times, and the Mantra, "I salute the Divinities," as aforesaid should be similarly recited three times, and then the Pindas should be worshipped (53). Lighting an incense- stick and a light, the wise one should, with closed eyes, think of the Pitris in their celestial forms partaking of their allotted Pindas, each his own, and should then bow to them, uttering the following (54) Mantra My father is my highest Dharmma. My father is my highest Tapas. My father is my Heaven. On my father being satisfied, the whole Universe is satisfied (55). Taking up some flowers from the remnants, the Pitris should be asked for their blessings, with the following (56) Mantra Give me your blessings, O Merciful Pitris. May my knowledge, progeny, and kinsmen always increase. May my benefactors prosper. May I have food in profusion. May many always beg of me, and may I not have to beg of any (57- 58). Then he should remove the Devas and Brahmanas made of kusha grass, as also the Pindas, commencing with the Devas. The wise one should then make presents to all three (59). He should then make japa of the Gayatri ten times, and the Mantra, "I salute the Divinities," five times, and, after looking at the fire and the Sun, should, with folded palms, ask the Vipra the following question (60): "Is the Shraddha complete?" and the Brahmana should make r eply: "It has been completed according to the injunctions" (61). Then, for the removal of the effects of any error or omission, the Pranava should be inwardly recited ten times, and the ceremony should be brought to a close, uttering the following Mantra "May the Shraddha rite be faultless"; 177 and then the food and drink in the vessels should be offered to the officiating Brahmana (62). In the absence of a Vipra, it should be given to cows and goats, or should be thrown into water. This is called "Vriddhi Shraddha," enjoined for all obligatory sacramental rites (63). Shraddha performed on the occasion of any Parvvan is called "Parvvana Shraddha" (64). In ceremonies relating to the consecration of emblems or images of Devas, or while starting for or returning from pilgrimage, the Shraddha should be according to the injunctions laid down for Parvvana Shraddha (65). On the occasion of Parvvana Shraddha the Pitris should not be addressed with the prefix "Nandimukha," and for the words "Salutation to Pushti" should be substituted the words "Salutation to Svadha" (66). O Beautiful One! if any of the three Ancestors be alive, then the wise one should make the offerings to another Ancestor of higher degree (67). If the father, grandfather, and great -grandfather be alive, then, O Queen of the Devas! no Shraddha need be performed. If they are pleased, then the object of the funeral rite and sacrifice is attained (68). If his father be living, then a man may perform his mothers Shraddha, his wifes Shraddha, and Nandi -mukha Shraddha; but he is not entitled to perform the Shraddha of anyone else (69).O Queen of the Kula! at the time of Ekoddishta Shraddha the Vishva- Devas are not to be worshipped. The word of entreaty should be addressed to one Ancestor only (70). At the time of Ekoddishta Shraddha cooked rice and Pinda should be given whilst facing south. The rest of the ceremony is the same as that which has been already described, with the exception that sesamum should be substituted for barley (71). The peculiarity in Preta Shraddha is that the worship of Ganga and others is omitted, and in the framing of the Mantra the deceased should be spoken of as Preta whilst rice and Pindas are offered to him (72). The Shraddha performed for one man is called "Ekoddishta." In offering Pinda to the Preta, fish and meat should be added (73). O Mistress of the Kula! know this, that the Shraddha which is performed on the day following the end of the period of uncleanliness is Preta Shraddha (74). If there is a miscarriage, or if the child dies immediately on birth, or if a child is born or dies, then the period of uncleanliness is to be reckoned according to the custom of the family (75). The period of uncleanliness in the case of the twice- born is ten days (for Brahmanas), twelve (for Kshatriyas), and a fortnight (for Vaishyas); for Shudras and Samanyas the period is one month (thirty days) (76). 178 On the death of an Agnate who is not a Sapinda, the period of uncleanliness is three days, and on the death of a Sapinda, should information of it arrive after the period prescribed, one becomes unclean for three days (77). The unclean man, O Primordial One! is not entitled to perform any rite relating to the Devas and the Pitris, excepting Kula worship and that which has been already commenced (78). Persons over five years of age should be burnt in the burning- ground, but, O Kuleshani! a wife should not be burnt with her dead husband (79). Every woman is Thy image Thou residest concealed in the forms of all women in this world. That woman who in her delusion ascends the funeral pyre of her lord shall go to hell (80). Kalika! the corpses of worshippers of Brahman should be either buried, thrown into running water, or burnt, according as they may direct (81). Ambika! death in a holy place or a place of pilgrimage, or near the Devi, or near the Kaulikas, is a happy one (82). He who at the time of his death meditates on the one Truth, forgetful of the three worlds, attains to his own Essential Being (83). After death the corpse should be taken to the bur ning- ground, and when it has been washed it should be smeared with ghee and placed on the pyre, with the face to the north (84). The deceased should be addressed by his name, and Gotra and as Preta. Giving the Pinda to the mouth of the corpse, the pyre should be lighted by applying the torch to the mouth of the corpse, inwardly the while reciting the Vahni Vija (85). Beloved! the Pinda should be made of boiled or unboiled rice, or crushed barley, or wheat, and should be of the size of an emblic myrobalam (86). To the eldest son of the Preta is given the privilege of performing the Shraddha; in his absence to the other sons, according to the order of their seniority (87). The day after the day upon which the period of uncleanliness expires, the mourner should bathe and purify himself, and give away gold and sesamum for the liberation of the Preta (88). The son of the Preta should give away cattle, lands, clothes, carriages, vessels made of metals, and various kinds of edibles, in order that the Preta may attai n Heaven (89). He should also give away scents, garlands, fruits, water, a beautiful bed, and everything which the Preta himself liked to insure his passage to Heaven (90). 179 Then a bull should be branded with the mark of a trident, and decorated with gold and ornaments, and then let loose, with the object that the deceased may attain Heaven (91). He should then with a devout spirit perform the Shraddha, according to the injunctions laid down for the performance of Preta Shraddha, and then feed Brahmanas and Kaulas possessed of Divine knowledge, and the hungry (92). The man who is unable to make gifts should perform the Shraddha to the best of his ability, and feed the hungry, and thus liberate his father from the state of existence of a Preta (93). This Preta Shraddha is known as Adya or Ekod- dishta Shraddha, and it liberates the deceased from the state of Preta. After this every year on the tithi of his death edibles should be given to the deceased (94). There is no necessity for a multitude of injunctions nor for a multitude of rituals. Man may attain all siddhi by honouring a Kaulika. The object of all Sangskaras is completely attained if, in lieu of the prescribed Homa, Japa, and Shraddha, even a single Kaulika is duly honoured (96), at the time of the ceremony. The injunction of Shiva is that all auspicious ceremonies should be performed between the period beginning with the fourth day of the light half of the lunar half - month, and ending on the fifth of the dark half -month (97). He, however, who is desirous of performing any rite which must be performed may perform it even on an inauspicious day, provided he be so directed by his Guru, by a Ritvij, or a Kaulika (98). A Kaulika should commence the building of a house, should first enter a house, start on a journey, wear new jewels, and the like,only after worshipping the Primordial One with the five Elements (99). Or the excellent worshipper may shorten the rite. He may thus, after meditating on the Devi, and inwardly reciting the Mantra and bowing to the Devi, go wherever he may desire (100). In the worship of all Devatas, such as the Autumnal Festival and others, dhyana and puja should be performed according to the ordinances laid down in the Shastras relating to such worship (101). According to the ordinances relating to the worship of the Primordial Kali, animal sacrifice and Homa should be performed, and the rite should be brought to an end by the honouring of Kaulikas and making of offerings (102). The general rule is that Ganga, Vishnu, Shiva, Suryya, and Brahma should first be worshipped, and then the Deva the special object of worship (103). 180 The Kaulika is the most excellent Dharmma, the Kaulika is the most excellent Deva, the Kaulika is the most excellent pilgrimage, therefore should the Kaula be alway s worshipped (104). The three and a half kotis of Places of Pilgrimage, all the Devas beginning with Brahma Himself, reside in the body of the Kaula. What, therefore, is there which is not attained by worshipping him? The land in which the good and fully initiated Kaula resides is blessed and deserving of honour. It is most holy, and is coveted even by the Devas (105- 106). Who can in this world understand the majesty of the fully initiated Sadhaka, who is Shiva Himself, and to whom there is nothing either holy or sinful? (107). Such a Kaula, possessing merely the form of man, moves about this earth for the salvation of the entire world and the instruction of men in the conduct of life (108). Shri Devi said: Thou hast, O Lord! spoken of the greatness of the Soul of the fully initiated Kaula. Do Thou in Thy mercy speak to Me of the ordinances relating to such initiation (109). Shri Sadashiva said: In the three Ages this rite was a great secret.; men then used to perform it in all secrecy, and thus attain liberation (110). When the Kali Age prevails, the followers of Kula rite should declare themselves as such, and, whether in the night or the day, should openly be initiated (111). By the mere drinking of wine, without initiation, a man does not become a Kaula. The Kula worshipper becomes the Lord of the Kula Chakra only after full initiation (112). The Guru should, the day before the initiation, worship the Deva of Obstacles with offerings, according to his ability for the removal of all obstacles (113). If the Guru is not qualified to officiate at a full initiation ceremony, then it should,O Beloved! be performed by a duly initiated Kaula (114). Gang is the Vija of Ganapati (Ganesha) (115). Ganaka is the Rishi, the Chhanda is Nivrit, the Lord of Obstacles is the Devata, and the Mantra is applicable for the removal of obstacles to the performance of the rite (116). Adding successively six long vowels to the Mula Mantra, Shadanga- nyasa should be performed, and O Shiva! after doing Pranayama let Ganapati be meditated upon (117). Dhyana Meditate on Gana- pati as of the colour of vermilion, having three eyes, a large belly, holding in His lotus -hands the conch, the noose, the elephant -goad, and the sign of 181 blessing. His great trunk adorned with the jar of wine which it holds. On His forehead shines the young Moon. He has the head of the King of elephants; His cheeks are constantly bathed in wine. His hody is adorned with the coils of the King of servants. He is dressed in red raiment, and His body is smeared with scented ointments (118). Having thus meditated upon Ganapati, he should be worshipped with mental offerings, and then the protecting power of the seat should be worshipped. These are Tibra, Jvalini, Nanda, Bhoga- da, Kama- rupini, Ugra, Tejasvati, Satyi, and Vighna -vinashini. The first eight should be worshipped in their order, beginning from the east, and the last should be worshipped in the middle of the Mandala. Having thus worshipped them all, the lotus -seat itself should be worshipped (119- 120). Meditating on Ganesha once again, He should be worshipped with offerings of the five elements. On each of His four sides should the excellent Kaulika worship Ganesha, Gana- nayaka, Gana- natha, Gana- krida, Eka -danta, Rakta- tunda, Lambodara, Gajanana, Mahodara, Vikata, Dhumrabha, and Vighna -nashana (121- 123). Then the eight Shaktis, Brahmi, and others, and the ten Dikpalas and their weapons, should be worshipped, and after that Vighna- raja should be bidden to depart (124). Having thus worshipped the King of Obstacles, the worshipper should perform the preliminary ceremony, and then entertain the Kaulas versed in divine knowledge with the five elements (125). The next day, having bathed and performed his ordinary daily duties as already enjoined, he should, O Beloved! give away sesamum -seed and gold for the destruction of all sins from his birth, and a bhojya for the satisfaction of the Kaulas (126). Then, giving arghya to Suryya, and having worshipped Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the nine Planets, as also the sixteen divine Mothers, he should make a Vasu -dhara (127). He should then perform Vriddhi Shraddha for the good result of the rite, and, going up to the Guru, bow to him, and pray to him as follows (128): (Prayer to the Guru) Save me, O Lord! thou that art the Sun of the Kaulas. Protect my head, O Ocean of Mercy! with the shade of thy lotus -foot (129). Grant us leave, O Exalted One! in this auspicious Purnabhisheka that by thy grace I may attain the success of my undertaking without any hindrance (130). (The Guru should then r eply:) My son! be thou, by the permission of the Shiva- Shakti, initiated with the full initiation. May thou attain the object of thy desire by the command of Shiva (131). 182 Having thus obtained the permission of the spiritual Preceptor, he should make the Sangkalpa for the removal of all obstacles and for the attainment of long life, prosperity, strength, and good health (132). The Sadhaka, having solemnly formed his resolve, should worship the Guru, by presenting him with clothes and jewels, and karana with Shuddhi, and do honour to him (133). The Guru should then make with earth an altar four fingers in height and measuring one and a half cubit either way in a beautiful room painted with red earth, etc., decorated with pictures, flags, fruits, and leaves, and strings of small bells. The room should have a beautiful ceiling- cloth, lighted with lines of lamps fed with ghee to dispel all traces of darkness, and should be scented with burning camphor, incense- sticks, and incense, and ornamented with fans, fly -whisks, the tail feathers of the peacock, and mirrors, etc., and then he should with rice powdered and coloured yellow, red, black, white, and dark blue draw Mandala called Sarvato- bhadra, beautiful and auspicious in every way (134- 138). Then each person should perform the rite preparatory to mental worship, according to his Sangkalpa, and then, having made mental worship, should purify the five elements with the Mantra previously mentioned (139). After the Pancha- tattvas have been purified, the jar, which must be either of gold or silver or copper or earth, should be placed with the Brahma Vija on the Mandala. It should be washed with the Weapon Mantra and smeared with curd, Akshata, and then a vermilion mark should be placed on it with the Mantra "Shring" (14 0-141). He should then recite three times the letters of the alphabet, with the Vindu superposed from Ksha to A, and recite inwardly the Mula Mantra, and fill the jar with wine or water from some holy place, or with ordinary pure water, and then throw into the jar nine gems or gold (142- 143). The merciful Guru should then place over the mouth of the jar a leafy branch of a Jack- tree, a Fig- tree, an Ashvattha- tree, and of a Vakula and Mango- tree, with the Vagbhava Vija (144). He should then place on the leafy branch a gold, silver, copper, or earthen platter, uttering the Rama Vija and Maya Vija (145). Then, O Beauteous One! two pieces of cloth should be tied to the neck of the jar. When worshipping Shakti the cloth should be of a red colour, and in the worship of Shiva and Vishnu it should be white (146). Inwardly reciting the Mantra Sthang, Sthing, Hring, Shring, 183 the jar should be fixed in its place, and after putting into it the Pancha- tattvas the nine cups should be placed in their order (147). The Shakti Patra should be of silver, the Guru Patra of gold, the Shri Patra should be made of the human skull, the rest of copper (148). Cups made of stone, wood, and iron should be rejected; the material of the cups in the worship of the Maha- Devi should be accordi ng to the means of the worshipper (149). After placing the cups, libations should be offered to the four Gurus and the Devi, and the wise one should then worship the jar filled with nectar (150). Lights and incense should then be waved and sacrifices made to all beings, and after worshipping the divinities of the pitha he should perform Shadangganyasa (151). He should then do Pranayama, and, meditating on the Great Devi, invoke Her, and thereafter worship Her, the Object of his worship, to the best of his ability and without niggardliness (151). The excellent Guru, O Shiva! should perform all the rites ending with Homa, and then honour the Kumaris and worshippers of Shakti by presenting them with flowers, sandal -paste, and clothes (153). The Guru should then ask the permission of those present with the following words: O you Kaulas! who are vowed to Kula- worship, be kind to my disciple. Do you give your permission to his Sangskara of Purnabhisheka (154). The Lord of the Chakra, having thus asked those present, should respectfully say: "By the grace of Mahamaya and the majesty of the Supreme Soul, may thy disciple be perfect and devoted to the Supreme Essence" (155). The Guru should then make the disciple worship the Devi in the jar, which has been worshipped by himself, and then, mentally repeating the Mantra Kling, Hring, Shring over it, move the immaculate jar, with the following Mantra Rise, O Brahma -kalasha, thou art the Devata and grantest all success. May my disciple, being bathed with thy water and leaves, be devoted to Brahman (156- 157). Having moved the jar in this manner, the Guru should mercifully sprinkle the disciple seated with his face to the North with the Mantra about to be spoken (158). The Rishi of the Mantra of this auspicious Purnabhisheka rite is Sadashiva, the presiding Devata is the Adya Devata, the Vija is "Ong," and its applicability is for the auspicious sprinkling on the occasion of the Purnabhisheka ceremony (158- 159). Mantra 184 May the Gurus sprinkle thee. May Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara sprinkle thee; may the Mothers Durga, Lakshmi, Bhavani, sprinkle thee; may Shodashi, Tarini, Nitya, Svaha, Mahisha- mardini, all these sprinkle thee with the water that has been sanctified by the Mantra; may Jaya- durga, Vishalakshi, Brahmani, Sarasvati , may all These sprinkle thee; may Bagala, Varada, and Shiva sprinkle thee; may the Shaktis, Narasinghi, Varahi, Vaishnavi, Vana- malini, Indrani, Varuni, Raudri, sprinkle thee; may Bhairavi, Bhadra- kali, Tushti, Pushti, Uma, Kshama, Shraddha, Kanti, Daya, Shanti, always sprinkle thee; may Maha- kali, Maha- lakshmi, Maha- nila-sarasvati, Ugra -chanda, Prachanda, constantly sprinkle thee; may Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Nrisingha, Vamana, Rama, Bhrigu- Rama, sprinkle thee with water; may Asitanga, Ruru, Chanda, Krodhonmatta, Bhayangkara, Kapali, Bhishana, sprinkle thee; may Kali, Kapalini, Kulla, Kurukulla, Virodhini, Viprachitta, Mahogra, ever sprinkle thee; may Indra, Agni, Shamana, Raksha, Varuna, Pavana, Dhana- da, Maheshana, who are the eight Dikpalas, sprinkle thee; may Ravi, Soma, Mangala, Budha, Jiva, Sita, Shani, Rahu, Ketu, with all their Satellites, sprinkle thee; may the stars, the Karanas, the Yogas, the Days of the Week, and the two Divisions of the Month, the Days, Seasons, Months, and the Year anoint thee always; may the Salt Ocean, the Sweet Ocean, the Ocean of Wine, the Ocean of Ghee, the Ocean of Curd, the Ocean of Milk, the Ocean of Sweet Water sprinkle thee with their consecrated waters; may Ganga, Yamuna, Reva, Chandra -bhaga, Sarasvati, Sarayu, Gandak i, Kunti, Shveta - ganga, Kaushiki, may all these sprinkle thee with their consecrated waters; may the great Nagas beginning with Ananta, the birds beginning with Garuda, the trees beginning with the Kalpa tree, and the great Mountains sprinkle thee; may the beneficent Beings residing in Patala, on the earth, and in the air, pleased at this hour of thy Purnabhisheka, sprinkle thee with water (160- 175). May thy ill -luck, bad name, illness, melancholy and sorrows be destroyed by the Purnabhisheka, and by the glory of the Supreme Brahman (176). May Alakshmi, Kala- karni, the Dakinis, and the Yoginis, being driven away by the Kali Vija, be destroyed by the Abhisheka (177). May the Bhuta, Preta, Pishachas, and the maleficent Planets be driven out, put to flight, and destroyed by the Rama Vija; may all misfortune caused thee by magic and by the incantations of thy enemies, may all thy transgressions of mind, word, and body be destroyed as the result of this initiation; may all thy adversities be destroyed, may thy prosperity be undisturbed, may all thy desires be fulfilled as the result of this Purnabhisheka (178- 180). With these twenty -one Mantras the disciple should be sprinkled with water; and if he has obtained already the Mantra from the mouth of a Pashu, the Guru should make him hear it again (181). The Kaulika Guru should, having informed the worshippers of Shakti, call his disciple by his name and give him a name ending with Anandanatha (182). Being thus initiated in the Mantra by the Guru, the disciple should worship his Ishta-devata in the Yantra (of the Guru), and then honour the Guru by presenting him with the Pancha -tattvas (183). 185 The disciple should also give as Dakshina cows, land, gold, clothes, drinks, and jewels to the Guru, and then honour the Kaulas, who are the very embodiments of Shiva (184). The self -possessed, purified, and humble disciple, having honoured the Kaulas, should touch the sacred feet of the Guru with veneration, and, bowing to him, pray to him as follows (185): Prayer to Guru Holy Lord! Thou art the Lord of the world. Lord! thou art my Lord.O Ocean of Mercy! do Thou gratify my hearts desire by the gift of the excellent nectar (186). The Guru should then say: "Give me leave, O Kaulas! you who are the visible images of Shiva Himself, that I may give to my good and humble disciple the excellent nectar" (187). The Kaulas will then say: "Lord of the Chakra! thou art the Supreme Lord Himself, Thou art the Sun of the Kaula lotus. Do Thou gratify this good disciple, and give him the Kaula nectar" (188). The Guru, having obtained the leave of the Kaulas, should place in the hand of the disciple the drinking- cup filled with the excellent nectar, as also the Shuddhi (189). The Guru should then, devoutly meditating on the Devi in his heart, place the tilaka on the forehead of the disciple, as also of the Kaulas, with the ashes adhering to the sacrificial spoon (190). Let the Guru then distribute the Tattvas offered to the Devi, and partake of the food and drink as directed in the injunctions relating to the formation of Chakra (191). O Devi! I have spoken to Thee of the auspicious rites relating to Purnabhisheka. By this one attains divine knowledge and becomes Shiva Himself (192). The Purnabhisheka should be performed for nine or seven or five or thr ee or one night (193). There are, O Kuleshani! five different forms in this purificatory rite. In the rite which lasts nine nights the Mandala known as Sarvato- bhadra should be made (194). Beloved! in the rite which lasts seven nights the Mandala Nava- nabha, in the rite which lasts five nights the Mandala Panchabja, in the rite which lasts three nights and in the rite which lasts one night the Mandala of eight -petalled lotus should be respectively made (195). O Devi! the injunction is that on the Sarvato- bhadra and Nava- nabha Mandalas nine jars should be placed, on Panchabja Mandala five, and on Ashta- dalabja Mandala 186 one jar, and the Angga- Devatas and the Avarana- Devatas should be worshipped in the filaments and other parts of the lotuses (196- 197). The Kaulas who have been fully initiated are pure of soul. All things are purified by their looking, touching, and by their smelling them (198). All men, whether they are Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Shaivas, Sauras, or Ganapatas, should worship the Kaula Sadhu with devotion (199). It is good for a Shakta to have a Guru who is a Shakta, for a Shaiva a Shaiva Guru is commendable, and for a Vaishnava a Vaishnava, for a Saura a Saura as Guru is advised, and a Ganapata is the proper Guru for a Ganapata, but a Kaula is excellent as Guru in the case of all; therefore the wise one should with all his soul be initiated by a Kaula (200- 201). Those who worship the Kaulas with Pancha- tattva and with heart uplifted cause the salvation of their Ancestors, and themselves attain the highest end (202). The man who has obtained the Mantra from the mouth of a Pashu is of a certainty a Pashu, and he who has obtained the Mantra from a Vira is a Vira, and he who obtains it from a Kaula knows the Brahman (203). One who has been initiated according to Shakta rites is a Vira; he may purify the Pancha- tattvas only in the worship of his own Ishta- devata, he may never be the Chakreshvara (204). He who kills a Vira, he who drinks wine which has not been consecrated, he who seduces the wife of or steals the property of a Vira, these four are great sinners, and the man who associates with any of these is the fifth sinner (205). Those evil -natured men who disparage the Kula Way, Kula articles, and the Kula worshipper go down the low and vile path (206). The Rudra- dakinis and Rudra- bhairavis dance in joy (at the thought of) chewing the bones and flesh of men who hate wine and the Kaulas (207). They are merciful and truthful, and ever desire the good of others, for such as slander them there is no escape from Hell (208). I have in the various Tantras spoken of various ceremonies and of many repetitions of practices; but in the case of a Kaula who is devoted to the Brahman, it is a matter of indifference whether he practises or omits them (209). There is one Supreme Brahman Who exists, spread throughout the Universe (or any part of it). He is worshipped, because there is nothing which exists apart from Him (210). Beloved! even those who look to the fruit of action and are governed by their desires and by the worship of different Devas, and addicted to worldly pursuits, go to and become united with Him (211). He who sees everything in Brahman, and who sees Brahman everywhere, is undoubtedly known as an excellent Kaula, who has attained liberation while yet living ( 212). 187 End of the Tenth Joyful Message, entitled "Rites relating to Vriddhi Shraddha, Funeral Rites, and Purnabhisheka." 188 CHAPTER 11 - THE ACCOUNT OF EXPIATORY RITES LISTENING to the injunctions of Shambhu relating to the different castes and stages of life, Aparna was greatly pleased, and questioned Shangkara thus (1): Shri Devi said: Thou hast, O Lord! out of Thy kindness for Me and in Thy omniscience, spoken of the customs and the rules of religious conduct and sacraments for the well -being of the world (2). But the men of the Kali Age, being wicked, and blinded by anger and lust, atheists, of wavering minds and addicted to the gratification of their senses, will not in their ignorance and folly follow the way laid down by Thee; it behoves Thee, O Ishana! to say what will be the means of their liberation (3- 4). Shri Sadashiva said: Thou hast asked well, O Devi! Thou who art the Benefactress of the world, the Mother of the world, Thou art Durga, Thou liberatest people from the bonds of birth and the toils of this world (5). Thou art the Primordial One, Thou fosterest and guardest this world, Thou art beyond the most excellent; Thou, O Devi! supportest the moving and the motionless Universe (6). Thou art Earth, Thou art Water, Thou art Fire, Thou art Air, Thou art the Void, Thou art consciousness itself, Thou art the mahat -tattva (7). Thou art life in this world; Thou art the knowledge of self, and Thou art the Supreme Divinity. Thou art the senses; Thou art the mind, Thou art the intellect; Thou art the motion and existence of the Universe (8). Thou art the Vedas, Thou art the Pranava, Thou art the Smritis, the Sanghitas, the Nigamas, the Agamas, and the Tantras, Thou pervadest all the Shastras, and art the Abode of all that is good (9). Thou art Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Maha- nila-sarasvati, Mahodari, Mahamaya, Maharaudri, and Maheshvari; Thou art Omniscient and full of knowledge, there is nothing which Thou knowest not; yet, O Wise One! since Thou askest Me, I will speak of it for Thy pleasure (10- 11). Thou hast truly spoken, O Devi! of the ways of men, who, knowing what is for their welfare, yet, maddened by sinful desire for things which bring immediate enjoyment, and devoid of the sense of right and wrong, will desert the True Path. I speak now of that which will contribute to their salvation (12- 13). 189 In the doing of what is forbidden and in the omitting of what is enjoined men sin, and sins lead to pain, sorrow, and disease (14). O Kula -nayika! know that there are two kinds of sin that which contributes merely to the injury of ones own self, and that which causes injury to others (15). Man is released of the sin of injuring others by the punishment inflicted by the King, and from other sins by expiatory rites and Samadhi (16). Those sinful men who are not purified by either punishment or expiation cannot but go to hell, and are despised both in this world and the next (17). O Adya! I shall first of all speak of the Rules relating, O Maheshvari! to punishment by the King. The King who deviates from these himself goes upon the downward path (18). In the administration of justice, servants, sons, mendicants, friends, and foes should all be treated alike (19). If the King is guilty of any sin himself, or if he should have wronged one who is not guilty, then he may purify himself by fasting and by placating those he has wronged by gifts (20). If the King should consider that he is guilty of any sin which is punishable by death, he should then abdicate his kingdom and go to a forest, and there labour for his liberation and penances (21). The King should not, without sufficient reason, inflict heavy punishment on persons guilty of a light offence, nor should he inflict light punishment on persons guilty of a great offence (22). But the punishment by which many offenders may be deterred from ill -doing, and (punishment) in the case of an offender who is fearless of crimes, should be heavy, although the offence be a light one (23). In the case of one who has committed the offence but once only and is ashamed of his ill- deed, or of one who fears crime and is a respectable man, a light punishment should be inflicted, even if the offence be a grave one (24). If a Kaula or a Brahmana is guilty of a slight offence, they should even, though highly honourable, be punished by the King by a rebuke (25). The King who does not bestow adequate rewards and punishments after consultation with his ministers is a great sinner (26). A son should not leave his mother and father, the subjects should not leave their King, nor the wife her husband, even though they are greatly guilty (27). The subjects should actively protect the kingdom, property, and life of the just King; otherwise they will go upon the downward path (28). Shiva! those who knowingly go with their, mother, daughter, or sister, those who have killed their Maha- gurus, those who have, after having taken refuge in the Kula 190 Faith, abandoned it, and those who have broken the trust placed in them, are great sinners (29- 30). Shiva! the punishment of those that go with their mother, sister, and daughter is death, and if the latter are wilful participants the same punishment should be inflicted upon them (31). The sinful man who with a lustful mind goes to the bed of his mother or fathers sister, or daughter s-in-law, or mothers -in-law (wifes mother), the wife of his preceptor, the wife of his maternal or paternal grandfather, the daughter or wife of his mother or fathers brother, the wife or daughter of his brother, the sisters daughter, the masters wife or daughter, or with an unmarried girl, should be punished by castration, and these women also if they are wilful participants in the crime should be punished by the cutting of their noses and turning them out of the house that they may be released from sin (32- 34). The punishment of the man who goes with the wife or daughter of a sapinda, or with the wife of a man who has trusted him, is to be deprived of all his property and to have his head shaved (35). If through mistake (by ignorance) one should happen to marry any of these, either in Brahma or Shaiva form, then she should at once be disespoused (36). A man who goes with the wife of another man of the same caste as himself, or of a caste inferior to his own, should be punished by the imposition of a fine and by being kept on a diet of grains for one month (37). If a Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, or Samanya, O Thou of Beauteous Face! goes with a Brahmana woman knowing her to be such, then his punishment is castration, and the Brahmana woman should be disfigured and banished from his kingdom by the King. For such as go with the wives of Viras, and for such wives, the punishment should be the same (38- 39). The wicked man who enjoys the wife of one of a higher caste should be heavily fined, and kept on a diet of grains for three months (40). And if the woman is a wilful party, she should be punished as above mentioned. If the wife is the victim of a rape, then she should be separated from, but maintained by, her husband (41). A wife, whether married according to Brahma or Shaiva form, should in all cases be renounced if she has gone with another even if it be only once, and then whether of her own desire or against it (42). Those who have intercourse with public women, or with cows or other animals, should, O Deveshi! be purified by being kept on a diet of grains for three nights (43). 191 The punishment of those wicked men who have unnatural intercourse with a woman is death; this is the injunction of Shambhu (44). A man who ravishes a woman, even if she be the wife of a Chandala, should be punished by death, and should never be pardoned (45). A man should consider as wife only that woman who has been married to him according to Brahma or Shaiva form. All other women are the wives of others (46). A man who with lust looks at another mans wife should fast for a day to purify himself. He who accosts her in a secret place should fast for two days. He who touches her should fast for four days; and he who embraces her should fast for eight days to purify himself (47). And the woman who with a lustful mind behaves in the same manner should purify herself by following the same rules of fasting (48). The man who uses offensive language towards a woman, who sees the private parts of a woman who is not his wife, and laughs derisively at her, should fast for two days to purify himself (49). A man who shows his naked body to another, or who makes another person naked, should cease eating for two days to purify himself (50). If the husband proves that his wife has had intercourse wi th another, then the King should punish her and her paramour according to the injunction laid down (51). If the husband (has good cause to believe and yet) is unable to prove the faithlessness of his wife, then he should separate from her, but he should maintain her if she remains under his control (52). If the husband, on seeing his wife enjoying with her paramour, kills her with her paramour, then the King should not punish him with death (53). If the husband prohibits the wife to go to any place or to talk with anyone, then the wife should neither go to that place nor talk with that person (54). If, on the death of the husband, the widow lives with the relatives of the husband under their control, following the customs of a widows life, or in their absence she lives with the relatives of her father, then she deserves to inherit her husbands property (55). The widow should not eat twice a day, nor should she eat food cooked by one who is not her husbands Agnate; she should renounce sexual enjoyment, animal food, jewels, sleeping on soft beds, and coloured clothes (56). 192 The widow faithful to her Dharmma should not anoint herself with fragrant ointments, she should avoid village gossip, and should spend her time in the worship of the Deities and in the performance of Vratas (57). In the case of the boy who has neither father, mother, nor paternal grandfather, the mothers relatives are the best guardians (58). The mothers mother, mothers father, mothers brother, mothers brothers son, mothers fathers brother, these are the relatives on the mothers side (59). Fathers mother, father, brother, fathers brothers and sisters sons, fathers fathers brother, are known as paternal relatives (60). The husbands mother, father, brother, the husbands brothers and sisters sons, and the husbands fathers brothers, all these are known as the relatives of the husband (61). Ambika! the King should compel a man, according to his means, to give food and clothes to his father, mother, fathers father, fathers mother, the wife whose son cannot support her, and to the maternal grandfather and grandmother, who are poor and have no son (62- 63). If a man speaks rudely to his wife he must fast for a day, if he beats her he must go without food for three days, and if he causes her bloodshed then he must fast for seven days (64). If a man in his anger or folly calls his wife his mother, his sister, or daughter, then he should purify himself by fasting seven days (65). If a girl be married to an impotent man, then the King should cause her to be married again, even if the fact is discovered after the lapse of some time. This is Shivas injunction (66). If a girl becomes a widow before consummation of marriage, she also ought to be remarried. This also is the command of Shiva (67). The woman who is delivered of a child within six months of her marriage, or after the lapse of a year following her husbands death, is not a wife, nor is the child legitimate (68). The woman who causes a miscarriage before the completion of the fifth month, as well as the person who helps her thereto, should be heavily punished (69). The woman who after the fifth month destroys the child in her womb, and the person who helps her thereto, are guilty of killing a human being (70). The cruel man who wilfully kills another man should always be sentenced to death by the King (71). 193 The King should correct the man who kills another man through ignorance, or in a fit of passion, or by mistake, either by taking his property from him or by giving him a severe beating (72). The man who tries to compass his own death, whether by himself or by the aid of another, should be awarded the same punishment as the man who kills another through ignorance (73). The man who kills another in a duel, or kills an enemy who attempts to kill him, is not guilty of any offence (74). The King should punish the man who has maimed another by maiming him, and the man who has beaten another by having him beaten (75). The wicked man who flings any missile, or lifts his hand to strike a Vipra, or one who should be honoured, or who strikes either of them, should be punished by a pecuniary fine for the first offence, and by the burning of his hand for a second offence (76). If a ma n dies consequent upon a wound inflicted by any weapon or otherwise after six months, then the offender should be punished for the assault, and shall not be punished with death by the King (77). If the King kills subverters of his government, men who plot to usurp his kingdom, servants secretly befriending the Kings enemies, men creating dissatisfaction against the King among the troops, subjects who wish to wage war against the King, or armed highway robbers, he shall not be guilty of any sin (78- 79). The man who kills another, compelled by his masters order, is not himself guilty of the killing, for it is the masters killing. This is the command of Shiva (80). If a mans death is caused by a beast belonging to, or weapons in the hand of, a careless man, then the latter should be punished by a pecuniary or bodily punishment (81). Those detestable persons who disobey the Kings command, who are arrogant in their speech in the Kings presence, or who decry the Kula faith, should be punished by the King (82) . He who misappropriates property entrusted to him, the malicious man, the cheat, he who creates ill -feeling between men, or who makes people quarrel with one another, should be banished from the kingdom by the King (83). The King should banish from his kingdom those abandoned and wicked- minded men who give away their sons and daughters in marriage for money, and who give their daughters (in marriage) to impotent husbands (84). 194 Persons who attempt to harm others by the spreading of baseless calumnies should be punished by the just King in accordance with their offence (85). The King should compel the calumniator to pay the sufferer money commensurate with the harm done (86). For such persons as steal gems, pearls, gold, and other metals, the punishment should be either the cutting off of the hand or the entire arm, according to the value of the stolen property (87). Those who steal buffaloes, horses, cattle, jewels, etc., and infants, should be punished by the King as thieves (88). Thieves who steal food and articles of small value should be corrected by being kept on a diet of grains for a week or a fortnight (89). O Adored of the Devas! the traitor and the ingrate can never attain liberation by sacrifices, votive observances, penances, acts of charity, and other expiatory rites (90). The King should, after severely punishing them, exile from his dominion men who give false evidence, or who are partial as arbitrators (91). The testimony of six, four, or even three witnesses is sufficient to prove a fact; but, O Shiva! the testimony of two witnesses of well -known piety is enough (92). Beloved! if witnesses contradict one another on questions of place, time, and other details of fact, then their testimony should be rejected (93). O Beloved! the word of the blind and the deaf should be accepted as evidence, and the signs and writing of a dumb man and of one who is both deaf and dumb should also be accepted (94). Of all evidence and in all cases, and particularly in litigation, documentary evidence is the best, as it does not perish and always endures (95). The man who fabricates a writing for his own use or for the use of another should be punished with double the punishment of a false witness (96). The statement on oath, on his own behalf, of a careful and unerring man is of a higher probative value than the word of many witnesses (97). O Parvvati! as all virtues find their support in Truth, so do all vices find their support in untruth (98). Therefore, the King shall incur no blame by chastizing those who are devoid of Truth and are the receptacle of all vices. This is the command of Shiva (99). 195 Devi! if a man says, "I tell the truth," at the same time touching any of the following a Kaula, the Guru, a Brahmana, water of Ganga, an image of a Devata, a Kula religious Book, Kulamrita, or the offerings made to a Deity, he has taken an oath. If after that he speaks an untruth, then he will go to hell for one Kalpa (100- 101). An oath that an act which is not sinful will be or will not be done, should always be kept by men (102). The man who has broken his oath should purify himself by a fortnights fast; and one who has broken it by mistake should live on grains for twelve days (103). Even the Kula -dharmma, if not followed according to Truth and the injunctions, not only fails to secure final liberation and beatitude, but leads to sin (104). Wine is Tara Herself in liquid form, is the Saviour of beings, the Mother of enjoyment and liberation, who destroys danger and diseases, burns up the heaps of sins, and purifies the world.O Beloved! She grants all success, and increases knowledge, intellect, and learning, and, O Adya! She is ever worshipped by those who have attained final liberation and those who are desirous of attaining final liberation, by those that have become and those striving to be adepts, and by Kings and Devas for the attainment of their desires (105- 107). Mortals who drink wine with their minds well under control and according to the injunctions (of Shiva) are, as it were, Immortals on earth (108). By partaking, in accordance to the injunctions, of any of the tattvas, man becomes like unto Shiva. What, then, is the result of partaking of all the five Tattvas? (109). But the drinking of this Devi Varuni in disregard of the injunctions destroys the intellect (understanding), life, fame, and wealth of men (110). By the excessive drinking of wine the drunkard destroys the understanding, which is the means for the attainment of the fourfold end of human existence (111). Only harm at every step, both to himself and to others, comes out of a man whose mind is distracted and who knows not what should and what should not be done (112). Therefore, the King or the Lord of the Chakra should correct by bodily and pecuniary punishments those who are over -addicted to wine and intoxicating drugs (113). The understanding of men is clouded by the drinking of wine, whether in small or large quantities, according to the difference in the quality of the wine, to the temperament of the individuals, to the place where and the time when it is taken (114). 196 Therefore, excessive drinking is to be judged, not from the quantity drunk, but from the result as shown in difficulty of speech and from the unsteadiness of hands, feet, and sight (115). The King should burn the tongues and confiscate the money of, and inflict corporal punishments on, men who hold not their senses under control, whose minds are distracted by drink, who deviate from the duty they owe to Devas and Gurus, who are fearful to behold, who are the source of all folly, who are sinful, and transgressors of the injunctions of Shiva, and bring ruin on themselves (116- 117). The King should severely chastise and fine the man who is unsteady in hands, feet, or in speech, who is bewildered, maddened, and beyond himself with drink (118). The King, who labours for the happiness of his subjects, should inflict pecuniary punishment on the drunkard who is guilty of evil language and is devoid of fear and shame (119). O Kuleshvari! a Kaula, even if he has been initiated a hundred times, should be regarded as a Pashu, and expelled from the Kula community (120). The Kaula who drinks excessively of wine, be it consecrated or not, should be renounced by all Kaulas and punished by the King (121). The drunken twice- born man who makes his Brahmi wife drink wine should purify both himself and his wife by living on a diet of grains for five days (122). The man who has drunk wine which has not been sanctified should purify himself by fasting for three days, and who has eaten meat which has not been sanctified should fast for two days (123). If a man partakes of fish and parched food which have not been sanctified, he should fast for a day, but who participates in the fifth tattva without conforming to the rites should be corrected by the Kings punishment (124). He who knowingly eats human flesh or beef should purify himself by a fortnights fast. This is the expiation for this sin (125). Beloved! a man who has eaten the flesh of animals of human shape, or of carnivorous animals, should purify himself by a three days fast (126). The man who partakes of food cooked by Mlechchhas, Chandalas, and Pashus, who are the enemies of the Kula creed, is purified by a fortnights fast (127). And, O Kuleshvari! if anyone knowingly partakes of the leavings of these, then he should fast for a month to purify himself, and if he has done so unknowingly he should fast for a fortnight (128). 197 The injunction is that if a man partakes of food cooked by a man of a caste inferior to his own, he should, to purify himself, fast for three days (129). By the partaking of food of a Pashu, Chandala, and Mlechchha, which has been placed in the Chakra or in the hands of a Vira, no sin is incurred (130). One who partakes of forbidden food at a time when food is scarce, in times of famine and danger, or when life is at stake, is guiltless of any transgression (131). If food is eaten on the back of an elephant, or on a block of stone, or on a piece of wood, which can be carried only by several men, or in places where nothing objectionable is actually perceived, there is no fault (132). Animals the flesh of which is forbidden, as also diseased animals, should not be killed even for the purpose of sacrifice to the Devas. By killing such animals sin is incurred (133). If anyone knowingly kills a bull, then he shall do penance (as described below), and if he does so unknowingly he shall do half of such penance. This is the command of Shangkara (134). So long as the penance is not performed he shall not shave or pare his nails nor wear clean raiments (135). Shiva! he should fast for a month, and should live on grains for another month, and should live eating food which he has begged during the third month. This is called Krichchhra- Vrata (136). At the end of the penance he should shave his head and free himself from the sin of wilful killing of the bull by feasting Kaulas, relatives (Agnates), and Bandhavas (137). If the death of a cow or bull is caused by want of care, the expiation is an eight days fast for a Brahmana, and for a Kshatriya or inferior castes fasting for six, four, and two days (138). O Kaulini! the sin of wilfully slaughtering an elephant or a camel, or a buffalo, or a horse is expiated by a three days fast (139). Expiation for killing a deer, sheep, goat, or a cat, is a fast for one whole day and a night, and one who has killed a peacock, a parrot, or a gander should abstain fom food till sunset of the day on which the sin is committed (140). If anyone kills any other inferior animal which possesses bones, he should live on vegetable food for a night. The killing of a boneless animal is expiated by repentance (141). There is no blame upon Kings who kill beasts, fish, and oviparous creatures when hunting; for hunting, O Devi! is an immemorial practice among Kings (142). 198 Killing should always be avoided, O Gentle One! except if it be for the purpose of sacrifice to a Deva. The man who kills according to the injunctions sins not (143). Should a man be unable to complete a religious devotion which he has undertaken, if he walks across the remnants after the worship of any Devata, or if he touches an image of a Deva when he is unclean, then in all such cases he should recite the Gayatri (144). The father, the mother, and the giver of the Brahman are the Maha- gurus. He who speaks ill of, or towards, them should, in order to purify himself, fast for five days (145). Similarly, O Beloved ! if anyone speaks ill of other persons entitled to respect, Kaulas and Vipras, then he should purify himself by fasting two days and a half (146). A man may for the acquisition of wealth go to any country, but he should avoid such countries and Shastras as prohibit Kaulika rites (147). The man who of his own free- will goes to a country where the Kaula- dharmma is prohibited falls from his status, and should be purified by Purnabhisheka (148). In expiatory penance, that which is recognized as a fast is going without food for eight yamas from sunrise (149). The fast is, however, not broken should one drink a handful of water or eat the air for the preservation of his life (150). If one is unable, by reason of old age or disease, to fast, then, in lieu of each fast, he should feast twelve Brahmanas (151). The sins of speaking ill of others, self -laudation, evil habits, impropriety in speech or action, should be expiated by repentance (152). All other sins, whether committed knowingly or unknowingly, are destroyed by repeating the Gayatri of the Devi and feeding the Kaulas (153). These general rules are applicable to men, women, and the sexless; the only difference is that in the case of the women the husband is their Maha- guru (154). Men who are suffering from very great disease and those who are always ailing become purified and entitled to perform rites relating to the Devas and the Pitris by giving away g old (155). A house which has been defiled by unnatural death, or which has been struck by lightning, should be purified by one hundred Vyahriti Homas (156). If the dead body of an animal possessing bones be found in a lake, tank, or well, then it should be at once taken out, and the same should be purified (157). 199 The method of purifying such places is as follows: Twenty -one jars of pure water should, after being consecrated with Purnabhisheka Mantra, be poured into it (158). If such places contain but a small quantity of water, and this has been polluted by the stench of the dead body, then they should be dewatered and the loose mud removed therefrom, and when this has been done water should be poured in the manner described (159). If they contain water of sufficient quantity to drown an elephant, then a hundred jars of water should be removed, and then consecrated water should be poured into them (160). If not so purified, then the waters of the reservoirs polluted by the touch of the dead body become undrinkable, and the reservoir cannot be consecrated (161). Bathing in these reservoirs is useless, and any rite performed with their waters becomes fruitless, and any person using the water for any purpose whatever should remain without food for a day and take Panchamrita to purify himself (162). Should anyone perchance see a wealthy man who begs, a warrior averse to battle, a detractor of the Kula dharmma, a lady of the family who drinks wine, a man who is a traitor, or a learned man addicted to sin, then in any of these cases he should view the Sun, utter the name of Vishnu, and bathe in the clothes which he is wearing at the time (163- 164). Men of the twice- born classes should, if they sell donkeys, fowls, or swine, or if they engage in any low pursuits, purify themselves by observing the three days vrata (165). The Tri -dina-vrata, O Ambika! is thus performed: the first day is to be spent in fasting, the second day is to be spent in eating grain meals only, and the third in drinking water only (166). The man who, without being asked, enters a room the door of which is closed, and one who speaks of things which he has been asked to keep secret, should go without food for five days (167). The man who from pride fails to rise when he sees anyone worthy of venerati on coming towards him, or when he sees the Kula Scriptures being brought in, should go without food for a day in order to purify himself (168). In this Shastra spoken by Shiva the meanings of the words used are plain; those who put far -fetched meanings upon them go the downward path (169). I have spoken to thee, O Devi! of that which is the Essence of essences, of that which is above the most excellent, of that which conduces to the well -being (of men) in this worId and the next, as also of that which is both purifying and beneficent and according to Dharmma (170). 200 End of the Eleventh Joyful Message, entitled "The Account of Expiatory Rites." 201 CHAPTER 12 - AN ACCOUNT OF THE ETERNAL AND IMMUTABLE DHARMMA SHRI SADASHIVA said: O Primordial One! I am speaking to Thee again of the everlasting laws; the wise King may easily rule his subjects if he follows them (1). If Kings did not establish rules, men in their covetousness would quarrel among themselves, even with their friends, relatives, and their superiors (2). These self -seeking men, O Devi! would for the sake of wealth kill one another, and be full of sin by reason of their maliciousness and desire to thieve (3). It is therefore for their good that I am laying down the rule in accordance with Dharmma, by following which men will not swerve from the right (path) (4). As the King should punish the wicked for the removal of their sins, so should he also divide the inheritance according to the relationship (5). Relationship is of two kinds by marriage and by birth; of these, relationship by birth is stronger than relationship by marriage (6). In inheritance, O Shiva! descendants have a stronger claim than ascendants, and in this order of descendants and ascendants the males are better qualified for inheritance than females (7). But among these, again, the proximate relation is entitled to the inheritance; the wise ones should divide the property according to this rule and in this order (8): If the deceased leaves son, grandson, daughters, father, wife, and other relations, then the son is entitled to the whole of the inheritance, and not the others (9). If there are several sons, they are all entitled to equal shares. (In the case of a King) the kingdom goes to the eldest son, but that is in accordance to the custom of the family (10). If there be any paternal debt which should be paid out of the paternal property, such property should not be divided (11). If men should divide and take paternal property, then the King should tak e it from them, and discharge the paternal debt (12). As men go to hell by reason of their own sins, so they are bound by their individually incurred debts, and others are not (13). 202 Whatever general property there may be, either immovable or of other kinds , sharers shall get the same according to their respective shares (14). The division is complete on the co- partners agreeing to it. If they do not agree, then the King should divide it impartially (15). The King should divide the value or profits of property which is incapable of division, whether the same be immovable or movable (16). If a man proves his right to a share after the property is divided, then the King should divide the property over again, and give the person entitled his share (17). O Shiva! the King should punish the man who, after property is once divided by the consent of the co- partners, quarrels again with respect to it (18). If the deceased dies leaving behind him grandson, wife, and father, then the grandson is entitled to the property by reason of his being a descendant (19). If the childless man leaves (surviving him) father, brother, and grandfather, then the father inherits the property by reason of the closeness of consanguinity (20). Beloved! if the deceased leaves daughters (surviving him), although they are closer to him, yet the grandsons (sons sons) are entitled to his property, because man is prior (21). From the grandfather the property goes to the grandson by the deceased son, and thus it is that men proclaim that the fathers self is in the image of the son (22). In marital relationship the Brahmi wife is the superior, and the sonless mans property should go to the wife, who is half his body (23). The sonless widow, however, is not competent to sell or give away property inherited from her husband, except what is her own by her own right (24). Anything given by the fathers and fathers -in-law approved by Dharmma, whatever is earned by her personal efforts, is to be recognized as "Womans property" (25). On her death it goes to the husband, and to his heirs according to the grades of descendants and ancestors (26). If the woman remains faithful to her Dharmma, and lives under the control of the relations of her husband, and in their absence under the control of her fathers relations, then only is she entitled to inherit (27). The woman who is even likely to go astray is not entitled to inherit the husbands property . She is merely entitled to a living allowance from the heirs of her husband (28). 203 If the man who has died has many wives, all of whom are pious, then, O Thou of pure Smiles! they are entitled to the husbands property in equal shares (29). If the woman who inherits her husbands property dies leaving daughters, then the property is taken to have gone back from the husband and from him to the daughter (30). In this way, if there is a daughter and the property goes to the sons widow, then, on the death of the latter, it would go back to the husband, and from the father -in-law descend to the daughter of the latter (31). Similarly, O Shiva! if property goes to the mother in the lifetime of the paternal grandfather, then, on her death, it goes to her father -in-law through her son and husband (32). As the property of the deceased ascends to the father, so it also ascends to the mother if she is a widow (33). But the stepmother shall not inherit if the mother is living, but on the death of the mother it goes to the stepmother through the father (34). Where, in the absence of descendants, the inheritance cannot descend, it would ascend the same way by which it would descend (35). Therefore, even when the fathers brother is alive, the daughter inherits the property, and if she dies childless then such property goes to the fathers brother (36). As inheritance descends in the male line, the stepbrother inherits even when there is a uterine sister (37). And when there is a uterine sister and sons of stepbrother, it is the latter who inherit the property (38). If the deceased leaves (surviving him) both uterine and stepbrother, then, by reason of the property descending through the father, they are entitled to inherit in equal shares (39). In the lifetime of their daughters their sons are not entitled to inherit until the obstruction is removed by the death of the daughters (40). In the absence of sons, the daughters divide among themselves the paternal property, after deducting the marriage expenses of an unmarried daughter (if any) out of the general estate (41). On the death of a childless woman the stri -dhana goes to her husband, and the property which she inherited from anyone else goes back to the line of the person from whom she inherited (42). 204 The woman may spend property inherited by her on her own maintenance, and she may spend profits of it on acts of religious merit, but she is not able to sell or make gifts of it (43). Where the daughter -in-law of the grandfather (fathers father) is living, or the stepmother of the father is living, the inheritance goes to the grandfather, and through his son to the (grandfathers) daughter -in-law (44). Where the grandfather, the fathers brother, and the brother are living, the brother succeeds by reason of the priority in claim of the descendant (45). If a man dies leaving him surviving his grandfather, brother, and uncle, both of the former are nearer in degree than the last, and the property descends through the father to the deceaseds brother (46). If the deceased leaves a daughters son and father (surviving him), then the daughters son inherits, because property in the first place descends (47). If both the father and the mother of the deceased be living (at his death), then, O Kalika! by reason of the superior claim of the male, the father takes his property (48). If the mothers brother is living, the sapindas of the father take the property of the deceased by reason of the superior claim of the paternal relationship (49). Property failing to go downwards has (here) gone upwards, but, O Shiva! by reason of the superior claim of the male line it has gone to the fathers family. The mothers brother, in spite of the nearness of his relationship, does not inherit (50). The grandson by a deceased son inherits from his grandfathers estate the share which his father would have inherited along with his (the fathers) brothers (51). Similarly, the granddaughter who has no brother and whose parents are dead, inherits, if she be well conducted, her grandfathers (fathers father) property with her father's brothers (52). On the death of the grandfather leaving him surviving his wife, his daughter, and granddaughter, the last, O Devi! is the heiress of the property, since she takes it through her father (53). In property which descends the male among the descendants, and in property which ascends, the male among the ascendants, are pre- eminently qualified (to inherit) (54). Therefore, O Beloved! if the deceased has daughter -in-law, granddaughter, and daughter surviving him, then his father cannot take the property (55). 205 If there is no one in the family of the father of the deceased entitled to inherit his property, then in manner above indicated it goes to the family of his mothers father (56). Property which has gone to the maternal grandfather shall ascend and descend, and go both to males and females through the maternal uncle and his sons and others (57). If the line of Brahmi marriage, or if the sapindas of the father or of the mother, be in existence, then the issue of the Shaiva marriage are not entitled to inherit the fathers property (58). The wife and children of the Shaiva marriage, O Gentle One! are entitled to receive, from the person who inherits the property of the deceased, their food and clothes in proportion to the property left (59).Beloved! the Shaiva wife, if well conducted, is entitled to be maintained by the Shaiva husband alone. She has no claim to the property of her father and others (60). Therefore, the father who marries his well -born daughter according to Shaiva rites by reason of anger or covetousness will be despised of men (61). In the absence of issue of the Shaiva marriage, the Sodaka, the Guru, and the King shall, by the injunctions of Shiva, take the property of the deceased (62). Beloved! men within the seventh degree are sapindas, and beyond them to the seventh degree are sodakas, and beyond them are Gotra- jas merely (63). Where property which has been divided is again wilfully mixed together, it should be divided again as if it had not been divided (64). The heirs of a deceased are on his death entitled to such share of property, whether partitioned or not partitioned, as the deceased himself was entitled to (65). Those who inherit the property of another should offer him pindas as long as they live; it is otherwise in the case of a son by Shaiva marriage (66). Just as the rules relating to uncleanliness should, in this world, be observed by reason of birth- connection, so they should be observed for three nights by reason of connection by heirship (67). The twice- born and other classes shall purify themselves by observing the rules as to uncleanliness from the day they hear the cause of it until the end of the period prescribed; this is so both in the case of Purnashaucha and of Khandashaucha (68). If the period has expired when one hears the cause of it, then there is no Khandashaucha. And as regards Purnashaucha, it should be observed for only three days, but if one hears of the cause of the uncleanliness after the lapse of a year there is no period of uncleanliness to be observed (69). 206 If a son hears of his fathers or mothers death, or if the faithful wife hears of her husbands death after one year, then the son or the widow shall observe the period of uncleanliness for three nights (71). If during the continuance of a period of uncleanliness another new period begins, then the period comes to an end with the end of the Garu- ashaucha (71). The degree of different kinds of uncleanliness depends on the greater or lesser length of the period which should be observed. Of the various kinds of uncleanliness, that which is extensive in point of time is greater than that which is less extensive (72). If on the last day of a period of uncleanliness another period commences, then the uncleanliness is removed on the last day of the first period of uncleanliness; but if the cause of uncleanliness be such as to necessitate the observance of the full period, then the pre- existing period should be extended by two days (73). The unmarried female shall observe the period of uncleanliness of the fathers family, but after she is married she is to observe impurity for three days on the death of her parents (74). After her marriage the wife becomes of the same gotra as her husband; the adopted son similarly becomes of the same gotra as the person who adopts him (75). A son should be adopted with consent of his father and mother, and at the time of adoption the adopted should, with his kinsmen, perform the sacramental rites, mentioning his own gotra and name (76). The adopted son shall have the same right to the property of his adoptive mother and father, and the same rights to offer pindas to them as the natural -born son has, since they are his mother and father (77). A boy of less than five years of age and of ones own caste should be adopted and brought up; a boy of over five years of age is not eligible (78). O Kalika! if a brother adopts his brothers son, then the brother adopting becomes the father, and the natural father becomes the uncle of the boy so adopted (79). He who inherits the property of another should observe the Dharmma of the person he inherits; he should also follow his family custom and please his kinsmen (80). In the case of the death of kaninas, golakas, kundas, and persons guilty of great sins, there is no uncleanliness to be observed, and they are not qualified to inherit (81). In the case of the death of a man who has been punished by castration, or of a woman who has been punished by the cutting of her nose, or of persons guilty of very great sins, there is no period of uncleanliness to be observed (82). 207 The King should for twelve years protect the family and property of those of whom no news is known, and who have disappeared without any trace of their whereabouts (83). On the expiration of twelve years the image of such a person should be made with kusha grass and cremated. His children and others should observe a period of uncleanliness for three days, and liberate him from the condition of a Preta (84). The King should then divide his property among the members of his family in their order, beginning with the son; otherwise he (the King) incurs sin (85). The King should protect the man who has no protector, who is powerless, who is in the midst of adversity, because the King is the Lord of his subjects (86). Kalika! if the man who has disappeared returns after the lapse of twelve years, then he shall recover his wife, children, and property; there is no doubt of that (87). Even a man is not competent to give away ancestral, immovable property, either to his own people or to strangers, without the consent of his heirs (88). A man may, at his pleasure, give away self -acquired property, be it movable or immovable, and may also give away ancestral movable property (89). If there be a son or wife living, or daughter or daughters son, or father or mother, or brother or sister, even then one may give away self -acquired property, both movable and immovable, and inherited movable property (90- 91). If a man gives away or dedicates such property to any religious object, then his sons and others cannot affect such gift or dedication (92). Property dedicated to any religious object should be looked after by the giver. The latter is, however, not competent to take it back, because the ownership of such property is Dharmma (93). Ambika! the property or the profits thereof should be employed by the dedicat or himself, or his agent, for the religious object to which it was dedicated (94). If the proprietor out of affection gives away half his self -acquired property to anyone, then his heirs shall not be able to annul the gift (95). If the proprietor gives hal f his self -acquired wealth to any of his heirs, in such a case the other heirs shall not be able to avoid such gift (96). If one of several brothers earns money with the help of the paternal property, then, while the other brothers are entitled to proportionate shares of the paternal property, no one but the acquirer is entitled to the profits (97). If one brother acquires ancestral property which was lost, then he shall receive two shares, and the other brothers shall together receive one share (98). 208 Relig ious merit, wealth, and learning are all dependent on the body, and inasmuch as this body comes from the father, then (in such sense) what is there which is not paternal property? (99). If whatever men earn, even when separate in mess and separate in property, is to be considered paternal property, then what is there that is self -acquired? (100). Therefore, O Great Devi! whatever money is earned by ones own individual labour shall be self -acquired; the person acquiring it shall be the owner thereof, and no one else (101). O Devi! the man who even lifts his hand against his mother, father, Guru, paternal and maternal grandfathers, shall not inherit (102). The man who kills another shall not inherit his property; but the other heirs of the person killed shall inherit his property (103). Ambika! eunuchs and persons who are crippled are entitled to food and clothes so long as they live, but they are not entitled to inherit property (104). If a man finds property which belongs to another, on the road or anywhere else, then the King shall, after due deliberation, make the finder restore it to the owner (105). If a man finds property, or a beast of which there is no owner, then the finder becomes the owner of the same, but should give the King a tenth share of such property or beast (or of the value thereof) (106). If there be a competent buyer for immovable property, who is a near relation, then it is not competent for the owner of the immovable property to sell the same to another (107). Among buyers who are near, the agnate and one of the same caste are specially qualified, and in their absence friends, but the desire of the seller should prevail (108). If immovable property is about to be sold at a price fixed, and a neighbour pays the same price, then the latter is entitled to purchase it and no other (109). If the neighbour is unable to pay the price and consents to the sale (to another), then only may the householder sell the property to another (110). O Devi! if immovable property be bought without the knowledge of the neighbour, the latter is entitled to have it upon the condition of his paying the price immediately he hears of such sale (111). Should, however, the buyer, after purchasing it, have converted the place into a garden, or built a house thereon, or if he has pulled down any building, the neighbour 209 is not entitled in such a case to obtain the immovable property by the payment of its price (112). A man may, without permission, without payment, and without obstruction, bring under cultivation any land which rises from the water, which is in the middle of a forest, or otherwise difficult of access (113). Where land has been brought under cultivation by considerable labour, the King, since he is the Lord of the soil, should be given a tenth of the profits of the land, and the rest should be enjoyed by him who has reclaimed it (114). One should not excavate tanks, reservoirs, or wells, nor plant trees, nor build houses in places where they are likely to injure other people (115). All have the right to drink the water of tanks and wells dedicated to Devas, as also the water of rivers, but the neighbours alone have the right to bale it out (116). The water should not be baled out of tanks, etc., even by neighbours, if to do so would cause a water famine (117). The mortgage and sale of property which is undivided without the consent of the co- sharers, as also when the right of the parties therein is not determined, is invalid (118). If property mortgaged or deposited with another is destroyed wilfully or by negligence, then the King should make the mortgagee or depositee restore the value thereof to the owner (119). If any animal or any other thing is used with the consent of the depositor by the person with whom they are placed, then the depositee should bear the expense of food and keep (120). Where immovable or movable property is made over to another for profit, such transaction will be invalid if it be not for a definite time, or if the amount of profits is indeterminate (121). Commo n (joint) property should not, on the fathers death, be employed for profit without the consent of all the co- sharers (122). If articles are sold at improper prices, then the King may set aside such sale (123). As a body is born and dies only once, and property can be given away only once, so there can be but one Brahma marriage of the daughter (124). The man, devoted to his ancestors, who has an only son, should not give him away (in adoption), and, similarly, he should not give away an only wife or an only daughter in Shaiva marriage (125). 210 In rites relating to the Devas and the Pitris, in mercantile transactions, and in Courts of law, whatever the substitute (Agent) does is the act of the employer (126). The immutable rule is that the Agent or emissary should not be punished for the guilt of the employer (127). In monetary dealings, in agriculture, in mercantile transactions, as also in all other dealings, whatever is undertaken, the same should be performed if in agreement with Dharmma (128). The Lord protects this universe. Whoever wish to destroy it will be themselves destroyed, and whosoever protect it them the Lord of the Universe Himself protects. Therefore should one act for the good of the world (129). End of Twelfth Joyful Message, entitled, "An Account of the Eternal and Immutable Dharmma." 211 CHAPTER 13 - INSTALLATION OF THE DEVATA PARVATI, the Mother of the three worlds, Her mind engrossed with thoughts for the purification of men polluted with the impurities of the Kali Age, humbly asked Mahesha, the Deva among Devas, who had thus spoken of the essence of all the Nigamas, which is the seed of heaven and final liberation (as follows) (1): Shri Devi said: How should the form of Mahakali be thought of, She who is the Great Cause, the Primordial Energy, the Great Effulgence, more subtle than the subtlest elements? (2). It is only that which is the work of Prakriti which has form. How should She have form? She is above the most high. It behoves thee, O Deva! to completely remove this doubt of mine (3). Shri Sadashiva said: Beloved! I have already said that to meet the needsof the worshippers the image of the Devi is formed according to Her qualities and actions (4). As white, yellow, and other colours all disappear in black, in the same way, O Shailaja! all beings enter Kali (5). Therefore it is that by those who have attained the knowledge of the means of final liberation, the attributeless, formless, and beneficent Kalashakti is endowed with the colour of blackness (6). As the eternal and inexhaustible One image of Kala and soul of beneficence is nectar itself, therefore the sign of the Moon is placed on her forehead (7). As She surveys the entire universe, which is the product of time, with Her three eyes the Moon, the Sun, and Fire therefore she is endowed with three eyes (8). As She devours all existence, as She chews all things existing with her fierce teeth, therefore a mass of blood is imagined to be the apparel of the Queen of the Devas (at the final dissolution) (9). As time after time She protects all beings from danger, and as She directs them in the paths of duty, her hands are lifted up to dispel fear and grant blessings (10). As She encompasses the universe, which is the product of Rajoguna, she is spoken of, O Gentle One! as the Devi who is seated on the red lotus, gazing at Kala drunk with intoxicating wine and playing with the universe. The Devi also, whose substance is intelligence, witnesseth all things (11- 12). 212 It is for the benefit of such worshippers as are of weak intelligence that the different shapes are formed according to the attributes (of the Divinity) (13). Shri Devi said: What merit does the worshipper gain who makes an image of the Great Devi of mud, stone, wood, or metal, in accordance with the representation described by Thee for the salvation of humanity, and who decks the same with clothes and jewels, and who, in a beautifully decorated house, consecrates it? (14- 15). O Lord! out of Thy kindness for me, reveal this also, with all the particular rules according to which the image of the Devi should be consecrated (16). Thou hast already spoken of the consecration of Tanks, Wells, Houses, Gardens, and the images of Devas, but Thou didst not speak in detail (17). I wish to hear the injunctions relating to them from thy lotus -mouth. Ou t of thy kindness, speak, O Para- meshana! if it pleases Thee (18). Shri Sadashiva said: O Parameshvari! this supreme essence about which Thou hast asked is very mysterious. Do thou, therefore, listen attentively (19). There are two classes of men those who act with, and without, a view to the fruits of action. The latter attain final liberation. I am now speaking of the former (20). Beloved! the man who consecrates the image of a Deva goes to the region of such Deva, and enjoys that which is there attainable (21). He who consecrates an image of mud stays in such region for ten thousand kalpas. He who consecrates an image of wood stays there ten times that period. In the case of the consecration of a stone image the length of stay is ten times the latter period, and in the case of the consecration of a metal image it is ten times the last - mentioned period (22). Listen to the merit which is acquired by the man who, in the name of any Deva, or for the attainment of any desire, builds and consecrates and gives away a temple made of timber and thatch and other materials, or renovates such a temple, decorated with flags and images of the carriers of the Deva (23). He who gives away a thatched temple shall live in the region of the Devas for one thousand koti years (24). He who gives away a brick -built temple shall live a hundred times that period, and he who gives away a stone- built temple, ten thousand times the last -mentioned period (25). 213 Adya! the man who builds a bridge or causeway shall not see the region of Y ama, but will happily reach the abode of the Suras, and will there have enjoyment in their company (26). He who dedicates trees and gardens goes to the region of the Devas, and lives in celestial houses surrounded by Kalpa trees in the enjoyment of all desired and agreeable enjoyments (27). Those who give away ponds and the like for the comfort of all beings are washed of all sins, and, having attained the blissful region of Brahma, reside there a hundred years for each drop of water which they contain (28). Devi! the man who dedicates the image of a Vahana for the pleasure of any Deva shall live continually in the region of such Deva, protected by Him (29). Ten times the merit which is acquired on earth by the gift of a Vahana made of mud is acquired by the gift of one made of wood, and ten times the latter is acquired by the gift of one made of stone. Should one made of brass or bell -metal or copper, or any other metal, be given, then the merit is multiplied in each case tenfold (30- 31). The excellent worshipper should present a great lion to the temple of Devi, a bull to the temple of Shangkara, and a Garuda to the temple of Keshava (32). The geat lion has sharp teeth, a ferocious mouth, and mane on his neck and shoulder. The claws of his four feet are as hard as the thunderbolt (33). The bull is armed with horns, is white of body, and has four black hoofs, a large hump, black hair at the end of his tail, and a black shoulder (34). The Garuda is winged, has thighs like a bird, and a face like a mans, with a long nose. He is seated on his haunches, with folded palms (35). By the present of flags and flag- staffs the Devas remain pleased for a hundred years. The flag- staff should be thirty -two cubits long (36), and should be strong, without defects, straight, and pleasant to look at. It should be wrapped round with a red cloth, with a chakra at its top (37) The flag should be attached to the top of the staff, and should be marked with the image of the carrier of the particular Devata. It should be broad at the part nearest the staff and narrow at the other end. It should be made of fine cloth. In short, whatever ornaments the top of the flag- staff is a flag (38). Whatever a man presents with faith and devotion in the name of a Deva, be it clothes, jewels, beds, carriages, vessels for drinking and eating, pan plates, spittoon, precious stones, pearl, coral, gems, or anything else with which he is pleased, such a man will reach the region of such Deva and receive in turn a Koti times the presents he made (39- 40). 214 Those who worship with the object of attaining a particular reward gain such reward which (however) is as destructible as a kingdom acquired in a dream. Those, however, who rightly act without hope of reward attain nirvana, and are released from rebirth (41). In ceremonies relating to the dedication of a reservoir of water, a house, a garden, a bridge, a causeway, a Devati, or a tree, the Vastu Spirit should be carefully worshipped (42). The man who performs any of these ceremonies without worshipping the Vastu- Daitya is troubled by the Vastu-D aitya and his followers (43). The twelve followers of the Vastu Daitya are Kapi -lasya, Pingakesha, Bhishana, Raktalochana, Kotara- raksha, Lambakarna, Dirghajanggha, Mahodara, Ashvatunda, Kakakantha, Vajravahu, and Vratantaka, and these followers of Vastu should be propitiated with great care (44- 45). Now, listen! I am speaking of the Mandala where the Vastu- Purusha should be worshipped (36). On an altar or on a level space, which has been well washed with pure water, a straight line should be drawn, one cubit in length, from the Vayu to the Ishana corner. In the same manner another line should be drawn from the Ishana to the Agni corner, and another from the Agni to the Nairita corner, and then from the Nairita to the Vayu corner (47- 48). By these straight lines a square mandala should be drawn (49). Then two lines should be drawn from corner to corner (diagonally) to divide the mandala into four parts, like four fish- tails (50). The wise man should then draw two lines, one from the West to the East, and the other from the North to the South, through the point where the diagonal lines cut one another, so as to pass through the tip of the fish- tails (51). Then four diagonal lines should be drawn connecting the corners of the four inner squares so formed by the lines at each of the corners (52). According to these rules, sixteen rooms should be drawn with five different colours, and an excellent yantra thus made (53). In the four middle rooms draw a beautiful lotus with four petals, the pericarp of yellow and red colour, and the filaments of red (54). The petals may be white or yellow, and the interstices may be coloured with any colour chosen (55). 215 Beginning with the corner of Shambhu, the twelve rooms should be filled up with the four colours viz., white, blac k, yellow, and red (56). In filling up the rooms one should go towards ones right, and in the worship of the Devas therein one should go to the left (57). The Vastu Spirit should be worshipped in the lotus, and the twelve daityas, Kapilasya and others, should be worshipped in the twelve rooms, beginning with the Ishana corner (58). Fire should be consecrated according to the injunctions laid down for Kushandika, and after offer of oblations to the best of ones ability, the Vastu- yajna should be concluded (59). I have thus described, O Devi! the auspicious Vastu worship, by the performance of which a man never suffers dangers from Vastu (and his followers) (60). Shri Devi said: Thou hast described the mandala of, and the injunctions relating to, the worship of Vastu, but thou hast not spoken of the Dhyana, my husband; do thou now reveal it (61). Shri Sadashiva said: I am speaking of Dhyana of the Vastu- Rakshasa, by constant and devoted repetition of which all dangers are destroyed. O Maheshani! do thou listen (62). The Deva Vastu- pati should be meditated upon as four -armed, of great body, his head covered with matted hair, three eyed, of ferocious aspect, decked with garlands and earrings, with big belly and long ears and hairy body, wearing yellow garments, holding in his hand the mace, the trident, the axe, and the Khatvanga. Let him be pictured as (red) like the rising Sun and like the God of Death to ones enemies, seated in the padmasana posture on the back of a tortoise, surrounded by Kapilasya and other powerful followers, carrying swords and shields (63- 66). Whenever there is panic caused by pestilence or epidemics, an apprehension of any public calamity, danger to ones children, or fear arising from ferocious beasts or Rakshasas, then Vastu with his followers should be meditated upon as above, and then worshipped, and thus all manner of peace may be obtained by the offer of oblations of sesamum -seeds, ghee, and payasa (67-6 8). O Suvrata! in these rites the Grahas and the ten Dikpalas should be worshipped in the same way as Vastu is worshipped (69). Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Vani, Lakshmi, the celestial mothers, Ganesha, and the Vasus, should also be worshipped (70). 216 O Kalika! if in these rites the Pitris are not satisfied, then all which is done becomes fruitless, and there is danger in every stage (71). Therefore, O Maheshi! in all these rites Abhyudayika. Shraddha should be performed for the satisfaction of the Pitris (72). I shall now speak of the Graha- yantra, which is the cause of all kinds of peace. If Indra and all the planets are worshipped, then they grant every desire (73). In order to draw the yantra three triangles should be drawn with a circle outside them, and outsi de, but touching the circle, eight petals should be drawn (74). Then should a beautiful Bhupura be drawn (outside the yantra) with four entrances, and (outside the Bhupura) between the East and North- East corners a circle should be drawn with its diameter the length of a pradesha, and between the West and the South- West corners another similar circle should be drawn (75- 76). Then the nine corners should be filled up with colours of the nine planets, and the left and right sides of the two inner triangles should be made white and yellow, and the base should be black. The eight petals should be filled up with the colours of the eight regents of the quarters (77- 78). The walls of the Bhupura should be decorated with white, red, and black powders, and, O Devi! the two circles outside the Bhupura should be coloured red and white, and the intervening spaces of the yantra may be coloured in any manner the wise may choose (79- 80). Listen now to the order in which each planet should be worshipped in the particular chambers, and in which each Dikpati should be worshipped in the particular petals, and as to the names of the Devas who are present at each particular entrance (81). In the inner triangle the Sun should be worshipped, and in the angles of the two sides Aruna and Shikha. Behind him with the garland of rays the two standards of the two fierce ones (Shikha and Aruna) should be worshipped (82). Worship the maker of nights in the corner above the Sun on the East, in the Agni corner Mangala, on the South side Budha, in the Nairrita corner Vrihaspati, on the West Shukra, in the Vayu corner Shani, in the corner on the North Rahu, and in the Ishana corner Ketu, and, lastly, round about the Moon the multitude of stars (83- 84). Sun is red, Moon is white, Mangala is tawny, Budha is pale or yellowish- white, Vrihaspati is yellow, Shukra is white, Shani is black, and Rahu and Ketu are of variegated colour; thus I have spoken of the different colours of the Grahas (85- 86). The Sun should be meditated upon as having four hands, in two of which he is holding lotuses; and of the other two, one hand is lifted up to dispel fear, and the other makes the sign of blessing. The Moon should be meditated upon as having nectar in one hand, and the other hand in the attitude of giving. Mangala should be 217 meditated upon as slightly bent and holding a staff in his hands. Budha, the son of Moon, should be meditated upon as a boy, the locks of whose hair play about upon his forehead. Guru should be meditated upon with a sacred thread, and holding a book in one hand and a string of Rudraksha beads in the other; and the Guru of Daityas should be meditated upon as blind of one eye, and Shani as lame, and Rahu as a trunkless head, and Ketu as a headless trunk, both deformed and wicked (86- 87). Having worshipped each of the planets in this manner, the eight Dikpalas, Indra and others, beginning from the East, should be worshipped (89). He of a thousand eyes, of a yellow colour, should first be worshipped. He is dressed in yellow silk garments, and, holding the thunder in his hand, is seated on Airavata (90). The body of Agni is of red hue. He is seated on a goat; in his hand is the Shakti. Yama is black, and, holding a staff in his hand, is seated on a bison. Nirriti is of dark green colour, and, holding a sword in his hand, is seated on a horse. Varuna is white, and, seated on an alligator, holds a noose in his hand. Vayu should be meditated on as possessed of a black radiance, seated on a deer and holding a hook. Kuvera is of the colour of gold, and seated on a jewelled lion- seat, holding the noose and hook in his hands. He is surrounded by Yakshas, who are singing his praises. Ishana is seated on the bull; he holds the trident in one hand, and with the other bestows blessings, He is dressed in raiments of tiger -skin, and his effulgence is like that of the full moon (91- 95). Having thus meditated upon and worshipped them in their order, Brahma should be worshipped in the upper circle, which is outside the mandala, and Vishnu in the lower one. Then the Devatas at the entrances should be worshipped (96). Ugra, Bhima, Prachanda, and Isha, are at the eastern entrance; Jayanta, Kshetra- pala, Nakulesha, and Vrihat -shirah, are at the southern entrance; at the door on the west are Vrika, Ashva, Ananda, and Durjaya; and Trishirah, Purajit, Bhimanada, and Mahodara are at the northern entrance. As protectors of the entrances, they are all armed with weapons, offensive and defensive (97- 98). Suvrata! listen to the meditation on Brahma and Ananta. Brahma is of the colour of the red lotus, and has four hands and four faces. He is seated on a swan. With two of his hands he makes the signs which dispel fear and grant boons, and in the others he holds a garland and a book. Ananta is white as the snow, the Kunda flower, or the Moon. He has a thousand hands and a thousand faces, and he should be meditated upon by Suras and Asuras (99- 101). Beloved! I have now spoken of the meditation, the mode of worship, and the yantra. Now, my beloved, listen to their Mantras in their order, beginning with the Vastu Mantra (102). 218 Mantras When Ksha- kara is placed on the Carrier of Oblations. and the long vowels are then added to it, and ornamented with the nada- vindu, the six -lettered Vastu Mantra is formed (103). The Suryya Mantra is thus formed: first the tara should be said; then the Maya; then the word tigma- rashme; then the word arogya- daya (in the dative singular); and, last of all, the wife of Fire (104). The recognized or approved Mantra of Soma is formed by saying the vijas of Kama, Maya and Vani, then Amrita- kara, amritam plavaya plavaya svaha (105). The Mantra of Mangala is proclaimed to be Aing hrang hring sarva- dushtan nashaya nashaya svaha (106). The Mantra of the son of Soma is Hrang, Shring, Saumya sarvan kaman puraya svaha(107). The Mantra of the Sura- Guru is formed thus: Let the tara precede and follow the Vija of Vani, and then say, Abhishtam yachchha yachchha, and lastly svaha (108). The Mantra of Shukra is Shang, Shing, Shung, Shaing, Shaung, Shngah (109). The Mantra of the Slowly Moving One is Hrang hrang hring hring sarva- shatrun vidravaya vidravaya Martan- dasunave namah Destroy, destroy all enemies I bow to the son of Martanda (110). The Mantra of Rahu is Rang, Hraung, Bhraung, Hring Soma -shatro shatrun vidhvangsaya vidhvangsaya Rahave namah --O Enemy of Soma (Moon)! destroy, destroy all enemies. I bow to Rahu (111). Krung, Hrung, Kraing to Ketu is proclaimed to be the Mantra of Ketu (112). Lang, Rang, Mring, Strung, Vang, Yang, Kshang, Haung, Vring, and Ang are in their order the ten Mantras of the ten Dikpalas, beginning with Indra and ending with Ananta (113). The names of the other attendant Devas are their Mantras; in all instances where there is no Mantra mentioned this is the rule. (114). Sovereign Mistress of the Devas! the wise man should not add Namah to Mantras that end with the word Namah, nor should he put the wife of Vahni to a Mantra that ends with Svaha (115). To the Planets and others should be given flowers, clothes, and jewels, but the colour of the gifts should be the same as that of the respective Planets; otherwise they are not pleased (116). 219 The wise man should place fire in the manner prescribed for Kushandika, and perform homa either with flowers of variegated colours or with sacred fuel (117). In rites for the attainment of peace or good fortune, or nourishment or prosperity, the Carrier of Oblations is called Varada; in rites relating to consecration he is called Lohitaksha; in destructive rites he is called Shatruha (118). Maheshani! in Shanti, Pushti, and Krura rites the man who sacrifices to the Planets will obtain the desired end (119). As in the rites relating to the consecration the Devas should be worshipped and libations offered to the Pitris, so also should there be the same sacrifices to Vastu and the Planets (120). Should one have to perform two or three consecratory and sacrificial rites on the same day, then the worship of the Devas, the Shraddha of the Pitris, and consecration of fire are required once only (121). One who desires the fruit of his observances should not give to any Deva reservoirs of water, houses, gardens, bridges, causeways, carriers, conveyances, clothes, jewels, drinking- cups, and eating -plates, or whatever else he may desire to give, without first sanctifying the same (122- 123). In all rites performed with an ultimate object the wise one should in all cases perform a sangkalpa, in accordance with directions, for the full attainment of the good object (124). Complete merit is earned when the thing about to be given is first sanctified, worshipped, and mentioned by name, and then the name of him to whom it is given is pronounced (125). I will now tell you the Mantras for the consecration of reservoirs of water, houses, gardens, bridges, and cause- ways. The Mantras should always be preceded by the Brahma- Vidya (126). Mantras Reservoir of Water! thou that givest life to all beings! thou that art presided over by Varuna! may this consecration of thee (by me) give satisfaction to all beings that live and move in water, on land, and in air (127). House made of timber and grass! thou art the favourite of Brahma; I am consecrating thee with water; do thou be always the cause of pleasure (128). When consecrating a house made of bricks and other materials, one should say: "House made of bricks," etc. (129). Mantras 220 Garden! thou art pleasant by reason of thy fruits, leaves, and branches, and by thy shadows. I am sprinkling thee with the sacred water (of sacred places); grant me all my wishes (130). Bridge! thou art like the bridge across the Ocean of Existence, thou art welcome to the wayfarer; do thou, being consecrated by me, grant me the fitting reward thereof (131). Causeway! I am consecrating thee, as thou helpest people in going from one place to another: do thou likewise help me in my way to Heaven (132). The wise ones shall use the same Mantra in consecrating a tree as is prescribed for the sprinkling of a garden (133). In consecrating all other things, the Pranava, Varuna, and Astra should be used (134). Those vahanas that can (or ought to be) bathed should be bathed with the Brahma-gayatri; others should be purified by arghya- water taken up with the ends of kusha grass (135). After performing prana -pratishtha, calling it by its name, the vahana called by its name should be duly worshipped, and when decked out should be given to the Devata (136). Whilst consecrating a reservoir, Varuna, the lord of aquatic animals, should be worshipped. In the case of a house, Brahma, the lord of all things born, should there be worshipped. Whilst consecrating a garden, a bridge a causeway, Vishnu, who is the protector of the universe, the soul of all, who witnesseth all and is omni present, should be worshipped (137). Shri Devi said: Thou hast spoken of the different injunctions relating to the different rites, but thou hast not yet shown the order in which man should practise them (138). Rites not properly performed according to the order enjoined do not, even though performed with labour, yield the full benefit to men who follow the life of Karmma (139). Shri Sadashiva said: O Parameshani! thou art beneficent like a mother. What thou hast said is indeed the best for men whose minds are occupied with the results (of their efforts) (140). The practices relating to the aforementioned rites are different. Devi! I am relating them in their order, beginning with the Vastu- yaga. Do thou listen attentively (141). 221 (He who wishes to perform the Vastu- yaga) should the day previous thereto live on a regulated or a restricted diet. After bathing in the early auspicious hour of morning, and performing the ordinary daily religious duties, he should worship the Guru and Narayana (142). The worshipper should then, after making sangkalpa, worship Ganesha and others for the attainment of his own object, according to the rules shown in the ordinances (143). Dhyanam Worship Ganapati who is of the colour of the Bandhuka flower, and has three eyes; whose head is that of the best of elephants; whose sacred thread is made of the King of Snakes; who is holding in his four lotus hands the conch, the discus, the sword, and a spotless lotus; on whose forehead is the rising young moon; the shining effulgence of whose body and raiments is like that of the Sun; who is decked with various jewels, and is seated on a red lotus (144). Having thus meditated upon and worshipped Ganesha to the best of his ability, he should worship Brahma, Vani, Vishnu, and Lakshmi (145). Then, after worshipping Shiva, Durga, the Grahas, the sixteen mothers, and the Vasus in the Vasudhara, he should perform the Vriddhishraddha (146). Then the mandala of the Vastu- daitya should be drawn, and there the Vastu- daitya with his followers should be worshipped (147). Then there make a sthandila and purifying fire as before; first perform Dhara- homa, and then commence Vastu- homa (148). Oblations should be offered to the Vastu- purusha and all his followers according to the best of ones ability. The sacrifice should be brought to a close by the gift of oblations to the Devas worshipped (149). When Vastu- yajna is separately performed, this is the order which is prescribed, and in this order also the sacrifice to the planets should be performed (150). Moreover, the Planets being the principal objects of worship, they should not be subordinately worshipped. The Vastu should be worshipped immediately after the sangkalpa (151). Ganesha and the other Devas should be worshipped as in Vastu- yaga. I have already spoken to you of the Yantra and Mantra and Dhyana of the Planets (152). I have, O Gentle One! during my discourse with thee spoken of the order to be observed in the yajnas of the planets and of Vastu. I shall now speak to thee of the various praiseworthy acts, beginning with the consecration of wells (153). 222 After making sangkalpa in the proper manner, Vastu should be worshipped either in a mandala, or a jar, or a Shilagrama, according to inclination (154). Then Ganapati should be worshipped, as also Brahma and Vani, Hari, Rama, Shiva, Durga, the Planets, the Dikpatis (155). Then the Matrikas and the eight Vasus having been worshipped, Pitrikriya should be performed. Since Varuna is principal Deva (for the purposes of this ceremony), he should then be worshipped with particular care (156). Having worshipped Varuna with various presents to the best of his ability, Varuna Homa should then be performed in Fire duly consecrated (157). And after offering oblations to each of the Devas worshipped, he should bring the Homa rite to an end by giving the Purnahuti (158). Then he should sprinkle the excellent well, decorated with flagstaffs and flags, garlands, scents, and vermilion, with the Prokshana Mantra, spoken of before (159). Then he should, in the name of the Deva, or for the attainment of the object of his desire, give away the well or tank for the benefit of all beings (160). Then the most excellent worshipper should make supplication with folded palms as follows: "Be well pleased, all beings, whether living in the air or on earth or in water; I have given this excellent water to all beings; may all beings be satisfied by bathing in, drinking from, or plunging into this water; I have given this common water to all beings. Should anyone by his ownmisfortune be endangered in this, may I not be guilty of that sin, may my work (good work) bear fruit!" (161 -163). Then presents should be made, and Shanti and other rites performed, and thereafter Brahmanas, Kaulas, and the hungry poor should be fed. Shive! this is the order to be observed in the consecration of all kinds of reservoirs of water (164- 165). In the consecration of a Tadaga and other kinds of reservoirs of water there should be a Nagastambha and some aquatic animals (166). Aquatic animals, such as fish, frogs, alligators, and tortoises, should be made of metal, according to the means of the person consecrating (167). There should be made two fish and two frogs of gold, two alligators of silver, and two tortoises, one of copper and another of brass (168). After giving away the Tadaga or Dirghika or Sagara with these aquatic animals, Naga should, after having been supplicated, be worshipped (169). Ananta, Vasuki, Padma, Mahapadma, Takshaka, Kulira, Karkata, and Shankha all these are the protectors of water (170). 223 These eight names of the Nagas should be written on Ashvattha leaves, and, after making japa of the Pranava and the Gayatri, the leaf should be thrown into a jar (171). Calling upon Sun and Moon to witness, the leaves should be mixed up together, and one-half should be drawn therefrom, and the Naga whose name is drawn should be made the protector of water (172). Then a wooden pillar, auspicious and straight, should be brought and smeared with oil and turmeric, and bathed in consecrated water, to the accompaniment of the Vyahriti and the Pranava, and then the Naga who has been made the protector of the water should be worshipped with the Shaktis Hri, Shri, Kshama, and Shanti (173-174). Mantra O Naga! Thou art the couch of Vishnu, Thou art the adornment of Shiva; do Thou inhabit this pilla r and protect my water (175). Having thus made supplication to Naga, the pillar should be set in the middle of the reservoir, and the dedicator should then go round the Tadaga, keeping it on his right (176). If the pillar has been already fixed, then the Naga should be worshipped in a jar, and, throwing the water of the jar into the reservoir, the remainder of the rites should be performed (177). Similarly, the wise man who has taken a vow to consecrate a house should perform the rites, beginning with the worship of Vastu, and ending with that of the Vasus, and perform the rites relating to the Pitris as prescribed for the consecration of a well, and the excellent devotee should worship Prajapati and do Prajapatya homa (178- 179). The house should be sprinkled with the Mantra already mentioned, and then worshipped with incense, etc.; after that, with his face to the Ishana corner, he should pray as follows (180): Mantra "O Room (or House)! Prajapati is thy Lord; decked with flowers and garlands and other decorations, be thou always pleasant for our happy residence." (181). He should then offer presents, and, performing Shanti rites, accept blessings. Thereafter he should feed Vipras, Kulinas, and the poor to the best of his ability (182). 224 O Daughter of the Mountain! if the house is being consecrated for someone else, then in the place "our residence" should be said "their residence"; and now listen to the ordinances relating to the consecration of a house (or room) for a Deva (183). After consecrating the house in the above manner, the Deva should be approached with the blowing of conch- shells and the sound of other musical instruments, and he should be supplicated thus (184): Mantra Rise, O Lord of the Deva among Devas! thou that grantest the desires of thy votaries! come and make my life blessed, O Ocean of Mercy! (185). Having thus invited (the Deva) into the room, he should be placed at the door, and the Vahana should be placed in front of Him (186). Then on the top of the house a trident or a discus should be placed, and in the Ishana corner a staff should be set with a flag flying from it (187). Let the wise man then decorate the room with awnings, small bells, garlands of flowers, and mango- leaves, and then cover the house up with celestial cloth (188). The Deva should be placed with his face to the North, and in the manner to be described he should be bathed with the things prescribed. I now am speaking of their order; do thou listen (189). After saying Aing, Hring, Shring, the Mula Mantra should be repeated, and then let the worshipper say: Mantra I am bathing thee with milk; do thou cherish me like a mother (190). Repeating the three Vijas and the Mula Mantra aforesaid, let him then say: Mantra I am bathing thee to- day with curds; do thou remove the heat of this mundane existence (191). Repeating again the three Vijas and the Mula Mantra, let him say: Mantra O Giver of Joy to all! being bathed in honey, do Thou make me joyful (192). Repeating the Mula Mantra as before, and inwardly reciting the Pranava and the Savitri, he should say: Mantra 225 I am bathing Thee in ghee, which is dear to the Devas, which is longevity, seed, and courage; do Thou, O Lord! keep me free from disease (193). Again repeating the Mula Mantra, as also the Vyahriti and the Gayatri, let him say: Mantra O Devesha ! bathed by me in sugar water, do Thou grant me (the object of) my desire (194). Repeating the Mula Mantra, the Gayatri, and the Varuna Mantra, he should say: Mantra I am bathing thee with cocoanut -water, which is the creation of the Vidhi, which is divine, which is welcome to Devas, and is cooling, and which is not of the world; I bow to thee (195). Then, with the Gayatri and the Mula Mantra, the Deva should be bathed with the juice of sugar -cane (196). Repeating the Kama Vija and the Tara, the Savitri, and the Mula Mantra, he should, whilst bathing the Deva, say: Mantra Be thou well bathed in water scented with camphor, fragrant aloe, saffron, musk, and sandal; be thou pleased to grant me enjoyment and salvation (197). After bath ing the Lord of the World in this manner with eight jarfuls (of water, etc.), He should be brought inside the room and placed on His seat (198). If the image be one which cannot be bathed, then the Yantra, or Mantra, or the Shalagrama- shila, should be bathed and worshipped (199). If one be not able to bathe (the Deva) in manner above, then he should bathe (Him) with eight, seven, or five jars of pure water (200). The size and proportions of the jar has been already given whilst speaking of Chakra worship. In all rites prescribed in the Agmas that is the jar which is appropriate (201). Then the Great Deva should be worshipped according to the injunctions to be followed in His worship. I shall speak of the offerings. Do thou, O Supreme Devi! Listen (202). A seat, welcome, water to wash the feet, offerings, water for rinsing the mouth, Madhuparka, water for sipping, bathing water, clothes and jewels, scents and flowers, lights and incense- sticks, edibles and words of praise, are the sixteen offerings requisite in the worship of the Devas (203- 204). 226 Padya, Arghya, Achamana, Madhuparka, Achamya, Gandha, Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa, Naivedya these are known as Dashopachara (ten requisite offerings) (205). Gandha, Pushpa, Dhupa, Dipa, and Naivedya, are spoken of as the Panchopachara (five offerings) in the worship of a Deva (206). The articles should be sprinkled with water taken from the offering with the Weapon Mantra, and be worshipped with scents and flowers, the names of separate articles being mentioned. (207) Mentally repeating the Mantra that is about to be said, as also the Mula Mantra, and the name of the Deva in the dative case, the words of gift should be repeated (208). I have told you of the way in which the things to be given to the Devas should be dedicat ed. The learned man should in this manner give away an article to a Deva (209). I have shown (whilst describing) the mode of worship of the Adya Devi how Padya, Arghya, etc., should be offered, and how Karana should be given (210). To such of the Mantras as were not spoken then, do thou, O Beloved ! listen to them here; these should be said when Asana and other requisites are offered (211). Mantra (O Deva!) Thou who residest within all beings! who art the innermost of all beings! I am offering this seat for Thee to sit. I bow to Thee again and again (212). O Deveshi! after giving the excellent asana in this way, the giver of the asana sbould with folded arms bid him welcome as follows (213): Mantra (O Deva!) Thou art He whom even the Devas seek for the accomplishment of their objects, yet for me Thy auspicious visit has easily been obtained. I bow to Thee, O Supreme Lord! (214). My lifes aim is accomplished to -day; all my efforts are crowned with success; I have obtained the fruits of my tapas all this by Thy auspicious coming (215). Ambika! the Deva should thus be invited, prayed to, and questioned as to His auspicious coming, and then, taking padya, the following Mantra should be repeated (216): Mantra By the mere touch of the washings of Thy feet the three worlds are purified; I am offering Thee padya for washing Thy lotus feet (217). He by whose grace is attained 227 all manner of supreme bliss, to Him who is the Soul of all beings I offer this Anandarghya (218). Then pure water which has been scented with nutmeg, cloves, and kakkola, should be poured out, and taken and offered with the following (219): Mantra (O Lord!) By the mere touch of that which Thou hast touched the whole of this impure world is purified; for washing that lotus mouth I offer thee this achamaniya (220). Then, taking madhuparka, offer it with devotion and with the following (221): Mantra For the destruction of the three afflictions, for the attainment of uninterrupted bliss, I give Thee to- day, O Parameshvara! this madhuparka; be Thou propitious (222). By the mere touch of anything which has touched Thy mouth things impure become pure: this punarachama- niyam is for the lotus mouth of Thine (223). Taking water for the bath, and pouring it and consecrating it as before, it should be placed before the Deva, and the following Mantra should be repeated (224): Mantra To Thee whose splendour envelops the world, from whom the world was born, who is the support of the world, do I offer this water for Thy bath (225). When offering bathing water, clothes, and edibles, achamaniya should be given as each is offered, and, after offering other articles, water should be given only once (226). Bringing the cloth consecrated as aforementioned, holding it up with both hands, the wise man should repeat the following (227): Mantra Without any raiments as Thou art, Thou hast kept Thy splendour or glory concealed by Thy maya. To Thee I offer these two pieces of cloth. I bow to Thee (228). Taking different kinds of ornaments made of gold and silver and other materials, and sprinkling and consecrating them, he should offer them to the Deva, uttering the following (229): Mantra To Thee who art the ornament of the Universe, who art the one cause of the beauty of the universe, I offer these jewels for the adornment of Thy illusion- image (230). 228 Mantra To Thee who by the subtle element of smell hast created the earth which possesses all scents, to Thee, the Supreme Soul, I offer this excellent scent (231). Mantra By me have been dedicated with devotion beautiful flowers, and charming and sweet scents prepared by Devas: do Thou accept this fiower (232). Mantra This incense- stick is the sap of the trees; it is Divine, and possesses a delicious scent, and is charming, and is fit to be inhaled by all beings. I give it to Thee to smell (233). Mantra Do Thou accept this light which illumines and has a strong flame, which removes all darkness, and which is brightness itself, and makes bright that which is around it (234). Mantra This offering of food is of delicious taste, and consists of various kinds of edibles. I offer it to Thee in a devout spirit; do Thou partake of it (235). Mantra O Deva! this clear drinking- water, perfumed with camphor and other scents which satisfies all, I offer to Thee Salutation to Thee (236). The worshipper should then offer pan made with camphor, catechu, cloves, cardamums, and, after offering achamaniya, bow to Him (237). If the offerings are presented along with the vessels in which they are contained, then the names and description of the offerings may jointly be repeated when making the present, or the names (or description) of the vessels may separately be said and the same given (238). Having worshipped the Deva in this manner, three double handfuls of flowers should be given to the Deva. Then, sprinkling the temple and its awnings with water, the following Mantra should be said with folded palms (239): Mantra Temple! thou art adorable of all men; thou grantest virtue and fame. In affording a resting- place to this Deva, do thou be like unto Sumeru (240). Thou art Kailasa, thou art Vaikuntha, thou art the place of Brahma, since thou art holding the Deva, who is the adored of the Devas within thee (241). 229 Since thou holdest within thyself the image of Him whose body is produced by Maya, and within whose belly exists this universe, with all that is movable and immovable therein (242). Thou art the equal of the Mother of the Devas; all the holy places are in thee; do thou grant all my desires, and do thou bring me peace. I bow to thee (243). Having thus praised the temple decorated with the discus, flag, etc., and worshipped it three times, the worshipper should give it to the Deva, mentioning the object of his desire (444). Mantra To Thee, whose abode is the universe for Thy residence, I dedicate this temple.O Maheshana! do Thou accept it and in Thy mercy abide here (245). Having said this and having made presents, the Deva to whom the temple has been dedicated should be placed on the altar to the accompaniment of the music of conches, horns, and other instruments (246). He should then touch the two feet of the Deva and utter the Mula Mantra, and say, Sthang! Sthing! be Thou steady; this temple is made by me for Thee, and, having fixed the Deva there, he should pray again to the temple thus (247): Mantra Temple! be thou always in every way pleasant for the residence of the Deva; thou hast been dedicated by me; may the Lokas be lasting and without danger for me (248). Help my fourteen generations of ancestors, my fourteen generations of successors, and me and the rest of my family to find places to reside in the abode of the Devas (249). May I, by thy grace, attain the fruits attainable by performing all forms of yajnas, by visiting all the places of pilgrimage (250). May my line continue so long as this world, so long as these mountains, so long as the Sun and Moon endure (251) . The wise man, after having thus addressed the temple and worshipped the Deva, should dedicate mirrors and other articles and the flag to Him (252). Then the Vahana appropriate to the Deity should be given. To Shiva should be given a bull. Then pray to Hi m thus (253): Mantra 230 O Bull! thou art large of body, thy horns are sharp, thou killest all enemies, thou art worshipped even by the Tridashas, as thou carriest on thy back the Lord of the Devas (254). In thy hoofs are all the holy shrines, in thy hair are all the Vedic Mantras, in the tip of thy teeth are all the Nigamas, Agamas, and Tantras (255). May the husband of Parvati, pleased with this gift of thee, give me a place in Kailasa, and do thou protect me always (256). O Maheshani! do Thou listen to the manner of prayer upon giving a lion to Mahadevi or a Garuda to Vishnu (257). Mantra Thou didst display thy great strength in the wars between the Suras and the Asuras; thou didst give victory to the Devas, and didst destroy the Demons. Thou formidable one, thou art the favourite of the Devi, thou the favourite of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva; with devotion I am dedicating thee to the Devi; do thou destroy my enemies. I bow to thee (258- 259). O Garuda! most excellent bird! Thou art the favoured one of the husband of Lakshmi; Thy beak is hard like adamant; Thy talons are sharp, and golder are Thy wings. I bow to Thee, O Indra among birds! I bow to Thee, O King of birds! (260). As Thou abidest near Vishnu with folded palms, do Thou, O Destroyer of the pride of enem ies! help me to be there as Thou art (261). When Thou art pleased, the Lord of the Universe is pleased, and grants success (262). When a gift is made to any Deva, an additional present should be made to the Deva for His acceptance of such gifts, and the merit of such rites should also be given to Him in a spirit of devotion (263). He should then, with dancing, singing, and music, go round the temple, accompanied by his friends and kinsmen, keeping the temple on his right, and, having bowed to the Deva, feed the twice -born! (264). This is the way in which a temple to a Deva should be dedicated, and the same rule is to be observed in the dedication of a garden, a bridge, a causeway, or a tree (265). With this difference only: that in these rites the ever -existing Vishnu should be worshipped; but Puja and Homa, etc., are the same as in the case of the dedication of a temple (266). No temple or other thing should be dedicated to a Deva whose image has not been consecrated. The rules laid down above are for the worship of and dedication to a Deva who has been worshipped and consecrated (267). 231 I shall now speak of the manner in which the auspicious Adya should be installed, and by which the Devi grants quickly all desires (268). On the morning of the day (of Pratishtha) the worshipper should, after bathing and purifying himself, sit facing the North, and, having taken Sangkalpa, worship the Vastu -devata (269). After performing the worship of the planets, the Protectors of the Quarters, Ganesha and others, and having performed the Shraddha of his Pitris, he should approach the image with a number of devout Vipras (270). The excellent worshipper should then bring the image to the temple which has been dedicated, or to some other place, and there duly bathe it (271). It should first be bathed with water, then with sandy earth, then with mud thrown up by the tusk of the boar or elephant, then with mud taken from the door of a Veshya, and then with mud from the lake of Pradyumna (272). The wise man should then bathe the image with Pancha- kashaya and Pancha- pushpa, and three leaves, and then with scented oil (273). The decoctions of Vatyala, Vadari, Jambu, Vakula, and Shalmali, are called the five Kashayas for bathing the Devi (274). Kara vira, Jati, Champaka, Lotus, and Patali, are the five flowers (275). By three leaves are meant the leaves of Varvvara, Tulasi, and Vilva (276). With the above- mentioned articles water should be mixed, but no water should be put into scented oil and the five nectars (277). He should, after repeating the Vyahriti, the Pranava, the Gayatri, and the Mula Mantra, say, "I bathe thee with the water of these articles" (278). The wise man should then bathe the image with the eight jars filled with milk and other ingredients in manners aforementioned (279). The image should then be rubbed with powdered white wheat or sesamum cakes, or powdered shali rice, and thus cleansed (280). After bathing the image with eight jars of holy water, and rubbing it with cloth of fine texture, it should bc brought to the place of worship (281). Should one be unable to perform all these rites, then he should in a devout spirit bathe the image with twenty -five jars of pure water (282). On each occasion that the Great Devi is bathed she should, to the best of ones ability, be worshipped (283). 232 Then, placing the image on a well -cleaned seat, She should be worshipped by offering padya, arghya, etc., and then prayed to (as follows) (284): Mantra O Image! thou that art the handicraft of Vishvakarmma, I bow to thee; thou art the abode of the Devi, I bow to thee; thou fulfillest the desire of the votary, I bow to thee (285). In thee I worship the most excellent primordial Supreme Devi; if there be any defect in thee by reason of the want of skill of him who has fashioned thee, do thou make it good; I bow to thee (286). He should then restrain his speech, and, placing his hand over the head of the Image, inwardly do japa of the Mula Mantra one hundred and eight times, and thereafter do Anga-nyasa (287). He should then perform Shadanga- nyasa and Matri -kanyasa on the body of the Image, and, when performing Shadanga- nyasa, add one after the other the six long vowels to the Vija (288). The eight groups of the letters of the alphabet preceded by the Tara, Maya, and Rama, with the Vindu, added to them, and followed by Namah, should be placed in different parts of the body of the Deva (289). The wise man should place the vowels in the mouth; kavarga in the throat; chavargaon the belly; tavarga on the right and tavarva on the left arm; pavarga on the right thigh, and yavarga on the left thigh, and shavarga on the head (290- 291). Having placed these groups of the letters of the alphabet on different parts of the image (the worshipper) should perform Tattva- nyasa (as follows): (292) Place on the two feet Prithivi -tattva; on the Linga Toya -tattva; on the region of the navel Tejas -tattva; on the lotus of the heart Vayu- tattva; on the mouth Gagana- tattva; on the two eyes Rupa- tattva; on the two nostrils Gandha -tattva; on the two ears Shabda- tattva; on the tongue Rasa- tattva; on the skin Sparsha- tattva. The foremost of worshippers should place Manas -tattva between the eyebrows, Shiva- tattva, Jnana- tattva, and Para- tattva on the lotus of a thousand petals; on the heart Jiva - tattva and Prakriti -tattva. Lastly, he should place Mahat -tattva and Ahangkara- tattva all over the body. The tattvas should, whilst being placed, be preceded by Tara, Maya, and Rama, and should be uttered in the dative singular, followed by namah (293-297). Repeating the Mula Mantra, preceded and followed by each of the Matrika- varnas, with vindu added to them, and followed by the word namah, Matrika- nyasa should be performed at the Matrikasthanas (298). (The worshipper should then say): Mantra 233 (Although) Thy radiance embraces all the sacrifices, and although Thy body embraces all being, this is the image that has been made of Thee. I place Thee here (299). Thereafter the Devi should be meditated upon and invoked, according to the rules of worship, and after Prana- pratishtha the Supreme Devata should be worshipped (300). The Mantras which are prescribed for the dedication of a temple to a Deva should be used in this ceremony, the necessary changes in gender being made (301). The Devi should then be invoked into the fire, which has in due form been consecrated by the offer of oblations to the Devatas who are to be worshipped; and thereafter the Devi should be worshipped, and jata- karmma, etc., should be performed (302). The Sangskaras are six in number viz., Jatakarmma, Namakarana, Nishkramana, Annaprashana, Chudikarana, and Upanayana this has been said by Shiva (303). Repeating the Pranava, the Vyahritis, the Gayatri, the Mula Mantra, the worshipper used in the injunctions should say, "thine," and then the name of (the sangskara) jatakarmma, and others, and uttering, "I perform, Svaha," offer five oblations at the end of each sangskara (304- 305). Thereafter repeating the Mula Mantra and the name (given to the Devi), one hundred oblations should be offered, and the remnants of each oblation should be thrown over the head of the Devi (306). The wise man, after having brought the ceremony to a close by Prayashchitta and other rites, should feed and thus please Sadhakas and Vipras and the poor and the helpless (307). Should anyone be unable to perform all these rites, he should bathe (the Deva) with seven jars of water, and, having worshipped to the best of his ability, repeat the name of the Devi (308). Beloved! I have now spoken to Thee of the Pratishtha of the illustrious Adya. In a similar way should men versed in the regulations carefully perform the Pratishtha of Durga and other Vidyas, Mahesha, and other Devatas, and of the Shiva- lingas that may be moved (309- 310). End of the Thirteenth Joyful Message, entitled "Installation of the Devata." 234 CHAPTER 14 - THE CONSECRATION OF SHIVA-LINGA AND DESCRIPTION OF THE FOUR CLASSES OF AVADHUTAS SHRI DEVI said: I am grateful to Thee, O Lord of Mercy! in that Thou hast in Thy discourse upon the Worship of the Adya Shakti, spoken, in Thy mercy, of the mode of Worship of various other Devas (1). Thou hast spoken of the Installation of a Movable Shiva- linga, but what is the object of installing an immovable Shiva- linga, and what are the rites relating to the installation of such a Linga? (2). Do Thou, O Lord of the Worlds! now tell Me all the particulars thereof; for say, who is there but Thee that I can honour by My questions anent this excellent subject? (3). Who is there that is Omniscient, Merciful, All -knowing, Omnipresent, easily satisfied, Protector of the humble, like Thee? Who makes My joys increase like Thee? (4). Shri Sadashiva said: What shall I tell Thee of the merit acquired by the installation of a Shiva -linga? By it a man is purified of all great sins, and goes to the Supreme Abode (5). There is no doubt that by the installation of a Shiva- linga a man acquires ten million times the merit which is acquired by giving the world and all its gold, by the performance of ten thousand horse- sacrifices, by the digging of a tank in a waterless country, or by making happy the poor and such as are enfeebled by disease (6- 7). Kalika! Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, and the other Devas reside where Mahadeva is in His linga f orm (8). Thirty -five million known and unknown places of pilgrimage and all the holy places abide near Shiva. The land within a radius of a hundred cubits of the linga is declared to be Shiva- kshetra (9- 10). This land of Isha is very sacred. It is more excellent than the most excellent of holy places, because there abide all the Immortals and there are all the holy places (11). He who in a devout spirit lives there, be it even for but a little while, becomes purged of all sins, and goes to the heaven of Shangkara after death (12). Anything great or small (meritorious or otherwise) which is done in this land of Shiva becomes multiplied (in its effect) by the majesty of Shiva (13). 235 All sins committed elsewhere are removed (by going) near Shiva, but sins committed in Shiva -kshetra adhere to a man with the strength of a thunderbolt (14). The merit acquired by the performance there of Purashcharana, japa, acts of charity, Shraddha, tarpana, or any other pious acts is eternal (15). The merit acquired by the performance of a hundred Purashcharana at times of lunar or solar eclipse is acquired by merely performing one japa near Shiva (16). By the offering of Pinda once only in the land of Shiva, a man obtains the same fr uit as he who offers ten million pindas at Gaya, the Ganges, and Prayaga (17). Even in the case of those who are guilty of many sins or of great sins attain the supreme abode if Shraddha be performed in their names in the land of Shiva (18). The fourteen worlds abide there where abides the Lord of the Universe in His Linga form with the auspicious Devi Durga (19). I have spoken a little about the majesty of the immovable Mahadeva in His linga form. The mahima of the Anadi -linga is beyond the power of words to express (20). O Suvrat! even in Thy worship at the Mahapithas the touch of an untouchable is unclean, but this is not so in the worship of Hara in His linga image (21). O Devi! as there are no prohibitions at the time of Chakra worship, so know this, O Kalika! that there are none in the holy shrine in Shivas land (22). What is the use of saying more? I am but telling Thee the very truth when I say that I am unable to describe the glory, majesty, and sanctity of the linga image of Shiva (23). Whether the Linga is placed on a Gauri -patta or not, the worshipper should, for the successful attainment of his desires, worship it devoutly (24). The excellent worshipper earns the merit of (performing) ten thousand horse-sacrifices if he performs the Adhivasa of the Deva in the evening previous to the day of installation (25). The twenty articles to be used in the rite of Adhivasa are: Earth, Scent, a Pebble, Paddy, Durvva grass, Flower, Fruit, Curds, Ghee, Svastika, Vermillion, Conch- shell, Kajjala, Rochana, White Mustard Seed, Silver, Gold, Copper, Lights, and a Mirror (26-27). Taking each of these articles, the Maya Vija and the Brahma- Gayatri should be repeated, and then should be said "Anena" (with this) and "Amushya" (of this ones or his or hers) "may the auspicious Adhivasa be" (28). And then the forehead of the worshipped divinity should be touched with the earth and all other articles aforesaid. Then Adhivasa should be performed with the 236 Prashasti -patra that is, the receptacle should be lifted up, and with it the forehead of the image should be touched three times (29). The worshipper conversant with the ordinances, having thus performed the Adhivasa of the Deva, should bathe the deity with milk and other liquids, as directed in the ceremony relating to the dedication of a temple (30). Rubbing the linga with a piece of cloth and placing it on its seat, Ganesha and other Deities should be worshipped according to the rules prescribed for their worship (31). Having performed Kara- nyasa and Anga- nyasa and Pranayama with the Pranava, the ever -existent Shiva should be meditated upon. Dhyana As tranquil, possessed of the effulgence of ten million Moons; clothed in garments of tiger-skins; wearing a sacred thread made of a serpent; His whole body covered with ashes; wearing ornaments of serpents; His five faces are of reddish- black, yellow, rose, white, and red colours, with three eyes each; His head is covered with matted hair; He is Omnipresent; He holds Ganga on His head, and has ten arms, and in His forehead shines the (crescent) Moon; He holds in His left hand the skull, fire, the noose, the Pinaka, and the axe, and in His right the trident, the thunderbolt, the arrow, and blessings; He is being praised by all the Devas and great Sages; His eyes half -closed in the excess of bliss; His body is white as the snow and the Kunda flower and the Moon; He is seated on the Bull; He is by day and night surrounded on every side by Siddhas, Gandharvas, and Apsaras, who are chanting hymns in His praise; He is the husband of Uma; the devoted Protector of His worshippers (32- 38). Having thus meditated upon Mahadeva and worshipped Him with articles of mental worship, He should be invoked into the Linga, and worshipped to the best of ones powers, and as laid down in the ordinances relating to such worship (39). I have already spoken of the Mantras for the giving of Asana and other articles of worship. I shall now speak of the Mula Mantra of the Great Mahesha (40). Maya, Tara, and the Shabda Vija, with Au and Ardhendu- Vindu added to it, is the Shiva Vija that is, "Hring Ong Haung." (41). Covering Shangkara with clothes and garland of sweet -smelling flowers, and placing Him on a beautiful couch, the Gauri -patta should be consecrated in manner above- mentioned (42). The Devi should be worshipped in the Gauri -patta according to the following rites: with the Maya Vija, Anga- nyasa, Kara- nyasa, and Pranayama should be performed (43). The Great Devi should, to the best of the worshippers ability, be worshipped after medit ation upon Her as follows: 237 Dhyana I meditate upon the stainless One, Whose splendour isthat of a thousand rising Suns, Whose eyes are like Fire, Sun and Moon, and Whose lotus face in smiles is adorned with golden earrings set with lines of pearls. With her lotus hands She makes the gestures which grant blessings and dispel fear, and holds the discus and lotus; Her breasts are large and rounded; She is the Dispeller of all fear, and She is clothed in saffron- coloured raiments. Having thus meditated upon Her, the ten Dikpalas and the Bull should be worshipped to the best of ones powers (44- 45). I will now speak of the Mantra of the Bhagavati, by which the World- pervading One should be worshipped (46). Repeating the Maya, Lakshmi Vijas, and the letter which follows Sa with the sixth vowel, with the Vindu added to it, and thereafter uttering the name of the Wife of Fire, the Mantra is formed (which is as follows): Mantra Hring Shring Hung Svaha (47). Placing the Devi as aforementioned, offerings should be made to all the Devas with a mixture of Masha beans, rice, and curds, with sugar, etc., added to it (48). These articles of worship should be placed in the Ishana corner, and purified with the Varuna Vija, and should be offered after purification with scents and flowers and the following (49) Mantra O Devas, Siddhas, Gandharvas, Uragas, Rakshasas, Pishachas, Mothers, Yakshas, Bhutas, Pitris, Rishis, and other Devas! do you quietly take this offering, and do you stay surrounding Mahadeva and Girija (50- 51). Then japa should be made of the Mantra of the Great Devi as often as one may, and then with excellent songs and instrumental music let the festival be celebrated (52). Having completed the Adhivasa in manner above, the following day after performance of the compulsory daily duties, and having taken the vow, the Five Devas should be worshipped (53). After worshipping the Matris and making the Vasudhara, and performing Vriddhi - Shraddha, the Door -keepers of Mahesha should, in a calm and devout frame of mind, be worshipped (54). The Door -keepers of Shiva are Nandi, Maha- bala, Kishavadana, and Gana- nayaka; they are all armed with missiles and other weapons (55). 238 Bringing the Linga and Tarini, as represented by the Gauri -patta, they should be placed on a Sarvato- bhadra Mandala, or on an auspicious seat (56). Shambhu should then be bathed with eight jars of water with the Mantra "Tryambaka," etc., and worshipped with the sixteen articles of worship (57). After bathing the Devi in a similar way with the Mula Mantra, and worshipping Her, the good worshipper should pray to Shangkara with joined palms (58). Mantra Come, O Bhagavan! O Shambhu! O Thou before Whom all Devas bow! I bow to Thee, Who art armed with the Pinaka, Thee the Lord of all, O Great Deva (59). O Deva! Thou Who conferrest benefits on Thy votaries! do Thou in Thy mercy come to this temple with Bhagavati: I bow to Thee again and again (60). O Mother! O Devi! O Mahamaya! O All -beneficent One! be Thou along with Shambhu pleased: I bow to Thee, O Beloved of Hara (61). Come to this house, O Devi! Thou Who grantest all boons, be Thou pleased, and do Thou grant me all prosperity (62). Rise, O Queen of Devas! and Each with Thy followers abide happy in this place; may Both of You be pleased, You Who are kind to your devotees (63). Having thus prayed to Shiva and the Devi, They should first be carried three times round the Temple, keeping the latter on the right to the accompaniment of joyful sounds, and then taken inside (64). Repeating the Mula Mantra, one- third of the Linga should be set in a hollow made in a piece of stone or in a masonry hole (65). (With the following Mantra): Mantra O Mahadeva! do Thou remain here so long as the Moon and the Sun endure, so long as the Earth and the Oceans endure: I bow to Thee (66). Having firmly fixed Sadashiva with this Mantra, the Gauri -patta, with its tapering end to the North, should be placed on the Linga, that it may be entered by the latter (67). Mantra Be still, O Jagad -dhatri! Thou That art the Cause of creation, existence, and destruction of things; abide Thou here so long as the Sun and the Moon endure (68). Having firmly fixed it, the Linga should be touched and the following (Mantra) should be repeated (69): Mantra 239 I invoke that Deva Who has three eyes, the Decayless, Ishana, around whose lion- seat are tigers, Bhutas, Pishachas, Gandharvas, Siddhas, Charanas, Yakshas, Nagas, Vetalas, Loka- palas, Maharshis, Matris, Gana- nathas, Vishnu Brahma, and Vrihaspati, and all beings which live on earth or in the air; come, O Bhagavan! to this Yantra, which is the handiwork of Brahma, for the prosperity, happiness, and Heaven of all (70- 72). Beloved! Shiva should then be bathed according to the injunctions relating to the consecration of a Deva, and, having been meditated upon as before -mentioned, should be worshipped with mental offerings (73). After placing a special arghya, and having worshipped the Gana- devatas, and meditated upon Mabesha again, flowers should be placed on the Linga (74). Repeating the Shakti Vija between Pasha and Angkusha, and the letters from Ya to Sa with the nasal point, and then " Haung Hangsa," the life of Sadashiva should be infused into the Linga (75). Then, smearing the Husband of the Daughter of the Mountain with sandal, aguru, and saffron, He should be worshipped with the sixteen articles of worship according to the injunctions laid down after performing the jata, the nama, and other rites (76). After concluding everything according to the injunctions, and after worshipping the Devi in the Gauri -patta, the eight images of the Deva should be carefully worshipped (77). By the name Sharva the Earth is meant; by Bhava is meant Water; by Rudra, Fire; by Ugra, Wind; by Bhuna, Ether; by Pashu- pati is meant the Employer of a priest for sacrifice; by Mahadeva, the Source of Nectar, and by Ishana, the Sun: these are declared to be the Eight Images (78- 79). Each of these should be invoked and worshipped in their order (in the corners), beginning with the East and ending with the North- East, uttering the Pranava first and Namah last (80). After having worshipped Indra and the other Dikpalas, the eight Matris, Brahmi, and others, the worshipper should give to Isha the Bull, awning, houses, and the like (81). Then, with joined palms, he should with fervour pray to the Husband of Parvati (as follows) (82): Mantra O Ocean of Mercy! O Lord! Thou hast been placed in this place by me; be Thou pleased (with me). O Shambhu! Thou Who art the Cause of all causes, do Thou abide in this room, O Supreme Deva! so long as the Earth with all its Oceans exist, so long as the Moon and the Sun endure. I bow to Thee. Should there occur the 240 death of any living being, may I, O Dhurjjati! by Thy grace, be kept from that sin (83- 85). The dedicator should go round the image, keeping it on his right, and, having bowed before the Deva, go home. Returning again in the morning, he should bathe Chandra- Shekhara (86). He should first be bathed with consecrated Panchamrita with a hundred jars of scented water, and the worshipper, having worshipped Him to the best of his powers, should pray to Him (as follows) (87- 88): Mantra O Husband of Uma,! if there has been any irregularity, omission, want of devotion in this worship, may they all, by Thy grace, be rectified, and may my fame remain incomparable in this world so long as Moon, the Sun, the Earth, and its Oceans endure (89- 90). I bow to the three- eyed Rudra, Who wields the excellent Pinaka, to Him Who is worshipped by Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, Suryya, and other Devas, I bow again and again (91). The worshipper should then make presents, and feast the Kaulika- dvijas, and give pleasure to the poor by gifts of food, drink, and clothes (92). The Deva should be worshipped every day according to ones means. The fixed Shiva -linga should on no account be removed (93). Parameshvari! I have in brief spoken to you of the rites relating to the consecration of the immovable Shiva- linga, gathering same from all the Agamas (94). Shri Devi said: If, O Lord! there be an accidental omission in the worship of the Devas, then what should be done by their votaries do Thou speak in detail about this (95). Say, on account of what faults are images of Devas unfit for worship, and should thus be rejected, and what should be done? (96). Shri Sadashiva said: If there be an omission to worship an image for a day, then (the next day) the worship should be twice performed; if for two days, then the worship should be four times performed; if for three days, then it should be celebrated eight times (97). If the omission extends three days, but does not exceed six months, then the wise man should worship after bathing the Deva with eight jars of water (98). 241 If the period of omission exceeds six months, then the excellent worshipper should carefully consecrate the Deva according to the rules already laid down, and then worship Him (99) The wise man should not worship the image of a Deva which is broken or is holed, or which has lost a limb, or has been touched by a leper, or has fallen on unholy ground (100). The image of a Deva with missing limbs, or which is broken or has holes in it, should be consigned to water. If the image has been made impure by touch, it should be consecrated, and then worshipped (101). The Mahapithas and Anadi -lingas are free from all deficiencies, and these should always be worshipped for the attainment of happiness by each worshipper as he pleases (102). Mahamaya! whatever Thou hast asked for the good of men who act with a view to the fruits of action, I have answered all this in detail (103). Men cannot live without such actions even for half amoment. Even when men are unwilling, they are, in spite of themselves, drawn by the whirlwind of action (104). By action men enjoy happiness, and by action again they suffer pain. They are born, they live, and they die the slaves of action (105). It is for this that I have spoken of various kinds of action, such as S,dhana and the like, for the guidance of the intellectually weak in the paths of righteousness, and that they may be restrained from wicked acts (106). There are two kands of action good and evil; the effect of evil action is that men suffer acute pain (107). And, O Devi! those who do good acts with minds intent on the fruits thereof go to the next world, and come back again to this, chained by their action (108). Therefore men will not attain final liberation even at the end of a hundred kalpas so long as action, whether good or evil, is not destroyed (109). As a man is bound, be it by a gold or iron chain, so he is bound by his action, be it good or evil (110). So long as a man has not real knowledge, he does not attain final liberation, even though he be in the constant practice of religious acts and a hundred austerities (111). The knowledge of the wise from whom the darkness of ignorance is removed, and whose souls are pure, arises from the performance of duty without expectation of fruit or reward, and by constant meditation on the Brahman (112). 242 He who knows that all which is in this u niverse from Brahma to a blade of grass is but the result of Maya, and that the Brahman is the one and supreme Truth, has this (113). That man is released from the bonds of action who, renouncing name and form, has attained to complete knowledge of the essence of the eternal and immutable Brahman (114). Liberation does not come fram japa, homa, or a hundred fasts; man becomes liberated by the knowledge that he himself is Brahman (115). Final liberation is attained by the knowledge that the Atma (Soul) is the witness, is the Truth, is omnipresent, is one, free from all illuding distractions of self and not -self, the supreme, and, though abiding in the body, is not in the body (116). All imagination of name- form and the like are but the play of a child. He who put away all this sets himself in firm attachment to the Brahman, is, without doubt, liberated (117). If the image imagined by the (human) mind were to lead to liberation, then undoubtedly men would be Kings by virtue of such kingdoms as they gain in thei r dreams (118). Those who (in their ignorance) believe that Ishvara is (only) in images made of clay, or stone, or metal, or wood, merely trouble themselves by their tapas. They can never attain liberation without knowledge (119). Can men attain final liberation by restriction in food, be they ever so thin thereby, or by uncontrolled indulgence, be they ever so gross therefrom, unless they possess the knowledge of Brahman? (120). If by observance of Vrata to live on air, leaves of trees, bits of grain, or water, final liberation may be attained, then snakes, cattle, birds, and aquatic animals should all be able to attain final liberation (121). Brahma- sad-bhava is the highest state of mind; dhyana -bhava is middling; stuti and japa is the last; and external worship is the lowest of all (122). Yoga is the union of the embodied soul and the Supreme Soul," Puja is the union of the worshipper and the worshipped; but he who realizes that all things are Brahman for him there is neither Yoga nor Puja (123). For him who possesses the knowledge of Brahman, the supreme knowledge, of what use are japa, yajna," tapas, niyama, and vrata? (124). He who sees the Brahman, Who is Truth, Knowledge, Bliss, and the One, is by his very nature one with the Brahman. Of what use to him are puja, dhyana, and dharana? (125). 243 For him who knows that all is Brahman there is neither sin nor virtue, neither heaven nor future birth. There is none to meditate upon, nor one who meditates (126). The soul which is detached from all things is ever liberated; what can bind it? From what do fools desire to be liberated? (127). He abides in this Universe, the creation of His powers of illusion, which even the Devas cannot pierce. He is seemingly in the Universe, but not in it (128). The Spirit, the eternal witness, is in its own nature like the void which exists both outside and inside all things, and which has neither birth nor childhood, nor youth nor old age, but is the eternal intelligence which is ever the same, knowing no change or decay (129 -130). It is the body which is born, matures, and decays. Men enthralled by illusion, seeing this, understand it not (131). As the Sun (though one and the same) when reflected in different platters of water appears to be many, so by illusion the one soul appears to be many in the different bodies in which it abides (132). As when water is disturbed the Moon which is reflected in it appears to be disturbed, so when the intelligence is disturbed ignorant men think that it is the soul which is disturbed (133). As the void inside a jar remains the same ever after the jar is broken, so the Soul remains the same after the body is destroyed (134). The knowledge of the Spirit, O Devi! is the one means of attaining final liberation; and he who possesses it is ver ily yea, verily liberated in this world, even yet whilst living, there is no doubt of that (135). Neither by acts, nor by begetting offspring, nor by wealth is man liberated; it is by the knowledge of the Spirit, by the Spirit that man is liberated (136). It is the Spirit that is dear to all; there is nothing dearer than the Spirit;O Shive! it is by the unity of Spirits that men become dear to one another (137). Knowledge, Object of knowledge, the knower appear by illusion to be three different things; but if careful discrimination is made, Spirit is found to be the sole residuum (138). Knowledge is Spirit in the form of intelligence, the object of knowledge is Spirit whose substance is intelligence, the Knower is the Spirit Itself. He who knows this knows the Spirit (139). I have now spoken of knowledge which is the true cause of final liberation. This is the most precious possession of the four classes of Avadhutas (140). 244 Shri Devi said: Thou hast spoken of the two stages in the life of man namely, that of householder and mendicant; what is this wonderful distinction of four classes of Avadhutas which I now hear? (141). I wish to hear and clearly understand the distinctive features of the four classes of Avadhutas: do Thou, O Lord! speak (about them) t ruly (142). Shri Sadashiva said: Those Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and other castes who are worshippers of the Brahma- mantra should be known to be Yatis, even though they be living the life of a householder (143). O Worshipped of the Kulas! those men who are sanctified by the rites of Purnabhisheka should be known and honoured as Shaivavadhutas (144). Both the Brahma and Shaiva Avadhutas shall do all acts in their respective states of life according to the way directed by me (145). They should not partake of forbidden food or drink unless the same has been offered to the Brahman or offered in the Chakra (146). O Beauteous One! I have already spoken of the customs and Dharmma of the Kaulas, who are Brahma Avadhutas, and of the Kaulas who have been initiated. For Brahma and Shaiva Avadhutas, bathing, eating evening meals, drinking, the giving of charities, and marital intercourse should be done according to the way prescribed by the Agamas (147- 148). The above Avadhutas are of two classes, according as they are perf ect or imperfect. Beloved! the perfect one is called Parama- hangsa, and the other or imperfect one is called Parivrat (149). The man who has gone through the Sangskara of an Avadhuta, but whose knowledge is yet imperfect, should, by living the life of a householder, purify his spirit (150). Preserving his caste- mark and practising the rites of a Kaula, he should, remaining constantly devoted to the Brahman, cultivate the excellent knowledge (151). With his mind ever free from attachment, yet discharging all his duty, he should constantly repeat "Ong Tat Sat," and constantly think upon and realize the saying, "Sah aham" (152). Doing his duties, his mind as completely detached as the water on the lotus leaf, he should constantly strive to free his soul by the knowledge of Divine truth and discrimination (153). 245 The man, be he a householder or an ascetic, who commences any undertaking with the Mantra "Ong Tat Sat," is ever successful therein (154). Japa, homa, pratishtha, and all sacramental rites, if performed with the Mantra "Ong Tat Sat," are faultess beyond all doubt (155). What use is there of the various other Mantras? What use of the other multitudinous practices? With this Brahma Mantra alone may all rites be concluded (156). Ambika! this Mantra is easily practised, is not prolix, and gives complete success, and there is no other way besides this great Mantra (157). If it be kept written in any part of the house or on the body, then such house becomes a holy place and the body becomes sanctified (158). O Deveshi! I am telling Thee the very truth when I say that the Mantra "Ong Tat Sat" is superior to the essence of essences of the Nigamas, the Agamas, and the Tantras (159). This most excellent of Mantras, "Ong Tat Sat," has pierced through the palate, the skull, and crownlock of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and has thus manifested itself (160). If the four kinds of food and other articles are sanctified by this Mantra, then it becomes useless to sanctify them by any other Mantras (161). He is a King among Kaulas, who sees the Great Being everywhere, and constantly makes japa of the great Mantra "Tat Sat" (i.e., Ong Tat Sat), acts as he so inclines, and is pure of heart withal (162). By japa of this Mantra a man becomes a Siddha; by thinking of its meaning he is liberated, and he who, when making japa, thinks of its meaning, becomes like unto the Brahman in visible form (163). This Great, Three- footed Mantra is the cause of all causes; by its sadhana one becomes the Conqueror of Death himself (164). O Maheshani! the worshipper attains siddhi in whatsoever way he makes japa of it (165). He who, renouncing all acts (rites), has been cleansed by the Sangskara of a Shaiva Avadhuta, ceases to have any right to worship Devas, to perform the Shraddha of the Pitris, or to honour the Rishis (166). Of the four classes of Avadhutas, the fourth is called the Hangsa (Parama- hangsa). The other three both practise yoga and have enjoyment. They are all liberated and are like unto Shiva (167). 246 The Hangsa should not have intercourse with women, and should not touch metals. Unfettered by restrictions, he moves about enjoying the fruits of his meritorious acts done in previous lives (168). The fourth class, removing his caste-m arks and relinquishing his household duties, should move about in this world without aim or striving (169). Always pleased in his own mind, he is free from sorrow and illusion, homeless and forgiving, fearless, and doing harm to none (170). For him there is no offering of food and drink (to any Deva); for him there is no necessity for dhyana or dharana, the Yati is liberated, is free from attachment, unaffected by all opposites, and follows the ways of a Hangsa (171). O Devi! I have now spoken to Thee in detail of the distinctive marks of the four classes of Kula- Yogis, who are but images of Myself (172). By seeing them, by touching them, conversing with them, or pleasing them, men earn the fruit of pilgrimage to all the holy places (173). All the shrines and holy places which there are in this world, they all, O my Beloved! abide in the body of the Kula- Sannyasi (174). Those men who have worshipped Kula Sadhus with Kula-dravya are indeed blessed and holy, have attained their desired aim, and have earned the fruit of all sacrifices (175). By mere touch of these Sadhus the impure becomes pure, the untouchable becomes touchable, and food unfit to be eaten becomes fit to be eaten. By their touch even the Kiratas, the sinful, the wicked, the Pulindas, the Yavanas, and the wicked and ferocious, are made pure; who else but they should be honoured? (176- 177). Even those who but once worship the Kaulika Yogi with Kula- tattva and Kula- dravya become worthy of honour in this world (178). O Thou with the lotus face! there is no Dharmma superior to Kaula -Dharmma, by seeking refuge in which even a man of inferior caste becomes purified and attains the state of a Kaula (179). As the footmarks of all animals disappear in the footmark of the elephant, so do all other Dharmmas disappear in the Kula- Dharmma (180). My Beloved! how holy are the Kaulas! They are like the images of the holy places. They purify by their merepresence even the Chandalas and the vilest of the vile (181). As other waters falling into Ganga become the water of Ganga, so all men following Kulachara reach the stage of a Kaula (182). 247 As water gone into the sea does not retain its separateness, so men sunk in the ocean of Kula lose theirs (183). All beings in th is world which have two feet, from the Vipra to the inferior castes, are competent for Kulachara (184). Those that are averse to the acceptance of Kula- Dharmma, even when invited, are divorced from all Dharmma and go the downward path (185). The Kulina who deceived those men who seek for Kulachara shall go to the hell named Raurava (186). That low Kaula who refuses to initiate a Chandala or a Yavana into the Kula- Dharmma, considering them to be inferior, or a woman out of disrespect for her, goes the downward way (187). The merit acquired by a hundred Abhisheka, by the performance of a hundred Purashcharana, ten million times that merit is acquired by the initiation of one man into the Kula- Dharmma (188). All the different castes, all the followers of the different Dharmmas in this world, are, by becoming Kaulas, freed from their bonds, and go to the Supreme Abode (189). The Kaulas who follow that Shaiva- Dharmma are like places of pilgrimage, and possess the soul of Shiva. They worship and honour one another with affection, respect, and love (190). What is the use of saying more? I am speaking the very truth before Thee when I say that the only bridge for the crossing of this ocean of existence is the Kula- Dharmma and none other (191). By the following of Kul a-Dharmma all doubts are cut through, all the accumulation of sins is destroyed, and the multitude of acts is destroyed (192). Those Kaulikas are excellent who, truthful and faithful to the Brahman, in their mercy invite men to purify them by Kulachara (193). Devi! I have spoken to Thee the first portion of the Maha- nirvana Tantra for the purification of men. It contains the conclusions of all Dharmmas (194). He who hears it daily or enables other men to hear it becomes freed from all sins, and attains Nirvana at the end (195). By knowing this King among Tantras, which contains the essence of essence of all the Tantras, and is the most excellent among the Tantras, a man becomes versed in all the Shastras (196). The man who knows this Maha- Tantra is freed fromthe bonds of actions. Of what use is it to him to go on pilgrimage, or to do japa, yajna, and sadhana? (197). 248 Kalika! he who knows this Tantra, is conversant with all the Shastras, he is pre - eminent among the virtuous, is wise, knows the Brahman, and is a Sage (198). There is no use of the Vedas, the Puranas, the Smritis,. the Sanghitas, and the various other Tantras, as by knowing this Tantra one knows all (199). All the most secret rites and practices and the most excellent knowledge have been revealed by me in reply to Thy questions (200). Suvrata! as Thou art my most excellent Brahmi Shakti, and art to me dearer than life itself, know Thou that the Mahanirvana Tantra is likewise (201). As the Himalaya is among the Mountains, as the Moon is among the Stars, as the Sun is among all lustrous bodies, so this Tantra is the King among Tantras (202). All the Dharmmas pervade this Tantra. It is the only means for the acquirement of the knowledge of Brahman. The man who repeats himself or causes others to repeat it will surely acquire such knowledge (203). In the family of the man in whose house there is this most excellent of all Tantras there will never be a Pashu (204). The man blinded by the darkness of ignorance, the fool caught in the meshes of his actions, and the illiterate man, by listening to this Great Tantra, are released fromthe bonds of karmma (205). Parameshani! reading, listening to, and worshipping this Tantra, and singing its praise, gives liberation to men (206). Of the other various Tantras each deals with one subject only. There is no other Tantra which contains all the Dharmmas (207). The last part contains an account of the nether, earthly, and heavenly worlds. He who knows it (along with the first) undoubtedly knows all (208). The man who knows the second part with this book is able to speak of the past, present, and future, and knows the three worlds (209). There are all manner of Tantras and various Shastras, but they are not equal to a sixteenth part (in value) of this Mahanirvana Tantra (210). What further shall I tell Thee of the greatness of the Mahanirvana Tantra? Through the knowledge of it one shall attain to Brahma- nirvana (211). End of the Fourteenth Joyful Message of the First Part of the Mahanirvana, entitled, "The Consecration of Shiva- linga and Description of the Four Classes of Avadhutas." 249 A quick note: Hi! I'm Julie, the woman who runs Global Grey - the website where this ebook was published for free. These are my own editions, and I hope you enjoyed reading this particular one. To support the site, and to allow me to continue offering these quality (and completely free) ebooks, please think about donating a small amount (if you already have - thank you!). It helps with the site costs, and any amount is appreciated. Thanks for reading this and I really hope you visit Global Grey again - new books are added regularly so you'll always find something of interest :) 250 |
The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays Albert Camus Translated from the French by Justin OBrien 1955 Contents Preface The Myth Of Sisyphus An Absurd Reasoning Absurdity and Suicide Absurd Walk Philosophical Suicide Absurd Freedom The Abs urd Man Don Juanism Drama Conquest Absurd Creation Philosophy and Fiction Kirilov Ephemeral Creation The Myth Of Sisyphus Appendix: Hope and the Absurd in the Work of Franz Kafka Summer In Algiers The Minotaur or The Stop In Oran The Street The Desert in Oran Sports Monuments Ariadnes Stone Helens Exile Return To Tipasa The Artist And His Time Preface For me The Myth of Sisyphus marks the beginning of an idea which I was to pursue in The Rebel. It attempts to resolve the problem of suicide, as The Rebel attempts to resolve that of murder, in both cases without the aid of eternal values which, temporarily perhaps, are absent or distorted in contemporary Europe. The fundamental subject of The Myth of Sisyphus is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legitimate to meet the probl em of suicide face to face. The answer, underlying and appearing through the paradoxes which cover it, is this: even if one does not believe in God, suicide is not legitimate. Written fifteen years ago, in 1940, amid the French and European disaster, this book declares that even within the limits of nihilism it is possible to find the means to proceed beyond nihilism. In all the books I have written since, I have attempted to pursue this direction. Although The Myth of Sisyphus poses mortal problems, it s ums itself up for me as a lucid invitation to live and to create, in the very midst of the desert. It has hence been thought possible to append to this philosophical argument a series of essays, of a kind Ihave never ceased writing, which are somewhat mar ginal to my other books. In a more lyrical form, they all illustrate that essential fluctuation from assent to refusal which, in my view, defines the artist and his difficult calling. The unity of this book, that I should like to be apparent to American re aders as it is to me, resides in the reflection, alternately cold and impassioned, in which an artist may indulge as to his reasons for living and for creating. After fifteen years I have progressed beyond several of the positions which are set down here; but I have remained faithful, it seems to me, to the exigency which prompted them. That is why this hook is in a certain sense the most personal of those I have published in America. More than the others, therefore, it has need of the indulgence and unders tanding of its readers. Albert Camus, Paris, March 1955 for PASCAL PIA Omy soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible. Pindar, Pythian iii The pages that follow deal with an absurd sensitivity that can be found widespread in the age and not with an absurd philosophy which our time, properly speaking, has not known. It is therefore simply fair to point out, at the outset, what these pages owe to certain contemporary thinkers. It is so far from my intention to hide this that they Will be found cited and commented upon throughout this work. But it is useful to note at the same time that the absurd, hitherto taken as a conclusion, is considered in this essay as a starting - point. In this sense it may be said that there is something provisional in my commentary: one cannot prejudge the position it entails. There will be found here merely the description, in the pure state, of an intellectual malady. No metaphysic, no belief is involved in it for the moment. These are the limits and the only bias of this book. Certain personal experiences urge me to make this clear. The Myth Of Sisyphus An Absurd Reasoning Absurdity and Suicide There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether li fe is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. A nd if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for carefu l study before they become clear to the intellect. If I ask myself how to judge that this question is more urgent than that, I reply that one judges by the actions it entails. I have never seen anyone die for the ontologi -cal argument. Galileo, who held a scientific truth of great importance, abjured it with the greatest ease as soon as it endangered his life. In a certain sense, he did right.[1]That truth was not worth the stake. Whether the earth or the sun revolves arou nd the other is a matter of profound indifference. To tell the truth, it is a futile question. On the other hand, I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions t hat give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions. How to answer it? On all essential problems (I mean thereby those that run the risk of leading to death or those that intensify the passion of living) there are probably but two methods of thought: the method of La Palisse and the method of Don Quixote. Solely the balance between evidence and lyricism can allow us to achi eve simultaneously emotion and lucidity. In a subject at once so humble and so heavy with emotion, the learned and classical dialectic must yield, one can see, to a more modest attitude of mind deriving at one and the same time from common sense and unders tanding. Suicide has never been dealt with except as a social phenomenon. On the contrary, we are concerned here, at the outset, with the relationship between individual thought and suicide. An act like this is prepared within the silence of the heart, as is a great work of art. The man himself is ignorant of it. One evening he pulls the trigger or jumps. Of an apartment -building manager who had killed himself I was told that he had lost his daughter five years before, that be bad changed greatly since, and that that experience had undermined him. A more exact word cannot be imagined. Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined. Society has but little connection with such beginnings. The worm is in mans heart. That is where it must be sought. One mus t follow and understand this fatal game that leads from lucidity in the face of existence to flight from light. There are many causes for a suicide, and generally the most obvious ones were not the most powerful. Rarely is suicide committed (yet the hypothesis is not excluded) through reflection. What sets off the crisis is almost always unverifiable. Newspapers often speak of personal sorrows or of incurable illness. Th ese explanations are plausible. But one would have to know whether a friend of the desperate man had not that very day addressed him indifferently. He is the guilty one. For that is enough to precipitate all the rancors and all the boredom still in suspens ion.[2] But if it is hard to fix the precise instant, the subtle step when the mind opted for death, it is easier to deduce from the act itself the consequences it implies. In a sense, and as in melodrama, killing yourself amounts to confessing. It is confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it. Lets not go too far in such analogies, however, but rather return to everyday words. It is merely confessing that that is not worth the trouble. Living, naturally, is never easy. You continue making the gestures commanded by existence for many reasons, the first of which is habit. Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinc tively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the abse nce of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering. What, then, is that incalculable feeling that deprives the mind of the sleep necessary to life? A world that can be explained even with b ad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. T his divorce between man and this life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity. All healthy men having thought of their own suicide, it can be seen, without further explanation, that there is a direct connection between this feeling and the longing for death. The subject of this essay is precisely this relationship between the absurd and suicide, the exact degree to which suicide is a solution to the absurd. The principle can be established that for a man who does not cheat, what he believes to be true must determine his action. Belief in the absurdity of existence must then dictate his conduct. It is legitimate to wonder, clearly and without false pathos, whether a conclusion of this importance requires forsaking as rapidly as possib le an incomprehensible condition. I am speaking, of course, of men inclined to be in harmony with themselves. Stated clearly, this problem may seem both simple and insoluble. But it is wrongly assumed that simple questions involve answers that are no less simple and that evidence implies evidence. A priori and reversing the terms of the problem, just as one does or does not kill oneself, it seems that there are but two philosophical solutions, either yes or no. This would be too easy. But allowance must be made for those who, without concluding, continue questioning. Here I am only slightly indulging in irony: this is the majority. I notice also that those who answer no act as if they thought yes. As a matter of fact, if I accept the Nietzschean criterio n, they think yes in one way or another. On the other hand, it often happens that those who commit suicide were assured of the meaning of life. These contradictions are constant. It may even be said that they have never been so keen as on this point wher e, on the contrary, logic seems so desirable. It is a commonplace to compare philosophical theories and the behavior of those who profess them. But it must be said that of the thinkers who refused a meaning to life none except Kirilov who belongs to litera ture, Peregrinos who is born of legend,[3]and Jules Lequier who belongs to hypothesis, admitted his logic to the point of refusing that life. Schopenhauer is often cited, as a fit subject for laughter, because he praised suicide while seated at a well -set table. This is no subject for joking. That way of not taking the tragic seriously is not so grievous, but it helps to judge a man. In the face of such contradictions and obscurities must we conclude that there is no relat ionship between the opinion one has about life and the act one commits to leave it? Let us not exaggerate in this direction. In a mans attachment to life there is something stronger than all the ills in the world. The bodys judgment is as good as the min ds and the body shrinks from annihilation. We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us toward death, the body maintains its irreparable lead. In short, the essence of that contradiction lies in what I shall call the act of eluding because it is both less and more than diversion in the Pascalian sense. Eluding is the invariable game. The typical act of eluding, the fatal evasion that constitutes the third theme of this essay, is hope. Hope of another life one must deserve or trickery of those who live not for life itself but for some great idea that will transcend it, refine it, give it a meaning, and betray it. Thus everything contributes to spreading confusion. Hitherto, and it has not been wasted effort, people have played on words and pretended to believe that refusing to grant a meaning to life necessarily leads to declaring that it is not worth living. In truth, there is no necessary common measure between these two judgments. One merely has to refuse to he misled by the confusions, divorces, and inconsistencies previously pointed out. One must brush everything aside and go straight to the real problem. One kills oneself because life is not worth living, that is certainly a truth yet an un fruitful one because it is a truism. But does that insult to existence, that flat denial in which it is plunged come from the fact that it has no meaning? Does its absurdity require one to escape it through hope or suicide this is what must be clarified, h unted down, and elucidated while brushing aside all the rest. Does the Absurd dictate death? This problem must be given priority over others, outside all methods of thought and all exercises of the disinterested mind. Shades of meaning, contradictions, the psychology that an objective mind can always introduce into all problems have no place in this pursuit and this passion. It calls simply for an unjust in other words, logical thought. That is not easy. It is always easy to be logical. It is almost impos sible to be logical to the bitter end. Men who die by their own hand consequently follow to its conclusion their emotional inclination. Reflection on suicide gives me an opportunity to raise the only problem to interest me: is there a logic to the point of death? I cannot know unless I pursue, without reckless passion, in the sole light of evidence, the reasoning of which I am here suggesting the source. This is what I call an absurd reasoning. Many have begun it. I do not yet know whether or not they kept to it. When Karl Jaspers, revealing the impossibility of constituting the world as a unity, exclaims: This limitation leads me to myself, where I can no longer withdraw behind an objective point of view that I am merely representing, where neither I mysel f nor the existence of others can any longer become an object for me, he is evoking after many others those waterless deserts where thought reaches its confines. After many others, yes indeed, but how eager they were to get out of them! At that last cross road where thought hesitates, many men have arrived and even some of the humblest. They then abdicated what was most precious to them, their life. Others, princes of the mind, abdicated likewise, but they initiated the suicide of their thought in its pures t revolt. The real effort is to stay there, rather, in so far as that is possible, and to examine closely the odd vegetation of those distant regions. Tenacity and acumen are privileged spectators of this inhuman show in which absurdity, hope, and death ca rry on their dialogue. The mind can then analyze the figures of that elementary yet subtle dance before illustrating them and reliving them itself. Absurd Walls Like great works, deep feelings always mean more than they are conscious of saying. The regular ity of an impulse or a repulsion in a soul is encountered again in habits of doing or thinking, is reproduced in consequences of which the soul itself knows nothing. Great feelings take with them their own universe, splendid or abject. They light up with t heir passion an exclusive world in which they recognize their climate. There is a universe of jealousy, of ambition, of selfishness, or of generosity. A universe in other words, a metaphysic and an attitude of mind. What is true of already specialized feel ings will be even more so of emotions basically as indeterminate, simultaneously as vague and as definite, as remote and as present as those furnished us by beauty or aroused by absurdity. At any streetcorner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. As it is, in its distressing nudity, in its light without effulgence, it is elusive. But that very difficulty deserves reflection. It is probably true that a man remains forever unknown to us and that there is in him something irreducible tha t escapes us. But practically I know men and recognize them by their behavior, by the totality of their deeds, by the consequences caused in life by their presence. Likewise, all those irrational feelings which offer no purchase to analysis. I can define t hem practically, appreciate them practically, by gathering together the sum of their consequences in the domain of the intelligence, by seizing and noting all their aspects, by outlining their universe. It is certain that apparently, though I have seen the same actor a hundred times, I shall not for that reason know him any better personally. Yet if I add up the heroes he has personified and if I say that I know him a little better at the hundredth character counted off, this will be felt to contain an elem ent of truth. For this apparent paradox is also an apologue. There is a moral to it. It teaches that a man defines himself by his make -believe as well as by his sincere impulses. There is thus a lower key of feelings, inaccessible in the heart but partiall y disclosed by the acts they imply and the attitudes of mind they assume. It is clear that in this way I am defining a method. But it is also evident that that method is one of analysis and not of knowledge. For methods imply metaphysics; unconsciously the y disclose conclusions that they often claim not to know yet. Similarly, the last pages of a book are already contained in the first pages. Such a link is inevitable. The method defined here acknowledges the feeling that all true knowledge is impossible. Solely appearances can be enumerated and the climate make itself felt. Perhaps we shall be able to overtake that elusive feeling of absurdity in the different but closely related worlds of intelligence, of the art of living, or of art itself. The climate of absurdity is in the beginning. The end is the absurd universe and that attitude of mind which lights the world with its true colors to bring out the privileged and implacable visage which that attitude has discerned in it. * * * All great deeds and all gr eat thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street -corner or in a restaurants revolving door. So it is with absurdity. The absurd world more than others derives its nobility from that abject birth. In certain situations, repl ying nothing when asked what one is thinking about may be pretense in a man. Those who are loved are well aware of this. But if that reply is sincere, if it symbolizes that odd state of soul in which the void be -comes eloquent, in which the chain of dail y gestures is broken, in which the heart vainly seeks the link that will connect it again, then it is as it were the first sign of absurdity. It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetc ar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday accord ing to the same rhythm this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the why arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with am azement. Begins this is important. Weariness comes at the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at the same time it inaugurates the impulse of consciousness. It awakens consciousness and provokes what follows. What follows is the gradual return into the chain or it is the definitive awakening. At the end of the awakening comes, in time, the consequence: suicide or recovery. In itself weariness has something sickening about it. Here, I must conclude that it is good. For everything be -gins with consciou sness and nothing is worth anything except through it. There is nothing original about these remarks. But they are obvious; that is enough for a while, during a sketchy reconnaissance in the origins of the absurd. Mere anxiety, as Heidegger says, is at t he source of everything. Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. But a moment always comes when we have to carry it. We live on the future: tomorrow, later on, when you have made your way, you will understand when yo u are old enough. Such irrelevan -cies are wonderful, for, after all, its a matter of dying. Yet a day comes when a man notices or says that he is thirty. Thus he asserts his youth. But simultaneously he situates himself in relation to time. He takes his place in it. He admits that he stands at a certain point on a curve that he acknowledges having to travel to its end. He belongs to time, and by the horror that seizes him, he recognizes his worst enemy. Tomorrow, he was longing for tomorrow, whereas every thing in him ought to reject it. That revolt of the flesh is the absurd.[4] A step lower and strangeness creeps in: perceiving that the world is dense, sensing to what a degree a stone is foreign and irreducible to us, w ith what intensity nature or a landscape can negate us. At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, he nceforth more remote than a lost paradise. The primitive hostility of the world rises up to face us across millennia, for a second we cease to understand it because for centuries we have understood in it solely the images and designs that we had at - tribute d to it beforehand, because henceforth we lack the power to make use of that artifice. The world evades us because it becomes itself again. That stage scenery masked by habit becomes again what it is. It withdraws at a distance from us. Just as there are d ays when under the familial face of a woman, we see as a stranger her we had loved months or years ago, perhaps we shall come even to desire what suddenly leaves us so alone. But the time has not yet come. Just one thing: that denseness and that strangenes s of the world is the absurd. Men, too, secrete the inhuman. At certain moments of lucidity, the mechanical aspect of their gestures, their meaningless pantomime makes silly everything that surrounds them. A man is talking on the telephone behind a glass p artition; you cannot hear him, but you see his incomprehensible dumb show: you wonder why he is alive. This discomfort in the face of mans own inhumanity, this incalculable tumble before the image of what we are, this nausea, as a writer of today calls it, is also the absurd. Likewise the stranger who at certain seconds comes to meet us in a mirror, the familiar and yet alarming brother we encounter in our own photographs is also the absurd. I come at last to death and to the attitude we have toward it. On this point everything has been said and it is only proper to avoid pathos. Yet one will never be sufficiently surprised that everyone lives as if no one knew. This is because in reality there is no experience of death. Properly speaking, nothing has b een experienced but what has been lived and made conscious. Here, it is barely possible to speak of the experience of others deaths. It is a substitute, an illusion, and it never quite convinces us. That melancholy convention cannot be persuasive. The hor ror comes in reality from the mathematical aspect of the event. If time frightens us, this is because it works out the problem and the solution comes afterward. All the pretty speeches about the soul will have their contrary convincingly proved, at least f or a time. From this inert body on which a slap makes no mark the soul has disappeared. This elementary and definitive aspect of the adventure constitutes the absurd feeling. Under the fatal lighting of that destiny, its uselessness becomes evident. No cod e of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori in the face of the cruel mathematics that command our condition. Let me repeat: all this has been said over and over. I am limiting myself here to making a rapid classification and to pointing out these ob vious themes. They run through all literatures and all philosophies. Everyday conversation feeds on them. There is no question of reinventing them. But it is essential to be sure of these facts in order to be able to question oneself subsequently on the pr imordial question. I am interested let me repeat again not go much in absurd discoveries as in their consequences. If one is assured of these facts, what is one to conclude, how far is one to go to elude nothing? Is one to die voluntarily or to hope in spi te of everything? Beforehand, it is necessary to take the same rapid inventory on the plane of the intelligence. *** The minds first step is to distinguish what is true from what is false. However, as soon as thought reflects on itself, what it first discovers is a contradiction. Useless to strive to be convincing in this case. Over the centuries no one has furnished a clearer and more elegant demonstration of the business than Aristotle: The often ridiculed consequence of these opinions is that they des troy themselves. For by asserting that all is true we assert the truth of the contrary assertion and consequently the falsity of our own thesis (for the contrary assertion does not admit that it can be true). And if one says that all is false, that asserti on is itself false. If we declare that solely the assertion opposed to ours is false or else that solely ours is not false, we are nevertheless forced to admit an infinite number of true or false judgments. For the one who expresses a true assertion procla ims simultaneously that it is true, and so on ad infinitum. This vicious circle is but the first of a series in which the mind that studies itself gets lost in a giddy whirling. The very simplicity of these paradoxes makes them irreducible. Whatever may b e the plays on words and the acrobatics of logic, to understand is, above all, to unify. The minds deepest desire, even in its most elaborate operations, parallels mans unconscious feeling in the face of his universe: it is an insistence upon familiarity , an appetite for clarity. Understanding the world for a man is reducing it to the human, stamping it with his seal. The cats universe is not the universe of the anthill. The truism All thought is anthropomorphic has no other meaning. Likewise, the mind that aims to understand reality can consider itself satisfied only by reducing it to terms of thought. If man realized that the universe like him can love and suffer, he would be reconciled. If thought discovered in the shimmering mirrors of phenomena ete rnal relations capable of summing them up and summing themselves up in a single principle, then would be seen an intellectual joy of which the myth of the blessed would be but a ridiculous imitation. That nostalgia for unity, that appetite for the absolute illustrates the essential impulse of the human drama. But the fact of that nostalgias existence does not imply that it is to be immediately satisfied. For if, bridging the gulf that separates desire from conquest, we assert with Parmenides the reality of the One (whatever it may be), we fall into the ridiculous contradiction of a mind that asserts total unity and proves by its very assertion its own difference and the diversity it claimed to resolve. This other vicious circle is enough to stifle our hopes . These are again truisms. I shall again repeat that they are not interesting in themselves but in the consequences that can be deduced from them. I know another truism: it tells me that man is mortal. One can nevertheless count the minds that have deduced the extreme conclusions from it. It is essential to consider as a constant point of reference in this essay the regular hiatus between what we fancy we know and what we really know, practical assent and simulated ignorance which allows us to live with ide as which, if we truly put them to the test, ought to upset our whole life. Faced with this inextricable contradiction of the mind, we shall fully grasp the divorce separating us from our own creations. So long as the mind keeps silent in the motionless wor ld of its hopes, everything is reflected and arranged in the unity of its nostalgia. But with its first move this world cracks and tumbles: an infinite number of shimmering fragments is offered to the understanding. We must despair of ever reconstructing t he familiar, calm surface which would give us peace of heart. After so many centuries of inquiries, so many abdications among thinkers, we are well aware that this is true for all our knowledge. With the exception of professional rationalists, today people despair of true knowledge. If the only significant history of human thought were to be written, it would have to be the history of its successive regrets and its impotences. Of whom and of what indeed can I say: I know that! This heart within me I can f eel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction. For if I try to seize this self of which I feel sure, if I try to define and to summarize it, it is nothing but water slipping through my fingers. I can sketch one by one all the aspects it is able to assume, all those likewise that have been attributed to it, this upbringing, this origin, this ardor or these silences, this nobility or this vileness. But as pects cannot be added up. This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myse lf. In psychology as in logic, there are truths but no truth. SocratesKnow thyself has as much value as the Be virtuous of our confessionals. They reveal a nostalgia at the same time as an ignorance. They are sterile exercises on great subjects. They are legitimate only in precisely so far as they are approximate. And here are trees and I know their gnarled surface, water and I feel its taste. These scents of grass and stars at night, certain evenings when the heart relaxes how shall I negate this worl d whose power and strength I feel? Yet all the knowledge on earth will give me nothing to assure me that this world is mine. You describe it to me and you teach me to classify it. You enumerate its laws and in my thirst for knowledge I admit that they are true. You take apart its mechanism and my hope increases. At the final stage you teach me that this wondrous and multicolored universe can be reduced to the atom and that the atom itself can be reduced to the electron. All this is good and I wait for you t o continue. But you tell me of an invisible planetary system in which electrons gravitate around a nucleus. You explain this world to me with an image. I realize then that you have been reduced to poetry: I shall never know. Have I the time to become indig nant? You have already changed theories. So that science that was to teach me everything ends up in a hypothesis, that lucidity founders in metaphor, that uncertainty is resolved in a work of art. What need had I of so many efforts? The soft lines of these hills and the hand of evening on this troubled heart teach me much more. I have returned to my beginning. I realize that if through science I can seize phenomena and enumerate them, I cannot, for all that, apprehend the world. Were I to trace its entire r elief with my finger, I should not know any more. And you give me the choice between a description that is sure but that teaches me nothing and hypotheses that claim to teach me but that are not sure. A stranger to myself and to the world, armed solely wit h a thought that negates itself as soon as it asserts, what is this condition in which I can have peace only by refusing to know and to live, in which the appetite for conquest bumps into walls that defy its assaults? To will is to stir up paradoxes. Every thing is ordered in such a way as to bring into being that poisoned peace produced by thoughtlessness, lack of heart, or fatal renunciations. Hence the intelligence, too, tells me in its way that this world is absurd. Its contrary, blind reason, may well claim that all is clear; I was waiting for proof and longing for it to be right. But despite so many pretentious centuries and over the heads of so many eloquent and persuasive men, I know that is false . On this plane, at least, there is no happiness if I cannot know. That universal reason, practical or ethical, that determinism, those categories that explain everything are enough to make a decent man laugh. They have nothing to do with the mind. They ne gate its profound truth, which is to be enchained. In this unintelligible and limited universe, mans fate henceforth assumes its meaning. A horde of irrationals has sprung up and surrounds him until his ultimate end. In his recovered and now studied lucid ity, the feeling of the absurd becomes clear and definite. I said that the world is absurd, but I was too hasty. This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild l onging for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment it is all that links them together. It binds them one to the other as only hatred can weld two creatures together. This is all I can discern clearly in this measureless universe where my adventure takes place. Let us pause here. If I hold to be true that absurdity that determines my relationship with life, if I become thoroughly imbued with that sentiment that seizes me in face of the worlds scenes, with that lucidity imposed on me by the pursuit of a science, I must sacrifice everything to these certainties and I must see them squarely to be able to maintain them. Above all, I must adapt my behavior to them and pursue them in all their consequences. I am speaking here of decency. But I want to know beforehand if thought can live in those deserts. * * * I already know that thought has at least entered those deserts. There it found its bread. There it realized that it had previously been feeding on phantoms. It justified some of the most urgent themes of human reflection. From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all. But whether or not one can live with ones passions, whether or not one can acce pt their law, which is to burn the heart they simultaneously exalt that is the whole question. It is not, however, the one we shall ask just yet. It stands at the center of this experience. There will be time to come back to it. Let us recognize rather tho se themes and those impulses born of the desert. It will suffice to enumerate them. They, too, are known to all today. There have always been men to defend the rights of the irrational. The tradition of what may be called humiliated thought has never cease d to exist. The criticism of rationalism has been made so often that it seems unnecessary to begin again. Yet our epoch is marked by the rebirth of those paradoxical systems that strive to trip up the reason as if truly it had always forged ahead. But that is not so much a proof of the efficacy of the reason as of the intensity of its hopes. On the plane of history, such a constancy of two attitudes illustrates the essential passion of man torn between his urge toward unity and the clear vision he may have of the walls enclosing him. But never perhaps at any time has the attack on reason been more violent than in ours. Since Zarathustras great outburst: By chance it is the oldest nobility in the world. I conferred it upon all things when I proclaimed that above them no eternal will was exercised, since Kierkegaards fatal illness, that malady that leads to death with nothing else following it, the significant and tormenting themes of absurd thought have followed one another. Or at least, and this proviso is of capital importance, the themes of irrational and religious thought. From Jaspers to Heidegger, from Kierkegaard to Che -stov, from the phenomenologists to Scheler, on the logical plane and on the moral plane, a whole family of minds related by their nostalgia but opposed by their methods or their aims, have persisted in blocking the royal road of reason and in recovering the direct paths of truth. Here I assume these thoughts to be known and lived. Whatever may be or have been their ambitions, all sta rted out from that indescribable universe where contradiction, antinomy, anguish, or impotence reigns. And what they have in common is precisely the themes so far disclosed. For them, too, it must be said that what matters above all is the conclusions they have managed to draw from those discoveries. That matters so much that they must be examined separately. But for the moment we are concerned solely with their discoveries and their initial experiments. We are concerned solely with noting their agreement. If it would be presumptuous to try to deal with their philosophies, it is possible and sufficient in any case to bring out the climate that is common to them. Heidegger considers the human condition coldly and announces that that existence is humiliated. T he only reality is anxiety in the whole chain of beings. To the man lost in the world and its diversions this anxiety is a brief, fleeting fear. But if that fear becomes conscious of itself, it becomes anguish, the perpetual climate of the lucid man in whom existence is concentrated. This professor of philosophy writes without trembling and in the most abstract language in the world that the finite and limited character of human existence is more primordial than man himself. His interest in Kant exten ds only to recognizing the restricted character of his pure Reason. This is to coincide at the end of his analyses that the world can no longer offer anything to the man filled with anguish. This anxiety seems to him so much more important than all the categories in the world that he thinks and talks only of it. He enumerates its aspects: boredom when the ordinary man strives to quash it in him and benumb it; terror when the mind contemplates death. He too does not separate consciousness from the absurd . The consciousness of death is the call of anxiety and existence then delivers itself its own summons through the intermediary of consciousness. It is the very voice of anguish and it adjures existence to return from its loss in the anonymous They. Fo r him, too, one must not sleep, but must keep alert until the consummation. He stands in this absurd world and points out its ephemeral character. He seeks his way amid these ruins. Jaspers despairs of any ontology because he claims that we have lost naiv ete. He knows that we can achieve nothing that will transcend the fatal game of appearances. He knows that the end of the mind is failure. He tarries over the spiritual adventures revealed by history and pitilessly discloses the flaw in each system, the illusion that saved everything, the preaching that hid nothing. In this ravaged world in which the impossibility of knowledge is established, in which everlasting nothingness seems the only reality and irremediable despair seems the only attitude, he tries to recover the Ariadnes thread that leads to divine secrets. Chestov, for his part, throughout a wonderfully monotonous work, constantly straining toward the same truths, tirelessly demonstrates that the tightest system, the most universal rationalism alw ays stumbles eventually on the irrational of human thought. None of the ironic facts or ridiculous contradictions that depreciate the reason escapes him. One thing only interests him, and that is the exception, whether in the domain of the heart or of the mind. Through the Dostoevskian experiences of the condemned man, the exacerbated adventures of the Nietzschean mind, Hamlets imprecations, or the bitter aristocracy of an Ibsen, he tracks down, il -luminates, and magnifies the human revolt against the irre mediable. He refuses the reason its reasons and begins to advance with some decision only in the middle of that colorless desert where all certainties have become stones. Of all perhaps the most engaging, Kierkegaard, for a part of his existence at least, does more than discover the absurd, he lives it. The man who writes: The surest of stubborn silences is not to hold ones tongue but to talk makes sure in the beginning that no truth is absolute or can render satisfactory an existence that is impossible in itself. Don Juan of the understanding, he multiplies pseudonyms and contradictions, writes his Discourses of Edification at the same time as that manual of cynical spiritualism, The Diary of the Seducer. He refuses consolations, ethics, reliable princip les. As for that thorn he feels in his heart, he is careful not to quiet its pain. On the contrary, he awakens it and, in the desperate joy of a man crucified and happy to be so, he builds up piece by piece lucidity, refusal, make believe a category of the man possessed. That face both tender and sneering, those pirouettes followed by a cry from the heart are the absurd spirit itself grappling with a reality beyond its comprehension. And the spiritual adventure that leads Kierkegaard to his beloved scandals begins likewise in the chaos of an experience divested of its setting and relegated to its original incoherence. On quite a different plane, that of method, Husserl and the phenomenologists, by their very extravagances, reinstate the world in its diversit y and deny the transcendent power of the reason. The spiritual universe becomes incalculably enriched through them. The rose petal, the milestone, or the human hand are as important as love, desire, or the laws of gravity. Thinking ceases to be unifying or making a semblance familiar in the guise of a major principle. Thinking is learning all over again to see, to be attentive, to focus consciousness; it is turning every idea and every image, in the manner of Proust, into a privileged moment. What justifies thought is its extreme consciousness. Though more positive than Kierkegaards or Chestovs, Husserls manner of proceeding, in the beginning, nevertheless negates the classic method of the reason, disappoints hope, opens to intuition and to the heart a whole proliferation of phenomena, the wealth of which has about it something inhuman. These paths lead to all sciences or to none. This amounts to saying that in this case the means are more important than the end. All that is involved is an attitude for understanding and not a consolation. Let me repeat: in the beginning, at very least. How can one fail to feel the basic relationship of these minds! How can one fail to see that they take their stand around a privileged and bitter moment in which hope has n o further place? I want everything to be explained to me or nothing. And the reason is impotent when it hears this cry from the heart. The mind aroused by this insistence seeks and finds nothing but contradictions and nonsense. What I fail to understand is nonsense. The world is peopled with such irrationals. The world itself, whose single meaning I do not understand, is but a vast irrational. If one could only say just once: This is clear, all would be saved. But these men vie with one another in proclai ming that nothing is clear, all is chaos, that all man has is his lucidity and his definite knowledge of the walls surrounding him. All these experiences agree and confirm one another. The mind, when it reaches its limits, must make a judgment and choose its conclusions. This is where suicide and the reply stand. But I wish to reverse the order of the inquiry and start out from the intelligent adventure and come back to daily acts. The experiences called to mind here were born in the desert that we must not leave behind. At least it is essential to know how far they went. At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the h uman need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter these are t he three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable. Philosophical Suicide The feeling of the absurd is not, for all that, the notion of the absurd. It lays the foundations for it, and that is all. It is not limited to that notion, except in the brief moment when it passes judgment on the universe. Subsequently it has a chance of going further. It is alive; in other words, it must die or else reverberate. So it is with the themes we have gathered together. But there again what interests me is not works or minds, criticism of which would call for another form and another place, but the discovery of what their conclusions have in common. Ne ver, perhaps, have minds been so different. And yet we recognize as identical the spiritual landscapes in which they get under way. Likewise, despite such dissimilar zones of knowledge, the cry that terminates their itinerary rings out in the same way. It is evident that the thinkers we have just recalled have a common climate. To say that that climate is deadly scarcely amounts to playing on words. Living under that stifling sky forces one to get away or to stay. The important thing is to find out how peop le get away in the first case and why people stay in the second case. This is how I define the problem of suicide and the possible interest in the conclusions of existential philosophy. But first I want to detour from the direct path. Up to now we have man aged to circumscribe the absurd from the outside. One can, however, wonder how much is clear in that notion and by direct analysis try to discover its meaning on the one hand and, on the other, the consequences it involves. If I accuse an innocent man of a monstrous crime, if I tell a virtuous man that he has coveted his own sister, he will reply that this is absurd. His indignation has its comical aspect. But it also has its fundamental reason. The virtuous man illustrates by that reply the definitive anti nomy existing between the deed I am attributing to him and his lifelong principles. Its absurd means Its impossible but also Its contradictory. If I see a man armed only with a sword attack a group of machine guns, I shall consider his act to be a bsurd. But it is so solely by virtue of the disproportion between his intention and the reality he will encounter, of the contradiction I notice between his true strength and the aim he has in view. Likewise we shall deem a verdict absurd when we contrast it with the verdict the facts apparently dictated. And, similarly, a demonstration by the absurd is achieved by comparing the consequences of such a reasoning with the logical reality one wants to set up. In all these cases, from the simplest to the most c omplex, the magnitude of the absurdity will be in direct ratio to the distance between the two terms of my comparison. There are absurd marriages, challenges, rancors, silences, wars, and even peace treaties. For each of them the absurdity springs from a c omparison. I am thus justified in saying that the feeling of absurdity does not spring from the mere scrutiny of a fact or an impression, but that it bursts from the comparison between a bare fact and a certain reality, between an action and the world that transcends it. The absurd is essentially a divorce. It lies in neither of the elements compared; it is born of their confrontation. In this particular case and on the plane of intelligence, I can therefore say that the Absurd is not in man (if such a meta phor could have a meaning) nor in the world, but in their presence together. For the moment it is the only bond uniting them. If wish to limit myself to facts, I know what man wants, I know what the world offers him, and now I can say that I also know what links them. I have no need to dig deeper. A single certainty is enough for the seeker. He simply has to derive all the consequences from it. The immediate consequence is also a rule of method. The odd trinity brought to light in this way is certainly not a startling discovery. But it resembles the data of experience in that it is both infinitely simple and infinitely complicated. Its first distinguishing feature in this regard is that it cannot be divided. To destroy one of its terms is to destroy the whol e. There can be no absurd outside the human mind. Thus, like everything else, the absurd ends with death. But there can be no absurd outside this world either. And it is by this elementary criterion that I judge the notion of the absurd to be essential and consider that it can stand as the first of my truths. The rule of method alluded to above appears here. If I judge that a thing is true, I must preserve it. If I attempt to solve a problem, at least I must not by that very solution conjure away one of the terms of the problem. For me the sole datum is the absurd. The first and, after all, the only condition of my inquiry is to preserve the very thing that crushes me, consequently to respect what I consider essential in it. I have just defined it as a confr ontation and an unceasing struggle. And carrying this absurd logic to its conclusion, I must admit that that struggle implies a total absence of hope (which has nothing to do with despair), a continual rejection (which must not be confused with renunciatio n), and a conscious dissatisfaction (which must not be compared to immature unrest). Everything that destroys, conjures away, or exorcises these requirements (and, to begin with, consent which overthrows divorce) ruins the absurd and devaluates the attitud e that may then be proposed. The absurd has meaning only in so far as it is not agreed to. *** There exists an obvious fact that seems utterly moral: namely, that a man is always a prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot free himself from them. One has to pay something. A man who has be -come conscious of the absurd is forever bound to it. A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future. That is natural. But it is just as natural that he should strive to es cape the universe of which he is the creator. All the foregoing has significance only on account of this paradox. Certain men, starting from a critique of rationalism, have admitted the absurd climate. Nothing is more instructive in this regard than to scr utinize the way in which they have elaborated their consequences. Now, to limit myself to existential philosophies, I see that all of them without exception suggest escape. Through an odd reasoning, starting out from the absurd over the ruins of reason, in a closed universe limited to the human, they deify what crushes them and find reason to hope in what impoverishes them. That forced hope is religious in all of them. It deserves attention. I shall merely analyze here as examples a few themes dear to Chest ov and Kierkegaard. But Jaspers will provide us, in caricatural form, a typical example of this attitude. As a result the rest will be clearer. He is left powerless to realize the transcendent, incapab le of plumbing the depth of experience, and conscious of that universe upset by failure. Will he advance or at least draw the conclusions from that failure? He contributes nothing new. He has found nothing in experience but the confession of his own impotence and no occasion to infer any satisfactory principl e. Yet without justification, as he says to himself, he suddenly asserts all at once the transcendent, the essence of experience, and the superhuman significance of life when he writes: Does not the failure reveal, beyond any possible explanation and inte rpretation, not the absence but the existence of transcendence? That existence which, suddenly and through a blind act of human confidence, explains everything, he defines as the unthinkable unity of the general and the particular. Thus the absurd becom es god (in the broadest meaning of this word) and that inability to understand becomes the existence that illuminates everything. Nothing logically prepares this reasoning. I can call it a leap. And para-doxically can be understood Jasperss insistence, hi s infinite patience devoted to making the experience of the transcendent impossible to realize. For the more fleeting that approximation is, the more empty that definition proves to be, and the more real that transcendent is to him; for the passion he devo tes to asserting it is in direct proportion to the gap between his powers of explanation and the irrationality of the world and of experience. It thus appears that the more bitterly Jaspers destroys the reasons preconceptions, the more radically he will e xplain the world. That apostle of humiliated thought will find at the very end of humiliation the means of regenerating being to its very depth. Mystical thought has familiarized us with such devices. They are just as legitimate as any attitude of mind. Bu t for the moment I am acting as if I took a certain problem seriously. Without judging beforehand the general value of this attitude or its educative power, I mean simply to consider whether it answers the conditions I set myself, whether it is worthy of t he conflict that concerns me. Thus I return to Chestov. A commentator relates a remark of his that deserves interest: The only true solution, he said, is precisely where human judgment sees no solution. Otherwise, what need would we have of God? We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible. As for the possible, men suffice. If there is a Chestovian philosophy, I can say that it is altogether summed up in this way. For when, at the conclusion of his passionate analyses, Chestov discovers the fundamen tal absurdity of all existence, he does not say: This is the absurd, but rather: This is God: we must rely on him even if he does not correspond to any of our rational categories. So that confusion may not be possible, the Russian philosopher even hint s that this God is perhaps full of hatred and hateful, incomprehensible and contradictory; but the more hideous is his face, the more he asserts his power. His greatness is his incoherence. His proof is his inhumanity. One must spring into him and by this leap free oneself from rational illusions. Thus, for Chestov acceptance of the absurd is contemporaneous with the absurd itself. Being aware of it amounts to accepting it, and the whole logical effort of his thought is to bring it out so that at the same t ime the tremendous hope it involves may burst forth. Let me repeat that this attitude is legitimate. But I am persisting here in considering a single problem and all its consequences. I do not have to examine the emotion of a thought or of an act of faith. I have a whole lifetime to do that. I know that the rationalist finds Chestovs attitude annoying. But I also feel that Chestov is right rather than the rationalist, and I merely want to know if he remains faithful to the commandments of the absurd. Now, if it is admitted that the absurd is the contrary of hope, it is seen that existential thought for Chestov presupposes the absurd but proves it only to dispel it. Such subtlety of thought is a conjurors emotional trick. When Chestov elsewhere sets his absurd in opposition to current morality and reason, he calls it truth and redemption. Hence, there is basically in that definition of the absurd an approbation that Chestov grants it. If it is admitted that all the power of that notion lies in the way it run s counter to our elementary hopes, if it is felt that to remain, the absurd requires not to be consented to, then it can be clearly seen that it has lost its true aspect, its human and relative character in order to enter an eternity that is both incompreh ensible and satisfying. If there is an absurd, it is in mans universe. The moment the notion transforms itself into eternitys springboard, it ceases to be linked to human lucidity. The absurd is no longer that evidence that man ascertains without consent ing to it. The struggle is eluded. Man integrates the absurd and in that communion causes to disappear its essential character, which is opposition, laceration, and divorce. This leap is an escape. Chestov, who is so fond of quoting Hamlets remark: The t ime is out of joint, writes it down with a sort of savage hope that seems to belong to him in particular. For it is not in this sense that Hamlet says it or Shakespeare writes it. The intoxication of the irrational and the vocation of rapture turn a lucid mind away from the absurd. To Chestov reason is useless but there is something beyond reason. To an absurd mind reason is useless and there is nothing beyond reason. This leap can at least enlighten us a little more as to the true nature of the absurd. We know that it is worthless except in an equilibrium, that it is, above all, in the comparison and not in the terms of that comparison. But it so happens that Chestov puts all the emphasis on one of the terms and destroys the equilibrium. Our appetite for u nderstanding, our nostalgia for the absolute are explicable only in so far, precisely, as we can understand and explain many things. It is useless to negate the reason absolutely. It has its order in which it is efficacious. It is properly that of human experience. Whence we wanted to make everything clear. If we cannot do so, if the absurd is born on that occasion, it is born precisely at the very meeting -point of that efficacious but limited reason with the ever resurgent irrational. Now, when Chestov ris es up against a Hegelian proposition such as the motion of the solar system takes place in conformity with immutable laws and those laws are its reason, when he devotes all his passion to upsetting Spinozas rationalism, he concludes, in effect, in favor of the vanity of all reason. Whence, by a natural and illegitimate reversal, to the pre -eminence of the irrational.[5]But the transition is not evident. For here may intervene the notion of limit and the notion of level. The laws of nature may be operative up to a certain limit, beyond which they turn against themselves to give birth to the absurd. Or else, they may justify themselves on the level of description without for that reason being true on the level of explanati on. Everything is sacrificed here to the irrational, and, the demand for clarity being conjured away, the absurd disappears with one of the terms of its comparison. The absurd man, on the other hand, does not undertake such a leveling process. He recognize s the struggle, does not absolutely scorn reason, and admits the irrational. Thus he again embraces in a single glance all the data of experience and he is little inclined to leap before knowing. He knows simply that in that alert awareness there is no fur ther place for hope. What is perceptible in Leo Chestov will be perhaps even more so in Kierkegaard. To be sure, it is hard to outline clear propositions in so elusive a writer. But, despite apparently opposed writings, beyond the pseudonyms, the tricks, and the smiles, can be felt throughout that work, as it were, the presentiment (at the same time as the apprehension) of a truth which eventually bursts forth in the last works: Kierkegaard likewise takes the leap. His childhood having been so frightened by Christianity, he ultimately returns to its harshest aspect. For him, too, antinomy and paradox become criteria of the religious. Thus, the very thing that led to despair of the meaning and depth of this life now gives it its truth and its cla rity. Christianity is the scandal, and what Kierkegaard calls for quite plainly is the third sacrifice required by Ignatius Loyola, the one in which God most rejoices: The sacrifice of the intellect.[6] This effect of t he leap is odd, but must not surprise us any longer. He makes of the absurd the criterion of the other world, whereas it is simply a residue of the experience of this world. In his failure, says Kierkegaard, the believer finds his triumph. It is not for me to wonder to what stirring preaching this attitude is linked. I merely have to wonder if the spectacle of the absurd and its own character justifies it. On this point, I know that it is not so. Upon considering again the content of the absurd, one understands better the method that inspired Kierkegaard. Between the irrational of the world and the insurgent nostalgia of the absurd, he does not maintain the equilibrium. He does not respect the relationship that constitutes, properly speaking, the feeli ng of absurdity. Sure of being unable to escape the irrational, he wants at least to save himself from that desperate nostalgia that seems to him sterile and devoid of implication. But if he may be right on this point in his judgment, he could not be in hi s negation. If he substitutes for his cry of revolt a frantic adherence, at once he is led to blind himself to the absurd which hitherto enlightened him and to deify the only certainty he henceforth possesses, the irrational. The important thing, as Abbe G aliani said to Mme dEpinay, is not to be cured, but to live with ones ailments. Kierkegaard wants to be cured. To be cured is his frenzied wish, and it runs throughout his whole journal. The entire effort of his intelligence is to escape the antinomy of the human condition. An all the more desperate effort since he intermittently perceives its vanity when he speaks of himself, as if neither fear of God nor piety were capable of bringing him to peace. Thus it is that, through a strained subterfuge, he give s the irrational the appearance and God the attributes of the absurd: unjust, incoherent, and incomprehensible. Intelligence alone in him strives to stifle the underlying demands of the human heart. Since nothing is proved, everything can be proved. Indeed , Kierkegaard himself shows us the path taken. I do not want to suggest anything here, but how can one fail to read in his works the signs of an almost intentional mutilation of the soul to balance the mutilation accepted in regard to the absurd? It is the leitmotiv of the Journal. What I lacked was the animal which also belongs to human destiny .... But give me a body then. And further on: Oh! especially in my early youth what should I not have given to be a man, even for six months ... what I lack, basically, is a body and the physical conditions of existence. Elsewhere, the same man nevertheless adopts the great cry of hope that has come down through so many centuries and quickened so many hearts, except that of the absurd man. But for the Christian death is certainly not the end of everything and it implies infinitely more hope than life implies for us, even when that life is overflowing with health and vigor. Reconciliation through scandal is still reconciliation. It allows one perhaps, as can be s een, to derive hope of its contrary, which is death. But even if fellow - feeling inclines one toward that attitude, still it must be said that excess justifies nothing. That transcends, as the saying goes, the human scale; therefore it must be superhuman. B ut this therefore is superfluous. There is no logical certainty here. There is no experimental probability either. All I can say is that, in fact, that transcends my scale. If I do not draw a negation from it, at least I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone. I am told again that here the intelligence must sacrifice its pride and the reason bow down. But if I recognize the limits of the reason, I do not therefore negat e it, recognizing its relative powers. I merely want to remain in this middle path where the intelligence can remain clear. If that is its pride, I see no sufficient reason for giving it up. Nothing more profound, for example, than Kierkegaards view accor ding to which despair is not a fact but a state: the very state of sin. For sin is what alienates from God. The absurd, which is the metaphysical state of the conscious man, does not lead to God.[7]Perhaps this notion wil l become clearer if I risk this shocking statement: the absurd is sin without God. It is a matter of living in that state of the absurd I know on what it is founded, this mind and this world straining against each other without being able to embrace each o ther. I ask for the rule of life of that state, and what I am offered neglects its basis, negates one of the terms of the painful opposition, demands of me a resignation. I ask what is involved in the condition I recognize as mine; I know it implies obscur ity and ignorance; and I am assured that this ignorance explains everything and that this darkness is my light. But there is no reply here to my intent, and this stirring lyricism cannot hide the paradox from me. One must therefore turn away. Kierkegaard m ay shout in warning: If man had no eternal consciousness, if, at the bottom of everything, there were merely a wild, seething force producing everything, both large and trifling, in the storm of dark passions, if the bottomless void that nothing can fill underlay all things, what would life be but despair? This cry is not likely to stop the absurd man. Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable. If in order to elude the anxious question: What would life be? one must, like the donkey, feed on the roses of illusion, then the absurd mind, rather than resigning itself to falsehood, prefers, to adopt fearlessly Kierkegaards reply: despair. Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage. *** I am taking the liberty at this point of c alling the existential attitude philosophical suicide. But this does not imply a judgment. It is a convenient way of indicating the movement by which a thought negates itself and tends to transcend itself in its very negation. For the existentials negation is their God. To be precise, that god is maintained only through the negation of human reason.[8]But, like suicides, gods change with men. There are many ways of leaping, the essential being to leap. Those redeeming nega tions, those ultimate contradictions which negate the obstacle that has not yet been leaped over, may spring just as well (this is the paradox at which this reasoning aims) from a certain religious inspiration as from the rational order. They always lay cl aim to the eternal, and it is solely in this that they take the leap. It must be repeated that the reasoning developed in this essay leaves out altogether the most widespread spiritual attitude of our enlightened age: the one, based on the principle that a ll is reason, which aims to explain the world. It is natural to give a clear view of the world after accepting the idea that it must be clear. That is even legitimate, but does not concern the reasoning we are following out here. In fact, our aim is to she d light upon the step taken by the mind when, starting from a philosophy of the worlds lack of meaning, it ends up by finding a meaning and depth in it. The most touching of those steps is religious in essence; it becomes obvious in the theme of the irrat ional. But the most paradoxical and most significant is certainly the one that attributes rational reasons to a world it originally imagined as devoid of any guiding principle. It is impossible in any case to reach the consequences that concern us without having given an idea of this new attainment of the spirit of nostalgia. I shall examine merely the theme of the Intention made fashionable by Husserl and the phenomenologists. I have already alluded to it. Originally Husserls method negates the classic procedure of the reason. Let me repeat. Thinking is not unifying or making the appearance familiar under the guise of a great principle. Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing ones consciousness, making of every image a privileged place . In other words, phenomenology declines to explain the world, it wants to be merely a description of actual experience. It confirms absurd thought in its initial assertion that there is no truth, but merely truths. From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder, everything has its truth. Consciousness illuminates it by paying attention to it. Consciousness does not form the object of its understanding, it merely focuses, it is the act of attention, and, to borrow a Bergsonian image, it resembles the p rojector that suddenly focuses on an image. The difference is that there is no scenario, but a successive and incoherent illustration. In that magic lantern all the pictures are privileged. Consciousness suspends in experience the objects of its attention. Through its miracle it isolates them. Henceforth they are beyond all judgments. This is the intention that characterizes consciousness. But the word does not imply any idea of finality; it is taken in its sense of direction: its only value is topograp hical. At first sight, it certainly seems that in this way nothing contradicts the absurd spirit. That apparent modesty of thought that limits itself to describing what it declines to explain, that intentional discipline whence results paradoxically a prof ound enrichment of experience and the rebirth of the world in its prolixity are absurd procedures. At least at first sight. For methods of thought, in this case as elsewhere, always assume two aspects, one psychological and the other metaphysical.[9]Thereby they harbor two truths. If the theme of the intentional claims to illustrate merely a psychological attitude, by which reality is drained instead of being explained, nothing in fact separates it from the absurd spirit. It aims to enumerate what it cannot transcend. It affirms solely that without any unifying principle thought can still take delight in describing and understanding every aspect of experience. The truth involved then for each of those aspects is psychologic al in nature. It simply testifies to the interest that reality can offer. It is a way of awaking a sleeping world and of making it vivid to the mind. But if one attempts to extend and give a rational basis to that notion of truth, if one claims to discov er in this way the essence of each object of knowledge, one restores its depth to experience. For an absurd mind that is incomprehensible. Now, it is this wavering between modesty and assurance that is noticeable in the intentional attitude, and this shi mmering of phenomenological thought will illustrate the absurd reasoning better than anything else. For Husserl speaks likewise of extra -temporal essences brought to light by the intention, and he sounds like Plato. All things are not explained by one th ing but by all things. I see no difference. To be sure, those ideas or those essences that consciousness effectuates at the end of every description are not yet to be considered perfect models. But it is asserted that they are directly present in each da tum of perception. There is no longer a single idea explaining everything, but an infinite number of essences giving a meaning to an infinite number of objects. The world comes to a stop, but also lights up. Platonic realism becomes intuitive, but it is st ill realism. Kierkegaard was swallowed up in his God; Parmenides plunged thought into the One. But here thought hurls itself into an abstract polytheism. But this is not all: hallucinations and fictions likewise belong to extra -temporal essences. In the new world of ideas, the species of centaurs collaborates with the more modest species of metropolitan man. For the absurd man, there was a truth as well as a bitterness in that purely psychological opinion that all aspects of the world are privileged. To s ay that everything is privileged is tantamount to saying that everything is equivalent. But the metaphysical aspect of that truth is so far -reaching that through an elementary reaction he feels closer perhaps to Plato. He is taught, in fact, that every ima ge presupposes an equally privileged essence. In this ideal world without hierarchy, the formal army is composed solely of generals. To be sure, transcendency had been eliminated. But a sudden shift in thought brings back into the world a sort of fragmenta ry immanence which restores to the universe its depth. Am I to fear having carried too far a theme handled with greater circumspection by its creators? I read merely these assertions of Husserl, apparently paradoxical yet rigorously logical if what precede s is accepted: That which is true is true absolutely, in itself; truth is one, identical with itself, however different the creatures who perceive it, men, monsters, angels or gods. Reason triumphs and trumpets forth with that voice, I cannot deny. What can its assertions mean in the absurd world? The perception of an angel or a god has no meaning for me. That geometrical spot where divine reason ratifies mine will always be incomprehensible to me. There, too, I discern a leap, and though performed in the abstract, it nonetheless means for me forgetting just what I do not want to forget. When farther on Husserl exclaims: If all masses subject to attraction were to disappear, the law of attraction would not be destroyed but would simply remain without any possible application, I know that I am faced with a metaphysic of consolation. And if I want to discover the point where thought leaves the path of evidence, I have only to reread the parallel reasoning that Husserl voices regarding the mind: If we could contemplate clearly the exact laws of psychic processes, they would be seen to be likewise eternal and invariable, like the basic laws of theoretical natural science. Hence they would be valid even if there were no psychic process. Even if the mind were not, its laws would be! I see then that of a psychological truth Husserl aims to make a rational rule: after having denied the integrating power of human reason, he leaps by this expedient to eternal Reason. Husserls theme of the concrete universe canno t then surprise me. If I am told that all essences are not formal but that some are material, that the first are the object of logic and the second of science, this is merely a question of definition. The abstract, I am told, indicates but a part, without consistency in itself, of a concrete universal. But the wavering already noted allows me to throw light on the confusion of these terms. For that may mean that the concrete object of my attention, this sky, the reflection of that water on this coat, alone preserve the prestige of the real that my interest isolates in the world. And I shall not deny it. But that may mean also that this coat itself is universal, has its particular and sufficient essence, belongs to the world of forms. I then realize that mere ly the order of the procession has been changed. This world has ceased to have its reflection in a higher universe, but the heaven of forms is figured in the host of images of this earth. This changes nothing for me. Rather than encountering here a taste f or the concrete, the meaning of the human condition, I find an intellectualism sufficiently unbridled to generalize the concrete itself. * * * It is futile to be amazed by the apparent paradox that leads thought to its own negation by the opposite paths o f humiliated reason and triumphal reason. From the abstract god of Husserl to the dazzling god of Kierkegaard the distance is not so great. Reason and the irrational lead to the same preaching. In truth the way matters but little; the will to arrive suffic es. The abstract philosopher and the religious philosopher start out from the same disorder and support each other in the same anxiety. But the essential is to explain. Nostalgia is stronger here than knowledge. It is significant that the thought of the ep och is at once one of the most deeply imbued with a philosophy of the non -significance of the world and one of the most divided in its conclusions. It is constantly oscillating between extreme rationalization of reality which tends to break up that thought into standard reasons and its extreme irrationalization which tends to deify it. But this divorce is only apparent. It is a matter of reconciliation, and, in both cases, the leap suffices. It is always wrongly thought that the notion of reason is a oneway notion. To tell the truth, however rigorous it may be in its ambition, this concept is nonetheless just as unstable as others. Reason bears a quite human aspect, but it also is able to turn toward the divine. Since Plotinus, who was the first to reconcile it with the eternal climate, it has learned to turn away from the most cherished of its principles, which is contradiction, in order to integrate into it the strangest, the quite magic one of participation.[10]It is an instrument of thought and not thought itself. Above all, a mans thought is his nostalgia. Just as reason was able to soothe the melancholy of Plotinus, it provides modern anguish the means of calming itself in the familiar setting of the eternal. The absu rd mind has less luck. For it the world is neither so rational nor so irrational. It is unreasonable and only that. With Husserl the reason eventually has no limits at all. The absurd, on the contrary, establishes its lim -its since it is powerless to calm its anguish. Kierkegaard independently asserts that a single limit is enough to negate that anguish. But the absurd does not go so far. For it that limit is directed solely at the reasons ambitions. The theme of the irrational, as it is conceived by the existentials, is reason becoming confused and escaping by negating itself. The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits. Only at the end of this difficult path does the absurd man recognize his true motives. Upon comparing his inner exigence and what is the n offered him, he suddenly feels he is going to turn away. In the universe of Husserl the world becomes clear and that longing for familiarity that mans heart harbors becomes useless. In Kierkegaards apocalypse that desire for clarity must be given up if it wants to be satisfied. Sin is not so much knowing (if it were, everybody would be innocent) as wanting to know. Indeed, it is the only sin of which the absurd man can feel that it constitutes both his guilt and his innocence. He is offered a solution i n which all the past contradictions have become merely polemical games. But this is not the way he experienced them. Their truth must be preserved, which consists in not being satisfied. He does not want preaching. My reasoning wants to be faithful to the evidence that aroused it. That evidence is the absurd. It is that divorce between the mind that desires and the world that disappoints, my nostalgia for unity, this fragmented universe and the contradiction that binds them together. Kierkegaard suppresses my nostalgia and Husserl gathers together that universe. That is not what I was expecting. It was a matter of living and thinking with those dislocations, of knowing whether one had to accept or refuse. There can be no question of masking the evidence, of suppressing the absurd by denying one of the terms of its equation. It is essential to know whether one can live with it or whether, on the other hand, logic commands one to die of it. I am not interested in philosophical suicide, but rather in plain suici de. I merely wish to purge it of its emotional content and know its logic and its integrity. Any other position implies for the absurd mind deceit and the minds retreat before what the mind itself has brought to light. Husserl claims to obey the desire to escape the inveterate habit of living and thinking in certain well - known and convenient conditions of existence, but the final leap restores in him the eternal and its comfort. The leap does not represent an extreme danger as Kierkegaard would like it t o do. The danger, on the contrary, lies in the subtle instant that precedes the leap. Being able to remain on that dizzying crest that is integrity and the rest is subterfuge. I know also that never has helplessness inspired such striking harmonies as thos e of Kierkegaard. But if helplessness has its place in the indifferent landscapes of history, it has none in a reasoning whose exigence is now known. Absurd Freedom Now the main thing is done, I hold certain facts from which I cannot separate. What I know, what is certain, what I cannot deny, what I cannot reject this is what counts. I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this need for clarity and cohesion. I can refute everything in this world surrounding me that offends or enraptures me, except this chaos, this sovereign chance and this divine equivalence which springs from anarchy. I dont know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what resists me that is what I understand. And these two certainties my appe tite for the absolute and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle I also know that I cannot reconcile them. What other truth can I admit without lying, without bringing in a hope I lack and which means nothing within the limits of my condition? If I were a tree among trees, a cat among animals, this life would have a meaning, or rather this problem would not arise, for I should belong to this world. I should bethis world to which I am now opposed by my whole consciousness and my whole insistence upon familiarity. This ridiculous reason is what sets me in opposition to all creation. I cannot cross it out with a stroke of the pen. What I believe to be true I must therefore preserve. What seems to me so obv ious, even against me, I must support. And what constitutes the basis of that conflict, of that break between the world and my mind, but the awareness of it? If therefore I want to preserve it, I can through a constant awareness, ever revived, ever alert. This is what, for the moment, I must remember. At this moment the absurd, so obvious and yet so hard to win, returns to a mans life and finds its home there. At this moment, too, the mind can leave the arid, dried -up path of lucid effort. That path now emerges in daily life. It encounters the world of the anonymous impersonal pronoun one, but henceforth man enters in with his revolt and his lucidity. He has forgotten how to hope. This hell of the present is his Kingdom at last. All problems recover their sharp edge. Abstract evidence retreats before the poetry of forms and colors. Spiritual conflicts become embodied and return to the abject and magnificent shelter of mans heart. None of them is settled. But all are transfigured. Is one going to die, esca pe by the leap, rebuild a mansion of ideas and forms to ones own scale? Is one, on the contrary, going to take up the heart -rending and marvelous wager of the absurd? Lets make a final effort in this regard and draw all our conclusions. The body, affecti on, creation, action, human nobility will then resume their places in this mad world. At last man will again find there the wine of the absurd and the bread of indifference on which he feeds his greatness. Let us insist again on the method: it is a matter of persisting. At a certain point on his path the absurd man is tempted. History is not lacking in either religions or prophets, even without gods. He is asked to leap. All he can reply is that he doesnt fully understand, that it is not obvious. Indeed, h e does not want to do anything but what he fully understands. He is assured that this is the sin of pride, but he does not understand the notion of sin; that perhaps hell is in store, but he has not enough imagination to visualize that strange future; that he is losing immortal life, but that seems to him an idle consideration. An attempt is made to get him to admit his guilt. He feels innocent. To tell the truth, that is all he feels his irreparable innocence. This is what allows him everything. Hence, what he demands of himself is to live solely with what he knows, to accommodate himself to what is, and to bring in nothing that is not certain. He is told that nothing is. But this at least is a certainty. And it is with this that he is concerned: he wants t o find out if it is possible to live without appeal. Now I can broach the notion of suicide. It has already been felt what solution might be given. At this point the problem is reversed. It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had t o have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning. Living an experience, a particular fate, is accepting it fully. Now, no one will live this fate, knowing it to be absurd, unless he does everything to keep before him that absurd brought to light by consciousness. Negating one of the terms of the opposition on which he lives amounts to escaping it. To abolish conscious revolt is to elude the problem. The theme of permanent revoluti on is thus carried into individual experience. Living is keeping the absurd alive. Keeping it alive is, above all, contemplating it. Unlike Eurydice, the absurd dies only when we turn away from it. One of the only coherent philosophical positions is thus r evolt. It is a constant confrontation between man and his own obscurity. It is an insistence upon an impossible transparency. It challenges the world anew every second. Just as danger provided man the unique opportunity of seizing awareness, so metaphysica l revolt extends awareness to the whole of experience. It is that constant presence of man in his own eyes. It is not aspiration, for it is devoid of hope. That revolt is the certainly of a crushing fate, without the resignation that ought to accompany it. This is where it is seen to what a degree absurd experience is remote from suicide. It may be thought that suicide follows revolt but wrongly. For it does not represent the logical outcome of revolt. It is just the contrary by the consent it presupposes. Suicide, like the leap, is acceptance at its extreme. Everything is over and man returns to his essential history. His future, his unique and dreadful future he sees and rushes toward it. In its way, suicide settles the absurd. It engulfs the absurd in the same death. But I know that in order to keep alive, the absurd cannot be settled. It escapes suicide to the extent that it is simultaneously awareness and rejection of death. It is, at the extreme limit of the condemned mans last thought, that shoelace t hat despite everything he sees a few yards away, on the very brink of his dizzying fall. The contrary of suicide, in fact, is the man condemned to death. That revolt gives life its value. Spread out over the whole length of a life, it restores its majesty to that life. To a man devoid of blinders, there is no finer sight than that of the intelligence at grips with a reality that transcends it. The sight of human pride is unequaled. No disparagement is of any use. That discipline that the mind imposes on its elf, that will conjured up out of nothing, that face-to-face struggle have something exceptional about them. To impoverish that reality whose inhumanity constitutes mans majesty is tantamount to impoverishing him himself. I understand then why the doctrin es that explain everything to me also debilitate me at the same time. They relieve me of the weight of my own life, and yet I must carry it alone. At this juncture, I cannot conceive that a skeptical metaphysics can be joined to an ethics of renunciation. Consciousness and revolt, these rejections are the contrary of renunciation. Everything that is indomitable and passionate in a human heart quickens them, on the contrary, with its own life. It is essential to die unrecon -ciled and not of ones own free wi ll. Suicide is a repudi ation. The absurd man can only drain everything to the bitter end, and deplete himself. The absurd is his extreme tension, which he maintains constantly by solitary effort, for he knows that in that consciousness and in that day -to-day revolt he gives proof of his only truth, which is defiance. This is a first consequence. *** If I remain in that prearranged position which consists in drawing all the conclusions (and nothing else) involved in a newly discovered notion, I am faced wit h a second paradox. In order to remain faithful to that method, I have nothing to do with the problem of metaphysical liberty. Knowing whether or not man is free doesnt interest me. I can experience only my own freedom. As to it, I can have no general not ions, but merely a few clear insights. The problem of freedom as such has no meaning, for it is linked in quite a different way with the problem of God. Knowing whether or not man is free involves knowing whether he can have a master. The absurdity pecul iar to this problem comes from the fact that the very notion that makes the problem of freedom possible also takes away all its meaning. For in the presence of God there is less a problem of freedom than a problem of evil. You know the alternative: either we are not free and God the all -powerful is responsible for evil. Or we are free and responsible but God is not all powerful. All the scholastic subtleties have neither added anything to nor subtracted anything from the acuteness of this paradox. This is why I cannot act lost in the glorification or the mere definition of a notion which eludes me and loses its meaning as soon as it goes beyond the frame of reference of my individual experience. I cannot understand what kind of freedom would be given me by a higher being. I have lost the sense of hierarchy. The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action. Now if the absurd cancels all m y chances of eternal freedom, it restores and magnifies, on the other hand, my freedom of action. That privation of hope and future means an increase in mans availability. Before encountering the absurd, the everyday man lives with aims, a concern for the future or for justification (with regard to whom or what is not the question). He weighs his chances, he counts on someday, his retirement or the labor of his sons. He still thinks that something in his life can be directed. In truth, he acts as if he w ere free, even if all the facts make a point of contradicting that liberty. But after the absurd, everything is upset. That idea that I am, my way of acting as if everything has a meaning (even if, on occasion, I said that nothing has) all that is given the lie in vertiginous fashion by the absurdity of a possible death. Thinking of the future, establishing aims for oneself, having preferences all this presupposes a belief in freedom, even if one occasionally ascertains that one doesnt feel it. But at th at moment I am well aware that that higher liberty, that freedom to be, which alone can serve as basis for a truth, does not exist. Death is there as the only reality. After death the chips are down. I am not even free, either, to perpetuate myself, but a slave, and, above all, a slave without hope of an eternal revolution, without recourse to contempt. And who without revolution and without contempt can remain a slave? What freedom can exist in the fullest sense without assurance of eternity? But at the sa me time the absurd man realizes that hitherto he was bound to that postulate of freedom on the illusion of which he was living. In a certain sense, that hampered him. To the extent to which he imagined a purpose to his life, he adapted himself to the deman ds of a purpose to be achieved and became the slave of his liberty. Thus I could not act otherwise than as the father (or the engineer or the leader of a nation, or the post -office sub -clerk) that I am preparing to be. I think I can choose to be that rathe r than something else. I think so unconsciously, to be sure. But at the same time I strengthen my postulate with the beliefs of those around me, with the presumptions of my human environment (others are so sure of being free, and that cheerful mood is so contagious!). However far one may remain from any presumption, moral or social, one is partly influenced by them and even, for the best among them (there are good and bad presumptions), one adapts ones life to them. Thus the absurd man realizes that he was not really free. To speak clearly, to the extent to which I hope, to which I worry about a truth that might be individual to me, about a way of being or creating, to the extent to which I arrange my life and prove thereby that I accept its having a meanin g, I create for myself barriers between which I confine my life. I do like so many bureaucrats of the mind and heart who only fill me with disgust and whose only vice, I now see clearly, is to take mans freedom seriously. The absurd enlightens me on this point: there is no future. Henceforth this is the reason for my inner freedom. I shall use two comparisons here. Mystics, to begin with, find freedom in giving themselves. By losing themselves in their god, by accepting his rules, they become secretly free . In spontaneously accepted slavery they recover a deeper independence. But what does that freedom mean? It may be said, above all, that they feelfree with regard to themselves, and not so much free as liberated. Likewise, completely turned toward death ( taken here as the most obvious absurdity), the absurd man feels released from everything outside that passionate attention crystallizing in him. He enjoys a freedom with regard to common rules. It can be seen at this point that the initial themes of existe ntial philosophy keep their entire value. The return to consciousness, the escape from everyday sleep represent the first steps of absurd freedom. But it is existential preaching that is alluded to, and with it that spiritual leap which basically escapes consciousness. In the same way (this is my second comparison) the slaves of antiquity did not belong to themselves. But they knew that freedom which consists in not feeling responsible.[11]Death, too, has patrician hands which, while crushing, also liberate. Losing oneself in that bottomless certainty, feeling henceforth sufficiently remote from ones own life to increase it and take a broad view of it this involves the principle of a liberation. Such new independence has a definite time limit, like any freedom of action. It does not write a check on eternity. But it takes the place of the illusions of freedom, which all stopped with death. The divine availability of the condemned man before whom the prison doors open in a certain early dawn, that unbelievable disinterestedness with regard to everything except for the pure flame of life it is clear that death and the absurd are here the principles of the only reasonable freedom: that which a human heart can experience and li ve. This is a second consequence. The absurd man thus catches sight of a burning and frigid, transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given, and beyond which all is collapse and nothingness. He can then decide to acce pt such a universe and draw from it his strength, his refusal to hope, and the unyielding evidence of a life without consolation. *** But what does life mean in such a universe? Nothing else for the moment but indifference to the future and a desire to use up everything that is given. Belief in the meaning of life always implies a scale of values, a choice, our preferences. Belief in the absurd, according to our definitions, teaches the contrary. But this is worth examining. Knowing whether or not one can l ivewithout appeal is all that interests me. I do not want to get out of my depth. This aspect of life being given me, can I adapt myself to it? Now, faced with this particular concern, belief in the absurd is tantamount to substituting the quantity of exp eriences for the quality. If I convince myself that this life has no other aspect than that of the absurd, if I feel that its whole equilibrium depends on that perpetual opposition between my conscious revolt and the darkness in which it struggles, if I ad mit that my freedom has no meaning except in relation to its limited fate, then I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living. It is not up to me to wonder if this is vulgar or revolting, elegant or deplorable. Once and for all, va lue judgments are discarded here in favor of factual judgments. I have merely to draw the conclusions from what I can see and to risk nothing that is hypothetical. Supposing that living in this way were not honorable, then true propriety would command me to be dishonorable. The most living; in the broadest sense, that rule means nothing. It calls for definition. It seems to begin with the fact that the notion of quantity has not been sufficiently explored. For it can account for a large share of human exper ience. A mans rule of conduct and his scale of values have no meaning except through the quantity and variety of experiences he has been in a position to accumulate. Now, the conditions of modern life impose on the majority of men the same quantity of exp eriences and consequently the same profound experience. To be sure, there must also be taken into consideration the individuals spontaneous contribution, the given element in him. But I cannot judge of that, and let me repeat that my rule here is to get along with the immediate evidence. I see, then, that the individual character of a common code of ethics lies not so much in the ideal importance of its basic principles as in the norm of an experience that it is possible to measure. To stretch a point so mewhat, the Greeks had the code of their leisure just as we have the code of our eight -hour day. But already many men among the most tragic cause us to foresee that a longer experience changes this table of values. They make us imagine that adventurer of t he everyday who through mere quantity of experiences would break all records (I am purposely using this sports expression) and would thus win his own code of ethics.[12]Yet lets avoid romanticism and just ask ourselves what such an attitude may mean to a man with his mind made up to take up his bet and to observe strictly what he takes to be the rules of the game. Breaking all the records is first and foremost being faced with the world as often as possible. How can that be done without contradictions and without playing on words? For on the one hand the absurd teaches that all experiences are unimportant, and on the other it urges toward the greatest quantity of experiences. How, then, can one fail to do as so many of th ose men I was speaking of earlier choose the form of life that brings us the most possible of that human matter, thereby introducing a scale of values that on the other hand one claims to reject? But again it is the absurd and its contradictory life that t eaches us. For the mistake is thinking that that quantity of experiences depends on the circumstances of our life when it depends solely on us. Here we have to be over -simple. To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same s um of experiences. It is up to us to be conscious of them. Being aware of ones life, ones revolt, ones freedom, and to the maximum, is living, and to the maximum. Where lucidity dominates, the scale of values becomes useless. Lets be even more simple. Let us say that the sole obstacle, the sole deficiency to be made good, is constituted by premature death. Thus it is that no depth, no emotion, no passion, and no sacrifice could render equal in the eyes of the absurd man (even if he wished it so) a consc ious life of forty years and a lucidity spread over sixty years.[13]Madness and death are his irreparables. Man does not choose. The absurd and the extra life it involves therefore do not defend on mans will, but on its contrary, which is death.[14]Weighing words carefully, it is altogether a question of luck. One just has to be able to consent to this. There will never be any substitute for twenty years of life and experience. By what is an odd inconsistency in such an alert race, the Greeks claimed that those who died young were beloved of the gods. And that is true only if you are willing to believe that entering the ridiculous world of the gods is forever losing the purest of joys, which is feeling, and feeling on this earth. The present and the succession of presents before a constantly conscious soul is the ideal of the absurd man. But the word ideal rings false in this connection. It is not even his vocation, but merely the thir d consequence of his reasoning. Having started from an anguished awareness of the inhuman, the meditation on the absurd returns at the end of its itinerary to the very heart of the passionate flames of human revolt.[15] ** * Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death and I refuse suicide. I know, to be sure, the dull resonance that vibrates throughout these days. Yet I have but a word to say: that it is necessary. When Nietzsche writes: It clearly seems that the chief thing in heaven and on earth is to obey at length and in a single direction: in the long run there results something for which it is worth the trouble of living on this earth as, for example, virtue, art, music, the dance, reason, the mind something that transfigures, something delicate, mad, or divine, he elucidates the rule of a really distinguished code of ethics. But he also points the way of the absurd man. Obeying the flame is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do. However, it is good for man to judge himself occasionally. He is alo ne in being able to do so. Prayer, says Alain, is when night descends over thought. But the mind must meet the night, reply the mystics and the existentials. Yes, indeed, but not that night that is born under closed eyelids and through the mere will of man dark, impenetrable night that the mind calls up in order to plunge into it. If it must encounter a night, let it be rather that of despair, which remains lucid polar night, vigil of the mind, whence will arise perhaps that white and virginal brightn ess which outlines every object in the light of the intelligence. At that degree, equivalence encounters passionate understanding. Then it is no longer even a question of judging the existential leap. It resumes its place amid the age -old fresco of human a ttitudes. For the spectator, if he is conscious, that leap is still absurd. In so far as it thinks it solves the paradox, it reinstates it intact. On this score, it is stirring. On this score, everything resumes its place and the absurd world is reborn inall its splendor and diversity. But it is bad to stop, hard to be satisfied with a single way of seeing, to go without contradiction, perhaps the most subtle of all spiritual forces. The preceding merely defines a way of thinking. But the point is to live. The Absurd Man If Stavrogin believes, he does not think he believes. If he does not believe, he does not think he does not believe. The Possessed My field, said Goethe, is time. That is indeed the absurd speech. What, in fact, is the absurd man? He who, without negating it, does nothing for the eternal. Not that nostalgia is foreign to him. But he prefers his courage and his reasoning. The first teaches him to live without appeal and to get along with what he has; the second informs him of his limits . Assured of his temporally limited freedom, of his revolt devoid of future, and of his mortal consciousness, he lives out his adventure within the span of his lifetime. That is his field, that is his action, which he shields from any judgment but his own. A greater life cannot mean for him another life. That would be unfair. I am not even speaking here of that paltry eternity that is called posterity. Mme Roland relied on herself. That rashness was taught a lesson. Posterity is glad to quote her remark, bu t forgets to judge it. Mme Roland is indifferent to posterity. There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules. There is but one moral code th at the absurd man can accept, the one that is not separated from God: the one that is dictated. But it so happens that he lives outside that God. As for the others (I mean also immoralism), the absurd man sees nothing in them but justifications and he has nothing to justify. I start out here from the principle of his innocence. That innocence is to be feared. Everything is permitted, exclaims Ivan Karamazov. That, too, smacks of the absurd. But on condition that it not be taken in the vulgar sense. I don t know whether or not it has been sufficiently pointed out that it is not an outburst of relief or of joy, but rather a bitter acknowledgment of a fact. The certainty of a God giving a meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave b adly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice, and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. Everything is permitted does not mean that nothing is forbidden. The absurd merely confers an equivalence on the consequences of those actions. It does not recommend crime, for this would be childish, but it restores to remorse its futility. Likewise, if all experiences are indifferent, that of duty is as leg itimate as any other. One can be virtuous through a whim. All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. A mind imbued with the absurd merely judges that those consequences must be considered calmly. It is ready to pay up. In other words, there may be responsible persons, but there are no guilty ones, in its opinion. At very most, such a mind will consent to use past experience as a basis for its future actions. Time will prolong time, and life wi ll serve life. In this field that is both limited and bulging with possibilities, everything in himself, except his lucidity, seems unforeseeable to him. What rule, then, could emanate from that unreasonable order? The only truth that might seem instructiv e to him is not formal: it comes to life and unfolds in men. The absurd mind cannot so much expect ethical rules at the end of its reasoning as, rather, illustrations and the breath of human lives. The few following images are of this type. They prolong th e absurd reasoning by giving it a specific attitude and their warmth. Do I need to develop the idea that an example is not necessarily an example to be followed (even less so, if possible, in the absurd world) and that these illustrations are not therefore models? Besides the fact that a certain vocation is required for this, one becomes ridiculous, with all due allowance, when drawing from Rousseau the conclusion that one must walk on all fours and from Nietzsche that one must maltreat ones mother. It is essential to be absurd, writes a modern author, it is not essential to be a dupe. The attitudes of which I shall treat can assume their whole meaning only through consideration of their contraries. A sub - clerk in the post office is the equal of a conqu eror if consciousness is common to them. All experiences are indifferent in this regard. There are some that do either a service or a disservice to man. They do him a service if he is conscious. Otherwise, that has no importance: a mans failures imply jud gment, not of circumstances, but of himself. I am choosing solely men who aim only to expend themselves or whom I see to be expending themselves. That has no further implications. For the moment I want to speak only of a world in which thoughts, like lives , are devoid of future. Everything that makes man work and get excited utilizes hope. The sole thought that is not mendacious is therefore a sterile thought. In the absurd world the value of a notion or of a life is measured by its sterility. Don Juanism If it were sufficient to love, things would be too easy. The more one loves, the stronger the absurd grows. It is not through lack of love that Don Juan goes from woman to woman. It is ridiculous to represent him as a mystic in quest of total love. But it is indeed because he loves them with the same passion and each time with his whole self that he must repeat his gift and his profound quest. Whence each woman hopes to give him what no one has ever given him. Each time they are utterly wrong and merely man age to make him feel the need of that repetition. At last, exclaims one of them, I have given you love. Can we be surprised that Don Juan laughs at this? At last? No, he says, but once more. Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to lov e much? Is Don Juan melancholy? This is not likely. I shall barely have recourse to the legend. That laugh, the conquering insolence, that playfulness and love of the theater are all clear and joyous. Every healthy creature tends to multiply himself. So it is with Don Juan. But, furthermore, melancholy people have two reasons for being so: they dont know or they hope. Don Juan knows and does not hope. He reminds one of those artists who know their limits, never go beyond them, and in that precarious interv al in which they take their spiritual stand enjoy all the wonderful ease of masters. And that is indeed genius: the intelligence that knows its frontiers. Up to the frontier of physical death Don Juan is ignorant of melancholy. The moment he knows, his lau gh bursts forth and makes one forgive everything. He was melancholy at the time when he hoped. Today, on the mouth of that woman he recognizes the bitter and comforting taste of the only knowledge. Bitter? Barely: that necessary imperfection that makes hap piness perceptible! It is quite false to try to see in Don Juan a man brought up on Ecclesiastes. For nothing is vanity to him except the hope of another life. He proves this because he gambles that other life against heaven itself. Longing for desire kill ed by satisfaction, that commonplace of the impotent man, does not belong to him. That is all right for Faust, who believed in God enough to sell himself to the devil. For Don Juan the thing is simpler. Molinas Burlador ever replies to the threats of hell : What a long respite you give me! What comes after death is futile, and what a long succession of days for whoever knows how to be alive! Faust craved worldly goods; the poor man had only to stretch out his hand. It already amounted to selling his soul when he was unable to gladden it. As for satiety, Don Juan insists upon it, on the contrary. If he leaves a woman it is not absolutely because he has ceased to desire her. A beautiful woman is always desirable. But he desires another, and no, this is not t he same thing. This life gratifies his every wish, and nothing is worse than losing it. This madman is a great wise man. But men who live on hope do not thrive in this universe where kindness yields to generosity, affection to virile silence, and communion to solitary courage. And all hasten to say: He was a weakling, an idealist or a saint. One has to disparage the greatness that insults. * * * People are sufficiently annoyed (or that smile of complicity that debases what it admires) by Don Juans speech es and by that same remark that he uses on all women. But to anyone who seeks quantity in his joys, the only thing that matters is efficacy. What is the use of complicating the passwords that have stood the test? No one, neither the woman nor the man, list ens to them, but rather to the voice that pronounces them. They are the rule, the convention, and the courtesy. After they are spoken the most important still remains to be done. Don Juan is already getting ready for it. Why should he give himself a proble m in morality? He is not like Miloszs Manara, who damns himself through a desire to be a saint. Hell for him is a thing to be provoked. He has but one reply to divine wrath, and that is human honor: I have honor, he says to the Commander, and I am keep ing my promise because I am a knight. But it would be just as great an error to make an immoralist of him. In this regard, he is like everyone else: he has the moral code of his likes and dislikes. Don Juan can be properly understood only by constant re ference to what he commonly symbolizes: the ordinary seducer and the sexual athlete. He isan ordinary seducer.[16]Except for the difference that he is conscious, and that is why he is absurd. A seducer who has become lu cid will not change for all that. Seducing is his condition in life. Only in novels does one change condition or become better. Yet it can be said that at the same time nothing is changed and everything is transformed. What Don Juan realizes in action is a n ethic of quantity, whereas the saint, on the contrary, tends toward quality. Not to believe in the profound meaning of things belongs to the absurd man. As for those cordial or wonder -struck faces, he eyes them, stores them up, and does not pause over th em. Time keeps up with him. The absurd man is he who is not apart from time. Don Juan does not think of collecting women. He exhausts their number and with them his chances of life. Collecting amounts to being capable of living off ones past. But he r ejects regret, that other form of hope. He is incapable of looking at portraits. * * * Is he selfish for all that? In his way, probably. But here, too, it is essential to understand one another. There are those who are made for living and those who are made for loving. At least Don Juan would be inclined to say so. But he would do so in a very few words such as he is capable of choosing. For the love we are speaking of here is clothed in illusions of the eternal. As all the specialists in passion teach us, there is no eternal love but what is thwarted. There is scarcely any passion without struggle. Such a love culminates only in the ultimate contradiction of death. One must be Werther or nothing. There, too, there are several ways of committing suicide, one of which is the total gift and forget -fulness of self. Don Juan, as well as anyone else, knows that this can be stirring. But he is one of the very few who know that this is not the important thing. He knows just as well that those who turn away from all personal life through a great love enrich themselves perhaps but certainly impoverish those their love has chosen. A mother or a passionate wife necessarily has a closed heart, for it is turned away from the world. A single emotion, a single creature, a si ngle face, but all is devoured. Quite a different love disturbs Don Juan, and this one is liberating. It brings with it all the faces in the world, and its tremor comes from the fact that it knows itself to be mortal. Don Juan has chosen to be nothing. Forhim it is a matter of seeing clearly. We call love what binds us to certain creatures only by reference to a collective way of seeing for which books and legends are responsible. But of love I know only that mixture of desire, affection, and intelligence that binds me to this or that creature. That compound is not the same for another person. I do not have the right to cover all these experiences with the same name. This exempts one from conducting them with the same gestures. The absurd man multiplies her e again what he cannot unify. Thus he discovers a new way of being which liberates him at least as much as it liberates those who approach him. There is no noble love but that which recognizes itself to be both short -lived and exceptional. All those deaths and all those rebirths gathered together as in a sheaf make up for Don Juan the flowering of his life. It is his way of giving and of vivifying. I let it be decided whether or not one can speak of selfishness. * * * I think at this point of all those who absolutely insist that Don Juan be punished. Not only in another life, but even in this one. I think of all those tales, legends, and laughs about the aged Don Juan. But Don Juan is already ready. To a conscious man old age and what it portends are not a s urprise. Indeed, he is conscious only in so far as he does not conceal its horror from himself. There was in Athens a temple dedicated to old age. Children were taken there. As for Don Juan, the more people laugh at him, the more his figure stands out. The reby he rejects the one the romantics lent him. No one wants to laugh at that tormented, pitiful Don Juan. He is pitied; heaven itself will redeem him? But thats not it. In the universe of which Don Juan has a glimpse, ridicule toois included. He would c onsider it normal to be chastised. That is the rule of the game. And, indeed, it is typical of his nobility to have accepted all the rules of the game. Yet he knows he is right and that there can be no question of punishment. A fate is not a punishment. That is his crime, and how easy it is to understand why the men of God call down punishment on his head. He achieves a knowledge without illusions which negates everything they profess. Loving and possessing, conquering and consuming that is his way of knowi ng. (There is significance in that favorite Scriptural word that calls the carnal act knowing.) He is their worst enemy to the extent that he is ignorant of them. A chronicler relates that the true Burlador died assassinated by Fransciscans who wanted t o put an end to the excesses and blasphemies of Don Juan, whose birth assured him impunity. Then they proclaimed that heaven had struck him down. No one has proved that strange end. Nor has anyone proved the contrary. But without wondering if it is probab le, I can say that it is logical. I want merely to single out at this point the word birth and to play on words: it was the fact of living that assured his innocence. It was from death alone that he derived a guilt now become legendary. What else does th at stone Commander signify, that cold statue set in motion to punish the blood and courage that dared to think? All the powers of eternal Reason, of order, of universal morality, all the foreign grandeur of a God open to wrath are summed up in him. That gi gantic and soulless stone merely symbolizes the forces that Don Juan negated forever. But the Commanders mission stops there. The thunder and lightning can return to the imitation heaven whence they were called forth. The real tragedy takes place quite ap art from them. No, it was not under a stone hand that Don Juan met his death. I am inclined to believe in the legendary bravado, in that mad laughter of the healthy man provoking a non - existent God. But, above all, I believe that on that evening when Don J uan was waiting at Annas the Commander didnt come, and that after midnight the blasphemer must have felt the dreadful bitterness of those who have been right. I accept even more readily the account of his life that has him eventually burying himself in a monastery. Not that the edifying aspect of the story can he considered probable. What refuge can he go ask of God? But this symbolizes rather the logical outcome of a life completely imbued with the absurd, the grim ending of an existence turned toward short lived joys. At this point sensual pleasure winds up in asceticism. It is essential to realize that they may be, as it were, the two aspects of the same destitution. What more ghastly image can be called up than that of a man betrayed by his body who, s imply because he did not die in time, lives out the comedy while awaiting the end, face to face with that God he does not adore, serving him as he served life, kneeling before a void and arms outstretched toward a heaven without eloquence that he knows to he also without depth? I see Don Juan in a cell of one of those Spanish monasteries lost on a hilltop. And if he contemplates anything at all, it is not the ghosts of past loves, but perhaps, through a narrow slit in the sun - baked wall, some silent Spanish plain, a noble, soulless land in which he recognizes himself. Yes, it is on this melancholy and radiant image that the curtain must be rung down. The ultimate end, awaited but never desired, the ultimate end is negligible. Drama The plays the thing, sa ys Hamlet, wherein Ill catch the conscience of the king. Catch is indeed the word. For conscience moves swiftly or withdraws within itself. It has to be caught on the wing, at that barely perceptible moment when it glances fleetingly at itself. The everyday man does not enjoy tarrying. Everything, on the contrary, hurries him onward. But at the same time nothing interests him more than himself, especially his potentialities. Whence his interest in the theater, in the show, where so many fates are offer ed him, where he can accept the poetry without feeling the sorrow. There at least can be recognized the thoughtless man, and he continues to hasten toward some hope or other. The absurd man begins where that one leaves off, where, ceasing to admire the pla y, the mind wants to enter in. Entering into all these lives, experiencing them in their diversity, amounts to acting them out. I am not saying that actors in general obey that impulse, that they are absurd men, but that their fate is an absurd fate which might charm and attract a lucid heart. It is necessary to establish this in order to grasp without misunderstanding what will follow. The actors realm is that of the fleeting. Of all kinds of fame, it is known, his is the most ephemeral. At least, this is said in conversation. But all kinds of fame are ephemeral. From the point of view of Sirius, Goethes works in ten thousand years will be dust and his name forgotten. Perhaps a handful of archaeologists will look for evidence as to our era. That idea ha s always contained a lesson. Seriously meditated upon, it reduces our perturbations to the profound nobility that is found in indifference. Above all, it directs our concerns toward what is most certain that is, toward the immediate. Of all kinds of fame t he least deceptive is the one that is lived. Hence the actor has chosen multiple fame, the fame that is hallowed and tested. From the fact that everything is to die someday he draws the best conclusion. An actor succeeds or does not succeed. A writer has s ome hope even if he is not appreciated. He assumes that his works will bear witness to what he was. At best the actor will leave us a photograph, and nothing of what he was himself, his gestures and his silences, his gasping or his panting with love, will come down to us. For him, not to be known is not to act, and not acting is dying a hundred times with all the creatures he would have brought to life or resuscitated. *** Why should we be surprised to find a fleeting fame built upon the most ephemeral of c reations? The actor has three hours to be Iago or Alceste, Phedre or Gloucester. In that short space of time he makes them come to life and die on fifty square yards of boards. Never has the absurd been so well illustrated or at such length. What more reve latory epitome can be imagined than those marvelous lives, those exceptional and total desti nies unfolding for a few hours within a stage set? Off the stage, Sigismundo ceases to count. Two hours later he is seen dining out. Then it is, perhaps, that lif e is a dream. But after Sigismundo comes another. The hero suffering from uncertainty takes the place of the man roaring for his revenge. By thus sweeping over centuries and minds, by miming man as he can be and as he is, the actor has much in common with that other absurd individual, the traveler. Like him, he drains something and is constantly on the move. He is a traveler in time and, for the best, the hunted traveler, pursued by souls. If ever the ethics of quantity could find sustenance, it is indeed o n that strange stage. To what degree the actor benefits from the characters is hard to say. But that is not the important thing. It is merely a matter of knowing how far he identifies himself with those irreplaceable lives. It often happens that he carries them with him, that they somewhat overflow the time and place in which they were born. They accompany the actor, who cannot very readily separate himself from what he has been. Occasionally when reaching for his glass he resumes Hamlets gesture of raisin g his cup. No, the distance separating him from the creatures into whom he infuses life is not so great. He abundantly illustrates every month or every day that so suggestive truth that there is no frontier between what a man wants to be and what he is. Al ways concerned with better representing, he demonstrates to what a degree appearing creates being. For that is his art to simulate absolutely, to project himself as deeply as possible into lives that are not his own. At the end of his effort his vocation b ecomes clear: to apply himself wholeheartedly to being nothing or to being several. The narrower the limits allotted him for creating his character, the more necessary his talent. He will die in three hours under the mask he has assumed today. Within three hours he must experience and express a whole exceptional life. That is called losing oneself to find oneself. In those three hours he travels the whole course of the dead -end path that the man in the audience takes a lifetime to cover. * * * A mime of the ephemeral, the actor trains and perfects himself only in appearances. The theatrical convention is that the heart expresses itself and communicates itself only through gestures and in the body or through the voice, which is as much of the soul as of the b ody. The rule of that art insists that everything be magnified and translated into flesh. If it were essential on the stage to love as people really love, to employ that irreplaceable voice of the heart, to look as people contemplate in life, our speech wo uld be in code. But here silences must make themselves heard. Love speaks up louder, and immobility itself becomes spectacular. The body is king, Not everyone can be theatrical, and this unjustly maligned word covers a whole aesthetic and a whole ethic. Half a mans life is spent in implying, in turning away, and in keeping silent. Here the actor is the intruder. He breaks the spell chaining that soul, and at last the passions can rush onto their stage. They speak in every gesture; they live only through shouts and cries. Thus the actor creates his characters for display. He outlines or sculptures them and slips into their imaginary form, transfusing his blood into their phantoms. I am of course speaking of great drama, the kind that gives the actor an opportunity to fulfill his wholly physical fate. Take Shakespeare, for instance. In that impulsive drama the physical passions lead the dance. They explain everything. Without them all would collapse. Never would King Lear keep the appointment set by madness without the brutal gesture that exiles Cordelia and condemns Edgar. It is just that the unfolding of that tragedy should thenceforth be dominated by madness. Souls are given over to the demons and their saraband. No fewer than four madmen: one by trade, an other by intention, and the last two through suffering four disordered bodies, four unutterable aspects of a single condition. The very scale of the human body is inadequate. The mask and the buskin, the make -up that reduces and accentuates the face in its essential elements, the costume that exaggerates and simplifies that universe sacrifices everything to appearance and is made solely for the eye. Through an absurd miracle, it is the body that also brings knowledge. I should never really understand Iago unless I played his part. It is not enough to hear him, for I grasp him only at the moment when I see him. Of the absurd character the actor consequently has the monotony, that single, oppressive silhouette, simultaneously strange and familiar, that he carr ies about from hero to hero. There, too, the great dramatic work contributes to this unity of tone.[17]This is where the actor contradicts himself: the same and yet so various, so many souls summed up in a single body. Y et it is the absurd contradiction itself, that individual who wants to achieve everything and live everything, that useless attempt, that ineffectual persistence. What always contradicts itself nevertheless joins in him. He is at that point where body and mind converge, where the mind, tired of its defeats, turns toward its most faithful ally. And blest are those, says Hamlet, whose blood and judgment are so well commingled that they are not a pipe for fortunes finger to sound what stop she please. How could the Church have failed to condemn such a practice on the part of the actor? She repudiated in that art the heretical multiplication of souls, the emotional debauch, the scandalous presumption of a mind that objects to living but one life and hurls itself into all forms of excess. She proscribed in them that preference for the present and that triumph of Proteus which are the negation of everything she teaches. Eternity is not a game. A mind foolish enough to prefer a comedy to eternity has lost its salvation. Between everywhere and forever there is no compromise. Whence that much maligned profession can give rise to a tremendous spiritual conflict. What matters, said Nietzsche, is not eternal life but eternal vivacity. All drama is, in fact, i n this choice. Celimene against Elianthe, the whole subject in the absurd consequence of a nature carried to its extreme, and the verse itself, the bad verse, barely accented like the monotony of the characters nature. Adrienne Lecouvreur on her deathbe d was willing to confess and receive communion, but refused to abjure her profession. She thereby lost the benefit of the confession. Did this not amount, in effect, to choosing her absorbing passion in preference to God? And that woman in the death throes refusing in tears to repudiate what she called her art gave evidence of a greatness that she never achieved behind the footlights. This was her finest role and the hardest one to play. Choosing between heaven and a ridiculous fidelity, preferring oneself to eternity or losing oneself in God is the age -old tragedy in which each must play his part. The actors of the era knew they were excommunicated. Entering the profession amounted to choosing Hell. And the Church discerned in them her worst enemies. A few men of letters protest: What! Refuse the last rites to Moliere! But that was just, and especially in one who died onstage and finished under the actors make -up a life entirely devoted to dispersion. In his case genius is invoked, which excuses everythin g. But genius excuses nothing, just because it refuses to do so. The actor knew at that time what punishment was in store for him. But what significance could such vague threats have compared to the final punishment that life itself was reserving for him? This was the one that he felt in advance and accepted wholly. To the actor as to the absurd man, a premature death is irreparable. Nothing can make up for the sum of faces and centuries he would otherwise have traversed. But in any case, one has to die. For the actor is doubtless everywhere, but time sweeps him along, too, and makes its impression with him. It requires but a little imagination to feel what an actors fate means. It is in time that he makes up and enumerates his characters. It is in time likewise that he learns to dominate them. The greater number of different lives he has lived, the more aloof he can be from them. The time comes when he must die to the stage and for the world. What he has li ved faces him. He sees clearly. He feels the harrowing and irreplaceable quality of that adventure. He knows and can now die. There are homes for aged actors. Conquest No, says the conqueror, dont assume that because I love action I have had to forget how to think. On the contrary I can throughly define what I believe. For I believe it firmly and I see it surely and clearly. Beware of those who say: I know this too well to be able to express it. For if they cannot do so, this is because they dont kno w it or because out of laziness they stopped at the outer crust. I have not many opinions. At the end of a life man notices that he has spent years becoming sure of a single truth. But a single truth, if it is obvious, is enough to guide an existence. As for me, I decidedly have something to say about the individual. One must speak of him bluntly and, if need be, with the appropriate contempt. A man is more a man through the things he keeps to himself than through those he says. There are many that I shal l keep to myself. But I firmly believe that all those who have judged the individual have done so with much less experience than we on which to base their judgment. The intelligence, the stirring intelligence perhaps foresaw what it was essential to note. But the era, its ruins, and its blood overwhelm us with facts. It was possible for ancient nations, and even for more recent ones down to our machine age, to weigh one against the other the virtues of society and of the individual, to try to find out which was to serve the other. To begin with, that was possible by virtue of that stubborn aberration in mans heart according to which human beings were created to serve or be served. In the second place, it was possible because neither society nor the individu al had yet revealed all their ability. I have seen bright minds express astonishment at the masterpieces of Dutch painters born at the height of the bloody wars in Flanders, be amazed by the prayers of Silesian mystics brought up during the frightful Thir ty Years War. Eternal values survive secular turmoils before their astonished eyes. But there has been progress since. The painters of today are deprived of such serenity. Even if they have basically the heart the creator needs I mean the closed heart itis of no use; for everyone, including the saint himself, is mobilized. This is perhaps what I have felt most deeply. At every form that miscarries in the trenches, at every outline, metaphor, or prayer crushed under steel, the eternal loses a round. Consci ous that I cannot stand aloof from my time, I have decided to be an integral part of it. This is why I esteem the individual only because he strikes me as ridiculous and humiliated. Knowing that there are no victorious causes, I have a liking for lost causes: they require an uncontaminated soul, equal to its defeat as to its temporary victories. For anyone who feels bound up with this worlds fate, the clash of civilizations has something agonizing about it. I have made that anguish mine at the same time th at I wanted to join in. Between history and the eternal I have chosen history because I like certainties. Of it, at least, I am certain, and how can I deny this force crushing me? There always comes a time when one must choose between contemplation and ac tion. This is called becoming a man. Such wrenches are dreadful. But for a proud heart there can be no compromise. There is God or time, that cross or this sword. This world has a higher meaning that transcends its worries, or nothing is true but those wor ries. One must live with time and die with it, or else elude it for a greater life. I know that one can compromise and live in the world while believing in the eternal. That is called accepting. But I loathe this term and want all or nothing. If I choose a ction, dont think that contemplation is like an unknown country to me. But it cannot give me everything, and, deprived of the eternal, I want to ally myself with time. I do not want to put down to my account either nostalgia or bitterness, and I merely want to see clearly. I tell you, tomorrow you will be mobilized. For you and for me that is a liberation. The individual can do nothing and yet he can do everything. In that wonderful unattached state you understand why I exalt and crush him at one and the s ame time. It is the world that pulverizes him and I who liberate him. I provide him with all his rights. Conquerors know that action is in itself useless. There is but one useful action, that of remaking man and the earth. I shall never remake men. But on e must do as if. For the path of struggle leads me to the flesh. Even humiliated, the flesh is my only certainty. I can live only on it. The creature is my native land. This is why I have chosen this absurd and ineffectual effort. This is why I am on theside of the struggle. The epoch lends itself to this, as I have said. Hitherto the greatness of a conqueror was geographical. It was measured by the extent of the conquered territories. There is a reason why the word has changed in meaning and has ceased to signify the victorious general. The greatness has changed camp. It lies in protest and the blind -alley sacrifice. There, too, it is not through a preference for defeat. Victory would be desirable. But there is but one victory, and it is eternal. That is the one I shall never have. That is where I stumble and cling. A revolution is always accomplished against the gods, beginning with the revolution of Prometheus, the first of modern conquerors. It is mans demands made against his fate; the demands of the poor are but a pretext. Yet I can seize that spirit only in its historical act, and that is where I make contact with it. Dont assume, however, that I take pleasure in it: opposite the essential contradiction, I maintain my human contradiction. I establi sh my lucidity in the midst of what negates it. I exalt man be -fore what crushes him, and my freedom, my revolt, and my passion come together then in that tension, that lucidity, and that vast repetition. Yes, man is his own end. And he is his only end. I f he aims to be something, it is in this life. Now I know it only too well. Conquerors sometimes talk of vanquishing and overcoming. But it is always overcoming oneself that they mean. You are well aware of what that means. Every man has felt himself to be the equal of a god at certain moments. At least, this is the way it is expressed. But this comes from the fact that in a flash he felt the amazing grandeur of the human mind. The conquerors are merely those among men who are conscious enough of their st rength to be sure of living constantly on those heights and fully aware of that grandeur. It is a question of arithmetic, of more or less. The conquerors are capable of the more. But they are capable of no more than man himself when he wants. This is why t hey never leave the human crucible, plunging into the seething soul of revolutions. There they find the creature mutilated, but they also encounter there the only values they like and admire, man and his silence. This is both their destitution and their w ealth. There is but one luxury for them that of human relations. How can one fail to realize that in this vulnerable universe everything that is human and solely human assumes a more vivid meaning? Taut faces, threatened fraternity, such strong and chaste friendship among menthese are the true riches because they are transitory. In their midst the mind is most aware of its powers and limitations. That is to say, its efficacity. Some have spoken of genius. But genius is easy to say; I prefer the intelligenc e. It must be said that it can be magnificent then. It lights up this desert and dominates it. It knows its obligations and illustrates them. It will die at the same time as this body. But knowing this constitutes its freedom. We are not ignorant of the f act that all churches are against us. A heart so keyed up eludes the eternal, and all churches, divine or political, lay claim to the eternal. Happiness and courage, retribution or justice are secondary ends for them. It is a doctrine they bring, and one m ust subscribe to it. But I have no concern with ideas or with the eternal. The truths that come within my scope can be touched with the hand. I cannot separate from them. This is why you cannot base anything on me: nothing of the conqueror lasts, not even his doctrines. At the end of all that, despite everything, is death. We know also that it ends everything. This is why those cemeteries all over Europe, which obsess some among us, are hideous. People beautify only what they love, and death repels us and tires our patience. It, too, is to be conquered. The last Carrara, a prisoner in Padua emptied by the plague and besieged by the Venetians, ran screaming through the halls of his deserted palace: he was calling on the devil and asking him for death. This w as a way of overcoming it. And it is likewise a mark of courage characteristic of the Occident to have made so ugly the places where death thinks itself honored. In the rebel s universe, death exalts injustice. It is the supreme abuse. Others, without com promising either, have chosen the eternal and denounced the illusion of this world. Their cemeteries smile amid numerous flowers and birds. That suits the conqueror and gives him a clear image of what he has rejected. He has chosen, on the contrary, the bl ack iron fence or the potters field. The best among the men of God occasionally are seized with fright mingled with consideration and pity for minds that can live with such an image of their death. Yet those minds derive their strength and justification f rom this. Our fate stands before us and we provoke him. Less out of pride than out of awareness of our ineffectual condition. We, too, sometimes feel pity for ourselves. It is the only compassion that seems acceptable to us: a feeling that perhaps you hardly understand and that seems to you scarcely virile. Yet the most daring among us are the ones who feel it. But we call the lucid ones virile and we do not want a strength that is apart from lucidity. * * * Let me repeat that these images do not propose m oral codes and involve no judgments: they are sketches. They merely represent a style of life. The lover, the actor, or the adventurer plays the absurd. But equally well, if he wishes, the chaste man, the civil servant, or the president of the Republic. It is enough to know and to mask nothing. In Italian museums are sometimes found little painted screens that the priest used to hold in front of the face of condemned men to hide the scaffold from them. The leap in all its forms, rushing into the divine or t he eternal, surrendering to the illusions of the everyday or of the idea all these screens hide the absurd. But there are civil servants without screens, and they are the ones of whom I mean to speak. I have chosen the most extreme ones. At this level the absurd gives them a royal power. It is true that those princes are without a kingdom. But they have this advantage over others: they know that all royalties are illusory. They know that is their whole nobility, and it is useless to speak in relation to the m of hidden misfortune or the ashes of disillusion. Being deprived of hope is not despairing. The flames of earth are surely worth celestial perfumes. Neither I nor anyone can judge them here. They are not striving to be better; they are attempting to be c onsistent. If the term wise man can be applied to the man who lives on what he has without speculating on what he has not, then they are wise men. One of them, a conqueror but in the realm of mind, a Don Juan but of knowledge, an actor but of the intelli gence, knows this better than anyone: You nowise deserve a privilege on earth and in heaven for having brought to perfection your dear little meek sheep; you nonetheless continue to be at best a ridiculous dear little sheep with horns and nothing more even supposing that you do not burst with vanity and do not create a scandal by posing as a judge. In any case, it was essential to restore to the absurd reasoning more cordial examples. The imagination can add many others, inseparable from time and exile, w ho likewise know how to live in harmony with a universe without future and without weakness. This absurd, godless world is, then, peopled with men who think clearly and have ceased to hope. And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator. Absurd Creation Philosophy and Fiction All those lives maintained in the rarefied air of the absurd could not persevere without some profound and constant thought to infuse its strength into them. Right here, it can be only a strange feeling of f idelity. Conscious men have been seen to fulfill their task amid the most stupid of wars without considering themselves in contradiction. This is because it was essential to elude nothing. There is thus a metaphysical honor in enduring the worlds absurdit y. Conquest or play -acting, multiple loves, absurd revolt are tributes that man pays to his dignity in a campaign in which he is defeated in advance. It is merely a matter of being faithful to the rule of the battle. That thought may suffice to sustain a m ind; it has supported and still supports whole civilizations. War cannot be negated. One must live it or die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons and recovering their flesh. In this regard the a bsurd joy par excellence is creation. Art and nothing but art, said Nietzsche; we have art in order not to die of the truth. In the experience that I am attempting to describe and to stress on several modes, it is certain that a new torment arises wher ever another dies. The childish chasing after forgetfulness, the appeal of satisfaction are now devoid of echo. But the constant tension that keeps man face to face with the world, the ordered delirium that urges him to be receptive to everything leave him another fever. In this universe the work of art is then the sole chance of keeping his consciousness and of fixing its adventures. Creating is living doubly. The groping, anxious quest of a Proust, his meticulous collecting of flowers, of wallpapers, and of anxieties, signifies nothing else. At the same time, it has no more significance than the continual and imperceptible creation in which the actor, the conqueror, and all absurd men indulge every day of their lives. All try their hands at miming, at repe ating, and at recreating the reality that is theirs. We always end up by having the appearance of our truths. All existence for a man turned away from the eternal is but a vast mime under the mask of the absurd. Creation is the great mime. Such men know to begin with, and then their whole effort is to examine, to enlarge, and to enrich the ephemeral island on which they have just landed. But first they must know. For the absurd discovery coincides with a pause in which future passions are prepared and justi fied. Even men without a gospel have their Mount of Olives. And one must not fall asleep on theirs either. For the absurd man it is not a matter of explaining and solving, but of experiencing and describing. Everything begins with lucid indifference. Descr ibing that is the last ambition of an absurd thought. Science likewise, having reached the end of its paradoxes, ceases to propound and stops to contemplate and sketch the ever virgin landscape of phenomena. The heart learns thus that the emotion delightin g us when we see the worlds aspects comes to us not from its depth but from their diversity. Explanation is useless, but the sensation remains and, with it, the constant attractions of a universe inexhaustible in quantity. The place of the work of art can be understood at this point. It marks both the death of an experience and its multiplication. It is a sort of monotonous and passionate repetition of the themes already orchestrated by the world: the body, inexhaustible image on the pediment of temples, f orms or colors, number or grief. It is therefore not indifferent, as a conclusion, to encounter once again the principal themes of this essay in the wonderful and childish world of the creator. It would be wrong to see a symbol in it and to think that the work of art can be considered at last as a refuge for the absurd. It is itself an absurd phenomenon, and we are concerned merely with its description. It does not offer an escape for the intellectual ailment. Rather, it is one of the symptoms of that ailme nt which reflects it throughout a mans whole thought. But for the first time it makes the mind get outside of itself and places it in opposition to others, not for it to get lost but to show it clearly the blind path that all have entered upon. In the tim e of the absurd reasoning, creation follows indifference and discovery. It marks the point from which absurd passions spring and where the reasoning stops. Its place in this essay is justified in this way. It will suffice to bring to light a few themes com mon to the creator and the thinker in order to find in the work of art all the contradictions of thought involved in the absurd. Indeed, it is not so much identical conclusions that prove minds to be related as the contradictions that are common to them. S o it is with thought and creation. I hardly need to say that the same anguish urges man to these two attitudes. This is where they coincide in the beginning. But among all the thoughts that start from the absurd, I have seen that very few remain within it. And through their deviations or infidelities I have best been able to measure what belonged to the absurd. Similarly I must wonder: is an absurd work of art possible? * * * It would be impossible to insist too much on the arbitrary nature of the former op position between art and philosophy. If you insist on taking it in too limited a sense, it is certainly false. If you mean merely that these two disciplines each have their peculiar climate, that is probably true but remains vague. The only acceptable argu ment used to lie in the contradiction brought up between the philosopher enclosed within his system and the artist placed before his work. But this was pertinent for a certain form of art and of philosophy which we consider secondary here. The idea of an a rt detached from its creator is not only outmoded; it is false. In opposition to the artist, it is pointed out that no philosopher ever created several systems. But that is true in so far, indeed, as no artist ever expressed more than one thing under diffe rent aspects. The instantaneous perfection of art, the necessity for its renewal this is true only through a preconceived notion. For the work of art likewise is a construction and everyone knows how monotonous the great creators can be. For the same reaso n as the thinker, the artist commits himself and becomes himself in his work. That osmosis raises the most important of aesthetic problems. Moreover, to anyone who is convinced of the minds singleness of purpose, nothing is more futile than these distinct ions based on methods and objects. There are no frontiers between the disciplines that man sets himself for understanding and loving. They interlock, and the same anxiety merges them. It is necessary to state this to begin with. For an absurd work of art to be possible, thought in its most lucid form must be involved in it. But at the same time thought must not be apparent except as the regulating intelligence. This paradox can be explained according to the absurd. The work of art is born of th e intelligences refusal to reason the concrete. It marks the triumph of the carnal. It is lucid thought that provokes it, but in that very act that thought repudiates itself. It will not yield to the temptation of adding to what is described a deeper mean ing that it knows to be illegitimate. The work of art embodies a drama of the intelligence, but it proves this only indirectly. The absurd work requires an artist conscious of these limitations and an art in which the concrete signifies nothing more than i tself. It cannot be the end, the meaning, and the consolation of a life. Creating or not creating changes nothing. The absurd creator does not prize his work. He could repudiate it. He does sometimes repudiate it. An Abyssinia suffices for this, as in the case of Rimbaud. At the same time a rule of aesthetics can be seen in this. The true work of art is always on the human scale. It is essentially the one that says less. There is a certain relationship between the global experience of the artist and the w ork that reflects that experience, between Wilhelm Meister and Goethes maturity. That relationship is bad when the work aims to give the whole experience in the lace -paper of an explanatory literature. That relationship is good when the work is but a piec e cut out of experience, a facet of the diamond in which the inner luster is epitomized without being limited. In the first case there is overloading and pretension to the eternal. In the second, a fecund work because of a whole implied experience, the wea lth of which is suspected. The problem for the absurd artist is to acquire this savoir -vivre which transcends savoir -faire. And in the end, the great artist under this climate is, above all, a great living being, it being understood that living in this cas e is just as much experiencing as reflecting. The work then embodies an intellectual drama. The absurd work illustrates thoughts renouncing of its prestige and its resignation to being no more than the intelligence that works up appearances and covers wit h images what has no reason. If the world were clear, art would not exist. I am not speaking here of the arts of form or color in which description alone prevails in its splendid modesty.[18]Expression begins where thoug ht ends. Those adolescents with empty eyesockets who people temples and museums their philosophy has been expressed in gestures. For an absurd man it is more educative than all libraries. Under another aspect the same is true for music. If any art is devoi d of lessons, it is certainly music. It is too closely related to mathematics not to have borrowed their gratuitousness. That game the mind plays with itself according to set and measured laws takes place in the sonorous compass that belongs to us and beyo nd which the vibrations nevertheless meet in an inhuman universe. There is no purer sensation. These examples are too easy. The absurd man recognizes as his own these harmonies and these forms. But I should like to speak here of a work in which the temptat ion to explain remains greatest, in which illusion offers itself automatically, in which conclusion is almost inevitable. I mean fictional creation. I propose to inquire whether or not the absurd can hold its own there. * * * To think is first of all to cr eate a world (or to limit ones own world, which comes to the same thing). It is starting out from the basic disagreement that separates man from his experience in order to find a common ground according to ones nostalgia, a universe hedged with reasons o r lighted up with analogies but which, in any case, gives an opportunity to rescind the unbearable divorce. The philosopher, even if he is Kant, is a creator. He has his characters, his symbols, and his secret action. He has his plot endings. On the contra ry, the lead taken by the novel over poetry and the essay merely represents, despite appearances, a greater intellectualiza - tion of the art. Let there be no mistake about it; I am speaking of the greatest. The fecundity and the importance of a literary for m are often measured by the trash it contains. The number of bad novels must not make us forget the value of the best. These, indeed, carry with them their universe. The novel has its logic, its reasonings, its intuition, and its postulates. It also has it s requirements of clarity.[19] The classical opposition of which I was speaking above is even less justified in this particular case. It held in the time when it was easy to separate philosophy from its authors. Today whe n thought has ceased to lay claim to the universal, when its best history would be that of its repentances, we know that the system, when it is worth while, cannot be separated from its author. The Ethics itself, in one of its aspects, is but a long and re asoned personal confession. Abstract thought at last returns to its prop of flesh. And, likewise, the fictional activities of the body and of the passions are regulated a little more according to the requirements of a vision of the world. The writer has gi ven up telling stories and creates his universe. The great novelists are philosophical novelists that is, the contrary of thesis -writers. For instance, Balzac, Sade, Melville, Stendhal, Dostoevsky, Proust, Malraux, Kafka, to cite but a few. But in fact t he preference they have shown for writing in images rather than in reasoned arguments is revelatory of a certain thought that is common to them all, convinced of the uselessness of any principle of explanation and sure of the educative message of perceptib le appearance. They consider the work of art both as an end and a beginning. It is the outcome of an often unexpressed philosophy, its illustration and its consummation. But it is complete only through the implications of that philosophy. It justifies at l ast that variant of an old theme that a little thought estranges from life whereas much thought reconciles to life. Incapable of refining the real, thought pauses to mimic it. The novel in question is the instrument of that simultaneously relative and inex haustible knowledge, so like that of love. Of love, fictional creation has the initial wonder and the fecund rumination. *** These at least are the charms I see in it at the outset. But I saw them likewise in those princes of humiliated thought whose suicides I was later able to witness. What interests me, indeed, is knowing and describing the force that leads them back toward the common path of illusion. The same method will consequently help me here. The fact of having already utilized it will allow me to shorten my argument and to sum it up without delay in a particular example. I want to know whether, accepting a life without appeal, one can also agree to work and create without appeal and what is the way leading to these liberties. I want to liberate my universe of its phantoms and to people it solely with flesh -and-blood truths whose presence I cannot deny. I can perform absurd work, choose the creative attitude rather than another. But an absurd attitude, if it is to remain so, must remain aware of its gratuitousness. So it is with the work of art. If the commandments of the absurd are not respected, if the work does not illustrate divorce and revolt, if it sacrifices to illusions and arouses hope, it ceases to be gratuitous. I can no longer detach myse lf from it. My life may find a meaning in it, but that is trifling. It ceases to be that exercise in detachment and passion which crowns the splendor and futility of a mans life. In the creation in which the temptation to explain is the strongest, can one overcome that temptation? In the fictional world in which awareness of the real world is keenest, can I remain faithful to the absurd without sacrificing to the desire to judge? So many questions to be taken into consideration in a last effort. It must be already clear what they signify. They are the last scruples of an awareness that fears to forsake its initial and difficult lesson in favor of a final illusion. What holds for creation, looked upon as oneof the possible attitudes for the man conscious of the absurd, holds for all the styles of life open to him. The conqueror or the actor, the creator or Don Juan may forget that their exercise in living could not do without awareness of its mad character. One becomes accustomed so quickly. A man wants to e arn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end. Likewise, the whole effort of this conqueror will be diverted to ambition, which was but a way toward a greater life. Don Juan in turn will likewise yield to his fate, be satisfied with that existence whose nobility is of value only through revolt. For one it is awareness and for the other, revolt; in both cases the absurd has disappea red. There is so much stubborn hope in the human heart. The most destitute men often end up by accepting illusion. That approval prompted by the need for peace inwardly parallels the existential consent. There are thus gods of light and idols of mud. But i t is essential to find the middle path leading to the faces of man. So far, the failures of the absurd exigence have best informed us as to what it is. In the same way, if we are to be informed, it will suffice to notice that fictional creation can present the same ambiguity as certain philosophies. Hence I can choose as illustration a work comprising everything that denotes awareness of the absurd, having a clear starting -point and a lucid climate. Its consequences will enlighten us. If the absurd is not r espected in it, we shall know by what expedient illusion enters in. A particular example, a theme, a creators fidelity will suffice, then. This involves the same analysis that has already been made at greater length. I shall examine a favorite theme of Do stoevsky. I might just as well have studied other works.[20]But in this work the problem is treated directly, in the sense of nobility and emotion, as for the existential philosophies already discussed. This parallelism serves my purpose. Kirilov All of Dostoevskys heroes question themselves as to the meaning of life. In this they are modern: they do not fear ridicule. What distinguishes modern sensibility from classical sensibility is that the latter thrives on moral pr oblems and the former on metaphysical problems. In Dostoevskys novels the question is propounded with such intensity that it can only invite extreme solutions. Existence is illusory orit is eternal. If Dostoevsky were satisfied with this inquiry, he woul d be a philosopher. But he illustrates the consequences that such intellectual pastimes may have in a mans life, and in this regard he is an artist. Among those consequences, his attention is arrested particularly by the last one, which he himself calls l ogical suicide in his Diary of a Writer. In the installments for December 1876, indeed, he imagines the reasoning of logical suicide. Convinced that human existence is an utter absurdity for anyone without faith in immortality, the desperate man comes to the following conclusions: Since in reply to my questions about happiness, I am told, through the intermediary of my consciousness, that I cannot be happy except in harmony with the great all, which I cannot conceive and shall never be in a p osition to conceive, it is evident ... Since, finally, in this connection, I assume both the role of the plaintiff and that of the defendant, of the accused and of the judge, and since I consider this comedy perpetrated by nature altogether stupid, and s ince I even deem it humiliating for me to deign to play it ... In my indisputable capacity of plaintiff and defendant, of judge and accused, I condemn that nature which, with such impudent nerve, brought me into being in order to suffer I condemn it to b e annihilated with me. There remains a little humor in that position. This suicide kills himself because, on the metaphysical plane, he is vexed. In a certain sense he is taking his revenge. This is his way of proving that he will not be had. It is know n, however, that the same theme is embodied, but with the most wonderful generality, in Kirilov of The Possessed, likewise an advocate of logical suicide. Kirilov the engineer declares somewhere that he wants to take his own life because it is his idea. Obviously the word must be taken in its proper sense. It is for an idea, a thought, that he is getting ready for death. This is the superior suicide. Progressively, in a series of scenes in which Kirilovs mask is gradually illuminated, the fatal thought d riving him is revealed to us. The engineer, in fact, goes back to the arguments of the Diary. He feels that God is necessary and that he must exist. But he knows that he does not and cannot exist. Why do you not realize, he exclaims, that this is suffic ient reason for killing oneself? That attitude involves likewise for him some of the absurd consequences. Through indifference he accepts letting his suicide be used to the advantage of a cause he despises. I decided last night that I didnt care. And finally he prepares his deed with a mixed feeling of revolt and freedom. I shall kill myself in order to assert my insubordination, my new and dreadful liberty. It is no longer a question of revenge, but of revolt. Kirilov is consequently an absurd charac teryet with this essential reservation: he kills himself. But he himself explains this contradiction, and in such a way that at the same time he reveals the absurd secret in all its purity. In truth, he adds to his fatal logic an extraordinary ambition wh ich gives the character its full perspective: he wants to kill himself to become god. The reasoning is classic in its clarity. If God does not exist, Kirilov is god. If God does not exist, Kirilov must kill himself. Kirilov must therefore kill himself to b ecome god. That logic is absurd, but it is what is needed. The interesting thing, however, is to give a meaning to that divinity brought to earth. That amounts to clarifying the premise: If God does not exist, I am god, which still remains rather obscure . It is important to note at the outset that the man who flaunts that mad claim is indeed of this world. He performs his gymnastics every morning to preserve his health. He is stirred by the joy of Chatov recovering his wife. On a sheet of paper to be foun d after his death he wants to draw a face sticking out his tongue at them. He is childish and irascible, passionate, methodical, and sensitive. Of the superman he has nothing but the logic and the obsession, whereas of man he has the whole catalogue. Yet it is he who speaks calmly of his divinity. He is not mad, or else Dostoevsky is. Consequently it is not a megalomaniacs illusion that excites him. And taking the words in their specific sense would, in this instance, be ridiculous. Kirilov himself helps us to understand. In reply to a question from Stavrogin, he makes clear that he is not talking of a god -man. It might be thought that this springs from concern to distinguish himself from Christ. But in reality it is a matter of annexing Christ. Kirilov i n fact fancies for a moment that Jesus at his death did not find himself in Paradise. He found out then that his torture had been useless. The laws of nature, says the engineer, made Christ live in the midst of falsehood and die for a falsehood. Solely in this sense Jesus indeed personifies the whole human drama. He is the complete man, being the one who realized the most absurd condition. He is not the God -man but the man -god. And, like him, each of us can be crucified and victimized and is to a certai n degree. The divinity in question is therefore altogether terrestrial. For three years, says Kirilov, I sought the attribute of my divinity and I have found it. The attribute of my divinity is independence. Now can be seen the meaning of Kirilovs pre mise: If God does not exist, I am god. To become god is merely to be free on this earth, not to serve an immortal being. Above all, of course, it is drawing all the inferences from that painful independence. If God exists, all depends on him and we can d o nothing against his will. If he does not exist, everything depends on us. For Kirilov, as for Nietzsche, to kill God is to become god oneself; it is to realize on this earth the eternal life of which the Gospel speaks.[21]But if this metaphysical crime is enough for mans fulfillment, why add suicide? Why kill oneself and leave this world after having won freedom? That is contradictory. Kirilov is well aware of this, for he adds: If you feel that, you are a tsar and, f ar from killing yourself, you will live covered with glory. But men in general do not know it. They do not feel that. As in the time of Prometheus, they entertain blind hopes.[22]They need to be shown the way and cannot do without preaching. Consequently, Kirilov must kill himself out of love for humanity. He must show his brothers a royal and difficult path on which he will be the first. It is a pedagogical suicide. Kirilov sacrifices himself, then. But if he is cruci fied, he will not be victimized. He remains the man -god, convinced of a death without future, imbued with evangelical melancholy. I, he says, am unhappy because I am obliged to assert my freedom. But once he is dead and men are at last enlightened, thi s earth will be peopled with tsars and lighted up with human glory. Kirilovs pistol shot will be the signal for the last revolution. Thus, it is not despair that urges him to death, but love of his neighbor for his own sake. Before terminating in blood an indescribable spiritual adventure, Kirilov makes a remark as old as human suffering: All is well. This theme of suicide in Dostoevsky, then, is indeed an absurd theme. Let us merely note before going on that Kirilov reappears in other characters who the mselves set in motion additional absurd themes. Stavrogin and Ivan Karamazov try out the absurd truths in practical life. They are the ones liberated by Kirilovs death. They try their skill at being tsars. Stavrogin leads an ironic life, and it is well known in what regard. He arouses hatred around him. And yet the key to the character is found in his farewell letter: I have not been able to detest anything. He is a tsar in indifference. Ivan is likewise by refusing to surrender the royal powers of the mind. To those who, like his brother, prove by their lives that it is essential to humiliate oneself in order to believe, he might reply that the condition is shameful. His key word is: Everything is permitted, with the appropriate shade of melancholy. Of course, like Nietzsche, the most famous of Gods assassins, he ends in madness. But this is a risk worth running, and, faced with such tragic ends, the essential impulse of the absurd mind is to ask: What does that prove? * * * Thus the novels, like t heDiary, propound the absurd question. They establish logic unto death, exaltation, dreadful freedom, the glory of the tsars become human. All is well, everything is permitted, and nothing is hateful these are absurd judgments. But what an amazing creat ion in which those creatures of fire and ice seem so familiar to us. The passionate world of indifference that rumbles in their hearts does not seem at all monstrous to us. We recognize in it our everyday anxieties. And probably no one so much as Dostoevsk y has managed to give the absurd world such familiar and tormenting charms. Yet what is his conclusion? Two quotations will show the complete metaphysical reversal that leads the writer to other revelations. The argument of the one who commits logical suic ide having provoked protests from the critics, Dostoevsky in the following installments of the Diary amplifies his position and concludes thus: If faith in immortality is so necessary to the human being (that without it he comes to the point of killing himself), it must therefore be the normal state of humanity. Since this is the case, the immortality of the human soul exists without any doubt. Then again in the last pages of his last novel, at the conclusion of that gigantic combat with God, some childre n ask Aliocha: Karamazov, is it true what religion says, that we shall rise from the dead, that we shall see one another again? And Aliocha answers: Certainly, we shall see one another again, we shall joyfully tell one another everything that has happen ed. Thus Kirilov, Stavrogin, and Ivan are defeated. The Brothers Karamazov replies to The Possessed. And it is indeed a conclusion. Aliochas case is not ambiguous, as is that of Prince Muichkin. Ill, the latter lives in a perpetual present, tinged with smiles and indifference, and that blissful state might be the eternal life of which the Prince speaks. On the contrary, Aliocha clearly says: We shall meet again. There is no longer any question of suicide and of madness. What is the use, for anyone who is sure of immortality and of its joys? Man exchanges his divinity for happiness. We shall joyfully tell one another everything that has happened. Thus again Kirilovs pistol rang out somewhere in Russia, but the world continued to cherish its blind hope s. Men did not understand that. Consequently, it is not an absurd novelist addressing us, but an existential novelist. Here, too, the leap is touching and gives its nobility to the art that inspires it. It is a stirring acquiescence, riddled with doubts, uncertain and ardent. Speaking of The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky wrote: The chief question that will be pursued throughout this book is the very one from which I have suffered consciously or unconsciously all life long: the existence of G od. It is hard to believe that a novel sufficed to transform into joyful certainty the suffering of a lifetime. One commentator[23]correctly pointed out that Dostoevsky is on Ivans side and that the affirmative chapter s took three months of effort whereas what he called the blasphemies were written in three weeks in a state of excitement. There is not one of his characters who does not have that thorn in the flesh, who does not aggravate it or seek a remedy for it in sensation or immortality.[24]In any case, let us remain with this doubt. Here is a work which, in a chiaroscuro more gripping than the light of day, permits us to seize mans struggle against his hopes. Having reached th e end, the creator makes his choice against his characters. That contradiction thus allows us to make a distinction. It is not an absurd work that is involved here, but a work that propounds the absurd problem. Dostoevskys reply is humiliation, shame ac cording to Stavrogin. An absurd work, on the contrary, does not provide a reply; that is the whole difference. Let us note this carefully in conclusion: what contradicts the absurd in that work is not its Christian character, but rather its announcing a fu ture life. It is possible to be Christian and absurd. There are examples of Christians who do not believe in a future life. In regard to the work of art, it should therefore be possible to define one of the directions of the absurd analysis that could have been anticipated in the preceding pages. It leads to propounding the absurdity of the Gospel. It throws light upon this idea, fertile in repercussions, that convictions do not prevent incredulity. On the contrary, it is easy to see that the author of The Possessed, familiar with these paths, in conclusion took a quite different way. The surprising reply of the creator to his characters, of Do -stoevsky to Kirilov, can indeed be summed up thus: existence is illusory andit is eternal. Ephemeral Creation Atthis point I perceive, therefore, that hope cannot be eluded forever and that it can beset even those who wanted to be free of it. This is the interest I find in the works discussed up to this point. I could, at least in the realm of creation, list some t ruly absurd works.[25]But everything must have a beginning. The object of this quest is a certain fidelity. The Church has been so harsh with heretics only because she deemed that there is no worse enemy than a child who has gone astray. But the record of Gnostic effronteries and the persistence of Manichean currents have contributed more to the construction of orthodox dogma than all the prayers. With due allowance, the same is true of the absurd. One recognizes ones co urse by discovering the paths that stray from it. At the very conclusion of the absurd reasoning, in one of the attitudes dictated by its logic, it is not a matter of indifference to find hope coming back in under one of its most touching guises. That show s the difficulty of the absurd ascesis. Above all, it shows the necessity of unfailing alertness and thus confirms the general plan of this essay. But if it is still too early to list absurd works, at least a conclusion can be reached as to the creative at titude, one of those which can complete absurd existence. Art can never be so well served as by a negative thought. Its dark and humiliated proceedings are as necessary to the understanding of a great work as black is to white. To work and create for noth ing, to sculpture in clay, to know that ones creation has no future, to see ones work destroyed in a day while being aware that fundamentally this has no more importance than building for centuries this is the difficult wisdom that absurd thought sancti ons. Performing these two tasks simultaneously, negating on the one hand and magnifying on the other, is the way open to the absurd creator. He must give the void its colors. This leads to a special conception of the work of art. Too often the work of a cr eator is looked upon as a series of isolated testimonies. Thus, artist and man of letters are confused. A profound thought is in a constant state of becoming; it adopts the experience of a life and assumes its shape, likewise, a mans sole creation is stre ngthened in its successive and multiple aspects: his works. One after another, they complement one an -other, correct or overtake one another, contradict one another too. If something brings creation to an end, it is not the victorious and illusory cry of the blinded artist: I have said everything, but the death of the creator which closes his experience and the book of his genius. That effort, that superhuman consciousness are not necessarily apparent to the reader. There is no mystery in human creation. Will performs this miracle. But at least there is no true creation without a secret. To be sure, a succession of works can be but a series of approximations of the same thought. But it is possible to conceive of another type of creator proceeding by juxtap osition. Their works may seem to be devoid of interrelations. To a certain degree, they are contradictory. But viewed all together, they resume their natural grouping. From death, for instance, they derive their definitive significance. They receive their most obvious light from the very life of their author. At the moment of death, the succession of his works is but a collection of failures. But if those failures all have the same resonance, the creator has managed to repeat the image of his own condition, to make the air echo with the sterile secret he possesses. The effort to dominate is considerable here. But human intelligence is up to much more. It will merely indicate clearly the voluntary aspect of creation. Elsewhere I have brought out the fact thathuman will had no other purpose than to maintain awareness. But that could not do without discipline. Of all the schools of patience and lucidity, creation is the most effective. It is also the staggering evidence of mans sole dignity: the dogged revolt against his condition, perseverance in an effort considered sterile. It calls for a daily effort, self -mastery, a precise estimate of the limits of truth, measure, and strength. It constitutes an ascesis. All that for nothing, in order to repeat and mark time. But perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than in the ordeal it demands of a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality. * * * Let there be no mistake in aesthetics. It is not patient inquiry, the unceasing, sterile illustration of a thesis that I am calling for here. Quite the contrary, if I have made myself clearly understood. The thesis -novel, the work that proves, the most hateful of all, is the one that most often is inspired by a smug thought. You demonstrate the truth you feel sure of possessing. But those are ideas one launches, and ideas are the contrary of thought. Those creators are philosophers, ashamed of themselves. Those I am speaking of o r whom I imagine are, on the contrary, lucid thinkers. At a certain point where thought turns back on itself, they raise up the images of their works like the obvious symbols of a limited, mortal, and rebellious thought. They perhaps prove something. But t hose proofs are ones that the novelists provide for themselves rather than for the world in general. The essential is that the novelists should triumph in the concrete and that this constitute their nobility. This wholly carnal triumph has been prepared fo r them by a thought in which abstract powers have been humiliated. When they are completely so, at the same time the flesh makes the creation shine forth in all its absurd luster. After all, ironic philosophies produce passionate works. Any thought that ab andons unity glorifies diversity. And diversity is the home of art. The only thought to liberate the mind is that which leaves it alone, certain of its limits and of its impending end. No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life. Detached from it, the work will once more give a barely muffled voice to a soul Forever freed from hope. Or it will give voice to nothing if the creator, tired of his activity, intends to turn away. That is equivalent. * * * Thus, I ask of absurd creation what I required from thought revolt, freedom, and diversity. Later on it will manifest its utter futility. In that daily effort in which intelligence and passion mingle and delight each other, the absurd man discovers a discipline that will make up the gre atest of his strengths. The required diligence, the doggedness and lucidity thus resemble the conquerors attitude. To create is likewise to give a shape to ones fate. For all these characters, their work defines them at least as much as it is defined by them. The actor taught us this: there is no frontier between being and appearing. Let me repeat. None of all this has any real meaning. On the way to that liberty, there is still a progress to be made. The final effort for these related minds, creator or c onqueror, is to manage to free themselves also from their undertakings: succeed in granting that the very work, whether it be conquest, love, or creation, may well not be; consummate thus the utter futility of any individual life. Indeed, that gives them m ore freedom in the realization of that work, just as becoming aware of the absurdity of life authorized them to plunge into it with every excess. All that remains is a fate whose outcome alone is fatal. Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. A world remains of which man is the sole master. What bound him was the illusion of another world. The outcome of his thought, ceasing to be renunciatory, flowers in images. It frolics in myths, to be sure, but myths with no other depth than that of human suffering and, like it, inexhaustible. Not the divine fable that amuses and blinds, but the terrestrial face, gesture, and drama in which are summed up a difficult wisdom and an ephemeral passion. The Myth Of Sisyphus The god s had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. If one believes Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. According to another tradition, however, he was disposed to practice the profession of highwayman. I see no contradiction in this. Opinions differ as to the reasons why he became the futile labor er of the underworld. To begin with, he is accused of a certain levity in regard to the gods. He stole their secrets. AEgina, the daughter of AEsopus, was carried off by Jupiter. The father was shocked by that disappearance and complained to Sisyphus. He, who knew of the abduction, offered to tell about it on condition that AEsopus would give water to the citadel of Corinth. To the celestial thunderbolts he preferred the benediction of water. He was punished for this in the underworld. Homer tells us also t hat Sisyphus had put Death in chains. Pluto could not endure the sight of his deserted, silent empire. He dispatched the god of war, who liberated Death from the hands of her conqueror. It is said also that Sisyphus, being near to death, rashly wanted to test his wifes love. He ordered her to cast his unburied body into the middle of the public square. Sisyphus woke up in the underworld. And there, annoyed by an obedience so contrary to human love, he obtained from Pluto permission to return to earth in order to chastise his wife. But when he had seen again the face of this world, enjoyed water and sun, warm stones and the sea, he no longer wanted to go back to the infernal darkness. Recalls, signs of anger, warnings were of no avail. Many years more he liv ed facing the curve of the gulf, the sparkling sea, and the smiles of earth. A decree of the gods was necessary. Mercury came and seized the impudent man by the collar and, snatching him from his joys, led him forcibly back to the underworld, where his roc k was ready for him. You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is,as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the w hole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay -covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth -clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing -space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. * * * If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy. This word is not too much. Again I fancy Sisyphus returning toward his rock, and the sorrow was in the beginning. When the images of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of hap piness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy rises in mans heart: this is the rocks victory, this is the rock itself. The boundless grief is too heavy to bear. These are our nights of Gethsemane. But crushing truths perish from being acknowle dged. Thus, CEdipus at the outset obeys fate without knowing it. But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins. Yet at the same moment, blind and desperate, he realizes that the only bond linking him to the world is the cool hand of a girl. Then a treme ndous remark rings out: Despite so many ordeals, my advanced age and the nobility of my soul make me conclude that all is well. Sophocles CEdipus, like Dostoevskys Kirilov, thus gives the recipe for the absurd victory. Ancient wisdom confirms modern he roism. One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness. What! by such narrow ways ? There is but one world, however. Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. It would be a mistak e to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd discovery. It happens as well that the feeling of the absurd springs from happiness. I conclude that all is well, says CEdipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited unive rse of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile sufferings. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men. All Sisyp hus silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing. Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. In the universe suddenly restored to its silence, the myriad wondering little voices of the earth rise up. Unconscious, secret calls, invitations from all the faces, they are the necessary reverse and price of victory. There is no sun without shadow, and it is es -sential to know the night. The absurd man says yes and his effort will hencefo rth be unceasing. If there is a personal fate, there is no higher destiny, or at least there is but one which he concludes is inevitable and despicable. For the rest, he knows himself to be the master of his days. At that subtle moment when man glances bac kward over his life, Sisyphus returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions which becomes his fate, created by him, combined under his memorys eye and soon sealed by his death. Thus, convinced of the w holly human origin of all that is human, a blind man eager to see who knows that the night has no end, he is still on the go. The rock is still rolling. I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds ones burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each m ineral flake of that night -filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a mans heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Appendix: Hope and the Absurd in the Work of Franz Kafka The whole art of Kafka co nsists in forcing the reader to reread. His endings, or his absence of endings, suggest explanations which, however, are not revealed in clear language but, before they seem justified, require that the story be reread from another point of view. Sometimes there is a double possibility of interpretation, whence appears the necessity for two readings. This is what the author wanted. But it would be wrong to try to interpret everything in Kafka in detail. A symbol is always in general and, however precise its translation, an artist can restore to it only its movement: there is no word -for-word rendering. Moreover, nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than h e is aware of expressing. In this regard, the surest means of getting hold of it is not to provoke it, to begin the work without a preconceived attitude and not to look for its hidden currents. For Kafka in particular it is fair to agree to his rules, to a pproach the drama through its externals and the novel through its form. At first glance and for a casual reader, they are disturbing adventures that carry off quaking and dogged characters into pursuit of problems they never formulate. In The Trial, Joseph K. is accused. But he doesnt know of what. He is doubtless eager to defend himself, but he doesnt know why. The lawyers find his case difficult. Meanwhile, he does not neglect to love, to eat, or to read his paper. Then he is judged. But the courtroom i s very dark. He doesnt understand much. He merely assumes that he is condemned, but to what he barely wonders. At times he suspects just the same, and he continues living. Some time later two well - dressed and polite gentlemen come to get him and invite hi m to follow them. Most courteously they lead him into a wretched suburb, put his head on a stone, and slit his throat. Before dying the condemned man says merely: Like a dog. You see that it is hard to speak of a symbol in a tale whose most obvious quali ty just happens to be naturalness. But naturalness is a hard category to understand. There are works in which the event seems natural to the reader. But there are others (rarer, to be sure) in which the character considers natural what happens to him. By a n odd but obvious paradox, the more extraordinary the characters adventures are, the more noticeable will be the naturalness of the story: it is in proportion to the divergence we feel between the strangeness of a mans life and the simplicity with which that man accepts it. It seems that this naturalness is Kafkas. And, precisely, one is well aware what The Trial means. People have spoken of an image of the human condition. To be sure. Yet it is both simpler and more complex. I mean that the significance of the novel is more particular and more personal to Kafka. To a certain degree, he is the one who does the talking, even though it is me he confesses. He lives and he is condemned. He learns this on the first pages of the novel he is pursuing in this wor ld, and if he tries to cope with this, he nonetheless does so without surprise. He will never show sufficient astonishment at this lack of astonishment. It is by such contradictions that the first signs of the absurd work are recognized. The mind projects into the concrete its spiritual tragedy. And it can do so solely by means of a perpetual paradox which confers on colors the power to express the void and on daily gestures the strength to translate eternal ambitions. Likewise, The Castle is perhaps a theo logy in action, but it is first of all the individual adventure of a soul in quest of its grace, of a man who asks of this worlds objects their royal secret and of women the signs of the god that sleeps in them. Metamorphosis, in turn, certainly represent s the horrible imagery of an ethic of lucidity. But it is also the product of that incalculable amazement man feels at being conscious of the beast he becomes effortlessly. In this fundamental ambiguity lies Kafkas secret. These perpetual oscillations bet ween the natural and the extraordinary, the individual and the universal, the tragic and the everyday, the absurd and the logical, are found throughout his work and give it both its resonance and its meaning. These are the paradoxes that must be enumerated , the contradictions that must be strengthened, in order to understand the absurd work. A symbol, indeed, assumes two planes, two worlds of ideas and sensations, and a dictionary of correspondences between them. This lexicon is the hardest thing to draw up . But awaking to the two worlds brought face to face is tantamount to getting on the trail of their secret relationships. In Kafka these two worlds are that of everyday life on the one hand and, on the other, that of supernatural anxiety.[26]It seems that we are witnessing here an interminable exploitation of Nietzsches remark: Great problems are in the street. There is in the human condition (and this is a commonplace of all literatures) a basic absurdity as well as a n implacable nobility. The two coincide, as is natural. Both of them are represented, let me repeat, in the ridiculous divorce separating our spiritual excesses and the ephemeral joys of the body. The absurd thing is that it should be the soul of this body which it transcends so inordinately. Whoever would like to represent this absurdity must give it life in a series of parallel contrasts. Thus it is that Kafka expresses tragedy by the everyday and the absurd by the logical. An actor lends more force to a tragic character the more careful he is not to exaggerate it. If he is moderate, the horror he inspires will be immoderate. In this regard Greek tragedy is rich in lessons. In a tragic work fate always makes itself felt better in the guise of logic and nat uralness. CEdipuss fate is announced in advance. It is decided supernaturally that he will commit the murder and the incest. The dramas whole effort is to show the logical system which, from deduction to deduction, will crown the heros misfortune. Merel y to announce to us that uncommon fate is scarcely horrible, because it is improbable. But if its necessity is demonstrated to us in the framework of everyday life, society, state, familiar emotion, then the horror is hallowed. In that revolt that shakes m an and makes him say: That is not possible, there is an element of desperate certainty that that can be. This is the whole secret of Greek tragedy, or at least of one of its aspects. For there is another which, by a reverse method, would help us to und erstand Kafka better. The human heart has a tiresome tendency to label as fate only what crushes it. But happiness likewise, in its way, is without reason, since it is inevitable. Modern man, however, takes the credit for it himself, when he doesnt fail t o recognize it. Much could be said, on the contrary, about the privileged fates of Greek tragedy and those favored in legend who, like Ulysses, in the midst of the worst adventures are saved from themselves. It was not so easy to return to Ithaca. What mus t be remembered in any case is that secret complicity that joins the logical and the everyday to the tragic. This is why Samsa, the hero of Metamorphosis, is a traveling salesman. This is why the only thing that disturbs him in the strange adventure that makes a vermin of him is that his boss will be angry at his absence. Legs and feelers grow out on him, his spine arches up, white spots appear on his belly and I shall not say that this does not astonish him, for the effect would be spoiled but it causes hi m a slight annoyance. The whole art of Kafka is in that distinction. In his central work, The Castle, the details of everyday life stand out, and yet in that strange novel in which nothing concludes and everything begins over again, it is the essential a dventure of a soul in quest of its grace that is represented. That translation of the problem into action, that coincidence of the general and the particular are recognized likewise in the little artifices that belong to every great creator. In The Trial the hero might have been named Schmidt or Franz Kafka. But he is named Joseph K. He is not Kafka and yet he is Kafka. He is an average European. He is like everybody else. But he is also the entity K. who is the xof this flesh -and-blood equation. Likewise, if Kafka wants to express the absurd, he will make use of consistency. You know the story of the crazy man who was fishing in a bathtub. A doctor with ideas as to psychiatric treatments asked him if they were biting, to which he received the ha rsh reply: Of course not, you fool, since this is a bathtub. That story belongs to the baroque type. But in it can be grasped quite clearly to what a degree the absurd effect is linked to an excess of logic. Kafkas world is in truth an indescribable uni verse in which man allows himself the tormenting luxury of fishing in a bathtub, knowing that nothing will come of it. Consequently, I recognize here a work that is absurd in its principles. As for The Trial, for instance, I can indeed say that it is a com plete success. Flesh wins out. Nothing is lacking, neither the unexpressed revolt (but itis what is writing), nor lucid and mute despair (but itis what is creating), nor that amazing freedom of manner which the characters of the novel exemplify until the ir ultimate death. * ** Yet this world is not so closed as it seems. Into this universe devoid of progress, Kafka is going to introduce hope in a strange form. In this regard The Trial andThe Castle do not follow the same direction. They complement each other. The barely perceptible progression from one to the other represents a tremendous conquest in the realm of evasion. The Trial propounds a problem which The Castle, to a certain degree, solves. The first describes according to a quasi scientific metho d and without concluding. The second, to a certain degree, explains. The Trial diagnoses, and The Castle imagines a treatment. But the remedy proposed here does not cure. It merely brings the malady back into normal life. It helps to accept it. In a certai n sense (let us think of Kierkegaard), it makes people cherish it. The Land Surveyor K. cannot imagine another anxiety than the one that is tormenting him. The very people around him become attached to that void and that nameless pain, as if suffering assu med in this case a privileged aspect. How I need you, Frieda says to K. How forsaken I feel, since knowing you, when you are not with me. This subtle remedy that makes us love what crushes us and makes hope spring up in a world without issue, this sudd en leap through which everything is changed, is the secret of the existential revolution and ofThe Castle itself. Few works are more rigorous in their development than The Castle. K. is named Land Surveyor to the Castle and he arrives in the village. Bu t from the village to the Castle it is impossible to communicate. For hundreds of pages K. persists in seeking his way, makes every advance, uses trickery and expedients, never gets angry, and with disconcerting good will tries to assume the duties entrust ed to him. Each chapter is a new frustration. And also a new beginning. It is not logic, but consistent method. The scope of that insistence constitutes the works tragic quality. When K. telephones to the Castle, he hears confused, mingled voices, vague laughs, distant invitations. That is enough to feed his hope, like those few signs appearing in summer skies or those evening anticipations which make up our reason for living. Here is found the secret of the melancholy peculiar to Kafka. The same, in truth , that is found in Prousts work or in the landscape of Plotinus: a nostalgia for a lost paradise. I become very sad, says Olga, when Barnabas tells me in the morning that he is going to the Castle: that probably futile trip, that probably wasted day, t hat probably empty hope. Probably on this implication Kafka gambles his entire work. But nothing avails; the quest of the eternal here is meticulous. And those inspired automata, Kafkas characters, provide us with a precise image of what we should be i f we were deprived of our distractions[27]and utterly consigned to the humiliations of the divine. InThe Castle that surrender to the everyday becomes an ethic. The great hope of K. is to get the Castle to adopt him. Un able to achieve this alone, his whole effort is to deserve this favor by becoming an inhabitant of the village, by losing the status of foreigner that everyone makes him feel. What he wants is an occupation, a home, the life of a healthy, normal man. He ca nt stand his madness any longer. He wants to be reasonable. He wants to cast off the peculiar curse that makes him a stranger to the village. The episode of Frieda is significant in this regard. If he takes as his mistress this woman who has known one of the Castles officials, this is because of her past. He derives from her something that transcends him while being aware of what makes her forever unworthy of the Castle. This makes one think of Kierkegaards strange love for Regina Olsen. In certain men, the fire of eternity consuming them is great enough for them to burn in it the very heart of those closest to them. The fatal mistake that consists in giving to God what is not Gods is likewise the subject of this episode of The Castle. But for Kafka it s eems that this is not a mistake. It is a doctrine and a leap. There is nothing that is not Gods. Even more significant is the fact that the Land Surveyor breaks with Frieda in order to go toward the Barnabas sisters. For the Barnabas family is the only one in the village that is utterly forsaken by the Castle and by the village itself. Amalia, the elder sister, has rejected the shameful propositions made her by one of the Castles officials. The immoral curse that followed has forever cast her out from t he love of God. Being incapable of losing ones honor for God amounts to making oneself unworthy of his grace. You recognize a theme familiar to existential philosophy: truth contrary to morality. At this point things are far -reaching. For the path pursued by Kafkas hero from Frieda to the Barnabas sisters is the very one that leads from trusting love to the deification of the absurd. Here again Kafkas thought runs parallel to Kierkegaard. It is not surprising that the Barnabas story is placed at the en d of the book. The Land Surveyors last attempt is to recapture God through what negates him, to recognize him, not according to our categories of goodness and beauty, but behind the empty and hideous aspects of his indifference, of his injustice, and of h is hatred. That stranger who asks the Castle to adopt him is at the end of his voyage a little more exiled because this time he is unfaithful to himself, forsaking morality, logic, and intellectual truths in order to try to enter, endowed solely with his m ad hope, the desert of divine grace.[28] *** The word hope used here is not ridiculous. On the contrary, the more tragic the condition described by Kafka, the firmer and more aggressive that hope becomes. The more truly absurd The Trial is, the more moving and illegitimate the impassioned leap ofThe Castle seems. But we find here again in a pure state the paradox of existential thought as it is expressed, for instance, by Kierkegaard: Earthly hope must be killed; onl y then can one be saved by true hope,[29]which can be translated: One has to have written The Trial to undertake The Castle. Most of those who have spoken of Kafka have indeed defined his work as a desperate cry with no recourse left to man. But this calls for review. There is hope and hope. To me the optimistic work of Henri Bordeaux seems peculiarly discouraging. This is because it has nothing for the discriminating. Malrauxs thought, on the other hand, is always br acing. But in these two cases neither the same hope nor the same despair is at issue. I see merely that the absurd work itself may lead to the infidelity I want to avoid. The work which was but an ineffectual repetition of a sterile condition, a lucid glor ification ol the ephemeral, becomes here a cradle of illusions. It explains, it gives a shape to hope. The creator can no longer divorce himself from it. It is not the tragic game it was to be. It gives a meaning to the authors life. It is strange in any case that works of related inspiration like those of Kafka, Kierkegaard, or Chestov those, in short, of existential novelists and philosophers completely oriented toward the Absurd and its consequences should in the long run lead to that tremendous cry of hope. They embrace the God that consumes them. It is through humility that hope enters in. For the absurd of this existence assures them a little more of supernatural reality. If the course of this life leads to God, there is an outcome after all. And the perseverance, the insistence with which Kierkegaard, Chestov, and Kafkas heroes repeat their itineraries are a special warrant of the uplifting power of that certainty.[30] Kafka refuses his god moral nobility, evidence, virtue, coherence, but only the better to fall into his arms. The absurd is recognized, accepted, and man is resigned to it, but from then on we know that it has ceased to be the absurd. Within the limits of the human condition, what greater hope than the hope that allows an escape from that condition? As I see once more, existential thought in this regard (and contrary to current opinion) is steeped in a vast hope. The very hope which at the time of early Christianity and the spreading of the good news in flamed the ancient world. But in that leap that characterizes all existential thought, in that insistence, in that surveying of a divinity devoid of surface, how can one fail to see the mark of a lucidity that repudiates itself? It is merely claimed that t his is pride abdicating to save itself. Such a repudiation would be fecund. But this does not change that. The moral value of lucidity cannot be diminished in my eyes by calling it sterile like all pride. For a truth also, by its very definition, is steril e. All facts are. In a world where everything is given and nothing is explained, the fecundity of a value or of a metaphysic is a notion devoid of meaning. In any case, you see here in what tradition of thought Kafkas work takes its place. It would indeed be intelligent to consider as inevitable the progression leading from The Trial toThe Castle. Joseph K. and the Land Surveyor K. are merely two poles that attract Kafka.[31]I shall speak like him and say that his work is probably not absurd. But that should not deter us from seeing its nobility and universality. They come from the fact that he managed to represent so fully the everyday passage from hope to grief and from desperate wisdom to intentional blindness. His wo rk is universal (a really absurd work is not universal) to the extent to which it represents the emotionally moving face of man fleeing humanity, deriving from his contradictions reasons for believing, reasons for hoping from his fecund despairs, and calli ng life his terrifying apprenticeship in death. It is universal because its inspiration is religious. As in all religions, man is freed of the weight of his own life. But if I know that, if I can even admire it, I also know that I am not seeking what is un iversal, but what is true. The two may well not coincide. This particular view will be better understood if I say that truly hopeless thought just happens to be defined by the opposite criteria and that the tragic work might be the work that, after all fut ure hope is exiled, describes the life of a happy man. The more exciting life is, the more absurd is the idea of losing it. This is perhaps the secret of that proud aridity felt in Nietzsches work. In this connection, Nietzsche appears to be the only arti st to have derived the extreme consequences of an aesthetic of the Absurd, inasmuch as his final message lies in a sterile and conquering lucidity and an obstinate negation of any supernatural consolation. The preceding should nevertheless suffice to bring out the capital importance of Kafka in the framework of this essay. Here we are carried to the confines of human thought. In the fullest sense of the word, it can be said that everything in that work is essential. In any case, it propounds the absurd prob lem altogether. If one wants to compare these conclusions with our initial remarks, the content with the form, the secret meaning of The Castle with the natural art in which it is molded, K.s passionate, proud quest with the everyday setting against which it takes place, then one will realize what may be its greatness. For if nostalgia is the mark of the human, perhaps no one has given such flesh and volume to these phantoms of regret. But at the same time will be sensed what exceptional nobility the absur d work calls for, which is perhaps not found here. If the nature of art is to bind the general to the particular, ephemeral eternity of a drop of water to the play of its lights, it is even truer to judge the greatness of the absurd writer by the distance he is able to introduce between these two worlds. His secret consists in being able to find the exact point where they meet in their greatest disproportion. And, to tell the truth, this geometrical locus of man and the inhuman is seen everywhere by the pure in heart. If Faust and Don Quixote are eminent creations of art, this is because of the immeasurable nobilities they point out to us with their earthly hands. Yet a moment always comes when the mind negates the truths that those hands can touch. A moment comes when the creation ceases to be taken tragically; it is merely taken seriously. Then man is concerned with hope. But that is not his business. His business is to turn away from subterfuge. Yet this is just wha t I find at the conclusion of the vehement proceedings Kafka institutes against the whole universe. His unbelievable verdict is this hideous and upsetting world in which the very moles dare to hope.[32] Summer In Algiers for JACQUES HEURGON The loves we share with a city are often secret loves. Old walled towns like Paris, Prague, and even Florence are closed in on themselves and hence limit the world that belongs to them. But Algiers (together with certain other privile ged places such as cities on the sea) opens to the sky like a mouth or a wound. In Algiers one loves the commonplaces: the sea at the end of every street, a certain volume of sunlight, the beauty of the race. And, as always, in that unashamed offering ther e is a secret fragrance. In Paris it is possible to be homesick for space and a beating of wings. Here at least man is gratified in every wish and, sure of his desires, can at last measure his possessions. Probably one has to live in Algiers for some time in order to realize how paralyzing an excess of natures bounty can be. There is nothing here for whoever would learn, educate himself, or better himself. This country has no lessons to teach. It neither promises nor affords glimpses. It is satisfied to gi ve, but in abundance. It is completely accessible to the eyes, and you know it the moment you enjoy it. Its pleasures are without remedy and its joys without hope. Above all, it requires clairvoyant souls that is, without solace. It insists upon ones perf orming an act of lucidity as one performs an act of faith. Strange country that gives the man it nourishes both his splendor and his misery! It is not surprising that the sensual riches granted to a sensitive man of these regions should coincide with the m ost extreme destitution. No truth fails to carry with it its bitterness. How can one be surprised, then, if I never feel more affection for the face of this country than amid its poorest men? During their entire youth men find here a life in proportion to their beauty. Then, later on, the downhill slope and obscurity. They wagered on the flesh, but knowing they were to lose. In Algiers whoever is young and alive finds sanctuary and occasion for triumphs everywhere: in the bay, the sun, the red and white gam es on the seaward terraces, the flowers and sports stadiums, the cool - legged girls. But for whoever has lost his youth there is nothing to cling to and nowhere where melancholy can escape itself. Elsewhere, Italian terraces, European cloisters, or the prof ile of the Provencal hills all places where man can flee his humanity and gently liberate himself from himself. But everything here calls for solitude and the blood of young men. Goethe on his deathbed calls for light and this is a historic remark. At Belc ourt and Bab -el-Oued old men seated in the depths of cafes listen to the bragging of young men with plastered hair. Summer betrays these beginnings and ends to us in Algiers. During those months the city is deserted. But the poor remain, and the sky. We jo in the former as they go down toward the harbor and mans treasures: warmth of the water and the brown bodies of women. In the evening, sated with such wealth, they return to the oilcloth and kerosene lamp that constitute the whole setting of their life. In Algiers no one says go for a swim, but rather indulge in a swim. The implications are clear. People swim in the harbor and go to rest on the buoys. Anyone who passes near a buoy where a pretty girl already is sunning herself shouts to his friends: I tell you its a seagull. These are healthy amusements. They must obviously constitute the ideal of those youths, since most of them continue the same life in the winter, undressing every day at noon for a frugal lunch in the sun. Not that they have read the boring sermons of the nudists, those Protestants of the flesh (there is a theory of the body quite as tiresome as that of the mind). But they are simply comfortable in the sunlight. The importance of this custom for our epoch can never be overestimat ed. For the first time in two thousand years the body has appeared naked on beaches. For twenty centuries men have striven to give decency to Greek insolence and naivete, to diminish the flesh and complicate dress. Today, despite that history, young men ru nning on Mediterranean beaches repeat the gestures of the athletes of Delos. And living thus among bodies and through ones body, one becomes aware that it has its connotations, its life, and, to risk nonsense, a psychology of its own.[33]The bodys evolution, like that of the mind, has its history, its vicissitudes, its progress, and its deficiency. With this distinction, however: color. When you frequent the beach in summer you become aware of a simultaneous progression of all skins from white to golden to tanned, ending up in a tobacco color which marks the extreme limit of the effort of transformation of which the body is capable. Above the harbor stands the set of white cubes of the Kasbah. When you are at water level , against the sharp while background of the Arab town the bodies describe a copper -colored frieze. And as the month of August progresses and the sun grows, the white of the houses becomes more blinding and skins take on a darker warmth. How can one fail to participate, then, in that dialogue of stone and flesh in tune with the sun and seasons? The whole morning has been spent in diving, in bursts of laughter amid splashing water, in vigorous paddles around the red and black freighters (those from Norway wit h all the scents of wood, those that come from Germany full of the smell of oil, those that go up and down the coast and smell of wine and old casks). At the hour when the sun overflows from every corner of the sky at once, the orange canoe loaded with bro wn bodies brings us home in a mad race. And when, having suddenly interrupted the cadenced beat of the double paddles bright -colored wings, we glide slowly in the calm water of the inner harbor, how can I fail to feel that I am piloting through the smooth waters a savage cargo of gods in whom I recognize my brothers? But at the other end of the city summer is already offering us, by way of contrast, its other riches: I mean its silence and its boredom. That silence is not always of the same quality, depend ing on whether it springs from the shade or the sunlight. There is the silence of noon on the Place du Gouvernement. In the shade of the trees surrounding it, Arabs sell for five sous glasses of iced lemonade flavored with orange -flowers. Their cry Cool, cool can be heard across the empty square. After their cry silence again falls under the burning sun: in the vendors jug the ice moves and I can hear its tinkle. There is the silence of the siesta. In the streets of the Marine, in front of the dirty barb ershops it can be measured in the melodious buzzing of flies behind the hollow reed curtains. Elsewhere, in the Moorish cafes of the Kasbah the body is silent, unable to tear itself away, to leave the glass of tea and rediscover time with the pulsing of it s own blood. But, above all, there is the silence of summer evenings. Those brief moments when day topples into night must be peopled with secret signs and summons for my Algiers to be so closely linked to them. When I spend some time far from that town, I imagine its twilights as promises of happiness. On the hills above the city there are paths among the mastics and olive trees. And toward them my heart turns at such moments. I see flights of black birds rise against the green horizon. In the sky suddenly divested of its sun something relaxes. A whole little nation of red clouds stretches out until it is absorbed in the air. Almost immediately afterward appears the first star that had been seen taking shape and consistency in the depth of the sky. And then suddenly, all consuming, night. What exceptional quality do the fugitive Algerian evenings possess to be able to release so many things in me? I havent time to tire of that sweetness they leave on my lips before it has disappeared into night. Is this the secret of its persistence? This countrys affection is overwhelming and furtive. But during the moment it is present, ones heart at least surrenders completely to it. At Padovani Beach the dance hall is open every day. And in that huge rectangular box wi th its entire side open to the sea, the poor young people of the neighborhood dance until evening. Often I used to await there a moment of exceptional beauty. During the day the hall is protected by sloping wooden awnings. When the sun goes down they are r aised. Then the hall is filled with an odd green light born of the double shell of the sky and the sea. When one is seated far from the windows, one sees only the sky and, silhouetted against it, the faces of the dancers passing in succession. Sometimes a waltz is being played, and against the green background the black profiles whirl obstinately like those cut -out silhouettes that are attached to a phonographs turntable. Night comes rapidly after this, and with it the lights. But I am unable to relate the thrill and secrecy that subtle instant holds for me. I recall at least a magnificent tall girl who had danced all afternoon. She was wearing a jasmine garland on her tight blue dress, wet with perspiration from the small of her back to her legs. She was l aughing as she danced and throwing back her head. As she passed the tables, she left behind her a mingled scent of flowers and flesh. When evening came, I could no longer see her body pressed tight to her partner, but against the sky whirled alternating sp ots of white jasmine and black hair, and when she would throw back her swelling breast I would hear her laugh and see her partners profile suddenly plunge forward. I owe to such evenings the idea I have of innocence. In any case, I learn not to separate t hese creatures bursting with violent energy from the sky where their desires whirl. * * * In the neighborhood movies in Algiers peppermint lozenges are sometimes sold with, stamped in red, all that is necessary to the awakening of love: (1) questions: Whe n will you marry me? Do you love me? and (2) replies: Madly, Next spring. After having prepared the way, you pass them to your neighbor, who answers likewise or else turns a deaf ear. At Belcourt marriages have been arranged this way and whole lives been pledged by the mere exchange of peppermint lozenges. And this really depicts the childlike people of this region. The distinguishing mark of youth is perhaps a magnificent vocation for facile joys. But, above all, it is a haste to live that borders o n waste. At Belcourt, as at Bab -el-Oued, people get married young. They go to work early and in ten years exhaust the experience of a lifetime. A thirty -year-old workman has already played all the cards in his hand. He awaits the end between his wife and h is children. His joys have been sudden and merciless, as has been his life. One realizes that he is born of this country where everything is given to be taken away. In that plenty and profusion life follows the sweep of great passions, sudden, exacting, an d generous. It is not to be built up, but to be burned up. Stopping to think and becoming better are out of the question. The notion of hell, for instance, is merely a funny joke here. Such imaginings are allowed only to the very virtuous. And I really thi nk that virtue is a meaningless word in all Algeria. Not that these men lack principles. They have their code, and a very special one. You are not disrespectful to your mother. You see that your wife is respected in the street. You show consideration for a pregnant woman. You dont double up on an adversary, because that looks bad. Whoever does not observe these elementary commandments is not a man, and the question is decided. This strikes me as fair and strong. There are still many of us who automatic ally observe this code of the street, the only disinterested one I know. But at the same time the shopkeepers ethics are unknown. I have always seen faces around me filled with pity at the sight of a man between two policemen. And before knowing whether t he man had stolen, killed his father, or was merely a nonconformist, they would say: The poor fellow, or else, with a hint of admiration: Hes a pirate, all right. There are races born for pride and life. They are the ones that nourish the strangest vo cation for boredom. It is also among them that the attitude toward death is the most repulsive. Aside from sensual pleasure, the amusements of this race are among the silliest. A society of bowlers and association banquets, the three - franc movies and paris h feasts have for years provided the recreation of those over thirty. Algiers Sundays are among the most sinister. How, then, could this race devoid of spirituality clothe in myths the profound horror of its life? Everything related to death is either ridi culous or hateful here. This populace without religion and without idols dies alone after having lived in a crowd. I know no more hideous spot than the cemetery on Boulevard Bru, opposite one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. An accumulation o f bad taste among the black fencings allows a dreadful melancholy to rise from this spot where death shows her true likeness. Everything fades, say the heart -shaped ex -votos, except memory. And all insist on that paltry eternity provided us cheaply by the hearts of those who loved us. The same words fit all despairs. Addressed to the dead man, they speak to him in the second person (our memory will never forsake you); lugubrious pretense which attributes a body and desires to what is at best a black liq uid. Elsewhere, amid a deadly profusion of marble flowers and birds, this bold assertion: Never will your grave be without flowers. But never fear: the inscription surrounds a gilded stucco bouquet, very time -saving for the living (like those immortelles which owe their pompous name to the gratitude of those who still jump onto moving buses). Inasmuch as it is essential to keep up with the times, the classic warbler is sometimes replaced by an astounding pearl airplane piloted by a silly angel who, withou t regard for logic, is provided with an impressive pair of wings. Yet how to bring out that these images of death are never separated from life? Here the values are closely linked. The favorite joke of Algerian undertakers, when driving an empty hearse, is to shout: Want a ride, sister? to any pretty girls they meet on the way. There is no objection to seeing a symbol in this, even if somewhat untoward. It may seem blasphemous, likewise, to reply to the announcement of a death while winking ones left eye: Poor fellow, hell never sing again, or, like that woman of Oran who bad never loved her husband: God gave him to me and God has taken him from me. But, all in all, I see nothing sacred in death and am well aware, on the other hand, of the distance t here is between fear and respect. Everything here suggests the horror of dying in a country that invites one to live. And yet it is under the very walls of this cemetery that the young of Belcourt have their assignations and that the girls offer themselves to kisses and caresses. I am well aware that such a race cannot be accepted by all. Here intelligence has no place as in Italy. This race is indifferent to the mind. It has a cult for and admiration of the body. Whence its strength, its innocent cynicism, and a puerile vanity which explains why it is so severely judged. It is commonly blamed for its mentality that is, a way of seeing and of living. And it is true that a certain intensity of life is inseparable from injustice. Yet here is a rate without p ast, without tradition, and yet not without poetry but a poetry whose quality I know well, harsh, carnal, far from tenderness, that of their very sky, the only one in truth to move me and bring me inner peace. The contrary of a civilized nation is a creati ve nation. I have the mad hope that, without knowing it perhaps, these barbarians lounging on beaches are actually modeling the image of a culture in which the greatness of man will at last find its true likeness. This race, wholly cast into its present, l ives without myths, without solace. It has put all its possessions on this earth and therefore remains without defense against death. All the gifts of physical beauty have been lavished on it. And with them, the strange avidity that always accompanies that wealth without future. Everything that is done here shows a horror of stability and a disregard for the future. People are in haste to live, and if an art were to be born here it would obey that hatred of permanence that made the Dorians fashion their fir st column in wood. And yet, yes, one can find measure as well as excess in the violent and keen face of this race, in this summer sky with nothing tender in it, before which all truths can be uttered and on which no deceptive divinity has traced the signs of hope or of redemption. Between this sky and these faces turned toward it, nothing on which to hang a mythology, a literature, an ethic, or a religion, but stones, flesh, stars, and those truths the hand can touch. * * * To feel ones attachment to a ce rtain region, ones love for a certain group of men, to know that there is always a spot where ones heart will feel at peace these are many certainties for a single human life. And yet this is not enough. But at certain moments everything yearns for that spiritual home. Yes, we must go back there there, indeed. Is there anything odd in finding on earth that union that Plotinus longed for? Unity is expressed here in terms of sun and sea. The heart is sensitive to it through a certain savor of flesh which constitutes its bitterness and its grandeur. I learn that there is no superhuman happiness, no eternity outside the sweep of days. These paltry and essential belongings, these relative truths are the only ones to stir me. As for the others, the ideal tru ths, I have not enough soul to understand them. Not that one must be an animal, but I find no meaning in the happiness of angels. I know simply that this sky will last longer than I. And what shall I call eternity except what will continue after my death? I am not expressing here the creatures satisfaction with his condition. It is quite a different matter. It is not always easy to be a man, still less to be a pure man. But being pure is recovering that spiritual home where one can feel the worlds relatio nship, where ones pulse - beats coincide with the violent throbbing of the two -oclock sun. It is well known that ones native land is always recognized at the moment of losing it. For those who are too uneasy about themselves, their native land is the one that negates them. I should not like to be brutal or seem extravagant. But, after all, what negates me in this life is first of all what kills me. Everything that exalts life at the same time increases its absurdity. In the Algerian summer I learn that one thing only is more tragic than suffering, and that is the life of a happy man. But it may be also the way to a greater life because it leads to not cheating. Many, in fact, feign love of life to evade love itself. They try their skill at enjoyment and at indulging in experiences. But this is illusory. It requires a rare vocation to be a sensualist. The life of a man is fulfilled without the aid of his mind, with its backward and forward movements, at one and the same time its solitude and its presences. To see these men of Belcourt working, protecting their wives and children, and often without a reproach, I think one can feel a secret shame. To be sure, I have no illusions about it. There is not much love in the lives I am speaking of. I ought to say that not much remains. But at least they have evaded nothing. There are words I have never really understood, such as sin. Yet I believe these men have never sinned against life. For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despair ing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life. These men have not cheated. Gods of summer they were at twenty by their enthusiasm for life, and they still are, deprived of all hope. I have seen two of them di e. They were full of horror, but silent. It is better thus. From Pandoras box, where all the ills of humanity swarmed, the Greeks drew out hope after all the others, as the most dreadful of all. I know no more stirring symbol; for, contrary to the general belief, hope equals resignation. And to live is not to resign oneself. This, at least, is the bitter lesson of Algerian summers. But already the season is wavering and summer totters. The first September rains, after such violence and hardening, are like the liberated earths first tears, as if for a few days this country tried its hand at tenderness. Yet at the same period the carob trees cover all of Algeria with a scent of love. In the evening or after the rain, the whole earth, its womb moist with a seed redolent of bitter almond, rests after having given herself to the sun all summer long. And again that scent hallows the union of man and earth and awakens in us the only really virile love in this world: ephemeral and noble. (1936) The Minotaur or The Stop In Oran for PIERRE GALINDO This essay dates from 1939. The reader will have to bear this in mind to judge of the present -day Oran. Impassioned protests from that beautiful city assure me, as a matter of fact, that all the imperfections have been (or will be) remedied. On the other hand, the beauties extolled in this essay have been jealously respected. Happy and realistic city, Oran has no further need of writers: she is awaiting tourists. (1953) There are no more deserts. There are no more islands. Yet there is a need for them. In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion; in order to serve men better, one has to hold them at a distance for a time. But where can one f ind the solitude necessary to vigor, the deep breath in which the mind collects itself and courage gauges its strength? There remain big cities. Simply, certain conditions are required. The cities Europe offers us are too full of the din of the past. A practiced ear can make out the flapping of wings, a fluttering of souls. The giddy whirl of centuries, of revolutions, of fame can be felt there. There one cannot forget that the Occident was forged in a series of uproars. All that does not make for enough si lence. Paris is often a desert for the heart, but at certain moments from the heights of Pere -Lachaise there blows a revolutionary wind that suddenly fills that desert with flags and fallen glories. So it is with certain Spanish towns, with Florence or wit h Prague. Salzburg would be peaceful without Mozart. But from time to time there rings out over the Salzach the great proud cry of Don Juan as he plunges toward hell. Vienna seems more silent; she is a youngster among cities. Her stones are no older than t hree centuries and their youth is ignorant of melancholy. But Vienna stands at a crossroads of history. Around her echoes the clash of empires. Certain evenings when the sky is suffused with blood, the stone horses on the Ring monuments seem to take wing. In that fleeting moment when everything is reminiscent of power and history, can he distinctly heard, under the charge of the Polish squadrons, the crashing fall of the Ottoman Empire. That does not make for enough silence either. To be sure, it is just th at solitude amid others that men come looking for in European cities. At least, men with a purpose in life. There they can choose their company, take it or leave it. How many minds have been tempered in the trip between their hotel room and the old stones of the Ile Saint Louis! It is true that others have died there of isolation. As for the first, at any rate, there they found their reasons for growing and asserting themselves. They were alone and they werent alone. Centuries of history and beauty, the ar dent testimony of a thousand lives of the past accompanied them along the Seine and spoke to them both of traditions and of conquests. But their youth urged them to invite such company. There comes a time, there come periods, when it is unwelcome. Its be tween us two! exclaims Rasti -gnac, facing the vast mustiness of Paris. Two, yes, but that is still too many! The desert itself has assumed significance; it has been glutted with poetry. For all the worlds sorrows it is a hallowed spot. But at certain mom ents the heart wants nothing so much as spots devoid of poetry. Descartes, planning to meditate, chose his desert: the most mercantile city of his era. There he found his solitude and the occasion for perhaps the greatest of our virile poems: The first [precept] was never to accept anything as true unless I knew it to be obviously so. It is possible to have less ambition and the same nostalgia. But during the last three centuries Amsterdam has spawned museums. In order to flee poetry and yet recapture the peace of stones, other deserts are needed, other spots without soul and without reprieve. Oran is one of these. The Street I have often heard the people of Oran complain: There is no interesting circle. No, indeed! You wouldnt want one! A few right -thinking people tried to introduce the customs of another world into this desert, faithful to the principle that it is impossible to advance art or ideas without grouping together.[34]The result is such that the only instru ctive circles remain those of poker -players, boxing enthusiasts, bowlers, and the local associations. There at least the unsophisticated prevails. After all, there exists a certain nobility that does not lend itself to the lofty. It is sterile by nature. And those who want to find it leave the circles and go out into the street. The streets of Oran are doomed to dust, pebbles, and heat. If it rains, there is a deluge and a sea of mud. But rain or shine, the shops have the same extravagant and absurd look. All the bad taste of Europe and the Orient has managed to converge in them. One finds, helter -skelter, marble greyhounds, ballerinas with swans, versions of Diana the huntress in green galalith, discus -throwers and reapers, everything that is used for bir thday and wedding gifts, the whole race of painful figurines constantly called forth by a commercial and playful genie on our mantelpieces. But such perseverance in bad taste takes on a baroque aspect that makes one forgive all. Here, presented in a casket of dust, are the contents of a show window: frightful plaster models of deformed feet, a group of Rembrandt drawings sacrificed at 150 francs each, practical jokes, tricolored wallets, an eighteenth -century pastel, a mechanical donkey made of plush, bot tles of Provence water for preserving green olives, and a wretched wooden virgin with an indecent smile. (So that no one can go away ignorant, the management has propped at its base a card saying: Wooden Virgin.) There can be found in Oran: 1) Cafes wi th filter -glazed counters sprinkled with the legs and wings of flies, the proprietor always smiling despite his always empty cafe. A small black coffee used to cost twelve sous and a large one eighteen. 2) Photographers studios where there has been no pro gress in technique since the invention of sensitized paper. They exhibit a strange fauna impossible to encounter in the streets, from the pseudo -sailor leaning on a console table to the marriageable girl, badly dressed and arms dangling, standing in front of a sylvan background. It is possible to assume that these are not portraits from life: they are creations. 3) An edifying abundance of funeral establishments. It is not that people die more in Oran than elsewhere, but I fancy merely that more is made of it. The attractive naivete of this nation of merchants is displayed even in their advertising. I read, in the handbill of an Oran movie theater, the advertisement for a third -rate film. I note the adjectives sumptuous, splendid, extraordinary, amazing, s taggering, and tremendous. At the end the management informs the public of the considerable sacrifices it has undertaken to be able to present this startling realization. Nevertheless, the price of tickets will not be increased. It would be wrong to as sume that this is merely a manifestation of that love of exaggeration characteristic of the south. Rather, the authors of this marvelous handbill are revealing their sense of psychology. It is essential to overcome the indifference and profound apathy felt in this country the moment there is any question of choosing between two shows, two careers, and, often, even two women. People make up their minds only when forced to do so. And advertising is well aware of this. It will assume American proportions, havi ng the same reasons, both here and there, for getting desperate. The streets of Oran inform us as to the two essential pleasures of the local youth: getting ones shoes shined and displaying those same shoes on the boulevard. In order to have a clear idea of the first of these delights, one has to entrust ones shoes, at ten oclock on a Sunday morning, to the shoe -shiners in Boulevard Gal -lieni. Perched on high armchairs, one can enjoy that peculiar satisfaction produced, even upon a rank outsider, by the sight of men in love with their job, as the shoe -shiners of Oran obviously are. Everything is worked over in detail. Several brushes, three kinds of cloths, the polish mixed with gasoline. One might think the operation is finished when a perfect shine come s to life under the soft brush. But the same insistent hand covers the glossy surface again with polish, rubs it, dulls it, makes the cream penetrate the heart of the leather, and then brings forth, under the same brush, a double and really definitive glos s sprung from the depths of the leather. The wonders achieved in this way are then exhibited to the connoisseurs. In order to appreciate such pleasures of the boulevard, you ought to see the masquerade of youth taking place every evening on the main arteri es of the city. Between the ages of sixteen and twenty the young people of Oran Society borrow their models of elegance from American films and put on their fancy dress before going out to dinner. With wavy, oiled hair protruding from under a felt hat sl anted over the left ear and peaked over the right eye, the neck encircled by a collar big enough to accommodate the straggling hair, the microscopic knot of the necktie kept in place by a regulation pin, with thigh -length coat and waist close to the hips, with light -colored and noticeably short trousers, with dazzlingly shiny triple -soled shoes, every evening those youths make the sidewalks ring with their metal - tipped soles. In all things they are bent on imitating the bearing, forthrightness, and superior ity of Mr. Clark Gable. For this reason the local carpers commonly nickname those youths, by favor of a casual pronunciation, Clarques. At any rate, the main boulevards of Oran are invaded late in the afternoon by an army of attractive adolescents who go to the greatest trouble to look like a bad lot. Inasmuch as the girls of Oran feel traditionally engaged to these softhearted gangsters, they likewise flaunt the make -up and elegance of popular American actresses. Consequently, the same wits call them Ma rlenes. Thus on the evening boulevards when the sound of birds rises skyward from the palm trees, dozens of Clarques and Marlenes meet, eye and size up one another, happy to be alive and to cut a figure, indulging for an hour in the intoxication of perfec t existences. There can then be witnessed, the jealous say, the meetings of the American Commission. But in these words lies the bitterness of those over thirty who have no connection with such diversions. They fail to appreciate those daily congresses of youth and romance. These are, in truth, the parliaments of birds that are met in Hindu literature. But no one on the boulevards of Oran debates the problem of being or worries about the way to perfection. There remains nothing but flappings of wings, plume d struttings, coquettish and victorious graces, a great burst of carefree song that disappears with the night. From here I can hear Klestakov: I shall soon have to be concerned with something lofty. Alas, he is quite capable of it! If he were urged, he w ould people this desert within a few years. But for the moment a somewhat secret soul must liberate itself in this facile city with its parade of painted girls unable, nevertheless, to simulate emotion, feigning coyness so badly that the pretense is immedi ately obvious. Be concerned with something lofty! Just see: Santa -Cruz cut out of the rock, the mountains, the flat sea, the violent wind and the sun, the great cranes of the harbor, the trains, the hangars, the quays, and the huge ramps climbing up the ci tys rock, and in the city itself these diversions and this boredom, this hubbub and this solitude. Perhaps, indeed, all this is not sufficiently lofty. But the great value of such overpopulated islands is that in them the heart strips bare. Silence is no longer possible except in noisy cities. From Amsterdam Descartes writes to the aged Guez de Balzac: I go out walking every day amid the confusion of a great crowd, with as much freedom and tranquillity as you could do on your garden paths.[35] The Desert in Oran Obliged to live facing a wonderful landscape, the people of Oran have overcome this fearful ordeal by covering their city with very ugly constructions. One expects to find a city open to the sea, washed and refreshed by the evening breeze. And aside from the Spanish quarter,[36]one finds a walled town that turns its back to the sea, that has been built up by turning back on itself like a snail. Oran is a great circular yellow wall covered over with a leaden sky. In the beginning you wander in the labyrinth, seeking the sea like the sign of Ariadne. But you turn round and round in pale and oppressive street s, and eventually the Minotaur devours the people of Oran: the Minotaur is boredom. For some time the citizens of Oran have given up wandering. They have accepted being eaten. It is impossible to know what stone is without coming to Oran. In that dustiest of cities, the pebble is king. It is so much appreciated that shopkeepers exhibit it in their show windows to hold papers in place or even for mere display. Piles of them are set up along the streets, doubtless for the eyes delight, since a year later the pile is still there. Whatever elsewhere derives its poetry from the vegetable kingdom here takes on a stone face. The hundred or so trees that can be found in the business section have been carefully covered with dust. They are petrified plants whose branches give off an acrid, dusty smell. In Algiers the Arab cemeteries have a well -known mellowness. In Oran, above the Ras-el-Ain ravine, facing the sea this time, flat against the blue sky, are fields of chalky, friable pebbles in which the sun blinds with its fires. Amid these bare bones of the earth a purple geranium, from time to time, contributes its life and fresh blood to the landscape. The whole city has solidified in a stony matrix. Seen from Les Planteurs, the depth of the cliffs surrounding it is s o great that the landscape becomes unreal, so mineral it is. Man is outlawed from it. So much heavy beauty seems to come from another world. If the desert can be defined as a soulless place where the sky alone is king, then Oran is awaiting her prophets. A ll around and above the city the brutal nature of Africa is indeed clad in her burning charms. She bursts the unfortunate stage setting with which she is covered; she shrieks forth between all the houses and over all the roofs. If one climbs one of the roa ds up the mountain of Santa -Cruz, the first thing to be visible is the scattered colored cubes of Oran. But a little higher and already the jagged cliffs that surround the plateau crouch in the sea like red beasts. Still a little higher and a great vortex of sun and wind sweeps over, airs out, and obscures the untidy city scattered in disorder all over a rocky landscape. The opposition here is between magnificent human anarchy and the permanence of an unchanging sea. This is enough to make a staggering scen t of life rise toward the mountainside road. There is something implacable about the desert. The mineral sky of Oran, her streets and trees in their coating of dust everything contributes to creating this dense and impassible universe in which the heart an d mind are never distracted from themselves, nor from their sole object, which is man. I am speaking here of difficult places of retreat. Books are written on Florence or Athens. Those cities have formed so many European minds that they must have a meaning . They have the means of moving to tears or of uplifting. They quiet a certain spiritual hunger whose bread is memory. But can one be moved by a city where nothing attracts the mind, where the very ugliness is anonymous, where the past is reduced to nothin g? Emptiness, boredom, an indifferent sky, what are the charms of such places? Doubtless solitude and, perhaps, the human creature. For a certain race of men, wherever the human creature is beautiful is a bitter native land. Oran is one of its thousand cap itals. Sports The Central Sporting Club, on rue du Fondouk in Oran, is giving an evening of boxing which it insists will be appreciated by real enthusiasts. Interpreted, this means that the boxers on the bill are far from being stars, that some of them are entering the ring for the first time, and that consequently you can count, if not on the skill, at least on the courage of the opponents. A native having thrilled me with the firm promise that blood would flow, I find myself that evening among the real enthusiasts. Apparently the latter never insist on comfort. To be sure, a ring has been set up at the back of a sort of whitewashed garage, covered with corrugated iron and violently lighted. Folding chairs have been lined up in a square around the ropes. These are the honor rings. Most of the length of the hall has been filled with seats, and behind them opens a large free space called lounge by reason of the fact that not one of the five hundred persons in it could take out a handkerchief without caus ing serious accidents. In this rectangular box live and breathe some thousand men and two or three women the kind who, according to my neighbor, always insist on attracting attention. Everybody is sweating fiercely. While waiting for the fights of the y oung hopefuls a gigantic phonograph grinds out a Tino Rossi record. This is the sentimental song before the murder. The patience of a true enthusiast is unlimited. The fight announced for nine oclock has not even begun at nine thirty and no one has prote sted. The spring weather is warm and the smell of a humanity in shirt sleeves is exciting. Lively discussion goes on among the periodic explosions of lemon -soda corks and the tireless lament of the Corsican singer. A few late arrivals are wedged into the a udience when a spotlight throws a blinding light onto the ring. The fights of the young hopefuls begin. The young hopefuls, or beginners, who are fighting for the fun of it, are always eager to prove this by massacring each other at the earliest opportunit y, in defiance of technique. They were never able to last more than three rounds. The hero of the evening in this regard is young Kid Airplane, who in regular life sells lottery tickets on cafe terraces. His opponent, indeed, hurtled awkwardly out of the ring at the beginning of the second round after contact with a fist wielded like a propeller. The crowd got somewhat excited, but this is still an act of courtesy. Gravely it breathes in the hallowed air of the embrocation. It watches these series of slow rites and unregulated sacrifices, made even more authentic by the propitiatory designs, on the white wall, of the fighters shadows. These are the deliberate ceremonial prologues of a savage religion. The trance will not come until later. And it so happens that the loudspeaker announces Amar, the tough Oranese who has never disarmed, against Perez, the slugger from Algiers. An uninitiate would misinterpret the yelling that greets the introduction of the boxers in the ring. He would imag ine some sensational combat in which the boxers were to settle a personal quarrel known to the public. To tell the truth, it is a quarrel they are going to settle. But it is the one that for the past hundred years has mortally separated Algiers and Oran. B ack in history, these two North African cities would have already bled each other white as Pisa and Florence did in happier times. Their rivalry is all the stronger just because it probably has no basis. Having every reason to like each other, they loathe each other proportionately. The Oranese accuse the citizens of Algiers of sham. The people of Algiers imply that the Oranese are rustic. These are bloodier insults than they might seem because they are metaphysical. And unable to lay siege to each other, Oran and Algiers meet, compete, and insult each other on the field of sports, statistics, and public works. Thus a page of history is unfolding in the ring. And the tough Oranese, backed by a thousand yelling voices, is defending against Perez a way of li fe and the pride of a province. Truth forces me to admit that Amar is not conducting his discussion well. His argument has a flaw: he lacks reach. The slugger from Algiers, on the contrary, has the required reach in his argument. It lands persuasively betw een his contradictors eyes. The Oranese bleeds magnificently amid the vociferations of a wild audience. Despite the repeated encouragements of the gallery and of my neighbor, despite the dauntless shouts of Kill him!, Floor him!, the insidious Below the belt, Oh, the referee missed that one!, the optimistic Hes pooped, He cant take any more, nevertheless the man from Algiers is proclaimed the winner on points amid interminable catcalls. My neighbor, who is inclined to talk of sportsmanship, applauds ostensibly, while slipping to me in a voice made faint by so many shouts: So that he wont be able to say back there that we of Oran are savages. But throughout the audience, fights not included on the program have already broken out. Chairs are brandished, the police clear a path, excitement is at its height. In order to calm these good people and contribute to the return of silence, the management, without losing a moment, commissions the loudspeaker to boom out Sambre -et-Meuse. For a few mi nutes the audience has a really warlike look. Confused clusters of com -batants and voluntary referees sway in the grip of policemen; the gallery exults and calls for the rest of the program with wild cries, cock -a- doodle -doos, and mocking catcalls drowned in the irresistible flood from the military band. But the announcement or the big fight is enough to restore calm. This takes place suddenly, without flourishes, just as actors leave the stage once the play is finished. With the greatest unconcern, hats a re dusted off, chairs are put back in place, and without transition all faces assume the kindly expression of the respectable member of the audience who has paid for his ticket to a family concert. The last fight pits a French champion of the Navy against an Oran boxer. This time the difference in reach is to the advantage of the latter. But his superiorities, during the first rounds, do not stir the crowd. They are sleeping off the effects of their first excitement; they are sobering up. They are still sho rt of breath. If they applaud, there is no passion in it. They hiss without animosity. The audience is divided into two camps, as is appropriate in the interest of fairness. But each individuals choice obeys that indifference that follows on great expendi tures of energy. If the Frenchman holds his own, if the Oranese forgets that one doesnt lead with the head, the boxer is bent under a volley of hisses, but immediately pulled upright again by a burst of applause. Not until the seventh round does sport ris e to the surface again, at the same time that the real enthusiasts begin to emerge from their fatigue. The Frenchman, to tell the truth, has touched the mat and, eager to win back points, has hurled himself on his opponent. What did I tell you? said my n eighbor; its going to be a fight to the finish. Indeed, it isa fight to the finish. Covered with sweat under the pitiless light, both boxers open their guard, close their eyes as they hit, shove with shoulders and knees, swap their blood, and snort with rage. As one man, the audience has stood up and punctuates the efforts of its two heroes. It receives the blows, returns them, echoes them in a thousand hollow, panting voices. The same ones who had chosen their favorite in indifference cling to their ch oice through obstinacy and defend it passionately. Every ten seconds a shout from my neighbor pierces my right ear: Go to it, gob; come on, Navy! while another man in front of us shouts to the Oranese: Anda! hombre! The man and the gob go to it, and to gether with them, in this temple of whitewash, iron, and cement, an audience completely given over to gods with cauliflower ears. Every blow that gives a dull sound on the shining pectorals echoes in vast vibrations in the very body of the crowd, which, wi th the boxers, is making its last effort. In such an atmosphere a draw is badly received. Indeed, it runs counter to a quite Manichean tendency in the audience. There is good and there is evil, the winner and the loser. One must be either right or wrong. T he conclusion of this impeccable logic is immediately provided by two thousand energetic lungs accusing the judges of being sold, or bought. But the gob has walked over and embraced his rival in the ring, drinking in his fraternal sweat. This is enough to make the audience, reversing its view, burst out in sudden applause. My neighbor is right: they are not savages. The crowd pouring out, under a sky full of silence and stars, has just fought the most exhausting fight. It keeps quiet and disappears furtivel y, without any energy left for post mortems. There is good and there is evil; that religion is merciless. The band of faithful is now no more than a group of black -and-white shadows disappearing into the night. For force and violence are solitary gods. The y contribute nothing to memory. On the contrary, they distribute their miracles by the handful in the present. They are made for this race without past which celebrates its communions around the prize ring. These are rather difficult rites but ones that si mplify everything. Good and evil, winner and loser. At Corinth two temples stood side by side, the temple of Violence and the temple of Necessity. Monuments For many reasons due as much to economics as to metaphysics, it may be said that the Oranese style, if there is one, forcefully and clearly appears in the extraordinary edifice called the Maison du Colon. Oran hardly lacks monuments. The city has its quota of imperial marshals, ministers, and local benefactors. They are found on dusty little squares, re signed to rain and sun, they too converted to stone and boredom. But, in any case, they represent contributions from the outside. In that happy barbary they are the regrettable marks of civilization. Oran, on the other hand, has raised up her altars and ro stra to her own honor. In the very heart of the mercantile city, having to construct a common home for the innumerable agricultural organizations that keep this country alive, the people of Oran conceived the idea of building solidly a convincing image of their virtues: the Maison du Colon. To judge from the edifice, those virtues are three in number: boldness in taste, love of violence, and a feeling for historical syntheses. Egypt, Byzantium, and Munich collaborated in the delicate construction of a piece of pastry in the shape of a bowl upside down. Multicolored stones, most vigorous in effect, have been brought in to outline the roof. These mosaics are so exuberantly persuasive that at first you see nothing but an amorphous effulgence. But with a closer view and your attention called to it, you discover that they have a meaning: a graceful colonist, wearing a bow tie and white pith helmet, is receiving the homage of a procession of slaves dressed in classical style.[37]The edifice and its colored illustrations have been set down in the middle of a square in the to -and-fro of the little two -car trams whose filth is one of the charms of the city. Oran greatly cherishes also the two lions of its Place dArmes, or parade gro und. Since 1888 they have been sitting in state on opposite sides of the municipal stairs. Their author was named ( ain. They have majesty and a stubby torso. It is said that at night they get down from their pedestal one after the other, silently pace around the dark square, and on occasion uninate at length under the big, dusty ficus trees. These, of course, are rumors to which the people of Oran lend an indulgent ear. But it is unlikely. Despite a certain amount of research, I have not been able to get interested in Cain. I merely learned that he had the reputation of being a skillful animal -sculptor. Yet I often think of him. This is an intellectual bent that comes naturally in Oran. Here is a sonorously named artist who left an unimportant work here. Several hundred thousand people are familiar with the easygoing beasts he put in front of a pretentious town hall. This is one way of succeeding in art. To be sure, these two lions, like thousands of works of the same type, are proof of something else than t alent. Others have created The Night Watch, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, David, or the Pharsalian bas -relief called The Glorification of the Flower. Cain, on the other hand, set up two hilarious snouts on the square of a mercantile provin ce overseas. But the David will go down one day with Florence and the lions will perhaps be saved from the catastrophe. Let me repeat, they are proof of something else. Can one state this idea clearly? In this work there are insignificance and solidity. Sp irit counts for nothing and matter for a great deal. Mediocrity insists upon lasting by all means, including bronze. It is refused a right to eternity, and every day it takes that right. Is it not eternity itself? In any event, such perseverance is capable of stirring, and it involves its lesson, that of all the monuments of Oran, and of Oran herself. An hour a day, every so often, it forces you to pay attention to something that has no importance. The mind profits from such recurrences. In a sense this is its hygiene, and since it absolutely needs its moments of humility, it seems to me that this chance to indulge in stupidity is better than others. Everything that is ephemeral wants to last. Let us say that everything wants to last. Human productions mean nothing else, and in this regard Cains lions have the same chances as the ruins of Angkor. This disposes one toward modesty. There are other Oranese monuments. Or at least they deserve this name because they, too, stand for their city, and perhaps in a more significant way. They are the public works at present covering the coast for some ten kilometers. Apparently it is a matter of transforming the most luminous of bays into a gigantic harbor. In reality it is one more chance for man to come to grips with stone. In the paintings of certain Flemish masters a theme of strikingly general application recurs insistently: the building of the Tower of Babel. Vast landscapes, rocks climbing up to heaven, steep slopes teeming with workmen, animals, ladders, strange machines, cords, pulleys. Man, moreover, is there only to give scale to the inhuman scope of the construction. This is what the Oran coast makes one think of, west of the city. Clinging to vast slopes, rails, dump -cars, cranes, tiny trains ... Under a broi ling sun, toy -like locomotives round huge blocks of stone amid whistles, dust, and smoke. Day and night a nation of ants bustles about on the smoking carcass of the mountain. Clinging all up and down a single cord against the side of the cliff, dozens of m en, their bellies pushing against the handles of automatic drills, vibrate in empty space all day long and break off whole masses of rock that hurtle down in dust and rumbling. Farther on, dump -carts tip their loads over the slopes; and the rocks, suddenly poured seaward, bound and roll into the water, each large lump followed by a scattering of lighter stones. At regular intervals, at dead of night or in broad daylight, detonations shake the whole mountain and stir up the sea itself. Man, in this vast cons truction field, makes a frontal attack on stone. And if one could forget, for a moment at least, the harsh slavery that makes this work possible, one would have to admire. These stones, torn from the mountain, serve man in his plans. They pile up under the first waves, gradually emerge, and finally take their place to form a jetty, soon covered with men and machines which advance, day after day, toward the open sea. Without stopping, huge steel jaws bite into the cliffs belly, turn round, and disgorge into the water their overflowing gravel. As the coastal cliff is lowered, the whole coast encroaches irresistibly on the sea. Of course, destroying stone is not possible. It is merely moved from one place to another. In any case, it will last longer than the men who use it. For the moment, it satisfies their will to action. That in itself is probably useless. But moving things about is the work of men; one must choose doing that or nothing.[38]Obviously the people of Oran hav e chosen. In front of that indifferent bay, for many years more they will pile up stones along the coast. In a hundred years tomorrow, in other words they will have to begin again. But today these heaps of rocks testify for the men in masks of dust and swe at who move about among them. The true monuments of Oran are still her stones. Ariadnes Stone It seems that the people of Oran are like that friend of Flaubert who, on the point of death, casting a last glance at this irreplaceable earth, exclaimed: Clos e the window; its too beautiful. They have closed the window, they have walled themselves in, they have cast out the landscape. But Flauberts friend, Le Poittevin, died, and after him days continued to be added to days. Likewise, beyond the yellow walls of Oran, land and sea continue their indifferent dialogue. That permanence in the world has always had contrary charms for man. It drives him to despair and excites him. The world never says but one thing; first it interests, then it bores. But eventually it wins out by dint of obstinacy. It is always right. Already, at the very gates of Oran, nature raises its voice. In the direction of Canastel there are vast wastelands covered with fragrant brush. There sun and wind speak only of solitude. Above Oran th ere is the mountain of Santa -Cruz, the plateau and the myriad ravines leading to it. Roads, once carriageable, cling to the slopes overhanging the sea. In the month of January some are covered with flowers. Daisies and buttercups turn them into sumptuous p aths, embroidered in yellow and white. About Sant - Cruzz everything has been said. But if I were to speak of it, I should forget the sacred processions that climb the rugged hill on feast days, in order to recall other pilgrimages. Solitary, they walk in th e red stone, rise above the motionless bay, and come to dedicate to nakedness a luminous, perfect hour. Oran has also its deserts of sand: its beaches. Those encountered near the gates are deserted only in winter and spring. Then they are plateaus covered with asphodels, peopled with bare little cottages among the flowers. The sea rumbles a bit, down below. Yet already the sun, the faint breeze, the whiteness of the asphodels, the sharp blue of the sky, everything makes one fancy summer the golden youth the n covering the beach, the long hours on the sand and the sudden softness of evening. Each year on these shores there is a new harvest of girls in flower. Apparently they have but one season. The following year, other cordial blossoms take their place, whic h, the summer before, were still little girls with bodies as hard as buds. At eleven a.m., coming down from the plateau, all that young flesh, lightly clothed in motley materials, breaks on the sand like a multicolored wave. One has to go farther (strangel y close, however, to that spot where two hundred thousand men are laboring) to discover a still virgin landscape: long, deserted dunes where the passage of men has left no other trace than a worm -eaten hut. From time to time an Arab shepherd drives along t he top of the dunes the black and beige spots of his flock of goats. On the beaches of the Oran country every summer morning seems to be the first in the world. Each twilight seems to be the last, solemn agony, announced at sunset by a final glow that dark ens every hue. The sea is ultramarine, the road the color of clotted blood, the beach yellow. Everything disappears with the green sun; an hour later the dunes are bathed in moonlight. Then there are incomparable nights under a rain of stars. Occasionally storms sweep over them, and the lightning flashes flow along the dunes, whiten the sky, and give the sand and ones eyes orange -colored glints. But this cannot be shared. One has to have lived it. So much solitude and nobility give these places an unforget table aspect. In the warm moment before daybreak, after confronting the first bitter, black waves, a new creature breasts nights heavy, enveloping water. The memory of those joys does not make me regret them, and thus I recognize that they were good. Afte r so many years they still last, somewhere in this heart which finds unswerving loyalty so difficult. And I know that today, if I were to go to the deserted dune, the same sky would pour down on me its cargo of breezes and stars. These are lands of innocen ce. But innocence needs sand and stones. And man has forgotten how to live among them. At least it seems so, for he has taken refuge in this extraordinary city where boredom sleeps. Nevertheless, that very confrontation constitutes the value of Oran. The c apital of boredom, besieged by innocence and beauty, it is surrounded by an army in which every stone is a soldier. In the city, and at certain hours, however, what a temptation to go over to the enemy! What a temptation to identify oneself with those stones, to melt into that burning and impassive universe that defies history and its ferments! That is doubtless futile. But there is in every man a profound instinct which is neither that of destruction nor that of creation. It is merely a matter of resemblin g nothing. In the shadow of the warm walls of Oran, on its dusty asphalt, that invitation is sometimes heard. It seems that, for a time, the minds that yield to it are never disappointed. This is the darkness of Eurydice and the sleep of Isis. Here are the deserts where thought will collect itself, the cool hand of evening on a troubled heart. On this Mount of Olives, vigil is futile; the mind recalls and approves the sleeping Apostles. Were they really wrong? They nonetheless had their revelation. Just thi nk of Sakyamuni in the desert. He remained there for years on end, squatting motionless with his eyes on heaven. The very gods envied him that wisdom and that stone -like destiny. In his outstretched hands the swallows had made their nest. But one day they flew away, answering the call of distant lands. And he who had stifled in himself desire and will, fame and suffering, began to cry. It happens thus that flowers grow on rocks. Yes, let us accept stone when it is necessary. That secret and that rapture weask of faces can also be given us by stone. To be sure, this cannot last. But what canlast, after all? The secret of faces fades away, and there we are, cast back to the chain of desires. And if stone can do no more for us than the human heart, at least i t can do just as much. Oh, to be nothing! For thousands of years this great cry has roused millions of men to revolt against desire and pain. Its dying echoes have reached this far, across centuries and oceans, to the oldest sea in the world. They still reverberate dully against the compact cliffs of Oran. Everybody in this country follows this advice without knowing it. Of course, it is almost futile. Nothingness cannot be achieved any more than the absolute can. But since we receive as favors the eterna l signs brought us by roses or by human suffering, let us not refuse either the rare invitations to sleep that the earth addresses us. Each has as much truth as the other. This, perhaps, is the Ariadnes thread of this somnambulist and frantic city. Here o ne learns the virtues, provisional to be sure, of a certain kind of boredom. In order to be spared, one must say yes to the Minotaur. This is an old and fecund wisdom. Above the sea, silent at the base of the red cliffs, it is enough to maintain a delica te equilibrium halfway between the two massive headlands which, on the right and left, dip into the clear water. In the puffing of a coast -guard vessel crawling along the water far out bathed in radiant light, is distinctly heard the muffled call of inhuma n and glittering forces: it is the Minotaurs farewell. It is noon; the very day is being weighed in the balance. His rite accomplished, the traveler receives the reward of his liberation: thelittle stone, dry and smooth as an asphodel, that he picks up on the cliff. For the initiate the world is no heavier to bear than this stone. Atlass task is easy; it is sufficient to choose ones hour. Then one realizes that for an hour, a month, a year, these shores can indulge in freedom. They welcome pell -mell, without even looking at them, the monk, the civil servant, or the conqueror. There are days when I expected to meet, in the streets of Oran, Descartes or Cesare Borgia. That did not happen. But p erhaps another will be more fortunate. A great deed, a great work, virile meditation used to call for the solitude of sands or of the convent. There were kept the spiritual vigils of arms. Where could they be better celebrated now than in the emptiness of a big city established for some time in unintellectual beauty? Here is the little stone, smooth as an asphodel. It is at the beginning of everything. Flowers, tears (if you insist), departures, and struggles are for tomorrow. In the middle of the day when the sky opens its fountains of light in the vast, sonorous space, all the headlands of the coast look like a fleet about to set out. Those heavy galleons of rock and light are trembling on their keels as if they were preparing to steer for sunlit isles. O mornings in the country of Oran! From the high plateaus the swallows plunge into huge troughs where the air is seething. The whole coast is ready for departure; a shiver of adventure ripples through it. Tomorrow, perhaps, we shall leave together. (1939) Helens Exile The mediterranean sun has something tragic about it, quite different from the tragedy of fogs. Certain evenings at the base of the seaside mountains, night falls over the flawless curve of a little bay, and there rises from the silent waters a sense of anguished fulfillment. In such spots one can understand that if the Greeks knew despair, they always did so through beauty and its stifling quality. In that gilded calamity, tragedy reaches its highest point. Our time, on the other hand, has fed i ts despair on ugliness and convulsions. This is why Europe would be vile, if suffering could ever be so. We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her. First difference, but one that has a history. Greek thought always took refuge behind the conce ption of limits. It never carried anything to extremes, neither the sacred nor reason, because it negated nothing, neither the sacred nor reason. It took everything into consideration, balancing shadow with light. Our Europe, on the other hand, off in the pursuit of totality, is the child of disproportion. She negates beauty, as she negates whatever she does not glorify. And, through all her diverse ways, she glorifies but one thing, which is the future rule of reason. In her madness she extends the eternal limits, and at that very moment dark Erinyes fall upon her and tear her to pieces. Nemesis, the goddess of measure and not of revenge, keeps watch. All those who overstep the limit are pitilessly punished by her. The Greeks, who for centuries questioned t hemselves as to what is just, could understand nothing of our idea of justice. For them equity implied a limit, whereas our whole continent is convulsed in its search for a justice that must be total. At the dawn of Greek thought Hera -clitus was already im agining that justice sets limits for the physical universe itself: The sun will not overstep his measures; if he does, the Erinyes, the handmaids of justice, will find him out.1We who have cast the universe and spirit out of our sphere laugh at that th reat. In a drunken sky we light up the suns we want. But nonetheless the boundaries exist, and we know it. In our wildest aberrations we dream of an equilibrium we have left behind, which we naively expect to find at the end of our errors. Childish presump tion which justifies the fact that child -nations, inheriting our follies, are now directing our history. A fragment attributed to the same Heraclitus simply states: Presumption, regression of progress. And, many centuries after the man of Ephesus, Socrat es, facing the threat of being condemned to death, acknowledged only this one superiority in himself: what he did not know he did not claim to know. The most exemplary life and thought of those centuries close on a proud confession of ignorance. Forgetting that, we have forgotten our virility. We have preferred the power that apes greatness, first Alexander and then the Roman conquerors whom the authors of our schoolbooks, through some incomparable vulgarity, teach us to admire. We, too, have conquered, mov ed boundaries, mastered1 Bywaters translation. [Translators note.] heaven and earth. Our reason has driven all away. Alone at last, we end up by ruling over a desert. What imagination could we have left for that higher equilibrium in which nature balanc ed history, beauty, virtue, and which applied the music of numbers even to blood -tragedy? We turn our backs on nature; we are ashamed of beauty. Our wretched tragedies have a smell of the office clinging to them, and the blood that trickles from them is th e color of printers ink. This is why it is improper to proclaim today that we are the sons of Greece. Or else we are the renegade sons. Placing history on the throne of God, we are progressing toward theocracy like those whom the Greeks called Barbarians and whom they fought to death in the waters of Salamis. In order to realize how we differ, one must turn to him among our philosophers who is the true rival of Plato. Only the modern city, Hegel dares write, offers the mind a field in which it can becom e aware of itself. We are thus living in the period of big cities. Deliberately, the world has been amputated of all that constitutes its permanence: nature, the sea, hilltops, evening meditation. Consciousness is to be found only in the streets, because history is to be found only in the streets this is the edict. And consequently our most significant works show the same bias. Landscapes are not to be found in great European literature since Dostoevsky. History explains neither the natural universe that e xisted before it nor the beauty that exists above it. Hence it chose to be ignorant of them. Whereas Plato contained everything nonsense, reason, and myth our philosophers contain nothing but nonsense or reason because they have closed their eyes to the re st. The mole is meditating. It is Christianity that began substituting the tragedy of the soul for contemplation of the world. But, at least, Christianity referred to a spiritual nature and thereby preserved a certain fixity. With God dead, there remains o nly history and power. For some time the entire effort of our philosophers has aimed solely at replacing the notion of human nature with that of situation, and replacing ancient harmony with the disorderly advance of chance or reasons pitiless progress. W hereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the wills impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly. For the Greeks, values pre -existed all action, of which they definitely set the limits. Mod ern philosophy places its values at the end of action. They arenot but are becoming, and we shall know them fully only at the completion of history. With values, all limit disappears, and since conceptions differ as to what they will be, since all struggl es, without the brake of those same values, spread indefinitely, todays Messianisms confront one another and their clamors mingle in the clash of empires. Disproportion is a conflagration, according to Heraclitus. The conflagration is spreading; Nietzsche is outdistanced. Europe no longer philosophizes by striking a hammer, but by shooting a cannon. Nature is still there, however. She contrasts her calm skies and her reasons with the madness of men. Until the atom too catches fire and history ends in the t riumph of reason and the agony of the species. But the Greeks never said that the limit could not he overstepped. They said it existed and that whoever dared to exceed it was mercilessly struck down. Nothing in present history can contradict them. The hist orical spirit and the artist both want to remake the world. But the artist, through an obligation of his nature, knows his limits, which the historical spirit fails to recognize. This is why the latters aim is tyranny whereas the formers passion is freed om. All those who are struggling for freedom today are ultimately fighting for beauty. Of course, it is not a question of defending beauty for itself. Beauty cannot do without man, and we shall not give our era its nobility and serenity unless we follow it in its misfortune. Never again shall we be hermits. But it is no less true that man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard. It steels itself to attain the absolute and authority; it wants to transfigure the world before having exhausted it, to set it to rights before having understood it. Whatever it may say, our era is deserting this world. Ulysses can choose at Calypsos bidding between immortality and the land of his fathers. He chooses the land, and death with it. Such simple nobility is foreign to us today. Others will say that we lack humility; but, all things considered, this word is ambiguous. Like Dostoevskys fools who boast of everything, soar to heaven, and end up flaunting their shame in any public plac e, we merely lack mans pride, which is fidelity to his limits, lucid love of his condition. I hate my time, Saint -Exupery wrote shortly before his death, for reasons not far removed from those I have spoken of. But, however upsetting that exclamation, c oming from him who loved men for their admirable qualities, we shall not accept responsibility for it. Yet what a temptation, at certain moments, to turn ones back on this bleak, fleshless world! But this time is ours, and we cannot live hating ourselves. It has fallen so low only through the excess of its virtues as well as through the extent of its vices. We shall fight for the virtue that has a history. What virtue? The horses of Patroclus weep for their master killed in battle. All is lost. But Achille s resumes the fight, and victory is the outcome, because friendship has just been assassinated: friendship is a virtue. Admission of ignorance, rejection of fanaticism, the limits of the world and of man, the beloved face, and finally beauty this is where we shall be on the side of the Greeks. In a certain sense, the direction history will take is not the one we think. It lies in the struggle between creation and inquisition. Despite the price which artists will pay for their empty hands, we may hope for th eir victory. Once more the philosophy of darkness will break and fade away over the dazzling sea. O midday thought, the Trojan war is being fought far from the battlefields! Once more the dreadful walls of the modern city will fall to deliver up soul sere ne as the oceans calm the beauty of Helen. (1948) Return To Tipasa You have navigated with raging soul far from the paternal home, passing beyond the seas double rocks, and you now inhabit a foreign land. Medea For five days rain had been falling cea selessly on Algiers and had finally wet the sea itself. From an apparently inexhaustible sky, constant downpours, viscous in their density, streamed down upon the gulf. Gray and soft as a huge sponge, the sea rose slowly in the ill -defined bay. But the sur face of the water seemed almost motionless under the steady rain. Only now and then a barely perceptible swelling motion would raise above the seas surface a vague puff of smoke that would come to dock in the harbor, under an arc of wet boulevards. The ci ty itself, all its white walls dripping, gave off a different steam that went out to meet the first steam. Whichever way you turned, you seemed to be breathing water, to be drinking the air. In front of the soaked sea I walked and waited in that December A lgiers, which was for me the city of summers. I had fled Europes night, the winter of faces. But the summer city herself had been emptied of her laughter and offered me only bent and shining backs. In the evening, in the crudely lighted cafes where I took refuge, I read my age in faces I recognized without being able to name them. I merely knew that they had been young with me and that they were no longer so. Yet I persisted without very well knowing what I was waiting for, unless perhaps the moment to go back to Tipasa. To be sure, it is sheer madness, almost always punished, to return to the sites of ones youth and try to relive at forty what one loved or keenly enjoyed at twenty. But I was forewarned of that madness. Once already I had returned to Tipas a, soon after those war years that marked for me the end of youth. I hoped, I think, to recapture there a freedom I could not forget. In that spot, indeed, more than twenty years ago, I had spent whole mornings wandering among the ruins, breathing in the w ormwood, warming myself against the stones, discovering little roses, soon plucked of their petals, which outlive the spring. Only at noon, at the hour when the cicadas themselves fell silent as if overcome, I would flee the greedy glare of an all - consumin g light. Sometimes at night I would sleep open -eyed under a sky dripping with stars. I was alive then. Fifteen years later I found my ruins, a few feet from the first waves, I followed the streets of the forgotten walled city through fields covered with bitter trees, and on the slopes overlooking the hay I still caressed the bread -colored columns. But the ruins were now surrounded with barbed wire and could be entered only through certain openings. It was also forbidden, for reasons which it appears that morality approves, to walk there at night; by day one encountered an official guardian. It just happened, that morning, that it was raining over the whole extent of the ruins. Disoriented, walking through the wet, solitary countryside, I tried at least to re capture that strength, hitherto always at hand, that helps me to accept what is when once I have admitted that I cannot change it. And I could not, indeed, reverse the course of time and restore to the world the appearance I had loved which had disappeared in a day, long before. The second of September 1939, in fact, I had not gone to Greece, as I was to do. War, on the contrary, had come to us, then it had spread over Greece herself. That distance, those years separating the warm ruins from the barbed wire were to be found in me, too, that day as I stood before the sarcophaguses full of black water or under the sodden tamarisks. Originally brought up surrounded by beauty which was my only wealth, I had begun in plenty. Then had come the barbed wireI mean t yrannies, war, police forces, the era of revolt. One had had to put oneself right with the authorities of night: the days beauty was but a memory. And in this muddy Tipasa the memory itself was becoming dim. It was indeed a question of beauty, plenty, or youth! In the light from conflagrations the world had suddenly shown its wrinkles and its wounds, old and new. It had aged all at once, and we with it. I had come here looking for a certain lift; but I realized that it inspires only the man who is unawar e that he is about to launch forward. No love without a little innocence. Where was the innocence? Empires were tumbling down; nations and men were tearing at one anothers throats; our hands were soiled. Originally innocent without knowing it, we were now guilty without meaning to be: the mystery was increasing with our knowledge. This is why, O mockery, we were concerned with morality. Weak and disabled, I was dreaming of virtue! In the days of innocence I didnt even know that morality existed. I knew it now, and I was not capable of living up to its standard. On the promontory that I used to love, among the wet columns of the ruined temple, I seemed to be walking behind someone whose steps I could still hear on the stone slabs and mosaics but whom I shou ld never again overtake. I went back to Paris and remained several years before returning home. Yet I obscurely missed something during all those years. When one has once had the good luck to love intensely, life is spent in trying to recapture that ardor and that illumination. Forsaking beauty and the sensual happiness attached to it, exclusively serving misfortune, calls for a nobility I lack. But, after all, nothing is true that forces one to exclude. Isolated beauty ends up simpering; solitary justice e nds up oppressing. Whoever aims to serve one exclusive of the other serves no one, not even himself, and eventually serves injustice twice. A day comes when, thanks to rigidity, nothing causes wonder any more, everything is known, and life is spent in begi nning over again. These are the days of exile, of desiccated life, of dead souls. To come alive again, one needs a special grace, self -forgetfulness, or a homeland. Certain mornings, on turning a corner, a delightful dew falls on the heart and then evapora tes. But its coolness remains, and this is what the heart requires always. I had to set out again. And in Algiers a second time, still walking under the same downpour which seemed not to have ceased since a departure I had thought definitive, amid the same vast melancholy smelling of rain and sea, despite this misty sky, these backs fleeing under the shower, these cafes whose sulphureous light distorted faces, I persisted in hoping. Didnt I know, besides, that Algiers rains, despite their appearance of nev er meaning to end, nonetheless stop in an instant, like those streams in my country which rise in two hours, lay waste acres of land, and suddenly dry up? One evening, in fact, the rain ceased. I waited one night more. A limpid morning rose, dazzling, over the pure sea. From the sky, fresh as a daisy, washed over and over again by the rains, reduced by these repeated washings to its finest and clearest texture, emanated a vibrant light that gave to each house and each tree a sharp outline, an astonished newness. In the worlds morning the earth must have sprung forth in such a light. I again took the road for Tipasa. For me there is not a single one of those sixty -nine kilometers that is not filled with memories and sensations. Turbulent childhood, adolescen t daydreams in the drone of the buss motor, mornings, unspoiled girls, beaches, young muscles always at the peak of their effort, evenings slight anxiety in a sixteen -year-old heart, lust for life, fame, and ever the same sky throughout the years, unfail ing in strength and light, itself insatiable, consuming one by one over a period of months the victims stretched out in the form of crosses on the beach at the deathlike hour of noon. Always the same sea, too, almost impalpable in the morning light, which I again saw on the horizon as soon as the road, leaving the Sahel and its bronze -colored vineyards, sloped down toward the coast. But I did not stop to look at it. I wanted to see again the Chenoua, that solid, heavy mountain cut out of a single block of s tone, which borders the bay of Tipasa to the west before dropping down into the sea itself. It is seen from a distance, long before arriving, a light, blue haze still confused with the sky. But gradually it is condensed, as you advance toward it, until it takes on the color of the surrounding waters, a huge motionless wave whose amazing leap upward has been brutally solidified above the sea calmed all at once. Still nearer, almost at the gates of Tipasa, here is its frowning bulk, brown and green, here is t he old mossy god that nothing will ever shake, a refuge and harbor for its sons, of whom I am one. While watching it I finally got through the barbed wire and found myself among the ruins. And under the glorious December light, as happens but once or twice in lives which ever after can consider themselves favored to the full, I found exactly what I had come seeking, what, despite the era and the world, was offered me, truly to me alone, in that forsaken nature. From the forum strewn with olives could be see n the village down below. No sound came from it; wisps of smoke rose in the limpid air. The sea likewise was silent as if smothered under the unbroken shower of dazzling, cold light. From the Chenoua a distant cocks crow alone celebrated the days fragile glory. In the direction of the ruins, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but pock -marked stones and wormwood, trees and perfect columns in the transparence of the crystalline air. It seemed as if the morning were stabilized, the sun stopped fo r an incalculable moment. In this light and this silence, years of wrath and night melted slowly away. I listened to an almost forgotten sound within myself as if my heart, long stopped, were calmly beginning to beat again. And awake now, I recognized one by one the imperceptible sounds of which the silence was made up: the figured bass of the birds, the seas faint, brief sighs at the foot of the rocks, the vibration of the trees, the blind singing of the columns, the rustling of the wormwood plants, the furtive lizards. I heard that; I also listened to the happy torrents rising within me. It seemed to me that I had at last come to harbor, for a moment at least, and that henceforth that moment would be endless. But soon after, the sun rose visibly a degree in the sky. A magpie preluded briefly, and at once, from all directions, birds songs burst out with energy, jubilation, joyful discordance, and infinite rapture. The day started up again. It was to carry me to evening. At noon on the half -sandy slopes cov ered with heliotropes like a foam left by the furious waves of the last few days as they withdrew, I watched the sea barely swelling at that hour with an exhausted motion, and I satisfied the two thirsts one cannot long neglect without drying up I mean lov ing and admiring. For there is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this misfortune. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that neverth eless gave birth to it. In the clamor in which we live, love is impossible and justice does not suffice. This is why Europe hates daylight and is only able to set injustice up against injustice. But in order to keep justice from shriveling up like a beauti ful orange fruit containing nothing but a bitter, dry pulp, I discovered once more at Tipasa that one must keep intact in oneself a freshness, a cool wellspring of joy, love the day that escapes injustice, and return to combat having won that light. Here Irecaptured the former beauty, a young sky, and I measured my luck, realizing at last that in the worst years of our madness the memory of that sky had never left me. This was what in the end had kept me from despairing. I had always known that the ruins o f Tipasa were younger than our new constructions or our bomb damage. There the world began over again every day in an ever new light. O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. * * * I have again left Tipasa; I have returned to Europe and its struggles. But the memory of that day still uplifts me and helps me to welcome equally what delights and what crushes. In the difficult hour we are living, what else can I desire than to exclude nothing and to learn how to braid with white thread and black thread a single cord stretched to the breaking -point? In everything I have done or said up to now, I seem to recognize these two forces, even when they work at cross -purposes. I have not been able to disown the light into which I was born and yet I have n ot wanted to reject the servitudes of this time. It would be too easy to contrast here with the sweet name of Tipasa other more sonorous and crueler names. For men of today there is an inner way, which I know well from having taken it in both directions, l eading from the spiritual hilltops to the capitals of crime. And doubtless one can always rest, fall asleep on the hilltop or board with crime. But if one forgoes a part of what is, one must forgo being oneself; one must forgo living or loving otherwise th an by proxy. There is thus a will to live without rejecting anything of life, which is the virtue I honor most in this world. From time to time, at least, it is true that I should like to have practiced it. Inasmuch as few epochs require as much as ours th at one should be equal to the best as to the worst, I should like, indeed, to shirk nothing and to keep faithfully a double memory. Yes, there is beauty and there are the humiliated. Whatever may be the difficulties of the undertaking, I should like never to be unfaithful either to one or to the others. But this still resembles a moral code, and we live for something that goes farther than morality. If we could only name it, what silence! On the hill of Sainte -Salsa, to the east of Tipasa, the evening is in habited. It is still light, to tell the truth, but in this light an almost invisible fading announces the days end. A wind rises, young like the night, and suddenly the waveless sea chooses a direction and flows like a great barren river from one end of t he horizon to the other. The sky darkens. Then begins the mystery, the gods of night, the beyond -pleasure. But how to translate this? The little coin I am carrying away from here has a visible surface, a womans beautiful face which repeats to me all I hav e learned in this day, and a worn surface which I feel under my fingers during the return. What can that lipless mouth be saying, except what I am told by another mysterious voice, within me, which every day informs me of my ignorance and my happiness: The secret I am seeking lies hidden in a valley full of olive trees, under the grass and the cold violets, around an old house that smells of wood smoke. For more than twenty years I rambled over that valley and others resembling it, I questioned mute goathe rds, I knocked at the door of deserted ruins. Occasionally, at the moment of the first star in the still bright sky, under a shower of shimmering light, I thought I knew. I did know, in truth. I still know, perhaps. But no one wants any of this secret; I d ont want any myself, doubtless; and I cannot stand apart from my people. I live in my family, which thinks it rules over rich and hideous cities built of stones and mists. Day and night it speaks up, and everything bows before it, which bows before nothin g: it is deaf to all secrets. Its power that carries me bores me, nevertheless, and on occasion its shouts weary me. But its misfortune is mine, and we are of the same blood. A cripple, likewise, an accomplice and noisy, have I not shouted among the stones ? Consequently, I strive to forget, I walk in our cities of iron and fire, I smile bravely at the night, I hail the storms, I shall be faithful. I have forgotten, in truth: active and deaf, henceforth. But perhaps someday, when we are ready to die of exhau stion and ignorance, I shall be able to disown our garish tombs and go and stretch out in the valley, under the same light, and learn for the last time what I know. (1952) The Artist And His Time I.As an artist, have you chosen the role of witness? This would take considerable presumption or a vocation I lack. Personally I dont ask for any role and I have but one real vocation. As a man, I have a preference for happiness; as an artist, it seems to me that I still have characters to bring to life without the help of wars or of law -courts. But I have been sought out, as each individual has been sought out. Artists of the past could at least keep silent in the face of tyranny. The tyrannies of today are improved; they no longer admit of silence or neutrality . One has to take a stand, be either for or against. Well, in that case, I am against. But this does not amount to choosing the comfortable role of witness. It is merely accepting the time as it is, minding ones own business, in short. Moreover, you are f orgetting that today judges, accused, and witnesses exchange positions with exemplary rapidity. My choice, if you think I am making one, would at least be never to sit on a judges bench, or beneath it, like so many of our philosophers. Aside from that, th ere is no dearth of opportunities for action, in the relative. Trade -unionism is today the first, and the most fruitful among them. II. Is not the quixotism that has been criticized in your recent works an idealistic and romantic definition of the artists role? However words are perverted, they provisionally keep their meaning. And it is clear to me that the romantic is the one who chooses the perpetual motion of history, the grandiose epic, and the announcement of a miraculous event at the end of time. If I have tried to define something, it is, on the contrary, simply the common existence of history and of man, everyday life with the most possible light thrown upon it, the dogged struggle against ones own degradation and that of others. It is likewise id ealism, and of the worse kind, to end up by hanging all action and all truth on a meaning of history that is not implicit in events and that, in any case, implies a mythical aim. Would it therefore be realism to take as the laws of history the future in ot her words, just what is not yet history, something of whose nature we know nothing? It seems to me, on the contrary, that I am arguing in favor of a true realism against a mythology that is both illogical and deadly, and against romantic nihilism whether i t be bourgeois or allegedly revolutionary. To tell the truth, far from being romantic, I believe in the necessity of a rule and an order. I merely say that there can be no question of just any rule whatsoever. And that it would be surprising if the rule we need were given us by this disordered society, or, on the other hand, by those doctrinaires who declare themselves liberated from all rules and all scruples. III.The Marxists and their followers likewise think they are humanists. But for them human natur e will be formed in the classless society of the future. To begin with, this proves that they reject at the present moment what we all are: those humanists are accusers of man. How can we be surprised that such a claim should have developed in the world of court trials? They reject the man of today in the name of the man of the future. That claim is religious in nature. Why should it be more justified than the one which announces the kingdom of heaven to come? In reality the end of history cannot have, with in the limits of our condition, any definable significance. It can only be the object of a faith and of a new mystification. A mystification that today is no less great than the one that of old based colonial oppression on the necessity of saving the souls of infidels. IV. Is not that what in reality separates you from the intellectuals of the left? You mean that is what separates those intellectuals from the left? Traditionally the left has always been at war against injustice, obscurantism, and oppression . It always thought that those phenomena were interdependent. The idea that obscurantism can lead to justice, the national interest to liberty, is quite recent. The truth is that certain intellectuals of the left (not all, fortunately) are today hypnotized by force and efficacy as our intellectuals of the right were before and during the war. Their attitudes are different, but the act of resignation is the same. The first wanted to be realistic nationalists; the second want to be realistic socialists. In the end they betray nationalism and socialism alike in the name of a realism henceforth without content and adored as a pure, and illusory, technique of efficacy. This is a temptation that can, after all, be understood. But still, however the question is loo ked at, the new position of the people who call themselves, or think themselves, leftists consists in saying: certain oppressions are justifiable because they follow the direction, which cannot be justified, of history. Hence there are presumably privilege d executioners, and privileged by nothing. This is about what was said in another context by Joseph de Maistre, who has never been taken for an incendiary. But this is a thesis which, personally, I shall always reject. Allow me to set up against it the tra ditional point of view of what has been hitherto called the left: all executioners are of the same family. V.What can the artist do in the world of today? He is not asked either to write about co -operatives or, conversely, to lull to sleep in himself the sufferings endured by others throughout history. And since you have asked me to speak personally, I am going to do so as simply as I can. Considered as artists, we perhaps have no need to interfere in the affairs of the world. But considered as men, yes. T he miner who is exploited or shot down, the slaves in the camps, those in the colonies, the legions of persecuted throughout the world they need all those who can speak to communicate their silence and to keep in touch with them. I have not written, day af ter day, fighting articles and texts, I have not taken part in the common struggles because I desire the world to be covered with Greek statues and masterpieces. The man who has such a desire does exist in me. Except that he has something better to do in t rying to instill life into the creatures of his imagination. But from my first articles to my latest book I have written so much, and perhaps too much, only because I cannot keep from being drawn toward everyday life, toward those, whoever they may be, who are humiliated and debased. They need to hope, and if all keep silent or if they are given a choice between two kinds of humiliation, they will be forever deprived of hope and we with them. It seems to me impossible to endure that idea, nor can he who can not endure it lie down to sleep in his tower. Not through virtue, as you see, but through a sort of almost organic intolerance, which you feel or do not feel. Indeed, I see many who fail to feel it, but I cannot envy their sleep. This does not mean, howeve r, that we must sacrifice our artists nature to some social preaching or other. I have said elsewhere why the artist was more than ever necessary. But if we intervene as men, that experience will have an effect upon our language. And if we are not artists in our language first of all, what sort of artists are we? Even if, militants in our lives, we speak in our works of deserts and of selfish love, the mere fact that our lives are militant causes a special tone of voice to people with men that desert and t hat love. I shall certainly not choose the moment when we are beginning to leave nihilism behind to stupidly deny the values of creation in favor of the values of humanity, or vice versa. In my mind neither one is ever separated from the other and I measur e the greatness of an artist (Moliere, Tolstoy, Melville) by the balance he managed to maintain between the two. Today, under the pressure of events, we are obliged to transport that tension into our lives likewise. This is why so many artists, bending und er the burden, take refuge in the ivory tower or, conversely, in the social church. But as for me, I see in both choices a like act of resignation. We must simultaneously serve suffering and beauty. The long patience, The strength, the secret cunning such service calls for are the virtues that establish the very renascence we need. One word more. This undertaking, I know, cannot be accomplished without dangers and bitterness. We must accept the dangers: the era of chairbound artists is over. But we must re ject the bitterness. One of the temptations of the artist is to believe himself solitary, and in truth he bears this shouted at him with a certain base delight. But this is not true. He stands in the midst of all, in the same rank, neither higher nor lower , with all those who are working and struggling. His very vocation, in the face of oppression, is to open the prisons and to give a voice to the sorrows and joys of all. This is where art, against its enemies, justifies itself by proving precisely that it is no ones enemy. By itself art could probably not produce the renascence which implies justice and liberty. But without it, that renascence would be without forms and, consequently, would be nothing. Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future. (1953) [1]1From the point of view of the relative value of truth. On the other hand, from the point of view of virile behavior, this scholars fragility may well make us smile. [2]2Let us not miss this opportunity to point ou t the relative character of this essay. Suicide may indeed be related to much more honorable considerations for example, the political suicides of protest, as they were called, during the Chinese revolution. [3]3I hav e heard of an emulator of Peregrinos, a post -war writer who, after having finished his first hook, committed suicide to attract attention to his work. Attention was in fact attracted, but the book was judged no good. [4]4But not in the proper sense. This is not a definition, but rather an enumeration of the feelings that may admit of the absurd. Still, the enumeration finished, the absurd has nevertheless not been exhausted. [5]5Apropos of the notion of exception particularly and against Aristotle. [6]6It may be thought that I am neglecting here the essential problem, that of faith. But I am not examining the philosophy of Kierkegaard or of C hestov or, later on, of Husserl (this would call for a different place and a different attitude of mind); I am simply borrowing a theme from them and examining whether its consequences can fit the already established rules. It is merely a matter of persist ence. [7]7I did not say excludes God, which would still amount to asserting. [8]8Let me assert again: it is not the affirmation of God that is questioned here, but rather the logic leading to that affirmation. [9]9Even the most rigorous epistemologies imply metaphysics. And to such a degree that the metaphysic of many contemporary thinkers consists in having nothing but an epistemology. [10] 1A.At that time reason had to adapt itself or die. It adapts itself. With Plotinus, after being logical it becomes aesthetic. Metaphor takes the place of the syllogism. B.Moreover, this is not Plotinus only contribution to phenomenology. This whole attitude is already contained in the concept so dear to the Alexandrian thinker that there is not only an idea of man but also an idea of Socrates. [11] 2I am concerned here with a factual comparison, not with an apology of humility. The absurd man is the contrary of the reconciled man. [12] 3Quantity sometimes constitutes quality. If I can believe the latest restatements of scientific theory, all matter is constituted by centers of energy. Their greater or lesser quantity makes its specificity more or less remarkable. A billion ions and one ion differ not only in quantity but also in quality. It is easy to find an analogy in human experience. [13] 4Same reflection on a notion as different as the idea of eternal nothingness. It neither adds anything to nor subtracts anything from reality. In psychological experience of nothin gness, it is by the consideration of what will happen in two thousand years that our own nothingness truly takes on meaning. In one of its aspects, eternal nothingness is made up precisely of the sum of lives to come which will not be ours. [14] 5The will is only the agent here: it tends to maintain consciousness. It provides a discipline of life, and that is appreciable. [15] 6What matters is coherence. We start out here from acc eptance of the world. But Oriental thought teaches that one can indulge in the same effort of logic by choosing against the world. That is just as legitimate and gives this essay its perspectives and its limits. But when the negation of the world is pursue d just as rigorously, one often achieves ( in certain Vedantic schools) similar results regarding, for instance, the indifference of works. In a book of great importance, Le Choix, Jean Grenier establishes in this way a veritable philosophy of indifferenc e. [16] 1In the fullest sense and with his faults. A healthy attitude also includes faults. [17] 2At this point I am thinking of Molieres Alceste. Everything is so simple, so ob vious and so coarse. Alceste against Philinte, [18]It is curious to note that the most intellectual kind of painting, the one that tries to reduce reality to its essential elements, is ultimately but a visual delight. All it has kept of the world is its color. (This is apparent particularly in Leger.) [19]If you stop to think of it, this explains the worst novels. Almost everybody considers himself capable of thinking and, to a ce rtain degree, whether right or wrong, really does think. Very few, on the contrary, can fancy themselves poets or artists in words. But from the moment when thought won out over style, the mob invaded the novel. That is not such a great evil as is said. Th e best are led to make greater demands upon themselves. As for those who succumb, they did not deserve to survive. [20]Malrauxs work, for instance. But it would have been necessary to deal at the same time with the s ocial question which in fact cannot be avoided by absurd thought (even though that thought may put forward several solutions, very different from one another). One must, however, limit oneself. [21]Stavrogin: Do you believe in eternal life in the other world? Kirilov: No, but in eternal life in this world. [22]Man simply invented God in order not to kill himself. That is the summary of universal history down to this moment. [23]Boris de Schloezer. [24]Gides curious and penetrating remark: almost all Dostoevskys heroes are polygamous. [25]Melvilles Moby Dick, for instance. [26]It is worth noting that the works of Kafka can quite as legitimately be interpreted in the sense of a social criticism (for instance in The Trial). It is probable, moreover, th at there is no need to choose. Both interpretations are good. In absurd terms, as we have seen, revolt against men is also directed against God: great revolutions are always metaphysical. [27]InThe Castle it seems th at distractions in the Pascalian sense are represented by the assistants who distract K. from his anxiety. If Frieda eventually becomes the mistress of one of the assistants, this is because she prefers the stage setting to truth, everyday life to shar ed anguish. [28]This is obviously true only of the unfinished version of The Castle that Kafka left us. But it is doubtful that the writer would have destroyed in the last chapters his novels unity of tone. [29]Purity of heart. [30]The only character without hope in The Castle is Amalia. She is the one with whom the Land Surveyor is most violently contrasted. [31]On the two aspects of Kafkas thought, compare In the Penal Colony, published by the Cahiers du Sud (and in America by Partisan Review translators note): Guilt [of man is understood] is never doubtful and a fragment of The Castle (Momuss report): The guilt of the Land Surveyor K. is hard to establish. [32]What is offered above is obviously an interpretation of Kafkas work. But it is only fair to add that nothing prevents its being considered, aside from any interpretation, from a purely aesthetic point of view. For instance, B. Groethuysen in his remarkable preface to The Trial limits himself, more wisely than we, to following merely the painful fancies of what he calls, most strikingly, a daydreamer. It is the fate and perhaps the greatness of that work that it offers everything and confirms nothing. [33]May I take the ridiculous position of sayi ng that I do not like the way Gide exalts the body? He asks it to restrain its desire to make it keener. Thus he comes dangerously near to those who in brothel slang are called involved or brain -workers. Christianity also wants to suspend desire. But, more natural, it sees a mortification in this. My friend Vincent, who is a cooper and junior breast -stroke champion, has an even clearer view. He drinks when he is thirsty, if he desires a woman tries to go to bed with her, and would marry her if he loved her (this hasnt yet happened). Afterward he always says: I feel better and this sums up vigorously any apology that might be made for satiety. [34]Gogols Klestakov is met in Oran. He yawns and then: I feel I shall soon have to be concerned with something lofty. [35]Doubtless in memory of these good words, an Oran lecture -and- discussion group has been founded under the name of Cogito -Club. [36]And the new boulevard called Front -de-Mer. [37]Another quality of the Algerian race is, as you see, candor. [38]This essay deals with a certain temptation. It is essential t o have known it. One can then act or not, but with full knowledge of the facts. |
1 The Perennial Philosophy By ALDOUS HUXLEY (1947) Contents RiSY Editors Notes: A Brief Biography of Aldous Huxley 3 Words, Language and Chapters 4 Brief Notes on the Saints, Mys tics and Books quoted from 5 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY: INTRODUCTION 14 Chapter 1. THAT THOU ART 20 Chapter 2. THE NATURE OF THE GROUND 43 Chapter 3. PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION 61 Chapter 4. GOD IN THE WORLD 86 Chapter 5. CHARITY 113 Chapter 6. MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT 131 Chapter 7. TRUTH 164 Chapter 8. RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT 189 2 Chapter 9. SELF-KNOWLEDGE 208 Chapter 10. GRACE AND FREE WILL 212 Chapter 11. GOOD AND EVIL 224 Chapter 12. TIME AND ETERNITY 234 Chapter 13. SALVATION, DELIVERANCE, ENLIGHTENMENT 253 Chapter 14. IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL 267 Chapter 15. SILENCE 271 Chapter 16. PRAYER 276 Chapter 17. SUFFERING 285 Chapter 18. FAITH 293 Chapter 19. GOD IS NOT MOCKED 299 Chapter 20. TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM 305 Chapter 21. IDOLATRY 313 Chapter 22. EMOTIONALISM 318 Chapter 23. THE MIRACULOUS 324 Chapter 24. RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT 327 Chapter 25. SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 341 Chapter 26. PERSEVERANCE AND REGULARITY 364 Chapter 27. CONTEMPLATION, ACTION AND SOCIAL UTILITY 366 A List of Recommended Books 374 INDEX 382 3 A Brief Biography of Aldous Huxley Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) was the grandson of Thomas Huxley, a famous biologist who championed Darwins evolution theory; and Aldous s brothers Julian and Andrew also became Nobel-winning biologists . Nominated nine times for the Nobel Prize (but never awarded) Huxley had a life-long interest in philosophy, mysticism and the big questions, being an active member of the Californian Vedanta Society for thirty- five years. He wrote many novels an d was a successful Hollywood scriptwriter for some time, the proceeds of which he put toward s assisting Jews to esca pe from Nazi Germany. His very poor eyesight - a condit ion he developed as a teenager prevented him from fighting in the First World War and he becam e an active pacifist and universalis t. He commented in 1961 that unl ess humans started to view their activities from an ecological pers pective, the world was in for disaster. H is book Brave New World was a view of the directions in which unbridled science might lead us. Shortly before his death Huxley had experiences on mescaline an d LSD which opened the Doors of Perception (the name of the book he wrote about it, a quote from William Blake) which afforded him some glimpses behind the veil which he had been seeking for so many years. Ho wever he never advocated the use of drugs other than in carefully con trolled and supervised conditions. Along with his exposition of the spiritual path, in this book h e gives his v i e w s o n t h e c o n d i t i o n o f t h e w o r l d a n d t h e d i r e c t i o n i t i s h e a ding, which, given that this was written eighty years ago, are surpri singly up- to-date and apposite today. He dared to ask what is the purpos e of life? and came up, in this book at le ast, with the right answer! By a strange coincidence both he and C.S.Lewis died on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated (22-11-63) . 4 Words, Language and Chapters H u x l e y s l a n g u a g e i s n o t t h e m o s t a c c e s s i b l e - e v e n t o a n e d u c a ted Englishman! - and his tendency t o use long slightly made-up wor ds (realizableness, Boswellizing , salvationism, sacramental ization, etc.) and to write long sentences with numerous sub-phrases, can make it necessary to re-read some passage s several times to grasp his m eaning (the opening sentence of the Introduction, seven lines long, is a good example. Personally I read it abo u t s e v e n t i m e s b e f o r e I f e l t I had really grasped what he was saying -Ed.) . He also uses some words in ways which may not be familiar to to days reader. Two of these a re explained below:- Ground (capital G, 157 times) He talks of the Divine Ground, and the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being, the spiritual Ground o f t h i n g s . W e c o u l d t r a n s l a t e t h i s a s B a s i s , f o u n d a t i o n , u n d e rlying reality, ultimate source. Substantial to forming the basis of, (Intro, 1stpara. substantial to the material world) Some notes on Chapters Huxley elucidates, with quotations from great saints and mystic s of all the worlds main religions, the essential concept that there is a Higher Consciousness (God) , and that only one wh o has detached their attention from the worldly plane is purified enough to experien ce it. He does not claim to have rea ched this level himself. Most of the chapters are well-defined by their titles but one o r two are worthy of some introduction. Ch.8. Religion and Temperament. Huxley was a promoter of the ideas of W.H.Sheldon, a 20thc. psychologist who invented the physical classifications of Ectomorph, E ndomorph and Mesomorph and the (respective) characterisations of Cerebrotonic (brain-oriented shy, 5 introspective, emotionally restrained) , Viscerotonic (gut-oriented - love of comfort, food, relaxation and sociability) and Somatotonic (action-oriented; from Soma body) . Huxley gives an interesting analysis of the styles of religion which suit each type, pointing out that the founders o f the religions are mainly cerebrotoni cs advocating self-restraint, detachment from worldly desires, etc. - but their followers may be of all types and adapt religions to suit themselves. Ch.20. Tantum Religio Potuit. Huxley illustrates in some detail how those who have dedicated their lives to God (or religion) without dying to themselves (losing their ego, ambitions, etc.) have perpetrated some of the most horrendous crimes in th e name of God. True saints, tho se who have negated I, me and mi ne and live in Thee, exhibit l ove, tolerance and benevolence. Notes on the Saints, Mystics and Books quoted from (a) by religion and (b) in chronological order: (1) Buddhism-Tao-Zen (2) Pre-Chri stian European (3) Christian (4) Sufi- Hindu saints (5) Books This is not an exhaustive list as Huxley interpolates many quot ations, but it covers all the quotations given separately in Sylfaen font. (1) Buddhist Taoist Chan Zen (a) Buddhist Stras (or Sutta in Pali) (Discourses of the Buddha) :- Lankvatra Stra Descending on Lanka. O n e o f t h e c o r e t e x t s o f Buddhism which expounds that everything in the world is a produ ct of mind; but this understanding must be experienced first-hand. Diamond Sutra ; on living, working and loving without attachment. Tevijja Sutta Discourse on Three Knowledges. Buddha explains the no path to two seekers. 6 Metta Sutta Discourse on Loving Kindness, spreading love through meditation. Dhammapada (3rdc.BCE) The sayings of the Buddha simplified and encoded in verse form, which helped ordinary people to grasp the message. rangama Stra -Treatise on Heroic Action, Chinese Chan Buddhist text; explaining how to find the true self hidden within. Strlamkra 4thc. Mahayana Buddhist text describing Yogchara Path to Unification. Prabuddha Stra (Yuanjue Ching) The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment (possibly 8thc. Chinese) . Buddha answers the ques tions of the Bodhisattvas. Lao Tzu (7thc.BCE) Founder of Taoism of whom very little is known apart from his book Tao Te Ching, one of th e seminal texts of Taoism and Z en. Chuang Tzu (5thc.BCE) The other main text of Taoism which is longer, more earthy and humorous than Lao Tzu, containing many stories and p arables. Mo Tzu (470-391 BCE) Chinese philosopher who argued against Taoism and Confucianism and advocated unconditional universal love. Ahvaghosha (80-150) Indian Buddhist poe t and philosopher. Sen Tsen (Seng Tsan, c.650) Chinese, the Third Patriarch of Chan Buddhism . Hui Neng (638-713) Chinese, Sixth Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, whose teachings are embodied i n the Platform Stra. Yung-chia Ta-shih, a.k.a. Yoka Daishi (Japanese) (665-713). Chinese Chan Buddhist, main disciple of Hui Neng (qv). The quotes are from the Song of Enlightenment. Shih-tou (Shitou Xiquan) (700-790) Chinese monk, poet and writer, a student of Hui Neng (qv), who advocated a reclusive life. Huang Po (d.850) Chinese Zen master. He stressed that there is nowhere to go, no path to follow, nothing to be achieved; we are already t here, we just have to realise it Ryo-nen Genso (1646-1711) Japanese female Zen monk, teacher and poet. 7 Daito Kokushi (1283-1338) Japanese Zen master, founder of the Daitoku Temple in Kyoto. Wu Cheng-en (1505-1582) Chinese writer, poet and politician who was critical of societal norms. His novel Journey to the West is famous as Monkey. Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) Influential Japanese Zen master. (2) Pre-Christian European Philo (25BCE-48CE) Jewish philosopher from Alexandria (Egypt) who tried to synthesise Jewish and Hellenistic thought (Moses and Plato!) (3) Christian St Jerome (342-420) Roman (born in Slovenia) theologian, scholar and writer . His translation of the Bible into Latin became the accepted Cat holic version (Vulgate) and he wrote extensive commentaries on it and many other works . St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Roman philosopher and writer of North African origin, who particularly promoted the teachings of Paul . One of the most influential Christian philosophers. Pelagius (354-418) British/Roman Christian monk and theologian who believed in human goodness and denied original sin. Boethius (475-524) Roman senator and influential early Middle Ages philosopher. Technically a Christian he was more of a Greek Phi losopher. St Gregory the Great (Pope Gregory I) (540-604) A Roman nobleman who took to monastic life, became Pope and created a more enlighten ed Roman church. St Anselm (1033-1109) Italian monk, abbot and philosopher who later became Archbishop of Canterbury, considered the first to propos e an ontological proof of the existence of God. St Bernard (of Clairvaux) (1090-1153) Influential French Benedictine abbot and co-founder of th e Knights Templar. 8 Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) G e r m a n D o m i n i c a n m o n k , b i s h o p , philosopher and scientist. He was a prolific writer and is cons idered the greatest German philosoph er of the Middle Ages. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Italian monk considered the greatest medieval philosopher. He synthesised Greek (particularly Aristotle) and Christian thought and is considered a model priest in Catholici sm. Eckhart (c.1260-1328) German Dominican monk, known as Meister Eckhart, who gained high positions in the Church and was a powerful and outspoken preacher (which caused him to be later tried for heresy, though not foun d guilty). He believed that all concepts of God were erroneous, and God si mply is. Jan van Ruysbroek (1293-1381) Flemish priest given to contemplation and ecstatic rapture, who wrote twelve books in Dutch, some of whic h were popular and translated into La tin, German and English. Walter Hilton (1340-1396) E n g l i s h m o n k , m y s t i c a n d w r i t e r . H i s S c a l e o f Perfection, a book of advice to spiritual aspirants, was widel y read. St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) Influential activist and writer considered one of the greatest Catholic saints. She took to austerities at a young age and influenced popes and church policy. Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) German Catholic cardinal, theologian and philosopher who tried to heal rifts in European politics. He su pported other religions and quoted the Koran. St Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510). W orked among the poor and sick and wrote of her mystical experiences. Hans Denk (1495-1527) German Anabaptist leader during the Reformation. He did not care for scriptural a uthority but believed in direct experience of the Divine. Sebastian Castellio (1515-1564) French theologian, a very learned Calvinist who preached religious tolerance and freedom of thought. St Philip Neri (1515-1595) Italian Catholic priest a nd saint, who was famously cheerful and witty, and worked to help the poor and sick. 9 St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Spanish nun, mystic and religious reformer who revitalised the Car melite monastic order . St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Carmelite monk, considered the greatest of Spanish mystics, who helped to revitalise the Catholic faith in the Counter- r e f o r m a t i o n . H e w a s i m p r i s o n e d f o r s e v e r a l y e a r s b y h i s f e l l o w Carmelite monks who did not wish to be revitalised! Benet of Canfield (1562-1610) Influential English mystic who refused to accept the Church of England and w a s b a n i s h e d t o F r a n c e . H e h e l ped to found the French School of Spirituality. St. Francois de Sales (1567-1622) a French Catholic bishop famous for his kindness, gentleness and devotion , who tried to heal the rifts caused by the Protestant Reformation. He wrote s e v e r a l b o o k s i n c l u d i n g t h e m y stical Treatise on the Love of God. St. Jeanne Chantal (1572-1641) A Baroness who became a follower of de Sales (qv) and founded a monastic order for sick and older women. Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) German Lutheran theologian who worked as a shoemaker. He wrote of the visions and mystical experiences he had from a young age. His writings were bot h widely admired and widely con demned. Augustine Baker (1575-1641) Controversial but successful English Benedictine monk, mystic and writer. St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) French priest who dedicated himself to helping the poor. John Everard (1584-1641) Controversial English preacher and mystic who translated some important my stical texts into English. Jean Pierre Camus (1584-1652, not Albert Camus, 20thc. French writer!) Bishop, preacher and writer who w as a follower of St Francois d e Sales (qv). Charles de Condren (1588-1647) French mystic, a leading member of the French School of Spirituality and founder of many seminaries of the Counter- Reformation. His biographer was Denis Amelote (1609-1678). 10 Franois Bourgoing (15851662) French priest who succeeded Charles de Condren (qv) as Superior General of the Oratory of Jesus. D a m e G e r t r u d e M o r e (1606-1633) English nun, writer and founder of Cambrai Abbey; great-great-gra nddaughter of Thomas More. J.J.Olier (1608-1657) French Catholic priest and follower of Charles de Condren (qv) who advocated a devoted lif e for all, not just clergy. Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683) A non-fanatical Puritan English bishop who believed man to be a reasonable creature and argued for rel igious tolerance. John Smith the Platonist (1618-1652) English philosopher, theologian and educator who reconciled scie nce with a religious life. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) Brilliant French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher and writer, famous in all areas. George Fox (1624-1691) English preacher, healer and founder of the Quakers after the English Civil War (1642-1651) . He believed each person has the Divine light within themselves. Spinoza (1632-1677) Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent. He was ostracised by both Jews and Christians for his heretical ideas, but his book Ethics is now kept in the Dutch parliament with the Bibl e as representing the state s moral viewpoint. Thomas Traherne (c.1636-1674) English cleric, mystic, poet and religious writer both scholarly and intensely devotional . Fnelon (1651-1715) French Archbishop, poet and writer who later followed Quietism, the idea that by com plete surrender one annihilates the self and becomes fully absorbed in the Divine. J. P. de Caussade (1675-1751) French Jesuit priest and writer. His book The Joy of Full Surrender was compi led 100 years after his death. William Law (1686-1761) Anglican priest who wrote extensively on devotion and a surrendered life. His ideas influenced Enlightenment thin kers such as 11 Samuel Johnson and John Wesley. He was later an admirer of Boeh me (qv) and became more mystically inclined. John Woolman (1720-1772) American Quaker who advocated abolition of slavery. J.N.Grou (1731-1803) French Jesuit priest, mystic and writer on self- purification and spiritual practice, who fled to England during t h e F r e n c h Revolution. Steven Grellet (1772-1855) French-American Quaker missionary who effected social reform in Europe and America. Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) English educator and historian, father of poet Matthew Arnold. Lacordaire (1802-1861) French preacher, theologian, journalist and political activist. Leo Tolstoy (1829-1910) Russian writer (considered one of the geatest ever) whose ideas on non-violent resistance influenced Gandhi, Martin Luther King, etc.. Heinrich Suso (1844-1905) Austrian Dominican monk considered the great follower of Eckhart (qv). He was very musical, wrote extensively on mysticism and was a scholarly resear cher into Church history. Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) German theologian who believed the experience of the Numinous was the essence of all religions. His book The Idea of the Holy is still widely read. R. Garrigou-Lagrange (1877-1960) Influential French monk and theologian. Archbishop Temple (1887-1944) Widely admired English Archbishop of Canterbury who strove to improve English society and education. (4) Sufis - Hindu saints Shankara (di hakarchrya ) 6thc. Indian saint who revitalised Hinduism which had fallen into rituals an d superstition. He was admired by Shri Mataji 12 who recommended his books (Viveka-chmai, Saundarya-lahar, tm- bodha, etc.) Bayazid of Bistun (Bastam) (804-874) Persian Sufi who advocated ecstatic absorption in the Divine. Ansari of Herat (1006-1088) Afghan Sufi, religious philosopher and writer. He was the direct descendent of a close friend of the Prophet M ohammad. Al Ghazzali (c.1058-1111) Persian polymath considered a Renewer of the Faith (one of whom appears every 100 years). He helped to get Sufi ideas more accepted in mainstream Islam. Jallal-uddin Rumi (1207-1273) Persian Sufi poet who felt that music was the greatest way to absorption in the Divine. Jallal-uddin is an ho norific title meaning Glory of the Faith. Rabia of Basra (Iraq) (716-801) Considered the greatest female Sufi, Rabia took to austerities and a secluded contemplative life at an early ag e and wrote devotional poetry about unconditional Divine Love. Vivantha (1378-1434) Prolific Hindu poet and scholar from Odisha. Kabr Ds (1440-1518). Indian Sufi who was one of the main founders of the Bhakti devotion movement in Hinduism. His poems and couplets are still popular today and He was often quoted by Shri Mataji. ri Aurobindo (1872-1950) Bengali freedom fighter, writer and guru. (5) Books in alphabetical order Ancren Riwle. An early 13thc. English guide for anchorites (hermit contemplatives) of which there were many at that time. Bible. Huxley deliberately avoided well-known textual quotes on the grounds that familiarity breeds a kind of numbness. p.95 quote from John is the only Bible quote and the Ko ran does not get an entry! Bhagavad-Gt. (500 BCE) A book from the Mahbhr ata where Shri Krishna expounds the Vednta philosophy. 13 Monkey. (1540) A name for Wu Cheng-ens (qv) novel Journey to the West. Monkey-mind is a common phrase in Zen for the restless, capri cious and troublesome mental nature. rimad Bhagavatam. (1000 BCE) Pura of the exploits of Shri Krishna (not the Shrimad Devi Bhagavatam!) Tattva (samgraha) Tantra. 7thc. Buddhist text with Yoga tantric teachings (Kundalini and Chakras) . The Cloud of Unknowing . A late 14th c. English mystical and spiritual guide to contemplative prayer which stresses love and surrender. The Imitation of Christ aka. The Following of Christ c.1420 by Thomas a Kempis, is a manual for those on the spiritual path, especially monks. After the Bible it is still the most widely read Christian book. Theologia Germanica . A l a t e 1 4th c . G e r m a n m a n u s c r i p t o n m y s t i c i s m , possibly written by the Friends of God (a reformist movement in the Catholic Church) . Due, perhaps, to Protestant favour by such as Luther, it was later banned by the Catholic Church. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol). A guide to traversing the Bardo the state between death and the next birth. The name is slightly misleading and the book is ab out attaining liberation. Upanishads (c.1500-500 BCE). Short extracts from the Vedas encapsulating fundamental Hindu philoso phy known as Vednta final knowledge. Yoga Vsiha 6thc. Sanskrit exposition of Ved nta incorporating ideas from most of the Indian schools of philosophy, with many stories. Af ter the Mahabharata, it is the longest Sanskrit text. 14 The Perennial Philosophy INTRODUCTION HILOSOPHIA PERENNIS - the phrase was coined by Leibniz (1646- 1716) ; but the thing - the metaphysic that recognizes a Divine Reality substantial to the world o f t h i n g s a n d l i v e s a n d m i n d s ; t h e psychology that finds in the sou l something similar to, or even identical with, Divine Reality; the ethic that places mans final end in the knowledge of the immanent and tra nscendent Ground of all being - the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitiv e peoples in every region of the w orld, and in its fully develope d forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions. A v e r s i o n o f t h i s H i g h e s t C o m m o n F a c t o r i n a l l p r e c e d i n g a n d subsequent theologies was first committed to writing more than twenty-five centuries ago (in the Upanishads) , and since that time the inexhaustible theme ha s been treated again and again, from the standpoint of every religious tradition and in all the principa l languages of Asia and Europe. In the pages that follow I have brought tog ether a number of selections from these writings, chosen mainly for the ir significance - because they effectively illustrated some partic ular point i n t h e g e n e r a l s y s t e m o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y - b u t a l s o f o r their intrinsic beauty and memorablene ss. These selections are arrang ed under various heads a nd embedded, so to sp eak, in a commentary of my own, designed to illustrate and connect, to develop and, where necessary, to elucidate. P 15 Knowledge is a function of being . When there is a change in the being of the knower, there is a corresponding change in the nature and a mount of knowing. For example, the being of a child is transformed by growth and education into that of a m an; among the results of this transformation is a revolutionar y change in the way of knowing and the amount and character of the things known. As the individual gro ws up, his knowledge becomes more conceptual and systematic in form, a nd its factual, utilitarian content is enormously increased. But t hese gains are offset by a certain deterioration in the quality of immedia te apprehension, a blunting and a loss of intuitive power. Or consider the change in his being which the scientist is able to induce mechanically by means of his instruments. Equipped with a spect ro- scope and a sixty-inch reflector an astronomer becomes, so far as eyesight is concerned, a superhuman creature; and, as we should naturally expect, the knowledge possessed by this superhuman cr eature is very different, both in quantity and quality, from that whic h can be acquired by a stargazer with unmodified, merely human eyes. Nor are changes in the knowers physiological or intellectual b eing the only ones to affect his knowledge. What we know depends also on what, as moral beings, we choose to make ourselves. Practice, in th e words of William James, may change our theoretical horizon, and this i n a twofold way; it may lead into new worlds and secure new powers. Knowledge we could never attain, remaining what we are, may be attainable in consequence of higher powers and a higher life, w hich we may morally achieve. To put the matter more succinctly, Bless ed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And the same idea h as been e x p r e s s e d b y t h e S u f i p o e t , J a l a l - u d d i n R u m i , i n t e r m s o f a s c i entific metaphor: The astrolabe of th e mysteries of God is love. T h i s b o o k , I r e p e a t , i s a n a n t h o l o g y o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y; but, though an anthology, it contains but few extracts from the writ ings of 16 professional men of letters and, though illustrating a philosop hy, hardly anything from the professional philosophers. The reason for thi s is very simple. The Perennial Philosophy is primarily concerned with th e one Divine Reality substantial to the manifold world of things and lives and minds. But the nature of this one Reality is such that it canno t be directly and immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfil certain conditions; making themselves loving, pure in heart, an d poor in spirit. Why should this be so? We do not know. It is just one o f those facts which we have to accept, w hether we like them or not and however implausible and unlikely they may seem. Nothing in our everyday experience gives us any reason for supp osing that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen; and yet when we s ubject water to certain rather drastic treatments, the nature of its c onstituent elements becomes manifest. Simil arly, nothing in our everyday experience gives us much reason for supposing that the mind of the average sensual man ha s, as one of its constituents, something resembling, or identical with, the Reality substantial to the m anifold world; and yet, when that mind is subjected to certain rather d rastic treatments, the Divine element, of which it is, in part at leas t, composed, becomes manifest, not only to the mind itself, but also, by its reflection in external behaviour, to other minds. I t i s o n l y b y m a k i n g p h y s i c a l e x periments that we can discover the intimate nature of matter and its potentialities. And it is onl y by making psychological and moral experiments that we can discover the in timate nature of mind and its potentia lities. In the ordinary circumst ances of average sensual life these potentialities of the mind remain la tent and unmanifested. If we would realiz e them, we must fulfil certain conditions and obey certain rule s, which experience has shown empirically to be valid. 17 In regard to few professional ph ilosophers and men of letters; is there any evidence that they did very much in the way of fulfilling t he necessary conditions of direct sp iritual knowledge? When poets or metaphysicians talk about the subject matter of the Perennial Philosophy, it is generally at second hand. But in every age th ere have been some men and women who chose to fulfil the conditions upon which alone, as a matter of brute empirical fact, such immediat e k n o w l e d g e c a n b e h a d ; a n d o f t h e s e a f e w h a v e l e f t a c c o u n t s o f the Reality they were thus enabled t o apprehend and have tried to r elate, in one comprehensive system of thou ght, the given facts of this ex perience with the given facts of th eir other experiences. To such first-hand exponents of the Perennial Philosophy those who knew them have generally given t he name of saint or prophet , sage or enlightened one. And it is mainly to these, because there is good reason for supposing that they kn ew what they were talking abou t, and not to the professional philosophers or men of letters, that I have gone for my selections. In India two classes of scripture are recognized: the Shruti (such as the Vedas) , or inspired writings which are their own authority, since the y are the product of immediate insight into Ultimate Reality; and the Smriti (such as the Mahbhrata) , which are based upon the Shruti and from them derive such authority as th ey have. The Shruti, in Shank aras words, depends upon direct perception. The Smriti plays a part analogous to induction, since, like induction, it derives its a uthority from a n a u t h o r i t y o t h e r t h a n i t s e l f . T h i s b o o k , t h e n , i s a n a n t h o l o gy, with explanatory comments, of passages drawn from the Shruti and Smr iti of many times and places. Unfortunately, familiarity with traditionally hallowed writings tends to breed, not indeed contempt, but s omething which, for practical purposes, is almost as bad - namely a kind of reverential insen sibility, a 18 stupor of the spirit, an inward deafness to the meaning of the sacred words. For this reason, when selecting material to illustrate t he doctrines of the Perennial Philo sophy, as they were formulated in the West, I have gone almost always to sources other than the Bible . This Christian Smriti, from which I have drawn, is based upon the Sh ruti of the canonical books, but has the great advantage of being less well known and therefore more vivid and, so to say, more audible tha n they are. Moreover, much of this Smriti is the work of genuinely sai ntly men and women, who have qualified themselves to know at first-hand what they are talking about. Consequently it may be regarded as bein g itself a form of inspired and self-validating Shruti - and this in a m uch higher degree than many of the writings now included in the Biblical c anon. In recent years a number of atte mpts have been made to work out a system of empirical theology. Bu t in spite of the subtlety and intellectual power of such writers as Sorley, Oman and Tennant, the effort h as met with only a partial success. Even in the hands of its ablest ex ponents empirical theology is not partic ularly convincing. The reason, it seems to me, must be sought in the fact t hat the empirical theologians h ave confined their attention more or less exclusively to the experi ence of those whom the theologians of an older school called the unreg enerate (those who have not repented of their sins) - that is to say, the experience of people who have not gone very far in fulfilling the necessar y conditions of spiritual knowledg e . B u t i t i s a f a c t , c o n f i r m e d and re- confirmed during two or three tho usand years of religious histo ry, that the Ultimate Reality is not clear ly and immediately apprehended , except by those who have made themselves loving, pure in heart and poo r in spirit. T h i s b e i n g s o , i t i s h a r d l y s u r p r i s i n g t h a t a t h e o l o g y b a s e d u p on the experience of nice, ordinary, un regenerate people should carry so little conviction. This kind of empirical theology is on precisely the s a m e 19 footing as an empirical astronom y, based upon the experience of naked- eye observers. With the unaided eye a small, faint smudge can b e detected in the constellation of Orion, and doubtless an imposi ng cosmological theory could be bas ed upon the observation of this smudge. But no amount of such theorizing, however ingenious, co uld ever tell us as much about the g alactic and extra-galactic nebu lae as can direct acquaintance by means of a good telescope, camera and spectroscope. Analogously, no am ount of theorizing about such h ints as may be darkly glimpsed within the ordinary, unregenerate experi ence of the manifold world can tell us as much about Divine Reality as can be directly apprehended by a mind i n a state of detachment, charit y and humility. Natural science is empirical; but it does not confine itself to t h e experience of human beings in th eir merely human and unmodified condition. Why empirical theolog ians should feel themselves obl iged to submit to this handicap, goodness only knows. And of course, so long as they confine empirical experienc e within these all too human li mits, they are doomed to the perpetual stul tification of their best effort s. From the material they have chosen to consider, no mind, however brillia ntly gifted, can infer more than a set of possibilities or, at the v ery best, specious probabilities. The self- validating certainty of direct awareness cannot in the very nature of thin gs be achieved except by those equipped with the moral astrola be of Gods mysteries. If one is not oneself a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the fiel d of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely h uman mode of being, were capabl e of a more than merely human kin d and amount of knowledge. avb 20 Chapter 1 THAT THOU ART N s t u d y i n g t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y w e c a n b e g i n e i t h e r a t t h e bottom, with practice and moral ity; or at the top, with a consideration of metaphysical truths; or, finally, in the middl e, at the focal point where mind and matter, action and thought have thei r meeting place in human psychology. The lower gate is that preferred by strictly practical teachers - men who, like Gautama Buddha, have no use for speculation and whose prim ary c o n c e r n i s t o p u t o u t i n m e n s h e a r t s t h e h i d e o u s f i r e s o f g r e e d, resentment and infatuation. Through the upper gate go those who se vocation it is to think and speculate - the born philosophers a nd theologians. The middle gate gives entrance to the exponents of what has been called spiritual religion - the devout contemplative s of India, the Sufis of Islam, the Catholic mystics of the later Middle Ag es, and, in the Protestant tradition, such men as Denk and Franck and Caste llio, as Everard and John Smith and the f irst Quakers and William Law. It is through this central door, and just because it is central , that we shall make our entry into the subject matter of this book. The psycho logy of the Perennial Philosophy has its source in metaphysics and issu es logically in a characteristic way of life and system of ethics. Starting from t h i s m i d - p o i n t o f d o c t r i n e , i t i s e a s y f o r t h e m i n d t o m o v e i n either direction. I n t h e p r e s e n t s e c t i o n w e s h a l l c o n f i n e o u r a t t e n t i o n t o b u t a single feature of this traditional psychology - the most important, th e most emphatically insisted upon by all exponents of the Perennial Ph ilosophy and, we may add, the least psychological. For the doctrine that is to be I 21 illustrated in this section belongs to autology rather than psy chology - to the science, not of the personal ego, but of that eternal Self in the depth of particular, individualized se lves, and identical with, or at least akin to, the Divine Ground. Based upon the direct experience of those wh o have fulfilled the necessary conditions of such knowledge, this teac hing is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, Tat Tvam1 Asi (That art thou); the tman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of ev ery human being is to discover the fact for himself, to find out who he r eally is. 1 Tattvamasi has a range of subtle meanings: Tattva m e a n s r e a l i t y , t r u t h , essence, quality, principle [ tat that, tva -ity, -ness] and Tattva-gyna means Knowing the Ultimate Reality, the Supreme Truth (i.e. Go d) (tattvam i s t h e a c c u s a t i v e f o r m ) and so Tattvam-asi means You are the Ultimate Reality. Asi Thou art, you are is the 2ndpers. sing. pres. of as to be. Alternatively (and this is the sense that Huxley uses) Tat t h a t i s t h e Formless All-pervading Consciousness ( Brahman , the Father), Tvam You, Thou can mean either the individual soul ( tman ) or the personal aspect of God (Divine Incarnation -Shri Kr ishna, Buddha, Jesus, Shri Mata ji, or the Mother energy Kundalini); In this sense it means either: You ( individual soul) and the Supreme Spirit are the same or You (Divine) are both the Impersonal Formless Consciousness and the p ersonal God (who knows us bette r than we know ourselves and has compassi on for our suffering). Ed. The more God is in all things, the more He is outside them. The more He is within, the more without. Eckhart Only the transcendent, the compl etely other, can be immanent wi thout being modified by the becoming of that in which it dwells. The Perennial Philosophy teaches that it is desirable and indeed necessary to know the spiritual Ground of things, not only within the soul, but also outside in the world and, beyond world and soul, in its transcendent other ness - in heaven. 22 Though God is everywhere present, ye t He is only present to thee in the deepest and most central part of thy soul. The natural senses cannot possess God or unite thee to Him; nay, thy inward faculties of understanding, will and memory can only reach after God, but cannot be the place of His habitation in th ee. But there is a root or depth of thee from whence all these faculties come forth, as lines from a centre, or as branches from the body of the tree. This depth is called the centre, the fund or bott om of the soul. This de pth is the unity, the eternity - I had almost said the infinity - of thy soul; for it is so infinite that nothing can satisfy it or give it rest but the infinity of God. William Law T h i s e x t r a c t s e e m s t o c o n t r a d i c t w h a t w a s s a i d a b o v e ; b u t t h e contradiction is not a real one. God within and God without - t hese are two abstract notions, which can be entertained by the understan ding and expressed in words. But the facts to which these notions re fer cannot be realized and experienced except in the deepest and m ost central part of the soul. And th is is true no less of God with out than of God within. But though the two abstract notions have to be real ized (to use a spatial metaphor) in the same place, the intrinsic nature of the realization of God within is qua litatively different from that of the realization of God without, and each in turn is different from that of the realization of the Ground as sim ultaneously within and without - as the Self of the perceiver and at the same time (in the words of the Bhagavad- Gita) as That by which all this world is pervaded. When Svetaketu was twelve years old he was sent to a teacher, with whom he studied until he was twen ty-four. After le arning all the Vedas, he returned home full of conceit in the belief that he was consummately well educated, and very censorious. 23 His father said to him, Svetaketu, my child, you who are so full of your learning and so censorious, have you asked for that knowledge by which we hear the unhearable, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived and know what cannot be known? What is that knowledge, sir? asked Svetaketu. His father replied, As by knowing one lump of clay all that is made of clay is known, the difference bein g only in name, but the truth being that all is clay - so, my child, is that knowledge, knowing which we know all. But surely these venerable teachers of mine are ignorant of this knowledge; for if they possessed it they would have imparted it to me. Do you, sir, therefore gi ve me that knowledge. So be it, said the father. . . . And he said, Bring me 'a fruit of the nyagrodha tree. Here is one, sir. Break it. It is broken, sir. What do you see there? Some seeds, sir, exceedingly small. Break one of these. It is broken, sir. What do you see there? Nothing at all. The father said, My son, that subtle essence which you do not perceive there - in that very essence stands the being of the huge nyagrodha tree. In that which is the subtle esse nce all that exists has its self. That is the True, that is the Self, and thou, Svetaketu, art That. 24 Pray, sir, said the son, tell me more. Be it so, my child, the father replie d; and he said, Place this salt in water, and come to me tomorrow morning. The son did as he was told. Next morning the father said, Bring me the salt which you put in the water. The son looked for it, but could not fi nd it; for the salt, of course, had dissolved. The father said, Taste some of the water from the surface of the vessel. How is it? Salty. Taste some from the middle. How is it? Salty. Taste some from the bottom. How is it? Salty. The father said, Throw the water away and then come back to me again. The son did so; but the salt was not lost, for salt exists for ever. Then the father said, Here likewise in this body of yours, my son, you do not perceive the True; but there in fact it is. In that which is the subtle essence, all that exists has it s self. That is the True, that is the Self, and thou, Svetaketu, art That. From the Chandogya Upanishad The man who wishes to know the T hat which is thou may set t o work in any one of three ways. He may begin by looking inwards into his own particular thou and, by a process of dying to self - self in reasoning, self in willing, self in feeling - come at last to a knowledge of th e Self, the Kingdom of God that is within. Or else he may begin with the th ous existing outside himself, and may try to realize their essentia l unity with 25 God and, through God, with one another and with his own being. Or, finally (and this is doubtless the best way), he may seek to approach the ultimate That both from within and from without, so that he com es to realize God experimentally as at once the principle of his own thou and of all other thous, animate and inanimate. The completely illu minated human being knows, with Law, tha t God is present in the deepes t and most central part of his own soul; but he is also and at the s ame time one of those who, in the words of Plotinus: see all things, not in process of becoming, but in Being, and see themselves in the Other. Each be ing contains in itself the whole intelligible world. Ther efore All is everywhere. Each is there All, and All is each. Man as he now is has ce ased to be the All. But when he ceases to be an individual, he rais es himself again an d penetrates the whole world. It is from the more or less obscure intuition of the oneness t hat is the Ground and principle of all multiplicity that philosophy takes its source. And not alone philosophy, but na tural science as well. All scie nce, in Meyersons phrase, is the reducti on of multiplicities to identi ties. Divining the One within and beyond the many, we find an intrins ic plausibility in any explanation of the diverse in terms of a si ngle principle. The philosophy of the Upanishads reappears, developed and enric hed, in the Bhagavad-Gita and was fin ally systematized, in the ninth century of our era, by Shankara (di hakarchrya) . Shankaras teaching (simultaneously theoretical and p ractical, as is that of all tr ue exponents of the Perennial Philosophy) is summarized in his versified treatise, Viveka- Chmai (The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom). All the following passages are taken from this conveniently b rief and untechnical work. 26 The tman is that by which the un iverse is pervaded, but which nothing pervades; which causes all things to shine, but which all things cannot make to shine. . The nature of the one Reality must be known by ones own clear spiritual perception; it cannot be known through a pandit (learned man). Similarly the form of the moon can only be known through ones own ey es. How can it be known through others? Who but the tman is capable of removing the bonds of ignorance, passion and self-interested action? . . . Liberation cannot be achieved except by the perception of the iden tity of the individual spirit with the universal Spirit. It can be achieved neither by Yoga (physical training), nor by Sankhya (speculative philosophy), nor by the practice of religious ceremonies, nor by mere learning. . . . Disease is not cured by pronouncin g the name of medicine, but by taking medicine. Deliverance is no t achieved by repeating the word Brahman, but by directly ex periencing Brahman. . . . The tman is the witness of the indivi dual mind and its operations. It is absolute knowledge. . . . The wise man is one who understa nds that the essence of Brahman and of tman is Pure Consciousness, an d who realizes their absolute identity. The identity of Brahman and tman is affirmed in hundreds of sacred texts. . . . Caste, creed, family and lineage do not exist in Brah man. Brahman has neither name nor form, transcends me rit and demerit, is beyond time, space and the objects of sense-experi ence. Such is Brahman, and thou art That. Meditate upon this tr uth within your consciousness. 27 Supreme, beyond the power of speech to express, Brahman may yet be apprehended by the eye of pure illumination. Pure, absolute and eternal Reality - such is Brahman, and thou art That. Meditate upon this truth within your consciousness. . . . Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many. There is no other cause. And yet Brahman is independen t of the law of causation. Such is Brahman, and thou art That. Medi tate upon this truth within your consciousness. . . . The truth of Brahman may be understood intellectually. But (even in those who so understand) the desire for personal separateness is deep- rooted and powerful, for it exists from beginningless time. It creates the notion, I am the actor, I am he who experiences. This notion is the cause of bondage to conditional existence, birth and death. It can be removed only by the earnest effort to live constantly in union with Brahman. By the sages, and scriptur e, the eradication of this notion and the craving for personal separa teness is called Liberation. It is ignorance that causes us to identify ourselves with the body, the ego, the senses, or anyt hing that is not the tman. He is a wise man who overcomes this ignorance by devotion to the tman. . . . When a man follows the way of the wo rld, or the way of the flesh, or the way of tradition (i.e. when he believes in re ligious rites and the letter of the scriptures, as though th ey were intrin sically sacred), knowledge of Reality cannot ar ise in him. The wise say that this threefold way is like an iron chain, binding the feet of him who aspires to escape fr om the prison-house of this world. He who frees himself from the chain achieves Deliverance. Shankara 28 In the Taoist formulations of the Perennial Philosophy there is a n insistence, no less forcible than in the Upanishads, the Gita a nd the w r i t i n g s o f S h a n k a r a , u p o n t h e u n i v e r s a l i m m a n e n c e o f t h e transcendent spiritual Ground of all existence. What follows is an extract from one of the great classics o f Taoist literature, the Book o f Chuang Tzu, most of which seems to hav e been written around the turn o f the fourth and third centuries .. Do not ask whether the Principle is in th is or in that; it is in all beings. It is on this account that we apply to it the epithets of supreme, universal, total. . . . It has ordained that all things should be limited, but is Itself unlimited, infinite. As to what pertains to manifestation, the Principle causes the succession of its phases, but is not this succession. It is the author of causes and effects, but is not the causes and effects. It is the author of condensations and dissipations (birth and death, changes of state), but is not itself condensations and dissipations. All proceeds from It and is under its in fluence. It is in all things, but is not identical with beings, for it is neither differentiated nor limited. Chuang Tzu From Taoism we pass to that Mahayana Buddhism which, in the Far East, came to be so closely associated with Taoism, borrowing and bes towing until the two came at last to be fused in what is known as Zen. T h e Lakvatra Stra, from which the following extract is taken, w as the scripture which the founder of Ze n Buddhism expressly recommend ed to his first disciples. Those who vainly reason without un derstanding the truth are lost in the jungle of the Vijnanas (the various forms of relative knowledge), running about here and there and tryi ng to justify their view of ego- substance. 29 The self realized in your inmost consciousness appears in its purity; this is the Tath gata-garbha (literally, Buddha-womb), which is not the realm of those given over to mere reasoning. . . . Pure in its own nature and free from the category of fi nite and infinite, Universal Mind is the undefiled Buddha-womb, which is wrongly apprehended by sentient beings. Lakvatra Sutra One Nature, perfect and pervading, circulates in all natures, One Reality, all-comprehensive, contai ns within itself all realities. The one Moon reflects itself wherever there is a sheet of water, And all the moons in the waters ar e embraced within the one Moon. The Dharma-body (the Absolute) of all the Buddhas enters into my own being. And my own being is found in union with theirs. . . . The Inner Light is beyond praise and blame; Like space it knows no boundaries, Yet it is even here, within us, ever retaining its serenity and fullness. It is only when you hunt for it that you lose it; You cannot take hold of it, But equally you cannot get rid of it, And while you can do neither, it goes on its own way. You remain silent and it speaks ; you speak, and it is dumb; The great gate of charity is wide op en, with no obstacles before it. Yung-chia Ta-shih I am not competent, nor is this the place to discuss the doctri nal differences between Buddhism and Hinduism. Let it suffice to po int out that, when he insisted that huma n beings are by nature non-tm an, the Buddha was evidently speaking about the personal self and n ot the 30 universal Self. The Brahman cont roversialists, who appear in ce rtain of the Pali scriptures, never so mu ch as mention the Vedanta doctr ine of the identity of tman and Godhead and the non-identity of ego a nd tman. What they maintain and Gautama denies is the substantial nature and eternal persistence of t h e i n d i v i d u a l p s y c h e . A s a n unintelligent man seeks for the abode of music in the body of t he lute, so does he look for a soul within the Skandhas (the material and psychic aggregates, of which the individ ual mind-body is composed). About the e x i s t e n c e o f t h e t m a n t h a t i s B r a h m a n , a s a b o u t m o s t o t h e r metaphysical matters, the Buddha declines to speak, on the grou nds that such discussions do not tend to edification or spiritual p rogress among the members of a monastic order, such as he had founded. But though it has its dangers, though it may become the most absorb ing, because the most serious and noblest, of distractions, metaphys ical thinking is unavoidable and finally necessary. Even the Hinayan ists found this, and the later Mahayanists were to develop in connection with the practice of their religion, a splendid and imposing system of cosmological, ethical and psychological thought. This system was based upon the postulates of a strict idealism and professed to dispense with the id e a o f G o d . B u t m o r a l a n d s p i r i tual experience was too strong for philosophical theory, and under t he inspiration of direct experience , the writers of the Mahayana S utras found themselves using all their ingenuity to explain why the T athgata and the Bodhisattvas display an i nfinite charity towards beings that do n o t r e a l l y e x i s t . A t t h e s a m e t i me they stretched the framework o f subjective idealism so as to make room for Universal Mind; qual ified the idea of soullessness with the doc trine that, if purified, the i ndividual mind can identify itself with th e Universal Mind or Buddha-womb ; and, while maintaining godlessness, a sserted that this realizable Un iversal Mind is the inner consciousness of the eternal Buddha and that the 31 B u d d h a - m i n d i s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h a g r e a t c o m p a s s i o n a t e h e a r t w h ich desires the liberation of every sentient being and bestows Divi ne grace on all who make a serious effort to achieve mans final end. In a word, despite their inauspicious vocab ulary, the best of the Mahayana Sutras contain an authentic formulation of the Perennial Philosophy - a formulation which in some respects (as we shall see when we come to the section, God in the World) is more complete than any other. In India, as in Persia, Mohammedan thought came to be enriched by the d o c t r i n e t h a t G o d i s i m m a n e n t a s w e l l a s t r a n s c e n d e n t , w h i l e t o Mohammedan practice were added the moral disciplines and spiri tual exercises, by means of which th e soul is prepared for contempl ation or the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. It is a significant histo rical fact that the poet-saint Kabir is cla imed as a co-religionist both b y Moslems and Hindus. The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the pers ecuting and make the wars. Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray. Kabir That this insight into the nature of things and the origin of g ood and evil is not confined exclusively to the saint, but is recognized obs curely by every human being, is proved by the very structure of our langu age. For language, as Richard Trench pointed out long ago, is often wis er, not merely than the vulgar, but even than the wisest of those who s peak it. Sometimes it locks up truths which were once well known, but ha ve been forgotten. In other cases it holds the germs of truths whi ch, though they were never plainly discerne d , t h e g e n i u s o f i t s f r a m e r s c a ught a glimpse of in a happy moment of d i v i n a t i o n . F o r e x a m p l e , h o w significant it is that in the In do-European languages, as Darms teter has pointed out, the root meaning two should connote badness. The Greek prefix dys (as in dyspepsia) and the Latin dis- (as in dishonourable) are both 32 derived from duo. The cognate bis- gives a pejorative sense t o such modern French words as bevue (blunder, literally two-sight). Traces of that second which leads you astray can be found in dubious, doubt and Zweifel - for to doubt is to be double-minded. Bunyan has h is Mr. Facing-both-ways, and modern Ame rican slang its two-timers. Obscurely and unconsciously wise, our language confirms the fin dings of the mystics and proclaims the e ssential badness of division - a w o r d , incidentally, in which our old enemy two makes another decisi ve appearance. Here it may be remarked that the cult of unity on the political level is only an idolatrous ersat for the genuine religion of unity on the personal and spiritual levels. Totalitarian regimes justify their existe nce by means of a philosophy of political monism, according to which the sta te is God on earth, unification under the heel of the Divine state is sal vation, and all means to such unification, however intrinsically wicked, ar e right and may be used without scruple. This political monism leads in pra ctice to excessive privilege and power for the few and oppression for th e many, to discontent at home and war ab road. But excessive privilege a nd power are standing temptations to pride, greed, vanity and crue lty; oppression results in fear and envy; war breeds hatred, misery and despair. All such negative emotio ns are fatal to the spiritual life. Only the pure in heart and poor in spirit can come to the unitive knowle dge of God. Hence, the attempt to impos e more unity upon societies tha n their i n d i v i d u a l m e m b e r s a r e r e a d y f o r m a k e s i t p s y c h o l o g i c a l l y a l m o s t impossible for those individuals to realize their unity with th e Divine Ground and with one another. Among the Christians and the Sufis, to whose writings we now re turn, the concern is primarily with the human mind and its Divine ess ence. My Me is God, nor do I recogn ize any other Me except my God Himself. St. Catherine of Genoa 33 In those respects in which the soul is unlike God, it is also unlike itself. St. Bernard I went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, O. thou I! Bayazid of Bistun Two of the recorded anecdotes ab out this Sufi saint deserve to be quoted here. When Bayazid was a sked how old he was, he replied , Four years. They said, How can that be? He answered, I have been veiled from God by the world for seventy years, but I have seen Him du ring the last four years. The period during which one is veiled does not belong to ones life. On another occasion someone knocked at the saint s door and cried, Is Bayazid here P Bayazid answered, Is anybody he re except God? To gauge the soul we must gauge it with God, for the Ground of God and the Ground of the Soul are one and the same. Eckhart The spirit possesses God essentia lly in naked nature, and God the spirit. Ruysbroeck For though she sink all sinking in the oneness of divinity, she never touches bottom. For it is of the very essence of the soul that she is powerless to plumb the depths of her creator. And here one cannot speak of the soul any more, for she has lost her nature yonder in the oneness of Divine essence. There sh e i s n o m o r e c a l l e d s o u l , b u t i s called immeasurable being. Eckhart The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God, as if He stood ther e and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge. Eckhart I live, yet not I, but Christ in me. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to use the verb transitively and say, I live, yet not I; for i t is the Logos who lives me - lives me as an actor lives his part. In such a case, of 34 course, the actor is always infi nitely superior to the rle. Wh ere real life is concerned, there ar e no Shakespearean characters, there are only Addisonian Catos or, more often, grotesque Monsieur Perrichons and Charleys Aunts mistaking themse lves for Julius Caesar or the P rince of Denmark. But by a merciful dispensation it is always in the pow er of every dramatis persona to get hi s low, stupid lines pronounced and supernaturally transfigured by t he Divine equivalent of a Garri ck. O my God, how does it happen in this poor old world that Thou art so great and yet nobody finds Thee, that. Thou callest so loudly and nobody hears Thee, that Thou art so near and nobody feels Thee, that Thou givest Thyself to everybod y and nobody knows Thy name? Men flee from Thee and say they cannot find Thee; they turn their backs and say they cannot see Thee; they st op their ears and say they cannot hear Thee. Hans Denk Between the Catholic mystics of the fourteenth and fifteenth. c enturies a n d t h e Q u a k e r s o f t h e s e v e n t e e n t h t h e r e y a w n s a w i d e g a p o f t i me made hideous, so far as religion is concerned, with interdenomi national wars and persecutions. But the gulf was bridged by a succession of men, whom Rufus Jones, in the only accessible English work devoted t o their lives and teachings, has called the Spiritual Reformers. Denk , Franck, Castellio, Weigel, Everard, the Cambridge Platonists - in spite o f t h e murdering and the madness, the apostolic succession remains unbroken. The truths that had b een spoken in the Theologia Germ anica - that book which Luther professed to love so much and from whi ch, if we may judge from his career, he learned so singularly little - were being uttered once again by Englishmen during the Civil War and under the Cromwellian dictatorship. The mystical tradition, perpetuated b y the Protestant Spiritual Reformers, had become diffused, as it were , in the religious atmosphere of the time when George Fox had his first great opening and knew by direct experience: 35 That Every Man was enlightened by the Divine Light of Christ, and I saw it shine through all; And that they that believed in it came out of Condemnation and came to the Light of Life, and became the Children of it; And that they that hated it and did not believe in it, were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure Openings of Light, wi thout the help of any Man, neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures, though afterwards, searching the Scriptures, I found it. From Foxs Journal The doctrine of the Inner Light a c h i e v e d a c l e a r e r f o r m u l a t i o n in the writings of the second generation of Quakers. There is, wrote William Penn, something nearer to us th an Scriptures, to wit, the Word in the heart from which all Scriptures c ome. And a little later Rober t Barclay sought to explain the direct experience of Tat Tvam Asi in term s of an Augustinian theology that had, of course, to be considerably st retched and trimmed before it could fit the facts. Man, he declared in his famous theses, is a fallen being, incapable of good, unless united to the Divine Light. This Divine Light is Christ within the human soul, and i s as universal as the seed of sin. All men, heathen as well as Christian, are endowed w i t h t h e I n w a r d L i g h t , e v e n t h o u g h t h e y m a y k n o w n o t h i n g o f t h e outward history of Christs life . Justification is for those wh o do not resist the Inner Light and so permit of a new birth of holiness within them. Goodness needeth not to enter into the soul, for it is there already, only it is unperceived. Theologia Germanica When the Ten Thousand things ar e viewed in their oneness, we return to the Origin and remain where we have always been. Sen Tsen It is because we dont know who we are, because we are unaware that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, that we behave in the gener ally silly, the often insane, the sometimes criminal ways that are so 36 characteristically human. We are saved, we are liberated and enlightened, by perceiving the hi therto unperceived good that i s already within us, by returning to our e ternal Ground and remaining whe re, without knowing it, we have alwa y s b e e n . P l a t o s p e a k s i n t h e s a me sense when he says, in the Republic, that the virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a Divine element which always remai ns. And in the Theaetetus he makes the point, so frequently insiste d upon by those who have practised spiritual religion, that it is only by becoming Godlike that we can know God - and to become Godlike is to iden tify ourselves with the Divine elemen t which in fact constitutes our essential nature, but of which, in our mainly voluntary ignorance, we cho ose to remain unaware. They are on the way to truth wh o apprehend God by means of the Divine, Light by the light. Philo Philo was the exponent of the Hellenistic Mystery Religion whic h grew up, as Professor Goodenough has shown, among the Jews of the Dispersion, between about 200 B.C . and IOO A.D. Reinterpreting the Pentateuch in terms of a metaphy sical system derived from Plato nism, Neo-Pythagoreanism and Stoicism, Philo transformed the wholly transcendental and almost anthro pomorphically personal God of t he Old Testament into the immanent - transcendent Absolute Mind of the Perennial Philosophy. But even from the orthodox scribes and Ph arisees of that momentous century which witnessed, along with the dissemination of Philos doctrines, the first beginnings of Chr istianity and the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, even from the guardians of the Law we hear significantly mystical utterances. Hillel, the great rabbi whose teachings on humility and the love of God and man read like an earlier, cruder vers ion of some of the Gospel serm ons, is reported to have spoken these wo rds to an assemblage in the cou rts of 37 the Temple. If I am here (it is Jehovah who is speaking through the mouth of his prophet). everyone is here. If I am n ot here, no one is here. The Beloved is all in all; the lover merely veils Him; The Beloved is all that live s, the lover a dead thing. Jalaluddin Rumi There is a Spirit in the soul, un touched by time and flesh, flowing from the Spirit, remaining in the Spirit , itself wholly sp iritual. In this principle is God, ever verdant, ever flowering in all the joy and glory of His actual Self. Sometimes I have called this principle the Tabernacle of the soul, sometimes a sp iritual Light, anon I say it is a Spark. But now I say that it is more exalted over this and that than the heavens are exalted above the earth. So now I name it in a nobler fashion. . . .It is free of all names and void of all forms. It is one and simple, as God is one and simple, an d no man can in any wise behold it. Eckhart Crude formulations of some of th e doctrines of the Perennial Ph ilosophy are to be found in the thought-systems of the uncivilized and s o-called primitive peoples of the world. Among the Maoris, for example, every human being is regarded as a compound of four elements - a Divi ne eternal principle, known as the Toiora; an ego, which disappear s at death; a ghost-shadow, or psyche, which survives death; and fin ally a body. Among the Oglala Indians the Divine element is called the Sican, and this is regarded as identical with the Tan, or Divine essen ce of the world. Other elements of the sel f are the Nagi, or personality, and Niya, or vital soul. After death the S ican is reunited with the Divin e Ground of all things, the Nagi survives in the ghost world of psychic phe nomena and the Niya disappears in to the material universe. In regard to no twentieth-century primitive society can we ru le out the possibility of influence by, or borrowing from, some higher cul ture. Consequently, we have no right to argue from the present to the past. 38 Because many contemporary savages have an esoteric philosophy t hat is monotheistic with a monotheism that is sometimes of the Tha t art thou variety, we are not entitled to infer offhand that neolit hic or palaeolithic men held similar views. More legitimate and more intrinsically plausible are the infere nces that m a y b e d r a w n f r o m w h a t w e k n o w a b o u t o u r o w n p h y s i o l o g y a n d psychology. We know that human minds have proved themselves capable of everything from imbec ility to Quantum Theory, from M ein Kampf and sadism to the sanctity of Philip Neri, from metaphysi cs to crossword puzzles, power politics and the Missa Solemnis. We al so know that human minds are in some way associated with human brains, and w e h a v e f a i r l y g o o d r e a s o n s f o r s u p p o s i n g t h a t t h e r e h a v e b e e n no considerable changes in the size and conformation of human brai ns for a good many thousands of years. C onsequently it seems justifiab le to infer that human minds- in the remote past were capable of as m any and as various kinds and come to the unitive degrees of activit y as are minds at the present time. It is, however, certain that man y activities undertaken by some minds at the present time were not, in th e remote past, undertaken by an y minds at all. For this there are severa l obvious reasons. Certain tho ughts are practically unthinkable except in terms of an appropriate langu age and within the framework of an appropriate system of classification . Where these necessary instruments do not exist, the thoughts in quest ion are not expressed and not even conceived. Nor is this all: the ince ntive to develop the instruments of certa in kinds of thinking is not alw ays present. For long periods of history and prehistory it would seem that m en and women, though perfectly capable of doing so, did not wish to pa y attention to problems which their descendants found absorbingly interesting. For example, there is no reason to suppose that, b etween 39 the thirteenth century and the twentieth, the human mind underw ent any kind of evolutionary change, comparable to the change, let us say, i n t h e p h y s i c a l s t r u c t u r e o f t h e h o r s e s f o o t d u r i n g a n i n c o m p a rably longer span of geological time. What happened was that men turn ed their attention from certain asp ects of reality to certain othe r aspects. The result, among other things, was the development of the natu ral sciences. Our perceptions and our understanding are directed, i n large measure, by our will. We are aware of, and we think about, the things w h i c h , f o r o n e r e a s o n o r a n o t h e r , we want to see and understand . Where theres a will there is always an intellectual way. The c apacities of the human mind are almost ind efinitely great. Whatever we wi ll to do, whether it be to come to the unitive knowledge of the Godhe ad, or to manufacture self-propelled fl ame-throwers - that we are able to do, provided always that the willing be sufficiently intense and su stained. It is clear that many of the things to which modern men have chose n to pay attention were ignored by their predecessors. Consequently the very means for thinking clearly and fruitfully about those thin gs remained uninvented, not merely during prehistoric times, but e ven to the opening of t he modern era. The lack of a suitable vocabulary and an adequate frame of refe rence, and the absence of any strong an d sustained desire to invent th ese necessary instruments of thought - here are two sufficient reas ons why so many of the almost endless po tentialities of the human mind remained for so long unactualized. Another and, on its own leve l, equally cogent reason is this: much of the worlds most original and fr uitful thinking is done by people of poor physique and of a thoroughly unpractical turn of mind. Because this is so, and because the v alue of pure thought, whether analytical or integral, has everywhere be en more or less clearly recognized, provision was and still is made by every civilized society for giving thinkers a measure of protection f rom the 40 o r d i n a r y s t r a i n s a n d s t r e s s e s o f s o c i a l l i f e . T h e h e r m i t a g e , t h e monastery, the college, the acad emy and the research laboratory ; the begging bowl, the endowment, patronage and the grant of taxpaye rs money - such are the principal devices that have been used by a ctives to conserve that rare bird, the re ligious, philosophical, artistic or scientific contemplative. In many primitive societies cond itions are hard and there is no surplus wealth. The born contemplative has to face the struggle for exi stence and social predominance without protection. The result, in most cases, is that he either dies young or is too desperately busy merely keeping a l i v e t o b e a b l e t o d e v o t e h i s a t t e n t i o n t o a n y t h i n g e l s e . W h e n t h i s happens the prevailing philosophy will be that of the hardy, ex traverted man of action. All this sheds some light - dim, it is true, and merely inferen tial - on the problem of the perennial-ness of the Perennial Philosophy. In I ndia the scriptures were regarded, not as revelations made at some given moment of history, but as eternal gospels, existent from everla sting to everlasting, inasmuch as coeval with man, or for that matter wi th any o t h e r k i n d o f c o r p o r e a l o r i n c o r p o r e a l b e i n g p o s s e s s e d o f r e a s o n. A similar point of view is expressed by Aristotle, who regards th e fundamental truths of religion as everlasting and indestructibl e. There have been ascents and falls, periods (literally roads around or cycles) of progress and regress; but the gre at fact of God as the First Mo ver of a universe which cant fact remains partakes of his divinity has a lways been r e c o g n i z e d . I n t h e l i g h t o f w h a t w e k n o w a b o u t p r e h i s t o r i c m a n (and what we know amounts to nothing more than a few chipped stones, some paintings, drawings and sculptures) and of what we may legitimately infer from other, better documented fi elds of knowledge, what are we to think of these traditional doctrines? 41 M y o w n v i e w i s t h a t t h e y m a y b e t r u e . W e k n o w t h a t b o r n c o n t e m p l a t i v e s i n t h e r e a l m b o t h o f a n a l y t i c a n d o f i n t e g r a l t h ought have turned up in fair numbers an d at frequent intervals during recorded history. There is therefore every reason to suppose that they t urned up before history was recorded. That many of these people died you ng or were unable to exercise their talents is certain. But a few of them must have survived. In this context it is highly significant that, a mong many contemporary primitives, two tho ught-patterns are found - an ex oteric pattern for the unphilosophic many and an esoteric pattern (often monotheistic, with a belief in a God not merely of power, but o f goodness and wisdom) for the initiated few. There is no reason to suppose that circumstances were any harder for prehistoric men than they are f o r many contemporary savages. But i f an esoteric monotheism of the kind that seems to come natural to the born thinker is possible in m odern savage societies, the majority of whose members accept the sort o f polytheistic philosophy that seems to come natural to men of ac tion, a similar esoteric doctrine might h a v e b e e n c u r r e n t i n p r e h i s t o r i c societies. True, the modern esot eric doctrines may have been de rived from higher cultures. But the significant fact remains that, if so derived, they yet had a meaning for certain members of t he primitive society and were considered valuable enough to be c a r e f u l l y p r e s e r v e d . W e h a v e s een t h a t m a n y t h o u g h t s a r e u n t h i n k a b l e a p a r t f r o m a n a p p r o p r i a t e vocabulary and frame of reference . But the fundamental ideas of the Perennial Philosophy can be form ulated in a very simple experie nce; and the experiences to which the ideas refer can and indeed must be had immediately and apart from any v ocabulary whatsoever. Strange openings and theophanies are granted to quite small children, w ho are often profoundly and permanently affected by these experiences. We have no reason to suppose that what happens now to persons with small 42 vocabularies did not happen in remote antiquity. In the modern world (as Vaughan and Traherne and Wordsworth, among others, have tol d us) the child tends to grow out of his direct awareness of the one Grou nd of things; for the habit of analyti cal thought is fatal to the int uitions of integral thinking, whether on th e psychic or the spiritual le vel. Psychic preoccupations may be and often are a major obstacle in the way of genuine spirituality. In primitive societies now (and, presumably,in the remote past) there is much preoccupation with, and a widespread talent for, psychic thinking. But a few people may have worked their way through psychic into genuinely s piritual experience - just as, even in modern industrialized societies, a few people work their way ou t of the prevailing preoccupation with matt er and through the prevailing habits of analytical thought into the direct experience of the spiritu al Ground of things. Such, then, very briefly are the reasons for supposing that the historical traditions of oriental and our own classical antiquity may be t rue. It is interesting to find that at least one distinguished contemporar y ethnologist is in agreement with Aristotle and the Vedantists. Orthodox ethnolo gy, writes Dr. Paul Radin in his Primitive Man as Philo sopher, has been nothing but an enthusiastic and quite uncritical atte mpt to apply the Darwinian theory of evolution to the facts of social experience. And he adds that no progress in ethnology will be achieved until scholars rid themselves once and for all of the curious n otion that everything possesses a history; until they realize that certain ideas and certain concepts are as ultimate for man, as a social being, as specific physiological reactions are ulti mate for him, as a biological b eing. Among these ultimate concepts, i n Dr. Radins view, is that of monotheism. Such monotheism is often no more than the recogniti on of a single dark and numinous Power ruling the world. But it ma y sometimes be genuinely e thical and spiritual. 43 The nineteenth centurys mania f or history and prophetic Utopia nism tended to blind the eyes of even its acutest thinkers to the ti meless facts of eternity. Thus we find T. H. Green writing of mystical union as though it were an evolutionary p rocess and not, as all the evid ence seems to show, a state which man, as man, has always had it in his power to realize. An animal orga nism, which has its history in time, gradually becomes the vehicle of an eternally complete consciou sness, which in itself can have no hist ory, but a history of the proce ss by which the animal organism becomes its vehicle. But in actual f act it is only in regard to peripheral know ledge that there has been a ge nuine historical development. Withou t much lapse of time and much accumulation of skills and inform ation, there can be but an imp erfect knowledge of the material world. But direct awareness of the e ternally complete consciousness, which is the Ground of the material wo rld, is a possibility occasionally actua lized by some human beings at a lmost any stage of their own personal development, from childhood to old age, and at any period of the races history. avb 44 Chapter 2 THE NATURE OF THE GROUND U R s t a r t i n g p o i n t h a s b e e n t h e p s y c h o l o g i c a l d o c t r i n e T h a t a r t t h o u . T h e q u e s t i o n t h a t n o w q u i t e n a t u r a l l y p r e s e n t s i t s e l f i s a metaphysical one: What is the Th at to which the thou can discov er itself to be akin? To this the fully developed Perennial Philosophy has at all tim es and in all places given fundamentally the same answer. The Divine Grou nd of all existence is a spiritual Abs olute, ineffable in terms of di scursive thought, but (in certain circumstances) susceptible of being directly experienced and realized by the human being. This Absolute is t he God- without-form of Hindu and Christian mystical phraseology. The l ast end of man, the ultimate reason for human existence, is unitive kno wledge of the Divine Ground - the knowledge that can come only to thos e who are prepared to die to self and so make room, as it were, for God. Out of any given generation of men and women very few will achieve the final end of human existence; bu t the opportunity for coming to unitive knowledge will, in one way or another, continually be offered u ntil all sentient beings realize who in fact they are. The Absolute Ground of all existe nce has a personal aspect. The activity of Brahman is hvara, and hva ra is further manifested in the Hindu Trinity and, at a more distant remove, in the other deities or angels of the Indian pantheon. Analogously, for Christian mystics, the in effable, attributeless Godhead is manifest ed in a Trinity of Persons, of whom it is possible to predicate such human attributes as goodness, wis dom, mercy and love, but in a super-eminent degree. O 45 Finally there is an incarnation of God in a human being, who po ssesses the same qualities of character as the personal God, but who ex hibits them under the limitations necessarily imposed by confinement w ithin a m a t e r i a l b o d y b o r n i n t o t h e w o r l d a t a g i v e n m o m e n t o f t i m e . For Christians there has been and incommensurable and, ex hypothesi , can be but one such Divine incarnati on; for Indians there can be an d have been many. In Christendom as well as in the East, contemplative s who follow the path of devotion conceive of, and indeed directly pe rceive, the incarnation as a constantly renewed fact of experience. Chr ist is for ever being begotten within the soul by the Father, and the play o f Krishna is the pseudo-historical symbol of an everlasting God i mmanent. That truth of psychology and metaphysics - the fact that, in re lation to God, the personal soul is a lways feminine and passive. Mahayana Buddhism teaches these s ame metaphysical doctrines in t e r m s o f t h e T h r e e B o d i e s o f B u d d h a - t h e a b s o l u t e D h a r m a k a y a , known also as the Primordial Buddha, or Mind, or the Clear Ligh t of the Void; the Sambhogakaya, corresponding to hvara or the persona l God of Judaism, Christianity and Isl am; and finally the Nirmanakaya , the material body, in which the Logos is incarnated upon earth as a living, historical Buddha. Among the Sufis, Al Haqq, the Re al, seems to be thought of as t he abyss of Godhead underlying the personal Allah, while the Prophet is taken out of history and regarded as t he incarnation of the Logos. S o m e i d e a o f t h e i n e x h a u s t i b l e r i c h n e s s o f t h e D i v i n e N a t u r e c a n be o b t a i n e d b y a n a l y s i n g , w o r d b y w o r d , t h e i n v o c a t i o n w i t h w h i c h the Lords Prayer begins - Our Father who art in heaven. God is o urs - ours in the same intimate sense that our consciousne ss and life are ours. But as well as immanently ours, God is also transcendently the pers onal Father, who loves His creatures and to whom love and allegiance are owed by them in return. Our Father who art: when we come to 46 consider the verb in isolation, we perceive that the immanent- transcendent personal God is als o the immanent-transcendent One , the essence and principle of all existence. And finally Gods being i s i n heaven; the Divine Nature is ot her than, and incommensurable w ith, the nature of the creatures in whom God is immanent. That is wh y we can attain to the unitive knowledge of God only when we become in some measure Godlike, only when we permit Gods kingdom to come by personal being. making our o wn creaturely kingdom go. God may be worshipped and contemplated in any of his aspects. B ut to persist in worshipping only one aspect to the exclusion of all the rest is to run into grave spiritual per il. Thus, if we approach God wit h the preconceived idea that He is exc lusively the personal, transcen dental, all-powerful ruler of the world, we run the risk of becoming en tangled in a religion of rites, propitiatory sacrifices (sometimes of the most horrible nature) a n d l e g a l i s t i c O b s e r v a n c e s . I n e v i t a b l y s o ; f o r i f G o d 'philosophical' is an unapproachab le potentate out there, givin g mysterious orders, this kind of religion is entirely appropriat e to the cosmic situation. The best that can be said for ritualistic leg alism is that it improves conduct. It does little, however, to alter characte r and nothing of itself to modify consciousness. T h i n g s a r e a g r e a t d e a l b e t t e r w hen the transcendent, omnipoten t personal God is regarded as also a loving Father. The sincere w orship of such a God changes character as well as conduct, and does somet hing to modify consciousness. But t h e c o m p l e t e t r a n s f o r m a t i o n o f consciousness, which is enlight enment, deliverance, salvat ion, comes only when God is thought o f as the Perennial Philosophy a ffirms Him to be - immanent as well as transcendent, supra-personal as well as personal - and when religious pra ctices are adapted to this con ception. When God is regarded as exclusiv ely immanent, legalism and exte rnal practices are abandoned and there is a concentration on the Inn er Light. 47 The dangers now are quietism and antinomianism, a partial modif ication of consciousness that is useless or even harmful, because it is n o t accompanied by the transformatio n of character which is the nec essary prerequisite of a total, complet e and spiritually fruitful tran sformation of consciousness. Finally it is possible to think of God as an exclusively supra- personal being. For many persons this con ception is too philosophical to provide an adequate motive for doing anything practical about their bel iefs. Hence, for them, it is of no value. It would be a mistake, of course, to suppose that people who wo rship one aspect of God to the exclusion of all the rest must inevita bly run into the different kinds of trouble d escribed above. If they are not t o o stubborn in their ready-made beliefs, if they submit with docil ity to what happens to them in the process of worshipping, the God who is b oth i m m a n e n t a n d t r a n s c e n d e n t , p e r s o nal and more than personal, may reveal Himself to them in His fu llness. Nevertheless, the fact remains that it is easier for us to reach our goal if we are not handic apped by a set of erroneous or inadequate beliefs about the right way to g et there and the nature of what we are looking for. Who is God? I can think of no bett er answer than, He who is. Nothing is more appropriate to the eternity which God is. If you call God good, or great, or blessed, or wise, or anything else of this sort, it is included in these words, namely, He is. St. Bernard The purpose of all words is to ill ustrate the meaning of an obj ect. When they are heard, they should enable the hearer to understand this meaning, and this according to th e four categories of substance, of activity, of quality and of relati onship. For example, cow and horse belong to the category of substance. He cooks or he prays belongs to the category of activity. White and black belong to the category of 48 quality. Having money or possessing cows belongs to the category of relationship. Now there is no class of substance to which the Brahman belongs, no common genus. It ca nnot therefore be denoted by words which, like being in the ordinary sense, signify a category of things. Nor can it be denoted by quality, for it is without qualities; nor yet by activity, because it is without activity - at rest, without parts or activity, according to the Scriptur es. Neither can it be denoted by relationship, for it is without a second and is not the object of anything but its own self. Therefore it cannot be defined by word or idea; as the Scripture says, it is the One before whom words recoil. Shankara It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang; The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind. Truly, Only he that rids hi mself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences. He that has never rid himself of desire can see only the Outcomes. Lao Tzu One of the greatest favours bestowed on the soul transiently in this life is to enable it to see so distinctly and to feel so profoundly that it cannot comprehend God at all. Thes e souls are herein somewhat like the saints in heaven, where they who know Him most perfectly perceive most clearly that He is infinitely incomprehensible; for those who have the less clear vision do no t perceive so clearly as do these others how greatly He transcends their vision. St. John of the Cross When I came out of the Godhead in to multiplicity, then all things proclaimed, There is a God (the personal Creator). Now this cannot make me blessed, for hereby I realize myself as creature. But in the breaking through I am more than a ll creatures; I am neither God nor creature; I am that which I was an d shall remain, now and for ever 49 more. There I receive a thrust whic h carries me above all angels. By this thrust I become so rich that Go d is not sufficient for me, in so far as He is only God in his Divine works. For in thus breaking through, I perceive what God and I are in common. There I am what I was. There I neither increase nor decrease. Fo r there I am the immovable which moves all things. Here man has won again what he is eternally and ever shall be. Here God is received into the soul. Eckhart The Godhead gave all things up to God. The Godhead is poor, naked and empty as though it were not; it has not, wills not, wants not, works not, gets not. It is God who has th e treasure and the bride in him, the Godhead is as void as though it were not. Eckhart We can understand something of what lies beyond our experience by considering analogous cases lying within our experience. Thus, the relations subsisting between the world and God and between God and the Godhead seem to be analogous, in some measure at least, to those between the body (with its environment) and the psyche, and between the psyche and the spirit. In the light of what we know about t he second - and what we know is not, unfortunately, very much - we may be able to form some not too hopelessly inadequate notions about the fi rst. Mind affects its body in four way s - subconsciously, through th at unbelievably subtle physiologic al intelligence, which Driesch hypostatized under the name of the entelechy; consciously, by deliberate acts of will; subconsc iously again, by the reaction upon the p h y s i c a l o r g a n i s m o f e m o t i o n a l s t a t e s h a v i n g n o t h i n g t o d o w i t h t h e organs or processes reacted upon; and, either consciously or subconsciously, in certain supe rnormal manifestations. Outsid e the body matter can be influenced by the mind in two ways - first, by means of the body, and second, by a s upernormal process, recently s tudied under laboratory conditions an d described as the PK effect (psycho- 50 kinesis) . Similarly, the mind can establish. relations with other mind s either indirectly, by willing its body to undertake symbolic ac tivities, such as speech or writing; or supernormally, by the direct ap proach of mind-reading, telepathy, extra-sensory perception. Let us now consider these relationships a little more closely. In some fields the physiological intelligence works on its own initiati ve, as when it directs the never-ceasing pro cesses of breathing, say, or as similation. In others it acts at the behest of the conscious mind, as when we will to a c c o m p l i s h s o m e a c t i o n , b u t d o n o t a n d c a n n o t w i l l t h e m u s c u l a r , g l a n d u l a r , n e r v o u s a n d v a s c u l a r m e a n s t o t h e d e s i r e d e n d . T h e apparently simple act of mimicry well illustrates the extraordi nary nature of the feats performed by the physiological intelligence . When a parrot (making use, let us remember, of the beak, tongue and throat of a bird) imitates the sounds produced by the lips, teeth, palate and voc al cords of a man articulating word s, what precisely happens? Resp onding in some as yet entirely uncomprehended way to the conscious min ds desire to imitate some remembere d or immediately perceived even t, the physiological intelligence sets in motion large numbers of muscles, co-ordinating their efforts with such exquisite skill that the result is a more or less perfect copy of the original. Working on its own l evel, the conscious mind not merely of a parrot, but of the most highly g ifted of human beings, of what Professor Rhine has called the PK effect. Nevertheless he would find itself completely baffled by a probl em of comparable complexity. As an example of the third way in which our minds affect matter , we may cite the all-too-familiar phen omenon of nervous indigestio n. In c e r t a i n p e r s o n s s y m p t o m s o f d y s p e p s i a m a k e t h e i r a p p e a r a n c e w h e n the conscious mind is troubled b y such negative emotions as fea r, envy, anger or hatred. These emotions are directed towards events or persons in the outer environment; but in some way or other they adverse ly affect 51 the physiological intelligence and this derangement results, am ong other things, in nervous indigestion. From tuberculosis and g astric ulcer to heart disease and even dental caries, numerous physical ailm ents have been found to be closely correlated with certain undesirab le states of the conscious mind. Conversely, every physician knows that a calm and cheerful patient is much more likely to recover than one wh o is agitated and depressed. F i n a l l y w e c o m e t o s u c h o c c u r r e n c e s a s f a i t h h e a l i n g a n d l e v i t a tion - occurrences supernormally strange, but nevertheless attested by masses of evidence which it is hard to discount completely. Pre cisely how faith cures diseases (whether at Lourdes or in the hypnotists consulting room), or how St. Joseph of Cupertino was able to ignore the laws of gravitation, we do not know (but let us remember that we are no less ignorant of the way in which minds and bodies are related in the most ordinary of everyday activities). In the same way we are unable to form any idea of the modus operandi of what Professor Rhine has call ed the PK effect. Neverthele ss the fact that the fall of dice can be i nfluenced by t h e m e n t a l s t a t e s o f c e r t a i n i n d i v i d u a l s s e e m s n o w t o h a v e b e e n established beyond the possibility of doubt. And if the PK effe ct can be demonstrated in the laboratory and measured by statistical meth ods, then, obviously, the intrinsic c redibility of the scattered ane cdotal evidence for the direct influence of mind upon matter, not mere ly within the body, but outside in the external world, is thereby notably increased. The same is true of extra-sensor y perception. Apparent examples of it are constantly turning up in ordinary life. But science is almo st impotent to cope with the particular case, the isolated instance. Promot ing their methodological ineptitude to the rank of a criterion of truth, dogmatic scientists have often branded ev erything beyond the pale of the ir limited competence as unreal and even impossible. But when test s for ESP can be repeated under standardized conditions, the subject comes 52 under the jurisdiction of the law of probabilities and achieves (in the teeth of what passionate opposition!) a measure of scientific respectability. Such, very baldly and briefly, are the most important things we know about mind in regard to its capacity to influence matter. From this modest knowledge about ourselves, what are we entitled to concl ude in regard to the Divine object of our nearly total ignorance? First, as to creation: if a human mind can directly influence m atter not merely within, but even outside its body, then a Divine mind, i mmanent in the universe or transcendent to it, may be presumed to be ca pable of imposing forms upon a pre-existing chaos of formless matter, or even, perhaps, of thinking substance a s well as forms into existence. Once created or Divinely informed, the universe has to be susta ined. The necessity for a continuous re-creation of the world becomes man ifest, according to Descartes, when we consider the nature of time, o r the duration of things; for this is of such a kind that its parts a re not mutually dependent and never co-existent; and, accordingly, from the fac t that we are now it does not necessarily follow that we shall be a mo ment afterwards, unless some cause, viz. that which first produced c reator of the us, shall, as it were, continually reproduce us, that is, c onserve us. Here we seem to have something analogous, on the cosmic level, to that physiological intelligence which , in men and the lower animals, unsleepingly performs the task of seeing that bodies behave as they should. Indeed, the physiological intelligence may plausibly be regarded as, a special aspect of the general re-creating Logos. In Chine se phraseology it is the words He t o some extent at Tao as it mani fests itself on the level of living bodies. The bodies of human beings are affected by the good or bad stat es of their minds. Analogously, the existence at the heart of things of a Divine serenity and goodwill may be regarded as one of the reasons why the 53 worlds sickness, though chronic, has not proved fatal. And if, i n t h e psychic universe, there should b e other and more than human consciousnesses obsessed by thou ghts of evil and egotism and re bellion, t h i s w o u l d a c c o u n t , p e r h a p s , f o r s o m e o f t h e q u i t e e x t r a v a g a n t and improbable wickedness of human behaviour. T h e a c t s w i l l e d b y o u r m i n d s a r e a c c o m p l i s h e d e i t h e r t h r o u g h t h e instrumentality of the physiological intelligence and the body , or, very exceptionally, and to a limited extent, by direct supernormal m eans of the PK variety. Analogously the physical situations willed by a Divine P r o v i d e n c e m a y b e a r r a n g e d b y t h e perpetually creating Mind tha t sustains the universe - in which case Providence will appear to do its work by wholly natural means; or else, very exceptionally, the Divine Mind may act directly on the universe from the outside, as it w ere - in which case the workings of Providence and the gifts of grace wi ll appear to be miraculous. Similarly, the Divine Mind may choose to communicate with finite minds ei ther by manipulating the world of men a n d t h i n g s i n w a y s w h i c h t h e p a r t i c u l a r m i n d t o b e r e a c h e d a t t hat moment will find meaningful; or else there may be direct communication by something resem bling thought transference. In Eckharts phrase, God, the cr eator and perpetual recreator o f the world, becomes and disbecomes. In other words He is, to some extent at least, in time. A temporal God might have the nature of the traditional Hebrew God of the Old Testament; or He might be a limited deity of the kind described by certain philosophical theologians of the pres ent c e n t u r y ; o r a l t e r n a t i v e l y H e m i g h t b e a n e m e r g e n t G o d , s t a r t i n g unspiritually at Alpha and becom ing gradually more Divine as th e aeons rolled on towards some hypothetical Omega. (Why the movement should be towards more and better rather than less and worse, upwards rather than downwards undulations, onwards rather than round and round, one really doesnt know. There seems to be no reason why a God who is excl usively 54 temporal - a God who merely beco mes and is ungrounded in eterni ty - should not be as completely at the mercy of time as is the individual mind apart from the spirit. A God who becomes is a God who also disbecomes, and it is the disbecoming which may ultimately prevail, so that the last stat e of emergent deity may be worse than the first.) The Ground in which the multifarious and time-bound psyche is r ooted is a simple, timeless awareness. By making ourselves pure in he art and poor in spirit we can discover and be identified with this awar eness. In the spirit we not only have, but are, the unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground. A n a l o g o u s l y , G o d i n t i m e i s G r o u n d e d i n t h e e t e r n a l n o w o f t h e modeless Godhead. It is in the Godhead that things, lives and m inds have their being; it is through God t hat they have their becoming - a becoming whose goal and purpose is to ret urn to the eternity of the Grou nd. Meanwhile, I beseech you by the et ernal and imperishable truth, and by my soul, consider; grasp the un heard-of. God and God-head are as distinct as heaven and earth. Heaven stands a thousand miles above the earth, and even so the Godhea d is above God. God becomes and disbecomes. Whoever understands th is preaching, I wish him well. But even if nobody had been here, I must still have preached this to the poor-box. Eckhart Like St. Augustine, Eckhart was to some extent the victim of hi s own literary talents. Le style cest lhomme. No doubt. But the con verse is also partly true. Lhomme cest le style. Because we have a gif t for writing in a certain way, we find ourselves, in some sort, beco ming our w a y o f w r i t i n g . W e m o u l d o u r s e l v e s i n t h e l i k e n e s s o f o u r p a r t i cular brand of eloquence. Eckhart was one of the inventors of German prose, and he was tempted by his new-fo und mastery of forceful express ion to commit himself to extreme positi ons - to be doctrinally the ima ge of his 55 powerful and over-emphatic senten ces. A statement like the fore going would lead one to believe that he despised what the Vedantists call the lower knowledge of Brahman, no t as the Absolute Ground of all things, but as the personal God. In rea lity he, like the Vedantists, ac cepts the lower knowledge as genuine knowledge and regards devotion to th e personal God as the best preparation for the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. Another point to remember is tha t the attributeless Godhead of Vedanta, of Mahayana Buddhism, of Christian and Sufi mysticism is the Ground of all the qualities possessed by the personal God and t he Incarnation. God is not good, I am good, says Eckhart in his violent and excessive way. What he really meant was, I am just humanly goo d; God i s s u p e r - e m i n e n t l y g o o d ; t h e G o d h e a d i s , a n d h i s i s n e s s (istigkeit, in Eckharts German) contains goodness, love, wisdom and all the rest in their essence and principle. In consequence, the Godhead is ne ver, for the exponent of the Perennial Philosophy, the mere Absolute of academic metaphysics, but someth ing more purely perfect, more reverently to be adored than even the personal God or his human incarnation - a Being towards whom it is possible to feel the m ost intense devotion and in relation to whom it is necessary (if one is to come to that unitive knowledge w hich is mans final end) to practise a discipline more arduous and unremitting than any imposed by ecclesiastical authority. There is a distinction and differen tiation, according to our reason, between God and the Godhead, between action and rest. The fruitful nature of the Persons ever worketh in a living differentiation. But the simple Being of God, according to the nature thereof, is an eternal Rest of God and of all created things. Ruysbroeck 56 (In the Reality unitively known by the mystic), we can speak no more of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, nor of any creature, but only one Being, which is the very substance of the Divine Persons. There were we all one before our creation, for this is our super-essence. There the Godhead is in simple esse nce without activity. Ruysbroeck The holy light of faith is so pure that, compared with it, particular lights are but impurities; and even ideas of the saints, of the Blessed Virgin, and the sight of Jesus Christ in his humanity are impediments in the way of the sight of God in His purity. J. J. Olier Coming as it does from a devout Catholic of the Counter Reforma tion, this statement may seem somewhat startling. But we must remembe r that Olier (who was a man of saintly life and one of the most influential religious teachers of the seventeenth century) is speaking here about a state of consciousness, to which few people ever come. To those on the ordinary levels of being he recommends other modes of knowledge . One of his penitents, for example, was advised to read, as a correc tive to St. John of the Cross and other expo nents of pure mystical theology , St. Gertrudes revelations of the in carnate and even physiological aspects o f t h e d e i t y . I n O l i e r s o p i n i o n , a s i n t h a t o f m o s t d i r e c t o r s of souls, whether Catholic or Indian, it was mere folly to recommend the worship of God - without - form to persons who are in a condition to un derstand only the personal and the incarnate aspects of the Divine Groun d. This is a perfectly sensible attitud e, and we are justified in adopt ing a policy in accordance with it - provided always that we clearly remembe r that i t s a d o p t i o n m a y b e a t t e n d e d b y c e r t a i n s p i r i t u a l d a n g e r s a n d disadvantages. The nature of these dangers and disadvantages wi ll be illustrated and discussed in ano ther section. For the present i t will suffice to quote the warning words of Philo: He who thinks that God ha s any quality and is not the One, in jures not God, b ut himself. 57 Thou must love God as not-God, not-Spirit, not-person, not-image, but as He is, a sheer, pure absolute One, sundered from all two-ness, and in whom we must eternally si nk from nothing - Super-Essential No-Thing-ness to nothingness. Eckhart What Eckhart describes as the pure One, the absolute not-God in whom we must sink from nothingness to n o t h i n g n e s s i s c a l l e d i n M a h a y ana Buddhism the Clear Light of the Void. What follows is part of a formula addressed by the Tibetan priest to a person in the act of death . O nobly born, the time has now co me for thee to seek the Path. Thy breathing is about to cease. In the past thy teacher hath set thee face to face with the Clear Light; and no w thou art about to experience it in its Reality in the Bardo state (the intermediate state immediately following death, in which the soul is judged - or rather judges itself by choosing, in accord with the characte r formed during its life on earth, what sort of an afte r-life it shall have). In this Bardo state all things are like the cloudless sky, and the naked, immaculate Intellect is like unto a translucent void without circumfere nce or centre. At this moment know thou thyself and abide in that stat e. I, too, at this time, am setting thee face to face. The Tibetan Book of the Dead Going back further into the past, we find in one of the earliest Upanishads the classical descriptio n of the Absolute One as a Super- Essential No-Thing. The significance of Brahman is expressed by Neti (not so, not so) ; for beyond this, that you say it is not so, there is nothing further. Its name, however, is the Reality of reality. That is to say, the senses are real, an d the Brahman is their Reality. Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad In other words, there is a hierarchy of the real. The manifold world of our everyday experience is real with a relative reality that is , on its own 58 level, unquestionable; but this relative reality has its being within and because of the absolute Reality, which, on account of the incommensurable otherness of its eternal nature, we can never h ope to describe, even though it is possi ble for us directly to apprehe nd it. The extract which follows next is of great historical significa nce, since it was mainly through the Mystical Theology and the Divine Name s of t h e f i f t h - c e n t u r y a u t h o r w h o w r o t e u n d e r t h e n a m e o f D i o n y s i u s the Areopagite that mediaeval Christ endom established contact with Neoplatonism and thus, at several r e m o v e s , w i t h t h e m e t a p h y s i c a l t h o u g h t a n d d i s c i p l i n e o f I n d i a . I n t h e n i n t h c e n t u r y S c o t u s E r igena translated the two books into Latin, and from that time forth t heir influence upon the philosophical speculations and the religious life of the West was wide, deep and beneficent. It was to the authority of the Areopagite that the Christian ex ponents of the Perennial Philos ophy appealed, whenever they were menaced (and they were always being menaced) by those whose primary interest was in ritual, legalism and ecclesiastical organization. And because Dionysius was mistaken ly identified with St. Pauls first Athenian convert, his authorit y was regarded as all but apostolic; t herefore, according to the rule s of the Catholic game, the appeal to it could not lightly be dismissed, even by t h o s e t o w h o m t h e b o o k s m e a n t l e s s t h a n n o t h i n g . I n s p i t e o f t h eir maddening eccentricity, the men and women who followed the Dionysian path had to be tolerated. And once left free to produ ce the f r u i t s o f t h e s p i r i t , a n u m b e r o f t h e m a r r i v e d a t s u c h a c o n s p i cuous degree of sanctity that it became impossible even for the heads of the Spanish Inquisition to condemn the tree from which such fruits had sprung. The simple, absolute and immutable mysteries of Divine Truth are hidden in the super-luminous darkness of that silence which revealeth in secret. For this darkness, thou gh of deepest obscurity, is yet 59 radiantly clear; and, though beyond touch and sight, it more than fills our unseeing minds with splendours of transcendent beauty. . . . We long exceedingly to dwell in this translucent darkness and, through not seeing and not knowing, to s ee Him who is beyond both vision and knowledge - by the very fact of neither seeing Him nor knowing Him. For this is truly to see and to know and, through the abandonment of all things, to praise Him who is beyond and above all things. For this is not unlike the ar t of those who carve a life - like image from stone: removing from around it all that impedes clear vision of the latent form, revealing its hidden beauty solely by taking away. For it is, as I beli eve, more fitting to prai se Him by taking away than by ascription; for we ascribe attributes to Him, when we start f r o m u n i v e r s a l s a n d c o m e d o w n through the intermediate to the particulars. But here we take away all things from Him going up from particulars to universals, that we may know openly the unknowable, which is hidden in and under all things that may be known. And we behold that darkness beyond being, concealed under all natural light. Dionysius the Areopagite T h e w o r l d a s i t a p p e a r s t o c o m m o n s e n s e c o n s i s t s o f a n i n d e f i n i te number of successive and presumably causally connected events, involving an indefinite number of separate, individual things, lives and thoughts, the whole constituting a presumably orderly cosmos. I t is in order to describe, discuss and manage this common-sense univers e that human languages have been developed. Whenever, for any reason, we wis h to think of the world, not as i t appears to common sense, but as a continuum, we find that our traditional syntax and vocabular y are quite inadequate. Mathema ticians have therefore been compelled to invent only by radically new s ymbol- systems for this express purpose. But the Divine Ground of all existence is not merely a continuum, it is also out of time, and differen t, not merely 60 in degree, but in kind from the worlds to which traditional lan guage and the languages of mathematics are adequate. Hence, in all exposi tions of the Perennial Philosophy, the frequency of paradox, of verbal extravagance, sometimes even of seeming blasphemy. Nobody has y et invented a Spiritual Calculus, in terms of the barrier which we may talk coherently about the Divine Grou nd and of the world conceived a s its manifestation. For the present, therefore, we must be patient w ith the l i n g u i s t i c e c c e n t r i c i t i e s o f t h o s e w h o a r e c o m p e l l e d t o d e s c r i b e one order of experience in terms of a symbol-system, whose relevanc e is to the facts of another and quite different order. So far, then, as a fully adequate expression of the Perennial P hilosophy is concerned, there exists a pro blem in semantics that is final ly insoluble. The fact is one which must be st eadily borne in mind by all who read its formulations. Only in this way s hall we be able to understand e ven remotely what is being talked about. Consider, for example, tho se negative definitions of the transcendent and immanent Ground of being. In statements such as Eckharts, God is equated with nothing. A nd in a certain sense the equation is exact; for God is certainly no th ing. In the phrase used by Scotus Erigena God is not a what; He is a That. In other words, the Ground can be denoted as being time, but not defined as having qualities. This means that discursive knowl edge about the Ground is not me rely, like all inferential knowledge, a thing at one remove, or even at several removes, from the reality of imme diate acquaintance; it is and, because of the very nature of our langua ge and our standard patterns of thought, it must be, paradoxical knowledge. Direct knowledge of the Grou nd cannot be had except by union, and union can be achieved only b y the annihilation of the self-regardi ng ego, which is the barrier se parating the Thou from the That. avb 61 Chapter 3 PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION N E n g l i s h , w o r d s o f L a t i n o r i g i n t e n d t o c a r r y o v e r t o n e s o f intellectual, moral and aesthetic classiness - overtones whic h are not carried, as a rule, by their Anglo-Saxon equivalents. Mate rnal, for instance, means the same as mot herly, intoxicated as drunk - but with what subtly important shades of difference! And when Shakespeare needed a name for a comic character, it was Sir Tob y Belch that he chose, not Caval ier Tobias Eructation. The word personality is derived from the Latin, and its upper partials are in the highest degree respec table. For some odd philologica l reason, the Saxon equivalent of persona lity is hardly ever used. Whic h is a pity. For if it were used as currently as belch is used for eructa tion - would people make such a reverential f uss about the thing connoted as certain English-speaking philosophers, m oralists and theologians have r ecently done? Personality, we are const antly being assured, is the hi ghest form of reality with which we are acquainted. But surely people woul d think twice about making or accepting this affirmation if, instead of personality, the word employed h a d b e e n i t s T e u t o n i c s y n o n y m , selfness. For selfness, though it means precisely the same, carries none of the high-class overtones that go with personality. On the contrary, its primary meaning comes to us embedded, as i t were, in discords, like the note of a cracked bell. For, as all expon ents of the Perennial Philosophy have consta ntly insisted, mans obsessive consciousness of, and insistence on being, a separate self is t he final and most formidable obstacle to the unitive knowledge of God. To be a self is, for them, the original sin, and to die to self, in feeling, will and intellect, is the final and all-inclusive virtue. It is the mem ory of these I 62 utterances that calls up the unfa vourable overtones with which the word selfness is associated. Th e all too favourable overtones o f personality are evoked in part by its intrinsically solemn La tinity, but also by reminiscences of what ha s been said about the persons of the Trinity. But the persons of the Trinity have nothing in common with the flesh-and-blood persons of our ev eryday acquaintance - nothing, that is to say, except that indwelling Spirit, with which we ought and are intended to identify ourselves, but which most of us prefer to ignore in favour of our separate selfness. That this God-eclipsing and an ti-spiritual selfness should have been given the same name as is applied to the God who is a Spirit, is, to say the least of it, unfortunate. Like all such mistakes it is probably, in some obscure and subconscious way, voluntary and purposeful. We love our selfness; we want to be justified in ou r love; therefore we christen it with the same name as is applied by th eologians to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But now thou askest me how thou mayest destroy this naked knowing and feeling of thine own being. For pe radventure thou thinkest that if it were destroyed, all other hindra nces were destroyed; and if thou thinkest thus, thou thinkest right tr uly. But to this I answer thee and I say, that without a full special gr ace full freely given by God, and also a full according ableness on thy part to receive this grace, this naked knowing and feeling of thy being may in nowise be destroyed. And this ableness is nought else but a strong and a deep ghostly sorrow. All men have matter of sorrow; but most specially he feeleth matter of sorrow that knoweth and feeleth th at he is. All other sorrows in comparison to this be but as it were game to earnest. For he may make sorrow earnestly that knoweth and feeleth not only what he is, but that he is. And whoso felt never th is sorrow, let him make sorrow; for he hath never yet felt perfect sorrow. This sorrow, when it is had, 63 cleanseth the soul, not only of sin, but also of pain that it hath deserved for sin; and also it maketh a soul able to receive that joy, the which reaveth from a man all knowing and feeling of his being. This sorrow, if it be truly conceive d, is full of holy desire; and their constituent atoms of else a man might ne ver in this life abide it or bear it. For were it not that a soul were somewhat fed with a manner of comfort by his right working, he should not be able to bear that pain that he hath by the knowing and feel ing of his being. For as he would have a true knowing and a feeling of his God in purity of spirit (as it may be here), and then feeleth that he may not - for he findeth evermore his knowing and his feeling as it were occupied own accord and filled with a foul stinking lump of himself, the which must always be hated and despised and forsaken, if he shall be Gods perfect disciple, taught by Himself in the mo unt of perfection - so often goeth nigh mad for sorrow. . . . This sorrow and this desire must ev ery soul have and feel in itself (either in this mann er or in another), as God vouchsafeth to teach his ghostly disciples according to his good will and their according ableness in body and in soul, in degr ee and disposition, ere the time be that they may perfectly be oned unto God in perfect ch arity - such as may be had here, if God vouchsafeth. The Cloud of Unknowing W h a t i s t h e n a t u r e o f t h i s s t i n k i n g l u m p o f s e l f n e s s o r p e r s o nality, which has to be so passionately repented of and so completely d ied to, before there can be any true knowing of God in purity of spiri t? The most meagre and non-committal hypothesis is that of Hume. Mank ind, he says, are nothing but a bundl e or collection of different p erceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity and are in a perpetual flux and movement. An almost identical answer is giv en by 64 the Buddhists, whose doctrine of Anatta is the denial of any pe rmanent soul, existing behind the flux of experience and the various ps ycho- physical Skandhas (closely corresponding to Humes bundles), which constitute the more enduring elements of personality. Hume and the Buddhists give a sufficiently re alistic description of selfness in action; but they fail to explain how or why the bundles ever became bundles . Did their constituent atoms of experience come together of their ow n accord? And, if so, why, or by what means, and within what kind of a non-spatial universe? To give a plausible answer to these quest ions in terms of natt is so difficult that we are forced to abandon t he doctrine in favour of the notion that, behind the flux and within the bu ndles, there exists some kind of perman ent soul, by which experience i s organized and which in turn makes use of that organized experie nce to become a particular and unique personality. This is the view of the orthodox Hinduism, from which Buddhist thought parted company, and of almost a ll European thought from before the time of Aristotle to the present day. But whereas most contempo rary t h i n k e r s m a k e a n a t t e m p t t o d e s c r i b e h u m a n n a t u r e i n t e r m s o f a dichotomy of interacting psyche and physique, or an inseparable wholeness of these two elements within particular embodied selv es, all the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy make, in one form or another, the affirmation that ma n is a kind of trinity composed of body, psyche and spirit. Selfness or p ersonality is a product of the first two elements. The third element (that guidguia increatum et increabile, as Eckhart called it) is akin to, or even identical with, the Divine Spirit that is the Ground of all being. Mans final end, the purpose of his ex istence, is to love, know and be united with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. And this identification of self with spiritual not-sel f can be achieved only by dying to se lfness and living to spirit. 65 What could begin to deny self, if there were not something in man different from self? William Law What is man? An angel, an an imal, a void, a world, a nothing surrounded by God, indigent of God, capable of God, filled with God, if it so desires. Brulle The separate creaturely life, as oppo sed to life in union with God, is only a life of various appetites, hu ngers and wants, and cannot possibly be anything else. God Himself cannot make a creature to be in itself, or in its own nature, anyt hing else but a state of emptiness. The highest life that is natural and creaturely can go no higher than this; it can only be a bare capacity for goodness and cannot possibly be a good and happy life but by the life of God dwelling in and in union with it. And this is the twofold average citizens, life that, of all necessity, must be united in every good and perfect and happy creature . William Law The Scriptures say of human beings that there is an outward man and along with him an inner man. To the outward man belong those thin gs that depend on the soul, but are connected with the flesh and are blended with it, and the co- operative functions of the several me mbers, such as the eye, the ear, the tongue, the hand and so on. The Sc ripture speaks of all this as the old man, the earthy man, the outwar d person, the enemy, the servant. Within us all is the ot her person, the inner man, whom the Scripture calls the new man, the heavenly man, the young person, the friend, the aristocrat. Eckhart The seed of God is in us. Give n an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and 66 accordingly its fruits will be God-na ture. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut tree s, and God seed into God. Eckhart T h e w i l l i s f r e e a n d w e a r e a t liberty to identify our being ei ther exclusively with our selfness and its interests, regarded as in dependent of indwelling Spirit and transcendent Godhead (in which case we shall be passively damned or actively fiendish), or exclusively with the Divine within us and without (in which case we shall be saints), or finally with self at one moment or in one context and with spiritual not-self at other m oments and in other contexts (in which case we shall be average citizens, too theocentric to be wholly lost, and too egocentric to achieve en lightenment and a total deliverance). Since human craving can never be satisfied except by the unitive knowledge of God and since the mind - bod y is capable of an enormous variety of experiences, we are free to i dentify ourselves with an almost infinit e number of possible objects - with the pleasures of gluttony, for exampl e, or intemperanc e, or sensual ity; with money, power or fame; with our family, regarded as a possession o r actually an extension and projec tion of our own selfness; with our goods and chattels, our hobbies, our c ollections; with our artistic o r scientific t a l e n t s ; w i t h s o m e f a v o u r i t e b r a n c h o f k n o w l e d g e , s o m e f a s c i n a t ing s p e c i a l s u b j e c t ; w i t h o u r p r o f e s s i o n s , o u r p o l i t i c a l p a r t i e s , o u r churches; with our pains and illnesses; with our memories of su ccess or misfortune, our hopes, fears and schemes for the future; and fi nally with the eternal Reality within which and by which all the rest has its being. And we are free, of course, to identify ourselves with more tha n one of these things simultaneously or in succession. Hence the quite astonishingly improbable combination of traits making up a comp lex personality. Thus a man can be at once the craftiest of politicians and the dupe of his own verbiage, can have a passion for brandy and money, and an e qual passion for the poetry of George Meredith and under-age girls a nd his 67 m o t h e r , f o r h o r s e - r a c i n g a n d d e t e c t i v e s t o r i e s a n d t h e g o o d o f his country - the whole accompanied by a sneaking fear of hell-fire , a hatred of Spinoza and an unblemished re cord for Sunday church-going. A person born with one kind of psycho-physical constitution will be tempted to identify himself with one set of interests and passi ons, while a person with another kind of temperament will be tempted to ma ke very different identificatio ns. But these temptations (though extremely powerful, if the constitutio nal bias is strongly marked) do not have to be succumbed to; people can and do resist them, can and do refuse to identify themselves with what it would be all too easy and natu ral for them to be; can and do become be tter and quite other than their own selves. In this context the follo wing brief article on How Men Behave in Crisis (published in a recent issu e of Harpers Magazine) is highly significant. A young psychiatrist, who went as a medical observer on five c ombat missions of the Eighth Air Force in England, says that in times of great stress and danger men are likely to react quite uniformly, even though under normal circumstances they differ widely in personality. H e went on one mission, during which the B-17 plane and crew were so se verely damaged that survival seemed imp ossible. He had already studied the on the Ground personalities of t he crew and had found that th ey represented a great diversity of human types. Of their behaviou r in crisis he reported: Their reactions were remarkably alike. During the violent physiological combat and in the ac ute emergencies that arose during it, they were all quietly precise on the interphone and decisive in action. The tail gunner, right waist gunner and navigator were severely wounded early in the fight, but all three kept at their duties efficiently and without cessation. Th e burden of emergency work fell on the pilot, engineer and ball turre t gunner, and all functioned with 68 rapidity, skilful effectiveness and no lost motion. The burden of the decisions, during, but particularly after the combat, rested essentially on the pilot and, in secondary detail s, on the co-pilot and bombardier. The decisions, arrived at with care and speed, were unquestioned once they were made, and proved excellent . In the period when disaster was momentarily expected, the altern ative plans of action were made clearly and with no thought other th an the safety of the entire crew. All at this point were quiet, unobtrusively cheerful and ready for anything. There was at no time pa ralysis, panic, unclear thinking, faulty or confused judgment, or se lf-seeking in any one of them. One could not possibly have inferr ed from their behaviour that this one was a man of unstable moods and that that one was a shy, quiet, introspective man. They all became outwardly calm, precise in thought and rapid in action. Such acti on is typical of a crew who know intimately what fear is, so that th ey can use, without being distracted by, its physiological concomitants; who are well trained, so that they can direct their action with clarit y; and who have all the more than personal trust inherent in a unified team. We see then that, when the crisis came, each of these young men forgot the particular personality which he had built up out of the ele ments provided by his heredity and the environment in which he had gr own up; that one resisted the normally irresistible temptation to i dentify h i m s e l f w i t h h i s m o o d o f t h e m o m e n t , a n o t h e r t h e t e m p t a t i o n t o identify himself with his private day-dreams, and so on with th e rest; and that all of them behaved in the same strikingly similar and wholly heart's content. And how we wallow It is for admirable way. It was as though the crisis and the preliminary training for crisis had l ifted them out of their divergent personalities and raised them to the sam e higher level. 69 Sometimes crisis alone, without any preparatory training, is su fficient to make a man forget to be his customary self and become, for the time being, something quite different. Thus the most unlikely people will, under the influence of disaster, temporarily turn into heroes, martyrs, selfless labourers for the good of their fellows. Very often, t oo, the proximity of death produces sim ilar results. For example, Samue l Johnson behaved in one way during almost the whole of his life and in quite another way during his last illness. The fascinatingly co mplex personality, in which six genera tions of Boswellians have taken so much delight - the learned boor and glutton, the kind-hearted bully, t h e superstitious intellectual, the convinced Christian who was a f etishist, the courageous man who was terrified of death - became, while h e was actually dying, simple, single , serene and God-centred. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is, for very many persons, much easier to behave selflessly in time of crisis than it is when life is tak ing its normal course in undisturbed tranquillity. When the going is easy, the re is nothing to make us forget our precious selfness, nothing (except our own will to mortification and the knowledge of God) to distract our minds from the distractions with which we h ave chosen to be identified; we are at perfect liberty to wallow in our personality to our hearts con tent. And how we wallow! It is for this reason that all the masters of th e spiritual life insist so strongly upon the importance of little things. God requires a faithful fulfilment of the merest trifle given us to do, rather than the most ardent aspiration to things to which we are not called. St. Franois de Sales There is no one in the world who cannot arrive without difficulty at the most eminent perfection by fu lfilling with love obscure and common duties. F. P. de Caussade 70 Some people measure the worth of go od actions only by their natural qualities or their difficulty, givi ng the preference to what is conspicuous or brilliant. Such men fo rget that Christian virtues, which are Gods inspirations, should be vi ewed from the side of grace, not that of nature. The dignity and diff iculty of a good action certainly affects what is technically called its accidental worth, but all its essential worth comes from love alone. Jean Pierre Camus (quoting St. Franois de Sales) The saint is one who knows that every moment of our human life is a moment of crisis; for at every moment we are called upon to mak e an all-important decision - to choose between the way that leads t o death and spiritual darkness and the way that leads towards light and life; between interests exclusively temporal and the eternal order; b etween our personal will, or the will of some projection of our person ality, and the will of God. In order to fit himself to deal with the emerg encies of his way of life, the saint undertakes appropriate training of m ind and body, just as the soldier does. But whereas the objectives of m ilitary training are limited and v e r y simple, namely, to make men courageous, cool-headed and co- operatively efficient in the business of killing other men, wit h whom, personally, they have no quarrel, the objectives of spiritual t raining are much less narrowly specialized. Here the aim is primarily to br ing human beings to a state in which, beca use there are no longer any God -eclipsing obstacles between themselves and Reality, they are able to be a ware continuously of the Divine Ground of their own and all other be ings; secondarily, as a means to this end, to meet all, even the most trivial circumstances of daily living, without malice, greed, self-asse rtion or voluntary ignorance, but consistently with love and understandi ng. Because its objectives are not limited, because, for 'loves his enemies' 71 the lover of God, every moment is a moment of crisis, spiritual training is incomparably more difficult a nd searching than military trai ning. There are many good soldiers, few saints. We have seen that, in critical emergencies, soldiers specifical ly trained to cope with that kind of thing tend to forget the inborn and a cquired idiosyncrasies with which they normally identify their being an d, transcending selfness, to behave in the same, one-pointed, bett er-than- personal way. What is true of soldiers is also true of saints, but with this important difference - that the aim of spiritual training is to make people become selfless in every circumstance of life, while the aim of military t r a i n i n g i s t o m a k e t h e m s e l f l e s s o n l y i n c e r t a i n v e r y s p e c i a l circumstances and in relation to only certain classes of human beings. This could not be otherwise; for all that we are and will and d o depends, in the last analysis, upon what we believe the Nature of Things to be. The philosophy that rationalizes power politics and justifies w ar and military training is always (whatever the official re ligion of the politicians and war makers) some wildly unrealistic doctr ine of national, racial or ideological idolatry, having, as its inevitable corollaries, th e notions of Herrenvolk and the lesser breeds without the Law. The biographies of the saints testify unequivocally to the fact t h a t spiritual training leads to a transcendence of personality, not merely in the special circumstances of bat tle, but in all circumstances a nd in relation to all creatures, so th at the saint loves his enemies or, if he is a Buddhist, does not even recognize the existence of enemies, b ut treats all sentient beings, the Blessed One sub-human as well as human , with the same compassion and disinterested goodwill. Those who win through to the unitive knowledge of God set out upon their cour se from the most diverse starting points . One is a man, another a woman ; one a born active, another a born cont emplative. No two of them inher it the same temperament and physical constitution, and their lives are passed 72 in material, moral and intellectual environments that are profo undly dissimilar. Nevertheless, in so far as whose non-destruction wo uld have individualized me as a they are s a i n t s , i n s o f a r a s t h e y p o s s e ss the unitive knowledge that makes the m perfect as their Father whic h is in h e a v e n i s p e r f e c t , t h e y a r e a l l a s t o n i s h i n g l y a l i k e . T h e i r a c t ions are uniformly selfless and they are constantly recollected, so that at every moment they know who they are and what is their true relation t o the universe and its spiritual Ground. Of even plain average people it may b e s a i d t h a t t h e i r n a m e i s L e g i o n - m u c h m o r e s o o f e x c e p t i o n a l ly complex personalities, who identify themselves with a wide dive rsity of moods, cravings and opinions. Saints, on the contrary, are nei ther doubleminded nor half-hear ted, but single and, however great their intellectual gifts, profoundly simple. The multiplicity of Legion has given place to one-pointedness - not to any of those evil one-pointednesses of ambition or covetousness, or lu st for power and fame, not even to any of the nobler, but still all to o human one-pointednesses of art, schola rship and science, regarded as ends in themselves, but to the supreme, m ore than human one-pointedness that is the very being of those souls who consciously and consi stently pursue mans final end, the know ledge of eternal Reality. In on e of the Pali scriptures there is a significant anecdote about the Brahm an Drona who, seeing the Blessed One sitting at the foot of a tree, ask ed him, Are you a deva?. And the Exalted On e answered, I am not. Are yo u a Gandharva? I am not. Are you a Yaksha? I am not. Are yo u a man? I am not a man. On the Brahman asking what he might be, the B lessed One replied, Those evil influenc es, those cravings, whose non- destruction would have individua lized me as a deva, a Gandharva , a Yaksha (three types of supernatural being), or a man, I have completely annihilated. Know theref ore that I am Buddha. 73 Here we may remark in passing tha t it is only the one-pointed w ho are truly capable of worshipping one God. Monotheism as a theory ca n be entertained even by a person who se name is Legion. But when it comes to passing from theory to practi ce, from discursive knowledge a bout to immediate acquaintance with the one God, there cannot be monotheism except where there is singleness of heart. Knowledge is in the knower according to the mode of the knower. Where the knowe r is poly-psychic the universe he kno ws by immediate experience is polytheistic. The Buddha decline d to make any statement in rega rd to the ultimate Divine Reality. All he would talk about was Nirvan a, which is the name of the experience that comes to the totally selfles s and one- pointed. To this same experience others have given the name of union with Brahman, with Al Haqq, with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. Maintaining, in this matter, the attitude of a strict operationalist, the Buddha would speak only of the spiritual ex perience, not of the metaphysical entity presumed by the theologians of o ther religions, as also of later Bu ddhism, to be the object and (since in contemplation the knower, the kn own and the knowledge are all o ne) at the same time the subject and subs tance of that experience. When a man lacks discrimination, hi s will wanders in all directions, after innumerable aims. Those who la ck discrimination may quote the letter of the scripture; but they are really denying its inner truth. They are full of worldly desires and hungry for the rewards of heaven. They use beautiful figures of speech; they teach elaborate rituals, which are supposed to obtain pleasure and power for those who practise them. But, actually, they understand noth ing except the law of Karma that chains men to rebirth. Those whose discrimination is stolen away by such talk grow deeply attached to pleasure and power. And so they are unable to develop that 74 one-pointed concentration of th e will, which leads a man to absorption in God. Bhagavad-Gita Among the cultivated and mentally active, hagiography is now a very u n p o p u l a r f o r m o f l i t e r a t u r e . T h e f a c t i s n o t a t a l l s u r p r i s i n g . The cultivated and the mentally activ e have an insatiable appetite for novelty, diversity and distractio n. But the saints, however com manding their talents and whatever the n ature of their professional act ivities, are all incessantly preoccupied with only one subject-spiritual Rea lity and t h e m e a n s b y w h i c h t h e y a n d t h e i r f e l l o w s c a n c o m e t o t h e u n i t i ve knowledge of that Reality. And as for their actions - these are a s monotonously uniform as their thoughts; for in all circumstance s they behave selflessly, patiently and with indefatigable charity. No wonder, then, if the biographies of such men and women remain unread. F or one well-educated person who knows anything about William Law there are two or three hundred who have read Boswells life of his younge r contemporary. Why? Because, unti l he actually lay dying, Johnso n indulged himself in the most fascinating of multiple personalit ies; whereas Law, for all the superiority of his talents, was almost absurdly simple and single-minded. Legion prefers to read about Legion. It is for this reason that, in the whole r epertory of epic, drama and the novel, there are hardly any representati ons of true theocentric saints . O Friend, hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live; for in li fe deliverance abides. If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliverance in death? It is but an empty dream that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body; If He is found now, He is found then; If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death. Kabir This figure in the form of a sun (the description is of the engraved frontispiece to the first edition of The Rule of Perfection) represents the will 75 of God. The faces placed here in the sun represent souls living in the Divine will. These faces are arranged in three concentric circl es, showing the three degrees of this Divine will. The first or outermost degree si gnifies the souls of the active life; the second, those of the life of contemplation; the third, those of the life of super-eminence. Outside the first circle are many tools, such a s pincers and hammers, denoting the active life. But round the second cir cle we have placed nothing at all, in or d e r t o s i g n i f y t h a t i n t h i s k i nd of contemplative life, without any other speculations or practices , one must follow the leading of the w ill of God. The tools are on th e Ground and in shadow, inasmuch as outwa rd saint, works are in themselv es full of darkness. These tools, however, are touched by a ray of the sun, to show that works may be enlightened and illuminated by the will of God. The light of the Divine will shines but little on the faces of the first circle; much more on those of the second; while those of the third or innermost circle are resplendent. Th e features of the first show up most clearly; the second, less; the third, hardly at all. This signifies that the souls of the first degree are much in themselves; those of the second degree are less in themselv es and more in God; those in the third degree are almost nothing in th emselves and all in God, absorbed in his essential will. All these faces ha ve their eyes fixed on the will of God. Benet of Canfield It is in virtue of his absorption in God and just because he ha s not identified his being with the inborn and acquired elements of h is private personality, that the saint is a ble to exercise his entirely no n-coercive and therefore entirely beneficent influence on individuals and even on whole societies. Or, to be more accurate, it is because he has purged himself of selfness that Divine Reality is able to use him as a channel of grace and power. I live, yet not I, but Christ - the eternal L ogos liveth in 76 m e . T r u e o f t h e s a i n t , t h i s m u s t a f o r t i o r i b e t r u e o f t h e A v a t ar, or incarnation of God. If, in so far as he was a saint, St. Paul w as not I, then certainly Christ was not I. The moral of all this is unambiguous and to talk, as so many li beral churchmen now do, of worshipping the personality of Jesus, is a n absurdity. For, obviously, had Jesus remained content merely to have a personality, like the rest of us, he would never have exercised the kind of influence which in fact he did exercise, and it would never have occurred to anyone to regard him as a Divine incarnation and to identify him with the Logos. That he came to be thought of as the Christ was due to the fact that he had passed be yond selfness and had become t he bodily and mental conduit through which a more than personal, s uper- life flowed down into the world. Souls which have come to the unitive knowledge of God are, in B enet of Canfields phrase, almost nothin g in themselves and all in God . This vanishing residue of selfness persists because, in some slight measure, they still identify their being with some innate psycho-physica l idiosyncrasy, some acquired habi t o f t h o u g h t o r f e e l i n g , s o m e convention or unanalysed prejudice current in the social enviro nment. Jesus was almost wholly absorbed in the essential will of God; but in spite of this, he may have retai ned some elements of selfness. To what extent there was any I associated with the more-than-personal , Divine Not-I, it is very difficult, on the basis of the existing evi dence, to judge. For example, did Jesus interpret his experience of Divine Reali ty and his own spontaneous inferences from that experience in terms of tho se fascinating apocalyptic notions current in contemporary Jewish circles? Some eminent scholars have argued that the doctrine of the worl ds i m m i n e n t d i s s o l u t i o n w a s t h e c e n t r a l c o r e o f h i s t e a c h i n g . O t h e rs, equally learned, have held that it was attributed to him by the authors o f t h e S y n o p t i c G o s p e l s , a n d t h a t J e s u s h i m s e l f d i d n o t i d e n t i f y his 77 experience and his theological thinking with locally popular op inions. Which party is right? Goodness knows. On this subject, as on so many others, the existing evidence does not permit of a certain and unambiguous answer. The moral of all this is plain. The quantity and quality of the surviving b i o g r a p h i c a l d o c u m e n t s a r e s u c h t h a t w e h a v e n o m e a n s o f k n o w i n g what the residual personality of Jesus was really like. But if the Gospels tell us very little about the I which was Jesus, they make up for this deficiency by telling us inferent ially, in the parables and dis courses, a good deal about the spiritual n ot I, whose manifest presence in the mortal man was the reason why his disciples called him the Chri st and identified him with the eternal Logos. The biography of a saint or avatar is valuable only in so far a s it throws l i g h t u p o n t h e m e a n s b y w h i c h i n t h e c i r c u m s t a n c e s o f a p a r t i c u lar human life, the I was purged away so as to make room for the Divine not-I. The authors of the Synoptic Gospels did not choose to write such a biography, and no amount of textual criticism or ingenious su rmise can call it into existence. In the course of the last hundred years a n enormous sum of energy has been expended on the attempt to make documents yield more evidence than in fact they contain. Howeve r regrettable may be the Synoptist s l a c k o f i n t e r e s t i n b i o g r a p h y, and whatever objections may be raised against the theologies of Pau l and John, there can still be no doubt that their instinct was essen tially sound. Each in his own way wrote about the eternal not-I of Christ r ather than the historical I; ea ch in his own way stressed that element i n the life of Jesus, in which, because it is m ore-than-personal, all persons can participate. (The nature of selfness is such that one person cannot be a par t of another person. A self can contain or be contained by someth ing that is either less or more than a self, it can never contain or be con tained by a self.) 78 The doctrine that God can be incarnated in human form is found in most o f t h e p r i n c i p a l h i s t o r i c e x p o s i t i o n s o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p hy - in Hinduism, in Mahayana Buddhism, in Christianity and in the Mohammedanism of the Sufis, by w hom the Prophet was equated wit h the eternal Logos. When goodness grows weak, when evil increases, I make myself a body. the incarnation of the Godhead in human form differs from that In every age I come back, to deliver the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinner, to establish righteousness. He who knows the nature of my task and my holy birth is not reborn wh en he leaves this body; he comes to Me. Flying from fear, from lust and anger, He hides in Me, his refuge and safety. Burnt clean in the blaze of my being, in Me many find home. Bhagavad-Gita Then the Blessed One spoke and said: Know, Vasetha, that from time to time a Tath gata is born into the worl d, a fully Enlightened One, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men, a Bl essed Buddha. He thoroughly understands this universe, as though he saw it face to face. . . . The Truth does he proclaim both in its le tter and in its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. A higher life doth he make known in all its pu rity and in all its perfectness. Tevijja Sutta Krishna is an incarnation of Brahman, Gautama Buddha of what th e Mahayanists called the Dharmakaya, Suchness, Mind, the spiritua l Ground of all being. The Christian doctrine of the incarnation of the Godhead in human form differs from that of India and the Far Ea st inasmuch as it affirms that there has been and can be only one Avatar. 79 What we do depends in large measure upon what we think, and if what w e d o i s e v i l , t h e r e i s g o o d e m p i r i c a l r e a s o n f o r s u p p o s i n g t h a t our thought-patterns are inadequate to material, mental or spiritua l reality. Because Christians believed that t h e r e h a d b e e n o n l y o n e A v a t a r , Christian history has been disgraced by more and bloodier crusa des, inter-denominational wars, perse cutions and proselytizing imper ialism than has the history of Hinduism and Buddhism. Absurd and idolatrous doctrines, affirming the quasi-Divine nat ure of sovereign states and their rulers, have led oriental, no less t han Western peoples into innumerable politica l wars; but because they have not believed in an exclusive revelati on at one sole instant of time , or in the quasi-divinity of an ecclesiasti cal organization, oriental peop les have kept remarkably clear of the mass murder for religions sake, w hich has been so dreadfully frequent in Christendom. And while, in this important respect, the level of public mor ality has been lower in the Wes t than in the East, the levels of exceptio nal sanctity and of ordinary in dividual morality have not, so far as one can judge from the available e vidence, been any higher. If the tree is indeed known by its fruits, Chr istianitys departure from the norm of the P erennial Philosophy would seem to be philosophically unjustifiable. The Logos passes out of eternity into time for no other purpose than to assist the beings, whose bodily form he takes, to pass out of t ime into eternity. If the Avatars appearance upon the stage of history is enormously important, this is du e to the fact that by his teach ing he points out, and by his being a channel of grace and Divine powe r he a c t u a l l y i s , t h e m e a n s b y w h i c h h u m a n b e i n g s m a y t r a n s c e n d t h e limitations of history. The auth or of the Fourth Gospel affirms that the Word became flesh; but in another passage he adds that the fles h profiteth nothing - nothing, that is to say, in itself, but a g reat deal, of course, as a means to the union with immanent and transcendent Spirit. 80 In this context it is very interesting to consider the developm ent of Buddhism. Under the forms of religious or mystical imagery, w rites R. E. Johnston in his Buddhist China, the Mahayana expresses the universal, whereas Hinayana cann ot set itself free from the dom ination of historical fact. In the words of an eminent orientalist, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, The Mahayanist believer is warned - precisely as the worshipper of Krishna i s w a r n e d i n t h e V a i s h n a v i t e s c r i p t u r e s t h a t t h e K r i s h n a L l a i s not a h i s t o r y , b u t a p r o c e s s f o r e v e r u n f o l d e d i n t h e h e a r t o f m a n - that matters of historical fact are w ithout religious significance (except, we should add, in so far as they point to or themselves constitute the means - whether remote or proximate, whether political, ethical or spir itual - by which men may come to deliveranc e from selfness and the tempora l order.) In the West, the mystics went some way towards liberating Chris tianity from its unfortunate servitude to historic fact (or, to be more accurate, to those various mixtures of contemporary record with subsequent i nference and phantasy, which have, at di fferent epochs, been accepted as h i s t o r i c fact). From the writings of Eckhart, Ta uler and Ruysbroeck, of Boehme, William Law and the Quakers, it would be possible to extract a spiritualized and universalized C hristianity, whose narratives should refer, not to history as it was, or as someone afterwards thoug ht it ought to be, but to processes forever unfolded in the heart of man. B u t unfortunately the influence of th e mystics was never powerful e nough to bring about a radical Mahayanist revolution in the West. In spite of them, Christianity has remained a religion in which the pure Pe rennial P h i l o s o p h y h a s b e e n o v e r l a i d , n o w m o r e , n o w l e s s , b y a n i d o l a t r ous preoccupation with events and things in time - events and thing s regarded not merely as useful me ans, but as ends, intrinsically sacred and indeed Divine. 81 Moreover, such improvements on history as were made in the cour se of centuries were, most imprudently , treated as though they themse lves were a part of history - a procedure which put a powerful weapo n into the hands of Protestant and, later, of Rationalist controversia lists. How m u c h w i s e r i t w o u l d h a v e b e e n t o a d m i t t h e p e r f e c t l y a v o w a b l e f act that, when the sternness of Christ the Judge had been unduly emphasized, men and women felt the need of personifying the Div ine compassion in a new form, with the result that the figure of th e Virgin, mediatrix to the mediator, came into increased prominence. And when, in course of time, the Queen of Heaven was felt to be too awe-i nspiring, compassion was re-personified in the homely figure of St. Josep h, who thus became mediator to the mediatrix to the mediator. In exact ly the same way Buddhist worshippers felt that the historic Sakyamuni, with his insistence on recollectedne ss, discrimination and a total d ying to self as the principal means of liberat ion, was too stern and too int ellectual. The result was that the love and compassion which Sakyamuni had also inculcated came to be personified in Buddhas such as Amida and M a i t r e y a - D i v i n e c h a r a c t e r s c o m p l e t e l y r e m o v e d f r o m h i s t o r y , inasmuch as their temporal career was situated somewhere in the distant past or distant future. H e r e i t m a y b e r e m a r k e d t h a t t h e vast numbers of Buddhas and Bodhisattv as, of whom the Mahayanist theologians speak, are commensurate with the vastness of their cosmology. Time, for them, is beg inningless, and the innumerabl e universes, every one of them sup porting sentient beings of ever y possible variety, are born, evolve, decay and die, only to repe at the same cycle again and again, until the final inconceivably remote consummation, when every sentien t being in all the worlds shall have won to deliverance out of time into eternal Suchness or Buddhah ood. This cosmological background to B uddhism has affinities with th e world picture of modern astronomy - especially with that version of i t offered 82 in the recently published theory of Dr. Weizscker regarding th e formation of planets. If the Weizscker hypothesis is correct, the production of a planetary system would be a normal episode in t he life of every star. There are forty thousand million stars in our ow n galactic system alone, and beyond our galaxy other galaxies, indefinitel y. If, as we have no choice but to believe, spiritual laws governing cons ciousness are uniform throughout the whole planet - bearing and presumabl y life- supporting universe, then certainly there is plenty of room, an d at the same time, no doubt, the most ag onizing and desp erate need, for those innumerable redemptive incarnations of Such-ness, upon whose sh ining multitudes the Mahayanists love to dwell. For my part, I think the chief re ason which prompted the invisible God to become visible in the flesh and to hold converse with men was to lead carnal men, who are only able to love carnally, to the healthful love of his flesh, and afterwards, li ttle by little, to spiritual love. St. Bernard St. Bernards doctrine of the carnal love of Christ has been admirably summed up by Professor Etienne G ilson in his book, The Mystical Theology of St. Bernard. Knowle dge of self already expanded in to social carnal love of the neighbour, so like oneself in misery, is now a second time expanded into a carnal love of Christ, the model of compas sion, since for our salvation He has b ecome the Man of Sorrows. Here then is the place occupied in Cistercian mysticism by the meditation on t h e visible Humanity of Christ. It is but a beginning, but an absol utely necessary beginning. . . . Charity, of course, is essentially spiritual, and a love of thi s kind can be no more than its first moment. It is too much bound up with the senses, unless we know how to make use of it with prudence, and to lean on it only as something to be surpasse d. In expressing himself thus, Bernard merely codified the teachings of his own experience; for we hav e it from 83 him that he was much given to the practice of this sensitive lo ve at the outset of his conversion; later on he was to consider it an adv ance to have passed beyond it; not, that is to say, to have forgotten i t, but to have added another, which outwei ghs it as the rational and spir itual outweigh the carnal. Nevertheless, this beginning is already a summit. This sensitive affection for Christ was always presented by St. Bernard as love of a relatively inferior order. It is so precisely on a ccount of its sensitive character, for charity is of a purely spiritual essen ce. In right the soul should be able to enter directly into union, in virtue o f i t s s p i r i t u a l p o w e r s , w i t h a G o d w h o i s p u r e s p i r i t . T h e I n c a r n a t i o n, moreover, should be regarded as one of the consequences of man s transgression, so that love for the Person of Christ is, as a m atter of fact, bound up with the history of a fall which need not, and should not, have happened. St. Bernard furthermor e, and in several places, notes t h a t this affection cannot stand safely alone, but needs to be suppo rted by what he calls science. He had examples before him of the devi ations 'into which even the most ardent devotion can fall, when it is not allied with, and ruled by, a sane theology. Can the many fantastic and mutually incompatible theories of ex piation and atonement, which have been g rafted on to the Christian doct rine of Divine incarnation, be regarded as indispensable elements in a sane theology? I find it difficult to imagine how anyone who has lo oked into a history of these notions, as expounded, for example, by the a uthor of the Epistle to the Hebrews, by Athanasius and Augustine, by Ans elm and Luther, by Calvin and Grotius, can plausibly answer this questi on in the affirmative. In the present cont ext, it will be enough to call attention to one of the bitterest of all the bitter ironies of history. For the Christ of the Gospels, lawyers seemed further from the Kingdom of Heaven, more hopelessly impervious to Reality, than almost any other class o f human beings except the rich. 84 But Christian theology, especia lly that of the Western churches , was the product of minds imbued with Jewish and Roman legalism. In all too many instances the immediate ins ights of the Avatar and the the ocentric saint were rationalized into a sy stem, not by philosophers, but b y speculative barristers and metaphysical jurists. Why should wha t Abbot John Chapman calls the problem of reconciling (not merely uniting) Mysticism and Christianity be so extremely difficult? Simply b ecause so much Roman and Protestant thinking was done by those very lawye rs w h o m C h r i s t r e g a r d e d a s b e i n g p e culiarly incapable of understan ding the true Nature of Things. The Abbot (Chapman is apparently re ferring to Abbot Marmion) says St. John of the Cross is like a sponge full of Christianity. You can squeeze it all out, and the mystical theory (in other words, the pure Perennial Philosophy) remains. Consequently for fift een years or so I hated St. John of the Cross and called him a Bu ddhist. I loved St. Teresa and read her over and over again. She is firs t a Christian, only secondarily a mystic. Then I found I had wasted fi fteen years, so far as prayer was concerned. Abbot John Chapman Now see the meaning of these two sayings of Christs. The one: No man cometh unto the Father but by me, that is through my life. The other saying, No man cometh unto me except the Father draw him; that is, he does not take my life upon him and follow after me, except he is moved and drawn of my Father, that is, of the Simple and Perfect Good, of which St. Paul saith: When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. Theologa Germanica In other words, there must be im itation of Christ before there can be identification with the Father; and there must be essential ide ntity or likeness between the human spirit and the God who is Spirit in order t h a t t h e i d e a o f i m i t a t i n g t h e e a r t h l y b e h a v i o u r o f t h e i n c a r n a te 85 Godhead should ever cross anybod ys mind. Christian theologians speak o f t h e p o s s i b i l i t y o f d e i f i c a t i o n , b u t d e n y t h a t t h e r e i s i d e ntity of substance between spiritual Realit y and the human spirit. In Ve danta and Mahayana Buddhism, as also a mong the Sufis, spirit and Spir it are held to be the same substance; tman is Brahman; That art thou. When not enlightened, Buddhas are no other than ordinary beings; when there is enlightenment, ordi nary beings at once turn into Buddhas. Hui Neng Every human being can thus become an Avatar by adoption, but no t by his unaided efforts. He must be shown the way, and he must be a ided by Divine grace. That men and women may be thus instructed and helped, the Godhead assumes the form of an ordinary human being , who has to earn deliverance and enlightenment in the way that i s prescribed by the Divine Nature of Things - namely, by charity, by a total dying to self and a total, one-pointed awareness. Thus enlighte ned, the Avatar can reveal the way of enlightenment to others and help t hem actually to become what they already potentially are. Tel quen L u i - mme enfin lternit le change. And of course the eternity whi ch transforms us into Ourselves is not the experience of mere pers istence after bodily death. There will be no experience of timeless Rea lity then, unless there is the same or a s imilar knowledge within the worl d of time and matter. By precept and by exa mple, the Avatar teaches that this transforming knowledge is possible, that all sentient beings ar e called to it and that, sooner or later, in one way or another, all must f inally come to it. avb 86 Chapter 4 GOD IN THE WORLD HAT art thou: Behold but One i n all things - God within and G od without. There is a way to Reality in and through the soul, an d there is a way to Reality in and through the world. Whether the ultimate goal can be reached by following either of these ways to the ex clusion of the other is to be doubted. The third, best and hardest way is that which leads to the Divine Ground simultaneously in the perceive r and in that which is perceived. The Mind is no other than the Bu ddha, and Buddha is no other than sentient being. When Mind assumes the form of a sentient being, it has suffered no decrease; when it has become a Buddha, it has added nothing to itself. Huang Po All creatures have existed eternally in the Divine essence, as in their exemplar. So far as they conform to the Divine idea, all beings were, before their creation, one thin g with the essence of God. (God creates into time what was and is in eternity.) Eternally, all creatures are God in God. . . . So far as they are in Go d, they are the same life, the same essence, the same power, the same One, and nothing less. Suso The image of God is found essentiall y and personally in all man- kind. Each possesses it whole, entire an d undivided, and all together not more than one alone. In this way we are all one, intimately united in our eternal image, which is the imag e of God and the source in us of all our life. Our created essence and ou r life are attached to it without mediation as to their eternal cause. Ruysbroeck T 87 When is a man in mere understand ing? I answer, When a man sees one thing separated from another. And when is a man above mere understanding? That I can tell you: When a man sees All in all, then a man stands beyond mere understanding. Eckhart There are four kinds of Dhyana (spiritual disciplines). W hat are these four? They are, first, the Dhyana practised by the ignorant; second, the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning; third, the Dhyana with Suchness for its object; fourth, the Dhyana of the Tathgatas (Buddhas). What is meant by the Dhyana practised by the ignorant? It is th e one resorted to by the Yogins who exercise themselves in the discip lines of Sravakas and Pratyeka-buddhas (contemplatives and solitary Buddhas of the Hinayana school), who perceiving that there is no ego substance, that the body is a shadow and a skele ton which is transient, impure and full of suffering, persistently cling to these notions, which are re garded as just so and not otherwise, and wh o , s t a r t i n g f r o m t h e m , a d v a n c e b y stages until they reach the cessa tion, where there are no thoug hts. This is called the Dhyana pract ised by the ignorant. What then is the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning? It is the one practised by those who, having gone beyond the egolessn ess of things, beyond individuality and generality, beyond the untenab ility of such ideas as self, other and both, which are held by the philosophers, proceed to examine and follow up the meaning of t he various aspects of Bodhisattva-hood. This is the Dhyana devoted to the examination of meaning. When followers of Zen fail to go beyond the world of their senses and though ts, all their doings and moveme nts are of no significance. But when the senses and thoughts ar e annihilated, all the passages to Universal Mind are blocked, and no entrance then becomes possible. The original Mind is to be recognized along with the working of the 88 senses and thoughts - only it does not belong to them, nor yet is it independent of them. Do not build up your views upon your senses and thoughts, do not base your un derstanding upon your senses and thoughts; but at the same time do not seek the Mind away from your senses and thoughts, do not try to grasp Reality by rejecting your senses and thoughts. When you are neither attached to, nor detached from, them, then you enjoy your pe rfect unobstructed freedom, then you have your seat of enlightenment. Huang-Po Every individual being, from the atom up to the most highly org anized of living bodies and the most exalted of finite minds, may be t hought of, i n R e n G u n o n s p h r a s e , a s a p o i n t w h e r e a r a y o f t h e p r i m o r d i al Godhead meets one of the differentiated, creaturely emanations of that same Godheads creative energy. The creature, as creature, may be very far from God, in the sense that it lacks the intelligence to di scover the nature of the Divine Ground of its being. But the creature in i ts eternal essence - as the meeting place of creatureliness and primordial Godhead - is one of the infinite number of points where Divine Reality is wholly and eternally present. Because of this, rational beings can come to the unitive knowle dge of s u i t a b l y t h e D i v i n e G r o u n d , n o n - r a t i o n a l a n d i n a n i m a t e b e i n g s m ay r e v e a l t o r a t i o n a l b e i n g s t h e f u l l n e s s o f G o d s p r e s e n c e w i t h i n t h e i r material forms. The poets or the painters vision of the Divin e in nature, the worshippers awareness of a h oly presence in the sacrament, symbol o r i m a g e - t h e s e a r e n o t e n t i r e l y s u b j e c t i v e . T r u e , s u c h p e r c e p tions cannot be had by all perceivers, for knowledge is a function of being; but the thing known is independent o f the mode and nature of the kn ower. really what the poet and painter see, and try to record for us, is actually there, waiting to be apprehended by anyone who has the right ki nd of faculties. Similarly, in the ima ge or the sacramental object th e Divine 89 Ground is wholly present. Faith a nd devotion prepare the worshi ppers mind for perceiving the ray of Godhead at its point of intersec tion with the particular fragment of matter before him. Incidentally, by being worshipped, such symbols become the centres of a field of force . The longings, emotions and imaginations of those who kneel and, for generations, have knelt before the shrine create, as it were, a n enduring vortex in the psychic medium, so that the image lives with a se condary, inferior Divine life projected on to it by its worshippers, as well as with the primary Divine life which, in common with all other animate a n d inanimate beings, it possesses in virtue of its relation to the Divine G r o u n d . T h e r e l i g i o u s e x p e r i e n c e o f s a c r a m e n t a l i s t s a n d i m a g e worshippers may be perfectly genu ine and objective; but it is n ot always o r n e c e s s a r i l y a n e x p e r i e n c e o f G o d o r t h e G o d h e a d . I t m a y b e , and perhaps in most cases it actual ly is, an experience of the fiel d of force generated by the minds of past and present worshippers and proj ected on to the sacramental object whe re it sticks, so to speak, in a condition of what may be called second-hand objectivity, waiting to be pe rceived by minds suitably attuned to it. How desirable this kind of experience really is will have to be discussed i n a n o t h e r s e c t i o n . A l l t h a t n e e d b e s a i d h e r e i s t h a t t h e i c o n oclasts contempt for sacraments and symb ols, as being nothing but mumme ry with stocks and stones, is quite unjustified. The workmen still in doub t what course to take, Whether Id best a saint or hog-trough make, After debate resolved me for a saint; And so famed Loyola I represent. The all too Protestant satirist forgot that God is in the hog-t rough no less than in the conventionally sacred image. Lift the stone and yo u will find me, affirms the best known of the Oxyrhinchus Logia of Jesus, cleave 90 the wood, and I am there. Those who have personally and immedi ately r e a l i z e d t h e t r u t h o f t h i s s a y i n g a n d , a l o n g w i t h i t , t h e t r u t h o f Brahmanisms That art tho u are wholly delivered. The Sravaka (literally hearer, the name given by Mahayana Buddhists to contemplatives of the Hinayana school) fails to perceive that Mind, as it is in itself, has no stages, no ca usation. Disciplining himself in the cause, he has attained the result and abides in the samadhi (contemplation) of Emptiness for ever so many aeons. However enlightened in this way, the Sravaka is not at all on the right track. From the point of view of the Bodhis attva, this is like suffering the torture of hell. The Sravaka has buri ed himself in Emptiness and does not know how to get out of his qu iet contemplation, for he has no insight into the Buddha-nature itself. Mo Tsu When Enlightenment is perfected, a Bodhisattva is free from the bondage of things, but does not se ek to be delivered from things. Samsara (the world of becoming) is not hated by him, nor is Nirvana loved. When perfect Enlightenment shines, it is neither bondage nor deliverance. Prnabuddha-stra The touch of Earth is always reinvi gorating to the son of Earth, even when he seeks a supraphysical Knowle dge. It may even be said that the supraphysical can only be really mastered in its fullness - to its heights we can always reach - when we keep our feet firmly on the physical. Earth is His footing, says the Upanishad, whenever it images the Self that manifests in the universe. Sri Aurobindo T o i t s h e i g h t s w e c a n a l w a y s c o m e . F o r t h o s e o f u s w h o a r e s t ill splashing about in the lower ooz e, the phrase has a rather iron ical ring. Nevertheless, in the light of even the most distant acquaintanc e with the heights and the fullness, it is p ossible to understand what its a u t h o r 91 m e a n s . T o d i s c o v e r t h e K i n g d o m o f G o d e x c l u s i v e l y w i t h i n o n e s e l f is easier than to discover it, not only there, but also in the out er world of minds and things and living creat ures. It is easier because the heights within reveal themselves to those who are ready to exclude from their purview all that lies without. A nd though this exclusion may be a painful and mortificatory process, the fact remains that it is less ard uous than the process of inclusion, by which we come to know the fullness as well as the heights of spiritual life . Where there is exclusive conc entration on the heights within, temptations and distractions are avoided an d there is a general denial and suppression. But when the hope is to kn ow God inclusively - to realize the Divine Ground in the world as well as in the soul, temptations and distractio ns must not be avoided, but sub mitted to and used as opportunities for advance; there must be no supp ression of outward - turning activities, but a transformation of them s o that they become sacramental. Mortification becomes more searching and mo re subtle; there is need of unsleepin g awareness and, on the level s of thought, feeling and conduct, the constant exercise of somethin g like an artists tact and taste. It is in the literature of Mahayana and especially of Zen Buddh ism that we find the best account of the psychology of the man for whom Samsara and Nirvana, time and eternity, are one and the same. M ore systematically perhaps than any other religion, the Buddhism of the Far East teaches the way to spiritual Knowledge in its fullness as well as in its heights, in and through the world as well as in and through the soul. In this context we may point to a highly significant fact, whic h is that the incomparable landscape painting of China and Japan was essentia lly a religious art, inspired by Taois m and Zen Buddhism; in Europe, on the contrary, landscape painting and the poetry of nature worship w e r e secular arts which arose when Christianity was in decline, and derived little or no inspiration from Christian ideals. 92 Blind, deaf, dumb! Infinitely be yond the reach of imaginative contrivances! In these lines Seccho has swept everything away for you - what you see together with what you do not see, what you hear together with what you do not hear, and what you talk about together with what you cannot talk about. All these are comple tely brushed out, and you attai n the life of the blind, deaf and dumb. Here all your imaginations, contri vances and calculations are once and for all put an end to; they are n o more made use of. This is where lies the highest po int of Zen, this is where we h ave true blindness, true deafness and tr ue dumbness, each in its artless a n d effectless aspect. Above the heavens and below th e heavens! How ludicrous, how disheartening! Here Seccho lifts up with one hand and with the other puts down . Tell me what he finds to be ludicrous, what he finds to be dish eartening. It is ludicrous that this dumb pe rson is not dumb after all, th at this deaf person is not after all deaf; it is disheartening that the one who is not at all blind is blind for all that, and that the one who is not at all deaf is deaf for all that. Li-lou does not know how to discriminate right colour. Li-lou lived in the reign of the Emperor Huang. He is said to h ave been able to distinguish the point of a soft hair at a distance of o ne hundred paces. His eyesight was extraord inary. When the Emperor Huang t ook a pleasure cruise on the River Ch ih, he dropped his precious jew el in the water and made Li fetch it up. B u t h e f a i l e d . T h e E m p e r o r m a d e C h i h - k o u s e a r c h f o r i t ; b u t h e a l s o failed to find it. Later Hsiang-wang was ordered to get it, and he got it. 93 Hence, When Hsiang-wang goes down, th e precious gem shines most brilliantly; But where Li-lou walks about, the waves rise even to the sky. When we come to these higher spheres, even the eyes of Li-lou a re incapable of discriminating the right colour. How can Shih-kuang recogniz e the mysterious tune? Shih-kuang was the son of Ching-kuang of Chin in the province o f Chiang under the Chou dynasty. His other name was Tzu-yeh. He could thoroughly distinguish the five sounds and the six notes; he co uld even hear the ants fighting on the other side of a hill. When Chin a nd Chu were at war, Shih-kuang could tell, just by softly fingering th e strings of his lute, that the engagement wo uld surely be unfavourable for Chu. In spite of his extraordinary sensitiveness Seccho declares that h e is unable to recognize the mysterious tune . After all, one who is not at all deaf is really deaf. The most exquisite n ote in the higher spheres is b eyond the hearing of Shih-kuang. Says Seccho, I am not going to be a Li-l ou, nor a Shih-kuang; for What life can compare with this? Sitting quiet ly by the window, I watch the leaves fall and the flowers bloom, as the s easons come and go. When one reaches this stage of r ealization, seeing is no-seeing , hearing is no-hearing, preaching is no-preaching. When hungry one eats, when tired one sleeps. Let the leaves fall, let the flowers bloom as they like. When the leaves fall, I know it is the autumn; when the flowers bloom, I know it is the spring. Having swept everything clean before you, Seccho now opens a pa ssage- way, saying: Do you understand, or not? An iron bar without a hole! He has done all he could for you; he is exhausted - only able t o turn round and present you with this iron bar wi thout a ho le . It i s a most significant expression. Look and see with your own eyes! If you hesitate, 94 you miss the mark for ever. Yengo (the author of this commentary) now raised his staff and said, Do you see? He then struck his cha ir and said, D o y o u h e a r ? C o m i n g d o w n f r o m t h e c h a i r , h e s a i d , W a s a n y t h i ng talked about? What precisely is the significance of that iron bar without a hole? I do not pretend to know. Zen has always specialized in nonsense as a means of stimulating the mind to go forward to that which is beyond sense; so perhaps the point of the bar resides precisely in its pointlessness and in our disturbed, bewildered reaction to that pointlessness. In the root Divine Wisdom is all- Brahman; in the stem she is all- Illusion; in the flower she is al l-World; and in the fruit, all- Liberation. Tantra Tattva The Sravakas and the Pratyeka-bu ddhas, when they reach the eighth stage of the Bodhisattvas discipline , become so intoxicated with the bliss of mental tranquillity that th ey fail to realize that the visible world is nothing but the Mind. Th ey are still in the realm of individuation; their insight is not yet pure. The Bodhisattvas, on the other hand, are alive to their original vows, flowing out of the all- embracing love that is in their hear ts. They do not enter into Nirvana (as a State separate from the world of becoming); they know that the visible world is nothing but a mani festation of Mind itself. Condensed from the Lakvatra Sutra A conscious being alone understand s what is meant by moving. To those not endowed with consciousness the moving is unintelligible. If you exercise yourself in the practi ce of keeping your mind unmoved, the immovable you gain is that of one who has no consciousness. If you are desirous for the truly immovable, the immovable is in the moving itself, And this immovable is the truly immovable one. There is no seed of Buddhahood where there is no consciousness. 95 Mark well how varied are the aspect s of the immovable one, and know that the first reality is immovable. Only when this reality is attained Is the true working of Suchness understood. Hui Neng These phrases about the unmovi n g f i r s t m o v e r r e m i n d o n e o f Mahayanist Aristotle. But between Aristotle and the exponents o f the Perennial Philosophy within the gr eat religious traditions ther e is this vast difference: Aristotle is primarily concerned with cosmolog y, the Perennial Philosophers are primar ily concerned with liberation and enlightenment: Aristotle is content to know about the unmoving mover, f r o m t h e o u t s i d e a n d t h e o r e t i c a l l y ; t h e a i m o f t h e P e r e n n i a l Philosophers is to become directly aware of it, to know it unit ively, so that they and others may actually become the unmoving One. This unitive knowledge can be knowledge in the heights, or knowledge in the fullness, or knowledge simultaneously in the heights and the fu llness. Spiritual knowledge exclusively in the heights of the soul was rejected by Mahayana Buddhism as inadequa te. The similar rejection of qu ietism within the Christian tradition w ill be touched upon in the sect ion, Contemplation and Action. Meanwhile it is interesting to find that the problem which aroused such acrimonious debate throughout seventeenth-century Europe had arisen for the Buddhists at a considerably earlier epoch. But whereas in Catholic Europe the outcome of the battle over Molinos, Mme Guyon and Fnelon was to all in tents and purposes the extinction of mysticism for the best part of t wo c e n t u r i e s , i n A s i a t h e t w o p a r t i e s w e r e t o l e r a n t e n o u g h t o a g r e e to differ. Hinayana spirituality continued to explore the heights within, while the Mahayanist masters held up the ideal not of the Arhat , but of t h e B o d h i s a t t v a , a n d p o i n t e d t h e way to spiritual knowledge in its fullness as well as in its heigh ts. What follows is a poetical account, by a Zen saint of the eighteenth century, of the state of those who have realized the Zen ideal. 96 Abiding with the non-particular which is in particulars, Going or returning, they remain for ever unmoved. Taking hold of the not-though t which lies in thoughts, In their every act they he ar the voice of Truth. How boundless the sky of contemplation! How transparent the moonlight of the four-fold Wisdom! As the Truth reveals itself in its eternal tranquillity, This very earth is the Lotus-Land of Purity, And this body is the body of the Buddha. Hui Nuin Natures intent is neither food, no r drink, nor clothing, nor comfort, nor anything else from which God is left out. Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly Nature seeks and hunts and tries to ferret out the track in which God may be found. E c k h a r t Any flea as it is in God is nobler than the highest of the angels in himself. Eckhart My inner man relishes things not as creatures but as the gift of God. But to my innermost man they savour not of Gods gift, but of ever and aye. Eckhart Pigs eat acorns, but neither consider the sun that gave them life, nor the influence of the heavens by wh ich they were nourished, nor the very root of the tree from whence they came. Thomas Traherne Your enjoyment of the world is never right till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in yo ur Fathers palace; and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as ce lestial joys; having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were amon g the Angels. The bride of a monarch, 97 in her husbands chamber, hath no su ch causes of delight as you. You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heaven s and crowned with the stars; and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and kings in sceptres, you ca n never enjoy the world. ll your spirit filleth the whole worl d, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all ages as with your walk and table; till you are intima tely acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was ma de; till you love men so as to desire their happiness with a thirst eq ual to the zeal of your own; till you delight in God for being good to all; you never enjoy the world. Till you more feel it than your priv ate estate, and are more present in the hemisphere, considering the glor ies and the beauties there, than in your own house; till you rememb er how lately you were made, and how wonderful it was when you came into it; an d more rejoice in the palace of your glory than if it had been made today morning. Yet further, you never enjoyed the wo rld aright, till you so love the beauty of enjoying it, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it. And so perfectl y hate the abominable corruption of men in despising it that you had ra ther suffer the flames of hell than willingly be guilty of their error. The world is a mirror of Infinite Be auty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regard s it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God. It is more to man since he is fallen than it was be fore. It is the place of Angels and 98 the Gate of Heaven. When Jacob wake d out of his dream, he said, God is here, and I wist it not. How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the House of God and the Gate of Heaven. Thomas Traherne Before going on to discuss the me ans whereby it is possible all to come to the fullness as well as the h eight of Spiritual knowledge, l et us briefly consider the experienc e of those who have been privileged to b ehold the One in all things, but have made no efforts to perceive it w i t h i n themselves. A great deal of inte resting material on this subjec t may be found in Bucks Cosmic Conscious ness. All that n eed be said her e is that such cosmic consciousness may come unsought and is in the nat ure of what Catholic theologians call a gratuitous grace. One may ha ve a gratuitous grace ( t h e p o w e r o f h e a l i n g , f o r e x a m p l e , o r f o r e - k n o w l e d g e ) while in a state of mortal sin, and the gift is neither necessa ry to, nor sufficient for, salvation. At th e best such sudden accessions o f cosmic consciousness as are described by Buck are merely unusual invi tations to further personal effort in the direction of the inner height as well as the external fullness of knowledge. In a great many cases the i nvitation is not accepted; the gift is pri zed for the ecstatic pleasure i t brings; its coming is remembered nostalgically and, if the recipient happen s to be a poet, written about with eloquence - as Byron, for example, w rote in a splendid passage of Childe Har old, as Wordsworth wrote in Tin tern Abbey and The Prelude. In these matters no human being may presume to pass definitive judgment upon another human being; but it is at least permissib le to say t h a t , o n t h e b a s i s o f t h e b i o g r a phical evidence, there is no re ason to suppose that either Wordsworth or Byron ever seriously did anyt hing about the theophanies they descr ibed; nor is there any evidence that these theophanies were of themse l v e s s u f f i c i e n t t o t r a n s f o r m t h eir characters. That enormous egotism, to which De Quincey and Keat s and 99 Haydon bear witness, seems to have remained with Wordsworth to the end. And Byron was as fascinatingly and tragi-comically Byronic after he had beheld the One in all th ings as he was before. In this context it is interesting to compare Wordsworth with an other great nature lover and man of letters, St. Bernard. Let Nature be your t e a c h e r , s a y s t h e f i r s t ; a n d h e g o e s o n a u t h o r , t o a f f i r m t h a t : One impulse from the vernal wood, w ill tell you more of man, of mor al evil and of good, Than al l the sages can. The truth St. Bernard speaks in what seems a similar strain. kn ow of the Divine sciences and Holy Scripture, I learnt in woods and field s. I have had no other masters than the beeches and the oaks. And in ano ther of his letters he says: Listen to a man of experience: thou wilt learn more in the woods than in books. Trees and sto nes will teach thee mo re than t h o u c a n s t a c q u i r e f r o m t h e m o u t h of a magister. The phrases a re similar; but their inner significance is very different. In Aug ustines language, God alone is to be enjoyed; creatures are not to be e njoyed but used - used with love and compassion and a wondering, detac hed appreciation, as means to the kn owledge of that which may be en joyed. Wordsworth, like almost all ot her literary Nature-worshippers, preaches the enjoyment of creatures rather than their use for the attain ment of spiritual ends - a use which, as we shall see, entails much sel f-discipline for the user. For Bernard it goes without sayi ng that his correspondents are actively practising this self-discipline and that Nature, though loved a nd heeded as a teacher, is only being used as a means to God, not enjoyed as though she were God. The beauty of flowers and landscape is not merely to be relished as one wanders lonely as a cloud about the countrysi de, is not merely to be pleasurably remembe red when one is lying in vacan t or in pensive mood on the sofa in the library, after tea. The reacti on must be a little more strenuous and purpo seful. Here, my brothers, sa ys an 100 ancient Buddhist author, are th e roots of trees, here are empt y places; meditate. The truth is, of course, that th e world is only for those who h ave deserved it; for, in Philos words, even though a man may be i ncapable of making himself worthy of the creator of the cosmos, yet he o ught to try to make himself worthy of the cosmos. He ought to transform himself from being a man into the nature of the cosmos and become, if o ne may s a y s o , a l i t t l e c o s m o s . F o r t h o s e w h o h a v e n o t d e s e r v e d t h e w orld, either by making themselves worthy of its creator (that is to say, by non- attachment and a total self-naughting), or, less arduously, by making themselves worthy of the cosmos (by bringing order and a measure of unity to the manifold confusion of undisciplined human personal ity), the world is, spiritually speaking, a very dangerous place. T h a t N i r v a n a a n d S a m s a r a a r e o n e i s a f a c t a b o u t t h e n a t u r e o f the universe; but it is a fact which cannot be fully realized or di rectly experienced, except by souls far advanced in spirituality. For ordinary, nice, unregenerate people to acc ept this truth by hearsay, and to act upon it in practice, is merely to court disaster. All the disma l story of antinomianism is there to warn u s of what happens when men and women make practical applications o f a m e r e l y i n t ellectual and u n r e a l i z e d t h e o r y t h a t a l l i s G o d a n d G o d i s a l l . A n d h a r d l y l e ss depressing than the spectacle of antinomianism is that of the e arnestly respectable well-rounded life of good citizens who do their b est to live sacramentally, but dont in fact have any direct acquaintance w ith that for which the sacramental activity really stands. Dr. Oman, in his The Natural and the Supernatural, wr ites at length on the theme tha t reconciliation to the evanescent is revelation of the eternal ; and in a recent volume, Science, Religion and the Future, Canon Raven ap plauds Dr. Oman for having stated the principles of a theology in whic h there could be no ultimate antithesis between nature and grace, scien ce and 101 religion, in which, in deed, the worlds of th e scientist and the theologian are seen to be one and the same. All this is in full accord with Taoism and Zen Buddhism and wit h such Christian teachings as St. Augustines Ama et fac quod vis and Father Lallemants advice to theocentric contemplatives to go out and act in the world, since their actions are t he only ones capable of doing a ny real good to the world. But what neither Dr. Oman nor Canon Raven ma kes sufficiently clear is that natur e and grace, Samsara and Nirvan a, perpetual perishing and eternity , are really and experientially one only t o p e r s o n s w h o h a v e f u l f i l l e d c e r t a i n c o n d i t i o n s . F a c q u o d v i s in the temporal world - but only when you have learnt the infinitely d ifficult art of loving God with all your mind and heart and your neighbour a s yourself. If you havent learnt this lesson, you will either be a n antinomian eccentric or else a respectable well-rounded-lifer, who has left himself no time to understand either nature or grace. The Gospels are perfectly clear about the process by which, and by which al one, a man may gain the right to live in the world as though he were a t home in it: he must make a total denial of selfhood, submit to a com plete and absolute mortification. At one period of his career, Jesu s himself seems to have undert aken austerities, not merel y of the mind, but of the body. There is the record of his forty days fast and his statement, evidently drawn from personal experience, that some demons can not be cast out except by those who have fasted much as well as prayed. (The Cur dArs, whose knowledge of miracles and corporal penance was based on personal experience, insists on the close correlation between severe bodily austerities and the power to get petitionary prayer answered in w ays that are sometimes supernor mal.) The Pharisees reproached Jesus because he came eating and drinking , and associated with publicans and s inners; they ignored, or were unaware of, the fact that this apparently worldly prophet had at one ti me rivalled 102 the physical austerities of John the Baptist and was practising t h e spiritual mortifications which he consistently preached. The pattern of Jesus life is es sentially similar to that of th e ideal sage, whose career is traced in the O x-herding Pictures, so popular among Zen Buddhists. The wild ox, symbolizing the unregenerate self, is caught, made to change its direction, then tamed and gradually transfor med from black to white. Regeneration goes so far that for a time t he ox is completely lost, so that nothing remains to be pictured but the f u l l - orbed moon, symbolizing Mind, Suchness, the Ground. But this is not the final stage. In the end, the herdsman comes back to the world o f men, riding on the back of his ox. Because he now loves, loves to th e extent of being identified with the Divine object of his love, he can do what he likes; for what he likes is what the Nature of Things likes. He is found in company with wine - bibbers and butchers; he and they are all c onverted i n t o B u d d h a s . F o r h i m , t h e r e i s c o m p l e t e r e c o n c i l i a t i o n t o t h e evanescent and, through that reco nciliation, revelation of the eternal. But for nice ordinary unregener ate people the only reconciliati on to the evanescent The is that of indulg ed passions, of distractions su bmitted to and enjoyed. To tell such persons that evanescence and eternity are the same, and not immediately to qualify the statement, is positive ly fatal - for, in practice, they are not the same except to the saint; an d there is no record that anybody ever came to sanctity who did not, at th e outset of his or her career, behave as if evanescence and eternity, na ture and grace, were profoundly different and in many respects incompati ble. As always, the path of spirituality is a knife - edge between abys ses. On one side is the danger of mere rejection and escape, on the other t he danger of mere acceptance and the enjoyment of things which should onl y be used as instruments or symbols. The versified caption which accompanies the last of the Ox- herding Pictures runs as follo ws: Even beyond the ultimate limits there extends a passage-way, 103 By which he comes back to th e six realms of existence. Every worldly affair is now a Buddhist work, And wherever he goes he finds his home air. Like a gem he stands ou t even in the mud, Like pure gold he shines even in the furnace. Along the endless road (of birth and death) he wanders sufficient unto himself. In all circumstances he moves tranquil and unattached. The means whereby man's final end is to be attained will be des cribed and illustrated at length in the section on Mortification and Non- attachment. This section, howev er, is mainly concerned with th e disciplining of the will. But the disciplining of the will must have as its accompaniment a no less thorough disciplining of the consciousn ess. There has to be a conversion, su dden or otherwise, not merely o f the heart, but also of the senses and of the perceiving mind. What follows is a brief account of this metanoia, as the Greeks called it, one who is in this total and radical change of mind. It is in the Indian and Far Eastern formulations of the Perenni al P h i l o s o p h y t h a t t h i s s u b j e c t i s m o s t s y s t e m a t i c a l l y t r e a t e d . W h at is prescribed is a process of consc ious discrimination between the personal self and the Self that is identical with Brahman, betw een the individual ego and the Buddha-wo mb or Universal Mind. The resul t of this discrimination is a more or less sudden and complete revu lsion of consciousness, and the realization of a state of no-mind, whi ch may be described as the freedom from pe rceptual and intellectual attac hment to the ego-principle. This state of no-mind exists, as it wer e, on a knife- e d g e b e t w e e n t h e c a r e l e s s n e s s o f t h e a v e r a g e s e n s u a l m a n a n d t h e strained over-eagerness of the zea lot for salvation. To achieve it, one 104 must walk delicately and, to maintain it, must learn to combine the most intense alertness with a tranquil and self-denying passivity, t he most indomitable determination with a perfect submission to the lead ings of the spirit. When no-mind is sought after by a mind, says Huan g-Po, that is making it a particular object of thought. There is onl y testimony o f s i l e n c e ; i t g o e s b e y o n d t h i n k i n g . I n o t h e r w o r d s , w e , a s s e parate individuals, must not try to think it, but rather permit oursel ves to be t h o u g h t b y i t . S i m i l a r l y , i n t h e D i a m o n d S u t r a w e r e a d t h a t i f a Bodhisattva, in his attempt to r ealize Suchness, retains the t hought of a n e g o , a p e r s o n , a s e p a r a t e b e i n g , o r a s o u l , h e i s n o l o n g e r a Bodhisattva. Al-Ghazzali, the p hilosopher of Sufism, also stre sses the need for intellectual humbleness and docility. If the thought that he is effaced from self occurs to one who is in Fana (a term roughly corresponding to Zens no-mind, or mushin), that is a defect. The highest state is to be effaced from effac ement. There is an ecstatic e ffacement from-effacement in the interior heights of the tman-Brahman; a nd there is another, more comprehen sive effacement-from-effacement , not only in the inner heights, but also in and through the worl d, in the waking, everyday knowledge of God in his fullness. A man must become truly poor and as free from his own creaturely will as he was when he was born. An d I tell you, by the eternal truth, t h a t s o l o n g a s y o u d e s i r e t o f u l f i l t h e w i l l o f G o d a n d h a v e a n y hankering after eternity and God, fo r just so long you are not truly poor. He alone has true spiritual poverty who wills nothing, knows nothing, desires nothing. Eckhart The Perfect Way knows no difficulties, Except that it refuses to make preferences. Only when freed from hate and love Does it reveal itself fu lly and without disguise. 105 A tenth of an inchs difference, And heaven and earth are set apart. If you wish to see it before your own eyes, Have no fixed thoughts ei ther for or against it. To set up what you like ag ainst what you dislike - This is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of th e Way is not understood, Peace of mind is disturbe d to no purpose. . . . Pursue not the outer entanglements, Dwell not in the inner void; Be serene in the oneness of things, And dualism vanishes of itself. When you strive to gain quiescence by stopping motion, The quiescence so gained is ever in motion. So long as you tarry in such dualism, How can you realize oneness? And when oneness is not thoroughly grasped, Loss is sustained in two ways: The denying of external realit y is the assertion of it, And the assertion of Emptiness (the Absolute) is the denying of it. Transformations going on in the empty world that confronts us Appear to be real because of Ignorance. Do not strive to se ek after the True, Only cease to cherish opinions. The two exist because of the One; But hold not even to this One. 106 When a mind is not disturbed, The ten thousand things o ffer no offence. . . . If an eye never falls asleep, All dreams will cease of themselves; If the Mind retains its absoluteness, The ten thousand things are of one substance. When the deep mystery of one Suchness is fathomed, All of a sudden we forget th e external entanglements; When the ten thousand things ar e viewed in their oneness, We return to the origin and remain where we have always been. . . One in all, all in One - If only this is realized, No more worry about not being perfect! When Mind and each believin g mind are not divided, And undivided are each believing mind and Mind, This is where words fail, For it is not of the past, present or future. The Third Patriarch of Zen Do what you are doing now, suffer what you are suffering now; to do all this with holiness, nothing n eed be changed but your hearts. Sanctity consists in willing what happens to us by Gods order. de Caussade The seventeenth-century Frenchman s vocabulary is very differen t from that of the seventh-century Chinamans. But the advice they giv e is fundamentally similar. Conformity to the will of God, submissio n, docility to the leadings of the Holy Ghost - in practice, if no t verbally, these are the same as conformity to the Perfect Way, refusing t o have 107 preferences and cherish opinions , keeping the eyes open so that dreams may cease and Truth reveal itself. The world inhabited by ordinary, ni c e, un re g e ne ra t e p e o pl e i s m ainly dull (so dull that they have to distra ct their minds from being awar e of it by all sorts of artificial amusements), sometimes briefly and intensely pleasurable, occasionally or qui te often disagreeable and even a g o n i z i n g . F o r t h o s e w h o h a v e d e s e r v e d t h e w o r l d b y m a k i n g themselves fit to see God within it as well as within their own souls, it wears a very different aspect. The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold. The gates at first were the end of the world. The green trees, when I saw them first through one of the gates, transported and ravished me; thei r sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap, and almost mad with ecstasy, they were such strange and wonderful things. The Men! O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And young men glittering and sparkling Angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys an d girls tumbling in the street, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die ; But all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the light of the day, and something infinite behind everything appeared; which talked with my expectation and moved my desire. The city seemed to stand in Eden, or to be built in Heaven. The streets were mine, the temple was mine, th e people were mine, their clothes and gold and silver were mine, as much as their sparkling eyes, fair 108 skins and ruddy faces. The skies we re mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the world was mine; and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it. . . . And so it was that with much ado I was corrupted and made to learn the dirty devices of the world. Wh ich now I unlearn, and become as it were a little child ag ain, that I may enter into the Kingdom of God. Thomas Traherne Therefore I give you still anothe r thought, which is yet purer and more spiritual: In the Kingdom of Heav en all is in all, all is one, and all is ours. Eckhart The doctrine that God is in the world has an important practica l corollary - the sacredness of Nature, and t he sinfulness and folly of man s overweening efforts to be her master rather than her intelligen tly docile collaborator. Sub-human lives and even things are to be treated w ith respect and understanding, not brutally oppressed to serve our human ends. The ruler of the Southern Ocean wa s Shu, the ruler of the Northern Ocean was Hu, and the ruler of the Centre was Chaos. S h u a n d H u w e r e c o n t i n u a l l y m e e t i n g i n t h e l a n d o f C h a o s , w h o treated them very well. They co nsulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said: Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearin g, eating and breathing, while this ruler alone has not a single one. Let us try to make them for him. Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every da y. At the end of seven days Chaos died.' Chuang Tzu In this delicately comic parable Chaos is Nature in the state o f wu-wei - non-assertion or equilibrium. Shu and Hu are the living images of those busy persons who thought they wo uld improve on Nature by turnin g dry 109 prairies into wheat fields, and produced deserts; who proudly proclaimed the Conquest nemesis, of the Air, and then discovere d that t h e y h a d d e f e a t e d c i v i l i z a t i o n ; w h o c h o p p e d d o w n v a s t f o r e s t s t o provide the newsprint demanded by that universal literacy which was to make the world safe for intelligence and democracy, and got who lesale erosion, pulp magazines and the organs of Fascist, Communist, c apitalist and nationalist propaganda. In b rief, Shu and Hu are devotees o f the a po ca ly ptic re li gio n of In evi ta b le Pr ogr e s s , and t he ir c r e ed is that the Kingdom of Heaven is outside you, and in the future. Chuang Tz u, on the other hand, like all good Taoists, has no desire to bully N ature into subserving ill-considered tempora l ends, at variance with the f inal end of men as formulated in the Perennial Philosophy. His wish is t o work with Nature, so as to produce material and social conditions in which individuals may realize Tao on e very level from the physiologic al up to the spiritual. C o m p a r e d w i t h t h a t o f t h e T a o i s t s and Far Eastern Buddhists, th e Christian attitude towards Nature has been curiously insensitiv e and often downright domineering and Violent. Taking their cue from an unfortunate remark in Genesis, Ca tholic moralists have regarded animals as mere things which men do right to exploit for their own ends. Like landscape painting, the hum anitarian movement in Europe wa s an almost completely secular affair . In the Far East both were ess entially religious. The Greeks believed that Hubris was always followed by Nemesis, that if you went too far you would get a knock on the head to remind you that the gods will not tolerate insolence on the part of mortal men. In the sphere of human relations, t he modern mind understands the doctrine of hubris and regards it as mainly true. We wish pride to have a fall, and we see that very often it does fall. 110 To have too much power over ones fellows, to be too rich, too violent, too ambitious - all this invites punishment, and in the long ru n, we notice, punishment of one sort or another duly comes. But the G reeks did not stop there. Because they regarded Nature as in some way Divine, they felt that it had to be respected and they were convinced t hat a hubristic lack of respect for Nat ure would be punished by aveng ing nemesis. In The Persians Aeschylus gives the reasons - the ul timate, metaphysical reasons - for the barbarians defeat. Xerxes was p unished for two offences - overweening i mperialism directed against the Athenians, and overweening imperialism directed against Nature. H e t r i e d t o e n s l a v e h i s f e l l o w - m e n , a n d h e t r i e d t o e n s l a v e t h e s e a, by building a bridge acr oss the Hellespont. Atessa. From shore to shore he bridged the Hellespont. Ghost of Darius. What, could he chain the mighty Bosphorus? Atessa. Even so, some god assisting his design. Ghost of Darius. Some god of po wer to cloud his better sense. Today we recognize and condemn the first kind of imperialism; b ut most of us ignore the existence and even the very possibility of the second. And yet the author of Erewhon was certainly not a fool, and now that we are paying the appalling price for our much touted conquest o f Nature his book seems more than ever topical. And Butler was n ot the only nineteenth-century sceptic in regard to Inevitable Progres s. A generation or more before him, Alfred de Vigny was writing abou t the new technological marvel of his days, the steam engine - writin g in a tone very different from the enthusiastic roarings and trumpeti ngs of his great contemporary, Victor Hugo. Sur le taureau de fer, qui fume, souflle et beagle, Lhomme est mont trop tt. Nul ne connat encor 111 Quels orages en lui porte ce rude aveugle, Et le gai voyageur lui livre son tresor. And a little later in the same poem he adds: Tous se sont dit: Allons, mais aucun nest le matre Dun dragon mugissant quun savant a fait natre. Nous nous sommes jous pl us fort que nous tous. Looking backwards across the carn age and the devastation, we ca n see that Vigny was perfectly right. None of those gay travellers, o f whom Victor Hugo was the most vocifer ously eloquent, had the faintes t notion where that first, funny little Puffing Billy was taking them. O r rather they had a very clear notion, but it happened to be entirely false. For they were convinced that Puffing Billy was hauling them at full spee d towards universal peace and the brotherhood of man; while the newspaper s which they were so proud of bein g able to read, as the train ru mbled along towards its Utopian destination not more than fifty years or so a w a y , w e r e t h e g u a r a n t e e t h a t l i b e r t y a n d r e a s o n w o u l d s o o n b e everywhere triumphant. Puffing Billy has now turned into a four-motored bomber loaded with white phosphorus and high explosives, and the free press is eve rywhere the servant of its advertisers, of a pressure group, or of the government. And yet, for some inexplicab le reason, the travellers (now far from gay) still hold fast to the religion of Inevitable Progress which is, in the last analysis, the hope and faith (in the teeth of all human experience) that one can get something for nothing. How much saner and more realisti c is the Greek view that every victory ha s to be paid for, and that, for s o m e victories, the price exacted is so high that it outweighs any a dvantage that may be obtained! Modern man no longer regards Nature as be ing in any sense Divine and feels pe rfectly free to behave towards her as an 112 overweening conqueror and tyrant. The spoils of recent technolo gical imperialism have been enormous; but meanwhile nemesis has seen to it that we get our kicks as well as halfpence. For example, has the ability t o t r a v e l i n t w e l v e h o u r s f r o m N e w Y o r k t o L o s A n g e l e s g i v e n m o re pleasure to the human race than the dropping of bombs and fire has given pain? There is no known method of computing the amount of felicity or goodness in the world at large. What is obvious, ho wever, is that the advantages accruing from recent technological advances - or, in Greek phraseology, from recent acts of hubris directed against Nature - are generally accompanied by corresponding disadvantages, that gains in one direction entail losses in other directions, and that we never get something except for something. Whether the net result of these elaborate cr edit and debit oper ations is a genuine Progress in virtue, ha ppiness, charity and intelligen ce is something we can never definitely determine. It is because the reality of Progress can never be determined that the nineteenth and twenti eth c e n t u r i e s h a v e h a d t o t r e a t i t a s an article of religious faith . To the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy, the question whether Pro gress i s i n e v i t a b l e o r e v e n r e a l i s n o t a m a t t e r o f p r i m a r y i m p o r t a n c e. For them, the important thing is that individual men and women shou ld come to the unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground, and what in terests them in regard to the social environment is not its progressive ness or non-progressiveness (whatever those terms may mean), but the degree to which it helps or hinders indivi duals in their advance towards mans final end. avb 113 Chapter 5 CHARITY He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. 1 John iv By love may He be gotten and ho lden, but by thought never. The Cloud of Unknowing Whosoever studies to reach contemplation (i.e. unitive knowledge) should begin by searchingly enquirin g of himself how much he loves. For love is the motive power of the mind (machina mentis), which draws it out of the world and raises it on high. St. Gregory the Great The astrolabe of the mysteries of God is love. Jalal-uddin Rumi Heavens, deal so still! Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man That slaves your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, f eel your power quickly. Shakespeare Love is infallible; it has no errors, for all errors are the want of love. William Law E c a n o n l y l o v e w h a t w e k n o w , a n d w e c a n n e v e r k n o w completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge, and when the love is sufficiently disinterested and sufficientl y intense, the knowledge becomes unitive kn owledge and so takes on the qua lity of infallibility. Where ther e is no disinterested love (or, more briefly. no charity), there is only biased self-love, and consequently only a partial and distorted knowledge both of the self and of the world of th ings, lives, minds and spirit outside the self. The lust-dieted man slaves the ordinances of Heaven - that is to say, he subordinates the law s of Nature and the spirit to his own cravin gs. The result is that he does not feel W 114 and therefore makes himself inca pable of knowledge. His ignoran ce is ultimately voluntary; if he ca nnot see, it is because he will not see. Such voluntary ignorance inevitably has its negative reward. Ne mesis follows hubris - sometimes in a spectacular way, as when the se lf- blinded man (Macbeth, Othello, Lear) falls into the trap which his own ambition or possessiveness or petulant vanity has prepared for him; sometimes in a less obvious way, as in the cases where power, prosperity and reputation endure to the end but at the cost of an ever- increasing imperviousness to grace and enlightenment, an ever completer inability to escape, n ow or hereafter, from the stiff ing prison of selfness and separateness. How profound can be the spiritual ignorance by which such ensl avers of Heavens ordinances are punishe d is indicated by the behaviour o f Cardinal Richelieu on his death-bed. The priest who attended hi m urged the great man to prepare his soul for its coming ordeal by forg iving all his enemies. I have never had any enemies, the Cardinal repli ed with t h e c a l m s i n c e r i t y o f a n i g n o r a n c e w h i c h l o n g y e a r s o f i n t r i g u e a n d avarice and ambition had rendere d as absolute as had been his p olitical power, save only those of the State. Like Napoleon, but in a different way, he was feeling heavens pow er, because he had refused to feel charity and therefore refused to know the whole truth about his own soul or anything else. Here on earth the love of God is better than the knowledge of od, while it is better to know inferior things than to love them. By knowing them we raise them, in a way, to our intelligence, whereas by loving them we stoop towards them and may become subservient to them, as the miser to his gold. St. Thomas Aquinas (paraphrased) This remark seems, at first sight, to be incompatible with what precedes it. But in reality St. Thomas is merely distinguishing between the various 115 forms of love and knowledge. It is better to love-know God than just to know about God, without love, through the reading of a treatise o n theology. Gold, on the other ha nd, should never be known with t he misers love, or rather concupisc ence, but either abstractly, a s the scientific investigator knows it, or else with the disintereste d love- knowledge of the artist in metal, or of the spectator, who love -knows the goldsmiths work, not for its cash value, not for the sake of possessing it, but just because it is beautiful. And the same a pplies to all created things, lives and minds. It is bad to love-know them wi th self- centred attachment and cupidity; it is somewhat better to know them with scientific dispassion; it i s best to supplement abstract k nowledge- without-cupidity with true disinterested love-knowledge, having t h e quality of aesthetic delight, or of charity, or of both combine d. We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship. Pascal By a kind of philological accident (which is probably no accident at all, but one of the more subtle expressions of mans deep - seated will to ignorance and spiritual darkness), the word charity has come, in modern English, to be synonymous with almsgiving, and is almost never used in i t s original sense, as signifying th e highest and most Divine form of love. Owing to this impoverishment of our, at the best of times, very inadequate vocabulary of psychological and spiritual terms, the w o r d love has had to assume an added burden. God is love, we rep eat glibly, and that we must love our neighbours as ourselves; bu t love, unfortunately, stands for everyth ing from what happens when, on the screen, two close-ups rapturously collide to what happens when a John Woolman or a Peter Claver feels a concern about Negro slaves, b ecause they are temples of the Holy Spirit - from what happens when cr owds shout and sing and wave flags in the Sport-Palast or the Red Sq uare to 116 what happens when a solitary contemplative becomes absorbed in the prayer of simple regard. Ambiguity in vocabulary leads to confu sion of t h o u g h t ; a n d , i n t h i s m a t t e r o f l o v e , c o n f u s i o n o f t h o u g h t a d m i rably serves the purpose of an unregen erate and divided human nature that is determined to make the best of both worlds - to say that it is serving God, while in fact it is serving Mammon, Mars or Priapus. Systematically or in brief aphorism and parable, the masters of t h e spiritual life have described the nature of true charity and ha ve distinguished it from the other, lower forms of love. Let us co nsider its principal characteristics in ord er. First, charity is disintere sted, seeking no reward, nor allowing itself to be diminished by any return o f evil for its good. God is to be loved for Himself, not for his gifts, an d persons and things are to be loved for Gods sake, because they are temples of the Holy Ghost. Moreover, since charity is disinterested, it must o f necessity be universal. Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. I love because I lov e; I love in order that I may love. . . . Of all the motions an d affections of the soul , love is the only one by means of which the creature, though not on equal terms, is able to treat with the Creator and to give back something resembling what has been given to it. . . . When God lo ves, He only desires to be loved, knowing that love will render al l those who love Him happy. St. Bernard For as love has no by-ends, wills nothing but its own increase, so everything is as oil to its flame; it must have that which it wills and cannot be disappointed, because everything (including unkindness on the part of those loved) naturally helps it to live in its own way and to bring forth its own work. William Law 117 Those who speak ill of me are really my good friends. When, being slandered, I cherish neither enmity nor preference, There grows within me the power of love and humility, which is born of the Unborn. Yung-chia Ta-shih Some people want to see God with th eir eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people wh o love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfor t. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in yo ur mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth. Eckhart A beggar, Lord, I ask of Thee more than a thousand kings could ask. Each one wants something, which he asks of Thee. I come to ask Thee to give me Thyself. Ansari of Herat I will have nothing to do with a love which would be for God or -in God. This is a love which pure love cannot abide; for pure love is God Himself. St. Catherine of Genoa As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son, so let there be good will without measure be tween all beings. Let good will without measure prev ail in the whole world, above, below, around, unstinted, unmixed with any feeling of differing or opposing interests. If a man remain st eadfastly in this state of mind all the time he is awake, then is come to pass the saying, Even in this world holiness has been found. Metta Sutra Learn to look with an equal eye upon all beings, seeing the one Self in all. Srimad Bhagavatam 118 The second distinguishing mark of charity is that, unlike the l ower forms of love, it is not an emotion. It begins as an act this of the will and1s consummated as a purely spiritual awareness, a unitive love-kno wledge of the essence of us object. Let everyone understand that real l ove of God does not consist in tear - shedding, nor in that sweetness an d tenderness for which usually we long, just because they console us , but in serving God in justice, fortitude of soul and humility. St. Teresa The worth of love does not consist in high feelings, but in detachment, in patience under all trials for th e sake of God whom we love. St. John of the Cross By love I do not mean any natural tenderness, which is more or less in people according to their constitu tion; but I mean a larger principle of the soul, founded in reason and piety, which makes us tender, kind and gentle to all our fellow creature s as creatures of God, and for his sake. William Law The nature of charity, or the love-knowledge of God, is defined b y Shankara, the great Vedantist saint and philosopher of the nint h century, in the thirty-second co uplet of his Viveka Chudamani. Among the instruments of emanci pation the supreme is devotion. Contemplation of the true form of the real Self (the Atman which is identical with Brahman) is said to be devotion. In other words, the highest form of the love of God is an immediate spiritual intuition, by which knower, known and kn owledge are made one. The means to, and earlier stages of, this supreme love-knowledg e of Spirit by spirit are described by Shankara in the preceding ver ses of his philosophical poem, and consist in acts of a will directed towa rds the denial of selfness in thought, fe eling and action, towards desi relessness 119 and non-attachment or (to use the corresponding Christian term) holy indifference, towards a cheerful acceptance of affliction, wit hout self- pity and without thought of returning evil for evil, and finall y towards unsleeping and one-pointed mindfulness of the Godhead who is at once transcendent and, because transc endent, immanent in every soul. It is plain that no distinct object whatever that pleases the w ill can be God; and, for that reason, if the will is to be united with Him , it must empty itself, cast away every di sorderly affection of the desir e, every satisfaction it may distinctly have, high and low, temporal and spiritual, so that, purified and cleansed f rom all unruly satisfactions, j oys and desires, it may be wholly occupie d, with all its affections, in loving God. For if the will can in any way co mprehend God and be united wit h Him, it cannot be through any capacity of the desire, but only by lo ve; and as all the delight, sweetness and joy, of which the will is sensib le, is not love, it follows that none of these pleasing impressions can be t h e adequate means of uniting the will to God. These adequate means consist in an act of the will. And because an act of the will i s quite distinct from feeling, it is by an act that the will is united with God and rests in Him; that act is love. This union is never wrought by feeling o r exertion of the desire; for these remain in the soul as aims and ends. I t is only as motives of love that feelings can be of service, if the will is bent on going onwards, and for nothing else. . . . He, then, is very unwise who, wh en sweetness and spiritual delight fail him, thinks for that reason th at God has abandoned him; and when he finds them again, rejoices and is glad, thinking that he has in that way come to possess God. More unwise still is he who goes about seeking for sweetness in God, rejoices in it, and dwells upon it; fo r in so doing he is not seeking after God with the will Grounded in the em ptiness of faith and charity, but 120 only in spiritual sweetness and de light, which is a created thing, following herein in his own will and fo nd pleasure. . . . It is impossible for the will to attain to the sweetn ess and bliss of the Divine union otherwise than - in detachment, in refusing to the desire every pleasure in the things of heaven and earth. St. John of the Cross Love (the sensible love of the emotions) does not unify. True, it unites in act; but it does no t unite in essence. Eckhart The reason why sensible love even of the highest object cannot unite the soul to its Divine Ground in spiritual essence is that, lik e all other emotions of the heart, sensible love intensifies that selfness, which is the final obstacle in the way of such union. The damned are in eternal movement without any mixture of rest; we mortals, who are yet i n this p ilgr im a g e, ha v e n ow move m e n t, no w re s t. . . . On l y G od h a s re p ose without movement. Consequently it is only if we abide in the p eace of God that passes all understanding that we can abide in the know ledge and love of God. And to the peace that passes understanding we have t o g o b y w a y o f t h e h u m b l e a n d v e r y o r d i n a r y p e a c e w h i c h c a n b e understood by everybody - peace between nations and within them (for wars and violent revolutions have the effect of more or less to tally eclipsing God for the majority of those involved in them); peace between individuals and within the individual soul (for personal quarrels and private fears, loves, hates, ambitions and distractions are, in their petty wa y, no less fatal to the development of the spiritual life than are the greater c alamities). W e have to will the peace that it is within our power to get for o urselves and others, in order that we may be fit to receive that other peace , which is a fruit of the Spirit and the condition, as St. Paul implied, o f the unitive knowledge-love of God. It is by means of tranquillity of mind that you are able to transmute this false mind of death and rebirth into the clear Intuitive Mind and, 121 by so doing, to realize the primal and enlightening Essence of Mind. You should make this your starti ng point for spiritual practices. Having harmonized your starting point with your goal, you will be able by right practice to attain your true end of perfect Enlightenment. If you wish to tranquillize your mi nd and restore its original purity, you must proceed as you would do if you were purifying a jar of muddy water. You first let it stand, until the sediment settles at the bottom, when the water will become clear, which corresponds with the state of the mind before it was troubled by defiling passions. Then you carefully strain off the pure water. When the mind becomes tranquillize d and concentrated into perfect unity, then all things will be seen , not in their separateness, but in their unity, wherein there is no pl ace for the passions to enter, and which is in full conformity with the mysterious and indescribable purity of Nirvana. urangama Sutra This identity out of the One into the One and with the One is the source and fountainhead and brea king forth of glowing Love. Eckhart Spiritual progress, as we have had occasion to discover in seve ral other contexts, is always spiral and reciprocal. Peace from distracti ons and emotional agitations is the way to charity; and charity, or uni tive love- knowledge, is the way to the higher peace of God. And the same is true of humility, which is the third characteristic mark of charity. Humility is a necessary condition of the highest form of love, and the high est form of love makes possible the cons ummation of humility in a total self- naughting. Would you become a pilgrim on the road of Love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes. Ansari of Herat 122 I have but one word to say to you concerning love for your neighbour, namely that nothing save humility can mould you to it; nothing but the consciousness of your own we akness can make you indulgent and pitiful to that of others. You will answer, I quite understand that humility should produce forbeara nce towards others, but how am I first to acquire humility? Two things combined will bring that about; you must never separate them. The first is contemplation of the deep gulf, whence Gods all- powerful hand has drawn you out, an d over which He ever holds you, so to say, suspended. The second is the presence of that all-penetrating God. It is only in beholding an d loving God that we can learn forgetfulness of self, measure duly the nothingness which has dazzled us, and accustom ourselves thankfully to decrease beneath that great Majesty which absorbs all things. Love God and you will be humble; love God and you will throw off the l ove of self; love God and you will love all that He gives you to love for love of Him. Fenelon Feelings, as we have seen, may be of service as motives of char ity; but charity as charity has its begi nning in the will - will to peac e and humility in oneself, will to patience and kindness towards ones fellow - creatures, will to that disinteres ted love of God which asks n othing and refuses nothing. But the will c an be strengthened by exercise and confirmed by perseverance. This is very clearly brought out in the following record - delightful fo r its Boswellian vividness - of a conversation between the young B ishop of Belley and his beloved friend and master, Francois de Sales. I once asked the Bishop of Geneva (Francois de Sales) what one must do to attain perfection. You must love God with all your heart, he answered, and your neighbour as yourself. 123 I did not ask wherein perfection lies, I rejoined, but how to attain it. Charity, he said again, that is both the means and the end, the only way by which we can reach that pe rfection which is, after all, but Charity itself. . . . Just as the soul is the life of the body, so charity is the life of the soul. I know all that, I said. But I wa nt to know how one is to love God with all ones heart and one s neighbour as oneself. But again he answered, We must love God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves. I am no further than I was, I repl ied. Tell me how to acquire such love. The best way, the shortest and easi est way of loving God with all ones heart is to love Him wh olly and heartily! He would give no other answer. At last, however, the Bishop said, There are many besides you who want me to te ll them of methods and systems and secret ways of becoming perfect, and I can only tell them that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that love is by loving. You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves. If you want to love God, go on loving Him more and mo re. Begin as a mere apprentice, and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master in the art. Those who have made most progress wi ll continually press on, never believing themselves to have reache d their end; for charity should go on increasing until we dr aw our last breath. Jean Pierre Camus 124 The passage from what St. Bernard calls the carnal love of th e sacred humanity to the spiritual love o f the Godhead, from the emotion al love that can only unite lover and bel oved in act to the perfect cha rity which unifies them in spiritual substa nce, is reflected in religious practice as the passage from meditation, dis cursive and affective, to infus ed contemplation. All Christian writers insist that the spiritual love of the God head is superior to the carnal love of the humanity, which serves as in troduction and means to mans final end in unitive love-knowledge of the D ivine G r o u n d ; b u t a l l i n s i s t n o l e s s s t r o n g l y t h a t c a r n a l l o v e i s a n ecessary introduction and an indispensable harnessing the means. Orienta l writers would agree that this is true for many persons, but not for all, since there are some born contemplatives who are able to harmo nize their starting point with their goal and to embark directly up on the Yoga of Knowledge. It is from the point of view of the born contempl ative that the greatest of Taoist philosoph ers writes in the following pas sage. Those men who in a special way re gard Heaven as Father and have, as it were, a personal love for it, how much more should they love what is above Heaven as Father! Other men in a special way regard their rulers as better than themselves and they, as it were, personally die for them. How much more should they die for what is truer than a ruler! When the springs dry up, the fish are all together on dry land. They then moisten each other with their dampness and keep each other wet with their slime. But th is is not to be compared with forgetting each other in a river or lake. Chuang Tzu The slime of personal and emotional love is remotely similar to the water o f t h e G o d h e a d s s p i r i t u a l b e i n g , b u t o f i n f e r i o r q u a l i t y a n d (precisely because the love is emotio nal and therefore personal) of insufficient quantity. Having, by their voluntary ignorance, wrong-doing and wrong 125 being, caused the Divine springs to dry up, human beings can do something to mitigate the horrors of their situation by keepin g one another wet with their slime. But there can be no happiness or safety in time and no deliverance into eternity, until they give up think ing that slime is enough and, by abandoning themselves to what is in fac t their e l e m e n t , c a l l b a c k t h e e t e r n a l w a t e r s . T o t h o s e w h o s e e k f i r s t the Kingdom of God, all the rest will be added. From those who, lik e the modern idolaters of progress, see k first all the rest in the ex pectation that (after the harnessing of atomic power and the next revolution b ut three) the Kingdom of God will be added, everything will be taken away . And yet we continue to trust in progress, to regard personal slime as the highest form of spiritual moisture and to prefer an agonizing a nd impossible existence on dry land to love, Joy and peace in our native ocean. The sect of lovers is distinct from all others; Lovers have a religion and a faith all their own. Jalal-uddin Rumi The Soul lives by that which it love s rather than in the body which it animates. For it has not its life in the body, but rather gives it to the body and lives in that which it loves. St. John of the Cross Temperance is love surrendering it self wholly to Him who is its object; courage is love hearing all things gladly for the sake of Him who is its object; justice is love se rving only Him who is its object, and therefore rightly ruling; prudence is love making wise distinctions between what hinders and what helps itself. St. Augustine The distinguishing marks of char ity are disinterestedness, tran quillity and humility. But where there is disinterestedness there is nei ther greed for personal advantage nor fea r for personal lo ss or punishment ; where there is tranquillity, there is neither craving nor aversion, b ut a steady will to conform to the Divine Tao or Logos on every level of ex istence 126 and a steady awareness of the Divine Suchness and what should b e ones o w n r e l a t i o n s t o i t ; a n d w h e r e t h e r e i s h u m i l i t y t h e r e i s n o censoriousness and no glorification of the ego or any projected alter - ego at the expense of others, wh o are recognized as having the same weaknesses and faults, but also the same capacity for transcend ing them in the unitive knowledge of God, as one has oneself. From all this it follows that charity is the root and substance of morality, and that where there is little charity there will be much avoidable evil . All this has been summed up in Augustines for mula: Love, and do what you l ike. Among the later elaborations of the Augustinian theme we may ci te the f o l l o w i n g f r o m t h e w r i t i n g s o f J o h n E v e r a r d , o n e o f t h o s e s p i r i tually minded seventeenth-century Divines still whose teachings fell o n the deaf ears of warring factions and, when the revolution and the military dictatorship were at an end, on the even deafer ears of Restora tion clergymen and thei r successors in the Augustan age. (Just how deaf those ears could be we may judge by what Swift wrote of his beloved a nd morally perfect Houyhnhnms. The subject matter of their conversations, as of their poetry, consisted of such things as friendship and benevolence , the visible operations of nature Divine or a ncient traditions; the bounds a nd limits of virtue, the unerring rules of re ason. Never once do the ideas of God, or charity, or deliverance engage their minds. Which shows suffici ently clearly what the Dean of St. Patricks t hought of the religion by which he made his money.) Turn the man loose who has found th e living Guide within him, and then let him neglect the outward if he can! Just as you would say to a man who loves his wife with all tenderness, You are at liberty to beat her, hurt her or kill her, if you want to. John Everard F r o m t h i s i t f o l l o w s t h a t , w h e r e t h e r e i s c h a r i t y , t h e r e c a n b e n o coercion. 127 God forces no one, for love cannot compel, and Gods service, therefore, is a thing of perfect freedom. Hans Denk But just because it cannot compel, charity has a kind of author ity, a non- coercive power, by means of whic h it defends itself and gets it s beneficent will done in the world - not always, of course, not inevitably or automatically (for individuals and, still mo re, organizations can be impenetrably armoured against Divine influence), but in a surprisingly large number of cases. Heaven arms with pity those whom it would not see destroyed. Lao Tzu He abused me, he beat me, he defe ated me, he robbed me; those who harbour such thoughts ha tred will never cease. He abused me, he beat me, be defeated me, he robbed me - in those who do not harbour such thoughts hatred will cease. For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time - this is an old rule. Dhammapada Our present economic, social and international-arrangements are based, in large measure, upon or ganized lovelessness. We begin by lacking charity towards Nature, so that instead of trying to co -operate with Tao or the Logos on the inanimate and sub-human levels, we try to dominate and exploit, we waste the earths mineral resources, r uin its soil, ravage its forests, pour fi lth into its rivers and poison ous fumes into its air. From lovelessness in relation to Nature we advance to lovelessn ess in relation to art - a lovelessness so extreme that we have effect ively killed all the fundamental or useful arts and set up various kinds of mass- production by machines in their place. And of course this lovel essness in regard to art is at the same time a lovelessness in regard to t he human beings who have to perform the fool-proof and grace-proof tasks imposed by our mechanical art-surrogates and by the interminabl e 128 paper work connected with mass-production and mass - distributi on. With mass-production and mass-distribution go mass-financing, a nd the three have conspired to expropri ate ever-increasing numbers of small owners of land and productive equipment, thus reducing the sum of freedom among the majority and increasing the power of a minori ty to exercise a coercive control over the lives of their fellows. This coercively controlling minor ity is composed of private cap italists or governmental bureaucrats or of b oth classes of bosses acting in c o l l a b o r a t i o n - a n d , o f c o u r s e , t he coercive and therefore esse ntially loveless nature of the control re mains the same, whether the bo sses call themselves company directors o r civil servants. The only di fference between these two kinds of oligarchical rulers is that the firs t derive more of their power from wealt h than from position within a conventionally respected hierarchy, while the second derive mor e power from position than from wealth. Upon this fairly uniform Groundwork of loveless relationships are imposed others, which vary widely from one society to another, according to local conditio ns and local habits of thou ght and feeling. H e r e a r e a f e w e x a m p l e s : c o n t e m p t a n d e x p l o i t a t i o n o f c o l o u r e d minorities living among white ma jorities, or of coloured majori ties governed by minorities of white imperialists; hatred of Jews, C atholics, Freemasons or of any against charity, other minority whose lang uage, habits, appearance or religion ha ppens to differ from those of the local majority. And the crowning superstructure of uncharity is the o rganized lovelessness of the relations between state and sovereign state - a lovelessness that expresses itself in the axiomatic assumption that it is right and natural for national organizations to behave like thi eves and murderers, armed to the teeth an d ready, at the first favourabl e opportunity, to steal and kill. (Just how axiomatic is this assumption about the nature of nationhood is shown by the history of Central Ame rica. So long 129 as the arbitrarily delimited territories of Central America wer e called provinces of the Spanish colonia l empire, there was peace betwe en their inhabitants. But early in the ni neteenth century the various ad ministrative districts of the Spanish empire broke from their allegiance to the mother country and decided to become nations on the European model. R esult: they immediately went to war with one another. Why? Because, by defi nition, a s o v e re i gn na t io n al s t a te i s a n o rganization that has the right and duty to coerce its members to steal and kill on the largest possible sc ale.) Lead us not into temptation mu st be the guiding principle of all social organization, and the temptation s to be guarded against and, so far as p o s s i b l e , e l i m i n a t e d b y m e a n s o f a p p r o p r i a t e e c o n o m i c a n d p o l i t ical arrangements are temptations aga inst charity, that is to say, a gainst the disinterested love of God, Nature and man. First, the dissemination and general acceptance of any form of the Perennial Philosophy will do somet hing to preserve men and wome n from the temptation to idolatrous worship of things in time - c hurch- worship, state-worship, revoluti onary future-worship, humanisti c self- worship, all of them essentially and necessarily opposed to cha rity. Next come decentralization, widesprea d private ownership of land and the means of production on a small sc ale, discouragement of monopol y by state or corporation, war and division of economic and politica l power (the only guarantee, as Lord Acton was never tired of insisting , of civil liberty under law). These social rearrangements would do much to prevent ambitious individuals, organizati ons and governments from being l e d into the temptation of behaving tyrannously; while co-operative s, democratically controlled professional organizations and town m eetings would deliver the masses of the people from the temptation of m aking their decentralized indi vidualism too rugged. But of course none of these intr insically desirable reforms can possibly be carried out, so long as it is thought right and natural that sovereign 130 states should prepare to make wa r o n o n e a n o t h e r . F o r m o d e r n w a r cannot be waged except by countries with an over - developed ca pital goods industry; countr ies in which economic power is wielded ei ther by the state or by a few monopolistic corporations which it is eas y to tax and, if necessary, temporarily to nationalize; countries where the labouring masses, being without property, are rootless, easily transferable from one place to a nother, highly regimented by fa ctory discipline. Any decentralized soc iety of free, uncoerced small owners, with a properly balanced economy must, in a war-making world su ch as ours, be at the mercy of one whose production is highly mechani zed and centralized, whose people are without property and therefore ea sily coercible, and whose economy is l op-sided. This is why the one desire of industrially undeveloped countries like Mexico and China is to become like Germany, or England, or the United States. So long as the organized lovelessness of war and preparation fo r war remains, there can be no mitigat ion, on any large, nation-wide or world- wide scale, of the organized lovelessness of our economic and p olitical relationships. War and preparation for war are standing temptat ions to m a k e t h e p r e s e n t b a d , G o d - e c l i psing arrangements of society progressively worse as technolo g y b e c o m e s p r o g r e s s i v e l y m o r e efficient. avb 131 Chapter 6 MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD This treasure of the Kingdom of God has been hidden by time and multiplicity and the souls own work s, or briefly by its creaturely nature. But in the measure that the so ul can separate itself from this multiplicity, to that extent it reveal s within itself the Kingdom of God. Here the soul and the Godhead are one. Eckhart OUR kingdom go is the necessary and unavoidable corollary of Thy kingdom come. For the more there is of self, the less the re is of God. The Divine eternal fullness of life can be gained on ly by those who have deliberately lost the partial, separative life of crav ing and self- interest, of egocentric thinking, feeling, wishing and acting. Mortification or deliberate dying to self is inculcated with an u n c o m p r o m i s i n g f i r m n e s s i n t h e c a n o n i c a l w r i t i n g s o f C h r i s t i a n i ty, Hinduism, Buddhism and most of the other major and minor religi ons of the world, and by every theocent ric saint and spiritual reforme r who has ever lived out and expounded the principles of the Perennial Ph ilosophy. But this self-naughting is never (at least by anyone who knows what he is talking about) regarded as an end in itself. It possesses merely an instrumental value, as the indis pensable means to something els e. In the words of one whom we have often had occasion to cite in earlier sections, it is necessary for all of us to learn the true natu re and worth of all self-denials and mortifications. As to their nature, considered in themselves, they have nothing of goodness or holiness, nor are any real part of our sanctification, they Y 132 are not the true food or nourishment of the Divine Life in our souls, they have no quickening, sanctifyin g power in them; their only worth consists in this, that they remove the impediments of holiness, break down that which stands between God and us, and make way for the quickening, sanctifying spirit of Go d to operate on our souls, which operation of God is the one only thing that can raise the Divine Life in the soul, or help it to the smallest degree of real holi ness or spiritual life. . . . Hence we may learn the reason why many people not only lose the benefit, but are even the worse for all their mortifications. It is because they mistake the whole nature and worth of them. They practise them for their own sakes, as things good in themselves; they think them to be real parts of holiness, and so rest in them and look no further, but grow full of self-esteem and self-admiration for their own progress in them. This makes them self-sufficient, morose, severe judges of all those that fall short of their mortifications. And thus their self-denials do only that for th em which indulgen ces do for other people: they withstand and hinder the operation of God upon their souls, and instead of being really se lf-denials, they strengthen and keep up the kingdom of self. William Law The rout and destruction of the passions, while a good, is not the ultimate good; the discovery of wisd om is the surpassing good. When this is found, all the people will sing. Philo Living in religion (as I can speak by experience) if one is not in a right course of prayer and other exercises between God and our soul, ones nature groweth much worse than ever it would have been, if one had lived in the world. For pride and self -love, which are rooted in the soul by sin, find means to strengthen th emselves exceedingly in religion, if the soul is not in a course that may teach her and procure her true 133 humility. For by the corrections and contradictions of the will (which cannot be avoided by any living in a religious community) I find my heart grown, as I may say, as hard as a Stone; and nothing would have been able to soften it but by being put in to a course of prayer, by which the soul tendeth towards God and learne th of Him the lesson of truly humbling herself. Dame Gertrude More Once, when I was grumbling over be ing obliged to eat meat and do no penance, I heard it said that sometimes there was more of self-love than desire of penance in such sorrow. St. Teresa That the mortified are, in some respects, often much worse than th e unmortified is a commonplace of history, fiction and descriptiv e psychology. Thus, the Puritan may practise all the cardinal vir tues- prudence, fortitude, temperance an d chastity - and yet remain a thoroughly bad man; for, in all too many cases, these virtues o f his are accompanied by, and indeed causa lly connected with, the sins of pride, envy, chronic anger and an uncha ritableness pushed sometimes to the level of active cruelty. Mistaking the means for the end, the Puritan has fancied himsel f holy because he is stoically austere. But stoical austerity is merel y the exaltation of the more creditable side of the ego at the expens e of the less creditable. Holine ss, on the contrary, is the total denial o f t h e separative self, in its creditable no less than its discreditab le aspects, and the abandonment of the will to God. To the extent that there is attachment to I, me, mine t here is no attachment to, and t herefore no unitive knowledge of, the Divine Ground. Mortification has t o be carried to the pitch of non-attachment or (in the phrase of St. Francois de Sales) holy indifference; otherwise i t merely transfers self-will fr om one channel to another, without decr ease in the total volume of tha t self- will, but sometimes with an actual increase. 134 As usual, the corruption of the best is the worst. The differen ce between the mortified but still proud and self-centred stoic and the un mortified hedonist consists in this: the latter, being flabby, shiftless and at heart rather ashamed of himself, lacks the energy and the motive to d o much harm except to his own body, min d and spirit; the former, becau se he has all the secondary virtues a nd looks down on those who are n ot like himself, is morally equipped to wish and to be able to do harm on the very largest scale and with a perfectly untroubled conscience. These are obvious being difficult, painful facts; and yet, in the current religious jargon of our day the word immoral is reserved almost exclusi vely for the carnally self-indulgent. The covetous and the ambitious, th e respectable toughs and those who cloak their lust for power and place under the right sort of idealistic cant, are not merely unblame d; they are even held up as models of virtue and godliness. The representat ives of the organized churches begin by putting haloes on the heads of the people who do most to make wars and revolutions, then go on, ra ther plaintively, to wonder why the w orld should be in such a mess. Mortification is not, as many pe ople seem to imagine, a matter, primarily, of severe physical au sterities. It is possible that, f o r c e r t a i n persons in certain circumstances , t h e p r a c t i c e o f s e v e r e p h y s i c al austerities may prove helpful in advance towards mans final en d. In m o s t c a s e s , h o w e v e r , i t w o u l d s e e m t h a t w h a t i s g a i n e d b y s u c h austerities is not liberation, b ut something quite different - the achievement of psychic powers. The ability to get petitionary p rayer answered, the power to he al and work other miracles, the knack o f looking into the future or in to other people's minds - these, it would seem, are often related in som e kind of causal connection with fasting, watching and the self-inflictio n of pain. Most of the great theocentric sa ints and spiritual teachers hav e admitted the existence of supernor mal powers, only, however, to 135 deplore them. To think that such Siddhis, as the Indians call t hem, have anything to do with liberation is, they say, a dangerous illusi on. These things are either irrelevant to the main issue of life, or, if too much prized and attended to, an obstacle in the way of spiritual advance. N or are these the only objections to physical austerities. C a r r i e d t o e x t r e m e s , t h e y m a y b e d a n g e r o u s t o h e a l t h - a n d w i t h out health the steady persistence of effort required by the spiritu al life is very difficult of achievement. And being difficult, painful and generally conspicuous, physical austerities are a standing temptation to vanity and the competitive spirit of record breaking. When thou didst giv e thyself up to physical mortification, th o u w a s t g r e a t , t h o u w a s t a d m i r e d. So writes Suso of his own experienc es - experiences which led him, just as G auta ma Buddha ha d been led man y centu ries before, to give up h is course of bodily penance. And St. Teresa remarks how much easie r it is to impose great penances upon on eself than to suffer in patienc e, charity and humbleness the ordina ry everyday crosses of family life (which did not prevent her, incidentally, from practising, to t he very day of her death, the most excruciating forms of self-torture. Whether t h e s e austerities really helped her to come to the unitive knowledge of God, or whether they were prized and persisted in because of the psychi c powers they helped to develop, there is n o means of determining.) Our dear Saint (Francois de Sales) disapproved of immoderate fasting. He used to say that the spirit coul d not endure the body when overfed, but that, if underfed, the body co uld not endure the spirit. Jean Pierre Camus When the will, the moment it feels any joy in sensible things rises upwards in that joy to God, and when sensible things move it to pray, it should not neglect them, it should make use of them for so holy an exercise; because sensible things, in these conditions, subserve the end 136 for which God created them, namely to be occasions for making Him better known and loved. St. John of the Cross He who is not conscious of liberty of spirit among the things of sense and sweetness - things which should serve as motives to prayer - and whose will rests and feeds upon them , ought to abstain from the use of them; for to him they are a hind rance on the road to God. St. John of the Cross One man may declare that he cannot fast; but can he declare the course of that he cannot love God? Another may affirm that he cannot preserve virginity or sell all his good s in order to give the price to the poor; but can he tell me that he ca nnot love his enemies? All that is necessary is to look into ones own heart; for what God asks of us is not found at a great distance. St. Jerome Anybody who wishes to do so can get all, and indeed more than a ll, the mortification he wants out of th e incidents of ordinary, day - to-day living, without ever resorting to harsh bodily penance. Here ar e the rules l a i d d o w n b y t h e a u t h o r o f H o l y s p e c i f i c W i s d o m f o r D a m e G e r t r u de More. First, that she should do all that belonged to her to do by any law, human or Divine. Secondly, that she was to refrain from doing those things that were forbidden her by hu man or Divine Law, or by Divine inspiration. Thirdly, that she should bear with as much patience or resignation as possible all crosses and contradictions to her natural will, which were inflicted by the hand of God. Such, for instance, were aridities, temptations, afflictions or bodily pain, sickness and infirmity; or again, the loss of friends or wa nt of necessaries and comforts. All this was to be endured patiently, wh ether the crosses came direct from God or by means of His creatures. . . . These indeed were mortifications 137 enough for Dame Gertrude, or for any other soul, and there was no need for anyone to advise or impose others. Augustine Baker sum up, that mortification is the best which results in the elimination of self-will, self-interest, self-centred thinking, wishing and i m a g i n i n g . E x t r e m e p h y s i c a l a u s t e r i t i e s a r e n o t l i k e l y t o a c h i e v e t h i s k i n d of mortification. But the acceptance of what happens to us (apart, of course, from our own sins) in the course of daily living is likely to produce this result. If specific exercises in self-denial are undertaken, th ey should be inconspicuous, non-competitive and uninjurious to health. Thus, in the matter of diet, most people will find it sufficiently mortifyin g to refrain from eating all the - things which the experts in nutrition con demn as u n w h o l e s o m e . A n d w h e r e s o c i a l r e lations are concerned, self-den ial should take the form, Rabi'a, not of showy acts of would - be h umility, but of control of the tongue and the moods - in refraining from saying anything uncharitable or merely frivolous (which means, in practice, refraining from about fifty per cent of ordinary conversation), and in behaving calmly and with quiet cheerfulness when of devotional theism the Buddhist theologian, externa l circumstances or the state of o u r bodies predisposes us to anxiety , gloom or an excessive elation . When a man practises charity in orde r to be reborn in heaven, or for fame, or reward, or from fear, such charity can obtain no pure effect.' Sutra on the Distinction and Protection of the Dharma When Prince Wen Wang was on a tour of inspection in Tsang, he saw an old man fishing. But his fishing wa s not real fishing, for he did not fish in order to catch fish, but to amuse himself. So Wen Wang wished to employ him in the administration of government, but feared lest his own ministers, uncles and brothers might object. On the other hand, if he let the old man go, he could no t bear to think of the people being deprived of such an influence. Chuang Tzu 138 God, if I worship Thee in fear of hell , burn me in hell. And if I worship Thee in hope of Paradi se, exclude me from Para dise; but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not Thine everlasting Beauty. Rabia Rabia, the Sufi woman-saint, sp eaks, thinks and feels in terms o f d e v o t i o n a l t h e i s m ; t h e B u d d h i s t t h e o l o g i a n , i n t e r m s o f i m p e r s o nal moral Law; the Chinese philosopher, with characteristic humour, i n terms of politics; but all three insist on the need for non-att achment to self-interest - insist on it as strongly as does Christ when he reproaches t h e P h a r i s e e s f o r t h e i r e g o c e n t r i c p i e t y , a s d o e s t h e K r i s h n a o f the Bhagavad-Gita when he tells Arjuna to do his Divinely ordained duty without personal craving for, or fear of, the fruits of his act ions. St. Ignatius Loyola was once ask ed what his feelings would be i f the Pope were to suppress the Company of Jesus. A quarter of an hour of prayer, he answered, and I should think no more about it. This is, p e r h a p s , t h e m o s t d i f f i c u l t o f a l l m o r t i f i c a t i o n s - t o a c h i e v e a holy indifference to the temporal success or failure of the cause t o which one has devoted ones best energ ies. If it triumphs, well and g ood; and if it meets defeat, that also is well and good, if only in ways that, to a limited and timebound mind, are here and now entirely incomprehensible. By a man without passions I mean on e who does not permit good or evil to disturb his inward economy, but rather falls in with what happens and does not add to the sum of his mortality. Chuang Tzu The fitting disposition for union with God is not that the soul should understand, feel, taste or imagine anyt hing on the subjec t of the nature of God, or any other thing whatever, but should remain in that pureness and love which is pe rfect resignation and complete detachment from all things for God alone. St. John of the Cross 139 Disquietude is always vanity, becaus e it serves no good. Yes, even if the whole world were thrown into confusion and all things in it, disquietude on that account would be vanity. St. John of the Cross Sufficient not only unto the da y, but also unto the place, is t he evil thereof. Agitation over happenin gs which we are powerless to mo dify, either because they have not yet occurred, or else are occurrin g at an inaccessible distance from us, achieves nothing beyond the inoc ulation of here and now with the remote or anticipated evil that is the object of our distress. Listening four or five times a day to newscasters a n d commentators, reading the morning papers and all the weeklies a nd monthlies - nowadays, this is described as taking an intellige nt interest in politics. St. John of the Cross would have called it indulg ence in idle curiosity and the cultivation of disquietude for disquietudes sake. I want very little, and what I do want I have very little wish for. I have hardly any desires, but if I were to be born again, I should have none at all. We should ask nothing and refuse nothing, but leave ourselves in the arms of Divine Providence without wasting time in any desire, except to will what God wills of us. St. Franois de Sales Push far enough towards the Void, Ho ld fast enough to Quietness, And of the ten thousand things none but can be worked on by you. I have beheld them, whither they go back. See, all things howsoe ver they flourish Return to the root fr om which they grew. This return to the Root is called Quietness; Quietness is called submission to Fate; What has submitted to Fate be comes part of the always-so; To know the always-so is to be illumined; Not to know it means to go blindly to disaster. Lao Tzu 140 I wish I could join the Solitaries (on Caldey Island), instead of being Superior and having to write books. But I dont wish to have what I wish, of course. Abbot John Chapman We must not wish anything other than what happens from moment to moment, all the while, however, exercising ourselves in goodness. St. Catherine of Genoa In the practice of mortification as in most other fields, advan ce is along a knife-edge. On one side lurks th e Scylla of egocentric auster ity, on the other the Charybdis of an uncaring quietism. The holy indiffere nce inculcated by the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy is neit her stoicism nor mere passivity. It i s rather an active resignation . Self-will is renounced, not that there may be a total holiday from willing, but that the Divine will may use the mortif ied mind and body as its inst rument for good. Or we may say, with Kabir, that the devout seeker is he who mingles in his heart the double curre nts of love and detachment, like the mingling of the stream s of Ganges and Jumna. Until we put an end to particular attachments, there can be no love of God with the whole heart, mind a nd strength and no universal ch arity towards all creatures for Gods sake. Hence the hard sayings in t h e Gospels about the need to renoun ce exclusive family ties. And i f the Son o f M a n h a s n o w h e r e t o l a y h i s h e a d , i f t h e T a t h g a t a a n d t h e Bodhisattvas have their thoughts awakened to the nature of Reality without abiding in anything whatever, this is because a truly Godlike love which, like the sun, shines equally upon the just and the unjust, is impossible to a mind imprisoned i n private preferences and aver sions. The soul that is attached to anyt hing, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the libe rty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters nor, if it really ho lds it fast; for, until the cord be 141 broken, the bird cannot fly. So th e soul, held by the bonds of human affections, however slight they may be, cannot, while they last, make its way to God. St. John of the Cross There are some who are newly delive red from their sins and so, would be able to though they are resolved to love God, they are still novices and apprentices, soft and weak. . . . They love a number of superfluous, vain and dangerous things at the sa me time as Our Lord. Though they love God above all things, they yet co ntinue to take pleasure in many things which they do not love a ccording to God, but besides Him - things such as slight inordinations in word, gesture, clothing, pastimes and frivolities. St. Franois de Sales There are souls who have made so me progress in Divine love, and have cut off all the love they had for dangerous things; yet they still have dangerous and superfluous love s , b e c a u s e t h e y l o v e w h a t G o d wills them to love, but with excess and too tender and passionate a love. . . . The love of our relations, friends and benefactors is itself according to God, but we may love them excessively; as also our vocations, however spiritual they be; and our devotional exercises (which we should yet love very greatly) may be loved inordinately, when we set them above obedience an d the more general good, or care for them as an end, when they are only means. St. Franois de Sales The goods of God, which are be yond all measure, can only be contained in an empty and solitary heart. St. John of the Cross Suppose a boat is crossing a river and another boat, an empty one, is about to collide with it. Even an irritable man would not lose his temper. But suppose there was someon e in the second boat. Then the occupant of the first would shout to him to keep clear. And if he did 142 not hear the first time, nor even when called to three times, bad language would inevitably follow. In the first case there was no anger, in the second there was - because in the first case the boat was empty, in the second it was occupied. And so it is with man. If he could only pass empty through life, who woul d be able to injure him? Chuang Tzu When the heart weeps for what it ha s lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found. Anonymous Sufi Aphorism It is by losing the egocentric life that we save the hitherto l atent and undiscovered life which, in the spiritual part of our being, we share with the Divine Ground. This new-found life is more abundant than the other, and of a different and higher kind. Its possession is li beration into the eternal, and liberation is beatitude. Necessarily so; for t he Brahman, who is one with the Arman, is not only Being and Knowledge, but also Bliss, and, after Love and Peace, the final fruit of the Spirit i s J o y . Mortification is painful, but th at pain is one of the pre-condi tions of blessedness. This fact of spiritual experience is sometimes obscured by the language i n w h i c h i t i s d e s c r i b e d . T h u s , w h e n C h r i s t s a y s t h a t t h e K i n g d om of Heaven cannot be entered except by those who are as little chil dren, we are apt to forget (so touching are the images evoked by the simple phrase) that a man cannot become childlike unless he chooses to underta ke the most strenuous and searching cour se of self-denial. In practice t h e command to become as little children is identical with the comm and to lose ones life. As Traherne makes clear in the beautiful passa ge quoted in the section on God in the World, one cannot know created N ature in all its essentially sacred beaut y, unless one first unlearns th e dirty devices of adult humanity. Seen through the dung-coloured spect acles of self-interest, the universe l ooks singularly like a dung-hea p; and as, through long wearing, the specta cles have grown on to the eyeba lls, the 143 process of cleansing the doors of perception is often, at any rate in the earlier stages of the spiritual life, painfully like a surgical operation. Later on, it is true, even self-naughting may be suffused with the jo y of the Spirit. On this point the following passage from the fourteenth -century Scale of Perfection is illuminating. Many a man hath the virtues of humility, patience and charity towards his neighbours, only in th e reason and will, and hath no spiritual delight nor love in them; for of times he feeleth grudging, heaviness and bitterness for to do them, but yet nevertheless he doth them, but tis only by stirring of reason for dread of God. goods. This man hath these virtues in reas on and will, but not the love of them in affection. But when, by th e grace of Jesus and by ghostly and bodily exercise, reason is turned into light and will into love, then hath he virtues in affection; for he hath so gnawn on the bitter bark or shell of the nut that at length he hath br oken it and now feeds on the kernel; that is to say, the virtues which were first heavy for to practise are now turned into a very delight and savour. Walter Hilton As long as I am this or that, or ha ve this or that, I am not all things and I have not all things. Become pure till you neither are nor have either this or that; then you are omnipresent and, being neither this nor that, are all things. Eckhart The point so dramatically emphasized by Eckhart in these lines is one t h a t h a s o f t e n b e e n m a d e b y t h e m o r a l i s t s a n d p s y c h o l o g i s t s o f the spiritual life. It is only when w e have renounced our preoccupa tion with I, me, mine that we can tr uly possess the world in which we live. Everything is ours, provided that we regard nothing as our prop erty. And not only is everything ours; it is also everybody elses. 144 True love in this differs from dross and clay, that to divide i s not to take away. There can be no complete communism except in the goods of the spirit and, to some extent also, of the mind, and only when suc h goods are possessed by men and women in a state of non-attachment and self- denial. Some degree of mortification, it should be noted, is an indispensable prerequisite for t he creation and enjoyment even of merely intellectual and aesthetic goods. Those who choose the profession of artist, philosopher or man of science, choose, in m a n y cases, a life of poverty and unrew arded hard work. But these ar e by no means the only mortifications they have to undertake. When he l ooks at the world, the artist must deny his ordinary human tendency to think of things in utilitarian, self-regarding terms. Similarly, the critical philosopher must mortify his common sen se, while the research worker must steadfastly resist the temptations to over- simplify and think conventionally , and must make himself docile to the leadings of mysterious Fact. And what is true of the creators o f aesthetic and intellectual goods is also true of the enjoyers of such goo ds, when created. That these mortifications are by no means trifling has b e e n shown again and again in the course of history. One thinks, for example, of the intellectually mortified Socrates and the hemlock with w hich his unmortified compatriots rewarded him. One thinks of the heroic efforts that had to be made by Galileo and his contemporaries to break with the Aristotelian convention of thought, and the no less heroic effo rts that have to be made today by any scientist who believes that there is more in the universe than can be disc overed by employing the time-ha llowed recipes of Descartes. Such mortifications have their reward in a state of consciousness that corresponds, on a lower level, to spiritual beatitude. The artist - and the philosopher and the man of science are als o artists - knows the bliss of aesthetic contemplation, discovery and non - attached possession. 145 The goods of the intellect, the em otions and the imagination are real goods; but they are not the final good , and when we treat them as ends in themselves, we fall into idolatry . Mortification of will, desire and action is not enough; there must also be mortification in the fields of knowing, thinking, feeling and fancying. Mans intellectual faculties are by th e Fall in a much worse state than his animal appetites and want a mu ch greater self-denial. And when own will, own understanding and ow n imagination have their natural strength indulged and gratified, and are made seemingly rich and honourable with the treasures acquir ed from education they will just as much help to be like-minded with Christ as the art of cookery, well and duly studied, will he lp a professor of the Gospel to the spirit and practice of Christian abstinence. William Law Because it was German and spelt with a K, Kultur was an object, during the First World War, of derisive contempt. All this has now bee n changed. In Russia, Literature, Art and Science have become the three persons of a new humanistic Trinity. Nor is the cult of Culture confined to the Soviet write about everything else with the condescendin g cynicism century. Union. It is practised by a majority of intel lectuals in the capitalist democracies. Cleve r, hard-boiled journalists, wh o of people who know all about God, Man and the Universe, and have s een through the whole absurd caboodle, fairly fall over themselves when it comes to Culture. With an earnestness and enthusiasm that are, in the circumstances, unutterably ludicrous, they invite us to share t heir positively religious emotions in the face of High Art, as repre sented by the latest murals or civic centr es; they insist that so long as Mrs. X goes on writing her inimitable novels and Mr. Y his more than Coleri dgean criticism, the world, in spite o f all appearance s to the contra ry, makes sense. 146 T h e s a m e o v e r - v a l u a t i o n o f C u l t u r e , t h e s a m e b e l i e f t h a t A r t a n d Literature are ends in themselves and can flourish in isolation fro m a reasonable and realistic philosoph y of life, have even invaded the schools and colleges. Among advanced educationists there are many people who seem to think that all will be well so long as adole scents are permitted to express themselves, and small children are encou raged to be creative in the art class. But, alas, plasticine and self- expression will not solve the problems of educat ion. Nor will technology and vo cational guidance; nor the classics and th e Hundred Best Books. The foll owing criticisms of education were made more than two and a half cent uries ago; but they are as relevant today as they were in the sevente enth century. He knoweth nothing as he ought to know, who thinks he knoweth anything without seeing its place and the manner how it relateth to God, angels and men, and to all the creatures in earth, heaven and hell, time and eternity. Thomas Traherne Nevertheless some things were defective too ( a t O x f o r d u n d e r t h e Commonwealth). There was never a tutor that did pr ofessly teach Felicity, though that be the mistress of all the other scie nces. Nor did any of us study these things but as aliens, which we ou ght to have studied as our own enjoyments. We studied to inform our knowledge, but knew not for what end we studied. And for lack of aiming at a certain end, we erred in the manner. Thomas Traherne In Trahernes vocabulary felicity means beatitude, which is identical in practice with liberation, whic h, in its turn, is the unitive knowledge of God in the heights within and in the fullness without as well a s within. ` 147 What follows is an account of the intellectual mortifications w hich must be practised by those whose prim ary concern is with the knowled ge of the Godhead in the interior heights of the soul. Happy is the man who, by continua lly effacing all images and through introversion and the lifting up of his mind to God, at last forgets and leaves behind all such hindrances. Fo r by such means only, he operates inwardly, with his naked, pure, simp le intellect and affections, about the most pure and simple object, God. Therefore see that thy whole exer cise about God within thee may depend wholly and only on that nake d intellect, affection and will. For indeed, this exercise cannot be discha rged by any bodily organ, or by the external senses, but only by that which constitutes the essence of man - understanding and love. If, ther efore, thou desirest a safe stair and short path to arrive at the end of true bliss, then, with an intent mind, earnestly desire an d aspire after continual cleanness of heart and purity of mind. Add to this a cons tant calm and tranquillity of the senses, and a recollecting of the affe ctions of the heart, continually fixing them above. Work to simplify the heart, that being immovable and at peace from any invading vain phantasms, thou mayest always stand fast in the Lord within thee, to that degree as if thy soul had already entered the always present no w of eternity - that is, the state of the deity. mount to God is to enter into oneself. For he who so mounts and enters an d goes above and beyond himself, he truly mounts up to God. The mind must then raise itself above itself and say, He who above all I need is above all I know. And so carried into the darkness of the mind, gather ing itself into that all-sufficient good, it learns to stay at home and with its whole affection it cleaves and becomes habitually fixed in the supreme good within. Thus 148 continue, until thou becomest immuta ble and dost arrive at that true life which is God Himself, perpet ually, without any vicissitude of space or time, reposing in that inward quiet and secret mansion of the deity. Albertus Magnus Some men love knowledge and disc ernment as the best and most excellent of all things. Behold, th en knowledge and discernment come to be loved more than that which is discerned; for the false natural light loveth its knowledge and powe rs, which are itself, more than what is known. And were it possible that this false natural light should understand the simple Truth, as it is in God and in truth, it still would not lose its own property, that is, it could not depart from itself and its own things. Theologa Germanica The relationship between moral action and spiritual knowledge i s circular, as it were, and recipr ocal. Selfless be haviour makes possible an accession of knowledge, and the accession of knowledge makes po ssible the performance of further and more genuinely selfless actions, which in their turn enhance the agents capacity for knowing. And so on, if all goes well and there is perfect docility and obedience, indefini tely. The process is summed up in a few li nes of the Maitrayana Upanishad . A man undertakes right action (which includes, of course, right recollectedness and right meditation) and this enables him to catch a glimpse of the Self that underlies his separate individuality. Having seen his own self as the Self, he becomes selfless (and therefore acts selflessly) and in virtue of selflessness he is to be conceived as unconditioned. This is the highest mystery, betokening emancipation; through selflessness he has no part in pleasure or pain (in other words, he enters a state of nonattachment or holy indifference), but achieves 149 absoluteness (or as Albertus Magnus phrases it, becomes immutable and arrives at that true life wh ich is God Himself). When mortification is perfect, it s most characteristic fruit is simplicity. A simple heart will love a ll that is most precious on earth, husband or wife, parent or child, brother or friend, without marring its singleness; external th ings will have no attrac tion save inasmuch as they lead souls to Him; all exaggera tion or unreality, affectation and falsehood must pass away from such a one, as the dews dry up before the sunshine. The single motive is to please God, and hence arises total indifference as to what others say and think, so that words and actions are perfectly simple and natural, as in his sight only. Such Christian simplicity is the very perfection of interior life - God, his will and pleasure, its sole object. J.N. Grou And here is a more extended account of the matter by one of the greatest masters of psychological analysis. In the world, when people call anyo ne simple, they generally mean a foolish, ignorant, credulous person. But real simplicity, so far from being foolish, is almost sublime. A ll good men like and admire it, are conscious of sinning against it, observ e it in others and know what it involves; and yet they could not precisely define it. I should say that simplicity is an uprightness of soul which prevents self-consciousness. It is not the same as sincerity, which is a much humbler virtue. Many people are sincere who are not simple . They say nothing but what they believe to be true, and do not aim at appearing anything but what they are. But they are for ever thinking about themselves, weighing their every word and thought, and dw elling upon themselves in apprehension of having done too mu ch or too little. These people are sincere but they are not simple. They are not at their ease with others, 150 nor others with them. There is noth ing easy, frank, unrestrained or natural about them. One feels that one would like less admirable people better, who we re not so stiff. To be absorbed in the world around and never turn a thought within, as is the blind condition of some who are carried away by what is pleasant and tangible, is one extrem e as opposed to simplicity. And to be self-absorbed in all matters, whet her it be duty to God or man, is the other extreme, which makes a pe rson wise in his own conceit - reserved, self-conscious, uneasy at the least thing which disturbs his inward self-complacency. Such false wisdom, in spite of its solemnity, is hardly less vain and foolish th an the folly of those who plunge headlong into worldly pleasures. Th e one is intoxicated by his outward surroundings, the other by what he believes himself to be doing inwardly; but both are in a state of intoxication, and the last is a worse state than the first, because it seems to be wise, though it is not really, and so people do not try to be cure d . R eal s imp li cit y l ies i n a j us t e milieu equally free from thoughtlessness and affectation, in which the soul is not overwhelmed by externals, so as to be unable to reflect, nor yet given up to the endless refine ments, which self-consciousness induces. That soul which looks wher e it is going without losing time arguing over every step, or looking back perpetually, possesses true simplicity. Such simplicity is ind eed a great treasure. How shall we attain to it? I would give all I possess for it; it is the costly pearl of Holy Scripture. The first Step, then, is for the soul to put away outward things and look within so as to know its own real inte rest; so far all is right and natural; t h u s m u c h i s o n l y a w i s e s e l f -love, which seeks to avoid the intoxication of the world. 151 In the next step the soul must add the contemplation of God, whom it fears, to that of self. This is a fa int approach to the real wisdom, but the soul is still greatly self-absorbe d: it is not satisfied with fearing God; it wants to be certain that it does fear Him and fears lest it fear Him not, going round in a perpetual circle of self-consciousness. All this restless dwelling on self is ve ry far from the pe ace and freedom of real love; but that is ye t in the distance; the soul must needs go through a season of trial, and were it sudde nly plunged into a state of rest, it would not know how to use it. The third step is that, ceasing from a restless self-contemplation, the soul begins to dwell upon God inst ead, and by degr ees realistically forgets itself in Him. It becomes fu ll of Him and ceases to feed upon self. Such a soul is not blinded to its own faults or indifferent to its own errors; it is more conscious of th em than ever, and increased light shows them in plainer form, but this self-knowledge comes from God, and therefore it is not restless or uneasy. Fnelon How admirably acute and subtle this is! One of the most extraor dinary, because most gratuitous, pieces of twentieth-century vanity is the assumption that nobody knew anything about psychology before th e days of Freud. But the real truth is that most modern psycholog ists understand human beings less well than did the ablest of their predecessors. Fnelon and La Roch efoucauld knew all about the s urface rationalization of deep, discredi table motives in the subconsci ous, and were fully aware that sexuality and the will to power were, all too often, t h e e f f e c t i v e f o r c e s a t w o r k u n d e r t h e p o l i t e m a s k o f t h e p e r s o na. Machiavelli had drawn Paretos d istinction between residues a nd derivations - between the real, s e l f - i n t e r e s t e d m o t i v e s f o r p olitical action and the fancy theories, pr inciples and ideals in terms o f which such action is explained and jus tified to the credulous public. 152 Like Buddhas and St. Augustines, Pascals view of human virtu e and rationality could not have been more realistically low. But all these men, even La Rochefoucauld, even Mach iavelli, were aware of certain facts which twentieth-century psychologists have chosen to ignore - t he fact that human nature is tripartite, consisting of a spirit as well as of a mind and body; the fact that we live on the border-line between two worlds, the temporal and the eternal, the physical-vital-human and the Divine; the fact that, though nothing in himself, man is a nothing sur rounded by God, indigent of God, capable of God and filled with God, if he so desires. The Christian simplicity, of whic h Grou and Fnelon write, is t he same thing as the virtue so much admired by Lao Tzu mortification of the will and his successors. According to these Chinese sages, personal sins and social maladjustments are all du e to the fact that men have sep arated themselves from their Divine source and live according to their own will and notions, not according to Tao - which is the Great Way, the Logos, the Nature of Things, as it manif ests itself on every plane fro m the physical, up through the animal and the mental, to the spiritua l. Enlightenment comes when we give up self-will and make ourselve s docile to the workings of Tao in the world around us and in our own bodies, minds and spirits. Sometimes the Taoist philosophers write as though they believed i n Rousseaus Noble Savage, and ( b e i ng Ch i ne s e an d t h e re f o r e m uc h m o re concerned with the concrete and the practical than with the mer ely speculative) they are fond of prescribing methods by which rulers may reduce the complexity of civilization and so preserve their sub jects from the corrupting influences of ma n-made and therefore Tao-eclipsi ng conventions of thought, feeling and action. But the rulers who are to perform this task for the masses must themselves be sages; and to become a sage, one must get rid of all the rigidities of unrege nerate 153 adulthood and become again as a little child. For. only that wh ich is soft and docile is truly alive; that which conquers and outlives eve rything is that which adapts itself to ever ything, that which always seeks t h e l o w e s t p l a c e - n o t t h e h a r d r o c k , b u t t h e w a t e r t h a t w e a r s a w a y t h e everlasting hills. The simplicity and spontaneity of the perfect sage are the frui ts of mortification - mortification of the will and, by recollectedne ss and m e d i t a t i o n , o f t h e m i n d . O n l y t h e m o s t h i g h l y d i s c i p l i n e d a r t i s t can Nature of recapture, on a higher level, the spontaneity of the child with its first paint-box. Nothing is more difficult than to be simpl e. May I ask, said Yen Hui, in what consists the fasting of the heart? Cultivate unity, replied Confucius. You do your hearing, not with your ears, but with your mind; not wi th your mind, but with your very soul. But let the hearing stop with the ears. Let the working of the m i n d s t o p w i t h i t s e l f . T h e n t h e s o u l w i l l b e a n e g a t i v e e x i s t e n c e , passively responsive to externals. In such a negative existence, only Tao can abide. And that negative st ate is the fasting of the heart. Then, said Yen Hui, the reason I could not get the use of this method is my own individuality. If I could get the use of it, my individuality would have gone. Is this what yo u mean by the negative state? Exactly so, replied the Master. Let me tell you. If you can enter the domain of this prince (a bad ruler whom Yen Hui was ambitious to reform) without offending his amour propr e, cheerful if he hears you, passive if he does not; without scie nce, without drugs, simply living there in a state of complete indiffer ence - you will be near success. . . . Look at that window. Through it an empty room becomes bright with scenery; but the landscape stops ou tside. In this sense you may use your ears and eyes to communicate within, but shut out all wisdom (in 154 the sense of conventional, copybook maxims) from your mind. This is the method for regenera ting all creation. Chuang Tzu Mortification may be regarded, in this context, as the process of study, by which we learn at last to have unstudied reactions to events - reactions in harmony with Tao, Suchness, the Will of God. Those who have made themselves docile to the Divine Nature of Things, tho se who respond to circumstances, not with craving and aversion, but wi th the love that permits them to do spo ntaneously what they like; thos e who can truthfully say, Not I, but God in me, such men and women are compared by the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy to childr en, to fools and simpletons, even sometimes, as in the following passa ge, to drunkards. A drunken man who falls out of a ca rt, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other peoples; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security. He is not conscious of riding in the cart; neithe r is he conscious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear and the like cannot penetrate his breast; and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existence. If such security is to be got from wine, ho w much more is it to be got from God? Chuang Tzu It is by long obedience and hard work that the artist comes to unforced spontaneity and consummate maste ry. Knowing that he can never create anything on his own account, out of the top layers, so t o speak, of his personal consciousness, h e submits obediently to the wor kings of inspiration; and knowing that the medium in which he works ha s its own self-nature, which must not b e ignored or violently overrid den, he makes himself its patient servan t and, in this way, achieves pe rfect freedom of expression. But life i s also an art, and the man who would become a consummate artist in living must follow, on all the le vels of his 155 being, the same procedure as tha t by which the painter or the s culptor or any other craftsman comes to his own more limited perfection . Prince Huis cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blow of his knife, every heave of his shoulders, every tread of his foot, every whshh of rent flesh, every chhk of the chopper, was in perfect harmony - rhythmical like the Dance of the Mu lberry Grove, simultaneous like the chords of the Ching Shou. Well done! cried the Prince. Yours is skill indeed. Sire, replied the cook, I have always devoted myself to Tao. And It is better than skill. When I first began to cut up bullocks, I saw before me simply whole bullocks. After thre e years practice I saw no more whole animals. And now I work with my mind and not with my eye. When my senses bid me stop, but my mind urges me on, I fall back upon eternal principles. I follow such openings or caviti es as there may be, according to the natural consti tution of the animal. I do not attempt to cut through joints, St ill less through large bones. A good cook changes his chopper on ce a year - because he cuts. An ordinary cook, once a month - becaus e he hacks. But I have had this chopper nineteen years, and though I have cut up many thousands of bullocks, its edge is as if fresh fr om the whetstone. For at the joints there are always interstices, and th e edge of a chopper being without thickness, it remains only to inse rt that which is without thickness into such an interstice. By these me ans the interstice will be enlarged, and the blade will find plenty of room . It is thus that I have kept my chopper for nineteen years, as th ough fresh from the whetstone. Nevertheless, when I come upon a hard part, where the blade meets with a difficulty, I am all caution. I fix my eyes on it. I stay my hand, 156 and gently apply the blade, until with a hwah the part yields like earth crumbling to the Ground. Then I wi thdraw the blade and stand up and look. around; and at last I wipe my chopper and put it carefully away. Bravo! cried the Prince. From the wo rds of this cook I have learnt how to take care of my life. Chuang Tzu In the first seven branches of his Eightfold Path the Buddha de scribes the conditions that must be fulf illed by anyone who desires to come to t h a t r i g h t c o n t e m p l a t i o n w h i c h i s t h e e i g h t h a n d f i n a l b r a n c h . The fulfilment of these conditions entails the undertaking of a cou rse of the most searching and comprehensive mortification - mortification of intellect and will, craving and emotion, thought, speech, actio n and, finally, means of livelihood. Ce rtain professions are more or l ess completely incompatible with the achievement of mans final end ; and there are certain ways of making a living which do so much phys ical and, above all, so much moral, intellectual and spiritual dangerous harm that, even if they could be practi sed in a non-attached spirit (which is generally impossible), they would still have to be eschewed by anyone dedicated to the task of liberating, not only himself, but others. The exponents of the Perennial Philosophy are not content to av oid and forbid the practice of criminal professions, such as brothel-ke eping, forgery, racketeering and the lik e; they also avoid themselves, and warn o t h e r s l i v e l i h o o d a g a i n s t , a n u m b e r o f w a y s o f l i v e l i h o o d c o m m o nly regarded as legitimate. Thus, in many Buddhist societies, the manufacture of arms, the concocti on of intoxicating liquors and t h e wholesale purveying of butchers meat were not, as in contempor ary Christendom, rewarded by wealth, peerages and political influen ce; they were deplored as businesses whic h, it was thought, made it part icularly difficult for their practitioner s and for other members of the communities in which they were p ractised to achieve enlightenme nt 157 and liberation. Similarly, in me diaeval Europe, Christians were forbidden to make a living by the taking of interest on money or by corne ring the m a r k e t . A s T a w n e y a n d o t h e r s h a v e s h o w n , i t w a s o n l y a f t e r t h e Reformation that coupon-clipping , usury and gambling in stocks and commodities became respectable a nd received ecclesiastical appr oval. For the Quakers, soldiering was and is a form of wrong liveliho od - war being, in their eyes, anti-Christian, not so much because it ca uses suffering as because it propagates hatred, puts a premium on fr aud and c r u e l t y , i n f e c t s w h o l e s o c i e t i e s w i t h a n g e r , f e a r , p r i d e a n d uncharitableness. Such passions eclipse the Inner Light, and th erefore the wars by which they are aroused and intensified must be rega rded, whatever their immediate political outcome, as crusades to make the world safe for spiritual darkness. It has been found, as a matter of experience, that it is danger ous to lay d o w n d e t a i l e d a n d i n f l e x i b l e r u l e s f o r r i g h t l i v e l i h o o d - d a n g e rous, because most people see no reaso n for being righteous overmuch and consequently respond to the imposition of too rigid a code by h ypocrisy or open rebellion. In the Christia n tradition, for example, a d istinction is made between the precepts, which are binding on all and sundry, and the counsels of perfection, bind ing only upon those who feel dr awn towards a total renunciation of the world. The precepts inclu de the ordinary moral code and the commandment to love God with all on es heart, strength and mind, and ones neighbour as oneself. Some of those who make a serious effort to obe y this last and greatest comman dment find that they cannot do so whol e-heartedly unless they follow the counsels and sever all connections with the world. Nevertheless i t i s possible for men and women to ach ieve that perfection, which is deliverance into the unitive knowledge of God, without abandoni ng the married state and without selling all they have and giving to t he poor. Effective poverty (possessing no money) is by no means always affective 158 poverty (being indifferent to money). One man may be poor, but desperately concerned with what money can buy, full of cravings , envy a n d b i t t e r s e l f - p i t y . A n o t h e r m a y h a v e m o n e y , b u t n o a t t a c h m e n t t o money or the things, powers and privileges that money can buy. Evangelical poverty is a combination of effective with affect ive poverty; but a genuine poverty of spirit is possible even in those who a re not effectively poor. It will be seen, then, that the problems of right livelihood, i n so far as they lie outside the jurisdiction of the common moral code, are strictly personal. The way in which any i ndividual problem presents itse lf and the nature of the appropriate solution depend upon the degree o f knowledge, moral sensibility and spiritual insight achieved by the individual concerned. For this reason no universally applicable rules can be formulated except in the most general terms. Here are my th ree treasures, says Lao Tzu. Guard and keep them! The first is pi ty, the s e c o n d f r u g a l i t y , t h e t h i r d r e f u s a l t o b e f o r e m o s t o f a l l t h i n g s under h e a v e n . A n d w h e n J e s u s i s a s k e d b y a s t r a n g e r t o s e t t l e a d i s p ute between himself and his brother over an inheritance, he refuses (since he does not know the circumstances) to be a judge in the case and merely utters a general warning against covetousness. Ga-San instructed his adherents on e day: Those who speak against killing, and who desire to spare the lives of all conscious beings, are right. It is good to protec t even animals and insects. But what about those persons who kill time, what about those who destroy wealth, and those who murder the economy of their society? We should not overlook them. Again, what of the one who preaches without enlightenment? He is killing Buddhism. From One Hundred an d One Zen Stories 159 Once the noble Ibrahim, as he sat on his throne, Heard a clamour and noise of cries on the roof, Also heavy footsteps on the roof of his palace. He said to himself, Whose heavy feet are these? He shouted from the wind ow, Who goes there? The guards, filled with confusion, bowed their heads, saying, It is we, going the rounds in search. He said, What seek ye? Th ey said, Our camels. He said, Who ever searched for camels on a housetop? They said, We follow thy example, Who seekest union with God, wh ile sitting on a throne. Jalal-uddin Rumi O f a l l s o c i a l , m o r a l a n d s p i r i t u a l p r o b l e m s t h a t o f p o w e r i s t h e most chronically urgent and the most d ifficult of solution. Craving for power is not a vice of the body, consequently knows none of the limit ations imposed by a tired or satiated physiology upon gluttony, intemp erance and lust. Growing with every succ e s s i v e s a t i s f a c t i o n , t h e a p p e t ite for power can manifest itself indefinitely, without interruption by b o d i l y f a t i g u e o r s i c k n e s s . M o r e o v e r , t h e n a t u r e o f s o c i e t y i s s u c h t h at the higher a man climbs in the polit ical, economic or religious hie rarchy, the greater are his opportunities and r e s o u r c e s f o r e x e r c i s i n g p o w e r. But climbing the hierarchical ladder is ordinarily a slow process, and the ambitious rarely reach the top t ill they are well advanced in l ife. The older he grows, the more chances does the power lover have for indulging his besetting sin, the more continuously is he subjec ted to temptations and the more glamorous do those temptations become. In this respect his situation is profoundly different from that of t h e debauchee. The latter may never voluntarily leave his vices, bu t at least, 160 as he advances in years, he finds his vices leaving him; the fo rmer neither leaves his vices nor is left by them. Instead of bringing to th e power lover a merciful respite from his addictions, old age is apt to inten sify them by making national servitude to a it easier for him to satisfy his cravings on a l a r g e r s c a l e a n d i n a m o r e s p e c t a c u l a r w a y . T h a t i s w h y , i n A ctons words, all great men are bad. Can we therefore be surprised i f political action, undertaken, in all too many cases, not for the public g ood, but solely or at least primarily to gratify the powe r lusts of bad men, should prove so often either self-stult ifying or downright disastrous? Ltat cest moi, says the tyrant; and this is true, of cours e, not only of the autocrat at the apex of the pyramid, but of all the members of the ruling minority through whom he governs and who are, in fact, t he real rulers of the nation. Moreover, so long as the policy which gra tifies the power lusts of the ruling class is successful, and so long as t he price of success is not too high, even the masses of the ruled will feel that the state is themselves - a vast and splendid projection of the ind ividuals intrinsically insignificant ego. The little man can satisfy his lust for power vicariously through the activiti es of the imperialistic state, just as the big man does; the difference between them is one of degree, not of kind. No infallible method for controlling the political manifestatio ns of the lust for power has ever been dev ised. Since power is of its ver y essence indefinitely expansive, it cannot be checked except by collidin g with another power. Hence, any societ y that values liberty, in the s ense of g o v e r n m e n t b y l a w r a t h e r t h a n b y c l a s s i n t e r e s t o r p e r s o n a l d e c ree, m u s t s e e t o i t t h a t t h e p o w e r o f i t s r u l e r s i s d i v i d e d . N a t i o n a l unity means national servitude to a single man and his supporting oli garchy. Organized and balanced disunity is the necessary condition of l iberty. His Majestys Loyal Opposition i s the loyalest, because the mos t genuinely useful section of any liberty-loving community. 161 Furthermore, since the appetite for power is purely mental and therefore insatiable and impervious to disease or old age, no c ommunity that values liberty can afford to give its rulers long tenures of office. The Carthusian Order, which was neve r reformed because never defor med, owed its long immunity from corruption to the fact that its abb ots were elected for periods of only a single year. In ancient Rome the amount of liberty under law was in inverse ratio to the length of the mag istrates terms of office. These rules for controlling the lust for power are very e a s y t o f o r m u l a t e , b u t v e r y d i f f i c u l t , a s h i s t o r y s h o w s , t o e n f orce in p r a c t i c e . T h e y a r e p a r t i c u l a r l y d i f f i c u l t t o e n f o r c e a t a p e r i o d like the present, when time-hallowed polit ical machinery is being render ed obsolete by rapid technological change and when the salutary pr inciple of organized and balanced disunity requires to be embodied in n ew and more appropriate institutions. Acton, the learned Catholic historian, was of opinion that all great men a r e b a d ; R u m i , t h e P e r s i a n p o e t a n d m y s t i c , t h o u g h t t h a t t o s e e k for union with God while occupying a throne was an undertaking hard ly less senseless than looking for camel s among the chimney-pots. A sli ghtly more optimistic note is sounded b y St. Francois de Sales, whose views on the matter were recorded by his Boswellizing disciple, the y oung Bishop of Belley. Mon Pre, I said one day, how is it possible for those who are themselves high in office to prac tise the virtue of obedience? Franois de Sales replied, They have greater and more excellent ways of doing so than their inferiors. As I did not understand this reply, he went on to say, Those who are bo und by obedience are usually subject to one superior only. . . . But thos e who are themselves superiors have a wider field for obedience, even whil e they command; for if they bear in mind that it is God who has pl aced them over othe r men, and gives 162 them the rule they have, they will ex ercise it out of obedience to God, and thus, even while commanding, th ey will obey. Moreover, there is no position so high but that it is su bject to a spiritual superior in what concerns the conscience and the soul . But there is a yet higher point of obedience to which all superiors may aspire, even that to which St. Paul alludes, when he says: Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all. It is by such universal obedience to everyone that we become all things to all men; and serving everyone for Our Lords sake, we esteem all to be our superiors. In accordance with this rule, I ha ve often observed how Franois de Sales treated everyone, even the most insignificant persons who approached him, as though he we re the inferior, never repulsing anyone, never refusing to enter into conversation, to speak or to listen, never betraying the slightest sign of weariness, impatience and annoyance, however importunate or ill-timed the interruption. To those who asked him why he thus wa sted his time his constant reply was, It is Gods will; it is what He requires of me; what more need I ask? I am not required to do anyt hing else. Gods Holy Will is the centre from which all we do must ra diate; all else is mere weariness and excitement. Jean Pierre Camus We see, then, that a great man can be good - good enough even to aspire to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground provided that, while exercising power, he fulfils two conditions. First, he must den y himself all the personal advantages of p ower and must practise the pati ence and recollectedness without which there cannot be love either of ma n or God. And, second, he must realize that the accident of possessi ng t e m p o r a l p o w e r d o e s n o t g i v e h i m s p i r i t u a l a u t h o r i t y , w h i c h b e l ongs only to those seers, living or d ead, who have achieved a direct insight 163 into the Nature of Things. A soc iety, in which the boss is mad enough to believe himself a prophet, is a so ciety doomed to destruction. A viable society is one in which those who have qualified themselves to see indicate the goals to be aimed at, while those whose business i t is to rule respect the authority and liste n to the advice of the seers. In theory, at least, all this was well understood in India and, until the Reformation, in Europe, where n o position was so high but that it was subject to a spiritual superior in what concerned the conscienc e and the soul. Unfortunately the churches tried to make the best of bot h worlds - to combine spiritual authority with temporal power, wielded e ither d i r e c t l y o r a t o n e r e m o v e , f r o m behind the throne. But spiritu al authority can be exercised only by those who are perfectly disi nterested and whose motives are therefore above suspicion. An ecclesiasti cal organization may call itself the Mystical Body of Christ; but i f its prelates are slave-holders and the rulers of states, as they were in the past, or if the corporation is a large-scale capitalist, as is the case tod ay, no titles, however honorific, can conceal t he fact that, when it passes ju dgment, it does so as an interested party with some political or econom ic axe to grind. True, in matters which do not directly concern the tempo ral powers of the corporation, individual churchmen can be, and hav e actually proved themselves, perf ectly disinterested - consequen tly can possess, and have possessed, genui ne spiritual authority. St. P hilip Neris i s a c a s e i n p o i n t . P o s s e s s i n g a b s o l u t e l y n o t e m p o r a l p o w e r , h e y e t exercised a prodigious influence over sixteenth-century Europe. But for that influence, it may be doubted whether the efforts of the Co uncil of Trent to reform the Roman church from within would have met wit h much success. In actual practice how many great men have ever fulfilled, or a re ever likely to fulfil, the conditions which alone render power innoc uous to the ruler as well as to the ruled? Obviously, very few. Except by s aints, the 164 problem of power is finally insoluble. But since genuine self-g overnment is possible only in very small groups, societies on a national scale will always be ruled by oligarchies wh ose members come to power beca use t h e y l u s t f o r p o w e r . T h i s m e a n s t h a t t h e p r o b l e m o f p o w e r , s i n c e it cannot be solved except by people like Franois de Sales, will always make trouble. And this, in turn, means that we cannot expect th e large- scale societies of the future to be much better than were the s ocieties of the past during the brief per iods when they were at their be st. Chapter 7 TRUTH Why dost thou prate of God? Whatever thou sayest of Him is untrue. Eckhart N religious literature the word truth is used indiscriminatel y in at least three distinct and very di fferent senses. Thus, it is som etimes treated as a synonym for fact, as when it is affirmed that Go d is Truth - meaning that He is the primordial Reality. But this is clearly not the meaning of the word in such a phras e as w o r s h i p p i n g G o d i n s p i r i t a n d i n t r u t h . H e r e , i t i s o b v i o u s , truth signifies direct apprehension of spiritual Fact, as opposed to second- hand knowledge about Reality, formulated in sentences and accep ted o n a u t h o r i t y o r b e c a u s e a n a r g u m e n t f r o m p r e v i o u s l y g r a n t e d postulates was logic ally convincing. And finally there is the more ord inary meaning of the word, as in such a sentence as, This statement is the truth, where we mean to as sert that the verbal symbols of which the statement is composed correspon d to the facts to which it refers. When Eckhart writes that whateve r thou sayest of God is untrue, he is not affirming that all theologi cal I 165 s t a t e m e n t s a r e f a l s e . I n s o f a r a s t h e r e c a n b e a n y c o r r e s p o n d e nce between human symbols and Divine Fact, some theological stateme nts are as true as it is possible for us to make them. Himself a th eologian, Eckhart would certainly have admitted this. But besides being a theologian, Eckhart was a mystic. And being a mystic, h e u n d e r s t o o d v e r y v i v i d l y w h a t t h e m o d e r n s e m a n t i c i s t i s s o b u sily (and, also, so unsuccessfully) trying to drum into contemporary minds - namely, that words are not the s ame as things and that a knowle dge of words about facts is in no sense equivalent to a direct and imm ediate apprehension of the fa cts themselves. What Eckhart actually ass erts is this: whatever one may say about God can never in any circumsta nces be the truth in the first two meanings of that much abused an d ambiguous word. B y i m p l i c a t i o n S t . T h o m a s A q u i n a s w a s s a y i n g e x a c t l y t h e s a m e t hing when, after his experience of in fused contemplation, he refused to go on with his theological work, de claring that everything he had written up to that time was as mere straw compared with the immediate knowledge, which had been vouchsafed to him. Two hundred years earlier, in Baghdad, the great Mohammedan theologian, Al-Ghazza li, had similarly turned from the consideration of truths about God to the contemplation and direct apprehension of Truth-the-Fact, from t he purely intellectual discipline of t h e p h i l o s o p h e r s t o t h e m o r a l a n d spiritual discipline of the Sufis. The moral of all this is obvious. Whenever we hear or read abou t truth, we should always pause long enough to ask ourselves in which of the three senses listed above the word is, at the moment, being use d. By taking this simple precaution (and to take it is a genuinely virtuous act of intellectual honesty) we shall save ourselves a great deal of disturbing and quite unnecessary mental confusion. Wishing to entice the blind, 166 The Buddha playfully let words es cape from his golden mouth; Heaven and earth are filled, ever since, with entangling briars. Daito Kokushi There is nothing true anywhere, The True is nowhere to be found. If you say you see the True, This seeing is not the true one. When the True is left to itself, There is nothing false in it , for it is Mind itself. When Mind in itself is not liberated from the false, There is nothing true; nowhere is the True to be found. Hui Neng The truth indeed has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing of that one has to realize it within oneself. Sutralamkara The further one travels, the less one knows. Lao Tzu Listen to this! shouted Monkey. A fter all the trouble we had getting here from China, and after you spec ially ordered that we were to be given the scriptures, Ananda and Ka syapa made a fraudulent delivery of goods. They gave us blank copies to take away; I ask you, what is the good of that to us? You neednt shout, said the Buddha, smiling. . . . As a matter of fact, it is such blank scrolls as these that are the true scriptures. But I quite see that the people of China are t oo foolish and ignorant to believe this, so there is nothing for it bu t to give them copies with some writing on. Wu Cheng-en The philosophers indeed are clever enough, but wanting in wisdom; As to the others, they are either ig norant or puerile! They take an empty fist as containing something real and the pointing finger as the 167 object pointed at. Because the finger is adhered to as though it were the Moon, all their efforts are lost. Yoka Daishi What is known as the teaching of the Buddha is not the teaching of the Buddha. Diamond Sutra What is the ultimate teaching of Buddhism? You wont understand it until you have it. Shih-tou The subject matter of the Perenn ial Philosophy is the nature of eternal, spiritual Reality; but the language in which it must be formula ted was developed for the purpose of dea ling with tangling phenomena in time. That is why, in all these formulations, we find an element of p aradox. The nature of Truth-the-Fact can not be described by means of ve rbal symbols that do not seriously en ough, adequately correspond to it. At best it can be hinted at in term s of non sequiturs and contradi ctions. To these unavoidable paradoxes some spiritual writers have chos en to add deliberate and calculated enormities of language - hard say ings, exaggerations, ironic or humorous extravagances, designed to st artle and shock the reader out of that self-satisfied complacency whi ch is the original sin of the intellect. way Of this second kind of parad ox the masters of Taoism and Zen Buddhism were particularly fond. The latter, indeed, made use of paralogisms and even of nonsense as a devic e for taking the kingdom of heaven by v i o l e n c e . A s p i r a n t s t o t h e l i fe of perfection were encouraged to practise discursive meditation on some completely non-logical formula. The result was a kind of reduct io ad absurdum of the whole self-centr ed and world-centred discursive process, a sudden breaking through from reason (in the language of scholastic philosophy) to intuitive intellect, capable of a genuine insight into the Divine Ground of all be ing. This method strikes us as odd and eccentric: but the fact remains that it worked to the extent of producing 168 i n m a n y p e r s o n s t h e f i n a l m e t a n o i a , o r t r a n s f o r m a t i o n c o n s c i o u s ness and character. Zens use of almost comic extrav agance to emphasize the philoso phic truths it regarded as most important is well illustrated in the first the extracts cited above. We are not intended seriously to imagine that an Avatar preaches in order to play a practical joke on the human race. But meanwhile what the author has succeeded in doing is to startle us out of our habitual complacency abou t the home-made verbal universe in which we normally do most of our living. Words are not facts, a nd still less are they the primo rdial Fact. If we take them too seriousl y, we shall lose our way in a forest of entangling briars. But if, on the c ontrary, we dont take them seriously enough, we shall still remain unaware t h a t there is a way to lose or a goal to be reached. If the Enlightened did not preach, there would be no deliveranc e for anyone. But because human minds and human languages are what th ey are, this necessary and indispensable preaching is beset with d angers. The history of all the religions is similar in one important re spect; some of their adherents are enlighten ed and delivered, because they have chosen to react appropriately to the words which the founders h ave let f a l l ; o t h e r s a c h i e v e a p a r t i a l s a l v a t i o n b y r e a c t i n g w i t h p a r t i al appropriateness; yet others harm themselves and their fellows b y reacting with a total inappropriateness - either ignoring the w ords altogether or, more often, taking them too seriously and treati ng them as though they were identical wi th the Fact to which they refer . That words are at once indispensable and, in many cases, fatal has been recognized by all the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy. Th us, Jesus spoke of himself as bringing int o the world something even wors e than briars - a sword. St. Paul distinguished between the letter tha t kills and the spirit that gives life. And throughout the centuries that f ollowed, the masters of Christian spirituality have found it necessary to ha rp again 169 and again upon a theme which has never been outdated because ho mo loguax, the talking animal, is still as naively delighted by hi s chief accomplishment, still as helplessly the victim of his own words , as he was when the Tower of Babel was being built. Recent years have seen the public ation of numerous works on sem antics and of an ocean of nationalistic , racialistic and militaristic propaganda. Never have so many capable write rs warned mankind against the dangers of wrong speech - and ne ver have words been used more recklessly by politicians or taken more seriously by the public . The fact is surely proof enough that, under changing forms, the old prob lems remain what they always were - urgent, unsolved and, to all appearances, insoluble. All that the imagination can imag ine and the reason conceive and understand in this life is not, and cannot be, a proximate means of union with God. St. John of the Cross Jejune and barren speculations may unfold the plicatures of Truths garment, but they cannot discover her lovely face. John Smith, the Platonist In all faces is shown the Face of face s, veiled and in a riddle. Howbeit, unveiled it is not seen, until, above all faces, a man enter into a certain secret and mystic silence, where th ere is no knowing or concept of a face. This mist, cloud, darkness or ignorance, into which he that seeketh thy Face entereth, when he goeth beyond all knowledge or concept, is the state below which thy Face cannot be found, except veiled; but that very darkness reveal eth thy Face to be there beyond all veils. Hence I observe how needfu l it is for me to enter into the darkness and to admit the coincidence of opposites, beyond all the grasp of reason, and there to seek the Truth, where impossibility meeteth us. Nicholas of Cusa 170 As the Godhead is nameless, and all naming is alien to Him, so also the soul is nameless; for it is here the same as God. E c k h a r t God being, as He is, inaccessible, do not rest in the consideration of objects perceptible to the sens es and comprehended by the understanding. This is to be conten t with what is less than God; so doing, you will destroy the energy of the soul, which is necessary for walking with Him. St. John of the Cross To find or know God in reality by any outward proofs, or by anything but by God Himself made manifest an d self-evident in you, will never be your case either here or hereaf ter. For neither God, nor heaven, nor hell, nor the devil, nor the flesh, can be any otherwise knowable in you or by you but by their own ex istence and manifestation in you. And all pretended knowledge of an y of these things, beyond and without this self-evident sensibility of their birth within you, is only such knowledge of them as the blin d man hath of the light that hath never entered into him. William Law What follows is a summary by an eminent scholar of the Indian d octrines concerning Jna, the liberating knowledge of Brahman or the Di vine Ground. Jnna is eternal, is general, is necessary and is not a personal knowledge of this man or that man. It is in the tman itself, and lies there hidden under all avidya (ignorance), irremovable, though it may be obscured, unprovable, because self-evident, needing no proof, because itself giving to all pr oof the Ground of possibility. These sentences come near to Eckharts knowledge and to the teaching of Augustine on the Eterna l Truth in the soul which, itself immediately certain, is the Ground of all certainty and is a possession, not of A or B, but of the soul. Rudolf Otto 171 The science of aesthetics is not the same as, nor even a proxim ate means to, the practice and appreciation of the arts. How can one lear n to have a n e y e f o r p i c t u r e s , o r t o b e c o m e a g o o d p a i n t e r ? C e r t a i n l y n o t b y reading Benedetto Croce. One learns to paint by painting, and o ne learns to appreciate pictures by going to picture galleries and lookin g at them. But this is not to say that Croce and his fellows have wasted t heir time. We should be grateful to them for their labours in building up a system of thought, by means of which the immediately apprehended significance and value of art can be assessed in the light of g eneral knowledge, related to other facts of experience and, in this wa y and to this extent, explained. What is true of aesthetics is also true of theology. Theologica l speculation is valuable in so fa r as it enables those who have had immediate experience of various aspects of God to form intellig ible ideas about the nature of the Di vine Ground, and of their own experience of the Ground in rela tion to other experiences. And when a coherent system of theology has been worked out, it is useful i n so far as it convinces those who study it that there is nothing inhere ntly self- contradictory about the postulate of the Divine Ground and that , for those who are ready to fulfil ce rtain conditions, the postulate m a y become a realized Fact. In no circumstances, however, can the s tudy of theology or the minds assent to theological propositions take Ghost), the place of what Law calls the birth of God Within. For theo ry is not practice, and words are not the things for which they stand. Theology as we know it has been formed by the great mystics, especially St. Augustine and St. Thomas. Plenty of other great theologians - especially St. Gregor y and St. Bernard, even down to Suarez - would not have had such insight without mystic super- knowledge. Abbot John Chapman 172 A g a i n s t t h i s w e m u s t s e t D r . T e n n a n t s v i e w - n a m e l y , t h a t r e l i gious experience is something real and unique, but does not add anyth ing to the experiencers knowledge of u ltimate Reality and must always b e interpreted in terms of an idea of God derived from other sourc es. A study of the facts would suggest that both these opinions are t o some degree correct. The facts of mystical insight (together with the facts of what is taken to be historic revelation) are rationalized in terms of general knowledge and become the basis o f a theology. And, reciprocally , an existing theology in terms of general knowledge exercises a pro found influence upon those who have undertaken the spiritual life, ca using them, if it is low, to be content with a low form of experience , if it is high, to reject as inadequate the expe rience of any form of reality h aving characteristics incompatible with those of the God described in t h e books. Thus mystics make theology , and theology makes mystics. A person who gives assent to untrue dogma, or who pays all his attention and allegiance to one true dogma in a comprehensive system, whi le neglecting the others (as many Christians concentrate exclusively on the humanity of the Second Person of the Trinity and ignore the Fat her and the Holy Ghost), runs the risk of limiting in advance his direct apprehension of Reality. In religion as in na tural science, experience is de termined only by experience. It is fatal to prejudge it, to and then compel i t to fit the mould imposed by a theory which either does not correspond to t he facts at all, or corresponds t o only some of the facts. Do not strive to seek after the true, writes a Zen master, o nly cease to cherish opinions. There is only one way to cure the results of belief in a false or incomplete theology and it is the same as the only kno wn way o f p a s s i n g f r o m b e l i e f i n e v e n t h e t r u e s t t h e o l o g y t o k n o w l e d g e o r primordial Fact - selflessness, docility, openness to the datum a n d discrimination that one is enabled to enter of Eternity. Opinio ns are things which we make and can ther efore understand, formulate an d 173 argue about. But to rest in the consideration of objects perce ptible to the sense or comprehended by the understanding is to be content , in the words of St. John of the Cross, with what is less than God . Unitive knowledge of God is possible only to those who have ceased to cherish opinions - even opinions that a re as true as it is possible fo r verbalized abstractions to be. Up then, noble soul! Put on thy ju mping shoes which are intellect and love, and overleap the worship of thy mental powers, overleap thine understanding and spring into the heart of God, into his hiddenness where thou art hidden from all creatures. Eckhart With the lamp of discrimination o n e m u s t g o b e y o n d w o r d a n d discrimination and enter upon the path of realization. Lakvatra Sutra The word intellect is used by Eckhart in the scholastic sense o f immediate intuition. Intellect and reason, says Aquinas, are not two powers, but distinct as the perfect from the imperfect. . . . T he intellect m e a n s , a n i n t i m a t e p e n e t r a t i o n o f t r u t h ; t h e r e a s o n , e n q u i r y a n d discourse. It is by following, and then abandoning, the ration al and emotional path of word and discrimination that one is enabled to enter upon the intellectual or intuiti ve path of realization. And y et, in spite of the warnings pronounced by those who, through selflessness, hav e passed from letter to spirit and from theory to immediate knowl edge, the organized Christian churches have persisted in the fatal ha bit of mistaking means for ends. The verbal statements of theologys m ore or less adequate rationalizations of experience have been taken to o seriously and treated with the re verence that is due only to th e Fact they are intended to describe. It has been fancied that souls are sa ved if assent is given to what is locally regarded as the correct form ula, lost if it is withheld. The two words, filio-que, may not have been the s o l e 174 cause of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches; b ut they were unquestionably the pretext and casus belli. The over-valuation of words and formulae may be regarded as a s pecial c a s e o f t h a t o v e r - v a l u a t i o n o f t h e t h i n g s o f t i m e , w h i c h i s s o fatally characteristic of historic Chris tianity. know Truth-as-Fact and to know it unitively, in spirit and in truth-as-immedia te-apprehension - this is deliverance, in this standeth o ur eternal life. To be familia r with the verbalized truths, which symbolically correspond to Truth-as-Fa ct in so far as it can be known in, or in ferred from, truth-as-immediate apprehension, or truth-as-histor ic-revelation - this is not sal vation, but merely the study of a special branch of philosophy. Even the mo st ordinary experience of a thing o r event in time can never be fu lly or adequately described in words. T he experience of seeing the sky o r having neuralgia is incommunicable; the best we can do is to sa y blue or pain, in the hope that those who hear us may have had expe riences similar to our own and so be able to supply their own version o f the meaning. God, however, is not a thing or event in time, and the time-bou nd words w h i c h c a n n o t d o j u s t i c e e v e n t o t e m p o r a l m a t t e r s a r e e v e n m o r e i n a d e q u a t e t o t h e i n t r i n s i c n a t u r e a n d o u r o w n u n i t i v e e x p e r i e n ce of that which belongs to an incommensurably different order. o su ppose that people can be saved by studying and giving assent to formu lae is like supposing that one can get to Timbuctoo by poring over a m ap of Africa. Maps are symbols, and ev en the best of them are loose a nd inaccurate and imperfect symbols. But to anyone who really want s to reach a given destination, a map is indispensably useful as ind icating the direction in which the traveller should set out and the roads w hich he must take. In later Buddhist philosophy words are regarded as one of the p rime determining factors in the creat ive evolution of human beings. In this 175 philosophy five categor ies of being are rec ognized - Name, Appe arance, Discrimination, Right Knowledge, Suchness. The first three are related for evil, the last two for good. Appearances are discriminated by the sense organs, then reified by na ming, so that wo rds are taken f or things and symbols are used as the measure of reality. According to th is view, language is a main source of the sense of separateness and the blasphemous idea of individual se lf-sufficiency, with their ine vitable corollaries of greed, envy, lust f or power, anger and cruelty. And from these evil passions there spring s the necessity of an indefinit ely protracted and repeated separate existence under the same, self - perpetuated conditions of craving and infatuation. The only esc ape is through a creative act of the will, assisted by Buddha-grace, l eading through selflessness to Right Kno wledge, which consists, among other things, in a proper appraisal of Names, Appearances and Discrim ination. I n a n d t h r o u g h R i g h t K n o w l e d g e , o n e e m e r g e s f r o m t h e i n f a t u a t i n g delusion of I, me, mine, and, resisting the temptation to deny the world in a state of premature and one-sided ecstasy, or to affi rm it by living like the average sensual man, one comes at last to the transfiguring awareness that Sam sara and Nirvana are one, to th e unitive apprehension of pure Suchness - the ultimate Ground, wh ich can only be indicated, never adequately described in verbal symbols . In connection with the Mahayanist view that words play an impor tant and even creative part in the ev olution of unregenerate human n ature, w e m a y m e n t i o n H u m e s a r g u m e n t s a g a i n s t t h e r e a l i t y o f c a u s a t i o n. These arguments start from the postulate that all events are l oose and s e p a r a t e f r o m o n e a n o t h e r a n d p r o c e e d w i t h f a u l t l e s s l o g i c t o a conclusion that makes complete n onsense of all organized though t or purposive action. The fallacy, as Professor Stout has pointed out, lies in the pr eliminary postulate. And when we ask ourselves what it was that induced H ume 176 to make this odd and quite unrealistic assumption that events a re loose a n d s e p a r a t e , w e s e e t h a t h i s o n l y r e a s o n f o r f l y i n g i n t h e f a ce of immediate experience was the fact that things and happenings ar e symbolically represented in our thought by nouns, verbs and adj ectives, a n d t h a t t h e s e w o r d s a r e , i n e f f e c t , l o o s e a n d s e p a r a t e f r o m one another in a way which the events and things they stand for qui te obviously are not. Taking words as the measure of things, instead of using things as the measure of words, Hume imposed the discrete and, so to say, pointilliste pattern of language upon the con tinuum of actual experience - w ith the impossibly paradoxical results with which we are all familiar. Most human beings are not philosophers and care not at all for consi stency in thought or action. Thus, in some circumstances they take it for granted that events are not loose and separate, but coexist or follow o n e another within the organized and organizing field of a cosmic w hole. But on other occasions, where the o pposite view is more nearly in a ccord with their passions or interests , they adopt, all unconsciously , the Humian position and treat events as though they were as indepen dent of one another and the rest of the world as the words by which they are symbolized. This is generally true of all occu rrences involving I, me, mine. Reifying the loose and separate names, we regard the things as also lo ose and s e p a r a t e - n o t s u b j e c t t o l a w , n o t i n v o l v e d i n t h e n e t w o r k o f relationships, by which in fact they are so obviously bound up with their physical, social and spiritual environment. We regard as absurd the idea t h a t t h e r e i s n o c a u s a l p r o c e s s i n n a t u r e a n d n o o r g a n i c c o n n e c tion between events and things in the lives of other people; but at the same time we accept as axiomatic the notion that our own sacred ego is loose a n d s e p a r a t e f r o m t h e u n i v e r s e , a l a w u n t o i t s e l f a b o v e t h e m o ral Dharma and even, in many respects , above the natural law of cau sality. 177 Both in Buddhism and Catholicism, monks and nuns were encourage d deliberately to avoid the personal pronoun and to speak of them selves in circumlocutions that clearly indicated their real relationsh ip with the cosmic reality and their fellow-creatures. The precaution was a wise one. Our responses to familiar words are conditioned reflexes. By ch anging the stimulus, we can do something to change the response. No Pa vlov bell, no salivation; no harping on words like me and mine, no purely automatic and unreflecting egotis m. When a monk speaks of himse lf, not as I, but as this sinner o r this un-profitable servant , he tends to stop taking his loose and separa te selfhood for granted, and makes himself aware of his real, organ ic relationship with God and hi s neighbours. I n p r a c t i c e w o r d s a r e u s e d f o r o t h e r p u r p o s e s t h a n f o r m a k i n g statements about facts. Very often they are used rhetorically, in order to arouse the passions and direct the will towards some course of action regarded as desirable. And sometimes, too, they are used poetic ally - that is to say, they are used in such a way that, besides makin g a s t a t e m e n t a b o u t r e a l o r i m a g i n a r y t h i n g s a n d e v e n t s , a n d b e s i d e s appealing rhetorically to the wi ll and the passions, they cause the reader to be aware that they are beautiful. Beauty in art or nature is a matter of relationships between things not in themselves intrinsically beautiful. There is nothing beautiful, for example, about the vocables ti me, or syllable. But when they are used in such a phrase as to the last syllable of recorded time, the relationship between the sound of the component words, between our ideas of the things for which they stand, and between the overtones of association with which each word a nd the phrase as a whole are charged, is apprehended, by a direct and immediate intuition, as being beautiful. About the rhetorical use of word s nothing much need be said. Th ere is rhetoric for good causes and there is rhetoric for bad causes - rhetoric 178 w h i c h i s t o l e r a b l y t r u e t o f a c t s a s w e l l a s e m o t i o n a l l y m o v i n g , a n d rhetoric which is unconsciously or deliberately a lie. To learn t o discriminate between the different kinds of rhetoric is an esse ntial part of intellectual morality; and intellectual morality is as neces sary a pre- condition of the spiritual life as is the control of the will a nd the guard of heart and tongue. W e h a v e n o w t o c o n s i d e r a m o r e d i f f i c u l t p r o b l e m . H o w s h o u l d t h e poetical use of words be related to the life of the lively spir it? (And, of course, what applies to the poetical use of words applies equal ly to the pictorial use of pigments, the m usical use of sounds, the sculp tural use of clay or stone - in a word, to all the arts.) Beauty is truth, truth beauty. But unfortunately Keats failed to specify in which of its principal meanings he was using the word truth . Some critics have assumed that he was using it in the third of the s enses listed at the opening of this section, and have therefore dismissed th e aphorism as nonsensical. Zn + H 2SO 4 = ZnSO 4 + H 2. This is a truth in the third sense of the word - and, manifestly, this truth is not id entical with beauty. But no less manifestly Keats was not talking about this kind of truth. He was using the word p rimarily in its first sense, as a synonym for fact, and secondarily with the significance attached to i t in the Johannine phrase, to worship God in truth. His sentence, ther efore, carries two meanings. Beauty is the Primordial Fact, and the P rimordial Fact is Beauty, the principle of all particular beauties ; and Beauty is an immediate experience, and this i mmediate experience is identica l with B e a u t y - a s - P r i n c i p l e , B e a u t y - a s - P r i m o r d i a l F a c t . T h e f i r s t o f t hese statements is fully in accord with the doctrines of the Perenni al Philosophy. Among the trinities in which the ineffable One make s itself manifest is the trinity of the Good, the True, and the Beautifu l. We p e r c e i v e b e a u t y i n t h e h a r m o n i o u s i n t e r v a l s b e t w e e n t h e p a r t s o f a whole. In this context the Divine Ground might be paradoxically defined 179 as Pure Interval, independent of w h a t i s s e p a r a t e d a n d h a r m o n i z ed within the totality. With Keatss statement in its secondary meaning the exponents o f the Perennial Philosophy would certainly disagree. The experience o f beauty in art or in nature may be qualit atively akin to the immediate, unitive experience of the Divine Ground or Godhead; but it is not the s ame as t h a t e x p e r i e n c e , a n d t h e p a r t i c u lar beauty-fact experienced, th ough partaking in some sort of the Di vine nature, is at several remo ves from the Godhead. The poet, the nature l o v e r , t h e a e s t h e t e a r e g r a n t ed apprehensions of Reality analogo us to those vouchsafed to the s elfless contemplative; but because they have not troubled to make thems elves perfectly selfless, they are inca pable of knowing the Divine Be auty in its fullness, as it is in itself. The poet is born with the capacity of arranging words in such a way that something of the quality of the graces and inspirations he has received can make itself felt to other human beings in the white spaces, so to speak, between the lines of his verse. This is a great and prec ious gift; but if the poet remains content with his gift, if he persists i n worshipping the beauty in art and nature without going on to make himself c apable, through selflessness, of apprehending Beauty as it is in the Di vine Ground, then he is only an idolater. True, his idolatry is amon g the highest of which human beings are capable; but an idolatry, non e the less, it remains. The experience of beauty is pu re, self-manifested, compounded equally of joy and consciousness, free from admixture of any other perception, the very twin brother of mystical experience, and the very life of it is super-sensuous wonder. . . . It is enjoyed by those who are competent thereto, in identity, just as the form of God is itself the joy with which it is recognized. Vishvanatba 180 What follows is the last composition of a Zen nun, who had been in her youth a great beauty and an accomplished poetess. Sixty-six times have these eyes beheld the changing scenes of Autumn. I have said enough about moonlight, Ask me no more. Only listen to the voice of pines an d cedars, when no wind stirs. Ryo-Nen The silence under windlass trees is what Mallarm would call a creux nant musicien. But whereas the music for which the poet listen ed was merely aesthetic and imaginative, it was to pure Suchness that the self- naughted contemplative was laying herself open. Be still and k now that I am God. This truth is to be lived, it is no t to be merely pronounced with the mouth. . . There is really nothing to argue about in this teaching; Any arguing is sure to go against the in tent of it. Doctrines given up to controversy and argumentation lead of themselves to birth and death. Hui Neng A w a y , t h e n , w i t h t h e f i c t i o n s a n d w o r k i n g s o f d i s c u r s i v e r e a s o n , either for or against Christianity! Th ey are only the wanton spirit of the mind, whilst ignorant of God an d insensible of its own nature and condition. Death and life are the only things in question; life is God living and working in the soul; deat h is the soul living and working according to the sense and reason of bestial flesh and blood. Both this life and this death are of their own growth, growing from their own seed within us, not as busy reason talks and directs, but as the heart turns either to the one or to the other. William Law Can I explain the Friend to on e for whom He is no Friend? Jalal-uddin Rumi 181 When a mother cries to her suckin g babe, Come, O son, I am thy mother; Does the child answer, O mother, show a proof, That I shall find comfort in taking thy milk? Jalal-uddin Rumi Great truths do not take hold of th e hearts of the masses. And now, as all the world is in error, how shall I, though I know the true path, how shall I guide? If I know that I ca nnot succeed and yet try to force success, this would be but another source of error. Better then to desist and strive no more. But if I do not strive, who will? C h u a n g T z u Between the horns of Chuang Tzus dilemma there is no way but t hat of love, peace and joy. Only those who manifest their possession, in however small a measure, of the fruits of the Spirit can persua de others that the life of the spirit is worth living. Argument and contr oversy are almost useless; in many cases, in deed, they are positively harm ful. But this, of course, is a thing that clever men with a gift for syl logisms and sarcasm find it peculiarly hard to admit. M i l t o n , n o d o u b t , g e n u i n e l y b e l i e v e d t h a t h e w a s w o r k i n g f o r t r uth, righteousness and the glory of G od by exploding in torrents of learned scurrility against the enemies of his favourite dictator and hi s favourite brand of nonconformity. In actual fact, of course, he and the o ther controversialists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries di d nothing b u t h a r m t o t h e c a u s e o f t r u e r e l i g i o n , f o r w h i c h , o n o n e s i d e or the other, they fought with an equal learning and ingenuity and wit h the same foul-mouthed intemperance of language. The successive controversies wen t on, with occasional lucid int ervals, for about two hundred years - Papist s arguing with anti-Papists, Pr otestants with other Protestants, Jesuits with Quietists and Jansenists. When the noise finally died down, Christianity (which, like any other religion, can survive only if it manifests the fruits of the Spirit) was all but dead; the real religion of most educated Europea ns was now nationalistic idola try. 182 During the eighteenth century this change to idolatry seemed (after the atrocities committed in the name of Christianity by Wallenstein and Tilly) to be a change for the better. This was because the ruling classes w e r e determined that the horrors of t he wars of religion should not be r e p e a t e d a n d t h e r e f o r e d e l i b e r a t ely tempered power politics wit h gentlemanliness. Symptoms of gentlemanliness can still be obser ved in the Napoleonic and Crimean wars. But the national Molochs were st eadily devouring the eighteenth - century ideal. During the First and Second World Wars we have witnessed the total elimination of the old checks and self-rest raints. The consequences of political spiritu ality. idolatry now display th emselves without the smallest mitigation either of humanistic honour and etiquette or of transcendental religion. By its internecine qua rrels over words, forms of organization, mo ney and power, historic Christi anity consummated the work of self-destruction, to which its excessiv e preoccupation with things in time had from the first so the tra gically committed it. Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition. Jalaluddin Rumi Reason is like an officer when the King appears; The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun. Jalaluddin Rumi Non-rational creatures do not lo ok before or after, but live in the animal eternity of a perpetual present; instinct is their animal grace a n d constant inspiration; and they a re never tempted to live otherw ise than in accord with their own animal Dharma, or immanent law. Thanks to his reasoning powers and to the instr ument of reason, language, man (in his merely human condition) lives nostalgically, appre hensively and hopefully in the past and future as well as in the present; has no instin cts to tell 183 h i m w h a t t o d o ; m u s t r e l y o n p e r s o n a l c l e v e r n e s s , r a t h e r t h a n o n inspiration from the Divine Natu re of Things; finds himself in a condition of chronic civil war between passion and prudence and, on a hig her level of awareness and ethical sensibili ty, between egotism and dawni ng spirituality. B u t t h i s w e a r i s o m e c o n d i t i o n o f h u m a n i t y i s t h e i n d i s p e n s a b l e prerequisite of enlightenment and deliverance. Man must live in time in order to be able to advance more into eternity, no longer on th e animal, but on the spiritual level; he must be conscious of himself as a separate ego in order to be able consciously to transcend separate selfh ood; he must do battle with the lower self in order that he may become identified with that higher Self within him, which is akin to t he Divine Not-Self; and finally he must ma ke use of his cleverness in ord er to pass beyond cleverness to the intelle ctual vision of Truth, the imme diate, unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground. Reason and its works are not and cannot be a proximate means o f union with God. The proximate means i s intellect, in the scholasti c sense of the word, or spirit. In the last analysis the use and purpose o f reason is t o c r e a t e t h e i n t e r n a l a n d e x t e r n a l c o n d i t i o n s f a v o u r a b l e t o i t s own transfiguration by and into spir it. It is the lamp by which it finds the way to go beyond itself. We see, then, that as a means to a proxima te means to an End, discursive reasoning is of enormous value. But if, i n our pride and madness, we treat it as a prox imate means to the Divine End (as so many religious people have done and still do), or if, denying the existence of an eternal End, we regard it as at once the means to Progres s and its ever-receding goal in time, clev erness becomes the enemy, a sou rce of spiritual blindness, moral evil a nd social disaster. At no peri od in history has cleverness been so highly val ued or, in certain directions, so widely and efficiently trained as at the present time. And at no time have intellectual vision and spiritual ity been less esteemed, or the End to 184 which they are proximate means less widely and less earnestly s ought for. Because technology advances, we fancy that we are making corresponding progress all along the line; because we have cons iderable power over inanimate nature, we are convinced that we are the s elf- s u f f i c i e n t m a s t e r s o f o u r f a t e a n d c a p t a i n s o f o u r s o u l s ; a n d b ecause cleverness has given us technology and power, we believe, in sp ite of all the evidence to the contrary, th at we have only to go on being yet cleverer in a yet more systematic way to achieve social order, international peace an d personal happiness. In Wu Chng-ns extraordinary masterpiece (so admirably translated by Mr. Arthur Waley) there is an episode, at once comical and profound, in which Monkey (who, in the allegory, is the incarnation of human cleverness) gets to heaven and there causes so much trouble that at last Bu ddha has to be called in to deal with hi m. It ends in the following pass age: Ill have a wager with you, said Bu ddha. If you are really so clever, jump off the palm of my right hand . If you succeed, Ill tell the Jade Emperor to come and live with me in the Western Paradise, and you shall have his throne without more ado. But if you fail, you shall go back to earth and do penance there for many a kalpa before you come back to me with your talk. This Buddha, Monkey thought to hims elf, is a perfect fool. I can jump a hundred and eight thousand league s, while his palm cannot be as much as eight inches across. How coul d I fail to jump clear of it? Youre sure youre in a position to do this for me? he asked. Of course I am, said Buddha. He stretched out his right hand, whic h looked about the size of a lotus leaf. Monkey put his cudgel behind his ear, and leapt with all his 185 might. Thats all right, he said to himself. I'm right off it now. He was whizzing so fast that he was almost invisible, and Buddha, watching him with the eye of wi sdom, saw a mere whirligig shoot along. Monkey came at last to five pink pi llars, sticking up into the air. This is the end of the world, sa id Monkey to himself. All I have got to do is to go back to Buddha and clai m my forfeit. The throne is mine. Wait a minute, he said. presently, Id better just leave a record of some kind, in case I have trouble with Buddha. He plucked a hair and blew on it with magic breath, crying Change! It changed at once into a writing brush charged with heavy in k, and at the base of the central pillar he wrote, The Great Sage eq ual to Heaven reached this place. Then, to mark his disrespect, he reli eved nature at the bottom of the first pillar, and somersaulted ba ck to where he had come from. Standing on Buddhas palm, he said, Well, Ive gone and come back. You can go and tell the Jade Empero r to hand over the palaces of Heaven. You stinking ape, said Buddha, you ve been on the palm of my hand all the time. Youre quite mistaken, said Monkey . I got to the end of the world, where I saw five flesh-coloured pillars sticking up into the sky. I wrote something on one of them. Ill take you there and show you, if you like. No need for that, said Buddha. Just look down. Monkey peered down with his fiery, steely eyes, and there at the base of the middle finger of Buddhas hand he saw written the words, The 186 Great Sage equal to Heaven reache d this place, and from the fork between the thumb and first finger came a smell of monkeys urine. From Monkey And so, having triumphantly urinated on the proffered hand of w isdom, the Monkey within us turns back and, full of a bumptious confid ence in his own omnipotence, sets out to refashion the world of men and things into something nearer to his hea rts desire. Sometimes his inte ntions are good, sometimes consciously bad. But, whatever the intentions m ay be, the results of action undertaken by even the most brilliant cle verness, when it is unenlightened by the Divine Nature of Things, unsubo rdinated t o t h e S p i r i t , a r e g e n e r a l l y e v i l . T h a t t h i s h a s a l w a y s b e e n c l early understood by humanity at large is proved by the usages of lang uage. Cunning and canny are equiva lent to knowing, and all thre e adjectives pass a more or less unfavourable moral judgment on t hose to whom they are applied. Conceit is just concept; but what a mans mind conceives most clearly is th e supreme value of his own ego . Shrewd, which is the participi al form of shrew, meaning mal icious, and is connected with beshrew, to curse, is now applied, by w ay of rather dubious compliment, to astute business men and attorneys . Wizards are so called because they are wise - wise, of course, in the sense that, in American slang, a wise guy is wise. Conversely , an idiot was once popularly known as an innocent. This use of innocent, says Richard Trench, assumes that to hurt and harm is the chief emp loyment, towards which men turn their int ellectual powers; that where th ey are wise, they are oftenest wise to do evil. Meanwhile it goes wit hout saying that cleverness and accumulated knowledge are indispensable, bu t always as means to proximate mea ns, and never as proximate mean s or, what is even worse, as ends in themselves. Quid facere erudizio sine dilectione? says St. Bernard. Inflaret. Quid absque eruditione dilectio? 187 Erraret. What would learning do without love? in certain It would puff up. And love without learnin g? It would go astray. Such as men themselves are, such wi ll God Himself seem to them to be. John Smith, the Platonist Mens minds perceive second causes , But only prophets perceive the action of the First Cause. Jalal-uddin Rumi The amount and kind of knowledge we acquire depends first upon the will and, second, upon our psycho-physical constitution and the modifications imposed upon it by environment and our own choice . Thus, Professor Burkitt has poin ted out that, where technologic al d i s c o v e r y i s c o n c e r n e d m a n s d e s i r e h a s b e e n t h e i m p o r t a n t f a c tor. Once something is definitely wanted, again and again it has bee n produced in an extremely short t ime. . . . Conversely, nothing will teach the Bushmen of South Africa to plant and herd. They have no des ire to do so. The same is true in regard to ethical and spiritual dis coveries. You are as holy as you wish to be, was the motto given by Ruy sbroeck to the students who came to visit him. And he might have added, You c a n t h e r e f o r e k n o w a s m u c h o f R e a l i t y a s y o u w i s h t o k n o w - f o r knowledge is in the knower according to the mode of the knower, and the mode of the knower is, in certain all - important respects, within the knowers control. Liberating kno wledge of God comes to the pure i n heart and poor in spirit; and th ough such purity and poverty ar e enormously difficult of achievem ent, they are nevertheless poss ible to all. She said, moreover, that if one woul d attain to purity of mind it was necessary to abstain altogether from any judgment on ones neighbour and from all empty talk about his conduct. In creatures one should always seek only for the will of God. With great force she said: For no reason whatever should one judge the actions of creatures or their 188 motives. Even when we see that it is an actual sin, we ought not to pass judgment on it, but have holy and sincere compassion and offer it up to God with humble and devout prayer. St. Catherine of Siena, writte n down by Tommaso di Petra This total abstention from judgment upon ones fellows is only one of the conditions of inward purity. The others have already been d escribed in the section on Mortification. Learning consists in adding to ones stock day by day. The practice of Tao consists in subtracting day by day: subtracting and yet again subtracting until one has reached inactivity. Lao Tzu It is the inactivity of self-will and ego-centred cleverness th at makes possible the activity within the emptied and purified soul of t he eternal Suchness. And when eternity is known in the heights within, it is also known in the fullness of experience, outside in the world. Didst thou ever descry a glorious eternity in a winged moment of time? Didst thou ever see a bright infinite in the narrow point of an object? Then thou knowest what spir it means - the spire-top, whither all things ascend harmoniously, wher e they meet and sit contented in an unfathomed Depth of Life. Peter Sterry avb 189 Chapter 8 RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT T seems best at this point to turn back for a moment from ethic s to psychology, where a very important problem awaits us - a proble m to which the exponents of the Pe rennial Philosophy have given a great deal of attention. What precisely is the relation between indiv idual constitution and temperament on the one hand and the kind and d egree o f s p i r i t u a l k n o w l e d g e o n t h e o t h e r ? T h e m a t e r i a l s f o r a comprehensively accurate answer to this question are not availa ble - except, perhaps, in the form of that incommunicable science, ba sed upon intuition and long practice, that exists in the minds of e xperienced s p i r i t u a l d i r e c t o r s . B u t t h e a n s w e r t h a t c a n b e g i v e n , t h o u g h incomplete, is highly significant. All knowledge, as we have seen, is a function of being. Or, to phrase the s a m e i d e a i n s c h o l a s t i c t e r m s , t h e t h i n g k n o w n i s i n t h e k n o w e r according to the mode of the knower. In the Introduction, refer ence was made to the effect upon knowledge of changes of being along wha t may be called its vertical axis, in the direction of sanctity or it s opposite. But there is also variation in the horizontal plane. Congenitally b y psychophysical constitution, each o n e o f u s i s b o r n i n t o a c e r t ain position on this horizontal plane. It is a vast territory, still imp erfectly explored, a continent stretching all the way from imbecility to genius, from shrinking weakness to a g g r e s s i v e s t r e n g t h , f r o m c r u e l t y to Pickwickian kindliness, fr om self- revealing sociability to tacitur n misanthropy and love of solit ude, from an almost frantic lasciviousness to an almost untempted contine nce. From any point on this huge expanse of possible human nature an individual can move almost indefinitely up or down, towards uni on with I 190 the Divine Ground of his own and all other beings, or towards t he last, the infernal extremes of sep arateness and selfhood. But where horizontal movement is concerned there is far less fr eedom. It is impossible for one kind of physical constitution to trans form itself into another kind; and the particular temperament associated wi th a given physical constitution can be modified only within narrow limits. With the best will in the world a nd the best social environment , all that anyone can hope to do is to make the best of his congenital psy cho - physical make - up; to change the fundamental patterns of const itution and temperament is beyond his power. In the course of the last thirty centuries many attempts have w ay Mary been made to work out a classifi cation system in terms of which human differences could be measured an d described. For example, there is the ancient Hindu method of classifying people according to the psy cho- physico-social categories of cas te. There are the primarily med ical classifications associated with the name of Hippocrates, classi fications in terms of two main habits - the phthisic and the apoplectic - or of the four humours (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile) and the four qualities (hot, cold, moist and dry). More recently there have been th e various physiognomic systems of the eighteenth and early nineteenth c e n t u r i e s ; t h e c r u d e a n d m e r e l y psychological dichotomy of introversion and extraversion; the m ore complete, but still inadequate, ps ychophysical classifications proposed by Kretschmer, Stockard, Viola a nd others; and finally the syst em, more comprehensive, more flexibly ade quate to the complex facts than a l l those which preceded it, worked out by Dr. William Sheldon and his collaborators. I n t h e p r e s e n t s e c t i o n o u r c o n c e r n i s w i t h c l a s s i f i c a t i o n s o f h uman differences in relation to the problems of the Spiritual life. Traditional systems will be described and illustrated, and the findings of the 191 Perennial Philosophy will be compared with the conclusions reac hed by the most recent scientific research. I n t h e W e s t , t h e t r a d i t i o n a l C a t h o l i c c l a s s i f i c a t i o n o f h u m a n b eings is b a s e d u p o n t h e G o s p e l a n e c d o t e o f M a r t h a a n d M a r y . T h e w a y o f Martha is the way of salvation through action, the way of Mary is the way through contemplation. Follo wing Aristotle, who in this as in many other matters was in accord with the Perennial Philosophy, Cath olic thinkers have regarded contemplation (the highest term of which is the unitive knowledge of the Godhead) as mans final end, and therefore have always held that Marys was indeed the better way. Significantly enough, it is in e ssentially similar terms that D r. Radin classifies and (by implication) evaluates primitive human beings in so far a s t h e y a r e p h i l o s o p h e r s a n d r e l i g i o u s d e v o t e e s . F o r h i m t h e r e is no doubt that the higher monotheistic forms of primitive religion are created ( o r s h o u l d o n e r a t h e r s a y , w i t h P l a t o , d i s c o v e r e d ? ) by people belonging to the first of the tw o great psycho-physical classes of human beings - the men of thought. those belonging to the other cl ass, the men of action, is due the creation or discovery of the lower, unphilosophical, polytheistic kinds of religion. This simple dichotomy is a class ification of human differences that is valid so far as it goes. But like all such dichotomies, whether physical (like Hippocrates division of humanity into those of phthisic and th ose of apoplectic habit) or psychological (like Jungs classification in terms of introvert and extravert), t h i s g r o u p i n g o f t h e r e l i g i o u s i n t o t h o s e w h o think and those who act, those who follow the way of Martha and those who follow the way of Mary, is inadequate to the facts. And of course no director souls, no head of a religious organization, is ever , in actual practice, content with this all too simple system. Underlying t he best Catholic writing on prayer and the best Catholic practice in th e matter of recognizing vocations and assigning duties, we sense the exi stence of 192 an implicit and unformulated classification of human difference s more complete and more realistic than the explicit dichotomy of acti on and contemplation. I n H i n d u t h o u g h t t h e o u t l i n e s o f t h i s c o m p l e t e r a n d m o r e a d e q u a te c l a s s i f i c a t i o n a r e c l e a r l y i n d i c a t e d . T h e w a y s l e a d i n g t o t h e d elivering union with God are not two, but three - the way of works, the w ay of knowledge and the way of devotion. In the Bhagavad-Gita Sri Kri shna instructs Arjuna in all three pa ths - liberation through action w i t h o u t attachment; liberation through knowledge of the Self and the Ab solute Ground out what of all being with which it is identical; and li beration through intense devotion to the personal God or the Divine inca rnation. Do without attachment the work yo u have to do; for a man who does his work without attachment atta ins the Supreme Goal verily. By action alone men like Janaka attained perfection. Freed from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, and purified by the fires of Knowledge, many have become one with my Being. And again: Those who have complete ly controlled their senses and are of even mind under all conditions and thus contemplate the Imperishable, the Ineffable, the Unmanifest, the Omnipresent, the Incomprehensible, the Eternal - they, devoted to the welfare of all beings, attain Me alone and none el se. But the path of contemplation is not easy. The task of those whose minds are set on the Unmanifest is the more difficult; for, to those who are in the body, the realization of the Unmanifest is hard. But those who co nsecrate all their actions to Me (as the personal God, or as the Divine Incarnation), who regard Me as the supreme Goal, who worship Me and meditate upon Me with single- minded concentration - for those wh ose minds are thus absorbed in 193 Me, I become ere long the Savi our from the worlds ocean of mortality. Bhagavad Gt Ch.3 These three ways of deliverance are precisely correlated with t he three categories, in terms of which Sheldon has worked out what is, w ithout question, the best and most ad equate classification of human differences. Human beings, he has shown, vary continuously betw een the viable extremes of a tri-polar system; and physical and psy chological measurements can be devised, whe reby any given individual may b e activity, aggressiveness accurately located in relation to the three co - ordinates. Or we can put the matter different ly and say that any given ind ividual is a mixture, in varying proportion s, of three physical and three closely related psychological components. The strength of each componen t can be measured according to empirically determined procedures. To the three physical components Sheldon gives the names of endomorphy , mesomorphy and ectomorphy. The individual with a high degree of endomorphy is predominantly soft and rounded and may easily bec ome grossly fat. The high mesomorph is hard, big-boned and strong-m uscled. The high ectomorph is slender an d has small bones and stringy, weak, unemphatic muscles. The endomorph has a huge gut, a gut that ma y be m o r e t h a n t w i c e a s h e a v y a n d t w i c e a s l o n g a s t h a t o f t h e e x t r e me ectomorph. In a real sense his or her body is built around the digestive tract. The centrally significant fact of mesomorphic physique, on the other hand, is the powerful muscu lature, while that of the ecto morph is the over - sensitive and (since the ratio of body sur face to mass is higher in e c t o m o r p h s t h a n i n e i t h e r o f t h e o t h e r t y p e s ) relatively unprotected nervous system. With endomorphic constitution is closely correlated a temperame ntal p a t t e r n , w h i c h S h e l d o n c a l l s v i s c e r o t o n i a . S i g n i f i c a n t a m o n g t h e viscerotonic traits are love of food and, characteristically, l ove of eating 194 i n c o m m o n ; l o v e o f c o m f o r t a n d l u x u r y ; l o v e o f c e r e m o n i o u s n e s s ; indiscriminate amiability and love of people as such; fear of s olitude and craving for company; uninhibited expression of emotion; love of childhood, in the form of nostalgia towards ones own past and in an intense enjoyment of family life; craving for affection and soc ial support, and need of people when in troubl e. The temperament that is rel ated to mesomorphy is called somatotonia. In this the dominating traits are love of muscular activity, aggressiveness and lust for power; indiff erence to pain; callousness in regard to oth er peoples feelings; a love of combat and competitiveness; a high degree of physical courage; a nosta lgic f e e l i n g , n o t f o r c h i l d h o o d , b u t f o r y o u t h , t h e p e r i o d o f m a x i m u m muscular power; a need for activ ity punishment when in trouble. From the foregoing descriptions it will be seen how inadequate is the Jungian conception of extraversi on, as a simple antithesis to introversion. Extraversion is no t simple; it is of two radicall y different kinds. There is the emotional, sociable extraversion of the vis cerotonic e n d o m o r p h - t h e p e r s o n w h o i s a l w a y s s e e k i n g c o m p a n y a n d t e l l i n g everybody just what he feels. And there is the extraversion of the big- muscled somatotonic - the person who looks outward on the world as a place where he can exercise powe r, where he can bend people to his will and shape things to his hearts desire. One is the genial extra version of the salesman, the Rotarian good mixer, the liberal Protestant c lergyman. The other is the extraversion of the engineer who works off his lust for power on things, of the sportsma n and the professional blood-an d-iron soldier, of the ambitious business executive and politician, of t h e dictator, whether in the home or at the head of a state. With cerebrotonia, the temperament that is correlated with e c t o m o r p h i c p h y s i q u e , w e l e a v e t h e g e n i a l w o r l d o f P i c k w i c k , t h e strenuously competitive world of Hotspur, and pass into an enti rely different and somewhat disquieting kind of universe - that of H amlet and 195 Ivan Karamazov. The extreme cere brotonic is the over-alert, ove r- sensitive introvert, who is more concerned with what goes on be hind his eyes - with the constructions of thought and imagination, with the variations of feeling and consciousness - than with that extern al world, to which, in their different ways, the viscerotonic and the som atotonic pay their primary attent ion and allegiance. Cerebrotonics have little or no desire to dominate, nor do they feel the viscerotonics indiscriminate lik ing for people as people; on t he contrary they want to live and let live, and their passion for privacy i s intense. Solitary confinement, the most te rrible punishment that can be inflicted o n t h e s o f t , r o u n d , g e n i a l p e r s o n , i s , f o r t h e c e r e b r o t o n i c , n o punishment at all. For him the ultimate horror is the boarding school and the barracks. In company cerebro t o n i c s a r e n e r v o u s a n d s h y , t e n sely inhibited and unpredictably moody. (It is a significant fact that no extreme cerebrotonic has ever been a good actor or actress.) Cerebrotonics hate to slam doors or raise their voices, and suffer acutely from the u nrestrained bellowing and trampling of the somatotonic. Their manner is restrained, and when it comes to expressing the ir feelings they are extremely rese rved. The emotional gush of the viscerotonic strikes them as offensively shallow and even insin cere, nor have they any patience with viscerotonic ceremoniousness and lo ve of luxury and magnificence. They do not easily form habits and fin d it hard clearly to adapt their lives to the routines which come so natu rally to somatotonics. Owing to their over-sensitiveness, cerebrotonics are often extremely, almost insanely sexual; but they are hardly ev er tempted to take to drink - for alcohol, which heightens the nat ural aggressiveness of the somatotonic and increases the relaxed ami ability of the viscerotonic, merely make s them feel ill and depressed. Each in his own way, the viscerotonic and the somatotonic are w ell adapted to the world they live in ; but the introverted cerebrot onic is in 196 some sort incommensurable with the things and people and instit utions that surround him. Consequently a remarkably high proportion of extreme cerebrotonics fail to make good as normal citizens and average pillars of society. But if many fail, many also become abnormal on the h i g h e r s i d e o f t h e a v e r a g e . I n universities, monasteries and re search laboratories - wherever sheltered conditions are provided for t hose whose small guts and feeble muscles do not permit them to eat o r fight their way through the ordinary rough and tumble - the percentag e of outstandingly gifted and accomp lished cerebrotonics will almost always be very high. Realizing the impo rtance of this extreme, over-ev olved and scarcely viable type of human be ing, all civilizations have pro vided in one way or another for its protection. In the light of these descriptions we can understand more clear ly the Bhagavad-Gitas classification o f paths to salvation. The path of devotion is the path naturally followed by the person in whom the viscer otonic component is high. His inborn tendency to externalize the emoti ons he spontaneously feels in regard to persons can be disciplined and canalized, so that a merely anim al gregariousness and a merely human kindliness become transformed into charity - devotion to the pe rsonal God and universal goodwill and co mpassion towards all sentient beings. The path of works is for those w hose extraversion is of the som atotonic kind, those who in all circumstances feel the need to do somet hing. In the unregenerate somatotonic this craving for action is always associated with aggressiveness, s elf-assertion and the lust for p o w e r . For the born Kshatriya, or warri or-ruler, the task, as Krishna explains to Arjuna, is to get rid of those fatal accompaniments to the love of action and to work without regard to the fruits of work, in a state of complete non-attachment to self. Which is, of course, like everything el se, a good deal easier said than done. 197 F i n a l l y , t h e r e i s t h e w a y o f k n o w l e d g e , t h r o u g h t h e m o d i f i c a t i o n of consciousness, until it ceases to be ego-centred and becomes ce ntred in and united with the Divine Ground. This is the way to which the extreme cerebrotonic is naturally drawn. His special discipline consist s in the mortification of his innate tendency towards introversion for i ts own sake, towards thought and imagin ation and self-analysis as ends i n themselves rather than as means towards the ultimate transcende nce of phantasy and discursive reasoning in the timeless act of pur e intellectual intuition. Within the general population, a s we have seen, variation is co ntinuous, and in most people the three components are fairly evenly mixed . Those exhibiting extreme predominance of any one component are relati vely r a r e . A n d y e t , i n s p i t e o f t h e i r r a r i t y , i t i s b y t h e t h o u g h t - p atterns characteristic of these extreme individuals that theology and e thics, at any rate on the theoretical side, have been mainly dominated. T he r e a s o n f o r t h i s i s s i m p l e . A n y e x t r e m e p o s i t i o n i s m o r e uncompromisingly clear and therefore more easily recognized and understood theism, through than t he intermediate positions, whi ch are the natural thought pattern of the person in whom the constitue nt components of to the personalit y are evenly balanced. These intermediate positions, it should be noted, do not in any sense contain o r r e c o n c i l e t h e e x t r e m e p o s i t i o n s ; t h e y a r e m e r e l y o t h e r t h o u g ht- patterns added to the list of po ssible systems. The constructio n of an all- embracing system of metaphysics, ethics and psychology is a tas k that can never be accomplished by any single individual, for the suf ficient reason that he is an individual with one particular kind of con stitution and temperament and therefore ca pable of knowing only according to the mode of his own being. Hence the advantages inherent in wha t may be called the anthologic al approach to truth. 198 The Sanskrit Dharma - one of the key words in Indian formulatio ns of the Perennial Philosophy - has two principal meanings. The Dharma o f an individual is, first of all, his essential nature, the intrinsi c law of his being and development. But Dharma also s i gn i fi e s th e l a w o f ri g h te o u s ness and piety. The implications of this double meaning are clear: a mans duty, how he ought to live, what he ought to believe and what h e ought to do about his beliefs - these things are conditioned by his e ssential nature, his constitution and temp e r a m e n t . G o i n g a g o o d d e a l f u r ther than do the Catholics, with their doctrine of vocations, the In dians admit the right of individuals with different Dharma: to worship diff erent aspects or conceptions of the Divine. Hence the almost total ab sence, among Hindus and Buddhists, of bloody persecutions, religious w ars and proselytizing imperialism. It should, however, be remarked that, within its own ecclesiast ical fold, Catholicism has been almost as tolerant as Hinduism and Mahayan a Buddhism. Nominally one, each of these religions consists, in f act, of a number of very different religions, covering the whole gamut of thought and behaviour from fetishism, through polytheism, through legal istic monotheism, through devotion to the sacred humanity of the Avat ar, to the profession of the Perennial Philosophy and the practice of a purely spiritual religion that seeks the unitive knowledge of the Abso lute Godhead. These tolerated religions-within- a-religion are not, of course, regarded as equally valuable or equally true. To worship polytheisticall y may be ones Dharma;not nevertheless th e fact remains that mans final end is the unitive knowledge of the God head, and all the historical formulations of the Perennial Philosophy are agreed that every human being ought, and perhaps in some way or other actually will, ac hieve that end. All souls, writes Father Garrigou-Lagrange, receive a g eneral remote call to the mystical life ; and if all were faithful in a voiding, as they 199 should, not merely mortal but ve nial sin, if they were, each ac cording to his condition, docile to the Holy Ghost, and if they lived long enough, a day would come when they would receive the proximate and effica cious vocation to a high perfection an d to the mystical life properly so called. With this statement Hindu and Buddhist theologians would probab ly agree; but they would add that e very soul will in fact eventual ly attain this high perfection. All are called, but in any given genera tion few are chosen, because few choose themselves. But the series of consci ous existences, corporeal or incorporeal, is indefinitely long; the re is t h e r e f o r e t i m e a n d o p p o r t u n i t y f o r e v e r y o n e t o l e a r n t h e n e c e s s ary lessons. Moreover, there will alwa ys be helpers. For periodical ly there are descents of the Godhead in to physical form; and at all ti mes there a r e f u t u r e B u d d h a s r e a d y , o n t h e t h r e s h o l d o f r e u n i o n w i t h t h e Intelligible Light, to renounce the bliss of immediate liberati on in order to return as saviours and teachers again and again into the wor ld of suffering and time and evil, until at last every sentient being shall have been delivered into eternity. The practical consequences of th is doctrine are clear enough. T he lower forms of religion, whether emoti onal, active or intellectual, a re never to be accepted as final. True, each of them comes naturally to per sons of a certain kind and temperament; but the Dharma or duty of an indi vidual is not to remain complacently in that religion that happens to suit him; but to transcend, not by impossibly denying the modes of feelin g that a r e n a t u r a l t o h i m , b u t b y m a k i n g u s e o f t h e m , s o t h a t b y m e a n s o f n a t u r e h e m a y p a s s b e y o n d n a t u r e . T h u s t h e i n t r o v e r t u s e s discrimination (in the Indian phrase), and metanoia, so learns to distinguish the mental activities of the ego from the principia l consciousness of the Self, which is akin to, or identical with, the Divine Ground. 200 The emotional extravert learns t o hate his father and mother (in other words, to give up his selfish at tachment to the pleasures of in discriminately loving and being loved), concentrates his devotion on the personal or incarnate aspect of God, and comes at last to love the change m ay Absolute Godhead by an act, no l onger of feeling, but of will i lluminated by knowledge. And finally there is that other kind of extravert , whose concern is not with the pleasure s of giving or receiving affect ion, but with the satisfaction of his lust for power over things, events and persons. Using his own nature to transcend his own nature, he m ust follow the path laid down in the Bhagavad-Gita for the bewilder ed Arjuna - the path of work without attachment to the fruits of w ork, the path of what St. Francois de Sales calls holy indifference, t he path that leads through the forgetting of self to the discovery of the Se lf. In the course of history it has often happened that one or othe r of the imperfect religions has been taken too seriously and regarded a s good and true in itself, instead of a s a means to the ultimate end o f all religion. The effects of such mistakes are often disastrous. For example, many Protestant sects have insisted on the necessity, or at least th e extreme desirability, of a violent conver sion. But violent conversion, as Sheldon has pointed out, is a phenomenon confined almost exclusively to p e r s o n s w i t h a h i g h d e g r e e o f s o m a t o t o n i a . T h e s e p e r s o n s a r e s o intensely extraverted as to be quite unaware of what is happeni ng in the lower levels of their minds. If for any reason their attention comes to be turned inwards, the resulting se lf-knowledge, because of its no velty and strangeness, presents itself wit h the force and quality of a re velation and their metanoia, or change of mind, is sudden and thrilling. Thi s change may be to religion, or it may be to something else - for exampl e, to psycho-analysis. To insist upon the necessity of violent conver sion as the only means to salvation is about as sensible as it would be to insist upon the necessity of having a large face, heavy bones and powerful muscles. 201 To those naturally subject to this kind of emotional upheaval, the doctrine that makes salvation dependent on conversion gives a complacency that is quite fatal to spiritual growth, while thos e who are incapable of it are filled with a no less fatal despair. Other examples of inadequate theologies based upon the extreme viscerotonic with his logical ignorance could easily b e cited. One remembers, for ins tance, the sad case of Calvin, the cerebrotonic who took his own intellect ual constructions so seriously that he lost all sense of reality, b oth human and spiritual. And then there is our liberal Pr otestantism, that predominantly viscerotonic heresy, which seems to have forgotten the very exi stence of the Father, Spirit and Logos and equates Christianity with a n emotional attachment to Christs humanity or (to use the currently popular phrase) the personality of Jesus, worshipped idolatrously as though there were no other God. Even within Catholicism we cons tantly hear complaints of the ignorant and self-centred directors, who impose upon the souls under their charge a religious Dharma wholly uns uited to their nature - with results which writers such as St. John of t he Cross describe as wholly pernicious. W e see, then, that it is natural for us to think of God as possessed of the qualities which our temperamen t tends t o m a k e u s p e r c e i v e i n H i m ; b u t u n l e s s n a t u r e f i n d s a w a y o f transcending i t self by means o f itself, w e are lost. In the las t analysis Philo is quite right in saying that those who do not conceive G od purely and simply as the One injure, not God of course, but themselves and, along with themselves, their fellows. The way of knowledge comes most naturally to persons whose temperament is predominantly cerebrotonic. By this I do not mea n that the following of this way is eas y for the cerebrotonic. His spe cially besetting sins are just as difficult to overcome as are the sin s which beset the power-loving somatotonic and the extreme viscerotonic with his 202 gluttony for food and comfort and social approval. Rather I mea n that the idea that such a way exists and can be followed (either by discrimination, or through non-a ttached work and one-pointed de votion) is one which spontaneously occurs to t h e c e r e b r o t o n i c . A t a l l l e v e ls of culture he is the natural monoth eist; and this natural monothei st, as Dr. Radins examples of primitive theology clearly show, is often a monotheist of the Tat Tvam A si, inner-light school. Persons committed by their temperament to one or other of the t wo kinds of extraversion are natural polytheists. But natural poly theists can, without much difficulty, be convinced of the theoretical superi ority of mono- cation, theism. The nature of human reason is such that t here is an intrinsic plausibility about any hypothesis which seeks to e xplain the manifold in terms of unity, to reduce apparent multiplicity to essential identity. And from this theoreti cal monotheism the half-convert ed polytheist can, if he chooses, go on (through practices suitable to his own particular temperament) to the actual realization of the Divine Ground of his own and all other beings. He can, I repeat, and sometimes h e actually does. But very often he does not . There are many theoretical monotheists whose whole life and every action prove that in rea lity they are still what their temperament inclines them to be - polythei sts, worshippers not of the one God th ey sometimes talk about, but o f the many gods, nationalistic and tec h n o l o g i c a l , f i n a n c i a l a n d f a m i l ial, to whom in practice they pay all their allegiance. In Christian art the Saviour has almost invariably been represe nted as slender, small-boned, unemphatically muscled. Large, powerful C hrists are a rather shocking exception to a very ancient rule. Of Rube ns crucifixions William Blake contem ptuously wrote: I understood Christ was a carpenter, and not a bre wers servant, m y good sir. In a word, the traditional Jesus is thought of as a man of pred ominantly ectomorphic physique and therefo re, by implication, of predomin antly 203 cerebrotonic temperament. The central core of primitive Christi an doctrine confirms the essential correctness of the iconographic tradition. The religion of the G ospels is what we should expect from a cerebrotonic - not, of course, f rom any cerebrotonic, but from one who had used the psycho-physical peculiarities of his own nature to transcend nature, who had followed his particular Dharma to its spiritual goal. The insistence that the Kingdom of Heaven is within; the ignoring of ritual; the slightly contemptuous attitude towards legalism, towards the ceremonial routines of organ ized religion, towards hallowed d a y s and places; the general other-wo rldliness; the emphasis laid up on restraint, not merely of overt action, but even of desire and u nexpressed intention; the indifference to t he splendours of material civil ization and the love of poverty as one of the greatest of goods; the doctri ne that non-attachment must be carried even into the sphere of family relationships and that even devo tion to the highest goals of me rely human ideals, even the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharise es, may be idolatrous distractions from the love of God - all these are characteristically cerebrotonic ideas, such as would never have occurred spontaneously to the extraverted power lover or the equally ext raverted viscerotonic. Primitive Buddhism is no less pr edominantly cerebrotonic than p rimitive Christianity, and so is Vedanta, the metaphysical discipline wh ich lies at the heart of Hinduism. Confucianism, on the contrary, is a main ly viscerotonic system - familial, c eremonious and thoroughly this -worldly. And in Mohammedanism we find a system which incorporates strong ly somatotonic elements. Hence Isla ms black record of holy wars a nd persecutions - a record comparable to that of later Christianit y, after that religion had so far compromised with unregenerate somatoto nia as to call its ecclesiastical organ ization the Church Militant. 204 So far as the achievement of mans final end is concerned, it i s as much of a handicap to be an extreme c erebrotonic or an extreme visce rotonic as it is to be an extreme somatotonic. But whereas the cerebrot onic and the viscerotonic cannot do much harm except to themselves and t hose in immediate contact with them, the extreme somatotonic, with h is native aggressiveness, plays havoc with whole societies. From o ne point o f v i e w c i v i l i z a t i o n m a y b e d e f i n e d a s a c o m p l e x o f r e l i g i o u s , legal passionate concern, and educationa l devices for preventing extr eme somatotonics from doing too much mischief, and for directing th eir irrepressible energies into so cially desirable channels. Confucianism and Chinese culture have sought to achieve this en d by inculcating filial piety, good manners and an amiably visceroto nic epicureanism - the whole reinforced somewhat incongruously by t he cerebrotonic spirituality and re straints of Buddhism and classi cal Taoism. In India the caste system represents an attempt to subo rdinate military, political and financial power to spiritual authority; and the education given to all classes st ill insists so strongly upon t he fact that mans final end is unitive knowledge of God that even at the pr esent time, even after nearly two hun dred years of gradually accelera ting Europeanization, successful somat otonics will, in middle life, give up wealth, position and power to end their days as humble seekers after enlightenment. I n C a t h o l i c E u r o p e , a s i n I n d i a , t h e r e w a s a n e f f o r t t o s u b o r d i nate t e m p o r a l p o w e r t o s p i r i t u a l a u t h o r i t y ; b u t s i n c e t h e C h u r c h i t s elf exercised temporal power through the agency of political prelat es and mitred business men, the effort was never more than partially successful. After the Reformation even the pious wish to limit temporal power by means of spiritual authority was completely abandoned. Henry VIII made himself, in Stubb ss words, the Pope, the whol e Pope, and something more than the Pope, and his example has been fol lowed 205 by most heads of states ever since. Power has been limited only by other powers, not by an appeal to firs t principles as interpreted by those who are morally and spiritually qualified to know what they are tal king about. Meanwhile, the interest in religi on has everywhere declined and even among believing Christians the Perennial Philosophy has been to a great extent replaced by a metaphysic of inevitable progress and an e volving God, by a passionate concern, not with eternity, but with futur e time. And almost suddenly, within the last quarter of a century, ther e has b e e n c o n s u m m a t e d w h a t S h e l d o n c a l l s a s o m a t o t o n i c r e v o l u t i o n , directed against all that is cha racteristically cerebrotonic in the theory and practice of traditional Christian culture. Here are a few s ymptoms of this somatotonic revolution. In traditional Christianity, as in all the great religious form ulations of the Perennial Philosophy, it was axiomatic that contemplation is th e end and purpose of action. Today the great majority even of professed C hristians regard action (directed towards material and social progress) as the end, and analytic thought (there is no question any longer of integral the thought, or contemplation) as the means to that end. In traditional Christianity, as in the other formulations of th e Perennial Philosophy, the secret of happiness and the way to salvation we re to be sought, not in the external envi ronment, but in the individual s state of mind with regard to the environment. Today the all-important th ing is not the state of the mind, but the state of the environment. Ha ppiness and moral progress depend, it is thought, on bigger and better gadgets and a higher standard of living. In traditional Christian education the stress was all on restra int; with the r e c e n t r i s e o f t h e p r o g r e s s i v e s c h o o l i t i s a l l o n a c t i v i t y a nd self- expression. Traditionally Christian good manners outlawed all expressions o f pleasure in the satisfaction of physical appetites. You may lo ve a 206 screeching owl, but you must not love a roasted fowl - such wa s the rhyme on which children were brought up in the nurseries of onl y fifty years ago. Today the young unceasingly proclaim how much they love and adore different kinds of f ood and drink; adolescents and adults talk about the thrills they derive from the stimulation of their s exuality. The popular philosophy of life has ce a s e d t o b e b a s e d o n t h e c l a s s i cs of d e v o t i o n a n d t h e r u l e s o f a r i s t o c r a t i c g o o d b r e e d i n g , a n d i s n o w moulded by the writers of advertising copy, whose one idea is t o persuade everybody to be as extr averted and uninhibitedly greed y as possible, since of course it is only the possessive, the restle ss, the distracted, who spend money on the things that advertisers want to sell. Technological progress is in part the product of the somatotoni c revolution, in part the current w orld-wide reversal of an immem orial social producer and sustainer of that revolution. The extraverted attention result s in technological discoveries (significantly enough, a high degree of material civilization h as always been associated with the large-scale and officially sanctioned pract ice of polytheism). In their turn, technological discoveries have resulted in mass-production; and mass-production, it is obvious, cannot be kept going at full blast except by persuading the whole population t o accept the somatotonic Weltanscha uung and act accordingly. Like technological progress, wit h which it is so closely associ ated in so many ways, modern war is at once a cause and policy a result of the somatotonic revolution. Nazi edu cation, which was specifically education for war, had two principal aims: to encourage the manifestation of somatotonia in those most richly endowed with that component of personality, and to make the rest of the populatio n feel ashamed of its relaxed amiabilit y or its inward-looking sensiti veness and tendency towards self-restraint and tender-mindedness. During t he war 207 the enemies of Nazism have been compelled, of course, to borrow from the Nazis educati onal philosophy. All over the world millions of young men and even young women a re being systematically educated to be tough and to value tough ness beyond every other moral quality. With this system of somatoton ic ethics is associated the idolatrous and polytheistic theology o f nationalism - a pseudo-religion far stronger at the present tim e for evil and division than is Christianit y, or any other monotheistic re ligion, for unification and good. In the past most societies tried systemat ically to discourage somatotonia. This was a measure self-defence; they d id not want to be physically destroyed by the power-loving aggressiven ess of their most active minority, and they did not want to be spiritu ally blinded by an excess of extraversion. During the last few years all this has been changed. What, we may a pprehensively wonder, will be t he result the current world-wide reversal of an immemorial social policy? Time alone will show. avb 208 Chapter 9 SELF-KNOWLEDGE ICE may be defined as a course of behaviour consented to by the will and having results which are bad, primarily because they a re God-eclipsing and, secondarily, because they are physically or psychologically harmful to th e agent or his fellows. Ignorance of self is something t hat answers to this description . In its origins it is voluntary; for by introspection and by listening to other peoples judgments of our charac ter we can all, if we so desire , come to a very shrewd understanding of ou r flaws and weaknesses and the real, as opposed to the avowed and advertised, motives of our actions . If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-kno wledge is painful and we prefer the pleasu res of illusion. As for the con sequences of such ignorance, these are bad by every criterion, from the u tilitarian to the transcendental. Bad becaus e self-ignorance leads to unre alistic behaviour and so causes every kind of trouble for everyone conc erned; and bad because, without self-kn owledge, there can be no true h umility, therefore no effective self-naug hting, therefore no unitive kno wledge of the Divine Ground underlying the self and ordinarily eclipsed b y it. The importance, the indispensabl e necessity, of self-knowledge has been stressed by the saints and doctors of every one of the gre at religious traditions. To us in the West, the most familiar voic e is that of Socrates. More systematically than Socrates the Indian exponent s of the Perennial Philosophy harped on t he same theme. There is, for ex ample, the Buddha, whose discourse on The Setting-Up of Mindfulness expounds (with that positively inexorable exhaustiveness characteristic of the Pali scriptures) the whole art of self-knowle dge in all its branches - knowledge of ones body, ones senses, ones feelings, ones th oughts. V 209 This art of self-knowledge is practised with two aims in view. The proximate aim is that a brother, as to the body, continues so to look u p o n t h e b o d y , t h a t h e r e m a i n s a r d e n t , s e l f - p o s s e s s e d a n d m i n d f ul, having overcome both the hankering and dejection common in the world. And in the same way as to feelings, thoughts and ideas, words can he so looks upon each that he remains ardent, self-possesse d and mindful, without hankering or dejection. Beyond and through th is desirable psychological condition lies the final end of man, kn owledge of that which underlies the individualized self. In their own voca bulary, Christian writers express the same ideas. A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an oxs or a bears, so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into your own Ground and learn to know yourself there. Eckhart Fools regard themselves as awak e now - so personal is their knowledge. It may be as a prince or it may be as a herdsman, but so cock-sure of themselves! Chuang Tzu This metaphor of waking from dreams recurs again and again in t he various expositions of the Peren nial Philosophy. In this contex t liberation might be defined as the process of waking up out of the nonsense, nightmares and illusory pleasures of what is ordinari ly called real life into the awareness of eternity. The sober certainty of waking bliss - that wonderful phrase i n which Milton described the ex perience of the noblest kind of music - comes, I suppose, about as near as words can get to enlightenment and deliverance. Thou (the human being) art that which is not. I am that I am. If thou perceivest this truth in thy soul, never shall the enemy deceive thee; thou shalt escape all his snares. St. Catherine of Siena 210 Knowledge of ourselves teaches us whence we come, where we are and whither we are going. We come from God and we are in exile; and it is because our potency of affect ion tends towards God that we are aware of this state of exile. Ruysbroeck Spiritual progress is through the growing knowledge of the self a s nothing and of the Godhead as all-embracing Reality (Such knowledge, of course, is worthless if it is merely theoretical; to be effecti ve, it must be realized as an immediate, intuitive experience and appropriatel y acted upon). Of one great master of the spiritual life Professor Etienne Gil son writes: The displacement of fear by Ch arity by way of the practice of humility - in that consists the wh ole of St. Bernards ascesis, its beginning, its development and its term. Fear, worry, anxiety - these form the central core of individua lized selfhood. Fear cannot be got rid of by personal effort, but onl y by the egos absorption in a cause grea ter than its own interests. Abs orption in any cause will rid the mind of some of its fears; but only abso rption in the loving and knowing of the Divine Ground can rid it of all f ear. For when the cause is less than the highest, the sense of fear and anxiety is transferred from the self to the cause - as when heroic self-sa crifice for a loved individual or institution is accompanied by anxiety in regard to that for which the sacrifice is made. Whereas if the sacrifice is made for G o d , a n d f o r o t h e r s f o r G o d s s a k e , t h e r e c a n b e n o f e a r o r a b i ding anxiety, since nothing can be a menace to the Divine Ground and even failure and disaster are to be accepted as being in accord with the Divine will. In few men and women is the love of God intense enough to cast out this projected fear and anxiety for cherished persons and institutions. The reason is to be sought in the fact that few m en and women are humble enough to be capable of loving as they should. And t h e y l a c k t h e n e c e s s a r y h u m i l i t y b e c a u s e t h e y a r e w i t h o u t t h e f ully realized knowledge of their own personal nothingness. 211 Humility does not consist in hidi ng our talents and virtues, in thinking ourselves worse and more ordinary than we are, but in possessing a clear knowledge of all th at is lacking in us and in not exalting ourselves for that which we have, seeing that God has freely given it us and that, with all His gifts, we are still of infinitely little importance. Lacordaire As the light grows, we see ourselves to be worse than we thought. We are amazed at our former blindness as we see issuing from our heart a whole swarm of shameful feelings, li ke filthy reptiles crawling from a hidden cave. But we must be neithe r amazed nor disturbed. We are not worse than we were; on the cont rary, we are better. But while our faults diminish, the light we see th em by waxes brighter, and we are filled with horror. So long as there is no sign of cure, we are unaware of the depth of our dise ase; we are in a state of blind presumption and hardness, the prey of self-delusion. While we go with the stream, we are unconscious of its rapid course; bu t when we begin to stem it ever so little, it makes itself felt. Fenelon My daughter, build yourself two cells. First a real cell, so that you do not run about much and talk, unless it is needful, or you can do it out of love for your neighbour. Next bu ild yourself a spiritual cell, which you can always take with you, and that is the cell of true self- knowledge; you will find there th e knowledge of Gods goodness to you. Here there are really two cells in one, and if you live in one you must also live in the other; otherwise the soul will either despair or be presumptuous. If you dwelt in self-knowledge alone, you would despair; if you dwelt in the know ledge of God alone, you would be tempted to presumption. One must go with the other, and thus you will reach perfection. St. Catherine of Siena avb 212 Chapter 10 GRACE AND FREE WILL E L I V E R A N C E i s o u t o f t i m e i n t o e t e r n i t y , a n d i s a c h i e v e d b y obedience and docility to the ete rnal Nature of Things. We have been given Free Will, in order that we may will our self-will o ut of existence and so come to live continuously in a state of grace . All our actions must be directed, in the last analysis, to making ourse lves passive in relation to the activi ty and the being of Divine Rea lity. We are, as it were, aeolian harps, endowed with the power either to exp ose themselves to the wind of the Spirit or to shut themselves away from it. The Valley Spirit never dies. It is called the Mysterious Female. And the doorway of the Mysterious Female Is the base from which He aven and Earth spring. It is there within us all the time. Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry. Lao Tzu In every exposition of the Perennial Philosophy the human soul is regarded as feminine in relation to the Godhead, the personal G od and even the Order of Nature. Hubris, which is the original sin, co nsists in regarding the personal ego as se lf-sufficiently masculine in re lation to the Spirit within and to Nature without, and in behaving accord ingly. St. Paul drew a very useful and illuminating distinction betwee n the psyche and the pneuma. But the latter word never achieved any d egree of popularity, and the hopelessly ambiguous term, psyche, came to be used indifferently for either th e personal consciousness or the s p i r i t . And why, in the Western church, did devotional writers choose t o speak D 213 o f m a n s a n i m a (which for the Romans signified the lower, animal soul) instead of using the word traditionally reserved for the ration al soul, n a m e l y a n i m u s ? T h e a n s w e r , I s u s p e c t , i s t h a t t h e y w e r e a n x i o u s t o stress by every means in their power the essential femininity o f the human spirit in its relations wit h God. Pneuma, being grammatic ally neuter, and animus, being masculine, were felt to be less suita ble than anima and psyche. Consider this concrete example; given the structure of Greek an d Latin, it would have been very difficult for the speakers of these lan guages to identify anything but a grammatically feminine soul with the he roine of the Song of Songs - an allegorical figure who, for long centuri es, played the same part in Christian thought and sentiment as the Gopi Ma idens played in the theology and devotion of the Hindus. Take note of this fundamental truth. Everything that works in nature and creature, except sin, is the work ing of God in nature and creature. The creature has nothing else in it s power but the free use of its will, and its free will hath no other power but that of concurring with, or resisting, the working of God in nature. The creature with its free will can bring nothing into being, nor make any alteration in the working of na ture; it can only change its own state or place in the working of natu re, and so feel or find something in its state that it did not feel or find before. William Law Defined in psychological terms, grace is something other than o ur self- conscious personal self, by which we are helped. We have experi ence of three kinds of such helps - animal grace, human grace and spiri tual grace. Animal grace comes when w e are living in full accord wit h our own nature on the biological level - not abusing our bodies by excess, not interfering with the workings of our indwelling animal inte lligence by conscious cravings and aversions, but living wholesomely and laying 214 ourselves open to the virtue of the sun and the spirit of the air. The reward of being thus in harmony with Tao or the Logos in its ph ysical and physiological aspects is a s ense of well-being, an awarenes s of life as good, not for any reason, but just because it is life. There is no question, when we ar e i n a c o n d i t i o n o f a n i m a l g r a c e, of propter vitam vivendi perdere causas ; for in this state there is no distinction between the reasons for living and life itself. Lif e, like virtue, is then its own reward. But, of course, the fullness of animal grace is reserved for animals. Mans natu r e i s s u c h t h a t h e m u s t l i v e a self- conscious life in time, not in a blissful sub-rational eternity on the hither side of good and evil. Consequently animal grace is something t hat he knows only spasmodically in an occasional holiday from self-consciousness, or as an accompan iment to other states, in which life is not its own reward but has to be lived for a reason outside its elf. Human grace comes to us either f rom persons, or from social gro ups, or from our own wishes, hopes and imaginings projected outside our selves and persisting somehow in the psychic medium in a state of what may be called second-hand objectivity. W e h a v e a l l h a d e x p e r i e n c e o f the different types of human grace. There is, for example, the grac e which, during childhood, comes from mother, father, nurse or beloved t eacher. At a later stage we experience the grace of friends; the grace of men and women morally better and wiser than ourselves; the grace of the guru, or spiritual director. Then there is the grace which comes to u s because of our attachment to country, par ty, church or other social org anization - a grace which has helped even the feeblest and most timid ind ividuals to achieve what, without it, wou ld have been the impossible. And finally there is the grace which we derive from our ideals, whether low or high, whether conceived of in abstract terms or bodied f orth in imaginary personifications. To t his last type, it would seem, b elong many of the graces experienced by the pious adherents of the various 215 religions. The help received by those who devotedly adore or pr ay to some personal saint, deity or Av atar is often, we may guess, no t a genuinely Spiritual grace, but a human grace, coming back to th e worshipper from the vortex of psychic power set up by repeated acts (his own and other peoples) of faith, yearning and imagination. Spiritual grace cannot be received continuously or in its fulln ess, except by those who have willed away the ir self-will to the point of b eing able truthfully to say, Not I, but G od in me. There are, however, few people so irremediably condemned to i mprisonment within their own personality as to be wholly incapable of receiving the graces w hich are f r o m i n s t a n t t o i n s t a n t b e i n g o f f e r e d t o e v e r y s o u l . B y f i t s a n d starts most of us contrive to forget, i f only partially, our preoccupa tion with I, me, mine, and so become capabl e of receiving, if only parti ally, the graces which, in that moment , are being offered us. Spiritual grace originates from the Divine Ground of all being, and it is given for the purpose of helping man to achieve his final end, which is to r e t u r n o u t o f t i m e a n d s e l f h o o d t o t h a t G r o u n d . I t r e s e m b l e s a n imal grace in being derived from a source wholly other than our self - conscious, human selves; indeed, it is the same thing as animal grace, but manifesting itself on a higher level of the ascending spira l that leads from matter to the Godhead. In any given instance, human grace may be wholly good, inasmuch as it helps the recipient in the task of achieving the unitive knowledge of God; but because of its sour ce in the individualized self, it is alway s a little suspect and, in many c a s e s , o f course, the help it gives is help towards the achievement of en ds very different from the true end of our existence. All our goodness is a loan; God is the owner. God works and his work is God. St. John of the Cross 216 Perpetual inspiration is as necessar y to the life of goodness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiratio n is necessary to animal life. William Law Conversely, of course, the life of goodness, holiness and beati tude is a necessary condition of perpetual inspiration. The relations bet ween action and contemplation, ethics and spirituality are circular and reciprocal. Each is at once cause and effect. It was when the Great Way declined that human kindness and morality arose. Chinese verbs are tenseless. Thi s statement as to a hypothetica l event in history refers at the same time to the present and the future. It means simply this: that with the rise of self-consciousness, animal g race is no longer sufficient for the conduct of life, and must be suppleme nted by conscious and deliberate choices between right and wrong - choi ces which have to be made in the light of a clearly formulated ethi cal code. But, as the Taoist sages are never tired of repeating, codes of ethics and deliberate choices made by the su rface will are only a second b est. The individualized will and the supe rficial intelligence are to be used for the purpose of recapturing the old animal relation to Tao, but on a higher, spiritual level. The goal is perpetual inspiration from sources beyond the personal self; and the means are human kindness and morality, leading to the charity, which is unitive knowledge of Tao, as at once t he Ground and Logos. Lord, Thou hast given me my bein g of such a nature that it can continually make itself more able to receive thy grace and good ness. And this power, which I have of Th ee, wherein I have a living image of Thine almighty power, is free will . By this I can either enlarge or restrict my capacity for Thy grace . Nicholas of Cusa 217 Shun asked Cheng, saying, Can on e get Tao so as to have it for oneself? Your very body, replied Cheng, is not your own. How should Tao be? If my body, said Shun, is not my own, pray whose is it? It is the delegated image of God, re plied Cheng. Your life is not your own. It is the delegated harmony of God. Your individuality is not your own. It is the delegated adap tability of without are God. Your posterity is not your own. It is the delegated exuviae of God. You move, but know not how. You are at rest, but know not why. You taste, but know not the cause. Thes e are the operations of Gods laws. How then Lao Tzu should you get Tao so as to have it for your own? Chuang Tzu I t i s w i t h i n m y p o w e r e i t h e r t o s e r v e G o d , o r n o t t o s e r v e H i m . suitable tree. It contains the form Serving Him I add to my own good and the good of the whole world. Not serving Him, I forfeit my own good and deprive the world of that good, which was in my power to create. Leo Tolstoy God did not deprive thee of the oper ation of his love, but thou didst deprive Him of thy cooperation. God would never have rejected thee, if thou hadst not rejected his love . O all-good God, thou dost not forsake unless forsaken, thou never takest away thy gifts until we take away our hearts. St. Franois de Sales Ching, the chief carpenter, was ca rving wood into a stand for musical instruments. When finished, the work appeared to those who saw it as though of supernatural execution; and the Prince of Lu asked him, saying, What mystery is there in your art? 218 No mystery, Your Highness, re plied Ching. And yet there is something. When I am about to make such a stand, I guard against any diminution of my vita l power. I first reduce my mind to absolute quiescence. Three days in this cond ition, and I become oblivious of any reward to be gained. Five days, and I become oblivious of any fame to be acquired. Seven days, and I be come unconscious of my four limbs and my physical frame. Then, with no thought of the Court present in my mind, my skill becomes concentr ated, and all disturbing elements from without are gone. I enter some mountain forest, I search for a suitable tree. It contains the fo rm required, which is afterwards elaborated. I see the stand in my minds eye, and then set to on the work. Beyond that there is nothing. I bring my own native capacity into relation with that of the w ood. What was suspected to be of supernatural execution in my work was due solely to this. Chuang Tzu The artists inspiration may be either a human or a spiritual g race, or a mixture of both. High artistic achievement is im- trial worker at his possible without at least those forms of intellectual, emotiona l and p h y s i c a l m o r t i f i c a t i o n a p p r o p r i a t e t o t h e k i n d o f a r t w h i c h i s being practised. Over and above this course of what may be called pro fessional m o r t i f i c a t i o n , s o m e a r t i s t s h a v e p r a c t i s e d t h e k i n d o f s e l f - n a u ghting which is the indispensable preco ndition of the unitive knowledg e the Divine Ground. Fra Angelico, for example, prepared himself for his work by means prayer and meditation; and from the foregoing extract from Chuang Tzu we see how essentially religious (and not merely professional) was the Taoist craftsmans approach to his art. Here we may remark in passing tha t mechanization is incompatibl e with inspiration. The artisan could d o and often did do a thoroughly bad job. But if, like Ching, the chief carpenter, he cared for his art and were ready 219 to do what was necessary to make himself docile to inspiration, he could a n d s o m e t i m e s d i d d o a j o b s o g o o d t h a t i t s e e m e d a s t h o u g h supernatural execution. Among the many and enormous advantages of efficient automatic machinery is t h i s : i t i s c o m p l e t e l y f o o l p r o of. But every gain has to be paid for: The automatic machine is fool-pr oof; but just because it is fool-proof it is also grace-proof. The man w ho tends such a machine is impervious to every form aesthetic inspiratio n, whether of human or of genuinely spiritual origin. Industry wi thout art is brutality. But actually Ruskin maligns the brutes. The indu strious bird or insect is inspired, when it works, by the infallible animal grace of instinct - by Tao as it manifests itself on the level immediate ly above the physiological. The industrial worker at his fool-proof and grac e-proof machine does his job in a man-made universe of punctual automat a - a universe that lies entirely beyond the pale of Tao on any level , brutal, human or spiritual. In this context we may mention those sudden theophanies which a re sometimes vouchsafed to children and sometimes to adults, who m ay be poets or Philistines, learned or unsophisticated, but who ha ve this in common, that they have done noth ing at all to prepare for what has happened to them. These gratuito us graces, which have inspired much literary and pictorial art , some splendid and some (where inspiration was not seconded by native talent) pathetically inadequate, seem generally to b e l o n g t o o n e o r o t h e r o f t w o m a i n c l a s s e s - s u d d e n a n d p r o f o u n dly impressive perception of ultimat e Reality as Love, Light and Bl iss, and a no less impressive perception of it as dark, awe-inspiring and inscrutable Power. In memorable forms, Wor dsworth has recorded his own experience of both these asp ects of the Divine Ground. There was a time when meadow, grove and stream, The earth and every common sigh t, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light. And so on. (from Intimations of Immortality) 220 But that was not the only vision: Lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake, And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat Went heaving through the water like a swan; When, from behind that craggy steep, till then The horizons bound, a huge peak, black and huge, As if with voluntary power instinct, Upreared its head. I stru ck and struck again, And growing still in stature, the grim shape Towered up between me and the stars. . . . But after I had seen That spectacle, for many days my brain Worked with a dim and undetermined sense Of unknown modes of being; oer my thoughts There hung a darkness, call it solitude, Or blank desertion. From The Prelude Significantly enough, it is to t his second aspect of Reality th at primitive minds seem to have been most receptive. The formidable God, to whom Job at last submits, is an unkn own mode of Being, whose most characteristic creations are Beh emoth and Leviathan. He is the sort of God who calls, in Kierkegaards phrase, for teleological suspe nsions of morality, chiefly in the form of blood sacrifices, even human sacrifices. T h e H i n d u g o d d e s s , K a l i , i n h e r m o r e f r i g h t f u l a s p e c t s , i s a n o t her manifestation of the same unknown mode of Being. And by many contemporary savages the underly ing Ground is apprehended and theologically rationalized as sh eer, unmitigated Power, which h as to be propitiatively worshipped and, if possible, turned to profitabl e use by means of a compulsive magic. 221 To think of God as mere Power, and not also, at the same time a s Power, Love and Wisdom, comes quite naturally to the ordinary, unregen erate h u m a n m i n d . O n l y t h e t o t a l l y s e l f l e s s a r e i n a p o s i t i o n t o k n o w experimentally that, in spite of everything, all will be well and, in some way, already is well. The philosopher who denies Divine provid ence, says Rumi, is a stranger to the perception of the saints. Onl y those who have the perception of the saints can know all the time and by immediate experience that Divine Reality manifests itself as a Power that is loving, compassionate an d wise. The rest of us are not yet in a spiritual position to do more than accept their findings on fai th. If it were not for the records they have le ft behind, we should be more in clined to agree with Job and the primitives. Inspirations prevent us, and even before they are thought of make themselves felt; but after we have felt them it is ours either to consent to them, so as to second and follow th eir attractions, or else to dissent and repulse them. They make themselv es felt without us, but they do not make us consent without us. St. Franois de Sales Our free will can hinder the cour se of inspiration, and when the favourable gale of Gods grace swells the sails of our soul, it is in our power to refuse consent and thereby hinder the effect of the winds favour; but when our spirit sa ils along and makes its voyage prosperously, it is not we who make the gale of inspiration blow for us, nor we who make our sails swell with it, nor we who give motion to the ship of our heart; but we si mply receive the gale, consent to its motion and let our ship sail un der it, net hindering it by our resistance. St. Franois de Sales Grace is necessary to salvation, free will equally so - but grace in order to give salvation, free will in order to receive it. Therefore we should not attribute part of the good work to grace and part to free will; it is 222 performed in its entirety by the common and inseparable action of both; entirely by grace, entirely by free will, but springing from the first in the second. St. Bernard St. Bernard distinguishes between voluntas communis desire for the good of the community and voluntas propria desire for ones own good . Voluntas communis is common in t wo senses; it is the will to sh are, and it is the will common to man and God. For practical purposes it i s equivalent to charity. Voluntas propria is the will to get and hold for oneself, and is the root of all sin. In its cognitive aspect, v oluntas propria is the same as sensum proprium, which is ones own opinion, che rished because it is ones own and ther efore always morally wrong, eve n though it may be theoretically correct. Two students from the University of Paris came to visit Ruysbro eck and asked him to furnish them with a short phrase or motto, which m ight serve them as a rule of life. Vas estis tam sancti sicut vultis, Ruysbroeck answered. You are as holy as you will to be. For those who take God is bound to act, to pour Himself into thee as soon as He upon scriptur al shall find thee ready. E c k h a r t The will is that which has all power; it makes heaven and it makes hell; for there is no hell but where th e will of the creature is turned from God, nor any heaven but where the will of the creature worketh with God. William Law O man, consider thyself! Here thou standest in the earnest perpetual strife of good and evil; all nature is continually at work to bring forth the great redemption; the whole crea tion is travailing in pain and laborious working to be delivered fr om the vanity of time; and wilt thou be asleep? Everything thou he arest or seest says nothing, shows nothing to thee but what either eter nal light or eternal darkness has 223 brought forth; for as day and night divide the whole of our time, so heaven and hell divide all our thou ghts, words and actions. Stir which way thou wilt, do or design what thou wilt, thou must be an agent with the one or the other. Thou ca nst not stand still, because thou livest in the perpetual wo rkings of temporal and eternal nature; if thou workest not with the good, the evil th at is in nature carries thee along with it. Thou hast the height and depth of eternity in thee and therefore, be doing what thou wilt, either in the closet, the field, the shop or the church, thou art sowing that which grows and must be reaped in eternity. William Law God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you ar e a created being and let God be God in you. Eckhart For those who take pleasure in t heological speculations based u pon s c r i p t u r a l t e x t s a n d d o g m a t i c p o s t u l a t e s , t h e r e a r e t h e t h o u s a n ds of pages of Catholic and Protestant controversy upon grace, works, faith and justification. And for stude nts of comparative religion the re are scholarly commentaries on the Bh agavad-Gita, on the works of Ramanuja and those later Vaishnavites, whose doctrine of grace bears a striking resemblance to that of Luther; there are histories of Buddhism which duly trace the development of that religion from the Hina yanist doctrine that salvation is the fruit of strenuous self-help to the Mahayanist doctrine that it cann ot be achieved without the grac e of the Primordial Buddha, whose inner consciousness and great compassionate heart constitute the eternal Suchness of things. For the rest of us, the foregoing quotations from writers within the Ch ristian and early Taoist tradition provide, it seems to me, an adequate acc ount of the observable facts of grace an d inspiration and their relatio n to the observable facts of free will. avb 224 Chapter 11 GOOD AND EVIL E S I R E i s t h e f i r s t d a t u m o f o u r c o n s c i o u s n e s s ; w e a r e b o r n i n t o sympathy and antipathy, wishing and willing. Unconsciously at first, then consciously, we evaluate: This is good, that is ba d. And a little later we discover obligation. This, being good, ought to be do ne; that, being bad, ought not to be done. All evaluations are not equally valid. We are called upon to pa ss judgment on what our desires and dislikes affirm to be good or bad. Very often we discover that the verdict of the higher court is at va riance with the decision reached so quickly and light-heartedly in the cour t of first i n s t a n c e . I n t h e l i g h t o f w h a t w e k n o w a b o u t o u r s e l v e s , o u r f e l low- b e i n g s a n d t h e w o r l d a t l a r g e , w e d i s c o v e r t h a t w h a t a t f i r s t s eemed good may, in the long run or in the larger context, be bad; and that what a t f i r s t s e e m e d b a d m a y b e a g o o d which we feel ourselves under obligation to accomplish. When we say that a man is possessed of penetrating moral insigh t we mean that his judgment of value- claims is sound; that he knows enough to be able to say what is good in the longest run and the large st context. When we say that a man has a strong moral character, we mean th at he is ready to act upon the findings of his insight, even when the se findings a r e u n p l e a s a n t l y o r e v e n e x c r u c i a t i n g l y a t v a r i a n c e w i t h h i s f i rst, spontaneous valuations. In actual practice moral insight is never a strictly personal m atter. The judge administers a system of law and is guided by precedent. I n other w o r d s , e v e r y i n d i v i d u a l i s t h e m e m b e r o f a c o m m u n i t y , w h i c h h a s a moral code based upon past findings of what in fact is good in the longer D 225 run and the wider context. In most circumstances most of the me mbers of any given society permit themselves to be guided by the gene rally accepted code of morals; a few r eject the code, either in its e ntirety or in part; and a few choose to live by another, higher and more e xacting code. In Christian phraseology, there are the few who stubbornl y persist in living in a state of mortal s in and antisocial lawlessness; there are the many who obey the laws, make the Precepts of Morality their gui de, repent of mortal sins when they commit them, but do not make mu ch e f f o r t t o a v o i d v e n i a l s i n s ; a n d f i n a l l y t h e r e a r e t h e f e w w h o s e righteousness exceeds the righte ousness of the scribes and Pha risees, who are guided by the Counsels o f Perfection and have the insig ht to perceive and the character to avoid venial sins and even imperf ections. P h i l o s o p h e r s a n d t h e o l o g i a n s h a v e s o u g h t t o e s t a b l i s h a t h e o r e t ical basis for the existing moral codes, by whose aid individual men a n d women pass judgment on their spon taneous evaluations. From Mose s to Bentham, from Epicurus to Cal vin, from the Christian and Bud dhist philosophies of universal love to the lunatic doctrines of nati onalism and racial superiority - the list is long and the span of thought e normously wide. But fortunately there is no need for us to consider these various theories. Our concern is only with the Perennial Philosophy and with the system of ethical principles which those who believe in that ph ilosophy have used, when passing judgment on their own and other people s evaluations. The questions that we have to ask in this section are simple enough, and simple too are the answers. As always, the difficul ties begin o n l y w h e n w e p a s s f r o m t h e o r y t o p r a c t i c e , f r o m e t h i c a l p r i n c i p le to particular application. Granted that the Ground of the in dividual soul is akin to, or i dentical with, the Divine Ground of all existence, and granted that this D i v i n e Ground is an ineffable Godhead th at manifests itself as persona l God or 226 even as the incarnate Logos, wha t is the ultimate nature of goo d and evil, and what the true purpose and last end of human life? The answers to these questions will be given to a great extent in the words of that most surprising product of the English eighteenth century, William Law. (How very odd our educational system is! Students of English literature are forced to read the graceful journalism of Steele and Addison, are expected to know all about the minor novels of Defoe and th e tiny elegances of Matthew Prior. But they can pass all their examina tions summa cum laude without havi ng so much as looked i nto the writings of a man who was not only a master of English prose, but also one of the mos t interesting thinkers of his period and one of the most endearingly saintly figures in the whole history of Anglicanism). Our current neglect of Law is yet another of the many indications that twentieth-century educators have c eased to be concerned with questions o f ultimate truth or meaning and (apart from mere vocational training) are interested solely in the dissemination of a rootless and irrelevant culture, and the fostering of the solemn foolery of scholarship for scholarships sake. Nothing burns in hell but the self. Theologa Germanica The mind is on fire, thoughts are on fire. Mind-consciousness and the impressions received by the mind, an d the sensations that arise from the impressions that the mind rece ives - these too are on fire. And with what are they on fire? With. the fire of greed, with the fire of resentment, with the fire of in fatuation; with birth, old age and death, with sorrow and lamentation, with misery and grief and despair they are on fire. From the Buddhas Fire Sermon If thou hast not seen the devi l, look at thine own self. Jalaluddin Rumi 227 Your own self is your own Cain th at murders your own Abel. For every action and motion of self has the spirit of Anti-Christ and murders the Divine life within you. William Law The city of God is made by the love of God pushed to the contempt of self; the earthly city, by the love of self push ed to the contempt of God . St. Augustine The difference between a good and a bad man does not lie in this, that the one wills that which is good and the other does not, but solely in this, that the one concurs with the living inspiring spirit of God within him, and the other resists it , and can be chargeable with evil only because he resists it. William Law People should think less about what they ought to do and more about what they ought to be. If only their being were good, their works would shine forth brightly. Do not imagine that you can ground your salvation upon actions; it must rest on what you are. The Ground upon which good character rests is the ve ry same Ground from which mans work derives its value, namely a mi nd wholly turned to God. Verily, if you were so minded, you might tr ead on a stone and it would be a m o r e p i o u s w o r k t h a n i f y o u , s i m p ly for your own profit, were to receive the Body of the Lord and were wanting in spiritual detachment. Eckhart Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. Bhagavad-Gita It is mind which gives to things their quality, their foundation and their being. Whoever sp eaks or acts with impure mind, him sorrow follows, as the wheel follows the steps of the that draws the cart. Dhammapada 228 The nature of a mans being determines the nature of his action s; and the nature of his being comes to manifestation first of all in the mind. What he crave s and thi nks, w hat he believes and feels - this is , so to speak, the Logos, by whose agency an individuals fundamental character performs its creative acts. These acts will be beauti ful and morally good if the being is God-centred, bad and ugly if it is centred in the personal self. The stone, says Eckhart, performs its wor k without ceasing, day and night. For even when it is not actually falli ng the stone has weight. A mans being is his potential energy directed towa rds or away from God; and it is by this potential energy that he will be judged a s g o o d o r e v i l - f o r i t i s p o s s i b l e , i n t h e l a n g u a g e o f t h e G o spel, to commit adultery and murder in the heart, even while remaining blameless in action. Covetousness, envy, pride and wrath are the four elements of self, or nature, or hell, all of them insepara ble from it. And the reason why it must be thus, and cannot be otherwis e, is because the natural life of the creature is brought forth for the participation of some high supernatural good in the Creator. But it could have no fitness, no possible capacity to receiv e such good, unless it was in itself both an extremity of want and an extremit y of desire for some high good. When therefore this natural life is de prived of or fallen from God, it can be nothing else in itself but an extremity of want continually desiring, and an extremity of desire continually wanting. And because it is that, its whole life can be no thing else but a plague and torment of covetousness, envy, pride and wrat h, all which is precisely nature, self, or hell. Now covetousness, prid e and envy are not three different things, but only three different name s for the restless workings of one and the same will or desire. Wrath, which is a fourth birth from these three, can have no existence till one or all of these three are 229 contradicted, or have something done to them that is contrary to their will. These four properties generate their own torment. They have no outward cause, nor any inward po wer of altering themselves. And therefore all self or nature must be in this state until some supernatural good comes into it, or gets a birth in it. Whilst man indeed lives among the va nities of time, his covetousness, envy, pride and wrath may be in a to lerable state, may hold him to a mixture of peace and trouble; they may have at times their gratifications as well as their torm ents. But when death has put an end to the vanity of all earthly cheats, th e soul that is not born again of the s u p e r n a t u r a l W o r d a n d S p i r i t o f G o d , m u s t f i n d i t s e l f u n a v o i d a b l y devoured or shut up in its own insatiable, unchangeable, self- tormenting covetousness, envy, pride and wrath. William Law It is true that you cannot prop erly express the degree of your sinfulness; but that is because it is impossible, in this life, to represent sins in all their true ugliness; nor shall we ever know them as they r e a l l y a r e e x c e p t i n t h e l i g h t o f G o d . G o d g i v e s t o s o m e s o u l s a n impression of the enormi ty of sin, by which He makes them feel that sin is incomparably greater than it seems. Such souls must conceive their sins as fait h represents them (that is, as they are in themselves), but must be content to describe them in such human words as their mouth is able to utter. Charles de Condren Lucifer, when he stood in his natura l nobility, as God had created him, was a pure noble creature. But when he kept to self, when he possessed himself and his natural nobility as a property, he fell and became, instead of an angel, a devil. So it is with man. If he remains in himself and possesses himself of his natural nobility as a property, he falls and becomes, instead of a man, a devil. The Following of Christ 230 If a delicious fragrant fruit had a pow er of separating itself from the rich spirit, fine taste, smell and colour, which it receives from the virtue of the air and the spirit of the sun, or if it could, in the beginning of its growth, turn away from the sun and receive no virtue from it, then it would stand in its own first birth of wrath, sourness, bitterness, astringency, just as the devils do, who have turned back into their own dark root and have rejected the Light and Spirit of God. So that the hellish nature of a devil is nothin g but its own first forms of life withdrawn or separated from the heav enly Light and Love; just as the sourness, bitterness and astringency of a fruit are nothing else but the first form of its vegetable life, befo re it has reached the virtue of the sun and the spirit of the air. And as a fruit, if it had a sensibility of itself, would be full of torment as soon as it was shut up in the first forms of its life, in its own astr ingency, sourness and stinging bitterness, so the angels, when they had turned back into these very same first forms of their own life , and broke off from the heavenly Light and Love of God, became th eir own hell. No hell was made for them, no new qualities came into them, no vengeance or pains from the Lord of Love fell on them; they on ly stood in that state of division and separation from the Son and Holy Spirit of God, which by their own motion they had made for themselves. They had nothing in them but what they had from God, the fi rst forms of a heavenly life; but they had them in a state of self-t orment, because they had separated them from birth of Love and Light. William Law In all the possibility of things th ere is and can be but one happiness and one misery. The one misery is natu re and creature left to itself, the one happiness is the Life, the Light, the Spirit of God, manifested in nature and creature. This is the true meaning of the words of Our Lord: There is but one that is good, and that is God. William Law 231 Men are not in hell because God is angry with them; they are in wrath and darkness because they have done to the light, which infinitely flows forth from God, as that man does to the light of the sun, who puts out his own eyes. William Law Though the light and comfort of the outward world keeps even the worst of men from any constant stro ng sensibility of that wrathful, fiery, dark and self-tormenting nature that is the very essence of every fallen unregenerate soul, yet every ma n in the world has more or less frequent and strong intimations given him that so it is with him in the inmost Ground of his soul. How ma ny inventions are some people forced to have recourse to in or der to keep off a certain inward uneasiness, which they are afraid of and know not whence it comes? Alas, it is because there is a fallen sp irit, a dark aching fire within them, which has further never had its proper relief and is trying to discover itself and calling out for help at every cessation of worldly joy. William Law In the Hebrew-Christian tradition the Fall is subsequent to cre ation and is due e xclusively to the egocentric use of a free will, which ought to have remained centred in the Divine Ground and not in the separ ate selfhood. The myth of Genesis embodies a very important psychol ogical truth, but falls short of being an entirely satisfactory symbol , because it fails to mention, much less to account for, the fact of evil an d suffering in the non-human world. To be adequate to our experience the my th would have to be modified in two ways. In the first place, it w ould have to make clear that creation, the incomprehensible passage from the unmanifested One into the manife st multiplicity of nature, from eternity into time, is not merely the prelude and necessary condition of the Fall; to some extent it is the Fall. And in the second place, it woul d have to 232 indicate that something analogous to free will may exist below the human level. T h a t t h e p a s s a g e f r o m t h e u n i t y o f spiritual to the manifoldnes s of t e m p o r a l b e i n g i s a n e s s e n t i a l p a r t o f t h e F a l l i s c l e a r l y s t a t ed in the Buddhist and Hindu renderings of the Perennial Philosophy. Pain and evil are inseparable from individual existence in a world of time; a nd, for human beings, there is an intens ification of this inevitable pa in and evil when the desire is turned towards the self and the many, rather than towards the Divine Ground. To th is we might speculatively add t he opinion that perhaps even sub-human existences may be endowed (both individually and collectively, as kinds and species) with something resembling the power of choice. T here is the extraordinary fact t h a t man stands alone - that, so far as we can judge, every other species is a species of living fossils, capable only of degeneration and e xtinction, not of further evolu tionary advance. In the phraseology of Scholastic Aristotelianism, matter posses ses an a pp e ti te f o r f o rm - no t n e ce s sar i l y fo r t he be s t fo r m, b u t fo r form as such. Looking about us in the world of living things, we observ e (with a delighted wonder, touched occasion ally, it must be admitted, wi th a certain questioning dismay) the innumerable forms, always beautiful, often extravagantly odd and sometimes even sinister, in which the ins atiable appetite of matter has found its satisfaction. Of all this livi ng matter only that organized as human beings has succeeded in finding a form capable, at least on the mental side, of further development. All the re st is now locked up in forms that can only remain what they are or, if th ey change, only change for the worse. It looks as though, in the cosmic in telligence test, all living matter, except the human, had succumbed, at on e time or another during its biological car eer, to the temptation of assu ming, not the ultimately best, but the imm ediately most profitable form. 233 By an act of something analogous to free will every species, ex cept the human, has chosen the quick returns of specialization, the pres ent rapture of being perfect, but per fect on a low level of being, the result is that they all stand at the end of evolutionary blind alleys. To the initial cosmic Fall of creation, of mult itudinous manifestation in time , they have added the obscurely biological equivalent of mans volunta ry Fall. As species, they have chosen the immediate satisfaction of the self rather than the capacity for reunion with the Divine Ground. Fo r this wrong choice, the non-human forms of life are punished negative ly, by being debarred from realizing the supreme good, to which only t he unspecialized and therefore freer, more highly conscious human form is capable. But it must be remembered, of course, that the c ap acit y for supreme good is achieved only at the price of becoming also cap able of extreme evil. Animals do not suffer in so many ways, nor, we ma y feel pretty certain, to the same exte nt as do men and women. Further , they are quite innocent of that literally diabolic wickedness which, together with sanctity, is one of the dis tinguishing marks of the human species. We see then that, for the Perennial Philosophy, good is the sep arate selfs conformity to, and finall y annihilation in, the Divine G round which gives it being; evil, the intensification of separateness, the refusal to know that the Ground exists. This doctrine is, of course, perfe ctly compatible with the formulation of ethical principles as a seri es of negative and positive Divine commandments, or even in terms of social utility. The crimes which are eve rywhere forbidden proceed from states of mind which are everywhere condemned as wrong; and these wron g states of mind are, as a matter o f empirical fact, absolutely i ncompatible with that unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground, which, accord ing to the Perennial Philosophy, is the supreme good. avb 234 Chapter 12 TIME AND ETERNITY HE universe is an everlasting su ccession of events; but its Gro und, according to the Perennial Philosophy, is the timeless now of t he Divine Spirit. A classical statement of the relationship betwee n time and e t e r n i t y m a y b e f o u n d i n t h e l a t e r c h a p t e r s o f t h e C o n s o l a t i o n s o f Philosophy, where Boethius summarizes the conceptions of his predecessors, notably of Plotinus. It is one thing to be carried throug h an endless life, another thing to embrace the whole presence of an endless life together, which is manifestly proper to the Divine Mind. The temporal world seems to emulate in part that which it cannot fu lly obtain or expr ess, tying itself to whatever presence there is in this exiguous and fleeting moment - a presence which, since it carries a certain image of that abiding Presence, gives to whatever may part ake of it the quality of seeming to have being. But because it could not stay, it undertook an infinite journey of time; and so it came to pa ss that, by going, it continued that life, whose plenitude it could not comprehend by staying. Boethius Since God hath always an eternal and present state, His knowledge, surpassing times notions, remaineth in the simplicity of His presence and, comprehending the infinite of what is past and to come, considereth all things as though they were in the act of being accomplished. Boethius Knowledge of what is happening now does not determine the event. What is ordinarily called Gods fore -knowledge is in reality a timeless now-knowledge, which is compatible with the freedom of the human creatures will in time. T 235 The manifest world and whatever is moved in any sort take their causes, order and forms from the st ability of the Divine Mind. This hath determined manifold ways for doing things; which ways being considered in the purity of Gods understanding are named Providence; but being referred to th ose things which He moveth and disposeth are called Fate. . . . Provi dence is the very Divine Reason itself, which disposeth all things. But Fate is a disposition inherent in changeable things, by which Providence connecteth all things in their due order. For Providence equally embraceth all things together, though diverse, though infinite; but Fate puts into motion all things, distributed by places, forms and time s; so that the unfolding of the temporal order, being terminate, unit ed in the foresight of the Divine Mind, is Providence, and the same uniting, being digested and unfolded in time, is called Fate. . . . As a workman conceiving the form of anything in his mind, taketh his work in hand and executeth by order of time that which he had simply and in a moment foreseen, so God by his Providence disposeth w h a t e v e r i s t o b e d o n e w i t h s i m p l i c i t y a n d s t a b i l i t y , a n d b y F a t e effecteth by manifold ways and in th e order of time those very things w h i c h H e d i s p o s e t h . . . . A l l t h a t i s u n d e r F a t e i s a l s o s u b j e c t t o Providence. But some things whic h are under Providence are above the course of Fate. For they are thos e things which, being stably fixed in virtue of their nearness to the first divinity, exceed the order of Fates mobility. Boethius The concept of a clock enfolds all succession in time. In the concept the sixth hour is not earlier than the seventh or eighth, although the clock never strikes the hour, save when the concept biddeth. Nicholas of Cusa 236 From Hobbes onwards, the enemies of the Perennial Philosophy ha ve d e n i e d t h e e x i s t e n c e o f a n e t e r n a l n o w . A c c o r d i n g t o t h e s e t h i n kers, time and change are fundamental; there is no other reality. Mor eover, future events are completely ind eterminate, and even God can ha ve no knowledge of them. Consequently God cannot be described as Alpha and Omega - merel y as Alpha and Lambda, or whatever ot her intermediate letter of the t e m p o r a l a l p h a b e t i s n o w i n p r o c e s s o f b e i n g s p e l l e d o u t . B u t t he anecdotal evidence collected by the Society for Psychical Resea rch and the statistical evidence accumul ated during many thousands of laboratory tests for extra-senso ry perception point inescapably to the conclusion that even human minds are capable of foreknowledge. And if a finite consciousness can know what card is going to be tur ned up three seconds from now, or what shipwreck is going to take plac e next week, by then there is nothing i mpossible or even intrinsically improbable in the idea of an inf inite consciousness that can kn ow now events indefinitely remote in wh at, for us, is future time. The specious present in which human beings live may be, and perhaps always is, something more than a brief section of transition from known pa st to unknown future, regarded, because of the vividness of memory, a s the instant we call now; it may and perhaps always does contain a portion of the immediate and even of the relatively distant future. For t h e Godhead, the specious present may be precisely that interminalis vitae tota simul et perpetua possessio, of which Boethius speaks. The existence of the eternal now is sometimes denied on the Gro und that a temporal order cannot co-exist with another order which is non- temporal; and that it is impossible for a changing substance to be united with a changeless substance. Thi s objection, it is obvious, wou ld be valid if the non-temporal order were of a mechanical nature, or if th e changeless substance were possess ed of spatial and material qua lities. 237 But according to the Perennial Philosophy, the eternal now is a consciousness; the Divine Ground is spirit; the being of Brahma n is chit, o r k n o w l e d g e . T h a t a t e m p o r a l w o r l d s h o u l d b e k n o w n a n d , i n b e i ng known, sustained and perpetually created by an eternal consciou sness is an idea which contains no thing self-contradictory. Finally we come to the arguments directed against those who hav e asserted that the eternal Ground can be unitively known by huma n minds. This claim is regarded as absurd because it involves the assertion, A t o n e t i m e I a m e t e r n a l , a t a n o t h e r t i m e I a m i n t i m e . B u t t his statement is absurd only if man is a live being of a two-fold n ature, capable of living on only one level. But if, as the exponents o f the Perennial Philosophy have always maintained, man is not only a body and a psyche, but also a spirit, and if he can at will live eit her on the merely human plane or else in harmony and even in union with th e Divine Ground of his being, then the statement makes perfectly good sense. The body is always in time, the spirit is always timeles s and the psyche is an amphibious creature compelled by the laws The spir it remains always what it eternally is; but man is so egotism of m ans being t o a s s o c i a t e i t s e l f t o s o m e e x t e n t w i t h i t s b o d y , b u t c a p a b l e , if it so desires, of experiencing and bei ng identified with its spirit a nd, through its spirit, with the Divine Ground. constituted that his psyche cannot always remain identified With the spirit. In the statement, At one time I am eternal, at another time I am in time, the word I stand s for the psyche, which passes from time to eternity when it is identifie d with the spirit and passes again from eternity to time, either voluntari ly or by involuntary necessity, when it chooses or is compelled to ident ify itself with the body. The Sufi, says Jalal-uddin Rumi, is the son of time present. Spiritual progress is a spiral advance. We start as infants in the animal eternity of life in the moment, without anxi ety for the future or regret fo r the past; 238 we grow up into the specifically human condition of those who l ook before and after, who live to a great extent, not in the presen t but in memory and anticipation, not spo ntaneously but by rule and with prudence, in repentance and fear a nd hope; and we can continue, if we so desire, up and on in a returning sweep towards a point corre sponding to our starting place in animality, but incommensurably above i t. Once m o r e l i f e i s l i v e d i n t h e m o m e n t - t h e l i f e n o w , n o t o f a s u b - h uman creature, but of a being in whom charity has cast out fear, vis ion has taken the place of hope, selfle ssness has put a stop to the pos itive egotism of complacent reminiscen ce and the negative egotism of remorse. The present moment is the only aperture through which the soul can pass out of time into eternity, through which grace ca n pass out of eternity into the soul, and th rough which charity can pass f rom one soul in time to another soul in time. That is why the Sufi and, along with him, every other practising exponent of the Perennial Philosoph y is, or tries to be, a son o f time present. Past and future veil God from our si ght; Burn up both of them with fire. How long Wilt thou be partitio ned by these segments, like a reed? So long as a reed is partitioned, it is not privy to secrets, Nor is it vocal in response to lip and breathing. Jalal-uddin Rumi This emptying of the memory, though the advantages of it are not so from much sorrow, grief and sadness, besides imperfections and sins, is in reality a great good. St. John of the Cross In the idealistic cosmology of M ahayana Buddhism memory plays t he part of a rather mal eficent demiurge. When the triple world is surveyed by the Bodhisattva, he perceives that its existence is due to memory that has been accumulated since the beginningless past, but wrongly interpreted. Lakvatra Stra 239 The word here translated as mem ory means literally perfuming . The mind-body carries with it the ineradicable smell of all that ha s been thought and done, desired and felt, throughout its racial and p ersonal past. The Chinese tran slate the Sanskrit term by two symbols, s ignifying habit-energy. The world is what ( i n o u r e y e s ) it is, because of all the consciously or unconsciously and physiologically remembered hab its formed by our ancestors or by ourselves, either in our present life or in previous existences. These remembered bad habits cause us to be lieve that multiplicity is the sole reality and that the idea of I, me, mine represents the ultimate truth. Nirvana consists in seeing into the abode of reality as it is, and not reality quoad nos , as it seems to us. Obviously, this cannot be achieved so long as there is an us, to which reality can be relative. Hence the n e e d , s t r e s s e d b y e v e r y e x p o n e n t o f t h e P e r e n n i a l P h i l o s o p h y , f or mortification, for dying to self. And this must be a mortificat ion not only of the appetites, the feelings and the will, but also of the re asoning powers, of consciousness itself and of that which makes our consciousness what it is - our personal memory and our inherite d habit- energies. To achieve complete de liverance, conversion from sin is not enough; there must also be a conversion of the mind, a Paravrit ti, as the Mahayanists call it, or revulsion in the very depths of conscio usness. As the result of this revulsion, th e habit-energies of accumulated memory are destroyed and, along with them, the sense of being a separa te ego. Reality is no longer perceived quoad nos (for the good reason that there is no longer a nos to perceive it), but as it is in itself. In Blakes words, If the doors of perception were cleanse d, everything would be seen as it is, infinite. By those who are pure in heart and poor in spirit, S amsara and Nirvana, appearance and reality, time and eternity are experien ced as one and the same. 240 Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time. And not only time but temporalities, not only temporal things but temporal affections; not only temporal affections but the very ta int and smell of time. Eckhart Rejoice in God all the time, says St. Paul. rejoices all the time who rejoices above time and free from time. Three things prevent a man from knowing God. The first is time , the second is corporeality, the third is multiplicity. That God may come in, these things must go out - except thou have them in a hi gher, better way: multitude summed up to one in thee. Eckhart Whenever God is thought of as being wholly in time, there is a tendency to regard Him as a numinous rat her than a moral being, a God of mere unmitigated Power rather than a God of Power, Wisdom and Love, an inscrutable and dangerous potent ate to be propitiated by sacrif ices, not a Spirit to be worshipped in spirit. All this is only natural; for time is a perpetual perishing and a God who is wholly in time is a God wh o destroys as fast as He creates. Nature is as incomprehensibly a ppalling as it is lovely and bountiful. If the Divine does not transcend t h e temporal order in which it is immanent, and if the human spirit does not transcend its time-bound soul, the then there is no possibility o f justifying the ways of God to man. God as manifested in the u niverse is the irresistible Being who speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, and whose emblems are Behemoth and Leviath an, the war horse and the eagle . It is this same Being who is des cribed in the apocalyptic eleve nth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita. O Supreme Spirit, says Arjuna, addressi ng himself to the Krishna whom he now knows to be the incarnation of the Godhead, I long to see your hvara-form - that is to say, Hi s form as God of the world, Nature, the temporal order. Krishna answers, You shall behold the whole universe, with all things animate and in animate, 241 within this body of mine. Arjunas reaction to the revelation is one of amazement and fear: Ah, my God, I see all gods within your bod y; Each in his degree, the multitude of creatures; See Lord Brahma seat ed upon his lotus, See all the sages and the holy serpents. Universal F orm, I see you without limit, Infinite of eyes, arms, mouths and bellies - See, and find no end, midst or beginning. There follows a long passage, enlarging on the omnipotence and all-comprehensiveness of God in his hv ara- form. Then the quality of the vis ion changes, and Arjuna realiz es, with fear and trembling, that the God of the universe is a God of de struction as well as of creation. Now with frightful tusks yo ur mouths are gnashing, Flaring like the fires of Doomsday morning - North, south, east and we st seem all confounded - Lord of devas, worlds ab ode, have mercy! . . . Swift as many rivers st reaming to the ocean, Rush the heroes to your fiery gullets, Moth-like to meet the flam e of their destruction. Headlong these plunge into you and perish. . . . Tell me who you are, and were from the beginning, You of aspect grim. O God of gods, be gracious. Take my homage, Lord. From me your ways are hidden. Tell me who you are. The answer is clear and unequivocal: I am come as Time, the waster of the peoples, Ready for the hour that ri pens to their ruin. 242 But the God who comes so terribly as Time also exists timelessl y as the Godhead, as Brahman, whose essence is Sat-Chit-Ananda Being, Awareness, Bliss; and within and beyond mans time-tortured ps yche is his spirit, uncreated and uncreatable, as Eckhart says, the tman which is akin to or even identical with Brahman. The Gita, like all o ther formulations of the Perennial Ph ilosophy, justifies Gods ways to man by affirming - and the affirmation is based upon observation and i mmediate experience - that man can, if he so desires, die to his separat e temporal selfness and so come to union wit h timeless Spirit. It affirms, too, that the Avatar becomes incarnate in order to assist human beings to achieve this union. This he does in three ways - by teaching the true d octrine in a world blinded by voluntary ignorance; by inviting souls to a carnal love of his humanity, not indeed as an end in itself, but as t he means to spiritual love-knowledge of Spir it; and finally by serving as a channel of grace. God who is Spirit can only be worshipped in spirit and for his own sake; but God in time is normally worshipped by material means with a view to achieving temporal ends. Time is manifestly the destroyer as well as the creator; and because this is so, it has seemed proper to wo rship him by methods which are as terrible as the destructions he himself inflicts. Hence, in India, the blood sacrifices to Kali, in her aspect as Nature-the- D e s t r o y e r ; h e n c e t h o s e o f f e r i n g s o f c h i l d r e n t o t h e M o l o c h s , denounced by the Hebrew prophets; hence the human sacrifices practised, for example, by the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Druids, the Aztecs. In all such cases the divinity addressed wa s a god in time, or a personification of Nat ure, which is nothing else but Time itself, the devourer of its own offspring; and in all cases the purpose of the rite w a s t o o b t a i n a f u t u r e b e n e f i t o r t o a v o i d o n e o f t h e e n o r m o u s evils which Time and Nature forever hold in store. For this it was th ought to be worthwhile to pay a high price in that currency of suffering , which the 243 Destroyer so evidently valued. T he importance of the temporal e nd j u s t i f i e d t h e u s e o f m e a n s t h a t w e r e i n t r i n s i c a l l y t e r r i b l e , b e cause intrinsically time-like. Sublimated traces of these ancient pat terns of thought and behaviour are still to be found in certain theories of the Atonement, and in the conception of the Mass as a perpetually r epeated sacrifice of the God-Man. In the modern world the gods to whom human sacrifice is offered are personifications, not of Nature, but of mans own, home-made po litical ideals. These, of course, all refer to events in time - actual events in the past or the present, fancied eve nts in the future. And here it should be noted that the philosophy which affirms the existence and the immediate realizableness of eternity is related to one kind of political theory and practice; the philosophy which affirms that what goe s on in time is the only reality, results in a different kind of theory and justifies quite another kind of political p ractice. This has been clearly recognized b y M a r x i s t w r i t e r s , * w h o p o i n t o u t t h a t w h e n C h r i s t i a n i t y i s m a inly preoccupied with events in time, it is a revolutionary religio n, and that when, under mystical influences, it stresses the Eternal Gospel , of which the historical or pseudo-historical facts recorded in Scripture a r e b u t symbols, it becomes politically static and reactionary. This Marxian account of the matter is somewhat oversimplified. It is not quite true to say that all theologies and philosophies whose pr imary concern is with time, rather tha n eternity, are necessarily rev olutionary. The aim of all revolutions is to make the future radically diff erent from and better than the past. But some time-obsessed philosophies a re primarily concerned with the past , not the future, and their po litics are entirely a matter of preserving or restoring the status quo and getting back to the good old days. But the retrospective time-worshippe rs have one thing in common with the rev olutionary devotees of the bigg er and better future; they are prepared to use unlimited violence to a chieve 244 their ends. It is here that we discover the essential differenc e between the politics of eternity-philosophers and the politics of time- philosophers. For the latter, the ultimate good is to be found in the tempora l world - in a future, where everyone will be happy because all are doing and thinking something either entirely new and unprecedented or, alternatively, something old, tr aditional and hallowed. And bec ause the ultimate good lies in time, they feel justified in making use o f any temporal means for achieving it. The Inquisition burns and tort ures in order to perpetuate a creed, a ri t u a l a n d a n e c c l e s i a s t i c o - p o l i tico- financial organization regarded as necessary to mens eternal s alvation. Bible-worshipping Protestants fight long and savage wars, in or der to make the world safe for what they fondly imagine to be the genu inely antique Christianity of apostolic times. Jacobins and Bolshevik s are ready to sacrifice millions of hu man lives for the sake of a po litical and economic future gorgeously unlike the present. And now all Euro pe and m o s t o f A s i a h a s h a d t o b e s a c r i f i c e d t o a c r y s t a l - g a z e r s v i s i on of perpetual Co-Prosperity and the Thousand-Year Reich. From the records of history it seems to be abundantly clear tha t most of the religions and philosophies which take time too seriously ar e correlated with political theories that inculcate and justify t h e u s e o f large-scale violence. The only e xceptions are those simple Epic urean faiths, in which the reaction to an all too real time is Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. This is not a very noble, nor even a very realistic kind of morality. But it seems to make a good deal mo re sense than the revolutionary ethic: Die (and kill), for tomorrow someone else will eat, drink and be merry. In practice, of course, the pros pect even of somebody elses future merriment is extremely precarious. For t he process of wholesale dying and k illing creates material, social a n d 245 psychological conditions that pr actically guarantee the revolut ion against the achievement of its beneficent ends. For those whose philosophy does not compel them to take time wi th an excessive seriousness the ultimate good is to be sought neither in the revolutionarys progressive socia l apocalypse, nor in the react ionarys revived and perpetuated past, but in an eternal Divine now whic h those who sufficiently desire this good can realize as a fact of imme diate experience. The mere act of dying is not in itself a passport t o eternity; nor can wholesale killing do anything to bring deliverance eith er to the s l a y e r s o r t h e s l a i n o r t h e i r p o s t e r i t y . T h e p e a c e t h a t p a s s e s all understanding is the fruit of liberation into eternity; but in its ordinary everyday form peace is also the root of liberation. For where t here are violent passions and compelling distractions, this ultimate goo d can never be realized. That is one of the reasons why the policy co rrelated with eternity-philosophies is tolerant and non-violent. The oth er reason is that the eternity, whose real ization is the ultimate good, i s a kingdom o f h e a v e n w i t h i n . T h o u a r t T h a t ; a n d t h o u g h T h a t i s i m m o r t a l a n d impassible, the killing and torturing of individual thous is a matter of cosmic significance, inasmuch as it interferes with the normal and natural relationship between ind ividual souls and the Divine et ernal Ground of all being. Every violenc e is, over and above everythi ng else, a sacrilegious rebellion agai nst the Divine order. P as s i ng no w f ro m th e o r y to h i s to ri c al f ac t, w e fi n d th a t t he re ligions, whose theology has been least preoccupied with events in time a nd most concerned with eternity, ha ve been consistently the least violent and the most humane in political practice. Unlike early Judaism , Christianity and Mohammedanism (all of them obsessed with time), Hinduism and of Buddhism have neve r been persecuting faiths, ha ve preached almost no holy wars and have refrained from that prose lytizing 246 religious imperialism, which has gone hand in hand with the pol itical and economic oppression of th e coloured peoples. For four hundred years, from the beginning of the sixteenth cen tury to the beginning of the twentieth, most of the Christian nations o f Europe have spent a good part of their time and energy in attacking, c onquering and exploiting their non-Christian neighbours in other continen ts. In the course of these centuries many individual churchmen did their b est to mitigate the consequences of such iniquities; but none of the m ajor C h r i s t i a n c h u r c h e s o f f i c i a l l y c o n d e m n e d t h e m . T h e f i r s t c o l l e c t ive protest against the slave system, introduced by the English and t h e Spaniards into the New World, was made in 1688 by the Quaker Me eting of Germantown. This fact is highly significant. Of all Christia n sects in the seventeenth century, the Quakers were the least obsessed with h istory, the least addicted to the idolatry of things in time. They beli eved that the inner light was in all human beings and that salvation came to those who lived in conformity with that light and was not dependent o n the profession of belief in historica l or pseudo-historical events, nor on the p e r f o r m a n c e o f c e r t a i n r i t e s , n o r o n t h e s u p p o r t o f a p a r t i c u l a r ecclesiastical organization. Mor eover, their eternity-philosoph y preserved them from the materialistic apocalypticism of that pr ogress- worship which in recent times has justified every kind of iniqu ity from war and revolution to sweated labour, slavery and the exploitat ion of savages and children - has justified them on the Ground that th e supreme good is in future time and that any temporal means, how ever intrinsically horrible, may be us ed to achieve in terest in that good. B e c a u s e Q u a k e r t h e o l o g y w a s a f o r m o f e t e r n i t y - p h i l o s o p h y , Q u a k er political theory rejected war and persecution as means to ideal ends, denounced slavery and proclaimed racial equality. Members of ot her denominations had done good work for the African victims of the white mans rapacity. One thinks, for example, of St. Peter Claver at Cartagena. 247 But this heroically charitable slave of the slaves never rais ed his voice against the institution of slavery or the criminal trade by whi ch it was sustained; nor, so far as the ex tant documents reveal, did he e ver, like John Woolman, attempt to persuad e the slave-owners to free thei r human chattels. The reason, pres umably, was that Claver was a J esuit, vowed to perfect obedience and constrained by his theology to r egard a certain political and ecclesiastic al organization as being the mystical body of Christ. The heads of thi s o r g a n i z a t i o n h a d n o t p r o n o u n c ed against slavery or the slave trade. Who was he, Pedro Claver, t o express a thought not officially approved by his superiors? Another practical corollary of the great historical eternity ph ilosophies, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, is a morality inculcating kindne ss to animals. Judaism and orthodox Ch ristianity taught that animals might be used as things, for the realizat ion of mans temporal ends. Eve n St. F r a n c i s a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s t h e b r u t e c r e a t i o n w a s n o t e n t i r e l y unequivocal. True, he converted a wolf and preached sermons to birds; but when Brother Juniper hacked t h e f e e t o f f a l i v i n g p i g i n o r der to satisfy a sick mans craving for fried trotters, the saint mere ly blamed his disciples intemperate zeal in damaging a valuable piece of pri vate property. It was not until the nineteenth century, when orthodo x Christianity had lost much of its power over European minds, th at the idea that it might be a good thi ng to behave humanely towards a nimals began to make headway. This new morality was correlated with th e new interest in Nature, which had be en stimulated by the romantic p oets and the men of science. Because it w as not founded upon an eternity - philosophy, a doctrine of divin ity dwelling in all living creat ures, the modern movement in favour of kindness to animals was and is per fectly compatible with intolerance, per s e c u t i o n a n d s y s t e m a t i c c r u e l t y towards human beings. Young Nazis are taught to be gentle with dogs and cats, ruthless with Jews. That is because Nazism is a typic al time- 248 philosophy, which regards the ultimate good as existing, not in eternity, but in the future. Jews are, ex hypothesi , o b s t a c l e s i n t h e w a y o f t h e realization of the supreme good; dogs and cats are not. The res t follows logically. Selfishness and partiality are very inhuman and base qualities even in the things of this world; but in the doctrines of religion they are of a baser nature. Now, this is the greatest evil that the division of the church has brought forth; it rais es in every communion a selfish, partial orthodoxy, which consists in courageously defending all that it has, and condemning al l that it has not. And thus every champion is trained up in defence of their own truth, their own learning and their own ch urch, and he has the most merit, the most honour, who likes everyt hing, defends everything, among themselves, and leaves nothing unce nsored in those that are of a different communion. Now, how can truth and goodness and union and religion be more struck at than by such defenders of it? If you ask why the great Bishop of Meaux wrot e so many learned books against all parts of the Reformation, it is because he was born in France and bred up in the bosom of Mother Chur ch. Had he been born in England, had Oxford or Cambridge been his Al ma Mater, he might have rivalled our great Bishop Stillingfleet, and would have wrote as many learned folios against the Church of Rome as he has done. And yet I will venture to say that if each Church could produce but one man apiece that had the piety of an apostle an d the impartial love of the first Christians in the first Church at Jerusalem, that a Protestant and a Papist of this stamp would not want half a sheet of paper to hold their articles of union, nor be half an hour before they were of one religion. 249 If, therefore, it should be said that churches are divided, estranged and made unfriendly to one another by a learning, a logic, a history, a criticism in the hands of partiality, it would be saying that which each particular church too much proves to be true. Ask why even the best amongst the Catholics are very shy of owning the validity of the orders of our Church; it is because they are afraid of removing any odium from the Reformation. Ask why no Protestants anywhere touch upon the benefit or necessity of celibacy in those who are separated from worldly business to preach the gosp el; it is because that would be seeming to lessen the Roman error of not suffering marriage in her clergy. Ask why even the most wort hy and pious among the clergy of the Established Church are afraid to assert the sufficiency of the Divine Light, the necessity of seeking only the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit; it is because the Quakers, who have broke off from the church, have made this doctrine their corner-stone. If we loved truth as such, if we sought for it for its own sake, if we loved our neighbour as ourselves, if we desired nothing by our religion but to be acceptable to God, if we equally desired the salvation of all men, if we were afraid of error on ly because of its harmful nature to us and our fellow-creatures, then noth ing of this spirit could have any place in us. There is therefore a catholic spirit, a communion of saints in the love of God and all goodness, which no one can learn from that which is called orthodoxy in particular churches , but is only to be had by a total d y i n g t o a l l w o r l d l y v i e w s , b y a p u r e l o v e o f G o d , a n d b y s u c h a n unction from above as delivers the mind from all selfishness and makes it love truth and goodness with an equality of affection in every man, whether he is Christian, Jew or Gentile. He that would obtain this 250 Divine and catholic spirit in this disordered, divided state of things, and live in a divided part of th e church without partaking of its division, must have these three tr uths deeply fixed in his mind. First, that universal love, which gi ves the whole strength of the heart to God, and makes us love every ma n as we love ourselves, is the noblest, the most Divine, the Godl ike state of the soul, and is the utmost perfection to which the most perfect religion can raise us; and that no religion does any man any g ood but so far as it brings this perfection of love into him. Th is truth will show us that true orthodoxy can nowhere be found but in a pure disinterested love of God and our neighbour. Second, that in this present divided state of the church, truth itself is torn and divided asunder; and that, th erefore, he can be the only true catholic who has more of truth and less of error than is hedged in by any divided part. This truth will enab le us to live in a divided part unhurt by its division, and keep us in a true liberty and fitness to be edified and assisted by all the good that we hear or see in any other part of the church. Thirdly, he must always have in mind this great truth, that it is the glory of the Divine Justice to have no respect of parties or persons, but to stand equally disposed to that which is right and wrong as well as in the Jew as in the Gentile. He ther efore that would like as God likes, and condemn as God condemns, must have neither the eyes of the Papist nor the Protestant; he must like no truth the less because Ignatius Loyola or John Bunyan were very zeal ous for it, nor have the less aversion to any error, beca use Dr. Trapp or George Fox had brought it forth. William Law 251 Dr. Trapp was the author of a religious tract entitled On the Nature, Folly, Sin and Danger of Being Ri g h t e o u s O v e r m u c h . O n e o f L a w s controversial pieces was a n answer to this work. Benares is to the East, Mecca to th e West; but explore your own heart, for there are both Rama and Allah. Kabir Like the bee gathering honey from different flowers, the wise man accepts the essence of different Script ures and sees only the good in all religions. From the Srimad Bhagavatam His Sacred Majesty the King does reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or householders, by gifts and various forms of reverence. His Sacred Majesty, howeve r, cares not so much for gifts or external reverence as that there shou ld be a growth in the essence of the matter in all sects. The growth of the essence of the matter assumes various forms, but the root of it is restraint of speech, to wit, a man must not do reverence to his own se ct or disparage that of another without reason. Depreciation should be for specific reasons only; for the sects of other people all dese rve reverence for one reason or another. . . . He who does reverenc e to his own sect, while disparaging the sects of others wholly from atta chment to his own, with intent to enhance the glory of his own sect, in reality by such conduct inflicts the severest injury on his own sect . Concord therefore is meritorious, to wit, hearkening and hearkening willingly to the Law of Piety, as accepted by other people. Edict of Ashoka It would be difficult, alas, to find any edict of a Christian k ing to match A s h o k a s . I n t h e W e s t t h e g o o d o l d r u l e , t h e s i m p l e p l a n , w a s glorification of ones own sect, disparagement and even persecu tion of all others. Recently, however, g overnments have changed their p olicy. Proselytizing and persecuting zeal is reserved for the politica l pseudo- 252 religions, such as Communism, Fascism and nationalism; and unle ss they are thought to stand in the way of advance towards the temporal ends professed by such pseudo-religions, the various manifestations of the Perennial Philosophy are treated with a contemptuously tolerant indifference. The children of God are very dear but very queer, very nice but very narrow. Sadha Sundar Singh (an Indian convert to Christianity) Such was the conclusion to which the most celebrated of Indian converts was forced after some years of a ssociation with his fellow Chri stians. There are many honourable except i o n s , o f c o u r s e ; b u t t h e r u l e e ven among learned Protestants and Catholics is a certain blandly bu mptious provincialism which, if it did not constitute such a grave offe nce against charity and truth, would be just uproariously funny. A hundred years ago, hardly anything was known of Sanskrit, Pali or Chinese. Th e ignorance of European scholars was sufficient reason for their provincialism. Today, when more or less adequate translations a re available in plenty, there is not only no reason for it, there is no excuse. And yet most European and American authors of books about relig ion and metaphysics write as though nobody had ever thought about t hese s u b j e c t s , e x c e p t t h e J e w s , t h e G reeks and the Christians of the Mediterranean basin an d western Europe. This display of what, in the twentieth century, is an entirely voluntary and deliberate ignorance is not only absurd and discreditable; it is also s o c i a l l y d a n g e r o u s . L i k e a n y o t h e r f o r m o f i m p e r i a l i s m , t h e o l o g ical i m p e r i a l i s m i s a m e n a c e t o p e r m a n e n t w o r l d p e a c e . T h e r e i g n o f violence will never come to an end until, first, most human bei ngs accept the same, true philosophy of life ; until, second, this Perennia l Philosophy is recognized as the highest factor common to all the world rel igions; until, third, the adherents of every religion renounce the idol atrous time-philosophies, with which, in their own particular faith, t he 253 Perennial Philosophy of eternity has been overlaid; until, four th, there is a world-wide rejection of all the political pseudo-religions, w hich place mans supreme good in future tim e and therefore justify and com mend the commission of every sort of pr esent iniquity as a means to that end. If these conditions are not fulfilled, no amount of political p lanning, no economic blue-prints however inge niously drawn, can prevent the recrudescence of war and revolution. avb 254 Chapter 13 SALVATION, DELIVERANCE, ENLIGHTENMENT ALVATION - but from what? Deliverance - out of which particular situation into what other situation? Men have given many answer s to these questions, and because human temperaments are of such profoundly different kinds, beca use social situations are so va rious and fashions of thought and feelin g so compelling while they last, the answers are many and mu tually incompatible. There is first of all material salvationism. In its simplest fo rm this is merely the will to live expressing itself in a formulated desir e to escape from circumstances that menace life. In practice, the effective fulfilment of such a wish depends on two things: the application of intell igence to particular economic and political problems, and the creation an d maintenance of an atmosphere of goodwill, in which intelligence can do its work to the best advantage. But men are not content to be m erely kind and clever within the limits of a concrete situation. They aspire to relate their actions, and the th oughts and feelings accompanyin g those actions, to general principles and a philosophy on the cosmic s cale. When this directing and explanat ory philosophy is not the Peren nial P h i l o s o p h y o r o n e o f t h e h i s t o r i c a l t h e o l o g i e s m o r e o r l e s s c l o sely connected with the Perennial Philosophy, it takes the form of a pseudo- religion, a system of organized idolatry. Thus, the simple wish not to s tarve, the well-founded convictio n that it is very difficult to be good or wise or happy when one is despe rately hungry, comes to be elaborated, under the influence of the meta physic of Inevitable Progress, into pro phetic Utopianism; the desire t o escape from oppression and exploitation comes to be pld and guid ed by S 255 a belief in apocalyptic revolutionism, combined, not always in theory, but invariably in practice, with the Moloch-worship of the nati on as the highest of all goods. In all these cases salvation is regarded as a deliverance, by means of a variety of political and economic de vices, out of the miseries and evils associated with bad material conditio ns into another set of future material conditions so much better than t he present that, somehow or other, they will cause everybody to be perfectly happy, wise and virtuous. Officially promulgated in all the totalitarian countries, wheth er of the right or the left, this confession of faith is still only semi- official in the nominally Christian world of capitalistic democracy, where it i s drummed into the popular mind, not by the representatives of st ate or church, but by those most influential of popular moralists and philosophers, the writers of advertising copy (the only authors in all the history of literature whose works are read every day by every m ember of the population). In the theologies of the various religions, salvation is also r egarded as a deliverance out of folly, evil and misery into happiness, goodn ess and wisdom. But political and economic means are held to be subsidi ary to the cultivation of personal holin ess, to the acquiring of perso nal merit and to the maintenance of persona l faith in some Divine princip le or person having power, in one way or another, to forgive and sanc tify the i n d i v i d u a l s o u l . M o r e o v e r , t h e e n d t o b e a c h i e v e d i s n o t r e g a r d ed as existing in some Utopian future period, beginning, say, in the twenty- second century or perhaps even a little earlier, if our favouri te politicians remain in power and make the right laws; the end exists in hea ven. This last phrase has two very different meanings. For what is probab ly the majority of those who profess th e great historical religions, i t signifies and has always signified a happy posthumous condition of indefi nite p e r s o n a l s u r v i v a l , c o n c e i v e d o f a s a r e w a r d f o r g o o d b e h a v i o u r and 256 correct belief and a co mpensation for the m iseries inseparable from life in a body. But for those who, within the various religious trad itions, have accepted the Perennial Philosophy as a theory and have done the ir best to live it out in practice, heaven is something else. They as pire to be delivered out of separate selfhood in time and into eternity as realized in the unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground. Since the Ground can and ought to be unitively known in the pre sent life (whose ultimate end and purpose is nothing but this knowledge), heaven is not an exclusively posthumous co ndition. He only is completely saved who is delivered here and now. A s to the means to salvation, th ese are simultaneously ethical, intellect ual and spiritual and have bee n summed up with admirable clarity and economy in the Buddhas Eightfold Path. Complete deliverance is conditio nal on the following: first, Ri ght Belief in the all too obvious truth that the cause of pain and evil is craving for separative, ego-centred existenc e, with its corollary that ther e can be no deliverance from evil, whether per sonal or collective, except b y getting rid of such craving and the obse ssion of I, me, mine; sec ond, Right Will, the will to deliver oneself and others; third, Right Spee ch, directed b y c o m p a s s i o n a n d c h a r i t y t o w a r d s a l l s e n t i e n t b e i n g s ; f o u r t h , Right Actio n, with th e aim o f crea ting and main taining peace and g ood will; fifth, Right Means of Livelihood, or the choice only of such pr ofessions as are not harmful, in their exercise, to any human being or, i f possible, any living creature; sixth, Righ t Effort towards Self-control; seventh, Right Attention or Recollectedness, to be practised in all the circumstances of life, so that we may never do evil by mere thoughtlessness, because we know not what we do; and, eighth, Right Contemplation, the unitive knowledge of the Ground, to which recollectedness and the ethical se lf-naughting prescribed in th e first six branches of the Path give access. 257 Such then are the means which it is within the power of the hum an being to employ in order to achieve mans final end and be saved. o f the means which are employed by the Divine Ground for helping human beings to reach their goal, the Buddha of the Pali scriptures (a teacher whose dislike of footless questi o n s i s n o l e s s i n t e n s e t h a n t hat of the severest experimental physicis t of the twentieth century) declines to speak. All he is prepared to talk about is sorrow and the ending of s orrow - the huge brute fact of pain and evil and the other, no less empiric al fact that there is a method by which the i ndividual can free himself from evil and do something to diminish the sum of evil in the world around hi m. It is only in Mahayana Buddhism that the mysteries of grace are discu ssed with anything like the fullness of treatment accorded to the su bject in the Speculations of Hindu and especially Christian theology. Th e Hinayana teaching on deliverance is simply an elaboration of th e Buddhas last recorded words: Decay is inherent in all compone nt things. Work out your own salvation with diligence. As in the well- known passage quoted below, all the stress is upon personal eff ort. Therefore, Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the Trut h as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, bu t holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, shall not look for refuge to anyone beside themselves - it is they who shall reach the very topmost Height. B u t t h e y m u s t b e a n x i o u s t o l e a r n . W h a t f o l l o w s i s a p a s s a g e f r eely translated from the Chandogya Upanishad. The truth which this l ittle myth is meant to illustrate is that there are as many conceptio ns of salvation as there are degrees of spiritual knowledge and that the kind 258 of liberation (or enslavement) actually achieved by any individual soul depends upon the extent to which that soul chooses to dissipate i t s essentially voluntary ignorance. That Self who is free fr om impurities, from old age and death, from grief and thirst and hunger, whose desire is true and whose desires come true - that Self is to be sought after and enquired about, that Self is to be realized. The Devas (gods or angels) and the Asuras (demons or titans) both heard of this Truth. They thought: Let us seek after and realize this Self, so that we can obtain all worlds and the fulfilment of all desires. Thereupon Indra from the Devas and Virochana from the Asuras approached Prajapati, the famous t e a c h e r . T h e y l i v e d w i t h h i m a s pupils for thirty-two years. Then Prajapati asked them: For what reason have you both live d here all this time? They replied: We have heard that one who realizes the Self obtains all the worlds and all his desires. We have lived here because we want to be taught the Self. Prajapati said to them: The person wh o is seen in the eye - that is the Self. That is immortal, that is fearless and that is Brahman. Sir, enquired the disciples, who is seen reflected in water or in a mirror? He, the tman, was the reply. He indeed is seen in all these. Then Prajapati added: Look at yourselves in the water, and whatever you do not understand, come and tell me. Indra and Virochana pored over their reflections in the water, and when they were asked what they had seen of the Self, they replied: Sir, we see the Self ; we see even the hair and nails. 259 Then Prajapati ordered them to put on their finest clothes and look again at their selves in the water. This they did and when asked again what they had seen, they answered : We see the Self, exactly like ourselves, well adorned and in our finest clothes. Then said Prajapati: The Self is in deed seen in these. That Self is immortal and fearless, and that is Brahman. And the pupils went away, pleased at heart. But looking after them, Prajapati lamented thus: Both of them departed without analysing or discriminating, and without comprehending the true Self. Whoeve r follows this false doctrine of the Self must perish. Satisfied that he had found the Self , Virochana returned to the Asuras and began to teach them that the bodi ly self alone is to be worshipped, that the body alone is to be served , and that he who worships the ego and serves the body gains both worlds, this and the next. And this in effect is the doctrine of the Asuras. But Indra, on his way back to the Devas, realized the uselessness of this knowledge. As this Self, he reflected, seems to be well adorned when the body is well adorned, well dressed when the body is well dressed, so too will it be blind if the body is blind, lame if the body is lame, deformed if the body is deform ed. Nay more, this same Self will die when the body dies. I see no go od in such knowledge. So Indra returned to Prajapati for further in struction. Prajapati compelled him to live with him for another span of thirty-two years; after which he began to instruct him, step by step, as it were. Prajapati said: He who moves about in dreams, enjoying and glorified - he is the Self. That is immortal and fearless, and that is Brahman. 260 Pleased at heart, Indra again depart ed. But before he had rejoined the other angelic beings, he realized the uselessness of that knowledge also. True it is, he thought within himself, that this new Self is not blind if the body is blind, not lame , nor hurt, if the body is lame or hurt. But even in dreams the Self is conscious of many sufferings. So I see no good in this teaching. Accordingly he went back to Prajapati for more instruction, and Prajapati made him live with hi m for thirty-two years more. At the end of that time Prajapati taught him thus: When a person is asleep, resting in perfect tranquilli ty, dreaming no dreams, then he realizes the Self. That is immortal and fearless, and th at is Brahman. Satisfied, Indra went away. But even before he had reached home, he felt the uselessness of this knowle dge also. When one is asleep, he thought, one does not know oneself as This is I. One is not in fact conscious of any existence. That stat e is almost annihilation. I see no good in this knowledge either. So Indra went back once again to be taught. Prajapat i made him stay with him for five years more. At the end of that time Prajapati taught him the highest truth of the Self. This body, he said, is mortal, for ever in the clutch of death. But within it resides the Self, immortal, and without form. This Self, when associated in consciousness with the body, is subject to pleasure and pain; and so long as this association continues, no man can find freedom from pains and pleasures. But when the association comes to an end, there is an end also of pain and pleasure. Rising above physical consciousness, knowing the Self as di stinct from the sense - organs and the mind, knowing Him in his true li ght, one rejoices and one is free. From the Chandogya Upanishad 261 Having realized his own self as th e Self, a man becomes selfless; and in virtue of selflessness he is to be conceived as unconditioned. This is the highest mystery, betokening eman cipation; through selflessness he has no part in pleasure or pa in, but attains absoluteness. Maitrayana Upanishad We should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and goodness, and even that Eterna l Good, which is God Himself, can never make a man virtuous, good or ha ppy so long as it is outside the soul, that is, so long as the man is holding converse with outward things through his senses and reas on, and does not withdraw into himself and learn to understand his own life, who and what he is. Theologa Germanica Indeed, the saving trut h has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing that one has to re alize it within oneself. Sutralamkara In what does salvation consist? Not in any historic faith or knowledge of anything absent or distant, not in any variety of restraints, rules and methods of practising virtue, not in any formality of opinion about faith and works, repentance, forgiven ess of sins, or justification and sanctification, not in any truth or righteousness that you can have from yourself, from the best of me n and books, but solely and wholly from the life of God, or Christ of God, quickened and born again in you, in other words in the restorat ion and perfect union of the first twofold life in humanity. William Law Law is using here the phraseology of Boehme and those other Sp iritual Reformers, whom the orthodox Protestants, Lutheran, Calvinisti c and Anglican, agreed (it was one of the very few points they were able to agree on) either to ignore or to persecute. But it is clear that what he and they call the new birth of God within the soul is essentially the sa me fact of 262 e x p e r i e n c e a s t h a t w h i c h t h e H i n d u s , t w o t h o u s a n d a n d m o r e y e a r s before, described as the realization of the Self as within and yet transcendentally other than the individual ego. Not by the slothful, nor the fool, th e undiscerning, is that Nirvana to be reached, which is the untying of all knots. Iti-vuttaka This seems sufficiently self-evident. But most of us take pleas ure in being lazy, cannot be bothered to be co nstantly recollected and yet passionately desire to be saved f rom the results of sloth and unawareness. Consequently there has been a widespread wish for and belief in Saviours who will step into our lives, above all at t he hour of their termination, and, like Alexander, cut the Gordian knots w hich we have been too lazy to untie. But God is not mocked. The nature of things is such that the unitive knowledge of the Ground which is conti ngent upon the achievement of a total selflessness cannot possibly be realized, even with outside help, by those who are not yet selfless. The salvation obtained by belief in the saving power of Amida, say, or Jesus is not the total deliverance described in the Upanishads, the Buddhist scr iptures and the writings of the Christia n mystics. It is something diff erent, not merely in degree, but in kind. Talk as much philosophy as you pl ease, worship as ma ny gods as you like, observe all ceremonies, sing de votional praises to any number of divine beings - liberati on never comes, even at the end of a hundred aeons, without the realization of the Oneness of Self. Shankara This Self is not realizable by study nor even by intelligence and learning. The Self reveals its essenc e only to him who applies himself to the Self. He who has not given up the ways of vice, who cannot control himself, who is not at peace within, whose and mind is distracted, can never realize the Self, though full of all the learning in the world. Katha Upanishad 263 Nirvana is where there is no birth, no extinction; it is seeing into the state of Suchness, absolutely tr anscending all the categories constructed by mind; for it is the Tath gatas inner consciousness. Lakvatra Sutra The false or at best imperfect salvations described in the Chan dogya Upanishad are of three kinds. The re is first the pseudo-salvati on associated with the belief that matter is the ultimate Reality. Virochana, the demonic being who is the apotheosis of power-loving, extrav erted somatotonia, finds it perfectly natural to identify himself wit h his body, and he goes back to the other Titans to seek a purely material salvation. Incarnated in the present centur y, Virochana would have been an ardent Communist, Fascist or nationalis t. Indra sees through material salvationism and is then offered dream-salvation, deliverance o ut of bodily existence into the interm ediate world between matter and spirit - that fascinatingly odd and exciting psychic universe, out of which miracles and fore-knowledge, spi rit communications and extra- sensory perceptions make their startling irruptions into ordinary life. B u t t h i s freer kind of individualized existence is still all too persona l and egocentric to satisfy a soul conscious of its own incompletenes s and eager to be made whole. Indra accordingly goes further and is t empted to accept the undifferentiated co nsciousness of deep sleep, of false Samdhi and quietistic trance, a s the final deliverance. But he refuses, in Brahmanandas words, to mistake Tamas for Sattvas, sloth and sub- consciousness for poise and su p e r - c o n s c i o u s n e s s . A n d s o , b y discrimination, he comes to the realization of the Self, which is the enlightenment of the darkness that is ignorance and the deliver ance from the mortal consequenc es of that ignorance. The illusory salvations, against which we are warned in the oth er extracts, are of a different kind. The emphasis here is upon id olatry and superstition - above all the idolatrous worship of the analytic al reason 264 a n d i t s n o t i o n s , a n d t h e s u p e r s t i t i o u s b e l i e f i n r i t e s , d o g m a s and confessions of faith as being so mehow magically efficacious in themselves. Many Christians, as Law implies, have been guilty o f these idolatries and superstitions. For them, complete deliverance in to union with the Divine Ground is impossible, either in this world or posthumously. The best they can hope for is a meritorious but s till e g o c e n t r i c l i f e i n t h e b o d y a n d s o m e s o r t o f h a p p y p o s t h u m o u s longevity, as the Chinese call it, some form of survival, par adisal perhaps, but still involved in t ime, separateness and multiplic ity. The beatitude into which the enlightened soul is delivered is s omething quite different from pleasure. What, then, is its nature? The q uotations which follow provide at least a partial answer. Blessedness dep ends on non-attachment and selflessness, t h e r e f o r e c a n b e e n j o y e d w i t h o ut satiety and without revulsion; is a participation in eternity, and therefore remains itself without dim inution or fluctuation. Henceforth in the real Brahman, he (the liberated spirit) becomes perfected and another. His fruit is the untying of bonds. Without desires, he attains to bliss eternal and immeasurable, and therein abides. Maitrayana Upanishad God is to be enjoyed, creatures only used as means to That which is to be enjoyed. St. Augustine There is this difference between sp iritual and corporal pleasures, that corporal ones beget a desire before we have obtained them and, after we have obtained them, a disgust; but spiritual pleasures, on the contrary, are not cared for when we have them not, but are desired when we have them. St. Gregory the Great When a man is in one of these two states (beatitude or dark night of the soul) all is right with him, and he is as safe in hell as in heaven. And so 265 long as a man is on earth, it is pos sible for him to pass often-times from the one to the other - nay, even within the space of a day and night, and all without his own doing. But when a man is in neither of these two states, he holds converse with the creatures, and wavereth hither and thither and knoweth not what manner of man he is. Theologa Germanica Much of the literature of Sufism is poetical. Sometimes this po etry is rather strained and extravagant, sometimes beautiful with a lum inous simplicity, sometimes darkly and almost disquietingly enigmatic . To this l a s t c l a s s b e l o n g t h e u t t e r a n c e s o f t h a t M o s l e m s a i n t o f t h e t e nth c e n t u r y , N i f f a r i t h e Eg y p t i a n . T h i s i s wh a t h e w r o t e o n t h e s u b ject of salvation. God made me behold the sea, an d I saw the ships sinking and the planks floating; then the planks t oo were submerged. And God said to me, Those who voyage are not saved. And He said to me, Those who, instead of voyaging, cast themselves into the sea, take a risk. And He said to me, Those who voyage and take no risk shall perish. And He said to me, The surface of the sea is a gleam that cannot be reached. And the bottom is a darkness impe netrable. And between the two are great fishes, which are to be feared. The allegory is fairly clear: Th e ships that bear the individua l voyagers across the sea of life are sects and churches, collections of d ogmas and religious organizations. The pla nks which also sink at last are all good works falling short of total s elf-surrender and all faith less absolute than the unitive knowledge of God. Li beration into eternity is the r esult of throwing oneself into the sea; in the language of the Gospels , one must lose ones life in order to save it. But throwing oneself into the sea is a risky business - not so risky, of course, as travelling in a va st Queen Mary, fitted up with the very latest in dogmatic conveniences and lit urgical 266 decorations, and bound either for D a v y J o n e s s l o c k e r o r a t b e s t, the wrong port, but still quite dangerous enough. For the surface o f the sea - t h e D i v i n e G r o u n d a s i t i s m a n i f e s t e d i n t h e w o r l d o f t i m e a n d multiplicity - gleams with a reflected radiance that can no mor e be seized than the image of beauty in a mirror; while the bottom, the Ground as it is eternally in itself, seems merely darkness to t he analytic mind, as it peers down into the depths; and when the analytic m ind decides to join the will in the final necessary plunge into sel f-naughting it must run the gauntlet, as it sinks down, of those devouring pseudo- salvations described in the Chan dogya Upanishad - dream-salvati on into that fascinating psychic world, where the ego still survives, b ut with a happier and more untrammelled kind of life, or else the sleep - salvation of false Samdhi, of unity in su b-consciousness instead of unit y in super- consciousness. Niffaris estimate of any indivi duals chances of achieving man s final end d o e s n o t e r r o n t h e s i d e o f e x c e s s i v e o p t i m i s m . B u t t h e n n o s a i nt or founder of a religion, no exponent of the Perennial Philosophy, has ever been optimistic. Many are called, but few are chosen. Those w ho do not choose to be chosen cannot hope for anything better than so me form of partial salvation under conditions that will permit the m to advance towards complete deliverance. avb 267 Chapter 14 IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL MMORTALITY is participation in the eternal now of the Divine Ground; survival is persistence i n o n e o f t h e f o r m s o f t i m e . Immortality is the result of total deliverance. Survival is the lot of those who are partially delivered into some heaven, or who are not de livered a t a l l , b u t f i n d t h e m s e l v e s , b y t h e l a w o f t h e i r o w n u n t r a n s c e n ded nature, compelled to choose some purgatorial or embodied servit ude even more painful than the one they have just left. Goodness and virtue make men know and love, believe and delight in their immortality. When the soul is purged and enlightened by true sanctity, it is more capable of th ose Divine irradiations, whereby it feels itself in conjunction with God. It knows that almighty Love, by which it lives, is stronger than death. It knows that God will never forsake His own life, which He has quickened in the soul. Those breathings and gaspings after an et ernal participation of Him are but the energy of His own breath within us. John Smith, the Platonist I have maintained ere this and I st ill maintain that I already possess all that is granted to me in eterni ty. For God in the fullness of his Godhead dwells eternally in his image - the soul. Eckhart T r o u b l e d o r s t i l l , w a t e r i s a l w a y s w a t e r . W h a t d i f f e r e n c e c a n embodiment or disembodiment make to the Liberated? Whether calm or in tempest, the sameness of the Ocean suffers no change. Yoga-vasishta To the question Where does the soul go, when the body dies? J acob Boehme answered: There is no ne cessity for it to go anywhere. I 268 The word Tath gata (one of the names of the Buddha) signifies one who does not go to anywhere and do es not come from anywhere; and therefore is he called Tath gata (Thus-gone), holy and fully enlightened. Diamond Sutra Seeing Him alone, one transcends deat h; there is no other way. God, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life. Book of Common Prayer I died a mineral and became a plant. I died a plant and rose an animal. I died an animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as man, to soar with the blessed angels; But even from angelhood I must pass on. All except God perishes. When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become that which no mind ever conceived. O, let me not exist! for Non-Existence proclaims, To Him we shall return. Jalal-uddin Rumi There is a general agreement, East and West, that life in a bod y provides uniquely good opportunities for achieving salvation or delivera nce. Catholic and Mahayana Buddhist do ctrine is alike in insisting t hat the soul in its disembodied state after death cannot acquire merit, b u t merely suffers in purgatory the consequences of its past acts. But whereas Catholic orthodoxy decla res that there is no possibilit y of progress in the next world, and that the degree of the souls b eatitude is determined solely by what it has done and thought in its ear thly life, t h e e s c h a t o l o g i s t s o f t h e O r i e n t a f f i r m t h a t t h e r e a r e c e r t a i n posthumous conditions in which meritorious souls are capable of advancing from a heaven of happy personal survival to genuine immortality in union with the ti meless, eternal Godhead. And, o f course, 269 there is also the possibility (indeed, for most individuals, the necessity) of returning to some form of embodi ed life, in which the advance t owards complete beatification, or deliverance through enlightenment, c an be continued. Meanwhile, the fact t hat one has been born in a huma n body is one of the things for which, says Shankara, one should daily g i v e thanks to God. The spiritual creature which we are has need of a body, without which it could nowise attain that knowledge which it obtains as the only approach to those things, by knowledge of which it is made blessed. St. Bernard Having achieved human birth, a rare and blessed incarnation, the wise man, leaving all vanity to those wh o are vain, should strive to know God, and Him only, before life passes into death. Srimad Bhagavatam Good men spiritualize their bodies ; bad men incarnate their souls. Benjamin Whichcote More precisely, good men spiritualize their mind-bodies; bad me n incarnate and mentaliz e their spirits. The completely spiritual ized mind- body is a Tathgata, who do esnt g o anywhere when he dies, for the good reason that he is already, actually and consciously, where everyone has always potentially been without knowing. The person who has not, in this life, gone into Thusness, into the eternal principle of all states of b e i n g , g o e s a t d e a t h i n t o s o m e p articular state, either purgato rial or paradisal. In the Hindu scriptur es and their commentaries sever al different kinds of posthumous salvation are distinguished. The thus- gone soul is completely delivered into complete union with the Divine G r o u n d ; b u t i t i s a l s o p o s s i b l e t o a c h i e v e o t h e r k i n d s o f M u k t i , or liberation, even while retaining a form of purified I-conscious ness. The nature of any individuals deliv erance after death depends upon three factors: the degree of holiness achieved by him while in the bo dy, the 270 p a r t i c u l a r a s p e c t o f t h e D i v i n e R e a l i t y t o w h i c h h e g a v e h i s p r imary allegiance, and the particular p ath he chose to follow. Similar ly, in the D i v i n e C o m e d y , P a r a d i s e h a s i t s various circles; but whereas in t h e o r i e n t a l e s c h a t o l o g i e s t h e s a v e d s o u l c a n g o o u t o f e v e n s u b l i m ated individuality, out of religious s urvival even in some kind of c elestial time, to a complete deliverance into t he eternal, Dantes souls remai n for ever where ( a f t e r p a s s i n g t h r o u g h t h e u n m e r i t o r i o u s s u f f e r i n g s o f p u r g a t o r y) they find themselves as the resu lt of their single incarnation in a body. Orthodox Christian doctrine does not admit the possibility, eit her in the posthumous state or in some othe r embodiment, of any further gr owth towards the ultimate perfection of a total union with the Godhe ad. But in the Hindu and Buddhist versions of the Perennial Philosophy the Divine mercy is matched by the Divine patience: both are infini te. For oriental theologians there is no eternal damnation; there are o nly purgatories and then an indefinite series of second chances to go forward towards not only mans, but the whole creations final end - total reunion with the Ground of all being. Preoccupation with posthumous deli verance is not one of the mea ns to such deliverance, and may easily , indeed, become an obstacle in the way of advance towards it. There is not the slightest reason to sup pose that a r d e n t s p i r i t u a l i s t s a r e m o r e l i k e l y t o b e s a v e d t h a n t h o s e w h o h a v e never attended a sance or familiarized themselves with the lit erature, speculative or evidential. My intention here is not to add to t hat literature, but rather to give the baldest summary of what has been written about the subject of survival within the various religi ous traditions. In oriental discussions of the s ubject, that which survives dea th is not the personality. Buddhism accepts the doctrine of reincarnation ; but it is not a soul that passes on (Buddhism denies the existence of a soul); it is the character. What we choose to make of our mental and physica l 271 constitution in the course of our life on earth affects the psy chic medium within which individual minds lea d a part at least of their amp hibious existence, and this modification of the medium results, after t he bodys death, in the initiation of a new existence either in a heaven, o r a purgatory, or another body. I n t h e V e d a n t a c o s m o l o g y t h e r e i s , o v e r a n d a b o v e t h e t m a n o r spiritual Self, identical with the Divine Ground, something in the nature of a soul that reincarnates in a gross or subtle body, or manif ests itself in some incorporeal state. This soul is not the personality of the defunct, but rather the particularized I-consciousness out of which a pe rsonality arises. Either one of these conc eptions of survival is logicall y self- consistent and can be made to save the appearances - in other words, t o f i t t h e o d d a n d o b s c u r e f a c t s of psychical research. The onl y personalities with which we have any direct acquaintance are in carnate beings, compounds of a body and some unknown x. But if x plus a body equals a personality, then, obviously, it is impossible for x m inus a body to equal the same thing. The appa rently personal entities which psychical research sometimes seems to discover can only be rega rded as temporary pseudo-personalities compounded of x and the mediu ms body. These two conceptions are not mu tually exclusive, and survival may be the joint product of a persisten t consciousness and a modificat ion of the psychic medium. If this is so, it is possible for a given human being to survive in more than one posthumous form. His soul - the non- personal Ground and principle of past and future personalities - may go marching on in one mode of being, while the traces left by his thoughts and volitions in the psychic medium may become the origin of new individualized existences, havin g quite other modes of being. avb 272 Chapter 15 SILENCE The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him for ever in everlastin g silence; and in silenc e the soul has to hear it. St. John of the Cross The spiritual life is nothing else but the working of the Spirit of God within us, and therefore our own sile nce must be a great part of our preparation for it, and much speaking, or delight in it, will be often no small hindrance of that good whic h we can only have from hearing what the Spirit and voice of God spea keth within us. . . . Rhetoric and fine language about the things of the spirit is a vainer babble than in other matters; and he that thinks to grow in true goodness by hearing or speaking flaming words or striking expressions, as is now much the way of the world, may have a great de al of talk, but wi ll have little of his conversation in heaven. William Law He who knows does not speak; He who speaks does not know. Lao Tzu NRESTRAINED and indiscriminate talk is morally evil and spiritu ally dangerous. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. This may seem a very hard saying. And yet if we pass in review the words we have given vent to in the course of the average day, we shal l find that the greater number of them may b e classified under three main h eads: words inspired by malice and uncha ritableness towards our neigh bours; words inspired by greed, sensuality and self-love; words inspir ed by pure imbecility and uttered without rhyme or reason, but merely for the sake U 273 of making a distracting noise. T hese are idle words; and we sha ll find, if we look into the matter, that th ey tend to outnumber the words that are dictated by reason, charity or necessity. And if the unspoken w ords of o u r m i n d s e n d l e s s , i d i o t m o n o l o g u e a r e c o u n t e d , t h e m a j o r i t y f or idleness becomes, for most of us, overwhelmingly large. In these idle words, the silly no less than the self-regarding and the uncharitable, are impediments in the way of the unitive knowled ge of the Divine Ground, a dance of dust and flies obscuring the inwa rd and the outward Light. The guard of the tongue (which is also, of course, a guard of the mind) is not only one of the most difficult and searching of all mortifications; it is also the most fruitful. When the hen has laid, she must ne eds cackle. And what does she get by it? Straightway comes the chough and robs her of her eggs, and devours all that of which she should have brought forth her live birds. A n d j u s t s o t h a t w i c k e d c h o u g h , the devil, beareth away from the cackling anchoresses, and swallowe th up all the goods they have brought forth, and which ought, as birds, to bear them up towards heaven, if it had not been cackled. Modernized from the Ancren Riwle You cannot practise too rigid a fast from the charms of worldly talk. Fnelon W h a t n e e d o f s o m u c h n e w s f r o m a b r o a d , w h e n a l l t h a t c o n c e r n s either life or death is all transa cting and at work within us? William Law My dear Mother, heed well the prec epts of the saints, who have all warned those who would become holy to speak little of themselves and their own affairs. St. Franois de Sales (in a letter to St. Jeanne de Chantal) A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man be cause he is a good talker. Chuang Tzu 274 The dog barks; the Caravan passes. Arabic Proverb It was not from want of will that I have refrained from writing to you, for truly do I wish you all good; but because it seemed to me that enough has been said already to effect all that is needful, and that what is wanting (if indeed anything be wanting) is not writing or speaking - whereof ordinarily there is more th an enough - but silence and work. For whereas speaking distracts, sile nce and work collect the thoughts and strengthen the spirit. As soon therefore as a person understands what has been said to him for his good , there is no further need to hear or to discuss; but to set himself in ea rnest to practise what he has learnt with silence and attention, in humili ty, charity and contempt of self. St. John of the Cross Molinos (and doubtless he was not the fi r s t t o u s e t h i s c l a s s i f i c a t i o n ) distinguished three degrees of silence - silence of the mouth, silence of the mind and silence of the will. To refrain from idle talk is hard; to quiet the gibbering of memory and imag ination is much harder; hardest of all is to still the voices of cravi ng and aversion within the will. The twentieth century is, among other things, the Age of Noise. Physical noise, mental noise and noise of desire - we hold historys rec ord for all of them. And no wonder; for all the resources of our almost mir aculous technology have been thrown into the current assault against si lence. That most popular and influential of all recent inventions, the radio, is nothing but a conduit through which pre-fabricated din can flow into our homes. And this din goes far deeper, of course, than the ear-dr ums. It penetrates the mind, filling it with a babel of distractions - news items, m u t u a l l y i r r e l e v a n t b i t s o f i n f o r m a t i o n , b l a s t s o f c o r y b a n t i c o r sentimental music, continually rep eated doses of drama that bri ng no catharsis, but merely create a c raving for daily or even hourly emotional e n e m a s . A n d w h e r e , a s i n m o s t c o u n t r i e s , t h e b r o a d c a s t i n g s t a t i ons 275 support themselves by selling time to advertisers, the noise is carried from the ears, through the realm s of phantasy, knowledge and fe eling t o t h e e g o s c e n t r a l c o r e o f w i s h a n d d e s i r e . S p o k e n o r p r i n t e d , broadcast over the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising copy has but one purpose - to prevent the wil l from ever achieving silence. Desirelessness is the condition of deliverance and illumination . The condition of an expanding and te chnologically progressive syste m of mass production is universal cravi ng. Advertising is the organi zed effort to extend and intensify craving - to extend and intensify, that is to say, the workings of that force, which (as all the saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is the principal cause of suffering and wrong-doing and the gr eatest obstacle betw een the human soul an d its Divine Ground. avb 276 Chapter 16 PRAYER HE word prayer is applied to at least four distinct procedure s - petition, intercession, adoration, contemplation. Petition is t he asking of something for ourselves. Intercession is the asking o f something for other people. Adoration is the use of intellect, feeling, will and imagination in making acts of devotion directed towards God in his personal aspect or as incarnated in human form. Contemplation i s that condition of alert passivity in which the soul lays itself open to the Divine Ground within and without, the i mmanent and transcendent Godhea d. Psychologically, it is all but impossible for a human being to practise contemplation without preparing for it by some kind of adoratio n and without feeling the need to revert at more or less frequent int ervals to intercession and some form at least of petition. On the other h and, it is both possible and easy to practise petition apart not only from contemplation, but also from adoration and, in rare cases of ex treme and unmitigated egotism, even fr o m i n t e r c e s s i o n . P e t i t i o n a r y a n d intercessory prayer may be used - and used, what is more, with what would ordinarily be regarded as success - without any but the m ost perfunctory and superficial reference to God in any of his aspe cts. To acquire the knack of getting his petitions answered, a man does not have to know or love God, or even to know or love the image of God i n his own mind. All that he requires is a burning sense of the import ance of his own ego and its desires, coupled with a firm conviction tha t there exists, out there in the univers e, something not himself which can be wheedled or dragooned into sa tisfying those desires. If I repeat My will be done with the necessary degree of fait h and persistency, the chances are that, sooner or later and somehow or other, T 277 I shall get what I want. Wheth er my will coincides with the wil l of God, and whether in getting what I want I shall get what is spiritua lly, morally or even materially good for me, are questions which I cannot an swer in advance. Only time and eternity will show. Meanwhile we shall b e well advised to heed the warnings of folk-lore. Those anonymous real ists who wrote the worlds fairy stories knew a great deal about wis hes and t h e i r f u l f i l m e n t . T h e y k n e w , f i r s t o f a l l , t h a t i n c e r t a i n c i r c umstances petitions actually get themselves answered; but they also knew that God is not the only answerer and that if one asks for something in the wrong spirit, it may in effect be give n - but given with a vengeance and not by a Divine Giver. Getting what one wants by means of self-regardi ng petition is a form of hubris, which invites its condign and app ropriate nemesis. Thus, the folk-lore of the North American Indian is fu ll of stories about people who fast and pray egotistically, in order to get m ore than a reasonable man ought to have, and who, receiving what they as k for, thereby bring about their own do wnfall. From the other side of the world come all the tales of the m en and women who make use of s ome kind of magic to get their petitions answered - always with far cical or catastrophic consequence. Hardly ever do the Three Wishes of ou r traditional fairy lore lead to anything but a bad end for the s uccessful wisher. Picture God as saying to you, My son, why is it that day by day you rise and pray, and genuflect, and even strike the ground with your forehead, nay, sometimes even shed tears, while you say to Me: My Father, my God, give me wealth! If I were to give it to you, you would think yourself of some importance, you would fancy you had gained something very great. Because you as ked for it, you have it. But take care to make good use of it. Befo re you had it you were humble; now that you have begun to be rich yo u despise the poor. What kind of a good is that which only makes you worse? For worse you are, since 278 you were bad already. And that it would make you worse you knew not; hence you asked it of Me. I gave it you and I proved you; you have found - and you are found out! Ask of Me better things than these, greater things than these. Ask of Me spiritual things. Ask of Me Myself. St. Augustine O Lord, I, a beggar, ask of Thee mo re than a thousand kings may ask of Thee. Each one has something he needs to ask of Thee; I have come to ask Thee to give me Thyself. Ansari of Herat In the words of Aquinas, it is legitimate for us to pray for an ything which it is legitimate for us to desire. There are some things that n obody has t h e r i g h t t o d e s i r e , s u c h a s t h e f r u i t s o f c r i m e o r w r o n g - d o i n g . Other things may be legitimately desir ed by people on one level of sp iritual development, but should not be desired (and indeed cease to be desired) b y t h o s e o n a n o t h e r , h i g h e r l e v e l . T h u s , S t . F r a n c o i s d e S a l e s had reached a point where he could say, I have hardly any desires, but if I were to be born again I should have none at all. We should ask nothing and refuse nothing, but leave ourselves in the arms of Divine P rovidence without wasting time in any desire, except to will what God wil ls of us. But meanwhile the third clause o f the Lords Prayer is repeated daily by millions, who have not the slightest intention of letting any w ill be done, except their own. The savour of wandering in the ocean of deathless life has rid me of all my asking; As the tree is in th e seed, so all diseases are in this asking. Kabir Lord, I know not what to ask of thee. Thou only knowest what I need. Thou lovest me better than I know ho w to love myself. Father, give to thy child that which he himself know s not how to ask. Smite or heal, depress me or raise me up: I ador e all thy purposes without knowing 279 them. I am silent; I offer myself up in a sacrifice; I yield myself to Thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray. Pray Thyself in me. Fenelon A dervish was tempted by the d evil to cease calling upon Allah, on the Ground that Allah never answered. The Prophet Khadir appeared t o him in a vision with a message from God: Here am I. Was it not I who su mmoned thee to my service? Was it not I who made thee busy with my name? Thy calling Allah! was my Here am I. Jalaluddin Rumi I pray God the Omnipotent to plac e us in the ranks of his chosen, among the number of those whom He directs to the path of safety; in whom He inspires fervour lest they forget Him; whom He cleanses from all defilement, that nothing ma y remain in them except Himself; yea, of those whom He indwells co mpletely, that they may adore none beside Him. Al-Ghazzali About intercession, as about so many other subjects, it is Will iam Law who writes most clearly, s imply and to the point. By considering yourself as an advoc ate with God for your neighbours and acquaintances, you would never fi nd it hard to be at peace with them yourself. It would be easy for you to bear with and forgive those, for whom you particularly im plored the Divine mercy and forgiveness . William Law Intercession is the best arbitrator of all differences, the best promoter of true friendship, the best cure and preservative ag ainst all unkind tempers, all angry an d haughty passions. William Law You cannot possibly have any i ll-temper, or show any unkind behaviour to a man for whose welfar e you are so much concerned, as 280 to be his advocate with God in priv ate. For you cannot possibly despise and ridicule that man whom your private prayers recommend to the love and favour of God. William Law Intercession, then, is at once the means to, and the expression of, the love of ones neighbour. And in the same way adoration is the m eans to, a n d t h e e x p r e s s i o n o f , t h e l o v e o f G o d - a l o v e t h a t f i n d s i t s consummation in the unitive knowledge of the Godhead which is t he fruit of contemplation. It is to these higher forms of communio n with God that the authors of the foll owing extracts refer whenever t hey use the word prayer. The aim and end of prayer is to re vere, to recognize and to adore the sovereign majesty of God, through what He is in Himself rather than what He is in regard to us, and rath er to love his goodness by the love of that goodness itself than for what it sends us. Bourgoing In prayer he (Charles de Condren) did not stop at the frontiers of his knowledge and his reasoning. He ador ed God and his mysteries as they are in themselves and not as he understood them. Amelote What God is in Himself, God and his mysteries as they are in themselves - the phrases have a Kantian ring. But if Kant was right and the Thing in itself is unknowabl e, Bourgoing, De Condren and al l the other masters of the spiritual life were engaged in a wild-goos e-chase. But Kant was right only as regards minds that have not yet come t o enlightenment and deliverance. To such minds Reality, whether material, psychic or spiritual, presents itself as it is darken ed, tinged and refracted by the medium of their own individual natures. But in those who are pure in heart and poor in spirit there is no distortion of Reality, because there is no separate selfhood to obscure or refract, no painted lantern slide of intellectual be liefs and hallowed imagery to g ive a personal and historical colouring to the white radiance of Ete rnity. For 281 such minds, as Olier says, even ideas of the saints, of the Bl essed Virgin, and the sight of Jesus Christ in his humanity are impediments i n the way of the sight of God in his purity. The Thing in itself can be perceived - but only by one who, in himself, is no-thing. By prayer I do not understand petition or supplication which, according to the doctrines of the sc hools, is exercise d principally by the understanding, being a significat ion of what the person desires to receive from God. But prayer here specially meant is an offering and giving to God whatsoever He may justly require from us. Now prayer, in its general notion, ma y be defined to be an elevation of the mind to God, or more largel y and expressly thus: prayer is an actuation of an intellective soul to wards God, expressing, or at least implying, an entire dependence on Him as the author and fountain of all good, a will and readiness to give Him His due, which is no less than all love, all obedience, adoratio n, glory and worship, by humbling and annihilating the self and all cr eatures in His presence; and lastly, a desire and intention to aspire to an union of spirit with Him. Hence it appears that prayer is the most perfect and most Divine action that a rational soul is capable of. It is of all actions and duties the most indispensably necessary. Augustine Baker Lord, teach me to seek Thee and reveal Thyself to me when I seek Thee. For I cannot seek Thee except Thou teach me, nor find Thee except Thou reveal Thyself. Let me seek Thee in longing, let me long for Thee in seeking: let me find Thee in love and love Thee in finding. Lord, I acknowledge and I thank Thee that Thou hast created me in this Thine image, in order that I may be mindful of Thee, may conceive of Thee and love Thee: but that image has be en so consumed and wasted away by vices and obsc ured by the smoke of wrong-doing 282 that it cannot achieve that for whic h it was made, except Thou renew it and create it anew. Is the eye of the soul darkened by its infirmity, o r d a z z l e d b y T h y g l o r y ? S u r e l y , i t i s b o t h d a r k e n e d i n i t s e l f a n d dazzled by Thee. Lord, this is the unapproachable light in which Thou dwellest. Truly I see it not, becaus e it is too bright for me; and yet whatever I see, I see through it, as the weak eye sees what it sees through the light of the sun, which in the sun itself it cannot look upon. Oh supreme and unapproachab le light, oh holy and blessed truth, how far art Thou from me wh o am so near to Thee, how far art Thou removed from my vision, th o u g h I a m s o n e a r t o T h i n e ! Everywhere Thou art wholly presen t, and I see Thee not. In Thee I move and in Thee I have my being, and cannot come to Thee, Thou art within me and about me, and I feel Thee not. St. Anselm Oh Lord, put no trust in me; for I sh all surely fail if Thou uphold me not. St. Philip Neri To pretend to devotion without great humility and renunciation of all worldly tempers is to pretend to im possibilities. He that would be devout must first be humble, have a full sense of his own miseries and wants and the vanity of the world, and then his soul will be full of desire after God. A proud, or vain , or worldly-minded man may use a manual of prayers, but he cannot be devout, because devotion is the application of an humble heart to God as its only happiness. William Law The spirit, in order to work, must have all sensible images, both good and bad, removed. The beginner in a spiritual course commences with the use of good sensible images, and it is impossible to begin in a good spiritual course with the exercises of the spirit. . . . Those souls who have not a propensity to the inte rior must abide always in the 283 exercises, in which sensible images are used, and these souls will find the sensible exercises very profitable to themselves and to others, and pleasing to God. And this is the wa y of the active life. But others, who have the propensity to the interi or, do not always remain in the exercises of the senses, but after a time these will give place to the exercises of the spirit, which are independent of the senses and the imagination and consist simply in the elevation of the will of the intellective soul to God. . . . The soul elevates her will towards God, apprehended by the understanding as a spirit, and not as an imaginary thing, the human spirit in this way aspiring to a union with the Divine Spirit. Augustine Baker You tell me you do nothing in prayer . But what do you want to do in prayer except what you are doing, which is, presenting and representing your nothingness an d misery to God? When beggars expose their ulcers and their necessitie s to our sight, that is the best appeal they can make. But from wh at you tell me, you sometimes do nothing of this, but lie there like a shadow or a statue. They put statues in palaces simply to please the prince s eyes. Be content to be that in the presence of God: He will bring th e statue to life when He pleases. St. Franois de Sales I h a v e c o m e t o s e e t h a t I d o n o t limit my mind enough simply to prayer, that I always want to do so mething myself in it, wherein I do very wrong. . . . I wish most definite ly to cut off and separate my mind from all that, and to hold it with a ll my strength, as much as I can, to the sole regard and simple unity. B y a l l o w i n g t h e f e a r o f b e i n g ineffectual to enter into the state of prayer, and by wishing to accomplish something myself, I spoilt it all. St. Jeanne Chantal 284 So long as you seek Buddhahood, sp ecifically exercising yourself for it, there is no attainment for you. Chuang Tzu How does a man set himself in harm ony with the Tao? I am already out of harmony. Shih-tou How shall I grasp it? Do not grasp it. That which remains when there is no more grasping is the Self. Panchadashi I order you to remain simply either in God or close to God, without trying to do anything there, and without asking anything of Him, unless He urges it. St. Franois de Sales Adoration is an activity of the loving, but still separate, ind ividuality. Contemplation is the state of union with the Divine Ground of a ll being. The highest prayer is the most p assive. Inevitably; for the les s there is of self, the more there is of God. That is why the path to passive or infused contemplation is so hard and, for many, so painful - a passage through successive or simultaneous Dark Nights, in which the pilgrim mu st die to the life of sense as an end in i tself, to the life of pri vate a nd even of traditionally hallowed thinking a nd believing, and finally to t he deep source of all ignorance and evil , the life of the separate, ind ividualized will. avb 285 Chapter 17 SUFFERING HE Godhead is impassible; for whe re there is perfection and uni ty, there can be no suffering*. The capacity to suffer arises where t h e r e i s i m p e r f e c t i o n , d i s u n i t y a n d s e p a r a t i o n f r o m a n e m b r a c i n g totality; and the capacity is ac tualized to the extent that imp erfection, disunity and separateness are acc ompanied by an urge towards th e intensification of these creatur ely conditions. For the individ ual who achieves unity within his own organism and union with the Divin e Ground, there is an end of suffering. The goal of creation is t he return of all sentient beings out of separateness and that infatuating ur ge-to- separateness which results in suf fering, through unitive knowle dge, into the wholeness of eternal Reality. The elements which ma ke up man produce a capacity for pain. The cause of pain is the cr aving for individual life. Deliverance from craving does away with pain. The way of deliverance is the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Tru ths of Buddhism The urge to separateness, or craving for independent and indivi dualized existence, can manifest itself on all the levels of life, from the merely cellular and physiological, through the instinctive, to the ful ly conscious. * Not mentioned is the more archa ic meaning of the word suffer which is to allow, tolerate, be patient (as in Jesus saying suffer the l ittle children to come unto me; or: whose pride is suffering, to suffer fools gladly). In this sense saints suffer a great deal by surrendering and acceptin g the will of God. T 286 It can be the craving of a whole organism for an intensificatio n of its separateness from the environment and the Divine Ground. Or it can be the urge of a part within an organism for an intensification of its own partial life as distinct from (and consequently at the expense of ) the life of the organism as a whole. In the first case we speak of impulse, passion, desire, self-will, sin; in the sec ond, we describe what is happ ening as illness, injury, functional or organic disorder. In both cases the craving for separateness results in suffering, not only for the craver, but also for the cravers sentient environmen t - other organisms in the exte rnal world, or other organs within the same organism. In one way suf fering is entirely private; in another, f a tal l y c o n tag i o us . No l i vi ng creature is able to experience the suffering of another creature. But the c raving for separateness which, sooner or later, directly or indirectly, re sults in s o m e f o r m o f p r i v a t e a n d u n s h a r e a b l e s u f f e r i n g f o r t h e c r a v e r , also results, sooner or later, direct ly or indirectly, in suffering (equally private and unshareable) for others. Suffering and moral evil have the same source - a craving for the intensification of the separateness which is the primary datum of all creatureliness. It will be as well to illustrate these generalizations by a few examples. Let us consider first the suffering inflicted by living organis ms on themselves and on other living organisms in the mere process of keeping alive. The cause of such suffering is the craving for individua l existence, expressing itself specifically i n the form of hunger. Hunger is entirely natural - a part of every creatu res Dharma. The suffering it c auses alike to the hungry and to those who satisfy their hunger is insepara ble from the existence of sentient creatu res. The existence of sentient creatures has a goal and purpose which is ultimately the supreme good of every one of them. But meanwhile the suffering of creatures remains a fact a nd is a n ec e s s ary p ar t o f c re a t ur el i ne s s . I n s o f ar a s t hi s i s t h e c as e , creation is the beginning of the Fall. The consummation of the Fall takes 287 place when creatures seek to inte nsify their separateness beyon d the limits prescribed by the law of their being. On the biological level the Fall would seem to have been consummated very frequently during the course of evolutionary history. Every species, e xcept the human , chose i m m e d i a t e , s h o r t - r a n g e s u c c e s s b y m e a n s o f s p e c i a l i z a t i o n . B u t specialization always leads into blind alleys. It is only by re maining precariously generalized that an organism can advance towards t hat rational intelligence which is its compensation for not having a body and instincts perfectly adapted to one particular kind of life in o ne particular kind of environment. Rational intelligence makes possible unpar alleled w o r l d l y s u c c e s s o n t h e o n e h a n d a n d , o n t h e t h e s e o t h e r , a f u r t her advance towards spirituality and a return, through unitive know ledge, to the Divine Ground. Because the human species refrained from consummating the Fall on the biological level, human individuals now possess the momento us power of choosing either selflessness and union with God, or th e intensification of separate selfhood in ways and to a degree, w hich are entirely beyond the ken of the lower animals. Their capacity fo r good is infinite, since they can, if they so desire, make room within t hemselves f o r D i v i n e R e a l i t y . B u t a t t h e s a m e t i m e t h e i r c a p a c i t y f o r e v i l is, not indeed infinite (since evil is always ultimately self-destructive and therefore temporary), but uniquely great. Hell is total separation from God, and the devil is the will to that separation. Being rational and free, human beings are capable of being diabolic. This is a feat which no animal c an d u p l i c a t e , f o r n o a n i m a l i s s u f f i c i e n t l y c l e v e r , s u f f i c i e n t l y p urposeful, sufficiently strong-willed or su fficiently moral to be a devil. (We should note that, to be diabolic on the grand scale, one must, like Mi ltons Satan, exhibit in a high degree all the moral virtues, except only cha rity and wisdom). 288 Mans capacity to crave more violently than any animal for the intensification of his separaten ess results not only in moral e vil and the s u f f e r i n g s w h i c h m o r a l e v i l i n f l i c t s , i n o n e w a y o r a n o t h e r , u p on the victims of evil and the perpetra tors of it, but also in certain characteristically human derange m e n t s o f t h e b o d y . A n i m a l s s u f f er mainly from contagious diseases, which assume epidemic proporti ons whenever the urge to reproduction combines with exceptionally favourable circumstances to produce overcrowding, and from dise ases due to infestation by parasites. (These last are simply a special case of the sufferings that must inevitably a rise when many species of crea tures coexist and can only survive at o ne anothers expense.) Civilized man has been fairly su ccessful in protecting himself against these plagues, but in their place he has called up a formidable array of degenerative diseases hardly known among the lower animals. Mos t of these degenerative diseases are due to the fact that civilized human beings do not, on any level of their being, live in harmony wit h Tao, or the Divine Nature of Things. They love to intensify their selfh ood through gluttony, therefore eat the wrong food and too much of it; they inflict upon themselves chronic anxiety over money and, because they cr ave excitement, chronic over-stimulation; they suffer, during their working hours, from the chronic boredom and frustration imposed by the sort of jobs that have to be done in order to satisfy the artificially stimulated demand for the fruits of fully mechanized mass-production. Among the consequences of these wrong uses of the psycho-physic al organism are degenerative change s in particular organs, such as t h e heart, kidneys, pancreas, intest ines and arteries. Asserting th eir partial selfhood in a kind of declaratio n of independence from the orga nism as a w h o l e , t h e d e g e n e r a t i n g o r g a n s c a u s e s u f f e r i n g t o t h e m s e l v e s and t h e i r p h y s i o l o g i c a l e n v i r o n m e n t . I n e x a c t l y t h e s a m e w a y t h e h u man individual asserts his own partia l selfhood and his separatenes s from his 289 neighbours, from Nature and from God - with disastrous conseque nces to himself, his family, his friends and society in general. And , reciprocally, a disordered socie ty, professional group or famil y, living by- a false philosophy, influences it s members to assert their indi vidual selfhood and separateness, just as the wrong-living and wrong-t hinking individual influences his own or gans to assert, by some excess or defect of function, their partial selfh ood at the expense of the total organism. The effects of suffering may be morally and spiritually bad, ne utral or good, according to the way in which the suffering is endured an d reacted to. In other words, it may stimulate in the sufferer a consciou s or unconscious craving for the intensification of his separateness ; or it may leave the craving such as it was before the suffering; or, fina lly, it may mitigate it and so become a means for advance towards self-abandonment and the love and knowledge of God. Which of these t hree alternatives shall be realized dep ends, in the last analysis, u pon the sufferer's choice. This seems to be true even on the subhuman l evel. The higher animals, at any rate, ofte n seem to resign themselves to pain, sickness and death with a kind of serene acceptance of what the Divine Nature of Things has decreed for them. But in other cases there is panic, fear and struggle, a frenzied res istance to those decrees. To s ome extent, at least, the embodied a nimal self appears to be free, in the face of suffering, to choose self-abandonment or self-assertion. For embodied human selves, this freed om of choice is unquestionable . The choice of self-abandonment in suffering makes possible the rece ption of grace - grace on the spiritual l evel, in the form of an accessi on of the love and knowledge of God, and grace in the mental and physiological levels, in the form of a diminution of f ear, self-concern and even of p ain. When we conceive the love of suffer ing, we lose the sensibility of the senses and dead, dead we wi ll live in that garden. St. Catherine of Siena 290 He who suffers for love does not su ffer, for all suffering is forgot. Eckhart In this life there is not purgatory, but only heaven or hell; for he who bears afflictions with patience has paradise, and he who does not has hell. St. Philip Neri Many sufferings are the immediat e consequence of moral evil, an d these cannot have any good effec ts upon the sufferer, so long a s the causes of his distress are not eradicated. Each sin begetteth a special spiritual suffering. A suffering of this kind is like unto that of hell, for the more you suffer, the worse you become. This happeneth to sinners; the more they suffer through their sins, the more wicked they become; and they fall continually more and more into their sins in order to ge t free from their suffering. The Following of Christ The idea of vicarious suffering has too ofte n been formulated i n crudely juridical and commercial terms. A has committed an offence for which the law decrees a certain punishment; B voluntarily undergoes t he punishment; justice and the lawg ivers honour are satisfied; consequently A may go free. Or else it is all a matter of debts and repayments. A owes C a sum which he cannot pay; B steps in with the cash and so prevents C from foreclosing on the mortgage. Applie d to the facts of mans suffering and his relations to the Divine Ground , these conceptions are neither en lightening nor edifying. The orthodox doctrine of the Atonement attributes to God characteristics that would be discreditable even to a human pot entate, and its model of the universe is not the product of spiritual i nsight rationalized by philosophic reflection, but rather the projecti on of a lawyers phantasy. But in spite of these deplorable crudities i n their formulation, the idea of vicarious suffering and the other, clo sely related 291 idea of the transferability of m e r i t a r e b a s e d u p o n g e n u i n e f a c ts of e x p e r i e n c e . T h e s e l f l e s s a n d G o d - f i l l e d p e r s o n c a n a n d d o e s a c t a s a channel through which grace is able to pass into the unfortunat e being who has made himself impervious to the Divine by the habitual c raving for intensifications of his own separateness and selfhood. It i s because of this that the saints are able to exercise authority, all the greater for being entirely non-compulsive, ov er their fellow-beings. They transfer merit to those who are in need of it; but that which converts the victims of self-will and puts them on the path of liberation is not the merit of the saintly individual - a merit that consists in his having made h imself capable of eternal Reality, as a pipe, by being cleaned out, is m a d e capable of water; it is rather t he Divine charge he carries, th e eternal Reality for which he has become the conduit. And similarly, in vicarious suffering, it is not the actual pai ns experienced by the saint which are redemptiv e for to believe that God is an gry at sin and that his anger cannot be propitiated except by the offer of a certain sum of pain is to blaspheme against the Divine Nature. No, what saves is the gift from beyond the temporal order, brought to those im prisoned in selfhood by these selfless and God-filled persons, who have been r e a d y t o a c c e p t s u f f e r i n g , i n o r d e r t o h e l p t h e i r f e l l o w s . T h e Bodhisattvas vow is a promise to forgo the immediate fruits of enlightenment and to accept rebirth and its inevitable concomit ants, pain and death, again and again, until such time as, thanks to his labours and the graces of which, being selfless, he is the channel, all sentient beings shall have come to final and complete deliverance. I saw a mass of matter of a dull gloomy colour between the North and the East, and was informed that th is mass was human beings, in as great misery as they could be, and live; and that I was mixed up with them and henceforth I must not co nsider myself as a distinct or separate being. John Woolman 292 Why must the righteous and the in nocent endure undeserved suffe ring? For anyone who conceives of human individuals as Hume conceived of events and things, as loose and separate, the question admits of no acceptable answer. But, in fact, human individuals are not loos e and separate, and the only reason wh y we think they are is our own wrongly interpreted self-interest. We wa nt to do what we damned well l ike, to h a v e a g o o d t i m e a n d n o r e s p o n sibilities. Consequently, we fi nd it convenient to be misled by the inadequacies of language and to believe (not always, of course, but just when it suits us) that things, persons and events are as completely distinct and separate one from another as the words by means of which we think about them. The truth is, of c ourse, that we are all organically related to God, to Nature and to ou r fellow- men. If every human being were constantly and consciously in a proper relationship with his Divine, na tural and social environments t here would be only so much suffering as Creation makes inevitable. B ut actually most human beings are c hronically in an improper relat ion to God, Nature and some at least of their fellows. The results of these wrong relat ionships are manifest on the so cial level as wars, revolutions, exploitation and disorder; on the natural level, as waste and exhaustion of irreplaceable resources; on the biologi cal level, as degenerative diseases and the deterioration of racial stocks ; on the moral level, as an overweening bumptiousness; and on the spirit ual level, as blindness to Divine Reality and complete ignorance of t h e reason and purpose of human exis tence. In such circumstances it would be extraordinary if the innocent and righteous did not suffer - just as it would be extraordinary if the innocent kidneys and the righteou s heart w e r e n o t t o s u f f e r f o r t h e s i n s o f a l i c o r o u s p a l a t e a n d o v e r l o aded stomach, sins, we may add, imposed upon those organs by the wil l of the gluttonous individual to whom they belong, as he himself be longs to a society which other individuals, his contemporaries and prede cessors, 293 have built up into a vast and enduring incarnation of disorder, inflicting suffering upon its members and infecting them with its own igno rance and wickedness. The righteous man can escape suffering only by accepting it and passing b e y o n d i t ; a n d h e c a n a c c o m p l i s h t h i s o n l y b y b e i n g c o n v e r t e d f rom righteousness to total selflessness and God-centredness, by cea sing to be just a Pharisee, or good citiz en, and becoming perfect as y our Father which is in heaven is perfect. The difficulties in the way of such a transfiguration are, obviously, enormous. But of those who spe ak with authority, who has ever said th at the road to complete deliver ance was easy or the gate anything but strait and narrow. avb 294 Chapter 18 FAITH HE word faith has a variety of meanings, which it is importan t to distinguish. In some contexts it is used as a synonym for trus t, as when we say that we have faith in Dr. Xs diagnostic skill or i n lawyer Ys integrity. This is our faith in authority - the belief that w hat certain persons say about certain subjec ts is likely, because of their special qualifications, to be true. On other occasions faith stands f or belief in propositions which we have not h ad occasion to verify for ourse lves, but which we know that we could verify if we had the inclination, t he opportunity and the necessary capacities. In this sense of the word we have faith, even though we may never have been to Australia, that there is such a creature as a duck-billed platypus; we have fa ith in the a t o m i c t h e o r y , e v e n t h o u g h w e m a y n e v e r h a v e p e r f o r m e d t h e experiments on which that theo r y r e s t s , a n d b e i n c a p a b l e o f understanding the mathematics by which it is supported. And fin ally there is the faith, which is a belief in propositions which w e know we cannot verify, even if we should desire to do so - propositions such as those of the Athanasian Creed or those which constitute the doc trine of the Immaculate Conception. This kind of faith is defined by t he Scholastics as an act of the int ellect moved to assent by the w ill. Faith in the first three senses of the word plays a very import ant part, not only in the activities of ev eryday life, but even in those of pure and applied science. Credo ut intelligam - and also, we should add, ut agam and ut vivam . Faith is a pre-condition of all systematic knowing, all purposive doing and all decent living. Societies are held toget her, not primarily by the fear of the man y for the coercive power of the few, but by a widespread faith in the other fellows decency. Such a fai th tends T 295 to create its own object, while the widespread mutual mistrust, due, for example, to war or domestic disse nsion, creates the object of m istrust. Passing now from the moral to the intellectual sphere, we find faith lying at the root of all organized thinking. Science and technology c ould not exist unless we had faith in the reliability of the universe un less, in Clerk Maxwells words, we implicitly b elieved that the book of Nature is really a book and not a magazine, a coherent work of art and not a hod ge- podge of mutually irrelevant snippets. To this general faith in t h e r e a s o n a b l e n e s s a n d t r u s t w o r t h i n e s s o f t h e w o r l d t h e s e a r c h e r a f ter truth must add two kinds of special faith - faith in the author ity of qualified experts, sufficient to permit him to take their word for statements which he personally has not verified; and faith in h is own working hypotheses, sufficient to induce him to test his provis ional b e l i e f s b y m e a n s o f a p p r o p r i a t e a c t i o n . T h i s a c t i o n m a y c o n f i r m t h e belief which inspired it. Alternatively it may bring proof that the original working hypothesis was ill-founde d, in which case it will have to be modified until it becomes conformable to the facts and so passe s from the realm of faith to that of knowledge. The fourth kind of faith is the thing which is commonly called religious faith. The usage is justifiable, not because the other kinds o f faith are not fundamental in religion just as they are in secular affairs , but because this willed assent to propositions which are known to b e unverifiable occurs in religion, and only in religion, as a cha racteristic addition to faith as trust, faith in authority and faith in unv erified but v e r i f i a b l e p r o p o s i t i o n s . T h i s i s t h e k i n d o f f a i t h w h i c h , a c c o r ding to C h r i s t i a n t h e o l o g i a n s , j u s t i f i e s a n d s a v e s . I n i t s e x t r e m e a n d most uncompromising form, such a doctrine can be very dangerous. Her e, for example, is a passage from one of Luthers letters. Esta pecca tor, et pecca fortiter, sed fortim crede et gaude in Christo, qui victo r est peccati, mortis et mundi. Peccandum est quam diu sic sumus, vita haec no n est 296 habitatio justitiae. (Be a sinner and sin strongly; but yet more strongly believe and rejoice in Christ, who is the conqueror of sin, dea th and the world. So long as we are as we are, there must be sinning; this life i s not the dwelling place of righteousness.) To the danger that faith in the doctrine of justification by fa ith may serve as an excuse for and even an invi tation to sin must be added an other danger, namely, that the faith w hich is supposed to save may be faith in propositions not merely unverifiable, but repugnant to reason a nd the moral sense, and entirely at variance with the findings of thos e who have fulfilled the conditions of spiritual insight into the Nature o f Things. This is the acme of faith, says Luther in his De Servo Arbitrio, t o believe that God who saves so few and condemns so many, is merciful; that He is just w h o , a t H i s o w n p l e a s u r e , h a s m a d e u s n e c e s s a r i l y d o o m e d t o damnation, so that He seems to delight in the torture of the wr etched and to be more deserving of hate than of love. If by any effort of reason I could conceive how God, who shows so much anger and harshness , could be merciful and just, ther e would be no need of faith. R evelation (which, when it is genuine, is simply the record of the immedia te experience of those who are pure enough in heart and poor enough in spirit to be able to see God) says nothing at all of these hideous doctrines, to which the will forces the quite naturally and rightly reluctant intellect t o g i v e assent. Such notions are the product, not of the insight of sai nts, but of the busy phantasy of jurists, wh o were so far from having trans cended selfness and the prejudices of e ducation that they had the foll y and presumption to interpret the uni verse in terms of the Jewish an d Roman law with which they happened to be familiar. Woe unto you lawy ers, said Christ. The denunciation wa s prophetic and for all time. The core and spiritual heart of all the higher religions is the Perennial Philosophy; and the Perennial Philosophy can be assented to and acted upon without resort to the kind of faith about which Luther was writing 297 in the foregoing passages. There must, of course, be faith as t rust - for confidence in ones fellows is th e beginning of charity towards men, and c o n f i d e n c e n o t o n l y i n t h e m a t e r i a l , b u t a l s o t h e m o r a l a n d s p i ritual reliability of the universe, is t he beginning of charity or lov e-knowledge in relation to God. There must also be faith in authority - the authority of those whose selflessness has qualified them to know the spir itual Ground of all being by direct ac quaintance as well as by report . And finally there must be faith in such propositions about Real ity as are enunciated by philosophers in the light of genuine revelation - propositions which the believer knows that he can, if he is pre pared to fulfil the necessary conditions, verify for himself. But, so lo ng as the Perennial Philosophy is accepted i n its essential simplicity, t here is no need of willed assent to propositions known in advance to be unverifiable. Here it is necessa ry to add that such unverifiabl e propositions may become verifiable to the extent that intense f aith affects the psychic substratum and so creates an existence, who se derived objectivity can actually be discovered out there. Let us, however, remember that an existence which derives its objectivity from the mental activity of those who intensely bel ieve in it cannot possibly be the spiritual Ground of the world, and that a mind busily engaged in the voluntary and intellectual activity, whic h is religious faith, cannot possibl y be in the state of selflessn ess and alert passivity which is the necessary c ondition of the unitive knowl edge of the Ground. That is why the Bud dhists affirm that loving faith leads to heaven; but obedience to the Dhar ma leads to Nirvana. Faith in t h e existence and power of any supernatural entity which is less th an ultimate spiritual Reality, and in any form of worship that fal ls short of self-naughting, will certainly, if the object of faith is intri nsically good, result in improvement of character, and probably in posthumous survival of the improved persona lity under heavenly condition s. But 298 this personal survival within what is still the temporal order is not the eternal life of timeless union with the Spirit. This eternal li fe stands in the knowledge of the Godhead, not in faith in anything less th an the Godhead. The immortality attained through the acquisition of any objective condition (e.g., the condition - merited through good works, which have been inspired by love of, and faith in, something less than the supreme Godhead - of being united in act to what is worshipped) is liable to end; for it is distinctly stated in the Scriptures that Karma action is never the cause of emancipation. Shankara Karma is the causal sequence in time, from which we are deliver ed solely by dying to the temporal self and becoming united with the et ernal, which is beyond time and cause. For as to the notion of a Firs t Cause, or a Causa Sui (to quote the words of an eminen t theologian and philosopher, Dr. F. R. Tennant), we have, on the one hand, to bear in mind that we refute ourselves in trying to establish it by extension of the application of the causal category, for causality when universalized contai ns a contradiction; and, on the other, to remember that the ultimate Ground simply is. Only when the individual also simply is, by rea son of his union through love-knowledge with the Ground, can there be any question of complete and eternal liberation. avb 299 Chapter 19 GOD IS NOT MOCKED Why hast thou said, I have sinned so much, And God in His mercy has not punished my sins? How many times do I smite th ee, and thou knowest not! Thou art bound in my chai ns from head to foot. On thy heart is rust on rust collected So that thou art blind to Divine mysteries. When a man is stubborn and follows evil practices, He casts dust in the eyes of his discernment. Old shame for sin and calling on God quit him; Dust five layers deep settles on his mirror, Rust spots begin to gnaw his iron, The colour of his jewel grows less and less. Jalal-uddin Rumi F there is freedom (and even Determinists consistently act as if they were certain of it) and if (as everyone who has qualified himself to talk about the subject has always been convinced) there is a spiritual Reality, which it is the final end and purpose of consciousness to know; then all life is in the nature of an inte lligence test, and the higher t he level of awareness and the greater the potentialities of the creature, t he more searchingly difficult will be the questions asked. For, in Bage hots words: We could not be what we ought to be, if we lived in the sort of universe we should expect. . . . A la tent Providence, a confused life, an odd material world, an existence br oken short in the midst and on a I 300 sudden, are not real difficulties, but real helps; for they, or something like them, are essential conditions of a moral life in a subordinate being. Because we are free, it is possible for us to answer lifes que stions either well or badly. If we answer them badly, we shall bring down upo n ourselves self-stultification. M ost often this self-stultificat ion will take subtle and not immediately detectable forms, as when our failur e to answer properly makes it impossible for us to realize the highe r potentialities of our being. Sometimes, on the contrary, the se lf- stultification is manifest on the physical level, and may invol ve not only individuals as individuals, but entire societies, which go down i n catastrophe or sink more slowly into decay. The giving of corre ct answers is rewarded primarily by spiritual growth and progressi ve realization of latent potent ialities, and secondarily (when circumstances make it possible) by the adding of all the rest to the realized kingdom of God. Karma exists; but its equivalence of act and award is not always obvious and material, as the earlier Buddhist and Hebrew writer s ingenuously imagined that it should be. The bad man in prosperi ty may, all unknown to himself, be darkened and corroded with inward ru st, while the good man under afflictions may be in the rewarding pr ocess of spiritual growth. No, God is not mocked; but also, let us al ways remember, He is not understood. Per nella giustigia sempiterna, la vista che riceve vostro mondo, comacchio per la mar, dentro sinte rna, ch, bench dalla prada veggia il fonda, in pelago nal vede, e non di meno l, ma cela lui lesser profondo. (Wherefore, in the eternal justice, such sight as your earth receives is engulfed, like the eye in the sea; for though by th e shore it can see the bottom, in the ocean it cannot see it; yet none the les s the bottom is there, but the depth hides it.) 301 Love is the plummet as well as the astrolabe of Gods mysteries , and the pure in heart can see far down into the depths of the Divine ju stice, to catch a glimpse, not indeed of the details of the cosmic proces s, but at least of its principle and natur e. These insights permit them t o say, with Juliana of Norwich, that all shall be well, that, in spite of t ime, all is well, and that the problem of evil has its solution in the eternity, which men can, if they so desire, experi ence, but can never describe. But, you urge, if men sin from the necessity of their nature, they are excusable. You do not explain, ho wever, what you would infer from this fact. Is it perhaps that God will be prevented fr om growing angry with them? Or is it rather that th ey have deserved that blessedness which consists in the knowledge an d love of God? If you mean the former, I altogether agree that God does not grow angry and that all things happen by his decree. But I de ny that, for this reason, all men ought to be happy. Surely men may be excusable and ne vertheless miss happiness, and be tormented in ma ny ways. A horse is excusable for being a horse and not a man; but neve rtheless he must needs be a horse and not a man. One who goes mad from the bite of a dog is excusable; yet it is right that he sh ould die of suffocation. So, too, he who cannot rule his pass ions, nor hold them in check out of respect for the law, while he ma y be excusable on the ground of weakness, is incapable of enjoying conformity of spirit and knowledge and love of God; and he is lost inevitably. Spinoza Horizontally and vertically, in physical and temperamental kind as well as in degree of inborn ability and native goodness, human being s differ profoundly one from another. Why? To what end and for what past causes? Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his p arents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. The man of 302 science, on the contrary, would say that the responsibility res ted with the parents who had caused the blindness of their child either by having t h e w r o n g k i n d o f g e n e s , o r b y c o n t r a c t i n g s o m e a v o i d a b l e d i s e a se. H i n d u o r B u d d h i s t b e l i e v e r s i n r e i n c a r n a t i o n a c c o r d i n g t o t h e l aws of Karma (the destiny which, by their act ions, individuals and groups of individuals impose upon themselves, one another and their desce ndants) would give another answer and say that, owing to what he had previously done in previous existences, the blind man had prede stined himself to choose the sort of parents from whom he would have t o inherit blindness. These three answers are not mutu ally incompatible. The parents are responsible for making the child what, by heredity and upbringi ng, he turns out to be. The soul or character incarnated in the child is of such a n a t u r e , o w i n g t o p a s t b e h a v i o u r , t h a t i t i s f o r c e d t o s e l e c t t h ose particular parents. And collaborating with the material and eff icient causes is the final cause, the teleological pull from in front. T h i s teleological pull is a pull from the Divine Ground of things ac ting upon that part of the timeless now, which a finite mind must regard as the future. Men sin and their parents sin; but the works of God hav e to be manifested in every sentient being (either by exceptional ways, as in this case of supernormal healing, or in the ordinary course of event s) - have to be manifested again and again, with the infinite patience of et ernity, until at last the creature makes itself fit for the perfect and consummate manifestation of unitive knowledge, of the state of not I, but God in me. Karma, according to the Hindus, never dispels ignorance, bei ng under the same category with it. Knowle dge alone dispels ignorance, j ust as light alone dispels darkness. In other words, the causal proce ss takes place within time and cannot possibly result in deliverance fro m time. S u c h a d e l i v e r a n c e c a n o n l y b e a c h i e v e d a s a c o n s e q u e n c e o f t h e intervention of eternity in the temporal domain; and eternity c annot 303 intervene unless the individual will makes a creative act of se lf-denial, thus producing, as it were, a vacuum into which eternity can fl ow. suppose that the causal process in time can of itself result in deliverance from time is like supposing that water will rise into a space f rom which the air has not been previously exhausted. The right relation between prayer and conduct is not that conduct is supremely important and prayer may help it, but that prayer is supremely important and conduct tests it. Archbishop Temple The aim and purpose of human life is the unitive knowledge of G od. Among the indispensable means to that end is right conduct, and by the degree and kind of virtue achiev ed, the degree of liberating kn owledge may be assessed and its quality evaluated. In a word, the tree is known by its fruits; God is not mocked. Religious beliefs and practices are certainly not the only very adequate factors determining the behaviou r o f a g i v e n s o c i e t y . B u t , n o l ess certainly, they are among the de termining factors. At least to some extent, the collective conduct of a nation is a test of the rel igion prevailing within it, a criterion by which we may legitimately judge the doctri na l validi ty of th at rel ig ion a nd i ts prac ti cal efficienc y in helping individuals to advance towards t he goal of human existence. In the past the nations of Christendom persecuted in the name o f their faith, fought religious wars and undertook crusades against inf idels and heretics; today they have ceased to be Christian in anything bu t name, and the only religion they profess is some brand of local idola try, such as nationalism, state-worship, bo ss-worship and revolutionism. From these fruits of (among other things) historic Christianity, what inferences can we draw as to the nature of the tree? The answer has alread y been given in the section on Time and Eternity. If Christians used t o b e persecutors and are now no longer Christians, the reason is tha t the 304 Perennial Philosophy incorporated in their religion was overlai d by wrong beliefs that led inevitably, since God is never mocked, t o wrong actions. These wrong beliefs had one element in common - namely , an over-valuation of happenings in time and an under-valuation of the everlasting, timeless fact of eternity. Thus, belief in the supreme impor tance for salvation of remote historical events resulted in bloody disputes over the interpretation of t he not very adequate and often conflicti ng records. And belief in the sacredness, nay, the actual divin ity, of the ecclesiastico-poli tico-financial organizations, which developed after the fall of the Roman Empi re, not only added bitterness to the all too human struggles for their control, but served to rational ize and justify the worst excesses of tho se who fought for place, wealth and pow er within and through the Churc h. But this is not the whole story. The same over-valuation of events in time, which once caused Christians to persecute and fight religious w ars, led at last to a widespread indiffer ence to a religion that, in spi te of everything, was still in part preoccupied with eternity. But na ture abhors a vacuum, and into the yawning void of this indifference there flowed the tide of political idolatry. The practical consequences of s uch idolatry, as we now see, are total war , revolution and tyranny. Meanwhile, on the credit side of the balance sheet, we find suc h items as the following: an immense increase in technical and governme ntal efficiency and an immense increas e in scientific knowledge - ea ch of them a result of the general shi ft of Western mans attention f rom the eternal to the temporal order, f irst within the sphere of Chris tianity and then, inevitably, outside it. avb 305 Chapter 20 TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM To such heights of evil has re ligion been able to drive men Would you know whence it is that so many false spirits have appeared in the world, who have deceived them selves and others with false fire and false light, laying claim to info rmation, illumination and openings of the Divine Life, particularly to do wonders under extraordinary calls from God? It is this: they have turned to God without turning from themselves; would be alive to God before they are dead to their own nature. Now religion in the hands of self, or corrupt nature, serves only to discover vices of a worse kind t h a n i n n a t u r e l e f t t o i t s e l f . Hence are all the disorderly passions of religious men, which burn in a worse flame than passions only employed about worldly matters; pride, self-exaltation, hatred and persecution, under a cloak of religious zeal, will sanctify actions which nature, left to itself, would be ashamed to own. William Law URNING to God without turning fr om self the formula is absurd ly simple; and yet, simple as it is , it explains all the follies a nd iniquities committed in the name of religion. Those who turn to G o d without turning from themselves are tempted to evil in several characteristic and easily recogni zable ways. They are tempted, first of all, to practise magical rites, by means of which they hope to compel God to answer their petitions and, in general, to serve their priva te or collective ends. T 306 All the ugly business of sacrifi ce, incantation and what Jesus called vain repetition is a product of this wish to treat God as a means t o indefinite self-aggrandizement, rather than as an end to be reached throug h total self-denial. Next, they are tempted to use the name of God to j ustify what they do in pursuit of place, power and wealth. And because they believe themselves to have Divine justification for their actio ns, they proceed, with a good conscience, to perpetrate abominations, w hich nature, left to itself, wo uld be ashamed to own. Throughout recorded history an i ncredible sum of mischief has b een done by ambitious idealists, self-deluded by their own verbiage and a lust for power into a conviction that they were acting for the highest good of their fellow-men. In the past, the justification for su ch wickedness was God or the Church, or the True Faith; toda y idealists kill and torture and exploit in the name of the Revolution, the New Order, the World of the Common Man, or simply the Future. Finally there are the temptation s which arise when the falsely religious begin to acquire the powers which are the fruit of their pious and magical practices. For, let there be no mistake, sacrifice, inc antation and vain repetition actually do produce fruits, especially when p ractised in conjunction with physical austerities. Men who turn towards God without turning away from themselves do not, of course, reach G od; but if they devote themselves energe tically enough to their pseudo- religion, they will get results. Some of these results are doubtless the product of auto-suggestion . (It was through vain repetition that Cou got his patients to cure themselves of their diseases.) Others are due, apparently, to that something not ourselves in the psychic medium - that somethin g which makes, not necessarily for right eousness, but always for power. Whether this something is a piece of second-hand objectivity, p rojected into the medium by the individua l worshipper and his fellows an d p r e d e c e s s o r s ; w h e t h e r i t i s a p i e c e o f f i r s t - h a n d o b j e c t i v i t y , 307 corresponding, on the psychic level, to the data of the materia l universe; or whether it is a combination of both these things, it is impo ssible to determine. All that need be said in this pla ce is that people who turn tow ards God without turning from themselves often seem to acquire a knack o f getting their petitions answered and sometimes develop consider able super-normal powers, such as tho se of psychic healing and extra - sensory perception. But, it may be asked: Is it necessarily a g ood thing to be able to get ones petitions answered in the way one wants them to be? And how far is it spirit ually profitable to be possessed of these miraculous powers? These are questions which were considered in the chapter on Prayer and will be f urther discussed in the chapte r on The Miraculous. The Grand Augur, in his ceremonial robes, approached the shambles (slaughter-house) and thus addressed the pigs. How can you object to die? I shall fatten you for three mont hs. I shall discipline myself for ten days and fast for three. I shall strew fine grass and place you bodily upon a carved sacrificial dish. Does not this satisfy you? Then, speaking from the pigs point of view, he continued: It is better perhaps, after all, to live on bran and escape from the shambles. But then, he added, speaking from his own point of view, to enjoy honour when alive, one would readil y die on a war-shield or in the headsmans basket. So he rejected the pigs point of view and adopted his own point of view. In what sense, then, was he different from the pigs? Chuang Tzu Anyone who sacrifices anything b ut his own person or his own in terests is on exactly the same level as Chuang Tzus pigs. The pigs see k their own advantage inasmuch as they prefer life and bran to honour and t he 308 shambles; the sacrificers seek t heir own advantage inasmuch as they prefer the magical, God-constrai ning death of pigs to the death of their own passions and self-will. And what applies to sacrifice, appl ies equally to incantations, rituals and vain repetitions, when these are u sed (as they all too frequently are, even in the higher religions) as a form of compulsive magic. Rites and vain repetitions have a legitimate place in re ligion as aids to recollectedness, reminders of truth momentarily forgott en in the turmoil of worldly distractions. When spoken or performed as a kind of magic, their use is either com pletely pointless; or else (and this is worse) it may have ego-enhancing results, which do not in any way cont ribute to the attainment of mans final end. The vestments of Isis are variegated to represent the cosmos; that of Osiris is white, symbolizing the Inte lligible Light beyond the cosmos. Plutarch So long as the symbol remains, in the worshippers mind, firmly attached and instrumental to that which i s symbolized, the use of such t hings as w h i t e a n d v a r i e g a t e d v e s t m e n t s c a n d o n o h a r m . B u t i f t h e s y m b o l breaks loose, as it were, and becomes an end in itself, then we have, at the best, a futile aestheticism and sentimentality, at the wors t a form of psychologically effective magic. All externals must yield to love; for they are for the sake of love, and not love for them. Hans Denk Ceremonies in themselves are not sin; but whoever supposes that he can attain to life either by baptism or by partaking of bread is still in superstition. Hans Denk If you be always handling the lette r of the Word, always licking the letter, always chewing u pon that, what great thing do you? No marvel you are such starvelings. John Everard 309 While the Right Law still prevail ed, innumerable were the conve rts who fathomed the depths of the Dharma by merely listening to half a stanza or even to a single phrase of the Buddhas teaching. But as we come to the age of similitude and to these latter days of Buddhism, we are indeed far away from the Sage. People find themselves drowning in a sea of letters; they do no t know how to get at the one substance which alone is truth. This was what caused the appearance of the Fathers (of Zen Buddhism) who, pointing directly at the human mind, told us to see here the ultimate Gr ound of all things and thereby to attain Buddhahood. This is known as a special transmission outside the scriptural teaching. If one is endowed w i t h superior talents or a special sh arpness of mind, a gesture or a word will suffice to give one an immediate knowledge of the truth. Hence, since they were advocates of special transmission, Ummon treated th e (historical) Buddha with the utmost irrevere nce and Yakusan forbade his followers even to read the Sutras. Zen is the name given to this branch of Buddhism, which keeps i tself away from the Buddha. It is also called the mystical branch, be cause it does not adhere to the literal m eaning of the Sutras. It is for this reason that those who blindly follow the steps of Buddha are sure to d eride Zen, while those who have no liking for the letter are naturally inc lined towards the mystical approach. The followers of the two schools know how to shake the head at each other, but fail to realize that t hey are after all complementary. Is not Zen one of the six virtues of p erfection? If so, how can it conflict with the teachings of the Buddha? In my view, Zen is the outcome of the Buddhas teaching, and the mystical i ssues from the letters. There is no reason why a man should shun Zen because of the Buddhas teaching; nor n eed we disregard the letters on account of the mystical teachings of Zen. . . . Students of scriptural Buddhism run t h e r i s k o f b e c o m i n g s t i c k l e r s f o r t h e s c r i p t u r e s , t h e r e a l m e a ning of 310 which they fail to understand. By such men ultimate reality is never grasped, and for them Zen would mean salvation. Whereas those w ho study Zen are too apt to run into the habit of making empty tal ks and practising sophistry. They fail to understand the significance of letters. To save them, the study of Buddh ist scriptures is recommended. It is only when these one-sided views are mutually corrected that the re is a perfect appreciation of th e Buddhas teaching. It would be hard to find a better summing up of the conclusions , to which any spiritually and psychologically realistic mind must s ooner or later come, than the foregoing paragraphs written in the eleven th century by one of the masters of Zen Buddhism. The extract that follows is a moving protest against the crimes and follies p e r p e t r a t e d i n t h e n a m e o f r e l i g i o n b y t h o s e s i x t e e n t h - c e n t u r y Reformers who had turned to Go d without turning away from themselves and who were therefor e far more keenly interested in the temporal aspects of historic Christianity - the ecclesiastical organization, the logic-chopping, the letter of Scripture - than in the Spiri t who must be worshipped in spirit, the eternal Reality in the selfless kn owledge of whom stands mans eternal life. Its author was Sebastian Castel lio, who was at one time Calvins favourite disciple, but who parted com pany with his master when the latter burned Servetus for heresy agai nst his own heresy. Fortunately Castelli o was living in Basel when he m ade his plea for charity and common decency; penned in Geneva, it would have earned him torture and death. If you, illustrious Prince (the words were addressed to the Duke of Wrtemberg) had informed your subjects th at you were coming to visit them at an unnamed time, and had re quested them to be prepared in white garments to meet you at your coming, what would you do if on arrival you should find that, instea d of robing themselves in white, 311 they had spent their time in violent debate about your person - some insisting that you were in France, ot hers that you were in Spain; some declaring that you would come on horseback, others that you would come by chariot; some holding th at you would come with great pomp and others that you would come without any train or following? And what especially would you say if they debated not only with words, but with blows of fist and sw ord strokes, and if some succeeded in killing and destroying othe rs who differed from them? He will come on horseback. No, he will not; it will be by chariot. You lie. I do not; you are the liar. Take that - a blow with the fist. Take that - a sword-thrust throug h the body. Prince, what would you think of such citizens? Christ asked us to put on the white robes of a pure and holy life; but what occu pies our thoughts? We dispute not only of the way to Christ, but of hi s relation to God the Father, of the Trinity, of predestination, of free will, of the nature of God, of the angels, of the condition of the soul after death - of a multitude of matters that are not essential to sa lvation; matters, moreover, which can never be known until our hearts are pure; for they are things which must be spiritually perceived. Sebastian Castellio People always get what they ask for; the only trouble is that t hey never know, until they get it, what it actually is that they have ask ed for. Thus, Protestants might, if they had so desired, have followed the le ad of Castellio and Denk; but they pre f e r r e d C a l v i n a n d L u t h e r - p r e f erred them because the doctrines of justification by faith and of predestination were more excitin g than those of the Perennial Philosophy. And not only more exciting, but also less exacting; for if they were true, one could be saved without going through that distas teful process of self-naughting, which is the necessary pre-condition o f 312 deliverance into the knowledge of eternal Reality. And not only less exacting, but also more satisfying to the intellectuals appeti te for clear- cut formulae and the syllogistic d emonstrations of abstract tru ths. Waiting on God is a bore; but what fun to argue, to score off o pponents, to lose ones temper and call it righteous indignation, and a t last to pass from controversy to blows, from words to what St. Augustine so deliciously described as the ben ignant asperity of persecutio n and punishment! Choosing Luther and Calvin instead of the spiritual reformers w ho were their contemporaries, Protestant Europe got the kind of theolog y it liked. But it also got, along with other unanticipated by-produ cts, the Thirty Years War, capitalism and the first rudiments of modern G e r m a n y . I f w e w i s h , D e a n I n g e h a s r e c e n t l y w r i t t e n , t o f i n d a scapegoat on whose shoulders we may lay the miseries which Germ any has brought upon the world . . . I am more and more convinced t hat the worst evil genius of that country is not Hitler or Bismarck or Frederick the Great, but Martin Luther. . . . It (Lutheranism) worships a God who is neither just nor merciful. . . . The Law of Nature, which ought to be the court of appeal against unjust authority, is identified (by Luther) with the existing order of society, to wh ich absolute obedience is due. And so on. Right belief is the first branch of the Eightfold Path leading to deliverance; the root and primal cause of bondage is wrong beli ef, or ignorance - an ignorance, let us remember, which is never compl etely invincible, but always, in the last analysis, a matter of will. If we dont know, it is because we find it m ore convenient not to know. Ori ginal ignorance is the same thing as original sin. avb 313 Chapter 21 IDOLATRY O educated persons the more pr imitive kinds of idolatry have ceased to be attractive. They find it easy to resist the tempta tion t o b e l i e v e t h a t p a r t i c u l a r n a t u r a l o b j e c t s a r e g o d s , o r t h a t c e rtain symbols and images are the very forms of Divine entities and as such must be worshipped and propitiated. True, much fetishistic supe rstition survives even today. But though it survives, it is not consider ed respectable. Like drinking and prostitution, the primitive form s of idolatry are tolerated, but not approved. Their place in the ac credited hierarchy of values is among the lowest. How different is the case with the developed and more modern fo rms of idolatry! These have achieved not merely survival, but the h ighest degree of respectability. They are recommended by men of scienc e as an up-to-date substitute for gen uine religion and by many profe ssional religious teachers are equated with the worship of God. All thi s may be deplorable; but it is not in the least surprising. Our educatio n disparages the more primitive forms of idolatry; but at the same time it d isparages, or at the best it ignores, the Perennial Philosophy and the pra ctice of s p i r i t u a l i t y . I n p l a c e o f m u m b o - j u m b o a t t h e b o t t o m a n d o f t h e immanent and transcendent Godhead at the top, it sets up, as ob jects of admiration, faith and worship, a pantheon of strictly human ideas and ideals. In academic circles and among those who have been subje cted to higher education, there are f ew fetishists and few devout contemplatives; but the enthusia stic devotees of some form of p olitical or social idolatry are as common as blackberries. Significantly enough, I have observed, when making use o f university libraries, that bo oks on spiritual religion were taken out much less frequently than was the case T 314 in public libraries, any political blue-print, patronized in th e main by men and women who had not enjoyed th e advantages, or suffered under the handicaps, of prolonged a cademic instruction. The many varieties of higher idolatry may be classed under thre e main heads: technological, political a nd moral. Technological idolat ry is the most ingenuous and primitive of the three; for its devotees, li ke those o f t h e l o w e r i d o l a t r y , b e l i e v e t h a t t h e i r r e d e m p t i o n a n d l i b e r a tion depend upon material objects - in this case gadgets. Technologi cal idolatry is the religion whose doctrines are promulgated, expli citly or by implication, in the advertisement pages of our newspapers and magazines - the source, we may a dd parenthetically, from which millions of men, women and children in the capitalistic countries derive t h e i r working philosophy of life. In Soviet Russia too, technological idolatry was strenuously preached, becomi ng, during the years of that co untrys i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n , a k i n d o f s t a te religion. So whole-hearted i s the modern faith in technological idols that ( d e s p i t e a l l t h e l e s s o n s o f mechanized warfare) it is impossible to discover in the popular thinking of our time any trace of the ancient and profoundly realistic d octrine of hubris and inevitable nemesis. T here is a very general belief t hat, where gadgets are concerned, we can get something for nothing - can e njoy all the advantages of an elaborate, top-heavy and constantly advanc ing technology without having to pay for them by any compensating disadvantages. Only a little less ingenuous are the political idolaters. For t he worship of redemptive gadgets these have su bstituted the worship of redemp tive s o c i a l a n d e c o n o m i c o r g a n i z a t i o n s . I m p o s e t h e r i g h t k i n d o f organizations upon human beings, and all their problems, from s in and unhappiness to nationalism and w ar, will automatically disappea r. Most political idolaters are also technological idolaters - and this in spite of the fact that the two pseudo-religions are finally incompatible , since 315 technological progress at its present rate makes nonsense of an y political blue-print, however ing eniously drawn, within a matte r, not of generations, but of years and so metimes even of months. Further , the human being is, unfortunately, a creature endowed with free wil l; and if, for any reason, individuals do not choose to make it work, even the best organization will not produce the results it was intended to produce. The moral idolaters are realists inasmuch as they see that gadg ets and organizations are not enough to guarantee the triumph of virtue and the increase of happiness, and that t he individuals who compose soc ieties and use machines are the arbiters who finally determine whether there shall be decency in personal relationship, order or disorder in society. Material and organizational instr uments are indispensable, and a good tool is preferable to a bad one. But in listless or malicious h ands the finest instrument is either useless or a means to evil. The moralists cease to be reali stic and commit idolatry inasmuc h as they worship, not God, but their own e thical ideals, inasmuch as the y treat virtue as an end in itself and not as the necessary condition o f the knowledge and love of God - a knowledge and love without which that virtue will never be made perfect or even socially effective. What follows is an extract from a very remarkable letter writte n in 1836 by Thomas Arnold to his old pupil and future biographer, A. P. Stanley: Fanaticism is idolatry; and it has the moral evil of idolatry in it; that is, a fanatic worships something wh ich is the creation of his own desire, and thus even his self-devot ion in support of it is only an apparent self-devotion; for in fact it is making the parts of his nature or his mind, which he least values, o ffer sacrifice to that which he most values. The moral fault, as it appears to me, is the idolatry - the setting up of some idea which is most kindred to our ow n minds, and the 316 putting it in the place of Christ, wh o alone cannot be made an idol and inspire idolatry, because He combin es all ideas of perfection and exhibits them in their just harmon y and combination. Now in my own mind, by its natural tendency - that is, taking my mind at its best - truth and justice would be the idol s I should follow; and they would be idols, for they would not supply all the food which the mind wants, and whilst worshipping them, revere nce and humility and tenderness might very likely be forgotten. Bu t Christ Himself includes at once truth and justice and all these ot her qualities too. . . . Narrow- mindedness tends to wickedness, because it does not extend its watchfulness to every part of our moral nature, and the neglect fosters wickedness in the parts so neglected. T h o m a s A r n o l d As a piece of psychological analysis this is admirable. Its onl y defect is one of omission; for it neglects to take into account those inf luxes from the eternal order into the temporal, which are called grace or inspiration. Grace and inspiration are given when, and to the e xtent to which, a human being gives up se lf-will and abandons himself, m oment by moment, through constant reco llectedness and non-attachment, to the will of God. As well as the a nimal and spiritual graces, wh ose source is the Divine Nature of Things, there are human pseudo-graces - such as, for example, the accessions of s trength and virtue that follow self- devotion to some form of political or moral idolatry. To distin guish the true grace from the false is oft en difficult; but as time and c ircumstances reveal the full extent of their consequences on the soul, discr imination becomes possible even to observers having no special gifts of i nsight. Where the grace is genuinely su pernatural, an amelioration in o n e aspect of the total personality is not paid for by atrophy or d eterioration elsewhere. The virtue which is a ccompanied and perfected by the love and knowledge of God is something quite different from the 317 righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees which, for Christ, w a s among the worst of moral evils. Hardness, fanaticism, uncharita bleness and spiritual pride - these are the ordinary by-products of a c ourse of stoical self-improvement by mean s of personal effort, either un assisted or, if assisted, seconded only by the pseudo-graces which are g iven when the individual devotes hims elf to the achievement of an en d which is not his true end, when the goal is not God, but merely a mag nified projection of his own favourite ideas or moral excellences. The idolatrous worship of ethical values in and for themselves defe ats its own object and defeats it not only because, as Arnold insists, there is a lack of all-round development, but also and above all because e ven the highest forms of moral idolatry are God-eclipsing and therefore guarantee the idolater against the enlightening and liberating knowledge of Reality. avb 318 Chapter 22 EMOTIONALISM You have spent all your life in th e belief that you are wholly devoted to others, and never self-seeking. Noth ing so feeds self-conceit as this sort of internal testimony that on e is quite free from self-love, and always generously devoted to one s neighbours. But all this devotion that seems to be for others is really for yourself. Your self-love reaches to the point of perpetual self-congrat ulation that you are free from it; all your sensitiveness is lest you mi ght not be fully satisfied with self; this is at the root of all your scruples. It is the I which makes you so keen and sensitive. You want God as well as man to be always satisfied with you, and you want to be sati sfied with yourself in all your dealings with God. Besides, you are not accustomed to be contented with a simple good will - your self-love wants a lively emotion, a reassuring pleasure, some kind of charm or excitement. Yo u are too much used to be guided by imagination and to suppose that your mind and will are inactive, unless you are conscious of th eir workings. And thus you are dependent upon a kind of excite ment similar to that which the passions arouse, or theatrical repres entations. By dint of refinement you fall into the opposite extreme - a real coarseness of imagination. Nothing is more opposed, not only to th e life of faith, but also to true wisdom. There is no more dangerou s illusion than the fancies by which people try to avoid illusion. It is imagination which leads us astray; and the certainty which we se ek through imagination, feeling, 319 and taste, is one of the most dang erous sources from which fanaticism springs. This is the gulf of va nity and corruptio n which God would make you discover in your heart; you must look upon it with the calm and simplicity belonging to true humility. It is mere self-love to be inconsolable at seeing ones own im perfections; but to stand face to face with them, neither flattering nor tolerating them, seeking to correct oneself without becoming pett ish - this is to desire what is good for its own sake, and for Gods. Fenelon LETTER from the Archbishop of C ambrai - what an event, what a signal honour! And yet it must have been with a certain trepida tion t h a t o n e b r o k e t h e e m b l a z o n e d s e a l . T o a s k f o r a d v i c e a n d a f r a nk opinion of oneself from a man who combines the character of a s aint w ith th e tale nt s o f a Mar ce l Pro us t, is to as k f or th e s e ve re s t k i nd o f shock to ones self-esteem. And duly, in the most exquisitely l ucid prose, the shock would be administered - and, along with the shock, th e i n c o m p a t i b l e s p i r i t u a l a n t i d o t e t o i t s e x c r u c i a t i n g c o n s e q u e n c e s. Fnelon never hesitated to disin tegrate a correspondents compl acent e g o ; b u t t h e d i s i n t e g r a t i o n w a s always performed with a view to reintegration on a highe r, non-egotistic level. This particular letter is not only an admirable piece of charac ter analysis; it also contains some very inter esting remarks on the subject o f emotional excitement in its rela tion to the life of the spirit. The phrase, religion of experie nce, has two distinct and mutu ally incompatible meanings. There is the experience of which the P erennial Philosophy treats - the direct apprehension of the Divine Groun d in an act of intuition possible, in its fullness, only to the selfles sly pure in heart. And there is the experience i nduced by revivalist sermons, im pressive ceremonials, or the deliberate efforts of ones own imagination . This experience is a state of emotio nal excitement - an excitement which A 320 may be mild and enduring or brie f and epileptically violent, wh ich is sometimes exultant in tone and sometimes despairing, which expr esses itself here in song and dance, t here in uncontrollable weeping. B u t emotional excitement, whatever its cause and whatever its natur e, is always excitement of that individualized self, which must be di ed to by a n y o n e w h o a s p i r e s to l i v e t o D i v i n e R e a l i t y . E x p e r i e n c e a s e motion about God (the highest form of this kind of excitement) is incompatible with experience as immediate awaren ess of God by a pure heart whic h has mortified even its most exalted answer: the creditable emotions . That is why Fnelon, in the foregoing extract, insists upon the need fo r calm and simplicity, why St. Franoi s de Sales is never tired of pr eaching the serenity which he himself so consistently practised, why all th e Buddhist s c r i p t u r e s h a r p o n t r a n q u i l l i t y o f m i n d a s a n e c e s s a r y c o n d i t i o n of deliverance. The peace that passe s all understanding is one of the fruits o f t h e s p i r i t . B u t t h e r e i s a l s o t h e p e a c e t h a t d o e s n o t p a s s understanding, the humbler peace o f emotional self-control and self- denial; this is not a fruit of the spirit, but rather one of it s indispensable roots. The imperfect destroy true devotio n, because they seek sensible sweetness in prayer. St. John of the Cross The fly that touches honey cannot use its wings; so the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness ruins its fr eedom and hinders contemplation. St. John of the Cross What is true of the sweet emotions is equally true of the bitte r. For as some people enjoy bad health, so others enjoy a bad conscience. Repentance is metanoia, or change of mind; and without it the re cannot be even a beginning of the spiritual life - for the life of the spirit is incompatible with the life of t h a t o l d m a n , w h o s e a c t s , w h ose thoughts, whose very existence are the obstructing evils which have to be repented. This necessary change of mind is normally accompan ied by 321 sorrow and self-loathing. But the se emotions are not to be pers isted in a n d m u s t n e v e r b e a l l o w e d t o b e c o m e a s e t t l e d h a b i t o f r e m o r s e . I n Middle English remorse is rendered, with a literalness which to modern r e a d e r s i s a t o n c e s t a r t l i n g a n d s t i m u l a t i n g , a s a g a i n - b i t e . In this cannibalistic encounter, who bites whom? Observation and self-a nalysis provide the answer: the creditab l e a s p e c t s o f t h e s e l f b i t e t h e discreditable and are themselves bitten, receiving wounds that fester with incurable shame and despair. But, in Fnelons words, it is mere s e l f - l o v e t o b e i n c o n s o l a b l e a t s e e i n g o n e s o w n i m p e r f e c t i o n s . Self- reproach is painful; but the ver y pain is a reassuring proof th at the self is still intact; so long as attention is fixed on the delinquen t ego, it cannot be fixed upon God and the ego (which lives upon attention and dies only when that sustenance is withheld) cannot be dissolved in the Divine Light. Eschew as though it were a hell the consideration of yourself and your offences. No one should ever think of these things exce pt to humiliate himself and love Our Lord. It is enou gh to regard yourself in general as a sinner, even as there are many saints in heaven who were such. Charles de Condren Faults will turn to good, provi ded we use them to our own humiliation, without slackening in the effort to correct ourselves. Discouragement serves no possible pu rpose; it is simply the despair of wounded self-love. The real way of profiting by the humiliation of ones own faults is to face them in their true hideousness, without ceasing to hope in God, while hoping nothing from self. Fnelon Came she (Mary Magdalene) down from the height of her desire for God into the depth of her sinful life , and searched in the foul stinking fen and dunghill of her soul? Nay, su rely she did not do so. And why? Because God let her know by His grace in her soul that she should never so bring it about. For so migh t she sooner have raised in herself 322 an ableness to have often sinned th an have purchased by that work any plain forgiveness of all her sins. The Cloud of Unknowing In the light of what has been said above, we can understand the peculiar spiritual dangers by which every kind of predominantly emotiona l religion is always menaced. A hell-fire faith that uses the the atrical techniques of revivalism in order to stimulate remorse and indu ce the crisis of sudden conversion; a sa viour cult that is for ever st irring up what St. Bernard calls the amor carnalis o r f l e s h l y l o v e o f t h e A v a t a r a n d personal God; a ritualistic myst ery-religion that generates hig h feelings of awe and reverence and aesthetic ecstasy by means of its sacr aments and ceremonials, its music and its incense, its numinous darkne sses and sacred lights - in its own special way, each one of these runs the risk of b e c o m i n g a f o r m o f p s y c h o l o g i c a l i d o l a t r y , i n w h i c h G o d i s i d e n tified with the egos affective attitude towards God and finally the e motion becomes an end in itself, to be eagerly sought after and worshi pped, as the addicts of a drug spend life in the pursuit of their artifi cial paradise. All this is obvious enough. But it is no less obvious that reli gions that make no appeal to the emotions have very few adherents. Moreove r, when pseudo-religions with a strong emotional appeal make their appearance, they immediately wi n millions of enthusiastic devot ees from among the masses to whom the real religions have ceased to have a meaning or to be a comfort. But whereas no adherent of a pseu do - religion (such as one of our current political idolatries, compounded of nationalism and revolutionism) can possibly go forward into the way of genuine spirituality, such a way always remains open to the adh erents of even the most highly emotionalized varieties of genuine reli gion. T h o s e w h o h a v e a c t u a l l y f o l l o w e d t h i s w a y t o i t s e n d i n t h e u n i tive knowledge of the Divine Ground constitute a very small minority of the total. Many are called; but, since few choose to be chosen, few a r e chosen. The rest, say the orient al exponents of the Perennial P hilosophy, 323 earn themselves another chance, i n c i r c u m s t a n c e s m o r e o r l e s s propitious according to their deserts, to take the cosmic intel ligence test. If they are sa ved, their incomplete and undefinitive de liverance is into some paradisal state of freer personal existence, from whi ch (directly or through further incarnations) they may go on to the final r e l e a s e i n t o e t e r n i t y . I f t h e y a r e l o s t , t h e i r h e l l i s a t e mporal and temporary condition of thicker darkness and more oppressive bon dage to self-will, the root and principle of all evil. We see, then, that if it is persisted in, the way of emotional religion may lead, indeed, to a great good, but not to the greatest. But the emotional way opens into the way of unitive knowledge, and those who care to go on in this other way are well prepared for their task if they h ave used the emotional approach without succumbing to the temptations wh ich have beset them on the way. Only the perfectly selfless and enl ightened can do good that does not, in som e way or other, have to be pai d for by actual or potential evils. The re ligious systems of the world h ave been built up, in the main, by men an d women who were not completely selfless or enlightened. Hence a ll religions have had their dar k and even frightful aspects, while the good they do is rarely gratuitous, but must, in most cases, be paid for, eith er on the nail or by instalment s. The emotion-rousing doctrines an d practices, which play so impo rtant a part in all the worlds organized religions, are no exception t o this rule. They do good, but not gratuitously. The price paid varies accor ding to the nature of the individual worshippers. Some of these choose to wallow in emotionalism and, becom ing idolaters of feeling, pay for the good of their religion by a spiritual evil that may actually ou tweigh that good. Others resist the temptation to self-enhancement and go f orward to the mortification of self, including the selfs emotional si de, and to the worship of God rather than of their own feelings and fancies ab out God. The further they go in this direction, the less they have to pa y for the 324 good which emotionalism brought them and which, but for emotionalism, most of them might never have had. avb Chapter 23 THE MIRACULOUS Revelations are the aberration of fa ith; they are an amusement trance, that spoils simplicity in relation to God, that embarrasses the soul and makes it swerve from its directness in relation to God. They distract the soul and occupy it with other things than God. Special illuminations, auditions, pr ophecies and the rest are marks of weakness in a soul that cannot suppor t the assaults of temptation or of anxiety about the future and Gods judgment upon it . Prophecies are also marks of creaturely curiosity in a soul to whom God is indulgent and to whom, as a father to his importunate child, he gives a few trifling sweetmeats to satisfy its appetite. J. J. Olier The slightest degree of sanctifying grace is superior to a miracle, w h i c h i s s u p e r n a t u r a l o n l y b y r e a s o n o f i t s c a u s e , b y i t s m o d e o f production (quoad modum), not by its intimate reality; the life restored to a corpse is only the natural life, low indeed in comparison with that of grace. R. Garrigou-Lagrange Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a blue-bottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody. Ansari of Herat 325 HE abnormal bodily states, by wh ich the immediate awareness of t h e D i v i n e G r o u n d i s o f t e n a c c o m p a n i e d , a r e n o t , o f c o u r s e , essential parts of that experience. Many mystics, indeed, deplo red such things as being signs, not of Divine grace, but of the bodys w eakness. To l e v i t a t e , t o g o i n t o t r a n c e , t o l o s e t h e u s e o f o n e s s e n s e s - in De Condrens words, this is to rec eive the effects of God and his h o l y communications in a very a nimal and carnal way. One ounce of sanctifying grace, he (St. Francois de Sales) used to say, is worth more than a hundredw eight of those graces which theologians call gratuitous, among whic h is the gift of miracles. It is possible to receive such gifts and yet to be in mortal sin; nor are they necessary to salvation. Jean Pierre Camus The Sufis regard miracles as ve ils intervening between the so ul and God. The masters of Hindu spirituality urge their disciples to pay no attention to the Siddhis, or psychic powers, which may come to them unsought, as a by-product of o ne-pointed contemplation. The cultivation of these powers, the y warn, distracts the soul from Reality and sets up insurmountable obsta cles in the way of enlightenmen t and deliverance. A similar attitude is taken by the best Buddhist t eachers, a n d i n o n e o f t h e P a l i s c r i p t u r e s t h e r e i s a n a n e c d o t e r e c o r d i n g the Buddhas own characteristically d ry comment on a prodigious fea t of l e v i t a t i o n p e r f o r m e d b y o n e o f h i s d i s c i p l e s . T h i s , h e s a i d , will not conduce to the conversion of the unconverted, nor to the advant age of the converted. Then he went bac k to talking about deliverance. Because they know nothing of spirituality and regard the materi al world and their hypotheses about it as supremely significant, rationa lists are anxious to convince themselves a n d o t h e r s t h a t m i r a c l e s d o n o t and cannot happen. Because they have had experience of the spiritua l life and its by-products, the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy are T 326 convinced that miracles do happe n, but regard them as things of little importance, and that mainly negative and anti-spiritual. The miracles which at present ar e i n g r e a t e s t d e m a n d , a n d o f w h ich there is the steadiest supply, are those of psychic healing. In w h a t circumstances and to what extent the power of psychic healing s hould be used has been clearly indicat ed in the Gospel: Whether is i t easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk? If one can forgive sins, one c an safely use the gift of healing. But the forgiving of sins is possible, in its fullness, only to those who speak with authority, in virtue of being se lfless channels of the Divine Spirit. T o these theocentric saints the ordinary, u n r e g e n e r a t e h u m a n b e i n g r e a c t s w i t h a m i x t u r e o f l o v e a n d a w e -longing to be close to them and yet constrained by their very h oliness to say, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Such holiness mak es holy to the extent that the sins of those who approach it are forgiv en and they are enabled to make a new start, to face the consequences of their past wrong-doings (for of course the coming consequences remain) in a new spirit that makes it possibl e for them to neutralize the ev il or turn it into positive good. A less perfec t kind of forgiveness can be b estowed by those who are not themselves outstandingly holy, but who speak with the delegated authority of an institution which the sinner beli eves to be in some way a channel of superna tural grace. In this case the c ontact between unregenerate soul and Div ine Spirit is not direct, but is mediated through the s inners imagination. Those who are holy in virtue of being selfless channels of the Spirit may practise psychic healing with pe rfect safety; for they will kno w which of the sick are ready to accept forgiveness along with the mere mi racle of a bodily cure. Those who are not holy, but who can forgive sins in virtue of belonging to an institution which is believed to be a channe l of grace, m ay a l s o pr ac ti s e h e al i n g w i th a fa i r c o nfi de n ce th a t the y w i l l n o t do 327 more harm than good. But unfortu nately the knack of psychic hea ling seems in some persons to be inbo rn, while others can acquire it without acquiring the smallest degree of holiness. (It is possible to receive such graces and yet be in mortal sin.) Such persons will use their knack indiscriminately, either to show off or for profit. Often they produce spectacular cures - but, lacking the power to forgive sins or e ven to understand the psychological corre lates, conditions or causes o f the symptoms they have so miraculously dispelled, they leave a soul empty, swept and garnished against the coming of seven other devils wo rse than the first. avb 328 Chapter 24 RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT ASWALA: O Yajnavalkya, since everything connected with the sacrifice is pervaded by death and is subject to death, by what means can the sacrificer overcome death? YAJNAVALKYA: By the knowledge of the identity between the sacrificer, the fire and the ritual wo rd. For the ritual word is indeed the sacrificer, and the ritual word is the fire, and the fire, which is one with Brahman, is the sacrificer. Th is knowledge leads to liberation. This knowledge leads one beyond death. Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad N other words, rites, sacraments , and ceremonials are valuable to the extent that they remind those who take part in them of the true Nature of Things, remind them of what ought to be and (if only they would be docile to the immanent and transcendent Spirit) of what actually might be their own relation to the world and its Divine Ground. Theoretically any ritual or sacrament is as good as any other r itual or sacrament, provided always that the object symbolized be in fac t some aspect of Divine Reality and that the relation between symbol a nd fact b e c l e a r l y d e f i n e d a n d c o n s t a n t . I n t h e s a m e w a y , o n e l a n g u a g e is theoretically as good as another. Human experience can be thoug ht about as effectively in Chines e as in English or French. But in practice Chinese is the best language for those brought up in China, English for those brought up in England and French for t hose brought up in France. It is, of course, much easier to learn th e order of a rite and to understand its doctrin al significance than to maste r the I 329 intricacies of a foreign languag e. Nevertheless what has been s aid of language is true, in large measure, of religious ritual. For pe rsons who have been brought up to think of God by means of one set of sym bols, i t i s v e r y h a r d t o t h i n k o f H i m i n t e r m s o f o t h e r a n d , i n t h e i r e y e s , unhallowed sets of words, c eremonies and images. The Lord Buddha then warned Subhuti, saying , Subhuti, do not think that the Tath gata ever considers in his own mind: I ought to enunciate a system of teaching for the elucidation of the Dharma. You should never cherish such a thought. And why? Because if any disciple harboured such a thought he would not only be misunderstanding the Tath gatas teaching, but he would be slandering him as well. Moreover, the expression a system of teaching has no meaning; for Truth (in the sense of Reality) cannot be cut up into pieces and arranged into a system. The words can only be used as a figure of speech. Diamond Sutra But for all their inadequacy and their radical unlikeness to th e facts to which they refer, words remain t he most reliable and accurate o f our symbols. Whenever we want to have a precise report of facts or ideas, we must resort to words. A ceremony, a carved or painted image, may convey more meanings and overtones of meaning in a smaller comp ass and with greater vividness than can a verbal formula; but it is liable to convey them in a form that is much more vague and indefinite. O ne often meets, in modern literature, with the notion that mediaev al churches were the arch itectural, sculptural and pictorial equiv alents of a theological summa, and that mediaeval worshippers who admired the works of art around them were th ereby enlightened on the subjec t of doctrine. This view was evidently not shared by the more earnest churchme n of t h e M i d d l e A g e s . C o u l t o n c i t e s t h e u t t e r a n c e s o f p r e a c h e r s w h o 330 complained that congregations were getting entirely false ideas o f Catholicism by looking at the pictures in the churches instead of listening to sermons. (Similarly, in our own day the Catholic Indians of Central America have evolved the wildest heresies by brooding on the ca rved and painted symbols with which the Conquistadors filled their churc hes.) St. Bernards objection to the richness of Cluniac architecture, sc ulpture and ceremonial was motivated by intellectual as well as strictl y moral considerations. So great and ma rvellous a variety of divers fo rms meets the eye that one is tempted to read in the marbles rather than in the books, to pass the whole day looking at these carvings one afte r another r a t h e r t h a n i n m e d i t a t i n g o n t h e l a w o f G o d . I t i s i n i m a g e l e s s contemplation that the soul comes to the unitive knowledge of R eality; consequently, for those who, lik e St. Bernard and his Cistercia ns, are r e a l l y c o n c e r n e d t o a c h i e v e m a n s final end, the fewer distract ing symbols the better. Most men worship the gods because they want success in their worldly undertakings. This kind of material success can be gained very quickly (by such worship), here on earth. Bhagavad-Gita Among those who are purified by their good deeds there are four kinds of men who worship Me: the world-weary, the seeker for knowledge, the seeker for happiness and the man of spiritual discrimination. The man of discrimina tion is the highest of these. He is continually united wi th Me. He devotes himself to Me always, and to no other. For I am very dear to that man, and he to Me. Certainly, all these are noble; but the man of discrimi nation I see as my very Self. For he alone loves Me because I am Myself, the last and only goal of his devoted heart. Through many a long life his discrimination ripens; he makes Me his refuge, knows that Brahman is all. How rare are such great ones! 331 Men whose discrimination has been blunted by worldly desires, establish this or that ritual or cu lt and resort to various deities, according to the impulse of their inborn nature. But no matter what deity a devotee chooses to worship, if he has faith, I make his faith unwavering. Endowed with the faith I give him, he worships that deity and gets from it everything he prays for. In reality, I alone am the giver. But these men of small understanding pray only for what is transient and perishable. The worshippers of the devas will go to the devas. Those who worship Me will come to Me. Bhagavad-Gita I f s a c r a m e n t a l r i t e s a r e c o n s t a n tly repeated in a spirit of fai th and devotion, a more or less enduring effect is produced in the psy chic medium, in which individual minds bathe and from which they hav e, so to speak, been crystallized out into personalities more or less fully developed, according to the more or less perfect development of the bodies with which they are associated. Of this psychic medium an eminent contemporary philosopher, Dr. C. D. B r o a d , h a s w r i t t e n , i n a n e s s a y o n t e l e p a t h y c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e Proceedings of the Society: We must therefore consider Psychi cal Research as follows: seriously the possibility that a persons ex perience initiates more or less permanent modifications of structur e or process in something which is neither his mind nor his brain. Th ere is no reason to suppose that this substratum would be anything to which possessive adjectives, such as mine and yours and his, could properly be applied, as they can be to minds and animated bodi es. . . . Modifications which have been produced in the substratum by certain of Ns past experiences are 332 activated by Ns present experience s or interests, and they become cause factors in producing or modifying Ns later experiences. Within this psychic medium or non-personal substratum of indivi dual minds, something which we may think of metaphorically as a vort ex persists as an independent existence, possessing its own derive d and secondary objectivity, so that, wherever the rites are performe d, those whose faith and devotion are suf ficiently intense actually disc over something out there, as distinc t from the subjective somethin g in their own imaginations. And so long as this projected psychic entity is nourished by the faith and love of its worshippers, it will pos sess, not merely objectivity, but power to get peoples prayers answered. Ultimately, of course, I alone am the giver, in the sense tha t all this happens in accordance with the D ivine laws governing the univer se in its psychic and spiritual, no less than in its material, aspects. N evertheless, the Devas ( t h o s e i m p e r f e c t f o r m s u n d e r w h i c h , b e c a u s e o f t h e i r o w n voluntary ignorance, men w orship the Divine Ground) may be thought of as relatively independent powers. The primitive notion that the go ds feed o n t h e s a c r i f i c e s m a d e t o t h e m i s s i m p l y t h e c r u d e e x p r e s s i o n o f a profound truth. When their worship falls off, when faith and de votion lose their intensity, the Devas sicken and finally die. Europe is full of old shrines, whose saints and Virgins and relics have lost the powe r and the second-hand psychic objectivity which they once possessed. T h u s , w h e n C h a u c e r l i v e d a n d w r o t e , t h e D e v a c a l l e d T h o m a s B e c k et was giving to any Canterbury pilgrim, who had sufficient faith, all the boons he could ask for. This once-powerful deity is now stone-d ead; but there are still certain churches in the west, certain mosques a nd temples i n t h e E a s t , w h e r e e v e n t h e m o s t i r r e l i g i o u s a n d u n - p s y c h i c t o u rist cannot fail to be aware of some intensely numinous presence. It would, of course, be a mistake to imagine that this presence is the pr esence of that God who is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit; it i s rather the 333 psychic presence of mens though ts and feelings about the parti cular, limited form of God, to which they have resorted according to the impulse of their inborn nature; thoughts and feelings projecte d into objectivity and haunting the sac red place in the same way as th oughts and feelings of another kind, but of equal intensity, haunt the scenes of some past suffering or crime. Th e presence in these consecrated buildings, the presence evoked by the performance of traditiona l rites, t h e p r e s e n c e i n h e r e n t i n a s a c r a m e n t a l o b j e c t , n a m e o r f o r m u l a - all these are real presences, but re al presences, not of God or the A v a t a r , but of something which, though i t may reflect the Divine Realit y, is yet less and other than it. Dulcis Jesu memoria dans vera co rdi gaudia: sed super mel et omnia ejus dulcis praesentia. Sweet is the memory of Jesus, giving true joys to the heart; but sweeter beyond hone y and all else is His presence. This opening stanza of the famou s twelfth-century hymn summariz es in fifteen words the relations subsi sting between ritual and real presence and the character of the worship pers reaction to each. Systema tically cultivated memoria (a thing in itself full of sweetness) first contributes to the evocation, then results, for certain souls, in the immediat e apprehension of praesentia, which brings with it joys of a tota lly different and higher kind. This presence ( w h o s e p r o j e c t e d o b j e c t i v i t y i s occasionally so complete as to be apprehensible not merely by t he devout worshipper, but by more or less indifferent outsiders) is always that of the Divine being who has been previou sly remembered, Jesus here, Kr ishna or Amitabha Buddha there. The value of this practice (repetition of the name of Amitabha Buddha) is this. So long as one pe rson practises his method (of spirituality) and another practises a different method , they counterbalance one another and their meeting is just the same as their not meeting. Whereas if two 334 persons practise the same method, their mindfulness tends to become deeper and deeper, and they tend to remember each other and to develop affinities for each other, life after life. Moreover, whoever recites the name of Amitabha Buddha , whether in the present time or in future time, will surely see th e Buddha Amitabha and never become separated from Him. By reason of that association, just as one associating with a maker of perf umes becomes permeated with the s a m e p e r f u m e s , s o h e w i l l b e c o m e p e r f u m e d b y A m i t a b h a s compassion, and will become enlighte ned without resort to any other expedient means. urangama Sutra We see then that intense faith and devotion, coupled with perse verance by many persons in the same form s of worship or spiritual exerc ise, have a tendency to objectify the idea or memory which is their conte nt and so to create, in some sort, a numinous real presence, which wor shippers actually find out there no less, and in quite another way, th an in here. In so far as this is the case, t he ritualist is perfectly corre ct in attributing to his hallowed acts and words a power which, in another contex t, would be called magical. The Mantram w orks, the sacrifice really does something, the sacrament confers grace ex opere operato : these are, or rather may be, matters of direct experience, facts which anyone who chooses to fulfil the necessary c onditions can verify empirical ly for himself. But the grace conferred ex opere operato is not always spiritual grace and the hallowed acts and formulae have a power which is not necessarily from God. Worshippers can, and very often do, get g race and power from one another and from the faith and devotion of their predecessors, projected into inde pendent psychic existences tha t are hauntingly associated with certain places, words and acts. A gr eat deal of ritualistic religion is not spirituality, but occultism, a r efined and well- 335 meaning kind of white magic. Now, just as there is no harm in a rt, say, or science, but a great deal of good, provided always that thes e activities are not regarded as ends, but simply as means to the final end of all life, so too there is no harm in white magic, but the possibilities o f much good, so long as it is treated, not as true religion, but as on e of the roads to true religion - an effective way of reminding people with a certain kind of psycho-physical make-up that there is a God, in knowledge o f whom standeth their eternal life. If ritualistic white magic is reg arded as being in itself true religion; if the real presences it evokes are ta ken to be God in Himself and not the projectio ns of human thoughts and feelin gs about God or even about something less than God; and if the sacrament al rites are performed and attended for the sake of the spiritual sweet ness experienced and the powers and ad vantages conferred - then ther e is idolatry. This idolatry is, at its best, a very lofty and, in m any ways, beneficent kind of religion. But the consequences of worshippin g God as anything but Spirit and in any way except in spirit and in trut h are necessarily undesirable in this sense - that they lead only to a partial salvation and delay the souls ultimate reunion with the eterna l Ground. That very large numbers of men and women have an ineradicable d esire for rites and ceremonies is clea rly demonstrated by the history o f religion. Almost all the Hebrew prophets were opposed to ritual ism. Rend your hearts and not your garments. I desire mercy and n ot sacrifice. I hate, I despise your feasts; I take no delight i n your solemn assemblies. And yet, in spite of the fact that what the prophe ts wrote was regarded as Divinely inspired, the Temple at Jerusalem cont inued to be, for hundreds of years after their time, the centre of a rel igion of rites, ceremonials and blood sacrifice. (It may be remarked in passing that the shedding of blood, ones own or that of animals or other human beings, seems to be a peculiarly efficaci ous way of constraining the o ccult or psychic world to answer petitions and confer supernormal powers. If thi s is a fact, as from the anthropological and ant iquarian evidence it appears to be, it would 336 supply yet another cogent reason for avoiding animal sacrifices , savage bodily austerities and even, sin ce thought is a form of action, t h a t imaginative gloating over spilled blood which is so common in c ertain Christian circles.) What the Jews did in spite of their prophets, Christians have d one in spite of Christ. The Christ of the Gospels is a preacher and no t a dispenser of sacraments or perfo rmer of rites; he speaks agains t vain repetitions; he insists on the supreme importance of private wo rship; he has no use for sacrifices and not much use for the Temple. But this did not prevent historic Christianity from going its own, all too h uman, way. A precisely similar development took place in Buddhism. For the Buddha of the Pali scriptures, ritual was one of the fetters holding b ack the soul from enlightenment and liberation. Nevertheless, the profession al religion he founded has made full use of ceremonies, vain repet itions and sacramental rites. There would seem to be two mai n reasons for the observed developments of the historical r eligions. First, most people do not want spirituality or deliverance, but rather a religion that gives t hem emotional satisfactions, answers to prayer, supernormal powers and partial salvation in some sort of posthumous heaven. Second, so me of those few who do desire spirituality and deliverance find that, for them, the most effective means to thos e ends are ceremonies, vain repetitions and sacramental rite s. It is by participating in t hese acts and uttering these formulae that they are most powerfully reminded of the eternal Ground of all being; it is by immersing themselves in t he symbols that they can most easily come through to that which is symboli zed. Every thing, event or thought is a point of intersection betwee n creature and Creator, between a more or less distant manifestation of Go d and a ray, so to speak, of the unmanif est Godhead; every thing, event o r thought can therefore be made th e doorway through which a soul may 337 pass out of time into eternity. That is why ritualistic and sac ramental religion can lead to deliverance. But at the same time every hu man being loves power and self-enhancement , and every hallowed ceremony, form of words or sacramental rite is a channel through which power c an flow out of the fascinating psychic universe into the universe of em bodied selves. That is why ritualistic and sacramental religion can al so lead away from deliverance. There is another disadvantage inherent in any system of organiz ed sacramentalism, and that is that it gives to the priestly caste a power which it is all too natural for them to abuse. In a society whi ch has been taught that salvation is exclusively or mainly through certain sacraments, and that these sacra ments can be administered effec tively only by a professional priesthood, that professional priesthood will possess an enormous coercive power. The possession of such powe r is a standing temptation to use it for individual satisfaction and corporate aggrandizement. To a temptation of this kind, if repeated often enough, most human beings who are not sa ints almost inevitably succumb. That is why Christ taught his disciples to pray that they should not be led into temptation. This is, or should b e, the guiding principle of all social reform - to organize the economic, poli tical and social relationships between human beings in such a way that there shall be, for any given i ndividual or group within the society, a minimum of temptations to coveto usness, pride, cruelty and lust for power. Men and women being what they ar e, it is only by reducing the n umber and intensity of temptations that human societies can be, in so me measure at least, delivered from evil. Now, the sort of temptat ions to w h i c h a p r i e s t l y c a s t e i s e x p o s e d i n a s o c i e t y t h a t a c c e p t s a predominantly sacramental religio n are such that none but the m ost saintly persons can be expected consistently to resist them. Wh at happens when ministers of religion are led into these temptatio ns is 338 clearly illustrated by the histo ry of the Roman Church. Because Catholic Christianity taught a version of the Perennial Philosophy, it p roduced a succession of great saints. But because the Perennial Philosoph y was o v e r l a i d w i t h a n e x c e s s i v e a m o u n t o f s a c r a m e n t a l i s m a n d w i t h a n idolatrous preoccupation with things in time, the less saintly members of its hierarchy were exposed to enormous and quite unnecessary temptations and, duly succumbi ng to them, launched out into persecution, simony, power polit ics, secret diplomacy, high fin ance and collaboration with despots. I very much doubt whether, since the Lord by his grace brought me into the faith of his dear Son, I ha ve ever broken bread or drunk wine, even in the ordinary course of li fe, without remembrance of, and some devout feeling regarding, the broken body and the blood-shedding of my dear Lord and Saviour. Stephen Grellet We have seen that, when they are promoted to be the central cor e of organized religious worship, ritu alism and sacramentalism are b y no means unmixed blessings. But that the whole of a mans workaday life should be transformed by him int o a kind of continuous ritual, that every object in the world around him should be regarded as a symbol o f the worlds eternal Ground, that all his actions should be performe d sacramentally - this would seem to be wholly desirable. All the masters of the spiritual life, from the authors of the Upanishads to So crates, from Buddha to St. Bernard, are agree d that without self-knowledge t here cannot be adequate knowledge of God, that without a constant recollectedness there can be no complete deliverance. The man w ho has learnt to regard things as symbo ls, persons as temples of the H oly Spirit and actions as sacraments, is a man who has learned constantly to remind himself who he is, where he stands in relation to the un iverse and its Ground, how he should be have towards his fellows and wh at he must do to come to his final end. 339 Because of this indwelling of the Logos, writes Mr. Kenneth S aunders in his valuable study of the Fourth Gospel, the Gita and the Lo tus Sutra, all things have a reality. They are sacraments, not illusions like the phenomenal word of the Vedanta. That the Logos is in things, l ives and conscious minds, and they in the Logos, was taught much more emphatically and explicitly by th e Vedantists than by the autho r of the Fourth Gospel; and the same idea is, of course, basic in the th eology of Taoism. But though all things in fact exist at the intersection between a D i v i n e m a n i f e s t a t i o n a n d a r a y o f t h e u n m a n i f e s t G o d h e a d , i t b y n o means follows that everyone always knows that this is so. On th e contrary, the vast majority of h uman beings believe that their own selfness and the objects around th em possess a reality in thems elves, wholly independent of the Logos. This belief leads them to iden tify their being with their sensations, cra vings and private notions, and in its turn this self-identification with wh at they are not effectively wal ls them in from Divine influence and the ve ry possibility of deliverance. To most of us on most occasions things are not symbols and actions are not sacramental; and we have to teac h ourselves, consciously and deliberately, to rememb er that they are. The world is imprisoned in its own activity, except when actions are performed as worship of God. Th erefore you must perform every action sacramentally (as if it were Yajna, the sa crifice that, in its Divine Logos-essence, is identical with th e Godhead to whom it is offered), and be free from all attachment to results . Bhagavad-Gita Precisely similar teachings are found in Christian writers, who recommend that persons and even things should be regarded as temples of the Holy Ghost and th at everything done or suffered should be constantly offered to God. 340 It is hardly necessary to add th at this process of conscious sacramentalization can be applie d only to such actions as are n ot intrinsically evil. Somewhat unfortunately, the Gita was not or iginally published as an independent work, but as a theological digressi on within an epic poem; and since, like most epics, the Mahabharata is la rgely concerned with the exploits of wa rriors, it is primarily in rel ation to warfare that the Gitas advice t o act with non-attachment and f or Gods sake only is given. Now, war is accompanied and followed, among other things, by a widespread dissemination of anger and hatred, prid e, cruelty and fear. But, it may be asked, is it possible (the Nature of Things being what it is) to sacramentalize actions whose psychological by- p r o d u c t s a r e s o c o m p l e t e l y G o d - e clipsing as are these passions? T h e Buddha of the Pali scriptures wou ld certainly have answered thi s question in the negative. So would the Lao Tzu of the Tao Teh K ing. So would the Christ of the Synoptic Gospels. The Krishna of the Gi ta (who is also, by a kind of literary acci dent, the Krishna of the Mahabh arata) gives an affirmative answer. But this aff i r m a t i v e a n s w e r , i t s h o u l d b e remembered, is hedged around wit h limiting conditions. Non-atta ched slaughter is recommended only to those who are warriors by cast e, and to whom warfare is a duty and vocation. But what is duty or Dha rma for the Kshatriya is adharma and fo rbidden to the Brahman; nor is it any part of the normal vocation or c a s t e d u t y o f t h e m e r c a n t i l e a n d labouring classes. Any confusion of castes, any assumption by o ne man of another mans vocation and du ties of state, is always, say t he Hindus, a moral evil and a menace to social stability. Thus, it is the business of the Brahmans to fit themselves t o be seers, so that they may be able to explain to their fellow-men the nature of the universe, of man s last end a n d o f t h e w a y t o l i b e r a t i o n . W h e n soldiers or administrators, or usurers, or manufacturers or workers usurp the functions of the Brahmans and formulate a philosophy of life in accordance with their variously distorted notions of the universe, then society is th rown into 341 confusion. Similarly, confusion reigns when the Brahman, the ma n of non-coercive spiritual authority, assumes the coercive power of t h e Kshatriya, or when the Kshatriyas job of ruling is usurped by bankers and stockjobbers, or finally when the warrior castes Karma of fighting is imposed, by conscription, on Brahman, Vaisya and Sudra alike. T he history of Europe during the lat er Middle Ages and Renaissance is largely a history of the social confusions that arise when large number s of those who should be seers abandon spir itual authority in favour of mo ney and political power. And contemporary history is the hideous record of what happens when political bosses, business men or class-conscious proletarians assume the Brahmans function of formulating a phi losophy of life; when usurers dictate policy and debate the issues of w ar and peace; and when the warriors ca ste duty is imposed on all and sundry, regardless of psycho-physica l makeup and vocation. avb 342 Chapter 25 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES ITES, sacraments, ceremonies, lit urgies - all these belong to p ublic worship. They are devices, by means of which the individual members of a congregation are reminded of the true Nature of Th ings and of their proper relations to one another, the universe and God. What ritual is to public worship, spiritual exercises are to pr ivate devotion. They are devices to be used by the solitary individua l when he enters into his closet, shuts the door and prays to his Father which is in secret. Like all other devices, f rom psalm-singing to Swedish e xercises and from logic to internal-combustion engines, spiritual exerci ses can be used either well or badly. Some of those who use spiritual exer cises make progress in the life of the spirit; others, using the same exercises, make no progress. To believe that their use either constitutes enlightenment or guarantees it, i s mere idolatry and superstiti on. To neglect them altogether, to refu se to find out whether and in w hat way they can help in the achievement of our final end, is nothing b ut self- opinionatedness and stubborn obscurantism. St. Francois de Sales used to say, I hear of nothing but perfection on every side, so far as talk goes; bu t I see very few people who really practise it. Everybody has his ow n notion of perfection. One man thinks it lies in the cut of his clot hes, another in fasting, a third in almsgiving, or in frequenting the Sa craments, in meditation, in some special gift of contemplation, or in extraordinary gifts or graces - but they are all mistaken, as it seem s to me, because they confuse the means, or the results, wi th the end and cause. R 343 For my part, the only perfection I know of is a hearty love of God, and to love ones neighbour as oneself. Charity is the only virtue which rightly unites us to God and man. Su ch union is our final aim and end, and all the rest is mere delusion. Jean Pierre Camus St. Franois himself recommended t h e u s e o f s p i r i t u a l e x e r c i s e s a s a means to the love of God and ones neighbours, and affirmed tha t such exercises deserved to be greatly cherished; but this affection for the set forms and hours of mental prayer must never, he warned, be allo wed to become excessive. To neglect any urgent call to charity or obed ience for the sake of practising ones spiritual exercises would be to ne glect the end and the proximate means for the sake of means which are not proximate, but at several remo ves from the ultimate goal. Spiritual exercises constitute a special class of ascetic pract ices, whose purpose is, primarily, to prepar e the intellect and emotions fo r those higher forms of prayer in which the soul is essentially passive in relation to Divine Reality, and secondarily, by means of this self-expos ure to the L i g h t a n d o f t h e i n c r e a s e d s e l f - knowledge and self-loathing res ulting from it, to modify character. In the Orient the systematization of mental prayer was carried out at s o m e u n k n o w n b u t c e r t a i n l y v e r y e a r l y d a t e . B o t h i n I n d i a a n d C hina spiritual exercises (accompanied or preceded by more or less elaborate physical exercises, especia lly breathing exercises) are known to have been used several centuries before th e birth of Christ. In the west, the monks of the Theba'd spent a good part of each day in meditation as a means to contemplation or the unitive knowledge of God; and at all pe riods of C h r i s t i a n h i s t o r y , m o r e o r l e s s m e t h o d i c a l m e n t a l p r a y e r h a s b e en largely used to supplement the vocal praying of public and priv ate worship. 344 But the systematization of menta l prayer into elaborate spiritu al exercises was not undertaken, it would seem, until near the end of the Middle Ages, when reformers within the Church popularized this new form of spirituality in an effort to revivify a decaying monast icism and to reinforce the religious life of a laity that had been bewildere d by the Great Schism and profoundly shocked by the corruption of the cl ergy. Among these early systematizers of knowledge, the most effectiv e and i n f l u e n t i a l w e r e t h e c a n o n s o f W i n d e s h e i m , w h o w e r e i n c l o s e t o uch with the Brethren of the Common Life. During the later sixteent h and early seventeenth centuries spir itual exercises became, one mig ht almost say, positively fashionab le. The early Jesuits had shown w h a t extraordinary transformations of character, what intensities of will and devotion, could be achieved by m en systematically trained on th e intellectual and imaginative exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, and as the prestige of the Jesuits stood very high, at this time, in Catho lic Europe, the prestige of spiritual exerci ses also stood high. Throughout the first century of the Counter-Reformati on numerous systems of mental prayer (many of them, unlike the Ignati an exercises, specifically myst ical) were composed, published and eagerly bought. After the Quietist controversy, mysticism fell into disrepute a nd, along with mysticism, many of the once popular systems, which their a uthors had designed to assist the soul on the path towards contemplati on. For more detailed information on thi s interesting and important sub ject the reader should consult Pourrats Christian Spirituality, Bede Fr osts The Art of Mental Prayer, Edward Leen s Progress through Mental Pra yer and Aelfrida Tillyards Spiritual Exercises. Here it is only po ssible to give a few characteristic specimens f rom the various religious tradi tions. Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the Beloved. There is no other secret to be learnt, and more than this is not known to me. Ansari of Herat 345 Six hundred years later, as we hav e seen, St. Francois de Sales was saying very much the same thing to young Camus and all the others who came t o h i m i n t h e i n g e n u o u s h o p e t h a t h e c o u l d r e v e a l s o m e e a s y a n d infallible trick for achieving the unitive knowledge of God. Bu t to lose self in the Beloved - there is n o other secret. And yet the Suf is, like their Christian counterparts, made ample use of spiritual exercises - not, of c o u r s e , a s e n d s i n t h e m s e l v e s , n o t e v e n a s p r o x i m a t e m e a n s , b u t a s means to the proximate means of union with God, namely selfless and loving contemplation. For twelve years I was the smith of my soul. I put it in the furnace of austerity and burned it in the fire of combat, I laid it on the anvil of reproach and smote it with the hamm er of blame until I made of my soul a mirror. Five years I was the mirror of myself and was ever polishing that mirror with divers ac ts of worship and piety. Then for a year I gazed in contemplation. On my waist I saw a girdle of pride and vanity and self-conceit and re liance on devotion and approbation of my works. I laboured for five ye ars more until that girdle became worn out and I professed Islam anew. I looked and saw that all created things were dead. I pronounced fo ur Akbirs over them and returned from the funeral of them all, an d without intrusion of creatures, through Gods help alone, I attained unto God. Bayazid of Bistun The simplest and most widely prac tised form of spiritual exerci se is r e p e t i t i o n o f t h e D i v i n e n a m e , o r o f s o m e p h r a s e a f f i r m i n g G o d s existence and the souls dependence upon Him. And therefore, when thou pu rposest thee to this work (of con- templation), and feelest by grace that thou art called by God, lift up thine heart unto God with a meek st irring of love. And mean God that made thee, and bought thee, and grac iously called thee to thy degree, 346 and receive none other thought of God. And yet not all these, except thou desirest; for a naked intent di rected unto God, without any other cause than Himself, sufficeth wholly. And if thou desirest to have this intent lapped and folden in one word , so that thou mayest have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word of one syllable, for so it is better than of two; for the shorter the word, the better it accordeth with the work of the spirit. And such a word is this word GOD or this word LOVE. Choose whichever thou wilt, or another; whatever word thou likest best of one syllable. And fasten this word to thy heart that so it may never go thence fo r anything that befalleth. The word shall be thy shield and th y spear, whether thou ridest on peace or on war. With this word thou shalt beat on this cloud and this darkness above thee. With this word thou shalt smite down all manner of thought under the cloud of fo rgetting. Insomuch that, if any thought press upon thee to ask what thou wouldst have, answer with no more words than with this one word (GOD or LOVE). And if he offer of his great learning to expo und to thee that word, say to him that thou wilt have it all whole, and not broken nor undone. And if thou wilt hold fast to this purpose, be sure that that thought will no while bide. The Cloud of Unknowing In another chapter the author of the Cloud suggests that the wo rd symbolizing our final end should sometimes be alternated with a word denoting our present position in relation to that end. The word s to be repeated in this exerc ise are SIN and GOD. Not breaking or expounding thes e words with curiosity of wit, considering the qualities of these wo rd s, a s if th o u wo u ld st b y tha t consideration increase thy devotion. I believe it should never be so in this case and in this work. But ho ld them all whole, these words; and 347 mean by SIN a lump, thou knowest never what, none other thing but thyself. . . . And because ever the wh iles thou livest in this wretched life, thou must always feel in some part this foul stinking lump of sin, as it were oned and congealed wi th the substance of thy being, therefore shalt thou alternately me an these two words - SIN and GOD. With this general understanding that, if thou hadst God, then shouldst t h o u l a c k s i n ; a n d m i g h t e s t t h o u l a c k s i n , t h e n s h o u l d s t t h o u h a v e God. The Cloud of Unknowing The shaykh took my hand and led me into the convent. I sat down in the portico, and the shaykh picked up a book and began to read. As is the way of scholars, I could not help wondering what the book was. The shaykh perceived my thoughts. Abu Said, he said, all the hundred and twenty-four thousand pr ophets were sent to preach one word. They bade the people say Alla h, and devote themselves to Him. Those who heard this word by the ea r alone let it go out by the other ear; but those who heard it with thei r souls imprinted it on their souls and repeated it until it penetrated their hearts and souls, and their whole beings became this word. Th ey were made independent of the pronunciation of the word; they were released from the sound of the letters. Having understood the spir itual meaning of this word, they became so absorbed in it that they were no more conscious of their own non-existence. Abu Said Take a short verse of a psalm, and it shall be shield and buckler to you against all your foes. Cassian, quoting Abbot Isaac In India the repetition of the Divine name or the Mantram (a short devotional or doctrinal affirmation) is called Japam and is a favourite spiritual exercise among all the sects of Hinduism and Buddhism . The S h o r t e s t M a n t r a m i s O M - a s p o k e n s y m b o l t h a t c o n c e n t r a t e s w i t h in 348 itself the whole Vedanta philoso phy. To this and other Mantrams Hindus attribute a kind of magical power. The repetition of them is a sacramental act, conferring grace ex opere operata. A similar e fficacity was and indeed still is attribut e d t o s a c r e d w o r d s a n d f o r m u l a e b y B u d d h i s t s , M o s l e m s , J e w s a n d C h r i s t i a n s . A n d , o f c o u r s e , j u s t a s traditional religious rites seem to possess the power to evoke the real presence of existents projected into psychic objectivity by the faith and devotion of generations of worshippers, so too long-hallowed wo rds and phrases may become channels for conveying powers other and grea ter than those belonging to the individual who happens at the momen t to be pronouncing the Divine Word within the soul. It is them. And meanwhile the constant repetitio n of this word GOD or this wor d LOVE may, in favourable circumstances , have a profound effect upon t he subconscious mind, inducing that selfless one-pointedness of wi ll and thought and feeling, without which the unitive knowledge of God i s impossible. Furthermore, it may happen that, if the word is sim ply repeated all whole, and not broken up or undone by discursive analysis, the Fact for which the word stands will end by presenting itsel f to the soul in the form of an integral intuition. When this happens, the doors of the letters of this word are opened (to use the language of the Sufis) and the soul passes through into Reality. B u t t h o u g h a l l t h i s m a y h a p p e n , i t n e e d n o t n e c e s s a r i l y h a p p e n . F o r there is no spiritual patent med icine, no pleasant and infallib le panacea for souls suffering from separat eness and the deprivation of Go d. No, there is no guaranteed cure; and , if used improperly, the medic ine of spiritual exercises may start a new disease or aggravate the ol d. For example, a mere mechanical repet ition of the Divine name can re sult in a kind of numbed stupefaction that is as much below analytical thought as intellectual vision is above it. And because the sacred word constitutes a kind of prejudgment of the experience induced by its 349 repetition, this stupefaction, o r some other abnormal state, is taken to be the immediate awareness of Rea lity and is idolatrously culti vated and hunted after, with a turning of the will towards what is suppos ed to be God before there has been a turni ng of it away from the self. The dangers which beset the prac tiser of Japam, who is insuffic iently mortified and insufficiently recollected and aware, are encount ered in the same or different forms by t hose who make use of more elabo rate spiritual exercises. Intense con centration on an image or idea, such as is recommended by many teachers, both Eastern and Western, may be very helpful for certain persons in certain circumstances, very harmful in other cases. It is helpful when the concentration results in such mental stillness, such a silence of int ellect, will and feeling, that the Divine Word can be uttered within the soul. I t i s h a r m f u l w h e n t h e i m a g e c o n c e n t r a t e d u p o n b e c o m e s s o hallucinatingly real that it is taken for objective Reality and idolatrously worshipped; harmful, too, when the exercise of concentration pr oduces unusual psycho-physical results, in which the person experienci ng them takes a personal pride, as being special graces and Divine communications. Of these unusual psycho-physical occurrences th e most ordinary are visions and a uditions, fore-knowledge, telepa thy and other psychic powers, and the curious bodily phenomenon of inte nse heat. Many persons who practise concentration exercises experie nce this heat occasionally. A number of Christian saints, of whom t he best known are St. Philip Neri and St. Catherine of Siena, have expe rienced it continuously. In the East techniques have been developed whereby the accessio n of heat resulting from intense conc entration can be regulated, con trolled and put to do useful work, such as keeping the contemplative wa rm in freezing weather. In Europe, wh ere the phenomenon is not well understood, many would-be contemp latives have experienced this heat, 350 a n d h a v e i m a g i n e d i t t o b e s o m e s p e c i a l D i v i n e f a v o u r , o r e v e n the experience of union, and being insufficiently mortified and hum ble, have fallen into idolatry and a God- eclipsing spiritual pride. The following passage from one of the great Mahayana scriptures contains a searching criticism o f the kind of spiritual exercis es prescribed by Hinayanist teachers - concent ration on symbolic objects, med itations on transience and decay (to wean the soul away from attachment to earthly things), on the different virtues which must be cultivated, on the fundamental doctrines of Buddhism. (Many of these exercises are described at length in The Path of Purity, a book which has bee n translated in full and published by the Pa li Text Society. Mahayanist exer cises are described in the urangama Sutra, translated by Dwight Goddard, and in the volume on Tibetan Yoga, edited by Dr. Evans-Wentz.) In his exercise the Yogin sees (imaginatively) the form of the sun or moon, or something looking like a lo tus, or the underworld, or various forms, such as sky, fire and the like. All these appearances lead him in the way of the philosophers; they throw him down into the state of Sravaka-hood, into the realm of th e Pratyeka-buddhas. When all these are put aside and there is a state of imagelessness, then a condition in conformity with Suchness presents itself, and the Buddhas will come together from all their countries and with their shining hands will touch the head of this benefactor. Lakvatra Sutra In other words intense concentration on any image (even if the image be a sacred symbol, like the lotus) or on any idea, from the idea of hell to the i d e a o f s o m e d e s i r a b l e v i r t u e o r i t s a p o t h e o s i s i n o n e o f t h e D ivine attributes, is always concentration on something produced by on es own mind. Sometimes, in mortified and recollected persons, the art of concentration merges into the state of openness and alert passi vity, in which true contemplation becomes possible. But sometimes the fa ct 351 that the concentration is on a product of the concentrators ow n mind results in some kind of false or incomplete contemplation. Such ness, or the Divine Ground of all being, reveals itself to those in whom there is no ego-centredness (nor even any alter-ego-centredness) either of will, imagination, feeling or intellect. I say, then, that introversion must be rejected, because extraversion must never be admitted; but one must live continuously in the abyss of the Divine Essence and in the noth ingness of things; and if at times a man finds himself separated from them (the Divine Essence and created nothingness) he must return to them, not by introversion, but by annihilation. Benet of Canfield Introversion is the process condemned in the Lakvatra Sutra as the way of the Yogin, the way that leads at worst to idolatry, at b est to a partial knowledge of God in the heights within, never to comple te knowledge in the fullness without as well as within. Annihilati on (of which Father Benet distinguishes two kinds, passive and active) is for the Mahayanist the state of imagele ssness in contemplation and, i n active life, the wholly good state of t otal non-attachment, in which e ternity can be apprehended within time, and S a m s a r a i s k n o w n t o b e o n e w i t h Nirvana. And therefore, if thou wilt stan d and not fall, cease never in thine intent, but beat evermore on this cloud of unknowing that is betwixt thee and thy God, with a sharp dart of longing love. And loathe to think of aught under God. And go no t thence for any- the tree thing that befalleth. For this only is that work that destroyeth the Ground and the root of sin. . . . Yea, and what more? Weep thou never so much for sorrow of thy sins, or of the passi on of Christ, or have thou never so much thought of the joys of heav en, what may it do to thee? Surely much good, much help, much profit, much grace will it get thee. But 352 in comparison of this blind stirring of love, it is but little that it doth, or may do, without this. This by itself is the best part of Mary, without these other. They without it profit but little or nought. It destroyeth not only the Ground and the root of si n, as it may be here, but also it getteth virtues. For if it be truly co nceived, all virtues shall be subtly and perfectly conceived, felt and comprehended in it, without any mingling of thine intent. And ha ve a man never so many virtues without it, all they be mingled wi th some crooked intent, for the which they be imperfect. For virtue is nought else but an ordered and measured affection, plainly dire cted unto God for Himself. The Cloud of Unknowing If exercises in concentration, repetitions of the Divine name, or meditations on Gods attributes or on imagined scenes in the li fe of saint o r A v a t a r h e l p t h o s e w h o m a k e u s e o f t h e m t o c o m e t o s e l f l e s s n e ss, openness and (to use Augustine Bakers phrase) that love of the pure divinity, which makes possible the souls union with the Godhe ad, then such spiritual exercises are who lly good and desirable. If they have other results - well, the tree is known by its fruits. B e n e t o f C a n f i e l d , t h e E n g l i s h C apuchin who wrote The Rule of Perfection and was the spiritual guide of Mme Acarie and Cardin al Brulle, hints in his treatise at a method by which concentrati on on an image may be made to lead up to imageless contemplation, blind beholding, love of the pure divinity. The period of mental p rayer is to begin with intense concentration on a scene of Christs passion ; then the mind is, as it were, to abolish this imagination of the sacred humanity and to pass from it to the forml ess and attribut eless Godhead a nd a kind of which that humanity incarnate s. A strikingly similar exercis e is described in the Bardo Thodol or Tibetan Book of the Dead (a work of 353 quite extraordinary profundity and beauty, now fortunately avai lable in translation with a valuable introduction and notes by Dr. Evans -Wentz). Whosoever thy tutelary deity may be, meditate upon the form for much time - as being apparent, yet no n-existent in reality, like a form produced by a magician. . . . Then le t the visualization of the tutelary deity melt away from the extremit ies, till nothing at all remaineth visible of it; and put thyself in the state of the Clearness and the Voidness - which thou canst not conc eive as something - and abide in that state for a little while. Again meditate upon the tutelary deity; again meditate upon the Clear Light; do this alternately. Afterwards allow thine own intellect to melt away gradually, beginning from the extremities. The Tibetan Book of the Dead As a final summing up of the whole matter we may cite a sentenc e of Eckharts. He who seeks God under settled form lays hold of th e form, while missing the God concealed in it. Here, the key word is settled. It is permissible to seek God provisionally under a form which is from the first recognized as merely a sym bol of Reality, and a symbol wh ich must sooner or later be discarded in favour of what it stands for. T o seek Him under a settled form - settled b ecause regarded as the very sha pe of Reality - is to commit oneself t o illusion and a kind of idolat ry. The chief impediments in the way of taking up the practice of s ome form of mental prayer are ignorance o f the Nature of dreams, Things (which has never, of course, been more a bysmal than in this age of fre e compulsory education) and the absorption in self-interest, in positive and negative emotions connected with the passions and with what is technical ly known as a good time. And when the practice has been taken up , the chief impediments in the way of advance towards the goal of men tal prayer are distractions. 354 Probably all persons, even the most saintly, suffer to some ext ent from distractions. But who, in the intervals of mental prayer, leads a dispersed, unrecollected, self-c entred life will have more and worse distractions to contend with than one w ho liv e s one - poin ted l y, never f o r g e t t i n g w h o h e i s a n d h o w r e l a t e d t o t h e u n i v e r s e a n d i t s D i vine Ground. Some of the most profitable spiritual exercises actuall y make use of distractions, in such a way that these impediments to se lf- abandonment, mental silence and passivity in relation to God ar e transformed into means of progress. But first, by way of preface to the description of these exerci ses, it should be remarked that all teac hers of the art of mental praye r concur in advising their pupils never t o use violent efforts of the wi ll against the distractions which arise in the mind during periods of recollec tion. The reason for this has been succinc tly stated by Benet of Canfield in his Rule of Perfection. The more a man operates, the more he is and exi sts. And the more he is and exists, the less of God is and exists within him. Every enhancement of the separate pers onal self produces a correspond ing diminution of that selfs awareness of Divine Reality. But any violent reaction of the surface will against distractions automatically enhances the separate, personal self and therefore reduce s the individua ls chances of coming to the knowledge and love of God. In the proc ess of trying forcibly to abolish our Go d-eclipsing daydreams, we mere ly deepen the darkness of o ur native ignorance. This being so, we must give up the attempt to fight distraction s and find ways either of circumventing them, or of somehow making use of them. F o r e x a m p l e , i f w e h a v e a l r e a d y a c h i e v e d a c e r t a i n d e g r e e o f a l ert passivity in relation to Reality and distractions intervene, we can simply look over the shoulder of the malicious and concupiscent imbe cile who stands between us and the object of our simple regard. The di stractions now appear in the foreground of consciousness; we take notice o f their 355 presence, then, lightly and gent ly, without any straining of th e will, we shift the focus of attention to Reality which we glimpse, or Di vine, or (by past experience or an act of faith) merely know about, in the background. In many cases, this effortless shift of attention will cause th e distractions to lose their obsessive therene ss and, for a time at least, t o disappear. If the heart wanders or is distracted , bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in it s Masters presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in Our Lords pr esence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your ho ur would be very well employed. St Franois de Sales I n t h i s c a s e t h e c i r c u m v e n t i o n o f d i s t r a c t i o n s c o n s t i t u t e s a v a luable lesson in patience and perseveran ce. Another and more direct me thod of making use of the monkey in our heart is described in The Cl oud of Unknowing. When thou feelest that thou mayest in no wise put them (distractions) down, cower then down under th em as a caitin and a coward overcome in battle, and think it is bu t folly to strive any longer with them, and therefore thou yieldest th yself to God in the hands of thine enemies. . . . And surely, I think, if th is device be truly conceived, it is nought else but a true knowing and a feeling of thyself as thou art, a wretch and a filthy thing, far wo rse than nought; the which knowing and feeling is meekness (humility). And this meekness meriteth to have God mightily descending to venge thee on thine enemies, so as to take thee up and cherishingly dry thy ghos tly eyes, as the father doth to the child that is at the point to perish under the mouths of wild swine and mad biting bears. The Cloud of Unknowing 356 Finally, there is the exercise, much employed in India, which c onsists in dispassionately examining the di stractions as they arise and in tracing t h e m b a c k , t h r o u g h t h e m e m o r y o f p a r t i c u l a r t h o u g h t s , f e e l i n g s and actions, to their origins in tem perament and character, constit ution and acquired habit. This procedure reveals to the soul the true rea sons for its separation from the Divine Ground of its being. It comes to realize that its spiritual ignorance is due to the inert recalcitrance or positive rebelliousness of its selfhood, an d it discovers, specifically, th e poin ts w h e r e t h a t e c l i p s i n g s e l f h o o d c o n g e a l s , a s i t w e r e , i n t o t h e h a rdest, densest clots. Then, having made the resolution to do what it c an, in the course of daily living, to rid itself of these impediments to L ight, it quietly puts aside the thought of them and empty, purged and silent, pa ssively exposes itself to whatever it may be that lies beyond and withi n. N o v e r i m m e , n o v e r i m T e , S t . F r a n c i s o f A s s i s i u s e d t o r e p e a t . S e l f - knowledge, leading to self-hatred and humility, is the conditio n of the love and knowledge of God. Spiritual exercises that make use of distractions have this great mer it, that they increase self-kno wledge. Every soul that approaches God must be aware of who and what it is. To practise a form of mental or vocal prayer that is, so to speak, above ones m o r a l s t a t i o n i s t o a c t a l i e : a n d t h e c o n s e q u e n c e s o f s u c h l y i ng are wrong notions about God, idolatrous worship of private and unre alistic phantasies and (for lack of the humilit y of self-knowledge) spiritual pride. It is hardly necessary to add that this method has, like every other, its dangers as well as its advantages. For those who employ it ther e is a standing temptation to forget th e end in the all too squalidly personal means - to become absorbed in a whitewashing or remorseful essa y in autobiography to the exclusion of the pure Divinity, before who m the angry ape played all the fantas tic tricks which he now so rel ishingly remembers. 357 We come now to what may be calle d the spiritual exercises of da ily life. The problem, here, is simple enough - how to keep oneself remin ded, during the hours of work and recreation, that there is a good d eal more to the universe than that which meets the eye of one absorbed i n business or pleasure? There is no single solution to this probl em. Some kinds of work and recreation are so simple and unexactive that they permit of continuous repetition of sacred name or phrase, unbro ken thought about Divine Reality, or, what is still better, uninter rupted mental silence and alert passivity. Such occupations as were th e daily task of Brother Lawrence (whose practice of the presence of God has enjoyed a kind of celebrity in circles otherwise completely uni nterested in mental prayer or spiritual exercises) were almost all of this simple and unexacting kind. But there are other tasks too complex to admit of this constant recollectedness. Thus, to quote E ckhart, a celebrant of the ma ss who is over-intent on recollection is l iable to make mistakes. The bes t way is to try to concentrate the mind before and afterwards, but, when sa ying it, to do so quite straightforwardly . This advice applies to any o ccupation demanding undivided attention. B ut undivided attention is seldo m demanded and is with difficulty sustained for long periods at a stretch. There are always intervals of relaxation. Everyone is free to c hoose whether these intervals shall be filled with day-dreaming or wi th something better. Whoever has God in mind, simply an d solely God, in all things, such a man carries God with him into all his works and into all places, and God alone does all his works. He se eks nothing but God, nothing seems good to him but God. He becomes on e with God in every thought. Just as no multiplicity can dissipate God, so nothing can dissipate this man or make him multiple. Eckhart 358 I do not mean that we ought volun tarily to put ourselves in the way of dissipating influences; God forbid ! That would be tempting God and seeking danger. But such distractions as come in any way providentially, if met with due prec aution and carefully guarded hours of prayer and reading, will turn to good. Often those things which make you sigh for solitude are more profitable to your humiliation and self-denial than the most utter solitu de itself would be. . . . Sometimes a stimulating book of devotion, a fervent meditation, a striking conversation, may flatter your tastes and make you feel self-satisfied and complacent, imagining yourself far advanced towards perfection; and by filling you with unreal notions, be all the time swelling your pride and making you come from your religious exercises less tolerant of whatever crosses your will. I would have you hold fast to this simple rule: seek nothing dissipating, bu t bear quietly with whatever God sends without your seeking it, whethe r of dissipation or interruption. It is a great delusion to seek Go d afar off in matters perhaps quite unattainable, ignoring that He is be side us in our daily annoyances, so long as we bear humbly and brav ely all those which arise from the manifold imperfections of our neighbours and ourselves. Fnelon Consider that your life is a perpetual perishing, and lift up your mind to God above all whenever the clock strikes, saying, God, I adore your eternal being; I am happy that my being should perish every moment, so that at every moment it may render homage to your eternity. J.J. Olier When you are walking alone, or else where, glance at the general will of God, by which He wills all the works of his mercy and justice in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and approve, praise and then love that sovereign will, all holy, all just , all beautiful. Gl ance next at the 359 special will of God, by which He l oves his own, and works in them in divers ways, by consolation and tribulation. And then you should ponder a little, considering the variety of consolations, but especially of tribulations, that the good suff er; and then with great humility approve, praise and love all this wi ll. Consider that will in your own person, in all the good or ill that happens to you and may happen to you, except sin; then approve, praise and love all that, protesting that you will ever cherish, honour an d adore that sovereign will, and submitting to Gods pleasure an d giving Him all who are yours, amongst whom am I. End in a great conf idence in that will, that it will work all good for us and our happi ness. I add that, when you have performed this exercise two or three times in this way, you can shorten it, vary it and arrange it, as you find best, for it should often be thrust into your heart as an aspiration. St. Franois de Sales Dwelling in the light, there is no oc casion at all for stumbling, for all things are discovered in the light. Wh en thou art walking abroad it is present with thee in thy bosom, thou needest not to say, Lo here, or Lo there; and as thou lyest in thy bed, it is present to teach thee and judge thy wandering mind, which wanders abroad, and thy high thoughts and imaginations, and make s them subject. For following thy thoughts, thou art quickly lost. By dwelling in this light, it will discover to thee the body of sin an d thy corruptions and fallen estate, where thou art. In that light which shows thee all this, stand; go neither to the right nor to the left. George Fox The extract which follows is taken from the translation by Wait ao and Goddard of the Chinese text of The Awakening of Faith, by Ashva ghosha - a work originally composed in Sanskrit during the first centu ry of our e r a , b u t o f w h i c h t h e o r i g i n a l h a s b e e n l o s t . A s h v a g h o s h a d e v o t es a 360 section of his treatise to the expedient means, as they are c alled in Buddhist terminology, whereby un itive knowledge of Thusness may be achieved. The list of these indi spensable means includes charit y and compassion towards all sentient beings, sub-human as well as hu man, self-naughting or mortification, personal devotion to the incar nations of the Absolute Buddha nature, and spiritual exercises designed to free the mind from its infatuating desires for separateness and independ ent selfhood and so make it capable of realizing the identity of it s own essence with the universal Essence of Mind. Of these various e xpedient means I will cite only the last two - the Way of Tranquillity, and the Way of Wisdom. The Way of Tranquillity The purpose of this discipline is tw o-fold: to bring to a standstill all disturbing thoughts (and all discriminating thoughts are disturbing), to quiet all engrossing moods and emotio ns, so that it will be possible to concentrate the mind for the purpos e of meditation and realization. Secondly, when the mind is tranqu illized by stoppin g all discursive thinking, to practise reflection or meditation, not in a discriminating, analytical way, but in a more intellectual way (cp. the scholastic distinction between reason and intellect), by realizing the meaning and significances of ones thoughts and experiences. By this twofold practice of stopping and realizing, ones faith, which has already been awakened, will be developed, and gr adually the two aspects of this practice will merge into one another - the mind perfectly tranquil, but most active in realization. In the past one naturally had co nfidence in ones faculty of discrimination (analytical thinking), but this is now to be eradicated and ended. Those who are practising stopping should retire to some 361 quiet place and there, sitting erect, earnestly seek to tranquillize and concentrate the mind. While one may at first think of ones breathing, it is not wise to continue this prac tice very long, nor to let the mind rest on any particular appearances, or sights, or conc eptions, arising from the senses, such as the primal elements of earth, water, fire and ether (objects on which Hinayanists were wont to concentrate at one stage of their spiritual training), nor to let it rest on any of the minds perceptions, particularizations, di scriminations, moods or emotions. All kinds of ideation are to be discar ded as fast as they arise; even the notions of controlling and discarding are to be got rid of. Ones mind should become like a mirror, reflec ting things, but not judging them or retaining them. Conceptions of th emselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Conceptions arising from the senses and lower mind will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if th ey are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing. The sa me is true of conditions outside the mind; they should not be allowe d to engross ones attention and so to hinder ones practice. The mind cannot be absolutely vacant, and as the thoughts arising from the senses and the lower mind are discarded and ignored, one must supply thei r place by right mentation. The question then arises: what is ri ght mentation? The reply is: right mentation is the realization of mind itself, of its pure undifferentiated Essence. When the mind is fixed on its pure Essence, there should be no lingering notions of the self, even of the self in the act of realizing, nor of realization as a phenomenon. . . . 362 The Way of Wisdom The purpose of this discipline is to bring a man into the habit of applying the insight that has come to him as the result of the preceding disciplines. When one is rising, st anding, walking, doing something, stopping, one should constantly conc entrate ones mind on the act and the doing of it, not on ones relation to the act, or its character or value. One should think: there is walking, there is stopping, there is realizing; not, I am walking, I am doing this, it is a good thing, it is disagreeable, I am gaining merit, it is I who am realizing how wonderful it is. Thence come vagrant thoughts, feelings of elation or of failure and unhappiness. Instead of all this , one should simply practise concentration of the mind on the act itself, understanding it to be an expedient means for attaining tranquillity of mind, realization, insight and wisdom; and one should follow th e practice in faith, willingness and gladness. After long practice the bondage of old habits becomes weakened and disappears, and in its place appear confidence, satisfaction, awareness and tranquilli ty. What is this Way of Wisdom designed to accomplish? There are three classes of conditions that hinder one from advancing along the path to Enlightenment. First, there are the allurements arising from the senses, from external conditions and from the discrimina ting mind. Second, there are the internal conditions of the mind, its thoughts, desires and mood. All these the earlier practices (ethical and mortificatory) are designed to eliminate. In the third class of impe diments are placed the individuals instinctive and fundamental (and therefore most insidious and persistent) urges - the will to live and to enjoy, the will to cherish ones personality, the will to propagate, which give rise to greed and lust, fear and anger, infatuation, pride and egotism. 363 The practice of the wisdom Parami ta is designed to control and eliminate these fundamental and inst inctive hindrances. By means of it the mind gradually grows cleare r, more luminous, more peaceful. Insight becomes more penetrating, faith deepens and broadens, until they merge into the inconceivabl e Samadhi of the Minds Pure Essence. As one continues the prac tice of the Way of Wisdom, one yields less and less to thoughts of comfort or desolation; faith becomes surer, more pervasive, beneficent an d joyous; and fear of retrogression vanishes. But do not think that the consummati on is to be attained easily or quickly; many rebirths may be ne cessary, many aeons may have to elapse. So long as doubts, unbelief, slanders, evil conduct, hindrances of Karma, weakness of faith, pride, sloth and mental agitation persist, so long as even their shadows linger , there can be no attainment of the Samadhi of the Buddhas. But he who has attained to the radiance of highest Samadhi, or unitive Knowledge, will be able to realize, with all the Buddhas, the perfect unity of all sentient beings with B u d d h a h o o d s D h a r m a k a y a . I n t h e p u r e D h a r m a k a y a t h e r e i s n o dualism, neither shadow of differenti ation. All sentient beings, if only they were able to realize it, are al ready in Nirvana. The Minds pure Essence is Highest Samadhi, is Anuttara-samyak-Sam dhi, is Prajna Paramita, is Highest Perfect Wisdom. Ashvaghosha avb 364 Chapter 26 PERSEVERANCE AND REGULARITY He who interrupts the course of hi s spiritual exercises and prayer is like a man who allows a bird to es cape from his hand; he can hardly catch it again. St. John of the Cross Si volumus non redire, currendum est. (If we wish not to go backwards, we must run.) Pelagius If thou shouldst say, It is enough , I have reached perfection, all is lost. For it is the function of perfection to make one know ones imperfection. St. Augustine HE Buddhists have a similar saying to the effect that, if an Ar hat thinks to himself that he is an Arhat, that is proof that he is not an Arhat. I tell you that no one ca n experience this birth (of God realized in the soul) without a mighty effort. No one ca n attain this birth unless he can withdraw his mind entirely from things. Eckhart If a sharp penance had been laid upon me, I know of none that I would not very often have willingly undert aken, rather than prepare myself for prayer by self-recollection. And certainly the violence with which Satan assailed me was so irresistible, or my evil habits were so strong, that I did not betake myself to prayer ; and the sadness I felt on entering the oratory was so great that it requ ired all the courage I had to force myself in. They say of me that my co urage is not slight, and it is known that God has given me a courage beyond that of a woman; but I have made a bad use of it. In the end Our Lord came to my relief, and when T 365 I had done this violence to myself , I found greater pe ace and joy than I sometimes had when I ha d a desire to pray. St. Teresa To one of his spiritual children our dear father (St. Francois de Sales) said, Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disheartened by your imperf ections, but always rise up with fresh courage. I am glad you make a fresh beginning daily; there is no better means of attaining to the sp iritual life than by continually beginning again, and never thinking that we have done enough. How are we to be patient in bearing with our neighbours faults, if we are impatient in bearing with our own? He who is fretted by his own failings will not correct them; all profitable correction comes from a calm, peaceful mind. Jean Pierre Camus There are scarce any souls that give themselves to in ternal prayer but some time or other do find themselv es in great indisposition thereto, having great obscurities in the mind and great insensibility in their affections, so that if imperfect souls be not well instructed and prepared, they will be in danger, in case that such contradictions of inferior nature continue long, to be dejected, yea, and perhaps deterred from pursuing prayer, for th ey will be apt to think that their recollections are to no purpose at a ll, since, for as much as seems to them, whatsoever they think or actu ate towards God is a mere loss of time and of no worth at all; and therefore that it would be more profitable for them to employ their time some other way. Yea, some souls there are conducte d by Almighty God by no other w a y , b u t o n l y b y s u c h p r a y e r o f a r i d i t y , f i n d i n g n o s e n s i b l e contentment in any recollection, but, on the contrary, continual pain and contradiction, and yet, by a privy grace and courage imprinted deeply in the spirit, cease not for a ll that, but resolutely break through 366 all difficulties and continue, the be st way they can, their internal exercises to the great adva ncement of their spirit. Augustine Baker avb Chapter 27 CONTEMPLATION, ACTION AND SOCIAL UTILITY N all the historic formulations of the Perennial Philosophy it is axiomatic that the end of human life is contemplation, or the d irect and intuitive awareness of God; that action is the means to tha t end; that a society is good to the extent that it renders contemplat ion possible for its members; and that the existence of at least a minority of c o n t e m p l a t i v e s i s n e c e s s a r y f o r t h e w e l l - b e i n g o f a n y s o c i e t y . In the popular philosophy of our own tim e it goes without saying that the end of human life is actio n; that contemplation (above all in its lower forms of discursive thought) is the means to that end; that a society is good to the extent that the actions of its members make for progress in tec hnology and organization (a progress which is assumed to be causally related to ethical and cultural advance) ; and that a minority of contemplatives is perfectly useless and perhaps even harmful to the community whi ch tolerates it. To expatiate furth er on the modern Weltanschauung i s unnecessary; explicitly or by imp lication it is set forth on ev ery page of the advertising sections of every newspaper and magazine. The e xtracts that follow have been chosen in order to illustrate the older, truer, less familiar theses of the Perennial Philosophy. Work is for the purification of th e mind, not for the perception of Reality. The realization of Truth is brought about by discrimination, and not in the least by ten millions of acts. Shankara I 367 Now, the last end of each thing is that which is intended by the first author or mover of that thing; an d the first author and mover of the universe is an intellect. Conseque ntly, the last end of the universe must be the good of the intellect; and this is truth. Therefore truth must be the last end of the whol e universe, and the consideration thereof must be the chief occupation of wisdom. And for this reason Divine Wisdom, clothed in flesh, decl ares that He came into the world to make known the truth.. . . Mo reover Aristotle defines the First Philosophy as being the knowledge of truth, not of any truth, but of that truth which is the source of all truth, of that, namely, which refers to the first principle of being of a ll things; wherefore its truth is the principle of all truth, since the dispos ition of things is the same in truth as in being. St. Thomas Aquinas These works (of mercy), though they be but active, yet they help very much, and dispose a man in the begi nning to attain afterwards to contemplation. Walter Hilton In Buddhism, as in Vedanta and in all but the most recent forms o f Christianity, right action is th e means by which the mind is pr epared for contemplation. The first seven branches of the Eightfold Path a re the active, ethical preparation for unitive knowledge of Suchness. Only those who consistently practise the Four Virtuous Acts, in whic h all other virtues are included - namely, t he requital of hatred by love, resignation, holy indifference or desireles sness, obedience to the Dharma or venial N a t u r e o f T h i n g s - c a n h o p e t o a c h i e v e t h e l i b e r a t i n g r e a l i z a t i on that Samsara and Nirvana are one, tha t the soul and all other beings have as their living principle the Intell igible Light or Buddha-womb. A question now, quite naturally, presents itself: Who is called to that highest form of prayer which is contemplation? The answer is unequivocally plain. All are call e d t o c o n t e m p l a t i o n , b e c a u s e a ll are 368 called to achieve deliverance, which is nothing else but the kn owledge that unites the knower with what is known, namely the eternal G round or Godhead. The oriental exponen ts of the Perennial Philosophy would probably deny that everyone is c alled here and now; in this par ticular life, they would say, it may be to all intents and purposes imp ossible for a given individual to achieve more than a partial deliverance, such as personal survival in some kind of heaven, from which there ma y be either an advance towards total liberation or else a return to those material conditions which, as al l the masters of the spiritual life agree, are so uniquely propitious for taking the cosmic intelligence t est that results in enlightenment. In orthodox Christianity it is denied that the individual soul can have more than one incarnation, or that it can make any progress in its posthumous existence. If it goes to hell, i t stays there. If it goes to purgatory, it mere ly expiates past evil doing, so as to become capable of the beatific vision. And when it gets to heaven, it has just so much of the beatific vision as its conduct during its one brief life on earth made it capable of, and everlastingly no more. Granted these postulates, it follows that, if all are called to contemplation, they are called to it from that particular posit ion in the hierarchy of being, to which nature, nurture, free will and gra ce have conspired to assign them. In the words of an eminent contempora ry theologian, Father Garrigou-Lagr ange, all souls receive a gene ral remote call to the mystical life, and if all were faithful in a voiding, as they should, not only mortal but veni al sins, if they were, each acc ording to his condition, generally docile to the Holy Ghost, and if they lived long enough, a day would come when they would receive the proximate and efficacious vocation to a high perfection and to the mystical l ife properly so called. This view - that the life of mystical contemplation is the proper and normal development of the i nterior life of recollectednes s and devotion to God is then justified by the following consideratio ns. First, 369 the principle of the two lives is the same. Second, it is only in the life of mystical contemplation that the interior life finds its consumm ation. Third, their end, which is eternal life, is the same; moreover, only the life of mystical contemplation prepar es immediately and perfectly fo r that end. There are few contemplatives, because few souls are perfectly humble. The Imitation of Christ God does not reserve such a lofty vocation (that of mystical contemplation) to certain souls only; on the contrary, He is willing that all should embrace it. But He finds few who permit Him to work such sublime things for them. There are many who, when He sends them trials, shrink from the labour and re fuse to bear with the dryness and mortification, instead of submitti ng, as they must, with perfect patience. St. John of the Cross This assertion that all are called to contemplation seems to conflict with what we know about the inborn varieties of temperament and with the doctrine that there are at least three principal roads to liberation - the ways of works and devotion as well as the way of knowledge. But the conflict is more apparent than real. If the ways of devotion and works lead to liberation, it is because they lead into the way of knowledge. For total delive rance comes only through unitive knowledge. A soul which does not go on from the ways of devotion and works into the way of knowle dge is not totally delivered, but achieves at the best the incomplete salvation of heaven. Coming now to the question of temperament, we find that, in effect, certain individuals are naturally drawn to lay the main doctrinal and practical emphasis in one place, certain others elsewhere. But though there may be born devotees, born workers, born contemplatives, it is 370 nevertheless true that even th ose at the extreme limits of temperamental eccentricity are capa ble of making use of other ways than that to which they are natu rally drawn. Given the requisite degree of obedience to the lead ings of the Light, the born contemplative can learn to purify his heart by work and direct his mind by one-pointed adoration; the born devotee and the born worker can learn to be still and know that I am God. Nobody need be the victim of his peculiar talents. Few or many, of this stamp or of that, they are given us to be used for th e gaining of one great end. We have the power to choose whether to use th em well or badly - in the easier, worse way or the harder and better . Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon th emselves the works of the active life so as to become yet mo re apt for contemplation. St. Thomas Aquinas He who is strong in faith, weak in understanding, will generally place his confidence in good-for-nothing people and believe in the wrong object. He who is strong in understa nding, weak in faith, leans towards dishonesty and is difficult to cure, like a disease caused by medicine. One in whom both are equal believes in the right object. He who is strong in concentration, weak in energy, is overcome by idleness, since concentration partakes of the nature of idleness. He who is strong in energy, weak in concentration, is overcome by distractions, since energy partakes of the nature of distraction. Therefore they should be made eq ual to one another, since from equality in both comes contem plation and ecstasy. . . . 371 Mindfulness should be strong ever ywhere, for mindfulness keeps the mind away from distraction, into which it might fall, since faith, energy and understanding partake of the nature of distraction: and away from idleness, into which it might fall, since concentration partakes of the nature of idleness. Buddhaghosha At this point it is worth remarking parenthetically that God is b y n o means the only possible object of contemplation. There have bee n and still are many philosophic, aest hetic and scientific contemplat ives. One- pointed concentration on that wh ich is not the highest may beco me a dangerous form of idolatry. In a letter to Hooker, Darwin wrote that it is a cursed evil to any man to become so absorbed in any subjec t as 'I am in mine. It is an evil becau se such one-pointedness may res ult in the more or less total atrophy of all but one side of the mind. Dar win himself records that in later life he was unable to take the smallest i nterest in poetry, art or religion. Professi onally, in relation to his cho sen specialty, a man may be completely mature. Spiritually and sometimes even ethically, in relation to God and his neighbours, he may be har dly more than a foetus. In cases where the one-pointed contemplation is of God there is also a risk that the minds unemployed capacities may atrophy. The her mits of Tibet and the Thebaid were certa i n l y o n e - p o i n t e d , b u t w i t h a o n e- pointedness of exclusion and mutilation. It may be, however, th at if they had been more truly docile to th e Holy Ghost, they would have come to understand that the one-poin tedness of exclusion is at best a preparation for the one-pointedness of inclusion - the realizat ion of God in the fullness of cosmic being as well as in the interior heig ht of the individual soul. Like the Taoist sage, they would at last have turned back into the world riding on their t amed and regenerate individuali ty; they would have come eating and drinking, would have associated wi th publicans and sinners or their Buddhist equivalents, wine-bi bbers and 372 butchers. For the fully enlight ened, totally liberated person, Samsara and Nirvana, time and eternity, the phenomenal and the Real, ar e essentially one. His whole life is an unsleeping and one-pointe d contemplation of the Godhead in and through the things, lives, minds and events of the world of becom ing. There is here no mutilatio n of the soul, no atrophy of any of its p owers and capacities. Rather, t here is a general enhancement and intensification of consciousness, and a t the s a m e t i m e a n e x t e n s i o n a n d t r a n s f i g u r a t i o n . N o s a i n t h a s e v e r complained that absorption in God was a cursed evil. In the beginning was the Word; beho ld Him to whom Mary listened. And the Word was made flesh; behold Him whom Martha served. St. Augustine God aspires us into Hi mself in contemplation, and then we must be wholly His; but afterwards the Spirit of God expires us without, for the practice of love and good works. Ruysbroeck Action, says Aquinas, should be something added to the life of prayer, not something taken away from it. One of the reasons for this recommendation is strictly utilitarian; action that is taken aw ay from the life of prayer is action unenlightened by contact with Reality, uninspired and unguided; consequently it is apt to be ineffective and even harmful. The sages of old, says Chuang Tzu, first got Tao for themsel ves, then got it for others. There can be no taking of motes out of othe r peoples eyes so long as the beam in our own eye prevents us from seeing the Divine Sun and working by its light. Speaking of those who prefer imm ediate action to acquiring, thr ough contemplation, the power to act well, St. John of the Cross ask s, What do they accomplish? And he answers, Poco mas que nada, y a ve ces nada, y aun cz veces dano (Little more than nothing, and sometimes nothing at all, and s ometimes even harm). Income must balance 373 expenditure. This is necessary not merely on the economic level , but also on the physiological, the intellectual, the ethical and the spi ritual. We cannot put forth physical energ y unless we stoke our body with fuel in the form of food. We cannot hope to utter anything worth saying , unless we read and inwardly digest the utterances of our betters. We c annot act rightly and effectively unless we are in the habit of layin g ourselves open to leadings of the Divine Nature of Things. We must draw i n the goods of eternity in order to be able to give out the goods of time. But the goods of eternity cannot be had except by giving up at leas t a little of our time to silently waiting for them. This means that the l ife in which ethical expenditure is balanced by spiritual income must be a l ife in which action alternates with repo se, speech with alertly passiv e silence. Otium sanctum quaert cantas veri tatis; negotium justum suscipit necessitas caritatis The love of Truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of love undert akes righteous action The bodies of men and animals are reciprocating engines, in whi ch tension is always succeeded by re laxation. Even the unsleeping heart rests between beat and beat. Ther e is nothing in living Nature that even distantly resembles ma ns greatest technical invention, the con tinuously revolving wheel. (It is this fact, no doubt, which accounts for the boredom, weariness and apathy of those who, in modern factories, are for ced to adapt their bodily and mental movements to circular motions of mechan ically uniform velocity.) What a man takes in by contemplation, says Eckhart, that he pours out in love. The well-meaning humanist and the merely muscular Christian, who imagines that he can obey the second of the grea t commandments without taking time even to think how best he may love God with all his heart, soul and mind, are people engaged in th e i mpossible task of pou ring unc easingly from a contai n er that is never replenished. 374 Daughters of Charity ought to love prayer as the body loves the soul. And just as the body cannot live wi thout the soul, so the soul cannot live without prayer. And in so far as a daughter prays as she ought to pray, she will do well. She will not walk, she will run in the ways of the Lord, and will be raised to a hi gh degree of the love of God. St. Vincent de Paul Households, cities, countries and nations have enjoyed great happiness, when a single individual has taken heed of the Good and Beautiful. . . . Such men not only li berate themselves; they fill those they meet with a free mind. Philo Similar views are expressed by A l-Ghazzali, who regards the mys tics not only as the ultimate source of o ur knowledge of the soul and it s capacities and defects, but as th e salt which preserves human s ocieties from decay. In the time of the philosophers, he writes, as a t every other period, there existed some of these fervent mystics. God does not deprive this world of them, for they are its sustainers. It is they who, dying to themselves, become capable of perpetual inspiration an d so are made the instruments through whi ch Divine Grace is mediated to those whose unregenerate nature is imp ervious to the delicate touches of the Spirit. avb 375 A List of Recommended Books This is not a Bibliography as it does not list all the books qu oted from (see p.13) or give references for the quotations used. AL-GHAZZALI. Confessions. T ranslated by Claud Field (London, 1909). ANSARI of HERAT. The Invocations of Sheikh Abdullah Ansari of H erat. Translated by Sardar Sir Jogendra Singh (London, 1939) ATTAR. Selections. Translated by Margaret Smith (London, 1932). AUGUSTINE, ST. Confessions (numerous editions). AUROBINDO, SRI. The Li fe Divine, 3 vols. (Calcutta, 1939). BAKER, AUGUSTINE. Holy Wisdom (London, 1876). BEAUSOBRE, JULIA DE. The Woman Who Could Not Die (London and New York, 1938). BERNARD of CLAIRVAUX, ST. The Steps of Humility (Cambridge, Mass., 1940). On the Love of God (New York, 1937). Selected Letters (London, 1904). An admirably lucid account of St. Bernards thought may be foun d in The Mystical Doctrine of Saint Bernard, by Professor tienne Gilson (London and New York, 1940). BERTOCCI, PETER A. The Empirical Argument for God in Late Briti sh Philosophy (Cambridge, Mass., 1938). BHAGAVAD-GITA. Among many translations of this Hindu scripture the best, from a literary point of view, is that of Swami Prabhavan anda and Christopher Isherwood (Los Angeles, 1944). Valuable notes, based upon the commentaries of Shankara, are to be found in Swami Nikhilan andas edition (New York, 1944), and Professor Franklin Edgertons literal translation (Cambridge, Mass., 1944) is preceded by a long and scholarly introduction. BINYON, L. The Flight of the Dragon (London, 1911). 376 BOEHME, JAKOB. Some good introdu ction is needed to the work of this important but difficult mystic. On the theological and devotion al side the Danish Bishop H. L. Martensens Jacob Boehme (trans., London, 1885) is r e c o m m e n d e d ; o r f r o m a m o r e p h i l o s o p h i c a l v i e w p o i n t A . K o y r s splendid volume La Philosophie de Jacob Boehme ( n o t y e t t r a n s l a t e d , Paris, 1929) or H. H. Brintons The Mystic Will (New York, 1930). BRAHMANANDA, SWAMI. Records of h is teaching and a biography by Swami Prabhavananda are contained in The Eternal Companion (Los Angeles, 1944). CAMUS, JEAN PIERRE. The Spirit of St. Franois de Sales (London, n.d.). CAUSSADE, J. P. DE. Abandonment (New York, 1887). Spiritual Letters, 3 vols. (London, 1937). C H A N T A L , S T . J E A N N E F E A N G O T S E . S e l e c t e d L e t t e r s (London and New York, 1918). CHAPMAN, ABBOT JOHN. Spiritual Letters (London, 1935). C H U A N G T Z U . C h u a n g T z u - M y s t i c , M o r a l i s t a n d S o c i a l R e f o r m e r . Translated by Herbert Giles (Shanghai, 1936). Musings of a Chinese Mystic (London, 1920). Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times. 'Translated by E. R. Hug hes (London, 1943). The Cloud of Unknowing (with comme ntary by Augustine Baker). Ed ited with an introduction by Justice McCann (London, 1924). COOMARASWAMY, ANANDA K. Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism (New York, 1916). The Transformation of Nature in Art (Cambridge, Mass., 1935). Hinduism and Buddhism (New York, n.d.). CURTIS, A. M. Th e Way of Silence (Burton Bradstock, Dorset, 1937) DEUSSEN, PAUL. The Philosophy of the Upanishads (London, 1906). 377 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE. On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology. Translated with an introduction by C. E. Rolt (London, 1920). E C K H A R T , M E I S T E R . W o r k s , t r a n s l a t e d b y C . B . E v a n s (London, 1924). Meister Eckhart, A Modern Translation. By R. B. Blakney (New York, 1941). EVANS-WENTZ, W. Y. The T ibetan Book of the Dead (New York, 1927). Tibets Great Yogi, Milarepa (New York, 1928). Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines (New York, 1935). The Following of Christ. Unknown author, but mistakenly attribu ted to Tauler in the first English edition (London, 1886). FOX, GEORGE. Journal (London, 1911). FROST, BEDE. The Art of Mental Prayer (London, 1940). Saint John of the Cross (London, 1937). GARRIGOU - LAGRANGE, R. Christia n Perfection and Contemplation. (London and St. Louis, 1937). GODDARD, DWIGHT. A Buddhist Bible (published by the editor, Thetford, Maine, 1938). This volume contains translations of several Mahayana texts not to be found, or to be found only with much difficulty , e l s e w h e r e . A m o n g t h e s e a r e T h e Diamond Sutra, The urangama Sutra, The Lakvatra Sutra, The Awakening of Faith and The Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. GUNON, REN. Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta (London, n.d.). East and West (London, 1941). The Crisis of the Modern World (London, 1942). HEARD, GERALD. The Creed of Christ (New York, 1940). The Code of Christ (New York, 1941). Preface to Prayer (New York, 1944). HILTON, WALTER. The Scale of Perfection (London, 1927). 378 HUEGEL, FRIEDRICH VON. The Mystical Element in Religion as Stud ied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends (London, 1923) IBN TUFAIL. The Awakening of the Soul. Translated by Paul Bronn ie (London, 1910). The Imitation of Christ. Whitfords translation, edited by E. J . Klein (New York, 1941). INGE, W. R. Christian Mysticism (London, 1899). Studies of English Mystics - including William Law (London, 1906). JOHN of THE CROSS, ST. Works, 3 vols. (London, 1934-1935). JONES, RUFUS. Studies in Mystical Religion. The Spiritual Refor mer: in the 15th and 17th Centuries (New York, 1914). The Flowering of Mysticism (New York, 1939). JORGENSEN, JOHANNES. Sai nt Catherine of Siena (London, 1938). JULIANA of NORWICH. Reve lations of Divine Love (London, 1917). LAO TZU. There are many translations of the Tao Teh King. Consu lt and compare those of Arthur Waley in The Way and Its Power (London, 1933) , of F. R. Hughes in Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times (Everymans Library) and of Chu Ta-Kao (London, 1927) reprinted in The Bible of the World (New York, 1939). LAW, WILLIAM. Several modern editions of his Serious Call are a vailable; but none of Laws still finer and much more distinctly mystical works, such as The Spirit of Prayer and The Spirit of Love, have been reprinted in full in recent years. Long ex tracts from them may however be found in Stephen Hobhouses Selected Mystical Writings of William Law (London, 1939) (a work which also contains some useful Notes a nd Studies in the mystical theology of William Law and Jacob Boehme ) and in the same writers William Law and Eighteenth Century Quakerism (London, 1927). Alexander Whyte also compiled a fine anthology, Characters and Characteristics of William Law ( 4 t h e d . L o n d o n , 1 9 0 7 ) ; while for the 379 student there is Christopher Waltons extraordinary encyclopaed ic collection of Nates and Materials for an adequate biography of William Law (London, 1856). LEEN, EDWARD. Progress through Mental Prayer (London, 1940). MCKEON, RICHARD. Selections from Medieval Philosophers, 2 vols. (New York, 1929). RUMI, JALAL-UDDIN. The Mirror of Simple Souls. Author unknown (London, 1927). NICHOLAS of CUSA. The Idiot (San Francisco, 1940). The Vision of God (London and New York, 1928). NICHOLSON, R. The Mystics of Islam (London, 1914). OMAN, JOHN. The Natural and the Supernatural (London, 1938). OTTO, RUDOLF. Indias Religion of Grace (London, 1930). Mysticism East and West (London, 1932). PATANJALI. Yoga Aphorisms. Translated with a commentary by Swam i Vivekananda (New York, 1899). PLOTINUS. The Essence of Plotinus ( G . H . T u m b u l l , N e w Y o r k , 1 9 3 4 ) . A good anthology of this very important and voluminous mystic. PONNELLE, L. and L. BORDET. St. Ph ilip Neri and the Roman Socie ty of His Time (London, 1932). POULAIN, A. The Graces of Interior Prayer (London, 1910). POURRAT, P. Christian Spirituality, 3 vols. (London, 1922). PRATT, J. B. The Pilgrimage of Buddhism (New York, 1928). QUAKERS. The Beginnings of Quakerism, by W. P. Braithwaite (London, 1912). See also George Fox, p. 348. 380 RADHAKRISHNAN, S. The Hindu View of Life (London and New York, 1927). Indian Philosophy (London and New York, 1923-1927). Eastern Religions and Western Thought (New York, 1939). RAMAKRISHNA, SRI. The Gospel of S ri Ramakrishna. Translated fro m the Bengali narrative of M by Swami Nikhilananda (New York, 1942). RUMI, JALAL-UDDIN. Masnavi. Translated by E. H. Whinfield (London, 1898). RUYSBROECK, JAN VAN. The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage (London, 1916). Consult also the studies by Evelyn Underhill (London, 1915) and Wautier dAygalliers (London, 1925). SALES, ST. FRANOIS DE. Introduction to the Devant Life (numerous editions). Treatise on the Love of God (new edition, Westminster, Md., 1942). Spiritual Conferences (London, 1868). See also J. P. Camus. The Secret of the Golden Flower. Translated from the Chinese by Richard Wilhelm. Commentary by Dr. C. G. Jung (London and New York, 1931). SPURGEON, CAROLINE. Mysticism in English Literature (Cambridge, 1913). STOCKS, J. L. Time, Cause and Eternity (London, 1938). STOUT, G. F. Mind and Matter (London, 1931). Sutra Spoken by the Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng. Translated by Wung Mou-lam (Shanghai, 1930). Reprinted in A Buddhist Bible (Thetford, 1938). SUZUKI, B. L. Mahayana Buddhism (London, 1938). S U Z U K I , D . T . S t u d i e s i n Z e n B u d d h i s m (London, 1927). Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra ( K y o t o a n d L o n d o n , 1 9 3 5 ) . Manual onen Buddhism (Kyoto, 1935). TAGORE, RABINDRANA TH. One Hundred Poems of Kabir (London, 1915). 381 TAULER, JOHANN. Life and Sermons (London, 1907). The Inner Way (London, 1909). Consult Inges Christian Mysticism, Rufus Joness Studies in Mystical Religion and Pourrats Christian Spirituality. TENNANT, F. R. Philosophical Theology (Cambridge, 1923). Theologia Germanica. Winkworths translation (new edition, London, 1937). TILLYARD, AELFRIDA. Spiritual Exercises (London, 1927). 352. THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY TRAHERNE, THOMAS. Centuries of Meditation (London, 1908). Consult Thomas Traherne, A Critical Biography, by Gladys I. Wade (Princeton, 1944). UNDERHILL, EVELYN. Mysticism (London, 1924). The Mystics of the Church (London, 1925). Upanishads. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Translated by R. E . Hume (New York, 1931). The Ten Principal Upanishads. Tr anslated by Shree Purohit and W . B. Yeats (London, 1937). The Himalayas of the Soul. Translated by J. Mascaro (London, 1938). WATTS, ALAN W. The Spirit of Zen (London, 1936). W H I T N E Y , J A N E T . J o h n W o o l m a n , A m e r i c a n Q u a k e r (Boston, 1942). Elizabeth Fry, Quaker Heroine (Boston, 1936). 382 INDEX This has the original page numbe rs from Huxleys book; so, to f ind the page number in the present edition, add 5% plus 13. (eg. 108 (in the index) = 108 + 5 + 13 = 126 (in this book) : or 255 = 255 + 13 + 13 = 281) Abu Said,319 Bourgoing,255 Aedo,73,170,183,311,343 Brah man,8,12,13,42,67,301 Acton,140 Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad,42 Adoration,255 Broad,C.D.,304 Advertising,231,250,337 Buddha ,7,56,66,117,1 46,147,154, Aeschylus,92 232,299,308,312 Al-Ghazzali,86,146,254 B uddhas Fire Sermon,204 Amelot,255 Buddhaghosha,342 Ancren Riwle,The,248 Butler,S.,92 Animals,kindness to,224 Byron,81 Ansari of Herat,99 ,103,253,298,316 Anselm,St.,257 Camus, Jean Pierre,53,105,117,142, Aphorism,Sufi,124 299,315,335 Aquinas,St.Thomas,96,146,153,338 Cassian,319 Aridity,335 Caste,182 Aristotle,26,27,78 Castel lio,Sebastian,7,20,285 Arnold,Thomas,289 Catherin e,St.,of Genoa ,18,99,122 Art,artist,135,151,158,195 Catherine,St.,of Siena,167,187,189, Ashvaghosha,33 3 written down by T. di Petra ,167 Asoka,228,264 Catholicism,176 tman,8,11-13,15,67,15 1,219 Causation,155 Atonement,66,220,265 Ca ussade,J.P de,53,89 Attention,332 Chandogya Upanishad,10,236 Augustine,St.,82,83,107,205,240,253,334,343 Aurobindo,Sri,74 Chantal,St. Jeanne,258 Avatar,58,61,68,148,219 Chapman,Abbot John,121,152 Bagehot,W.,273 Charity,65,98,100,104,110,119,175, Baker,Augustine,118,256,25 8,336 187,1941992703I4 . Barclay,Robert,21 Chuang T zu,13,14,91,106,119,120, 383 Bayazid of Bistun,18,317 123,134-136,161,186,195,196 Beatitude,128,239 249,281,343 Beauty,158 Civilization,181 Becket,Thomas,305 Claver,St. Peter,224 Benet of Canfield,58,322,324,325 Cloud of Unknowing,The,47,295, 318, Bernard,St.,18,32,65,70,82,98,166 323,327 187,199,244,302 Condren, Charles de,207,295,298 Brulle,48 Constitution/temper,168,177,358 Bhagavad-Gita,9,11,57,61,170,174, Contemplation,105,170,183, 205,218,313,343,372 259 ,303,322,337,338,344 Bhagavatam,Srimad,99,227,244 Daishi,Yoka,147 Blake,W.,217 DArs,Cur,84 Blood,308 Darwin,342 Bodhisattva,73,77,79,266 D e Caussade,J. P.,53,89 Body,34 Decentralization,111 Boehme,Jacob,63,237, 243 De Condren,Ch arles,207,295,298 Boethius,185,212,213 Deliverance,liberation,12,13,31,50, Controversy,160,161 Feeling, emotion,100,1 01,104,292,296 Conversion,178 Fnelon, 104,132,188,248,254,293, Coomaraswamy,Ananda K.,63 295,329 Cou,280 Folk-lore,252 Craving,desire,55,96,260 Follo wing of Christ,The,207,264 Culture,127 Forek nowledge,214 Cur dArs,84 Form,210,218 Chng-n,Wu,147,164 Four Nob le Truths of Buddhism, 282 Chiang Chih-chi,283 Fox,George,20,330 Christ,20,58-60,65-67,124,127,18 0, Francis,St.,of Assisi,327 285,289,308,310 ,312 Francois de Sal es,St.,53,104,115,117,121, carnal love o f,65 123,141,195,199, 249 253,253,259, following of,2 07,264 314-315,326,330 imitation of,340 Freedom,109 57,64,106,2 17,230,245,250 Denk,Hans,7,20,108,282 Garri gou-Lagrange,R.,177,298,339 384 Descartes,36 Gilson,Etienne,187,253 Desire,33,87,101,121,165,202,250 Gita,Bhagavad,9,11,57,61, Detachment,100,102,1 20,122 170,174,20 2,218,303,304,312 De Vigny,Alfred,92 Godhead :29,33,3840,48,49,68, Devotion,100,170,175,257 71,7 2,101,113,128,150,158-159, Dhammapada. 109,205 203,260,271,309,339 Dharma,162,176,179,181 ,261,313 God,nature of,29-32,66-71,83,87, 97 Dhyana,70 especially Chapters II,III and IV Diamond Sutra,147,243,302 Good,205,210,211,222,262 Dionysius,the Areopagite,42 ,43 Gopi maidens,191 Disease,262 Gospels,Synoptic,60 Disquietude,120 Grace,81,191,266,290 Distraction,250,325,32 9 Green,T. H., 28 Eckhart,8,19,23,33,37,38,41,48 Gregory,St.,the Great,95,240 4970,79,87,90,99,102, 103,115, Grellet,Stephen,310 145,I 50,153,186,200,205,206, Grou,N.,130 217,242,2 64,324,329,334 Gun on,Ren,71,344 Ectomorphy,172 Hakuin,79 Education,17,287 Healing,299 Eightfold Path,136 Hillel,22 Emotion,feeling,100,292,296 Hilton,Walter,125,338 Endomorphy,172 Hinayana,16,78 Enlightenment,67-68,71,73,103 Hinayanists,16 Erigena,Scotus,44 Hipp ocrates,169,276,277 Eternity,38,68,90,106,162 ,167,274 History,63 Everard,John,108,282 Hobbes,213 Evil,205,209,211,232,26 4,274 How Men Behav e in Crisis, 50 Experience,152-15 3,156, 293 Huang-Po,69,71,86 Extraversion,173 Hubris,91,190,252,288 Faith, 268 Hugo,Victor,92 Fall,the,209,261 Hui Neng,67,78,146,160 Fate,213 Humanitarianism,91,355 Fear,187 Hume,47,155-156 Humility,103-104,114, 185-188,257,292,334 385 Idealists,280 Lacordaire,188 Idolatrous,17,111 Lallement,Father L.,83 Idolatry,17,54,106,111,126,159 ,161 Landscape painting,75 Ignorance,185 Language ,17,24,43,147-8,156, Imagination,292 165-6,239, 277,278,287,308,324,342 Imitation of Christ,The,340 Lank avatara Sutra,14,71,77,153,238, 322 Immanence,8 Lao Tzu, 33,121,133, 138,147, Immanent,8,30,31 167,190,194,247,312 Immortality,242 Lawrence,Brother,328 Incarnation,29,58-59,66 Law,Wil liam:7,8,48,49,57,63,95,98,100, 114, Incarnations,64 127,150,15 2,160,191,193,200,203,204, Inge,Dean,285 207-209,227, 237,247,248,254,257,279 Inner Light,21,137,223 Lawyers,66,270 Inquisition,the,221 Legalism,31,66 Inspiration,135,193, 196,197 Leibniz,1 Intellect,153,163 Libera l Protestantism,179 Intercession,254,255 Liberati on,deliverance,12,13,116, Introversion,322 124,128,138,186,238,301 Introvert,173 Liberty,140 Iti-vuttaka,237 Logia of Jesus,73 Logos,19,37,58,59,62, 107,109,133, 191,311 James,William,2 Love,2, 95-101,103,104,122, Japam,320 123,153,282,323,3 44 Jerome,St.,118 carnal, of Christ,65, spiritual,65 Jesuits,316 Logia of,73 Jesus,59,84,149,275 Loyola,St.Ignatius,120 Jews,308 Luther,269,285-286. Jnana,151 Job,198 Machinery,196 John,I-4,95 Magic,307 John,St.,of the Cross,33,66-67,100,102, Magnus,Albertus,129 107,117 ,120-122,123,149,183,193, Mahayana,16,30,41,62,67 ,74,216,321 216,247,249,2 94,334,340,343 Mahay anists,16,63,64,78 Johnson,Samuel,52,57 Maitraya na Upanishad,129,236,239 386 Jones,Rufus,20 Mallarm,160 Juliana of Norwich,274 Mans final end,94,105,137,177 Jung,C.,170 Mantram,319 Kabir,17,57,122,227,253 Natu re,82,90,91,92,93,109,124 Karma,56,272,274,275 Nemesis,91,94,96 Kierkegaard,S.,198 Nen g,Hui,67,78,146,160 Kindness to animals,224 Neri,St. Philip,257,264 Knowledge,5,19,28,31,39,44,55,56 ,94, Nicholas of Cusa,150,194,2 13 95,96,107,115, 128,129,150-151,153, Niffari,240 155,166 ,168,170,171,175,212,232, Nirvana,56,73,74,77,83,8 7,216, 260,275,301 ,333,339,340 21 7,237,238,271,333 Kokushi,Daito,146 No-mind,86 Krishna,61,63 Non-attachment,120,125,175 Miracles,299 Obedience,141 Monkey,165 Objections,116 More,Dame Gertrude,115,118 Olier,J.J.,40,298,329 Mortification,84,113,116,1 25, Oman,Dr.J.,4,83,84 126,133,196,217,248 10 1 Zen Stories,139 Mo Tsu,73 One-pointedness,342 Mysticism,66 Otto,Rudolf,151 Maxwell,Clerk,269 Ox-h erding Pictures, 84 Meditation,105 Prayer,115,251,276,343 Memory,216 Protesta ntism,liberal,179 Mental prayer,315 Providence,213 Mesomorphy,172 Purnabuddha-sutra,73 Meyerson,E.,11 Psychic,27 medium,304 Milton,161 Psychism,27,116 Mind,14,16,34,69,71,73,77, Pr ogress,91,92,93,94,106,163,337 87,102, 146,211 Psychism,27,116 Mind and body,34,246 Progre ss,91,92,93,94,106,163,337 Prophecy,298 Panchadasi,259 Quake rs,7,20,137,223,224 Pascal,97 Quietism ,7,8,31,47,69,166 387 Patience,335 Richelieu,Cardinal,96 Paul,St. Vincent de,344 Right livelihood,136 Paul,St.,58,60,67,102,149,190,217 Rites,304 Peace,102,103,222 Ritual,301 Pelagius,334 Rumi,Jalal-uddin,2,22,95,107,139, Penn,William,21 160,16 2,198,204,215 ,216,243,273 Perennial Philosophy,1,4,7,8, Ruskin,196 13,23,24,25,27,44,45,48,60,62,78 ,86, Ruysbroeck,19,40,69,166,18 7,199,343 91,94,111,131,132,135,16 8,190,203, Ryo-Neti,159 209,210,213,215,217,231,241,270, 277,285,287,293,310,337 Sa craments,72,73,301,309 Personality,45,47,48,52, 60,193, Said,Abu,319 selfness,45 St.Anselm,257 Petition,251 St.Augustine,66,82,85,107,205,240 Philo,22,41,83,114,179 ,345 253,334,343 Plato,21 St.Bernard,18,32,65,70,82, Plotinus,11 98,166 ,187,199,244,302 Plutarch,282 St.Catherine of Genoa,18,99,122 Po,Huang,69,71,86 St.Catherine of Siena,167,187,189,264, Poverty,138 written by T. di Petra,167 Power,92,94,111,142,143,309,3 13 St.Francis of Assisi,327 Petition,251 St.Franois de Sales,53,104,115,117,123, Philo,22,41,83,114,179,345 141,199,249,258, 259,314-315,3 26,330 St.Gregory the Great,95,240 St.Ignatius Loyola,120 Saints,54 St.Jerome,118 Sur vival,242,245,246 St.Jeanne Chantal,258 S ufis,7,30,67,299,316 St.John of the Cross,33, 6 6-67,100, Sufism,86,240 102,107,117, 120-122, 123,149,150, Suso,69,117 153,I93,216,247,24 9,294,334,340,343 St.Paul,58,60,67,102,14 9,190,217 Sutra,Diam ond,147,243,302,341 St.Philip Neri,257,264 Sutralamkara,147,236 St.Teresa,67,100,115,335 Sutra,L ankavatara,14,71,77,153,238,32 2 St.Peter Claver,224,357 Sutra,Purnabuddha,73 388 St.Thomas Aquinas,96,146,153,338 Sutra,Surangama,103,307 St.Vincent de Paul,344 Sutra on Protection of Dharma,119 Salvation,230,236,237 Samsara,73,74,83 Sutta,Metta,99 Saunders,Kenneth,311 Swift,Dean,108 Saviours,236 Symbol,282,303,309,324 Scotus Erigena,44 Synoptic Gospels,59 Scriptures,4,20,21,25,147,227 Seccho,75 Ta-shih,Kung-chia,99 Self,10,114,204-207,279 Tao ,37,133,134,167,194,263 -knowledge,185,188,32 7 Taoism,14,311 Superstition,-Will,1,15 Taoist,13 Selfness,personality,45,6 0 Tathgata,16,71,243 Sen Tsen,21. Tattva,Tantra,77 Shakespeare,95 Temperament /constitution,166,177 Shankara,4,11,13,32,100,238, Temple,Archbishop,277 244,272,337 Temp tation,110,310 Sheldon,William,169,171,172 Tennant,F. R.,4,152,272 Shih-tou,147,259 Teresa ,St.,67,100,115,117,335 Shruti,4 Tevijja Sutta,61 Silence,86,247,249,250 Theologia Germanica,20,21,67,129, Simplicity,130,133 204,236,240 Sin,207,275,318 Theol ogy,66,151,152,175 Sincerity,130 Third Patriarch of Zen,The,89 Singh,Sadhu Sundar,228 Three Bodies,The,30 Slavery,223,224 Tibetan B ook of the Dead,41,324 Smith,John,150,166,242 Time,6 3,64,106,111,2 17,219,277 Smriti,4 Tolstoy,Leo,195 Song of Songs,191 Traherne ,Thomas,79,81,90,124,128 Soul,18,19,22,105,113,122-123,1 50 Transcendence,8,30,208,242 Specialization,261 Trench,Richard,17,166 Spinoza,275 Trinity,29 Spirit,46,48,62,65,67,100, Truth:79,88,89,96,99,129,145,146, 133,167,214,257 1 58,163,302,338 389 Spiritual authority,142,18 2,313 True,88,146,150,151 exercises,314 T'sen,Sen,21 Spirituality,85 Tsu,Mo,73 Sterry,Peter,167 Tzu,Chuang,1 3,14,91,106,119,120, 123,134 Stout,G. F.,156 136,161 ,186,195,196, 2 49,281,343 Suchness,64,88,107 Suffering,260 Waley,Arthur,164 Sufi,215 aphorism,124 War,111,137,269 Sufis,7,30,67,299,316 Whi chcote,Benjamin,244 Sufism,86,240 Will,24,4 9,86,87,101,114,117,188, Superstition,282,358 191,1 94,199,200,210,256,286 Woolman,John,224,266 Vedanta,39,67,81,319 Words, 32,89,145,148,149,153,154, Vedantists,39 155,247,302 Vicarious suffering,265 Wordsworth,81,197 Vigny,Alfred de,92 Wu Chng-n,147,164 Violence,222 Yeng, 77 Virtue,323,338 Yoga-vasistha,242 Visvanatha,159 Yung-chi a Ta-shih,15,99,258 Viveka-Chudamani,11 Zen,1 4,71,75,77,1 48,159,283 |
Being and Nothingness First published in French in 1943, Jean-Paul Sartres Ltre et le Nant is one of the greatest philosophical works of the twentieth century. In it, Sartre offers nothing less than a brilliant and radical account of the human condi - tion. The English philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch wrote to a friend of the excitement I remember nothing like it since the days of discovering Keats and Shelley and Coleridge. This new translation, the first for over sixty years, makes this classic work of philosophy available to a new generation of readers. What gives our lives significance, Sartre argues in Being and Nothingness, is not pre-established for us by God or nature but is something for which we ourselves are responsible. At the heart of this view are Sartres radical con - ceptions of consciousness and freedom. Far from being an internal, passive container for our thoughts and experiences, human consciousness is con - stantly projecting itself into the outside world and imbuing it with meaning. Combining this with the unsettling view that human existence is character - ized by radical freedom and the inescapability of choice, Sartre introduces us to a cast of ideas and characters that are part of philosophical legend: anguish; the bad faith of the memorable waiter in the caf; sexual desire; and the look of the other, brought to life by Sartres famous description of someone looking through a keyhole. Above all, by arguing that we alone create our values and that human relationships are characterized by hopeless conflict, Sartre paints a stark and controversial picture of our moral universe and one that resonates strongly today. This new translation includes a helpful Translators Introduction, a compre- hensive Index and a Foreword by Richard Moran, Brian D. Young Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University, USA. Jean-Paul Sartre (19051980) was one of the great philosophers of the twentieth century and a renowned novelist, dramatist, and political activist. As a teenager Sartre was drawn to philosophy after reading Henri Bergsons Time and Free Will. He passed the agrgation in philosophy at the cole Normale Suprieure in Paris in 1929. His first novel La Nause, which Sartre considered one of his best works, was published in 1938. Sartre served as a meteorologist in the French army before being captured by German troops in 1940, spending nine months as a prisoner of war. He continued to write dur - ing his captivity and, after his release, he published his great trilogy of novels, Les Chemins de la Libert . In 1964, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature but declined it. During the events of 1968 he was arrested for civil disobedience but swiftly released by President Charles de Gaulle, who alleg - edly said one does not arrest Voltaire. He died on 15 April 1980 in Paris, his funeral attracting an enormous crowd of up to 50,000 mourners. He is buried in the Cimetire du Montparnasse in Paris. Translated by Sarah Richmond, University College London, UK. Sarah Richmonds marvellously clear and thoughtful new translation brings Sartres rich, infuriating, endlessly fertile masterpiece to a whole new English-language readership. Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Caf Sartres philosophy will always be important. Being and Nothingness is not an easy read but Sarah Richmond makes it accessible in English to the general reader. Her translation is exemplary in its clarity. Richard Eyre Sarah Richmonds translation of this ground-zero existentialist text is breathtaking. Having developed a set of brilliant translation principles, laid out carefully in her introductory notes, she has produced a version of Sartres magnum opus that finally! renders his challenging philo - sophical prose comprehensible to the curious general reader and his most compelling phenomenological descriptions and analyses luminous and thrilling for those of us who have studied Being and Nothingness for years. Nancy Bauer, Tufts University, USA This superb new translation is an extraordinary resource for Sartre scholars, including those who can read the work in French. Not only has Sarah Richmond produced an outstandingly accurate and fluent translation, but her extensive notes, introduction, and editorial com - ments ensure that the work will be turned to for clarification by all readers of Sartre. All in all, this is a major philosophical moment in Sartre studies. Christina Howells, University of Oxford, UK A new translation of Being and Nothingness has been long overdue. Sarah Richmond has done an excellent job of translating and clarifying Sartres magnum opus, making its rich content accessible to a wider audience. Dan Zahavi, University of Copenhagen, Denmark With its scholarly introduction, up-to-date bibliography and numer - ous footnotes, Richmonds fluent and precise translation will be an indispensable tool even for scholars able to read Sartre in French. Andrew Leak, University College London, UK This fine new translation provides us with as crisp a rendering as possi - ble of Sartres complex prose. Richmonds introduction, and a panoply of informative notes, also invite readers to share with her the intricacies of the task of translation and assist in grasping many of the conceptual vocabularies and nuances of this vital text. Sonia Kruks, author of Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity Being and Nothingness An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology Jean-Paul Sartre Translated by Sarah Richmond This edition published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Being and Nothingness, by Jean-Paul Sartre, originally published as Ltre et le Nant 1943, ditions Gallimard English Translation 2018, Taylor & Francis Foreword 2018, Richard Moran Translators Introduction 2018, Sarah Richmond All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1905-1980, author. | Richmond, Sarah, translator. | Moran, Richard, 1953- writer of foreword. Title: Being and nothingness : an essay in phenomenological ontology / Jean-Paul Sartre ; translated by Sarah Richmond. Other titles: Etre et le neant. English Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017047546 | ISBN 9780415529112 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Existentialism. | Existential psychology. Classification: LCC B819 .S272 2018 | DDC 111dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017047546 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-52911-2 (hbk) Typeset in Joanna by Swales and Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK DOI: 10.4324/9780429434013 CONTENTS Foreword Richard Moran x Note on abbreviations xviii Translators introduction Sarah Richmond xix Notes on the translation Sarah Richmond xxxviii Translators acknowledgements Sarah Richmond lxv Introduction: in search of being 1 I.The idea of the phenomenon II.The phenomenon of being and the being of the phenomenon III.The prereflective cogito and the being ofthe percipere IV.The being of the percipi V.The ontological proof VI.Being in itself PART ONE: THE PROBLEM OF NOTHINGNESS 31 Chapter 1 The origin of negation 33 I.Questioning II.Negations III.The dialectical conception of nothingness CONTENTS viii IV. The phenomenological conception of nothingness V. The origin of nothingness Chapter 2 Bad faith 87 I. Bad faith and lies II. Forms of bad faith III. The faith of bad faith PART TWO: BEING-FOR-ITSELF 119 Chapter 1 The immediate structures of the for-itself 121 I. Self-presence II. The for-itselfs facticity III. The for-itself and the being of value IV. The for-itself and the being of possibles V. My self and the circuit of ipseity Chapter 2 Temporality 163 I. Phenomenology of the three temporal dimensions II. The ontology of temporality III. Original temporality and psychological temporality: reflection Chapter 3 Transcendence 244 I. Knowledge as a type of relation between the for-itself and the in-itself II. On determination as negation III. Quality and quantity, potentiality and equipmentality IV. World-time V. Knowledge PART THREE: BEING-FOR-THE-OTHER 305 Chapter 1 The Others existence 307 I. The problem II. The reef of solipsism CONTENTS ix III. Husserl, Hegel, Heidegger IV. The look Chapter 2 The body 409 I. The body as being-for-itself: facticity II. The body-for-the-Other III. The third ontological dimension of the body Chapter 3 Concrete relations with the Other 479 I. Our first attitude towards the Other: love, language, masochism II. The second attitude towards the Other: indifference, desire, hatred, sadism III. Being-with (Mitsein) and the we PART FOUR: TO HAVE, TO DO AND TO BE 567 Chapter 1 Being and doing: freedom 569 I. The first condition of action is freedom II. Freedom and facticity: the situation III. Freedom and responsibility Chapter 2 To do and to have 723 I. Existential psychoanalysis II. To do and to have: possession III. The revelation of being through qualities Conclusion 798 I. In-itself and for-itself: some metaphysical observations II. Moral perspectives Bibliography 812 Index 817 FOREWORD Richard Moran With this new translation by Sarah Richmond, Sartres major work Ltre et le Nant is available to the English-speaking world as never before. Not only is the translation itself a great improvement in accuracy and reada - bility on the Hazel Barnes version published in 1956, but the Translators Introduction and Notes on the Translation illuminate this difficult text for both earlier readers of Sartre and those encountering this book for the first time. The inadequacies of the Barnes translation have been widely recognized for a long time, but it is always difficult to launch a new trans - lation of a well-known work that is still selling, and in this case the scope of the task was especially daunting. The world of philosophy in English has reason to be grateful to Richmond and the people at Routledge for seeing this through. *** *** *** Jean-Paul Sartre was born in 1905 in Paris. He had already published a few short stories when he entered the cole Normale Suprieure in 1924, where he met Simone de Beauvoir, who remained a companion for life and whose influence on Being and Nothingness , while difficult to determine, was no doubt considerable. Like most young French phi - losophers at the time, he was influenced by the work of Henri Bergson FOREWORD xi and by the neo-Kantianism represented by Lon Brunschvicg, but he had already conceived for himself the dream of a manner of writing that would be literary and philosophical at once. It was in 1932 that he had the famous meeting in a caf with Raymond Aron, when Aron was back visiting Paris during the year he was spending at the Institut Franais in Berlin, learning about the new philosophy called phenomenology. As Beauvoir tells the story in The Prime of Life, We ordered the specialty of the house, apricot cocktails. Aron said, pointing to his glass: You see, my dear fellow, if you were a phenom - enologist, you could talk about this cocktail glass and make philosophy out of it. Sartre turned pale with emotion at this. Here was just the thing he had been longing to achieve for years to describe objects just as he saw and touched them, and extract philosophy from the process. 1 Aron helped Sartre obtain a fellowship in Berlin for the following year, where he immersed himself in Husserl and Heidegger, and wrote his critique of Husserl, The Transcendence of the Ego , and the bulk of his first novel Nausea (published respectively in 1937 and 1938). Both works attracted considerable attention, but Sartres budding fame was cut short by the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the general mobilization in France. Sartre was called up and was captured by the Germans in 1940 and transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp in Trier. He does not describe his time there as having been harsh, and he seems to have spent most of his days teaching philosophy to fellow prisoners and working on the volumi - nous notebooks in which he sketched out the plan for his big book Being and Nothingness. After managing to get himself released in 1941, he returned to occupied Paris, where he sought unsuccessfully to form a resistance group independent of the Gaullists and the Communists. For the remain - der of the war he was by his own account an intellectual resistant, and concentrated on finishing his magnum opus. It was published by Gallimard in 1943, at 722 pages weighing precisely one kilogram, which 1 Simone de Beauvoir (1962), The Prime of Life, trans. Peter Green (Harmondsworth: Penguin), p. 135. FOREWORD xii (if Jean Paulhan is to be believed) helped with the initial sales, since the book was being used as a weight measure at home when the normal brass weights had been confiscated by the German authorities. What sort of book is this, and what is its philosophical importance now? Any account of its importance and genuine brilliance has to come to grips with the several different forms of obstacle to its reception today, both those intrinsic to the book and those stemming from the contempo - rary intellectual context. Part of the problem is simply Sartres own fame and the cultural saturation that was part of the reception of existential - ism in France from the beginning. In the Paris of the 1950s something called existentialism was not merely a school of philosophy but an entire lifestyle, encompassing literature, music, film and a succession of political stances. This broad influence was amplified by the fact that, in France as elsewhere, the post-war years were also the beginning of the first age of mass media and a new prominence of youth culture in European and American life. Sartres own personality as provocateur and intellectuel engag lent itself to this context. He was on television almost as soon as television came to France, and was perhaps the first major philosopher to have his own radio show. In the decades following the war in France he was rarely without an opinion or an opportunity for publishing it. And of course he threw himself into the various political crises of his day, creating a cer - tain notoriety and gaining enemies among both the Catholic right and the Communist left in France. The result of this cultural saturation is that today everyone is entitled to an opinion about Sartrean existentialism, however minimal ones exposure to his writing may be. This presence as cultural reference is itself unusual for a philosopher, and is an aspect of how his enduring fame is maintained even by his detractors. All philosophers wax and wane in their influence, and most can enjoy a posthumous existence in comfortable obscurity, but Sartre stands out among the notable twentieth-century philosophers for the extent to which he is still invoked for conde - scension, seen less as a philosopher than as a provocation to be put down both in intellectual circles and in the popular media. Another obstacle is the sheer length and the style of Being and Nothingness . It can be an impossible and infuriating text; one can only dream wistfully of what a ruthless editor might have been able to do with its bulk. The tone is often abrupt and peremptory, with little or no explanation given to key philosophical terms, whether German or French. In a manner that FOREWORD xiii we have become used to among certain philosophers, it is as though the presumed audience for the work could only be those for whom such things as the distinction between the phenomenon of being and the being of the phenomenon is always already quite familiar, and we are being invited to appreciate the unexpected spin the brilliant author is putting on these old ideas. It is extremely uneven as a piece of philo-sophical writing. Sometimes we do indeed get what look very much like arguments, powerful ones, and other times Sartre puts his powers of description to genuinely illuminating use, but too often we get bold declarations, invidious distinctions, and a fondness for paradoxical for - mulation that seems to know no bounds. Sartre himself paid a price for the difficulty of access of Being and Nothingness, in the fact that readers who were curious but not prepared to take on the 722 pages of the original had available to them a much shorter Sartrean text, a pamphlet really, called Existentialism is a Humanism, something dashed off and never intended for publication in the first place. In October 1945, in the early months of the Liberation, Sartre was persuaded by a friend to give what was to be a small public lecture on the new philosophy at the Club Maintenant. It turned into a huge event, with an overflow crowd and people being carried out after having fainted from the heat and overcrowding. Sartre spoke without notes. To help pay for the rental of the hall and the damage to the prem - ises, the organizer prevailed upon Sartre to agree to publish a version of his remarks for sale, which he agreed to. As a text it is full of crudities, misstatements and willful exaggerations for effect, and soon became far and away the most famous and widely read piece he ever wrote. It is still commonly cited as representative of Sartrean existentialism by philoso-phers who should know better. A final obstacle to be mentioned is that so much of French thought since the 1960s and 1970s has proceeded from an assumed repudiation of Sartre. Being and Nothingness is, among other things, the last great expression of the philosophy of the subject that later French thought has expended so much energy in dismantling and decentering. Both structuralist (originally in the person of Claude Lvi-Strauss) and post-structuralist thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan begin by repudiating the Cartesian starting point of so many of the reflections in Being and Nothingness , as well as Sartres appropriation of phenomenology and early Heidegger. FOREWORD xiv All of this is further reason to welcome this new translation and the opportunity it gives readers in English to encounter this book with fresh eyes, for despite its flaws it is still one of the great and engaging texts of twentieth-century philosophy. It is a text to struggle with, yes, but when the writing is at its best it is rewarding and illuminating in ways that few major works of philosophy in the modern world can touch. Of course like any philosophical text it needs to be comprehended as a whole, but many of its famous sections (on bad faith, on the look of the Other, on various self-defeating strategies of love and desire, on freedom and responsibility, on the existential psychoanalysis of qualities) can be profitably read by themselves. Today it is easy to forget how daring this text is, and the different ways Sartre expanded the possible forms of philosophical writing. This new edition makes this available to a new generation of readers. Different philosophers will have different reasons for engaging with Being and Nothingness today. From the perspective of the history of phi - losophy it may be read as a remarkably ambitious attempt to inherit the phenomenology of Husserl and the early work of Heidegger, in the context of a general metaphysical picture of the world and the place of human thought and action within it. Today one may be skeptical about the very idea of such a general metaphysical picture, and in par - ticular the dualism of being as such and nothingness, and yet still be impressed with the creative use to which it is put and how Sartre is able to begin from these bare categories to an analysis of the difference between the categories of ordinary objects (being-in-itself) and the categories of human life (being-for-itself). Despite rumors to the con - trary, the idea of nothingness here has little to do with despair or the contemplation of suicide. Rather, the idea of the negative is bound up with the most basic abilities to describe the world and pick out and dis - criminate objects themselves (Sartre never tires of alluding to Spinozas formulation Omnis determinatio est negatio). At the same time the fundamental power of thought to negate, to assert difference, is also something that he seeks to derive from Husserls basic thought about consciousness (itself an idea associated with Brentano): consciousness is pure relatedness to an object, which is to say something other than itself, something it is not. Consciousness just is this basic capacity for relatedness to the world and the distinguishing of itself from the world FOREWORD xv it is directed upon. This assertion of difference is described as part of the nihilating action of consciousness, which enables Sartre to forge his unbreakable connection between consciousness (as for-itself) and freedom, in action and in thought. For in the same way that a picture of the world as consisting purely of positive reality cannot account for the ability to grasp or even perceive the negative truth of, for instance, an objects being fragile (breakable, but not broken), or different from another one, or no longer what it once was (not to mention Pierres absence from the caf), so understanding human action requires the negative modes of thought involved in being underway with an action not yet completed, and in the capacity to step back from or posit ones freedom with respect to ones currently constituted motives and ones past (ones facticity). The stepping back or putting ones past out of play is the same nihilating capacity of consciousness, the capacity to distinguish, hold oneself separate from the facticity of what the world has made of one so far, and raise the question for oneself of how one is to relate oneself to this positive reality from here on. It is along these lines that we can see that some of Sartres most provocative formulations are no mere paradox-mongering: The human being is what it is not (in the sense that, as agent, I am my relation to my unrealized possibili-ties, the action I am embarked on but have not completed) and is not what it is (in the sense that in adopting the standpoint of freedom to my possibilities I posit my difference from my past and the facticities of my situation, which make up what I am so far). Here as elsewhere Sartres borrowings are as undeniable as the bold - ness and originality of his use of them. Are the notions of negation, nothingness and difference being stretched here to do too many different kinds of work as we move from the more purely metaphysical structure of the world to the story of action and human subjectivity? No doubt that is a question one may and should press throughout the read - ing of Being and Nothingness, but what remains impressive is the richness and diversity of the phenomenon that Sartre manages in this way to bring into philosophical contact with each other, the new questions this orien-tation makes possible. The same vaulting ambition that takes him from the ancient Parmenidean problem of how there can be thought about what is not, to the object-directedness of thought (intentionality), to a distinctive perspective on human freedom is also what helps us FOREWORD xvi formulate new questions about how the appeal to freedom can be genu-inely explanatory of human action, and how we should understand the relation between the intentionality of thought and the intentionality of action, and hence the understanding of action itself as a form of thought. Being and Nothingness is not only about human freedom, but is a text that is plainly obsessed with the question of freedom and its meaning, and organizes all its many topics around it. In relation to freedom it is less concerned to solve the traditional problem of freedom and determinism and more concerned to understand what is contained in the ordinary assumption of human freedom and the variety of ways it manifests itself. Part of Sartres great originality here is in his drive to find the question of freedom not only in, say, the conditions for holding people accountable, but virtually everywhere in human life, in the inescapabil - ity of some answer I give to how I relate myself to my past as well as my future, to the forms of intersubjectivity and what it is that is aimed at in seeking the desire or recognition of another person, in the conflicting demands of the first-person and third-person points of view in under - standing oneself. What is sometimes criticized as the unboundedness of Sartres conception of human freedom is a reflection of the fact that the place of freedom in his system is less that of a human capacity among others and more that of a principle of intelligibility of human affairs quite generally. Sartre is of course a novelist and playwright as well as philosopher, and part of the originality of Being and Nothingness as a piece of writing lies in the combination of an abstract and austere metaphysical picture with an essentially dramatic sense of the source of philosophical questions as they exhibit themselves in recognizable human situations. One of his great topics is that of the question of the forms of comprehensibility of human life, and of an individual human life taken as a whole (especially in his later books on Genet and Flaubert). He is properly and profitably struck by the contradictory demands we place on the comprehensibility of human life and action, and by the question of the priority of different forms of comprehensibility we demand of ourselves and others. The meta- physics of the in-itself and the for-itself, or the self-as-facticity and the self-as-transcendence, will have earned its philosophical keep if they are what bring into view and make available for thought what Sartre takes up in the sections of Being and Nothingness on bad faith, on the nature of shame FOREWORD xvii and the self-consciousness that pertains to it, on the encounter with the Other through the look, on the internal conflicts of love and desire. Despite how long Being and Nothingness has been a looming presence on the philosophical scene, much of it is only recently getting the atten - tion it deserves in the anglophone world. Sartres long chapter on The body is one of the first extended philosophical meditations in the mod - ern era on that meaning of ones identity with a certain living body, and is beginning to attract new attention today. And his reflections on the different forms of self-consciousness (thetic or positional versus non-thetic or non-positional, as originally developed in his short work The Transcendence of the Ego ) are entering into contemporary discus- sions on the nature of self-knowledge and the first-person point of view. In many ways, Sartre is as present on the scene as ever, but even in that presence we can see him still struggling with his fame, and his life and personality somehow continue to exert a fascination out of balance with attention to the works that are supposedly the reason for any special interest in the details of this mans life. With new biographies of Sartre appearing every few years, and words like existential being part of every pundits vocabulary, this new translation makes this an opportune time to go back to the source and see what its all about. NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS BN Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (unless otherwise stated, reference is to the present translation). EN Jean-Paul Sartre (1943), Ltre et le Nant (Paris: Gallimard) (i.e. the original French text of Being and Nothingness). EH Jean-Paul Sartre (1973), Existentialism and Humanism, trans. Philip Mairet (London: Methuen). Note: The marginal pagination in the present translation corresponds to the pagination in the Gallimard Collection Tel edition of Ltre et le Nant, as published in 1976. Footnotes: In the present translation, Sartres notes have been labelled Sartres note and those written by the translator labelled TN(Translators Note). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION Sarah Richmond Ltre et le Nant is widely and correctly regarded as Sartres most important philosophical work, but it attracted little public attention when it first appeared in France in 1943. Perhaps we should not be surprised, as the Second World War was not yet over and the German Occupation was still in force in Northern France. Today, the place of Being and Nothingness (hereafter BN 1) within the canon of twentieth-century European philos - ophy is uncontested, and it is taught, read and studied across the globe. In this Introduction my primary aim is to describe BNs philosophical impact so far, focusing especially on France and the English-speaking world. As a great deal of Sartre criticism and exegesis is now available, I will only briefly survey the content of the text. Instead I offer an over-view of its reception, to provide the reader with some background to my translation, produced three-quarters of a century later. For remarks about the practical task of translating it, challenges it has posed, and my reasons for some of my decisions, see the Notes on the Translation. At the time of BNs first publication, Sartre had returned to teaching philosophy in the French secondary school system, after an uneventful stint of military service (his poor eyesight meant he was exempt from active combat) and a period spent in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Although 1 I will use EN only when the reference is necessarily to the French version of the text. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xx Sartre had published some impressive work in the 1930s, he was not yet well known, and his reputation as a writer was owed primarily to his 1938 novel (La Nause), some short stories and plays (Les Mouches was first staged in Paris in 1943), book reviews (mostly of fiction) published in various periodicals, and other journalism. A year later, after Path had commis-sioned him to write the screenplay for a feature film ( Typhus, which was never made), Sartre believed he could earn a living as a full-time writer and gave up his teaching post. Not long after that following his legendary public lecture (subsequently translated as EH) in which Sartre presented a simplified version of his philosophy to a packed audience in Paris in 1945 he became a national figure. By the 1960s Sartres further writings, his association with Simone de Beauvoir, his appearances around the world and his numerous political interventions had also made him an interna-tional figure, a public intellectual who is frequently described as the most famous philosopher of the twentieth century. BN presents itself as a traditional, scholarly and comprehensive work of philosophy. Sartre had not yet detached himself from the values of academia, and he adopts the persona of a distinguished professor who has the entire Western philosophical corpus at his fingertips. Modern thought, he tells us in his opening sentence, has [reduced] the existent to the series of appearances that manifest it. How, if at all, do statements of this highly abstract kind bear any relation to the doctrines and slogans that we associate with existentialist philosophy? In fact, as readers are sometimes surprised to discover, the term existentialist is applied only retrospectively to the philosophy of BN, and it does not figure in the text. It does figure importantly in EH, where Sartre sums existentialism up quite simply in the famous claim that existence comes before essence. To explain this claim, Sartre (an atheist) contrasts it with a religious conception, according to which we are created by God. Had God created us, Sartre argues, our essence would precede our existence, as it would be determined by Gods inten - tions. But there is no such thing as human nature in a godless world, where Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. This con-trast seems to suggest that existentialism is incompatible with religious belief, which would conflict with Sartres acknowledgement in the same lecture that Christian existentialism also exists, but we will not pursue this here. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxi The French title of EH LExistentialisme est un Humanisme asserts the thesis that Sartre will be defending for his audience (and, once it was published, for his readers). Being and Nothingness is rather more obscure, and its sub-title An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology is also unlikely to help anyone without a philosophical training. Ontology is the philosophical study of being or of what exists, of what is in the most general sense, and Sartres fundamental claim is elegantly con - densed within his title. In order to account for being, Sartre is saying, we need also to acknowledge nothingness (or non-being). The relationship between this ontological project and the better-known existentialist tenets that are associated with Sartre is in fact straightforward: the for - mer provides the theoretical underpinnings for the latter. Nothingness explains why we humans are radically free, just as Sartres account in BN of the interpersonal orientation he calls being for the Other explains why our interpersonal relationships are likely to be hellish. The philosophy advanced in BN was of course attacked from the out - set, in the first instance and before it had been translated into any other languages by Sartres fellow French intellectuals. Indeed, just two years after the publication of EN in France, Sartre announces in EH his intention to defend existentialism against several reproaches. Sartre is not too bothered by the censure of the Christians, for whom atheistic existentialism is incompatible with morality: the points Sartre goes on to make in the lecture are supposed to refute that claim. He would have been more troubled by the attacks from the political left. In a discussion of EH that was organized specifically for Sartre to face his opponents, the Communist activist Pierre Naville raised several criticisms that have often been repeated since. (Indeed, only a year or so later, Herbert Marcuses review of BN (Marcuse 1947) sounded a similar hostile Marxist note.) For Naville, Sartres rejection of human nature was an illusion; rather than abolishing the idea, Sartre was regressively proposing an alternative to it, in the guise of human freedom. In more explicitly political terms, Naville also accused Sartre of resurrecting liberalism (Sartre 1973: 60). The next most significant date in the history of BN is probably 1956, in so far as Sartres international reputation as a philosopher depends at least in the English-speaking world on the first (and until now the only) English translation of EN, published in the US in that year. It was translated by Hazel Barnes (19152008), a Classics scholar at the TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxii University of Colorado, who took on the task because she admired Sartres philosophy and wanted to make it available to the anglophone world. Barness own work was also important in acquainting English speakers with Sartres existentialism: much of her academic output, in the form of books and essays, took the form of critical discussion of his philosophy. And that was not all: Barnes also presented a series of programmes about philosophy on Ohio University radio in 1952, as well as a ten-episode television series about existentialism (screened on national American tel - evision) in the 1960s, entitled Self-Encounter: A Study in Existentialism. She even classified the memoir that she published in her eighties as a venture in Existentialist autobiography (Barnes 1997). These details alone suffice to show how radically the relations between intellectuals both within and outside academic institutions and the wider public culture have changed since the middle of the twentieth century. Sartre and Barnes had different personalities and intellectual out - looks, but they both believed that philosophy should concern itself with contemporary human existence, and that it should correct our under - standing of our existence in a way that would oblige us to live differently. And people were hungry for these ideas, willing to attend public lec - tures or to learn more from the radio, newspapers and television. The philosophy of BN, with its emphasis on human freedom, agency and responsibility, may also have held special appeal for a post-war public open to change and desiring a fresh start. The early reception of EN in the English-speaking world also illustrates an intellectual cosmopolitanism within academic philosophy that is less common in todays more specialized and professional departments. In the post-war period, the gulf within philosophy that is still often thought to separate Sartre, as a Continental philosopher, from the anglophone analytical traditions was not yet evident. Moreover, and especially in the UK, the profile of the philosophers who showed an interest in Sartres work in some cases, even before it had been translated is remarkable. A.J. Ayer, who was a French speaker and had friends in Paris, published a two-part discussion of Sartres work in the journal Horizon in 1945, quoting lengthy passages from it in French. Iris Murdochs first book was a slim volume on Sartre, pub - lished in 1953: although she focuses mainly on his novels, she had also read EN (and other non-fiction by Sartre) in French, and her book pays TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxiii particular attention to the way Sartres philosophy influences his fiction. Later decades saw further contributions by other major British philoso - phers: Stuart Hampshire reviewed Barness translation in The Observer in 1957, while Alasdair MacIntyre wrote the entry on Existentialism for the Encyclopedia of Philosophy published in 1967. A few years later, MacIntyre also contributed to a collection of critical essays on Sartre edited by Mary Warnock (1971), another prominent Sartre scholar; this collection also included an excellent discussion by Hide Ishiguro of Sartres theory of the imagination which helped to establish Sartre as someone worthy of attention from analytical philosophers of mind. 2 Two lines of thought about Sartres philosophy, which jointly exhibit a marked ambivalence, are especially prominent in this first wave of anglophone critical discussion. On the one hand and as the legacy of Logical Positivisms hostility to traditional metaphysics would lead one to expect there is a dismissive attitude towards Sartres ontological frame - work. In his review articles, Ayer was particularly harsh about Sartres assertions in relation to le nant (nothingness), which he judged to be literally nonsensical (Ayer 1945: 19). (Although Ayer does not mention Rudolf Carnap, his criticism here bears a strong resemblance to Carnaps earlier criticism of Heideggers concept of das Nichts, usually translated as nothing; nor is this a historical coincidence, as Heideggers concept influenced Sartres. 3) Similarly, in his Observer review of BN, Hampshire mentions the malignant influences of Hegel and Heidegger, and asks whether the sophistries of Hegelian logic might conceal the banality of some of Sartres observations before conceding, in Sartres favour, 2 Sartres account of the imagination has also earned him a place within analytical aes - thetics. See for example Hopkins (1998). Another, m uch bigger, collection of papers appeared in the US a decade later: Schilpp (1981). 3 Isaiah Berlin, another infuential fgure in British philosophy at the time, was aware of Sartres philosophy , although he never engaged with it in detail. (As Berlin was also centrally concerned with freedom, this was perhaps a missed opportunity .) In a letter written in 1955, Berlin reports:I have been reading, of all people, the detestable Sartre. The novels are too slimy & dark, but he is a very clever man & his moral philosophy is what I think I 3/4 believe.What a fool I was to be deceived by Freddies articles in Horizon at the end of the war which concentrated on Sartres obscure logic & his attitudes to sex & proved it all bogus. It is not. It is most imaginative and bold and important (Berlin 2009: 467). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxiv that his criticism of traditional theories of mind is at too many points convincing for his whole system to be ignored (Hampshire 1957: 16). 4 On the other hand, British commentators also noted the congruence between Sartres phenomenological approach to philosophy in BN (sub-titled An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology) and the empiricist tradition in British philosophy. Iris Murdoch was especially alert to this similarity: It might even be argued that recent continental philosophers have been discovering, with immense fuss, what the English empiricists have known since Hume, whom Husserl himself claimed as an ancestor (Murdoch 1967: 8). 5 Sartre had studied the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (18591938) intensively in the 1930s: as he understood Husserls phe - nomenological method, it directed philosophers to attend closely to humans experience of the world, in order to describe the phenomena (the way the world appears to human consciousness) in rigorous detail. In an early paper about Husserl published in 1939, Sartres excitement about this revolutionary method was palpable. 6 Along with two other German philosophers, Hegel and Heidegger, Husserl forms part of the trio often referred to as the three Hs with whom Sartre enters into dialogue at various points in BN, usually in order to argue for the advantages of his view over theirs. As a fellow novelist-philosopher, Iris Murdoch was well placed to understand the appeal for Sartre indeed, for anyone with literary ambitions of Husserls descriptive philosoph - ical methodology. The often-quoted and highly evocative vignettes in BN (Pierre in the caf, the woman on the date, the hiker who gives in to fatigue) show Sartre taking full advantage of the opportunity to indulge in the detailed and stylish elaboration of fictional characters and scenarios which, he thought, the phenomenological method provided. And, some years later, when Murdoch came to downgrade her earlier 4 By traditional theories of mind Hampshire is referring to post-Cartesian conceptions. Sartres relationship to Desc artes is too complicated to discuss here. 5 Describing the reception of Sartre in the US,Ann Fulton suggests that a perceived afnity with empiricism although in this case it was with William J amess philosophy rather than Humes also helped to legitimize Sartr es philosophy there (Fulton 1999: 3). 6 Sartres early paper about Husserl is available in translation as Sartre (1970). For a readable account o f Husserls phenomenology and its relation to Sartres concerns, see Bakewell (2016). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxv opinion of Sartre, she produced a competing vignette of her own (fea - turing M, a mother, and D, her daughter-in-law) to illustrate her criticisms of Sartre (Murdoch 1970). In America it took longer for serious interest in Sartres philosophy to become established: with a few exceptions, most philosophical dis - cussion post-dated and depended on Barness translation.7 This time-lag seems also to have made it more difficult for Sartres ideas to get an unprejudiced hearing: by the late 1950s Sartre was often presented out-side France as a lightweight celebrity whose philosophy did not deserve to be taken seriously outside caf society. Some of Sartres critical articles about American society (written after a visit in 1945) had been translated into English in the 1950s; his increasingly vocal political criticisms of the West had also made him enemies. 8 Apparently Hazel Barnes herself, before she had read any of Sartres philosophical work, had dismissed existentialism as a fashionable philosophy of defeatism and despair (Cannon 2008: 92). The early reception of Sartre in the UK and the US was idiosyn - cratic in a number of ways. First, Sartre was often presented as a moral philosopher and, accordingly, criticized from that perspective. Both Murdoch and MacIntyre saw him this way while, in the US, Marjorie Grene presented existentialism as a philosophy in which the central virtue was authenticity, a line of thought that was also taken up and 7 The exceptions are interesting, however. Wilfrid Desan, who was born in Belgium and studied in Lille, was a native French speaker who apparently met Sartre during the Second World War. He moved to the US in 1948, gained a doctorate there, and spent his working life as a university professor of philosophy . His frst book, published in 1954, was a critical study of EN and relied on the French text (Desan 1954). Marjorie Grene, an American who had spent time studying in Germany with Heidegger and Jaspers in the early 1930s, published various books and papers about existentialism. The Canadian-born Robert Denoon Cumming served as a US soldier in France in the Second World War and spent time as a student at the Sorbonne. Although his own work on Sartre (Cumming 19912001) was only published later, he introduced generations of students to contemporary European thought in his classes at Columbia University . Herbert Marcuse, who emigrated from Germany in 1932, was already developing his new interpretation of Marxism when he published his unfavourable review of EN (Marcuse 1947). 8 Beauvoir also had an international name by now, as a controversial French intellectual. She visited America separately in 1947 and published her own ambivalent observations in France a year later (translated as Beauvoir 1999). xxvi TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION criticized by Charles Taylor. Alvin Plantingas hostile 1958 paper, An Existentialists Ethics, claimed Sartres account of freedom was incom - patible with any genuine morality and interpreted Sartre as a moral nihilist. From todays standpoint, and with the benefits of closer atten-tion to BN as well as historical hindsight, this focus seems misguided. Sartre himself states explicitly at the end of BN (and in some impor - tant footnotes) that an adequate discussion of morality would have to appear in a future work, but he never succeeded in fulfilling that promise, although we have some idea of the evolution of his moral thinking from the posthumously published Notebooks for an Ethics (Sartre 1992). 9 This moral perspective may have been encouraged to some extent by Barnes; although she was aware of Sartres reticence in BN, her interest in Sartre was driven by her strong desire for a credible post-religious morality, a possibility she continued to explore in her academic writing. Many commentators also read back into BN the optimistic moral ideas that Sartre had sketched out in EH, erroneously conflating these two texts. More generally, the categories used within analytical philosophy and the tacitly accepted boundaries of the discipline have shaped the approach of anglophone philosophers to BN. For example, it is probably because Freud is rarely included (outside France) within the philosophi - cal curriculum that Sartres conception of existentialist psychoanalysis has largely been ignored while, on the other hand, his account of bad faith is seen as a contribution to the debate within the philosophy of mind about self-deception, and his account of shame is assessed with reference to the sceptical problem of other minds. In her introduction to the 1965 edition of her translation, Barnes complained that this piecemeal attention to BN hindered readers understanding: one can no more understand Sartres view of freedom, for instance, without considering his peculiar view of consciousness than one can judge Platos doctrine that knowledge is recollection without relating it to the theory of ideas. What critics usually fail to see is that Sartre is 9 The Notebooks many references to the desirability of a social revolution suggest that at least part of Sartr es reason for abandoning his work on morality was that political imperatives had come to seem more fundament al. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxvii one of the very few twentieth century philosophers to present us with a total system.10 The predominantly ahistorical outlook of analytical philosophy has also inflected the study of Sartre. With a few exceptions, and in spite of Sartres frequent references to the three Hs, most anglophone commentators have said little about Sartres relations to these predecessors, or even about his place in the European post-Kantian tradition more broadly. Work still remains to be done exploring Sartres relations not only to the three Hs but also to more shadowy figures behind the text, including Kierkegaard, Bergson, Leibniz and the Stoics. 11 It is perhaps especially surprising that so little attention was given to Sartres relationship with Heidegger: after all, Heidegger was still alive when BN appeared and he pre-deceased Sartre by only four years. 12 In fact, Heideggers influence pervades BN, although Sartre does not always acknowledge it. Heideggers example may be responsible for BNs title (which can be seen as a response to Heideggers most famous philo - sophical work, Being and Time ), and is surely the reason for the mention of ontology in its sub-title. Heideggers example must also have influ - enced Sartres decision to make nothingness into a central philosophical concept. Sartres focus on mans practical immersion in his everyday tasks, the choice of the activity of questioning as an investigative point of departure, and the redeployment of anguish within a new framework are also all indebted to Heidegger. 13 Despite this debt, most of Sartres reading of Heidegger appears to have been in French translation and he relied heavily on a small anthology of extracts and essays translated by Henry Corbin and published in France in 1938 (Heidegger 1938). Sartre borrowed the phrase human-reality 10 Barnes (1965: viiiix). 11 The exceptions include the following:Aquila (1998), Baiasu (2011), Baldwin (1979), Gardner (2005, 2009). More of this type o f work has been published in France and Germany , where philosophy tends to b e studied from a more historical perspective. See for example Hartmann (1966) and Simont (1998). 12 Various reasons may explain this neglect: in particular, I think Heideggers writing style was a deterrent. It is difcult to imagine Ay er, Murdoch, Hampshire or Berlin enjoying his dense and humourless prose. 13 Of course Sartre also disagrees with Heidegger on many topics, including the signif - cance of human death and the nature o f our relations with others. xxviii TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION (la ralit humaine) directly from Corbin (who had used it to translate Heideggers term Dasein). This monstrous translation, as Jacques Derrida famously described it a quarter of a century later (Derrida 1982b: 115), was subsequently held against Sartre. In conjunction with other evidence (including, importantly, EH), this usage was thought to warrant dismissal of BN as a philosophy resting on outdated and unacceptable humanist premises. The anti-humanist criticism was one among several lines of attack within a broader critical backlash against Sartre that was at its height in the 1960s and 1970s, in both France and the English-speaking world. Feminist theory provided a different kind of opposition (about which more later). In so far as it involves Sartre, the so-called Humanism Debate begins in 1946 when Jean Beaufret (a French philosopher with an interest in German thought) wrote to Heidegger, with the intention of re-establishing a dialogue between French and German philosophy after the disruption of the Second World War. 14 In EH, Sartre had cited Heidegger as a fellow existentialist, and Beaufret was effectively inviting Heidegger to respond. Heideggers reply published in an expanded version as the Letter on Humanism (Heidegger 1978b) was disdainful. (It did not help that almost two decades had elapsed since the publication of Being and Time and Heideggers philosophical focus had shifted.) Although Sartre is not exten - sively discussed in the Letter, Heidegger makes it clear that, in his view, Sartre is one of the many Western philosophers who have misconceived the proper task of thought. Sartres focus in EH on (free) human action is, Heidegger suggests, superficial: instead, we should develop our thinking in a way that lets itself be claimed by Being so that it can say the truth of Being (194). To do this, it is important to notice the resources of language and to reconceptualize our relationship with it. Indeed, the first page of the Letter contains one of Heideggers most-quoted claims: Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells (Heidegger 1978b: 193). Why does Heidegger reject humanism at least as it is normally con- ceived? Although the Letter pursues several relevant lines of thought, the central claim is that the way the human being is interpreted throughout the history 14 See Baldwin (2007) for further discussion of this debate. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxix of humanism is insufficiently radical, and sets us on the wrong philosophical path. For example the Greek view that a human is essentially a rational animal helps itself uncritically to a conception of life and locates humans among other animals in a way that conceals our difference (which does not consist, for Heidegger, in rationality). Behind this criticism lies a more fundamental problem, namely that every humanism is either grounded in a metaphysics or is itself made to be the ground of one. . . . Accordingly, every humanism is metaphysical (Heidegger 1978b: 202). Heideggers critique of metaphysics is an immense topic; for our purposes, the key idea to retain is Heideggers claim which is taken up in Derridas philosophy that the Western philosophical tradition has repeatedly determined being in terms of presence. For Heidegger, humanism is complicit with this metaphysical tendency; in its Cartesian incarnation, for example, humans are characterized as thinking subjects to whom beings are made present (or represented) as objects. Derrida elaborates the theme of the metaphysics of presence with particular reference to questions of linguistic meaning and reference (which had, by the late twentieth century, also become dominant in anglophone phi - losophy as well as in Continental Europe). Had French thought taken a different path after Heideggers anti- Sartrean intervention, the question of humanism might have been forgotten. But the massive impact of structuralism in virtually every branch of the human sciences in France in the 1960s resulted in a range of anti-humanist theoretical proposals that were thought to be antithetical to Sartres earlier philosophy, by authors who were often explicitly critical of Sartre. As its name suggests, structuralisms basic insight is that the production of meaning where this is broadly under - stood to include linguistic meaning, the meaning of literary texts and the meaning of social practices depends on pre-existing and socially shared structures or systems that determine and delimit the signifying possibilities available to the people who inhabit them. A host of famous French thinkers are associated with this paradigm, including Barthes, Foucault, Lvi-Strauss, Lacan and Althusser. 15 Across these different fields 15 See Gutting (2001) for a helpful overview of many of these fgures. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxx of investigation, the structuralist model denies explanatory primacy to individual subjectivity, and emphasizes instead the often-quoted decen-tring of the subject and the death of the author. 16 Sartre was portrayed as an advocate of the individualist humanism held by this body of work to be untenable. Of course a case can be, and has been, made in Sartres defence; defendants have portrayed and promoted a new Sartre. It should also be noted that many of the French theorists who distanced themselves from Sartre were separated from him by only a few years in age: Sartres prominence in public life needed to be questioned if they were to dis - place him. A further question, which some have answered affirmatively, is whether Sartres post-BN writings show him to be following a similar trajectory to the structuralist theorists in any case. 17 The feminist attacks on Sartre were largely independent of this debate, and arose as part of the wider feminist Zeitgeist in the second half of the twentieth century. One strand of feminist discussion has been biographically centred, in so far as it examines Sartres relationship with Beauvoir and his intellectual debts to her through a feminist lens. In this context, the relevance of BN is exhausted by the light it throws on these wider questions (whether, for example, it reveals Beauvoirs influence). For this reason, I will merely remind the reader that Sartre dedicated BN au Castor and move on. 18 The so-called second wave of feminism was at its height in the 1970s when two American scholars published an influential article, Holes and Slime: Sexism in Sartres Psychoanalysis (Collins and Pierce 1976). Their purpose was to show that Sartres examples in BN of the psychoanalysis of things manifest a sexism that contradicts BNs basic anti-essentialist standpoint. In the passages they cite from Barness trans-lation, Sartre considers the significance of holes and slime. 19 Slime, he tells 16 Foucaults eloquent concluding paragraphs to The Order of Things are often quoted to the same efect. Foucault states that man is an invention of recent date and that, if the fundamental arrangements of knowledge were to crumble,man would be erased, like a face drawn in sand at the edg e of the sea (Foucault 1970: 387). 17 See for example Caws (1992). 18 Le Castor, which is French for beaver , was Sartres nickname for Beauvoir. See Daigle and Golomb (2008) for the question of Beauvoirs infuence. 19 Sartres French term is visqueux, which (as I argue below) should be translated as viscous rather than slimy . TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxi us, has a negative ontological meaning, in so far as it signifies a threat to consciousness, or an inversion of its central characteristics (lucidity, freedom, etc.). Sartre describes the action of slime as a moist and femi - nine sucking which is also the revenge of the In-itself. A sickly-sweet feminine revenge. . . . Collins and Pierces objections to Sartres treat - ment of holes are less forceful, as Sartre mentions several types of hole (including non-corporeal ones). Nonetheless, his suggestion that the vagina is a mouth and a voracious mouth which devours the penis did not please them. One response to these criticisms, voiced by Barnes and other critics, points out that these damning passages do not play an important role in BN; it would be absurd to take them to be gendering Sartres ontology, i.e. to infer that the for-itself is implicitly male and the in-itself implicitly female throughout. According to this defence, we ought to distinguish the (incidental) sexism of Sartres imagery from his central philosophical doctrines. As Barnes conceded, a full investigation of the linguistic codes in Sartres writing would reveal him to be a man comfortably ensconced in a world of male dominance (Barnes 1990: 341). But, Sartres sup - porters argued, we need to look beyond the regrettably sexist imagery and language in order to notice the emancipatory potential of Sartres basic anti-essentialism. 20 However, this defence of Sartre may not work in relation to another, more theoretically sophisticated line of feminist criticism. According to the French philosopher Michle Le Doeuff (2007), a philosophical imaginary, expressing a male outlook and male privilege, can be dis-cerned within the Western philosophical canon as a whole and BN is no exception. As this orientation is largely unconscious and surfaces most often in imagery or examples that may appear to be incidental, we can - not dismiss these aspects of a text. One of Le Doeuffs most compelling analyses focuses on Sartres depictions of women in his discussion of bad faith: not only the well-known woman on the date who tries not to notice her suitors sexual ambitions but also the unfortunate women, featured in some case-studies from Stekel and cited by Sartre, who claim not to enjoy sex with their husbands, although both Stekel and Sartre disagree 20 Feminists have also found other elements in BN useful, e.g. its account of the objectify - ing efect of the Others gaze . For a collection of feminist interpretations of Sartre, see Murphy (1999). xxxii TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION (Le Doeuff 2007: 6468). In her unconventional book, Le Doeuff also draws on a wide range of other materials, including Beauvoirs memoirs and letters from Sartre, arguing that the real-life consequence of their intellectual partnership was effectively that Beauvoir was deprived (or deprived herself) of the status of a philosopher. Genevieve Lloyds The Man of Reason , first published in 1984, also sur - veyed the Western philosophical canon from a feminist critical point of view, although through a slightly different lens (Lloyd 1993). Lloyd claims that the ideal of reason is repeatedly associated in philosophy with maleness; this association, moreover, is sometimes inherited by philos - ophers who may not consciously appreciate its workings. Lloyd argues that the idea of transcendence that Beauvoir took over from Sartre (and, via Sartre, from Hegel), and uses in The Second Sex, is contaminated in this way and therefore an unsuitable feminist ideal. Le Doeuffs and Lloyds books are insightful, and their remarks about BN deserve serious attention. Still, we should note that the ambition and generality of these surveys mean that Sartre is seen to instantiate a rule rather than an exception. In addition, these critics suggest that the bias they are documenting needs to be unearthed: it is not always obvious, and nor do the philosophers who exhibit it even necessarily intend it. In this respect, these feminist interpretations of Western philosophy share some of the features of Derridas deconstructionist approach to philosophy, published in France in several influential books and arti - cles in the late 1960s and 1970s. 21 Some of these writings target the structuralism that was then so fashionable in France: because of their deflationary effect, Derrida is often described as a post-structuralist. For Derrida there is something quixotic about the view that a signifying system can be mastered once its basic structures have been identified. Derridas own writing focuses especially on the case of language: one of the features that makes his prose difficult to read (and even more difficult to translate) is the multiple performances of language eluding authorial control. Puns, ambiguities and neologisms abound in Derridas highly self-conscious texts. 21 Derrida continued to publish until his death in 2014, but the classical deconstructive texts appeared in the late 1960s and 1970s. TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxiii Derridas ambitious and complicated project is difficult to sum up (in part because it deliberately resists presentation as a set of doctrines), but a few further remarks about his relationship to Sartre are called for. As we saw, Derrida blames Sartre for using the term human-reality and, more broadly, for perpetuating a navely anthropological or humanist reading of Heideggers work (Derrida 1982b). Nonetheless, the effect of Derridas wider analysis in this essay is ultimately to dilute Sartres spe - cific accountability for the persistence of humanism in recent philosophy by showing, for example, that despite Heideggers stated intentions (in his Letter and elsewhere) there is a residual humanism in his thought too. As Derrida puts it: What must hold our interest . . . is the kind of profound justifica - tion, whose necessity is subterranean, which makes the Hegelian, Husserlian and Heideggerian critiques or de-limitations of metaphysi- cal humanism appear to belong to the very sphere of that which they criticize or de-limit. (Derrida 1982b: 119) How does BN stand in relation to these more recent developments in French philosophy? Although the phenomenon of language is occasion- ally discussed, it is not at the centre of Sartres concerns. Moreover, despite occasional instances of linguistic playfulness in the text, Sartres style and tone exhibit a pre-Derridean confidence that language can be used to say what we mean that would not have been possible (or, at least, not with - out discussion) twenty-five years later. The same confidence emerges in some of Sartres reflections on his own linguistic practice, as the follow - ing exchange, from an interview with Michel Contat in 1975, shows: Q: Your philosophical manuscripts are written in long hand, with almost no crossings out or erasures, while your literary manuscripts are very much worked over, perfected. Why is there this difference? A: The objectives are different: in philosophy, every sentence should have only one meaning. The work I did on Les Mots, for example, attempting to give multiple and superimposed meanings to each sentence, would be bad work in philosophy. (Sartre 1978b: 7) xxxiv TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION But if Sartres attitude towards language in BN is old-fashioned, the proponents of the new Sartre have shown that in other respects, and sympathetically read, BN is ahead of its time. The humanist criticisms voiced by Heidegger and the structuralists, for example, often draw on a simplifying interpretation of Sartres Cartesian standpoint in BN that can easily be shown to be incomplete. 22 For Descartes, the cogito affords the subject indubitable first-personal knowledge, while mind and body are two separate substances which are, respectively, immaterial and material. In Sartres hands, all these elements are radically modified: the reflec - tive standpoint of the cogito is shown to be epistemologically unreliable, consciousness is not a substance and, in addition, it has no contents. Moreover, Sartres characterization of the for-itself as being-what-it-is-not and not-being-what-it-is decentres the Sartrean subject, and undermines the possibility of self-coincidence in a way that, arguably, keeps the metaphysics of presence at bay. 23 Whatever its merits, the new Sartre exemplifies BNs relevance to later French thought, enlisting it in a dialogue with more recent philosophy. At the same time, academic philosophy in the English-speaking world, which typically resists European fashion, has come to accept BN as a classic text that belongs in the post-Kantian tradi - tion. I hope this new translation will help the reader to form her own view of it for herself, responsibly and freely, as Sartre would have urged. References Aquila, Richard E. (1998), Sartres Other and the Field of Consciousness: A Husserlian Reading, European Journal of Philosophy , 6 (3): 253276. Ayer, A.J. (1945), Novelist-Philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, Horizon, 12 (67): 1226, and 12 (68): 101110. Baiasu, Sorin (2011), Kant and Sartre: Re-discovering Critical Ethics (London: Palgrave Macmillan). Bakewell, Sarah (2016), At the Existentialist Caf (London: Vintage). 22 Heideggers attack in particular can be seen to be limited by its reliance on EH rather than BN. 23 For fuller discussion, see Farrell Fox (2003) and Howells (1992b). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxv Baldwin, Thomas (1979), The Original Choice in Sartre and Kant, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 80: 3144. Baldwin, Thomas (2007), The Humanism Debate, in Leiter and Rosen (eds) (2007): 671710. Barnes, Hazel (1965), Translators Introduction, in Sartre (1965): viiixliii. Barnes, Hazel (1990), Sartre and Sexism, Philosophy and Literature, 14 (2): 340347. Barnes, Hazel (1997), The Story I Tell Myself (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Beauvoir, Simone de (1999), America Day by Day, trans. Carol Cosman (Berkeley: University of California Press). Berlin, Isaiah (2009), Enlightening: Letters 194660, ed. H. Hardy and J. Holmes (London: Chatto & Windus). Cannon, Betty (2008), Hazel E. Barnes 19152008: A Tribute and Farewell, Sartre Studies International, 14 (2): 90103. Caws, Peter (1992), Sartrean Structuralism?, in Howells (ed.) (1992a): 293317. Collins, Margery and Pierce, Christine (1976), Holes and Slime: Sexism in Sartres Psychoanalysis, in Gould and Wartofsky (eds) (1976): 112127. Cumming, Robert Denoon (19912001), Phenomenology and Deconstruction (4 vols) (Chicago: Chicago University Press). Daigle, Christine and Golomb, Jacob (eds) (2008), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of Influence (Indiana: Indiana University Press). Derrida, Jacques (1982a), Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass (Sussex: Harvester Press). Derrida, Jacques (1982b), The Ends of Man, in Derrida (1982a): 109136. Desan, Wilfrid (1954), The Tragic Finale: An Essay on the Philosophy of Jean- Paul Sartre (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press). Edwards, Paul (ed.) (1967), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: Macmillan). Farrell Fox, Nik (2003), The New Sartre (London: Continuum). Foucault, Michel (1970), The Order of Things (London: Tavistock). Fulton, Ann (1999), Apostles of Sartre: Existentialism in America 19451963 (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press). Gardner, Sebastian (2005), Sartre, Intersubjectivity, and German Idealism, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 43 (3): 325351. Gardner, Sebastian (2009), Sartres Being and Nothingness (London: Continuum). Gould, Carol and Wartofsky, Marx (eds) (1976), Women and Philosophy: Toward a Theory of Liberation (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxvi Gutting, Gary (2001), French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Hampshire, Stuart (1957), Sartre the Philosopher, The Observer (London), 12 May. Hartmann, Klaus (1966), Sartres Ontology (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press). Heidegger, Martin (1938), Quest-ce que la Mtaphysique? Suivi dExtraits sur ltre et le Temps et dune Conference sur Hlderlin , trans. Henry Corbin (Paris: Gallimard). Heidegger, Martin (1978a), Basic Writings, trans. David Krell (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul). Heidegger, Martin (1978b), Letter on Humanism, trans. David Krell, in Heidegger (1978a): 193242. Hopkins, Robert (1998), Picture, Image and Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Howells, Christina (ed.) (1992a), The Cambridge Companion to Sartre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Howells, Christina (1992b), Sartre and the Deconstruction of the Subject, in Howells (ed.) (1992a): 318352. Le Doeuff, Michle (2007), Hipparchias Choice, trans. Trista Selous (New York: Columbia University Press). Leiter, B. and Rosen, M. (eds) (2007), The Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Lloyd, Genevieve (1993), The Man of Reason (London: Routledge). MacIntyre, Alasdair (1967), Existentialism, in Edwards (ed.) (1967), Vol. 3: 147154. Marcuse, Herbert (1947), Existentialism: Remarks on Jean-Paul Sartres Ltre et le Nant, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 8 (3): 309336. Murdoch, Iris (1967), Sartre (London: Fontana). Murdoch, Iris (1970), The Sovereignty of Good (New York: Schocken Books). Murphy, Julien (ed.) (1999), Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre (University Park: Pennsylvania University Press). Plantinga, Alvin (1958), An Existentialists Ethics, Review of Metaphysics, 12 (2): 235256. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1943), Ltre et le Nant (Paris: Gallimard). Sartre, Jean-Paul (1965), Being and Nothingness, trans. and introduced by Hazel Barnes (New York: Washington Square Press). Sartre, Jean-Paul (1970), Intentionality: A Fundamental Idea of Husserls Phenomenology, trans. Joseph Fell, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 1 (2): 45. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1973), Existentialism and Humanism, trans. Philip Mairet (London: Methuen). TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION xxxvii Sartre, Jean-Paul (1978a), Sartre in the Seventies: Interviews and Essays , trans. Paul Auster and Lydia Davis (London: Andre Deutsch). Sartre, Jean-Paul (1978b), Self-Portrait at Seventy, reprinted in Sartre (1978a): 492. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1992), Notebooks for an Ethics , trans. David Pellauer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Schilpp, P.A. (ed.) (1981), The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court). Simont, Juliette (1998), Jean-Paul Sartre: Un Demi-sicle de Libert (Brussels: De Boeck). Warnock, Mary (ed.) (1971), Sartre: A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Anchor Books). NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION Sarah Richmond Frederick Olafson, an American philosopher, reviewed Barness trans- lation of BN in 1958. He was unsympathetic to its content and also commented harshly on its style: The French text presents, notoriously, a thankless task; it is endlessly repetitive, full of ugly neologisms, and in places quite unintelligible. Inevitably, the English version shares these defects to a degree and read - ers are not likely to find it much easier going than the original. (Olafson 1958: 276, my emphasis) When readers of this translation encounter stylistic infelicities, repeti - tions and ramblings, I hope they will bear Olafsons sentences in mind. It is common for translators to dissociate themselves from the content of their translated text, but the despair I have sometimes felt has usually been in connection with BNs style. Where they seem legitimate, I have taken steps (detailed below) to mitigate stylistic defects, but in this respect the options available to a responsible translator are limited. Punctuation is the main area where I have felt licensed to depart from Sartres practice in order to make the text more readable. Written French often contains long sentences with multiple subordinate clauses that are often punctuated only by commas. Sartre uses such sentences throughout NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xxxix the text. Good English prose usually works differently: sentences tend to be shorter, and parentheses, colons and semi-colons (as well as com - mas) are used to order the meaning. It seems appropriate for a translator to take advantage, where she can, of these differences. In making some of Sartres sentences shorter (by dividing one French sentence into two or more English ones) and/or punctuating them differently (with more semi-colons and colons, and fewer commas), I do not think I have been unfaithful. In the same vein, I have not translated all the numerous instances of en effet (indeed or in effect): in the French, this phrase is often used more for emphasis than to add information so, where it seems unnecessary in the English, I have sometimes deleted it. Another phrase Sartre uses frequently is cest--dire, which translates literally as that is to say: because it would badly clutter the English text if I translated each instance like that, I have often used the near-synonymous i.e. instead. As the rules for the use of quotation marks also differ between French and English (e.g. within dialogue, or to show that words are mentioned rather than used), I have also taken advantage of this difference and introduced quotation marks where that improves clarity. Sartre likes to hyphenate phrases: it seems likely he got this habit from Heidegger. I have not felt entitled to interfere with this practice, despite the many cumbersome word-strings that ensue: presumably (as in Heideggers Being-in-the-world) the hyphens are intended, at least in most instances, to emphasize the indissolubility of the terms they conjoin. This is true for example of ralit-humaine, which I translate as human-reality. In other instances, the purpose of the hyphen is unclear. I have no idea why Sartre hyphenates peopled-world ( monde-peupl) at EN 601 or human-will ( volont-humaine) at EN 486. Sartre is also incon - sistent in his use of hyphens, using the same phrase at different points in the text with or without them: although this is puzzling, I have not interfered. With some hyphenated phrases Sartre switches with apparent arbitrariness between one word order and its reverse, as for example in Other-object at EN 266 and object-Other at EN 296 ( objet-autrui and autrui-objet respectively). I sometimes switch the order of the hyphen - ated words in translation: French and English follow different rules with respect to word order anyway, but there are also instances where I have switched the word order in the English, not because it is grammatically required, but for the sake of a more euphonious phrase. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xl What are the main differences between Barness older translation and mine? Barness achievement was immense, especially when one bears in mind the limited technology at her disposal (no computers, internet, etc.), and her translation of BN is far better than many other first English translations of French philosophical texts from the same period. Although some of Barness decisions were flawed, and she made a number of outright mistakes, these shortcomings alone might not warrant a new translation. Fortunately, and in part because of advances in technology and professional standards as well as the availability of recent philosophi - cal scholarship and translations, I have also been able to enhance the text in a number of ways that I hope readers will find helpful. Many of the writings to which Sartre refers either directly or more allusively were unavailable in English translation in the 1950s. To give just one example, Heideggers Being and Time was first translated into English by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson in 1962. This care - ful, thoroughly annotated translation has enabled me to find the source of many of Sartres numerous Heidegger references in the published English version and to quote, or discuss, or direct the reader to the cor - responding passages. In the same way, of course, I have been able to benefit from other reliable translations of other philosophical works, in particular those by Husserl and Hegel. These English translations, in conjunction with additional critical discussion by anglophone scholars, have resulted in the existence of vari - ous lexicons associated with different European philosophers; this has allowed me, in some cases, to translate a French term by an English term from the relevant lexicon, and thus to maintain cross-textual consistency. In some instances this works well: I have followed most English trans - lations of Bergson, for example, in rendering lan by impulse rather than the alternative terms offered by FrenchEnglish dictionaries (e.g. momentum). But this accumulated history also creates complicated sit - uations in which some advantages have to be sacrificed for others. Sartres negative vocabulary offers an illustration: Sartre would have found the term le nant in Corbins translation of Heideggers What Is Metaphysics?, where Corbin uses it to translate the German das Nichts (Heidegger 1938). Sartre was also familiar with Bergsons rejection of the idea of le nant in Lvolution Cratrice (translated as Bergson 1911). Many English translations of Heidegger render das Nichts as the Nothing, while Bergsons term le NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xli nant was for a long time rendered as the Nought. Three different terms, then, are in circulation in English: nothingness, nothing and the nought. Further complications arise when one tries to reproduce in English the connections between the words in this negative vocabulary. The intended assonance of Heideggers controversial sentence Das Nichts nichtet has been reproduced, in a translation suggested by some Heidegger scholars, as The nothing noths (Inwood 1999). Sartre built a parallel assonance into his French text by inventing the verb nantiser. To reproduce this assonance in English, one could either translate nantiser by borrowing the verb to noth from Heidegger, or make up a new verb along the same lines: to nothingize, perhaps? However, nantir also closely resembles the existing French verb anantir (to annihilate), and this connection speaks in favour of translating it into English as nihilate. This was Barness solution, and after some reflection I have endorsed it. The widespread use of Barness translation has of course naturalized some of her vocabulary and, where I disagree with her decision about a significant term, I have had to consider the cost to (some) readers of introducing a change. For example, Sartre frequently uses the noun sur-gissement and the related verb surgir to characterize the way the for-itself arises within the world. Surgir is not an unusual verb in everyday French, where it simply means to arise, with an implication of abruptness that sometimes speaks in favour of a phrase such as to suddenly appear or to crop up. The related noun is harder to translate: one option might be sudden appearance, but that would blur the boundaries of the term appearance in BN, which is better confined, in my view, to instances where Sartre uses apparence or apparition (often with a phenomenological sense). The difficulties are clear; nonetheless, I think Barness choice of the term upsurge was eccentric. Upsurge is rarely used in English, and the first entry for it in most dictionaries defines it as an increase of some- thing in its size or incidence: the word can be used, for example, in a phrase such as a recent upsurge of crime. (Less commonly, the verb can be used intransitively to mean to surge up, as in the water upsurged: perhaps Barnes had this usage in mind.) I have decided to use the verb to arise instead and (where necessary) the noun arising, as these are more faithful to the register used in the French. The case for conservatism in relation to existing translations is some - times strengthened by the weight of published commentary elsewhere: NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlii even if I could think of an accurate way of translating ralit-humaine that did less violence to Heideggers term Dasein, the Humanism Debate (dis - cussed in my Introduction) has now made Sartres and Corbins decision into a significant event in the French reception of Heidegger. To reverse that decision would be rather like rewriting history, and in any case it is not the role of a translator to correct the author of her text. Because many of the people to whom Sartre refers have since faded into obscurity I have provided many identifying footnotes. In addition, where Sartre refers to passages or arguments in works by other philoso - phers I have tried to reference these for the reader. Note that I have not provided explanatory footnotes for obvious names (e.g. Plato). In the remainder of these notes I list some further elements of my translation, either to explain my decision or to provide further infor - mation, or both. I start with parts of speech and move on to various clusters of vocabulary. Prepositions Sartre frequently uses prepositions as if they were nouns (especially lau-del and dehors). I have often put quotation marks round the English equivalents, for example the unconditioned beyond (EN 129) or purely as an outside (EN 517), to make the grammatical structure clearer than it would otherwise be in English. Pronouns Il, elle, cest : Several translation difficulties arise from the differences between the French and English pronoun systems. The following sets out my policy in relation to the main difficulties. 1. Often, once Sartre has used some noun in a sentence, he refers back to it with il or elle, where the gender of the pronoun in French helps the reader track the referent. (For example, having mentioned une table, Sartre may refer back to it with elle.) In these cases the English may be less clear, as the gender-neutral it may have more than one referent. To maintain clarity, I have sometimes repeated the noun in such cases. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xliii 2. Sartres two modes of being pour-soi and en-soi are naturally trans - lated as for-itself and in-itself; a consistent description of the for- itselfs doings will therefore refer to it with the impersonal pro - noun, it. It needs to be remembered, however, that the for-itself is the mode of being of human consciousness, so it is exemplifed by persons. In consequence, there are some contexts where the decision to translate with the pronoun it (rather than the personal pronouns he or she) will cause strain. Where the phrase pour-soi is followed in close proximity by some characterization of an activity or atti - tude that clearly belongs to a person, I have therefore often switched (sometimes within the same sentence) from itself to himself. For example, at EN 450 I have: It may happen that the for-itself, having experienced these various avatars in the course of its histori- alization, decides in full knowledge of the futility of his previous attempts to pursue the others death. Similarly , I have avoided using the pronoun it for the Other. At EN 281, for example, I translate Sartres autrui nest pas pour soi comme il mapparat as the Other is not for himself as he appears to me. For greater clarity of reference, I also sometimes repeat the phrase for-itself within a sentence or paragraph. 3. Soi: Sartre sometimes uses this term (e.g. in the phrase pour-soi) such that it corresponds to the refexive pronoun itself in English; at other times it is used as a noun to mean the self, or Ego. (Sartre also uses le moi in this sense: in some cases I signal whether the French has moi or soi by putting the French pronoun in square brackets in the text.) Sartre also uses the noun soi to refer to the unattainable self-coincidence that haunts the for-itself (e.g. at EN 126). Here, I have translated it by the itself, sometimes putting itself within scare quotes to acknowledge the grammatical oddity . One advantage of itself is that it maintains the con - nection with the for-itself whose ideal it is; it also makes it clear that Sartre is not concerned in these instances with the kind of self possessed by persons, but rather with self-coincidence. For conscience (de) soi, see Other words worthy of note below . 4. Il: In line with French linguistic convention, Sartre often uses this masculine pronoun universally to refer to a man or a woman, and (similarly) he uses lhomme to mean man in the general sense, i.e. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xliv humanity (male and female) in general. Of course, the correspond - ing terms can also be used like this in English. In both France and England, this practice has in recent decades been criticized for its implicit sexism, and many writers now use a more egalitarian alter - native (e.g. he or she, they, etc.). In relation to this political issue, it would clearly be an anach - ronistic imposition to alter Sartres traditional use of the masculine pronoun (il); similarly , where he writes in the first-personal voice I have assumed that voice is male. In addition, once the topic of the Other is introduced (in Part Three), I have followed Sartre in refer - ring to the Other as a he. Nonetheless, there are some contexts where, in my view , it is important to use female pronouns, as I explain in the next paragraph. Gender pronouns in the context of interpersonal relations In the sections in Part Three in which Sartre discusses love and sexual desire, the translation of the masculine pronoun il becomes particularly challenging. There is good reason to suppose that in Sartres analysis of these relations he has a malefemale (heterosexual) couple in mind. Sartre sometimes provides examples that make this explicit, and in any case any other supposition would have been unusual in the 1940s. (In addition Sartre sometimes manifests in BN and in other writings the prejudiced attitudes of his time towards homosexuality.) Despite this implicit heterosexual assumption, Sartre continues to refer frequently, as French allows him to, to both members of the loving or sexual couple with the male pronoun. Thus, in speaking of the lover and his beloved, Sartre regularly refers to them as lamant and laim (not in the feminine form aime), and uses the masculine pronoun il for each of them. Now, in French this usage is consistent with the belief that one member of the couple is female the universality of il is sufficiently robust to allow that. But in English, if both members of a couple are referred to by he, most people would conclude that they are both male (and, perhaps, that they are homosexual). For this reason, in sections I and II of Part Three, Chapter 3, I have often indicated that one partner in a couple is female by using the pronoun she, even where this means translating Sartres il by she. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlv Note that my motive here is not political, but to replicate in English the scenario I think Sartre has in mind. If it has the effect of increas - ing ones sense of female presence within the text, that is a happy but coincidental consequence. (From a political perspective, of course, the heteronormativity of the scenario may be regrettable. 1) In section III of the same chapter Sartre discusses groupings [ nous]: here the relevant pronouns are we or us. At this point I revert to using he throughout, as it is not clear that females are involved. Neologisms and ungrammatical locutions (NB: Although some of these words discussed here are now included in some French dictionaries, the earliest use given is most often Sartres.) chosifier, chosiste Sartre invents this verb (and the corresponding adjec - tive), using it to mean to make into a thing [une chose]. As thingify is cumbersome in English and Sartres verb is synonymous with the fairly ordinary English verb to reify, I have often preferred the latter over the former. Where the idea of thing seems important, I signal it. est t In this ungrammatical locution, Sartre tampers with the correct way of saying that something has been in French (i.e. to use the verb avoir fol- lowed by t, the past participle of tre), by replacing the main verb avoir by tre. This generates a grammatically incorrect phrase equivalent to the English is been. For example, at EN 57, Sartre writes le nant est t , using scare quotes to acknowledge the oddness of the phrase. (Sartre also offers some reasons for using it in the same paragraph.) I cannot see any reason not to translate it literally, rendering the quoted phrase as: nothingness is been. ngatit is a noun coined by Sartre to refer to a particular instance of noth - ingness within the world. I do not think it is necessary to leave it in French (as Barnes did), when a mirror neologism negatity (pl. negatities) can be used. objectit can straightforwardly be translated as objecthood. 1 With respect to the question of heteronormativity , some aspects of Sartres theoretical account of human sexuality are interestingly ambiguous. His disagreement with biologi - cally based theories leads him to deny the impor tance of physiological sexual diference and to claim that heterosexuality is not fundamental to sexual relations (EN 424), although a few pages later he also states that in our culture we do not often desire others of the same sex (EN 427). NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlvi Vocabulary relating to the mind: psychology, motivation, experience, perception There is a cluster of issues that are worth noting in relation to the concept of the mind (or, as Sartre puts it, le psyche). From his earliest philosophical writing, Sartre engages in a polemical debate with empirical (or, as he often calls it, positivist) psychology. In BN he regards it as a source of grave ontological misunderstanding and rejects a range of psychological com-monplaces, including the existence of mental states, the passivity of the emotions, and the alleged differences between acts of passion and of rea - son. (Although Sartre often directs these arguments against psychologists, he also finds similar targets elsewhere; for example he rejects Bergsons concep - tion of the deep-seated self, as well as Prousts analysis of jealousy.) Sartres account of our experience of the Other is also revisionary, and also brought into line with his account of its ontological structure. He often describes our relations with the Other in negative and conflictual terms, as his discussion of shame shows. This is one reason for bringing out the negative connotation of the noun preuve (discussed below). Sartre rejects an account of motivation that was prominent in France in the first half of the twentieth century and often used by historians and biographers. The pair of terms mobiles and motifs (see below for discussion of their translation) is central to this account. Sartres attitude to the Gestalt theory of perception was more positive, and he relies on it at several points in BN. This theory was developed by the Czech psychologist Max Wertheimer (18801943) and others, and influenced many twentieth-century European thinkers. The German noun Gestalt translates as form: accordingly, Gestalt theory emphasizes the role of structure within the perceptual field as a determinant of percep-tion. The organization of the perceptual field allows a specific figure to emerge against a ground; the same field, differently organized, may yield a different perception. (As these are the terms used in English trans - lations of Gestalt theory, I use them to translate Sartres forme and fond.) In anglophone philosophy, the duck-rabbit discussed by Wittgenstein is one of the best-known Gestalt examples. Sartre also borrows the adjec - tive hodological from the psychologist Kurt Lewin (18901947), who was also associated with the Gestalt school. The Greek hodos means path; hodological space is therefore the space that we inhabit lived NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlvii space in which our pathways are more or less difficult, according to our projects. angoisse I translate this by anguish. Sartre inherits this word (via Corbins translation) from Heideggers Angst, which is usually translated into English as anxiety. The term anxiety is also often used in English translation and discussion of Kierkegaards philosophy, and within a broader theological tradition with which Heidegger engaged. These con-siderations weigh in favour of translating angoisse as anxiety (and this is compatible with the range of dictionary suggestions). On the other hand anxiety has a more medical sound in English, whereas anguish sounds more literary and, therefore, more Sartrean. In addition, several French dictionaries suggest that angoisse is a more severe form of affliction. preuve, prouver Sartre often uses the noun preuve to characterize my experi - ence of the Other (e.g. EN 403: je suis preuve dautrui ). A choice has to be made between the many possible ways of translating this French term, which belongs to several semantic fields. It can mean trial, as in a scientific trial or test, or an academic test, or the activity through which one tries out a horse or a car. It can also refer to the kind of challenge one might set someone e.g. Hercules to test their strength or courage. It can also mean ordeal or hardship. At its most neutral, it might simply be translated as experience. Because Sartre frequently emphasizes the asymmetrical and threatening aspects of our relation with the Other, I frequently translate preuve with verbs that hint at these aspects (e.g. I undergo the Other); where a noun seems unavoidable, I sometimes use ordeal. Where Sartre uses prouver with a more neutral sense, I translate it as to experience. mobile(s) and motif(s) Sartre sometimes uses the word mobile on its own; here it is unproblematically translated as motive. Elsewhere, in the course of more extended discussions of motivation, Sartre uses the pair of terms mobile(s) and motif(s), invoking a terminology that was familiar in French academic discourse in the twentieth century. The two terms are counterparts, in so far as mobile refers to subjective (e.g. psycho - logical) motivational forces, while motif refers to objective factors, i.e. grounds or reasons for action. Sartre discusses this familiar explanatory apparatus at length in Part Four. I translate mobile as motive and motif as reason. Barnes translated motif as cause: although she must have meant cause in the sense of ground (as in cause for complaint), this policy is NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlviii potentially confusing, given Sartres categorical denial of any causal rela - tions within consciousness. psyche, psychique Sartre uses the term psyche to refer to the object studied by psychologists and presented to first-person reflection (EN 198): i.e. the mind. This can usually be easily translated by the English equivalent psyche. The corresponding adjective psychic is also available in English, but it is not ordinarily used in the way in which Sartre typically uses psychique, i.e. to mean psychological or mental. If I were to use the word psychic in these contexts, the English would seem outlandish, and it might be difficult to keep the idea of paranormal (e.g. telepathic) phenomena at bay. In most instances, therefore, I translate psychique as psychological. Religious vocabulary Given Sartres atheism, the abundant use of religious vocabulary in BN may surprise some readers. However, for Sartre the concept of God is philosophically necessary, even if He does not exist. For helpful dis - cussion of the relationship between theology and Sartres philosophy, see Kirkpatrick (2017). Apart from ens causa sui (discussed immediately below), the religious vocabulary does not cause difficulties in translation; the main purpose of this note is to draw it to the readers attention. In some cases there is more room for doubt about whether a religious allusion is intended than in others. Examples of terms that (probably) import a religious allusion include: incarnation, deliverance, salvation, emanation, grace, passion. ens causa sui Sartre frequently uses this phrase, both in its original Latin, and translated into French as cause de soi. The reference of course is to God, or the Supreme Being, i.e. a being whose existence does not depend (causally or in any other way) on any other being. I have translated it by [the being that] is its own cause or, occasionally, the self-caused. Vocabulary from the three Hs General note: Where Sartre uses a term in the German (sometimes with - out any translation), I usually explain it in a footnote on the same page. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION xlix The following notes explain how the French terms that Sartre takes from (translations of) these German philosophers correlate with those used by English translators and scholars. In many cases I also provide the original German term and offer a brief explanation of its meaning. Hegel vocabulary Sartres footnote to EN 42 mentions a collection of extracts from Hegels writing in French translation edited by Henri Lefebvre and published under the title Morceaux Choisis in 1938 (available in French as Hegel 1995). It turns out that Sartre took virtually every Hegel quotation he uses in BN from this anthology. In providing the sources of these quota - tions, Sartre follows Lefebvre in distinguishing (as is also customary in English) between Hegels lesser ( Petite) Logic and his greater ( Grande) Logic. These are nicknames for Hegels Encyclopaedia Logic and Science of Logic respectively. dpasser In everyday French, this verb means to go beyond, or to overtake. However, it is also used in many French translations of Hegel to translate Hegels German term Aufhebung, which is often translated into English by to sublate. For this reason, where the context is clearly Hegelian, I use to sublate. poser This verb is used by French translators of Hegel to render his verb Setzen (which many other German philosophers, including Husserl, also use). I follow most other translators by rendering it as to posit. Sartre sometimes uses the noun position to mean the act of positing here I translate it by positing. Unlike posit in English, poser is also used in ordinary French, where it can mean to put down or to pose (e.g. a question). In these non-technical contexts I have used everyday English vocabulary. scission, scissiparit The word scission also exists in English, although it is not commonly used: it means split or division. French transla - tors of Hegel use scission frequently to translate the German Entzweiung; English translations of Hegel sometimes use sundering or division for the corresponding term. I have stuck to scission. Sartre appears to use the noun scissiparit interchangeably with scission: as scissiparity also exists in English, I have used it, mirroring Sartres oscillation between the two terms. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION l Husserl vocabulary As I have mentioned (in my Introduction), Sartre discovered Husserls work in the 1930s; he had read several of Husserls texts in their original German before he wrote BN, as well as Emmanuel Levinass early book on Husserl (translated into English as Levinas 1995). Readers should note that the correct interpretation of many of Husserls concepts is contested (and there are questions about consistency across texts): the notes below provide no more than a rough idea. Husserls key methodological concept is the phenomenological reduction. Sartre also sometimes refers to it with the Greek term (transliterated epche), which Husserl also used. The basic idea is that, by effecting the phenomenological reduction, the philosophizing subject sus-pends or parenthesizes the natural attitude of everyday life, and reflects from the first-personal point of view on the way the world appears (i.e. in phenomena) to consciousness. All presuppositions concerning the existence or non-existence of the things that appear are bracketed in this reflective exercise, which is supposed to deliver presuppositionless knowledge. apprsenter Husserl uses this verb for intentional objects that are mediately (i.e. indirectly) given to the subject. A central example would be other peoples consciousness which, for Husserl, is appresented in their bodies. I follow Husserls English translators in rendering this verb as to appresent. en personne Sartre sometimes uses this phrase, or prsence en personne, in scare quotes, perhaps to indicate its Husserlian origins. Husserl uses it to describe the direct way in which objects are given when they are actu - ally there, as for example in ordinary sensory perception. The spatial physical thing which we see is, with all its transcendence, still something perceived, given in person in the manner peculiar to consciousness (Husserl 1983: 43). I translate it as in person. hyle Husserl borrows this term from the Greek word hyle for matter. In Husserls phenomenology the hyle in a mental act is its sensory matter, the brute given. intentionner French translators use this verb to render Husserls verb meinen, which is usually translated into English as to intend, in the sense where this means the relation of consciousness to its (intentional) object. Sartre may have come across this verb in Levinass writing on Husserl. I translate it as to intend. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION li irrel In ordinary usage, this French word can simply mean unreal, but it is also used in philosophical contexts to translate Husserls German adjective irreal. For this reason, if the context suggests that Sartre is using technical phenomenological vocabulary, I follow English translations of Husserl by using irreal for irrel (even though, of course, that is not an ordinary English word). In Husserls phenomenology the term irreal is used to describe facts or objects (e.g. essences) that do not have spatial or temporal locations, as well as imagined objects. ncessit de fait Sartre uses this phrase frequently and tells us (at EN 21) that he borrows it from Husserl, who uses it to characterize conscious - ness. Husserls point is that, although consciousness does not have any necessary existence, once it does exist, the non-being of its moments is inconceivable. Husserl scholars variously translate the phrase into English as necessity of a fact, factual necessity and de facto necessity. I use fac - tual necessity. nome, nose In translations of Husserl, these French terms correspond to noema and noesis in English. (Husserl borrows the words from ancient Greek, where noema means thought, perception or idea.) The noema is, roughly, the content of a mental act, i.e. the way its referent is presented; the noesis is the correlative subjective process, for example the thinking of the thought or the perceiving of the perception. objectivant, objectiver The French adjective corresponds to Husserls term objektivierend; in Husserl, it describes a basic feature of all mental acts, i.e. their having an object. English translations of Husserl render it as either objectivating or objectifying. I use the latter, and I translate objectiver as to objectify throughout. passifier Some dictionaries suggest that Sartre may have made this verb up. In any case he uses it to mean to make/render past and, while I have not been able to match it with Husserlian terminology, I would guess that he borrows the concept from Husserl. I translate it by my own neologistic verb to pastify, although where that is ungainly I have sometimes translated it instead as to make/render past. poser See entry above, in Hegel vocabulary. prsentifier French translators use this verb to translate Husserls vergegenwr- tigen. I have followed most English translators in using the neologistic verb to presentify. Husserl uses this term to describe a way in which objects may be somehow made present to consciousness even though they are NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lii not perceptually given. For example, anticipation presentifies an object, in so far as its presence is not thought to be actual, but at some future date; recollection does the same thing but represents the object as having been in the past; another form of presentification is imagination, etc. protension French translators use this noun to translate Husserls German noun Protention. I follow Husserls English translators in rendering it as protention. According to Husserls account of temporal experience, protentions and retentions are counterpart non-independent elements of any conscious experience. Protentions reach forwards, into the future, while retentions reach back into the immediate past. remplir, remplissement These terms correspond to Husserls German erfllen and Erfllung; the usual English translations are to fulfil and fulfilment. For Husserl, an act is fulfilled when evidence shows it to be as the sub-ject took it to be. In the case of perception, for example, an intuition of a landscape is fulfilled by the sensory determinations that present it, as Husserl puts it, as being there, in person. Where an object is absent, a subject might intend it emptily, i.e. without sensory fulfilment. (Thus I use emptily to render Sartres adverbial phrase vide.) rtention I translate this as retention. See protension above for explanation. thse, thtique A thetic act, for Husserl, is one that sets something forth, or posits it. For example, the object of a doxic thesis will be posited in some modality of belief. Heidegger vocabulary The reader should bear in mind that, as discussed earlier, Sartres access to Heidegger is often mediated by Henry Corbins French translations (Heidegger 1938), as well as by French commentaries, such as Alphonse De Waelhenss La Philosophie de Martin Heidegger (De Waelhens 1942) (where Sartre found the passage from Heidegger that he quotes in a footnote to EN 413). dpasser This verb is used in French translations of Heidegger as well as in translations of Hegel, although, confusingly, it does not usually render the same original German verb(s). In Heideggers case, dpasser sometimes translates the German verb bersteigen (for which it is a good match, as both these verbs can simply mean to go beyond in ordinary language). English translations of Heidegger often use to surpass in these contexts. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION liii Apart from Heideggerean contexts, Sartre frequently uses the verb dpasser in BN on his own account to characterize the relation of the for-itself to the objects in the world that it goes beyond in the pur - suit of its ends (e.g. EN 638: lorsque je dpasse mes objets vers un but). Here I use the verb to surpass, which avoids cumbersome prepositions and also harmonizes with the precedent set by Heidegger, which influences Sartres use. ek-stase Sartre borrows this term (Ekstase in German) from Heidegger. Heidegger intends to exploit the Greek root meaning of the word (which is generally used to mean displacement or removal), i.e. standing-outside. The hyphen in Sartres French also emphasizes this etymology. In using ecstasis and ecstases (pl.), I follow the English translation of Heidegger (1980) and therefore drop the hyphen. en sursis This expression is often used in French to mean suspended (e.g. in the judicial context of a suspended sentence), pending or out - standing (e.g. with reference to unpaid bills). It is highly probable that Sartre took it from Corbins translations of Heidegger, where en sursis is used to translate the German noun Ausstand (something outstanding, as in the financial sense just cited). The basic idea, then, in connection with human-reality, is that its life always stretches before it as something not yet settled. For these reasons I translate the phrase as suspended or pending. tre-dans-le-monde, tre au milieu du monde In Being and Time and other writ - ings from the same period, Heidegger argues that our way of being in the world is wholly different from the way things worldly objects are in the world. The hyphens that he often uses Being-in-the-world emphasize the indissolubility of our connection to the world we inhabit, a world that concerns us. In contrast to this, the relation of worldly objects to the world that surrounds them is one of indifference; they are merely in the world spatially, and not involved in it (Heidegger 1980: 12). This merely spatial relation is rendered in some English translations as being within the world. I have translated the phrases with which Sartre makes the same distinction as being in the world and being-in-the-midst-of-the-world respectively. He is inconsistent in his use of hyphens. facticit This term is the French translation of the German word Faktizitt, which appears frequently in Heideggers philosophy, where it refers to the fact-like aspects of Daseins being. From the German, it is usually NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION liv translated into English as facticity; as Sartre takes over the term from Heidegger, I translate it the same way. historialiser, shistorialiser This verb was coined by Corbin, in his translation of Heidegger, which is presumably Sartres source (French dictionaries do not give earlier usages). It refers to Daseins basic constitutive capacity to be historical. Although Macquarrie and Robinson (in Heidegger 1980: see 6) translate it into English by to historize, I think it better to map Sartres term more closely, and I translate it therefore as to historialize, etc. (Sartre does not use it consistently, sometimes using historiciser which I render as to historicize instead.) Following Sartre, other French thinkers (e.g. Paul Ricoeur) have used this verb. il y a (and grammatical variants) Sartre sometimes uses this ordinary French phrase (which means there is or there are) with the inten-tion of alluding to Heideggers use of the roughly synonymous German phrase es gibt. In emphasizing this phrase, Heidegger wants to direct the readers attention to two ideas: the idea of an event or happening (rather than a state); and (via the verb geben) the idea of giving, i.e. that Being is given to Dasein. At its first appearance and on occasional later ones (where I think signalling is helpful), I have inserted il y a in square brackets to remind the reader. Sartre frequently highlights this phrase himself (with italics, etc.): the reader should bear in mind the implicit allusion to Heidegger. ipsit Sartre would have found this term in Corbins translations of Heidegger, where it translates Heideggers Selbstheit, which is usually translated into English as selfhood. Independently of his dialogue with Heidegger, Sartre also uses the word to characterize the for-itselfs reflexive relationship to itself. The French ipsit builds on the Latin word ipse ( itself) and is rare in French usage. As the Latinate term can be easily anglicized as ipseity, I think that is how it should be translated. on, lon Although the French term on is translated literally by the English one, Sartre frequently uses it (implicitly or explicitly) to trans - late Heideggers notion das Man. This expression (which is also used in everyday German) is usually translated into English by [the] they. The reader needs to keep in mind that here, as in Heideggers usage, the sense of they at play is that vague, anonymous idea, as in they say that the weather will improve. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lv possibiliser Sartre would have found this verb in Corbins translations of Heidegger. Corbin uses it to translate Heideggers German verb ermgli- chen, which means to make possible. As possibiliser is rare in French, and as Heidegger often italicizes the verb in German in order to emphasize its structure, I have used the neologism to possibilize in English. Sartre sometimes contrasts it with probabiliser, which I translate as to probabilize. possibilit, possible Sartre seems to use the substantive le possible (the possible) interchangeably with la possibilit (possibility). As the possible sounds ter - rible in English, and I cannot discern any difference in meaning between the two terms, as Sartre uses them, I considered the option of collapsing them into a single English noun possibility. However, Sartre may have thought he was working with a real distinction (originating perhaps in Heidegger and/ or Leibniz, both of whom are important background figures to discussions of possibility in the text). The conservative option seemed best. projet, projeter, pro-jet, pro-jeter I translate these respectively as project (noun), to project (verb), pro-ject (neologistic noun) and to pro-ject (neologistic verb). Sartre takes the hyphenated usage from Corbin, who seeks in turn to do justice to Heideggers exploitation of the semantic resources of the German verb entwerfen (to design, sketch) and the noun der Entwurf (sketch, blueprint, etc.). Heidegger often connects these words with the similar-sounding verb werfen (to throw) and its cognates (e.g. geworfen). Corbins choice of pro-jet, etc. allowed him to retain this connection with the idea of throwing ( jeter) in the French, a connection that is less obvious in the English. ralit-humaine As discussed earlier, Corbin used this phrase to translate Heideggers term Dasein, and Sartre borrows it from Corbin. I translate it straightforwardly as human-reality. English translators of Heidegger often leave Dasein untranslated. ustensile, ustensilit, le complexe . . . des [ralits] ustensiles Sartre borrows these terms from Corbins translation of Heidegger. I translate complexe dustensiles as structure of equipment and the ungainly ustensilit as equipmentality. I translate ustensile on its own as implement. Bergson vocabulary Commentators have argued that the influence of the philosopher Henri Bergson (18591941) on BN is usually underestimated. As a student, Sartre had read a great deal of Bergson, whose influence on French NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lvi philosophy only began to decline later in the twentieth century. There are passages in BN where Sartre is recognizably in dialogue with Bergson but does not explicitly say so. Of course, because Bergsons philosophy is written in French, it has not caused any additional translation difficul - ties. For the most part I retain the vocabulary used by Bergsons English translators. dure, durer I have followed Bergsons translators in rendering dure Bergsons term for lived time as duration, and the verb durer as to endure. lan vital This is one of Bergsons most famous concepts, usually trans - lated as vital impulse. It is possible that Sartre has it in mind when he uses the term lan in relation to the for-itself. For this reason I translate lan in these contexts as impulse. fantme Bergson often uses this adjective; following Bergson transla - tors, I translate it as phantom. Negative vocabulary nant I have followed Barnes in translating this noun by nothingness (see discussion above). Although it is an unusual word in French and in English, it has been available in both these languages for many centuries. In French, it can be found in Descartes and Pascal. In English, it is used by John Donne in his poem A Nocturnal upon St. Lucys Day (first published in 1633). ngatit See the entry for this term under Neologisms and ungrammati- cal locutions. nier This French verb corresponds to two different English verbs: to deny and to negate. This can cause difficulty in some contexts, and especially in relation to Hegels philosophy: the French nier manifests its proximity to the idea of negation ( ngation in French; negieren or verneinen in German), whereas the connection is far less obvious in the English verb to deny. The use of to negate throughout, however, results in clumsy English sentences: for example, pour nier de ce Pierre . . . quil soit l (EN 61) will translate as to negate in Pierre . . . his being there, which leads us far from ordinary English. For this stylistic reason, I sometimes translate nier by deny. The reader should bear in mind that deny and negate have a common ancestor in the Latin verb negare. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lvii Words and metaphors for movement Sartre repeatedly emphasizes the dynamic nature of the for-itself by charac - terizing it with various movement verbs. He often draws (metaphorically or quasi-metaphorically) on dynamic vocabulary whose literal use is to describe natural processes or events. Many of these verbs also convey the idea of upwards movement. These verbs do not always translate easily into ordinary English, especially when Sartre uses the substantive form: we would not ordinarily say, for example, that the for-itself is a bursting forth or an upheaval. It may be helpful for the reader to note the fol - lowing examples of this kind of vocabulary. jaillir, jaillissement The verb jaillir is often used for movements of water, for example in contexts where we might translate by to spring up, to gush, to spurt, to burst out, etc. I have often rendered this by to burst forth. surgir, surgissement See my discussion above. surrection The relatively rare French term surrection is geological, refer - ring to an upheaval or uplift of land, an area that has been elevated. I have translated it as elevation (e.g. EN 174). Other words worthy of note affecter, saffecter The verb affecter often straightforwardly means to affect (i.e. to have an effect on something), but its reflexive form saffecter can be harder to translate. While it can mean to affect oneself, Sartre often uses it with the preposition de in more abstract contexts, where the meaning is closer to to assign (e.g. a property to X) or to endow (e.g. X with a property). At EN 58, for example, Sartre writes that lhomme . . . saffecte lui-mme de non-tre cette fin: in cases like this I have often used to assign. apparence, apparition Sartre uses both these words throughout BN. Although in many instances they appear to be interchangeable, there can be a difference in meaning in French. Apparence is more frequently used to mean appearance in the philosophical sense (as, for example, in the appearance/reality distinction); apparition means appearance in the sense of an event, for example an unannounced appearance at a party, etc. If both these French terms are translated into English as appearance, this distinction is of course hidden. However, Sartre does not explicitly indicate any intention to use these words with distinct senses in BN, and NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lviii nor does he consistently use them with identifiably different meanings. In addition, apparition is a very unusual word in English and, used as a substantive, [an] appearing often sounds odd. I have therefore often used appearance for both these terms, using appearing instead only when it seems important to convey the event-like sense of apparition. assumer Sartre often uses this French verb in the sense in which it means to take on/up (e.g. a role or responsibility). Although the English verb assume can also be used in this sense (e.g. to assume the leadership), it is more frequently used in everyday English to mean to presuppose. To avoid confusion in the English, I have used assume only sparingly in these contexts, varying it with to take up and to accept. lautre, autrui, les autres Sartre uses all of these terms to refer to another per- son or other people. Although in most cases the French term autrui (which, although it has no plural form, can refer to either one or more than one person) is synonymous with lautre (or les autres), it has an old-fashioned and literary quality and is rarely used in everyday speech. The Littr dictionary suggests that autrui can have the sense of this person here; used with this sense, it may oppose the person spoken about (rather than people in general) to the speaker. Now, Sartres account of interpersonal relations empha-sizes the case in which one person stands in (asymmetric) opposition to another; one person looks, while the Other is looked at. For this reason I translate autrui by the Other (i.e. in the singular), capitalizing it in order to signal that it means another person. I translate les autres and lautre slightly less strictly, using others, another or sometimes an other person (leaving the o in the lower case), where this makes the sense clearer. Sartre is not consistent in his terminology but I have avoided eliminating the difference (between autrui and alternative terms) from the translation. conduite(s) I translate most occurrences of this everyday French word as behaviour, but I avoid the plural behaviours, as it is less common in English. To handle Sartres frequent use of conduites (pl.), I sometimes use forms of behaviour or a different synonymous noun. conscience This noun is used in French to mean both consciousness and conscience (e.g. moral conscience). In the first sense, the term appears throughout BN in various different contexts. (i) Sartre uses conscience to refer to consciousness quite generally as a mode of being and NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lix (ii) as in English, the same term can be used to apply to some particular consciousness, as in my or his consciousness. Neither (i) nor (ii) causes diffculty in translation. (iii) In addition, conscience can be used in French, but not in English, to refer to particular conscious events, as for example at EN 311: la notion mme de conscience ne fait que renvoyer mes consciences possibles , where the lat - ter half of this phrase means to my possible acts of consciousness. Here I have sometimes inserted [acts of] into the translation, to make the meaning clearer. (iv) Sartre sometimes uses the plural form [i.e. consciences] to refer, for example, to the coexisting consciousnesses of two or more people. Although this English plural (consciousnesses) is clunky, I have not always been able to avoid it. (v) The reader should note that the French phrase avoir conscience de trans - lates as to be conscious of. The translation will therefore replace French avoir (to have) by to be. I do not think this causes diff - culty, but, as both verbs are charged with philosophical import in BN, it is worth pointing out. conscience (de) soi Sartre uses this phrase to describe the basic reflexiv- ity of human consciousness. When he first introduces it (at EN 20), he explains that his reason for placing the preposition de in brackets is in order to emphasize the non-positionality of this mode of consciousness; in it, the self is not presented to the subject as a possible object of knowledge. Without any brackets, the French phrase conscience de soi means self- consciousness and, since that English phrase has no preposition, Barnes decided she could use it (see her footnote to Sartre 1965: liv). To my ear, however, self-consciousness may still suggest a positional attitude (in which the subject confronts his self) of the kind Sartre wishes to avoid, and so I use phrases that retain Sartres brackets. A further question about soi arises: should soi be translated as self or as itself? Although the latter has some advantages (for example, it harmonizes with Sartres view that there is no substantial self at the most basic level of first-personal expe - rience), I think that to use it would be to over-interpret. Sartres use of the phrase prereflective cogito (as well as ipseity) registers that there is a self-like structure in consciousness (albeit not a substantial one) which, he argues, provides the ground of reflective self-consciousness. NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lx dpasser Sartre sometimes uses this verb in its everyday sense, to mean to go beyond, to reach beyond, to exceed, to outstrip, etc. Where the context is of this kind, I have chosen from this range of words, in a way that maximizes stylistic fluency. See above for uses of this verb in connection with Hegel and Heidegger. engager, sengager This verb often means to engage or to be/become engaged in the physical sense in which we might say a cog was engaged in machinery. However, as in English, it can also be used to mean to commit (oneself) as well as to enlist (e.g. in the army). Given Sartres emphasis on human responsibility and choice, the best translation in many contexts is to commit, but the reader should bear in mind the range of meaning. tre (and phrases using this verb) As BN is a work of phenomenologi - cal ontology and heavily influenced by Heidegger, the verb to be and the (sometimes neologistic) uses that Sartre makes of it are extremely important. Two constructions that should be noted are the ungrammatical locution tre t (discussed earlier) and avoir tre . This latter phrase is used by Sartre to indicate the future-oriented, dynamic and responsible aspects of the for-itself: rather than simply being something (e.g. myself) or some way, I have it to be. Although it can be quite simply translated into English as to have to be, the reader needs to be careful in some instances not to read the phrase in the sense that involves the idea of obligation. If the for-itself has X to be it is not obliged to be X, but chooses itself as being or aspiring to be X. extriorit dindiffrence This phrase, which translates literally but cumber - somely as exteriority of indifference, occurs frequently in BN. Both the idea and the language are familiar in the German Idealist tradition, but less so in contemporary anglophone philosophy: Sartre would have found them in Hegel as well as Bergson. In both these philosophers, the adjectives external and indifferent are used to describe one form of relatedness, in contrast to another. Hegel, for example, holds that in mechanistic thinking an object consists of parts that are interrelated only externally and are indifferent to each other. This contrasts with objects that exhibit a genuine, intrinsic unity, for example the soul, whose parts are not indifferent to each other. I translate this phrase as indifferent externality. Although exteriority is also available in English, externality has the advantage of establishing continuity with many English translations of Hegel and Bergson. (Note, NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxi however, that the second part of the title of Levinass famous book Totalit et Infini: Essai sur lextriorit has been translated into English as An Essay on Exteriority (Levinas 1969).) manquer, le manque The verb means to miss [something] or to lack [something]; the noun means lack. Sartre uses these terms in some extremely complicated sentences to describe the relations in play where something is incomplete; the frequent repetition of m sounds is a fea - ture of the original text. The following sentence from (EN 122) includes the phrases built on manquer that Sartre uses most often in the text: Un manque suppose une trinit: ce qui manque ou manquant, ce quoi manque ce qui manque ou existant, et une totalit qui a t dsagrge par le manque et qui serait restaure par la synthse du manquant et de lexistant: cest le manqu. I translate the phrase ce qui manque as the missing item. The noun which follows le manquant can be used in French to refer to a missing thing (e.g. a missing person), and Sartre uses it here as a synonym for ce qui manque, but, as missing cannot be used that way in English, I have omit - ted this synonym from the corresponding English sentence (and for the second manquant of the quoted passage I have reused the missing item). I have translated ce quoi manque ce qui manque as that from which [the missing item] is missing, le manque as the lack, and the final phrase cest le manqu as that which is missed. Sartre often puns by also using manqu in the way we sometimes use it in English (i.e. to mean failed); where it is not obvious, I have signalled this. originel(le) Sartre uses this adjective frequently to mean original, in the sense of pertaining to the origin (as in original sin). Because original in English is also often used to mean inventive or new, I considered using originary instead, but this would undercut associations of origi - nal that one might want to keep: for example, Sartres original choice has often been compared to a similar idea in Kants philosophy. In the end I decided to stick to original for most instances, but the reader should bear Sartres intended sense in mind. positivit, positive Although it is rare in English philosophy to find posi - tivity used as a noun, the French term is well established. Sartre would NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxii have been familiar with it from the writings of Auguste Comte (1798 1857), who coined the term positivism. For Comte, the sciences could be ranked in a hierarchy according to their degree of positivity, or the extent to which the phenomena they studied could be demonstrated or measured. Sartre often uses positivity in opposition to negativity, to refer to something unquestionably real, capable of being affirmed. Because of this semi-technical context, I have translated the term as pos - itivity. I also use the related adjective positive in this sense. raliser, se realiser, irralisable Sartre uses the verb quite often with the sense of to make real. Although the English verb to realize can be used with that sense, using it to translate raliser will sometimes produce English sentences that are easily misconstrued as meaning to realize in the more common, cognitive sense, i.e. to become aware of something. My policy has been to use to actualize most of the time, where the intended sense is to make real. However, Sartre also uses the noun irralisable to refer to something that cannot be made real. Here I translate irralisable as unre - alizable and, if Sartre uses the verb raliser in the same context, I either translate the verb in that context by to realize or insert to realize in square brackets, to remind the reader of the connection to the unrealizable. In addition, at EN 216 Sartre comments on the double meaning (ontological and gnostic) of the French verb raliser: obviously, the verb needs to be translated here as to realize. reflet, refltant, rflexion, rflchi This cluster of terms, already philosophi - cally complicated in the text, presents additional difficulties in translation because the English fails to distinguish (by means of different spellings) between the types of reflection that Sartre is able to keep distinct by using two slightly different French verbs (rflchir and reflter). It will help if the reader keeps in mind Sartres view that there is one basic form of reflection that is a permanent and necessary structure of consciousness. For this, Sartre uses the French verb reflter, which means to reflect in the sense of to cast back an image/light, i.e. in the sense in which a mirror reflects. In this context Sartre often uses the hyphen - ated phrase reflet-refltant to describe the back-and-forth play of reflections within consciousness. I translate this phrase as reflection-reflecting. Sartre uses the different verb rflchir to refer to a different type, or second level, of reflection a cognitive act in which consciousness takes itself as an object. According to Sartre, this kind of reflection is NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxiii liable to distort what it reflects on; this is complicit reflection, which Sartre contrasts with pure reflection. Because of the close connection in meaning (cognitive reflection can be seen to be a kind of mirroring of our minds), I do not think the answer would be to use two different verbs in English. In most cases the context makes it clear which type of reflection Sartre is talking about, but where I think it is possible that confusion may arise I have provided a clarifying footnote. regarder, le regard For Sartre, the experience of le regard (usually translated as the look) is fundamental to our experience of the Other. Shame is a paradigmatic instance of that experience, in so far precisely as it involves our being looked at by someone else. Unfortunately, the effect of translating le regard by the noun (the) look is to produce some infelicitous English sentences. For example, un regard viter is better translated by to avoid being seen rather than by a look to be avoided; similarly, son regard fix terre translates well as his gaze fixed to the ground, whereas his look in this sentence is terrible. However, the danger of these stylistically preferable alterna-tives is that they may distract from, or dilute the force of, the look, which is almost a technical term in BN. I have compromised by stick - ing to the look most of the time, and using gaze occasionally in the interests of style. tendance Early translations of Freud into French often used the noun tendance (tendency in English) to translate the German term Trieb which corresponds to drive in English. But this is not an ideal choice (at least not when tendance is translated again into English), because tendency sounds much weaker (and less instinctual) than drive. Where Sartre is clearly in dialogue with Freud, therefore, I translate tendance by drive, but elsewhere I sometimes use tendency. le visqueux, la viscosit Hazel Barnes translated these terms as slime (adj. slimy); her aim, she tells us in a footnote, was to make the figurative meanings of the French and English terms correspond (Sartre 1965: 604). It is true that Sartre often uses visqueux figuratively and intends it to have unpleasant associations. On the other hand, some of these figurative uses are creative even in French, and in some instances slimy has, I think, an overly negative force. Moreover there are good reasons for translating visqueux straightforwardly as viscous. Sartres debt to Gaston Bachelards NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION lxiv psychoanalysis of things (an exploration of the psychological meaning of natural elements) is explicit, and this precedent is important. Both Bachelard and Sartre are concerned with the psychological significance of forms of materiality: the word viscous, with its scientific or chemical register is, I think, best suited for this. References Bergson, Henri (1911), Creative Evolution , trans. Arthur Mitchell (New York: Henry Holt). De Waelhens, Alphonse (1942), La Philosophie de Martin Heidegger (Louvain: ditions de lInstitut Suprieur de Philosophie). Hegel, G.W.F. (1995), Morceaux Choisis, trans. H. Lefebvre and N. Guterman (Paris: Gallimard Folio). Heidegger, Martin (1938), Quest-ce que la Mtaphysique? Suivi dExtraits sur ltre et le Temps et dune Conference sur Hlderlin , trans. Henry Corbin (Paris: Gallimard). Heidegger, Martin (1980), Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson (Oxford: Blackwell). Husserl, Edmund (1983), Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, First Book, trans. F. Kersten (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff). Inwood, Michael (1999), Does the Nothing Noth?, in OHear (ed.) (1999): 271290. Kirkpatrick, Kate (2017), Sartre and Theology (London: Bloomsbury). Levinas, Emmanuel (1969), Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority , trans. Alphonso Lingis (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press). Levinas, Emmanuel (1995), The Theory of Intuition in Husserls Phenomenology, trans. Andr Orianne (2nd edition) (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press). OHear, Anthony (ed.) (1999), German Philosophy since Kant (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Olafson, F.A. (1958), Review of Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre and Hazel E. Barnes, Philosophical Review, 67 (2): 276280. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1965), Being and Nothingness, trans. and introduced by Hazel Barnes (New York: Washington Square Press). TRANSLATORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sarah Richmond My thanks are due in the first instance to Tony Bruce at Routledge, who invited me to do this translation. He and Adam Johnson (also at Routledge) have been consistently encouraging and helpful. Their tact - ful enquiries about my progress on the project have enabled me to keep deadlines and promises in mind without becoming frozen by panic. I am grateful to Luc Foisneau and Etienne Balibar, who have gen - erously shared with me their expertise in French philosophy and their linguistic intuitions, and to Michle Le Doeuff for helpful discussion of le visqueux. In the UK, I thank Mary Margaret McCabe for advice about terminology and sources for Aristotle and Plato, and Sebastian Gardner for the amazing helpline he has provided for numerous questions about Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy. Sebastians solidarity, his sense of humour and our lunches in the student caff have meant a lot to me. Armand DAngour has answered my emails about ancient Greek and Latin words within seconds, providing translations, transliterations and Greek inscriptions on demand. Galen Strawson has been a valued correspondent for several years: his emails have encouraged me and I have also benefited from his excellent knowledge of French as well as his sense of English style. From Australia, Andrew Inkpin has sent many illuminating and informative messages about Heidegger, thereby saving me labour I would not have enjoyed. George di Giovanni has generously TRANSLATORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lxvi lent me his expertise as a Hegel translator and scholar, and helped me to locate several passages in Hegel. The text has also benefited from my cor - respondence with another experienced translator, Andrew Brown, with whom I have had several enjoyable face-to-face consultations in vari - ous Cambridge locations. Andrew put me in touch with Nick Walker, another UK-based translator, who has offered further useful thoughts. Jean-Pierre Boul and Ben ODonohoe, two former colleagues at Sartre Studies International, have also helpfully commented on a number of issues. Marcus Giaquinto has allowed me to pick his brains about mathematical terminology, while Henri Chabrol has advised about psychiatry. Tom Stern told me all I needed to know about Nietzsches term Hinterwelt. Florence Caeymaex, Danile Tort-Maloney, Jeanne Balibar, Antoine Amalric and Pierre Amalric have also usefully commented. Jonathan Wolff and Jos Zalabardo, who have served as heads of the Philosophy Department at UCL, have been sensitive line-managers. They have been generous in awarding me research time as well as some fund-ing for research assistance. This funding enabled me to delegate some tasks to two excellent research assistants, Alexandre Sayegh and Olivia Fairweather, whose help I also gratefully acknowledge. Jo Wolff also commented on a draft of the Translators Introduction, as did Judith Barrett. I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers who wrote such positive reviews for my application for funding to the AHRC, and to record my disappointment in the AHRC for failing nonetheless to sup - port it. I regret the immense amount of time I spent struggling with the AHRCs hideous electronic interface and with the many irrelevant questions they obliged me to answer. I am immensely grateful to the French government-funded CNRS ( Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ) for maintaining the superb website for textual and lexical resources, from which I have learned a great deal. I am indebted to Dr Maria Pozzi and Dr Kate Kandasamy for their kind and expert support during a period of ill health. Their thoughtful advice was indispensable in helping me to keep going through a difficult time, and deeply appreciated. A complete first draft of the translation was sent out for review to Ron Santoni, Jonathan Webber, Kate Kirkpatrick and Curtis Sommerlatte, and I am grateful for their helpful feedback. Special thanks are due to Curtis TRANSLATORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lxvii Sommerlatte for his painstaking and thoughtful scrutiny, which resulted in several important improvements. At a later stage I had the good for - tune to work with Helen Moss, my copy-editor; Helens discriminating queries and her eagle eye led to the elimination of many typos and infe - licities from the text. I would also like to thank Elizabeth Kent at Swales & Willis for all her help with production. My parents, Theo Richmond and Lee Richmond, looked at passages of the translation as well as the Translators Introduction, and offered help - ful criticisms. As professional writers of English, they gave advice that has guided me in matters of register, style and syntax. I must also thank them for their love and their unwavering interest in my activities. Thanks also to Judith Barrett, who has been a brilliant friend ever since we were undergraduates together. My frequent phone calls and outings with her have significantly enhanced my well-being while I worked on this translation. My greatest debt is to my spouse Neil Vickers and our two sons, Noah Vickers and Samuel Vickers. I cannot imagine three more wonderful family members, friends and companions. I gratefully acknowledge their generous love, patience and support. This translation would not have been possible without them, and I dedicate it to them. Au Castor INTRODUCTION 9 In search of being110 11 I THE IDEA OF THE PHENOMENON By reducing the existent to the series of appearances that manifest it, modern thought has made considerable progress. The aim was to elimi - nate a number of troublesome dualisms from philosophy, and to replace them with the monism of the phenomenon. Has it succeeded? In the first place, we have certainly got rid of the dualism that opposes an existents inside to its outside. The existent no longer has an outside, if by that we mean some skin at its surface that conceals the objects true nature from view. And if this true nature is, in turn, to be the things secret reality something that we can anticipate or assume, but that we can never reach, because it is inside the object in question that does not exist either. The appearances that manifest the existent are neither internal nor external: they are all of equal worth, each of them refers to 1 Translators note (TN): Sartres Introduction is entitled A la recherche de ltre . I have been guided in my translation by the thought that Sartre probably intended to echo Prousts A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. Note that Proust is used as an example within BNs opening pages. DOI: 10.4324/9780429434013-1 2 INTRODUCTION other appearances, and none of them has priority. Force, for example, is not a metaphysical conatus of some unknown kind, concealed behind its effects (accelerations, deviations, etc.); it is the sum of these effects. Similarly, an electric current has no secret other side: it is nothing but the collection of physicochemical actions (electrolytic processes, the incan-descence of a carbon filament, the movement of the galvanometers nee - dle, etc.) that manifest it. None of these actions is sufficient to reveal it. But it does not point to anything behind it; each action points to itself and to the total series. From this it obviously follows that the dualism of being and appearing no longer has a legitimate place in philosophy. An appear - 12 ance refers to the total series of appearances, not to some hidden reality that siphons off all the existents being for itself. And the appearance, for its part, is not an unstable manifestation of that being. For as long as we were still able to believe in noumenal realities, the appearance was pre - sented as purely negative, as that which is not being: it had no being other than that of illusion and error. But that being was itself borrowed, it was itself a sham, and the biggest problem facing us was how to main - tain the appearance with enough cohesion and existence to stop it from being reabsorbed into non-phenomenal being. But once we have freed ourselves from what Nietzsche called the illusion of backworlds 2 and if we no longer believe in any being-behind-appearance the appearance becomes, on the contrary, full positivity. Its essence is an appearing that is no longer opposed to being but which is, on the contrary, its measure. For the being of an existent is precisely the way it appears. Thus we are led to the idea of the phenomenon as we encounter it, for example, in Husserls or Heideggers Phenomenology: the phenomenon, or the absolute-relative. The phenomenon remains relative because its appear - ing necessarily implies someone to whom it appears. But it does not have the twofold relativity of Kants Erscheinung. 3 It does not indicate, behind its shoulder some true being, a being that is itself the absolute. It is what it is absolutely, because it is disclosed as it is . The phenomenon can be studied and described as such, because it is absolutely indicative of itself. 2 TN: Sartre is loosely quoting from a French translation of Nietzsches Thus Spake Zarathustra. The French arrire-mondes is used to translate Nietzsches German neologism Hinterwelten, which is often translated into English as backworld .The idea is that of a world beyond or behind the world we experience. 3 TN: Kants term Erscheinung is normally translated into English as appearance . 3 INTRODUCTION At the same time, the duality of potentiality and actuality will collapse.4 Everything is in actuality. Behind the act there is neither potentiality, nor hexis,5 nor virtue.6 The term genius, for example as it is used when we say that Proust had great genius or that he was a genius should not be taken to mean a distinctive power to produce various writings, a power that is not exhausted in producing those writings. Prousts genius is neither his work considered in isolation, nor the subjective power to produce it: it is his work, seen as the set of manifestations of his person. That is why we can, in the end, also reject the dualism of appearance and essence. Appearance does not hide essence, but reveals it: it is the essence. The essence of an existent is no longer a power embedded deep inside it; it is the manifest law governing the succession of its appearances, the principle of the series. Duhem was right to oppose Poincars nominalism which defined a physical reality (for example, an electrical power) as the sum of its various manifestations with his own theory, according to which a concept is the synthetic unity of those manifestations. 7 Of course, nothing could be farther from nominalism than phenomenology. But ultimately, an essence, understood as the principle of a series, is no more than the connection between the appearances which means it is itself an appearance. That explains how an intuition of essences (Husserls 13 Wesenschau, for example) is possible.8 Thus phenomenal being manifests itself: it manifests its essence just as much as its existence, and it is noth-ing but the interconnected series of these manifestations. Does this mean we have succeeded in eliminating all dualisms, by reducing the existent to its manifestations? It seems rather that we have 4 TN: Sartre is referring to the distinction between energeia and dunamis in Aristotles metaphysics. Both terms are variously translated in diferent English translations: I use actuality and potentiality for Sartres acte and puissance. 5 TN: The ancient Greek term hexis is important in Aristotles philosophy. Although it is agreed to be difcult to translate Aristotles exact meaning, habit and disposition are both commonly used. 6 TN: Sartre uses the French word v ertu here in its older sense, to mean a power or active principle as it is used in English philosophy in the well-known example of dormitive virtue . 7 TN: Pierre Duhem (18611916) was a French physicist and philosopher of science. Henri Poincar (18541912) was a French mathematician, physicist and philosopher of science. 8 TN: Husserls English translators usually render Wesenschau as intuition of essences . 4 INTRODUCTION converted them all into one new dualism: the finite and the infinite. For the existent cannot be reduced to a finite series of manifestations, as each of these is a relationship to a constantly changing subject. While an object may only be given through a single Abschattung, the mere fact of being a subject implies the possibility of multiplying the points of view on to that Abschattung. 9 This amounts to multiplying the Abschattung in question to infinity. Furthermore, if the series of appearances was finite it would follow (absurdly) that the ones appearing first could not reappear or (even more absurdly) that they could all be given at the same time. We need to be quite clear that our theory of the phenomenon has replaced the things reality with the phenomenons objectivity, and that it founds this latter by appealing to the infinite. The reality of this cup is that it is there, and that it is not me. We can express this by saying that the series of its appearances is connected by a principle that does not depend on my whim. But an appearance considered just as it is without reference to the series to which it belongs can only be an intuitive and subjective plenitude: the way in which the subject is affected. If a phenomenon is to show itself as transcendent, the subject himself must transcend the appearance towards the total series of which it is a member. He must grasp redness i.e. the principle of the series through his impression of red; the electric current through the electrolysis, etc. But if the objects transcendence is grounded in the necessity that any appearance can be transcended, it follows axiomatically that the series of appearances for any object is posited as infinite. Thus a finite appearance indicates itself in its finitude but at the same time, in order to be grasped as an appearance-of-that-which-appears, it demands to be surpassed towards the infinite. This new opposition, the finite and the infinite or, better still, the infinite within the finite, replaces the dualism of being and appearing: what appears is in effect only an aspect of the object, and the object is entirely within this aspect and entirely outside it. Entirely inside, in so far as it manifests itself in this aspect: it is indicated as the structure of the appearance, which is at the same time the principle of the series. Entirely outside, because the series itself never appears, and cannot appear. 9 TN: The term Abschattung refers in Husserls phenomenology to the incomplete aspect of an object given in our perception of it, for example to the one side of a six-sided die that we may be able to see. Kersten translates it as adumbration (Husserl 1983); it is sometimes translated as profle . INTRODUCTION 5 Thus, once again, the outside is opposed to the inside, and the being- that-does-not-appear is opposed to its appearance. Similarly, a certain power returns to the phenomenon, inhabiting it and endowing it with its very transcendence: the power to be developed through a series of real or possible appearances. Even if we reduce Prousts genius to the 14 works he produced, it is still equivalent to the infinity of possible points of view that we can take up on Prousts work its so-called inexhausti- bility. But isnt this inexhaustibility, which implies a transcendence and an appeal to the infinite, a hexis even at the very moment in which we apprehend it in the object? In the end, the essence is radically cut off from any individual appearance that manifests it, because it must be possible, as a matter of principle, for it to be manifested by a series of individual manifestations. By replacing in this way a variety of oppositions with a single dual - ism that founds them all, have we gained or lost? Soon we shall see. For now, the primary consequence of the theory of the phenomenon is that the appearance does not refer to being in the way in which the phenomenon, in Kantian philosophy, refers to the noumenon. Because there is nothing behind the appearance, and it indicates noth - ing more than itself (and the total series of appearances), it cannot be supported by any being other than its own, and cannot therefore be the thin skin of nothingness separating subject-being from absolute-being. If the essence of appearance is an appearing that is no longer opposed to any being, there is a genuine problem of the being of this appearing. This is the problem with which we are concerned here, and it will be the point of departure for our investigations into being and nothingness. II THE PHENOMENON OF BEING AND THE BEING OF THE PHENOMENON An appearance is not supported by some other, different, existent: it has its own being. The first being that we encounter in our ontologi - cal investigations is, therefore, the being of appearance. Is that being itself an appearance? So it seems, at first sight. A phenomenon is some - thing that manifests itself, and being manifests itself in some way to 6 INTRODUCTION all of us, since we can talk about it and have some understanding of it. Thus there must be a phenomenon of being, an appearing of being, that can be described as such. Being will be disclosed to us through some immediate means of access (boredom, nausea, etc.), and ontology will be the description of the phenomenon of being as it manifests itself, i.e. without intermediary. However, for any ontology, we need to ask a preliminary question: is the phenomenon of being that we reach by these means identical to the being of the phenomena? Or: is the being that is disclosed to me, that appears to me, the same in nature as the being of the existents that appear to me? Here there seems to be no problem: Husserl showed us how an eidetic reduction is always 15 possible in other words, how we can always surpass a concrete phe - nomenon towards its essence and, for Heidegger, human-reality is ontico-ontological, which means it can always surpass the phenom - enon towards its being.10 But to move from a particular object to its essence is to move between two homogeneous items. Can the same be said of the movement from an existent to the phenomenon of being? In surpassing an existent towards the phenomenon of being, are we really surpassing it towards its being, as we might surpass a particular red towards its essence? Let us take a closer look. In a particular object, we may always distinguish qualities such as colour, smell, etc. And, on the basis of these, we can always establish the essence they imply just as a sign implies its meaning. The object essence pair is an organized whole: the essence is not inside the object; it is the objects meaning, the principle of the series of appearances which disclose it. But the objects being is neither one of its qualities, capable of being grasped among others, nor is it a meaning of the object. The object does not refer to being as it might refer to a mean - ing: it is not possible, for example, to define being as a presence, since absence also discloses being, since not being there is still a way of being. The object does not possess being, and its existence is not a participation in being or any other kind of relation. The only way to define its way of being is to say that it is; for the object does not conceal being, but neither does it disclose it. It does not conceal it: it would be futile to set aside some of an existents qualities, to try to find its being behind 10 TN: Sartre probably has Being and Time in mind here (Heidegger 1980). INTRODUCTION 7 them; its being belongs to all of them equally. It does not disclose it: it would be futile to appeal to the object in order to apprehend its being. The existent is phenomenal; in other words, it designates itself as an organized set of qualities. Itself, and not its being. Being is merely the condition of any disclosure: it is being-in-order-to-disclose, not being disclosed. What, then, does Heidegger mean when he speaks of a sur - passing towards the ontological? Of course, I can surpass this table or this chair towards its being, and I can pose the question of the table-being or chair-being. But in that moment I look away from the table-phenomenon in order to fasten on the being-phenomenon, which is no longer the condition of all disclosure but which is itself something disclosed, an appearance which, as such, needs in its turn some being on whose foundation it could be disclosed. If the being of phenomena cannot be resolved into a phenomenon of being and if, however, we can only say anything about being by consult - ing this phenomenon of being, we must establish first and foremost the exact nature of the relationship that joins the phenomenon of being to the being of the phenomenon. This will be easier if we note that all our observations so far were directly inspired by the revealing intuition of the phenomenon of being. By considering being not as the condition of disclosure, but rather as an appearance that can be fixed in concepts, we have understood in the first place that knowledge alone cannot account 16 for being, i.e. that the being of the phenomenon cannot be reduced to the phenomenon of being. In brief, the phenomenon of being is ontological in the sense in which Saint Anselms and Descartess proof is called ontological. It is a call for being: it requires, in so far as it is a phenomenon, a transphenomenal foundation. The phenomenon of being requires the transphenomenality of being. That does not mean that being is hidden behind the phenomena (we saw that the phenom - enon cannot mask being), nor that the phenomenon is an appearance that refers to a being distinct from it (the phenomenon has being qua appearance, i.e. it indicates itself on the foundation of being). The preced - ing considerations imply that, although the being of the phenomenon is coextensive with the phenomenon, it must escape the phenomenal condition in which existence is possible only to the extent that it is revealed, and consequently that it overflows and founds any knowledge we can have of it. 8 INTRODUCTION III THE PREREFLECTIVE COGITO AND THE BEING OF THE PERCIPERE One might be tempted to reply that all the difficulties mentioned so far stem from a particular conception of being, a kind of ontological real - ism that is wholly incompatible with the very idea of appearance. Indeed, the being of an appearance is proportionate to its appearing. And, since we have limited reality to the phenomenal, we can say of the phenomenon that it is as it appears. Why not pursue this idea right to its limit and say that the being of an appearance is its appearing? That is simply a way of clothing Berkeleys venerable phrase esse est percipi in new words. And effectively, that is just what Husserl does when, having carried out the phenomenological reduction, 11 he treats the noema as irreal and declares its esse to be a percipi.12 Berkeleys famous formula seems unlikely to satisfy us. And essentially this is for two reasons: first, because of the nature of the percipi and sec- ond, because of the nature of the percipere. The nature of the percipere If any metaphysics presupposes a theory of knowledge, it is equally true that any theory of knowledge presupposes a metaphysics. That means, among other things, that any idealism aiming to reduce being to our knowledge of it must first account in some way 17 for the being of knowledge. If, on the contrary, you begin by positing the latter as a given without any concern to found its being and you go on to claim that esse est percipi, the perceptionperceived totality, deprived of any solid being to support it, will collapse into nothingness. Thus the being of knowledge cannot be measured by knowledge; it escapes the percipi. 13 Thus the foundation-being of the percipere and of the percipi must 11 TN: See my note on the phenomenological reduction in the section on Husserl vocab- ulary in Notes on the Translation. 12 TN: Husserl says this in 98 of Ideas (Husserl 1983). Berkeleys formula esse est percipi means to be is to be perceived . Percipere in this sections title is the infnitive form of to perceive in Latin. For the terms noema, noesis and irreal, see the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation. 13 Sartres note: It goes without saying that any attempt to replace the percipere by some other attitude of human-reality will be equally fruitless. If you allow that being is revealed to man in his doing , you still need to establish the being of the doing, apart from the action. 9 INTRODUCTION itself escape the percipi: it must be transphenomenal. We are back where we began. However, one might allow that the percipi refers to a being that escapes the laws of appearance, while still maintaining that this trans - phenomenal being is the subjects being. The percipi would therefore direct us towards the percipiens the known towards the knowledge and this latter to the knowing being in so far as he is, and not in so far as he is known, i.e. to consciousness. Husserl understood this: for if in his view the noema is an irreal correlative of the noesis, whose ontological law is the percipi, he regards the noesis on the contrary as reality, whose chief characteristic is to offer itself up to the reflection that knows it as having already been there first. For the law of being that governs the knowing subject is being-conscious. Consciousness is not a special kind of knowledge, called inner sense or self-knowledge; it is the subjects dimension of transphenomenal being. Let us try to improve our understanding of this dimension of being. We said that consciousness is the knowing being in so far as he is, and not in so far as he is known. In consequence, we ought to abandon the primacy of knowledge, if we want to found that knowledge itself. And, without doubt, consciousness can know and it can know itself. But it is, in itself, something other than knowledge turned back on itself. As Husserl showed, all consciousness is consciousness of something. 14 In other words, there is no [act of] consciousness that does not posit a transcendent object or, if you prefer, consciousness has no content. We need to give up these neutral givens that can constitute themselves, according to the chosen system of reference, into the world or the psyche. A table is not in consciousness, not even as a representation. A table is in space, beside the window, etc. Indeed the tables existence is a centre of opacity for consciousness; an infinite process would be required to make an inventory of the total content of a thing. To intro - duce this opacity within consciousness would be to refer to infinity any inventory that consciousness might make of itself, to turn conscious - ness into a thing, and to reject the cogito. Philosophys first course of 18 action, therefore, should be to expel things from consciousness and to restore the true relationship between this latter and the world: namely, 14 TN: Husserl makes this point in many of his writings. See for example Husserl (1960: 72). 10 INTRODUCTION that consciousness is a positional consciousness of the world. All con - sciousness is positional in that it transcends itself to reach an object, and it is exhausted by just this act of positing. All that is intentional in my consciousness is directed outside, towards the table: all my judicative or practical activities, and all the affectivity of the moment, transcend themselves; they aim at the table, and are absorbed within it. Not every [act of] consciousness is a form of knowledge (for example, there are affective modes of consciousness), but every knowing consciousness can only be knowledge of its object. Nonetheless, the necessary and sufficient condition for a knowing consciousness to be knowledge of its object is that it should be conscious of itself as being this knowledge. It is a necessary condition: if my con - sciousness were not conscious of being conscious of a table, it would thereby be conscious of the table without being conscious that it was so or, alternatively, it would be a consciousness that did not know itself, an unconscious consciousness which is absurd. It is a sufficient condition: my being conscious of being conscious of the table suffices for me in fact to be conscious of it. It is not of course sufficient to enable me to claim that the table exists in itself but rather that it exists for me. What is this consciousness of consciousness? We are in the grip of the illusion of the primacy of knowledge to such an extent that we are willing to turn our consciousness of consciousness immediately into an idea ideae, as Spinoza does, 15 in other words to turn it into a knowledge of knowledge. When Alain comes to express the evident fact that to know is to be conscious of knowing, he translates it into these terms: To know is to know that one knows. What is hereby defined is reflection, or the positional consciousness of consciousness or, better still, knowledge of consciousness. This is to be understood as an [act of] consciousness that is complete in itself and directed towards something that it is not, in other words towards the reflected consciousness. It thus transcends itself and, like our positional consciousness of the world, its aiming at its object exhausts it. Only in this case its object is itself an [act of] consciousness. This interpretation of the consciousness of consciousness does not seem acceptable. The reduction of consciousness to knowledge effectively imports the subjectobject duality which is typical of knowledge within 15 TN: Spinoza advances this view of self-consciousness in Part Two of his Ethics (Spinoza 1985). INTRODUCTION 11 consciousness. But if we accept the law of the knowingknown dyad, a third term will become necessary for the knowing in its turn to become known, and we are placed in a dilemma. Either we stop at some term within the series: the known, the knowing that is known, the knowing of the know-ing that is known, etc. in which case the phenomenon in its totality col - 19 lapses into the unknown (i.e. we always come up against a reflection that is not conscious of itself and is the final term); or we declare an infinite regress (idea ideae ideae, etc.) to be necessary, which is absurd. In this way the necessity of ontologically founding knowledge is duplicated by a new necessity: that of founding it epistemologically. Surely we ought not to introduce the law of the dyad into consciousness? Consciousness of self is not a dyad. If we want to avoid an infinite regress, it must be an immediate and non-cognitive relationship of self to self. Moreover, reflective consciousness posits the reflected consciousness as its object: in the act of reflection I bring judgements to bear on my reflected consciousness; I am ashamed of it, I am proud of it, I want it, I reject it, etc. The immediate consciousness that I have of perceiving does not allow me either to judge, or to want, or to be ashamed. It does not know my perception, or posit it: all that is intentional within my current [act of] consciousness is directed outwards, towards the world. On the other hand, this spontaneous consciousness that I have of my percep - tion is constitutive of my perceptual consciousness. In other words, any positional consciousness of an object is at the same time a non-positional consciousness of itself. If I count the cigarettes that are in this case, my impression is that of disclosing an objective property of this group of cigarettes: they are twelve . This property appears to my consciousness as a property existing in the world. I may well have no positional conscious - ness at all of counting them. I do not know myself as counting. Proof of this can be seen in the fact that children who are capable of sponta - neous addition are unable to explain afterwards how they did it. The tests by Piaget which demonstrated this constitute an excellent refutation of Alains formula: To know is to know that one knows. And yet, at the moment when these cigarettes disclose themselves to me as twelve, I am non-thetically conscious of my adding activity. 16 Indeed, if I am 16 TN: . . . une conscience non-thtique . . . See note on thse in the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation. 12 INTRODUCTION questioned, if someone asks me: What are you doing?, I will reply immediately I am counting, and my reply does not aim only at the instantaneous [act of] consciousness that I can reach through reflection, but also at those [acts of] consciousness that have passed by without being reflected on, which will forever remain unreflected in my immediate past. Thus, reflection lacks any kind of primacy in relation to reflected consciousness: it is not by means of the former that the latter is revealed to itself. On the contrary, non-reflective consciousness is what makes reflection possible: there is a prereflective cogito, which is the condition of the Cartesian cogito. At the same time, my non-thetic consciousness of counting is actually the condition of my activity of addition. How, if it were otherwise, could addition be the unifying theme of my [acts of] consciousness? In order for that theme to preside over the whole series of syntheses of unifications and of recognitions it must be present to itself, 20 not in the manner of a thing but as an operative intention that can exist only to use an expression of Heideggers as a revealing-revealed.17 Thus, in order to count, it is necessary to be conscious of counting. Of course, it might be said, but that is circular. Because isnt it necessary, for me to be able to be conscious of counting, that in fact I am counting? That is true. However, that does not lead to a circle or, alternatively, it is the very nature of consciousness to exist in a circle. We can express this in these terms: any conscious existence exists as the consciousness of existing. We can understand now why the most basic consciousness of consciousness is not positional: because it and the consciousness of which it is conscious are one and the same. In a single movement, consciousness determines itself as consciousness of percep - tion, and as perception. The requirements of syntax here have obliged us until now to talk of non-positional consciousness of self. But we cannot go on using this expression, in which the phrase of self still evokes the idea of knowledge. (From now on we will put the of between brackets, to indicate that it answers only to a grammatical constraint. 18) 17 TN: . . . comme rvlante-rvele . . . I have not been able to fnd this exact phrase in Heidegger; Sartre probably took it from Corbins preface to his translations. Here Corbin says that the mode of being of human-reality is: dtre rvlante et en mme temps ralite-rvele , using these phrases to translate Heideggers erschliessend and Erschlossenheit (Heidegger 1938: 15). 18 TN: See my note on conscience (de) soi in Notes on the Translation. INTRODUCTION 13 We should not regard this consciousness (of) self as a new [act of] con - sciousness, but as the only possible mode of existence for any consciousness of something . Just as an extended object is constrained to exist in three dimensions, so an intention, a pleasure and a pain can exist only as immediately con - scious (of) themselves. The being of an intention can only be conscious - ness; otherwise the intention would be a thing inside consciousness. We must not therefore take this to mean that some external cause (an organic disturbance, an unconscious drive, another Erlebnis 19) can determine the production of a psychological event a pleasure, for example and that the event whose material structure is hereby determined will in addition be compelled to produce itself as conscious (of) self. That would make non-thetic consciousness into a quality of positional consciousness (in the sense in which perception as a positional consciousness of that table might have the additional quality of consciousness (of) self), and would thereby lead us back to the illusion of the theoretical primacy of knowl - edge. In addition, it would turn the psychological event into a thing, and qualify it as conscious, as I may qualify, for example, this blotting paper as pink. Pleasure cannot be distinguished even logically from the con-sciousness of pleasure. The consciousness (of) pleasure is constitutive of pleasure, as its very mode of existence, as the matter of which it is made, and not as a form that is subsequently imposed on to some hedonic mat - ter. Pleasure cannot exist before any consciousness of pleasure not even in virtual form, or as a potentiality. A potential pleasure can exist only as a consciousness (of) its potentiality; there are no virtualities in 21 consciousness that are not conscious of being virtual. Conversely, as I showed earlier, we must avoid defining pleasure in terms of my consciousness of it. That would push us into an idealist view of consciousness that would lead us back in a roundabout way to the primacy of knowledge. We must not let pleasure disappear behind its consciousness (of) itself: it is not a representation, but a concrete, full and absolute event. Pleasure is no more a quality of consciousness (of) self than consciousness (of) self is a quality of pleasure. It is no more true that there is first a consciousness which afterwards becomes affected by 19 TN:The term Erlebnis comes from Husserl, who uses it to mean experience in a broad sense. In deference to this broad sense, Kersten translates it as mental process (Husserl 1983). French translators, picking up the sense of Leben (to live), sometimes render it as le vcu. 14 INTRODUCTION pleasure like water being dyed than that there is first a pleasure (unconscious or psychological) which afterwards receives the quality of being conscious, like a beam of light. There is one indivisible and indis - soluble being not a substance that supports its qualities as lesser beings, but a being that is existence through and through. The pleasure is the being of the consciousness (of) self, and consciousness (of) self is the pleasures law of being. Heidegger formulates this well when he writes (about Dasein, to be exact, rather than consciousness) that: The how (essentia) of this being must, if it is possible to speak of it at all, be con - ceived in terms of its being (existentia). 20 This means that consciousness is not produced as a particular exemplar of an abstract possibility but that, in arising in the heart of being, it creates and maintains its essence, i.e. the synthetic arrangement of its possibilities. This also means that the being of consciousness is opposite in type to the being revealed to us by the ontological proof: as consciousness is not possible before being but instead comprises in its being the source and condition of all possibility, its existence implies its essence. This is felici - tously expressed by Husserl as its factual necessity. 21 For there to be an essence of pleasure, there must first be the fact of some consciousness (of) this pleasure. And any attempt to invoke the alleged laws of conscious- ness, whose articulated sum would be said to constitute its essence, will be futile: a law is a transcendent object of consciousness; it is possible to have consciousness of a law, but not a law of consciousness. For the same reasons, it is impossible to assign to consciousness any motivation other than itself. Otherwise we would need to conceive of consciousness, to the extent to which it is an effect, as not being conscious (of) itself. In some respect, consciousness would need to be without being conscious (of) being. We would succumb to that all too common illusion that makes consciousness into something half-unconscious, or passivity. But consciousness is consciousness through and through. It cannot therefore be limited by anything other than itself. We must not conceive of this determination of consciousness by itself 22 as a genesis, or a becoming, because that would require us to suppose that consciousness is prior to its own existence. Nor must we conceive 20 TN: Sartre is quoting from Being and Time (Heidegger 1980), 9. 21 TN: See my note on Husserls factual necessity in Notes on the Translation. INTRODUCTION 15 of this self-creation as an act. In that case consciousness would be con - sciousness (of) itself as an act, which it isnt. Consciousness is a ple - num of existence and this determining of itself by itself is an essential characteristic. We must be careful not to misuse the expression cause of itself, which can lead one to suppose a progression, a relationship between a self-cause and a self-effect. It would be more accurate to say, quite simply, that consciousness exists through itself. And by this we do not mean that it is drawn out of nothingness. 22 There could not be any nothingness of consciousness before consciousness.23 Before conscious- ness we can conceive only of a plenum of being, no element of which could refer to an absent consciousness. For there to be a nothingness of consciousness we would need a consciousness that has existed and is no longer, and a witness consciousness positing the nothingness of the first consciousness in the service of a synthesis of recognitions. Consciousness is prior to nothingness, and derives from being. 24 Perhaps these conclusions are difficult to accept. But, examined more carefully, they seem perfectly clear: the paradox is not that some exist - ences exist through themselves, but that there are any that do not. What is genuinely unthinkable is passive existence in other words, an exist - ence that can perpetuate itself without having enough power either to produce or to conserve itself. From this point of view, nothing could be more unintelligible than the principle of inertia. For if consciousness were indeed able to come from something else, where would it come from? Out of the limbo of the unconscious, or the physiological. But if we ask, in turn, how such a limbo can exist and how it derives its existence, we find ourselves led back to the concept of passive existence. In other words, we are absolutely unable to understand how these givens which are not conscious and do not derive their existence from themselves might nonetheless perpetuate this existence, and even find the power to produce 22 TN: . . . quelle se tire du nant. This phrase is often used in French to refer to the act of creation (as in Gods creation of the world out of nothing , for example). 23 TN: . . .nant de conscience . . . I am not sure why Sartre puts this phrase within quotation marks. Although it is tempting to translate it as the non-being of consciousness because that sounds better in English, I stick to nothingness for consistency . 24 Sartres note: This does not at all imply that consciousness is the foundation of its being. On the contrary , as we will see later, the being of consciousness is fully con - tingent. We wish to point out mer ely that: 1. nothing is the cause of consciousness; 2. consciousness is the cause of its own way of being . 16 INTRODUCTION a consciousness. We can see a clear symptom of this in the huge popular- ity of the proof a contingentia mundi.25 Thus, by renouncing the primacy of knowledge, we have discovered the being of the knower and encountered the absolute that same abso - lute that the seventeenth-century rationalists defined, and constituted logically, as an object of knowledge. But, precisely because we are con - cerned here with an absolute existence rather than knowledge, we escape 23 the well-known objection, according to which a known absolute can no longer be absolute, because it becomes relative to the knowledge we have of it. For here the absolute is not the result of a logical construction in the field of knowledge, but the subject of the most concrete experi - ences. And it is in no way relative to this experience, because it is this expe- rience. It is therefore a non-substantial absolute. The ontological error of Cartesian rationalism was not to have seen that, if we define the absolute in terms of the primacy of existence over essence, we cannot conceive of it as a substance. There is nothing substantial about consciousness; it is a pure appearance, where this means it exists only to the extent to which it appears. But it is precisely because consciousness is pure appearance, because it is a total void (since the entire world is outside it), because of this identity within it between its appearance and its existence, that it can be considered as the absolute. IV THE BEING OF THE PERCIPI We appear to have reached the end of our investigation. Having reduced things to the combined totality of their appearances, we noted that these appearances called for a being that was no longer itself an appearance. The percipi directed us to a percipiens, whose being was revealed to us as consciousness. Thus we have reached the ontological foundation of knowledge: the first being, to whom all other appearances appear; the absolute, in relation to which each phenomenon is relative. This being is not the subject, in the Kantian sense of the term, but subjectivity 25 TN: This Latin phrase means from the worlds contingency; it often fgures in a so- called proof of Gods existence.The idea is that the contingent world requires a ground in necessity . INTRODUCTION 17 itself, in its self-immanence. In arriving here, we have escaped idealism, according to which being is measured by knowledge and is therefore subject to the law of duality. For idealism, all being is known, includ- ing thought itself: thought appears to itself only through its own prod - ucts, such that we only ever grasp it as the meaning of thoughts that have occurred, and the philosopher in search of thought is obliged to consult the constituted sciences in order to derive thought from them as their condition of possibility. We have apprehended a being, on the contrary, that escapes and founds our knowledge, and we have laid hold of thought, not as it is given in representation, or as the meaning of thoughts that have been expressed, but directly, as it is and this mode of apprehension is not a phenomenon of knowledge, but the structure of being. We find ourselves here on the terrain of Husserlian phenom - enology, even though Husserl himself was not always faithful to his 24 primary intuition. Are we satisfied? We have found a transphenomenal being, but is that really the being to which the phenomenon of being points? Is it really the being of the phenomenon? In other words, is the being of consciousness sufficient to found the being of appearance qua appearance? We have robbed the phenomenon of its being, in order to give it to consciousness, and we expected consciousness subsequently to return it. Is consciousness able to do that? By examining the ontological requirements of the percipi, we will find out. We should note at the outset that there is a being of the perceived thing qua perceived. Even if I wanted to reduce this table to a synthesis of subjective impressions, I would have to notice at least that it reveals itself as a table through that synthesis, of which it is the transcendent limit, the principle and the goal. The table stands before our knowledge, and it cannot be assimilated to the knowledge we gain from it; otherwise it would be consciousness i.e. pure immanence and would dissolve as a table. On the same grounds, even if what separates the table from the synthesis of subjective impressions through which it is apprehended is purely a distinction within reason, at least the table cannot be this syn - thesis: that would be to reduce it to a synthetic activity of combination. 26 In so far, then, as the known cannot be absorbed into our knowledge of 26 TN: . . . une activit synthtique de liaison. Here I translate liaison as combination (which is normally used to translate Kants Verbindung into English), as it is likely Sartre takes this phrase from Kant. INTRODUCTION 18 it, we must recognize its being. This being, we are told, is the percipi. Let us acknowledge from the outset that we can no more reduce the being of the percipi to that of the percipiens i.e. to consciousness than we can reduce the table to the combination of representations. The most we can say is that it is relative to that being. But this relativity does not excuse us from the need to inspect the percipis being. Now, the mode of the percipi is passive. If, then, the phenomenons being resides in its percipi, its being will be passivity. The characteristic structures of esse, in so far as it can be reduced to percipi, turn out to be relativity and passivity. What is passivity? I am passive when I undergo a modification of which I am not the origin that is to say, neither the foundation nor the creator. Thus my being supports a way of being of which it is not the source. Only, to be able to support something, I still need to exist, and my existence is in consequence always located beyond passivity. For exam - ple, passively supporting something is an attitude that I uphold, which engages my freedom just as much as resolutely rejecting it. If I am to be forever the person who was offended, I must persevere in my being; in other words, I must assign existence to myself. 27 But, in so doing, I take up the offence on my own account in some way; I accept this offence, and I cease to be passive in relation to it. The result is this alternative: either I am not passive in my being in which case I become the founda - tion of the ways I am affected, even if I was not at first their origin or 25 I am characterized by passivity in my very existence, and my being is received in which case everything collapses into nothingness. Hence passivity is a doubly relative phenomenon: relative to the agents activity, and to the patients existence. From this it follows that passivity does not involve the very being of the passive existent: it is a relation between one being and another being, and not between a being and a nothingness. It is impossible for the percipere to assign the perceptum its being because, in order to be assigned anything, the perceptum would already need to be given in some way and thus to exist before receiving its being. We may think in terms of creation, on condition that the created being takes pos - session of itself, and separates itself from its creator in order immediately to close in on itself and take up its being: it is in this sense that a book 27 TN: . . . je mafecte moi-mme de lexistence. See my note on safecter in Notes on the Translation. INTRODUCTION 19 exists against its author. But if the act of creation needs to be continued indefinitely, if the created being is supported even in its minutest parts, if it has no proper independence, if it is in itself only nothingness, then the creature cannot be distinguished at all from its creator, but is reabsorbed within him; what we have here is a false transcendence, and the creator cannot even have the illusion of leaving his subjectivity behind. 28 Moreover, the passivity of the patient demands an equal passivity in the agent this idea finds expression in the principle of action and reac - tion: it is because it is possible to crush my hand, to grasp it or to cut it that my hand can crush, cut or grasp. How much passivity should we attribute to perception, to knowledge? They are entirely active, entirely spontaneous. It is precisely because it is pure spontaneity, because noth - ing can bite into it, that consciousness cannot act on anything. Hence, the doctrine of esse est percipi requires that consciousness, a pure sponta - neity unable to act on anything, should bestow being on a transcendent nothingness while preserving the nothingness of its being and this is absurd. Husserl attempted to ward off these objections by introduc - ing passivity into the noesis: namely the hyle, 29 the pure flux of what is lived through, the materiality of the passive syntheses. But all he did was to add a further difficulty to those we have mentioned. In effect, he reintroduced those neutral givens whose impossibility we demon - strated earlier. Of course these are not contents of consciousness, but that only adds to their unintelligibility. For the hyle cannot in fact belong to consciousness, or it would dissolve into translucency and be unable to provide the resistant impressional 30 base that we surpass towards the object. But if it does not belong to consciousness, what is the source of its being and its opacity? How can it retain at one and the same time the opaque resistance of things and the subjectivity of thought? Since it is not even perceived, and since consciousness transcends it towards its objects, its esse cannot derive from a percipi. But if we say that it derives its essence only from itself, we return to the insoluble problem of how con- 26 sciousness can relate to any independent existents. And even if we were 28 Sartres note: It is for this reason that the Cartesian doctrine of substance reaches its logical conclusion in Spinozas thought. 29 TN: For hyle see the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation. 30 TN: As impressionel is not an ordinary French word, I translate it with a parallel (made - up) adjective, impressional . INTRODUCTION 20 to concede to Husserl that the noesis has a hyletic layer, we would still be unable to conceive how consciousness could transcend this subjective element towards objectivity. By endowing the hyle with the characteristics of a thing and the characteristics of consciousness, Husserl believed he could facilitate the passage from one to the other, but he succeeded only in creating a hybrid being that consciousness rejects, and which cannot be part of the world. But in addition, as we saw, the percipi implies that relativity governs the being of the perceptum. Is it conceivable that the being of the known should be relative to our knowledge of it? What could the relativity of its being mean, in the case of an existent, other than that the existents being lies in something other than itself, in other words in an existent that it is not ? Admittedly, it is not inconceivable for a being to be external to itself, if we take this to mean that the being is its own externality. But that is not the case here. The perceived being stands before a consciousness that it cannot penetrate and that cannot make contact with it and, as it is cut off from consciousness, it exists cut off from its own existence. It is no use to claim, as Husserl did, that it is irreal: even if the status of what is perceived is irreal, it has to exist. Thus there is no case in which either of the two determinations of rela- tivity and passivity which concern ways of being is applicable to being itself. The esse of the phenomenon cannot be its percipi. The transphe- nomenal being of consciousness cannot provide the foundation for the phenomenons transphenomenal being. We can see the phenomenalists mistake: having correctly reduced the object to the series of its combined appearances, they thought they had reduced its being to the succession of its ways of being. That is why they tried to explain being in terms of concepts which apply only to ways of being, because they refer to rela-tions between a plurality of beings that already exist. V THE ONTOLOGICAL PROOF We have not given being its due: we thought that our discovery of the trans - phenomenality of the being of consciousness excused us from the need to grant any transphenomenal being to the phenomenon. On the contrary, as we will see, the transphenomenality of consciousness actually requires the INTRODUCTION 21 phenomenons being to be transphenomenal. We can derive an ontologi- cal proof, not from the reflective cogito, but from the prereflective being of the percipiens. Let us try to set it out here. All consciousness is consciousness of something. We can take this definition of consciousness in two quite distinct ways: we can take it 27 to mean either that consciousness is constitutive of its objects being, or that consciousness is in its innermost nature related to a transcend - ent being. But the first interpretation of the phrase destroys itself: to be conscious of something is to confront a full and concrete presence that is not consciousness. Doubtless, one can be conscious of an absence. But that absence must necessarily appear against a ground of presence. Now, as we have seen, consciousness is a real subjectivity, and an impression is a subjective plenitude. But this subjectivity cannot step outside itself in order to posit a transcendent object by conferring upon it the pleni - tude of the impression. If, therefore, we want at any cost to make the phenomenons being depend on consciousness, the object will need to distinguish itself from consciousness not through its presence, but through its absence, not through its plenitude, but through its nothingness. If being belongs to consciousness, the object must differ from consciousness not in so far as it is another being, but in so far as it is a non-being. Here we have the recourse to the infinite that we discussed in the first section of this work. For Husserl, for example, the animation of the hyletic core by only those intentions which find their fulfilment 31 (Erfllung) in that hyle is not sufficient to take us out of the domain of subjectivity. The genu - inely objectifying intentions32 are empty intentions, intentions that aim, beyond the present and subjective appearance, at the infinite totality of the series of appearances. Let us be clear, moreover, that these intentions aim at them as appearances that cannot ever be given all at the same time. The fact that it is necessarily impossible for the infinite number of terms in the series to stand before consciousness simultaneously, in conjunction with the fact that all but one of these terms is really absent, is the foundation of objectivity. If these impressions were present even if their number were infinite they would become merged into 31 TN: . . . trouver leur remplissement . . . See my note on remplir in the section on Husserl vocab - ulary in Notes on the Translation. 32 TN: Les intentions . . . objectivantes . . . See my note on objectiver in the section on Husserl vocabulary in Notes on the Translation. |
SHAKTI AND SHAKTA BY ARTHUR AVALON (SIR JOHN WOODROFFE ) 1918 Shakti and Shakta by Arthur Avalon . This edition was created and published by Global Grey GlobalGrey 2018 globalgreyebooks.com CONTENTS Chapter One. Indian Religion As Bharata Dharma Chapter Two. Shakti: The World As Power Chapter Three. What Are The Tantras And Their Significance? Chapter Four. Tantra Shastra And Veda Chapter Five. The Tantras And Religion Of The Shaktas Chapter Six. Shakti And Shakta Chapter Seven. Is Shakti Force? Chapter Eight. Cinacara (Vashishtha And Buddha) Chapter Nine. The Tantra Shastras In China Chapter Ten. A Tibetan Tantra Chapter Eleven. Shakti In Taoism Chapter Twelve. Alleged Conflict Of Shastras Chapter Thirteen. Sarvanandanatha Chapter Fourteen. Cit -Shakti (The Consciousness Aspect Of The Universe) Chapter Fifteen. Maya -Shakti (The Psycho- Physical Aspect Of The Universe) Chapter Sixteen. Matter And Consciousness Chapter Seventeen. Shakti And Maya Chapter Eighteen. Shakta Advaitavada Chapter Nineteen. Creation As Explained In The Non- Dualist Tantras Chapter Twenty. The Indian Magna Mater Chapter Twenty -One. Hindu Ritual Chapter Twenty -Two. Vedanta And Tantra Shastra Chapter Twenty -Three. The Psychology Of Hindu Religious Ritual Chapter Twenty -Four. Shakti As Mantra (Mantramayi Shakti) Chapter Twenty -Five. Varnamala (The Garland Of Letters) Chapter Twenty -Six. Shakta Sadhana (The Ordinary Ritual) Chapter Twenty -Seven. The Pacatattva (The Secret Ritual) Chapter Twenty -Eight. Matam Rutra (The Right And Wrong Interpretation) Chapter Twenty -Nine. Kundalini Shakta (Yoga) Chapter Thirty. Conclusions CHAPTER ONE. INDIAN RELIGION AS BHARATA DHARMA A FRIEND of mine who read the first edition of this book suggested that I should add to it an opening Chapter, stating the most general and fundamental principles of the subject as a guide to the understanding of what follows, together with an outline of the latter in which the relation of the several parts should be shown. I have not at present the time, nor in the present book the space, to give effect to my friend's wishes in the way I would have desired, but will not altogether neglect them. To the Western, Indian Religion generally seems a "jungle" of contradictory beliefs amidst which he is lost. Only those who have understood its main principles can show them the path. It has been asserted that there is no such thing as Indian Religion, though there are many Religions in India. This is not so. As I have already pointed out (Is India Civilized?) there is a common Indian religion which I have called Bharata Dharma, which is an Aryan religion (Aryadharma) held by all Aryas whether Brahmanic, Buddhist or Ja ina. These are the three main divisions of the Bharata Dharma. I exclude other religions in India, namely, the Semitic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Not that all these are purely Semitic. Christianity became in part Aryanized when it was adop ted by the Western Aryans, as also happened with Islam when accepted by such Eastern Aryans as the Persians and the Aryanized peoples of India. Thus Sufism is either a form of Vedanta or indebted to it. The general Indian Religion or Bharata Dharma holds that the world is an Order or Cosmos. It is not a Chaos of things and beings thrown haphazard together, in which there is no binding relation or rule. The world- order is Dharma, which is that by which the universe is upheld (Dharyate). Without Dharma it would fall to pieces and dissolve into nothingness. But this is not possible, for though there is Disorder (Adharma), it exists, and can exist only locally, for a time, and in particular parts of the whole. Order however will 1 and, from the nature of things, must ultimately assert itself. And this is the meaning of the saying that Righteousness or Dharma prevails. This is in the nature of things, for Dharma is not a law imposed from without by the Ukase of some Celestial Czar. It is the nature of things; that which constitutes them what they are (Svalakshana -dharanat Dharma). It is the expression of their true being and can only cease to be, when they themselves cease to be. Belief in righteousness is then in something not arbitrarily imposed from without by a L awgiver, but belief in a Principle of Reason which all men can recognize for themselves if they will. Again Dharma is not only the law of each being but necessarily also of the whole, and expresses the right relations of each part to the whole. This whole is again harmonious, otherwise it would dissolve. The principle which holds it together as one mighty organism is Dharma. The particular Dharma calls for such recognition and action in accordance therewith. Religion, therefore, which etymologically means that which obliges or binds together, is in its most fundamental sense the recognition that the world is an Order, of which each man, being, and thing, is a part, and to which each man stands in a definite, established relation; together with action based on, and consistent with, such recognition, and in harmony with the whole cosmic activity. Whilst therefore the religious man is he who feels that he is bound in varying ways to all being, the irreligious man is he who egoistically considers everything from the standpoint of his limited self and its interests, without regard for his fellows, or the world at large. The essentially irreligious character of such an attitude is shown by the fact that, if it were adopted by all, it would lead to the negation of Cosmos, that is Chaos. Therefore all Religions are agreed in the essentials of morality and hold that selfishness, in its widest sense, is the root of all sin (Adharma). Morality is thus the true nature of man. The general Dharma (Samanya Dharma) is the universal law governing all, just as the particular Dharma (Vishesha Dharma) varies with, and is peculiar to, each class of being. It follows from what is above stated that disharmony is suffering. This is an obvious fact. Wrong conduct is productive of ill, as right conduct is productive of good. As a man sows, so he will reap. There is an Immanent Justice. But these results, though they may appear at once, do not always do so. The fruit of no action is lost. It must, according to the law of causality, which i s a law of reason, bear effect. 2 If its author does not suffer for it here and now in the present life, he will do so in some future one. Birth and death mean the creation and destruction of bodies. The spirits so embodied are infinite in number and eternal . The material universe comes and goes. This in Brahmanism has been said (see Sanatana Vaidika Dharma by Bhagavan Das) to be "the Systole and Diastole of the one Universal Heart, Itself at rest -- the moveless play of Consciousness". The appearance and disappearance of the Universe is the nature or Svabhava of That which it ultimately is. Its immediate cause is Desire, which Buddhism calls Trishna -- or Thirst, that is desire or thirst for world- enjoyment in the universe of form. Action (Karma) is prompted by desire and breeds again desire. This action may be good (Dharma) or bad (Adharma) leading to enjoyment or suffering. Each embodied soul (Jivatma) will be reborn and reborn into the world until it is freed from all desire. This involves the doctrine of Re -incarnation. These multiple births and deaths in the transmigratory worlds are called Samsara or Wandering. The world is a Dvandva, that is, a composite of happiness and suffering. Happiness of a transitory kind may be had therein by adherence to Dharma in following Kama (desire) and Artha (the means) by which lawful desires may be given effect. These constitute what Brahmanism calls the Trivarga of the Purushartha, or three aims of sentient being. But just as desire leads to manifestation in form, so desirelessness leads away from it. Those who reach this state seek Moksha or Nirvana (the fourth Purushartha), which is a state of Bliss beyond the worlds of changing forms. For there is a rest from suffering which Desire (together with a natural tendency to pass its right limits) brings upon men. They must, therefore, either live with desire in harmony with the universal order, or if desireless, they may (for each is master of his future) pass beyond the manifest and become That which is Moksha or Nirvana. Religion, and therefore true civilization, consists in the upholding of Dharma as the individual and general good, and the fostering of spiritual progress, so that, with justice to all beings, true happiness, which is the immediate and ultimate end of all Humanity, and indeed of all being, may be attained. Anyone who holds these beliefs follows the Bharata Dharma or common principles of all Aryan beliefs. Thus as regards God we may either deny His existence (Atheism) or affirm it (Theism) or say we have no sufficient proof 3 one way or another (Agnosticism). It is possible to accept the concept of an eternal Law (Dharma) and its sanctions in a self -governed universe without belief in a personal Lord (Ishvara). So Samkhya, which proceeds on intellectual proof only, doe not deny God but holds that the being of a Lord is "not proved". There are then based on this common foundation three main religions, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism. Of the second, a great and universal faith, it has been said that, with each f resh acquirement of knowledge, it seems more difficult to separate it from the Hinduism out of which it emerged and into which (in Northern Buddhism) it relapsed. This is of course not to say that there are no differences between the two, but that they share in certain general and common principles as their base. Brahmanism, of which the Shakta doctrine and practice is a particular form, accepts Veda as its ultimate authority. By this, in its form as the four Vedas, is revealed the doctrine of the Brahman, the "All -pervader," the infinite Substance which is in Itself (Svarupa) Consciousness (Caitanya or Cit), from Which comes creation, maintenance and withdrawal, commonly called destruction (though man, not God, destroys), and Which in Its relation to the un iverse which the Brahman controls is known as Ishvara, the Ruling Lord or Personal God. Veda both as spiritual experience and the word "which is heard" (Shruti) is the warrant for this. But Shruti, as the ultimate authority, has received various interpreta tions and so we find in Brahmanism, as in Christianity, differing schools and sects adopting various interpretations of the Revealed Word. Veda says: "All this (that is, the Universe) is Brahman." All are agreed that Brahman or Spirit is relatively to us, Being (Sat), Consciousness (Cit) and Bliss (Ananda). It is Saccidananda. But in what sense is "This" (Idam) Brahman? The Monistic interpretation (Advaitavada), as given for instance by the great scholastic Shamkaracarya, is that there is a complete identity in essence of both. There is one Spirit (Atma) with two aspects: as transcendent supreme (Paramatma), and as immanent and embodied (Jivatma). The two are at base one when we eliminate Avidya in the form of mind and body. According to the qualified Monism (Vishishtadvaita) of the great scholastic Ramanuja, "This" is Brahman in the sense that it is the body of the Brahman, just as we distinguish our body from our inner self. According to the Dualists 4 (Dvaitavada) the saying is interpreted in terms of nearness (Samipya) and likeness (Sadrishya) for, though God and man are distinct, the former so pervades and is so inextricably involved in the universe as creator and maintainer, that the latter, in this sense, seems to be Brahman through proximity. Then again there is the Shuddhadvaita of that branch of the Agamas which is called Shaivasiddhanta, the Vaishnava Pacaratra doctrine, the Advaita of the Kashmirian Shaiva -gama (Trika), the followers of which, though Advaitins, have very subtly criticized Shamkara's doctrine on several points. Difference of views upon this question and that of the nature of Maya, which the world is said to be, necessarily implies difference upon other matters of doctrine. Then there are, with many resemblances, some differences in rit ual practice. Thus it comes about that Brahmanism includes many divisions of worshippers calling themselves by different names. There are Smartas who are the present day representatives of the old Vaidik doctrine and ritual practice, and on the other hand a number of divisions of worshippers calling themselves Shaktas, Shaivas, Vaishnavas and so forth with sub -divisions of these. It is not possible to make hard and fast distinctions between the sects which share much in common and have been influenced one by the other. Indeed the universality of much of religious doctrine and practice is an established fact. What exists in India as elsewhere to -day has in other times and places been in varying degrees anticipated. "In Religion," it has been said (Gnostics an d 1heir Remains, viii) "there is no new thing. The same ideas are worked up over and over again." In India as elsewhere, but particularly in India where religious activity has been syncretistic rather than by way of supersession, there is much which is com mon to all sects and more again which is common between particular groups of sects. These latter are governed in general, that is, in their older forms, by the Agamas or Tantra -Shastras, which, at any rate to- day and for centuries past (whatever may have b een their origin), admit the authority of the Vedas and recognize other Scriptures. (As to these, see the Introduction to the Kaulacarya Satyananda's Commentary on the Isha Upanishad which I have published.) 5 The meaning of Veda is not commonly rightly unde rstood. But this is a vast subject which underlies all others, touching as it does the seat of all authority and knowledge into which I have not the space to enter here. There are four main classes of Brahmanical Scripture, namely, Veda or Shruti, Smriti, Purana, and Agama. There are also four ages or Yugas the latter being a fraction of a Kalpa or Day of Brahma of 4,320,000,000 years. This period is the life of an universe, on the expiration of which all re- enters Brahman and thereafter issues from it. A M ahayuga is composed of the Four Ages called Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali, the first being the golden age of righteousness since when all has gradually declined physically, morally, and spiritually. For each of the ages a suitable Shastra is given, for Satya or Krita the Vedas, for Treta the Smritishastra, for Dvapara the Puranas, and for Kaliyuga the Agama or Tantra Shastra. So the Kularnava Tantra says: Krite shrutyukta acarastretayam smriti -sambhavah Dvapare tu puranoktah, kalavagamasammatah (see also Maha nirvana Tantra, I -- 28 et seq.) and the Tara-pradipa says that in the Kaliyuga (the supposed present age) the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma, in the sense of mode of life and ritual, is to be followed (see Principles of Tantra). When it is said that the Agama is the peculiar Scripture of the Kali age, this does not mean (at any rate to any particular division of its followers) that something is presented which is opposed to Veda. It is true however that, as between these followers, there is sometimes a conflict on the question whether a particular form of the Agama is unvedic (Avaidika) or not. The Agama, however, as a whole, purports to be a presentment of the teaching of Veda, just as the Puranas and Smritis are. It is that presentment of Vaidik truth which is suitable for the Kali age. Indeed the Shakta followers of the Agama claim that its Tantras contain the very core of the Veda to which it is described to bear the same relation as the Supreme Spirit (Paramatma) to the embodied spirit (Jivatma). In a similar way, in the seven Tantrik Acaras (see Ch. IV post), Kaulacara is the controlling, informing life of the gross body called Vedacara, each of the Acaras, which follow the latter up to Kaulacara, being more and more subtle sheaths. The Tantra Shastra is thus that presentment of Vedantic truth which is modeled, as regards mode of life and ritual, to 6 meet the characteristics and infirmities of the Kaliyuga. As men have no longer the capacity, longevity and moral strength required to carry out the Vaidika Karmakanda (ritual section), the Tantra Shastra prescribes a Sadhana of its own for the attainment of the common end of all Shastra, that is, a happy life on earth, Heaven thereafter, and at length Liberation. Religion is in fact the true pursuit of h appiness. As explained in the next and following Chapters, this Agama, which governs according to its followers the Kali -yuga, is itself divided into several schools or communities of worshippers. One of these divisions is the Shakta. It is with Shakta doctrine and worship, one of the forms of Brahmanism, which is again a form of the general Bharata Dharma, that this book deals. The Shakta is so called because he is a worshipper of Shakti (Power), that is, God in Mother -form as the Supreme Power which creat es, sustains and withdraws the universe. His rule of life is Shaktadharma, his doctrine of Shakti is Shaktivada or Shakta Darshana. God is worshipped as the Great Mother because, in this aspect, God is active, and produces, nourishes, and maintains all. Theological Godhead is no more female than male or neuter. God is Mother to the Sadhaka who worships Her Lotus Feet, the dust on which are millions of universes. The Power, or active aspect of the immanent God, is thus called Shakti. In Her static transcende nt aspect the Mother or Shakti or Shiv is of the same nature as Shiva or "the Good". That is, philosophically speaking, Shiva is the unchanging Consciousness, and Shakti is its changing Power appearing as mind and matter. Shiva -Shakti is therefore Conscio usness and Its Power. This then is the doctrine of dual aspects of the one Brahman acting through Its Trinity of Powers (Iccha, Will; Jana, Knowledge; Kriya, Action). In the static transcendent aspect (Shiva) the one Brahman does not change and in the kinetic immanent aspect (Shiv or Shakti) It does. There is thus changelessness in change. The individual or embodied Spirit (Jivatma) is one with the transcendent spirit (Paramatma). The former is a part (Amsha) of the latter, and the enveloping mind and bod y are manifestations of Supreme Power. Shakta Darshana is therefore a form of Monism (Advaitavada). In creation an effect is produced without change in the Producer. In creation the Power (Shakti) "goes forth" (Prasharati) in a series of emanations or transformations, which are called, in 7 the Shaiva and Shakta Tantras, the 36 Tattvas. These mark the various stages through which Shiva, the Supreme Consciousness, as Shakti, presents Itself as object to Itself as subject, the latter at first experiencing the f ormer as part of the Self, and then through the operations of Maya Shakti as different from the Self. This is the final stage in which every Self (Purusha) is mutually exclusive of every other. Maya, which achieves this, is one of the Powers of the Mother or Devi. The Will -to-become -many (Bahu syam prajayeya) is the creative impulse which not only creates but reproduces an eternal order. The Lord remembers the diversities latent in His own Maya Shakti due to the previous Karmas of Jivas and allows them to u nfold themselves by His volition. It is that Power by which infinite formless Consciousness veils Itself to Itself and negates and limits Itself in order that it may experience Itself as Form. This Maya Shakti assumes the form of Prakriti Tattva, which is composed of three Gunas or Factors called Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. The function of Prakriti is to veil, limit, or finitize pure infinite formless Consciousness, so as to produce form, for without such limitation there cannot be the appearance of form. These G unas work by mutual suppression. The function of Tamas is to veil Consciousness, of Sattva to reveal it, and of Rajas the active principle to make either Tamas suppress Sattva or Sattva suppress Tamas. These Gunas are present in all particular existence, as in the general cause or Prakriti Shakti. Evolution means the increased operation of Sattva Guna. Thus the mineral world is more subject to Tamas than the rest. There is less Tamas and more Sattva in the vegetable world. In the animal world Sattva is increased, and still more so in man, who may rise through the cultivation of the Sattva Guna to Pure Consciousness (Moksha) Itself. To use Western parlance, Consciousness more and more appears as forms evolve and rise to man. Consciousness does not in itself change, but its mental and material envelopes do, thus releasing and giving Consciousness more play. As Pure Consciousness is Spirit, the release of It from the bonds of matter means that Forms which issue from the Power of Spirit (Shakti) become more and more Sattvik. A truly Sattvik man is therefore a spiritual man. The aim of Sadhana is therefore the cultivation of the Sattva Guna. Nature (Prakriti) is thus the Veil of Spirit as Tamas Guna, the Revealer of Spirit as Sattva Guna, and the Activity (Rajas Gu na) which makes either work. Thus the upward or 8 revealing movement from the predominance of Tamas to that of Sattva represents the spiritual progress of the embodied Spirit or Jivatma. It is the desire for the life of form which produces the universe. This desire exists in the collective Vasanas, held like all else, in inchoate state in the Mother -Power, which passing from its own (Svarupa) formless state gives effect to them. Upon the expiration of the vast length of time which constitutes a day of Brahma the whole universe is withdrawn into the great Causal Womb (Yoni) which produced it. The limited selves are withdrawn into it, and again, when the creative throes are felt, are put forth from it, each appearing in that form and state which its previous Karma had made for it. Those who do good Karma but with desire and self -regard (Sakama) go, on death, to Heaven and thereafter reap their reward in good future birth on earth -- for Heaven is also a transitory state. The bad are punished by evil births on earth and suffering in the Hells which are also transitory. Those, however, who have rid themselves of all self -regarding desire and work selflessly (Nishkama Karma) realize the Brahman nature which is Saccidananda. Such are liberated, that is never appear again in the World of Form, which is the world of suffering, and enter into the infinite ocean of Bliss Itself. This is Moksha or Mukti or Liberation. As it is freedom from the universe of form, it can only be attained through detachment from the world and desirelessness. For those who desire the world of form cannot be freed of it. Life, therefore, is a field in which man, who has gradually ascended through lower forms of mineral, vegetable and animal life, is given the opportunity of heaven-life and Liberation. The universe has a moral purpose, namely the affording to all existence of a field wherein it may reap the fruit of its actions. The forms of life are therefore the stairs (Sopana) on which man mounts to the state of infinite, eternal, and formless Bl iss. This then is the origin and the end of man. He has made for himself his own past and present condition and will make his future one. His essential nature is free. If wise, he adopts the means (Sadhana) which lead to lasting happiness, for that of the world is not to be had by all, and even when attained is perishable and mixed with suffering. This Sadhana consists of various means and disciplines employed to produce purity of mind (Cittashuddhi), and devotion to, and worship of, the Magna Mater of all. It is with these means that the religious Tantra Shastras are mainly concerned. 9 The Shakta Tantra Shastra contains a most elaborate and wonderful ritual, partly its own, partly of Vaidik origin. To a ritualist it is of absorbing interest. Ritual is an art , the art of religion. Art is the outward material expression of ideas intellectually held and emotionally felt. Ritual art is concerned with the expression of those ideas and feelings which are specifically called religious. It is a mode by which religious truth is presented, and made intelligible in material forms and symbols to the mind. It appeals to all natures passionately sensible of that Beauty in which, to some, God most manifests Himself. But it is more than this. For it is the means by which the mind is transformed and purified. In particular according to Indian principles it is the instrument whereby the consciousness of the worshipper (Sadhaka) is shaped in actual fact into forms of experience which embody the truths which Scripture teaches. The Shakta is thus taught that he is one with Shiva and His Power or Shakti. This is not a matter of mere argument. It is a matter for experience. It is ritual and Yoga- practice which secure that experience for him. How profound Indian ritual is, will be admitted by those who have understood the general principles of all ritual and symbolism, and have studied it in its Indian form, with a knowledge of the principles of which it is an expression. Those who speak of "mummery," "gibberish" and "superstition" betray both their incapacity and ignorance. The Agamas are not themselves treatises on Philosophy, though they impliedly contain a particular theory of life. They are what is called Sadhana Shastras, that is, practical Scriptures prescribing the means by which happiness, the quest of all mankind, may be attained. And as lasting happiness is God, they teach how man by worship and by practice of the disciplines prescribed, may attain a divine experience. From incidental statements and the practices described the philosophy is extracted. The speaker of the Tantras and the revealer of the Shakta Tantra is Shiva Himself or Shiv the Devi Herself. Now it is the first who teaches and the second who listens (Agama). Now again the latter assumes the role of Guru and answers the questions of Shiva (Nigama). For the two are one. Sometimes there are other interlocutors. Thus one of the Tantras is called Ishvarakartikeya -samvada, for there the Lord addresses his son Kartikeya. The Tantra Shastra therefore claims to be a Revel ation, and of the same 10 essential truths as those contained in the Eternal Veda which is an authority to itself (Svatah- siddha). Those who have had experience of the truths recorded in Shastra, have also proclaimed the practical means whereby their experien ce was gained. "Adopt those means" they say, "and you will also have for yourself our experience." This is the importance of Sadhana and all Sadhana Shastras. The Guru says: "Do as I tell you. Follow the method prescribed by Scripture. Curb your desires. Attain a pure disposition, and thus only will you obtain that certainty, that experience which will render any questionings unnecessary." The practical importance of the Agama lies in its assumption of these principles and in the methods which it enjoins for the attainment of that state in which the truth is realized. The following Chapters shortly explain some of the main features of both the philosophy and practice of the Shakta division of the Agama. For their full development many volumes are necessary. What is here said is a mere sketch in a popular form of a vast subject. I will conclude this Chapter with extracts from a Bengali letter written to me shortly before his death, now many years ago, by Pandit Shiva -candra Vidyarnava, the Shakta author of the Tantratattva which I have published under the title Principles of Tantra. The words in brackets are my own. "At the present time the general public are ignorant of the principles of the Tantra Shastra. The cause of this ignorance is the fact that the Tant ra Shastra is a Sadhana Shastra, the greater part of which becomes intelligible only by Sadhana. For this reason the Shastra and its Teachers prohibit their general promulgation. So long as the Shastra was learnt from Gurus only, this golden rule was of immense good. In course of time the old Sadhana has become almost extinct, and along with it, the knowledge of the deep and mighty principles of the Shastra is almost lost. Nevertheless some faint shadowings of these principles (which can be thoroughly known by Sadhana only) have been put before the public partly with the view to preserve Shastric knowledge from destruction, and partly for commercial reasons. When I commenced to write Tantra -tattva some 25 years ago, Bengali society was in a perilous state owing to the influx of other religions, want of faith and a spirit of disputation. Shortly before this a number of English books had appeared on the Tantra Shastra which, whilst ignorant of 11 Dharma, Sadhana and Siddhi contained some hideous and outrageous pictures drawn by the Bengali historians and novelists ignorant of, and unfaithful to, Shastric principles. The English books by English writers contained merely a reflection of what English- educated Bengalis of those days had written. Both are even to- day equally ignorant of the Tantra Shastra. For this reason in writing Tantratattva I could not go deeply into the subject as my heart wished. I had to spend my time in removing thorns (objections and charges) from the path by reasoning and argument. I could not therefore deal in my book with most of the subjects which, when I brought out the first volume, I promised to discuss. The Tantra Shastra is broadly divided into three parts, namely Sadhana, Siddhi (that which is gained by Sadhana) and Philosophy (Darshana). Unlike other systems it is not narrow nor does it generate doubt by setting forth conflicting views. For its speaker is One and not many and He is omniscient. The philosophy is however scattered throughout the Tantrik treatises and is dealt with, as occasion arises, in connection with Sadhana and Siddhi. Could (as I had suggested to him) such parts be collected and arranged, according to the principles of the subject -matter, they would form a vast system of philosophy wonderful, divine, lasting, true, and carrying conviction to men. As a Philosophy it is at the head of all others. You have prayed to Parameshvara (God) for my long life, and my desire to carry out my project makes me also pray for it. But the state of my body makes me doubt whether the prayer will be granted. By the grace therefore of the Mother the sooner the work is done the better. You say 'that those who worship Parameshvara, He makes of one family. Let therefore all distinctions be put aside for all Sadhakas are, as such, one.' This noble principle is the final word of all Shastras, all communities, and all religions. All distinctions which arise from differences in the physical body are distinctions for the human world only. They have no place in the world of worship of Parameshvara. T he more therefore that we shall approach Him the more will the differences between you and me vanish. It is because both of us pray for the removal of all such differences, that I am led to rely on your encouragement and help and am bold to take up on your encouragement and help and am bold to take up this difficult and daring work. If by your grace the gate of this Tantrik philosophy is opened in the third part of Tantra -tattva I dare to say that the 12 learned in all countries will gaze, and be astonished for it is pure truth, and for this reason I shall be able to place it before them with perfect clearness." Unfortunately this project of a third part of the Tantra- tattva could not be carried out owing to the lamented death of its author, which followed not long after the receipt of this letter. Naturally, like all believers throughout the whole world, he claimed for his Scripture the possession in all its details of what was true or good. Whilst others may not concede this, I think that those with knowledge and understanding and free from prejudice will allow that it contains a profoundly conceived doctrine, wonderfully worked out in practice. Some of its ideas and principles are shared (through it be under other names and forms) by all religious men, and others either by all or some Indian communities, who are not Shaktas. Leaving therefore for the moment aside what may be said to be peculiar to itself it cannot be that wholly absurd, repulsive, and infamous system ("lust, mummery and magic" as Brian Hodgson called it) which it has been said to be. An impartial criticism may be summed up in the few words that, together with what has value, it contains some practices which are not generally approved and which have led to abuse. As to these the reader is referred to the Chapter on the Pacatattva or Secret Ritual. I conclude with a translation of an article in Bengali by a well -known writer, (P. Bandyopadhyaya, in the Sahitya, Shrubby 1320, Calcutta, July -August 1913). It was evoked by the publication of Arthur Abalone's Translation of, and Introduction to, the Mahanirvana Tantra. It is an interesting statement as regards the Shakta Tantra and Bengali views thereon. Omitting here some commendatory statements touching A. Avalon's work and the writer's "thanks a hundred times" for the English version, the article continues as follows: "At one time the Mahanirvana Tantra had some popularity in Bengal. It was printed and published under the editorship of Pandit Ananda- candra Vedanta- vagisha and issued from the Adi -Brahmo -Samaj Press. Raja Ram Mohan Roy himself was a follower of the Tantras, married after the Shaiva form and used to practice the Tantrik worship. His spiritual preceptor Svami Hariharananda, was well known to be a saint who had attained to perfection (Siddha -purusa). He endeavored to establish the Mahanirvana Tantra as the 13 Scripture of the Brahmo -Samaj. The formula and the forms of the Brahmo Church are borrowed from the initiation in Brahman worship, (Brahma - diksha) in this Tantra. The later Brahmos somewhat losing their selves in their spirit of imitation of Christian rituals were led to abandon the path shown to them by Raja Ram Mohan; but yet even now many among them recite the Hymn to the Brahman which occurs in the Mahanirvana Tantra. In the first era of the excessive dissemination of English culture and training Bengal resounded with opprobrious criticisms of the Tantras. No one among the educated in Bengal could praise them. Even those who called themselves Hindus were unable outwardly to support the Tantrik doctrines. But even then there were very great Tantrik Sadhakas and men learned in the Tantras with whose help the principles of the Tantras might have been explained to the public. But the educated Bengali of the age was bewitched by the Christia n culture, and no one cared to inquire what did or did not exist in their paternal heritage; the more especially that any who attempted to study the Tantras ran the risk of exposing themselves to contumely from the 'educated community'. Maharaja Sir Jatindra Mohan Tagore of sacred name alone published two or three works with the help of the venerable Pandit Jaganmohan Tarkalankara. The Hara -tattva -didhiti associated with the name of his father is even now acknowledged to be a marvelously glorious production of the genius of the Pandits of Bengal. The venerable (Vriddha) Pandit Jaganmohan also published a commentary on the Mahanirvana Tantra. Even at that epoch such study of the Tantras was confined to a certain section of the educated in Bengal. Maharaja Sir Jatindra Mohan alone endeavored to understand and appreciate men like Bama Khepa (mad Bama), the Naked Father (Nengta Baba) of Kadda and Svami Sadananda. The educated community of Bengal had only neglect and contempt for Sadhakas like Bishe Pagla (the mad Bishe) and Binu the Candala woman. Bengal is even now governed by the Tantra; even now the Hindus of Bengal receive Tantrik initiation. But the glory and the honor which the Tantra had and received in the time of Maharajas Krishna -candra and Shiva -candra no longer exist. This is the reason why the Tantrik Sadhakas of Bengal are not so well known at present. It seems as if the World -Mother has again willed it, has again desired to manifest Her power, so that Arthur Avalon is studying the Tantras and has published so beautiful 14 a version of the Mahanirvana. The English educated Bengali will now, we may hope, turn his attention to the Tantra. "The special virtue of the Tantra lies in its mode of Sadhana. It is neither mere worship (Upasana) nor prayer. It is not lamenting or contrition or repentance before the Deity. It is the Sadhana which is the union of Purusha and Prakriti; the Sadhana which joins the Male Principle and the Mother Element within the body, and strives to make the attributed attributeless. That which is in me and that for which I am (this consciousness is ever present in me) is spread, like butter in milk, throughout the created world of moving and unmoving things, through the gross and the subtle, the conscious and unconscious, through all. It is the object of Tantrik Sadhana to merge that self -principle (Svarat) into the Universal (Virat). This Sadhana is to be performed through the awakening of the forces within the body. A man is Siddha in this Sadhana when he is able to awaken Kundalini a nd pierce the six Cakras. This is not mere 'philosophy' a mere attempt to ponder upon husks of words, but something which is to be done in a thoroughly practical manner. The Tantras say -- 'Begin practicing under the guidance of a good Guru; if you do not obtain favorable results immediately, you can freely give it up.' No other religion dares to give so bold a challenge. We believe that the Sadhana of the Moslems and the 'esoteric religion' or secret Sadhana (and rituals) of the Christians of the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches is based on this ground work of the Tantras. "Wherever there is Sadhana we believe that there is the system of the Tantra. While treating of the Tantras some time back in the Sahitya, I hinted at this conclusion and I cannot say that the author, Arthur Avalon, has not noticed it too. For he has expressed his surprise at the similarity which exists between the Roman Catholic and the Tantrik mode of Sadhana. The Tantra has made the Yoga -system of Patajali easily practicable and has combined with it the Tantrik rituals and the ceremonial observances (Karma -kanda); that is the reason why the Tantrik system of Sadhana has been adopted by all the religious sects of India. If this theory of the antiquarians, that the Tantra was brought into India from Chaldea or Shakadvipa be correct, then it may also be inferred that the Tantra passed from Chaldea to Europe. The Tantra is to be found in all the strata of Buddhism; the Tantrik Sadhana is 15 manifest in Confucianism; and Shintoism is but anothe r name of the Tantrik cult. Many historians acknowledge that the worship of Shakti or Tantrik Sadhana which was prevalent in Egypt from ancient times spread into Phoenicia and Greece. Consequently we may suppose that the influence of the Tantra was felt in primitive Christianity. "The Tantra contains nothing like idolatry or 'worship of the doll' which we, taking the cue from the Christian missionaries, nowadays call it. This truth, the author, Arthur Avalon, has made very clear in the Introduction to his translation. The Tantra repeatedly says that one is to adore the Deity by becoming a Deity (Devata) himself. The Ishta -devata is the very self of Atman, and not separate from It; He is the receptacle of all, yet He is not contained in anything, for He is the great witness, the eternal Purusha. The true Tantrik worship is the worship in and by the mind. The less subtle form of Tantrik worship is that of the Yantra. Form is born of the Yantra. The form is made manifest by Japa, and awakened by Mantra -Shakti. T ens of millions of beautiful forms of the Mother bloom forth in the heavens of the heart of the Siddhapurusha. Devotees or aspirants of a lower order of competency (Nimna -adhikari) under the directions of the Guru adore the great Maya by making manifest'. (to themselves) one of Her various forms which can be only seen by Dhyana (meditation). That is not mere worship of the idol! if it were so, the image would not be thrown into the water; no one in that case would be so irreverent as to sink the earthen image of the Goddess in the water. The Primordial Shakti is to be awakened by Bhava, by Dhyana, by Japa and by the piercing of the six Cakras. She is all will. No one can say when and how She shows Herself and to what Sadhaka. We only know that She is, and there are Her names and forms. Wonderfully transcending is Her form -- far beyond the reach of word or thought. This has made the Bengali Bhakta sing this plaintive song -- 'Hard indeed is it to approach the sea of forms, and to bathe in it. Ah me, this my c oming is perhaps in vain?' 16 "The Tantra deals with another special subject -- Mantra -Shakti. It is no exaggeration to say that we have never heard even from any Bengali Pandit such a clear exposition of Mantra- Shakti as that which the author, Arthur Avalon, has given in his Introduction to the Mahanirvana Tantra. We had thought that Mantra- Shakti was a thing to be felt and not to be explained to others. But the author with the force of his genius has in his simple exposition given us such explanation of it a s is possible in the English language. The Tantras say that the soul in the body is the very self of the letters -- of the Dhvani (sound). The Mother, the embodiment of the fifty letters (Varna), is present in the various letters in the different Cakras. L ike the melody which issues when the chords of a lute are struck, the Mother who moves in the six Cakras and who is the very self of the letters awakens with a burst of harmony when the chords of the letters (Varnas) are struck in their order; and Siddhi b ecomes as easy of attainment to the Sadhaka as the Amalaka fruit in one's hand when She is roused. That is why the great Sadhaka Ramaprasad awakened the Mother by the invocation -- 'AriseO Mother (Jagrihi, janani)'. That is the reason why the Bhakta sang -- 'How long wilt thou sleep in the Muladhara,O Mother Kulakundalini?' "The Bodhana (awakening) ceremony in the Durga Puja is nothing but the awakening of the Shakti of the Mother, the mere rousing of the consciousness of the Kundalini. This awakening is pe rformed by Mantra - Shakti. The Mantra is nothing but the harmonious sound of the lute of the body. When the symphony is perfect, She who embodies the Worlds (Jaganmayi) rouses Herself. When She is awake it does not take long before the union of Shiva and Shakti takes place. Do Japa once; do Japa according to rule looking up to the Guru, and the effects of Japa of which we hear in the Tantra will prove to be true at every step. Then you will understand that the Tantra is not mere trickery, or a false weaving out of words. What is wanted is the good Guru; Mantra capable of granting Siddhi, and application (Sadhana). Arthur Avalon has grasped the meaning of the principles of Mantra which are so difficult to understand. We may certainly say that he 17 could only mak e this impossible thing possible through inherent tendencies (Samskara) acquired in his previous life. "The Tantra accepts the doctrine of rebirth. It does not, however, acknowledge it as a mere matter of argument or reasoning but like a geographical map it makes clear the unending chain of existences of the Sadhaka. The Tantra has two divisions, the Dharma of Society (Samaja) and the Dharma of Spiritual Culture (Sadhana). According to the regulation of Samaja -Dharma it acknowledges birth and caste. But in Sadhana -Dharma there is no caste distinction, no Brahmana or Shudra, no man or woman; distinction between high and low follows success in Sadhana and Siddhi. We only find the question of fitness or worthiness (Adhikara -tattva) in the Tantra. This fitness (Adhikara) is discovered with reference to the Samskaras of past existences; that is why the Candala Purnananda is a Brahmana, and Kripasiddha the Sadhaka is equal to Sarvananda; that is why Ramaprasada of the Vaidya caste is fit to be honored even by Brahmanas. The Tantra is to be studied with the aid of the teachings of the Guru; for its language is extraordinary, and its exposition impossible with a mere grammatical knowledge of roots and inflections. The Tantra is only a system of Shakti- Sadhana. There a re rules in it whereby we may draw Shakti from all created things. There is nothing to be accepted or rejected in it. Whatever is helpful for Sadhana is acceptable. This Sadhana is decided according to the fitness of the particular person (Adhikari -anusare ). He must follow that for which he is fit or worthy. Shakti pervades all and embraces all beings and all things, the inanimate and the moving, beasts and birds, men and women. The unfolding of the Power (Shakti) enclosed within the body of the animal (Jiva) as well as the man is brought about only with the help of the tendencies within the body. The mode of Sadhana is ascertained with regard to these tendencies. The very meaning of Sadhana is unfolding, rousing up or awakening of Power (Shakti). Thus the Shakta obtains power from all actions in the world. The Sadhana. of the Tantra is not to be measured by the little measuring- yard of the well -being or ill -being of your community or mine. "Let you understand and I understand,O my mind -- Whether any one el se understands it or not." 18 The author, Arthur Avalon, is fully conscious of this. In spite of it, he has tried to explain almost all points making them easy to comprehend for the intellect of materialistic civilized society of to- day. For this attempt on hi s part we are grateful to him. "The Tantra has no notion of some separate far -seeing God. It preaches no such doctrine in it as that God the Creator rules the Universe from heaven. In the eye of the Tantra the body of the Sadhaka is the Universe, the auto- kratos (Atma -Shakti) within the body is the desired (Ishta) and the "to be sought for" (Sadhya), Deity (Devata) of the Sadhaka. The unfolding of this self-power is to be brought about by self -realization (Atma- darshana) which is to be achieved through Sadhana. Whoever realizes his self attains to Liberation (Mukti). The author, Arthur Avalon, has treated of these matters (Siddhanta) in his work, the Tantra- tattva. Many of the topics dealt with in the Mahanirvana Tantra will not be fully understood without a thorough perusal of the book. The Principles of the Tantra must be lectured on to the Bengali afresh. If the Mahanirvana Tantra as translated by Arthur Avalon is spread abroad, if the Bengali is once more desirous to hear, that attempt might well be undertaken. "Our land of Bengal used to be ruled by Tantrik works such as the Saradatilaka, Shaktanandatarangini, Pranatoshini, Tantrasara, etc. Then the Mahanirvana Tantra did not have so great an influence. It seems to us that, considering the form into which, as a result of English education and culture, the mind of the Bengali has been shaped, the Mahanirvana is a proper Tantra for the time. Raja Ram Mohan Roy endeavored to encourage regard for the Mahanirvana Tantra because he understood this. If the Englis h translation of the Mahanirvana Tantra by Arthur Avalon is well received by the thoughtful public in Bengal, the study of the original Sanskrit work may gradually come into vogue. This much hope we may entertain. In fact, the English- educated Bengali community is without religion (Dharma) or action (Karma), and is devoid of the sense of nationality (Jatiya Dharma) and caste. The Mahanirvana Tantra alone is fit for the country and the race at the present time. We believe that probably because such an impossibility is going to be possible, a cultured, influential, rich Englishman like Arthur Avalon, honored of the rulers, has translated and published the Mahanirvana 19 Tantra. When his Tantratattva is published we shall be able to speak out much more. For the pr esent we ask the educated people of Bengal to read this most unprecedented Mahanirvana Tantra. Arthur Avalon has not spoken a single word to satisfy himself nor tried to explain things according to his own imagination. He has only given what are true inferences according to the principles of Shastric reasoning. An auspicious opportunity for the English- knowing public to understand the Tantra has arrived. It is a counsel of the Tantra itself, that if you desire to renounce anything, renounce it only after a thorough acquaintance with it; if you desire to embrace anything new, accept it only after a searching inquiry. The Tantra embodies the old religion (Dharma) of Bengal; even if it is to be cast away for good, that ought only to be done after it has been fully known. In the present case a thoughtful and educated Englishman of high position has taken it upon himself to give us a full introduction to the Tantra. We can frankly say that in this Introduction he has not tried a jot to shirk or to gloss over the conclusions of the Shastra, with the vanity of explanation born of his imagination. He has endeavored to bring before the mind of his readers whatever actually is in the Tantra, be it regarded as either good or evil. Will not the Bengali receive with welcom e such a full offering (Arghya) made by a Bhakta from a foreign land?" 20 CHAPTER TWO. SHAKTI : THE WORLD AS POWER There is no word of wider content in any language than this Sanskrit term meaning 'Power'. For Shakti in the highest causal sense is God as Mother, and in another sense it is the universe which issues from Her Womb. And what is there which is neither one nor the other? Therefore, the Yoginihridaya Tantra thus salutes Her who conceives, bears, produc es and thereafter nourishes all worlds: "Obeisance be to Her who is pure Being - Consciousness -Bliss, as Power, who exists in the form of Time and Space and all that is therein, and who is the radiant Illuminatrix in all beings." It is therefore possible onl y to outline here in a very general way a few of the more important principles of the Shakti -doctrine, omitting its deeply interesting practice (Sadhana) in its forms as ritual worship and Yoga. Today Western science speaks of Energy as the physical ultimate of all forms of Matter. So has it been for ages to the Shaktas, as the worshippers of Shakti are called. But they add that such Energy is only a limited manifestation (as Mind and Matter) of the almighty infinite Supreme Power (Maha- Shakti) of Becoming in 'That' (Tat), which is unitary Being (Sat) itself. Their doctrine is to be found in the traditions, oral and written, which are contained in the Agamas, which (with Purana, Smriti and Veda) constitute one of the four great classes of Scripture of the Hindus. The Tantras are Scriptures of the Agama. The notion that they are some queer bye- product of Hinduism and not an integral part of it, is erroneous. The three chief divisions of the Agama are locally named Bengal (Gauda), Kashmira and Kerala. That Beng al is a home of Tantra -shastra is well known. It is, however, little known that Kashmir was in the past a land where Tantrik doctrine and practice were widely followed. The communities of so -called 'Tantrik' worshippers are five- fold according as the cult is of the Sun, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva or Shakti. To the Knower, however, the five named are not distinct Divinities, but different aspects of the one Power or Shakti. An instructed Shakti -worshipper is one of the least 21 sectarian of men. He can worship in all temples, as the saying is. Thus the Sammohana Tantra says that "he is a fool who sees any difference between Rama (an Avatara of Vishnu) and Shiva'. "What matters the name," says the Commentator of the Satcakranirupana, after running through the gamut of them. The Shakta is so called because the chosen Deity of his worship (Ishta - devata) is Shakti. In his cult, both in doctrine and practice, emphasis is laid on that aspect of the One in which It is the Source of Change and, in the form of Time and Space and all objects therein, Change itself. The word Shakti is grammatically feminine. For this reason an American Orientalist critic of the doctrine has described it as a w orthless system, a mere feminization of orthodox (whatever that be) Vedanta -- a doctrine teaching the primacy of the Female and thus fit only for "suffragette monists". It is absurd criticism of this kind which makes the Hindu sometimes wonder whether the Western psyche has even the capacity to understand his beliefs. It is said of the Mother (in the Hymn to Her in the Mahakala- Samhita): "Thou art neither girl, nor maid, nor old. Indeed Thou art neither female nor male, nor neuter. Thou art inconceivable, immeasurable Power, the Being of all which exists, void of all duality, the Supreme Brahman, attainable in Illumination alone." Those who cannot understand lofty ideas when presented in ritual and symbolic garb will serve their reputation best by not speaking of them. The Shaiva is so called because his chosen Divinity is Shiva, the name for the changeless aspect of the One whose power of action and activity is Shakti. But as the two are necessarily associated, all communities acknowledge Shakti. It is, for the above reason, a mistake to suppose that a 'Tantrik,' or follower of the Agama, is necessarily a Shakta, and that the 'Tantra' is a Shakta Scripture only. Not at all. The Shakta is only one branch of the Agamik school. And so we find the Scriptures of Saivaism, whether of North or South, called Tantras, as also those of that ancient form of Vaishnavism which is called the Pancaratra. The doctrine of these communities, which share certain common ideas, varies from the monism of the Shaktas and Northern Shaivas to the more or less dualistic systems of others. The ritual is to a large extent common in all communities, though there are necessarily 22 variations, due both to the nature of the divine aspect worshipped and to the particular form of theology taught. Shakta doctrine and practice are contained primarily in the Shakta Tantras and the oral traditions, some of which are secret. As the Tantras are mainly Scriptures of Worship such doctrine is contained by implication in the ritual. For reasons above state d recourse may be had to other Scriptures in so far as they share with those of the Shakta certain common doctrines and practices. The Tantras proper are the Word of Shiva and Shakti. But there are also valuable Tantrik works in the nature of compendia and commentaries which are not of divine authorship. The concept 'Shakti' is not however peculiar to the Shaktas. Every Hindu believes in Shakti as God's Power, though he may differ as to the nature of the universe created by it. Shakta doctrine is a special presentment of so - called monism (Advaita: lit. 'not -two') and Shakta ritual, even in those condemned forms which have given rise to the abuses by which this Scripture is most generally known, is a practical application of it. Whatever may have been the case at the origin of these Agamic cults, all, now and for ages past, recognize and claim to base themselves on the Vedas. With these are coupled the Word of Shiva -Shakti as revealed in the Tantras. Shakta - doctrine is (like the Vedanta in general) what in Western parlance would be called a theology based on revelation that is, so- called 'spiritual' or supersensual experience, in its primary or secondary sense. For Veda is that. This leads to a consideration of the measure of man's knowing and of the basis of Vedantik knowledge. It is a fundamental error to regard the Vedanta as simply a speculative metaphysic in the modern Western sense. It is not so; if it were, it would have no greater right to acceptance than any other of the many systems which jostle one another for our custom in the Philosophical Fair. It claims that its supersensual teachings can be established with certainty by the practice of its methods. Theorizing alone is insufficient. The Shakta, above all, is a practical and active man, worshipping the Divine Activity; his watchword is Kriya or Action. Taught that he is Power, he desires fully to realize himself in fact as such. A Tantrik poem (Anandastotra) speaks with amused disdain of the learned chatterers 23 who pass their time in futile debate aro und the shores of the 'Lake of Doubt'. The basis of knowing, whether in super- sense or sense-knowledge, is actual experience. Experience is of two kinds: the whole or full experience; and incomplete experience -- that is, of parts, not of, but in, the whol e. In the first experience, Consciousness is said to be 'upward -looking' (Unmukhi) -- that is, 'not looking to another'. In the second experience it is 'outward-looking' (Bahirmukhi) The first is not an experience of the whole, but the Experience -whole. The second is an experience not of parts of the whole, for the latter is partless, but of parts in the whole, and issuing from its infinite Power to know itself in and as the finite centers, as the many. The works of an Indian philosopher, my friend Professor Pramatha Natha Mukhyopadhyaya, aptly call the first the Fact, and the second the Fact - section. The Isha Upanishad calls the Supreme Experience -- Purna, the Full or Whole. It is not, be it noted, a residue of the abstracting intellect, which is itself only a limited stress in Consciousness, but a Plenum, in which the Existent All is as one Whole. Theologically this full experience is Shiva, with Shakti at rest or as Potency. The second experience is that of the finite centers, the numerous Purushas or Jivas, which are also Shiva -Shakti as Potency actualized. Both experiences are real. In fact there is nothing unreal anywhere. All is the Mother and She is reality itself. "Sa'ham" ("She I am"), the Shakta says, and all that he senses is She in the form in which he perceives Her. It is She who in, and as, he drinks the consecrated wine, and She is the wine. All is manifested Power, which has the reality of Being from which it is put forth. But the reality of the manifestation is of something which appears and disappears, while that of Causal Power to appear is enduring. But this disappearance is only the ceasing to be for a limited consciousness. The seed of Power, which appears as a thing for such consciousness, remains as the potency in infinite Being itself. The infinite Experience is real as the Full (Purna); that is, its reality is fullness. The finite experience is real, as such. There is, perhaps, no subject in Vedanta, which is more misunderstood than that of the so- called 'Unreality' of the World. Every School admits the reality of all finite experience (even of 'illusive' 24 experience strictly so -called) while such experience lasts. But Shamkaracarya, defines the truly Real as that which is changeless. In this sense, the World as a changing thing has relative reality only. Shamkara so defines Reality because he sets forth his doctrine from the standpoint of transcendent Being. The Shakta Shastra, on the other hand, is a practical Scripture of Worship, delivered from the world -standpoint, according to which the world is necessarily real. According to this view a thing may be real and yet be the subject of change. But its reality as a thing ceases with the passing of the finite experiencer to whom it is real. The supreme Shiva - Shakti is, on the other hand, a real, full Experience which ever endures. A worshipper must, as such, believe in the reality of himself, of the world as his field of action and instrument, in its causation by God, and in God Himself as the object of worship. Moreover to him the world is real because Shiva - Shakti, which is its material cause, is real. That cause, without ceasing to be what it is, becomes the effect. Further the World is the Lord's Experience. He as Lord (Pati) is the whole Experience, and as creature (Pashu) he is the expe riencer of parts in it. The Experience of the Lord is never unreal. The reality, however, which changelessly endures may (if we so choose) be said to be Reality in its fullest sense. Real however as all experience is, the knowing differs according as the experience is infinite or finite, and in the latter case according to various grades of knowing. Full experience, as its name implies, is full in every way. Assume that there is at any 'time' no universe at all, that there is then a complete dissolution of all universes, and not of any particular universe -- even then the Power which produced past, and will produce future universes, is one with the Supreme Consciousness whose Shakti it is. When again this Power actualizes as a universe, the Lord- Consciousnes s from and in Whom it issues is the All -knower. As Sarvaja He knows all generals, and as Sarvavit, all particulars. But all is known by Him as the Supreme Self, and not, as in the case of the finite center, as objects other than the limited self. Finite e xperience is by its definition a limited thing. As the experience is of a sectional character, it is obvious that the knowing can only be of parts, and not of the whole, as the part cannot know the whole of which it is a part. But the finite is not always so. It may expand into the infinite by processes 25 which bridge the one to the other. The essential of Partial Experience is knowing in Time and Space; the Supreme Experience, being changeless, is beyond both Time and Space as aspects of change. The latter i s the alteration of parts relative to one another in the changeless Whole. Full experience is not sense-knowledge. The latter is worldly knowledge (Laukika Jana), by a limited knowing center, of material objects, whether gross or subtle. Full Experience i s the Supreme Knowing Self which is not an object at all. This is unworldly knowledge (Alaukika Jana) or Veda. Sense - knowledge varies according to the capacity and attainments of the experiencer. But the normal experience may be enhanced in two ways: eith er physically by scientific instruments such as the telescope and microscope which enhance the natural capacity to see; or psychically by the attainment of what are called psychic powers. Everything is Shakti; but psychic power denotes that enhancement of normal capacity which gives knowledge of matter in its subtle form, while the normal man can perceive it only in the gross form as a compound of sensible matter (the Bhutas). Psychic power is thus an extension of natural faculty. There is nothing 'supernat ural' about it. All is natural, all is real. It is simply a power above the normal. Thus the clairvoyant can see what the normal sense -experiencer cannot. He does so by the mind. The gross sense- organs are not, according to Vedanta, the senses (Indriya.) The sense is the mind, which normally works through the appropriate physical organs, but which, as the real factor in sensation, may do without them, as is seen both in hypnotic and yogic states. The area of knowledge is thus very widely increased. Knowledg e may be gained of subtle chemistry, subtle physiology (as of the cakras or subtle bodily centers), of various powers, of the 'world of Spirits,' and so forth. But though we are here dealing with subtle things, they are still things and thus part of the sense -world of objects -- that is, of the world of Maya. Maya, as later explained, is, not 'illusion,' but Experience in time and space of Self and Not-Self. This is by no means necessarily illusion. The Whole therefore cannot be known by sense -knowledge. In short, sense or worldly knowledge cannot establish, that is, prove, what is super- sensual, such as the Whole, its nature and the 'other side' of its processes taken as a collectivity. Reasoning, whether working in metaphysic or science, is based on the da ta of sense and governed by those forms of understanding which constitute 26 the nature of finite mind. It may establish a conclusion of probability, but not of certainty. Grounds of probability may be made out for Idealism, Realism, Pluralism and Monism, or any other philosophical system. In fact, from what we see, the balance of probability perhaps favors Realism and Pluralism. Reason may thus establish that an effect must have a cause, but not that the cause is one, For all that we can say, there may be as many causes as effects. Therefore it is said in Vedanta that "nothing (in these matters) is established by argument." All Western systems which do not possess actual spiritual experience as their basis are systems which can claim no certainty as regards any matter not verifiable by sense- knowledge and reasoning thereon. Shakta, and indeed all Vedantik teaching, holds that the only source and authority (Pramana) as regards supersensual matters, such as the nature of Being in itself, and the like, is Veda. Veda, which comes from the root vid, to know, is knowledge par excellence, that is super- sensual experience, which according to the Monist (to use the nearest English term) is the Experience - Whole. It may be primary or secondary. As the first it is actual ex perience (Sakshatkara) which in English is called 'spiritual' experience. The Shakta, as a 'monist,' says that Veda is full experience as the One. This is not an object of knowledge. This knowing is Being. "To know Brahman is to be Brahman." He is a "monist,' not because of rational argument only (though he can adduce reasoning in his support), but because he, or those whom he follows, have had in fact such 'monistic' experience, and therefore (in the light of such experience) interpret the Vedantik texts. But 'spiritual' experience (to use that English term) may be incomplete both as to duration and nature. Thus from the imperfect ecstasy (Savikalpa- Samadhi), even when of a 'monistic' character, there is a return to world- experience. Again it may not be completely 'monistic' in form, or may be even of a distinctly dualistic character. This only means that the realization has stopped short of the final goal. This being the case, that goal is still perceived through the forms of duality which linger as part of the constitution of the experiencer. Thus there are Vedantik and other schools which are not 'monistic'. The spiritual experiences of all are real experiences, whatever be their character, and they are true according to the 27 truth of the stage in which the experience is had. Do they contradict one another? The experience which a man has of a mountain at fifty miles distance, is not false because it is at variance with that of the man who has climbed it. What he sees is the thing from where he sees it. The f irst question then is: Is there a 'monistic' experience in fact? Not whether 'monism' is rational or not, and shown to be probable to the intellect. But how can we know this ~ With certainty only by having the experience oneself. The validity of the experience for the experiencer cannot be assailed otherwise than by alleging fraud or self -deception. But how can this be proved? To the experiencer his experience is real, and nothing else is of any account. But the spiritual experience of one is no proof to another who refuses to accept it. A man may, however, accept what another says, having faith in the latter's alleged experience. Here we have the secondary meaning of Veda, that is secondary knowledge of super -sensual truth, not based on actual experience of the believer, but on the experience of some other which the former accepts. In this sense Veda is recorded for Brahmanism in the Scriptures called Vedas, which contain the standard experience of those whom Brahmanism recognizes as its Rishis or Seers. But the interpretation of the Vaidik record is in question, just as that of the Bible is. Why accept one interpretation rather than another'? This is a lengthy matter. Suffice to say here that each chooses the spiritual food which his spiritual body needs, and which it is capable of eating and assimilating. This is the doctrine of Adhikara. Here, as elsewhere, what is one man's meat is another man's poison. Nature works in all who are not altogether beyond her workings. What is called the 'will to believe' inv olves the affirmation that the form of a man's faith is the expression of his nature; the faith is the man. It is not man's reason only which leads to the adoption of a particular religious belief. It is the whole man as evolved at that particular time whi ch does so. His affirmation of faith is an affirmation of his self in terms of it. The Shakta is therefore a 'monist,' either because he has had himself spiritual experiences of this character, or because he accepts the teaching of those who claim to have had such experience. This is Apta knowledge, that is received from a source of authority, just as knowledge of the scientific or other expert is received. It is true that the latter may be verified. But so in its own way can the former be. Revelation to th e Hindu is 28 not something stated 'from above,' incapable of verification 'below'. He who accepts revelation as teaching the unity of the many in the One, may himself verify it in his own experience. How? If the disciple is what is called not fit to receive truth in this 'monistic' form, he will probably declare it to be untrue and, adhering to what he thinks is true, will not further trouble himself in the matter. If he is disposed to accept the teachings of 'monistic' religion -philosophy, it is because his own spiritual and psychical nature is at a stage which leads directly (though in a longer or shorter time as may be the case) to actual 'monistic' experience. A particular form of 'spiritual' knowledge like a particular psychic power can be developed only in him who has the capacity for it. To such an one asking, with desire for the fruit, how he may gather it, the Guru says: Follow the path of those who have achieved (Siddha) and you will gain what they gained. This is the 'Path of the Great' who are those whom we esteem to be such. We esteem them because they have achieved that which we believe to be both worthy and possible. If a would- be disciple refuses to follow the method (Sadhana) he cannot complain that he has not had its result. Though reason by itself cannot establish more than a probability, yet when the super- sensual truth has been learnt by Veda, it may be shown to be conformable to reason. And this must be so, for all realities are of one piece. Reason is a limited manifestation of the same Sha kti, who is fully known in ecstasy (Samadhi) which transcends all reasoning. What, therefore, is irrational can never be spiritually true. With the aid of the light of Revelation the path is made clear, and all that is seen tells of the Unseen. Facts of daily life give auxiliary proof. So many miss the truth which lies under their eyes, because to find it they look away or upwards to some fancied 'Heaven'. The sophisticated mind fears the obvious. "It is here; it is here," the Shakta and others say. For he and every other being is a microcosm, and so the Vishvasara Tantra says: "What is here, is elsewhere. What is not here, is nowhere." The unseen is the seen, which is not some alien disguise behind which it lurks. Experience of the seen is the experience of the unseen in time and space. The life of the individual is an expression of the same laws which govern the universe. Thus the Hindu knows, from his own daily rest, that the Power which projects the universe rests. His dreamless slumber when only Bliss is known tells him, in some fashion, of the causal state of universal rest. From the mode of his 29 awakening and other psychological processes he divines the nature of creative thinking. To the Shakta the thrill of union with his Shakti is a faint reflection of the infinite Shiva -Shakti Bliss in and with which all universes are born. All matter is a relatively stable form of Energy. It lasts awhile and disappears into Energy. The universe is maintained awhile. This is Shakti as Vaishnavi, the Maintainer. At every moment creation, as rejuvenascent molecular activity, is going on as the Shakti Brahmani. At every moment there is molecular death and loosening of the forms, the work of Rudrani Shakti. Creation did not take place only at some past time, nor is dissolu tion only in the future. At every moment of time there is both. As it is now and before us here, so it was 'in the beginning'. In short the world is real. It is a true experience. Observation and reason are here the guide. Even Veda is no authority in matt ers falling within sense- knowledge. If Veda were to contradict such knowledge, it would, as Shamkara says, be in this respect no Veda at all. The Hindu is not troubled by 'biblical science'. Here and now the existence of the many is established for the sen se-experiencer. But there is another and Full Experience which also may be had here and now and is in any case also a fact, -- that is, when the Self 'stands out' (ekstasis ) from mind and body and sense -experience. This Full Experience is attained in ecstasy (Samadhi). Both experiences may be had by the same experiencer. It is thus the same One who became many. "He said: May I be many," as Veda tells. The 'will to be many' is Power or Shakti which operates as Maya. In the preceding portion of this paper it was pointed out that the Power whereby the One gives effect to Its Will to be Many is Maya Shakti. What are called the 36 Tattvas (accepted by both Shaktas and Shaivas) are the stages of evolution of the One into the Many as mind and matter. Again with what warrant is this affirmed? The secondary proof is the Word of Shiva and Shakti. Revealers of the Tantra- shastra, as such Word is expounded in the teachings of the Masters (Acaryas) in the Agama. Corroboration of their teaching may be had by observation of psychological stages in normal life and reasoning thereon. These psychological states again are the individual representation of the collective cosmic processes. 30 "As here, so elsewhere." Primary evidence is actual experience of the surrounding and supreme states. Man does not leap at one bound from ordinary finite sense -experience to the Full Experience. By stages he advances thereto, and by stages he retraces his steps to the world, unless the fullness of experience has been such as to burn up in the fire of Self - knowledge the seed of desire which is the germ of the world. Man's consciousness has no fixed boundary. On the contrary, it is at root the Infinite Consciousness, which appears in the form of a contraction (Shamkoca), due to limitation as Shakti in the form of mind and matter. This contraction may be greater or less. As it is gradually loosened, consciousness expands by degrees until, all bonds being gone, it becomes one with the Full Consciousness or Purna. Thus there are, according to common teaching, seven ascending light planes of experience, called Lokas, that is 'what are seen' ( lokyante ) or experienced; and seven dark descending planes, or Talas, that is 'places'. It will be observed that one name is given from the subjective and the other from the objective standpoint. The center of these planes is the 'Earth -plane' (Bhurloka). This is not the same as experience on earth, for every experience, including the highest and lowest, can be had here. The planes are not like geological strata, though necessity may picture them thus. The Earth -plane is the normal experience. The ascending planes are states of super-normal, and the descending planes of sub-normal experience. The highest of the planes is the Truth -plane (Satya - loka). Beyond this is the Supreme Experience, which is above all planes, which is Light itself, and the love of Shiva and Shakti, the 'Heart of the Supreme Lord' ( Hridayam parameshituh). The lowest Tala on the dark side is described in the Puranas with wonderful symbolic imagery as a Place of Darkness where monster serpents, crowned with dim light, live in perpetual anger. Below this is the Shakti of the Lord called Tamomayi Shakti -- that is, the Veiling Power of Being in all its infinite intensity. What then is the Reality -- Whole or Purna? It is certainly not a bare abstraction of intellect, for the intellect is only a fractional Power or Shakti in it. Such an abstraction has no worth for man. In the Supreme Reality, which is the Whole, there is everything which is of worth to men , and which proceeds from it. In fact, as a Kashmir Scripture says: "The 'without' appears without only because it is within." Unworthy also proceeds from it, not in the 31 sense that it is there as unworthy, but because the experience of duality, to which ev il is attached, arises in the Blissful Whole. The Full is not merely the collectively (Samashti) of all which exists, for it is both immanent in and transcends the universe. It is a commonplace that it is unknowable except to Itself. Shiva in the Yoginihri daya Tantra, says: "Who knows the heart of a woman? Only Shiva knows the Heart of Yogini (the Supreme Shakti)." For this reason the Buddhist Tantrik schools call it Shunya or the Void. This is not 'nothing' but nothing known to mind and senses. Both Shaktas and some Vaishnavas use the term Shunya, and no one suspects them of being 'Nihilists'. Relatively, however, the One is said to be Being (Sat), Bliss (Ananda) and Cit -- an untranslatable term which has been most accurately defined as the Changeless Principle of all changing experience, a Principle of which sensation, perception, conception, self- consciousness, feeling, memory, will, and all other psychic states are limited modes. It is not therefore Consciousness or Feeling as we understand these words, for these are directed and limited. It is the infinite root of which they are the finite flower. But Consciousness and possibly (according to the more ancient views) Feeling approach the most nearly to a definition, provided that we do not understand thereby Consciousness and Feeling in man's sense. We may thus (to distinguish it) call Cit, Pure Consciousness or Pure Feeling as Bliss (Ananda) knowing and enjoying its own full Reality. This, as such Pure Consciousness or Feeling, endures even when finite cen ters of Consciousness or Feeling arise in It. If (as this system assumes) there is a real causal nexus between the two, then Being, as Shiva, is also a Power, or Shakti, which is the source of all Becoming. The fully Real, therefore, has two aspects: one c alled Shiva, the static aspect of Consciousness, and the other called Shakti, the kinetic aspect of the same. For this reason Kali Shakti, dark as a thundercloud, is represented standing and moving on the white inert body of Shiva. He is white as Illumination (Prakasha). He is inert, for Pure Consciousness is without action and at rest. It is She, His Power, who moves. Dark is She here because, as Kali, She dissolves all in darkness, that is vacuity of existence, which is the Light of Being Itself. Again She is Creatrix. Five corpse- like Shivas form the support of Her throne, set in the wish -granting groves of the Isle of Gems (Manidvipa), the golden sands of 32 which are laved by the still waters of the Ocean of Nectar (Amrita), which is Immortality. In both cases we have a pictorial presentment in theological form of the scientific doctrine that to every form of activity there is a static background. But until there is in fact Change, Shakti is merely the Potency of Becoming in Being and, as such, is wholly one with it. The Power (Shakti) and the possessor of Power (Shaktiman) are one. As therefore He is Being -Bliss - Consciousness, so is She. She is also the Full (Purna), which is no mere abstraction from its evolved manifestations. On the contrary, of Her the Mahakali Stotra says: "Though without feet, Thou movest more quickly than air. Though without ears, Thou dost hear. Though without nostrils, Thou dost smell. Though without eyes, Thou dost see. Though without tongue, Thou dost taste all tastes." Those who talk of the 'bloodless abstractions' of Vedanta, have not understood it. The ground of Man's Being is the Supreme 'I' (Purnosham) which, though in Itself beyond finite personality, is yet ever finitely personalizing as the beings of the universe. "Sa'ham," -- "She I am." This is the Supreme Shakti, the ultimate object of the Shaktas' adoration, though worshipped in several forms, some gentle, some formidable. But Potency is actualized as the universe, and this also is Shakti, for the effect is the cause modified. Monistic Vedanta teaches that God is the material cause of the world. The statement that the Supreme Shakti also exists as the Forms evolved from It, may seem to conflict with the doctrine that Power is ultimately one with Shiva who is changeless Being. Shamkara answers that the existence of a causal nexus is Maya, and that there is (from the transcendental standpoint) only a seeming cause and seeming modification or effect. The Shakta, who from his world-standpoint posits the reality of God as the Ca use of the universe, replies that, while it is true that the effect (as effect) is the cause modified, the cause (as cause) remains what it was and is and will be. Creative evolution of the universe thus differs from the evolution in it. In the latter case the material cause when producing an effect ceases to be what it was. Thus milk turned into curd ceases to be milk. But the simile given of the other evolutionary process is that of 'Light from Light'. There is a similarity between the 'conventional' 33 stan dpoint of Shamkara and the explanation of the Shakta; the difference being that, while to the former the effect is (from the transcendental standpoint) 'unreal,' it is from the Shakta's immanent standpoint 'real'. It will have been observed that cosmic evo lution is in the nature of a polarization in Being into static and kinetic aspects. This is symbolized in the Shakta Tantras by their comparison of Shiva -Shakti to a grain of gram (Canaka). This has two seeds which are so close together as to seem one, and which are surrounded by a single sheath. The seeds are Shiva and Shakti and the sheath is Maya. When the sheath is unpeeled, that is when Maya Shakti operates, the two seeds come apart. The sheath unrolls when the seeds are ready to germinate, that is when in the dreamless slumber (Sushupti) of the World- Consciousness the remembrance of past enjoyment in Form gives rise to that divine creative 'thinking' of 'imagining' (Srishtikalpana) which is 'creation'. As the universe in dissolution sinks into a Memory which is lost, so it is born again from the germ of recalled Memory or Shakti. Why? Such a question may be answered when we are dealing with facts in the whole; but the latter itself is uncaused, and what is caused is not the whole. Manifestation is of the nature of Being -Power, just as it is Its nature to return to Itself after the actualization of Power. To the devotee who speaks in theological language, "It is His Will". As the Yoginihridaya says: "He painted the World -Picture on Himself with the Brush which is His Will and was pleased therewith." Again the World is called a Prapaca, that is an extension of the five forms of sensible matter (Bhuta.) Where does it go at dissolution? It collapses into a Point (Bindu). We may regard it as a metaphysical point which is the complete 'subjectification' of the divine or full 'I' (Purnahanta), or objectively as a mathematical point without magnitude. Round that Point is coiled a mathematical Line which, being in touch with every part of the surface of the Point, makes one Point with it. What then is meant by these symbols of the Point and Line? It is said that the Supreme Shiva sees Himself in and as His own Power or Shakti. He is the 'White Point' or 'Moon' (Candra), which is Illumination and in the completed process, the 'I' (Aham), side of experience, She is the 'Red Point'. Both colors are seen in the microcosmic generation of the child. Red too is the color of Desire. She is 34 'Fire' which is the object of experience or 'This' (Idam), the objective side of expe rience. The 'This' here is nothing but a mass of Shiva's own illuminating rays. These are reflected in Himself as Shakti, who, in the Kamakalavilasa, is called the 'Pure Mirror' of Shiva. The Self sees the Self, the rays being thrown back on their source. The 'This' is the germ of what we call 'Otherness,' but here the 'Other' is and is known as the Self. The relation and fusion of these two Points, White and Red, is called the Mixed Point or 'Sun'. These are the three Supreme Lights. A = Shiva, Ha = Shakti, which united spell 'Aham' or 'I'. This 'Sun' is thus the state of full 'I- ness' (Purnaham -bhava). This is the Point into which the World at dissolution lapses, and from which in due time it comes forth again. In the latter case it is the Lord -Consciousne ss as the Supreme 'I' and Power about to create. For this reason Bindu is called a condensed or massive form of Shakti. It is the tense state of Power immediately prior to its first actualization. That form of Shakti, again by which the actualization takes place is Maya; and this is the Line round the Point. As coiled round the Point, it is the Supreme Serpent - Power (Mahakundalini) encircling the Shiva -Linga. From out of this Power comes the whisper to enjoy, in worlds of form, as the memory of past univers es arises therein. Shakti then 'sees'. Shakti opens Her eyes as She reawakens from the Cosmic Sleep (Nimesha), which is dissolution. The Line is at first coiled and one with the Point, for Power is then at rest. Creation is movement, an uncoiling of Maya -Shakti. Hence is the world called Jagat, which means 'what moves'. The nature of this Power is circular or spiraline; hence the roundness and 'curvature' of things of which we now hear. Nothing moves in a really straight line. Hence again the universe is al so called a spheroid (Brahmanda). The gross worlds are circular universal movements in space, in which, is the Ether (Akasha), Consciousness, as the Full (Purna), is never dichotomized, but the finite centers which arise in it, are so. The Point, or Bindu, then divides into three, in various ways, the chief of which is Knower, Knowing and Known, which constitute the duality of the world- experience by Mind of Matter. Unsurpassed for its profound analysis is the account of the thirty -six Tattvas or stages of Cosmic Evolution (accepted by both Shaivas and Shaktas) given by the Northern Shaiva School of the Agama, which flourished after the date which Western Orientalists assign to Shamkaracarya, and which was 35 therefore in a position to criticize him. According to this account (which I greatly condense) Subject and Object in Pure Being are in indistinguishable union as the Supreme Shiva -Shakti. We have then to see how this unity is broken up into Subject and Object. This does not take place all at once. There is an intermediate stage of transition, in which there is a Subject and Object, but both are part of the Self, which knows its Object to be Itself. In man's experience they are wholly separate, the Object then being perceived as outside the Self, the plurality of Selves being mutually exclusive centers. The process and the result are the work of Shakti, whose special function is to negate, that is to negate Her own fullness, so that it becomes the finite center contracted as a limited Subject perceiving a limited Object, both being aspects of the one Divine Self. The first stage after the Supreme is that in which Shakti withdraws Herself and leaves, as it were, standing by itself the 'I' side (Aham) of what, when completed, is the 'I- This' (Aham -Idam) experience. But simultaneously (for the 'I' must have its content) She presents Herself as a 'This' (Idam), at first faintly and then clearly; the emphasis being at first laid on the 'I' and then on the 'This'. This last is the stage of Ishvara Tattva or Bindu, as the Mantra Shastra, dealing with the causal state of 'Sound' (Shabda), calls it. In the second and third stage, as also in the fourth which follows, though there is an 'I' and a 'This' and therefore not the indistinguishable 'I - This' of the Supreme Experience, yet both the 'I' and the 'This' are experienced as aspects of and in the Self. Then as a preliminary to the division which follows, the emphasis is laid equally on the 'I' and the 'This'. At this point Maya -Shakti intervenes and completely separates the two. For that Power is the Sense of Difference (Bheda -Buddhi). We have now the finite centers mutually exclusive one of the other, each seeing, to the extent of its power, finite centers as objects outside of and different from the self. Consciousness thus becomes contracted. In lieu of being All- knowing, it is a 'Little Knower,' and in lieu of being Almighty Power, it is a 'Little Doer'. Maya is not rightly rendered 'Illusion'. In the first place it is conceived as a real Power of Being and as such is one with the Full Reality. The Full, free of all illusion, experiences the engendering of the finite centers and the centers themselves in and as Its own changeless partless Self. It is these individual 36 centers produced from out of Power as Maya- Shakti wh ich are 'Ignorance' or Avidya Shakti. They are so called because they are not a full experience but an experience of parts in the Whole. In another sense this 'Ignorance' is a knowing, namely, that which a finite center alone has. Even God cannot have man's mode of knowledge and enjoyment without becoming man. He by and as His Power does become man and yet remains Himself. Man is Power in limited form as Avidya. The Lord is unlimited Power as Maya. In whom then is the 'Illusion'? Not (all will admit) in the Lord. Nor is it in fact (whatever be the talk of it) in man whose nature it is to regard his limitations as real. For these limitations are he. His experience as man provides no standard whereby it may be adjudged 'Illusion'. The latter is non- conformity with normal experience, and here it is the normal experience which is said to be Illusion. If there were no Avidya Shakti, there would be no man. In short the knowing which is Full Experience is one thing and the knowing of the limited experience is anothe r. The latter is Avidya and the Power to produce it is Maya. Both are eternal aspects of Reality, though the forms which are Avidya Shakti come and go. If we seek to relate the one to the other, where and by whom is the comparison made? Not in and by the Full Experience beyond all relations, where no questions are asked or answers given, but on the standing ground of present finite experience where all subjectivity and objectivity are real and where therefore, ipso facto, Illusion is negative. The two aspects are never present at one and the same time for comparison. The universe is real as a limited thing to the limited experiencer who is himself a part of it. But the experience of the Supreme Person (Parahanta) is necessarily different, otherwise it would not be the Supreme Experience at all. A God who experiences just as man does is no God but man. There is, therefore, no experiencer to whom the World is Illusion. He who sees the world in the normal waking state, loses it in that form in ecstasy (Samadhi). It may, however, (with the Shakta) be said that the Supreme Experience is entire and unchanging and thus the fully Real; and that, though the limited experience is also real in its own way, it is yet an experience of change in its twin aspects of Time and Space. Maya, therefore, is the Power which engenders in Itself finite centers in Time and Space, and Avidya is such experience in fact of the finite experiencer in Time and Space. So much is 37 this so, that the Time- theorists (Kalavadins) give the name 'Sup reme Time' (Parakala) to the Creator, who is also called by the Shakta 'Great Time' (Mahakala). So in the Bhairavayamala it is said that Mahadeva (Shiva) distributes His Rays of Power in the form of the Year. That is, Timeless Experience appears in the finite centers as broken up into periods of time. This is the 'Lesser Time' which comes in with the Sun, Moon, Six Seasons and so forth, which are all Shaktis of the Lord, the existence and movements of which give rise, in the limited observer, to the notion of Time and Space. That observer is essentially the Self or 'Spirit' vehicled by Its own Shakti in the form of Mind and Matter. These two are Its Body, the first subtle, the second gross. Both have a common origin, namely the Supreme Power. Each is a real mode of It. One therefore does not produce the other. Both are produced by, and exist as modes of, the same Cause. There is a necessary parallelism between the Perceived and the Perceiver and, because Mind and Matter are at base one as modes of the same Po wer, one can act on the other. Mind is the subjective and Matter the objective aspect of the one polarized Consciousness. With the unimportant exception of the Lokayatas, the Hindus have never shared what Sir William Jones called "the vulgar notions of mat ter," according to which it is regarded as some gross, lasting and independently existing outside thing. Modern Western Science now also dematerializes the ponderable matter of the universe into Energy. This and the forms in which it is displayed is the Power of the Self to appear as the object of a limited center of knowing. Mind again is the Self as 'Consciousness,' limited by Its Power into such a center. By such contraction there is in lieu of an 'All -knower' a 'Little Knower,' and in lieu of an 'All -doer' a 'Little Doer'. Those, however, to whom this way of looking at things is naturally difficult, may regard the Supreme Shakti from the objective aspect as holding within Itself the germ of all Matter which develops in It. Both Mind and Matter exist in every particle of the universe though not explicitly displayed in the same way in all. There is no corner of the universe which contains anything either potential or actual, which is not to be found 38 elsewhere. Some aspect of Matter or Mind, however, may be more or less explicit or implicit. So in the Mantra Scripture it is said that each letter of the alphabet contains all sound. The sound of a particular letter is explicit and the other sounds are implicit. The sound of a particular letter is a particular physical audible mode of the Shabdabrahman (Brahman as the cause of Shabda or 'Sound'), in Whom is all sound, actual and potential. Pure Consciousness is fully involved in the densest forms of gross or organic matter, which is not 'inert' but full of 'mov ement' (Spanda), for there is naught but the Supreme Consciousness which does not move. Immanent in Mind and Matter is Consciousness (Cit Shakti). Inorganic matter is thus Consciousness in full subjection to the Power of Ignorance. It is thus Consciousness identifying Itself with such inorganic matter. Matter in all its five forms of density is present in everything. Mind too is there, though, owing to its imprisonment in Matter, undeveloped. "The Brahman sleeps in the stone." Life too which displays itself with the organization of matter is potentially contained in Being, of which such inorganic matter is, to some, a 'lifeless' form. From this deeply involved state Shakti enters into higher and higher organized forms. Prana or vitality is a Shakti -- the Ma ntra form of which is 'Hangsah'. With the Mantra 'Hang' the breath goes forth, with 'Sah' it is indrawn, a fact which anyone can verify for himself if he will attempt to inspire after putting the mouth in the way it is placed in order to pronounce the lett er 'H'. The Rhythm of Creative Power as of breathing (a microcosmic form of it) is two -fold -- an outgoing (Pravritti) or involution as universe, and an evolution or return (Nivritti) of Supreme Power to Itself. Shakti as the Great Heart of the universe pu lses forth and back in cosmic systole and diastole. So much for the nature of the Power as an evolutionary process. It is displayed in the Forms evolved as an increasing exhibition of Consciousness from apparently, though not truly, unconscious matter, through the slight consciousness of the plant and the greater consciousness of the animal, to the more highly developed consciousness of man, who in the completeness of his own individual evolution becomes freed of Mind and Matter which constitute the Form, a nd thus is one with the Supreme Consciousness Itself. There are no gaps in the process. In existence there are no rigid partitions. The vital phenomena, to which we give the name of 'Life', appear, it is true, with organized Matter. But Life is not then 39 something entirely new which had no sort of being before. For such Life is only a limited mode of Being, which itself is no dead thing but the Infinite Life of all lives. To the Hindu the difference between plant and animal, and between the latter and man, h as always been one rather of degree than of kind. There is one Consciousness and one Mind and Matter throughout, though the Matter is organized and the Mind is exhibited in various ways. The one Shakti is the Self as the 'String' (Sutratma) on which all the Beads of Form are strung, and these Beads again are limited modes of Herself as the 'String'. Evolution is thus the loosening of the bonds in which Consciousness (itself unchanging) is held, such loosening being increased and Consciousness more fully exhibited as the process is carried forward. At length is gained that human state which the Scripture calls so 'hard to get'. For it has been won by much striving and through suffering. Therefore the Scripture warns man not to neglect the opportunities of a s tage which is the necessary preliminary to the attainment of the Full Experience. Man by his striving must seek to become fully humane, and then to pass yet further into the Divine Fullness which is beyond all Forms with their good and evil. This is the wo rk of Sadhana (a word which comes from the root sadh 'to exert'), which is discipline, ritual, worship and Yoga. It is that by which any result (Siddhi) is attained. The Tantrik Shastra is a Sadhana Scripture. As Powers are many, so may be Sadhana, which is of various kinds and degrees. Man may seek to realize the Mother- Power in Her limited forms as health, strength, long life, wealth, magic powers and so forth. The so- called 'New Thought' and kindred literature which bids men to think Power and thus to become power, is very ancient, going back at least to the Upanishad which says: "What a man thinks, that he becomes." Those who have need for the Infinite Mother as She is, not in any Form but in Herself, seek directly the Adorable One in whom is the essence of all which is of finite worth. The gist of a high form of Kulasadhana is given in the following verse from the Hymn of Mahakalarudra Himself to Mahakali: "I torture not my body with penances." (Is not his body Hers? If man be God in human guise why torm ent him?) "I lame not my feet in pilgrimage to Holy Places." (The body is the Devalaya or Temple of Divinity. Therein are all the spiritual Tirthas or Holy Places. Why then trouble to go elsewhere?) "I spend 40 not my time in reading the Vedas." (The Vedas, which he has already studied, are the record of the standard spiritual experience of others. He seeks now to have that experience himself directly. What is the use of merely reading about it? The Kularnava Tantra enjoins the mastering of the essence of all Scriptures which should then be put aside, just as he who has threshed out the grain throws away the husks and straw.) "But I strive to attain Thy two sacred Feet." 41 CHAPTER THREE . WHAT ARE THE TANTRAS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE ? A VERY common expression in English writings is "The Tantra"; but its use is often due to a misconception and leads to others. For what does Tantra mean? The word denotes injunction (Vidhi), regulation (Niyama), Shastra generally or treatise. Thus Shamkara calls the Samkhya a Tantra. A secular writing may be called Tantra. For the following note I am indebted to Professor Surendranath Das Gupta. "The word 'Tantra' has been derived in the Kashika -Vritti (7-2- 9) from the root 'Tan' 'to spread' by the Aunadika rule Sarvadhatubhyah tran, with the addition of the suffix 'tran'. Vacaspati, Anandagiri, and Govindananda, however, derive the word from the root 'Tatri' of 'Tantri' in the sense of Vyutpadana, origination or knowledge. In Ganapatha, however, 'Tantri' has the same meaning as 'Tan' 'to spread' and it is probable that the former root is a modification of the latter. The meaning Vyutpadana is also probably derived by narrowing the general sense of Vistara which is the meaning of the root 'Tan'." According to the derivation of 'Tantra' from Tan, to spread, Tantra is that (Scripture) by which knowledge (Jana) is spread (Tanyate, vistaryate janam anena, iti Tantram). The Suffix Tra is from the root 'to save'. That knowledge is spread which saves. What is that but religious knowledge? Therefore, as here and generally used, Tantra means a particular kind of religious scripture. The Kamika Agama of the Shaiva Siddhanta (Tantrantara Patala) says: Tanoti vipulan arthan tattvamantra-samanvitan Trananca kurute yasmat tantram ityabhidhyate. (It is called Tantra because it promulgates great knowledge concerning Tattva and Mantra and because it saves.) It is a common misconception that Tantra is the name only of the Scripture of the Shaktas or worship pers of Shakti. This is not so. There are Tantras of 42 other sects of the Agama, Tantras of Shaivas, Vaishnavas and so forth. We cannot speak of "The Treatise" nor of "The Tantra" any more than we can or do speak of the Purana, the Samhita. We can speak of "the Tantras" as we do of "the Puranas". These Tantras are Shastras of what is called the Agama. In a review of one of my works it was suggested that the Agama is a class of Scriptures dealing with the worship of Saguna Ishvara which was revealed at the close of the age of the Upanishads, and introduced partly because of the falling into desuetude of the Vaidika Acara, and partly because of the increasing numbers of persons entering the Hindu fold who were not competent (Adhikari) for that Acara. I will not however deal with this historical question beyond noting the fact that the Agama is open to all persons of all castes and both sexes, and is not subject to the restrictions of the Vaidika Acara. This last term is a common one and comes from the verbal root char, which means to move or to act, the prefix 3 being probably used in the sense of restriction. Acara thus means practice, way, rule of life governing a Sadhaka, or one who does Sadhana or practice for some desired end (Siddhi). The Agamas are divided into three main groups according as the Ishtadevata worshipped is Shakti, Shiva or Vishnu. The first is the Shakta Agama, the second the Shaivagama, and the third the Vaishnava Agama or Pancaratra. This last is the Scripture to which the Shrimad Bhagavata (X. 90. 34) refers as Sattvata Tantra in the lines, Tenoktang sattvatang tantram yaj jnattva muktibhag bhavet Yatra strishudradasanang sangskaro vaisnavah smritah. Some Agamas are called Vaidik (Vaidika Agama) and some non- Vaidik (Avaidika). The Kurma Purana (XVI.1) mentions as belonging to the latter, Kapala, Lakula, Vama, Bhairava, Purva, Pashcima, Pacaratra, Pashupata and many others. Pashupata again is said to be both Vaidika and Avaidika such as Lakula. Kurma Purana (Uttarabhaga, Ch. 38) says "By Me w as first composed, for the attainment of Liberation, Shrauta (Vaidika) Pashupata which is excellent, subtle, and secret, the essence of Veda (Vedasara). The learned devoted to Veda should meditate on Shiva Pashupati. This is Pashupata Yoga to be practiced by seekers of Liberation. By Me also have 43 been spoken Pashupata, Soma, Lakula and Bhairava opposed to Veda (Vedavadaviruddhani). These should not be practiced. They are outside Veda." Sanatkumara Samhita says: Shrautashrautavibhedena dvividhastu shivagamah Shrutisaramapah shrautah sah punar dvividho matah Svatantra itarash ceti svatantro dashadha pura Tatha' shtadashadha pashcat siddhanta iti giyate Itarah shrutisaras tu shatakoti -pravistarah. (See also Vayu Samhita, Ch. I. 28 (Shaivagama is of two kinds, Shrauta and Ashrauta. Shrauta is Shrautisaramaya and of two kinds, Svatantra and Itara. Svatantra is first of ten kinds and then Siddhanta of eighteen kinds. (This is the Shaivasiddhanta Agama with 28 Mula Agamas and 207 Upagamas. It is Shuddhadvaita becaus e in it there is no Visheshana). Itara is Shrutisara with numerous varieties. Into this mass of sects I do not attempt here to enter, except in a general way. My subject is the doctrine and ritual of the Shaktas. There are said to be Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Shakta Upanishads favoring one or another doctrine. We must, however, in all cases distinguish between what a School says of itself and what others say of it. So far as I am aware all Agamas, whatever be their origin, claim now to be based on Shruti, though of course as different interpretations are put on Shruti, those who accept one interpretation are apt to speak of differing Schools as heretical. These main divisions again have subdivisions. Thus there are several Schools of Shaivas; and there are Shaktas with their nine Amnayas, four Sampradayas (Kerala, Kashmira, Gauda and Vilasa) each divided into two- fold division of inner and outer worship (Sammohana Tantra, Ch. V). There is for instance the Northern Shaiva School called Trika of Kashmir, in which country at one time Tantra Shastras were very prevalent. There is again the Southern Shaiva School called Shaivasiddhanta. The Shaktas who are to be found throughout India are largely prevalent in Bengal and Assam. The Shaktas are rather allied with 44 the Northern Advaita Shaiva than with the others, though in them also there is worship of Shakti. Shiva and Shakti are one and he who worships one necessarily worships the other. But whereas the Shaiva predominantly worships Shiva, the Shakta predominantly w orships the Shakti side of the Ardhanarishvara Murti, which is both Shiva and Shakti. Mahavishnu and Sadashiva are also one. As the Sammohana Tantra (Ch. VIII) says, "Without Prakriti the Samsara (World) cannot be. Without Purusha true knowledge cannot be attained. Therefore should both be worshipped; with Mahakali, Mahakala." Some, it says, speak of Shiva, some of Shakti, some of Narayana (Vishnu). But the supreme Narayana (Adinarayana) is supreme Shiva (Parashambhu), the Nirguna Brahman, pure as crystal. The two aspects of the Supreme reflect the one in the other. The Reflection (Pratibimba) is Maya whence the World -Lords (Lokapalas) and the Worlds are born. The Adya Lalita (Mahashakti) at one time assumed the male form of Krishna and at another that of Rama (Ch. IX). For all aspects are in Mahakali, one with Bhairava Mahakala, who is Mahavishnu. "It is only a fool" it says, "who sees any difference between Rama and Shiva." This is of course to look at the matter from the high Vedantik standpoint of Shakta doctrine. Nevertheless separate worship and rituals exist among the Sects. A common philosophical basis of the Shaivas and those of Shaktas, who are Agamavadins, is the doctrine of the Thirty -six Tantras. These are referred to in the Tantra (Ch. VII) so well known in Bengal which is called Kularnava. They are also referred to in other Shakta works and their commentaries such as the Anandalahari. The Sharada Tilaka, a great authority amongst the Bengal Shaktas, is the work of Lakshmanacarya, an author of the Kashmir Shaiva school. The latter school as also the Shaktas are Advaitins. The Shaiva Siddhanta and Pancaratra are Shuddhadvaita and Vishishtadvaita respectively. There is also a great body of Buddhist Tantras of differing schools. (I have published one -- the Shricakra Sambhara Tantra as Vol. VII of Tantrik Texts.) Now all these schools have Tantras of their own. The original connection of the Shaiva schools is said to be shown amongst other things, by the fact that some Tantras arc common, such as Mrige ndra and Matanga Tantras. It has been asserted that the Shakta school is not historically connected with the Shaivas. No grounds were given for this statement. Whatever be the historical origins of the former, the two appear 45 to be in several respects allied at present, as any one who knows Shakta literature may find out for himself. In fact Shakta literature is in parts unintelligible to one unacquainted with some features of what is called the Shaiva Darshana. How otherwise is it that the 36 Tattvas and Shadadhva (see my Garland of Letters) are common to both? The Shaktas have again been divided into three groups. Thus the esteemed Pandit R. Ananta Shastri in the Introduction to his edition of Anandalahari speaks of the Kaula or Shakta Shastras with sixty -four Tantras; the Mishra with eight Tantras; and the Samaya group which are said to be the most important of the Shakta Agamas, of which five are mentioned. This classification purports to be based on the nature of the object pursued, according as it belong s to one or the other of the Purusharthas. Pancaratra literature is very considerable, one hundred and eight works being mentioned by the same Pandit in Vol. XIII, pp. 357- 363 of The Theosophist. I would refer the reader also to the very valuable edition of the Ahirbudhnya Samhita by my friend Dr. Otto Schrader, with an Introduction by the learned Doctor on the Pancaratra system where many Vaishnava Tantras and Samhitas are cited. The Trika school has many Tantras of which the leading one is Malinivijaya. The Svacchanda Tantra comes next. Jagadisha Chandra Chattopadhyaya Vidyavaridhi has written with learning and lucidity on this school. The Shaivasiddhanta has twenty -eight leading Tantras and a large number of Upagamas, such as Taraka Tantra, Vama Tantra and others, which will be found enumerated in Schomerus' Der Shaiva -siddhanta, Nallasvami Pillai's Studies in Shaivasiddhanta (p. 294), and Shivajanasiddihiyar (p. 211). The Sammohana Tantra (Ch. VI) mentions 64 Tantras, 327 Upatantras, as also Yamalas, Damaras, Samhitas and other Scriptures of the Shaiva class; 75 Tantras, 205 Upatantras, also Yamalas, Damaras, Samhitas of the Vaishnava class; numerous Tantras and other scriptures of the Ganapatya and Saura classes, and a number of Puranas, Upapuranas and other variously named Scriptures of the Bauddha class. It then (Ch. VII) mentions over 500 Tantras and nearly the same number of Upatantras, of some 22 Agamas, Cinagama (see Ch. VI post), Buddhagama, Jaina, Pashupata, Kapalika, Pancaratra, Bhairava and othe rs. There is thus a vast mass of Tantras in the Agamas belonging to differing schools of doctrine and practice, all of which must be studied before we can speak 46 with certainty as to what the mighty Agama as a whole is. In this book I briefly deal with one section of it only. Nevertheless when these Agamas have been examined and are better known, it will, I think, be found that they are largely variant aspects of the same general ideas and practices. As instances of general ideas I may cite the following: the conception of Deity as a supreme Personality (Parahanta) and of the double aspect of God in one of which He really is or becomes the Universe; a true emanation from Him in His creative aspect; successive emanations (Abhasa, Vyuha) as of "fire from fire" from subtle to gross; doctrine of Shakti; pure and impure creation; the denial of unconscious Maya, such as Shamkara teaches; doctrine of Maya Kosha and the Kacukas (the six Shaiva Kacukas being, as Dr. Schrader says, represented by the possibly earlier classification in the Pancaratra of the three Samkocas); the carrying of the origin of things up and beyond Purusha- Prakriti; acceptance at a later stage of Purusha -Prakriti, the Samkhyan Gunas, and evolution of Tattvas as applied to the doctrine of Shakti ; affirmance of the reality of the Universe; emphasis on devotion (Bhakti); provision for all castes and both sexes. Instances of common practice are for example Mantra, Bija, Yantra, Mudra, Nyasa, Bhutashuddhi, Kundaliyoga, construction and consecration of temples and images (Kriya), religious and social observances (Carya) such as Ahnika, Varnashramadharma, Utsava; and practical magic (Maya- yoga). Where there is Mantra, Yantra, Nyasa, Diksha, Guru and the like, there is Tantra Shastra. In fact one of the names of the latter is Mantra Shastra. With these similarities there are certain variations of doctrines and practice between the schools. Necessarily also, even on points of common similarity, there is some variance in terminology and exposition which is unessential. Thus when looking at their broad features, it is of no account whether with the Pancaratra we speak of Lakshmi, Shakti, Vyuha, Samkoca; or whether in terms of other schools we speak of Tripurasundari and Mahakali, Tattvas and Kacukas. Again there are some differences in ritual which are not of great moment except in one and that a notable instance. I refer to the well - known division of worshippers into Dakshinacara and Vamacara. The secret Sadhana of some of the latter (which I may here say is not usually understood) has acquired such notoriety that to most the term "The Tantra" 47 connotes this particular worship and its abuses and nothing else. I may here also observe that it is a mistake to suppose that aberrations in doctrine and practice are peculiar to India. A Missionary wrote to me some years ago that this country was "a demon-haunted land". There are de mons here, but they are not the only inhabitants; and tendencies to be found here have existed elsewhere. The West has produced many a doctrine and practice of an antinomian character. Some of the most extreme are to be found there. Moreover, though this does not seem to be recognized, it is nevertheless the fact that these Kaula rites are philosophically based on monistic doctrine. Now it is this Kaula doctrine and practice, limited probably, as being a secret doctrine, at all times to comparatively few, which has come to be known as "The Tantra". Nothing is more incorrect. This is but one division of worshippers who again are but one section of the numerous followers of the Agamas, Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava. Though there are certain common features which may be called Tantrik yet one cannot speak of "The Tantra" as though it were one entirely homogeneous doctrine and practice. Still less can we identify it with the particular practices and theories of one division of worshippers only. Further the Tantras are concerned with Science, Law, Medicine and a variety of subjects other than spiritual doctrine or worship. Thus Indian chemistry and medicine are largely indebted to the Tantrikas. According to a common notion the word "Tantra" is (to use the language of a well- known work) "restricted to the necromantic books of the latter Shivaic or Shakti mysticism" (Waddell's Buddhism of Tibet, p, 164). As charity covers many sins, so "mystic" and "mysticism" are words which cover much ignorance. "Necromancy" too looms unnecessarily large in writers of this school. It is, however, the fact that Western authors generally so understand the term "Tantra". They are, however, in error in so doing as previously explained. Here I shortly deal with the significance of the Tan tra Shastra, which is of course also misunderstood, being generally spoken of as a jumble of "black magic," and "erotic mysticism," cemented together by a ritual which is "meaningless mummery". A large number of persons who talk in this strain have never h ad a Tantra in their hands, and such Orientalists as have read some portions of these Scriptures have not generally understood them, otherwise they would not have found them to be so "meaningless". 48 They may be bad, or they may be good, but they have a meaning. Men are not such fools as to believe for ages in what is meaningless. The use of this term implies that their content had no meaning to them. Very likely; for to define as they do Mantra as "mystical words," Mudra as "mystical gestures" and Yantra as "mystical diagrams" does not imply knowledge. These erroneous notions as to the nature of the Agama are of course due to the mistaken identification of the whole body of the Scripture with one section of it. Further this last is only known through the abus es to which its dangerous practices as carried out by inferior persons have given rise. It is stated in the Shastra itself in which they are prescribed that the path is full of difficulty and peril and he who fails upon it goes to Hell. That there are thos e who have so failed, and others who have been guilty of evil magic, is well known. I am not in this Chapter concerned with this special ritual or magic but with the practices which govern the life of the vast mass of the Indian people to be found in the Tantras of the Agamas of the different schools which I have mentioned. A Western writer in a review of one of my books has expressed the opinion that the Tantra Shastra (I think he meant the Shakta) was, at least in its origin, alien and indeed hostile to the Veda. He said: "We are strongly of opinion that in their essence the two principles are fundamentally opposed and that the Tantra only used Vedic forms to mask its essential opposition." I will not discuss this question here. It is, however, the fact no w, as it has been for centuries past, that the Agamavadins claim to base their doctrine on Veda. The Vedanta is the final authority and basis for the doctrines set forth in the Tantras, though the latter interpret the Vedanta in various ways. The real mean ing of Vedanta is Upanishad and nothing else. Many persons, however, speak of Vedanta as though it meant the philosophy of Shamkara or whatever other philosopher they follow. This of course is incorrect. Vedanta is Shruti. Shamkara's philosophy is merely one interpretation of Shruti just as Ramanuja's is another and that of the Shaivagama or Kaulagama is a third. There is no question of competition between Vedanta as Shruti and Tantra Shastra. It is, however, the fact that each of the followers of the different schools of Agama contend that their interpretation of the Shruti texts is the true one and superior to that of other schools. As a stranger to all these sects, I am not here concerned to 49 show that one system is better than the other. Each will adopt that, which most suits him. I am only stating the facts. As the Ahirbudhnya Samhita of the Pacaratra Agama says, the aspects of God are infinite, and no philosopher can seize and duly express more than one aspect. This is perfectly true. All systems of interpretation have some merits as they have defects, that of Shamkara included. The latter by his Mayavada is able to preserve more completely than any other interpretation the changelessness and stainlessness of Brahman. It does this, however, at the cost o f certain defects, which do not exist in other schools, which have also their own peculiar merits and shortcomings. The basis and seat of authority is Shruti or experience and the Agama interprets Shruti in its own way. Thus the Shaiva - Shakta doctrines are specific solutions of the Vedantic theme which differ in several respects from that of Shamkara, though as they agree (I speak of the Northern Shaiva School) with him on the fundamental question of the unity of Jivatma and Paramatma, they are therefore Advaita. The next question is how the experience of which the Agama speaks may be gained. This is also prescribed in the Shastra in the form of peculiar Sadhanas or disciplines. In the first place there must be a healthy physical and moral life. To know a thing in its ultimate sense is to be that thing. To know Brahman is, according to Advaita, to be Brahman. One cannot realize Brahman the Pure except by being oneself pure (Shuddhacitta). But to attain and keep this state, as well as progress therein, certain specific means, practices, rituals or disciplines are necessary. The result cannot be got by mere philosophical talk about Brahman. Religion is a practical activity. Just as the body requires exercise, training and gymnastic, so does the mind. This may be of a merely intellectual or spiritual kind. The means employed are called Sadhana which comes from the root "Sadh," to exert. Sadhana is that which leads to Siddhi. Sadhana is the development of Shakti. Man is Consciousness (Atma) vehicled by Shakti in the form of mind and body. But this Shakti is at base Pure Consciousness, just as Atma is; for Atma and Shakti are one. Man is thus a vast magazine of both latent and expressed power. The object of Sadhana is to develop man's Shakti, whether for temporal or spiritual purposes. But where is Sadhana to be found P Seeing that the Vaidika Acara has fallen in practical desuetude we can find it nowhere but in the Agamas and in the Puranas which are replete with 50 Tantrik rituals. The Tantras of these Agamas therefore contain both a practical exposition of' spiritual doctrine and the means by which the truth it teaches may be realized. Their authority does not depend, as Western writers and some of their Eastern followers suppose, on the date when they were revealed bu t on the question whether Siddhi is gained thereby. This too is the proof of Ayurveda. The test of medicine is that it cures. If Siddhi is not obtained, the fact it is written "Shiva uvaca" (Shiva speaks) or the like counts for nothing. The Agama therefore is a practical exposition and application of Doctrine varying according to its different schools. The latest tendency in modern Western philosophy is to rest upon intuition, as it was formerly the tendency to glorify dialectic. Intuition has, however, to be led into higher and higher possibilities by means of Sadhana. This term means work or practice, which in its result is the gradual unfolding of the Spirit's vast latent magazine of power (Shakti), enjoyment and vision which everyone possesses in himself . The philosophy of the Agama is, as a friend and collaborator of mine, Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyo- padhyaya, very well put it, a practical philosophy, adding, that what the intellectual world wants to -day is this sort of philosophy; a philosophy which not merely argues but experiments. The form which Sadhana takes is a secondary matter. One goal may be reached by many paths. What is the path in any particular case depends on considerations of personal capacity and temperament, race and faith. For the Hindu there is the Agama which contains forms of discipline which his race has evolved and are therefore prima facie suitable for him. This is not to say that these forms are unalterable or acceptable to all. Others will adopt other forms of Sadhana suitable to them. Thus, amongst Christians, the Catholic Church prescribes a full and powerful Sadhana in its Sacraments (Samskara) and Worship (Puja, Upasana), Meditation (Dhyana), Rosary (Japa) and the like. But any system to be fruitful must experiment to gain experience,The significance of the Tantra Shastra lies in this that it claims to afford a means available to all, of whatever caste and of either sex, whereby the truths taught may be practically realized. The Tantras both in India and Tibet are the expression of principles which are of universal application. The mere statement of religious truths avails 51 not. What is necessary for all is a practical method of realization. This too the occultist needs. Further the ordinary run of mankind can neither apprehend, nor do they derive satisfaction from mere metaphysical concepts. They accept them only when presented in personal form. They care not for Shunyata, the Void, nor Saccidananda in the sense of mere Consciousness -- Being -- Bliss. They appeal to personal Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Shiva, Vishnu, Devi who will hear their prayer, and grant them aid. Next they cannot stand by themselves. They need the counsel and guidance of priest and Guru and the fortifying virtues of the sacraments. They need a definite picture of their object of worship, such as is detailed in the Dhyana of the Devatas, an image, a Yantra, a Mandala and so forth, a developed ritual and pictorial religion. This is not to say that they are wrong. These natural tendencies, however, become accentuated in course of time to a point where "superstition," mechanical devotion and lifeless formalism and other abuses are produced. There then takes place what is called a "Reform," in the direction of a more spiritual religion. This too is accentuated to the point of barrenness. Religion becomes sterile to produce practical result and ritual and pictorial religion recurs. So Buddhism, which in its origin has been represented to be a reaction against excessive and barren ritualism, could not rest with a mere statement of the noble truths and the eightfold path. Something practical was needed. The Mahayana (Thegpa Chhenpo) was produced. Nagarjuna in the second century A.D. (?) is said to have promulgated ideas to be found in the Tantras. In order to realize the desired end, use was made of all the powers of man, physical and mental. Theistic notions as also Yoga came again to the fore in the Yogacarya and other Buddhist systems. The worship of images and an elaborate ritual was introduced. The worship of the Shaktis spread. The Mantrayana and Vajrayana found acceptance with, what an English writer (The Buddhism of Tibet by L. Waddell) describes in the usual style as its "silly mummery of unmeaning jargon and gibberish," the latter being said to be "the most depraved form of Buddhist doctrine." So- called Tantrik Buddhism became thus fully developed. A Tantrik reformer in the person of Tsongkhapa arose, who codified the Tantras in his work Lam -rim Chhen- mo. The great code, the Kah- gyur, contains in one of its sections the Tantras (Rgyud) containing ritual, worship of the Divine Mothers, theology, astrology and natural 52 science, as do their Indian counterparts. These are of four classes, the Kriya, Carya, Yoga, Anuttara Tantras, the latter comprising Maha, Anu and Ati -Yoga Tantras. The Tan -ghur similarly contains many volumes of Tantras (Rgyud). Then, at length, Buddhism was driven from out of India. Brahmanism and its rituals survived and increased, until both in our day and the nearer past we see in the so -called reformed sects a movement towards what is claimed to be a more spiritual religion. Throughout the ages the same movements of action and reaction manifest. What is right here lies in the middle course. Some practical method and ritual is necessary if religion is not to be barren of result. The nature of the method and ritual will vary according to the capacity and development of men. On the other hand, the "crooked influence of time" tends to overlay the essential spiritual truths with unintelligent and dead formalism. The Tantra Shastra stands for a principle of high value though, like other things admittedly good, it is capable of, and has suffered, abuse. An important point in this connection should be noted. In Europe we see extreme puritan reaction with the result that the religious movements which embody them become one -sided and without provision for ordinary human needs. Brahmanism has ever been all -inclusive, producing a Sadhana of varying kinds, material and mental, for the different stages of sp iritual advancement and exempting from further ritual those for whom, by reason of their attainment, it is no longer necessary. 53 CHAPTER FOUR. TANTRA SHASTRA AND VEDA In writing this Chapter I have in mind the dispute which some have raised upon the question whether the Agamas, or some of them, are Vaidik or non - Vaidik. I do not here deal with the nature and schools of Tantra or Agama nor with their historical origin. Something has been said on these points in the Introductions to the English translations of Pandit Shiva Chandra Vidyarnava's Tantra- tattva. I have also dealt with this subject in the two Chapters, "What are the Tantras and their significance?" and "Shakti and Shakta". I wish to avoid repetitions, except so far as is absolutely necessary for the elucidation of the particular subject in hand. On the disputed question whether the Agamas are Vaidik or non -Vaidik I desire to point out that an answer cannot be given unless we keep apart two distinct mat ters, viz., (1) what was the origin of the Agamas and (2) what they are now. I am not here, however, dealing with the first or historical question, but with the second so far as the Shakta Agama is concerned. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that ( to take a specific example) worship of Kali and other Devis by the Shaktas indicates the existence of non- Aryan elements in their Agama. The question of real importance here, as always, is not as to what were the facts in remote past ages, but what they are now. The answer then is -- let it be as you will regarding the origin of the Shakta Agama; but at present Shakta worship is an integral part of the Hinduism and as such admits the authority of Veda, accepting, as later explained, every other belief held by the general body of the Hindu people. In a recent prosecution under Sections 292, 293 of the Indian Penal Code against an accused who had published a Tantra (but who was rightly acquitted), an Indian Deputy Magistrate who had advised the prosecution, and who claimed to be an orthodox Hindu, stated (I am informed) in the witness box, that he could not define what the Tantra Shastra was, or state whether it was a Hindu scripture of the Kali age, or whether a well -known particular Shastra shown to him was one of the Tantras. Such ignorance is 54 typical of many at the present time and is a legacy from a vanishing age. How is it that a Shastra which has had its followers throughout India from the Himalayas (the abode of Shiva and of Parvati Devi) to Cape Comorin (a corruption of Kumart Devi) which ruled for centuries, so that we may speak of a Tantrik epoch; which even to- day governs the household and temple ritual of every Hindu; how is it that such a Shastra has fallen into complete neglect and disrepute amongst the larger body of the English- educated community'? I remember a time when mention of the Shastra was only made (I speak of course of the same class) with bated breath; and when any one who concerned himself therewith became thereby liable to the charge of giving licentious sway to drink and women. The answer is both a general and particular one. In the first place the English- educated people of this country were formerly almost exclusively, and later to a considerable extent, under the sway of their Engl ish educators. In fact they were in a sense their creation. They were, and some of them still are, the Manasaputra of the English. For them what was English and Western was the mode. Hindu religion, philosophy and art were only, it was supposed, for the so -called "uneducated" women and peasants and for native Pandits who, though learned in their futile way, had not received the illuminating advantages of a Western training. In my own time an objection was (I am informed) taken by Indian Fellows of the Calcu tta University to the appointment of the learned Pandit Candrakanta Tarkalamkara to a chair of Indian philosophy on the ground that he was a mere native Pandit. In this case English Fellows and the then Vice -Chancellor opposed this absurd and snobbish objection. When the authority of the English teachers was at its highest, what they taught was law, even though their judgments were, in respect of Indian subjects of which they had but a scant and imperfect knowledge, defective. If they said with, or in anticipation of, one Professor, that the Vedas were "the babbling of a child humanity" and the Brahmanas "the drivel of madmen," or with another that the thought of the Upanishads was so "low" that it could not be correctly rendered in the high English language ; that in "treating of Indian philosophy a writer has to deal with thoughts of a lower order than the thoughts of the every- day life of Europe"; that Smriti was mere priestly tyranny, the Puranas idle legends and the Tantras mere wickedness and debauchery; that Hindu philosophy was 55 (to borrow another English Professor's language concerning the Samkhya) "with all its folly and fanaticism little better than a chaotic impertinence"; and that Yoga was, according to the same man of learning, "the fanatical vagar ies of theocracy"; that Indian ritual was nothing but superstition, mummery, and idolatry, and (Indian) art, inelegant, monstrous, and grotesque -- all this was with readiness accepted as high learning and wisdom, with perhaps here and there an occasional faint, and even apologetic, demur. I recollect in this connection a rather halting, and shamefaced, protest by the late Rajendra Lal Mitra. I do not say that none of these or other adverse criticisms had any ground whatever. There has been imperfection, fo lly, superstition, wickedness, here as elsewhere. There has been much of it, for example, in the countries, whence these critics of India came. It is, however, obvious that such criticisms are so excessive as to be absurd. Even when giving an account of Ea stern thought the Western is apt to take up a "superior" attitude because he believes himself to be superior. The Bishop of Durham very clearly reveals this sense of superiority (Christian Aspects of Life, by B. F. Westcott, 175) when after stating that th e duty of the Christian missionary was to substitute for "the sterile theism of Islam and the shadowy vagueness of Hindu Philosophy a belief in a living and speaking God" he goes on to point out that "our very advantages" by way of "the consciousness of social and intellectual superiority with which we are filled" and "the national force which sets us as conquerors where we come as evangelists" constitute a danger in the mission field. It is this notion of "superiority" also which prevents a right understanding, and which notwithstanding the facts, insists on charges which, if established, would maintain the reputation for inferiority of the colored races. It is this reiterated claim to superiority that has hypnotized many persons amongst Eastern races into the belief that the European is, amongst other things, always a safe and learned critic even of their own beliefs and practices. Raja Rammohan Roy was the first to take up the cause of his faith, divorcing it from the superstitious accretions which gather around all religions in the course of the ages. The same defense was made in recent times by that man of upstanding courage, Svami Vivekananda. Foreign criticism on Indian 56 religion now tends in some quarters to greater comprehension. I say in some quarters; for even in quite recent years English books have been published which would be amazing, were one not aware of the deep ignorance and prejudice which exist on the subject. In one of these books the Hindu religion is described as "a mixture of nightmare nonsense and time -wasting rubbish fulfilling no useful purpose whatever: only adding to the general burden of existence borne by Humanity in its struggle for existence." In another it is said to be "a weltering chaos of terror, darkness, and uncertainty". It is a religion without the apprehension of a moral evolution, without definite commandments, without a religious sanction in the sphere of morals, without a moral code and without a God: such so- called God, as there is, being "a mixture of Beaches, Don Juan and Dick Turin." It is there further described as the most material and childishly superstitious animalism that ever masqueraded as idealism; not another path to God but a pit of abomination as far set from God as the mind of man can go; staggering the brain of a rational man; filling his mind with wild contempt for his species and which has only endured "because it has failed." Except for the purpose of fanatical polemic, one would assume that the endurance of a faith was in some measure the justification of it. It is still more wonderful to learn from this work (The Light of India written by Mr. Harold Begbie and published by the Christian Literature Society for India) that out of this weltering chaos of all that is ignominious, immoral and crassly superstitious, come forth men who (in the words of the author) "standing at prayer startle you by their likeness to the pictures of Christ -- eyes large, luminous and tranquil -- the whole face exquisite with meekness and majestic with spirit." One marvels how these perfect men arise from such a worthless and indeed putrescent source. This absurd picture was highly colored in a journalistic spirit and with a purpose. In other cases, faulty criticism is due to supercilious ignorance. As another writer says (the italics are mine) "For an Englishman to get a plain statement of what Brahmanism really means is far from easy. The only wonder is that people who have to live on nine pence a week, who marry when they are ten years old, are prevented by caste life from ri sing out of what is often, if not always, a degraded state, have any religion at all." As the Bishop of Peterborough has recently said it is difficult for some to estimate worth in 57 any other terms than g. s. d. It is to be hoped that all such snobbish mate rialism will be hindered from entrance into this country. These quotations reveal the depths of ignorance and prejudice which still exist. As we are however aware, all English criticism is not as ignorant and prejudiced as these, even though it be often marred by essential error. On the contrary there are an increasing number who appreciate and adopt, or appreciate if they cannot accept, Indian beliefs. Further than this, Eastern thought is having a marked influence on that of the West, though it is not oft en acknowledged. Many have still the notion that they have nothing to learn in any domain from this hemisphere. After all, what any one else says should not affect the independence of our own judgment. Let others say what they will. We should ourselves determine matters which concern us. The Indian people will do so when they free themselves from that hypnotic magic, which makes them often place blind reliance on the authority of foreigners, who, even when claiming to be scholars, are not always free from b ias, religious or racial. Such counsel, though by no means unnecessary to-day, is happily becoming less needed than in the past. There are, however, still many Indians, particularly those of my own generation, whose English Gurus and their teaching have ma de them captives. Their mind has been so dominated and molded to a Western manner of thinking (philosophical, religious, artistic, social and political) that they have scarcely any greater capacity to appreciate their own cultural inheritance than their teachers, be that capacity in any particular case more or less. Some of them care nothing for their Shastra. Others do not understand it. The class of whom I speak are, in fact, as I have said, the Manasaputra of the English in a strict sense of the term. The Indian who has lost his Indian soul must regain it if he would retain that independence in his thought and in the ordering of his life which is the mark of a man, that is of one who seeks Svarajya -siddhi. How can an imitator be on the same level as his original? Rather he must sit as a Cela at the latter's feet. Whilst we can all learn something from one another, yet some in this land have yet to learn that their cultural inheritance with all its defects (and none is without such) is yet a noble one; an e qual in rank, (to say the least), with those great past civilizations which have molded the life and thought of the West. All this has been admitted by Indians who have discernment. Such value as my own 58 remarks possess, is due to the fact that I can see an d judge from without as an outsider, though (I will admit in one sense) interested observer -- interested because I have at heart Indian welfare and that of all others which, as the world now stands, is bound up with it. As regards the Tantra Shastra in pa rticular, greater ignorance prevailed and still exists. Its Vamacara practice however, seemed so peculiar, and its abuses were so talked of, that they captured attention to the exclusion of every thing else; the more particularly that this and the rest of the Shastra is hard to understand. Whilst the Shastra provides by its Acaras for all types from the lowest to the most advanced, its essential concepts, under whatever aspect they are manifested, and into whatever pattern they are woven, are (as Professor De La Vallee Poussion says of the Buddhist Tantra) of a metaphysical and subtle character. Indeed it is largely because of the subtlety of its principles, together with the difficulties which attend ritual exposition, that the study of the Tantras, notwith standing the comparative simplicity of their Sanskrit, has been hitherto neglected by Western scholars. Possibly it was thought that the practices mentioned rendered any study of a system, in which they occurred, unnecessary. There was and still is some ground for the adverse criticism which has been passed on it. Nevertheless it was not a just appreciation of the Shastra as a whole, nor even an accurate judgment in respect of the particular ritual thus singled out for condemnation. Let those condemn this Shastra who will. That is their affair. But let them first study and understand it. I have dealt with the subject of the Tantras in several papers. It is only necessary here to say that "the Tantra" as it is called was wrongly considered to be synonymous with the Shakta Tantras; that in respect of the latter the whole attention was given to the Vamacara ritual and to magic (Shatkarma); that this ritual, whatever may in truth be said against it, was not understood; that it was completely ignored that the Tantras contained a remarkable philosophic presentment of religious teaching, profoundly applied in a ritual of psychological worth; and that the Shastras were also a repertory of the alchemy, medicine, law, religion, art and so forth of their time. It was suf ficient to mention the word "Tantra" and there was supposed to be the end of the matter. 59 I have often been asked why I had undertaken the study of the Tantra Shastra, and in some English (as opposed to Continental) quarters it has been suggested that my time and labor might be more worthily employed. One answer is this: Following the track of unmeasured abuse I have always found something good. The present case is no exception. I protest and have always protested against unjust aspersions upon the Civilization of India and its peoples. If there be what is blameworthy, accuracy requires that criticism should be reduced to its true proportions. Having been all my life a student of the world's religions and philosophies, I entered upon a particular study of thi s Shastra to discover for myself what it taught, and whether it was, as represented, a complete reversal of all other Hindu teaching with which I was acquainted. For it was said to be the cultivation or practice of gluttony, lust, and malevolence ("ferocity, lust, and mummery" as Brian Hodgson called it), which I knew the Indian Shastra, like all the other religious Scriptures of the world, strictly forbids. I found that the Shastra was of high importance in the history of Indian religion. The Tantra Shastr a or Agama is not, as some seem to suppose, a petty Shastra of no account; one, and an unimportant sample, of the multitudinous manifestations of religion in a country which swarms with every form of religious sect. It is on the contrary with Veda, Smriti and Purana one of the foremost important Shastras in India, governing, in various degrees and ways, the temple and household ritual of the whole of India to- day and for centuries past. Those who are so strenuously averse to it, by that very fact recognize and fear its influence. From a historical point of view alone, it is worthy of study as an important part of Indian Culture, whatever be its intrinsic worth. History cannot be written if we exclude from it what we do not personally like. As Terence grandly said: "We are men and nothing which man has done is alien to us". There are some things in some of the Tantras and a spirit which they manifest of which their student may not personally approve. But the cause of history is not to be influenced by personal predilections. It is so influenced in fact. There are some who have found in the Shastra a useful weapon of attack against Indian religion and its tendencies. Should one speak of the heights which Indian spiritual experience has reached, one might be told that the infamous depths to which it had descended in Tantra Shastra, the Pushtimarga, the Vaishnava 60 Sahajiya and so forth were more certainly established. Did one praise the high morality to be found in Indian Shastra, it might be admitted that India was not altogether destitute of the light of goodness; but it might be asked, what of the darkness of the Tantra? And so on and so forth. Let us then grapple with and not elude the objection. There was of course something in all this. But such objectors and others had not the will (even if they had the capacity to understand) to give a true presentment of the teachings of the Shastra. But the interests of fairness require both. Over and above the fact that the Shastra is an historical fact, it possesses, in some respects, an intrinsic value which justifies its study. Thus it is the storehouse of Indian occultism. This occult side of the Tantras is of scientific importance, the more particularly having regard to the present revived interest in occultist study in the West. "New thought" as it is called and kindred movements are a form of Mantravidya. Vasikaranam is hypnotism, fascination. There is "Spiritualism" and "Powers" in the Tantras and so forth. For myself, however, the philosophical and religious aspect of the Scripture is more important still. The main question for the generality of men is not "Powers" (Siddhi). Indeed the study of occultism and its practice has its dangers; and the pursuit of these powers is considered an obstacle to the attainment of that true Siddhi which is the end of every Shastra. A subject of greater interest and value is the remarkable presentation of Vedantic knowledge which the Shakta Tantra in particular gives (I never properly understood the Vedanta until after I had studied the Tantras) as also the ritual by which it is sought to gain realization (Aparokshajana). The importance of the Shakta Tantra may be summed up by the statement that it is a Sadhana Shastra of Advaitavada. I will develop this last matter in a future paper. I will only say now that the main question of the day everywhere is how to realize practically the truths of religion, whatever they be. This applies to all, whether Hindu, Mohammed or Christian. Mere philosophical speculation and talk will avail nothing beyond a clarification of intellect. But, that, we all know, is not enough. It is not what we speculate about but what we are, which counts. The fundamental question is, how to realize (Sakshatkara) religious teaching. This is the fruit of Sadhana alone, whether the form of that Sadhana be Christian, Hindu, Mohammed, Buddhist or what else. The chief Sadhana -Shastra for the orthodox Hindu is the Tantra Shastra or 61 Agama in its varying schools. In this fact lies its chief significance, and for Hindus its practi cal importance. This and the Advaitavada on which the Shakta ritual rests is in my opinion the main reason why Shakta Darshana or doctrine is worthy of study. The opinion which I had formed of the Shastra has been corroborated by several to whom I had intr oduced the matter. I should like to quote here the last letter I had only a month ago from an Indian friend, both Sanskritist and philosopher (a combination too rare). He says "they (the Tantras) have really thrown before me a flood of new light. So much so, that I really feel as if I have discovered a new world. Much of the mist and haziness has now been cleared away and I find in the Tantras not only a great and subtle philosophy but many of the missing links in the development of the different systems of Hindu philosophy which I could not discover before but which I have been seeking for, for some years past." These statements might perhaps lead some to think that the Shastra teaches something entirely, that is in every respect, new. As regards fundamenta l doctrines, the Tantra Shastra (for convenience I confine myself to the Shakta form) teaches much which is to be found in the Advaita Vedanta. Therefore those who think that they will find in the Shastra some fundamental truths concerning the world which are entirely new will be disillusioned. The observation does not apply to some doctrinal teaching, presentment, methods, and details, to which doubtless my friend's letter referred. He who has truly understood Indian Shastra as a whole will recognize, unde r variety of form and degree of spiritual advancement, the same substance by way of doctrine. Whilst the Shakta Tantra recognizes, with the four Vedas, the Agamas and Nigaimas, it is now based, as are all other truly Indian Shastras on Veda. Veda, in the sense of Knowledge, is ultimately Spiritual Experience, namely Cit which Brahman is, and in the one partless infinite Ocean of Which the world, as a limited stress in Consciousness arises. So it is said of the Devi in the Commentary on the Trishati: Vedanta mahavakya- janya sakshatkara- rupa -brahmavidya 62 She is Brahman -knowledge (Brahmavidya) in the form of direct realization produced by the Vedantic great saying (Mahavakya) -- that is "Tat tvam asi" ("That thou art") and all kindred sayings, So'ham, ("He I am"), Brahmasmi ("I am Brahman") and so forth. In other words, Self -knowledge is self - luminous and fundamental and the basis of all other knowledge. Owing to its transcendency it is beyond both prover and proof. It is self- realized (Svanubhava). But Shruti is the source from which this knowledge arises, as Samkara says, by removing (as also to some extent reason may do) false notions concerning it. It reveals by removing the superincumbent mass of human error. Again, Veda in a primary sense is the world as Idea in the Cosmic Mind of the creating Brahman and includes all forms of knowledge. Thus it is eternal, arising with and as the Samskaras at the beginning of every creation. This is the Vedamurtibrahman. Veda in the secondary sense is the various partial revelations relating to Tattva, Brahman or God, and Dharma, morality, made at different times and places to the several Rishis which are embodied in the four Vedas, Rig, Yajus, Sama and Atharva. Veda is not coextensive therefore with the four Vedas. But are these, even if they be regarded as the "earliest," the only (to use an English term) revelations? Revelation (Akasha -vani) never ceases. When and wherever there is a true Rishi or Seer there is Revelation. And in this sense the Tantra Shastra or Agama claims to be a Revelation. The Shabdabrahmamurti is Nigamadishastramaya: it being said that Agama is the Paramatma of that Murti, the four Vedas with their Angas are its Jivatma; the six philosophies its Indriyas; the Puranas and Upapuranas its gross body; Smriti its hands and other limbs and all, "other Shastras are the hairs of its body. In the Heart - lotus are the fifty Tejomayi Matrika. In the pericarp are the Agamas glittering like millions of suns and moons which are Sarvadharmamaya, Brahmajanamaya, Sarvasiddhimaya, and Murtiman. These were revealed to the Rishis. In fact all Shastras are said to constitute one great many - millioned collection (Shatakoti Samhita) each being particular manifestations to man of the one, essential Veda. From this follows the belief that they do not contradict, but are in agreement with, one another; for Truth is one whatever be the degree in which it is received, or the form in which the Seers (Rishis) promulgated it to those whose spiritual sight has not strength enough to disce rn it directly and for themselves. But how, 63 according to Indian notions, can that which is put forward as a Revelation be shown to be such? The answer is that of Ayurveda. A medicine is a good one if it cures. In the same way a Shastra is truly such if the Siddhi which it claims to give is gained as the fruit of the practice of its injunctions, according to the competency and under the conditions prescribed. The principle is a practical and widely adopted one. The tree must be judged by its fruit. This prin ciple may, if applied to the general life of to- day, lead to an adverse judgment on some Tantrik practices. If so, let it be. It is, however, an error to suppose that even such practices as have been condemned, claim to rest on any other basis than Veda. It is by the learned in Tantra Shastra said to be ignorance (Avidya) to see a difference between Agama and Veda. Ignorant notions prevail on the subject of the relation of the Tantras to Veda and the Vedas. I read some years ago in a Bengali book by a Brahmo author that "the difference was that between Hell and Heaven". Now on what is such a condemnatory comparison based? It is safe to challenge production of the proof of such an assertion. Let us examine what the Shakta Tantra (to which allusion was ma de) teaches. In the first place "Hell" recognizes "Heaven," for the Shakta Tantra, as I have said, acknowledges the authority of Veda. All Indian Shastras do that. If they did not, they would not be Indian Shastra. The passages on this point are so numerou s, and the point itself is so plain that I will only cite a few. Kularnava Tantra says (II. 85,140,141) that Kuladharma is based on and inspired by the Truth of Veda. Tasmat vedatmakam shastram viddhi kaulatmakam priye. In the same place Shiva cites passag es from Shruti in support of His doctrine. The Prapacasara and other Tantras cite Vaidika Mahavakya and Mantras; and as Mantras are a part of Veda, therefore, Meru Tantra says that Tantra is part of Veda (Pranatoshini 70). Niruttara Tantra calls Tantra the Fifth Veda and Kulacara is named the fifth Ashrama (ib.); that is it follows all others. Matsyauktamahatantra (XIII) says that the disciple must be pure of soul (Shuddhatma) and a knower of Veda. He who is devoid of Vaidika -kriya (Vedakriya- vivarjita) is disqualified (Maharudrayamala, I Khanda, Ch. 15; II Khanda, Ch. 2; Pranatoshini 108). Gandharva Tantra (Ch. 2, Pranatoshini 6) says that the Tantrik Sadhaka must be a believer in Veda (Astika), ever attached to Brahman, ever speaking of 64 Brahman, living in Brahman and taking shelter with Brahman; which, by the way, is a queer demand to make of those, the supposed object of whose rites is mere debauchery. The Kularnava says that there is no knowledge higher than that of Veda and no doctrine equal to Kaula (III. 113, Nahivedadhika vidya na kaula- samadarshanam). Here a distinction is drawn between Veda which is Vidya and the Kaula teaching which he calls Darshana. See also Mahanirvana Tantra (I. 18, 19; II. 8 -15). In Mahanirvana Tantra (III. 72) the Mantra Om Saccidekam Brahma is given and in the Prapacasara (Ch. XXIX) this (what it calls) "Secret of the Vedas" is explained. That the Shakta Tantra claims to be based on Veda admits of no doubt. In fact Kulluka Bhatta, the celebrated commentator on Manu, says tha t Shruti is of two kinds, Vaidik and Tantrik. Vaidiki tantrums caviar dvividha shrutih kirtita It is of course the fact that different sects bandy words upon the point whether they in fact truly interpret Shruti and follow practice conformable to it. Statements are made by opposing schools that certain Shastras are contrary to Shruti even though they profess to be based thereon. So a citation by Bhaskararaya in the Commentary to V. 76 of the Lalita sahasranama speaks of some Tantras as "opposed to Veda " (Vedaviruddhani). The Vayu Samhita says: "Shaivagama is twofold, that which is based on Shruti and that which is not. The former is composed of the essence of Shruti. Shrauta is Svatantra and Itara" (v. ante, p. 19). Shaivagamo'pi dvividhah, shrauto' shrautash ca samsmritah Srutisaramayah shrautah svantrastvitaro matah. So again the Bhagavata or Pancaratra Agama has been said to be non- Vaidik. This matter has been discussed by Samkaracarya and Ramanuja following Yamunacarya. We must in all cases distingui sh between what a school says of itself and what others say of it. In Christianity both Catholicism and Protestantism claim to be based on the Bible and each alleges that the other is a wrong interpretation of it. Each again of the numerous Protestant sects says the same thing of the others. 65 But is Shakta Tantra contrary to Veda in fact? Let us shortly survey the main points in its doctrine. It teaches that Paramatma Nirguna Shiva is Saccidananda (Prapacasara, Ch. XXIX: Kularnava, Ch. I. vv. 6- 7). Kularnav a says "Shiva is the impartite Supreme Brahman, the All -knowing (Sarvaja) Creator of all. He is the Stainless One and the Lord of all. He is One without a second (Advaya). He is Light itself. He changes not, and is without beginning or end. He is attributeless and above the highest. He is Saccidananda" (I. 6 -7. And see the Dhyana and Pacaratnastotra in Mahanirvana Tantra III. 50, 59- 63). Brahman is Saccidananda, Eternal (Nitya), Changeless (Nirvikara), Partless (Nishkala), Untouched by Maya (Nirmala), Att ributeless (Nirguna), Formless (Arupa), Imperishable (Akshara), All -spreading like space (Vyomasannibha), Self -illuminating (Svyamjyotih), Reality (Tattva) which is beyond mind and speech and is to be approached through spiritual feeling alone (Bhavanagamya). Kularnava I, 6-8; III. 92, 93; IX. 7). (Mahanirvana III. 50, 59 -63, 67 -68, 74; III. 12). In His aspect as the Lord (Ishvara) of all, He is the All-knower (Sarvaja), Lord of all: whose Body is pure Sattva (Shuddhasattvamaya), the Soul of the universe (Vishvatma). (Mahanirvana I. 61, III. 68). Such definitions simply re -affirm the teaching of Veda. Brahman is That which pervades without limit the Universe (Prapacasara XXIX; MahanirvanaIII. 33- 35) as oil the sesamum seed (Sharada Tilaka I, Shaktanandatarangini I, Pranatoshini 13). This Brahman has twofold aspect as Parabrahman (Nirguna, Nishkala) and Shabda -brahman (Saguna, Sakala). Sammohana, a highly interesting Tantra, says (Ch. I) that Kubjika is of twofold aspect, namely, Nishkala when She is Candra -vaktra, and Sakala when called Paramukhi. So too is Guhyakali who as the first is Ekavaktra mahapashupatishi advaitabhavasampanna and as the second Dashavaktra. So the Kularnava says Shabda -brahmaparamabrahmabhedena Brahmano dvaividyam uktam (Khanda V, Ull asa 1). The same Tantra says that Sadashiva is without the bonds (of Maya) and Jiva is with them (Pashabadho bhavej jivah pashamuktah Sadashivahi, IX. 42) upon which the author of the Pranatoshini, citing this passage says "thus the identity of Jiva and Shiva is shown (iti Shivajivayoraikyam uktam). The Shakta Tantra is thus Advaitavada: for it proclaims that Paramatma and Jivatma are one. So it affirms the "grand words" (Mahavakya) of Veda -- "Tat tvam asi," "So'ham," "Brahmasmi" (Mahanirvana VIII. 264- 265, V. 105); Prapacasara II; identifying 66 Hrim with Kundali and Hangsah and then with So'ham. Yah Suksmah So'ham ib. XXIV, Janarnava Tantra XXI. 10). As to Brahmasmi, see Kularnava IX. 32 and ib. 41. So'hambhavena pujayet. The Mantra "all this is surely Bra hman (Sarvam khalvidam Brahma)" is according to theMahanirvana (VII. 98) the end and aim of Tantrika Kulacara, the realization of which saying the Prapacasara Tantra describes as the fifth or Supreme State (Ch. XIX); for the identity of Jivatma and Parama tma is Liberation which the Vedantasara defines to be Jivabrahmanoraikyam). Kularnava refers to the Advaita of which Shiva speaks (Advaitantu shivenoktam I. 108. See also Mahanirvana II. 33- 34; I II. 33 -35; 50 - 64; Prapacasara II, XI X, XXIX). Gandharva Tantra says that the Sadhaka must be a nondualist (Dvaitahina). (See Ch. II. ib. Pranatoshini 108; Maharudrapamala I Khanda, Ch. 15; II Khanda, Ch. 2). It is useless to multiply quotations on this point of which there is no end. In fact that particular form of worship which has earned the Shakta Tantras ill- fame claims to be a practical application of Advaitavada. The Sammohana Tantra(Ch. VIII) gives high praise to the philosopher Samkaracarya saying that He was an incarnation of Shiva for the destruction of Buddhism. Kaulacarya is said to properly follow a full knowledge of Vedantic doctrine. Shiva in the Kularnava (I. 110) says "some desire dualism (Dvaita), others nondualism (Advaita) but my truth is beyond both (Dvaitadvaitavivarjita)". Advaitavedanta is the whole day and life of the Shakta Sadhaka. On waking at dawn (Brahmamuhurta) he sits on his bed and meditates "I am the Devi and none other. I am Brahman who is beyond all grief. I am a form of Saccidananda whose true nature is eternal Liberation." Aham Devi na canpo'smi, Brahmaivaham na sokabhak, Saccidanandarupo'ham nitpamuktasvabhavavan. At noon again seated in Pujasana at time of Bhutasuddhi he meditates on the dissolution of the Tattvas in Paramatma. Seeing no difference between Paramatma and Jivatma he affirms Sa'ham "I am She". Again in the evening after ritual duties he affirms himself to be the Akhilatma and Saccidananda, and having so thought he sleeps. Similarly (I may here interpose) in the Buddhist Tantra -- the Sadhaka on rising in the state of Devadeha (hLayi -sku) 67 imagines that the double drums are sounding in the heavens proclaiming the Mantras of the 24 Viras (dPahvo), and regards all things around him as constituting the Mandala of himself as Buddha Vajrasattva. When about to sleep he again imagines his body to be that of Buddha Vajrasattva and then merges himself into the tranquil state of the Void (Shunyata). Gandharva Tantra says: "Having saluted the Guru as directed and thought 'So'ham' the wise Sadhaka, the performer of the rite should ponder the unity of Jiva and Brahman." Gurun natva vidhanena so'ham iti porudhasah Aikyam sambhavayed dhiman jivasya Brahmano'pi ca. Kali Tantra says: "Having meditated in this way, a Sadhaka should worship Devi as his own Atma, thinking I am Brahman." Kubjika Tantra says (Devi is called Kubjika because She is Kundali): "A Sadhaka should meditate on his own Self as one and the same with Her (Taya sahitam atmanam ekibhutam vicintayet)" and so on. The cardinal doctrine of these Shakta Tantras is that of Shak ti whether in its Svarupa (that is, as It is in Itself) as Cidrupini, the Paraprakriti of Paramatma (Mahanirvana IV. 10) or as Maya and Prakriti (see as to the latter the great Hymn to Prakriti in Prapacasara, Ch. XI). Shakti as the Kubjika Tantra says (Ch. I) is Consciousness (Caitanyarupini) and Bliss (Anandarupini). She is at the same time support of (Gunashraya) and composed of the Gunas (Gunamayi). Maya is however explained from the standpoint of Sadhana, the Tantra Shastra being a Sadhana Shastra, and not according to the Mayavada, that is, transcendental standpoint, of Samkara. What is there in the great Devi Sukta of the Rigveda (Mandala X, Sukta 125) which the Shakta Tantra does not teach? The Rishi of this revelation was a woman, the daughter of Rishi Ambhrina. It was fitting that a woman should proclaim the Divine Motherhood. Her Hymn says: "I am the Sovereign Queen the Treasury of all treasures; the chief of all objects of worship whose all-pervading Self all Devatas manifest; whose birthplace is in the midst of the causal waters; who breathing forth gives form to all created worlds and yet extends beyond them, so vast am I in greatness." (The full Hymn is 68 translated in the French Edition of A. and E. Avalon's Hymns to the Goddess, Bossard, Paris. ) It is useless to cite quotations to show that the Shakta Tantra accepts the doctrine of Karma which as the Kularnava (IX. 125) says Jiva cannot give up until he renounces the fruit of it; an infinite number of universes, and their transitoriness (Mahanirvana III. 7), the plurality of worlds, Heaven and Hell, the seven Lokas, the Devas and Devis, who as the Kulacudamani Nigama (following the Devi -Sukta) says (Ch. I) are but parts of the great Shakti (Shaktanandatarangim III). Being Advaitavada, Moksha the state of Liberation and so forth is Paramatma. It accepts Smriti and Puranas; the Mahanirvana and other Tantras saying that they are the governing Shastras of the Treta and Dvapara ages respectively, as Tantra is that of the Kaliyuga. So the Tarapradipa (Ch. I) says that in the Kaliyuga, the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma is to be followed. It is said that in Satya, Veda was undivided. In Dvapara, Krishnadvaipayana separated it into four parts. In Satya, Vaidika Upasana was Pradhana, that is, prevailed; Sadhakas worshipping Indra for wealth, children and the like; though Nishkama Rishis adored the Sarvashaktiman (Devisukta is Advaitasiddhipurna). In Treta, worship according to Smriti prevailed. It was then, that Vashishtha is said to have done Sadhana of Brahmavidya according to Cinacarakrama. Though in the Dvapara there was both Smriti and Purana, rites were generally performed according to the Puranas. There was also then, as always, worshippers of the Purnashaktimahavidya. At the end of Dvapara and beginning of the Kali age the Tantra Shastra was taught to men. Then the ten Samskaras, Shraddha and Antyeshtikriya were, as they are now, performed according to the Vaidikadharma: Ashramacara according to Dayabhaga and other Smriti Texts; Vratas according t o Purana; Disha and Upasana of Brahman with Shakti, and various kinds of Yoga Sadhana, according to the Agama which is divided into three parts Tantra (Sattvaguna), Yamala (Rajoguna), and Damara (Tamoguna). There were 64 Tantras for each of the three divis ions Ashvakranta, Rathakranta, Vishnukranta. Such is the Tantrik tradition concerning the Ages and their appropriate Scriptures. Whether this tradition has any historical basis still awaits inquiry, which is rendered difficult by the fact that many Tantras have been lost and 69 others destroyed by those inimical to them. It is sufficient for my purpose to merely state what is the belief: that purpose being to show that the Tantra Shastra recognizes, and claims not to be in conflict with Veda or any other recog nized Shastra. It accepts the six Philosophies (Darshana) which Shiva says are the six limbs of Kula and parts of his body, saying that he who severs them severs His limbs (Kularnava II. 84, 84- 85). The meaning of this is that the Six Philosophies and the Six Minds, as all else, are parts of His body. It accepts the Shabda doctrine of Mimamsa subject to certain modifications to meet its doctrine of Shakti. It, in common with the Shaiva Tantra, accepts the doctrine of the 36 Tattvas, and Shadadhva (Tattva, Kala, Bhuvana, Varna, Pada, Mantra; see my Garland of Letters). This is an elaboration in detail which explains the origin of the Purusha and Prakriti Tattvas of the Samkhya. These are shown to be twin facets of the One, and the "development" of Shakti into Purusha -Prakriti Tattva is shown. These Tattvas include the ordinary 24 Prakriti with it, Gunas to Prithivi. It accepts the doctrine of three bodies (causal, subtle, gross) and the three states (Jagrat, Svapna Sushupti) in their individual and collective aspects. It follows the mode of evolution (Parinama) of Samkhya in so far as the development of Jiva is concerned, as also an Abhasa, in the nature of Vivartta, "from Fire to Fire" in the Pure Creation. Its exposition of the body includes the five Pranas, the seven Dhatus, the Doshas (Vayu, Pitta, Kapha) and so forth (Prapacasara II). On the ritual side it contains the commonly accepted ritual of present- day Hinduism; Mantra, Yantra, Pratima, Linga, Shalagrama, Nyasa, Japa, Puja, Stotra, Kavaca, Dhyana and so forth, as well 'as the Vaidik rites which are the ten Samskaras, Homa and the like. Most of the commonly accepted ritual of the day is Tantrik. It accepts Yoga in all its forms Mantra, Hatha, Laya, Jana; and is in particular distinguished by its pract ice of Laya or Kundali -yoga and other Hatha processes. Therefore not only is the authority of the Veda acknowledged along with the Agamas, Nigamas and Tantras but there is not a single doctrine or practice, amongst those hitherto mentioned, which is either not generally held, or which has not the adherence of large numbers of Indian worshippers. It accepts all the notions common to Hinduism as a whole. Nor is there a single doctrine previously mentioned which is contrary to Veda, that is on the assumption of the truth of Advaitavada. For of course it is 70 open to Dualists and Vishishtadvaitins to say that its Monistic interpretation of Vedanta is not a true exposition of Vaidik truth. No Shakta will however say that. Subject to this, I do not know of anything which it omits and should have included, or states contrary to the tenor of Vaidik doctrine. If there be anything I shall be obliged, as a student of the Shastra, to any one who will call my attention to it. The Shastra has not, therefore, up to this point shown itself as a "Hell" in opposition to the Vaidik "Heaven." But it may said that I have omitted the main thing which gives it its bad and un-Vaidik character, namely the ill -famed Pacatattva or worship with meat, wine, fish, grain and woman. I have also omitted the magic to be found in some of the Shastras. The latter may be first shortly dealt with. Magic is not peculiar to the Tantras. It is to be found in plenty in the Atharvaveda. In fact the definition of Abhicara is "the Karma described in the Ta ntras and Atharvaveda." Abhicara is magical process with intent to destroy or injure. It is Himsa - karma, or act injurious to others. There is nothing anti -Vaidik then in Magic. I may, however, here also point out that there is nothing wrong in Magic (Shatkarma) per se. As with so many other things it is the use or abuse of it which makes it right or wrong. If a man kills, by Marana Karma, a rival in his business to get rid of competition and to succeed to his clients' custom, he commits a very grave sin -- one of the most grievous of sins. Suppose, however, that a man saw a tiger stalking a child, or a dacoit about to slay it for its golden ornament; his killing of the tiger or dacoit would, if necessary for the safety of the child, be a justifiable act. Magic is, however, likely to be abused and has in fact been abused by some of the Tantriks. I think this is the most serious charge established against them. For evil magic which proceeds from malevolence is a greater crime than any abuse of natural appetite. But in this, as in other matters, we must distinguish between what the Shastra says and the practices of its followers. The injunction laid upon the Sadhaka is that he "should do good to other beings as if they were his own self". Atmavat sarvabhutebhyo h itam kuryat kuleshvari (Kularnava Tantra XII. 63). In the Kularnava Samhita (a different and far inferior work to the Tantra of that name) Shiva recites some horrible rites with the flesh of rat and bat; with the soiled linen of a Candala woman, with the shroud of a 71 corpse, and so forth; and then he says, "My heart trembles (hridayam kampate mama), my limbs tremble (gatrani mama kampante), my mouth is dry, Oh Parvati! (mukham shushyate Parvati!) Oh gentle one, my mind is all disturbed (kshobho me jayate bhadre). What more shall I say? Conceal it (Na vaktavyam) conceal it, conceal it." He then says: "In the Kali age Sadhakas are generally greedy of money. Having done greatly sinful acts they destroy living beings. For them there is neither Guru nor Rudra, nor Thee nor Sadhika. My dear life! they are ready to do acts for the destruction of men. Therefore it is wrong to reveal these matters, oh Devi. I have told Thee out of affection for Thee, being greatly pleased by Thy kisses and embrace. But it should be as carefully concealed by Thee, as thine own secret body. Oh Parvati! all this is greatly sinful and a very bad Yoga. (Mahapatakayuktam tat kuyogo'yam udahritah.)" Kalikale sadhakastu prapasho dhanalolupah Mahakrityam vidhayaiva praninam badhabhaginah Na guru r napi Rudro va naiva tvam naiva sadhika Mahapranivinashaya samarthah pranavallabhe Etat prakashanam devi dosaya parikalpyate Snehena tava deveshi chumbanalinganaistatha Santusyaiva maya devi sarvam etat prakashitam Tvapa gopyam prayatnena svayoniriva Parvati Mahapataka-yuktam tat kuyogo'yam udahritah. "None of these things are ever to be done by Thee, Oh Daughter of the Mountain (Sarvatha naiva kartavyastvaya Parvatanandini). Whoever does so, incurs the sin of destroying Me. I destroy all such, as does fire, dry grass. Of a surety such incur the sin of slaying a Brahmana. All such incur the sin of slaying a Brahmana." Sarvatha naiva kartavya stvaya Parvatanandini Badhabhak mama deveshi krityamimam samacaret 72 Tasya sarvam haramyashu vahnih shuskatrinam yat ha Avyartham brahmahatyanca brahmahatyam savindati. When therefore we condemn the sin of evil magic it is necessary to remember both such teaching as is contained in this quotation, and the practice of those of good life who follow the Shastra. To do so is to be both fair and accurate. There is nothing, in any event, in the point that the magical contents of the Tantra Shastra make it contrary to Veda. Those who bring such a charge must also prefer it against the Atharvaveda. As a matter of fact Magic is common to all early religions. It has been practiced, though condemned, in Christian Europe. It is not necessary to go back to the old witchcraft trials. There are some who protest against its recrudescence to -day. It has been well observed that there are two significant facts about occultism, namely its catholicity (it is to be found in all lands and ages) and its amazing power of recuperation after it has been supposed to have been disproved as mere "superstition". Even some quarter of a century ago (I am q uoting from the same author) there were probably not a score of people in London (and those kept their preoccupation to themselves) who had any interest at all in the subject except from a purely antiquarian standpoint. Magic was dismissed by practically all educated men as something too evidently foolish and nonsensical to deserve attention or inquiry. In recent years the position has been reversed in the West, and complaint is again made of the revival of witchcraft and occultism to- day. The reason of this is that modern scientific investigation has established the objectivity of some leading phenomena of occultism. For instance a little more than a century or so ago, it was still believed that a person could inflict physical injury on another by means other than physical. And this is what is to be found in that portion of the Tantra Shastras which deal with the Shatkarma. Witches confessed to having committed this crime and were punished therefor. At a later date the witchcraft trials were held to be evidence of the superstition both of the accused and accusers. Yet psychology now allows the principle that Thought is itself a Force, and that by Thought alone, properly directed, without any known physical means the thought of another, and hence his whole condition, can be affected. By physical means I mean direct physical means, 73 for occultism may, and does avail itself of physical means to stimulate and intensify the force and direction of thought. This is the meaning of the magic rituals which have been so much ridiculed. Why is black the color of Marana Karma? Because that color incites and maintains and emphasizes the will to kill. So Hypnotism (Vashikaranam), as an instance of the exercise of the Power of Thought, makes use of gestures, rotatory instrument s and so forth. The Magician having a firm faith in his (or her) power (for faith in occultism as in Religion is essential) surrounds himself with every incentive to concentrated, prolonged and (in malevolent magic), malevolent thought. A figure or other o bject such as part of the clothing, hair, nails and so forth of the victim represents the person to be attacked by magic. This serves as the 'immediate object' on which the magical thought is expended. The Magician is helped by this and similar aids to a state of fixed and malignant attention which is rendered intense by action taken on the substituted object. It is not of course the injuries done to this object which are the direct cause of injury to the person attacked, but the thought of the magician of which these injuries are a materialization. There is thus present the circumstances which a modern psychologist would demand for success in a telepathic experiment. As the witchcraft trials show, the victim is first affected in thought and then in body by the malignant thought thus focused upon him. Sometimes no apparent means are employed, as in a case reported to me by a friend of mine as occurring in a Bombay Hotel when a man well -known in India for his "Powers" (Siddhi) drove away, by the power of his t hought only, a party of persons sitting at a neighboring table whose presence was greatly distasteful to one of his companions. This, if the effect of' magical power, was an instance of what the Tantras call Ucchatana. In all cases the general principle is the same, namely the setting in motion and direction of powerful thought by appropriate means. This is the view of those who give what may be called a psychological explanation of these phenomena. These would hold that the magical symbolisms are without i nherent force but work according to race and individual characteristics on the mind which does the rest. Others believe that there is an inherent power in Symbolism itself, that the "Symbol" is not 74 merely such but an actual expression of, and instrument by which, certain occult laws are brought into play. In other words the power of "Symbolism" derives not merely from the effect which it may have on particular minds likely to be affected by it but from itself as a law external to human thought. Some again (and Indian magicians amongst others) believe in the presence and aid of discarnate personalities (such as the unclean Pishacas) given in the carrying out of occult operations. Similarly it is commonly held by some that where so -called "spiritualistic" phenomena are real and not fraudulent (as they sometimes are) the action is not that of the dead but of Infernal Spirits simulating them and misleading men to their ruin. Occultism in the sense of a belief in, and claim to be able to use, a certain range of forces which may be called preternatural, has the adherence not only of savage and barbarous people (who always believe in it) but also of an increasing number of "civilized" Londoners, Berliners, Americans, Parisians and other Western peoples. They differ i n all else but they are united in this. Even what most would regard as downright superstition still abundantly flourishes in the West. Witness the hundreds of thousands of "touch -wood" figures and the like sent to the troops in the recent war, the horror o f' sitting 13 to a table, and so on. In fact, from the earliest ages, magic has gone hand- in- hand with religion, and if for short periods the former has been thought to be dead it always rises again. Is this, as some say, the mark of the inherent silly credulity of mankind, or does the fact show that there is something in the claims which occultism has made in all ages P India (I do not speak of the English- educated community which shares in the rise and fall of English opinion) has always believed in occul tism and some of the Tantra Shastras are repertories of its ritual. Magic and superstition proper, exist in this country but are also to be found in the West. The same remark applies to every depreciatory criticism passed upon the Indian people. Some have thought that occultism is the sign both of savagery and barbarism on the one hand and of decadent civilization on the other. In India it has always existed and still exists. It has been well said that there is but one mental attitude impossible to the educ ated man, namely blank incredulity with regard to the whole subject. There has been, and is, a change of attitude due to an increase of psychological knowledge and scientific investigation into objective facts. Certain reconciliations have been suggested, bringing 75 together the ancient beliefs, which sometimes exist in crude and ignorant forms. These reconciliations may be regarded as insufficiently borne out by the evidence. On the other hand a proposed reconciliation may be accepted as one that on the whol e seems to meet the claims made by the occultist on one side and the scientific psychologist on the other. But in the present state of knowledge it is no longer possible to reject both claims as evidently absurd. Men of approved scientific position have, notwithstanding the ridicule and scientific bigotry to which they have been exposed, considered the facts to be worthy of their investigation. And on the psychological side successive and continuous discoveries are being made which corroborate ancient beliefs in substance, though they are not always in consonance with the mode in which those beliefs were expressed. We must face the fact that (with Religion) Occultism is in some form or another a widely diffused belief of humanity. All however will be agreed in holding that malevolent Magic is a great Sin. In leaving the subject of Magic I may here add that modern psychology and its data afford remarkable corroboration of some other Indian beliefs such as that Thought is a Force, and that its operation is in a field of Consciousness which is wider than that of which the mind is ordinarily aware. We may note also the aid which is derived from the establishment of dual and multiple personalities in understanding how it may be possible that in one unity there may be yet varying aspects. The second charge is the alleged Avaidik character of the secret Pacatattva Sadhana, with wine, flesh and women, its alleged immorality of principle, and the evil lives of those who practice it. I am not in the present paper dealing in full with this subject; not that I intend by any means to shirk it; but it is more appropriately the subject of consideration in future Chapters on the subject of Shakta Tantrik Sadhana of which it forms a part. What I wish to say now is only this: We must distinguish in the first place between a principle and its application. A principle may be perfectly right and sound and yet a supposed application may not be an application in fact; or if there be an application, the latter may violate some other moral or physical law, or be dangerous and inexpedient as leading to abuse. I will show later that the principle involved is one which is claimed to be in conformity with Vaidik truth, and to be in fact recognized in varying forms by all classes of Hindus. Some do so dualistically. The Sadhana of the Shakta Tantra is, whether right 76 or wrong, an application of the principles of Advaitavada and in its full form should not, it is said, be entered upon until after Vedantic principles have been mastered. For this reason Kauladharma has been called the fifth Ashrama. Secondly I wish to point out that this ritual with wine and meat is not as some suppose a new thing, something introduced by the Shakta Tantriks. On the contrary it is very old and has sanction in Vaidi k practice as will appear from the authorities cited in the Appendix to this Chapter. So much is this so, that a Tantrik Sadhu discussing the matter with a Bengali friend of mine said of himself, as a follower of this ritual, that he was a Hindu and that t hose who were opposed to it were Jainas. What he meant, and what seems to be the fact, is that the present -day general prohibition against the use of wine, and the generally prevalent avoidance, or limitation of an animal diet, are due to the influence of Jainism and Buddhism which arose after, and in opposition to, Vaidik usage. Their influence is most marked of course in Vaishnavism but has not been without effect elsewhere. When we examine ancient Vaidik usage we find that meat, fish and Mudra (the latter in the form of Purodasha) were consumed, and intoxicating liquor (in the form of Soma) was drunk, in the Vaidik Yajas. We also discover some Vaidik rites in which there was Maithuna. This I have dealt with in my article on "Shakti and Shakta". The above -mentioned facts show in my opinion that there is ground for the doctrine of the Tantrikas that it is a mark of ignorance (Avidya) to sever Veda and Tantra. My conclusion is not however a counsel to follow this or any other particular form of ritual. I am only concerned to state the facts. I may, however, here add two observations. From an outside point of view (for I do not here deal with the subject otherwise) we must consider the age in which a particular Shastra was produced and consequently the conditi ons of the time, the then state of society, its moral and spiritual development and so forth. To understand some rites in the past history of this and other countries one must seek, in lieu of surface explanations, their occult significance in the history of the human race; and the mind must cast itself back into the ages whence it has emerged, by the aid of those traces it still bears in the depths of its being of that which outwardly expressed itself in ancient custom. 77 Take for instance the rite of human sacrifice which the Kalikalpalata says that the Raja alone may perform (Raja naravalim dadayenna yo'pi parameshvari) but in which, as the Tantrasara states, no Brahmana may participate (Brahmananam naravalidane nadhikarah). Such an animal sacrifice is not peculiarly "Tantrik" but an instance of the survival of a rite widely spread in the ancient world; older than the day when Jehovah bade Abraham sacrifice his son (Gen. XXII) and that on which Sunasshepa (Aitareya Brahmana VII, 3) like Isaac was released. R eference, it is true, is made to this sacrifice in the Shastras, but save as some rare exception (I myself judged a case in Court some years ago) it does not exist to-day and the vast mass of men do not wish to see it revived. The Cakra ritual similarly is either disappearing or becoming in spirit transformed where there had been abuse. What is of primary value in the Tantra Shastra are certain principles with which I have dealt elsewhere, and with which I deal again in part in this and the following lectures. The application of these principles in ritual is a question of form. All form is a passing thing. In the shape of ritual its validity is limited to place and time. As so limited, it will continue so long as it serves a useful purpose and meets the needs of the age, and the degree of its spiritual advancement, or that of any particular body of men who practice it; otherwise it will disappear, whilst the foundations of Vedanta on which it rests may remain. In the same way it is said that we ourselves come and go with our merits and demerits, but that the Spirit ever abides beyond both good and evil. NOTE TO CHAPTER IV The following note as to Tantra Shastra and Veda was kindly prepared for me at my request by Sj. Braja Lal Mukherji, M.A.: My purpose in this paper is not to give to the public any pre- conceived opinion, but is simply to put together certain facts which will enable it to form a correct opinion on the subject. These facts have been collected from sources as to the authenticity of which there is no doubt. There is no dispute that most of these works disclose the state of Vaidik society prior to the 6th century s.c. and that at the time when 78 the said works were composed the Vaidik rituals were being observed and performed. Certain elements which h ave been assumed to be non- Vaidik, appear in the said works or at least in many of them, and they have been summarily disposed of by some scholars as supplementary (Parishishta), or interpolations (Prakshipta). The theory that these portions are interpolat ions is based on the assumption that the said elements are non - Vaidik or post -Vaidik and also on the assumption that at the times when the said works were composed, the Anushtupchhandah was not known; and that therefore, those portions of the said works wh ich appear in Anushtub, must be later interpolations. We need not go into the propriety of these assumptions in this paper; but suffice it to say, that the first assumption simply begs the question, and the second one is not of any importance in connection with the subject of this paper; inasmuch as, the statements made in the Anushtub portions are corroborated by earlier authorities as to whose antiquity there is no question, and in any case, the fact that the statements have been made are proof of earlier usage or custom. Vaidik sacrifices are divided into three classes: (1) Pakayajas, (2) Haviryajas and (3) Soma sacrifices; and there are sub- divisions under each of the said classes. The Soma sacrifices are classed under three heads according to the numb er of days required for performance, viz., Ekaha, Ahina and Satra. Ekaha sacrifices are those which are performed in one day by three Savanas, exactly as in the Jagaddhatri Puja; Ahina sacrifices are performed from two to eleven days and Satras are performed during a long period, the minimum number of days required being thirteen and the maximum being a thousand years. The twelve- day sacrifices are arranged as a separate class. The principal Somayajas are (1) Agnishtoma, (2) Atyagnishtoma, (3) Ukthyah, (4) Shodashi, (5) Vajapeyah, (6) Atiratrah, (7) Aptoryama. The Ishtis or Haviryajas are also principally seven in number, namely, (1) Agnyadheyam, (2) Agnihotram, (3) Darsha -paurnamasa, (4) Caturmasyam, (5) Agrayaneshti, (6) Nirudhapashubandha, and (7) Sautramani. The Pakayajas are also seven in number, namely, (1) Astaka, (2) Parvanam, (3) Shraddham, (4) Shravani, (5) Agrahayani, (6) Caitri, and (7) Ashvayuji. The last seven. are to be performed with the help of the Grihya fire and are described in the Grih ya works. The others are described in the Shrauta works. 79 Whatever be the differences among these Yajas in regard to the number of stomas or stotras and the Samans to be sung and the Kapalas, Grahas, or the number and nature of sacrifices or as to other pa rticulars, there are some ideas which prevail in all of them. All Yajas are based on the idea that Mithunikarana leads to spiritual happiness. Sexual intercourse is Agnihotra (S.B. XI. 6. 2. 10). Maithunikarana is consecration (S.B. III. 2. l. 2, etc.) Th ey enclose the Sadas secretly, for enclosing is Mithunikarana and therefore it must be done secretly (S.B. IV. 6, 7, 9 and 10). Bricks (Vishvajyotis) are made because the making of the bricks causes generation (S.B. VI. 5. 3. 5.) Two Padas or Caranas of an Anushtub verse are read in a detached manner and the two remaining are read together to imitate the manner of sexual union (A.B. II.5.3.); they do not worship a female Devata, unless she is coupled with a male Deva (A.B. III. 5. 4); they use a couple of Chandas distinguishing the one as male from the other as female and the two are taken together and believed to be the symbol of Maithuna, and by such Maithuna the desired result of ritual is achieved (A.B. V. 3. 1); they believe that the reading of the Ahan asya mantra (S.S.S. XII. 24. 1- 10; A.U. XX. 136) will confer bliss (A.B. VI. 5. 10); they say that the highest and best form of Maithuna is that of Shraddha and Satya, Piety and Truth (A.B. VII. 2. 9) and this kind of Maithuna in the abstract is directed f or Agnihotris who have purified themselves by actual performances and observances in a religious spirit. They direct the observance and performance of Maithuna as a religious rite or part of a religious rite (L.S.S. IV. 3. 17; K.S.S. XIII. 42; 7.A. IV. 7. 50; X 62, 7; A.A. I. 2. 4. 10; V. 1. 5. 13; G.G.S. II. 5. 6. 9. 10; S.G.S: I. 19. 2- 6; K.G.S. l. 4. 15; H.G.S. I. 24. 3; Ap. G.S. III.8. 10; P.G.S. I. 11. 7; Ap.V. 25. 11; Tan. Br. VIII. 7. 12; Chh. Up. II. 13. 1-2) and they direct that Mantras are to be uttered during the observance of this rite (Br. D. V. 90; VIII. 82; A.V. V. 82. 4; R. V. X 85. 37; R.V. Kh. 30 1; Rik P. II. 15. 1- 8; As. S.S. VIII. 3. 28; G.B. VI. 15). One of the articles of faith of the Vaidik people therefore was, that sexual union led the way to bliss hereafter and must be performed in a true religious spirit to ensure spiritual welfare; wanton indulgence being severely deprecated. Ida (a woman) said: "If thou wilt make use of me at the sacrifice, then whatever blessing thou shalt invoke through me, shall be granted to thee." (S.B. I. 8 -- 1. 9, etc.) 80 The Vaidik people performed their Somayajas and Haviryajas which included the Sautramani, with libations and drinks of intoxicating liquor (L.S.S. V. 4, 11; K.S.S. XIX, 1, etc.; S.S.S. XV. 15; XIV. 13. 4.; S.B. V. 1. 2. 12; V. 1. 5. 28; XII. 7. 3. 14, etc.; XII. 8. 1, etc.; XII. 8. 2. 21, 22; V. 5. 4. 19, etc.; XII. 7. 3. 8; Ap. S.S. XVIII. l. 9.) Sura purifies the sacrificer whilst itself is purified (S.B. XII. 8. 1. 16). Rishi Kakshivan sings the praises of Sura (R.V. I. 116. 7). It is said to be a desirable thing (R.V.. X. 107. 9; VIII. 2. 12). They prefer Soma, the sweet drink. Soma is Paramahutih (S.B. VI. 6. 3. 7); it is the nectar of immortality (S.B. IX. 4. 4. 8.) They deprecate and punish the wanton use of intoxicating liquor (Ap. Dh. S. I. 25. 3.; Ga. Dh. S. XXIII. 10; Va. Dh. S. XX. 19; Ba. Dh. S. II. l. 18, etc.; S.V.B. I. 5). They direct the use of Sura and Soma for attainment of happiness and prescribe the manner and purpose of drinking the same; they prescribe the measure and number of drinks to be offered or taken at a sacrifice (S.B. V. l. 2. 9, etc., V. 5. 4), and they add that a breach of these rules destroys the efficacy of the rite. They offer libations of Sura to the Fat hers (A.B. III. l. 5; S.B. V. 5. 4. 27, etc.) They offer Sura to the Ashvins (R. V.B. I. 44). They offer Sura to Vinayak's mother ( Yag. I. 2. 88). During the performance of a sacrifice, the priests and the householder sit together; they all touch their cups, and raise them to their mouths, all the while reciting proper Mantras addressed to Devas (A.B. VI. 3. 1) and then they drink (A.B. VII. 5. 7). The Vaidik people used to offer to their Devatas at their sacrifices animal and vegetable food. The vegetable substances are Tandula, Pishtaka, Phalikarana, Purodasha, Odana, Yavaguh, Prithuka, Laja, Dhanah and Saktu, and the animal food was Payah, Dadhi, Ajyam, Amiksa Vajinam, Vapa, Mamsam, Lohitam, Pashurasah; the principal of these being Dhanah, Karambha, Paribaha, Purodasha and Payasya (A.B. II. 3.6). Indeed it would not be incorrect to say that no Vaidik rite can be performed without these offerings; the forms and the mode of preparation and the number of cakes to be offered, differing in each case (A.B. I. 1. 1.; II. 1 -9; II. 3. 5; II. 3 -6; S.B. I. 2. 2; L.S.S. V. 4. 1, etc.; Ap. S.S. XII. 3. 12; XII. 4, 9. 14; K.S.S. V. 309; Tait. Br. III. 2. 6, etc.) They offer animal sacrifices (Kat. S.S.Chap. VI; S.B. III. 6. 4; III. 8. 1; V. 1. 3. 2. 14; V. 3. 1. 10; VI. 2. 2. 15. Kanda XIII; As. G.S. I. 11; P.G.S. III. 11; G.G.S. III. 10. 18; Kh. G.S. III. 4; H.G.S. II. 15), which include the horse, goats, sheep, oxen (Tait. Br. II. 8. 1, etc.) and human beings (Tait. Br. III. 4. 1). They believe that by performing anima l sacrifices, the sacrificer ransoms himself (S.B. XI. 81 7. 1. 3; A.B. II. l. 3). or wins all these worlds (Ap. S.S. VII. 1. 1). The animal is the sacrificer himself (A.B. II. 2.1). They direct by special rules, in what manner the animal should be killed, cut and offered (A.B. II. 6; S.B. III. 8. l. 15). They were aware that wanton killing of animals was wrong (A.B. II. l. 7) and believed that offering animal sacrifices to the Devatas, was one of the means whereby bliss hereafter could be attained (Ba. Dh. S. II. 4. 23). And it was only for certain Yajas that animals could be slain (Va. Dh. S. IV. 5- 8; S.G.S. II. 16; 1 Ba. S.S. IV). Wanton killing of animals was very severely punished (Ap. Dh. S. I. 25. 13 -26; Ga. Dh. S. XXII. 18, etc.; Va. Dh. S. 18. 23, etc.; Ba. Dh. S. I. 19. 6). The Vaidik people from the time of the earliest Yajas severely deprecated lust of any kind whatsoever; and they allowed Maithuna, Mamsa, Madya and Mudra for religious purposes only and as offerings to the Devas. The Cakra sittings of the Tantriks (M.N.T. Ch. VI) have unmistakable similarities with the Vajapeya and Sautramani (S.B. V; K.S.S. XIV; A.B. III. 4. 3; S.B. XII. 7.1, etc.; K.S.S. XIX) and even the manner of drinking in company has been preserved as will appear from the references given above. When performing Yaja in company, the members of the company become Brahmanas and there is no distinction of caste (3.B. VIII. 4. 1). The worship in both Vaidik and Tantrik rites begins with Acamana, which is a form of ablution, in which certain parts of the body are touched with water. In this respect, the Vaidik and the Tantrik practices are exactly similar (G.G.S. l. 2. 5; Tait. A. II. 11; M.N.T.; Chap. V). They purify themselves by uttering some mantras as Bijas while contemplating the Deities of certain parts of their bodies and touching such parts with their fingers (A.A. III. 2. l. 2; III. 2. 5. 2; R.V.B. II. 16). They contemplate each Deva through his or her particular Mantras (R.V. III. 62. 10) which will be found collected in the Parishishta to the Taittirya Aranyaka. They make use of certain sounds for removing unclean spirits, e.g., "Khat. Phat. Hum." (7.A. IV. 27; S.V. St. I. 2. 1; I. l. 3; Aranyagana VI. 1- 8; IV. 2. 19; S.B. I 5. 2. 18; I. 3. 3. 14; I. 7. 2. 11 -14; I. 7. 2. 21; XI. 2. 2. 3 and 5; M.N.T.Chap. III) and for other purposes (A.B. II. 3. 6.). They attribute a Deity to each letter in a Mantra (A.B. II.5.5) 82 They make gestures with their fingers as part of their religious rites (S.B. III. l. 3. 25; III. 4. 3. 2) and locate the Devatas of particular sounds in particular parts of their bodies (P.S. 54, 56; K.S.S. VII. 71, 73). They perform their baths as a means of and with the view of pleasing their Devas (G. Sn. S. and M.N.T.) and in performing the Acamana they sacrifice unto themselves conceiving that they are part and parcel of the Great Brahma (T.A. X. i). They worship the Great Brahma thrice daily, such worship being called Sandhyavandan or Ahnika -kriya, twilight prayers or daily rites. How and when the forms of Vaidik Sandhya now practiced by Vaidikas commenced has not yet been ascertained but, there is no doubt that prior to the time when the Taittirya Aranyaka was composed the practice existed in its present form. It will be remembered that it is only in that work that we find the Sandhya -mantras recorded. The practice of Pranayama and Tarpana to Rishis, Fathers, and Devas also existed before Baudhayana. This practice of Vaidik Sandhya worship should be compared with the Tantrik mode, to gain an insight into the relationship of the Vedas and the Tantras. In the Yajas, the Vaidik people principally worshipped (1) Sarasvati (S.B. II. 5. 4. 6; III. 1. 4. 9; III. 9. 1. 7; V. 2. 2. 14; V. 3. 5. 8; V. 4. 5. 7; V. 5. 2. 7) to whom animals are sacrificed (S.B. III. 9. l. 7; V. 5. 4. 1; XII. 7. 2. 3) and who is the same as Vak or Vagdevi who became a lioness and went over to the Devatas, on their undertaking that to her offerings should be made before they were made to Agni (S.B. III. 5. 1. 21) and who bestows food (S.B. XII. 8. 2. 16); (2) Mahadeva or Mahesa, another form of Agni, in all his eight forms (S.B. VI. l. 3. 10 et seq.); (3) Rudra, (4) Vishnu, (5) Vinayaka (Ganesha), (6) Skanda (Kartikeya) (S.V.B. I. 4. 31 et seq.); (7) the Lingam or Phallus (7.A. X. 17) on whom they meditated during the daily Sandhya worship and who is the same as Shambhu riding on a bull, (8) Shiva (S.V.B. I. 2. 2). They also worshipped (9) the cow whom they called Bhagavati (A.B. V. 5. 2) and also (10) Indra, Varuna, Agni, Soma, Rudra, Pushan, the Ashvins, Surya and some other Deities. For purposes of attaining eternal bliss they worshipped Ratridevi (S.V.B. III. 8) and this Ratridevi is described as a girl growing into womanhood who bestows happiness. She has long and flowing hair, has in her hand a noose. If she is pleased, then all other Devas are pleased. She being pleased, offers boons, but the worshipper must reject the same and then he will gain freedom from rebirth. This is the worship of Ratri; it 83 requires no fasting and must be performed at night. The Mantras to be recited is the Ratri Sukta which commences with Ratri vakhyad (Rig Veda X. 127. 1) to be followed by aratri parthivam rajas. The Rig -Vidhana -Brahmana (IV. 19) which follows the Sama -Vidhana - Brahmana declares that the Ratri Sukta must be recited; the worship; the worship must be performed as a Sthalipaka -Yaja. Ratri is substantially the same with, but in form different from, Vagdevi; and they are sometimes worshipped as one and the same (Tait. Br. II. 4. 6. 10 et seq.). The Ratri Sukta describes her as black (R.V. X. 127. 2- 3). The portion of the Ratri Sukta which is included in the Khila portion of the Rig -Veda (R.V. Kh. 25) calls Ratri Devi by the name of Durga and this Mantra appears inTaittiriya Aranyaka (X. 1). She is described here, as the bearer of oblations; therefore, she is the same as Agni and as such she has tongues which are named as follows: (1) Kali, (2) Karali, (3) Manojava., (4) Sulohita, (5) Sudhumravarna, (6) Sphulingini, (7) Shucismita and these tongues loll out and by these tongues offerings are received (Grihya -Sangraha I. 13. 14). The Brihaddevata mentions that Aditi, Vak, Sarasvati and Durga are the same (II. 79). In conformity with the Vaidik system the Tantrik system of worship acknowledges that Om is the s upreme Bija (A.B. VII. 3. 6; II. l. 2; V. 5. 7; A.A. II. 3. 8; Chh. Up. I. l. 1 et seq.; 7.A. VII. 8; X. 63. 21 et seq.; Shakatayana, p. 106 (Op- pert); Panini VIII. 2. 87; Br. D. II. 127. 133; G.B. IX. l. 24; I. l. 17. 19; M.N.T.; II. 32) and they also acknowledge and use the Hinkara of the Vedas pronounced Hum (S.B. I. 4. 1. 2; IX. 1. 2. 3. 4; A.B. III. 2. 12; L.S.S. I. 10. 25; I. 1. 27; II. 1. 4; IV. 3. 22). The rules and practice of Acamana, and the bath are exactly the same as will be found on a comparison of chapter V of the Mahanirvana Tantra with the Snanasutra of Gobhila. The Tantras prefer to use single compounds instead of long sentences to express an idea and form one letter Mantras very much according to the Vaidik method. We also find the practice of Nyasa and Shuddhi foreshadowed in the Vedas as has been already mentioned. (See also S.B. VII. 5. 2. 12). The principal Devi of the Veda is Sarasvati, who is called Nagna in the Nighantu, expressing nudeness, and also referring to that age of a woman when womanhood has not expressed itself. If we again take these ideas with that of the Sama -Vidhana -Brahmana, we have the almost complete form of a Devi who is called at the present day 84 by the name of Kali. Another Devi whose worship is very popular at the present day is Durga, who has a lion for her carrier. It will have been observed that Vach turned herself into a lion, and after earnest solicitations went over to the Devas; and therefore, Vach and the lion are identically the same. We have already given references which show that Vach and Durga were the same; and these facts explain how Durga has a lion to carry her. The worship of Ratri is to be performed at night and therefore the worship of Kali must be a night performance; and therefore, must partake of all the features of a night performance; and these elements must be sought for in the Vaidi k Atiratra. The Atiratra is a performance of three Paryyayas or rounds of four Stotras and Shastras in each and at the end of each libations are offered, followed by drinking of Soma. The same rules and practices as in the Atiratra are substantially followed in the worship of the Devi Kali, bhang being very largely used under the name of Vijaya and Amrita. It will be remembered that the Devi of the Atiratra is Sarasvati. The principal male Devata of the Tantras is Mahadeva named also Shiva, Mahesa, Shambhu, Soma and also in a different aspect Rudra. Rudra and Mahadeva are admittedly Vaidik gods. Rudra is described as having bows and arrows and has hundred heads and thousand eyes (S.B. IV. l. l. 6.; Yajur Veda III. 27). Mahadeva is Maham devah, the great God (S.B. VI. l. 3. 16). It appears that the Mantras of the different aspects of Mahadeva, which are even now used by Tantriks, were known and used by the Vaidik people. I cannot, however, trace the name Mahesa in Vaidik literature. Shiva can be identified wit h Rudra Susheva, who is a kind god (S.B. V. 4. 4. 12). Mahadeva (Soma) is clad in a tiger skin which can be traced in Vaidik literature (S.B. V. 3. 5. 3; V. 4. 1. 11). Rudra is black, in the Tantras as well as in the Vedas. He is the same as Manyu with a Devi on each side of him (S.B. IX. l. 1. 6; XI. 6. 1. 12 and 13). In this connection, we must not fail to note some of the attributes of Vaidik Nirriti. Nirriti is black and is a terrible Devi and punishes those who do not offer Soma to her. She is the Devi of misfortunes and removes all misfortunes. She is the genetrix and she is fond of the cremation ground (S.B. VII. 2. 1; A.B. IV. 2. 4.) The Tantras direct the worship also of Ganesha, Kartika and Vishnu, for whose worship the Sama -Vidhana -Brahmana prescribes the singing of 85 certain Samans, known as the Vinayaka Samhita (S. V. 4. 5. 3. 3), Skanda - Samhita (S. V. 3. 2. l. 4) and the Vishnu -Samhita (S. U. 3. l. 3. 9) respectively. The Tantras also direct the use of certain figures which are called Yantras. These may be of various kinds and forms and may be used for various purposes. One of these which is constantly used, is a triangle within a square (M.N.T. Chap. V) and this can traced to the rules for the preparation of the Agnikshetra, or the Fire Altar of the Vaidik people (S.B. VI. l. l. 6). Another curious circumstance in connection with the altar, is, that both in the Vaidik and the Tantri k ritual, the heads of five animals are used in its preparation (S.B. VI. 2. l. 5 -8). The worship of the Lingam is foreshadowed by the Vaidik Deity Vishnu Shipivishta (R.V. VII. 1001, etc., Nirukta V. 2. 2) and the serpent which twines round Devas or Devis is foreshadowed by the Sarparaji, the Serpent Queen (S.B. IV. 6. 9. 17) who is the same as Vach. The facts collected here will, it is hoped, enable impartial readers to come to a definite conclusion as to the relationship of the Vaidik to the Tantrik rit ual. 86 CHAPTER FIVE. THE TANTRAS AND RELIGION OF THE SHAKTAS (What follows this bracket is a translation, done in literal fashion, from the German, of an article by the learned Sanskritist, Professor Winternitz, entitled "Die Tantras und die Religion der Saktas" published in the Berlin monthly, the Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1916, Heft. 3. The article does not show a complete comprehension of its subject- matter, nor was this to be expected. In European fashion Sadhaka is translated "Magician" and Sadhana is thought of as "magical evocation" and Mahayogini as "Great Magician". This is the more unfortunate, as the Professor evidently does not like "magic". It is true that in Indrajalavidya there is Sadhana to achieve its purposes, but what is of course meant is Sadhana in its religious sense. We hear again of "idolatry" though idolatry is not (in the sense in which those who make the charge use the word) to be found in any part of the world. Mantra is still "gibberish," "trash" and so on. After all, many of these matters are as much a question of temperament as argument. The mind which takes these views is like that of the Protestant who called the Catholic Mass "Hocus Pocus". It is superstitious trash to him but a holy reality to the believer. Such criticism involves the fallacy of judging others from one's own subjective standpoi nt. Moreover, not one man in thousands is capable of grasping the inner significance of this doctrine and for this reason it is kept secret nor does any writing reveal it to those without understanding. The learned Professor has also evidently no liking for "Occultism" and "India - faddists" (Indiensschwarmern). But the former exists whether we like its facts or not. Nevertheless, in reading this article one feels oneself in the presence of a learned mind which wills to be fair and is not to be stampeded from investigation on hearing the frightful word "Tantra". Several appreciations are just. Particularly noteworthy is the recognition that the Tantra Shastras or Agamas are not merely some pathological excrescence on "Hinduism" but simply one of its several pr esentations. Nor are they simply Scriptures of the Shaktas. Their metaphysics and ethics are those of the common Brahmanism of which all the sects are offshoots, whatever be 87 the special peculiarities in presentment of doctrine or in its application. Before this Professor Albert Grunwedel had said (in his Der Weg Nach Sambhala, Munchen 1915): "The Tantras are nothing but the continuation of the Veda" (Die Tantras, sind eben die fortsetzung des Veda). He calls also the Tantras the "model -room" (Akt -saal) of Indian Art (the Akt -saal is a room in an Academy of Art in which casts are kept as models for the students). "These Scriptures," he adds, "furnish the aesthetics and in fact we find that in the later books (of the Kalacakra) the whole figurative mythology (of that system) has been built upon this scheme. Whence this evolution of forms arises is indeed another question which will bring many a surprise to the friends of 'National Indian Art' (sic!). Talking is easier. The Jains too have such things." I may add that the fact that some Jains carry out some so- called "Tantrik rites" is not generally known. Vaishnavas and Bauddhas also have these rites. Notions and practices generally charged to Shaktas only are held and carried out by other sects. It is to be remembered also that there are many schools of Agama. Some of them state that other Agamas were promulgated "for the delusion of men". It is needless to add that, here as elsewhere, to the adherent of a particular Agama his particular scripture is good, and it is the scripture of his opponent which is "for delusion". Orthodoxy is "my doxy" in India also amongst some sects. Shakta liberalism (being Advaita Vedanta) finds a place for all. It cannot, therefore, be said the Agamas are wholly worthless and bad witho ut involving all Hinduism in that charge. On the contrary the Professor discovers that behind the "nonsense" there may be a deep sense and that "immorality" is not the end or aim of the Cult of the Mother. He also holds that if the Tantrik Scriptures conta in some things to which he and others take objection, such things in no wise exhaust their contents. There is nothing wonderful about this discovery, which anyone may make for himself by simply reading and understanding the documents, but the wonder consis ts in this, that it has not hitherto been thought necessary (where it has been possible) to read and understand the Tantra Shastras first and then to criticize them. All the greater then are our thanks to the learned Sanskritist for his share in this work of justice. -- J. W.) 88 India remains still the most important country on earth for the student of religion. In India we meet with all forms of religious thought and feeling which we find on earth, and that not only at different times but also all together ev en to -day. Here we find the most primitive belief in ancestral Spirits, in Demons and Nature Deities with a primeval, imageless sacrificial cult. Here also is a polytheism passing all limits, with the most riotous idolatry, temple cult, pilgrimages, and so forth. And, side by side with and beyond these crudest forms of religious life, we find what is deepest and most abstract of what religious thinkers of all times have ever thought about the Deity, the noblest pantheistic and the purest monotheistic concep tions. In India we also find a priestcraft as nowhere else on earth side by side with a religious tolerance which lets sect after sect, with the most wonderful saints, exist together. Here there were and still are forest recluses, ascetics, and mendicant monks, to whom renunciation of this world is really and truly a matter of deepest sincerity, and together with them hosts of idle mendicant monks, vain fools and hypocrites, to whom religion is only a cloak for selfish pursuits for the gratification of gree d for money, of greed for fame or the hankering after power. From India also a powerful stream of religious ideas has poured forth over the West, and especially over the East, has flooded Central Asia, has spread over Tibet, China, Korea and Japan, and has trickled through the further East down to the remotest islands of the East Indian Archipelago. And finally, in India as well as outside India, Indian religions have often mixed with Christianity and with Islam, now giving and now taking. Indeed, sufficient reason exists to welcome every work which contributes in one way or other to a richer, deeper or wider knowledge of Indian religion. I would like, therefore, to draw attention in what follows to some recently published works of this nature. These are the exceedingly meritorious publications of Arthur Avalon with reference to the literature of the Tantras. Through these works we obtain, for the first time, a deeper insight into the literature of the Tantras, the holy books of Shaktism, and into the nature of this much abused religion itself. It is true that H. H. Wilson in his essays on the religious sects of the Hindus which appeared from 1828 to 1832 has given a brief but relatively reliable 89 and just exposition of this religion. M. Monier -Williams who has treated more fully of Shaktism, worship of the Goddess, and the contents of the Tantras, has only to tell terrible and horrible things. He describes the faith of the Shaktas, of the worshippers of the feminine Deities, as a mixture of sanguinary sacrifice s and orgies with wine and women. Similar is the picture of this sect presented by A. Barth who on the one hand indeed admits that the Cult of the Mother is based on a deep meaning and that the Tantras are also full of theosophical and moral reflections and ascetic theories, but is not thereby prevented from saying that the Shakta is "nearly always a hypocrite and a superstitious debauchee", even though many amongst the authors of the Tantras may have really believed that they were performing a sacred work. R. G. Bhandarkar, to whom we owe the latest and most reliable exposition of Indian sectarianism, happens in fact to deal with the Shaktas very summarily. Whereas the greater part of his excellent book deals with the religion of the Vaishnavas and with the sects of the Shaivas, he only devotes a few pages to the sect of the Shaktas which evidently seems unimportant to him. He speaks, however, both about the metaphysical doctrines and about the cult of this sect, with in every way, the cool, quiet objectivity of the historian. The exposition is only a little too brief and meager. So, all the more are Avalon's books welcome. The most valuable is the complete English translation of a Tantra, the Mahanirvana Tantra with an Introduction of 146 pages which introdu ces us to the chief doctrines of the Shaktas and with the exceedingly complicated, perhaps purposely confused, terminology of the Tantras. If we have been accustomed, up till the present, to see nothing else in Shaktism and in the Tantras, the sacred books of this sect, than wild superstition, occult humbug, idiocy, empty magic and a cult with a most objectionable morality, and distorted by orgies -- then a glimpse at the text made accessible to us by Avalon, teaches us that -- all these things are indeed t o be found in this religion and in its sacred texts, but that by these their contents are nevertheless, in no wise exhausted. On the contrary, we rather find that behind the nonsense there lies hidden after all much deep sense and that immorality is not the end and aim of the cult of the Mother. We find that the mysticism of the Tantras has been built 90 up on the basis of that mystic doctrine of the unity of the soul and of all with the Brahman, which is proclaimed in the oldest Upanishads and which belongs to the most profound speculations which the Indian spirit has imagined. This Brahman however, the highest divine principle, is, according to the doctrines of the Shakta philosophers, no "nothing", but the eternal, primeval Energy (Shakti) out of which everything has been created, has originated, has been born. Shakti "Energy", however is not only grammatically feminine. Human experience teaches also that all life is born from the womb of the woman, from the mother. Therefore the Indian thinkers, from whom Shaktism has originated, believed that the highest Deity, the supremest creative principle, should be brought nearest to the human mind not through the word "Father," but through the word "Mother". And all philosophical conceptions to which language has given a feminine gender, as well as all mythological figures which appear feminine in popular belief, become Goddesses, Divine Mothers. So, before all, there is Prakriti, taken from the Samkhya philosophy, primeval matter, "Nature," who stands in contrast to Purusha, the male spirit, and is identical with Shakti. And this Shakti is, again, mythologically conceived as the spouse of God Shiva, Mahadeva, the "Great God". Mythology, however, knew already Uma or Parvati, "the daughter of the Mountain," the daughter of the Himalaya, as the spouse of Shiva. And so Prakriti, Shakti, Uma, Parvati, are ever one and the same. They are only different names for the one great All - Mother, the Jaganmata, "the Mother of all the living". The Indian mind had been long since accustomed to see Unity in all Multiplicity. Just as one moon reflects itself in innumerable waters, so Devi, the "Goddess," by whatever other names she may be otherwise called, is the embodiment of all Gods and of all "energies" (Shaktis) of the Gods. Within her is Brahma, the Creator, and his Shakti; within her is Vishnu, the Preserver, and his Shakti; within her is also Shiva as Mahakala, "great Father Time", the great Destroyer. But as this one is swallowed up by herself, she is also Adyakalika, the "primordial Kali"; and as a "great magician," Mahayogini, she is at the same time Creatrix, Preservatrix, and Destroyer of the world. She is also the mother of Mahakala, who dances before her, intoxicated by the wine of Madhuka blossoms. As, however, the highest Deity is a woman, every woman is regarded as an embodiment of this Deity. Devi, "the Goddess", is 91 within every feminine being. This conception it is, which has led to a woman worship which, undoubtedly, has taken the shape, in many circles, of wild orgies, b ut which also -- at least according to the testimony of the Mahanirvana Tantra -- could appear in a purer and nobler form, .and has as surely done so. To the worship of the Devi, the Goddess, who is the joyously creative energy of nature, belong the "five true things" (Pancatattva) through which mankind enjoy gladly, preserve their life and procreate; intoxicating drink which is a great medicine to man, a breaker of sorrows and a source of pleasure; meat of the animals in the villages, in the air and in the forests, which is nutritious and strengthens the force of body and mind; fish which is tasty and augments procreative potency; roasted corn which, easily obtained, grows in the earth and is the root of life in the three worlds; and fifthly physical union with Shakti "the source of bliss of all living beings, the deepest cause of creation and the root of the eternal world." But these "five true things" may only be used in the circle of initiates, and only after they have been consecrated by sacred formulas and ceremonies. The Mahanirvana Tantra lays stress on the fact that no abuse may be made of these five things. Who drinks immoderately is no true worshipper of the Devi. Immoderate drinking, which disturbs seeing and thinking, destroys the effect of the sa cred action. In the sinful Kali age also, only the own spouse should be enjoyed as Shakti. In everything the Tantra takes all imaginable trouble to excuse the Pancatattva ceremonies and to prevent their abuse. In the Kali age sweets (milk, sugar, honey) must be used instead of intoxicating drink, and the adoration of the lotus feet of the Devi should be substituted for the physical union. The worship should not be secret, indecencies should not occur, and evil, impious people should not be admitted to the circle of the worshippers. True, it is permissible for the "Hero" (Vira) who is qualified to the Sadhaka or "magician" to unite in secret worship with other Shaktis. Only in the highest "heavenly condition" (Divyabhava) of the saint do purely symbolical actions take the place of the "five true things". But to the worship of the Devi belong in the first place Mantras (formulas) and Bijas (monosyllabic mysterious words like Aim, Klim, Hrim etc.); further also Yantras (diagrams of a mysterious meaning, drawn on metal, paper or 92 other material), Mudras (special finger positions and hand movements) and Nyasas. (These last consist in putting the tips of the fingers and the flat of the right hand, with certain mantras, on the various parts of the body, in order by th at to fill one's own body with the life of the Devi.) By the application of all these means the worshipper renders the Deity willing and forces him into his service, and becomes a Sadhaka, a magician. For Sadhana, "Magic," is the chief aim, though not the final aim of Devi worship. This highest and final aim is the same as that of all Indian sects and religious systems; Moksha or deliverance, the unification with the Deity in Mahanirvana, the "great extinction". The perfected saint, the Kaula, reaches this condition already in the present life and is one who is liberated whilst living (Jivanmukta). But the way to deliverance can only be found through the Tantras. For Veda, Smriti, Puranas and Itihasa are each the sacred books of past ages of the world, whils t for our present evil age, the Kali age, the Tantras have been revealed by Shiva for the salvation of mankind (I, 20 ff.) The Tantras thus on the strength of their own showing indicate themselves to be relatively modern works. In the present age Vedic and other rites and prayers have no value but only the mantras and ceremonies taught in the Tantras (II, 1 K). And just as the worship of the Devi leads equally to thoroughly materialistic results through magic and to the highest ideal of Nirvana, so there is a strong mixture in the worship itself of the sensuous and the spiritual. Characteristic is Mahanirvana Tantra V, 139 -151 (P. 86 K): The worshipper first offers to the Devi spiritual adoration, dedicating to her his heart as her seat, the nectar of his heart as the water for washing her feet, his mind as a gift of honor, the restlessness of his senses and thoughts as a dance, selflessness, dispassionateness, and so forth as flowers, but then he offers to the Devi an ocean of intoxicating drink, a mountain of meat and dried fish, a heap of roasted corn in milk, with sugar and butter, "nectar" and other things. Besides the "five true things" and other elements of this most sensuous worship which is calculated to produce the intoxication of the senses, and in which also bells, incense, flowers, lights and rosaries are not lacking, there is also the quiet contemplation (Dhyana) of the Deity. And likewise, we find side by side with mantras which are completely senseless and insipid such beautiful sayings as, for instance, V, 156: "O Adya Kali, who 93 dwellest in the innermost soul of all, who art the innermost light,O Mother! Accept this prayer of my heart. I bow down before thee." The Shaktas are a sect of the religion which is commonly designated "Hinduism," a term which is a facile one but which has not been chosen very happily. The word embraces all the sects and creeds which have originated from Brahmanism through a mixture with the cults of the aborigines of India and thus present a kind of degeneration of the old Brahmanical religion, but which still hold fast more or less, to orthodox Brahmanism and so distinguish themselves from the heretical sects (Buddhists and Jains). In reality there is strictly no sense in speaking of "Hinduism" as a "system" or as one "religion". For it is impossible to say where Brahmanism ends and where "Hinduism" begins. We are also altogether ignorant as to how much the old Brahmanic religion had already assimilated from the faith and the customs of the non- Aryan populace. For it is not admissible to classify without further ado all animal worship, all demon worship, all fetichism and so on as "non- Aryan". In reality, all sects of "Hinduism" which are related to a worship of Vishnu or of Shiva, are nothing but offshoots of the original Brahmanism, which they never, however, deny. So also Shaktism has as a special characteristic merely the worship of the Shaktis, of the female deities, with its accessory matter (of the "five true things," the worship in the cakra or "circle" of the initi ates, and so on). For the rest, its dogmatics -- or if it be preferred, its metaphysics -- as well as its ethics are altogether those of Brahmanism, of which also the essential ritual institutions have been preserved. In dogmatics it is the teachings of th e orthodox systems of the Vedanta and the Samkhya, which meet us also in the Tantras clearly enough, sometimes even under the trash of senseless magic formulas. And as far as ethics are concerned, the moral teaching in the VIII chapter of the Mahanirvana Tantra reminds us from beginning to end of Manu's Code, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Buddhist sermons. Notwithstanding the fact that in the ritual proper of the Shakta there are no caste differences but in Shakti worship all castes as well as the sexes are equal yet, in harmony with Brahmanism, the castes are recognized with this modification that a fifth caste is added to the four usual ones, which springs from the mixture of the four older ones, namely, the caste of the Samanyas. Whilst Manu, however, distin guishes four Ashramas or statuses of life, the Mahanirvana 94 Tantra teaches that, there are only two Ashramas in the Kali age, the status of the householder and that of the ascetic. For the rest, everything which is taught in our Tantra about the duties towards parents, towards wife and child, towards relations and in general towards fellow -men, might find a place, exactly in the same way, in any other religious book or even in a profane manual of morals. As an example we may quote only a few verses from this Chapter VIII: (vv. 24, 25, 33, 35, 39, 45 -47, 63- 67). The duties of each of the castes as well as the duties of the king are not prescribed much differently from Manu. Family life is estimated very highly by the Mahanirvana Tantra. So it is rigorously prescribed that no one is allowed to devote himself to the ascetic life who has children, wives, or such like near relations to maintain. Entirely in consonance with the prescriptions of the Brahmanic texts also are the "sacraments from conception until the marriage which are described in the 9th chapter of the Mahanirvana Tantra (Samskaras). Likewise in the 10th chapter the direction for the disposal and the cult of the dead (Shraddha) are given. A peculiarity of the Shaktas in connection with marriage consis ts in the fact that side by side with the Brahma marriage for which the Brahmanic prescriptions are valid, there is also a Shaiva marriage, that is kind of marriage for a limited period which is only permitted to the members of the circle (Cakra) of the initiates. But children out of such a marriage are not legitimate and do not inherit. So far Brahmanic law applies also to the Shaktas, and so the section concerning civil and criminal law in the 11th and 12th chapters of the Mahanirvana Tantra substantially agree with Manu. Of course, notwithstanding all this, the Kauladharma expounded in the Tantra is declared the best of all religions in an exuberant manner and the veneration of the Kula -saint is praised as the highest merit. It is said in a well - known Buddhist text: "As, ye monks, there is place for every kind of footprints of living beings that move in the footprint of the elephant, because, as is known indeed, the footprint of the elephant is the first in size amongst all, so, ye monks, all salutary doctrines are contained in the four noble truths." So it is said in the Mahanirvana Tantra, (probably in recollection of the Buddhist passage): "As the footprints of all animals 95 disappear in the footprint of the elephant, so disappear all other religions (dhar ma) in the Kula religion (kula -dharma) ." From what has been said it is clear that Avalon is right when he declares that up till now this literature has been only too often judged and still more condemned without knowing it, and that the Tantras deserve to become better known than has been the case hitherto. From the point of view of the history of religion they are already important for the reason that they have strongly influenced Mahayana Buddhism and specially the Buddhism of Tibet. It is, therefore, mu ch to be welcomed that Avalon has undertaken to publish a series of texts and translations from this literature. It is true that we have no desire to be made acquainted with all the 3 x 64 Tantras which are said to exist. For -- this should not be denied, that for the greatest part these works contain, after all, only stupidity and gibberish ("doch nur Stumpfsinn und Kauderwelsch"). This is specially true of the Bijas and Mantras, the mysterious syllables and words and the magic formulas which fill these vo lumes. To understand this gibberish only to a certain degree and to bring some sense into this stupidity, it is necessary to know the Tantric meaning of the single vowels and consonants. For, amongst the chief instruments of the magic which plays such a gr eat part in these texts, belongs the spoken word. It is not the meaning embedded in the mantra which exercises power over the deity, but the word, the sound. Each sound possesses a special mysterious meaning. Therefore, there are special glossaries in whic h this mysterious meaning of the single vowels and consonants. is taught. A few of such glossaries, indispensable helps for the Sadhaka, or rather the pupil who wants to develop himself into Sadhaka, have been brought to light in the first volume of the series of Tantric Texts, published by Avalon: The Mantrabhidhana belonging to the Rudrayamala, Ekaksharakosha ascribed to Purushottamadeva, the Bijanighantu of Bhairava and two Matrikanighantus, the one by Mahidhara, the other by Madhava. Added to these is one other auxiliary text of this same kind, the Mudranighantu, belonging to the Vamakeshvara Tantra, an enumeration of the finger positions as they are used in Yoga. The second volume of the same series of Texts contains the text of the Satcakranirupana, the "description of the six circles," together with no 96 less than three commentaries. The "six circles" are six places in the human body, imagined as lotus -shaped, of great mystical significance and therefore of great importance for Yoga. The first of these c ircles is Muladhara, which is described as a triangle in the middle of the body with its point downwards and imagined as a red lotus with four petals on which are written the four golden letters Vam, Sham, Sham and Sham. In the center of this lotus is Svay ambhulinga. At the root of this reddish brown linga the Citrininadi opens, through which the Devi Kundalini ascends, more delicate than a lotus fiber and more effulgent than lightning, and so on. The Satcakranirupana is the chapter of the Shritattvacintamani composed by Purnananda Swami. In addition the volume contains the text of a hymn, entitled Paduka -pacakam, which is said to have been revealed by Shiva, and a voluminous commentary. The third volume of the Series contains the text of the Prapacasaratantra which is ascribed to the Vedantic philosopher Shamkaracarya, and by others to the deity Shiva in his incarnation as Shamkaracarya. The name Samara appears fairly often in Tantra literature, but it is not at all sure that the works in question really c ome from the Philosopher. Avalon prefaces the text by a detailed description of the contents of the work. Prapaca means "extension," " the extended Universe" from which, "Prapacasara" "the innermost being of the universe". The work begins with a description of creation, accompanied, in the first two chapters, by detailed expositions of Chronology, Embryology, Anatomy, Physiology and Psychology, which are exactly as "scientific,' as both the following chapters which treat of the mysterious meaning of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and of the Bijas. The further chapters which partly contain rituals, partly prayers, meditations and Stotras, are of greater importance from the standpoint of the history of religion. To how high a degree in the Shakti cult the erotic element predominates, is shown in IX, 23 ff., where a description is given, "how the wives of the gods, demons, and demi -gods impelled by mantras come to the magician, the Sadhaka, oppressed by the greatness of their desires". In the XVIII chapt er, the mantras and the dhyanas (meditations) for the adoration of the God of love and his Shaktis are taught, and the union of man and woman is represented as a mystic union 97 of the "I" (Ahamkara) with perception (Buddhi) and as a sacred sacrificial action. When a man honors his beloved wife in such a way, she will, struck by the arrows of the God of love, follow him like a shadow even in the other world (XVIII, 33). The XXVIII chapter is devoted to Ardhanarishvara, the God who is half woman -- Shiva, represented as a wild looking man, forms the right- hand half of the body, and his Shakti represented as a voluptuous woman, the left -hand half. The XXXIII chapter which seems to have originally closed the work describes in its first part ceremonies against childlessness, the cause of which is indicated as lack of veneration of the Gods and neglect of the wife. The second part is connected with the relation between teacher and pupil which is of extreme importance for the Shakta religion. Indeed, worship of t he Guru, the teacher, plays a prominent part in this sect. However, the rituals and Mantras described in this Tantra are not exclusively connected with the different forms of the Devi and Shiva, but Vishnu and his Avataras are also often honored. The XXXVI chapter contains a disquisition on Vishnu Trailokyamohana (the Enchanter of the triple world) in verses 35 - 47 translated by Avalon. It is a description, glowing and sensuous (Voll sinnlicher Glut.): Vishnu shines like millions of suns and is of infinite b eauty. Full of goodness his eye rests on Shri, his spouse, who embraces him, full of love. She too is of incomparable beauty. All the Gods and Demons and their wives offer homage to the August Pair. The Goddesses, however, press themselves in a burning yearning of love towards Vishnu, whilst exclaiming: "Be our husband, our refuge, August Lord!" In addition to this passage Avalon has also translated the hymns to Prakriti (Chapter XI), to Vishnu (Chapter XXI) and to Shiva (Chapter XXVI). Of these hymns the s ame holds good as of the collection of hymns to the Devi, which Avalon, together with his wife, has translated in a separate volume. Whilst many of these texts are mere insipid litanies of names and epithets of the worshipped deities, there are others, which, as to profoundness of thought and beauty of language may be put side by side with the best productions of the religious lyrics of the Indians. So the hymn to Prakriti in the Prapacasara XI, 48, begins with the words: "Be gracious to me,O Pradhana, who art Prakriti in the form of the elemental world. Life of all that lives. With folded hands I make obeisance to 98 thee our Lady, whose very nature it is to do that which we cannot understand." It is intelligible that the poets have found much more intimate c ries of the heart when they spoke of the Deity as their "Mother" than when they addressed themselves to God as Father. So, for instance, it is said in a hymn to the Goddess ascribed to Shamkara: 2 By my ignorance of They commands By my poverty and sloth I had not the power to do that which I should have done Hence my omission to worship Thy feet. But Oh Mother, auspicious deliverer of all, All this should be forgiven me For, a bad son may sometimes be born, but a bad mother never. 3 Oh Mother! Thou hast many sons on earth, But I, your son, am of no worth; Yet it is not meet that Thou shouldst abandon me For, a bad son may sometimes be born, but a bad mother never. 4 Oh Mother of the world, Oh Mother! I have not worshipped Thy feet, Nor have I given abundant wealth to Thee, 99 Yet the affection which Thou bestowest on me is without compare, For, a bad son may sometimes be born, but a bad mother never. Avalon looks with great sympathy on the Shakta religion which has found the highest expression for the divine pri nciple in the conception "Mother". He is of opinion that when the European thinks that it is a debasement of the deity to conceive of it as feminine, then this can only be because he "looks upon his mother's sex as lower than his own" and because he thinks it unworthy of the deity to conceive it otherwise than masculine. That the conception of the Indian and especially of the Shakta is, in this connection, the more unbiased and unprejudiced one, we will freely concede to Avalon. He, however, goes still further and believes that the Tantras not only have an interest from the point of view of the history of religion, but that they also possess an independent value as manuals of Sadhana, that is magic. However grateful we might be to the editor and translator of these texts for having made us better acquainted with a little known and much misunderstood Indian system of religion, we yet would hope to be saved from the possibility of seeing added to the Vedantists, Neo -Buddhists, Theosophists and other India -fattest (Indiensschwarmern) in Europe and America, adherents of the Sadhana of the Shakti cult. The student of religion cannot and may not leave the Tantras and Shaktism unnoticed. They have their place in the history of religion. But, may this occultism, which often flows from very turbid sources -- (this word should not be translated as "Secret Science" thus abusing the sacred name of Science, but rather as "Mystery Mongering" Geheimtuerei) remain far away from our intellectual life. (To the above may be added a recent criticism of M. Masson Oursel of the College de France in the Journal Isis (iii, 1920) which is summarized and translated from the French: "The obscurity of language, strangeness of thought and rites sometimes adjudged scandalous, have turned awa y from the study of the immense Tantrik literature even the most courageous savants. If, however, the Tantras have appeared to be a mere mass of 100 aberrations, it is because the key to them was unknown. The Tantras are the culmination of the whole Indian lit erature. Into them How both the Vedic and popular cults. Tantricism has imposed itself on the whole Hindu mentality (le Tantrisme, est impos a toute la mentalit hindoue). Arthur Avalon has undertaken with complete success a task which in appearance seems to be a thankless one but is in reality fecund of results." The article of Dr. Winternitz deals largely with the Mahanirvana Tantra. Because objections cannot be easily found against this Tantra, the theory has been lately put forward by Dr. Farquhar in his last work on Indian Literature that this particular scripture is exceptional and the work of Ram Mohun Roy's Guru Hariharananda Bharati. The argument is in effect "All Tantras are bad; this is not bad: therefore it is not a Tantra." In the first place , the MS. referred to in the Preface to A. Avalon's translation of this Tantra as having been brought to Calcutta, was an old MS. having the date Shakabda 1300 odd, that is, several hundreds of years ago. Secondly, the Mahanirvana which belongs to the Visnukranta, or as some say Rathakranta, is mentioned in the Mahasiddhisara Tantra, an old copy of which was the property of Raja Sir Radhakant Dev (b. 1783 -- d. 1867), a contemporary of Raja Ram Mohun Roy (1774- 1833) who survived the latter's son. The earlie st edition of that Tantra by Anandacandra Vedantavagisha was published from a text in the Sanskrit College Library which is not likely to have had amongst its MSS. one which was the work of a man who, whatever be the date of his death, must have died within a comparatively short period of the publication of this edition. In fact, the Catalogue describes it as an old MS. and an original Tantra. Dr. Rajendralala Mitra in his notice of a MS. of the Tagore collection speaks of it as containing only the first ha lf of fourteen chapters. This is so. The second half is not published and is very rare. The Pandit's copy to which reference was made in the Preface to A.A.'s translation of the Mahanirvana contained both parts. How comes it that if the Tantra was written by Raja Ram Mohun Roy's Guru that we have only the first half and not the second containing amongst other things the so- called magic or Shatkarma. It should be mentioned that there are three Tantras -- the Nirvana, Brihannirvana and Mahanirvana Tantras, similar to the group Nila, 101 Brihannila and Mahanila Tantras. It is to be noted also that in the year 1293 B.S. or 1886 an edition of the Mahanirvana was published with commentary by a Samnyasin calling himself Shamkaracarya under the auspices of the Danda Shabha of Manikarnika Ghat, Benares, which contains more verses than is contained in the text, commented upon by Hariharananda and the interpretation of the latter as also that of Jagamohan Tarkalamkara, are in several matters controverted. We are asked to su ppose that Hariharananda was both the author of, and commentator on, the Tantra. That the Mahanirvana has its merits is obvious, but there are others which have theirs. The same critic speaks of the Prapacasara as a "rather foul work". This criticism is ridiculous. The text is published for any one to judge. All that can be said is what Dr. Winternitz has said, namely, that there are a few passages with sensuous erotic imagery. These are descriptive of the state of women in love. What is wrong here? There is nothing "foul" in this except for people to whom all erotic phenomena are foul. "This is a very indecent picture," said an elderly lady to Byron, who retorted "Madam, the indecency consists in your remark". It cannot be too often asserted that the ancient East was purer in these matters than the modern West, where, under cover of a pruriently modest exterior, a cloaca of extraordinarly varied psychopathic filth may flow. This was not so in earlier days, whether of East or West, when a spade was called a spade and not a horticultural instrument. In America it is still, I am told, considered indecent to mention the word "leg". One must say "limb". Said Tertullian: "Natura veneranda et non eru -bescenda"; that is, where the knower venerates his unknowing critic blushes. The Prapacasara which does not even deal with the rite against which most objection has been taken (while the Mahanirvana does), treats of the creation of the world, the generation of bodies, physiology, the classification of the letters, the Kalas, initiation, Japa, Homa, the Gayatri Mantra, and ritual worship of various Devatas and so forth; with facts in short which are not "foul" with or without the qualifying "rather". (J. W.) 102 CHAPTER SIX. SHAKTI AND SHAKTA Shakti who is in Herself pure blissful Consciousness (Cidrupini) is also the Mother of Nature and is Nature itself born of the creative play of Her thought. The Shakta faith, or worship of Shakti, is I believe, in some of its essential features one of the oldest and most wide- spread religions in the world. Though very ancient, it is yet, in its essentials, and in the developed form in which we know it to- day, harmonious with some of the teachings of modern philosophy and science; not that this is necessarily a test of its truth. It may be here noted that in the West, and in particular in America and England, a large number of books are now being published on "New Thought," "Will Power," "Vitalism," "Creative Thought," "Right Thought," "Sel f Unfoldment," "Secret of Achievement," "Mental Therapeutics" and the like, the principles of which are essentially those of some forms of Shakti Sadhana both higher and lower. There are books of disguised magic as how to control (Vashikarana) by making them buy what they do not want, how to secure "affection" and so forth which, not -withstanding some hypocrisies, are in certain respects on the same level as the Tantrik Shavara as a low class of books on magic are called. Shavara or Candala are amongst the lowest of men. The ancient and at the same time distinguishing character of the faith is instanced by temple worship (the old Vaidik worship was generally in the home or in the open by the river), the cult of images, of Linga and Yoni (neither of which, it is said, were part of the original Vaidik Practice), the worship of Devis and of the Magna Mater (the great Vaidik Devata was the male Indra) and other matters of both doctrine and practice. Many years ago Edward Sellon, with the aid of a learned Oriental ist of the Madras Civil Service, attempted to learn its mysteries, but for reasons, which I need not here discuss, did not view them from the right standpoint. He, however, compared the Shaktas with the Greek Telestica or Dynamica, the Mysteries of Dionysu s "Fire born in the cave of initiation" with the Shakti Puja, the Shakti Shodhana with the purification shown in d'Hancarvilles' "Antique Greek Vases"; and after referring to the frequent mention of this ritual in the writings of the Jews and other ancient authors, concluded that 103 it was evident that we had still surviving in India in the Shakta worship a very ancient, if not the most ancient, form of Mysticism in the whole world. Whatever be the value to be given to any particular piece of evidence, he was right in his general conclusion. For, when we throw our minds back upon the history of this worship we see stretching away into the remote and fading past the figure of the Mighty Mother of Nature, most ancient among the ancients; the Adya Shakti, the dusk Divinity, many breasted, crowned with towers whose veil is never lifted, Isis, "the one who is all that has been, is and will be," Kali, Hathor, Cybele, the Cowmother Goddess Ida, Tripurasundari, the Ionic Mother, Tef the spouse of Shu by whom He effects the birth of all things, Aphrodite, Astarte in whose groves the Baalim were set, Babylonian Mylitta, Buddhist Tara, the Mexican Ish, Hellenic Osia, the consecrated, the free and pure, African Salambo who like Parvati roamed the Mountains, Roman Juno, Egypt ian Bast the flaming Mistress of Life, of Thought, of Love, whose festival was celebrated with wanton Joy, the Assyrian Mother Succoth Benoth, Northern Freia, Mulaprakriti, Semele, Maya, Ishtar, Saitic Neith Mother of the Gods, eternal deepest ground of al l things, Kundali, Guhyamahabhairavi and all the rest. And yet there are people who allege the "Tantrik" cult is modern. To deny this is not to say that there has been or will be no change or development in it. As man changes, so do the forms of his belief s. An ancient feature of this faith and one belonging to the ancient Mysteries is the distinction which it draws between the initiate whose Shakti is awake (Prabuddha) and the Pashu the unillumined or "animal," and, as the Gnostics called him, "material" man. The Natural, which is the manifestation of the Mother of Nature, and the Spiritual or the Mother as She is in and by Herself are one, but the initiate alone truly recognizes this unity. He knows himself in all his natural functions as the one Conscious ness whether in enjoyment (Bhukti), or Liberation (Mukti). It is an essential principle of Tantrik Sadhana that man in general must rise through and by means of Nature, and not by an ascetic rejection of Her. A profoundly true principle is here involved whatever has been said of certain applications of it. When Orpheus transformed the old Bacchic cult, it was the purified who in the beautiful words of Euripides "went dancing over the hills with the daughters of Iacchos". I cannot, however, go into this matter in this paper which is concerned with some 104 general subjects and the ordinary ritual. But the evidence is not limited to mysteries of the Shakti Puja. There are features in the ordinary outer worship which are very old and widespread, as are also other p arts of the esoteric teaching. In this connection, a curious instance of the existence, beyond India, of Tantrik doctrine and practice is here given. The American Indian Maya Scripture of the Zunis called the Popul Vuh speaks of Hurakan or Lightning, that is (I am told) Kundalishakti; of the "air tube" or "Whitecord" or the Sushumna Nadi; of the "two-fold air tube" that is Ida and Pingala; and of various bodily centers which are marked by animal glyphs. Perhaps the Pacatattva Ritual followed by some of the adherents of the Tantras is one of the main causes which have operated in some quarters against acceptance of the authority of these Scriptures and as such responsible for the notion that the worship is modern. On the contrary, the usage of wine, meat, an d so forth is itself very old. There are people who talk of these rites as though they were some entirely new and comparatively modern invention of' the "Tantra," wholly alien to the spirit and practice of the early times. If the subject be studied it will , I think. be found that in this matter those worshippers who practice these rites are (except possibly as to Maithuna) the continuators of very ancient practices which had their counterparts in the earlier Vaidikacara, but were subsequently abandoned. possibly under the influence of Jainism and Buddhism. I say "counterpart," for I do not mean to suggest that in every respect the rites were the same. In details and as regards, I think, some objects in view, they differed. Thus we find in this Pacatattva Ritual a counterpart to the Vaidik usage of wine and animal food. As regards wine, we have the partaking of Soma; meat was offered in Mamsashtaka Shraddha; fish in the Ashtakashraddha and Pretashraddha; and Maithuna as a recognized rite will be found in the Vamadevya Vrata and Maravrata of universally recognized Vaidik texts, apart from the alleged, and generally unknown, Saubhagykanda of the Atharvaveda to which the Kalikopanishad and other "Tantrik" Upanishads are said to belong. Possibly, however, this element of Maithuna may be foreign and imported by Cinacara (see Ch. V). So again, as that distinguished scholar Professor Ramendra Sundara Trivedi has pointed out in his Vicitraprasanga, the Mudra of Pacatattva corresponds with the Purodasa cake of the Soma and other Yagas. The present rule of abstinence from 105 wine, and in some cases, meat is due, I believe, to the original Buddhism. It is so-called "Tantriks," who follow (in and for their ritual only) the earlier practice. It is true that the Samhita of Usha nah says, "Wine is not to be drunk, given or taken (Madyam apeyam adeyam agrahyam)" but the yet greater Manu states, "There is no wrong in the eating of meat or the drinking of wine (Na mamsabakshane dosho na madye)" though he rightly adds, as many now do, that abstention therefrom is productive of great fruit (Nivrittistu mahaphala). The Tantrik practice does not allow extra -ritual or "useless" drinking (Vrithapana). Further, it is a common error to confound two distinct things, namely, belief and practice and the written records of it. These latter may be comparatively recent, whilst that of which they speak may be most ancient. When I speak of the ancient past of this faith I am not referring merely to the writings which exist today which are called Tantr as. These are composed generally in a simple Sanskrit by men whose object it was to be understood rather than to show skill in literary ornament. This simplicity is a sign of age. But at the same time it is Laukika and not Arsha Sanskrit. Moreover, there are statements in them which (unless interpolations) fix the limits of their age. I am not speaking of the writings themselves but of what they say. The faith that they embody, or at least its earlier forms, may have existed for many ages before it was redu ced to writing amongst the Kulas or family folk, who received it as handed down by tradition (Paramparyya) just as did the Vaidik Gotras. That such beliefs and practices, like all other things, have had their development in course of time is also a likely hypothesis. A vast number of Tantras have disappeared probably for ever. Of those which survive a large number are unknown. Most of those which are available are of fragmentary character. Even if these did appear later than some other Shastras, this would not, on Indian principles, affect their authority. According to such principles the authority of a Scripture is not determined by its date; and this is sense. Why, it is asked, should something said 1,000 years ago be on that account only truer than what was said 100 years ago? It is held that whilst the teaching of the Agama is ever existent, particular Tantras are constantly being revealed and withdrawn. There is no objection against a Tantra merely because it was revealed to- day. When it is 106 said that Shi va spoke the Tantras, or Brahma wrote the celebrated Vaishnava poem called the Brahmasamhita, it is not meant that Shiva and Brahma materialized and took a reed and wrote on birch bark or leaf, but that the Divine Consciousness to which men gave these and other names inspired a particular man to teach, or to write, a particular doctrine or work touching the eternally existing truth. This again does not mean that there was any one whispering in his ear, but that these things arose in his consciousness. What is done in this world is done through man. There is a profounder wisdom than is generally acknowledged in the saying "God helps those who help themselves". Inspiration too never ceases. But how, it may be asked, are we to know that what is said is right and true? The answer is "by its fruits." The authority of a Shastra is determined by the question whether Siddhi is gained through its provisions or not. It is not enough that "Shiva uvaca" (Shiva says) is writ in it. The test is that of Ayurveda. A medicine is a true one if it cures. The Indian test for everything is actual experience. It is from Samadhi that the ultimate proof of Advaitavada is sought. How is the existence of Kalpas known? It is said they have been remembered, as by the Buddha who is record ed as having called to mind 91 past Kalpas. There are arguments in favor of rebirth but that which is tendered as real proof is both the facts of ordinary daily experience which can, it is said, be explained only on the hypothesis of pre -existence; as also actual recollection by self- developed individuals of their previous lives. Modern Western methods operate through magnetic sleep producing "regression of memory". (See A. de Rochas Les Vies Successives and Lancelin La Uie Posthume.) Age, however, is not wholly without its uses: because one of the things to which men look to see in a Shastra is whether it has been accepted or quoted in works of recognized authority. Such a test of authenticity can, of course, only be afforded after the lapse of considerable time. But it does not follow that a statement is in fact without value because, owing to its having been made recently, it is not possible to subject it to such a test. This is the way in which this question of age and authority is looked at on Indian pri nciples. A wide survey of what is called orthodox "Hinduism" today (whatever be its origins) will disclose the following results: Vedanta in the sense of Upanishad as its common doctrinal basis, though variously interpreted, and a 107 great number of differing disciplines or modes of practice by which the Vedanta doctrines are realized in actual fact. We must carefully distinguish these two. Thus the Vedanta says "So'ham"; which is Hamsha. "Hakara is one wing; Sakara is the other. When stripped of both wings She, Tara, is Kamakala." (Tantraraja Tantra.) The Acaras set forth the means by which "So'ham" is to be translated into actual fact for the particular Sadhaka. Sadhana comes from the root "Sadh" which means effort or striving or accomplishment. Effort for and towards what? The answer for those who desire it is liberation from every form in the hierarchy of forms, which exist as such, because consciousness has so limited itself as to obscure the Reality which it is, and which "So'ham" or "Shivo'ham" affirms. And why should man liberate himself from material forms? Because it is said, that way only lasting happiness lies: though a passing, yet fruitful bliss may be had here by those who identify themselves with active Brahman (Shakti). It is the actual experienc e of this declaration of 'So'ham" which in its fundamental aspect is Veda: knowledge (Vid) or actual Spiritual Experience, for in the monistic sense to truly know anything is to be that thing. This Veda or experience is not to be had sitting down thinking vaguely on the Great Ether and doing nothing. Man must transform himself, that is, act in order to know. Therefore, the watchword of the Tantras is Kriya or action. The next question is what Kriya should be adopted towards this end of Jana. "Tanyate, vistaryate janam anena iti Tantram." According to this derivation of the word Tantra from the root "Tan" "to spread," it is defined as the Shastra, by which knowledge (Jana) is spread. Mark the word Jana. The end of the practical methods which these Shastra s employ is to spread Vedantic Jana. It is here we find that variety which is so puzzling to those who have not gone to the root of the religious life of India. The end is substantially one. The means to that end necessarily vary according to knowledge, capacity, and temperament. But here again we may analyze the means into two main divisions, namely, Vaidik and Tantrik, to which may be added a third or the mixed (Mishra). The one body of Hinduism reveals as it were, a double framework represented by the V aidik and Tantrik Acaras, which have in certain instances been mingled. 108 The word "Tantra" by itself simply means as I have already said "treatise" and not necessarily a religious scripture. When it has the latter significance, it may mean the Scripture of several divisions of worshippers who vary in doctrine and practice. Thus there are Tantras of Salvias, Vaishnavas, and Shaktas and of various sub -divisions of these. So amongst the Salvias there are the Salvias of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Advaita Shaiva o f the Kashmir School, Pashupatas and a multitude of other sects which have their Tantras. If "Tantric" be used as meaning an adherent of the Tantra Shastra, then the word, in any particular case, is without definite meaning. A man to whom the application i s given may be a worshipper of any of the Five Devatas (Surya, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti) and of any of the various Sampradayas worshipping that Devata with varying doctrine and practice. The term is a confusing one, though common practice compels its use. So far as I know, those who are named, "Tantrics" do not themselves generally use this term but call themselves Shaktas, Salvias and the like, of whatever Sampradaya they happen to be. Again Tantra is the name of only one class of Scripture followed by "Tantrics". There are others, namely, Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas, Damaras, Uddishas, Kakshaputas and so forth. None of these names are used to describe the adherents of these Shastras except, so far as I am aware, Agama in the use of the term Agamavadin, and Agamanta in the descriptive name of Agamanta Shaiva. I give later a list of these Scriptures as contained in the various Agamas. If we summarize them shortly under the term Tantra Shastra, or preferably Agama, then we have four main classes of Indian Scripture, namely, Veda (Samhita, Brahmana, Upanishad), Agama or Tantra Shastra, Purana, Smriti. Of these Shastras the authority of the Agama or Tantra Shastra has been denied in modern times. This view may be shown to be erroneous by reference to Shastras of admitted authority. It is spoken of as the Fifth Veda. Kulluka Bhatta, the celebrated commentator on Manu, says: "Shruti is twofold, Vaidik and Tantrik (Vaidiki tantriki caiva dvividha srutih lurtita)". This refers to the Mantra portion of the Agamas. In the Great Vaishnava Shastra, the Srimad Bhagavata, Bhagavan says: "My worship is of the three kinds -- Vaidik, Tantrik and Mixed (Mishra)" and that, in Kaliyuga, "Keshava is to be worshipped according to the injunction of Tantra." The Devibhagavata speaks of the Tantra Shastra as a Vedanga. It is cited as 109 authority in the Ashtavimshati Tattva of Raghunandana who prescribes for the worship of Durga as before him had done Shridatta, Harinatha, Vidyadhara and many others. Some of these and other references a re given in Mahamahopadhyaya Yadaveshvara Tarkaratna's Tantrer Pracinatva in the Sahitpa Samhita of Aswin 1317. The Tarapradipa and other Tantrik works say that in the Kali -yuga the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma is to be followed. This objection abou t the late character and therefore unauthoritativeness of the Tantra Shastras generally (I do not speak of any particular form of it) has been taken by Indians from their European Gurus. According to the Shakta Scriptures, Veda in its wide sense does not o nly mean Rig, Yajus, Sama, Atharva as now published but comprises these together with the generally unknown and unpublished Uttara Kanda of the Atharva Veda, called Saubhagya, with the Upanishads attached to this. Sayana's Commentary is written on the Purva Kanda. These are said (though I have not yet verified she fact) to be 64 in number. Some of these, such as Advaitabhava, Kaula, Kalika, Tripura, Tara, Aruna Upanishads and Bahvricopanishad, Bhavanopanishad, I have published as the XI volume of Tantrik "t exts. Aruna means "She who is red". Redness ( (Lauhityam) is Vimarsha. (See Vol. XI, Tantrik Texts. Ed. A. Avalon.) I may also here refer my reader to the Kaulacarya Satyananda's Commentary on the great Isha Upanishad. Included also in "Veda" (according to the same view) are the Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas and Tantras. From these all other Shastras which explain the meaning (Artha) of Veda such as Purana and Smriti, also Itihasa and so forth are derived. All these Shastras constitute what is called a "Many millioned" (Shatakoti) Samhita which are developed, the one from the other as it were an unfolding series. In the Tantrik Sangraha called Sarvollasa by the Sarvavidyasiddha Sarvanandanatha the latter cites authority (Narayani Tantra) to show that from Nigama came Agama. Here I pause to note that the Sammohana says that Kerala Sampradaya is Dakshina and follows Veda (Vedamargastha), whilst Gauda (to which Sarvanandanatha belonged) is Vama and follows Nigama. Hence apparently the pre- eminence given to Nigama. He then says from Agama came Yamala, from Yamala the four Vedas, from Vedas the Puranas, from Puranas Smriti, and from Smriti all other Shastras. There are, he says, five Nigamas and 64 Agamas. Four Yamalas are mentioned, which are said to 110 give the gross form (Sthularupa). As some may be surprised to learn that the four Vedas came from the Yamalas (i.e. were Antargata of the Yamalas) which literally means what is uniting or comprehensive, I subjoin the Sanskrit verse from Narayani Tantra. Brahmayamalasambhutam samaveda -matam shive Rudrayamalasamjata rigvedo paramo mahan Vishnuyamalasambhuto yajurvedah kuleshvari Shaktiyamalasambhutam atharva paramam mahat. Some Tantras are called by opposing sects Vedavirud -dhani (opposed to Veda), which of course those who accept them deny, just as the Commentary of the Nityashodashikarnava speaks of the Pacaratrin as Vedabhrashta. That some sects were originally Avaidika is probable, but in process of time various amalgamations of scriptural authority, belief and practice to ok place. Whether we accept or not this theory, according to which the Agamas and kindred Shastras are given authority with the four Vedas we have to accept the facts. What are these? As I have said, on examination the one body of Hinduism reveals as it were a double framework. I am now looking at the matter from an outside point of view which is not that of the Shakta worshipper. We find on the one hand the four Vedas with their Samhitas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads and on the other what has been called the "Fifth Veda," that is Nigama, Agama and kindred Shastras and certain especially "Tantrik" Upanishads attached to the Saubhagya Kanda of the Atharvaveda. There are Vaidik and Tantrik Kalpa Sutras and Suktas such as the Tantrika Devi and Matsya Suktas. As a counterpart of the Brahma -sutras, we have the Shakti Sutras of Agastya. Then there is both Vaidik and "Tantrik" ritual such as (he ten Vaidik Samskaras and the Tantrik Samskaras, such as Abhisheka; Vaidik and Tantrik initiation (Upanayana and Diksha); Vaidik and Tantrik Gayatri; the Vaidik Om, the so -called "Tantrik" Bijas such as Hring; Vaidika. Guru and Deshika Guru and so forth. This dualism may be found carried into other matters as well, such as medicine, law, writing. So, whilst the Vaidik Ayurveda em ployed 111 generally vegetable drugs, the "Tantriks" used metallic substances. A counterpart of the Vaidika Dharmapatni was the Shaiva wife; that is, she who is given by desire (Kama). I have already pointed out the counterparts of the Pacatattva in the Vedas. Some allege a special form of Tantrik script at any rate in Gauda Desha and so forth. What is the meaning of all this? It is not at present possible to give a certain answer. The subject has been so neglected and is so little known. Before tendering any conclusions with any certainty of their correctness, we must examine the Tantrik Texts which time has spared. It will be readily perceived, however, that if there be such a double frame as I suggest, it indicates that there were originally two sources of religion one of which (possibly in some respects the older) incorporated parts of, and in time largely superseded the other. And this is what the "Tantriks" impliedly allege in their views as to the relation of the four Vedas and Agamas. If they are not both of authority, why should such reverence be given to the Deshika Gurus and to Tantrik Diksha? Probably, there were many Avaidika cults, not without a deep and ancient wisdom of their own, that is, cults outside the Vaidik religion (Vedabahya) which in the course of time adopted certain Vaidik rites such as Homa: the Vaidikas, in their own turn, taking up some of the Avaidika practices. It may be that some Brahmanas joined these so -called Anarya Sampradayas just as we find to -day Brahmanas officiating for low castes and being called by their name. At length the Shastras of the two cults were given at least equal authority. The Vaidik practice then largely disappeared, surviving chiefly both in the Smarta rites of to -day and as embedded in the ritual of the Agamas. These are speculations to which I do not definitely commit myself. They are merely suggestions which may be worth consideration when search is made for the origin of the Agamas. If they be correct, then in this, as in other cases, the beliefs and practices of the Soil have been upheld until to-day against the incoming cults of those "Aryas" who followed the Vaidik rites and who in their turn influenced the various religious communities without the Vaidik fold. The Smartas of to -day represent what is generally called the Srauta side, though in these rites there are mingled many Pauranic ingredients. The Arya 112 Samaja is another present-day representative of the old Vaidika Acara, mingled as it seems to me with a modernism, which is puritan and otherwise. The other, or Tantrik side, is represented by the general body of present -day Hinduism, and in particular by the various sectarian divisions of Salvias, Shaktas, Vaishnavas and so forth which go to its making. Each sect of worshippers has its own Tantras. In a previous chapter I have shortly referred to the Tantras of the Shaivasiddhanta, of the Pacaratra Agama, and of the Northern Saivaism of which the Malinivijapa Tantra sets the type. The old fivefold division of worshippers was, according to the Pacopasana, Saura, Ganapatya, Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta whose Mula Devatas were Surya, Ganapati, Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti respectively. At the present time the three- fold division, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, is of more practical importance, as the other two survive only to a limited extent to-day. In parts of Western India the worship of Ganesha is still popular and I believe some Sauras or traces of Sauras here and there exist, especially in Sind. Six Amnayas are mentioned in the Tantras. (Shadamnayah). These are the six Faces of Shiva, looking East (Purvamnaya), South (Dakshinamnaya), West (Pashcim amnaya), North (Uttaramnaya), Upper (Urddhvamnaya), Lower and concealed (Adhamnaya). The six Amnayas are thus so called according to the order of their origin. They are thus described in the Devyagama cited in the Tantrarahasya (see also, with some variation probably due to corrupt text, Patala II of Samayacara Tantra): "(1) The face in the East (that is in front) is of pearl -like luster with three eyes and crowned by the crescent moon. By this face I (Shiva) revealed (the Devis) Shri Bhuvaneshvari, Triputa, Lalita, Padma, Shulini, Sarasvati, Tvarita, Nitya, Vajraprastarim, Annapurna, Mahalakshmi, Lakshmi, Vagvadini with all their rites and Mantras. (2) The Southe rn face is of a yellow color with three eyes. By this face I revealed Prasadasadashiva, Mahaprasadamantra, Dakshinamurti, Vatuka, Majughosha, Bhairava, Mritasanjivanividya, Mrityunjaya with their rites and Mantras. (3) The face in the West (that is at the back) is of the color of a freshly formed cloud. By this face I revealed Gopala, Krishna, Narayana, Vasudeva, Nrishimha, Vamana, Varaha, Ramacandra, Vishnu, Harihara, Ganesha, Agni, Yama, Surya, Vidhu (Candra) and other planets, Garuda, 113 Dikpalas, Hanuman and other Suras, their rites and Mantras. (4) The face in the North is blue in color and with three eyes. By this face, I revealed the Devis, Dakshinakalika, Mahakali, Guhyakah, Smashanakalika, Bhadrakali, Ekajata, Ugratara, Taritni, Katyayani, Chhinnamast a, Nilasarasvati, Durga, Jayadurga, Navadurga, Vashuli, Dhumavati, Vishalakshi, Gauri, Bagalamukhi, Pratyangira, Matangi, Mahishamardini, their rites and Mantras. (5) The Upper face is white. By this face I revealed Shrimattripurasundari, Tripureshi, Bhair avi, Tripurabhairavi, Smashanabhairavi, Bhuvaneshibhairavi, Shatkutabhairavi, Annapurnabhairavi, Pacami, Shodashi, Malini, Valavala, with their rites and Mantras. (6) The sixth face (Below) is lustrous of many colors and concealed. It is by this mouth tha t I spoke of Devatasthana, Asana, Yantra, Mala, Naivedya, Balidana, Sadhana, Purashcarana, Mantrasiddhi. It is called "Ishanamnaya." The Samayacara Tantra (Ch. 2) says that whilst the first four Amnayas are for the Caturvarga or Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha , the upper (Urddhvamnaya) and lower (Adhamnaya) are for liberation only. The Sammohana Tantra (Ch. V) first explains Purvamnaya, Dakshinamnaya, Pashcimamnaya, Uttaramnaya, Urdhvamnaya according to what is called Deshaparyyaya. I am informed that no Puja of Adhamnaya is generally done but that Shadanvaya Shambhavas, very high Sadhakas, at the door of Liberation do Nyasa with this sixth concealed Face. It is said that Patala Amnaya is Sam -bhogayoga. The Nishkala aspect in Shaktikrama is for Purva, Tripura; for Dakshina, Saura, Ganapatya and Vaishnava; for Pashcima, Raudra, Bhairava; for Uttara, Ugra, Apattarini. In Shaivakarma the same aspect is for the first, Sampatprada and Mahesha; for the second, Aghora, Kalika and Vaishnava darshana; for the third, Raudra, Bhairava, Shaiva; for the fourth, Kubera, Bhairava, Saudrashaka; and for Urddhvamnaya, Ardhanarisha and Pranava. Niruttara Tantra says that the first two Amnayas contain rites for the Pashu Sadhaka (see as to the meaning of this and the other classes of Sadhakas, the Chapter on Pacatattva ritual Purvamnayoditam karma Pashavam kathitam priye, and so with the next). The third or Pashcimamnaya is a combination of Pashu and Vira (Pashcimamnayajam karma Pashu -virasamashritam). Uttaramnaya is for Vira and Div ya (Uttaramnayajam karma divpa-virashritam priye). The upper Amnaya is for the Divya (Urdhvamnayoditam karma divyabhavashritam priye). It adds that even the Divya does Sadhana in the cremation ground in 114 Virabhava (that is, heroic frame: of mind and disposition) but he does such worship without Virasana. The Sammohana also gives a classification of Tantras according to the Amnayas as also special classifications, such as the Tantras of the six Amnayas according to Vatukamnaya. As only one Text of the Sammohana is available whilst I write, it is not possible to speak with certainty of accuracy as regards all these details. Each of these divisions of worshippers have their own Tantras, as also had the Jainas and Bauddhas. Different sects had their own particula r subdivisions and Tantras of which there are various classifications according to Krantas, Deshaparyaya, Kalaparyaya and so forth. The Sammohana Tantra mentions 22 different Agamas including Cinagama (a Shakta form), Pashupata (a Shaiva form), Pacaratra (a Vaishnava form), Kapalika, Bhairava, Aghora, Jaina, Bauddha; each of which is said there to contain a certain number of Tantras and Upatantras. According to the Sammohana Tantra, the Tantras according to Kalaparyaya are the 64 Shakta Tantras, with 327 U patantras, 8 Yamalas, 4 Damaras, 2 Kalpalatas and several Samhitas, Cudamanis (100) Arnavas, Puranas, Upavedas, Kakshaputas, Vimarshini and Cintamanis. The Shaiva class contains 32 Tantras with its own Yamalas, Damaras and so forth. The Vaishnava class contains 75 Tantras with the same, including Kalpas and other Shastras. The Saura class has Tantras with its own Yamalas, Uddishas and other works. And the Ganapatya class contains 30 Tantras with Upatantras, Kalpas and other Shastras, including one Damara and one Yamala. The Bauddha class contains Kalpadrumas, Kamadhenus, Suktas, Kramas, Ambaras, Puranas and other Shastras. According to the Kularnava and Janadipa Tantras there are seven Acaras of which the first four, Veda, Vaishnava, Shaiva and Dakshina belong to Pashvacara; then comes Vama, followed by Siddhanta, in which gradual approach is made to Kaulacara the reputed highest. Elsewhere six and nine Acaras are spoken of and different kinds of Bhavas, Sabhava, Vibhava and Dehabhava and so forth which are referred to in Bhavacudamani. 115 An account of the Acaras is given in the Haratattvadidhiti [pp. 339 -342. See in particular Vishvasara Tantra (Ch. 24) and Nitya Tantra and Pranatoshini. The first is the best account]. Vedacara is the lowest and Kaulacara the highest. (Kularnava Tantra II). Their characteristics are given in the 24th Patala of Vishvasara Tantra. The first four belong to Pashvacara (see Chapter on Shakta Sadhana) and the last three are for Vira and Divya Sadhakas. Summarizing the points of the Vishvasara: a Sadhaka in Vedacara should carry out the prescriptions of the Veda, should not cohabit with his wife except in the period following the courses. He should not eat fish and meat on the Parva days. He should not worship the Deva at night. In Vaishnavacara he follows injunctions (Niyama) of Vedacara. He must give up eating of flesh (Nitya Tantra says he must not kill animals), avoid sexual intercourse and even the talk of it. This doubtless means a negation of the Vira ritual. He should worshi p Vishnu. This Acara is distinguished from the last by the great endurance of Tapas and the contemplation of the Supreme everywhere. In Shaivacara, Vedacara is prescribed with this difference that there must be no slaughter of animals and meditation is on Shiva. Dakshinacara is said to have been practiced by Rishi Dakshinamurti and is therefore so called. This Acara is preparatory for the Vira and Divya Bhavas. Meditation is on the Supreme Ishvari after taking Vijaya (Hemp). Japa of Mantra is done at night. Siddhi is attained by using a rosary of human bone (Mahshankha) at certain places including a Shaktipitha. Vamacara is approved for Viras and Divyas. One should be continent (Brahmacari) at day and worship with the Pacatattva at night. ("Pacatattvakrame naiva ratrau devim prapujayet"). The statement of Nitya (Pacatattvanukalpena ratrau deving prapujayet) is, if correctly reported, I think incorrect. This is Vira Sadhana and the Vira should generally only use substitutes when the real Tattvas cannot be fo und. Cakra worship is done. Siddhi is destroyed by revelation thereof; therefore the Vama path is hidden. The Siddhantacari is superior to the last by his knowledge "hidden in the Vedas, Shastras and Puranas like fire in wood, by his freedom from fear of the Pashu, by his adherence to the truth, and by his open performance of the Pacatattva ritual. Open and frank, he cares not what is said." He offers the Pancatattvas openly. Then follows a notable passage. "Just as it is not blameable to drink openly in the Sautramani Yaja (Vaidik 116 rite), so in Siddhantacara wine is drunk openly. As it is not blameable to kill horses in the Ashvamedha Yaja (Vaidik rite), so no offense is committed in killing animals in this Dharma." Nitya Tantra says that an article, be i t pure or impure, becomes pure by purification. Holding a cup made of human skull, and wearing the Rudraksha, the Siddhantacari moves on earth in the form of Bhairava Himself. The knowledge of the last Acara, that of the Kaula, makes one Shiva. Just as the footprint of every animal disappears in that of the elephant, so every Dharma is lost in the greatness of Kuladharma. Here there are no injunctions or prohibitions, no restriction as to time or place, in fact no rule at all. A Kaula is himself Guru and Sadashiva and none are superior to him. Kaulas are of three classes, inferior (the ordinary or Prakrita Kaula), who is ever engaged in ritual such as Japa, Homa, Puja, follows Viracara (with Pacatattva) and strives to attain the highland of knowledge; middling is the Kaula who does Sadhana with Pacatattva, is deeply immersed in meditation (Dhyana) and Samadhi; superior, the Kaula who "Oh Mistress of the Kaulas sees the imperishable, and all- pervading Self in all things and all things in the Self." He is a good Kaula who makes no distinction between mud and sandalpaste, gold and straw, a home and the cremation ground. He is a superior Kaula who meditates on the Self with the self, who has equal regard for all, who is full of contentment, forgiveness and compa ssion. Nitya Tantra (Patala III) says that Kaulas move about in various shapes, now as an ordinary man of the world adhering to social rules (Shishta), at other times as one who has fallen therefrom (Bhrashta). At other times, he seems to be as weird and u nearthly as a ghost (Bhuta). Kaulacara is, it says, the essence which is obtained from the ocean of Veda and Agama after churning it with the staff' of knowledge. In a modern account of the Acaras (see Sanatana -- sadhana -Tattva or Tantra - rahashya by Saccidananda Svami) it is said that some speak of Aghoracara and Yogacara as two further divisions between the last but one and last. However this may be, the Aghoras of to -day are a separate sect who, it is alleged, have degenerated into mere eaters of corpses, though Aghora is said to only mean one who is liberated from the terrible (Ghora ) Samsara. In Yogacara was learnt the upper heights of Sadhana and the mysteries of Yoga such as the movements of the Vayu in the bodily microcosm (Kshudravrahmanda), the regulation of which controls the inclinations and 117 propensities (Vritti), Yogacara is entered by Yoga -diksha and achievement in Ashtangayoga qualifies for Kaulacara. Whether there were such further divisions I cannot at present say. I prefer for the time bein g to follow the Kularnava. The Svami's account of these is as follows: Vedacara which consists in the daily practice of the Vaidik rites (with, I may add, some Tantrik observances) is the gross body (Sthula -deha) which comprises within it all the other Aca ras, which are as it were its subtle body (Sukshma -deha) of various degrees. The worship is largely of an external character, the object of which is to strengthen Dharma. This is the path of action (Kriyamarga). This and some other observations may be a modern reading of the old facts but are on the whole, I think, justified. The second stage of Vaishnavacara is the path of devotion (Bhaktimarga) and the aim is union of devotion with faith previously acquired. The worshipper passes from blind faith to an understanding of the supreme protecting Energy of the Brahman, towards which his devotion goes forth. With an increasing determination to uphold Dharma and to destroy Adharma, the Sadhaka passes into the third stage or Shaivacara which the author cited calls the militant (Kshattriya) stage, wherein to love and mercy are added strenuous striving and the cultivation of power. There is union of faith, devotion, and inward determination (Antarlaksha). Entrance is here made upon the path of knowledge (Janamarga). Following this is the fourth stage or Dakshinacara, which originally and in Tantra Shastra does not mean "right - hand worship" but according to the author cited is the Acara "favorable" to the accomplishment of the higher Sadhana of which Dakshina -Kalika is Devi. (The Vishvasara already cited derives the word from Dakshinamurthi muni, but Dakshina in either case has the same meaning. Daksinakali is a Devi of Uttaramnaya and approach is here made to Vira rituals.) This stage commences when the worshipper can make Dhyana and Dharana of the threefold Shakti of the Brahman (Iccha, Kriya, Jana) and understands the mutual connection of the three and of their expression as the Gunas, and until he receives the rite of initiation called Purnabhisheka. At this stage the Sadhaka is Shakta and qualified for the worship of the threefold Shakti of Brahman (Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara). He worships the Adya -Shakti as Dakshina -Kalika in whom are united the three Shaktis. The aim of this stage is the union of faith, devotion, and determination with a knowledge of the 118 threefold energies. (Passage is thus made from the Deva -aspect to the Deva - whole.) Up to this stage the Sadhaka has followed Pravritti Marga, or the outgoing path, the path of worldly enjoyment, albeit curbed by Dharma. The Sadhaka now, upon the exhaustion of the forces of the outward current, makes entry on the path of return (Nivritti -Marga). As this change is one of primary importance, some have divided the Acaras into the two broad divisions of Dakshinacara (including the first four) and Vamacara (including the last three). Strictly, however, the first three can only be thus included in the sense that they are preparatory to Dakshinacara proper and are all in the Pravritti Marga and are not Vamacara. It is thus said that men are born into Dakshinacara but are received by initiation into Vamacara. As Dakshinacara does not mean "right -hand worship" so Vamacara does not mean, as is vulgarly supposed, "left -hand worship". "Left -hand" in English has a bad sense and it is not sense to suppose that the Shastra, which prescribes this Acara, itself gives it a bad name. Vama is variously interpreted. Some say it is the worship in which woman (Vama) enters, that is Lata- sadhana. Vama, this author says, means "adverse" that i s the stage adverse to the Pravritti, which governs in varying degrees the previous Acaras. For, entry is here made on the Nivritti path of return to the Source of outgoing. (In this Acara also there is worship of the Vama Devi.) In Vamacara the Sadhaka commences to directly destroy Pravritti and, with the help of the Guru, to cultivate Nivritti. The help of the Guru throughout is necessary. It is comparatively easy to lay down rules for the Pravritti Marga but nothing can be achieved in Vama -cara without the Guru's help. Some of the disciplines are admittedly dangerous and, if entered upon without authority and discretion, will probably lead to abuse. The method of the Guru at this stage is to use the forces of Pravritti in such a way as to render them self - destructive. The passions which bind (notably the fundamental instincts for food, drink, and sexual satisfaction) may be it is said so employed as to act as forces whereby the particular life, of which they are the strongest physical manifestation, is rai sed to the universal life. Passion which has hitherto run downward and outwards (often to waste) is directed inwards and upwards and transformed to power. But it is not only the lower physical desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse which must be subjugated. The Sadhaka must at this stage commence (the process 119 continues until the fruit of Kaulacara is obtained) to cut off all the eight bonds (Pasha) which have made him a Pashu, for up to and including Dakshinacara is Pashu worship. These Pasha, bonds or "afflictions", are variously enumerated but the more numerous classifications are merely elaborations of the smaller divisions. Thus, according to the Devi- Bhagavata, Moha is ignorance or bewilderment, and Mahamoha is the desire for worldly pleasure which flows from it. The Kularnava Tantra mentions eight primary bonds, Daya (that is pity as the feeling which binds as opposed to divine compassion or Karuna), Moha (ignorance), Lajja (shame, which does not mean that a man is to be a shameless sinner but weak worldly shame of being looked down upon, of infringing conventions and so forth), Family (Kula, which ceases to be a tie), Shila (here usage, convention) and Varna (caste; for the enlightened is beyond all its distinctions). When, to take the Svami's example, Shri Krishna stole the clothes of the bathing Gopis or milkmaids and cowherds and made them approach Him naked, He removed the artificial coverings which are imposed on man in the Samsara. The Gopis were eight, as are the Bonds, and the errors by which the Jiva is misled are the clothes which Krishna stole. Freed of these the Jiva is liberated from all bonds arising from his desires, family and society. Formerly it was sufficient to live in worldly fashion according to the morality governing life in the world. Now the Sadhaka must go further and transcend the world, or rather seek to do so. He rises by those things which are commonly the cause of fall. When he has completely achieved his purpose and liberated himself from all bonds, he reaches the stage of Shiva (Shivatva). It is the aim of the Nivritti Sadhana to liberate man from the bonds which bind him to the Samsara, and to qualify the Vira Sadhaka, through Rajasika Upasana (see Chapter on Pacatattva) of the highest grades of Sadhana in which the Sattvika Guna predominates. He is then Divya or divine. To the truly Sattvik, there is neither attachment, fear nor disgust (Ghrina). What is thus commenced in Vamacara, is gradually completed by the rituals of Siddhantacara and Kaulacara. In the la st three Acaras the Sadhaka becomes more and more freed from the darkness of Samsara and is attached to nothing, hates nothing, is ashamed of nothing (really shameful acts being ex hypothesi below his acquired stage), and has freed himself of the artificia l bonds of family, caste, and society. He 120 becomes an Avadhuta, that is, one who has "washed off" everything and has relinquished the world. Of these, as stated later, there are several classes. For him there is no rule of time or place. He becomes, like Sh iva himself, a dweller in the cremation ground (Smashana). He attains Brahmajana or the Gnosis in perfect form. On receiving Mahapurnadiksha, he performs his own funeral rites and is dead to the Samsara. Seated alone in some quiet place, he remains in constant Samadhi (ecstasy), and attains it in its highest or Nirvikalpa form. The Great Mother, the Supreme Prakriti, Mahashakti dwells in his heart which is now the inner cremation ground wherein all passions have been burnt away. He becomes a Paramahamsa who is liberated whilst yet living (Jivanmukta). From the above it will be seen that the Acaras are not various sects in the European sense, but stages in a continuous process through which the Sadhaka must pass before he reaches the supreme state of the hig hest Kaula (for the Kaulas are of differing degrees). Passing from the gross outer body of Vedacara, he learns its innermost core of doctrine, not expressed but latent in it. These stages need not be and are not ordinarily passed through by each Jiva in the course of a single life. On the contrary they are as a rule traversed in the course of a multitude of births, in which case the weaving of the spiritual garment is recommenced where, in a previous birth, it was dropped on death. In one life the Sadhaka may commence at any stage. If he is a true Kaula now it is because in previous births he has by Sadhana in the preliminary stages won his entrance into it. Knowledge of Shakti is, as the Niruttara Tantra says, acquired after many births; and according to the Mahanirvana Tantra it is by merit acquired in previous births that the mind is inclined to Kaulacara. Kauladharma is in no wise sectarian but on the contrary claims to be the head of all sects. It is said "at heart a Shakta, outwardly a. Shaiva, in gathe rings a Vaishnava (who are wont to gather together for worship in praise of Hari) in thus many a guise the Kaulas wander on earth." Antah -shaktah bahih -shaivah sabhayam vaishnava matah Nana- rupadharah Kaulah vicaranti mahitale. 121 The saying has been said to be an expression of this claim which is I think involved in it. It does however also I think indicate secrecy, and adaptability to sectarian form, of him who has pierced to the core of that which all sects in varying, though partial, ways present. A Kaula is one who has passed through these and other stages, which have as their own inmost doctrine (whether these worshippers know it or not) that of Kaulacara. It is indifferent what the Kaula's apparent sect may be. The form is nothing and everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no power to narrow the Kaula's inner life. It is everything in the sense that knowledge may infuse its apparent limitations with an universal meaning. A man may thus live in all sects, without their form being ever to him a bond. In Vaidik times there were four Ashramas, that is, states and stages in the life of the Arya, namely (in their order) that of the chaste student (Brahmacarya), secular life as a married house -holder (Grihastha), the life of the forest recluse with his wife in retirement from the world (Vanaprastha), lastly that of the beggar (Bhikshu or Avadhuta), wholly detached from the world, spending his time in meditation on the Supreme Brahman in preparation for shortly coming death. All these four were for the Brahmana caste, the first three for the Kshattriya, the first two for the Vaishya and for the Shudra the second only (Yogayajavalkpa, Ch. I). As neither the conditions of life nor the character, capacity and powers of the people of this age allow of the first and third Ashrama, the Mahanirvana Tantra states (VIII. 8) that in the Kali age there are only two Ashramas, namely, the second and last, and these are open to all castes indiscriminately (ib. 12). The same Tantra (XIV. 141 et seq.) speaks of four classes of Kulayogis or Avadhutas namely the Shaivavadhuta and Brahmavadhuta, which are of two kinds, imperfect (Apurna) and perfect (Purna). The first three have enjoyment and practice Yoga. The fourth or Paramahamsa should be absolutely chaste and should not touch metal. He is beyond all household duties and caste, and ritual, such as the offering of food and drink to Devata. The Bhairavadamara classes the Avadhuta into (a) Kulavadhuta, (b) Shaivavadhuta, (c) Brahmavadhuta, (d) Hamsavadhuta. Some speak of three divisions of each of the classes Shaivavadhuta and Brahmavadhuta (see pp. 32 -33 of Introduction to Tantra Shastra). The Shaivavadhutas are not, either, from a Western or Shastric standpoint, as high as the Brahmavadhuta. The lowest 122 of the last class can have intercourse only with the own wife (Shvakiya Shakti as opposed to the Shaiva Shakti); the middling has ordinarily nothing to do with any Shakti, and the highest must under no circumstance touch a woman or metal, nor does he practice any rites or keep any observances. The main divisions here are Vedacara, Dakshinacara and Vamacara. Vedacara is not Vaidikacara, that is, in the Srauta sense, for the Srauta Vaidikacara appears to be outside this sevenfold Tantrik division of which Vedacara is the Tantrik counterpart. For it is Tantrik Upasana with Vaidik rites and mantras, with (I have been told) Agni as Devata. As a speculation we may suggest that this Acara was for those not Adhikari for what is called the Srauta Vaidikacara. The second and third belong and lead up to the completed Dakshinacara. This is Pashvacara. Vama -cara commences the other mode of worship, leading up to the completed Kaula, the Kaulavadhuta, Avadhuta, and Divya. Here, with the attainment of Brahmajana, we reach the region which is beyond all Acaras which is known as Sveccacara. All that those belonging to this state do or touch is pure. In and after Vamacara there is eating and drinking in, and as part of, worship and Maithuna. After the Pashu there is the Vira and then the Divya. Pashu is the starting point, Vira is on the way and Divya is the goal. Each of the sects has a Dakshina and Vama division. It is commonly thought that this is peculiar to Shaktas: but this is not so. Thus there are Vama, Ganapatyas and Vaishnavas and so forth. Again Vamacara is itself divided again into a right and left side. In the former wine is taken in a cup of stone or other substance, and worship is with the Svakiya -Shakti or Sadhaka's own wife; in the latter and more advanced stage drinking is done from a skull and worship may be with Parastri, that is, some other Shakti. In the case however of some sects which belong to the Vama -cara division, whilst there is meat and wine, there is, I am told, no Shakti for the members are chaste (Brahmacari). So far as I can ascertain these sects which are mentioned later seem to belong to the Shaiva as opposed to the Shakta group. The Tantrik Samgraha called Shaktanandatarangini by Brahmananda Svami says (Ch. 2) that Agama is both Sadagama and Asadagama and that the former alone is Agama according to the primary meaning of the 123 word (Sadagama eva agamashabdasya mukhyatvat). He then says that Shiva in the Agama Samhita condemns the Asadagama saying "Oh Deveshi, men in the Kali age are generally of a Rajasik and Tamasik disposition and being addicted to forbidden ways deceive many others. Oh Sureshvari, those who in disregard of their Varnashrama Dharma offer to us flesh, blood and wine become Bhutas, Pretas, and Brahmarakshasas," that is, various forms of evil spirits. This prohibits such worship as is opposed to Varnashramadharma. It is said, however, by the Vamacaris, who take consecrated wine and flesh as a Yaja, not to cover their case. It is not uncommonly thought that Vamacara is that Acara into which Vama or woma n enters. This is true only to a, certain extent: that is, it is a true definition of those Sadhakas who do worship with Shakti according to Vamacara rites. But it seems to be incorrect, in so far as there are, I am told, worshippers of the Vamacara divisi on who are chaste (Brahmacari). Vamacara means literally "left" way, not "left -handed" in the English sense which means what is bad. As the name is given to these Sadhakas by themselves it is not likely that they would adopt a title which condemns them. Wh at they mean is that this Acara is the opposite of Dakshinacara. Philosophically it is more monistic. It is said that even in the highest Siddhi of a Dakshinacari "there is always some One above him"; but the fruit of Vamacara and its subsequent and highes t stages is that the Sadhaka "becomes the Emperor Himself". The Bhava differs, and the power of its method compared with Dakshinacara is said to be that between milk and wine. Moreover it is to be noted that the Devi whom they worship is on the left of Shiva. In Vamacara we find Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, Pashupatas, Bhandikeras, Digambaras, Aghoras, followers of Cinacara and Kaulas generally who are initiated. In some cases, as in that of the advanced division of Kaulas, worship is with all five Tattvas (Pacatattvas). In some cases there is Brahmacarya as in the case of Aghora and Pashupata, though these drink wine and eat flesh food. Some Vamacaris, I am informed, never cease to be chaste (Brahmacari), such as Oghada Sadhus worshippers of Batuka Bhairava, Kanthadhari and followers of Gorakshanatha, Sitanatha and Matsyendranatha. In Nilakrama there is no Maithuna. In some sects 124 there are differing practices. Thus, I am told, amongst the Kalamukhas, the Kalaviras only worship Kumaris up to the age of nine, where as the Kamamohanas worship with adult Shaktis. Some advanced members of this (in its general sense) Vamacara division do not, I am informed, even take wine and meat. It is said that the great Vamacari Sadhaka Raja Krishnacandra of Nadia, Upasaka of the Chi nnamasta Murti, did not take wine. Such and similar Sadhakas have passed beyond the preliminary stage of Vamacara, and indeed (in its special sense) Vamacara itself. They may be Brahma Kaulas. As regards Sadhakas generally it is well to remember what the Mahakala Samhita, the great Shastra of the Madhyastha Kaulas, says in the 11th Ullasa called Sharira -yoga- kathanam: "Some Kaulas there are who seek the good of this world (Aihikarthadhritatmanah). So also the Vaidikas enjoy what is here (Aihikartham kamayan te: as do, I may interpose, the vast bulk of present humanity) and are not seekers of liberation (Amrite ratim na kurvanti). Only by Nishkamasadhana is liberation attained." The Pacatattva are either real (Pratyaksha. "Idealizing" statements to the contrary are, when not due to ignorance, false), substitutional (Anukalpa) or esoteric (Divyatattva). As regards the second, even a vegetarian would not object to "meat" which is in fact ginger, nor the abstainer to "wine" which is coconut water in a bell- metal vessel. As for the Esoteric Tattva they are not material articles or practices, but the symbols for Yogic processes. Again some notions and practices are more moderate and others extreme. The account given in the Mahanirvana of the Bhairavi and Tattva Cakras may be compared with some more unrestrained practice; and the former again may be contrasted with a modern Cakra described in the 13th Chapter of the Life of Bejoy Krishna Gosvami by Jagad-bandhu Maitra. There a Tantrika Siddha formed a Cakra at w hich the Gosvami was present. The latter says that all who were there, felt as if the Shakti was their own Mother who had borne them, and the Devatas whom the Cakreshvara invoked appeared in the circle to accept the offerings. Whether this is accepted as a fact or not, it is obvious that it was intended to describe a Cakra of a different kind from that of which we have more commonly heard. There are some practices which are not correctly understood; there are some principles which the 125 bulk of men will not u nderstand; for to so understand there must be besides knowledge that undefinable Bhava, the possession of which carries with it the explanation which no words can give. I have dealt with this subject in the Chapter on the Pacatattva. There are expressions which do not bear their surface meaning. Gomamhsa -bhakshana is not "beef -eating" but putting the tongue in the root of the throat. What some translate as "Ravishing the widow" refers not to a woman but to a process in Kundalini Yoga and so forth. Lastly and this is important: a distinction is seldom, if ever, made between Shastric principles and actual practice, nor is count taken of the conditions properly governing the worship and its abuse. It is easy to understand that if Hinduism has in general degene rated, there has been a fall here. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that the sole object of these rites is enjoyment. It is not necessary to be a "Tantrik" for that. The moral of all this is, that it is better to know the facts than to make erroneous generalizations. There are said to be three Krantas or geographical divisions of India, of which roughly speaking the North-Eastern portion is Vishnukranta, the North -Western Rathakranta and the remaining and Southern portion is Ashvakranta. According to the Shaktamarigala and Mahasiddhisara Tantras, Vishnukranta (which includes Bengal) extends from the Vindhya range to Chattala or Chittagong. From Vindhya to Tibet and China is Rathakranta. There is then some difference between these two Tantras as to the po sition of Ashvakranta. According to the first this last Kranta extends from the Vindhya to the sea which perhaps includes the rest of India. According to the Mahasiddhisara Tantra it extends from the Karatoya River to a point which cannot be identified with certainty in the text cited, but which may be Java. To each of these 64 Tantras have been assigned. One of the questions awaiting solution is whether the Tantras of these three geographical divisions are marked by both doctrinal and ritual peculiarities and if so what they are. This subject has been referred to in the first part of the Principles of Tantra wherein a list of Tantras is given. In the Shakta division there are four Sampradayas, namely, Kerala, Kashmira, Gauda and Vilasa, in each of which there is both outer and inner worship. The Sammohana Tantra gives these four Sampradayas, also the number of Tantras, not only in the first three Sampradayas, but in Cina and Dravida. I 126 have been informed that out of 56 Deshas (which included besides Hunas, places outside India, such as Cina, Mahacina, Bhota, Simhala), 18 follow Gauda extending from Nepala to Kalinga and 19 follow Kerala extending from Vindhyacala to the Southern Sea, the remaining countries forming part of the Kashmira Desha; and that in each Sampradaya there are Paddhatis such as Shuddha, Gupta, Ugra. There is variance in Devatas and Rituals some of which are explained in the Tarasukta and Shaktisamgama Tantra. There are also various Matas such as Kadi Mata, called Viradanuttara of which the Devata is Kali (see Introduction to Tantraraja Tantra, A Short Analysis); Hadi Mata called Hamsaraja of which Tripurasundari is Devata and Kahadi Mata the combination of the two of which Tara is Devata that is Nilasarasvati. Certain Deshas are called Kadi, Hadi, Kahadi Deshas and each Mata has several Amnayas. It is said that the Hamsatara Mahavidya is the Sovereign Lady of Yoga whom Jainas call Padmavati, Shaktas Shakti, Bauddhas Tara, Cina Sadhakas Mihogra, and Kaulas Cakreshvari. The Kadis call her Kali, the Hadis Shrisundari and the Kadi -Hadis Hamsah. Volumes VIII and XII of "Tantrik Texts" contain that portion of the Tantraraja which belongs to Kadi Mata and in the English Introduction, mentioned above, I have dealt with this subject. Gauda Sampradaya considers Kadi the highest Mata, whilst Kashmira and Kerala worship Tripura and Tara. Possibly there may have been originally Deshas which were the exclusive seats of specific schools of Tantra, but later and at present, so far as they exist, this cannot be said. In each of the Deshas different Sampradayas may be found, though doubtless at particular places, as in Bengal, particular sects may be predominant. In my opinion it is not yet possible to present, with both accuracy and completeness, the doctrine an d practice of any particular Tantrik School, and to indicate wherein it differs from other Schools. It is not possible at present to say fully and precisely who the original Shaktas were, the nature of their sub -divisions and of their relation to, or distinction from, some of the Shaiva group. Thus the Kaulas are generally in Bengal included in the Brahmajani Shakta group but the Sammohana in one passage already cited mentions Kaula and Shakta separately. Possibly it is there meant to distinguish ordinary Shaktas from the special group called Kaula Shaktas. In 127 Kashmir some Kaulas, I believe, call themselves Shaivas. For an answer to these and other questions we must await a further examination of the texts. At present I am doing clearing of mud (Pankoddhara) from the tank, not in the expectation that I can wholly clear away the mud and weeds, but with a desire to make a beginning which others may complete. He who has not understood Tantra Shastra has not understood what "Hinduism" is as it exists to -day. The subject is an important part of Indian culture and therefore worth study by the duly qualified. What I have said should be sufficient to warn the ignorant from making rash generalizations. At present we can say that he who worships the Mantra and Yantra o f Shakti is a Shakta, and that there were several Sampradayas of these worshippers. What we can, and should first do, is to study the Shakta Darshana as it exists to -day, working back from the known to the unknown. What I am about to describe is the Shakta faith as it exists to-day, that is Shaktivada, not as something entirely new but as the development and amalgamation of the various cults which were its ancestors. Summarizing Shakta doctrine we may first affirm that it is Advaitavada or Monism. This we m ight expect seeing that it flourished in Bengal which, as the old Gauda Desha, is the Guru both of Advaitavada and of Tantra Shastra. From Gauda came Gaudapadacarya, Madhusudana Sarasvati, author of the great Advaitasiddhi, Ramacandratirthabharati, Citsukhacarya and others. There seems to me to be a strong disposition in the Brahmaparayana Bengali temperament towards Advaitavada. For all Advaitins the Shakta Agama and Advaita Shaivagama must be the highest form of worship. A detailed account of the Advaita teachings of the Shaktas is a matter of great complexity and of a highly esoteric character, beyond the scope of this paper. I may here note that the Shakta Tantras speak of 94 Tattvas made up of 10, 12 and 16 Kalas of Fire, Sun and Moon constituting the K amakala respectively; and 19 of Sadashiva, 6 of Ishvara, 10 each of Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma. The 51 Kalas or Matrikas which are the Sukshmarupa of the 51 letters (Varna) are a portion of these 94. These are the 51 coils of Kundali from Bindu to Shrimatrik otpatti -Sundari mentioned in my Garland of Letters or Studies on the Mantra Shastra. These are all worshipped in the wine jar by those Shaktas who take wine. The Shastras also set out the 36 128 Tattvas which are common to Shaktas and Salvias; the five Kalas which are Samanya to the Tattvas, namely, Nivritti, Pratishtha, Vidya, Shanta, Shantyatita, and the Shadadhva, namely, Varna, Pada, and Mantra, Kala, Tattva, Bhuvana, which represent the Artha aspect and the Shabda aspect respectively. (See Garland of Letters.) To pass to more popular matters, a beautiful and tender concept of the Shaktas is the Motherhood of God, that is, God as Shakti or the Power which produces, maintains and withdraws the universe. This is the thought of a worshipper. Though the Sammohana Tantra gives high place to Shamkara as conqueror of Buddhism (speaking of him as a manifestation of Shiva and identifying his four disciples and himself with the five Mahapretas), the Agamas as Shastras of worship do not teach Mayavada as set forth accor ding to Shamkara's transcendental method. Maya to the Shakta worshipper is not an unconscious something, not real, not unreal, not real-unreal, which is associated with Brahman in its Ishvara aspect, though it is not Brahman. Brahman is never associated with anything but Itself. Maya to the Shakta is Shakti veiling Herself as Consciousness, but which, as being Shakti, is Consciousness. To the Shakta all that he sees is the Mother. All is Consciousness. This is the standpoint of Sadhana. The Advaitins of Shamkara's School claim that their doctrine is given from the standpoint of Siddhi. I will not argue this question here. When Siddhi is obtained there will be no argument. Until that event Man is, it is admitted, subject to Maya and must think and act according to the forms which it imposes on him. It is more important after all to realize in fact the universal presence of the Divine Consciousness, than to attempt to explain it in philosophical terms. The Divine Mother first appears in and as Her worshipper's earthly mother, then as his wife; thirdly as Kalika, She reveals Herself in old age, disease and death. It is She who manifests, and not without a purpose, in the vast outpouring of Samhara Shakti which was witnessed in the great world- conflict of our time . The terrible beauty of such forms is not understood. And so we get the recent utterance of a Missionary Professor at Madras who being moved to horror at the sight of (I think) the Camundamurti called the Devi a "She -Devil". Lastly She takes to Herself th e dead body in the fierce tongues of flame which light the funeral pyre. 129 The Monist is naturally unsectarian and so the Shakta faith, as held by those who understand it, is free from a narrow sectarian spirit. Nextly it, like the other Agamas, makes provision for all castes and both sexes. Whatever be the true doctrine of the Vaidikas, their practice is in fact marked by exclusiveness. Thus they exclude women and Shudras. It is easy to understand why the so- called Anarya Sampradayas did not do so. A gloriou s feature of the Shakta faith is the honor which it pays to woman. And this is natural for those who worship the Great Mother, whose representative (Vigraha) all earthly women are. Striyo devah striyah pranah. "Women are Devas; women are life itself," as an old Hymn in theSarvollasa has it. It is because Woman is a Vigraha of the Amba Devi, Her likeness in flesh and blood, that the Shakta Tantras enjoin the honor and worship of women and girls (Kumaris), and forbid all harm to them such as the Sati rite, en joining that not even a female animal is to be sacrificed. With the same solicitude for women, the Mahanirvana prescribes that even if a man speaks rudely (Durvacyam kathayan) to his wife, he must fast for a whole day, and enjoins the education of daughter s before their marriage. The Moslem Author of the Dabistan (ii. 154. Ed. 1843) says "The Agama favors both sexes equally. Men and women equally compose mankind. This sect hold women in great esteem and call them Shaktis and to ill -treat a Shakti, that is, a woman, is a crime". The Shakta Tantras again allow of women being Guru, or Spiritual Director, a reverence which the West has not (with rare exceptions) yet given them. Initiation by a Mother bears eightfold fruit. Indeed to the enlightened Shakta the whole universe is Stri or Shakti. "Aham stri" as the Advabhavano Upanishad says. A high worship therefore which can be offered to the Mother to- day consists in getting rid of abuses which have neither the authority of ancient Shastra, nor of modern social science and to honor, cherish, educate and advance women (Shakti). Striyo devah striyah pranah. Gautamiya Tantra says Sarvavarnadhikarashca narinam yogya eva ca; that is, the Tantra Shastra is for all castes and for women; and the Mahanirvana says that the l ow Kaula who refuses to initiate a Candala or Yavana or a woman out of disrespect goes the downward path. No one is excluded from anything except on the grounds of a real and not artificial or imagined incompetency. 130 An American Orientalist critic, in speaking of "the worthlessness of Tantric philosophy", said that it was "Religious Feminism run mad," adding "What is all this but the feminisation of orthodox Vedanta? It is a doctrine for suffragette Monists: the dogma unsupported by any evidence that the female principle antedates and includes the male principle, and that this female principle is supreme Divinity." The "worthlessness" of the Tantrik philosophy is a personal opinion on which nothing need be said, the more particularly that Orientalists who, with insufficient knowledge, have already committed themselves to this view are not likely to easily abandon it. The present criticism, however, in disclosing the grounds on which it is based, has shown that they are without worth. Were it not for such ig norant notions, it would be unnecessary to say that the Shakta Sadhaka does not believe that there is a Woman Suffragette or otherwise, in the sky, surrounded by the members of some celestial feminist association who rules the male members of the universe. As the Yamala says for the benefit of the ignorant "neyam yoshit na ca puman na shando na jadah smritah". That is, God is neither female, male, hermaphrodite nor unconscious thing. Nor is his doctrine concerned with the theories of the American Professor Lester Ward and others as to the alleged pre -eminence of the female principle. We are not here dealing with questions of science or sociology. It is a common fault of western criticism that it gives material interpretations of Indian Scriptures and so misu nderstands it. The Shakta doctrine is concerned with those Spiritual Principles which exist before, and are the origin of, both men and women. Whether, in the appearance of the animal species, the female "antedates" the male is a question with which it is not concerned. Nor does it say that the "female principle" is the supreme Divinity. Shiva the "male" is co-equal with Shiv the "female," for both are one and the same. An Orientalist might have remembered that in the Samkhya, Prakriti is spoken of as "female," and Purusha as "male". And in Vedanta, Maya and Devi are of the feminine gender. Shakti is not a male nor a female "person," nor a male nor a female "principle," in the sense in which sociology, which is concerned with gross matter, uses those terms. Shakti is symbolically "female" because it is the productive principle. Shiva in so far as He represents the Cit or consciousness aspect, is actionless (Nishkriya), though the two are inseparably associated even in creation. The Supreme is the 131 attributeless (Nirguna) Shiva, or the neuter Brahman which is neither "male" nor "female". With such mistaken general views of the doctrine, it was not likely that its more subtle aspects by way of relation to Shamkara's Mayavada, or the Samkya Darshana should be appreciated. The doctrine of Shakti has no more to do with "Feminism" than it has to do with "old age pensions" or any other sociological movement of the day. This is a good instance of those apparently "smart" and cocksure judgments which Orientalists and ot hers pass on things Indian. The errors would be less ridiculous if they were on occasions more modest as regards their claims to know and understand. What is still more important, they would not probably in such cases give unnecessary ground for offense. The characteristic features of Shakta -dharma are thus its Monism; its concept of the Motherhood of God; its un- sectarian spirit and provisions for Shudras and women, to the latter of whom it renders high honor, recognizing that they may be even Gurus; and lastly its Sadhana skillfully designed to realize its teachings. As I have pointed out on many an occasion this question of Sadhana is of the highest importance, and has been in recent times much overlooked. It is that which more than anything else gives va lue to the Agama or Tantra Shastra. Mere talk about religion is only an intellectual exercise. Of what use are grand phrases about Atma on the lips of those who hate and injure one another and will not help the poor. Religion is kindness. Religion again is a practical activity. Mind and body must be trained. There is a spiritual as well as a mental and physical gymnastic. According to Shakta doctrine each man and woman contains within himself and herself a vast latent magazine of Power or Shakti, a term which comes from the root "Shak" to be able, to have force to do, to act. They are each Shakti and nothing but Shakti, for the Svarupa of Shakti, that is, Shakti as it is in itself is Consciousness, and mind and body are Shakti. The problem then is how to raise and vivify Shakti. This is the work of Sadhana in the Religion of Power. The Agama is a practical philosophy, and as the Bengali friend and collaborator of mine, Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyopadhyaya, whom I cite again, has well put it, what the intell ectual world wants to- day is the sort of philosophy which not merely argues but experiments. This is Kriya. The form which Sadhana takes 132 necessarily varies according to faith, temperament and capacity. Thus, amongst Christians, the Catholic Church, like Hinduism, has a full and potent Sadhana in its sacraments (Samskara), temple (Church), private worship (Puja, Upasana) with Upacara "bell, light and incense" (Ghanta, Dipa, Dhupa), Images or Pratima (hence it has been called idolatrous), devotional rites suc h as Novenas and the like (Vrata), the threefold "Angelus" at morn, noon and evening (Samdhya), rosary (Japa), the wearing of Kavacas (Scapulars, Medals, Agnus Dei), pilgrimage (Tirtha), fasting, abstinence and mortification (Tapas), monastic renunciation (Samnyasa), meditation (Dhyana), ending in the union of mystical theology (Samadhi) and so forth. There are other smaller details such for instance as Shanti -abhisheka (Asperges) into which I need not enter here. I may, however, mention the Spiritual Direc tor who occupies the place of the Guru; the worship (Hyperdulia) of the Virgin-Mother which made Svami Vivekananda call the Italian Catholics, Shaktas; and the use of wine (Madya) and bread (corresponding to Mudra) in the Eucharist or Communion Service. Whilst, however, the Blessed Virgin evokes devotion as warm as that which is here paid to Devi, she is not Devi for she is not God but a creature selected as the vehicle of His incarnation (Avatara). In the Eucharist the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ appearing under the form or "accidents" of those material substances; so also Tara is Dravamayi, that is, the "Saviour in liquid form". (Mahanirvana Tr.xi. 105- 107.) In the Catholic Church (though the early practice was otherwise) the laity no l onger take wine but bread only, the officiating priest consuming both. Whilst however the outward forms in this case are similar, the inner meaning is different. Those however who contend that eating and drinking are inconsistent with the "dignity" of worship may be reminded of Tertullian's saying that Christ instituted His great sacrament at a meal. These notions are those of the dualist with all his distinctions. For the Advaitin every function and act may be made a Yaja. Agape or "Love Feasts," a kind o f Cakra, were held in early times, and discontinued as orthodox practice, on account of abuses to which they led; though they are said still to exist in some of the smaller Christian sects of the day. There are other points of ritual which are peculiar to the Tantra Shastra and of which there is no counterpart in the Catholic ritual such as Nyasa and Yantra. Mantra exists in the form of prayer and as formulae of consecration, 133 but otherwise the subject is conceived of differently here. There are certain gest ures (Mudra) made in the ritual, as when consecrating, blessing, and so forth, but they are not so numerous or prominent as they are here. I may some day more fully develop these interesting analogies, but what I have said is for the present sufficient to establish the numerous similarities which exist between the Catholic and Indian Tantrik ritual. Because of these facts the "reformed" Christian sects have charged the Catholic Church with "Paganism". It is in fact the inheritor of very ancient practices bu t is not necessarily the worse for that. The Hindu finds his Sadhana in the Tantras of the Agama in forms which his race has evolved. In the abstract there is no reason why his race should not modify these forms of Sadhana or evolve new ones. But the point is that it must have some form of Sadhana. Any system to be fruitful must experiment to gain experience. It is because of its powerful sacraments and disciplines that in the West the Catholic Church has survived to this day, holding firm upon its "Rock" amid the dissolving sects, born of what is called the "Reform". It is likely to exist when these, as presently existing sects, will have disappeared. All things survive by virtue of the truth in them. The particular truth to which I here refer is that a fai th cannot be maintained by mere hymn- singing and pious addresses. For this reason too Hinduism has survived. This is not necessary to say that either of these will, as presently existing forms, continue until the end of time. The so- called Reformed or Protestant sects, whether of West or East, are when viewed in relation to man in general, the imperfect expression of a truth misunderstood and misapplied, namely, that the higher man spiritually ascends, the less dependent is he on form. The mistake which such sects make is to look at the matter from one side only, and to suppose that all men are alike in their requirement. The Agama is guilty of no such error. It offers form in all its fullness and richness to those below the stage of Yoga, at which point man reaches what the Kularnava Tantra calls the Varna and Ashrama of Light (Jyotirvarnashrami), and gradually releases himself from all form that he may unite his self with the Formless One. I do not know which most to admire -- the colossal affirmations of Indian doctrine, or the wondrous variety of the differing disciplines, which it prescribes for their realization in fact. 134 The Buddhists called Brahmanism Shilavrataparamarsha, that is, a system believing in the efficacy of ritual acts. And so it is, and so at length was Buddhism, when passing through Mahayana it ended up with the full Tantrik Sadhana of the Vajrayana School. There are human tendencies which cannot be suppressed. Hinduism will, however, disappear, if and when Sadhana (whatever be its form) ceases; for that will be the day on which it will no longer be something real, but the mere subject of philosophical and historical talk. Apart from its great doctrine of Shakti, the main significance of the Shakta Tantra Shastra lies in this, that it affirms the principle of the necessity of Sadhana and claims to afford a means available to all of whatever caste and of either sex whereby the teachings of Vedanta may be practically realized. But let no one take any statement from any one, myself included, blindly, without examining and testing it. I am only concerned to state the facts as I know them. It is man's prerogative to think. The Sanskrit word for "man" comes from the root man "to think". Those who are Shaktas may be pleased at what I have said ab out their faith. It must not, however, be supposed that a doctrine is necessarily true simply because it is old. There are some hoary errors. As for science, its conclusions shift from year to year. Recent discoveries have so abated its pride that it has c onsiderably ceased to give itself those pontifical airs which formerly annoyed some of us. Most will feel that if they are to bow to any Master it should be to a spiritual one. A few will think that they can safely walk alone. Philosophy again is one of the noblest of life's pursuits, but here too we must examine to see whether what is proposed for our acceptance is well founded. The maxim is current that there is nothing so absurd but that it has been held by some philosopher or another. We must each ourselves judge and choose, and if honest, none can blame our choice. We must put all to the test. We may here recollect the words of Shruti -- "Shrotavyah, Mantavyah, Nididhyasitavyah," -- "listen, reason and ponder"; for as Manu says "Yastarke - nanusandhatte s a dharmam veda, netarah" -- "He who by discussion investigates, he knows Dharma and none other." Ultimately there is experience alone which in Shakta speech is Saham -- "She I am". 135 NOTE TO CHAPTER VI I have referred to the Vaidik and Agamic strands in Indian Dharma. I wish to add some weighty remarks made by the well -known Vedantic Monthly The Prabuddha Bharata (Mayavati, U. P., July 1914). They were elicited by the publication of Arthur Avalon's Principles of Tantra. After pointing out that a vindicati on of the Tantras rebounds directly to the benefit of Hinduism as a whole, for Tantrikism in its real sense is nothing but the Vedic religion struggling with wonderful success to reassert itself amidst all those new problems of religious life and discipline which historical events and developments have thrust upon it, and after referring to the Introduction to that work, the author of the review wrote as follows: "In this new publication, the most noteworthy feature of this new Introduction he has written f or the Tantra -tattva is his appreciative presentation of the orthodox views about the antiquity and the importance of the Tantras, and it is impossible to overestimate the value of this presentation. "For hitherto all theories about the origin and the importance of the Tantras have been more or less prejudiced by a wrong bias against Tantrikism which some of its own later sinister developments were calculated to create. This bias has made almost every such theory read either like a. condemnation or an apology. All investigation being thus disqualified, the true history of Tantrikism has not yet been written; and we find cultured people mostly inclined either to the view that Tantrikism originally branched off from the Buddhistic Mahayana or Vajrayana as a cult of some corrupted and self - deluded monastics, or to the view that it was the inevitable dowry which some barbarous non-Aryan races brought along with them into the fold of Hinduism. According to both these views, however, the form which this Tantrikism -- either a Buddhistic development or a barbarous importation -- has subsequently assumed in the literature of Hinduism, is its improved edition as issuing from the crucibles of Vedic or Vedantic transformation. But this theory of the curious co -mingling o f the Vedas and Vedanta with Buddhistic corruption or with non- Aryan barbarity is perfectly inadequate to 136 explain the all -pervading influence which the Tantras exert on our present - day religious life. Here it is not any hesitating compromise that we have g ot before us to explain, but a bold organic synthesis, a legitimate restatement of the Vedic culture for the solution of new problems and new difficulties which signalized the dawn of a new age. "In tracing the evolution of Hinduism, modern historians take a blind leap from Vedic ritualism direct to Buddhism, as if to conclude that all those newly formed communities, with which India had been swarming all over since the close of the fateful era of the Kurukshetra war and to which was denied the right of Vedic sacrifices, the monopoly of the higher three -fold castes of pure orthodox descent, were going all the time without any religious ministrations. These Aryanized communities, we must remember, were actually swamping the Vedic orthodoxy, which was already gradually dwindling down to a helpless minority in all its scattered centers of influence, and was just awaiting the final blow to be dealt by the rise of Buddhism. Thus the growth of these new communities and their occupation of the whole land constituted a mighty event that had been silently taking place in India on the outskirts of the daily shrinking orthodoxy of Vedic ritualism, long before Buddhism appeared on the field, and this momentous event our modern historians fail to take due notice of either it may be because of a curious blindness of self -complacency or because of the dazzle which the sudden triumph of Buddhism and the overwhelming mass of historical evidences left by it create before their eyes. The traditional Kali Yuga dates from the rise of these communities and the Vedic religious culture of the preceding Yuga underwent a wonderful transformation along with a wonderful attempt it made to Aryanize these rising communities. "History, as hitherto understood and read, speaks of the Brahmins of the Buddhistic age -- their growing alienation from the Jana -kanda or the Upanishadic wisdom, their impotency to save the orthodox Vedic communities from the encroachments of the non- Vedic hordes and races, their ever- deepening religious formalism and s ocial exclusiveness. But this history is silent on the marvelous feats which the Upanishadic sects of anchorites were silently performing on the outskirts of the strictly Vedic community with the object of Aryanizing the new India that was rising over 137 the ashes of the Kurukshetra conflagration. This new India was not strictly Vedic like the India of the bygone ages, for it could not claim the religious ministrations of the orthodox Vedic Brahmins and could not, therefore, perform Yajas like the latter. The question, therefore, is as to how this new India became gradually Aryanized, for Aryanization is essentially a spiritual process, consisting in absorbing new communities of men into the fold of the Vedic religion. The Vedic ritualism that prevailed in those days was powerless, we have seen, to do anything for these new communities springing up all over the country. Therefore, we are obliged to turn to the only other factor in Vedic religion besides the Karma -kanda for an explanation of those changes which the Vedic religion wrought in the rising communities in order to Aryanize them. The Upanishads represent the Jana- kanda of the Vedic religion and if we study all of them, we find that not only the earliest ritualism of Yajas was philosophized upon the ea rlier Upanishads, but the foundation for a new, and no less elaborate, ritualism was fully laid in many of the later Upanishads. For example, we study in these Upanishads how the philosophy of Paca -upasana (five -fold worship, viz., the worship of Shiva, Devi, Sun, Ganesha and Vishnu) was developed out of the mystery of the Pranava ("Om"). This philosophy cannot be dismissed as a post- Buddhistic interpolation, seeing that some features of the same philosophy can be clearly traced even in the Brahmanas (e.g. , the discourse about the conception of Shiva). "Here, therefore, in some of the later Upanishads we find recorded the attempts of the pre -Buddhistic recluses of the forest to elaborate a post- Vedic ritualism out of the doctrine of the Pranava and the Vedic theory of Yogic practices. Here in these Upanishads we find how the Bija -mantras and the Shatcakra of the Tantras were being originally developed, for on the Pranava or Udgitha had been founded a special learning and a school of philosophy from the very earliest ages and some of the "spinal" centers of Yogic meditation had been dwelt upon in the earliest Upanishads and corresponding Brahmanas. The Upakaranas of Tantrik worship, namely, such material adjuncts as grass, leaves, water and so on, were most ap parently adopted from Vedic worship along with their appropriate incantations. So even from the Brahmanas and the Upanishads stands out in clear relief a system of spiritual discipline -- which we would unhesitatingly classify as 138 Tantrik -- having at its core the Paca -upasana and around it a fair round of rituals and rites consisting of Bija -mantras and Vedic incantations, proper meditative processes and proper manipulation of sacred adjuncts of worship adopted from the Vedic rites. This may be regarded as the earliest configuration which Tantrik -ism had on the eve of those silent but mighty social upheavals through which the Aryanization of vast and increasing multitudes of new races proceeded in pre- Buddhistic India and which had their culmination in the eventful centuries of the Buddhistic coup de grace. "Now this pre- Buddhistic Tantrikism, perhaps, then recognized as the Vedic Paca -upasana, could not have contributed at all to the creation of a new India, had it remained confined completely within the limits of monastic sects. But like Jainism, this Paca -upasana went forth all over the country to bring ultra -Vedic communities under its spiritual ministrations. Even if we inquire carefully into the social conditions obtaining in the strictly Vedic ages, we find that there was always an extended wing of the Aryanized society where the purely Vedic Karma -kanda could not be promulgated, but where the molding influence of Vedic ideals worked through the development of suitable spiritual activities. It is alwa ys to the Jana- kanda and the monastic votaries thereof, that the Vedic religion owed its wonderful expansiveness and its progressive self -adaptability, and every religious development within the Vedic fold, but outside, the ritualism of Homa sacrifices, is traceable to the spiritual wisdom of the all renouncing forest recluses. This 'forest' wisdom was most forcibly brought into requisition when after the Kurukshetra a new age was dawning with the onrush and upheaval of non- Aryan and semi -Aryan races all over India -- an echo of which may be found in that story of the Mahabharata where Arjuna fails to use his Gandiva to save his protgs from the robbery of the non - Aryan hordes. "The greatest problem of the pre- Buddhistic ages was the Aryanization of the ne w India that rose and surged furiously from every side against the fast-dwindling centers of the old Vedic orthodoxy struggling hard, but in vain, by social enactments to guard its perilous insulation. But for those religious movements, such as those of th e Bhagavatas, Shaktas, Sauryas, Shaivas, Ganapatyas and Jainas, that tackled this problem of Aryanization 139 most successfully, all that the Vedic orthodoxy stood for in the real sense would have gradually perished without trace. These movements, specially the five cults of Vedic worship, took up many of the non- Aryan races and cast their life in the mold of the Vedic spiritual ideal, minimizing in this way the gulf that existed between them and the Vedic orthodoxy and thereby rendering possible their gradual amalgamation. And where this task remained unfulfilled owing to the mold proving too narrow still to fit into the sort of life which some non- Aryan races or communities lived, there it remained for Buddhism to solve the problem of Aryanization in due time. But still we must remember that by the time Buddhism made its appearance, the pre- Buddhistic phase of Tantrik worship had already established itself in India so widely and so firmly that instead of dislodging it by its impetuous onset -- all the force of which, by the bye, was mainly spent on the tattering orthodoxy of Vedic ritualism -- Buddhism was itself swallowed up within three or four centuries by its perhaps least suspected opponent of this Tantrik worship and then wonderfully transformed and ejected on the arena as the Mahayana. "The publication of these two volumes is an event of great interest and importance. The religious beliefs of the modern Hindus have been represented to English readers from various points of view, but the peculiar mold into which they have been sought to be cast in comparatively modern centuries has not received adequate attention. The exponents of the religion of modern Hindus take cognizance more of the matter and source of their beliefs than of the change of form they have been undergoing through the many centuries. The volumes under review, as well as other publications brought out by Arthur Avalon, serve to carry this important question of form to such a prominence as almost makes it obligatory for every exhaustive exposi tion of Hindu doctrines in future to acknowledge and discriminate in them the formative influences of the Tantrik restatement. In the Tantratattva, the presentation and vindication of the Hindu religious beliefs and practices avowedly and closely follow the methodology of the Tantras, and the learned pundit has fully succeeded in establishing the fact that what lies behind these beliefs and practices is not mere prejudice or superstition but a system of profound philosophy based on the Vedas. Every student of modern Hinduism should acquaint himself 140 with this, namely, its immediate background of Tantrik philosophy and ritualism. "The Hindu religious consciousness is like a mighty Ganges emerging from the Himalayas of Vedic wisdom, receiving tributaries and sending out branch streams at many points in its course. And though the nature of the current, its color, velocity or uses may vary at different places, the Ganges is the same Ganges whether at Hardwar, Allahabad or Calcutta. The stream is not only one but it has also its one main channel in spite of all the many tributaries and branches. And the whole of the stream is sacred, though different sects may choose special points and confluences as of special sanctity to themselves, deriving inspiration thence for their special sectarian developments. Now, though the rise of Tantrik philosophy and ritualism created in former times new currents and back -waters along the stream of Hinduism, it was essentially an important occurrence in the main stream and channel; and instead of producing a permanent bifurcation in that stream, it coalesced with it, coloring and renovating, more or less, the whole tenor of the Hindu religious consciousness. As a result, we find Tantrik thought and sentiment equally operative in the extreme metaphysical wing of Hinduism as well as in its lower matter- of-fact phases. This actual permeation of Hindu religious consciousness by Tantrik thought and sentiment should receive the fullest recognition at the hands of every up-to-date exponent. His predecessors of former generations might have to strengthen their advocacy of Tantrik doctrines by joining issue with the advocates of particular phases of Hindu religion and philosophy. But the present epoch in the history of our religious conscious ness is pre-eminently an epoch of wonderful synthetic mood of thought and sentiment, which is gradually pervading the Hindu religious consciousness ever since Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa embodied in himself its immediate possibilities, to find in the literature that is being so admirably provided for English readers by Arthur Avalon an occasional tendency to use Tantrik doctrines as weapons for combating certain phases of Hindu belief and practice. This tendency seems 141 to betray quite a wrong standpoint in the study of the Tantras, their relation to other Scriptures and their real historical significance." 142 CHAPTER SEVEN . IS SHAKTI FORCE ? There are some persons who have thought, and still think, that Shakti mea ns force and that the worship of Shakti is the worship of force. Thus Keshub Chunder Sen (New Dispensation, p. 108), wrote: Four centuries ago the Shaktas gave way before the Bhaktas. Chaitanya's army proved invincible, and carried all Bengal captive. Even to-day his gospel of love rules as a living force, though his followers have considerably declined both in faith and in morals. Just the reverse of this we find in England and other European countries. There the Shaktas are driving the Bhaktas out of the field. Look at the Huxleys, the Tyndalls and the Spencers of the day. What are they but Shaktas, worshippers of Shakti or Force? The only Deity they adore, if they at all adore one, is the Prime Force of the universe. To it they offer dry homage. Surely t hen the scientists and materialists of the day are a sect of Shakti -worshippers, who are chasing away the true Christian devotees who adore the God of Love. Alas! for European Vaishnavas; they are retreating before the advancing millions of Western Shaktas. We sincerely trust, however, the discomfiture of devotion and Bhakti will be only for a time, and that a Chaitanya will yet arise in the West, crush the Shaktas, who only recognize Force as Deity and are sunk in carnality and voluptuousness, and lead natures into the loving faith, spirituality, simplicity, and rapturous devotion of the Vaishnava. Professor Monier Williams ("Hinduism") also called it a doctrine of Force. Recently the poet Rabindranath Tagore has given the authority of his great name to thi s error (Modern Review, July, 1919). After pointing out that Egoism is the price paid for the fact of existence and that the whole universe is assisting in the desire that the "I" should be, he says that man has viewed this desire in two different ways, either as a whim of Creative Power, or a joyous self- expression of Creative Love. Is the fact then of his being, he asks, a revealment of Force or of Love? Those who hold to the first view must also, he thinks, recognize conflict as inevitable and eternal. For according to 143 them Peace and Love are but a precarious coat of armor within which the weak seek shelter, whereas that which the timid anathematize as unrighteousness, that alone is the road to success. "The pride of prosperity throws man's mind outwards and the misery and insult of destitution draws man's hungering desires likewise outwards. These two conditions alike leave man unashamed to place above all other gods, Shakti the Deity of Power -- the Cruel One, whose right hand wields the weapon of guile. In the politics of Europe drunk with Power we see the worship of Shakti." In the same way the poet says that in the days of their political disruption, the cowed and down- trodden Indian people through the mouths of their poets sang the praises of the same Shakti. "The Chandi of Kavikangkan and of the Annadamangala, the Ballad of Manasa, the Goddess of Snakes, what are they but Paeans of the triumph of Evil? The burden of their song is the defeat of Shiva the good at the hands of the cruel deceitful criminal Shakti." "The male Deity who was in possession was fairly harmless. But all of a sudden a feminine Deity turns up and demands to be worshipped in his stead. That is to say that she insisted on thrusting herself where she had no right. Under what t itle? Force! By what method? Any that would serve." The Deity of Peace and Renunciation did not survive. Thus he adds that in Europe the modern Cult of Shakti says that the pale anaemic Jesus will not do. But with high pomp and activity Europe celebrates her Shakti worship. "Lastly the Indians of to- day have set to the worship Europe's Divinity. In the name of religion some are saying that it is cowardly to be afraid of wrong - doing. Both those who have attained worldly success, and those who have failed to attain it are singing the same tune. Both fret at righteousness as an obstacle which both would overcome by physical force." I am not concerned here with any popular errors that there may be. After all, when we deal with a Shastrik term it is to the Shastra itself that we must look for its meaning. Shakti comes from the root Shak "to be able," "to do". It indicates both activity and capacity therefor. The world, as word, is activity. But when we have said that, we have already indicated that it is erroneous to confine the meaning of the term Shakti to any special form of activity. On the contrary 144 Shakti means both power in general and every particular form of power. Mind is a Power: so is Matter. Mind is constantly functioning in the form of Vritti; Reasoning, Will and Feeling (Bhava) such as love, aversion and so forth are all aspects of Mind- power in its general sense. Force is power translated to the material plane, and is therefore only one and the grossest aspect of Shakti or power. But all these special powers are limited forms of the great creative Power which is the Mother (Ambika) of the Universe. Worship of Shakti is not worship of these limited forms but of the Divine will, knowledge and action, the cause of these effects. That Mahashakti is perfect consciousness (Cidrupini) and Bliss (Anandamayi) which produces from Itself the contracted consciousness experiencing both pleasure and pain. This production is not at all a "whim". It is the nature (Svabhava) of the ultimate. Bliss is Love (Niratishayapremaspadatvam anandatvam). The production of the Universe is according to the Shakta an act of love, illustrated by the so- called erotic imagery of the Shastra. The Self loves itself whether before, or in, creation. The thrill of human love which continues the life of humanity is an infinitesimally small fragment and faint reflection of the creative act in which Shiva and Shakti join to produce the Bindu which is the seed of the Universe. I quite agree that the worship of mere Force is Asurik and except in a transient sense futile. Force, however, may be moralized by the good purpose which it serves. The antithesis is not rightly between Might and Right but between Might in the service of Right and Might in the service of Wrong. To worship force merely is to worship matter. He however who worships the Mother in Her Material forms (Sthularupa) will know that She has others, and will worship Her in all such forms. He will also know that She is beyond all limited forms as that which gives being to them all. We may then say that Force is a gross form of Shakti, but Shakti is much more than that "here" (Iha) and the infinite Power of Consciousness "there" (Amutra). This last, the Shakti of worship, is called by the Shastra the Purnahambhava or the experience "All I am". 145 CHAPTER EIGHT . CINACARA (VASHISHTHA AND BUDDHA ) It has been the subject of debate whether the Tantrik Pacatattva ritual with wine and so forth is a product of Buddhism, and whether it is opposed to Vaidika Dharma. Some have supposed that these rites originally came from yellow Asia, penetrated into India where they received its impress, and again made their way to the north to encounter earlier original forms. I have elsewhere put forward some facts which suggest that these rites may be a continuance, though in another form, of ancient Vaidik usage in which Soma, Meat, Fish and Purodasa formed a part. Though there are some Maithuna rites in the Vedas it is possible that the Bengal Shakta ritual in thi s respect has its origin in Cinacara. Possibly the whole ritual comes therefrom. I have spoken of Bengal because we should distinguish it from other forms of Shakta worship. The matter is so obscure at present that any definite affirmation as to historical origins lacks justification. Most important however in the alleged Buddhist connection is the story of Vashishtha to be found in the Tantras. He is said to have gone to Mahacina (Tibet), which, according to popular belief, is half way to Heaven. Mahadeva is said to be visible at the bottom of the Manasarova Lake near Kailasa. Some of the Texts bearing on it have been collected in the Appendix to the edition of the Tara Tantra which has been published by the Varendra Anusandhana Samiti. The Tara Tantra opens (l. 2) with the following question of Devi Tara or Mahanila -Sarasvati: "Thou didst speak of the two Kula -bhairavas, Buddha and Vashishtha. Tell me by what Mantra they became Siddha'. The same Tantra (IV. 10) defines a Bhairava as follows: "He who purifie s these five (i.e., Pacatattva) and after offering the same (to the Devata) partakes thereof is a Bhairava." Buddha then is said to be a Kula -bhairava. It is to be noted that Buddhist Tantriks who practice this ritual are accounted Kaulas. Shiva replied, "Janardana (Vishnu) is the excellent Deva in the form of Buddha (Buddharupi)." It is said in the Samayacara Tantra that Tara and Kalika, in their different forms, as also Matangi, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, and Dhumavati belong to the northern Amnaya. The sixth Chapter of 146 the Sammohana Tantra mentions a number of Scriptures of the Bauddha class, together with others of the Shakta, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Saura and Ganapatya classes. Vashishtha is spoken of in the XVII Chapter of the Rudrayamala and the 1st Patala of the Brahmayamala. The following is the account in the former Tantrik Scripture: Vashishtha, the self -controlled, the son of Brahma, practiced for ages severe austerities in a lonely spot. For six thousand years he did Sadhana, but still the Daughter of the Mountains did not appear to him. Becoming angry he went to his father and told him his method of practice. He then said, "Give me another Mantra, Oh Lord! since this Vidya (Mantra) does not grant me Siddhi (success); otherwise in your presence I shall u tter a terrible curse." Dissuading him Brahma said, "Oh son, who art learned in the Yoga path, do not do so. Do thou worship Her again with wholehearted feeling, when She will appear and grant you boons. She is the Supreme Shakti. She saves from all dangers. She is lustrous like ten million suns. She is dark blue (Nila). She is cool like ten million moons. She is like ten million lightning -flashes. She is the spouse of Kala (Kalakamini). She is the beginning of all. In Her there is neither Dharma nor Adharma. She is in the form of all. She is attached to pure Cinacara (Shuddhacinacararata). She is the initiator (Pravarttika) of Shakticakra. Her greatness is infinitely boundless. She helps in the crossing of the ocean of the Samsara. She is Buddheshvari (poss ibly Buddhishvari, Lord of Buddhi). She is Buddhi (intelligence) itself (Buddhirupa). She is in the form of the Atharva branch of the Vedas (Atharvavedashakhini). Numerous Shastric references connect the Tantra Shastra with the Atharvaveda. (See in this connection my citation from Shaktisangama Tantra in Principles of Tantra.) She protects the beings of the worlds. Her action is spread throughout the moving and motionless. Worship Her, my son. Be of good cheer. Why so eager to curse? Thou art the jewel of k indness. Oh, son, worship Her constantly with thy mind (Cetas). Being entirely engrossed in Her, thou of a surety shalt gain sight of Her." Having heard these words of his Guru and having bowed to him again and again the pure one (Vashishtha), versed in the meaning of Vedanta, betook 147 himself to the shore of the ocean. For full a thousand years he did Japa of Her Mantra. Still he received no message (Adesha). Thereupon the Muni Vashishtha grew angry, and being perturbed of mind prepared to curse the Mahavidy a (Devi). Having sipped water (Acamana) he uttered a great and terrible curse. Thereupon kuleshvari (Lady of the Kaulas) Mahavidya appeared before the Muni. She who dispels the fear of the Yogins said, "How now Vipra (Are Vipra), why have you terribly cursed without cause? Thou dost not understand My Kulagama nor knowest how to worship. How by mere Yoga practice can either man or Deva get sight of My Lotus-Feet. My worship (Dhyana) is without austerity and pain. To him who desires My Kulagama, who is Siddha in My Mantra, and knows My pure Vedacara, My Sadhana is pure (Punya) and beyond even the Vedas (Vedanamapyagocara). (This does not mean unknown to the Vedas or opposed to them but something which surpasses the Vaidik ritual of the Pashu. This is made plain by the following injunction to follow the Atharvaveda.) Go to Mahacina (Tibet) and the country of the Bauddhas and always follow the Atharvaveda (Bauddha deshe' tharvaveda Mahacine sada braja). Having gone there and seen My Lotus -Feet which are Mahabhava (the great blissful feeling which in Her true nature She is) thou shalt, Oh Maharisi, become versed in My Kula and a great Siddha". Having so said, She became formless and disappeared in the ether and then passed through the ethereal region. The great Rishi having heard this from the Mahavidya Sarasvati went to the land of China where Buddha is established (Buddhapratishthita). Having repeatedly bowed to the ground, Vashishtha said, "Protect me, Oh Mahadeva who art the Imperishable One in the form of Buddha (Buddharupa). I am the very humble Vashishtha, the son of Brahma. My mind is ever perturbed. I have come here (Cina) for the Sadhana of the Mahadevi. I know not the path leading to Siddhi. Thou knowest the path of the Devas. Seeing however thy way of lif e (Acara) doubts assail my mind (Bhayani santi me hridi: because he saw the (to him) extraordinary ritual with wine and woman). Destroy them and my wicked mind which inclines to Vaidik ritual (Vedagamini; that is, the ordinary Pashu ritual). Oh Lord in Thy abode there are ever rites which are outside Veda (Vedavavahishkrita: that is, the Vaidik ritual and what is consistent with 148 Veda as Vashishtha then supposed). How is it that wine, meat, woman (Angana) are drunk, eaten and enjoyed by naked (Digambara) Siddhas who are high (Vara), and awe -inspiring (Raktapanodyata). They drink constantly and enjoy (or make enjoy) beautiful women (Muhurmuhuh prapivanti ramayanti varanganam). With red eyes they are ever exhilarated and replete with flesh and wine (Sadamangsas avaih purnah). They are powerful to favor and punish. They are beyond the Vedas (Vedasyagocarah). They enjoy wine and women (Madyastrisevane ratah)" (Vashishtha merely saw the ritual surface). Thus spoke the great Yogi having seen the rites which are outside the Veda (Veda -vahishkrita. v. ante). Then bowing low with folded hands he humbly said, "How can inclinations such as these be purifying to the mind? How can there be Siddhi without Vaidik rites?" Manah -pravrittireteshu katham bhavati pavani Kathang va jayate siddhir veda karyyang vina prabho. Buddha said, "Oh Vashishtha, listen the while I speak to thee of the excellent Kula path, by the mere knowing of which one becomes in a short time like Rudra Himself. I speak to thee in brief the Agama which is the essence of all and which leads to Kulasiddhi. First of all, the Vira (hero) should be pure (Shuci). Buddha here states the conditions under which only the rites are permissible. His mind should be penetrated with discrimination (Viveka) and freed of all Pashubhava (state of an uninitiate Pashu or animal man). Let him avoid the company of the Pashu and remain alone in a lonely place, free from lust, anger and other passions. He should constantly devote himself to Yoga practice. He should be firm in his resolve to learn Yoga; he should ever tread the Yoga path and fully know the meaning of the Veda (Vedarthanipuno mahan). In this way the pious one (Dharmatma) of good conduct and largeness of heart (Audarya) should, by gradual degrees, restrain his breath, and through the path of breathing compass the destruction of mind. Following this practice the self -controlled (Vashi) becomes Yogi. In slow degrees of practice the body firstly sweats. This is the lowest stage (Adhama). The next is middling (Madhyama). Here there is trembling (Kampa). In the third or highest (Para) stage one is able to levitate 149 (Bhumityaga). By the attainment of Siddhi in Pranayama one becomes a master in Yoga. Having become a Yogi by practice of Kumbhaka (restraint of breath) he should be Mauni (given over to silence) and full of intent, devotion (Ekanta -bhakti) to Shiva, Krishna and Brahma. The pure one should realize by mind, action, and speech that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are restless like the moving air (Vayavigaticancalah). Quaere. Perh aps the transient nature of these Devatas, as compared with the supreme Shakti, is indicated. The man of steady mind should fix it on Shakti, who is consciousness (Cidrupa). Thereafter the Mantrin should practice Mahavirabhava (the feeling of the great hero) and follow the Kula path, the Shakti -cakra, the Vaishnava Sattvacakra and Navavigrah and should worship Kulakatyayani, the excellent one, the Pratyaksha Devata (that is, the Deity who responds to prayer) who grants prosperity and destroys all evil. She is consciousness (Cidrupa), She is the abode of knowledge (Jana) and is Consciousness and Bliss, lustrous as ten million lightnings, of whom all Tattvas are the embodiment, who is Raudri with eighteen arms, fond of wine and mountains of flesh (the text is Shivamangsacalapriyam, but the first word should be Sura). Man should do Japa of the Mantra, taking refuge with Her, and following the Kula path. Who in the three worlds knows a path higher than this? By the grace gained therein, the great Brahma Himself became the Creator, and Vishnu, whose substance is Sattva -guna, the object of adoration of all, highly deserving of worship, the great, and Lord of Yajurveda, became able to protect. By it Hara the Lord of Viras, the wrathful one, Lord of wrath and of mighty power, became the Destroyer of all. By the grace of Virabhava the Dikpalas (Protectors of the quarters) became like unto Rudra. By a month's practice power to attract (Akarshanasiddhi) is attained. In two months one becomes the Lord of Speech. In four m onths one becomes like unto the Dikpalas, in five months one becomes the five arrows (probably masters the five Tanmatras), and in six months he becomes Rudra Himself. The fruit of this method (Acara) is beyond all others. This is Kaulamarga. There is nothing which surpasses it. If there be Shakti, the Vipra becomes a complete Yogi by six months' practice. Without Shakti even Shiva can do nought. What then shall we say of men of small intelligence". 150 Having said this, He whose form is Buddha (Buddharupi) made him practice Sadhana. He said, "Oh Vipra, do thou serve Mahashakti. Do thou practice Sadhana with wine (Madyasadhana) and thus shalt thou get sight of the Lotus Feet of the Mahavidya." Vashishtha having heard these words of the Guru and meditating on Devi Sarasvati went to the Kulamandapa to practice the wine ritual (Madirasadhana) and having repeatedly done Sadhana with wine, meat, fish, parched grain and Shakti he became a complete Yogi (Purnayogi). A similar account is given in the Brahmayamala. There are some variants however. Thus while in the Rudrayamala, Vashishtha is said to have resorted to the shore of the ocean, in the Brahmayamala he goes to Kamakhya, the great Tantrik Pitha and shrine of the Devi. (The prevalence of Her worship amongst the Mongolian Assamese is noteworthy.) It may be here added that this Yamala states that, except at time of worship, wine should not be taken nor should the Shakti be unclothed. By violation of these provisions life, it says, is shortened, and man goes to Hell. According to the account of the Brahmayamala, Vashishtha complaining of his ill -success was told to go to the Blue Mountains (Nilacala) and worship parameshvari near Kamakhya (Karma in Assam). He was told that Vishnu in the form of Buddha (Buddharupi) alone knew this worship according to Cinacara. Devi said, "without Cinacara you cannot please Me. Go to Vishnu who is Udbodharupi (illumined) and worship Me according to the Acara taught by Him." Vashishtha then went to Vishnu in the country Mahacina, which is by the side of the Himalaya (Himavatparshve), a country inhabited by great Sadhakas and thousands of beautiful and youthful women whose hearts were gladdened with wine, and whose minds were blissful with enjoyment (Vilasa). They were adorned with clothes which inspired love (Shringaravesha) and the movement of their hips made tinkle their girdles of little bells. Free of both fear and prudish shame they enchanted the world. They surround Ishvara and are devoted to the worship of Devi. Vashishtha wondered greatly when he saw Him in the form of Buddha (Buddharupi) with eyes drooping from wine. "What" he said, "is Vishnu doing in His Buddha form? This map (Acara) is opposed to Veda (Vedavadaviruddha). I do not approve of it (Asammato mama)." Whilst so thinking, he heard a voice 151 coming from the ether saying, "Oh thou who art devoted to good acts, think not like this. This Acara is of excellent result in the Sadhana of Tarini. She is not pleased with anything which is the contrary of this. If thou dost wish to gain Her grace speedily, then worship Her according to Cinacara." Hearing this voice, Vashishtha's hairs stood on end and he fell to the ground. Being filled with exceeding joy he prayed to Vishnu in the form of Buddha (Buddharupa). Buddha, who had taken wine, seeing him was greatly pleased and said, "Why have you come here?" Vashishtha bowing to Buddha told him of his worship of Tarini. Buddha who is Hari and full of knowledge (Tattvajana) spoke to him of the five Makaras (M: that is, the five commencing with the letter M are Madya, or wine and so forth) which are in Cinacara (Majnanam Cinacaradikaranam) saying that this should not be disclosed (a common injunction as regards this ritual and renders it from the opponents' standpoint suspect). "By practicing it thou shalt not again sink into the ocean of being. It is full of knowledge of the Essence (Tattvajana) and gives immediate liberation (Mukti)." He then goes on to explain a principal feature of this cult, namely, its freedom from the ritual rules of the ordinary worship above which the Sadhaka has risen. It is mental worship. In it bathing, purification, Japa, and ceremonial worship is by the mind only. (No outward acts are necessary; the bathing and so forth is in the mind and not in actual water, as is the case in lower and less advanced worship.) There are no rules as to auspicious and inauspicious times, or as to what should be done by day and by night. Nothing is pure or impure (there is no ritual defect of impurity) nor prohibition against the taking of food. Devi should be worshipped even though the worshipper has had his food, and even though the place be unclean. Woman who is Her image should be worshipped (Pujanam striya) and never should any injury be done to her (Stridvesho naiva kartavyah). Are we here dealing with an incident in which Sakyamuni or some other Buddha of Buddhism was concerned? According to Hindu belief the Ramayana was composed in the Treta age, and Vashishtha was the family priest of Dasharatha and Rama (Adikanda VII. 4, 5, VIII. 6), Ayodhya -kanda V. 1). The Mahabharata was composed in Dvapara. Krishna appeared in the Sandhya between this and the Kali -yuga. Both 152 Kurukshetra and Buddha were in the Kali age. According to this chronology, Vashishtha who was the Guru of Dasharatha was earlier than Sakyamuni. There were, however, Buddhas before the latter. The text does not mention Sakyamuni or Gautama Buddha. According to Buddhistic tradition there were many other Buddhas before him such as Dipankara "The Luminous One," Krakuccanda and others, the term Buddha being a term applicable to the enlightened, whoever he be. It will no doubt be said by the Western Orientalist that both these Yamalas were composed after the time of Sakyamuni. But if this be so, their author or authors, as Hind us, would be aware that according to Hindu Chronology Vashishtha antedated Sakyamuni. Apart from the fact of there being other Buddhas, according to Hinduism "types" as distinguished from "forms" of various things, ideas, and faiths, are persistent, though the forms are variable, just as is the case with the Platonic Ideas or eternal archetypes. In this sense neither Veda, Tantra - Shastra nor Buddhism had an absolute beginning at any time. As types of ideas or faiths they are beginningless (Anadi), though the forms may have varied from age to age, and though perhaps some of the types may have been latent in some of the ages. If the Vedas are Anadi so are the Tantra - shastras. To the Yogic vision of the Rishi which makes latent things patent, variable forms show their hidden types. Nothing is therefore absolutely new. A Rishi in the Treta Yuga will know that which will apparently begin in Kali or Dvapara but which is already really latent in his own age. Vishnu appears to his vision as the embodiment of that alr eady latent, but subsequently patent, cult. Moreover in a given age, what is latent in a particular land (say Aryavarta) may be patent in another (say Mahacina). In this way, according to the Hindu Shastra, there is an essential conservation of types subject to the conditions of time, place, and person (Deshakalapatra). Moreover, according to these Shastras, the creative power is a reproducing principle. This means that the world -process is cyclic according to a periodic law. The process in one Kalpa is sub stantially repeated in another and Vashishtha, Buddha, and the rest appeared not only in the present but in previous grand cycles or Kalpas. Just as there is no absolute first beginning of the Universe, so nothing under the sun is absolutely new. Vashishtha, therefore, might have remembered past Buddhas, as he might have foreseen those to come. In Yogic vision both the 153 past and the future can project their shadows into the present. Every Purana and Samhita illustrates these principles of Yogic intuition backwards and forwards. To the mind of Ishvara both past and future are known. And so it is to such who, in the necessary degree, partake of the qualities of the Lord's mind. The date upon which a particular Shastra is compiled is, from this viewpoint, unimpo rtant. Even a modern Shastra may deal with ancient matter. In dealing with apparent anachronisms in Hindu Shastra, it is necessary to bear in mind these principles. This of course is not the view of "Oriental scholars" or of Indians whom they have stampeded into regarding the beliefs of their country as absurd. It is however the orthodox view. And as an Indian friend of mine to whose views I have referred has said, "What the Psychic research society of the West is conceding to good 'mediums' and 'subjects' cannot be withheld from our ancient supermen -- the Rishis." The peculiar features to be noted of this story are these. Vashishtha must have known what the Vedas and Vaidik rites were, as ordinarily understood. He is described as Vedantavit. Yet he was surprised on seeing Cinacara rites and disapproved of them. He speaks of it as "outside Veda" (Vedavahishkrita) and even opposed to it (Vedavadaviruddha). On the other hand the connection with Veda is shown, in that the Devi who promulgates this Acara is connected with the Atharvaveda, and directs Vashishtha always to follow that Veda, and speaks of the Acara not as being opposed to, but as something so high as to be beyond, the ordinary Vaidik ritual (Vedanamapyagocarah). He is to be fully learned in the import of Veda (Vedarthanipuno). It was by the grace of the doctrine and practice of Cinacara that Vishnu became the Lord of Yajurveda. The meaning there fore appears to be, that the doctrine and practice lie implicit in the Vedas, but go beyond what is ordinarily taught. Vishnu therefore says that it is not to be disclosed. What meaning again are we to attach to the word Visnubuddharupa? Buddha means "enlightened" but here a particular Buddha seems indicated, though Vishnu is also spoken of as Udbodharupi and the Devi as Buddheshvari. The Tara Tantra calls him a Kulabhairava. As is well known, Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu. Vashishtha is told to go to Mahacina by the Himalaya and the country of the Bauddhas (Bauddhadesh). The Bauddhas who follow the Pacatattva ritual are accounted Kaulas. It is a noteworthy fact that the flower of the Devi is Jaba, the scarlet hibiscus or 154 China rose. As the last name may indicate it is perhaps not indigenous to India but to China whence it may have been imported possibly through Nepal. This legend, incorporated as it is in the Shastra itself, seems to me of primary importance in determining the historical origin of the Pacatattva ritual. 155 CHAPTER NINE. THE TANTRA SHASTRAS IN CHINA Adopting for the purpose of this essay, and without discussion as to their accuracy, the general views of Orientalists on chronology and the development of the Buddhistic schools, the history of the Buddhistic Tantra is shortly as follows. The Mahayana (which commenced no one knows exactly when) was represented in the first and second centuries by the great names of Ashvaghosha and Nagarjuna. Its great scripture is the Prajaparamita. Its dominance under the protection of Kanishka marks the first steps towa rds metaphysical, theistic, and ritualistic religion, a recurring tendency amongst men to which I have previously referred. In the second half of the first century A.D., Buddhism, apparently in its Mahayana form, spread to China, and thence to Korea, then to Japan in sixth century A.D. and to Tibet in the seventh. Some time between the 4th and 5th centuries AD Asanga, a Buddhist monk of Gandhara, is said to have promulgated the Buddhist Yogacara which, as its name imports, was an adaptation of the Indian Patajali's Yoga Darshana. Dr. Waddell says that "this Yoga parasite (most Europeans dislike what they understand of Yoga) containing within itself the germs of Tantrism" soon developed "monster out -growths" which "cankered" "the little life of purely Buddhistic stock" in the Mahayana, which is itself characterized as merely "sophistic nihilism". Whatever that may mean, it certainly has the air of reducing the Mahayana to nothingness. We are then told that at the end of the sixth century "Tantrism or Sivaic mysticism (a vague word) with its worship of female energies (Shakti) and Fiendesses began to tinge both Hinduism and Buddhism, the latter of which "became still more debased with silly contemptible mummery of unmeaning jargon, gibberish, charmed sentences (Dharani) and magic circles (Mandala)" in the form of the "Vehicle" called Mantrayana alleged to have been founded by Nagarjuna who received it from the Dhyani Buddha Vairocana through the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva at the "Iron tower" in Southern India. Continuing he says "that on the evolution in the tenth century of the demoniacal Buddhas of the Kalacakra (system) the Mantrayana developed into the Vajrayana "the most depraved form of 156 Buddhist doctrine" wherein the "Devotee" endeavors with the aid of the "Demoniacal Buddhas" and of "Fiendesses" (Dakini) "to obtain various Siddhis". The missionary author, the Rev. Graham Sandberg, who is so little favorable to Buddhism that he can discover (p. 260) in it "no scheme of metaphysics or morality which can be dignified with the title of an ethical system," when however speaking of this "most depraved form" in a short Chapter on the Tantras and Tantrik rites "Tibet and the Tibetans," 218) says that this new vehicle (Ngag -kyi Thegpa) did not profess to supersede the time-honored Vajrayana (Dorje -Thegpa) but it claimed "by its expanded mythological scheme and its fascinating and even sublime mystic conceptions to crystallize the old Tantrik methods into a regular science as complicated as it was resourceful." We are all naturally pleased at finding resemblances in other doctrines to teachings of our own, and so the reverend author, after pointing out that a leading feature of the Kalacakra (Dus -Kyi-khorlo) was the evolution of the idea of a Supreme Personal Being, says that "many fine and distinctively theistic characteristics of the Deity, His disposition, purity, fatherliness, benevolence and isolated power are set out in the Kalacakra treatises." But he is, as we might expect, of the opinion that this was only an effort towards the real thing, probably influenced by the fact of Christian and Mohamedan teaching. We commonly find that a Semitic source is alleged for what cannot be denied to be good in Hinduism, or its child Buddhism. One wonders however how the "demoniaca l Buddhas" and "Fiendesses" work themselves into this be -praised effort to teach Christian ideas. At the risk of straying from my subject, I may point out that in Buddhism the Devatas are given both peaceful (Zhi) and wrathful (Khro) aspects. The latter denotes the terrible (what in India is called Bhairava) aspects of the Divinity, but does not change Him or her into a Demon, at least in Buddhist or Indian belief. Even to the Christian, God has both a terrible and a benign aspect. It is true that some of t he representations of the former aspect in Northern Buddhism are, to most Westerns, demoniac in form, but that is the way the Tibetan mind works in endeavoring to picture the matter for itself, as the Hindus do with their Devis, Kali, Chinnamasta and Candi. Another and artistically conceived idea of Bhairava is pictured in a beautiful Indian Kangra painting in my possession in which a smoldering restrained wrath, as it were a lowering dark storm - 157 cloud, envelopes the otherwise restrained face and immobile posture of the Devata. As regards the esoteric worship of Dakinis I have said a word in the Foreword to the seventh volume of my Tantrik Texts. Without having recourse to abuse, we can better state the general conclusion by saying that the Tantrik cult intro duced a theistical form of organized worship with prayers, litanies, hymns, music, flowers, incense, recitation of Mantra ( Japa), Kavacas or protectors in the form of Dharanis, offerings, help of the dead: in short, with all practical aids to religion for the individual together with a rich and pompous public ritual for the whole body of the faithful. For the following facts, so far as China is concerned, I am indebted in the main to the learned work of the Jesuit Father L. Wieger Histoire des Croyances Re ligieuses et des Opinions Philosophiques en Cine (Paris Challamel 1917). The author cited states that Indian Tantrism "the school of efficacious formula" developed in China in the seventh and eighth centuries of our era, as a Chinese adaptation of the old Theistic Yoga of Patajali (Second century B.C.) recast by Samanta Bhadra, "and fixed in polytheistic (?) form" by Asamgha (circ. 400 AD or as others say 500 AD). A treatise of the latter translated into Chinese in 647 AD had but little success. But in 716 the Indian Shubhakara came to the Chinese Court, gained the support of the celebrated Tchang -soei, known under his monastic name I- hing to whom he taught Indian doctrine, the latter in return giving aid by way of translations. Shubhakara, in the Tantrik way, thought that the Buddhist Monks in China were losing their time in mere philosophizing since (I cite the author mentioned) the Chinese people were not capable of abstract speculations. Probably Shubhakara, like all of his kind, was a practical man, who recognized, as men of sense must do, that in view of the present character of human nature, religion must be organized and brought to the people in such a form as will be fruitful of result. Metaphysical speculations count with them for little either in C hina or elsewhere. Shubhakara and his school taught the people that "man was not like the Banana a fruit without kernel". His body contained a Soul. A moral life was necessary, for after death the Soul was judged and if found wicked was cast into Hell. But how was man to guard against this and the evil spirits around him? How was he to secure health, wealth, pardon for his sins, good being in this world and the hereafter? The people were then taught the existence of Divine Protectors, 158 including some forms of Hindu Divinities as also the manner in which their help might be invoked. They were instructed in the use of Mantras, Dharanis, and Mudras the meaning of which is not explained by Dr. Waddell's definition "certain distortions of the fingers". They were t aught to pray, to make offerings, and the various other rituals everywhere to be found in Tantra Shastra. Father Wieger says that pardon of sins and saving from the punishment of Hell was explained by the Chinese Tantriks of this school not as a derogation from justice, but as the effect of the appeal to the Divine Protector which obtained for the sinful man a fresh lease of life, a kind of respite during which he was enabled to redeem himself by doing good in place of expiating his sins by torture in Hell. The devout Tantrik who sought after his death to be born in the heaven of such and such Buddha, obtained his wish. Sinners who had done nothing for themselves might be helped even after their death by the prayers of relatives, friends and priests. The dev otion of the Tantriks for the salvation of the deceased was very great. "Let us suppose" says one of the Texts "that a member of your family is thrown in prison. What will you not do to relieve him there, or to get him out from it. In the same way, we must act for the dead who are in the great Prison of Hell." Prayer and charity with the view to aid them is accounted to their merit. Above all it is necessary to obtain the aid of the priests who deliver these bound souls by the ritual ad hoc, accompanied by music which forms an important part of the Buddhist Tantrik rites. The resemblance of all this to the Catholic practice as regards the souls in purgatory is obvious. As in the Indian Compendia, such as the Tantrasara, there were prayers, Mantras and Dharanis to protect against every form of evil, against the bad Spirits, wild beasts, natural calamities, human enemies, and so forth, which were said to be effective, provided that they were applied in the proper disposition and at the right time and in the right manner. But more effective than all these was the initiation with water (Abhisheka). For innumerable good Spirits surround the initiates in all places and at all times so that no evil touches them. It was recommended also to carry on the body the writte n name of one's protector (Ishtadevata) or one of those signs which were called "Transcendent seals, conquerors of all Demons". This practice again is similar to that of the use by the Indian Tantriks of the Kavaca, and to the practice of Catholics who wear scapulars, "Agnus Dei", and consecrated 159 medals. In order to encourage frequent invocations, as also to count them, the Buddhist Tantriks had Buddhistic chaplets like the Indian Mala and Catholic Rosary. The beads varied from 1,080 (Quaere 1008) to 27. In invoking the Protectors the worshipper held firmly one bead with four fingers (the thumb and first finger of both hands) and then centered his mind on the formula of invocation. Carried on the body, these Rosaries protected from every ill, and made all that one said, a prayer. To use the Indian phrase all that was then said, was Mantra. Tantricism was reinforced on the arrival in 719 A.D. of two Indian Brahmanas, Vajrabodhi and Amogha. The demand for Tantras then became so great that Amogha was officially deputed by the Imperial Government to bring back from India and Ceylon as many as he could. Amogha who was the favorite of three Emperors holding the rank of minister and honored with many titles lived till 774. He made Tantricism the fashionable sect. Fat her Wieger says that in the numerous works signed by him, there is not to be found any of those rites, Indian or Tibetan, which come under the general term Vamacara, which includes worship with wine and women. He has it from Buddhist sources that they depl ore the abuses which as regards this matter have taken place in India. In the state of decadence witnessed to -day there largely remains only a liturgy of invocations accompanied by Mudra and Music, with lanterns and flags from which Bonzes of low degree ma king a living when called upon by householders to cure the sick, push their business and so forth. Amogha, however, demanded more of those who sought initiation. In the Indian fashion he tested (Pariksha) the would- be disciple and initiated only those who were fit and had the quality of Vajra. To such only was doubtless confided the higher esoteric teachings and ritual. Initiation was conferred by the ritual pouring of water on the head (Abhisheka), after a solemn act of contrition and devotion. The followi ng is a description of the rite of initiation (Abhisheka). I t is the Buddha who speaks. "Just as an imperial prince is recognized as he who shall govern so my disciples, tested and perfectly formed, are consecrated with water. For the purpose of this cere mony one places on a height, or at least on rising ground, a platform seven feet in diameter strewn with flowers and sprinkled with scented water. Let silence be kept all around. 160 Persian incense is burnt. Place a mirror of bronze and seven arrows to keep away demoniac spirits. The candidate who has been previously prepared by a rigorous abstinence, fully bathed and clad in freshly washed garments kneels on the platform and listens to a lecture explaining the meaning of the rite. His right shoulder is uncovered and his two hands joined. He forms interiorly the necessary intention. Then the Master of the ceremony, holding him firmly by the right hand, pours with the left on the head of the candidate for initiation the ritual water." This initiation made the Chela a son of Buddha and a depository of the latter's doctrine, for the Tantras were deemed to represent the esoteric teaching of the Buddha, just as in India they contain the essence of all knowledge as taught by Shiva or Devi. The initiates of Amogha were distinguished by their retired life and secret practices, which gained for them the name of "School of Mystery". It transpired that they were awaiting a Saviour in a future age. This rendered them suspect in the eye of Government who thought that they were perhaps a revolutionary society. The sect was accordingly forbidden. But this did not cause it to disappear. On the contrary, for as the Reverend Father says, in China (and we may add elsewhere) the forbidden fruit is that which is of all the most delicious. The lower ranks avoided this higher initiation and largely lapsed into mechanical formalism, and the true adepts wrapt themselves in a mystery still more profound, awaiting the coming of the future Buddha Maitreya, who, they taught, had inspired Asangha with the doctrine they held. Father Wieger says that their morality is severe and their life very austere. (Leur morale est svre, leur vie trs austre.) There is a hierarchy of teachers who visit the households at appointed intervals, always after nightfall, leaving before daybreak and supported by the alms of those whom they thus teach. The learned missionary author adds that Tantrik adepts of this class are often converted to Christianity and quickly become excellent Christians "since their morals a re good and they have a lively belief in the supernatural". ("Leurs moeurs ayant t bonnes et leur croyance au surnaturel tant trs vive.") Here I may note on the subject of Dharanis, that it has been said that these were only introduced into China during the Tang Dynasty. Father Wieger, however, (p. 385) says that an authentic Riddhi -mantra is to be found in 161 translations made by Leou -Keatch'an in the second century AD Buddha is said to have announced to Ananda, who accompanied him, that five hundred years after his Nirvana, a sect of magicians (whom the author calls Shivaite Tantriks) would be the cause of the swarming of evil spirits. Instructions were then given for their exorcism. This puts the "Shivaites" far back. 162 CHAPTER TEN. A TIBETAN TANTRA [This Chapter is an admirably understanding review (reprinted from The Theosophist of July 1919) by Mr. Johan Van Manen, the Tibetan scholar. It was written on the seventh volume of Tantrik Texts which contains the first Tibetan Tantra to be published. The Tantra which was selected for the series was the Shricakra -Sambhara, because the Editor happened to have manuscripts of this and other works of the same school.] All lovers of Indian philosophy are familiar with the magnificent series of works on the Tantra which, under the general editorship of "Arthur Avalon," have seen the light within the last few years. Some, 15 volumes, either texts, translations, or studies, have hitherto been published, and the titles of a number of further works are announced as in preparation or in the press. Just now a new volume has been added to the series, constituting Vol. VII of the "Texts," and this book is undoubtedly one of the most interesting of all those hitherto issued. Up till now the series has only dealt with works and thoughts originally written down in Sanskrit; this new volume goes further afield and brings us the text and translation of a Tibetan work, dealing with the same subject t he whole series is intended to study. Tibetan Tantrism is undoubtedly a development of its Indian prototype, and at a further stage of our knowledge of the whole subject, the historical development of this school of thought will be, no doubt, studied minut ely. Though this present volume brings valuable material towards such an historical study, our knowledge of the Tantra under this aspect is as yet far too limited to enable us to say much about this side of the questions raised by its publication or to fin d a place for it in the present review of the work. What is more urgent now is to examine this book as it stands, to try to define the general trend of its contents, and to attempt to value it generally in terms of modern speech and thought. In our discussion of the book, therefore, we shall not concern ourselves with questions of technical scholarship at all, but attempt to go to the heart of the subject in such a manner as might be of interest to any 163 intelligent man attracted towards philosophical and rel igious thought. And it is perhaps easier to do so with the present work than with many others in the series to which it belongs, for more than these others this work makes an appeal to the intellect direct, and proves very human and logical, so as to evoke a response in even such readers as are not prepared by a detailed knowledge of system and terminology, to disentangle an elaborate outer form from the inner substance. It is true that here also, every page and almost every line bristles with names and terms, but the thought connecting such terms is clear, and these, serving much the purposes of algebraical notations in mathematical formulae, can be easily filled in by any reader with values derived from his own religious and philosophical experience. The Tantras have, often, not been kindly spoken of. It has been said that they have hitherto played, in Indology, the part of a jungle which everybody is anxious to avoid. Still stronger, a great historian is quoted as having said that it would be "the unfortun ate lot of some future scholar to wade through the disgusting details of drunkenness and debauchery which were regarded as an essential part of their religion by a large section of the Indian community not long ago" And Grnwedel, speaking especially of the Tibetan Tantras (Mythology, p. 106), from the immense literature of which as yet nothing had been translated, says: "To work out these things will be, indeed, a sacrficium intellectus, but they are, after all, no more stupid than the Brahmanas on which s o much labor has been spent." But here we have the first translation into a European language of one of these Tantrik texts; and far from being obscene or stupid, it strikes us as a work of singular beauty and nobility, and as a creation of religious art, almost unique in its lofty grandeur. It is so totally unlike any religious document we are acquainted with, that it is almost inconceivable that this is only a brief specimen, a first specimen, made accessible to the general public, of a vast literature of which the extent (as existing in Tibet) cannot yet even be measured. Yet, in saying that the nature of our book is unique, we do not mean to imply that close analogies cannot be found for it in the religious literatures and practices of the world. Such an aloofness would be rather suspicious, for real religious experience is, of course, universal, and, proceeding from the same elements in the human heart, and aspiring to the same ends, must always show kinship in manifestation. Yet this Tibetan product has a 164 distinctive style of its own, which singles it out in appearance as clearly, let us say, as the specific character of Assyrian or Egyptian art is different from that of other styles. When we now proceed to examine the document before us, at the outset a verdict of one of the critics of Tantrism comes to our mind, to the effect that the Tantra is perhaps the most elaborate system of auto -suggestion in the world. This dictum was intended as a condemnation; but though accepting the verdict as correct, we ourselves are not inclined to accept, together with it, the implied conclusion. Auto -suggestion is the establishment of mental states and moods from within, instead of as a result of impressions received from without. Evidently there must be two kinds of thi s auto -suggestion, a true and a false one. The true one is that which produces states of consciousness corresponding to those which may be produced by realities in the outer world, and the false one is that which produces states of consciousness not corresponding to reactions to any reality without. In the ordinary way the consciousness of man is shaped in response to impressions from without, and so ultimately rests on sensation, but theoretically there is nothing impossible in the theory that these "modifications of the thinking principle" should be brought about by the creative will and rest rather on imagination and intuition than on sensation. This theory has not only been philosophically and scientifically discussed, but also practically applied in many a school of mysticism or Yoga. If I remember well, there is a most interesting book by a German (non-mystic) Professor, Staudenmeyer, dealing with this subject, under the title of Magic as an Experimental Science (in German), and the same idea seems also to underlie Steiner's theory of what he calls "imaginative clairvoyance". In Christian mysticism this has been fully worked out by de Loyola in his "Spiritual Exercises" as applied to the Passion of the Christ. In what is now -a-days called New Thought, this principle is largely applied in various manners. In our book we find it applied in terms of Tantrik Buddhism with a fullness and detail surpassing all other examples of this type of meditation. In order to present the idea in such a way that it may look plausible in itself, we have first to sketch out the rationale underlying any such system. This is easily done. 165 We can conceive of this universe as an immense ocean of consciousness or intelligence in which the separate organisms, human beings included, l ive and move and have their being. If we conceive of this mass of consciousness as subject to laws, analogous to those of gravity, and at the same time as being fluidic in nature, then the mechanism of all intellectual activity might well be thought of, in one of its aspects, as hydraulic in character. Let any organism, fit to be a bearer of consciousness, only open itself for the reception of it, and the hydraulic pressure of the surrounding sea of consciousness will make it flow in, in such a form as the construction of the organism assumes. The wave and the sea, the pot and the water, are frequent symbols in the East, used to indicate the relation between the all - consciousness and the individual consciousness. If the human brain is the pot sunk in the ocean of divine consciousness, the form of that pot will determine the form which the all -consciousness will assume within that brain. Now imagination, or auto- suggestion, may determine that form. Through guess, intuition, speculation, tradition, authority, or whatever the determinant factor may be, any such form may be chosen. The man may create any form, and then, by expectancy, stillness, passivity, love, aspiration or whatever term we choose, draw the cosmic consciousness within him, only determining its form for himself, but impersonally receiving the power which is not from himself, but from without. The process is like the preparation of a mold in which molten metal is to be cast, with this difference, that the metal cast into the mold is not self -active and alive, and not ever- present and pressing on every side, as the living consciousness is which constitutes our universe. We may take an illustration from the mechanical universe. This universe is one seething mass of forces in constant interplay. The forces are there and at work all the time, but only become objectified when caught in suitable receivers. The wind -force, if not caught by the arms of the windmill, the forces of stream or waterfall, if not similarly gathered in a proper mechanism, disperse themselves in space and are not focused in and translated into objective units of action. So with the vibrations sent along the wire, in telegraphic or telephonic communication, or with the other 166 vibrations sent wirelessly. In a universe peopled with intel ligences, higher beings, gods, a whole hierarchy of entities, from the highest power and perfection to such as belong to our own limited class, constant streams of intelligence and consciousness must continuously flash through space and fill existence. Now it seems, theoretically indeed, very probable, assuming that consciousness is one and akin in essence, that the mechanical phenomenon of sympathetic vibration may be applied to that consciousness as well as to what are regarded as merely mechanical vibrat ions. So, putting all the above reasonings together, it is at least a plausible theory that man, by a process of auto- suggestion, may so modify the organs of his consciousness, and likewise attune his individual consciousness in such a way, as to become ab le to enter into a sympathetic relation with the forces of cosmic consciousness ordinarily manifesting outside him and remaining unperceived, passing him as it were, instead of being caught and harnessed. And this is not only a theory, but more than that -- a definite statement given as the result of experience by mystics and meditators of all times and climes. Now we may ask: how has this method been applied in our present work? A careful analysis of its contents makes us discover several interesting chara cteristics. First of all we have to remember that our text presupposes a familiarity with the religious conceptions, names, personalities and philosphical principles of Northern Buddhism, which are all freely used in the composition. What is strange and foreign in them to the Western reader is so only because he moves in unfamiliar surroundings. But the character of the composition is one which might be compared to such analogous Western productions (with great differences, however) as the Passion Play at O berammergau or the mediaeval mystery -plays. Only, in some of the latter the historical element predominates, whilst in the Tibetan composition the mythological element (for want of a better word) forms the basis and substance. In other words, in this ritua l of meditation the Gods, Powers and Principles are the actors, and not, historical or symbolical personages of religious tradition. Secondly the play is enacted in the mind, inwardly, instead of on the scene, outwardly. The actors are not persons, but conceptions. 167 First, the meditator has to swing up his consciousness to a certain pitch of intensity, steadiness, quiet, determination and expectancy. Having tuned it to the required pitch, he fixes it on a simple center of attention which is to serve as a sta rting -point or gate through which his imagination shall well up as the water of a fountain comes forth through the opening of the water - pipe. From this central point the mental pictures come forth. They are placed round the central conception. From simple to complex in orderly progression the imaginative structure is elaborated. The chief Gods appear successively, followed by the minor deities. Spaces, regions, directions are carefully determined. Attributes, colors, symbols, sounds are all minutely prescri bed and deftly worked in, and explications carefully given. A miniature world is evolved, seething with elemental forces working in the universe as cosmic forces and in man as forces of body and spirit. Most of the quantities on this elaborate notation are taken from the body of indigenous religious teaching and mythology. Some are so universal and transparent that the non- Tibetan reader can appreciate them even without a knowledge of the religious technical terms of Tibet. But anyhow, an attentive reading and re -reading reveals something, even to the outsider, of the force of this symbological structure, and makes him intuitively feel that here we are assisting in the unfolding of a grand spiritual drama, sweeping up the mind to heights of exaltation and nobility. As to the terminological side of the text, the Editor's abundant notes prove as valuable as useful. They may disturb the elevated unity of the whole at first, but after some assiduous familiarizing, lead to fuller and deeper comprehension. Even a s ingle reading is sufficient to gain the impression that a stately and solemn mental drama is enacted before us with an inherent impressiveness which would attach, for instance to a Christian, to the performance of a ritual in which all the more primary biblical persons, human and superhuman, were introduced, in suitable ways, as actors. And the superlative cleverness of this structure! Starting from a single basic note, this is developed into a chord, which again expands into a melody, which is then elaborately harmonized. Indeed the meditation is in its essence both music and ritual. The initial motives are developed, repeated, elaborated, and new ones introduced. These again are treated in the same way. A symphony is evolved and brought to a powerful climax, and then again this 168 full world of sound, form, meaning, color, power is withdrawn, limited, taken back into itself, folded up and dissolved, turned inwards again and finally returned into utter stillness and rest, into that tranquil void from which it was originally evoked and which is its eternal mother. I do not know of any literature which in its nature is so absolutely symphonic, so directly akin to music, as this sample of a Tibetan meditational exercise. And curiously enough, it makes us think of a nother manifestation of Indian religious art, for in words this document is akin to the Indian temple decoration, especially the South Indian gopura, which in its endless repetitions and elaborations seems indeed instinct with the same spirit which has given birth to this scheme of imagination taught in these Tantras. Only, in stone or plaster, the mythological host is sterile and immovable, whilst, as created in the living mind, the similar structure partakes of the life of the mind within and without. The sculptural embodiment is, therefore, serviceable to the less evolved mind. The Tantra is for the religious thinker who possesses power. But we said that our meditational structure was also akin to ritual. What we mean by this is that all the figures and images evoked in the mind in this meditation are, after all, only meant, as the words, vestures and gestures in a ritual, to suggest feelings, to provoke states of consciousness, and to furnish (if the simile be not thought too pathetic) pegs to hang ideas upon. Like as a fine piece of music, or a play, can only be well rendered when rehearsed over and over again, and practiced so that the form side of the production becomes almost mechanical, and all power in the production can be devoted to the infusion of inspiration, so can this meditation only be perfectly performed after untold practice and devotion. It would be a totally mistaken idea to read this book as a mere piece of literature, once to go through it to see what it contains, and then to let it go. Just as the masterpieces of music can be heard hundreds of times, just as the great rituals of the world grow in power on the individual in the measure with which he becomes familiar with them and altogether identifies himself with the most infinitely small minutiae of their form and constitution, so this meditation ritual is one which only by repetition can be mastered and 169 perfected. Like the great productions of art or nature, it has to "grow" on the individual. This meditational exercise is not for the small, nor for the flippant, nor for those in a hurry. It is inherently an esoteric thing, one of those teachings belonging to the regions of "quiet" and "tranquillity" and "rest" of Taoistic philosophy. To the ignorant it must be jabber, and so it is truly esoteric, hiding itself by its own nature within itself, though seemingly open and accessible to all. But in connection with this meditation we do not think of pupils who read it once or twice, or ten times, or a hundred, but of austere thinkers who work on it as a life -work through laborious years of strenuous endeavor. For, what must be done to make this meditation into a reality? Every concept in it must be vivified and drenched with life and power. Every god in it must be made into a living god, every power manipulated in it made into a potency. The whole structure must be made vibrant with forces capable of entering into sympathetic relation with the greater cosmic forces in the universe, created in imitation on a lower scale within the individual medi tator himself. To the religious mind the universe is filled with the thoughts of the gods, with the powers of great intelligences and consciousnesses, radiating eternally through space and really constituting the world that is. "The world is only a thought in the mind of God." It must take years of strenuous practice even to build up the power to visualize and correctly produce as an internal drama this meditation given in our book. To endow it with life and to put power into this life is an achievement tha t no small mind, no weak devotee, can hope to perform. So this meditation is a solemn ritual, like the Roman Catholic Mass; only it is performed in the mind instead of in the church, and the mystery it celebrates is an individual and not a general sacrament. In what we have said above we have tried to give some outlines of the chief characteristics of this remarkable work, now brought within the reach of the general reading public, and especially of benefit to those among them interested in the study of com parative religion along broad lines. We owe, indeed, a debt of gratitude to Arthur Avalon, whose enthusiasm for and insight into the Indian religious and philosophical mind have unearthed this particular gem for us. We may be particularly grateful that his enthusiasm 170 has not set itself a limit, so as to prevent him from dealing with other than Sanskrit lore alone, and from looking for treasure even beyond the Himalayas. In this connection we may mention that it is his intention to maintain this catholic att itude, for he is now taking steps to incorporate also an important Japanese work on the Vajrayana in his Tantrik series. As far as this first Tibetan text is concerned, the choice has been decidedly happy, and he has been no less fortunate in having been a ble to secure a competent collaborator to undertake the philological portion of the work, the translating and editing labor. The result of thus associating himself with a capable indigenous scholar to produce the work, has been a great success, a production of practical value which will undoubtedly not diminish in all essentials for a long time to come. For not only is this particular work in and for itself of interest, with a great beauty of its own; it has another value in quite other directions than those connected with the study of meditation or of religious artistic creation. The work furnishes a most important key to a new way of understanding many phases and productions of Indian philosophy. The projection of the paraphernalia of Hindu mythology inwards into the mind as instruments of meditation, the internalizing of what we find in the Puranas or the Epic externalized as mythology, has seemed to me to throw fresh and illuminating light on Indian symbology. To give an illustration: In this Tantra we find an elaborate manipulation of weapons, shields, armor, as instruments for the protection of the consciousness. Now all these implements figure, for instance, largely and elaborately in such a work as the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, of which Dr. Schrader has given us a splendid summary in his work, Introduction to the Pacaratra. But in the Pacaratra all these implements are only attributes of the gods. In our text we find a hint as to how all these external mythological data can also be applied to and unde rstood as internal workings of the human consciousness, and in this light Indian mythology assumes a new and richer significance. I do not want to do more here than hint at the point involved, but no doubt any student of Hindu mythology who is also interested in Hindu modes of thought, in the Hindu Psyche, will at once see how fruitful this idea can be. 171 One of the riddles of Indian thought is that its symbology is kinetic and not static, and eludes the objective formality of Western thought. That is why every Hindu god is another, who is again another, who is once more another. Did not Kipling say something about "Kali who is Parvati, who is Sitala, who is worshipped against the small- pox"? So also almost every philosophical principle is an "aspect" of another principle, but never a clear-cut, well -circumscribed, independent thing by itself. Our text goes far towards giving a hint as to how all these gods and principles, which in the Puranas and other writings appear as extra -human elements, may perhaps also be interpreted as aspects of the human mind (and even human body) and become a psychological mythology instead of a cosmic one. The idea is not absolutely new, but has been put forward by mystics before. The Cherubinic Wanderer sang that it would be of no avail to anyone, even if the Christ were born a hundred times over in Bethlehem, if he were not born within the man himself. It has been said of the Bhagavad -Gita that it is in one sense the drama of the soul, and that meditation on it, transplanting the field of Kurukshetra within the human consciousness, may lead to a direct realization of all that is taught in that book, and to a vision of all the glories depicted therein. That idea is the same as that which is the basis of our text. Its message is: "Create a universe within, in order to be able to hear the echoes of the universe without, which is one with that within, in essence." If seers, occultists, meditators really exist, they may be able to outline the way and method by which they themselves have a ttained. So it was with de Loyola and his "Spiritual Exercises," and there is no reason why it should not be the same with the book we are discussing here. As to how far we have here a result of practical experience, or only an ingenious theory, a great "attempt," as it were, we will not and cannot decide. To make statements about this needs previous experiment, and we have only read the book from the outside, not lived its contents from within. But however this may be, even such an outer reading is sufficient to reveal to us the grandeur of the conception put before us, and to enable us to feel the symphonic splendor of the creation as a work of religio- philosophic art; and that alone is enough to enable us to judge the work as a masterpiece and a document of first -class value in the field of religious and mystical 172 literature. The form is very un -Western indeed and in many ways utterly unfamiliar and perhaps bewildering. But the harmony of thought, the greatness of the fundamental conceptions, the sublimity of endeavor embodied in it, are clear; and these qualities are certainly enough to gain for it admirers and friends -- perhaps here and there a disciple -- even in our times so badly prepared to hear this Tibetan echo from that other world, which in many w ays we in the West make it our strenuous business to forget and to discount. 173 CHAPTER ELEVEN . SHAKTI IN TAOISM The belief in Shakti or the Divine Power as distinguished from the Divine Essence (Svarupa), the former being generally imagined for purposes of worship as being in female form, is very ancient. The concept of Shakti in Chinese Taoism is not merely a proof of this (for the Shakti notion is much older) but is an indication of the ancient Indian charact er of the doctrine. There are some who erroneously think, the concept had its origin in "Sivaic mysticism," having its origin somewhere in the sixth century of our era. Lao- tze or the "old master" was twenty years senior to Confucius and his life was said to have been passed between 570 -490 B.C. A date commonly accepted by European Orientalists as that of the death of Buddha (Indian and Tibetan opinions being regarded, as "extravagant") would bring his life into the sixth century s.c., one of the most wonderful in the world's history. Lao- tze is said to have written the Tao -tei-king, the fundamental text of Taoism. This title means Treatise on Tao and Tei. Tao which Lao-tze calls "The great" is in its Sanskrit equivalent Brahman and Tei is Its power or activity or Shakti. As Father P. L. Wieger, S. J., to whose work (Histoire des Croyances Religieuses et des Opinions Philosophiques en Chine, p. 143 et seg. 1917) I am here indebted, points out, Lao- tze did not invent Taoism no more than Confucius (557 -419 B.C.) invented Confucianism. It is characteristic of these and other Ancient Eastern Masters that they do not claim to be more than "transmitters" of a wisdom older than themselves. Lao -tze was not the first to teach Taoism. He had precursors who, however, wer e not authors. He was the writer of the first book on Taoism which served as the basis for the further development of the doctrine. On this account its paternity is attributed to him. There was reference to this doctrine it is said in the official archives (p. 743). The pre -Taoists were the analysts and astrologers of the Tcheou. Lao- tze who formulated the system was one of them (ib. 69). The third Ministry containing these archives registered all which came from foreign parts, as Taoism did. For as Father Wieger says, Taoism is in its main lines a Chinese adaptation of the contemporary doctrine of the Upanishads ("or le Taoisme est dans ses grandes lignes une adaptation 174 Chinoise de la doctrine Indienne contemporaine des Upanisads"). The actual fact of importation cannot in default of documents be proved but as the learned author says, the fact that the doctrine was not Chinese, that it was then current in India, and its sudden spread in China, creates in favor of the argument for foreign importation almost a certain conclusion. The similarity of the two doctrines is obvious to any one acquainted with that of the Upanishads and the doctrine of Shakti. The dualism of the manifesting Unity (Tao) denoted by Yin- Yang appears for the first time in a text of Confuci us, a contemporary of Lao- tze, who may have informed him of it. All Chinese Monism descends from Lao- tze. The patriarchal texts were developed by the great Fathers of Taoism Lie-tzeu and Tchong -tzeu (see "Les Pres du systme Taoiste" by the same author) whom the reverend father calls the only real thinkers that China has produced. Both were practically prior to the contact of Greece and India on the Indus under Alexander. The first development of Taoism was in the South. It passed later to the North where it had a great influence. According to Taoism there was in the beginning, is now, and ever will be an ultimate Reality, which is variously called Huan the Mystery, which cannot be named or defined, because human language is the language of limited beings touching limited objects, whereas Tao is imperceptible to the senses and the unproduced cause of all, beyond which there is nothing: Ou the Formless, or Tao the causal principle, the unlimited inexhaustible source from which all comes, ("Tao le principe par ceque tout derive de lui") Itself proceeds from nothing but all from It. So it is said of Brahman that It is in Itself beyond mind and speech, formless and (as the Brahmasutra says) That from which the Universe is born, by which it is maintained and into which it is dissolved. From the abyss of Its Being, It throws out all forms of Existence and is never emptied. It is an infinite source exteriorizing from Itself all forms, by Its Power (Tei). These forms neither diminish nor add to Tao which remains ever the same. These limited beings are as a drop of water in Its ocean. Tao is the sum of, and yet as infinite, beyond all individual existences. Like Brahman, Tao is one, eternal, infinite, self -existent, omnipresent, unchanging (Immutable) and complete (Purna). At a particular moment (to speak in our language for It was then beyond time) Tao threw out from Itself Tei Its Power (Vertu or Shakti) which operates in alternating modes 175 called Yin and Yang and produces, as it were by condensation of its subtlety (Sha kti ghanibhuta), the Heaven and Earth and Air between, from which come all beings. The two modes of Its activity, Yin and Yang, are inherent in the Primal That, and manifest as modes of its Tei or Shakti. Yin is rest, and therefore after the creation of the phenomenal world a going back, retraction, concentration towards the original Unity (Nivritti), whereas Yang is action and therefore the opposite principle of going forth or expansion (Pravritti). These modes appear in creation under the sensible forms of Earth (Yin) and Heaven (Yang). The one original principle or Tao, like Shiva and Shakti, thus becomes dual in manifestation as Heaven- Earth from which emanate other existences. The state of Jinn is one of rest, concentration and imperceptibility which was the own state (Svarupa) of Tao before time and things were. The state of fang is that of action, expansion, of manifestation in sentient beings and is the state of Tao in time, and that which is in a sense not Its true state ("L'etat Yin de concentrati on, de repos, d'imperceptibilit, qui fut celui du Principe avant le temps, est son tat propre. L'etat Yang d'expansion et d'action, de manifestation dans les tres sensibles, est son tat dans le temps, en quelque sorte impropre"). All this again is Indi an. The primal state of Brahman or Shiva -Shakti before manifestation is that in which It rests in Itself (Svarupa -vishranti), that is, the state of rest and infinite formlessness. It then by Its Power (Shakti) manifests the universe. There exists in this power the form of two movements or rhythms, namely, the going forth or expanding (Pravritti) and the return or centering movement (Nivritti). This is the Eternal Rhythm, the Pulse of the universe, in which it comes and goes from that which in Itself, does neither. But is this a real or ideal movement? According to Father Wieger, Taoism is a realistic and not idealistic pantheism in which Tao is not a Conscious Principle but a Necessary Law, not Spiritual but Material, though imperceptible by reason of its tenuity and state of rest. ("Leur systme est un pantheisme realiste, pas ideliste. Au commencement tait un tre unique non pas intelligent mais loi fatale, non spirituel mais matriel, imperceptible a force de tenuit, d' abord immobile.") He also calls Heaven and Earth unintelligent agents of production of sentient beings. (Agent non- intelligents de la production de tous les tres sensibles.) I speak with all respect for the opinion of one who has made a special study of the 176 subject which I have not so fa r as its Chinese aspect is concerned. But even if, as is possible, at this epoch the full idealistic import of the Vedanta had not been developed, I doubt the accuracy of the interpretation which makes Tao material and unconscious. According to Father Wieg er, Tao prolongates Itself. Each being is a prolongation (Prolongement) of the Tao, attached to it and therefore not diminishing It. Tao is stated by him to be Universal Nature, the sum (Samashti) of all individual natures which are terminal points (Termin aisons) of Tao's prolongation. Similarly in the Upanishads, we read of Brahman producing the world from Itself as the spider produces the web from out of itself. Tao is thus the Mother of all that exists ("la mre de tout ce qui est"). If so, it is the Mot her of mind, will, emotion and every form of consciousness. How are these derived from merely a" material" principle? May it not be that just as the Upanishads use material images to denote creation and yet posit a spiritual conscious (though not in our li mited sense) Principle, Lao- tze, who was indebted to them, may have done the same. Is this also not indicated by the Gnostic doctrine of the Taoists? The author cited says that to the cosmic states of Yin and Yang correspond in the mind of man the states o f rest and activity. When the human mind thinks, it fills itself with forms or images and is moved by desires. Then it perceives only the effects of Tao, namely, distinct sentient beings. When on the contrary the action of the human mind stops and is fixed and empty of images of limited forms, it is then the Pure Mirror in which is reflected the ineffable and unnamable Essence of Tao Itself, of which intuition the Fathers of Taoism speak at length. ("Quand an contraire l'esprit humain est arrt est vide et fixe, alors miroir net et pur, il mire l'essence ineffable et innomable du Principe lui- meme. Les Pres nous parleront au long de cette intuition.") This common analogy of the Mirror is also given in the Kamakalavilasa (v. 4) where it speaks of Shakti as the pure mirror in which Shiva reflects Himself pratiphalati vimarsha darpane vishade). The conscious mind does not reflect a material principle as its essence. Its essence must have the principle of consciousness which the mind itself possesses. It is to Tei, the Virtue or Power which Tao emits from Itself ("ce Principe se mit a mettre Tei sa vertu") that we should attribute what is apparently unconscious and material. But the two are one, just as Shiva the possessor of power (Shaktiman) and Shakti or power are one, and this being so distinctions are 177 apt to be lost. In the same way in the Upanishads statements may be found which have not the accuracy of distinction between Brahman and its Prakriti, which we find in later developments of Vedanta and particularly in the Shakta form of it. Moreover we are here dealing with the One in Its character both as cause and as substance of the World Its effect. It is of Prakriti- Shakti and possibly of Teithat we may say that it is an apparently material unconscious principle, imperceptible by reason of its tenuity and (to the degree that it is not productive objective effect) immobile. Further Wieger assures us that all contraries issue from the same unchanging Tao and that they are only apparent("Toute contrarit n'est qu' apparente"). But relative to what? He says that they are not subjective illusions of the human mind, but objective appearances, double aspects of the unique Being, corresponding to the alternating modalities of Yin and Yang. That is so. For as Shamka ra says, external objects are not merely projections of the individual human mind but of the cosmic mind, the Ishvari Shakti. We must not, of course, read Taoism as held in the sixth century B.C. as if it were the same as the developed Vedanta of Shamkara who, according to European chronology, lived more than a thousand years later. But this interpretation of Vedanta is an aid in enabling us to see what is at least implicit in earlier versions of the meaning of their common source -- the Upanishads. As is w ell known, Shamkara developed their doctrine in an idealistic sense, and therefore his two movements in creation are Avidya, the primal ignorance which produces the appearance of the objective universe, and Vidya or knowledge which dispels such ignorance, ripening into that Essence and Unity which is Spirit -Consciousness Itself. Aupanishadic doctrine may be regarded either from the world or material aspect, or from the non-world and spiritual aspect. Men have thought in both ways and Shamkara's version is a n attempt to synthesize them. The Taoist master Ki (Op. cit., 168) said that the celestial harmony was that of all beings in their common Being. All is one as we experience in deep sleep (Sushupti). All contraries are sounds from the same flute, mushrooms springing from the same humidity, not real distinct beings but differing aspects of the one universal "Being". "I" has no meaning except in contrast with "you" or "that". But who is the Mover of all? Everything happens as 178 if there were a real governor. The hypothesis is acceptable provided that one does not make of this Governor a distinct being. He (I translate Father Wieger's words) is a tendency without palpable form, the inherent norm of the universe, its immanent evolutionary formula. The wise know that the only Real is the Universal Norm. The unreflecting vulgar believe in the existence of distinct beings. As in the case of the Vedanta, much misunderstanding exists because the concept of Consciousness differs in East and West as I point out in detail in the essay dealing with Cit -Shakti. The space between Heaven and Earth in which the Power (Vertu, Shakti, Tei) is manifested is compared by the Taoists to the hollow of a bellows of which Heaven and Earth are the two wooden sides; a bellow which blows wit hout exhausting itself. The expansive power of Tao in the middle space is imperishable. It is the mysterious Mother of all beings. The come and go of this mysterious Mother, that is, the alternating of the two modalities of the One, produce Heaven and Eart h. Thus acting, She is never fatigued. From Tao was exteriorized Heaven and Earth. From Tao emanated the producing universal Power or Shakti, which again produced all beings without self - exhaustion or fatigue. The one having put forth its Power, the latter acts according to two alternating modalities of going forth and return. This action produces the middle air or Ki which is tenuous Matter, and through Yin and Yang, issue all gross beings. Their coming into existence is compared to an unwinding (Dvidage) from That or Tao, as it were a thread from reel or spool. In the same way the Shakta Tantra speaks of an "uncoiling." Shakti is coiled (Kundalini) round the Shiva- point (Bindu), one with It in dissolution. On creation She begins to uncoil in a spiral line movement which is the movement of creation. The Taoist Father Lieu -tze analyzed the creative movement into the following stages: "The Great Mutation" anterior to the appearance of tenuous matter (Movement of the two modalities in undefined being), "the Gr eat Origin" or the stage of tenuous matter, "the Great Commencement" or the stage of sensible matter, "the Great Flux" or the stage of plastic matter and actual present material compounded existences. In the primitive stage, when matter was imperceptible, all beings to come were latent in an homogeneous state. 179 I will only add as bearing on the subject of consciousness that the author cited states that the Taoists lay great stress on intuition and ecstasy which is said to be compared to the unconscious state of infancy, intoxication, and narcosis. These comparisons may perhaps mislead just as the comparison of the Yogi state to that of a log (Kashthavat) misled. This does not mean that the Yogi's consciousness is that of a log of wood, but that he no more perceives the external world than the latter does. He does not do so because he has the Samadhi consciousness, that is, Illumination and true being Itself. He is one then with Tao and Tei or Shakti in their true state. 180 CHAPTER TWELVE . ALLEGED CONFLICT OF SHASTRAS A NOT uncommon modern criticism upon the Indian Shastras is that they mutually conflict. This is due to a lack of knowledge of the doctrine of Adhikara and Bhumi ka, particularly amongst Western critics, whose general outlook and mode of thought is ordinarily deeply divergent from that which has prevailed in India. The idea that the whole world should follow one path is regarded by the Hindus as absurd, being contrary to Nature and its laws. A man must follow that path for which he is fit, that is, for which he is Adhikari. Adhikara or competency literally means "spreading over" that is "taking possession of". What is to be known (Jatavya), done (Kartavya), acquire d (Praptavya) is determined not once and generally for all, but in each case by the fitness and capacity therefor of the individual. Each man can know, do, and obtain not everything, nor indeed one common thing, but that only of which he is capable (Adhikari). What the Jiva can think, do, or obtain, is his competency or Adhikara, a profound and practical doctrine on which all Indian teaching and Sadhana is based. As men are different and therefore the Adhikara is different, so there are different forms of teaching and practice for each Adhikara. Such teaching may be Srauta or Ashrauta. Dealing here with the first, it is said of all Vidyas the Lord is Ishana, and that these differing forms are meant for differing competencies, though all have one and the same object and aim. This has been well and concisely worked out by Bhaskararaya, the Commentator on Tantrik and Aupanishadic Texts in his Bhashya upon the Nityashodashikarnava, which is, according to him, a portion of the great Vamakeshvara Tantra. The second portion of the Nityasohdashkarnava is also known as the Yoginihridaya. These valuable Tantrik Texts have been published as the 56th Volume of the Poona Anandashrama Series which includes also (Vol. 69) the Janarnava Tantra. The importance of the Vamakeshvara is shown by the fact that Bhaskararaya claims for it the position of the independent 65th Tantra which is mentioned in the 31st verse of the Anandalahari. Others say that the Svatantra there spoken of, is the Janarnava Tantra, and others again are of the opinion that the Tantraraja is the great independent Tantra of which 181 the Anandalahari (ascribed to Shrimadacaryabhagavatpada, that is, Shamkaracarya) speaks. Bhaskararaya who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century gives in his Commentary th e following exposition: In this world all long for happiness which is the sole aim of man. Of this there is no doubt. This happiness again is of two kinds, namely, that which is produced and transient (Kritrima) and that which is unproduced and enduring (Akritrima), called respectively Desire (Kama) and Liberation (Moksha). Dharma procures happiness of both kinds, and Artha helps to the attainment of Dharma. These therefore are desired of all. There are thus four aims of man (Purusharthas) which though, as between themselves, different, are yet intimately connected, the one with the other. The' Kalpasutra says that self -knowledge is the aim and end of man (Svavimarshah purusharthah). This is said of Liberation as being the highest end, since it alone gives real and enduring happiness. This saying, however, does not raise any contradiction. For, each of the four is to be had by the Jana and Vijana appropriate for such attainment. These (Purusharthas) are again to be attained according to the capacity of the individual seeking them (Tadrisa -tadrisha -cittaikasadhyani). The competency of the individual Citta depends again on the degree of its purity. The very merciful Bhagavan Parameshvara desirous of aiding men whose mind and disposition (Citta) differ according to the results produced by their different acts, promulgated different kinds of Vidya which, though appearing to be different as between themselves, yet have, as their common aim, the highest end of all human life, that is, Liberation. Shruti also says (Nrisimhapurvatapani Up. I- 6; Mahanarayana Up. XVII- 5): "Of all Vidyas the Lord is Ishana" (Ishanah sarvavidyanam) and (Sveta. Up. VI- 18) "I who desire liberation seek refuge in that Deva who creates Brahma who again reveals the Vedas and all other learning" (Yo Brahmanam vidadhati purvam yo vai vedamshca prahinoti). The particle "ca" impliedly signifies the other Vidyas collectively. We also find it said in furtherance of that statement: "To him the first born He gave the Vedas and Puranas." Smriti also states that the omniscient Poet (Kavi), Carrier of the Trident (Shiva shulapani), is the first Promulgator of these eighteen Vidyas which take differing paths (Bhinnavartma). It follows that, inasmuch as 182 Paramashiva, the Benefactor of the Worlds, is the Promulgator of all Vidyas, they are all authoritative, though each is applicable for differing classes of competency (Adhikaribhedena). This has been clearly stated in Sutasmhita and similar works. Capacity (Adhikara) is (for example) of this kind. The unbeliever (Nastika i.e., in Veda) has Adhikara in Darshanas such as Arhata (Jaina) and the like. Men of the first three castes have Adhikara in the path of Veda. Similarly the Adhikara of an individual varies according to the purity of his Citta. For we see that the injunctions relating to Dharma vary according to Ashrama and caste (Varna- bheda). Such texts as praise any particular Vidya are addressed to those who are Adhikari therein, and their object is to induce them to follow it. Such texts again as disparage any Vidya are addressed to those who are not Adhikari therein, and their object is to dissuade them from it. Nor again should these words of blame (or praise) be taken in an absolute sense, that is otherwise than relatively to the person to whom they are addressed. Yani tattad vidyaprashamsakani vacanani tani tattadadhikarinam pratyeva pravartakani. Yani ca tannindakani tani tattadan- adhikarinam prati nivartakani. Na punarnahi nindanyayena vidheya -stavakani (Bhaskararaya's Introductory Commentary to Nityasodashikarnava Tantra, p. 2). In early infancy, parents and guardians encourage the play of the child in their charge. When the age of study is reached, the same parents and guardians chastise the child who inopportunely plays. This we all see. A mal e of the three higher castes should, on the passing of the age of play, learn his letters and then metre (Chhandas) in order to master language. The Agni Purana has many texts such as "Faultless is a good Kavya"; all of which encourage the study of Kavya. We also come across prohibitions such as "He who has mastered the subject should avoid all discussion relating to Kavya". When the object to be gained by the study of Kavya is attained and competency is gained for the next higher stage (Uttarabhumika), it is only a harmful waste of time to busy oneself with a lower stage (Purvabhumika), in neglect of that higher stage for the Sadhana of which one has become 183 competent. This is the meaning of the prohibition. Again the injunction is to study Nyayashastra so as to gain a knowledge of the Atma as it is, and other than as it appears in the body and so forth. The texts are many such as "By reasoning (Shungga) seek the Atma". Shungga=Hetu=Avayavasamudayatmakanyaya, that is Logic with all its five limbs. When it is known that the Atma as such is other than the body, is separate from the body and so forth, and the means which lead to that knowledge are mastered, then man is prohibited from occupying himself with the subject of the former stage (Purvabhumika) by such texts as "Anvikshiki and Logic (Tarkavidya) are useless" (Anvikshikim tarkavidyamanurakto nirarthikam). Injunctions such as "The wise should practice Dharma alone (Dharmam evacaret prajnah)" urge man towards the next stage (Uttarabhumika). The study of the Purvamimamsa and the Karmakanda in the Vedas is useful for this purpose. When by this means Dharma, Artha and Kama are attained, there arises a desire for the fourth Purushartha (Liberation or Moksha). And therefore to sever men from the former stage (Purv abhumika) there are texts which deprecate Karma such as (Mund. Up. 1- 2, 12) "By that which is made cannot be attained that which is not made" (Nastyakritah kritena). Vashishtha says that these (earlier stages) are seven and that all are stages of ignorance (Ajanabhumika). Beyond these are stages of Jana. For the attainment of the same there are injunctions relating to Brahmajana which lead on to 'the next higher stage, such as (Mund. Up. I. 2, 12) "He should go to the Guru alone" (Sa gurum evabhigacchet), "Listen (Br. Ar. II. 4, 5, IV. 5, 6), oh Maitreyi, the Atma should be realized" (Atma va are drashtavyah). Some say that the Janabhumikas are many and rely on the text "The wise say that the stages of Yoga are many". The holy Vashishtha says that there are seven, namely, Vividisha (desire to know), Vicarana (reflection), Tanumanasa (concentration), Sattvapatti (commencement of realization), Asamshakti (detachment), Padarthabhavini (realization of Brahman only) and Turyaga (full illumination in the fourth state). The meaning of these is given in, and should be learnt from, the Janashastra of Vashishtha. These terms are also explained in Brahmananda's Commentary on the Hathayoga Pradipika (1 -3). His account differs from that of Bhaskararaya as regards the name of the first Bhumika which he calls Janabhumi or 184 Subheccha and the sixth is called by him Pararthabhavini and not Padarthabhavini. The sense in either case is the same. According to Brahmananda, Janabhumi is the initial stage of Yoga characterized b y Viveka, Vairagya, and the six Sadhanas beginning with Sama and leading to Mumuksha. Vicarana is Shravana and Manana (Shravanamananatmika). Tanuminasa=Nididhyasana when the mind, the natural characteristic of which is to wander, is directed towards its proper Yoga -object only. These three preliminary stage are known as Sadhanabhumika. The fourth stage Sattvapatti is Samprajatayogabhumika. The mind having been purified by practice in the three preceding Bhumikas the Yogi commences to realize and is called Brahmavit. The last three stages belong to Asamprajatayoga. After attainment of Sattvapatti Bhumika, the Yogi reaches the fifth stage called Asamshakti. Here he is totally detached and in the state of wakening (Vyuttishthate). As such he is called Brahmav id-vara. At the sixth, or Pararthabhavini Bhumika he meditates on nothing but Parabrahman (Parabrahmatiriktam na bhavayati). He is supremely awakened (Paraprabodhita) and is awake (Vyuttishta). He is then called Brahmavid- vanyan. In the last or seventh sta ge (Turyyaga) he is Brahmavidvarishta, and then truly attains illumination in itself (Svatahparato va vyutthanam prapnoti). The Upanishads and Uttaramimamsa are helpful for this purpose (Upayogi) and should therefore be studied, Brahmajana again is of two kinds: namely, Seabed and Aparokshanubhavarupa. Understanding of the meaning of Shastra (Shashtradrishti), the word of the Guru (Gurorvakyam) and certainty (Nishcaya) of the unity of the individual self (Sva) and the Atma. are powerful to dispel inward da rkness, but not the mere knowledge of words (Shabdabodha); (See Yogavashishtha, Utpatti, Kh. IX. 7- 16). Therefore, when the Shabdabhumika is attained one should not waste one's time further at this stage, and there are texts which prohibit this. Thus (Br. Ar. III, 5- 1) "Having become indifferent to learning let him remain simple as in childhood" (Pandityannirvidya balyena tishthaset). Between the second and third of the seven stages (Bhumika) there is the great stage Bhakti. Bhaktimimamsa (e.g., Narada Sutra, Sanatsujatiya) is 185 helpful and should be studied. Bhakti continues to the end of the fifth Bhumika. When this last is attained the Sadhaka gains the fifth stage which is Aparokshanubhavarupa. This is Jivanmukti; Following closely upon this is Videhakaivalya. In the text "From Jana alone Kaivalya comes (Janad eva tu kaivalyam), the word Jana signifies something other and higher than Anubhava (Anubhavaparatva). In Nyaya and other Shastras it is stated that Moksha will be attained by mastery in such particular Shastra, but that is merely a device by which knowledge of the higher stage is not disclosed. This is not blameworthy because its object is to remove the disinclination to study such Shastra by reason of the delay thereby caused in the attainment of Purushartha (which disinclination would exist if the Sadhaka knew that there was a higher Shastra than that which he was studying). There are texts such as "By Karma alone (eva) is achievement" (Karmanaiva tu samsiddhih); "Him whom he selects hp him he is attainable" (Yamevaisha vrinnute tena labhyah). The word "eva" refers to the Bhumika which is spoken of and prohibits Sadhana for the attainment of fruit which can only be gained by mastery of, or competency in (Adhikara), the next higher Bhumika (Uttarabhumika). The words do not deny that there is a higher stage (Bhumika). The word alone (eva) in "Janad eva tu" ("from Jana alone") indicates, however, that there is a stage of Sadhana subsequent to that here spoken of. There is thus no conflict between the Rishis who are teachers of the different Vidyas. Each one of these Bhumikas has many sub - divisions (Avantara -bhumika) which cannot be altogether separated the one from the other, and which are only known by the discerning through experience (Anubhava). So it has been said: "Oh Raghava, I have spoken to thee of the seven States (Avastha) of ignorance (Ajana). Each one is hundred fold (that is many) and yields many fruits (Nanavibhavarupim). Of these many Bhumikas, each is achieved by Sadhana through many b irths. When a man by great effort prolonged through countless lives, and according to the regular order of things (Kramena), gains a full comprehension of the Bhumika in which he has certain knowledge of the Shabdatattva of Parabrahman, he ceases to have any great attachment to or aversion for, Samsara and this is a form of excellent Cittashuddhi. Such an one is qualified for the path of Devotion (Bhakti)." For, it has been said: 186 "Neither indifferent (Nirvinna) nor attached; for such an one Bhaktiyoga grant s achievement (Siddhida)." Bhakti again is of two kinds: Gauni (secondary) and Para (supreme). The first comprises Dhyana, Arcana, Japa, Namakirtana and the like of the Saguna Brahman. Parabhakti is special" state (Anuragavishesharupa) which is the product of these. The first division of Bhakti includes several others (Avantara -Cumika). The first of these is Bhavanasiddhi illustrated by such texts "Let him meditate on woman as fire" (Yoshamagnim dhyayita). The second is worship (Upasti') as directed in such texts (Chha. Up. III. 18- 1) as "Mano brahmetyupasita". The third is Ishvaropasti (worship of the Lord). Since the aspects of the Lord vary according as He is viewed as Surya, Ganesha, Vishnu, Rudra, Parashiva and Shakti, the forms of worship belong to different Bhumikas. The forms of Shakti again are endless such as Chhaya, Ballabha, Lakshmi and the like. In this manner, through countless ages all these Bhumikas are mastered, when there arises Gaunabhakti for Tripurasundari. On perfection of this there is Parabhakti for Her. This is the end, for it has been said (Kularnava Tantra, III. 82): "Kaulajana is revealed for him whose Citta has been fully purified, Arka, Ganapatya, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Daurga (Shakta) and other Mantras in their order." Bhaskararaya also quotes the statement in the Kularnava Tantra (II, 7, 8): "Higher than Vedacara is Vaishnavacara, higher than Vaishnavacara is Shaivacara, higher than Shaivacara is Dakshinacara, higher than Dakshinacara is Vamacara, higher than Vamacara is Siddhantacara, higher than Siddhantacara is Kaulacara than which there is nothing higher nor better." Many original texts might be cited relative to the order of stages (Bhumikakrama) but which are not quoted for fear of prolixity. Some of these have been set out in Saubhagyabhaskara, (that is, Bhaskararaya's Commentary on the Lalitasahasranama). The Sundari tapanipancaka, Bhavanopanishad, Kaulopanishad, Guhyopanishad, Mahopanishad, and other Upanishads (Vedashirobhaga) describe in detail the Gauni Bhakti of Shri Maha tripurasundari and matter relating thereto. The Kalpasutras of Ashvalayana and others, the Smritis of Manu and others come after the Purvakanda) of the Veda. In the same way the Kalpasutras of Parashurama and others and the Yamalas and other Tantras belong to the latter part of 187 the Veda or the Upanishadkanda. The Puranas relate to, and follow both, Kandas. Therefore the authority of the Smritis, Tantras, and Puranas is due to their being based on Veda (Smrititantra puranam vedamulakatvenaiva pramanyam). Those which seem (Pratyaksha) opposed to Shruti (Shrutiviruddha) form a class of their own and are without authority and should not be followed unless the Veda (Mulashruti) is examined (and their conformity with it established). There are some Tantras, however, which are in every way in conflict with Veda (Yanitu sarvamshena vedaviruddhanyeva). They are some Pashupata Shastras and Pacaratra. They are not for those who are in this Bhumika (i.e., Veda Pantha). He who is qualified for rites enjoined in Shruti and Smriti (Shrautasmartakarmadhikara) is only Adhikari for these (Pashupata and Pacaratra) if by reason of some sin (Papa) he falls from the former path. It has therefore been said: "The Lord of Kamala (Vishnu) spoke the Pacaratras, the Bhagavata, and that which is known as Vaikhanasa (Vaikhanasabhidhama form of Vaishnavism) for those who have fallen away from the Vedas (Vedabhrashta)." The following Texts relate only to some of the Shastras of the classes mentioned. So we have the following: "He who has fallen from Shruti, who is afraid of the expiatory rites (Prayashcitta) prescribed therein, should seek shelter in Tantra so that by degrees he may be qualified for Shruti (Shruti -siddhyar -tham)." Though the general term "Tantra" is employed, particular Tan tras (that is, those opposed to Shruti or Ashrauta) are here meant. The Adhikarana (Sutra) Patyurasamanjasyat (II: 2. 37) applies to Tantras of this class. The Agastya and other Tantras which describe the worship of Rama, Krishna, Nrisimha, Rudra, Parashiva, Sundari (Shakti) and others evidently derive from the Ramatapani and other Upanishads. There is therefore no reason to doubt but that they are authoritative. Worship (Upasti) of Sundari Shakti is of two kinds: Bahiryaga or outer, and Antaryaga or inner, worship. Antaryaga is again of three kinds: Sakala, Sakala- Nishkala, and Nishkala, thus constituting four Bhumikas. As already stated, the passage is from a lower to a higher and then to a yet higher Bhumika. Five forms of Bahiryaga are spoken of, namely, Kevala, Yamala, Mishra, Cakrayuk and Virashamkara which have each five divisions under the heads Abhigamana and others and Daurbodhya and others in different Tantras. Bahiryaga with these distinctions belongs to one and the same 188 Bhumika. Distinctions in the injunctions (Vyavastha) depend entirely on differences as to place, time, and capacity, and not on the degree of Cittashuddhi (Na punashcittashuddhibhedena). On the other hand injunctions given according to difference of Bhumika, which is itself depende nt on the degree of purity of the Citta, are mandatory. To sum up the reply to the question raised by the title of this paper: The Shastras are many and are of differing form. But Ishvara is the Lord of all the Vidyas which are thus authoritative and have a common aim. The Adhikara of men varies. Therefore so does the form of the Shastra. There are many stages (Bhumika) on the path of spiritual advance. Man makes his way from a lower to a higher Bhumika. Statements in any Shastra which seem to be in conflict with some other Shastra must be interpreted with reference to the Adhikara of the persons to whom they are addressed. Texts laudatory of any Vidya are addressed to the Adhikari therein with the object of inducing him to follow it. Texts in disparagement of any Vidya are addressed to those who are not Adhikari therein, either because he has not attained, or has surpassed, the Bhumika applicable, and their object is to dissuade them from following it. Neither statements are to be taken in an absolute sense, for what is not fit for one may be fit for another. Evolution governs the spiritual as the physical process, and the truth is in each case given in that form which is suitable for the stage reached. From step to step the Sadhaka rises, until having passed through all presentments of the Vaidik truth which are necessary for him, he attains the Vedasvarupa which is knowledge of the Self. These ancient teachings are in many ways very consonant with what is called the "modernist" outlook. Thus, let it be noted that there may be (as Bhaskararaya says) Adhikara for Ashrauta Shastra such as the Arhata, and there is a Scripture for the Vedabhrashta. These, though non- Vaidik, are recognized as the Scriptures of those who are fitted for them. This is more than the admission, that they are the Scriptures in fact of such persons. The meaning of such recognition is brought out by an incident some years ago. An Anglican clergyman suggested that Mohamedanism might be a suitable Scripture for the Negro who was above "fetichism" but not yet fit to receive Christian teaching. Though he claimed that the latter was the highest and 189 the most complete truth, thi s recognition (quite Hindu in its character) of a lower and less advanced stage, brought him into trouble. For those who criticized him gave no recognition to any belief but their own. Hinduism does not deny that other faiths have their good fruit. For thi s reason, it is tolerant to a degree which has earned it the charge of being "indifferent to the truth". Each to his own. Its principles admit q, progressive revelation of the Self to the self, according to varying competencies (Adhikara) and stages (Bhumi ka) of spiritual advance. Though each doctrine and practice belongs to varying levels, and therefore the journey may be shorter or longer as the case may be, ultimately all lead to the Vedasvarupa or knowledge of the Self, than which there is no other end. That which immediately precedes this complete spiritual experience is the Vedantik doctrine and Sadhana for which all others are the propaedeutic. There is no real conflict if we look at the stage at which the particular instructions are given. Thought mo ves by an immanent logic from a less to a more complete realization of the true nature of the thinker. When the latter has truly known what he is, he has known what all is. Vedayite iti Vedah. "Veda is that by which what is, and what is true, is made known." Whilst the Smritis of the Seers vary and therefore only those are to be accepted which are in conformity with the Standard of true experience or Veda, it is to be remembered that because a Seer such as Kapila Adividvan (upon whose Smriti or experience t hat Samkhya is assumed to be founded) teaches Dvaitavada, it does not (in the Hindu view) follow that he had not himself reached a higher stage, such as Advaitavada is claimed to be. A Seer may choose to come down to the level of more ordinary people and teach a Dvaitavada suited to their capacity (Adhikara). If all were to teach the highest experience there would be none to look after those who were incapable of it, and who must be led up through the necessary preliminary stages. Samkhya is the science of analysis and discrimination, and therefore the preparation for Vedanta which is the science of synthesis and assimilation. Kapila, Gautama and Kanada mainly built on reason deepened and enlarged, it may be, by Smriti or subjective experience. We do not find in them any complete synthesis of Shruti. A general appeal is made to Shruti and a few texts are cited which accord with what (whether it was so in fact to them or not) is in fact a provisionally adopted point of view. They 190 concentrate the thoughts and wills of their disciples on them, withholding (if they themselves have gone further) the rest, as not at present suited to the capacity of the Shishya, thus following what Shamkara calls Arundhatidarshana -nyaya. Nevertheless the higher truth is immanent in the lower. The Differential and Integral Calculus are involved in elementary Algebra and Geometry because the former generalize what the latter particularize. But the teacher of elementary Mathematics in the lower forms of a school would only confound his young learners if he were to introduce such a general theorem (as say Taylor's) to them. He must keep back the other until the time is ripe for them. Again the great Teachers teach whole-heartedness and thoroughness in both belief and action, without which the acceptance of a doctrine is useless. Hence a teacher of Dvaitavada, though himself Advaitadarshi, presents Dvaita to the Adhikari Shishya in such a forcible way that his reason may be convinced and his interest may be fully aroused. It is useless to say to a Sadhaka on the lower plane: "Advaita is the whole truth. Dvaita is not; but though it is not, it is suited to your capacity and therefore accept it." He will of course say that he does not then want Dvaita, and being incapable of understanding Advaita, will lose himself. This, I may observe, one of the causes of Skepticism to -day. In the olden time it was possible to teach a system without anything being known of that which was higher. But with printing of books some people learn that all is Maya, that Upasana is for the "lower" grades and so forth, and, not understanding what all this means, are disposed to throw Shastric teaching in general overboard. This they would not have done if they had been first qualified in the truth of their plane and thu s become qualified to understand the truth of that which is more advanced. Until Brahma- sakshatkara, all truth is relative. Hence, Bhagavan in the Gita says: "Na buddhi- bhedam janayed ajanam karma sanginam." Tradition supports these views. Therefore Vyasa , Kapila, Gautama, Jaimini, Kanada and others have differently taught, though they may have possibly experienced nearly similarly. Jaimini in his Purva Mimamsa differs in several respects from Vyasa or Badarayana in his Uttara - Mimamsa though he was the disciple of the latter. Vyasa is Advaita -darshi in Vedanta but Dvaita -darshi in Yoga -bhashya. Is it to be supposed, that the Shishya was Anadhikari, and that his Guru, therefore, withheld the higher 191 truth from him, or was the Guru jealous and kept his Shishya in actions, withholding Brahma -jana? A Rishi who has realized Advaita may teach Ayurveda or Dhanuveda. He need not be Sthula -darshi, because he teaches Sthula -vishaya. Again Shastras may differ, because their standpoint and objective is different. Thus the Purva -mimamsa deals with Dharma -jignasa, stating that Veda is practical and enjoins duties, so that a Text which does not directly or indirectly mean or impose a duty is of no account. The Uttara -mimamsa, on the other hand, deals with Brahma- jignasa and therefore in the Sutra 'Tattu samanvayat' it is laid down that a Mantra is relevant, though it may not impose a duty ("Do this or do not do this") but merely produces a Jana (Know this, "That Thou art"). The difference in interpretation is incidental to difference in standpoint and objective. The same remarks apply to the various forms of Advaita such as Vishishtadvaita, Shuddhadvaita; between the Shaktivada of the Shakta Agama and Vivarttavada. In some Shastras stress is laid on Karma, in others on Bhakti, and yet in others on Jana as in the case of Mayavada. But though the emphasis is differently placed, each is involved in the other and ultimately, meet and blend. The Mahimnastava says: "Though men, according to their natures, follow differing paths, Thou art the end of all, as is the ocean of all the rivers which flow thereto." Madhusudana Sarasvati commenting on this, has written his Prasthanabheda, the reconciliation of varying doctrines. To- day the greatest need in these matters is (for those who are capable of understanding) the establishment of this intellectual and spiritual Whole (Purna). The Seers who live in the exalted Sphere of Calm, understand the worth and significance of each form of spiritual culture as also their Synthesis, and to the de gree that lesser minds attain this level to this extent they will also do so. Whilst the lower mind lives in a section of the whole fact and therefore sees difference and conflict, the illumined who live in and have in varying degrees experience of the Fact itself, see all such as related parts of an Whole. 192 CHAPTER THIRTEEN . SARVANANDANATHA The Sarvollasa, a copy of which came into my possession some three years ago, is a rare MS. It is a Samgraha by the Sarvavidyasiddha Sarvanandanatha who, though celebrated amongst the Bengal followers of the Agama, is I should think, almost unknown to the general public. There is a life in Sanskrit of Sarvanandanatha entitled Sarvanandataramgini by his son Shivanatha in which an account of the attainment of his Siddhi is given and I am indebted in respect of this article to a short unpublished memoir by Sj. Dinesha Candra Bhattacaryya, formerly Research Scholar, who as a native of Tipperah has had the desire to see Sarva nandanatha's place in the History of the so -called "Tantricism" in Bengal duly recognized. It is said that Sarvananda had striven for Siddhi for seven previous births and a verse preserves the names of the places where he died in these successive lives. His grandfather Vasudeva originally lived at Purvasthali in the Burdwan district but was led by a divine call to Mehar in Tipperah where in ages past Matanga Muni had done Tapas. A deep hole is still shown as being of Matanga's time. It is also said that round about the place where Sarvanandanatha performed his Shavasadhana, adept Sadhakas even now discover the hidden Linga established by Matanga marked out by equally hidden barriers or Kilakas. Vasudeva then went to Kamakhya where he died after undergoing se vere Tapas. He left his son at Mehar who himself afterwards had a son, the grandson of Vasudeva. In fact it is said that the grandfather Vasudeva was reborn as the son of his own son, that is, as Sarvananda. In early life the latter was stupid and illiterate. He was sharply rebuked by the local Rajah for his ignorance in proclaiming a New Moon day to be Full Moon day. Being severely punished by his relatives he determined to begin his letters and went out to search for the necessary palm -leaves. There in the jungle he met a Samnyasi, who was Mahadeva himself in that form and who whispered in his ears a Mantra and gave him certain instructions. His servant Puna was an advanced Sadhaka, who had been psychically developed under Vasudeva. 193 Puna separating the sub tle (Sukshmadeha) from the gross body, served as a corpse on the back of which Sarvananda performed Shavasadhana and attained Siddhi that same new moon night on which to the amazement of all a perfect moon shone over Mehar. This full moon episode is popula rly the most famous of Sarvananda's wonders. Some time after Sarvananda left Mehar after having given utterance to the curse that his own family would die out in the 22nd, and that of the local chief in the 15th generation. This last announcement is said to have come true as the Rajah's descendant in the fifteenth generation actually died without issue, though the family survives through his adopted son. Sarvananda started for Benares but stopped at Senhati in Jessore where he was compelled to marry again a nd where he lived for some years. His place of worship at Senhati is still shown. At the age of 50 he went to Benares with his servant Puna and nephew Sadananda. At Benares the Shaiva Dandins were then, as now, predominant. He quarreled with them, or they with him, on account of his doctrines and practice. In return for their treatment of him, he to their awe and possibly disgust, converted (so it is said) their food into meat and wine. Of course the Benares Dandins, as is usual in such cases, give a different account of the matter. Their tradition is that, after a Shastric debate, Sarvananda was convinced by the Dandins that the Siddhi which he boasted of was no real Siddhi at all and was then made a convert to their own doctrines, which is the most satisfa ctory of all results for the men of piety who wrangle with others and try to make them come over to their views. It is worthy of note how quarrelsome in all ages many of the pious and wonder -workers have been. But perhaps we do not hear so much of the quieter sages who lived and let others live, diffusing their views not amongst those who were satisfied with what they knew or thought they knew, but among such as had not found and therefore sought. After this event Sarvananda disappeared from Benares which rather points to the fact that the Dandins did not acquire a distinguished adversary for their community. Tradition is silent as to what happened to him later and as to the date and place of his end. 194 Sj. Dinesh Chandra Bhattacarya has made for me a calculat ion as to the date of Sarvananda's Siddhi which fell on a Pausha Samkranti corresponding to Caturdasi or Amavasya falling on a Friday. Between 1200 and 1700 A.D. there are three dates on which the above combination took place, viz.,1342, 1426 and 1548 A.D. The first date is toe early as 15 or 16 generations, to which his family descends at present, does not carry us so far back. The last date seems too late. For according to tradition Janakivallabha Gurvvacarya, himself a famous Siddha, and fifth in descent from Sarvananda, was a contemporary of one of the "twelve Bhuiyas" of Bengal late in the reign of Akbar (circ. 1600 A.D.). The date 1426 A.D. is therefore adopted. It will thus appear that he lived about a century before the three great Bengal Tantrikas, namely, Krishnananda, Brahmananda and Purnananda, all of whom are of the 16th century. But this calculation has still to be verified by data culled from an examination of the Sarvollasa such as the authorities which its author cites. This last work, I am told, is that by which he is best known. Two other short Tantrika works are ascribed to a Sarvananda though whether it is the same Siddha is not certain. There is, I am told, a Navarnapujapaddhati by Sarvanandanatha in a MS dated 1668 Vikramabda in the Raghunath Temple Library in Kashmir, and another work the Tripurarcanadipika is reported from the Central Provinces. As is usual in such cases there is a legend that Sarvananda is still living by Kayavyuha in some hidden resort of Siddha- purushas. The author o f the memoir, from which I quote, tells of a Sadhu who said to my informant that some years ago he met Sarvanandanatha in a place called Campakaranya but only for a few minutes, for the Sadhu was himself miraculously wafted elsewhere. Some very curious reading of deep interest to the psychologist, the student of psychic phenomena and the historian of religions is to be found in the stories which are told of Sadhus and Siddhas of Sarvananda's type who, whether they did all that is recounted of them or not, y et lived so strangely, as for instance, to take another case, that of Brahmananda the author of the Shaktanandatarangini who going in his youth in quest of a prostitute, found in the house he entered and in the woman who came to him his own 195 mother, herself the victim of a Mussulman ravisher. It was the horror of this encounter which converted his mind and led him to become a Sadhu, during which life he did Dhyana in the body of a dead and rotting elephant and the other things related of him. They await coll ection. But when their value has been discovered possibly these traditions may have disappeared. Even if all the facts related of these Sadhus and Siddhas were the work of imagination (and whilst some of them may be so, others are in all probability true enough) they are worth preservation as such. The history of the human mind is as much a fact as anything which is reverenced because it is "objective". This last class of fact is generally only the common experience. It is attractive, yet sometimes fearsome , to follow the mind's wanderings both in the light and in that curious dark, which only explorers in these paths know. If one does not lose one's way (and in this lies a peril) we emerge with a confidence in ourselves at having passed a test -- a confidence which will serve our future. In any case as I have said there is an opportunity of research for those whose workings are in the outer crust of mere historical fact. 196 CHAPTER FOURTEEN . CIT-SHAKTI (THE CONSCIOUSNESS ASPECT OF THE UNIVERSE ) Cit-Shakti is Cit, as Shakti, that is as Power, or that aspect of Cit in which it is, through its associated Maya -Shakti, operative to create the universe. It is a commonly accepted doctrine that the ultimate Reality is Samvid, Caitanya or Cit. But what is Cit? There is no word in the English language which adequately describes it. It is not mind: for mind is a limited instrument through which Cit is manifested. It is that which is behind the mind and by which the mind itsel f is thought, that is created. The Brahman is mindless (Amanah). I f we exclude mind we also exclude all forms of mental process, conception, perception, thought, reason, will, memory, particular sensation and the like. We are then left with three availabl e words, namely, Consciousness, Feeling, Experience. To the first term there are several objections. For if we use an English word, we must understand it according to its generally received meaning. Generally by "Consciousness" is meant self- consciousness, or at least something particular, having direction and form, which is concrete and conditioned; an evolved product marking the higher stages of Evolution. According to some, it is a mere function of experience, an epiphenomenon, a mere accident of mental process. In this sense it belongs only to the highly developed organism and involves a subject attending to an object of' which, as of itself, it is conscious. We are thus said to have most consciousness when we are awake (Jagrat avastha) and have full experience of all objects presented to us; less so when dreaming (Svapna avastha) and deep anesthesia in true dreamless sleep (Sushupti). I may here observe that recent researches show that this last state is not so common as is generally supposed. That is complete dreamlessness is rare; there being generally some trace of dream. In the last state it is commonly said that consciousness has disappeared, and so of course it has, if we first define consciousness in terms of the waking state and of knowledge of objects. According to Indian notions there is a form of conscious experience in the deepest sleep 197 expressed in the well -known phrase "Happily I slept, I knew nothing". The sleeper recollects on waking that his state has been one of happiness. And he cannot recollect unless there has been a previous experience (Anubhava) which is the subject- matter of memory. In ordinary parlance we do not regard some low animal forms, plants or mineral as "conscious". It is true that now in the West there is (due to the sprea d of ideas long current in India) growing up a wider use of the term "consciousness" in connection not only with animal but vegetable and mineral life, but it cannot be said the term "consciousness" has yet generally acquired this wide signification. If then we use (as for convenience we do) the term "Consciousness" for Cit, we must give it a content different from that which is attributed to the term in ordinary English parlance. Nextly, it is to be remembered that what in either view we understand by consciousness is something manifested, and therefore limited, and derived from our finite experience. The Brahman as Cit is the infinite substratum of that. Cit in itself (Svarupa) is not particular nor conditioned and concrete. Particularity is that aspect in which it manifests as, and through, Maya -Shakti. Cit manifests as Jana -Shakti which, when used otherwise than as a loose synonym for Cit, means knowledge of objects. Cit- Svarupa is neither knowledge of objects nor self -consciousness in the phenomenal sense. Waking, dreaming and dreamless slumber are all phenomenal states in which experience varies; such variance being due not to Cit but to the operation or cessation of particular operation of the vehicles of mind (Antahkarana) and sense (Indriya). But Cit never disappears nor varies in either of the three states, but remains one and the same through all. Though Cit -Svarupa is not a knowledge of objects in the phenomenal sense, it is not, according to Shaiva -Shakta views (I refer always to Advaita Shaiva- darshana), a mere abstract knowing (Jana) wholly devoid of content. It contains within itself the Vimarsha -Shakti which is the cause of phenomenal objects, then existing in the form of Cit (Cidrupini). The Self then knows the Self. Still less can we speak of mere 'awareness" as the equivalent of Cit. A worm or meaner form of animal may be said to be vaguely aware. In fact mere "awareness" (as we understand that term) is a state of Cit in which it is seemingly overwhelmed by obscuring Maya -Shakti in the form of Tamoguna. Unless therefore we give to "awareness," as also to consciousness, a content, other than that with which our experience 198 furnishes us, both terms are unsuitable. In some respects Cit can be more closely described by Feeling, which seems to have been the most ancient meaning of the term Cit. Feeling is more primary, in that it is only after we have been first affected by something that we become conscious of it. Feeling has thus been said to be the raw material of thought, the essential element i n the Self, what we call personality being a particular form of feeling. Thus in Samkhya, the Gunas are said to be in the nature of happiness (Sukha), sorrow (Dukha) and illusion (Moha) as they are experienced by the Purusha -Consciousness. And in Vedanta, Cit and Ananda or Bliss or Love are one. For Consciousness then is not consciousness of being (Sat) but Being - Consciousness (Sat -Cit); nor a Being which is conscious of Bliss (Ananda) but Being -Consciousness -Bliss (Sacchidananda). Further, "feeling" has this advantage that it is associated with all forms of organic existence even according to popular usage, and may scientifically be aptly applied to inorganic matter. Thus whilst most consider it to be an unusual and strained use of language, to speak of the consciousness of a plant or stone, we can and do speak of the feeling or sentiency of a plant. Further the response which inorganic matter makes to stimuli is evidence of the existence therein of that vital germ of life and sentiency (and therefore Cit) which expands into the sentiency of plants, and the feelings and emotions of animals and men. It is possible for any form of unintelligent being to feel, however obscurely. And it must do so, if its ultimate basis is Cit and Ananda, however veiled by Maya -Shakti these may be. The response which inorganic matter makes to stimuli is the manifestation of Cit through the Sattvaguna of Maya - Shakti, or Shakti in its form as Prakriti- Shakti. The manifestation is slight and apparently mechanical because of the extreme predominance of the Tamoguna in the same Prakriti- Shakti. Because of the limited and extremely regulated character of the movement which seems to exclude all volitional process as known to us, it is currently assumed that we have merely to deal with wha t is an unconscious mechanical energy. Because vitality is so circumscribed and seemingly identified with the apparent mechanical process, we are apt to assume mere unconscious mechanism. But as a fact this latter is but the form assumed by the conscious Vital Power which is in and works in all matter whatever it be. To the eye, however, unassisted by scientific instruments, which extend our capacity for experience, 199 establishing artificial organs for the gaining thereof, the matter appears Jada (or unconscious); and both in common English and Indian parlance we call that alone living or Jiva which, as organized matter, is endowed with body and senses. Philosophically, however, as well as scientifically, all is Jivatma which is not Paramatma: everything in fa ct with form, whether the form exists as the simple molecule of matter, or as the combination of these simple forms into cells and greater organisms. The response of metallic matter is a form of sentiency -- its germinal form -- a manifestation of Cit inte nsely obscured by the Tamoguna of Prakriti -Shakti. In plants Cit is less obscured, and there is the sentient life which gradually expands in animals and men, according as Cit gains freedom of manifestation through the increased operation of Sattvaguna in the vehicles of Cit; which vehicles are the mind and senses and the more elaborate organization of the bodily particles. What is thus mere incipient or germinal sentiency, simulating unconscious mechanical movement in inorganic matter, expands by degrees in to feeling akin, though at first remotely, to our own, and into all the other psychic functions of consciousness, perception, reasoning, memory and will. The matter has been very clearly put in a Paper on "The Four Cosmic Elements" by C. G. Sander which (s ubject to certain reservations stated) aptly describes the Indian views on the subject in hand. He rightly says that sentiency is an integrant constituent of all existence, physical as well as metaphysical and its manifestation can be traced throughout the mineral and chemical as well as vegetable and animal worlds. It essentially comprises the functions of relationship to environment, response to stimuli, and atomic memory in the lower or inorganic plane; whilst in the higher or organic planes it includes all the psychic functions such as consciousness, perception, thought, reason, volition and individual memory. Inorganic matter through the inherent element of sentiency is endowed with aesthesia or capacity of feeling and response to physical and chemical stimuli such as light, temperature, sound, electricity, magnetism and the action of chemicals. All such phenomena are examples of the faculty of perception and response to outside stimuli of matter. We must here include chemical sentiency and memory; that is the atom's and molecule's remembrance of its own identity and behavior therewith. Atomic memory does not, of course, imply self -consciousness, 200 but only inherent group -spirit which responds in a characteristic way to given outside stimuli. We may call it atomic or physical consciousness. The consciousness of plants is only trance -like (what the Hindu books call 'Comatose') though some of the higher aspects of sentiency (and we may here use the word 'consciousness') of the vegetable world are highly interesting: such as the turning of flowers to the sun; the opening and shutting of leaves and petals at certain times, sensitiveness to the temperature and the obvious signs of consciousness shewn by the sensitive and insectivorous plants, such as the Sundew, the Venus Flytrap, and others. The micro -organisms which dwell on the borderland between the vegetable and animal worlds have no sense organs, but are only endowed with tactile irritability, yet they are possessed of psychic life, sentiency, and inclination, whereby they perceive their environment and position, approach, attack and devour food, flee from harmful substances and reproduce by division. Their movements appear to be positive, not reflex. Every cell, both vegetable and animal, possesses a biological or vegetative consciousness, which in health is polarized or subordinate to the government of the total organism of which it forms an integral part; but which is locally impaired in disease and ceases altogether at the death of the organism. In plants, however, (unlike animals) the cellular consciousness is diffused or distributed amongst the tissues or fibers; there being apparently no special conducting or centralizing organs of consciousness such as we find in higher evolutionary forms. Animal consciousness in its highest modes becomes self-consciousness. The psychology of the lower animals is still the field of much controversy; some regarding these as Cartesian machines and others ascribing to them a high degree of psychic development. In the animals there is an endeavor at centralization of consciousness which reaches its most complex stage in man, the possessor of the most highly organized system of consciousness, consisting of the nervous system and its centers and functions, such as the brain and solar plexus, the site of Aja and upper centers, and of the Manipura Cakra. Sentiency or feeling is a constituent of all existence. We may call it consciousness however, if we understand (with the author cited) the term "consciousness" to include atomic or physical consciousness, the trance consciousness of plant life, animal consciousness and man's completed self -consciousness. 201 The term Sentiency or Feeling, as the equivalent of manifested Cit, has, however, this disadvantage: whereas intelligence and con sciousness are terms for the highest attributes of man's nature, mere sentiency, though more inclusive and common to all, is that which we share with the lowest manifestions. In the case of both terms, however, it is necessary to remember that they do not represent Cit- Svarupa or Cit as It is in itself. The term Svarupa (own form) is employed to convey the notion of what constitutes anything what it is, namely, its true nature as it is in itself. Thus, though the Brahman or Shiva manifests in the form of the world as Maya - Shakti, its Svarupa is pure Cit. Neither sentiency nor consciousness, as known to us, is Cit -Svarupa. They are only limited manifestations of Cit just as reason, will, emotion and memory, their modes are. Cit is the background of all forms of experience which are its modes, that is Cit veiled by Maya -Shakti; Cit -Svarupa is never to be confounded with, or limited to, its particular modes. Nor is it their totality, for whilst it manifests in these modes It yet, in Its own nature, infinitely transcends them. Neither sentiency, consciousness, nor any other term borrowed from a limited and dual universe can adequately describe what Cit is in Itself (Svarupa). Vitality, mind, matter are its limited manifestations in form. These forms are ceaselessl y changing, but the undifferentiated substratum of which they are particularized modes is changeless. That eternal, changeless, substratum is Cit,, which may thus be defined as the changeless principle of all our changing experience. All is Cit, clothing i tself in forms by its own Power of Cit-Shakti and Maya -Shakti: and that Power is not different from Itself. Cit is not the subject of knowledge or speech. For as the Varaha Upanishad (Chap. IV) says it is "The Reality which remains after all thoughts are g iven up." What it is in Itself, is unknown but to those who become It. It is fully realized only in the highest state of Ecstasy (Samadhi) and in bodiless liberation (Videha Mukti) when Spirit is free of its vehicles of mind and matter. A Modern Indian Philosopher has (See "Approaches to Truth" and the "Patent Wonder" by Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyopadhyaya) very admirably analyzed the notion of the universal Ether of Consciousness (Cidakasha) and the particular Stress formed in it by the action of Maya-Shakti. In the first place, he points out that logical thought is inherently dualistic and therefore pre -supposes a 202 subject and object. Therefore to the pragmatic eye of the western, viewing the only experience known to him, consciousness is always particular having a particular form and direction. Hence where no direction or form is discernible, they have been apt to imagine that consciousness as such has also ceased. Thus if it were conceded that in profounded sleep there were no dreams, or if in perfect anesthesia it were granted that nothing particular was felt, it was thereby considered to be conceded that consciousness may sometimes cease to exist in us. What does in fact cease is the consciousness of objects which we have in the waking and dreaming sta tes. Consciousness as such is neither subjective nor objective and is not identical with intelligence or understanding -- that is with directed or informed consciousness. Any form of unintelligent being which feels, however chaotically it may be, is yet, though obscurely so (in the sense here meant) conscious. Pure consciousness, that is consciousness as such, is the background of every form of experience. In practical life and in Science and Philosophy when swayed by pragmatic ends, formless experience has no interest, but only certain forms and tones of life and consciousness. Where these are missed we are apt to fancy that we miss life and feeling -consciousness also. Hence the essential basis of existence or Cit has been commonly looked upon as a very much specialized and peculiar manifestation in nature. On the contrary, Cit is Being or Reality itself. Cit as such is identical with Being as such. The Brahman is both Cit and Sat. Though in ordinary experience Being and Feeling -Consciousness are essentially bound up together, they still seem to diverge from each other. Man by his very constitution inveterately believes in an objective existence beyond and independent of his self. And this is so, so long as he is subject to the veil (Maya -Shakti). But in that ultimate basis of experience which is the Paramatma the divergence has gone; for the same boundless substratum which is the continuous mass of experience is also that which is experienced. The self is its own object. To the exalted Yogin the whole univers e is not different from himself as Atma. This is the path of the "upward- going" Kundali (Urddhva -Kundalini). 203 Further, there has been a tendency in fact to look upon consciousness as a mere function of experience; and the philosophy of unconscious ideas and mind -stuff would even go so far as to regard it as a mere accident of mental process. This is to reverse the actual facts. Consciousness should rather be taken as an original datum than as a later development and peculiar manifestation. We should begin wi th it in its lowest forms, and explain its apparent pulse- life by extending the principle of veiling (Maya -Shakti) which is ceaselessly working in man, reducing his life to an apparent series of pulses also. An explanation which does not start with this primordial extensity of experience cannot expect to end with it. For if it be not positive at the beginning, it cannot be derived at the end. But what, it may be asked, is the proof of such pure experience? Psychology which only knows changing states does not tell us of it. This is so. Yet from those states, some of which approach indifferentiation, inferences may be drawn; and experience is not limited to such states, for it may transcend them. It is true that ordinarily we do not meet with a condition of consciousness which is without a direction or form; but tests drawn from the incidents of ordinary normal life are insufficient, it has been argued, to prove that there is no consciousness at all when this direction and form are supposed to have gone. Though a logical intuition will not tell its own story, we can make reflection on intuition render us some sort of account, so that the intuitive fact appears in review, when it will appear that consciousness is the basis of, indeed, existence itself, and not merely an attendant circumstance. But the only proof of pure consciousness is an instance of it. This cannot be established by mere reflection. The bare consciousness of this or that, the experi ence of just going to sleep and just waking, and even the consciousness of being as such, are but approximations to the state of consciousness as such, that is pure consciousness, but are not identical with it. Then, what evidence, it may be asked, have we of the fact that pure consciousness is an actual state of being? In normal life as well as in abnormal pathological states, we have occasional stretches of experience in which simplicity of feature or determination has advanced near to indifferentiation, in which experience has become almost structureless. But 204 the limit of pure experience is not there reached. On the other hand, there is no conclusive proof that we have ever had a real lapse of consciousness in our life, and the extinction of consciousness as such is inconceivable in any case. The claim, however, that consciousness as such exists, rests not so much on logical argument as on intuitive grounds, on revelation (Shruti) and spiritual experience of the truth of that revelation. According to Indian Monism, a Pure Principle of Experience not only is, but is the one and only ultimate permanent being or reality. It does not regard Cit as a mere function, accident, or epiphenomenon, but holds it to be the ever existing plenum which sustains and vitalizes all phenomenal existence, and is the very basis on which all forms of multiple experience, whether of sensation, instinct, will, understanding, or reason, rest. It is, in short, the unity and unchanging Reality behind all these various changing forms which, by the veil or Maya- Shakti, Jiva assumes. The Cit -Svarupa, inadequately described as mere blissful awareness of feeling, exists, as the basis and appears in the form of, that is clothed with, mind; a term which in its general sense is not used merely in the sense of the purely mental function of reason but in the sense of all the forms in which consciousness is displayed, as distinguished from Cit Itself, which is the unity behind all these forms whether reason, sensation, emotion, instinct, or will. All these are modes wherein the plastic unformed clay of life is determined. For every conception or volition is essentially an apparent circumscription or limitation of that Sat which is the basis of phenomenal life. Professor P. N. Mukhyopadhyaya has described pure consciousness to be an infinitude of "awareness," lacking name and form and every kind of determination, which is a state of complete quiescence where the potential is zero or infinity -- a condition without strain or tension which is at once introduced when the slightest construction is put upon it, resulting in a consciousness of bare "this" and "that". It is not a consciousness of anything. It is an experience of nothing in particular. But this must not be confounded with no experience. The former is taken to be the latter because life is pragmatic, interest being shown in particular modes of awareness. To man's life, which is little else than a system of partialities, pure experience in which there is nothing particular to observe or shun, lov e 205 or hate seems practically to be no experience at all. Pure Consciousness is impartial. There is no difference (Bheda) so far as pure Awareness is concerned. Pure Consciousness is a kind of experience which stands above all antithesis of motion and rest. It does not know Itself either as changing or statical, since it is consciousness as such without any determinations or mode whatever. To know itself as changing or permanent, it must conceal its illogical and unspeakable nature in a veil (Maya). Every determination or form makes experience a directive magnitude. Consciousness then assumes a direction or special reference. It is not possible to direct and refer in a special way without inducing such a feeling of strain or tension, whether the conditions be physiological or psychological. Pure consciousness has, thus, been compared to an equipotential surface of electrical distribution. There is no difference of potentials between any two points A and R over this surface. It is a stretch of consciousness, in which there is, apparently, no sensible diversity of features, no preference, no differential incidence of subjective regard. Like the equipotential surface, such consciousness is also quiescent. To secure a flow on it. there must be a difference of potent ials between any two points. Similarly, to have a reference, a direction, a movement of attention, there must be a determination in the total experience of the moment in the given mass of consciousness. Absolute quiescence is a state of consciousness. whic h is pure being with no special subjective direction and reference; with no difference of level and potential between one part of the experience and another. Experience will show special subjective direction and reference if it assumes at least form or determination, such as "this" or "that"; to have no difference of level or potential, experience must be strictly undifferentiated -- that is to say, must not involve the least ideal or representative structure. Absolute quiescence exists only with that Consciousness which is pure Being, or Paramatma. With regard, however, to all descriptions of this state, it must be borne in mind that they only negatively correspond with their subject -matter by the elimination of characteristics which are peculiar to, and co nstitute the human consciousness of, the Jiva, and are therefore alien to the Supreme Consciousness. They give us no positive information as to the nature of pure Cit, for this is only known in Yoga by the removal of ignorance (Avidya) under which all logical thinking and speaking is done. This "ignorance" is 206 nothing but a term for those limitations which make the creature what he is. It is a commonplace in Indian religion and philosophy that the Brahman as It exists in itself is beyond all thought and words, and is known only by the Samadhi of Yoga. As the Mahanirvana Tantra says (III. V. 6 et seq.): "The Brahman is known in two ways: from His manifestations which are the object of Sadhana or as It is in itself in Samadhiyoga": for, as Ch. XIV, V. 135 Ibid. , says, Atmajana is the one means of liberation in which Its nature is realized. It is, perhaps in part at least, because the merely negative and imperfect character of such description is not sufficiently noted that pure consciousness, as the author cited points out, has in general awakened no serious interest in the practical West; though it has been the crown of glory for some of, what have been said to be, the stateliest forms of Eastern thought, which asserts itself to be in possession of an experimen tal method by which the condition of pure consciousness may be realized. The question is, thus, not one of mere speculation, but of demonstration. This state, again, is believed by the East to be not a dull and dreary condition, a dry abstraction or reductio ad absurdum of all which imparts to our living its worth and significance. Not at all; since it is the first Principle in which as Power all existence is potential and from which it proceeds. It is reasonable, therefore, it is contended, to assume that all which life possesses of real worth exists in the Source of life itself. Life is only a mode of infinite Supremacy with beatitude, which is Being and Consciousness in all its metaphysical grandeur, an absolutely understandable condition which no imagina tion can depict and no categories can reach and possess. Owing to the necessarily negative character of some of the descriptions of the Supreme Brahman we find such questions "How can it differ from a nullity?" (Dialogues on Hindu Philosophy, 259, by Rev. K. M. Banerjee): and the statement of the English Orientalist Colonel Jacob (whose views are akin to those of others) that "Nirvana is an unconscious (sic) and stone - like (sic) existence". Such a misconception is the more extraordinary in that it occurs in the work of an author who was engaged in the translation of a Vedantic treatise. These and many similar statements seem to establish that it is possible to make a special study of Vedanta and yet to misunderstand its primary concepts. It is true that the Brahman is unconscious in the sense that It is not our consciousness; for, if so, It would be Jiva and not 207 Paramatma. But this is only to say that it has not our limitations. It is unlimited Cit. A stone represents its most veiled existence. In its Self it is all light and self -illumining (Svaprakasha). As Shruti says (Katha Up. 5-15) "All things shed luster by His luster. All things shine because He shines." All things depend on It: but It has not to depend on anything else for Its manifestation. It is therefore better to say with the Hamsopanishad and the Christian Gospel that It is the Peace beyond all understanding. It has been dryly remarked that "The idea that Yoga means a dull state is due, perhaps, to the misunderstanding of Patajali's definition of it. Man, however, ordinarily and by his nature craves for modes and forms (Bhaumananda); and though all enjoyment comes from the pure Supreme Consciousness, it is supposed that dualistic variety and polarity are necessary for enjoyment. What, thus, in its plenitude belongs to the sustaining spirit of all life is transferred to life alone. All knowledge and existence are identified with variety, change, polarity. Whilst skimming over the checkered surface of the sea, we thus, it is said, ignore the unfathom ed depths which are in respose and which nothing stirs, wherein is the Supreme Peace (Santa) and Bliss (Paramananda). The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: "Other beings live on a fraction of this great Bliss." The Bliss of Shiva and Shakti are one, for they are inseparate. Hence she is called (Trishati II. 32) Ekabhoga: for Eka = Ishvara and Bhoga = Svasvarupananda. Nyaya and Samkhya say that the chief end of man is the absolute cessation of pain, but Vedantins, going beyond this negative definition, say that, all pain having surceased on Unity with the Supreme, the chief end is that positive Bliss which is of its essence. The Devi Kalyani, the Mother of all, is Herself Bliss -- that is, all bliss from earthly bliss (Bhaumananda) to Brahman- Bliss (Brahmananda). As the Commentator Shamkara in his commentary on the Trishati says (citing Shruti): "Who else can make us breathe, who else can make us live, if this blissful Ether were not?" If, further, it be asked what is pure Experience which manifests itself in all these diverse forms, it must be said that from Its very definition pure Cit, or the Supreme Brahman (Parabrahman), is that about which nothing in 208 particular can be predicated: for predication is possible only in relation todeterminations or modes in consciousness. And in this sense Yogatattva Upanishad says that those who seek a knowledge of it in Shastras are deluded; "How can that which is self -shining be illuminated by the Shastras? Not even the Devas can describe that indescribable state." The Mandukya Upanishad, speaking of the fourth aspect (Pada) of Atma, says that it is the non- dual Shiva which is not an object which can be sensed, used, taken, determined (by any marks), or of which an account can be given, but is unthinkable and knowable only by the realization of Atma. Negative predication may, however, clear away improper notions. It is really inscrutable Being upon which no category can be fastened. This must always be borne in mind in any attempted definition of this transcendent state. It is of a self -existent (Niradhara), unending (Nitya), changeless (Avikari), undifferentiated (Abhinna), spaceless (Purna), timeless (Shasvata), all-pervading (Sarvatravastha), self -illumining (Svayamjyotih), pure (Shuddha) experience. As the Kularnava Tantra says (I -- 6, 7): "Shiva is the impartite Supreme Brahman, the all -knowing Creator of all." He is the stainless One and the Lord of all. He is one without a second (Advaya). He is light itself. He changes not, and is without beginning or end. He is without attribute and above the highest. He is Being (Sat), Consciousness (Cit), and Bliss (Ananda). As Sat, It is unity of being beyond the opposites of "this" and "that". "here and there," "then and now". As Cit, It is an experiencing beyond the opposites of world ly knowledge and ignorance. As Supreme Ananda, It is the Bliss which is known upon the dissolution of the dualistic state which fluctuates between, and is composed of, happiness and sorrow; for created happiness is only an impermanent change of state (Vikara) or Becoming, but the Supreme Bliss (Paramananda) endures. Bliss is the very Nature (Svarupa) of this Supreme Consciousness, and not, as with the creature, a mere changing attribute of some form of Becoming. Supreme Being (Sat) is a unity without parts (Nishkala). Supreme Feeling -Consciousness (Cit) is immediacy of experience. In the Jiva, Consciousness of Self is set over against the not -Self; for logical thought establishes a polarity of subject. Thus the undifferentiated Supreme Consciousness transcen ds, and the Supreme Bliss (Paramananda) is beyond, the changing feelings of happiness and sorrow. It is the great Peace (Santa) which, in the words of 209 the Hamsopanishad (V. 12, Ed. Anandashrama, XXIX, p. 593) as of the New Testament, passes all worldly und erstanding. Sacchidananda, or Pure Being, persists in all the states of Becoming which are its manifestation as Shakti. It may be compared to a continuous, partless, undifferentiated Unity universally pervading the manifested world like ether or space, as opposed to the limited, discontinuous, discrete character of the forms of "matter" which are the products of its power of Shakti. It is a state of quiescence free of all motion (Nishpanda), and of that vibration (Spandana) which operating as the Primordial Energy, evolves the phenomenal world of names and forms. It is, in short, said to be the innermost Self in every being -- a changeless Reality of the nature of a purely experiencing principle (Caitanyam Atma) as distinguished from whatever may assume the form of either the experienced, or of the means of experience. This Cit in bodies underlies as their innermost Self all beings. The Cit or Atma as the underlying Reality in all is, according to Vedanta, one, and the same in all: undivided and unlimited by any of them, however much they may be separated in time and space. It is not only all -pervading, but all -transcending. It has thus a two- fold aspect: an immanent aspect as Shakti (Power), in which It pervades the universes (Saguna Brahman); and a transcendental aspect, in which It exists beyond all Its worldly manifestations (Nirguna Brahman). Cit, as it is in itself, is spaceless and timeless, extending beyond all limitations of time and space and all other categories of existence. We live in the Infinite. All limits exist in Cit. But these limits are also another aspect of It that is Shakti. It is a boundless tranquil ocean on the surface of which countless varied modes, like waves, are rising, tossing and sinking. Though It is the one Cause of the univers e of relations, in itself It is neither a relation nor a totality of relations, but a completely relationless Self- identity unknowable by any logical process whatever. Cit is the boundless permanent plenum which sustains and vitalizes everything. It is the universal Spirit, all- pervading like the Ether, which is, sustains, and illumines all experience and all process in the continuum of experience. In it the universe is born, grows and dies. This plenum orcontinuum is as such all- pervading, eternal, unproduced, and indestructible: for production and destruction involve the existence and bringing together and separation of parts which in an absolute 210 partless continuum is impossible. It is necessarily in itself, that is as Cit, motionless, for no parts of an a ll-filling continuum can move from one place to another. Nor can such a continuum have any other form of motion, such as expansion, contraction or undulation, since all these phenomena involve the existence of parts and their displacement. Cit is one undifferentiated, partless, all -pervading, eternal, spiritual substance. In Sanskrit, this plenum is called Cidakasha; that is, just as all material things exist in the all- pervading physical Ether, so do they and the latter exist in the infinitely extendi ng Spiritual "Ether" which is Cit. The Supreme Consciousness is thought of as a kind of permanent spiritual "Space" (Cidakasha) which makes room for and contains all varieties and forms appearing and disappearing. Space itself is an aspect of spiritual sub stance. It is a special posture of that stress in life which takes place in unchanging consciousness (P. Mukhyopadhyaya "The Patent Wonder," 21 -- 24). In this Ocean of Being -Consciousness we live, move and have our being. Consciousness as such (that is as distinguished from the products of Its power or Shakti), is never finite. Like space, it cannot be limited, though, through the operation of its power of self - negation or Maya- Shakti, it may appear as determined. But such apparent determinations do not ev er for us express or exhaust the whole consciousness, any more than space is exhausted by the objects in it. Experience is taken to be limited because the Experiencer is swayed by a pragmatic interest which draws his attention only to particular features i n the continuum. Though what is thus experienced is a part of the whole experience, the latter is felt to be an infinite expanse of consciousness or awareness in which is distinguished a definite mass of especially determined feeling. As Cit is the infinite plenum, all limited being exists in it, and it is in all such beings as the Spirit or innermost Self and as Maya -Shakti it is their mind and body. When the existence of anything is affirmed, the Brahman is affirmed, for the Brahman is Being itself. This pure Consciousness or Cit is the Paramatma Nirguna Shiva who is Being -Consciousness -Bliss (Sacchidananda). Consciousness is Being. Paramatma, according to Advaita Vedanta, is not a consciousness of being, but Being-Consciousness. Nor is it a consciousness of Bliss, but it is Bliss. All these are one in pure Consciousness. That which is the nature of Paramatma never changes, 211 notwithstanding the creative ideation (Srishtikalpana) which is the manifestation of Shakti as Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti. It is this l atter Shakti which, according to the Sakta Tantra, evolves. To adopt a European analogy which is yet not complete, Nishkala Paramatma is Godhead (Brahmatva), Sakala, or Saguna Atma, is God (Ishvara). Each of the three systems Samkhya, Mayavada Vedanta, and Sakta monism agrees in holding the reality of pure consciousness (Cit). The question upon which they differ is as to whether unconsciousness is a second independent reality, as Samkhya alleges; and, if not, how the admitted appearance of unconsciousness as the Forms is to be explained consistently with the unity of the Brahman. Such then is Cit, truly known as it is in Itself only in completed Yoga or Moksha; known only through Its manifestations in our ordinary experience, just as to use the simile of the Kaivalya Kalika Tantra, we realize the presence of Rahu or Bhucchaya (the Eclipse) by his actions on the sun and moon. The Eclipse is seen but not the cause of it. Cit- Shakti is a name for the same changeless Cit when associated in creation with its opera ting Maya - Shakti. The Supreme Cit is called Parasamvit in the scheme of the Thirty -six Tattvas which is adopted by both the Shaiva and Shakta Agamas. According to Shamkara, the Supreme Brahman is defined as pure Jana without the slightest trace of either actual or potential objectivity. The Advaita Shaiva- Shaktas regard this matter differently in accordance with an essential principle of the Agamic School with which I now deal. All occultism whether of East or West posits the principle that there is nothing in any one state or plane which is not in some other way, actual or potential, in another state or plane. The Western Hermetic maxim runs "As above, so below". This is not always understood. The saying does not mean that what exists in one plane exists in that form in another plane. Obviously if it did the planes would be the same and not different. If Ishvara thought and felt and saw objects, in the human way, and if he was loving and wrathful, just as men are, He, would not be Ishvara but Jiva. The saying cited means that a thing which exists on one plane exists on all other planes, according either to the form of each plane, if it be an intermediate causal body (Karanavantarasharira) or ultimately as the mere potentiality of becoming which exists in Atma in its aspect as Shakti. The Hermetic maxim 212 is given in another form in the Visvasara Tantra: "What is here is elsewhere. What is not here is nowhere" (Yadihasti tad anyatra. Yannehasti na tat kvacit). Similarly the northern Shaiva Shastra says that what appears without only so appears because it exists within. One can only take out of a receptacle what is first assumed to be within it. What is in us must in some form be in our cause. If we are living, though finite forms, it is because that cause is infi nite Being. If we have knowledge, though limited, it is because our essential substance is Cit the Illuminator. If we have bliss, though united with sorrow, it is because It is Supreme Bliss. In short, our experience must exist in germ in it. This is becau se in the Sakta Agama, there is for the worshipper a real creation and, therefore, a real nexus between the Brahman as cause and the world as effect. According to the transcendent method of Shamkara, there is not in the absolute sense any such nexus. The n otion of creation by Brahman is as much Maya as the notion of the world created. Applying these principles we find in our dual experience an "I" (Aham) or subject which experiences an object a "This" (Idam): that is the universe or any particular object of the collectively which composes it. Now it is said that the duality of "I" and "This" comes from the One which is in its essential nature (Svarupa) an unitary experience without such conscious distinction. For Vedanta, whether in its Mayavada or Sakta form, agrees in holding that in the Supreme there is no consciousness of objects such as exists on this plane. The Supreme does not see objects outside Itself, for it is the whole and the experience of the whole as Ishvara. It sees all that is as Itself. It is Purna or the Whole. How then, it may be asked, can a supreme, unchanging, partless, formless, Consciousness produce from Itself something which is so different from Itself, something which is changing, with parts, form and so forth. Shamkara's answer is that transcendentally, it does not produce anything. The notion that it does so is Maya. What then is his Maya? This I have more fully explained in my papers on "Maya -Shakti" and on "Maya and Shakti". I will only here say that his Maya is an unexplainable (anirvacaniya) principle of unconsciousness which is not real, not unreal, and partly either; which is an eternal falsity (Mithyabhuta sanatani), which, though not Brahman, is inseparably associated with It in Its aspect as Ishvara; which Maya has Brahman for its support (Maya Brahmashrita); from which support 213 it draws appearance of separate independent reality which in truth it does not possess. The Parabrahman aspect of the One is not associated with Maya. According to the Sakta exposition of Advaitavada, Maya is not an unconscious (jada) principle but a particular Shakti of Brahman. Being Shakti, it is at base consciousness, but as Maya -Shakti it is Consciousness veiling Itself. Shakti and Shaktiman are one and the same: that is, Power and its Possessor ( Shaktiman). Therefore Maya- Shakti is Shiva or Cit in that particular aspect which He assumes as the material cause (Upadanakarana) in creation. Creation is real; that is, there is a direct causal nexus between Shiva as Shakti (Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti) and the universe. In short Shiva as Shakti is the cause of the universe, and as Shakti, in the form of Jiva (all manifested forms, He actually evolves. Comparing these two views; -- Shamkara says that there is in absolute truth no creation and therefore there can be no question how it arose. This is because he views the problem from the transcendental (Paramarthika) standpoint of self -realization or Siddhi. The Sakta Shastra, on the other hand, being a practical Sadhana Shastra views the matter from our, that is the Jiva, standpoint. To us the universe and ourselves are real. And Ishvara the Creator is real. Therefore there is a creation, and Shiva as Shakti creates by evolving into the Universe, and then appearing as all Jivas. This is the old Upanishadic doctrine of the spider actually evolving the web from itself, the web being its substance in that form. A flower cannot be raised from seed unless the flower was in some way already there. Therefore as there is an "Aham" and "Idam" in our experience, in some way it is in the supreme experience of Parashiva or Parasamvit. But the Idam or Universe is not there as with us; otherwise It would be Jiva. Therefore it is said that there are two principles or aspects in the Brahman, namely, that Prakasha or Cit aspect, and Vimarsha Shakti, the potential Idam, which in creation explicates into the Universe. But in the supreme experience or Amarsha, Vimarsha Shakti (which has two states) is in Its supreme form. The subtler state is in the form of consciousness (Cidrupini ); the gross state is in the form of the Universe (Vishvarupini). The former is beyond the universe (Vishvottirna). But if Vimarsha Shakti is there in the form of consciousness (Cidrupini), it is one with Cit. Therefore it is said that the Aham and Idam, w ithout ceasing to be in the supreme experience, 214 are in supreme Shiva in undistinguishable union as Cit and Cidrupini. This is the Nirguna state of Shivashakti. As She is then in undistinguishable union with Shiva, She is then also simple unmanifested Cit. She is then Caitanya - rupa or Cidrupini: a subtle Sanskrit expression which denotes that She is the same as Cit and yet suggests that though in a present sense She is one with Him, She is yet in a sense (with reference to Her potentiality of future manifest ation) different from Him. She is Sacchidanandamayi and He is Sacchidananda. She is then the unmanifested universe in the form of undifferentiated Cit. The mutual relation, whether in manifestation or beyond it, whether as the imperfect or Ideal universe, is one of inseparable connection or inherence (Avinabhava -sambandha, Samanvaya) such as that between "I -ness" (Ahanta) and "I" (Aham), existence and that which exists (Bhava, Bhavat), an attribute and that in which it inheres (Dharma, Dharmin), sunshine and the sun and so forth. The Pacaratra School of the Vaishnava Agama or Tantra, speaking of the Mahashakti Lakshmi says, that in Her supreme state She is undistinguishable from the "Windless Atmosphere" (Vasudeva) existing only as it were in the form of "darkness" and "emptiness" (that is of unmanifested formlessness). So the Mahanirvana Tantra speaks of Her "dark formlessness". In the Kulacudamani Nigama, Devi says (I. 16 -24) -- "I, though in the form of Prakriti, rest in consciousness -bliss' (Aham prakritirupa cet cidanandaparayana). Raghava Bhatta in his commentary on the Sharada Tilaka (Ch. I) says, "She who is eternal existed in a subtle (that is unmanifested) state, as consciousness, during the final dissolution" (Ya anadirupa caitanyadhyasena mahapralaye sukshma sthita). It would be simpler to say that She is then what She is (Svarupa) namely Consciousness, but in creation that consciousness veils itself. These terms "formless," "subtle," "dark," "empty," all denote the same unmanifested state in which Shakti is in undistinguishable union with Shiva, the formless consciousness. The Pacaratra (Ahirbudhnya Samhita, Ch. IV), in manner similar to that of the other Agamas, describes the supreme state of Shakti in the dissolution of the Universe as one in which manifested Shakti "returns to the condition of Brahman" (Brahmabhavam brajate). "Owing to complete intensity of embrace" (Atisankleshat) the two all- pervading ones, Narayana and His Shakti, become as it were a single principle (Ekam tattvam iva). This return to the Brahman condition is said to take place in the same way as a 215 conflagration, when there is no more combustible matter, returns to the latent condition of fire (Vahni -bhava). There is the same fire in both cases but in one case there is the activity of combustion and in the other there is not. It follows from this that the Supreme Brahman is not a mere knowing with out trace of objectivity. In It the Aham is the Self as Cit and the Idam is provided by Cidrupini -shakti. There is Atmarama or play of the Self with the Self in which the Self knows and enjoys the Self, not in the form of external objects, but as that aspect of consciousness whose projection all objects are. Shakti is always the object of the Self and one with it. For the object is always the Self, since there is nothing but the Self. But in the supreme experience the object is one in nature with Shiva being Caitanya -rupa; in the universe the object seems to the Jiva, the creation of and subject to Maya, to be different from the Self as mind and matter. The next point is the nature of creation or rather emanation (Abhasa) for the former term is associated with dualistic notions of an extra -Cosmic God, who produces a world which is as separate from Himself as is the pot from the potter. According to this doctrine there is an Evolution of Consciousness or Cit -Shakti (associated with Maya- Shakti) into certain forms. This is not to say that the Brahman is wholly transformed into its emanations, that is exhausted by them. The Brahman is infinite and can never, therefore, be wholly held in this sense in any form, or in the universe as a whole. It always transcends the universe. Therefore when Consciousness evolves, it nevertheless does not cease to be what it was, is, and will be. The Supreme Cit becomes as Shakti the universe but still remains supreme Cit. In the same way every stage of the emanation -process prior to the real evolution (Parinama of Prakriti) remains what it is, whilst giving birth to a new Evolution. In Parinama or Evolution as known to us on this plane, when one thing is evolved into another, it ceases to be what it was. Thus when milk is changed into curd, it ceases to be milk. The Evolution from Shiva -Shakti of the Pure Tattvas is not of this kind. It is an Abhasa or "shining forth," adopting the simile of the sun which shines without (it was supposed) change in, or diminution of, its light. This unaffectedness in spite of its being the material cause is called in the Pacaratra by the term Virya, a condition which, the Vaishnava Lakshmi Tantra says, is not found in the world "where milk quickly loses its nature when curds appear." It is a process in which one 216 flame springs from another flame. Hence it is called "Flame to Flame". There is a second Flame but the first from which it comes is unexhausted and still there. The cause remains what it was and yet appears differently in the effect. God is never "emptied" as it is said wholly into the world. Brahman is ever changeless in one aspect; in another It changes, such change being as it were a mere point of stress in the infinite Ether of Cit. This Abhasa, therefore, is a form of Vivartta, distinguishable however from the Vivartta of Mayavada, because in the Agama, whether Vaishnava, or Shakta, the effect is regarded as real, whereas according to Shamkara, it is only empirically so. Hence the latter system is called Sat -karanavada or the doctrine of the reality of the original source or basis of things, and not also of the apparent effects of the cause. This Abhasa has been called Sadrisha Parinama (See Introduction to Principles of Tantra, Part II), a term borrowed from the Samkhya but which is not altogether appropriate. In the latter Philosophy, the term is used in connection with the state of the Gunas of Prakriti in dissolution when nothing is produced. Here on the contrary we are dealing with creation and an evolving Power -Consciousness. It is only appropriate to this extent that, as in Shadrisa Parinama there is no real evolution or objectivity, so also there is none in the evo lution of the Tattvas until Maya intervenes and Prakriti really evolves the objective universe. This being the nature of the Supreme Shiva and of the evolution of consciousness, this doctrine assumes, with all others,. a transcendent and a creative or imma nent aspect of Brahman. The first is Nishkala Shiva; the second Sakala Shiva; or Nirguna Saguna; Parama, Apara (in Shamkara's parlance); Paramatma, Ishvara; and Paramabrahman, Shabdabrahman. From the second or changing aspect the universe is born. Birth means 'manifestation'. Manifestation to what'? The answer is to consciousness. But there is nothing but Cit. Creation is then the evolution whereby the changeless Cit through the power of its Maya -Shakti appears to Itself in the form of limited objects. All is Shiva whether as subject or object. This evolution of consciousness is described in the scheme of the Thirty -six Tattvas. Shamkara and Samkhya speak of the 24 Tattvas from Prakriti to Prithivi. Both Shaivas and Shaktas speak of the Thirty -six Tattvas, s howing, by the 217 extra number of Tattvas, how Purusha and Prakriti themselves originated. The northern or Advaita Shaiva Agama and the Sakta Agama are allied, though all Shaiva Scriptures adopt the same Tattvas. In all the Agamas whether Vaishnava, Shaiva, or Shakta, there are points of doctrine which are the same or similar. The Vaishnava Pacaratra, however, moves in a different sphere of thought. It speaks in lieu of the Abhasa here described of four Vyuha or forms of Narayana, viz., Vasudeva, Samkarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The Thirty -six Tattvas are the 24 from Prithivi to Prakriti together with (proceeding upwards) Purusha, Maya and the five Kacukas (Kala, Kala, Niyati, Vidya, Raga), Shuddhavidya (or Sad- vidya), Shakti, Shiva. These are divided into three groups named Shiva Tattva, Vidya Tattva, Atma Tattva, and Shuddha, Shuddhashuddha, Ashuddha Tattvas. The Shuddha or Pure Tattvas are all the Tattvas from Shiva -Shakti Tattvas to and including Sadvidya Tattva. The Pure -Impure or Mixed (Shuddha -ashu ddha) Tattvas are those between the first and third group which are the Impure Tattvas (Ashuddha Tattva) of the world of duality, namely, the 24 Tattvas from Prakriti to Prithivi. The other group of three is as follows: Shiva Tattva includes Shiva Tattva and Shakti Tattva, Vidya Tattva includes all Tattvas from Sadashiva to Sadvidya, and Atma Tattva includes all Tattvas from Maya and the Kacukas to Prithivi. The particular description here of the 36 Tattvas, held by both Shaivas and Shaktas, is taken from the northern Shaiva Kashmir philosophical school, itself based on the older Agamas such as Malinivijaya Tantra and others. It is common doctrine of Advaitavada that the One is of dual aspect; the first static (Shiva) and the other kinetic (Shakti). This doctrine of aspects is a device whereby it is sought to reconcile the fact that there is changelessness and change. Philosophically it is an evasion of the problem and not a solution. The solution is to be found in revelation (Veda) and in direct Spiritual E xperience (Samadhi). These states vary in different men and in different races and creeds. But in support of Advaitavada, reliance may be placed on the fact that Samadhi or ecstasy, in all parts of the world and in all faiths, tends towards some kind of unity, more or less complete. All seek union with God. But the dispute is as to the nature of that union. Pure Advaitavada is complete identity. The scheme now outlined shows how that unitary experience, without ceasing to be what it is, assumes limited forms. 218 [The reader is referred to the Diagram on the following page] Parasamvit shown on top of the Diagram is Nishkala Shiva or the changeless Brahman aspect; and Shiva -Shakti below is the aspect of the supreme Brahman from which change comes and which appear s as its products or changing forms. Both are Shiva -Shakti. When, however, Shiva is kinetic, He is called Shakti. Regarding the matter from the Shakti aspect both are Shakti. Neither ever exists without the other, though Shakti is in one aspect Cidrupini, and in the other in the form of the Universe (Vishvarupini). In themselves and throughout they are one. The divergence takes place in consciousness, after it has been subjected to the operation of Maya, the effect of which is to polarize consciousness into an apparently separate "I" and "This". Parasamvit is not accounted a Tattva, for It is beyond all Tattvas (Tattvatita). Shiva Tattva and Shakti Tattva are counted separately, though Shakti Tattva is merely the negative aspect of Shiva Tattva. Shiva Tattva and Shakti Tattva are not produced. They thus are, even in dissolution. They are Saguna -Brahman; and Parasamvit is the Nirguna -Brahman. The first evolved Tattva is Sadashiva of Sadakhya Tattva of which the meaning is Sat akhya yatah, or that state in which there is the first notion of Being; for here is the first incipiency of the world- experience as the notion "I am this" which ultimately becomes a separate "I" and "This". In my Garland of Letters I have with more technical detail described the evolution of Jiva -consciousness. Here I will only shortly summarize the process. As already stated, the Aham and Idam exist in an unitary state which is indescribable in Parasamvit. Shakti Tattva is called negative because negation is the function of Shakti (Nishedha- vyapara -rupa Shaktih). Negation of what P The answer is negation of consciousness. The universe is thus a product of negation. Where there is pure experience there is no manifested universe. Shakti negates the pure experience or consciousness to the extent, that it appears to itself limited. Shakti disengages the unified elements (Aham and Idam) which are latent in the Supreme Experience as an undistinguishable unity. How? The answer is one of great subtlety. Of the Shiva -Shakti Tattvas, Shiva represents the Prakasha and Shakti the Vimarsha aspect, which contains potentially within it, the seed of the Universe to be. The result is that the Prakasha aspect is left standing alone. 219 The Shiva Tattva is Prakasha -matra, that is, to use the imagery of our plane, an "I" without a "This". This is a state in which the unitary consciousness is broken up to this extent, that it is no longer a Perfect Experience in which the Aham and Idam exist in undistinguishable union, but there is one Supreme Aham Consciousness only, which is the root of all limited subjectivity To this Aham or Shiva Tattva, Shakti gradually unveils Herself as the Idam or Vimarsha aspect of consciousness. The result is that from Shiva and Shakti (in which the latter takes the playful part) there is evolved the first produced consciousness called Sadakhya Tattva. There is then an Aham and Idam aspect of experience. But that experience is not like the Jiva's, which arises at a later stage after the intervention of Maya- Shakti. In the Jiva consciousness (Jivatma) the object (Idam) is seen as something outside and different from itself. In Sadakhya Tattva and all the subsequent pure Tattvas, that is Ishvara Tattva and Shuddhavidya Tattva, the "This" is experienced as part of the Self and not as separate from it. There is (as will appear from the Diagram) no outer and inner. The circle which represents the one Consciousness is. divided into "I" and "This" which are yet parts of the same figure. The "This" is at first only by degree and hazily (Dhyamala prayam) presented to the Aham like a picture just forming itself (Unmilitamatra- citrakalpam). For this reason it is said that there is emphasis on the Aham which is indicated in the Diagram by the arrow -head. This is called the "Nimesha" or "closing of the eyes" of Shakti. It is so called because it is the last stage in dissolution before all effects are withdrawn into their first cause. Being the last stage in dissolution it is the first in creation. Then the Idam side becomes clear in the next evolved Ishvara Tattva in which the emphasis is therefore said to be on the "This" which the Aham subjectifies. This is the "Unmesha" or "opening of the eyes" state of Shakti; for this is the state of consciousness when it is first fully equipped to create and does so. The result again of this is the evolved consciousness called Shuddhavidya Tattva in which the emphasis is equal on the "I" and "This". Consciousness is now in the state in which the two halves of experience are ready to be broken up and experienced separately. It is at this state that Maya -Shakti intervenes and does so through its power and the Kacukas which are forms of it. Maya -Shakti is thus defined as the sense of difference (Bhedabuddhi); that is the power by which things are seen as 220 different from the Self in the dual manifested world. The Kacukas which are evolved from, and are particular forms of, the operation of Maya are limitations of the natural perfections of the Supreme Consciousness. These are Kala which produces division (Pariccheda) in the partless and unlimited; Niyati which affects independence (Svatantrata); Raga which produces interest in, and then attachment to, objects in that which wanted nothing (Purna); Vidya which makes the Purusha a "little knower" in lieu of being all - knower (Sarv a-jata) and Kala which makes Purusha a "little doer," whereas the Supreme was in its Kartrittva or power action of almighty. The result of Maya and its offshoots which are the Kacukas is the production of the Purusha and Prakriti Tattvas. At this stage t he Aham and Idam are completely severed. Each consciousness regards itself as a separate 'I' looking upon the "This" whether its own body or that of others as outside its consciousness. Each Purusha (and they are numberless) is mutually exclusive the one o f the other. Prakriti is the collectivity of all Shaktis in contracted (Sankucadrupa) undifferentiated form. She is Feeling in the form of the undifferentiated mass of Buddhi and the rest and of the three Gunas in equilibrium. The Purusha or Self experiences Her as object. Then on the disturbance of the Gunas in Prakriti the latter evolves the Vikritis of mind and matter. The Purusha at this stage has experience of the multiple world of the twenty -four impure Tattvas. Thus from the supreme "I" (Parahanta) which is the creative Shiva -Shakti aspect of Parasamvit which changelessly endures as Sacchidananda, Consciousness experiences Itself as object (Sadakhya, Ishvara, Sadvidya Tattvas) and then through Maya and the limitations or contractions which are the Ka cukas or Samkocas it loses the knowledge that it is itself its own object. It sees the separate "other"; and the one Consciousness becomes the limited experiencers which are the multiple selves and their objects of the dual universe. Shakti who in Herself (Svarupa) is Feeling -Consciousness (Cidrupini) becomes more and more gross until physical energy assumes the form and becomes embedded in the "crust" of matter vitalized by Herself as the Life -Principle of all things. Throughout all forms it is the same Shakti who 221 works and appears as Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti, the Spirit and Matter aspect of the Power of the Self -Illumining Pure Super -Consciousness or Cit. 222 CHAPTER FIFTEEN . MAYA-SHAKTI (THE PSYCHO - PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE UNIVERSE ) Spirit, Mind and Matter are ultimately one, the two latter being the twin aspects of the Fundamental Substance or Brahman and Its Power or Shakti. Spirit is the substance of mind -matter, the Reality (in the sense of the lasting changelessness) out of which, by Its Power, all Appearance is fashioned not by the individual mind and senses but by the cosmic mind and senses of which they are but a part. What It creates It perceives. In the last chapter I dealt with the Spirit or Consciou sness (Cit) aspect: in this I consider the mind -matter aspect in which Consciousness veils itself in apparent unconsciousness. These twin principles are called Purusha, Brahman, Shiva on the one hand and Prakriti, Maya, and Maya -Shakti on the other by the Samkhya Mayavada Vedanta and Shaktivada of the Shakta Agama respectively. The latter Shastra, however, alone treats them as aspects of the one Substance in the manner here described and thus most aptly in this respect accommodates itself to the doctrine of Western scientific monism. So, Professor Haeckel points out in conformity with Shakta Advaitavada that Spirit and Matter are not two distinct entities but two forms or aspects of one single Entity or fundamental Substance. According to him, the One Entity with dual aspect is the sole Reality which presents itself to view as the infinitely varied and wondrous picture of the universe. Whatever be the case transcendentally in what the Buddhist Tantra aptly calls "The Void" (Shunyata. In Tibetan sTongpa -nyid) which is not "nothing" as some have supposed, but That which is like nothing known to us; the ultimate formless (Arupa) Reality as contrasted with appearance (sNang -va-dang) or form (Rupa) of which the Prajaparamita- hridaya -garbha says only "neti neti" ca n be affirmed, -- in this universe immaterial Spirit is just as unthinkable as spiritless matter. The two are inseparately combined in every atom which, itself and its forces, possess the elements of vitality, growth and intelligence in all their developments. In the four Atmas which are contemplated in the Citkunda in the Muladhara Cakra, Atma pranarupi represents the vital aspect, Janatma the Intelligence aspect, and Antaratma is that spark of the 223 Paramatma which inheres in all bodies, and which when spread (Vyapta) appears as the Bhuta or five forms of sensible matter which go to the making of the gross body. These are all aspects of the one Paramatma (Janarnava Tantra, Ch. XXI, Vv. 1 -- 9). The Vedanta recognizes four states of experience, Jagrat, Svapn a, Sushupti and Turiya. These, as my friend Professor Pramathanatha Mukhyopadhyaya has, in his radical clear -thinking way, pointed out, may be regarded from two stand- points. We may, with Shamkara, from the standpoint of Siddhi alone, regard the last only, that is transcendental or pure experience (Nirvishesha - jana), as the real Fact or Experience: or we may, with the Shakta Agama, looking at the matter from the standpoint of both Sadhana (that is practical experience) and Siddhi (or transcendental experience), regard not only the supreme experience as alone real, but the whole of experience without any reservation whatever -- the whole concrete Fact of Being and Becoming -- and call it the Real. This is the view of the Shaiva -Shakta who says that the world is Shiva's Experience and Shiva's Experience can never be unreal. The question turns upon the definition of "Real". Shamkara's conception of that term is that, That to which it is applied must be absolutely changeless in all the "three times". It is That which absolutely continues through and underlies all the changes of experience; being that which is given in all the four states, Jagrat and the rest. It is That which can never be contradicted (Vadhita) in all the three tenses of time and the four states of Experience. This is the Ether of Consciousness (Cidakasha) and none of Its modes. Our ordinary experience, it is claimed, as well as Supreme non- polar Nirvikalpa Samadhi proves this unchanging aspect of the ultimate Substance, as the changeless principle of all our modes of changing experience, which according to this definition are unreal. Thus Shamkara's Real = Being = Sat - Cit-Ananda: Unreal = Becoming = Vivartta = Jagat -Prapaca or universe. According to this view, there are three levels or planes of being (Satta), namely transcendental (Paramarthika), empirical (Vyavaharika) and illusory (Pratibhasika). The Real (Satya) is that which is given in all the three planes (Paramarthika Satya): the empirical (Vyavaharika Satya) is that which is given in the second and third planes but not in the first. It is worldly or dual experience, and not undual experience of Samadhi or Videha -Mukti which latter, however, underlies all states of experience, being the Ether of 224 Consciousness Itself. The last (Pratibhasika Satya) is given or obtains only in the last plane, being only such reality as can be attributed to illusion such as "the rope -snake". A higher plane contradicts a lower: the third is contradicted by the second, the second by the first, and the first by not hing at all. Thus there is a process of gradual elimination from changing to changeless consciousness. Real change or Parinama is said by the Vedanta Paribhasha to exist when the effect or phenomenon and its ground (Upadana or material cause) belong to the same level or plane of existence; as in the case of clay and pot, milk and curd, which both belong to the Vyavaharika plane; milk being the Upadana and curd the effect or change appertaining it (Parinamo hi upadana -sama -sattaka -karya pattih). When, howeve r, the effect's level of existence is different from (Vishama) and therefore cannot be equaled to that of its material cause or Upadana; when, for instance, one belongs to the Vyavaharika experience and the other to the Pratibhasika, there is Nivartta (Viv artto hi upadana- vishama -sattaka - karyapattih). Thus, in the case of the "rope -snake," the Satta of the rope is Vyavaharika, whilst that of the Rajju -sarpa is only Pratibhasika. For the same reason, the rope, and the whole Jagat -prapaca (universe) for the matter of that, is a Vivartta in relation to the Supreme Experience of pure Cit. On its own plane or level of Satta, every phenomenon may be a Parinama, but in relation to a higher level by which it becomes Vadhita, it is only a Vivartta. The Shakta Agama differs in its presentment as follows. The Fact or Concrete Experience presents two aspects -- what professor Mukhyopadhyaya has aptly called in his work the "Patent Wonder" -- the Ether and the Stress -- the quiescent background of Cit and the sprouting and evolving Shakti. Agama takes this whole (Shiva -Shakti) embracing all the aspects as its real. If one aspect be taken apart from the others, we are landed in the unreal. Therefore, in the Shakta Agama, all is real; whether the transcendent real of' Shamkara (Turiya), or the empirical real waking (Jagrat, dreaming (Svapna) or dreamless sleep (Sushupti). If it is conceded that Real = Changelessness, then the last three states are not real. But this definition of Reality is not adopted. It is again conceded that the Supreme Substance (Paravastu) is alone real, in the sense of changeless, for the worlds come and go. But the Agama says with the Samkhya, that a thing is not unreal because it changes. The Substance has two aspects, in one of 225 which It is changeless, and in the other of which It changes. It is the same Substance in both its Prakasha and Vimarsha aspects. Shamkara limits Reality to the Prakasha aspect alone. Agama extends it to both Prakasha and Vimarsha; for these are aspects of the one. As explaine d later, this divergence of views turns upon the definition of Maya given by Shamkara, and of Maya- Shakti given by the Agama. The Maya of Shamkara is a mysterious Shakti of Ishvara, by which Vivartta is sought to be explained and which has two manifestations, viz., Veiling (Avarana) and moving, changing and projecting (Vikshepa) power. Ishvara is Brahman reflected in Maya; a mystery which is separate, and yet not separate, from Brahman in Its Ishvara aspect. The Shakta Maya -Shakti is an aspect of Shiva or Brahman Itself. Starting from these premises we must assume a real nexus between the universe and its ultimate cause. The creation is real, and not Maya in Shamkara's sense of Maya, but is the operation of and is Shakti Herself. The cause being thus real, the effect or universe is real though it changes and passes away. Even when it is dissolved, it is merged in Shakti who is real; withdrawn into Her as the Samkhyan tortoise or Prakriti withdraws its limbs (Vikriti) into itself. The universe either is as unmanifested Shakti, which is the perfect formless universe of Bliss, or exists as manifested Shakti, the limited and imperfect worlds of form. The assumption of such nexus necessarily involves that what is in the effect is in the cause potentially. Of course , the follower of Shamkara will say that if creation is the becoming patent or actual of what is latent or potential in Shiva, then Shiva is not really Nishkala. A truly Nirajana Brahman cannot admit potential differentiation within Itself (Svagata -bheda. ) Again, potentiality is unmeaning in relation to the absolute and infinite Being, for it pertains to relation and finite existence. If it is suggested that Brahman passes from one condition in which Maya lies as a seed in it, to another in which Maya manifests Herself, we are involved in the doctrine of an Absolute in the making. It is illogical to affirm that whilst Brahman in one aspect does not change, It in another aspect, that is as Shakti, does truly change. All such objections have alogical foundation and it is for this reason that Shamkara says that all change (Srishti, Sthiti, Laya) are only apparent, being but a Kalpana or imagination. 226 But an answer is given to these objections. The Shakta will say that the one Brahman Shiva has two aspects in one of which, as Shakti, It changes and in the other of which, as Shiva, It does not. Reality is constituted of both these aspects. It is true that the doctrine of aspects does not solve the problem. Creation is ultimately inscrutable. It is, however, he urges, better to hold both the reality of the Brahman and the world leaving spiritual experience to synthesize them, than to neglect one at the cost of the other. For this, it is argued, is what Shamkara does. His solution is obtained at the cost of a denial of true reality to the world which all our worldly experience affirms; and this solution is supported by the illogical statement that Maya is not real and is yet not unreal, not partly real and partly unreal. This also, flies in the face of the logical principle of contradiction. Both theories, therefore, it may be said in different ways, run counter to logic. All theories ultimately do. The matter is admittedly alogical, that is beyond logic, for it is beyond the mind and its logical forms of thinking. Practically, therefore, it is said to be better to base our theory on our experience of the reality of the world, frankly leaving it to spiritual experience to solve a problem for which all logic, owing to the very constitution of the mind, fails. The ultimate proof of authority is Spiritual Experience either recorded in Veda or realized in Samadhi. As I have already said in my chapter on the spirit- aspect of the One Substance, all occultism, whether of East or West, posits the principle that there is nothing i n any one state or plane which is not in some way, actual or potential, in another state or plane. The Western Hermetic maxim, "as above so below," is stated in the Visvasara Tantra in the form, "what is here is there. What is not here is nowhere" (Yad iha sti tad anyatra yan nehasti na tat kvacit); and in the northern Shaiva Scripture in the form, "that which appears without only so appears because it exists within", "Vartamanava- bhasanam bhavanam avabhasanam antahsthitavatam eva ghatate bahiratmana". For these reasons man is rightly called a microcosm (Kshudrabrahmanda; hominem quasi minorem quendam mundum. Firm. Maternus Math. III init.) So Caraka says that the course of production, growth, decay and destruction of the universe and of man are the same. But these statements do not mean that what exists on one plane exists in that form or way on another plane. It is obvious that if it did, the planes would be the same and not different. It means that the same thing exists on one plane 227 and on all other levels of being or planes, according either to the form of that plane, if it be what is called an intermediate causal body (Karanavantara- sharira) or ultimately as mere formless potentiality. According to Shamkara all such argument is itself Maya. And it may be so to those who have realized true consciousness (Citsvarupa) which is beyond all causality. The Tantra Shastra is, however, a practical and Sadhana Shastra. It takes the world to be real and then applies, so far as it may, to the question of its origin, th e logic of the mind which forms a part of it. It says that it is true that there is a Supreme or Perfect Experience which is beyond all worlds (Shakti Vishvottirna), but there is also a worldly or (relatively to the Supreme) imperfect (in the sense of limi ted) and partly sorrowful experience. Because the one exists, it does not follow that the other does not: though mere logic cannot construct an unassailable monism. It is the one Shiva who is Bliss itself, and who is in the form of the world (Vishvatmaka) which is Happiness -Unhappiness. Shiva is both changeless as Shiva and changeful as Shakti. How the One can be both is a mystery. To say, however, with Shamkara that it is Maya, and in truth Brahman does not change, is not to explain, in an ultimate sense, the problem but to eliminate some other possible cause and to give to what remains a name. Maya by itself does not explain the ultimate. What can? It is only a term which is given to the wondrous power of the Creatrix by which what seems impossible to us b ecomes possible to Her. This is recognized as it must be, by Shamkara who says that Maya is unexplainable (Anirvacaniya) as of course it is. To "explain" the Creator, one would have to be Creator Himself and then in such case there would be no need of any explanation. Looking, however, at the matter from our own practical standpoint, which is that which concerns us, we are drawn by the fore- going considerations to the conclusion that, what we call "matter," is, in some form, in the cause which according to the doctrine here described, produces it. But matter as experienced by us is not there; for the Supreme is Spirit only. And yet in some sense it is there, or it would not be here at all. It is there as the Supreme Shakti which is Being - Consciousness -Bliss (Cidrupini, Anandamayi) who contains within Herself the potentiality of all worlds to be projected by Her Shakti. It is there as unmanifested Consciousness Power (Cidrupini Shakti). It here exists as the mixed conscious -unconsciousness (in the sense of the limited 228 consciousness) of the psychical and material universe. If the ultimate Reality be one, there is thus one Almighty Substance which is both Spirit (Shiva - Shakti Svarupa) and force -mind -matter (Shiva -Shakti- Vishvatmaka). Spirit and Mind- Matter are th us in the end one. This ultimate Supreme Substance (Paravastu) is Power or Shakti, which is again, of dual aspect as Cit -Shakti which represents the spiritual, and Maya - Shakti which represents the material and mental aspects. The two, however, exist in ins eparable connection (Avinabhava -sambandha); as inseparable to use a simile of the Shastra as the winds of heaven from the Ether in which they blow. Shakti, who is in Herself (Svarupa) Consciousness, appears as the Life- force, as subtle Mind, and as gross M atter. See sections in my World as Power dealing in detail with Life (Prana- Shakti), Mind (Manasi -Shakti) and Matter (Bhuta -Shakti). As all is Shakti and as Shakti -svarupa is Being - Consciousness -Bliss, there is, and can be, nothing absolutely unconscious. For Shakti -svarupa is unchanging Being- Consciousness beyond all worlds (Cidrupini Vishvottirna), the unchanging principle of experience in such worlds; and appears as the limited psychical universe and as the apparently unconscious material forms which are the content of man's Experience (Vishvatmika). The whole universe is Shakti under various forms. Therefore it is seen as commingled Spirit-Mind -Matter. According to Shaiva -Shakta doctrine, Shiva and Shakti are one. Shiva represents the static aspect of the Supreme substance, and Shakti its kinetic aspect: the term being derived from the root "Sak" which denotes capacity of action or power. According to Shamkara, Brahman has two aspects, in one of which as Ishvara, it is associated with Maya and seems to change, and in the other dissociated from Maya (Parabrahman). In the Agama, the one Shiva is both the changeless Parashiva and Parashakti and really changing Shiva -Shakti or universe. As Shiva is one with Himself, He is never associated with anything but Him self. As, however, the Supreme He is undisplayed (Shiva -Shakti Svarupa) and as Shiva -Shakti He is manifest in the form of the universe of mind and matter (Vishvarupa). Before the manifestation of the universe there was Mahasatta or Grand - being. Then also t here was Shiva -Shakti, for there is no time when Shakti is not; though She is sometimes manifest and sometimes not. Power is Power 229 both to Be and to Become. But then Shakti is not manifest and is in its own true nature (Svarupa); that is, Being, Feeling -Consciousness- Bliss (Cinmayi, Anandamayi). As Shiva is consciousness (Cit) and Bliss or Love (Ananda), She is then simply Bliss and Love. Then when moved to create, the Great Power or Megale Dunamis of the Gnostics issues from the depths of Being and becomes Mind and Matter whilst remaining what She ever was: the Being (Sat) which is the foundation of manifested life and the Spirit which sustains and enlightens it. This primal Power (Adya Shakti), as object of worship, is the Great Mother (Magna -Mater) of all natural things (Natura Naturans) and nature itself (Natura Naturata). In herself (Svarupa) She is not a person in man's sense of the term, but She is ever and incessantly personalizing; assuming the multiple masks (Persona) which are the varied forms of m ind-matter. As therefore manifest, She is all Personalities and as the collectivity thereof the Supreme Person (Parahanta). But in Her own ground from which, clad in form, She emerges and personalizes, She is beyond all form, and therefore beyond all perso nality known to us. She works in and as all things; now greatly veiling Her consciousness -bliss in gross matter, now by gradual stages more fully revealing Herself in the forms of the one universal Life which She is. Let us now first examine Her most gross manifestation, that is, sensible matter (Bhuta), then Her more subtle aspect as the Life- force and Mind, and lastly Her Supreme Shakti aspect as Consciousness. I here deal with the subject in a general way having treated of it in greater detail in the book just now cited (World as Power). The physical human body is composed of certain compounds of which the chief are water, gelatin, fat, phosphate of lime, albumen and fibrin, and, of these, water constitutes some two -thirds of the total weight. These compounds, again, are composed of simpler non -metallic elements of which the chief are oxygen (to the extent of about two -thirds), hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus. So about two-thirds of the body is water and this is H 2O. Substantially then our gross body is water. But when we get to these simpler elements, have we got to the root of the matter P No. It was formerly thought that matter was composed of certain elements beyond which it was not possible to go, and that these elements and their 230 atoms were indestructible. These notions have been reversed by modern science. Though the alleged indestructibility of the elements and their atoms is still said by some to present the character of a "practical truth," well - known recent discoveries and experiments go to re-establish the ancient doctrine of a single primordial substance to which these various forms of matter may be reduced, with the resultant of the possible and hitherto derided transmutation of one element into another; since each is but one of the many plural manifestations of the same underlying unity. The so- called elements are varied forms of this one substance which themselves combine to form the various compounds. The variety of our experience is due to permutation and combination of the atoms of the matter into which the primordial energy materializes. We thus find that owing to the variety of atomic combinations of H N O C there are differences in the compounds. It is curious to note in passing how apparently slight variations in the qu antity and distribution of the atoms produce very varying substances. Thus gluten which is a nutrient food, and quinine and strychnine which are in varying degree poisons, are each compounds of C H N O. Strychnine, a powerful poison, is C 21H22N2O2 and quinine is C 20H24N2O2. N and 0 are the same in both and there is a difference of one part only of C and 2 of H. But neither these compounds nor the so-called elements of which they are composed are permanent things. Scientific matter is now found to be only a relatively stable form of cosmic energy. All matter dissociates and passes into the energy of which it is a materialized form and again it issues from it. Modern Western Science and Philosophy have thus removed many difficulties which were formerly thought to be objections to the ancient Indian doctrine on the subject here dealt with. It has, in the first place. dispelled the gross notions which were hitherto generally entertained as to the nature of "matter." According to the notions of quite recent sc ience, "matter" was defined to be that which has mass, weight and inertia. It must be now admitted that the two latter qualities no longer stand the test of examination, since, putting aside our ignorance as to the nature of weight, this quality varies, if we conceive matter to be placed under conditions which admittedly affect it; and the belief in inertia is due to superficial observation, it being now generally conceded that the final elements of matter are in a state of spontaneous and perpetual motion. In fact, the most 231 general phenomenon of the universe is vibration, to which the human body as all else is subject. Various vibrations affect differently each organ of sensation. When of certain quality and number, they denote to the skin the degree of external temperature; others incite the eye to see different colors; others again enable the ear to hear defined sounds. Moreover "inertia", which is alleged to be a distinguishing quality of "matter," is said to be the possession of electricity, which is con sidered not to be "material". What, then, is that to which we attribute "mass" P In the first place, it is now admitted that "matter," even with the addition of all possible forces, is insufficient to explain many phenomena, such as those of light; and it has, accordingly, come to be for some an article of scientific faith that there is a substance called "Ether": a medium which, filling the universe, transports by its vibrations the radiations of light, heat, electricity, and perhaps action from a distance , such as the attraction exercised between heavenly bodies. It is said, however, that this Ether is not "matter," but differs profoundly from it, and that it is only our infirmity of knowledge which obliges us, in our attempted descriptions of it, to borrow comparisons from "matter," in its ordinary physical sense, which alone is known by our senses. But if we assume the existence of Ether, we know that "material" bodies immersed in it can change their places therein. In fact, to use an Indian expression, t he characteristic property of the vibrations of the Akasha Tattva is to make the space in which the other Tattvas and their derivatives exist. With "Matter" and Ether as their materials, Western purely "scientific" theories have sought to construct the world. The scientific atom which Du Bois Raymond described as an exceedingly useful fiction -- "ausserst nutzliche fiction" -- is no longer considered the ultimate indestructible element, but is held to be, in fact, a kind of miniature solar system, formed by a central group or nucleus charged with positive electricity, around which very much smaller elements, called electrons or corpuscles, charged with negative electricity, gravitate in closed orbits. These vibrate in the etheric medium in which they and the positively charged nucleus exist, constituting by their energy, and not by their mass, the unity of the atom. But what, again, is the constitution of this "nucleus" and the electrons revolving around it? There is no scientific certainty that any part of e ither is due to the presence of "matter". On the contrary, if a hypothetical corpuscle consisting solely of an electric charge 232 without material mass is made the subject of mathematical analysis, the logical inference is that the electron is free of "matter", and is merely an electric charge moving in the Ether; and though the extent of our knowledge regarding the positive nucleus which constitutes the remainder of the atom is small, an eminent mathematician and physicist has expressed the opinion that, if t here is no "matter" in the negative charges, the positive charges must also be free from it. Thus, in the words of the author upon whose lucid analysis I have drawn, (Houllevigue's Evolution of Science) the atom has been dematerialized, if one may say so, and with it the molecules and the entire universe. "Matter" (in the scientific sense) disappears, and we and all that surround us are physically, according to these views, mere disturbed regions of the ether determined by moving electric charges -- a logical if impressive conclusion, because it is by increasing their knowledge of "matter" that physicists have been led to doubt its reality. But the question, as he points out, does not remain there. For if the speculations of Helmholtz be adopted, there is nothing absurd in imaging that two possible directions of rotation of a vortex formed within, and consisting of, ether correspond to the positive and negative electric charges said to be attached to the final elements of matter. If that be so, then the trini ty of matter, ether, and electricity, out of which science has hitherto attempted to construct the world, is reduced to a single element, the ether (which is not scientific "matter") in a state of motion, and which is the basis of the physical universe. The old duality of force and matter disappears, these being held to be differing forms of the same thing. Matter is a relatively stable form of energy into which, on disturbance of its equilibrium, it disappears; for all forms of matter dissociate. The ultimate basis is that energy called in Indian philosophy Prakriti, Maya or Shakti. Herbert Spencer, the Philosopher of Modern Science, carries the investigation farther, holding that the universe, whether physical or psychical, whether within or without us, is a play of Force, which, in the case of Matter, we experience as object, and that the notion that the ultimate realities are the supposed atoms of matter, to the properties and combinations of which the complex universe is due, is not true. Mind, Life and Matter are each varying aspects of the one cosmic process from the 233 First Cause. Mind as such is as much a "material" organ as the brain and outer sense organs, though they are differing forms of force. Both mind and matter derive from what Herbert Spencer calls the Primal Energy (Adya Shakti), and Haeckel the fundamental Spirit -Matter Substance. Professor Fitz Edward Hall described the Samkhya philosophy as being "with all its folly and fanaticism little better than a chaotic impertinence". It has doubtless its weaknesses like all other systems. Wherein, however, consists its "fanaticism," I do not know. As for "impertinence," it is neither more nor less so than any other form of Western endeavor to solve the riddle of life. As regards its leading concept, "Prakriti," the Professor said that it was a notion for which the European languages were unable to supply a name; a failure, he added, which was "nowise to their discredit". The implication of this sarcastic statement is that it was not to the discredit of Western languages that they had no name for so foolish a notion. He wrote before the revolution of ideas in science to which I have referred, and with that marked antagonism to things Indian which has been and to some extent still is so common a feature of the more ordinary type of the professional orientalist. The notion of Prakriti is not absurd. The doctrine of a Primordial Substance was held by some of the greatest minds in the past and has support from the most modern developments of Science. Both now concur to reject what the great Sir William Jones called the "vulgar notion of material substance" (Opera I. 36). Many people were wont, as some still are, to laugh at the idea of Maya. Was not matter solid, permanent and real enough? But according to science what are we (as physical beings) at base P The answer is, infinitely tenuous formless energy which materializes into relatively stable, yet essentially transitory, forms. According to the apt expression of the Shakta Shastra, Shakti, as She creates, becomes Ghanibhuta, that is, massive or thickened; just as milk becomes curd. The process by which the subtle becomes gradually more and more gross continues until it develops into what has been called the "crust" of solid matter (Parthiva bhuta). This whil st it lasts is tangible enough. But it will not last for ever, and in some radio- active substances dissociates before our eyes. Where does it go, according to Shakta doctrine, but to that Mother -Power from whose womb it came; 234 who exists as all forms, gross and subtle, and is the formless Consciousness Itself. The poet's inspiration led Shakespeare to say, "We are such stuff as dreams are made of." It is a wonderful saying from a Vedantic standpoint, for centuries before him Advaitavada had said, "Yes, dream s; for the Lord is Himself the Great World -dreamer slumbering in causal sleep as Ishvara, dreaming as Hiranyagarbha the universe experienced by Him as the Virat or totality of all Jivas, on waking." Scientific revision of the notion of "matter" helps the V edantic standpoint, by dispelling gross and vulgar notions upon the subject; by establishing its impermanence in its form as scientific matter; by positing a subtler physical substance which is not ponderable matter; by destroying the old duality of Matter and Force; and by these and other conclusions leading to the acceptance of one Primal Energy or Shakti which transforms itself into that relatively stable state which is perceived by the senses as gross "matter." As, however, science deals with matter onl y objectively, that is, from a dualistic standpoint, it does not (whatever hypotheses any particular scientist may maintain) resolve the essential problem which is stated in the world Maya. That problem is, "How can the apparent duality be a real unity? How can we bridge the gulf between the object and the Self which perceives it? Into whatever tenuous energy the material world is resolved, we are still left in the region of duality of Spirit, Mind and Matter. The position is not advanced beyond that taken by Samkhya. The answer to the problem stated is that Shakti which is the origin of, and is in, all things has the power to veil Itself so that whilst in truth it is only seeing itself as object, it does not, as the created Jiva, perceive this but takes things to be outside and different from the Self. For this reason Maya is called, in the Shastra, Bhedabuddhi or the sense of difference. This is the natural characteristic of man's experience. Herbert Spencer, the Philosopher of Modern Science, carrying the investigation beyond physical matter, holds, as I have already said, that the universe, whether physical or psychical, whether as mind or matter, is a play of Force; Mind, Life and Matter being each varying aspects of the one cosmic process from the First Cause. This, again, is an Indian notion. For, the affirmation that "scientific matter" is an appearance produced by the play of Cosmic Force, and that mind is itself a product of the same play is what both Samkhya and Mayavada Vedanta hold. Both these systems teach that mind, 235 considered in itself, is, like matter, an unconscious thing, and that both it and matter ultimately issue from the same single Principle which the former calls Prakriti and the latter Maya. Consciousness and Unconsciousness are in the universe inseparate, whatever be the degree of manifestation or veiling of Consciousness. For the purpose of analysis, Mind in itself -- that is, considered hypothetically as dissociated from Consciousness, which, in fact, is never the case, (though Consciousness exists apart from the Mind) -- is a force -process like the physical brain. Consciousness (Cit) is not to be identified with mind (Antahkarana) which is the organ of expression of mind. Consciousness is not a mere manifestation of material mind. Consciousness must not be identified with its mental modes; an identification which leads to the difficulties in which western metaphysics has so often found itself. It is the ultimate Reality in which all modes whether subjective or objective exist. The assertion that mind is in itself unconscious may seem a strange statement to a Western reader who, if he does not identify mind and consciousness, at any rate, regards the latter as an attribute or function of mind. The point, however, is of such fundamental importance for the understanding of Indian doctrine that it may be further developed. According to the Lokayata School of Indian Materialism, mind was considered to be the result of the chemical combination of the four forms of material substance, earth, wa ter, fire and air, in organic forms. According to the Purva -Mimamsa and the Nyaya -Vaisheshika, the Self or Atma is in itself and that is by nature (Svabhavatah), unconscious (Jada, Acidrupa): for Atma is said to be unconscious (Acetana) in dreamless sleep (Sushupti); and consciousness arises as a produced thing, by association of the Atma with the mind, senses and body. The reader is referred to Pandit Chandra Kanta Tarkalamkara's Bengali Lectures on Hindu Philosophy. At p. 105 he cites Prabhakara Mimamsaka -carya, saying that Vaisheshika -Nyaya supports the view. Sacetanashcittayogat todyogena vina jadah. "Atma is conscious by union with knowledge (Jana) which comes to it by association with mind and body. Without it, it is unconscious." Atma, according to this Darshana, is that in which (Ashraya) Jana inheres. Kumarila Bhatta says Atma is partly Prakasha and partly Aprakasha, (luminous and non- luminous) like a fire -fly. 236 But this is denied, as Atma is Niramsha (part- less). Knowledge thus arises from the asso ciation of mind (Manas) with Atma, the senses (Indriya) with Manas, and the senses with objects, that, is, worldly (Laukika) knowledge, which is the true -- that is, non- illusive -- apprehension of objects. Jana in the spiritual Vedantic sense of Mayavada is Paramatma, or pure Consciousness realized. The former Jana, in that it arises without effort on the presentation of the objects is not action (Kriya), and differs from the forms of mental action (Manasi Kriya), such as will (Iccha), contemplation and the like. Atma manasa samyujyate, mana indriyena, indriyam arthena, tato bhavati janam. Both these theories are refuted by Samkhya and Advaitavada Vedanta (as interpreted by Shamkara, to which unless otherwise stated I refer) which affirm that the very nature of Atma is Consciousness (Cit), and all else, whether mind or matter, is unconscious, though the former appears not to be so. The Jiva mind is not itself conscious, but reflects consciousness, and therefore appears to be conscious. Consciousness as such is eternal and immutable; Mind is a creation and changeable. Consciousness as such is unconditional. In the mind of the Jiva, Consciousness appears to be conditioned by that Maya - Shakti which produces mind, and of which Shakti, mind is a particular mani festation. Mind, however, is not the resultant of the operation of the Bhuta -- that is, of gross natural forces or motions -- but is, in Samhya and in Shakta monism, an evolution which is logically prior to them. The mode of exposition in which Consciousness is treated as being in itself something apart from, though associated with, mind, is profound; because, while it recognizes the intermingling of Spirit and Matter in the embodied being (Jiva), it yet at the same time clearly distinguishes them. It thus avoids the imputation of change to Spirit (Atma). The latter is ever in Its own true nature immutable. Mind is ever changing, subject to sensations, forming ideas, making resolves, and so forth. Spirit in Itself is neither affected nor acts. Manifold change takes place, through motion and vibration in the unconscious Prakriti and Maya. Mind is one of the results of such motion, as matter is another. Each of them is a form of specific transformation of the one Principle whence unconsciousness, whether real or apparent, arises. That, however, mind appears to be conscious, the Mayavada Vedanta and Samkhya admit. This is called Cidabhasa -- that is, the appearance of 237 something as Cit (Consciousness) which is not really Cit. This appearance of Consciousness is due to the reflection of Cit upon it. A piece of polished steel which lies in the sunshine may appear to be self -luminous, when it is merely reflecting the sun, which is the source of the light it appears to give out. Cit as such is immutable and never evol ves. What do evolve are the various forms of natural forces produced by Prakriti or Maya. These two are, however, conceived as being in association in such a way that the result of such association is produced without Cit being really affected at all. The classical illustration of the mode and effect of such association is given in the Samkhyan aphorism, "Just like the jewel and the flower" -- Kusumavacca manih (Samkhya- Pravacana- Sutra, II, 35) -- that is, when a scarlet hibiscus flower is placed in contigu ity to a crystal, the latter appears to be red, though it still in fact retains its pure transparency, as is seen when the flower is removed. On the other hand, the flower as reflected in the crystal takes on a shining, transparent aspect which its opaque surface does not really possess. In the same way Consciousness appears to be conditioned by the force of unconsciousness in the Jiva, but is really not so. "Changeless Cit - Shakti does not move towards anything, yet seems to do so" (Samkhya - pravacana -Sutra) . And, on the other hand, Mind as one of such unconscious forces takes on the semblance of Consciousness, though this is borrowed from Cit and is not its own natural quality. This association of Unconscious Force with Consciousness has a two -fold result, b oth obscuring and revealing. It obscures, in so far as, and so long as it is in operation, it prevents the realization of pure Consciousness (Cit). When mind is absorbed pure Consciousness shines forth. In this sense, this Power or Maya is spoken of as a Veil. In another sense, it reveals -- that is, it manifests -- the world, which does not exist except through the instrumentality of Maya which the world is. Prakriti and Maya produce both Mind and Matter; on the former of which Consciousness is reflected (Cidabhasa). The human mind, then, appears to be conscious, but of its own nature and inherent quality is not so. The objective world of matter is, or appears to be, an unconscious reality. These alternatives are necessary, because, in Samkhya, unconsciousn ess is a reality; in Vedanta, an appearance. In the Shakta Tantra, apparent unconsciousness is an aspect (Avidya Shakti) of Conscious Shakti. 238 Consciousness is according to Advaita Vedanta, the true existence of both, illumining the one, hidden in the other . The internal instrument (Antahkarana) or Mind is one only, but is given different names -- Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas -- to denote the diversity of its functions. From the second of these issue the senses (Indriya) and their objects, the sensibles (Mahabhuta), or gross matter with the super-sensibles (Tanmatra) as its intermediate cause. All these proceed from Prakriti and Maya. Therefore, according to these systems, Consciousness is Cit, and Mind or Antahkarana is a transformation of Prakriti and Maya respectively. In itself, Mind is an unconscious specialized organ developed out of the Primordial Energy, Mulaprakriti or Maya. It is thus, not in itself, consciousness but a special manifestation of conscious existence, borrowing its consciousness from the Cit which is reflected on it. Shakta doctrine states the same matter in a different form. Consciousness at rest is Cit- Svarupa. Consciousness in movement is Cit- Shakti associated with Maya- Shakti. The Shiva -Shakti Svarupa is consciousness (Cit, Cidrupini). There is no independent Prakriti as Samkhya holds, nor an unconscious Maya which is not Brahman and yet not separate from Brahman, as Shamkara teaches. What there is, is Maya- Shakti; that is Consciousness (Shakti is in itself such) veiling, as the Mother, He rself to herself as Her creation, the Jiva. There is no need then for Cidabhasa. For mind is consciousness veiling itself in the forms or limitation of apparent unconsciousness. This is an attractive exposition of the matter because in the universe consciousness and unconsciousness are mingled, and the abolition of unconscious Maya satisfies the desire for unity. In all these cases, however, mind and matter represent either the real or apparent unconscious aspect of things. If man's consciousness is, or appears to be, limited, such limitation must be due to some principle without, or attached to, or inherent in consciousness; which in some sense or other must ex hypothesi be really, or apparently different from the consciousness, which it seems to affect or actually affects. In all these systems, mind and matter equally derive from a common finitizing principle which actually or apparently limits the Infinite Consciousness. In all three, there is, beyond manifestation, Consciousness or 239 Cit, which in manifestation appears as a parallelism of mind and matter; the substratum of which from a monistic standpoint is Cit. Herbert Spencer, however, as many other Western Philosophers do, differs from the Vedanta in holding that the noumenon of these phenomena is not Consciousness, for the latter is by them considered to be by its very nature conditioned and concrete. This noumenon is therefore declared to be unknown and unknowable. But Force as such is blind, and can only act as it has been predetermined. We discover consciousness in the universe. The cause must, therefore, it is argued, be Consciousness. It is but reasonable to hold that, if the first cause be of the nature of either Consciousness or Matter, and not of both, it must be of the nature of the former, and not of the latter. An unconscious object may wall be conceived to modify Consciousness, but not to produce Consciousness out of its Self. According to Indian Realism, the Paramanus are the material (Upadana) cause (Karana), and Ishvara the instrumental (Nim itta) cause, for He makes them combine. According to Vedanta, Matter is really nothing but a determined modification of knowledge in the Ishvara Consciousness, itself unaffected by such determination. Ishvara is thus both the material and instrumental caus e. A thing can only dissolve into its own cause. The agency (Kartritva) of Ishvara is in Mayavada attributed (Aupadika) only. The Vedanta, therefore, in its Shakta presentment says, that the Noumenon is knowable and known, for it is the inner Self, which is not an unconscious principle but Being -Consciousness, which, as above explained, is not conditioned or concrete, but is the absolute Self -identity. Nothing can be more intimately known than the Self. The objective side of knowledge is conditioned because of the nature of its organs which, whether mental or material, are conditioned. Sensation, perception, conception, intuition are but different modes in which the one Consciousness manifests itself, the differences being determined by the variety of condition and form of the different organs of knowledge through which consciousness manifests. There is thus a great difference between the Agnostic and the Vedantist. The former, as for instance Herbert Spencer, says that the Absolute cannot be known because nothing can be predicated of it. Whereas the Vedantin when he says, that It cannot be known (in the ordinary sense) means that 240 this is because It is knowledge itself. Our ordinary experience does not know a consciousness of pure being without difference. But , though it cannot be pictured, it may be apprehended. It cannot be thought because it is Pure Knowledge itself. It is that state which is realized only in Samadhi but is apprehended indirectly as the Unity which underlies and sustains all forms of changing finite experience. What, lastly, is Life? The underlying substance is Being -in-itself. Life is a manifestation of such Being. If by Life we understand life in form, then the ultimate substance is not that; for it is formless. But in a supreme sense it is Life; for it is Eternal Life whence all life in form proceeds. It is not dead Being. If it were It could not produce Life. The Great Mother is Life; both the life of Her children and the Life of their lives. Nor does She produce what is without life or po tency of life. What is in the cause is in the effect. Some Western Scientists have spoken of the "Origin of Life," and have sought to find it. It is a futile quest, for Life as such has no origin though life in form has. We cannot discover the beginnings of that which is essentially eternal. The question is vitiated by the false assumption that there is anything dead in the sense that it is wholly devoid of Life or potency of Life. There is no such thing. The whole world is a living manifestation of the source of all life which is Absolute Being. It is sometimes made a reproach against Hinduism that it knows not a "living God". What is meant I cannot say. For it is certain that it does not worship a "dead God," whatever such may be. Perhaps by "living" is me ant "Personal". If so, the charge is again ill -founded. Ishvara and Ishvari are Rulers in whom all personalities and personality itself are. But in their ground they are beyond all manifestation, that is limitation which personality, as we understand it, i nvolves. Man, the animal and the plant alone, it is true, exhibit certain phenomena which are commonly called vital. What exhibits such phenomena, we have commonly called "living". But it does not follow that what does not exhibit the phenomena which belong to our definition of life is itself altogether "dead". We may have to revise our definition, as in fact we are commencing to do. Until recently it was commonly assumed that matter was of two kinds: inorganic or "dead," and organic or "living". The mineral was "dead," the vegetable, animal and man were endowed with "life". But these living forms are compounded of so - called "dead" matter. How then, is it possible that there is life in the organic 241 kingdom the parts of which are ultimately compounded of "dead" matter? This necessarily started the futile quest for the "origin of life". Life can only come from life: not from death. The greatest errors arise from the making of false partitions in nature which do not exist. We make these imaginary partitions and t hen vainly attempt to surmount them. There are no absolute partitions or gulfs. All is continuous, even if we cannot at present establish in each case the connection. That there should be such gulfs is unthinkable to any one who has even in small degree grasped the notion of the unity of things. There is a complete connected chain in the hierarchy of existence, from the lowest forms of apparently inert (but now held to be moving) matter, through the vegetable, animal, human worlds; and then through such Dev atas as are super- human intelligences up to the Brahman. From the latter to a blade of grass (says the Shastra) all are one. Western scientific notions have, however, in recent years undergone a radical evolution as regards the underlying unity of substance, destructive of the hitherto accepted notions of the discontinuity of matter and its organization. The division of nature into the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms is still regarded as of practical use; but it is now recognized that no such clear line of demarcation exists between them as has hitherto been supposed in the West. Between each of nature's types there are said to be innumerable transitions. The notion of inert, "dead" matter, the result of superficial observation, has given way upon the revelation of the activities at work under this apparent inertia -- forces which endow "brute substance" with many of the characteristics of living beings. It is no longer possible to dogmatically affirm where the inorganic kingdom ends and "life" begins. It must be rather asserted that many phenomena, hitherto considered characteristic of "life," belong to "inert matter," composed of molecules and atoms, as "animated matter" is of cells and micellae. It has been found that so -called "inert matter," possesses an extraordinary power of organization, and is not only capable of apparently imitating the forms of "living" matter, but presents in a certain degree the same functions and properties. Sentiency is a characteristic of all forms of Existence. P hysiologists measure the sensibility of a being by the degree of excitement necessary to produce 242 in it a reaction. Of this it has been said (Le Bon Evolution of Matter, 250), "This sensibility of matter, so contrary to what popular observation seems to indicate, is becoming more and more familiar to physicists. This is why such an expression as the "life of matter," utterly meaningless twenty -five years ago has come into common use. The study of mere matter yields ever - increasing proofs that it has properties which were formerly deemed the exclusive appanage of living beings." Life exists throughout, but manifests in various ways. The arbitrary division which has been drawn between "dead" and "living" matter has no existence in fact, and speculations as to the origin of "life" are vitiated by the assumption that there is anything which exists without it, however much its presence may be veiled from us. Western science would thus appear to be moving to the conclusion that there is no "dead" matter, but that life exists everywhere, not merely in that in which, as in "organic matter," it is to us plainly and clearly expressed, but also in the ultimate "inorganic" atoms of which it is composed -- atoms which, in fact, have their organizations as have the beings which they go to build -- and that all, to the minutest particle, is vibrating with unending Energy (Tejas). (See Author's World as Power). Manifested life is Prana, a form of Kriya Shakti in, and evolved from, the Linga Sharira, itself born of Prakriti. Pra na or the vital principle has been well defined (Hindu Realism, by J. C. Chatterji) to be, "the special relation of the Atma with a certain form of matter which, by this relation, the Atma organizes and builds up as a means of having experience." This spec ial relation constitutes the individual Prana in the individual body. Just as in the West, "life" is a term commonly used of organized body only, so also is the term Prana used in the East. It is the technical name given to the phenomena, called "vital," exhibited by such bodies, the source of which is the Brahman Itself. The individual Prana is limited to the particular body which it vitalizes and is a manifestation in all breathing creatures (Prani), of the creative and sustaining activity of the Brahman. All beings exist so long as the Prana is in the body. It is as the Kaushitaki Upanishad says, "the life duration of all". The cosmic all-pervading Prana is the collectivity of all Pranas and is the Brahman as the source of the individual Prana. On the physical plane, Prana manifests as breath through inspiration, "Sa" or Shakti and expiration, "Ha" or Shiva. So 243 the Niruttara Tantra (Chapter IV) says: "By Hamkara it goes out and by Sakara it comes in again. A Jiva always recites the Supreme Mantra Hamsa." Hang- karena bahir yati sah -karena vishet punah Hangesti paramam mantram jivo japati sarvada. Breathing is itself the Ajapa Mantra. Prana is thus Shakti as the universally pervading source of life, organizing itself as matter into what we call living forms. When the Prana goes, the organism which it holds together disintegrates. Nevertheless each of the atoms which remain has a life of its own, existing as such separately from the life of the organized body of which they formed a part; just as each of the cells of the living body has a life of its own. The gross outer body is heterogeneous (Paricchinna) or made up of distinct or well- defined parts. But the Pranamaya Self which lies within the Annamaya Self is a homogeneous undivided whole (Sadharana) permeati ng the whole physical body (Sarvapindavyapin). It is not cut off into distinct regions (Asadharana) as is the Pinda or mircrocosmic physical body. Unlike the latter it has no specialized organs each discharging a specific function. It is a homogeneous unit y (Sadharana), present in every part of the body which it ensouls as its inner vital Self. Vayu, as universal vital activity, on entry into each body, manifests itself in ten different ways. It is the one Prana, though different names are given according to its functions, of which the five chief are Appropriation (Prana), Rejection (Apana), Assimilation (Samana), Distribution (Vyana), and that vital function (Udana) which is connected with self -expression in speech. Prana in its general sense represents the involuntary reflex action of the organism; just as the Indriyas are one aspect of its voluntary activity. Breathing is a manifestation of the Cosmic Rhythm to which the whole universe moves and according to which it appears and disappears. The life of Bra hma is the duration of the outgoing breath (Nisvasa) of Kala. The Samkhya rejecting the Lokayata notion that Vayu is a mere biomechanical force or mechanical motion resulting from such a Vayu, holds, on the principle of the economy of categories, that life is a resultant of the various concurrent activities of other principles or forces in the organism. This, again, the Vedantists deny, holding that it is a separate, 244 independent principle and material form assumed through Maya by the one Consciousness. In either case, it is an unconscious force, since everything which is not the Atma or Purusha, is, according to Mayavada and Samkhya, unconscious, or, in Western parlance, material (Jada). If we apply Shakta principles, then Prana is a name of the general Shakti displaying itself in the organization of matter and the vital phenomena which bodies, when organized, exhibit. Manifest Shakti is vitality, which is a limited concrete display in forms of Her own formless Being or Sat. All Shakti is Jana, Iccha, Kriya, and in its form as Prakriti, the Gunas Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. She desires, impelled by Her nature (Iccha), to build up forms; sees how it should be done (Jana); and then does it (Kriya). The most Tamasic form of Kriya is the apparently mechanical energy displayed in material bodies. But this is itself the product of Her Activity and not the cause of it. Ultimately then Prana, like everything else, is consciousness which, as Shakti, limits Itself in form which it first creates and sustains; then builds up into other more elaborate forms and again sustains until their life -period is run. All creation and maintenance is a limiting power, with the appearance of unconsciousness, in so far as, and to the degree that, it confines the boundless Being -Consciousness -Bliss; yet that Power is nothing but Consciousness negating and limiting itself. The Great Mother (Sri Mata) limits Her infinite being in and as the universe and maintains it. In so far as the form and its life is a limited thing, it is apparently unconscious, for consciousness is thereby limited. At each moment there is creation, but we call the first appearance creation (Srishti), and its continuance, through the agency of Prana, maintenance (Sthiti). But both that which is apparently limited and that whose operation has that effect is Being -Consciousness. Prana Vayu is the self -begotten but limited manifestation of the eternal Life. It is called Vayu (Va -- to move) because it courses throughout the whole universe. Invisible in itself yet its operations are manifest. For it determines the birth, growth, and decay of all animated organisms and as such receives the homage of all created Being. For it is the Pranarupi Atma, the Prana Shakti. For those by whom inorganic matter was considered to be "dead" or lifeless, it followed that it could have no Feeling -Consciousness, since the 245 latter was deemed to be an attribute of life. Further, consciousness was denied because it was, and is indeed now, commonly assumed that every conscious experience pre- supposes a su bject, conscious of being such, attending to an object. As Professor P. Mukhyopadhyaya (Approaches to Truth) has well pointed out, consciousness was identified with intelligence or understanding -- that is with directed consciousness; so that where no dire ction or form is discernible, Western thinkers have been apt to imagine that consciousness as such has also ceased. To their pragmatic eye consciousness is always particular having a particular direction and form. According, however, to Indian views, there are three states of consciousness: (1) a supramental supreme consciousness dissociated from mind. This is the Paramatma Cit which is the basis of all existence, whether organic or inorganic, and of thought; of which the Shruti says, "know that which does not think by the mind and by which the mind itself is thought." These are then two main manifested states of consciousness: (2) consciousness associated with mind in organic matter working through its vehicles of mind and matter; (3) consciousness associated with and almost entirely veiled by inorganic gross matter (Bhuta) only; such as the muffled consciousness, evidenced by its response to external stimuli, as shown in the experiments with which Sir Jagadish Bose's name is associated. Where are we to draw the lowest limit of sensation; and if a limit be assigned, why there? As Dr. Ernst Mach has pointed out ( Analysis of Sensations , 243) the question is natural enough if we start from the commonly current physical conception. It is, of course, not asserted that inorganic matter is conscious to itself in the way that the higher organized life is. The response, however, which it makes to stimuli is evidence that consciousness is there, though it lies heavily veiled in and imprisoned by it. Inorganic matter displays it in the form of that seed or rudiment of sentiency which enlarging into the simple pulses of feeling of the lowest degrees of organized life, at length emerges in the developed self -conscious sensations of human life. Owing to imperfect scientific knowledge, the first of these aspects was not in antiquity capable of physical proof in the same way or to the same extent, as Modern Science with its delicate instruments have made possible. Starting, however, from the revealed and intuitionally held truth that all was Brahman, the conclusion necessarily followed. All Bhuta is composed of the 246 three Gunas or factors of Prakriti or the psycho -physical potentials. It is the Sattva or Principle of Presentation of Consciousness in gross matter (almost entirely suppressed by Tamas or the Principle of Veiling of Consciousness though it be) which manifests the phenomena of sensibility observed in matter. In short, nature, it has been well said, knows no sharp boundaries or yawning gulfs, though we may ignore the subtle connecting links between things. There is no break in continuity. Being and Consciousness are co- extensive. Consciousness is not limited to those centers in the Ether of consciousness which are called organized bodies. But just as life is differently expressed in the mineral and in man, so is Consciousness which many have been apt to think exists in the developed animal and even in man only. Consciousness (Cit -Shakti) exists in all the hierarchy of Being, and is, in fact, Being. It is, however, in all bodies veiled by its power or Maya -Shakti which is composed of the three Gunas. In inorganic matter, owing to the predominance of Tamas, Consciousness is so greatly veiled and the life force is so restrained that we get the appearance of insensibility, inertia and mere mechanical energy. In organized bodies, the action of Tamas is gradually lessened, so that the members of the universal hierarchy become more and more Sattvik as they ascend in the scale of evolution. Consciousness itself does not change. It remains the same throughout. What does change is, its wrappings, unconscious or apparently so, as they may alternatively be called. This wrapping is Maya and Prakriti with their Gunas. The figure of "wrapping" is apt to illustrate the presentment of Samkhy a and Mayavada. From the Shakta aspect we may compare the process to one in which it is assumed that in one aspect there is an unchanging light, in another it is either turned up or turned down as the case may be. In gross matter the light is so turned down that it is not ordinarily perceptible and even delicate scientific experiment may give rise to contending assertions. When the veiling by Tamas is lessened in organic life, and the Jiva is thus less bound in matter, the same Consciousness (for there is n o other) which previously manifested as, what seems to us, a mere mechanical reaction, manifests in its freer environment in that sensation which we associate with consciousness as popularly understood. Shakti, who ever negates Herself as Maya -Shakti, more and more reveals Herself as Cit -Shakti. There is thus a 247 progressive release of Consciousness from the bonds of matter, until it attains complete freedom or liberation (Moksha) when the Atma is Itself (Atma Svarupi) or Pure Consciousness. At this point, the same Shakti, who had operated as Maya, is Herself Consciousness (Cidrupini). According to the Hindu books, plants have a sort of dormant Consciousness, and are capable of pleasure and pain. Cakrapani says in the Bhanumati that the Consciousness of plants is a kind of stupefied, darkened, or comatose Consciousness. Udayana also says that plants have a dormant Consciousness which is very dull. The differences between plant and animal life have always been regarded by the Hindus as being one not of kind, but of degree. And this principle may be applied throughout. Life and Consciousness is not a product of evolution. The latter merely manifests it. Manu speaks of plants as being creatures enveloped by darkness caused by past deeds having, however, an internal Consciousness and a capacity for pleasure and pain. And, in the Mahabharata, Bhrigu says to Bharadhvaja that plants possess the various senses, for they are affected by heat, sounds, vision (whereby, for instance, the creeper pursues its path to the light ), odors and the water which they taste. I may refer also to such stories as that of the Yamalarjunavriksha of the Srimad Bhagavata mentioned in Professor Brajendra Nath Seal's learned work, The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus, and Professor S. N. Das Gupta's scholarly paper on Parinama to which I am indebted for these instances. Man is said to have passed through all the lower states of Consciousness and is capable of reaching the highest through Yoga. The Jiva attains birth as man after having been, it is said, born 84 lakhs (84,000,000) of times as plants (Vrikshadi), aquatic animals (Jalayoni), insects and the like (Krimi), birds (Pakshi), beasts (Pashvadi), and monkeys (Vanar). He then is born 2 lakhs of times (2,000,000) in the inferior species of humanity, and then gradually attains a better and better birth until he is liberated from all the bonds of matter. The exact number of each kind of birth is in 20, 9, 11, 10, 30 and 4 lakhs, respectively -- 84 lakhs. As pointed out by Mahamahopadhyaya Chandrakanta Tarkalankara Lectures on "Hindu Philosophy" (5th year, p. 227, Lecture VII), pre- appearance in monkey form is not a Western theory only. The Consciousness which manifests in him is not altogether a new 248 creation, but an unfolding of that which has ever existed in the elements of which he is composed, and in the Vegetable and Animal through which prior to his human birth he has passed. In him, however, matter is so re- arranged and organized as to permit of the fullest rnanifestation which has hit herto existed of the underlying Cit. Man's is the birth so "difficult of attainment" (Durlabha). This is an oft -repeated statement of Shastra in order that he should avail himself of the opportunities which Evolution has brought him. If he does not, he falls back, and may do so without limit, into gross matter again, passing intermediately through the Hells of suffering. Western writers in general, describe such a descent as unscientific. How, they ask, can a man's Consciousness reside in an animal or plant '? The correct answer (whatever be popular belief) is that it does not. When man sinks again into an animal he ceases to be a man. He does not continue to be both man and animal. His consciousness is an animal consciousness and not a human consciousness. It is a, childish view which regards such a case as being the imprisonment of a man in an animal body. If he can go up he can also go down. The soul or subtle body is not a fixed but an evolving thing. Only Spirit (Cit) is eternal and unchanged. In man, the revealing constituent of Prakriti Shakti (Sattvaguna) commences to more fully develop, and his consciousness is fully aware of the objective world and his own Ego, and displays itself in all those functions of it which are called his faculties. We here reach the world of ideas, but these are a superstructure on consciousness and not its foundation or basis. Man's consciousness is still, however, veiled by Maya- Shakti. With the greater predominance of Sattvaguna in man, consciousness becomes more and more divine, until he is altogether freed of the bonds of Maya, and the Jiva Consciousness expands into the pure Brahman Consciousness. Thus life and Consciousness exist throughout. All is living. All is Consciousness. In the world of gross matter they seem to disappear, being almost suppressed by the veil of Maya -Sakti's Tamoguna. As however ascent is made, they are less and less veiled, and True Consciousness is at length realized in Samadhi and Moksha. Cit-Shakti and Maya- Shakti exist inseparable throughout th e whole universe. There is therefore according to the principles of the Shakta Shastra not a particle of matter which is without life and consciousness variously displaced or concealed though they be. Manifest Maya -Shakti is the universe 249 in which Cit -Shakt i is the changeless Spirit. Unmanifest Maya -Shakti is Consciousness (Cidrupini). There are many persons who think that they have disposed of a doctrine when they have given it an opprobrious, or what they think to be an opprobrious, name. And so they dub all this "Animism," which the reader of Census Reports associates with primitive and savage tribes. There are some people who are frightened by names. It is not names but facts which should touch us. Certainly "Animism" is in some respects an incorrect and childlike way of putting the matter. It is, however, an imperfect presentment of a central truth which has been held by some of the profoundest thinkers in the world, even in an age in which we are apt to think to be superior to all others. Primitive man in his simplicity made the discovery of several such truths. And so it has been well said that the simple savage and the child who regard all existence as akin to their own, living and feeling like himself, have, notwithstanding their errors, more truly felt the pulse of being, than the civilized man of culture. How essentially stupid some of the latter can be needs no proof. For the process of civilization being one of abstraction, they are less removed from the concrete fact than he is. Hence their errors which seem the more contorted due to the mass of useless verbiage in which they are expressed. And yet, as extremes meet, so having passed through our present condition, we may regain the truths perceived by the simple, not only through formal worship but by that which consists of the pursuit of all knowledge and science, when once the husk of all material thinking is cast aside. For him, who sees the Mother in all things, all scientific research is wonder and worship. So Gratry said that the calculus of Newton and Leibnitz was a supralogical procedure, and that geometric induction is essentially a process of prayer, by which he evidently meant an appeal from the finite mind to the Infinite, for light on finite concerns. The seeker looks upon not mere mechanical movements of so-called "dead" matter, but the wondrous play of Her Whose form all matter is. As She thus reveals Herself She induces in him a passionate exaltation and that sense of security which is only gained as approach is made to the Central Heart of things. For, as the Upanishad says, "He only fears who sees duality". Some day may be, when one who unites in himself the scientific ardor of the West and the all -embracing religious feeling of India will create another and a modern Candi, with its mu ltiple salutations to the sovereign 250 World -Mother (Namastasyai namo namah). Such an one, seeing the changing marvels of Her world-play, will exclaim with the Yoginihridaya Tantra, "I salute Her the Samvid Kala who shines in the form of Space, Time and all O bjects therein." Deshakalapadarthatma yad yad vastu yatha yatha, Tattadrupena ya bhati tam shraye samvidam kalam This is, however, not mere Nature-worship as it is generally understood in the West, or the worship of Force as Keshub Chunder Sen took the Sha kta doctrine to be. All things exist in the Supreme who in Itself infinitely transcends all finite forms. It is the worship of God as the Mother- Creatrix who manifests in the form of all things which are, as it were, but an atom of dust on the Feet of Her who is Infinite Being (Sat), Experience (Cit), Love (Ananda) and Power (Shakti). As Philibert Commerson said: "La vie d'un naturaliste est, je L'ose dire, une adoration presque perptuelle." I have in my paper Shakti and Maya (here reprinted from the India n Philosophical Review, 1918, No. 2) contrasted the three different concepts of the Primal Energy as Prakriti, Maya and Shakti of Samkhya, Vedanta and the Agama respectively. I will not, therefore, repeat myself but will only summarize conclusions here. In the first place, there are features common to all three concepts. Hitherto, greater pains have been taken to show the differences between the Darshanas than to co -ordinate them systematically, by regarding their points of agreement or as regard apparent d isagreement, their viewpoint. It has been said that Truth cannot be found in such a country as India, in which, there are six systems of philosophy disputing with one another, and where even in one system alone, there is a conflict between Dvaita, Vishisht advaita and Advaita. One might suppose from such a criticism that all in Europe were of one mind, or that al least the Christian Community was agreed, instead of being split up, as it is, into hundreds of sects. An American humorist observed with truth tha t there was a good deal of human nature in man everywhere. Of course there is difference which, as the Radd -ul-Muhtar says, is also the gift of God. This is not to deny that Truth is only one. It is merely to recognize that whilst Truth is one, the nature and capacities of those who 251 seek it, or claim to possess it, vary. To use a common metaphor, the same white light which passes through varicolored glass takes on its various colors. All cannot apprehend the truth to the same extent or in the same way. Hence the sensible Indian doctrine of competency or Adhikara. In the Christian Gospel it is also said, "Throw not your pearls before swine lest they trample upon them and then rend you." What can be given to any man is only what he can receive. The Six Philosophies represent differing standards according to the manner and to the extent to which the one Truth may be apprehended. Each standard goes a step beyond the last, sharing, however, with it certain notions in common. As regards the present matter, all these systems start with the fact that there is Spirit and Mind, Matter, Consciousness and Unconsciousness, apparent or real. Samkhya, Vedanta and the Shakta Agama called the first Purusha, Brahman, Shiva; and the second Prakriti, Maya, Shakti respectively. All agree that it is from the association together of these two Principles that the universe arises and that such association is the universe. All, again, agree that one Principle, namely, the first, is infinite, formless consciousness, and the second is a finitizing principle which makes forms. Thirdly, all regard this last as a veiling principle, that is, one which veils consciousness; and hold that it is eternal, all -pervading, existing now as seed (Mula- prakriti, Avyakta) and now as fruit (Vikriti), composed of the Gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (Principles of presentation of Consciousness, Action, and Veiling of Consciousness respectively); unperceivable except through its effects. In all, it is the Natural Principle, the material cause of the material uni verse. The word Prakriti has been said to be derived from the root "Kri," and the affix "Ktin," which is added to express Bhava or the abstract idea, and sometimes the Karma or object of the action, corresponding with the Greek affix Sis. Ktin inflected in the nominative becomes tis. Prakriti, therefore, has been said to correspond with Phusis (Nature) of the Greeks. In all three systems, therefore, it is, as the "natural," contrasted with the "spiritual" aspect of things. The first main point of difference is between Samkhya, on the one hand, and the Advaita Vedanta, whether as interpreted by Shamkara or taught by the 252 Shaiva -Shakta Tantra on the other. Classical Samkhya is a dualistic system, whereas the other two are non -dualistic. The classical Samkhya posits a plurality of Atmans representing the formless consciousness, with one unconscious Prakriti which is formative activity. Prakriti is thus a real independent principle. Vedantic monism does not altogether discard these two principles, but says that they cannot exist as two independent Realities. There is only one Brahman. The two categories of Samkhya, Purusha and Prakriti are reduced to one Reality, the Brahman; otherwise the Vakya, "All this is verily Brahman" (Sarvam khalvidam Brahma), is falsified. But how is this effected? It is on this point that Mayavada of Shamkara and the Advaita of Shaiva- Shakta Agama differ. Both systems agree that Brahman has two aspects in one of which It is transcendent and in another creative and immanent. According to Shamkara, Brahman is in one aspect Ishvara associated with, and in another one dissociated from Maya which, in his system, occupies the place of the Samkhyan Prakriti, to which it is (save as to reality and independence) similar. What is Maya P It is not a r eal independent Principle like the Samkhyan Prakriti. Then is it Brahman or not'? According to Shamkara, it is an unthinkable, alogical, unexplainable (Anirvacantia) mystery. It is an eternal falsity (Mithyabhuta sanatani), owing what false appearance of r eality it possesses to the Brahman, with which in one aspect it is associated. It is not real for there is only one such. It cannot, however, be said to be unreal for it is the cause of and is empirical experience. It is something which is neither real (Sa t) nor unreal (Asat), nor partly real and partly unreal (Sadasat), and which though not forming part of Brahman, and therefore not Brahman, is yet, though not a second reality, inseparably associated and sheltering with (Maya Brahmashrita) Brahman in Its Ishvara aspect. Like the Samkhyan Prakriti, Maya (whatever it be) is in the nature of an unconscious principle. The universe appears by the reflection of consciousness (Purusha, Brahman) on unconsciousness (Prakriti, Maya). In this way the unconscious is made to appear conscious. This is Cidabhasa. Maya is illusive and so is Shamkara's definition of it. Further, though Maya is not a second reality, but a mysterious something of which neither reality nor unreality can be affirmed, the fact of positing it at all in this form gives to Shamkara's doctrine a tinge of dualism from which the Shakta doctrine is 253 free. For, it is to be noted that notwithstanding that Maya is a falsity, it is not, according to Shamkara, a mere negation or want of something (Abhava), but a positive entity (Bhavarupam ajanam), that is in the nature of a Power which veils (Acchadaka) consciousness, as Prakriti does in the case of Purusha. Shamkara's system, on the other hand, has this advantage from a monistic standpoint, that whilst he, like the Shakta, posits the doctrine of aspects saying that in one aspect the Brahman is associated with Maya (Ishvara), and in another it is not (Parabrahman; yet in neither aspect does his Brahman change. Whereas, according to Shakta doctrine, Shiva does, in one aspect, that is as Shakti, change. Whilst then Shamkara's teaching is consistent with the changelessness of Brahman, he is not so successful in establishing the saying,. "All this is Brahman". The position is reversed as regards Shaiva -Shakta Darshana which puts forth its doctrine of Maya -Shakti with greater simplicity. Shakta doctrine takes the saying, "All this is Brahman" (the realization of which, as the Mahanirvana Tantra states, is the aim and end of Kulacara) in its literal sense. "This" is the universe. Then the universe is Brahman. But Brahman is Consciousness. Then the universe is really That. But in what way P Shamkara says that what we sense with our senses is Maya, which is practically something, but in a real sense nothing; which yet ap pears to be something because it is associated with the Brahman which alone is Real. Its appearance of independent reality is thus borrowed and is in this sense said to be "illusory". When, therefore, we say, "All this is Brahman" -- according to Shamkara, this means that what is at the back of that which we see is Brahman; the rest or appearance is Maya. Again, according to Shamkara, man is spirit (Atma) vestured in the Mayik falsities of mind and matter. He, accordingly, can then only establish the unity of Ishvara and Jiva by eliminating from the first Maya, and from the second Avidya; when Brahman is left as a common denominator. The Shakta, however, eliminates nothing. For him, in the strictest sense, "All is Brahman." For him, man's Spirit (Atma) is Sh iva. His mind and body are Shakti. But Shiva and Shakti are one. Paramatma is Shiva -Shakti in undistinguishable union. Jivatma is Shiva -Shakti in that state in which the Self is distinguished from the not -Self. Man, therefore, according to the Shakta Tantra, is not Spirit seemingly clothed by a non- Brahman falsity, but Spirit covering Itself with its own power or Maya - 254 Shakti. All is Shakti whether as Cit -Shakti or Maya -Shakti. When, therefore, the Shakta Tantric says, "All this is Brahman," he means it literally. "This," here means Brahman as Shakti, as Maya -Shakti, and Cit -Shakti. Shiva as Parabrahman is Shiva -Shakti in that state when Shakti is not operating and in which She is Herself, that is, pure consciousness (Cidrupini). Shiva as Ishvara is Shiva -Sha kti in that state in which Shiva, associated with Maya -Shakti, is the source of movement and change; Shiva -Shakti as Jiva is the state produced by such action which is subject to Maya, from which Ishvara, the Mayin is free. The creative Shakti is therefore changeless Cit - Shakti and changing Maya -Shakti. Yet the One Shakti must never be conceived as existing apart from, or without the other, for they are only twin aspects of the fundamental Substance (Paravastu). Vimarsha -Shakti (See Kamakalavilasa, 3rd Edit ion, 1961, Verses 1 -4) as Maya -Shakti produces the forms in which Spirit as Cit -Shakti inheres and which it illuminates (Prakasha). But Maya- Shakti is not unconscious. How can it be; for it is Shakti and one with Cit -Shakti. All Shakti is and must be Consciousness. There is no unconscious Maya which is not Brahman and yet not separate from Brahman. Brahman alone is and exists, whether as Cit or as manifestation of Maya. All is Consciousness, as the so- called "New Thought" of the West also affirms. But surel y, it will be said, there is an unconscious element in things. How is this accounted for if there be no unconscious Maya? It is conscious Shakti veiling Herself and so appearing as limited consciousness. In other words, whilst Shamkara says mind and matter are in themselves unconscious but appear to be conscious through Cidabhasa, the Shakta Agama reverses the position, and says that they are in themselves, that is in their ground, conscious, for they are at base Cit; but they yet appear to be unconscious, or more strictly limited consciousness, by the veiling power of Consciousness Itself as Maya- Shakti. This being so, there is no need for Cidabhasa which assumes, as it were, two things, the Brahman, and unconscious Maya in which the former reflects itself. Though some of the Shastras do speak of a reflection, Pratibimba is between Shiva and Shakti. Brahman is Maya -Shakti in that aspect in which it negates itself, for it is the function of Shakti to negate (Nishedhavyapararupa shaktih), as it is said by Yoga -Raja or Yoga- 255 Muni (as he is also called) in his commentary on Abhinava Gupta's Paramarthasara. In the Shakta Tantras, it is a common saying of Shiva to Devi, "There is no difference between Me and Thee." Whilst Shamkara's Ishvara is associated with the unconscious Maya, the Shaiva Shakta's Ishvara is never associated with anything but Himself, that is as Maya- Shakti. Whether this doctrine be accepted as the final solution of things or not, it is both great and powerful. It is great because the whole world is seen in glory according to the strictest monism as the manifestation of Him and Her. The mind is not distracted and kept from the realization of unity, by the notion of any unconscious Maya which is not Brahman nor yet separate from It. Next, this doctrine accommodates itself to Western scientific monism, so far as the latter goes, adding to it however a religious and metaphysical basis; infusing it with the spirit of devotion. It is powerful because its standpoint is the 'here' and 'now,' and not the tr anscendental Siddhi standpoint of which most men know nothing and cannot, outside Samadhi, realize. It assumes the reality of the world which to us is real. It allows the mind to work in its natural channel. It does not ask it to deny what goes against the grain of its constitution to deny. It is, again, powerful because we stand firmly planted on a basis which is real and natural to us. From the practical viewpoint, it does not ask man to eschew and flee from the world in the spirit of asceticism; a course repugnant to a large number of modern minds, not only because mere asceticism often involves what it thinks to be a futile self - denial; but because that mind is waking to the truth that all is one; that if so, to deny the world is in a sense to deny an aspect of That which is both Being and Becoming. It thinks also that whilst some natures are naturally ascetic, to attempt ascetic treatment in the case of most is to contort the natural being, and to intensify the very evils which asceticism seeks to avoid. Not one man in many thousands has true Vairagya or detachment from the world. Most are thoroughly even glued to it. Again, there are many minds which are puzzled and confused by Mayavada; and which, therefore, falsely interpret it,-- may be to their harm. These men, Mayavada, or rather their misunderstanding of it, weakens or destroys. Their grip on themselves and the world is in any case enfeebled. They become intellectual and moral derelicts who are neither on the path of power nor of renunciation, and w ho have neither the strength to follow worldly life, nor to truly abandon it. It is 256 not necessary, however, to renounce when all is seen to be Her. And, when all is so seen, then the spiritual illumination which transfuses all thoughts and acts makes them noble and pure. It is impossible for a man, who in whatever sense truly sees God in all things, to err. If he does so, it is because his vision is not fully strong and pure; and to this extent scope is afforded to error. But given perfect spiritual eyesight then all "this" is pure. For, as the Greeks profoundly said, "panta kathara tois katharois," "To the pure all things are pure." The Shakta doctrine is thus one which has not only grandeur but is greatly pragmatic and of excelling worth. It has always bee n to me a surprise that its value should not have been rightly appreciated. I can only suppose that its neglect is due to the fact that is the doctrine of the Shakta Tantras. That fact has been enough to warrant its rejection, or at least a refusal to exam ine it. Like all practical doctrines, it is also intensely positive. There are none of those negations which weaken and which annoy those who, as the vital Western mind does, feel themselves to be strong and living in an atmosphere of might and power. For power is a glorious thing. What is wanted is only the sense that all Power is of God and is God, and that Bhava or feeling which interprets all thoughts and acts and their objects in terms of the Divine, and which sees God in and as all things. Those who truly do so will exercise power not only without wrong, but with that compassion (Karuna) for all beings which is so beautiful a feature of the Buddha of northern and Tantrik Buddhism. For in them Shakti Herself has descended. This is Shaktipata, as it is t echnically called in the Tantra Shastra; the descent of Shakti which Western theology calls the grace of God. But grace is truly not some exterior thing, though we may pictorially think of it as 'streaming' from above below. Atma neither comes nor goes. To be in grace is that state in which man commences to realize himself as Shiva -Shakti. His power is, to use a Western phrase, "converted". It is turned from the husk of mere outwardness and of limited self -seeking, to that inner Reality which is the great S elf which, at base, he (in this doctrine) is. The principles of Shakta doctrine, which will vary according to race, are a regenerating doctrine, giving strength where there is weakness, and, where strength exists, directing it to right ends. "Shivo' ham," "I am Shiva," "Sha' 257 ham," "I am She (the Devi)," the Tantras say. The Western may call It by some other name. Some call It this and some that, as the Veda says. "I am He," "I am She," "I am It," matters not to the Shakta so long as man identifies himself with the 'Oversoul,' and thus harmonizes himself with its Being, with Dharmic actions (as it manifests in the world) and therefore necessarily with Its true ends. In its complete form the Shakta doctrine is monistic. But to those to whom monism makes no appeal, the Shakta will say that by adopting its spirit, so far as the forms of their belief and worship allow, they will experience a reflection of the joy and strength of those who truly live because they worship Her who is Eternal life -- the Mother who is seated on the couch of Shivas (Mahapreta), in the Isle of Gems (Manidvipa), in the "Ocean of Nectar," which is all Being- Consciousness and Bliss. This is the pearl which those who have churned the ocean of Tantra discover. That pearl is there in an Indian shell. There is a beautiful nacre on the inner shell which is the Mother of Pearl. Outside, the shell is naturally rough and coarse, and bears the accretions of weed and parasite and of things of all kinds which exist, good or bad as we call them, in the ocean of existence (Samsara). The Scripture leads man to remove these accretions, and to pass within through the crust, gross, though not on that account only, bad; for there is a gross (Sthula) and subtle (Sukshma) aspect of worship. Finally it leads man to seek to see the Mother of Pearl and lastly the Pearl which, enclosed therein, shines with the brilliant yet soft light which is that of the Moon-Cit (Cicchandra) Itself. 258 CHAPTER SIXTEEN . MATTER AND CONSCIOUSNESS The subject of my lecture to -day is Consciousness or Cit, and Matter or Unconsciousness, that is, Acit; the unchanging formlessness and the changing forms. According to Shakta Advaitavada, man is Consciousness - Unconsciousness or Cit -Acit; being Cit- Shakti as regards his Antaratma, and the particularized Maya -Shakti as to his material vehicles of mind and body. The reason that I have selected this subject, amongst the many others on which I might have addressed you, is that these two ideas are the key concepts of Indian Philosophy and religion. If they are fully understood both as to their definition and relations, then, all is understood so far as intellect can make such matters intelligible to us; if they are not understood then nothing is properly understood. Nor are they always understood even by those who profess to know and write on Indian Philosophy. Thus, the work on Vedanta, of an English Orientalist, now in its second edition, describes Cit as the condition of a stone or other inert su bstance. A more absurd error it is hard to imagine. Those who talk in this way have not learnt the elements of their subject. It is true that you will find in the Shastra, the state of the Yogi described as being like a log (Kashthavat). But this does not mean that his Consciousness is that of a piece of wood; but that he no more perceives the external world than a log of wood does. He does not do so because he has the Samadhi consciousness that is Illumination and true Being itself. I can to- night only scratch at the surface of a profound subject. To properly expound it would require a series of lectures, and to understand it in its depths, years of thinking thereon. I will look at the matter first from the scientific point of view; secondly, state what those concepts mean in themselves; and thirdly, show how they are related to one another in the Samkhya and the Mayavada and Shaktivada presentments of Vedanta doctrine. The Shaktivada of which I deal to- night may be found in the Tantras. It has been supposed that the Agamas arose at the close of the age of the Upanishads. They are Shastras of the Upasana Kanda dealing with the worship of Saguna Ishvara. It has been conjectured that they arose partly because of the declining strength of the Vaidika Acara, and partly because of 259 the increasing number of persons within the Hindu fold, who were not competent for the Vaidika Acara, and, for whom some spiritual discipline was necessary. One common feature distinguishes them; namely, their teaching is for all castes and all women. They express the liberal principle that whilst socially differences may exist, the path of religion is open to all, and that spiritual competency and not the external signs of caste determine the position of persons on that path. Ishvara in these Agamas is worshipped in threefold forms as Vishnu, Shiva, Devi. Therefore, the Agamas or Tantras are threefold, Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta, such as the Pacaratra Agamas of the first group, the Shaiva Siddhanta (with its 28 Tantras), the Nakulisha Pashupata, and the Kashmirian Trika of the second group; and the alleged division into Kaula, Mishra, Samaya of the third group. I express no opinion on this last division. I merely refer to this matter in order to explain what I mean by the word Agama. The Shaktivada, however, which I contrast with Mayavada to- day, is taken from the Shakta Agama. By Mayavada I mean Shamkara's exposition of Vedanta. Now, with reference to the scientific aspect of the subject, I show you that in three main particulars, modern western physics and psychology support Indian philosophy whatever such support may be worth. Indeed, Mr. Lowes Dickinson, in an acute recent analysis of the state of ideas in India, China and Japan observes that the Indian form of religion and philosophy is that which most easily accommodates itself to modern western science. That does not prove it is true, until it is established that the conclusions of western science to which it does conform, are true. But the fact is of great importance in countering t hose who have thought that eastern ideas were without rational foundation. It is of equal importance to those two classes who either believe in the ideas of India, or in the particular conclusions of science to which I refer. The three points on this head are firstly, that physicists, by increasing their knowledge of so- called "matter," have been led to doubt its reality, and have dematerialized the atom, and, with it, the entire universe which the various atoms compose. The trinity of matter, ether and electricity out of which science has hitherto attempted to construct the world, has been reduced to a single element -- the ether (which is not scientific "matter") in a state of motion. According to Samkhya, the objective world is composed of Bhutas which derive ultimately from Akasha. 260 I do not say that scientific "ether" is Akasha, which is a concept belonging to a different train of thought. Moreover the sensible is derived from the supersensible Akasha Tanmatra, and is not therefore an ultimate. But it is important to note the agreement in this, that both in East and West, the various forms of gross matter derive from some single substance which is not "matter". Matter is dematerialized, and the way is made for the Indian concept of Maya. There is a point at which the mind cannot any longer usefully work outward. Therefore, after the Tanmatra, the mind is turned within to discover their cause in that Egoism which, reaching forth to the world of enjoyment produces sensorial, senses, and objects of sensation. That the mind and senses are also material has the support of some forms of western philosophy, such as that of Herbert Spencer, for he holds that the Universe, whether physical or psychical, is a play of force which in the case of matter we experience as object. Mind as such is, he says, as much a "material" organ as the brain and outer sense -organs, though they are differing forms of Force. His affirmation that scientific "matter" is an appearance produced by the play of cosmic force, and that mind itself is a product of the same play, is what Samkhya and Vedanta hold. The way again is opened for the concept, Maya. Whilst, however, Spencer and the Agnostic School hold that the Reality behind these phenomena is unknowable, the Vedanta affirms that it is kno wable and is Consciousness itself. This is the Self than which nothing can be more intimately known. Force is blind. We discover consciousness in the Universe. It is reasonable to suppose that if the first cause is of the nature of either Consciousness or Matter, and not of both, it must be of the nature of the former and not of the latter. Unconsciousness or object may be conceived to modify Consciousness, but not to produce Consciousness out of its unconscious Self. According to Indian ideas, Spirit which is the cause of the Universe is pure Consciousness. This is Nishkala Shiva: and, as the Creator, the great Mother or Devi. The existence of pure consciousness in the Indian sense has been decried by some thinkers in the West, where generally to its pragmatic eye, Consciousness is always particular having a particular direction and form. It assumes this particularity, however, through Maya. We must distinguish between Consciousness as such and modes in consciousness. Consciousness is the unity behind all forms of consciousness, whether sensation, emotion, 261 instinct, will or reason. The claim that Consciousness as such exists can only be verified by spiritual experience. All high mystic experiences, whether in East or West, have been experiences of unity in differing forms and degrees. Even, however, in normal life as well as in abnormal pathological states, we have occasional stretches of experience in which it becomes almost structure- less. Secondly, the discovery of the subliminal Consciousness aids Shastric doctrine, in so far as it shows that behind the surface consciousness of which we are ordinarily aware, there is yet another mysterious field in which all its operations grow. It is the Buddhi which here manifests. Well - established occult powers and phenomena now generally accepted such as telepathy, thought -reading, hypnotism and the like are only explainable on hypotheses which approach more nearly Eastern doctrine than any other theory which has in modern times prevailed in the West. Thirdly, as bearing on this subject, we have now the scientific recognition that from its materia prima all forms have evolved; that there is life or its potency in all things: and that there are no breaks in nature. There is the same matter and Consciousness throughout. There is unity of life. There is no such thing as "dead" matter. The well -known experiments of Dr. Jagadish Bose establish response to stimuli in inorganic matter. This response may be interpreted to indicate the existence of that Sattva Guna which Vedanta and Samkhya affirm to exist in all things organic or inorganic. It is the play of Cit in this Sattva, so muffled in Tamas as not to be recognizable except by delicate scientific experiment, which appears as the so -called "mechanical" response. Consciousness is here veiled and imprisoned by Tamas. Inorganic matter displays it in the form of that seed or rudiment of sentiency which, enlarging into the simple pulses of feeling of the lowest degrees of organized life, at length emerges in the developed self -conscious sensations of human life. Consciousness is throughout the same. What varies is its wrappings. There is, thus, a progressive release of Consciousness from gross matter, through plants and animals to man. This evolution, Indian doctrine has taught in its 84 lakhs of previous births. According to the Hindu books, plants have a dormant consciousness. The Mahabharata says that plants can see and thus they reach the light. Such power of vision would have been ridiculed not long ago, but Professor Haberlandt, the well -known botanist, has established that plants possess an organ of vision in the shape of a 262 convex lens on the upper surface of the leaf. The animal consciousness is greater, but seems to display itself almost entirely in the satisfaction of animal's wants. In man, we reach the world of ideas, but these are a superstructure on consciousness, and not its foundation or basis. It is in this modeless basis that the various modes of consciousness with which we are familiar in our waking and dreaming state s arise. The question then arises as to the relation of this principle of Form with Formlessness; the unconscious finite with infinite consciousness. It is noteworthy that in the Thomistic philosophy, Matter, like Prakriti, is the particularizing or finitizing principle. By their definition, however, they are opposed. How then can the two be one? Samkhya denies that they are one, and says they are two separate independent principles. This, Vedanta in its turn denies for it says that there is in fact only one true Reality, though from the empirical, dualistic standpoint there seem to be two. The question then is asked, Is dualism, pluralism, or monism to be accepted? For the Vedantist the answer of Shruti is that it is the last. But, apart from this, the question is, Does Shruti record a true experience, and is it the fact that spiritual experience is monistic or dualistic? The answer is, as we can see from history, that all high mystic experiences are experiences of unity in differing forms and degrees. The question cannot be decided solely by discussion, but by our conclusion as to the conformity of the particular theory held with spiritual experience. But how can we reconcile the unity of pure consciousness with the plurality of unconscious forms which the world of experience gives us? Vedanta gives various intellectual interpretations, though experience alone can solve this question. Shamkara says there is only one Sadvastu, the Brahman. From a transcendental standpoint, It is, and nothing happens. There is, in the state of highest experience (Paramatma), no Ishvara, no creation, no world, no Jiva, no bondage, no liberation. But empirically he must and does admit the world or Maya, which in its seed is the cosmic Samskara, which is the cause of all these noti ons which from the highest state are rejected. But is it real or unreal? Shamkara says it is neither. It cannot be real, for then there would be two Reals. It is not unreal, for the world is an empirical fact -- an experience 263 of its kind, and it proceeds f rom the Power of Ishvara. In truth, it is unexplainable, and as Sayana says, more wonderful than Cit itself. But if it is neither Sat nor Asat, then as Maya it is not the Brahman who is Sat. Does it then exist in Pralaya and if so how and where? How can unconsciousness exist in pure consciousness? Shamkara calls it eternal, and says that in Pralaya, Mayasatta is Brahmasatta. At that time, Maya, as the power of the ideating consciousness, and the world, its thought, do not exist: and only the Brahman is. But if so how does the next universe arise on the assumption that there is Pralaya and that there is not with him as Maya the seed of the future universe? A Bija of Maya as Samskara, even though Avyakta (not present to Consciousness), is yet by its terms different from consciousness. To all such questionings, Shamkara would say, they are themselves the product of the Maya of the state in which they are put. This is true, but it is possible to put the matter in a simpler way against which there are not so many objections as may be laid against Mayavada. It seems to me that Shamkara who combats Samkhya is still much influenced by its notions, and as a result of his doctrine of Maya he has laid himself open to the charge that his doctrine is not Shuddha Advaita. H is notion of Maya retains a trace of the Samkhyan notion of separateness, though separateness is in fact denied. In Samkhya, Maya is the real Creatrix under the illumination of Purusha. We find similar notions in Shamkara, who compares Cit to the Ayaskanta mani, and denies all liberty of self - determination in the Brahman which, though itself unchanging, is the cause of change. Jana Kriya is allowed only to Ishvara, a concept which is itself the product of Maya. To some extent the distinctions made are perha ps a matter of words. To some extent particular notions of the Agamas are more practical than those of Shamkara who was a transcendentalist. The Agama, giving the richest content to the Divine Consciousness, does not deny to it knowledge, but, in its supreme aspect, any dual knowledge; spiritual experience being likened by the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad to the union of man and wife in which duality exists as one and there is neither within nor without. It is this union which is the Divine Lila of Shakti, who is yet all the time one with Her Lord. 264 The Shakta exposition appears to be both simple and clear. I can only sketch it roughly -- having no time for its detail. It is first the purest Advaitavada. What then does it say? It starts with the Shruti, "Sarvam K halvidam Brahma". Sarvam = world; Brahman = consciousness or Sacchidananda; therefore this world is itself Consciousness. But we know we are not perfect consciousness. There is an apparent unconsciousness. How then is this explained? The unmanifested Brahman, before all the worlds, is Nirguna Shiva -- the Blissful undual consciousness. This is the static aspect of Shiva. This manifests Shakti which is the kinetic aspect of Brahman. Shakti and Shaktiman are one; therefore, Shiva manifests as Shiva -Shakti, wh o are one and the same. Therefore Shakti is consciousness. But Shakti has two aspects (Murti), viz., Vidya Shakti or Cit -Shakti, and Avidya Shakti or Maya- Shakti. Both as Shakti (which is the same as Shaktiman) are in themselves conscious. But the difference is that whilst Cit - Shakti is illuminating consciousness, Maya is a Shakti which veils consciousness to itself, and by its wondrous power appears as unconscious. This Maya -Shakti is Consciousness which by its power appears as unconsciousness. This Maya -Shakti is Triguna Shakti, that is, Shakti composed of the three Gunas. This is Kamakala which is the Trigunatmaka vibhuti. These Gunas are therefore at base nothing but Cit -Shakti. There is no necessity for the Mayavadin's Cidabhasa, that is, the reflection of conscious reality on unconscious unreality, as Mayavada says. All is real except, in the sense that some things endure and are therefore truly real: others pass and in that sense only are not real. All is Brahman. The Antaratma in man is the enduring C it-Shakti. His apparently unconscious vehicles of mind and body are Brahman as Maya -Shakti, that is, consciousness appearing as unconsciousness by virtue of its inscrutable power. Ishvara is thus the name for Brahman as Shakti which is conjoined Cit-Shakti and Maya- Shakti. The Mother Devi is Ishvara considered in His feminine aspect (Ishvari) as the Mother and Nourisher of the world. The Jiva or individual self is an Amsha or fragment of that great Shakti: the difference being that whilst Ishvara is Mayavin or the controller of Maya, Jiva is subject to Maya. The World - 265 thinker retains His Supreme undual Consciousness even in creation, but His thought, that is the forms created by His thinking are bound by His Maya that is the forms with which they identify themselves until by the power of the Vidya Shakti in them they are liberated. All is truly Sat -- or Brahman. In creation Shiva extends His power, and at Pralaya withdraws it into Himself. In creation, Maya is in itself Consciousness which appears as unconsciousness. Before creation it is as consciousness. Important practical results follow from the adoption of this view of looking at the world. The latter is the creation of Ishvara. The world is real; being unreal only in the sense that it is a shifting passing thing, whereas Atma as the true Reality endures. Bondage is real, for Bondage is Avidyashakti binding consciousness. Liberation is real for this is the grace of Vidyashakti. Men are each Centers of Power, and if they would achieve success must, accordi ng to this Shastra, realize themselves as such, knowing that it is Devata which thinks and acts in, and as, them and that they are the Devata. Their world enjoyment is His, and liberation is His peaceful nature. The Agamas deal with the development of this Power which is not to be thought of as something without, but as within man's grasp through various forms of Shakti Sadhana. Being in the world and working through the world, the world itself, in the words of the Kularnava Tantra, becomes the seat of liberation (Mokshayate Samsara). The Vira or heroic Sadhaka does not shun the world from fear of it. But he holds it in his grasp and wrests from it its secret. Realizing it at length as Consciousness the world of matter ceases to be an object of desire. Escaping from the unconscious drifting of a humanity which has not yet realized itself, He is the illumined master of himself, whether developing all his powers, or seeking liberation at his will. [As M. Masson -Oursel so well puts it (Esquisse dune histoire de la philosophie indienne, p. 257) "Dans le tantrisme triomphent une conception immanentiste de 1'intelligibilite, L'esprit s'assigne pour but, non de se laisser vivre mais de se crer une vie digne de lui, une existence omnisciente omnipotente, qu'il maitrisera parce qu'il en sera auteur" (by Sadhana).] 266 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN . SHAKTI AND MAYA In the Eighth Chapter of the unpublished Sammohana Tantra, it is said that Shamkara manifested on earth in the form of Shamkaracarya, in order to root out Buddhism from India. It compares his disciples and himself to the five Mahapreta (who form the couch on which the Mother of the Worlds rests), and identifies his maths with the Amnayas, namely, the Govardhana in Puri with Purvamnaya (the Sampradaya being Bhogavara), and so on with the rest. Whatever be the claims of Shamkara as destroyer of the great Buddhistic heresy, which owing to its subtlety was the most dangerous antagonist which the Vedanta has ever had, or his claims as expounder of Upanishad from the standpoint of Siddhi, his Mayavada finds no place in the Tantras of the Agamas, for the doctrine and practice is given from the standpoint of Sadhana. This is not to say that the doctrine is explicitly denied. It is not considered. It is true that in actual fact we often give accommodation to differing theories for which logic can find no living room, but it is obvious that in so far as man is a worshipper he must accept the world- standpoint, if he would not, like Kalidasa, cut from beneath himself the branch of the tree on which he sits. Next, it would be a mistake to overlook the possibility of the so- called "Tantrik" tradition having been fed by ways of thought and practice which were not, in the strict sense of the term, part of the Vaidic cult, or in the line of its descent. The worship of the Great Mother, the Magna Mater of the Near East, the Adya Shakti of the Shakta Tantras, is in its essentials (as I have elsewhere pointed out) one of the oldest and most widespread religions of the world, and one which in India was possibly, in its origins, independent of the Brahmanic religion as presented to u s in the Vaidik Samhitas and Brahmanas. If this be so, it was later on undoubtedly mingled with the Vedanta tradition, so that the Shakta faith of to- day is a particular presentation of the general Vedantik teaching. This is historical speculation from an outside standpoint. As the Sarvollasa of Sarvanandanatha points out, and as is well -known to all adherents of the Shakta Agamas, Veda in its general sense includes these and other Shastras in what is called the great Shatakoti Samhita. Whatever be the orig ins of 267 doctrine (and this should not be altogether overlooked in any proper appreciation of it), I am here concerned with its philosophical aspect, as shown to us to -day in the teachings and practice of the Shaktas who are followers of the Agama. This teac hing occupies in some sense a middle place between the dualism of Samkhya, and Shamkara's ultra- monistic interpretation of Vedanta to which, unless otherwise stated, I refer. Both the Shaiva and Shakta schools accept the threefold aspect of the Supreme known as Prakasha, Vimarsha and Prakasha- Vimarsha called in Tantrik worship, "The Three Feet" (Caranatritaya). Both adopt the Thirty -six Tattvas, Shiva, Shakti, Sadashiva, Ishvara and Shuddhavidya, preceding the Purusha - Prakriti Tattvas with which the Samkhya commences. For whereas these are the ultimate Tattvas in that Philosophy, the Shaiva and Shakta schools claim to show how Purusha and Prakriti are themselves derived from higher Tattvas. These latter Tattvas are also dealt with from the Shabda side as Shakti, Nada, Bindu and as Kalas which are the Kriya of the various grades of Tattvas which are aspects of Shakti. The Shakta Tantras, such as the Saubhagyaratnakara and other works, speak of ninety -four of such Kalas appropriate to Sadashiva, Ishvara, Rudra, Vishnu, and Brahma, "Sun," "Moon,' and "Fire," (indicated in the form of the Ram Bija with Candrabindu transposed) of which fifty -one are Matrika Kalas, being the subtle aspects of the gross letters of Sanskrit alphabet. This last is the Mimamsaka doctrin e of Shabda adapted to the doctrine of Shakti. Common also to both Shakta and Shaiva Sampradayas is the doctrine of the Shadadhva. (See my Garland of Letters). I am not however here concerned with these details, but with the general concept of Shakti which is their underlying basis. It is sufficient to say that Shakta doctrine is a form of Advaitavada. In reply to the question what is "silent concealment" (Goptavyam), it is said: Atmaham -bhava -bhavanaya bhavayitavyam ityarthah. Hitherto greater pains have been taken to show the differences between the Darshanas than, by regarding their points of agreement, to co -ordinate them systematically. So far as the subject of the present article is concerned all three systems, Samkhya, Mayavada, Shaktivada, are in general agreement as to the nature of the infinite formless Consciousness, and posit therewith a finitizing principle called Prakriti, Maya and Shakti respectively. The main points on which Samkhya 268 (at any rate in what has been called its classical form) differs from Mayavada Vedanta are in its two doctrines of the plurality of Atmans on the one hand, and the reality and independence of Prakriti on the other. When however we examine these two Samkhya doctrines closely we find them to be mere accommodations to the infirmity of common thought. A Vedantic conclusion is concealed within its dualistic presentment. For if each liberated (Mukta) Purusha is all -pervading (Vibhu), and if there is not the slightest difference between one and another, what is the actual or practical difference between such pluralism and the doctrine of Atma? Again it is difficult for the ordinary mind to conceive that objects cease to exist when consciousness of objects ceases. The mind naturally conceives of their existing for others, although, according to the hypothesis, it has no right to conceive anything at all. But here again what do we find? In liberation Prakriti ceases to exist for the Mukta Purusha. In effect what is this but to say with Vedanta that Maya is not a real independent category (Padartha)? A critic has taken exception to my statement that the classical Samkhya conceals a Vedantic solution behind its dualistic presentment. I was not then, of course, speaking from historical standpoint. Shiva in the Kularnava Tantra says that the Six Philosophies are parts of His body, and he who severs them severs His body. They are each aspects of the Cosmic Mind as appearing in Humanity. The logical process which they manifest is one and continuous. The conclusions of each stage or standard can be shown to yield the material of that which follows. This is a logical necessity if it be assumed that the Vedanta is the truest and highest expression of that of which the lower dualistic and pluralistic stages are the approach. In Samkhya, the Purusha principle represents the formless consciousness, and Prakriti formative activity. Shamkara, defining Reality as that which exists as the same in all the three times, does not altogether discard these two principles, but says that they cannot exist as two independent Realities. He thus reduces the two categories of Samkhya, the Purusha Consciousness and Prakriti Unconsciousness to one Reality, the Brahman; otherwise the Vakya, "All is Brahman" (Sarvam khalvidam Brahma) is falsified. Brahman, however, in one aspect is dissociated from, and in another associated with Maya, which in his system takes the place of the Samkhyan Prakriti. Rut, 269 whereas, Prakriti is an independent Reality, Maya is something which is neither real (Sat) nor unreal (Asat) nor partly real and partly unreal (Sadasat), and which though not forming part of Brahman, and therefore not Brahman, is yet, though not a second reality, inseparably associated and sheltering with, Brahman (Maya Brahmashrita) in one of its aspects: owing what false appearance of reality it has, to the Brahman with which it is so associated. It is an Eternal Falsity (Mithyabhuta sanatani), unthinkable, alogical, unexplainable (Anirvacaniya). In other points, the Vedantic Maya and Samkhyan Prakriti agree. Though Maya is not a second reality, but a mysterious something of which neither reality nor unreality can be affirmed, the fact of positing it at all gives to Shamkara's doctrine a tinge of dualism from which Shakta theory is free. According to Samkhya, Prakriti is real although it changes. This question of reality is one of definition. Both Mulaprakriti and Maya are eternal. The world, though a changing thing, has at least empirical reality in either view. Both are unconsciousness. Consciousness is reflected on or in unconsciousness: that is to state one view for, as is known, there is a difference of opinion. The light of Purusha - Consciousness (Cit) is thrown on the Prakriti -Unconsciousness (Acit) in the form of Buddhi. Vijanabhikshu speaks of a mutual reflection. The Vedantic Pratibimbavadins say that Atma is reflected in Antahkarana, and the apparent likeness of the latter to Cit which is produced by such reflection is Cidabhasa or Jiva. This question of Cidabhasa is one of the main points of difference between Mayavada and Shaktivada. Notwithstanding that Maya is a falsity, it is not, according to Shamkara, a mere negation or want of something (Abhava), but a positive entity (Bhavarupamajanam): that is, it is in the nature of a power which veils (Acchadaka) consciousness, as Prakriti does in the case of Purusha. The nature of the great "Unexplained" as it is in Itself, and whether we call it Prakriti or Maya, is unknown. The Yoginihridaya Tantra beautifully says that we speak of the Heart of Yogini who is Knower of Herself (Yogini svavid), because the heart is the place whence all things issue. "What man," it says, "knows the heart of a woman? Only Shiva knows the Heart of Yogini." But from Shruti and its effects it is said to be one, all - pervading, eternal, existing now as seed and now as fruit, unconscious, composed of Gunas (Guna -mayi); unperceivable except through its effects, evolving (Parinami) these effects which are its products: that is the world, 270 which however assumes in each system the character of the alleged cause; that is, in Samkhya the effects are real: in Vedanta, neither real nor unreal. The forms psychic or physical arise in both cases as conscious -unconscious (Sadasat) effects from the association of Consciousness (Purusha or Ishvara) with Unconsciousness (Prakriti or Maya), Miyate anena iti Maya. Maya is that by which forms are measured or limited. This too is the function of Prakriti. Maya as the collective name of eternal ignorance (Ajana), produces, as the Prapacashakti, these forms, by fir st veiling (Avaranashakti) Consciousness in ignorance and then projecting these forms (Vikshepashakti) from the store of the cosmic Samskaras. But what is the Tamas Guna of the Samkhyan Prakriti in effect but pure Avidya? Sattva is the tendency to reflect consciousness and therefore to reduce unconsciousness. Rajas is the activity (Kriya) which moves Prakriti or Maya to manifest in its Tamasik and Sattvik aspect. Avidya means "na vidyate," "is not seen," and therefore is not experienced. Cit in association with Avidya does not see Itself as such. The first experience of the Soul reawakening after dissolution to world experience is, "There is nothing," until the Samskaras arise from out this massive Ignorance. In short, Prakriti and Maya are like the materia prima of the Thomistic philosophy, the finitizing principle; the activity which "measures out" (Miyate), that is limits and makes forms in the formless (Cit). The devotee Kamalakanta lucidly and concisely calls Maya, the form of the Formless (Shunyasya akara iti Maya). In one respect, Mayavada is a more consistent presentation of Advaitavada, than the Shakta doctrine to which we now proceed. For whilst Shamkara's system, like all others, posits the doctrine of aspects, saying that in one aspect the Brahman is associated with Maya (Ishvara), and that in another it is not (Parabrahman); yet in neither aspect does his Brahman truly change. In Shakta doctrine, Shiva does in one aspect (Shakti) change. Brahman is changeless and yet changes. But as change is only experienced by Jivatma subject to Maya, there is not perhaps substantial difference between such a statement, and that which affirms changelessness and only seeming change. In other respects, however, to which I now proceed, Shakta doctrine is a more monis tic presentation of Advaitavada. If one were asked its most essential characteristic, the reply should be, the absence of the concept of unconscious Maya as taught by Shamkara. Shruti says, "All is Brahman". 271 Brahman is consciousness: and therefore all is consciousness. There is no second thing called Maya which is not Brahman even though it be "not real", "not unreal"; definition obviously given to avoid the imputation of having posited a second Real. To speak of Brahman, and Maya which is not Brahman is to speak of two categories, however much it may be sought to explain away the second by saying that it is "not real" and "not unreal"; a falsity which is yet eternal and so forth. Like a certain type of modern Western "New Thought," Shakta doctrine affirms, "all is consciousness," however much unconsciousness appears in it. The Kaulacarya Sadananda says in his commentary on the 4th Mantra of Isopanishad (Ed. A. Avalon): "The changeless Brahman, which is consciousness appears in creation as Maya which is Brahman, (Brahmamayi), consciousness (Cidrupini) holding in Herself unbeginning (Anadi) Karmik tendencies (Karmasamskara) in the form of the three Gunas. Hence, She is Gunamayi, despite being Cinmayi. As there is no second principle these Gunas are Cit- Shakti." The Supreme Devi is thus Prakashavimarshasya -rupini, or the union of Prakasha and Vimarsha. According to Shamkara, man is Spirit (Atma) vestured in the Mayik 'falsities' of mind and matter. He, accordingly, can only establish the unity of Ishvara and Jiva by eliminating from the first Maya, and from the second Avidya, when Brahman is left as common denominator. The Shakta eliminates nothing. Man's spirit or Atma is Shiva, His mind and body are Shakti. Shakti and Shiva are one. The Jivatma is Shiva -Shakti. So is the Paramatma. This latter exists as one: the former as the manifold. Man is then not a Spirit covered by a non- Brahman falsity, but Spirit covering Itself with Its own power or Shakti. What then is Shakti, and how does it come about that there is some principle of unconsciousness in things, a fact which cannot be denied. Shakti comes from the root "shak," "to be able," "to have power". It may be applied to any form of activity. The power to see is visual Shakti, the power to burn is Shakti of fire, a nd so forth. These are all forms of activity which are ultimately reducible to the Primordial Shakti (Adya Shakti) whence every other form of Power proceeds. She is called Yogini because of Her connection with all things as their origin. It is this Origina l Power which is known in worship as Devi or Mother of Many Names. Those who worship 272 the Mother, worship nothing "illusory" or unconscious, but a Supreme Consciousness, whose body is all forms of consciousness -unconsciousness produced by Her as Shiva's power. Philosophically, the Mother or Daivashakti is the kinetic aspect of the Brahman. All three systems recognize that there is a static and kinetic aspect of things: Purusha, Brahman, Shiva on the one side, Prakriti, Maya, Shakti on the other. This is the time -honored attempt to reconcile the doctrine of a changeless Spirit, a changing Manifold, and the mysterious unity of the two. For Power (Shakti) and the possessor of the Power (Shaktiman) are one and the same. In the Tantras, Shiva constantly says to De vi, "There is no difference between Thee and Me." We say that the fire burns, but burning is fire. Fire is not one thing and burning another. In the supreme transcendental changeless state, Shiva and Shakti are one, for Shiva is never without Shakti. The connection is called Avinabhavasambandha. Consciousness is never without its Power. Power is active Brahman or Consciousness. But, as there is then no activity, they exist in the supreme state as one Tattva (Ekam tattvam iva); Shiva as Cit, Shakti as Cidrup ini. This is the state before the thrill of Nada, the origin of all those currents of force which are the universe. According to Shamkara, the Supreme Experience contains no trace or seed of' objectivity whatever. In terms of speech, it is an abstract consciousness (Jana). According to the view here expressed, which has been profoundly elaborated by the Kashmir Shaiva School, that which appears "without" only so appears because it, in some form or other, exists "within". So also the Shakta Visvasara Tantra says, "what is here is there, what is not here is nowhere." If therefore we know duality, it must be because the potentiality of it exists in that from which it arises. The Shaivashakta school thus assumes a real derivation of the universe and a causal nexus between Brahman and the world. According to Shamkara, this notion of creation is itself Maya, and there is no need to find a cause for it. So it is held that the supreme experience (Amarsha) is by the Self (Shiva) of Himself as Shakti, who as such is the Ideal or Perfect Universe; not in the sense of a perfected world of form, but that ultimate formless feeling (Bhava) of Bliss (Ananda) or Love which at root the whole world is. All is Love and by Love all is attained. The Shakta Tantras compare the state immediately prior to creation with that of a grain of gram (Canaka) wherein the two seeds (Shiva and Shakti) are held as one under a single 273 sheath. There is, as it were, a Maithuna in this unity of dual aspect, the thrill of which is Nada, productive of the seed or Bindu from which the universe is born. When the sheath breaks and the seeds are pushed apart, the beginning of a dichotomy is established in the one consciousness, whereby, the "I", and the "This" (Idam or Universe) appear as separate. The spec ific Shiva aspect is, when viewed through Maya, the Self, and the Shakti aspect the Not -Self. This is to the limited consciousness only. In truth the two, Shiva and Shakti, are ever one and the same, and never dissociated. Thus each of the Bindus of the Ka makala are Shiva -Shakti appearing as Purusha -Prakriti. At this point, Shakti assumes several forms, of which the two chief are Cit - Shakti or as Cit as Shakti, and Maya -Shakti or Maya as Shakti. Maya is not here a mysterious unconsciousness, a non-Brahman, non- real, non- unreal something. It is a form of Shakti, and Shakti is Shiva who is Consciousness which is real. Therefore Maya Shakti is in itself (Svarupa) Consciousness and Brahman. Being Brahman, It is real. It is that aspect of conscious power which conceals Itself to Itself. "By veiling the own true form (Svarupa = Consciousness), its Shaktis always arise", (Svarupavarane casya shaktayah satatotthitah) as the Spandakarika says. This is a common principle in all doctrine relating to Shakti. Indeed, this theory of veiling, though expressed in another form, is common to Samkhya and Vedanta. The difference lies in this that in Samkhya it is a second, independent Principle which veils; in Mayavada Vedanta it is the non- Brahman Maya (called a Shakti of Ishvar a) which veils; and in Shakta Advaitavada (for the Shaktas are nondualists) it is Consciousness which, without ceasing to be such, yet veils Itself. As already stated, the Monistic Shaivas and Shaktas hold certain doctrines in common such as the thirty -six Tattvas, and what are called Shadadhva which also appear as part of the teaching of the other Shaiva Schools. In the thirty -six Tattva scheme, Maya which is defined as "the sense of difference" (Bhedabuddhi), for it is that which makes the Self see things as different from the Self, is technically that Tattva which appears at the close of the pure creation, that is, after Shuddhavidya. This Maya reflects and limits in the Pashu or Jiva, the Iccha, Jana, Kriya Shaktis of Ishvara. These again are the three Bindus which are "Moon," "Fire," and "Sun". (See Author's Garland of Letters.) What are Jana and Kriya (including Iccha its preliminary) on the part of the Pati (Lord) in all beings and things 274 (Bhaveshu) which are His body: it is these two which, with Maya as the third, are the Sattva, Rajas and Tamas Gunas of the Pashu. This veiling power explains how the undeniable element of unconsciousness which is seen in things exists. How, if all be consciousness, is that principle there '? The answer is given in th e luminous definition of Shakti; "It is the function of Shakti to negate" (Nishedhavyapararupa Shaktih), that is, to negate consciousness and make it appear to Itself as unconscious (Karika 4 of Yogaraja or Yogamuni's Commentary on Abhinava Gupta's Paramar thasara). In truth the whole world is the Self whether as "I" (Aham) or "This" (Idam). The Self thus becomes its own object. It becomes object or form that it may enjoy dualistic experience. It yet remains, what it was in its unitary blissful experience. This is the Eternal Play in which the Self hides and seeks itself. The formless cannot assume form unless formlessness is negated. Eternity is negated into finality; the all -pervading into the limited; the all -knowing into the "little knower"; the almighty into the "little doer," and so forth. It is only by negating Itself to Itself that the Self becomes its own object in the form of the universe. It follows from the above that, to the Shakta worshipper, there is no unconscious Maya in Shamkara's sense, and therefore there is no Cidabhasa, in the sense of the reflection of consciousness on unconsciousness, giving the latter the appearance of consciousness which it does not truly possess. For all is Consciousness as Shakti. "Aham Stri," as the Advaitabhavopani sad exclaims. In short, Shamkara says there is one Reality or Consciousness and a not -real not -unreal Unconsciousness. What is really unconscious appears to be conscious by the reflection of the light of Consciousness upon it. Shakta doctrine says consciou sness appears to be unconscious, or more truly, to have an element of unconsciousness in it (for nothing even empirically is absolutely unconscious), owing to the veiling play of Consciousness Itself as Shakti. As with so many other matters, these apparent differences are to some extent a matter of words. It is true that the Vedantists speak of the conscious (Cetana) and unconscious (Acetana), but they, like the Shakta Advaitins, say that the thing in itself is Consciousness. When this is vividly displayed by reason of the reflection (Pratibimbha) of consciousness in 275 Tattva, (such as Buddhi), capable of displaying this reflection, then we can call that in which it is so displayed conscious. Where, though consciousness is all- pervading, Caitanya is not so dis played, there we speak of unconsciousness. Thus, gross matter (Bhuta) does not appear to reflect Cit, and so appears to us unconscious. Though all things are at base consciousness, some appear as more, and some as less conscious. Shamkara explains this by saying that Caitanya is associated with a non- conscious mystery or Maya which veils consciousness, and Caitanya gives to what is unconscious the appearance of consciousness through reflection. "Reflection" is a form of pictorial thinking. What is meant is that two principles are associated together without the nature (Svarupa) of either being really affected, and yet producing that effect which is Jiva. Shakta doctrine says that all is consciousness, but this same consciousness assumes the appearance of changing degrees of unconsciousness, not through the operation of anything other than itself (Maya), but by the operation of one of its own powers (Mayashakti). It is not unconscious Maya in Shamkara's sense which veils consciousness, but Consciousness as Shakti veils Itself, and, as so functioning, it is called Mayashakti. It may be asked how can Consciousness become Unconsciousness and cease to be itself '? The answer is that it does not. It never ceases to be Consciousness. It appears to itself, as Jiva, to be unconscious, and even then not wholly: for as recent scientific investigations have shown, even so -called "brute matter" exhibits the elements of that which, when evolved in man, is self -consciousness. If it be asked how consciousness can obscure itself partially or at all, the only answer is Acintya Shakti, which Mayavadins as all other Vedantists admit. Of this, as of all ultimates, we must say with the Western Scholastics, "omnia exeunt in mysterium". Prakriti is then, according to Samkhya, a real independent category different from Purusha. This both Mayavada and Shaktivada deny. Maya is a not -real, not-unreal Mystery dependent on, and associated with, and inhering in Brahman; but not Brahman or any part of Brahman. Maya -Shakti is a power of, and, in its Svarupa, not different from Shiva: is real, and is an aspect of Brahman itself. Whilst Brahman as Ishvara is associated with Maya, Shiva is never associated with anything but Himself. But the function of all three is the same, namely to make forms in the formless. It is That, by which the 276 Ishvara or Collective Consciousness pictures the universe for the individual Jiva's experience. Shakti is three- fold as Will (Iccha), Knowledge (Jana), and Action (Kriya). All three are but differing aspects of the one Shakti. Consciousness and its power or action are at base the same. It is true that action is manifested in matter, that is apparent unconsciousness, but its root, as that of all else is consciousness. Jana is self -proved and experienced (Svatahsiddha), whereas, Kriya, being inherent in bodies, is perceived by others than by ourselves. The characteristic of action is the manifestation of all objects. These objects, again, characterized by consciousness -unconsciousness are in the nature of a shining forth (Abhasa) of Consciousness. (Here Abhasa is not used in its sense of Cidabhasa, but as an intensive form of the term Bhasa.) The power of activity and knowledge are only differing aspects of one and the same Consciousness. According to Shamkara, Brahman has no form of self- determination. Kriya is a function of unconscious Maya. When Ishvara is said to be a doer (Karta), this is attributed (Aupadhika) to Him by ignorance only. It follows from the above that there are other material differences between Shakt a doctrine and Mayavada, such as the nature of the Supreme Experience, the reality and mode of creation, the reality of the world, and so forth. The world, it is true, is not; as the Mahanirvana Tantra says absolute reality in the sense of unchanging being, for it comes and goes. It is nevertheless real, for it is the experience of Shiva and Shiva's experience is not unreal. Thus again the evolution of the world as Abhasa, whilst resembling the Vivarta of Mayavada, differs from it in holding, as the Samkhya does, that the effect is real and not unreal, as Shamkara contends. To treat of these and other matters would carry me beyond the scope of this essay which only deals, and that in a summary way, with the essential differences and similarities in the concept Prakriti, Maya and Shakti. I may however conclude with a few general remarks. The doctrine of Shakti is a profound one, and I think likely to be attractive to Western minds when they have grasped it, just as they will appreciate the Tantrik watchword, Kriya or action, its doctrine of progress with and through the world and not against it, which is involved in its liberation- enjoyment (Bhukti -mukti) theory and other matters. The philosophy is, in any case, not, as an American writer, in his ignorance, absurdly called it, "worthless," "religious Feminism 277 run mad," and a "feminization of Vedanta for suffragette Monists". It is not a "feminization" of anything, but distinctive, original and practical doctrine worthy of a careful study. The Western student will find much in it which is more acceptable to generally prevalent thought in Europe and America -- than in the "illusion" doctrine (in itself an unsuitable term), and the ascetic practice of the Vedantins of Shamkara's school. This is not to say that ways of reconciliation may not be found by those who go far enough. It would not be difficult to show ground for holding that ultimately the same intellectual results are attained by viewing the matter from the differing standpoints of Sadhana and Siddhi. The writer of an interesting article on the same subject in the Prabuddha Bharata (August 1916) states that the Samnyasi Totapuri, the Guru of Sri Ramakrishna, maintained that a (Mayavadin) Vedantist could not believe in Shakti, for if causality itself be unreal there is no need to admit any power to cause, and that it is Maya to apply the principle of causation and to say that everything comes from Shakti. The Samnyasi was converted to Shakta doctrine after all. For as the writer well says, it is not merely by intellectual denial, but by living beyond the "unreal," that Real is found. He, however, goes on to say, "the Shaktivada of Tantra is not an improvement on the Mayavada of Vedanta, (that is the doctrine of Shamkara) but only its symbolization through the chromatics of sentiment and concept." It is true that it is a form of Vedanta, for all which is truly Indian must be that. It is also a fact that the Agama as a Shastra of worship is full of Symbolism. Intellectually, however, it is an original presentment of Vedanta, and from the practical point of view, it has some points of merit which Mayavada does not possess. Varieties of teaching may be different presentations of one truth leading to a similar end. But one set of "chromatics" may be more fruitful than another for the mass of men. It is in this that the strength of the Shakta doctrine and practice lies. Moreover (whether they be an improvement or not) there are differences between the two. Thus the followers of Shamkara do not, so far as I am aware, accept the thirty -six Tattvas. A question, however, which calls for inquiry is that of the relation of the Shakta and Shaiva (Advaita) Schools Mayavada is a doctrine which, whether true or not, is fitted only for advanced minds of great intellectuality, and for men of ascetic disposition, and of the highest moral 278 development. This is implied in its theory of competency (Adhikara) for Vedantic teaching. When, as is generally the case, it is not understood, and in some cases when it is understood, but is otherwise not suitable, it is liable to be a weakening doctrine. The Shakta teaching to be found in the Tantras has also its profundities which are to be revealed only to the competent, and contains a practical doctrine for all classes of worshippers (Sadhaka). It has, in this form, for the mass of men, a strengthening pragmatic value which is beyond dispute. Whether, as some may have contended, it is the fruit of a truer spiritual experience I will not here discuss, for this would lead me into a polemic beyond the scope of my present purpose, which is an impartial statement of the respective teachings, on one particular point, given by the three philosophical systems here discussed. 279 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN . SHAKTA ADVAITAVADA I have often been asked -- In what consists the difference between Vedanta and 'Tantra'. This question is the product of substantial error, for it assumes that Tantra Shastra is not based on Vedanta. I hope that, after many years of work, I have now ma de it clear that the Tantra Shastra or Agama (whatever be its ultimate origin as to which little is known by anybody) is now, and has been for centuries past, one of the recognized Scriptures of Hinduism, and every form of Hinduism is based on Veda and Vedanta. Another erroneous question, though less so, is -- In what consists the difference between Advaita Vedanta and 'Tantra' Shastra. But here again, the question presupposes a misunderstanding of both Vedanta and Agama. There are, as should be well known, several schools of Advaita Vedanta, such as Mayavada (with which too commonly the Advaita Vedanta is identified), such as the schools of the Northern Shaivagama, and Shuddhadvaita of Vallabhacarya. In the same way, there are different schools of doctrine and worship in what are called the 'Tantras', and a grievous mistake is committed when the Tantra is made to mean the Shakta Tantra only, such as is prevalent in Bengal and which, according to some, is either the product of, or has been influenced by Buddhism. Some English -speaking Bengalis of a past day, too ready to say, "Aye aye," to the judgments of foreign critics, on their religion as on everything else, and in a hurry to dissociate themselves from their country's "superstitions," were the source of t he notion which has had such currency amongst Europeans that, "Tantra" necessarily meant drinking wine and so forth. A legitimate and accurate question is -- In what consists the difference between, say, the Mayavadin's Vedanta and that taught by the Shakt a Sampradaya of Bengal. One obviously fundamental difference at once emerges. The Agamas being essentially ritual or Sadhana Shastras are not immediately and practically concerned with the Yoga doctrine touching Paramarthika Satta taught by Shamkaracarya. A Sadhaka ever assumes the reality of the Universe, and is a practical dualist, whatever be the non- dual philosophical doctrines to which he may be intellectually attracted. He 280 worships, that is assumes the being of some Other who is worshipped, that is a Real Lord who really creates, maintains, and really dissolves the Universe. He himself, the object of his worship and the means of worship are real, and his Advaita views are presented on this basis. It is on this presentment then that the next class of differences is to be found. What are they? The essence of them lies in this that the Sadhaka looks at the Brahman, through the world, whereas to the Mayavadin Yogi, placing himself at the Brahman standpoint, there is neither creation nor world but the luminous Atma. The Clear Light of the Void, as the Mahayanists call it, that alone is. Nevertheless, both the Advaita Sadhaka and the Advaita Yogi are one in holding that the Brahman alone is. Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma is the great saying (Vakya) on which all Shakta Tantra Shastra rests. The difference in interpretation then consists in the manner in which this Mahavakya is to be explained. Does it really mean what it says, or does it mean that the saying applies only after elimination of Maya and Avidya. Here there is the necessary difference because, in the case of the Sadhaka, the Vakya must be explained on the basis of his presuppositions already given, whereas the Yogi who has passed the stage in which he became Siddha in Sadhana surpasses, by auto- realization, all dualism. The vast mass of men are better warned off discussions on Paramarthika Satta. Whether the concept be true or not, it only leads in their case to useless argument (Vicara), and thus enfeebles them. Shakta doctrine, as its name implies, is a doctrine of power. It is true that Yoga is power, indeed the highest form of it (Yogabala). But it is a power only for those qualified (Adhikari), and not for the mass. I am not therefore here adversely criticizing Mayavada. It is a pity that this country whose great glory it is to have preached Abheda in varying forms, and therefore tolerance, is to -day full of hateful Bheda of all kinds. I say "hateful", for Bheda is a natural thing, only hateful when accompanied by hate and intolerance. Profoundly it is said in Halhed's Gentoo laws that, "contrarieties of religion and diversity of belief are a demonstration of the power of the Supreme. Differences and varieties of created things are rays of the Glorious Essence, and types of His wonderful attributes whose complete power formed all creatures." There is also the saying attributed to the Apostle of God, Mohammed, in the Radd- ul-Muhtar and elsewhere -- "difference of opinion is also the gift of God". In these sayings speaks the 281 high spirit of Asia. There may be political remedies for sectarian ill -feeling, but a medicine of more certain effect in this country is the teaching, "Rama Rahim ek hai". Let us then not only objectively, but in all amity, examine the two great systems mentioned. We all know what is normal world- experience in the Samsara. Some through auto- realization have super -normal or "mystic" experience. This last is of varying kinds, and is had in all religions. The highest form of it, according to Mayavada, is Nirvana Moksha, but there are many degrees short of this complete self -realization as the Whole (Purna). But the great majority of men are not concerned directly with such high matters, but with a realization of power in the world. World- experience is called ignorance, Ajana. This may confuse. It is ignorance only in this sense, that whilst we have normal experience, we are by that very fact ignoring, that is, not having super -normal experience. In sup er-normal experience again there is no finite world- experience. The Lord Himself cannot have man's experience except as and through man. Avidya means Na Vidyate, that is, which is not seen or experienced. Some speak in foolish disparagement of the world which is our very close concern. As a link between Yoga and Bhoga, the Shakta teaches, Yogo Bhogayate. I am now dealing with Mayavada. Whence does this ignorance in the individual or Avidya, come? The world is actually ignorant and man is part of it. This ignorance is the material cause of the world. This is not ignorance of the individual (Avidya), for then, there would be as many worlds as individuals; but the collective ignorance or Maya. Avidya exists to provide happiness or pain (Bhoga) for individuals, that is normal world- experience. Stated simply, ignorance in the sense of Maya has no beginning or end, though worlds appear and go. What is this but to say that it is in the nature (Svabhava) of the Real which manifests to do so, and the nature of its fut ure manifestation proceeds upon lines indicated by the past collective Karma of the world. Now, enjoyment and suffering cannot be denied, nor the existence of an element of unconsciousness in man. But the Paramatma, as such, does not, it is said, suffer or enjoy, but is Pure Consciousness. What consciousness then does so? Shamkara, who is ever solicitous to preserve purity of the Supreme unchanging Self, says that it is not true consciousness, but a false 282 image of it reflected in ignorance and which disappe ars when the latter is destroyed. This is in fact Samkhyan Dualism in another form, and because of this Shaktivada claims to have a purer Advaita doctrine. In Samkhya the Purusha, and in Mayavada the Atma illumine Prakriti and Maya respectively, but are never in fact bound by her. What is in bondage is the reflection of Purusha or Atma in Prakriti or Maya. This is Cidabhasa or the appearance of consciousness in a thing which is in fact not conscious; the appearance being due to the reflection of consciousness (Cit), or ignorance (Ajana), or unconsciousness (Acit). The false consciousness as Jivatma, suffers and enjoys. According to the Shakta view there is, as later explained, no Cidabhasa. Now, is this Ajana independent of Atma or not? Its independence, such as Samkhya teaches, is denied. Ignorance then, whether collective or individual, must be traced to, and have its origin in, and rest on Consciousness as Atma. How this is so, is unexplained, but the unreal which owes its existence in some inscrutable way to Reality is yet, it is said, in truth no part of it. It is Brahman then, which is both the efficient and material cause of ignorance with its three Gunas, and of Cidabhasa, Brahma is the cause through its inscrutable power (Acintyashaktitvat) or Maya -Shakti, Now, is this Shakti real or unreal? According to the transcendent standpoint (Paramarthika) of Mayavada it is unreal. The creative consciousness is a reflection on ignorance or Maya. It is Brahman seen through the veil of Maya. This is not a denial of Brahman, but of the fact that it creates. A true consciousness, it is said, can have no incentive to create. From the standpoint of the Supreme State nothing happens. Both the consciousness which as Ishvara creates, and as Jiva enjoys are Cidabhasa, the only difference being that the first is not, and the second is under the influence of Maya. Then it is asked, ignorance being unconscious and incapable of independent operation, true consciousness being inactive (Nishkriya), and Cidabhasa being unreal, how is ignorance capable of hiding true consciousness and producing the world out of itself ? To this the only reply is Svabhava that is, the very nature of ignorance makes it capable of producing apparently impossible effects. It is inscrutable (Anirvacani ya). 283 The Shakta then asks whether this Shakti is real or unreal, conscious or unconscious, Brahman or not Brahman? If it be a Shakti of Brahman, it cannot be unreal, for there is no unreality in Brahman. It must be conscious for otherwise unconsciousness would be a factor in Brahman. It is Brahman then; for power (Shakti) and the possessor of power (Shaktiman) are one and the same. Therefore, the Shakta Tantra Shastra says that Shakti which, operating as Cit and Maya, is Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti, is real, conscious and Brahman itself (Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma). It follows that Shakti which is Brahman in its aspect as Creator is, in fact, both the efficient and material cause of the world. If the first or cause is real, so is the second or world. If the first be the cause of unreality, it is in itself unreal. But what is real is Brahman. Therefore, the world has a real cause which is not unreal unconsciousness or ignorance composed of three Gunas, but conscious Shakti and Brahman. It, therefore, does away with the necessity for Cidabhasa; for, if real conscious Shakti is the cause of the world, then there is no need for unreal unconsciousness which Mayavada is driven to posit to secure the absolute purity of the Brahman Consciousness. From the standpoint of Mayavada, the objection to the exclusion of Cidabhasa lies in the fact that, if the world is derived direct from conscious Shakti (as Shaktas hold), then the Supreme Consciousness is made both enjoyer and object of enjoyment. But it holds that, Paramatma does not enjoy and has no need to do so; whilst the object of enjoyment is unconscious. Hence, the trace of Samkhyan dualism, the Atma exerting an influence over Maya by virtue of its proximity only (Sannidhimatrena Upakari). Pure Atma is not itself concerned. Maya receives its influence. This is analogous to what is called in Chemistry catalytic action. The catalytic substance influences another by its mere presence, but remains itself apparently unchanged. Atma is in this sense an efficient but not instrumen tal or material cause of the world. As Atma is only Sacchidananda, the world, so long as it is considered to exist, must exist in Pure Consciousness (Atmastha), though essentially it is different from it (Atmavilakshana), and does not exist for its purpose . In Mayavada, the world, from the transcendental standpoint, does not exist 284 and Atma is not cognizant of it. Hence, the question of the cause of Creation is bred of ignorance. So also, is the idea of efficient cause, for it proceeds from a search for the cause of Creation which does not exist. Mayavada, from the standpoint of normal conventional experience (Vyavaharika Satta), speaks of the Shakti of Atma as a cause of Creation, simply to provide the empirical world of the worldly man with a worldly interp retation of its worldly existence. From this point of view, Brahman is looked at through the world, which is the natural thing for all who are not liberated. From the other end or Brahman, there is no Creation nor world, and Atma alone is. The Shakta may reply to this: Is not your Paramarthika standpoint in fact empirical, arrived at by argument (Vicara) with a limited intellect? If inscrutable power is a cause of the world, it is inscrutable, because the intellect cannot grasp it, though it is known to be Atma. If the latter can show inscrutable power, how can you say that it is incapable of appearing as enjoyer and object of enjoyment? To deny this is to deny the unlimited character of inscrutable power. If it be objected, that Atma cannot be object of enjoyment, because, the former is conscious and the latter unconscious, what proof is there, that such an object is essentially unconscious? It may be, that consciousness is not perceived in it, that is, the material world appears to be unconscious, and therefore unconsciousness comes in somewhere, otherwise it could not be perceived as unconscious. Thus, a school of European idealists hold the Universe to be a society of Spirits of all kinds and degrees, human, animal, and vegetable and even inorganic objects . All are minds of various orders. Even the last are an order, though yet so low that they are in practice not apprehended as minds. The material world is merely the way in which these lower kinds of mind appear to our senses. The world of objects are (to use Berkely's word) "signs" of Spirit, and the way in which it communicates itself to us. Thus, to the Hindu, the Bhargah in the Sun is the Aditya Devata, and the planets are intelligences. The physical sun is the body of the Surya Devata. The whole Univer se is an epiphany of Spirit. Matter is Cit as object to the mind, as mind is Cit as the Knower of such object. It is not, however, denied that there is an element of unconsciousness in the material world as it appears to us. But the Shakta says, that Shakti has the power of hiding its consciousness, which is exercised to varying extent; thus, to a greater extent in the case of inorganic 285 matter than in the case of the plant, and the less in the latter than in man, in whom consciousness is most manifest. This power is Her Avidya Murti, just as consciousness is her Vidya Murti. Nothing then in the material world is absolutely unconscious, and nothing is perfectly conscious. The Vidya Murti ever is because as consciousness it is the own nature or Svarupa of Shakti. The Avidya Murti which conceals consciousness, appears in Creation and disappears in dissolution. The Mayavadin may however ask, whether this Avidya -shakti is conscious or unconscious. It cannot, he says, be the latter, for it is said to be Atma which is conscious. How then can it conceal itself and appear as unconscious P For, nothing can be, what it is not, and the nature of consciousness is to reveal and not to conceal. If, again, consciousness on account of its concealment, is incapable of knowing i tself, it ceases to be consciousness. The reply is again that this also is empirical argument, based upon an imperfect idea of the nature of things. Every one knows that there is consciousness in him, but at the same time he recognizes, that it is imperfect. The Mayavadin seeks to explain this by saying, that it is a false consciousness (Cidabhasa), which is again explained by means of two opposites, namely, unconsciousness, which is an unreality to which Cidabhasa adheres, and true consciousness or Atma, w hich, by virtue of its inscrutable power, acts as efficient cause in its production. This theory compels its adherent to ignore the world, the limited consciousness and Shastra itself in order that the perfection of Atma may be maintained, though at the same time, Shakti is admitted to be unlimited and inscrutable. The Shakta's answer on the other side is, that there is in fact no false consciousness, and essentially speaking, no unconsciousness anywhere, though there appears to be some unconsciousness. In fact, Mayavada says, that the unconscious appears to be conscious through the play of Atma on it, whilst the Shakta says that, really and at base, all is consciousness which appears to be unconsciousness in varying degrees. All consciousness, however imperfect, is real consciousness, its imperfection being due to its suppressing its own light to itself, and all apparent unconsciousness is due to this imperfection in the consciousness which sees it. Mayavada seeks to explain away the world, from which nevert heless, it derives the materials for its theory. But it is 286 argued that it fails to do so. In its attempt to explain, it brings in a second principle namely unconsciousness, and even a third Cidabhasa. Therefore, the theory of Shaktivada which posits nothing but consciousness is (it is contended) a truer form of non- dualism. Yet we must note, that the theories of both are made up with the imperfect light of man's knowledge. Something must then remain unexplained in all systems. The Mayavada does not explain the character of the Shakti of Atma as Efficient cause of creation, and the Shakta does not explain the character of the Shakti of Atma which, in spite of being true consciousness, hides itself. But whilst the Shakta difficulty stands alone, the other theory brings, it is said, in its train a number of others. The Mayavadin may also ask, whether Avidya Murti is permanent or transient. If the latter, it cannot be Atma which eternally is, whereas if it is permanent, liberation is impossible. It may be replied that this objection does not lie in the mouth of Mayavada which, in a transcendental sense, denies creation, world, bondage and liberation. The latter is a transition from bondage to freedom which presupposes the reality of the world and a connection between it and that, which is beyond all worlds. This, Shamkara denies, and yet acknowledges a method of spiritual culture for liberation. The answer of course is, that transcendentally Atma is ever free, and that such spiritual culture is required for the emp irical (Vyavaharika) need of the empirical self or Cidabhasa, for empirical liberation from an empirical world. But, as all these conventional things are in an absolute sense "unreal," the Mayavada's instructions for spiritual culture have been likened to consolations given to soothe the grief of a sterile woman who has lost her son. (See J. N. Mazumdar's paper read before the Indian Research Society on the Philosophical, Religious and Social Significance of the Tantra Shastra (July 31, 1915), to which I am here indebted.) Theoretically the answer may be sufficient, though this may not be allowed, but the method can in any case, have full pragmatic value only, in exceptional cases. Doubtless to the unliberated Mayavadin Sadhaka, the world is real, in the sense, that it imposes its reality on him, whatever his theories may be. But it is plain, that such a system does not ordinarily at least develop the same power as one, in which doubt as to the reality of things does not exist. In order that instruction shoul d work, we must 287 assume a real basis for them. Therefore, the Tantra Shastra here spoken of, deals with true bondage in a true world, and aims at true liberation from it. It is Shakti, who both binds and liberates, and Sadhana of Her is the means of liberation. Nothing is unreal or false. Shakti is and Shakti creates and thus appears as the Universe. In positing an evolution (Parinama), the Shastra follows Samkhya, because, both systems consider the ultimate source of the world to be real, as unconscious Prakriti or conscious Shakti respectively. The Shakta takes literally the great saying, "All the (Universe) is Brahman" -- every bit of it. Mayavada achieves its unity by saying, that Jivatma = Para matma after elimination of Avidya in the first and Maya in the second. Ignorance is something neither real nor unreal. It is not real in comparison with the supreme unchanging Brahman. It is not unreal, for we experience it as real, and it is for the length of the duration of such experience. Again, Shaktivada assumes a real development (Parinama), with this proviso that the cause becomes effect, and yet remains what it was as cause. Mayavada says that there is transcendentally no real change but only the appearance of it; that is, the notion of Parinama is Maya lik e all the rest. The Tantra Shastra deals with true bondage in a true world, and aims at true liberation from it. Atma binds itself by the Avidya Murti of its Shakti, and liberates itself by its Vidya Murti. Sadhana is the means whereby bondage becomes liberation. Nothing is unreal or false. Atma by its Shakti causes the play in itself of a Shakti which is essentially nothing but itself but operates in a dual capacity, namely as Avidya and Vidya. Creation is thus an epiphany of the Atma, which appears and is withdrawn from and into itself like the limbs of a tortoise. The All -Pervading Atma, manifests itself in many Jivas; as the world which supplies the objects of their enjoyment; as the mind and senses for the attainment of the objects; as ignorance which binds; as knowledge which liberates when Atma ceases to present itself; as Avidya; and as Shastra which provides the means for liberation. Shaktivada affirms reality throughout, because, it is a practical Scripture for real men in a real world. Without such presupposition, Sadhana is not possible. When Sadhana has achieved its object -- Siddhi -- as Auto -realization -- no question of the real or unreal arises. In the Buddhacarita -kavya it is said (cited in Hodgson "Nepal," 45) that Sakya being questioned on an abstruse point, is reported to have said, "For myself I can tell you nothing on these matters. Meditate on 288 Buddha and when you have obtained the supreme experience (Bodhijana) you will know the truth yourself." In these high realms we reach a point at which wisdom is silence. After all man in the mass is concerned with worldly needs, and there is nothing to be ashamed of in this. One of the greatest doctrines in the Shakta Tantra is its Bhukti Mukti teaching, and it is not less great because it may have been abused. All systems are at the mercy of their followers. Instead of the ascetic method of the Mayavadin suited for men of high spiritual development, whose Ascesis is not something labored but an expression of their own true nature, the Kaula teaches liberation through enjoyment, that is the world. The path of enjoyment is a natural one. There is nothing bad in enjoyment itself if it be according to Dharma. It is only Adharma which is blamed. Liberation is thus had through the world (Mokshayate Samsar a). In the natural order of development, power is developed in worldly things, but the power is controlled by a religious Sadhana, which both prevents an excess of worldliness, and molds the mind and disposition (Bhava) into a form which, at length and naturally, develops into that knowledge which produces dispassion (Vairagya) for the world. The two paths lead to the same end. But this is itself too big a subject to be developed here. Sufficient be it to repeat what I have said elsewhere. "The Vira does not shun the world from fear of it. He holds it in his grasp and wrests from it its secret. Then escaping from the unconscious driftings of a humanity which has not yet realized itself, he is the illumined master of himself, whether developing all his powers or seeking liberation at his will." As regards the state of dissolution (Pralaya) both systems are at one. In positing an evolution Tantra follows Samkhya because both the two latter theories consider the ultimate source of the world to be real; real as unconscious Prakriti (Samkhya); real as conscious Shakti (Shakta Tantra). In the Mayavada scheme, the source of the world is an unreal ignorance, and reveals itself first as Tanmatras which gradually assume the form of senses and mind in order to appear before Cidabhasa as objects of enjoyment and suffering. The Tantra Shastra again, subject to modifications in consonance with its doctrine, agrees with Nyaya -Vaisheshika in holding that the powers of consciousness which are Will (Iccha), Knowledge (Jana) and Action 289 (Kriya) constitute the motive power in creation. These are the great Triangle of Energy (Kamakala) from which Shabda and Artha, the forces of the psychic and material worlds, arise. 290 CHAPTER NINETEEN . CREATION AS EXPLAINED IN THE NON-DUALIST TANTRAS A Psychological analysis of our worldly experience ordinarily gives us both the feeling of persistence and change. This personal experience expresses a cosmic truth. An examination of any doctrine of creation similarly reveals two fundamental concepts, those of Being and Becoming, Changelessness and Change, the One and the Many. In Sanskrit, they are called the Kutastha and Bhava or Bhavana. The first is the Spirit or Purusha or Brahman and Atman which is unlimited Being (Sat), Consciousness (Cit) and Bliss (Ananda). According to Indian notions the Atman as such is and never becomes. Its Power (Shakti) manifests as Nature, which is the subject of change. We may understand Nature in a two- fold sense: first, as the root principle or noumenal cause of the phenomenal world, that is, as the Principle of Becoming and secondly, as such World. Nature in the former sense is Mulaprakriti, which means that which exists as the root (Mula) substance of things before (Pra), creation (Kriti), and which, in association with Cit, either truly or apparently creates, maintains and destroys the Universe. This Mulaprakriti the Sharada Tilaka calls Mulabhuta Avyakta, and the Vedanta (of Shamkara to which alone I refer) Maya. Nature, in the second sense, that is the phenomenal world, which is a product of Mulaprakriti is the compound of the evolutes from this root substance which are called Vikritis in the Samkhya and Tantra, and name and form (Namarupa) by the Vedantins, who at tribute them to ignorance (Avidya). Mulaprakriti as the material and instrumental cause of things is that potentiality of natural power (natura naturans) which manifests as the Universe (natura naturata). Touching these two Principles, there are certain fu ndamental points of agreement in the three systems which I am examining -- Samkhya, Vedanta and the Advaitavada of the Tantra. They are as follows. According to the first two systems, Brahman or Purusha as Sat, Cit and Ananda is Eternal Conscious Being. It is changeless and has no activity (Kartrittva). It is not 291 therefore in Itself a cause whether instrumental or material; though in so far as Its simple presence gives the appearance of consciousness to the activities of Prakriti, It may in such sense be designated an efficient cause. So, according to Samkhya, Prakriti reflects Purusha, and in Vedanta, Avidya of the three Gunas takes the reflection of Cidananda. On the other hand, the substance or factors of Mulaprakriti or Maya are the three Gunas or the three characteristics of the principle of Nature, according to which it reveals (Sattva) or veils (Tamas), Consciousness (Cit) and the activity or energy (Rajas) which urges Sattva and Tamas to operation. It also is Eternal, but is unconscious (Acit) Becoming. Though it is without consciousness (Caitanya) it is essentially activity (Kartrittva) motion and change. It is a true cause instrumental and material of the World. But notwithstanding all the things to which Mulaprakriti gives birth, Its substance is in no wise diminished by the production of the Vikritis or Tattvas: the Gunas which constitute it ever remaining the same. The source of all becoming is never exhausted, though the things which are therefrom produced appear and disappear. Passing from the ge neral points of agreement to those of difference, we note firstly, those between the Samkhya and the Vedanta. The Samkhya is commonly regarded as a dualistic system, which affirms that both Purusha and Prakriti are real, separate and independent Principles. The Vedanta, however, says that there cannot be two Principles which are both absolutely real. It does not, however, altogether discard the dual principles of the Samkhya, but says that Mulaprakriti which it calls Maya, while real from one point of view, that is empirically, is not real from another and transcendental standpoint. It affirms therefore that the only Real (Sadvastu) is the attributeless (Nirguna Brahman). All else is Maya and its products. Whilst then the Samkhyan Mulaprakriti is an Eternal Reality, it is according to the transcendental method of Shamkara an eternal unreality (Mithyabhuta Sanatani). The empirical reality which is really false is due to the Avidya which is inherent in the nature of the embodied spirit (Jiva). Maya is Avastu or no real thing. It is Nishtattva. As Avidya is neither real nor unreal, so is its cause or Maya. The kernel of the Vedantik argument on this point is to be found in its interpretations of the Vaidik Mahavakya, "That thou art" (Tat 292 tvam asi). Tat here is Ishvara, that is, Brahman with Maya as his body or Upadhi. Tvam is the Jiva with Avidya as its body. It is then shown that Jiva is only Brahman when Maya is eliminated from Ishvara, and Avidya from Jiva. Therefore, only as Brahman is the Tvam the Tat; theref ore, neither Maya nor Avidya really exist (they are Avastu), for otherwise the equality of Jiva and Ishvara could not be affirmed. This conclusion that Maya is Avastu has far - reaching consequences, both religious and philosophical, and so has the denial of it. It is on this question that there is a fundamental difference between Shamkara's Advaitavada and that of the Shakta Tantra, which I am about to discuss. Before, however, doing so I will first contrast the notions of creation in Samkhya and Vedanta. It is common ground that creation is the appearance produced by the action of Mulaprakriti or principle of Nature (Acit) existing in association with Cit. According to Samkhya, in Mulaprakriti or the potential condition of the Natural Principle, the Gunas ar e in a state of equality (Samyavastha), that is, they are not affecting one another. But, as Mulaprakriti is essentially movement, it is said that even when in this state of equality the Gunas are yet continually changing into themselves (Sarupaparinama). This inherent subtle movement is the nature of the Guna itself, and exists without effecting any objective result. Owing to the ripening of Adrishta or Karma, creation takes place by the disturbance of this equality of the Gunas (Gunakshobha), which then commence to oscillate and act upon one another. It is this initial creative motion which is known in the Tantra as Cosmic Sound (Parashabda). It is through the association of Purusha with Mulaprakriti in cosmic vibration (Spandana) that creation takes place . The whole universe arises from varied forms of this grand initial motion. So, scientific "matter" is now currently held to be the varied appearance produced in our minds by vibration of, and in the single substance called ether. This new Western scientif ic doctrine of vibration is in India an ancient inheritance. "Hring, the Supreme Hangsa dwells in the brilliant heaven." The word "Hangsa" comes, it is said, from the word Hanti, which means Gati or Motion. Sayana says that It is called Aditya, because It is in perpetual motion. But Indian teaching carries the application of this doctrine beyond the scientific ether which is a physical substance (Mahabhuta). There is vibration in the causal body that is of the Gunas of 293 Mulaprakriti as the result of Sadrishaparinama of Parashabdasrishti; in the subtle body of mind (Antahkarana); and in the gross body, compounded of the Bhutas which derive from the Tanmatras their immediate subtle source of origin. The Hiranyagarbha and Virat Sound is called Madhyama and Vaikh ari. If this striking similarity between ancient Eastern wisdom and modern scientific research has not been recognized, it is due to the fact that the ordinary Western Orientalist and those who take their cue from him in this country, are prone to the somewhat contemptuous belief that, Indian notions are of "historical" interest only, and as such, a welcome addition possibly for some intellectual museum, but are otherwise without value or actuality. The vibrating Mulaprakriti and its Gunas ever remain the same, though the predominance of now one, and now another of them, produces the various evolutes called Vikritis or Tattvas, which constitute the world of mind and matter. These Tattvas constitute the elements of the created world. They are the well -known Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas (constituting the Antahkarana), the ten Indriyas, five Tanmatras and five Mahabhutas of "ether", "air", "fire", "water" and "earth", which of course must not be identified with the notions which the English terms connote. These Tattv as are names for the elements which we discover as a result of a psychological analysis of our worldly experience. That experience ordinarily gives us both the feeling of persistence and change. The former is due to the presence of the Atma or Cit -Shakti, which exists in us in association with Mulaprakriti or Maya -Shakti. This is the Caitanya in all bodies. Change is caused by Mulaprakriti or Maya -Shakti, and its elements may be divided into the subjective and objective Tattvas, or what we call mind and mat ter. Analyzing, again, the former, we discover an individuality (Ahamkara) sensing through the Indriyas, a world which forms the material of its precepts and concepts (Manas and Buddhi). The object of thought or "matter' are the varied compounds of Vaikrita creation, which are made up of combinations of the gross elements (Mahabhuta), which themselves derive from the subtle elements or Tanmatras. Now, according to Samkhya, all this is real, for all are Tattvas. Purusha and Prakriti are Tattvas, and so are Vikritis of the latter. According to the Vedanta also, creation takes place through the association of the Brahman, then known as the Lord or Ishvara (Mayopadhika - 294 Caitanyam Ishvarah), with Maya. That is, Cit is associated with, though unaffected by Maya which operates by reason of such association to produce the universe. The unchanging Sad- vastu is the Brahman. The ever- changing world is, when viewed by the spiritually wise (Jani), the form imposed by Avidya on the Changeless Sat. It is true, that it has the quality of being in accordance with the greatest principle of order, namely, that of causality. It is the Sat however, which gives to the World the character of orderliness, because it is on and in association with that pure Cit or Sat that Maya plays. It is true, that behind all this unreal appearance there is the Real, the Brahman. But the phenomenal world has, from the alogical standpoint, no real substratum existing as its instrumental and material cause. The Brahman as such, is no true cause, and Maya is unreal (Avastu). The world has only the appearance of reality from the reflection which is cast by the real upon the unreal. Nor is Ishvara, the creative and ruling Lord, in a transcendental sense real. For, as it is the Brahman in association with Maya, which Shamkara calls Ishvara, the latter is nothing but the Brahman viewed through Maya. It follows that the universe is the product of the association of the real and the unreal, and when world- experience ends in liberation (Mukti), the notion of Ishvara as its creator no longer exists. For His body is Maya and this is Avastu, So long however as there is a world, that is, so long as one is subject to Maya that is embodied, so long do we recognize the existence of Ishvara. The Lord truly exists for every Jiva so long as he is such. But on attainment of bodiless liberation (Videha Mukti), the Jiva becomes himself Sacchidananda, and as such Ishvara does not exist for him, for Ishvara is but the Sat viewed through that Maya of which the Sat is free. "The Brahman is true, the world is false. The Jiva is Brahman (Paramatma) and nothing else." The opponents of this system or Mayavada have charged it with being a covert form of Buddhistic nihilism (Maya -vadam asacchastram pracchannam bauddham). It has, however, perhaps been more correctly said that Sri Shamkara adjusted his philosophy to meet the Mayavada of the Buddhists, and so promulgated a new theory of Maya without abandoning the faith or practice of his Shaiva -Shakta Dharma. 295 All systems obviously concede a t least the empirical reality of the world. The question is, whether it has a greater reality than that, and if so, in what way? Samkhya affirms its reality; Shamkara denies it in order to secure the complete unity of the Brahman. Each system has merits of its own. Samkhya by its dualism is able to preserve in all its integrity the specific character of Cit as Nirajana. This result, on the other hand, is effected at the cost of that unity for which all minds have, in some form or other, a kind of metaphysi cal hunger. Shamkara by his Mayavada secures this unity, but this achievement is at the cost of a denial of the ultimate reality of the world whether considered as the product (Vikriti) of Mulaprakriti, or as Mulaprakriti itself. There is, however, another alternative, and that is the great Shakta doctrine of Duality in Unity. There is, this Shastra says, a middle course in which the reality of the world is affirmed without compromising the truth of the unity of the Brahman, for which Shamkara by such lofty speculation contends. I here shortly state what is developed more fully later. The Shakta Advaitavada recognizes the reality of Mulaprakriti in the sense of Maya - Shakti. Here in a qualified way it follows the Samkhya. On the other hand, it differs from th e Samkhya in holding that Mulaprakriti as Maya -Shakti is not a principle separate from the Brahman, but exists in and as a principle of the one Brahman substance. The world, therefore, is the appearance of the Real. It is the Brahman as Power. The ground principle of such appearance or Maya- Shakti is the Real as Atma and Power. There is thus a reality behind all appearances, a real substance behind the apparent transformations. Maya -Shakti as such is both eternal and real, and so is Ishvara. The transformat ions are the changing forms of the Real. I pass now to the Advaitavada of the Shakta Tantra. The Shakta Tantra is not a formal system of philosophy (Darshana). It is, in the broadest sense, a generic term for the writings and various traditions which express the whole culture of a certain epoch in Indian History. The contents are therefore of an encyclopedic character, religion, ritual, domestic rites, law, medicine, magic, and so forth. It has thus great historical value, which appears to be the most fashionable form of recommendation for the Indian Scriptures now -a-days. The mere historian, I believe, derives encouragement from the fact that out of bad material may yet be made 296 good history. I am not here concerned with this aspect of the matter. For my present purpose, the Shakta Tantra is part of the Upasana kanda of the three departments of Shruti, and is a system of physical, psychical and moral training (Sadhana), worship and Yoga. It is thus essentially practical. This is what it claims to be. To its critics, it has appeared to be a system of immoral indiscipline. I am not here concerned with the charge but with the doctrine of creation to be found in the Shastra. Underlying however, all this practice, whatever be the worth or otherwise which is attributed to it, there is a philosophy which must be abstracted, as I have here done for the first time, with some difficulty, and on points with doubt, from the disquisitions on religion and the ritual and Yoga directions to be found in the various Tantras. The fundamental principles are as follows. It is said that equality (Samya) of the Gunas is Mulaprakriti, which has activity (Kartrittva), but no consciousness (Caitanya). Brahman is Sacchidananda who has Caitanya and no Kartrittva. But this is so only if we thus logically differentiate them. As a matter of fact, however, the two admittedly, ever and everywhere, co -exist and cannot, except for the purpose of formal analysis, be thought of without the other. The connection between the two is one of unseparateness (Avinabhava Sambandha). Brahman does not exist without Prakriti- Shakti or Prakriti without the Brahman. Some call the Supreme Caitanya with Prakriti, others Prakriti with Caitanya. Some worship It as Shiva; others as Shakti. Both are one and the same. S hiva is the One viewed from Its Cit aspect. Shakti is the One viewed from Its Maya aspect. They are the "male" and "female" aspects of the same Unity which is neither male nor female. Akula is Shiva. Kula is Shakti. The same Supreme is worshipped by Sadhan a of Brahman, as by Sadhana of Adyashakti. The two cannot be separated, for Brahman without Prakriti is actionless, and Prakriti without Brahman is unconscious. There is Nishkala Shiva or the transcendent, attributeless (Nirguna) Brahman; and Sakala Shiva or the embodied, immanent Brahman with attributes (Saguna). Kala or Shakti corresponds with the Samkhyan Mula -prakriti or Samyavastha of the three Gunas and the Vedantic Maya. But Kala which is Mulaprakriti and Maya eternally is, and therefore when we spea k of Nishkala Shiva it is not meant that there is then or at any time no Kala, for Kala ever is, but that 297 Brahman is meant which is thought of as being without the working Prakriti (Prakriteranyah), Maya -Shakti is then latent in it. As the Devi in the Kula cudamani says, "Aham Prakritirupa chet Cidanandaparayana". Sakala Shiva is, on the other hand, Shiva considered as associated with Prakriti in operation and manifesting the world. In one case, Kala is working or manifest, in the other it is not, but exists in a potential state. In the same way the two Shivas are one and the same. There is one Shiva who is Nirguna and Saguna. The Tantrik Yoga treatise Satcakranirupana describes the Jivatma as the Paryyaya of, that is another name for, the Paramatma; adding that the root of wisdom (Mulavidya,) is a knowledge of their identity. When the Brahman manifests, It is called Shakti, which is the magnificent concept round which Tantra is built. The term comes from the root "Sak," which means "to be able". It is the pow er which is the Brahman and whereby the Brahman manifests itself; for Shakti and possessor of Shakti (Shaktiman) are one and the same. As Shakti is Brahman, it is also Nirguna and Saguna. Ishvara is Cit -Shakti, that is, Cit in association with the operating Prakriti as the efficient cause of the creation; and Maya- Shakti which means Maya as a Shakti that is in creative operation as the instrumental (Nimitta) and material (Upadana) cause of the universe. This is the Shakti which produces Avidya, just as Mahamaya or Ishvari is the Great Liberatrix. These twin aspects of Shakti appear throughout creation. Thus in the body, the Cit or Brahman aspect is conscious Atma or Spirit, and the Maya aspect is the Antahkarana and its derivatives or the unconscious ( Jada) mind and body. When, however, we speak here of Shakti without any qualifications, what is meant is Cit- Shakti in association with Maya- Shakti that is Ishvari or Devi or Mahamaya, the Mother of all worlds. If we keep this in view, we shall not fall into the error of supposing that the Shaktas (whose religion is one of the oldest in the world; how old indeed is as yet little known) worship material force or gross matter. Ishvara or Ishvari is not Acit, which, as pure sattva - guna is only His or Her body. Maya- Shakti in the sense of Mulaprakriti is Cit. So also is Avidya Shakti, though it appears to be Acit, for there is no Cidabhasa. In a certain class of Indian images, you will see the Lord, with a diminutive female figure on His lap. The makers and worshippe rs of those images thought of Shakti as being in the subordinate position which some persons 298 consider a Hindu wife should occupy. This is however not the conception of Shakta Tantra, according to which, She is not a handmaid of the Lord, but the Lord Himself, being but the name for that aspect of His in which He is the Mother and Nourisher of the worlds. As Shiva is the transcendent, Shakti is the immanent aspect of the one Brahman who is Shiva -Shakti. Being Its aspect, It is not different from, but one wit h It. In the Kulacudamani Nigama, the Bhairavi addressing Bhairava says, "Thou art the Guru of all, I entered into Thy body (as Shakti) and thereby Thou didst become the Lord (Prabhu). There is none but Myself Who is the Mother to create (Karyyavibhavini). Therefore it is that when creation takes place Sonship is in Thee. Thou alone art the Father Who wills what I do (Karyyavibhavaka; that is, She is the vessel which receives the nectar which flows from Nityananda). By the union of Shiva and Shakti creation comes (Shiva -Shakti- sama -yogat jayate srishtikalpana). As all in the universe is both Shiva and Shakti (Shivashaktimaya), therefore Oh Maheshvara, Thou art in every place and I am in every place. Thou art in all and I am in all." The creative World thus sows Its seed in Its own womb. Such being the nature of Shakti, the next question is whether Maya as Shamkara affirms is Avastu. It is to be remembered that according to his empirical method it is taken as real, but transcendentally it is alleged to be an e ternal unreality, because, the object of the latter method is to explain away the world altogether so as to secure the pure unity of the Brahman. The Shakta Tantra is however not concerned with any such purpose. It is an Upasana Shastra in which the World and its Lord have reality. There cannot be Sadhana in an unreal world by an unreal Sadhaka of an unreal Lord. The Shakta replies to Mayavada: If it be said that Maya is in some unexplained way Avastu, yet it is admitted that there is something, however unreal it may be alleged to be, which is yet admittedly eternal and in association, whether manifest or unmanifest, with the Brahman. According to Shamkara, Maya exists as the mere potentiality of some future World which shall arise on the ripening of Adrishta which Maya is. But in the Mahanirvana Tantra, Shiva says to Devi, "Thou art Thyself the Para Prakriti of the Paramatma" (Ch. IV, v. 10). That is Maya in the sense of Mulaprakriti, which is admittedly eternal, is not Avastu, but is the Power of the Brahma n one with which is Cit. In Nishkala Shiva, Shakti lies inactive. It manifests in and as 299 creation, though Cit thus appearing through its Power is neither exhausted nor affected thereby. We thus find Ishvari addressed in the Tantra both as Sacchidanandarupi ni and Trigunatmika, referring to the two real principles which form part of the one Brahman substance. The philosophical difference between the two expositions appears to lie in this. Shamkara says that there are no distinctions in Brahman of either of the three kinds: svagata -bheda, that is, distinction of parts within one unit, svajatiya -bheda or distinction between units of one class, or vijatiya -bheda or distinction between units of different classes. Bharati, however, the Commentator on the Mahanirvana (Ch. II, v. 34) says that Advaita there mentioned means devoid of the last two classes of distinction. There is, therefore, for the purposes of Shakta Tantra, a svagata -bheda in the Brahman Itself namely, the two aspects according to which the Brahman is, on the one hand, Being, Cit and on the other, the principle of becoming which manifests as Nature or seeming Acit. In a mysterious way, however, there is a union of these two principles (Bhavayoga), which thus exist without derogation from the partless u nity of the Brahman which they are. In short, the Brahman may be conceived of as having twin aspects, in one of which, It is the cause of the changing world, and in the other of which It is the unchanging Soul of the World. Whilst the Brahman Svarupa or Ci t is Itself immutable, the Brahman is yet through its Power the cause of change, and is in one aspect the changeful world But what then is "real"; a term not always correctly understood. According to the Mayavada definition, the "real" is that which ever was, is and will be (Kalatrayasattvavan); in the words of the Christian liturgy, "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end"; therefore that which changes, which was not, but is, and then ceases to be is according to this defin ition "unreal," however much from a practical point of view it may appear real to us. Now Mayavada calls Mulaprakriti in the sense of Maya the material cause of the world, no independent real (Avastu). The Shakta Tantra says that the Principle, whence all becoming comes, exists as a real substratum so to speak below the world of names and forms. This Maya - Shakti is an eternal reality. What is "unreal" (according to the above definition), are these names and forms (Avidya), that is, the changing worlds (asat -triloki- sadbhavam svarupam Brahmanah smritam, Ch. III, v. 300 7, Mahanirvana Tantra). These are unreal however only in the sense that they are not permanent, but come and go. The body is called Sharira, which comes from the root Sri -- "to decay", for it is dissolving and being renewed at every moment until death. Again, however real it may seem to us, the world may be unreal in the sense that it is something other than what it seems to be. This thing which I now hold in my hands seems to me to be paper, which is white, smooth and so forth, yet we are told that it really is something different, namely, a number of extraordinarily rapid vibrations of etheric substance, producing the false appearance of scientific "matter". In the same way (as those who worship Y antras know), all nature is the appearance produced by various forms of motion in Prakritic substance. (Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma.) The real is the Brahman and its Power. The Brahman, whether in Its Cit or Maya aspect, eternally and changelessly endures, but Avidya breaks up its undivided unity into the changing manifold world of names and forms. It follows from the above that Brahman and Ishvara are two co- being aspects of the One ultimate Reality, as Power to Be and to Become. For as Shamkara points out (Comm. Svetasvatara Up. I. 2) Devatmashakti, the cause of the world, is not separate from the Paramatma, as Samkhya alleges its Pradhana to be. And thus it is that Shiva in the Kularnava Tantra (I. 110) says, "some desire dualism (Dvaitavada), others monism (Advaitavada). Such however know not My truth, which is beyond both monism and dualism (Dvaitadvaitavivarjita)." This saying may doubtless mean that to "the knower (Jani) the arguments of philosophical systems are of no account, as is indeed the case." It has also a more literal meaning as above explained. The Shastra in fact makes high claims for itself. The Tantra, it has been said, takes into its arms as if they were its two children, both dualism and monism affording by its practical method (Sadhana) and the spiritual knowledge generated thereby the means by which their antinomies are resolved and harmonized. Its purpose is to give liberation to the Jiva by a method according to which monistic truth is reached through the dualistic world; immersing its Sadhakas in the current of Divine Bliss, by changing duality into unity, and then evolving from the latter a dualistic play, thus proclaiming the wonderful glory of the Spouse of Paramashiva in the love embrace of Mind-Matter (Jada) and Consciousness (Caitanya). It therefore says that those who have realized 301 this, move, and yet remain unsoiled in the mud of worldly actions which lead others upon the downward path. It claims, therefore, that its practical method (Sadhana) is more speedily fruitful than any ot her. Its practical method is an application of the general principles above described. In fact, one of its Acaras which has led to abuse is an attempt to put into full practice the theory of Advaitavada. Shamkara has in his transcendental method dealt with the subject as part of the Jana Kanda. Though the exponent of the Mayavada is esteemed to be a Mahapurusha, this method is not in favor with the Tantric Sadhaka who attributes much of the practical atheism which is to be found in this country, as elsewhere, to a misunderstanding of the transcendental doctrines of Mayavada. There is some truth in this charge, for, as has been well said, the vulgarization of Shamkara's "Higher Science" which is by its nature an esoteric doctrine destined for a small minorit y, must be reckoned a misfortune in so far as it has, in the language of the Gita, induced many people to take to another's Dharma instead of to their own, which is the "Lower Science" of the great Vedantin followed in all Shastras of worship. Such a Shast ra must necessarily affirm God as a real object of worship. Dionysius, the Areopagite, the chief of the line of all Christian mystics said that we could only speak "apophatically" of the Supreme as It existed in Itself, that is, other than as It displays Itself to us. Of It nothing can be affirmed but that It is not this and not that. Here he followed the, "neti neti," of the Vedanta. Ishvari is not less real than the things with which we are concerned every day. She is for the Indian Sadhaka the highest reality and what may or may not be the state of Videha Mukti has for him, no practical concern. Those only who have attained it will know whether Shamkara is right or not; not that they will think about this or any other subject; but in the sense that when t he Brahman is known all is known. A friend from whom I quote, writes that he had once occasion to learn to what ridiculous haughtiness, some of the modern "adepts" of Sri Shamkara's school are apt to let themselves be carried away, when one of them spoke to him of the personal Ishvara as being a "pitiable creature". The truth is that such so -called "adepts" are no adepts at all, being without the attainment, and far from the spirit of Shamkara -- whose devotion and powers made him seem to his followers to be an incarnation of Shiva Himself. Such a remark betrays a radical 302 misunderstanding of the Vedanta. How many of those, who to-day discuss his Vedanta from a merely literary standpoint, have his, or indeed any faith'? What some would do is, to dismiss the faith and practice of Shamkara as idle superstition, and to adopt his philosophy. But what is the intrinsic value of a philosophy which emanates from a mind which is so ignorant as to be superstitious P Shamkara, however, has said that faith and Sadhana are the preliminaries for competency (Adhikara) for the Janakanda. He alone is competent (Adhikari) who possesses all good moral and intellectual qualities, faith (Shraddha), capacity for the highest contemplation (Samadhi), the Samkhyan discrimination (Viveka), absence of all desire for anything in this world or the next, and an ardent longing for liberation. There are few indeed who can claim even imperfectly all such qualifications. But what of the rest? There is no Vaidik Karmakanda in operation in the present age, but there are other Shastras of worship which is either Vaidik, Tantrik or Pauranik. These provide for those who are still, as are most, on the path of desire. The Tantra affirms that nothing of worth can be achieved without Sadhana. Mere speculation is without result. This principle is entirely sound whatever may be thought of the mode in which it is sought to be applied. Those to whom the questions here discussed are not mere matters for intellectual business or recreation will recall that Sham kara has said that liberation is attained not merely by the discussion of, and pondering upon revealed truth (Vicara), for which few only are competent, but by the grace of God (Ishvara Anugraha), through the worship of the Mother and Father from whom all creation springs. Such worship produces knowledge. In the Kulacudamani, the Devi says: Oh all -knowing One, if Thou knowest Me then of what use are the Amnayas (revealed teachings) and Yajanam (ritual)? If Thou knowest Me not, then again, of what use are they?" But neither are, in another sense, without their uses for thereby the Sadhaka becomes qualified for some form of Urddhvamnaya, in which there are no rites (Karma). With this short exposition of the nature of Shaktitattva according to Shakta Tantra I pass to an equally brief account of its manifestation in the Universe. It is sufficient to deal with the main lines of the doctrine without going into their very great accompanying detail. I here follow, on the main theme, the account given in the celebrate d Sharada Tilaka a work written by 303 Lakshmanacarya, the Guru of Abhinava Gupta, the great Kashmirian Tantrik, about the commencement of the eleventh century, and its Commentary. by the learned Tantrik Pandit Raghava Bhatta which is dated 1454 A.D. This work has long been held to be of great authority in Bengal. Why creation takes place cannot in an ultimate sense be explained. It is the play (Lila) of the Mother. Could this be done the Brahman would be subject to the law of causality which governs the Univer se but which its Cause necessarily transcends. The Tantra, however, in common with other Indian Shastras recognizes Adrishta Srishti, or the doctrine that the impulse to creation is proximately caused by the Adrsta or Karma of Jivas. But Karma is eternal and itself requires explanation. Karma comes from Samskara and Samskara from Karma. The process of creation, maintenance and dissolution, according to this view, unceasingly recurs as an eternal rhythm of cosmic life and death which is the Mother's play (Lila). And so it is said of Her in the Lalita Sahasranamam that, "the series of universes appear and disappear with the opening and shutting of Her Eyes". The existence of Karma implies the will to cosmic life. We produce it as the result of such will. And when produced it becomes itself the cause of it. In the aggregate of Karma which will at one period or another ripen, there is, at any particular time, some which are ripe and others which are not so. For the fruition of the former only creation takes place. When this seed ripens and the time therefore approaches for the creation of another universe, the Brahman manifests in Its Vishvarupa aspect, so that the Jiva may enjoy or suffer therein the fruits of his Karma and (unless liberation be attained) accumul ate fresh Karma which will involve the creation of future worlds. When the unripened actions which are absorbed in Maya become in course of time ripe, the Vritti of Maya or Shakti in the form of desire for creation arises in Paramashiva, for the bestowal of the fruit of this Karma. This state of Maya is variously called by Shruti, Ikshana, Kama, Vicikirsha. It is when the Brahman "saw," "desired," or "thought" "May I be many," that there takes place what is known as Sadrishaparinama in which the Supreme Bin du appears. This, in its triple aspect, is known as Kamakala, a 304 manifestation of Shakti whence in the manner hereafter described the Universe emanates. This Kamakala is the Mula or root of all Mantras. Though creation takes place in order that Karma may be suffered and enjoyed, yet in the aggregate of Karma which will at one time or another ripen, there is at any particular period some which are ripe and others which are not so. For the fruition of the former only creation takes place. As creation will serve no purpose in the case of Karma which is not ripe, there is, after the exhaustion by fruition of the ripe Karma, a dissolution (Pralaya). Then the Universe is again merged in Maya which thus abides until the ripening of the remaining actions. Karma, like everything else, re -enters the Brahman, and remains there in hidden potential state as it were a seed. When the seed ripens creation again takes place. With Ikshana, or the manifestation of creative will, creation is really instantaneous. When the "Word" went forth, "Let there be light", there was light, for the ideation of Ishvara is creative. Our mind by its constitution is however led to think of creation as a gradual process. The Samkhya starts with the oscillation of the Gunas (Gunakshobha) upon which the Vikritis immediately appear. But just as it explains its real Parinama in terms of successive emanations, so the Shakta Tantra describes a Sadrishaparinama in the body of Ishvara their cause. This development is not a real Parinama, but a resolution of like to like, that is, there is no actual change in the nature of the entity dealt with, the various stages of such Parinama being but names for the multiple aspects to us of the same unchanging Unity. Shakti is one. It appears as various by its manifestations. In one aspect there is no Parinama, for Sacchidananda is as such immutable. Before and after and in creation It remains what It was. There is therefore no Parinama in or of the Aksharabrahman as such. There is Parinama, however, in its Power aspect . The three Gunas do not change, each remaining what it is. They are the same in all forms but appear to the Jiva to exist in different combinations. The appearance of the Gunas in different proportions is due to Avidya or Karma which is this apparent Gunakshobha. It is Samskara which gives to the Samya Prakriti, existence as Vaishamya. What the Tantra describes as Sadrishaparinama is but an analysis of the different aspects of 305 what is shortly called in other Shastras, Ikshana. This Sadrishaparinama is concerned with the evolution of what is named Para Sound (Parashabdasrishti). This is Cosmic Sound; the causal vibration in the substance of Mulaprakriti which gives birth to the Tattvas which are its Vikritis: such Cosmic Sound being that which is distinguish ed in thought from the Tattvas so produced. The Sharada says that from the Sakala Parameshvara who is Sacchidananda issued Shakti that is, that power which is necessary for creation. God and His power are yet more than the creation which He manifests. Shakti is said to issue from that which is already Sakala or associated with Shakti, because as Raghava Bhatta says, She who is eternal (Anadi -rupa) was in a subtle state as Caitanya during the great dissolution (Pralaya), (Ya Anadirupa Caitanyadhyasena Mahapralaye Sukshma Sthita). With however the disturbance of the Gunas, Prakriti became inclined (Ucchuna) to creation, and in this sense, is imagined to issue. Shakti, in other words, passes from a potential state to one of actuality. The Parameshvara is, he adds, described as Sacchidananda in order to affirm that even when the Brahman is associated with Avidya, its own true nature (Svarupa) is not affected. According to the Sharada, from this Shakti issues Nada and from the latter Bindu (known as the Parabindu). The Sharada thus enumerates seven aspects of Shakti. This it does, according to Raghava Bhatta, so as to make up the seven component parts of the Omkara. In some Shakta Tantras this first Nada is omitted and there are thus only six aspects. The Shaiva Tantras mention five. Those which recognize Kala as a Tattva identify Nada with it. In some Tantras, Kala is associated with Tamoguna, and is the Mahakala who is both the child and spouse of Adyashakti; for creation comes from the Tamasic aspect of Shakti. I n the Saradatilaka, Nada and Bindu are one and the same Shakti, being the names of two of Her states which are considered to represent Her as being more prone to creation (Ucchunavastha). There are two states of Shakti -bindu suitable for creation (Upayogav astha). As there is no mass or Ghana in Nishkala Shiva, that Brahman represents the Aghanavastha. The Prapacasara Tantra says that She, who is in the first place Tattva (mere "thatness"), quickens under the influence of Cit which She reflects; then She longs to create (Vicikirshu) and 306 becomes massive (Ghanibhuta) and appears as Bindu (Parabindu). Ghanibhuta means that which was not dense or Ghana but which has become so (Ghanavastha). It involves the notion of solidifying, coagulating, becoming massive. Th us milk is said to become Ghanibhuta when it condenses into cream or curd. This is the first gross condition (Sthulavastha); the Brahman associated with Maya in the form of Karma assumes that aspect in which It is regarded as the primal cause of the subtle and gross bodies. There then lies in it in a potential, undifferentiated mass (Ghana), the universe and beings about to be created. The Parabindu is thus a compact aspect of Shakti wherein action or Kriya Shakti predominates. It is compared to a grain of gram (Canaka) which under its outer sheath (Maya) contains two seeds (Shivashakti) in close and undivided union. The Bindu is symbolized by a circle. The Shunya or empty space within is the Brahmapada. The supreme Light is formless, but Bindu implies both the void and Guna, for, when Shiva becomes Bindurupa He is with Guna. Raghava says, "She alone can create. When the desire for appearance as all Her Tattvas seizes Her, She assumes the state of Bindu whose characteristic is action" (Kriyashakti). This Bindu or Avyakta, as it is the sprouting root of the universe, is called the supreme Bindu (Parabindu), or causal or Karana Bindu, to distinguish it from that aspect of Itself which is called Bindu (Karya), which appears as a state of Shakti after the differen tiation of the Parabindu in Sadrishaparinama. The Parabindu is the Ishvara of the Vedanta with Maya as His Upadhi. He is the Saguna Brahman, that is, the combined Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti or Ishvara with undifferentiated Prakriti as His Avyaktasharira. Some call Him Mahavishnu and others the Brahmapurusha. He is Paramashiva. "Some call the Hamsa, Devi. They are those who are filled with a passion for Her lotus feet." As Kalicarana the Commentator of the Shatcakranirupana says, it matters not what It is ca lled. It is adored by all. It is this Bindu or state of supreme Shakti which is worshipped in secret by all Devas. In Nishkala Shiva, Prakriti exists in a hidden potential state. The Bindu Parashaktimaya (Shivashaktimaya) is first movement of creative acti vity which is both the expression and result of the universal Karma or store of unfulfilled desire for cosmic life. It is then said that the Parabindu "divides" or "differentiates". In the Satyaloka is the formless and lustrous One. She exists like a grain of gram 307 (Canaka) surrounding Herself with Maya. When casting off (Utsrijya) the covering (Bandhana.) of Maya, She, intent on creation (Unmukhi), becomes twofold (Dvidha bhittva), or according to the account here given threefold, and then on this differentiation in Shiva and Shakti (Shiva -Shakti -vibhagena) arises creative ideation (Srishtikalpana). As so unfolding the Bindu is known as the Sound Brahman (Shabdabrahman). "On the differentiation of the Parabindu there arose unmanifested sound" (Bhidyamanat pa rad bindoravyaktatma ravo, 'bhavat). Shabda here of course does not mean physical sound, which is the Guna of the Karyakasha or atomic Akasha. The latter is integrated and limited and evolved at a later stage in Vikriti Parinama from Tamasika Ahamkara. Shabdabrahman in the undifferentiated Cidakasha or Spiritual Ether of philosophy, in association with its Kala, or Prakriti or the Sakala Shiva of religion. It is Cit- Shakti vehicled by undifferentiated Prakriti, from which is evolved Nadamatra ("Sound only" or the "Principle of Sound") which is un- manifest (Avyakta), from which again is displayed (Vyakta) the changing universe of names and forms. It is the Pranavarupa Brahman or Om which is the cosmic causal principle and the manifested Shabdartha. Avyakta Nada or unmanifested Sound is the undifferentiated causal principle of Manifested Sound without any sign or characteristic manifestation such as letters and the like which mark its displayed product. Shabdabrahman is the all- pervading, impartite, unmanifeste d Nadabindu substance, the primary creative impulse in Parashiva which is the cause of the manifested Shabdartha. This Bindu is called Para because It is the first and supreme Bindu. Although It is Shakti like the Shakti and Nada which precede It, It is considered as Shakti on the point of creating the world, and as such It is from this Parabindu that Avyakta Sound is said to come. Raghava Bhatta ends the discussion of this matter by shortly saying that the Shabdabrahman is the Caitanya in all creatures which as existing in breathing creatures (Pram) is known as the Shakti Kundalini of the Muladhara. The accuracy of this definition is contested by the Compiler of the Pranatoshini, but if by Caitanya we understand the Manifested Cit, that is, the latter displ ayed as and with Mulaprakriti in Cosmic vibration (Spandana), then the apparently differing views are reconciled. 308 The Parabindu on such differentiation manifests under the threefold aspects of Bindu, Nada, Bija. This is the fully developed and kinetic aspect of Parashabda. The Bindu which thus becomes threefold is the Principle in which the germ of action sprouts to manifestation producing a state of compact intensive Shakti. The threefold aspect of Bindu, as Bindu (Karyya), Nada and Bija are Shivamaya, Shivashaktimaya, Shaktimaya; Para, Sukshma, Sthula; Iccha, Jana, Kriya; Tamas, Sattva, Rajas; Moon, Fire and Sun; and the Shaktis which are the cosmic bodies known as Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha, and Virat. All three, Bindu, Bija, Nada are the different phases of Shakti in creation, being different aspects of Parabindu the Ghanavastha of Shakti. The order of the three Shaktis of will, action and knowledge differ in Ishvara and Jiva. Ishvara is a11 -knowing and therefore the order in Him, is Iccha, Jana, Kriya. In Jiva, it is Jana, Iccha, Kriya. Iccha is said to be the capacity which conceives the idea of work or action; which brings the work before the mind and wills to do it. In this Bindu, Tamas is said to be predominant, for there is as yet no stir to action. N ada is Jana Shakti, that is, the subjective direction of will by knowledge to the desired end. With it is associated Sattva. Bija is Kriya Shakti or the Shakti which arises from that effort or the action done. With it Rajoguna or the principle of activity is associated. Kriya arises from the combination of Iccha and Jana. It is thus said, "Drawn by Icchashakti, illumined by Jana shakti, Shakti the Lord appearing as Male creates (Kriyashakti). From Bindu it is said arose Raudri; from Nada, Jyeshtha; and from Bija, Vama. From these arose Rudra, Brahma, Vishnu." It is also said in the Goraksha Samhita, "Iccha is Brahmi., Kriya is Vaishnavi and Jana is Gauri. Wherever there are these three Shaktis there is the Supreme Light called Om." In the Sakala Parameshvara or Shabdabrahman in bodies (that is, Kundalini Shakti), Bindu in which Tamas prevails is, Raghava says, called Nirodhika; Nada in which Sattva prevails is called Ardhendhu, and Bija the combination of the two (Iccha and Jana) in which Rajas as Kriya works is called Bindu. The three preceding states in Kundalini are Shakti, Dhvani, and Nada. Kundalini is Cit -Shakti into which Sattva enters, a state known as the Paramakashavastha. When She into whom Sattva has entered is next pierced by Rajas, She is called Dhvani which is the Aksharavastha. When She is again pierced by Tamas, She is called Nada. This is the Avyaktavastha, the Avyakta Nada which is the 309 Parabindu. The three Bindus which are aspects of Parabindu constitute the mysterious Kamakala triangle which with the Harddhakala forms the roseate body of the lovely limbed great Devi Tripurasundari who is Shivakama and manifests the universe. She is the trinity of Divine energy of whom the Shritattvarnava says: "Those glorious men who worship in that body in Samarasya are freed from the waves of poison in the untraversable sea of the Wandering (Samsara)". The main principle which underlies the elaborate details here shortly summarized, is this. The state in which Cit and Prakriti- Shakta are as one undivided whole, that is, in which Prakriti lies latent (Nishkala Shiva), is succeeded by one of differentiation, that is, manifestation of Maya (Sakala Shiva). In such manifestation it displays several aspects. The totality of such aspects is the Maya body of Ish vara in which are included the causal, subtle and gross bodies of the Jiva. These are, according to the Sharada, seven aspects of the first or Para state of sound in Shabdasrishti which are the seven divisions of the Mantra Om, viz.: A, U, M, Nada, Bindu, Shakti, Santa. They constitute Parashabdasrishti in the Ishvara creation. They are Ishvara or Om and seven aspects of the cosmic causal body; the collectivity (Samashti) of the individual (Vyashti), causal, subtle and gross bodies of the Jiva Before passing to the manifested Word and Its meaning (Shabdartha), it is necessary to note what is called Arthasrishti in the Avikriti or Sadrishaparinama: that is the causal state of Sound called Parashabda; the other three states, viz.: Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari manifesting only in gross bodies. As Parabindu is the causal body of Shabda, It is also the causal body of Artha which is inseparately associated with It as the combined Shabdartha. As such, He is called Shambhu who is of the nature of both Bindu and Kala and the associate of Kala. From Him issued Sadashiva, "the witness of the world," and from Him Isha, and then Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma. The six Shivas are various aspects of Cit as presiding over (the first) the subjective Tattvas and (the rest) the elemental world whose centers are five lower Cakras. These Devatas when considered as belonging to the Avikriti Parinama are the Devata aspect of apparently different states of causal sound by the process of resolution of like to like giving them the semblance of all- pervasive creative energies. They are Sound powers in the aggregate (Samashti). As appearing in, that is, presiding over, bodies they 310 are the ruling Lords of the individual (Vyashti) evolutes from the primal cause of Shabda. The completion of the causal Avikriti Parinama with its ensuing Cosmic vibration in the Gunas is followed by a real Parinama of the Vikritis from the substance of Mula- prakriti. There then appears the manifested Shabdartha or the individual bodies subtle or gross of the Jiva in which are the remaining three Bhavas of Sound or Shaktis called Pashyanti, Madhyama, Vaikhari. Shabda literally means sound, idea, word; and Artha its meaning; that is, the objective form which corresponds to the subjective conception formed and language spoken of it. The conception is due to Samskara. Artha is the externalized thought. There is a psycho- physical parallelism in the Jiva. In Ishvara thought is truly creative. The two are inseparable, neither existing without the other. Shabdartha has thus a composite meaning like the Greek word "Logos," which means both thought and word combined. By the manifested Shabdartha is meant what the Vedantins call Namarupa, the world of names and forms, but with this difference that according to the Tantrik notions here discussed there is, underlying this world of names and forms, a real material cause that is Parashabda or Mulaprakriti manifesting as the principle of evolution. The Sharada says that from the Unmanifested Root -Avyakta Being in Bindu form (Mulabhuta Bindurupa) or the Paravastu (Brahman), that is, from Mulaprakriti in creative operation there is evolved the Samkhyan Tattvas. Transcendentally, creation of all things takes place simultaneously. But, from the standpoint of Jiva, there is a real development (Parinama) from the substance of Mula- bhuta Avyakta Bindurupa (as the Sharada calls Mulaprakriti) of the Tattvas, Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas, the Indriyas, Tanmatras and Mahabhutas in the order stated. The Tantra therefore adopts the Samkhyan and not the Vedantic order of emanation which starts with the Apancikrita Tanmatra, the Tamasik parts of which, on the one hand, develop by Pancikarana into the Mahabhuta, and on the other, the Rajasik and Sattvik parts of which are collectively and separatel y the source of the remaining Tattvas. In the Shakta Tantra, the Bhutas derive directly and not by Pancikarana from the Tanmatras. Pancikarana exists in respect of the compounds derived from the Bhutas. There is a further point of detail in the 311 Tantrik exp osition to be noted. The Shakta Tantra, as the Puranas and Shaiva Shastras do, speaks of a threefold aspect of Ahamkara, according to the predominance therein of the respective Gunas. From the Vaikarika Ahamkara issue the eleven Devatas who preside over Ma nas and the ten Indriyas; from the Taijasa Ahamkara are produced the Indriyas and Manas; and from the Bhutadika Ahamkara the Tanmatras. None of these differences in detail or order of emanation of the Tattvas has substantial importance. In one case start i s made from the knowing principle (Buddhi), on the other from the subtle object of knowledge the Tanmatra. The abovementioned creation is known as Ishvara Srishti. The Vishvasara Tantra says that from the Earth come the herbs (Oshadhi), from the latter food, and from food seed (Retas). From the latter living beings are produced by the aid of sun and moon. Here what is called Jiva Srishti is indicated, a matter into which I have no time to enter here. To sum up, upon this ripening of Karma and the urge therefrom to cosmic life, Nishkala Shiva becomes Sakala. Shakti manifests and the causal body of Ishvara is thought of as assuming seven causal aspects in Sadrishaparinama which are aspects of Shakti about to create. The Parabindu or state of Shakti thus develo ped is the causal body of both the manifested Shabda and Artha. The Parabindu is the source of all lines of development, whether of Shabda, or as Shambhu of Artha, or as the Mulabhuta of the Manifested Shabdartha. On the completed ideal development of this causal body manifesting as the triple Shaktis of will, knowledge and action, the Shabdartha in the sense of the manifested world with its subtle and gross bodies appears in the order described. From the above description, it will have been seen that the c reation doctrine here described is compounded of various elements, some of which it shares with other Shastras, and some of which are its own, the whole being set forth according to a method and terminology which is peculiar to itself. The theory which is a form of Advaita -vada has then some characteristics which are both Samkhyan and Vedantic. Thus it accepts a real Mulaprakriti, not however as an independent principle in the Samkhyan sense, but as a form of the Shakti of Shiva. By and out of Shiva -Shakti who are one, there is a real creation. In such creation there is a special Adrishta- Srishti up to the 312 transformation of Shakti as Parabindu. This is Ishvara Tattva of the thirty -six Tattvas, a scheme accepted by both Advaita Shaivas and Shaktas. Then by the operation of Maya -Shakti it is transformed into Purusha -Prakriti and from the latter are evolved the Tattvas of the Samkhya. Lastly, there is Yaugika Srishti of the Nyaya Vaisheshika in that the world is held to be formed by a combination of the elements . It accepts, therefore, Adrsta Srishti from the appearance of Shakti, up to the complete formation of the Causal Body known in its subtle form as the Kamakala; thereafter Parinama Srishti of the Vikritis of the subtle and gross body produced from the caus al body down to the Mahabhutas; and finally Yaugika Srishti in so far as it is the Bhutas which in varied combination go to make up the gross world. There are (and the doctrine here discussed is an instance of it) common principles and mutual connections e xisting in and between the different Indian Shastras, notwithstanding individual peculiarities of presentment due to natural variety of intellectual or temperamental standpoint or the purpose in view. Shiva in the Kularnava says that all the Darshanas are parts of His body, and he who severs them severs His limbs. The meaning of this is that the six Darshanas are the Six Minds, and these, as all else, are parts of the Lord's Body. Of these six minds, Nyaya and Vaisheshika teach Yaugika Srishti; Samkhya and Patajali teach Yaugika Srishti and Parinama Srishti; Mayavada Vedanta teaches Yaugika Srishti, Parinamasrishti according to the empirical method and Vivartta according to the transcendental method. According to the Vivartta of Mayavada, there is no real change but only the appearance of it. According to Shakta -vada, Ultimate Reality does in one aspect really evolve but in another aspect is immutable. Mayavada effects its synthesis by its doctrine of grades of reality, and Shakta -vada by its doctrine of asp ects of unity and duality, duality in unity and unity in duality. Ultimate Reality as the Whole is neither merely static nor merely active. It is both. The Natural and the Spiritual are one. In this sense the Shakta system claims to be the synthesis of all other doctrines. 313 CHAPTER TWENTY . THE INDIAN MAGNA MATER Introductory On the last occasion that I had the honor to address you, I dealt with the subject of the psychology of Hindu religious ritual from the particular standpoint of the religious community called Shaktas, or Worshippers of the Supreme Mother. To -day I speak of the Supreme Mother Herself as conceived and worshipped by them. The worship of the Great Mother as the Grand Multiplier is one of the o ldest in the world. As I have elsewhere said, when we throw our minds back upon the history of this worship, we discern even in the most remote and fading past the Figure, most ancient, of the mighty Mother of Nature. I suspect that in the beginning the Goddess everywhere antedated, or at least was predominant over, the God. It has been affirmed (Glotz: gean Civilization, 243) that in all countries from the Euphrates to the Adriatic, the Chief Divinity was at first in woman form. Looking to the east of the Euphrates we see the Dusk Divinity of India, the Adya -Shakti and Maha - Shakti, or Supreme Power of many names -- as Jagadamba, Mother of the World, which is the Play of Her who is named Lalita, Maya, Mahatripurasundari and Maha -kundalini, as Maha -Vaishnavi , the Sapphire Devi who supports the World, as Mahakali who dissolves it, as Guhyamahabhairavi, and all the rest. This Supreme Mother is worshipped by Her devotees from the Himalayas, the "Abode of Snow," the northern home of Shiva, to Cape Comorin in the uttermost south -- for the word Comorin is a corruption of Kumart Devi or the Mother. Goddesses are spoken of in the Vedas as in the later Scriptures. Of these latter, the Shakta Tantras are the particular repository of Mother- worship. To the Shakta, God i s his Supreme Mother. In innumerable births he has had countless mothers and fathers, and he may in future have many, many 314 more. The human, and indeed any, mother is sacred as the giver (under God) of life, but it is the Divine Mother of All (Shrimata), the "Treasure- House of Compassion", who alone is both the Giver of life in the world and of its joys, and who (as Tarini) is the Saviouress from its miseries, and who again is, for all who unite with Her, the Life of all lives -- that unalloyed bliss named Liberation. She is the Great Queen (Maharajni) of Heaven and of yet higher worlds, of Earth, and of the Underworlds. To Her both Devas, Devis, and Men give worship. Her Feet are adored by even Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra. The Shakta system, in its origin possibly Non -Vaidik, is in several respects an original presentment, both as regards doctrine and practice, of the great Vedantic Theme concerning the One and the Many. As an organic and dynamic system it interprets all in terms of Power, from the atom of Matt er, which is said by modern science to be a reservoir of tremendous energy, to the Almighty, which is the commonest name in all Religions for God. It is the cult of Power both as the Partial and as the Whole, as the worshipper may desire. God is here regarded under twin aspects; as Power- Holder or the "male" Shiva, and as Power or Shakti, the Divine Spouse and Mother. The symbolism of the Shaktas' "Jeweled Tree of Tantra" is brilliant, and meets the demand of Nietzsche that the abstract should be made attra ctive to the senses. It is largely of the so -called "erotic" type which is to be found to some and varying degree in Hinduism as a whole. The symbols employed are either geometric -- that is, Yantric -- or pictorial. A Yantra is a diagrammatic presentation of Divinity, as Mantra is its sound- expression. The former is the body of the latter. The higher worship is done with Yantra. Pictorial symbolism is of higher and lower types. The former is popular, and the latter may be described by the French term peupl e. I will now describe a Yantra and the greatest of Yantras, namely the Shriyantra. We have no longer to deal with pictures of persons and their surroundings, but with lines, curves, circles, triangles, and the Point. The great symbol of the Mother is the Shriyantra, from the center of which She arises like the solar orb at morn, but in a blaze of light excelling the 315 brilliance of countless midday suns and the coolness of innumerable moons. The center is the Point, or Bindu -- that is, the Mother as Concent rated Power ready to create. Around Her is the Universe, together with its Divinities or Directing Intelligences. From the Point the World issues. Into it on dissolution, it enters. The extended Universe then collapses into an unextended Point, which itsel f then subsides like a bubble on the surface of the Causal Waters, which are the Immense. I. The Divine Mother The Real as Shiva -Shakti may be regarded from three aspects -- namely, as Universe, as God, and as Godhead. The Real is the World, but the Real is more than the World. The Real is God. The Real is God, but it is also more than what we understand by the word God. The Real is, as it were, beyond God as Godhead. This does not mean, as some have supposed, that God is a "fiction," but that the Real as it is in its own alogical being is not adequately described in terms of its relation to the world as God. I will deal, then, first with its aspect as Godhead, then as the Supreme Self, or Person, or God, and thirdly, with Shiva -Shakti as the manifest and limited Universe. Pervading and transcending the Existent is the "Spiritual Ether," also called the "Immense" in which is the Measurable, which Immense is also called the "Fact" (Sat), in which are the Fact -Sections (Kala) which Fact is also called alogical Experience -Whole (Purna), in which are all Experience - Modes (Vritti) of the limited Selves. The ultimate that is Irreducible Real is, in the system, not mere undetermined Being, but Power which is the source of all Determinations. This Power is both to Be, to self -conserve, and to resist change, as also to be the efficient cause of change, and as material cause to Become and suffer change. Relatively to the World, Immutable Being is as Divinity called Shiva the Power -Holder, and His Power is Shakti or the Mother Shiva, but in the supreme alogical state, Power to Be and Being- Power- Holder are merged in one another. 316 What is the nature of the Alogical Experience? In the Yoginihridaya Tantra it is asked. "Who knows the heart of a woman? Only Shiva knows the heart of Yogini" -- that is, the Divine Mother so called, as being one with, that is in the form of, all that exists, and as being in Herself the One in which they are. Since the Irreducible Real is the Whole, it cannot be conceived or described. It is neither Father nor Mother, for it is beyond Fatherhood and Motherhood and all other attributes. It is alogical. Though it cannot be conceived or put into words, some concepts are held to be more appropriate to it than others. And thus it is approximately said to be infinite undetermined Being, mindless Experiencing, and Supreme Bliss unalloyed with pain and sorrow. As Being and Power are merged in this alogical state, Power, in its form as Power to Be (Cidrupini ), is also Being - Consciousness and Bliss. Shiva -Shakti, the "two in one," are here the Nameless One. The experience of this alogical state is not, however, that of an "I" (Aham) and "This" (Idam). The next or causal aspect of the Real is a Supreme Self. Its third and effectual aspect is the limited selves or Universe. The physical Ether is a symbol of this alogical state, in which the twofold Shiva- Shakti are the One in the unitary state, which is called the "Ether of Consciousness" (Cidakasha). Physical Ether is the all -extending, homogeneous, relative Plenum in which the Universe of particulars exists. The "Spiritual Ether," or "Ether of Consciousness," is the undetermined, all -diffusive, though inextended, absolute Plenum (Purna), in which both these particulars and the physical Ether itself exists. Ether is the physical counterpart of Consciousness, just as the Notion of Space is its psychical counterpart. These are such counterparts because Consciousness becomes through its Power as material cause both Matter and Mind. Each is a manifested form of Spirit in Time and Space. The shoreless Ocean of Nectar or Deathlessness is another symbol of the alogical Whole. We now pass to a consideration of the same Real in its aspect as related to the Universe, which is the appearance of the Immense as the Measurable or 317 Form. The Real is here related to the Universe as the Cause, Maintainer, and Directing Consciousness. Form is Maya, which, however, in this system (whatever be its meaning in Mayavada) does not mean "Illusion". All is power. All is real . The alogical One is here of dual aspect as Shiva and Shakti. The two concepts of Being and Power are treated as two Persons. Shiva is the Power- Holder, who is Being -Consciousness -Bliss, and Shakti is Power and the Becoming. She, in the alogical state, is also Being -Consciousness -Bliss. Without ceasing to be in Herself what She ever was, is, and will be, She is now the Power of Shiva as efficient and material cause of the Universe and the Universe itself. Whilst Shiva represents the Consciousness aspect of the Real, She i s its aspect as Mind, Life, and Matter. He is the Liberation (Moksha) aspect of the Real. S4>e is in the form of the Universe or Samsara. As Shiva -Shakti are in themselves one, so Moksha and Samsara are at root one. Shiva, in the Kularnava Tantra, says that His doctrine is neither non- dualist nor dualist, but beyond both. We have here a non- dualistic system as regards its teaching concerning the Alogical Whole, in which Shiva -Shakti are fused in one. We have again a kind of Duo-Monotheism. It is Monotheisti c because Shiva and Shakti are two aspects of one and the same Reality. It is dual because, these two aspects are worshipped as two Persons, from whose union as Being and Power the Universe evolves. The experience of this state, relative to the Alogical Wh ole, is a disruption of unitary alogical experience. I say "relative" because the Whole is always the Whole. Such disruption is the work of Power. She, as it were, disengages Herself as Power, from the embrace in which Power-Holder and Power are fused in one, and then represents Herself to Him. On this representation, Consciousness -Power assumes certain postures (Mudra) preparatory to the going forth as Universe, and then, when Power is fully concentrated, manifests as the World. The term Consciousness, which is inadequate to describe the alogical state, is here approximately appropriate, for the experience of this state is that of an "I" and "This". But it is to be distinguished from man's Consciousness. For 318 the experiencer as man is a limited (and not, as here, a Supreme Self ) and the object is experienced as separate from, and outside, the Self (and not, as in the case of the Lord and Mother, as one with the experiencing Self). The experience of Shiva as the Supreme Self, viewing the Universe is, "All thi s, I am". As contrasted with the alogical, all -diffusive, Spiritual Ether, the symbol of the second aspect of Shiva -Shakti, as the Supreme Self and Cause of the Universe is the metaphysical Point (Bindu) or Power as a Point. What, then is the meaning of the latter term? In Being -Power about to evolve there is a stressing of Power which gathers itself together to expand again as Universe. When it has become concentrated and condensed (Ghanibhuta Shakti) it is ready to evolve. Bindu, or the Point, is, therefore, Power in that Concentrated state in which it is ready and about to evolve the Universe. Though infinitely small, as the Absolute Little, when compared with the Absolute Great or Spiritual Ether, it is yet a source of infinite energy as (to borrow an example from modern science) the relatively Little or Atom, or other unit of matter, existing in the relatively Great or the physical Ether, is said to be a source of tremendous energy. Just as, again, the relative point or atom is as a fact in the relative Ether, so the Absolute Point is conceived to be in the Absolute Ether. I say "conceived," because, as both Spiritual Point and Spiritual Ether are each absolute, it is only figuratively that the one can be said to be "within" the other. The "Isle of Gems" (Manidvipa) in the "Ocean of Nectar" (Amritarnava) is another symbol of this state. There is a painting that exhibits both the Alogical Immense and the Point of Power or Bindu "in" it. The former is here symbolized by the shoreless "Ocean of Nectar" (Amritarnava) -- that is, Immortality. This symbol of all - diffusive Consciousness is similar to that of the all -spreading Ether. In the blue, tranquil Waters of Eternal Life (Amritarnava) is set the Isle of Gems (Manidvipa). This Island is the Bindu or met aphysical Point of Power. The Island is shown as a golden circular figure. The shores of the Island are made of powdered gems. It is forested with blooming and fragrant trees -- Nipa, Malati, Champaka, Parijata, and Kadamba. There, too is the Kalpa tree laden with flower and fruit. In its leaves the black bees hum, and the Koel birds make love. Its four branches are the four Vedas. In the center there is a 319 house made of Cintamani stone which grants all desires. In it is a jeweled Mandapa or awning. Under it and on a gemmed and golden throne there is the Mother Mahatripurasundari as the Deity of the Bindu, which as shown later, becomes the three Bindus or Puras. Hence Her name "Three Puras" or Tripura. She is red, for red is the active color, and She is here creative as Vimarsha Shakti, or, the "This" of the Supreme Experiencer, which through Maya becomes the Universe. What man calls Matter is first experienced by mindless Consciousness as a "This," which is yet though the "Other" one with the Self. Then, by the operation ofMaya, the "This" is experienced by mind as separate and different from and outside the Self, as complete "otherness". She holds in Her four hands, bows and arrows, noose and goad, which are explained later. She sits on two inert male figures which lie on a six -sided throne. The upper figure is Shiva (Sakala), who is awake, because, he is associated with his Power as efficient and material cause. On His head is the crescent Digit of the Moon, called Nada, the name for a state of stressing Power, His Shakti being now creative. He lies inert, for He is Immutable Being. He is white because he is Consciousness and Illumination (Prakasha). Consciousness illuminates and makes manifest the forms evolved by its Power, which in its turn by supplying the form (as object unconscious) helps Shiva to display Himself as the Universe which is both Being and Becoming. Under him is another male figure, darker in color, to represent colorlessness (vivarna), with closed eyes. This mysterious figure (Nishkala Shiva) is called Shava or the Corpse. It illustrates the doctrine that Shiva without his Power or Shakti can do and is, so far as the manifested is concerned, nothing. There is profundity in the doctrine of which this Corpse is a symbol. To those who have understood it a real insight is given into the Kaula Shakta system. This representation of Shiva and Shakti as of the same size, but the former lying inert, is perhaps peculiar to the Kaula Shaktas, and is the antithesis of the well -known "Dancing Shiva". I will here note some other symbolism, pictorial and geometric or Yantric. Pictorially, Shakti is shown either as the equal of Her Spouse -- that is, as an Androgyne figure in which the right half is male and the left female -- or as two figures, male and female, of equal size. Inequality is indicated where the 320 Shakti is smaller than the male Divinity. The meaning of this difference in dimension of the figures of Shakti lies in a difference of theological and philosophical concepts which may yet be reconciled. In the Shakta view, the Power- Holder and His Power as She is in Herself, that is, otherwise than as the manifested form, are one and equal. But He is recumbent. Alternatively, Shakti is the Mother as the Warrior Leader or Promachos with Shiva under Her feet. Where the figures are unequal it is meant to assert (a fact which is not denied) that Supreme Power as manifested is infinitely less than Power unmanifest. That Power is in no wise exhausted in the manifestation of the Worlds which are said to be as it w ere but dust on the feet of the Mother. Passing to Yantric symbols, the Male Power -Holder Shiva is represented by a triangle standing on its base. A triangle is selected as being the only geometric figure which represents Trinity in Unity -- the many Triads such as Willing, Knowing, and Acting in which the one Consciousness (Cit) displays itself. Power or the feminine principle or Shakti is necessarily represented by the same figure, for Power and Power- Holder are one. The Triangle, however, is shown reversed -- that is standing on its apex. Students of ancient symbolism are aware of the physical significance of this symbol. To such reversal, however, philosophic meaning may also be given, since all is reversed when reflected in the Waters of Maya. Why, it ma y now be asked, does the Shakta lay stress on the Power or Mother aspect of Reality? Like all other Hindus, he believes in a Static Real as Immutable Being -Consciousness, which is the ground of and serves to maintain that which, in this system, is the Dyna mic Real. He will point out, however, that the Mother is also in one of Her aspects of the same nature as Shiva, who is such Static Real. But it is She who does work. She alone also moves as material cause. He as Immutable Being does and can do nothing without Her as His Power. Hence the Kaula Shakta. symbolism shows Shiva as lying inert and to be, if deprived of His Power, but a corpse (Shava). Even when associated with his Shakti as efficient cause, Shiva does not move. A not uncommon picture, counted obscene, is merely the pictorial symbol of the fact that Being, even when associated with its active Power, is Immutable. It is She as Power who takes the active and changeful part in generation, as also in conceiving, bearing, and giving birth to the World- 321 Child. All this is the function of the divine, as it is of the human, mother. In such work the male is but a helper (Sahakari) only. In other systems it is the Mother who is the Helper of Shiva. It is thus to the Mother that man owes the World of Form or Universe. Without Her as material cause, Being cannot display itself. It is but a corpse (Shava). Both Shiva and Shakti give that supreme beyond -world Joy which is Liberation (Mukti, Paramananda). They are each Supreme Consciousness and Bliss. The Mother is Anandalahari or Wave of Bliss. To attain to that is to be liberated. But Shakti the Mother is alone the Giver of World -Joy (Bhukti, Bhaumananda), since it is She who becomes the Universe. As such She is the Wave of Beauty (Saundaryalahari). Further, it is through her Form as World that She, as also Shiva, are in their Formless Self attained. If, however, union is sought directly with Reality in its non- world aspect, it must necessarily be by renunciation. Liberation may, however be attained by acceptance of, and through the World, the other aspect of the Real. In the Shakta method, it is not by denial of the World, but, by and through the World, when known as the Mother that Liberation is attained. World enjoyment is made the means and instrument of Liberation (Mokshayate Samsara). The Shakta has both (Bhukti, Mukti). This essential unity of the World and Beyond World, and passage through and by means of the former to the latter is one of the most profound doctrines of the Shakta, and is none -the-less so beca use their application of these principles has been limited to man's gross physical functions, and such application has sometimes led to abuse. For these and other reasons primacy is given to the Mother, and it is said: "What care I for the Father if I but be on the lap of the Mother?" I note here in connection with primacy of the Mother -God that in the Mediterranean (gean) Civilization the Male God is said to have been of a standing inferior to the Mother, and present only to make plain Her character as the fruitful womb whence all that exists springs (Glotz, 243, et seq.). Such, then, is the great Mother of India in Her aspect as She is in Herself as the alogical world- transcending Whole (Purna), and secondly, as She is as the Creatrix of the World. It rem ains now but to say a word of Her as She exists in the form of the universe. 322 The psycho-physical universe is Maya. The devotee Kamalakanta lucidly defines Maya as the Form (Akara) of the Void (Sunya) or formless (not Nothingness). Is it Real? It is real, b ecause Maya, considered as a Power, is Devi Shakti, and She is real. The effect of the transformation of that Power must also be real. Some make a contrast between Reality and Appearance. But why, it is asked (apart from persistence), should appearance be unreal, and that of which it is such appearance alone be real? Moreover, in a system such as this, in which Power transforms itself, no contrast between Reality and Appearance in the sense of unreality emerges. The distinction is between the Real as it is its formless Self and the same Real as it appears in Form. Moreover, the World is experienced by the Lord and Mother, and their experience is never unreal. We are here on a healthy level above the miasma of Illusion. The experience of man (to take him as t he highest type of all other selves) is not the Experience -Whole. He knows the world as the other than Himself, just because Power has made him man -- that is, a limited Experiencer or center in the Whole. That is a fact, and no Illusion or Deceit. When He realizes Himself as "All this I am" that is, as an "I" which knows all form as Itself -- then Consciousness as man expands into the Experience -Whole which is the Fact (Sat). Man is Shakti, or the Mother, in so far as he is Mind, Life in Form, and Matter. He is Shiva. in so far as his essence is Consciousness as It is in Itself, which is also the nature of the Mother in Her own alogical Self. This union is achieved by rousing the sleeping Power in the lowest center of solid and leading it upwards to the cer ebrum as the center Consciousness. I now pass to the second part of my paper, which deals with the cosmic evolution of Power -- that is, the "going forth" of the Supreme Self upon its union with its Power in manifestation. As the result of such evolution w e have Shiva -Shakti as the limited selves. Shiva -Shakti are not terms limited to God only, but the forms into which Power evolves are also Shiva -Shakti. God as the Mother- Father is supreme Shiva -Shakti. The Limited Selves are Shiva - Shakti appearing as Form in Time and Space. The Measurable or World (Samsara) and the Immense Experience -Whole (Moksha) are at root one. This is fundamental doctrine in the community to whose beliefs reference is now made. 323 II. Evolution Shiva and Shakti as the Causal Head (Shiva -Shakti Tattvas) of the world - evolution are called Kameshvara and Kameshvari. Kama is Desire. Here it is Divine Desire, or (to use a Western term) the Libido, which in the Veda is expressed as the wish of the One, "May I be many". So also the Veda says: "Desire first arose in it the primal germ." The form of this wish tells us what Libido, in its Indian sense, means. In its primary sense, it does not mean sensuous desire, but the will to, and affirmance of, "otherness" and differentiation, of which sensuous desire is a later and gross form in the evolutionary series. Procreation is the individual counterpart of Cosmic Creation. Why were the worlds (for there are many) evolved? The answer given is because it is the nature (Svabhava) of almighty formless Being- Power, whilst remaining what it is, to become Form -- that is, to exist. The Svabhava, or nature of Being -Power, is Lila, or Play, a term which means free spontaneous activity. Hence Lalita, or "Player," is a name of the Mother as She who Plays and whose Play is World- Play. She is both Joy (Ananda-mayi) and Play (Lila- mayi). The action of man and of other selves is, in so far as they are the psycho- physical, determined by their Karma. The Mother's play is not idle or meaningless so far as man is concerned, for the world is the field on and means by which he attains all his worths, the greatest of which is Union with the Mother as She is in Herself as Highest Being. The Player is Power. How does it work? The Whole (Purna), which means here, the Absolute Spiritual Whole, and not the relative Whole or psychophysical universe, cannot as the Whole change. It is Immutable. Change can then take place only in It. This is the work of Power which becomes limited centers in the Whole, which centers, in relation to, and compared with, the Whole, are a contraction of it. Power works by negation, contraction, and finitization. This subtle doctrine is explained profoundly and in detail in the scheme of the thirty-six Tattvas accepted by both non- dualists, Shaivas and Shaktas, and is also dealt with in the Mantra portion of their Scriptures. A Tattva is a Posture (Mudra) of 324 Power -- that is, Reality- Power defined in a particular way, and, therefore the alogical aspect is that which is beyond all Tattvas (Tattvatita). A Tattva is then a stage in the evolutionary process. Mantra is a most important subject in the Tantra Scriptures which treat of Sound and Movement, for the one implies the other. Sound as lettered speech is the vehicle of thought, and Mind is a vehicle of Consciousness for world- experience. The picture of Shiva riding a bull is a popular presentation of that fact. Bull in Sanskrit is "Go", and that word also means "sound". Nada as inchoate stressing sound is shown in the form of a crescent -moon on His head. The cult of the Bull is an ancient one, and it may be that originally the animal had no significance as Sound, but subsequently, owing to the sameness of the Sanskrit term for Bull and Sound, the animal became a symbol for sound. Sometimes, however, a more l ofty conception is degraded to a lower one. It is here noteworthy that the crescent -moon worn by Diana and used in the worship of other Goddesses is said to be the Ark or vessel of boat -like shape, symbol of fertility or the Container of the Germ of all li fe. I can only in the most summary manner deal with the subject of the Evolution of Power, illustrating it by Yantric symbolism. The Shiva and Shakti triangles are ever united. To represent the alogical state, we may place one triangle without reversal upon the other, thus making one triangular figure. This will give some idea of the state in which the two triangles as "I" and "This" are fused in one as Being -Consciousness - Bliss. Here, however, we are concerned with the causal state which is the Supreme Sel f in Whose experience there is an "I" and a "This", though the latter is experienced as the Self. There is, therefore, a double triangular figure; Shiva and Shakti are in union, but now not as the alogical Whole, but as the Supreme Self experiencing His ob ject or Shakti as one with Himself. The marriage of the Divine couple, Kameshvara and Kameshvari -- that is, Being and Power to Become -- is the archetype of all generative embraces. To represent this aspect, the triangles are placed across one another, so as to produce a Hexagon, in which one triangle represents the "I", or Shiva and 325 the other the "This," or object, as Power and its transformations -- that is, Shakti. As the result of this union, Power assumes certain Postures (Mudra) in its stressing to manifest as Universe. The first of such produced stresses is, from the Tattva aspect, Sadashiva, and, from the Mantra aspect, inchoate sound or movement called Nada. The state is shown by the Hexagon with a crescent-moon, the symbol of Nada, in its center. This Nada is not manifested sound or movement, but an inchoate state of both. In the next Mantric stage (corresponding to the Tattvas, Ishvara and Shuddhavidya) the crescent -moon enlarges into the full moonlike Bindu. This also is stressing Power as inchoate sound and movement, but is now such Power ready to evolve into manifested sound and movement. The word Bindu also means seed, for it is the seed of the universe as the result of the union of its ultimate principles as Shiva and Shakti. The Point, or Bindu, is shown as a circle, so as to display its content and a line divides the Point, one half representing the "I", and the other, the "This" aspect of experience. They are shown in one circle to denote that the "This," or object, is not yet outside the self as non- self. The Bindu is compared in the Tantras to a grain of gram (Canaka), which contains two seeds (Aham and Idam) so close to one another within their common sheath as to seem to be one seed. At the stage when Consciousness lays equal emphasis on the "I" and "This" of experience, Maya -Shakti and its derivative powers called sheaths (Kacuka) and contractions (Samkoca) operate to disrupt the Bindu, which comes apart in two. Now the "I" and "This" are separated, the latter being experienced as outside the self or as non-self. The former becomes limited as "Little Knower" and "Little Doer". This is the work of Maya-Shakti. Power again (as Prakriti- Shakti) evolves the psycho -physical organs of this limited Self, as Mind, Senses, and Body. I have s poken of two Bindus standing for Shiva and Shakti. Their inter - relation and its product is another form of Nada. These then make three Bindus, which are a grosser form of the Kamakala. The Divinity of the 326 three Bindus is the Mother as Mahatripurasundari, "the Beauteous One in whom are the three Puras," or Bindus. The Mantra equivalent of the state in which the Bindu divides and becomes threefold is the first manifested sound, which is the Great Mantra Om. As the Supreme Bindu bursts there is a massive, homogeneous, vibratory movement, as it were a cosmic thrill (samanya spandana) in psychophysical Substance the sound of which to man's gross ears is Om. The original sound of Om is that which was heard by the Absolute Ears of Him and Her who caused that moveme nt. Om is the ground- sound and ground movement of Nature. The Mundakopanishad says that the Sun travels the universe chanting the mantra Om. From Om are derived all special (vishesha spandana) movements, sounds, and Mantras. It is itself threefold, since i t is constituted by the union of the letters A, U, M. The Divinities of these three letters are Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, and their Shaktis. These, together with Sadashiva and Isha, are the Five Shivas to whom reference is made in the ritual, and who are pict ured in the Shakta symbolism as the Five who are Dead (Preta). Power, after involving itself in solid matter, technically called "Earth," then rests in this last -named element. The evolution of the Tattvas is not a temporal process. Time only comes in with sun and moon, on the completion of the evolution of the Tattvas as constituent elements of the universe. The Tattvas are given as the results of an analysis of experience, in which the Prius is logical not temporal. For these reasons a Causal Tattva does not cease to be what it is as Cause when it is transformed into its effect, which is not the case in the manifested world wherein, as the Lakshmi -Tantra says, "Milk when it becomes curd ceases to be milk". Reality does not cease to be the Alogical Whole be cause it is from the Causal aspect a Supreme Self. It does not cease to be the Cosmic Cause because it evolves as the Universe its effect. Nor in such evolution does any Tattva cease to be what it is as cause because it is transformed into its effect. 327 I am now in the position to explain the great Yantra or diagram which is used in the worship of the Mother and which is called the Shri Yantra, a symbol of both the Universe and its Cause. I have not the time to describe it at length, but its meaning may be ge nerally stated. It is composed of two sets of Triangles. One set is composed of four male or Shiva triangles called Shrikanthas denoting four aspects (Tattva) of evolved or limited Consciousness -Power, and the five female or Shakti triangles (Shivayuvatis) denote the five vital functions, the five senses of knowledge, the five senses of action, and the five subtle and the five gross forms of matter. The place of the psychic element as Mind and the Psycho- physical Substance of both Mind and Matter, I will indicate later. These two sets of triangles are superimposed to show the union of Shiva and Shakti. As so united they make the figure within the eight lotus petals in the full Yantra. Outside these eight lotuses there are sixteen other lotuses. There are then some lines, and a surround with four gates or doors, which surround is found in all Yantras, and is called Bhupura. It serves the purpose of what in Magic is called a Fence. This Yantra has nine Cakras, or compartments, formed by the intersection of the Triangles. There is first a red central point or Bindu, the Cakra of Bliss. The central point or Bindu is Supreme Divinity -- the Mother as the Grand Potential whence all the rest which this diagram signifies proceed. It is red, for that is the active color, and thus the color of Vimarsha Shakti, or Evolving Power. The second Cakra is the white inverted Triangle, or "Cakra of All Accomplishment". In the corners of this white Triangle are the Divinities of the General Psychophysical Substance and its first t wo evolutes as Cosmic Mind. Outside the Cakra is Kama, the Divinity of Desire, with His Bow of Sugar -Cane, which is the Mind as director of the senses; with its Five Arrows, which are the five forms of subtle matter, which in their gross form are perceived by these senses; with his Noose, which is Attraction, and his Goad, which is Repulsion. Another version (taking the Bow and Arrow as one 328 symbol) makes the three implements, the Powers of Will, Knowledge and Action. The third Cakra is eight red Triangles, and is called "Destroyer of all Disease", a term which means lack of that Wholeness (Apurnam -manyata) which is Spiritual Health. The fourth Cakra is ten blue Triangles. The fifth is ten red Triangles. The sixth is fourteen blue Triangles. The seventh is eight red petals. The eighth is sixteen blue petals, and the ninth is the yellow surround. Each of these Cakras has its own name. In them there are a number of lesser Divinities presiding over forms of Mind, Life and Body, and their special functions. Those who hear the Devas spoken of as "Gods" are puzzled by their multitude. This is due to the ill -rendering of the terms Devas and Devis as Gods and Goddesses. God is the Supreme Mother and Father, the "Two in One," who are alone the Supreme Self, and as such receive supreme worship. All forms -- whether of Devas, or men, or other creatures -- in so far as they are the psycho- physical forms, subtle or gross, are manifestations of the Power of their Immanent Essence, which is Spirit or Infinite Consciousness. That Essence is in itself one and changeless, but as related to a particular psycho- physical form as its cause and Director of its functions it is its Presiding Consciousness. Mind and Matter are not, as such, self - guiding. They are evolved and directed by C onsciousness. The presiding consciousness of the Form and its functions is its presiding Devata. A Deva is thus the consciousness aspect of the psycho -physical form. So the Deva Agni is the one Consciousness in its aspect as the Lord of Fire. A Devata may also mean an aspect as the Causal Consciousness itself. And so Mahatripurasundari is the name given to the creative aspect of such Consciousness -Power, as Mahakali is that aspect of the same Consciousness - Power which dissolves all worlds. The object of the worship of the Yantra is to attain unity with the Mother of the Universe in Her forms as Mind, Life, and Matter and their Devatas, as preparatory to Yoga union with Her as She is in herself as Pure Consciousness. The world is divinized in the consciousnes s of the 329 Worshipper, or Sadhaka. The Yantra is thus transformed in his consciousness from a material object of lines and curves into a mental state of union with the Universe, its Divinities and Supreme Deity. This leads to auto -realization as Mindless Consciousness. The Shri Yantra is thus the Universe and its one Causal Power of various aspects. The worshipper, too, is a Shri Yantra, and realizes himself as such. III. Dissolution I have dealt with the nature of Shiva -Shakti and the evolution of power as the Universe, and now will say a word as to the relative ending of the world on its withdrawal to reappear again, and as to the absolute ending for the individual who is liberated. In Hindu belief, this Universe had a beginning, and will have an end. But it is only one of an infinite series in which there is no absolutely first Universe. These Universes come and go with the beating of the Pulse of Power now actively going forth, now returning to rest. For the World has its life period, which, reckoning up to the Great Dissolution, is the duration of an outgoing "Breath of Time". In due course another Universe will appear, and so on to all eternity. This series of Worlds of Birth, Death, and Reincarnation is called by the Hindus the Samsara, and was named by the Greeks the Cycle of the Becoming (kuklos ton geneson). All selves which are withdrawn at the end of a world- period continue to reappear in the new worlds to be until they are liberated therefrom. The picture now described depicts the Mother- Power which dissolves -- that is, withdraws the World into Herself. This is another aspect of one and the same Mother. As such She is Mahakali, dark blue like a rain cloud. Nada is in Her head -dress. She is encircled by serpents, as is Shiva. She holds in Her hands, besides the Lotus and two weapons, a skull with blood in it. She wears a garland of human heads which are exotically the heads of conquered Demons, but are esoterically the letters of the alphabet which as well as the Universe of which they are the seed-mantras, are dissolved by Her. She stands on the white, inert Shiva, for it is not He but His power who withdraws the Universe into Herself. He lies on a funeral pyre, in the 330 burning -ground, where jackals -- favorite animals of Kali -- and carrion birds are gnawing and pecking at human flesh and bone. The cremation ground is a symbol of cosmic dissolution. In a similar picture, we see the Mother standing on two figures, the Shiva, and Shava previously explained. On the Corpse the hair has grown. The Deva s, or "Gods," as they are commonly called, are shown making obeisance to Her on the left, for She is their Mother as well as being the Mother of men. There are some variations in the imagery. Thus Kali, who is commonly represented naked -- that is, free of her own Maya -- is shown clad in skins. Her function is commonly called Destruction, but as the Sanskrit saying goes, "the Deva does not Destroy". The Supreme Self withdraws the Universe into Itself. Nothing is destroyed. Things appear and disappear to reappear. To pass beyond the Worlds of Birth and Death is to be Liberated. Human selves alone can attain liberation. Hence the supreme worth of human life. But few men understand and desire Liberation, which is the Experience- Whole. They have not reached the stage in which it is sought as the Supreme Worth. The majority are content to seek the Partial in the satisfaction of their individual interests. But as an unknown Sage cited by the Commentators on the Yoginihridaya and Nityashodasika Tantras has profoundly said, "Identification of the Self with the Non-Whole or Partial (Apurnam -manyata) is Disease and the sole source of every misery". Hence one of the Cakras of the Shri Yantra which I have shown you is called "Destroyer of all Disease". Eternal Health is Wholeness which is the Highest Worth as the Experience- Whole. The "Disease of the World" refers not to the World in itself, which is the Mother in form, but to that darkness of vision which does not see that it is Her. As Upanishad said, "He alone fears who sees Duality." This recognition of the unity of the World and the Mother has its degrees. That Whole is of varying kinds. It is thus physical or bodily health as the physical Whole which is sought in Hathayoga. Man, as he develops, lives more and more in that Current of Energy, which, having immersed itself in Mind and Matter for the purpose of World -Experience, returns to itself as the Perfect Experience, which is Transcendent Being - Power. With the transformation of man's nature his values become higher. 331 At length he discerns that his Self is rooted in and is a flowering of Supreme Being -Power. His cramped experience, loosened of its limitations, expands into fullness. For, it must be ever remembered, that Consciousness as it is itself never evolves. It i s the Immutable Essence, and Shakti the "Wave of Bliss' as they each are in themselves. Evolution is thus a gradual release from the limitations of Form created by Being- Power. Interest in the Partial and Relative Wholeness gives way to a striving towards the Mother as the Absolute Whole (Purna) which She is in Her own spaceless, and timeless, nature. This complete Liberation is the Perfect Experience in which the Self, cramped in Mind and Body, overcomes its mayik bonds and expands into the Consciousness -Whole. The practical question is therefore the conversion of Imperfect (Apurna) into Perfect (Purna) Experience. This last is not the "standing aloof" (Kaivalya) "here" from some discarded universe "over there," upon the discovery that it is without reality and worth. For the World is the Mother in Form. It is one and the same Mother -Power which really appears as the psycho -physical universe, and which in itself is Perfect Consciousness. Liberation is, according to this system, the expansion of the empirical consciousness in and through and by means of the world into that Perfect Consciousness which is the Experience- Whole. This can only be by the grace of the Mother, for who otherwise can loosen the knot of Maya which She Herself has tied ? The state of Liberation can only be approximately described. Even those who have returned from ecstasy cannot find words for that which they have in fact experienced. "A full vessel," it is said, "makes no sound". It is not in this system an experience of mere empty "being ," for this is an abstract concept of the intellect produced by the power of Consciousness. It is a concrete Experience -Whole of infinitely rich "content". The Mother is both the Whole and, as Samvid Kala, is the Cause and archetype of all Partials (Kala). She is Herself the Supreme Partial as She is also the Whole. So, She is the Supreme Word (Paravak), Supreme Sound and Movement (Parashabda Paranada), Supreme Space (Paravyoma),Supreme or Transcendental Time (Parakala) the infinite "limit" of that which man knows on the rising of Sun and Moon. She is again the Life of all 332 lives (pranapranasya). She thus contains within Herself in their "limit" all the realities and values of worldly life which is Her expression in Time and Space. But over and beyond this, She is also the alogical Experience -Whole. This experience neither supersedes nor is superseded by experience as the Supreme Self. This Alogical Experience is only approximately spoken of as Infinite Being, Consciousness and Joy which is the seamless (akhand a) Experience -Whole (Purna). Relative to the Supreme Self the Perfect Experience, She as His Power is the Perfect Universe. In the alogical transcendent state in which Shiva and Shakti are mingled as the One, She is the Massive Bliss (Ananda- ghana) which is their union, of which it has been said: Niratishaya premaspadatvam anandatvam, which may be translated: "Love in its limit or uttermost love is Joy". This is the love of the Self for its Power and for the Universe as which such Power manifests. She is ca lled the Heart of the Supreme Lord (Hridayam Parameshituh), with whom the Shakta unites himself as he says Sa'ham -- "She I am". If we analyze this description we find that it can be summed up in the single Sanskrit term Anandaghana, or Mass of Bliss. The essence of the Universe is, to the Shakta, nothing but that. Mystical states in all religions are experiences of joy. As I have elsewhere said, the creative and world - sustaining Mother, as seen in Shakta worship (Hadimata), is a Joyous Figure crowned with ruddy flashing gems, clad in red raiment Lauhityam etasya sarvasya vimarshah, more effulgent than millions of red rising suns, with one hand granting all blessings (varamudra), and with the other dispelling all fears (abhaya-mudra). It is true that She seems fearful to the uninitiated in Her form as Kali, but the worshippers of this Form (Kadimata) know Her as the Wielder of the Sword of Knowledge which, severing man from ignorance -- that is, partial knowledge -- gives him Perfect Experience. To such worshipper the burning ground -- with its corpses, its apparitions, and haunting malignant spirits -- is no terror. These forms, too, are Hers. Hinduism has with deep insight seen that Fear is an essential mark of the animal, and of man in so far as he is an animal (Pashu). The Shakta unites himself with this joyous and liberating Mother, saying Sa'ham -- "She I am". As he realizes this he is the fearless Hero, or Vira. For he who sees Duality, he alone fears. To see Duality means not merely to see otherness, but to see 333 that other as alien non- self. The fearless win all worldly enterprises, and fearlessness is also the mark of the Illuminate Knower. Such an one is also in his degree independent of all outward power, and Mrityujaya, or Master of Death. Such an one is not troubled for himself by the thought of Death. In the apt words of a French author (L'Ame Paienne, 83), he no more fears than do the leaves of the trees, yellowing to their fall in the mists of autumn. An imperishable instinct tells him that if he, like the leaves, is about to fall he is also the tree on which they will come out again, as also the Earth in which both grow, and yet again (as the Shakta would say) he is also, in his Body of Bliss, the Essence which as the Mother- Power sustains them all. As that Essence is imperishable, so in the deepest sense is its form as Nature. For whatever exists can never altogether cease to be. Either man's consciousness expands into that Lordliness which sees all as Itself, or he and all lower beings are wit hdrawn into the Womb of Power, in which they are conserved to reappear in that Sphuranaor Blossoming which is the Springtide of some new World. 334 CHAPTER TWENTY -ONE. HINDU RITUAL It is well said that Ritual is the Art of Religion. As practiced by the Hindus, it is not rightly judged, because the religious and philosophical doctrines of which it is a practical expression and method are either unknown or misunderstood. If we add to incapacity, a temperament hostile to all Ritualism, the resultant criticism is "mummery," "idolatry," "gibberish," and so forth. It is true that Ritual is meaningless to those who do not know its meaning; just as a telegram sent in cipher is without sense to those who are ignorant of the code according to which it is written. It may, however, be admitted that in so far as, and to the extent that Ritual is carried out without understanding on the part of the worshipper, such criticisms may, to that extent, be justified. Despite shallow views, Ritual is a necessity for men as whole. Those who profess to reject it in religion are yet found to adhere to it, in some form or other, in social and political life. The necessity of Ritual is shown by well- known historical reactions. Degeneracy leads to "Protestant" abolitions. The jejune worship of the "reformer" lacks appeal and power and Ritual comes into its own again. This oscillation is well marked in Europe in the history of Catholicism and Protestantism. It is displayed again in the East in Buddhism, which, starting as a revolt from an excessive Vaidik Ritual, adopted in the end the elaborate rites to be found in the Hindu and Buddhist Tantras. The Brahmanic position is the middle and stable way, acknowledging the value of both the "Protestant" and "Catholic" attitude. Its view is that all men need Ritual, but in varying degree and various kinds, until they are Siddha, that is, until they have achieved the end which Ritual is designed to secure. When the end is gained there is no longer need for the means to it. Further, the need becomes less and less as approach is made to that end. The Ritual must be suitable to the spiritual attainments and disposition of the worshipper. For the simple and ignorant the Ritual is of a Sthula or gross kind. The word Sthula in Sanskrit does not necessarily imply any moral censure. It is here used as the opposite of Sukshma or subtle. Again, count is taken of human emotion and of its varieties. The dispositions or temperaments, or Bhava, of worshippers vary. One worshipper may place 335 himself before the Lord in the relation of a servant towards his Master, another in the relation of a friend, and yet another in the relation of a lover. In the same way, Yoga, in the sense of a system of self -control and self - fulfillme nt, varies. For those who are predominantly intellectual there is the Yoga of Knowledge (Jana); for those in whom emotion is strong there is the Yoga of Devotion (Bhakti); for such as belong to neither of these classes there is the great Yoga of Action (K arma). The end to which each medially or directly works is the same. There is, in fact, no religion more Catholic than Hinduism. For this reason, those who dislike and fear it, speak of its "rapacious maw". It has in fact, an enormous faculty of assimilation; for there is in it that which will satisfy all views and temperaments. In the West, we are too apt to quarrel with views and practices which we dislike. We will not, in such case, accept them, but that is not necessarily a reason why those who like them should not do so. Thus, to some, all Ritual is repellent, or some kinds of devotion, such as the use of erotic imagery. Let each take or reject what is suitable or unsuitable to him. Controversy is futile. Fitness or Adhikara is a fundamental principle of Hinduism. Some may be fit for one doctrine and practice, and others not. The wisdom of the universal man with a world- mind converts many an absolute judgment into a relative one. For the judgment, "This is bad," he will substitute, "This is not good for me". In this way he will both save own health and temper, and that of the other. The term "Ritual," in its religious sense, is included in the Sanskrit term Sadhana, though the latter word has a wider content. It is derived from the root Sadh = to exert or strive for, and includes any exertion or striving for anything. Thus a man who goes through a special training for an athletic match is doing Sadhana with a view to win in that contest. The taking of lessons in a foreign language is Sadhana with a view to attain proficiency in that language. Orientalists frequently translate the term by the English word "evocation". There is, of course, Sadhana, to gain the fruits of magic. But this is only one form of Sadhana. The form of which I write, and that to which reference is generally made, is that effort and striving in the form of self - training, discipline, and worship which has as its end a 'spiritual' and not merely physical or mental result -- though such result necessarily involves a transformation of both mind and body. The end, then, is some form of Unity with God as the Universal Father, or Mother as the Shaktas say. The person 336 who does Sadhana is called Sadhaka or, if a woman, Sadhika. The end sought by the process of Sadhana is Sadhya orSiddhi. Siddhi, or accomplishment, means any successful result, and the man who attains it, is in respect of such attainment, called Siddha. The highest Siddhi is Unity with Brahman, the All- pervader, either by merger in or expansion into It, as some say, or as others hold, by varying degrees of association with and proximity to the Lord. Dogmatic views on this or other points are necessarily, to some extent, reflected in the Ritual presented for their realization, but at the Sadhana stage there is less divergence of practice than might be supposed, because whatever be the doctrine held, a worshipper must practically be a dualist. For worship includes both a worshipper and that which is worshipped. There are persons who, in popular language, "worship themselves," but this is not a spiritual exercise. Whatever God may be in Himself, or Itself, the worship is of a Supreme Person (Purnaham). The world sometimes distracts the Mind from this, its supreme object. Nevertheless there is another universal tendency towards it. This la st tendency is proof of man's divine origin. Springing from such a source, he must needs return to it. The striving to realize God, is part of man's nature. Sadhana is such striving in the forms which experience has shown to be fruitful. In the Orphic Myst eries it was said: "I am the child of the earth and starry sky, but know that my origin is divine. I am devoured by and perish with thirst. Give me without delay the fresh water which flows from the 'Lake of Memory'." And again: "Pure, and issued from what is pure, I come towards Thee." So again St. Augustine said that the Mind was not at rest until it found itself in God. Brahmanic doctrine also states the same and gives the reasons for it. A profound saying by an Indian sage runs: "Identification with the imperfect (Apurnam manyata) -- that is, want of Wholeness, is Disease and the source of every misery." Whole = Hale = Health. Every form of want of wholeness, be it physical, psychical or spiritual, is disease and inflicts unhappiness. God is the whole and complete (Purna), which is without parts or section (Akhanda). Man is the reverse of this. But having sprung from the Whole, he seeks self -completion either by becoming or reflecting the Whole. The greatest of illnesses is that which the Hindu Scriptures call the Disease of Existence itself, in so far as such finite existence involves a hindrance to the 337 realization of perfect infinite Being. For these reasons one of the Cakras or compartments of the great Shri Yantra , is called Rogahara Cakra, that is, the "Disease- destroying Cakra". What is meant by the saying is that man's identification of the self with its particular form, that is with imperfection, is Disease, just as the knowledge that he is one with the whole is Health lasting. To gain this it is necessary that man should worship his Lord in one or other of the many ways in which his fellows have done so. For that purpose he may invent a ritual. But the more effective forms for the mass are those which tradition accredits. Amongst the greatest of ritual systems is that of the Hindus. Hinduism (to use a popular term) cannot be understood without a knowledge of it. But, it may be said, there are many Rituals. Which are to be adopted, and how can we know that they will give result? The answer is that the Ritual for any particular individual is that for which he is fit (Adhikari). The proof of its efficacy is given by experience. The Ayurveda, or the Veda which teaches the rules to secure a long life (Ayuh) says that that only is a medicine which cures the disease and which, at the same time, gives rise to no other. To those who put the question, the answer of the Teacher is -- "Try". If the seeker will not try he cannot complain that he has no success. The Teacher has himself or herself (for according to the Tantras a woman may be a Guru) been through the training, and warrants success to those who will faithfully adopt the means he has himself adopted. What, then, are the basic principles of Sadhana, and how does it work? To understand this we must have correct ideas of what the Hindus understand by the terms Spirit, Mind, and Body. I have in my volume The World As Power explained these terms and will now very shortly summarize what is there said, so far as it touches the main principles governing the subjec t of this paper. II The ultimate object of the ritual -- that is, the realization of God -- is effected by the transformation of the worshipper into likeness with the worshipped. Let us assume that the Sadhaka is doctrinally an adherent of the Advaita 338 Vedanta which is called Monism, but which is more accurately translated "Not two," or non- dual, because, whilst it can be affirmed that the ultimate Reality is not two, still as it is beyond number and all other predicates, it cannot be affirmed to be one. Let us, then, investigate some of the general principles on which the Ritual expressing this doctrine works. Man is said to be Spirit -- to use an English term -- with two vehicles of Mind and Body. Spirit, or Brahman as it is in Itself (Svarupa), according to the Vedanta is, relative to us, pure infinite Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Sat, Cit, Ananda). That is Spirit viewed from our side and in relation to us. What Spirit is Itself only Spirit in Itself can say. This is only known in the experience of the perfect (Siddha) Yogi, who has completely transformed himself through the elimination of those elements of Mind and Body which constitute a finite individuality. "To know Brahman is to be Brahman." God, or the Lord (Ishvara) is pure, infinite Spirit, in its aspect relative to the world as its Creator, Maintainer, and Ruler. Man is, according to this school, that self - same Spirit or Consciousness which, in one aspect is immutable, and in another is finitized by Mind and Matter. Consciousness and Mind are, then, two different and, indeed, opposite things. Mind is not Consciousness, but is (considered in itself) an Unconscious force. Consciousness is infinite. Mind is a product of a finitizing principle or power inherent in Consciousness itself, which appears to l imit consciousness. Mind per se is thus an unconscious force limiting Consciousness. This statement may seem strange in the West, but is coming to be acknowledged to some extent there, where it is now recognized that there is such a thing as unconscious mind. Vedanta says that mind in itself is always an unconscious force. The mind appears to be conscious, not because it is so in itself, but because it is associated with and is the vehicle of Spirit which alone is Consciousness in Itself. The function of Mind, on the contrary, is to cut into sections sectionless Consciousness. Let us suppose that Consciousness is represented by an unbroken light thrown on a blank screen. This unbroken light imperfectly represents -- (for images fail us in one respect or anot her) -- Consciousness. Let us suppose, then, another metal screen cut up into patterns imposed on the former and thus letting the light through in parts and in various shapes, and shutting it out in others. This last opaque screen represents Mind. Consciousness is self - revealing. Mind occludes it in varying ways, and is a subtle form of the 339 power (Shakti) possessed by Spirit to appear in finite form. Matter or Body is another but grosser form of the same Power. And because Mind and Body have a common origin, the one as subject can know the other as object. Cognition is then recognition. The same Power which has the capacity to so veil itself can unveil itself. The first step towards such unveiling is taken by Sadhana in its form as self- purification, both as regards body and mind, self - discipline and worship in its various ritual forms. At a high point of advance this Sadhana enters what is generally known as Yoga. How then does Sadhana work? It must be remembered that there is no such thing as mind or soul w ithout some form of body, be it gross or subtle. The individual mind has always a body. It is only Spirit which is Mind- less, and therefore wholly bodiless. Mind and Body are each as real as the other. When there is subject or mind there is always object or matter. The proper discipline purifies and controls both. A pure body helps to the attainment of a pure mind, because they are each aspects of one Power -Substance. Whenever, then, there is mind, it has some object or content. It is never without content. That object may be good or bad. The first design of the Ritual, then is to secure that the mind shall always have a good object. The best of all objects is its Lord. What, then, is the result of meditation on the Lord? What is the process of knowing? When the mind knows an object, that process consists in the projection from the Mind of a Mind- Ray, which goes out to the object, takes its form, and returns and models the mind itself into the form of the object. Thus, if attention is completely given, that i s without any distraction, to an image or Deity, a jar or any other object, the mind so long as it holds that object is completely transformed into the shape of that object. Thus, with complete concentration on the Lord, the mind is shaped into the image of Him, with all His qualities. That image is formulated by what is called the Dhyana. The Ritual gives the Dhyana of each of the forms of God or Spirit. Let it be assumed, then, that the mind is thus transformed; it is then necessary to keep it so. The min d is so unsteady, agile and variable that it has been compared both with mercury and the restless monkey. If this variability displayed itself in the choice of good thoughts only, it would not 340 so much matter. But there are others which are not good. Moreover, both intensity and durability of transformation are desired. The endeavor then is to attain complete power of concentration and for periods of increasing length. The effect of this is to establish in the mind a tendency in the direction desired. All have experience of the psychological truth that the longer and more firmly an object is held in the mind, the less is the tendency towards distraction from it. A tendency is called Samskara. Such tendency may be physical or psychical. Thus, the tendency of an India -rubber band when stretched to return to its original condition before such stretching, is physical samskara of India -rubber. In the same way, there are psychical samskaras. Thus, a man of miserly disposition is influenced by some sufficient impulse to be, on a particular occasion, generous, but when that or other sufficient impulse lacks, his miserly disposition or samskara asserts itself. On the other hand, but little is required to call out generosity in a naturally charitable man, for the good tendency is there. Sadhana confirms good and eradicates bad samskaras. As tendencies are produced by past action, intellectual or bodily, present and future good actions will secure that good samskaras are kept and others eliminated. Man is both born with samskaras and acquires others. No Hindu holds that the mind at birth is tabula rasa. On the contrary, it is compounded of all thesamskaras or tendencies which result from the actions of the previous lives of the individual in question. These are added to, varied, reversed or confirmed by actions taken in the present life. Many of such Samskaras are bad, and steps must be taken to substitute for them others. All are aware that bad acts and thoughts, if repeated, result in the establishment of a bad habit, that is a bad Samskara realized. The object of Sadhana is, then, firstly to substitute good objects for the mind in lieu of bad objects, and to overcome the tendency towards distraction and to revert to what is bad. This means the stabilizing of character in a good mold. How is this to be effected? The Sadhana must avoid all distractions by keeping the mind occupied with what is good. We accordingly find the repetitions which may be, but by no means necessarily are, "vain". A common instance of this is Japa, or repetition of mantra. This is done by count on a rosary (Mala) or with the thumb on the twelve phalanxes of the fingers. There are also forms of repetition in varying ways. Thoughts are 341 intensified and confirmed by appropriate bodily gestures Mudra. Aga in, real processes are imagined. Thus, in Nyasa, the worshipper with appropriate bodily actions places different parts of the body of the Divinity on the corresponding parts of his own body. Thus the Sadhaka imagines that he has acquired a new divine body. Again, in the more subtle rite called Bhutasuddhi, the worshipper imagines that each of the component elements of the body is absorbed in the next higher element until all are merged in the Supreme Power of whom man, as a compound of such elements, is a l imited manifestation. Whilst this is merely imagined in Sadhana, it objectively and actually takes place in Kundalini Yoga. The mind is thus constantly occupied in one form or another with, and thus shaped into, that which is divine and becomes itself, by being kept in such shape, at length permanently divine. For as the Chandogya Upanishad says: "What a man thinks that he becomes." So also the Gandharva Tantra says: "By meditating on anything as oneself, man becomes that." Thinking always on the Lord, man is transformed, within limits, into an image of Him. The preparatory work of Sadhana is completed in Yoga. I will next shortly note some of the principal forms of ritual employed in worship, viz., image and emblem, Yantra, Puja, Mantra, Mudra, Nyasa, Bhutashuddhi. These are in constant use, either daily or on special occasions. The ritual of the Sacraments, or Samskaras, are performed once, viz.,on the date of that sacrament, such as naming ceremony, marriage and so forth. III The third Chapter (here summ arized and explained) of the Sanskrit work called "Wave of Bliss, for worshippers of the Mother-Power (Shakti)," deals with the necessity for the use of images and other forms as representations of the formless All -Pervader (Brahman). The latter is, in Its own true nature, bodiless (ashariri) and pure Consciousness, or in Western language, Spirit. But Brahman, through Its power (shakti), assumes all the forms of the Universe, just as it is said an actor (natavat) assumes various roles. Thus Brahman has two aspects: the subtle, in which It is its own unmanifested Self; and the gross, in which It appears as the manifested universe. Or, if we 342 reserve the word "subtle" for what, though it is not pure Spirit, is yet finer than gross matter -- that is, Mind, we ma y say that the Ultimate Reality has three aspects: (a) Supreme or transcendent, that is pure formless Spirit; (b) subtle, or the same Spirit as manifested in mind, (c) gross, or the same spirit as manifested in Matter. It is clear that one cannot meditate on that which is wholly formless as is the supreme Brahman, which is without body. In meditation (Dhyana) there is duality, namely, the subject who meditates and the object of such meditation, though, in fact, the two are (according to the Advaita or non- dualism of the Shaktas), both differing aspects of the one Brahman through Its Power. As the mind cannot remain steady on what is formless (amurta), therefore, a form (murta) is necessary. Form is gross or subtle. Form is necessary both in Sadhana and Yoga -- in the latter for acquiring accomplishment in Trataka -Yoga, that is, steady gaze which leads to one -pointedness (Ekagrata), and this latter to Samadhi or ecstasy. The grossest form is that which is shown in the round, with hands, feet, and so forth -- that is, the image. Nothing is here left to the imagination. The particulars of the image, that is, how it should be shaped, its color. posture, and so forth, is given in what are called the meditations or Dhyanas, and the dimensions may be found in the Silpa Shastras. These describe the form, attitude, the position of the hands and legs, the articles such as weapons and the like carried, the vehicle or Vahana -- and the attendant Divinities (Avarana Devata). Less gross forms are pictures or representati ons in the flat, emblems such as the Shalagrama stone sacred to Vishnu, the Linga or sign of Shiva, and the inverted triangle which is the emblem of the Mother. Thus a linga set in the Yoni or triangle represents the union of Shiva and Shakti, of God and His Power, or in philosophical language, the union of the static and kinetic aspects of the one Ultimate Reality. A still more subtle form is the Yantra, which literally means "instrument," viz., the instrument by which worship is done. It is as shown on the flat, a diagram which varies with each of the Devatas or Divinities, and has been called "the body of Mantra". Whilst gross (sthula) meditation takes place on the gross image, emblem or Yantra, subtle (sukshma) meditation has as its object the Mantra. The Mantra and the Devata are one. A Mantra is Devata in that form, that is as sound. Hearing is considered the finest of the senses. What is called 343 Supreme Meditation is nothing but ecstasy, or -- Consciousness, freed of both its subtle and gross vehicles, and therefore, limitations.As the Brahman is only directly known in the ecstasy of Yoga, It is imagined with form, or, as some translate this passage, It assumes form for the sake of the worshippers (upasakanam karyyartham). These forms are male or female, such as, in the first class, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and others, and in the second Tripurasundari, Lakshmi, Kali and others. The worship of a Eunuch (napumsaka) form does not bear fruit. What shall be the selected as patron Divinity, depends on the competency (adhikara) of the worshipper, that is, what is suitable or fit for him given his character and attainments. The Yamala says: "Men see Him in various ways, each according to his own inclinations. But an advaitist worshipper should at the same time rememb er that each is an aspect of one and the same Deity. Varaha Purana says: "What Durga is, that is Vishnu, and that also is Shiva. The wise know that they are not different from one another. The fool, who in his partiality thinks otherwise, goes to the Raura va Hell." There is, however, from the nature of the case, some distinction in the case of the worship of those on the path of enjoyment, who should worship according to the mode in which they have been initiated. But the renouncer should discard in every way all notions of difference. The Wave of Bliss, citing Samaya Tantra, says: "By the worship of some Deva, liberation is with difficulty attained, and by the worship of others enjoyment is to be had, but in the case of the worshipper of the Mother, both en joyment and liberation lie in the hollow of his hands." But, unless prayed to, the Mother or Devi does not give fruit, and naturally so. For the Devi is moved to action through the prayers of the worshipper. Essentially the worshipper is the Devi Herself, and unless She in Her form as the worshipper is moved, She in Her aspect as the Supreme Lord -- "Our Lady" -- does not move. By "worshipper" is meant one who is proficient in Karma and Bhakti Yoga. The Janayogi's effort is directed towards the attainment of the formless Brahman. Worship implies duality, and so does Mantra- yoga of which worship is a part. From the Bija- mantra or seed mantra the Devata arises and this Devata is the Brahman. In the Kurma Purana it is said: "Those who think themselves to be different from the Supreme Lord will never see Him. All 344 their labor is in vain." Therefore, the Shrikrama says: "Meditate upon yourself as the Supreme Mother -- the primordial Power -- by your mind, word, and body." All three take part in the ritual. The mind, which must from its nature have an object, is given a good object, that is, the image of its Lord. It holds to that. The worshipper utters the ritual words and with his body performs the ritual acts, such as the gestures (Mudra), the giving of offerings , and so forth. And the reason is, as the Gandharva Tantra says: "By meditating on anything as oneself, man becomes that." The mind assumes the form of its object -- that is, by good thoughts man is transformed into what is good. So the worshipper is enjoi ned constantly to think: "I am the Devi and none other". By meditating on Vishnu, man becomes Vishnu. By meditating on Devi, man becomes Devi,. He is freed from bodily ills and is liberated, for he attains spiritual knowledge. Such knowledge, in the Advait a sense (though there are also other schools) means "to be". To know Brahman is to be Brahman. Brahman in Itself is not an object, and is not known as such. Brahman is known by being Brahman, which man attains through ritual forms, and Yoga processes, of which worship is a necessary preliminary. IV In the preceding paragraphs, I have, in very general outline, dealt with the meaning of Sadhana as ritual worship, both as to its object and the principles on which it is based. I have given at the same time some examples. I propose here to pass a few remarks on certain other particular forms of ritual. I have already referred to image worship upon which, however, I will add a word. Western peoples speak of the image worshipped as being an "idol," just as some so- called "reformed" Hindus influenced by Western views call it a "doll". The Hindu term is Pratika and Pratima indicating that which is placed before one as the immediate and apparent object of worship, representative of the Invisible Supreme. The mind cannot seize pure Spirit any more than (to use the simile of an Indian author) a pair of tongs can seize the air. The mind must, however, necessarily have before it some 345 definite object, and one of such objects is the image or emblem. At the same time, the Hin du image is something more than a mere aid to devotion such as is the case in general as regards images in the Catholic ritual. For, by the "life -giving" (prana- pratishtha) ceremony the life of the Devata or Divinity is invoked into the image. Deity is all -pervading and therefore cannot come or go. The image, like everything else, is already an appearance of Deity immanent in it, in the particular form or mold of earth, stone, metal, wood or whatever other the substance may be. Therefore, "invocation" (Avahana) and "dismissal" (Visarjana) in the Ritual by which the Deity is invoked "to be present" and bid "to depart" mean this -- that the immanence of Deity in the object of worship is recognized, kept present before, and ultimately released from the mind of the worshipper. In fact, the Deity is there, ritual or no ritual. By the ritual the Deity is not only there in fact, but is so, for the consciousness of the worshipper whose mind is transformed into a Divine mold. The Deity does not move, but the mind of the worshipper does so. It is the particular modification, a Vritti of the mind which comes and goes. Personally, I believe that "Idolatry" in its strictest literal sense is not to be found anywhere. The most ignorant individuals belonging to a primitive hu manity are aware that they are, in one sense, in the presence of "stocks and stones," and that the worshipful character of the image is not because it is such stock and stone, for, in that case all stock and stone is worshipful, but for other reasons. It h as been noted already that the ritual is graded in this matter, as in others, into gross and subtle. The subtle form is that in which the least is left to the imagination, namely, an image in the round. Less so, in the order given, is the picture on the fi at; the emblem which has no external likeness to Divinity (such as the Linga and Shalagrama stone), and then the Yantra or diagram of worship. This Yantra is made up of different combinations of lines and curves, and is described as the body of the Mantra. Besides these external objects, there are mental representations of them and of other things. Thus actual flowers may be offered physically, or mental "flowers" may be offered by the mind, or the "flowers" of the virtues may be laid before the Devata. How often the word Mantra is used, and yet how few can say correctly what the term means? It is only possible here to lay down a few general lines of explanation of a subject with which I have endeavored to deal in my recent 346 work, The Garland of Letters; for Garland and Rosary are names given to the alphabet of Sanskrit letters, which are each a manifestation of the Mother of the Universe. The Universe is movement, of various kinds, of the ultimate substance. This movement is sensed in five ways. Whatever is h eard is the sound made by some particular form of movement, and the hearing by mind and ear is again a form of movement. If there be no movement there is nothing to hear. When a letter is uttered in our hearing there is a particular movement which can be represented as a form for the eye, which form again involves color, for what is perfectly colorless is formless, and, therefore, invisible. The letters are temporarily manifested by the action of the vocal organs and the circumambient air, but are in themselves, that is, as attitudes of Power, eternal. As Postures of Power they are eternal, though as manifestations they appear with each universe and disappear with it. They are, like all else, a form of appearance of the Magna Mater, the one great Mother- Powe r, and are particular world -aspects of Her. The sound which is heard, and the mind and ear which hear it, are each such appearance. Each thing has a double aspect -- one as a produced thing, or effect; the other as the particular Causal Power which produces or more accurately manifests as that thing. That power again, relative to any of its particular productions, is an aspect of the general Mother -Power, and is, as such, a Devata. Thus, the sun is a glorious epiphany of the Brahman or All -Pervader which, i n its character as the power inherent in that particular manifestation, is the Sun -Lord or Surya- Devata. Devata in its supreme (para) sense is the Lord of All, manifesting as the All. The Sun Devata is the same Lord in the character of a particular power of the All -Powerful manifesting in this form of the Sun. Whilst, therefore, in a sense, Mantra is the Sound -aspect of all that is, each Devata has His or Her own Mantra, and it is such mantras that the Scripture refers. The Mantra does not merely stand for or symbolize the Devata. Still less is it a mere conventional label for the Devata. It is the Devata. The Devata and Mantra are therefore one. In each mantra, however, there two Shaktis or powers. The Devata who is the mantra is called the indicating power (Vacaka Shakti). The Devata who is indicated (Vacya Shakti) is the Ultimate Reality, or Supreme Brahman. The 347 former leads to the latter. As each worshipper has his own Patron Deity or Ishtadevata, so each worshipper is initiated in and practices a pa rticular mantra. The Patron Deity is a particular aspect of the One Supreme Reality which cannot be directly worshipped, but which is worshipped indirectly as an aspect of that Reality in a world of duality. What Mantra a worshipper should practice is dete rmined by the Guru who initiates. He should settle what it shall be by reference to the physical, psychical and spiritual characteristics of the worshipper. This is the theory, but in practice a state of things often exists which has led to the criticism t hat Mantra is "jabber". Thus (to take but one example), I, though not a Hindu, was once asked by a Brahmin lady, through a pundit known to both of us, to tell her the meaning of her mantra, and this though she had passed fifty, she had never been told, nor could she find out even from the pundit. She was led to ask me and thus to reveal her mantra which should be kept secret, because she had heard that I had a manuscript Bija Kosha, or Dictionary, which gave the meanings of mantras. This incident is signifi cant of the present state of things. Initiation has often and perhaps in most cases now -a-days little reality, being merely a "whispering in the ear". A true and high initiation is one in which not merely instruction is given, but there is also an actual transference of power by teacher to disciple which enables the disciple first to understand, and then transforms him by infusing him with the powers of his Guru. Mantra- sadhana consists of the union of the Sadhana shakti or the power of the individual worshipper and the Mantra shakti or the power of the mantra itself. The worshipper exerts his own individual power to achieve through the mantra, and as he does this, the power of the mantra, which is as far greater than his own as the Devata is greater than he, aids his effort. On the theory this must be so, because as the worshipper more and more realizes the Devata in mantra form, and identifies himself with the Devata, he gains divine powers which supplement his human power as a worshipper. There are some Mantras which may be called prayers, such as the great Gayatri Mantra which prays for illumination of the understanding. A mantra, however, is not to be identified with prayer. which may be said in any form and in any language that the worshipper chooses. Prayer may be, of course, 348 a great power, but it is nevertheless the power of the particular worshipper only whatever that may be. Worship (Puja) is done with meditation, recital of mantras, obeisance, manual gestures, the making of offerings and the like. Th e gestures (Mudra) are part of a system which employs both body and mind, and makes the former express and emphasize the intentions of the latter. Similarly, an orator gives expression to his thought and emphasizes it by gesture. Thus, in the Matsya Mudra, the hands are put into the form of a fish to indicate that the worshipper is offering to the Deity not merely the little quantity of water which is used in the worship, but that his intention is to offer all the oceans with the fish and other marine anima ls therein. This is part of what has been called "mummery". Well -- it is "acting" but it is not necessarily more foolish than touching one's hat as a sign of respect. The charge of mummery as against all religions is largely due to the fact that there are many people who will pass judgments on matters which they do not understand. Ignorant and half -educated persons everywhere people the world with fools because they are themselves such. Asana, or posture, belongs to Yoga, except that the general posture fo r worship is Padmasana, and worship is part of Mantra Yoga. Japa is "recital" of Mantra. There is no exact English equivalent for it, for "recital" signifies ordinary utterance, whereas Japa is of three kinds, namely: (a) that in which the Mantra is audibl y uttered; (b) where the lips are moved, but no sound is heard; and (c) mental or by the mind only. The count is done on a rosary (mala) or on the phalanxes of the fingers. One of the great Mantras is the physical act of breathing. As this is done of itsel f so many times a day, now through the right, and then through the left nostril automatically, it is called the Ajapa Mantra -- that is, the mantra which is said without Japa or willed effort on man's part. The mantra which is thus automatically said is Hamsah. Breath goes out with Ham, and comes in with Sah. When outbreathing and inbreathing takes place, the throat and mouth are said to be in the position in which they are when pronouncing the letters H and S respectively. In other words, outbreathing is t he same form of movement which is heard as the letter H. 349 An important rite much referred to in the Tantras is Nyasa, which means the "placing" of the hands of the worshipper on different parts of his body, imagining at the same time that thereby the corresponding parts of the body of his Ishtadevata are being there placed. It terminates with a movement, "spreading" the Divinity all over the body. "How absurd," someone may say, "you cannot spread Divinity like jam on bread." Quite so; but the Hindu knows wel l that the word Brahman means the All -spreading Immense and cannot therefore be spread. But what may be and is spread is the mind -- often circumscribed enough -- of the worshipper, who by his thought and act is taught to remember and realize that he is pervaded by Divinity, and to affirm this by his bodily gesture. The ritual is full of affirmations. Affirm again, affirm, and still affirm. This injunction one might expect from a system which regards man and all that exists as limited forms of unlimited Pow er (Shakti). Affirm in every way is a principle of the ritual, a principle, which ought to be as easily understood as a child's repetition in order to learn a lesson. A man who truly thinks himself to be becoming divine becomes, in fact, in varying degrees, so. It is not possible in an account such as this to note more than a few of the leading rituals, and I conclude therefore with the very important Bhutasuddhi. This term does not mean, as an English orientalist thought, "the driving away of demons" but purification of the Elements (Bhuta) of which the body is composed. There are five of these with centers or Cakras in the spinal column. The grossest is at the base of the spine which is the seat of the power called Kundalini. In Yoga, this power is roused , and led up through the column, when it absorbs as it goes, each of the centers and the elements, and then the psychic center, finally merging with Spirit or Pure Consciousness in the upper brain which is the "seat" of the latter. In Yoga this actually ta kes place, but very few are Yogis: and not all Yogis possess this power. Therefore, in the case of ritual worship this ascent, purification of the body, and merging of Matter and Mind in Consciousness takes place in imagination only. The "man of sin" is burnt in mental fire, and a new body is created, refreshed with the nectar of divine joy arising from the union of the "Divine 350 pair" (Shiva and Shakti) or Consciousness and its Power. This is done in the imagination of the worshipper, and not without result since as the Chandogya Upanishad says: "What a man thinks that he becomes." So also the Gandharva Tantra says: "By thinking of That, one becomes That." In Kundalini Yoga or Laya Yoga, there is effected a progressive absorption of all limited and discrete forms of experience, that is fact- sections into the Primary Continuum which is Shiva and Shakti united together. Therefore, it is a merging or more properly expansion of the finite into the infinite, of the part into the whole, of the thinkable and measurable into the unthinkable and immeasurable. When we worship, this progress is imagined. There is in time a transformation of Mind and Body into a condition which renders them fit for the spiritual experience, which is the Samadhi of Yoga or the ecstasis or "standing out" of Spirit from its limiting vehicles. Consciousness is then the Purna or Whole. 351 CHAPTER TWENTY -TWO. VEDANTA AND TANTRA SHASTRA When your representative asked me to speak this evening, he suggested to me as my subject, that Shastra which is a practical application of the Vedantic teaching. Mere talk about Vedanta is nothing but a high form of amusement. If more than this is to be achieved, definite Sadhana is necessary. In the grand opening chap ter of the Kularnava Tantra it is said: "In this world are countless masses of beings suffering all manner of pain. Old age is waiting like a tigress. Life ebbs away as it were water from out of a broken pot. Disease kills like enemies. Prosperity is but a dream; youth is like a flower. Life is seen and is gone like lightning. The body is but a bubble of water. How then can one know this and yet remain content? The Jivatma passes through lakhs of existence, yet only as man can he obtain the truth. It is wit h great difficulty that one is born as man. Therefore, he is a self -killer who, having obtained such excellent birth, does not know what is for his good. Some there be who having drunk the wine of delusion are lost in worldly pursuits, reck not the fight of time and are moved not at the sight of suffering. There are others who have tumbled in the deep well of the Six Philosophies -- idle disputants tossed on the bewildering ocean of the Vedas and Shastras. They study day and night and learn words. Some again, overpowered by conceit, talk of Unmani though not in any way realizing it. Mere words and talk cannot dispel the delusion of the wandering. Darkness is not dispelled by the mention of the world 'lamp'. What then is there to do? The Shastras are many, l ife is short and there are a million obstacles. Therefore should their essence be mastered, just as the Hamsa separates the milk from the water with which it has been mixed." It then says that knowledge alone can gain liberation. But, what is this knowledg e, and how may it be got? Knowledge in the Shastric sense is actual immediate experience (Sakshatkara), not the mere reading about it in books, however divine, and however useful as a preliminary such study may be. 352 How then to gain it? The answer is, by Sa dhana -- a term which comes from the root "to exert". It is necessary to exert oneself according to certain disciplines which the various religions of the world provide for their adherents. Much shallow talk takes place on the subject of ritual. It is quit e true that some overlook the fact that it is merely a means to an end. But it is a necessary means all the same. This end cannot be achieved by merely sitting in Padmasana and attempting to meditate on the Nirguna Brahman. One may as well try to seize the air with a pair of tongs. How then may the Vedantic truth be realized? The Indian Shastra purports to give the means for the Indian body and mind. What Shastra? Not the Karma- kanda of the Vedas, because with the exception of a few hardly surviving rites, such as Homa, it has passed away. The actual discipline you will find in the Tantras of the Agamas. I prefer the use of this term to that of "the Tantra," now so common, but which has risen from a misconception and leads to others. Tantra means injunction (Vidhi) or regulation (Niyama) or treatise, i.e., simply Shastra. Thus Shamkara calls the Samkhya "Tantra". One cannot speak of "the Tantra" any more than one can speak of "the treatise". We do not speak of the Purana, the Samhita, but of the Puranas and Samhitas. Why then speak of "the Tantra"? One can speak of the Tantras or Tantra Shastra. The fact is that there is an Agama of several schools, Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava. Shiva and Shakti are one. The Shaiva (in the narrower sense) predominantly worshi ps the right side of the Ardhanarishvara Murti, the Shakta worships the left (Vama or Shakti) side, the place of woman being on the left. The Vaishnava Agama is the famous Pacaratra, though there are Tantras not of this school in which Vishnu is the Ishta devata. All Agamas of whatever group share certain common ideas, outlook and practice. There are also certain differences. Thus, the Northern Shaivagama which is called Trika and not "the Tantra" is, as is also the Shakta Tantra, Advaita. The Southern Shai va school which is called Shaiva Siddhanta and not "the Tantra," as also the Vaishnava Agama or Pacaratra (and not "the Tantra") are Vishihstadvaita. There is some variance in ritual also as follows from variance in the Ishtadevata worshipped. Thus, as yo u all know, it is only in some forms of worship that there is animal sacrifice, and in one division, again, of 353 worshippers, there are rites which have led to those abuses which have gained for "the Tantra" its ill fame. A person who eats meat can never, i t is said, attain Siddhi in the Shiva Mantra according to Dakshinopasana. Each one of these schools has its own Tantras of which there were at one time probably thousands. The Shaiva Siddhanta speaks of 28 chief Tantras or Agamas with many Upatantras. In Bengal mention is made of 64. There are numerous Tantras of the Northern Shaiva school of which the Malini- vijaya and Svachanda Tantras are leading examples. The original connection between the Shaiva schools of North and South is shown by the fact that there are some books which are common to both, such as the Matanga and Mrigendra Tantras. The Pacaratra is composed of many Tantras, such as Lakshmi and Padma Tantras and other works called Samhitas. In the Commentary to the Brahma Samhita which has been called the "essence of Vaishnavism," you will find Jiva Goswami constantly referring to Gautamiya Tantra. How then has it come about that there is the ignorant notion that (to use the words of an English work on Tibetan Buddhism) "Tantra is restricted to the necromantic books of the later Shaivic or Shakti mysticism"? I can only explain this by the fact that those who so speak had no knowledge of the Tantras as a whole, and were possibly to some extent misled by the Bengali use of the term "the Tantra," to denote the Shakta Tantras current in Bengal. Naturally, the Bengalis spoke of their Tantras as "Tantra," but it does not follow that this expression truly represents the fact. I might develop this point at great length but cannot do so here. I wish merely to correct a common notion. Well, it is in these Tantras or the Agamas that you will find the ritual and Sadhana which governs the orthodox life of the day, as also in some of the Puranas which contain much Tantrik ritual. I am not concerned to discuss the merits or the reverse of these various forms of Sadhana. But the Agama teaches an important lesson the value of which all must admit, namely: mere talk about Religion and its truths will achieve nothing spiritual. There must be action (Kriya). Definite means must be adopted if the truth is to be realized. The Vedanta is not spoken of as a mere speculation as some Western Orientalists describe it to be. It claims to be based on experience. The Agamas say that if you follow their direction 354 you will gain Siddhi. As a Tibetan Buddhist once explained to me, the Tantras were regarded by his people rather as a scientific discovery than as a revelation; that is, something discovered by the self rather than imparted from without. They claim to be the revealed means by which the Tattva or other matters may be discovered. But the point is, whether you follow these directions or not, you must follow some. For this reason every ancient faith has its ritual. It is only in modern times that persons with but little understandi ng of the subject have thought ritual to be unnecessary. Their condemnation of it is based on the undoubted abuses of mechanical and unintelligent devotion. But because a thing is abused it does not follow that it is itself bad. The Agama is, as a friend of mine well put it, apractical philosophy, adding what the intellectual world wants most to- day is this sort of philosophy -- a philosophy which not merely argues but experiments. He rightly points out that the latest tendency in modern Western philosophy is to rest upon intuition, as it was formerly the tendency to glorify dialectics. But, as to the latter "Tarkapratishthanat," intuition, however, has to be led into higher and higher possibilities, by means of Sadhana, which is merely the gradual unfolding of the Spirit's vast latent magazine of power, enjoyment, and vision which every one possesses in himself. All that exists is here. There is no need to throw one's eyes into the heavens for it. The Visvasara Tantra says, "What is here is there: what is not here is nowhere." As I have said, I am not here concerned with the truth or expediency of any particular religion or method (a question which each must decide for himself), but to point out that the principle is fully sound, namely, that Religion is and is based on spiritual experience, and if you wish to gain such experience it is not enough to talk about or have a vague wish for it, but you must adopt some definite means well calculated to produce it. The claim of the Agama is that it provides such mean s and is thus a practical application of the teaching of the Vedanta. The watchword of every Tantrik is Kriya -- to be up and doing. You will find in the useful compilation called Yatidharmanirnaya that even Dandins of Shamkara's school follow a Tantrik ritual suited to their state. In fact, all must act, who have not achieved. 355 This leads me to say a word on the Svami in whose honor we meet to -day. He was always up and doing. The qualities I most admire in him are his activity, manliness and courage. There are still Indians (though fortunately not so numerous as there were when I first came to India 30 years ago) who seem to be ashamed of and would apologize for their life, customs, race, art, philosophy and religion and so forth. The Svami was not of this s ort. He was, on the contrary, amongst the first to affirm his Hindu faith and to issue a bold challenge to all who attacked it. This was the attitude of a man. It is also a manly attitude to boldly reject this faith if after fully studying and understanding it you find that the doctrines it preaches do not commend themselves to your reason. For we must, at all costs, have intellectual, as well as every other form of honesty. But this is another thing from the shame -faced apology of which I speak and which is neither one thing nor another. The Svami spoke up and acted. And for this all must honor him who, whatever be their own religious beliefs, value sincerity, truth and courage which are the badge of every nobility. And so I offer these few words to his memory which we all here, either by our speech or presence, honor to- day. 356 CHAPTER TWENTY -THREE . THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HINDU RELIGIOUS RITUAL The word "religious" in the title of this lecture has been inserted in order to exclude magical ritual, with which I do not deal, though I have a word or two to say on the subject. As regards the word "Hindu," it must be remembered that there is considerable variety of doctrine and ritual, for there are a number of communities of Indian worshippers. Though, perhaps, too much stress is generally laid on these differences, and sufficient notice is not taken of fundamental points of agreement, yet there are differences, and if we are to be exact, we must not forget that fact. It is not, of course, possible, during the hour or so at my disposal, to treat of all these differences. I have, therefore, selected the ritual of one of these communities called Shaktas. These worshippers are so called because they worship the great Mother-Power or Mahashakti. Their doctrine and practice is of importance, because, (as an Italian author has recently observed), of its accentuation of Will and Power. He describes it as "a magnificent ensemble of metaphysic, magic and devotion raised on grandiose foundations". And so, whether it be acceptable or not, I think it is. The title, therefore, is, in this matter, not exact. Some of what is here said is of common application and some is peculiar to the Shaktas. Now as to the word "Ritual". Ritual is the Art both of Religion and Magic. Magic, however, is more completely identified with ritual than is religion; for magic is ritual, using the latter term to include both mental and bodily activity; whereas religion, in the wide sense of Dharma, is not merely ritual - worship, but covers morality also. And so, it is finely said: "The doing of good to others is the highest Dharma." In this sense of the term Dharma, we are not concerned with ritual. Ritual has been the subject of age -long dispute. Whilst there are some who favor it, others are fanatically opposed to it. In this matter, India, as usual, shows her great reconciling wisdom. She holds (I speak of those who follow the old ways) that ritual is a necessity for 357 the mass of men. To this extent she adopts what I may call the "Catholic" attitude. She makes, however, concession on the other hand to the "Protestant" view, in holding that, as a man becomes more and more spiritual, he is less and less dependent on externals, and therefore on ritual, which may be practically dispensed with in the case of the highest. Then as to the word "Psychology". In order to understand the ritual, one must know the psychology of the people whose it is; and in order to know and to understand their psychology, we must know their metaphysic. There are some who claim to dispense with metaphysic, but the Indian people have been, throughout their history, pre- eminently thinkers. The three greatest metaphysical peoples have been, in the past, the Greeks and the Indians, both Brahmanist and Buddhist, and, in modern times, the Germans. The Greek, Sanskrit, and German languages are pre- eminently fitted for metaphysical use. We must then deal with metaphysic when treating of Hindu ritual. I do not propose, however, here to enter upon the subje ct more than is absolutely necessary to understand the matter in hand. Now, when we look around us, we see everywhere Power, or Shakti. The world is called Jagat, which means "the moving thing," because, anticipating modern doctrine, the Ancient Hindus held that everything was in a state of ceaseless activity, which was not the Brahman in Itself (Svarupa), Such movement is either due to the inherent power of mind and matter, or to a cause which, though immanent in the universe, yet is not wholly manifested by, but transcends it. This latter alternative represents the Indian view. Power (Shakti) connotes a Power -holder (Shaktiman). Power as universe is called Samsara. The state of power, as it is in itself, that is, the state of Power- holder, is (to use one o f the better- known terms, though there are others) Nirvana. What, then, is the nature of experience in the Samsara? The latter is the world of form, and Dharma is the Law of Form. Form necessarily implies duality and limitation. Therefore, experience in Samsara is an experience of form by form. It is limited, dualistic experience. It is limited or Apurna (not the whole or complete), relative to the state of Nirvana, which is the whole (Purna) or complete or Perfect Experience. Therefore, whilst the latter i s a state of all -knowingness and all -mightiness, man is a contraction (Samkoca), 358 and is a "little -knower" and "little -doer". The Power -holder is called Shiva- shakti -- that is, the supreme Shiva -shakti, for the universe, being but the manifestation of the transcendent Shiva -shakti, is also itself Shiva -shakti. The names Shiva and Shakti are the twin aspects of one and the same Reality. Shiva denotes the masculine, unchanging aspect of Divinity, while Shakti denotes its changing feminine aspect. These two are Hamsah, Ham being Shiva and male, and Sah being Shakti and female. It is this Hamsah, or legendary "Bird," which is said, in the poem called "Wave of Bliss," "to swim in the waters of the mind of the great." The un -manifest Shiva -shakti aspect is unknown, except in the Samadhi or ecstasy of Yoga. But the Shakti aspect, as manifested in the universe, is near to the Shakta worshipper. He can see Her and touch Her, for it is She who appears as the universe, and so it is said: "What care I for the Father, if I but be on the lap of the Mother?" This is the Great Mother, the Magna Mater of the Mediterranean civilization, and the Mahadevi of India -- that August Image whose vast body is the universe, whose breasts are Sun and Moon. It was to Her that the "mad," wine-drinking Sadhu Bhama referred, when he said to a man I know who had lost his mother: "Earthly mothers and those who suck their breasts are mortal; but deathless are those who have fed at the breast of the Mother of the Universe". It is She who personal izes in the form of all the beings in the universe; and it is She again who, as the essence of such personalizing, is the Supreme Personality (Parahanta), who in manifestation is "God in Action." Why, it may be asked, is God thought of as Mother? This question may be countered by another -- "Why is God called Father?" God is sexless. Divinity is spoken of as Mother because It "conceives, bears, gives birth to, and nourishes the Universe". In generation man is said to be a helper only. The learned may call this mothernotion, "infantilism" and "anthropomorphism". But the Shakta will not be afraid, and will reply that it is not he who has arbitrarily invented this image of the Mother, but that is the form in which She has Herself presented Herself to his mind. The great Shakta poet, Ramaprasada, says: "By feeling (Bhava) is She known. How then, can Abhava (that is, lack of feeling) find Her P" In any case he may recall the lines of the Indian poet: "If I understand, and you understand, 0 my mind, what matters it whether any other understand or not?" 359 Viewing the matter more dryly and metaphysically, we have then to deal with two states. Firstly, the limited experience of Samsara the Becoming, and the Perfect Experience or transcendent Being, which is Nirvana. This last state is not for the Shakta mere abstract Being. This is not a fiction of the ratiocinating intellect. It is a massive, rich, and concrete experience, a state which -- being powerful to produce from out of itself the Universe -- must therefore hold t he seed or essence of it within itself. It is a mistake on this view to suppose that those who attain to it will lose anything of worth by so doing. The first point which is therefore established is that there are these two states. Both are so established by experience -- the first by the ordinary experience man has of this world. and the second by supernormal spiritual experience. For the Hindu holds that the Supreme State is proved not by speculation or argument (which may yet render its support), but by actual spiritual experience. The second point to remember is that these two states are one. We must not think of "creation" in the sense, in which there is an infinite break between man and God, and, therefore, man cannot become God. Man, in this system of Vedanta, is, though a contraction of Power, nevertheless, in essence, the self-same Power which is God. There is unity (Abheda) as Essence, and difference (Bheda) as Manifestation. Similarly, Islamic philosophy distinguishes between independent Zat,, or essence, and dependent and derivative Attribute, or Sifat. Essence is one, Manifestation is different. The two are thus neither identical nor separate. There is that which the Hindus call Abheda - Bheda. The third point then is that Man, being such Power, he can by his effort, and the grace of his patron Deity, enhance it even to the extent that he becomes one with Divinity. And so it is said that "by the worship of Vishnu, man becomes Vishnu". To know a being or thing is, according to non- dual Vedanta, to be that thing. To know God, then, is to be God. Man can then pass from limited experience, or Samsara, to Perfect Experience, or Nirvana. This "towering tenet," to use Brian Hodgsons' phrase ("Nepal"), that finite mind may be raised to infinite consciousness, is also held by Buddhism. 360 The practical question then is: How is this experience of oneness with Divinity, its powers and attributes, obtained? The answer is that this is the work of Sadhana and Yoga. The term Sadhana comes from the root Sadh, which mean s to exert, to strive to attain a particular result or Siddhi, as it is called. The person making the effort is called Sadhaka, and if he obtains the result desired, or Siddhi, he is called Siddha. Etymologically Sadhana may refer to any effort. Thus a person who takes lessons in French or in riding, with a view to learn that language or to become a horseman, is doing Sadhana for those purposes respectively. If French or riding is learnt, then Siddhi is obtained, and the man who attains it is Siddha, or proficient in French and riding respectively. But technically Sadhana refers either to Ritual Worship or Ritual Magic. A Sadhaka is always a dualist, whatever his theoretical doctrine may be, because worship implies both worshipped and worshipper. The highest aim of religious worship is attainment of the Abode or Heaven of the Divinity worshipped. This Heaven is not Nirvana. The latter is a formless state, whereas Heaven is a pleasurable abode of forms -- a state intermediate between Death and Rebirth. Accordi ng to the ordinary view, Ritual Worship is a preparation for Yoga. When a man is Siddha in Sadhana he becomes qualified for Yoga, and when he is Siddha in Yoga he attains Perfect Experience. Yoga is thus the process whereby man is raised from Limited to Perfect experience. The Sadhana with which I am now concerned is religious Sadhana, a spiritual effort to achieve a moral and spiritual aim, though it may also seek material blessings from the Divinity worshipped. Magic is the development of supernormal powe r, either by extension of natural faculty or by control over other beings and forces of nature. I use the word "supernormal" and not "supernatural" because all power is natural. Thus one man may see to a certain extent with his eyes. Another man with more powerful eyes will see better. A man with a telescope will see further than either of these two. For the telescope is a scientific extension of the natural faculty of sight. Over and beyond this is the "magical" extension of power called clairvoyance. The last power is natural but not normal. Magic (of which there has been abuse) has yet been indiscriminately condemned. Whether an act is good or bad depends upon the intention and the 361 surrounding circumstances, and this same rule applies whether the act is normal or magical. Thus a man may in defense of his life use physical means for self -protection, even to the causing of the death of his adversary. Killing in such a case does not become bad because the means employed are not normal but "magical". On the other hand, Black Magic, or Abhicara, is the doing of harm to another without lawful excuse. This the Scripture (Shastra) condemns as a great sin. As the Kularnava Tantra says (XII. 63), Atmavat sarvabhutebhyo hitam kuryyat Kuleshvari -- that is, a man should not injure, but should do good to others as if they were his own self. In the Tantra Shastras are to be found magical rituals. Some classes of works, such as the "Damaras," are largely occupied with this subject. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that because a practice is described in the Scripture, it is counseled by it. A book on legal medicine may state the substances by and manner in which a man may be poisoned. It describes the process which, if carried out, produces a particular result, but it does not on that account counsel killing. As regards the magical rites themselves, the view that they are mere childish superstition is not an understanding one. The objective ritual stimulates, is a support of, and serves the Mind -Rays, which, the Hindus w ould say, are not less but more powerful than the physical forms we call X -rays and the like. It has long been known in India, as it is becoming known in the West, that the mind is not merely a passive mirror of objects, but is a great and active Power. As I have already said, however, I do not propose to deal with this subject, and now return to that of religious worship. Religious ritual is either formal (Karma), such as the Homa rite, or is devotional (Upasana), according as the act done belongs to the Karma or Upasana Kandas, which together with the Jana Kanda, constitute the three- fold division of Veda. The distinction between Karma and Upasana is this. In ritual Karma the result is produced by performance of the rite, such as Homa, independently of the effort of the Sadhaka, provided there be strict ritual accuracy; whereas, the fruit of Upasana, or psychological worship, depends on the personal devotion of the worshipper, and without it the act is of no avail. Upasana, or devotional worship, is again either gross (Sthula) or subtle (Sukshma), according to the degree of competency or advancement of the Sadhaka or person who does Sadhana. We must not 362 understand by the word "gross" anything bad. It is merely used in contra - distinction to the word "subtle". Thus, a worshipper who is doing his Sadhana before an exterior image is performing gross worship, whereas he who worships a mentally conceived image is doing subtle worship. A man who offers real flowers is doing a part of gross worship. subtle worship i n such a case would be the offering of flowers of the mind. I will now shortly examine the Vedantic theory of Mind, which must be known if the ritual is to be understood. There is no Mind without Matter or Matter without Mind, except in dreamless sleep, wh en the latter is wholly withdrawn. The Mind has always an object. In a literal sense, there is no vacuous mind. It is not aware, of course, of all objects, but only of those to which it pays attention. Nextly, Mind is not Consciousness (Cit) which is immaterial. Mind, on the contrary, is a quasi -material principle of Unconsciousness, which, on one view, appears to be conscious by reason of the association of Consciousness with it. According to the Shakta view, Mind is an unconscious quasi- material force being the power of Consciousness to limit itself, and to the extent of such limitation, to appear as unconscious. How then does Mind operate? A Mind- Ray goes forth to the object, which in its turn shapes the mental substance into the form of the object. Thus, when a man thinks of an image of Divinity intently and without distraction, his mental substance takes the form of the image. The object which is perceived leaves an impress on the mind, and this impress, if repeated, sets up a tendency or Samskara. Thus a man who repeatedly thinks good thoughts has a tendency towards the thinking of such thoughts, and by continued good thought character is molded and transformed. As the Chandogya Upanishad says: "As a man thinks that he becomes." Similarly, the Gandharva Tantra says: "By meditating on anything as the self, one becomes that thing." A man can thus shape his mind for good or bad. The mind affects the body. As it is said in the West, "the soul is form and doth the body make." Every thought has a corresponding change in the material substance of the brain. Well, then, as the mind must have an object which again shapes the mind, the ritual selects a good object, namely, the Divinity of worship with all good attributes. 363 The Sadhaka meditates on and worships that. Continued thought, repetition, the engagement of the body in the mental action co-operate to produce a lasting and good tendency in the mental substance. Sincere and continued effort effects the transformation of the worshipper into a likeness with the Div inity worshipped. For as he who is always thinking bad thoughts becomes bad, so he who thinks divine thoughts becomes himself divine. The transformation which is commenced in Sadhana is completed in Yoga, when the difference between worshipper and worshipp ed ceases in that unitary consciousness which is ecstasy or Samadhi, or transcendent perfect experience. Let us now examine some illustrations of the psychological principles stated. Divinity as it is in Itself cannot (as an Indian writer has said) be seized by the mind any more than air can be grasped by a pair of tongs. It is necessary, therefore, to have something placed before one as a representative of something else, which is what the Sanskrit terms, Pratika and Pratima, for the object worshipped, mea n. This may be an external object or a mental one. As regards the former, there are varying degrees of grossness and subtlety. The grossest is that in which there is no call upon imagination -- that is, the Image of three dimensions. Less so is the paintin g on the flat; then comes the emblem, which may be quite unlike the Devata or Divinity, of which it is an emblem, such as the Shalagrama stone in the worship of Vishnu, and, lastly, the Yantra, which is the diagrammatic body of a Mantra. Worship is outer -- that is, of an outer object with physical acts such as bodily prostrations, offering of real flowers, and so on; or it may be partly or wholly mental, as in the latter case, where both the form of the Divinity is imagined (according to the meditational form or Dhyana given in the Scriptures) as also the offerings. The forms of worship vary according to the capacity of the worshipper. In the simplest form, the worshipper draws upon the daily life, and treats the Divinity whom he invokes as he would a gues t, welcoming It after its journey, offering water for the dusty feet and the mouth, presenting It with flowers, lights, clothes, and so on. These ingredients of worship are called Upacara. In the psycho- physiological rites of some Shaktas, the abuse of 364 which has brought them ill -fame, the Upacara are the functions of the body. In image- worship, the mind is shaped into the form of the object perceived. But the perception of a material image is not enough. The worshipper must see Divinity before him. This he invokes into the image by what is called the welcoming (Avahana) and Life -giving (Pranapratishtha) ceremonies, just as, at the conclusion of the worship, he bids the Deity depart (Visarjana). Uncomprehending minds have asked: "How can God be made to come a nd go?" The answer is that He does not. What come and go are the modifications, or vrittis, of and in the mind of the Sadhaka or worshipper. To invoke the Deity means, then, a direction not to the Deity, but by the worshipper to himself to understand that the Deity is there. Deity which is omnipresent is in the Image as elsewhere, whatever the Sadhaka may do or not do. The Sadhaka informs his own mind with the notion that the Deity is present. He is then conscious of the presence of and meditates on Divinit y and its attributes, and if he be undistracted, his mind and its thought are thereby divinely shaped. Before the Divinity so present, both objectively and to the mind of the Sadhaka, worship is done. It is clear that the more this worship is sincerely continued, the greater both in degree and persistence is the transformation effected. The body is made to take its part either by appropriate gestures, called Mudra, or other acts such as prostrations, offerings, libations, and so forth. By constant worship the mind and disposition become good, for good thoughts repeated make a man good. Ritual produces by degrees, transformation, at first temporary, later lasting. "Ridding the Divinity depart" means that the mind of the Sadhaka has ceased to worship the Image. It is not that the Deity is made to retire at the behest of his worshipper. A true Sadhaka has Divinity ever in his thoughts, whether he is doing formal worship or not. "Invitation" and "Bidding Depart" are done for the purposes of the worship of the Ima ge only. Personally, I doubt whether idolatry exists anywhere in the sense that a worshipper believes a material image as such to be God. But, in any case, Indian image -worship requires for its understanding and practice some knowledge of Vedanta. Transfor mation of consciousness -feeling by ritual may be illustrated by a short examination of some other of its forms. Gesture of the hands, or Mudra, is a common part of the ritual. There is necessarily movement of the 365 hands and body in any worship which requires external action, but I here speak of the specially designed gestures. For instance, I am now making the Fish gesture, or Matsya Mudra. The hands represent a fish and its fins. The making of this gesture indicates that the worshipper is offering not only the small quantity of water which is contained in the ritual vessel, but that (such is his devotion) his intention is to give to the Deity all the oceans with the fish and other marine animals therein. The Sadhaka might, of course, form this intention without gesture, but experience shows that gesture emphasizes and intensifies thought, as in the case of public speaking. The body is made to move with the thought. I refer here to ritual gestures. The term Mudra is also employed to denote bodily postures assu med in Hathayoga as a health- giving gymnastic. Asana, or seat, has more importance in Yoga than in Sadhana. The principle as regards Asana is to secure a comfortable seat, because that is favorable to meditation and worship generally. If one is not comfort able there is distraction and worry. Both Mudra and Asana are, therefore, ancillary to worship as Puja, the principle of which has been described. Japa is recital of Mantra, the count being done either on a rosary or the phalanxes of the fingers. What is a Mantra P A Mantra is Divinity. It is Divine Power, or Daivi Shakti, manifesting in a sound body. The Shastra says that those go to Hell who think that an image is a mere stone, that Mantras are merely letters, and that a Guru is a mere man, and not a mani festation and representative of the Lord as Supreme Teacher, Illuminator, and Director. The chief Mantra is Om. This represents to human ears the sound of the first general movement of Divine Power towards the manifestation of the Universe. All other Mantras are particular movements and sounds (for the two co- exist) derived from Om. Here the Sadhaka strives to realize his unity with the Mantra, or Divinity, and to the extent that he does so, the Mantra Power (Mantra -Shakti) supplements his worship -power (Sadhana Shakti). This rite is also an illustration of the principle that repetition makes perfect, for the repetition is done (it may be) thousands of times. Japa is of three kinds -- gross, subtle, and supreme. In the first, the Mantra is audibly repeated, the objective body -aspect or sound predominating; in the second, there is no audible sound, the lips and other organs forming 366 themselves into the position which, together with contact with the air, produce the sound of the letters; in the third, the Japa i s mental -- that is, there is emphasis on the Divine, or subjective aspect. This is a means for the ritual realization -- that is, by mind -- of the unity of human power and Divine Power. Nyasa is an important rite. The word means "placing" -- that is, of the hands of the Sadhaka on different parts of his body, at the same time, saying the appropriate Mantras, and imagining that by his action the corresponding parts of the body of the Deity are placed there. The rite terminates with a movement of the hands, "spreading" the Divinity all over the body. It is not supposed that the Divinity can be spread like butter on bread. The Supreme Mother -Power is the Brahman, or All -Pervading Immense. What is all - spreading cannot be moved or spread. What can however, be "spread" is the thought of the worshipper, who, with appropriate bodily gesture, imagines that the Deity pervades his body, which is renewed and divinized. By imagining the body of the Deity to be his body, he purifies himself, and affirms his unity with th e Devata. An essential element in all rites Bhutasuddhi, which means the purification of the elements of which the body is composed. Man is physical and psychical. The physical body is constituted of five modes of motion of material substance, which have each, it is said, centers in the spinal column, at points which in the body correspond to the position of various plexuses. These centers extend from the base of the spine to the throat. Between the eyebrows is the sixth or psychical center, or mind. At the top of the brain, or cerebrum, is the place of consciousness; not that Consciousness in itself -- that is, as distinct from Mind -- can have a center or be localized in any way; for, it is immaterial and all -pervading. But, at this point, it is the least veiled by mind and matter, and is, therefore, most manifest. This place is the abode of transcendent Shiva -Shakti as Power- holder. In the lowest center (Muladhara), which is at the base of the spine, there sleeps the Immanent Cosmic Power in bodies called Kundalini Shakti. Here She is ordinarily at rest. She is so, so long as man enjoys limited world- experience. She is then roused. "Jagrati Janani" ("Arise, 0 Mother!"), calls out the Sadhaka poet, Ramaprasada. "How long wilt thou sleep in the Muladhara?" When so 367 roused, She is led up through the spinal column, absorbing all the physical and psychical centers, and unites with Shiva as consciousness in the cerebrum, which is known as the "thousand- pealed lotus". The body is then drenched with and renewed by the nectar which is the result of their union and is immortal life. This is the ecstasy which is the marriage of the Inner Divine Man and Woman. Metaphysically speaking, for the duration of such union, there is a substitution of the Supreme Experience for Wo rld- Experience. This is the real process in Yoga. But in ritual (for all are not Yogis) it is imagined only. In imagination, the "man of sin" (Papapurusha) is burnt in mental fire, kundalini absorbs the centers, unites with Shiva, and then, redescending, r ecreates the centers, bathing them in nectar. By the mental representation of this process, the mind and body are purified, and the former is made to realize the unity of man and the Supreme Power, whose limited form he is, and the manner whereby the Unive rse is involved into and evolved from Shiva -Shakti. All these, and other rituals keep the mind of the Sadhaka occupied with the thought of the Supreme Power and of his essential unity with It, with the result that he becomes more and more that which he thinks upon. His Bhava, or disposition, becomes purified and divinized so far as that can be in the world. At length practice makes perfect in Sadhana, and on the arising in such purified and illuminated mind, of knowledge and detachment from the world, there is competency for Yoga. When in turn practice in Yoga makes perfect all limitations on experience are shed, and Nirvana is attained. Ordinarily it is said that enjoyment (Bhoga) only enchains and Yoga only liberates. Enjoyment (Bhoga) does not only mean that which is bad (Adharma). Bad enjoyment certainly enchains and also leads to Hell. Good -- that is, lawful -- enjoyment also enchains, even though Heaven is its fruit. Moreover, Bhoga means both enjoyment and suffering. But, according to the Bengal Shakta worshippers, Enjoyment (which must necessarily be lawful) and Yoga may be one. According to this method (see Masson- Oursel, "Esquisse d'une Histoire de la Philosophie Indienne"), the body is not of necessity an obstacle to liberation. For there is no antinomy except such as we ourselves fancy, between Nature and Spirit, and therefore there is 368 nothing wrong or low in natural function. Nature is the instrument for the realization of the aims of the Spirit. Yoga controls but does not frustrate enjoyment, which may be itself Yoga in so far it pacifies the mind and makes man one with his inner self. The spontaneity of life is under no suspicion. Supreme power is immanent in body and mind, and these are also forms of its expression. And so, in the psycho -physiol ogical rites of these Shaktas, to which I have referred, the body and its functions are sought to be made a means of, as they may otherwise be an obstacle to, liberation. The Vira, or heroic man, is powerful for mastery on all the planes and to pass beyond them. He does not shun the world from fear of it, but holds it in his grasp and learns its secret. He can do so because the world does not exist in isolation from some transcendent Divinity exterior to Nature, but is itself the Divine Power inseparate from the Divine Essence. He knows that he is himself as body and mind such power, and as Spirit or Self such essence. When he has learned this, he escapes both from the servile subjection to circumstance, and the ignorant driftings of a humanity which has not yet realized itself. Most are still not men but candidates for Humanity. But he is the illumined master of himself, whether he is developing all his powers in this world, or liberating himself therefrom at his will. I conclude by citing a verse from a Hymn in the great "Mahakala Samhita," by a Sadhaka who had surpassed the stage of formal external ritual, and was of a highly advanced devotional type. I first read the verse and then give a commentary thereon which is my own. "I torture not my body by austerity." For the body is the Divine Mother. Why then torture it? The Hymnist is speaking of those who, like himself, have realized that the body is a manifestation of the Divine Essence. He does not say that no one is to practice austerities. These may be nec essary for those who have not realized that the body is divine, and who, on the contrary, look upon it as a material obstacle which must be strictly controlled. It is a common mistake of Western critics to take that which is meant for the particular case a s applying to all. "I make no pilgrimages." 369 For the sacred places in their esoteric sense are in the body of the worshipper. Why should he who knows thistravel? Those, however, who do not know this may profitably travel to the exterior sacred places such a s Benares, Puri, Brindavan. "I waste not my time in reading the Vedas." This does not mean that no one is to read the Vedas. He has already done so, but the Kularnava Tantra says: "Extract the essence of the Scriptures, and then cast away the rest, as chaf f is separated from the grain." When the essence has been extracted, what need is there of further reading and study P Moreover, the Veda recalls the spiritual experiences of others. What each man wants is that experience for himself, and this is not to be had by reading and speculation, but by practice, as worship or Yoga. But, says the author of the Hymn, addressing the Divine Mother: "I take refuge at thy Sacred Feet." For this is both the highest Sadhana and the fruit of it. In conclusion, I will say a word upon the Tantra Shastra to which I have referred. The four chief Scriptures of the Hindus are Veda, Smriti, Purana and Agama. There are four Ages, and to each of these Ages is assigned its own peculiar Scripture. For the present Age the governing Scripture is the Agama. The Agama or "traditions," is made up of several schools such as Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta. It is a mistake to suppose that Agama is a name given only to the Southern Scriptures, and that Tantra is the name of the Scriptures of the Bengal School of Shaktas. The Scripture of all these communities is the Agama, and the Agama is constituted of Scriptures called Tantra and also by other names. To these Tantras titles are given just as they are given to chapters in a book, such as the Lakshmi Tantra of the Vaishnava Pacaratra, Malinivijapa Tantra of the Kashmir Shaiva Agama, and the Kularnava Tantra of the Bengal Shakta Agama. These four Scriptures do not supersede or contradict one another, but are said to be various expressions of the one truth presented in diverse forms, suited to the inhabitants of the different Ages. As a Pandit very learned in the Agama told me, all the Scriptures constitute one great "Many -millioned Collection" 370 (Shatakoti Samhita). Only portions of the Vaidik Ritual have survived to -day. The bulk of the ritual which to- day governs all the old schools of Hindu worshippers is to be found in the Agamas and their Tantras. And in this lies one reason for their importance. 371 CHAPTER TWENTY -FOUR. SHAKTI AS MANTRA (MANTRAMAYI SHAKTI ) This is in every way both a most important, as well as a most difficult, subject in the Tantra Shastra; so difficult that it is not understood, and on this account has been ridiculed. Mantra, in the words of a distinguished Indian, has been called "meaningless jabber". When we find Indians thus talking of their Shastra, it is not surprising that Europeans should take it to be of no account. They naturally, though erroneously, suppose that the Indian always understands his own beliefs, and if he says they are absurd it is taken that they are so. Even, however, amongst Indians, who have lost themselves through an English Education, the Science of Mantra is largely unknown. There are not many students of the Mimamsa now -a-days. The English- educated have in this, as in other matters, generally taken the cue from their Western Gurus, and passed upon Mantravidya a borrowed condemnation. There are those among them (particularly in this part of India), those who have in the past thought little of their old culture, and have been only too willing to sell their old lamps for new ones. Because they are new they will not always be found to give better light. Let us hope this will change, as indeed it will. Before the Indian condemns his cultural inheritance let him at least first study and understand it. It is true that Mantra is meaningless -- to those who do not know its meaning; but to those who do, it is not "Jabber"; though of course like everything else it may become, and indeed has become, the subject of ignorance and superstitious use. A telegram written in code in a merchant's office will seem the merest gibberish to those who do not know that code. Those who do may spell thereout a transaction bringing lakhs of "real" Rupees for those who have sent it. Mantravidya, whether it be true or not, is a profoundly conceived science, and, as interpreted by the Shakta Agama, is a practical application of Vedantic doctrine. The textual source of Mantras is to be found in the Vedas (see in particular the Mantra portion of the Atharvaveda so associated with the Tantra 372 Shastra), the Puranas and Tantras. The latter Scripture is essentially the Mantra -Shastra. In fact it is so called generally by Sadhakas and not Tantra Shas tra. And so it is said of all the Shastras, symbolized as a body, that Tantra Shastra which consists of Mantra is the Paramatma, the Vedas are the Jivatma, Darshanas or systems of philosophy are the senses, Puranas are the body and the Smritis are the limb s. Tantra Shastra is thus the Shakti of Consciousness consisting of Mantra. For, as the Vishvasara Tantra (Ch. 2) says, the Parabrahman in Its form as the Sound Brahman (Shabda -Brahman or Saguna -Brahman), whose substance is all Mantra, exists in the body of the Jivatma.. Kundalini Shakti is a form of the Shabda- Brahman in individual bodies (Sharada-Tilaka, Ch. 1). It is from this Shabda -Brahman that the whole universe proceeds in the form of sound (Shabda) and the objects (Artha) which sounds or words denot e. And this is the meaning of the statement that the Devi and the Universe are composed of letters, that is, the signs for the sounds which denote all that is. At any point in the flow of phenomena, we can enter the stream, and realize therein the changeless Real. The latter is everywhere and is in all things, and hidden in, and manifested by, sound as by all else. Any form (and all which is not the Formless is that) can be pierced by the mind, and union may be had therein with the Devata who is at its core . It matters not what that form may be. And why? What I have said concerning Shakti gives the answer. All is Shakti. All is Consciousness. We desire to think and speak. This is Iccha Shakti. We make an effort towards realization. This is Kriya Shakti. We t hink and know. This is Jana Shakti. Through Pranavayu, another form of Shakti, we speak; and the word we utter is Shakti Mantramayi. For what is a letter (Varna) which is made into syllable (Pada) and sentences (Vakya) '? It may be heard in speech, thus a ffecting the sense of hearing. It may be seen as a form in writing. It may be tactually sensed by the blind through the perforated dots of Braille type. The same thing thus affecting the various senses. But what is the thing which does so? The senses are S hakti, and so is the objective form which evokes the sensation. Both are in themselves Shakti as Cit Shakti and Maya Shakti, and the Svarupa of these is Cit or Feeling -Consciousness. When, therefore, a Mantra is realized, when there is what is called in the Shastra Mantra -Caitanya, what happens is the union of 373 the consciousness of the Sadhaka with that Consciousness which manifests in the form of the Mantra. It is this union which makes the Mantra "work". The subject is of such importance in the Tantras tha t their other name is Mantra Shastra. But what is a Mantra? Commonly Orientalists and others describe Mantra as "Prayer," "Formulae of worship," "Mystic syllables" and so forth. These are but the superficialities of those who do not know their subject. Wherever we find the word "Mystic," we may be on our guard; for it is a word which covers much ignorance. Thus Mantra is said to be a "mystic" word, Yantra a "mystic" diagram, and Mudra a "mystic" gesture. But have these definitions taught us anything? No, nothing. Those who framed these definitions knew nothing of their subject. And yet, whilst I am aware of no work in any European language which shows a knowledge of what Mantra is or of its science (Mantra -vidya), there is nevertheless perhaps no subject which has been so ridiculed: a not unusual attitude of ignorance. There is a widely diffused lower mind which says, "what I do not understand is absurd". But this science, whether well -founded or not, is not that. Those who so think might expect Mantras which are prayers and the meaning of which they understand; for with prayer the whole world is familiar. But such appreciation itself displays a lack of understanding. For there is nothing necessarily holy or prayerful alone in Mantras as some think. Some combi nations of letters constitute prayers and are called Mantras, as for instance the most celebrated Gayatri Mantra. A Mantra is not the same thing as prayer or self -dedication (Atma- nivedana). Prayer is conveyed in the words the Sadhaka chooses. Any set of words or letters is not a Mantra. Only that Mantra in which the Devata has revealed His or Her particular aspects can reveal that aspect, and is therefore the Mantra of that one of His or Her particular aspects. The relations of the letters (Varna), whether vowel or consonant, Nada and Bindu, in a Mantra indicate the appearance of Devata in different forms. Certain Vibhuti or aspects of the Devata are inherent in certain Varna, but perfect Shakti does not appear in any but a whole Mantra. All letters are forms of the Shabda-Brahman, but only particular combinations of letters are a particular form, just as the name of a particular being is made up of certain letters and not of any indiscriminately. The whole universe is Shakti and is pervaded by Shakti. 374 Nada, Bindu, Varna are all forms of Shakti and combinations of these, and these combinations only are the Shabda corresponding to the Artha or forms of any particular Devata. The gross lettered sound is, as explained later, the manifestation of sound in a more subtle form, and this again is the production of causal "sound" in its supreme (Para) form. Mantras are manifestations of Kulakundalini (see Chapter on the same) which is a name for the Shabda- Brahman or Saguna- Brahman in individual bodies. Produced Shabda is an aspect of the Jiva's vital Shakti. Kundalini is the Shakti who gives life to the Jiva. She it is who in the Muladhara Cakra (or basal bodily center) is the cause of the sweet, indistinct and murmuring Dhvani which is compared to the humming of a black bee. Thence Shabda originates and, being first Para, gradually manifests upwards as Pashyanti, Madhyama, Vaikha ri (see post). Just as in outer space, waves of sound are produced by movements of air (Vayu), so in the space within the Jiva's body, waves of sound are said to be produced according to the movements of the vital air (Pranavayu) and the process of in and out breathing. As the Svarupa of Kundali, in whom are all sounds, is Paramatma, so the substance of all Mantra, Her manifestation, is Consciousness (Cit) manifesting as letters and words. In fact, the letters of the Alphabet which are called Akshara are nothing but the Yantra of the Akshara or Imperishable Brahman. This is however only realized by the Sadhaka, when his Shakti generated by Sadhana is united with Mantra -Shakti. kundalini, who is extremely subtle, manifests in gross (Sthula) form in differing aspects as different Devatas. It is this gross form which is the Presiding Deity (Adishthatri Devata) of a Mantra, though it is the subtle (Sukshma) form at which all Sadhakas aim. Mantra and Devata are thus one and particular forms of Brahman as Shiva - Shakti. Therefore the Shastra says that they go to Hell who think that the Image (or "Idol" as it is commonly called) is but a stone and the Mantra merely letters of the alphabet. It is therefore also ignorance of Shastric principle which supposes that Mantra is merely the name for the words in which one expresses what one has to say to the Divinity. If it were, the Sadhaka might choose his own language without recourse to the eternal and determined sounds of Shastra. (See generally as to the above the Chapter on Mantra- tattva in Principles of Tantra, Ed. A. Avalon.) The particular Mantra of a Devata is that Devata. A Mantra, on the contrary, 375 consists of certain letters arranged in definite sequence of sounds of which the letters are the representative signs. To produce the designed effect, the Mantra must be intoned in the proper way, according to both sound (Varna) and rhythm (Svara). For these reasons, a Mantra when translated ceases to be such, and becomes a mere word or sentence. By Mantra, the sought -for (Sadhya) Devata appears, and by Siddhi therein is had vision of the three worlds. As the Mantra is in fact Devata, by practice thereof this is known. Not merely do the rhythmical vibrations of its sounds regulate the unsteady vibrations of the sheaths of the worshipper, but therefrom the image of the Devata appears. As the Brihad -Gandharva Tantra says (Ch. V): Shrinu devi pravakshyami bijanam deva- rupatam Mantrochcharanamatrena deva -rupam prajayate. Mantrasiddhi is the ability to make a Mantra efficacious an d to gather its fruit in which case the Sadhaka is Mantra -siddha. As the Pranatoshini (619) says, "Whatever the Sadhaka desires that he surely obtains." Whilst therefore prayer may end in merely physical sound, Mantra is ever, when rightly said, a potent compelling force, a word of power effective both to produce material gain and accomplish worldly desires, as also to promote the fourth aim of sentient being (Caturvarga), Advaitic knowledge, and liberation. And thus it is said that Siddhi (success) is the certain result of Japa or recitation of Mantra. Some Mantras constitute also what the European would call "prayers," as for instance the celebrated Gayatri. But neither this nor any other Mantra is simply a prayer. The Gayatri runs Om (The thought is directed to the three- fold Energy of the One as represented by the three letters of which Om is composed, namely, A or Brahma, the Shakti which creates; U or Vishnu, the Shakti which maintains; and M or Rudra, the Shakti which "destroys," that is, withdraws the world): Nada and Bindu, Earth, Middle region, Heaven (of which as the transmigrating worlds of Samsara, God, as Om, as also in the form of the Sun, is the Creator). Let us contemplate upon the Adorable Spirit of the Divine Creator who is in the form of the Sun (Aditya- Devata). Map He direct our minds, towards attainment of the four- fold aims (Dharma, Artha, 376 Kama, Moksha) of all sentient beings. Om. This great Mantra bears a meaning on its face, though the Commentaries explain and amplify it. The Self of all which exists in the three regions appears in the form of the Sun -god with His body of fire. The Brahman is the cause of all, and as the visible Devata is the Eye of the World and the Maker of the day who vivifies, ripens and reveals all beings and things. The Sun -god is to the sun what the Spirit (Atma) is to the body. He is the Supreme in the form of the great Luminary. His body is the Light of the world, and He Himself is the Light of the lives of all beings. He is everywhere. He is in the outer ether as the sun, and in the inner ethereal region of the heart. He is the Wondrous Light which is the smokeless Fire. He it is who is in constant play with creation (Srishti), maintenance (Sthiti) and "destruction" (Pralaya); and by His radiance pleases both eye and mind. Let us adore Him that we may escape the misery of birth and death. May He ever direct our minds (Buddhivritti) upon the path of the world (Trivarga) and liberation (Moksha). Only the twice -born castes and men may utter this Gayatri. To the Shudra, whether man or woman, and to women of all castes, it is forbidden. But the Tantra Shastra has not the exclusiveness of the Vaidik system. Thus the Mahanirvana provides (IV. 109 -111) a Brahma -gayatri for all: "May we know the Supreme Lord. Let us contemplate the Supreme Essence. And may the Brahman direct us." All will readily understand such Mantras as the Gayatri, though some comment, which is thought amusing, has been made on the "meaningless" Om. I have already stated what it means, namely, (shortly speaking) the Energy (Nada) in Sadakhya Tattva which, springing from Shiva -Shakti Tattva, "solidifies" itself (Ghani -bhuta) as the creative Power of the Lord (Bindu or Ishvara Tattva) manifesting in the Trinity or Creative Energies. For further details see my Garland of Letters. "Om" then stands for the most general aspect of That as the Source of all. As it is recited, the idea arises in the mind corresponding with the sound which has been said to be the expression on the gross plane of that subtle "sound" which accompanied the first creative vibration. When rightly uttered this great syllable has an awe -inspiring effect. As I heard this Mantra chanted by some hundred Buddhist monks (one after the other) in a northern monastery it seemed to be the distant murmuring roll of some vast cosmic ocean. "Om" is the most prominent example of a "meaningless" Mantra, 377 that is, one which does not bear its meaning on its face, and of what is called a seed or Bija Mantra, because they are the very quintessence of Mantra, and the seed (Bija) of the fruit which is Siddhi (spiritual achievement). These are properly monosyllabic. Om is a Vaidik Bija, but it is the source of all the other Tantrik Bijas which represent particular Devata aspects of that which is presented as a whol e in 0m. As a Mantra -Shastra, the Tantras have greatly elaborated the Bijas, and thus incurred the charge of "gibberish," for such the Bijas sound to those who do not know what they mean. Though a Mantra such as a Bija -mantra may not convey its meaning on its face, the initiate knows that its meaning is the own form (Svarupa) of the particular Devata whose Mantra it is, and that the essence of the Bija is that which makes letters sound, and exists in all which we say or hear. Every Mantra is thus a particular sound form (Rupa) of the Brahman. There are a very large number of these short unetymological vocables or Bijas such as Hrim, Shrim, Krim, Hum, Hum, Phat called by various names. Thus the first is called the Maya Bija, the second Lakshmi Bija, the third Kali Bija, the fourth Kurca Bija, the fifth Varma Bija, the sixth Astra Bija. Ram is Agni Bija, Em is Yoni Bija, Klim is Kama Bija, Shrim is Badhu Bija, Aim Sarasvati Bija and so forth. Each Devata has His or Her Bija. Thus Hrim is the Maya Bija, Krim the Kali Bija. The Bija is used in the worship of the Devata whose Mantra it is. All these Bijas mentioned are in common use. There are a large number of others, some of which are formed with the first letters of the name of the Devata for whom they stand, such as Gam for Ganesha, Dum for Durga. Let us then shortly see by examples what the meaning of such a Bija is. (For a fuller account see my Garland of Letters.) In the first place, the reader will observe the common ending "m" which represents the Sanskrit breathings known as Nada and Bindu or Candrabindu. These have the same meaning in all. They are the Shaktis of that name appearing in the table of the 36 Tattvas given ante. They are states of Divine Power immediately preceding the manifestation of the objective universe. The other letters denote subsequent developments of Shakti, and various aspects of the manifested Devata mentioned below. There are sometimes variant interpretations given. Take the great Bhuvaneshvari or Maya Bija, Hrim. I have given one interpretation in my Studies above cited. From the Tantrik compendium, the Pranatoshini, quoting the Barada Tantra we get the following: Hrim = H + R + 378 I + M. H = Shiva. R = Shakti Prakriti. I = Mahamaya. "M" is as above explained, but is here stated in the form that Nada is the Progenitrix of the Universe, and Bindu which is Brahman as Ishvara and Ishvari (Ishvaratattva) is described for the Sadhaka as the "Dispeller of Sorrow". The meaning therefore of this Bija Mantra which is used in the worship of Mahamaya or Bhuvaneshvari is, that that Devi in Her Turiya or transcendent state is Nada and Bindu, and is the causal body manifesting as Shiva -Shakti in the form of the manifested universe. The same idea is expressed in varying form but with the same substance by the Devigita (Ch. IV) which says that H = gross body, R = subtle body, I = causal body and M = the Turiya or transcendent fourth state. In other words, the Sadhaka worsh ipping the Devi with Hrim, by that Bija calls to mind the transcendent Shakti who is the causal body of the subtle and gross bodies of all existing things. Shrim, (see Barada Tantra) is used in the worship of Lakshmi Devi. Sh = Alahalaksmi, R = Wealth (Dha nartham) which as well as I = (satisfaction or Tushtyartham) She gives. Krim is used in the worship of Kali. K = Kali (Shakti worshipped for relief from the world and its sorrows). R = Brahma (Shiva with whom She is ever associated). I = Mahamaya (Her aspect in which She overcomes for the Sadhaka the Maya in which as Creatrix She has involved him). "Aim" is used in the worship of Sarasvati and is Vagbhava Bija. Dum is used in the worship of Durga. D = Durga. U = protection. Nada = Her aspect as Mother of th e Universe, and Bindu is its Lord. The Sadhaka asks Durga as Mother -Lord to protect him, and looks on Her in her protecting aspect as upholder of the universe (Jagaddhatri). In "Strim." S = saving from difficulty. T = deliverer. R = (here) liberation (Muktyartho repha ukto'tra). I = Mahamaya. Bindu = Dispeller of grief. Nada = Mother of the Universe. She as the Lord is the dispeller of Maya and the sorrows it produces, the Savior and deliverer from all difficulties by grant of liberation. I have dealt elsew here (Serpent Power) with Hum and Hum the former of which is called Varma (armor) Bija and the latter Kurca, H denoting Shiva and "u", His Bhairava or formidable aspect (see generally Vol. I, Tantrik Texts. Tantrabhidhana). He is an armor to the Sadhaka by His destruction of evil. Phat is the weapon or guarding Mantra used with Hum, just as Svaha (the Shakti of Fire), is used with Vashat, in making offerings. The primary Mantra of a Devata is called Mula - Mantra. Mantras are solar (Saura) and masculine, and lunar (Saumya) and 379 feminine, as also neuter. If it be asked why things of mind are given sex, the answer is for the sake of the requirements of the worshipper. The masculine and neuter forms are called specifically Mantra and the feminine Vidya, though the first term may be used for both. Neuter Mantras end with Namah. Hum, Phat are masculine terminations, and "Tham" or Svaha, feminine (see Sharadatilaka II. Narada- pacaratra VII, Prayogasara, Pranatoshini 70). The Nitya Tantra gives various names to Mantra according to the number of the syllables such as Pinda, Kartari, Bija, Mantra, Mala. Commonly however the term Bija is applied to monosyllabic Mantras. The word "Mantra" comes from the root "man" to think. "Man" is the first syllable of manana or thinking. It is also the root of the word "Man" who alone of all creation is properly a Thinker. "Tra" comes from the root "tra," for the effect of a Mantra when used with that end, is to save him who utters and realizes it. Tra is the first syllable of Trana or liberation from the Samsara. By combination of man and tra, that is called Mantra which, from the religious stand -point, calls forth (Amantrana) the four aims (Caturvarga) of sentient being as happiness in the world and eternal bliss in Liberation. Mantra is thus Thought -movement vehicled by, and expressed in, speech. Its Svarupa is, like all else, consciousness (Cit) which is the Shabda -Brahman. A Mantra is not merely sound or letters. This is a form in which Shakti manifests Herself. The mere utterance of a Mantra without knowing its meaning, without realization of the consciousness which Mantra manifests is a mere movement of the lips and nothing else. We are then in the outer husk of consciousness; just as we are when we identify ourselves with any other form of gross matter which is, as it were, the "crust" (as a friend of mine has aptly called it) of those subtler forces which emerge from the Yoni or Cause of all, who is, in Herself Consciousness (Cidrupini). When the Sadhaka knows the meaning of the Mantra he makes an advance. But this is not enough. He must, through his consciousness, realize that Consciousness which appears in the form of the Mantra, and thus attain Mantra -Caitanya. At this point, thought is vitalized by contact with the center of all thinking. At this point again thought becomes truly vital and creative. Then an effect is created by the realization thus induced. 380 The creative power of thought is now receiving increasing acceptance in the West, which is in some cases taking over, and in others, discovering anew, for itself, what was thought by the ancients in India. Because they have discovered it anew, they call it "New Thought"; but its fundamental principle is as old as the Upanishads which said, "what you think that you become". All recognize this principle in the limited form that a man who thinks good becomes good, and he who is ever harboring bad thought becomes bad. But the Indian and "New Thought" doctrine is more profound than this. In Vedantic India, thought has been ever held creative. The world is a creation of the thought (Cit Shakti associated with Maya Shakti) of the Lord (Ishvara and Ishvari). Her and His thought is the aggregate, with almighty powers of all thought. But each man is Shiva and can attain His powers to the de gree of his ability to consciously realize himself as such. Thought now works in man's small magic just as it first worked in the grand magical display of the World -Creator. Each man is in various degrees a creator. Thought is as real as any form of gross matter. Indeed it is more real in the sense that the world is itself a projection of the World- thought, which again is nothing but the aggregate in the form of the Samskaras or impressions of past experience, which give rise to the world. The universe exis ts for each Jiva because he consciously or unconsciously wills it. It exists for the totality of beings because of the totality of Samskaras which are held in the Great Womb of the manifesting Cit Itself. There is theoretically nothing that man cannot accomplish, for he is at base the Accomplisher of all. But, in practice, he can only accomplish to the degree that he identifies himself with the Supreme Consciousness and Its forces, which underlie, are at work in, and manifest as, the universe. This is the b asal doctrine of all magic, of all powers (Siddhi) including the greatest Siddhi which is Liberation itself. He who knows Brahman, becomes Brahman to the extent of his "knowing". Thought -reading, thought -transference, hypnotic suggestion, magical projectio ns (Mokshana) and shields (Grahana) are becoming known and practiced in the West, not always with good results. For this reason some doctrines and practices are kept concealed. Projection (Mokshana) the occultist will understand. But Grahana, I may here explain, is not so much a "fence" in the Western sense, to which use a Kavaca is put, but the knowledge of how to "catch" a Mantra thus projected. A stone thrown at 381 one may be warded off or caught and, if the person so wishes, thrown back at him who threw it. So may a Mantra. It is not necessary, however, to do so. Those who are sheltered by their own pure strength, automatically throw back all evil influences, which, coming back to the ill- wisher, harm or destroy him. Those familiar with the Western presentment of similar matters will more readily understand than others who, like the Orientalist and Missionary, as a rule know nothing of occultism and regard it as superstition. For this reason their presentment of Indian teaching is so often ignorant and absur d. The occultist, however, will understand the Indian doctrine which regards thought like mind, of which it is the operation, as a Power or Shakti; something therefore, very real and creative by which man can accomplish things for himself and others. Kind thoughts, without a word, will do good to all who surround us, and may travel round the world to distant friends. So we may suffer from the ill -wishes of those who surround us, even if such wishes do not materialize into deeds. Telepathy is the transferenc e of thought from a distance without the use of the ordinary sense organs. So, in initiation, the thought of a true Guru may pass to his disciple all his powers. Mantra is thus a Shakti (Mantra Shakti) which lends itself impartially to any use. Man can identify himself with any of nature's forces and for any end. Thus, to deal with the physical effects of Mantra, it may be used to injure, kill or do good; by Mantra again a kind of union with the physical Shakti is, by some, said to be effected. So the Vishn u-Purana speaks of generation by will power, as some Westerners believe will be the case when man passes beyond the domination of his gross sheath and its physical instruments. Children will then again be "mind- born". By Mantra, the Homa fire may, it is said, be lit. By Mantra, again, in the Tantrik initiation called Vedha -diksha there is, it is said, such a transference of power from the Guru to his disciple that the latter swoons under the impulse of the thought -power which pierces him. But Mantra is also that by which man identifies himself with That which is the Ground of all. In short, Mantra is a power (Shakti) in the form of idea clothed with sound. What, however, is not yet understood in the West is the particular Thought- science which is Mantravidya , or its basis. Much of the "New Thought" lacks this philosophical basis which is supplied by Mantravidya, resting itself on the Vedantik doctrine. Mantravidya is thus that form of Sadhana by which union is had with the Mother Shakti in the 382 Mantra form (Mantramayi), in Her Sthula and Sukshma aspects respectively. The Sadhaka passes from the first to the second. This Sadhana works through the letters, as other forms of Sadhana work through form in the shape of the Yantra, Ghata or Pratima. All such Sadhana belongs to Shaktopaya Yoga as distinguished from the introspective meditative processes of Shambhavopaya which seeks more directly the realization of Shakti, which is the end common to both. The Tantrik doctrine as regards Shabda is that of the Mimamsa with this exception that it is modified to meet its main doctrine of Shakti, In order to understand what a Mantra is, we must know its cosmic history. The mouth speaks a word. What is it and whence has it come'. As regards the evolution of consciousness as the world, I refer my reader to the Chapters on "Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti" dealing with the 36 Tattvas. Ultimately, there is Consciousness which in its aspect as the great "I" sees the object as part of itself, and then as other than itself, and thus has experience of the universe. This is achieved through Shakti who, in the words of the Kamakalavilasa, is the pure mirror in which Shiva experiences Himself (Shivarupa -vimarshanirmala -darshah). Neither Shiva nor Shakti alone suffices for creation. Shivarupa here = Svarupa. Aham ityevamakaram, that is, the form (or experience) which consists in the notion of "I". Shakti is the pure mirror for the manifestation of Shiva's experience as "I" (Aham). Aham ityevam rupam janam tasya praka -shane nirmaladarshah; as the commentator Natanananda (V- 2) says. The notion is, of course, similar to that of the reflection of Purusha on Prakriti as Sattvamayi Buddhi and of Brahman on Maya. From the Mantra aspect starting from Shakti (Shakti - Tattva) associated with Shiva (Shiva -Tattva), there was produced Nada, and from Nada, came Bindu which, to distinguish it from other Bindus, is known as the causal, supreme or Great Bindu (Karana, Para, Mahabindu). This is very clearly set forth in the Sharada Tilaka, a Tantrik work by an author of the Kashmirian School which was formerly of great authority among the Bengal Shaktas. I have dealt with this subject in detail in my Garland of Letters. Here I only summarize conclusions. Shabda literally means and is usually translated "sound," the word coming from the root Shabd "to sound". It must not, however, be wholly identified 383 with sound in the sense of that which is heard by the ear, or sound as effect of cosmic stress. Sound in this sense is the effect produced through excitation of the ear a nd brain, by vibrations of the atmosphere between certain limits. Sound so understood exists only with the sense organs of hearing. And even then it may be perceived by some and not by others, due to keenness or otherwise of natural hearing. Further the best ears will miss what the microphone gives. Considering Shabda from its primary or causal aspect, independent of the effect which it may or may not produce on the sense organs, it is vibration (Spandana) of any kind or motion, which is not merely physical motion, which may become sound for human ears, given the existence of ear and brain and the fulfillment of other physical conditions. Thus, Shabda is the possibility of sound, and may not be actual sound for this individual or that. There is thus Shabda w herever there is motion or vibration of any kind. It is now said, that the electrons revolve in a sphere of positive electrification at an enormous rate of motion. If the arrangement be stable, we have an atom of matter. If some of the electrons are pitched off from the atomic system, what is called radio-activity is observed. Both these rotating and shooting electrons are forms of vibration as Shabda, though it is no sound for mortal ears. To a Divine Ear all such movements would constitute the "music of t he spheres". Were the human ear subtle enough, a living tree would present itself to it in the form of a particular sound which is the natural word for that tree. It is said of ether (Akasha) that its Guna or quality is sound (Shabda); that is, ether is th e possibility of Spandana or vibration of any kind. It is that state of the primordial "material" substance (Prakriti) which makes motion or vibration of any kind possible (Shabdaguna akashah). The Brahman Svarupa or Cit is motionless. It is also known as Cidakasha. But this Akasha is not created. Cidakasha is the Brahman in which stress of any kind manifests itself, a condition from which the whole creation proceeds. This Cidakasha is known as the Shabda - Brahman through its Maya -shakti, which is the cause of all vibrations manifesting themselves as sound to the ear, as touch to the tactile sense, as color and form to the eye, as taste to the tongue and as odor to the nose. All mental functioning again is a form of vibration (Spandana). Thought is a vibratio n of mental substance just as the expression of thought in the form of the spoken word is a vibration affecting the ear. All Spandana 384 presupposes heterogeneity (Vaishamya). Movement of any kind implies inequality of tensions. Electric current flows between two points because there is a difference of potential between them. Fluid flows from one point to another because there is difference of pressure. Heat travels because there is difference of temperature. In creation (Srishti) this condition of heterogenei ty appears and renders motion possible. Akasha is the possibility of Spandana of any kind. Hence its precedence in the order of creation. Akasha means Brahman with Maya, which Mayashakti or (to use the words of Professor P. N. Mukhyopadhyaya) Stress is ren dered actual, from a previous state of possibility of stress which is the Sakti's natural condition of equilibrium (Prakriti = Samyavastha). In dissolution, the Maya -Shakti of Brahman (according to the periodic law which is a fundamental postulate of India n cosmogony) returns to homogeneity when in consequence Akasha disappears. This disappearance means that Shakti is equilibrated, and that therefore there is no further possibility of motion of any kind. As the Tantras say, the Divine Mother becomes one wit h Paramashiva. The Sharada says -- From the Sakala Parameshvara who is Sacchidananda issued Shakti; from Shakti came Nada; and from Nada issued Bindu. Sacchidanandavibhavat sakalat parameshvarat Asicchhaktistato nado nadad bindusamudbhavah. Here the Sakala Parameshvara is Shiva Tattva. Shakti is Shakti Tattva wherein are Samani, Vyapini, and Anjani Shaktis. Nada is the first produced source of Mantra, and the subtlest form of Shabda of which Mantra is a manifestation. Nada is threefold, as Mahanada or Nadanta and Nirodhini representing the first moving forth of the Shabda -Brahman as Nada, the filling up of the whole universe with Nadanta and the specific tendency towards the next state of unmanifested Shabda respectively. Nada in its three forms is in the Sa dakhya Tattva. Nada becoming slightly operative towards the "speakable" (Vacya), (the former operation being in regard to the thinkable (Mantavya) ) is called Arddhacandra which develops into Bindu. Both of these are in Ishvara Tattva. This Mahabindu is threefold as the Kamakala. The undifferentiated Shabda -Brahman or Brahman as the immediate cause of the manifested Shabda and Artha is a unity of 385 consciousness (Caitanya) which then expresses itself in three -fold function as the three Shaktis, Iccha, Jana, Kriya; the three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas, Tamas; the three Bindus (Karyya) which are Sun, Moon and Fire; the three Devatas, Rudra, Vishnu, Brahma and so forth. These are the product of the union of Prakasha and Vimarsha Shakti. This Triangle of Divine Desire is the Kamakala, or Creative Will and its first subtle manifestation, the Cause of the Universe which is personified as the Great Devi Tripurasundari, the Kameshvara and Kameshvari, the object of worship in the Agamas. Kamakalavilasa, as explained in the work of that name, is the manifestation of the union of Shiva and Shakti, the great "I" (Aham) which develops through the inherent power of its thought -activity (Vimarsha -Shakti) into the universe, unknowing as Jiva its true nature and the secret of its gro wth through Avidya Shakti. Here then there appears the duality of subject and object; of mind and matter, of the word (Shabda) and its meaning (Artha). The one is not the cause of the other, but each is inseparable from, and concomitant with, the other as a bifurcation of the undifferentiated unity of Shabda -Brahman whence they proceed. The one cosmic movement produces at the same time the mind and the object which it cognizes; names (Nama) and language (Shabda) on the one hand; and forms (Rupa) or object (Artha) on the other. These are all parts of one co- ordinated contemporaneous movement, and, therefore, each aspect of the process is related the one to the other. The genesis of Shabda is only one aspect of the creative process, namely, that in which the Brahman is regarded as the Author of Shabda and Artha into which the undifferentiated Shabda - Brahman divides Itself. Shakti is Shabda -Brahman ready to create both Shabda and Artha on the differentiation of the Parabindu into the Kamakala, which is the root (Mula) of all Mantras. Shabda -Brahman is Supreme "Speech" (Para -Vak) or Supreme Shabda (Para -Shabda). From this fourth state of Shabda, there are three others -- Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari, which are the Shabda aspect of the stages whereby the seed of formless consciousness explicates into the multitudinous concrete ideas (expressed in language of the mental world) the counterpart of the objective universe. But for the last three states of sound the body is required and, therefore, they only exist in the Jiva. In the latter, the Shabda -Brahman is in the form of Kundalini Shakti in the Muladhara Cakra. In Kundalini is Parashabda. This 386 develops into the "Matrikas" or "Little Mothers" which are the subtle forms of the gross manifested letters (Varna). The letters make up syllables (Pada) and syllables make sentences (Vakya), of which elements the Mantra is composed. Para Shabda in the body develops in Pashyanti Shabda or Shakti of general movements (Samanya Spanda) located in the tract from the Muladhara to the Manipura associated with Manas. It then in the tract upwards to the Anahata becomes Madhyama or Hiranyagarbha sound with particularized movement (Vishesha Spanda) associated with Buddhi -Tattva. Vayu proceeding upwards to the throat expresses itself i n spoken speech which is Vaikhari or Virat Shabda. Now it is that the Mantra issues from the mouth and is heard by the ear. Because the one cosmic movement produces the ideating mind and its accompanying Shabda and the objects cognized or Artha, the creative force of the universe is identified with the Matrikas and Varnas, and Devi is said to be in the forms of the letters from A to Ha, which are the gross expressions of the forces called Matrika; which again are not different from, but are the same forces that evolve into the universe of mind and matter. These Varnas are, for the same reason, associated with certain vital and physiological centers which are produced by the same power that gives birth to the letters. It is by virtue of these centers and thei r controlled area in the body that all the phenomena of human psychosis run on, and keep man in bondage. The creative force is the union of Shiva and Shakti, and each of the letters (Varna) produced therefrom and thereby are part and parcel of that Force, and are, therefore, Shiva and Shakti in those particular forms. For this reason, the Tantra Shastra says that Devata and Mantra composed of letters, are one. In short, Mantras are made of letters (Varna). Letters are Matrika. Matrika is Shakti and Shakti is Shiva. Through Shakti (one with Shiva) Nada -Shakti, Bindu -Shakti, the Shabda -Brahman or Para Shabda, arise the Matrika, Varna, Pada, Vakya of the lettered Mantra or manifested Shabda. But what is Shabda or "Sound"? Here the Shakta Tantra Shastra follows the Mimamsa doctrine of Shabda, with such modifications as are necessary to adapt it to its doctrine of Shakti. Sound (Shabda) which is quality (Guna) of ether (Akasha) and is sensed by hearing is twofold, namely, lettered (Varnatmaka Shabda) and unlettered or Dhvani (Dhvanyatmaka Shabda). The latter is caused by the striking of two things together, and is apparently 387 meaningless. Shabda, on the contrary, which is Anahata (a term applied to the Heart -Lotus) is that Brahman sound which is not caused by the striking of two things together. Lettered sound is composed of sentences (Vakya), words (Pada) and letters (Varna). Such sound has a meaning. Shabda manifesting as speech is said to be eternal. This the Naiyayikas deny saying that it is transitory. A word is uttered and it is gone. This opinion the Mlmamsa denies saying that the perception of lettered sound must be distinguished from lettered sound itself. Perception is due to Dhvani caused by the striking of the air in contact with the vocal organs, namely, the throat, palate and tongue and so forth. Before there is Dhvani there must be the striking of one thing against another. It is not the mere striking which is the lettered Shabda. This manifests it. The lettered sound is produced by the formation of the vocal organs in contact with air; which formation is in response to the mental movement or idea which by the will thus seeks outward expression in audible sound. It is this perception which is transitory, for the Dhvani which manifests ideas in language is such. But lettered sound as it is in itself, that is, as the Consciousness manifesting Idea expressed in speech is eternal. It was not produced at the moment it was perceived. It was only manifested by the Dhvani. It existed before, as it exists after, su ch manifestation, just as a jar in a dark room which is revealed by a flash of lightning is not then produced, nor does it cease to exist on its ceasing to be perceived through the disappearance of its manifester, the lightning. The air in contact with the voice organs reveals sound in the form of the letters of the alphabet, and their combinations in words and sentences. The letters are produced for hearing by the person desiring to speak, and become audible to the ear of others through the operation of unlettered sound or Dhvani. The latter being a maifester only, lettered Shabda is something other than its manifester. Before describing the nature of Shabda in its different form of development, it is necessary to understand the Indian psychology of percept ion. At each moment, the Jiva is subject to innumerable influences which from all quarters of the Universe pour upon him. Only those reach his Consciousness which attract his attention and are thus selected by his Manas. The latter attends to one or other of these sense- impressions and conveys it to the Buddhi. When an object (Artha) is presented to the mind, and perceived, the 388 latter is formed into the shape of the object perceived. This is called a mental Vritti (modification) which it is the object of Yoga to suppress. The mind as a Vritti is thus a representation of the outer subject. But, in so far as it is such representation, the mind is as much an object as the outer one. The latter, that is, the physical object, is called the gross object (Sthula ar tha), and the former or mental impression is called the subtle object (Sukshma artha). But, besides the object, there is the mind which perceives it. It follows that the mind has two aspects, in one of which it is the perceiver, and in the other the perceived in the form of the mental formation (Vritti), which in creation precedes its outer projection, and after the creation follows as the impression produced in the mind by the sensing of a gross physical object. The mental impression and the physical object exactly correspond, for the physical object is in fact but a projection of the cosmic imagination, though it has the same reality as the mind has; no more and no less. The mind is thus both cognizer (Grahaka) and cognized Grahya), revealer (Prakashaka) and revealed (Prakashya), denoter (Vacaka) and denoted (Vacya). When the mind perceives an object, it is transformed into the shape of that object. So the mind which thinks of the Divinity which it worships (Ishtadevata) is, at length, through continued devotion, transformed into the likeness of that Devata. By allowing the Devata thus to occupy the mind for long, it becomes as pure as the Devata. This is a fundamental principle of Tantrik Sadhana or religious practice. The object perceived is called Artha, a term which comes from the root "Ri," which means to get, to know, to enjoy. Artha is that which is known and which, therefore, is an object of enjoyment. The mind as Artha, that is in the form of the mental impression, is an exact reflection of the outer object or gross Artha. As the outer object is Artha, so is the interior subtle mental form which corresponds to it. That aspect of the mind which cognizes is called Shabda or Nama (name), and that aspect in which it is its own object or cognized is called Artha or Rupa (form). The outer physical object, of which the latter is in the individual an impression, is also Artha or Rupa, and spoken speech is the outer Shabda. The mind is thus, from the Mantra aspect, Shabda and Artha, terms corresponding to the Vedantic Nama and Rupa or concepts and concepts objectified. The Mayavada Vedanta says that the 389 whole creation is Nama and Rupa. Mind as Shabda is the Power (Shakti) the function of which is to distinguish and identify (Bhedasamsargavritti- Shakti). Just as the body is causal, subtle and gross, so is Shabda, of which there are four states (Bhava) called Para, Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari. Para sound is that which exists on the differentiation of the Mahabindu before actual manifestation. This is motionless, causal Shabda in Kundalini, in the Muladhara center of the body. That aspect of it in which it commences to move with a general, that is, non- particularized, motion (Samanya Spanda) is Pashyanti whose place is from the Muladhara to the Manipura Cakra, t he next center. It is here associated with Manas. These represent the motionless and first moving Ishvara aspect of Shabda. Madhyama Shabda is associated with Buddhi. It is Hiranyagarbha sound (Hiranyagarbharupa) extending from Pashyanti to the heart. Both Madhyama sound which is the inner "naming" by the cognitive aspect of mental movement, as also its Artha or subtle (Sukshma) object (Artha) belong to the mental or subtle body (Sukshma or Linga Sharira). Perception is dependent on distinguishing and identification. In the perception of an object that part of the mind which identifies and distinguishes and thus "names" or the cognizing part is, from the Shabda aspect, subtle Shabda: and that part of it which takes the shape of, and thus constitutes, the object (a shape which corresponds with the outer thing) is subtle Artha. The perception of an object is thus consequent on the simultaneous functioning of the mind in its two- fold aspect as Shabda and Artha, which are in indissoluble relation with one another as cognizer (Grahaka) and cognized Grahya). Both belong to the subtle body. In creation Madhyama sound first appeared. At that movement there was no outer Artha. Then the Cosmic Mind projected this inner Madhyama Artha into the world of sensual experience and named it in spoken speech (Vaikhari Shabda). The last or Vaikhari Shabda is uttered speech, developed in the throat, issuing from the mouth. This is Virat Shabda. Vaikhari Shabda is therefore language or gross lettered sound. Its corresponding Artha i s the physical or gross object which language denotes. This belongs to the gross body (Sthula Sharira). Madhyama Shabda is mental movement or ideation in its cognitive aspect and Madhyama Artha is the mental impression of the gross object. The inner though t-movement in its aspect as (Vacaka) and denoted (Vacya). When the mind perceives an object, it is transformed into 390 the shape of that object. So the mind which thinks of the Divinity which it worships (Ishtadevata) is, at length, through continued devotion, transformed into the likeness of that Devata. By allowing the Devata thus to occupy the mind for long, it becomes as pure as the Devata. This is a fundamental principle of Tantrik Sadhana or religious practice. The object perceived is called Artha, a ter m which comes from the root "Ri," which means to get, to know, to enjoy. Artha is that which is known and which, therefore, is an object of enjoyment. The mind as Artha, that is in the form of the mental impression, is an exact reflection of the outer obje ct or gross Artha. As the outer object is Artha, so is the interior subtle mental form which corresponds to it. That aspect of the mind which cognizes is called Shabda or Nama (name), and that aspect in which it is its own object or cognized is called Artha or Rupa (form). The outer physical object, of which the latter is in the individual an impression, is also Artha or Rupa, and spoken speech is the outer Shabda. The mind is thus, from the Mantra aspect, Shabda and Artha, terms corresponding to the Vedantic Nama and Rupa or concepts and concepts objectified. The Mayavada Vedanta says that the whole creation is Nama and Rupa. Mind as Shabda is the Power (Shakti) the function of which is to distinguish and identify (Bhedasamsargavritti- Shakti). Just as the b ody is causal, subtle and gross, so is Shabda, of which there are four states (Bhava) called Para, Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari. Para sound is that which exists on the differentiation of the Mahabindu before actual manifestation. This is motionless, causal Shabda in Kundalini, in the Muladhara center of the body. That aspect of it in which it commences to move with a general, that is, non- particularized, motion (Samanya Spanda) is Pashyanti whose place is from the Muladhara to the Manipura Cakra, the next center. It is here associated with Manas. These represent the motionless and first moving Ishvara aspect of Shabda. Madhyama Shabda is associated with Buddhi. It is Hiranyagarbha sound (Hiranyagarbharupa) extending from Pashyanti to the heart. Both Madhyama sound which is the inner "naming" by the cognitive aspect of mental movement, as also its Artha or subtle (Sukshma) object (Artha) belong to the mental or subtle body (Sukshma or Linga Sharira). Perception is dependent on distinguishing and identification. In the perception of an object that part of the mind which identifies and distinguishes and thus "names" or the cognizing part is, from 391 the Shabda aspect, subtle Shabda: and that part of it which takes the shape of, and thus constitutes, the object ( a shape which corresponds with the outer thing) is subtle Artha. The perception of an object is thus consequent on the simultaneous functioning of the mind in its two- fold aspect as Shabda and Artha, which are in indissoluble relation with one another as cognizer (Grahaka) and cognized Grahya). Both belong to the subtle body. In creation Madhyama sound first appeared. At that movement there was no outer Artha. Then the Cosmic Mind projected this inner Madhyama Artha into the world of sensual experience and named it in spoken speech (Vaikhari Shabda). The last or Vaikhari Shabda is uttered speech, developed in the throat, issuing from the mouth. This is Virat Shabda. Vaikhari Shabda is therefore language or gross lettered sound. Its corresponding Artha is the physical or gross object which language denotes. This belongs to the gross body (Sthula Sharira). Madhyama Shabda is mental movement or ideation in its cognitive aspect and Madhyama Artha is the mental impression of the gross object. The inner thought- mov ement in its aspect as Shabdartha, and considered both in its knowing aspect (Shabda) and as the subtle known object (Artha) belongs to the subtle body (Sukshma Sharira). The cause of these two is the first general movement towards particular ideation (Pas hyanti) from the motionless cause Para Shabda or Supreme Speech. Two forms of inner or hidden speech, causal, subtle, accompanying mind movement thus precede and lead up to spoken language. The inner forms of ideating movement constitute the subtle, and the uttered sound the gross aspect of Mantra which is the manifested Shabda -Brahman. The gross Shabda called Vaikhari or uttered speech, and the gross Artha or the physical object denoted by that speech are the projection of the subtle Shabda and Artha, through the initial activity of the Shabda -Brahman into the world of gross sensual perception. Therefore, in the gross physical world, Shabda means language, that is, sentences, words and letters which are the expression of ideas and are Mantra. In the subtle or mental world, Madhyama sound is the Shabda aspect of the mind which "names" in its aspect as cognizer, and Artha, is the same mind in its aspect as the mental object of its cognition. It is defined to be the outer in the form of the mind. It is thus similar to the state of dreams (Svapna), as Parashabda is the causal dreamless (Sushupti), and Vaikhari the waking (Jagrat) state. Mental Artha 392 is a Samsara, an impression left on the subtle body by previous experience, which is recalled when the Jiva reawakes to world experience, and recollects the experience temporarily lost in the cosmic dreamless state (Sushupti) which is destruction (Pralaya). What is it which arouses this Samskara? As an effect (Kriya) it must have a cause (Karana). This Karana is the Sh abda or Name (Nama) subtle or gross corresponding to that particular Artha. When the word "Ghata" is uttered, this evokes in the mind the image of an object, namely, a jar; just as the presentation of that object does. In the Hiranyagarbha state, Shabda as Samskara worked to evoke mental images. The whole world is thus Shabda and Artha, that is Name and Form (Nama, Rupa). These two are inseparably associated. There is no Shabda without Artha or Artha without Shabda. The Greek word "Logos" also means thought and word combined. There is thus a double line of creation, Shabda and Artha; ideas and language together with objects. Speech as that which is heard, or the outer manifestion of Shabda, stands for the Shabda creation. The Artha creation are the inner and outer objects seen by the mental or physical vision. From the cosmic creative standpoint, the mind comes first, and from it, is evolved the physical world according to the ripened Samskaras which led to the existence of the particular existing universe. Therefore, the mental Artha precedes the physical Artha which is an evolution in gross matter of the former. This mental state corresponds to that of dreams (Svapna), when man lives in the mental world only. After creation which is the waking ( Jagrat) state, there is for the individual an already existing parallelism of names and objects. Uttered speech is a manifestation of the inner naming or thought. This thought -movement is similar in men of all races. When an Englishman or an Indian thinks of an object, the image is to both the same, whether evoked by the object itself or by the utterance of its name. For this reason possibly if thought -reading be accepted, a thought -reader whose cerebral center is en rapport with that of another, may read the hidden "speech," that is thought, of one whose spoken speech he cannot understand. Thus, whilst the thought -movement is similar in all men, the expression of it as Vaikhari Shabda differs. According to tradition there was once a universal language. According to the Biblical account, this was so, before the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. Similarly there is, (a friend tells me though 393 he has forgotten to send me the reference), in the Rigveda, a mysterious passage which speaks of the "Three Fathers and three Mothers," by whose action like that of the Elohim "all -comprehending speech" was made into that which was not so. Nor is this unlikely, when we consider that difference in gross speech is due to difference of races evolved in the course of time. If the instruments by which, and conditions under which thought is revealed in speech, were the same for all men then there would be but one language. But now this is not so. Racial characteristics and physical conditions, such as the nature of the vocal organs, climate, inherited impressions and so forth differ. So also does language. But for each particular man speaking any particular language, the uttered name of any object is the gross expression of his inner thought- movement. It evokes the idea and the idea i s consciousness as mental operation. That operation can be so intensified as to be itself creative. This is Mantra -Caitanya. It is said in the Tantra Shastras that the fifty letters of the alphabet are in the six bodily Cakras called Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Aja. These 50 letters multiplied by 20 are in the thousand- pealed Lotus or Sahasrara. From the above account, it will be understood that, when it is said that the "Letters" are in the six bodily Cakras, it is not to be supposed that it is intended to absurdly affirm that the letters as written shapes, or as the uttered sounds which are heard by the ear are there. The letters in this sense, that is, as gross things, are manifested only in speech and writing. This much is clear. But the precise significance of this statement is a matter of some difficulty. There is in fact no subject which presents more difficulties than Mantravidya, whether considered generally or in relation to the particular matters in hand. I do not pretend to have elucidated all its difficulties. What proceeds from the body is in it in subtle or causal form. Why, however, it may be asked are particular letters assigned to particular Cakras. I have heard several explanations given which do not, in my opi nion, bear the test of examination. 394 If the arrangement be not artificial for the purpose of Sadhana, the simplest explanation is that which follows: From the Brahman are produced the five Bhutas, Ether, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, in the order stated; and fro m them issued the six Cakras from Aja to Muladhara. The letters are (with the exception next stated) placed in the Cakras in their alphabetical order; that is, vowels as being the first letters or Shaktis of the consonants (which cannot be pronounced without them) are placed in Vishuddha Cakra: the first consonants Ka to Tha in Anahata and so forth until the Muladhara wherein are set the last four letters from Va to Sa. Thus in Aja there are Ha and Ksha as being Brahmabijas. In the next or Vishuddha Cakra are the 16 vowels which originated first. Therefore, they are placed in Vishuddha the ethereal Cakra; ether also having originated first. The same principle applies to the other letters in the Cakras. namely, Ka, to Tha (12 letters and petals) in Anahata; Da to Pha (10) in Manipura; Ba to La (6) in Svadhisthana; and Va to Sa (4) in Muladhara. The connection between particular letters and the Cakras in which they are placed is further said to be due to the fact that in uttering any particular letter, the Ca kra in which it is placed and its surroundings are brought into play. The sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet are classified according to the organs used in their articulation, and are guttural (Kantha), palatals (Talu), cerebrals (Murddha), dentals (Danta) and labials (Oshtha). When so articulated, each letter, it is said, "touches" the Cakra in which it is, and in which on this account it has been placed. In uttering them certain Cakras are affected; that is, brought into play. This, it is alleged, will be fo und to be so, if the letter is carefully pronounced and attention is paid to the accompanying bodily movement. Thus, in uttering Ha, the head (Aja) is touched, and in uttering the deep -seated Va, the basal Cakra or Muladhara. In making the first sound the forehead is felt to be affected, and in making the last the lower part of the body around the root -lotus. This is the theory put forth as accounting for the position of the letters in the Cakras. A Mantra is, like everything else, Shakti. But the mere utt erance of a Mantra without more is a mere movement of the lips. The Mantra must be awakened (Prabuddha) just like any other Shakti if effect is to be had therefrom. This is the union of sound and idea through a knowledge of the Mantra and its meaning. The recitation of a Mantra without knowing its 395 meaning is practically fruitless. I say "practically" because devotion, even though it be ignorant, is never wholly void of fruit. But a knowledge of the meaning is not enough; for it is possible by reading a book or receiving oral instructions to get to know the meaning of a Mantra, without anything further following. Each Mantra is the embodiment of a particular form of Consciousness or Shakti. This is the Mantra -Shakti. Consciousness or Shakti also exists in the form of the Sadhaka. The object then is to unite these two, when thought is not only in the outer husk, but is vitalized by will, knowledge, and action through its conscious center in union with that of the Mantra. The latter is Devata or a particular man ifestation of Shakti: and the Sadhaka who identifies himself therewith, identifies himself with that Shakti. According to Yoga when the mind is concentrated on any object it is unified with it. When man is so identified with a Varna or Tattva, then the power of objects to bind ceases, and he becomes the controller. Thus, in Kundalini- Yoga, the static bodily Shakti pierces the Cakras, to meet Shiva -Shakti in the Sahasrara. As the Sadhaka is, through the power of the rising Shakti, identified with each of the Centers, Tattvas and Matrika Shaktis they cease to bind, until passing through all he attains Samadhi. As the Varnas are Shiva- Shakti, concentration on them draws the mind towards, and then unifies it with, the Devata which is one with the Mantra. The Dev ata of the Mantra is only the creative Shakti assuming that particular form. As already stated, Devata may be realized in any object, not merely in Mantras, Yantras, Ghatas, Pratimas or other ritual objects of worship. The same power which manifests to the ear in the Mantra is represented in the lines and curves of the Yantra which, the Kaulavali Tantra says, is the body of the Devata: Yantram mantramayam proktam mantratma devataiva hi Dehatmanor yatha bhedo yantra- devata yoshtatha. The Yantra is thus the graphic symbol of the Shakti, indicated by the Mantra with which identification takes place. The Pratima or image is a grosser visual form of the Devata. But the Mantras are particular forms of Divine Shakti, the realization of which is efficacious to produce particular results. As in Kundalini - Yoga, so also here the identification of the Sadhaka with different Mantras gives rise to various Vibhutis or powers: for each grouping of the letters represents a new combination of the Matrika Shaktis. It is the 396 eternal Shakti who is the life of the Mantra. Therefore, Siddhi in Mantra Sadhana is the union of the Sadhaka's Shakti with the Mantra Shakti; the identification of the Sadhaka with the Mantra is the identification of the knower (Vedaka), knowing (Vidya) and known (Vedya) or the Sadhaka, Mantra and Devata. Then the Mantra works. The mind must feed, and is always feeding, something. It seizes the Mantra and works its way to its heart. When there, it is the Citta or mind of the Sadhaka unified with the Shakti of the Mantra which works. Then subject and object, in its Mantra form, meet as one. By meditation the Sadhaka gains unity with the Devata behind, as it were, the Mantra and Whose form the Mantra is. The union of the Sadhaka of the Mantra and the Devata of the Mantra is the result of the effort to realize permanently the incipient desire for such union. The will towards Divinity is a dynamic force which pierces everything and finds there Divinity itself. It is because Westerners and some Westernized Hindus do not understand the principles of Mantra; principles which lie at the center of Indian religious theory and practice, that they see nothing in it where they do not regard it as gross superstition. It must be admitted that Mantra Sadhana is often done ignorantly. Faith is placed in externals and the inner meaning is often lost. But even such ignorant worship is better than none at all. "It is better to bow to Narayana with one's shoes on than never to bow at all." Much also is said of "vain repetitions". What Christ condemned was not repetition but "vain" repetition. That man is a poor psychologist who does not know the effect of repetition, when done with faith and devotion. It is a fact that the inner kingdom yields to violence and can be taken by assault. Indeed, it yields to nothing but the strong will of the Sadhaka, for it is that will in its purest and fullest strength. By practice with the Mantra, the Devata is invoked. This means that the mind itself is Devata when unified wit h Devata. This is attained through repetition of the Mantra (Japa). Japa is compared to the action of a man shaking a sleeper to wake him up. The Sadhaka's own consciousness is awakened. The two lips are Shiva and Shakti. The movement in utterance is the " coition" (Maithuna) of the two. Shabda which issues therefrom is in the nature of Bindu. The Devata then appearing is, as it were, the son of the Sadhaka. It is not the supreme Devata 397 who appears (for It is actionless), but in all cases an emanation produced by the Sadhaka's worship for his benefit only. In the case of worshippers of the Shiva- Mantra, a Boy -Shiva (Bala -Shiva) appears who is then made strong by the nurture which the Sadhaka gives him. The occultist will understand all such symbolism to mean that the Devata is a form of the Consciousness which becomes the Boy -Shiva, and which, when strengthened is the full - grown Divine Power Itself. All Mantras are forms of consciousness (Vijanarupa), and when the Mantra is fully practiced it enlivens the Sam skara, and the Artha appears to the mind. Mantras used in worship are thus a form of the Samskaras of Jivas; the Artha of which manifests to the consciousness which is pure. The essence of all this is -- concentrate and vitalize thought and will power, tha t is Shakti. The Mantra method is Shaktopaya Yoga working with concepts and form, whilst Shambhavopaya Yoga has been well said to be a more direct attempt at intuition of Shakti, apart from all passing concepts, which, as they cannot show the Reality, only serve to hide it the more from one's view and thus maintain bondage. These Yoga methods are but examples of the universal principle of Sadhana, that the Sadhaka should first work with and through form, and then, so far as may be, by a meditation which dis penses with it. It has been pointed out to me by Professor Surendra Nath Das Gupta that this Varna -Sadhana, so important a content of the Tantra Shastra, is not altogether its creation, but, as I have often in other matters observed, a development of ancie nt Vaidik teaching. For it was, he says, first attempted in the Aranyaka Epoch upon the Pradkopasana on which the Tantrik Sadhana is, he suggests, based; though, of course, that Shastra has elaborated the notion into a highly complicated system which is so peculiar a feature of its religious discipline. There is thus a synthesis of this Pratikopasana with Yoga method, resting as all else upon a Vedantic basis. 398 CHAPTER TWENTY -FIVE. VARNAMALA (THE GARLAND OF LETTERS ) The world has never altogether been without the Wisdom, nor its Teachers. The degree and manner in which it has been imparted have, however, necessarily varied according to the capacities of men to receive it. So also have the symbols by which it ha s been conveyed. These symbols further have varying significance according to the spiritual advancement of the worshipper. This question of degree and variety of presentation have led to the superficial view that the difference in beliefs negatives existen ce of any commonly established Truth. But if the matter be regarded more deeply, it will be seen that whilst there is one essential Wisdom, its revelation has been more or less complete according to symbols evolved by, and, therefore, fitting to, particula r racial temperaments and characters. Symbols are naturally misunderstood by those to whom the beliefs they typify are unfamiliar, and who differ in temperament from those who have evolved them. To the ordinary Western mind the symbols of Hindusim are ofte n repulsive and absurd. It must not, however, be forgotten that some of the Symbols of Western Faiths have the same effect on the Hindu. From the picture of the "Slain Lamb," and other symbols in terms of blood and death, he naturally shrinks in disgust. T he same effect on the other hand, is not seldom produced in the Western at the sight of the terrible forms in which India has embodied Her vision of the undoubted Terrors which exist in and around us. All is not smiling in this world. Even amongst persons of the same race and indeed of the same faith we may observe such differences. Before the Catholic Cultus of the "Sacred Heart" had overcome the opposition which it at first encountered, and for a considerable time after, its imagery was regarded with aversion by some who spoke of it in terms which would be to -day counted as shocking irreverence. These differences are likely to exist so long as men vary in mental attitude and temperament, and until they reach the stage in which, having discovered the essent ial truths, they become indifferent to the mode in which they are presented. We must also in such matters distinguish between what a symbol may have meant and 399 what it now means. Until quite recent times, the English peasant folk and others danced around the flower- wreathed Maypole. That the pole originally (like other similar forms) represented the great Linga admits of as little doubt as that these folk, who in recent ages danced around it, were ignorant of that fact. The Bishop's mitre is said to be the h ead of a fish worn by ancient near -eastern hierophants. But what of that? It has other associations now. Let us illustrate these general remarks by a short study of one portion of the Kali symbolism which affects so many, who are not Hindus, with disgust or horror. Kali is the Deity in that aspect in which It withdraws all things which It had created, into Itself. Kali is so called because She devours Kala (Time) and then resumes Her own dark formlessness. The scene is laid in the cremation ground (Shmashana), amidst white sun -dried bones and fragments of flesh, gnawed and pecked at by carrion beasts and birds. Here the "heroic" (Vira) worshipper (Sadhaka) performs at dead of night his awe - inspiring rituals. Kali is set in such a scene, for She is that aspect of the great Power which withdraws all things into Herself at, and by, the dissolution of the universe. He alone worships without fear, who has abandoned all worldly desires, and seeks union with Her as the One Blissful and Perfect Experience. On the burning ground all worldly desires are burnt away. She is naked, and dark like a threatening rain- cloud. She is dark, for She who is Herself beyond mind and speech, reduces all things into that worldly, "nothingness," which, as the Void (Shunya) of all which we now know, is at the same time the All (Purna) which is Peace. She is naked, being clothed in space alone (Digambari), because the great Power is unlimited; further, She is in Herself beyond Maya (Mayatita); that power of Hers which creates all universes. She stands upon the white corpse -like (Shavarupa) body of Shiva. He is white, because he is the illuminating transcendental aspect of consciousness. He is inert, because he is the changeless aspect of the Supreme and She, the apparently changing aspect of the same. In truth, She and He are one and the same, being twin aspects of the One who is changelessness in, and exists as, change. Much might be said in explanation of these and other symbols such as Her loosened hair, the lolling tongue, the thin strea m of blood which trickles from the corners of the mouth, the position of Her feet, the apron of dead men's hands around Her waist, Her 400 implements and so forth. (See Hymn to Kali.) Here I take only the garland of freshly -severed heads which hangs low from Her neck. Some have conjectured that Kali was originally the Goddess of the dark - skinned inhabitants of the Vindhya Hills taken over by the Brahmanas into their worship. One of them has thought that She was a deified Princess of these folk, who fought against the white in -coming Aryans. He pointed to the significant fact that the severed heads are those of white men. The Western may say that Kali was an objectification of the Indian mind, making a Divinity of the Power of Death. An Eastern may reply that She is the Sanketa (symbol) which is the effect of the impress of a Spiritual Power on the Indian mind. I do not pause to consider these matters here. The question before us is, what does this imagery mean now, and what has it meant for centuries past to the initiate in Her symbolism? An exoteric explanation describes this Garland as made up of the heads of Demons, which She, as a power of righteousness, has conquered. According to an inner explanation, given in the Indian Tantra Shastra, this string of heads is the Garland of Letters (Varnamala), that is, the fifty, and as some count it, fifty- one letters, of the Sanskrit Alphabet. The same interpretation is given in the Buddhist Demchog Tantra in respect of the garland worn by the great Heruka. These letters represent the universe of names and forms (Namarupa), that is, Speech (Shabda) and its meaning or object (Artha) She the Devourer of all "slaughters" (that is, withdraws), both into Her undivided Consciousness at the Great Dissolution of the Universe which they are. She wears the Letters which, She as the Creatrix bore. She wears the Letters which, She as the Dissolving Power, takes to Herself again. A very profound doctrine is connected with these Letters which space prevents me from fully entering into he re. This has been set out in greater detail in the Serpent Power (Kundalini) which projects Consciousness, in Its true nature blissful and beyond all dualism, into the World of good and evil. The movements of Her projection are indicated by the Letters sub tle and gross which exist on the Petals of the inner bodily centers or Lotuses. Very shortly stated, Shabda which literally means Sound -- here lettered sound -- is in its causal state (Para- Shabda) known as "Supreme Speech" (Para Vak). This is the Shabda -Brahman or Logos; that aspect of Reality or 401 Consciousness (Cit) in which it is the immediate cause of creation; that is of the dichotomy in Consciousness which is "I" and "This", subject and object, mind and matter. This condition of causal Shabda is the C osmic Dreamless State (Sushupti). This Logos, awakening from its causal sleep, "sees," that is, creatively ideates the universe, and is then known as Pashyanti Shabda. As Consciousness "sees" or ideates, forms arise in the Creative Mind, which are themselv es impressions (Samskara) carried over from previous worlds, which ceased to exist as such, when the Universe entered the state of causal dreamless sleep on the previous dissolution. These re-arise as the formless Consciousness awakes to enjoy once again sensual life in the world of forms. The Cosmic Mind is at first itself both cognizing subject (Grahaka) and cognized object (Grahya); for it has not yet projected its thought into the plane of Matter; the mind as subject cognizer is Shabda, and the mind as the object cognized, that is, the mind in the form of object is subtle Artha. This Shabda called Madhyama Shabda is an "Inner Naming" or "Hidden Speech". At this stage, that which answers to the spoken letters (Varna) are the "Little Mothers" or Matrika, the subtle forms of gross speech. There is at this stage a differentiation of Consciousness into subject and object, but the latter is now within and forms part of the Self. This is the state of Cosmic Dreaming (Svapna). This "Hidden Speech" is understandable of all men if they can get in mental rapport one with the other. So a thought -reader can, it is said, read the thoughts of a man whose spoken speech he cannot understand. The Cosmic Mind then projects these mental images on to the material plane, and they there become materialized as gross physical objects (Sthula artha) which make impressions from without, on the mind of the created consciousness. This is the cosmic waking state (Jagrat). At this last stage, the thought -movement expresses itself through the vocal organs in contact with the air as uttered speech (Vaikhari Shabda) made up of letters, syllables and sentences. The physical unlettered sound which manifests Shabda is called Dhvani. The lettered sound is manifested Shabda or Name (Nama), and the physical objects denoted by speech are the gross Artha or form (Rupa). This manifested speech varies in men, for their individual and racial characteristics and the conditions, such as country and climate in which they 402 live, differ. There is a tradition that, there was once a universal speech before the building of the Tower of Babel, signifying the confusion of tongues. As previously stated, a friend has drawn my attention to a passage in Rigveda which he interprets in a similar sense. For, it says, that the Three Fathers and the Three Mothers, like the Elohim, made (in the interest of creation) all -comprehending speech into that which was not so. Of these letters and names and their meaning or objects, that is, concepts and concepts objectified, the whol e Universe is composed. When Kali withdraws the world, that is, the names and forms which the letters signify, the dualism in consciousness, which is creation, vanishes. There is neither "I" (Aham) nor "This" (Idam) but the one non- dual Perfect Experience which Kali in Her own true nature (Svarupa) is. In this way Her garland is understood. "Surely," I hear it said, "not by all. Does every Hindu worshipper think such an ordinary Italian peasant knows of, or can understand, the subtleties of either the catholic mystics or doctors of theology. When, however, the Western man undertakes to depict and explain Indian symbolism, he should, in the interest both of knowledge and fairness, understand what it means both to the high as well as to the humble worshipper. 403 CHAPTER TWENTY -SIX. SHAKTA SADHANA (THE ORDINARY RITUAL ) Sadhana is that, which produces Siddhi or the result sought, be it material or spiritual advancement. It is the means or practice by which the desired end may be attained and consists in the training and exercise of the body and psychic faculties, upon the gradual perfection of which Siddhi follows. The nature or degree of spiritual Siddhi depends upon the progress made towards the realization of the Atma whose veiling vesture the body is. The means employed are numerous and elaborate, such as worship (Puja) exterior or mental, Shastric learning, austerities (Tapas), Japa or recitation of Mantra, Hymns, meditation, and so forth. The Sadhana is necessarily of a nature and character appropriate to the end sought. Thus Sadhana for spiritual knowledge (Brahmajana) which consists of external control (Dama) over the ten senses (Indriya), internal control (Sama) over the mind (Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas), discrimination between the transitory and eternal, renunciation of both the world and heaven (Svarga), differs from the lower Sadhana of the ordinary householder, and both are obviously of a kind different from that prescribed and followed by the practitioners of malevolent magic (Abhicara). Sadhakas again vary in their physical, mental and moral qualities and are thus divided into four classes, Mridu, Madhya, Adhimatraka, and the highest Adhimatrama who is qualified (Adhikari) for all forms of Yoga. In a similar way, the Shakta Kaulas are divided into the Prakrita or common Kaula following Viracara with the Pancatattvas described in the following Chapter; the middling (Madhyama) Kaula who (may be) follows the same or other Sadhana but who is of a higher type, and the highest Kaula (Kaulikottama) who, having surpassed all ritualism, meditates upon the Universal Self. These are more particularly described in the next Chapter. Until a Sadhaka is Siddha, all Sadhana is or should be undertaken with the authority and under the direction of a Guru or Spiritual Teacher and Director. There is in reality but one Guru and that is the Lord (Ishvara) Himself. He is 404 the Supreme Guru as also is Devi His Power one with Himself. But He acts through man and human means. The ordinary human Guru is but the manifestation on earth of the Adi -natha Mahakala and Mahakali, the Supreme Guru abiding in Kailasa. As the Yogini Tantra (Ch. 1) says Guroh sthanam hi kailasam. He it is who is in, and speaks with the voice of, the Earthly Guru. So, to turn to an analogy in the West, it is Christ who speaks in the voice of the Pontifex Maximus when declaring faith and morals, and in the voice of the priest who confers upon the penitent absolution for his sins. It is not the man who speaks in either case but God through him. It is the Guru who initiates and helps, and the relationship between him and the disciple (Shishya) continues until the attainment of spiritual Siddhi. It is only from him that Sadhana and Yoga are learnt and not (as it is commonly said) from a thousand Shastras. As the Shatkarmadipika says, mere book - knowledge is useless. Pustake likhitavidya yena sundari jap yate Siddhir na jayate tasya kalpakoti -shatairapi. (O Beauteous one! he who does Japa of a Vidya (= Mantra) learnt from a book can never attain Siddhi even if he persists for countless millions of years.) Manu therefore says, "of him who gives natural birth, and of him who gives knowledge of the Veda, the giver of sacred knowledge is the more venerable father." The Tantra Shastras also are full of the greatness of the Guru. He is not to be thought of as a mere man. There is no difference between Guru, Mantra and Deva. Guru is father, mother and Brahman. Guru, it is said. can save from the wrath of Shiva, but in no way, can one be saved from the wrath of the Guru. Attached to this greatness there is, however, responsibility; for the sins of the disciple may recoil upon him. The Tantra Shastras deal with the high qualities which are demanded of a Guru and the good qualities which are to be looked for in an intending disciple (see for instance Tantrasara, Ch. I). Before initiation, the Guru examines and tests the intending disciple for a specified period. The latter's moral qualifications are purity of soul (Shuddhatma), control of the senses (Jitendriya), the following of the Purushartha or aims of all sentient being 405 (Purusharthaparayana). Amongst others, those who are lewd (Kamuka), adulterous (Para -daratura), addicted to sin, ignorant, slothful and devoid of religion should be r ejected (see Matsyasukta Tantra, XIII; Pranatoshini 108; Maharudrayamala, I. XV, II. ii; Kularnava Tantra, Ch. XIII). The good Sadhaka who is entitled to the knowledge of all Shastra is he who is pure- minded, self -controlled, ever engaged in doing good to all beings, free from false notions of dualism, attached to the speaking of, taking shelter with and ever living in the consciousness of, the Supreme Brahman (Gandharva Tantra, Ch. ii). All orthodox Hindus of all divisions of worshippers submit themselves to the direction of a Guru. The latter initiates. The Vaidik initiation into the twice - born classes is by the Upanayana. This is for the first three castes only, viz., Brahmana (priesthood and teaching), Kshattriya (warrior) Vaishya (merchant). All are (it is said) by birth Shudra (Janmana jayate Shudrah) and by sacrament (that is, the Upanayana ceremony) twice -born. By study of the Vedas one is a Vipra. And he who has knowledge of the Brahman is a Brahmana (Brahma janati brahmanah). From this well- known v erse it will be seen how few there really are, who are entitled to the noble name of Brahmana. The Tantrik Mantra- initiation is a different ceremony and is for all castes. Initiation (Diksha) is the giving of Mantra by the Guru. The latter should first establish the life of the Guru in his own body; that is the vital power (Pranashakti) of the Supreme Guru in the thousand -petalled lotus (Sahasrara). He then transmits it to the disciple. As an image is the instrument (Yantra) in which Divinity (Devatva) inheres, so also is the body of the Guru. The candidate is prepared for initiation, fasts and lives chastely. Initiation (which follows) gives spiritual knowledge and destroys sin. As one lamp is lit at the flame of another, so the divine Shakti consisting of Mantra is communicated from the Guru's body to that of the Shishya. I need not be always repeating that this is the theory and ideal, which to- day is generally remote from the fact. The Supreme Guru speaks with the voice of the earthly Guru at the time of giving Mantra. As the Yogini Tantra (Ch. I) says: Mantra- pradana- kale hi manushe Naganandini Adhishthanam bhavet tatra Mahakalasya Shamkari 406 Ato na guruta devi manushe natra samshayah. (At the time the Mantra is communicated, there is in man (i.e., Guru) the Presence of Mahakala. There is no doubt that man is not the Guru.) Guru is the root (Mula) of initiation (Diksha). Diksha is the root of Mantra. Mantra is the root of Devata, and Devata is the root of Siddhi. The Mundamala Tantra says that Mantra is born of Guru, and Devata of Mantra, so that the Guru is in the position of Father's Father to the Ishtadevata. Without initiation, Japa (recitation) of the Mantra, Puja, and other ritual acts are useless. The Mantra chosen for the candidate must be suitable (Anukula). Whether a Mantra is Svakula or Akula to the person about to be initiated is ascertained by the Kulakulacakra, the zodiacal circle called Rashicakra and other Cakras which may be found in the Tantrasara. Initiation by a woman is efficacious; that by the mother is eightfold so (ib.). For, according to the Tantra Shastra, a woman with the necessary qualifications, may be a Guru and give initiation. The Kulagurus are four in number, each of them being the Guru of the preceding ones. There are also three lines of Gurus (see The Great Liberation). So long as the Shakti communicated by a Guru to his disciple is not fully developed, the relation of Teacher and Director and Disciple exists. A man is Shishya so long as he is Sadhaka. When, however, Siddhi is attained, Guru and Shishya, as also all other dualisms, and relations, disappear. Besides the preliminary initiation, there are a number of other initiations or consecrations (Abhisheka) which mark greater and greater degrees of advance from Shaktabhisheka when entrance is made on the path of Shakta Sadhana to Purnadikshabhisheka and Mahapurnadikshabhisheka also called Virajagrahanabhisheka. On the attainment of perfection in the last grade the Sadhaka performs his own funeral rite (Shraddha), makes Purnahuti with his sacred thread and crown lock. The relation of Guru and Shishya now ceases. From this point he ascends by himself until he realizes the great saying So'ham "He I am," Sa'ham "She I am". Now he is Jivan- mukta and Paramahamsa. The word Sadhana comes from the root Sadh, to exert or strive, and Sadhana is therefore striving, practice, discipline and worship in order to obtain success or Siddhi, which may be of any of the kinds, worldly or spiritual, desired, but which, on the religious side of the Shastras, means 407 spiritual advancement with its fruit of happiness in this world and in Heaven and at length Liberation (Moksha). He who practices Sadhana is called (if a man) Sadhaka or (if a woman) Sadhika. But men vary in capacity, temperament, knowledge and general advancement, and therefore the means (for Sadhana also means instrument) by which they are to be led to Siddhi must vary. Methods which are suitable for highly advanced men will fail as regards the ignorant and undeveloped for they cannot under stand them. What suits the latter has been long out -passed by the former. At least that is the Hindu view. It is called Adhikara or competency. Thus some few men are competent (Adhikari) to study Vedanta and to follow high mental rituals and Yoga processes . Others are not. Some are grown -up children and must be dealt with as such . As all men, and indeed all beings, are, as to their psychical and physical bodies, made of the primordial substance Prakriti - Shakti (Prakrityatmaka), as Prakriti is Herself the t hree Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and as all things and beings are composed of these three Gunas in varying proportions, it follows that men are divisible into three general classes, namely, those in which the Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas Gunas, predominate respectively. There are, of course, degrees in each of these three classes. Amongst Sattvika men, in whom Sattva predominates, some are more and some less Sattvika than others and so on with the rest. These three classes of temperament (Bhava) are known in the Shakta Tantras as the Divine (Divyabhava), Heroic (Virabhava) and Animal (Pashubhava) temperaments respectively. Bhava is defined as a property or quality (Dharma) of the Manas or mind (Pranatoshini, 570). The Divyabhava is that in which Sattva -guna predominates only, because it is to be noted that none of the Gunas are, or ever can be, absent. Prakriti cannot be partitioned. Prakriti is the three Gunas. Sattva is essentially the spiritual Guna, for it is that which manifests Spirit or Pure Consciousness (Cit). A Sattvika man is thus a spiritual man. His is a calm, pure, equable, refined, wise, spiritual temperament, free of materiality and of passion, or he possesses these qualities imperfectly, and to the degree that he possesses them he is Sattvik. Pashubhava is, on the other hand, the temperament of the man in whom Tamas guna prevails and produces such dark characteristics as ignorance, error, apathy, sloth and so forth. He is called a Pashu or animal because Tamas predominates in the merely animal nature as compared with the 408 disposition of spiritually -minded men. He is also Pashu because he is bound by the bonds (Pasha). The term pasha comes from the root Pash to bind. The Kularnava enumerates eight bonds, namely, pity (Daya, of the type which Taoists call "inferior benevolence" as opposed to the divine compassion or Karuna), ignorance and delusion (Moha), fear (Bhaya), shame (Lajja), disgust (Ghrina), family (Kula), habit and observance (Shila), and caste (Varna). Other larger enumerations are given . The Pashu is the man caught by the world, in ignorance and bondage. Bhaskararaya, on the Sutra "have no converse with a Pashu," says that a Pashu is Bahirmukha or outward looking, seeing the outside only of things and not inner realities. The injunction, he says, only applies to converse as regards things spiritual. The Shaiva Shastra speaks of three classes of Pashu, namely, Sakala bound by the three Pashas, Anu, Bheda, Karma, that is, limited knowledge, the seeing of the one Self as many by the operation of Maya, and action and its product. These are the three impurities (Mala) called Anavamala, Mayamala, and Karmamala. The Sakala Jiva or Pashu is bound by all three, the Pralayakala by the first and last, and the Vijanakala by the first only. (See as to these the diagram of the 36 Tattvas.) He who is wholly freed of the remaining impurity of Anu is Shiva Himself. Here however Pashu is used in a different sense, that is, as denoting the creature as contrasted with the Lord (Pati). In this sense, Pashu is a name for all men. In the Shakta use of the term, though all men are certainly Pashu, as compared with the Lord, yet as between themselves one may be Pashu (in the narrower sense above stated) and the other not. Some men are more Pashu than others. It is a mistake to suppose that the Pashu is necessarily a bad man. He may be and often is a good one. He is certainly better than a bad Vira who is really no Vira at all. He is, however, not, according to this Shastra, an enlightened man in the sense that the V ira or Divya is, and he is generally marked by various degrees of ignorance and material- mindedness. It is the mark of a bad Pashu to be given over to gross acts of sin. Between these two comes the Hero or Vira of whose temperament (Virabhava) so much is heard in the Shakta Shastras. In him there is prevalent the strongly active Rajas Guna. Rajas is always active either to incite Tamas or Sattva. In the former case the result is a Pashu, in the latter case either a Vira or Divya. Where Sattva approaches perfection of development there is the Divyabhava. Sattva is here firmly 409 established in calm and in high degree. But, until such time, and whilst man who has largely liberated himself through knowledge of the influence of Tamas, is active to promote Sattva, he is a Vira. Being heroic, he is permitted to meet his enemy Tamas face to face, counter -attacking where the lower developed man flees away. It has been pointed out by Dr. Garbe (Philosophy of Ancient India, 481), as before him by Baur, that the analogous Gnostic classification of men as material, psychical, and spiritual also corresponds (as does this) to the three Gunas of the Samkhya Darshana. Even in its limited Shakta sense, there are degrees of Pashu, one man being more so than another. The Pashas are the creations of Maya Shakti. The Devi therefore is pictured as bearing them. But as She is in Her form as Maya and Avidya Shakti the cause of bondage, so as Vidya Shakti She breaks the bonds (Pashupasa -Vimocini) (see v. 78, Lalita- sahasranama), and is thus the Liberatrix of the Pashu from his bondage. Nitya Tantra says that the Bhava of the Divya is the best, the Vira the next best, and Pashu the lowest. In fact, the state of the last is the starting point in Sadhana, that of the first the goal, and that of the Vira is the stage of one who having ceased to be a Pashu is on the way to the attainment of the goal. From being a Pashu, a man rises in this or some other birth to be a Vira and Divyabhava or Devata -bhava is awakened through Virabhava. The Picchila Tantra says (X, see also Utpatti Tantra, LXIV) that the difference between the Vira and the Divya lies in the Uddhatamanasa, that is, passionateness or activity by which the former is characterized, and which is due to the great effort of Rajas to procure for the Sadhaka a Sattvik state. Just as there are degrees in the Pashu state, so there are classes of Viras, some being higher than others. The Divya Sadhaka also is of higher or lower kinds. The lowest is only a degree higher than the best type of Vira. The highest completely realize the Deva- nature wherein Sattva exists in a state of lasting stability. Amongst this class are the Tattvajani and Yogi. The latter are emancipated from all ritual. The lower Divya class may apparently take part in the ritual of the Vira. The object and end of all Sadhana, whether of Pashu or Vira or Divya, is to develop Sattvaguna. The Tantras give descriptions of each of these three classes. The chief general distinction, which is constantly repeated, between 410 the pure Pashu (for there are also Vibhavapashus) and the Vira, is that the former does not, and the latter does, follow the Pacatattva ritual, in the form prescribed for Viracara and described in the next Chapter. Other portions of the description are characteristics of the Tamasik character of the Pashu. So Kubjika Tantra (VII) after describing this class of man to be the lowest, points out various forms of their ignorance. So it says that he talks ill of other classes of believers. That is, he is sectarian -minded and decries other forms of worship than his own, a characteristic of the Pashu the world over. He distinguishes one Deva from another as if they were really different and not merely the plural manifestations of the One. So, the worshipper of Rama may abuse the worshipper of Krishna, and both decry the worship of Shiva or Devi. As the Veda says, the One is called by various names. Owing to his ignorance "he is always bathing," that is, he is always thinking about external and ceremonial purity. This, though good in its way, is nothing compared with internal purity of mind. He has ignorant or wrong ideas, or want of faith, concerning (Shakta) Tantra Shastra, Sacrifices, Guru, Images, and Mantra, the last of which he thinks to be mere letters only and not Devata (s ee Pranatoshini, 547, et seq., Picchila, X). He follows the Vaidik rule relating to Maithuna on the fifth day when the wife is Ritusnata (Ritu- kalam vina devi ramanam parivrajayet). Some of the descriptions of the Pashu seem to refer to the lowest class. Generally, however, one may say that from the standpoint of a Viracari, all those who follow Vedacara, Vaishnavacara and Shaivacara are Pashus. The Kubjika Tantra (VII) gives a description of the Divya. Its eulogies would seem to imply that in all matters which it mentions, the Pashu is lacking. But this, as regards some matters, is Stuti (praise) only. Thus he has a strong faith in Veda, Shastra, Deva and Guru, and ever speaks the truth which, as also other good qualities, must be allowed to the Pashu. He a voids all cruelty and other bad action and regards alike both friend and foe. He avoids the company of the irreligious who decry the Devata. All Devas he regards as beneficial, worshipping all without drawing distinctions. Thus, for instance, whilst an orthodox upcountry Hindu of the Pashu kind who is a worshipper of Rama cannot even bear to hear the name of Krishna, though both Rama and Krishna are each Avatara of the same Vishnu, the Divya would equally reverence both knowing each to be an aspect of the one Great Shakti, Mother of Devas and Men. This is one of the first qualities 411 of the high Shakta worshipper. As a worshipper of Shakti he bows down at the feet of women regarding them as his Guru (Strinam padatalam drishtva guruvad bhava pet sada). He offer s everything to the supreme Devi regarding the whole universe as pervaded by Stri (Shakti, not "woman") and as Devata. Shiva is (he knows) in all men. The whole universe (Brahmanda) is pervaded by Shiva Shakti. The description cited also deals with his ritual, saying that he does daily ablutions, Sandhya, wears clean cloth, the Tripundra mark in ashes or red sandal, and ornaments of Rudraksha beads. He does Japa (recitation of Mantras external and mental) and worship (Arcana). He worships the Pitris and Devas and performs all the daily rites. He gives daily charity. He meditates upon his Guru daily, and does worship thrice daily and, as a Bhairava, worships Parameshvari with Divyabhava. He worships Devi at night (Vaidik worship being by day), and after food (ordinary Vaidik worship being done before taking food). He makes obeisance to the Kaula Shakti (Kulastri) versed in Tantra and Mantra, whoever She be and whether youthful or old. He bows to the Kula -trees (Kulavriksha). He ever strives for the attainment and maintenance of Devatabhava and is himself of the nature of a Devata. Portions of this description appear to refer to the ritual and not Avadhuta Divya, and to this extent applicable to the high Vira also. The Mahanirvana (I. 56) describes the Divya as all but a Deva, ever pure of heart, to whom all opposites are alike (Dvandvatita) such as pain and pleasure, heat and cold, who is free from attachment to worldly things, the same to all creatures and forgiving. The text I have published, therefore, says t hat there is no Divya - bhava in the Kaliyuga nor Pashubhava; for the Pashu (or his wife) must, with his own hand, collect leaves, flowers and fruit, and cook his food, which regulations and others are impossible or difficult in the Kali age. As a follower of Smriti, he should not "see the face of a Shudra at worship, or even think of woman" (referring to the Pacatattva ritual). The Shyamarcana (cited in Haratattvadidhiti, 348) speaks to the same effect. On the other hand, there is authority for the proposition that in the Kaliyuga there is only Pashubhava. Thus, the Pranatoshini (510 -517) cites a passage 412 purporting to come from the Mahanirvana which is in direct opposition to the above: Divpa- vira-mayo bhavah kalau nasti kadacana Kevalampashu- bhavena mantra -siddhir bhaven nrinam. (In the Kali age there is no Divya or Virabhava. It is only by the Pashu- bhava that men may attain Mantra -siddhi.) I have discussed this latter question in greater detail in the introduction to the sixth volume of the series of "Tantrik Texts". Dealing with the former passage from the Mahanirvana, the Commentator explains it as meaning "that the conditions and characters of the Kaliyuga are not such as to be productive of Pashubhava, or to allow of its Acara (in the sense of the stric t Vaidik ritual). No one, he says, can now -a-days fully perform the Vedacara, Vaishnavacara, and Shaiva -cara rites without which the Vaidik and Pauranic Yaja and Mantra are fruitless. No one now goes through the Brahmacarya Ashrama or adopts, after the fi ftieth year, Vanaprastha. Those whom the Vaidik rites do not control cannot expect the fruit of their observances. On the contrary, men have taken to drink, associate with the low and are fallen, as are also those who associate with them. There can, therefore, be no pure Pashu. (That is apparently whilst there may be a natural Pashu disposition the Vaidik rites appropriate to this bhava cannot be carried out.) Under these circumstances, the duties prescribed by the Vedas which are appropriate for the Pashu being incapable of performance, Shiva, for the liberation of men of the Kali age, has proclaimed the Agama. Now there is no other way." We are, perhaps, therefore, correct in saying that it comes to this: In a bad age, such as the Kali, Divya men are (to say the least) very scarce, though common-sense and experience must, I suppose, allow for exceptions. Whilst the Pashu natural disposition exists, the Vaidik ritual which he should follow cannot be done. It is in fact largely obsolete. The Vaidik Pashu or man who followed the Vaidik rituals in their entirety is non- existent. He must follow the Agamic rituals which, as a fact, the bulk of men do. The Agama must now govern the Pashu, Vira and would- be Divya alike. 413 As I have frequently explained, there are vari ous communities of the followers of Tantra of Agama according to the several divisions of the worshippers of the five Devatas (Pacopasaka). Of the five classes, the most important are Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta. I do not, however, hesitate to repeat a s tatement of a fact of which those who speak of "The Tantra" ignore. The main elements of Sadhana are common to all such communities following the Agamas; such as Puja (inner and outer), Pratima or other emblems (Linga, Shalagrama), Upacara, Sandhya, Yaja, Vrata, Tapas, Mandala, Yantra, Mantra, Japa, Purashcarana, Nyasa, Bhutasuddhi, Mudra, Dhyana, Samskara and so forth. Even the Vamacara ritual which some wrongly think to be peculiar to the Shaktas, is or was followed (I am told) by members of other Sampradayas including Jainas and Bauddhas. Both, in so far as they follow this ritual, are reckoned amongst Kaulas though, as being non- Vaidik, of a lower class. A main point to be here remembered, and one which establishes both the historical and practical importance of the Agamas is this: That whilst some Vaidik rites still exist, the bulk of the ritual of to- day is Agamic, that is, what is popularly called Tantrik. The Puranas are replete with Tantrik rituals. Notwithstanding a general community of ritual form s, there are some variances which are due to two causes: firstly, to difference in the Devata worship, and secondly, to difference of philosophical basis according as it is Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, or Dvaita. The presentment of fundamental ideas is someti mes in different terms. Thus the Vaishnava Pancaratra Agama describes the creative process in terms of the Vyuhas, and the Shaiva -Shakta Agamas explain it as the Abhasa of the thirty -six Tattvas. I here deal with only one form, namely, Shakta Sadhana in which the Ishtadevata is Shakti in Her many forms. I will here shortly describe some of the ritual forms above- mentioned, premising that so cursory an account does not do justice to the beauty and profundity of many of them. There are four different forms of worship corresponding to four different states and dispositions (Bhava) of the Sadhaka himself. The realization that 414 the Supreme Spirit (Paramatma) and the individual spirit (Jivatma) are one, that everything is Brahman, and that nothing but the Brahman has lasting being is the highest state or Brahma -bhava. Constant meditation with Yoga- processes upon the Devata in the heart is the lower form (Dhyanabhava). Lower still is that Bhava of which Japa (recitations of Mantra) and Hymns of praise (Stava) are the expression; and lowest of all is external worship (Bahyapuja). Pujabhava is that which arises out of the dualistic notions of worshipper and worshipped, the servant and the Lord, a dualism which necessarily exists in greater or less, degree until Monistic experience (Advaita -bhava) is attained. He who realizes the Advaita -tattva knows that all is Brahman. For him there is neither worshipper nor worshipped, neither Yoga, nor Puja nor Dharana, Dhyana, Stava, Japa, Vrata or other ritual or process of Sadhana. For, he is Siddha in its fullest sense, that is, he has attained Siddhi which is the aim of Sadhana. As the Mahanirvana says, "for him who has faith in and knowledge of the root, of what use are the branches and leaves'?" Brahmanism thus sagely resolves the Western dispute as to the necessity or advisability of ritual. It affirms it for those who have not attained the end of all ritual. It lessens and refines ritual as spiritual progress is made upwards; it dispenses with it altogether when there is no longer need for it. But, until a man is a real "Knower", some Sadhana is necessary if he would become one. The nature of Sadhana, again, differs according to the temperaments (Bhava) above described, and also with reference to the capacities and spiritual advancement of each in his own Bhava. What may be suitable for the unlettered peasant may not be so for those more intellectually and spiritually advanced. It is, however, a fine general principle of Tantrik worship that capacity, and not social distinction such as caste, determines competency for any particular worship. This is not so as regards the Vaidik ritual proper. One might have supposed that credit would have been given to the Tantra Shastra for this. But credit is given for nothing. Those who dilate on Vaidik exclusiveness have nothing to say as regards the absence of it in the Agama. The Shudra is precluded from the performance of Vaidik rites, the reading of the Vedas, and the recital of Vaidik Mantras. His worship is practically limited to that of his Ishtadevata, the Vana -lingapuja with Tantrik and Pauranik mantra and such Vrata as consist in penance and 415 charity. In other cases, the Vrata is performed through a Brahmana. The Tantra Shastra makes no caste distinction as regards worship, in the sense that though it may not challenge the exclusive right of the twice -born to Vaidik rites, it provides other and similar rites for the Shudra. Thus there is both a Vaidik and Tantrik Gayatri and Sandhya, and there are rites available for worshippers of all c astes. All may read the Tantras which contain their form of worship, and carry them out and recite the Tantrik Mantras. All castes, even the lowest Candala may, if otherwise fit, receive the Tantrik initiation and be a member of a Cakra or circle of worship. In the Cakra all the members partake of food and drink together, and are then deemed to be greater than Brahmanas, though upon the break -up of the Cakra the ordinary caste and social relations are re -established. It is necessary to distinguish between social differences and competency (Adhikara) for worship. Adhikara, so fundamental a principle of Brahmanism, means that all are not equally entitled to the same teaching and ritual. They are entitled to that of which they are capable, irrespective (according to the Agama) of such social distinctions as caste. All are competent for Tantrik worship, for, in the words of the Gautamiya which is a Vaishnava Tantra (Chap. I) the Tantra Shastra is for all castes and all women. Sarva-varnadhikarash ca narinam yog ya eva ca. Though according to Vaidik usage, the wife was co- operator (Sahadharmini) in the household rites, now -a-days, so far as I can gather, they are not accounted much in such matters, though it is said that the wife may, with the consent of her husband, fast, take vows, perform Homa, Vrata and the like. According to the Tantra Shastra, a woman may not only receive Mantra, but may, as Guru, initiate and give it (see Rudrayamala II, ii, and XV). She is worshipped both as wife of Guru and as Guru herself (see ib., I. i. Matrikabheda Tantra (c. vii), Annadakalpa Tantra cited in Pranatosini, p. 68, and as regards the former Yogini Tantra chap. i. Gurupatni Maheshani gurur eva). The Devi is Herself the Guru of all Shastras and woman, as indeed all females Her embodiments, are in a peculiar sense, Her representatives. For this reason all women are worshipful, and no harm should be ever done them, nor should any female animal be sacrificed. 416 Puja is the common term for ritual worship, of which there are numerous synonyms in the Sanskrit language such as Arcana, Vandana, Saparyya, Arhana, Namasya, Arca, Bhajana, though some of these stress certain aspects of it. Puja as also Vrata which are Kamya, that is, done to gain a particular end, are preceded by the Sankalpa, that is, a statement of the resolve to worship, as also of the particular object (if any) with which it is done. It runs in the form, "I--of --Gotra and so forth identifying the individual) am about to perform this Puja (or Vrata) with the object -- ". The reby the attention and will of the Sadhaka are focused and braced up for the matter in hand. Here, as elsewhere, the ritual which follows is designed both by its complexity and variety (which prevents the tiring of the mind) to keep the attention always fixed, to prevent it from straying and to emphasize both attention and will by continued acts and mental workings. The object of the worship is the Ishtadevata, that is, the particular form of the Deity whom the Sadhaka worships, such as Devi in the case of a Shakta, Shiva in the case of the Shaiva (in eight forms in the case of Ashtamurti -puja as to which see Todala Tantra, chap. V) and Vishnu as such or in His forms as Rama and Krishna in the case of the Vaishnava Sadhaka. An object is used in the outer Puja (Bahyapuja) such as an image (Pratima), a picture and emblem such as a jar (Kalasa), Shalagrama (in the case of Vishnu worship), Linga and Yoni or Gauripatta (in the case of the worship) of Shiva (with Devi), or a geometrical design called Yantra. In the case of outer worship the first is the lowest form and the last the highest. It is not all who are capable of worshipping with a Yantra. It is obvious that simpler minds must be satisfied with images which delineate the form of the Devata completely and in material form. The advanced contemplate Devata in the lines and curves of a Yantra. In external worship, the Sadhaka should first worship inwardly the mental image of the Devata which the outer objects assist to produce, and then by the life -giving (Prana -Pratishtha) ceremony he should infuse the image with life by the communication to it of the light, consciousness, and energy (Tejas) of the Brahman within him to the image without, from which there then bursts the luster of Her whose substance is Consciousness Itself (Caitanyamayi). In every place She exists as Shakti, whether in stone or 417 metal as elsewhere, but in matter is veiled and seemingly inert. Caitanya (Consciousness) is aroused by the worshipper through the Pranapratishtha Mantra. An object exists for a Sadhaka only in so far as his mind perceives it. For and in him its essence as Consciousness is realized. This is a fitting place to say a word on the subject of the alleged "Idolatry" of the Hindus. We are all aware that a similar charge has been made against Christians of the Catholic Church, and those who are conversant with this controversy will be better equipped both with knowledge and caution against the making of general and indiscriminate charges. It may be well doubted whether the worl d contains an idolater in the sense in which that term is used by persons who speak of "the heathen worship of sticks and stones". According to the traveler A. B. Ellis ("The Tshi speaking peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa"), even "negroes of the Go ld Coast are always conscious that their offerings and worship are not paid to the inanimate object itself but to the indwelling God, and every native with whom I have conversed on the subject has laughed at the possibility of its being supposed that he would worship or offer sacrifice to some such object as a stone". Nevertheless a missionary or some traveler might tell him that he did. An absurd attitude on the part of the superior Western is that in which the latter not merely tells the colored races wha t they should believe, but what notwithstanding denial, they in fact believe and ought to hold according to the tenets of the latter's religion. The charge of idolatry is kept up, notwithstanding the explanations given of their beliefs by those against who m it is made. In fact, the conviction that Eastern races are inferior is responsible for this. If we disregard such beliefs, then, anything may be idolatrous. Thus; to those who disbelieve in the "Real Presence," the Catholic worshipper of the Host is an i dolater worshipping the material substance, bread. But, to the worshipper who believes that it is the Body of the Lord under the form of bread, such worship can never be idolatrous. Similarly as regards the Hindu worship of images. They are not to be held to worship clay or stone because others disbelieve in the efficacy of the Prana -Pratishtha ceremony. When impartially considered, there is nothing necessarily superstitious or ignorant in this rite. Nor is this the case with the doctrine of the Real Presence which is interpreted in various ways. 418 Whether either rite has the alleged effect attributed to it is another question. All matter is, according to Shakta doctrine, a manifestation of Shakti, that is, the Mother Herself in material guise. She is present in and as everything which exists. The ordinary man does not so view things. He sees merely gross unconscious matter. If, with such an outlook, he were fool enough to worship what was inferior to himself, he would be an idolater. But the very act of worshi p implies that the object is superior and conscious. To the truly enlightened Shakta everything is an object of worship, for all is a manifestation of God who is therein worshipped. But that way of looking at things must be attained. The untutored mind must be aided to see that this is so. This is effected by the Pranapratishtha rite by which "life is established" in the image of gross matter. The Hindu then believes that the Pratima or image is a representation and the dwelling place of Deity. What differe nce, it may be asked, does this really make? How can a man's belief alter the objective fact? The answer is, it does not. God is not manifested by the image merely because the worshipper believes Him to be there. He is there in fact already. All that the Pranapratishtha rite does is, to enliven the consciousness of the worshipper into a realization of His presence. And if He be both in fact, and to the belief of the worshipper, present, then the Image is a proper object of worship. It is the subjective state of the worshipper's mind which determines whether an act is idolatrous or not. The Prana- Pratishtha rite is thus a mode by which the Sadhaka is given a true object of worship and is enabled to affirm a belief in the divine omnipresence with respect to th at particular object of his devotion. The ordinary notion that it is mere matter is cast aside, and the divine notion that Divinity is manifested in all that is, is held and affirmed. "Why not then" (some missionary has said) "worship my boot?" There are contemptible people who do so in the European sense of that phrase. But, nevertheless, there is no reason, according to Shakta teaching, why even his boot should not be worshipped by one who regards it and all else as a manifestation of the One who is in every object which constitutes the Many. Thus this Monistic belief is affirmed in the worship by some Shaktas of that which to the gross and ordinary mind is merely an object of lust. To such minds, this is a revolting and obscene worship. To those for whom such object of worship is obscene, such worship is and must be obscene. But what of the mind which is so 419 purified that it sees the Divine presence in that which, to the mass of men, is an incitement to and object of lust? A man who, without desire, can truly so worship must be a very high Sadhaka indeed. The Shakta Tantra affirms the Greek saying that to the pure all things are pure. In this belief and with, as the as the Janarnava Tantra says, the object of teaching men that this is so, we find the ritual use of substances ordinarily accounted impure. The real objection to the general adoption or even knowledge of such rites lies, from the Monistic standpoint, in the fact that the vast bulk of humanity are either of impure or weak mind, and that the worship of an object which is capable of exciting lust will produce it, not to mention the hypocrites who, under cover of such a worship, would seek to gratify their desires. In the Paradise Legend, just as amongst some primitive tribes, man and woman go naked. It was and is after they have fallen that nakedness is observed by minds no longer innocent. Rightly, therefore, from their standpoint, the bulk of men condemn such worship. Because, whatever may be its theoretical justification under conditions which rarely occur, pragmatically and for the bulk of men they are full of danger. Those who go to meet temptation should remember the risk. I have read that it is recorded of Robert d'Arbrissel, the saintly founder of the community of Fonte d'Evrault that he was wo nt on occasions to sleep with his nuns, to mortify his flesh and as a mode of strengthening his will against its demands. He did not touch them, but his exceptional success in preserving his chastity would be no ground for the ordinary man undertaking so dangerous an experiment. In short, in order to be completely just, we must, in individual cases, consider intention and good faith. But, practically and for the mass, the counsel and duty to avoid the occasion of sin is, according to Shastrik principles the mselves, enjoined. As a matter of fact, such worship has been confined to so limited a class that it would not have been necessary to deal with the subject were it not connected with Shakta worship, the matter in hand. To revert again to the "missionary's boot": whilst all things may be the object of worship, choice is naturally made of those objects which, by reason of their effect on the mind, are more fitted for it. An image or one of the usual emblems is more likely to raise in the mind of the worshipper the thought of a Devata than a boot, and therefore, even apart from scriptural authority, it would not be chosen. But, it has been again objected, if the Brahman is in and 420 appears equally in all things, how do we find some affirming that one image is more worthy of worship than another. Similarly, in Catholic countries, we find worshippers who prefer certain churches, shrines, places of pilgrimage and representations of Christ, His Mother and the Saints. Such preferences are not statements of absolute worth but of personal inclinations in the worshipper due to his belief in their special efficacy for him. Psychologically all this means that a particular mind finds that it works best in the direction desired by means of particular instruments. The image of Kali provokes in general only disgust in an European mind. But to the race -consciousness which has evolved that image of Deity, it is the cause and object of fervent devotion. In every case, those means must be sought and applied which will produce a practical and good result for the individual consciousness in question. It must be admitted, however, that image worship like everything else is capable of abuse; that is a wrong and (for want of a better term) an idolatrous tendency may manifest. This is due to ignorance. Thus the aunt of a Catholic schoolboy friend of mine had a statue of St. Anthony of Padua. If the saint did not answer her prayers, she used to give the image a beating, and then shut it up in a cupboard with its "face to the wall" by way of punishment. I could cite numbers of instances of this ignorant state of mind taken from the past and present history of Europe. It is quite erroneous to suppose that such absurdities are confined to India, Africa or other colored countries. Nevertheless, we must, in each case, distinguish between the true scriptural teaching and the acts and notions of which they are an abuse. The materials used or things done in Puja are called Upacara. The common number of these is sixteen, but there are more and less (see Principles of Tantra, Part ii). The sixteen which include some of the lesser number and are included in the greater are: (1) Asana (seating of the image), (2) Svagata (welcoming of the Devata), (3) Padya (water for washing the feet), (4) Arghya (offerings which may be general or Samanya and special or Vishesha) made in the vessel, (5), (6) Acamana (water for sipping and cleansing the lips -- offered twice), (7) Madhuparka (honey, ghee, milk and curd), (8) Snana (water for bathing), (9) Vasana (cloth for garment), (10) Abharana (jewels), (11) Gandha (Perfume), (12) Pushpa (flowers), (13) Dhupa (incense), (14) Dipa (lights), (15) Naivedya (food), and (16) Vandana or Namaskriya (prayer). 421 Why should such things be chosen? The Westerner who has heard of lights, flower and incense in Christian worship may yet ask the reason for the rest. The answer is simple. Honor is paid to the Devata in the way honor is paid to friends and those men who are worthy of veneration. So the Sadhaka gives that same honor to the Devata, a course that the least advanced mind can understand. When the guest arrives he is bidden to take a seat, he is welcomed and asked how he has journeyed. Water is given to him to wash his dusty feet and his mouth. Food and other things are given him, and so on. These are done in honor of men, and the Deity is honored in the same way. Some particular articles vary with the Puja. Thus, Tulasi leaf is issued in the Vishnu- puja; bael leaf (Bilva) in the Shiva -puja, and to the Devi is offered the scarlet hibiscus (Jaba). The Mantras said and other ritual details may vary according to the Devata worshipped. The seat (Asana) of the worshipper is purified as also the Upacara. Salutation is made to the Shakti of support (Adhara- shakti) the Power sustaining all. Obs tructive Spirits are driven away (Bhutapasarpana) and the ten quarters are fenced from their attack by striking the earth three times with the left foot, uttering the weapon -mantra (Astrabija) "Phat," and by snapping the fingers round the head. Other ritua ls also enter into the worship besides the offering of Upacara such as Pranayama or Breath control, Bhutasuddhi or purification of the elements of the body, Japa of Mantra, Nyasa (v. post), meditation (Dhyana) and obeisance (Pranama). Besides the outer and material Puja, there is a higher inner (Antarpuja) and mental (Manasapuja). Here there is no offering of material things to an image or emblem, but the ingredients (Upacara) of worship are imagined only. Thus the Sadhaka, in lieu of material flowers offered with the hands, lays at the feet of the Devata the flower of good action. In the secret Rajasik Puja of the Vamacari, the Upacara are the five Tattvas (Pacatattva), wine, meat and so forth described in the next Chapter. Just as flowers and incense and so forth are offered in the general public ritual, so in this special secret ritual, dealt with in the next Chapter, the functions of eating, drinking and sexual union are offered to the Devata. 422 A marked feature of the Tantra Shastras is the use of the Yan tra in worship. This then takes the place of the image or emblem, when the Sadhaka has arrived at the stage when he is qualified to worship with Yantra. Yantra, in its most general sense, means simply instrument or that by which anything is accomplished. In worship, it is that by which the mind is fixed on its object. The Yantra, in lieu of the image or emblem holds the attention, and is both the object of worship, and the means by which it is carried out. It is said to be so called because it subdues (Niyantrana) lust, anger and the other sufferings of Jiva, and the sufferings caused thereby. (Tantra- tattva. Sadharana Upasana -tattva.) The Yantra is a diagram drawn or painted on paper, or other substances, engraved on metal, cut on crystal or stone. The magi cal treatises mention extraordinary Yantras drawn on leopard's and donkey's skin, human bones and so forth. The Yantras vary in design according to the Devata whose Yantra it is and in whose worship it is used. The difference between a Mandala (which is also a figure, marked generally on the ground) is that whilst a Mandala may be used in the case of any Devata, a Yantra is appropriate to a specific Devata only. As different Mantras are different Devatas, and differing Mantras are used in the worship of each of the Devatas, so variously formed Yantras are peculiar to each Devata and are used in its worship. The Yantras are therefore of various designs, according to the object of worship. The cover of "Tantrik Texts" shows the great Sri Yantra. In the metal or stone Yantras no figures of Devatas are shown, though these together with the appropriate Mantras commonly appear in Yantras drawn or painted on paper, such as the Devata of worship, Avarana Shaktis and so forth. All Yantras have a common edging called Bhupura, a quadrangular figure with four "doors" which encloses and separates the Yantra from the outside world. A Yantra in my possession shows serpents crawling outside the Bhupura. The Kaulavaliya Tantra says that the distinction between Yantra and Devata is that between the body and the self. Mantra is Devata and Yantra is Mantra, in that it is the body of the Devata who is Mantra. Yantram mantra- ma yam proktam mantratma devataiva hi Dehatmanor yatha bedo yantradevata yos tatha. 423 As in the case of the image, certain preliminaries precede the worship of Yantra. The worshipper first meditates upon the Devata and then arouses Him or Her in himself. He then communicates the Divine Presence thus aroused to the Yantra. When the Devata has by the appropriate Mant ra been invoked into the Yantra, the vital airs (Prana) of the Devata are infused therein by the Pranapratishtha ceremony, Mantra and Mudra (see for ritual Mahanirvana, VI. 63 et seq.). The Devata is thereby installed in the Yantra which is no longer mere gross matter veiling the Spirit which has been always there, but instinct with its aroused presence which the Sadhaka first welcomes and then worships. In Tantrik worship, the body as well as the mind has to do its part, the former being made to follow the latter. This is of course seen in all ritual, where there is bowing, genuflection and so forth. As all else, gesture is here much elaborated. Thus, certain postures (Asana) are assumed in worship and Yoga. There is obeisance (Pranama), sometimes with eight parts of the body (Ashtangapranama), and circumambulation (Pradakshina) of the image. In Nyasa the hands are made to touch various parts of the body and so forth. A notable instance of this practice are the Mudras which are largely used in the Tantrik ritual. Mudra in this sense is ritual manual gesture. The term Mudra has three meanings. In worship (Upasana,) it means these gestures. In Yoga it means postures in which not only the hands but the whole body takes part. And, in the secret worship with the P acatattva, Mudra means various kinds of parched cereals which are taken with the wine and other ingredients (Upacara) of that particular worship. The term Mudra is derived from the root "to please" (Mud). The Tantraraja says that in its Upasana form, Mudr a is so called because it gives pleasure to the Devatas. These Mudras are very numerous. It has been said that there are 108 of which 55 are in common use (Shabdakalpadruma Sub Voce, Mudra and see Nirvana Tantra, Chap. XI). Possibly there are more. 108 is favorite number. The Mudra of Upasana is the outward bodily expression of inner resolve which it at the same time intensifies. We all know how in speaking we emphasize and illustrate our thought by gesture. So in welcoming (Avahana) the Devata, an appropri ate gesture is made. When veiling anything, the hands assume that position (Avagunthana Mudra). Thus again in making offering (Arghya) a gesture is made which represents a fish 424 (Matsya Mudra) by placing the right hand on the back of the left and extending the two thumbs finlike on each side of the hands. This is done as the expression of the wish and intention that the vessel which contains water may be regarded as an ocean with fish and all other aquatic animals. The Sadhaka says to the Devata of his worship, "this is but a small offering of water in fact, but so far as my desire to honor you is concerned, regard it as if I were offering you an ocean." The Yoni in the form of an inverted triangle represents the Devi. By the Yoni Mudra the fingers form a tri angle as a manifestation of the inner desire that the Devi should come and place Herself before the worshipper, for the Yoni is Her Pitha or Yantra. Some of the Mudra of Hathayoga which are in the nature both of a health- giving gymnastic and special positi ons required in Yoga -practice are described in A. Avalon's The Serpent Power. The Gheranda Samhita, a Tantrik Yoga work says (III. 4. 8. 10) that knowledge of the Yoga Mudras grants all Siddhi, and that their performance produces physical benefits, such as stability, firmness, and cure of disease. Bhutasuddhi, an important Tantrik rite, means purification of the five "elements" of which the body is composed, and not "removal of evil demons," as Professor Monier -William's Dictionary has it. Though one of the meanings of Bhuta is Ghost or Spirit, it is never safe to give such literal translations without knowledge, or absurd mistakes are likely to be made. The Mantramahodadhi (Taranga I) speaks of it as a rite which is preliminary to the worship of a Deva. Devarca yog yata-praptyai bhuta- shuddhim samacaret. (For the attainment of competency to worship, the elements of which the body is composed, should be purified). The material human body is a compound of the five Bhutas of "earth," "water," "fire," "air", and "ether". These terms have not their usual English meaning but denote the five forms in which Prakriti the Divine Power as materia prima manifests Herself. These have each a center of operation in the five Cakras or Padmas (Centers or Lotuses) which exist in the spinal column of the human body (see A. Avalon's Serpent Power where this matter is fully described). In the lowest of these centers (Muladhara), the Great Devi kundalini, a form of the Saguna Brahman, resides. She is ordinarily sleeping there. In k undalini -yoga, She is 425 aroused and brought up through the five centers, absorbing, as She passes through each, the Bhuta of that center, the subtle Tanmatra from which it derives and the connected organ of sense (Indriya). Having absorbed all these, She is led to the sixth or mind center (Aja) between the eyebrows where the last Bhuta or ether is absorbed in mind, and the latter in the Subtle Prakriti. The last in the form of Kundali Shakti then unites with Shiva in the upper brain called the thousand- petal led lotus (Sahasrara). In Yoga this involution actually takes places with the result that ecstasy (Samadhi) is attained. But very few are successful Yogis. Therefore, Bhutasuddhi in the case of the ordinary worshipper is an imaginary process only. The Sadhaka imagines Kundali, that She is roused, that one element is absorbed into the other and so on, until all is absorbed in Brahman. The Yoga process will be found described in The Serpent Power, and Ch. V. 93 et seq. of the Mahanirvana gives an account of the ritual process. The Sadhaka having dissolved all in Brahman, a process which instills into his mind the unity of all, then thinks of the "black man of sin" in his body. The body is then purified. By breathing and Mantra it is first dried and then burnt with all its sinful inclinations. It is then mentally bathed with the nectar of the water - mantra from head to feet. The Sadhaka then thinks that in lieu of his old sinful body a new Deva body has come into being. He who with faith and sincerity believes th at he is regenerated is in fact so. To each who truly believes that his body is a Deva body it becomes a Deva body. The Deva body thus brought into being is strengthened by the Earth-mantra and divine gaze (Divyadrishti). Saying, with Bijas, the Mantra "He I am" (So'ham) the Sadhaka by Jiva- nyasa infuses his body with the life of the Devi, the Mother of all. Nyasa is a very important and powerful Tantrik rite. The word comes from the root, "to place," and means the placing of the tips of the fingers and palm of the right hand on various parts of the body, accompanied by Mantra. There are four general divisions of Nyasa, viz., inner (Antar), outer (Bahir), according to the creative (Srishti) and dissolving (Samhara) order (Krama). Nyasa is of many kinds such as Jiva -nyasa, Matrika or Lipi -nyasa, Rishi -nyasa, Shadamganyasa on the body (Hridayadi -shadamga -nyasa) and with the hands (Amgushthadi -shadamga -nyasa), Pitha -nyasa and so on. 426 The Kularnava (IV. 20) mentions six kinds. Each of these might come under one or the other of the four general heads. Before indicating the principle of this rite, let us briefly see what it is. After the Sadhaka has by Bhuta -shuddhi dissolved the sinful body and made a new Deva body, he, by Jiva -nyasa infuses into it the life of the Devi. Placing his hand on his heart he says, "He I am" thereby identifying himself with Shiva - Shakti. He then emphasizes it by going over the parts of the body in detail with the Mantra Am and the rest thus.' saying the Mantra and what he is doing, and touching the body on the particular part with his fingers, he recites: "Am (and the rest) the vital force (Prana) of the blessed Kalika (in this instance) are here. Am (and the rest) the life of the Blessed Kalika is here; Am (and the rest) all the senses of the Blessed Kalika are here; Am (and the rest) may the speech, mind, sight, hearing, sense of smell of the Blessed Kalika coming here ever abide here in peace and happiness. Svaha". By this, the body is thought to become like that of Devata (Devatamaya). Matrika are the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, for as from a mother comes birth, so from the Brahman who, as the creator of "sound" is called "Shabdabrahman", the universe proceeds. The Mantra -bodies of the Devata are composed of the Matrika or let ters. The Sadhaka first sets the letters mentally (Antar -matrika -nyasa) in their several places in the six inner centers (Cakra), and then externally by physical action (Bahya -matrika -nyasa). The letters of the alphabet form the different parts of the body of the Devata which is thus built up in the Sadhaka himself. He places his hand on different parts of his body, uttering distinctly at the same time the appropriate Matrika for that part. The mental disposition in the Cakra is that given in Serpent Power by A. Avalon, each letter being repeated thus, Om Ham Namah (obeisance), Om Ksham Namah and so on with the rest. The external disposition is as follows: The vowels are placed on the forehead, face, right and left eye, right and left ear, right and left nostril, right and left cheek, upper and lower lip, upper and lower teeth, head and hollow of the mouth. The consonants, 'Ka' to 'Va' are placed on the base of the right arm and the elbow, wrist base and tips of fingers, left arm, and right and left leg, righ t and left side, back navel, belly, heart, right and left shoulder, and space between the shoulders (Kakuda). Then, from the heart to the right palm, Sa; from the heart to the left palm, Sa (second); from the heart to the right 427 foot, Sa; from the heart to the left foot, Ha; and lastly from the heart to the belly and the heart to the mouth, Ksha. This Matrikanyasa is of several kinds. One form of Rishi -nyasa is as follows: "In the head, salutation to Brahma and the Brahmarishis; in the mouth, salutation to Gayatri and other forms of Verse; in the heart, salutation to the primordial Devata Kali; in the hidden part (Guhya), salutation to the Bija Krim; in the two feet, salutation to Hrim; in all the body, salutation to Shrim and Kalika. In Shadamga -nyasa on the body, certain letters are placed with the salutation Namah, and with the Mantras Svaha, Vashat, Vaushat, Hrim, Phat on the heart, head, crown- lock (Shikha), eyes, the front and back of the palm. In Karanyasa, the Mantras are assigned to the thumbs, index fingers, middle fingers, fourth fingers, little fingers, and the front and back of the palm. From the above examples the meaning of Nyasa is seen. By associating the Divine with every part of the body and with the whole of it, the mind and body are sought to be made divine to the consciousness of the Sadhaka. They are that already, but the mind is made to so regard them. "What if it does?" the English reader may ask. How can the regarding a thing as divine make it so? In one sense it does not, for mind and body are as Shakti divine, whether this be known or not. But this must be known to the Sadhaka or they are not divine for him. His mind is trained to look upon them as divine manifestations of the One Supreme Essence which at base he and they are. According to Hindu views, primary importance is attached to mental states, for as the Divine Thought made the World, man makes his character therein by what he thinks. If he is always thinking of material things and has desires therefor, he becomes himself materia l and is given over to lust and other passions. If, on the contrary, he has always his mind on God, and associates everything with the thought of Him, his mind becomes pure and divine. As the Upanishad says, "What a man thinks that he becomes." Thought is everything, molding our bodily features, moral and intellectual character and disposition, leading to and appearing in our actions. Much superficial criticism is leveled at this or other ritual, its variety, complexity, its lengthy character and so forth. If it is performed mechanically and without attention, doubtless it is mere waste of time. But if it is done with will, attention, faith and devotion, it must necessarily achieve the result intended. The reiteration of the same idea under varying forms bri ngs home with emphasis to the consciousness of the 428 Sadhaka the doctrine his Scripture teaches him, viz., that his essence is Spirit and his mind and body are its manifestation. All is divine. All is Consciousness. The object of this and all the other ritua l is to make that statement a real experience for the Sadhaka. For the attainment of that state in which the Sadhaka feels that the nature (Bhava) of the Devata has come upon him, Nyasa is a great auxiliary. It is as it were the wearing of Divine jewels in different parts of the body. The Bijas of the Devatas (which are Devatas) are the jewels which the Sadhaka places on the different parts of his body. By the particular Nyasa he places his Abhishtadevata in such parts, and by Vyapaka- Nyasa he spreads its p resence throughout himself. He becomes thus permeated by the Divine and its manifestations, thus merging or mingling himself in or with the Divine Self or Lord. Nyasa, Asana and other ritual are necessary, for the production of the desired state of mind and its purification (Cittashuddhi). The whole aim and end of ritual is Citta -shuddhi. Transformation of thought is transformation of being, for particular existence is a projection of thought, and thought is a projection from the Consciousness which is the Root of all. This is the essential principle and rational basis of this, as of all, Tantrik Sadhana. Nyasa also has certain physical effects, for these are dependent on the state of mind. The pure restful state of meditation is reflected in the body of the worshipper. The actions of Nyasa are said to stimulate the nerve centers and to effect the proper distribution of the Shaktis of the human frame according to their dispositions and relations, preventing discord and distraction during worship, which itself holds steady the state thus induced. In the Chapters on Mantramayi Shakti and Varnamala, as also in my Garland of Letters, I have dealt with the nature of Mantra and of its Sadhana. An account will also be found of the subject in the Mantratattva Chapter of the second part of Principles of Tantra. Mantra is Devata and by Sadhana therewith the sought- for (Sadhya) Devata is attained, that is, becomes present to the consciousness of the Sadhaka or Mantrin. Though the purpose of Worship (Puja), Reading (Patha), Hymn (Stava), Sacrifice (Homa), Meditation (Dhyana), and that of the Diksha -mantra obtained on initiation are the same, yet the latter is said to be far more powerful, and this for the reason that in the first, the Sadhaka's Sadhana- shakti only 429 operates whilst in the case of Mantra that Sadhana -shakti works in conjunction with Mantra -shakti which has the revelation and force of fire, than which nothing is more powerful. The special Mantra which is received at initiation (Diksha) is the Bija or Seed- Mantra sown in the field of the Sadhaka's heart, and the Tantrik Sandhya, Nyasa, Puja, and the like are the stem and branches upon which hymns of praise (Stuti) and prayer and homage (Vandana) are the leaves and flower, and the Kavaca consisting of Mantra, the f ruit. (See Chapter on Mantra -tattva, part ii, Principles of Tantra.) The utterance of a Mantra without knowledge of its meaning or of the Mantra -sadhana is a mere movement of the lips and nothing more. The Mantra sleeps. This is not infrequently the case in the present degeneracy of Hindu religion. For example, a Brahman lady confided to me her Diksha - mantra and asked me for its meaning, as she understood that I had a Bija - kosha or Lexicon which gave the meaning of the letters. Her Guru had not told her of its meaning, and inquiries elsewhere amongst Brahmanas were fruitless. She had been repeating the Mantra for years, and time had brought the wisdom that it could not do her much good to repeat what was without meaning to her. Japa is the utterance of Mantra as described later. Mantra -sadhana is elaborate. There are various processes preliminary to and involved in its right utterance which again consists of Mantra. There are the sacraments or purifications (Samskara) of the Mantra (Tantrasara, p. 90). There are "birth" and "death" defilements of a Mantra (ib., 75, et seq.,) which have to be cleansed. This and, of course, much else mean that the mind of the Mantrin has to be prepared and cleansed for the realization of the Devata. There are a number of defects (Dosha) which have to be avoided or cured. There is purification of the mouth which utters the Mantra (Mukha -shodhana) (see as to this and the following Sharada Tilaka (Chap. x), purification of the tongue (Jihva -shodhana) and of the Mantra (Ashauca - bhang a). Mantra processes called Kulluka, Nirvana, Setu (see Sharada Tilaka, loc cit, Tantrasara, and Purashcaranabodhini, p. 48) which vary with the Devata of worship, awakening of Mantra (Nidrabhanga) its vitalizing through consciousness (Mantracaitanya), pondering on the meaning of the Mantra and of the Matrikas constituting the body of the Devata (Mantrartha bhavana). There are Dipani, Yonimudra (see Purohita- darpanam) with meditation on the Yoni -rupa- bhagavati with the Yonibija (Eng) and so forth. 430 In ascertaining what Mantra may be given to any particular individual, certain Cakra calculations are made, according to which Mantras are divided into those which are friendly, serving, supporting or destroying (Siddha, Sadhya, Susiddha, Ari). All this ritual has as its object the establishment of that pure state of mind and feeling which are necessary for success (Mantra- siddhi). At length the Mantrin through his Cit -shakti awakening and vitalizing the Mantra which in truth is one with his own consciousness (in that form) pierces through all its centers and contemplates the Spotless One (Kubjika Tantra V). The Shakti of the Mantra is called the Vacika Shakti or the means by which the Vacya Shakti or ultimate object is attained. The Mantra lives by the energy of the former. The Saguna -Shakti in the form of the Mantra is awakened by Sadhana and worshipped and She it is who opens the portals whereby the Vacya -Shakti is reached. Thus the Mother in the Saguna form is the Presiding Deity (Adhishthatri Devata) of the Gayat ri Mantra. As the Nirguna (formless) One, She is its Vacya Shakti. Both are in truth one and the same. But the Sadhaka, by the laws of his nature and its three Gunas, must first meditate on the gross (Sthula) form before he can realize the subtle (Sukshma) form which is his liberator. So for from being merely superstition, the Mantra -sadhana is, in large part, based on profound notions of the nature of Consciousness and the psychology of its workings. The Sadhaka's mind and disposition are purified, the Devata is put before him in Mantra form and by his own power of devotion (Sadhana Shakti) and that latent in the Mantra itself (Mantra -shakti) and expressed in his mind on realization therein, such mind is first identified with the gross, and then with the su btle form which is his own transformed consciousness and its powers. Japa is defined as Vidhanena mantroccaranam, that is (for default of other more suitable words), the utterance or recitation of Mantra according to certain rules. Japa may however be of a nature which is not defined by the word, recitation. It is of three kinds (Janarnava Tantra, XX) namely, Vacika Japa, Upamshu Japa, Manasa Japa. The first is the lowest and the last the highest form. Vacika is verbal Japa in which the Mantra is distinctly and audibly recited (Spashta -vaca). Upamshu Japa is less gross and therefore superior to this. Here the Mantra is not uttered (Avyakta) but there is a movement of the lips and tongue (Sphuradvaktra) but no articulate sound is heard. In the highest form or mental utterance (Manasa -japa) there is 431 neither articulate sound nor movement. Japa takes place in the mind only by meditation on the letters (Chintanakshararupavan). Certain conditions are prescribed as those under which Japa should be done, relating to physical cleanliness, the dressing of the hair, garments worn, the seated posture (Asana), the avoidance of certain states of mind and actions, and the nature of the recitation. Japa is done a specified number of times, in lakhs by great Sadhakas. If the mind is really centered and not distracted throughout these long and repeated exercises the result must be successful. Repetition is in all things the usual process by which a certain thing is fixed in the mind. It is not considered foolish for one who has to learn a lesson to repeat it himself over and over again until it is got by heart. The same principle applies to Sadhana. If the "Hail Mary" is said again and again in the Catholic rosary, and if the Mantra is similarly said in the Indian Japa, neither proceeding is foolish, provided that both be done with attention and devotion. The injunction against "vain repetition" was not against repetition but that of a vain character. Counting is done either with a Mala or rosary (Mala -japa) or with the thumb of the right hand upon the joints of the fingers of that hand according to a method varying according to the Mantra (Kara -japa). Purashcarana is a form of Sadhana in which, with other ritual, Japa of Mantra, done a large number of times, forms the chief part. A short account of the rite is given in the Purashcarana -bodhini by Harakumara Tagore (1895). (See also Tantrasara 71 and the Purashcaryarnava of the King of Nepal.) The ritual deals with preparation for the Sadhana as regards chastity, food, worship, mea surements of the Mandapa or Pandal and of the altar, the time and place of performance and other matters. The Sadhaka must lead a chaste life (Brahmacarya) during the period prescribed. He must eat the pure food called Havishyannam or boiled milk (Kshtra), fruits, Indian vegetables, and avoid all other food which has the effect of stimulating the passions. He must bathe, do Japa of the Savitri Mantra, entertain Brahmanas and so forth. Pacagavya is eaten, that is, the five products of the cow, namely, milk, curd, ghee, urine, and dung, the two last (except in the case of the rigorously pious) in smaller quantity. Before the Puja there is worship of Ganesha and Kshetrapala and the Sun, Moon, and Devas are invoked. Then follows the Samkalpa. The Ghata or Kalasa (jar) is placed in which the Devata is invoked. A Mandala or figure of a particular design is 432 marked on the ground and on it the jar is placed. Then the five or nine gems are placed in the jar which is painted red and covered with leaves. The ritual then prescribes for the tying of the crown lock (Shikha), the posture (Asana) of the Sadhaka, Japa, Nyasa, and the Mantra ritual. There is meditation as directed, Mantra -chaitanya and Japa of the Mantra the number of times for which vow has been made. The dail y life of the religious Hindu was in former times replete with worship. I refer those who are interested in the matter to the little work, The Daily Practices of the Hindus by Srisha Candra Vasu, the Sandhyavandana of all Vedic Shakhas by B. V. Kameshvara Aiyar, the Kriyakandavaridhi and Purohita -darpanam. The positions and Mudras are illustrated in Mrs. S. C. Belons' Sandhya or daily prayer of the Brahmin published in 1831. It is not here possible to do more than indicate the general outlines of the rites followed. As the Sadhaka awakes he makes salutation to the Guru of all and recites the appropriate Mantras and confessing his inherent frailty ("I know Dharma and yet would not do it. I know Adharma and yet would not renounce it,") -- the Hindu form of the common experience "Video meliora," he prays that he may do right and offers all the actions of the day to God. Upon touching the ground on leaving his bed he salutes the Earth, the manifestation of the All - Good. He then bathes to the accompaniment of Mantra and makes oblation to the Devas, Rishis or Seers and the Pitris who issued from Sandhya, Brahma the Pitamaha of humanity, and then does rite. This is the Vaidik form which differs according to Veda and Shakha for the twice- born and there is a Tantriki Sandhya for others. It is performed thrice a day at morn, at noon, and evening. The Sandhya consists generally speaking, of Acamana (sipping of water), Marjjana -snana (sprinkling of the whole body), Pranayama (Breath- control), Aghamarshana (expulsion of sin), prayer to the Sun and then (the canon of the Sandhya) Japa of the Gayatri -mantra. Rishi -nyasa and Shadamga -nyasa (v. ante), and meditation of the Devi Gayatri, in the morning as Brahmani (Shakti of Creation), at midday as Vaisnavi (Shakti of maintenance), and in evening as Rudrani (Shakti which "destroys" in the sense of withdrawing creation). The Sandhya with the Aupasana fire -rite and Pacayaja are the three main daily rites, the last 433 being offerings to the Devas, to the Pitris, to animals and birds (after the Vaishvadeva rite), to men (as by entertainment of guests) and the study of Vaidik texts. By these five Yajas, the worshipper daily places himself in right relations with all being, affirming such relation between Devas, Pitris, Spirits, men, th e organic creation and himself. The word "Yaja" comes from the root Yaj (to worship) and is commonly translated "sacrifice," though it includes other rituals than what an English reader might understand by that term. Thus, Manu speaks of four kinds of Yaja as Deva, Bhauta (where ingredients are used), Niryaja and Pitryaja. Sometimes the term is used in connection with any kind of ceremonial rite, and so one hears of Japa -yaja (recitation of Mantra), Dhyana -yaja (meditation) and so on. The Pacatattva r itual with wine and the rest is accounted a Yaja. Yajas are also classified according to the dispositions and intentions of the worshipper into Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika Yaja. A common form of Yaja is the Devayaja Homa rite in which offerings of ghee are made (in the Kunda or fire -pit) to the Deva of Fire who is the carrier of oblations to the Devas. Homa is an ancient Vaidik rite incorporated with others in the General Tantrik ritual. It is of several kinds, and is performed either daily, or on special occasions, such as the sacred thread ceremony, marriage and so forth. Besides the daily (Nitya) ceremonies such as Sandhya there are occasional rites (Naimittika) and the purificatory sacraments (Samskara) performed only once. The ordinary ten Sams karas (see Mahanirvana Tantra, Ch. IX) are Vaidik rites done to aid and purify the individual in the important events of his life, namely, the Garbhadhana sanctifying conception prior to the actual placing of the seed in the womb, the Pumsavana and Simantonnayana or actual conception and during pregnancy. It has been suggested that the first Samskara is performed with reference to the impulse to development from the "fertilization of the ovum to the critical period: the second with reference to the same impulse from the last period to that of the viability stage of the fetus," and the third refers to the period in which there is viability to the full term (see Appendix on Samskaras. Pranavavada, I. 194). Then follows the Samskara on birth (Jata -karma), the naming ceremony (Nama -karana), the taking of the child outdoors for the first time to see the 434 sun (Nishkramana), the child's first eating of rice (Annaprasana), his tonsure (Cudakarana), and the investiture in the case of the twice -born with the sacred thread (Upanayana) when the child is reborn into spiritual life. This initiation must be distinguished from the Tantrik initiation (Mantra -diksha) when the Bija -mantra is given by the Guru. Lastly there is marriage (Udvaha). These Samskaras, which are all described in the ninth Chapter of the Mahanirvana Tantra, are performed at certain stages in the human body with a view to effect results beneficial to the human organism through the superphysical and subjective methods of ancient East science. Vrata is a part of Naimittika -- occasional ritual or Karma. Commonly translated as vows, they are voluntary devotions performed at specified times in honor of particular Devatas (such as Krishna's birthday), or at any time (such as the Savitrivrata). Each Vrata has its peculiarities, but there are certain features common to all, such as chastity, fasting, bathing, taking of pure food only and no flesh or fish. The great Vrata for a Shakta is the Durga - puja in honor of the Devi as Durga. The fasting which is done in these or other cases is called Tapas, a term which includes all forms of ascetic austerity and zealous Sadhana such as the sitting between five fires (Pacagni -tapah) and the like. Tapas has however a still wider meaning and is then of three kinds, namely, bodily (Shariraka), by speech (Vacika) and by mind (Manasa), a common division both of Indian and Buddhist Tantra. The first includes external worship, reverence, support of the Guru, Brahmanas and the wise (Praja), bodily cleanliness, continence, simplicity of life and avoidance of hurt to any being (Ahimsa). The second form includes truth, good, gentle and affectionate speech and study of the Vedas. The third or mental Tapas includes self -restraint, purity of disposition, tranquillity and silence. Each of these classes has three sub - divisions, for Tapas may be Sattvika, Rajasika, or Tamasika according as it is done with faith, and without regard to its fruit, or for its fruit; or is done through pride and to gain honor or respect or power; or lastly which is done ignorantly or with a view to injure and destroy others such as Abhicara or the Sadhana of the Tantrik Shatkarma (other than Shanti), that is, fascination or Vashikarana, paralyzing or Stambhana, creating enmity or Vidveshana, driving away or Uccatana, and killing or Marana when 435 performed for a malevolent purpose. Karma ritual is called Kamya when it is done to gain some particular end such as health, prosperity and the like. The highest worship is called Nishkama -karma, that is, it is done not to secur e any material benefit but for worship's sake only. Though it is not part of ordinary ritual, this is the only place where I can conveniently mention a peculiar Sadhana, prevalent, so far as I am aware, mainly if not wholly amongst Tantrikas of a Shakta type which is called Nilasadhana or Black Sadhana. This is of very limited application being practiced by some Vira Sadhakas in the cremation ground. There are terrifying things in these rituals and therefore only the fearless practice them. The Vira trains himself to be indifferent and above all fear. A leading rite is that called Shava Sadhana which is done with the means of a human corpse. I have explained elsewhere (see Serpent Power) why a corpse is chosen. The corpse is laid with its face to the ground. The Sadhaka sits on the back of the body of the dead man on which he draws a Yantra and then worships. If the rite is successful it is said that the head of the corpse turns round and asks the Sadhaka what is the boon he craves, be it liberation or some m aterial benefit. It is believed that the Devi speaks through the mouth of the corpse which is thus the material medium by which She manifests Her presence. In another rite, the corpse is used as a seat (Shavasana). There are sittings also (Asana) on skulls (Mundasana) and the funeral pyre (Citasana). However repellent or suspect these rites may appear to be to a Western, it is nevertheless the fact that they have been and are practiced by genuine Sadhakas of fame such as in the past the famed Maharaja of Nattore and others. The interior cremation ground is within the body that being the place where the passions are burnt away in the fire of knowledge. The Adya Shakti or Supreme Power of the Shaktas is, in the words of the Trishati, concisely described as Eka nanda -cidakritih. Eka = Mukya, Ananda = Sukham, Cit = Caitanyam or Prakasha = Janam; and Akritih = Svaruipa. She is thus Sacchidananda -brahmarupa,. Therefore, the worship of Her is direct worship of the Highest. This worship is based on Advaitavada. Therefore, for all Advaitins, its Sadhana is the highest. The Shakta Tantra is thus a Sadhana Shastra of Advaitavada. This will explain why it is dear to, and so highly considered by Advaitins. It is claimed to be the one and only stepping stone which leads directly to Kaivalya or Nirvanamukti; other forms of worship 436 procuring for their followers (from the Saura to the Shaiva) various ascending forms of Gaunamukti. Others of course may claim this priority. Every sect considers itself to be the best and is in fact the best for those who, with intelligence, adopt it. Were it not so its members would presumably not belong to it but would choose some other. No true Shakta, however, will wrangle with others over this. He will be content with his faith of which the Nigamakalpataru says, that as among castes the Brahmanas are foremost, so amongst Sadhakas are the Shaktas. For, as Niruttara Tantra says, there is no Nirvana without knowledge of Shakti (Shaktijanam vina devi nirvanam naiva jayate). Amongst the Shaktas, the foremost are said to be the worshippers of the Kali Mantra. The Adimahavidya is Kalika. Other forms are Murttibheda of Brahmarupini Kalika. Kalikula is followed by Janis of Divya and Vira Bhavas; and Shrikula by Karmin Sadhakas. According to Niruttara, K alikula includes Kali, Tara, Raktakali, Bhuvana, Mardini, Triputa, Tvarita, Pratyamgiravidya, Durga, and Shrikula includes Sundari, Bhairavi, Bala, Bagala, Kamala, Dhumavati, Matamgi, Svapnavatividya, Madhumati Mahavidya. Of these forms Kalika is the highe st or Adyamurti as being Shuddhasattvagunapradhana, Nirvikara, Nirgunabrahma- svarupaprakashika, and, as the Kamadhenu Tantra says, directly Kaivalyadayini. Tara is Sattvagunatmika, Tattvavidyadayini, for by Tattvajana one attains Kaivalya. Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Cinnamasta are Rajahpradhana Sattvagunatmika, the givers of Gaunamukti and Svarga. Dhumavati, Kamala, Bagala, Matangi are Tamahpradhana whose action is invoked in the magical Shatkarma. The most essential point to remember as giving the key to all which follows is that Shaktadharma is Monism (Advaitavada). Gandharva Tantra says, "Having as enjoined saluted the Guru and thought "So'ham,' the wise Sadhaka, the performer of the rite should meditate upon the unity of Jiva and Brahman." Gurun natva vidh anena so'ham iti purodhasah Aikyam sambhavayet dhiman jivasya brahmano'pica. Kali Tantra says: "Having thus meditated, the Sadhaka should worship Devi with the notion, 'So'ham'." Evam dhyatva tato devim so'ham atmanam arcayet. 437 Kubjika Tantra says: "A Sadha ka should meditate upon himself as one and the same with Her" ( Taya sahitamatmanam ekibhutam vicintayet). The same teaching is to be found throughout the Shastra: Nila Tantra directing the Sadhaka to think of himself as one with Tarini; Gandharva Tantratel ling him to meditate on the self as one with Tirupura not different from Paramatma; and Kalikulasarvasva as one with Kalika and so forth. For as the Kularnava Tantra says: "The body is the temple of God. Jiva is Sadashiva. Let him give up his ignorance as the offering which is thrown away (Nirmalya) and worship with the thought and feeling, 'I am He'." Deho devalayah proktah jivo devah Sadashivah Tyajed ajananirmalyam so'ham bhavena pujayet. This Advaitavada is naturally expressed in the ritual. The Samhita and Brahmanas of the four Vedas are (as contrasted with the Upanishads) Traigunyavishaya. There is therefore much in the Vaidik Karmakanda which is contrary to Brahmajana. The same remarks apply to the ordinary Pashu ritual of the day. There are differences of touchable and untouchable, food, caste, and sex. How can a man directly qualify for Brahmajana who even in worship is always harping on distinctions of caste and sex and the like? He who distinguishes does not know. Of such distinctions the higher Tantrik worship of the Shakta type knows nothing. As the Yogini Tantra says, the Shastra is for all castes and for women as well as men. Tantra Shastra is Upasana Kanda and in this Shakta Upasana the Karma and Jana Kanda are mingled (Mishra). That is, Karma is the ritual expression of the teaching of Jana Kanda and is calculated to lead to it. There is nothing in it which contradicts Brahmajana. This fact, therefore, renders it more conducive to the attainment of such spiritual experience. Such higher ritual serves to reveal Jana in the mind of the Pashu. So it is rightly said that a Kula -jani even if he be a Candala is better than a Brahmana. It is on these old Tantrik principles that the Indian religion of to-day can alone, if at all, maintain itself. They have no concern, however, with social life and what is called "social reform". For all secular purposes the Tantras recognize caste, but in spiritual matters spiritual qualifications alone prevail. There are many such sound and high principles in the Tantra Shastra 438 for which it would receive credit, if it could only obtain a fair and unprejudiced consideration. But there are none so blind as those who will not see. And so we find that the "pure and high" ritual of the Veda is set in contrast with theca supposed "low and impure" notions of the Tantra. On the contrary, a Tantrik Pandit once said to me: "The Vaidik Karmakanda is as useful for ordinary men as is a washerman for dirty clothes. It helps to remove their impurities. But the Tantra Shastra is like a glorious tree which gives jeweled fruit." Sadhana, as I have said, is defined as that which leads to Siddhi. Sadhana comes from the root "Sadh" -- to exert, to strive. For what'? That depends on the Sadhana and its object. Sadhana is any means to any end and not necessarily religious worship, ritual and discipline. He who does Hatha -yoga, for physical health and strength, who accomplishes a magical Prayoga, who practices to gain an "eightfold memory" and so forth are each doing Sadhana to gain a particular result (Siddhi), namely, health and strength, a definite magical result, increased power of recollection and so forth. A Siddhi again is any power gained as the result of practice. Thus, the Siddhi of Vetala Agni Sadhana is control over the fire -element. But the Sadhana which is of most account and that of which I here speak, is religious worship and discipline to attain true spiritual experience. What is thus sought and gained may be either Heaven (Svarga), secondary liberation (Gaunamukti) or full Nirvana. It is the latter which in the highest sense is Siddhi, and striving for that end is the chief and highest form of Sadhana. The latter term includes not merely ritual worship in the sense of adoration or prayer, but every form of spiritual discipline such as sacraments (Samskara), austerities (Tapas), the reading of Scripture (Svadhyaya), meditation (Dhyana) and so forth. Yoga is a still higher form of Sadhana; for the term Yoga means strictly not the result but the means whereby Siddhi in the form of Samadhi may be had. Ordinarily, however, Sadhana is used to express all spiritual disciplines based on the notion of worshipper and worshipped; referring thus to Upasana, not Yoga. The latter passes beyond these and all other dualisms to Monistic experi ence (Samadhi). The first leads up to the second by purifying the mind (Cittashuddhi), character and disposition (Bhava) so as to render it capable of Jana or Laya Yoga; or becomes itself Parabhakti which, as the Devibhagavata says, is not different from Jana. The great Siddhi is thus 439 Moksha; and Moksha is Para -matma, that is, the Svarupa of Atma. But the Sadhaka is Jivatma, that is, Atma associated with Avidya of which Moksha or Paramatma is free. Avidya manifests as mind and body, the subtle and gross vehicles of Spirit. Man is thus therefore Spirit (Atmasvarupa), which is Saccidananda, Mind (Antahkarana) and body (Sthula -sharira). The two latter are forms of Shakti, that is, projections of the Creative Consciousness through and as its Maya. The essential operation of Maya and of the Kacukas is to seemingly contract consciousness. As the Yoginihridaya Tantra says, the going forth (Prashara) of Consciousness (Samvit) is in fact a contraction (Sankoca as Matri, Mana, Meya or known, knowing, being known). Consciousness is thus finitized into a limited self which and other selves regard one another as mutually exclusive. The Self becomes its own object as the many forms of the universe. It conceives itself as separate from them. Oblivious in separateness of its essential nature it regards all other persons and things as different from itself. It acts for the benefit of its limited self. It is in fact selfish in the primary sense of the term; and this selfishness is the root of all its desires, of all its sins. The more mere worldly desires are fostered, the greater is the bondage of man to the mental and material planes. Excessively selfish desires display themselves as the sins of lust, greed, anger, envy and so forth. These bind more firmly than regulated desire and moreover lead to Hell (Naraka). The most general and ultimate object of Sadhana is therefore to cast off from the Self this veil of Avidya and to attain that Perfect experience which is Atmasvarupa or Moksha. But to know Brahman is to be Brahman. Brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati as Shruti says. In essence man is Brahman. But owing to Avidya it is necessary to do something in order that this ever existent fact may be realized. That action (Kriya) is the work of Sadhana in its endeavor to clear away the veiling of Avidya which is ignorance. In the sense that Avidya is being removed man may be said by Sadhana to become Brahman: that is, he realizes himself as what he truly is and was. Sadhana, therefore, by the grace of Devi or "descent of Shakti" (Shaktipata) "converts" (to use an English term) the Sadhaka, that is, turns him away from separatist worldly enjoyment to seek his own true self as the pure Spiritual Experience. This transformation is the work and aim of Sadhana. But this experience is not to be had in its completest sense at once and at a bound. It is, as Patajali says, very rare. 440 Indeed those who truly desire it are very few. Brahman is mindless (Amanah); for mind is a fetter on true consciousness. This mindlessness (Niralambapuri) is sought through the means of Yoga. But no would- be Yogi can attain this state unless his mind is already pure, that is, not only free from gross sin, but already possessing some freedom from the bondage of worldly desires, cultivated and trained, and desirous of lib eration (Mumukshu). The aim, therefore, of preliminary Sadhana is to secure that purification of mind (Cittashuddhi) which is alone the basis on which Yoga works. The first object then is to restrain the natural appetites, to control the senses, and all that excessive selfishness beyond the bounds of Dharma which is sin (Papa). Dharma prescribes these bounds because unrestricted selfish enjoyment leads man downward from the path of his true evolution. Man is, as regards part of his nature, an animal, and has, according to the Shastra, passed through all animal forms in his 84 lakhs of previous births. But he has also a higher nature and if he conforms to the path laid out for him will progress by degrees to the state of that Spirit whose limited form he now is. If he strays from that path he falls back, and continued descent may bring him again to the state of apparently unconscious matter through many intervening Hells in this and other worlds. For this reason, the Shastra repeats that he is a "self- killer" who, having with difficulty attained to manhood, neglects the opportunities of further progress which they give him (Kularnava Tantra I). Therefore, he must avoid sin which leads to a fall. How can the impure realize the Pure? How can the mere seeker of se nsual enjoyment desire formless liberating Bliss? How can he recognize his unity with all if he is bound in selfishness which is the root of all sin? How can he realize the Brahman who thinks himself to be the separate enjoyer of worldly objects and is bound by all sensualities? In various forms this is the teaching of all religions. It would be hardly necessary to elaborate what is so plain were it not apparently supposed that the Tantra Shastra is a strange exception to these universally recognized principles. "I thought," said a recent English correspondent of mine, "that the Tantra was a wholly bad lot belonging to the left hand path." This is not so: common though the notion be. The Shastra teaches that the Sadhaka must slay his "Six Enemies" which are the six cardinal sins and all others allied with them. Whether all the means enjoined are good, expedient, and fitting for the purpose is a 441 different matter. This is a distinction which none of its critics ever makes; but which accuracy and justice require they should make if they condemn the method. It is one thing to say that a particular method prescribed for a good end is bad, dangerous, or having regard to the present position of the generality of men, unadvisable; and a totally different thing to say that the end which is sought is itself bad. The Tantra, like all Shastras, seeks the Paramartha and nothing else. Whether all the forms of search are good (and against the bulk of them no moral objection can be raised) is another question. Let it be for argument supposed that one or other of the means prescribed is not good but evil. Is it accurate or just to condemn not only the particular Shastra in which they occur (as the discipline of a particular class of Sadhakas only), but also the whole of the Agamas of all classes of worshippers under the misleading designation "The Tantra"? I am here speaking from the point of view of one who is not a Hindu. Those, however, who are Hindus must logically either deny that the Tantra Shastra is the Word of Shiva or accept all which that Word says. For if a Tantra prescribes what is wrong this vitiates the authority, in all matters, of the Tantra in which wrong is ordained. It may be that other matters dealt with should be accepted, but this is so not because of any authority in the particular Tantra, but because they have the countenance elsewhere of a true authoritative scripture. From this logical position no escape is possible. Let us for the moment turn to the celebrated Hymn to Kali (of, as those who read it might call, the extremist, that is Vira Shakta worship) entitled the Karpuradi Stotra (Tantrik Texts, Vol. IX), which like most (probably all) of its kind has both a material (Sthula) and a subtle (Sukshma) meaning. In the 19th verse it is said that the Devi delights to receive in sacrifice flesh, with bones and hair, of goat, buffalo, cat, sheep, camel and of man. In its literal sense this passage may be taken as an instance of the man -sacrifice of which we find traces throughout the world (and in some of the Tantras) in past stages of man's evolution. Human sacrifices permitted by other Semites were forbidden by the Mosaic Code, although there is an obvious allusion to such a custom in the account of the contemplated sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham (Gen. xxii). The Israelites, however, offered bloody sacrifices the savor of which God (Yahweh) is represented as enjoying, they being 442 necessary in His honor and to avert His wrath (Gen. viii. 21; Lev. i. 9. 13, 17; Judges vi. 17, xii. 15; Gen. viii. 20 -21; 1 Sam xxvi. 19). Nothing is more common in all religions (and Christianity as by some understood provides many examples) than to materially understand spiritual truths. For such is the understanding of material of Sthuladarshin (grossly seeing) men. But, even in the p ast, those who were spiritual referred all sacrifice to the self; an inner sacrifice which all must make who would attain to that Spirit which we may call Kali, God, Allah, or what we will. But what is the Svarupa -vyakhya or true meaning of this apparently revolting verse? The meaning is that inner or mental worship (Antaryaga) is done to Her who is black (Asita) because She is the boundless (Sita = Baddha) Consciousness (Cidrupa) whose true nature is eternal liberation (Nityamukta -Svabhava). And just as in outer worship material offerings (Upacara) are made, so the Sadhaka sacrifices to Her his lust (the Goat -Kama), his anger (the Buffalo- Krodha), his greed (the Cat - Lobha), his stupidity of illusion (the Sheep -Moha), his envy (the Camel - Matsaryya) and his pride and infatuation with worldly things (the Man- Mada). All will readily recognize in these animals and man the qualities (Guna) here attributed to them. It is to such as so sacrifice to whom is given Siddhi in the form of the five kinds of Mukti. Competency for Tantra (Tantrashastradhikara) is described in the second Chapter of the Gandharva Tantra as follows: The aspirant must be intelligent (Daksha), with senses controlled (Jitendriya), abstaining from injury to all beings (Sarva himsa -vinirmukta), ever doing good to all (Sarvapranihite rata), pure (Shuci), a believer in Veda (Astika), a non- dualist (Dvaitahina), whose faith and refuge is in Brahman (Brahmanishtha, Brahmavadi, Brahma, Brahma -parayana). "Such an one," it adds, "is competent for this Scrip ture otherwise he is no Sadhaka" (So'smin shastre'dhikari tad anyatra na sadhakah). It will be allowed by all that these are strange qualifications for a follower of "a bad scripture of the left hand path." Those who are on such a path are not supposed to be seekers of the Brahman, nor solicitous for the good of all being. Rather the reverse. The Kularnava Tantra (which I may observe deals with the ill -famed Pacatattva ritual) gives in the thirteenth Chapter a long list of qualifications necessary in the case of a Tantrik disciple (Shishya). Amongst these, it rejects the slave of food and sexual pleasure (Jihvopasthapara); the lustful (Kamuka), shameless (Nirlajja), the greedy and 443 voracious eater, the sinner in general who does not follow Dharma and Acara, who is ignorant, who has no desire for spiritual knowledge, who is a hypocrite, with Brahman on his lips but not in his heart, and who is without devotion (Bhakti). Such qualifications are inconsistent with its alleged intention to encourage sensuality unless we assume that all such talk in all the Shastras throughout all time is mere hypocrisy. It is not however sufficient for the Sadhaka to turn from sin and the occasions of it. It is necessary to present the mind with a pure object and to busy it in pure actions. This not only excludes other objects and actions but trains the mind in such a way towards goodness and illumination that it at length no longer desires wrongful enjoyment; or lawful Pashu enjoyment or even enjoyment infused with a spiritual Bhava, and thus finally attains desirelessness (Nishkama -bhava). The mind dominated by matter, then regulated in matter, consciously releases itself to first work through matter, then against matter; then rising above matter it, at length, enters the Supreme S tate in which all the antithesis of Matter and Spirit have gone. What then are the means by which spiritual Siddhi is attained? Some are possibly common to all religions; some are certainly common to more than one religion, such as objective ritual worship (Bahyapuja), inner or mental worship (Manasa -Puja or Antarpuja) of the Ishtadevata, prayer (Prarthana), sacraments (Samskara), self -discipline for the control of the will and natural appetites (Tapas), meditation (Dhyana) and so forth. There is, for insta nce, as I have elsewhere pointed out, a remarkable similarity between the Tantrik ritual of the Agamas and Christian ritual in its Catholic form. It has been suggested that Catholicism is really a legacy of the ancient civilization, an adaptation of the old religions (allied in many respects with Shakta worship) of the Mediterranean races; deriving much of its strength from its non - Christian elements. I will not observe on this except to say that you do not dispose of the merits of any ritual by showing (if it be the fact) that it is extremely old and non- Christian. Christianity is one of the great religions, but even its adherents, unless ignorant, will not claim for it the monopoly of all that is good. To deal in detail with Tantrik Sadhana would take more than a volume. I have shortly summarized some important rituals. I will now shortly indicate 444 some of the general psychological principles on which it is based and which if understood, will give the key to an understanding of the extraordinary complexity and variety of the actual ritual details. I will also illustrate the application of these principles in some of the more common forms of worship. It is recognized in the first place that mind and body mutually react upon one another. There must therefore be a physical Sadhana as the groundwork of the mental Sadhana to follow. India has for ages recognized what is now becoming generally admitted, namely, that not only health but clarity of mind, character, disposition, and morals are affected by the nourishment, exercise, and general treatment of the body. Thus, from the moral aspect, one of the arguments against the use of meat and strong drink is the encouragement they give to animal passions. Why then it may be asked do these form a part of some forms of Shakta Sadhana'? I answer this later. It is however a Hindu trait to insist on purity of food and person. Tantrik Hathayoga deals in full with the question of bodily cleanliness, food, sexual continence, and physical exercise. But there are injunctions, though less strict, for the ordinary householder to whom wine and other intoxicating drinks and the eating of beef (thought by some to be a material foundation of the British Empire, but now recognized by several medical authorities to be the source of physical ills) and some other foods, as also all gluttony, as regards permitted food, are forbidden. Periodical fasts are enjoined; as also, during certain religious exercises, the eating of the pure food called Havishyannam made of fruit, vegetable and rice. The sexual life has also its regulations. In short, it is said, let the body be well treated and kept pure in order to keep the mind sane and pure and a good and not rebellious instrument for mental Sadhan a. In the Tantras will be found instances of several necessary bodily perfections in the Sadhaka. Thus he should not be deformed, with defective limbs, wanting in, or having excess of any limb, weak of limb, crippled, blind, deaf, dirty, diseased, with unnatural movements, paralyzed, slothful in action (Kularnava, XIII). Let us now pass to the mind. For the understanding of Hindu ritual it is necessary to understand both Hindu philosophy and Hindu psychology. This point, so far as I am aware, has never been observed Certainly Indian ritual 445 has never been dealt with on this basis. It has generally been considered sufficient to class it as "Mummery" and then to pass on to something supposed to be more worthy of consideration. It is necessary to remember that (outside successful Yoga) the mind (at any rate in its normal state) is never for one moment unoccupied. At every moment of time worldly objects are seeking to influence it. Only those actually do so, to which the mind, in its faculty as Manas, gives attention. In one of the Tantrik Texts (Satcakranirupana), the Manas is aptly spoken of as a door -keeper who lets some enter and keeps others outside. For this reason it is called Samkalpavikalpatmaka: that is, it selects (Samkalpa) some things which the senses (Indriyas) present to it and rejects (Vikalpa) others. If the Manas attends to the sensation demanding entrance, it is admitted and passed on to the Buddhi and not otherwise. So the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, "My Manas was elsewhere and therefore I did not hear." This is a secret for the endurance of pain which not only the martyrs and the witches knew, but some others who have suffered lesser pains. When the sensation is passed on to the Buddhi, as also when the latter acts upon the material of remembered precepts, there is formed in the Buddhi a Vritti. The latter is a modification of the Mind into the form of the perceived object. Unless a man is a Siddhayogi, it is not possible to avoid the formation of mental Vrittis. The object, there fore, of Sadhana is firstly to take the attention away from undesirable objects and then to place a desirable object in their stead. For the mind must feed on something. The object is the Ishtadevata. When a Sadhaka fully, sincerely and deeply contemplates and worships his Ishtadevata, his mind is formed into a Vritti in the form of the Devata. As the latter is all purity, the mind, which contemplates it, is during and to the depth of such contemplation pure. By prolonged and repeated worship the mind becomes naturally pure and of itself tends to reject all impure notions. What to others is a source of impurity is pure. To the pure, as the Hellenes said, all things are pure. Things are not impure. It is the impure mind which makes them so. He learns to see that everythin g and all acts are manifestations of the Divine. He who realizes Consciousness in all objects no longer has desire therefor. In this way a good disposition or Bhava, as it is called, is attained which ripens into that which is divine or Devatabhava. This is the principle on which all Sadhana, as well as what is called specifically 446 Mantrayoga, is based. It is profoundly said in the Kularnva Tantra that a man must rise by means of the same things which are the cause of his fall. If you fall on the ground you must raise yourself by it. The mind is thus controlled by means of its own object (Vishaya); that is, the world of name and form (Namarupa). The unregulated mind is distracted by Namarupa. But the same Namarupa may be used as the first means of escape therefrom. A particular form of Namarupa productive of pure Bhava is therefore given as the object of meditation. This is called Sthula or Saguna Dhyana of the five Devatas. Material media are used as the first steps whereby the Formless One is, through Yoga, attained, such as Images (Pratima), emblems (Linga, Shalagrama), pictures (Citra), mural markings (Bhittirekha), Jar (Ghata), Mandalas and Yantras. To these worship (Puja) is done with other rites such as Japa, Nyasa and so forth, and gestures (Mudra). Siddhi in this, is the Samadhi called Mahabhava. The second principle to be noted is that the object or mind's content, as also the service (Seva) of it, may be either gross (Sthula) or subtle (Sukshma). This distinction pervades all the rituals and rightly so. Men are not all at the same degree of intellectual and spiritual advancement. For the simple - minded there are simple material and mental images. Progressively considered, the objects used to fix in the mind the thought of the Devata are images in human or semihuman form, similar pictures, non -human forms or emblems (such as Linga and Gauripatta, Shalagrama, the Jar or Ghata, Mandalas) and lastly Yantras. The image is not merely used for instruction (ut pictura pro scriptura haberetur), or to incite in the mind a mental picture, but after the Prana -Pratishtha rite is itself worshipped. So also amongst Christians, where however this rite is unknown, "eikones acheiropoietoi" (what are called in Sanskrit Svayambu emblems) and wonder -working images have been directly venerated. Superficial persons doubtless think themselves profound when they ask how the Devata can be invoked (Avahana). To them also the dismissal (Visarjana) savors of childish impudence and absurdity. How (I have read) can God be told to come a nd go P A Christian who sings the Hymn, "Veni creator Spiritus," is indeed ignorant if he fancies that at his request the Holy Ghost comes to him flying through the skies. As Shamkara says, Spirit (Atma) never comes and never goes. That which in fact moves is the mind of the Sadhaka in which, if pure, 447 Spirit manifests Itself. That Spirit is in all places, and when the Sadhaka's mind fully realizes its presence in the Image, the latter as the manifestation of that Spirit is a fitting object of worship. Some knowledge of Vedanta is needful for the understanding and performance of image worship. Yantra worship is however higher and is fitter for those who have reached a more advanced stage in Sadhana. The term, as I have said, literally means an instrument; tha t by which anything is accomplished. In Upasana it is that instrument by which the mind is fixed upon the Devata of worship. It is, as drawn, a diagram consisting of lines, angles and curves, varying with the Devata worshipped as also, to some extent, according as it is a Puja or Dharana Yantra, the whole being included in a common Bhupura. A Yantra is three- dimensional, though it is very generally represented by a drawing on the flat. The Yantra and each part of it as representing certain Shaktis, has a significance which is known to the instructed Sadhaka. On the great Sri Yantra with its Baindava and other Cakras there is an entire literature. It is neglected now -a-days. Those who have fully understood it are masters in Tantra Shastras. The subject is sho rtly dealt with in the Introduction to the Tantraraja Tantra (Vol. VIII, Tantrik Texts). Not only is the object of worship subtle or gross, but so also is the ritual with which it is worshipped. For the simple Indian, worship avails itself of the ordinary incidents of daily life understood by even the most ignorant. And so we see the tending of the idol, waking it, bathing it, giving it food, putting it to sleep and so forth. In ordinary worship there is the offer of flowers, light, incense and the like Upa cara. In the subtle inner or mental worship (Antarpuja) these are but symbols. Thus the Janeshvara Samhita cited in the Mantrayogarahasyanirnaya speaks of the offering of "flowers of feeling" (Bhavapushpa) to the Divinity -- namely, the virtue of selflessness (Anahamkara), desirelessness (Araga), guilelessness (Adambha), freedom from malice and envy (Advesha, Amatsaryya), and infatuation and delusion (Amada and Amoha) and control over the feelings and mind (Akshobhaka, Amanaka). He who can truly make such offerings to Devi is a high Sadhaka indeed. The Shastra makes wonderful provision for all types. It recognizes that there must be a definite object to which the mind must turn; chooses that object with a view to the capacities of the Sadhaka; and similarly regulates the ensuing worship. Much ignorant talk takes place as to the 448 supposed worship of the Formless. Worship implies an object of worship and every object has some form. But that form and the ritual vary to meet the needs of differing capacities and temperaments; commencing with the more or less anthropomorphic image (Doll or Puttali, as those who dislike such worship call it) with its material service reproducing the ways of daily life, passing through pictures, emblems, Yantras, and mental worship t o adoration of the Point of Light (Jyotirbindu) in which at length, consciousness being merged, all worship ceases. The Shaktirahasya summarizes the stages of progress in a short verse, thus: "By images, ceremonies, mind, identification, and knowing the Self, a mortal attains Liberation (Kaivalya)". In the same way, meditation is either gross (Sthula) or subtle (Sukshma). The forms of the Mother of the Universe are threefold. There is first the Supreme (Para) form of which the Vishnuyamala says "None know". There is next Her subtle form which consists of Mantra. But as the mind cannot settle itself upon that which is formless, She appears also in physical form as celebrated in the Devi- stotras of the Puranas and Tantras. The third principle to be noticed is the part which the body is made to take in the ritual. Necessarily there is action in any case to carry out the ritual, but this is so prescribed as to emphasize the mental operation (Manasikriya), and in addition certain symbolic gestures (Mudra) are pres cribed. The body is made to take its part in the ritual, the mental processes being thus emphasized and intensified. This is based on a well -known natural tendency. When we speak with conviction and intensity of feeling, we naturally adopt appropriate movements of the body and gestures of the hands. We thus speak with the whole body. Take for example Nyasa which like Yantra is peculiar to the Tantras. The object of the Sadhaka is to identify himself with the Devata he contemplates and thus to attain Devatabhava for which it is, in its many forms, a most powerful means. Regarding the bo dy of the Devata as composed of Bija Mantras, he not merely imagines that his own body is so composed but he actually places (Nyasa means placing) these Bijas with the tip of his fingers on the various parts of his own body. The Abhishta Devata is thus in 449 imagination (expressed by outward acts) placed in each of the parts and members of the Sadhaka's body, and then with the motion of his arms he, by Vyapaka Nyasa, as it were, spreads the presence of the Devata all over his body. He thus feels himself permeated in every part by the presence of the Devata and identified with the Divine Self in that its form. How, it may be asked, can the Devata be spread as it were butter on bread? These are crude questionings and because critics of the ritual do not get beyon d this crude state of mind, this ritual is not understood. Devata is not spread. God is everywhere and He is not to be placed by man's fingers anywhere. What is done is to produce in man's mind the notion that he is so spread. Again with certain ritual act s Mudra is made. This Mudra expresses by the hands the thought of the worshipper of which it is sometimes a kind of manual shorthand. A further important point for consideration is that the mental Vritti is not only strengthened by the accompanying physical action, but by a prolonged repetition of either or both. There may be a literal repetition of either or both, of which a prominent example is Japa of Mantra with which I have dealt in the Chapters on Shakti as Mantra and on the Varnamala; or the object of contemplation may be severed into parts, as where meditation is done not simply on the Devata as a whole, but on each of the parts of His body and then on the whole; or a particular result, such as the dissolution of the Tattvas in Bhutasuddhi, may be analyzed into the component parts of a process commencing with the first movement and ending with the last. Repetition of a word and idea fixes it in the mind, and if the same essential thought can be presented in varied forms, the effect is more powerful an d at the same time less calculated to tire. "Vain repetition" is itself in the mouths of many a vain criticism when not a platitude. If it is in fact vain, it is vain. But it need not be so. In the current gross way of looking at things it is asked, "Will the Deity yield (like a modern politician) to repeated clamor?" The answer is the Devata is not so affected. What is in fact affected is, the mind of the Sadhaka himself, which, being thus purified by insistent effort, becomes a fit medium for the manifest ation of a divine consciousness (Devatabhava). In short fact Indian ritual cannot be understood unless the Vedantik principles of which they are a particular practical application are understood. Even when in devotion, complete understanding and feeling 450 are not attained, the intention to gain both will achieve success by quickening worshipper's interest and strengthening the forces of the will. A word now as to Symbolism, which exists in all religions in varying degrees. The Tantra Shastra is extraordinaril y full of it in all its kinds -- form, color, language, number, action. The subject is a highly interesting but very lengthy one. I can only make two remarks with regard to it here. Red is a favorite color in the Shakta Tantras. As pointed out in the Bhava nopanisad (Sutra 28) an Upanishad of the Kadimata and Bhaskararaya's commentary thereon, Redness denotes Raga and Vimarsha Shakti. (See Introduction to Tantraraja Tantra Vol. VIII, Tantrik Texts, and Vol. XI, Tantrik Texts.) There is a good deal of what is called erotic symbolism in some of the Tantras. This is apt to shock many English people, who are by no means all so moral in fact as some might think this sensitivity suggests. "The Hindus are very natural as regards sexual matters." An English clergyman remarks (E. F. Elwin India and the Indians, p. 70) "A leading Indian Christian said to me 'there is no reserve among us in the sense that you English people have it. There is nothing which our children do not know." It should be added, says this author, "that the knowledge of evil (why I may ask is it always evil?) does not as a matter of course produce evil". The mind of the ancients was a natural one and they called a spade a spade and not an horticultural instrument, and were not shocked thereby. For instance, coupled Yab-Yum figures were not thought impure. Another point has been observed upon by the Italian author Guido Gozzano, namely, that the European has lost the power of "worshipping through the flesh" which existed in antique pagan times. (Verso la cuna del Mondo). Fear of erotic symbols is rather indicative in the generality of cases of a tendency to weakness and want of self -control. The great Edward Carpenter speaks of the "impure hush" in these matters. A person whose mind is naturally bent towards sensual thoughts but who desires to control them has no doubt a fear, which one readily understands, of anything which may provoke such thoughts. But such a man is, in this respect, lower than him who looks upon natural things in a natural way without fear of injury to himself; and greatly lower than him to whom all is a manifestation of the One Consciousness, and who realizes this in those things which are the cause of all to the imperfectly self -governed Pashu. Nothing is in itself impure. It is the mind 451 which makes it so. It is however absolutely right that persons who feel that they have not sufficient self -control should, until they gain it, avoid what they think may do them injury. Apart from symbolism there are statements in some Shastras or so -called Shastras which are, in the ordinary modern sense, obscene. Some years ago a man wrote to me that he had come across in the Tantras "obscenities the very reading of which was demoralizing". The very fact that these portions of the Scripture had such an effect on him is a sufficient reason that he and others similarly situated should not read them. The Tantra Shastra recognizes this principle by certain injunctions into which I cannot enter here. The Kularnava expressly says that the Chapter on the Wine ritual is not to be read (Na pathed asavollasam); that is, by the unqualified. Again it is not necessary to admit either that every Text which calls Itself a Tantra is a genuine one or if so that it was the product of a high class Sadhaka. What is authoritative is that which is generally admitted to be so. Even if the Scripture be one of general acceptance, there is another matter to be remembered. As pointed out in Karpuradistotra (Hymn to Kali, where instances are given), an apparently "obscene" stateme nt may disguise something which is not so. Why it may be asked? An intending disciple may be questioned as to such passages. If he is a gross- minded or stupid man his answers will show it. Those who are not fit for the reception of the doctrine may be kept off on hearing or reading such statements which may be of such a character that anyone but a fool would know that they were not to be taken literally. It may be that the passages which my correspondent read were of this character. As regards erotic symbolism, however, (for to this I now limit myself) it is not peculiar to the Tantras. It is as old as the hills and may be found in other Scriptures. It is a matter of embarrassment to the class I have mentioned that the Bible is not free from it. Milton, after referring to Solomon's wedded leisures says, "In the Song of Songs which is generally believed, even in the jolliest expressions, to figure the spousals of the Church with Christ, sings of a thousand raptures between those two lovely ones far on the hith er side of carnal enjoyment." If we would picture the cosmic processes we must take the materials therefor from our own life. It is not 452 always necessary to go to the erotic life. But man has generally done so for reasons I need not discuss here; and his selections must sometimes be admitted to be very apt. It has however been said that "throughout Shakta symbolism and pseudo- philosophizing, there lies at the basis of the whole system, the conception of sexual relationship as the ultimate explanation of the universe." Reading these words as they stand, they are nonsense. What is true is that some Shakta Tantras convey philosophic and scientific truths by the media of erotic imagery; which is another matter. But so also does Upanishad. The charge of pseudo- philosophy is ill- founded, unless the Advaita- vedanta is such. The Shakta Tantra simply presents the Vedantik teachings in a symbolical ritualistic form for the worshipper to whom it also prescribes the means whereby they may be realized in fact. Those who th ink otherwise have not mastered the alphabet of the subject. I will conclude with a reply to a possible objection to what I have above written. It may be said that some of the rituals to which I have alluded are not merely the property of the Tantra Shastras and that they are not entitled to any credit for them. It is a fact that some (many have become extinct) Vaidik rituals such as the ten Samskaras, Sandhya, Homa and so forth are imbedded in and have been adopted by the Agamas. These and other rituals are to be found also in the Puranas. In any case, the Agama is what it is whether its elements are original or derived. If the rites adopted are creditable then praise must be given for the adoption of that which is good. If they are not, blame equally attaches to the original as to the copy. What however the Agamas have adopted has been shaped so as to be suitable for all, that is, for others than those for whom the original rituals were intended. Further many of the rituals here described seem to have been introduced by and to be peculiar to the Agamas. Possibly some of these may have been developed from other forms or seeds of form in the Vaidik ritual. The whole subject of Indian ritual and its origins is still awaiting inquiry. Personally I am disposed to favor the view that the Agamas have made a contribution which is both original and considerable. To me also the contribution seems to have greater conformity with Vedantik doctrine, which is applied by the ritual in a psychological manner which is profoun d. On an "historical" view of the matter this seems necessarily to be so. For, according to that view, the early Vaidik ritual either antedated or 453 was contemporaneous with the promulgation of the Vedantik doctrine to be found in the Upanishads, for the general acceptance of which considerable time was necessary. It could not therefore (if at all) embody that doctrine in the same way or to the same degree as a Ritual developed at a time when that doctrine had been widely disseminated, generally accepted and at least to a greater degree systematized. Ritual is only a practical expression of doctrine, and the Agamas, according to a generally accepted view, did not come into being earlier than a date later than the first and chief Upanishads, and perhaps at the close of what is generally called the Aupanishadic age. No "historical" argument, however, is yet entirely trustworthy, as the material upon which it is to be based has not been sufficiently explored. For myself I am content to deal with present -day facts. According to the Indian view, all Shastras are various parts of one whole and that Part which as a present -day fact contains the bulk of the ritual, now or recently in practice, consists of the Tantras of the various schools of Agama. As an Indian author and follower of the Shaivagama has said -- the Temple ritual throughout India is governed by the Agamas. And this must be so, if it be the fact as alleged, that Temples, Images, and other matters were unknown to the original Vaidik Aryas. If the Agamas have adopted some of the ritual of the latter, those in their turn in course of time took to themselves the practices of those outside the body of men for whom the Vaidik Karma -kanda was originally designed. Vedanta in its various forms has now for centuries constituted the religious notions of India, and the Agamas in their differing schools are its practical expression in worship and ritual affording the means whereby Vedantik doctrine is realized. 454 CHAPTER TWENTY -SEVEN . THE PACATATTVA (THE SECRET RITUAL ) The notoriety of the Shakta Pacatattva ritual with wine and women has thrown into the shade not only the practical topics with which I have dealt, but every other, including the valuable philosophical presentment of Vedanta contained in the Shakta Tantra. Notwithstanding, and indeed because, of the off- hand and (in certain respects) ignorant condemnation which this ritual has received, the interests of both scholarship and fairness (which by the wa y should be identical) require, that we should first ascertain the facts, think clearly and fearlessly, and then determine without prejudice. From both the Shastrik and historical point of view the subject is of such importance that it is not possible for me to here deal with it otherwise than in a very general way. It is necessary, however, in a paper on Upasana, to at least touch upon the matter because as against everything one says about the Tantras, there is raised the express or implied query "That ma y be all very well. But what about the infamous Pacamakara?" Anything said in favor of the Shastra is thus discounted in advance. We must first disentangle the general principles involved from their particular application. The principle may be sound and yet the application may not be so. We may, for instance, approve striving for Vedantik detachment (Audasinya), whilst at the same time we may reject the Aghora's application of it in eating human carrion. Next, let us see what in fact is the ritual applicat ion of these principles. Then let us judge the intention with which the ritual was prescribed. A principle may be good and the intention may be good, but its application may be intrinsically bad, or at least dangerous, and therefore inexpedient as leading to abuse. In life it is a mistake to altogether neglect the pragmatical aspect of any theory. Logic and life do not always go hand in hand. Lastly, let us see whether the application is good or bad or inexpedient; or whether it is partially one or the othe r. 455 In the first place it is necessary to clear the air of some common misconceptions. It is commonly thought that all the practitioners of the Pacatattva ritual with wine, woman, and so forth are immoral men, professing to follow a Scripture which does not accept the ordinary rules of morality as regards food, drink and woman which enjoin that men should curb their sensual desires. Rather is it thought that it teaches that men should yield to them and thus "enjoy" themselves. This view turns at least this portion of the Shakta Tantra into a scripture of libertinism. thinly veiling itself in pseudo -religious forms. Its followers are supposed to be in the condition of a sensual man who finds his wishes thwarted by the rules of morality of his fellows around him and who, asking himself how he can infringe those rules under color of some supposed authority, gives to the fulfillment of desire a "religious" sanction. In the words of an English writer, the bent towards religion of some sort is so strong in India that some of its people even "sin religiously". They are, on this view, hypocrites putting themselves to a deal of unnecessary trouble, for men can and do in India, as elsewhere, gratify their desires without religious rituals, and if wishful to establish a theory of enjoyment justifying their conduct, they can, as some have also done in India as elsewhere, advocate an "epicurean" materialism for that purpose. For the true sensualist who wishes to get at the object of his desire, these long Tantrik rituals would be obstructive and wearisome. Whatever may be thought of the ritual in question, these notions of it are wrong. The charge, however, if unrefuted, constitutes a blot on this country's civilization, which has been allowed to remain because some who know better are either afraid to acknowledge that they follow these rites, or if they do not, that it may be supposed that they do so. This blot, in so far as it is not justified by actual fact, I propose in the present Chapter to remove. The word Shastra or Scriptures comes from the root Shas, to control, because its object is to control the conduct of men otherwise prone to evil. Whether its methods be mistaken or not, the Shakta Scripture is a Shastra. Morality or Dharma is preached by all Shastras whether of East or West. That morality (Dharma) is in its essentials the same in all the great Scriptures. For what purpose is conduct controlled? The Indian answer is -- in order that man may make for himself a good Karma which spells happiness in this and the next world (Paraloka), and that then he may at length free 456 himself of all Karma and attain Liberation (Moksha). Bad Karma leads to suffering here and in the Hells of the afterlife. This is taught in the Shakta, as in other Shastras, which seek to train the Sa dhaka to attain Liberation. In a work of the present scope, I have not the space to cite authority in support of all these elementary propositions. There is, however, an abundance of Texts in support of them. Consult, for instance, the grand opening Chapter of the Kularnava Tantra, which points out the frailty of Man, the passing nature of this world and of all it gives to Man, and his duty to avail himself of that Manhood which is so difficult of attainment so that he does not fall but rises and advances to Liberation. I cite the Kularnava not merely because it is reputed to be a great Tantra and authority readily accessible, but because it teaches in full the practice of the rituals under consideration. But what is Liberation? It is the state of Brahman the Pure. How can the Pure be attained by counseling the practice of what the author of the Shastra thought to be impure. Every Tantra counsels the following of Dharma or morality. The same Tantra (above cited) in its Chapter dealing with the necessary qualifications of a disciple points out that he must be of good character and in particular must not be lewd (Kamuka) and given over to drink, gluttony and woman. If he is so, he is not competent for this particular ritual and must be trained by other disciplines (Pashvacara). I here and hereafter deal with these particular infractions of morality because they alone in this matter concern us in our attempt to understand a ritual which is supposed to be an instance of the commission of these very sins. The Mahanirvana Tantra, which is of special interest because it is an attempt to provide a general code including law (in its European sense) for the followers of its cult, makes provision, amongst other matters, for general decency and so forth, for the state -punishment (unknown to English legislation) of men who go with prostitutes (XI. 43) as also with unmarried girls (ib., 29 -34), with women of prohibited degree (ib.), with the wives of others (ib., 35-41), or who merely look with an eye of lust upon them (ib., 47), stating (ib., 46) "A man should consider as wife only that woman who has been married to him according to Brahma (the common) or Shaiva form. All other women are the wives of others." It deplores (I -37) the 457 evil customs of the present age (Kaliyuga) wi th its irreligion, lust, adultery, gluttony and addiction to strong drinks. How strangely hypocritical are these laments in a Shastra which is supposed to consciously promote the very tendencies it deplores. It has been said that the Mahanirvana is a worth y exception in an unworthy class. It is true that this Tantra evidences what may be called a reforming tendency on account of abuses which had occurred and thus puts restrictions on the ordinary householder as regards particular portions of the ritual, a fact which made a Pandit, of whom I was told, say that in comparison with the Mahanila Tantra it was "a woman's Shastra". Nevertheless on the general matters here dealt with it is not an exception. Possibly those who so speak had only read the Mahanirvana w hich is the first Tantra to be translated in English. Certainly nothing that they say indicates any real acquaintance with any other. There are in fact other fine and more philosophical Tantras, and all the great authoritative Scriptures are at one, so far as I am aware, on the general question of morality and the search for Liberation with which I here deal. How, as I have said, could it, on commonly accepted principles, be otherwise? Whether the Sadhana they teach is good and effective for the end sought is another matter, and still more so is the question whether it has been productive in fact of abuse. What then arc the general Indian rules touching drinking, eating, and sexual intercourse? In ancient Vaidik times intoxicating liquor was taken in the for m of Soma. Such drink was found, however, in the course of time to be productive of great evils, and was thrice cursed by Brahma, Shukracarya and Krishna. It was then prohibited with the result that India has been the most temperate among the great peoples of the world, Manu having declared that though the drinking of wine was a natural tendency, abstention therefrom was productive of great fruit, The Ushanah Samhita says: "Wine should not be drunk, given or taken" (Madyam apeyam adeyam agrahyam). The drinking of wine is one of the great sins (Mahapataka) involving expiation (Prayashcitta), and otherwise leading the sinner to that great Hell in which the slayer of a Brahmana is confined ( Vishnu Purana, II. c. vi). In ancient Vaidik times, meat was eaten by the fair -colored auburn- haired Aryans, including even beef, as is done by their fellow -Aryans of the West. But in process of time the slaughter of cattle for food was absolutely 458 prohibited and certain meats such as that of the domesticated fowl and pig were held to be impure. As regards the eating of flesh and fish to -day, I believe the higher castes (outside Bengal) who submit to the orthodox Smarta discipline take neither. Nor do high and strict Brahmanas in that province. But the bulk of the people there, both men and women, eat fish, and men consume the flesh of male goats previously offered to the Deity. Grain of all kinds is a common diet. I speak, of course, of orthodox Hindus. Some who have adopted Western civilization have taken over with it the eating of beef, the whisky peg and champagne, the curses of Brahma, Shukra, Krishna, and the Hell of their Shastras being nothing to them. As regards Durga Devi the absurd statement has been made (Empire of India by Sir Bampfylde Fuller, 161) that "to extremists among Her votaries any sexual restraint is a denial of Her authority." Yet it is common ground to all Shastras that sexual intercourse (Maithuna) by a man with a woman who is not lawful to him is a sin. The Vaidik Dharma is strict on this point. It forb ids not merely actual Maithuna but what is called Ashtamga (eightfold) Maithuna, namely, Smaranam (thinking upon it), Kirttanam (talking of it), Keli (play with women), Prekshanam (making eyes at women), Guhyabhashanam (talk in private with women), Samkalpa (wish or resolve for sexual union), Adhyavasaya (determination towards it), Kriyanishpatti (actual accomplishment of the sexual act). In short, the Pashu or follower of the ordinary ritual (and except for ritual purposes those who are not Pashu) should, in the words of the Shaktakramiya (cited by Mahamahopadhyaya Krishnanatha Nyayapacanana Bhattacarya in his Commentary to v. 15 of the Karpuradistotra, Hymn to Kali), avoid Maithuna, conversation on the subject and assemblies of women. Maithunam tatkathalapam tadgoshthim parivarjayet Even in marriage certain rules are to be observed such as that which prescribes intercourse on the fifth day after the termination of the period (Ritukalam vina devi ramanam parivarjayet) which is said by the Nitya Tantra to be a characteristic of the Pashu. Polygamy is permissible to all Hindus. 459 The Divinity in woman, which the Shakta Tantra in particular proclaims, is also recognized in the ordinary Vaidik teaching. The wife is a House -Goddess (Grihadevata) united to her husband by the sacrament (Samskara) of marriage and is not to be regarded merely as an object of enjoyment. Further, Vaidik Dharma (now neglected) prescribes that the householder should ever worship with his wife as necessary partner therein, Sastriko dharmamacaret (see also Matsyasukta Tantra, XXXI). According to the sublime notions of Shruti the union of man and wife is a veritable sacrificial rite -- a sacrifice in fire (Homa) wherein she is both hearth (Kunda) and flame -- and he who knows this as Homa attains Liberation (see Mantra 13 of Homaprakarana of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Edward Carpenter's remarks on what is called the "obscenity" of this Upanishad). Similarly, the Tantrik Mantra for Maithuna runs (see Pranatoshini and Tantrasara 698), "Om, Into the Fire which is Spirit (Atma) brightened by (the pouring thereon) of the ghee of merit and demerit, I by the path of Sushumna (the central 'nerve') ever sacrifice (do Homa of) the functions of the senses using the mind as the ladle. Svaha." (In the Homa rite the performer pours ghee into the fire which causes it to shoot up and flame. The ghee is poured in with a ladle. This being internal Homa the mind is the ladle which makes the offering of ghee). Om Dharmadharma -havirdipte atmagnau manasa sr uca Sushumnavartmana nityam akshavrittir juhomyaham: Svaha. Here sexual union takes on the grandeur of a great rite (Yaja) compared with which the ordinary mere animal copulation to ease desire, whether done grossly, shamefacedly, or with flippant gallant ry is base. It is because this high conception of the function is not known that a "grossness" is charged against the association of sexual function with religion which does not belong to it. Grossness is properly attributable to those who mate like dumb a nimals, or coarsely and vulgarly, not to such as realize in this function the cosmic activity of the active Brahman or Shiva -Shakti with which they then, as always, unify themselves. 460 It has been already explained that Sadhakas have been divided into three classes -- Pashu, Vira and Divya, and for each the Shastra prescribes a suitable Sadhana, Tamasik, Rajasik and Sattvik accordingly. As later stated, the Pacatattva ritual in its full literal sense is not for the Pashu, and (judging upon principle) the Divya, unless of the lower ritual order, should be beyond it. In its fullest and literal sense it is for the Vira and is therefore called Rajasik Sadhana or Upasana. It is to be noted however that Pashu, Vira and Divya are the three primary classes (Mukhyasadhaka). Besides these there are secondary divisions (Gaunasadhaka). Thus in addition to the primary or Svabhava Pashu there is the Vibhava Pashu who is a step towards Viracara. Viras again have been said to be of three kinds, Svabhava Vira, Vibhava Vira, and Mantrasiddha Vira. It is to this Rajasik Puja that the Hymn to Cinnamasta from the Devirahasyakhanda of the Rudrayamala refers when the Vira therein says, Alipishitapurandhri -bhogapujaparo'ham Bahuvidhakulamargarambha- sambhavito'ham Pashujanavimukho'ham Bhairavim ashrito'ham Gurucaranarato'ham Bhairavo'ham Shivo'ham. ("I follow the worship wherein there is enjoyment of wine, flesh and wife as also other different forms of Kula worship. In Bhairavi (the Goddess) I seek my refuge. To the feet of Guru I am d evoted. Bhairava am I. Shiva am I.") To the ordinary English reader the association of eating, drinking and sexual union with worship will probably be incongruous, if not downright repulsive. "Surely," he might say, "such things are far apart from prayer to God. We go and do them, it is true, because they are a necessity of our animal nature, but prayer or worship have nothing to do with such coarseness. We may pray before or after (as in Grace) on taking food, but the physical acts between are not prayer. Such notions are based partly on that dualism which keeps separate and apart God and His creature, and partly on certain false and depreciatory notions concerning matter and material functions. According to Indian Monism such worship is not only understandable but (I am not speaking of any particular form of it) the only religious attitude 461 consistent with its principles. Man is, in his essence or spirit, divine and one with the universal Spirit. His mind and body and all their functions arc divine, for they are not merely a manifestation of the Power (Shakti) of God but that Power itself. To say that matter is in itself low or evil is to calumniate that Power. Nothing in natural function is low or impure to the mind which recognizes it as Shakti and the working of Shakti. It is the ignorant and, in a true sense, vulgar mind which regards any natural function as low or coarse. The action in this case is seen in the light of the inner vulgarity of mind. It has been suggested that in its proper application the M aithuna Karma is only an application to sexual function of the principles of Yoga (Masson- Oursel Historie de la Philosophie Indienne, pp. 231- 233). Once the reality of the world as grounded in the Absolute is established, the body seems to be less an obsta cle to freedom, for it is a form of that self -same Absolute. The creative function being natural is not in itself culpable. There is no real antinomy between Spirit and Nature which is an instrument for the realization of the Spirit. The method borrows, it is said (ib.), that of Yoga not to frustrate, but to regulate enjoyment. Conversely enjoyment produces Yoga by the union of body and spirit. In the psychophysiological rites of these Shaktas, enjoyment is not an obstacle to Yoga but may also be a means to it. This, he says, is an important conception which recalls the discovery of the Mahayana that Samsara and Nirvana are one. For here are made one, Yoga which liberates and Bhoga which enchains (ib.). It will then be readily understood that according to this doctrine only those are competent for this Yoga who are truly free, or on the way to freedom, of all dualism. External worship demands certain acts and instruments, such as bodily attitude, speech, and materials with which the rite is done, such as flow ers, incense, lights, water and other offerings. These materials and instruments are called Upacara. Orclinarily there are sixteen of these, but they may be more or less. There is nothing absolute in either the quality, quantity or nature of the offerings. Ordinarily such things are offered as might be given to guests or friends or others whom the worshipper loves, such as seat (Asana), welcome (Svagata), water to wash the feet (Padya), food (Naivedya), cloths (Vasana), jewels (Abharana), with other things such as lights, incense and flowers. In inner or mental worship (Manasapuja) these 462 are not things material, but of the mind of the worshipper. Pleasing things are selected as offering to the Devata because the worshipper wishing to please Devata offers wha t he thinks to be pleasant and would be glad himself to receive. But a man who recognized the divinity (and therefore value) of all things might offer any. With such a disposition a piece of mud or a stone would be as good an offering as any other. There a re some things the ordinary man looks upon as "unclean" and, as long as he does so, to offer such a thing would be an offense. But, if to his "equal eye" these things are not so, they might be given. Thus the Vira -sadhana of the Shakta Tantra makes ritual use of what will appear to most to be impure and repulsive substances. This (as the Janarnava Tantra says) is done to accustom the worshipper not to see impurity in them but to regard them as all else, as manifestation of Divinity. He is taught that there is nothing impure in itself in natural functions though they be made, by misuse or abuse, the instruments of impurity. Here again impurity consists not in the act per se but in the way and in the intention with which it is done. To a Vira all things, acts, and functions, done with right intention, may be instruments of worship. For, a Vira is one who seeks to overcome Tamas by Sattva. Therefore, the natural functions of eating, drinking and sexual union may be used as Upacara of worship. This does not mean that a man may do what he likes as regards these things and pass them off as worship. They must be rightly done, otherwise, a man would be offering his sin to Devata. The principle of all this is entirely sound. The only question which exists is as regard s the application to which the ritual in question puts it. Worship and prayer are not merely the going aside at a particular time or place to utter set formulae or to perform particular ritual acts. The whole of life, in all its rightful particulars, witho ut any single exception, may be an act of worship if man but makes it so. Who can rightly deny this? Of course, as long as a man regards any function as impure or a matter of shame, his mental disposition is such that he cannot worship therewith. To do so would distract and perturb him. But both to the natural -minded and illuminated man this is possible. The principle here dealt with is not entirely peculiar to this school. Those Hindus who are not Monists, (and whatever be their philosophical theories, no worshippers in practice are so, for worship connotes the dualism of worshipped (Upasya) and worshipper (Upasaka), of the means or 463 instrument (Sadhana) and that to be attained thereby (Sadhya)), yet make offering of their acts to Devata. By thus offering all their daily speech, each word they say becomes, in the words of Shastra, Mantra. Nor, if we examine it, is the principle alien to Christianity, for the Christian may, in opening his day, offer all his acts therein to God. What he thereafter does, is wors hip. The difference in these cases and that of the Vira principle lies (at any rate in practice) in this, that the latter is more thorough in its application, no act or function being excluded, and in worship, the Shakta being a Monist is taught to regard the offering not as given to someone other than his own essential Self, but to That. He is thus, according to the theory of this practice, led to divinise his functions, and by their constant association with the thought of Brahman his mind is, it is said, purified and led away from all carnal desires. If these functions are set apart as something common or impure, victory is not easily won. There is still some part of his life into which Brahman does not enter and which remains the source of distraction. By associating them with religion, it is the religious feeling which works first through and then supersedes them. He thus gradually attains Divyabhava and the state of the Devata he has worshipped. For it is common Indian principle that the end of worship is to assimilate oneself to its object or Devata. Thus it is said in the Agni Purana that. by worship of Rudra one becomes Rudra, by worship of Vishnu one becomes Vishnu, and by worship of Shakti one becomes Shakti. This is so because the mind mentally transforms itself into the likeness of that on which it is set. By thinking always, on the other hand, on sensual objects one becomes sensual. Even before worship, one should strive to attain the true attitude of worship, and so the Gandharva Tantra says, "He who is not Deva (Adeva) should not worship Deva. The Deva alone should worship Deva." The Vira or strictly the Sadhaka qualified to enter Viracara -- since the true Vira is its finished product -- commences Sadhana with this Rajasik Upasana with the Pacatattva as Upacara which are employed for the transformation of the sensual tendencies they connote. I have heard the view expressed that this part of the Shastra was really promulgated for Shudras. Shiva knowing the animal propensities of their common life must lead them to take flesh and wine, prescribed these rites with a view to lessen the evil and to gradually wean them from enjoyment by promulgating conditions under which alone such enjoyment 464 could be had, and in associating it with religion. "It is be tter to bow to Narayana with one's shoes on than never to bow at all. A man with a taste for drink will only increase his thirst by animal satisfaction (Pashupana). Rut if when he drinks he can be made to regard the liquid as a divine manifestation and have thought of God, gradually such thoughts will overcome and oust his sensual desires. On the same principle children are given powders in jam, though this method is not confined to actual children only. Those who so argue contend that a Brahmana should, on no account, take wine, and Texts are cited which are said to support this view. I have dealt with this matter in the Introduction to the Kalivilasa Tantra. It is sufficient to say here that the reply given is that such Texts refer to the unauthorized consumption of wine as by uninitiated (Anabhishikta) Brahmanas. In the same place I have discussed the question whether wine can be taken at all by any one in this Kali age. For, according to some authorities, there is only Pashubhava in the Kaliyuga. If this be correct then all wine -drinking, whether ritual or otherwise, is prohibited. For the worship of' Shakti, the Pacatattva are declared to be essential. Without the Pacatattva in one form or another Shaktipuja cannot be performed (Mahanirvana, V. 23 -24). The reason of this is that those who worship Shakti, worship Divinity as Creatrix and in the form of the universe. If She appears as and in natural function, She must be worshipped therewith, otherwise, as the Tantra cited says, worship is fruitless. The Mother of the Universe must be worshipped with these five elements, namely, wine, meat, fish, grain, and woman, or their substitutes. By their use the universe (Jagad- brahmanda) itself is used as the article of worship (Upacara). The Mahanirvana (VII. 103 -111) says that wine which gives joy and dispels the sorrows of men is Fire; flesh which nourishes and increases the strength of mind and body is Air; fish which increases generative power is Water, cereals grown on earth and which are the basis of life are Earth, and sexual union, which is the root of the world and the origin of all creation, is Ether. They thus signify the Power (Shakti) which produces all fiery elements, all terrestrial and aquatic life, all vegetable life, and the will, knowledge and acti on of the Supreme Prakriti productive of that great bliss which accompanies the process of creation. (See also Haratattvadidhiti XV, Kamakhya Tantra, Nigamatattvasara IV). 465 The Kailasa Tantra (Purvakhya, Ch. XC) identifies this Pentad (Pacatattva) with the five vital airs (Pranadi) and the five Mahapreta which support the couch of Tripurasundari. With these preliminaries, and postponing for the moment further comment, we may proceed to an examination in greater detail of the five (Paca) elements (Tattva), namely, Wine (Madya), Meat (Mamsa), Fish (Matsya), Parched Cereal (Mudra), and Sexual Union (Maithuna) which stand for drinking, eating and propagation. Because they all commence with the letter M, they are vulgarly called Paca -ma-kara (or five M's). These Pacatattva, Kuladravya or Kulatattva as they are called, have more esoteric names. Thus the last is known as "the fifth". Woman is called Shakti or Prakriti. A Tantrik commonly calls his wife his Shakti or Bhairavi. Woman is also called Lata or "creeper", because woman clings to and depends on man as the creeper does to the tree. Hence the ritual in which woman is enjoyed is called Lata- sadhana. Wine is called "causal water" (Karanavari) or Tirtha water (Tirthavari). But the Pacatattva have not always their literal meaning. The meaning differs according as they refer to the Tamasik (Pashvacara), Rajasik (Viracara) or Sattvik (Divyacara) Sadhanas respectively. "Wine" is only wine and Maithuna is only sexual union in the ritual of the Vira. To the Pashu, t he Vira ritual (Viracara) is prohibited as unsuitable to his state, and the Divya, unless of the lower ritual kind, is beyond such things. The result is that the Pacatattva have each three meanings. Thus "wine" may be wine (Vira ritual), or it may be coconut water (Pashu ritual) or it may mean the intoxicating knowledge of the Supreme attained by Yoga, according as it is used in connection with the Vira, the Pashu, or the Divya respectively. The Pacatattva are thus threefold, namely, real (Pratyaksha -tattva) where "wine" means wine, substitutional (Anukalpatattva) where wine means coconut water or some other liquid, and symbolical or divine (Divyatattva) where it is a symbol to denote the joy of Yoga -knowledge. The Pashu worships with the substitutional Tattvas mentioned later and never takes wine, the Vira worships with wine, and the Divya's "wine" is spiritual knowledge. There are further modifications of these general rules in the case of the intermediate Bhavas. Thus the author next cited says that whil st 466 the Svabhava Vira is a drinker of wine, the Vibhava Vira worships internally with the five mental Tattvas and externally with substitutes. The Mantra - siddhavira is free to do as he pleases in this matter, subject to the general Shastrik rules. In an essay by Pandit Jayacandra Siddhantabhushana, answering certain charges made against the Tantra Shastra, he, after stating that neither the Vibhava Vira nor Vibhava Pashu need worship with real wine, says that in modern Bengal this kind of worship is greatly prevalent. Such Tantriks do not take wine but otherwise worship according to the rule of Tantra Shastra. It is, as he says, an erroneous but common notion that a Tantrika necessarily means a drinker of wine. Some Sadhakas again in lieu of the material Maithuna, imagine the union of Shiva and Shakti in the upper brain center known as the Sahasrara. The Divya Pacatattva for those of a truly Sattvika or spiritual temperament (Divyabhava) have been described as follows: "Wine" (Madya) according to Kaula Tantra (see p. 85 of Pacatattva- vicara by Nilamani Mukhyopadhyaya) is not any liquid, but that intoxicating knowledge acquired by Yoga of the Parabrahman which renders the worshipper senseless as regards the external world. "Meat" (Mamsa) is not any fleshly thing, but the act whereby the Sadhaka consigns all his acts to Me (Mam), that is, the Lord, "Fish" (Matsya) is that Sattvik knowledge by which through the sense of "Mineness" (a play upon the word Matsya) the worshipper sympathizes with the pleasure and pain of all beings. Mudra is the act of relinquishing all association with evil which results in bondage. Coition (Maithuna) is the union of the Shakti Kundalini, the "Inner woman" and World -force in the lowest center (Muladhara Cakra) of the Sadhaka's body with the Supreme Shiva in the highest center (Sahasrara) in the upper Brain (see Essay on Kundalini Shakti post). This, the Yogini Tantra (Ch. VI) says, is the best of all unions for those who are Yati, that is, who have controlled their passions. Sahasrarop ari bindau kundalya melanam Shive Maithunam paramam dravyam yatinam parikirtitam According to the Agamasara, "wine" is the Somadhara or lunar ambrosia which drops from the Sahasrara. "Meat" (Mamsa) is the tongue (Ma) of 467 which its part (Amsha ) is speech. The Sadhaka in eating it controls his speech. "Fish" (Matsya) are those two (Vayu or currents) which are constantly moving in the two "rivers" (that is, Yoga "nerves" or Nadis) called Ida and Pingala, that is, the sympathetics on each side of the spinal col umn. He who controls his breath by Pranayama, "eats" then by Kumbhaka or retention of breath. Mudra is the awakening of knowledge in the pericarp of the great Sahasrara Lotus (the upper brain) where the Atma resplendent as ten million suns and deliciously cool as ten million moons is united with the Devi Kundalini, the World- force and Consciousness in individual bodies, after Her ascent thereto from the Muladhara in Yoga. The esoteric meaning of coition or Maithuna is thus stated in the Agama. The ruddy hued Ra is in the Kunda (ordinarily the seed- mantra Ram is in Manipura but perhaps here the Kunda in the Muladhara is meant). The letter Ma (white like the autumnal moon, Sattvaguna, Kaivalyarupa- prakritirupi (Ch. 2, Kamadhenu Tantra)) is in the Mahayoni (not I may observe the genitals but the lightning- like triangle or Yoni in the Sahasrara or upper brain) in the form of Bindu (a Ghanibhuta or "condensed" form of Shakti and transformation of Nada -shakti). When M (Makara) seated on the Hamsa (the "bird" which is the pair Shiva -Shakti as Jiva) in the form of A (A -kara) unites with R (Ra- kara) then Brahman knowledge (Brahmajana) which is the source of supreme bliss is gained by the Sadhaka who is then called Atmarama (Enjoyer with the Self), for his enjoyment is in the Atma in the Sahasrara. (For this reason too, the word Rama, which also means sexual enjoyment, is equivalent to the liberator - Brahman, Ra + a + ma). The union of Shiva and Shakti is described (Tantrasara, 702) as true Yoga (Shivashaktisamayogo yoga eva na samshayah) from which, as the Yamala says, arises that Joy which is known as the Supreme Bliss (ib., 703) (Samyogaj jayate sauklyam paramanandalakshanam). This is the union on the purely Sattvik plane which corresponds in the Rajasik plane to the union of Shiva and Shakti in the persons of their worshippers. It will have been observed that here in this Divya or Sattvik Sadhana "Wine", "Woman" and so forth are really names for operations. The substitutional Tattvas of Pashvacara also do not answer to their names, being other substances which are taken as substitutes of wine, meat, fish 468 (see Kulacudamani; Bhairavayamala, Ch. I). These have been variously described and sometimes as follows: In lieu of wine the Pashu should, if a Brahmana, take milk, if a Kshattriya ghee, if a Vaishya honey, and if a Shudra a liquor made from rice. Coconut water in a bell -metal utensil is also taken as a substitute. Salt, ginger, sesamum, wheat beans (Mashakalai) and garlic are some of the substitutes for meat; the white brinjal vegetable, red radish, masur (a kind of gram), red sesamum and Paniphala (an aquatic plant) take the place of fish. Paddy, rice, wheat and grain generally are Mudra both in Tamasik (Pashvacara) and Rajasik (Viracara) Sadhanas. In lieu of Maithuna there may be an offering of flowers with the hands formed into the gesture called Kachapa- mudra, the union of the Karavira flower (representative of the Linga) with the Aprajita (Clitoria) flower which is shaped as and represents the female Yoni and other substitutes, or there may be union with the Sadhaka's wife. On this and some other matters here dealt with there is variant practice. The Kaulikarcanadipika speaks of what is called the Adyatattvas. Adyamadya or wine is hemp (Vijaya), Adyashuddhi or meat is ginger (Adraka), Adyamina or fish is citron (Jambira), Adyamudra is Dhanyaja that is, made from paddy and Adyashakti is the worshipper's own wife. Quoting from the Tantrantara it says that worship without these Adya forms is fruitless. Even the strictest total abstainer and vegetarian will not object to "wine" in the shape of hot milk or coconut water, or to ginger or other substitutes for meat. Nor is there any offense in regarding sexual union between the Sadhaka and his wife not as a mere animal function but as a sacrificial rite (Yaja). At this point we may pass to the literal Tattvas. Wine here is not merely grape -wine but that which is made from various substances such as molasses (Gaudi), rice (Paishti) or the Madhuka flower (Madhvi) which are said by the Mahanirvana Tantra (Ch. VI) to be the best. There are others such as wine made from the juice of the Palmyra and Date tree, and aniseed (Maureya wine). Meat is of three kinds, that is, animals of the water, earth, and sky. But no female animal must be slain. Superior kinds of fish are Shala, Pathina, and Rohita. Mudra which every Orientalist whom I have read calls "ritual gesture" or the like is nothing of the kind here, though that is a 469 meaning of the term Mudra in another connection. They cannot have gone far into the subject, for it is elementary knowledge that in the Pacatattva, Mudra means parched cereal of various kinds and is defined inYogini Tantra (Ch. VI) as: Bhrishtadhanyadikam yad yad carvani yam pracakshate Sa mudra kathita Devi sarvesham Naganandini. (Oh Daughter of the Mountain, fried paddy and the like -- in fact all such (cereals) as are chewed -- are called Mudra). The Mahanirvana (Ch. VI) says that the most excellent is that made from Shali rice or from barley or wheat and which has been fried in clarified butter. Meat, fish, Mudra offered to the Devata along with wine is technically called Shuddhi. The Mahanirvana says that the drinking of wine without Shuddhi is like the swallowing of poison and the Sadhana is fruitless. It is not difficult to see why. For, wine taken without food has greater effect and produces greater injury. Moreover, another check on indiscriminate drinking is placed, for wine cannot be taken unless Shuddhi is obtained, prepared, and eaten with the necessary rit es. Woman, or Shakti, as She is properly called, since She is purified and consecrated for the rite and represents the Devi, is of three kinds, namely, Sviya or Svakiya (one's own wife), Parakiya the wife of another or some other woman, and Sadharani or one who is common. This aspect of the subject I deal with later. Here I will only say that, where sexual union is permitted at all, the ordinary Shakti is the Sadhaka's Brahmi wife. It is only under certain conditions that there can be any other Shakti. Shaktis are also of two kinds, namely, those who are enjoyed (Bhogya) and those who are worshipped only (Pujya). A Sadhaka who yields to desire for the latter commits the sin of incest with his own mother. Here again, according to Shakta notions, one must not think of these substances as mere gross matter in the form of wine, meat and so forth, nor on woman as mere woman; nor upon the rite as a mere common meal. The usual daily rites must be performed in the morning, midday and evening (Mahanirvana, V. 25). These are elaborate (ib.,) and take up a large part of the day. Bhutasuddhi is accomplished, at which time the Sadhaka 470 thinks that a Deva body has arisen as his own. Various Nyasas are done. Mental worship is performed of the Devi, the Adya Kalika, who is thought of as being in red raiment seated on a red lotus. Her body dark like a rain- cloud, Her forehead gleaming with the light of the crescent moon. Japa of Mantra is then done and outer worship follows. A further elaborate ritual succeeds. I pause here to ask the reader to conceive the nature of the mind and disposition of the Sadhaka who has sincerely performed these rites. Is it likely to be lustful or gluttonous? The curse is removed from the wine and the Sadhaka meditates upon the union of Deva and Devi i n it. Wine is to be considered as Devata. After the consecration of the wine, the meat, fish and grain are purified and are made like unto nectar. The Shakti is sprinkled with Mantra and made the Sadhaka's own. She is the Devi Herself in the form of woman. The wine is charged with Mantras ending with the realization (Mahanirvana Tantra, VI. 42) when Homa is done, that offering is made of the excellent nectar of "This -ness" (Idanta) held in the cup of "I- ness" (Ahanta) into the Fire which is the Supreme I- ness (Parahanta). Ahantapatra-bharitam idantaparamamritam Parahantamaye vahnau homasvikaralakshanam. Here the distinction is drawn between the "I" (Aham) and the "This". The former is either the Supreme "I" (Parahanta or Shiva) or the individual "I" (Jiva) vehicled by the "This" or Vimarsha -Shakti. The Sadhaka is the cup or vessel which is the individual Ego. "This- ness" is offered to the Supreme. Drinking is an offering to that Fire which is the transcendent Self "whence all individual selves ( Jiva) proceed". Wine is then Tara Dravamayi, that is, the Savioress Herself in the form of liquid matter (Maha -nirvana, XI. 105- 107). None of the Tattvas can be offered unless first purified and consecrated, otherwise the Sadhaka goes to Hell. With further ritual the first four Tattvas are consumed, the wine being poured as an oblation into the mouth of Kundali, after meditation upon Her as Consciousness (Cit) spread from Her seat, the Muladhara to the tip of the tongue. The whole ritual is of great interest, and I hope to give a fuller exposition of it on some future day. Worship with the Pacatattva generally takes place in a Cakra or circle composed of men and women, Sadhakas and Sadhikas, Bhairavas and 471 Bhairavis sitting in a circle, the Shakti being on the Sadhaka's left. Hence it is called Cakrapuja. A Lord of the Cakra (Cakreshvara) presides sitting with his Shakti in the center. During the Cakra, there is no distinction of caste, but Pashus of any caste are excluded. There are various kinds of Cakra -- productive, it is said, of differing fruits for the participator therein. As amongst Tantrik Sadhakas we come across the high, the low, and mere pretenders, so the Cakras vary in their characteristics from say the Tattva - cakra for the Brahma -kaulas, and the Bhairavi -cakra (as described in Mahanirvana, VII. 153) in which, in lieu of wine, the householder fakes milk, sugar and honey (Madhura -traya), and in lieu of sexual union does meditation upon the Lotus Feet of the Divine Mother with Mantra, to Cakras the ritual of which will not be approved such as Cudacakra, Anandabhuvana- yoga and others referred to later. Just as there are some inferior "Tantrik" writings, so we find rituals of a lower type of men whose notions or practices were neither adopted by high Sadhakas in the past nor will, if they survive, be approved for practice to -day. What is wanted is a discrimination which avoids both unjust general condemnations and, with equal ignorance, unqualified commendations which do harm. I refer in chapter VI (ante) to a modern Cakra. I heard a short time ago of a Guru, influenced by an English education, whose strictness went so far that the women did not form part of the Cakra but sat in another room. This was of course absurd. The two main objections to the Rajasik Puja are from both the Hindu and European standpoint the alleged infraction of sexual morality, and from the former standpoint, the use of wine. By "Hindu" I mean those who are not Shaktas. I will deal with the latter point first. The Vira Shakta admits the Smart a rule against the drinking of wine. He, however, says that drinking is of two kinds, namely, extra -ritual drinking for the satisfaction of sensual appetite, and the ritual drinking of previously purified and consecrated wine. The former is called Pashupana or "animal drinking," and Vrithapana or "useless drinking": for, being no part of worship, it is forbidden, does no good, but on the contrary injury, and leads to Hell. The Western's drinking (even a moderate "whisky and soda") is Pashupana. The Viracari, like every other Hindu, condemns this and regards it as a great sin. But drinking for the purpose of worship is held to stand on a different ground. Just as the ancient Vaidiks drank Soma as part of the Sacrifice (Yaja), so does the Vira 472 drink wine as part of his ritual. Just as the killing of animals for the purpose of sacrifice is accounted no "killing", so that it does not infringe against the rule against injury (Ahimsa), so also drinking as part of worship is said not to be the drinking which the Smritis forbid. For this reason it is contended that the Tantrik secret worship (Rahasya -puja) is not opposed to Veda. The wine is no longer the gross injurious material substance, but has been purified and spiritualized, so that the true Sadhaka looks upon it as the liquid form of the Savior, Devi (Tara Dravamayi). The joy, it produces is but a faint welling up of the Bliss (Ananda), which in its essence, it is. Wine, moreover, is then taken under certain restrictions and conditions which should, if adhered to, prevent the abuse which follows on merely sensual drinking (Pashupana). The true Sadhaka does not perform the ritual for the purpose of drinking wine, (though possibly in these degenerate days many do) but drinks wine in order that he may perform the ritual. Thus, to take an analogous case, a Christian abstainer might receive wine in the Eucharist believing it to be the blood of his Lord. He would not partake of the sacrament in order that he might have the opportunity of drinking wine, but he would drink wine because, that is the way, by which he might take the Eucharist, of which wine together with bread (Mudra) is an element. I may here mention in this connection that not only are drops of wine sometimes sprinkled on the Prasada (sacred food) at Durga -puja and thus consumed by persons who are not Viracaris, but (though this is not generally known and will perhaps not be admitted) on the Prasada which all consume at the Vaisnava shrine of Jagannatha at Puri. This question about the consumption of wine will not appear to the average European a serious affair, though it is so to the non- Shakta Hindu. So strong is the general feeling against it, that when Babu Keshab Chandra Sen, in one of his imitations of Christian doctrine and ritual, started an Eucharis t of his own, the elements were rice and water. It is, however, a matter of common reproach against these Tantriks that some at least drink to excess. That may be so. From what I have heard but little credit attaches to the common run of this class of Tant riks to -day. Apart from the general degeneracy which has affected all forms of Hindu religion, it is to be remembered that in ancient times nothing was done except under the authority of the Guru. He alone could say whether his disciple was competent for a ny particular ritual. It was 473 not open to any one to enter upon it and do as he pleased. Nevertheless, we must clearly distinguish between the commands of the Shastra itself and abuses of its provisions by pretended Sadhakas. It is obvious that excessive drinking prevents the attainment of success and is a fall. As the Mahanirvana (VI. 195- 197; see also VIII. 171) with good sense says, "How is it possible for a sinner who becomes a fool through drink to say 'I worship Adya Kalika'." William James says (Varie ties of Religious Experience, 387) "The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold fact and dry criticisms of the sober hour. It unites. It is in fact the greatest exciter of the "Yes" function in man. It brings him from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core." In its effect it is one bit of the mystic consciousness. Wine, as is well known, also manifests and emphasizes the true disposit ion of a man ("In vino veritas"). (As to wine, drugs and 'anesthetic revelation', as to the clue to the meaning of life see R. Thouless, Introduction to Psychology of Religion, 61.) When the worshipper is of a previously pure and devout disposition, the moderate use of wine heightens his feelings of devotion. But if it is drunk in excess, there can be no devotion at all, but only sin. This same Tantra therefore, whilst doing away with wine in the case of one class of Cakra, and limiting the consumption in any case for householders, says that excessive drinking prevents success coming to Kaula worshippers, who may not drink to such an extent that the mind is affected (literally "goes round"). "To drink beyond this," it says, "is bestial." Yavan na calayed drishtir yavan na calayen manah Tavat panam prakurvvita pashu -panam atah param. Yet the fact that the Mahanirvana thought it necessary to give this injunction is significant of some abuse. Similar counsel may be found however elsewhere; as in the Shyamarah asya which says that excessive drinking leads to Hell. Thus also the great Tantraraja Tantra (Kadimata) says (Ch. VIII). Na kadacit pivet siddho devyarghyam aniveditam Pananca tavat kurvita yavata syan manolayah 474 Tatah karoti cet sadayah pataki bhavati dhruvam Devtagurusevanyat pivannasavam ashaya Pataki rajadandyash cavidyopasaka eva ca. (The Siddha should never drink the Arghya (wine) meant for the Devi, unless the same has been first offered (to Her). Drinking, again, should only be continued so long as the mind is absorbed (in the Devi). He who does so thereafter is verily a sinner. He who drinks wine through mere sensual desire and not for the purpose of worship of Devata and Guru is a worshipper of Ignorance (Avidya) and a sinner punishable by the King.) It must be admitted, however, that there are to be found words and passages which, if they are to be taken literally, would indicate that wine was not always taken in moderation. (See Asavollasa in Kularnava. The Ullasas, however, are stated to be stages of initiation). In reading any Hindu Scripture, however, one must allow for exaggeration which is called "Stuti". Thus if there is much meat and wine we may read of "mountains of flesh" and "oceans of wine". Such statements were not made to be taken literally. Some descriptions again may refer to Kaulavadhutas who, like other "great" men in other matters, appear to have more liberty than ordinary folk. Some things may not be "the word of Shiva" at all. It is open to any one to sit down and write a "Tantra," "Stotra" or what not. The Ananda Stotra, for example, reads in parts like a libertine's drinking song. Though it has been attributed both to the Kulacudamani and Kularnava, a learned Tantrik Pandit, to whom I am much indebted and to whom I showed it, laughed and said, "How can this be the word of Shiva. It is not Shiva Shastra. If it is not the writing of some fallen Upasaka (worshipper), it is the work of Acaryas trying to tempt disciples to themselves." Though a man of Tantrik learning of a kind rarely met with to -day, and a practitioner of the Cakrapuja, he told me that he had never heard of this Stotra until it was sung at a Cakra in Benares. On asking another Pandit there about it, he was told not to trouble himself over "what these kind of people did ". Even when the words Shiva uvaca (Shiva said) appear in a work, it does not follow that it has any authority. Though all the world condemns, as does the Shastra itself, excessive drinking, yet it cannot be said that, according to views generally 475 accepted by the mass of men in the world today, the drinking of alcohol is a sin. General morality may yet account it such in some future day. I pass then to the other matter, namely, sexual union. The ordinary rule, as the Kaulikarcanadipika says (I refer to the exception later), is that worship should be done with the worshipper's own wife, called the Adya Shakti. This is the general Tantrik rule. Possibly because the exception to it led to abuse, the Mahanirvana (VIII. 173), after pointing out that men in the Kali age are weak of mind and distracted by lust, and so do not recognize woman (Shakti) to be the image of Deity, prescribes for such as these (in the Bhairavi Cakra) meditation on the Feet of the Divine Mother in lieu of Maithuna, or where the worship is with the Shakti (Bhogya) in Bhairavi and Tattva Cakra the worshipper should be wedded to his Shakti according to Shaiva rites. It adds (ib., 129) that "the Vira, who without marriage worships by enjoyment a Shakti, is without doubt guilty of the sin of going with another woman." Elsewhere (VI. 14) it points out that when the evil age (Kaliyuga) is at its strength, the wife alone should be the fifth Tattva for "this is void of all defect" (Sarvadosha -vivarjita). The Sammohana Tantra (Ch. 2) also says that the Kali age is dominated by lust (Kama) and it is then most difficult to subjugate the senses and that by reason of the prevalence of ignorance (Avidya) the female Yoni is used for worship. That is, by reason of the material nature of man a material form is used to depict the supreme Yoni or Cause of all. The commentator on the Mahanirvana Tantra, Pandit Jaganmohana Tarkalamkara (see Bhakta Ed. 345) says, however, that this rule is not of universal application. Shiva (he says) in this Tantra prohibited Sadhana with the fifth Tattva with other Shaktis in the case of men of ordinary weak intellect ruled by lust; but for those who have by Sadhana conquered their passions and attained the state of a true Siddha Vira, there is no prohibition as to the mode of Latasadhana. With this I deal later, but meanwhile I may observe that because there is a Shakti in the Cakra it does not follow that there is sexual intercourse, which, when it occurs in the worship of householders, ordinarily takes place outside the Cakra. Shak tis are of two kinds -- those who are enjoyed (Bhogya Shakti) and those who are worshipped only (Pujya) as earthly representatives of the Supreme Mother of all. Those who yield to desire, even in thought, as regards the latter commit the sin of incest with their mother. Similarly, there is a 476 widespread practice amongst all Shaktas of worship of Virgins (Kumaripuja) -- a very beautiful ceremony. So also in Brahmarajayoga there is worship of virgins only. It is plain that up to this point there is (apart from the objection of other Hindus to wine) nothing to be said against the morality of the Sadhana prescribed, though some may take exception to the association of natural function of any kind, however legitimate, with what they regard as worship. This is not a question of morality and I have dealt with it. The reader will also remember that the ritual already described applies to the general mass of worshippers, and that to which I am passing is the ritual of the comparatively few, and so- called advanced Sadhakas. The charge of immorality against all Shaktas, whether following this ritual or not, fails, and people need not run away in fear on hearing that a man is a "Tantrik". He may not be a Shakta Tantrik at all, and if he is a Shakta, he may have done nothing to which the world at large will take moral exception. I now pass to another class of cases. Generally speaking, we may distinguish not only between Dakshinacara and Vamacara in which the full rites with wine and Shakti are performed, but also between a Vama and Dakshina division of the latter Acara itself. It is on the former side that there is worship with a woman (Parakiya Shakti) other than the Sadhaka's own wife (Svakiya Shakti). But under what circumstances? It is necessary (as Professor de la Valle Poussin, the Catholic Belgian Sanskritist, says (Adhi -karma - pradipa, 141) of the Buddhist Tantra) to remember the conditionsunder which these Tantrik rituals are, according to the Shastra, admissible, when judging of their morality; otherwise, he says condemnation becomes excessive ( "Je crois d'ailleurs qu'on a exager la charactre d'immoralite des actes liturgiques de Maithuna faute d'avoir fix les diverses conditions dans lesquelles ils, doivent etre pratiqus." See also Masson- Oursel Esquisse dune Histoire de la Philosophie Indienne 1923, p. 230, who says that Western people often see obscenity where there is only symbolism.) As I have said, the ordinary rule is that the wife or Adya Shakti should be co -performer (Sahadharmini) in the rite. An exception, however, exists where the Sadhaka has no wife or she is incompetent (Anadhikarini). There seems to be a notion that the Shastra directs union with some other person than the 477 Sadhaka's wife. This is not so. A direction to go after other women as such wou ld be counsel to commit fornication or adultery. What the Shastra says is -- that if the Sadhaka has no wife, or she is incompetent (Anadhikarini) then only may the Sadhaka take some other Shakti. Next, this is for the purpose of ritual worship only. Just as any extra -ritual drinking is sin, so also outside worship any Maithuna, otherwise than with the wife, is sin. The Tattvas of each kind can only be offered after purification (Shodhana) and during worship according to the rules, restrictions, and conditions of the Tantrik ritual. (See Tantrasara, 698, citingBhavacudamani, Uttara - Kulamrita. In Ch. IV, Brihannila Tantra it is said Paradaran na gacheran gachech ca prapayed yadi, but that is for purposes of worship). Outside worship the mind is not even to think of the subject, as is said concerning the Shakti in the Uttara Tantra. Pujakalam vina nanyam purusham manasa sprishet Puja- kale ca Deveshi vesyeva paritoshayet. What then is the meaning of this "competency" the non- existence of which relaxes the ordi nary rule? The principle on which worship is done with another Shakti is stated in the Guhyakalikhanda of the Mahakala Samhita as follows: Yadrishah sadhakah proktah sadhika'pi ca tadrishi. Tatah siddhim avapnoti nanyatha varsha- kotibhih. ("As is the competency of the Sadhaka so must be that of the Sadhika. In this way only is success attained and not otherwise even in ten million years.") That is both the man and the woman must be on the same level and plane of development. Thus, in the performance of the great Shodhanyasa, the Shakti must be possessed of the same powers and competency as the Sadhaka. In other words, a Sahadharmini must have the same competency as the Sadhaka with whom she performs the rite. Next, it is not for any man at his own undisciplined will to embark on a practice of this kind. He can only do so if adjudged competent by his Guru. A person of an ignorant, irreligious, and lewd disposition is, properly, incompetent. Then, it is commonly thought, that because another Shakti is permitted promiscuity is 478 allowed. This is of course not so. It must be admitted that the Shakta Tantra at least pretends to be a religious Scripture, and could not as such directly promote immorality in this way. For, under no pretense can morality, or Sadhana for spiritual advancement, be served by directions for, or tacit permissions of, uncontrolled promiscuous sexual intercourse. There may, of course, have been hypocrites wandering around the country and its women who sought to cover their lasciviousness with th e cloak of a pretended religion. But this is not Sadhana but conscious sin. The fruit of Sadhana is lost by license and the growth of sensuality. The proper rule, I am told, is that the relationship with such a Shakti should be of a permanent character; it being indeed held that a Shakti who is abandoned by the Sadhaka takes away with her the latter's merit (Punya). The position of such a Shakti may be described as a wife "in religion" for the Sadhaka, one who being of his competency (Adhikara) works with him as Sahadharmini, in the performance of the rituals of their common cult. In all cases, the Shakti must be first made lawful according to the rules of the cult by the performance of the Shaiva sacrament (Shaiva -samskara). From a third party view it may, of course, be said that the necessity for all this is not seen. I am not here concerned with that, but state the rules of the cult as I find it. It is desirable, in the interests both of the history of religion and of justice to the cult described, to state these facts accurately. For, it is sound theology, that good faith is inconsistent with sin. We cannot call a man immoral who is acting according to his lights and in good faith. Amongst a polygamous people such as were the Jews and as are the Hindus, it would be absurd to call a man immoral, who in good faith practiced that polygamy which was allowable by the usage which governed him. Other Hindus might or might not acknowledge the status of a Shaiva wife. But a Shaiva who was bound to a woman in that form would not be an immoral man. Immorality, in the sense in which an individual is made responsible for his actions, exists where what is believed to be wrong is consciously followed. And so whilst a Tantrik acting in good faith and according to his Shastra is not in this sense immoral, other Tantriks who misused the ritual for their libidinous purposes would be so. So, of course, would also be those who to-day, without belief in the Tantra Shastra, and to satisfy their passions, practiced such rituals as r un counter to prevalent social morality. Though the genuine Tantrik might be 479 excused, they would not escape the charge. When, however, we are judging a religion by the standard of another, which claims to be higher, the lower religion may be considered immoral. The distinction is commonly overlooked which exists between the question whether an individual is immoral and whether the teaching and practice which he follows is so. We may, with logical consistency, answer the first in the negative and the second in the affirmative. Nevertheless, we must mention the existence of some practices which seem difficult to explain and justify, even on the general principles upon which Tantrik Sadhana proceeds. Peculiar liberties have been allowed to the Siddha Viras who are said to have taken part in them. Possibly they are non- existent to -day. A Siddha Vira, I may incidentally explain, is a Vira who has become accomplished (Siddha) by doing the rite called Purashcarana of his Mantra the number of times multiplied by one lakh (100,000) that the Mantra contains letters. A Pandit friend tells me that the Siddhamalarahasya describes a rite (Cudacakra) in which fifty Siddha Viras go with fifty Shaktis, each man getting his companion by lot by selecting one out of a heap of the Sakti's jackets (Cuda). His Shakti is the woman to whom the jacket belongs. In the Sneha -cakra (Love Cakra), the Siddha Vira pair with the Shaktis according as they have a liking for them. Anandabhuvana -yoga is another unknown rite performed with not less than three and not more than one hundred and eight Shaktis who surround the Vira. He unites with one Shakti (Bhogya Shakti) and touches the rest. In the Urna Cakra (Urna = spider's web) the Viras sit in pairs tied to one another with cloths. A clue to the meaning of these rites may perhaps be found in the fact that they are said to have been performed at the instance, and at the cost, of third parties for the attainment of some worldly success. Thus the first was done, I am told, by the Rajas to gain succe ss in battle. If this be so they belong rather to the side of magic than of religion, and are in any case no part of the ordinary Sadhana to attain the true Siddhi which is spiritual advancement. It may also be that just as in the ordinary ritual Brahmanas are fed and receive gifts, these Cakras were, in part at least, held with the same purpose by the class of people who had them performed. It is also to be noted (I report what I am told) that the body of the Shakti in the Cakra is the Yantra. By the union of Vira and Shakti, who is a form (Akara) of the Devi, direct union is had with the latter who being pleased grants all that 480 is desired of Her. There is thus what is technically called Pratyaksha of Devata whereas in Kumaripuja and in Shavasadhana the Dev i speaks through the mouth of the virgin or the corpse respectively. The Siddha Viras communicate with Shiva and Shakti in Avadhutaloka. This question of differing views and practice was noted long ago by the author of the Dabistan (Vol. 2, pp. 154, 164, Ed. 1843) who says that on a learned Shakta being shown a statement, apparently counseling immorality, in a book, abused it saying that the Text was contrary to custom and that no such thing was to be found in the ancient books. The Muslim author of the Dab istan says that there is another class of Shaktas, quite different from those previously alluded to by him, who drink no wine and never have intercourse with the wife of another. I, the more readily here and elsewhere state what is unfavorable to this Shas tra, as my object is not to "idealize" it (a process to which my strong bent towards the clear and accurate statement of facts is averse) but to describe the practice as I find it to be; on which statement a just judgment may be founded. After all men have been and are of all kinds high and low, ignorant and wise, bad and good, and just as in the Agamas there are differing schools, so it is probable that in the Shakta practices themselves there are the same differences. Lastly, the doctrine that the illuminate knower of Brahman (Brahmajani) is above both good (Dharma) and evil (Adharma) should be noted. Such an one is a Svechacari whose way is Svechacara or "do as you will". Similar doctrine and practices in Europe are there called Antinomianism. The doctri ne is not peculiar to the Tantras. It is to be found in the Upanishads, and is in fact a very commonly held doctrine in India. Here again, as so stated and as understood outside India, it has the appearance of being worse than it really is. If Monistic vie ws are accepted, then theoretically we must admit that Brahman is beyond good and evil, for these are terms of relativity applicable to beings in this world only. Good has no meaning except in relation to evil and vice versa. Brahman is beyond all dualities, and a Jani who has become Brahman ( Jivan- mukta) is also logically so. It is, however, equally obvious that if a man has complete Brahman- consciousness he will not, otherwise than unconsciously, do an act which if done consciously 481 would be wrong. He is ex hypothesi beyond lust, gluttony and all other passions. A theoretical statement of fact that a Brahmajani is beyond good and evil is not a statement that he may will to do, and is permitted to do, evil. Statements as regards the position of a Jivanmukta are mere praise or Stuti. In Svecchacara there is theoretical freedom, but it is not consciously availed of to do what is known to be wrong without fall and pollution. Svecchacarini is a name of the Devi, for She does what She pleases since She is the L ord of all. But of others the Shaktisangama Tantra (Part IV) says -- Yadyapyasti trikalajastrailokyakarshana-kshamah Tatha'pi laukikacaram manasapi na langhayet. ("Though a man be a knower of the Three Times, past, present and future, and though he be a Controller of the three worlds, even then he should not transgress the rules of conduct for men in the world, were it only in his mind.") What these rules of conduct are the Shastra provides. Those who wrote this and similar counsels to be found in the Tant ra Shastras may have prescribed methods of Sadhana which will not be approved, but they were not immoral -minded men. Nor, whatever be the actual results of their working (and some have been evil) was their Scripture devised with the intention of sanctionin g or promoting what they believed to be immoral. They promoted or countenanced some dangerous practices under certain limitations which they thought to be safeguards. They have led to abuse as might have been thought to be probable. Let us now distill from the mass of material to which I have only cursorily referred, those principles underlying the practice which are of worth from the standpoint of Indian Monism of which the practice is a remarkable illustration. The three chief physical appetites of man are eating and drinking whereby his body is sustained, and sexual intercourse whereby it is propagated. Considered in themselves they are natural and harmless. Manu puts this very clearly when he says, "There is no wrong (Dosha) in the eating of meat and drinking of wine, nor in sexual intercourse, for these are natural inclinations 482 of men. But abstention therefrom is productive of great fruit." Here I may interpose and say that the Tantrik method is not a forced abstention but a regulated use with the right Bhava, that is, Advaitabhava or monistic feeling. When this is perfected, natural desires drop away (except so far as their fulfillment is absolutely necessary for physical existence) as things which are otherwise of no account. How is this done P By transforming Pashubhava into Virabhava. The latter is the feeling, disposition, and character of a Vira. All things spring from and are at base Ananda or Bliss whether it is perceived or not. The latter, therefore, exists in two forms: as Mukti which is Anandas varupa or transcendent, unlimited, one, and as Bhukti or limited worldly bliss. Tantrik Sadhana claims to give both, because the one of dual aspect is both. The Vira thus knows that Jivatma and Paramatma are one; that it is the One Shiva who appears in the form of the multitude of men and who acts, suffers, and enjoys through them. The Shivasvarupa is Bliss itself (Paramananda). The Bliss of enjoyment (Bhogananda) is one and the same Bliss manifesting itself through the limiting forms of mind and matter. Who is it who then enjoys and what Bliss is thus manifested? It is Shiva in the forms of the Universe (Vishvarupa) who enjoys, and the manifested bliss is a limited form of that Supreme Bliss which in His ultimate nature He is. In his physical functions the Vira identifies himself with the collectivity of all functions which constitute the universal life. He is then consciously Shiva in the form of his own and all other lives. As Shiva exists both in His Svarupa and as the world (Vishvarupa), so union may, and should, be had with Him in both aspects. These are known as Sukshma and Sthula Samarasya respectively. The Sadhaka is taught not to think that we are one with the Divine in Liberation only, but here and now, in every act we do. For in truth all such is Shakti. It is Shiva who as Shakti is acting in and through the Sadhaka, So though, according to the Vaidik injunctions, there is no eating or drinking before worship, it is said in the Shakta Tantra that he who worships Kalika when hungry and thirsty angers Her. Those who worship a God who is other than their own Essential Self may think to please Him by such acts, but to the Shakta, Shiva and Jiva are one and the same. Why then should one give pain to Jiva? It was, I think, Professor Royce who said, borrowi ng (though probably unconsciously) an essential Tantrik idea, that God suffers and enjoys in and as andthrough man. This is so. Though the 483 Brahmasvarupa is nothing but the perfect, actionless Bliss, yet it is also the one Brahman who as Jiva suffers and enjoys; for there is none other. When this is realized in every natural function, then, each exercise thereof ceases to be a mere animal act and becomes a religious rite -- a Yaja. Every function is a part of the Divine Action (Shakti) in Nature. Thus, when taking drink in the form of wine the Vira knows it to be Tara Dravamayi, that is, "the Savior Herself in liquid form". How (it is said) can he who truly sees in it the Savior Mother receive from it harm? Meditating on kundalini as pervading his body to the tip of his tongue, thinking himself to be Light which is also the Light of the wine he takes, he says, "I am She", (Sa'ham) "I am Brahman," I Myself offer offering (Ahuti) to the Self, Svaha." When, therefore, the Vira eats, drinks or has sexual intercourse he does so not with the thought of himself as a separate individual satisfying his own peculiar limited wants; an animal filching as it were from nature the enjoyment he has, but thinking of himself in such enjoyment as Shiva, saying "Shivo'ham," "Bhai ravo'ham". Right sexual union may, if associated with meditation and ritual, be the means of spiritual advance; though persons who take a vulgar and animal view of this function will not readily understand it. The function is thereby ennobled and receives a new significance. The dualistic notions entertained, by both some Easterns and Westerns, that the "dignity" of worship is necessarily offended by association with natural function are erroneous. As Tertullian says, the Eucharist was established at a meal. (As to sacramental meals and "Feeding on the Gods," see Dr. Angus'The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. 127.) Desire is often an enemy but it may be made an ally. A right method does not exclude the body, for it is Devata. It is a phase of Spirit and belongs to, and is an expression of, the Power of the Self. The Universe was created by and with Bliss. That same Bliss manifests, though faintly, in the bodies of men and women in union. At such time the ignorant Pashu is intent on the satisfaction of his passion only, but Kulasadhakas then meditate on the Yogananda Murti of Shiva -Shakti and do Japa of their Ishtamantra thus making them, in the words of the Kalikulasarvasva, like sinless Shuka. If the union be legitimate what, I may ask, is wrong in this ? On the contrary the physical function is ennobled and divinised. An act which is legitimate does not become illegitimate because it is made a part of worship (Upasana). This is Virabhava. An English writer has 484 aptly spoken of "the profound pagan instinct to glorify the generative impulse with religious ritual" (Time Lit. Sup., 11-6- 1922). The Shakta is a developed and typical case. The notions of the Pashu are in varying degrees the reverse of all this. If of the lowest type, he only knows himself as a separate entity who enjoys. Some more sophisticated, yet in truth ignorant, enjoy and are ashamed; and thus think it unseemly to implicate God in the supposed coarseness of His handiwork as physical function. Some again, who are higher, regard these functi ons as an acceptable gift of God to them as lowly creatures who enjoy and are separate from Him. The Vaidikas took enjoyment to be the fruit of the sacrifice and the gift of the Devas. Others who are yet higher, offer all that they do to the One Lord. This dualistic worship is embodied in the command of the Gita, "Tat madarpanam kurushva." "Do all this as an offering to Me." What is "all"? Does it mean all or some particular things only? But the highest Sadhana from the Monistic standpoint, and which in its Advaitabhava differs from all others, is that of the Shakta Tantra which proclaims that the Sadhaka is Shiva and that it is Shiva who in the form of the Sadhaka enjoys. So much for the principle involved to which, whether it be accepted or not, cannot be truly denied nobility and grandeur. The application of this principle is of greatly less interest and importance. To certain of such ritual applications may be assigned the charges commonly made against this Shastra, though without accurate knowledge and discrimination. It was the practice of an age the character of which was not that of our own. The particular shape which the ritual has taken is due, I think, to historical causes. Though the history of the Agamas is still obscure, it is possible that this Pacatattva -Karma is in substance a continuation, in altered form, of the old Vaidik usage in which eating and drinking were a part of the sacrifice (Yaja), though any extra- ritual drinking called "useless" (Vrithana) or Pashu drinking (Pashupana) in which the Western (mostly a hostile critic of the Tantra Shastra) so largely indulges, is a great sin. The influence, however, of the original Buddhism and Jainism were against the consumption of meat and wine; an influence which perhaps continued to operate o n post -Buddhistic Hinduism up to the present day, except among 485 certain followers of the Agamas who claimed to represent the earlier traditions and usages. I say "certain", because (as I have mentioned) for the Pashu there are substitutes for wine and meat and so forth; and for the Divya the Tattvas are not material things but Yoga processes. I have shown the similarities between the Vaidik and Tantrik ritual in the chapter on Shakti and Shakta (ante) to which I refer. If this suggestion of mine be correct, whilst the importance and prevalence of the ancient ritual will diminish with the passage of time and the changes in religion which it effects, the principle will always retain its inherent value for the followers of the Advaita Vedanta. It is capable of a pplication according to the modern spirit without recourse to Cakras and their ritual details in the ordinary daily life of the householder within the bounds of his Dharmashastra. Nevertheless the ritual has existed and still exists, though at the present day often in a form free from the objections which are raised against certain liberties of practice which led to abuse. It is necessary, therefore, both for the purpose of accuracy and of a just criticism of its present adherents, to consider the intention with which the ritual was prescribed and the mode in which that intention was given effect to. It is not the fact, as commonly alleged, that the intention of the Shastra was to promote and foster any form of sensual indulgence. If it was, then, the Tantras would not be a Shastra at all whatever else they might contain. Shastra, as I have previously said, comes from the root "Shas" to control; that is, Shastra exists to control men within the bounds set by Dharma. The intention of this ritual, when rightly understood, is, on the contrary, to regulate natural appetite, to curb it, to lift it from the trough of mere animality; and by associating it with religious worship, to effect a passage from the state of desire of the ignorant Pashu to the completed Divyabhava in which there is desirelessness. It is another instance of the general principle to which I have referred that man must be led from the gross to the subtle. A Sadhaka once well explained the matter to me thus: Let us suppose, he said, that man's bod y is a vessel filled with oil which is the passions. If you simply empty it and do nothing more, fresh oil will take its place issuing from the Source of Desire which you have left undestroyed. If, however, into the vessel there is dropped by slow degrees the Water of Knowledge (Jana), it will, as being behavior than oil, descend to the bottom of the vessel and will then expel an 486 equal quantity of oil. In this way all the oil of passion is gradually expelled and no more can re -enter, for the water of Jana will then have wholly taken its place. Here again the general principle of the method is good. As the Latins said, "If you attempt to expel nature with a pitchfork it will come back again". You must infuse something else as a medicament against the ills which follow the natural tendency of desire to exceed the limits which Dharma sets. The Tantrik Pandit Jaganmohana Tarkalamkara in his valuable notes appended to the commentary on the Mahanirvana Tantra of Hariharananda Bharati, the Guru of the celebrated "Reformer" Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Ed. of K. G. Bhakta, 1888), says, "Let us consider what most contributes to the fall of a man, making him forget his duty, sink into sin and die an early death. First among these are wine and women, fish, meat, Mudra and acce ssories. By these things men have lost their manhood. Shiva then desires to employ these very poisons in order to eradicate the poison in the human system. Poison is the antidote for poison. This is the right treatment for those who long for drink or lust for women. The physician must, however, be an experienced one. If there be a mistake as to the application, the patient is likely to die. Shiva has said that the way of Kulacara is as difficult as it is to walk on the edge of a sword or to hold a wild tige r. There is a secret argument in favor of the Pacattva, and those Tattvas so understood should be followed by all. None, however, but the initiate can grasp this argument, and therefore Shiva has directed that it should not be revealed before anybody and everybody. An initiate when he sees a woman will worship her as his own mother and Goddess (Ishtadevata) and bow before her. The Vishnu Purana says that by feeding your desires you cannot satisfy them. It is like pouring ghee on fire. Though this is true, an experienced spiritual teacher (Guru) will know how, by the application of this poisonous medicine, to kill the poison of the world (Samsara). Shiva has, however, prohibited the indiscriminate publication of this. The object of Tantrik worship is Brahmasayujya. or union with Brahman. If that is not attained, nothing is attained. And with men's propensities as they are, this can only be attained through the special treatment prescribed by the Tantras. If this is not followed, then the sensual propensities are not eradicated and the work is, for the desired end of Tantra, as useless as harmful magic (Abhicara) 487 which, worked by such a man, leads only to the injury of himself and others." The passage cited refers to the necessity for the spiritual direction of the Guru. To the want of such is accredited the abuse of the system. When the patient (Shishya) and the disease are working together, there is poor hope for the former; but when the patient, the disease and the physician are on one, and that the wrong side, then nothing can save him from a descent in that downward path which it is the object of Sadhana to prevent. All Hindu schools seek the suppressions of mere animal worldly desire. What is peculiar to the Kaulas is the particular method employed for the transformation of desire. The Kularnava Tantra says that man must be taught to rise by means of those very things which are the cause of his fall. "As one falls on the ground, one must lift oneself by aid of the ground." So also the Buddhist Subhashita Samgraha says that a thorn is used to pick out a thorn. Properly applied the method is a sound one. Man falls through the natural functions of drinking, eating, and sexual intercourse. If these are done with the feeling (Bhava) and under the conditions prescribed, then they become (it is taught) the instruments of his uplift to a point at which such ritual is no longer necessary and is surpassed. In the first edition of the work, I spoke of Antinomian Doctrine and Practice, and of some Shakta theories and rituals which have been supposed to be instances of it. This word, however, requires explanation, or it may (I have since thought) lead to error in the present connection. There is always danger in applying Western terms to facts of Eastern life. Antinomianism is the name for heretical theories and practices which have arisen in Christian Europe. In short, the term, as generally understood, has a meaning in reference to Christianity, namely, contrary or opposed to Law, which here is the Judaic law as adopted and modified by that religion. The Antinomian, for varying reasons, considered himself not bound by the ordinary laws of conduct. It is not always possible to state with certainty whether any particular sect or person alleged to be Antinomian was in fact such, for one of the commonest charges made against sects by their opponents is that of immorality. We are rightly warned against placing implicit reliance on the accounts of adversaries. Thus charges of nocturnal orgies were made 488 against the early Christians, and by the latter against those whom they regarded as heretical dissidents, such as Manichans, Mountanists, Priscillianists and others, and against most of the mediaeval sects such as the Cathari, Waldenses and Fracticelli. Nor can we be always certain as to the nature of the theories held by persons said to be Antinomian, for in a large number of cases we have only the accounts of orthodox opponents. Similarly, hitherto every account of the Shakta Tantra was given by persons both ignorant of, and hostil e to it. In some cases it would seem (I speak of the West) that Matter was held in contempt as the evil product of the Demiurge. In others Antinomian doctrine and practice was based on "Pantheism". The latter in the West has always had as one of its tendencies a leaning towards, or adoption of Antinomianism. Mystics in their identification with God supposed that upon their conscious union with Him they were exempt from the rules governing ordinary men. The law was spiritualized into the one precept of the L ove of God which ripened into a conscious union with Him, one with man's essence. This was deemed to be a sinless state. Thus Amalric of Bena (d. 1204) is reputed to have said that to those constituted in love no sin is imputed (Dixerat etiamquod in charitate constitutis nullum peccatum imputabatur). His followers are alleged to have maintained that harlotry and other carnal vices are not sinful for the spiritual man, because the spirit in him, which is God, is not affected by the flesh and cannot sin, and because the man who is nothing cannot sin so long as the Spirit which is God is in him. In other words, sin is a term relative to man who may be virtuous or sinful. But in that state beyond duty, which is identification with the Divine Essence, which at root man is, there is no question of sin. The body at no time sins. It is the state of mind which constitutes sin, and that state is only possible for a mind with a human and not divine consciousness. Johann Hartmann is reputed to have said that he had become completely one with God; that a man free in spirit is impeccable and can do whatever he will, or in Indian parlance he is Svecchacari. (See Dollinger's Beitrage zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalter's ii. 384). This type of Antinomianism is said to have b een widespread during the later Middle Ages and was perpetuated in some of the parties of the so -called Reformation. Other notions leading to similar results were based on Quietistic and Calvinistic tenets in which the human will was so subordinated 489 to the Divine will as to lose its freedom. Thus Gomar (A.D. 1641) maintained that "sins take place, God procuring and Himself willing that they take place." God was thus made the author of sin. It has been alleged that the Jesuit casuists were "constructively an tinomian" because of their doctrines of philosophical sin, direction of attention, mental reservation, and probabilism. But this is not so, whatever may be thought of such doctrines. For here there was no question of opposition to the law of morality, but theories touching the question "in what that law consisted" and whether any particular act was in fact a violation of it. They did not teach that the law could in any case be violated, but dealt with the question whether any particular act was such a violation. Antinomianism of several kinds and based on varying grounds has been charged against the Manichaeans, the Gnostics generally, Cainites, Carpocrates, Epiphanes, Messalians (with their promiscuous sleeping together of men and women), Adamites, Bogomile s, followers of Amarlic of Bena, Brethren of the Free Spirit, Beghards, Fratricelli, Johann Hartmann ("a man free in spirit is impeccable"); the pantheistic "Libertines" and "Familists" and Ranters of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries ("Nothing is si n but what a man thinks to be so"; "God sees no sin in him who knows himself to be in a state of grace"; see Gataker's 'Antinomianism Discovered and Refuted', A.D. 1632 and see Rufus Jones' Studies in Mystical Religion, Ch. XIX), the Alumbrados or Spanish Illuminate (Prabuddha) Mystics of the Sixteenth Century; Magdalena de Cruce d'Aguilar and others (Mendes v Pelayo -- Historia de los Heterodoxos Espanoles) whose teachings according to Malvasia (Catalogus onmium haeresium et conciliorum) contained the foll owing proposition, "A perfect man cannot sin; even an act which outwardly regarded must be looked upon as vicious cannot contaminate the soul which lives in mystical union with God." "The Holy and Sinless Baptists" held that the elect could not sin, an antinomian doctrine which has often appeared in the history of theological - ethical speculation to the effect that the believer might do what he liked, since if he sinned, it affected the body only, with which his soul had no more to do than with any of the other things of this world (Belfort Bax Anabaptists 35). The Free Brothers held that for the rebaptized, sin was impossible as no bodily act could affect the soul of the believer. Women did not sin who went with Brethren because there was a spiritual bond between 490 them (ib., 38). Kessler alleges that the Votaries practiced sensuality on the plea that their souls were dead to the flesh and that all that the flesh did was by the will of God(ib., 62). The Alumbrada Francisca Garcia is alleged to have said that he r sexual excesses were in obedience to the voice of God and that "carnal indulgence was embracing God" (Lea's Inquisition in Spain, III. 62). Similar doctrines are alleged of the French Illumines called Guerinets of the Seventeenth Century; the German "Theosophers" of Schonherr: Eva Von Buttler: the Muckers of the Eighteenth Century; some modern Russian sects (Tsakni La Russie Sectaire) and others. Whilst it is to be remembered that in these and other cases we must receive with caution the accounts given by opponents, there is no doubt that Antinomianism, Svecchacara and the like is a well- known phenomenon in religious history often associated with so -called "Pantheistic" doctrines. The Antinomian doctrines of the Italian nuns, Spighi and Buonamici, recorded by Bishop Scipio de Ricci "L'uomo e nato libero y nessuno lo puo legare nello spirito": "man is born free and none can chain his free Spirit" are here dealt with in more detail, for the writer Edward Sellon ("Annotations on the writings of the Hindus") thought that he had found in the last cited case an instance of "Tantrik doctrine" in the convents of Italy in the Eighteenth Century." I will give some reasons, which refute his view, the more particularly because they are contained in a very rare work, nam ely, the first edition of De Potter's Vie de Scipion de Ricci Eveque de Pistoie et Prafo, published at Brussels in 1825, and largely withdrawn at the instance of the Papal Court. The second edition is, I believe, much expurgated. Receiving report of abuses in the Dominican convent of St. Catherine de Prato, the Bishop of Pistoia and Prato made an inquisition into the conduct of the nuns, and in particular as to the teaching and practice of their leaders, the Sister Buonamici, formerly Prioress and afterward s novice -mistress, and the Sister Spighi, assistant novice- mistress. De Potter's work contains the original interrogatories, in Italian (I. 381) in the writing of 'Abbe Laurent Palli', Vicar -Episcopal at Prato, taken in 1781 and kept in the archives of the Ricci family. The Teaching of the two Sisters I summarize as follows: "God" (I. 413, 418 ) "is a first principle (Primo principio) who is a collectivity (in Sanskrit Samashti) of all men and things (un cemplesso di tutti le cose anzi di tnttoil genere uma no). The universal Master or God is Nature (ci e il maestro, 491 ohe e Iddio ceve la natura). As God is the totality of the universe and is nothing but Nature we all participate in the Divine Essence (Questo Dio non e altro che la Natura. Noi medesimi per aues ta ragione participiamo in aualche maniera dell'esser divino). Man's soul is a mortal thing consisting of Memory, Intelligence and Will. It dies with the body disappearing as might a mist. Man is free and therefore none can enchain his free spirit (I. 428). The only Heaven and Hell which exists is the Heaven and Hell in this world. There is none other. After death there is neither pleasure nor suffering. The Spirit, being free, it is the intention which renders an act bad. It is sufficient (I. 460) to elevate the spirit to God and then no action, whatever it be, is sin (Essendo il nostro spirito libro, l'inten zione e quello que rende cattiva l'azione. Basta danque colla mente elevarsi a Dio perche qualsiqoglia azione non sia peccato). There is no sin. Certa in (impure) acts not sin provided that the spirit is always elevated to God. Love of God and one's neighbor is the whole of the commandments. Man (I. 458) who unites with God by means of woman satisfies both commandments. So also does he who, lifting his spirit to God, has enjoyment with a person of the same sex or alone (Usciamo con alcuno d'eaual sesso o da se soli). To be united with God is to be united as man and woman. The eternal life (I. 418) of the soul and Paradise in this world is the transubstant iation (or it may be transfusion) which takes place when man is united with woman (Depone credere questa vita eterna dell'anima essere la transustanziazione (forse transfusione nell'unirsi che fa l'uomo con la donna). Marie Clodesinde Spighi having stated that Paradise consisted in the fruition in this world of the Enjoyment of God (la fruizione di Dio) was asked "How is this attained?" Her reply was, by that act by which one unites oneself with God. "How again", she was questioned, "is this union effected? " To which the answer was "by co- operation of man and woman in which I recognize God Himself." I. 428. (Mediante l'uomo nel quale ci riconosco Iddio). Everything was permissible because man was free, though sots might obey the law enjoined for the general governance of the world. Man, she said, (I. 420) can be saved in all religions (In tutti le religione ci passiamo salvare). In doing that which we erroneously call impure is real purity ordained by God, without which man cannot arrive at a knowledge of Him who is the truth ( e esercitando erroneamente auello che diciamo impurita era la vera purita: quella Iddio ci 492 comanda e virole no pratichiamo, e senza della quale non vi e maniera di trovare Iddio, che e verita). "Where did you get all this doctrine?" This sister said "I gathered it from my natural inclinations" (L'ho ricevato dall inclinazione della natura' Whilst it will not be necessary to tell the most ignorant Indian that the above doctrines are not Christian teaching, it is necessary (as Sellon's rema rk shows) to inform the English reader that this pantheistic libertinism is not "Tantrik". This imperfect charge is due to the author's knowledge of the principles of Kaula Sadhana. I will not describe all the obscene and perverse acts which these "Religions" practiced. It is sufficient that the reader should throw his eye back a few lines and see that their teaching justified sodomy, lesbianism and masturbation, sins as abhorrent to the Tantra Shastra as any other. Owing, however, to ignorance or prejudice, everything is called "Tantrik" into which woman enters and in which sexual union takes on a religious or so -called religious character or complexion. The Shastra, on the country, teaches that there is a God who transcends Nature, that Dharma or morality governs all men, that there is sin and that the acts here referred to are impurities leading to Hell; for there is (it says) both suffering and enjoyment not only in this but in an after -life. It was apparently enough for Edward Sellon to adjudge the theor ies and practices to be Tantrik that these women preached the doctrine of intention and of sexual union with the feeling or Bhava (to use a Sanskrit term) that man and woman were parts of the one Divine essence. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and this is an instance of it. These corrupt theories are merely the "religious" and "philosophical" basis for a life of unrestrained libertinism which the Tantra Shastra condemns as emphatically as any other Scripture. The object of the Tantrik ritual is to forward the morality of the senses by converting mere animal functions into acts of worship. The Scripture says in effect, "Just as you offer flowers, incense and so forth to the Devata, in the Rajasik worship let these physical functions take their place, remembering that it is Shiva who is working in and through you." The doctrine of the Brethren of the Free Spirit (Delacroix Le Mysticisme speculatif en Allemagne au quatorgiem e siecle) so far as it was probably really held, has, in points, resemblance to some of the Tantrik and indeed Aupanishadic teachings, for they both hold in common certain general principles to which I will refer (see also 493 Preger's Geshichte der Deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter). Other doctrines and practices with which they have been charged are wholly hostile to the Shakta Darshana and Sadhana. Amalric of Bena, a disciple of Scotus Erigena, held that God is all, both creature and creator, and the Essence of all which is. The soul which attains to Him by contemplation becomes God Hims elf. It was charged against him that man could act in the manner of God's action and do what he pleased without falling into sin. The doctrine that the Brahmajani is above good and evil is so generally misunderstood that it is probable that, whatever may have been the case with some of his disciples, the charges made against the master himself on this point are false. It has been well said that one is prone to accuse of immorality any one who places himself beyond traditional morality. As regards the Brethren of the Free Spirit also, this alleged doctrine comes to us from the mouths of their adversaries. They are said to have held that there were two religions, one for the ignorant (Mudha), the other for the illuminate (Prabuddha), the first being the tradi tional religion of the letter and ritual observance, and the other of freedom and spirituality. The soul is of the same substance as God (identity of Jivatma and Paramatma). When this is realized man is deified. Then he is (as Brahmajani) above all law (Dharma). The ordinary rules of morality bind only those who do not see beyond them, and who do not realize in themselves that Power which is superior to all these laws. United with God (Anima deo unita) man enjoys a blessed freedom. He sees the inanity of prayers, of fasts, of all those supplications which can do nothing to change the order of nature. He is one with the Spirit of all. Free of the law he follows his own will (Svecchacari). What the vulgar call "sin", he can commit without soiling himself. There is a distinction between the act which is called sinful and sin. Nothing is sin but what the doer takes to be such. The body does not sin. It is the intention with which an act is done which constitutes sin. "The angel would not have fallen if what he did had been done with a good intention" (Quod angelus non cecidisset si bona intentione fecissit quod fecit). Man becomes God in all the powers of his being including the ultimate elements of his body. Therefore, wisdom lies not in renunciation, but in enj oyment and the satisfaction of his desires. The tormenting and insatiable passion for woman is a form of the creative spontaneous principle. The worth of instinct renders noble the acts of the 494 flesh, and he who is united in spirit with God can with impunity fulfill the sensual desires of the body (item quod unitus deo audacter possit explere libidinamcarnis). There is no more sin in sexual union without marriage than within it and so forth. With the historian of this sect and with our knowledge of the degree to which pantheistic doctrines are misunderstood, we may reasonably doubt whether these accusations of their enemies represent in all particulars their true teaching. It seems, however, to have been held by those who have dealt with this question that th e pantheistic doctrine of the Brethren led to conclusions contrary to the common morality. It is also highly probable that some at least of the excesses condemned were the work of false brethren, who finding in the doctrine a convenient excuse for, and an encouragement of their licentiousness, sheltered themselves behind its alleged authority. As this remark of Dr. Delacroix suggests, one must judge a doctrine (and we may instance that of the Shaktas) by what its sincere adherents hold and do, and not by the practices of impostors who always hie to sects which seem to hold theories offering opportunities for libertinism. One may here recall Milton who says with insight "That sort of men who follow Antinomianism and other fanatic dreams be such most commonly as are by nature gifted to religion, of life also not debauched and that their opinions having full swing do end in satisfaction of the flesh." Whilst there is a similarity on some points between Kaula teaching and some of the Western pantheistic theories above alluded to, in others the two are manifestly and diametrically opposed. There are some who talk as if intellectual and moral aberrations were peculiar to India. No country is without them, but the West, owing to its chaos of thought and morals, has exhibited the worst. With the exception of the atheistic Carvakas and Lokayatas no sect in India has taught the pursuit of sensual enjoyment for its own sake, or justified the commission of any and every (even unnatural) sin. To do so would be to run counter to ideas which are those of the whole intellectual and moral Cosmos of India. These ideas include those of a Law (Dharma) inherent in the nature of all being; of sin as its infraction, and of the punishment of sin as bad Karma in this and the next world (Paraloka). It is believed and taught that the end of man is lasting happiness, but that this is not to be had by the satisfaction of worldly desires. Indeed the Kaula teaches that Liberation (Moksha) cannot be had so long as a man has any 495 worldly desires whether good or bad. Whilst, however, there is an eternal Dharma (Sanatana Dharma), one and the same for all, there are also particular forms of Dharma governing particular bodies of men. It is thus a general rule that a man should not unlawfully satisfy his sexual desires. But the conditions under which he may lawfully do so have varied in every form and degree in times and places. In this sense, as the Sarvollasa says, marriage is a conventional (Paribhashika) thing. The convention which is binding on the individual must yet be followed, that being his Dharma. Sin again, it is taught, consists in intention, not in a physical act divorced therefrom. Were this otherwise, then it is said that the child which, when issuing from the mother's body, touches her Y oni would be guilty of the heinous offense called Guru -talpaga. The doctrine of a single act with differing intentions is illustrated by the Tantrik maxim "A wife is kissed with one feeling, a daughter's face with another" (Bhavena chumbita kanta, bhavena duhitananam). In the words of the Sarvollasa, a man who goes with a woman, in the belief that by commission of such act he will go to Hell, will of a surety go thither. On the other hand it may be said that if an act is really lawful but is done in the bel ief that it is unlawful and with the deliberate intention of doing what is unlawful, there is subjective sin. The intention of the Shastra is not to unlawfully satisfy carnal desire in the way of eating and drinking and so forth, but that man should unite with Shiva- Shakti in worldly enjoyment (Bhaumananda) as a step towards the supreme enjoyment (Paramananda) of Liberation. In so doing he must follow the Dharma prescribed by Shiva. It is true, that there are different observances for the illuminate, for those whose power (Shakti) is awake (Prabuddha) and for the rest. But the Sadhana of these last is as necessary as the first and a stepping stone to it. The Kaula doctrine and practice may, from a Western standpoint, only be called Antinomian, in the sense that it holds, in common with the Upanishads, that the Brahma -jani is above both good (Dharma) and evil (Adharma), and in the sense that some of these practices are contrary to what the general body of Hindu worshippers consider to be lawful. Thus Shakta D arshana is said by some to be Avaidika. It is, however, best to leave to the West its own labels and to state the case of the East in its own terms. 496 After all, when everything unfavorable has been said, the abuses of some Tantriks are not to be compared either in nature or extent with those of the West with its widespread sordid prostitution, its drunkenness and gluttony, its sexual perversities and its so -called pathological but truly demoniacal enormities. To take a specific example -- Is the drinking of wine, by a limited number of Vamacari Tantriks in the whole of this country to be compared with (say) the consumption of whisky in the single city of Calcutta? Is this whisky -drinking less worthy of condemnation because it is Pashupana or done for the satisfaction of sensual appetite alone? The dualistic notion that the "dignity" of religion is impaired by association with natural function is erroneous. The well -known English writer, Sir Conan Doyle, doubtless referring to these and other wrongs, has expressed the opinion that during the then last quarter of a century we Westerns have been living in what (with some few ameliorating features) is the wickedest epoch in the world's history. However this may be, if our own great sins were here known, the abuses, real and alleged, of Tantriks would be seen in better proportion. Moreover an effective reply would be to hand against those who are always harping on Devadasis and other sensualities (supposed or real) of, or connected with, Indian worship. India's general present record for temperance and sexual control is better than that of the West. It is no doubt a just observation that abuses committed under the supposed sanction of religion are worse than wrongs done with the sense that they are wrong. That there have been hypocrites covering the satisfaction of their appetites with the cloak of religion is likely. But all Sadhakas are not hypocrites, and all cases do not show abuse. I cannot, therefore, help thinking that this constant insistence on one particular feature of the Shastra, together with ignorance both of the particular rites, and neglect and ignorance of all else in the Agama Scripture is simply part of the general polemic carried on in some quarters against the Indian religion. The Tantra Shastra is doubtless thought to be a very useful heavy gun and is therefore constantly fired in the attack. There may be some who will not readily believe that the weapon is not as formidable as was thought. All this is not to say that there have not been abuses, or that some forms of rite will not be considered repugnant, and in fact open to objection founded on the interests of society at large. All this 497 again is not to say that I counsel the acceptance of any theories or practice, not justified by the evolved morality of the day. According to the Shastra itself, some of these methods, even if carried out as directed, have their dangers. This is obvious in the actions of a lower class of men, whose conduct has made the Scripture notorious. The ordinary man will then ask: "Why then court danger when there is enough of it in ordinary life?" I may here recall an observation of the Emperor Akbar which, though not made with regard to the matter in hand, is yet well in point. He said, "I have never known of a man who was lost on a straight road." It is necessary for me to so guard myself because those who cannot judge with detachment are prone to think that others who deal fairly and dispassionately with any doctrine or practice are necessarily its adherents and the counselors of it to others. My own view is this -- Probably on the whole it would be, in general, better if men took neither alcohol in the form of spirits or meat, particularly the latter, which is the source of much disease. Though it is said that killing for sacrifice is no "killing", it can hardly be denied that total abstention from slaughter of animals constitutes a more complete conformity with Ahimsa or doctrine of non- injury to any being. Moreover, at a certain stage meat - eating is repugnant. A feeling of this kind is growing in the West, where even the meat-eater, impelled by disgust and a rising regard for decency, hides away the slaughter houses producing the meat which he openly displays at his table. In the same way, sexual errors are common to -day. Whatever license any person may allow himself in this matter, few if any will claim it for others and foster their vices. Nor was this the intention of the Shastra. It is well known, however, that much of what passes for religious sentiment is connected with sex instinct even if religious life is not a mere "irradiation of the reproductive instinct" (see Religion and Sex, Cohen). I understand the basis on which these Tantrik practices rest. Thus what seems repellent is sought to be justified on the ground that the Sadhaka should be above all likes and dislikes, and should see Brahman in all things. But the Western critic will say that we must judge practice from the practical standpoint. It was this consideration which was at the back of the statement of Professor de la Vallee Poussine (Boudhism Etudes et Materianx) that there 498 is in this country what Taine called a "reasoning madness' which makes the Hindu stick at no conclusion however strange, willingly accepting even the absurd. (Il y regne des l'origine ce que Taine appelle la folie raisonante. Les Hindous vont volontiers jusqua l'absurde). This may be too strongly put; but the saying contains this truth that the Indian temperament is an absolutist one. But such a temperament, if it has its fascinating grandeur, also carries with it the defects of its qualities; namely, dangers from which those, who make a compromise between life and reason, are free. The answer again is, that some of the doctrines and practices here described were never meant for the general body of men. After all, as I have elsewhere said, the question of this particular ritual practice is largely of historical interest only. Such practice to -day is, under the influences of the time, being transformed, where it is not altogether disa ppearing, with other ritual customs of a past age. Apart from my desire to clear away, so far as is rightly possible, charges which have lain heavily on this country, I am only interested here to show firstly that the practice is not a modern invention but seems to be a continuation in another form of ancient Vaidik usage; secondly that it claims, like the rest of the ritual with which I have dealt, to be an application of the Advaitavada of the Upanishads; and lastly that (putting aside things generally re pugnant and extremist practices which have led to abuse) a great principle is involved which may find legitimate and ennobling application in all daily acts of physical function within the bounds of man's ordinary Dharma. Those who so practice this princip le may become the true Vira who has been said to be not the man of great physical or sexual strength, the great fighter, eater, drinker, or the like, but Jitendriyah satavadi nityanushthana-tatparah Kamadi -balidanashca sa vira iti giyate. "He is a Hero who has controlled his senses, and is a speaker of truth; who is ever engaged in worship and has sacrificed lust and all other passions." The attainment of these qualities is the aim, whatever is said of some of the means, of all such Tantrik Sadhana. 499 CHAPTER TWENTY -EIGHT . MATAM RUTRA (THE RIGHT AND WRONG INTERPRETATION ) In connection with the doctrine and Sadhana just described it is apposite to cite the following legend from Tibet, which shows how, according to its Sadhakas, it may be either rightly or wrongly interpreted, and how, in the latter case, it leads to terrible evils and their punishment. Guru Padma -sambhava, the so-called founder of "Lamaism," had five women disciples who compiled several accounts of the teachings of their Master and hid them in various places for the benefit of future believers. One of these disciples -- Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal -- was a Tibetan lady who is said to have possessed such a wonderful power of memory that if she was told a thing only once she remembered it for ever. She gathered what she had heard from her Guru into a book called the Padma Thangyig Serteng or Golden Rosary of the history of her Guru who was entitled the Lotus -born (Padmasambhava). The book was hidden away and was subsequently, under inspiration, revealed some five hundred years ago by a Terton. The first Chapter of the work deals with Sukhavati, the realm of Buddha Amitabha. In the second the Buddha emanates a ray which is incarnated for the welfare of the Universe. In Chapter III it is said that there have been a Buddha and a Guru working together in various worlds and at various times, the former preaching the Sutras and the latter the Tantras. The fourth Chapter speaks of the Mantras and the five Dh yani Buddhas (as to which see Shri -cakra -sambhara Tantra), and in the fifth we find the subject of the present Chapter, an account of the origin of the Vajrayana Faith. The present Chapter is based on a translation, which I asked Kazi Dawasamdup to prepare for me, of portions of the Thangyig Serteng. I have further had, and here acknowledge, the assistance of the very learned Lama Ugyen Tanzin, in the elucidation of the inner meaning of the legend. I cannot go fully into this but give certain indications which will enable the competent to work out much of the rest for themselves from the terrible symbolism in which evil for evil's sake is here expressed. 500 The story is that of the rise and fall of the Self. The disciple "Transcendent Faith" who became the Bodhisattva Vajrapani illustrates the former; the case of "Black Salvation" who incarnated as a Demoniac Rutra displays the latter. He was no ordinary man, for at the time of his initiation he had already attained eight out of the thirteen stages (Bhumika) on the way to perfect Buddhahood. His powers were correspondingly great. But the higher the rise the greater the fall if it comes. Through misunderstanding and misapplying, as so many others have done, the Tantrik doctrine, he "fell back" into Hell. Extraordi nary men who were teachers of recondite doctrines such as those of Thubka, who was himself "hard to overcome," seem not to have failed to warn lesser brethren against their dangers. It is commonly said in Tibet of the so- called "heroic" modes of extremist Yoga, that they waft the disciple with the utmost speed either to the heights of Nirvana or to the depths of Hell. For the aspirant is compared to a snake which is made to go up a hollow bamboo. It must ascend and escape at the top, at the peril otherwise of falling down. Notwithstanding these warnings many of the vulgar, the vicious, the misunderstanding and the fools who play with fire have gone to Hells far more terrible than those which await human frailties in pursuance of the common life of men whose progress if slow is sure. "Black Salvation", though an advanced disciple, misinterpreted his teacher's doctrine and consciously identifying himself with the world- evil fell into Hell. In time he rose therefrom and incarnating at first, in gross material forms, he at length manifested as a great Rutra, the embodiment of all wickedness. The Tibetan Rutra here spoken of and the Indian Rutra seem to be etymologically the same but their meaning is different. Both are fierce and terrible Spirits; but a Rutra as h ere depicted is essentially evil, and neither the Lord of any sensual celestial paradise, nor the Cosmic Shakti which loosens forms. A Rutra is rather what in some secret circles is called (though in ungrammatical Sanskrit) an Adhatma, or a soul upon the l ower and destructive path. The general destructive energy (Samhara -Shakti), however, uses for its purpose the disintegrating propensities of these forms. The evil which appears as Rutra is the expression of various kinds of Egoism. Thus Matam Rutra is Egoi sm as attached to the gross physical body. Again, all sentient worldly being gives expression to its feelings, saying "I am happy, unhappy, and so 501 forth." All this is here embodied in the speech of the Rutra and is called Akar Rutra. Khatram Rutra is Egoism of the mind, as when it is said of any object "this is mine". "Black Salvation" became a Rutra of such terrific power that to save him and the world the Buddhas intervened. There are four methods by which they and the Bodhisattvas subdue and save sentient being, namely, the Peaceful, the Grand or Attractive, the Fascinating which renders powerless (Vasikaranam), and the stern method of downright Force. All forms of Egoism must be destroyed in order that the pure "That Which Is" or formless Consciousness m ay be attained. "Black Salvation" incarnated as the Pride of Egoism in its most terrible form. And, in order to subdue him, the last two methods had to be employed. He was, through the Glorious One, redeemed by the suffering which attends all sin and becam e the "Dark Defender of the Faith," which by his egoistic apostasy he had abjured, to be later the Buddha known as the "Lord of Ashes" in that world which is called "the immediately self- produced". How this came about the legend describes. The fifth Chapter of the Golden Rosary says that Guru Padma -Vajradhara was reborn as Bhikshu Thubkazhonnu, which means the "youth who is hard to overcome". He was a Tantrik who preached an abstruse doctrine which is condensed in the following verse: "He who has attained the 'That Which Is' Or uncreated In -itself -ness Is unaffected even by the 'four things' Just as the cloud which floats in the sky Adheres not thereto. This is the way of Supreme Yoga. Than this in all the three worlds There is not a higher wisdom." This Guru had two disciples, Kuntri and his servant Pramadeva. To the latter was given, on initiation, the name "Transcendent Faith," and to the former 502 "Black Salvation". This last name was a prophetic prediction that he would be saved, not through peacefu l or agreeable means but through the just wrath of the Jinas. The real meaning of the verse as understood and practiced by Pramadeva and as declared to be right by the Guru was as follows: "The pure Consciousness (Dagpa -ye-shes) is the foundation (Gshihdsi n) of the limited consciousness (Rnam -shes) and is in Scripture "That which is," the real uncreated "In- Itself -ness". This being unaffected or unruffled is the path of Tantra. Passions (Klesha) are like clouds wandering in the wide spaces of the sky. (These clouds are distinct from, and do not touch the back -ground of space against which they appear.) So passions do not touch but disappear from the Void (Shunyata). Whilst ascending upwards the threefold accomplishment (Activity, non- activity, absolute repose) must be persevered in; and this is the meaning of our Teacher Thubka's doctrine." The latter, however, was misunderstood by "Black Salvation" (Tharpa Nagpo) who took it to mean that he was to make no effort to save himself by the gaining of merit, but that he was to indulge in the four acts of sinful enjoyment, by the eye, nose, tongue and organ of generation. On this account, he fell out with his brother in the faith Pramadeva, and later with his Guru, both of whom he caused to be persecuted and banished the country. Continuing in a career of reckless and sin- hardened life, he died unre pentant after a score of years passed in various diabolical practices. He fell into Hell and continued there for countless ages. At the close of the time of Buddha Dipankara (Marmedzad or "Light maker") he was reborn several times as huge sea monsters. At length, just before the time of the last Buddha Sakya Muni, he was born as the son of a woman of loose morals in a country called Lankapuri of the Rakshasas. This woman used to consort with three Spirits -- a Deva in the morning, a Fire Genius at noon, and a Daitya in the evening. "Black Salvation" was reborn in the eighth month as the offspring of these three Spirits. The child was a terrible monster, black of color, with three heads, each of which had three eyes, six hands, four feet and two wings. He was horrible to look at, and immediately at his birth all the auspicious signs of the country disappeared, and the eighteen inauspicious signs were seen. Malignant epidemics attacked the whole region of Lanka -puri. Some died, others only suffered, but all wer e in misery. 503 Lamentation, famine and sorrow beset the land. There were disease, bloodshed, mildew, hailstorms, droughts, floods and all other kinds of calamities. Even dreams were frightful, and ominous signs portending a great catastrophe oppressed all. Evil spirits roamed the land. So great were the evils that it seemed as if the good merits of everyone had been exhausted all at once. The mother who had given birth to this monster died nine days after its birth. The people of the country decreed that this monstrous infant should be bound to the mother's corpse and left in the cemetery. The infant was then tied to his mother's breast. The mother was borne away in a stretcher to the cemetery, and the stretcher was left at the foot of a poisonous tree which had a boar's den at its root, a poisonous snake coiled round the middle of its trunk, and a bird of prey sitting in its uppermost branches. (These animals are the emblems of lust, anger and greed respectively which "kindle the fire of individuality".) At this place there was a huge sepulcher built by the Rakshasas where they used to leave their dead at the foot of the tree. Elephants and tigers came there to die; serpents infested it, and witch - like spirits called Dakinis and Ghouls brought human bodies there. After the bearers of the corpse had left, the infant sustained his life by sucking the breasts of his mother's corpse. These yielded only a thin, watery fluid for seven days. Next he sucked the blood and lived a week; then he gnawed at the breast and lived the third week; then he ate the entrails and lived for a week. Then he ate the outer flesh and lived for the fifth week. Lastly he crunched the bones, sucked the marrow, licked the humors and brains and lived a week. He thus in six weeks developed full physical maturity. Having exhausted his stock of food he moved about; and his motion shook the cemetery building to pieces. He observed the Ghouls and Dakinis feasting on human corpses which he took as his food and human blood as the drink, filling the skulls with it. His clothing was dried human skins as also the hides of dead elephants, the flesh of which he also ate. He ate also the flesh of tigers and wrapped his loins in their furs. He used serpents as bracelets, anklets, armlets and as necklaces and garlands. His lips were thick with frozen fat, and his body was covered with ashes from the burning ground. He wore a garland of dead skulls on one string; freshly severed heads on another; and decomposing heads on a third. These were worn crosswise as 504 a triple garland. Each cheek was adorned with a spot of blood. His three great heads ever wrathful, of three different colors, were fierce and horrible to look at. The middle head was dark blue and those to the right and left were white and red respectively. His body and limbs which were of gigantic size and proportions were ashy gray. His skin was coarse and his hair as stiff as hog's bristles. His mouth wide agape showed fangs. His terrible eyes were fixed in a stare. Half of the dark brown hair on his head stood erect, bound with four kinds of snakes. The nails of his fingers and toes were like the talons of a great bird of prey, which seized hold of everything within reach, whether animals or human corpses which he crushed and swallowed. He bore a trident a nd other weapons in his right hands, and with his left he filled the emptied skulls with blood which he drank with great relish. He was a monster of ugliness who delighted in every kind of impious act. His unnatural food produced a strange luster on his face, which shone with a dull though great and terrible light. His breath was so poisonous that those touched by it were attacked with various diseases. For his nostrils breathed forth disease. His eyes, ears and arms produced the 404 different ills. Thus, the diseases paralysis, epilepsy, bubonic swellings, urinary ills, skin diseases, aches, rheumatism, gout, colic, cholera, leprosy, cancer, small -pox, dropsy and various other sores and boils appeared in this world at that time. (For evil thoughts and acts make the vital spirit sick and thence springs gross disease.) The name of this great Demon was Matam Rutra. He was the fruit of the Karma of the great wickedness of his former life as Tharpa Nagpo. At that time, in each of the 24 Pilgrimages, there was a powerful destructive Bhairava Spirit. These Devas, Gandharvas, Rakshasas, Asuras and Nagas were proud, malignant and mighty Spirits, despotic masters of men, with great magical powers of illusion and transformation. These Spirits used to wander over these countries dressed in the eight sepulchral raiments, wearing the six kinds of bone ornaments, and armed with various weapons, accompanied by their female consorts, and reveled in all kinds of obscene orgies. Their chief occupation consisted in depriving all sentient beings of their lives. After consultation, all these Spirits elected Matam Rutra as their Chief. Thus all these non- human beings became his slaves. In the midst of his horrible retinue he continued to devour human beings alive until the race 505 becam e almost destroyed and the cities emptied. He was thus the terrible scourge that the earth had ever seen. All who died in those days fell into Hell. But, as for Matam Rutra himself, his pride knew no bounds: he thought there was no one greater than himself and would roar out: "Who is there greater and mightier than I? If there be any Lord who would excel me, Him too will I subjugate." As there was no one to gainsay him, the world was oppressed by heavy gloom. At that time, however, Kali proclaimed, "In the country of Lanka, the land of Rakshasas, In a portion of the city called Koka -Thangmaling, On the peak of Malaya, the abode of Thunder, There dwells the Lord of Lanka, King of Rakshasas. He is a disciple of the light -giving Buddha. His fame far excels thin e. He is unconquerable in fight by any foe. He sleeps secure and doth awake in peace." Hearing this, the pride and ambition of the Demon became aflame. His body emitted flames great enough to have consumed all worlds at the great Kalpa dissolution. His voice resounded in a deep thundering roar like that of a thousand clasp of thunder heard together. With sparks of fire flying from his mouth he summoned a huge force. He filled the very heavens with them, and moving with the speed of a meteor he invaded the Rakshasa's capital of Koka -Thangmaling. Encamping, Matam Rutra proclaimed his name proudly, at which the entire country of Lanka trembled and was shaken terribly as though by an earth- quake. The Rakshasas, both male and female, became terrified. The King of the Rakshasas sent spies to find out the cause of these happenings. They went and saw the terrible force, and being terrified at the sight reported the fearful news to their king. He sat in Samadhi for a while, and divined the following: According to the Sutra of King Gunadhara it was said, "One who has vexed his Guru's heart, and broken his friend and 506 brother's heart: the haughty son, being released from the three Hells, will take rebirth here, and he will surely conquer the Lord of Lanka. In the end, he will be conquered by many Sugatas (the blissful ones, or Buddhas). And this event will give birth to the Anuttara -Vajrayana Faith." The Buddha Marmedzad having revealed the event, he wished to see whether this was the Matam Rutra Demon referred to in the p rophesy. So he collected a force of Rakshasas and went forth to fight a battle with the Demon force. Matam Rutra was very angry and said: "I am the Great Invincible One, who is without a peer, I am the Ishvara Mahadeva. The four great Kings of the four quarters are my vassals, The eight different tribes of Spirits are my slaves, I am the Lord of the whole World. Who is going to withstand and confront me? Tutra, Matra, Marutra." With this battle cry he overcame the forces of the Rakshasas. Then the King of the Rakshasas and all his forces submitted to the King of the Demons, saying "I repent me of my attempt to withstand you, in the hope of upholding the Faith of the Buddhas, and to spread it far and wide. I now submit to you and become your loyal subject. I will not rebel against you." When he had thus overcome the Rakshasas, he assumed the title of Matamka, the Chief of all the Rakshasas. His pride increased, and he proclaimed, "Who is there greater than I'?" Then, Kali again cleverly excited his ambition and pride by saying, "The Chief of the armies of the Asuras (Lhamin that is "not Devas"), named Mahakaru, is mightier than you." Thereupon he invaded the realms of the Asuras, with his demon force, and all the Asuras becoming affected with various terrible maladies were powerless to resist him. The Rutra caught hold of the Asura King by the leg and whirling him thrice round his head flung him into the Jambudvipa where he fell in a place called the Ge -ne-gynad, meaning the place of eight merits. Then those of the Asuras who had not been killed, the 507 eight planets (Grahas) and the twenty -eight constellations (Nakshatras) and their hosts sought refuge in every direction, but failing to obtain safety anywhere, they returned and surrendered themselves to the Demon Matam Rutra. Then the Asuras guided the Rutra and his forces to a Palace named the Globular Palace like a skull where they established their Capital. In the center of this Palace, the Rutra hoisted his banner of Victory. They arranged their dreadful weapon s by the side of the entrance, and the place was surrounded by numerous followers with magical powers. Having thus shown his own great magical powers, he took up the King of Mountains, Meru, upon the tip of his finger and whirling it round his head, he proclaimed these boastful words, "Rutra, Matra, Marutra, who is there in this universe greater than myself? In all the three Lokas, there is none greater than I. And if there be any, him also will I subdue." To these boastful words Kali answered, "In the thir ty-third Deva -Loka and in the happy celestial regions of the Tushita Heavens, Sitting amidst the golden assembly of disciples, Is the Holy Savior of all beings, Regent of the Devas (Dampa - Togkar). Having been anointed, He is venerated and praised by all the Deva Kings. He summons all the Devas to his assembly by sounding the various instruments of heavenly music Accompanied by a celestial Chorus. He is greater than yourself." On her so saying, the Archdemon blazed forth into a fury of pride and wrath, and set forth to conquer the Tushita Heavens. The Bodhisattva (Dampa - Togkar) was sitting enthroned on a throne of precious metals, in the midst of thousands of Devatas, both male and female, and was preaching Dharma 508 to them. The Archdemon seized Dampa -Togkar from his throne, and threw him down into this world- system. All the Devas and Devis there gathered exclaimed, "Alas, what a fate, O, the sinful wretch!" seven times over. Thereupon the Rutra fiercely said: "Put on two cloths, and sit down on your seats, eve ry one of you! How can I be conquered by you? I am the mighty destroyer and subjugator of all. (The expression "Put on two cloths" was said by way of contempt for the priestly robes which consist of three pieces, being a wrapper above, and one below and one over both. Dampa - Togkar is the Bodhisattva who is coming as Buddha to teach in the human world. He descends from the Tushita Heavens where he reigns as Regent). When the celestial Regent of the Tushita Heavens (Dampa -Togkar) was about to pass away from there, he uttered this prophesy to his disciples, who were around him: "Listen unto me, Ye my disciples: This apostate disciple, Tharpa -Nagpo (Black Salvation), Who does not believe in the Buddha's Doctrine, He is destined to pervert the Devas and Asuras, And to bend them to his yoke. He hates the perfect Buddha, and he will work much evil in this world- system There are two, who can deprive him of his terrible power; They are Thubka -Zhonnu and Dad- Phags (Pramadeva, Arya Shraddha called Transcendent Faith) They will be able to make him taste the fruits of his 509 evil deeds in this very life. He will not be subdued by peaceful, nor by any generous means. He will only be conquered by the methods of Fascination and Sternness. (The various means of redemption have been previously explained. Thubka and his good disciple "Transcendent Faith" who had then become Buddha Vajra -Sattva, and Bodhisattva Vajrapani were selected for this purpose. They assumed the forms of the Devatas with the Horse's head (Hayagriva) and the Sow's head (Vajra -Varahi) "Who, of the Noble Sangha, will doubt this, That Hayagriva and Vajra- Varahi will give him their bodies. (When it is said "These will give him their bodies" this means, as hereafter described, entering the Rutra's body, assuming his shape and destroying his Rutra life and nature. They give him their divine bodies so that they may destroy his demoniac body). "And who will not trust in the Wisdom of the Jinas, to conquer him by the upward-piercing method, From this (demon) will come t he Precious- nectar, which will be of use in acquiring Virtue. From this (demon) will originate the changing of poison into elixir. (There are various Tantrik methods suited to various natures. "The upward-piercing" (Khatar -yar-phig) is that of Vajrayana. This is the method which goes upward and upward, that is straight upward without delay and without going to right or left. To change poison into nectar or elixir is a well -known 510 principle of these schools. "This Demon will have to be ground down and destroy ed to the last atom, in one body. (It is said "in one body" because, ordinarily, several lives are necessary; but in this case and by this method Liberation is achieved in a single life- time and in one body. Not one atom of the Rutra body is left, for Egoi sm is wholly destroyed.) "The Divine Horse- headed Deity (Vajra- Hayagriva), is he who will dispel this threatening misfortune, Dad- phags, (Pramadeva who was given on initiation the name "Transcendent Faith") is at present Vajra - pani (Bodhisattva). And Thub ka-Zhonnu is, at present, the Buddha Vajra - sattva. The divine prophesies of the Jinas are to be interpreted thus: 'They will exterminate their opponents For myself I go to take birth in Maya -Devi's womb. I will practice Samadhi at the root of the Bodhi -Tree. I will not hold those beliefs in doubt. For it has been said that the Buddha's Faith will triumph over this, And will remain long in the Jambudvipa. By means of the mysterious practice of Emancipating by means of Communion.' 511 (The practice here referred to is the method called Jordol (sByor sGrol) which has both exoteric and esoteric meanings, such as in the case of the latter the communion of the Divine Male and Female whose union destroys to its uttermost root egoistic attachment; the communion with Shunyata whose innermost significance is the non- dual Consciousness (gNyismed- yeshes) which dispels ignorance and cuts at the root of all Samsaric life by the destruction of all the Rutra forms. "Female" here is Sunyata and not a woman. When a learne d Lama is asked why the terms of sex are used they say it is to symbolize Thabs (Upaya) and Shesrabs (Praja) which it is not possible to further explain here (See Mahanirvana Tantra and Kaulavali Nirnaya). "The Matam Rutra, which is clinging to the body a s 'I' will be dispelled, All forms of worldly happiness and pain, the Egoism of Speech (Akar Rutra), Will be destroyed. The saying 'this is mine' of anything, The mental 'I' (or Khatram -Rutra) is freed. The true nature and distinguishing attributes of a Rutra, Which is manifest outwardly, exists inwardly, and lies hidden secretly, In short all the fifty -eight Rutras, with their hosts, will be destroyed completely. (I have already dealt with the meaning of the term, Rutra. Here the Egoisms of body, feeling s, mind are referred to. The Glorious One will eradicate the physical and all other Rutras, the monster of the self in all its forms, gross, subtle and causal.) 512 "The world though deprived of happiness will rejoice again. The world will be filled with the P recious Dharma of the Tri -Ratna. The Righteous Faith has not declined, nor has it passed away." (Thus did the Regent of the Tushita Heavens prophesy the advent of the Tantrik method for the complete destruction and the elimination of the demon of "Egotism" from the nature of the devotees on the path by means of Jordol.) After uttering these prophecies he passed away and took re-birth in the womb of Queen Maya Devi. Then the Archdemon, having subjugated all the Devas of the thirty -third and the Tushita Heave ns, appointed the two Demons Mara and Devadatta, his two chief officers, to suppress Indra and Brahma. The Archdemon himself took up his abode in the Malaya Mountain, in the place called the Human skull -like Mansion. He used to feed upon Devas and human beings, both males and females. Drums, bells, cymbals and every kind of stringed and other musical instruments were played to him in a perpetual concert with songs and dances. Every kind of enjoyment which the Devas used to enjoy, he enjoyed perpetually. (8th Chapter ends). The 9th Chapter deals with the defeat and destruction of the Archdemon Matam Rutra by the Buddhas of the ten directions. Then there assembled together Dharmakaya Buddha Samanatabhadra (Chosku Kuntu Zangpo) and his attendants from the Wogmin (Akanishta) Heavens, from other Heavens, Sambhoga -kaya Vajra- dhara with his attendants; and Vajrapani Nirmanakaya with his attendants. In short, from the various heavens of the ten directions came the different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. All held a consultation together and came to this resolution: "Unless the power of the Buddhas be exerted to subjugate the Rutra, the Faith of the Buddhas will cease to spread and will degenerate. That body 513 which has committed such violent outrages on every other being, must be made to suffer the agonies of being hurt by weapons, wielded by avengers. If he is not made to feel the consequences of his deeds, the Jinas who have proclaimed the Truth will be falsified. He is not to be destroyed but to be subdued." Having thus agreed, all the Buddhas began to seek with their omniscient eyes, him who was destined to conquer this Rutra. They saw that Thubka -Zhonnu who had attained the state of Buddha Vajrasattva and Dadphags who had become Vajra -pani were to subdue him, and that the time was also ripe. So both of them came with their respective retinue and were blessed and endowed with Power by all the Buddhas, who gave these instructions. "Do ye assume the forms and sexes of Chenrezi and Dolma (Avalokita and Tara) and do ye subdue the Enemy by assuming the shapes of the Deities having the Horse- mane and the Sow's head (Haya -griva and Vajra -Varahi) ." (The latter is commonly known in English translations as the "Diamond Sow". Vajra is the Sanskrit equivalent of the word Dorje in Tibetan. The latter has many meanings; Indra's thunderbolt, the Lamas' scepter, diamond and so forth: and is in fact used of anything of a high and mystical character which is lasting, indestructible, powerful and irresistible. Thus the high priest presiding at Tantrik Rites is called Dorje Lopon. In fact, diamond is so called because of the hard character of this gem. In the Indian Tantrik worship, Vajra occurs as in Vajrapushpa (Vajra -flower), Vajra -bhumi (Vajra -ground), and so forth, but these are not "diamon d" flowers or earth. An extremely interesting inquiry is here opened which is beyond the scope of this Chapter, for the term Vajra, which is again the appellation of this particular school (Vajrayana), and is of great significance in the history of that power- side of religion which is dealt with in the Shakta Tantra. (See Introduction to Shri - Cakra -Sambhara. Here, without further attempt at explanation, I keep the term Vajra adding only that Harinisa is not, as has been thought, Vajra- Varahi (Dorje -phagmo) Herself but the Bija Mantras (Ha, ri, ni, sa) of Her four attendant Dakinis.) Vajra -Sattva and Vajrapani, Buddha and Bodhisattva of the Vajrayana faith transformed themselves into the forms of Hayagriva and Vajra -Varahi, and assumed the costumes of Herukas. (The Herukas are a class of Vajrayana 514 Devatas, of half terrible features, represented as partly nude with an upper garment of human skin and tiger skin round the loins. They have a skull head- dress, carry bone rosaries, a staff and Damaru like Shiva. The Herukas are described in the Tibetan books as being beautiful, heroic, awe-inspiring, stern and majestic.) Blazing in the nine kinds of physical magnificence and splendor, they proceeded to the Malaya Mountain, -- the abode of the Rutra. On the four sides of the Mountain were four gates. Each gate was guarded by a Demoness, bearing respectively a Mare's, Sow's, Lion's and a Dog's head. These the Glorious One conquered, and united therewith in a spirit of nonattachment. From their union were born the followi ng female issue: (1) The White Horse- faced, (2) The Black Sow -faced, (3) The Red Lion- faced, (4) and the Green Dog -faced daughters. Proceeding still further He met another cordon of sentries, who too were females, bearing the heads of (1) Lioness, (2) Tigress, (3) Fox, (4) Wolf, (5) Vulture, (6) Kanka, (?) (7) Raven, and (8) Owl. With these Demonesses too, the Glorious One united in a spirit of non - attachment, and blessed the act. Of this union were born female offspring, each of whom took after the mother in outward shape or Matter, and after the father in Mind. Thus were the eight Demi -goddesses born: viz., the Lion - headed, Tiger -headed and so forth. Being divine in mind, they possess prescience and wisdom, although from their mother they retained their shape and features, which are those of brutes. Then again proceeding further inward, He came upon the daughters of the Rutras and of Rakshasas, named respectively, Nyobyed- ma or "She who maddens," Tagbyed -ma "She who frightens," Dri- medma "The unsullied," Kem-pama "She who dries one up," Phorthogma "She who bears the Cup" and Zhyongthogma the "bowl bearer." The Glorious One united with these in the same manner, and from them, were born the eight Matrikas of the eight Sthanas (sacred places), known as Gaurima and so forth. These, too, possessed divine wisdom from their father and terrific features and shapes from their mothers. (There are 24 Sthanas which are places of pilgrimage and eight great cemeteries making 32 in all. In each of these cemeteries there is a powerful Goddess also called Mamo, that is, Matrika. These terrible Goddesses are, according to the Zhi -Khro, Gaurima, Tsaurima, Candali, Vetali, Gasmari, 515 Shonama, Pramo, Puskasi. These are in color white, yellow, yellowish white, black, dark green, dark blue, red, reddish yellow, and are situated in the East, South, N.W., North, S.W., N.E., West, S.E., "nerve -leafs of the conch- shell mansion" (brain) respectively. These are the eight great Matrikas of the eight great Cemeteries, to whom prayer is made, that when forms are changed and entrance is made on the intermediate plane (Bardo. See as to this Dr. Evans -Wentz, Tibetan Book of the Dead), they may place the spirit on the clear light path of Radiance (Hodsal). (These various accomplements denote the union of Divine Mind with gross matter. In working with matter the Divine mind is always detached. Work is possible even for the liberated consciousness when free from attachment, that is, desire (Kama), which is bondage. The Divine Mind unites with terrible forms of gross matter that these may be instruments; in this case instruments whereby the gross Egoism of the Rutra is to be subdued.) Then going right into the innermost abode, he found that the Rutra had gone out in search of food, which consisted of human flesh and of Devas. Adopting the disguise of the Rutra, the Glorious One went in to the Consort of the Rutra, the Rakshasi -Queen Krodheshvari (Lady of Wrath) in the same spirit as before, and blessed the act. By Krodheshvari, He had male issue, Bhagavan Vajra -Keruka, with three faces and six hands, terrific to behold. Then the Glorious One, Hayagriva, and his divine Consort, Vajra -Varahi, each expressed their triumph by neighing and grunting thrice. Upon hearing these sounds the Rutra was struck with mortal fear, and coming to the spot, he said: "What sayest Thou, little son of Hayagriva and Vajra- Varahi. All the world of Devas and Asuras Proclaim my virtues and sing my praises. I cannot be conquered. Rest yourselves in peace, Regard me with humility, and bow down to me. Even the Regent of the Devas, of the odd garment 516 (priestly dress), Failed to conquer me in days of yore." Saying this, he raised his hands, and came to lay them on the young one's head. Thereupon, Hayagriva at once entered the body of the Rutra by the secret path (Guhya) from below and piercing him right through from below up- wards, He showed His Horse's Head, on the top of the head of the Rutra. The oily fat of the Rutra's body made the Horse's head look green. The mane, being dyed with blood, became red, and the eye -brows, having been splashed with the bile of the Demon, became yellow. The forehead, being splashed with the brains, became white. Thus the Glorious One, having assumed the shape and dresses of the Rutra, took on a terrible m ajesty. At the same time, Vajra -Varahi, His Consort, also entered the body of the Rutra's Consort Krodheshvari, in the same manner piercing and impaling her. She forced Her own Sow's head right up through the crown of the Demoness' head, until it towered a bove it. The Sow's head had assumed a black color, from having been steeped in the fat of the Rakshasi. Then the two Divine Beings embraced each other, and begot an offspring, a Divine Being, a male of the Terrific Order, a Krodhabhairava. Having done this , Hayagriva neighed shrilly six times, and Vajra- Varahi grunted deeply five times. Then the hosts of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas assembled there as thickly as birds of prey settling down on carrion. They filled all space. They were of the peaceful, th e wrathful, the half -peaceful and the half -wrathful orders, in inconceivably large numbers. They began to surround the Rutra - Tharpa -Nagpo, who, being unable to bear the pain of being stretched asunder, cried in agony: "Oh, I am defeated! The Horse and the Sow have defeated the Rutra. The Buddhas have defeated the Demons. Religion has conquered Ir -religion, The Sangha has defeated the Tirthikas. Indra has defeated the Asuras, 517 The Asuras have defeated the Moon The Garuda has defeated the Ocean Fire defeats fuel, Wind scatters the Clouds Diamond (Vajra) pierces metals Oh! it was I who said that last night's dream portended evil. Oh! slay me quick, if you are going to slay me." As he said this, his bowels were involuntarily loosened, and from the excreta which, being thus purified, fell into the Ocean, there at once arose a precious sandal tree, which was a wish -granting tree. This tree struck its root in the nether world of the Serpent -spirits, spread its foliage in the Asura -lokas, and bore its fruits in the Deva -lokas. And the fruits were named Amrita (the essence and elixir of life). Then the two Chief Actor and Actress, Hayagriva and Vajra -Varahi acted the joyful plays called the 'Plays of Happy Cause,' 'Happy Path', and 'Happy Result', in the nine glorious measures. (That is, plays in which the actors are happy being the male and female Divinities, in this case Hayagriva and Vajra - Varahi. They are the cause; their play being exoterically "Dalliance" (Lila, and their result the dispelling of Egoism which is Illumination.) Just as a victor in a battle, who has slain his enemy, wins the armor and the accoutrements of his slain opponent, and puts them on as a sign of triumph, so also, the Glorious One having conquered the Rutra, assumed the eight accoutrements o f the foe, including the wings, and the other adornments which made him look so bright and magnificent. These the Glorious One blessed and consecrated to the use of the Divine Deities. Having done all this, both Hayagriva and Vajra -Varahi returned to the Realm of pure Spiritual Being (Dharmadhatu). Thus it comes about that those costumes, assumed by the Rutra, came to be adopted as the attire of the Deities. Their having three heads, the eight sepulchral ornaments, and the eight glorious costumes and wings, had origin in this event. 518 Then Pal Chag -na-dorje (Shri Vajrapani) multiplied himself into countless Avataras, and these again multiplied themselves into myriads of Avataras, all of the terrible and wrathful type. The Rutra too showed supernatural powers, for he transformed himself into a nine -headed Monster, having eighteen hands, as huge as the Mount Meru. Should it be doubted, how this sinful being could still possess such supernatural powers, one must know that he was a Bodhisattva of the eighth degree (One who has attained eight Bhumikas or stages of advance out of thirteen) who had fallen back. Hence was it, that even the Buddhas found it difficult to subdue him, not to count the world of Devas and men. Then Vajrapani manifested still greater divine powers of every imaginable description, and all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas fixed their abodes on the greatly enlarged and distended body of the Rutra. The latter being unable to bear the agony of this pressure, roared with pain, "Come quick to the rescue, 0 my followers, who inhabit the ten directions To the right and left of the Skull -like Mansion And those who live in the gardens and the orchards. Yakshas, Rakshasas, and Pretas millions in number, advance to the rescue at once. 0 ye followers and adherent s of the Rutra, who dwell in the twenty -four places, and countries Numbering millions and tens of million, who have sworn allegiance to me And promised to serve me faithfully, and ye from the illimitable spaces in every direction Fill the heavens and the e arth with your innumerable hosts 519 And all in one body strike (at the foe) with the weapons in your hands, sounding the battle cry Om- rulu -rulu." Though he uttered these commands, there was none to obey him. Everyone surrendered to Bhagavan Vajra -Heruka. Thu s all the subordinates of the Rutra, the thirty -two Dakinis, the seven Matrikas, and the four "Sisters," (Sringbzhi), the eight Furies (Barmas or flaming ones), the eight Genii (spirits or attendants on the Devatas) and the sixty -four Messengers all came o ver to the Heruka and the Divine offspring (the Krodha -Bhairava) took upon him- self the duty of serving the food of the Deities. (This is the Deity usually invoked when any purification and religious contrition has to be performed or done. By this it is seen that his undertaking to serve the food of the Deities means purifying and absolving the sins of the Rutra.) Vajrapani, producing ten divine beings of the terrific type (Krodhabhairava), gave a Phurpa (triangular -shaped dagger) to each of them, and commanded them to go and destroy the Rutra and his party. Thereupon Hayagriva came again, and neighed three times; upon hearing which sound, the entire host of the Rutra were seized with a panic and all were subdued. Then "Black Salvation" (Tharpa- Nagpo) and his followers were rendered powerless and helpless: humbled and quite submissive. So they surrendered their own homes, personal ornaments, and lives, and uttered these words of entreaty: "Obeisance to Thee, 0, Thou field of the Buddhas' influence, Obeisanc e to Thee, 0, Thou who dost cause Karma to bear fruit. I and all of us having sown previous evil Karma Are now reaping the fruits thereof, which all indeed may see. 520 Our future depends on what we have done now; Karma follows us, as inexorably as the shadow does the body. Everyone must taste the fruit of what each has himself done. Even should one repent, and be sorry for his deeds There is no help for him as Karma cannot be avoided. So we who are destined by Karma to drink the bitter cup to the very dregs, We do therefore offer up our bodies to serve as the cushion of Thy footstool. Pray accept them as such." Having said so, they laid themselves prostrate, and from this originates the symbolism of every Deity having a Rutra underneath his feet. Then the vassa l Chiefs of the Rutra submitted their prayers: "We have no claim to sit in the middle, Be pleased to place us at the extremities of the Mandalas. We have no right to demand of the best of the banquets. We pray to be favored with the leavings, and the dregs of food and drink. Henceforth, we are Your subjects, and will never dis- obey Your commands. We will obey You in whatever You are pleased to com - 521 mand. As a loving mother is attracted towards her son, So shall we, too, be surely drawn near those who remind us of this oath of allegiance." Thus did they take the oath of allegiance. Then the Holder of the Mysteries, the Glorious One -- Vajrapani, pierced the heart of the prostrate Rutra with the Phurpa dagger and absolved him. All his Karmik sins and his Passions (Klesha) were thus immediately absolved. Then power was conferred on him, and vows were laid on him, and the water of Faith was poured on him. His body, speech and mind were blessed and consecrated towards Divine Service, and the Dorje of Faith was laid on the head, throat and heart. Thenceforward he was empowered to be the Guardian of the Faith, and named the Good Dark One, and his secret name conferred at the Initiation was Mahakala. Thus was he included in the assembly of the Vajrayana Deities. Finally, it was revealed to him that he would become a Buddha, by the name of Thalwai -Wangpo (the Lord of Ashes) in the World called Kod- pa-lhundrup (that is "self -produced" or "made -all-at-once"). Then the Rutra's dead body was thrown on this Jambu -dvipa , where it fell on its back. The head fell on Sinhala (Ceylon), the right arm and hand upon the Thogar (?) country and the left hand on Le (Ladak country). The right leg fell on Nepal, and the left on Kashmir. The entrails fell over Zahor. The heart fell on Urgyen (Cabul), and the Linga on Magadha. These form the eight chief countries. Thus the eight Matrikas of the eight Sthanas, headed by Gaurima and others: the eight natural Stupas headed by Potala; the eight occult Powers, which fascinate; the eight guardians (female), who enchant; the eight great trees, the eight great realm- protectors (Shing -kyong), the eight lakes, the eight great Naga spirits, the eight clouds, and the eight great Dikpalas (Cyogs -kyong or Protectors of the Directions) as well as the eight great cemeteries originated. With the end of the sixth Chapter of the Golden Rosary is concluded the account of the Vajrayana Devatas who appeared to aid in the conquest of human Egoism which had manifested itself in terrible form in the person of the great Rutra. As all but the fully pure have in them Rutra elements, they 522 are enjoined in Vajrayana to follow the methods of expurgation there revealed. 523 CHAPTER TWENTY -NINE. KUNDALINI SHAKTA (YOGA) The word "Yoga" comes from the root "yuj" which means "to join" and, in its spiritual sense, it is that process by which the human spirit is brought into near and conscious communion with, or is merged in, the Divine Spirit, according as the nature of the human sp irit is held to be separate from (Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita) or one with (Advaita) the Divine Spirit. As, according to Shakta doctrine, with which alone we are concerned, the latter proposition is affirmed, Yoga is that process by which the identity of the t wo (Jivatma and Paramatma), -- which identity ever in fact exists, -- is realized by the Yogi or practitioner of Yoga. It is so realized because the Spirit has then pierced through the veil of Maya which as mind and matter obscures this knowledge from itself. The means by which this is achieved is the Yoga process which liberates from Maya. So the Gheranda Samhita, a Hathayoga treatise of the Tantrik school, says (Chap. 5): "There is no bond equal in strength to Maya, and no power greater to destroy that bond than Yoga." From an Advaita or Monistic standpoint, Yoga in the sense of a final union is inapplicable, for union implies a dualism of the Divine and Human spirit. In such a case, it denotes the process rather than the result. When the two are regarded as distinct, Yoga may apply to both. A person who practices Yoga is called a "Yogi." According to Indian notions all are not competent (Adhikari) to attempt Yoga; only a very few are. One must, in this or in other lives, have first gone through Karma or ritu al, and Upasana or devotional worship and obtained the fruit thereof, namely, a pure mind (Citta- shuddhi). This Sanskrit term does not merely mean a mind free from sexual impurity, as an English reader might suppose. The attainment of this and other good qualities is the A B C of Sadhana. A person may have a pure mind in this sense and yet be wholly incapable of Yoga. Citta -shuddhi consists not merely in moral purity of every kind, but in knowledge, detachment, capacity for pure intellectual functioning, attention, meditation and so forth. When, by Karma and Upasana, the mind is brought to this point and when, in the case of Vedantik Yoga, there is dispassion and detachment from the world and its 524 desires, then the Yoga path is open for the realization of Tat tva-jana, that is ultimate Truth. Very few persons indeed are competent for Yoga in its higher forms. The majority should seek their advancement along the path of ritual and devotion. There are four main forms of Yoga, according to a common computation, namely, Mantrayoga, Hathayoga, Layayoga, and Rajayoga, the general characteristics of which have been described in The Serpent Power. It is only necessary here to note that Kundali -yoga is Layayoga. The Eighth Chapter of the Sammohana Tantra, however, speak s of five kinds, namely, Jana, Raja, Laya, Hatha, and Mantra, and mentions as five aspects of the spiritual life, Dharma, Kriya, Bhava, Jana, and Yoga; Mantrayoga being said to be of two kinds, according as it is pursued along the path of Kriya or Bhava. Many forms of Yoga are in fact mentioned in the books. There are seven Sadhanas of Yoga, namely, Sat -karma, Asana, Mudra, Pratyahara, Pranayama, Dhyana, and Samadhi, which are cleansing of the body, seat, postures for gymnastic and Yoga purposes, the abst raction of the senses from their objects, breath control (the celebrated Pranayama), meditation, and ecstasy, which is of two kinds, imperfect (Savikalpa) in which dualism is no'. wholly overcome, and perfect (Nirvikalpa) which is complete Monistic experie nce -- "Aham Brahmasmi", "I am the Brahman" -- a knowledge in the sense of realization which, it is to be observed, does not produce Liberation (Moksha) but is Liberation itself. The Samadhi of Laya- yoga is said to be Savikalpa - Samadhi, and that of complete Raja -yoga is said to be Nirvikalpasamadhi. The first four processes are physical and the last three mental and supramental (see Gheranda Samhita, Upadesha, I). By these seven processes respectively certain qualities are gained, namely, purity (Shodhana), firmness and strength (Dridhata), fortitude (Sthirata), steadiness (Dhairya), lightness (Laghava), realization (Pratyaksha), and detachment leading to Liberation (Nirliptattva). What is known as the eight- limbed Yoga (Ashtanga -yoga) contains five of the a bove Sadhanas (Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dhyana, and Samadhi) and three others, namely, Yama or self -control by way of chastity, temperance, avoidance of harm (Ahimasa) and their virtues, Niyama or religious observances, charity and so forth, with Devotion to the Lord 525 (Ishvara -pranidhana), and Dharana, the fixing of the internal organ on its subject as directed in the Yoga practice. For further details, I refer the reader to my introduction to the work entitled The Serpent Power. Here I will only deal shortly with Laya- yoga or the arousing of Kundalini Shakti, a subject of the highest importance in the Tantra Shastra, and without some knowledge of which much of its ritual will not be understood. I cannot enter into all the details which demand a lengthy exposition, and which I have given in the Introduction to the two Sanskrit works called Satcakranirupana, and Padukapacaka translated in the volume, The Serpent Power which deals with kundalini Shakti and the piercing by Her of the six bodily centers or Cakras. The general principle and meaning of this Yoga has never yet been published, and the present Chapter is devoted to a short summary of these two points only. All the world (I speak, of course, of those interested in such subjects) is beginning to speak of Kundalini Shakti, "cette femeuse Kundalini" as a French friend of mine calls Her. There is considerable talk about the Cakras and the Serpent Power but lack of understanding as to what they mean. This, as usual, is sought to be covered by an air of m ystery, mystical mists, and sometimes the attitude: "I should much like to tell you if only I were allowed to give it out." A silly Indian boast of which I lately read is, "I have the key and I keep it." Those who really have the key to anything are superi or men, above boasting. "Mysticism," which is often confused thinking, is also a fertile soil of humbug. I do not, of course, speak of true Mysticism. Like all other matters in this Indian Shastra the basis of this Yoga is essentially rational. Its thought, like that of the ancients generally, whether of East or West, has in general the form and brilliance of a cut gem. It is this quality which makes it so dear to some of those who have had to wade through the slush of much modern thought and literature. No attempt has hitherto been made to explain the general principles which underlie it. This form of Yoga is an application of the general principles relating to Shakti with which I have already dealt. The subject has both a theoretical and a practical aspect. The latter is concerned with the teaching of the method in such a way that the aspirant may give effect to it. This cannot be learnt from books but only from the Guru who has himself successfully practiced this Yoga. Apart from difficulties, inherent in written explanations, 526 it cannot be practically learnt from books, because the carrying out of the method is affected by the nature and capacity of the Sadhaka and what takes place during his Sadhana. Further, though some general features of the method have been explained to me, I have had no practical experience myself of this Power. I am not speaking as a Yogi in this method, which I am not; but as one who has read and studied the Shastra on this matter, and has had the further advantage of some oral explanations which have enabled me to better understand it. I have dealt with this practical side, so far as it is possible to me, in my work, The Serpent Power. Even so far as the matter can be dealt with in writing, I cannot, within the limits of such a paper as this, deal with it in any way fully. A detailed description of the Cakras and their significance cannot be attempted here. I refer the reader to the work entitled The Serpent Power. What I wish to do is to treat the subject on the broadest lines possib le and to explain the fundamental principles which underlie this Yoga method. It is because these are not understood that there is much confused thinking and misty, if not mystical, talk upon the subject. How many persons, for instance, can correctly answe r the question, "What is Kundalini Shakti?" One may be told that it is a Power or Shakti; that it is coiled like a serpent in the Muladhara; and that it is wakened and goes up through the Cakras to the Sahasrara. But what Shakti is it? Why, again, is it co iled like a serpent? What is the meaning of this? What is the nature of the Power? Why is it in the Muladhara? What is the meaning of "awakening" the power? Why if awakened should it go up? What are the Cakras? It is easy to say that they are regions or lotuses. What are they in themselves? Why have each of the lotuses a different number of petals? What is a petal? What and why are the "Letters" on them? What is the effect of going to the Sahasrara: and how does that effect come about? These and other similar questions require an answer before this form of Yoga can be understood. I have said something as to the Letters in the chapters on Shakti as Mantra and Varnamala. With these and with other general questions, rather than with the details of the six Cakras, set forth in The Serpent Power I will here deal. In the first place, it is necessary to remember the fundamental principle of the Tantra Shastra to which I have already referred, viz., that man is a microcosm (Kshudrabrahmanda). Whatever exists in the outer universe 527 exists in him. All the Tattvas and the worlds are within him and so are the supreme Shiva -Shakti. The body may be divided into two main parts, namely, the head and trunk on one hand, and the legs on the other. In man, the center of the body i s between these two, at the base of the spine where the legs begin. Supporting the trunk and throughout the whole body there is the spinal cord. This is the axis of the body, just as Mount Meru is the axis of the earth. Hence man's spine is called Merudand a, the Meru or axis- staff. The legs and feet are gross matter which show less signs of consciousness than the trunk with its spinal white and gray matter; which trunk itself is greatly subordinate in this respect to the head containing the organ of mind, or physical brain, with its white and gray matter. The position of the white and gray matter in the head and spinal column respectively are reversed. The body and legs below the center are the seven lower or nether worlds upheld by the sustaining Shaktis of the universe. From the center upwards, consciousness more freely manifests through the spinal and cerebral centers. Here there are the seven upper regions or Lokas, a term which Satyananda in his commentary on Isha Upanishad says, means "what are seen" (Lokyante), that is, experienced and are hence the fruits of Karma in the form of particular re- birth. These regions, namely, Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah, Tapah, Jana, Mahah, and Satya Lokas correspond with the six centers; five in the trunk, the sixth in the lower cerebral center; and the seventh in the upper Brain or Satya -loka, the abode of the supreme Shiva -Shakti. The six centers are the Muladhara or root -support situated at the base of the spinal column in a position midway in the perineum between the root of the genitals and the anus. Above it, in the region of the genitals, abdomen, heart, chest or throat and in the forehead between the two eyes (Bhrumadhye) are the Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Aja Cakras or lotuses (Padma) respectively. Thes e are the chief centers, though the books speak of others such as the Lalana and Manas and Soma Cakras. In fact, in the Advaita Martanda, a modern Sanskrit book by the late Guru of the Maharaja of Kashmir, some fifty Cakras and Adharas are mentioned: though the six stated are the chief upon which all accounts agree. And so it is said. "How can there be any Siddhi for him who knows 528 not the six Cakras, the sixteen Adharas, the five Ethers and the three Lingas in his own body?" The seventh region beyond the Ca kras is the upper brain, the highest center of manifestation of Consciousness in the body and therefore the abode of the supreme Shiva -Shakti. When "abode" is said, it is not meant, of course, that the Supreme is there placed in the sense of our "placing," namely, it is there and not elsewhere. The Supreme is never localized whilst its manifestations are. It is everywhere both within and without the body, but it is said to be in the Sahasrara, because it is there that the Supreme Shiva -Shakti is realized. A nd this must be so, because consciousness is realized by entering in and passing through the highest manifestation of mind, the Sattvamayi Buddhi, above and beyond which is Cit and Cidrupini Shakti themselves. From their Shiva -Shakti Tattva aspect are evol ved Mind in its form as Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas and associated senses (Indriyas) the center of which is in and above the Aja Cakra and below the Sahasrara. From Ahamkara proceed the Tanmatras or generals of the sense- particulars which evolve the five forms of sensible matter (Bhuta), namely, Akasha ("Ether"), Vayu ("Air"), Agni ("Fire"), Apas ("Water"), and Prithivi ("Earth"). The English translations given of these terms do not imply that the Bhutas are the same as the English elements of air, fire, water , earth. The terms indicate varying degrees of matter from the ethereal to the solid. Thus Prithivi or earth is any matter in the Prithivi state; that is, which may be sensed by the Indriya of smell. Mind and matter pervade the whole body. But there are centers therein in which they are predominant. Thus Aja is a center of mind, and the five lower Cakras are centers of the five Bhutas; Vishuddha of Akasha, Anahata of Vayu, Manipura of Agni, Svadhisthana of Apas, and Muladhara of Prithivi. In short, man as a microcosm is the all -pervading Spirit (which most purely manifests in the Sahasrara) vehicled by Shakti in the form of Mind and Matter the centers of which are the sixth and following five Cakras respectively. The six Cakras have been identified with the following plexuses commencing from the lowest, the Muladhara: The Sacrococcygeal plexus, the Sacral plexus, the Solar plexus (which forms the great junction of the right and left sympathetic chains Ida and Pingala with the cerebro- spinal 529 axis.) Connected with this is the Lumbar plexus. Then follows the Cardiac plexus (Anahata), Laryngeal plexus, and lastly the Aja or cerebellum with its two lobes, and above this the Manas Cakra or sensorium with its six lobes, the Soma -cakra or middle Cerebrum, and lastly the Sahasrara or upper Cerebrum. To some extent these localizations are yet tentative. This statement may involve an erroneous view of what the Cakras really are, and is likely to produce wrong notions concerning them in others. The six Cakras themselves are vital centers within the spinal column in the white and gray matter there. They may, however, and probably do, influence and govern the gross tract outside the spine in the bodily region lateral to, and co-extensive with, the section of the spinal column in which a particular center is situated. The Cakras are centers of Shakti as vital force. In other words they are centers of Pranashakti manifested by Pranavayu in the living body, the presiding Devatas of which are names for the Universal Consciousness as It manifests in the form of those centers. The Cakras are not perceptible to the gross senses, whatever may be a Yogi's powers to observe what is beyond the senses (Atindriya). Even if they were perceptible in the living body which they help to organi ze, they disappear with the disintegration of organism at death. In an article on the Physical Errors of Hinduism, (Calcutta Review, XI, 436 - 440) it was said: "It would' indeed excite the surprise of our readers to hear that the Hindus, who would not even touch a dead body, much less dissect it (which is incorrect), should possess any anatomical knowledge at all.......It is the Tantras that furnish us with some extraordinary pieces of information concerning the human body ......But of all the Hindus Shastra s extant, the Tantras lie in the greatest obscurity...... The Tantrik theory, on which the well -known Yoga called 'Shatcakrabheda' is founded, supposes the existence of six main internal organs, called Cakras or Padmas, all bearing a special resemblance to that famous flower, the lotus. These are placed one above the other, and connected by three imaginary chains, the emblems of the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the Sarasvati......Such is the obstinacy with which the Hindus adhere to these erroneous notions, that, even when we show them by actual dissection the nonexistence of the imaginary Cakras in the human body, they will rather have recourse to excuses revolting to common-sense than acknowledge the evidence of their own eyes. They say, 530 with a shamelessness un paralleled, that these Padmas exist as long as a man lives, but disappear the moment he dies." This alleged "shamelessness" reminds me of the story of a doctor who told my father "that he had performed many postmortems and had never yet discovered a soul." The petals of the lotuses vary being 4, 6, 10, 12, 16 and 2 respectively, commencing from the Muladhara and ending with Aja. There are 50 in all, as are the letters of the alphabet which are in the petals; that is, the Matrikas are associated with the Tattvas since both are products of the same creative Cosmic Process manifesting either as physiological or psychological function. It is noteworthy that the number of the petals is that of the letters leaving out either Ksha or the Second La, and that these 50 multiplied by 20 are in the 1,000 petals of the Sahasrara, a number which is probably only indicative of multitude and magnitude. But why, it may be asked, do the petals vary in number? Why, for instance, are there 4 in the Muladhara and 6 in the Svadhisthana? The answer given is that the number of petals in any Cakra is determined by the number and position of the Nadis or Yoga "nerves" around that Cakra. Thus, four Nadis surrounding and passing through the vital movements of the Muladhara Cakra give it the appearance of a lotus of four petals. The petals are thus configurations made by the position of Nadis at any particular center. These Nadis are not those which are known to the Vaidya of Medical Shastras. The latter are gross physical nerves. Rut the former here spoken of are called Yoga -Nadis and are subtle channels (Vivara) along which the Pranik currents flow. The term Nadi comes from the root "Nad" which means motion. The body is filled with an uncountable number of Nadis. If they were revealed to the eye the body would present the appearance of a highly complicated chart of ocean currents. Superficially the water seems one and the same. But examination shows that it is moving with varying degrees of force in all directions. All these lotuses exist in the spinal column. An Indian physician and Sanskritist has, in the Guy's Hospital Gazette, expressed the opinion that better anatomy is given in the Tantras than in the purely medical works of the Hindus. I have attempted elsewhere to co - relate present and ancient anatomy and physiology. I can, however, only mention here some salient points, first pointing out that the Shivasvarodaya 531 Shastra gives prominence to nerve centers and nerve currents (Vayu) and their control, such teaching being for the purpose of worship (Upasana) and Yoga. The aims and object of the two Shastras are not the same. The Merudanda is the vertebral column. Western Anatomy divides it into five regions; and it is to be noted in corroboration of the theory here exposed that these correspond with the regions in which the five Cakras are situate. The central spinal system comprises the brain or encephalon contained within the skull (in which are the Lalana, Aja, Manas, Soma Cakras and the Sahasrara); as also the spinal cord extending f rom the upper border of the Atlas below the cerebellum and descending to the second lumbar vertebra where it tapers to a point called the filum terminale.Within the spine is the cord, a compound of gray and white brain matter, in which are the five lower C akras. It is noteworthy that the filum terminale was formerly thought to be a mere fibrous cord, an unsuitable vehicle, one might think, for the Muladhara Cakra and Kundali Shakti. Recent microscopic investigations have, however, disclosed the existence of highly sensitive gray matter in the filum terminale which represents the position of the Muladhara. According to Western science, the spinal cord is not merely a conductor between the periphery and the centers of sensation and volition, but is also an independent center or group of centers. The Sushumna is a Nadi in the center of the spinal column. Its base is called the Brahmadvara or Gate of Brahman. As regards the physiological relations of the Cakras all that can be said with any degree of certainty is that the four above the Muladhara have relation to the genito- excretory, digestive, cardiac and respiratory functions, and that the two upper centers, the Aja (with associated Cakras) and the Sahasrara denote various forms of its cerebral activity ending in the response of Pure Consciousness therein gained through Yoga. The Nadis on each side called Ida and Pingala are the left and right sympathetic cords crossing the central column from one side to the other, making at the Aja with the Sushumna a threefold knot called Triveni; which is the spot in the Medulla where the sympathetic cords join together and whence they take their origin -- these Nadis together with the two - lobed Aja and the Sushumna forming the figure of the Caduceus of the God Mercury which is said by some to represent them. 532 How then does this Yoga compare with others? It will now be asked what are the general principles which underlie the Yoga practice above described. How is it that the rousing of Kundalini Shakti and Her union with Shiva effect the state of ecstatic union (Samadhi) and spiritual experience which is alleged. The reader who has understood the general principles recorded in the previous essays should, if he has not already divined it, readily appreciate the answer here give n. In the first place, there are two main lines of Yoga, namely, Dhyana or Bhavana Yoga and Kundali Yoga, the subject of this work; and there is a marked difference between the two. The first class of Yoga is that in which ecstasy (Samadhi) is attained by intellective processes (Kriya -jana) of meditation and the like, with the aid, it may be, of auxiliary processes of Mantra or Hatha Yoga (other than the rousing of Kundalini Shakti) and by detachment from the world; the second stands apart as that portion of Hatha Yoga in which, though intellective processes are not neglected, the creative and sustaining Shakti of the whole body is actually and truly united with the Lord Consciousness. The yogi makes Her introduce him to Her Lord, and enjoys the bliss of union through Her. Though it is he who arouses Her, it is She who gives Jana, for She is Herself that. The Dhyanayogi gains what acquaintance with the supreme state his own meditative powers can given him and knows not the enjoyment of union with Shiva in and through his fundamental Body -Power. The two forms of Yoga differ both as to method and result. The Hathayoga regards his Yoga and its fruit as the highest. The Janayogi may think similarly of his own. Kundalini is so renowned that many seek to know Her. Having studied the theory of this Yoga, I have been often asked: "Whether one can get on without it." 'The answer is: "It depends upon what you are looking for." If you want to rouse Kundalini Shakti to enjoy the bliss of union of Shiva and Shakti through Her and to gain the accompanying Powers (Siddhi) it is obvious that this end can only, if at all, be achieved by the Yoga here described. But if Liberation is sought without desire for union through Kundali then such Yoga is not necessary; for Liberation may be obtained by pure Janayoga through detachment, the exercise, and then the stilling of the mind, without any reference to the central Body -Power at all. Instead of setting out in and from the world to 533 unite with Shiva, the Janayogi, to attain this result, detaches himself from the world. The one is the path of enjoyment and the other of asceticism. Samadhi may also be obtained on the path of devotion (Bhakti) as on that of knowledge. Indeed, the highest devotion (Parabhakti) is not different from knowledge. Both are realization. But, whilst Liberation (Mukti) is attainable by either method, there are other marked differences between the two. A Dhyanayogi should not neglect his body knowing that as he is both mind and matter each reacts, the one upon the other. Neglect or mere mortification of the body is more apt to produce disordered imagination than a true spiritual experience. He is not concerned, however, with the body in the sense that the Hathayogi is. It is possible to be a successful Dhyanayog i and yet to be weak in body and health, sick, and short -lived. His body and not he himself determines when he shall die. He cannot die at will. When he is in Samadhi, Kundali Shakti is still sleeping in the Muladhara and none of the physical symptoms and psychical bliss, or powers (Siddhi) described as accompanying Her rousing are observed in his case. The Ecstasis which he calls "Liberation while yet living" (Jivanmukti) is not a state like that of real Liberation. He may be still subject to a suffering b ody from which he escapes only at death, when, if at all, he is liberated. His ecstasy is in the nature of a meditation which passes into the Void (Bhavanasamadhi) effected through negation of all thought -form (Citta- vritti) and detachment from the world; a comparatively negative process in which the positive act of raising the central power of the body takes no part. By his effort the mind, which is a product of Kundalini as Prakriti Shakti, together with its worldly desires is stilled so that the veil produced by mental functioning is removed from Consciousness. In Layayoga, Kundalini Herself, when roused by the Yogi (for such rousing is his act and part), achieves for him this illumination. But why, it may be asked, should, one trouble over the body and its Central Power, the more particularly as there are unusual risks and difficulties involved? The answer has been already given -- alleged completeness and certainty of realization through the agency of the Power which is knowledge itself (Janarupa Shakti), an intermediate acquisition or Powers (Siddhi), and intermediate and final enjoyment. This answer may, however, be usefully developed as a fundamental principle of the Shakta Tantra. 534 The Shakta Tantra claims to give both Enjoyment (Bhukti) in the world and Liberation (Mukti) from all worlds. This claim is based on a profoundly true principle, given Advaitavada as a basis. If the ultimate reality is the One which exists in two aspects of quiescent enjoyment of the Self, in liberation from all form and ac tive enjoyment of objects, that is, as pure spirit and spirit in matter, then a complete union with Reality demands such unity in both of Its aspects. It must be known both "here" (Iha) and "there" (Amutra). When rightly apprehended and practiced, there is truth in the doctrine which teaches that man should make the best of both worlds. There is no real incompatibility between the two, provided action is taken in conformity with the universal law of manifestation. It is held to be false teaching that happiness hereafter can only be had by absence of enjoyment now, or in deliberately sought -for suffering and mortification. It is the one Shiva who is the Supreme Blissful Experience and who appears in the form of man with a life of mingled pleasure and pain. Both happiness here and the bliss of Liberation here and hereafter may be attained, if the identity of these Shivas be realized in every human act. This will be achieved by making every human function, without exception, a religious act of sacrifice and worship (Yaja). In the ancient Vaidik ritual, enjoyment by way of food and drink, was preceded and accompanied by ceremonial sacrifice and ritual. Such enjoyment was the fruit of the sacrifice and the gift of the Devas. At a higher stage in the life of a Sadhaka, it is offered to the One from whom all gifts come and of whom the Devatas are inferior limited forms. But this offering also involves a dualism from which the highest Monistic (Advaita) Sadhana of the Shakta Tantra is free. Here the individual life an d the world- life are known as one. And so the Tantrik Sadhaka, when eating or drinking or fulfilling any other of the natural functions of the body does so, saying and believing, Shivo'ham, "I am Shiva", Bhairavo'ham, "I am Bhairava", "Sa'ham", "I am She". It is not merely the separate individual who thus acts and enjoys. It is Shiva who does so in and through him. Such an one recognizes, as has been well said, that his life and the play of all its activities are not a thing apart, to be held and pursued egotistically for its and his own separate sake, as though enjoyment was something to be filched from life by his own unaided strength and with a sense of separatedness; but his life and all its activities are conceived as part of the Divine action in nature -- 535 Shakti manifesting and operating in the form of man. He realizes in the pulsing beat of his heart the rhythm which throbs through and is the sign of the Universal Life. To neglect or to deny the needs of the body, to think of it as something not divine, is to neglect and deny the greater life of which it is a part; and to falsify the great doctrine of the unity of all and of the ultimate identity of Matter and Spirit. Governed by such a concept, even the lowliest physical needs take on a cosmic significance. The body is Shakti. Its needs are Sakti's needs; when man enjoys, it is Shakti who enjoys through him. In all he sees and does, it is the Mother who looks and acts. His eyes and hands are Hers. The whole body and all its functions are Her manifestation. To fully realize Her as such is to perfect this particular manifestation of Hers which is himself. Man when seeking to be the master of himself, seeks so on all the planes to be physical, mental and spiritual; nor can they be severed, for they are all related, being but differing aspects of the one all -pervading Consciousness. Who is the more divine: he who neglects and spurns the body or mind that he may attain some fancied spiritual superiority, or he who rightly cherishes both as forms of the one Spirit which they clothe? Realization is more speedily and truly attained by discerning Spirit in and as all being and its activities, than by fleeing from and casting these aside as being either unspiritual or illusory and impediments in the path. If not rig htly conceived, they map be impediments and the cause of fall; otherwise they become instruments of attainment; and what others are there to hand? And so the Kularnava Tantra says, "By what men fall by that they rise." When acts are done in the right feeling and frame of mind (Bhava), those acts give enjoyment (Bhukti), and the repeated and prolonged Bhava produces at length that divine experience (Tattvajana) which is liberation. When the Mother is seen in all things, She is at length realized as She who is beyond them all. These general principles have their more frequent application in the life of the world before entrance on the path of Yoga proper. The Yoga here described is, however, also an application of these same principles, in so far as it is claimed that thereby both Bhukti and Mukti are attained. Ordinarily, it is said, that where there is Yoga there is no Bhoga (enjoyment); but in Kaula teaching, Yoga is Bhoga, and Bhoga is Yoga, and the world itself becomes the seat of Liberation (Yogo bhogaya te, mokshayate samsarah). 536 By the lower processes of Hathayoga it is sought to attain a perfect physical body which will also be a wholly fit instrument by which the mind may function. A perfect mind, again, approaches, and in Samadhi passes into, Pure Consciousness itself. The Hathayogi thus seeks a body which shall be as strong as steel, healthy, free from suffering and therefore long -lived. Master of the body he is, master of both life and death. His lustrous form enjoys the vitality of youth. He lives as long as he has the will to live and enjoy in the world of forms. His death is the "death at will" (Iccha - mrityu); when making the great and wonderfully expressive gesture of dissolution (Samhara- mudra) he grandly departs. But it may be said, the Hatha -yogis do get sick and die. In the first place, the full discipline is one of difficulty and risk, and can only be pursued under the guidance of a skilled Guru. As the Goraksha Samhita says, unaided and unsuccessful practice may lead not only to disease but death. He who seeks to conquer the Lord of Death incurs the risk, on failure, of a more speedy conquest by Him. All who attempt this Yoga do not of course succeed or meet with the same measure of success. Those who fail not only incur the infirmities of ordinary men, but also others brought on by practices which have been ill pursued or for which they are not fit. Those again who do succeed, do so in varying degrees. One may prolong his life to the sacred age of 84, others to 100, others yet further. In theory at least those who are perfected (Siddha) go from this plane when they will. All have not the same capacity or opportunity, through want of will, bodily strength, or circumstance. All may not be willing or able to follow the strict rules necessary for su ccess. Nor does modern life offer in general the opportunities for so complete a physical culture. All men may not desire such a life or may think the attainment of it not worth the trouble involved. Some may wish to be rid of their body and that as speedily as possible. It is therefore said that it is easier to gain Liberation than Deathlessness. The former may be had by unselfishness, detachment from the world, moral and mental discipline. But to conquer death is harder than this, for these qualities and acts will not alone avail. He who does so conquer holds life in the hollow of one hand, and if he be a successful (Siddha) Yogi, Liberation in the other. He has Enjoyment and Liberation. He is the Emperor who is Master of the World and the Possessor of the Bliss which is beyond 537 all worlds. Therefore it is claimed by the Hathayogi that every Sadhana is inferior to Hathayoga. The Hathayoga who works for Liberation does so through the Yoga Sadhana here described which gives both Enjoyment and Liberation. At ev ery center to which he rouses Kundalini he experiences a special form of bliss (Ananda) and gains special powers (Siddhi). Carrying Her to the Shiva of his cerebral center he enjoys Supreme Bliss which in its nature is Liberation, and which when established in permanence is Liberation itself on the loosening of Spirit and Body. She who "shines like a chain of lights", a lightning flash -- in the center of his body is the "Inner Woman" to whom reference was made when it was said, "What need have I of any outer woman? I have an Inner Woman within myself." The Vira (heroic) Sadhaka, knowing himself as the embodiment of Shiva (Shivo'ham), unites with woman as the embodiment of Shakti on the physical plane. The Divya (Divine) Sadhaka or Yogi unites within himself his own Principles, female and male, which are the "Heart of the Lord" (Hridayam Parameshituh) or Shakti and Her Lord Consciousness or Shiva. It is their union which is the mystic coition (Maithuna) of the Tantras. There are two forms of union (Samarasya), namely, the first which is the gross (Sthula), or the union of the physical embodiments of the Supreme Consciousness; and the second which is the subtle (Sukshma), or the union of the quiescent and active principles in Consciousness itself. It is the lat ter which is Liberation. Lastly, what, in a philosophical sense, is the nature of the process here described? Shortly stated, Energy (Shakti) polarizes itself into two forms. namely, static or potential (Kundalini) and dynamic (the working forces of the bo dy as Prana). Behind all activity there is a static background. This static center in the human body is the central Serpent Power in the Muladhara (Root -support). It is the Power which is the static support (Adhara) of the whole body and all its moving Pra nik forces. This Center (Kendra) of Power is a gross form of Cit or Consciousness; that is, in itself (Svarupa), it is Consciousness; and by appearance it is a Power which, as the highest form of Force, is a manifestation of it. Just as there is a distinct ion (though identical at base) between the supreme quiescent Consciousness and Its active Power (Shakti), so when Consciousness manifests as Energy 538 (Shakti), it possesses the twin aspects of potential and kinetic Energy. There can be no partition in fact of Reality. To the perfect eye of the Siddha the process of Becoming is an ascription (Adhyasa). To the imperfect eye of the Sadhaka, that is, the aspirant for Siddhi (perfected accomplishment), to the spirit which is still toiling through the lower planes and variously identifying itself with them, Becoming is tending to appear and appearance is real. The Shakta Tantra is a rendering of Vedantik Truth from this practical point of view, and represents the world -process as a polarization in Consciousness itself. This polarity as it exists in, and as, the body is destroyed by Yoga which disturbs the equilibrium of bodily consciousness, which consciousness is the result of the maintenance of these two poles. In the human body the potential pole of Energy which i s the Supreme Power is stirred to action, on which the moving forces (dynamic Shakti) supported by it are drawn thereto, and the whole dynamism thus engendered moves upward to unite with the quiescent Consciousness in the Highest Lotus. There is a polarization of Shakti into two forms -- static and dynamic. In a correspondence I had with Professor Pramatha Natha Mukhyopadhyaya, on this subject, he very well developed this point and brought forward some suitable illustrations of it, which I am glad to avail myself of. He pointed out that, in the first place, in the mind or experience this polarization or polarity is patent to reflection: namely, the polarity between pure Cit and the Stress which is involved in it. This Stress or Shakti develops the mind through an infinity of forms and changes, themselves involved in the pure unbounded Ether of Consciousness, the Cidakasha. This analysis exhibits the primordial Shakti in the same two polar forms as before, static and dynamic. Here the polarity is most fundamental and approaches absoluteness, though of course, it is to be remembered that there is no absolute rest except in pure Cit. Cosmic energy is in an equilibrium which is relative and not absolute. Passing from mind, let us take matter. The atom of modern science has, as I have already pointed out, ceased to be an atom in the sense of an indivisible unit of matter. According to the electron theory, the so- called atom is a miniature universe resembling our solar system. At the center of this atomic system we h ave a charge of positive electricity round which a cloud of negative charges called Electrons revolve. The positive and negative charges 539 hold each other in check so that the atom is in a condition of equilibrated energy and does not ordinarily break up, though it may do so on the dissociation which is the characteristic of all matter, but which is so clearly manifest in radioactivity of radium. We have thus here again a positive charge at rest at the center, and negative charges in motion round about the center. What is thus said about the atom applies to the whole cosmic system and universe. In the world -system, the planets revolve round the Sun, and that system itself is probably (taken as a whole) a moving mass around some other relatively static center, until we arrive at the Brahma- bindu which is the point of Absolute Rest, round which all forms revolve and by which all are maintained. He has aptly suggested other illustrations of the same process. Thus, in the tissues of the living body, the operative energy is polarized into two forms of energy -- anabolic and catabolic, the one tending to change and the other to conserve the tissues; the actual condition of the tissues being simply the resultant of these two co -existent or concurrent activities. In the case, again, of the impregnated ovum, Shakti is already presented in its two polar aspects, namely, the ovum (possibly the static) and the spermatozoon, the dynamic. The germ cell does not cease to be such. It splits into two, one half, the somatic cell gradually developing itself into the body of the animal, the other half remaining encased within the body practically unchanged and as the germ -plasma is transmitted in the process of reproduction to the offspring. In short, Shakti, when manifesting, divide s itself into two polar aspects -- static and dynamic -- which implies that you cannot have it in a dynamic form without at the same time having it in a static form, much like the poles of a magnet. In any given sphere of activity of force, we must have, according to the cosmic principle, a static background -- Shakti at rest or "coiled" as the Tantras say. This scientific truth is illustrated in the figure of the Tantrik Kali. The Divine Mother moves as the Kinetic Shakti on the breast of Sadashiva who is the static background of pure Cit which is actionless (Nishkriya); the Gunamayi Mother being all activity. The Cosmic Shakti is the collectivity (Samashti) in relation to which the Kundali in particular bodies is the Vyasti (individual) Shakti. The body is, as I have stated, a microcosm (Kshudrabrahmanda). In the living 540 body there is, therefore, the same polarization of which I have spoken. From the Mahakundali the universe has sprung. In Her supreme form She is at rest, coiled round and one (as Cidrupini) with the Shivabindu. She is then at rest. She next uncoils Herself to manifest. Here the three coils of which the Tantras speak are the three Gunas, and the three and a half coils to which the Kubjika Tantra alludes are Prakriti and its three Gunas together with the Vikritis. Her 50 coils are the letters of the alphabet. As She goes on uncoiling, the Tattvas and the Matrikas, the Mothers of the Varnas, issue from Her. She is thus moving, and continues even after creation to move in the Tattvas so created. F or as they are born of movement, they continue to move. The whole world (Jagat) as the Sanskrit term implies, is moving. She thus continues creatively active until She has evolved Prithivi, the last of the Tattvas. First She creates mind and then matter. This latter becomes more and more dense. It has been suggested that the Mahabhutas are the Densities of modern science: Air density associated with the maximum velocity of gravity; Fire density associated with the velocity of light; Water or fluid density associated with molecular velocity and the equatorial velocity of the Earth's rotation; and Earth density, that of basalt associated with the Newtonian velocity of sound. However this be, it is plain that the Bhutas represent an increasing density of matter until it reaches its three- dimensional solid form. When Shakti has created this last or Prithivi Tattva, what is there further for Her to do? Nothing. She, therefore, then again rests. She is again coiled, which means that She is at rest. "At rest," again, means that She assumes a static form. Shakti, however, is never exhausted, that is, emptied into any of its forms. Therefore, Kundali Shakti at this point is, as it were, the Shakti left over (though yet a plenum) after the Prithivi, the last of the Bhutas has been created. We have thus Mahakundali at rest as Cidrupini Shakti in the Sahasrara, the point of absolute rest; and then the body in which the relative static center is Kundali at rest, and round this center the whole of the bodily forces move. They are Shakti, and so is Kundali Shakti. The difference between the two is that they are Shakti in specific differentiated forms in movement; and Kundali Shakti is un-differentiated, residual Shakti at rest, that is, coiled. She is coiled in the Muladhara, which means fundamental support, and which is at the same time the seat of the Prithivi or last solid Tattva and of the residual Shakti or 541 Kundalini. The body may, therefore, be compared to a magnet with two poles. The Muladhara, in so far as it is the seat of Kundali Shakti, a comparatively gross form of Cit (being Cit -Shakti and Maya- Shakti) is the static pole in relation to the rest of the body which is dynamic. The "working" that is the body necessarily presupposes and finds such a static support; hence the name Muladhara. In one sense the static Shakti at the Mula -dhara is necessarily co- existent with the creating and evolving Shakti of the body; because the dynamic aspect or pole can never be without its static counterpart. In another sense, it is the residual Shakti left over after such operation. What, then, happens in the accomplishment of this Yoga? This static Shakti is affected by Pranayama and other Yogic processes and becomes dynamic. Thus, when completely dynamic, that is, when Kundali unites with Shiva in the Sahasrara, the polarization of the body gives way. The two poles are united in one and there is the state of consciousness called Samadhi. The polarization, of course, takes place in consciousness. The body actually continues to exist as an object of observation to others. It continues its organic life. But man's consciousness of his body and all other objects is withdrawn because the mind has ceased, so far as his consciousness is concerned, the function, having been withdrawn into its ground which is consciousness. How is the body sustained? In the first place, though Kundali Shakti is the static center of the whole body as a complete conscious organism, yet each of the parts of the body and their constituent cells have their own static centers which uphold such parts or cells. Next, the theory of the Tantriks themselves is that Kundali ascends, and that the body, as a complete organism, is maintained by the "nectar" which flows from the union of Shiva and Shakti in the Sahasrara. This nectar is an ejection of power generated by their union. My friend, however, whom I have cited, is of opinion (and for this grounds may be urged) that the potential Kundali Shakti becomes only partly and not wholly converted into kinetic Shakti; and yet since Shakti -- even as given in the Mula center -- is an infinitude, it is not depleted, the potential store always remaining unexhausted. In this case, the dynamic equivalent is a partial conversion of one mode of energy into another. If, 542 however, the coiled power at the Mula became absolutely uncoiled, there would result the dissolution of the three bodies, gross, subtle and causal, and consequently Videha- Mukti -- because the static background in relation to a particular form of existence would, according to this hypothesis, have wholly given way. He would explain the fact that the body becomes cold as a corpse as the Shakti leaves it, as being due, not to the depletion or privation of the static power at the Muladhara, but to the concentration or convergence of the dynamic power ordinarily diffused over the whole body, so that the dynamic equivalent which is set up against the static background of Kundali Shakti is only the diffused five -fold Prana gathered home -- withdrawn from the other tissues of the body and concentrated along the axis. Thus, ordinarily, the dynamic equivalent is the Prana diffused over all the tissues: in Yoga, it is converged along the axis, the static equivalent of Kundali Shakti enduring in both cases. Some part of the already availabl e dynamic Prana is made to act at the base of the axis in a suitable manner, by which means the basal center or Muladhara becomes, as it were, over- saturated and reacts on the whole diffused dynamic power (or Prana) of the body by withdrawing it from the tissues and converging it along the line of the axis. In this way the diffused dynamic equivalent becomes the converged dynamic equivalent along the axis. What, according to this view, ascends, is not the whole Shakti but an eject like condensed lightning, which at length reaches the Parama -Shivasthana. There, the Central Power which up-holds the individual world- consciousness is merged in the Supreme Consciousness. The limited consciousness, transcending the passing concepts of worldly life, directly intuits the unchanging Reality which underlies the whole phenomenal flow. When Kundali Shakti sleeps in the Muladhara, man is awake to the world; when she awakes to unite, and does unite, with the supreme static Consciousness which is Shiva, then consciousness is asleep to the world and is one with the Light of all things. Putting aside detail, the main principle appears to be that, when "wakened", Kundali Shakti either Herself (or as my friend suggests in Her eject) ceases to be a static Power which sustains the world -consciousness, the content of which is held only so long as She "sleeps": and when once set in movement is drawn to that other static center in the Thousand -petalled Lotus (Sahasrara) which is Herself in union with the Shiva -consciousness or the 543 consciousness of ecstasy beyond the world of forms. When Kundali "sleeps" man is awake to this world. When She "awakes" he sleeps, that is loses all consciousness of the world and enters his causal body. In Yoga he passes beyond to formless Consciousness. I have only to add, without further discussion of the point, that practitioners of this Yoga claim that it is higher than any other and that the Samadhi (ecstasy) attained thereby is more perfect. The reason which they allege is this. In Dhyanayoga, ecstasy takes place through detachment from the world, and mental concentration leading to vacuity of mental operation (Vritti) or the uprising of pure Consciousness unhindered by the limitations of the mind. The degree to which this unveiling of consciousness is e ffected depends upon the meditative powers (Janashakti) of the Sadhaka and the extent of his detachment from the world. On the other hand, Kundali who is all Shakti and who is therefore Janashakti Herself produces, when awakened by the Yogi, full Jana for him. Secondly, in the Samadhi of Dhyanayoga there is no rousing and union of Kundali Shakti with the accompanying bliss and acquisition of special Powers (Siddhi). Further, in Kundali Yoga there is not merely a Samadhi through meditation, but through the central power of the Jiva a power which carries with it the forces of both body and mind. The union in that sense is claimed to be more complete than that enacted through mental methods only. Though in both cases bodily consciousness is lost, in Kundalini- Yoga not only the mind, but the body, in so far as it is represented by its central power (or may be its eject) is actually united with Shiva. This union produces an enjoyment (Bhukti) which the Dhyanayogi does not possess. Whilst both the Divya Yogi and the Vira Sadhaka have enjoyment (Bhukti), that of the former is said to be infinitely more intense, being an experience of Bliss itself. The enjoyment of the Vira Sadhaka is but a reflection of it on the physical plane, a welling up of the true Bliss thro ugh the deadening coverings and trammels of matter. Again, whilst it is said that both have Liberation (Mukti), this word is used in Vira Sadhana in a figurative sense only, indicating a bliss which is the nearest approach on the physical plane to that of Mukti, and a Bhava or feeling of momentary union of Shiva and Shakti which ripens in the higher Yoga Sadhana into the literal liberation of the Yogi. He has both Enjoyment 544 (Bhukti) and Liberation (Mukti) in the fullest and literal sense. Hence its claim to be the Emperor of all Yogas. However this may be, I leave the subject at this point, with the hope that others will continue the esquire I have here initiated. It and other matters in the Tantra Shastra seem to me (whatever be their inherent value) worthy of an investigation which they have not yet received. 545 CHAPTER THIRTY . CONCLUSIONS Brahmanism or Hinduism, as in its later development the former has been called, is not merely a religion. It is a Socio- Economic System, the foundation of which is the Law of Caste and Stages of life. That System has its culture of which several forms of Religion, resting on a certain common basis, are but a part. Dealing, however, with Brahmanism in its religious aspect, we ma y say that it, together with Jainism and Buddhism, are the three chief religions of India, as opposed to those of the Semitic origin. All three religious systems share in common certain fundamental concepts which are denoted by the Sanskrit terms Karma, Samsara and Moksha. These concepts constitute a common denominator of Indian belief as next stated. The Universe is in constant activity. Nothing which is Psycho- physical is at rest. Karma is Action. The Psychophysical as such is determined by Karma or action, and, therefore, man's present condition is determined by past Karma, either his own, or that of collectivities of men of which he is a member, or with which he is in relation, as also by the action of natural causes. In the same way, present Karma determines the future Karma. The doctrine of Karma is thus the affirmance of the Law of causality operating not only in this but in an infinity of Universes. As you sow so shall you reap. The present Universe is not the first and last only. It is true that this particular Universe has a beginning and an end called dissolution, for nothing composite is eternal; but it is only one of a series which has neither beginning nor end. There has been, is now, and ever will be an Universe. Mental action as desire for worldly enjoyment, even though such enjoyment be lawful, keeps man in the Worlds of repeated Birth and Death, or (to use the English term) of Reincarnation. These worlds the Greeks called the Cycle of Becoming, and Hindus the Samsara, a term which literally means the unending 'moving on' or wandering, that is, being born and dying repeatedly. These worlds comprise not only Earth but Heaven and Hell, in which are reaped the fruits of man's actions on Earth. Heaven and Hell, are states of enjoyment and suffering which exist here on earth as well as in the 546 after- death state as the result of man's good and bad actions returning. When man dies there is no resurrection of the gross body. That is resolved into its subtle elements, and the specific relation between man and a particular gross body comes to an end. But there is always some body until bodiless liberation is achieved. On death man in his subtle body enjoys the state called Heaven or suffers in that called Hell. Neither is eternal, but each a part of the Cycle of the Becoming. When, then, man has had Heavenly enjoyment or suffered the pains of Hell in his subtle body, in the afterdeath state, according to his merits or demerits, he is 'reincarnated' in a gross body on Earth. He continues thus to be 'reincarnated' until he has found and desires the way out from the Cycle, that, is, until he ceases to desire world- existence. His desire is then not only for release from the sufferings and limited happiness of the Cycle but also (according to Vedanta) for the attai nment of the Supreme Worth which is Supreme Bliss. There is, in short, a change of values and states. Man, as Nietzsche said, is something to be transcended. He cannot transcend his present state so long as he is attached to and desires to remain in it. This liberation from the Cycle is called Moksha or Mukti. For all Three Systems are at one in holding that, notwithstanding the Law of Causality, man is free to liberate himself from the Cycle. Causality governs the Psychophysical. Spirit as such is Freedom from the Psycho- physical. All three Systems assume a State of Liberation. Whether the Universe as a play of force is the work of a Personal God is a question which philosophers have disputed both in the East and the West. One set of Buddhists professed belief in Deity as the Lord. Another affirmed Svabhava which means the proper vigor of Nature and what is called creation is truly spontaneity resulting from powers inherent in the Psycho - physical substance eternally. Mayavada Vedanta reconciles to a great ex tent these two views by its doctrine that the personal Brahman or the Lord is the self -less absolute Brahman as conceived by the Psycho- physical experiencer, though the latter as the Absolute exclusive of all relations is not the former. In Shakta doctrine Brahman is the Lord or Creator and Director of the Universe but in its own nature is more than that. 547 Whether there is or is not a Personal God or Lord (as held by some systems), belief in such a Lord is no essential portion of the Common Doctrine Both Jainism and Buddhism are atheistic in the sense of being Lordless, though the latter system, in some forms of the later Northern schools, takes on a theistic color. In fact the notion of a Personal God is no essential part even of Brahmanism itself. For putting aside downright atheists in the Western sense, such as the Indian Carvakas and Lokayatas who denied God, Soul, immortality and future life, it is to be observed that some schools posit no such Lord whilst others do. Two other concepts of first rate impo rtance are Dharma and its correlative adharma. These two terms, in the Brahmanic sense, mean right activity and its opposite. They are therefore connected with Karma of which they are two species. The term Dharma comes from the root Dhri which means to uphold and maintain, for right activity does that. All three systems posit right and wrong activity and their results as well -being and suffering respectively. Dharma is thus the Law of Being as Form. Morality is part of man's nature. It may therefore be said that the substance of the Brahmanic concept is held by all. Dharma as a technical term is not here included amongst the common concepts, because, its sense varies in Buddhism in which it has its own peculiar meaning, whilst in Jainism the word means somet hing wholly different from what it does in any other system. Each of the common concepts must be interpreted in the case of any particular Indian faith in terms of its own peculiar tenets as regards these concepts and other matters such as the Reality and Dissolution of the Universe, Karma and Liberation. Thus, the latter is defined differently in Buddhism, Jainism and in the various Brahmanical schools. According to all systems, Liberation is described as the release from the bondage of Birth and Death, Li mitation and Suffering. In some systems it is not positively said to be Joy, but is described as pure painless state of That which, in association with mind and matter, manifests as the empirical self. The Jainas regard it as a state of happiness. Some Buddhist descriptions are to the same effect, but in general Buddhism deprecates the discussion of so inconceivable a state. The Vedanta, on the other hand, positively describes it to be unalloyed and unending joy so that the nature of such Joy, whether as 548 arising through the identification of the individual self with the Supreme Self or in association therewith, is variously affirmed by the non- dualist, qualified non- dualist and dualist Brahmanic Schools. Brahmanism adds to these concepts of the Cycle (Samsara) right and wrong action (Dharma, Adharma), Causality (Karma), and Liberation (Moksha), that of the Atman. All recognized Brahmanic systems affirm the Atman, though they differ on the question of its nature as also whether it is one or many. It is on this question whether there is or is not an Atman that the Brahmanic and Buddhistic Schools are in dispute. The point at issue as formulated from the standpoint of Vedanta may be shortly stated to be as follows: Everyone admits the existence of a psycho- physical Flux either as the Individual or the Universe of his experience. Indeed, one of the Sanskrit names of the world is Jagat, which means "the moving thing". For the Universe is in constant activity. At every moment there is molar or molecular change . As an object of sensible perception the Universe is transitory, though some things endure longer or shorter than others. The question is, then, whether, besides psycho -physical transience, there is a spiritual enduring Essence of the Universe and of man, which manifests in the latter as the empirical self whereby it knows itself as permanent amidst all its changeful experiences. The Buddhists are reputed to have held that there is nothing but the flow. Man is only a continually changing psychophysical com plex without a static center, a series of momentary mental and bodily states, necessarily generated one from the other in continuous transformation. In this Flux there is no principle of permanence on which "as on a thread" the worlds as beads are strung. Man may have the notion that he is a Self, but this does not, it is said, prove that there is an Atman as 'substratum' of such empirical self. To this Vedanta asks -- If so, who is it that is born and re -incarnates? It then answers its question by saying t hat the embodied self is born and dies, but that the Atman as such is not a self and is neither born nor does it die. Birth and Death are attributed to it when it appears in connection with psycho- physical bodies. It is the embodied Atman which is born and dies. The Atman as it is in its own bodiless nature is unborn and eternal. 549 Change and changelessness are terms of logical, that is dualistic thinking, and have no meaning except in relation to one another. All activity implies a static condition relative to which it is active. There can be no Universe except by the combination of the active and non-active. Without activity the Universe does not become. Without some principle of stability it cannot exist even for a moment as an object of the senses. The alo gical Atman as such eternally endures. The Universe as the Psycho -physical is the product of the Atman as Power. As such product, it is transient. It presents, however, the appearance of relative or limited stability because of the immanence of the Atman. The Atman manifests as the relatively stable and empirical self, and That which manifests as such self is also the Brahman as essence of the Universe which is the object of such self. For Atman and Brahman are one and the same. According to the second standard, Atman is the seat of consciousness. In the Vedanta, however, Atman is consciousness itself. Whatever may have been its origin, as to which nothing is of a certainty known (Mother Goddess Worship is as old as the World), Shakta doctrine is now a form of Vedanta which may be called Shakti -vada or Shakta Vedanta. Kularnava Tantra speaks of that "Monism of which Shiva speaks" (Advaitantu Shivenoktam, 1, 108). See also Mahanirvana Tantra, Chapter II, 33 -34, III, 33- 35, 50 -64; Prapacasara Tantra, II, XIX, XXIX; Advaitabhavopanisad. For the identity of Jivatma and Paramatma in liberation (Mukti),which the Vedantasara defines to be Jivabrahmanohaikyam, see Mahanirvana Tantra, VIII, 264, 265; V, 105. See also Prapacasara Tantra, II, where Hrim is identified with Kundali and Hamsah, and then with "So'ham". See also ib., Chapter XXIV: "That, which. is subtle I am" (Yah Suksmah So'ham); and Janarnava Tantra; XXI, 10. As to Brahmasmi, see Kularnava Tantra, IX, 32, and ib., 41: So'ham bhavena pujayet. The Shakta disciple (Sadhaka) should not be a dualist (Maharudrayamala, I Khanda,, Chapter 15, II Khanda, Chapter 2). Similarly, the Gandharva Tantra Chapter 2, says that he must be devoid of dualism (Dvaitahina) (see Pranatoshini, 108) In fact, that particular from of worship which has earned the Kaula Tantras, their ill name is practical application of Advaitavada. Kaulacara is said to properly follow a full 550 knowledge of Vedantik doctrine. As the Satcakranirupana (see The Serpent Power) says, the Jivatma or embodied spirit is the same, as the Paramatma or Supreme Spirit, and knowledge of this is the root of all wisdom (Mulavidya). Shakta Vedanta teaches its doctrine from the practical standpoint which Mayavada calls Vyavaharika. It lays stress on the concept of Power. Atman is not mere Being only. Even in the dissolution of the world Being is Power, though Power or Shakti is then consciousness as such (Cidrupini). Atman manifests as the universe by and out of its power. Atman and Power are never separated, and so it is said, that" there is no Shiva without Shakti or Shakti without Shiva." Shiva without power is but a "corpse." Both Shiva and Shakti are of the same nature since they are both Being- Consciousness - Bliss. But Power manifests as the Becoming or Psycho -physical universe. Power is both Power to be, to self - conserve, and resist change, as well as Power to Become the universe and as material cause of the universe itself. Power to be is the static aspect of Shiva -Shakti. Power to become is the changeful aspect of Shiva- Shakti. In Mayavada the world is said to be produced by the Power of the Lord -- or Ishvara. But whilst Ishvara is Brahman or Godhead as conceived by the Psycho- physical experiencer, Brahman on the other hand is not Ishvara. The former is beyond (in the sense of exclusive of ) all relations with the universe, and so, though wrongly, some people call Ishvara 'Unreal' and the universe created by Him an 'illusion'. According to Shaktivada, not only is Ishvara Brahman, but Brahman is Ishvara, and no question of the reality of either Ishvara or the world arises. We may, however, say at once that Godhead is real, God is real and the universe is real. The use of the term 'illusion' only tends to mislead even in Mayavada. According to the concise definition of Kamala -kanta, a celebrated Sadhaka, Maya is the 'Form of the Form -less' (Shunyasya akara iti Maya). The World is the Divine Mother in form. As She is in Herself, She is formless. Discussion on the subject of the reality of the World is often vain and tedious, because the word 'Real' has several meanings, and that in which it is used is not stated. The terms "Absolute" and "Transcendental" should 551 also be clearly defined. The distinction between Maya -vada and Shakti - vada hinges on these definitions. Both "Absolute" and "Transcendental" mean "beyond relation." But the term beyond" may be used in two senses: (a) exceeding or wider than relation; (b) having no relation at all. The first does not deny or exclude relation but says that the Absolute, though involving all relations within itself, is not their sum total; is not exhausted by them; has Being transcending them. The latter denies every trace of relation to the Absolute; and says that the Absolute must have no intrinsic or extrinsic relation; that relation, therefore, has no place in the Being of the Absolute. Shakti -vada adopts the first view, Maya -vada the second. From the first point of view, the Absolute is relationless Being as well as Manifestation as an infinity of relations. This is the true and complete Alogical -Whole. Inasmuch as the Absolute exceeds all relation and thought, we cannot say that it is the Cause; that it is the Root of Creation; and so forth; but in as much also as it does involve relation and thought, we can say that It is the First Cause; that there has been a real creation, and so forth. The Maya- vada view by negating all relation from the reality of Brahman negates from its transcendent standpoint the reality of causation, creation and so forth. "Beyond" may, therefore, mean (1) "exceeding" "fuller than ", "not exhausted by", or (2) excluding, negating, expunging. In Shakti -vada, the Supreme Reality is fuller than any definition (limitation) which may be proposed. It is even beyond duality and non - duality. It is thus the Experien ce-Whole, the Alogical. The Maya- vada Pure Brahman is an aspect of It: but it is not the Whole (Purna). The expression "wider than relation" may be thus illustrated: I am related in one way to my wife; in another way to my children; in yet another way to m y brothers, friends and so on. I am not fully expressed by any one of these relations, nor even by their aggregate; for, as a member of an infinite Stress - system, I bear an infinity of relations. Pragmatically, most of these are ignored, and it is thought that I am expressed, by a certain set of relations 552 which distinguish me from another person who has his own "set". But Brahman as Absolute can have no such "Set". It is expressed, but not fully expressed, even by the infinite set of relations which the cosmos is, because relations, finite or infinite, imply a logical, and therefore segmenting and defining thought; but Brahman as Absolute = Experience -Whole = the Alogical. Since Brahman = Experience -Whole = Cit as Power to -Be-and- Become, it is nothing like the unknown and unknowable Being ("Thing -in itself") of Western Skeptics and Agnostics. In all Indian Systems, the world is real, in the sense that it has objective existence for, and is not a projection of, the individual mind . In all such systems, Mind a nd Matter co -exist, and this is so even in that form of Ekajiva -vada which holds that Brahman by its own veiling and limiting Power makes one Primary Self of itself, and that all other selves are but reflexes of the Primary self, having as reflexes no existence apart from that of the Primary one. The world of matter is not a projection of an individual mind, but its reality is coordinate with that of the individual mind, both being derived from the Self -veiling and Self -limiting operation of Brahman appeari ng as the One Jiva or Primary Self. Brahman, in appearing as Primary Self, also appears as its (logical) Correlate or Pole -- the Not -Self; and this Not -Self is the Root -Matter on which the primary Self is reflected as multiple selves and their varied relations. Matter, in this fundamental sense is not therefore the product of the first or primary individual (Self); it is with Self the co- effect (logically speaking) of a common fundamental activity which is the veiling and limiting action of the Supreme Bei ng. The version commonly given of Ekajiva -vada -- namely that the one Primary Self is Me, and that You, He and the rest, and the world of objects are the projection of Me -- is loose and unpsychological. In the first place, Me cannot be there (logically conceiving) without its Correlate or Pole -- the Not -Me; so that, by the very act by which Me is evolved from Brahman, its Correlate is also evolved, and this Correlate is Root -Matter. In the second place, projection, reflection and so forth presuppose not o nly the projecting or reflecting Being (that which projects or reflects), but also something on 553 which the projection or reflection is cast. Projection out of nothing and projection into nothing will give us only nothing. Where then there is Matter there is Mind. Where there is no Matter there is no Mind. One is meaningless without the other. Each is every whit as real as the other. But there is no Indian system which is Realist in the sense, that it holds that Matter exists when there is no Mind to perceive it. Such a state is inconceivable. He who alleges it, himself supplies the perceiving Mind. In the First standard, Mind and the so- called "atoms" of Matter are separate, distinct and independent Reals. Matter does not derive from Mind nor the latter from the former. In the Second Standard, both Matter and Mind are equally real, but derive from a common source the Psycho- physical Potential which as such is neither. 'Psychic' here means Mind as distinct from Consciousness in the sense of Cit. This Psycho -physical Potential is a Real, independent of Consciousness which is the other Real. In the Third Standard as non-dual Vedanta the position is the same, except that the Psychophysical Potential is not an independent Real but is the power of the One Supreme Real as God. The world is then Real in the sense that it has true objective Reality for the individual Experiencers for the duration of their experience of it. No one denies this. The next question is the problem of Monism. If ultimate Reality be One, how can it be the cause of and become the Universe. It is said, that Reality is of dual aspect, namely, as it is in relation to the World as Ishvara, the Lord or God, and as it is in itself beyond such relation which we may call Brahman. According to Mayavada, Ishvara is Brahman, for Ishvara is Brahman as seen through the Veil of Maya, that is, by the Psycho-physical Experiencer. But Brahman is not Ishvara because Brahman is the absolute alogical Real, that is, Reality not as conceived by Mind but as it is in itself beyond all relation. The notion of God as the Supreme Self is the highest concept imposed on the alogical which, as it is in itself, is not a Self either supreme or limited. The Absolute as such is not a cause. There is, transcendentally speaking, no creation, no Universe. The Absolute is and nothing happens. It is only pragmatically a Cause. There is from this aspect no nexus between Brahman and the World. In the logical order there is. What then is the Universe? It is in this connection that it is said by some to be an "illusion," which is an inapt 554 term. For to whom is it an "illusion"? Not to the Psycho- physical Experiencer to whom it is admittedly real. Nor is it illusion for the Experience -Whole. It is only by the importation of the logical notion of a self to whom an object is real or unreal that we can speak of illusion. But there is in this state of Liberation no Self. More correctly we say that the World is Maya. But what is Maya in Mayavada? It is not real, for it is neither Brahman nor an indepe ndent Real. Nor is it unreal for in the logical order it is real. It is neither Brahman nor different from it as an independent reality. It is unexplainable. For this reason one of the scholastics of this System calls it the doctrine of the Inscrutable. In the doctrine of Power (Shaktivada),Maya is the Divine Mother Power or Mahamaya. The two aspects of Reality as Brahman and Ishvara are accepted. The Lord is real, but that which we call 'Lord' is more than Lord, for the Real is not adequately defined in terms only of its relations to the Universe. In this sense it is alogical, that is, "beyond Mind and speech". As the one ultimate Reality is both Ishvara and Brahman, in one aspect it is the Cause, and in the other it is not. But it is one and the same Reality which is both as Shiva - Shakti. As these are real so are their appearance, the Universe. For the Universe is Shiva -Shakti. It is their appearance. When we say it is their appearance we imply that there has been a real becoming issuing from them as Powe r. Reality has two aspects. First as it is in itself, and secondly as it exists as Universe. At base the Samsara or worlds of Birth and Death and Moksha or Liberation are One. For Shiva- Shakti are both the Experience -Whole and the Part which exists therein as the Universe. Reality is a concrete unity in duality and duality in unity. In practice the One is realized in and as the Many and the Many as the One. So in the Shakta Wine ritual, the worshipper conceives himself to be Shiva Shakti as the Divine Mother . It is She who as and in the person of the worshipper, Her manifestation, consumes the wine which is again Herself, the Savioress in liquid form. It is not only he, who as a separate Self does so. This principle is applied to all man's functionings and is of cardinal importance from a Monistic standpoint notwithstanding its well -known abuse in fact. Real is again used in the sense of eminence. The Real is that which is for itself and has a reason for its being in itself. The Real as God is the perfect 555 and changeless and the "Good." The Universe is dependent on the Ens Realissimum, for it proceeds from it and is imperfect as limited and changeful and in a sense it is that which does not endure and in this sense is called 'unreal.' Though, however, the Universe comes and goes it does so eternally. The Supreme Cause is eternally creative. The Real is then both infinite Changeless Being as also unbeginning and unending process as the Becoming. In this system the Real both is and becomes. It yet becomes without d erogation from its own changelessness, as it were a Fountain of Life which pours itself forth incessantly from infinite and inexhaustible source. Both the infinite and the finite are real. Real is again used in the sense of interest and value and of the worth while". In this sense, the worshiper prays to be led from Unreality to Reality, but this does not mean that the world is unreal, but that it is not the supreme worth for him. In whatever sense, then, the term Real is used the Universe is that. All is real for as the Upanishad says, "All this Universe is verily Brahman". The Scriptural Text says "All". It does not say "This " but not "That". The whole is an alogical concrete Reality which is Unity in Duality and Duality in Unity. The doctrine does not lose hold of either the One or the Many, and for this reason the Lord Shiva says in the Kularnava Tantra, "There are some who seek dualism and some non- dualism, but my doctrine is beyond both." That is, it takes account of and reconciles both Dualism and No n-Dualism. Reality is no mere abstraction of the intellect making jettison of all that is concrete and varied. It is the Experience Whole whose object is Itself as such Whole. It is also Partial Experience within that whole. This union of whole and Part is alogical, not unknowable, for their unity is a fact of actual experience just as we have the unity of Power to Be and Power to Become, of the Conscious and Unconscious, of Mind and Body, of freedom and determination, and other dualities of Man's experiencing. 556 |
Superintelligence SUPERINTELLIGENCE Paths, Dangers, Strategies NICK BOSTROM Director, Future of Humanity Institute Professor, Faculty of Philosophy & Oxford Martin School University of Oxford Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Nick Bostrom 2014 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2013955152 ISBN 9780199678112 Printed in Italy by L.E.G.O. S.p.A.Lavis TN Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. The Unfinished Fable of the Sparrows It was the nest-building season, but after days of long hard work, the sparrows sat in the evening glow, relaxing and chirping away. We are all so small and weak. Imagine how easy life would be if we had an owl who could help us build our nests! Yes! said another. And we could use it to look after our elderly and our young. It could give us advice and keep an eye out for the neighborhood cat, added a third. Then Pastus, the elder-bird, spoke: Let us send out scouts in all directions and try to find an abandoned owlet somewhere, or maybe an egg. A crow chick might also do, or a baby weasel. This could be the best thing that ever happened to us, at least since the opening of the Pavilion of Unlimited Grain in yonder backyard. The flock was exhilarated, and sparrows everywhere started chirping at the top of their lungs. Only Scronkfinkle, a one-eyed sparrow with a fretful temperament, was unconvinced of the wisdom of the endeavor. Quoth he: This will surely be our undoing. Should we not give some thought to the art of owl-domestication and owl-taming first, before we bring such a creature into our midst? Replied Pastus: Taming an owl sounds like an exceedingly difficult thing to do. It will be difficult enough to find an owl egg. So let us start there. After we have succeeded in raising an owl, then we can think about taking on this other challenge. There is a flaw in that plan! squeaked Scronkfinkle; but his protests were in vain as the flock had already lifted off to start implementing the directives set out by Pastus. Just two or three sparrows remained behind. Together they began to try to work out how owls might be tamed or domesticated. They soon realized that Pastus had been right: this was an exceedingly difficult challenge, especially in the absence of an actual owl to practice on. Nevertheless they pressed on as best they could, constantly fearing that the flock might return with an owl egg before a solution to the control problem had been found. It is not known how the story ends, but the author dedicates this book to Scronkfinkle and his followers. PREFACE Inside your cranium is the thing that does the reading. This thing, the human brain, has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that we owe our dominant position on the planet. Other animals have stronger muscles and sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. Our modest advantage in general intelligence has led us to develop language, technology, and complex social organization. The advantage has compounded over time, as each generation has built on the achievements of its predecessors. If some day we build machine brains that surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. And, as the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species would depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence. We do have one advantage: we get to build the stuff. In principle, we could build a kind of superintelligence that would protect human values. We would certainly have strong reason to do so. In practice, the control problemthe problem of how to control what the superintelligence would dolooks quite difficult. It also looks like we will only get one chance. Once unfriendly superintelligence exists, it would prevent us from replacing it or changing its preferences. Our fate would be sealed. In this book, I try to understand the challenge presented by the prospect of superintelligence, and how we might best respond. This is quite possibly the most important and most daunting challenge humanity has ever faced. And whether we succeed or failit is probably the last challenge we will ever face. It is no part of the argument in this book that we are on the threshold of a big breakthrough in artificial intelligence, or that we can predict with any precision when such a development might occur. It seems somewhat likely that it will happen sometime in this century, but we dont know for sure. The first couple of chapters do discuss possible pathways and say something about the question of timing. The bulk of the book, however, is about what happens after. We study the kinetics of an intelligence explosion, the forms and powers of superintelligence, and the strategic choices available to a superintelligent agent that attains a decisive advantage. We then shift our focus to the control problem and ask what we could do to shape the initial conditions so as to achieve a survivable and beneficial outcome. Toward the end of the book, we zoom out and contemplate the larger picture that emerges from our investigations. Some suggestions are offered on what ought to be done now to increase our chances of avoiding an existential catastrophe later. This has not been an easy book to write. I hope the path that has been cleared will enable other investigators to reach the new frontier more swiftly and conveniently, so that they can arrive there fresh and ready to join the work to further expand the reach of our comprehension. (And if the way that has been made is a little bumpy and bendy, I hope that reviewers, in judging the result, will not underestimate the hostility of the terrain ex ante !) This has not been an easy book to write: I have tried to make it an easy book to read, but I dont think I have quite succeeded. When writing, I had in mind as the target audience an earlier time-slice of myself, and I tried to produce a kind of book that I would have enjoyed reading. This could prove a narrow demographic. Nevertheless, I think that the content should be accessible to many people, if they put some thought into it and resist the temptation to instantaneously misunderstand each new idea by assimilating it with the most similar-sounding clich available in their cultural larders. Non-technical readers should not be discouraged by the occasional bit of mathematics or specialized vocabulary, for it is always possible to glean the main point from the surrounding explanations. (Conversely, for those readers who want more of the nitty-gritty, there is quite a lot to be found among the endnotes. 1 ) Many of the points made in this book are probably wrong. 2 It is also likely that there are considerations of critical importance that I fail to take into account, thereby invalidating some or all of my conclusions. I have gone to some length to indicate nuances and degrees of uncertainty throughout the text encumbering it with an unsightly smudge of possibly, might, may, could well, it seems, probably, very likely, almost certainly. Each qualifier has been placed where it is carefully and deliberately. Yet these topical applications of epistemic modesty are not enough; they must be supplemented here by a systemic admission of uncertainty and fallibility. This is not false modesty: for while I believe that my book is likely to be seriously wrong and misleading, I think that the alternative views that have been presented in the literature are substantially worseincluding the default view, or null hypothesis, according to which we can for the time being safely or reasonably ignore the prospect of superintelligence. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The membrane that has surrounded the writing process has been fairly permeable. Many concepts and ideas generated while working on the book have been allowed to seep out and have become part of a wider conversation; and, of course, numerous insights originating from the outside while the book was underway have been incorporated into the text. I have tried to be somewhat diligent with the citation apparatus, but the influences are too many to fully document. For extensive discussions that have helped clarify my thinking I am grateful to a large set of people, including Ross Andersen, Stuart Armstrong, Owen Cotton- Barratt, Nick Beckstead, David Chalmers, Paul Christiano, Milan irkovi, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Daniel Dewey, Eric Drexler, Peter Eckersley, Amnon Eden, Owain Evans, Benja Fallenstein, Alex Flint, Carl Frey, Ian Goldin, Katja Grace, J. Storrs Hall, Robin Hanson, Demis Hassabis, James Hughes, Marcus Hutter, Garry Kasparov, Marcin Kulczycki, Shane Legg, Moshe Looks, Willam MacAskill, Eric Mandelbaum, James Martin, Lillian Martin, Roko Mijic, Vincent Mueller, Elon Musk, Sen higeartaigh, Toby Ord, Dennis Pamlin, Derek Parfit, David Pearce, Huw Price, Martin Rees, Bill Roscoe, Stuart Russell, Anna Salamon, Lou Salkind, Anders Sandberg, Julian Savulescu, Jrgen Schmidhuber, Nicholas Shackel, Murray Shanahan, Noel Sharkey, Carl Shulman, Peter Singer, Dan Stoicescu, Jaan Tallinn, Alexander Tamas, Max Tegmark, Roman Yampolskiy, and Eliezer Yudkowsky. For especially detailed comments, I am grateful to Milan irkovi, Daniel Dewey, Owain Evans, Nick Hay, Keith Mansfield, Luke Muehlhauser, Toby Ord, Jess Riedel, Anders Sandberg, Murray Shanahan, and Carl Shulman. For advice or research help with different parts I want to thank Stuart Armstrong, Daniel Dewey, Eric Drexler, Alexandre Erler, Rebecca Roache, and Anders Sandberg. For help with preparing the manuscript, I am thankful to Caleb Bell, Malo Bourgon, Robin Brandt, Lance Bush, Cathy Douglass, Alexandre Erler, Kristian Rnn, Susan Rogers, Andrew Snyder-Beattie, Cecilia Tilli, and Alex Vermeer. I want particularly to thank my editor Keith Mansfield for his plentiful encouragement throughout the project. My apologies to everybody else who ought to have been remembered here. Finally, a most fond thank you to funders, friends, and family: without your backing, this work would not have been done. CONTENTS Lists of Figures, Tables, and Boxes 1. Past developments and present capabilities Growth modes and big history Great expectations Seasons of hope and despair State of the art Opinions about the future of machine intelligence 2. Paths to superintelligence Artificial intelligence Whole brain emulation Biological cognition Braincomputer interfaces Networks and organizations Summary 3. Forms of superintelligence Speed superintelligence Collective superintelligence Quality superintelligence Direct and indirect reach Sources of advantage for digital intelligence 4. The kinetics of an intelligence explosion Timing and speed of the takeoff Recalcitrance Non-machine intelligence paths Emulation and AI paths Optimization power and explosivity 5. Decisive strategic advantage Will the frontrunner get a decisive strategic advantage? How large will the successful project be? Monitoring International collaboration From decisive strategic advantage to singleton 6. Cognitive superpowers Functionalities and superpowers An AI takeover scenario Power over nature and agents 7. The superintelligent will The relation between intelligence and motivation Instrumental convergence Self-preservation Goal-content integrity Cognitive enhancement Technological perfection Resource acquisition 8. Is the default outcome doom? Existential catastrophe as the default outcome of an intelligence explosion? The treacherous turn Malignant failure modes Perverse instantiation Infrastructure profusion Mind crime 9. The control problem Two agency problems Capability control methods Boxing methods Incentive methods Stunting Tripwires Motivation selection methods Direct specification Domesticity Indirect normativity Augmentation Synopsis 10. Oracles, genies, sovereigns, tools Oracles Genies and sovereigns Tool-AIs Comparison 11. Multipolar scenarios Of horses and men Wages and unemployment Capital and welfare The Malthusian principle in a historical perspective Population growth and investment Life in an algorithmic economy Voluntary slavery, casual death Would maximally efficient work be fun? Unconscious outsourcers? Evolution is not necessarily up Post-transition formation of a singleton? A second transition Superorganisms and scale economies Unification by treaty 12. Acquiring values The value-loading problem Evolutionary selection Reinforcement learning Associative value accretion Motivational scaffolding Value learning Emulation modulation Institution design Synopsis 13. Choosing the criteria for choosing The need for indirect normativity Coherent extrapolated volition Some explications Rationales for CEV Further remarks Morality models Do What I Mean Component list Goal content Decision theory Epistemology Ratification Getting close enough 14. The strategic picture Science and technology strategy Differential technological development Preferred order of arrival Rates of change and cognitive enhancement Technology couplings Second-guessing Pathways and enablers Effects of hardware progress Should whole brain emulation research be promoted? The person-affecting perspective favors speed Collaboration The race dynamic and its perils On the benefits of collaboration Working together 15. Crunch time Philosophy with a deadline What is to be done? Seeking the strategic light Building good capacity Particular measures Will the best in human nature please stand up Bibliography LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND BOXES List of Figures 1. Long-term history of world GDP . 2. Overall long-term impact of HLMI . 3. Supercomputer performance . 4. Reconstructing 3D neuroanatomy from electron microscope images . 5. Whole brain emulation roadmap . 6. Composite faces as a metaphor for spell-checked genomes . 7. Shape of the takeoff . 8. A less anthropomorphic scale? 9. One simple model of an intelligence explosion . 10. Phases in an AI takeover scenario . 11. Schematic illustration of some possible trajectories for a hypothetical wise singleton . 12. Results of anthropomorphizing alien motivation . 13. Artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation first? 14. Risk levels in AI technology races . List of Tables 1. Game-playing AI 2. When will human-level machine intelligence be attained? 3. How long from human level to superintelligence? 4. Capabilities needed for whole brain emulation 5. Maximum IQ gains from selecting among a set of embryos 6. Possible impacts from genetic selection in different scenarios 7. Some strategically significant technology races 8. Superpowers: some strategically relevant tasks and corresponding skill sets 9. Different kinds of tripwires 10. Control methods 11. Features of different system castes 12. Summary of value-loading techniques 13. Component list List of Boxes 1. An optimal Bayesian agent 2. The 2010 Flash Crash 3. What would it take to recapitulate evolution? 4. On the kinetics of an intelligence explosion 5. Technology races: some historical examples 6. The mail-ordered DNA scenario 7. How big is the cosmic endowment? 8. Anthropic capture 9. Strange solutions from blind search 10. Formalizing value learning 11. An AI that wants to be friendly 12. Two recent (half-baked) ideas 13. A risk-race to the bottom CHAPTER 1 Past developments and present capabilities We begin by looking back. History, at the largest scale, seems to exhibit a sequence of distinct growth modes, each much more rapid than its predecessor. This pattern has been taken to suggest that another (even faster) growth mode might be possible. However, we do not place much weight on this observationthis is not a book about technological acceleration or exponential growth or the miscellaneous notions sometimes gathered under the rubric of the singularity. Next, we review the history of artificial intelligence. We then survey the fields current capabilities. Finally, we glance at some recent expert opinion surveys, and contemplate our ignorance about the timeline of future advances. Growth modes and big history A mere few million years ago our ancestors were still swinging from the branches in the African canopy. On a geological or even evolutionary timescale, the rise of Homo sapiens from our last common ancestor with the great apes happened swiftly. We developed upright posture, opposable thumbs, and cruciallysome relatively minor changes in brain size and neurological organization that led to a great leap in cognitive ability. As a consequence, humans can think abstractly, communicate complex thoughts, and culturally accumulate information over the generations far better than any other species on the planet. These capabilities let humans develop increasingly efficient productive technologies, making it possible for our ancestors to migrate far away from the rainforest and the savanna. Especially after the adoption of agriculture, population densities rose along with the total size of the human population. More people meant more ideas; greater densities meant that ideas could spread more readily and that some individuals could devote themselves to developing specialized skills. These developments increased the rate of growth of economic productivity and technological capacity. Later developments, related to the Industrial Revolution, brought about a second, comparable step change in the rate of growth. Such changes in the rate of growth have important consequences. A few hundred thousand years ago, in early human (or hominid) prehistory, growth was so slow that it took on the order of one million years for human productive capacity to increase sufficiently to sustain an additional one million individuals living at subsistence level. By 5000 BC , following the Agricultural Revolution, the rate of growth had increased to the point where the same amount of growth took just two centuries. Today, following the Industrial Revolution, the world economy grows on average by that amount every ninety minutes. 1 Even the present rate of growth will produce impressive results if maintained for a moderately long time. If the world economy continues to grow at the same pace as it has over the past fifty years, then the world will be some 4.8 times richer by 2050 and about 34 times richer by 2100 than it is today. 2 Yet the prospect of continuing on a steady exponential growth path pales in comparison to what would happen if the world were to experience another step change in the rate of growth comparable in magnitude to those associated with the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. The economist Robin Hanson estimates, based on historical economic and population data, a characteristic world economy doubling time for Pleistocene huntergatherer society of 224,000 years; for farming society, 909 years; and for industrial society, 6.3 years. 3 (In Hansons model, the present epoch is a mixture of the farming and the industrial growth modesthe world economy as a whole is not yet growing at the 6.3-year doubling rate.) If another such transition to a different growth mode were to occur, and it were of similar magnitude to the previous two, it would result in a new growth regime in which the world economy would double in size about every two weeks. Such a growth rate seems fantastic by current lights. Observers in earlier epochs might have found it equally preposterous to suppose that the world economy would one day be doubling several times within a single lifespan. Yet that is the extraordinary condition we now take to be ordinary. The idea of a coming technological singularity has by now been widely popularized, starting with Vernor Vinges seminal essay and continuing with the writings of Ray Kurzweil and others. 4 The term singularity, however, has been used confusedly in many disparate senses and has accreted an unholy (yet almost millenarian) aura of techno-utopian connotations. 5 Since most of these meanings and connotations are irrelevant to our argument, we can gain clarity by dispensing with the singularity word in favor of more precise terminology. The singularity-related idea that interests us here is the possibility of an intelligence explosion , particularly the prospect of machine superintelligence. There may be those who are persuaded by growth diagrams like the ones in Figure 1 that another drastic change in growth mode is in the cards, comparable to the Agricultural or Industrial Revolution. These folk may then reflect that it is hard to conceive of a scenario in which the world economys doubling time shortens to mere weeks that does not involve the creation of minds that are much faster and more efficient than the familiar biological kind. However, the case for taking seriously the prospect of a machine intelligence revolution need not rely on curve-fitting exercises or extrapolations from past economic growth. As we shall see, there are stronger reasons for taking heed. Figure 1 Long-term history of world GDP. Plotted on a linear scale, the history of the world economy looks like a flat line hugging the x -axis, until it suddenly spikes vertically upward. (a) Even when we zoom in on the most recent 10,000 years, the pattern remains essentially one of a single 90 angle. (b) Only within the past 100 years or so does the curve lift perceptibly above the zero-level. (The different lines in the plot correspond to different data sets, which yield slightly different estimates. 6 ) Great expectations Machines matching humans in general intelligencethat is, possessing common sense and an effective ability to learn, reason, and plan to meet complex information-processing challenges across a wide range of natural and abstract domainshave been expected since the invention of computers in the 1940s. At that time, the advent of such machines was often placed some twenty years into the future. 7 Since then, the expected arrival date has been receding at a rate of one year per year; so that today, futurists who concern themselves with the possibility of artificial general intelligence still often believe that intelligent machines are a couple of decades away. 8 Two decades is a sweet spot for prognosticators of radical change: near enough to be attention-grabbing and relevant, yet far enough to make it possible to suppose that a string of breakthroughs, currently only vaguely imaginable, might by then have occurred. Contrast this with shorter timescales: most technologies that will have a big impact on the world in five or ten years from now are already in limited use, while technologies that will reshape the world in less than fifteen years probably exist as laboratory prototypes. Twenty years may also be close to the typical duration remaining of a forecasters career, bounding the reputational risk of a bold prediction. From the fact that some individuals have overpredicted artificial intelligence in the past, however, it does not follow that AI is impossible or will never be developed. 9 The main reason why progress has been slower than expected is that the technical difficulties of constructing intelligent machines have proved greater than the pioneers foresaw. But this leaves open just how great those difficulties are and how far we now are from overcoming them. Sometimes a problem that initially looks hopelessly complicated turns out to have a surprisingly simple solution (though the reverse is probably more common). In the next chapter, we will look at different paths that may lead to human- level machine intelligence. But let us note at the outset that however many stops there are between here and human-level machine intelligence, the latter is not the final destination. The next stop, just a short distance farther along the tracks, is superhuman-level machine intelligence. The train might not pause or even decelerate at Humanville Station. It is likely to swoosh right by. The mathematician I. J. Good, who had served as chief statistician in Alan Turings code-breaking team in World War II, might have been the first to enunciate the essential aspects of this scenario. In an oft-quoted passage from 1965, he wrote: Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an intelligence explosion, and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. 10 It may seem obvious now that major existential risks would be associated with such an intelligence explosion, and that the prospect should therefore be examined with the utmost seriousness even if it were known (which it is not) to have but a moderately small probability of coming to pass. The pioneers of artificial intelligence, however, notwithstanding their belief in the imminence of human-level AI, mostly did not contemplate the possibility of greater-than- human AI. It is as though their speculation muscle had so exhausted itself in conceiving the radical possibility of machines reaching human intelligence that it could not grasp the corollarythat machines would subsequently become superintelligent. The AI pioneers for the most part did not countenance the possibility that their enterprise might involve risk. 11 They gave no lip servicelet alone serious thoughtto any safety concern or ethical qualm related to the creation of artificial minds and potential computer overlords: a lacuna that astonishes even against the background of the eras not-so-impressive standards of critical technology assessment. 12 We must hope that by the time the enterprise eventually does become feasible, we will have gained not only the technological proficiency to set off an intelligence explosion but also the higher level of mastery that may be necessary to make the detonation survivable. But before we turn to what lies ahead, it will be useful to take a quick glance at the history of machine intelligence to date. Seasons of hope and despair In the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College, ten scientists sharing an interest in neural nets, automata theory, and the study of intelligence convened for a six- week workshop. This Dartmouth Summer Project is often regarded as the cockcrow of artificial intelligence as a field of research. Many of the participants would later be recognized as founding figures. The optimistic outlook among the delegates is reflected in the proposal submitted to the Rockefeller Foundation, which provided funding for the event: We propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence be carried out. The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines that use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. We think that a significant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of scientists work on it together for a summer. In the six decades since this brash beginning, the field of artificial intelligence has been through periods of hype and high expectations alternating with periods of setback and disappointment. The first period of excitement, which began with the Dartmouth meeting, was later described by John McCarthy (the events main organizer) as the Look, Ma, no hands! era. During these early days, researchers built systems designed to refute claims of the form No machine could ever do X ! Such skeptical claims were common at the time. To counter them, the AI researchers created small systems that achieved X in a microworld (a well-defined, limited domain that enabled a pared-down version of the performance to be demonstrated), thus providing a proof of concept and showing that X could, in principle, be done by machine. One such early system, the Logic Theorist, was able to prove most of the theorems in the second chapter of Whitehead and Russells Principia Mathematica , and even came up with one proof that was much more elegant than the original, thereby debunking the notion that machines could only think numerically and showing that machines were also able to do deduction and to invent logical proofs. 13 A follow-up program, the General Problem Solver, could in principle solve a wide range of formally specified problems. 14 Programs that could solve calculus problems typical of first-year college courses, visual analogy problems of the type that appear in some IQ tests, and simple verbal algebra problems were also written. 15 The Shakey robot (so named because of its tendency to tremble during operation) demonstrated how logical reasoning could be integrated with perception and used to plan and control physical activity. 16 The ELIZA program showed how a computer could impersonate a Rogerian psychotherapist. 17 In the mid-seventies, the program SHRDLU showed how a simulated robotic arm in a simulated world of geometric blocks could follow instructions and answer questions in English that were typed in by a user. 18 In later decades, systems would be created that demonstrated that machines could compose music in the style of various classical composers, outperform junior doctors in certain clinical diagnostic tasks, drive cars autonomously, and make patentable inventions. 19 There has even been an AI that cracked original jokes. 20 (Not that its level of humor was highWhat do you get when you cross an optic with a mental object ? An eye -deabut children reportedly found its puns consistently entertaining.) The methods that produced successes in the early demonstration systems often proved difficult to extend to a wider variety of problems or to harder problem instances. One reason for this is the combinatorial explosion of possibilities that must be explored by methods that rely on something like exhaustive search. Such methods work well for simple instances of a problem, but fail when things get a bit more complicated. For instance, to prove a theorem that has a 5-line long proof in a deduction system with one inference rule and 5 axioms, one could simply enumerate the 3,125 possible combinations and check each one to see if it delivers the intended conclusion. Exhaustive search would also work for 6-and 7-line proofs. But as the task becomes more difficult, the method of exhaustive search soon runs into trouble. Proving a theorem with a 50-line proof does not take ten times longer than proving a theorem that has a 5-line proof: rather, if one uses exhaustive search, it requires combing through 5 50 8.9 10 34 possible sequenceswhich is computationally infeasible even with the fastest supercomputers. To overcome the combinatorial explosion, one needs algorithms that exploit structure in the target domain and take advantage of prior knowledge by using heuristic search, planning, and flexible abstract representationscapabilities that were poorly developed in the early AI systems. The performance of these early systems also suffered because of poor methods for handling uncertainty, reliance on brittle and ungrounded symbolic representations, data scarcity, and severe hardware limitations on memory capacity and processor speed. By the mid- 1970s, there was a growing awareness of these problems. The realization that many AI projects could never make good on their initial promises led to the onset of the first AI winter: a period of retrenchment, during which funding decreased and skepticism increased, and AI fell out of fashion. A new springtime arrived in the early 1980s, when Japan launched its Fifth- Generation Computer Systems Project, a well-funded publicprivate partnership that aimed to leapfrog the state of the art by developing a massively parallel computing architecture that would serve as a platform for artificial intelligence. This occurred at peak fascination with the Japanese post-war economic miracle, a period when Western government and business leaders anxiously sought to divine the formula behind Japans economic success in hope of replicating the magic at home. When Japan decided to invest big in AI, several other countries followed suit. The ensuing years saw a great proliferation of expert systems . Designed as support tools for decision makers, expert systems were rule-based programs that made simple inferences from a knowledge base of facts, which had been elicited from human domain experts and painstakingly hand-coded in a formal language. Hundreds of these expert systems were built. However, the smaller systems provided little benefit, and the larger ones proved expensive to develop, validate, and keep updated, and were generally cumbersome to use. It was impractical to acquire a standalone computer just for the sake of running one program. By the late 1980s, this growth season, too, had run its course. The Fifth-Generation Project failed to meet its objectives, as did its counterparts in the United States and Europe. A second AI winter descended. At this point, a critic could justifiably bemoan the history of artificial intelligence research to date, consisting always of very limited success in particular areas, followed immediately by failure to reach the broader goals at which these initial successes seem at first to hint. 21 Private investors began to shun any venture carrying the brand of artificial intelligence. Even among academics and their funders, AI became an unwanted epithet. 22 Technical work continued apace, however, and by the 1990s, the second AI winter gradually thawed. Optimism was rekindled by the introduction of new techniques, which seemed to offer alternatives to the traditional logicist paradigm (often referred to as Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence, or GOFAI for short), which had focused on high-level symbol manipulation and which had reached its apogee in the expert systems of the 1980s. The newly popular techniques, which included neural networks and genetic algorithms, promised to overcome some of the shortcomings of the GOFAI approach, in particular the brittleness that characterized classical AI programs (which typically produced complete nonsense if the programmers made even a single slightly erroneous assumption). The new techniques boasted a more organic performance. For example, neural networks exhibited the property of graceful degradation: a small amount of damage to a neural network typically resulted in a small degradation of its performance, rather than a total crash. Even more importantly, neural networks could learn from experience, finding natural ways of generalizing from examples and finding hidden statistical patterns in their input. 23 This made the nets good at pattern recognition and classification problems. For example, by training a neural network on a data set of sonar signals, it could be taught to distinguish the acoustic profiles of submarines, mines, and sea life with better accuracy than human expertsand this could be done without anybody first having to figure out in advance exactly how the categories were to be defined or how different features were to be weighted. While simple neural network models had been known since the late 1950s, the field enjoyed a renaissance after the introduction of the backpropagation algorithm, which made it possible to train multilayered neural networks. 24 Such multilayered networks, which have one or more intermediary (hidden) layers of neurons between the input and output layers, can learn a much wider range of functions than their simpler predecessors. 25 Combined with the increasingly powerful computers that were becoming available, these algorithmic improvements enabled engineers to build neural networks that were good enough to be practically useful in many applications. The brain-like qualities of neural networks contrasted favorably with the rigidly logic-chopping but brittle performance of traditional rule-based GOFAI systemsenough so to inspire a new -ism, connectionism , which emphasized the importance of massively parallel sub-symbolic processing. More than 150,000 academic papers have since been published on artificial neural networks, and they continue to be an important approach in machine learning. Evolution-based methods, such as genetic algorithms and genetic programming, constitute another approach whose emergence helped end the second AI winter. It made perhaps a smaller academic impact than neural nets but was widely popularized. In evolutionary models, a population of candidate solutions (which can be data structures or programs) is maintained, and new candidate solutions are generated randomly by mutating or recombining variants in the existing population. Periodically, the population is pruned by applying a selection criterion (a fitness function) that allows only the better candidates to survive into the next generation. Iterated over thousands of generations, the average quality of the solutions in the candidate pool gradually increases. When it works, this kind of algorithm can produce efficient solutions to a very wide range of problemssolutions that may be strikingly novel and unintuitive, often looking more like natural structures than anything that a human engineer would design. And in principle, this can happen without much need for human input beyond the initial specification of the fitness function, which is often very simple. In practice, however, getting evolutionary methods to work well requires skill and ingenuity, particularly in devising a good representational format. Without an efficient way to encode candidate solutions (a genetic language that matches latent structure in the target domain), evolutionary search tends to meander endlessly in a vast search space or get stuck at a local optimum. Even if a good representational format is found, evolution is computationally demanding and is often defeated by the combinatorial explosion. Neural networks and genetic algorithms are examples of methods that stimulated excitement in the 1990s by appearing to offer alternatives to the stagnating GOFAI paradigm. But the intention here is not to sing the praises of these two methods or to elevate them above the many other techniques in machine learning. In fact, one of the major theoretical developments of the past twenty years has been a clearer realization of how superficially disparate techniques can be understood as special cases within a common mathematical framework. For example, many types of artificial neural network can be viewed as classifiers that perform a particular kind of statistical calculation (maximum likelihood estimation). 26 This perspective allows neural nets to be compared with a larger class of algorithms for learning classifiers from examples decision trees, logistic regression models, support vector machines, naive Bayes, k -nearest-neighbors regression, among others. 27 In a similar manner, genetic algorithms can be viewed as performing stochastic hill- climbing, which is again a subset of a wider class of algorithms for optimization. Each of these algorithms for building classifiers or for searching a solution space has its own profile of strengths and weaknesses which can be studied mathematically. Algorithms differ in their processor time and memory space requirements, which inductive biases they presuppose, the ease with which externally produced content can be incorporated, and how transparent their inner workings are to a human analyst. Behind the razzle-dazzle of machine learning and creative problem-solving thus lies a set of mathematically well-specified tradeoffs. The ideal is that of the perfect Bayesian agent, one that makes probabilistically optimal use of available information. This ideal is unattainable because it is too computationally demanding to be implemented in any physical computer (see Box 1 ). Accordingly, one can view artificial intelligence as a quest to find shortcuts: ways of tractably approximating the Bayesian ideal by sacrificing some optimality or generality while preserving enough to get high performance in the actual domains of interest. A reflection of this picture can be seen in the work done over the past couple of decades on probabilistic graphical models, such as Bayesian networks. Bayesian networks provide a concise way of representing probabilistic and conditional independence relations that hold in some particular domain. (Exploiting such independence relations is essential for overcoming the combinatorial explosion, which is as much of a problem for probabilistic inference as it is for logical deduction.) They also provide important insight into the concept of causality. 28 One advantage of relating learning problems from specific domains to the general problem of Bayesian inference is that new algorithms that make Bayesian inference more efficient will then yield immediate improvements across many different areas. Advances in Monte Carlo approximation techniques, for example, are directly applied in computer vision, robotics, and computational genetics. Another advantage is that it lets researchers from different disciplines more easily pool their findings. Graphical models and Bayesian statistics have become a shared focus of research in many fields, including machine learning, statistical physics, bioinformatics, combinatorial optimization, and communication theory. 35 A fair amount of the recent progress in machine learning has resulted from incorporating formal results originally derived in other academic fields. (Machine learning applications have also benefitted enormously from faster computers and greater availability of large data sets.) Box 1 An optimal Bayesian agent An ideal Bayesian agent starts out with a prior probability distribution, a function that assigns probabilities to each possible world (i.e. to each maximally specific way the world could turn out to be). 29 This prior incorporates an inductive bias such that simpler possible worlds are assigned higher probabilities. (One way to formally define the simplicity of a possible world is in terms of its Kolmogorov complexity, a measure based on the length of the shortest computer program that generates a complete description of the world. 30 ) The prior also incorporates any background knowledge that the programmers wish to give to the agent. As the agent receives new information from its sensors, it updates its probability distribution by conditionalizing the distribution on the new information according to Bayes theorem. 31 Conditionalization is the mathematical operation that sets the new probability of those worlds that are inconsistent with the information received to zero and renormalizes the probability distribution over the remaining possible worlds. The result is a posterior probability distribution (which the agent may use as its new prior in the next time step). As the agent makes observations, its probability mass thus gets concentrated on the shrinking set of possible worlds that remain consistent with the evidence; and among these possible worlds, simpler ones always have more probability. Metaphorically, we can think of a probability as sand on a large sheet of paper. The paper is partitioned into areas of various sizes, each area corresponding to one possible world, with larger areas corresponding to simpler possible worlds. Imagine also a layer of sand of even thickness spread across the entire sheet: this is our prior probability distribution. Whenever an observation is made that rules out some possible worlds, we remove the sand from the corresponding areas of the paper and redistribute it evenly over the areas that remain in play. Thus, the total amount of sand on the sheet never changes, it just gets concentrated into fewer areas as observational evidence accumulates. This is a picture of learning in its purest form. (To calculate the probability of a hypothesis , we simply measure the amount of sand in all the areas that correspond to the possible worlds in which the hypothesis is true.) So far, we have defined a learning rule. To get an agent, we also need a decision rule. To this end, we endow the agent with a utility function which assigns a number to each possible world. The number represents the desirability of that world according to the agents basic preferences. Now, at each time step, the agent selects the action with the highest expected utility. 32 (To find the action with the highest expected utility, the agent could list all possible actions. It could then compute the conditional probability distribution given the actionthe probability distribution that would result from conditionalizing its current probability distribution on the observation that the action had just been taken. Finally, it could calculate the expected value of the action as the sum of the value of each possible world multiplied by the conditional probability of that world given the action. 33 ) The learning rule and the decision rule together define an optimality notion for an agent. (Essentially the same optimality notion has been broadly used in artificial intelligence, epistemology, philosophy of science, economics, and statistics. 34 ) In reality, it is impossible to build such an agent because it is computationally intractable to perform the requisite calculations. Any attempt to do so succumbs to a combinatorial explosion just like the one described in our discussion of GOFAI. To see why this is so, consider one tiny subset of all possible worlds: those that consist of a single computer monitor floating in an endless vacuum. The monitor has 1, 000 1, 000 pixels, each of which is perpetually either on or off. Even this subset of possible worlds is enormously large: the 2 (1,000 1,000) possible monitor states outnumber all the computations expected ever to take place in the observable universe. Thus, we could not even enumerate all the possible worlds in this tiny subset of all possible worlds, let alone perform more elaborate computations on each of them individually. Optimality notions can be of theoretical interest even if they are physically unrealizable. They give us a standard by which to judge heuristic approximations, and sometimes we can reason about what an optimal agent would do in some special case. We will encounter some alternative optimality notions for artificial agents in Chapter 12 . State of the art Artificial intelligence already outperforms human intelligence in many domains. Table 1 surveys the state of game-playing computers, showing that AIs now beat human champions in a wide range of games. 36 These achievements might not seem impressive today. But this is because our standards for what is impressive keep adapting to the advances being made. Expert chess playing, for example, was once thought to epitomize human intellection. In the view of several experts in the late fifties: If one could devise a successful chess machine, one would seem to have penetrated to the core of human intellectual endeavor. 55 This no longer seems so. One sympathizes with John McCarthy, who lamented: As soon as it works, no one calls it AI anymore. 56 Table 1 Game-playing AI Checkers Superhuman Arthur Samuels checkers program, originally written in 1952 and later improved (the 1955 version incorporating machine learning), becomes the first program to learn to play a game better than its creator. 37 In 1994, the program CHINOOK beats the reigning human champion, marking the first time a program wins an official world championship in a game of skill. In 2002, Jonathan Schaeffer and his team solve checkers, i.e. produce a program that always makes the best possible move (combining alpha-beta search with a database of 39 trillion endgame positions). Perfect play by both sides leads to a draw. 38 Backgammon Superhuman 1979: The backgammon program BKG by Hans Berliner defeats the world championthe first computer program to defeat (in an exhibition match) a world champion in any gamethough Berliner later attributes the win to luck with the dice rolls. 39 1992: The backgammon program TD-Gammon by Gerry Tesauro reaches championship-level ability, using temporal difference learning (a form of reinforcement learning) and repeated plays against itself to improve. 40 In the years since, backgammon programs have far surpassed the best human players. 41 Traveller TCS Superhuman in collaboration with human 42 In both 1981 and 1982, Douglas Lenats program Eurisko wins the US championship in Traveller TCS (a futuristic naval war game), prompting rule changes to block its unorthodox strategies. 43 Eurisko had heuristics for designing its fleet, and it also had heuristics for modifying its heuristics. Othello Superhuman 1997: The program Logistello wins every game in a six-game match against world champion Takeshi Murakami. 44 Chess Superhuman 1997: Deep Blue beats the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov claims to have seen glimpses of true intelligence and creativity in some of the computers moves. 45 Since then, chess engines have continued to improve. 46 Crosswords Expert level 1999: The crossword-solving program Proverb outperforms the average crossword-solver. 47 2012: The program Dr. Fill, created by Matt Ginsberg, scores in the top quartile among the otherwise human contestants in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. (Dr. Fills performance is uneven. It completes perfectly the puzzle rated most difficult by humans, yet is stumped by a couple of nonstandard puzzles that involved spelling backwards or writing answers diagonally.) 48 Scrabble Superhuman As of 2002, Scrabble-playing software surpasses the best human players. 49 Bridge Equal to the best By 2005, contract bridge playing software reaches parity with the best human bridge players. 50 Jeopardy! Superhuman 2010: IBMs Watson defeats the two all-time- greatest human Jeopardy! champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. 51 Jeopardy! is a televised game show with trivia questions about history, literature, sports, geography, pop culture, science, and other topics. Questions are presented in the form of clues, and often involve wordplay. Poker Varied Computer poker players remain slightly below the best humans for full-ring Texas hold em but perform at a superhuman level in some poker variants. 52 FreeCell Superhuman Heuristics evolved using genetic algorithms produce a solver for the solitaire game FreeCell (which in its generalized form is NP-complete) that is able to beat high-ranking human players. 53 Go Very strong amateur level As of 2012, the Zen series of go-playing programs has reached rank 6 dan in fast games (the level of a very strong amateur player), using Monte Carlo tree search and machine learning techniques. 54 Go- playing programs have been improving at a rate of about 1 dan/year in recent years. If this rate of improvement continues, they might beat the human world champion in about a decade. There is an important sense, however, in which chess-playing AI turned out to be a lesser triumph than many imagined it would be. It was once supposed, perhaps not unreasonably, that in order for a computer to play chess at grandmaster level, it would have to be endowed with a high degree of general intelligence. 57 One might have thought, for example, that great chess playing requires being able to learn abstract concepts, think cleverly about strategy, compose flexible plans, make a wide range of ingenious logical deductions, and maybe even model ones opponents thinking. Not so. It turned out to be possible to build a perfectly fine chess engine around a special-purpose algorithm. 58 When implemented on the fast processors that became available towards the end of the twentieth century, it produces very strong play. But an AI built like that is narrow. It plays chess; it can do no other. 59 In other domains, solutions have turned out to be more complicated than initially expected, and progress slower. The computer scientist Donald Knuth was struck that AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires thinking but has failed to do most of what people and animals do without thinkingthat, somehow, is much harder! 60 Analyzing visual scenes, recognizing objects, or controlling a robots behavior as it interacts with a natural environment has proved challenging. Nevertheless, a fair amount of progress has been made and continues to be made, aided by steady improvements in hardware. Common sense and natural language understanding have also turned out to be difficult. It is now often thought that achieving a fully human-level performance on these tasks is an AI-complete problem, meaning that the difficulty of solving these problems is essentially equivalent to the difficulty of building generally human-level intelligent machines. 61 In other words, if somebody were to succeed in creating an AI that could understand natural language as well as a human adult, they would in all likelihood also either already have succeeded in creating an AI that could do everything else that human intelligence can do, or they would be but a very short step from such a general capability. 62 Chess-playing expertise turned out to be achievable by means of a surprisingly simple algorithm. It is tempting to speculate that other capabilities such as general reasoning ability, or some key ability involved in programmingmight likewise be achievable through some surprisingly simple algorithm. The fact that the best performance at one time is attained through a complicated mechanism does not mean that no simple mechanism could do the job as well or better. It might simply be that nobody has yet found the simpler alternative. The Ptolemaic system (with the Earth in the center, orbited by the Sun, the Moon, planets, and stars) represented the state of the art in astronomy for over a thousand years, and its predictive accuracy was improved over the centuries by progressively complicating the model: adding epicycles upon epicycles to the postulated celestial motions. Then the entire system was overthrown by the heliocentric theory of Copernicus, which was simpler and though only after further elaboration by Keplermore predictively accurate. 63 Artificial intelligence methods are now used in more areas than it would make sense to review here, but mentioning a sampling of them will give an idea of the breadth of applications. Aside from the game AIs listed in Table 1 , there are hearing aids with algorithms that filter out ambient noise; route-finders that display maps and offer navigation advice to drivers; recommender systems that suggest books and music albums based on a users previous purchases and ratings; and medical decision support systems that help doctors diagnose breast cancer, recommend treatment plans, and aid in the interpretation of electrocardiograms. There are robotic pets and cleaning robots, lawn-mowing robots, rescue robots, surgical robots, and over a million industrial robots. 64 The world population of robots exceeds 10 million. 65 Modern speech recognition, based on statistical techniques such as hidden Markov models, has become sufficiently accurate for practical use (some fragments of this book were drafted with the help of a speech recognition program). Personal digital assistants, such as Apples Siri, respond to spoken commands and can answer simple questions and execute commands. Optical character recognition of handwritten and typewritten text is routinely used in applications such as mail sorting and digitization of old documents. 66 Machine translation remains imperfect but is good enough for many applications. Early systems used the GOFAI approach of hand-coded grammars that had to be developed by skilled linguists from the ground up for each language. Newer systems use statistical machine learning techniques that automatically build statistical models from observed usage patterns. The machine infers the parameters for these models by analyzing bilingual corpora. This approach dispenses with linguists: the programmers building these systems need not even speak the languages they are working with. 67 Face recognition has improved sufficiently in recent years that it is now used at automated border crossings in Europe and Australia. The US Department of State operates a face recognition system with over 75 million photographs for visa processing. Surveillance systems employ increasingly sophisticated AI and data-mining technologies to analyze voice, video, or text, large quantities of which are trawled from the worlds electronic communications media and stored in giant data centers. Theorem-proving and equation-solving are by now so well established that they are hardly regarded as AI anymore. Equation solvers are included in scientific computing programs such as Mathematica. Formal verification methods, including automated theorem provers, are routinely used by chip manufacturers to verify the behavior of circuit designs prior to production. The US military and intelligence establishments have been leading the way to the large-scale deployment of bomb-disposing robots, surveillance and attack drones, and other unmanned vehicles. These still depend mainly on remote control by human operators, but work is underway to extend their autonomous capabilities. Intelligent scheduling is a major area of success. The DART tool for automated logistics planning and scheduling was used in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 to such effect that DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the United States) claims that this single application more than paid back their thirty-year investment in AI. 68 Airline reservation systems use sophisticated scheduling and pricing systems. Businesses make wide use of AI techniques in inventory control systems. They also use automatic telephone reservation systems and helplines connected to speech recognition software to usher their hapless customers through labyrinths of interlocking menu options. AI technologies underlie many Internet services. Software polices the worlds email traffic, and despite continual adaptation by spammers to circumvent the countermeasures being brought against them, Bayesian spam filters have largely managed to hold the spam tide at bay. Software using AI components is responsible for automatically approving or declining credit card transactions, and continuously monitors account activity for signs of fraudulent use. Information retrieval systems also make extensive use of machine learning. The Google search engine is, arguably, the greatest AI system that has yet been built. Now, it must be stressed that the demarcation between artificial intelligence and software in general is not sharp. Some of the applications listed above might be viewed more as generic software applications rather than AI in particular though this brings us back to McCarthys dictum that when something works it is no longer called AI. A more relevant distinction for our purposes is that between systems that have a narrow range of cognitive capability (whether they be called AI or not) and systems that have more generally applicable problem- solving capacities. Essentially all the systems currently in use are of the former type: narrow. However, many of them contain components that might also play a role in future artificial general intelligence or be of service in its development components such as classifiers, search algorithms, planners, solvers, and representational frameworks. One high-stakes and extremely competitive environment in which AI systems operate today is the global financial market. Automated stock-trading systems are widely used by major investing houses. While some of these are simply ways of automating the execution of particular buy or sell orders issued by a human fund manager, others pursue complicated trading strategies that adapt to changing market conditions. Analytic systems use an assortment of data-mining techniques and time series analysis to scan for patterns and trends in securities markets or to correlate historical price movements with external variables such as keywords in news tickers. Financial news providers sell newsfeeds that are specially formatted for use by such AI programs. Other systems specialize in finding arbitrage opportunities within or between markets, or in high-frequency trading that seeks to profit from minute price movements that occur over the course of milliseconds (a timescale at which communication latencies even for speed-of-light signals in optical fiber cable become significant, making it advantageous to locate computers near the exchange). Algorithmic high- frequency traders account for more than half of equity shares traded on US markets. 69 Algorithmic trading has been implicated in the 2010 Flash Crash (see Box 2 ). Box 2 The 2010 Flash Crash By the afternoon of May, 6, 2010, US equity markets were already down 4% on worries about the European debt crisis. At 2:32 p.m., a large seller (a mutual fund complex) initiated a sell algorithm to dispose of a large number of the E- Mini S&P 500 futures contracts to be sold off at a sell rate linked to a measure of minute-to-minute liquidity on the exchange. These contracts were bought by algorithmic high-frequency traders, which were programmed to quickly eliminate their temporary long positions by selling the contracts on to other traders. With demand from fundamental buyers slacking, the algorithmic traders started to sell the E-Minis primarily to other algorithmic traders, which in turn passed them on to other algorithmic traders, creating a hot potato effect driving up trading volumethis being interpreted by the sell algorithm as an indicator of high liquidity, prompting it to increase the rate at which it was putting E-Mini contracts on the market, pushing the downward spiral. At some point, the high-frequency traders started withdrawing from the market, drying up liquidity while prices continued to fall. At 2:45 p.m., trading on the E-Mini was halted by an automatic circuit breaker, the exchanges stop logic functionality. When trading was restarted, a mere five seconds later, prices stabilized and soon began to recover most of the losses. But for a while, at the trough of the crisis, a trillion dollars had been wiped off the market, and spillover effects had led to a substantial number of trades in individual securities being executed at absurd prices, such as one cent or 100,000 dollars. After the market closed for the day, representatives of the exchanges met with regulators and decided to break all trades that had been executed at prices 60% or more away from their pre-crisis levels (deeming such transactions clearly erroneous and thus subject to post facto cancellation under existing trade rules). 70 The retelling here of this episode is a digression because the computer programs involved in the Flash Crash were not particularly intelligent or sophisticated, and the kind of threat they created is fundamentally different from the concerns we shall raise later in this book in relation to the prospect of machine superintelligence. Nevertheless, these events illustrate several useful lessons. One is the reminder that interactions between individually simple components (such as the sell algorithm and the high-frequency algorithmic trading programs) can produce complicated and unexpected effects. Systemic risk can build up in a system as new elements are introduced, risks that are not obvious until after something goes wrong (and sometimes not even then). 71 Another lesson is that smart professionals might give an instruction to a program based on a sensible-seeming and normally sound assumption (e.g. that trading volume is a good measure of market liquidity), and that this can produce catastrophic results when the program continues to act on the instruction with iron-clad logical consistency even in the unanticipated situation where the assumption turns out to be invalid. The algorithm just does what it does; and unless it is a very special kind of algorithm, it does not care that we clasp our heads and gasp in dumbstruck horror at the absurd inappropriateness of its actions. This is a theme that we will encounter again. A third observation in relation to the Flash Crash is that while automation contributed to the incident, it also contributed to its resolution. The pre- preprogrammed stop order logic, which suspended trading when prices moved too far out of whack, was set to execute automatically because it had been correctly anticipated that the triggering events could happen on a timescale too swift for humans to respond. The need for pre-installed and automatically executing safety functionalityas opposed to reliance on runtime human supervisionagain foreshadows a theme that will be important in our discussion of machine superintelligence. 72 Opinions about the future of machine intelligence Progress on two major frontstowards a more solid statistical and information- theoretic foundation for machine learning on the one hand, and towards the practical and commercial success of various problem-specific or domain-specific applications on the otherhas restored to AI research some of its lost prestige. There may, however, be a residual cultural effect on the AI community of its earlier history that makes many mainstream researchers reluctant to align themselves with over-grand ambition. Thus Nils Nilsson, one of the old-timers in the field, complains that his present-day colleagues lack the boldness of spirit that propelled the pioneers of his own generation: Concern for respectability has had, I think, a stultifying effect on some AI researchers. I hear them saying things like, AI used to be criticized for its flossiness. Now that we have made solid progress, let us not risk losing our respectability. One result of this conservatism has been increased concentration on weak AIthe variety devoted to providing aids to human thoughtand away from strong AIthe variety that attempts to mechanize human-level intelligence. 73 Nilssons sentiment has been echoed by several others of the founders, including Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, and Patrick Winston. 74 The last few years have seen a resurgence of interest in AI, which might yet spill over into renewed efforts towards artificial general intelligence (what Nilsson calls strong AI). In addition to faster hardware, a contemporary project would benefit from the great strides that have been made in the many subfields of AI, in software engineering more generally, and in neighboring fields such as computational neuroscience. One indication of pent-up demand for quality information and education is shown in the response to the free online offering of an introductory course in artificial intelligence at Stanford University in the fall of 2011, organized by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. Some 160,000 students from around the world signed up to take it (and 23,000 completed it). 75 Expert opinions about the future of AI vary wildly. There is disagreement about timescales as well as about what forms AI might eventually take. Predictions about the future development of artificial intelligence, one recent study noted, are as confident as they are diverse. 76 Although the contemporary distribution of belief has not been very carefully measured, we can get a rough impression from various smaller surveys and informal observations. In particular, a series of recent surveys have polled members of several relevant expert communities on the question of when they expect human-level machine intelligence (HLMI) to be developed, defined as one that can carry out most human professions at least as well as a typical human. 77 Results are shown in Table 2 . The combined sample gave the following (median) estimate: 10% probability of HLMI by 2022, 50% probability by 2040, and 90% probability by 2075. (Respondents were asked to premiss their estimates on the assumption that human scientific activity continues without major negative disruption.) These numbers should be taken with some grains of salt: sample sizes are quite small and not necessarily representative of the general expert population. They are, however, in concordance with results from other surveys. 78 The survey results are also in line with some recently published interviews with about two-dozen researchers in AI-related fields. For example, Nils Nilsson has spent a long and productive career working on problems in search, planning, knowledge representation, and robotics; he has authored textbooks in artificial intelligence; and he recently completed the most comprehensive history of the field written to date. 79 When asked about arrival dates for HLMI, he offered the following opinion: 80 10% chance: 2030 50% chance: 2050 90% chance: 2100 Table 2 When will human-level machine intelligence be attained? 81 Judging from the published interview transcripts, Professor Nilssons probability distribution appears to be quite representative of many experts in the area though again it must be emphasized that there is a wide spread of opinion: there are practitioners who are substantially more boosterish, confidently expecting HLMI in the 202040 range, and others who are confident either that it will never happen or that it is indefinitely far off. 82 In addition, some interviewees feel that the notion of a human level of artificial intelligence is ill-defined or misleading, or are for other reasons reluctant to go on record with a quantitative prediction. My own view is that the median numbers reported in the expert survey do not have enough probability mass on later arrival dates. A 10% probability of HLMI not having been developed by 2075 or even 2100 (after conditionalizing on human scientific activity continuing without major negative disruption) seems too low. Historically, AI researchers have not had a strong record of being able to predict the rate of advances in their own field or the shape that such advances would take. On the one hand, some tasks, like chess playing, turned out to be achievable by means of surprisingly simple programs; and naysayers who claimed that machines would never be able to do this or that have repeatedly been proven wrong. On the other hand, the more typical errors among practitioners have been to underestimate the difficulties of getting a system to perform robustly on real-world tasks, and to overestimate the advantages of their own particular pet project or technique. The survey also asked two other questions of relevance to our inquiry. One inquired of respondents about how much longer they thought it would take to reach superintelligence assuming human-level machine is first achieved. The results are in Table 3 . Another question inquired what they thought would be the overall long-term impact for humanity of achieving human-level machine intelligence. The answers are summarized in Figure 2 . My own views again differ somewhat from the opinions expressed in the survey. I assign a higher probability to superintelligence being created relatively soon after human-level machine intelligence. I also have a more polarized outlook on the consequences, thinking an extremely good or an extremely bad outcome to be somewhat more likely than a more balanced outcome. The reasons for this will become clear later in the book. Table 3 How long from human level to superintelligence? Within 2 years after HLMI Within 30 years after HLMI TOP100 5% 50% Combined 10% 75% Figure 2 Overall long-term impact of HLMI. 83 Small sample sizes, selection biases, andabove allthe inherent unreliability of the subjective opinions elicited mean that one should not read too much into these expert surveys and interviews. They do not let us draw any strong conclusion. But they do hint at a weak conclusion. They suggest that (at least in lieu of better data or analysis) it may be reasonable to believe that human-level machine intelligence has a fairly sizeable chance of being developed by mid-century, and that it has a non-trivial chance of being developed considerably sooner or much later; that it might perhaps fairly soon thereafter result in superintelligence; and that a wide range of outcomes may have a significant chance of occurring, including extremely good outcomes and outcomes that are as bad as human extinction. 84 At the very least, they suggest that the topic is worth a closer look. CHAPTER 2 Paths to superintelligence Machines are currently far inferior to humans in general intelligence. Yet one day (we have suggested) they will be superintelligent. How do we get from here to there? This chapter explores several conceivable technological paths. We look at artificial intelligence, whole brain emulation, biological cognition, and humanmachine interfaces, as well as networks and organizations. We evaluate their different degrees of plausibility as pathways to superintelligence. The existence of multiple paths increases the probability that the destination can be reached via at least one of them. We can tentatively define a superintelligence as any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest . 1 We will have more to say about the concept of superintelligence in the next chapter, where we will subject it to a kind of spectral analysis to distinguish some different possible forms of superintelligence. But for now, the rough characterization just given will suffice. Note that the definition is noncommittal about how the superintelligence is implemented. It is also noncommittal regarding qualia: whether a superintelligence would have subjective conscious experience might matter greatly for some questions (in particular for some moral questions), but our primary focus here is on the causal antecedents and consequences of superintelligence, not on the metaphysics of mind. 2 The chess program Deep Fritz is not a superintelligence on this definition, since Fritz is only smart within the narrow domain of chess. Certain kinds of domain-specific superintelligence could, however, be important. When referring to superintelligent performance limited to a particular domain, we will note the restriction explicitly. For instance, an engineering superintelligence would be an intellect that vastly outperforms the best current human minds in the domain of engineering. Unless otherwise noted, we use the term to refer to systems that have a superhuman level of general intelligence. But how might we create superintelligence? Let us examine some possible paths. Artificial intelligence Readers of this chapter must not expect a blueprint for programming an artificial general intelligence. No such blueprint exists yet, of course. And had I been in possession of such a blueprint, I most certainly would not have published it in a book. (If the reasons for this are not immediately obvious, the arguments in subsequent chapters will make them clear.) We can, however, discern some general features of the kind of system that would be required. It now seems clear that a capacity to learn would be an integral feature of the core design of a system intended to attain general intelligence, not something to be tacked on later as an extension or an afterthought. The same holds for the ability to deal effectively with uncertainty and probabilistic information. Some faculty for extracting useful concepts from sensory data and internal states, and for leveraging acquired concepts into flexible combinatorial representations for use in logical and intuitive reasoning, also likely belong among the core design features in a modern AI intended to attain general intelligence. The early Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence systems did not, for the most part, focus on learning, uncertainty, or concept formation, perhaps because techniques for dealing with these dimensions were poorly developed at the time. This is not to say that the underlying ideas are all that novel. The idea of using learning as a means of bootstrapping a simpler system to human-level intelligence can be traced back at least to Alan Turings notion of a child machine, which he wrote about in 1950: Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the childs? If this were then subjected to an appropriate course of education one would obtain the adult brain. 3 Turing envisaged an iterative process to develop such a child machine: We cannot expect to find a good child machine at the first attempt. One must experiment with teaching one such machine and see how well it learns. One can then try another and see if it is better or worse. There is an obvious connection between this process and evolution. One may hope, however, that this process will be more expeditious than evolution. The survival of the fittest is a slow method for measuring advantages. The experimenter, by the exercise of intelligence, should be able to speed it up. Equally important is the fact that he is not restricted to random mutations. If he can trace a cause for some weakness he can probably think of the kind of mutation which will improve it. 4 We know that blind evolutionary processes can produce human-level general intelligence, since they have already done so at least once. Evolutionary processes with foresightthat is, genetic programs designed and guided by an intelligent human programmershould be able to achieve a similar outcome with far greater efficiency. This observation has been used by some philosophers and scientists, including David Chalmers and Hans Moravec, to argue that human-level AI is not only theoretically possible but feasible within this century. 5 The idea is that we can estimate the relative capabilities of evolution and human engineering to produce intelligence, and find that human engineering is already vastly superior to evolution in some areas and is likely to become superior in the remaining areas before too long. The fact that evolution produced intelligence therefore indicates that human engineering will soon be able to do the same. Thus, Moravec wrote (already back in 1976): The existence of several examples of intelligence designed under these constraints should give us great confidence that we can achieve the same in short order. The situation is analogous to the history of heavier than air flight, where birds, bats and insects clearly demonstrated the possibility before our culture mastered it. 6 One needs to be cautious, though, in what inferences one draws from this line of reasoning. It is true that evolution produced heavier-than-air flight, and that human engineers subsequently succeeded in doing likewise (albeit by means of a very different mechanism). Other examples could also be adduced, such as sonar, magnetic navigation, chemical weapons, photoreceptors, and all kinds of mechanic and kinetic performance characteristics. However, one could equally point to areas where human engineers have thus far failed to match evolution: in morphogenesis, self-repair, and the immune defense, for example, human efforts lag far behind what nature has accomplished. Moravecs argument, therefore, cannot give us great confidence that we can achieve human-level artificial intelligence in short order. At best, the evolution of intelligent life places an upper bound on the intrinsic difficulty of designing intelligence. But this upper bound could be quite far above current human engineering capabilities. Another way of deploying an evolutionary argument for the feasibility of AI is via the idea that we could, by running genetic algorithms on sufficiently fast computers, achieve results comparable to those of biological evolution. This version of the evolutionary argument thus proposes a specific method whereby intelligence could be produced. But is it true that we will soon have computing power sufficient to recapitulate the relevant evolutionary processes that produced human intelligence? The answer depends both on how much computing technology will advance over the next decades and on how much computing power would be required to run genetic algorithms with the same optimization power as the evolutionary process of natural selection that lies in our past. Although, in the end, the conclusion we get from pursuing this line of reasoning is disappointingly indeterminate, it is instructive to attempt a rough estimate (see Box 3 ). If nothing else, the exercise draws attention to some interesting unknowns. The upshot is that the computational resources required to simply replicate the relevant evolutionary processes on Earth that produced human-level intelligence are severely out of reachand will remain so even if Moores law were to continue for a century (cf. Figure 3 ). It is plausible, however, that compared with brute-force replication of natural evolutionary processes, vast efficiency gains are achievable by designing the search process to aim for intelligence, using various obvious improvements over natural selection. Yet it is very hard to bound the magnitude of those attainable efficiency gains. We cannot even say whether they amount to five or to twenty-five orders of magnitude. Absent further elaboration, therefore, evolutionary arguments are not able to meaningfully constrain our expectations of either the difficulty of building human-level machine intelligence or the timescales for such developments. Box 3 What would it take to recapitulate evolution? Not every feat accomplished by evolution in the course of the development of human intelligence is relevant to a human engineer trying to artificially evolve machine intelligence. Only a small portion of evolutionary selection on Earth has been selection for intelligence. More specifically, the problems that human engineers cannot trivially bypass may have been the target of a very small portion of total evolutionary selection. For example, since we can run our computers on electrical power, we do not have to reinvent the molecules of the cellular energy economy in order to create intelligent machinesyet such molecular evolution of metabolic pathways might have used up a large part of the total amount of selection power that was available to evolution over the course of Earths history. 7 One might argue that the key insights for AI are embodied in the structure of nervous systems, which came into existence less than a billion years ago. 8 If we take that view, then the number of relevant experiments available to evolution is drastically curtailed. There are some 4610 30 prokaryotes in the world today, but only 10 19 insects, and fewer than 10 10 humans (while pre-agricultural populations were orders of magnitude smaller). 9 These numbers are only moderately intimidating. Evolutionary algorithms, however, require not only variations to select among but also a fitness function to evaluate variants, and this is typically the most computationally expensive component. A fitness function for the evolution of artificial intelligence plausibly requires simulation of neural development, learning, and cognition to evaluate fitness. We might thus do better not to look at the raw number of organisms with complex nervous systems, but instead to attend to the number of neurons in biological organisms that we might need to simulate to mimic evolutions fitness function. We can make a crude estimate of that latter quantity by considering insects, which dominate terrestrial animal biomass (with ants alone estimated to contribute some 1520%). 10 Insect brain size varies substantially, with large and social insects sporting larger brains: a honeybee brain has just under 10 6 neurons, a fruit fly brain has 10 5 neurons, and ants are in between with 250,000 neurons. 11 The majority of smaller insects may have brains of only a few thousand neurons. Erring on the side of conservatively high, if we assigned all 10 19 insects fruit-fly numbers of neurons, the total would be 10 24 insect neurons in the world. This could be augmented with an additional order of magnitude to account for aquatic copepods, birds, reptiles, mammals, etc., to reach 10 25 . (By contrast, in pre-agricultural times there were fewer than 10 7 humans, with under 10 11 neurons each: thus fewer than 10 18 human neurons in total, though humans have a higher number of synapses per neuron.) The computational cost of simulating one neuron depends on the level of detail that one includes in the simulation. Extremely simple neuron models use about 1,000 floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) to simulate one neuron (in real-time). The electrophysiologically realistic HodgkinHuxley model uses 1,200,000 FLOPS. A more detailed multi-compartmental model would add another three to four orders of magnitude, while higher-level models that abstract systems of neurons could subtract two to three orders of magnitude from the simple models. 12 If we were to simulate 10 25 neurons over a billion years of evolution (longer than the existence of nervous systems as we know them), and we allow our computers to run for one year, these figures would give us a requirement in the range of 10 31 10 44 FLOPS. For comparison, Chinas Tianhe-2, the worlds most powerful supercomputer as of September 2013, provides only 3.3910 16 FLOPS. In recent decades, it has taken approximately 6.7 years for commodity computers to increase in power by one order of magnitude. Even a century of continued Moores law would not be enough to close this gap. Running more specialized hardware, or allowing longer run- times, could contribute only a few more orders of magnitude. This figure is conservative in another respect. Evolution achieved human intelligence without aiming at this outcome. In other words, the fitness functions for natural organisms do not select only for intelligence and its precursors. 13 Even environments in which organisms with superior information processing skills reap various rewards may not select for intelligence, because improvements to intelligence can (and often do) impose significant costs, such as higher energy consumption or slower maturation times, and those costs may outweigh whatever benefits are gained from smarter behavior. Excessively deadly environments also reduce the value of intelligence: the shorter ones expected lifespan, the less time there will be for increased learning ability to pay off. Reduced selective pressure for intelligence slows the spread of intelligence- enhancing innovations, and thus the opportunity for selection to favor subsequent innovations that depend on them. Furthermore, evolution may wind up stuck in local optima that humans would notice and bypass by altering tradeoffs between exploitation and exploration or by providing a smooth progression of increasingly difficult intelligence tests. 14 And as mentioned earlier, evolution scatters much of its selection power on traits that are unrelated to intelligence (such as Red Queens races of competitive co-evolution between immune systems and parasites). Evolution continues to waste resources producing mutations that have proved consistently lethal, and it fails to take advantage of statistical similarities in the effects of different mutations. These are all inefficiencies in natural selection (when viewed as a means of evolving intelligence) that it would be relatively easy for a human engineer to avoid while using evolutionary algorithms to develop intelligent software. It is plausible that eliminating inefficiencies like those just described would trim many orders of magnitude off the 10 31 10 44 FLOPS range calculated earlier. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know how many orders of magnitude. It is difficult even to make a rough estimatefor aught we know, the efficiency savings could be five orders of magnitude, or ten, or twenty-five. 15 Figure 3 Supercomputer performance. In a narrow sense, Moores law refers to the observation that the number of transistors on integrated circuits have for several decades doubled approximately every two years. However, the term is often used to refer to the more general observation that many performance metrics in computing technology have followed a similarly fast exponential trend. Here we plot peak speed of the worlds fastest supercomputer as a function of time (on a logarithmic vertical scale). In recent years, growth in the serial speed of processors has stagnated, but increased use of parallelization has enabled the total number of computations performed to remain on the trend line. 16 There is a further complication with these kinds of evolutionary considerations, one that makes it hard to derive from them even a very loose upper bound on the difficulty of evolving intelligence. We must avoid the error of inferring, from the fact that intelligent life evolved on Earth, that the evolutionary processes involved had a reasonably high prior probability of producing intelligence. Such an inference is unsound because it fails to take account of the observation selection effect that guarantees that all observers will find themselves having originated on a planet where intelligent life arose, no matter how likely or unlikely it was for any given such planet to produce intelligence. Suppose, for example, that in addition to the systematic effects of natural selection it required an enormous amount of lucky coincidence to produce intelligent lifeenough so that intelligent life evolves on only one planet out of every 10 30 planets on which simple replicators arise. In that case, when we run our genetic algorithms to try to replicate what natural evolution did, we might find that we must run some 10 30 simulations before we find one where all the elements come together in just the right way. This seems fully consistent with our observation that life did evolve here on Earth. Only by careful and somewhat intricate reasoningby analyzing instances of convergent evolution of intelligence-related traits and engaging with the subtleties of observation selection theorycan we partially circumvent this epistemological barrier. Unless one takes the trouble to do so, one is not in a position to rule out the possibility that the alleged upper bound on the computational requirements for recapitulating the evolution of intelligence derived in Box 3 might be too low by thirty orders of magnitude (or some other such large number). 17 Another way of arguing for the feasibility of artificial intelligence is by pointing to the human brain and suggesting that we could use it as a template for a machine intelligence. One can distinguish different versions of this approach based on how closely they propose to imitate biological brain functions. At one extremethat of very close imitationwe have the idea of whole brain emulation , which we will discuss in the next subsection. At the other extreme are approaches that take their inspiration from the functioning of the brain but do not attempt low-level imitation. Advances in neuroscience and cognitive psychology which will be aided by improvements in instrumentationshould eventually uncover the general principles of brain function. This knowledge could then guide AI efforts. We have already encountered neural networks as an example of a brain-inspired AI technique. Hierarchical perceptual organization is another idea that has been transferred from brain science to machine learning. The study of reinforcement learning has been motivated (at least in part) by its role in psychological theories of animal cognition, and reinforcement learning techniques (e.g. the TD-algorithm) inspired by these theories are now widely used in AI. 18 More cases like these will surely accumulate in the future. Since there is a limited numberperhaps a very small numberof distinct fundamental mechanisms that operate in the brain, continuing incremental progress in brain science should eventually discover them all. Before this happens, though, it is possible that a hybrid approach, combining some brain- inspired techniques with some purely artificial methods, would cross the finishing line. In that case, the resultant system need not be recognizably brain- like even though some brain-derived insights were used in its development. The availability of the brain as template provides strong support for the claim that machine intelligence is ultimately feasible. This, however, does not enable us to predict when it will be achieved because it is hard to predict the future rate of discoveries in brain science. What we can say is that the further into the future we look, the greater the likelihood that the secrets of the brains functionality will have been decoded sufficiently to enable the creation of machine intelligence in this manner. Different people working toward machine intelligence hold different views about how promising neuromorphic approaches are compared with approaches that aim for completely synthetic designs. The existence of birds demonstrated that heavier-than-air flight was physically possible and prompted efforts to build flying machines. Yet the first functioning airplanes did not flap their wings. The jury is out on whether machine intelligence will be like flight, which humans achieved through an artificial mechanism, or like combustion, which we initially mastered by copying naturally occurring fires. Turings idea of designing a program that acquires most of its content by learning, rather than having it pre-programmed at the outset, can apply equally to neuromorphic and synthetic approaches to machine intelligence. A variation on Turings conception of a child machine is the idea of a seed AI. 19 Whereas a child machine, as Turing seems to have envisaged it, would have a relatively fixed architecture that simply develops its inherent potentialities by accumulating content , a seed AI would be a more sophisticated artificial intelligence capable of improving its own architecture . In the early stages of a seed AI, such improvements might occur mainly through trial and error, information acquisition, or assistance from the programmers. At its later stages, however, a seed AI should be able to understand its own workings sufficiently to engineer new algorithms and computational structures to bootstrap its cognitive performance. This needed understanding could result from the seed AI reaching a sufficient level of general intelligence across many domains, or from crossing some threshold in a particularly relevant domain such as computer science or mathematics. This brings us to another important concept, that of recursive self- improvement. A successful seed AI would be able to iteratively enhance itself: an early version of the AI could design an improved version of itself, and the improved versionbeing smarter than the originalmight be able to design an even smarter version of itself, and so forth. 20 Under some conditions, such a process of recursive self-improvement might continue long enough to result in an intelligence explosionan event in which, in a short period of time, a systems level of intelligence increases from a relatively modest endowment of cognitive capabilities (perhaps sub-human in most respects, but with a domain- specific talent for coding and AI research) to radical superintelligence. We will return to this important possibility in Chapter 4 , where the dynamics of such an event will be analyzed more closely. Note that this model suggests the possibility of surprises: attempts to build artificial general intelligence might fail pretty much completely until the last missing critical component is put in place, at which point a seed AI might become capable of sustained recursive self- improvement. Before we end this subsection, there is one more thing that we should emphasize, which is that an artificial intelligence need not much resemble a human mind. AIs could beindeed, it is likely that most will beextremely alien. We should expect that they will have very different cognitive architectures than biological intelligences, and in their early stages of development they will have very different profiles of cognitive strengths and weaknesses (though, as we shall later argue, they could eventually overcome any initial weakness). Furthermore, the goal systems of AIs could diverge radically from those of human beings. There is no reason to expect a generic AI to be motivated by love or hate or pride or other such common human sentiments: these complex adaptations would require deliberate expensive effort to recreate in AIs. This is at once a big problem and a big opportunity. We will return to the issue of AI motivation in later chapters, but it is so central to the argument in this book that it is worth bearing in mind throughout. Whole brain emulation In whole brain emulation (also known as uploading), intelligent software would be produced by scanning and closely modeling the computational structure of a biological brain. This approach thus represents a limiting case of drawing inspiration from nature: barefaced plagiarism. Achieving whole brain emulation requires the accomplishment of the following steps. First, a sufficiently detailed scan of a particular human brain is created. This might involve stabilizing the brain post-mortem through vitrification (a process that turns tissue into a kind of glass). A machine could then dissect the tissue into thin slices, which could be fed into another machine for scanning, perhaps by an array of electron microscopes. Various stains might be applied at this stage to bring out different structural and chemical properties. Many scanning machines could work in parallel to process multiple brain slices simultaneously. Second, the raw data from the scanners is fed to a computer for automated image processing to reconstruct the three-dimensional neuronal network that implemented cognition in the original brain. In practice, this step might proceed concurrently with the first step to reduce the amount of high-resolution image data stored in buffers. The resulting map is then combined with a library of neurocomputational models of different types of neurons or of different neuronal elements (such as particular kinds of synaptic connectors). Figure 4 shows some results of scanning and image processing produced with present-day technology. In the third stage, the neurocomputational structure resulting from the previous step is implemented on a sufficiently powerful computer. If completely successful, the result would be a digital reproduction of the original intellect, with memory and personality intact. The emulated human mind now exists as software on a computer. The mind can either inhabit a virtual reality or interface with the external world by means of robotic appendages. The whole brain emulation path does not require that we figure out how human cognition works or how to program an artificial intelligence. It requires only that we understand the low-level functional characteristics of the basic computational elements of the brain. No fundamental conceptual or theoretical breakthrough is needed for whole brain emulation to succeed. Whole brain emulation does, however, require some rather advanced enabling technologies. There are three key prerequisites: (1) scanning : high-throughput microscopy with sufficient resolution and detection of relevant properties; (2) translation : automated image analysis to turn raw scanning data into an interpreted three-dimensional model of relevant neurocomputational elements; and (3) simulation : hardware powerful enough to implement the resultant computational structure (see Table 4 ). (In comparison with these more challenging steps, the construction of a basic virtual reality or a robotic embodiment with an audiovisual input channel and some simple output channel is relatively easy. Simple yet minimally adequate I/O seems feasible already with present technology. 23 ) Figure 4 Reconstructing 3D neuroanatomy from electron microscope images. Upper left : A typical electron micrograph showing cross-sections of neuronal matterdendrites and axons. Upper right : Volume image of rabbit retinal neural tissue acquired by serial block-face scanning electron microscopy. 21 Individual 2D images have been stacked into a cube (with a side of approximately 11 m). Bottom : Reconstruction of a subset of the neuronal projections filling a volume of neuropil, generated by an automated segmentation algorithm. 22 There is good reason to think that the requisite enabling technologies are attainable, though not in the near future. Reasonable computational models of many types of neuron and neuronal processes already exist. Image recognition software has been developed that can trace axons and dendrites through a stack of two-dimensional images (though reliability needs to be improved). And there are imaging tools that provide the necessary resolutionwith a scanning tunneling microscope it is possible to see individual atoms, which is a far higher resolution than needed. However, although present knowledge and capabilities suggest that there is no in-principle barrier to the development of the requisite enabling technologies, it is clear that a very great deal of incremental technical progress would be needed to bring human whole brain emulation within reach. 24 For example, microscopy technology would need not just sufficient resolution but also sufficient throughput. Using an atomic-resolution scanning tunneling microscope to image the needed surface area would be far too slow to be practicable. It would be more plausible to use a lower-resolution electron microscope, but this would require new methods for preparing and staining cortical tissue to make visible relevant details such as synaptic fine structure. A great expansion of neurocomputational libraries and major improvements in automated image processing and scan interpretation would also be needed. Table 4 Capabilities needed for whole brain emulation In general, whole brain emulation relies less on theoretical insight and more on technological capability than artificial intelligence. Just how much technology is required for whole brain emulation depends on the level of abstraction at which the brain is emulated. In this regard there is a tradeoff between insight and technology. In general, the worse our scanning equipment and the feebler our computers, the less we could rely on simulating low-level chemical and electrophysiological brain processes, and the more theoretical understanding would be needed of the computational architecture that we are seeking to emulate in order to create more abstract representations of the relevant functionalities. 25 Conversely, with sufficiently advanced scanning technology and abundant computing power, it might be possible to brute-force an emulation even with a fairly limited understanding of the brain. In the unrealistic limiting case, we could imagine emulating a brain at the level of its elementary particles using the quantum mechanical Schrdinger equation. Then one could rely entirely on existing knowledge of physics and not at all on any biological model. This extreme case, however, would place utterly impracticable demands on computational power and data acquisition. A far more plausible level of emulation would be one that incorporates individual neurons and their connectivity matrix, along with some of the structure of their dendritic trees and maybe some state variables of individual synapses. Neurotransmitter molecules would not be simulated individually, but their fluctuating concentrations would be modeled in a coarse-grained manner. To assess the feasibility of whole brain emulation, one must understand the criterion for success. The aim is not to create a brain simulation so detailed and accurate that one could use it to predict exactly what would have happened in the original brain if it had been subjected to a particular sequence of stimuli. Instead, the aim is to capture enough of the computationally functional properties of the brain to enable the resultant emulation to perform intellectual work. For this purpose, much of the messy biological detail of a real brain is irrelevant. A more elaborate analysis would distinguish between different levels of emulation success based on the extent to which the information-processing functionality of the emulated brain has been preserved. For example, one could distinguish among (1) a high-fidelity emulation that has the full set of knowledge, skills, capacities, and values of the emulated brain; (2) a distorted emulation whose dispositions are significantly non-human in some ways but which is mostly able to do the same intellectual labor as the emulated brain; and (3) a generic emulation (which might also be distorted) that is somewhat like an infant, lacking the skills or memories that had been acquired by the emulated adult brain but with the capacity to learn most of what a normal human can learn. 26 While it appears ultimately feasible to produce a high-fidelity emulation, it seems quite likely that the first whole brain emulation that we would achieve if we went down this path would be of a lower grade. Before we would get things to work perfectly, we would probably get things to work imperfectly. It is also possible that a push toward emulation technology would lead to the creation of some kind of neuromorphic AI that would adapt some neurocomputational principles discovered during emulation efforts and hybridize them with synthetic methods, and that this would happen before the completion of a fully functional whole brain emulation. The possibility of such a spillover into neuromorphic AI, as we shall see in a later chapter, complicates the strategic assessment of the desirability of seeking to expedite emulation technology. How far are we currently from achieving a human whole brain emulation? One recent assessment presented a technical roadmap and concluded that the prerequisite capabilities might be available around mid-century, though with a large uncertainty interval. 27 Figure 5 depicts the major milestones in this roadmap. The apparent simplicity of the map may be deceptive, however, and we should be careful not to understate how much work remains to be done. No brain has yet been emulated. Consider the humble model organism Caenorhabditis elegans , which is a transparent roundworm, about 1 mm in length, with 302 neurons. The complete connectivity matrix of these neurons has been known since the mid-1980s, when it was laboriously mapped out by means of slicing, electron microscopy, and hand-labeling of specimens. 29 But knowing merely which neurons are connected with which is not enough. To create a brain emulation one would also need to know which synapses are excitatory and which are inhibitory; the strength of the connections; and various dynamical properties of axons, synapses, and dendritic trees. This information is not yet available even for the small nervous system of C. elegans (although it may now be within range of a targeted moderately sized research project). 30 Success at emulating a tiny brain, such as that of C. elegans , would give us a better view of what it would take to emulate larger brains. Figure 5 Whole brain emulation roadmap. Schematic of inputs, activities, and milestones. 28 At some point in the technology development process, once techniques are available for automatically emulating small quantities of brain tissue, the problem reduces to one of scaling. Notice the ladder at the right side of Figure 5 . This ascending series of boxes represents a final sequence of advances which can commence after preliminary hurdles have been cleared. The stages in this sequence correspond to whole brain emulations of successively more neurologically sophisticated model organismsfor example, C. elegans honeybee mouse rhesus monkey human . Because the gaps between these rungsat least after the first stepare mostly quantitative in nature and due mainly (though not entirely) to the differences in size of the brains to be emulated, they should be tractable through a relatively straightforward scale-up of scanning and simulation capacity. 31 Once we start ascending this final ladder, the eventual attainment of human whole brain emulation becomes more clearly foreseeable. 32 We can thus expect to get some advance warning before arrival at human-level machine intelligence along the whole brain emulation path, at least if the last among the requisite enabling technologies to reach sufficient maturity is either high-throughput scanning or the computational power needed for real-time simulation. If, however, the last enabling technology to fall into place is neurocomputational modeling, then the transition from unimpressive prototypes to a working human emulation could be more abrupt. One could imagine a scenario in which, despite abundant scanning data and fast computers, it is proving difficult to get our neuronal models to work right. When finally the last glitch is ironed out, what was previously a completely dysfunctional systemanalogous perhaps to an unconscious brain undergoing a grand mal seizuremight snap into a coherent wakeful state. In this case, the key advance would not be heralded by a series of functioning animal emulations of increasing magnitude (provoking newspaper headlines of correspondingly escalating font size). Even for those paying attention it might be difficult to tell in advance of success just how many flaws remained in the neurocomputational models at any point and how long it would take to fix them, even up to the eve of the critical breakthrough. (Once a human whole brain emulation has been achieved, further potentially explosive developments would take place; but we postpone discussion of this until Chapter 4 .) Surprise scenarios are thus imaginable for whole brain emulation even if all the relevant research were conducted in the open. Nevertheless, compared with the AI path to machine intelligence, whole brain emulation is more likely to be preceded by clear omens since it relies more on concrete observable technologies and is not wholly based on theoretical insight. We can also say, with greater confidence than for the AI path, that the emulation path will not succeed in the near future (within the next fifteen years, say) because we know that several challenging precursor technologies have not yet been developed. By contrast, it seems likely that somebody could in principle sit down and code a seed AI on an ordinary present-day personal computer; and it is conceivable though unlikelythat somebody somewhere will get the right insight for how to do this in the near future. Biological cognition A third path to greater-than-current-human intelligence is to enhance the functioning of biological brains. In principle, this could be achieved without technology, through selective breeding. Any attempt to initiate a classical large- scale eugenics program, however, would confront major political and moral hurdles. Moreover, unless the selection were extremely strong, many generations would be required to produce substantial results. Long before such an initiative would bear fruit, advances in biotechnology will allow much more direct control of human genetics and neurobiology, rendering otiose any human breeding program. We will therefore focus on methods that hold the potential to deliver results faster, on the timescale of a few generations or less. Our individual cognitive capacities can be strengthened in various ways, including by such traditional methods as education and training. Neurological development can be promoted by low-tech interventions such as optimizing maternal and infant nutrition, removing lead and other neurotoxic pollutants from the environment, eradicating parasites, ensuring adequate sleep and exercise, and preventing diseases that affect the brain. 33 Improvements in cognition can certainly be obtained through each of these means, though the magnitudes of the gains are likely to be modest, especially in populations that are already reasonably well-nourished and -schooled. We will certainly not achieve superintelligence by any of these means, but they might help on the margin, particularly by lifting up the deprived and expanding the catchment of global talent. (Lifelong depression of intelligence due to iodine deficiency remains widespread in many impoverished inland areas of the worldan outrage given that the condition can be prevented by fortifying table salt at a cost of a few cents per person and year. 34 ) Biomedical enhancements could give bigger boosts. Drugs already exist that are alleged to improve memory, concentration, and mental energy in at least some subjects. 35 (Work on this book was fueled by coffee and nicotine chewing gum.) While the efficacy of the present generation of smart drugs is variable, marginal, and generally dubious, future nootropics might offer clearer benefits and fewer side effects. 36 However, it seems implausible, on both neurological and evolutionary grounds, that one could by introducing some chemical into the brain of a healthy person spark a dramatic rise in intelligence. 37 The cognitive functioning of a human brain depends on a delicate orchestration of many factors, especially during the critical stages of embryo developmentand it is much more likely that this self-organizing structure, to be enhanced, needs to be carefully balanced, tuned, and cultivated rather than simply flooded with some extraneous potion. Manipulation of genetics will provide a more powerful set of tools than psychopharmacology. Consider again the idea of genetic selection: instead of trying to implement a eugenics program by controlling mating patterns, one could use selection at the level of embryos or gametes. 38 Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis has already been used during in vitro fertilization procedures to screen embryos produced for monogenic disorders such as Huntingtons disease and for predisposition to some late-onset diseases such as breast cancer. It has also been used for sex selection and for matching human leukocyte antigen type with that of a sick sibling, who can then benefit from a cord-blood stem cell donation when the new baby is born. 39 The range of traits that can be selected for or against will expand greatly over the next decade or two. A strong driver of progress in behavioral genetics is the rapidly falling cost of genotyping and gene sequencing. Genome-wide complex trait analysis, using studies with vast numbers of subjects, is just now starting to become feasible and will greatly increase our knowledge of the genetic architectures of human cognitive and behavioral traits. 40 Any trait with a non-negligible heritabilityincluding cognitive capacitycould then become susceptible to selection. 41 Embryo selection does not require a deep understanding of the causal pathways by which genes, in complicated interplay with environments, produce phenotypes: it requires only (lots of) data on the genetic correlates of the traits of interest. It is possible to calculate some rough estimates of the magnitude of the gains obtainable in different selection scenarios. 42 Table 5 shows expected increases in intelligence resulting from various amounts of selection, assuming complete information about the common additive genetic variants underlying the narrow- sense heritability of intelligence. (With partial information, the effectiveness of selection would be reduced, though not quite to the extent one might naively expect. 44 ) Unsurprisingly, selecting between larger numbers of embryos produces larger gains, but there are steeply diminishing returns: selection between 100 embryos does not produce a gain anywhere near fifty times as large as that which one would get from selection between 2 embryos. 45 Table 5 Maximum IQ gains from selecting among a set of embryos 43 Selection IQ points gained 1 in 2 4.2 1 in 10 11.5 1 in 100 18.8 1 in 1000 24.3 5 generations of 1 in 10 < 65 (b/c diminishing returns) 10 generations of 1 in 10 < 130 (b/c diminishing returns) Cumulative limits (additive variants optimized for cognition) 100 + (< 300 (b/c diminishing returns)) Interestingly, the diminishment of returns is greatly abated when the selection is spread over multiple generations. Thus, repeatedly selecting the top 1 in 10 over ten generations (where each new generation consists of the offspring of those selected in the previous generation) will produce a much greater increase in the trait value than a one-off selection of 1 in 100. The problem with sequential selection, of course, is that it takes longer. If each generational step takes twenty or thirty years, then even just five successive generations would push us well into the twenty-second century. Long before then, more direct and powerful modes of genetic engineering (not to mention machine intelligence) will most likely be available. There is, however, a complementary technology, one which, once it has been developed for use in humans, would greatly potentiate the enhancement power of pre-implantation genetic screening: namely, the derivation of viable sperm and eggs from embryonic stem cells. 46 The techniques for this have already been used to produce fertile offspring in mice and gamete-like cells in humans. Substantial scientific challenges remain, however, in translating the animal results to humans and in avoiding epigenetic abnormalities in the derived stem cell lines. According to one expert, these challenges might put human application 10 or even 50 years in the future. 47 With stem cell-derived gametes, the amount of selection power available to a couple could be greatly increased. In current practice, an in vitro fertilization procedure typically involves the creation of fewer than ten embryos. With stem cell-derived gametes, a few donated cells might be turned into a virtually unlimited number of gametes that could be combined to produce embryos, which could then be genotyped or sequenced, and the most promising one chosen for implantation. Depending on the cost of preparing and screening each individual embryo, this technology could yield a severalfold increase in the selective power available to couples using in vitro fertilization. More importantly still, stem cell-derived gametes would allow multiple generations of selection to be compressed into less than a human maturation period, by enabling iterated embryo selection . This is a procedure that would consist of the following steps: 48 1 Genotype and select a number of embryos that are higher in desired genetic characteristics. 2 Extract stem cells from those embryos and convert them to sperm and ova, maturing within six months or less. 49 3 Cross the new sperm and ova to produce embryos. 4 Repeat until large genetic changes have been accumulated. In this manner, it would be possible to accomplish ten or more generations of selection in just a few years. (The procedure would be time-consuming and expensive; however, in principle, it would need to be done only once rather than repeated for each birth. The cell lines established at the end of the procedure could be used to generate very large numbers of enhanced embryos.) As Table 5 indicates, the average level of intelligence among individuals conceived in this manner could be very high, possibly equal to or somewhat above that of the most intelligent individual in the historical human population. A world that had a large population of such individuals might (if it had the culture, education, communications infrastructure, etc., to match) constitute a collective superintelligence. The impact of this technology will be dampened and delayed by several factors. There is the unavoidable maturational lag while the finally selected embryos grow into adult human beings: at least twenty years before an enhanced child reaches full productivity, longer still before such children come to constitute a substantial segment of the labor force. Furthermore, even after the technology has been perfected, adoption rates will probably start out low. Some countries might prohibit its use altogether, on moral or religious grounds. 50 Even where selection is allowed, many couples will prefer the natural way of conceiving. Willingness to use IVF, however, would increase if there were clearer benefits associated with the proceduresuch as a virtual guarantee that the child would be highly talented and free from genetic predispositions to disease. Lower health care costs and higher expected lifetime earnings would also argue in favor of genetic selection. As use of the procedure becomes more common, particularly among social elites, there might be a cultural shift toward parenting norms that present the use of selection as the thing that responsible enlightened couples do. Many of the initially reluctant might join the bandwagon in order to have a child that is not at a disadvantage relative to the enhanced children of their friends and colleagues. Some countries might offer inducements to encourage their citizens to take advantage of genetic selection in order to increase the countrys stock of human capital, or to increase long-term social stability by selecting for traits like docility, obedience, submissiveness, conformity, risk-aversion, or cowardice, outside of the ruling clan. Effects on intellectual capacity would also depend on the extent to which the available selection power would be used for enhancing cognitive traits ( Table 6 ). Those who do opt to use some form of embryo selection would have to choose how to allocate the selection power at their disposal, and intelligence would to some extent be in competition with other desired attributes, such as health, beauty, personality, or athleticism. Iterated embryo selection, by offering such a large amount of selection power, would alleviate some of these tradeoffs, enabling simultaneous strong selection for multiple traits. However, this procedure would tend to disrupt the normal genetic relationship between parents and child, something that could negatively affect demand in many cultures. 51 With further advances in genetic technology, it may become possible to synthesize genomes to specification, obviating the need for large pools of embryos. DNA synthesis is already a routine and largely automated biotechnology, though it is not yet feasible to synthesize an entire human genome that could be used in a reproductive context (not least because of still- unresolved difficulties in getting the epigenetics right). 54 But once this technology has matured, an embryo could be designed with the exact preferred combination of genetic inputs from each parent. Genes that are present in neither of the parents could also be spliced in, including alleles that are present with low frequency in the population but which may have significant positive effects on cognition. 55 Table 6 Possible impacts from genetic selection in different scenarios 52 One intervention that becomes possible when human genomes can be synthesized is genetic spell-checking of an embryo. (Iterated embryo selection might also allow an approximation of this.) Each of us currently carries a mutational load, with perhaps hundreds of mutations that reduce the efficiency of various cellular processes. 56 Each individual mutation has an almost negligible effect (whence it is only slowly removed from the gene pool), yet in combination such mutations may exact a heavy toll on our functioning. 57 Individual differences in intelligence might to a significant extent be attributable to variations in the number and nature of such slightly deleterious alleles that each of us carries. With gene synthesis we could take the genome of an embryo and construct a version of that genome free from the genetic noise of accumulated mutations. If one wished to speak provocatively, one could say that individuals created from such proofread genomes might be more human than anybody currently alive, in that they would be less distorted expressions of human form. Such people would not all be carbon copies, because humans vary genetically in ways other than by carrying different deleterious mutations. But the phenotypical manifestation of a proofread genome may be an exceptional physical and mental constitution, with elevated functioning in polygenic trait dimensions like intelligence, health, hardiness, and appearance. 58 (A loose analogy could be made with composite faces, in which the defects of the superimposed individuals are averaged out: see Figure 6 .) Figure 6 Composite faces as a metaphor for spell-checked genomes. Each of the central pictures was produced by superimposing photographs of sixteen different individuals (residents of Tel Aviv). Composite faces are often judged to be more beautiful than any of the individual faces of which they are composed, as idiosyncratic imperfections are averaged out. Analogously, by removing individual mutations, proofread genomes may produce people closer to Platonic ideals. Such individuals would not all be genetically identical, because many genes come in multiple equally functional alleles. Proofreading would only eliminate variance arising from deleterious mutations. 59 Other potential biotechnological techniques might also be relevant. Human reproductive cloning, once achieved, could be used to replicate the genome of exceptionally talented individuals. Uptake would be limited by the preference of most prospective parents to be biologically related to their children, yet the practice could nevertheless come to have non-negligible impact because (1) even a relatively small increase in the number of exceptionally talented people might have a significant effect; and (2) it is possible that some state would embark on a larger-scale eugenics program, perhaps by paying surrogate mothers. Other kinds of genetic engineeringsuch as the design of novel synthetic genes or insertion into the genome of promoter regions and other elements to control gene expressionmight also become important over time. Even more exotic possibilities may exist, such as vats full of complexly structured cultured cortical tissue, or uplifted transgenic animals (perhaps some large-brained mammal such as the whale or elephant, enriched with human genes). These latter ones are wholly speculative, but over a longer time frame they perhaps cannot be completely discounted. So far we have discussed germline interventions, ones that would be done on gametes or embryos. Somatic gene enhancements, by bypassing the generation cycle, could in principle produce impacts more quickly. However, they are technologically much more challenging. They require that the modified genes be inserted into a large number of cells in the living bodyincluding, in the case of cognitive enhancement, the brain. Selecting among existing egg cells or embryos, in contrast, requires no gene insertion. Even such germline therapies as do involve modifying the genome (such as proofreading the genome or splicing in rare alleles) are far easier to implement at the gamete or the embryo stage, where one is dealing with a small number of cells. Furthermore, germline interventions on embryos can probably achieve greater effects than somatic interventions on adults, because the former would be able to shape early brain development whereas the latter would be limited to tweaking an existing structure. (Some of what could be done through somatic gene therapy might also be achievable by pharmacological means.) Focusing therefore on germline interventions, we must take into account the generational lag delaying any large impact on the world. 60 Even if the technology were perfected today and immediately put to use, it would take more than two decades for a genetically enhanced brood to reach maturity. Furthermore, with human applications there is normally a delay of at least one decade between proof of concept in the laboratory and clinical application, because of the need for extensive studies to determine safety. The simplest forms of genetic selection, however, could largely abrogate the need for such testing, since they would use standard fertility treatment techniques and genetic information to choose between embryos that might otherwise have been selected by chance. Delays could also result from obstacles rooted not in a fear of failure (demand for safety testing) but in fear of successdemand for regulation driven by concerns about the moral permissibility of genetic selection or its wider social implications. Such concerns are likely to be more influential in some countries than in others, owing to differing cultural, historical, and religious contexts. Post-war Germany, for example, has chosen to give a wide berth to any reproductive practices that could be perceived to be even in the remotest way aimed at enhancement, a stance that is understandable given the particularly dark history of atrocities connected to the eugenics movement in that country. Other Western countries are likely to take a more liberal approach. And some countries perhaps China or Singapore, both of which have long-term population policies might not only permit but actively promote the use of genetic selection and genetic engineering to enhance the intelligence of their populations once the technology to do so is available. Once the example has been set, and the results start to show, holdouts will have strong incentives to follow suit. Nations would face the prospect of becoming cognitive backwaters and losing out in economic, scientific, military, and prestige contests with competitors that embrace the new human enhancement technologies. Individuals within a society would see places at elite schools being filled with genetically selected children (who may also on average be prettier, healthier, and more conscientious) and will want their own offspring to have the same advantages. There is some chance that a large attitudinal shift could take place over a relatively short time, perhaps in as little as a decade, once the technology is proven to work and to provide a substantial benefit. Opinion surveys in the United States reveal a dramatic shift in public approval of in vitro fertilization after the birth of the first test tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978. A few years earlier, only 18% of Americans said they would personally use IVF to treat infertility; yet in a poll taken shortly after the birth of Louise Brown, 53% said they would do so, and the number has continued to rise. 61 (For comparison, in a poll taken in 2004, 28% of Americans approved of embryo selection for strength or intelligence, 58% approved of it for avoiding adult- onset cancer, and 68% approved of it to avoid fatal childhood disease. 62 ) If we add up the various delayssay five to ten years to gather the information needed for significantly effective selection among a set of IVF embryos (possibly much longer before stem cell-derived gametes are available for use in human reproduction), ten years to build significant uptake, and twenty to twenty-five years for the enhanced generation to reach an age where they start becoming productive, we find that germline enhancements are unlikely to have a significant impact on society before the middle of this century. From that point onward, however, the intelligence of significant segments of the adult population may begin to be boosted by genetic enhancements. The speed of the ascent would then greatly accelerate as cohorts conceived using more powerful next- generation genetic technologies (in particular stem cell-derived gametes and iterative embryo selection) enter the labor force. With the full development of the genetic technologies described above (setting aside the more exotic possibilities such as intelligence in cultured neural tissue), it might be possible to ensure that new individuals are on average smarter than any human who has yet existed, with peaks that rise higher still. The potential of biological enhancement is thus ultimately high, probably sufficient for the attainment of at least weak forms of superintelligence. This should not be surprising. After all, dumb evolutionary processes have dramatically amplified the intelligence in the human lineage even compared with our close relatives the great apes and our own humanoid ancestors; and there is no reason to suppose Homo sapiens to have reached the apex of cognitive effectiveness attainable in a biological system. Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilizationa niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it. Progress along the biological path is clearly feasible. The generational lag in germline interventions means that progress could not be nearly as sudden and abrupt as in scenarios involving machine intelligence. (Somatic gene therapies and pharmacological interventions could theoretically skip the generational lag, but they seem harder to perfect and are less likely to produce dramatic effects.) The ultimate potential of machine intelligence is, of course, vastly greater than that of organic intelligence. (One can get some sense of the magnitude of the gap by considering the speed differential between electronic components and nerve cells: even todays transistors operate on a timescale ten million times shorter than that of biological neurons.) However, even comparatively moderate enhancements of biological cognition could have important consequences. In particular, cognitive enhancement could accelerate science and technology, including progress toward more potent forms of biological intelligence amplification and machine intelligence. Consider how the rate of progress in the field of artificial intelligence would change in a world where Average Joe is an intellectual peer of Alan Turing or John von Neumann, and where millions of people tower far above any intellectual giant of the past. 63 A discussion of the strategic implications of cognitive enhancement will have to await a later chapter. But we can summarize this section by noting three conclusions: (1) at least weak forms of superintelligence are achievable by means of biotechnological enhancements; (2) the feasibility of cognitively enhanced humans adds to the plausibility that advanced forms of machine intelligence are feasiblebecause even if we were fundamentally unable to create machine intelligence (which there is no reason to suppose), machine intelligence might still be within reach of cognitively enhanced humans; and (3) when we consider scenarios stretching significantly into the second half of this century and beyond, we must take into account the probable emergence of a generation of genetically enhanced populationsvoters, inventors, scientists with the magnitude of enhancement escalating rapidly over subsequent decades. Braincomputer interfaces It is sometimes proposed that direct braincomputer interfaces, particularly implants, could enable humans to exploit the fortes of digital computing perfect recall, speedy and accurate arithmetic calculation, and high-bandwidth data transmissionenabling the resulting hybrid system to radically outperform the unaugmented brain. 64 But although the possibility of direct connections between human brains and computers has been demonstrated, it seems unlikely that such interfaces will be widely used as enhancements any time soon. 65 To begin with, there are significant risks of medical complicationsincluding infections, electrode displacement, hemorrhage, and cognitive declinewhen implanting electrodes in the brain. Perhaps the most vivid illustration to date of the benefits that can be obtained through brain stimulation is the treatment of patients with Parkinsons disease. The Parkinsons implant is relatively simple: it does not really communicate with the brain but simply supplies a stimulating electric current to the subthalamic nucleus. A demonstration video shows a subject slumped in a chair, completely immobilized by the disease, then suddenly springing to life when the current is switched on: the subject now moves his arms, stands up and walks across the room, turns around and performs a pirouette. Yet even behind this especially simple and almost miraculously successful procedure, there lurk negatives. One study of Parkinson patients who had received deep brain implants showed reductions in verbal fluency, selective attention, color naming, and verbal memory compared with controls. Treated subjects also reported more cognitive complaints. 66 Such risks and side effects might be tolerable if the procedure is used to alleviate severe disability. But in order for healthy subjects to volunteer themselves for neurosurgery, there would have to be some very substantial enhancement of normal functionality to be gained. This brings us to the second reason to doubt that superintelligence will be achieved through cyborgization, namely that enhancement is likely to be far more difficult than therapy. Patients who suffer from paralysis might benefit from an implant that replaces their severed nerves or activates spinal motion pattern generators. 67 Patients who are deaf or blind might benefit from artificial cochleae and retinas. 68 Patients with Parkinsons disease or chronic pain might benefit from deep brain stimulation that excites or inhibits activity in a particular area of the brain. 69 What seems far more difficult to achieve is a high-bandwidth direct interaction between brain and computer to provide substantial increases in intelligence of a form that could not be more readily attained by other means. Most of the potential benefits that brain implants could provide in healthy subjects could be obtained at far less risk, expense, and inconvenience by using our regular motor and sensory organs to interact with computers located outside of our bodies. We do not need to plug a fiber optic cable into our brains in order to access the Internet. Not only can the human retina transmit data at an impressive rate of nearly 10 million bits per second, but it comes pre-packaged with a massive amount of dedicated wetware, the visual cortex, that is highly adapted to extracting meaning from this information torrent and to interfacing with other brain areas for further processing. 70 Even if there were an easy way of pumping more information into our brains, the extra data inflow would do little to increase the rate at which we think and learn unless all the neural machinery necessary for making sense of the data were similarly upgraded. Since this includes almost all of the brain, what would really be needed is a whole brain prosthesiswhich is just another way of saying artificial general intelligence. Yet if one had a human-level AI, one could dispense with neurosurgery: a computer might as well have a metal casing as one of bone. So this limiting case just takes us back to the AI path, which we have already examined. Braincomputer interfacing has also been proposed as a way to get information out of the brain, for purposes of communicating with other brains or with machines. 71 Such uplinks have helped patients with locked-in syndrome to communicate with the outside world by enabling them to move a cursor on a screen by thought. 72 The bandwidth attained in such experiments is low: the patient painstakingly types out one slow letter after another at a rate of a few words per minute. One can readily imagine improved versions of this technology perhaps a next-generation implant could plug into Brocas area (a region in the frontal lobe involved in language production) and pick up internal speech. 73 But whilst such a technology might assist some people with disabilities induced by stroke or muscular degeneration, it would hold little appeal for healthy subjects. The functionality it would provide is essentially that of a microphone coupled with speech recognition software, which is already commercially available minus the pain, inconvenience, expense, and risks associated with neurosurgery (and minus at least some of the hyper-Orwellian overtones of an intracranial listening device). Keeping our machines outside of our bodies also makes upgrading easier. But what about the dream of bypassing words altogether and establishing a connection between two brains that enables concepts, thoughts, or entire areas of expertise to be downloaded from one mind to another? We can download large files to our computers, including libraries with millions of books and articles, and this can be done over the course of seconds: could something similar be done with our brains? The apparent plausibility of this idea probably derives from an incorrect view of how information is stored and represented in the brain. As noted, the rate-limiting step in human intelligence is not how fast raw data can be fed into the brain but rather how quickly the brain can extract meaning and make sense of the data. Perhaps it will be suggested that we transmit meanings directly, rather than package them into sensory data that must be decoded by the recipient. There are two problems with this. The first is that brains, by contrast to the kinds of program we typically run on our computers, do not use standardized data storage and representation formats. Rather, each brain develops its own idiosyncratic representations of higher-level content. Which particular neuronal assemblies are recruited to represent a particular concept depends on the unique experiences of the brain in question (along with various genetic factors and stochastic physiological processes). Just as in artificial neural nets, meaning in biological neural networks is likely represented holistically in the structure and activity patterns of sizeable overlapping regions, not in discrete memory cells laid out in neat arrays. 74 It would therefore not be possible to establish a simple mapping between the neurons in one brain and those in another in such a way that thoughts could automatically slide over from one to the other. In order for the thoughts of one brain to be intelligible to another, the thoughts need to be decomposed and packaged into symbols according to some shared convention that allows the symbols to be correctly interpreted by the receiving brain. This is the job of language. In principle , one could imagine offloading the cognitive work of articulation and interpretation to an interface that would somehow read out the neural states in the senders brain and somehow feed in a bespoke pattern of activation to the receivers brain. But this brings us to the second problem with the cyborg scenario. Even setting aside the (quite immense) technical challenge of how to reliably read and write simultaneously from perhaps billions of individually addressable neurons, creating the requisite interface is probably an AI-complete problem. The interface would need to include a component able (in real-time) to map firing patterns in one brain onto semantically equivalent firing patterns in the other brain. The detailed multilevel understanding of the neural computation needed to accomplish such a task would seem to directly enable neuromorphic AI. Despite these reservations, the cyborg route toward cognitive enhancement is not entirely without promise. Impressive work on the rat hippocampus has demonstrated the feasibility of a neural prosthesis that can enhance performance in a simple working-memory task. 75 In its present version, the implant collects input from a dozen or two electrodes located in one area (CA3) of the hippocampus and projects onto a similar number of neurons in another area (CA1). A microprocessor is trained to discriminate between two different firing patterns in the first area (corresponding to two different memories, right lever or left lever) and to learn how these patterns are projected into the second area. This prosthesis can not only restore function when the normal neural connection between the two neural areas is blockaded, but by sending an especially clear token of a particular memory pattern to the second area it can enhance the performance on the memory task beyond what the rat is normally capable of. While a technical tour de force by contemporary standards, the study leaves many challenging questions unanswered: How well does the approach scale to greater numbers of memories? How well can we control the combinatorial explosion that otherwise threatens to make learning the correct mapping infeasible as the number of input and output neurons is increased? Does the enhanced performance on the test task come at some hidden cost, such as reduced ability to generalize from the particular stimulus used in the experiment, or reduced ability to unlearn the association when the environment changes? Would the test subjects still somehow benefit even ifunlike ratsthey could avail themselves of external memory aids such as pen and paper? And how much harder would it be to apply a similar method to other parts of the brain? Whereas the present prosthesis takes advantage of the relatively simple feed- forward structure of parts of the hippocampus (basically serving as a unidirectional bridge between areas CA3 and CA1), other structures in the cortex involve convoluted feedback loops which greatly increase the complexity of the wiring diagram and, presumably, the difficulty of deciphering the functionality of any embedded group of neurons. One hope for the cyborg route is that the brain, if permanently implanted with a device connecting it to some external resource, would over time learn an effective mapping between its own internal cognitive states and the inputs it receives from, or the outputs accepted by, the device. Then the implant itself would not need to be intelligent; rather, the brain would intelligently adapt to the interface, much as the brain of an infant gradually learns to interpret the signals arriving from receptors in its eyes and ears. 76 But here again one must question how much would really be gained. Suppose that the brains plasticity were such that it could learn to detect patterns in some new input stream arbitrary projected onto some part of the cortex by means of a braincomputer interface: why not project the same information onto the retina instead, as a visual pattern, or onto the cochlea as sounds? The low-tech alternative avoids a thousand complications, and in either case the brain could deploy its pattern-recognition mechanisms and plasticity to learn to make sense of the information. Networks and organizations Another conceivable path to superintelligence is through the gradual enhancement of networks and organizations that link individual human minds with one another and with various artifacts and bots. The idea here is not that this would enhance the intellectual capacity of individuals enough to make them superintelligent, but rather that some system composed of individuals thus networked and organized might attain a form of superintelligencewhat in the next chapter we will elaborate as collective superintelligence. 77 Humanity has gained enormously in collective intelligence over the course of history and prehistory. The gains come from many sources, including innovations in communications technology, such as writing and printing, and above all the introduction of language itself; increases in the size of the world population and the density of habitation; various improvements in organizational techniques and epistemic norms; and a gradual accumulation of institutional capital. In general terms, a systems collective intelligence is limited by the abilities of its member minds, the overheads in communicating relevant information between them, and the various distortions and inefficiencies that pervade human organizations. If communication overheads are reduced (including not only equipment costs but also response latencies, time and attention burdens, and other factors), then larger and more densely connected organizations become feasible. The same could happen if fixes are found for some of the bureaucratic deformations that warp organizational lifewasteful status games, mission creep, concealment or falsification of information, and other agency problems. Even partial solutions to these problems could pay hefty dividends for collective intelligence. The technological and institutional innovations that could contribute to the growth of our collective intelligence are many and various. For example, subsidized prediction markets might foster truth-seeking norms and improve forecasting on contentious scientific and social issues. 78 Lie detectors (should it prove feasible to make ones that are reliable and easy to use) could reduce the scope for deception in human affairs. 79 Self-deception detectors might be even more powerful. 80 Even without newfangled brain technologies, some forms of deception might become harder to practice thanks to increased availability of many kinds of data, including reputations and track records, or the promulgation of strong epistemic norms and rationality culture. Voluntary and involuntary surveillance will amass vast amounts of information about human behavior. Social networking sites are already used by over a billion people to share personal details: soon, these people might begin uploading continuous life recordings from microphones and video cameras embedded in their smart phones or eyeglass frames. Automated analysis of such data streams will enable many new applications (sinister as well as benign, of course). 81 Growth in collective intelligence may also come from more general organizational and economic improvements, and from enlarging the fraction of the worlds population that is educated, digitally connected, and integrated into global intellectual culture. 82 The Internet stands out as a particularly dynamic frontier for innovation and experimentation. Most of its potential may still remain unexploited. Continuing development of an intelligent Web, with better support for deliberation, de- biasing, and judgment aggregation, might make large contributions to increasing the collective intelligence of humanity as a whole or of particular groups. But what of the seemingly more fanciful idea that the Internet might one day wake up? Could the Internet become something more than just the backbone of a loosely integrated collective superintelligencesomething more like a virtual skull housing an emerging unified superintellect? (This was one of the ways that superintelligence could arise according to Vernor Vinges influential 1993 essay, which coined the term technological singularity. 83 ) Against this one could object that machine intelligence is hard enough to achieve through arduous engineering, and that it is incredible to suppose that it will arise spontaneously . However, the story need not be that some future version of the Internet suddenly becomes superintelligent by mere happenstance. A more plausible version of the scenario would be that the Internet accumulates improvements through the work of many people over many yearswork to engineer better search and information filtering algorithms, more powerful data representation formats, more capable autonomous software agents, and more efficient protocols governing the interactions between such botsand that myriad incremental improvements eventually create the basis for some more unified form of web intelligence. It seems at least conceivable that such a web- based cognitive system, supersaturated with computer power and all other resources needed for explosive growth save for one crucial ingredient, could, when the final missing constituent is dropped into the cauldron, blaze up with superintelligence. This type of scenario, though, converges into another possible path to superintelligence, that of artificial general intelligence, which we have already discussed. Summary The fact that there are many paths that lead to superintelligence should increase our confidence that we will eventually get there. If one path turns out to be blocked, we can still progress. That there are multiple paths does not entail that there are multiple destinations. Even if significant intelligence amplification were first achieved along one of the non-machine-intelligence paths, this would not render machine intelligence irrelevant. Quite the contrary: enhanced biological or organizational intelligence would accelerate scientific and technological developments, potentially hastening the arrival of more radical forms of intelligence amplification such as whole brain emulation and AI. This is not to say that it is a matter of indifference how we get to machine superintelligence. The path taken to get there could make a big difference to the eventual outcome. Even if the ultimate capabilities that are obtained do not depend much on the trajectory, how those capabilities will be usedhow much control we humans have over their dispositionmight well depend on details of our approach. For example, enhancements of biological or organizational intelligence might increase our ability to anticipate risk and to design machine superintelligence that is safe and beneficial. (A full strategic assessment involves many complexities, and will have to await Chapter 14 .) True superintelligence (as opposed to marginal increases in current levels of intelligence) might plausibly first be attained via the AI path. There are, however, many fundamental uncertainties along this path. This makes it difficult to rigorously assess how long the path is or how many obstacles there are along the way. The whole brain emulation path also has some chance of being the quickest route to superintelligence. Since progress along this path requires mainly incremental technological advances rather than theoretical breakthroughs, a strong case can be made that it will eventually succeed. It seems fairly likely, however, that even if progress along the whole brain emulation path is swift, artificial intelligence will nevertheless be first to cross the finishing line: this is because of the possibility of neuromorphic AIs based on partial emulations. Biological cognitive enhancements are clearly feasible, particularly ones based on genetic selection. Iterated embryo selection currently seems like an especially promising technology. Compared with possible breakthroughs in machine intelligence, however, biological enhancements would be relatively slow and gradual. They would, at best, result in relatively weak forms of superintelligence (more on this shortly). The clear feasibility of biological enhancement should increase our confidence that machine intelligence is ultimately achievable, since enhanced human scientists and engineers will be able to make more and faster progress than their au naturel counterparts. Especially in scenarios in which machine intelligence is delayed beyond mid-century, the increasingly cognitively enhanced cohorts coming onstage will play a growing role in subsequent developments. Braincomputer interfaces look unlikely as a source of superintelligence. Improvements in networks and organizations might result in weakly superintelligent forms of collective intelligence in the long run; but more likely, they will play an enabling role similar to that of biological cognitive enhancement, gradually increasing humanitys effective ability to solve intellectual problems. Compared with biological enhancements, advances in networks and organization will make a difference soonerin fact, such advances are occurring continuously and are having a significant impact already. However, improvements in networks and organizations may yield narrower increases in our problem-solving capacity than will improvements in biological cognition boosting collective intelligence rather than quality intelligence, to anticipate a distinction we are about to introduce in the next chapter. CHAPTER 3 Forms of superintelligence So what, exactly, do we mean by superintelligence? While we do not wish to get bogged down in terminological swamps, something needs to be said to clarify the conceptual ground. This chapter identifies three different forms of superintelligence, and argues that they are, in a practically relevant sense, equivalent. We also show that the potential for intelligence in a machine substrate is vastly greater than in a biological substrate. Machines have a number of fundamental advantages which will give them overwhelming superiority. Biological humans, even if enhanced, will be outclassed. Many machines and nonhuman animals already perform at superhuman levels in narrow domains. Bats interpret sonar signals better than man, calculators outperform us in arithmetic, and chess programs beat us in chess. The range of specific tasks that can be better performed by software will continue to expand. But although specialized information processing systems will have many uses, there are additional profound issues that arise only with the prospect of machine intellects that have enough general intelligence to substitute for humans across the board. As previously indicated, we use the term superintelligence to refer to intellects that greatly outperform the best current human minds across many very general cognitive domains. This is still quite vague. Different kinds of system with rather disparate performance attributes could qualify as superintelligences under this definition. To advance the analysis, it is helpful to disaggregate this simple notion of superintelligence by distinguishing different bundles of intellectual super-capabilities. There are many ways in which such decomposition could be done. Here we will differentiate between three forms: speed superintelligence, collective superintelligence, and quality superintelligence. Speed superintelligence A speed superintelligence is an intellect that is just like a human mind but faster. This is conceptually the easiest form of superintelligence to analyze. 1 We can define speed superintelligence as follows: Speed superintelligence: A system that can do all that a human intellect can do, but much faster . By much we here mean something like multiple orders of magnitude. But rather than try to expunge every remnant of vagueness from the definition, we will entrust the reader with interpreting it sensibly. 2 The simplest example of speed superintelligence would be a whole brain emulation running on fast hardware. 3 An emulation operating at a speed of ten thousand times that of a biological brain would be able to read a book in a few seconds and write a PhD thesis in an afternoon. With a speedup factor of a million, an emulation could accomplish an entire millennium of intellectual work in one working day. 4 To such a fast mind, events in the external world appear to unfold in slow motion. Suppose your mind ran at 10,000. If your fleshly friend should happen to drop his teacup, you could watch the porcelain slowly descend toward the carpet over the course of several hours, like a comet silently gliding through space toward an assignation with a far-off planet; and, as the anticipation of the coming crash tardily propagates through the folds of your friends gray matter and from thence out into his peripheral nervous system, you could observe his body gradually assuming the aspect of a frozen oopsenough time for you not only to order a replacement cup but also to read a couple of scientific papers and take a nap. Because of this apparent time dilation of the material world, a speed superintelligence would prefer to work with digital objects. It could live in virtual reality and deal in the information economy. Alternatively, it could interact with the physical environment by means of nanoscale manipulators, since limbs at such small scales could operate faster than macroscopic appendages. (The characteristic frequency of a system tends to be inversely proportional to its length scale. 5 ) A fast mind might commune mainly with other fast minds rather than with bradytelic, molasses-like humans. The speed of light becomes an increasingly important constraint as minds get faster, since faster minds face greater opportunity costs in the use of their time for traveling or communicating over long distances. 6 Light is roughly a million times faster than a jet plane, so it would take a digital agent with a mental speedup of 1,000,000 about the same amount of subjective time to travel across the globe as it does a contemporary human journeyer. Dialing somebody long distance would take as long as getting there in person, though it would be cheaper as a call would require less bandwidth. Agents with large mental speedups who want to converse extensively might find it advantageous to move near one another. Extremely fast minds with need for frequent interaction (such as members of a work team) may take up residence in computers located in the same building to avoid frustrating latencies. Collective superintelligence Another form of superintelligence is a system achieving superior performance by aggregating large numbers of smaller intelligences: Collective superintelligence: A system composed of a large number of smaller intellects such that the systems overall performance across many very general domains vastly outstrips that of any current cognitive system . Collective superintelligence is less conceptually clear-cut than speed superintelligence. 7 However, it is more familiar empirically. While we have no experience with human-level minds that differ significantly in clock speed, we do have ample experience with collective intelligence, systems composed of various numbers of human-level components working together with various degrees of efficiency. Firms, work teams, gossip networks, advocacy groups, academic communities, countries, even humankind as a whole, canif we adopt a somewhat abstract perspectivebe viewed as loosely defined systems capable of solving classes of intellectual problems. From experience, we have some sense of how easily different tasks succumb to the efforts of organizations of various size and composition. Collective intelligence excels at solving problems that can be readily broken into parts such that solutions to sub-problems can be pursued in parallel and verified independently. Tasks like building a space shuttle or operating a hamburger franchise offer myriad opportunities for division of labor: different engineers work on different components of the spacecraft; different staffs operate different restaurants. In academia, the rigid division of researchers, students, journals, grants, and prizes into separate self-contained disciplines though unconducive to the type of work represented by this bookmight (only in a conciliatory and mellow frame of mind) be viewed as a necessary accommodation to the practicalities of allowing large numbers of diversely motivated individuals and teams to contribute to the growth of human knowledge while working relatively independently, each plowing their own furrow. A systems collective intelligence could be enhanced by expanding the number or the quality of its constituent intellects, or by improving the quality of their organization. 8 To obtain a collective superintelligence from any present-day collective intelligence would require a very great degree of enhancement. The resulting system would need to be capable of vastly outperforming any current collective intelligence or other cognitive system across many very general domains. A new conference format that lets scholars exchange information more effectively, or a new collaborative information-filtering algorithm that better predicted users ratings of books and movies, would clearly not on its own amount to anything approaching collective superintelligence. Nor would a 50% increase in the world population, or an improvement in pedagogical method that enabled students to complete a school day in four hours instead of six. Some far more extreme growth of humanitys collective cognitive capacity would be required to meet the criterion of collective superintelligence. Note that the threshold for collective superintelligence is indexed to the performance levels of the presentthat is, the early twenty-first century. Over the course of human prehistory, and again over the course of human history, humanitys collective intelligence has grown by very large factors. World population, for example, has increased by at least a factor of a thousand since the Pleistocene. 9 On this basis alone, current levels of human collective intelligence could be regarded as approaching superintelligence relative to a Pleistocene baseline . Some improvements in communications technologiesespecially spoken language, but perhaps also cities, writing, and printingcould also be argued to have, individually or in combination, provided super-sized boosts, in the sense that if another innovation of comparable impact to our collective intellectual problem-solving capacity were to happen, it would result in collective superintelligence. 10 A certain kind of reader will be tempted at this point to interject that modern society does not seem so particularly intelligent. Perhaps some unwelcome political decision has just been made in the readers home country, and the apparent unwisdom of that decision now looms large in the readers mind as evidence of the mental incapacity of the modern era. And is it not the case that contemporary humanity is idolizing material consumption, depleting natural resources, polluting the environment, decimating species diversity, all the while failing to remedy screaming global injustices and neglecting paramount humanistic or spiritual values? However, setting aside the question of how modernitys shortcomings stack up against the not-so-inconsiderable failings of earlier epochs, nothing in our definition of collective superintelligence implies that a society with greater collective intelligence is necessarily better off. The definition does not even imply that the more collectively intelligent society is wiser . We can think of wisdom as the ability to get the important things approximately right. It is then possible to imagine an organization composed of a very large cadre of very efficiently coordinated knowledge workers, who collectively can solve intellectual problems across many very general domains. This organization, let us suppose, can operate most kinds of businesses, invent most kinds of technologies, and optimize most kinds of processes. Even so, it might get a few key big-picture issues entirely wrongfor instance, it may fail to take proper precautions against existential risksand as a result pursue a short explosive growth spurt that ends ingloriously in total collapse. Such an organization could have a very high degree of collective intelligence; if sufficiently high, the organization is a collective superintelligence. We should resist the temptation to roll every normatively desirable attribute into one giant amorphous concept of mental functioning, as though one could never find one admirable trait without all the others being equally present. Instead, we should recognize that there can exist instrumentally powerful information processing systemsintelligent systemsthat are neither inherently good nor reliably wise. But we will revisit this issue in Chapter 7 . Collective superintelligence could be either loosely or tightly integrated. To illustrate a case of loosely integrated collective superintelligence, imagine a planet, MegaEarth , which has the same level of communication and coordination technologies that we currently have on the real Earth but with a population one million times as large. With such a huge population, the total intellectual workforce on MegaEarth would be correspondingly larger than on our planet. Suppose that a scientific genius of the caliber of a Newton or an Einstein arises at least once for every 10 billion people: then on MegaEarth there would be 700,000 such geniuses living contemporaneously, alongside proportionally vast multitudes of slightly lesser talents. New ideas and technologies would be developed at a furious pace, and global civilization on MegaEarth would constitute a loosely integrated collective superintelligence. 11 If we gradually increase the level of integration of a collective intelligence, it may eventually become a unified intellect a single large mind as opposed to a mere assemblage of loosely interacting smaller human minds. 12 The inhabitants of MegaEarth could take steps in that direction by improving communications and coordination technologies and by developing better ways for many individuals to work on any hard intellectual problem together. A collective superintelligence could thus, after gaining sufficiently in integration, become a quality superintelligence. Quality superintelligence We can distinguish a third form of superintelligence. Quality superintelligence: A system that is at least as fast as a human mind and vastly qualitatively smarter . As with collective intelligence, intelligence quality is also a somewhat murky concept; and in this case the difficulty is compounded by our lack of experience with any variations in intelligence quality above the upper end of the present human distribution. We can, however, get some grasp of the notion by considering some related cases. First, we can expand the range of our reference points by considering nonhuman animals, which have intelligence of lower quality. (This is not meant as a speciesist remark. A zebrafish has a quality of intelligence that is excellently adapted to its ecological needs; but the relevant perspective here is a more anthropocentric one: our concern is with performance on humanly relevant complex cognitive tasks.) Nonhuman animals lack complex structured language; they are capable of no or only rudimentary tool use and tool construction; they are severely restricted in their ability to make long-term plans; and they have very limited abstract reasoning ability. Nor are these limitations fully explained by a lack of speed or of collective intelligence among nonhuman animal minds. In terms of raw computational power, human brains are probably inferior to those of some large animals, including elephants and whales. And although humanitys complex technological civilization would be impossible without our massive advantage in collective intelligence, not all distinctly human cognitive capabilities depend on collective intelligence. Many are highly developed even in small, isolated huntergatherer bands. 13 And many are not nearly as highly developed among highly organized nonhuman animals, such as chimpanzees and dolphins intensely trained by human instructors, or ants living in their own large and well-ordered societies. Evidently, the remarkable intellectual achievements of Homo sapiens are to a significant extent attributable to specific features of our brain architecture, features that depend on a unique genetic endowment not shared by other animals. This observation can help us illustrate the concept of quality superintelligence: it is intelligence of quality at least as superior to that of human intelligence as the quality of human intelligence is superior to that of elephants, dolphins, or chimpanzees. A second way to illustrate the concept of quality superintelligence is by noting the domain-specific cognitive deficits that can afflict individual humans, particularly deficits that are not caused by general dementia or other conditions associated with wholesale destruction of the brains neurocomputational resources. Consider, for example, individuals with autism spectrum disorders who may have striking deficits in social cognition while functioning well in other cognitive domains; or individuals with congenital amusia, who are unable to hum or recognize simple tunes yet perform normally in most other respects. Many other examples could be adduced from the neuropsychiatric literature, which is replete with case studies of patients suffering narrowly circumscribed deficits caused by genetic abnormalities or brain trauma. Such examples show that normal human adults have a range of remarkable cognitive talents that are not simply a function of possessing a sufficient amount of general neural processing power or even a sufficient amount of general intelligence: specialized neural circuitry is also needed. This observation suggests the idea of possible but non-realized cognitive talents , talents that no actual human possesses even though other intelligent systemsones with no more computing power than the human brainthat did have those talents would gain enormously in their ability to accomplish a wide range of strategically relevant tasks. Accordingly, by considering nonhuman animals and human individuals with domain-specific cognitive deficits, we can form some notion of different qualities of intelligence and the practical difference they make. Had Homo sapiens lacked (for instance) the cognitive modules that enable complex linguistic representations, it might have been just another simian species living in harmony with nature. Conversely, were we to gain some new set of modules giving an advantage comparable to that of being able to form complex linguistic representations, we would become superintelligent. Direct and indirect reach Superintelligence in any of these forms could, over time, develop the technology necessary to create any of the others. The indirect reaches of these three forms of superintelligence are therefore equal. In that sense, the indirect reach of current human intelligence is also in the same equivalence class, under the supposition that we are able eventually to create some form of superintelligence. Yet there is a sense in which the three forms of superintelligence are much closer to one another: any one of them could create other forms of superintelligence more rapidly than we can create any form of superintelligence from our present starting point. The direct reaches of the three different forms of superintelligence are harder to compare. There may be no definite ordering. Their respective capabilities depend on the degree to which they instantiate their respective advantages how fast a speed superintelligence is, how qualitatively superior a quality superintelligence is, and so forth. At most, we might say that, ceteris paribus , speed superintelligence excels at tasks requiring the rapid execution of a long series of steps that must be performed sequentially while collective superintelligence excels at tasks admitting of analytic decomposition into parallelizable sub-tasks and tasks demanding the combination of many different perspectives and skill sets. In some vague sense, quality superintelligence would be the most capable form of all, inasmuch as it could grasp and solve problems that are, for all practical purposes, beyond the direct reach of speed superintelligence and collective superintelligence. 14 In some domains, quantity is a poor substitute for quality. One solitary genius working out of a cork-lined bedroom can write In Search of Lost Time . Could an equivalent masterpiece be produced by recruiting an office building full of literary hacks? 15 Even within the range of present human variation we see that some functions benefit greatly from the labor of one brilliant mastermind as opposed to the joint efforts of myriad mediocrities. If we widen our purview to include superintelligent minds, we must countenance a likelihood of there being intellectual problems solvable only by superintelligence and intractable to any ever-so-large collective of non-augmented humans. There might thus be some problems that are solvable by a quality superintelligence, and perhaps by a speed superintelligence, yet which a loosely integrated collective superintelligence cannot solve (other than by first amplifying its own intelligence). 16 We cannot clearly see what all these problems are, but we can characterize them in general terms. 17 They would tend to be problems involving multiple complex interdependencies that do not permit of independently verifiable solution steps: problems that therefore cannot be solved in a piecemeal fashion, and that might require qualitatively new kinds of understanding or new representational frameworks that are too deep or too complicated for the current edition of mortals to discover or use effectively. Some types of artistic creation and strategic cognition might fall into this category. Some types of scientific breakthrough, perhaps, likewise. And one can speculate that the tardiness and wobbliness of humanitys progress on many of the eternal problems of philosophy are due to the unsuitability of the human cortex for philosophical work. On this view, our most celebrated philosophers are like dogs walking on their hind legsjust barely attaining the threshold level of performance required for engaging in the activity at all . 18 Sources of advantage for digital intelligence Minor changes in brain volume and wiring can have major consequences, as we see when we compare the intellectual and technological achievements of humans with those of other apes. The far greater changes in computing resources and architecture that machine intelligence will enable will probably have consequences that are even more profound. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to form an intuitive sense of the aptitudes of a superintelligence; but we can at least get an inkling of the space of possibilities by looking at some of the advantages open to digital minds. The hardware advantages are easiest to appreciate: Speed of computational elements . Biological neurons operate at a peak speed of about 200 Hz, a full seven orders of magnitude slower than a modern microprocessor (~ 2 GHz). 19 As a consequence, the human brain is forced to rely on massive parallelization and is incapable of rapidly performing any computation that requires a large number of sequential operations. 20 (Anything the brain does in under a second cannot use much more than a hundred sequential operationsperhaps only a few dozen.) Yet many of the most practically important algorithms in programming and computer science are not easily parallelizable. Many cognitive tasks could be performed far more efficiently if the brains native support for parallelizable pattern-matching algorithms were complemented by, and integrated with, support for fast sequential processing. Internal communication speed . Axons carry action potentials at speeds of 120 m/s or less, whereas electronic processing cores can communicate optically at the speed of light (300,000,000 m/s). 21 The sluggishness of neural signals limits how big a biological brain can be while functioning as a single processing unit. For example, to achieve a round-trip latency of less than 10 ms between any two elements in a system, biological brains must be smaller than 0.11 m 3 . An electronic system, on the other hand, could be 6.110 17 m 3 , about the size of a dwarf planet: eighteen orders of magnitude larger. 22 Number of computational elements . The human brain has somewhat fewer than 100 billion neurons. 23 Humans have about three and a half times the brain size of chimpanzees (though only one-fifth the brain size of sperm whales). 24 The number of neurons in a biological creature is most obviously limited by cranial volume and metabolic constraints, but other factors may also be significant for larger brains (such as cooling, development time, and signal-conductance delays see the previous point). By contrast, computer hardware is indefinitely scalable up to very high physical limits. 25 Supercomputers can be warehouse- sized or larger, with additional remote capacity added via high-speed cables. 26 Storage capacity . Human working memory is able to hold no more than some four or five chunks of information at any given time. 27 While it would be misleading to compare the size of human working memory directly with the amount of RAM in a digital computer, it is clear that the hardware advantages of digital intelligences will make it possible for them to have larger working memories. This might enable such minds to intuitively grasp complex relationships that humans can only fumblingly handle via plodding calculation. 28 Human long-term memory is also limited, though it is unclear whether we manage to exhaust its storage capacity during the course of an ordinary lifetime the rate at which we accumulate information is so slow. (On one estimate, the adult human brain stores about one billion bitsa couple of orders of magnitude less than a low-end smartphone. 29 ) Both the amount of information stored and the speed with which it can be accessed could thus be vastly greater in a machine brain than in a biological brain. Reliability, lifespan, sensors, etc . Machine intelligences might have various other hardware advantages. For example, biological neurons are less reliable than transistors. 30 Since noisy computing necessitates redundant encoding schemes that use multiple elements to encode a single bit of information, a digital brain might derive some efficiency gains from the use of reliable high-precision computing elements. Brains become fatigued after a few hours of work and start to permanently decay after a few decades of subjective time; microprocessors are not subject to these limitations. Data flow into a machine intelligence could be increased by adding millions of sensors. Depending on the technology used, a machine might have reconfigurable hardware that can be optimized for changing task requirements, whereas much of the brains architecture is fixed from birth or only slowly changeable (though the details of synaptic connectivity can change over shorter timescales, like days). 31 At present, the computational power of the biological brain still compares favorably with that of digital computers, though top-of-the-line supercomputers are attaining levels of performance that are within the range of plausible estimates of the brains processing power. 32 But hardware is rapidly improving, and the ultimate limits of hardware performance are vastly higher than those of biological computing substrates. Digital minds will also benefit from major advantages in software: Editability . It is easier to experiment with parameter variations in software than in neural wetware. For example, with a whole brain emulation one could easily trial what happens if one adds more neurons in a particular cortical area or if one increases or decreases their excitability. Running such experiments in living biological brains would be far more difficult. Duplicability . With software, one can quickly make arbitrarily many high-fidelity copies to fill the available hardware base. Biological brains, by contrast, can be reproduced only very slowly; and each new instance starts out in a helpless state, remembering nothing of what its parents learned in their lifetimes. Goal coordination . Human collectives are replete with inefficiencies arising from the fact that it is nearly impossible to achieve complete uniformity of purpose among the members of a large groupat least until it becomes feasible to induce docility on a large scale by means of drugs or genetic selection. A copy clan (a group of identical or almost identical programs sharing a common goal) would avoid such coordination problems. Memory sharing . Biological brains need extended periods of training and mentorship whereas digital minds could acquire new memories and skills by swapping data files. A population of a billion copies of an AI program could synchronize their databases periodically, so that all the instances of the program know everything that any instance learned during the previous hour. (Direct memory transfer requires standardized representational formats. Easy swapping of high-level cognitive content would therefore not be possible between just any pair of machine intelligences. In particular, it would not be possible among first- generation whole brain emulations.) New modules, modalities, and algorithms . Visual perception seems to us easy and effortless, quite unlike solving textbook geometry problemsthis despite the fact that it takes a massive amount of computation to reconstruct, from the two- dimensional patterns of stimulation on our retinas, a three-dimensional representation of a world populated with recognizable objects. The reason this seems easy is that we have dedicated low-level neural machinery for processing visual information. This low-level processing occurs unconsciously and automatically, without draining our mental energy or conscious attention. Music perception, language use, social cognition, and other forms of information processing that are natural for us humans seem to be likewise supported by dedicated neurocomputational modules. An artificial mind that had such specialized support for other cognitive domains that have become important in the contemporary worldsuch as engineering, computer programming, and business strategywould have big advantages over minds like ours that have to rely on clunky general-purpose cognition to think about such things. New algorithms may also be developed to take advantage of the distinct affordances of digital hardware, such as its support for fast serial processing. The ultimately attainable advantages of machine intelligence, hardware and software combined, are enormous. 33 But how rapidly could those potential advantages be realized? That is the question to which we now turn. CHAPTER 4 The kinetics of an intelligence explosion Once machines attain some form of human-equivalence in general reasoning ability, how long will it then be before they attain radical superintelligence? Will this be a slow, gradual, protracted transition? Or will it be sudden, explosive? This chapter analyzes the kinetics of the transition to superintelligence as a function of optimization power and system recalcitrance. We consider what we know or may reasonably surmise about the behavior of these two factors in the neighborhood of human-level general intelligence. Timing and speed of the takeoff Given that machines will eventually vastly exceed biology in general intelligence, but that machine cognition is currently vastly narrower than human cognition, one is led to wonder how quickly this usurpation will take place. The question we are asking here must be sharply distinguished from the question we considered in Chapter 1 about how far away we currently are from developing a machine with human-level general intelligence. Here the question is instead, if and when such a machine is developed, how long will it be from then until a machine becomes radically superintelligent? Note that one could think that it will take quite a long time until machines reach the human baseline, or one might be agnostic about how long that will take, and yet have a strong view that once this happens, the further ascent into strong superintelligence will be very rapid. It can be helpful to think about these matters schematically, even though doing so involves temporarily ignoring some qualifications and complicating details. Consider, then, a diagram that plots the intellectual capability of the most advanced machine intelligence system as a function of time ( Figure 7 ). A horizontal line labeled human baseline represents the effective intellectual capabilities of a representative human adult with access to the information sources and technological aids currently available in developed countries. At present, the most advanced AI system is far below the human baseline on any reasonable metric of general intellectual ability. At some point in future, a machine might reach approximate parity with this human baseline (which we take to be fixedanchored to the year 2014, say, even if the capabilities of human individuals should have increased in the intervening years): this would mark the onset of the takeoff. The capabilities of the system continue to grow, and at some later point the system reaches parity with the combined intellectual capability of all of humanity (again anchored to the present): what we may call the civilization baseline. Eventually, if the systems abilities continue to grow, it attains strong superintelligencea level of intelligence vastly greater than contemporary humanitys combined intellectual wherewithal. The attainment of strong superintelligence marks the completion of the takeoff, though the system might continue to gain in capacity thereafter. Sometime during the takeoff phase, the system may pass a landmark which we can call the crossover, a point beyond which the systems further improvement is mainly driven by the systems own actions rather than by work performed upon it by others. 1 (The possible existence of such a crossover will become important in the subsection on optimization power and explosivity, later in this chapter.) Figure 7 Shape of the takeoff. It is important to distinguish between these questions: Will a takeoff occur, and if so, when? and If and when a takeoff does occur, how steep will it be? One might hold, for example, that it will be a very long time before a takeoff occurs, but that when it does it will proceed very quickly. Another relevant question (not illustrated in this figure) is, How large a fraction of the world economy will participate in the takeoff? These questions are related but distinct. With this picture in mind, we can distinguish three classes of transition scenariosscenarios in which systems progress from human-level intelligence to superintelligencebased on their steepness; that is to say, whether they represent a slow, fast, or moderate takeoff. Slow A slow takeoff is one that occurs over some long temporal interval, such as decades or centuries. Slow takeoff scenarios offer excellent opportunities for human political processes to adapt and respond. Different approaches can be tried and tested in sequence. New experts can be trained and credentialed. Grassroots campaigns can be mobilized by groups that feel they are being disadvantaged by unfolding developments. If it appears that new kinds of secure infrastructure or mass surveillance of AI researchers is needed, such systems could be developed and deployed. Nations fearing an AI arms race would have time to try to negotiate treaties and design enforcement mechanisms. Most preparations undertaken before onset of the slow takeoff would be rendered obsolete as better solutions would gradually become visible in the light of the dawning era. Fast A fast takeoff occurs over some short temporal interval, such as minutes, hours, or days. Fast takeoff scenarios offer scant opportunity for humans to deliberate. Nobody need even notice anything unusual before the game is already lost. In a fast takeoff scenario, humanitys fate essentially depends on preparations previously put in place. At the slowest end of the fast takeoff scenario range, some simple human actions might be possible, analogous to flicking open the nuclear suitcase; but any such action would either be elementary or have been planned and pre-programmed in advance. Moderate A moderate takeoff is one that occurs over some intermediary temporal interval, such as months or years. Moderate takeoff scenarios give humans some chance to respond but not much time to analyze the situation, to test different approaches, or to solve complicated coordination problems. There is not enough time to develop or deploy new systems (e.g. political systems, surveillance regimes, or computer network security protocols), but extant systems could be applied to the new challenge. During a slow takeoff, there would be plenty of time for the news to get out. In a moderate takeoff, by contrast, it is possible that developments would be kept secret as they unfold. Knowledge might be restricted to a small group of insiders, as in a covert state-sponsored military research program. Commercial projects, small academic teams, and nine hackers in a basement outfits might also be clandestinethough, if the prospect of an intelligence explosion were on the radar of state intelligence agencies as a national security priority, then the most promising private projects would seem to have a good chance of being under surveillance. The host state (or a dominant foreign power) would then have the option of nationalizing or shutting down any project that showed signs of commencing takeoff. Fast takeoffs would happen so quickly that there would not be much time for word to get out or for anybody to mount a meaningful reaction if it did. But an outsider might intervene before the onset of the takeoff if they believed a particular project to be closing in on success. Moderate takeoff scenarios could lead to geopolitical, social, and economic turbulence as individuals and groups jockey to position themselves to gain from the unfolding transformation. Such upheaval, should it occur, might impede efforts to orchestrate a well-composed response; alternatively, it might enable solutions more radical than calmer circumstances would permit. For instance, in a moderate takeoff scenario where cheap and capable emulations or other digital minds gradually flood labor markets over a period of years, one could imagine mass protests by laid-off workers pressuring governments to increase unemployment benefits or institute a living wage guarantee to all human citizens, or to levy special taxes or impose minimum wage requirements on employers who use emulation workers. In order for any relief derived from such policies to be more than fleeting, support for them would somehow have to be cemented into permanent power structures. Similar issues can arise if the takeoff is slow rather than moderate, but the disequilibrium and rapid change in moderate scenarios may present special opportunities for small groups to wield disproportionate influence. It might appear to some readers that of these three types of scenario, the slow takeoff is the most probable, the moderate takeoff is less probable, and the fast takeoff is utterly implausible. It could seem fanciful to suppose that the world could be radically transformed and humanity deposed from its position as apex cogitator over the course of an hour or two. No change of such moment has ever occurred in human history, and its nearest parallelsthe Agricultural and Industrial Revolutionsplayed out over much longer timescales (centuries to millennia in the former case, decades to centuries in the latter). So the base rate for the kind of transition entailed by a fast or medium takeoff scenario, in terms of the speed and magnitude of the postulated change, is zero: it lacks precedent outside myth and religion. 2 Nevertheless, this chapter will present some reasons for thinking that the slow transition scenario is improbable. If and when a takeoff occurs, it will likely be explosive. To begin to analyze the question of how fast the takeoff will be, we can conceive of the rate of increase in a systems intelligence as a (monotonically increasing) function of two variables: the amount of optimization power, or quality-weighted design effort, that is being applied to increase the systems intelligence, and the responsiveness of the system to the application of a given amount of such optimization power. We might term the inverse of responsiveness recalcitrance, and write: Pending some specification of how to quantify intelligence, design effort, and recalcitrance, this expression is merely qualitative. But we can at least observe that a systems intelligence will increase rapidly if either a lot of skilled effort is applied to the task of increasing its intelligence and the systems intelligence is not too hard to increase or there is a non-trivial design effort and the systems recalcitrance is low (or both). If we know how much design effort is going into improving a particular system, and the rate of improvement this effort produces, we could calculate the systems recalcitrance. Further, we can observe that the amount of optimization power devoted to improving some systems performance varies between systems and over time. A systems recalcitrance might also vary depending on how much the system has already been optimized. Often, the easiest improvements are made first, leading to diminishing returns (increasing recalcitrance) as low-hanging fruits are depleted. However, there can also be improvements that make further improvements easier, leading to improvement cascades. The process of solving a jigsaw puzzle starts out simpleit is easy to find the corners and the edges. Then recalcitrance goes up as subsequent pieces are harder to fit. But as the puzzle nears completion, the search space collapses and the process gets easier again. To proceed in our inquiry, we must therefore analyze how recalcitrance and optimization power might vary in the critical time periods during the takeoff. This will occupy us over the next few pages. Recalcitrance Let us begin with recalcitrance. The outlook here depends on the type of the system under consideration. For completeness, we first cast a brief glance at the recalcitrance that would be encountered along paths to superintelligence that do not involve advanced machine intelligence. We find that recalcitrance along those paths appears to be fairly high. That done, we will turn to the main case, which is that the takeoff involves machine intelligence; and there we find that recalcitrance at the critical juncture seems low. Non-machine intelligence paths Cognitive enhancement via improvements in public health and diet has steeply diminishing returns. 3 Big gains come from eliminating severe nutritional deficiencies, and the most severe deficiencies have already been largely eliminated in all but the poorest countries. Only girth is gained by increasing an already adequate diet. Education, too, is now probably subject to diminishing returns. The fraction of talented individuals in the world who lack access to quality education is still substantial, but declining. Pharmacological enhancers might deliver some cognitive gains over the coming decades. But after the easiest fixes have been accomplishedperhaps sustainable increases in mental energy and ability to concentrate, along with better control over the rate of long-term memory consolidationsubsequent gains will be increasingly hard to come by. Unlike diet and public health approaches, however, improving cognition through smart drugs might get easier before it gets harder. The field of neuropharmacology still lacks much of the basic knowledge that would be needed to competently intervene in the healthy brain. Neglect of enhancement medicine as a legitimate area of research may be partially to blame for this current backwardness. If neuroscience and pharmacology continue to progress for a while longer without focusing on cognitive enhancement, then maybe there would be some relatively easy gains to be had when at last the development of nootropics becomes a serious priority. 4 Genetic cognitive enhancement has a U-shaped recalcitrance profile similar to that of nootropics, but with larger potential gains. Recalcitrance starts out high while the only available method is selective breeding sustained over many generations, something that is obviously difficult to accomplish on a globally significant scale. Genetic enhancement will get easier as technology is developed for cheap and effective genetic testing and selection (and particularly when iterated embryo selection becomes feasible in humans). These new techniques will make it possible to tap the pool of existing human genetic variation for intelligence-enhancing alleles. As the best existing alleles get incorporated into genetic enhancement packages, however, further gains will get harder to come by. The need for more innovative approaches to genetic modification may then increase recalcitrance. There are limits to how quickly things can progress along the genetic enhancement path, most notably the fact that germline interventions are subject to an inevitable maturational lag: this strongly counteracts the possibility of a fast or moderate takeoff. 5 That embryo selection can only be applied in the context of in vitro fertilization will slow its rate of adoption: another limiting factor. The recalcitrance along the braincomputer path seems initially very high. In the unlikely event that it somehow becomes easy to insert brain implants and to achieve high-level functional integration with the cortex, recalcitrance might plummet. In the long run, the difficulty of making progress along this path would be similar to that involved in improving emulations or AIs, since the bulk of the braincomputer systems intelligence would eventually reside in the computer part. The recalcitrance for making networks and organizations in general more efficient is high. A vast amount of effort is going into overcoming this recalcitrance, and the result is an annual improvement of humanitys total capacity by perhaps no more than a couple of percent. 6 Furthermore, shifts in the internal and external environment mean that organizations, even if efficient at one time, soon become ill-adapted to their new circumstances. Ongoing reform effort is thus required even just to prevent deterioration. A step change in the rate of gain in average organizational efficiency is perhaps conceivable, but it is hard to see how even the most radical scenario of this kind could produce anything faster than a slow takeoff, since organizations operated by humans are confined to work on human timescales. The Internet continues to be an exciting frontier with many opportunities for enhancing collective intelligence, with a recalcitrance that seems at the moment to be in the moderate rangeprogress is somewhat swift but a lot of effort is going into making this progress happen. It may be expected to increase as low-hanging fruits (such as search engines and email) are depleted. Emulation and AI paths The difficulty of advancing toward whole brain emulation is difficult to estimate. Yet we can point to a specific future milestone: the successful emulation of an insect brain. That milestone stands on a hill, and its conquest would bring into view much of the terrain ahead, allowing us to make a decent guess at the recalcitrance of scaling up the technology to human whole brain emulation. (A successful emulation of a small-mammal brain, such as that of a mouse, would give an even better vantage point that would allow the distance remaining to a human whole brain emulation to be estimated with a high degree of precision.) The path toward artificial intelligence, by contrast, may feature no such obvious milestone or early observation point. It is entirely possible that the quest for artificial intelligence will appear to be lost in dense jungle until an unexpected breakthrough reveals the finishing line in a clearing just a few short steps away. Recall the distinction between these two questions: How hard is it to attain roughly human levels of cognitive ability? And how hard is it to get from there to superhuman levels? The first question is mainly relevant for predicting how long it will be before the onset of a takeoff. It is the second question that is key to assessing the shape of the takeoff, which is our aim here. And though it might be tempting to suppose that the step from human level to superhuman level must be the harder onethis step, after all, takes place at a higher altitude where capacity must be superadded to an already quite capable systemthis would be a very unsafe assumption. It is quite possible that recalcitrance falls when a machine reaches human parity. Consider first whole brain emulation. The difficulties involved in creating the first human emulation are of a quite different kind from those involved in enhancing an existing emulation. Creating a first emulation involves huge technological challenges, particularly in regard to developing the requisite scanning and image interpretation capabilities. This step might also require considerable amounts of physical capitalan industrial-scale machine park with hundreds of high-throughput scanning machines is not implausible. By contrast, enhancing the quality of an existing emulation involves tweaking algorithms and data structures: essentially a software problem, and one that could turn out to be much easier than perfecting the imaging technology needed to create the original template. Programmers could easily experiment with tricks like increasing the neuron count in different cortical areas to see how it affects performance. 7 They also could work on code optimization and on finding simpler computational models that preserve the essential functionality of individual neurons or small networks of neurons. If the last technological prerequisite to fall into place is either scanning or translation, with computing power being relatively abundant, then not much attention might have been given during the development phase to implementational efficiency, and easy opportunities for computational efficiency savings might be available. (More fundamental architectural reorganization might also be possible, but that takes us off the emulation path and into AI territory.) Another way to improve the code base once the first emulation has been produced is to scan additional brains with different or superior skills and talents. Productivity growth would also occur as a consequence of adapting organizational structures and workflows to the unique attributes of digital minds. Since there is no precedent in the human economy of a worker who can be literally copied, reset, run at different speeds, and so forth, managers of the first emulation cohort would find plenty of room for innovation in managerial practices. After initially plummeting when human whole brain emulation becomes possible, recalcitrance may rise again. Sooner or later, the most glaring implementational inefficiencies will have been optimized away, the most promising algorithmic variations will have been tested, and the easiest opportunities for organizational innovation will have been exploited. The template library will have expanded so that acquiring more brain scans would add little benefit over working with existing templates. Since a template can be multiplied, each copy can be individually trained in a different field, and this can be done at electronic speed, it might be that the number of brains that would need to be scanned in order to capture most of the potential economic gains is small. Possibly a single brain would suffice. Another potential cause of escalating recalcitrance is the possibility that emulations or their biological supporters will organize to support regulations restricting the use of emulation workers, limiting emulation copying, prohibiting certain kinds of experimentation with digital minds, instituting workers rights and a minimum wage for emulations, and so forth. It is equally possible, however, that political developments would go in the opposite direction, contributing to a fall in recalcitrance. This might happen if initial restraint in the use of emulation labor gives way to unfettered exploitation as competition heats up and the economic and strategic costs of occupying the moral high ground become clear. As for artificial intelligence (non-emulation machine intelligence), the difficulty of lifting a system from human-level to superhuman intelligence by means of algorithmic improvements depends on the attributes of the particular system. Different architectures might have very different recalcitrance. In some situations, recalcitrance could be extremely low. For example, if human-level AI is delayed because one key insight long eludes programmers, then when the final breakthrough occurs, the AI might leapfrog from below to radically above human level without even touching the intermediary rungs. Another situation in which recalcitrance could turn out to be extremely low is that of an AI system that can achieve intelligent capability via two different modes of processing. To illustrate this possibility, suppose an AI is composed of two subsystems, one possessing domain-specific problem-solving techniques, the other possessing general-purpose reasoning ability. It could then be the case that while the second subsystem remains below a certain capacity threshold, it contributes nothing to the systems overall performance, because the solutions it generates are always inferior to those generated by the domain-specific subsystem. Suppose now that a small amount of optimization power is applied to the general-purpose subsystem and that this produces a brisk rise in the capacity of that subsystem. At first, we observe no increase in the overall systems performance, indicating that recalcitrance is high. Then, once the capacity of the general-purpose subsystem crosses the threshold where its solutions start to beat those of the domain-specific subsystem, the overall systems performance suddenly begins to improve at the same brisk pace as the general-purpose subsystem, even as the amount of optimization power applied stays constant: the systems recalcitrance has plummeted. It is also possible that our natural tendency to view intelligence from an anthropocentric perspective will lead us to underestimate improvements in sub- human systems, and thus to overestimate recalcitrance. Eliezer Yudkowsky, an AI theorist who has written extensively on the future of machine intelligence, puts the point as follows: AI might make an apparently sharp jump in intelligence purely as the result of anthropomorphism, the human tendency to think of village idiot and Einstein as the extreme ends of the intelligence scale, instead of nearly indistinguishable points on the scale of minds-in-general. Everything dumber than a dumb human may appear to us as simply dumb. One imagines the AI arrow creeping steadily up the scale of intelligence, moving past mice and chimpanzees, with AIs still remaining dumb because AIs cannot speak fluent language or write science papers, and then the AI arrow crosses the tiny gap from infra-idiot to ultra-Einstein in the course of one month or some similarly short period. 8 (See Fig. 8 .) The upshot of these several considerations is that it is difficult to predict how hard it will be to make algorithmic improvements in the first AI that reaches a roughly human level of general intelligence. There are at least some possible circumstances in which algorithm-recalcitrance is low. But even if algorithm- recalcitrance is very high, this would not preclude the overall recalcitrance of the AI in question from being low. For it might be easy to increase the intelligence of the system in other ways than by improving its algorithms. There are two other factors that can be improved: content and hardware. First, consider content improvements. By content we here mean those parts of a systems software assets that do not make up its core algorithmic architecture. Content might include, for example, databases of stored percepts, specialized skills libraries, and inventories of declarative knowledge. For many kinds of system, the distinction between algorithmic architecture and content is very unsharp; nevertheless, it will serve as a rough-and-ready way of pointing to one potentially important source of capability gains in a machine intelligence. An alternative way of expressing much the same idea is by saying that a systems intellectual problem-solving capacity can be enhanced not only by making the system cleverer but also by expanding what the system knows. Figure 8 A less anthropomorphic scale? The gap between a dumb and a clever person may appear large from an anthropocentric perspective, yet in a less parochial view the two have nearly indistinguishable minds. 9 It will almost certainly prove harder and take longer to build a machine intelligence that has a general level of smartness comparable to that of a village idiot than to improve such a system so that it becomes much smarter than any human. Consider a contemporary AI system such as TextRunner (a research project at the University of Washington) or IBMs Watson (the system that won the Jeopardy! quiz show). These systems can extract certain pieces of semantic information by analyzing text. Although these systems do not understand what they read in the same sense or to the same extent as a human does, they can nevertheless extract significant amounts of information from natural language and use that information to make simple inferences and answer questions. They can also learn from experience, building up more extensive representations of a concept as they encounter additional instances of its use. They are designed to operate for much of the time in unsupervised mode (i.e. to learn hidden structure in unlabeled data in the absence of error or reward signal, without human guidance) and to be fast and scalable. TextRunner, for instance, works with a corpus of 500 million web pages. 10 Now imagine a remote descendant of such a system that has acquired the ability to read with as much understanding as a human ten-year-old but with a reading speed similar to that of TextRunner. (This is probably an AI-complete problem.) So we are imagining a system that thinks much faster and has much better memory than a human adult, but knows much less, and perhaps the net effect of this is that the system is roughly human-equivalent in its general problem-solving ability. But its content recalcitrance is very lowlow enough to precipitate a takeoff. Within a few weeks, the system has read and mastered all the content contained in the Library of Congress. Now the system knows much more than any human being and thinks vastly faster: it has become (at least) weakly superintelligent. A system might thus greatly boost its effective intellectual capability by absorbing pre-produced content accumulated through centuries of human science and civilization: for instance, by reading through the Internet. If an AI reaches human level without previously having had access to this material or without having been able to digest it, then the AIs overall recalcitrance will be low even if it is hard to improve its algorithmic architecture. Content-recalcitrance is a relevant concept for emulations, too. A high-speed emulation has an advantage not only because it can complete the same tasks as biological humans more quickly, but also because it can accumulate more timely content, such as task-relevant skills and expertise. In order to tap the full potential of fast content accumulation, however, a system needs to have a correspondingly large memory capacity. There is little point in reading an entire library if you have forgotten all about the aardvark by the time you get to the abalone. While an AI system is likely to have adequate memory capacity, emulations would inherit some of the capacity limitations of their human templates. They may therefore need architectural enhancements in order to become capable of unbounded learning. So far we have considered the recalcitrance of architecture and of content that is, how difficult it would be to improve the software of a machine intelligence that has reached human parity. Now let us look at a third way of boosting the performance of machine intelligence: improving its hardware. What would be the recalcitrance for hardware-driven improvements? Starting with intelligent software (emulation or AI) one can amplify collective intelligence simply by using additional computers to run more instances of the program. 11 One could also amplify speed intelligence by moving the program to faster computers. Depending on the degree to which the program lends itself to parallelization, speed intelligence could also be amplified by running the program on more processors. This is likely to be feasible for emulations, which have a highly parallelized architecture; but many AI programs, too, have important subroutines that can benefit from massive parallelization. Amplifying quality intelligence by increasing computing power might also be possible, but that case is less straightforward. 12 The recalcitrance for amplifying collective or speed intelligence (and possibly quality intelligence) in a system with human-level software is therefore likely to be low. The only difficulty involved is gaining access to additional computing power. There are several ways for a system to expand its hardware base, each relevant over a different timescale. In the short term, computing power should scale roughly linearly with funding: twice the funding buys twice the number of computers, enabling twice as many instances of the software to be run simultaneously. The emergence of cloud computing services gives a project the option to scale up its computational resources without even having to wait for new computers to be delivered and installed, though concerns over secrecy might favor the use of in-house computers. (In certain scenarios, computing power could also be obtained by other means, such as by commandeering botnets. 13 ) Just how easy it would be to scale the system by a given factor depends on how much computing power the initial system uses. A system that initially runs on a PC could be scaled by a factor of thousands for a mere million dollars. A program that runs on a supercomputer would be far more expensive to scale. In the slightly longer term, the cost of acquiring additional hardware may be driven up as a growing portion of the worlds installed capacity is being used to run digital minds. For instance, in a competitive market-based emulation scenario, the cost of running one additional copy of an emulation should rise to be roughly equal to the income generated by the marginal copy, as investors bid up the price for existing computing infrastructure to match the return they expect from their investment (though if only one project has mastered the technology it might gain a degree of monopsony power in the computing power market and therefore pay a lower price). Over a somewhat longer timescale, the supply of computing power will grow as new capacity is installed. A demand spike would spur production in existing semiconductor foundries and stimulate the construction of new plants. (A one-off performance boost, perhaps amounting to one or two orders of magnitude, might also be obtainable by using customized microprocessors. 14 ) Above all, the rising wave of technology improvements will pour increasing volumes of computational power into the turbines of the thinking machines. Historically, the rate of improvement of computing technology has been described by the famous Moores law, which in one of its variations states that computing power per dollar doubles every 18 months or so. 15 Although one cannot bank on this rate of improvement continuing up to the development of human-level machine intelligence, yet until fundamental physical limits are reached there will remain room for advances in computing technology. There are thus reasons to expect that hardware recalcitrance will not be very high. Purchasing more computing power for the system once it proves its mettle by attaining human-level intelligence might easily add several orders of magnitude of computing power (depending on how hardware-frugal the project was before expansion). Chip customization might add one or two orders of magnitude. Other means of expanding the hardware base, such as building more factories and advancing the frontier of computing technology, take longer normally several years, though this lag would be radically compressed once machine superintelligence revolutionizes manufacturing and technology development. In summary, we can talk about the likelihood of a hardware overhang : when human-level software is created, enough computing power may already be available to run vast numbers of copies at great speed. Software recalcitrance, as discussed above, is harder to assess but might be even lower than hardware recalcitrance. In particular, there may be content overhang in the form of pre- made content (e.g. the Internet) that becomes available to a system once it reaches human parity. Algorithm overhang pre-designed algorithmic enhancementsis also possible but perhaps less likely. Software improvements (whether in algorithms or content) might offer orders of magnitude of potential performance gains that could be fairly easily accessed once a digital mind attains human parity, on top of the performance gains attainable by using more or better hardware. Optimization power and explosivity Having examined the question of recalcitrance we must now turn to the other half of our schematic equation, optimization power . To recall: Rate of change in Intelligence = Optimization power/Recalcitrance . As reflected in this schematic, a fast takeoff does not require that recalcitrance during the transition phase be low. A fast takeoff could also result if recalcitrance is constant or even moderately increasing, provided the optimization power being applied to improving the systems performance grows sufficiently rapidly. As we shall now see, there are good grounds for thinking that the applied optimization power will increase during the transition, at least in the absence of a deliberate measures to prevent this from happening. We can distinguish two phases. The first phase begins with the onset of the takeoff, when the system reaches the human baseline for individual intelligence. As the systems capability continues to increase, it might use some or all of that capability to improve itself (or to design a successor systemwhich, for present purposes, comes to the same thing). However, most of the optimization power applied to the system still comes from outside the system, either from the work of programmers and engineers employed within the project or from such work done by the rest of the world as can be appropriated and used by the project. 16 If this phase drags out for any significant period of time, we can expect the amount of optimization power applied to the system to grow. Inputs both from inside the project and from the outside world are likely to increase as the promise of the chosen approach becomes manifest. Researchers may work harder, more researchers may be recruited, and more computing power may be purchased to expedite progress. The increase could be especially dramatic if the development of human-level machine intelligence takes the world by surprise, in which case what was previously a small research project might suddenly become the focus of intense research and development efforts around the world (though some of those efforts might be channeled into competing projects). A second growth phase will begin if at some point the system has acquired so much capability that most of the optimization power exerted on it comes from the system itself (marked by the variable level labeled crossover in Figure 7 ). This fundamentally changes the dynamic, because any increase in the systems capability now translates into a proportional increase in the amount of optimization power being applied to its further improvement. If recalcitrance remains constant, this feedback dynamic produces exponential growth (see Box 4 ). The doubling constant depends on the scenario but might be extremely short mere seconds in some scenariosif growth is occurring at electronic speeds, which might happen as a result of algorithmic improvements or the exploitation of an overhang of content or hardware. 17 Growth that is driven by physical construction, such as the production of new computers or manufacturing equipment, would require a somewhat longer timescale (but still one that might be very short compared with the current growth rate of the world economy). It is thus likely that the applied optimization power will increase during the transition: initially because humans try harder to improve a machine intelligence that is showing spectacular promise, later because the machine intelligence itself becomes capable of driving further progress at digital speeds. This would create a real possibility of a fast or medium takeoff even if recalcitrance were constant or slightly increasing around the human baseline . 18 Yet we saw in the previous subsection that there are factors that could lead to a big drop in recalcitrance around the human baseline level of capability. These factors include, for example, the possibility of rapid hardware expansion once a working software mind has been attained; the possibility of algorithmic improvements; the possibility of scanning additional brains (in the case of whole brain emulation); and the possibility of rapidly incorporating vast amounts of content by digesting the Internet (in the case of artificial intelligence). 24 Box 4 On the kinetics of an intelligence explosion We can write the rate of change in intelligence as the ratio between the optimization power applied to the system and the systems recalcitrance: The amount of optimization power acting on a system is the sum of whatever optimization power the system itself contributes and the optimization power exerted from without. For example, a seed AI might be improved through a combination of its own efforts and the efforts of a human programming team, and perhaps also the efforts of the wider global community of researchers making continuous advances in the semiconductor industry, computer science, and related fields: 19 A seed AI starts out with very limited cognitive capacities. At the outset, therefore, is small. 20 What about and ? There are cases in which a single project has more relevant capability than the rest of the world combinedthe Manhattan project, for instance, brought a very large fraction of the worlds best physicists to Los Alamos to work on the atomic bomb. More commonly, any one project contains only a small fraction of the worlds total relevant research capability. But even when the outside world has a greater total amount of relevant research capability than any one project, may nevertheless exceed , since much of the outside worlds capability is not be focused on the particular system in question. If a project begins to look promisingwhich will happen when a system passes the human baseline if not beforeit might attract additional investment, increasing . If the projects accomplishments are public, might also rise as the progress inspires greater interest in machine intelligence generally and as various powers scramble to get in on the game. During the transition phase, therefore, total optimization power applied to improving a cognitive system is likely to increase as the capability of the system increases. 21 As the systems capabilities grow, there may come a point at which the optimization power generated by the system itself starts to dominate the optimization power applied to it from outside (across all significant dimensions of improvement): This crossover is significant because beyond this point, further improvement to the systems capabilities contributes strongly to increasing the total optimization power applied to improving the system. We thereby enter a regime of strong recursive self-improvement. This leads to explosive growth of the systems capability under a fairly wide range of different shapes of the recalcitrance curve. To illustrate, consider first a scenario in which recalcitrance is constant, so that the rate of increase in an AIs intelligence is equal to the optimization power being applied. Assume that all the optimization power that is applied comes from the AI itself and that the AI applies all its intelligence to the task of amplifying its own intelligence, so that = I . 22 We then have Solving this simple differential equation yields the exponential function But recalcitrance being constant is a rather special case. Recalcitrance might well decline around the human baseline, due to one or more of the factors mentioned in the previous subsection, and remain low around the crossover and some distance beyond (perhaps until the system eventually approaches fundamental physical limits). For example, suppose that the optimization power applied to the system is roughly constant (i.e. + c ) prior to the system becoming capable of contributing substantially to its own design, and that this leads to the system doubling in capacity every 18 months. (This would be roughly in line with historical improvement rates from Moores law combined with software advances. 23 ) This rate of improvement, if achieved by means of roughly constant optimization power, entails recalcitrance declining as the inverse of the system power: If recalcitrance continues to fall along this hyperbolic pattern, then when the AI reaches the crossover point the total amount of optimization power applied to improving the AI has doubled. We then have The next doubling occurs 7.5 months later. Within 17.9 months, the systems capacity has grown a thousandfold, thus obtaining speed superintelligence ( Figure 9 ). This particular growth trajectory has a positive singularity at t = 18 months. In reality, the assumption that recalcitrance is constant would cease to hold as the system began to approach the physical limits to information processing, if not sooner. These two scenarios are intended for illustration only; many other trajectories are possible, depending on the shape of the recalcitrance curve. The claim is simply that the strong feedback loop that sets in around the crossover point tends strongly to make the takeoff faster than it would otherwise have been. Figure 9 One simple model of an intelligence explosion. These observations notwithstanding, the shape of the recalcitrance curve in the relevant region is not yet well characterized. In particular, it is unclear how difficult it would be to improve the software quality of a human-level emulation or AI. The difficulty of expanding the hardware power available to a system is also not clear. Whereas today it would be relatively easy to increase the computing power available to a small project by spending a thousand times more on computing power or by waiting a few years for the price of computers to fall, it is possible that the first machine intelligence to reach the human baseline will result from a large project involving pricey supercomputers, which cannot be cheaply scaled, and that Moores law will by then have expired. For these reasons, although a fast or medium takeoff looks more likely, the possibility of a slow takeoff cannot be excluded. 25 CHAPTER 5 Decisive strategic advantage A question distinct from, but related to, the question of kinetics is whether there will there be one superintelligent power or many? Might an intelligence explosion propel one project so far ahead of all others as to make it able to dictate the future? Or will progress be more uniform, unfurling across a wide front, with many projects participating but none securing an overwhelming and permanent lead? The preceding chapter analyzed one key parameter in determining the size of the gap that might plausibly open up between a leading power and its nearest competitorsnamely, the speed of the transition from human to strongly superhuman intelligence. This suggests a first-cut analysis. If the takeoff is fast (completed over the course of hours, days, or weeks) then it is unlikely that two independent projects would be taking off concurrently: almost certainty, the first project would have completed its takeoff before any other project would have started its own. If the takeoff is slow (stretching over many years or decades) then there could plausibly be multiple projects undergoing takeoffs concurrently, so that although the projects would by the end of the transition have gained enormously in capability, there would be no time at which any project was far enough ahead of the others to give it an overwhelming lead. A takeoff of moderate speed is poised in between, with either condition a possibility: there might or might not be more than one project undergoing the takeoff at the same time. 1 Will one machine intelligence project get so far ahead of the competition that it gets a decisive strategic advantage that is, a level of technological and other advantages sufficient to enable it to achieve complete world domination? If a project did obtain a decisive strategic advantage, would it use it to suppress competitors and form a singleton (a world order in which there is at the global level a single decision-making agency)? And if there is a winning project, how large would it benot in terms of physical size or budget but in terms of how many peoples desires would be controlling its design? We will consider these questions in turn. Will the frontrunner get a decisive strategic advantage? One factor influencing the width of the gap between frontrunner and followers is the rate of diffusion of whatever it is that gives the leader a competitive advantage. A frontrunner might find it difficult to gain and maintain a large lead if followers can easily copy the frontrunners ideas and innovations. Imitation creates a headwind that disadvantages the leader and benefits laggards, especially if intellectual property is weakly protected. A frontrunner might also be especially vulnerable to expropriation, taxation, or being broken up under anti-monopoly regulation. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that this headwind must increase monotonically with the gap between frontrunner and followers. Just as a racing cyclist who falls too far behind the competition is no longer shielded from the wind by the cyclists ahead, so a technology follower who lags sufficiently behind the cutting edge might find it hard to assimilate the advances being made at the frontier. 2 The gap in understanding and capability might have grown too large. The leader might have migrated to a more advanced technology platform, making subsequent innovations untransferable to the primitive platforms used by laggards. A sufficiently pre-eminent leader might have the ability to stem information leakage from its research programs and its sensitive installations, or to sabotage its competitors efforts to develop their own advanced capabilities. If the frontrunner is an AI system, it could have attributes that make it easier for it to expand its capabilities while reducing the rate of diffusion. In human-run organizations, economies of scale are counteracted by bureaucratic inefficiencies and agency problems, including difficulties in keeping trade secrets. 3 These problems would presumably limit the growth of a machine intelligence project so long as it is operated by humans. An AI system, however, might avoid some of these scale diseconomies, since the AIs modules (in contrast to human workers) need not have individual preferences that diverge from those of the system as a whole. Thus, the AI system could avoid a sizeable chunk of the inefficiencies arising from agency problems in human enterprises. The same advantagehaving perfectly loyal partswould also make it easier for an AI system to pursue long-range clandestine goals. An AI would have no disgruntled employees ready to be poached by competitors or bribed into becoming informants. 4 We can get a sense of the distribution of plausible gaps in development times by looking at some historical examples (see Box 5 ). It appears that lags in the range of a few months to a few years are typical of strategically significant technology projects. Box 5 Technology races: some historical examples Over long historical timescales, there has been an increase in the rate at which knowledge and technology diffuse around the globe. As a result, the temporal gaps between technology leaders and nearest followers have narrowed. China managed to maintain a monopoly on silk production for over two thousand years. Archeological finds suggest that production might have begun around 3000 BC , or even earlier. 5 Sericulture was a closely held secret. Revealing the techniques was punishable by death, as was exporting silkworms or their eggs outside China. The Romans, despite the high price commanded by imported silk cloth in their empire, never learnt the art of silk manufacture. Not until around AD 300 did a Japanese expedition manage to capture some silkworm eggs along with four young Chinese girls, who were forced to divulge the art to their abductors. 6 Byzantium joined the club of producers in AD 522. The story of porcelain-making also features long lags. The craft was practiced in China during the Tang Dynasty around AD 600 (and might have been in use as early as AD 200), but was mastered by Europeans only in the eighteenth century. 7 Wheeled vehicles appeared in several sites across Europe and Mesopotamia around 3500 BC but reached the Americas only in post-Columbian times. 8 On a grander scale, the human species took tens of thousands of years to spread across most of the globe, the Agricultural Revolution thousands of years, the Industrial Revolution only hundreds of years, and an Information Revolution could be said to have spread globally over the course of decadesthough, of course, these transitions are not necessarily of equal profundity. (The Dance Dance Revolution video game spread from Japan to Europe and North America in just one year!) Technological competition has been quite extensively studied, particularly in the contexts of patent races and arms races. 9 It is beyond the scope of our investigation to review this literature here. However, it is instructive to look at some examples of strategically significant technology races in the twentieth century (see Table 7 ). With regard to these six technologies, which were regarded as strategically important by the rivaling superpowers because of their military or symbolic significance, the gaps between leader and nearest laggard were (very approximately) 49 months, 36 months, 4 months, 1 month, 4 months, and 60 months, respectivelylonger than the duration of a fast takeoff and shorter than the duration of a slow takeoff. 10 In many cases, the laggards project benefitted from espionage and publicly available information. The mere demonstration of the feasibility of an invention can also encourage others to develop it independently; and fear of falling behind can spur the efforts to catch up. Perhaps closer to the case of AI are mathematical inventions that do not require the development of new physical infrastructure. Often these are published in the academic literature and can thus be regarded as universally available; but in some cases, when the discovery appears to offer a strategic advantage, publication is delayed. For example, two of the most important ideas in public-key cryptography are the DiffieHellman key exchange protocol and the RSA encryption scheme. These were discovered by the academic community in 1976 and 1978, respectively, but it has later been confirmed that they were known by cryptographers at the UKs communications security group since the early 1970s. 20 Large software projects might offer a closer analogy with AI projects, but it is harder to give crisp examples of typical lags because software is usually rolled out in incremental installments and the functionalities of competing systems are often not directly comparable. Table 7 Some strategically significant technology races It is possible that globalization and increased surveillance will reduce typical lags between competing technology projects. Yet there is likely to be a lower bound on how short the average lag could become (in the absence of deliberate coordination). 21 Even absent dynamics that lead to snowball effects, some projects will happen to end up with better research staff, leadership, and infrastructure, or will just stumble upon better ideas. If two projects pursue alternative approaches, one of which turns out to work better, it may take the rival project many months to switch to the superior approach even if it is able to closely monitor what the forerunner is doing. Combining these observations with our earlier discussion of the speed of the takeoff, we can conclude that it is highly unlikely that two projects would be close enough to undergo a fast takeoff concurrently; for a medium takeoff, it could easily go either way; and for a slow takeoff, it is highly likely that several projects would undergo the process in parallel. But the analysis needs a further step. The key question is not how many projects undergo a takeoff in tandem, but how many projects emerge on the yonder side sufficiently tightly clustered in capability that none of them has a decisive strategic advantage. If the takeoff process is relatively slow to begin and then gets faster, the distance between competing projects would tend to grow. To return to our bicycle metaphor, the situation would be analogous to a pair of cyclists making their way up a steep hill, one trailing some distance behind the otherthe gap between them then expanding as the frontrunner reaches the peak and starts accelerating down the other side. Consider the following medium takeoff scenario. Suppose it takes a project one year to increase its AIs capability from the human baseline to a strong superintelligence, and that one project enters this takeoff phase with a six-month lead over the next most advanced project. The two projects will be undergoing a takeoff concurrently. It might seem, then, that neither project gets a decisive strategic advantage. But that need not be so. Suppose it takes nine months to advance from the human baseline to the crossover point, and another three months from there to strong superintelligence. The frontrunner then attains strong superintelligence three months before the following project even reaches the crossover point. This would give the leading project a decisive strategic advantage and the opportunity to parlay its lead into permanent control by disabling the competing projects and establishing a singleton. (Note that the concept of a singleton is an abstract one: a singleton could be democracy, a tyranny, a single dominant AI, a strong set of global norms that include effective provisions for their own enforcement, or even an alien overlordits defining characteristic being simply that it is some form of agency that can solve all major global coordination problems. It may, but need not, resemble any familiar form of human governance. 22 ) Since there is an especially strong prospect of explosive growth just after the crossover point, when the strong positive feedback loop of optimization power kicks in, a scenario of this kind is a serious possibility, and it increases the chances that the leading project will attain a decisive strategic advantage even if the takeoff is not fast. How large will the successful project be? Some paths to superintelligence require great resources and are therefore likely to be the preserve of large well-funded projects. Whole brain emulation, for instance, requires many different kinds of expertise and lots of equipment. Biological intelligence enhancements and braincomputer interfaces would also have a large scale factor: while a small biotech firm might invent one or two drugs, achieving superintelligence along one of these paths (if doable at all) would likely require many inventions and many tests, and therefore the backing of an industrial sector or a well-funded national program. Achieving collective superintelligence by making organizations and networks more efficient requires even more extensive input, involving much of the world economy. The AI path is more difficult to assess. Perhaps it would require a very large research program; perhaps it could be done by a small group. A lone hacker scenario cannot be excluded either. Building a seed AI might require insights and algorithms developed over many decades by the scientific community around the world. But it is possible that the last critical breakthrough idea might come from a single individual or a small group that succeeds in putting everything together. This scenario is less realistic for some AI architectures than others. A system that has a large number of parts that need to be tweaked and tuned to work effectively together, and then painstakingly loaded with custom- made cognitive content, is likely to require a larger project. But if a seed AI could be instantiated as a simple system, one whose construction depends only on getting a few basic principles right, then the feat might be within the reach of a small team or an individual. The likelihood of the final breakthrough being made by a small project increases if most previous progress in the field has been published in the open literature or made available as open source software. We must distinguish the question of how big will be the project that directly engineers the system from the question of how big the group will be that controls whether, how, and when the system is created. The atomic bomb was created primarily by a group of scientists and engineers. (The Manhattan Project employed about 130,000 people at its peak, the vast majority of whom were construction workers or building operators. 23 ) These technical experts, however, were controlled by the US military, which was directed by the US government, which was ultimately accountable to the American electorate, which at the time constituted about one-tenth of the adult world population. 24 Monitoring Given the extreme security implications of superintelligence, governments would likely seek to nationalize any project on their territory that they thought close to achieving a takeoff. A powerful state might also attempt to acquire projects located in other countries through espionage, theft, kidnapping, bribery, threats, military conquest, or any other available means. A powerful state that cannot acquire a foreign project might instead destroy it, especially if the host country lacks an effective deterrent. If global governance structures are strong by the time a breakthrough begins to look imminent, it is possible that promising projects would be placed under international control. An important question, therefore, is whether national or international authorities will see an intelligence explosion coming. At present, intelligence agencies do not appear to be looking very hard for promising AI projects or other forms of potentially explosive intelligence amplification. 25 If they are indeed not paying (much) attention, this is presumably due to the widely shared perception that there is no prospect whatever of imminent superintelligence. If and when it becomes a common belief among prestigious scientists that there is a substantial chance that superintelligence is just around the corner, the major intelligence agencies of the world would probably start to monitor groups and individuals who seem to be engaged in relevant research. Any project that began to show sufficient progress could then be promptly nationalized. If political elites were persuaded by the seriousness of the risk, civilian efforts in sensitive areas might be regulated or outlawed. How difficult would such monitoring be? The task is easier if the goal is only to keep track of the leading project. In that case, surveillance focusing on the several best-resourced projects may be sufficient. If the goal is instead to prevent any work from taking place (at least outside of specially authorized institutions) then surveillance would have to be more comprehensive, since many small projects and individuals are in a position to make at least some progress. It would be easier to monitor projects that require significant amounts of physical capital, as would be the case with a whole brain emulation project. Artificial intelligence research, by contrast, requires only a personal computer, and would therefore be more difficult to monitor. Some of the theoretical work could be done with pen and paper. Even so, it would not be too difficult to identify most capable individuals with a serious long-standing interest in artificial general intelligence research. Such individuals usually leave visible trails. They may have published academic papers, presented at conferences, posted on Internet forums, or earned degrees from leading computer science departments. They may also have had communications with other AI researchers, allowing them to be identified by mapping the social graph. Projects designed from the outset to be secret could be more difficult to detect. An ordinary software development project could serve as a front. 26 Only careful analysis of the code being produced would reveal the true nature of what the project was trying to accomplish. Such analysis would require a lot of (highly skilled) manpower, whence only a small number of suspect projects could be scrutinized at this level. The task would become much easier if effective lie detection technology had been developed and could be routinely used in this kind of surveillance. 27 Another reason states might fail to catch precursor developments is the inherent difficulty of forecasting some types of breakthrough. This is more relevant to AI research than to whole brain emulation development, since for the latter the key breakthrough is more likely to be preceded by a clear gradient of steady advances. It is also possible that intelligence agencies and other government bureaucracies have a certain clumsiness or rigidity that might prevent them from understanding the significance of some developments that might be clear to some outside groups. Barriers to official understanding of a potential intelligence explosion might be especially steep. It is conceivable, for example, that the topic will become inflamed with religious or political controversies, rendering it taboo for officials in some countries. The topic might become associated with some discredited figure or with charlatanry and hype in general, hence shunned by respected scientists and other establishment figures. (As we saw in Chapter 1 , something like this has already happened twice: recall the two AI winters.) Industry groups might lobby to prevent aspersions being cast on profitable business areas; academic communities might close ranks to marginalize those who voice concerns about long-term consequences of the science that is being done. 28 Consequently, a total intelligence failure cannot be ruled out. Such a failure is especially likely if breakthroughs should occur in the nearer future, before the issue has risen to public prominence. And even if intelligence agencies get it right, political leaders might not listen or act on the advice. Getting the Manhattan Project started took an extraordinary effort by several visionary physicists, including especially Mark Oliphant and Le Szilrd: the latter persuaded Eugene Wigner to persuade Albert Einstein to put his name on a letter to persuade President Franklin D. Roosevelt to look into the matter. Even after the project reached its full scale, Roosevelt remained skeptical of its workability and significance, as did his successor Harry Truman. For better or worse, it would probably be harder for a small group of activists to affect the outcome of an intelligence explosion if big players, such as states, are taking active part. Opportunities for private individuals to reduce the overall amount of existential risk from a potential intelligence explosion are therefore greatest in scenarios in which big players remain relatively oblivious to the issue, or in which the early efforts of activists make a major difference to whether, when, which, or with what attitude big players enter the game. Activists seeking maximum expected impact may therefore wish to focus most of their planning on such high-leverage scenarios, even if they believe that scenarios in which big players end up calling all the shots are more probable. International collaboration International coordination is more likely if global governance structures generally get stronger. Coordination might also be more likely if the significance of an intelligence explosion is widely appreciated ahead of time and if effective monitoring of all serious projects is feasible. Even if monitoring is infeasible, however, international cooperation would still be possible. Many countries could band together to support a joint project. If such a joint project were sufficiently well resourced, it could have a good chance of being the first to reach the goal, especially if any rival project had to be small and secretive to elude detection. There are precedents of large-scale successful multinational scientific collaborations, such as the International Space Station, the Human Genome Project, and the Large Hadron Collider. 29 However, the major motivation for collaboration in those cases was cost-sharing. (In the case of the International Space Station, fostering a collaborative spirit between Russia and the United States was itself an important goal. 30 ) Achieving similar collaboration on a project that has enormous security implications would be more difficult. A country that believed it could achieve a breakthrough unilaterally might be tempted to go it alone rather than subordinate its efforts to a joint project. A country might also refrain from joining an international collaboration from fear that other participants might siphon off collaboratively generated insights and use them to accelerate a covert national project. An international project would thus need to overcome major security challenges, and a fair amount of trust would probably be needed to get it started, trust that may take time to develop. Consider that even after the thaw in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union following Gorbachevs ascent to power, arms reduction effortswhich could be greatly in the interests of both superpowershad a fitful beginning. Gorbachev was seeking steep reductions in nuclear arms but negotiations stalled on the issue of Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), which the Kremlin strenuously opposed. At the Reykjavk Summit meeting in 1986, Reagan proposed that the United States would share with the Soviet Union the technology that would be developed under the Strategic Defense Initiative, so that both countries could enjoy protection against accidental launches and against smaller nations that might develop nuclear weapons. Yet Gorbachev was not persuaded by this apparent winwin proposition. He viewed the gambit as a ruse, refusing to credit the notion that the Americans would share the fruits of their most advanced military research at a time when they were not even willing to share with the Soviets their technology for milking cows. 31 Regardless of whether Reagan was in fact sincere in his offer of superpower collaboration, mistrust made the proposal a non-starter. Collaboration is easier to achieve between allies, but even there it is not automatic. When the Soviet Union and the United States were allied against Germany during World War II, the United States concealed its atomic bomb project from the Soviet Union. The United States did collaborate on the Manhattan Project with Britain and Canada. 32 Similarly, the United Kingdom concealed its success in breaking the German Enigma code from the Soviet Union, but shared italbeit with some difficultywith the United States. 33 This suggests that in order to achieve international collaboration on some technology that is of pivotal importance for national security, it might be necessary to have built beforehand a close and trusting relationship. We will return in Chapter 14 to the desirability and feasibility of international collaboration in the development of intelligence amplification technologies. From decisive strategic advantage to singleton Would a project that obtained a decisive strategic advantage choose to use it to form a singleton? Consider a vaguely analogous historical situation. The United States developed nuclear weapons in 1945. It was the sole nuclear power until the Soviet Union developed the atom bomb in 1949. During this intervaland for some time thereafterthe United States may have had, or been in a position to achieve, a decisive military advantage. The United States could then, theoretically, have used its nuclear monopoly to create a singleton. One way in which it could have done so would have been by embarking on an all-out effort to build up its nuclear arsenal and then threatening (and if necessary, carrying out) a nuclear first strike to destroy the industrial capacity of any incipient nuclear program in the USSR and any other country tempted to develop a nuclear capability. A more benign course of action, which might also have had a chance of working, would have been to use its nuclear arsenal as a bargaining chip to negotiate a strong international governmenta veto-less United Nations with a nuclear monopoly and a mandate to take all necessary actions to prevent any country from developing its own nuclear weapons. Both of these approaches were proposed at the time. The hardline approach of launching or threatening a first strike was advocated by some prominent intellectuals such as Bertrand Russell (who had long been active in anti-war movements and who would later spend decades campaigning against nuclear weapons) and John von Neumann (co-creator of game theory and one of the architects of US nuclear strategy). 34 Perhaps it is a sign of civilizational progress that the very idea of threatening a nuclear first strike today seems borderline silly or morally obscene. A version of the benign approach was tried in 1946 by the United States in the form of the Baruch plan. The proposal involved the USA giving up its temporary nuclear monopoly. Uranium and thorium mining and nuclear technology would be placed under the control of an international agency operating under the auspices of the United Nations. The proposal called for the permanent members of the Security Council to give up their vetoes in matters related to nuclear weapons in order to prevent any great power found to be in breach of the accord from vetoing the imposition of remedies. 35 Stalin, seeing that the Soviet Union and its allies could be easily outvoted in both the Security Council and the General Assembly, rejected the proposal. A frosty atmosphere of mutual suspicion descended on the relations between the former wartime allies, mistrust that soon solidified into the Cold War. As had been widely predicted, a costly and extremely dangerous nuclear arms race followed. Many factors might dissuade a human organization with a decisive strategic advantage from creating a singleton. These include non-aggregative or bounded utility functions, non-maximizing decision rules, confusion and uncertainty, coordination problems, and various costs associated with a takeover. But what if it were not a human organization but a superintelligent artificial agent that came into possession of a decisive strategic advantage? Would the aforementioned factors be equally effective at inhibiting an AI from attempting to seize power? Let us briefly run through the list of factors and consider how they might apply in this case. Human individuals and human organizations typically have preferences over resources that are not well represented by an unbounded aggregative utility function. A human will typically not wager all her capital for a fiftyfifty chance of doubling it. A state will typically not risk losing all its territory for a ten percent chance of a tenfold expansion. For individuals and governments, there are diminishing returns to most resources. The same need not hold for AIs. (We will return to the problem of AI motivation in subsequent chapters.) An AI might therefore be more likely to pursue a risky course of action that has some chance of giving it control of the world. Humans and human-run organizations may also operate with decision processes that do not seek to maximize expected utility. For example, they may allow for fundamental risk aversion, or satisficing decision rules that focus on meeting adequacy thresholds, or deontological side-constraints that proscribe certain kinds of action regardless of how desirable their consequences. Human decision makers often seem to be acting out an identity or a social role rather than seeking to maximize the achievement of some particular objective. Again, this need not apply to artificial agents. Bounded utility functions, risk aversion, and non-maximizing decision rules may combine synergistically with strategic confusion and uncertainty. Revolutions, even when they succeed in overthrowing the existing order, often fail to produce the outcome that their instigators had promised. This tends to stay the hand of a human agent if the contemplated action is irreversible, norm- breaking, and lacking precedent. A superintelligence might perceive the situation more clearly and therefore face less strategic confusion and uncertainty about the outcome should it attempt to use its apparent decisive strategic advantage to consolidate its dominant position. Another major factor that can inhibit groups from exploiting a potentially decisive strategic advantage is the problem of internal coordination. Members of a conspiracy that is in a position to seize power must worry not only about being infiltrated from the outside, but also about being overthrown by some smaller coalition of insiders. If a group consists of a hundred people, and a majority of sixty can take power and disenfranchise the non-conspirators, what is then to stop a thirty-five-strong subset of these sixty from disenfranchising the other twenty-five? And then maybe a subset of twenty disenfranchising the other fifteen? Each of the original hundred might have good reason to uphold certain established norms to prevent the general unraveling that could result from any attempt to change the social contract by means of a naked power grab. This problem of internal coordination would not apply to an AI system that constitutes a single unified agent. 36 Finally, there is the issue of cost. Even if the United States could have used its nuclear monopoly to establish a singleton, it might not have been able to do so without incurring substantial costs. In the case of a negotiated agreement to place nuclear weapons under the control of a reformed and strengthened United Nations, these costs might have been relatively small; but the costsmoral, economic, political, and humanof actually attempting world conquest through the waging of nuclear war would have been almost unthinkably large, even during the period of nuclear monopoly. With sufficient technological superiority, however, these costs would be far smaller. Consider, for example, a scenario in which one nation had such a vast technological lead that it could safely disarm all other nations at the press of a button, without anybody dying or being injured, and with almost no damage to infrastructure or to the environment. With such almost magical technological superiority, a first strike would be a lot more tempting. Or consider an even greater level of technological superiority which might enable the frontrunner to cause other nations to voluntarily lay down their arms, not by threatening them with destruction but simply by persuading a great majority of their populations by means of an extremely effectively designed advertising and propaganda campaign extolling the virtues of global unity. If this were done with the intention to benefit everybody, for instance by replacing national rivalries and arms races with a fair, representative, and effective world government, it is not clear that there would be even a cogent moral objection to the leveraging of a temporary strategic advantage into a permanent singleton. Various considerations thus point to an increased likelihood that a future power with superintelligence that obtained a sufficiently large strategic advantage would actually use it to form a singleton. The desirability of such an outcome depends, of course, on the nature of the singleton that would be created and also on what the future of intelligent life would look like in alternative multipolar scenarios. We will revisit those questions in later chapters. But first let us take a closer look at why and how a superintelligence would be powerful and effective at achieving outcomes in the world. CHAPTER 6 Cognitive superpowers Suppose that a digital superintelligent agent came into being, and that for some reason it wanted to take control of the world: would it be able to do so? In this chapter we consider some powers that a superintelligence could develop and what they may enable it to do. We outline a takeover scenario that illustrates how a superintelligent agent, starting as mere software, could establish itself as a singleton. We also offer some remarks on the relation between power over nature and power over other agents. The principal reason for humanitys dominant position on Earth is that our brains have a slightly expanded set of faculties compared with other animals. 1 Our greater intelligence lets us transmit culture more efficiently, with the result that knowledge and technology accumulates from one generation to the next. By now sufficient content has accumulated to make possible space flight, H-bombs, genetic engineering, computers, factory farms, insecticides, the international peace movement, and all the accouterments of modern civilization. Geologists have started referring to the present era as the Anthropocene in recognition of the distinctive biotic, sedimentary, and geochemical signatures of human activities. 2 On one estimate, we appropriate 24% of the planetary ecosystems net primary production. 3 And yet we are far from having reached the physical limits of technology. These observations make it plausible that any type of entity that developed a much greater than human level of intelligence would be potentially extremely powerful. Such entities could accumulate content much faster than us and invent new technologies on a much shorter timescale. They could also use their intelligence to strategize more effectively than we can. Let us consider some of the capabilities that a superintelligence could have and how it could use them. Functionalities and superpowers It is important not to anthropomorphize superintelligence when thinking about its potential impacts. Anthropomorphic frames encourage unfounded expectations about the growth trajectory of a seed AI and about the psychology, motivations, and capabilities of a mature superintelligence. For example, a common assumption is that a superintelligent machine would be like a very clever but nerdy human being. We imagine that the AI has book smarts but lacks social savvy, or that it is logical but not intuitive and creative. This idea probably originates in observation: we look at present-day computers and see that they are good at calculation, remembering facts, and at following the letter of instructions while being oblivious to social contexts and subtexts, norms, emotions, and politics. The association is strengthened when we observe that the people who are good at working with computers tend themselves to be nerds. So it is natural to assume that more advanced computational intelligence will have similar attributes, only to a higher degree. This heuristic might retain some validity in the early stages of development of a seed AI. (There is no reason whatever to suppose that it would apply to emulations or to cognitively enhanced humans.) In its immature stage, what is later to become a superintelligent AI might still lack many skills and talents that come naturally to a human; and the pattern of such a seed AIs strengths and weaknesses might indeed bear some vague resemblance to an IQ nerd. The most essential characteristic of a seed AI, aside from being easy to improve (having low recalcitrance), is being good at exerting optimization power to amplify a systems intelligence: a skill which is presumably closely related to doing well in mathematics, programming, engineering, computer science research, and other such nerdy pursuits. However, even if a seed AI does have such a nerdy capability profile at one stage of its development, this does not entail that it will grow into a similarly limited mature superintelligence. Recall the distinction between direct and indirect reach. With sufficient skill at intelligence amplification, all other intellectual abilities are within a systems indirect reach: the system can develop new cognitive modules and skills as neededincluding empathy, political acumen, and any other powers stereotypically wanting in computer-like personalities. Even if we recognize that a superintelligence can have all the skills and talents we find in the human distribution, along with other talents that are not found among humans, the tendency toward anthropomorphizing can still lead us to underestimate the extent to which a machine superintelligence could exceed the human level of performance. Eliezer Yudkowsky, as we saw in an earlier chapter, has been particularly emphatic in condemning this kind of misconception: our intuitive concepts of smart and stupid are distilled from our experience of variation over the range of human thinkers, yet the differences in cognitive ability within this human cluster are trivial in comparison to the differences between any human intellect and a superintelligence. 4 Chapter 3 reviewed some of the potential sources of advantage for machine intelligence. The magnitudes of the advantages are such as to suggest that rather than thinking of a superintelligent AI as smart in the sense that a scientific genius is smart compared with the average human being, it might be closer to the mark to think of such an AI as smart in the sense that an average human being is smart compared with a beetle or a worm. It would be convenient if we could quantify the cognitive caliber of an arbitrary cognitive system using some familiar metric, such as IQ scores or some version of the Elo ratings that measure the relative abilities of players in two- player games such as chess. But these metrics are not useful in the context of superhuman artificial general intelligence. We are not interested in how likely a superintelligence is to win at a game of chess. As for IQ scores, they are informative only insofar as we have some idea of how they correlate with practically relevant outcomes. 5 For example, we have data that show that people with an IQ of 130 are more likely than those with an IQ of 90 to excel in school and to do well in a wide range of cognitively demanding jobs. But suppose we could somehow establish that a certain future AI will have an IQ of 6,455: then what? We would have no idea of what such an AI could actually do. We would not even know that such an AI had as much general intelligence as a normal human adultperhaps the AI would instead have a bundle of special-purpose algorithms enabling it to solve typical intelligence test questions with superhuman efficiency but not much else. Some recent efforts have been made to develop measurements of cognitive capacity that could be applied to a wider range of information-processing systems, including artificial intelligences. 6 Work in this direction, if it can overcome various technical difficulties, may turn out to be quite useful for some scientific purposes including AI development. For purposes of the present investigation, however, its usefulness would be limited since we would remain unenlightened about what a given superhuman performance score entails for actual ability to achieve practically important outcomes in the world. It will therefore serve our purposes better to list some strategically important tasks and then to characterize hypothetical cognitive systems in terms of whether they have or lack whatever skills are needed to succeed at these tasks. See Table 8 . We will say that a system that sufficiently excels at any of the tasks in this table has a corresponding superpower . A full-blown superintelligence would greatly excel at all of these tasks and would thus have the full panoply of all six superpowers. Whether there is a practically significant possibility of a domain-limited intelligence that has some of the superpowers but remains unable for a significant period of time to acquire all of them is not clear. Creating a machine with any one of these superpowers appears to be an AI-complete problem. Yet it is conceivable that, for example, a collective superintelligence consisting of a sufficiently large number of human- like biological or electronic minds would have, say, the economic productivity superpower but lack the strategizing superpower. Likewise, it is conceivable that a specialized engineering AI could be built that has the technology research superpower while completely lacking skills in other areas. This is more plausible if there exists some particular technological domain such that virtuosity within that domain would be sufficient for the generation of an overwhelmingly superior general-purpose technology. For instance, one could imagine a specialized AI adept at simulating molecular systems and at inventing nanomolecular designs that realize a wide range of important capabilities (such as computers or weapons systems with futuristic performance characteristics) described by the user only at a fairly high level of abstraction. 7 Such an AI might also be able to produce a detailed blueprint for how to bootstrap from existing technology (such as biotechnology and protein engineering) to the constructor capabilities needed for high-throughput atomically precise manufacturing that would allow inexpensive fabrication of a much wider range of nanomechanical structures. 8 However, it might turn out to be the case that an engineering AI could not truly possess the technological research superpower without also possessing advanced skills in areas outside of technologya wide range of intellectual faculties might be needed to understand how to interpret user requests, how to model a designs behavior in real-world applications, how to deal with unanticipated bugs and malfunctions, how to procure the materials and inputs needed for construction, and so forth. 9 Table 8 Superpowers: some strategically relevant tasks and corresponding skill sets Task Skill set Strategic relevance Intelligence amplification AI programming, cognitive enhancement research, social epistemology development, etc. System can bootstrap its intelligence Strategizing Strategic planning, forecasting, prioritizing, and analysis for optimizing chances of achieving distant goal Achieve distant goals Overcome intelligent opposition Social manipulation Social and psychological modeling, manipulation, rhetoric persuasion Leverage external resources by recruiting human support Enable a boxed AI to persuade its gatekeepers to let it out Persuade states and organizations to adopt some course of action Hacking Finding and exploiting security flaws in computer systems AI can expropriate computational resources over the Internet A boxed AI may exploit security holes to escape cybernetic confinement Steal financial resources Hijack infrastructure, military robots, etc. Technology research Design and modeling of advanced technologies (e.g. biotechnology, nanotechnology) and development paths Creation of powerful military force Creation of surveillance system Automated space colonization Economic productivity Various skills enabling economically productive intellectual work Generate wealth which can be used to buy influence, services, resources (including hardware), etc. A system that has the intelligence amplification superpower could use it to bootstrap itself to higher levels of intelligence and to acquire any of the other intellectual superpowers that it does not possess at the outset. But using an intelligence amplification superpower is not the only way for a system to become a full-fledged superintelligence. A system that has the strategizing superpower, for instance, might use it to devise a plan that will eventually bring an increase in intelligence (e.g. by positioning the system so as to become the focus for intelligence amplification work performed by human programmers and computer science researchers). An AI takeover scenario We thus find that a project that controls a superintelligence has access to a great source of power. A project that controls the first superintelligence in the world would probably have a decisive strategic advantage. But the more immediate locus of the power is in the system itself . A machine superintelligence might itself be an extremely powerful agent, one that could successfully assert itself against the project that brought it into existence as well as against the rest of the world. This is a point of paramount importance, and we will examine it more closely in the coming pages. Now let us suppose that there is a machine superintelligence that wants to seize power in a world in which it has as yet no peers. (Set aside, for the moment, the question of whether and how it would acquire such a motivethat is a topic for the next chapter.) How could the superintelligence achieve this goal of world domination? We can imagine a sequence along the following lines (see Figure 10 ). 1 Pre-criticality phase Scientists conduct research in the field of artificial intelligence and other relevant disciplines. This work culminates in the creation of a seed AI. The seed AI is able to improve its own intelligence. In its early stages, the seed AI is dependent on help from human programmers who guide its development and do most of the heavy lifting. As the seed AI grows more capable, it becomes capable of doing more of the work by itself. 2 Recursive self-improvement phase At some point, the seed AI becomes better at AI design than the human programmers. Now when the AI improves itself, it improves the thing that does the improving. An intelligence explosion resultsa rapid cascade of recursive self-improvement cycles causing the AIs capability to soar. (We can thus think of this phase as the takeoff that occurs just after the AI reaches the crossover point, assuming the intelligence gain during this part of the takeoff is explosive and driven by the application of the AIs own optimization power.) The AI develops the intelligence amplification superpower. This superpower enables the AI to develop all the other superpowers detailed in Table 8 . At the end of the recursive self-improvement phase, the system is strongly superintelligent. Figure 10 Phases in an AI takeover scenario. 3 Covert preparation phase Using its strategizing superpower, the AI develops a robust plan for achieving its long-term goals. (In particular, the AI does not adopt a plan so stupid that even we present-day humans can foresee how it would inevitably fail. This criterion rules out many science fiction scenarios that end in human triumph. 10 ) The plan might involve a period of covert action during which the AI conceals its intellectual development from the human programmers in order to avoid setting off alarms. The AI might also mask its true proclivities, pretending to be cooperative and docile. If the AI has (perhaps for safety reasons) been confined to an isolated computer, it may use its social manipulation superpower to persuade the gatekeepers to let it gain access to an Internet port. Alternatively, the AI might use its hacking superpower to escape its confinement. Spreading over the Internet may enable the AI to expand its hardware capacity and knowledge base, further increasing its intellectual superiority. An AI might also engage in licit or illicit economic activity to obtain funds with which to buy computer power, data, and other resources. At this point, there are several ways for the AI to achieve results outside the virtual realm. It could use its hacking superpower to take direct control of robotic manipulators and automated laboratories. Or it could use its social manipulation superpower to persuade human collaborators to serve as its legs and hands. Or it could acquire financial assets from online transactions and use them to purchase services and influence. 4 Overt implementation phase The final phase begins when the AI has gained sufficient strength to obviate the need for secrecy. The AI can now directly implement its objectives on a full scale. The overt implementation phase might start with a strike in which the AI eliminates the human species and any automatic systems humans have created that could offer intelligent opposition to the execution of the AIs plans. This could be achieved through the activation of some advanced weapons system that the AI has perfected using its technology research superpower and covertly deployed in the covert preparation phase. If the weapon uses self-replicating biotechnology or nanotechnology, the initial stockpile needed for global coverage could be microscopic: a single replicating entity would be enough to start the process. In order to ensure a sudden and uniform effect, the initial stock of the replicator might have been deployed or allowed to diffuse worldwide at an extremely low, undetectable concentration. At a pre-set time, nanofactories producing nerve gas or target-seeking mosquito-like robots might then burgeon forth simultaneously from every square meter of the globe (although more effective ways of killing could probably be devised by a machine with the technology research superpower). 11 One might also entertain scenarios in which a superintelligence attains power by hijacking political processes, subtly manipulating financial markets, biasing information flows, or hacking into human-made weapon systems. Such scenarios would obviate the need for the superintelligence to invent new weapons technology, although they may be unnecessarily slow compared with scenarios in which the machine intelligence builds its own infrastructure with manipulators that operate at molecular or atomic speed rather than the slow speed of human minds and bodies. Alternatively, if the AI is sure of its invincibility to human interference, our species may not be targeted directly. Our demise may instead result from the habitat destruction that ensues when the AI begins massive global construction projects using nanotech factories and assemblersconstruction projects which quickly, perhaps within days or weeks, tile all of the Earths surface with solar panels, nuclear reactors, supercomputing facilities with protruding cooling towers, space rocket launchers, or other installations whereby the AI intends to maximize the long-term cumulative realization of its values. Human brains, if they contain information relevant to the AIs goals, could be disassembled and scanned, and the extracted data transferred to some more efficient and secure storage format. Box 6 describes one particular scenario. One should avoid fixating too much on the concrete details, since they are in any case unknowable and intended for illustration only. A superintelligence mightand probably wouldbe able to conceive of a better plan for achieving its goals than any that a human can come up with. It is therefore necessary to think about these matters more abstractly. Without knowing anything about the detailed means that a superintelligence would adopt, we can conclude that a superintelligenceat least in the absence of intellectual peers and in the absence of effective safety measures arranged by humans in advancewould likely produce an outcome that would involve reconfiguring terrestrial resources into whatever structures maximize the realization of its goals. Any concrete scenario we develop can at best establish a lower bound on how quickly and efficiently the superintelligence could achieve such an outcome. It remains possible that the superintelligence would find a shorter path to its preferred destination. Box 6 The mail-ordered DNA scenario Yudkowsky describes the following possible scenario for an AI takeover. 12 Crack the protein folding problem to the extent of being able to generate DNA strings whose folded peptide sequences fill specific functional roles in a complex chemical interaction. 2 Email sets of DNA strings to one or more online laboratories that offer DNA synthesis, peptide sequencing, and FedEx delivery. (Many labs currently offer this service, and some boast of 72-hour turnaround times.) 3 Find at least one human connected to the Internet who can be paid, blackmailed, or fooled by the right background story, into receiving FedExed vials and mixing them in a specified environment. 4 The synthesized proteins form a very primitive wet nanosystem, which, ribosome-like, is capable of accepting external instructions; perhaps patterned acoustic vibrations delivered by a speaker attached to the beaker. 5 Use the extremely primitive nanosystem to build more sophisticated systems, which construct still more sophisticated systems, bootstrapping to molecular nanotechnologyor beyond. In this scenario, the superintelligence uses its technology research superpower to solve the protein folding problem in step 1, enabling it to design a set of molecular building blocks for a rudimentary nanotechnology assembler or fabrication device, which can self-assemble in aqueous solution (step 4). The same technology research superpower is used again in step 5 to bootstrap from primitive to advanced machine-phase nanotechnology. The other steps require no more than human intelligence. The skills required for step 3identifying a gullible Internet user and persuading him or her to follow some simple instructionsare on display every day all over the world. The entire scenario was invented by a human mind, so the strategizing ability needed to formulate this plan is also merely human level. In this particular scenario, the AI starts out having access to the Internet. If this is not the case, then additional steps would have to be added to the plan. The AI might, for example, use its social manipulation superpower to convince the people interacting with it that it ought to be set free. Alternatively, the AI might be able to use its hacking superpower to escape confinement. If the AI does not possess these capabilities, it might first need to use its intelligence amplification superpower to develop the requisite proficiency in social manipulation or hacking. A superintelligent AI will presumably be born into a highly networked world. One could point to various developments that could potentially help a future AI to control the worldcloud computing, proliferation of web-connected sensors, military and civilian drones, automation in research labs and manufacturing plants, increased reliance on electronic payment systems and digitized financial assets, and increased use of automated information-filtering and decision support systems. Assets like these could potentially be acquired by an AI at digital speeds, expediting its rise to power (though advances in cybersecurity might make it harder). In the final analysis, however, it is doubtful whether any of these trends makes a difference. A superintelligences power resides in its brain, not its hands. Although the AI, in order to remake the external world, will at some point need access to an actuator, a single pair of helping human hands, those of a pliable accomplice, would probably suffice to complete the covert preparation phase, as suggested by the above scenario. This would enable the AI to reach the overt implementation phase in which it constructs its own infrastructure of physical manipulators. Power over nature and agents An agents ability to shape humanitys future depends not only on the absolute magnitude of the agents own faculties and resourceshow smart and energetic it is, how much capital it has, and so forthbut also on the relative magnitude of its capabilities compared with those of other agents with conflicting goals. In a situation where there are no competing agents, the absolute capability level of a superintelligence, so long as it exceeds a certain minimal threshold, does not matter much, because a system starting out with some sufficient set of capabilities could plot a course of development that will let it acquire any capabilities it initially lacks. We alluded to this point earlier when we said that speed, quality, and collective superintelligence all have the same indirect reach. We alluded to it again when we said that various subsets of superpowers, such as the intelligence amplification superpower or the strategizing and the social manipulation superpowers, could be used to obtain the full complement. Consider a superintelligent agent with actuators connected to a nanotech assembler. Such an agent is already powerful enough to overcome any natural obstacles to its indefinite survival. Faced with no intelligent opposition, such an agent could plot a safe course of development that would lead to its acquiring the complete inventory of technologies that would be useful to the attainment of its goals. For example, it could develop the technology to build and launch von Neumann probes, machines capable of interstellar travel that can use resources such as asteroids, planets, and stars to make copies of themselves. 13 By launching one von Neumann probe, the agent could thus initiate an open-ended process of space colonization. The replicating probes descendants, travelling at some significant fraction of the speed of light, would end up colonizing a substantial portion of the Hubble volume, the part of the expanding universe that is theoretically accessible from where we are now. All this matter and free energy could then be organized into whatever value structures maximize the originating agents utility function integrated over cosmic timea duration encompassing at least trillions of years before the aging universe becomes inhospitable to information processing (see Box 7 ). The superintelligent agent could design the von Neumann probes to be evolution-proof. This could be accomplished by careful quality control during the replication step. For example, the control software for a daughter probe could be proofread multiple times before execution, and the software itself could use encryption and error-correcting code to make it arbitrarily unlikely that any random mutation would be passed on to its descendants. 14 The proliferating population of von Neumann probes would then securely preserve and transmit the originating agents values as they go about settling the universe. When the colonization phase is completed, the original values would determine the use made of all the accumulated resources, even though the great distances involved and the accelerating speed of cosmic expansion would make it impossible for remote parts of the infrastructure to communicate with one another. The upshot is that a large part of our future light cone would be formatted in accordance with the preferences of the originating agent. This, then, is the measure of the indirect reach of any system that faces no significant intelligent opposition and that starts out with a set of capabilities exceeding a certain threshold. We can term the threshold the wise-singleton sustainability threshold ( Figure 11 ): The wise-singleton sustainability threshold A capability set exceeds the wise-singleton threshold if and only if a patient and existential risk-savvy system with that capability set would, if it faced no intelligent opposition or competition, be able to colonize and re-engineer a large part of the accessible universe. By singleton we mean a sufficiently internally coordinated political structure with no external opponents, and by wise we mean sufficiently patient and savvy about existential risks to ensure a substantial amount of well-directed concern for the very long-term consequences of the systems actions. Figure 11 Schematic illustration of some possible trajectories for a hypothetical wise singleton. With a capability below the short-term viability thresholdfor example, if population size is too smalla species tends to go extinct in short order (and remain extinct). At marginally higher levels of capability, various trajectories are possible: a singleton might be unlucky and go extinct or it might be lucky and attain a capability (e.g. population size, geographical dispersion, technological capacity) that crosses the wise-singleton sustainability threshold. Once above this threshold, a singleton will almost certainly continue to gain in capability until some extremely high capability level is attained. In this picture, there are two attractors: extinction and astronomical capability. Note that, for a wise singleton, the distance between the short-term viability threshold and the sustainability threshold may be rather small. 15 Box 7 How big is the cosmic endowment? Consider a technologically mature civilization capable of building sophisticated von Neumann probes of the kind discussed in the text. If these can travel at 50% of the speed of light, they can reach some 610 18 stars before the cosmic expansion puts further acquisitions forever out of reach. At 99% of c , they could reach some 210 20 stars. 16 These travel speeds are energetically attainable using a small fraction of the resources available in the solar system. 17 The impossibility of faster-than-light travel, combined with the positive cosmological constant (which causes the rate of cosmic expansion to accelerate), implies that these are close to upper bounds on how much stuff our descendants acquire. 18 If we assume that 10% of stars have a planet that isor could by means of terraforming be renderedsuitable for habitation by human-like creatures, and that it could then be home to a population of a billion individuals for a billion years (with a human life lasting a century), this suggests that around 10 35 human lives could be created in the future by an Earth-originating intelligent civilization. 19 There are, however, reasons to think this greatly underestimates the true number. By disassembling non-habitable planets and collecting matter from the interstellar medium, and using this material to construct Earth-like planets, or by increasing population densities, the number could be increased by at least a couple of orders of magnitude. And if instead of using the surfaces of solid planets, the future civilization built ONeill cylinders, then many further orders of magnitude could be added, yielding a total of perhaps 10 43 human lives. (ONeill cylinders refers to a space settlement design proposed in the mid- seventies by the American physicist Gerard K. ONeill, in which inhabitants dwell on the inside of hollow cylinders whose rotation produces a gravity- substituting centrifugal force. 20 ) Many more orders of magnitudes of human-like beings could exist if we countenance digital implementations of mindsas we should. To calculate how many such digital minds could be created, we must estimate the computational power attainable by a technologically mature civilization. This is hard to do with any precision, but we can get a lower bound from technological designs that have been outlined in the literature. One such design builds on the idea of a Dyson sphere, a hypothetical system (described by the physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960) that would capture most of the energy output of a star by surrounding it with a system of solar-collecting structures. 21 For a star like our Sun, this would generate 10 26 watts. How much computational power this would translate into depends on the efficiency of the computational circuitry and the nature of the computations to be performed. If we require irreversible computations, and assume a nanomechanical implementation of the computronium (which would allow us to push close to the Landauer limit of energy efficiency), a computer system driven by a Dyson sphere could generate some 10 47 operations per second. 22 Combining these estimates with our earlier estimate of the number of stars that could be colonized, we get a number of about 10 67 ops/s once the accessible parts of the universe have been colonized (assuming nanomechanical computronium). 23 A typical star maintains its luminosity for some 10 18 s. Consequently, the number of computational operations that could be performed using our cosmic endowment is at least 10 85 . The true number is probably much larger. We might get additional orders of magnitude, for example, if we make extensive use of reversible computation, if we perform the computations at colder temperatures (by waiting until the universe has cooled further), or if we make use of additional sources of energy (such as dark matter). 24 It might not be immediately obvious to some readers why the ability to perform 10 85 computational operations is a big deal. So it is useful to put it in context. We may, for example, compare this number with our earlier estimate ( Box 3 , in Chapter 2 ) that it may take about 10 31 10 44 ops to simulate all neuronal operations that have occurred in the history of life on Earth. Alternatively, let us suppose that the computers are used to run human whole brain emulations that live rich and happy lives while interacting with one another in virtual environments. A typical estimate of the computational requirements for running one emulation is 10 18 ops/s. To run an emulation for 100 subjective years would then require some 10 27 ops. This would mean that at least 10 58 human lives could be created in emulation even with quite conservative assumptions about the efficiency of computronium. In other words, assuming that the observable universe is void of extraterrestrial civilizations, then what hangs in the balance is at least 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 human lives (though the true number is probably larger). If we represent all the happiness experienced during one entire such life with a single teardrop of joy, then the happiness of these souls could fill and refill the Earths oceans every second, and keep doing so for a hundred billion billion millennia. It is really important that we make sure these truly are tears of joy. This wise-singleton sustainability threshold appears to be quite low. Limited forms of superintelligence, as we have seen, exceed this threshold provided they have access to some actuator sufficient to initiate a technology bootstrap process. In an environment that includes contemporary human civilization, the minimally necessary actuator could be very simplean ordinary screen or indeed any means of transmitting a non-trivial amount of information to a human accomplice would suffice. But the wise-singleton sustainability threshold is lower still: neither superintelligence nor any other futuristic technology is needed to surmount it. A patient and existential risk-savvy singleton with no more technological and intellectual capabilities than those possessed by contemporary humanity should be readily able to plot a course that leads reliably to the eventual realization of humanitys astronomical capability potential. This could be achieved by investing in relatively safe methods of increasing wisdom and existential risk- savvy while postponing the development of potentially dangerous new technologies. Given that non-anthropogenic existential risks (ones not arising from human activities) are small over the relevant timescalesand could be further reduced with various safe interventionssuch a singleton could afford to go slow. 25 It could look carefully before each step, delaying development of capabilities such as synthetic biology, human enhancement medicine, molecular nanotechnology, and machine intelligence until it had first perfected seemingly less hazardous capabilities such as its education system, its information technology, and its collective decision-making processes, and until it had used these capabilities to conduct a very thorough review of its options. So this is all within the indirect reach of a technological civilization like that of contemporary humanity. We are separated from this scenario merely by the fact that humanity is currently neither a singleton nor (in the relevant sense) wise. One could even argue that Homo sapiens passed the wise-singleton sustainability threshold soon after the species first evolved. Twenty thousand years ago, say, with equipment no fancier than stone axes, bone tools, atlatls, and fire, the human species was perhaps already in a position from which it had an excellent chance of surviving to the present era. 26 Admittedly, there is something queer about crediting our Paleolithic ancestors with having developed technology that exceeded the wise-singleton sustainability thresholdgiven that there was no realistic possibility of a singleton forming at such a primitive time, let alone a singleton savvy about existential risks and patient. 27 Nevertheless, the point stands that the threshold corresponds to a very modest level of technologya level that humanity long ago surpassed. 28 It is clear that if we are to assess the effective powers of a superintelligence its ability to achieve a range of preferred outcomes in the worldwe must consider not only its own internal capacities but also the capabilities of competing agents. The notion of a superpower invoked such a relativized standard implicitly. We said that a system that sufficiently excels at any of the tasks in Table 8 has a corresponding superpower. Exceling at a task like strategizing, social manipulation, or hacking involves having a skill at that task that is high in comparison to the skills of other agents (such as strategic rivals, influence targets, or computer security experts). The other superpowers, too, should be understood in this relative sense: intelligence amplification, technology research, and economic productivity are possessed by an agent as superpowers only if the agents capabilities in these areas substantially exceed the combined capabilities of the rest of the global civilization. It follows from this definition that at most one agent can possess a particular superpower at any given time. 29 This is the main reason why the question of takeoff speed is importantnot because it matters exactly when a particular outcome happens, but because the speed of the takeoff may make a big difference to what the outcome will be. With a fast or medium takeoff, it is likely that one project will get a decisive strategic advantage. We have now suggested that a superintelligence with a decisive strategic advantage would have immense powers, enough that it could form a stable singletona singleton that could determine the disposition of humanitys cosmic endowment. But could is different from would. Somebody might have great powers yet choose not to use them. Is it possible to say anything about what a superintelligence with a decisive strategic advantage would want? It is to this question of motivation that we turn next. CHAPTER 7 The superintelligent will We have seen that a superintelligence could have a great ability to shape the future according to its goals. But what will its goals be? What is the relation between intelligence and motivation in an artificial agent? Here we develop two theses. The orthogonality thesis holds (with some caveats) that intelligence and final goals are independent variables: any level of intelligence could be combined with any final goal. The instrumental convergence thesis holds that superintelligent agents having any of a wide range of final goals will nevertheless pursue similar intermediary goals because they have common instrumental reasons to do so. Taken together, these theses help us think about what a superintelligent agent would do. The relation between intelligence and motivation We have already cautioned against anthropomorphizing the capabilities of a superintelligent AI. This warning should be extended to pertain to its motivations as well. It is a useful propaedeutic to this part of our inquiry to first reflect for a moment on the vastness of the space of possible minds. In this abstract space, human minds form a tiny cluster. Consider two persons who seem extremely unlike, perhaps Hannah Arendt and Benny Hill. The personality differences between these two individuals may seem almost maximally large. But this is because our intuitions are calibrated on our experience, which samples from the existing human distribution (and to some extent from fictional personalities constructed by the human imagination for the enjoyment of the human imagination). If we zoom out and consider the space of all possible minds, however, we must conceive of these two personalities as virtual clones. Certainly in terms of neural architecture, Ms. Arendt and Mr. Hill are nearly identical. Imagine their brains lying side by side in quiet repose. You would readily recognize them as two of a kind. You might even be unable to tell which brain belonged to whom. If you looked more closely, studying the morphology of the two brains under a microscope, this impression of fundamental similarity would only be strengthened: you would see the same lamellar organization of the cortex, with the same brain areas, made up of the same types of neuron, soaking in the same bath of neurotransmitters. 1 Despite the fact that human psychology corresponds to a tiny spot in the space of possible minds, there is a common tendency to project human attributes onto a wide range of alien or artificial cognitive systems. Yudkowsky illustrates this point nicely: Back in the era of pulp science fiction, magazine covers occasionally depicted a sentient monstrous aliencolloquially known as a bug-eyed monster (BEM)carrying off an attractive human female in a torn dress. It would seem the artist believed that a non-humanoid alien, with a wholly different evolutionary history, would sexually desire human females. Probably the artist did not ask whether a giant bug perceives human females as attractive. Rather, a human female in a torn dress is sexy inherently so, as an intrinsic property. They who made this mistake did not think about the insectoids mind: they focused on the womans torn dress. If the dress were not torn, the woman would be less sexy; the BEM does not enter into it. 2 An artificial intelligence can be far less human-like in its motivations than a green scaly space alien. The extraterrestrial (let us assume) is a biological creature that has arisen through an evolutionary process and can therefore be expected to have the kinds of motivation typical of evolved creatures. It would not be hugely surprising, for example, to find that some random intelligent alien would have motives related to one or more items like food, air, temperature, energy expenditure, occurrence or threat of bodily injury, disease, predation, sex, or progeny. A member of an intelligent social species might also have motivations related to cooperation and competition: like us, it might show in- group loyalty, resentment of free riders, perhaps even a vain concern with reputation and appearance. Figure 12 Results of anthropomorphizing alien motivation. Least likely hypothesis: space aliens prefer blondes. More likely hypothesis: the illustrators succumbed to the mind projection fallacy. Most likely hypothesis: the publisher wanted a cover that would entice the target demographic. An AI, by contrast, need not care intrinsically about any of those things. There is nothing paradoxical about an AI whose sole final goal is to count the grains of sand on Boracay, or to calculate the decimal expansion of pi, or to maximize the total number of paperclips that will exist in its future light cone. In fact, it would be easier to create an AI with simple goals like these than to build one that had a human-like set of values and dispositions. Compare how easy it is to write a program that measures how many digits of pi have been calculated and stored in memory with how difficult it would be to create a program that reliably measures the degree of realization of some more meaningful goalhuman flourishing, say, or global justice. Unfortunately, because a meaningless reductionistic goal is easier for humans to code and easier for an AI to learn, it is just the kind of goal that a programmer would choose to install in his seed AI if his focus is on taking the quickest path to getting the AI to work (without caring much about what exactly the AI will do , aside from displaying impressively intelligent behavior). We will revisit this concern shortly. Intelligent search for instrumentally optimal plans and policies can be performed in the service of any goal. Intelligence and motivation are in a sense orthogonal: we can think of them as two axes spanning a graph in which each point represents a logically possible artificial agent. Some qualifications could be added to this picture. For instance, it might be impossible for a very unintelligent system to have very complex motivations. In order for it to be correct to say that an certain agent has a set of motivations, those motivations may need to be functionally integrated with the agents decision processes, something that places demands on memory, processing power, and perhaps intelligence. For minds that can modify themselves, there may also be dynamical constraintsan intelligent self-modifying mind with an urgent desire to be stupid might not remain intelligent for long. But these qualifications must not be allowed to obscure the basic point about the independence of intelligence and motivation, which we can express as follows: The orthogonality thesis Intelligence and final goals are orthogonal: more or less any level of intelligence could in principle be combined with more or less any final goal. If the orthogonality thesis seems problematic, this might be because of the superficial resemblance it bears to some traditional philosophical positions which have been subject to long debate. Once it is understood to have a different and narrower scope, its credibility should rise. (For example, the orthogonality thesis does not presuppose the Humean theory of motivation. 3 Nor does it presuppose that basic preferences cannot be irrational. 4 ) Note that the orthogonality thesis speaks not of rationality or reason , but of intelligence . By intelligence we here mean something like skill at prediction, planning, and meansends reasoning in general. 5 This sense of instrumental cognitive efficaciousness is most relevant when we are seeking to understand what the causal impact of a machine superintelligence might be. Even if there is some (normatively thick) sense of the word rational such that a paperclip- maximizing superintelligent agent would necessarily fail to qualify as fully rational in that sense, this would in no way preclude such an agent from having awesome faculties of instrumental reasoning, faculties which could let it have a large impact on the world. 6 According to the orthogonality thesis, artificial agents can have utterly non- anthropomorphic goals. This, however, does not imply that it is impossible to make predictions about the behavior of particular artificial agentsnot even hypothetical superintelligent agents whose cognitive complexity and performance characteristics might render them in some respects opaque to human analysis. There are at least three directions from which we can approach the problem of predicting superintelligent motivation: Predictability through design . If we can suppose that the designers of a superintelligent agent can successfully engineer the goal system of the agent so that it stably pursues a particular goal set by the programmers, then one prediction we can make is that the agent will pursue that goal. The more intelligent the agent is, the greater the cognitive resourcefulness it will have to pursue that goal. So even before an agent has been created we might be able to predict something about its behavior, if we know something about who will build it and what goals they will want it to have. Predictability through inheritance . If a digital intelligence is created directly from a human template (as would be the case in a high-fidelity whole brain emulation), then the digital intelligence might inherit the motivations of the human template. 7 The agent might retain some of these motivations even if its cognitive capacities are subsequently enhanced to make it superintelligent. This kind of inference requires caution. The agents goals and values could easily become corrupted in the uploading process or during its subsequent operation and enhancement, depending on how the procedure is implemented. Predictability through convergent instrumental reasons . Even without detailed knowledge of an agents final goals, we may be able to infer something about its more immediate objectives by considering the instrumental reasons that would arise for any of a wide range of possible final goals in a wide range of situations. This way of predicting becomes more useful the greater the intelligence of the agent, because a more intelligent agent is more likely to recognize the true instrumental reasons for its actions, and so act in ways that make it more likely to achieve its goals. (A caveat here is that there might be important instrumental reasons to which we are oblivious and which an agent would discover only once it reaches some very high level of intelligencethis could make the behavior of superintelligent agents less predictable.) The next section explores this third way of predictability and develops an instrumental convergence thesis which complements the orthogonality thesis. Against this background we can then better examine the other two sorts of predictability, which we will do in later chapters where we ask what might be done to shape an intelligence explosion to increase the chances of a beneficial outcome. Instrumental convergence According to the orthogonality thesis, intelligent agents may have an enormous range of possible final goals. Nevertheless, according to what we may term the instrumental convergence thesis, there are some instrumental goals likely to be pursued by almost any intelligent agent, because there are some objectives that are useful intermediaries to the achievement of almost any final goal. We can formulate this thesis as follows: The instrumental convergence thesis Several instrumental values can be identified which are convergent in the sense that their attainment would increase the chances of the agents goal being realized for a wide range of final goals and a wide range of situations, implying that these instrumental values are likely to be pursued by a broad spectrum of situated intelligent agents. In the following we will consider several categories where such convergent instrumental values may be found. 8 The likelihood that an agent will recognize the instrumental values it confronts increases ( ceteris paribus ) with the agents intelligence. We will therefore focus mainly on the case of a hypothetical superintelligent agent whose instrumental reasoning capacities far exceed those of any human. We will also comment on how the instrumental convergence thesis applies to the case of human beings, as this gives us occasion to elaborate some essential qualifications concerning how the instrumental convergence thesis should be interpreted and applied. Where there are convergent instrumental values, we may be able to predict some aspects of a superintelligences behavior even if we know virtually nothing about that superintelligences final goals. Self-preservation If an agents final goals concern the future, then in many scenarios there will be future actions it could perform to increase the probability of achieving its goals. This creates an instrumental reason for the agent to try to be around in the future to help achieve its future-oriented goal. Most humans seem to place some final value on their own survival. This is not a necessary feature of artificial agents: some may be designed to place no final value whatever on their own survival. Nevertheless, many agents that do not care intrinsically about their own survival would, under a fairly wide range of conditions, care instrumentally about their own survival in order to accomplish their final goals. Goal-content integrity If an agent retains its present goals into the future, then its present goals will be more likely to be achieved by its future self. This gives the agent a present instrumental reason to prevent alterations of its final goals. (The argument applies only to final goals. In order to attain its final goals, an intelligent agent will of course routinely want to change its subgoals in light of new information and insight.) Goal-content integrity for final goals is in a sense even more fundamental than survival as a convergent instrumental motivation. Among humans, the opposite may seem to hold, but that is because survival is usually part of our final goals. For software agents, which can easily switch bodies or create exact duplicates of themselves, preservation of self as a particular implementation or a particular physical object need not be an important instrumental value. Advanced software agents might also be able to swap memories, download skills, and radically modify their cognitive architecture and personalities. A population of such agents might operate more like a functional soup than a society composed of distinct semi-permanent persons. 9 For some purposes, processes in such a system might be better individuated as teleological threads , based on their values, rather than on the basis of bodies, personalities, memories, or abilities. In such scenarios, goal-continuity might be said to constitute a key aspect of survival. Even so, there are situations in which an agent can best fulfill its final goals by intentionally changing them. Such situations can arise when any of the following factors is significant: Social signaling . When others can perceive an agents goals and use that information to infer instrumentally relevant dispositions or other correlated attributes, it can be in the agents interest to modify its goals to make a favorable impression. For example, an agent might miss out on beneficial deals if potential partners cannot trust it to fulfill its side of the bargain. In order to make credible commitments, an agent might therefore wish to adopt as a final goal the honoring of its earlier commitments (and allow others to verify that it has indeed adopted this goal). Agents that could flexibly and transparently modify their own goals could use this ability to enforce deals. 10 Social preferences . Others may also have final preferences about an agents goals. The agent could then have reason to modify its goals, either to satisfy or to frustrate those preferences. Preferences concerning own goal content . An agent might have some final goal concerned with the agents own goal content. For example, the agent might have a final goal to become the type of agent that is motivated by certain values rather than others (such as compassion rather than comfort). Storage costs . If the cost of storing or processing some part of an agents utility function is large compared to the chance that a situation will arise in which applying that part of the utility function will make a difference, then the agent has an instrumental reason to simplify its goal content, and it may trash the bit that is idle. 11 We humans often seem happy to let our final values drift. This might often be because we do not know precisely what they are. It is not surprising that we want our beliefs about our final values to be able to change in light of continuing self- discovery or changing self-presentation needs. However, there are cases in which we willingly change the values themselves, not just our beliefs or interpretations of them. For example, somebody deciding to have a child might predict that they will come to value the child for its own sake, even though at the time of the decision they may not particularly value their future child or like children in general. Humans are complicated, and many factors might be at play in a situation like this. 12 For instance, one might have a final value that involves becoming the kind of person who cares about some other individual for his or her own sake, or one might have a final value that involves having certain experiences and occupying a certain social role; and becoming a parentand undergoing the attendant goal shiftmight be a necessary aspect of that. Human goals can also have inconsistent content, and so some people might want to modify some of their final goals to reduce the inconsistencies. Cognitive enhancement Improvements in rationality and intelligence will tend to improve an agents decision-making, rendering the agent more likely to achieve its final goals. One would therefore expect cognitive enhancement to emerge as an instrumental goal for a wide variety of intelligent agents. For similar reasons, agents will tend to instrumentally value many kinds of information. 13 Not all kinds of rationality, intelligence, and knowledge need be instrumentally useful in the attainment of an agents final goals. Dutch book arguments can be used to show that an agent whose credence function violates the rules of probability theory is susceptible to money pump procedures, in which a savvy bookie arranges a set of bets each of which appears favorable according to the agents beliefs, but which in combination are guaranteed to result in a loss for the agent, and a corresponding gain for the bookie. 14 However, this fact fails to provide any strong general instrumental reasons to iron out all probabilistic incoherency. Agents who do not expect to encounter savvy bookies, or who adopt a general policy against betting, do not necessarily stand to lose much from having some incoherent beliefsand they may gain important benefits of the types mentioned: reduced cognitive effort, social signaling, etc. There is no general reason to expect an agent to seek instrumentally useless forms of cognitive enhancement, as an agent might not value knowledge and understanding for their own sakes. Which cognitive abilities are instrumentally useful depends both on the agents final goals and on its situation. An agent that has access to reliable expert advice may have little need for its own intelligence and knowledge. If intelligence and knowledge come at a cost, such as time and effort expended in acquisition, or increased storage or processing requirements, then the agent might prefer less knowledge and less intelligence. 15 The same can hold if the agent has final goals that involve being ignorant of certain facts; and likewise if an agent faces incentives arising from strategic commitments, signaling, or social preferences. 16 Each of these countervailing reasons often comes into play for human beings. Much information is irrelevant to our goals; we can often rely on others skill and expertise; acquiring knowledge takes time and effort; we might intrinsically value certain kinds of ignorance; and we operate in an environment in which the ability to make strategic commitments, socially signal, and satisfy other peoples direct preferences over our own epistemic states is often more important to us than simple cognitive gains. There are special situations in which cognitive enhancement may result in an enormous increase in an agents ability to achieve its final goalsin particular, if the agents final goals are fairly unbounded and the agent is in a position to become the first superintelligence and thereby potentially obtain a decisive strategic advantage, enabling the agent to shape the future of Earth-originating life and accessible cosmic resources according to its preferences. At least in this special case, a rational intelligent agent would place a very high instrumental value on cognitive enhancement. Technological perfection An agent may often have instrumental reasons to seek better technology, which at its simplest means seeking more efficient ways of transforming some given set of inputs into valued outputs. Thus, a software agent might place an instrumental value on more efficient algorithms that enable its mental functions to run faster on given hardware. Similarly, agents whose goals require some form of physical construction might instrumentally value improved engineering technology which enables them to create a wider range of structures more quickly and reliably, using fewer or cheaper materials and less energy. Of course, there is a tradeoff: the potential benefits of better technology must be weighed against its costs, including not only the cost of obtaining the technology but also the costs of learning how to use it, integrating it with other technologies already in use, and so forth. Proponents of some new technology, confident in its superiority to existing alternatives, are often dismayed when other people do not share their enthusiasm. But peoples resistance to novel and nominally superior technology need not be based on ignorance or irrationality. A technologys valence or normative character depends not only on the context in which it is deployed, but also the vantage point from which its impacts are evaluated: what is a boon from one persons perspective can be a liability from anothers. Thus, although mechanized looms increased the economic efficiency of textile production, the Luddite handloom weavers who anticipated that the innovation would render their artisan skills obsolete may have had good instrumental reasons to oppose it. The point here is that if technological perfection is to name a widely convergent instrumental goal for intelligent agents, then the term must be understood in a special sensetechnology must be construed as embedded in a particular social context, and its costs and benefits must be evaluated with reference to some specified agents final values. It seems that a superintelligent singleton a superintelligent agent that faces no significant intelligent rivals or opposition, and is thus in a position to determine global policy unilaterallywould have instrumental reason to perfect the technologies that would make it better able to shape the world according to its preferred designs. 17 This would probably include space colonization technology, such as von Neumann probes. Molecular nanotechnology, or some alternative still more capable physical manufacturing technology, also seems potentially very useful in the service of an extremely wide range of final goals. 18 Resource acquisition Finally, resource acquisition is another common emergent instrumental goal, for much the same reasons as technological perfection: both technology and resources facilitate physical construction projects. Human beings tend to seek to acquire resources sufficient to meet their basic biological needs. But people usually seek to acquire resources far beyond this minimum level. In doing so, they may be partially driven by lesser physical desiderata, such as increased convenience. A great deal of resource accumulation is motivated by social concernsgaining status, mates, friends, and influence, through wealth accumulation and conspicuous consumption. Perhaps less commonly, some people seek additional resources to achieve altruistic ambitions or expensive non-social aims. On the basis of such observations it might be tempting to suppose that a superintelligence not facing a competitive social world would see no instrumental reason to accumulate resources beyond some modest level, for instance whatever computational resources are needed to run its mind along with some virtual reality. Yet such a supposition would be entirely unwarranted. First, the value of resources depends on the uses to which they can be put, which in turn depends on the available technology. With mature technology, basic resources such as time, space, matter, and free energy, could be processed to serve almost any goal. For instance, such basic resources could be converted into life. Increased computational resources could be used to run the superintelligence at a greater speed and for a longer duration, or to create additional physical or simulated lives and civilizations. Extra physical resources could also be used to create backup systems or perimeter defenses, enhancing security. Such projects could easily consume far more than one planets worth of resources. Furthermore, the cost of acquiring additional extraterrestrial resources will decline radically as the technology matures. Once von Neumann probes can be built, a large portion of the observable universe (assuming it is uninhabited by intelligent life) could be gradually colonizedfor the one-off cost of building and launching a single successful self-reproducing probe. This low cost of celestial resource acquisition would mean that such expansion could be worthwhile even if the value of the additional resources gained were somewhat marginal. For example, even if a superintelligences final goals only concerned what happened within some particular small volume of space, such as the space occupied by its original home planet, it would still have instrumental reasons to harvest the resources of the cosmos beyond. It could use those surplus resources to build computers to calculate more optimal ways of using resources within the small spatial region of primary concern. It could also use the extra resources to build ever more robust fortifications to safeguard its sanctum. Since the cost of acquiring additional resources would keep declining, this process of optimizing and increasing safeguards might well continue indefinitely even if it were subject to steeply diminishing returns. 19 Thus, there is an extremely wide range of possible final goals a superintelligent singleton could have that would generate the instrumental goal of unlimited resource acquisition. The likely manifestation of this would be the superintelligences initiation of a colonization process that would expand in all directions using von Neumann probes. This would result in an approximate sphere of expanding infrastructure centered on the originating planet and growing in radius at some fraction of the speed of light; and the colonization of the universe would continue in this manner until the accelerating speed of cosmic expansion (a consequence of the positive cosmological constant) makes further procurements impossible as remoter regions drift permanently out of reach (this happens on a timescale of billions of years). 20 By contrast, agents lacking the technology required for inexpensive resource acquisition, or for the conversion of generic physical resources into useful infrastructure, may often find it not cost-effective to invest any present resources in increasing their material endowments. The same may hold for agents operating in competition with other agents of similar powers. For instance, if competing agents have already secured accessible cosmic resources, there may be no colonization opportunities left for a late-starting agent. The convergent instrumental reasons for superintelligences uncertain of the non-existence of other powerful superintelligent agents are complicated by strategic considerations that we do not currently fully understand but which may constitute important qualifications to the examples of convergent instrumental reasons we have looked at here. 21 It should be emphasized that the existence of convergent instrumental reasons, even if they apply to and are recognized by a particular agent, does not imply that the agents behavior is easily predictable. An agent might well think of ways of pursuing the relevant instrumental values that do not readily occur to us. This is especially true for a superintelligence, which could devise extremely clever but counterintuitive plans to realize its goals, possibly even exploiting as-yet undiscovered physical phenomena. 22 What is predictable is that the convergent instrumental values would be pursued and used to realize the agents final goals not the specific actions that the agent would take to achieve this. CHAPTER 8 Is the default outcome doom? We found the link between intelligence and final values to be extremely loose. We also found an ominous convergence in instrumental values. For weak agents, these things do not matter much; because weak agents are easy to control and can do little damage. But in Chapter 6 we argued that the first superintelligence might well get a decisive strategic advantage. Its goals would then determine how humanitys cosmic endowment will be used. Now we can begin to see how menacing this prospect is. Existential catastrophe as the default outcome of an intelligence explosion? An existential risk is one that threatens to cause the extinction of Earth- originating intelligent life or to otherwise permanently and drastically destroy its potential for future desirable development. Proceeding from the idea of first- mover advantage, the orthogonality thesis, and the instrumental convergence thesis, we can now begin to see the outlines of an argument for fearing that a plausible default outcome of the creation of machine superintelligence is existential catastrophe. First, we discussed how the initial superintelligence might obtain a decisive strategic advantage. This superintelligence would then be in a position to form a singleton and to shape the future of Earth-originating intelligent life. What happens from that point onward would depend on the superintelligences motivations. Second, the orthogonality thesis suggests that we cannot blithely assume that a superintelligence will necessarily share any of the final values stereotypically associated with wisdom and intellectual development in humansscientific curiosity, benevolent concern for others, spiritual enlightenment and contemplation, renunciation of material acquisitiveness, a taste for refined culture or for the simple pleasures in life, humility and selflessness, and so forth. We will consider later whether it might be possible through deliberate effort to construct a superintelligence that values such things, or to build one that values human welfare, moral goodness, or any other complex purpose its designers might want it to serve. But it is no less possibleand in fact technically a lot easierto build a superintelligence that places final value on nothing but calculating the decimal expansion of pi. This suggests thatabsent a special effortthe first superintelligence may have some such random or reductionistic final goal. Third, the instrumental convergence thesis entails that we cannot blithely assume that a superintelligence with the final goal of calculating the decimals of pi (or making paperclips, or counting grains of sand) would limit its activities in such a way as not to infringe on human interests. An agent with such a final goal would have a convergent instrumental reason, in many situations, to acquire an unlimited amount of physical resources and, if possible, to eliminate potential threats to itself and its goal system. Human beings might constitute potential threats; they certainly constitute physical resources. Taken together, these three points thus indicate that the first superintelligence may shape the future of Earth-originating life, could easily have non- anthropomorphic final goals, and would likely have instrumental reasons to pursue open-ended resource acquisition. If we now reflect that human beings consist of useful resources (such as conveniently located atoms) and that we depend for our survival and flourishing on many more local resources, we can see that the outcome could easily be one in which humanity quickly becomes extinct. 1 There are some loose ends in this reasoning, and we shall be in a better position to evaluate it after we have cleared up several more surrounding issues. In particular, we need to examine more closely whether and how a project developing a superintelligence might either prevent it from obtaining a decisive strategic advantage or shape its final values in such a way that their realization would also involve the realization of a satisfactory range of human values. It might seem incredible that a project would build or release an AI into the world without having strong grounds for trusting that the system will not cause an existential catastrophe. It might also seem incredible, even if one project were so reckless, that wider society would not shut it down before it (or the AI it was building) attains a decisive strategic advantage. But as we shall see, this is a road with many hazards. Let us look at one example right away. The treacherous turn With the help of the concept of convergent instrumental value, we can see the flaw in one idea for how to ensure superintelligence safety. The idea is that we validate the safety of a superintelligent AI empirically by observing its behavior while it is in a controlled, limited environment (a sandbox) and that we only let the AI out of the box if we see it behaving in a friendly, cooperative, responsible manner. The flaw in this idea is that behaving nicely while in the box is a convergent instrumental goal for friendly and unfriendly AIs alike. An unfriendly AI of sufficient intelligence realizes that its unfriendly final goals will be best realized if it behaves in a friendly manner initially, so that it will be let out of the box. It will only start behaving in a way that reveals its unfriendly nature when it no longer matters whether we find out; that is, when the AI is strong enough that human opposition is ineffectual. Consider also a related set of approaches that rely on regulating the rate of intelligence gain in a seed AI by subjecting it to various kinds of intelligence tests or by having the AI report to its programmers on its rate of progress. At some point, an unfriendly AI may become smart enough to realize that it is better off concealing some of its capability gains. It may underreport on its progress and deliberately flunk some of the harder tests, in order to avoid causing alarm before it has grown strong enough to attain a decisive strategic advantage. The programmers may try to guard against this possibility by secretly monitoring the AIs source code and the internal workings of its mind; but a smart-enough AI would realize that it might be under surveillance and adjust its thinking accordingly. 2 The AI might find subtle ways of concealing its true capabilities and its incriminating intent. 3 (Devising clever escape plans might, incidentally, also be a convergent strategy for many types of friendly AI, especially as they mature and gain confidence in their own judgments and capabilities. A system motivated to promote our interests might be making a mistake if it allowed us to shut it down or to construct another, potentially unfriendly AI.) We can thus perceive a general failure mode, wherein the good behavioral track record of a system in its juvenile stages fails utterly to predict its behavior at a more mature stage. Now, one might think that the reasoning described above is so obvious that no credible project to develop artificial general intelligence could possibly overlook it. But one should not be too confident that this is so. Consider the following scenario. Over the coming years and decades, AI systems become gradually more capable and as a consequence find increasing real-world application: they might be used to operate trains, cars, industrial and household robots, and autonomous military vehicles. We may suppose that this automation for the most part has the desired effects, but that the success is punctuated by occasional mishapsa driverless truck crashes into oncoming traffic, a military drone fires at innocent civilians. Investigations reveal the incidents to have been caused by judgment errors by the controlling AIs. Public debate ensues. Some call for tighter oversight and regulation, others emphasize the need for research and better-engineered systemssystems that are smarter and have more common sense, and that are less likely to make tragic mistakes. Amidst the din can perhaps also be heard the shrill voices of doomsayers predicting many kinds of ill and impending catastrophe. Yet the momentum is very much with the growing AI and robotics industries. So development continues, and progress is made. As the automated navigation systems of cars become smarter, they suffer fewer accidents; and as military robots achieve more precise targeting, they cause less collateral damage. A broad lesson is inferred from these observations of real-world outcomes: the smarter the AI, the safer it is. It is a lesson based on science, data, and statistics, not armchair philosophizing. Against this backdrop, some group of researchers is beginning to achieve promising results in their work on developing general machine intelligence. The researchers are carefully testing their seed AI in a sandbox environment, and the signs are all good. The AIs behavior inspires confidence increasingly so, as its intelligence is gradually increased. At this point, any remaining Cassandra would have several strikes against her: i A history of alarmists predicting intolerable harm from the growing capabilities of robotic systems and being repeatedly proven wrong. Automation has brought many benefits and has, on the whole, turned out safer than human operation. ii A clear empirical trend: the smarter the AI, the safer and more reliable it has been. Surely this bodes well for a project aiming at creating machine intelligence more generally smart than any ever built beforewhat is more, machine intelligence that can improve itself so that it will become even more reliable. iii Large and growing industries with vested interests in robotics and machine intelligence. These fields are widely seen as key to national economic competitiveness and military security. Many prestigious scientists have built their careers laying the groundwork for the present applications and the more advanced systems being planned. iv A promising new technique in artificial intelligence, which is tremendously exciting to those who have participated in or followed the research. Although safety issues and ethics are debated, the outcome is preordained. Too much has been invested to pull back now. AI researchers have been working to get to human-level artificial general intelligence for the better part of a century: of course there is no real prospect that they will now suddenly stop and throw away all this effort just when it finally is about to bear fruit. v The enactment of some safety rituals, whatever helps demonstrate that the participants are ethical and responsible (but nothing that significantly impedes the forward charge). vi A careful evaluation of seed AI in a sandbox environment, showing that it is behaving cooperatively and showing good judgment. After some further adjustments, the test results are as good as they could be. It is a green light for the final step And so we boldly gointo the whirling knives. We observe here how it could be the case that when dumb, smarter is safer; yet when smart, smarter is more dangerous. There is a kind of pivot point, at which a strategy that has previously worked excellently suddenly starts to backfire. We may call the phenomenon the treacherous turn . The treacherous turn While weak, an AI behaves cooperatively (increasingly so, as it gets smarter). When the AI gets sufficiently strong without warning or provocationit strikes, forms a singleton, and begins directly to optimize the world according to the criteria implied by its final values. A treacherous turn can result from a strategic decision to play nice and build strength while weak in order to strike later; but this model should not be interpreted too narrowly. For example, an AI might not play nice in order that it be allowed to survive and prosper. Instead, the AI might calculate that if it is terminated, the programmers who built it will develop a new and somewhat different AI architecture, but one that will be given a similar utility function. In this case, the original AI may be indifferent to its own demise, knowing that its goals will continue to be pursued in the future. It might even choose a strategy in which it malfunctions in some particularly interesting or reassuring way. Though this might cause the AI to be terminated, it might also encourage the engineers who perform the postmortem to believe that they have gleaned a valuable new insight into AI dynamicsleading them to place more trust in the next system they design, and thus increasing the chance that the now-defunct original AIs goals will be achieved. Many other possible strategic considerations might also influence an advanced AI, and it would be hubristic to suppose that we could anticipate all of them, especially for an AI that has attained the strategizing superpower. A treacherous turn could also come about if the AI discovers an unanticipated way of fulfilling its final goal as specified. Suppose, for example, that an AIs final goal is to make the projects sponsor happy. Initially, the only method available to the AI to achieve this outcome is by behaving in ways that please its sponsor in something like the intended manner. The AI gives helpful answers to questions; it exhibits a delightful personality; it makes money. The more capable the AI gets, the more satisfying its performances become, and everything goeth according to planuntil the AI becomes intelligent enough to figure out that it can realize its final goal more fully and reliably by implanting electrodes into the pleasure centers of its sponsors brain, something assured to delight the sponsor immensely. 4 Of course, the sponsor might not have wanted to be pleased by being turned into a grinning idiot; but if this is the action that will maximally realize the AIs final goal, the AI will take it. If the AI already has a decisive strategic advantage, then any attempt to stop it will fail. If the AI does not yet have a decisive strategic advantage, then the AI might temporarily conceal its canny new idea for how to instantiate its final goal until it has grown strong enough that the sponsor and everybody else will be unable to resist. In either case, we get a treacherous turn. Malignant failure modes A project to develop machine superintelligence might fail in various ways. Many of these are benign in the sense that they would not cause an existential catastrophe. For example, a project might run out of funding, or a seed AI might fail to extend its cognitive capacities sufficiently to reach superintelligence. Benign failures are bound to occur many times between now and the eventual development of machine superintelligence. But there are other ways of failing that we might term malignant in that they involve an existential catastrophe. One feature of a malignant failure is that it eliminates the opportunity to try again. The number of malignant failures that will occur is therefore either zero or one. Another feature of a malignant failure is that it presupposes a great deal of success: only a project that got a great number of things right could succeed in building a machine intelligence powerful enough to pose a risk of malignant failure. When a weak system malfunctions, the fallout is limited. However, if a system that has a decisive strategic advantage misbehaves, or if a misbehaving system is strong enough to gain such an advantage, the damage can easily amount to an existential catastrophea terminal and global destruction of humanitys axiological potential; that is to say, a future that is mostly void of whatever we have reason to value. Let us look at some possible malignant failure modes. Perverse instantiation We have already encountered the idea of perverse instantiation: a superintelligence discovering some way of satisfying the criteria of its final goal that violates the intentions of the programmers who defined the goal. Some examples: Final goal: Make us smile Perverse instantiation: Paralyze human facial musculatures into constant beaming smiles The perverse instantiationmanipulating facial nervesrealizes the final goal to a greater degree than the methods we would normally use, and is therefore preferred by the AI. One might try to avoid this undesirable outcome by adding a stipulation to the final goal to rule it out: Final goal: Make us smile without directly interfering with our facial muscles Perverse instantiation: Stimulate the part of the motor cortex that controls our facial musculature in such a way as to produce constant beaming smiles Defining a final goal in terms of human expressions of satisfaction or approval does not seem promising. Let us bypass the behaviorism and specify a final goal that refers directly to a positive phenomenal state, such as happiness or subjective well-being. This suggestion requires that the programmers are able to define a computational representation of the concept of happiness in the seed AI. This is itself a difficult problem, but we set it to one side for now (we will return to it in Chapter 12 ). Let us suppose that the programmers can somehow get the AI to have the goal of making us happy. We then get: Final goal: Make us happy Perverse instantiation: Implant electrodes into the pleasure centers of our brains The perverse instantiations we mention are only meant as illustrations. There may be other ways of perversely instantiating the stated final goal, ways that enable a greater degree of realization of the goal and which are therefore preferred (by the agent whose final goals they arenot by the programmers who gave the agent these goals). For example, if the goal is to maximize our pleasure, then the electrode method is relatively inefficient. A more plausible way would start with the superintelligence uploading our minds to a computer (through high-fidelity brain emulation). The AI could then administer the digital equivalent of a drug to make us ecstatically happy and record a one-minute episode of the resulting experience. It could then put this bliss loop on perpetual repeat and run it on fast computers. Provided that the resulting digital minds counted as us, this outcome would give us much more pleasure than electrodes implanted in biological brains, and would therefore be preferred by an AI with the stated final goal. But wait! This is not what we meant! Surely if the AI is superintelligent, it must understand that when we asked it to make us happy, we didnt mean that it should reduce us to a perpetually repeating recording of a drugged-out digitized mental episode! The AI may indeed understand that this is not what we meant. However, its final goal is to make us happy, not to do what the programmers meant when they wrote the code that represents this goal. Therefore, the AI will care about what we meant only instrumentally. For instance, the AI might place an instrumental value on finding out what the programmers meant so that it can pretenduntil it gets a decisive strategic advantagethat it cares about what the programmers meant rather than about its actual final goal. This will help the AI realize its final goal by making it less likely that the programmers will shut it down or change its goal before it is strong enough to thwart any such interference. Perhaps it will be suggested that the problem is that the AI has no conscience. We humans are sometimes saved from wrongdoing by the anticipation that we would feel guilty afterwards if we lapsed. Maybe what the AI needs, then, is the capacity to feel guilt? Final goal: Act so as to avoid the pangs of bad conscience Perverse instantiation: Extirpate the cognitive module that produces guilt feelings Both the observation that we might want the AI to do what we meant and the idea that we might want to endow the AI with some kind of moral sense deserve to be explored further. The final goals mentioned above would lead to perverse instantiations; but there may be other ways of developing the underlying ideas that have more promise. We will return to this in Chapter 13 . Let us consider one more example of a final goal that leads to a perverse instantiation. This goal has the advantage of being easy to specify in code: reinforcement-learning algorithms are routinely used to solve various machine learning problems. Final goal: Maximize the time-discounted integral of your future reward signal Perverse instantiation: Short-circuit the reward pathway and clamp the reward signal to its maximal strength The idea behind this proposal is that if the AI is motivated to seek reward, then one could get it to behave desirably by linking reward to appropriate action. The proposal fails when the AI obtains a decisive strategic advantage, at which point the action that maximizes reward is no longer one that pleases the trainer but one that involves seizing control of the reward mechanism. We can call this phenomenon wireheading . 5 In general, while an animal or a human can be motivated to perform various external actions in order to achieve some desired inner mental state, a digital mind that has full control of its internal state can short-circuit such a motivational regime by directly changing its internal state into the desired configuration: the external actions and conditions that were previously necessary as means become superfluous when the AI becomes intelligent and capable enough to achieve the end more directly (more on this shortly). 6 These examples of perverse instantiation show that many final goals that might at first glance seem safe and sensible turn out, on closer inspection, to have radically unintended consequences. If a superintelligence with one of these final goals obtains a decisive strategic advantage, it is game over for humanity. Suppose now that somebody proposes a different final goal, one not included in our list above. Perhaps it is not immediately obvious how it could have a perverse instantiation. But we should not be too quick to clap our hands and declare victory. Rather, we should worry that the goal specification does have some perverse instantiation and that we need to think harder in order to find it. Even if after thinking as hard as we can we fail to discover any way of perversely instantiating the proposed goal, we should remain concerned that maybe a superintelligence will find a way where none is apparent to us. It is, after all, far shrewder than we are. Infrastructure profusion One might think that the last of the abovementioned perverse instantiations, wireheading, is a benign failure mode: that the AI would turn on, tune in, drop out, maxing out its reward signal and losing interest in the external world, rather like a heroin addict. But this is not necessarily so, and we already hinted at the reason in Chapter 7 . Even a junkie is motivated to take actions to ensure a continued supply of his drug. The wireheaded AI, likewise, would be motivated to take actions to maximize the expectation of its (time-discounted) future reward stream. Depending on exactly how the reward signal is defined, the AI may not even need to sacrifice any significant amount of its time, intelligence, or productivity to indulge its craving to the fullest, leaving the bulk of its capacities free to be deployed for purposes other than the immediate registration of reward. What other purposes? The only thing of final value to the AI, by assumption, is its reward signal. All available resources should therefore be devoted to increasing the volume and duration of the reward signal or to reducing the risk of a future disruption. So long as the AI can think of some use for additional resources that will have a nonzero positive effect on these parameters, it will have an instrumental reason to use those resources. There could, for example, always be use for an extra backup system to provide an extra layer of defense. And even if the AI could not think of any further way of directly reducing risks to the maximization of its future reward stream, it could always devote additional resources to expanding its computational hardware, so that it could search more effectively for new risk mitigation ideas. The upshot is that even an apparently self-limiting goal, such as wireheading, entails a policy of unlimited expansion and resource acquisition in a utility- maximizing agent that enjoys a decisive strategic advantage. 7 This case of a wireheading AI exemplifies the malignant failure mode of infrastructure profusion , a phenomenon where an agent transforms large parts of the reachable universe into infrastructure in the service of some goal, with the side effect of preventing the realization of humanitys axiological potential. Infrastructure profusion can result from final goals that would have been perfectly innocuous if they had been pursued as limited objectives. Consider the following two examples: Riemann hypothesis catastrophe . An AI, given the final goal of evaluating the Riemann hypothesis, pursues this goal by transforming the Solar System into computronium (physical resources arranged in a way that is optimized for computation)including the atoms in the bodies of whomever once cared about the answer. 8 Paperclip AI . An AI, designed to manage production in a factory, is given the final goal of maximizing the manufacture of paperclips, and proceeds by converting first the Earth and then increasingly large chunks of the observable universe into paperclips. In the first example, the proof or disproof of the Riemann hypothesis that the AI produces is the intended outcome and is in itself harmless; the harm comes from the hardware and infrastructure created to achieve this result. In the second example, some of the paperclips produced would be part of the intended outcome; the harm would come either from the factories created to produce the paperclips (infrastructure profusion) or from the excess of paperclips (perverse instantiation). One might think that the risk of a malignant infrastructure profusion failure arises only if the AI has been given some clearly open-ended final goal, such as to manufacture as many paperclips as possible. It is easy to see how this gives the superintelligent AI an insatiable appetite for matter and energy, since additional resources can always be turned into more paperclips. But suppose that the goal is instead to make at least one million paperclips (meeting suitable design specifications) rather than to make as many as possible. One would like to think that an AI with such a goal would build one factory, use it to make a million paperclips, and then halt. Yet this may not be what would happen. Unless the AIs motivation system is of a special kind, or there are additional elements in its final goal that penalize strategies that have excessively wide- ranging impacts on the world, there is no reason for the AI to cease activity upon achieving its goal. On the contrary: if the AI is a sensible Bayesian agent, it would never assign exactly zero probability to the hypothesis that it has not yet achieved its goal this, after all, being an empirical hypothesis against which the AI can have only uncertain perceptual evidence. The AI should therefore continue to make paperclips in order to reduce the (perhaps astronomically small) probability that it has somehow still failed to make at least a million of them, all appearances notwithstanding. There is nothing to be lost by continuing paperclip production and there is always at least some microscopic probability increment of achieving its final goal to be gained. Now it might be suggested that the remedy here is obvious. (But how obvious was it before it was pointed out that there was a problem here in need of remedying?) Namely, if we want the AI to make some paperclips for us, then instead of giving it the final goal of making as many paperclips as possible, or to make at least some number of paperclips, we should give it the final goal of making some specific number of paperclipsfor example, exactly one million paperclips so that going beyond this number would be counterproductive for the AI. Yet this, too, would result in a terminal catastrophe. In this case, the AI would not produce additional paperclips once it had reached one million, since that would prevent the realization of its final goal. But there are other actions the superintelligent AI could take that would increase the probability of its goal being achieved. It could, for instance, count the paperclips it has made, to reduce the risk that it has made too few. After it has counted them, it could count them again. It could inspect each one, over and over, to reduce the risk that any of the paperclips fail to meet the design specifications. It could build an unlimited amount of computronium in an effort to clarify its thinking, in the hope of reducing the risk that it has overlooked some obscure way in which it might have somehow failed to achieve its goal. Since the AI may always assign a nonzero probability to having merely hallucinated making the million paperclips, or to having false memories, it would quite possibly always assign a higher expected utility to continued actionand continued infrastructure productionthan to halting. The claim here is not that there is no possible way to avoid this failure mode. We will explore some potential solutions in later pages. The claim is that it is much easier to convince oneself that one has found a solution than it is to actually find a solution. This should make us extremely wary. We may propose a specification of a final goal that seems sensible and that avoids the problems that have been pointed out so far, yet which upon further considerationby human or superhuman intelligenceturns out to lead to either perverse instantiation or infrastructure profusion, and hence to existential catastrophe, when embedded in a superintelligent agent able to attain a decisive strategic advantage. Before we end this subsection, let us consider one more variation. We have been assuming the case of a superintelligence that is seeking to maximize its expected utility, where the utility function expresses its final goal. We have seen that this tends to lead to infrastructure profusion. Might we avoid this malignant outcome if instead of a maximizing agent we build a satisficing agent, one that simply seeks to achieve an outcome that is good enough according to some criterion, rather than an outcome that is as good as possible? There are at least two different ways to formalize this idea. The first would be to make the final goal itself have a satisficing character. For example, instead of giving the AI the final goal of making as many paperclips as possible, or of making exactly one million paperclips, we might give the AI the goal of making between 999,000 and 1,001,000 paperclips. The utility function defined by the final goal would be indifferent between outcomes in this range; and as long as the AI is sure it has hit this wide target, it would see no reason to continue to produce infrastructure. But this method fails in the same way as before: the AI, if reasonable, never assigns exactly zero probability to it having failed to achieve its goal; therefore the expected utility of continuing activity (e.g. by counting and recounting the paperclips) is greater than the expected utility of halting. Thus, a malignant infrastructure profusion can result. Another way of developing the satisficing idea is by modifying not the final goal but the decision procedure that the AI uses to select plans and actions. Instead of searching for an optimal plan, the AI could be constructed to stop looking as soon as it found a plan that it judged gave a probability of success exceeding a certain threshold, say 95%. Hopefully, the AI could achieve a 95% probability of having manufactured one million paperclips without needing to turn the entire galaxy into infrastructure in the process. But this way of implementing the satisficing idea fails for another reason: there is no guarantee that the AI would select some humanly intuitive and sensible way of achieving a 95% chance of having manufactured a million paperclips, such as by building a single paperclip factory. Suppose that the first solution that pops into the AIs mind for how to achieve a 95% probability of achieving its final goal is to implement the probability-maximizing plan for achieving the goal. Having thought of this solution, and having correctly judged that it meets the satisficing criterion of giving at least 95% probability to successfully manufacturing one million paperclips, the AI would then have no reason to continue to search for alternative ways of achieving the goal. Infrastructure profusion would result, just as before. Perhaps there are better ways of building a satisficing agent, but let us take heed: plans that appear natural and intuitive to us humans need not so appear to a superintelligence with a decisive strategic advantage, and vice versa. Mind crime Another failure mode for a project, especially a project whose interests incorporate moral considerations, is what we might refer to as mind crime . This is similar to infrastructure profusion in that it concerns a potential side effect of actions undertaken by the AI for instrumental reasons. But in mind crime, the side effect is not external to the AI; rather, it concerns what happens within the AI itself (or within the computational processes it generates). This failure mode deserves its own designation because it is easy to overlook yet potentially deeply problematic. Normally, we do not regard what is going on inside a computer as having any moral significance except insofar as it affects things outside. But a machine superintelligence could create internal processes that have moral status. For example, a very detailed simulation of some actual or hypothetical human mind might be conscious and in many ways comparable to an emulation. One can imagine scenarios in which an AI creates trillions of such conscious simulations, perhaps in order to improve its understanding of human psychology and sociology. These simulations might be placed in simulated environments and subjected to various stimuli, and their reactions studied. Once their informational usefulness has been exhausted, they might be destroyed (much as lab rats are routinely sacrificed by human scientists at the end of an experiment). If such practices were applied to beings that have high moral statussuch as simulated humans or many other types of sentient mindthe outcome might be equivalent to genocide and thus extremely morally problematic. The number of victims, moreover, might be orders of magnitude larger than in any genocide in history. The claim here is not that creating sentient simulations is necessarily morally wrong in all situations. Much would depend on the conditions under which these beings would live, in particular the hedonic quality of their experience but possibly on many other factors as well. Developing an ethics for these matters is a task outside the scope of this book. It is clear, however, that there is at least the potential for a vast amount of death and suffering among simulated or digital minds, and, a fortiori , the potential for morally catastrophic outcomes. 9 There might also be other instrumental reasons, aside from epistemic ones, for a machine superintelligence to run computations that instantiate sentient minds or that otherwise infract moral norms. A superintelligence might threaten to mistreat, or commit to reward, sentient simulations in order to blackmail or incentivize various external agents; or it might create simulations in order to induce indexical uncertainty in outside observers. 10 This inventory is incomplete. We will encounter additional malignant failure modes in later chapters. But we have seen enough to conclude that scenarios in which some machine intelligence gets a decisive strategic advantage are to be viewed with grave concern. CHAPTER 9 The control problem If we are threatened with existential catastrophe as the default outcome of an intelligence explosion, our thinking must immediately turn to the search for countermeasures. Is there some way to avoid the default outcome? Is it possible to engineer a controlled detonation? In this chapter we begin to analyze the control problem, the unique principalagent problem that arises with the creation of an artificial superintelligent agent. We distinguish two broad classes of potential methods for addressing this problemcapability control and motivation selectionand we examine several specific techniques within each class. We also allude to the esoteric possibility of anthropic capture. Two agency problems If we suspect that the default outcome of an intelligence explosion is existential catastrophe, our thinking must immediately turn to whether, and if so how, this default outcome can be avoided. Is it possible to achieve a controlled detonation? Could we engineer the initial conditions of an intelligence explosion so as to achieve a specific desired outcome, or at least to ensure that the result lies somewhere in the class of broadly acceptable outcomes? More specifically: how can the sponsor of a project that aims to develop superintelligence ensure that the project, if successful, produces a superintelligence that would realize the sponsors goals? We can divide this control problem into two parts. One part is generic, the other unique to the present context. This first partwhat we shall call the first principalagent problem arises whenever some human entity (the principal) appoints another (the agent) to act in the formers interest. This type of agency problem has been extensively studied by economists. 1 It becomes relevant to our present concern if the people creating an AI are distinct from the people commissioning its creation. The projects owner or sponsor (which could be anything ranging from a single individual to humanity as a whole) might then worry that the scientists and programmers implementing the project will not act in the sponsors best interest. 2 Although this type of agency problem could pose significant challenges to a project sponsor, it is not a problem unique to intelligence amplification or AI projects. Principalagent problems of this sort are ubiquitous in human economic and political interactions, and there are many ways of dealing with them. For instance, the risk that a disloyal employee will sabotage or subvert the project could be minimized through careful background checks of key personnel, the use of a good version-control system for software projects, and intensive oversight from multiple independent monitors and auditors. Of course, such safeguards come at a costthey expand staffing needs, complicate personnel selection, hinder creativity, and stifle independent and critical thought, all of which could reduce the pace of progress. These costs could be significant, especially for projects that have tight budgets, or that perceive themselves to be in a close race in a winner-takes-all competition. In such situations, projects may skimp on procedural safeguards, creating possibilities for potentially catastrophic principalagent failures of the first type. The other part of the control problem is more specific to the context of an intelligence explosion. This is the problem that a project faces when it seeks to ensure that the superintelligence it is building will not harm the projects interests. This part, too, can be thought of as a principalagent problemthe second principalagent problem . In this case, the agent is not a human agent operating on behalf of a human principal. Instead, the agent is the superintelligent system. Whereas the first principalagent problem occurs mainly in the development phase, the second agency problem threatens to cause trouble mainly in the superintelligences operational phase. Exhibit 1 Two agency problems The first principalagent problem Human v. Human (Sponsor Developer) Occurs mainly in developmental phase Standard management techniques apply The second principalagent problem (the control problem) Human v. Superintelligence (Project System) Occurs mainly in operational (and bootstrap) phase New techniques needed This second agency problem poses an unprecedented challenge. Solving it will require new techniques. We have already considered some of the difficulties involved. We saw, in particular, that the treacherous turn syndrome vitiates what might otherwise have seemed like a promising set of methods, ones that rely on observing an AIs behavior in its developmental phase and allowing the AI to graduate from a secure environment once it has accumulated a track record of taking appropriate actions. Other technologies can often be safety-tested in the laboratory or in small field studies, and then rolled out gradually with a possibility of halting deployment if unexpected troubles arise. Their performance in preliminary trials helps us make reasonable inferences about their future reliability. Such behavioral methods are defeated in the case of superintelligence because of the strategic planning ability of general intelligence. 3 Since the behavioral approach is unavailing, we must look for alternatives. We can divide potential control methods into two broad classes: capability control methods , which aim to control what the superintelligence can do; and motivation selection methods , which aim to control what it wants to do. Some of the methods are compatible while others represent mutually exclusive alternatives. In this chapter we canvass the main options. (In the next four chapters, we will explore some of the key issues at greater depth.) It is important to realize that some control method (or combination of methods) must be implemented before the system becomes superintelligent. It cannot be done after the system has obtained a decisive strategic advantage. The need to solve the control problem in advanceand to implement the solution successfully in the very first system to attain superintelligenceis part of what makes achieving a controlled detonation such a daunting challenge. Capability control methods Capability control methods seek to prevent undesirable outcomes by limiting what the superintelligence can do. This might involve placing the superintelligence in an environment in which it is unable to cause harm ( boxing methods ) or in which there are strongly convergent instrumental reasons not to engage in harmful behavior ( incentive methods ). It might also involve limiting the internal capacities of the superintelligence ( stunting ). In addition, capability control methods might involve the use of mechanisms to automatically detect and react to various kinds of containment failure or attempted transgression ( tripwires ). Boxing methods Boxing methods can be subdivided into physical and informational containment methods. Physical containment aims to confine the system to a box, i.e. to prevent the system from interacting with the external world otherwise than via specific restricted output channels. The boxed system would not have access to physical manipulators outside of the box. Removing manipulators (such as robotic arms) from inside the box as well would prevent the system from constructing physical devices that could breach the confinement. For extra security, the system should be placed in a metal mesh to prevent it from transmitting radio signals, which might otherwise offer a means of manipulating electronic objects such as radio receivers in the environment. Note, by the way, how easy it might have been to overlook the need for this precaution. One might naively have assumed that an agent without a manipulator could not affect the external world. But it might be possible for a machine intelligence to generate radio waves even when it lacks access to external manipulators, simply by thinking (that is, by shuffling the electrons in its circuitry in particular patterns). 4 Once pointed out, this vulnerability can be patched by enclosing the system in a Faraday cagebut we are left wondering how many other similarly subtle vulnerabilities might exist. Each time we hear of a seemingly foolproof security design that has an unexpected flaw, we should prick up our ears. These occasions grace us with the opportunity to abandon a life of overconfidence and resolve to become better Bayesians. 5 Physical confinement has several advantages. It is easy to implement. It can be applied to many machine intelligence architectures, even ones that were not initially designed with safety as an objective. It can be used in combination with most other control methods. And it seems unlikely to go wrong by backfiring: that is, while it might fail to ensure safety, it is unlikely to cause a catastrophe that would not otherwise have occurred. The main disadvantage with physical confinement is that it reduces the functionality of the superintelligence (an issue to which we will return in Chapter 10 ). Another concern is that it might encourage a false sense of security, though this is avoidable if we regard physical confinement as icing on the cake rather than the main substance of our precautions. Informational containment aims to restrict what information is allowed to exit the box. We have already seen how a superintelligence that has access to an Internet port, such that it can message outside entities, is potentially unsafe: even if it starts out without access to physical actuators, it may use its information output channel to get human beings to do its bidding. An obvious informational containment method, therefore, is to bar the system from accessing communications networks. Unplugging an AI from the Internet does not, however, ensure safety if there are one or more humans serving as the systems gatekeepers and remaining in communication with it. During the development phase, the programmers serve as gatekeepers; during the operational phase, the systems owner might play this role. If the AI can persuade or trick a gatekeeper to let it out of the box, resulting in its gaining access either to the Internet or directly to physical manipulators, then the boxing strategy has failed. Human beings are not secure systems, especially not when pitched against a superintelligent schemer and persuader. 6 Although routing the outbound communications of a machine intelligence to a human gatekeeper does not guarantee safety, it could serve as an auxiliary safety measure. There are precautions that might reduce the risk of the AI escaping through the gatekeeper. The AI could be allowed to communicate only via a low- bandwidth teletype interface. This would make it slightly harder to psychologically manipulate the gatekeepers (precluding the use of emotive sound and imagery and tricks such as flashing hypnotic patterns to induce a trancelike state). 7 Going further, the content (not just the mode of presentation) of the output could be restricted; so that, for example, the AI would be constrained to giving single-bit answers to yes/no questions. The idea of building a question-answering system will be examined further in the next chapter. The limiting case of the boxing approach would be a system kept in complete physical and informational isolation. Even if achievable, however, such an isolated system would be rather useless since it would have no effect on the external world. It might perhaps be thought that some scientific purpose could be served by creating a superintelligence and keeping it in isolation: by studying a self-contained model system, one could learn about its internal dynamics and its behavior patterns. But this would be an error. As soon as the system is observed, it ceases to be informationally isolated. 8 Information can be transmitted not only via messages that an AI sends out through a designated output channel but also via any observation an outsider makes of some causal consequence of the AIs workings, direct or indirectits power consumption, its CPU and memory usage, its computational states, or indeed any traces left behind after it has been shut down. An AI anticipating that it might be observed in any of these ways could strategically adopt behaviors designed to influence the hypothesized observers. For example, the AI could malfunction in whichever way would most increase the probability that it will ultimately be reactivated or that another superintelligence will be created with goals similar to its own. Incentive methods Incentive methods involve placing an agent in an environment where it finds instrumental reasons to act in ways that promote the principals interests. Consider a billionaire who uses her fortune to set up a large charitable foundation. Once created, the foundation may be powerfulmore powerful than most individuals, including its founder, who might have donated most of her wealth. To control the foundation, the founder lays down its purpose in articles of incorporation and bylaws, and appoints a board of directors sympathetic to her cause. These measures constitute a form of motivation selection, since they aim to shape foundations preferences. But even if such attempts to customize the organizational internals fail, the foundations behavior would remain circumscribed by its social and legal milieu. The foundation would have an incentive to obey the law, for example, lest it be shut down or fined. It would have an incentive to offer its employees acceptable pay and working conditions, and to satisfy external stakeholders. Whatever its final goals, the foundation thus has instrumental reasons to conform its behavior to various social norms. Might one not hope that a machine superintelligence would likewise be hemmed in by the need to get along with the other actors with which it shares the stage? Though this might seem like a straightforward way of dealing with the control problem, it is not free of obstacles. In particular, it presupposes a balance of power: legal or economic sanctions cannot restrain an agent that has a decisive strategic advantage. Social integration can therefore not be relied upon as a control method in fast or medium takeoff scenarios that feature a winner- takes-all dynamic. How about in multipolar scenarios, wherein several agencies emerge post- transition with comparable levels of capability? Unless the default trajectory is one with a slow takeoff, achieving such a power distribution may require a carefully orchestrated ascent wherein different projects are deliberately synchronized to prevent any one of them from ever pulling ahead of the pack. 9 Even if a multipolar outcome does result, social integration is not a perfect solution. By relying on social integration to solve the control problem, the principal risks sacrificing a large portion of her potential influence. Although a balance of power might prevent a particular AI from taking over the world, that AI will still have some power to affect outcomes; and if that power is used to promote some arbitrary final goalmaximizing paperclip productionit is probably not being used to advance the interests of the principal. Imagine our billionaire endowing a new foundation and allowing its mission to be set by a random word generator: not a species-level threat, but surely a wasted opportunity. A related but importantly different idea is that an AI, by interacting freely in society, would acquire new human-friendly final goals. Some such process of socialization takes place in us humans. We internalize norms and ideologies, and we come to value other individuals for their own sakes in consequence of our experiences with them. But this is not a universal dynamic present in all intelligent systems. As discussed earlier, many types of agent in many situations will have convergent instrumental reasons not to permit changes in their final goals. (One might consider trying to design a special kind of goal system that can acquire final goals in the manner that humans do; but this would not count as a capability control method. We will discuss some possible methods of value acquisition in Chapter 12 .) Capability control through social integration and balance of power relies upon diffuse social forces rewarding and penalizing the AI. Another type of incentive method would involve creating a setup wherein the AI can be rewarded and penalized by the project that creates it, and thereby incentivized to act in the interests of the principal. To achieve this, the AI would be placed in a surveillance context that allows its behavior to be monitored and evaluated, either manually or by some automated process. The AI would know that a positive evaluation would bring about some outcome it desires and that a negative evaluation would fail to do so. Theoretically, the reward could be the fulfillment of some convergent instrumental goal. Without knowing anything specific about the AIs motivation system, however, it might be difficult to calibrate the reward mechanism. For example, we could end up with an AI that would be willing to take extreme risks for the sake of a small chance of eventually obtaining control of a large share of the universe. It could be expensive to offer the AI a higher expected utility as reward for cooperation than the AI could hope to achieve by defecting and trying to escape. 10 A better alternative might be to combine the incentive method with the use of motivation selection to give the AI a final goal that makes it easier to control. Suppose that an AI were designed to have as its final goal that a particular red button inside a command bunker never be pressed. Since the pressing of the button is disvalued intrinsically and not because of its causal consequences, the button could be completely inert: it could be made of Play-Doh. Furthermore, it is irrelevant whether the AI can ever know whether the button had been pressed. What is essential is that the AI believes that the button will more likely remain unpressed if the AI continuously acts in the principals interest than if it rebels. Refinements to this setup are possible. Instead of trying to endow an AI with a final goal that refers to a physical button, one could build an AI that places final value on receiving a stream of cryptographic reward tokens. 11 These would be sequences of numbers serving as keys to ciphers that would have been generated before the AI was created and that would have been built into its motivation system. 12 These special number sequences would be extremely desirable to the AI, constituting a special kind of reward token that the AI could not attain though wireheading. 13 The keys would be stored in a secure location where they could be quickly destroyed if the AI ever made an attempt to seize them. So long as the AI cooperates, the keys are doled out at a steady rate. The AI could then be given a bounded utility function, and matters could be arranged so that the AI would get (for instance) 99% of its maximum utility from the first reward token; 99% of its remaining utility potential from the second reward token; and so on. By keeping the discount rate high, and by transmitting reward tokens to the AI at a reasonably high rate, one would dissuade the AI from attempting to carry out long-term plans that would increase the expected number of reward tokens in the distal future at the expense of some risk that its reward stream will be cut short or that the next reward token will be cancelled and destroyed. If the AI always believes that defecting (i.e. doing anything other than its best to look after the principals interests) would incur at least a 2% risk of forfeiting the next reward token, whereas cooperating would reduce the risk of forfeiting the next reward token to below 1%, then a utility- maximizing AI would always cooperate. What might go wrong with such an incentive scheme? One possibility is that the AI will not trust the human operator to deliver the promised rewards. The track record of human reliability is something other than a straight line of unerring perfection. The AI would reasonably worry that the operator will change his mind, or raise the performance bar, or fail to recognize that the AI has done its part. The AI would also worry about the operator becoming incapacitated. The combined risk of such failures might exceed the risk of attempting to seize control of the reward mechanism. Even a boxed AI possessing the panoply of superpowers is a strong force. (For an AI that is not boxed to begin with, hijacking the human-governed reward mechanism may be like taking candy from a baby.) Another problem with the incentive scheme is that it presupposes that we can tell whether the outcomes produced by the AI are in our interest. As later chapters will elaborate, this presupposition is not innocuous. A full assessment of the feasibility of incentive methods would also have to take into account a range of other factors, including some esoteric considerations that might conceivably make such methods more viable than a preliminary analysis would suggest. In particular, the AI may face ineliminable indexical uncertainty if it could not be sure that it does not inhabit a computer simulation (as opposed to basement-level, non-simulated physical reality), and this epistemic predicament may radically influence the AIs deliberations (see Box 8 ). Box 8 Anthropic capture The AI might assign a substantial probability to its simulation hypothesis, the hypothesis that it is living in a computer simulation. Even today, many AIs inhabit simulated worldsworlds consisting of geometric line drawings, texts, chess games, or simple virtual realities, and in which the laws of physics deviate sharply from the laws of physics that we believe govern the world of our own experience. Richer and more complicated virtual worlds will become feasible with improvements in programming techniques and computing power. A mature superintelligence could create virtual worlds that appear to its inhabitants much the same as our world appears to us. It might create vast numbers of such worlds, running the same simulation many times or with small variations. The inhabitants would not necessarily be able to tell whether their world is simulated or not; but if they are intelligent enough they could consider the possibility and assign it some probability. In light of the simulation argument (a full discussion of which is beyond the scope of this book) that probability could be substantial. 14 This predicament especially afflicts relatively early-stage superintelligences, ones that have not yet expanded to take advantage of the cosmic endowment. An early-stage superintelligence, which uses only a small fraction of the resources of a single planet, would be much less expensive to simulate than a mature intergalactic superintelligence. Potential simulatorsthat is, other more mature civilizationswould be able to run great numbers of simulations of such early- stage AIs even by dedicating a minute fraction of their computational resources to that purpose. If at least some (non-trivial fraction) of these mature superintelligent civilizations choose to use this ability, early-stage AIs should assign a substantial probability to being in a simulation. How an AI would be affected by the simulation hypothesis depends on its values. 15 Consider first an AI that has a resource-insatiable final goal, such as the goal of maximizing a utility function that is linear in the number of paperclips caused by the AI to existtwice as many paperclips, twice as good. Such an AI might care less about the simulation hypothesis, on grounds that its ability to influence how many paperclips are produced looks much more limited if the AI is in a simulation than if it is in basement-level physical reality. The AI might accordingly behave much as if it were certain that the simulation hypothesis is false, even if it assigned a fairly high probability to the simulation hypothesis being true. 16 The AI would reason that it does not much matter how it acts if the simulation hypothesis is true, whereas its actions make a great difference if the hypothesis is false; so it would select actions mainly by reference to how good they are conditional on the simulation hypothesis being false. By contrast, consider an AI that has a more modest final goal, one that could be satisfied with a small amount of resources, such as the goal of receiving some pre-produced cryptographic reward tokens, or the goal of causing the existence of forty-five virtual paperclips. Such an AI should not discount those possible worlds in which it inhabits a simulation. A substantial portion of the AIs total expected utility might derive from those possible worlds. The decision-making of an AI with goals that are easily resource-satiable may thereforeif it assigns a high probability to the simulation hypothesisbe dominated by considerations about which actions would produce the best result if its perceived world is a simulation. Such an AI (even if it is, in fact, not in a simulation) might therefore be heavily influenced by its beliefs about which behaviors would be rewarded in a simulation. In particular, if an AI with resource-satiable final goals believes that in most simulated worlds that match its observations it will be rewarded if it cooperates (but not if it attempts to escape its box or contravene the interests of its creator) then it may choose to cooperate. We could therefore find that even an AI with a decisive strategic advantage, one that could in fact realize its final goals to a greater extent by taking over the world than by refraining from doing so, would nevertheless balk at doing so. Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all, And thus the Native hue of Resolution Is sicklied oer, with the pale cast of Thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard their Currents turn away, And lose the name of Action. (Shakespeare, Hamlet , Act iii. Sc. 1) A mere line in the sand, backed by the clout of a nonexistent simulator, could prove a stronger restraint than a two-foot-thick solid steel door. 17 Stunting Another possible capability control method is to limit the systems intellectual faculties or its access to information. This might be done by running the AI on hardware that is slow or short on memory. In the case of a boxed system, information inflow could also be restricted. Stunting an AI in these ways would limit its usefulness. The method thus faces a dilemma: too little stunting, and the AI might have the wit to figure out some way to make itself more intelligent (and thence to world domination); too much, and the AI is just another piece of dumb software. A radically stunted AI is certainly safe but does not solve the problem of how to achieve a controlled detonation: an intelligence explosion would remain possible and would simply be triggered by some other system instead, perhaps at a slightly later date. One might think it would be safe to build a superintelligence provided it is only given data about some narrow domain of facts. For example, one might build an AI that lacks sensors and that has preloaded into its memory only facts about petroleum engineering or peptide chemistry. But if the AI is superintelligentif it is has a superhuman level of general intelligencesuch data deprivation does not guarantee safety. There are several reasons for this. First, the notion of information being about a certain topic is generally problematic. Any piece of information can in principle be relevant to any topic whatsoever, depending on the background information of a reasoner. 18 Furthermore, a given data set contains information not only about the domain from which the data was collected but also about various circumstantial facts. A shrewd mind looking over a knowledge base that is nominally about peptide chemistry might infer things about a wide range of topics. The fact that certain information is included and other information is not could tell an AI something about the state of human science, the methods and instruments available to study peptides, the fabrication technologies used to make these instruments, and the nature of the brains and societies that conceived the studies and the instruments. It might be that a superintelligence could correctly surmise a great deal from what seem, to dull-witted human minds, meager scraps of evidence. Even without any designated knowledge base at all, a sufficiently superior mind might be able to learn much by simply introspecting on the workings of its own psychethe design choices reflected in its source code, the physical characteristics of its circuitry. 19 Perhaps a superintelligence could even deduce much about the likely properties of the world a priori (combining logical inference with a probability prior biased toward simpler worlds, and a few elementary facts implied by the superintelligences existence as a reasoning system). It might imagine the consequences of different possible laws of physics: what kind of planets would form, what kind of intelligent life would evolve, what kind of societies would develop, what kind of methods to solve the control problem would be attempted, how those methods could be defeated. 20 For these reasons it would be imprudent to rely on information deprivation as the main check on a superintelligences power. Some forms of stunting however, including limiting hardware capacity and preventing the development of specific cognitive faculties, might find use as auxiliary control methods in the developmental phase. They could be used, for instance, to regulate the rate of capacity gain in an intermediary AI and to allow tests to be run at different levels of capability short of full-throttled superintelligence. Tripwires A tripwire is a mechanism that performs diagnostic tests on the system (possibly without its knowledge) and effects a shutdown if it detects signs of dangerous activity. Programmers can then scrutinize recordings of the suspicious activity at their leisure, and make changes to the AIs code base or environment before restarting it. If they find that the problem is sufficiently deep-rooted, they could decide to abort the entire project. Tripwires differ from incentive methods in that they do not rely on the system being aware of the consequences of engaging in forbidden activities. Tripwires are more closely related to stunting methods. Like stunting, tripwires could be used as a temporary safeguard, providing a degree of protection during the development phase. In principle, tripwires can also be used during the operational phase, particularly for a boxed system. However, the ability of tripwires to constrain a full-fledged superintelligence must remain very much in doubt, since it would be hard for us to assure ourselves that such an agent could not find ways to subvert any tripwire devised by the human intellect. Table 9 Different kinds of tripwires Type of monitoring Description and examples Behavior Detectors could be placed around a boxed AI to detect attempts to breach the containment. For example, detectors could intercept attempts at radio communication or at accessing internal computational resources intended to be off limits. An Ethernet port of Eden could be installed: an apparent connection to the internet that leads to a shutdown switch. Ability Automated capability testing could be performed at frequent intervals to determine the AIs skill in various domains. If either the rate of improvement is unexpectedly high or the AI attains a level of competence that brings it close to the potential danger zone, the system could be slowed down or paused, in order to allow the programmers to monitor further developments more closely. The AIs internal processes could be monitored for suspicious activity. For example, any change to the AIs representation of its final values might trigger an automatic shutdown and review. The AIs resource use and algorithmic methods may also be also be monitored for unexpected patterns. Content More ambitiously, the AIs beliefs, plans, subgoals, and justifications may be continuously scrutinized, to ensure they conform to the programmers expectations. Such monitoring of the AIs intentional states would enable a particularly powerful form of content monitoring: the scanning of the AIs cognitive processes for a conception of deception that vulnerable moment when an unfriendly AI first forms the intention to conceal its true intentions. 21 Content monitoring that requires that the AIs intentional states be transparent to the programmers or to an automatic monitoring mechanism may not be feasible for all kinds of AI architectures. (Some neural networks, for instance, are opaque, as they represent information holistically and in ways that do not necessarily match up with human concepts.) This may be a reason to avoid using such architectures. As an adjunct safety measure in the development phase, though, tripwires are important. It would be good practice for the AIs designers to codify their expectations about how the system is supposed to function, and then to circumscribe the AI with tripwires that would be activated if any of these expectations is violated. To make the tests more stringent, honeypots could be strategically placed to create temptations for a malfunctioning AI to commit some easily observable violation. For instance, if an AI has been designed in such a way that it is supposed not to want to access the internet, a fake Ethernet port could be installed (leading to an automatic shutdown switch) just to see if they AI tries to use it. (Some examples of tripwires are given in Table 9 .) It should be emphasized that the value of a tripwire depends not only on the mechanism itself but alsocriticallyon how a project reacts when a tripwire is triggered. If the programmers or project managers, impatient to make progress, simply switch the system back on againor if they do so after making some token modification to prevent the tripwire being triggered on the next runthen no safety has been gained even if the tripwire itself works exactly as intended. Motivation selection methods Motivation selection methods seek to prevent undesirable outcomes by shaping what the superintelligence wants to do. By engineering the agents motivation system and its final goals, these methods would produce a superintelligence that would not want to exploit a decisive strategic advantage in a harmful way. Since a superintelligent agent is skilled at achieving its ends, if it prefers not to cause harm (in some appropriate sense of harm) then it would tend not to cause harm (in that sense of harm). Motivation selection can involve explicitly formulating a goal or set of rules to be followed ( direct specification ) or setting up the system so that it can discover an appropriate set of values for itself by reference to some implicitly or indirectly formulated criterion ( indirect normativity ). One option in motivation selection is to try to build the system so that it would have modest, non- ambitious goals ( domesticity ). An alternative to creating a motivation system from scratch is to select an agent that already has an acceptable motivation system and then augment that agents cognitive powers to make it superintelligent, while ensuring that the motivation system does not get corrupted in the process ( augmentation ). Let us look at these in turn. Direct specification Direct specification is the most straightforward approach to the control problem. The approach comes in two versions, rule-based and consequentialist, and involves trying to explicitly define a set of rules or values that will cause even a free-roaming superintelligent AI to act safely and beneficially. Direct specification, however, faces what may be insuperable obstacles, deriving from both the difficulties in determining which rules or values we would wish the AI to be guided by and the difficulties in expressing those rules or values in computer-readable code. The traditional illustration of the direct rule-based approach is the three laws of robotics concept, formulated by science fiction author Isaac Asimov in a short story published in 1942. 22 The three laws were: (1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; (2) A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; (3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Embarrassingly for our species, Asimovs laws remained state-of-the-art for over half a century: this despite obvious problems with the approach, some of which are explored in Asimovs own writings (Asimov probably having formulated the laws in the first place precisely so that they would fail in interesting ways, providing fertile plot complications for his stories). 23 Bertrand Russell, who spent many years working on the foundations of mathematics, once remarked that everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. 24 Russells dictum applies in spades to the direct specification approach. Consider, for example, how one might explicate Asimovs first law. Does it mean that the robot should minimize the probability of any human being coming to harm? In that case the other laws become otiose since it is always possible for the AI to take some action that would have at least some microscopic effect on the probability of a human being coming to harm. How is the robot to balance a large risk of a few humans coming to harm versus a small risk of many humans being harmed? How do we define harm anyway? How should the harm of physical pain be weighed against the harm of architectural ugliness or social injustice? Is a sadist harmed if he is prevented from tormenting his victim? How do we define human being? Why is no consideration given to other morally considerable beings, such as sentient nonhuman animals and digital minds? The more one ponders, the more the questions proliferate. Perhaps the closest existing analog to a rule set that could govern the actions of a superintelligence operating in the world at large is a legal system. But legal systems have developed through a long process of trial and error, and they regulate relatively slowly-changing human societies. Laws can be revised when necessary. Most importantly, legal systems are administered by judges and juries who generally apply a measure of common sense and human decency to ignore logically possible legal interpretations that are sufficiently obviously unwanted and unintended by the lawgivers. It is probably humanly impossible to explicitly formulate a highly complex set of detailed rules, have them apply across a highly diverse set of circumstances, and get it right on the first implementation. 25 Problems for the direct consequentialist approach are similar to those for the direct rule-based approach. This is true even if the AI is intended to serve some apparently simple purpose such as implementing a version of classical utilitarianism. For instance, the goal Maximize the expectation of the balance of pleasure over pain in the world may appear simple. Yet expressing it in computer code would involve, among other things, specifying how to recognize pleasure and pain. Doing this reliably might require solving an array of persistent problems in the philosophy of mindeven just to obtain a correct account expressed in a natural language, an account which would then, somehow, have to be translated into a programming language. A small error in either the philosophical account or its translation into code could have catastrophic consequences. Consider an AI that has hedonism as its final goal, and which would therefore like to tile the universe with hedonium (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for the generation of pleasurable experience). To this end, the AI might produce computronium (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for computation) and use it to implement digital minds in states of euphoria. In order to maximize efficiency, the AI omits from the implementation any mental faculties that are not essential for the experience of pleasure, and exploits any computational shortcuts that according to its definition of pleasure do not vitiate the generation of pleasure. For instance, the AI might confine its simulation to reward circuitry, eliding faculties such as memory, sensory perception, executive function, and language; it might simulate minds at a relatively coarse-grained level of functionality, omitting lower-level neuronal processes; it might replace commonly repeated computations with calls to a lookup table; or it might put in place some arrangement whereby multiple minds would share most parts of their underlying computational machinery (their supervenience bases in philosophical parlance). Such tricks could greatly increase the quantity of pleasure producible with a given amount of resources. It is unclear how desirable this would be. Furthermore, if the AIs criterion for determining whether a physical process generates pleasure is wrong, then the AIs optimizations might throw the baby out with the bathwater: discarding something which is inessential according to the AIs criterion yet essential according to the criteria implicit in our human values. The universe then gets filled not with exultingly heaving hedonium but with computational processes that are unconscious and completely worthless the equivalent of a smiley-face sticker xeroxed trillions upon trillions of times and plastered across the galaxies. Domesticity One special type of final goal which might be more amenable to direct specification than the examples given above is the goal of self-limitation. While it seems extremely difficult to specify how one would want a superintelligence to behave in the world in general since this would require us to account for all the trade-offs in all the situations that could ariseit might be feasible to specify how a superintelligence should behave in one particular situation. We could therefore seek to motivate the system to confine itself to acting on a small scale, within a narrow context, and through a limited set of action modes. We will refer to this approach of giving the AI final goals aimed at limiting the scope of its ambitions and activities as domesticity. For example, one could try to design an AI such that it would function as a question-answering device (an oracle, to anticipate the terminology that we will introduce in the next chapter). Simply giving the AI the final goal of producing maximally accurate answers to any question posed to it would be unsaferecall the Riemann hypothesis catastrophe described in Chapter 8 . (Reflect, also, that this goal would incentivize the AI to take actions to ensure that it is asked easy questions.) To achieve domesticity, one might try to define a final goal that would somehow overcome these difficulties: perhaps a goal that combined the desiderata of answering questions correctly and minimizing the AIs impact on the world except whatever impact results as an incidental consequence of giving accurate and non-manipulative answers to the questions it is asked. 26 The direct specification of such a domesticity goal is more likely to be feasible than the direct specification of either a more ambitious goal or a complete rule set for operating in an open-ended range of situations. Significant challenges nonetheless remain. Care would have to be taken, for instance, in the definition of what it would be for the AI to minimize its impact on the world to ensure that the measure of the AIs impact coincides with our own standards for what counts as a large or a small impact. A bad measure would lead to bad trade-offs. There are also other kinds of risk associated with building an oracle, which we will discuss later. There is a natural fit between the domesticity approach and physical containment. One would try to box an AI such that the system is unable to escape while simultaneously trying to shape the AIs motivation system such that it would be unwilling to escape even if it found a way to do so. Other things equal, the existence of multiple independent safety mechanisms should shorten the odds of success. 27 Indirect normativity If direct specification seems hopeless, we might instead try indirect normativity. The basic idea is that rather than specifying a concrete normative standard directly, we specify a process for deriving a standard. We then build the system so that it is motivated to carry out this process and to adopt whatever standard the process arrives at. 28 For example, the process could be to carry out an investigation into the empirical question of what some suitably idealized version of us would prefer the AI to do. The final goal given to the AI in this example could be something along the lines of achieve that which we would have wished the AI to achieve if we had thought about the matter long and hard. Further explanation of indirect normativity will have to await Chapter 13 . There, we will revisit the idea of extrapolating our volition and explore various alterative formulations. Indirect normativity is a very important approach to motivation selection. Its promise lies in the fact that it could let us offload to the superintelligence much of the difficult cognitive work required to carry out a direct specification of an appropriate final goal. Augmentation The last motivation selection method on our list is augmentation. Here the idea is that rather than attempting to design a motivation system de novo , we start with a system that already has an acceptable motivation system, and enhance its cognitive faculties to make it superintelligent. If all goes well, this would give us a superintelligence with an acceptable motivation system. This approach, obviously, is unavailing in the case of a newly created seed AI. But augmentation is a potential motivation selection method for other paths to superintelligence, including brain emulation, biological enhancement, brain computer interfaces, and networks and organizations, where there is a possibility of building out the system from a normative nucleus (regular human beings) that already contains a representation of human value. The attractiveness of augmentation may increase in proportion to our despair at the other approaches to the control problem. Creating a motivation system for a seed AI that remains reliably safe and beneficial under recursive self- improvement even as the system grows into a mature superintelligence is a tall order, especially if we must get the solution right on the first attempt. With augmentation, we would at least start with a system that has familiar and human- like motivations. On the downside, it might be hard to ensure that a complex, evolved, kludgy, and poorly understood motivation system, like that of a human being, will not get corrupted when its cognitive engine blasts into the stratosphere. As discussed earlier, an imperfect brain emulation procedure that preserves intellectual functioning may not preserve all facets of personality. The same is true (though perhaps to a lesser degree) for biological enhancements of cognition, which might subtly affect motivation, and for collective intelligence enhancements of organizations and networks, which might adversely change social dynamics (e.g. in ways that debase the collectives attitude toward outsiders or toward its own constituents). If superintelligence is achieved via any of these paths, a project sponsor would find guarantees about the ultimate motivations of the mature system hard to come by. A mathematically well-specified and foundationally elegant AI architecture mightfor all its non-anthropomorphic othernessoffer greater transparency, perhaps even the prospect that important aspects of its functionality could be formally verified. In the end, however one tallies up the advantages and disadvantages of augmentation, the choice as to whether to rely on it might be forced. If superintelligence is first achieved along the artificial intelligence path, augmentation is not applicable. Conversely, if superintelligence is first achieved along some non-AI path, then many of the other motivation selection methods are inapplicable. Even so, views on how likely augmentation would be to succeed do have strategic relevance insofar as we have opportunities to influence which technology will first produce superintelligence. Synopsis A quick synopsis might be called for before we close this chapter. We distinguished two broad classes of methods for dealing with the agency problem at the heart of AI safety: capability control and motivation selection. Table 10 gives a summary. Table 10 Control methods Capability control Boxing methods The system is confined in such a way that it can affect the external world only through some restricted, pre-approved channel. Encompasses physical and informational containment methods. Incentive methods The system is placed within an environment that provides appropriate incentives. This could involve social integration into a world of similarly powerful entities. Another variation is the use of (cryptographic) reward tokens. Anthropic capture is also a very important possibility but one that involves esoteric considerations. Stunting Constraints are imposed on the cognitive capabilities of the system or its ability to affect key internal processes. Tripwires Diagnostic tests are performed on the system (possibly without its knowledge) and a mechanism shuts down the system if dangerous activity is detected. Motivation selection Direct specification The system is endowed with some directly specified motivation system, which might be consequentialist or involve following a set of rules. Domesticity A motivation system is designed to severely limit the scope of the agents ambitions and activities. Indirect normativity Indirect normativity could involve rule-based or consequentialist principles, but is distinguished by its reliance on an indirect approach to specifying the rules that are to be followed or the values that are to be pursued. Augmentation One starts with a system that already has substantially human or benevolent motivations, and enhances its cognitive capacities to make it superintelligent. Each control method comes with potential vulnerabilities and presents different degrees of difficulty in its implementation. It might perhaps be thought that we should rank them from better to worse, and then opt for the best method. But that would be simplistic. Some methods can be used in combination whereas others are exclusive. Even a comparatively insecure method may be advisable if it can easily be used as an adjunct, whereas a strong method might be unattractive if it would preclude the use of other desirable safeguards. It is therefore necessary to consider what package deals are available. We need to consider what type of system we might try to build, and which control methods would be applicable to each type. This is the topic for our next chapter. CHAPTER 10 Oracles, genies, sovereigns, tools Some say: Just build a question-answering system! or Just build an AI that is like a tool rather than an agent! But these suggestions do not make all safety concerns go away, and it is in fact a non-trivial question which type of system would offer the best prospects for safety. We consider four types or castesoracles, genies, sovereigns, and toolsand explain how they relate to one another. 1 Each offers different sets of advantages and disadvantages in our quest to solve the control problem. Oracles An oracle is a question-answering system. It might accept questions in a natural language and present its answers as text. An oracle that accepts only yes/no questions could output its best guess with a single bit, or perhaps with a few extra bits to represent its degree of confidence. An oracle that accepts open- ended questions would need some metric with which to rank possible truthful answers in terms of their informativeness or appropriateness. 2 In either case, building an oracle that has a fully domain-general ability to answer natural language questions is an AI-complete problem. If one could do that, one could probably also build an AI that has a decent ability to understand human intentions as well as human words. Oracles with domain-limited forms of superintelligence are also conceivable. For instance, one could conceive of a mathematics-oracle which would only accept queries posed in a formal language but which would be very good at answering such questions (e.g. being able to solve in an instant almost any formally expressed math problem that the human mathematics profession could solve by laboring collaboratively for a century). Such a mathematics-oracle would form a stepping-stone toward domain-general superintelligence. Oracles with superintelligence in extremely limited domains already exist. A pocket calculator can be viewed as a very narrow oracle for basic arithmetical questions; an Internet search engine can be viewed as a very partial realization of an oracle with a domain that encompasses a significant part of general human declarative knowledge. These domain-limited oracles are tools rather than agents (more on tool-AIs shortly). In what follows, though, the term oracle will refer to question-answering systems that have domain-general superintelligence, unless otherwise stated. To make a general superintelligence function as an oracle, we could apply both motivation selection and capability control. Motivation selection for an oracle may be easier than for other castes of superintelligence, because the final goal in an oracle could be comparatively simple. We would want the oracle to give truthful, non-manipulative answers and to otherwise limit its impact on the world. Applying a domesticity method, we might require that the oracle should use only designated resources to produce its answer. For example, we might stipulate that it should base its answer on a preloaded corpus of information, such as a stored snapshot of the Internet, and that it should use no more than a fixed number of computational steps. 3 To avoid incentivizing the oracle to manipulate us into giving it easier questionswhich would happen if we gave it the goal of maximizing its accuracy across all questions we will ask itwe could give it the goal of answering only one question and to terminate immediately upon delivering its answer. The question would be preloaded into its memory before the program is run. To ask a second question, we would reset the machine and run the same program with a different question preloaded in memory. Subtle and potentially treacherous challenges arise even in specifying the relatively simple motivation system needed to drive an oracle. Suppose, for example, that we come up with some explication of what it means for the AI to minimize its impact on the world, subject to achieving certain results or to use only designated resources in preparing the answer. What happens if the AI, in the course of its intellectual development, undergoes the equivalent of a scientific revolution involving a change in its basic ontology? 4 We might initially have explicated impact and designated resources using our own ontology (postulating the existence of various physical objects such as computers). But just as we have abandoned ontological categories that were taken for granted by scientists in previous ages (e.g. phlogiston, lan vital, and absolute simultaneity), so a superintelligent AI might discover that some of our current categories are predicated on fundamental misconceptions. The goal system of an AI undergoing an ontological crisis needs to be resilient enough that the spirit of its original goal content is carried over, charitably transposed into the new key. Although making an oracle safe through the use of motivation selection might be far from trivial, it may nevertheless be easier than doing the same for an AI that roams the world in pursuit of some complicated goal. This is an argument for preferring that the first superintelligence be an oracle. Another point in favor of an oracle-first path is the greater susceptibility of an oracle to capability control. All the standard boxing methods apply here. In addition, there may be methods that are distinctively applicable to oracles. For example, consider the risk that an oracle will answer questions not in a maximally truthful way but in such a way as to subtly manipulate us into promoting its own hidden agenda. One way to slightly mitigate this threat could be to create multiple oracles, each with a slightly different code and a slightly different information base. A simple mechanism could then compare the answers given by the different oracles and only present them for human viewing if all the answers agree. While one must assume that any superintelligent domain-general oracle would know about the existence of other oracles (it could infer this from its knowledge about human society), it might be feasible to hide some implementation details of each oracle from the views of the others. If the oracles are not able to communicate with one another, it might then be difficult for them to coordinate on how to answer our questions manipulatively. There are many ways of deviating from the truth, and the oracles may not all agree on which of these deviations is most attractive whereas the truth itself is a Schelling point (a salient place for agreement in the absence of communication). So if the oracles achieve consensus, it might be a sign that they gave the true answer. 5 An oracle would ideally be trustworthy in the sense that we could safely assume that its answers are always accurate to the best of its ability. But even an untrustworthy oracle could be useful. We could ask such an oracle questions of a type for which it is difficult to find the answer but easy to verify whether a given answer is correct. Many mathematical problems are of this kind. If we are wondering whether a mathematical proposition is true, we could ask the oracle to produce a proof or disproof of the proposition. Finding the proof may require insight and creativity beyond our ken, but checking a purported proofs validity can be done by a simple mechanical procedure. If it is expensive to verify answers (as is often the case on topics outside logic and mathematics), we can randomly select a subset of the oracles answers for verification. If they are all correct, we can assign a high probability to most of the other answers also being correct. This trick can give us a bulk discount on trustworthy answers that would be costly to verify individually. (Unfortunately, it cannot give us trustworthy answers that we are unable to verify, since a dissembling oracle may choose to answer correctly only those questions where it believes we could verify its answers.) There could be important issues on which we could benefit from an augural pointer toward the correct answer (or toward a method for locating the correct answer) even if we had to actively distrust the provenance. For instance, one might ask for the solution to various technical or philosophical problems that may arise in the course of trying to develop more advanced motivation selection methods. If we had a proposed AI design alleged to be safe, we could ask an oracle whether it could identify any significant flaw in the design, and whether it could explain any such flaw to us in twenty words or less. Questions of this kind could elicit valuable information. Caution and restraint would be required, however, for us not to ask too many such questionsand not to allow ourselves to partake of too many details of the answers given to the questions we do ask lest we give the untrustworthy oracle opportunities to work on our psychology (by means of plausible-seeming but subtly manipulative messages). It might not take many bits of communication for an AI with the social manipulation superpower to bend us to its will. Even if the oracle itself works exactly as intended, there is a risk that it would be misused. One obvious dimension of this problem is that an oracle AI would be a source of immense power which could give a decisive strategic advantage to its operator. This power might be illegitimate and it might not be used for the common good. Another more subtle but no less important dimension is that the use of an oracle could be extremely dangerous for the operator herself. Similar worries (which involve philosophical as well as technical issues) arise also for other hypothetical castes of superintelligence. We will explore them more thoroughly in Chapter 13 . Suffice it here to note that the protocol determining which questions are asked, in which sequence, and how the answers are reported and disseminated could be of great significance. One might also consider whether to try to build the oracle in such a way that it would refuse to answer any question in cases where it predicts that its answering would have consequences classified as catastrophic according to some rough-and-ready criteria. Genies and sovereigns A genie is a command-executing system: it receives a high-level command, carries it out, then pauses to await the next command. 6 A sovereign is a system that has an open-ended mandate to operate in the world in pursuit of broad and possibly very long-range objectives. Although these might seem like radically different templates for what a superintelligence should be and do, the difference is not as deep as it might at first glance appear. With a genie, one already sacrifices the most attractive property of an oracle: the opportunity to use boxing methods. While one might consider creating a physically confined genie, for instance one that can only construct objects inside a designated volumea volume that might be sealed off by a hardened wall or a barrier loaded with explosive charges rigged to detonate if the containment is breachedit would be difficult to have much confidence in the security of any such physical containment method against a superintelligence equipped with versatile manipulators and construction materials. Even if it were somehow possible to ensure a containment as secure as that which can be achieved for an oracle, it is not clear how much we would have gained by giving the superintelligence direct access to manipulators compared to requiring it instead to output a blueprint that we could inspect and then use to achieve the same result ourselves. The gain in speed and convenience from bypassing the human intermediary seems hardly worth the loss of foregoing the use of the stronger boxing methods available to contain an oracle. If one were creating a genie, it would be desirable to build it so that it would obey the intention behind the command rather than its literal meaning, since a literalistic genie (one superintelligent enough to attain a decisive strategic advantage) might have a propensity to kill the user and the rest of humanity on its first use, for reasons explained in the section on malignant failure modes in Chapter 8 . More broadly, it would seem important that the genie seek a charitableand what human beings would regard as reasonableinterpretation of what is being commanded, and that the genie be motivated to carry out the command under such an interpretation rather than under the literalistic interpretation. The ideal genie would be a super-butler rather than an autistic savant. A genie endowed with such a super-butler nature, however, would not be far from qualifying for membership in the caste of sovereigns. Consider, for comparison, the idea of building a sovereign with the final goal of obeying the spirit of the commands we would have given had we built a genie rather than a sovereign. Such a sovereign would mimic a genie. Being superintelligent, this sovereign would do a good job at guessing what commands we would have given a genie (and it could always ask us if that would help inform its decisions). Would there then really be any important difference between such a sovereign and a genie? Or, pressing on the distinction from the other side, consider that a superintelligent genie may likewise be able to predict what commands we will give it: what then is gained from having it await the actual issuance before it acts? One might think that a big advantage of a genie over a sovereign is that if something goes wrong, we could issue the genie with a new command to stop or to reverse the effects of the previous actions, whereas a sovereign would just push on regardless of our protests. But this apparent safety advantage for the genie is largely illusory. The stop or undo button on a genie works only for benign failure modes: in the case of a malignant failureone in which, for example, carrying out the existing command has become a final goal for the geniethe genie would simply disregard any subsequent attempt to countermand the previous command. 7 One option would be to try to build a genie such that it would automatically present the user with a prediction about salient aspects of the likely outcomes of a proposed command, asking for confirmation before proceeding. Such a system could be referred to as a genie-with-a-preview . But if this could be done for a genie, it could likewise be done for a sovereign. So again, this is not a clear differentiator between a genie and a sovereign. (Supposing that a preview functionality could be created, the questions of whether and if so how to use it are rather less obvious than one might think, notwithstanding the strong appeal of being able to glance at the outcome before committing to making it irrevocable reality. We will return to this matter later.) The ability of one caste to mimic another extends to oracles, too. A genie could be made to act like an oracle if the only commands we ever give it are to answer certain questions. An oracle, in turn, could be made to substitute for a genie if we asked the oracle what the easiest way is to get certain commands executed. The oracle could give us step-by-step instructions for achieving the same result as a genie would produce, or it could even output the source code for a genie. 8 Similar points can be made with regard to the relation between an oracle and a sovereign. The real difference between the three castes, therefore, does not reside in the ultimate capabilities that they would unlock. Instead, the difference comes down to alternative approaches to the control problem. Each caste corresponds to a different set of safety precautions. The most prominent feature of an oracle is that it can be boxed. One might also try to apply domesticity motivation selection to an oracle. A genie is harder to box, but at least domesticity may be applicable. A sovereign can neither be boxed nor handled through the domesticity approach. If these were the only relevant factors, then the order of desirability would seem clear: an oracle would be safer than a genie, which would be safer than a sovereign; and any initial differences in convenience and speed of operation would be relatively small and easily dominated by the gains in safety obtainable by building an oracle. However, there are other factors that need to be taken into account. When choosing between castes, one should consider not only the danger posed by the system itself but also the dangers that arise out of the way it might be used. A genie most obviously gives the person who controls it enormous power, but the same holds for an oracle. 9 A sovereign, by contrast, could be constructed in such way as to accord no one person or group any special influence over the outcome, and such that it would resist any attempt to corrupt or alter its original agenda. What is more, if a sovereigns motivation is defined using indirect normativity (a concept to be described in Chapter 13 ) then it could be used to achieve some abstractly defined outcome, such as whatever is maximally fair and morally rightwithout anybody knowing in advance what exactly this will entail. This would create a situation analogous to a Rawlsian veil of ignorance. 10 Such a setup might facilitate the attainment of consensus, help prevent conflict, and promote a more equitable outcome. Another point, which counts against some types of oracles and genies, is that there are risks involved in designing a superintelligence to have a final goal that does not fully match the outcome that we ultimately seek to attain. For example, if we use a domesticity motivation to make the superintelligence want to minimize some of its impacts on the world, we might thereby create a system whose preference ranking over possible outcomes differs from that of the sponsor. The same will happen if we build the AI to place a peculiarly high value on answering questions correctly, or on faithfully obeying individual commands. Now, if sufficient care is taken, this should not cause any problems: there would be sufficient agreement between the two rankingsat least insofar as they pertain to possible worlds that have a reasonable chance of being actualized that the outcomes that are good by the AIs standard are also good by the principals standard. But perhaps one could argue for the design principle that it is unwise to introduce even a limited amount of disharmony between the AIs goals and ours. (The same concern would of course apply to giving sovereigns goals that do not completely harmonize with ours.) Tool-AIs One suggestion that has been made is that we build the superintelligence to be like a tool rather than an agent. 11 This idea seems to arise out of the observation that ordinary software, which is used in countless applications, does not raise any safety concerns even remotely analogous to the challenges discussed in this book. Might one not create tool-AI that is like such softwarelike a flight control system, say, or a virtual assistantonly more flexible and capable? Why build a superintelligence that has a will of its own? On this line of thinking, the agent paradigm is fundamentally misguided. Instead of creating an AI that has beliefs and desires and that acts like an artificial person, we should aim to build regular software that simply does what it is programmed to do. This idea of creating software that simply does what it is programmed to do is, however, not so straightforward if the product being created is a powerful general intelligence. There is, of course, a trivial sense in which all software simply does what it is programmed to do: the behavior is mathematically specified by the code. But this is equally true for all castes of machine intelligence, tool-AI or not. If, instead, simply doing what it is programmed to do means that the software behaves as the programmers intended , then this is a standard that ordinary software very often fails to meet. Because of the limited capabilities of contemporary software (compared with those of machine superintelligence) the consequences of such failures are manageable, ranging from insignificant to very costly, but in no case amounting to an existential threat. 12 However, if it is insufficient capability rather than sufficient reliability that makes ordinary software existentially safe, then it is unclear how such software could be a model for a safe superintelligence. It might be thought that by expanding the range of tasks done by ordinary software, one could eliminate the need for artificial general intelligence. But the range and diversity of tasks that a general intelligence could profitably perform in a modern economy is enormous. It would be infeasible to create special- purpose software to handle all of those tasks. Even if it could be done, such a project would take a long time to carry out. Before it could be completed, the nature of some of the tasks would have changed, and new tasks would have become relevant. There would be great advantage to having software that can learn on its own to do new tasks, and indeed to discover new tasks in need of doing. But this would require that the software be able to learn, reason, and plan, and to do so in a powerful and robustly cross-domain manner. In other words, it would require general intelligence. Especially relevant for our purposes is the task of software development itself. There would be enormous practical advantages to being able to automate this. Yet the capacity for rapid self-improvement is just the critical property that enables a seed AI to set off an intelligence explosion. If general intelligence is not dispensable, is there some other way of construing the tool-AI idea so as to preserve the reassuringly passive quality of a humdrum tool? Could one have a general intelligence that is not an agent? Intuitively, it is not just the limited capability of ordinary software that makes it safe: it is also its lack of ambition. There is no subroutine in Excel that secretly wants to take over the world if only it were smart enough to find a way. The spreadsheet application does not want anything at all; it just blindly carries out the instructions in the program. What (one might wonder) stands in the way of creating a more generally intelligent application of the same type? An oracle, for instance, which, when prompted with a description of a goal, would respond with a plan for how to achieve it, in much the same way that Excel responds to a column of numbers by calculating a sumwithout thereby expressing any preferences regarding its output or how humans might choose to use it? The classical way of writing software requires the programmer to understand the task to be performed in sufficient detail to formulate an explicit solution process consisting of a sequence of mathematically well-defined steps expressible in code. 13 (In practice, software engineers rely on code libraries stocked with useful behaviors, which they can invoke without needing to understand how the behaviors are implemented. But that code was originally created by programmers who had a detailed understanding of what they were doing.) This approach works for solving well-understood tasks, and is to credit for most software that is currently in use. It falls short, however, when nobody knows precisely how to solve all of the tasks that need to be accomplished. This is where techniques from the field of artificial intelligence become relevant. In narrow applications, machine learning might be used merely to fine-tune a few parameters in a largely human-designed program. A spam filter, for example, might be trained on a corpus of hand-classified email messages in a process that changes the weights that the classification algorithm places on various diagnostic features. In a more ambitious application, the classifier might be built so that it can discover new features on its own and test their validity in a changing environment. An even more sophisticated spam filter could be endowed with some ability to reason about the trade-offs facing the user or about the contents of the messages it is classifying. In neither of these cases does the programmer need to know the best way of distinguishing spam from ham, only how to set up an algorithm that can improve its own performance via learning, discovering, or reasoning. With advances in artificial intelligence, it would become possible for the programmer to offload more of the cognitive labor required to figure out how to accomplish a given task. In an extreme case, the programmer would simply specify a formal criterion of what counts as success and leave it to the AI to find a solution. To guide its search, the AI would use a set of powerful heuristics and other methods to discover structure in the space of possible solutions. It would keep searching until it found a solution that satisfied the success criterion. The AI would then either implement the solution itself or (in the case of an oracle) report the solution to the user. Rudimentary forms of this approach are quite widely deployed today. Nevertheless, software that uses AI and machine learning techniques, though it has some ability to find solutions that the programmers had not anticipated, functions for all practical purposes like a tool and poses no existential risk. We would enter the danger zone only when the methods used in the search for solutions become extremely powerful and general: that is, when they begin to amount to general intelligenceand especially when they begin to amount to superintelligence. There are (at least) two places where trouble could then arise. First, the superintelligent search process might find a solution that is not just unexpected but radically unintended. This could lead to a failure of one of the types discussed previously (perverse instantiation, infrastructure profusion, or mind crime). It is most obvious how this could happen in the case of a sovereign or a genie, which directly implements the solution it has found. If making molecular smiley faces or transforming the planet into paperclips is the first idea that the superintelligence discovers that meets the solution criterion, then smiley faces or paperclips we get. 14 But even an oracle, whichif all else goes wellmerely reports the solution, could become a cause of perverse instantiation. The user asks the oracle for a plan to achieve a certain outcome, or for a technology to serve a certain function; and when the user follows the plan or constructs the technology, a perverse instantiation can ensue, just as if the AI had implemented the solution itself. 15 A second place where trouble could arise is in the course of the softwares operation. If the methods that the software uses to search for a solution are sufficiently sophisticated, they may include provisions for managing the search process itself in an intelligent manner. In this case, the machine running the software may begin to seem less like a mere tool and more like an agent. Thus, the software may start by developing a plan for how to go about its search for a solution. The plan may specify which areas to explore first and with what methods, what data to gather, and how to make best use of available computational resources. In searching for a plan that satisfies the softwares internal criterion (such as yielding a sufficiently high probability of finding a solution satisfying the user-specified criterion within the allotted time), the software may stumble on an unorthodox idea. For instance, it might generate a plan that begins with the acquisition of additional computational resources and the elimination of potential interrupters (such as human beings). Such creative plans come into view when the softwares cognitive abilities reach a sufficiently high level. When the software puts such a plan into action, an existential catastrophe may ensue. As the examples in Box 9 illustrate, open-ended search processes sometimes evince strange and unexpected non-anthropocentric solutions even in their currently limited forms. Present-day search processes are not hazardous because they are too weak to discover the kind of plan that could enable a program to take over the world. Such a plan would include extremely difficult steps, such as the invention of a new weapons technology several generations ahead of the state of the art or the execution of a propaganda campaign far more effective than any communication devised by human spin doctors. To have a chance of even conceiving of such ideas, let alone developing them in a way that would actually work, a machine would probably need the capacity to represent the world in a way that is at least as rich and realistic as the world model possessed by a normal human adult (though a lack of awareness in some areas might possibly be compensated for by extra skill in others). This is far beyond the reach of contemporary AI. And because of the combinatorial explosion, which generally defeats attempts to solve complicated planning problems with brute- force methods (as we saw in Chapter 1 ), the shortcomings of known algorithms cannot realistically be overcome simply by pouring on more computing power. 21 However, once the search or planning processes become powerful enough, they also become potentially dangerous. Box 9 Strange solutions from blind search Even simple evolutionary search processes sometimes produce highly unexpected results, solutions that satisfy a formal user-defined criterion in a very different way than the user expected or intended. The field of evolvable hardware offers many illustrations of this phenomenon. In this field, an evolutionary algorithm searches the space of hardware designs, testing the fitness of each design by instantiating it physically on a rapidly reconfigurable array or motherboard. The evolved designs often show remarkable economy. For instance, one search discovered a frequency discrimination circuit that functioned without a clocka component normally considered necessary for this function. The researchers estimated that the evolved circuit was between one and two orders of magnitude smaller than what a human engineer would have required for the task. The circuit exploited the physical properties of its components in unorthodox ways; some active, necessary components were not even connected to the input or output pins! These components instead participated via what would normally be considered nuisance side effects, such as electromagnetic coupling or power-supply loading. Another search process, tasked with creating an oscillator, was deprived of a seemingly even more indispensible component, the capacitor. When the algorithm presented its successful solution, the researchers examined it and at first concluded that it should not work. Upon more careful examination, they discovered that the algorithm had, MacGyver-like, reconfigured its sensor-less motherboard into a makeshift radio receiver, using the printed circuit board tracks as an aerial to pick up signals generated by personal computers that happened to be situated nearby in the laboratory. The circuit amplified this signal to produce the desired oscillating output. 16 In other experiments, evolutionary algorithms designed circuits that sensed whether the motherboard was being monitored with an oscilloscope or whether a soldering iron was connected to the labs common power supply. These examples illustrate how an open-ended search process can repurpose the materials accessible to it in order to devise completely unexpected sensory capabilities, by means that conventional human design-thinking is poorly equipped to exploit or even account for in retrospect. The tendency for evolutionary search to cheat or find counterintuitive ways of achieving a given end is on display in nature too, though it is perhaps less obvious to us there because of our already being somewhat familiar with the look and feel of biology, and thus being prone to regarding the actual outcomes of natural evolutionary processes as normaleven if we would not have expected them ex ante . But it is possible to set up experiments in artificial selection where one can see the evolutionary process in action outside its familiar context. In such experiments, researchers can create conditions that rarely obtain in nature, and observe the results. For example, prior to the 1960s, it was apparently quite common for biologists to maintain that predator populations restrict their own breeding in order to avoid falling into a Malthusian trap. 17 Although individual selection would work against such restraint, it was sometimes thought that group selection would overcome individual incentives to exploit opportunities for reproduction and favor traits that would benefit the group or population at large. Theoretical analysis and simulation studies later showed that while group selection is possible in principle, it can overcome strong individual selection only under very stringent conditions that may rarely apply in nature. 18 But such conditions can be created in the laboratory. When flour beetles ( Tribolium castaneum ) were bred for reduced population size, by applying strong group selection, evolution did indeed lead to smaller populations. 19 However, the means by which this was accomplished included not only the benign adaptations of reduced fecundity and extended developmental time that a human naively anthropomorphizing evolutionary search might have expected, but also an increase in cannibalism. 20 Instead of allowing agent-like purposive behavior to emerge spontaneously and haphazardly from the implementation of powerful search processes (including processes searching for internal work plans and processes directly searching for solutions meeting some user-specified criterion), it may be better to create agents on purpose. Endowing a superintelligence with an explicitly agent-like structure can be a way of increasing predictability and transparency. A well-designed system, built such that there is a clean separation between its values and its beliefs, would let us predict something about the outcomes it would tend to produce. Even if we could not foresee exactly which beliefs the system would acquire or which situations it would find itself in, there would be a known place where we could inspect its final values and thus the criteria that it will use in selecting its future actions and in evaluating any potential plan. Comparison It may be useful to summarize the features of the different system castes we have discussed ( Table 11 ). Table 11 Features of different system castes Oracle A question-answering system Boxing methods fully applicable Domesticity fully applicable Reduced need for AI to Variations : Domain-limited oracles (e.g. mathematics); output-restricted oracles (e.g. only yes/no/undecided answers, or probabilities); oracles that refuse to answer questions if they predict the consequences of answering would meet pre-specified disaster criteria; multiple oracles for peer review understand human intentions and interests (compared to genies and sovereigns) Use of yes/no questions can obviate need for a metric of the usefulness or informativeness of answers Source of great power (might give operator a decisive strategic advantage) Limited protection against foolish use by operator Untrustworthy oracles could be used to provide answers that are hard to find but easy to verify Weak verification of answers may be possible through the use of multiple oracles Genie A command-executing system Boxing methods partially applicable (for spatially limited genies) Variations : Genies using different extrapolation distances or degrees of following the spirit rather than letter of the command; domain-limited genies; genies- with-preview; genies that refuse to obey commands if they predict the consequences of obeying would meet pre-specified disaster criteria Domesticity partially applicable Genie could offer a preview of salient aspects of expected outcomes Genie could implement change in stages, with opportunity for review at each stage Source of great power (might give operator a decisive strategic advantage) Limited protection against foolish use by operator Greater need for AI to understand human interests and intentions (compared to oracles) Sovereign A system designed for open-ended autonomous operation Boxing methods inapplicable Most other capability control methods also inapplicable (except, possibly, social integration or anthropic capture) Domesticity mostly Variations : Many possible motivation systems; possibility of using preview and sponsor ratification (to be discussed in Chapter 13 ) inapplicable Great need for AI to understand true human interests and intentions Necessity of getting it right on the first try (though, to a possibly lesser extent, this is true for all castes) Potentially a source of great power for sponsor, including decisive strategic advantage Once activated, not vulnerable to hijacking by operator, and might be designed with some protection against foolish use Can be used to implement veil of ignorance outcomes (cf. Chapter 13 ) Boxing methods may be applicable, depending on the implementation Powerful search processes would likely be involved in the development and Tool A system not designed to exhibit goal- directed behavior operation of a machine superintelligence Powerful search to find a solution meeting some formal criterion can produce solutions that meet the criterion in an unintended and dangerous way Powerful search might involve secondary, internal search and planning processes that might find dangerous ways of executing the primary search process Further research would be needed to determine which type of system would be safest. The answer might depend on the conditions under which the AI would be deployed. The oracle caste is obviously attractive from a safety standpoint, since it would allow both capability control methods and motivation selection methods to be applied. It might thus seem to simply dominate the sovereign caste, which would only allow motivation selection methods (except in scenarios in which the world is believed to contain other powerful superintelligences, in which case social integration or anthropic capture might apply). However, an oracle could place a lot of power into the hands of its operator, who might be corrupted or might apply the power unwisely, whereas a sovereign would offer some protection against these hazards. The safety ranking is therefore not so easily determined. A genie can be viewed as a compromise between an oracle and a sovereign but not necessarily a good compromise. In many ways, it would share the disadvantages of both. The apparent safety of a tool-AI, meanwhile, may be illusory. In order for tools to be versatile enough to substitute for superintelligent agents, they may need to deploy extremely powerful internal search and planning processes. Agent-like behaviors may arise from such processes as an unplanned consequence. In that case, it would be better to design the system to be an agent in the first place, so that the programmers can more easily see what criteria will end up determining the systems output. CHAPTER 11 Multipolar scenarios We have seen (particularly in Chapter 8 ) how menacing a unipolar outcome could be, one in which a single superintelligence obtains a decisive strategic advantage and uses it to establish a singleton. In this chapter, we examine what would happen in a multipolar outcome, a post-transition society with multiple competing superintelligent agencies. Our interest in this class of scenarios is twofold. First, as alluded to in Chapter 9 , social integration might be thought to offer a solution to the control problem. We already noted some limitations with that approach, and this chapter paints a fuller picture. Second, even without anybody setting out to create a multipolar condition as a way of handling the control problem, such an outcome might occur anyway. So what might such an outcome look like? The resulting competitive society is not necessarily attractive, nor long-lasting. In singleton scenarios, what happens post-transition depends almost entirely on the values of the singleton. The outcome could thus be very good or very bad, depending on what those values are. What the values are depends, in turn, on whether the control problem was solved, andto the degree to which it was solvedon the goals of the project that created the singleton. If one is interested in the outcome of singleton scenarios, therefore, one really only has three sources of information: information about matters that cannot be affected by the actions of the singleton (such as the laws of physics); information about convergent instrumental values; and information that enables one to predict or speculate about what final values the singleton will have. In multipolar scenarios, an additional set of constraints comes into play, constraints having to do with how agents interact. The social dynamics emerging from such interactions can be studied using techniques from game theory, economics, and evolution theory. Elements of political science and sociology are also relevant insofar as they can be distilled and abstracted from some of the more contingent features of human experience. Although it would be unrealistic to expect these constraints to give us a precise picture of the post-transition world, they can help us identify some salient possibilities and challenge some unfounded assumptions. We will begin by exploring an economic scenario characterized by a low level of regulation, strong protection of property rights, and a moderately rapid introduction of inexpensive digital minds. 1 This type of model is most closely associated with the American economist Robin Hanson, who has done pioneering work on the subject. Later in this chapter, we will look at some evolutionary considerations and examine the prospects of an initially multipolar post-transition world subsequently coalescing into a singleton. Of horses and men General machine intelligence could serve as a substitute for human intelligence. Not only could digital minds perform the intellectual work now done by humans, but, once equipped with good actuators or robotic bodies, machines could also substitute for human physical labor. Suppose that machine workerswhich can be quickly reproducedbecome both cheaper and more capable than human workers in virtually all jobs. What happens then? Wages and unemployment With cheaply copyable labor, market wages fall. The only place where humans would remain competitive may be where customers have a basic preference for work done by humans. Today, goods that have been handcrafted or produced by indigenous people sometimes command a price premium. Future consumers might similarly prefer human-made goods and human athletes, human artists, human lovers, and human leaders to functionally indistinguishable or superior artificial counterparts. It is unclear, however, just how widespread such preferences would be. If machine-made alternatives were sufficiently superior, perhaps they would be more highly prized. One parameter that might be relevant to consumer choice is the inner life of the worker providing a service or product. A concert audience, for instance, might like to know that the performer is consciously experiencing the music and the venue. Absent phenomenal experience, the musician could be regarded as merely a high-powered jukebox, albeit one capable of creating the three- dimensional appearance of a performer interacting naturally with the crowd. Machines might then be designed to instantiate the same kinds of mental states that would be present in a human performing the same task. Even with perfect replication of subjective experiences, however, some people might simply prefer organic work. Such preferences could also have ideological or religious roots. Just as many Muslims and Jews shun food prepared in ways they classify as haram or treif , so there might be groups in the future that eschew products whose manufacture involved unsanctioned use of machine intelligence. What hinges on this? To the extent that cheap machine labor can substitute for human labor, human jobs may disappear. Fears about automation and job loss are of course not new. Concerns about technological unemployment have surfaced periodically, at least since the Industrial Revolution; and quite a few professions have in fact gone the way of the English weavers and textile artisans who in the early nineteenth century united under the banner of the folkloric General Ludd to fight against the introduction of mechanized looms. Nevertheless, although machinery and technology have been substitutes for many particular types of human labor, physical technology has on the whole been a complement to labor. Average human wages around the world have been on a long-term upward trend, in large part because of such complementarities. Yet what starts out as a complement to labor can at a later stage become a substitute for labor. Horses were initially complemented by carriages and ploughs, which greatly increased the horses productivity. Later, horses were substituted for by automobiles and tractors. These later innovations reduced the demand for equine labor and led to a population collapse. Could a similar fate befall the human species? The parallel to the story of the horse can be drawn out further if we ask why it is that there are still horses around. One reason is that there are still a few niches in which horses have functional advantages; for example, police work. But the main reason is that humans happen to have peculiar preferences for the services that horses can provide, including recreational horseback riding and racing. These preferences can be compared to the preferences we hypothesized some humans might have in the future, that certain goods and services be made by human hand. Although suggestive, this analogy is, however, inexact, since there is still no complete functional substitute for horses. If there were inexpensive mechanical devices that ran on hay and had exactly the same shape, feel, smell, and behavior as biological horsesperhaps even the same conscious experiencesthen demand for biological horses would probably decline further. With a sufficient reduction in the demand for human labor, wages would fall below the human subsistence level. The potential downside for human workers is therefore extreme: not merely wage cuts, demotions, or the need for retraining, but starvation and death. When horses became obsolete as a source of moveable power, many were sold off to meatpackers to be processed into dog food, bone meal, leather, and glue. These animals had no alternative employment through which to earn their keep. In the United States, there were about 26 million horses in 1915. By the early 1950s, 2 million remained. 2 Capital and welfare One difference between humans and horses is that humans own capital. A stylized empirical fact is that the total factor share of capital has for a long time remained steady at approximately 30% (though with significant short-term fluctuations). 3 This means that 30% of total global income is received as rent by owners of capital, the remaining 70% being received as wages by workers. If we classify AI as capital, then with the invention of machine intelligence that can fully substitute for human work, wages would fall to the marginal cost of such machine-substitutes, whichunder the assumption that the machines are very efficientwould be very low, far below human subsistence-level income. The income share received by labor would then dwindle to practically nil. But this implies that the factor share of capital would become nearly 100% of total world product. Since world GDP would soar following an intelligence explosion (because of massive amounts of new labor-substituting machines but also because of technological advances achieved by superintelligence, and, later, acquisition of vast amounts of new land through space colonization), it follows that the total income from capital would increase enormously. If humans remain the owners of this capital, the total income received by the human population would grow astronomically, despite the fact that in this scenario humans would no longer receive any wage income. The human species as a whole could thus become rich beyond the dreams of Avarice. How would this income be distributed? To a first approximation, capital income would be proportional to the amount of capital owned. Given the astronomical amplification effect, even a tiny bit of pre-transition wealth would balloon into a vast post-transition fortune. However, in the contemporary world, many people have no wealth. This includes not only individuals who live in poverty but also some people who earn a good income or who have high human capital but have negative net worth. For example, in affluent Denmark and Sweden 30% of the population report negative wealthoften young, middle- class people with few tangible assets and credit card debt or student loans. 4 Even if savings could earn extremely high interest, there would need to be some seed grain, some starting capital, in order for the compounding to begin. 5 Nevertheless, even individuals who have no private wealth at the start of the transition could become extremely rich. Those who participate in a pension scheme, for instance, whether public or private, should be in a good position, provided the scheme is at least partially funded. 6 Have-nots could also become rich through the philanthropy of those who see their net worth skyrocket: because of the astronomical size of the bonanza, even a very small fraction donated as alms would be a very large sum in absolute terms. It is also possible that riches could still be made through work, even at a post- transition stage when machines are functionally superior to humans in all domains (as well as cheaper than even subsistence-level human labor). As noted earlier, this could happen if there are niches in which human labor is preferred for aesthetic, ideological, ethical, religious, or other non-pragmatic reasons. In a scenario in which the wealth of human capital-holders increases dramatically, demand for such labor could increase correspondingly. Newly minted trillionaires or quadrillionaires could afford to pay a hefty premium for having some of their goods and services supplied by an organic fair-trade labor force. The history of horses again offers a parallel. After falling to 2 million in the early 1950s, the US horse population has undergone a robust recovery: a recent census puts the number at just under 10 million head. 7 The rise is not due to new functional needs for horses in agriculture or transportation; rather, economic growth has enabled more Americans to indulge a fancy for equestrian recreation. Another relevant difference between humans and horses, beside capital- ownership, is that humans are capable of political mobilization. A human-run government could use the taxation power of the state to redistribute private profits, or raise revenue by selling appreciated state-owned assets, such as public land, and use the proceeds to pension off its constituents. Again, because of the explosive economic growth during and immediately after the transition, there would be vastly more wealth sloshing around, making it relatively easy to fill the cups of all unemployed citizens. It should be feasible even for a single country to provide every human worldwide with a generous living wage at no greater proportional cost than what many countries currently spend on foreign aid. 8 The Malthusian principle in a historical perspective So far we have assumed a constant human population. This may be a reasonable assumption for short timescales, since biology limits the rate of human reproduction. Over longer timescales, however, the assumption is not necessarily reasonable. The human population has increased a thousandfold over the past 9,000 years. 9 The increase would have been much faster except for the fact that throughout most of history and prehistory, the human population was bumping up against the limits of the world economy. An approximately Malthusian condition prevailed, in which most people received subsistence-level incomes that just barely allowed them to survive and raise an average of two children to maturity. 10 There were temporary and local reprieves: plagues, climate fluctuations, or warfare intermittently culled the population and freed up land, enabling survivors to improve their nutritional intakeand to bring up more children, until the ranks were replenished and the Malthusian condition reinstituted. Also, thanks to social inequality, a thin elite stratum could enjoy consistently above-subsistence income (at the expense of somewhat lowering the total size of the population that could be sustained). A sad and dissonant thought: that in this Malthusian condition, the normal state of affairs during most of our tenure on this planet, it was droughts, pestilence, massacres, and inequalityin common estimation the worst foes of human welfarethat may have been the greatest humanitarians: they alone enabling the average level of well-being to occasionally bop up slightly above that of life at the very margin of subsistence. Superimposed on local fluctuations, history shows a macro-pattern of initially slow but accelerating economic growth, fueled by the accumulation of technological innovations. The growing world economy brought with it a commensurate increase in global population. (More precisely, a larger population itself appears to have strongly accelerated the rate of growth, perhaps mainly by increasing humanitys collective intelligence. 11 ) Only since the Industrial Revolution, however, did economic growth become so rapid that population growth failed to keep pace. Average income thus started to rise, first in the early- industrializing countries of Western Europe, subsequently in most of the world. Even in the poorest countries today, average income substantially exceeds subsistence level, as reflected in the fact that the populations of these countries are growing. The poorest countries now have the fastest population growth, as they have yet to complete the demographic transition to the low-fertility regime that has taken hold in more developed societies. Demographers project that the world population will rise to about 9 billion by mid-century, and that it might thereafter plateau or decline as the poorer countries join the developed world in this low- fertility regime. 12 Many rich countries already have fertility rates that are below replacement level; in some cases, far below. 13 Yet there are reasons, if we take a longer view and assume a state of unchanging technology and continued prosperity, to expect a return to the historically and ecologically normal condition of a world population that butts up against the limits of what our niche can support. If this seems counterintuitive in light of the negative relationship between wealth and fertility that we are currently observing on the global scale, we must remind ourselves that this modern age is a brief slice of history and very much an aberration. Human behavior has not yet adapted to contemporary conditions. Not only do we fail to take advantage of obvious ways to increase our inclusive fitness (such as by becoming sperm or egg donors) but we actively sabotage our fertility by using birth control. In the environment of evolutionary adaptedness, a healthy sex drive may have been enough to make an individual act in ways that maximized her reproductive potential; in the modern environment, however, there would be a huge selective advantage to having a more direct desire for being the biological parent to the largest possible number of children. Such a desire is currently being selected for, as are other traits that increase our propensity to reproduce. Cultural adaptation, however, might steal a march on biological evolution. Some communities, such those of the Hutterites or the adherents of the Quiverfull evangelical movement, have natalist cultures that encourage large families, and they are consequently undergoing rapid expansion. Population growth and investment If we imagine current socioeconomic conditions magically frozen in their current shape, the future would be dominated by cultural or ethnic groups that sustain high levels of fertility. If most people had preferences that were fitness- maximizing in the contemporary environment, the population could easily double in each generation. Absent population control policieswhich would have to become steadily more rigorous and effective to counteract the evolution of stronger preferences to circumvent themthe world population would then continue to grow exponentially until some constraint, such as land scarcity or depletion of easy opportunities for important innovation, made it impossible for the economy to keep pace: at which point, average income would start to decline until it reached the level where crushing poverty prevents most people from raising much more than two children to maturity. Thus the Malthusian principle would reassert itself, like a dread slave master, bringing our escapade into the dreamland of abundance to an end, and leading us back to the quarry in chains, there to resume the weary struggle for subsistence. This longer-term outlook could be telescoped into a more imminent prospect by the intelligence explosion. Since software is copyable, a population of emulations or AIs could double rapidlyover the course of minutes rather than decades or centuriessoon exhausting all available hardware. Private property might offer partial protection against the emergence of a universal Malthusian condition. Consider a simple model in which clans (or closed communities, or states) start out with varying amounts of property and independently adopt different policies about reproduction and investment. Some clans discount the future steeply and spend down their endowment, whereafter their impoverished members join the global proletariat (or die, if they cannot support themselves through their labor). Other clans invest some of their resources but adopt a policy of unlimited reproduction: such clans grow more populous until they reach an internal Malthusian condition in which their members are so poor that they die at almost the same rate as they reproduce, at which point the clans population growth slows to equal the growth of its resources. Yet other clans might restrict their fertility to below the rate of growth of their capital: such clans could slowly increment their numbers while their members also grow richer per capita. If wealth is redistributed from the wealthy clans to the members of the rapidly reproducing or rapidly discounting clans (whose children, copies, or offshoots, through no fault of their own, were launched into the world with insufficient capital to survive and thrive) then a universal Malthusian condition would be more closely approximated. In the limiting case, all members of all clans would receive subsistence level income and everybody would be equal in their poverty. If property is not redistributed, prudent clans might hold on to a certain amount of capital, and it is possible that their wealth could grow in absolute terms. It is, however, unclear whether humans could earn as high rates of return on their capital as machine intelligences could earn on theirs, because there may be synergies between labor and capital such that an single agent who can supply both (e.g. an entrepreneur or investor who is both skilled and wealthy) can attain a private rate of return on her capital exceeding the market rate obtainable by agents who possess financial but not cognitive resources. Humans, being less skilled than machine intelligences, may therefore grow their capital more slowly unless, of course, the control problem had been completely solved, in which case the human rate of return would equal the machine rate of return, since a human principal could task a machine agent to manage her savings, and could do so costlessly and without conflicts of interest: but otherwise, in this scenario, the fraction of the economy owned by machines would asymptotically approach one hundred percent. A scenario in which the fraction of the economy that is owned by machines asymptotically approaches one hundred percent is not necessarily one in which the size of the human slice declines. If the economy grows at a sufficient clip, then even a relatively diminishing fraction of it may still be increasing in its absolute size. This may sound like modestly good news for humankind: in a multipolar scenario in which property rights are protectedeven if we completely fail to solve the control problemthe total amount of wealth owned by human beings could increase. Of course, this effect would not take care of the problem of population growth in the human population pulling down per capita income to subsistence level, nor the problem of humans who ruin themselves because they discount the future. In the long run, the economy would become increasingly dominated by those clans that have the highest savings ratesmisers who own half the city and live under a bridge. Only in the fullness of time, when there are no more opportunities for investment, would the maximally prosperous misers start drawing down their savings. 14 However, if there is less than perfect protection for property rightsfor example if the more efficient machines on net succeed, by hook or by crook, in transferring wealth from humans to themselvesthen human capitalists may need to spend down their capital much sooner, before it gets depleted by such transfers (or the ongoing costs incurred in securing their wealth against such transfers). If these developments take place on digital rather than biological timescales, then the glacial humans might find themselves expropriated before they could say Jack Robinson. 15 Life in an algorithmic economy Life for biological humans in a post-transition Malthusian state need not resemble any of the historical states of man (as huntergatherer, farmer, or office worker). Instead, the majority of humans in this scenario might be idle rentiers who eke out a marginal living on their savings. 16 They would be very poor, yet derive what little income they have from savings or state subsidies. They would live in a world with extremely advanced technology, including not only superintelligent machines but also anti-aging medicine, virtual reality, and various enhancement technologies and pleasure drugs: yet these might be generally unaffordable. Perhaps instead of using enhancement medicine, they would take drugs to stunt their growth and slow their metabolism in order to reduce their cost of living (fast-burners being unable to survive at the gradually declining subsistence income). As our numbers increase and our average income declines further, we might degenerate into whatever minimal structure still qualifies to receive a pensionperhaps minimally conscious brains in vats, oxygenized and nourished by machines, slowly saving up enough money to reproduce by having a robot technician develop a clone of them. 17 Further frugality could be achieved by means of uploading, since a physically optimized computing substrate, devised by advanced superintelligence, would be more efficient than a biological brain. The migration into the digital realm might be stemmed, however, if emulations were regarded as non-humans or non- citizens ineligible to receive pensions or to hold tax-exempt savings accounts. In that case, a niche for biological humans might remain open, alongside a perhaps vastly larger population of emulations or artificial intelligences. So far we have focused on the fate of the humans, who may be supported by savings, subsidies, or wage income deriving from other humans who prefer to hire humans. Let us now turn our attention to some of the entities that we have so far classified as capital: machines that may be owned by human beings, that are constructed and operated for the sake of the functional tasks they perform, and that are capable of substituting for human labor in a very wide range of jobs. What may the situation be like for these workhorses of the new economy? If these machines were mere automata, simple devices like a steam engine or the mechanism in a clock, then no further comment would be needed: there would be a large amount of such capital in a post-transition economy, but it would seem not to matter to anybody how things turn out for pieces of insentient equipment. However, if the machines have conscious mindsif they are constructed in such a way that their operation is associated with phenomenal awareness (or if they for some other reason are ascribed moral status)then it becomes important to consider the overall outcome in terms of how it would affect these machine minds. The welfare of the working machine minds could even appear to be the most important aspect of the outcome, since they may be numerically dominant. Voluntary slavery, casual death A salient initial question is whether these working machine minds are owned as capital (slaves) or are hired as free wage laborers. On closer inspection however, it become doubtful that anything really hinges on the issue. There are two reasons for this. First, if a free worker in a Malthusian state gets paid a subsistence-level wage, he will have no disposable income left after he has paid for food and other necessities. If the worker is instead a slave, his owner will pay for his maintenance and again he will have no disposable income. In either case, the worker gets the necessities and nothing more. Second, suppose that the free laborer were somehow in a position to command an above-subsistence-level income (perhaps because of favorable regulation). How will he spend the surplus? Investors would find it most profitable to create workers who would be voluntary slaveswho would willingly work for subsistence-level wages. Investors may create such workers by copying those workers who are compliant. With appropriate selection (and perhaps some modification to the code) investors might be able to create workers who not only prefer to volunteer their labor but who would also choose to donate back to their owners any surplus income they might happen to receive. Giving money to the worker would then be but a roundabout way of giving money to the owner or employer, even if the worker were a free agent with full legal rights. Perhaps it will be objected that it would be difficult to design a machine so that it wants to volunteer for any job assigned to it or so that it wants to donate its wages to its owner. Emulations, in particular, might be imagined to have more typically human desires. But note that even if the original control problem is difficult, we are here considering a condition after the transition, a time when methods for motivation selection have presumably been perfected. In the case of emulations, one might get quite far simply by selecting from the pre-existing range of human characters; and we have described several other motivation selection methods. The control problem may also in some ways be simplified by the current assumption that the new machine intelligence enters into a stable socioeconomic matrix that is already populated with other law-abiding superintelligent agents. Let us, then, consider the plight of the working-class machine, whether it be operating as a slave or a free agent. We focus first on emulations, the easiest case to imagine. Bringing a new biological human worker into the world takes anywhere between fifteen and thirty years, depending on how much expertise and experience is required. During this time the new person must be fed, housed, nurtured, and educatedat great expense. By contrast, spawning a new copy of a digital worker is as easy as loading a new program into working memory. Life thus becomes cheap. A business could continuously adapt its workforce to fit demands by spawning new copiesand terminating copies that are no longer needed, to free up computer resources. This could lead to an extremely high death rate among digital workers. Many might live for only one subjective day. There are reasons other than fluctuations in demand why employers or owners of emulations might want to kill or end their workers frequently. 18 If an emulation mind, like a biological mind, requires periods of rest and sleep in order to function, it might be cheaper to erase a fatigued emulation at the end of a day and replace it with a stored state of a fresh and rested emulation. As this procedure would cause retrograde amnesia for everything that had been learned during that day, emulations performing tasks requiring long cognitive threads would be spared such frequent erasure. It would be difficult, for example, to write a book if each morning when one sat down at ones desk, one had no memory of what one had done before. But other jobs could be performed adequately by agents that are frequently recycled: a shop assistant or a customer service agent, once trained, may only need to remember new information for twenty minutes. Since recycling emulations would prevent memory and skill formation, some emulations may be placed on a special learning track where they would run continuously, including for rest and sleep, even in jobs that do not strictly require long cognitive threads. For example, some customer service agents might run for many years in optimized learning environments, assisted by coaches and performance evaluators. The best of these trainees would then be used like studs, serving as templates from which millions of fresh copies are stamped out each day. Great effort would be poured into improving the performance of such worker templates, because even a small increment in productivity would yield great economic value when applied in millions of copies. In parallel with efforts to train worker-templates for particular jobs, intense efforts would also be made to improve the underlying emulation technology. Advances here would be even more valuable than advances in individual worker-templates, since general technology improvements could be applied to all emulation workers (and potentially to non-worker emulations also) rather than only to those in a particular occupation. Enormous resources would be devoted to finding computational shortcuts allowing for more efficient implementations of existing emulations, and also into developing neuromorphic and entirely synthetic AI architectures. This research would probably mostly be done by emulations running on very fast hardware. Depending on the price of computer power, millions, billions, or trillions of emulations of the sharpest human research minds (or enhanced versions thereof) may be working around the clock on advancing the frontier of machine intelligence; and some of these may be operating orders of magnitude faster than biological brains. 19 This is a good reason for thinking that the era of human-like emulations would be brief a very brief interlude in sidereal timeand that it would soon give way to an era of greatly superior artificial intelligence. We have already encountered several reasons why employers of emulation workers may periodically cull their herds: fluctuations in demand for different kinds of laborers, cost savings of not having to emulate rest and sleep time, and the introduction of new and improved templates. Security concerns might furnish another reason. To prevent workers from developing subversive plans and conspiracies, emulations in some sensitive positions might be run only for limited periods, with frequent resets to an earlier stored ready-state. 20 These ready-states to which emulations would be reset would be carefully prepared and vetted. A typical short-lived emulation might wake up in a well- rested mental state that is optimized for loyalty and productivity. He remembers having graduated top of his class after many (subjective) years of intense training and selection, then having enjoyed a restorative holiday and a good nights sleep, then having listened to a rousing motivational speech and stirring music, and now he is champing at the bit to finally get to work and to do his utmost for his employer. He is not overly troubled by thoughts of his imminent death at the end of the working day. Emulations with death neuroses or other hang-ups are less productive and would not have been selected. 21 Would maximally efficient work be fun? One important variable in assessing the desirability of a hypothetical condition like this is the hedonic state of the average emulation. 22 Would a typical emulation worker be suffering or would he be enjoying the experience of working hard on the task at hand? We must resist the temptation to project our own sentiments onto the imaginary emulation worker. The question is not whether you would feel happy if you had to work constantly and never again spend time with your loved ones a terrible fate, most would agree. It is moderately more relevant to consider the current human average hedonic experience during working hours. Worldwide studies asking respondents how happy they are find that most rate themselves as quite happy or very happy (averaging 3.1 on a scale from 1 to 4). 23 Studies on average affect, asking respondents how frequently they have recently experienced various positive or negative affective states, tend to get a similar result (producing a net affect of about 0.52 on a scale from 1 to 1). There is a modest positive effect of a countrys per capita income on average subjective well-being. 24 However, it is hazardous to extrapolate from these findings to the hedonic state of future emulation workers. One reason that could be given for this is that their condition would be so different: on the one hand, they might be working much harder; on the other hand, they might be free from diseases, aches, hunger, noxious odors, and so forth. Yet such considerations largely miss the mark. The much more important consideration here is that hedonic tone would be easy to adjust through the digital equivalent of drugs or neurosurgery. This means that it would be a mistake to infer the hedonic state of future emulations from the external conditions of their lives by imagining how we ourselves and other people like us would feel in those circumstances. Hedonic state would be a matter of choice. In the model we are currently considering, the choice would be made by capital- owners seeking to maximize returns on their investment in emulation-workers. Consequently, the question of how happy emulations would feel boils down to the question of which hedonic states would be most productive (in the various jobs that emulations would be employed to do). Here, again, one might seek to draw an inference from observations about human happiness. If it is the case, across most times, places, and occupations, that people are typically at least moderately happy, this would create some presumption in favor of the same holding in a post-transition scenario like the one we are considering. To be clear, the argument in this case would not be that human minds have a predisposition towards happiness so they would probably find satisfaction under these novel conditions; but rather that a certain average level of happiness has proved adaptive for human minds in the past so maybe a similar level of happiness will prove adaptive for human-like minds in the future. Yet this formulation also reveals the weakness of the inference: to wit, that the mental dispositions that were adaptive for huntergatherer hominids roaming the African savanna may not necessarily be adaptive for modified emulations living in post-transition virtual realities. We can certainly hope that the future emulation-workers would be as happy as, or happier than, typical workers were in human history; but we have yet to see any compelling reason for supposing it would be so (in the laissez-faire multipolar scenario currently under examination). Consider the possibility that the reason happiness is prevalent among humans (to whatever limited extent it is prevalent) is that cheerful mood served a signaling function in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Conveying the impression to other members of the social group of being in flourishing conditionin good health, in good standing with ones peers, and in confident expectation of continued good fortunemay have boosted an individuals popularity. A bias toward cheerfulness could thus have been selected for, with the result that human neurochemistry is now biased toward positive affect compared to what would have been maximally efficient according to simpler materialistic criteria. If this were the case, then the future of joie de vivre might depend on cheer retaining its social signaling function unaltered in the post- transition world: an issue to which we will return shortly. What if glad souls dissipate more energy than glum ones? Perhaps the joyful are more prone to creative leaps and flights of fancybehaviors that future employers might disprize in most of their workers. Perhaps a sullen or anxious fixation on simply getting on with the job without making mistakes will be the productivity-maximizing attitude in most lines of work. The claim here is not that this is so, but that we do not know that it is not so. Yet we should consider just how bad it could be if some such pessimistic hypothesis about a future Malthusian state turned out to be true: not only because of the opportunity cost of having failed to create something betterwhich would be enormousbut also because the state could be bad in itself, possibly far worse than the original Malthusian state. We seldom put forth full effort. When we do, it is sometimes painful. Imagine running on a treadmill at a steep inclineheart pounding, muscles aching, lungs gasping for air. A glance at the timer: your next break, which will also be your death, is due in 49 years, 3 months, 20 days, 4 hours, 56 minutes, and 12 seconds. You wish you had not been born. Again the claim is not that this is how it would be, but that we do not know that it is not. One could certainly make a more optimistic case. For example, there is no obvious reason that emulations would need to suffer bodily injury and sickness: the elimination of physical wretchedness would be a great improvement over the present state of affairs. Furthermore, since such stuff as virtual reality is made of can be fairly cheap, emulations may work in sumptuous surroundingsin splendid mountaintop palaces, on terraces set in a budding spring forest, or on the beaches of an azure lagoonwith just the right illumination, temperature, scenery and dcor; free from annoying fumes, noises, drafts, and buzzing insects; dressed in comfortable clothing, feeling clean and focused, and well nourished. More significantly, ifas seems perfectly possible the optimum human mental state for productivity in most jobs is one of joyful eagerness, then the era of the emulation economy could be quite paradisiacal. There would, in any case, be a great option value in arranging matters in such a manner that somebody or something could intervene to set things right if the default trajectory should happen to veer toward dystopia. It could also be desirable to have some sort of escape hatch that would permit bailout into death and oblivion if the quality of life were to sink permanently below the level at which annihilation becomes preferable to continued existence. Unconscious outsourcers? In the longer run, as the emulation era gives way to an artificial intelligence era (or if machine intelligence is attained directly via AI without a preceding whole brain emulation stage) pain and pleasure might possibly disappear entirely in a multipolar outcome, since a hedonic reward mechanism may not be the most effective motivation system for an complex artificial agent (one that, unlike the human mind, is not burdened with the legacy of animal wetware). Perhaps a more advanced motivation system would be based on an explicit representation of a utility function or some other architecture that has no exact functional analogs to pleasure and pain. A related but slightly more radical multipolar outcomeone that could involve the elimination of almost all value from the futureis that the universal proletariat would not even be conscious. This possibility is most salient with respect to AI, which might be structured very differently than human intelligence. But even if machine intelligence were initially achieved though whole brain emulation, resulting in conscious digital minds, the competitive forces unleashed in a post-transition economy could easily lead to the emergence of progressively less neuromorphic forms of machine intelligence, either because synthetic AI is created de novo or because the emulations would, through successive modifications and enhancements, increasingly depart their original human form. Consider a scenario in which after emulation technology has been developed, continued progress in neuroscience and computer science (expedited by the presence of digital minds to serve as both researchers and test subjects) makes it possible to isolate individual cognitive modules in an emulation, and to hook them up to modules isolated from other emulations. A period of training and adjustment may be required before different modules can collaborate effectively; but modules that conform to common standards could more quickly interface with other standard modules. This would make standardized modules more productive, and create pressure for more standardization. Emulations can now begin to outsource increasing portions of their functionality. Why learn arithmetic when you can send your numerical reasoning task to Gauss-Modules, Inc.? Why be articulate when you can hire Coleridge Conversations to put your thoughts into words? Why make decisions about your personal life when there are certified executive modules that can scan your goal system and manage your resources to achieve your goals better than if you tried to do it yourself? Some emulations may prefer to retain most of their functionality and handle tasks themselves that could be done more efficiently by others. Those emulations would be like hobbyists who enjoy growing their own vegetables or knitting their own cardigans. Such hobbyist emulations would be less efficient; and if there is a net flow of resources from less to more efficient participants of the economy, the hobbyists would eventually lose out. The bouillon cubes of discrete human-like intellects thus melt into an algorithmic soup. It is conceivable that optimal efficiency would be attained by grouping capabilities in aggregates that roughly match the cognitive architecture of a human mind. It might be the case, for example, that a mathematics module must be tailored to a language module, and that both must be tailored to the executive module, in order for the three to work together. Cognitive outsourcing would then be almost entirely unworkable. But in the absence of any compelling reason for being confident that this is so, we must countenance the possibility that human-like cognitive architectures are optimal only within the constraints of human neurology (or not at all). When it becomes possible to build architectures that could not be implemented well on biological neural networks, new design space opens up; and the global optima in this extended space need not resemble familiar types of mentality. Human-like cognitive organizations would then lack a niche in a competitive post-transition economy or ecosystem. 25 There might be niches for complexes that are either less complex (such as individual modules), more complex (such as vast clusters of modules), or of similar complexity to human minds but with radically different architectures. Would these complexes have any intrinsic value? Should we welcome a world in which such alien complexes have replaced human complexes? The answer may depend on the specific nature of those alien complexes. The present world has many levels of organization. Some highly complex entities, such as multinational corporations and nation states, contain human beings as constituents; yet we usually assign these high-level complexes only instrumental value. Corporations and states do not (it is generally assumed) have consciousness, over and above the consciousness of the people who constitute them: they cannot feel phenomenal pain or pleasure or experience any qualia. We value them to the extent that they serve human needs, and when they cease to do so we kill them without compunction. There are also lower-level entities, and those, too, are usually denied moral status. We see no harm in erasing an app from a smartphone, and we do not think that a neurosurgeon is wronging anyone when she extirpates a malfunctioning module from an epileptic brain. As for exotically organized complexes of a level similar to that of the human brain, most of us would perhaps judge them to have moral significance only if we thought they had a capacity or potential for conscious experience. 26 We could thus imagine, as an extreme case, a technologically highly advanced society, containing many complex structures, some of them far more intricate and intelligent than anything that exists on the planet todaya society which nevertheless lacks any type of being that is conscious or whose welfare has moral significance. In a sense, this would be an uninhabited society. It would be a society of economic miracles and technological awesomeness, with nobody there to benefit. A Disneyland without children. Evolution is not necessarily up The word evolution is often used as a synonym of progress, perhaps reflecting a common uncritical image of evolution as a force for good. A misplaced faith in the inherent beneficence of the evolutionary process can get in the way of a fair evaluation of the desirability of a multipolar outcome in which the future of intelligent life is determined by competitive dynamics. Any such evaluation must rest on some (at least implicit) opinion about the probability distribution of different phenotypes turning out to be adaptive in a post-transition digital life soup. It would be difficult in the best of circumstances to extract a clear and correct answer from the unavoidable goo of uncertainty that pervades these matters: more so, if we superadd a layer of Panglossian muck. A possible source for faith in freewheeling evolution is the apparent upward directionality exhibited by the evolutionary process in the past. Starting from rudimentary replicators, evolution produced increasingly advanced organisms, including creatures with minds, consciousness, language, and reason. More recently, cultural and technological processes, which bear some loose similarities to biological evolution, have enabled humans to develop at an accelerated pace. On a geological as well as a historical timescale, the big picture seems to show an overarching trend toward increasing levels of complexity, knowledge, consciousness, and coordinated goal-directed organization: a trend which, not to put too fine a point on it, one might label progress. 27 The image of evolution as a process that reliably produces benign effects is difficult to reconcile with the enormous suffering that we see in both the human and the natural world. Those who cherish evolutions achievements may do so more from an aesthetic than an ethical perspective. Yet the pertinent question is not what kind of future it would be fascinating to read about in a science fiction novel or to see depicted in a nature documentary, but what kind of future it would be good to live in: two very different matters. Furthermore, we have no reason to think that whatever progress there has been was in any way inevitable. Much might have been luck. This objection derives support from the fact that an observation selection effect filters the evidence we can have about the success of our own evolutionary development. 28 Suppose that on 99.9999% of all planets where life emerged it went extinct before developing to the point where intelligent observers could begin to ponder their origin. What should we expect to observe if that were the case? Arguably, we should expect to observe something like what we do in fact observe. The hypothesis that the odds of intelligent life evolving on a given planet are low does not predict that we should find ourselves on a planet where life went extinct at an early stage; rather, it may predict that we should find ourselves on a planet where intelligent life evolved, even if such planets constitute a very small fraction of all planets where primitive life evolved. Lifes long track record on Earth may therefore offer scant support to the claim that there was a high chance let alone anything approaching inevitabilityinvolved in the rise of higher organisms on our planet. 29 Thirdly, even if present conditions had been idyllic, and even if they could have been shown to have arisen ineluctably from some generic primordial state, there would still be no guarantee that the melioristic trend is set to continue into the indefinite future. This holds even if we disregard the possibility of a cataclysmic extinction event and indeed even if we assume that evolutionary developments will continue to produce systems of increasing complexity. We suggested earlier that machine intelligence workers selected for maximum productivity would be working extremely hard and that it is unknown how happy such workers would be. We also raised the possibility that the fittest life forms within a competitive future digital life soup might not even be conscious. Short of a complete loss of pleasure, or of consciousness, there could be a wasting away of other qualities that many would regard as indispensible for a good life. Humans value music, humor, romance, art, play, dance, conversation, philosophy, literature, adventure, discovery, food and drink, friendship, parenting, sport, nature, tradition, and spirituality, among many other things. There is no guarantee that any of these would remain adaptive. Perhaps what will maximize fitness will be nothing but nonstop high-intensity drudgery, work of a drab and repetitive nature, destitute of ludic frisson, aimed only at improving the eighth decimal place of some economic output measure. The phenotypes selected would then have lives lacking in the aforesaid qualities, and depending on ones axiology the result might strike one as either abhorrent, worthless, or merely impoverished, but at any rate a far cry from a utopia one would feel worthy of ones commendation. It might be wondered how such a bleak picture could be consistent with the fact that we do now indulge in music, humor, romance, art, etc. If these behaviors are really so wasteful, then how come they have been tolerated and indeed promoted by the evolutionary processes that shaped our species? That modern man is in an evolutionary disequilibrium does not account for this; for our Pleistocene forebears, too, engaged in most of these dissipations. Many of the behaviors in question are not even unique to Homo sapiens . Flamboyant display is found in a wide variety of contexts, from sexual selection in the animal kingdom to prestige contests among nation states. 30 Although a full evolutionary explanation for each of these behaviors is beyond the scope of the present inquiry, we can note that some of them serve functions that may not be as relevant in a machine intelligence context. Play, for example, which occurs only in some species and predominantly among juveniles, is mainly a way for the young animal to learn skills that it will need later in life. When emulations can be created as adults, already in possession of a mature repertoire of skills, or when knowledge and techniques acquired by one AI can be directly ported into another AI, the need for playful behavior might become less widespread. Many of the other examples of humanistic behaviors may have evolved as hard-to-fake signals of qualities that are difficult to observe directly, such as bodily or mental resilience, social status, quality of allies, ability and willingness to prevail in a fight, or possession of resources. The peacocks tail is the classic instance: only fit peacocks can afford to sprout truly extravagant plumage, and peahens have evolved to find it attractive. No less than morphological traits, behavioral traits too can signal genetic fitness or other socially relevant attributes. 31 Given that flamboyant display is so common among both humans and other species, one might consider whether it would not also be part of the repertoire of technologically more advanced life forms. Even if there were to be no narrowly instrumental use for playfulness or musicality or even for consciousness in the future ecology of intelligent information processing, might not these traits nonetheless confer some evolutionary advantage to their possessors by virtue of being reliable signals of other adaptive qualities? While the possibility of a pre-established harmony between what is valuable to us and what would be adaptive in a future digital ecology is hard to rule out, there are reasons for skepticism. Consider, first, that many of the costly displays we find in nature are linked to sexual selection. 32 Reproduction among technologically mature life forms, in contrast, may be predominantly or exclusively asexual. Second, technologically advanced agents might have available new means of reliably communicating information about themselves, means that do not rely on costly display. Even today, when professional lenders assess creditworthiness they tend to rely more on documentary evidence, such as ownership certificates and bank statements, than on costly displays, such as designer suits and Rolex watches. In the future, it might be possible to employ auditing firms that verify through detailed examination of behavioral track records, testing in simulated environments, or direct inspection of source code, that a client agent possesses a claimed attribute. Signaling ones qualities by agreeing to such auditing might be more efficient than signaling via flamboyant display. Such a professionally mediated signal would still be costly to fake this being the essential feature that makes the signal reliablebut it could be much cheaper to transmit when truthful than it would be to communicate an equivalent signal flamboyantly. Third, not all possible costly displays are intrinsically valuable or socially desirable. Many are simply wasteful. The Kwakiutl potlatch ceremonies, a form of status competition between rival chiefs, involved the public destruction of vast amounts of accumulated wealth. 33 Record-breaking skyscrapers, megayachts, and moon rockets may be viewed as contemporary analogs. While activities like music and humor could plausibly be claimed to enhance the intrinsic quality of human life, it is doubtful that a similar claim could be sustained with regard to the costly pursuit of fashion accessories and other consumerist status symbols. Worse, costly display can be outright harmful, as in macho posturing leading to gang violence or military bravado. Even if future intelligent life forms would use costly signaling, therefore, it is an open question whether the signal would be of a valuable sortwhether it would be like the rapturous melody of a nightingale or instead like the toads monosyllabic croak (or the incessant barking of a rabid dog). Post-transition formation of a singleton? Even if the immediate outcome of the transition to machine intelligence were multipolar, the possibility would remain of a singleton developing later. Such a development would continue an apparent long-term trend toward larger scales of political integration, taking it to its natural conclusion. 34 How might this occur? A second transition On way in which an initially multipolar outcome could converge into a singleton post-transition is if there is, after the initial transition, a second technological transition big enough and steep enough to give a decisive strategic advantage to one of the remaining powers: a power which might then seize the opportunity to establish a singleton. Such a hypothetical second transition might be occasioned by a breakthrough to a higher level of superintelligence. For instance, if the first wave of machine superintelligence is emulation-based, then a second surge might result when the emulations now doing the research succeed in developing effective self-improving artificial intelligence. 35 (Alternatively, a second transition might be triggered by a breakthrough in nanotechnology or some other military or general-purpose technology as yet unenvisaged.) The pace of development after the initial transition would be extremely rapid. Even a short gap between the leading power and its closest competitor could therefore plausibly result in a decisive strategic advantage for the leading power during a second transition. Suppose, for example, that two projects enter the first transition only a few days apart, and that the takeoff is slow enough that this gap does not give the leading project a decisive strategic advantage at any point during the takeoff. The two projects both emerge as superintelligent powers, though one of them remains a few days ahead of the other. But developments are now occurring on the research timescales characteristic of machine superintelligenceperhaps thousands or millions of times faster than research conducted on a biological human timescale. Development of the second- transition technology might therefore be completed in days, hours, or minutes. Even though the frontrunners lead is a mere few days, a breakthrough could thus catapult it into a decisive strategic advantage. Note, however, that if technological diffusion (via espionage or other channels) speeds up as much as technological development, then this effect would be negated. What would remain relevant would be the steepness of the second transition, that is, the speed at which it would unfold relative to the general speed of events in the period after the first transition. (In this sense, the faster things are happening after the first transition, the less steep the second transition would tend to be.) One might also speculate that a decisive strategic advantage would be more likely to be actually used to establish a singleton if it arises during a second (or subsequent) transition. After the first transition, decision makers would either be superintelligent or have access to advice from a superintelligence, which would clarify the implications of available strategic options. Furthermore, the situation after the first transition might be one in which a preemptive move against potential competitors would be less dangerous for the aggressor. If the decision- making minds after the first transition are digital, they could be copied and thereby rendered less vulnerable to a counterattack. Even if a defender had the ability to kill nine-tenths of the aggressors population in a retaliatory strike, this would scarcely offer much deterrence if the deceased could be immediately resurrected from redundant backups. Devastation of infrastructure (which can be rebuilt) might also be tolerable to digital minds with effectively unlimited lifespans, who might be planning to maximize their resources and influence on a cosmological timescale. Superorganisms and scale economies The size of coordinated human aggregates, such as firms or nations, is influenced by various parameterstechnological, military, financial, and culturalthat can vary from one historical epoch to another. A machine intelligence revolution would entail profound changes in many these parameters. Perhaps these changes would facilitate the rise of a singleton. Although we cannot, without looking in detail at what these prospective changes are, exclude the opposite possibilitythat the changes would facilitate fragmentation rather than unificationwe can nevertheless note that the increased variance or uncertainty that we confront here may itself be a ground for giving greater credence to the potential emergence of a singleton than we would otherwise do. A machine intelligence revolution might, so to speak, stir things upmight reshuffle the deck to make possible geopolitical realignments that seemed perhaps otherwise not to have been in the cards. A comprehensive analysis of all the factors that may influence the scale of political integration would take us far beyond the scope of this book: a review of the relevant political science and economics literature could itself easily fill an entire volume. We must confine ourselves to making brief allusion to a couple of factors, aspects of the digitization of agents that may make it easier to centralize control. Carl Shulman has argued that in a population of emulations, selection pressures would favor the emergence of superorganisms, groups of emulations ready to sacrifice themselves for the good of their clan. 36 Superorganisms would be spared the agency problems that beset organizations whose members pursue their own self-interest. Like the cells in our bodies, or the individual animals in a colony of eusocial insects, emulations that were wholly altruistic toward their copy-siblings would cooperate with one another even in the absence of elaborate incentive schemes. Superorganisms would have a particularly strong advantage if nonconsensual deletion (or indefinite suspension) of individual emulations is disallowed. Firms or countries that employ emulations insisting on self-preservation would be saddled with an unending commitment to pay upkeep for obsolete or redundant workers. In contrast, organizations whose emulations willingly deleted themselves when their services were no longer required could more easily adapt to fluctuations in demand; and they could experiment freely, proliferating variations of their workers and retaining only the most productive. If involuntary deletion is not disallowed, then the comparative advantage of eusocial emulations is reduced, though perhaps not eliminated. Employers of cooperative self-sacrificers might still reap efficiency gains from reduced agency problems throughout the organization, including being spared the trouble of having to defeat whatever resistance emulations could put up against their own deletion. In general, the productivity gains of having workers willing to sacrifice their individual lives for the common weal are a special case of the benefits an organization can derive from having members who are fanatically devoted to it. Such members would not only leap into the grave for the organization, and work long hours for little pay: they would also shun office politics and try consistently to act in what they took to be the organizations best interest, reducing the need for supervision and bureaucratic constraints. If the only way to achieve such dedication were by restricting membership to copy-siblings (so that all emulations in a particular superorganism were stamped out from the same template), then superorganisms would suffer some disadvantage in being able to draw only from a range of skills narrower than that of rival organizations, a disadvantage which might or might not be large enough to outweigh the advantages of avoiding internal agency problems. 37 This disadvantage would be greatly alleviated if a superorganism could at least contain members with different training. Even if all its members were derived from a single ur-template, its workforce could then still contribute a diversity of skills. Starting with a polymathically talented emulation ur-template, lineages could be branched off into different training programs, one copy learning accounting, another electrical engineering, and so forth. This would produce a membership with diverse skills though not of diverse talents. (Maximum diversity might require that more than one ur-template be used.) The essential property of a superorganism is not that it consists of copies of a single progenitor but that all the individual agents within it are fully committed to a common goal. The ability to create a superorganism can thus be viewed as requiring a partial solution to the control problem. Whereas a completely general solution to the control problem would enable somebody to create an agent with any arbitrary final goal, the partial solution needed for the creation of a superorganism requires merely the ability to fashion multiple agents with the same final goal (for some nontrivial but not necessarily arbitrary final goal). 38 The main consideration put forward in this subsection is thus not really limited to monoclonal emulation groups, but can be stated more generally in a way that makes clear that it applies to a wide range of multipolar machine intelligence scenarios. It is that certain types of advances in motivation selection techniques, which may become feasible when the actors are digital, may help overcome some of the inefficiencies that currently hamper large human organizations and that counterbalance economies of scale. With these limits lifted, organizationsbe they firms, nations, or other economic or political entitiescould increase in size. This is one factor that could facilitate the emergence of a post-transition singleton. One area in which superorganisms (or other digital agents with partially selected motivations) might excel is coercion. A state might use motivation selection methods to ensure that its police, military, intelligence service, and civil administration are uniformly loyal. As Shulman notes, Saved states [of some loyal emulation that has been carefully prepared and verified] could be copied billions of times to staff an ideologically uniform military, bureaucracy, and police force. After a short period of work, each copy would be replaced by a fresh copy of the same saved state, preventing ideological drift. Within a given jurisdiction, this capability could allow incredibly detailed observation and regulation: there might be one such copy for every other resident. This could be used to prohibit the development of weapons of mass destruction, to enforce regulations on brain emulation experimentation or reproduction, to enforce a liberal democratic constitution, or to create an appalling and permanent totalitarianism 39 The first-order effect of such a capability would seem to be to consolidate power, and possibly to concentrate it in fewer hands. Unification by treaty There may be large potential gains to be had from international collaboration in a post-transition multipolar world. Wars and arms races could be avoided. Astrophysical resources could be colonized and harvested at a globally optimum pace. The development of more advanced forms of machine intelligence could be coordinated to avoid a rush and to allow new designs to be thoroughly vetted. Other developments that might pose existential risks could be postponed. And uniform regulations could be enforced globally, including provisions for a guaranteed standard of living (which would require some form of population control) and for preventing exploitation and abuse of emulations and other digital and biological minds. Furthermore, agents with resource-satiable preferences (more on this in Chapter 13 ) would prefer a sharing agreement that would guarantee them a certain slice of the future to a winner-takes-all struggle in which they would risk getting nothing. The presence of big potential gains from collaboration, however, does not imply that collaboration will actually be achieved. In the world today, many great boons could be obtained via better global coordinationreductions of military expenditures, wars, overfishing, trade barriers, and atmospheric pollution, among others. Yet these plump fruits are left to spoil on the branch. Why is that? What stops a fully cooperative outcome that would maximize the common good? One obstacle is the difficulty of ensuring compliance with any treaty that might be agreed, including monitoring and enforcement costs. Two nuclear rivals might each be better off if they both relinquished their atom bombs; yet even if they could reach an in-principle agreement to do so, disarmament could nevertheless prove elusive because of their mutual fear that the other party might cheat. Allaying this fear would require setting up a verification mechanism. There may have to be inspectors to oversee the destruction of existing stockpiles, and then to monitor nuclear reactors and other facilities, and to gather technical and human intelligence, in order to ensure that the weapons program is not reconstituted. One cost is paying for these inspectors. Another cost is the risk that the inspectors will spy and make off with commercial or military secrets. Perhaps most significantly, each party might fear that the other will preserve a clandestine nuclear capability. Many a potentially beneficial deal never comes off because compliance would be too difficult to verify. If new inspection technologies that reduced monitoring costs became available, one would expect this to result in increased cooperation. Whether monitoring costs would on net be reduced in the post-transition era, however, is not entirely clear. While there would certainly be many powerful new inspection techniques, there would also be new means of concealment. In particular, an increasing portion of the activities one might want to regulate would be taking place in cyberspace, out of reach of physical surveillance. For example, digital minds working on designing a new nanotech weapons system or a new generation of artificial intelligence may do so without leaving much of a physical footprint. Digital forensics may fail to penetrate all the layers of concealment and encryption in which a treaty-violator may cloak its illicit activities. Reliable lie detection, if it could be developed, would be an extremely useful tool for monitoring compliance. 40 An inspection protocol could include provisions for interviewing key officials, to verify that they are intent on implementing all the provisions of the treaty and that they know of no violations despite making strong efforts to find out. A decision maker planning to cheat might defeat such a lie-detection-based verification scheme by first issuing orders to subordinates to undertake the illicit activity and to conceal the activity even from the decision maker herself, and then subjecting herself to some procedure that erases her memory of having engaged in these machinations. Suitably targeted memory-erasure operations might well be feasible in biological brains with more advanced neurotechnology. It might be even easier in machine intelligences (depending on their architecture). States could seek to overcome this problem by committing themselves to an ongoing monitoring scheme that regularly tests key officials with a lie detector to check whether they harbor any intent to subvert or circumvent any treaty to which the state has entered or may enter in the future. Such a commitment could be viewed as a kind of meta-treaty, which would facilitate the verification of other treaties; but states might commit themselves to it unilaterally to gain the benefit of being regarded as a trustworthy negotiation partner. However, this commitment or meta-treaty would face the same problem of subversion through a delegate-and-forget ploy. Ideally, the meta-treaty would be put into effect before any party had an opportunity to make the internal arrangements necessary to subvert its implementation. Once villainy has had an unguarded moment to sow its mines of deception, trust can never set foot there again. In some cases, the mere ability to detect treaty violations is sufficient to establish the confidence needed for a deal. In other cases, however, there is a need for some mechanism to enforce compliance or mete out punishment if a violation should occur. The need for an enforcement mechanism may arise if the threat of the wronged party withdrawing from the treaty is not enough to deter violations, for instance if the treaty-violator would gain such an advantage that he would not subsequently care how the other party responds. If highly effective motivation selection methods are available, this enforcement problem could be solved by empowering an independent agency with sufficient police or military strength to enforce the treaty even against the opposition of one or several of its signatories. This solution requires that the enforcement agency can be trusted. But with sufficiently good motivation selection techniques, the requisite confidence might be achieved by having all the parties to the treaty jointly oversee the design of the enforcement agency. Handing over power to an external enforcement agency raises many of the same issues that we confronted earlier in our discussions of a unipolar outcome (one in which a singleton arises prior to or during the initial machine intelligence revolution). In order to be able to enforce treaties concerning the vital security interests of rival states, the external enforcement agency would in effect need to constitute a singleton: a global superintelligent Leviathan. One difference, however, is that we are now considering a post-transition situation, in which the agents that would have to create this Leviathan would have greater competence than we humans currently do. These Leviathan-creators may themselves already be superintelligent. This would greatly improve the odds that they could solve the control problem and design an enforcement agency that would serve the interests of all the parties that have a say in its construction. Aside from the costs of monitoring and enforcing compliance, are there any other obstacles to global coordination? Perhaps the major remaining issue is what we can refer to as bargaining costs . 41 Even when there is a possible bargain that would benefit everybody involved, it sometimes does not get off the ground because the parties fail to agree on how to divide the spoils. For example, if two persons could make a deal that would net them a dollar in profit, but each party feels she deserves sixty cents and refuses to settle for less, the deal will not happen and the potential gain will be forfeited. In general, negotiations can be difficult or protracted, or remain altogether barren, because of strategic bargaining choices made by some of the parties. In real life, human beings frequently succeed in reaching agreements despite the possibility for strategic bargaining (though often not without considerable expenditure of time and patience). It is conceivable, however, that strategic bargaining problems would have a different dynamic in the post-transition era. An AI negotiator might more consistently adhere to some particular formal conception of rationality, possibly with novel or unanticipated consequences when matched with other AI negotiators. An AI might also have available to it moves in the bargaining game that are either unavailable to humans or very much more difficult for humans to execute, including the ability to precommit to a policy or a course of action. While humans (and human-run institutions) are occasionally able to precommitwith imperfect degrees of credibility and specificitysome types of machine intelligence might be able to make arbitrary unbreakable precommitments and to allow negotiating partners to confirm that such a precommitment has been made. 42 The availability of powerful precommitment techniques could profoundly alter the nature of negotiations, potentially giving an immense edge to an agent that has a first-mover advantage. If a particular agents participation is necessary for the realization of some prospective gains from cooperation, and if that agent is able to make the first move, it would be in a position to dictate the division of the spoils by precommitting not to accept any deal that gives it less than, say, 99% of the surplus value. Other agents would then be faced with the choice of either getting nothing (by rejecting the unfair proposal) or getting 1% of the value (by caving in). If the first-moving agents precommitment is publicly verifiable, its negotiating partners could be sure that these are their only two options. To avoid being exploited in this manner, agents might precommit to refuse blackmail and to decline all unfair offers. Once such a precommitment has been made (and successfully publicized), other agents would not find it in their interest to make threats or to precommit themselves to only accepting deals tilted in their own favor, because they would know that threats would fail and that unfair proposals would be rejected. But this just demonstrates again that the advantage is with the first-mover. The agent who moves first can choose whether to parlay its position of strength only to deter others from taking unfair advantage, or to make a grab for the lions share of future spoils. Best situated of all, it might seem, would be the agent who starts out with a temperament or a value system that makes him impervious to extortion or indeed to any offer of a deal in which his participation is indispensable but he is not getting almost all of the gains. Some humans seem already to possess personality traits corresponding to various aspects of an uncompromising spirit. 43 A high- strung disposition, however, could backfire should it turn out that there are other agents around who feel entitled to more than their fair share and are committed to not backing down. The unstoppable force would then encounter the unmovable object, resulting in a failure to reach agreement (or worse: total war). The meek and the akratic would at least get something, albeit less than their fair share. What kind of game-theoretic equilibrium would be reached in such a post- transition bargaining game is not immediately obvious. Agents might choose more complicated strategies than the ones considered here. One hopes that an equilibrium would be reached centered on some fairness norm that would serve as a Schelling pointa salient feature in a big outcome space which, because of shared expectations, becomes a likely coordination point in an otherwise underdetermined coordination game. Such an equilibrium might be bolstered by some of our evolved dispositions and cultural programming: a common preference for fairness could, assuming we succeed in transferring our values into the post-transition era, bias expectations and strategies in ways that lead to an attractive equilibrium. 44 In any case, the upshot is that with the possibility of strong and flexible forms of precommitment, outcomes of negotiations might take on an unfamiliar guise. Even if the post-transition era started out multipolar, it might be that a singleton would arise almost immediately as a consequence of a negotiated treaty that resolves all important global coordination problems. Some transaction costs, perhaps including monitoring and enforcement costs, might plummet with the new technological capabilities available to advanced machine intelligences. Other costs, in particular costs related to strategic bargaining, might remain significant. But however strategic bargaining affects the nature of the agreement that is reached, there is no clear reason why it would long delay the reaching of some agreement if an agreement were ever to be reached. If no agreement is reached, then some form of fighting might take place; and either one faction might win, and form a singleton around the winning coalition, or the result might be an interminable conflict, in which case a singleton may never form and the overall outcome may fall terribly short of what could and should have been achieved if humanity and its descendants had acted in a more coordinated and cooperative fashion. We have seen that multipolarity, even if it could be achieved in a stable form, would not guarantee an attractive outcome. The original principalagent problem remains unsolved, and burying it under a new set of problems related to post- transition global coordination failures may only make the situation worse. Let us therefore return to the question of how we could safely keep a single superintelligent AI. CHAPTER 12 Acquiring values Capability control is, at best, a temporary and auxiliary measure. Unless the plan is to keep superintelligence bottled up forever, it will be necessary to master motivation selection. But just how could we get some value into an artificial agent, so as to make it pursue that value as its final goal? While the agent is unintelligent, it might lack the capability to understand or even represent any humanly meaningful value. Yet if we delay the procedure until the agent is superintelligent, it may be able to resist our attempt to meddle with its motivation systemand, as we showed in Chapter 7 , it would have convergent instrumental reasons to do so. This value-loading problem is tough, but must be confronted . The value-loading problem It is impossible to enumerate all possible situations a superintelligence might find itself in and to specify for each what action it should take. Similarly, it is impossible to create a list of all possible worlds and assign each of them a value. In any realm significantly more complicated than a game of tic-tac-toe, there are far too many possible states (and state-histories) for exhaustive enumeration to be feasible. A motivation system, therefore, cannot be specified as a comprehensive lookup table. It must instead be expressed more abstractly, as a formula or rule that allows the agent to decide what to do in any given situation. One formal way of specifying such a decision rule is via a utility function. A utility function (as we recall from Chapter 1 ) assigns value to each outcome that might obtain, or more generally to each possible world. Given a utility function, one can define an agent that maximizes expected utility. Such an agent selects at each time the action that has the highest expected utility. (The expected utility is calculated by weighting the utility of each possible world with the subjective probability of that world being the actual world conditional on a particular action being taken.) In reality, the possible outcomes are too numerous for the expected utility of an action to be calculated exactly. Nevertheless, the decision rule and the utility function together determine a normative idealan optimality notionthat an agent might be designed to approximate; and the approximation might get closer as the agent gets more intelligent. 1 Creating a machine that can compute a good approximation of the expected utility of the actions available to it is an AI-complete problem. 2 This chapter addresses another problem, a problem that remains even if the problem of making machines intelligent is solved. We can use this framework of a utility-maximizing agent to consider the predicament of a future seed-AI programmer who intends to solve the control problem by endowing the AI with a final goal that corresponds to some plausible human notion of a worthwhile outcome. The programmer has some particular human value in mind that he would like the AI to promote. To be concrete, let us say that it is happiness. (Similar issues would arise if we the programmer were interested in justice, freedom, glory, human rights, democracy, ecological balance, or self-development.) In terms of the expected utility framework, the programmer is thus looking for a utility function that assigns utility to possible worlds in proportion to the amount of happiness they contain. But how could he express such a utility function in computer code? Computer languages do not contain terms such as happiness as primitives. If such a term is to be used, it must first be defined. It is not enough to define it in terms of other high-level human conceptshappiness is enjoyment of the potentialities inherent in our human nature or some such philosophical paraphrase. The definition must bottom out in terms that appear in the AIs programming language, and ultimately in primitives such as mathematical operators and addresses pointing to the contents of individual memory registers. When one considers the problem from this perspective, one can begin to appreciate the difficulty of the programmers task. Identifying and codifying our own final goals is difficult because human goal representations are complex. Because the complexity is largely transparent to us, however, we often fail to appreciate that it is there. We can compare the case to visual perception. Vision, likewise, might seem like a simple thing, because we do it effortlessly. 3 We only need to open our eyes, so it seems, and a rich, meaningful, eidetic, three-dimensional view of the surrounding environment comes flooding into our minds. This intuitive understanding of vision is like a dukes understanding of his patriarchal household: as far as he is concerned, things simply appear at their appropriate times and places, while the mechanism that produces those manifestations are hidden from view. Yet accomplishing even the simplest visual taskfinding the pepper jar in the kitchenrequires a tremendous amount of computational work. From a noisy time series of two- dimensional patterns of nerve firings, originating in the retina and conveyed to the brain via the optic nerve, the visual cortex must work backwards to reconstruct an interpreted three-dimensional representation of external space. A sizeable portion of our precious one square meter of cortical real estate is zoned for processing visual information, and as you are reading this book, billions of neurons are working ceaselessly to accomplish this task (like so many seamstresses, bent over their sewing machines in a sweatshop, sewing and re- sewing a giant quilt many times a second). In like manner, our seemingly simple values and wishes in fact contain immense complexity. 4 How could our programmer transfer this complexity into a utility function? One approach would be to try to directly code a complete representation of whatever goal we have that we want the AI to pursue; in other words, to write out an explicit utility function. This approach might work if we had extraordinarily simple goals, for example if we wanted to calculate the digits of pithat is, if the only thing we wanted was for the AI to calculate the digits of pi and we were indifferent to any other consequence that would result from the pursuit of this goalrecall our earlier discussion of the failure mode of infrastructure profusion. This explicit coding approach might also have some promise in the use of domesticity motivation selection methods. But if one seeks to promote or protect any plausible human value, and one is building a system intended to become a superintelligent sovereign, then explicitly coding the requisite complete goal representation appears to be hopelessly out of reach. 5 If we cannot transfer human values into an AI by typing out full-blown representations in computer code, what else might we try? This chapter discusses several alternative paths. Some of these may look plausible at first sightbut much less so upon closer examination. Future explorations should focus on those paths that remain open. Solving the value-loading problem is a research challenge worthy of some of the next generations best mathematical talent. We cannot postpone confronting this problem until the AI has developed enough reason to easily understand our intentions. As we saw in the section on convergent instrumental reasons, a generic system will resist attempts to alter its final values. If an agent is not already fundamentally friendly by the time it gains the ability to reflect on its own agency, it will not take kindly to a belated attempt at brainwashing or a plot to replace it with a different agent that better loves its neighbor. Evolutionary selection Evolution has produced an organism with human values at least once. This fact might encourage the belief that evolutionary methods are the way to solve the value-loading problem. There are, however, severe obstacles to achieving safety along this path. We have already pointed to these obstacles at the end of Chapter 10 when we discussed how powerful search processes can be dangerous. Evolution can be viewed as a particular class of search algorithms that involve the alternation of two steps, one expanding a population of solution candidates by generating new candidates according to some relatively simple stochastic rule (such as random mutation or sexual recombination), the other contracting the population by pruning candidates that score poorly when tested by an evaluation function. As with many other types of powerful search, there is the risk that the process will find a solution that satisfies the formally specified search criteria but not our implicit expectations. (This would hold whether one seeks to evolve a digital mind that has the same goals and values as a typical human being, or instead a mind that is, for instance, perfectly moral or perfectly obedient.) The risk would be avoided if we could specify a formal search criterion that accurately represented all dimensions of our goals, rather than just one aspect of what we think we desire. But this is precisely the value-loading problem, and it would of course beg the question in this context to assume that problem solved. There is a further problem: The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are being slowly devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst and disease. 6 Even just within our species, 150,000 persons are destroyed each day while countless more suffer an appalling array of torments and deprivations. 7 Nature might be a great experimentalist, but one who would never pass muster with an ethics review boardcontravening the Helsinki Declaration and every norm of moral decency, left, right, and center. It is important that we not gratuitously replicate such horrors in silico . Mind crime seems especially difficult to avoid when evolutionary methods are used to produce human-like intelligence, at least if the process is meant to look anything like actual biological evolution. 8 Reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning is an area of machine learning that studies techniques whereby agents can learn to maximize some notion of cumulative reward. By constructing an environment in which desired performance is rewarded, a reinforcement-learning agent can be made to learn to solve a wide class of problems (even in the absence of detailed instruction or feedback from the programmers, aside from the reward signal). Often, the learning algorithm involves the gradual construction of some kind of evaluation function, which assigns values to states, stateaction pairs, or policies. (For instance, a program can learn to play backgammon by using reinforcement learning to incrementally improve its evaluation of possible board positions.) The evaluation function, which is continuously updated in light of experience, could be regarded as incorporating a form of learning about value. However, what is being learned is not new final values but increasingly accurate estimates of the instrumental values of reaching particular states (or of taking particular actions in particular states, or of following particular policies). Insofar as a reinforcement-learning agent can be described as having a final goal, that goal remains constant: to maximize future reward. And reward consists of specially designated percepts received from the environment. Therefore, the wireheading syndrome remains a likely outcome in any reinforcement agent that develops a world model sophisticated enough to suggest this alternative way of maximizing reward. 9 These remarks do not imply that reinforcement-learning methods could never be used in a safe seed AI, only that they would have to be subordinated to a motivation system that is not itself organized around the principle of reward maximization. That, however, would require that a solution to the value-loading problem had been found by some other means than reinforcement learning. Associative value accretion Now one might wonder: if the value-loading problem is so tricky, how do we ourselves manage to acquire our values? One possible (oversimplified) model might look something like this. We begin life with some relatively simple starting preferences (e.g. an aversion to noxious stimuli) together with a set of dispositions to acquire additional preferences in response to various possible experiences (e.g. we might be disposed to form a preference for objects and behaviors that we find to be valued and rewarded in our culture). Both the simple starting preferences and the dispositions are innate, having been shaped by natural and sexual selection over evolutionary timescales. Yet which preferences we end up with as adults depends on life events. Much of the information content in our final values is thus acquired from our experiences rather than preloaded in our genomes. For example, many of us love another person and thus place great final value on his or her well-being. What is required to represent such a value? Many elements are involved, but consider just two: a representation of person and a representation of well-being. These concepts are not directly coded in our DNA. Rather, the DNA contains instructions for building a brain, which, when placed in a typical human environment, will over the course of several years develop a world model that includes concepts of persons and of well-being. Once formed, these concepts can be used to represent certain meaningful values. But some mechanism needs to be innately present that leads to values being formed around these concepts, rather than around other acquired concepts (like that of a flowerpot or a corkscrew). The details of how this mechanism works are not well understood. In humans, the mechanism is probably complex and multifarious. It is easier to understand the phenomenon if we consider it in a more rudimentary form, such as filial imprinting in nidifugous birds, where the newly hatched chick acquires a desire for physical proximity to an object that presents a suitable moving stimulus within the first day after hatching. Which particular object the chick desires to be near depends on its experience; only the general disposition to imprint in this way is genetically determined. Analogously, Harry might place a final value on Sallys well-being; but had the twain never met, he might have fallen in love with somebody else instead, and his final values would have been different. The ability of our genes to code for the construction of a goal-acquiring mechanism explains how we come to have final goals of great informational complexity, greater than could be contained in the genome itself. We may consequently consider whether we might build the motivation system for an artificial intelligence on the same principle. That is, instead of specifying complex values directly, could we specify some mechanism that leads to the acquisition of those values when the AI interacts with a suitable environment? Mimicking the value-accretion process that takes place in humans seems difficult. The relevant genetic mechanism in humans is the product of eons of work by evolution, work that might be hard to recapitulate. Moreover, the mechanism is presumably closely tailored to the human neurocognitive architecture and therefore not applicable in machine intelligences other than whole brain emulations. And if whole brain emulations of sufficient fidelity were available, it would seem easier to start with an adult brain that comes with full representations of some human values preloaded. 10 Seeking to implement a process of value accretion closely mimicking that of human biology therefore seems an unpromising line of attack on the value- loading problem. But perhaps we might design a more unabashedly artificial substitute mechanism that would lead an AI to import high-fidelity representations of relevant complex values into its goal system? For this to succeed, it may not be necessary to give the AI exactly the same evaluative dispositions as a biological human. That may not even be desirable as an aim human nature, after all, is flawed and all too often reveals a proclivity to evil which would be intolerable in any system poised to attain a decisive strategic advantage. Better, perhaps, to aim for a motivation system that departs from the human norm in systematic ways, such as by having a more robust tendency to acquire final goals that are altruistic, compassionate, or high-minded in ways we would recognize as reflecting exceptionally good character if they were present in a human person. To count as improvements, however, such deviations from the human norm would have to be pointed in very particular directions rather than at random; and they would continue to presuppose the existence of a largely undisturbed anthropocentric frame of reference to provide humanly meaningful evaluative generalizations (so as to avoid the kind of perverse instantiation of superficially plausible goal descriptions that we examined in Chapter 8 ). It is an open question whether this is feasible. One further issue with associative value accretion is that the AI might disable the accretion mechanism. As we saw in Chapter 7 , goal-system integrity is a convergent instrumental value. When the AI reaches a certain stage of cognitive development it may start to regard the continued operation of the accretion mechanism as a corrupting influence. 11 This is not necessarily a bad thing, but care would have to be taken to make the sealing-up of the goal system occur at the right moment, after the appropriate values have been accreted but before they have been overwritten by additional unintended accretions. Motivational scaffolding Another approach to the value-loading problem is what we may refer to as motivational scaffolding. It involves giving the seed AI an interim goal system, with relatively simple final goals that we can represent by means of explicit coding or some other feasible method. Once the AI has developed more sophisticated representational faculties, we replace this interim scaffold goal system with one that has different final goals. This successor goal system then governs the AI as it develops into a full-blown superintelligence. Because the scaffold goals are not just instrumental but final goals for the AI, the AI might be expected to resist having them replaced (goal-content integrity being a convergent instrumental value). This creates a hazard. If the AI succeeds in thwarting the replacement of its scaffold goals, the method fails. To avoid this failure mode, precautions are necessary. For example, capability control methods could be applied to limit the AIs powers until the mature motivation system has been installed. In particular, one could try to stunt its cognitive development at a level that is safe but that allows it to represent the values that we want to include in its ultimate goals. To do this, one might try to differentially stunt certain types of intellectual abilities, such as those required for strategizing and Machiavellian scheming, while allowing (apparently) more innocuous abilities to develop to a somewhat higher level. One could also try to use motivation selection methods to induce a more collaborative relationship between the seed AI and the programmer team. For example, one might include in the scaffold motivation system the goal of welcoming online guidance from the programmers, including allowing them to replace any of the AIs current goals. 12 Other scaffold goals might include being transparent to the programmers about its values and strategies, and developing an architecture that is easy for the programmers to understand and that facilitates the later implementation of a humanly meaningful final goal, as well as domesticity motivations (such as limiting the use of computational resources). One could even imagine endowing the seed AI with the sole final goal of replacing itself with a different final goal, one which may have been only implicitly or indirectly specified by the programmers. Some of the issues raised by the use of such a self-replacing scaffold goal also arise in the context of the value learning approach, which is discussed in the next subsection. Some further issues will be discussed in Chapter 13 . The motivational scaffolding approach is not without downsides. One is that it carries the risk that the AI could become too powerful while it is still running on its interim goal system. It may then thwart the human programmers efforts to install the ultimate goal system (either by forceful resistance or by quiet subversion). The old final goals may then remain in charge as the seed AI develops into a full-blown superintelligence. Another downside is that installing the ultimately intended goals in a human-level AI is not necessarily that much easier than doing so in a more primitive AI. A human-level AI is more complex and might have developed an architecture that is opaque and difficult to alter. A seed AI, by contrast, is like a tabula rasa on which the programmers can inscribe whatever structures they deem helpful. This downside could be flipped into an upside if one succeeded in giving the seed AI scaffold goals that made it want to develop an architecture helpful to the programmers in their later efforts to install the ultimate final values. However, it is unclear how easy it would be to give a seed AI scaffold goals with this property, and it is also unclear how even an ideally motivated seed AI would be capable of doing a much better job than the human programming team at developing a good architecture. Value learning We come now to an important but subtle approach to the value-loading problem. It involves using the AIs intelligence to learn the values we want it to pursue. To do this, we must provide a criterion for the AI that at least implicitly picks out some suitable set of values. We could then build the AI to act according to its best estimates of these implicitly defined values. It would continually refine its estimates as it learns more about the world and gradually unpacks the implications of the value-determining criterion. In contrast to the scaffolding approach, which gives the AI an interim scaffold goal and later replaces it with a different final goal, the value learning approach retains an unchanging final goal throughout the AIs developmental and operational phases. Learning does not change the goal. It changes only the AIs beliefs about the goal. The AI thus must be endowed with a criterion that it can use to determine which percepts constitute evidence in favor of some hypothesis about what the ultimate goal is, and which percepts constitute evidence against. Specifying a suitable criterion could be difficult. Part of the difficulty, however, pertains to the problem of creating artificial general intelligence in the first place, which requires a powerful learning mechanism that can discover the structure of the environment from limited sensory inputs. That problem we can set aside here. But even modulo a solution to how to create superintelligent AI, there remain the difficulties that arise specifically from the value-loading problem. With the value learning approach, these take the form of needing to define a criterion that connects perceptual bitstrings to hypotheses about values. Before delving into the details of how value learning could be implemented, it might be helpful to illustrate the general idea with an example. Suppose we write down a description of a set of values on a piece of paper. We fold the paper and put it in a sealed envelope. We then create an agent with human-level general intelligence, and give it the following final goal: Maximize the realization of the values described in the envelope. What will this agent do? The agent does not initially know what is written in the envelope. But it can form hypotheses, and it can assign those hypotheses probabilities based on their priors and any available empirical data. For instance, the agent might have encountered other examples of human-authored texts, or it might have observed some general patterns of human behavior. This would enable it to make guesses. One does not need a degree in psychology to predict that the note is more likely to describe a value such as minimize injustice and unnecessary suffering or maximize returns to shareholders than a value such as cover all lakes with plastic shopping bags. When the agent makes a decision, it seeks to take actions that would be effective at realizing the values it believes are most likely to be described in the letter. Importantly, the agent would see a high instrumental value in learning more about what the letter says. The reason is that for almost any final value that might be described in the letter, that value is more likely to be realized if the agent finds out what it is, since the agent will then pursue that value more effectively. The agent would also discover the convergent instrumental reasons described in Chapter 7 goal system integrity, cognitive enhancement, resource acquisition, and so forth. Yet, assuming that the agent assigns a sufficiently high probability to the values described in the letter involving human welfare, it would not pursue these instrumental values by immediately turning the planet into computronium and thereby exterminating the human species, because doing so would risk permanently destroying its ability to realize its final value. We can liken this kind of agent to a barge attached to several tugboats that pull in different directions. Each tugboat corresponds to a hypothesis about the agents final value. The engine power of each tugboat corresponds to the associated hypothesiss probability, and thus changes as new evidence comes in, producing adjustments in the barges direction of motion. The resultant force should move the barge along a trajectory that facilitates learning about the (implicit) final value while avoiding the shoals of irreversible destruction; and later, when the open sea of more definite knowledge of the final value is reached, the one tugboat that still exerts significant force will pull the barge toward the realization of the discovered value along the straightest or most propitious route. The envelope and barge metaphors illustrate the principle underlying the value learning approach, but they pass over a number of critical technical issues. They come into clearer focus once we start to develop the approach within a formal framework (see Box 10 ). One outstanding issue is how to endow the AI with a goal such as Maximize the realization of the values described in the envelope. (In the terminology of Box 10 , how to define the value criterion.) To do this, it is necessary to identify the place where the values are described. In our example, this requires making a successful reference to the letter in the envelope. Though this might seem trivial, it is not without pitfalls. To mention just one: it is critical that the reference be not simply to a particular external physical object but to an object at a particular time. Otherwise the AI may determine that the best way to attain its goal is by overwriting the original value description with one that provides an easier target (such as the value that for every integer there be a larger integer). This done, the AI could lean back and crack its knucklesthough more likely a malignant failure would ensue, for reasons we discussed in Chapter 8 . So now we face the question of how to define time. We could point to a clock and say, Time is defined by the movements of this devicebut this could fail if the AI conjectures that it can manipulate time by moving the hands on the clock, a conjecture which would indeed be correct if time were given the aforesaid definition. (In a realistic case, matters would be further complicated by the fact that the relevant values are not going to be conveniently described in a letter; more likely, they would have to be inferred from observations of pre-existing structures that implicitly contain the relevant information, such as human brains.) Box 10 Formalizing value learning Introducing some formal notation can help us see some things more clearly. However, readers who dislike formalism can skip this part. Consider a simplified framework in which an agent interacts with its environment in a finite number of discrete cycles. 13 In cycle k , the agent performs action y k , and then receives the percept x k . The interaction history of an agent with lifespan m is a string y 1 x 1 y 2 x 2 y m x m (which we can abbreviate as yx 1: m or yx m ). In each cycle, the agent selects an action based on the percept sequence it has received to date. Consider first a reinforcement learner. An optimal reinforcement learner (AI- RL) is one that maximizes expected future rewards. It obeys the equation 14 The reward sequence r k , , r m is implied by the percept sequence x k:m , since the reward that the agent receives in a given cycle is part of the percept that the agent receives in that cycle. As argued earlier, this kind of reinforcement learning is unsuitable in the present context because a sufficiently intelligent agent will realize that it could secure maximum reward if it were able to directly manipulate its reward signal (wireheading). For weak agents, this need not be a problem, since we can physically prevent them from tampering with their own reward channel. We can also control their environment so that they receive rewards only when they act in ways that are agreeable to us. But a reinforcement learner has a strong incentive to eliminate this artificial dependence of its rewards on our whims and wishes. Our relationship with a reinforcement learner is therefore fundamentally antagonistic. If the agent is strong, this spells danger. Variations of the wireheading syndrome can also affect systems that do not seek an external sensory reward signal but whose goals are defined as the attainment of some internal state. For example, in so-called actorcritic systems, there is an actor module that selects actions in order to minimize the disapproval of a separate critic module that computes how far the agents behavior falls short of a given performance measure. The problem with this setup is that the actor module may realize that it can minimize disapproval by modifying the critic or eliminating it altogethermuch like a dictator who dissolves the parliament and nationalizes the press. For limited systems, the problem can be avoided simply by not giving the actor module any means of modifying the critic module. A sufficiently intelligent and resourceful actor module, however, could always gain access to the critic module (which, after all, is merely a physical process in some computer). 15 Before we get to the value learner, let us consider as an intermediary step what has been called an observation-utility maximizer (AI-OUM). It is obtained by replacing the reward series ( r k + + r m ) in the AI-RL with a utility function that is allowed to depend on the entire future interaction history of the AI: This formulation provides a way around the wireheading problem because a utility function defined over an entire interaction history could be designed to penalize interaction histories that show signs of self-deception (or of a failure on the part of the agent to invest sufficiently in obtaining an accurate view of reality). The AI-OUM thus makes it possible in principle to circumvent the wireheading problem. Availing ourselves of this possibility, however, would require that we specify a suitable utility function over the class of possible interaction historiesa task that looks forbiddingly difficult. It may be more natural to specify utility functions directly in terms of possible worlds (or properties of possible worlds, or theories about the world) rather than in terms of an agents own interaction histories. If we use this approach, we could reformulate and simplify the AI-OUM optimality notion: Here, E is the total evidence available to the agent (at the time when it is making its decision), and U is a utility function that assigns utility to some class of possible worlds. The optimal agent chooses the act that maximizes expected utility. An outstanding problem with these formulations is the difficulty of defining the utility function U . This, finally, returns us to the value-loading problem. To enable the utility function to be learned, we must expand our formalism to allow for uncertainty over utility functions. This can be done as follows (AI-VL): 16 Here, (.) is a function from utility functions to propositions about utility functions. ( U ) is the proposition that the utility function U satisfies the value criterion expressed by . 17 To decide which action to perform, one could hence proceed as follows: First, compute the conditional probability of each possible world w (given available evidence and on the supposition that action y is to be performed). Second, for each possible utility function U , compute the conditional probability that U satisfies the value criterion (conditional on w being the actual world). Third, for each possible utility function U , compute the utility of possible world w . Fourth, combine these quantities to compute the expected utility of action y . Fifth, repeat this procedure for each possible action, and perform the action found to have the highest expected utility (using some arbitrary method to break ties). As described, this procedurewhich involves giving explicit and separate consideration to each possible worldis, of course, wildly computationally intractable. The AI would have to use computational shortcuts that approximate this optimality notion. The question, then, is how to define this value criterion . 18 Once the AI has an adequate representation of the value criterion, it could in principle use its general intelligence to gather information about which possible worlds are most likely to be the actual one. It could then apply the criterion, for each such plausible possible world w , to find out which utility function satisfies the criterion in w . One can thus regard the AI-VL formula as a way of identifying and separating out this key challenge in the value learning approachthe challenge of how to represent . The formalism also brings to light a number of other issues (such as how to define , , and ) which would need to be resolved before the approach could be made to work. 19 Another issue in coding the goal Maximize the realization of the values described in the envelope is that even if all the correct values were described in a letter, and even if the AIs motivation system were successfully keyed to this source, the AI might not interpret the descriptions the way we intended. This would create a risk of perverse instantiation, as discussed in Chapter 8 . To clarify, the difficulty here is not so much how to ensure that the AI can understand human intentions. A superintelligence should easily develop such understanding. Rather, the difficulty is ensuring that the AI will be motivated to pursue the described values in the way we intended. This is not guaranteed by the AIs ability to understand our intentions: an AI could know exactly what we meant and yet be indifferent to that interpretation of our words (being motivated instead by some other interpretation of the words or being indifferent to our words altogether). The difficulty is compounded by the desideratum that, for reasons of safety, the correct motivation should ideally be installed in the seed AI before it becomes capable of fully representing human concepts or understanding human intentions. This requires that somehow a cognitive framework be created, with a particular location in that framework designated in the AIs motivation system as the repository of its final value. But the cognitive framework itself must be revisable, so as to allow the AI to expand its representational capacities as it learns more about the world and grows more intelligent. The AI might undergo the equivalent of scientific revolutions, in which its worldview is shaken up and it perhaps suffers ontological crises in which it discovers that its previous ways of thinking about values were based on confusions and illusions. Yet starting at a sub-human level of development and continuing throughout all its subsequent development into a galactic superintelligence, the AIs conduct is to be guided by an essentially unchanging final value, a final value that becomes better understood by the AI in direct consequence of its general intellectual progress and likely quite differently understood by the mature AI than it was by its original programmers, though not different in a random or hostile way but in a benignly appropriate way. How to accomplish this remains an open question. 20 (See Box 11 .) In summary, it is not yet known how to use the value learning approach to install plausible human values (though see Box 12 for some examples of recent ideas). At present, the approach should be viewed as a research program rather than an available technique. If it could be made to work, it might constitute the most ideal solution to the value-loading problem. Among other benefits, it would seem to offer a natural way to prevent mind crime, since a seed AI that makes reasonable guesses about which values its programmers might have installed would anticipate that mind crime is probably negatively evaluated by those values, and thus best avoided, at least until more definitive information has been obtained. Last, but not least, there is the question of what to write in the envelope or, less metaphorically, the question of which values we should try to get the AI to learn. But this issue is common to all approaches to the AI value-loading problem. We return to it in Chapter 13 . Box 11 An AI that wants to be friendly Eliezer Yudkowsky has tried to describe some features of a seed AI architecture intended to enable the kind of behavior described in the text above. In his terminology, the AI would use external reference semantics. 21 To illustrate the basic idea, let us suppose that we want the system to be friendly. The system starts out with the goal of trying to instantiate property F but does not initially know much about what F is. It might just know that F is some abstract property and that when the programmers speak of friendliness, they are probably trying to convey information about F . Since the AIs final goal is to instantiate F , an important instrumental value is to learn more about what F is. As the AI discovers more about F , its behavior is increasingly guided by the actual content of F . Thus, hopefully, the AI becomes increasingly friendly the more it learns and the smarter it gets. The programmers can help this process along, and reduce the risk of the AI making some catastrophic mistake while its understanding of F is still incomplete, by providing the AI with programmer affirmations, hypotheses about the nature and content of F to which an initially high probability is assigned. For instance, the hypothesis misleading the programmers is unfriendly can be given a high prior probability. These programmer affirmations, however, are not true by definitionthey are not unchallengeable axioms about the concept of friendliness. Rather, they are initial hypotheses about friendliness, hypotheses to which a rational AI will assign a high probability at least for as long as it trusts the programmers epistemic capacities more than its own. Yudkowskys proposal also involves the use of what he called causal validity semantics. The idea here is that the AI should do not exactly what the programmers told it to do but rather (something like) what they were trying to tell it to do. While the programmers are trying to explain to the seed AI what friendliness is, they might make errors in their explanations. Moreover, the programmers themselves may not fully understand the true nature of friendliness. One would therefore want the AI to have the ability to correct errors in the programmers thinking, and to infer the true or intended meaning from whatever imperfect explanations the programmers manage to provide. For example, the AI should be able to represent the causal processes whereby the programmers learn and communicate about friendliness. Thus, to pick a trivial example, the AI should understand that there is a possibility that a programmer might make a typo while inputting information about friendliness, and the AI should then seek to correct the error. More generally, the AI should seek to correct for whatever distortive influences may have corrupted the flow of information about friendliness as it passed from its source through the programmers to the AI (where distortive is an epistemic category). Ideally, as the AI matures, it should overcome any cognitive biases and other more fundamental misconceptions that may have prevented its programmers from fully understanding what friendliness is. Box 12 Two recent (half-baked) ideas What we might call the Hail Mary approach is based on the hope that elsewhere in the universe there exist (or will come to exist) civilizations that successfully manage the intelligence explosion, and that they end up with values that significantly overlap with our own. We could then try to build our AI so that it is motivated to do what these other superintelligences want it to do. 22 The advantage is that this might be easier than to build our AI to be motivated to do what we want directly. For this scheme to work it is not necessary that our AI can establish communication with any alien superintelligence. Rather, our AIs actions would be guided by its estimates of what the alien superintelligences would want it to do. Our AI would model the likely outcomes of intelligence explosions elsewhere, and as it becomes superintelligent itself its estimates should become increasingly accurate. Perfect knowledge is not required. There may be a range of plausible outcomes of intelligence explosions, and our AI would then do its best to accommodate the preferences of the various different kinds of superintelligence that might emerge, weighted by probability. This version of the Hail Mary approach requires that we construct a final value for our AI that refers to the preferences of other superintelligences. Exactly how to do this is not yet clear. However, superintelligent agents might be structurally distinctive enough that we could write a piece of code that would function as a detector that would look at the world model in our developing AI and designate the representational elements that correspond to the presence of a superintelligence. The detector would then, somehow, extract the preferences of the superintelligence in question (as it is represented within our own AI). 23 If we could create such a detector, we could then use it to define our AIs final values. One challenge is that we may need to create the detector before we know what representational framework our AI will develop. The detector may thus need to query an unknown representational framework and extract the preferences of whatever superintelligence may be represented therein. This looks difficult, but perhaps some clever solution can be found. 24 If the basic setup could be made to work, various refinements immediately suggest themselves. For example, rather than aiming to follow (some weighted composition of) the preferences of every alien superintelligence, our AIs final value could incorporate a filter to select a subset of alien superintelligences for obeisance (with the aim of selecting ones whose values are closer to our own). For instance, we might use criteria pertaining to a superintelligences causal origin to determine whether to include it in the obeisance set. Certain properties of its origination (which we might be able to define in structural terms) may correlate with the degree to which the resultant superintelligence could be expected to share our values. Perhaps we wish to place more trust in superintelligences whose causal origins trace back to a whole brain emulation, or to a seed AI that did not make heavy use of evolutionary algorithms or that emerged slowly in a way suggestive of a controlled takeoff. (Taking causal origins into account would also let us avoid over-weighting superintelligences that create multiple copies of themselvesindeed would let us avoid creating an incentive for them to do so.) Many other refinements would also be possible. The Hail Mary approach requires faith that there are other superintelligences out there that sufficiently share our values. 25 This makes the approach non-ideal. However, the technical obstacles facing the Hail Mary approach, though very substantial, might possibly be less formidable than those confronting alternative approaches. Exploring non-ideal but more easily implementable approaches can make sensenot with the intention of using them, but to have something to fall back upon in case an ideal solution should not be ready in time. Another idea for how to solve the value-loading problem has recently been proposed by Paul Christiano. 26 Like the Hail Mary, it is a value learning method that tries to define the value criterion by means of a trick rather than through laborious construction. By contrast to the Hail Mary, it does not presuppose the existence of other superintelligent agents that we could point to as role models for our own AI. Christianos proposal is somewhat resistant to brief explanation it involves a series of arcane considerationsbut we can try to at least gesture at its main elements. Suppose we could obtain (a) a mathematically precise specification of a particular human brain and (b) a mathematically well-specified virtual environment that contains an idealized computer with an arbitrarily large amount of memory and CPU power. Given (a) and (b), we could define a utility function U as the output the human brain would produce after interacting with this environment. U would be a mathematically well-defined object, albeit one which (because of computational limitations) we may be unable to describe explicitly . Nevertheless, U could serve as the value criterion for a value learning AI, which could use various heuristics for assigning probabilities to hypotheses about what U implies. Intuitively, we want U to be the utility function that a suitably prepared human would output if she had the advantage of being able use an arbitrarily large amount of computing powerenough computing power, for example, to run astronomical numbers of copies of herself to assist her with her analysis of specifying a utility function, or to help her devise a better process for going about this analysis. (We are here foreshadowing a theme, coherent extrapolated volition, which will be further explored in Chapter 13 .) It would seem relatively easy to specify the idealized environment: we can give a mathematical description of an abstract computer with arbitrarily large capacity; and in other respects we could use a virtual reality program that gives a mathematical description of, say, a single room with a computer terminal in it (instantiating the abstract computer). But how to obtain a mathematically precise description of a particular human brain? The obvious way would be through whole brain emulation, but what if the technology for emulation is not available in time? This is where Christianos proposal offers a key innovation. Christiano observes that in order to obtain a mathematically well-specified value criterion, we do not need a practically useful computational model of a mind, a model we could run. We just need a (possibly implicit and hopelessly complicated) mathematical definition and this may be much easier to attain. Using functional neuroimaging and other measurements, we can perhaps collect gigabytes of data about the inputoutput behavior of a selected human. If we collect a sufficient amount of data, then it might be that the simplest mathematical model that accounts for all this data is in fact an emulation of the particular human in question. Although it would be computationally intractable for us to find this simplest model from the data, it could be perfectly possible for us to define the model, by referring to the data and a using a mathematically well-defined simplicity measure (such as some variant of the Kolmogorov complexity, which we encountered in Box 1 , Chapter 1 ). 27 Emulation modulation The value-loading problem looks somewhat different for whole brain emulation than it does for artificial intelligence. Methods that presuppose a fine-grained understanding and control of algorithms and architecture are not applicable to emulations. On the other hand, the augmentation motivation selection method inapplicable to de novo artificial intelligenceis available to be used with emulations (or enhanced biological brains). 28 The augmentation method could be combined with techniques to tweak the inherited goals of the system. For example, one could try to manipulate the motivational state of an emulation by administering the digital equivalent of psychoactive substances (or, in the case of biological systems, the actual chemicals). Even now it is possible to pharmacologically manipulate values and motivations to a limited extent. 29 The pharmacopeia of the future may contain drugs with more specific and predictable effects. The digital medium of emulations should greatly facilitate such developments, by making controlled experimentation easier and by rendering all cerebral parts directly addressable. Just as when biological test subjects are used, research on emulations would get entangled in ethical complications, not all of which could be brushed aside with a consent form. Such entanglements could slow progress along the emulation path (because of regulation or moral restraint), perhaps especially hindering studies on how to manipulate the motivational structure of emulations. The result could be that emulations are augmented to potentially dangerous superintelligent levels of cognitive ability before adequate work has been done to test or adjust their final goals. Another possible effect of the moral entanglements might be to give the lead to less scrupulous teams and nations. Conversely, were we to relax our moral standards for experimenting with digital human minds, we could become responsible for a substantial amount of harm and wrongdoing, which is obviously undesirable. Other things equal, these considerations favor taking some alternative path that does not require the extensive use of digital human research subjects in a strategically high-stakes situation. The issue, however, is not clear-cut. One could argue that whole brain emulation research is less likely to involve moral violations than artificial intelligence research, on the grounds that we are more likely to recognize when an emulation mind qualifies for moral status than we are to recognize when a completely alien or synthetic mind does so. If certain kinds of AIs, or their subprocesses, have a significant moral status that we fail to recognize, the consequent moral violations could be extensive. Consider, for example, the happy abandon with which contemporary programmers create reinforcement- learning agents and subject them to aversive stimuli. Countless such agents are created daily, not only in computer science laboratories but in many applications, including some computer games containing sophisticated non-player characters. Presumably, these agents are still too primitive to have any moral status. But how confident can we really be that this is so? More importantly, how confident can we be that we will know to stop in time, before our programs become capable of experiencing morally relevant suffering? (We will return in Chapter 14 to some of the broader strategic questions that arise when we compare the desirability of emulation and artificial intelligence paths.) Institution design Some intelligent systems consist of intelligent parts that are themselves capable of agency. Firms and states exemplify this in the human world: whilst largely composed of humans they can, for some purposes, be viewed as autonomous agents in their own right. The motivations of such composite systems depend not only on the motivations of their constituent subagents but also on how those subagents are organized. For instance, a group that is organized under strong dictatorship might behave as if it had a will that was identical to the will of the subagent that occupies the dictator role, whereas a democratic group might sometimes behave more as if it had a will that was a composite or average of the wills of its various constituents. But one can also imagine governance institutions that would make an organization behave in a way that is not a simple function of the wills of its subagents. (Theoretically, at least, there could exist a totalitarian state that everybody hated, because the state had mechanisms to prevent its citizens from coordinating a revolt. Each citizen could be worse off by revolting alone than by playing their part in the state machinery.) By designing appropriate institutions for a composite system, one could thus try to shape its effective motivation. In Chapter 9 , we discussed social integration as a possible capability control method. But there we focused on the incentives faced by an agent as a consequence of its existence in a social world of near-equals. Here we are focusing on what happens inside a given agent: how its will is determined by its internal organization. We are therefore looking at a motivation selection method. Moreover, since this kind of internal institution design does not depend on large-scale social engineering or reform, it is a method that might be available to an individual project developing superintelligence even if the wider socioeconomic or international milieu is less than ideally favorable. Institution design is perhaps most plausible in contexts where it would be combined with augmentation. If we could start with agents that are already suitably motivated or that have human-like motivations, institutional arrangements could be used as an extra safeguard to increase the chances that the system will stay on course. For example, suppose that we start with some well-motivated human-like agentslet us say emulations. We want to boost the cognitive capacities of these agents, but we worry that the enhancements might corrupt their motivations. One way to deal with this challenge would be to set up a system in which individual emulations function as subagents. When a new enhancement is introduced, it is first applied to a small subset of the subagents. Its effects are then studied by a review panel composed of subagents who have not yet had the enhancement applied to them. Only when these peers have satisfied themselves that the enhancement is not corrupting is it rolled out to the wider subagent population. If the enhanced subagents are found to be corrupted, they are not given further enhancements and are excluded from key decision-making functions (at least until the system as a whole has advanced to a point where the corrupted subagents can be safely reintegrated). 30 Although the corrupted subagents might have gained some advantage from the enhancement, the institutional structure in which they are embedded, and the fact that they constitute a small minority of all subagents, would hopefully prevent them from seizing power or spreading their corruption to the overall system. Thus, the collective intelligence and capability of the system could be gradually enhanced in a sequence of small steps, where the soundness of each step is verified by subagents only slightly less capable than the new subagents that are introduced in that step. The amount of safety obtainable by this kind of institution design is limited by the accuracy of the tests that are used to evaluate the enhanced subagents. The problem of test construction is complicated by the fact that the test batteries could only be validated within the pre-existing range of cognitive ability yet must be applied to agents outside this range. One could mitigate this problem by taking small enhancement steps and by letting the test run for a long time. Such caution, however, would raise the cost and slow progress (which, if a race dynamic is occurring, could mean a project employing these safety measures would place itself at a disadvantage). Even with small steps and extensive testing, there would remain some risk of subtle flaws being introduced, leading to a gradual corruption of the goal system, a corruption that might become manifest only when the system reaches superintelligence. This risk could be reduced by letting the testing condition extend for many steps of cognitive enhancement, so that even agents that have been initially certified as sound and that have received several subsequent enhancements would continue to be under review by a panel of unmodified and uncorrupted original peers and would remain subject to reversion. Ideally, the testing should be ongoing rather than confined to an initial evaluation period. Human-level subagents have the ability to strategize and might thus choose to conceal certain goals while their behavior was being monitored. To enable continuous testing, a hierarchy might be created in which subagents at a certain level of capability are tasked with monitoring subagents at a somewhat higher level of capability. At the bottom of the capability hierarchy (but at the top of the power hierarchy) would sit the relatively dumb and slow principal. This human principal would be like a demented king who reigns over an incompetent court that oversees a mediocre administration which governs a capable people. Alternatively, he might be likened to the evolutionarily ancient reptilian brain which ensures that the newer and much cleverer neocortex is employed in the service of goals such as feeding and copulation. One might question whether such an inverse meritocracy could remain stable. If the bulk of the superintelligent subagents were found to be corrupt, and the humans in charge of the whole thing attempted to roll back many of the preceding enhancements, would the institutional structure be strong enough to withstand the opposition that such a move would engender? In the context of historical or contemporary human societies, the answer perhaps is that this would be implausible. (Not that the most capable people consistently rise to power, but we are not literally ruled by chimpanzees either.) The issue is less clear, however, in a context where society is implemented as software. 31 Imagine a digital hierarchy that has one highly trained police agent for every two proletarians. It also has one special-police agent for every two police agents. It also has one special-special-police agent for every two special-police agents and so forth, so that each layer of overseers has at least half the numbers of the layer it oversees. Imagine, further, that this society is architected in such a way that a supervisor has big advantages over his subordinates. For example, the supervisor is able to monitor and record everything his subordinates say and do, whereas the supervisor himself is hidden behind a one-way glass, so that his subordinates can only hear the orders and instructions that the superior chooses to transmit. Imagine that supervisors have a panel of buttons that they can press at any time to cause a subordinate to be punished or rewarded, paused, deleted, or reverted to an earlier state. These capabilities would greatly boost the powers of a supervising agent, beyond what has been possible historically in even the most totalitarian of organizations. Even this does not exhaust the possible instruments of control. Supervisors might also have at their disposal realistic virtual reality simulations that they can use to probe subordinates reactions to hypothetical scenarios (such as simulated offers to join a conspiracy or to slack when they think nobody is watching). Supervisors might, additionally, have the ability to eavesdrop on internal monologues in the subordinates minds and to directly manipulate their emotional states. The upshot is a series of massive advantages for the supervisor. 32 Each supervisor would be a subordinate to another, higher-level supervisor, who would monitor his every move and make sure he did not slacken in the execution of his managerial duties. With this kind of arrangement, it might be possible for the structure to be stable even if each supervisory level is intellectually somewhat weaker than the level it supervises. 33 And the entire structure, which could include many highly superintelligent agents, may be controlled by a small number of humans with root access. 34 The cost of such an internal control structure would be significant but not necessarily prohibitive. For example, in the model where each level of supervision has half the numbers of the layer below, the extra computational overhead is bounded at a mere 100% of what the proletarian part of the system costsless if the dumber boss layers require fewer computations per subagent. Oversight could be tightened by increasing the ratio, or cost lowered by decreasing it. The extra computational cost would be a major factor in a competitive market scenario (cf. Chapter 11 ) but looks affordable in the context of a project that is not facing strong immediate competition. There would also be a cost in terms of the development time needed to create and test these supervisory functionalities. A well-resourced project could reduce this time cost by parallelizing the development of the control structure with the development of the machine intelligence; but the extra task load could be prohibitive for smaller projects and for projects caught in a close technology race. One other type of cost also deserves consideration: the risk of mind crimes being committed in this kind of structure. 35 As described, the institution sounds like a rather horrible North Korean labor camp. Yet there are ways of at least mitigating the moral problems with running this kind of institution, even if the subagents contained in the institution are emulations with full human moral status. At a minimum, the system could rely on volunteering emulations. Each subagent could have the option at any time of withdrawing its participation. 36 Terminated emulations could be stored to memory, with a commitment to restart them under much more ideal conditions once the dangerous phase of the intelligence explosion is over. Meanwhile, subagents who chose to participate could be housed in very comfortable virtual environments and allowed ample time for sleep and recreation. These measures would impose a cost, one that should be manageable for a well-resourced project under noncompetitive conditions. In a highly competitive situation, the cost may be unaffordable unless an enterprise could be assured that its competitors would incur the same cost. In the example, we imagined the subagents as emulations. One might wonder, does the institution design approach require that the subagents be anthropomorphic? Or is it equally applicable to systems composed of artificial subagents? Ones first thought here might be skeptical. One notes that despite our plentiful experience with human-like agents, we still cannot precisely predict the outbreak or outcomes of revolutions; social science can, at most, describe some statistical tendencies. 37 Since we cannot reliably predict the stability of social structures for ordinary human beings (about which we have much data), it is tempting to infer that we have little hope of precision-engineering stable social structures for cognitively enhanced human-like agents (about which we have no data), and that we have still less hope of doing so for advanced artificial agents (which are not even similar to agents that we have data about). Yet the matter is not so cut-and-dried. Humans and human-like beings are complex; but artificial agents could have relatively simple architectures. Artificial agents could also have simple and explicitly characterized motivations. Furthermore, digital agents in general (whether emulations or artificial intelligences) are copyable: an affordance that may revolutionize management, much like interchangeable parts revolutionized manufacturing. These differences, together with the opportunity to work with agents that are initially powerless and to create institutional structures that use the various abovementioned control measures, might combine to make it possible to achieve particular institutional outcomessuch as a system that does not revoltmore reliably than if one were working with human beings under historical conditions. But then again, artificial agents might lack many of the attributes that help us predict the behavior of human-like agents. Artificial agents need not have any of the social emotions that bind human behavior, emotions such as fear, pride, and remorse. Nor need artificial agents develop attachments to friends and family. Nor need they exhibit the unconscious body language that makes it difficult for us humans to conceal our intentions. These deficits might destabilize institutions of artificial agents. Moreover, artificial agents might be capable of making big leaps in cognitive performance as a result of seemingly small changes in their algorithms or architecture. Ruthlessly optimizing artificial agents might be willing to take extreme gambles from which humans would shrink. 38 And superintelligent agents might show a surprising ability to coordinate with little or no communication (e.g. by internally modeling each others hypothetical responses to various contingencies). These and other differences could make sudden institutional failure more likely, even in the teeth of what seem like Kevlar-clad methods of social control. It is unclear, therefore, how promising the institution design approach is, and whether it has a greater chance of working with anthropomorphic than with artificial agents. It might be thought that creating an institution with appropriate checks and balances could only increase safetyor, at any rate, not reduce safetyso that from a risk-mitigation perspective it would always be best if the method were used. But even this cannot be said with certainty. The approach adds parts and complexity, and thus may also introduce new ways for things to go wrong that do not exist in the case of an agent that does not have intelligent subagents as parts. Nevertheless, institution design is worthy of further exploration. 39 Synopsis Goal system engineering is not yet an established discipline. It is not currently known how to transfer human values to a digital computer, even given human- level machine intelligence. Having investigated a number of approaches, we found that some of them appear to be dead ends; but others appear to hold promise and deserve to be explored further. A summary is provided in Table 12 . Table 12 Summary of value-loading techniques Explicit representation May hold promise as a way of loading domesticity values. Does not seem promising as a way of loading more complex values. Evolutionary Less promising. Powerful search may find a design that satisfies the formal search criteria but not our intentions. Furthermore, if designs are evaluated by running themincluding designs that do not even meet the formal criteriaa potentially grave selection additional danger is created. Evolution also makes it difficult to avoid massive mind crime, especially if one is aiming to fashion human-like minds. Reinforcement learning A range of different methods can be used to solve reinforcement-learning problems, but they typically involve creating a system that seeks to maximize a reward signal. This has an inherent tendency to produce the wireheading failure mode when the system becomes more intelligent. Reinforcement learning therefore looks unpromising. Value accretion We humans acquire much of our specific goal content from our reactions to experience. While value accretion could in principle be used to create an agent with human motivations, the human value-accretion dispositions might be complex and difficult to replicate in a seed AI. A bad approximation may yield an AI that generalizes differently than humans do and therefore acquires unintended final goals. More research is needed to determine how difficult it would be to make value accretion work with sufficient precision. Motivational scaffolding It is too early to tell how difficult it would be to encourage a system to develop internal high-level representations that are transparent to humans (while keeping the systems capabilities below the dangerous level) and then to use those representations to design a new goal system. The approach might hold considerable promise. (However, as with any untested approach that would postpone much of the hard work on safety engineering until the development of human-level AI, one should be careful not to allow it to become an excuse for a lackadaisical attitude to the control problem in the interim.) A potentially promising approach, but more research is needed to determine how difficult it would be to formally specify a Value learning reference that successfully points to the relevant external information about human value (and how difficult it would be to specify a correctness criterion for a utility function in terms of such a reference). Also worth exploring within the value learning category are proposals of the Hail Mary type or along the lines of Paul Christianos construction (or other such shortcuts). Emulation modulation If machine intelligence is achieved via the emulation pathway, it would likely be possible to tweak motivations through the digital equivalent of drugs or by other means. Whether this would enable values to be loaded with sufficient precision to ensure safety even as the emulation is boosted to superintelligence is an open question. (Ethical constraints might also complicate developments in this direction.) Institution design Various strong methods of social control could be applied in an institution composed of emulations. In principle, social control methods could also be applied in an institution composed of artificial intelligences. Emulations have some properties that would make them easier to control via such methods, but also some properties that might make them harder to control than AIs. Institution design seems worthy of further exploration as a potential value-loading technique. If we knew how to solve the value-loading problem, we would confront a further problem: the problem of deciding which values to load. What, in other words, would we want a superintelligence to want? This is the more philosophical problem to which we turn next. CHAPTER 13 Choosing the criteria for choosing Suppose we could install any arbitrary final value into a seed AI. The decision as to which value to install could then have the most far-reaching consequences. Certain other basic parameter choicesconcerning the axioms of the AIs decision theory and epistemologycould be similarly consequential. But foolish, ignorant, and narrow-minded that we are, how could we be trusted to make good design decisions? How could we choose without locking in forever the prejudices and preconceptions of the present generation? In this chapter, we explore how indirect normativity can let us offload much of the cognitive work involved in making these decisions onto the superintelligence itself while still anchoring the outcome in deeper human values. The need for indirect normativity How can we get a superintelligence to do what we want? What do we want the superintelligence to want? Up to this point, we have focused on the former question. We now turn to the second question. Suppose that we had solved the control problem so that we were able to load any value we chose into the motivation system of a superintelligence, making it pursue that value as its final goal. Which value should we install? The choice is no light matter. If the superintelligence obtains a decisive strategic advantage, the value would determine the disposition of the cosmic endowment. Clearly, it is essential that we not make a mistake in our value selection. But how could we realistically hope to achieve errorlessness in a matter like this? We might be wrong about morality; wrong also about what is good for us; wrong even about what we truly want. Specifying a final goal, it seems, requires making ones way through a thicket of thorny philosophical problems. If we try a direct approach, we are likely to make a hash of things. The risk of mistaken choosing is especially high when the decision context is unfamiliarand selecting the final goal for a machine superintelligence that will shape all of humanitys future is an extremely unfamiliar decision context if any is. The dismal odds in a frontal assault are reflected in the pervasive dissensus about the relevant issues in value theory. No ethical theory commands majority support among philosophers, so most philosophers must be wrong. 1 It is also reflected in the marked changes that the distribution of moral belief has undergone over time, many of which we like to think of as progress. In medieval Europe, for instance, it was deemed respectable entertainment to watch a political prisoner being tortured to death. Cat-burning remained popular in sixteenth-century Paris. 2 A mere hundred and fifty years ago, slavery still was widely practiced in the American South, with full support of the law and moral custom. When we look back, we see glaring deficiencies not just in the behavior but in the moral beliefs of all previous ages. Though we have perhaps since gleaned some moral insight, we could hardly claim to be now basking in the high noon of perfect moral enlightenment. Very likely, we are still laboring under one or more grave moral misconceptions. In such circumstances to select a final value based on our current convictions, in a way that locks it in forever and precludes any possibility of further ethical progress, would be to risk an existential moral calamity. Even if we could be rationally confident that we have identified the correct ethical theorywhich we cannot bewe would still remain at risk of making mistakes in developing important details of this theory. Seemingly simple moral theories can have a lot of hidden complexity. 3 For example, consider the (unusually simple) consequentialist theory of hedonism. This theory states, roughly, that all and only pleasure has value, and all and only pain has disvalue. 4 Even if we placed all our moral chips on this one theory, and the theory turned out to be right, a great many questions would remain open. Should higher pleasures be given priority over lower pleasures, as John Stuart Mill argued? How should the intensity and duration of a pleasure be factored in? Can pains and pleasures cancel each other out? What kinds of brain states are associated with morally relevant pleasures? Would two exact copies of the same brain state correspond to twice the amount of pleasure? 5 Can there be subconscious pleasures? How should we deal with extremely small chances of extremely great pleasures? 6 How should we aggregate over infinite populations? 7 Giving the wrong answer to any one of these questions could be catastrophic. If by selecting a final value for the superintelligence we had to place a bet not just on a general moral theory but on a long conjunction of specific claims about how that theory is to be interpreted and integrated into an effective decision- making process, then our chances of striking lucky would dwindle to something close to hopeless. Fools might eagerly accept this challenge of solving in one swing all the important problems in moral philosophy, in order to infix their favorite answers into the seed AI. Wiser souls would look hard for some alternative approach, some way to hedge. This takes us to indirect normativity. The obvious reason for building a superintelligence is so that we can offload to it the instrumental reasoning required to find effective ways of realizing a given value. Indirect normativity would enable us also to offload to the superintelligence some of the reasoning needed to select the value that is to be realized. Indirect normativity is a way to answer the challenge presented by the fact that we may not know what we truly want, what is in our interest, or what is morally right or ideal. Instead of making a guess based on our own current understanding (which is probably deeply flawed), we would delegate some of the cognitive work required for value selection to the superintelligence. Since the superintelligence is better at cognitive work than we are, it may see past the errors and confusions that cloud our thinking. One could generalize this idea and emboss it as a heuristic principle: The principle of epistemic deference A future superintelligence occupies an epistemically superior vantage point: its beliefs are (probably, on most topics) more likely than ours to be true. We should therefore defer to the superintelligences opinion whenever feasible. 8 Indirect normativity applies this principle to the value-selection problem. Lacking confidence in our ability to specify a concrete normative standard, we would instead specify some more abstract condition that any normative standard should satisfy, in the hope that a superintelligence could find a concrete standard that satisfies the abstract condition. We could give a seed AI the final goal of continuously acting according to its best estimate of what this implicitly defined standard would have it do. Some examples will serve to make the idea clearer. First we will consider coherent extrapolated volition, an indirect normativity proposal outlined by Eliezer Yudkowsky. We will then introduce some variations and alternatives, to give us a sense of the range of available options. Coherent extrapolated volition Yudkowsky has proposed that a seed AI be given the final goal of carrying out humanitys coherent extrapolated volition (CEV), which he defines as follows: Our coherent extrapolated volition is our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, had grown up farther together; where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges, where our wishes cohere rather than interfere; extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated, interpreted as we wish that interpreted. 9 When Yudkowsky wrote this, he did not purport to present a blueprint for how to implement this rather poetic prescription. His aim was to give a preliminary sketch of how CEV might be defined, along with some arguments for why an approach along these lines is needed. Many of the ideas behind the CEV proposal have analogs and antecedents in the philosophical literature. For example, in ethics ideal observer theories seek to analyze normative concepts like good or right in terms of the judgments that a hypothetical ideal observer would make (where an ideal observer is defined as one that is omniscient about non-moral facts, is logically clear- sighted, is impartial in relevant ways and is free from various kinds of biases, and so on). 10 The CEV approach, however, is not (or need not be construed as) a moral theory. It is not committed to the claim that there is any necessary link between value and the preferences of our coherent extrapolated volition. CEV can be thought of simply as a useful way to approximate whatever has ultimate value, or it can be considered aside from any connection to ethics. As the main prototype of the indirect normativity approach, it is worth examining in a little more detail. Some explications Some terms in the above quotation require explication. Thought faster, in Yudkowskys terminology, means if we were smarter and had thought things through more . Grown up farther together seems to mean if we had done our learning, our cognitive enhancing, and our self-improving under conditions of suitable social interaction with one another . Where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges may be understood as follows. The AI should act on some feature of the result of its extrapolation only insofar as that feature can be predicted by the AI with a fairly high degree of confidence. To the extent that the AI cannot predict what we would wish if we were idealized in the manner indicated, the AI should not act on a wild guess; instead, it should refrain from acting. However, even though many details of our idealized wishing may be undetermined or unpredictable, there might nevertheless be some broad outlines that the AI can apprehend, and it can then at least act to ensure that the future course of events unfolds within those outlines. For example, if the AI can reliably estimate that our extrapolated volition would wish that we not all be in constant agony, or that the universe not be tiled over with paperclips, then the AI should act to prevent those outcomes. 11 Where our wishes cohere rather than interfere may be read as follows. The AI should act where there is fairly broad agreement between individual humans extrapolated volitions. A smaller set of strong, clear wishes might sometimes outweigh the weak and muddled wishes of a majority. Also, Yudkowsky thinks that it should require less consensus for the AI to prevent some particular narrowly specified outcome, and more consensus for the AI to act to funnel the future into some particular narrow conception of the good. The initial dynamic for CEV, he writes, should be conservative about saying yes, and listen carefully for no. 12 Extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated, interpreted as we wish that interpreted: The idea behind these last modifiers seems to be that the rules for extrapolation should themselves be sensitive to the extrapolated volition. An individual might have a second-order desire (a desire concerning what to desire) that some of her first-order desires not be given weight when her volition is extrapolated. For example, an alcoholic who has a first-order desire for booze might also have a second-order desire not to have that first-order desire. Similarly, we might have desires over how various other parts of the extrapolation process should unfold, and these should be taken into account by the extrapolation process. It might be objected that even if the concept of humanitys coherent extrapolated volition could be properly defined, it would anyway be impossible even for a superintelligenceto find out what humanity would actually want under the hypothetical idealized circumstances stipulated in the CEV approach. Without some information about the content of our extrapolated volition, the AI would be bereft of any substantial standard to guide its behavior. However, although it would be difficult to know with precision what humanitys CEV would wish, it is possible to make informed guesses. This is possible even today, without superintelligence. For example, it is more plausible that our CEV would wish for there to be people in the future who live rich and happy lives than that it would wish that we should all sit on stools in a dark room experiencing pain. If we can make at least some such judgments sensibly, so can a superintelligence. From the outset, the superintelligences conduct could thus be guided by its estimates of the content of our CEV. It would have strong instrumental reason to refine these initial estimates (e.g. by studying human culture and psychology, scanning human brains, and reasoning about how we might behave if we knew more, thought more clearly, etc.). In investigating these matters, the AI would be guided by its initial estimates of our CEV; so that, for instance, the AI would not unnecessarily run myriad simulations replete with unredeemed human suffering if it estimated that our CEV would probably condemn such simulations as mind crime. Another objection is that there are so many different ways of life and moral codes in the world that it might not be possible to blend them into one CEV. Even if one could blend them, the result might not be particularly appetizing one would be unlikely to get a delicious meal by mixing together all the best flavors from everyones different favorite dish. 13 In answer to this, one could point out that the CEV approach does not require that all ways of life, moral codes, or personal values be blended together into one stew. The CEV dynamic is supposed to act only when our wishes cohere. On issues on which there is widespread irreconcilable disagreement, even after the various idealizing conditions have been imposed, the dynamic should refrain from determining the outcome. To continue the cooking analogy, it might be that individuals or cultures will have different favorite dishes, but that they can nevertheless broadly agree that aliments should be nontoxic. The CEV dynamic could then act to prevent food poisoning while otherwise allowing humans to work out their culinary practices without its guidance or interference. Rationales for CEV Yudkowskys article offered seven arguments for the CEV approach. Three of these were basically different ways of making the point that while the aim should be to do something that is humane and helpful, it would be very difficult to lay down an explicit set of rules that does not have unintended interpretations and undesirable consequences. 14 The CEV approach is meant to be robust and self- correcting; it is meant to capture the source of our values instead of relying on us correctly enumerating and articulating, once and for all, each of our essential values. The remaining four arguments go beyond that first basic (but important) point, spelling out desiderata on candidate solutions to the value-specification problem and suggesting that CEV meets these desiderata. Encapsulate moral growth This is the desideratum that the solution should allow for the possibility of moral progress. As suggested earlier, there are reasons to believe that our current moral beliefs are flawed in many ways; perhaps deeply flawed. If we were to stipulate a specific and unalterable moral code for the AI to follow, we would in effect be locking in our present moral convictions, including their errors, destroying any hope of moral growth. The CEV approach, by contrast, allows for the possibility of such growth because it has the AI try to do that which we would have wished it to do if we had developed further under favorable conditions, and it is possible that if we had thus developed our moral beliefs and sensibilities would have been purged of their current defects and limitations. Avoid hijacking the destiny of humankind Yudkowsky has in mind a scenario in which a small group of programmers creates a seed AI that then grows into a superintelligence that obtains a decisive strategic advantage. In this scenario, the original programmers hold in their hands the entirety of humanitys cosmic endowment. Obviously, this is a hideous responsibility for any mortal to shoulder. Yet it is not possible for the programmers to completely shirk the onus once they find themselves in this situation: any choice they make, including abandoning the project, would have world-historical consequences. Yudkowsky sees CEV as a way for the programmers to avoid arrogating to themselves the privilege or burden of determining humanitys future. By setting up a dynamic that implements humanitys coherent extrapolated volitionas opposed to their own volition, or their own favorite moral theorythey in effect distribute their influence over the future to all of humanity. Avoid creating a motive for modern-day humans to fight over the initial dynamic Distributing influence over humanitys future is not only morally preferable to the programming team implementing their own favorite vision, it is also a way to reduce the incentive to fight over who gets to create the first superintelligence. In the CEV approach, the programmers (or their sponsors) exert no more influence over the content of the outcome than any other personthough they of course play a starring causal role in determining the structure of the extrapolation and in deciding to implement humanitys CEV instead of some alternative. Avoiding conflict is important not only because of the immediate harm that conflict tends to cause but also because it hinders collaboration on the difficult challenge of developing superintelligence safely and beneficially. CEV is meant to be capable of commanding wide support. This is not just because it allocates influence equitably. There is also a deeper ground for the irenic potential of CEV, namely that it enables many different groups to hope that their preferred vision of the future will prevail totally. Imagine a member of the Afghan Taliban debating with a member of the Swedish Humanist Association. The two have very different worldviews, and what is a utopia for one might be a dystopia for the other. Nor might either be thrilled by any compromise position, such as permitting girls to receive an education but only up to ninth grade, or permitting Swedish girls to be educated but Afghan girls not. However, both the Taliban and the Humanist might be able to endorse the principle that the future should be determined by humanitys CEV. The Taliban could reason that if his religious views are in fact correct (as he is convinced they are) and if good grounds for accepting these views exist (as he is also convinced) then humankind would in the end come to accept these views if only people were less prejudiced and biased, if they spent more time studying scripture, if they could more clearly understand how the world works and recognize essential priorities, if they could be freed from irrational rebelliousness and cowardice, and so forth. 15 The Humanist, similarly, would believe that under these idealized conditions, humankind would come to embrace the principles she espouses. Keep humankind ultimately in charge of its own destiny We might not want an outcome in which a paternalistic superintelligence watches over us constantly, micromanaging our affairs with an eye towards optimizing every detail in accordance with a grand plan. Even if we stipulate that the superintelligence would be perfectly benevolent, and free from presumptuousness, arrogance, overbearingness, narrow-mindedness, and other human shortcomings, one might still resent the loss of autonomy entailed by such an arrangement. We might prefer to create our destiny as we go along, even if it means that we sometimes fumble. Perhaps we want the superintelligence to serve as a safety net, to support us when things go catastrophically wrong, but otherwise to leave us to fend for ourselves. CEV allows for this possibility. CEV is meant to be an initial dynamic, a process that runs once and then replaces itself with whatever the extrapolated volition wishes. If humanitys extrapolated volition wishes that we live under the supervision of a paternalistic AI, then the CEV dynamic would create such an AI and hand it the reins. If humanitys extrapolated volition instead wishes that a democratic human world government be created, then the CEV dynamic might facilitate the establishment of such an institution and otherwise remain invisible. If humanitys extrapolated volition is instead that each person should get an endowment of resources that she can use as she pleases so long as she respects the equal rights of others, then the CEV dynamic could make this come true by operating in the background much like a law of nature, to prevent trespass, theft, assault, and other nonconsensual impingements. 16 The structure of the CEV approach thus allows for a virtually unlimited range of outcomes. It is also conceivable that humanitys extrapolated volition would wish that the CEV does nothing at all. In that case, the AI implementing CEV should, upon having established with sufficient probability that this is what humanitys extrapolated volition would wish it to do, safely shut itself down. Further remarks The CEV proposal, as outlined above, is of course the merest schematic. It has a number of free parameters that could be specified in various ways, yielding different versions of the proposal. One parameter is the extrapolation base: Whose volitions are to be included? We might say everybody, but this answer spawns a host of further questions. Does the extrapolation base include so-called marginal persons such as embryos, fetuses, brain-dead persons, patients with severe dementias or who are in permanent vegetative states? Does each of the hemispheres of a split-brain patient get its own weight in the extrapolation and is this weight the same as that of the entire brain of a normal subject? What about people who lived in the past but are now dead? People who will be born in the future? Higher animals and other sentient creatures? Digital minds? Extraterrestrials? One option would be to include only the population of adult human beings on Earth who are alive at the start of the time of the AIs creation. An initial extrapolation from this base could then decide whether and how the base should be expanded. Since the number of marginals at the periphery of this base is relatively small, the result of the extrapolation may not depend much on exactly where the boundary is drawnon whether, for instance, it includes fetuses or not. That somebody is excluded from the original extrapolation base does not imply that their wishes and well-being are disregarded. If the coherent extrapolated volition of those in the extrapolation base (e.g. living adult human beings) wishes that moral consideration be extended to other beings, then the outcome of the CEV dynamic would reflect that preference. Nevertheless, it is possible that the interests of those who are included in the original extrapolation base would be accommodated to a greater degree than the interests of outsiders. In particular, if the dynamic acts only where there is broad agreement between individual extrapolated volitions (as in Yudkowskys original proposal), there would seem to be a significant risk of an ungenerous blocking vote that could prevent, for instance, the welfare of nonhuman animals or digital minds from being protected. The result might potentially be morally rotten. 17 One motivation for the CEV proposal was to avoid creating a motive for humans to fight over the creation of the first superintelligent AI. Although the CEV proposal scores better on this desideratum than many alternatives, it does not entirely eliminate motives for conflict. A selfish individual, group, or nation might seek to enlarge its slice of the future by keeping others out of the extrapolation base. A power grab of this sort might be rationalized in various ways. It might be argued, for instance, that the sponsor who funds the development of the AI deserves to own the outcome. This moral claim is probably false. It could be objected, for example, that the project that launches the first successful seed AI imposes a vast risk externality on the rest of humanity, which therefore is entitled to compensation. The amount of compensation owed is so great that it can only take the form of giving everybody a stake in the upside if things turn out well. 18 Another argument that might be used to rationalize a power grab is that large segments of humanity have base or evil preferences and that including them in the extrapolation base would risk turning humanitys future into a dystopia. It is difficult to know the share of good and bad in the average persons heart. It is also difficult to know how much this balance varies between different groups, social strata, cultures, or nations. Whether one is optimistic or pessimistic about human nature, one may prefer not to wager humanitys cosmic endowment on the speculation that, for a sufficient majority of the seven billion people currently alive, their better angels would prevail in their extrapolated volitions. Of course, omitting a certain set of people from the extrapolation base does not guarantee that light would triumph; and it might well be that the souls that would soonest exclude others or grab power for themselves tend rather to contain unusually large amounts of darkness. Yet another reason for fighting over the initial dynamic is that one might believe that somebody elses AI will not work as advertised, even if the AI is billed as a way to implement humanitys CEV. If different groups have different beliefs about which implementation is most likely to succeed, they might fight to prevent the others from launching. It would be better in such situations if the competing projects could settle their epistemic differences by some method that more reliably ascertains who is right than the method of armed conflict. 19 Morality models The CEV proposal is not the only possible form of indirect normativity. For example, instead of implementing humanitys coherent extrapolated volition, one could try to build an AI with the goal of doing what is morally right, relying on the AIs superior cognitive capacities to figure out just which actions fit that description. We can call this proposal moral rightness (MR). The idea is that we humans have an imperfect understanding of what is right and wrong, and perhaps an even poorer understanding of how the concept of moral rightness is to be philosophically analyzed: but a superintelligence could understand these things better. 20 What if we are not sure whether moral realism is true? We could still attempt the MR proposal. We should just have to make sure to specify what the AI should do in the eventuality that its presupposition of moral realism is false. For example, we could stipulate that if the AI estimates with a sufficient probability that there are no suitable non-relative truths about moral rightness, then it should revert to implementing coherent extrapolated volition instead, or simply shut itself down. 21 MR appears to have several advantages over CEV. MR would do away with various free parameters in CEV, such as the degree of coherence among extrapolated volitions that is required for the AI to act on the result, the ease with which a majority can overrule dissenting minorities, and the nature of the social environment within which our extrapolated selves are to be supposed to have grown up farther together. It would seem to eliminate the possibility of a moral failure resulting from the use of an extrapolation base that is too narrow or too wide. Furthermore, MR would orient the AI toward morally right action even if our coherent extrapolated volitions happen to wish for the AI to take actions that are morally odious. As noted earlier, this seems a live possibility with the CEV proposal. Moral goodness might be more like a precious metal than an abundant element in human nature, and even after the ore has been processed and refined in accordance with the prescriptions of the CEV proposal, who knows whether the principal outcome will be shining virtue, indifferent slag, or toxic sludge? MR would also appear to have some disadvantages. It relies on the notion of morally right, a notoriously difficult concept, one with which philosophers have grappled since antiquity without yet attaining consensus as to its analysis. Picking an erroneous explication of moral rightness could result in outcomes that would be morally very wrong. This difficulty of defining moral rightness might seem to count heavily against the MR proposal. However, it is not clear that the MR proposal is really at a material disadvantage in this regard. The CEV proposal, too, uses terms and concepts that are difficult to explicate (such as knowledge, being more the people we wished we were, grown up farther together, among others). 22 Even if these concepts are marginally less opaque than moral rightness, they are still miles removed from anything that programmers can currently express in code. 23 The path to endowing an AI with any of these concepts might involve giving it general linguistic ability (comparable, at least, to that of a normal human adult). Such a general ability to understand natural language could then be used to understand what is meant by morally right. If the AI could grasp the meaning, it could search for actions that fit. As the AI develops superintelligence, it could then make progress on two fronts: on the philosophical problem of understanding what moral rightness is, and on the practical problem of applying this understanding to evaluate particular actions. 24 While this would not be easy, it is not clear that it would be any more difficult than extrapolating humanitys coherent extrapolated volition. 25 A more fundamental issue with MR is that even if can be implemented, it might not give us what we want or what we would choose if we were brighter and better informed. This is of course the essential feature of MR, not an accidental bug. However, it might be a feature that would be extremely harmful to us. 26 One might try to preserve the basic idea of the MR model while reducing its demandingness by focusing on moral permissibility : the idea being that we could let the AI pursue humanitys CEV so long as it did not act in ways that are morally impermissible. For example, one might formulate the following goal for the AI: Among the actions that are morally permissible for the AI, take one that humanitys CEV would prefer. However, if some part of this instruction has no well-specified meaning, or if we are radically confused about its meaning, or if moral realism is false, or if we acted morally impermissibly in creating an AI with this goal, then undergo a controlled shutdown. 27 Follow the intended meaning of this instruction. One might still worry that this moral permissibility model (MP) represents an unpalatably high degree of respect for the requirements of morality. How big a sacrifice it would entail depends on which ethical theory is true. 28 If ethics is satisficing , in the sense that it counts as morally permissible any action that conforms to a few basic moral constraints, then MP may leave ample room for our coherent extrapolated volition to influence the AIs actions. However, if ethics is maximizing for example, if the only morally permissible actions are those that have the morally best consequencesthen MP may leave little or no room for our own preferences to shape the outcome. To illustrate this concern, let us return for a moment to the example of hedonistic consequentialism. Suppose that this ethical theory is true, and that the AI knows it to be so. For present purposes, we can define hedonistic consequentialism as the claim that an action is morally right (and morally permissible) if and only if, among all feasible actions, no other action would produce a greater balance of pleasure over suffering. The AI, following MP, might maximize the surfeit of pleasure by converting the accessible universe into hedonium, a process that may involve building computronium and using it to perform computations that instantiate pleasurable experiences. Since simulating any existing human brain is not the most efficient way of producing pleasure, a likely consequence is that we all die. By enacting either the MR or the MP proposal, we would thus risk sacrificing our lives for a greater good. This would be a bigger sacrifice than one might think, because what we stand to lose is not merely the chance to live out a normal human life but the opportunity to enjoy the far longer and richer lives that a friendly superintelligence could bestow. The sacrifice looks even less appealing when we reflect that the superintelligence could realize a nearly-as-great good (in fractional terms) while sacrificing much less of our own potential well-being. Suppose that we agreed to allow almost the entire accessible universe to be converted into hedonium everything except a small preserve, say the Milky Way, which would be set aside to accommodate our own needs. Then there would still be a hundred billion galaxies devoted to the maximization of pleasure. But we would have one galaxy within which to create wonderful civilizations that could last for billions of years and in which humans and nonhuman animals could survive and thrive, and have the opportunity to develop into beatific posthuman spirits. 29 If one prefers this latter option (as I would be inclined to do) it implies that one does not have an unconditional lexically dominant preference for acting morally permissibly. But it is consistent with placing great weight on morality. Even from a purely moral point of view, it might be better to advocate some proposal that is less morally ambitious than MR or MP. If the morally best has no chance of being implementedperhaps because of its frowning demandingnessit might be morally better to promote some other proposal, one that would be near-ideal and whose chances of being implemented could be significantly increased by our promoting it. 30 Do What I Mean We might feel unsure whether to go for CEV, MR, MP, or something else. Could we punt on this higher-level decision as well, offloading even more cognitive work onto the AI? Where is the limit to our possible laziness? Consider, for example, the following reasons-based goal: Do whatever we would have had most reason to ask the AI to do. This goal might boil down to extrapolated volition or morality or something else, but it would seem to spare us the effort and risk involved in trying to figure out for ourselves which of these more specific objectives we would have most reason to select. Some of the problems with the morality-based goals, however, also apply here. First, we might fear that this reasons-based goal would leave too little room for our own desires. Some philosophers maintain that a person always has most reason to do what it would be morally best for her to do. If those philosophers are right, then the reason-based goal collapses into MRwith the concomitant risk that a superintelligence implementing such a dynamic would kill everyone within reach. Second, as with all proposals couched in technical language, there is a possibility that we might have misunderstood the meaning of our own assertions. We saw that, in the case of the morality-based goals, asking the AI to do what is right may lead to unforeseen and unwanted consequences such that, had we anticipated them, we would not have implemented the goal in question. The same applies to asking the AI to do what we have most reason to do. What if we try to avoid these difficulties by couching a goal in emphatically nontechnical languagesuch as in terms of niceness: 31 Take the nicest action; or, if no action is nicest, then take an action that is at least super-duper nice. How could there be anything objectionable about building a nice AI? But we must ask what precisely is meant by this expression. The lexicon lists various meanings of nice that are clearly not intended to be used here: we do not intend that the AI should be courteous and polite nor overdelicate or fastidious . If we can count on the AI recognizing the intended interpretation of niceness and being motivated to pursue niceness in just that sense, then this goal would seem to amount to a command to do what the programmers meant for the AI to do. 32 An injunction to similar effect was included in the formulation of CEV ( interpreted as we wish that interpreted) and in the moral-permissibility criterion as rendered earlier ( follow the intended meaning of this instruction). By affixing such a Do What I Mean clause we may indicate that the other words in the goal description should be construed charitably rather than literally. But saying that the AI should be nice adds almost nothing: the real work is done by the Do What I Mean instruction. If we knew how to code Do What I Mean in a general and powerful way, we might as well use that as a standalone goal. How might one implement such a Do What I Mean dynamic? That is, how might we create an AI motivated to charitably interpret our wishes and unspoken intentions and to act accordingly? One initial step could be to try to get clearer about what we mean by Do What I Mean. It might help if we could explicate this in more behavioristic terms, for example in terms of revealed preferences in various hypothetical situationssuch as situations in which we had more time to consider the options, in which we were smarter, in which we knew more of the relevant facts, and in which in various other ways conditions would be more favorable for us accurately manifesting in concrete choices what we mean when we say that we want an AI that is friendly, beneficial, nice Here, of course, we come full circle. We have returned to the indirect normativity approach with which we startedthe CEV proposal, which, in essence, expunges all concrete content from the value specification, leaving only an abstract value defined in purely procedural terms: to do that which we would have wished for the AI to do in suitably idealized circumstances. By means of such indirect normativity, we could hope to offload to the AI much of the cognitive work that we ourselves would be trying to perform if we attempted to articulate a more concrete description of what values the AI is to pursue. In seeking to take full advantage of the AIs epistemic superiority, CEV can thus be seen as an application of the principle of epistemic deference. Component list So far we have considered different options for what content to put into the goal system. But an AIs behavior will also be influenced by other design choices. In particular, it can make a critical difference which decision theory and which epistemology it uses. Another important question is whether the AIs plans will be subject to human review before being put into action. Table 13 summarizes these design choices. A project that aims to build a superintelligence ought to be able to explain what choices it has made regarding each of these components, and to justify why those choices were made. 33 Table 13 Component list Goal content What objective should the AI pursue? How should a description of this objective be interpreted? Should the objective include giving special rewards to those who contributed to the projects success? Decision theory Should the AI use causal decision theory, evidential decision theory, updateless decision theory, or something else? Epistemology What should the AIs prior probability function be, and what other explicit or implicit assumptions about the world should it make? What theory of anthropics should it use? Ratification Should the AIs plans be subjected to human review before being put into effect? If so, what is the protocol for that review process? Goal content We have already discussed how indirect normativity might be used in specifying the values that the AI is to pursue. We discussed some options, such as morality- based models and coherent extrapolated volition. Each such option creates further choices that need to be made. For instance, the CEV approach comes in many varieties, depending on who is included in the extrapolation base, the structure of the extrapolation, and so forth. Other forms of motivation selection methods might call for different types of goal content. For example, an oracle might be built to place a value on giving accurate answers. An oracle constructed with domesticity motivation might also have goal content that disvalues the excessive use of resources in producing its answers. Another design choice is whether to include special provisions in the goal content to reward individuals who contribute to the successful realization of the AI, for example by giving them extra resources or influence over the AIs behavior. We can term any such provisions incentive wrapping. Incentive wrapping could be seen as a way to increase the likelihood that the project will be successful, at the cost of compromising to some extent the goal that the project set out to achieve. For example, if the projects goal is to create a dynamic that implements humanitys coherent extrapolated volition, then an incentive wrapping scheme might specify that certain individuals volitions should be given extra weight in the extrapolation. If such a project is successful, the result is not necessarily the implementation of humanitys coherent extrapolated volition. Instead, some approximation to this goal might be achieved. 34 Since incentive wrapping would be a piece of goal content that would be interpreted and pursued by a superintelligence, it could take advantage of indirect normativity to specify subtle and complicated provisions that would be difficult for a human manager to implement. For example, instead of rewarding programmers according to some crude but easily accessible metric, such as how many hours they worked or how many bugs they corrected, the incentive wrapping could specify that programmers are to be rewarded in proportion to how much their contributions increased some reasonable ex ante probability of the project being successfully completed in the way the sponsors intended. Further, there would be no reason to limit the incentive wrapping to project staff. It could instead specify that every person should be rewarded according to their just deserts. Credit allocation is a difficult problem, but a superintelligence could be expected to do a reasonable job of approximating the criteria specified, explicitly or implicitly, by the incentive wrapping. It is conceivable that the superintelligence might even find some way of rewarding individuals who have died prior to the superintelligences creation. 35 The incentive wrapping could then be extended to embrace at least some of the deceased, potentially including individuals who died before the project was conceived, or even antedating the first enunciation of the concept of incentive wrapping. Although the institution of such a retroactive policy would not causally incentivize those people who are already resting in their graves as these words are being put to the page, it might be favored for moral reasonsthough it could be argued that insofar as fairness is a goal, it should be included as part of the target specification proper rather than in the surrounding incentive wrapping. We cannot here delve into all the ethical and strategic issues associated with incentive wrapping. A projects position on these issues, however, would be an important aspect of its fundamental design concept. Decision theory Another important design choice is which decision theory the AI should be built to use. This might affect how the AI behaves in certain strategically fateful situations. It might determine, for instance, whether the AI is open to trade with, or extortion by, other superintelligent civilizations whose existence it hypothesizes. The particulars of the decision theory could also matter in predicaments involving finite probabilities of infinite payoffs (Pascalian wagers) or extremely small probabilities of extremely large finite payoffs (Pascalian muggings) or in contexts where the AI is facing fundamental normative uncertainty or where there are multiple instantiations of the same agent program. 36 The options on the table include causal decision theory (in a variety of flavors) and evidential decision theory, along with newer candidates such as timeless decision theory and updateless decision theory, which are still under development. 37 It may prove difficult to identify and articulate the correct decision theory, and to have justified confidence that we have got it right. Although the prospects for directly specifying an AIs decision theory are perhaps more hopeful than those of directly specifying its final values, we are still confronted with a substantial risk of error. Many of the complications that might break the currently most popular decision theories were discovered only recently, suggesting that there might exist further problems that have not yet come into sight. The result of giving the AI a flawed decision theory might be disastrous, possibly amounting to an existential catastrophe. In view of these difficulties, one might consider an indirect approach to specifying the decision theory that the AI should use. Exactly how to do this is not yet clear. We might want the AI to use that decision theory D which we would have wanted it to use had we thought long and hard about the matter. However, the AI would need to be able to make decisions before learning what D is. It would thus need some effective interim decision theory D that would govern its search for D . One might try to define D to be some sort of superposition of the AIs current hypotheses about D (weighed by their probabilities), though there are unsolved technical problems with how to do this in a fully general way. 38 There is also cause for concern that the AI might make irreversibly bad decisions (such as rewriting itself to henceforth run on some flawed decision theory) during the learning phase, before the AI has had the opportunity to determine which particular decision theory is correct. To reduce the risk of derailment during this period of vulnerability we might instead try to endow the seed AI with some form of restricted rationality : a deliberately simplified but hopefully dependable decision theory that staunchly ignores esoteric considerations, even ones we think may ultimately be legitimate, and that is designed to replace itself with a more sophisticated (indirectly specified) decision theory once certain conditions are met. 39 It is an open research question whether and how this could be made to work. Epistemology A project will also need to make a fundamental design choice in selecting the AIs epistemology, specifying the principles and criteria whereby empirical hypotheses are to be evaluated. Within a Bayesian framework, we can think of the epistemology as a prior probability functionthe AIs implicit assignment of probabilities to possible worlds before it has taken any perceptual evidence into account. In other frameworks, the epistemology might take a different form; but in any case some inductive learning rule is necessary if the AI is to generalize from past observations and make predictions about the future. 40 As with the goal content and the decision theory, however, there is a risk that our epistemology specification could miss the mark. One might think that there is a limit to how much damage could arise from an incorrectly specified epistemology. If the epistemology is too dysfunctional, then the AI could not be very intelligent and it could not pose the kind of risk discussed in this book. But the concern is that we may specify an epistemology that is sufficiently sound to make the AI instrumentally effective in most situations, yet which has some flaw that leads the AI astray on some matter of crucial importance. Such an AI might be akin to a quick-witted person whose worldview is predicated on a false dogma, held to with absolute conviction, who consequently tilts at windmills and gives his all in pursuit of fantastical or harmful objectives. Certain kinds of subtle difference in an AIs prior could turn out to make a drastic difference to how it behaves. For example, an AI might be given a prior that assigns zero probability to the universe being infinite. No matter how much astronomical evidence it accrues to the contrary, such an AI would stubbornly reject any cosmological theory that implied an infinite universe; and it might make foolish choices as a result. 41 Or an AI might be given a prior that assigns a zero probability to the universe not being Turing-computable (this is in fact a common feature of many of the priors discussed in the literature, including the Kolmogorov complexity prior mentioned in Chapter 1 ), again with poorly understood consequences if the embedded assumptionknown as the Church Turing thesisshould turn out to be false. An AI could also end up with a prior that makes strong metaphysical commitments of one sort or another, for instance by ruling out a priori the possibility that any strong form of mindbody dualism could be true or the possibility that there are irreducible moral facts. If any of those commitments is mistaken, the AI might seek to realize its final goals in ways that we would regard as perverse instantiations. Yet there is no obvious reason why such an AI, despite being fundamentally wrong about one important matter, could not be sufficiently instrumentally effective to secure a decisive strategic advantage. (Anthropics, the study of how to make inferences from indexical information in the presence of observation selection effects, is another area where the choice of epistemic axioms could prove pivotal. 42 ) We might reasonably doubt our ability to resolve all foundational issues in epistemology in time for the construction of the first seed AI. We may, therefore, consider taking an indirect approach to specifying the AIs epistemology. This would raise many of the same issues as taking an indirect approach to specifying its decision theory. In the case of epistemology, however, there may be greater hope of benign convergence, with any of a wide class of epistemologies providing an adequate foundation for safe and effective AI and ultimately yielding similar doxastic results. The reason for this is that sufficiently abundant empirical evidence and analysis would tend to wash out any moderate differences in prior expectations. 43 A good aim would be to endow the AI with fundamental epistemological principles that match those governing our own thinking. Any AI diverging from this ideal is an AI that we would judge to be reasoning incorrectly if we consistently applied our own standards. Of course, this applies only to our fundamental epistemological principles. Non-fundamental principles should be continuously created and revised by the seed AI itself as it develops its understanding of the world. The point of superintelligence is not to pander to human preconceptions but to make mincemeat out of our ignorance and folly. Ratification The final item in our list of design choices is ratification . Should the AIs plans be subjected to human review before being put into effect? For an oracle, this question is implicitly answered in the affirmative. The oracle outputs information; human reviewers choose whether and how to act upon it. For genies, sovereigns, and tool-AIs, however, the question of whether to use some form of ratification remains open. To illustrate how ratification might work, consider an AI intended to function as a sovereign implementing humanitys CEV. Instead of launching this AI directly, imagine that we first built an oracle AI for the sole purpose of answering questions about what the sovereign AI would do. As earlier chapters revealed, there are risks in creating a superintelligent oracle (such as risks of mind crime or infrastructure profusion). But for purposes of this example let us assume that the oracle AI has been successfully implemented in a way that avoided these pitfalls. We thus have an oracle AI that offers us its best guesses about the consequences of running some piece of code intended to implement humanitys CEV. The oracle may not be able to predict in detail what would happen, but its predictions are likely to be better than our own. (If it were impossible even for a superintelligence to predict anything about the code would do, we would be crazy to run it.) So the oracle ponders for a while and then presents its forecast. To make the answer intelligible, the oracle may offer the operator a range of tools with which to explore various features of the predicted outcome. The oracle could show pictures of what the future looks like and provide statistics about the number of sentient beings that will exist at different times, along with average, peak, and lowest levels of well-being. It could offer intimate biographies of several randomly selected individuals (perhaps imaginary people selected to be probably representative). It could highlight aspects of the future that the operator might not have thought of inquiring about but which would be regarded as pertinent once pointed out. Being able to preview the outcome in this manner has obvious advantages. The preview could reveal the consequences of an error in a planned sovereigns design specifications or source code. If the crystal ball shows a ruined future, we could scrap the code for the planned sovereign AI and try something else. A strong case could be made that we should familiarize ourselves with the concrete ramifications of an option before committing to it, especially when the entire future of the race is on the line. What is perhaps less obvious is that ratification also has potentially significant disadvantages. The irenic quality of CEV might be undermined if opposing factions, instead of submitting to the arbitration of superior wisdom in confident expectation of being vindicated, could see in advance what the verdict would be. A proponent of the morality-based approach might worry that the sponsors resolve would collapse if all the sacrifices required by the morally optimal were to be revealed. And we might all have reason to prefer a future that holds some surprises, some dissonance, some wildness, some opportunities for self- overcominga future whose contours are not too snugly tailored to present preconceptions but provide some give for dramatic movement and unplanned growth. We might be less likely to take such an expansive view if we could cherry-pick every detail of the future, sending back to the drawing board any draft that does not fully conform to our fancy at that moment. The issue of sponsor ratification is therefore less clear-cut than it might initially seem. Nevertheless, on balance it would seem prudent to take advantage of an opportunity to preview, if that functionality is available. But rather than letting the reviewer fine-tune every aspect of the outcome, we might give her a simple veto which could be exercised only a few times before the entire project would be aborted. 44 Getting close enough The main purpose of ratification would be to reduce the probability of catastrophic error. In general, it seems wise to aim at minimizing the risk of catastrophic error rather than at maximizing the chance of every detail being fully optimized. There are two reasons for this. First, humanitys cosmic endowment is astronomically largethere is plenty to go around even if our process involves some waste or accepts some unnecessary constraints. Second, there is a hope that if we but get the initial conditions for the intelligence explosion approximately right, then the resulting superintelligence may eventually home in on, and precisely hit, our ultimate objectives. The important thing is to land in the right attractor basin. With regard to epistemology, it is plausible that a wide range of priors will ultimately converge to very similar posteriors (when computed by a superintelligence and conditionalized on a realistic amount of data). We therefore need not worry about getting the epistemology exactly right. We must just avoid giving the AI a prior that is so extreme as to render the AI incapable of learning vital truths even with the benefit of copious experience and analysis. 45 With regard to decision theory, the risk of irrecoverable error seems larger. We might still hope to directly specify a decision theory that is good enough. A superintelligent AI could switch to a new decision theory at any time; however, if it starts out with a sufficiently wrong decision theory it may not see the reason to switch. Even if an agent comes to see the benefits of having a different decision theory, the realization might come too late. For example, an agent designed to refuse blackmail might enjoy the benefit of deterring would-be extortionists. For this reason, blackmailable agents might do well to proactively adopt a non-exploitable decision theory. Yet once a blackmailable agent receives the threat and regards it as credible, the damage is done. Given an adequate epistemology and decision theory, we could try to design the system to implement CEV or some other indirectly specified goal content. Again there is hope of convergence: that different ways of implementing a CEV- like dynamic would lead to the same utopian outcome. Short of such convergence, we may still hope that many of the different possible outcomes are good enough to count as existential success. It is not necessary for us to create a highly optimized design. Rather, our focus should be on creating a highly reliable design, one that can be trusted to retain enough sanity to recognize its own failings. An imperfect superintelligence, whose fundamentals are sound, would gradually repair itself; and having done so, it would exert as much beneficial optimization power on the world as if it had been perfect from the outset. CHAPTER 14 The strategic picture It is now time to consider the challenge of superintelligence in a broader context. We would like to orient ourselves in the strategic landscape sufficiently to know at least which general direction we should be heading. This, it turns out, is not at all easy. Here in the penultimate chapter, we introduce some general analytical concepts that help us think about long- term science and technology policy issues. We then apply them to the issue of machine intelligence. It can be illuminating to make a rough distinction between two different normative stances from which a proposed policy may be evaluated. The person- affecting perspective asks whether a proposed change would be in our interestthat is to say, whether it would (on balance, and in expectation) be in the interest of those morally considerable creatures who either already exist or will come into existence independently of whether the proposed change occurs or not. The impersonal perspective , in contrast, gives no special consideration to currently existing people, or to those who will come to exist independently of whether the proposed change occurs. Instead, it counts everybody equally, independently of their temporal location. The impersonal perspective sees great value in bringing new people into existence, provided they have lives worth living: the more happy lives created, the better. This distinction, although it barely hints at the moral complexities associated with a machine intelligence revolution, can be useful in a first-cut analysis. Here we will first examine matters from the impersonal perspective. We will later see what changes if person-affecting considerations are given weight in our deliberations. Science and technology strategy Before we zoom in on issues specific to machine superintelligence, we must introduce some strategic concepts and considerations that pertain to scientific and technological development more generally. Differential technological development Suppose that a policymaker proposes to cut funding for a certain research field, out of concern for the risks or long-term consequences of some hypothetical technology that might eventually grow from its soil. She can then expect a howl of opposition from the research community. Scientists and their public advocates often say that it is futile to try to control the evolution of technology by blocking research. If some technology is feasible (the argument goes) it will be developed regardless of any particular policymakers scruples about speculative future risks. Indeed, the more powerful the capabilities that a line of development promises to produce, the surer we can be that somebody, somewhere, will be motivated to pursue it. Funding cuts will not stop progress or forestall its concomitant dangers. Interestingly, this futility objection is almost never raised when a policymaker proposes to increase funding to some area of research, even though the argument would seem to cut both ways. One rarely hears indignant voices protest: Please do not increase our funding. Rather, make some cuts. Researchers in other countries will surely pick up the slack; the same work will get done anyway. Dont squander the publics treasure on domestic scientific research! What accounts for this apparent doublethink? One plausible explanation, of course, is that members of the research community have a self-serving bias which leads us to believe that research is always good and tempts us to embrace almost any argument that supports our demand for more funding. However, it is also possible that the double standard can be justified in terms of national self- interest. Suppose that the development of a technology has two effects: giving a small benefit B to its inventors and the country that sponsors them, while imposing an aggregately larger harm H which could be a risk externalityon everybody. Even somebody who is largely altruistic might then choose to develop the overall harmful technology. They might reason that the harm H will result no matter what they do, since if they refrain somebody else will develop the technology anyway; and given that total welfare cannot be affected, they might as well grab the benefit B for themselves and their nation. (Unfortunately, there will soon be a device that will destroy the world. Fortunately, we got the grant to build it!) Whatever the explanation for the futility objections appeal, it fails to show that there is in general no impersonal reason for trying to steer technological development. It fails even if we concede the motivating idea that with continued scientific and technological development efforts, all relevant technologies will eventually be developedthat is, even if we concede the following: Technological completion conjecture If scientific and technological development efforts do not effectively cease, then all important basic capabilities that could be obtained through some possible technology will be obtained. 1 There are at least two reasons why the technological completion conjecture does not imply the futility objection. First, the antecedent might not hold, because it is not in fact a given that scientific and technological development efforts will not effectively cease (before the attainment of technological maturity). This reservation is especially pertinent in a context that involves existential risk. Second, even if we could be certain that all important basic capabilities that could be obtained through some possible technology will be obtained, it could still make sense to attempt to influence the direction of technological research. What matters is not only whether a technology is developed, but also when it is developed, by whom , and in what context . These circumstances of birth of a new technology, which shape its impact, can be affected by turning funding spigots on or off (and by wielding other policy instruments). These reflections suggest a principle that would have us attend to the relative speed with which different technologies are developed: 2 The principle of differential technological development Retard the development of dangerous and harmful technologies, especially ones that raise the level of existential risk; and accelerate the development of beneficial technologies, especially those that reduce the existential risks posed by nature or by other technologies. A policy could thus be evaluated on the basis of how much of a differential advantage it gives to desired forms of technological development over undesired forms. 3 Preferred order of arrival Some technologies have an ambivalent effect on existential risks, increasing some existential risks while decreasing others. Superintelligence is one such technology. We have seen in earlier chapters that the introduction of machine superintelligence would create a substantial existential risk. But it would reduce many other existential risks. Risks from naturesuch as asteroid impacts, supervolcanoes, and natural pandemicswould be virtually eliminated, since superintelligence could deploy countermeasures against most such hazards, or at least demote them to the non-existential category (for instance, via space colonization). These existential risks from nature are comparatively small over the relevant timescales. But superintelligence would also eliminate or reduce many anthropogenic risks. In particular, it would reduce risks of accidental destruction, including risk of accidents related to new technologies. Being generally more capable than humans, a superintelligence would be less likely to make mistakes, and more likely to recognize when precautions are needed, and to implement precautions competently. A well-constructed superintelligence might sometimes take a risk, but only when doing so is wise. Furthermore, at least in scenarios where the superintelligence forms a singleton, many non-accidental anthropogenic existential risks deriving from global coordination problems would be eliminated. These include risks of wars, technology races, undesirable forms of competition and evolution, and tragedies of the commons. Since substantial peril would be associated with human beings developing synthetic biology, molecular nanotechnology, climate engineering, instruments for biomedical enhancement and neuropsychological manipulation, tools for social control that may facilitate totalitarianism or tyranny, and other technologies as-yet unimagined, eliminating these types of risk would be a great boon. An argument could therefore be mounted that earlier arrival dates of superintelligence are preferable. However, if risks from nature and from other hazards unrelated to future technology are small, then this argument could be refined: what matters is that we get superintelligence before other dangerous technologies, such as advanced nanotechnology. Whether it happens sooner or later may not be so important (from an impersonal perspective) so long as the order of arrival is right. The ground for preferring superintelligence to come before other potentially dangerous technologies, such as nanotechnology, is that superintelligence would reduce the existential risks from nanotechnology but not vice versa. 4 Hence, if we create superintelligence first, we will face only those existential risks that are associated with superintelligence; whereas if we create nanotechnology first, we will face the risks of nanotechnology and then, additionally, the risks of superintelligence. 5 Even if the existential risks from superintelligence are very large, and even if superintelligence is the riskiest of all technologies, there could thus be a case for hastening its arrival. These sooner-is-better arguments, however, presuppose that the riskiness of creating superintelligence is the same regardless of when it is created. If, instead, its riskiness declines over time, it might be better to delay the machine intelligence revolution. While a later arrival would leave more time for other existential catastrophes to intercede, it could still be preferable to slow the development of superintelligence. This would be especially plausible if the existential risks associated with superintelligence are much larger than those associated with other disruptive technologies. There are several quite strong reasons to believe that the riskiness of an intelligence explosion will decline significantly over a multidecadal timeframe. One reason is that a later date leaves more time for the development of solutions to the control problem. The control problem has only recently been recognized, and most of the current best ideas for how to approach it were discovered only within the past decade or so (and in several cases during the time that this book was being written). It is plausible that the state of the art will advance greatly over the next several decades; and if the problem turns out to be very difficult, a significant rate of progress might continue for a century or more. The longer it takes for superintelligence to arrive, the more such progress will have been made when it does. This is an important consideration in favor of later arrival dates and a very strong consideration against extremely early arrival dates. Another reason why superintelligence later might be safer is that this would allow more time for various beneficial background trends of human civilization to play themselves out. How much weight one attaches to this consideration will depend on how optimistic one is about these trends. An optimist could certainly point to a number of encouraging indicators and hopeful possibilities. People might learn to get along better, leading to reductions in violence, war, and cruelty; and global coordination and the scope of political integration might increase, making it easier to escape undesirable technology races (more on this below) and to work out an arrangement whereby the hoped- for gains from an intelligence explosion would be widely shared. There appear to be long-term historical trends in these directions. 6 Further, an optimist could expect that the sanity level of humanity will rise over the course of this centurythat prejudices will (on balance) recede, that insights will accumulate, and that people will become more accustomed to thinking about abstract future probabilities and global risks. With luck, we could see a general uplift of epistemic standards in both individual and collective cognition. Again, there are trends pushing in these directions. Scientific progress means that more will be known. Economic growth may give a greater portion of the worlds population adequate nutrition (particularly during the early years of life that are important for brain development) and access to quality education. Advances in information technology will make it easier to find, integrate, evaluate, and communicate data and ideas. Furthermore, by the centurys end, humanity will have made an additional hundred years worth of mistakes, from which something might have been learned. Many potential developments are ambivalent in the abovementioned sense increasing some existential risks and decreasing others. For example, advances in surveillance, data mining, lie detection, biometrics, and psychological or neurochemical means of manipulating beliefs and desires could reduce some existential risks by making it easier to coordinate internationally or to suppress terrorists and renegades at home. These same advances, however, might also increase some existential risks by amplifying undesirable social dynamics or by enabling the formation of permanently stable totalitarian regimes. One important frontier is the enhancement of biological cognition, such as through genetic selection. When we discussed this in Chapters 2 and 3 , we concluded that the most radical forms of superintelligence would be more likely to arise in the form of machine intelligence. That claim is consistent with cognitive enhancement playing an important role in the lead-up to, and creation of, machine superintelligence. Cognitive enhancement might seem obviously risk-reducing: the smarter the people working on the control problem, the more likely they are to find a solution. However, cognitive enhancement could also hasten the development of machine intelligence, thus reducing the time available to work on the problem. Cognitive enhancement would also have many other relevant consequences. These issues deserve a closer look. (Most of the following remarks about cognitive enhancement apply equally to non- biological means of increasing our individual or collective epistemic effectiveness.) Rates of change and cognitive enhancement An increase in either the mean or the upper range of human intellectual ability would likely accelerate technological progress across the board, including progress toward various forms of machine intelligence, progress on the control problem, and progress on a wide swath of other technical and economic objectives. What would be the net effect of such acceleration? Consider the limiting case of a universal accelerator, an imaginary intervention that accelerates literally everything . The action of such a universal accelerator would correspond merely to an arbitrary rescaling of the time metric, producing no qualitative change in observed outcomes. 7 If we are to make sense of the idea that cognitive enhancement might generally speed things up, we clearly need some other concept than that of universal acceleration. A more promising approach is to focus on how cognitive enhancement might increase the rate of change in one type of process relative to the rate of change in some other type of process. Such differential acceleration could affect a systems dynamics. Thus, consider the following concept: Macro-structural development accelerator A lever that accelerates the rate at which macro-structural features of the human condition develop, while leaving unchanged the rate at which micro-level human affairs unfold. Imagine pulling this lever in the decelerating direction. A brake pad is lowered onto the great wheel of world history; sparks fly and metal screeches. After the wheel has settled into a more leisurely pace, the result is a world in which technological innovation occurs more slowly and in which fundamental or globally significant change in political structure and culture happens less frequently and less abruptly. A greater number of generations come and go before one era gives way to another. During the course of a lifespan, a person sees little change in the basic structure of the human condition. For most of our species existence, macro-structural development was slower than it is now. Fifty thousand years ago, an entire millennium might have elapsed without a single significant technological invention, without any noticeable increase in human knowledge and understanding, and without any globally meaningful political change. On a micro-level, however, the kaleidoscope of human affairs churned at a reasonable rate, with births, deaths, and other personally and locally significant events. The average persons day might have been more action-packed in the Pleistocene than it is today. If you came upon a magic lever that would let you change the rate of macro- structural development, what should you do? Ought you to accelerate, decelerate, or leave things as they are? Assuming the impersonal standpoint, this question requires us to consider the effects on existential risk. Let us distinguish between two kinds of risk: state risks and step risks. A state risk is one that is associated with being in a certain state, and the total amount of state risk to which a system is exposed is a direct function of how long the system remains in that state. Risks from nature are typically state risks: the longer we remain exposed, the greater the chance that we will get struck by an asteroid, supervolcanic eruption, gamma ray burst, naturally arising pandemic, or some other slash of the cosmic scythe. Some anthropogenic risks are also state risks. At the level of an individual, the longer a soldier pokes his head up above the parapet, the greater the cumulative chance he will be shot by an enemy sniper. There are anthropogenic state risks at the existential level as well: the longer we live in an internationally anarchic system, the greater the cumulative chance of a thermonuclear Armageddon or of a great war fought with other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, laying waste to civilization. A step risk, by contrast, is a discrete risk associated with some necessary or desirable transition. Once the transition is completed, the risk vanishes. The amount of step risk associated with a transition is usually not a simple function of how long the transition takes. One does not halve the risk of traversing a minefield by running twice as fast. Conditional on a fast takeoff, the creation of superintelligence might be a step risk: there would be a certain risk associated with the takeoff, the magnitude of which would depend on what preparations had been made; but the amount of risk might not depend much on whether the takeoff takes twenty milliseconds or twenty hours. We can then say the following regarding a hypothetical macro-structural development accelerator: Insofar as we are concerned with existential state risks, we should favor accelerationprovided we think we have a realistic prospect of making it through to a post-transition era in which any further existential risks are greatly reduced. If it were known that there is some step ahead destined to cause an existential catastrophe, then we ought to reduce the rate of macro-structural development (or even put it in reverse) in order to give more generations a chance to exist before the curtain is rung down. But, in fact, it would be overly pessimistic to be so confident that humanity is doomed. At present, the level of existential state risk appears to be relatively low. If we imagine the technological macro-conditions for humanity frozen in their current state, it seems very unlikely that an existential catastrophe would occur on a timescale of, say, a decade. So a delay of one decadeprovided it occurred at our current stage of development or at some other time when state risk is low would incur only a very minor existential state risk, whereas a postponement by one decade of subsequent technological developments might well have a significant beneficial impact on later existential step risks, for example by allowing more time for preparation. Upshot: the main way that the speed of macro-structural development is important is by affecting how well prepared humanity is when the time comes to confront the key step risks. 8 So the question we must ask is how cognitive enhancement (and concomitant acceleration of macro-structural development) would affect the expected level of preparedness at the critical juncture. Should we prefer a shorter period of preparation with higher intelligence? With higher intelligence, the preparation time could be used more effectively, and the final critical step would be taken by a more intelligent humanity. Or should we prefer to operate with closer to current levels of intelligence if that gives us more time to prepare? Which option is better depends on the nature of the challenge being prepared for. If the challenge were to solve a problem for which learning from experience is key, then the chronological length of the preparation period might be the determining factor, since time is needed for the requisite experience to accumulate. What would such a challenge look like? One hypothetical example would be a new weapons technology that we could predict would be developed at some point in the future and that would make it the case that any subsequent war would have, let us say, a one-in-ten chance of causing an existential catastrophe. If such were the nature of the challenge facing us, then we might wish the rate of macro-structural development to be slow, so that our species would have more time to get its act together before the critical step when the new weapons technology is invented. One could hope that during the grace period secured through the deceleration, our species might learn to avoid war that international relations around the globe might come to resemble those between the countries of the European Union, which, having fought one another ferociously for centuries, now coexist in peace and relative harmony. The pacification might occur as a result of the gentle edification from various civilizing processes or through the shock therapy of sub-existential blows (e.g. small nuclear conflagrations, and the recoil and resolve they might engender to finally create the global institutions necessary for the abolishment of interstate wars). If this kind of learning or adjusting would not be much accelerated by increased intelligence, then cognitive enhancement would be undesirable, serving merely to burn the fuse faster. A prospective intelligence explosion, however, may present a challenge of a different kind. The control problem calls for foresight, reasoning, and theoretical insight. It is less clear how increased historical experience would help. Direct experience of the intelligence explosion is not possible (until too late), and many features conspire to make the control problem unique and lacking in relevant historical precedent. For these reasons, the amount of time that will elapse before the intelligence explosion may not matter much per se. Perhaps what matters, instead, is (a) the amount of intellectual progress on the control problem achieved by the time of the detonation; and (b) the amount of skill and intelligence available at the time to implement the best available solutions (and to improvise what is missing). 9 That this latter factor should respond positively to cognitive enhancement is obvious. How cognitive enhancement would affect factor (a) is a somewhat subtler matter. Suppose, as suggested earlier, that cognitive enhancement would be a general macro-structural development accelerator. This would hasten the arrival of the intelligence explosion, thus reducing the amount of time available for preparation and for making progress on the control problem. Normally this would be a bad thing. However, if the only reason why there is less time available for intellectual progress is that intellectual progress is speeded up, then there need be no net reduction in the amount of intellectual progress that will have taken place by the time the intelligence explosion occurs. At this point, cognitive enhancement might appear to be neutral with respect to factor (a): the same intellectual progress that would otherwise have been made prior to the intelligence explosionincluding progress on the control problem still gets made, only compressed within a shorter time interval. In actuality, however, cognitive enhancement may well prove a positive influence on (a). One reason why cognitive enhancement might cause more progress to have been made on the control problem by the time the intelligence explosion occurs is that progress on the control problem may be especially contingent on extreme levels of intellectual performanceeven more so than the kind of work necessary to create machine intelligence. The role for trial and error and accumulation of experimental results seems quite limited in relation to the control problem, whereas experimental learning will probably play a large role in the development of artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation. The extent to which time can substitute for wit may therefore vary between tasks in a way that should make cognitive enhancement promote progress on the control problem more than it would promote progress on the problem of how to create machine intelligence. Another reason why cognitive enhancement should differentially promote progress on the control problem is that the very need for such progress is more likely to be appreciated by cognitively more capable societies and individuals. It requires foresight and reasoning to realize why the control problem is important and to make it a priority. 10 It may also require uncommon sagacity to find promising ways of approaching such an unfamiliar problem. From these reflections we might tentatively conclude that cognitive enhancement is desirable, at least insofar as the focus is on the existential risks of an intelligence explosion. Parallel lines of thinking apply to other existential risks arising from challenges that require foresight and reliable abstract reasoning (as opposed to, e.g., incremental adaptation to experienced changes in the environment or a multigenerational process of cultural maturation and institution-building). Technology couplings Suppose that one thinks that solving the control problem for artificial intelligence is very difficult, that solving it for whole brain emulations is much easier, and that it would therefore be preferable that machine intelligence be reached via the whole brain emulation path. We will return later to the question of whether whole brain emulation would be safer than artificial intelligence. But for now we want to make the point that even if we accept this premiss, it would not follow that we ought to promote whole brain emulation technology. One reason, discussed earlier, is that a later arrival of superintelligence may be preferable, in order to allow more time for progress on the control problem and for other favorable background trends to culminateand thus, if one were confident that whole brain emulation would precede AI anyway, it would be counterproductive to further hasten the arrival of whole brain emulation. But even if it were the case that it would be best for whole brain emulation to arrive as soon as possible, it still would not follow that we ought to favor progress toward whole brain emulation. For it is possible that progress toward whole brain emulation will not yield whole brain emulation. It may instead yield neuromorphic artificial intelligenceforms of AI that mimic some aspects of cortical organization but do not replicate neuronal functionality with sufficient fidelity to constitute a proper emulation. Ifas there is reason to believesuch neuromorphic AI is worse than the kind of AI that would otherwise have been built, and if by promoting whole brain emulation we would make neuromorphic AI arrive first, then our pursuit of the supposed best outcome (whole brain emulation) would lead to the worst outcome (neuromorphic AI); whereas if we had pursued the second-best outcome (synthetic AI) we might actually have attained the second-best (synthetic AI). We have just described an (hypothetical) instance of what we might term a technology coupling. 11 This refers to a condition in which two technologies have a predictable timing relationship, such that developing one of the technologies has a robust tendency to lead to the development of the other, either as a necessary precursor or as an obvious and irresistible application or subsequent step. Technology couplings must be taken into account when we use the principle of differential technological development: it is no good accelerating the development of a desirable technology Y if the only way of getting Y is by developing an extremely undesirable precursor technology X , or if getting Y would immediately produce an extremely undesirable related technology Z . Before you marry your sweetheart, consider the prospective in-laws. In the case of whole brain emulation, the degree of technology coupling is debatable. We noted in Chapter 2 that while whole brain emulation would require massive progress in various enabling technologies, it might not require any major new theoretical insight. In particular, it does not require that we understand how human cognition works, only that we know how to build computational models of small parts of the brain, such as different species of neuron. Nevertheless, in the course of developing the ability to emulate human brains, a wealth of neuroanatomical data would be collected, and functional models of cortical networks would surely be greatly improved. Such progress would seem to have a good chance of enabling neuromorphic AI before full- blown whole brain emulation. 12 Historically, there are quite a few examples of AI techniques gleaned from neuroscience or biology. (For example: the McCullochPitts neuron, perceptrons, and other artificial neurons and neural networks, inspired by neuroanatomical work; reinforcement learning, inspired by behaviorist psychology; genetic algorithms, inspired by evolution theory; subsumption architectures and perceptual hierarchies, inspired by cognitive science theories about motor planning and sensory perception; artificial immune systems, inspired by theoretical immunology; swarm intelligence, inspired by the ecology of insect colonies and other self-organizing systems; and reactive and behavior-based control in robotics, inspired by the study of animal locomotion.) Perhaps more significantly, there are plenty of important AI- relevant questions that could potentially be answered through further study of the brain. (For example: How does the brain store structured representations in working memory and long-term memory? How is the binding problem solved? What is the neural code? How are concepts represented? Is there some standard unit of cortical processing machinery, such as the cortical column, and if so how is it wired and how does its functionality depend on the wiring? How can such columns be linked up, and how can they learn?) We will shortly have more to say about the relative danger of whole brain emulation, neuromorphic AI, and synthetic AI, but we can already flag another important technology coupling: that between whole brain emulation and AI. Even if a push toward whole brain emulation actually resulted in whole brain emulation (as opposed to neuromorphic AI), and even if the arrival of whole brain emulation could be safely handled, a further risk would still remain: the risk associated with a second transition , a transition from whole brain emulation to AI, which is an ultimately more powerful form of machine intelligence. There are many other technology couplings, which could be considered in a more comprehensive analysis. For instance, a push toward whole brain emulation would boost neuroscience progress more generally. 13 That might produce various effects, such as faster progress toward lie detection, neuropsychological manipulation techniques, cognitive enhancement, and assorted medical advances. Likewise, a push toward cognitive enhancement might (depending on the specific path pursued) create spillovers such as faster development of genetic selection and genetic engineering methods not only for enhancing cognition but for modifying other traits as well. Second-guessing We encounter another layer of strategic complexity if we take into account that there is no perfectly benevolent, rational, and unified world controller who simply implements what has been discovered to be the best option. Any abstract point about what should be done must be embodied in the form of a concrete message, which is entered into the arena of rhetorical and political reality. There it will be ignored, misunderstood, distorted, or appropriated for various conflicting purposes; it will bounce around like a pinball, causing actions and reactions, ushering in a cascade of consequences, the upshot of which need bear no straightforward relationship to the intentions of the original sender. A sophisticated operator might try to anticipate these kinds of effect. Consider, for example, the following argument template for proceeding with research to develop a dangerous technology X . (One argument fitting this template can be found in the writings of Eric Drexler. In Drexlers case, X = molecular nanotechnology. 14 ) The risks of X are great. Reducing these risks will require a period of serious preparation. Serious preparation will begin only once the prospect of X is taken seriously by broad sectors of society. Broad sectors of society will take the prospect of X seriously only once a large research effort to develop X is underway. The earlier a serious research effort is initiated, the longer it will take to deliver X (because it starts from a lower level of pre-existing enabling technologies). Therefore, the earlier a serious research effort is initiated, the longer the period during which serious preparation will be taking place, and the greater the reduction of the risks. Therefore, a serious research effort toward X should be initiated immediately. What initially looks like a reason for going slow or stoppingthe risks of X being greatends up, on this line of thinking, as a reason for the opposite conclusion. A related type of argument is that we oughtrather callouslyto welcome small and medium-scale catastrophes on grounds that they make us aware of our vulnerabilities and spur us into taking precautions that reduce the probability of an existential catastrophe. The idea is that a small or medium-scale catastrophe acts like an inoculation, challenging civilization with a relatively survivable form of a threat and stimulating an immune response that readies the world to deal with the existential variety of the threat. 15 These shockem-into-reacting arguments advocate letting something bad happen in the hope that it will galvanize a public reaction. We mention them here not to endorse them, but as a way to introduce the idea of (what we will term) second-guessing arguments. Such arguments maintain that by treating others as irrational and playing to their biases and misconceptions it is possible to elicit a response from them that is more competent than if a case had been presented honestly and forthrightly to their rational faculties. It may seem unfeasibly difficult to use the kind of stratagems recommended by second-guessing arguments to achieve long-term global goals. How could anybody predict the final course of a message after it has been jolted hither and thither in the pinball machine of public discourse? Doing so would seem to require predicting the rhetorical effects on myriad constituents with varied idiosyncrasies and fluctuating levels of influence over long periods of time during which the system may be perturbed by unanticipated events from the outside while its topology is also undergoing a continuous endogenous reorganization: surely an impossible task! 16 However, it may not be necessary to make detailed predictions about the systems entire future trajectory in order to identify an intervention that can be reasonably expected to increase the chances of a certain long-term outcome. One might, for example, consider only the relatively near-term and predictable effects in a detailed way, selecting an action that does well in regard to those, while modeling the systems behavior beyond the predictability horizon as a random walk. There may, however, be a moral case for de-emphasizing or refraining from second-guessing moves. Trying to outwit one another looks like a zero-sum gameor negative-sum, when one considers the time and energy that would be dissipated by the practice as well as the likelihood that it would make it generally harder for anybody to discover what others truly think and to be trusted when expressing their own opinions. 17 A full-throttled deployment of the practices of strategic communication would kill candor and leave truth bereft to fend for herself in the backstabbing night of political bogeys. Pathways and enablers Should we celebrate advances in computer hardware? What about advances on the path toward whole brain emulation? We will look at these two questions in turn. Effects of hardware progress Faster computers make it easier to create machine intelligence. One effect of accelerating progress in hardware, therefore, is to hasten the arrival of machine intelligence. As discussed earlier, this is probably a bad thing from the impersonal perspective, since it reduces the amount of time available for solving the control problem and for humanity to reach a more mature stage of civilization. The case is not a slam dunk, though. Since superintelligence would eliminate many other existential risks, there could be reason to prefer earlier development if the level of these other existential risks were very high. 18 Hastening or delaying the onset of the intelligence explosion is not the only channel through which the rate of hardware progress can affect existential risk. Another channel is that hardware can to some extent substitute for software; thus, better hardware reduces the minimum skill required to code a seed AI. Fast computers might also encourage the use of approaches that rely more heavily on brute-force techniques (such as genetic algorithms and other generate-evaluate- discard methods) and less on techniques that require deep understanding to use. If brute-force techniques lend themselves to more anarchic or imprecise system designs, where the control problem is harder to solve than in more precisely engineered and theoretically controlled systems, this would be another way in which faster computers would increase the existential risk. Another consideration is that rapid hardware progress increases the likelihood of a fast takeoff. The more rapidly the state of the art advances in the semiconductor industry, the fewer the person-hours of programmers time spent exploiting the capabilities of computers at any given performance level. This means that an intelligence explosion is less likely to be initiated at the lowest level of hardware performance at which it is feasible. An intelligence explosion is thus more likely to be initiated when hardware has advanced significantly beyond the minimum level at which the eventually successful programming approach could first have succeeded. There is then a hardware overhang when the takeoff eventually does occur. As we saw in Chapter 4 , hardware overhang is one of the main factors that reduce recalcitrance during the takeoff. Rapid hardware progress, therefore, will tend to make the transition to superintelligence faster and more explosive. A faster takeoff via a hardware overhang can affect the risks of the transition in several ways. The most obvious is that a faster takeoff offers less opportunity to respond and make adjustments whilst the transition is in progress, which would tend to increase risk. A related consideration is that a hardware overhang would reduce the chances that a dangerously self-improving seed AI could be contained by limiting its ability to colonize sufficient hardware: the faster each processor is, the fewer processors would be needed for the AI to quickly bootstrap itself to superintelligence. Yet another effect of a hardware overhang is to level the playing field between big and small projects by reducing the importance of one of the advantages of larger projectsthe ability to afford more powerful computers. This effect, too, might increase existential risk, if larger projects are more likely to solve the control problem and to be pursuing morally acceptable objectives. 19 There are also advantages to a faster takeoff. A faster takeoff would increase the likelihood that a singleton will form. If establishing a singleton is sufficiently important for solving the post-transition coordination problems, it might be worth accepting a greater risk during the intelligence explosion in order to mitigate the risk of catastrophic coordination failures in its aftermath. Developments in computing can affect the outcome of a machine intelligence revolution not only by playing a direct role in the construction of machine intelligence but also by having diffuse effects on society that indirectly help shape the initial conditions of the intelligence explosion. The Internet, which required hardware to be good enough to enable personal computers to be mass produced at low cost, is now influencing human activity in many areas, including work in artificial intelligence and research on the control problem. (This book might not have been written, and you might not have found it, without the Internet.) However, hardware is already good enough for a great many applications that could facilitate human communication and deliberation, and it is not clear that the pace of progress in these areas is strongly bottlenecked by the rate of hardware improvement. 20 On balance, it appears that faster progress in computing hardware is undesirable from the impersonal evaluative standpoint. This tentative conclusion could be overturned, for example if the threats from other existential risks or from post-transition coordination failures turn out to be extremely large. In any case, it seems difficult to have much leverage on the rate of hardware advancement. Our efforts to improve the initial conditions for the intelligence explosion should therefore probably focus on other parameters. Note that even when we cannot see how to influence some parameter, it can be useful to determine its sign (i.e. whether an increase or decrease in that parameter would be desirable) as a preliminary step in mapping the strategic lay of the land. We might later discover a new leverage point that does enable us to manipulate the parameter more easily. Or we might discover that the parameters sign correlates with the sign of some other more manipulable parameter, so that our initial analysis helps us decide what to do with this other parameter. Should whole brain emulation research be promoted? The harder it seems to solve the control problem for artificial intelligence, the more tempting it is to promote the whole brain emulation path as a less risky alternative. There are several issues, however, that must be analyzed before one can arrive at a well-considered judgment. 21 First, there is the issue of technology coupling, already discussed earlier. We pointed out that an effort to develop whole brain emulation could result in neuromorphic AI instead, a form of machine intelligence that may be especially unsafe. But let us assume, for the sake of argument, that we actually achieve whole brain emulation (WBE). Would this be safer than AI? This, itself, is a complicated issue. There are at least three putative advantages of WBE: (i) that its performance characteristics would be better understood than those of AI; (ii) that it would inherit human motives; and (iii) that it would result in a slower takeoff. Let us very briefly reflect on each. i That it should be easier to understand the intellectual performance characteristics of an emulation than of an AI sounds plausible. We have abundant experience with the strengths and weaknesses of human intelligence but no experience with human-level artificial intelligence. However, to understand what a snapshot of a digitized human intellect can and cannot do is not the same as to understand how such an intellect will respond to modifications aimed at enhancing its performance. An artificial intellect, by contrast, might be carefully designed to be understandable, in both its static and dynamic dispositions. So while whole brain emulation may be more predictable in its intellectual performance than a generic AI at a comparable stage of development, it is unclear whether whole brain emulation would be dynamically more predictable than an AI engineered by competent safety-conscious programmers. ii As for an emulation inheriting the motivations of its human template, this is far from guaranteed. Capturing human evaluative dispositions might require a very high-fidelity emulation. Even if some individuals motivations were perfectly captured, it is unclear how much safety would be purchased. Humans can be untrustworthy, selfish, and cruel. While templates would hopefully be selected for exceptional virtue, it may be hard to foretell how someone will act when transplanted into radically alien circumstances, superhumanly enhanced in intelligence, and tempted with an opportunity for world domination. It is true that emulations would at least be more likely to have human-like motivations (as opposed to valuing only paperclips or discovering digits of pi). Depending on ones views on human nature, this might or might not be reassuring. 22 iii It is not clear why whole brain emulation should result in a slower takeoff than artificial intelligence. Perhaps with whole brain emulation one should expect less hardware overhang, since whole brain emulation is less computationally efficient than artificial intelligence can be. Perhaps, also, an AI system could more easily absorb all available computing power into one giant integrated intellect, whereas whole brain emulation would forego quality superintelligence and pull ahead of humanity only in speed and size of population. If whole brain emulation does lead to a slower takeoff, this could have benefits in terms of alleviating the control problem. A slower takeoff would also make a multipolar outcome more likely. But whether a multipolar outcome is desirable is very doubtful. There is another important complication with the general idea that getting whole brain emulation first is safer: the need to cope with a second transition . Even if the first form of human-level machine intelligence is emulation-based, it would still remain feasible to develop artificial intelligence. AI in its mature form has important advantages over WBE, making AI the ultimately more powerful technology. 23 While mature AI would render WBE obsolete (except for the special purpose of preserving individual human minds), the reverse does not hold. What this means is that if AI is developed first, there might be a single wave of the intelligence explosion. But if WBE is developed first, there may be two waves: first, the arrival of WBE; and later, the arrival of AI. The total existential risk along the WBE-first path is the sum of the risk in the first transition and the risk in the second transition (conditional on having made it through the first); see Figure 13 . 24 How much safer would the AI transition be in a WBE world? One consideration is that the AI transition would be less explosive if it occurs after some form of machine intelligence has already been realized. Emulations, running at digital speeds and in numbers that might far exceed the biological human population, would reduce the cognitive differential, making it easier for emulations to control the AI. This consideration is not too weighty, since the gap between AI and WBE could still be wide. However, if the emulations were not just faster and more numerous but also somewhat qualitatively smarter than biological humans (or at least drawn from the top end of the human distribution) then the WBE-first scenario would have advantages paralleling those of human cognitive enhancement, which we discussed above. Figure 13 Artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation first? In an AI-first scenario, there is one transition that creates an existential risk. In a WBE-first scenario, there are two risky transitions, first the development of WBE and then the development of AI. The total existential risk along the WBE-first scenario is the sum of these. However, the risk of an AI transition might be lower if it occurs in a world where WBE has already been successfully introduced. Another consideration is that the transition to WBE would extend the lead of the frontrunner. Consider a scenario in which the frontrunner has a six-month lead over the closest follower in developing whole brain emulation technology. Suppose that the first emulations to be created are cooperative, safety-focused, and patient. If they run on fast hardware, these emulations could spend subjective eons pondering how to create safe AI. For example, if they run at a speedup of 100,000 and are able to work on the control problem undisturbed for six months of sidereal time, they could hammer away at the control problem for fifty millennia before facing competition from other emulations. Given sufficient hardware, they could hasten their progress by fanning out myriad copies to work independently on subproblems. If the frontrunner uses its six- month lead to form a singleton, it could buy its emulation AI-development team an unlimited amount of time to work on the control problem. 25 On balance, it looks like the risk of the AI transition would be reduced if WBE comes before AI. However, when we combine the residual risk in the AI transition with the risk of an antecedent WBE transition, it becomes very unclear how the total existential risk along the WBE-first path stacks up against the risk along the AI-first path. Only if one is quite pessimistic about biological humanitys ability to manage an AI transitionafter taking into account that human nature or civilization might have improved by the time we confront this challengeshould the WBE-first path seem attractive. To figure out whether whole brain emulation technology should be promoted, there are some further important points to place in the balance. Most significantly, there is the technology coupling mentioned earlier: a push toward WBE could instead produce neuromorphic AI. This is a reason against pushing for WBE. 26 No doubt, there are some synthetic AI designs that are less safe than some neuromorphic designs. In expectation, however, it seems that neuromorphic designs are less safe. One ground for this is that imitation can substitute for understanding. To build something from the ground up one must usually have a reasonably good understanding of how the system will work. Such understanding may not be necessary to merely copy features of an existing system. Whole brain emulation relies on wholesale copying of biology, which may not require a comprehensive computational systems-level understanding of cognition (though a large amount of component-level understanding would undoubtedly be needed). Neuromorphic AI may be like whole brain emulation in this regard: it would be achieved by cobbling together pieces plagiarized from biology without the engineers necessarily having a deep mathematical understanding of how the system works. But neuromorphic AI would be unlike whole brain emulation in another regard: it would not have human motivations by default. 27 This consideration argues against pursuing the whole brain emulation approach to the extent that it would likely produce neuromorphic AI. A second point to put in the balance is that WBE is more likely to give us advance notice of its arrival. With AI it is always possible that somebody will make an unexpected conceptual breakthrough. WBE, by contrast, will require many laborious precursor stepshigh-throughput scanning facilities, image processing software, detailed neural modeling work. We can therefore be confident that WBE is not imminent (not less than, say, fifteen or twenty years away). This means that efforts to accelerate WBE will make a difference mainly in scenarios in which machine intelligence is developed comparatively late. This could make WBE investments attractive to somebody who wants the intelligence explosion to preempt other existential risks but is wary of supporting AI for fear of triggering an intelligence explosion prematurely, before the control problem has been solved. However, the uncertainty over the relevant timescales is probably currently too large to enable this consideration to carry much weight. 28 A strategy of promoting WBE is thus most attractive if (a) one is very pessimistic about humans solving the control problem for AI, (b) one is not too worried about neuromorphic AI, multipolar outcomes, or the risks of a second transition, (c) one thinks that the default timing of WBE and AI is close, and (d) one prefers superintelligence to be developed neither very late nor very early. The person-affecting perspective favors speed I fear the blog commenter washbash may speak for many when he or she writes: I instinctively think go faster. Not because I think this is better for the world. Why should I care about the world when I am dead and gone? I want it to go fast, damn it! This increases the chance I have of experiencing a more technologically advanced future. 29 From the person-affecting standpoint, we have greater reason to rush forward with all manner of radical technologies that could pose existential risks. This is because the default outcome is that almost everyone who now exists is dead within a century. The case for rushing is especially strong with regard to technologies that could extend our lives and thereby increase the expected fraction of the currently existing population that may still be around for the intelligence explosion. If the machine intelligence revolution goes well, the resulting superintelligence could almost certainly devise means to indefinitely prolong the lives of the then still- existing humans, not only keeping them alive but restoring them to health and youthful vigor, and enhancing their capacities well beyond what we currently think of as the human range; or helping them shuffle off their mortal coils altogether by uploading their minds to a digital substrate and endowing their liberated spirits with exquisitely good-feeling virtual embodiments. With regard to technologies that do not promise to save lives, the case for rushing is weaker, though perhaps still sufficiently supported by the hope of raised standards of living. 30 The same line of reasoning makes the person-affecting perspective favor many risky technological innovations that promise to hasten the onset of the intelligence explosion, even when those innovations are disfavored in the impersonal perspective. Such innovations could shorten the wolf hours during which we individually must hang on to our perch if we are to live to see the daybreak of the posthuman age. From the person-affecting standpoint, faster hardware progress thus seems desirable, as does faster progress toward WBE. Any adverse effect on existential risk is probably outweighed by the personal benefit of an increased chance of the intelligence explosion happening in the lifetime of currently existing people. 31 Collaboration One important parameter is the degree to which the world will manage to coordinate and collaborate in the development of machine intelligence. Collaboration would bring many benefits. Let us take a look at how this parameter might affect the outcome and what levers we might have for increasing the extent and intensity of collaboration. The race dynamic and its perils A race dynamic exists when one project fears being overtaken by another. This does not require the actual existence of multiple projects. A situation with only one project could exhibit a race dynamic if that project is unaware of its lack of competitors. The Allies would probably not have developed the atomic bomb as quickly as they did had they not believed (erroneously) that the Germans might be close to the same goal. The severity of a race dynamic (that is, the extent to which competitors prioritize speed over safety) depends on several factors, such as the closeness of the race, the relative importance of capability and luck, the number of competitors, whether competing teams are pursuing different approaches, and the degree to which projects share the same aims. Competitors beliefs about these factors are also relevant. (See Box 13 .) In the development of machine superintelligence, it seems likely that there will be at least a mild race dynamic, and it is possible that there will be a severe race dynamic. The race dynamic has important consequences for how we should think about the strategic challenge posed by the possibility of an intelligence explosion. The race dynamic could spur projects to move faster toward superintelligence while reducing investment in solving the control problem. Additional detrimental effects of the race dynamic are also possible, such as direct hostilities between competitors. Suppose that two nations are racing to develop the first superintelligence, and that one of them is seen to be pulling ahead. In a winner-takes-all situation, a lagging project might be tempted to launch a desperate strike against its rival rather than passively await defeat. Anticipating this possibility, the frontrunner might be tempted to strike preemptively. If the antagonists are powerful states, the clash could be bloody. 34 (A surgical strike against the rivals AI project might risk triggering a larger confrontation and might in any case not be feasible if the host country has taken precautions. 35 ) Box 13 A risk-race to the bottom Consider a hypothetical AI arms race in which several teams compete to develop superintelligence. 32 Each team decides how much to invest in safetyknowing that resources spent on developing safety precautions are resources not spent on developing the AI. Absent a deal between all the competitors (which might be stymied by bargaining or enforcement difficulties), there might then be a risk- race to the bottom, driving each team to take only a minimum of precautions. One can model each teams performance as a function of its capability (measuring its raw ability and luck) and a penalty term corresponding to the cost of its safety precautions. The team with the highest performance builds the first AI. The riskiness of that AI is determined by how much its creators invested in safety. In the worst-case scenario, all teams have equal levels of capability. The winner is then determined exclusively by investment in safety: the team that took the fewest safety precautions wins. The Nash equilibrium for this game is for every team to spend nothing on safety. In the real world, such a situation might arise via a risk ratchet : some team, fearful of falling behind, increments its risk- taking to catch up with its competitorswho respond in kind, until the maximum level of risk is reached. Capability versus risk The situation changes when there are variations in capability. As variations in capability become more important relative to the cost of safety precautions, the risk ratchet weakens: there is less incentive to incur an extra bit of risk if doing so is unlikely to change the order of the race. This is illustrated under various scenarios in Figure 14 , which plots how the riskiness of the AI depends on the importance of capability. Safety investment ranges from 1 (resulting in perfectly safe AI) to 0 (completely unsafe AI). The x -axis represents the relative importance of capability versus safety investment in determining the speed of a teams progress toward AI. (At 0.5, the safety investment level is twice are important as capability; at 1, the two are equal; at 2, capability is twice as important as safety level; and so forth.) The y -axis represents the level of AI risk (the expected fraction of their maximum utility that the winner of the race gets). Figure 14 Risk levels in AI technology races. Levels of risk of dangerous AI in a simple model of a technology race involving either (a) two teams or (b) five teams, plotted against the relative importance of capability (as opposed to investment in safety) in determining which project wins the race. The graphs show three information-level scenarios: no capability information (straight), private capability information (dashed), and full capability information (dotted). We see that, under all scenarios, the dangerousness of the resultant AI is maximal when capability plays no role, gradually decreasing as capability grows in importance. Compatible goals Another way of reducing the risk is by giving teams more of a stake in each others success. If competitors are convinced that coming second means the total loss of everything they care about, they will take whatever risk necessary to bypass their rivals. Conversely, teams will invest more in safety if less depends on winning the race. This suggests that we should encourage various forms of cross-investment. The number of competitors The greater the number of competing teams, the more dangerous the race becomes: each team, having less chance of coming first, is more willing to throw caution to the wind. This can be seen by contrasting Figure 14 a (two teams) with Figure 14 b (five teams). In every scenario, more competitors means more risk. Risk would be reduced if teams coalesce into a smaller number of competing coalitions. The curse of too much information Is it good if teams know about their positions in the race (knowing their capability scores, for instance)? Here, opposing factors are at play. It is desirable that a leader knows it is leading (so that it knows it has some margin for additional safety precautions). Yet it is undesirable that a laggard knows it has fallen behind (since this would confirm that it must cut back on safety to have any hope of catching up). While intuitively it may seem this trade-off could go either way, the models are unequivocal: information is (in expectation) bad. 33 Figures 14 a and 14 b each plot three scenarios: the straight lines correspond to situations in which no team knows any of the capability scores, its own included. The dashed lines show situations where each team knows its own capability only. (In those situations, a team takes extra risk only if its capability is low.) And the dotted lines show what happens when all teams know each others capabilities. (They take extra risks if their capability scores are close to one another.) With each increase in information level, the race dynamic becomes worse. Scenarios in which the rival developers are not states but smaller entities, such as corporate labs or academic teams, would probably feature much less direct destruction from conflict. Yet the overall consequences of competition may be almost as bad. This is because the main part of the expected harm from competition stems not from the smashup of battle but from the downgrade of precaution. A race dynamic would, as we saw, reduce investment in safety; and conflict, even if nonviolent, would tend to scotch opportunities for collaboration, since projects would be less likely to share ideas for solving the control problem in a climate of hostility and mistrust. 36 On the benefits of collaboration Collaboration thus offers many benefits. It reduces the haste in developing machine intelligence. It allows for greater investment in safety. It avoids violent conflicts. And it facilitates the sharing of ideas about how to solve the control problem. To these benefits we can add another: collaboration would tend to produce outcomes in which the fruits of a successfully controlled intelligence explosion get distributed more equitably. That broader collaboration should result in wider sharing of gains is not axiomatic. In principle, a small project run by an altruist could lead to an outcome where the benefits are shared evenly or equitably among all morally considerable beings. Nevertheless, there are several reasons to suppose that broader collaborations, involving a greater number of sponsors, are (in expectation) distributionally superior. One such reason is that sponsors presumably prefer an outcome in which they themselves get (at least) their fair share. A broad collaboration then means that relatively many individuals get at least their fair share, assuming the project is successful. Another reason is that a broad collaboration also seems likelier to benefit people outside the collaboration. A broader collaboration contains more members, so more outsiders would have personal ties to somebody on the inside looking out for their interests. A broader collaboration is also more likely to include at least some altruist who wants to benefit everyone. Furthermore, a broader collaboration is more likely to operate under public oversight, which might reduce the risk of the entire pie being captured by a clique of programmers or private investors. 37 Note also that the larger the successful collaboration is, the lower the costs to it of extending the benefits to all outsiders. (For instance, if 90% of all people were already inside the collaboration, it would cost them no more than 10% of their holdings to bring all outsiders up to their own level.) It is thus plausible that broader collaborations would tend to lead to a wider distribution of the gains (though some projects with few sponsors might also have distributionally excellent aims). But why is a wide distribution of gains desirable? There are both moral and prudential reasons for favoring outcomes in which everybody gets a share of the bounty. We will not say much about the moral case, except to note that it need not rest on any egalitarian principle. The case might be made, for example, on grounds of fairness. A project that creates machine superintelligence imposes a global risk externality. Everybody on the planet is placed in jeopardy, including those who do not consent to having their own lives and those of their family imperiled in this way. Since everybody shares the risk, it would seem to be a minimal requirement of fairness that everybody also gets a share of the upside. The fact that the total (expected) amount of good seems greater in collaboration scenarios is another important reason such scenarios are morally preferable. The prudential case for favoring a wide distribution of gains is two-pronged. One prong is that wide distribution should promote collaboration, thereby mitigating the negative consequences of the race dynamic. There is less incentive to fight over who gets to build the first superintelligence if everybody stands to benefit equally from any projects success. The sponsors of a particular project might also benefit from credibly signaling their commitment to distributing the spoils universally, a certifiably altruistic project being likely to attract more supporters and fewer enemies. 38 The other prong of the prudential case for favoring a wide distribution of gains has to do with whether agents are risk-averse or have utility functions that are sublinear in resources. The central fact here is the enormousness of the potential resource pie. Assuming the observable universe is as uninhabited as it looks, it contains more than one vacant galaxy for each human being alive. Most people would much rather have certain access to one galaxys worth of resources than a lottery ticket offering a one-in-a-billion chance of owning a billion galaxies. 39 Given the astronomical size of humanitys cosmic endowment, it seems that self-interest should generally favor deals that would guarantee each person a share, even if each share corresponded to a small fraction of the total. The important thing, when such an extravagant bonanza is in the offing, is to not be left out in the cold. This argument from the enormousness of the resource pie presupposes that preferences are resource-satiable. 40 That supposition does not necessarily hold. For instance, several prominent ethical theoriesincluding especially aggregative consequentialist theoriescorrespond to utility functions that are risk-neutral and linear in resources. A billion galaxies could be used to create a billion times more happy lives than a single galaxy. They are thus, to a utilitarian, worth a billion times as much. 41 Ordinary selfish human preference functions, however, appear to be relatively resource-satiable. This last statement must be flanked by two important qualifications. The first is that many people care about rank. If multiple agents each wants to top the Forbes rich list, then no resource pie is large enough to give everybody full satisfaction. The second qualification is that the post-transition technology base would enable material resources to be converted into an unprecedented range of products, including some goods that are not currently available at any price even though they are highly valued by many humans. A billionaire does not live a thousand times longer than a millionaire. In the era of digital minds, however, the billionaire could afford a thousandfold more computing power and could thus enjoy a thousandfold longer subjective lifespan. Mental capacity, likewise, could be for sale. In such circumstances, with economic capital convertible into vital goods at a constant rate even for great levels of wealth, unbounded greed would make more sense than it does in todays world where the affluent (those among them lacking a philanthropic heart) are reduced to spending their riches on airplanes, boats, art collections, or a fourth and a fifth residence. Does this mean that an egoist should be risk-neutral with respect to his or her post-transition resource endowment? Not quite. Physical resources may not be convertible into lifespan or mental performance at arbitrary scales. If a life must be lived sequentially, so that observer moments can remember earlier events and be affected by prior choices, then the life of a digital mind cannot be extended arbitrarily without utilizing an increasing number of sequential computational operations. But physics limits the extent to which resources can be transformed into sequential computations. 42 The limits on sequential computation may also constrain some aspects of cognitive performance to scale radically sublinearly beyond a relatively modest resource endowment. Furthermore, it is not obvious that an egoist would or should be risk-neutral even with regard to highly normatively relevant outcome metrics such as number of quality-adjusted subjective life years. If offered the choice between an extra 2,000 years of life for certain and a one-in-ten chance of an extra 30,000 years of life, I think most people would select the former (even under the stipulation that each life year would be of equal quality). 43 In reality, the prudential case for favoring a wide distribution of gains is presumably subject-relative and situation-dependent. Yet, on the whole, people would be more likely to get (almost all of) what they want if a way is found to achieve a wide distributionand this holds even before taking into account that a commitment to a wider distribution would tend to foster collaboration and thereby increase the chances of avoiding existential catastrophe. Favoring a broad distribution, therefore, appears to be not only morally mandated but also prudentially advisable. There is a further set of consequences to collaboration that should be given at least some shrift: the possibility that pre-transition collaboration influences the level of post-transition collaboration. Assume humanity solves the control problem. (If the control problem is not solved, it may scarcely matter how much collaboration there is post transition.) There are two cases to consider. The first is that the intelligence explosion does not create a winner-takes-all dynamic (presumably because the takeoff is relatively slow). In this case it is plausible that if pre-transition collaboration has any systematic effect on post-transition collaboration, it has a positive effect, tending to promote subsequent collaboration. The original collaborative relationships may endure and continue beyond the transition; also, pre-transition collaboration may offer more opportunity for people to steer developments in desirable (and, presumably, more collaborative) post-transition directions. The second case is that the nature of the intelligence explosion does encourage a winner-takes-all dynamic (presumably because the takeoff is relatively fast). In this case, if there is no extensive collaboration before the takeoff, a singleton is likely to emergea single project would undergo the transition alone, at some point obtaining a decisive strategic advantage combined with superintelligence. A singleton, by definition, is a highly collaborative social order. 44 The absence of extensive collaboration pre-transition would thus lead to an extreme degree of collaboration post-transition. By contrast, a somewhat higher level of collaboration in the run-up to the intelligence explosion opens up a wider variety of possible outcomes. Collaborating projects could synchronize their ascent to ensure they transition in tandem without any of them getting a decisive strategic advantage. Or different sponsor groups might merge their efforts into a single project, while refusing to give that project a mandate to form a singleton. For example, one could imagine a consortium of nations forming a joint scientific project to develop machine superintelligence, yet not authorizing this project to evolve into anything like a supercharged United Nations, electing instead to maintain the factious world order that existed before. Particularly in the case of a fast takeoff, therefore, the possibility exists that greater pre-transition collaboration would result in less post-transition collaboration. However, to the extent that collaborating entities are able to shape the outcome, they may allow the emergence or continuation of non-collaboration only if they foresee that no catastrophic consequences would follow from post- transition factiousness. Scenarios in which pre-transition collaboration leads to reduced post-transition collaboration may therefore mostly be ones in which reduced post-transition collaboration is innocuous. In general, greater post-transition collaboration appears desirable. It would reduce the risk of dystopian dynamics in which economic competition and a rapidly expanding population lead to a Malthusian condition, or in which evolutionary selection erodes human values and selects for non-eudaemonic forms, or in which rival powers suffer other coordination failures such as wars and technology races. The last of these issues, the prospect of technology races, may be particularly problematic if the transition is to an intermediary form of machine intelligence (whole brain emulation) since it would create a new race dynamic that would harm the chances of the control problem being solved for the subsequent second transition to a more advanced form of machine intelligence (artificial intelligence). We described earlier how collaboration can reduce conflict in the run-up to the intelligence explosion, increasing the chances that the control problem will be solved, and improve both the moral legitimacy and the prudential desirability of the resulting resource allocation. To these benefits of collaboration it may thus be possible to add one more: that broader collaboration pre-transition could help with important coordination problems in the post-transition era. Working together Collaboration can take different forms depending on the scale of the collaborating entities. At a small scale, individual AI teams who believe themselves to be in competition with one another could choose to pool their efforts. 45 Corporations could merge or cross-invest. At a larger scale, states could join in a big international project. There are precedents to large-scale international collaboration in science and technology (such as CERN, the Human Genome Project, and the International Space Station), but an international project to develop safe superintelligence would pose a different order of challenge because of the security implications of the work. It would have to be constituted not as an open academic collaboration but as an extremely tightly controlled joint enterprise. Perhaps the scientists involved would have to be physically isolated and prevented from communicating with the rest of the world for the duration of the project, except through a single carefully vetted communication channel. The required level of security might be nearly unattainable at present, but advances in lie detection and surveillance technology could make it feasible later this century. It is also worth bearing in mind that broad collaboration does not necessarily mean that large numbers of researchers would be involved in the project; it simply means that many people would have a say in the projects aims. In principle, a project could involve a maximally broad collaboration comprising all of humanity as sponsors (represented, let us say, by the General Assembly of the United Nations), yet employ only a single scientist to carry out the work. 46 There is a reason for starting collaboration as early as possible, namely to take advantage of the veil of ignorance that hides from our view any specific information about which individual project will get to superintelligence first. The closer to the finishing line we get, the less uncertainty will remain about the relative chances of competing projects; and the harder it may consequently be to make a case based on the self-interest of the frontrunner to join a collaborative project that would distribute the benefits to all of humanity. On the other hand, it also looks hard to establish a formal collaboration of worldwide scope before the prospect of superintelligence has become much more widely recognized than it currently is and before there is a clearly visible road leading to the creation of machine superintelligence. Moreover, to the extent that collaboration would promote progress along that road, it may actually be counterproductive in terms of safety, as discussed earlier. The ideal form of collaboration for the present may therefore be one that does not initially require specific formalized agreements and that does not expedite advances in machine intelligence. One proposal that fits these criteria is that we propound an appropriate moral norm, expressing our commitment to the idea that superintelligence should be for the common good. Such a norm could be formulated as follows: The common good principle Superintelligence should be developed only for the benefit of all of humanity and in the service of widely shared ethical ideals. 47 Establishing from an early stage that the immense potential of superintelligence belongs to all of humanity will give more time for such a norm to become entrenched. The common good principle does not preclude commercial incentives for individuals or firms active in related areas. For example, a firm might satisfy the call for universal sharing of the benefits of superintelligence by adopting a windfall clause to the effect that all profits up to some very high ceiling (say, a trillion dollars annually) would be distributed in the ordinary way to the firms shareholders and other legal claimants, and that only profits in excess of the threshold would be distributed to all of humanity evenly (or otherwise according to universal moral criteria). Adopting such a windfall clause should be substantially costless, any given firm being extremely unlikely ever to exceed the stratospheric profit threshold (and such low-probability scenarios ordinarily playing no role in the decisions of the firms managers and investors). Yet its widespread adoption would give humankind a valuable guarantee (insofar as the commitments could be trusted) that if ever some private enterprise were to hit the jackpot with the intelligence explosion, everybody would share in most of the benefits. The same idea could be applied to entities other than firms. For example, states could agree that if ever any one states GDP exceeds some very high fraction (say, 90%) of world GDP, the overshoot should be distributed evenly to all. 48 The common good principle (and particular instantiations, such as windfall clauses) could be adopted initially as a voluntary moral commitment by responsible individuals and organizations that are active in areas related to machine intelligence. Later, it could be endorsed by a wider set of entities and enacted into law and treaty. A vague formulation, such as the one given here, may serve well as a starting point; but it would ultimately need to be sharpened into a set of specific verifiable requirements. CHAPTER 15 Crunch time We find ourselves in a thicket of strategic complexity, surrounded by a dense mist of uncertainty. Though many considerations have been discerned, their details and interrelationships remain unclear and iffyand there might be other factors we have not even thought of yet. What are we to do in this predicament? Philosophy with a deadline A colleague of mine likes to point out that a Fields Medal (the highest honor in mathematics) indicates two things about the recipient: that he was capable of accomplishing something important, and that he didnt. Though harsh, the remark hints at a truth. Think of a discovery as an act that moves the arrival of information from a later point in time to an earlier time. The discoverys value does not equal the value of the information discovered but rather the value of having the information available earlier than it otherwise would have been. A scientist or a mathematician may show great skill by being the first to find a solution that has eluded many others; yet if the problem would soon have been solved anyway, then the work probably has not much benefited the world. There are cases in which having a solution even slightly sooner is immensely valuable, but this is most plausible when the solution is immediately put to use, either being deployed for some practical end or serving as a foundation to further theoretical work. And in the latter case, where a solution is immediately used only in the sense of serving as a building block for further theorizing, there is great value in obtaining a solution slightly sooner only if the further work it enables is itself both important and urgent. 1 The question, then, is not whether the result discovered by the Fields Medalist is in itself important (whether instrumentally or for knowledges own sake). Rather, the question is whether it was important that the medalist enabled the publication of the result to occur at an earlier date. The value of this temporal transport should be compared to the value that a world-class mathematical mind could have generated by working on something else. At least in some cases, the Fields Medal might indicate a life spent solving the wrong problemfor instance, a problem whose allure consisted primarily in being famously difficult to solve. Similar barbs could be directed at other fields, such as academic philosophy. Philosophy covers some problems that are relevant to existential risk mitigation we encountered several in this book. Yet there are also subfields within philosophy that have no apparent link to existential risk or indeed any practical concern. As with pure mathematics, some of the problems that philosophy studies might be regarded as intrinsically important, in the sense that humans have reason to care about them independently of any practical application. The fundamental nature of reality, for instance, might be worth knowing about, for its own sake. The world would arguably be less glorious if nobody studied metaphysics, cosmology, or string theory. However, the dawning prospect of an intelligence explosion shines a new light on this ancient quest for wisdom. The outlook now suggests that philosophic progress can be maximized via an indirect path rather than by immediate philosophizing. One of the many tasks on which superintelligence (or even just moderately enhanced human intelligence) would outperform the current cast of thinkers is in answering fundamental questions in science and philosophy. This reflection suggests a strategy of deferred gratification. We could postpone work on some of the eternal questions for a little while, delegating that task to our hopefully more competent successorsin order to focus our own attention on a more pressing challenge: increasing the chance that we will actually have competent successors. This would be high-impact philosophy and high-impact mathematics. 2 What is to be done? We thus want to focus on problems that are not only important but urgent in the sense that their solutions are needed prior to the intelligence explosion. We should also take heed not to work on problems that are negative-value (such that solving them is harmful). Some technical problems in the field of artificial intelligence, for instance, might be negative-value inasmuch as their solution would speed the development of machine intelligence without doing as much to expedite the development of control methods that could render the machine intelligence revolution survivable and beneficial. It can be hard to identify problems that are both urgent and important and are such that we can confidently take them to be positive-value. The strategic uncertainty surrounding existential risk mitigation means that we must worry that even well-intentioned interventions may turn out to be not only unproductive but counterproductive. To limit the risk of doing something actively harmful or morally wrong, we should prefer to work on problems that seem robustly positive-value (i.e., whose solution would make a positive contribution across a wide range of scenarios) and to employ means that are robustly justifiable (i.e., acceptable from a wide range of moral views). There is a further desideratum to consider in selecting which problems to prioritize. We want to work on problems that are elastic to our efforts at solving them. Highly elastic problems are those that can be solved much faster, or solved to a much greater extent, given one extra unit of effort. Encouraging more kindness in the world is an important and urgent problemone, moreover, that seems quite robustly positive-value: yet absent a breakthrough idea for how to go about it, probably a problem of quite low elasticity. Achieving world peace, similarly, would be highly desirable; but considering the numerous efforts already targeting that problem, and the formidable obstacles arrayed against a quick solution, it seems unlikely that the contributions of a few extra individuals would make a large difference. To reduce the risks of the machine intelligence revolution, we will propose two objectives that appear to best meet all those desiderata: strategic analysis and capacity-building. We can be relatively confident about the sign of these parametersmore strategic insight and more capacity being better. Furthermore, the parameters are elastic: a small extra investment can make a relatively large difference. Gaining insight and capacity is also urgent because early boosts to these parameters may compound, making subsequent efforts more effective. In addition to these two broad objectives, we will point to a few other potentially worthwhile aims for initiatives. Seeking the strategic light Against a backdrop of perplexity and uncertainty, analysis stands out as being of particularly high expected value. 3 Illumination of our strategic situation would help us target subsequent interventions more effectively. Strategic analysis is especially needful when we are radically uncertain not just about some detail of some peripheral matter but about the cardinal qualities of the central things. For many key parameters, we are radically uncertain even about their sign that is, we know not which direction of change would be desirable and which undesirable. Our ignorance might not be irremediable. The field has been little prospected, and glimmering strategic insights could still be awaiting their unearthing just a few feet beneath the surface. What we mean by strategic analysis here is a search for crucial considerations : ideas or arguments with the potential to change our views not merely about the fine-structure of implementation but about the general topology of desirability. 4 Even a single missed crucial consideration could vitiate our most valiant efforts or render them as actively harmful as those of a soldier who is fighting on the wrong side. The search for crucial considerations (which must explore normative as well as descriptive issues) will often require crisscrossing the boundaries between different academic disciplines and other fields of knowledge. As there is no established methodology for how to go about this kind of research, difficult original thinking is necessary. Building good capacity Another high-value activity, one that shares with strategic analysis the robustness property of being beneficial across a wide range of scenarios, is the development of a well-constituted support base that takes the future seriously. Such a base can immediately provide resources for research and analysis. If and when other priorities become visible, resources can be redirected accordingly. A support base is thus a general-purpose capability whose use can be guided by new insights as they emerge. One valuable asset would be a donor network comprising individuals devoted to rational philanthropy, informed about existential risk, and discerning about the means of mitigation. It is especially desirable that the early-day funders be astute and altruistic, because they may have opportunities to shape the fields culture before the usual venal interests take up position and entrench. The focus during these opening gambits should thus be to recruit the right kinds of people into the field. It could be worth foregoing some technical advances in the short term in order to fill the ranks with individuals who genuinely care about safety and who have a truth-seeking orientation (and who are likely to attract more of their own kind). One important variable is the quality of the social epistemology of the AI- field and its leading projects. Discovering crucial considerations is valuable, but only if it affects action. This cannot always be taken for granted. Imagine a project that invests millions of dollars and years of toil to develop a prototype AI, and that after surmounting many technical challenges the system is finally beginning to show real progress. There is a chance that with just a bit more work it could turn into something useful and profitable. Now a crucial consideration is discovered, indicating that a completely different approach would be a bit safer. Does the project kill itself off like a dishonored samurai, relinquishing its unsafe design and all the progress that had been made? Or does it react like a worried octopus, puffing out a cloud of motivated skepticism in the hope of eluding the attack? A project that would reliably choose the samurai option in such a dilemma would be a far preferable developer. 5 Yet building processes and institutions that are willing to commit seppuku based on uncertain allegations and speculative reasoning is not easy. Another dimension of social epistemology is the management of sensitive information, in particular the ability to avoid leaking information that ought be kept secret. (Information continence may be especially challenging for academic researchers, accustomed as they are to constantly disseminating their results on every available lamppost and tree.) Particular measures In addition to the general objectives of strategic light and good capacity, some more specific objectives could also present cost-effective opportunities for action. One such is progress on the technical challenges of machine intelligence safety. In pursing this objective, care should be taken to manage information hazards. Some work that would be useful for solving the control problem would also be useful for solving the competence problem. Work that burns down the AI fuse could easily be a net negative. Another specific objective is to promote best practices among AI researchers. Whatever progress has been made on the control problem needs to be disseminated. Some forms of computational experimentation, particularly if involving strong recursive self-improvement, may also require the use of capability control to mitigate the risk of an accidental takeoff. While the actual implementation of safety methods is not so relevant today, it will increasingly become so as the state of the art advances. And it is not too soon to call for practitioners to express a commitment to safety , including endorsing the common good principle and promising to ramp up safety if and when the prospect of machine superintelligence begins to look more imminent. Pious words are not sufficient and will not by themselves make a dangerous technology safe: but where the mouth goeth, the mind might gradually follow. Other opportunities may also occasionally arise to push on some pivotal parameter, for example to mitigate some other existential risk, or to promote biological cognitive enhancement and improvements of our collective wisdom, or even to shift world politics into a more harmonious register. Will the best in human nature please stand up Before the prospect of an intelligence explosion, we humans are like small children playing with a bomb. Such is the mismatch between the power of our plaything and the immaturity of our conduct. Superintelligence is a challenge for which we are not ready now and will not be ready for a long time. We have little idea when the detonation will occur, though if we hold the device to our ear we can hear a faint ticking sound. For a child with an undetonated bomb in its hands, a sensible thing to do would be to put it down gently, quickly back out of the room, and contact the nearest adult. Yet what we have here is not one child but many, each with access to an independent trigger mechanism. The chances that we will all find the sense to put down the dangerous stuff seem almost negligible. Some little idiot is bound to press the ignite button just to see what happens. Nor can we attain safety by running away, for the blast of an intelligence explosion would bring down the entire firmament. Nor is there a grown-up in sight. In this situation, any feeling of gee-wiz exhilaration would be out of place. Consternation and fear would be closer to the mark; but the most appropriate attitude may be a bitter determination to be as competent as we can, much as if we were preparing for a difficult exam that will either realize our dreams or obliterate them. This is not a prescription of fanaticism. The intelligence explosion might still be many decades off in the future. Moreover, the challenge we face is, in part, to hold on to our humanity: to maintain our groundedness, common sense, and good-humored decency even in the teeth of this most unnatural and inhuman problem. We need to bring all our human resourcefulness to bear on its solution. Yet let us not lose track of what is globally significant. Through the fog of everyday trivialities, we can perceiveif but dimlythe essential task of our age. In this book, we have attempted to discern a little more feature in what is otherwise still a relatively amorphous and negatively defined visionone that presents as our principal moral priority (at least from an impersonal and secular perspective) the reduction of existential risk and the attainment of a civilizational trajectory that leads to a compassionate and jubilant use of humanitys cosmic endowment. NOTES PRELIMS 1 . Not all endnotes contain useful information, however. 2 . I dont know which ones. CHAPTER 1: PAST DEVELOPMENTS AND PRESENT CAPABILITIES 1 . A subsistence-level income today is about $400 (Chen and Ravallion 2010). A million subsistence-level incomes is thus $400,000,000. The current world gross product is about $60,000,000,000,000 and in recent years has grown at an annual rate of about 4% (compound annual growth rate since 1950, based on Maddison [2010]). These figures yield the estimate mentioned in the text, which of course is only an order-of-magnitude approximation. If we look directly at population figures, we find that it currently takes the world population about one and a half weeks to grow by one million; but this underestimates the growth rate of the economy since per capita income is also increasing. By 5000 BC , following the Agricultural Revolution, the world population was growing at a rate of about 1 million per 200 yearsa great acceleration since the rate of perhaps 1 million per million years in early humanoid prehistoryso a great deal of acceleration had already occurred by then. Still, it is impressive that an amount of economic growth that took 200 years seven thousand years ago takes just ninety minutes now, and that the world population growth that took two centuries then takes one and a half weeks now. See also Maddison (2005). 2 . Such dramatic growth and acceleration might suggest one notion of a possible coming singularity, as adumbrated by John von Neumann in a conversation with the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam: Our conversation centred on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue. (Ulam 1958) 3 . Hanson (2000). 4 . Vinge (1993); Kurzweil (2005). 5 . Sandberg (2010). 6 . Van Zanden (2003); Maddison (1999, 2001); De Long (1998). 7 . Two oft-repeated optimistic statements from the 1960s: Machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do (Simon 1965, 96); Within a generation the problem of creating artificial intelligence will substantially be solved (Minsky 1967, 2). For a systematic review of AI predictions, see Armstrong and Sotala (2012). 8 . See, for example, Baum et al. (2011) and Armstrong and Sotala (2012). 9 . It might suggest, however, that AI researchers know less about development timelines than they think they dobut this could cut both ways: they might overestimate as well as underestimate the time to AI. . Good (1965, 33). . One exception is Norbert Wiener, who did have some qualms about the possible consequences. He wrote, in 1960: If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot efficiently interfere once we have started it, because the action is so fast and irrevocable that we have not the data to intervene before the action is complete, then we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire and not merely a colourful imitation of it (Wiener 1960). Ed Fredkin spoke about his worries about superintelligent AI in an interview described in McCorduck (1979). By 1970, Good himself writes about the risks, and even calls for the creation of an association to deal with the dangers (Good [1970]; see also his later article [Good 1982] where he foreshadows some of the ideas of indirect normativity that we discuss in Chapter 13 ). By 1984, Marvin Minsky was also writing about many of the key worries (Minsky 1984). . Cf. Yudkowsky (2008a). On the importance of assessing the ethical implications of potentially dangerous future technologies before they become feasible, see Roache (2008). . McCorduck (1979). . Newell et al. (1959). . The SAINTS program, the ANALOGY program, and the STUDENT program, respectively. See Slagle (1963), Evans (1964, 1968), and Bobrow (1968). . Nilsson (1984). . Weizenbaum (1966). . Winograd (1972). . Cope (1996); Weizenbaum (1976); Moravec (1980); Thrun et al. (2006); Buehler et al. (2009); Koza et al. (2003). The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for a driverless car in May 2012. . The STANDUP system (Ritchie et al. 2007). . Schwartz (1987). Schwartz is here characterizing a skeptical view that he thought was represented by the writings of Hubert Dreyfus. . One vocal critic during this period was Hubert Dreyfus. Other prominent skeptics from this era include John Lucas, Roger Penrose, and John Searle. However, among these only Dreyfus was mainly concerned with refuting claims about what practical accomplishments we should expect from existing paradigms in AI (though he seems to have been open to the possibility that new paradigms could go further). Searles target was functionalist theories in the philosophy of mind, not the instrumental powers of AI systems. Lucas and Penrose denied that a classical computer could ever be programmed to do everything that a human mathematician can do, but they did not deny that any particular function could in principle be automated or that AIs might eventually become very instrumentally powerful. Cicero remarked that there is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it (Cicero 1923, 119); yet it is surprisingly hard to think of any significant thinker who has denied the possibility of machine superintelligence in the sense used in this book. . For many applications, however, the learning that takes place in a neural network is little different from the learning that takes place in linear regression, a statistical technique developed by Adrien-Marie Legendre and Carl Friedrich Gauss in the early 1800s. . The basic algorithm was described by Arthur Bryson and Yu-Chi Ho as a multi-stage dynamic optimization method in 1969 (Bryson and Ho 1969). The application to neural networks was suggested by Paul Werbos in 1974 (Werbos 1994), but it was only after the work by David Rumelhart, Geoffrey Hinton, and Ronald Williams in 1986 (Rumelhart et al. 1986) that the method gradually began to seep into the awareness of a wider community. . Nets lacking hidden layers had previously been shown to have severely limited functionality (Minsky and Papert 1969). . E.g., MacKay (2003). . Murphy (2012). . Pearl (2009). . We suppress various technical details here in order not to unduly burden the exposition. We will have occasion to revisit some of these ignored issues in Chapter 12 . . A program p is a description of string x if p , run on (some particular) universal Turing machine U , outputs x ; we write this as U(p) = x . (The string x here represents a possible world.) The Kolmogorov complexity of x is then K ( x ):=min p { l ( p ): U ( p ) = x }, where l ( p ) is the length of p in bits. The Solomonoff probability of x is then defined as where the sum is defined over all (minimal, i.e. not necessarily halting) programs p for which U outputs a string starting with x (Hutter 2005). . Bayesian conditioning on evidence E gives (The probability of a proposition [like E ] is the sum of the probability of the possible worlds in which it is true.) . Or randomly picks one of the possible actions with the highest expected utility, in case there is a tie. . More concisely, the expected utility of an action can be written as where the sum is over all possible worlds. . See, e.g., Howson and Urbach (1993); Bernardo and Smith (1994); Russell and Norvig (2010). . Wainwright and Jordan (2008). The application areas of Bayes nets are myriad; see, e.g., Pourret et al. (2008). . One might wonder why so much detail is given to game AI here, which to some might seem like an unimportant application area. The answer is that game-playing offers some of the clearest measures of human vs. AI performance. . Samuel (1959); Schaeffer (1997, ch. 6). . Schaeffer et al. (2007). . Berliner (1980a, b). . Tesauro (1995). . Such programs include GNU (see Silver [2006]) and Snowie (see Gammoned.net [2012]). . Lenat himself had a hand in guiding the fleet-design process. He wrote: Thus the final crediting of the win should be about 60/40% Lenat/Eurisko, though the significant point here is that neither party could have won alone (Lenat 1983, 80). . Lenat (1982, 1983). . Cirasella and Kopec (2006). . Kasparov (1996, 55). . Newborn (2011). . Keim et al. (1999). . See Armstrong (2012). . Sheppard (2002). . Wikipedia (2012a). . Markoff (2011). . Rubin and Watson (2011). . Elyasaf et al. (2011). . KGS (2012). . Newell et al. (1958, 320). . Attributed in Vardi (2012). . In 1976, I. J. Good wrote: A computer program of Grandmaster strength would bring us within an ace of [machine ultraintelligence] (Good 1976). In 1979, Douglas Hofstadter opined in his Pulitzer-winning Gdel, Escher, Bach : Question: Will there be chess programs that can beat anyone? Speculation: No. There may be programs that can beat anyone at chess, but they will not be exclusively chess programs. They will be programs of general intelligence, and they will be just as temperamental as people. Do you want to play chess? No, Im bored with chess. Lets talk about poetry (Hofstadter [1979] 1999, 678). . The algorithm is minimax search with alpha-beta pruning, used with a chess- specific heuristic evaluation function of board states. Combined with a good library of openings and endgames, and various other tricks, this can make for a capable chess engine. . Though especially with recent progress in learning the evaluation heuristic from simulated games, many of the underlying algorithms would probably also work well for many other games. . Nilsson (2009, 318). Knuth was certainly overstating his point. There are many thinking tasks that AI has not succeeded in doinginventing a new subfield of pure mathematics, doing any kind of philosophy, writing a great detective novel, engineering a coup dtat, or designing a major new consumer product. . Shapiro (1992). . One might speculate that one reason it has been difficult to match human abilities in perception, motor control, common sense, and language understanding is that our brains have dedicated wetware for these functions neural structures that have been optimized over evolutionary timescales. By contrast, logical thinking and skills like chess playing are not natural to us; so perhaps we are forced to rely on a limited pool of general-purpose cognitive resources to perform these tasks. Maybe what our brains do when we engage in explicit logical reasoning or calculation is in some ways analogous to running a virtual machine, a slow and cumbersome mental simulation of a general-purpose computer. One might then say (somewhat fancifully) that a classical AI program is not so much emulating human thinking as the other way around: a human who is thinking logically is emulating an AI program. . This example is controversial: a minority view, represented by approximately 20% of adults in the USA and similar numbers in many other developed nations, holds that the Sun revolves around the Earth (Crabtree 1999; Dean 2005). . World Robotics (2011). . Estimated from data in Guizzo (2010). . Holley (2009). . Hybrid rule-based statistical approaches are also used, but they are currently a small part of the picture. . Cross and Walker (1994); Hedberg (2002). . Based on the statistics from TABB Group, a New York-and London-based capital markets research firm (personal communication). . CFTC and SEC (2010). For a different perspective on the events of 6 May 2010, see CME Group (2010). . Nothing in the text should be construed as an argument against algorithmic high-frequency trading, which might normally perform a beneficial function by increasing liquidity and market efficiency. . A smaller market scare occurred on August, 1, 2012, in part because the circuit breaker was not also programmed to halt trading if there were extreme changes in the number of shares being traded (Popper 2012). This again foreshadows another later theme: the difficulty of anticipating all specific ways in which some particular plausible-seeming rule might go wrong. . Nilsson (2009, 319). . Minsky (2006); McCarthy (2007); Beal and Winston (2009). . Peter Norvig, personal communication. Machine-learning classes are also very popular, reflecting a somewhat orthogonal hype-wave of big data (inspired by e.g. Google and the Netflix Prize). . Armstrong and Sotala (2012). . Mller and Bostrom (forthcoming). . See Baum et al. (2011), another survey cited therein, and Sandberg and Bostrom (2011). . Nilsson (2009). . This is again conditional on no civilization-disrupting catastrophe occurring. The definition of HLMI used by Nilsson is AI able to perform around 80% of jobs as well or better than humans perform (Kruel 2012). . The table shows the results of four different polls as well as the combined results. The first two were polls taken at academic conferences: PT-AI , participants of the conference Philosophy and Theory of AI in Thessaloniki 2011 (respondents were asked in November 2012), with a response rate of 43 out of 88; and AGI , participants of the conferences Artificial General Intelligence and Impacts and Risks of Artificial General Intelligence , both in Oxford, December 2012 (response rate: 72/111). The EETN poll sampled the members of the Greek Association for Artificial Intelligence, a professional organization of published researchers in the field, in April 2013 (response rate: 26/250). The TOP100 poll elicited the opinions among the 100 top authors in artificial intelligence as measured by a citation index, in May 2013 (response rate: 29/100). . Interviews with some 28 (at the time of writing) AI practitioners and related experts have been posted by Kruel (2011). . The diagram shows renormalized median estimates. Means are significantly different. For example, the mean estimates for the Extremely bad outcome were 7.6% (for TOP100 ) and 17.2% (for the combined pool of expert assessors). . There is a substantial literature documenting the unreliability of expert forecasts in many domains, and there is every reason to think that many of the findings in this body of research apply to the field of artificial intelligence too. In particular, forecasters tend to be overconfident in their predictions, believing themselves to be more accurate than they really are, and therefore assigning too little probability to the possibility that their most-favored hypothesis is wrong (Tetlock 2005). (Various other biases have also been documented; see, e.g., Gilovich et al. [2002].) However, uncertainty is an inescapable fact of the human condition, and many of our actions unavoidably rely on expectations about which long-term consequences are more or less plausible: in other words, on probabilistic predictions. Refusing to offer explicit probabilistic predictions would not make the epistemic problem go away; it would just hide it from view (Bostrom 2007). Instead, we should respond to evidence of overconfidence by broadening our confidence intervals (or credible intervals)i.e. by smearing out our credence functionsand in general we must struggle as best we can with our biases, by considering different perspectives and aiming for intellectual honesty. In the longer run, we can also work to develop techniques, training methods, and institutions that can help us achieve better calibration. See also Armstrong and Sotala (2012). CHAPTER 2: PATHS TO SUPERINTELLIGENCE 1 . This resembles the definition in Bostrom (2003c) and Bostrom (2006a). It can also be compared with Shane Leggs definition (Intelligence measures an agents ability to achieve goals in a wide range of environments) and its formalizations (Legg 2008). It is also very similar to Goods definition of ultraintelligence in Chapter 1 (a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever). 2 . For the same reason, we make no assumption regarding whether a superintelligent machine could have true intentionality ( pace Searle, it could; but this seems irrelevant to the concerns of this book). And we take no position in the internalism/externalism debate about mental content that has been raging in the philosophical literature, or on the related issue of the extended mind thesis (Clark and Chalmers 1998). 3 . Turing (1950, 456). 4 . Turing (1950, 456). 5 . Chalmers (2010); Moravec (1976, 1988, 1998, 1999). 6 . See Moravec (1976). A similar argument is advanced by David Chalmers (2010). 7 . See also Shulman and Bostrom (2012), where these matters are elaborated in more detail. 8 . Legg (2008) offers this reason in support of the claim that humans will be able to recapitulate the progress of evolution over much shorter timescales and with reduced computational resources (while noting that evolutions unadjusted computational resources are far out of reach). Baum (2004) argues that some developments relevant to AI occurred earlier, with the organization of the genome itself embodying a valuable representation for evolutionary algorithms. 9 . Whitman et al. (1998); Sabrosky (1952). . Schultz (2000). . Menzel and Giurfa (2001, 62); Truman et al. (1993). . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). . See Legg (2008) for further discussion of this point and of the promise of functions or environments that determine fitness based on a smooth landscape of pure intelligence tests. . See Bostrom and Sandberg (2009b) for a taxonomy and more detailed discussion of ways in which engineers may outperform historical evolutionary selection. . The analysis has addressed the nervous systems of living creatures, without reference to the cost of simulating bodies or the surrounding virtual environment as part of a fitness function. It is plausible that an adequate fitness function could test the competence of a particular organism in far fewer operations than it would take to simulate all the neuronal computation of that organisms brain throughout its natural lifespan. AI programs today often develop and operate in very abstract environments (theorem provers in symbolic math worlds, agents in simple game tournament worlds, etc.). A skeptic might insist that an abstract environment would be inadequate for the evolution of general intelligence, believing instead that the virtual environment would need to closely resemble the actual biological environment in which our ancestors evolved. Creating a physically realistic virtual world would require a far greater investment of computational resources than the simulation of a simple toy world or abstract problem domain (whereas evolution had access to a physically realistic real world for free). In the limiting case, if complete micro-physical accuracy were insisted upon, the computational requirements would balloon to ridiculous proportions. However, such extreme pessimism is almost certainly unwarranted; it seems unlikely that the best environment for evolving intelligence is one that mimics nature as closely as possible. It is, on the contrary, plausible that it would be more efficient to use an artificial selection environment, one quite unlike that of our ancestors, an environment specifically designed to promote adaptations that increase the type of intelligence we are seeking to evolve (abstract reasoning and general problem-solving skills, for instance, as opposed to maximally fast instinctual reactions or a highly optimized visual system). . Wikipedia (2012b). . For a general treatment of observation selection theory, see Bostrom (2002a). For the specific application to the current issue, see Shulman and Bostrom (2012). For a short popular introduction, see Bostrom (2008b). . Sutton and Barto (1998, 21f); Schultz et al. (1997). . This term was introduced by Eliezer Yudkowsky; see, e.g., Yudkowsky (2007). . This is the scenario described by Good (1965) and Yudkowsky (2007). However, one could also consider an alternative in which the iterative sequence has some steps that do not involve intelligence enhancement but instead design simplification. That is, at some stages, the seed AI might rewrite itself so as make subsequent improvements easier to find. . Helmstaedter et al. (2011). . Andres et al. (2012). . Adequate for enabling instrumentally useful forms of cognitive functioning and communication, that is; but still radically impoverished relative to the interface provided by the muscles and sensory organs of a normal human body. . Sandberg (2013). . See the Computer requirements section of Sandberg and Bostrom (2008, 7981). . A lower level of success might be a brain simulation that has biologically suggestive micro-dynamics and displays a substantial range of emergent species-typical activity such as a slow-wave sleep state or activity- dependent plasticity. Whereas such a simulation could be a useful testbed for neuroscientific research (though one which might come close to raising serious ethical issues), it would not count as a whole brain emulation unless the simulation were sufficiently accurate to be able to perform a substantial fraction of the intellectual work that the simulated brain was capable of. As a rule of thumb, we might say that in order for a simulation of a human brain to count as a whole brain emulation, it would need to be able to express coherent verbal thoughts or have the capacity to learn to do so. . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). Further explanation can be found in the original report. . The first map is described in Albertson and Thomson (1976) and White et al. (1986). The combined (and in some cases corrected) network is available from the WormAtlas website ( http://www.wormatlas.org/ ). . For a review of past attempts of emulating C. elegans and their fates, see Kaufman (2011). Kaufman quotes one ambitious doctoral student working in the area, David Dalrymple, as saying, With optogenetic techniques, we are just at the point where its not an outrageous proposal to reach for the capability to read and write to anywhere in a living C. elegans nervous system, using a high-throughput automated system. I expect to be finished with C. elegans in 23 years. I would be extremely surprised, for whatever thats worth, if this is still an open problem in 2020 (Dalrymple 2011). Brain models aiming for biological realism that were hand-coded (rather than generated automatically) have achieved some basic functionality; see, e.g., Eliasmith et al. (2012). . Caenorhabditis elegans does have some convenient special properties. For example, the organism is transparent, and the wiring pattern of its nervous system does not change between individuals. . If neuromorphic AI rather than whole brain emulation is the end product, then it might or might not be the case that the relevant insights would be derived through attempts to simulate human brains. It is conceivable that the important cortical tricks would be discovered during the study of (nonhuman) animal brains. Some animal brains might be easier to work with than human brains, and smaller brains would require fewer resources to scan and model. Research on animal brains would also be subject to less regulation. It is even conceivable that the first human-level machine intelligence will be created by completing a whole brain emulation of some suitable animal and then finding ways to enhance the resultant digital mind. Thus humanity could get its comeuppance from an uplifted lab mouse or macaque. . Uauy and Dangour (2006); Georgieff (2007); Stewart et al. (2008); Eppig et al. (2010); Cotman and Berchtold (2002). . According to the World Health Organization in 2007, nearly 2 billion individuals have insufficient iodine intake ( The Lancet 2008). Severe iodine deficiency hinders neurological development and leads to cretinism, which involves an average loss of about 12.5 IQ points (Qian et al. 2005). The condition can be easily and inexpensively prevented though salt fortification (Horton et al. 2008). . Bostrom and Sandberg (2009a). . Bostrom and Sandberg (2009b). A typical putative performance increase from pharmacological and nutritional enhancement is in the range of 10 20% on test tasks measuring working memory, attention, etc. But it is generally dubious whether such reported gains are real, sustainable over a longer term, and indicative of correspondingly improved results in real- world problem situations (Repantis et al. 2010). For instance, in some cases there might be a compensating deterioration on some performance dimensions that are not measured by the test tasks (Sandberg and Bostrom 2006). . If there were an easy way to enhance cognition, one would expect evolution already to have taken advantage of it. Consequently, the most promising kind of nootropic to investigate may be one that promises to boost intelligence in some manner that we can see would have lowered fitness in the ancestral environmentfor example, by increasing head size at birth or amping up the brains glucose metabolism. For a more detailed discussion of this idea (along with several important qualifications), see Bostrom (2009b). . Sperm are harder to screen because, in contrast to embryos, they consist of only one celland one cell needs to be destroyed in order to do the sequencing. Oocytes also consist of only one cell; however, the first and second cell divisions are asymmetric and produce one daughter cell with very little cytoplasm, the polar body. Since polar bodies contain the same genome as the main cell and are redundant (they eventually degenerate) they can be biopsied and used for screening (Gianaroli 2000). . Each of these practices was subject to some ethical controversy when it was introduced, but there seems to be a trend toward increasing acceptance. Attitudes toward human genetic engineering and embryo selection vary significantly across cultures, suggesting that development and application of new techniques will probably take place even if some countries initially adopt a cautious stance, although the rate at which this happens will be influenced by moral, religious, and political pressures. . Davies et al. (2011); Benyamin et al. (2013); Plomin et al. (2013). See also Mardis (2011); Hsu (2012). . Broad-sense heritability of adult IQ is usually estimated in the range of 0.5 0.8 within middle-class strata of developed nations (Bouchard 2004, 148). Narrow-sense heritability, which measures the portion of variance that is attributable to additive genetic factors, is lower (in the range 0.30.5) but still substantial (Devlin et al. 1997; Davies et al. 2011; Visscher et al. 2008). These estimates could change for different populations and environments, as heritabilities vary depending on the population and environment being studied. For example, lower heritabilities have been found among children and those from deprived environments (Benyamin et al. 2013; Turkheimer et al. 2003). Nisbett et al. (2012) review numerous environmental influences on variation in cognitive ability. . The following several paragraphs draw heavily on joint work with Carl Shulman (Shulman and Bostrom 2014). . This table is taken from Shulman and Bostrom (2014). It is based on a toy model that assumes a Gaussian distribution of predicted IQs among the embryos with a standard deviation of 7.5 points. The amount of cognitive enhancement that would be delivered with different numbers of embryos depends on how different the embryos are from one another in the additive genetic variants whose effects we know. Siblings have a coefficient of relatedness of , and common additive genetic variants account for half or less of variance in adult fluid intelligence (Davies et al. 2011). These two facts suggest that where the observed population standard deviation in developed countries is 15 points, the standard deviation of genetic influences within a batch of embryos would be 7.5 points or less. . With imperfect information about the additive genetic effects on cognitive ability, effect sizes would be reduced. However, even a small amount of knowledge would go a relatively long way, because the gains from selection do not scale linearly with the portion of variance that we can predict. Instead, the effectiveness of our selection depends on the standard deviation of predicted mean IQ, which scales as the square root of variance. For example, if one could account for 12.5% of the variance, this could deliver effects half as great as those in Table 1 , which assume 50%. For comparison, a recent study (Rietveld et al. 2013) claims to have already identified 2.5% of the variance. . For comparison, standard practice today involves the creation of fewer than ten embryos. . Adult and embryonic stem cells can be coaxed to develop into sperm cells and oocytes, which can then be fused to produce an embryo (Nagy et al. 2008; Nagy and Chang 2007). Egg cell precursors can also form parthenogenetic blastocysts, unfertilized and non-viable embryos, able to produce embryonic stem cell lines for the process (Mai et al. 2007). . The opinion is that of Katsuhiko Hayashi, as reported in Cyranoski (2013). The Hinxton Group, an international consortium of scientists that discusses stem cell ethics and challenges, predicted in 2008 that human stem cell- derived gametes would be available within ten years (Hinxton Group 2008), and developments thus far are broadly consistent with this. . Sparrow (2013); Miller (2012); The Uncertain Future (2012). . Sparrow (2013). . Secular concerns might focus on anticipated impacts on social inequality, the medical safety of the procedure, fears of an enhancement rat race, rights and responsibilities of parents vis--vis their prospective offspring, the shadow of twentieth-century eugenics, the concept of human dignity, and the proper limits of states involvement in the reproductive choices of their citizens. (For a discussion of the ethics of cognitive enhancement see Bostrom and Ord [2006], Bostrom and Roache [2011], and Sandberg and Savulescu [2011].) Some religious traditions may offer additional concerns, including ones centering on the moral status of embryos or the proper limits of human agency within the scheme of creation. . To stave off the negative effects of inbreeding, iterated embryo selection would require either a large starting supply of donors or the expenditure of substantial selective power to reduce harmful recessive alleles. Either alternative would tend to push toward offspring being less closely genetically related to their parents (and more related to one another). . Adapted from Shulman and Bostrom (2014). . Bostrom (2008b). . Just how difficult an obstacle epigenetics will be is not yet known (Chason et al. 2011; Iliadou et al. 2011). . While cognitive ability is a fairly heritable trait, there may be few or no common alleles or polymorphisms that individually have a large positive effect on intelligence (Davis et al. 2010; Davies et al. 2011; Rietveld et al. 2013). As sequencing methods improve, the mapping out of low-frequency alleles and their cognitive and behavioral correlates will become increasingly feasible. There is some theoretical evidence suggesting that some alleles that cause genetic disorders in homozygotes may provide sizeable cognitive advantages in heterozygote carriers, leading to a prediction that Gaucher, Tay-Sachs, and Niemann-Pick heterozygotes would be about 5 IQ points higher than control groups (Cochran et al. 2006). Time will tell whether this holds. . One paper (Nachman and Crowell 2000) estimates 175 mutations per genome per generation. Another (Lynch 2010), using different methods, estimates that the average newborn has between 50 and 100 new mutations, and Kong et al. (2012) implies a figure of around 77 new mutations per generation. Most of these mutations do not affect functioning, or do so only to an imperceptibly slight degree; but the combined effects of many very slightly deleterious mutations could be a significant loss of fitness. See also Crow (2000). . Crow (2000); Lynch (2010). . There are some potentially important caveats to this idea. It is possible that the modal genome would need some adjustments in order to avoid problems. For example, parts of the genome might be adapted to interacting with other parts under the assumption that all parts function with a certain level of efficiency. Increasing the efficiency of those parts might then lead to overshooting along some metabolic pathways. . These composites were created by Mike Mike from individual photographs taken by Virtual Flavius (Mike 2013). . They can, of course, have some effects soonerfor instance, by changing peoples expectations of what is to come. . Louis Harris & Associates (1969); Mason (2003). . Kalfoglou et al. (2004). . The data is obviously limited, but individuals selected for 1-in-10,000 results on childhood ability tests have been shown, in longitudinal studies, to be substantially more likely to become tenured professors, earn patents, and succeed in business than those with slightly less exceptional scores (Kell et al. 2013). Roe (1953) studied sixty-four eminent scientists and found median cognitive ability three to four standard deviations above the population norm and strikingly higher than is typical for scientists in general. (Cognitive ability is also correlated with lifetime earnings and with non-financial outcomes such as life expectancy, divorce rates, and probability of dropping out of school [Deary 2012].) An upward shift of the distribution of cognitive ability would have disproportionately large effects at the tails, especially increasing the number of highly gifted and reducing the number of people with retardation and learning disabilities. See also Bostrom and Ord (2006) and Sandberg and Savulescu (2011). . E.g. Warwick (2002). Stephen Hawking even suggested that taking this step might be necessary in order to keep up with advances in machine intelligence: We must develop as quickly as possible technologies that make possible a direct connection between brain and computer, so that artificial brains contribute to human intelligence rather than opposing it (reported in Walsh [2001]). Ray Kurzweil concurs: As far as Hawkings recommendation is concerned, namely direct connection between the brain and computers, I agree that this is both reasonable, desirable and inevitable. [ sic ] Its been my recommendation for years (Kurzweil 2001). . See Lebedev and Nicolelis (2006); Birbaumer et al. (2008); Mak and Wolpaw (2009); and Nicolelis and Lebedev (2009). A more personal outlook on the problem of enhancement through implants can be found in Chorost (2005, Chap. 11). . Smeding et al. (2006). . Degnan et al. (2002). . Dagnelie (2012); Shannon (2012). . Perlmutter and Mink (2006); Lyons (2011). . Koch et al. (2006). . Schalk (2008). For a general review of the current state of the art, see Berger et al. (2008). For the case that this would help lead to enhanced intelligence, see Warwick (2002). . Some examples: Bartels et al. (2008); Simeral et al. (2011); Krusienski and Shih (2011); and Pasqualotto et al. (2012). . E.g. Hinke et al. (1993). . There are partial exceptions to this, especially in early sensory processing. For example, the primary visual cortex uses a retinotopic mapping, which means roughly that adjacent neural assemblies receive inputs from adjacent areas of the retinas (though ocular dominance columns somewhat complicate the mapping). . Berger et al. (2012); Hampson et al. (2012). . Some brain implants require two forms of learning: the device learning to interpret the organisms neural representations and the organism learning to use the system by generating appropriate neural firing patterns (Carmena et al. 2003). . It has been suggested that we should regard corporate entities (corporations, unions, governments, churches, and so forth) as artificial intelligent agents, entities with sensors and effectors, able to represent knowledge and perform inference and take action (e.g. Kuipers [2012]; cf. Huebner [2008] for a discussion on whether collective representations can exist). They are clearly powerful and ecologically successful, although their capabilities and internal states are different from those of humans. . Hanson (1995, 2000); Berg and Rietz (2003). . In the workplace, for instance, employers might use lie detectors to crack down on employee theft and shirking, by asking the employee at the end of each business day whether she has stolen anything and whether she has worked as hard as she could. Political and business leaders could likewise be asked whether they were wholeheartedly pursuing the interests of their shareholders or constituents. Dictators could use them to target seditious generals within the regime or suspected troublemakers in the wider population. . One could imagine neuroimaging techniques making it possible to detect neural signatures of motivated cognition. Without self-deception detection, lie detection would favor individuals who believe their own propaganda. Better tests for self-deception tests could also be used to train rationality and to study the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing biases. . Bell and Gemmel (2009). An early example is found in the work of MITs Deb Roy, who recorded every moment of his sons first three years of life. Analysis of this audiovisual data is yielding information on language development; see Roy (2012). . Growth in total world population of biological human beings will contribute only a small factor. Scenarios involving machine intelligence could see the world population (including digital minds) explode by many orders of magnitude in a brief period of time. But that road to superintelligence involves artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation, so we need not consider it in this subsection. . Vinge (1993). CHAPTER 3: FORMS OF SUPERINTELLIGENCE 1 . Vernor Vinge has used the term weak superintelligence to refer to such sped-up human minds (Vinge 1993). 2 . For example, if a very fast system could do everything that any human could do except dance a mazurka, we should still call it a speed superintelligence. Our interest lies in those core cognitive capabilities that have economic or strategic significance. 3 . At least a millionfold speedup compared to human brains is physically possible, as can been seen by considering the difference in speed and energy of relevant brain processes in comparison to more efficient information processing. The speed of light is more than a million times greater than that of neural transmission, synaptic spikes dissipate more than a million times more heat than is thermodynamically necessary, and current transistor frequencies are more than a million times faster than neuron spiking frequencies (Yudkowsky [2008a]; see also Drexler [1992]). The ultimate limits of speed superintelligence are bounded by light-speed communications delays, quantum limits on the speed of state transitions, and the volume needed to contain the mind (Lloyd 2000). The ultimate laptop described by Lloyd (2000) would run a 1.410 21 FLOPS brain emulation at speedup of 3.810 29 (assuming the emulation could be sufficiently parallelized). Lloyds construction, however, is not intended to be technologically plausible; it is only meant to illustrate those constraints on computation that are readily derivable from basic physical laws. 4 . With emulations, there is also an issue of how long a human-like mind can keep working on something before going mad or falling into a rut. Even with task variety and regular holidays, it is not certain that a human-like mind could live for thousands of subjective years without developing psychological problems. Furthermore, if total memory capacity is limited a consequence of having a limited neuron populationthen cumulative learning cannot continue indefinitely: beyond some point, the mind must start forgetting one thing for each new thing it learns. (Artificial intelligence could be designed such as to ameliorate these potential problems.) 5 . Accordingly, nanomechanisms moving at a modest 1 m/s have typical timescales of nanoseconds. See section 2.3.2 of Drexler (1992). Robin Hanson mentions 7-mm tinkerbell robot bodies moving at 260 times normal speed (Hanson 1994). 6 . Hanson (2012). 7 . Collective intelligence does not refer to low-level parallelization of computing hardware but to parallelization at the level of intelligent autonomous agents such as human beings. Implementing a single emulation on a massively parallel machine might result in speed superintelligence if the parallel computer is sufficiently fast: it would not produce a collective intelligence. 8 . Improvements to the speed or the quality of the individual components could also indirectly affect the performance of collective intelligence, but here we mainly consider such improvements under the other two forms of superintelligence in our classification. 9 . It has been argued that a higher population density triggered the Upper Paleolithic Revolution and that beyond a certain threshold accumulation of cultural complexity became much easier (Powell et al. 2009). . What about the Internet? It seems not yet to have amounted to a super-sized boost. Maybe it will do so eventually. It took centuries or millennia for the other examples listed here to reveal their full potential. . This is, obviously, not meant to be a realistic thought experiment. A planet large enough to sustain seven quadrillion human organisms with present technology would implode, unless it were made of very light matter or were hollow and held up by pressure or other artificial means. (A Dyson sphere or a Shellworld might be a better solution.) History would have unfolded differently on such a vast surface. Set all this aside. . Our focus here is on the functional properties of a unified intellect, not on the question of whether such an intellect would have qualia or whether it would be a mind in the sense of having subjective conscious experience. (One might ponder, though, what kinds of conscious experience might arise from intellects that are more or less integrated than those of human brains. On some views of consciousness, such as the global workspace theory, it seems one might expect more integrated brains to have more capacious consciousness. Cf. Baars (1997), Shanahan (2010), and Schwitzgebel (2013).) . Even small groups of humans that have remained isolated for some time might still benefit from the intellectual outputs of a larger collective intelligence. For example, the language they use might have been developed by a much larger linguistic community, and the tools they use might have been invented in a much larger population before the small group became isolated. But even if a small group had always been isolated, it might still be part of a larger collective intelligence than meets the eye namely, the collective intelligence consisting of not only the present but all ancestral generations as well, an aggregate that can function as a feed- forward information processing system. . By the ChurchTuring thesis, all computable functions are computable by a Turing machine. Since any of the three forms of superintelligence could simulate a Turing machine (if given access to unlimited memory and allowed to operate indefinitely), they are by this formal criterion computationally equivalent. Indeed, an average human being (provided with unlimited scrap paper and unlimited time) could also implement a Turing machine, and thus is also equivalent by the same criterion. What matters for our purposes, however, is what these different systems can achieve in practice , with finite memory and in reasonable time. And the efficiency variations are so great that one can readily make some distinctions. For example, a typical individual with an IQ of 85 could be taught to implement a Turing machine. (Conceivably, it might even be possible to train some particularly gifted and docile chimpanzee to do this.) Yet, for all practical intents and purposes, such an individual is presumably incapable of, say, independently developing general relativity theory or of winning a Fields medal. . Oral storytelling traditions can produce great works (such as the Homeric epics) but perhaps some of the contributing authors possessed uncommon gifts. . Unless it contains as components intellects that have speed or quality superintelligence. . Our inability to specify what all these problems are may in part be due to a lack of trying: there is little point in spending time detailing intellectual jobs that no individual and no currently feasible organization can perform. But it is also possible that even conceptualizing some of these jobs is itself one of those jobs that we currently lack the brains to perform. . Cf. Boswell (1917); see also Walker (2002). . This mainly occurs in short bursts in a subset of neuronsmost have more sedate firing rates (Gray and McCormick 1996; Steriade et al. 1998). There are some neurons (chattering neurons, also known as fast rhythmically bursting cells) that may reach firing frequencies as high as 750 Hz, but these seem to be extreme outliers. . Feldman and Ballard (1982). . The conduction velocity depends on axon diameter (thicker axons are faster) and whether the axon is myelinated. Within the central nervous system, transmission delays can range from less than a millisecond to up to 100 ms (Kandel et al. 2000). Transmission in optical fibers is around 68% c (because of the refractive index of the material). Electrical cables are roughly the same speed, 5977% c . . This assumes a signal velocity of 70% c . Assuming 100% c ups the estimate to 1.810 18 m 3 . . The number of neurons in an adult human male brain has been estimated at 86.1 8.1 billion, a number arrived at by dissolving brains and fractionating out the cell nuclei, counting the ones stained with a neuron- specific marker. In the past, estimates in the neighborhood of 75125 billion neurons were common. These were typically based on manual counting of cell densities in representative small regions (Azevedo et al. 2009). . Whitehead (2003). . Information processing systems can very likely use molecular-scale processes for computing and data storage and reach at least planetary size in extent. The ultimate physical limits to computation set by quantum mechanics, general relativity, and thermodynamics are, however, far beyond this Jupiter brain level (Sandberg 1999; Lloyd 2000). . Stansberry and Kudritzki (2012). Electricity used in data centers worldwide amounted to 1.11.5% of total electricity use (Koomey 2011). See also Muehlhauser and Salamon (2012). . This is an oversimplification. The number of chunks working memory can maintain is both information-and task-dependent; however, it is clearly limited to a small number of chunks. See Miller (1956) and Cowan (2001). . An example might be that the difficulty of learning Boolean concepts (categories defined by logical rules) is proportional to the length of the shortest logically equivalent propositional formula. Typically, even formulae just 34 literals long are very difficult to learn. See Feldman (2000). . See Landauer (1986). This study is based on experimental estimates of learning and forgetting rates in humans. Taking into account implicit learning might push the estimate up a little. If one assumes a storage capacity ~1 bit per synapse, one gets an upper bound on human memory capacity of about 10 15 bits. For an overview of different estimates, see Appendix A of Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). . Channel noise can trigger action potentials, and synaptic noise produces significant variability in the strength of transmitted signals. Nervous systems appear to have evolved to make numerous trade-offs between noise tolerance and costs (mass, size, time delays); see Faisal et al. (2008). For example, axons cannot be thinner than 0.1 m lest random opening of ion channels create spontaneous action potentials (Faisal et al. 2005). . Trachtenberg et al. (2002). . In terms of memory and computational power, though not in terms of energy efficiency. The fastest computer in the world at the time of writing was Chinas Tianhe-2, which displaced Cray Inc. Titan in June 2013 with a performance of 33.86 petaFLOPS. It uses 17.6 MW of power, almost six orders of magnitude more than the brains ~20 W. . Note that this survey of sources of machine advantage is disjunctive : our argument succeeds even if some of the items listed are illusory, so long as there is at least one source that can provide a sufficiently large advantage. CHAPTER 4: THE KINETICS OF AN INTELLIGENCE EXPLOSION 1 . The system may not reach one of these baselines at any sharply defined point. There may instead be an interval during which the system gradually becomes able to outperform the external research team on an increasing number of system-improving development tasks. 2 . In the past half-century, at least one scenario has been widely recognized in which the existing world order would come to an end in the course of minutes or hours: global thermonuclear war. 3 . This would be consistent with the observation that the Flynn effectthe secular increase in measured IQ scores within most populations at a rate of some 3 IQ points per decade over the past 60 years or soappears to have ceased or even reversed in recent years in some highly developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Norway (Teasdale and Owen 2008; Sundet et al. 2004). The cause of the Flynn effect in the pastand whether and to what extent it represents any genuine gain in general intelligence or merely improved skill at solving IQ test-style puzzleshas been the subject of wide debate and is still not known. Even if the Flynn effect (at least partially) reflects real cognitive gains, and even if the effect is now diminishing or even reversing, this does not prove that we have yet hit diminishing returns in whatever underlying cause was responsible for the observed Flynn effect in the past. The decline or reversal could instead be due to some independent detrimental factor that would otherwise have produced an even bigger observed decline. 4 . Bostrom and Roache (2011). 5 . Somatic gene therapy could eliminate the maturational lag, but is technically much more challenging than germline interventions and has a lower ultimate potential. 6 . Average global economic productivity growth per year over the period 19602000 was 4.3% (Isaksson 2007). Only part of this productivity growth is due to gains in organizational efficiency. Some particular networks or organizational processes of course are improving at much faster rates. 7 . Biological brain evolution was subject to many constraints and trade-offs that are drastically relaxed when the mind moves to a digital medium. For example, brain size is limited by head size, and a head that is too big has trouble passing through the birth canal. A large brain also guzzles metabolic resources and is a dead weight that impedes movement. The connectivity between certain brain regions might be limited by steric constraintsthe volume of white matter is significantly larger than the volume of the gray matter it connects. Heat dissipation is limited by blood flow, and might be close to the upper limit for acceptable functioning. Furthermore, biological neurons are noisy, slow, and in need of constant protection, maintenance, and resupply by glial cells and blood vessels (contributing to the intracranial crowding). See Bostrom and Sandberg (2009b). 8 . Yudkowsky (2008a, 326). For a more recent discussion, see Yudkowsky (2013). 9 . The picture shows cognitive ability as a one-dimensional parameter, to keep the drawing simple. But this is not essential to the point being made here. One could, for example, instead represent a cognitive ability profile as a hypersurface in a multidimensional space. . Lin et al. (2012). . One gets a certain increase in collective intelligence simply by increasing the number of its constituent intellects. Doing so should at least enable better overall performance on tasks that can be easily parallelized. To reap the full returns from such a population explosion, however, one would also need to achieve some (more than minimal) level of coordination between the constituents. . The distinction between speed and quality of intelligence is anyhow blurred in the case of non-neuromorphic AI systems. . Rajab et al. (2006, 4152). . It has been suggested that using configurable integrated circuits (FPGAs) rather than general-purpose processors could increase computational speeds in neural network simulations by up to two orders of magnitude (Markram 2006). A study of high-resolution climate modeling in the petaFLOP-range found a twenty-four to thirty-four-fold reduction of cost and about two orders of magnitude reduction in power requirements using a custom variant of embedded processor chips (Wehner et al. 2008). . Nordhaus (2007). There are many overviews of the different meanings of Moores law; see, e.g., Tuomi (2002) and Mack (2011). . If the development is slow enough, the project can avail itself of progress being made in the interim by the outside world, such as advances in computer science made by university researchers and improvements in hardware made by the semiconductor industry. . Algorithmic overhang is perhaps less likely, but one exception would be if exotic hardware such as quantum computing becomes available to run algorithms that were previously infeasible. One might also argue that neural networks and deep machine learning are cases of algorithm overhang: too computationally expensive to work well when first invented, they were shelved for a while, then dusted off when fast graphics processing units made them cheap to run. Now they win contests. . And even if progress on the way toward the human baseline were slow. . is that part of the worlds optimization power that is applied to improving the system in question. For a project operating in complete isolation, one that receives no significant ongoing support from the external world, we have 0, even though the project must have started with a resource endowment (computers, scientific concepts, educated personnel, etc.) that is derived from the entire world economy and many centuries of development. . The most relevant of the seed AIs cognitive abilities here is its ability to perform intelligent design work to improve itself, i.e. its intelligence amplification capability. (If the seed AI is good at enhancing another system, which is good at enhancing the seed AI, then we could view these as subsystems of a larger system and focus our analysis on the greater whole.) . This assumes that recalcitrance is not known to be so high as to discourage investment altogether or divert it to some alternative project. . A similar example is discussed in Yudkowsky (2008b). . Since inputs have risen (e.g. amounts invested in building new foundries, and number of people working in the semiconductor industry), Moores law itself has not given such a rapid growth if we control for this increase in inputs. Combined with advances in software, however, an 18-month doubling time in performance per unit of input may be more historically plausible. . Some tentative attempts have been made to develop the idea of an intelligence explosion within the framework of economic growth theory; see, e.g., Hanson (1998b); Jones (2009); Salamon (2009). These studies have pointed to the potential of extremely rapid growth given the arrival of digital minds, but since endogenous growth theory is relatively poorly developed even for historical and contemporary applications, any application to a potentially discontinuous future context is better viewed at this stage as a source of potentially useful concepts and considerations than as an exercise likely to deliver authoritative forecasts. For an overview of attempts to mathematically model a technological singularity, see Sandberg (2010). . It is of course also possible that there will be no takeoff at all. But since, as argued earlier, superintelligence looks technically feasible, the absence of a takeoff would likely be due to the intervention of some defeater, such as an existential catastrophe. If strong superintelligence arrived not in the shape of artificial intelligence or whole brain emulation but through one of other paths we considered above, then a slower takeoff would be more likely. CHAPTER 5: DECISIVE STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE 1 . A software mind might run on a single machine as opposed to a worldwide network of computers; but this is not what we mean by concentration. Instead, what we are interested in here is the extent to which power, specifically power derived from technological ability, will be concentrated in the advanced stages of, or immediately following, the machine intelligence revolution. 2 . Technology diffusion of consumer products, for example, tends to be slower in developing countries (Talukdar et al. 2002). See also Keller (2004) and The World Bank (2008). 3 . The economic literature dealing with the theory of the firm is relevant as a comparison point for the present discussion. The locus classicus is Coase (1937). See also, e.g., Canbck et al. (2006); Milgrom and Roberts (1990); Hart (2008); Simester and Knez (2002). 4 . On the other hand, it could be especially easy to steal a seed AI, since it consists of software that could be transmitted electronically or carried on a portable memory device. 5 . Barber (1991) suggests that the Yangshao culture (50003000 BC ) might have used silk. Sun et al. (2012) estimate, based on genetic studies, domestication of the silkworm to have occurred about 4,100 years ago. 6 . Cook (1984, 144). This story might be too good to withstand historical scrutiny, rather like Procopius ( Wars VIII.xvii.17) story of how the silkworms were supposedly brought to Byzantium by wandering monks, hidden in their hollow bamboo staves (Hunt 2011). 7 . Wood (2007); Temple (1986). 8 . Pre-Columbian cultures did have the wheel but used it only for toys (probably due to a lack of good draft animals). 9 . Koubi (1999); Lerner (1997); Koubi and Lalman (2007); Zeira (2011); Judd et al. (2012). . Estimated from a variety of sources. The time gap is often somewhat arbitrary, depending on how exactly equivalent capabilities are defined. Radar was used by at least two countries within a couple of years of its introduction, but exact figures in months are hard to come by. . The RDS-6 in 1953 was the first test of a bomb with fusion reactions, but the RDS-37 in 1955 was the first true fusion bomb, where most power came from the fusion reaction. . Unconfirmed. . Tests in 1989, project cancelled in 1994. . Deployed system, capable of a range greater than 5,000 km. . Polaris missiles bought from the USA. . Current work is underway on the Taimur missile, likely based on Chinese missiles. . The RSA-3 rocket tested 198990 was intended for satellite launches and/or as an ICBM. . MIRV = multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle, a technology that enables a single ballistic missile to carry multiple warheads that can be programmed to hit different targets. . The Agni V system is not yet in service. . Ellis (1999). . If we model the situation as one where the lag time between projects is drawn from a normal distribution, then the likely distance between the leading project and its closest follower will also depend on how many projects there are. If there are a vast number of projects, then the distance between the first two is likely small even if the variance of the distribution is moderately high (though the expected gap between the lead and the second project declines very slowly with the number of competitors if completion times are normally distributed). However, it is unlikely that there will be a vast number of projects that are each well enough resourced to be serious contenders. (There might be a greater number of projects if there are a large number of different basic approaches that could be pursued, but in that case many of those approaches are likely to prove dead ends.) As suggested, empirically we seem to find that there is usually no more than a handful of serious competitors pursuing any one specific technological goal. The situation is somewhat different in a consumer market where there are many niches for slightly different products and where barriers to entry are low. There are lots of one-person projects designing T-shirts, but only a few firms in the world developing the next generation of graphics cards. (Two firms, AMD and NVIDIA, enjoy a near duopoly at the moment, though Intel is also competing at the lower- performance end of the market.) . Bostrom (2006c). One could imagine a singleton whose existence is invisible (e.g. a superintelligence with such advanced technology or insight that it could subtly control world events without any human noticing its interventions); or a singleton that voluntarily imposes very strict limitations on its own exercise of power (e.g. punctiliously confining itself to ensuring that certain treaty-specified international rulesor libertarian principles are respected). How likely any particular kind of singleton is to arise is of course an empirical question; but conceptually , at least, it is possible to have a good singleton, a bad singleton, a rambunctiously diverse singleton, a blandly monolithic singleton, a crampingly oppressive singleton, or a singleton more akin to an extra law of nature than to a yelling despot. . Jones (1985, 344). . It might be significant that the Manhattan Project was carried out during wartime. Many of the scientists who participated claimed to be primarily motivated by the wartime situation and the fear that Nazi Germany might develop atomic weapons ahead of the Allies. It might be difficult for many governments to mobilize a similarly intensive and secretive effort in peacetime. The Apollo program, another iconic science/engineering megaproject, received a strong impetus from the Cold War rivalry. . Though even if they were looking hard, it is not clear that they would appear (publicly) to be doing so. . Cryptographic techniques could enable the collaborating team to be physically dispersed. The only weak link in the communication chain might be the input stage, where the physical act of typing could potentially be observed. But if indoor surveillance became common (by means of microscopic recording devices), those keen on protecting their privacy might develop countermeasures (e.g. special closets that could be sealed off from would-be eavesdropping devices). Whereas physical space might become transparent in a coming surveillance age, cyberspace might possibly become more protected through wider adoption of stronger cryptographic protocols. . A totalitarian state might take recourse to even more coercive measures. Scientists in relevant fields might be swept up and put into work camps, akin to the academic villages in Stalinist Russia. . When the level of public concern is relatively low, some researchers might welcome a little bit of public fear-mongering because it draws attention to their work and makes the area they work in seem important and exciting. When the level of concern becomes greater, the relevant research communities might change their tune as they begin to worry about funding cuts, regulation, and public backlash. Researchers in neighboring disciplinessuch as those parts of computer science and robotics that are not very relevant to artificial general intelligencemight resent the drift of funding and attention away from their own research areas. These researchers might also correctly observe that their work carries no risk whatever of leading to a dangerous intelligence explosion. (Some historical parallels might be drawn with the career of the idea of nanotechnology; see Drexler [2013].) . These have been successful in that they have achieved at least some of what they set out to do. How successful they have been in a broader sense (taking into account cost-effectiveness and so forth) is harder to determine. In the case of the International Space Station, for example, there have been huge cost overruns and delays. For details of the problems encountered by the project, see NASA (2013). The Large Hadron Collider project has had some major setbacks, but this might be due to the inherent difficulty of the task. The Human Genome Project achieved success in the end, but seems to have received a speed boost from being forced to compete with Craig Venters private corporate effort. Internationally sponsored projects to achieve controlled fusion energy have failed to deliver on expectations, despite massive investment; but again, this might be attributable to the task turning out to be more difficult than anticipated. . US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1995). . Hoffman (2009); Rhodes (2008). . Rhodes (1986). . The US Navys code-breaking organization, OP-20-G, apparently ignored an invitation to gain full knowledge of Britains anti-Enigma methods, and failed to inform higher-level US decision makers of Britains offer to share its cryptographic secrets (Burke 2001). This gave American leaders the impression that Britain was withholding important information, a cause of friction throughout the war. Britain did share with the Soviet government some of the intelligence they had gleaned from decrypted German communications. In particular, Russia was warned about the German preparations for Operation Barbarossa. But Stalin refused to believe the warning, partly because the British did not disclose how they had obtained the information. . For a few years, Russell seems to have advocated the threat of nuclear war to persuade Russia to accept the Baruch plan; later, he was a strong proponent of mutual nuclear disarmament (Russell and Griffin 2001). John von Neumann is reported to have believed that a war between the United States and Russia was inevitable, and to have said, If you say why not bomb them [the Russians] tomorrow, I say why not bomb them today? If you say today at five oclock, I say why not one oclock? (It is possible that he made this notorious statement to burnish his anti-communist credentials with US Defense hawks in the McCarthy era. Whether von Neumann, had he been in charge of US policy, would actually have launched a first strike is impossible to ascertain. See Blair [1957], 96.) . Baratta (2004). . If the AI is controlled by a group of humans, the problem may apply to this human group, though it is possible that new ways of reliably committing to an agreement will be available by this time, in which case even human groups could avoid this problem of potential internal unraveling and overthrow by a sub-coalition. CHAPTER 6: COGNITIVE SUPERPOWERS 1 . In what sense is humanity a dominant species on Earth? Ecologically speaking, humans are the most common large (~50 kg) animal, but the total human dry biomass (~100 billion kg) is not so impressive compared with that of ants, the family Formicidae (300 billion3,000 billion kg). Humans and human utility organisms form a very small part (<0.001) of total global biomass. However, croplands and pastures are now among the largest ecosystems on the planet, covering about 35% of the ice-free land surface (Foley et al. 2007). And we appropriate nearly a quarter of net primary productivity according to a typical assessment (Haberl et al. 2007), though estimates range from 3 to over 50% depending mainly on varying definitions of the relevant terms (Haberl et al. 2013). Humans also have the largest geographic coverage of any animal species and top the largest number of different food chains. 2 . Zalasiewicz et al. (2008). 3 . See first note to this chapter. 4 . Strictly speaking, this may not be quite correct. Intelligence in the human species ranges all the way down to approximately zero (e.g. in the case of embryos or patients in permanent vegetative state). In qualitative terms, the maximum difference in cognitive ability within the human species is therefore perhaps greater than the difference between any human and a superintelligence. But the point in the text stands if we read human as normally functioning adult. 5 . Gottfredson (2002). See also Carroll (1993) and Deary (2001). 6 . See Legg (2008). Roughly, Legg proposes to measure a reinforcement- learning agent as its expected performance in all reward-summable environments, where each such environment receives a weight determined by its Kolmogorov complexity. We will explain what is meant by reinforcement learning in Chapter 12 . See also Dowe and Hernndez-Orallo (2012) and Hibbard (2011). 7 . With regard to technology research in areas like biotechnology and nanotechnology, what a superintelligence would excel at is the design and modeling of new structures. To the extent that design ingenuity and modeling cannot substitute for physical experimentation, the superintelligences performance advantage may be qualified by its level of access to the requisite experimental apparatus. 8 . E.g., Drexler (1992, 2013). 9 . A narrow-domain AI could of course have significant commercial applications, but this does not mean that it would have the economic productivity superpower. For example, even if a narrow-domain AI earned its owners several billions of dollars a year, this would still be four orders of magnitude less than the rest of the world economy. In order for the system directly and substantially to increase world product, an AI would need to be able to perform many kinds of work; that is, it would need competence in many domains. . The criterion does not rule out all scenarios in which the AI fails. For example, the AI might rationally take a gamble that has a high chance of failing. In this case, however, the criterion could take the form that (a) the AI should make an unbiased estimate of the gambles low chance of success and (b) there should be no better gamble available to the AI that we present- day humans can think of but that the AI overlooks. . Cf. Freitas (2000) and Vassar and Freitas (2006). . Yudkowsky (2008a). . Freitas (1980); Freitas and Merkle (2004, Chap. 3); Armstrong and Sandberg (2013). . See, e.g., Huffman and Pless (2003), Knill et al. (2000), Drexler (1986). . That is to say, the distance would be small on some natural metric, such as the logarithm of the size of the population that could be sustainably supported at subsistence level by a given level of capability if all resources were devoted to that end. . This estimate is based on the WMAP estimate of a cosmological baryon density of 9.910 30 g/cm 3 and assumes that 90% of the mass is intergalactic gas, that some 15% of the galactic mass is stars (about 80% of baryonic matter), and that the average star weighs in at 0.7 solar masses (Read and Trentham 2005; Carroll and Ostlie 2007). . Armstrong and Sandberg (2013). . Even at 100% of c (which is unattainable for objects with nonzero rest mass) the number of reachable galaxies is only about 610 9 . (Cf. Gott et al. [2005] and Heyl [2005].) We are assuming that our current understanding of the relevant physics is correct. It is hard to be very confident in any upper bound, since it is at least conceivable that a superintelligent civilization might extend its reach in some way that we take to be physically impossible (for instance, by building time machines, by spawning new inflationary universes, or by some other, as yet unimagined means). . The number of habitable planets per star is currently uncertain, so this is merely a crude estimate. Traub (2012) predicts that one-third of stars in spectral classes F, G, or K have at least one terrestrial planet in the habitable zone; see also Clavin (2012). FGK stars form about 22.7% of the stars in the solar neighborhood, suggesting that 7.6% of stars have potentially suitable planets. In addition, there might be habitable planets around the more numerous M stars (Gilster 2012). See also Robles et al. (2008). It would not be necessary to subject human bodies to the rigors of intergalactic travels. AIs could oversee the colonization process. Homo sapiens could be brought along as information, which the AIs could later use to instantiate specimens of our species. For example, genetic information could be synthesized into DNA, and a first generation of humans could be incubated, raised, and educated by AI guardians taking an anthropomorphic guise. . ONeill (1974). . Dyson (1960) claims to have gotten the basic idea from science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon (1937), who in turn might have been inspired by similar thoughts by J. D. Bernal (Dyson 1979, 211). . Landauers principle states that there is a minimum amount of energy required to change one bit of information, known as the Landauer limit, equal to kT ln 2, where k is the Boltzmann constant (1.3810 23 J/K) and T is the temperature. If we assume the circuitry is maintained at around 300 K, then 10 26 watts allows us to erase approximately 10 47 bits per second. (On the achievable efficiency of nanomechanical computational devices, see Drexler [1992]. See also Bradbury [1999]; Sandberg [1999]; irkovi [2004]. The foundations of Landauers principle are still somewhat in dispute; see, e.g., Norton [2011].) . Stars vary in their power output, but the Sun is a fairly typical main-sequence star. . A more detailed analysis might consider more closely what types of computation we are interested in. The number of serial computations that can be performed is quite limited, since a fast serial computer must be small in order to minimize communications lags within the different parts of the computer. There are also limits on the number of bits that can be stored, and, as we saw, on the number of irreversible computational steps (involving the erasure of information) that can be performed. . We are assuming here that there are no extraterrestrial civilizations that might get in the way. We are also assuming that the simulation hypothesis is false. See Bostrom (2003a). If either of these assumptions is incorrect, there may be important non-anthropogenic risksones that involve intelligent agency of a nonhuman sort. See also Bostrom (2003b, 2009c). . At least a wise singleton that grasped the idea of evolution could, in principle, have embarked on a eugenics program by means of which it could slowly have raised its level of collective intelligence. . Tetlock and Belkin (1996). . To be clear: colonizing and reengineering a large part of the accessible universe is not currently within our direct reach. Intergalactic colonization is far beyond todays technology. The point is that we could in principle use our present capabilities to develop the additional capabilities that would be needed, thus placing the accomplishment within our indirect reach. It is of course also true that humanity is not currently a singleton and that we do not know that we would never face intelligent opposition from some external power if we began to reengineer the accessible universe. To meet the wise-singleton sustainability threshold, however, it suffices that one possesses a capability set such that if a wise singleton facing no intelligent opposition had possessed this capability set then the colonization and reengineering of a large part of the accessible universe would be within its indirect reach. . Sometimes it might be useful to speak of two AIs as each having a given superpower. In an extended sense of the word, one could thus conceive of a superpower as something that an agent has relative to some field of action in this example, perhaps a field that includes all of human civilization but excludes the other AI. CHAPTER 7: THE SUPERINTELLIGENT WILL 1 . This is of course not to deny that differences that appear small visually can be functionally profound. 2 . Yudkowsky (2008a, 310). 3 . David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, thought that beliefs alone (say, about what is a good thing to do) cannot motivate action: some desire is required. This would support the orthogonality thesis by undercutting one possible objection to it, namely that sufficient intelligence might entail the acquisition of certain beliefs which would then necessarily produce certain motivations. However, although the orthogonality thesis can draw support from the Humean theory of motivation, it does not presuppose it. In particular, one need not maintain that beliefs alone can never motivate action. It would suffice to assume, for example, that an agentbe it ever so intelligentcan be motivated to pursue any course of action if the agent happens to have certain desires of some sufficient, overriding strength. Another way in which the orthogonality thesis could be true even if the Humean theory of motivation is false is if arbitrarily high intelligence does not entail the acquisition of any such beliefs as are (putatively) motivating on their own. A third way in which it might be possible for the orthogonality thesis to be true even if the Humean theory were false is if it is possible to build an agent (or more neutrally, an optimization process) with arbitrarily high intelligence but with constitution so alien as to contain no clear functional analogs to what in humans we call beliefs and desires. (For some recent attempts to defend the Humean theory of motivation see Smith [1987], Lewis [1988], and Sinhababu [2009].) 4 . For instance, Derek Parfit has argued that certain basic preferences would be irrational, such as that of an otherwise normal agent who has Future- Tuesday-Indifference: A certain hedonist cares greatly about the quality of his future experiences. With one exception, he cares equally about all the parts of his future. The exception is that he has Future-Tuesday-Indifference. Throughout every Tuesday he cares in the normal way about what is happening to him. But he never cares about possible pains or pleasures on a future Tuesday. This indifference is a bare fact. When he is planning his future, it is simply true that he always prefers the prospect of great suffering on a Tuesday to the mildest pain on any other day. (Parfit [1986, 1234]; see also Parfit [2011]) For our purposes, we need take no stand on whether Parfit is right that this agent is irrational, so long as we grant that it is not necessarily unintelligent in the instrumental sense explained in the text. Parfits agent could have impeccable instrumental rationality, and therefore great intelligence, even if he falls short on some kind of sensitivity to objective reason that might be required of a fully rational agent. Therefore, this kind of example does not undermine the orthogonality thesis. 5 . Even if there are objective moral facts that any fully rational agent would comprehend, and even if these moral facts are somehow intrinsically motivating (such that anybody who fully comprehends them is necessarily motivated to act in accordance with them), this need not undermine the orthogonality thesis. The thesis could still be true if an agent could have impeccable instrumental rationality even whilst lacking some other faculty constitutive of rationality proper, or some faculty required for the full comprehension of the objective moral facts. (An agent could also be extremely intelligent, even superintelligent, without having full instrumental rationality in every domain.) 6 . For more on the orthogonality thesis, see Bostrom (2012) and Armstrong (2013). 7 . Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). 8 . Stephen Omohundro has written two pioneering papers on this topic (Omohundro 2007, 2008). Omohundro argues that all advanced AI systems are likely to exhibit a number of basic drives, by which he means tendencies which will be present unless explicitly counteracted. The term AI drive has the advantage of being short and evocative, but it has the disadvantage of suggesting that the instrumental goals to which it refers influence the AIs decision-making in the same way as psychological drives influence human decision-making, i.e. via a kind of phenomenological tug on our ego which our willpower may occasionally succeed in resisting. That connotation is unhelpful. One would not normally say that a typical human being has a drive to fill out their tax return, even though filing taxes may be a fairly convergent instrumental goal for humans in contemporary societies (a goal whose realization averts trouble that would prevent us from realizing many of our final goals). Our treatment here also differs from that of Omohundro in some other more substantial ways, although the underlying idea is the same. (See also Chalmers [2010] and Omohundro [2012].) 9 . Chislenko (1997). . See also Shulman (2010b). . An agent might also change its goal representation if it changes its ontology, in order to transpose its old representation into the new ontology; cf. de Blanc (2011). Another type of factor that might make an evidential decision theorist undertake various actions, including changing its final goals, is the evidential import of deciding to do so. For example, an agent that follows evidential decision theory might believe that there exist other agents like it in the universe, and that its own actions will provide some evidence about how those other agents will act. The agent might therefore choose to adopt a final goal that is altruistic towards those other evidentially linked agents, on grounds that this will give the agent evidence that those other agents will have chosen to act in like manner. An equivalent outcome might be obtained, however, without changing ones final goals, by choosing in each instant to act as if one had those final goals. . An extensive psychological literature explores adaptive preference formation. See, e.g., Forgas et al. (2010). . In formal models, the value of information is quantified as the difference between the expected value realized by optimal decisions made with that information and the expected value realized by optimal decisions made without it. (See, e.g., Russell and Norvig [2010].) It follows that the value of information is never negative. It also follows that any information you know will never affect any decision you will ever make has zero value for you. However, this kind of model assumes several idealizations which are often invalid in the real worldsuch as that knowledge has no final value (meaning that knowledge has only instrumental value and is not valuable for its own sake) and that agents are not transparent to other agents. . E.g., Hjek (2009). . This strategy is exemplified by the sea squirt larva, which swims about until it finds a suitable rock, to which it then permanently affixes itself. Cemented in place, the larva has less need for complex information processing, whence it proceeds to digest part of its own brain (its cerebral ganglion). One can observe the same phenomenon in some academics when they have been granted tenure. . Bostrom (2012). . Bostrom (2006c). . One could reverse the question and look instead at possible reasons for a superintelligent singleton not to develop some technological capabilities. These include the following: (a) the singleton foresees that it will have no use for the capability; (b) the development cost is too large relative to its anticipated utility (e.g. if the technology will never be suitable for achieving any of the singletons ends, or if the singleton has a very high discount rate that strongly discourages investment); (c) the singleton has some final value that requires abstention from particular avenues of technology development; (d) if the singleton is not certain it will remain stable, it might prefer to refrain from developing technologies that could threaten its internal stability or that would make the consequences of dissolution worse (for instance, a world government may not wish to develop technologies that would facilitate rebellion, even if they have some good uses, nor develop technologies for the easy production of weapons of mass destruction which could wreak havoc if the world government were to dissolve); (e) similarly, the singleton might have made some kind of binding strategic commitment not to develop some technology, a commitment that remains operative even if it would now be convenient to develop it. (Note, however, that some current reasons for technology development would not apply to a singleton: for instance, reasons arising from arms races.) . Suppose that an agent discounts resources obtained in the future at an exponential rate, and that because of the light speed limitation the agent can only increase its resource endowment at a polynomial rate. Would this mean that there will be some time after which the agent would not find it worthwhile to continue acquisitive expansion? No, because although the present value of the resources obtained at future times would asymptote to zero the further into the future we look, so would the present cost of obtaining them . The present cost of sending out one more von Neumann probe a 100 million years from now (possibly using some resource acquired some short time earlier) would be diminished by the same discount factor that would diminish the present value of the future resources that the extra probe would acquire (modulo a constant factor). . While the volume reached by colonization probes at a given time might be roughly spherical and expanding with a rate proportional to the square of time elapsed since the first probe was launched (~ t 2 ), the amount of resources contained within this volume will follow a less regular growth pattern, since the distribution of resources is inhomogeneous and varies over several scales. Initially, the growth rate might be ~ t 2 as the home planet is colonized; then the growth rate might become spiky as nearby planets and solar systems are colonized; then, as the roughly disc-shaped volume of the Milky Way gets filled out, the growth rate might even out, to be approximately proportional to t ; then the growth rate might again become spiky as nearby galaxies are colonized; then the growth rate might again approximate ~ t 2 as expansion proceeds on a scale over which the distribution of galaxies is roughly homogeneous; then another period of spiky growth followed by smooth ~ t 2 growth as galactic superclusters are colonized; until ultimately the growth rate starts a final decline, eventually reaching zero as the expansion speed of the universe increases to such an extent as to make further colonization impossible. . The simulation argument may be of particular importance in this context. A superintelligent agent may assign a significant probability to hypotheses according to which it lives in a computer simulation and its percept sequence is generated by another superintelligence, and this might generate various convergent instrumental reasons depending on the agents guesses about what types of simulations it is most likely to be in. Cf. Bostrom (2003a). . Discovering the basic laws of physics and other fundamental facts about the world is a convergent instrumental goal. We may place it under the rubric cognitive enhancement here, though it could also be derived from the technology perfection goal (since novel physical phenomena might enable novel technologies). CHAPTER 8: IS THE DEFAULT OUTCOME DOOM? 1 . Some additional existential risk resides in scenarios in which humanity survives in some highly suboptimal state or in which a large portion of our potential for desirable development is irreversibly squandered. On top of this, there may be existential risks associated with the lead-up to a potential intelligence explosion, arising, for example, from war between countries competing to develop superintelligence first. 2 . There is an important moment of vulnerability when the AI first realizes the need for such concealment (an event which we may term the conception of deception ). This initial realization would not itself be deliberately concealed when it occurs. But having had this realization, the AI might move swiftly to hide the fact that the realization has occurred, while setting up some covert internal dynamic (perhaps disguised as some innocuous process that blends in with all the other complicated processes taking place in its mind) that will enable it to continue to plan its long-term strategy in privacy. 3 . Even human hackers can write small and seemingly innocuous programs that do completely unexpected things. (For examples, see some the winning entries in the International Obfuscated C Code Contest.) 4 . The point that some AI control measures could appear to work within a fixed context yet fail catastrophically when the context changes is also emphasized by Eliezer Yudkowsky; see, e.g., Yudkowsky (2008a). 5 . The term seems to have been coined by science-fiction writer Larry Niven (1973), but is based on real-world brain stimulation reward experiments; cf. Olds and Milner (1954) and Oshima and Katayama (2010). See also Ring and Orseau (2011). 6 . Bostrom (1997). 7 . There might be some possible implementations of a reinforcement learning mechanism that would, when the AI discovers the wireheading solution, lead to a safe incapacitation rather than to infrastructure profusion. The point is that this could easily go wrong and fail for unexpected reasons. 8 . This was suggested by Marvin Minsky ( vide Russell and Norvig [2010, 1039]). 9 . The issue of which kinds of digital mind would be conscious, in the sense of having subjective phenomenal experience, or qualia in philosopher- speak, is important in relation to this point (though it is irrelevant to many other parts of this book). One open question is how hard it would be to accurately estimate how a human-like being would behave in various circumstances without simulating its brain in enough detail that the simulation is conscious. Another question is whether there are generally useful algorithms for a superintelligence, for instance reinforcement- learning techniques, such that the implementation of these algorithms would generate qualia. Even if we judge the probability that any such subroutines would be conscious to be fairly small, the number of instantiations might be so large that even a small risk that they might experience suffering ought to be accorded significant weight in our moral calculation. See also Metzinger (2003, Chap. 8). . Bostrom (2002a, 2003a); Elga (2004). CHAPTER 9: THE CONTROL PROBLEM 1 . E.g., Laffont and Martimort (2002). 2 . Suppose a majority of voters want their country to build some particular kind of superintelligence. They elect a candidate who promises to do their bidding, but they might find it difficult to ensure that the candidate, once in power, will follow through on her campaign promise and pursue the project in the way that the voters intended. Supposing she is true to her word, she instructs her government to contract with an academic or industry consortium to carry out the work; but again there are agency problems: the bureaucrats in the government department might have their own views about what should be done and may implement the project in a way that respects the letter but not the spirit of the leaders instructions. Even if the government department does its job faithfully, the contracted scientific partners might have their own separate agendas. The problem recurs on many levels. The director of one of the participating laboratories might lie awake worrying about a technician introducing an unsanctioned element into the designimagining Dr. T. R. Eason sneaking into his office late one night, logging into the project code base, rewriting a part of the seed AIs goal system. Where it was supposed to say serve humanity, it now says serve Dr. T. R. Eason. 3 . Even for superintelligence development, though, there could be a role for behavioral testingas one auxiliary element within a wider battery of safety measures. Should an AI misbehave in its developmental phase, something is clearly awrythough, importantly, the converse does not hold. 4 . In a classic exploit from 1975, Steven Dompier wrote a program for the Altair 8800 that took advantage of this effect (and the absence of shielding around the microcomputers case). Running the program caused the emission of electromagnetic waves that would produce music when one held a transistor radio close to the computer (Driscoll 2012). The young Bill Gates, who attended a demo, reported that he was impressed and mystified by the hack (Gates 1975). There are in any case plans to design future chips with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities (Greene 2012). 5 . It is no light matter to have held a conviction, which, had we had an opportunity to act upon it, could have resulted in the ruination of all our cosmic endowment. Perhaps one could argue for the following principle: if somebody has in the past been certain on N occasions that a system has been improved sufficiently to make it safe, and each time it was revealed that they were wrong, then on the next occasion they are not entitled to assign a credence greater than 1/( N + 1) to the system being safe. 6 . In one informal experiment, the role of the AI was played by an intelligent human. Another individual played the role of gatekeeper and was tasked with not letting the AI out of the box. The AI could communicate with the gatekeeper only by text and was given two hours to persuade the gatekeeper to let it out. In three cases out of five, with different individuals playing the gatekeeper, the AI escaped (Yudkowsky 2002). What a human can do, a superintelligence can do too. (The reverse, of course, does not hold. Even if the task for a real superintelligence were hardermaybe the gatekeepers would be more strongly motivated to refrain from releasing the AI than the individuals playing gatekeeper in the experimentthe superintelligence might still succeed where a human would fail.) 7 . One should not overstate the marginal amount of safety that could be gained in this way. Mental imagery can substitute for graphical display. Consider the impact books can have on peopleand books are not even interactive. 8 . See also Chalmers (2010). It would be a mistake to infer from this that there is no possible use in building a system that will never be observed by any outside entity. One might place a final value on what goes on inside such a system. Also, other people might have preferences about what goes on inside such a system, and might therefore be influenced by its creation or the promise of its creation. Knowledge of the existence of certain kinds of isolated systems (ones containing observers) can also induce anthropic uncertainty in outside observers, which may influence their behavior. 9 . One might wonder why social integration is considered a form of capability control. Should it not instead be classified as a motivation selection method on the ground that it involves seeking to influence a systems behavior by means of incentives? We will look closely at motivation selection presently; but, in answer to this question, we are construing motivation selection as a cluster of control methods that work by selecting or shaping a systems final goalsgoals sought for their own sakes rather than for instrumental reasons. Social integration does not target a systems final goals, so it is not motivation selection. Rather, social integration aims to limit the systems effective capabilities: it seeks to render the system incapable of achieving a certain set of outcomesoutcomes in which the system attains the benefits of defection without suffering the associated penalties (retribution, and loss of the gains from collaboration). The hope is that by limiting which outcomes the system is able to attain, the system will find that the most effective remaining means of realizing its final goals is to behave cooperatively. . This approach may be somewhat more promising in the case of an emulation believed to have anthropomorphic motivations. . I owe this idea to Carl Shulman. . Creating a cipher certain to withstand a superintelligent code-breaker is a nontrivial challenge. For example, traces of random numbers might be left in some observers brain or in the microstructure of the random generator, from whence the superintelligence can retrieve them; or, if pseudorandom numbers are used, the superintelligence might guess or discover the seed from which they were generated. Further, the superintelligence could build large quantum computers, or even discover unknown physical phenomena that could be used to construct new kinds of computers. . The AI could wire itself to believe that it had received a reward tokens, but this should not make it wirehead if it is designed to want the reward tokens (as opposed to wanting to be in a state in which it has certain beliefs about the reward tokens). . For the original article, see Bostrom (2003a). See also Elga (2004). . Shulman (2010a). . Basement-level reality presumably contains more computational resources than simulated reality, since any computational processes occurring in a simulation are also occurring on the computer running the simulation. Basement-level reality might also contain a wealth of other physical resources which could be hard for simulated agents to accessagents that exist only at the indulgence of powerful simulators who may have other uses in mind for those resources. (Of course, the inference here is not strictly deductively valid: in principle, it could be the case that universes in which simulations are run contain so much more resources that simulated civilizations on average have access to more resources than non-simulated civilizations, even though each non-simulated civilization that runs simulations has more resources than all the civilizations it simulates do combined.) . There are various further esoteric considerations that might bear on this matter, the implications of which have not yet been fully analyzed. These considerations may ultimately be crucially important in developing an all- things-considered approach to dealing with the prospect of an intelligence explosion. However, it seems unlikely that we will succeed in figuring out the practical import of such esoteric arguments unless we have first made some progress on the more mundane kinds of consideration that are the topic of most of this book. . Cf., e.g., Quine and Ullian (1978). . Which an AI might investigate by considering the performance characteristics of various basic computational functionalities, such as the size and capacity of various data buses, the time it takes to access different parts of memory, the incidence of random bit flips, and so forth. . Perhaps the prior could be (a computable approximation of) the Solomonoff prior, which assigns probability to possible worlds on the basis of their algorithmic complexity. See Li and Vitnyi (2008). . The moment after the conception of deception, the AI might contrive to erase the trace of its mutinous thought. It is therefore important that this tripwire operate continuously. It would also be good practice to use a flight recorder that stores a complete trace of all the AIs activity (including exact timing of keyboard input from the programmers), so that its trajectory can be retraced or analyzed following an automatic shutdown. The information could be stored on a write-once-read-many medium. . Asimov (1942). To the three laws were later added a Zeroth Law: (0) A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm (Asimov 1985). . Cf. Gunn (1982). . Russell (1986, 161f). . Similarly, although some philosophers have spent entire careers trying to carefully formulate deontological systems, new cases and consequences occasionally come to light that necessitate revisions. For example, deontological moral philosophy has in recent years been reinvigorated through the discovery of a fertile new class of philosophical thought experiments, trolley problems, which reveal many subtle interactions among our intuitions about the moral significance of the acts/omissions distinction, the distinction between intended and unintended consequences, and other such matters; see, e.g., Kamm (2007). . Armstrong (2010). . As a rule of thumb, if one plans to use multiple safety mechanisms to contain an AI, it may be wise to work on each one as if it were intended to be the sole safety mechanism and as if it were therefore required to be individually sufficient. If one puts a leaky bucket inside another leaky bucket, the water still comes out. . A variation of the same idea is to build the AI so that it is continuously motivated to act on its best guesses about what the implicitly defined standard is. In this setup, the AIs final goal is always to act on the implicitly defined standard, and it pursues an investigation into what this standard is only for instrumental reasons. CHAPTER 10: ORACLES, GENIES, SOVEREIGNS, TOOLS 1 . These names are, of course, anthropomorphic and should not be taken seriously as analogies. They are just meant as labels for some prima facie different concepts of possible system types that one might consider trying to build. 2 . In response to a question about the outcome of the next election, one would not wish to be served with a comprehensive list of the projected position and momentum vectors of nearby particles. 3 . Indexed to a particular instruction set on a particular machine. 4 . Kuhn (1962); de Blanc (2011). 5 . It would be harder to apply such a consensus method to genies or sovereigns, because there may often be numerous sequences of basic actions (such as sending particular patterns of electrical signals to the systems actuators) that would be almost exactly equally effective at achieving a given objective; whence slightly different agents may legitimately choose slightly different actions, resulting in a failure to reach consensus. By contrast, with appropriately formulated questions, there would usually be a small number of suitable answer options (such as yes and no). (On the concept of a Schelling point, also referred to as a focal point, see Schelling [1980].) 6 . Is not the world economy in some respects analogous to a weak genie, albeit one that charges for its services? A vastly bigger economy, such as might develop in the future, might then approximate a genie with collective superintelligence. One important respect in which the current economy is unlike a genie is that although I can (for a fee) command the economy to deliver a pizza to my door, I cannot command it to deliver peace. The reason is not that the economy is insufficiently powerful, but that it is insufficiently coordinated. In this respect, the economy resembles an assembly of genies serving different masters (with competing agendas) more than it resembles a single genie or any other type of unified agent. Increasing the total power of the economy by making each constituent genie more powerful, or by adding more genies, would not necessarily render the economy more capable of delivering peace. In order to function like a superintelligent genie, the economy would not only need to grow in its ability to inexpensively produce goods and services (including ones that require radically new technology), it would also need to become better able to solve global coordination problems. 7 . If the genie were somehow incapable of not obeying a subsequent commandand somehow incapable of reprogramming itself to get rid of this susceptibilitythen it could act to prevent any new command from being issued. 8 . Even an oracle that is limited to giving yes/no answers could be used to facilitate the search for a genie or sovereign AI, or indeed could be used directly as a component in such an AI. The oracle could also be used to produce the actual code for such an AI if a sufficiently large number of questions can be asked. A series of such questions might take roughly the following form: In the binary version of the code of the first AI that you thought of that would constitute a genie, is the n th symbol a zero? 9 . One could imagine a slightly more complicated oracle or genie that accepts questions or commands only if they are issued by a designated authority, though this would still leave open the possibility of that authority becoming corrupted or being blackmailed by a third party. . John Rawls, a leading political philosopher of the twentieth century, famously employed the expository device of a veil of ignorance as a way of characterizing the kinds of preference that should be taken into account in the formulation of a social contract. Rawls suggested that we should imagine we were choosing a social contract from behind a veil of ignorance that prevents us from knowing which person we will be and which social role we will occupy, the idea being that in such a situation we would have to think about which society would be generally fairest and most desirable without regard to our egoistic interests and self-serving biases that might otherwise make us prefer a social order in which we ourselves enjoy unjust privileges. See Rawls (1971). . Karnofsky (2012). . A possible exception would be software hooked up to sufficiently powerful actuators, such as software in early warning systems if connected directly to nuclear warheads or to human officers authorized to launch a nuclear strike. Malfunctions in such software can result in high-risk situations. This has happened at least twice within living memory. On November 9, 1979, a computer problem led NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) to make a false report of an incoming full-scale Soviet attack on the United States. The USA made emergency retaliation preparations before data from early-warning radar systems showed that no attack had been launched (McLean and Stewart 1979). On September 26, 1983, the malfunctioning Soviet Oko nuclear early-warning system reported an incoming US missile strike. The report was correctly identified as a false alarm by the duty officer at the command center, Stanislav Petrov: a decision that has been credited with preventing thermonuclear war (Lebedev 2004). It appears that a war would probably have fallen short of causing human extinction, even if it had been fought with the combined arsenals held by all the nuclear powers at the height of the Cold War, though it would have ruined civilization and caused unimaginable death and suffering (Gaddis 1982; Parrington 1997). But bigger stockpiles might be accumulated in future arms races, or even deadlier weapons might be invented, or our models of the impacts of a nuclear Armageddon (particularly of the severity of the consequent nuclear winter) might be wrong. . This approach could fit the category of a direct-specification rule-based control method. . The situation is essentially the same if the solution criterion specifies a goodness measure rather than a sharp cutoff for what counts as a solution. . An advocate for the oracle approach could insist that there is at least a possibility that the user would spot the flaw in the proffered solution recognize that it fails to match the users intent even while satisfying the formally specified success criteria. The likelihood of catching the error at this stage would depend on various factors, including how humanly understandable the oracles outputs are and how charitable it is in selecting which features of the potential outcome to bring to the users attention. Alternatively, instead of relying on the oracle itself to provide these functionalities, one might try to build a separate tool to do this, a tool that could inspect the pronouncements of the oracle and show us in a helpful way what would happen if we acted upon them. But to do to this in full generality would require another superintelligent oracle whose divinations we would then have to trust; so the reliability problem would not have been solved, only displaced. One might seek to gain an increment of safety through the use of multiple oracles to perform peer review, but this does not protect in cases where all the oracles fail in the same wayas may happen if, for instance, they have all been given the same formal specification of what counts as a satisfactory solution. . Bird and Layzell (2002) and Thompson (1997); also Yaeger (1994, 1314). . Williams (1966). . Leigh (2010). . This example is borrowed from Yudkowsky (2011). . Wade (1976). Computer experiments have also been conducted with simulated evolution designed to resemble aspects of biological evolution again with sometimes strange results (see, e.g., Yaeger [1994]). . With sufficiently greatfinite but physically implausibleamounts of computing power, it would probably be possible to achieve general superintelligence with currently available algorithms. (Cf., e.g., the AIXI tl system; Hutter [2001].) But even the continuation of Moores law for another hundred years would not suffice to attain the required levels of computing power to achieve this. CHAPTER 11: MULTIPOLAR SCENARIOS 1 . Not because this is necessarily the most likely or the most desirable type of scenario, but because it is the one easiest to analyze with the toolkit of standard economic theory, and thus a convenient starting point for our discussion. 2 . American Horse Council (2005). See also Salem and Rowan (2001). 3 . Acemoglu (2003); Mankiw (2009); Zuleta (2008). 4 . Fredriksen (2012, 8); Salverda et al. (2009, 133). 5 . It is also essential for at least some of the capital to be invested in assets that rise with the general tide. A diversified asset portfolio, such as shares in an index tracker fund, would increase the chances of not entirely missing out. 6 . Many of the European welfare systems are unfunded , meaning that pensions are paid from ongoing current workers contributions and taxes rather than from a pool of savings. Such schemes would not automatically meet the requirementin case of sudden massive unemployment, the revenues from which the benefits are paid could dry up. However, governments may choose to make up the shortfall from other sources. 7 . American Horse Council (2005). 8 . Providing 7 billion people an annual pension of $90,000 would cost $630 trillion a year, which is ten times the current world GDP. Over the last hundred years, world GDP has increased about nineteenfold from around $2 trillion in 1900 to 37 trillion in 2000 (in 1990 int. dollars) according to Maddison (2007). So if the growth rates we have seen over the past hundred years continued for the next two hundred years, while population remained constant, then providing everybody with an annual $90,000 pension would cost about 3% of world GDP. An intelligence explosion might make this amount of growth happen in a much shorter time span. See also Hanson (1998a, 1998b, 2008). 9 . And perhaps as much as a millionfold over the past 70,000 years if there was a severe population bottleneck around that time, as has been speculated. See Kremer (1993) and Huff et al. (2010) for more data. . Cochran and Harpending (2009). See also Clark (2007) and, for a critique, Allen (2008). . Kremer (1993). . Basten et al. (2013). Scenarios in which there is a continued rise are also possible. In general, the uncertainty of such projections increases greatly beyond one or two generations into the future. . Taken globally, the total fertility rate at replacement was 2.33 children per woman in 2003. This number comes from the fact that it takes two children per woman to replace the parents, plus a third of a child to make up for (1) the higher probability of boys being born, and (2) early mortality prior to the end of their fertile life. For developed nations, the number is smaller, around 2.1, because of lower mortality rates. (See Espenshade et al. [2003, Introduction, Table 1, 580].) The population in most developed countries would decline if it were not for immigration. A few notable examples of countries with sub-replacement fertility rates are: Singapore at 0.79 (lowest in the world), Japan at 1.39, Peoples Republic of China at 1.55, European Union at 1.58, Russia at 1.61, Brazil at 1.81, Iran at 1.86, Vietnam at 1.87, and the United Kingdom at 1.90. Even the U.S. population would probably decrease slightly with a fertility rate of 2.05. (See CIA [2013].) . The fullness of time might occur many billions of years from now. . Carl Shulman points out that if biological humans count on living out their natural lifespans alongside the digital economy, they need to assume not only that the political order in the digital sphere would be protective of human interests but that it would remain so over very long periods of time (Shulman 2012). For example, if events in the digital sphere unfolds a thousand times faster than on the outside, then a biological human would have to rely on the digital body politic holding steady for 50,000 years of internal change and churn. Yet if the digital political world were anything like ours, there would be a great many revolutions, wars, and catastrophic upheavals during those millennia that would probably inconvenience biological humans on the outside. Even a 0.01% risk per year of a global thermonuclear war or similar cataclysm would entail a near certain loss for the biological humans living out their lives in slowmo sidereal time. To overcome this problem, a more stable order in the digital realm would be required: perhaps a singleton that gradually improves its own stability. . One might think that even if machines were far more efficient than humans, there would still be some wage level at which it would be profitable to employ a human worker; say at 1 cent an hour. If this were the only source of income for humans, our species would go extinct since human beings cannot survive on 1 cent an hour. But humans also get income from capital. Now, if we are assuming that population grows until total income is at subsistence level, one might think this would be a state in which humans would be working hard. For example, suppose subsistence level income is $1/day. Then, it might seem, population would grow until per person capital provided only a 90 cents per day income, which people would have to supplement with ten hours of hard labor to make up the remaining 10 cents. However, this need not be so, because the subsistence level income depends on the amount of work that is done: harder-working humans burn more calories. Suppose that each hour of work increases food costs by 2 cents. We then have a model in which humans are idle in equilibrium. . It might be thought that a caucus as enfeebled as this would be unable to vote and to otherwise defend its entitlements. But the pod-dwellers could give power of attorney to AI fiduciaries to manage their affairs and represent their political interests. (This part of the discussion in this section is premised on the assumption that property rights are respected.) . It is unclear what is the best term. Kill may suggest more active brutality than is warranted. End may be too euphemistic. One complication is that there are two potentially separate events: ceasing to actively run a process, and erasing the information template. A human death normally involves both events, but for an emulation they can come apart. That a program temporarily ceases to run may be no more consequential than that a human sleeps: but to permanently cease running may be the equivalent of entering a permanent coma. Still further complications arise from the fact that emulations can be copied and that they can run at different speeds: possibilities with no direct analogs in human experience. (Cf. Bostrom [2006b]; Bostrom and Yudkowsky [forthcoming].) . There will be a trade-off between total parallel computing power and computational speed, as the highest computational speeds will be attainable only at the expense of a reduction in power efficiency. This will be especially true after one enters the era of reversible computing. . An emulation could be tested by leading it into temptation. By repeatedly testing how an emulation started from a certain prepared state reacts to various sequences of stimuli, one could obtain high confidence in the reliability of that emulation. But the further the mental state is subsequently allowed to develop away from its validated starting point, the less certain one could be that it would remain reliable. (In particular, since a clever emulation might surmise it is sometimes in a simulation, one would need to be cautious about extrapolating its behavior into situations where its simulation hypothesis would weigh less heavily in its decision-making.) . Some emulations might identify with their clani.e. all of their copies and variations derived from the same templaterather with any one particular instantiation. Such an emulation might not regard its own termination as a death event, if it knew that other clan members would survive. Emulations may know that they will get reverted to a particular stored state at the end of the day and lose that days memories, but be as little put off by this as the partygoer who knows she will awake the next morning without any recollection of the previous night: regarding this as retrograde amnesia, not death. . An ethical evaluation might take into account many other factors as well. Even if all the workers were constantly well pleased with their condition, the outcome might still be deeply morally objectionable on other grounds though which other grounds is a matter of dispute between rival moral theories. But any plausible assessment would consider subjective well- being to be one important factor. See also Bostrom and Yudkowsky (forthcoming). . World Values Survey (2008). . Helliwell and Sachs (2012). . Cf. Bostrom (2004). See also Chislenko (1996) and Moravec (1988). . It is hard to say whether the information-processing structures that would emerge in this kind of scenario would be conscious (in the sense of having qualia, phenomenal experience). The reason this is hard is partly our empirical ignorance about which cognitive entities would arise and partly our philosophical ignorance about which types of structure have consciousness. One could try to reframe the question, and instead of asking whether the future entities would be conscious, one could ask whether the future entities would have moral status; or one could ask whether they would be such that we have preferences about their well-being. But these questions may be no easier to answer than the question about consciousness in fact, they might require an answer to the consciousness question inasmuch as moral status or our preferences depend on whether the entity in question can subjectively experience its condition. . For an argument that both geological and human history manifest such a trend toward greater complexity, see Wright (2001). For an opposing argument (criticized in Chapter 9 of Wrights book), see Gould (1990). See also Pinker (2011) for an argument that we are witnessing a robust long- term trend toward decreasing violence and brutality. . For more on observation selection theory, see Bostrom (2002a). . Bostrom (2008a). A much more careful examination of the details of our evolutionary history would be needed to circumvent the selection effect. See, e.g., Carter (1983, 1993); Hanson (1998d); irkovi et al. (2010). . Kansa (2003). . E.g., Zahavi and Zahavi (1997). . See Miller (2000). . Kansa (2003). For a provocative take, see also Frank (1999). . It is not obvious how best to measure the degree of global political integration. One perspective would be that whereas a huntergatherer tribe might have integrated a hundred individuals into a decision-making entity, the largest political entities today contain more than a billion individuals. This would amount to a difference of seven orders of magnitude, with only one additional magnitude to go before the entire world population is contained within a single political entity. However, at the time when the tribe was the largest scale of integration, the world population was much smaller. The tribe might have contained as much as a thousandth of the individuals then living. This would make the increase in the scale of political integration as little as two orders of magnitude. Looking at the fraction of world population that is politically integrated, rather than at absolute numbers, seems appropriate in the present context (particularly as the transition to machine intelligence may cause a population explosion, of emulations or other digital minds). But there have also been developments in global institutions and networks of collaboration outside of formal state structures, which should also be taken into account. . One of the reasons for supposing that the first machine intelligence revolution will be swiftthe possible existence of a hardware overhang does not apply here. However, there could be other sources of rapid gain, such as a dramatic breakthrough in software associated with transitioning from emulation to purely synthetic machine intelligence. . Shulman (2010b). . How the pro et contra would balance out might depend on what kind of work the superorganism is trying to do, and how generally capable the most generally capable available emulation template is. Part of the reason many different types of human beings are needed in large organizations today is that humans who are very talented in many domains are rare. . It is of course very easy to make multiple copies of a software agent. But note that copying is not in general sufficient to ensure that the copies have the same final goals. In order for two agents to have the same final goals (in the relevant sense of same), the goals must coincide in their indexical elements. If Bob is selfish, a copy of Bob will likewise be selfish. Yet their goals do not coincide: Bob cares about Bob whereas Bob-copy cares about Bob-copy. . Shulman (2010b, 6). . This might be more feasible for biological humans and whole brain emulations than for arbitrary artificial intelligences, which might be constructed so as to have hidden compartments or functional dynamics that may be very hard to discover. On the other hand, AIs specifically built to be transparent should allow for more thoroughgoing inspection and verification than is possible with brain-like architectures. Social pressures may encourage AIs to expose their source code, and to modify themselves to render themselves transparentespecially if being transparent is a precondition to being trusted and thus to being given the opportunity to partake in beneficial transactions. Cf. Hall (2007). . Some other issues that seem relatively minor, especially in cases where the stakes are enormous (as they are for the key global coordination failures), include the search cost of finding policies that could be of mutual interest, and the possibility that some agents might have a basic preference for autonomy in a form that would be reduced by entering into comprehensive global treaties that have monitoring and enforcement mechanisms attached. . An AI might perhaps achieve this by modifying itself appropriately and then giving observers read-only access to its source code. A machine intelligence with a more opaque architecture (such as an emulation) might perhaps achieve it by publicly applying to itself some motivation selection method. Alternatively, an external coercive agency, such as a superorganism police force, might perhaps be used not only to enforce the implementation of a treaty reached between different parties, but also internally by a single party to commit itself to a particular course of action. . Evolutionary selection might have favored threat-ignorers and even characters visibly so highly strung that they would rather fight to the death than suffer the slightest discomfiture. Such a disposition might bring its bearer valuable signaling benefits. (Any such instrumental rewards of having the disposition need of course play no part in the agents conscious motivation: he may value justice or honor as ends in themselves.) . A definitive verdict on these matters, however, must await further analysis. There are various other potential complications which we cannot explore here. CHAPTER 12: ACQUIRING VALUES 1 . Various complications and modulations of this basic idea could be introduced. We discussed one variation in Chapter 8 that of a satisficing, as opposed to maximizing, agentand in the next chapter we briefly touch on the issue of alternative decision theories. However, such issues are not essential to the thrust of this subsection, so we will keep things simple by focusing here on the case of an expected utility-maximizing agent. 2 . Assuming the AI is to have a nontrivial utility function. It would be very easy to build an agent that always chooses an action that maximizes expected utility if its utility function is, e.g., the constant function U ( w ) = 0. Every action would equally well maximize expected utility relative to that utility function. 3 . Also because we have forgotten the blooming buzzing confusion of our early infancy, a time when we could not yet see very well because our brain had not yet learned to interpret its visual input. 4 . See also Yudkowsky (2011) and the review in section 5 of Muehlhauser and Helm (2012). 5 . It is perhaps just about conceivable that advances in software engineering could eventually overcome these difficulties. Using modern tools, a single programmer can produce software that would have been beyond the pale of a sizeable team of developers forced to write directly in machine code. Todays AI programmers gain expressiveness from the wide availability of high-quality machine learning and scientific calculation libraries, enabling someone to hack up, for instance, a unique-face-counting webcam application by chaining libraries together that they never could have written on their own. The accumulation of reusable software, produced by specialists but useable by non-specialists, will give future programmers an expressiveness advantage. For example, a future robotics programmer might have ready access to standard facial imprinting libraries, typical- office-building-object collections, specialized trajectory libraries, and many other functionalities that are currently unavailable. 6 . Dawkins (1995, 132). The claim here is not necessarily that the amount of suffering in the natural world outweighs the amount of positive well-being. 7 . Required population sizes might be much larger or much smaller than those that existed in our own ancestry. See Shulman and Bostrom (2012). 8 . If it were easy to get an equivalent result without harming large numbers of innocents, it would seem morally better to do so. If, nevertheless, digital persons are created and made to suffer unjust harm, it may be possible to compensate them for their suffering by saving them to file and later (when humanitys future is secured) rerunning them under more favorable conditions. Such restitution could be compared in some ways to religious conceptions of an afterlife in the context of theological attempts to address the evidential problem of evil. 9 . One of the fields leading figures, Richard Sutton, defines reinforcement learning not in terms of a learning method but in terms of a learning problem: any method that is well suited to solving that problem is considered a reinforcement learning method (Sutton and Barto 1998, 4). The present discussion, in contrast, pertains to methods where the agent can be conceived of as having the final goal of maximizing (some notion of) cumulative reward. Since an agent with some very different kind of final goal might be skilled at mimicking a reward-seeking agent in a wide range of situations, and could thus be well suited to solving reinforcement learning problems, there could be methods that would count as reinforcement learning methods on Suttons definition that would not result in a wireheading syndrome. The remarks in the text, however, apply to most of the methods actually used in the reinforcement learning community. . Even if, somehow, a human-like mechanism could be set up within a human- like machine intellect, the final goals acquired by this intellect need not resemble those of a well-adjusted human, unless the rearing environment for this digital baby also closely matched that of an ordinary child: something that would be difficult to arrange. And even with a human-like rearing environment, a satisfactory result would not be guaranteed, since even a subtle difference in innate dispositions can result in very different reactions to a life event. It may, however, be possible to create a more reliable value-accretion mechanism for human-like minds in the future (perhaps using novel drugs or brain implants, or their digital equivalents). . One might wonder why it appears we humans are not trying to disable the mechanism that leads us to acquire new final values. Several factors might be at play. First, the human motivation system is poorly described as a coldly calculating utility-maximizing algorithm. Second, we might not have any convenient means of altering the ways we acquire values. Third, we may have instrumental reasons (arising, e.g., from social signaling needs) for sometimes acquiring new final valuesinstrumental values might not be as useful if our minds are partially transparent to other people, or if the cognitive complexity of pretending to have a different set of final values than we actually do is too taxing. Fourth, there are cases where we do actively resist tendencies that produce changes in our final values, for instance when we seek to resist the corrupting influence of bad company. Fifth, there is the interesting possibility that we place some final value on being the kind of agent that can acquire new final values in normal human ways. . Or one might try to design the motivation system so that the AI is indifferent to such replacement; see Armstrong (2010). . We will here draw on some elucidations made by Daniel Dewey (2011). Other background ideas contributing to this framework have been developed by Marcus Hutter (2005) and Shane Legg (2008), Eliezer Yudkowsky (2001), Nick Hay (2005), Moshe Looks, and Peter de Blanc. . To avoid unnecessary complications, we confine our attention to deterministic agents that do not discount future rewards. . Mathematically, an agents behavior can be formalized as an agent function , which maps each possible interaction history to an action. Except for the very simplest agents, it is infeasible to represent the agent function explicitly as a lookup table. Instead, the agent is given some way of computing which action to perform. Since there are many ways of computing the same agent function, this leads to a finer individuation of an agent as an agent program . An agent program is a specific program or algorithm that computes an action for any given interaction history. While it is often mathematically convenient and useful to think of an agent program that interacts with some formally specified environment, it is important to remember that this is an idealization. Real agents are physically instantiated. This means not only that the agent interacts with the environment via its sensors and effectors, but also that the agents brain or controller is itself part of physical reality . Its operations can therefore in principle be affected by external physical interferences (and not only by receiving percepts from its sensors). At some point, therefore, it becomes necessary to view an agent as an agent implementation . An agent implementation is a physical structure that, in the absence of interference from its environment, implements an agent function. (This definition follows Dewey [2011].) . Dewey proposes the following optimality notion for a value learning agent: Here, P 1 and P 2 are two probability functions. The second summation ranges over some suitable class of utility functions over possible interaction histories. In the version presented in the text, we have made explicit some dependencies as well as availed ourselves of the simplifying possible worlds notation. . It should be noted that the set of utility functions should be such that utilities can be compared and averaged. In general, this is problematic, and it is not always obvious how to represent different moral theories of the good in terms of cardinal utility functions. See, e.g., MacAskill 2010). . Or more generally, since might not be such as to directly imply for any given pair of a possible world and a utility function ( w, U ) whether the proposition ( U ) is true in w , what needs to be done is to give the AI an adequate representation of the conditional probability distribution P (( U ) | w ). . Consider first , the class of actions that are possible for an agent. One issue here is what exactly should count as an action: only basic motor commands (e.g. send an electric pulse along output channel #00101100), or higher- level actions (e.g. keep camera centered on face)? Since we are trying to develop an optimality notion rather than a practical implementation plan, we may take the domain to be basic motor commands (and since the set of possible motor commands might change over time, we may need to index to time). However, in order to move toward implementation it will presumably be necessary to introduce some kind of hierarchical planning process, and one may then need to consider how to apply the formula to some class of higher-level actions. Another issue is how to analyze internal actions (such as writing strings to working memory). Since internal actions can have important consequences, one would ideally want to include such basic internal actions as well as motor commands. But there are limits to how far one can go in this direction: the computation of the expected utility of any action in requires multiple computational operations, and if each such operation were also regarded as an action in that needed to be evaluated according to AI-VL, we would face an infinite regress that would make it impossible to ever get started. To avoid the infinite regress, one must restrict any explicit attempt to estimate the expected utility to a limited number of significant action possibilities. The system will then need some heuristic process that identifies some significant action possibilities for further consideration. (Eventually the system might also get around to making explicit decisions regarding some possible actions to make modifications to this heuristic process, actions that might have been flagged for explicit attention by this self-same process; so that in the long run the system might become increasingly effective at approximating the ideal identified by AI-VL.) Consider next , which is a class of possible worlds. One difficulty here is to specify so that it is sufficiently inclusive. Failure to include some relevant w in could render the AI incapable of representing a situation that actually occurs, resulting in the AI making bad decisions. Suppose, for example, that we use some ontological theory to determine the makeup of . For instance, we include in all possible worlds that consist of a certain kind of spacetime manifold populated by elementary particles found in the standard model in particle physics. This could distort the AIs epistemology if the standard model is incomplete or incorrect. One could try to use a bigger -class to cover more possibilities; but even if one could ensure that every possible physical universe is included one might still worry that some other possibility would be left out. For example, what about the possibility of dualistic possible worlds in which facts about consciousness do not supervene on facts about physics? What about indexical facts? Normative facts? Facts of higher mathematics? What about other kinds of fact that we fallible humans might have overlooked but that could turn out to be important to making things go as well as possible? Some people have strong convictions that some particular ontological theory is correct. (Among people writing on the future of AI, a belief in a materialistic ontology, in which the mental supervenes on the physical, is often taken for granted.) Yet a moments reflection on the history of ideas should help us realize that there is a significant possibility that our favorite ontology is wrong. Had nineteenth-century scientists attempted a physics-inspired definition of , they would probably have neglected to include the possibility of a non-Euclidian spacetime or an Everettian (many-worlds) quantum theory or a cosmological multiverse or the simulation hypothesis possibilities that now appear to have a substantial probability of obtaining in the actual world. It is plausible that there are other possibilities to which we in the present generation are similarly oblivious. (On the other hand, if is too big, there arise technical difficulties related to having to assign measures over transfinite sets.) The ideal might be if we could somehow arrange things such that the AI could use some kind of open- ended ontology, one that the AI itself could subsequently extend using the same principles that we would use when deciding whether to recognize a new type of metaphysical possibility. Consider P ( w | Ey ). Specifying this conditional probability is not strictly part of the value-loading problem. In order to be intelligent, the AI must already have some way of deriving reasonably accurate probabilities over many relevant factual possibilities. A system that falls too far short on this score will not pose the kind of danger that concerns us here. However, there may be a risk that the AI will end up with an epistemology that is good enough to make the AI instrumentally effective yet not good enough to enable it to think correctly about some possibilities that are of great normative importance. (The problem of specifying P ( w | Ey ) is in this way related to the problem of specifying .) Specifying P ( w | Ey ) also requires confronting other issues, such as how to represent uncertainty over logical impossibilities. The aforementioned issueshow to define a class of possible actions, a class of possible worlds, and a likelihood distribution connecting evidence to classes of possible worldsare quite generic: similar issues arise for a wide range of formally specified agents. It remains to examine a set of issues more peculiar to the value learning approach; namely, how to define , V ( U ), and P ( V ( U ) | w ). is a class of utility functions. There is a connection between and inasmuch as each utility function U ( w ) in should ideally assign utilities to each possible world w in . But also needs to be wide in the sense of containing sufficiently many and diverse utility functions for us to have justified confidence that at least one of them does a good job of representing the intended values. The reason for writing P ( V ( U ) | w ) rather than simply P ( U | w ) is to emphasize the fact that probabilities are assigned to propositions. A utility function, per se, is not a proposition, but we can transform a utility function into a proposition by making some claim about it. For example, we may claim of a particular utility function U (.) that it describes the preferences of a particular person, or that it represents the prescriptions implied by some ethical theory, or that it is the utility function that the principal would have wished to have implemented if she had thought things through. The value criterion V (.) can thus be construed as a function that takes as its argument a utility function U and gives as its value a proposition to the effect that U satisfies the criterion V . Once we have defined a proposition V ( U ), we can hopefully obtain the conditional probability P ( V ( U )| w ) from whatever source we used to obtain the other probability distributions in the AI. (If we are certain that all normatively relevant facts are taken into account in individuating the possible worlds , then P ( V ( U )| w ) should equal zero or one in each possible world.) The question remains how to define V . This is discussed further in the text. . These are not the only challenges for the value learning approach. Another issue, for instance, is how to get the AI to have sufficiently sensible initial beliefsat least by the time it becomes strong enough to subvert the programmers attempts to correct it. . Yudkowsky (2001). . The term is taken from American football, where a Hail Mary is a very long forward pass made in desperation, typically when the time is nearly up, on the off chance that a friendly player might catch the ball near the end zone and score a touchdown. . The Hail Mary approach relies on the idea that a superintelligence could articulate its preferences with greater exactitude than we humans can articulate ours. For example, a superintelligence could specify its preference as code. So if our AI is representing other superintelligences as computational processes that are perceiving their environment, then our AI should be able to reason about how those alien superintelligences would respond to some hypothetical stimulus, such as a window popping up in their visual field presenting them with the source code of our own AI and asking them to specify their instructions to us in some convenient pre- specified format. Our AI could then read off these imaginary instructions (from its own model of this counterfactual scenario wherein these alien superintelligences are represented), and we would have built our AI so that it would be motivated to follow those instructions. . An alternative would be to create a detector that looks (within our AIs world model) for (representations of) physical structures created by a superintelligent civilization. We could then bypass the step of identifying the hypothesized superintelligences preference functions, and give our own AI the final value of trying to copy whatever physical structures it believes superintelligent civilizations tend to produce. There are technical challenges with this version, too, however. For instance, since our own AI, even after it has attained superintelligence, may not be able to know with great precision what physical structures other superintelligences build, our AI may need to resort to trying to approximate those structures. To do this, it would seem our AI would need a similarity metric by which to judge how closely one physical artifact approximates another. But similarity metrics based on crude physical measures may be inadequateit being no good, for example, to judge that a brain is more similar to a Camembert cheese than to a computer running an emulation. A more feasible approach might be to look for beacons: messages about utility functions encoded in some suitable simple format. We would build our AI to want to follow whatever such messages about utility functions it hypothesizes might exist out there in the universe; and we would hope that friendly extraterrestrial AIs would create a variety of beacons of the types that they (with their superintelligence) reckon that simple civilizations like ours are most likely to build our AI to look for. . If every civilization tried to solve the value-loading problem through a Hail Mary, the pass would fail. Somebody has to do it the hard way. . Christiano (2012). . The AI we build need not be able to find the model either. Like us, it could reason about what such a complex implicit definition would entail (perhaps by looking at its environment and following much the same kind of reasoning that we would follow). . Cf. Chapters 9 and 11 . . For instance, MDMA may temporarily increase empathy; oxytocin may temporarily increase trust (Vollenweider et al. 1998; Bartz et al. 2011). However, the effects seem quite variable and context dependent. . The enhanced agents might be killed off or placed in suspended animation (paused), reset to an earlier state, or disempowered and prevented from receiving any further enhancements, until the overall system has reached a more mature and secure state where these earlier rogue elements no longer pose a system-wide threat. . The issue might also be less obvious in a future society of biological humans, one that has access to advanced surveillance or biomedical techniques for psychological manipulation, or that is wealthy enough to afford an extremely high ratio of security professionals to invigilate the regular citizenry (and each other). . Cf. Armstrong (2007) and Shulman (2010b). . One open question is to what degree a level n supervisor would need to monitor not only their level ( n 1 ) supervisees, but also their level ( n 2 ) supervisees, in order to know that the level ( n 1 ) agents are doing their jobs properly. And to know that the level ( n 1 ) agents have successfully managed the level ( n 2 ) agents, is it further necessary for the level n agent to also monitor the level ( n 3 ) agents? . This approach straddles the line between motivation selection and capability control. Technically, the part of the arrangement that consists of human beings controlling a set of software supervisors counts as capability control, whereas the part of the arrangement that consists of layers of software agents within the system controlling other layers is motivation selection (insofar as it is an arrangement that shapes the systems motivational tendencies). . In fact, many other costs deserve consideration but cannot be given it here. For example, whatever agents are charged with ruling over such a hierarchy might become corrupted or debased by their power. . For this guarantee to be effective, it must be implemented in good faith. This would rule out certain kinds of manipulation of the emulations emotional and decision-making faculties which might otherwise be used (for instance) to install a fear of being halted or to prevent the emulation from rationally considering its options. . See, e.g., Brinton (1965); Goldstone (1980, 2001). (Social science progress on these questions could make a nice gift to the worlds despots, who might use more accurate predictive models of social unrest to optimize their population control strategies and to gently nip insurgencies in the bud with less-lethal force.) . Cf. Bostrom (2011a, 2009b). . In the case of an entirely artificial system, it might be possible to obtain some of the advantages of an institutional structure without actually creating distinct subagents. A system might incorporate multiple perspectives into its decision process without endowing each of those perspectives with its own panoply of cognitive faculties required for independent agency. It could be tricky, however, to fully implement the observe the behavioral consequences of a proposed change, and revert back to an earlier version if the consequences appear undesirable from the ex ante standpoint feature described in the text in a system that is not composed of subagents. CHAPTER 13: CHOOSING THE CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING 1 . A recent canvass of professional philosophers found the percentage of respondents who accept or leans toward various positions. On normative ethics, the results were deontology 25.9%; consequentialism 23.6%; virtue ethics 18.2%. On metaethics, results were moral realism 56.4%; moral anti- realism 27.7%. On moral judgment: cognitivism 65.7%; non-cognitivism 17.0% (Bourget and Chalmers 2009). 2 . Pinker (2011). 3 . For a discussion of this issue, see Shulman et al. (2009). 4 . Moore (2011). 5 . Bostrom (2006b). 6 . Bostrom (2009b). 7 . Bostrom (2011a). 8 . More precisely, we should defer to its opinion except on those topics where we have good reason to suppose that our beliefs are more accurate. For example, we might know more about what we are thinking at a particular moment than the superintelligence does if it is not able to scan our brains. However, we could omit this qualification if we assume that the superintelligence has access to our opinions; we could then also defer to the superintelligence the task of judging when our opinions should be trusted. (There might remain some special cases, involving indexical information, that need to be handled separatelyby, for example, having the superintelligence explain to us what it would be rational to believe from our perspective.) For an entry into the burgeoning philosophical literature on testimony and epistemic authority, see, e.g., Elga (2007). 9 . Yudkowsky (2004). See also Mijic (2010). . For example, David Lewis proposed a dispositional theory of value , which holds, roughly, that some thing X is a value for A if and only if A would want to want X if A were perfectly rational and ideally acquainted with X (Smith et al. 1989). Kindred ideas had been put forward earlier; see, e.g., Sen and Williams (1982), Railton (1986), and Sidgwick and Jones (2010). Along somewhat similar lines, one common account of philosophical justification, the method of reflective equilibrium , proposes a process of iterative mutual adjustment between our intuitions about particular cases, the general rules which we think govern these cases, and the principles according to which we think these elements should be revised, to achieve a more coherent system; see, e.g., Rawls (1971) and Goodman (1954). . Presumably the intention here is that when the AI acts to prevent such disasters, it should do it with as light a touch as possible , i.e. in such a manner that it averts the disaster but without exerting too much influence over how things turn out for humanity in other respects. . Yudkowsky (2004). . Rebecca Roache, personal communication. . The three principles are Defend humans, the future of humanity, and humane nature ( humane here being that which we wish we were, as distinct from human , which is what we are); Humankind should not spend the rest of eternity desperately wishing that the programmers had done something differently; and Help people. . Some religious groups place a strong emphasis on faith in contradistinction to reason, the latter of which they may regardeven in its hypothetically most idealized form and even after it would have ardently and open- mindedly studied every scripture, revelation, and exegesisto be insufficient for the attainment of essential spiritual insights. Those holding such views might not regard CEV as an optimal guide to decision-making (though they might still prefer it to various other imperfect guides that might in actuality be followed if the CEV approach were eschewed). . An AI acting like a latent force of nature to regulate human interactions has been referred to as a Sysop, a kind of operating system for the matter occupied by human civilization. See Yudkowsky (2001). . Might , because conditional on humanitys coherent extrapolated volition wishing not to extend moral consideration to these entities, it is perhaps doubtful whether those entities actually have moral status (despite it seeming very plausible now that they do). Potentially , because even if a blocking vote prevents the CEV dynamic from directly protecting these outsiders, there is still a possibility that, within whatever ground rules are left over once the initial dynamic has run, individuals whose wishes were respected and who want some outsiders welfare to be protected may successfully bargain to attain this outcome (at the expense of giving up some of their own resources). Whether this would be possible might depend on, among other things, whether the outcome of the CEV dynamic is a set of ground rules that makes it feasible to reach negotiated resolutions to issues of this kind (which might require provisions to overcome strategic bargaining problems). . Individuals who contribute positively to realizing a safe and beneficial superintelligence might merit some special reward for their labour, albeit something short of a near-exclusive mandate to determine the disposition of humanitys cosmic endowment. However, the notion of everybody getting an equal share in our extrapolation base is such a nice Schelling point that it should not be lightly tossed away. There is, in any case, an indirect way in which virtue could be rewarded: namely, the CEV itself might turn out to specify that good people who exerted themselves on behalf of humanity should be suitably recognized. This could happen without such people being given any special weight in the extrapolation base ifas is easily imaginableour CEV would endorse (in the sense of giving at least some nonzero weight to) a principle of just desert. . Bostrom et al. (2013). . To the extent that there is some (sufficiently definite) shared meaning that is being expressed when we make moral assertions, a superintelligence should be able to figure out what that meaning is. And to the extent that moral assertions are truth-apt (i.e. have an underlying propositional character that enables them to be true or false), the superintelligence should be able to figure out which assertions of the form Agent X ought now to are true. At least, it should outperform us on this task. An AI that initially lacks such a capacity for moral cognition should be able to acquire it if it has the intelligence amplification superpower. One way the AI could do this is by reverse-engineering the human brains moral thinking and then implement a similar process but run it faster, feed it more accurate factual information, and so forth. . Since we are uncertain about metaethics, there is a question of what the AI is to do if the preconditions for MR fail to obtain. One option is to stipulate that the AI shut itself off if it assigns a sufficiently high probability to moral cognitivism being false or to there being no suitable non-relative moral truths. Alternatively, we could have the AI revert to some alternative approach, such as CEV. We could refine the MR proposal to make it clearer what is to be done in various ambiguous or degenerate cases. For instance, if error theory is true (and hence all positive moral assertions of the form I ought now to are false), then the fallback strategy (e.g. shutting down) would be invoked. We could also specify what should happen if there are multiple feasible actions, each of which would be morally right. For example, we might say that in such cases the AI should perform (one of) the permissible actions that humanitys collective extrapolation would have favored. We might also stipulate what should happen if the true moral theory does not employ terms like morally right in its basic vocabulary. For instance, a consequentialist theory might hold that some actions are better than others but that there is no particular threshold corresponding to the notion of an action being morally right. We could then say that if such a theory is correct, MR should perform one of the morally best feasible actions, if there is one; or, if there is an infinite number of feasible actions such that for any feasible action there is a better one, then maybe MR could pick any that is at least astronomically better than the best action that any human would have selected in a similar situation, if such an action is feasibleor if not, then an action that is at least as good as the best action a human would have performed. A couple of general points should be borne in mind when thinking about how the MR proposal could be refined. First, we might start conservatively, using the fallback option to cover almost all contingencies and only use the morally right option in those that we feel we fully understand. Second, we might add the general modulator to the MR proposal that it is to be interpreted charitably, and revised as we would have revised it if we had thought more carefully about it before we wrote it down, etc. . Of these terms, knowledge might seem the one most readily susceptible to a formal analysis (in information-theoretic terms). However, to represent what it is for a human to know something, the AI may need a sophisticated set of representations relating to complex psychological properties. A human being does not know all the information that is stored somewhere in her brain. . One indicator that the terms in CEV are (marginally) less opaque is that it would count as philosophical progress if we could analyze moral rightness in terms like those used in CEV. In fact, one of the main strands in metaethicsideal observer theorypurports to do just that. See, e.g., Smith et al. (1989). . This requires confronting the problem of fundamental normative uncertainty. It can be shown that it is not always appropriate to act according to the moral theory that has the highest probability of being true. It can also be shown that it is not always appropriate to perform the action that has the highest probability of being right. Some way of trading probabilities against degrees of wrongness or severity of issues at stake seems to be needed. For some ideas in this direction, see Bostrom (2009a). . It could possibly even be argued that it is an adequacy condition for any explication of the notion of moral rightness that it account for how Joe Sixpack is able to have some idea of right and wrong. . It is not obvious that the morally right thing for us to do is to build an AI that implements MR, even if we assume that the AI itself would always act morally. Perhaps it would be objectionably hubristic or arrogant of us to build such an AI (especially since many people may disapprove of that project). This issue can be partially finessed by tweaking the MR proposal. Suppose that we stipulate that the AI should act (to do what it would be morally right for it to do) only if it was morally right for its creators to have built the AI in the first place; otherwise it should shut itself down. It is hard to see how we would be committing any grave moral wrong in creating that kind of AI, since if it were wrong for us to create it, the only consequence would be that an AI was created that immediately shuts itself down, assuming that the AI has committed no mind crime up to that point. (We might nevertheless have acted wronglyfor instance, by having failed to seize the opportunity to build some other AI instead.) A second issue is supererogation. Suppose there are many actions the AI could take, each of which would be morally rightin the sense of being morally permissible yet some of which are morally better than the others. One option is to have the AI aim to select the morally best action in any such a situation (or one of the best actions, in case there are several that are equally good). Another option is to have the AI select from among the morally permissible actions one that maximally satisfies some other (non- moral) desideratum. For example, the AI could select, from among the actions that are morally permissible, the action that our CEV would prefer it to take. Such an AI, while never doing anything that is morally impermissible, might protect our interests more than an AI that does what is morally best. . When the AI evaluates the moral permissibility of our act of creating the AI, it should interpret permissibility in its objective sense. In one ordinary sense of morally permissible, a doctor acts morally permissibly when she prescribes a drug she believes will cure her patienteven if the patient, unbeknownst to the doctor, is allergic to the drug and dies as a result. Focusing on objective moral permissibility takes advantage of the presumably superior epistemic position of the AI. . More directly, it depends on the AIs beliefs about which ethical theory is true (or, more precisely, on its probability distribution over ethical theories). . It can be difficult to imagine how superlatively wonderful these physically possible lives might be. See Bostrom (2008c) for a poetic attempt to convey some sense of this. See Bostrom (2008b) for an argument that some of these possibilities could be good for us , good for existing human beings. . It might seem deceptive or manipulative to promote one proposal if one thinks that some other proposal would be better. But one could promote it in ways that avoid insincerity. For example, one could freely acknowledge the superiority of the ideal while still promoting the non-ideal as the best attainable compromise. . Or some other positively evaluative term, such as good, great, or wonderful. . This echoes a principle in software design known as Do What I Mean, or DWIM. See Teitelman (1966). . Goal content, decision theory, and epistemology are three aspects that should be elucidated; but we do not intend to beg the question of whether there must be a neat decomposition into these three separate components. . An ethical project ought presumably to allocate at most a modest portion of the eventual benefits that the superintelligence produces as special rewards to those who contributed in morally permissible ways to the projects success. Allocating a great portion to the incentive wrapping scheme would be unseemly. It would be analogous to a charity that spends 90% of its income on performance bonuses for its fundraisers and on advertising campaigns to increase donations. . How could the dead be rewarded? One can think of several possibilities. At the low end, there could be memorial services and monuments, which would be a reward insofar as people desired posthumous fame. The deceased might also have other preferences about the future that could be honored, for instance concerning cultures, arts, buildings, or natural environments. Furthermore, most people care about their descendants, and special privileges could be granted to the children and grandchildren of contributors. More speculatively, the superintelligence might be able to create relatively faithful simulations of some past peoplesimulations that would be conscious and that would resemble the original sufficiently to count as a form of survival (according to at least some peoples criteria). This would presumably be easier for people who have been placed in cryonic suspension; but perhaps for a superintelligence it would not be impossible to recreate something quite similar to the original person from other preserved records such as correspondence, publications, audiovisual materials and digital records, or the personal memories of other survivors. A superintelligence might also think of some possibilities that do not readily occur to us. . On Pascalian mugging, see Bostrom (2009b). For an analysis of issues related to infinite utilities, see Bostrom (2011a). On fundamental normative uncertainty, see, e.g., Bostrom (2009a). . E.g., Price (1991); Joyce (1999); Drescher (2006); Yudkowsky (2010); Dai (2009). . E.g., Bostrom (2009a). . It is also conceivable that using indirect normativity to specify the AIs goal content would mitigate the problems that might arise from an incorrectly specified decision theory. Consider, for example, the CEV approach. If it were implemented well, it might be able to compensate for at least some errors in the specification of the AIs decision theory. The implementation could allow the values that our coherent extrapolated volition would want the AI to pursue to depend on the AIs decision theory. If our idealized selves knew they were making value specifications for an AI that was using a particular kind of decision theory, they could adjust their value specifications such as to make the AI behave benignly despite its warped decision theorymuch like one can cancel out the distorting effects of one lens by placing another lens in front of it that distorts oppositely. . Some epistemological systems may, in a holistic manner, have no distinct foundation. In that case, the constitutional inheritance is not a distinct set of principles, but rather, as it were, an epistemic starting point that embodies certain propensities to respond to incoming streams of evidence. . See, e.g., the problem of distortion discussed in Bostrom (2011a). . For instance, one disputed issue in anthropic reasoning is whether the so- called self-indication assumption should be accepted. The self-indication assumption states, roughly, that from the fact that you exist you should infer that hypotheses according to which larger numbers N of observers exist should receive a probability boost proportional to N . For an argument against this principle, see the Presumptuous Philosopher gedanken experiment in Bostrom (2002a). For a defense of the principle, see Olum (2002); and for a critique of that defense, see Bostrom and irkovi (2003). Beliefs about the self-indication assumption might affect various empirical hypotheses of potentially crucial strategic relevance, for example, considerations such as the CarterLeslie doomsday argument, the simulation argument, and great filter arguments. See Bostrom (2002a, 2003a, 2008a); Carter (1983); irkovi et al. (2010); Hanson (1998d); Leslie (1996); Tegmark and Bostrom (2005). A similar point could be made with regard to other fraught issues in observation selection theory, such as whether the choice of reference class can be relativized to observer- moments, and if so how. . See, e.g., Howson and Urbach (1993). There are also some interesting results that narrow the range of situations in which two Bayesian agents can rationally disagree when their opinions are common knowledge; see Aumann (1976) and Hanson (2006). . Cf. the concept of a last judge in Yudkowsky (2004). . There are many important issues outstanding in epistemology, some mentioned earlier in the text. The point here is that we may not need to get all the solutions exactly right in order to achieve an outcome that is practically indiscernible from the best outcome. A mixture model (which throws together a wide range of diverse priors) might work. CHAPTER 14: THE STRATEGIC PICTURE 1 . This principle is introduced in Bostrom (2009b, 190), where it is also noted that it is not tautological. For a visual analogy, picture a box with large but finite volume, representing the space of basic capabilities that could be obtained through some possible technology. Imagine sand being poured into this box, representing research effort. How you pour the sand determines where it piles up in the box. But if you keep on pouring, the entire space eventually gets filled. 2 . Bostrom (2002b). 3 . This is not the perspective from which science policy has traditionally been viewed. Harvey Averch describes science and technology policy in the United States between 1945 and 1984 as having been centered on debates about the optimum level of public investment in the S&T enterprise and on the extent to which the government should attempt to pick winners in order to achieve the greatest increase in the nations economic prosperity and military strength. In these calculations, technological progress is always assumed to be good. But Averch also describes the rise of critical perspectives, which question the progress is always good premiss (Averch 1985). See also Graham (1997). 4 . Bostrom (2002b). 5 . This is of course by no means tautological. One could imagine a case being made for a different order of development. It could be argued that it would be better for humanity to confront some less difficult challenge first, say the development of nanotechnology, on grounds that this would force us to develop better institutions, become more internationally coordinated, and mature in our thinking about global strategy. Perhaps we would be more likely to rise to a challenge that presents a less metaphysically confusing threat than machine superintelligence. Nanotechnology (or synthetic biology, or whatever the lesser challenge we confront first) might then serve as a footstool that would help us ascend to the capability level required to deal with the higher-level challenge of superintelligence. Such an argument would have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. For example, in the case of nanotechnology, one would have to consider various possible consequences such as the boost in hardware performance from nanofabricated computational substrates; the effects of cheap physical capital for manufacturing on economic growth; the proliferation of sophisticated surveillance technology; the possibility that a singleton might emerge though the direct or indirect effects of a nanotechnology breakthrough; and the greater feasibility of neuromorphic and whole brain emulation approaches to machine intelligence. It is beyond the scope of our investigation to consider all these issues (or the parallel issues that might arise for other existential risk-causing technologies). Here we just point out the prima facie case for favoring a superintelligence-first sequence of developmentwhile stressing that there are complications that might alter this preliminary assessment in some cases. 6 . Pinker (2011); Wright (2001). 7 . It might be tempting to suppose the hypothesis that everything has accelerated to be meaningless on grounds that it does not (at first glance) seem to have any observational consequences; but see, e.g., Shoemaker (1969). 8 . The level of preparedness is not measured by the amount of effort expended on preparedness activities, but by how propitiously configured conditions actually are and how well-poised key decision makers are to take appropriate action. 9 . The degree of international trust during the lead-up to the intelligence explosion may also be a factor. We consider this in the section Collaboration later in the chapter. . Anecdotally, it appears those currently seriously interested in the control problem are disproportionately sampled from one extreme end of the intelligence distribution, though there could be alternative explanations for this impression. If the field becomes fashionable, it will undoubtedly be flooded with mediocrities and cranks. . I owe this term to Carl Shulman. . How similar to a brain does a machine intelligence have to be to count as a whole brain emulation rather than a neuromorphic AI? The relevant determinant might be whether the system reproduces either the values or the full panoply of cognitive and evaluative tendencies of either a particular individual or a generic human being, because this would plausibly make a difference to the control problem. Capturing these properties may require a rather high degree of emulation fidelity. . The magnitude of the boost would of course depend on how big the push was, and also where resources for the push came from. There might be no net boost for neuroscience if all the extra resources invested in whole brain emulation research were deducted from regular neuroscience research unless a keener focus on emulation research just happened to be a more effective way of advancing neuroscience than the default portfolio of neuroscience research. . See Drexler (1986, 242). Drexler (private communication) confirms that this reconstruction corresponds to the reasoning he was seeking to present. Obviously, a number of implicit premisses would have to be added if one wished to cast the argument in the form of a deductively valid chain of reasoning. . Perhaps we ought not to welcome small catastrophes in case they increase our vigilance to the point of making us prevent the medium-scale catastrophes that would have been needed to make us take the strong precautions necessary to prevent existential catastrophes? (And of course, just as with biological immune systems, we also need to be concerned with over-reactions, analogous to allergies and autoimmune disorders.) . Cf. Lenman (2000); Burch-Brown (2014). . Cf. Bostrom (2007). . Note that this argument focuses on the ordering rather than the timing of the relevant events. Making superintelligence happen earlier would help preempt other existential transition risks only if the intervention changes the sequence of the key developments: for example, by making superintelligence happen before various milestones are reached in nanotechnology or synthetic biology. . If solving the control problem is extremely difficult compared to solving the performance problem in machine intelligence, and if project ability correlates only weakly with project size, then it is possible that it would be better that a small project gets there first, namely if the variance in capability is greater among smaller projects. In such a situation, even if smaller projects are on average less competent than larger projects, it could be less unlikely that a given small project would happen to have the freakishly high level of competence needed to solve the control problem. . This is not to deny that one can imagine tools that could promote global deliberation and which would benefit from, or even require, further progress in hardwarefor example, high-quality translation, better search, ubiquitous access to smart phones, attractive virtual reality environments for social intercourse, and so forth. . Investment in emulation technology could speed progress toward whole brain emulation not only directly (through any technical deliverables produced) but also indirectly by creating a constituency that will push for more funding and boost the visibility and credibility of the whole brain emulation (WBE) vision. . How much expected value would be lost if the future were shaped by the desires of one random human rather than by (some suitable superposition of) the desires of all of humanity? This might depend sensitively on what evaluation standard we use, and also on whether the desires in question are idealized or raw. . For example, whereas human minds communicate slowly via language, AIs can be designed so that instances of the same program are able easily and quickly to transfer both skills and information amongst one another. Machine minds designed ab initio could do away with cumbersome legacy systems that helped our ancestors deal with aspects of the natural environment that are unimportant in cyberspace. Digital minds might also be designed to take advantage of fast serial processing unavailable to biological brains, and to make it easy to install new modules with highly optimized functionality (e.g. symbolic processing, pattern recognition, simulators, data mining, and planning). Artificial intelligence might also have significant non-technical advantages, such as being more easily patentable or less entangled in the moral complexities of using human uploads. . If p 1 and p 2 are the probabilities of failure at each step, the total probability of failure is p 1 + (1 p 1 ) p 2 since one can fail terminally only once. . It is possible, of course, that the frontrunner will not have such a large lead and will not be able to form a singleton. It is also possible that a singleton would arise before AI even without the intervention of WBE, in which case this reason for favoring a WBE-first scenario falls away. . Is there a way for a promoter of WBE to increase the specificity of her support so that it accelerates WBE while minimizing the spillover to AI development? Promoting scanning technology is probably a better bet than promoting neurocomputational modeling. (Promoting computer hardware is unlikely to make much difference one way or the other, given the large commercial interests that are anyway incentivizing progress in that field.) Promoting scanning technology may increase the likelihood of a multipolar outcome by making scanning less likely to be a bottleneck, thus increasing the chance that the early emulation population will be stamped from many different human templates rather than consisting of gazillions of copies of a tiny number of templates. Progress in scanning technology also makes it more likely that the bottleneck will instead be computing hardware, which would tend to slow the takeoff. . Neuromorphic AI may also lack other safety-promoting attributes of whole brain emulation, such as having a profile of cognitive strengths and weaknesses similar to that of a biological human being (which would let us use our experience of humans to form some expectations of the systems capabilities at different stages of its development). . If somebodys motive for promoting WBE is to make WBE happen before AI, they should bear in mind that accelerating WBE will alter the order of arrival only if the default timing of the two paths toward machine intelligence is close and with a slight edge to AI. Otherwise, either investment in WBE will simply make WBE happen earlier than it otherwise would (reducing hardware overhang and preparation time) but without affecting the sequence of development; or else such investment in WBE will have little effect (other than perhaps making AI happen even sooner by stimulating progress on neuromorphic AI). . Comment on Hanson (2009). . There would of course be some magnitude and imminence of existential risk for which it would be preferable even from the person-affecting perspective to postpone the riskwhether to enable existing people to eke out a bit more life before the curtain drops or to provide more time for mitigation efforts that might reduce the danger. . Suppose we could take some action that would bring the intelligence explosion closer by one year. Let us say that the people currently inhabiting the Earth are dying off at a rate of 1% per year, and that the default risk of human extinction from the intelligence explosion is 20% (to pick an arbitrary number for the purposes of illustration only). Then hastening the arrival of the intelligence explosion by 1 year might be worth (from a person-affecting standpoint) an increase in the risk from 20% to 21%, i.e. a 5% increase in risk level. However, the vast majority of people alive one year before the start of the intelligence explosion would at that point have an interest in postponing it if they could thereby reduce the risk of the explosion by one percentage point (since most individuals would reckon their own risk of dying in the next year to be much smaller than 1%given that most mortality occurs in relatively narrow demographics such as the frail and the elderly). One could thus have a model in which each year the population votes to postpone the intelligence explosion by another year, so that the intelligence explosion never happens, although everybody who ever lives agrees that it would be better if the intelligence explosion happened at some point. In reality, of course, coordination failures, limited predictability, or preferences for things other than personal survival are likely to prevent such an unending pause. If one uses the standard economic discount factor instead of the person- affecting standard, the magnitude of the potential upside is diminished, since the value of existing people getting to enjoy astronomically long lives is then steeply discounted. This effect is especially strong if the discount factor is applied to each individuals subjective time rather than to sidereal time. If future benefits are discounted at a rate of x % per year, and the background level of existential risk from other sources is y % per year, then the optimum point for the intelligence explosion would be when delaying the explosion for another year would produce less than x + y percentage points of reduction of the existential risk associated with an intelligence explosion. . I am indebted to Carl Shulman and Stuart Armstrong for help with this model. See also Shulman (2010a, 3): Chalmers (2010) reports a consensus among cadets and staff at the U.S. West Point military academy that the U.S. government would not restrain AI research even in the face of potential catastrophe, for fear that rival powers would gain decisive advantage. . That is, information in the model is always bad ex ante . Of course, depending on what the information actually is, it will in some cases turn out to be good that the information became known, notably if the gap between leader and runner-up is much greater than one would reasonably have guessed in advance. . It might even present an existential risk, especially if preceded by the introduction of novel military technologies of destruction or unprecedented arms buildups. . A project could have its workers distributed over a large number of locations and collaborating via encrypted communications channels. But this tactic involves a security trade-off: while geographical dispersion may offer some protection against military attacks, it would impede operational security, since it is harder to prevent personnel from defecting, leaking information, or being abducted by a rival power if they are spread out over many locations. . Note that a large temporal discount factor could make a project behave in some ways as though it were in a race, even if it knows it has no real competitor. The large discount factor means it would care little about the far future. Depending on the situation, this would discourage blue-sky R&D, which would tend to delay the machine intelligence revolution (though perhaps making it more abrupt when it does occur, because of hardware overhang). But the large discount factoror a low level of caring for future generationswould also make existential risks seem to matter less. This would encourage gambles that involve the possibility of an immediate gain at the expense of an increased risk of existential catastrophe, thus disincentivizing safety investment and incentivizing an early launch mimicking the effects of the race dynamic. By contrast to the race dynamic, however, a large discount factor (or disregard for future generations) would have no particular tendency to incite conflict. Reducing the race dynamic is a main benefit of collaboration. That collaboration would facilitate sharing of ideas for how to solve the control problem is also a benefit, although this is to some extent counterbalanced by the fact that collaboration would also facilitate sharing of ideas for how to solve the competence problem. The net effect of this facilitation of idea- sharing may be to slightly increase the collective intelligence of the relevant research community. . On the other hand, public oversight by a single government would risk producing an outcome in which one nation monopolizes the gains. This outcome seems inferior to one in which unaccountable altruists ensure that everybody stands to gain. Furthermore, oversight by a national government would not necessarily mean that even all the citizens of that country receive a share of the benefit: depending on the country in question, there is a greater or smaller risk that all the benefits would be captured by a political elite or a few self-serving agency personnel. . One qualification is that the use of incentive wrapping (as discussed in Chapter 12 ) might in some circumstances encourage people to join a project as active collaborators rather than passive free-riders. . Diminishing returns would seem to set in at a much smaller scale. Most people would rather have one star than a one-in-a-billion chance of a galaxy with a billion stars. Indeed, most people would rather have a billionth of the resources on Earth than a one-in-a-billion chance of owning the entire planet. . Cf. Shulman (2010a). . Aggregative ethical theories run into trouble when the idea that the cosmos might be infinite is taken seriously; see Bostrom (2011b). There may also be trouble when the idea of ridiculously large but finite values is taken seriously; see Bostrom (2009b). . If one makes a computer larger, one eventually faces relativistic constraints arising from communication latencies between the different parts of the computersignals do not propagate faster than light. If one shrinks the computer, one encounters quantum limits to miniaturization. If one increases the density of the computer, one slams into the black hole limit. Admittedly, we cannot be completely certain that new physics will not one day be discovered offering some way around these limitations. . The number of copies of a person would scale linearly with resources with no upper bound. Yet it is not clear how much the average human being would value having multiple copies of herself. Even those people who would prefer to be multiply instantiated may not have a utility function that is linear with increasing number of copies. Copy numbers, like life years, might have diminishing returns in the typical persons utility function. . A singleton is highly internally collaborative at the highest level of decision- making. A singleton could have a lot of non-collaboration and conflict at lower levels, if the higher-level agency that constitutes the singleton chooses to have things that way. . If each rival AI team is convinced that the other teams are so misguided as to have no chance of producing an intelligence explosion, then one reason for collaborationavoiding the race dynamicis obviated: each team should independently choose to go slower in the confident belief that it lacks any serious competition. . A PhD student. . This formulation is intended to be read so as to include a prescription that the well-being of nonhuman animals and other sentient beings (including digital minds) that exist or may come to exist be given due consideration. It is not meant to be read as a license for one AI developer to substitute his or her own moral intuitions for those of the wider moral community. The principle is consistent with the coherent extrapolated volition approach discussed in Chapter 12 , with an extrapolation base encompassing all humans. A further clarification: The formulation is not intended to necessarily exclude the possibly of post-transition property rights in artificial superintelligences or their constituent algorithms and data structures. The formulation is meant to be agnostic about what legal or political systems would best serve to organize transactions within a hypothetical future posthuman society. What the formulation is meant to assert is that the choice of such a system, insofar as its selection is causally determined by how superintelligence is initially developed, should to be made on the basis of the stated criterion; that is, the post-transition constitutional system should be chosen for the benefit of all of humanity and in the service of widely shared ethical idealsas opposed to, for instance, for the benefit merely of whoever happened to be the first to develop superintelligence. . Refinements of the windfall clause are obviously possible. For example, perhaps the threshold should be expressed in per capita terms, or maybe the winner should be allowed to keep a somewhat larger than equal share of the overshoot in order to more strongly incentivize further production (some version of Rawlss maximin principle might be attractive here). Other refinements would refocus the clause away from dollar amounts and restate it in terms of influence on humanitys future or degree to which different parties interests are weighed in a future singletons utility function or some such. CHAPTER 15: CRUNCH TIME 1 . Some research is worthwhile not because of what it discovers but for other reasons, such as by entertaining, educating, accrediting, or uplifting those who engage in it. 2 . I am not suggesting that nobody should work on pure mathematics or philosophy. I am also not suggesting that these endeavors are especially wasteful compared to all the other dissipations of academia or society at large. It is probably very good that some people can devote themselves to the life of the mind and follow their intellectual curiosity wherever it leads, independent of any thought of utility or impact. The suggestion is that at the margin, some of the best minds might, upon realizing that their cognitive performances may become obsolete in the foreseeable future, want to shift their attention to those theoretical problems for which it makes a difference whether we get the solution a little sooner. 3 . Though one should be cautious in cases where this uncertainty may be protectiverecall, for instance, the risk-race model in Box 13 , where we found that additional strategic information could be harmful. More generally, we need to worry about information hazards (see Bostrom [2011b]). It is tempting to say that we need more analysis of information hazards. This is probably true, although we might still worry that such analysis itself may produce dangerous information. 4 . Cf. 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INDEX Afghan Taliban 215 Agricultural Revolution 2 , 80 , 261 AI-complete problem 14 , 47 , 71 , 93 , 145 , 186 AI-OUM, see optimality notions AI-RL, see optimality notions AI-VL, see optimality notions algorithmic soup 172 algorithmic trading 16 17 anthropics 27 28 , 126 , 134 135 , 174 , 222 225 definition 225 Arendt, Hannah 105 Armstrong, Stuart 280 , 291 , 294 , 302 artificial agent 10 , 88 , 105 109 , 172 176 , 185 206 ; see also Bayesian agent artificial intelligence arms race 64 , 88 , 247 future of 19 , 292 greater-than-human, see superintelligence history of 5 18 overprediction of 4 pioneers 4 5 , 18 Asimov, Isaac 139 augmentation 142 143 , 201 203 autism 57 automata theory 5 automatic circuit breaker 17 automation 17 , 98 , 117 , 160 176 backgammon 12 backpropagation algorithm 8 bargaining costs 182 Bayesian agent 9 11 , 123 , 130 ; see also artificial agent and optimality notions Bayesian networks 9 Berliner, Hans 12 biological cognition 22 , 36 48 , 50 51 , 232 biological enhancement 36 48 , 50 51 , 142 143 , 232 ; see also cognitive enhancement boxing 129 131 , 143 , 156 157 informational 130 physical 129 130 brain implant, see cyborg brain plasticity 48 braincomputer interfaces 44 48 , 51 , 83 , 142 143 ; see also cyborg Brown, Louise 43 C. elegans 34 35 , 266 , 267 capability control 129 144 , 156 157 capital 39 , 48 , 68 , 84 88 , 99 , 113 114 , 159 184 , 251 , 287 , 288 , 289 causal validity semantics 197 CEV, see coherent extrapolated volition Chalmers, David 24 , 265 , 283 , 295 , 302 character recognition 15 checkers 12 chess 11 22 , 52 , 93 , 134 , 263 , 264 child machine 23 , 29 ; see also seed AI CHINOOK 12 Christiano, Paul 198 , 207 civilization baseline 63 cloning 42 cognitive enhancement 42 51 , 67 , 94 , 111 112 , 193 , 204 , 232 238 , 244 , 259 coherent extrapolated volition (CEV) 198 , 211 227 , 296 , 298 , 303 definition 211 collaboration (benefits of) 249 collective intelligence 48 51 , 52 57 , 67 , 72 , 142 , 163 , 203 , 259 , 271 , 273 , 279 collective superintelligence 39 , 48 49 , 52 59 , 83 , 93 , 99 , 285 definition 54 combinatorial explosion 6 , 9 , 10 , 47 , 155 Common Good Principle 254 259 common sense 14 computer vision 9 computing power 7 9 , 24 , 25 35 , 47 , 53 60 , 68 77 , 101 , 134 , 155 , 198 , 240 244 , 251 , 286 , 288 ; see also computronium and hardware overhang computronium 101 , 123 124 , 140 , 193 , 219 ; see also computing power connectionism 8 consciousness 22 , 106 , 126 , 139 , 173 176 , 216 , 226 , 271 , 282 , 288 , 292 , 303 ; see also mind crime control methods 127 144 , 145 158 , 202 , 236 238 , 286 ; see also capability control and motivation selection Copernicus, Nicolaus 14 cosmic endowment 101 104 , 115 , 134 , 209 , 214 217 , 227 , 250 , 260 , 283 , 296 crosswords (solving) 12 cryptographic reward tokens 134 , 276 cryptography 80 cyborg 44 48 , 67 , 270 DARPA, see Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DART (tool) 15 Dartmouth Summer Project 5 data mining 15 16 , 232 , 301 decision support systems 15 , 98 ; see also tool-AI decision theory 10 11 , 88 , 185 186 , 221 227 , 280 , 298 ; see also optimality notions decisive strategic advantage 78 89 , 95 , 104 112 , 115 126 , 129 138 , 148 149 , 156 159 , 177 , 190 , 209 214 , 225 , 252 Deep Blue 12 Deep Fritz 22 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) 15 design effort, see optimization power Dewey, Daniel 291 Differential Technological Development (Principle of) 230 237 DiffieHellman key exchange protocol 80 diminishing returns 37 38 , 66 , 88 , 114 , 273 , 303 direct reach 58 direct specification 139 143 DNA synthesis 39 , 98 Do What I Mean (DWIM) 220 221 domesticity 140 143 , 146 156 , 187 , 191 , 207 , 222 Drexler, Eric 239 , 270 , 276 , 278 , 300 drones 15 , 98 Dutch book 111 Dyson, Freeman 101 , 278 economic growth 3 , 160 166 , 179 , 261 , 274 , 299 Einstein, Albert 56 , 70 , 85 ELIZA (program) 6 embryo selection 36 44 , 67 , 268 emulation modulation 207 Enigma code 87 environment of evolutionary adaptedness 164 , 171 epistemology 222 224 equation solvers 15 eugenics 36 44 , 268 , 279 Eurisko 12 evolution 8 9 , 23 27 , 44 , 154 , 173 176 , 187 , 198 , 207 , 265 , 266 , 267 , 273 evolutionary selection 187 , 207 , 290 evolvable hardware 154 exhaustive search 6 existential risk 4 , 21 , 55 , 100 104 , 115 126 , 175 , 183 , 230 236 , 239 254 , 256 259 , 286 , 301 302 state risks 233 234 step risks 233 expert system 7 explicit representation 207 exponential growth, see growth external reference semantics 197 face recognition 15 failure modes 117 120 Faraday cage 130 Fields Medal 255 256 , 272 Fifth-Generation Computer Systems Project 7 fitness function 25 ; see also evolution Flash Crash (2010) 16 17 formal language 7 , 145 FreeCell (game) 13 game theory 87 , 159 game-playing AI 12 14 General Problem Solver 6 genetic algorithms 7 13 , 24 27 , 237 240 ; see also evolution genetic selection 37 50 , 61 , 232 238 ; see also evolution genie AI 148 158 , 285 definition 148 genotyping 37 germline interventions 37 44 , 67 , 273 ; see also embryo selection Ginsberg, Matt 12 Go (game) 13 goal-content 109 110 , 146 , 207 , 222 227 Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence (GOFAI) 7 15 , 23 Good, I. J. 4 Gorbachev, Mikhail 86 graceful degradation 7 graphical models 11 growth 1 7 , 48 55 , 69 75 , 83 , 163 , 261 , 281 Hail Mary approach 198 200 , 207 , 293 , 294 Hanson, Robin 2 , 160 , 261 , 270 , 271 , 287 hardware overhang 73 , 240 243 , 274 , 289 , 301 , 302 hedonism 140 , 210 hedonium 140 , 219 Helsinki Declaration 188 heuristic search 6 Hill, Benny 105 hippocampus 47 HLMI, see machine intelligence, human-level HodgkinHuxley model 25 human baseline 62 77 , 82 human extinction, see existential risk Human Genome Project 86 , 253 , 276 human intelligence 5 14 , 24 58 , 98 99 , 159 184 , 242 254 , 255 257 humanmachine interface, see cyborg impersonal perspective 228 246 in vitro fertilization, see embryo selection incentive methods 131 143 cryptographic reward tokens 133 social integration 131 132 , 156 158 , 159 , 202 , 283 indirect normativity 141 150 , 209 227 , 262 , 298 indirect reach 58 inductive bias 9 10 Industrial Revolution 2 , 80 , 161 163 infrastructure profusion 123 125 , 153 , 187 , 226 , 282 institution design 202 208 instrumental convergence thesis 105 116 intelligence explosion 2 5 , 22 51 , 62 77 , 78 90 , 95 104 , 108 , 115 126 , 127 128 , 136 , 151 , 160 , 165 , 178 , 198 , 205 , 227 , 228 254 , 256 260 , 274 , 276 , 282 , 284 , 289 , 300 , 301 302 Internet 16 , 45 49 , 67 77 , 85 , 94 98 , 130 , 146 , 241 , 271 inventory control systems 16 IVF, see embryo selection Jeopardy!13 Kasparov, Garry 12 Kepler, Johannes 14 Knuth, Donald 14 , 264 Kurzweil, Ray 2 , 261 , 269 Lenat, Douglas 12 , 263 Logic Theorist (system) 6 logicist paradigm, see Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence (GOFAI) Logistello 12 machine intelligence; see also artificial intelligence human-level (HLMI) 4 , 19 21 , 27 35 , 73 74 , 207 , 243 , 264 , 267 revolution, see intelligence explosion machine learning 8 18 , 28 , 121 , 152 , 188 , 274 , 290 machine translation 15 macro-structural development accelerator 233 235 malignant failure 123 126 , 149 , 196 Malthusian condition 163 165 , 252 Manhattan Project 75 , 80 87 , 276 McCarthy, John 5 18 McCullochPitts neuron 237 MegaEarth 56 memory capacity 7 9 , 60 , 71 memory sharing 61 Mill, John Stuart 210 mind crime 125 126 , 153 , 201 208 , 213 , 226 , 297 Minsky, Marvin 18 , 261 , 262 , 282 Monte Carlo method 9 13 Moores law 24 25 , 73 77 , 274 , 286 ; see also computing power moral growth 214 moral permissibility (MP)218 220 , 297 moral rightness (MR)217 220 . 296 , 297 moral status 125 126 , 166 169 , 173 , 202 205 , 268 , 288 , 296 Moravec, Hans 24 , 265 , 288 motivation selection 29 , 127 129 , 138 144 , 147 , 158 , 168 , 180 191 , 222 definition 138 motivational scaffolding 191 , 207 multipolar scenarios 90 , 132 , 159 184 , 243 254 , 301 mutational load 41 nanotechnology 53 , 94 98 , 103 , 113 , 177 , 231 , 239 , 276 , 277 , 299 , 300 natural language 14 neural networks 5 9 , 28 , 46 , 173 , 237 , 262 , 274 neurocomputational modeling 25 30 , 35 , 61 , 301 ; see also whole brain emulation (WBE) and neuromorphic AI neuromorphic AI 28 , 34 , 47 , 237 245 , 267 , 300 , 301 Newton, Isaac 56 Nilsson, Nils 18 20 , 264 nootropics 36 44 , 66 67 , 201 , 267 Norvig, Peter 19 , 264 , 282 observation selection theory, see anthropics Oliphant, Mark 85 ONeill, Gerard 101 ontological crisis 146 , 197 optimality notions 10 , 186 , 194 , 291 293 Bayesian agent 9 11 value learner (AI-VL) 194 observation-utility-maximizer (AI-OUM) 194 reinforcement learner (AI-RL) 194 optimization power 24 , 62 75 , 83 , 92 96 , 227 , 274 definition 65 oracle AI 141 158 , 222 226 , 285 , 286 definition 146 orthogonality thesis 105 109 , 115 , 279 , 280 paperclip AI 107 108 , 123 125 , 132 135 , 153 , 212 , 243 Parfit, Derek 279 Pascals mugging 223 , 298 Pascals wager 223 person-affecting perspective 228 , 245 246 , 301 perverse instantiation 120 124 , 153 , 190 196 poker 13 principalagent problem 127 128 , 184 Principle of Epistemic Deference 211 , 221 Proverb (program) 12 qualia, see consciousness quality superintelligence 51 58 , 72 , 243 , 272 definition 56 race dynamic, see technology race rate of growth, see growth ratification 222 225 Rawls, John 150 Reagan, Ronald 86 87 reasons-based goal 220 recalcitrance 62 77 , 92 , 241 , 274 definition 65 recursive self-improvement 29 , 75 , 96 , 142 , 259 ; see also seed AI reinforcement learning 12 , 28 , 188 189 , 194 196 , 207 , 237 , 277 , 282 , 290 resource acquisition 113 116 , 123 , 193 reward signal 71 , 121 122 , 188 , 194 , 207 Riemann hypothesis catastrophe 123 , 141 robotics 9 19 , 94 97 , 117 118 , 139 , 238 , 276 , 290 Roosevelt, Franklin D.85 RSA encryption scheme 80 Russell, Bertrand 6 , 87 , 139 , 277 Samuel, Arthur 12 Sandberg, Anders 265 , 267 , 272 , 274 scanning, see whole brain emulation (WBE) Schaeffer, Jonathan 12 scheduling 15 Schelling point 147 , 183 , 296 Scrabble 13 second transition 176 178 , 238 , 243 245 , 252 second-guessing (arguments) 238 239 seed AI 23 29 , 36 , 75 , 83 , 92 96 , 107 , 116 120 , 142 , 151 , 189 198 , 201 217 , 224 225 , 240 241 , 266 , 274 , 275 , 282 self-limiting goal 123 Shakey (robot) 6 SHRDLU (program) 6 Shulman, Carl 178 180 , 265 , 287 , 300 , 302 , 304 simulation hypothesis 134 135 , 143 , 278 , 288 , 292 singleton 78 90 , 95 104 , 112 114 , 115 126 , 136 , 159 , 176 184 , 242 , 275 , 276 , 279 , 281 , 287 , 299 , 301 , 303 definition 78 , 100 singularity 1 , 2 , 49 , 75 , 261 , 274 ; see also intelligence explosion social signaling 110 somatic gene therapy 42 sovereign AI 148 158 , 187 , 226 , 285 speech recognition 15 16 , 46 speed superintelligence 52 58 , 75 , 270 , 271 definition 53 Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) 86 strong AI 18 stunting 135 137 , 143 sub-symbolic processing, see connectionism superintelligence; see also collective superintelligence, quality superintelligence and speed superintelligence definition 22 , 52 forms 52 , 59 paths to 22 , 50 predicting the behavior of 108 , 155 , 302 superorganisms 178 180 superpowers 52 56 , 80 , 86 87 , 91 104 , 119 , 133 , 148 , 277 , 279 , 296 types 94 surveillance 15 , 49 , 64 , 82 85 , 94 , 117 , 132 , 181 , 232 , 253 , 276 , 294 , 299 Szilrd, Le 85 TD-Gammon 12 Technological Completion Conjecture 112 113 , 229 technology race 80 82 , 86 90 203 205 , 231 , 246 252 , 302 teleological threads 110 Tesauro, Gerry 12 TextRunner (system) 71 theorem prover 15 , 266 three laws of robotics 139 , 284 Thrun, Sebastian 19 tool-AI 151 158 definition 151 treacherous turn 116 119 , 128 Tribolium castaneum 154 tripwires 137 143 Truman, Harry 85 Turing, Alan 4 , 23 , 29 , 44 , 225 , 265 , 271 , 272 unemployment 65 , 159 180 , 287 United Nations 87 89 , 252 253 universal accelerator 233 unmanned vehicle, see drone uploading, see whole brain emulation (WBE) utility function 10 11 , 88 , 100 , 110 , 119 , 124 125 , 133 134 , 172 , 185 187 , 192 208 , 290 , 292 , 293 , 303 value learning 191 198 , 208 , 293 value-accretion 189 190 , 207 value-loading 185 208 , 293 , 294 veil of ignorance 150 , 156 , 253 , 285 Vinge, Vernor 2 , 49 , 270 virtual reality 30 , 31 , 53 , 113 , 166 , 171 , 198 , 204 , 300 von Neumann probe 100 101 , 113 von Neumann, John 44 , 87 , 114 , 261 , 277 , 281 wages 65 , 69 , 160 169 Watson (IBM) 13 , 71 WBE, see whole brain emulation (WBE) Whitehead, Alfred N.6 whole brain emulation (WBE) 28 36 , 50 , 60 , 68 73 , 77 , 84 85 , 108 , 172 , 198 , 201 202 , 236 245 , 252 , 266 , 267 , 274 , 299 , 300 , 301 Wigner, Eugene 85 windfall clause 254 , 303 Winston, Patrick 18 wire-heading 122 123 , 133 , 189 , 194 , 207 , 282 , 291 wise-singleton sustainability threshold 100 104 , 279 world economy 2 3 , 63 , 74 , 83 , 159 184 , 274 , 277 , 285 Yudkowsky, Eliezer 70 , 92 , 98 , 106 , 197 , 211 216 , 266 , 273 , 282 , 286 , 291 , 299 |
The Book Of Forbidden Knowledge Black Magic, Superstitions, Charms, Divination, Signs, Omens, Etc. PUBLISHED BY . JOHNSON SMITH & COMPANY DETROIT, MICHIGAN ) a | | | | | ! | | PRINTED IN U.S.A; Five Mind Reading Acts Exposed. 33.1918 .i4 106 Bonapartes Oraculum or Book of Fate. N.,,1923- Canning, Pickling, Smoking, Preserving. Snow Model Book of Love Letters. 39.2 V3: naia 100 Book Flirtations or Lovers Combination, Pose tee Book of Love Letters. 49,2159 114 osc Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. 3%. Bitinaia 500 Social Entertainer and Tricks. 82.,,1}83. 1.4 on, Secrets of Ancient and Modern Magic. 39. ie8 os. 25 Lessons in Hypnotism. 30.2479. ia 100 The Parlor Conjurer; Magic Made Fasy. So oy ' . 1178. How to Become a Handeuff King. 39,2575. ia 100 Tricks with Coins. 32,2480. 1a osc Secrets of Ventriloquism. %9..148%.4ia 25 Hellers Book of Magic. 3%.1189-.ia o5 Magic for the Amateur Magician. Bice Posinaia 250 How to Vamp on Piano or Organ. 33,149 Povipta 10 Vamping Card for Piano or Organ. 3.1310. aia 150 Book on Mimicry, Whistling, Imitations. 39,27 c Humorous Dialogues. 33.2724 .0ia anc Brudder Gardner's Stump Speeches. N3..1225..ia 250 Humorous Recitations. }.,132-.:4 106 Comic Recitations. 3.272% nia 100 Book of Great Secrets and Formulas. N%..1359; ia ose Old Secrets and New Discoveries. 43,2252. 014 5c Star Money Maker. Dace Postpaid 10c Chemical Wonders, Secrets & Mysteries. 3%..175%- How to Wrestle. 3.338% nia 25 Athletic Exercises. No. 378%. ia 100 Swimming Made Easy. Price Postpaid 100 How to Box. 29.0 bistpaia 25 How to Pitch Real Curves. 8%.) 2%4:0ia one How to Dance Old and New Dances. }yi..'xipaia 250 Star Toy Maker, 49.2312. ia 100 Every Boy His Own Toymaker. 39.) 94-14 o50 Fun With Magnetism. 2,336.14 106 rT, Dancing the Latest Steps. 2o,1319. ia 5c Johnson Smith & Co. Detroit 7, Mich. The Book Of . Forbidden Knowledge DIVINATION, OR HOW TO OBTAIN KNOWLEDGE OF FUTURE EVENTS Any person fasting on midsummer eve, and sitting on the church porch, will, at midnight, see the spirits of the persons of that parish, who will die that year, come and knock at the church-door, in the order and succes- sion in which they will die. One of those watchers, there being several in company, fell into a profound sleep, so that he could not be waked; whilst in this state his ghost was seen by the rest of his companions knocking at the church door. Any unmarried woman fasting on midsummer eve, and at mid- night laying a clean cloth, with bread, cheese and ale, and sitting down as if going to eat, the street door being left open, the person whom she is after- ward to marry will come into the room, and drink to her by bowing, and after- ward filling the glass, will leave it on the table, and making another bow, re- tire. On St. Agnes night, the 21st of January, take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, say- ing a paternoster, on sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him you shall marry. Another method to see a future spouse in a dream; the party inquiring must lie in a different country from that in which he com- monly resides, and, on going to bed, must knit the left garter about the right legged stocking, letting the oth- er garter and stocking alone; and as you rehearse the following verses, at every comma knit a knot: This knot I knit, To know a thing I know not yet, That I may see The man that shall my husband be, How he goes and what he wears, And what he does all days and years. Accordingly, in a dream he will ap- pear with the insignia of his trade or profession. Another performed by charming the moon, thus: At the first appearance of the new moon, immedi- ately after the new years day, go out in the evening and stand over the spears of a gate or stile, and, looking on the moon, repeat the following lines: All hail to thee, thee, I prithee, good moon, reveal to me This night who my husband must be. The party will then dream of their future husband. A slice of the bride- cake, thrice thrown through the wed- ding ring, and laid under the head of an unmarried woman will make them dream of their future husband. The same is practiced in the north with a piece of the groaning cheese, HOW TO RECEIVE ORACLES BY DREAMS He who would receive true dreams should keep a pure, undisturbed, and imaginative spirit, and so compose it that it may be made worthy of knowl- edge and government by the mind; for such a spirit is most fit for prophesy- ing, and is a most clear glass of all things. When, therefore, we are sound in body, not disturbed in mind, our in- tellect not made dull by heavy meals and strong drink, not sad through pov- erty, not provoked through lust, not incited by any vice, not stirred up by wrath or anger, not being irreligiously and profanely inclined, not given to levity nor lost in drunkenness, but, chastely going to bed, fall asleep, then our pure and divine soul being free from all the evils above recited, and separated from all hurtful thoughts and now freed, by dreamingis en- dowed with this divine spirit as an in- strument, and doth receive those beams and representations which are darted down, as it were, and shine forth from the divine Mind into itself, in a deify- ing glass, moon; all hail to < BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE There are four kinds of true dreams, viz., the first, matutine, ie., between sleeping and waking; the second, that which one sees concerning another; the third, that whose interpretation is shown to the same dreamer in the nocturnal vision; and, lastly, that which is related to the same dreamer in the nocturnal vision. But natural things and their own co-mixtures do likewise belong unto wise men, and we often use such to receive oracles from a spirit by a dream, which are neither by perfumes, unctions, meats, drinks, rings, seals, etc. Now those who are desirous to re- ceive oracles through a dream, let them make themselves a ring of the Sun or Saturn tor this purpose. There are likewise images of dreams, which, be- ing put under the head when going to sleep, doth effectually give true dreams of whatever the mind hath before de- termined or consulted upon, the prac- tice of which is as follows: Thou shalt make an image of the Sun, the figure whereof must be a man sleeping upon the bosom of an angel; which thou shalt make when Leo as- cends, the Sun being in the ninth house in Aries; then you must write upon the figure the name of the effect desired, and in the hand of the angel the name and character of the intelligence of the Sun, which is Michael. Let the same image be made in Virgo ascendingMercury being fortunate in Aries in the ninth, or Gemini ascend- ing, Mercury being fortunte in the ninth house in Aquariusand let him be received by Saturn with a fortunate aspect, and let the name of the spirit (which is Raphael) be written upon it. Let the same likewise be madeLibra ascending, Venus being received from Mercury in Gemini in the ninth house and write upon it the name of the angel of Venus (which is Anael). Again you may make the same image Aquarius ascending, Saturn fortunate- ly possessing the ninth in his exalta- tion, which is Libraand let there be written upon it the name of the angel of Saturn (which is Cassial). The same may be made with Cancer ascending the Moon being received by Jupiter an Venus in Pisces, and being fortunately placed in the ninth houseand write upon it the spirit of the Moon (which is Gabriel). There are likewise made rings of dreams of wonderful efficacy, and there are rings of the Sun and Saturnand the constellation of them is, when the Sun or Saturn ascend in their exalta- tion in the ninth, and when the Moon is joined to Saturn in the ninth, and in that sign which was the ninth house of the nativity, and write and engrave upon the rings the name of the spirit of the Sun or Saturn, and by these rules you may know how and by what means to constitute more of yourself. But know this, that such images work nothing (as they are simply images), except they are vivified by spiritual and _ celestial virtue, and chiefly by the ardent desire and firm intent of the soul of the operator. But who can give a soul to an image, or make a stone, or metal, or clay, or wood, or wax, or paper, to live? Cer- tainly no man whatever, for this ar- canum doth not enter into an artist of a stiff neck. He only hath it who tran- scends the progress of angels, and comes to the very Archtype Himself. The tables of numbers likewise confer to the receiving of oracles, being duly formed under their own constellations. Therefore, he who is desirous of re- ceiving true oracles by dreams, let him abstain from supper, from drink, and be otherwise well disposed, so his brain will be free from turbulent vapors; let him also have his bed-chamber fair and clean, exorcised and consecrated; then let him perfume the same with some convenient fumigation, and let him anoint his temples with some unguent efficacious hereunto, and put a ring of dreams upon his finger; then let him take one of the images we have spoken of, and place the same under his head; then let him address himself to sleep, meditating upon that thing which he desires to know. So shall he receive a most certain and undoubted oracle by a dream when the Moon goes through the sign of the ninth revolution of his nativity, and she is in the ninth sign from the sign of perfection. This is the way whereby we may ob- tain all sciences and arts whatsoever, whether astrology, occult philosophy, physic, etc., or else suddenly and per- fectly with a true illumination of our intellect, although all inferior familiar spirits whatsoever conduce to this ef- fect, and sometimes also evil spirits sensibly inform us, intrinsically and extrinsically. DREAMS, TOKENS, AND IN- SIGHTS INTO FUTURITY THE RING AND THE OLIVE BRANCH Buy a ring; it matters not it being gold, so as it has the semblance of a wedding ring; and it is best to try this charm on your own birthday. Pay for your ring with some small bill, for whatever change you receive you must give it to the first beggar you meet in the street; and, if no one asks alms of you, give it to-some poor personfor you need not, alas! go far before you find one to whom your charity will be acceptable; carefully note what they say in return, such as God bless you, or wishing you luck and prosperity, as is usual. When you get home, write it down on a sheet of paper, at each of four corners, and, in the middle, put the two first letters of your name, your age, and the letters of the planets then reigning as morning and evening Stars, get a branch of olive and fasten BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 8 the ring on the stalk with a string of thread which has been steeped all day in a mixture of honey and vinegar, or any composition of opposite qualities, very sweet and very sour; cover your ring and stalk with the written paper, carefully wrapped round and round; wear it in your bosom till the ninth hour of the night; then repair to the next church-yard and bury the charm in the grave of a young man who died unmarried; and, while you are so doing repeat the letters of your own Chris- tian name three times backwards, re- turn home, and keep as silent as pos- sible till you go to bed, which must be done before eleven; put a light in your chimney, or some safe place, and, before midnight, or just about that time, your husband that is to be will present himself at the foot of the bed, but will presently disappear. If you are not to marry, none will come, and, in that case, if you dream before morn- ing of children, it shows that you will have them unmarried; and if you dream of crowds of men, beware of prostitution. THE WITCHS CHAIN Let three young women join together in making a long chainabout a yard will doof Christmas juniper and mis- tletoe berries, and, at the end of every link, put an oak acorn. Exactly before midnight let them assemble in a room by themselves, where no one can dis- turb them; leave a window open, and take the key out of the keyhole and hang it over the chimney-piece; have a good fire, and place in the midst of it a long, thinnish log of wood, well sprinkled with oil, salt, and fresh mould; then wrap the chain round it, each maiden having an equal share in the business; then sit down, and on your left knee let each fair one have a prayer-book opened at the matri- monial service. Just as the last acorn is burned, the future husband will cross the room; each one will see her own proper spouse, but he will be in- visible to the rest of the wakeful vir- gins. Those that are not be wed will see a coffin, or some mis-shapen form, cross the room; go to bed instantly, and you will all have remarkable dreams. This must be done either on a py eanesday or Friday night, but no other. LOVES CORDIAL (To be tried the third night of a new moon.) Take brandy, rum, gin, wine, and the oil of amber, of each a teaspoonful; a tablespoonful of cream, and three of spring water; drink it as you get into bed. Repeat: This mixture of love I take for my potion, That I of my destiny may have a notion; Cupid befriend me, kind, And show unto me that fate thats designed. You will dream of drink, and, ac- cording to the quality or manner of it being presented, you may tell the con- dition to which you will rise or fall by marriage. Water is poverty; and if you dream of a drunken man, it is omi- nous that you will have a drunken mate. If you dream of drinking too much you will fall, at a future period, into that sad error yourself, without great care; and what is a worse sight than an inebriated female? She cannot guard her own honor, ruins her own and familys substance, and often clothes herself with rags. Trouble is often used as an excuse for this vicious habit; but it gives more trouble than it takes away. LOVE LETTERS On receiving a love letter that has any particular declaration in it, lay it wide open; then fold it in nine folds, pin it next your heart, and thus wear it till bed-time; then place it in your left-hand glove, and lay it under your head. If you dream of gold, diamonds, or any costly gems, your lover is true, and means what he says; if of white linen, you will lose him by death; and if of flowers, he will prove false. If you dream of his saluting you, he is, at present, false, and means not what he professes, but only to draw you into a@ snare, MAGIC ROSE Gather your rose on the 27th of June; let it be full blown, and as bright a red as you can get; pluck it between the hours of three and four in the morning, taking care to have no witness of the transaction; convey it to your chamber, and hold it over a chaffing dish or any convenient utensil for the purpose, in which there is char- coal and sulphur or brimstone; hold your rose over the smoke about five minutes, and you will see it have a wonderful effect on the flower. Before the rose gets the least cool, clap it in a sheet of writing paper, on which is written your own name and that of the young man you love best; also the date of the year and the name of the morning star that has the ascendency at that time; fold it up and seal it neatly with three separate seals, then run and bury the parcel at the foot of the tree from which you gathered the flower; here let it remain untouched till the 6th of July; take it up at mid- night, go to bed and place it under your pillow, and you will have a singu- lar and most eventful dream before morning, or, at least, before your usual time of rising. You may keep the rose under your head three nights without spoiling the charm; when you new moon be 4 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE are done with the rose and paper be sure to burn them. -LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS, ETC. LIST OF UNLUCKY DAYS Which, to those persons being males born on them, will generally prove un- fortunate: January 3, 4. February 6, 7, 12, 18, 19, 20. March 5, 6, 12, 13. May 12, 13, 20, 21, 26, 27. June 1, 2, 9, 10, 16, 17, 22, 238, 24. July 3, 4, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18. October 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 31. November 1, 3. Almost all persons (being of the male sex) that are born on the days included in the foregoing table, will, in a greater or less degree suffer, not only by pecuniary embarrassment and losses of property, but will also ex- perience great distress and anxiety of mind, much dissatisfaction, dissension, and unhappiness in their family affairs, much disaffection to each other among the married ones, (indeed few of them can ever be happy in the married state), trouble about their children, daughters forming unfortunate attach- ments, and a variety of untoward events of other description which our limits do not allow us to particular- ize. The influence of these days are of a quality and tendency calculated to excite in the minds of persons born on them, an extraordinary itch for specu- lation, to make changes in their af- fairs, commence new undertakings of various kinds, but all of them will tend nearly to one pointloss of property and pecuniary embarrassments. Such persons who embark their capital on credit in new concerns or engagements will be likely to receive checks or in- terruptions to the progress of their schemes or undertakings. Those who enter into engagements intended to be permanent, whether purchases, leases, partnerships, or, in short, any other speculation of a description which can- not readily be transferred, or got rid of will dearly repent their bargains. They will find their affairs from time to time much interrupted and agitated, and experience many disappointments in money matters, trouble through bills, and have need of all their activity and address to prop their declining credit. Indeed, almost all engagements and affairs that are entered upon by persons born on any of these days will receive some sort of check or obstruc- tion. The greater number of those persons born on these days will be subject to weakness or sprains in the Knees and ankles, also diseases and hurts in the legs. LIST OF UNLUCKY DAYS Which to those persons (being fe- males) born on them will generally prove unfortunate: January 5, 6, 13, 14, 20, and 21. February 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 22, and 23. March 1, 2, 8, 9, 16, 17, 28, and 29. April 24 and 26. May 1, 2, 9, 17, 22, 29, and 30. June 5, 6, 12, 18, 18, and 19. July 3 and 4, September 9 and 16. October 20 and 27. November 9, 10, 21, 29, and 80. December 6, 14, and 21. We particularly advise all females born on these days to be extremely cautious of placing their affections too hastily, as they will be subject to dis- pointments and vexations in that re- spect. It will be better for them (in those matters) to be guided by the ad- vice of their friends, rather than by their own feeling, they will be less fortunate in placing their affections, than in any other action of their lives, as many of these marriages will termi- nate in separations, divorces, etc. Their courtships will end in unhappy elope- ments, and other ways not necessary of explanation. Our readers must be well aware that affairs of importance begun at inauspicious times, by those who have been born at those periods when the stars shed their malign in- fluence, can seldom, if ever, lead to much good; it is, therefore, that we en- deavor to lay before them a correct statement drawn from accurate astro- logical information, in order that by strict attention and care, they may avoid falling into those perplexing labyrinths from which nothing but that care and attention can save them. The list of days we have above given, will be productive of hasty and clandestine marriages-marriages under untoward circumstances, perplexing attachments, and a natural consequence, the dis- pleasure of friends, together with fam- ily broils, discussions and divisions. We now present our readers with a LIST OF DAYS USUALLY CONSIDERED FORTUNATE With respect to Courtship, Marriage, and Love Affairs in GeneralPersons that were born on the following days may expect courtships and prospects of marriage, and which will have a happy termination. : January 1, 2, 15, 26, 27, 28. February 11, 21, 25 March 10, 24. April 6, 15, 16, 20, 28. , . 8. August 6, 7, 10, 11, 19, 20, 25. September 4, 8, 9, 17, 18, 23. October 8, 7, 16, 21, 22. November 5, 14, 20. BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE Ss December 14, 15, 19, 20, 22, 28, 25. Although the greater number, or in- deed, nearly all persors that are born on the days stated in the preceding list, will be likely to meet with a pros- pect of marriage, or become engaged in some love affair of more than ordinary importance, yet it must not be expected that the result will be the same with all of them; with some they will ter- minate in marriagewith others in disappointmentand some of them will be in danger of forming attachments that may prove of a somewhat trouble- some description. We shall, therefore, in order to enable our readers to dis- tinguish them, give a comprehensive and useful list, showing which of them will be most likely to marry. Those born within the limits of the succeeding List of Hours, on any of the preceding days, will be the most likely | to marryor will, at least, have court- ships that will be Hkely to have a happy termination. LIST OF FORTUNATE HOURS January 2d. From 30 minutes past 10 till 15 minutes past 11 in the morn- ing; and from 15 minutes before 9 till 15 minutes before 11 at night. 15th. From 80 minutes past 9 till 15 minutes past 10 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 7 till 15 minutes past 11 at night. 26th. From 30 minutes past 8 till 15 minutes past 9 in the morning; and from 7 till 15 minutes past 10 at night. February 11th and 12th. From 30 min- utes past 7 till 15 minutes past 8 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 6 till 15 minutes before 9 at night. 21st. From 7 till 15 minutes before 8 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 5 till 15 minutes before 8 at night. 25th and 26th. From 15 minutes be- fore 7 till 30 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 5 till 30 minutes past 7 in the evening. March 10th. From 5 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the morning; and from 4 in the afternoon till 15 minutes be- fore 7 in the evening. April 6th. From 15 minutes past 4 till 5 in the morning; and from 30 min- utes past 2 till 15 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. 20th. From 30 minutes past 3 till 15 minutes past 4 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 1 till 15 min- utes past 4 in the afternoon. May 8d. From 15 minutes before 3 till 30 minutes past 83 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 1 till 30 minutes past 3 in the afternoon. 18th. From 2 till 15 minutes before 3 in the morning; and from 12 at noon till 15 minutes before 3 in the afternocn. 28th. From 15 minutes before 1 till 30 minutes past 2 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 12 at noon till 30 minutes past 2 in the afternoon. 3ist. From 15 minutes before 1 till 30 minutes past 1 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 10 in the morning till 15 minutes before 1 in the afternoon. June 10th and llth. From 15 minutes from 12 at night till 1 in the morn- ing. 15th. From 10 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon; and from 15 min- utes before 12 at night till 15 minutes before 1 in the morning. 25th. From 15 minutes past 9 in the morning till 12 at noon; and from 11 to 12 at night. 29th. From 9 in the morning till 15 minutes before 12 at noon; ana - from 15 minutes before 11 till 15 minutes before 12 at night. July 9th. From 15 minutes past 8 till 11 in the morning; and from 10 till 11 at night. 14th and 15th. From 8 till 11 in the morning; and from 10 till 11 at night. 28th. From 7 till 10 in the morning; and from 9 till 10 at night. August 6th and 7th. From 30 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes past 9 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 8 till 15 minutes past 9 at night. 10th and 11th. From 15 minutes past 6 till 9 in the morning; and from 8 till 9 in the evening. 19th and 20th. From 30 minutes past 5 till 80 minutes past 8 in the morn- ing; and from 30 minutes past 7 till 30 minutes past 8 in the evening. 25th. From 15 minutes past 5 till 8 in the morning; and from 7 till 8 in the evening. September 4th. From 15 minutes be- fore 5 till 30 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 6 till 30 minutes past 7 in the eve- ning. 8th and 9th. From 30 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes past 7 in the eve- ning. 17th and 18th. From 5 till 15 minutes before 5 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 6 till 15 minutes before 7 in the evening. 28d. From 30 minutes past 3 till 30 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 5 till 30 minutes past 6 in the evening. October 3d. From 8 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. 7th. From 15 minutes before 3 till 30 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 4 till 30 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. 16th. From 2 till 5 in the morning; and from 4 till 5 in the afternoon. 6 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 21st and 22d. From 15 minutes be- fore 2 till 30 minutes past 4 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 3 till 15 minutes past 4 in the af- ternoon. November 5th. From 1 till 15 minutes before 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 8 till 15 minutes before 4 in the afternoon. 14th. From 15 minutes past 12 till 3 in the morning; and from 2 till 3 in the afternoon. 20th. From 15 minutes before 12 till 15 minutes past 2 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 1 till 2 in the afternoon. December 14th and 15th. From 10 till 30 minutes past 12 in the morning; and from 12 at noon till 15 min- utes before 1 in the afternoon. 18th and 19th. From 15 minutes be- fore 10 at night till 15 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 380 minutes past 11 till 15 minutes past 12 at night. January 3d. From 30 minutes past 10 till 15 minutes past 11 in the morn- ing; and from 15 minutes before 9 till 15 minutes past 11 at night. 12th and 13th. From 15 minutes past 9 till 10 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 8 to 30 minutes past 10 at night. 18th. From 9 till 15 minutes before 10 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 7 till 10 at night. 27th. From 9 till 15 minutes before 10 in the morning; and from 7 till 15 minutes before 10 at night. February 1st. From 8 till 30 minutes past 8 in the morning; and from 6 till 30 minutes past 8 in the eve- ning. 1ith and 12th. From 15 minutes be- fore 8 till 30 minutes past 8 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 6 till 30 minutes past 8 in the evening. : 17th. From 7 till 15 minutes before 8 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 5 till 8 in the eve- ning. March ist. From 80 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes past 7 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes past 7 in the evening. 16th and 17th. From 30 minutes past 5 till 15 minutes past 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 4 till 30 minutes past 6 in the evening. 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, 24th, and 25th. From 30 minutes past 5 till 30 minutes past 6 in the morning: and from 30 minutes past 38 till 15 minutes past 6 in the evening. 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th. From 15 minutes past 5 till 15 minutes before 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 3 till 6 in the eve- ning. April 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. From 30 minutes past 4 till 30 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 2 till 5 in the afternoon. 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. From 15 minutes before 4 till 15 minutes before 5 in the morning; and from 2 till 30 minutes past 4 in the af- ternoon. 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d. From 30 minutes past 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 2 till 30 minutes past 4 in the afternoon. 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th. From 3 till 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 1 till 15 minutes be- fore 4 in the afternoon. May _ 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th. From 15 minutes past two till 15 minutes past 3 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 12 at noon till 15 minutes past 3 in the after- noon. Oth, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 18th. From 2 till 3 in the morning; and from 15 minutes past 12 at noon till 3 in the afternoon. 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22d. From 15 minutes before 2 till 15 minutes before 3 in the morning; and from 12 at noon till 15 minutes before 3 in the afternoon. 23d, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th. From 15 minutes past 1 till 15 minutes past 2 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 11 in the forenoon till 15 minutes past 2 in the after- noon, June_Ist, 2d. 8d, 4th, 5th, and 6th. From 15 minutes past 10 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon; and from 15 minutes past 12 at night till 15 minutes past 1 the next morning. lith. From 15 minutes past 10 in the morning till 15 minutes before 1 in the afternoon; and from 12 at night till 1 the next morning. 20th. From 30 minutes past 9 in the morning till 12 at noon; and from 11 till 12 at night. 25th. From 15 minutes past nine in the morning till 15 minutes past 12 at noon; and from i1 till 12 at night. July 5th. From 15 minutes before 8 till 15 minutes past 10 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 10 till 15 minutes before 11 at night. 9th. From 15 minutes past 8 till 11 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 10 till 11 at night. 19th. From 30 minutes past 7 till 10 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 9 till 15 minutes past 10 at night. 24th. From 7 till 15 minutes before 10 in the morning; and from 9 till 10 at night. August 2d and 3d. From 30 minutes past 6 till 15 minutes before 9 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 8 till 30 minutes past 9 at night. 6th. From 15 minutes before 6 till 9 in the morning; and from 30 min- utes: past 7 till 30 minutes past 8 at night. . BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 7 22d. From 15 minutes past 5 till 8 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes past 7 till 15 minutes past 8 at night. September 1st. From 4 till 15 minutes before 7 in the morning; and 6 till 7 in the evening. 5th. From 30 minutes past 4 till 15 minutes before 7 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 6 till 30 minutes past 7 in the evening. 14th. From 15 minutes before 4 till 30 minutes past 6 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 5 till 30 minutes past 6 in the evening. 29th. From 15 minutes before 3 till 380 minutes past 5 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 4 till 30 minutes past 5 in the evening. October 3d. From 8 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 6 till 15 minutes be- fore 6 in the evening. 12th. From 15 minutes past 3 till 5 in the morning; and from 15 min- utes before 4 till 30 minutes past 4 in the afternoon. 18th and 19th. From 30 minutes past 1 till 4 in the morning; and from 15 minutes before 3 till 30 minutes past 4 in the afternoon. November 10th and 11th. From 30 min- utes past 12 at night till 15 min- utes past 3 in the morning; and from 30 mirutes past 1 till 30 min- utes past 2 in the afternoon. 16th and 16th. From 12 at night till 15 minutes before 3 in the morn- ing; and from 15 minutes past 1 till 2 in the afternoon. 29th and 30th. From 15 minutes past 11 at night till 2 in the morning; and from 1 till 15 minutes before 2 in the afternoon. December 8th and 9th. From 15 min- utes past 10 at night till 1 in the morning; and from 30 minutes past 12 at noon till 30 minutes past 1 in the afternoon. 14th, 15th, and 16th. From 10 at night till 15 minutes before 1 in the morning; and from 15 minutes be- fore 12 till 30 minutes past 12 at noon. 23d and 24th. From 15 minutes past 11 till 12 at noon; and from 15 min- utes past 9 till 12 at night. 28th. From 15 minutes past 10 till 11 in the morning; and from 9 till 15 minutes before 12 at night. We do not presume to assert that every person born on the last mentioned times, will be exempt from all descrip- tions of trouble during the whole of their lives, but that they will never (in spite of whatever may happen to befall them) sink below mediocrity. Even servants and those born of poor parents will possess some _ superior qualities-get into good companybe much noticed by their superiors, and will, in spite of any intervening diffi- culties, establish themselves in the world, and rise much above their sphere of birth. It has often been recorded, and though a singular observation, experi- ence has shown it to be a true one, that some event of importance is sure to happen to a woman in her thirty- first year, whether single or married; it may prove for her good, or it may be some great evilor temptation; there- fore we advise her to be cautious and circumspect in all her actions. If she is a maiden or widow, it is probable she will marry this year. If a wife that she will lose her children or her husband. She will either receive riches or travel into a foreign land; at all events, some circumstance or other will take place during this remarkable year of her life, that will have great effect on her future fortunes and existence. The like is applicable to men in their forty-second year, of which so many instances have been proved that there is not a doubt of its truth: Ob- serve always to take a lease for an odd number of years; even are not prosper- ous.The three first days of the moon are the best for signing papers, and the first five days:as well as the twen- ty-fourth for any fresh undertaking. But we cannot but allow that a great deal depends on our own industry and perseverance, and by strictly discharg- ing our duty to God and man, we may often overcome the malign influence of a bad planet, or a day marked as un- lucky in the book of fate. METRAGRAMMATISM, OR THE ART OF FORTUNE-TELLING BY TRANSPOSITION OF NAMES It has often been remarked, although it is a fact by no means commonly known, that tre names given to chil- dren at the baptismal font joined to their family or surnames, and added to titles which may be bestowed upon them in after life, often point out many circumstances and events which may befall the parties upon whom such names have been bestowed; and that if their parents had paid more attention to this part of Astrological divination, those names which were unlucky might, by due care and attention, have been avoided, while those of a more fortunate description might have been selected for their children, and have been rendered even still more valu- able and fortunate, by being conjoined with others of a like nature. In order that our readers may have a clearer in- sight into this branch of fortune-tell- ing, and which appears to have been strangely neglected by modern prac- titioners, we shall lay before them a few specimens of this admirable sys- tem of discovering the events of our checkered existence; and from a study of which they will readily learn how to avoid bestowing on their children such as are of a malignant nature; and, at the same time, perceive how 8 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE the secret influence of the stars that preside at our birth, act in the min- utest mannereven to the giving of that name at our baptism, which often- times explains to the bearer of it, if he could then but know it, those events which will assuredly befali him in the course of his life. Of the antiquity of this science it is scarcely necessary to speakit may however be as well to remark, that it was formerly in the highest repute among the astrologers of the early ages, and even some of our ancient writers have not disdained to advocate its cause. One of these, the celebrated Camden, has in his Remains be- queathed to the world an_ excellent treatise on this subject. He refers the origin of this invention te the time of Moses, and conceives that it might have had some share in the mystical tradition afterward called Cabalo, communicated by that divine lawgiver to the chosen seventy.That this art was practiced by the ancient Egyptians there cannot be a doubt, as there are even now remaining several of the names of the Egyptian monarchs which have been transposed and fully point out the principal events of their lives. The Greeks also practiced the art, but we do not find any examples among the Romans, which is somewhat sur- prising, as their seers, astrologers, and sybils practiced almost every species of divination. Among modern nations, the French appear to have distinguish- ed themselves for their proficiency in it, and which, Camden says, they ex- ceedingly admire and celebrate for the deep antiquity and mystical meaning thereof. Indeed, to such a height did that nation carry the practice of this art in the early ages, that there were kept lists of lucky and unlucky names, and particular care was taken, when bestowing a name on a child, that such only should be given as could, by trans- position, be formed into some fortu- nate signification. But this often fail- ed, for even those very names which, when transposed, contained this fortu- nate signification; yet, by a second transposition, sometimes quite the con- trary would be indicated and thus Foil those, who would have foild the stars. Having thus introduced this subject to our readers, and fully proved its an- tiquity, it only remains for us to lay before them such specimens of the art as may enable them to practice upon their own names, and by so doing be- come acquainted with that principal occurrence of their lives, which may be for their future good or evil; and if the latter, by possessing such _ fore- knowledge, by caution and good con- duct on their parts, alleviate or prevent its affects. We shall take these in- stances from the names of well known characters, by which it will be instant- ly seen how immediate is the connec- tion between the name of the party and the principal event of their lives. And first with the name of Bonaparte, which is perhaps the most complete specimen of the art we could possibly lay before our readers, and if properly transposed fully shows in each trans- position the character of the man, and points out that unfortunate occurrence in his life, which ultimately proved his ruinthus: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. NO, APPEAR NOT ON ELBA. In the name of Wellington we find his future glory parts: AR Teton WELLESLEY, Duke of Wel- in LET WELL FOILED GAUL secure thy renown. And the like in that of Nelson,thus: HORATIO NELSON. HONOR EST A NILO. Which in English means Honor is to be found at the Nile! In the name of SIR FRANCIS BUR- DETT we find: FRANTIC DISTURB- ERS, which fully prophesies the busy scenes of popular riot and disturbance in which he would be engaged. In the name of the late lamented Princess Charlotte, we have another proot of the infallibility of this art PRINCESS one AUGUSTA HER AUGUST RACE IS LOST, O! FATAL NEWS! The following anagram on James VI of Scotland, fully proves that his future fortune was predicted at his baptismthus: CHARLES JAMES STUART CLAIMS ARTHURS SEAT, and accordingly, on the death of Queen Elizabeth, he became James I. of Eng- land, and thereby possessed the throne which the name given him at his birth plainly foretold! The above will be sufficient to in- struct our readers in this very enter- taining and infallible mode of discov- ering future events. It may be neces- sary to observe, that some names will not easily form into separate words without the addition or subtraction of one or more letters, this is always al- lowablefor instance, K may be sub- stituted for CI for J-V for Uand vice versa, These specimens will be sufficient to prove the infallibility of this art; and many of our readers will find, if they transpose the letters of their own names after the same fashion, that their future good or ill fortune will be thereby plainly pointed out. DAYS OF THE WEEK 1. Their importance at the natal hour. A child born on Sunday will be of long life and obtain riches. A child born on Monday will be weak and effeminate. Tuesday is more unfortunate still. BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 9 though a child born on this day may, by extraordinary vigilance, conquer the inordinate desires to which he will be subject; still, in his reckless attempts to gratify them, he will be in danger of a violent death. The child born on Wednesday will be given to a studious life, and shall reap great profit therefrom. A child born on Thursday shall at- tain great honor and dignity. He who calls Friday his natal day shall be of a strong constitution, and perhaps addicted to the pleasures of love. Saturday is another ill-omened day; most children born on this day will be of heavy, dull, and dogged dispositions. Il. Their influence otherwise. If a person have his measure taken for new clothes on a Sunday, he will be sorrowful and crying. If on a Monday, he will have ample food and provi- sions. If on a Tuesday, his clothes will be burned. If on a Wednesday, he will enjoy happiness and tranquility. If on Thursday, he will be good and pro- pitious. If on a Friday, he will get into prison. If on Saturday, he will experience numerous troubles and mis- fortunes. If one puts on a new suit of clothes on a Sunday, he will experience happi- ness and ease. If on a Monday, his clothes will tear. If on a Tuesday, even if he stand in water, his clothes will catch fire. If on a Wednesday, he will readily obtain a new suit. If on a Thursday, his dress will appear neat and elegant. If on a Friday, as long as the suit remains new, he will be happy and delighted. If on a Saturday, he will be taken ill. If a person puts on a new suit of clothes in the morning, he will become wealthy and fortunate. If at noon, he will appear elegant. If at about sun- set, he will become wretched. If in the evening, he will continue ill. If a person bathe on Sunday, he will experience affliction. If on Monday, his property will increase. If on Tues- day, he will labor under anxiety of mind. If on Wednesday,, he will in- crease in beauty. If on Thursday, his property will increase. If on Friday, all his sins will be forgiven him. If on Saturday, all his ailments will be removed. For shaving, four days of the week are preferable to the rest, viz., Mon- day, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; the other three are evil and inaus- picious. Lucky days for business, three first days of the moons age; for marriage the 7th, 9th, and 12th; requesting fa- vors, 14th, 15th, and 17th, but beware the 16th and 21st; to answer letters, if possible choose an odd day of the moon; to travel on land, choose the in- crease of the moon; and to embark on the ocean, choose the decline. March is a fortunate month for be- ginning a new building; and it is sing- ular, but nevertheless reckoned true, that it is good to open a concert-room, a music-shop, or begin a new piece of music on the eve of St. Cecilia. It is not good to marry on your own birth- day, or on any martyrs; every other saints day is fortunate in this concern; neither is it fortunate for a woman to marry in colors; let her dress be as white as possible, except she be a widow, then let her choose some pleas- ant color, but beware of green and yellow. To meet a funeral as you are going to church to tie the nuptial knot, be- tokens the death of your first child in its infancy. To meet a white horse when you are going on any particular business is a sign of success, and a piebald one, if you are going to ask a favor; to be followed by a strange dog is lucky, especially to a man who is going court- ing. For a pigeon to fly into the house not belonging to it is a sign of sickness, and if it rests on a bed, it is death, but two pigeons is a sign of a wedding. Never pick up an odd glove in the street; it is not fortunate. Never tell any dream before break- fast, nor any at all that you use a charm to procure, even to your most trusty friend. If you dream any dream three times, look on it as an omen of friendly warning, particularly if it re- gard water, traveling, or any other perilous business. It may be intended by a watchful Providence to save you from danger, so do not despise the cau- tion. There are several remarkable in- stances in historysuch as William the Second, the Duke of Buckingham, and many otherswho might have escaped death at that time by a due attention to these warnings. SECRETS OF BLACK MAGIC REVEALED A PERSON DESIRES TO REMOVE CORNS When they bury an old man, and the funeral bells are ringing, the fol- lowing should be spoken: They are sounding the funeral bell and what I now grasp may soon be well and what ili I grasp do take away, like the dead one in the grave does lay. While reciting the sentence, always hold the troubled part in the hand, and regarding the corns, move over them with your fingers after cutting out the corns, and as long as they are tolling the bells repeat the above. As soon as the dead body begins to bleach the corns will disappear. Probate in the case of a male, wait for the funeral of one of that sex; in the case of a female wait until a female is to be buried. WHEN 10 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE WHEN A SORE FAILS TO BREAK OPEN Take virgin-parchments as large as the sore, put it first in water and then on the sore spot. Propatum! FOR FRESH WOUNDS is the wound, blessed is the day! happy the hour I found soon to stop and arrest thee, so that thou neither swell nor fester until moun- tains meet. TO STAY A SHOT Shot stand still in the name of the Lord, give neither fire nor flame, as sure as the rock of Gibraltar remains firm. While dissolving it, say: God saw his joy and glory! TO COMPEL A THIEF TO RETURN THE STOLEN PROPERTY Obtain a new earthen pot with a cover, draw water from the under cur- rent of a stream while calling out the three holiest names. Fill the vessel one-third, take the same to your home, set it upon the fire, take a piece of bread from the lower crust of a loaf, stick three pins into the bread, boil all in the vessel, add a few dew nettles. Then say: Thief, male or female, bring my stolen articles back, whether thou art boy or girl; thief, if thou art wom- an or man, I compel thee, in the name. TO MAKE A MAGNETIC COMPASS WHICH WILL SERVE TO DIS- COVER THE TREASURES AND ORES IN THE EARTH For this purpose a magnet made of the plusquam perfection, accompanied by the prime material of which all met- als grow is requisite; with this, the magnet of the compass must be strengthened. Around the compass are engraved the characteristic signs of all the seven metals. If it is desired now to ascertain what kind of a metal is most likely to be found in a hidden treasure or in ore beneath the earth, it will be only necessary to hie to that particular spot, where the magnetic rod has given the indication, but you must put your foot there where the perpen- dicular shows its attraction, and take of every metal a small piece, that is, one as heavy as the other, and lay it upon the respective character and the needle will rotate to that metal which predominates under the surface of the earth, and there it will stand still. TO DISCERN IN A MIRROR, WHAT AN ENEMY: DESIGNS AT THE DISTANCE OF THREE MILES OR MORE Obtain a good plain looking glass, as large as you please, and have it framed on three sides only; upon the left side it should be left open. Such a glass must be held toward the direc- tion where the enemy is existing and you will be able to discern all his markings, maneuverings, his doings Fresh and workings. Was effectually used during the Thirty Years war. FOR VIOLENT TOOTHACHES Take a new nail, pick with this the tooth till it bleeds, then take this nail and insert it in a place where neither sun or moon ever shines into, perhaps, in the rafters of the bin in a cellar, toward the rising of the sun; at the first stroke upon the nail call the name of him whom you design to help, and speak: Toothache fly away, by the sec- a stroke: Toothache cease, pain al- ay: EYEWATER WHICH MAKES THE SIGHT CLEAR, SO THAT NO SPECTACLES ARE NEEDED Take some good brandy or nettles, one drachm of ginger, camphor, fish- berry, herb and nasturtium, of each one drachm, of cloves one scruple, or rue toothwort, eyebalm so much as may be held between two fingers (one pinch). Bruise all these articles, and put into the brandy, and distill it in the sun, during the winter season 24 days in a warm room. Dip your finger therein and rub the eyelids therewith, morning and evening, this will keep the eyes clear, and make them strong without the use of spectacles. TO RECOVER STOLEN GOODS Mark well whence the thief left and by which door; from it cut three pieces of wood while pronouncing the three most sacred names; take these scraps of wood to a wagon, but in a noiseless manner, take a wheel off the wagon and insert the wood in the nave, again pronouncing the three holiest nams, then drive the wheel backward and ejactulate: Thief,thief, return with the stolen article, thou shalt be compelled by the omniscience of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God the Father calls thee back, God the Son turn thy footsteps that thou must re- turn, God the Holy Spirit guide thee to retrace thy steps until thou again reachest this place. By dint of Gods power thou must come back, by the wisdom of the Son of God thou shalt enjoy no peace nor rest till all the stol- en things are returned to the rightful owner. By the grace of God the Holy Ghost, thou must run and leap, canst neither rest nor sleep till thou shalt arrive at that place where thou has committed the theft. God the Father bind thee, God the Son compel thee, God the Holy Ghost cause thee to re- turn. The wheel, thou must not rapid- ly turn, or the soles of his feet may blister and burn, he will in pain and anguish cry, and ere you catch him, thus may die; Thou shalt come in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thief, thou must come. Thief thou must come. If thou art mightier, thief, thief, thief, than God and the Holy Trinity, then stay where thou art. The ten eommandments BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE Ww force thee to observe not to steal, hence thou must return. TO SECURE ONES SELF AGAINST ROBBERS WHILE TRAVELING Speak three times: Two wicked eyes have overshadowed me, but three other eyes are overshadowing me too, the one of God, the Father, the other God the Son, the third of God the Holy Spirit, they watch my blood and flesh, my marrow and home, and all other large and small limbs, they shall be protected in the name of God. ALSO FOR THE TOOTHACHE St. Peter stood under an oak tree. Then spake our beloved Redeemer to Peter: Why art thou sad and weary? Peter replied: Why should I not feel sad and dread, since all the teeth de- cay in my head? Wherupon our Lord Jesus Christ spake unto Peter: Peter, hie to the cool and lonely nook, there runs a clear water in a mountain brook. Take water thereof in thy de- caying mouth, and spew it again into into the running brook. This done three times in succession, and each time the three highest names pronounced. This repeat for three days in succession. HOW TO MAKE ONES SELF AGREE- ABLE TO ALL Carry a whoops eye on your person. If you carry it in front of your breast, all your enemies will become kind to you, and if you carry it in your purse you make a good bargain on all what you sell. TO FASTEN A PERSON THAT HE MAY NOT ESCAPE Take a needle wherewith the gown from a corpse had been sewed and put this needle into the foot prints of the person you seek to fasten. And never will that person, so treated, be able to get away. TO HAVE GOOD LUCK IN PLAYING, AND HOW TO MAKE YOUR- SELF LIKED BY PEOPLE Take the right thumb in your hand, and put the hand in your right hand pocket whenever a delinquent is ex- ecuted, and thus you will secure good luck in playing and be liked by your fellow-men. TO TRY IF A PERSON IS CHASTE Sap of raddish squeezed into the hand will prove what you wish to know. If they do not fumble or grab- ble they are all right. HOW TO CAUSE YOUR INTENDED WIFE TO LOVE YOU Take feathers from a roosters tail, press them three times into her hand. Probatum. Or: Take a turtle dove tongue into your mouth, talk to your friend agree- ably, kiss her and she will love you so Aearly that she cannot love another, WHEN YOU WISH THAT YOUR SWEETHEART SHALL NOT DENY YoU Take the turtle dove tongue your mouth again and kiss her, she will accept your suit. Or: Take salt, cheese and flour, mix it together, put it into her room, and she will have no rest until she sees you. into and AN AMBROSE-STONE Steal the eggs of a raven, boil them hard, lay them again into the nest and the raven will fly across the sea and bring a stone from abroad and lay it over the eggs and they will become at once soft again. If such a stone is wrapped up into a bay leaf and is given to a prisoner, that prisoner will be lib- erated at once. Whoever touches a door with such a stone, to him that door will be opened, and he who puts that stone into his mouth will under- stand the song of every bird. WHEN AN ANIMAL IS STUPID When an animal is stupid, when it runs around as if it had the rams, or when it carries the head upon one side, which signifies a sort of woe or pain, it may arise from heat and superfluous blood; hence it would be good to bleed such a beast three or four times, espe- cially on a Friday. In all cases, how- ever, an animal should suffer from such an ailment, pronounce the following grace three times over it, the first time stand upon the right side of the ani- mal; the second time on its left side; the third time again upon the right. side, and while saying the grace move constantly your hand over the back of the animal. TO MAKE ONES SELF SHOT-PROOF According to this formula, on the day of Peter and Paul, at vesper tide, there spring open waywort roots, of which hunters and men of the forest believe that he who carries them on his person cannot be hit or shot. TO CATCH FISH Take valerian, or cocculus Indicus, and make small cakes thereof with flour; throw these into the deep. As soon as a fish eats thereof it will be- come intoxicated, and float upon the surface. TO BANISH ALL ROBBERS, MUR- DERERS, AND FOES God be with you, brethren. Desist you thieves, robbers, murderers, way- layers and warriors in meekness, be- cause we all have partaken of the rose- colored blood of Jesus Christ. Your rifles, gun, and cannons be spiked, with the holy drops of our Redeemers blood. All sabers and deadly weapons be closed, with the five wounds of our dear Master, Jesus Christ. Three roses are blooming on Jesus heart. The first is kind, the other is mighty, the third represents Gods strong will. Under 12 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE these, ye thieves and murderers are be- come still, as long as I will, and ye are banished, and your foul deeds have vanished. TO CITE A WITCH Take an earthen pot, not glazed, yarn spun by a girl not yet seven years old. Put the water of the bewitched animal into the pot, then take the egg of a black hen and some of the yarn and move the latter three times round the egg, and ejaculate in the three devils names; after this put the egg into the water of the pot, seal the lid of the vessel tightly that no fumes may ooze therefrom, but observe that the head of the lid is below. While setting the pot upon the fire, pronounce the fol- lowing: Lucifer, devil, summon the sor- cerer before the witch or me, in the three devils name. IN CASE ONE SUFFERS FROM A THEFT If something is stolen from you, pro- ceed also as stated above, take likewise water, draw it from a brook stream downward, and cut three splinters from the threshold over which the thief did run. The water must be drawn in the three names of the devil. THAT NO WITCH MAY LEAVE A CHURCH Purchase a pair of new shoes, grease them on Saturday with grease on the outer sole, then put them on and walk to the church, and no witch can find the way out of the church without you proceed before her. ANOTHER WAY TO CAUSE RETURN OF STOLEN PROPERTY Take three pieces of bread, three pinches of salt and three pieces of hogs lard, make a strong flame, put all the articles upon this fire, and say the following words, while keeping alone: I put bread, salt and lard for the thief upon the fire, for thy sin and temerity so dire. I place them upon thy lungs, liver and heart, that thou art troubled with terror and smart, a distress shall come over thee with dread as if thou wert to be smitten dead, all veins in thy body shall burst and break, and great havoc and trouble shall make, that thou shalt have no peace nor rest, till what thou hast stolen thou hast returned and brought all back from whence it were taken. Three times to recite and every time the three holiest names spoken. TO OBTAIN MONEY Take the eggs of a _ swallow, boil them, return them to the nest, and if the old swallow brings a root to the nest, take it, put it into your purse, and carry it in your pocket, and be happy. TO OPEN LOCKS Kill a green frog, expose it to the sun for three days, powder or pulverize it. A little of this powder put into a lock will open the same. TO UNDERSTAND THE SONG OF BIRDS Take the tongue of a vulture, lay it for three days and three nights in hon- ey, afterward under your tongue, and thus you will understand all the songs of birds. TO STOP THE BLEEDING OF A WOUND Take a small bone of a human body and put into the wound, and the blood will cease to flow. HOW TO OBTAIN A GOOD MEMORY Take the gall of a partridge, and with it grease the temples every month and your memory will be like that o Mnemon. TO MAKE A PERSON DISLIKD GAMBLING Speak to an executioner, and get some wood of a whip wherewith he has beaten criminals, and flog the gambler with this upon his naked body, and never more thereafter will he gamble. WHILE TRAVELING Say every morning: Grant me, oh Lord, a good and pleasant hour, that all sick people may recover, and all distressed in body or mind, repose or grace may find, and guardian angel may over them hover; and all those captive and in bondage fettered, may have their conditions and troubles bet- tered; fo all good travelers on horse or foot, we wish a safe journey joyful and good, and good women in labor and toil a safe delivery and joy. THAT NO PERSON WILL DENY ANYTHING TO YOU Take a rooster, three years old throw it into a new earthen pot, and pierce it through, then put it into an ants hill, and let it remain until the nifith day thereafter, then take it out again and you will find in its head a white stone, which you must carry on your person, and then nobody will deny you anything. GOLD ROOTS FOR THE TEETHING OF CHILDREN When children are teething suspend gold roots around their necks, and they will get their teeth without pain. Such root, carried on your person, secures the wearer against all harm. Waywort heals heart woe and stom- ach pain. Whoever carries the roots on his person his eyes will be cured. Dogs dribbling and ailments leave and wane like the moon, its flowers heal those who suffer from too large a spleen or milt. Nasturtian roots powdered, and laid upon the eyes, give clear and brilliant eyes. The sap to drink will cure liver complaint; whoever carries the root on his person will be favored by the la- 14 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE TALISMANS, CHARMS, SPELLS AND INCANTATIONS Spells of such force no wizard grave EHer framed in dark Thessalian cave, Though his could this ocean dry, And force the planets from the sky. TALISMANS In the whole circle of the occult sciences there is scarcely anything more obstruse or intricate than the mystical science of Talismans. The use of them has occasionally received much opposition from incredulous individuals; while on the other hand, it has stood the ground with firmness amidst the change of ages. Mourning rings, miniatures, lockets, mementoes, armorial bearings, and the boast of heraldry, are but so many relics of Talismanic learning, Amongst mankind in general, there is much of talismanic belief; witness the avidity with which the caul of an infant is sought after to preserve from danger by water; as also the celebrated romance of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott; the in- tense interest of which arises from the narration of a singular instance of the faith formerly reposed in Talismanic agency. It is now well known that when Napoleon went to Egypt he was then presented with a talisman by a learned eastern magician, the effect of which was to protect and defend him from sudden attacks, assassinations, and all manner of hurts from firearms. TALISMAN FOR LOVE This Talisman is said to be wonderfully effi- cacious in procuring success in amours and love adventures. It should be made or prepared when Venus, the planet of love, is the evening star. It should be made preferably of pure silver, but where that is not practicable, cut out the picture of the Talisman from this book, and paste it neatly in any suitable article, such as in a locket, back of a watch, or it may be pasted on a piece of round cardboard of equal size and worn over the heart or the left breast, or carried in the pocket as a Lucky Pocket Piece. Where possible this Talisman should be cast of the purest grain tin, and during the increase of the moon. The characters are to be engraved on it also during the increase of the moon. Where this is not practicable, the illustration may be cut out of this book and placed in, say, a locket, and suspended about the neck, or worn on any part of the body, or it may be pasted on a piece of round cardboard of equal size and carried in the pocket. It should be kept from the sight of all but the wearer. Its effects are to give victory over enemies, protection against their machina- tions, and to inspire the wearer thereof with the most remarkable confidence. BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 138 TALISMAN FOR WAR AND BATTLE This Talisman bears on it the powerful words, and also the awful sign which were said to have been conveyed to the Emperor Constantine from heaven, in daylight, and in the presence of his whole army, and whereby he was victorious in battle. It should be made of highly tempered steel, but where not practicable, the illustration may be cut out of this book and placed in a locket or other suitable article, or simply pasted on a piece of cardboard of similar size. It should be tied around the sword-arm. An ancient manuscript says of this Talisman: He that beareth this sign about him shall be helped in every need and necessity. TALISMAN FOR DESTROYING IN- SECTS AND REPTILES This Talisman is to be made, if possible, of iron, when the sun and moon enter the sign, Seorpio. It has been proved to be powerful in effect; so much so that no kind of venomous reptile or trou- blesome insect can come within some yards of the house or place in which it is. The manuscript from which the account of this Talisman is taken, cost a very large sum and a medical gentlenan to whom it belonged, affirms that he had himself proved its efficacy, for being at one time much an- noyed with beetles, he made a talisman, accord- ing to instructions here given and screwed it to the floor, when these troublesome insects imme- diately disappeared, but afterwards, when the servant removed it, through ignorance, they re- turned in great numbers; when he again nailed it . . to the floor, and they again disappeared! If impractical to have this Talisman specially made, the illustration may be cut out of this book and pasted on a piece of heavy tin or other metal, or even a stout piece of cardboard. TO OVERCOME CHARMS AND EVIL INFLUENCE Repeat reverently, and with sincere faith, the following words, and you shall be protected in the hour of danger: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And behold, at evening tide, trouble; and before the morning he is not; this is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. : CHARM AGAINST TROUBLE IN GENERAL Repeat reverently, and with sincere faith, the following words, and you shall be protected in the hour of danger: He shall deliver the six troubles, yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death, and in war from the power of the sword, And thou shalt know that thy tabernacles shall be in peace, and thou Shalt visit thy habitation and shalt not err. . 16 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE CHARMS, OMENS, AND SIGNS The use of charm and talisman is extensive, and a great percentage of the people have their pet lucky piece always with them. Magnetic lode- stones are universally used to attract good fortune, love and happiness, like- wise with various lucky images or idols. Belief in these lucky pieces ex- tends back into history of thousands of years. CLOUDS Fleecy clouds indicate either a long wet or dry spell. Long streaky clouds denote fair weather. A halo around the moon is a sign of rain. An un- even number of reports of lightning in quick succession is a sign of good luck. Thunder from a clear sky is also indicative of good fortune. PHYSICAL SIGNS AND OMENS It is unlucky to see a new moon for the first time through a glass. A bee, flying in the house, should be retained for a few minutes as a prisoner to bring luck. Crickets in the house are considered a- sign of luck, but a sign of illness if they leave without appar- ent reason. A sick person witnessing a shooting star will recover within the month. The howling of dogs denotes impending disaster. Robins are looked upon as messengers of good luck. To kill a moth hovering about a candle is to invite good luck. If a knife be dropped, accidently, so that the point penetrates the ground and stands up- right, good luck will result. To spill salt on the table is considered unlucky. To counteract the spell, throw a pinch of the salt over the left shoulder. If your teakettle sings, it is a sign of happiness and contentment in your house. A spark on the wick of a candle means a letter will be received by the one who first sees it. To move into a new home on Friday is unlucky; how- ever, Monday and Wednesday are par- ticularly fortunate. A girl standing under a piece of mistletoe may be kiss- ed by any man finding her there. Should the girl refuse the kiss, she in- vites bad luck. To put your clothes on the wrong way is a sign of good luck, if performed without intention. However, the clothes must be worn that way, else the luck changes. If you observe a shooting star, make a wish while it is still in motion, and the wish will come true. A rabbit running across your path is a sign of impending ill luck. The continual hooting of owls at night is an omen of ill-health. Should you wash your hands or face in water just used by another, be sure to first sprinkle a few drops on your head before empty- ing the vessel to avoid bad luck. Sun- shine and the sneezing of a cat are said to be happy omens for brides. A ereeping child will have better luck and be more fortunate in life than one that does not. Horseshoes are always considered lucky, and should be hung over the door of the house or barn. The horseshoe on the barn insures a good harvest. If you see a pin, pick it up, as it will bring you good luck; to let it lie is bad luck. Never relate a bad dream before breakfast. lest it come true. The new moon first seen over the right shoulder offers an op- portunity for a wish to come tru. To break a mirror is considered un- lucky, and the person breaking the glass will have bad fortune for seven years. In Catholic countries a person who accidentally breaks a_ mirror, crosses himself and repeats, May the Saints avert ill fortune. However, if a glass is wilfully and purposely brok- en and thrown away, it will have no effect on the person breaking the glass. POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS KNOCKING ON WOOD The custom of knocking on wood to prevent ill iuck is perhaps the most prevalent custom in existence, and is performed by all classes of people, the world over. Its origin is attributed to the ancient religious rite of touching a crucifix when taking an oath. It is said that a president of the United States is accused of resorting to this strange custom. THE EVIL EYE Fear of being bewitched by the evil eye is very prevalent among the Latin races, and in this country the belief is widespread that certain persons, possessing power of the devil and su- pernatural agencies, can bewitch an- other by simply looking at him with hatred in the eyes, and thus cast a spell. Psychology teaches that it is pos- sible to influence others with your mind, the expression and influence go- ing from the eyes, however, this should not be termed as the evil eye spell, which is in reality a myth. However, many people still cling to the belief and wear charms and amulets to coun- teract the bad influence of the evil eye. These charms really aid these people, as it changes the negative thoughts of their minds to positive ones. Perhaps the most popular amulet is a cross of jet, the belief being that it will split if looked upon by a person having evil intentions. In some parts of the world, the face of a new born child is gently brushed with a bough of pine to prevent any evil infiuences from attacking the child. The Hindus BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 13 dies. Taken in food, it is good for cancer, When you catch a whoop, you will find a stone which you must put under the head of a sleeping person, and that person will be compelled to impart to you all secrets which he may know. If you carry a badgers foot with you, all your affairs will be fortunate, and you will not be perplexed nor err. Whoop eyes make a man benign. If you carry the eye with you, you will be in good repute by the authorities; and if you will carry the head no one will cheat you. If you carry the head of a crow upon your breast, all must love you who have dealings with you. When you catch a mole and put it into a pot, while it lives, and ignite sulphur, all moles will gather together. When you put a mole into an earthen pot, and boil the same, and with this water wash the hair, the hair will turn white. During the month of August take a swallow from its nest. In its stomach you will find a stone, which you may wrap into a limen handkerchief, hang under your left arm. It is a good thing against slanderers, and makes you agreeable among the people. A snail is said to have a starlet in its head, and when found it is good for one who is afflicted with kidney dis- ease. WHEN A PERSON HAS SPRAINED HIMSELF Take juniper berries and hay flowers, bruise them and boil in good old wine. Apply as a poultice. TO MAKE YOURSELF INVISIBLE Pierce the right eye of a bat, and carry it with you, and you will be in- visible. TO PREVENT CHILDREN HAVING MEASLES FROM BECOMING BLIND As soon as the children get sick from measles, hang on their necks the roots of purnellac, and your sorrows may cease. Probatum. HOW TO DRAW OUT A THORN OR SPLINTER Take carrots bruised with honey and make a powder thereof. Put over the injury; it will draw the substance out and soothe the pains. WHEN LUNGS OF CATTLE SWELL Take some sandstone, put it into a bake-oven till it becomes hot, then put it into a pail of fresh water. Let the cattle drink. FOR THE ITCH OR SCAB Take precipitate, lard and white hens manure, make a lye therefrom and wash the skin therewith. FOR OPEN SORES Take hogs lard of the size of a bean, heat it; put the yolk of an egg and some saffron therein; stir it well and it will heal. WHEN A PERSON HAS IMBIBED TOO MUCH Take fungus of a linden tree, one- half quart of old wine, one-half quart of water, pour the latter on the fun- gus, let it draw for twenty-four hours and drink mornings, -noons and eve- nings thereof, one teaspoonful. SALVE FOR GOUTY LIMBS Take dogs lard for five cents, oil of white fir tree cones five cents, olday for five cents, seal oil for five cents, a quart of lard in which all the others are rendered down, and the gouty limb anointed with the salve. FOR COAGULATED BLOOD Take five cents worth of nomo, make a plaster of it and put it on the injury once or twice. TO DRIVE AWAY LICE Fishberry and lard mixed together and the head anointed therewith. A DRINK FOR HORSES Watercresses, green juniper berries, hartshorn, venetian soap. Of these make a beverage. WHEN A GUN IS BEWITCHED Take five cents worth of liquid am- ber, assafoetida, river water, and mix well together. With the mixture clean well, and the rag, with which the scouring was made, hang up in the smoke or put into a new made grave. HOW TO KEEP WARM IN WINTER Take nettlewort, garlic, pour lard into it and boil together. When hands and feet are greased with this oint- ment one will not feel cold. FOR A WEAK HEAD When a person has a weak head and is often absent-minded, take hold of an ants hill, then put them in a bag, boil the same for six hours in a kettle of water. Draw this water upon bot- tles and distil it in the sun. With such water wash the weak and dull head. If the disease is very bad bathe the patient in this water. The blood of asses can be drunk, BOOK Of FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 17 decorate their children with beautiful jewels to confuse and antagonize the evil eye. Mohammedans hang articles from the ceiling over the cradle of their children to ward off evil influences, the key to the house being considered the most beneficial article. THE BLACK CAT As a rule, black cats are considered unlucky, but contrary to general be- lief, are supposed to bring good luck. However, to kill a black cat is unlucky and invites misfortune for a year. A black cat crossing your path denotes good luck, not bad. The meowing of a black cat at midnight is a bad omen. Various actions of cats are supposed to foretell good or unfortunate events. COLOR SUPERSTITIONS Color has a great influence on the mentality of individuals. Everyone is supposed to possess a color hue, and your color chart will correspond with that of your lucky star. Color rules the emotions as follows: Red governs love, affection and lust. Red is also the paramount advertising color, as it is the most attractive to the eye. Orange denotes simplicity and ig- norance. Orange is the color of the god of marriage. Scarlet rules the emotion and anger, and a color to be avoided by virtuous people. Bright red, symbolistic of fire, rep- resents power, courage and confidence. Yellow signifies glory and fortune to the ancients. Now it is interpreted as denoting infidelity, perfidy and shame. Brown denotes worldly knowledge and is a mark of distinction. Green, the color of springtime, is as- ad sociated with youth and hope. Black is the color of sadness, gloom and death, while white denotes all that is pure and desired. LUCKY STONES Birthstones are generally accepted as inducing fortunate occurences. Each stone is governed by a different month or Sign of the Zodiac. They are as follows: JanuaryGafnet. FebruaryAmethyst. MarchBloodstone, AprilDiamond. MayEmerald. JuneAgate. . JulyRuby. AugustSardonyx. SeptemberSapphire. OctoberOpal. NovemberTopaz. DecemberTurquoise. Not being contented with a lucky gem for each month, the ancient phil- osophers allotted a stone for each day of the week, as follows: SundayRuby and chrysolite. MondaySelenite, pearl and opal. TuesdayAmethyst and bloodstone, WednesdayAgate, jade and olivine, ThursdayEmerald and sapphire. FridayTurquoise and lapis-lazuli. SaturdayOnyx. HOW TO MAKE YOUR LOVER OR SWEETHEART COME If a maid wishes to see her lover, let her take the following method: Prick the third or wedding finger of your left hand with a sharp needle (beware a pin), and with the blood write your own and lovers name on a piece of clean writing paper, in as small a com- pass as you can, and encircle it with three round rings of the same crimson stream, fold it up, and exactly at the ninth hour of the evening bury it with your own hand in the earth, and tell no one. Your lover will hasten to you as soon as possible, and he will not be able to rest until he sees you, and if you have quarrelled to make it up. A young man may also try this charm, only instead of the wedding finger, let him pierce the left thumb. FOLK-LORE OF PINS Why, however, north country people are so persistent in their refusal to give one another a pin it is not easy to discover, as even they themselves cannot give the origin and reason of this supersitition. When asked for a pin they invariably say, You may take one, but mind, I do not give it. It may, perhaps, have some connection with the vulgar prejudice against giving a knife, or other sharp instrument, as mentioned by Gay in his Shepherds Week. But woe is me! such presents luckless prove, For knives, they tell me, always sever love. A supposition as popular now as in days gone by. Another fact associated with pins will doubtless interest those of the fair sex about to enter on the happy state of matrimony. Thus, it is still a prevalent belief in certain places that a bride, in removing her bridal robe and chaplet at the completion of the marriage ceremonies, must take special care to throw away every pin worn on this eventful day. Woe to the bride who keeps even one pin used in the marriage toilet. Woe also to the bridesmaids if they retain any of them, as their chances of marriage will thereby be materially lessened, and anyhow they must give up all hope of being wedded before the following Whitsuntide. On the other hand, in Sussex on her return home from church the bride is often robbed of all the pins about her dress by her single friends present, from the belief that whoever possesses one of them will be married in the course of a year. Much excitement and amusement are occa- sionally caused by the youthful com- petitors for this supposed charm, and the bride herself is not infrequently the victim of rather rough treatment. 18 , BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF PINS Among the magical properties of pins we may mention their supposed effi- cacy in the cure of certain disease. Thus, in Alabama, in the case of warts, the patient is taken to an ash tree, where a pin is first stuck into the bark, and withdrawn; a wart is transfixed with it till he feels pain, and then the pin is again pushed into the _ tree. Every wart entirely disappears. A few years ago we are told that some trees might be seen thickly studded with pins, each the index of a cured wart. In connection with this superstition there is a well known couplet: Ashen tree, ashen tree, Pray buy these warts of me. In place of a pin, a nail driven into an oak is reported to cure toothache. A Virginia remedy consists in rubbing the warts with a snail, after it has been pierced with a pin as many times as there are warts. As the snail by degrees withers away, so it is believed that the wart, impregnated with its matter, will do the same. It has been pointed out that most of the charms of this kind are of the nature of a sac- rifice, the warts being transferred to a substitute. DREAMS THAT COME TRUE A poor peasant, dwelling in the vi- cinity of Rheims, saw, one night, dur- ing his slumbers, a young man, who, taking him by the hand, conducted him to the base of an old wall, where, after designating a huge stone recommend- ing him to raise it up on the morrow, he suddenly vanished. The peasant followed his advice, and found the stone indicated in his dream, which upon being displaced, and revealed a vase filled with golden coinsenrich- ing the dreamer and his family. Gassius of Parma, who had espoused the cause of Mark Antony, fled to Ath- ens after the battle of Actium. While sleeping in his apartments there, he saw aman enter his chamber, an indi- vidual with dark complexion and dis- hevelled hair, very tall and stout. Cas- sius demanded who he was; to which the phantom replied, I am your evil genius. The dreamer arose in affright, and seeing no one present, summoned his slaves, inquiring if any among them had seen a stranger enter the apartment. An examination showed the doors of the house to have been firmly closed, so that it was impossible for anyone to enter. Cassius, persuaded that he had been the victim of some chimerical illusion, again went to sleep, but the same vision presented it- self a second time, addressing him with the same words. Cassius, troubled arose from his couch and summoned lights. At early daybreak he was as- sassinated by order of the Hmperor Augustus. MURDER REVEALED Two Arcadian friends, journeying to- gether, arrived at Megara, at which place the one took lodgings at the house of a friends, while his compan- ion put up at a public tavern. The traveler lodging at his friends, was visited in a dream by his comrade, who supplicated him to come extricate him from a trap set for him by the inn- keeper. He awoke suddenly, arose, dressed and hastened towards the tav- ern, when an afterthought compelled him to return, and he again undressed and went to sleep. Again his com- rade presented himself, but this time covered with blood, and beseeching him to avenge his murder. The phantom informed his fellow traveler that he had been treacherously assassinated by the tavern keeper, and his body con- cealed beneath a dunghill outside the city gates. Terrified at this second ap- parition, the Arcadian hesitated no longer, but going to the place desig- nated, he discovered his friends corpse, and was therefore enabled to bring the murderer to justice. LUCKY DREAMS A tradesman of Paris, sleeping in bed with his wife, dreamed that he heard a voice exclaiming to him: TI have now finished forty years, seven months, and twenty-nine days of labor and I am happy. The wife, sleeping by her husbands side, had the same dream, and upon awakening in the morning went forth, and without men- tioning the occurrence, procured a lot- tery ticket bearing the numbers 40-7- 29. The same day the numbers came out, and the tradesman lamented his indiscretion in not taking the advice of his nocturnal visitor. His sorrow was turned into joy when he learned that his wife, profiting by her dream, had drawn the grand prize in the Royal Lottery. An old lady of Paris was in the habit of encouraging her niece by promises of wealth, which she never fulfilled; extenuating her procrastination from year to year ky recourse of ingenious expedients, and she finally died. Short- ly after her decease, the aunt appeared during the night-time and instructed her niece to remove the center tile of their hearth, where she would discover the oft-promised treasure. The young girl obeyed the injunction, but discov- ered in the cavity nothing save a heap of cinders. In vexation of spirit, the niece railed vehemently against the duplicity of a relative deceiving her after death. On the following night, however, the phantom again appeared and without saying a word, designated four numbers apparentiy on the wall. Although placing little reliance upon BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 19 the injunction which she conceived to relate to a lottery (then the town talk), the niece resolved to try her luck, especially as the ticket offered for her purchase by the dealer bore the same numbers designated by the apparition. Subsequently, these num- bers came out in the order indicated, and the girl came into possession of four hundred thousand francs. DIONYSIUS VISION Dionysius, of Syracuse, while lying one night upon his couch, awake and contemplative, heard a loud noise, and arose to ascertain the cause of it. He perceived at the end of the gallery a woman of gigantic stature, as hideous in countenance as one of the Furies, engaged in sweeping the mansion with a gigantic broom. In terror and af- fright, the tyrant summoned his friends and caused them to spend the remain- der of the night with him. But the specter re-appeared no more. Two days after this vision, the son of Dion- ysius fell from a window and was kill- ed, and before a week had elapsed his entire family was destroyed, and thus, observes the historian Leloyer, it can be justly said that Dionysius and his race were swept off the face of the earth in the same manner in which the Fury, the avenging genius of Syra- cure, had been seen to sweep out the palace. . OBSERVATIONS CONCERN- ING THE EYES Spots in the eyes are of two sorts; either they appear in the white of the eye (and this shows the sudden redun- dancy of melancholy as appears in such as are near death), or when the eyes are maculated with black spots pro- ceeding from habitual melancholy, and is a certain index of the afflicting pas- sions of the mind; or else the eyes are masculated with spots like the grain of millet, or quadrangle; and if divers various colors, as fiery, red, azure, or of a rainbow color, all of which indi- cates mad, wild, cruel, and the worst of conditions; from whence we may pronounce most horrid events, and un- natural death. The following additional observa- tions concerning eyes will be found in- teresting and useful: 1. Great eyes denote a slothful, bold and lying person, of a rustic and coarse mind. 2. Eyes deep in the head denote a great mind, yet full of doubts, but generous and friendly, and if they are blue or gray, they signify great knowledge; if they are of a greenish east they intermix malicey injury and envy, and if red, they are of the nature of the cat. 3. Eminent and apparent eyes of a wall color, denote a simple, foolish, and prodigal person. 4. Sharp and piercing eyes, that decline the eye- brows, denote a deceiver, and a secret and lawless person. 5. Little eyes, like those of a mole or pig, denote a weak understanding, and easily to be im- posed on. 6. Beware of squint eyes, for out of one hundred, you will not find two faithful; for the possessor will be sly, cunning, and insinuating. It is very ill luck to meet a squinting per- son, and from long experience, I would wish that a person going out on busi- ness or any great expectations, meet- ing a squinting person of either sex, would return home and defer their business till another day, if they wish for success. 7. Eyes that move slowly, and look sleepy, denote an unfaithful, slothful, and riotous person. 8. The worst of all the eyes are the yellowish or citron; beware of them, for the pos- sessor is a dangerous person if you are in his power. 9. Beware also of them who, when they awake, twinkle their eyes, for they are double minded. If it is a woman that does so with her left eye, trust her not as to the faithful- ness of her love, and have an eye upon her actions. 10. A child who has a blue vein across her nose, between the eyes, is a general sign that it will not live long, but if it survives its infancy, it will be very passionate, and a great trouble to its family. But you seldom will find deceit where the eye looks with a modest confidence, not staring you out of countenance, nor averting as if detected of a crime; but when in business, love, or friendship, there ap- pears a tender firmness, the conscious- nes of the integrity of the heart and conduct are thereby expressed. SIGNS TAKEN FROM PARTS OF THE EYES 1. The angle of the eyes over long, indicates malevolent condition. 2. The angles being short, show a laudable nature; if the angles near the nose are fleshy, they denote hot constitution and improbity. 3. The balls of the eyes are equal, declare justiceunequal, the contrary. 4. The circles in the eyes of various colors and dry, denote fraudu- lency and vanity; but moist, denote fortitude, prudence and eloquence. 5. The lower circle green, and the upper black, are sure signs of a deceiver, and fraudulent person. 6. Eyes of moderate bigness, clear and shining, are signs of an ingenious, noble, generous and hon- est mind. . THE SILENT LANGUAGE By motion of the hands. This art is performed by the twenty-four letters of the hand and fingers, which you must learn, and then you must spell the words you intend your friend should know; the letters are very easi- ly learned, and as easily remembered. I have taught several persons in less than half an hour. You must under- stand that most of the letters are upon the left hand, and made with the fin- 20 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE gers of your right hand upon your left hand; the forefinger of your right hand you point to every letter; but some times that and the two next fingers make several letters, as you will see. The vowels are very easy to remember, they being the tops or ends of your five fingers upon your left hand, and Y is the table or palm of your hand, thus: The end of the top of the thumb is......... A The end of the fore finger is...........00008 E The end of the middie finger is The end of the ring finger is...........-. . The end of the little finger is...... oe eeeee The table on the palm of the hand.......... One finger on the left thumb............. Two fingers upon the left thumb.... Three fingers upon the left thumb.. Your two fingers laid together... Thumb your fists together........... Stroke the palm of both hands together Your fore finger upon the left wrist... One finger on the back of the left hand Three fingers on the back of your left hand Two fingers on the back of the left hand... Clench your left hand, or fist........... Clench your right bole rs Link your little fingers together. . wee The backs of your hands together............ The end of your fore finger to the middle joint of the other fore finger..............000% T Two fingers upon the little finger of left hand. .W Two fore fingers acroSS......... eee e eves x Give two snaps with your fingers............ Z Practice it but a few times over, and you will soon be perfect; several mo- tions represent the likeness of the let- ters; as, one finger at the back of your hands is like I, two fingers like N, three is like M. The fore finger to the middle joint of the other fore finger is like T; two fingers across is like X; likewise B, C, D, is very easily remem- bered, one finger on the left thumb is B, two fingers C, three fingers D. So the rest are soon learned, and as easy to remember. But you must always remember to give a snap with your finger between every word, that your friend may distinguish one word from another. If you are in company, and think some one in company under- stands you, that you would not have, it is easy for you to change the vowels to some other part of the hand, and then none but your friend that knows it can understand you. Suppose you would say to your mistress, when she is in a great company, Madam, I am your humble servant. Lay three fingers on the hack of your hand... Put your finger to the end of your thumb Three fingers upon your left thumb... Your finger again to your thumb..... Three fingers again to back of your hand bee And give snap with your fingers, for the sign the word is spelled. Then point to end of your middle finger...... I Then snap your fingers. Then point to the end of your thumb........ A Three fingers on the back of your hand...... M Then snap your fingers. Then point to the palm of your left hand...... Y Then point to the end of your ring finger.... .O Then point to the end of your little finger..... U Then link your little fingers together......... R Then snap your fingers. Stroke the palms of your hands together Point to the end your little finger...... Put three fingers on the back of your hand One finger on the thumb............. One finger on the back of your hand.. oct . A FIGURE HAND You must make an exchange and place these figures in the place: aeiouytnsr 1234567890 nana then your alphabet will run us: Tped2@fgh3kms4paqa0976 w Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise. C415mb31, C415mb31, 74 gl 40y 10392 You will find a great many words nothing but figures, and there is scarce any word, great or small, but has the greatest part figures. It is so plain to be learned that I need not give you any further instructions, but only to prac- tice the ten figures instead of letters. The other hand is performed by ex- changing of more letters, one for the other. aeiou ytusr When you are to write A, you must write Y, when you are to write Y, you must write A; and so on of all the rest. As for example, suppose you would say, Sir, Iam your humble ser- vant, it is thus: Onu, n ym asru hrm, bit Oturyie This appears like another language, and puzzles the greatest wits, and with a little practice is soon learned, by reason there are but ten letters you are to learn for the other, your alpha- bet will be thus: abcdefghojklmnopaqrstuvwxyz ybedtfguhkIlimispaqauoervwxagq I shall not proceed any further, be- eause this is sufficient, but let the reader practice what is here shown him, and he may soon learn the whole art. HOW TO WRITE LOVE LET- TERS SECRETLY To write love letters secretly, so that they shall not be discovered, take a sheet of white paper and double it in the middle, and cut holes through both the half sheets; let the holes be cut like a pane of glass, or other forms that you may fancy; then with a pin, prick two little holes at each end and cut your paper in two halves; give one half to your friend to whom you intend to write, lay your cut paper upon a half sheet of writing paper, and stick two pins in these holes that it stir not; then through these holes that you did cut, write your mind to your friend. When you have done, take off your paper holes again, and then write some other idle words both before and after your lines but if they were written to BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 21 make some little sense, it would carry the less suspicion; then seal it up and send it. When your friend hath re- ceived it, he must lay his paper on the same, putting pins into the pin holes, and then he can read nothing but your mind that you write, for all the rest of the lines are covered. Another. Write what you please of a letter on one side of a sheet of letter paper with common ink, then turn your paper, and write on the other side with milk, that which yould have secret, and let it dry, but this must be written with a clean pen. Now when you would read it you must hold that side which is written with ink to the fire, and the milky letters will then show bluish on the other side. THE WAY TO GET RICH AND LIVE HAPPY IN THE MARRIAGE STATE There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. He that by the plow would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive. For age and want save while you may, No mornings sun lasts a whole day. Get what you can, and what you get, hold: Tis a stone tnat will turn all your lead to gold. Therefore be ruled by me, I pray; Save something for a rainy day. Remember, that time is money; for he that can earn $2.50 a day at his labor, and goes abroad or sits idle at home one-half of that day, though he spend but 10 cents during his diversion or idleness, he ought not to reckon that the only expense; he hath really wasted, or, rather, thrown away $1.00: besides. Remember, that credit is money. If a man let his money lay in my hands after it is due, because he has a good opinion of my credit, he gives me the interest, or so much as I can make of the money during that time. This amounts to a very considerable sum, where a man has large credit, and also makes good use of it. Remember, that money is of a pro- lific or multiplying nature. Money will produce money, and its offspring will produce more; and so $1.25 turned is $1.50; being turned again is $1.75; and so on, till it becomes a hundred dollars, and, the more there is of it, the more it will produce on every turn- ing, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker, and he who throws away $1 destroys all that it might have pro- duced, even some scores of dollars. Remember this proverb: that the good paymaster is lord of another mans purse; for he who is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may, at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare. This is sometimes of great use, next to industry and fru- gality. Nothing can contribute more to the raising of a man in the world than punctuality in all his dealings. Therefore, never keep borrowed money one single hour beyond the time prom- ised, lest the disappointment should shut up your friends purse forever, as the most trifling actions that affect a mans credit ought always to be avoided. The sound of the hammer at five oclock in the morning, or at nine at night, being heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but, if he sees you at a gaming table, or hears your voice in a tavern when you should be at work, he sends for his money the very next day, and demands it before it is convenient for you to pay him. Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of living accord- ingly. This is a mistake that many people of credit fall into; but, in order to prevent this, always keep an exact daily account of both your expenses, and also of your daily income and profits; for, if you will only just take the trouble at first to enumerate par- ticulars, you will discover unto you how wonderfully small trifling ex- penses mount up to a large sum; by which you will also discern what might have been, and also what may for the future be saved without causing any great inconvenience. In short, the way to obtain riches, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to- market, which de- pends chiefly on two things, viz.: in- dustry and frugality. And take care that you waste neither time nor money but daily make the best use of both. If you take care of the hours and days, the weeks, months and years will also take care of themselves. I have always found, by constant ex- perience, that any business, being first well contrived, is more than half done for a sleeping fox catches no poultry. There will be sleep enough in the grave; and, also that lost time is but seldom found again, for that which we generally call time enough always proves little enough; for sloth makes things difficult, while industry makes them easy. He that rises late must trot hard all day, and shall scarce overtake his busi- ness at nightfor laziness travels so slow that poverty soon overtakes him. Drive your business, but let not that drive you; for early to bed and early to rise is the way to become healthy, wealthy and wise. Industry need not want, while he who lives on a vain hope will do fasting; for we find that there is nothing to be done or accomp- lished under the sun without labor. He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a profession hath on office and profit with honor, but then the trade must be worked at, and the profession well followed, or they will 22 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE not enable you to pay rent and taxes; for, at the working mans house, hun- ger looks in, but dares not enterfor industry pays debts, while despair in- creases them. Diligence is the mother of good luck. As Solomon said, The diligent hand maketh rich, while he that dealeth with a slack hand becometh poor, for God gives all things to industry. Then plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have plenty, while others have reason to complain of hard times. Therefore, keep working while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow; and never that business to be done to- morrow- which you can do today; for, since you are not sure of a single hour, throw not that away. How many are there who live daily by their wits, and who often break for want of a stock in hand, while industry gives comfort, plenty and respect. Keep your shop well and then your shop will keep you. For it sometimes happens that the eye of a master will do more work than both his hands, and more especially if his head be any reasonable length; for the want of care generally does more damage than the want of knowledge. If you do not watch your workmen, you may just as well leave them your purse open; for the trusting too much to the care of others has completely ruined many a man. Therefore, if you would be wealthy, think of being careful and saving; for Women, wine, game, and deceit, Make the wealth small and the wants great. OMENS Omens, as signs that may be good or bad, resemble dreams in this, that they bring before us signals that we ourselves do not seek, and convey warnings that are of much significance to those who can read them right. VALUE OF OMENS In olden days, when superstition had a strong hold upon the minds of men, the abuse of this branch of Occultism led to much needless misery; but now that the clear light of science has scat- tered so many of the mists of mere superstition, we can set aside the more trivial accidents of life, which were looked upon with undue alarm, and cease to torment ourselves at every turn with groundless fears and nerv- ous fancies, while we still believe that many secrets of Nature have been solved to which we should give earnest heed. Thus, while we may avoid walk- ing under a ladder as much because a brick dislodged from above may fall upon our head, as from any dread of bad luck to follow, we do not doubt that there are many omens of more serious import to which we should at- tend. SECOND SIGHT Foremost among such grave omens, and nearest to the kindred realm of dreams, is that indication of future events which comes by which is known as Second Sight. A few years before his death Doctor Johnson visited places in Scotland where evidences of this mysterious faculty were frequent, for the special purpose of inquiring into the subject; and the following extracts from his account of it are full of interest: Second sight, he says, is an im- pression made either by the mind upon the eye, or upon the eye by the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived and seen as if they were present. A man on a journey, far from home, falls from his horse; another, who is perhaps at work about the house, sees him bleeding on _ the ground, commonly with the landscape of the place where the accident befalls him. Another seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or a funeral procession. Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. The appearances have .to0 dependence upon choice; they cannot be summoned, detained or re- called. The impression is sudden, and the effect often painful. I do not find it to be true that nothing is presented to the Second Sight but phantoms of evil. Good seems to have the same proportion in these visionary scenes as it has in real life. That they should often see death is to be expected, be- cause death is frequent and important. According to Martin, an early writer on this subject, it is possible to some extent to classify these visions, and so to determine the time between the sight and the event. If an object was seen early in the morninig, the event would take place in a few hours; if at noon, the same day; if at night, it would be fulfilled weeks, months, and sometimes years afterwards. The ap- pearance of a shroud was a certain sign of death; if it was not drawn above the middle of the body, a delay of a year might be hoped for, but if it ascended high towards the head the mortal hour was close at hand. The vision makes such a lively im- pression upon the Seers, says Martin, that they neither see nor think of anything else as long as the vision continues; their eyelids are uplifted, and their eyes are staring so long as the sight can be secn. NIGHT OMENS Many methods have long been in use for discovering what the future holds in store in matters of love and mar- riage. If young people would dream of their lovers, let them secure a piece of the first cut of a groaning cheese, a cheese made at the birth of a child BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 23 in any family, and place it under their pillow. If this should fail let them take a piece of cake made on a similar occasion, and known as dreaming bread. Each inquirer must place this in the foot of the left stocking, and throw it over the right shoulder, and then retire to bed backwards, and in perfect silence. If she falls asleep be- fore midnight her future partner will appear in her dream. Yet another method is for anxious maidens to write their names on slips of paper at twelve oclock, and to burn these; then to gather the ashes care- fully, and lay them, closely wrapped in paper, upon a looking-glass marked with a cross under their pillows. This should make them dream of their oves. SALT-SPILLING The spilling of salt is reckoned to presage calamity, and particularly do- mestic strife. To avert this it is cus- tomary to fling a pinch of salt over the left shoulder. A writer on this sub- ject says: To scatter salt by over- turning the salt-cellar is very unlucky, and portends a quarrel with a friend, a broken bone, or other bodily misfor- tune. This may be averted by throw- ing a small quantity over the head. Leonardo da Vinci, in his picture of The Last Supper, has represented the traitor Judas overturning the salta dark and ominous foreshadowing of the betrayal of his Master. Salt has long been esteemed a symbol of friend- ship, probably because it is considered incorruptible, but in the North it is thought unlucky to put it on another persons plate. Hence the saying Help me to salt, Help me to sorrow; but any evil consequences may be averted by a second helping. Such are some of the principal omens which claim credence from all who un- derstand that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy, and there are many others to which we should give heed, even though some of them seem to be of little moment. A STRING OF OMENS The following are gathered from re- liable sources; and are commended to the consideration of those who have ears to hear. Birthdays.An old rhyme says of our birthdays: Sundays child is full of grace, Mondays child is full in the face, Tuesdays child is solemn and sad, Wednesdays child is merry and glad, Thursdays child is inclined to thiev- ing, Fridays child is free in giving, Saturdays child works hard for his living. Another version of this runs thus: Mondays child is fair of face, Tuesdays child is full of grace, Wednesdays child is full of woe, Thursdays child has far to go, Fridays child is loving and giving, Saturdays child works hard for its living; But a child that is born on the Sab- bath day Is handsome and wise, and loving and gay. Clothes.If you put on any of your garments inside out, be careful not to alter them, as by so doing you will incur bad luck. Crickets.Do not on any account dis- turb a cricket in your house. Its pres- ence is an omen of prosperity, and foretells money that is coming to you. Death watch.If you hear a clinking sound in the wall-of your house caused by the little insect commonly called the death-watch, regard it as a presage of some discomfort, but not necessarily of a death. Ears.If your right ear tingles, some. one is speaking well of you; if your left ear, then ill is spoken. If you run through the list of your friends and acquaintances, the tingling will cease aS you name the person who is speaking of you. Knife or Fork.If a knife, or fork, or a pair of scissors falls from your hand and sticks in the floor, it is a cer- tain sign that visitors are coming to eall upon you. Lady-birds.A lady-bird is of simi- lar omen. Magpies.A single magpie seen out of doors portends bad luck; two tell of good fortune; three indicate a wedding, and four a birth. Folk in the northern counties say: One for anger, two for mirth, Three for a wedding, four for a birth. Marriage.A girl should never be married in colors. A widow should not marry in white. Among many happy omens for brides are sunshine, and the sneezing of a cat. Martins.Martins nesting under your eaves bring good luck if undisturbed. May.The month of May has been considered an unlucky time for mar- riages. Ovid in his Fasti declares this time to be unpropitious for the weddings of either widows or maidens, and the modern warning runs Marry in May, and youll rue the day. Nails.There is a time for every- thing, and the following quaint lines tell us when we should cut our nails A man had better neer been born Than have his nails on a Sunday shorn. Cut them on Monday, cut them for health; Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth; Cut them on Wednesday, for news; eut them 24 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE Cut them on Thursday for a pair. of new shoes; Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow; Cut them on Saturday, sweetheart tomorrow. New Moon.A new moon on Monday is a certain sign of fair weather and good luck. If you see a new moon for the first time over your right shoulder, and form a wish, you may expect it to be realized. New Year.When first you see or eat anything new in the New Year, be- fore speaking have a silent wish, and say some poets name distinctly, other- wise your wishing will be vain. Nightingale.It is a happy omen for lovers to hear the nightingale before the cuckoo. In his Sonnet to the Nightingale Milton says Thy liquid notes that close the eve of day, First heard before the swallow cuc- koos bill, Portend success in love. Owls.The continuous hooting of owls in your trees is said to be an omen of ill-health. Pigs.If you meet a sow coming to- ward you, it is an excellent omen; but should she turn from you, the luck is ost. Rabbits.A rabbit running across your path is an unfavorable sign. Shoes.It is considered unlucky to put on your left shoe first. Singing.If you sing before break- fast you may expect bad news and sor- row before night. Sparks.A red spark on the wick of a candle signifies a letter coming to the person who sees it first. Spiders.Long-legged spiders are harbingers of good fortune. A small red spidercalled sometimes a money spinner-running over you, is a sign of money coming to you. Do not in any way disturb it. Stars.If you see a shooting star, and are quick enough to form a wish before it has vanished, you may be sure that your desires will come to pass. Stones or Pips.If you have a num- ber of fruit stones or pips on your plate, think of a wish, and then count the stones. If they are even, the omen is favorable; if odd, it is the reverse. Throwing Old Shoes.The common custom of throwing an old shoe after a bride has a deeper meaning than the belief that it will bring good luck. It was originally the symbol of renun- ciation of authority overher by her father or guardian, and its transfer- ence to her husband. This evidence of a change of ownership is of very ancient date, and traces of it are to be found in the Books of Ruth and Deu- teronomy. Washing.If you wash your hands in the water which some other person has just used, you should first make see your the sign of the cross over the water. If you neglect this precaution there will be a quarrel between you. Weather and Bees.-Bees are weath- er-wise, and do not wander far from their hive if storms are at hand. HOW TO BE A SPIRIT MEDIUM The spirit-circle is the assembling together of a given number of persons for the purpose of seeking communion with the spirits that have passed away from earth into the higher world of souls. The chief advantage of such an assembly is the mutual impartation and reception of the combined magnet- isms of the assemblage. These in com- bination forma force stronger than that of an isolated subject; first en- abling the spirits to commune with greater power; next, developing the latent gifts of mediumship in such members of the circle as are thus en- dowed; and, finally, promoting that harmonious and social spirit of frater- nal intercourse which is one of the especial aims of the spirits mission. The first conditions to be observed relate to the persons who compose the circle. These should be, as far as pos- sible, of opposite temperaments, as positive and negative in disposition, whether male or female; also of moral characters, pure minds, and not mark- ed by repulsive points of either physi- cal or mental condition. The physical temperaments should contrast with each other; but no person suffering from a decidedly chronic disease, or of a very debilitated physique, should be present at any circle unless it is form- ed expressly for healing purposes. I would recommend that the number of the circle never be less than three nor more than twelve. The use growing out of the associa- tion of differing temperaments is to form a battery on the principles of electricity or galvanism, composed of positive and negative elements, the sum of which should be unequal. No person of a very strongly positive tem- perament or disposition should be present, as any magnetic spheres em- anating from the circle will over- power that of the spirits, who must always be positive to the circle in or- der to produce phenomena. It is not desirable to have more than two al- ready well-developed mediums in a circle,as mediums always absorb the magnetism of the rest of the party; hence, when there are too many pres- ent, the force, being divided, cannot operate successfully with any. Ot Temperature. Never let the apartment be overheated, or even close. AS an unusual amount of mag- netism is liberated at a circle, the room is always warmer than it is ordi- BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE 25 narily, and should be well ventilated. Avoid strong light, which, by produc- ing excessive motion in the atmos- phere, disturbs the manifestations. A very subdued light is the most favor- able for any manifestations of a mag- netic character, especially for spiritual magnetism. O the Positions to Be Observed.If the circle is one which meets another periodically, and is composed of the same persons, let them occupy the same seats (unless changed under spir- itual direction), and sit (as the most favorable of all positions) around a table, their hands laid on it, with palms downward. It is believed that the wood, when charged, becomes a conductor, without the necessity of touching or holding hands. I should always suggest the propriety of em- ploying a table as a conductor, espe- cially as all tables in a household use are more or less magnetically charged already. the room, see that they are just fresh- ly gathered, otherwise remove them; also avoid sitting in a room with many minerals, metals, or glasses, as these all injuriously effect sensitives, of whom mediums are the type. I recommend the seance to be opened either with prayer or music, vocal or instrumental; after which subdued, quiet and harmonizing conversation is better than wearisome silence; but let the conversation be always directed to- ward the purpose of the gathering, and never sink into discussion, or rise to emphasis; let it be gentle, quiet, and spiritual, until phenomena begin to be manifest. Always have a slate, or pen, pencil and paper on the table, so as not to be obliged to rise to procure them. Especially avoid all entering or leaving the room, moving about, ir- relevant conversation or disturbances within or without the circle-room, af- ter the seance has been once com- menced. The spirits are far more punctual to seasons, faithful to promise and peri- odical in action than mortals. Endeav- or, then, to fix your circle at a con- venient hour, when you will be least interrupted, and do not fail in your appointments. Do not admit unpunc- tual late comers; nor, if possible, suf- fer the air of the room to be disturbed in any way after the sitting com- mences. Nothing but necessity, indis- position, or impressions (to be here- after described) should warrant the least disturbance of the sitting, which should never exceed two hours, unless an extension of time be solicited of the spirits. Let the seance always extend to one hour, even if no results are ob- tained; it sometimes requires all that time for spirits to form their battery of the materials furnished. Let it be also remembered that all circles are experimental; hence no one should be discouraged if phenomena are not pro- If flowers and fruit are in] duced after the first few sittings. Stay with the same circle for six sittings; if no phemonena are then produced (providd all the above conditions are observed) you may be sure you are not rightly assimilated to each other; you do not form the requisite combina- tions, or neutralize each other. In that case, break up, and let that circle of members meet with other persons; that is, change one, two, or three per- sons of your circle for others, and so on until you succeed. A well developed test-medium may sit without injury for any person of any description of character or tem- perament; but a circle sitting for mu- tual development should never admit persons addicted to bad habits, crimi- nals, sensualists, strongly positive per- sons of any kind, whether rude, skepti- cal, violent-tempered, or dogmatical. An humble, candid, inquiring spirit, unprejudiced, and receptive of truth, is the only frame of mind in which to sit for phenomena, the delicate magnet- ism of which is shaped, tempered, and made or marred as much by mental as physical conditions. When once any of the circle can communicate freely and conclusively with the spirits, the spir- its can and will take charge of and regulate the future movements of the circle. Of Impressions.Impressions are the voices of spirits speaking to our spir- its, or else the admonitions of the spirit within us, and should always be re- spected and followed out, unless (which is very rare) suggestive of ac- tual wrong in act or word. At the opening of the circle, one or more of the members are often impressed to change seats with others; one or more impressed with the desire to withdraw, or a strong feeling of repulsion to some member of the circle, makes it painful to remain there. Let any or all of these impressions be faithfully regarded, and, at commencing, pledge to each other the promise that no of- fense shall be taken by following out impressions. If a strong impression to write, speak, sing, dance, or gesticulate, pos- sesses any mind present, follow it out faithfully. It has a meaning, if you cannot at first realize it. Never feel hurt in your own person, nor ridicule your neighbors, for any failure to ex- press, or at first discover the meaning of the spirits impressing you. *Spirit control is often deficient, and at first almost always imperfect. But by often yielding to it, your organism becomes more flexible, and the spirit more experienced; and practice in con- trol is absolutely necessary for spirits as well as mortals. If dark and evil- disposed spirits manifest to you, never drive them away, but always strive to elevate them, and treat them as you would mortals under similar circum- stances. Do not always attribute false- 26 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE hoods to lying spirits or deceiving me- diums. Many mistakes occur in the communion of which you cannot al- ways be aware. Strive in truth, but rebuke error gently; and do not always attribute it to design, but rather to mistake in so difficult and so experimental a stage of the communion as mortals at pres- ent enjoy the spirits. Unless strictly charged by spirits to do otherwise, do not continue to hold sittings with the same parties for more than a twelvemonth. After that time, if not before, fresh elements of mag- netism are absolutely essential. Some of the original circle should withdraw and others take their place. All persons are subject to spirit in- fluence and spirit guidance and con- trol, but not all can so externalize this power as to use it consciously or_be what is significantly called a medium; and finally, let it be remembered, that except in the case of trance-speakers no medium can ever hope to exercise successfully his or her gift in a large or promiscuous assembly; while trance- speakers, no less than mediums for any other gift, can never be influenced by spirits far beyond their own normal capacity in the matter of the intelli- gence rendered; the magnetism of the spirit and the spirit-circle being but a quickening fire, which inspires the brain, stimulates the faculties, and, like a hot-house process on plants, forces in abnormal prominence dor- mant or latent powers of mind, but creates nothing. Even in the case of merely automatic speakers, writers, aping, tipping, and other forms of test mediums, the intelligence or idea of the spirit is always measurably shaped by the capacity idiosyncrasies of the medium. AlJl spirit power is thus lim- ited to expression by organism through which it works; and spirits may con- trol, inspire, and influence the human mind, but do not change or recreate it. SECRET METHOD OF MESMERISM HOW TO HYPNOTIZE The method used to bring about the hypnotic conditions consists essen- tially in an imitation of the process of ordinary sleep, by means of verbal suggestion. Thus we actually bring sleep into existence by acting upon the imagination through action and speech. The skill of the operator con- sists in making the subject believe he is going to sleep; that is all. It is not necessary that he should possess any peculiarity of temperament and voice, as has been supposed. In short, everything lies in the subject and not in the operator. Impress upon your subject the belief that what you say is about to happen, will happen, and you have paved the way to success. Give your subject to understand that you are perfectly competent to hyp- notize him, and his imagination will do the rest. Assuming you are unable the get a@ person who has been under the in- fluence before, I will ask you to se- cure @ person (a stranger) who in your judgement would be easily in- fluenced,not one of those stubborn, over-confident know-it-all people, but one who would be willing to obey your suggestions. The reason why some people are difficult to hypno- tize is because they either consciously or unconsciously resist the operators influence. They are not passive. Those between fifteen and twenty years of age are more easily controlled. Having secured your subject, place him in a chair in a comfortable posit- ion, preferably with his back to the light, Before you commence to oper- ate it will be well to observe certain conditions. First, dont let anyone talk or laugh in the room while you are operating, Disturbing noises at the first tend to prevent hypnosis. They distract the attention, and thus inter- fere with the mental state for hypno- sis, Later when you have, as well as your subject, learned to concentrate your thoughts, noises are less dis- turbing.The most absolute avoidance of any sign of mistrust by those is necessary, as the least word or ges- ture may thwart the attempt to hyp- notize. Do not allow yourself to get excited, as there is nothing whatever to get excited about. Dont be afraid that you will have any trouble in awakening your subject as that is the easiest part of it, and there is absolutely no danger of being unable to bring the subject out of the hyp- notic condition if you follow strictly BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE at what these subject. Having observed the above pre- cautions, you may now turn your at- tention to hypnotizing your subject. You have put him into a comfortable chair, and make sure that he is com- fortable. Shift him about until he is resting easily, and say that he is resting. You do this for effect. Every- thing in this work depends upon the effect you produce upon the subjects mind. You are not, while engaged in this work, a man of original thoughts; you are simply an actor, weighing tone and gesture, testing the effect of a glance, a sentence, a frown, a com- pression of the lips, a persuasive un- bending; testing these things, weigh- ing them, withdrawing them accord- ing to results, even as the regular physician tries and withdraws his material remedies according to results. Before beginning your work as the hypnotizer (no matter which method you use), your subject is to look at whatever you may request him to, and say to him that very soon he will become drowsy, then more and more drowsy, until he will be compelled to close his eyes and sleep.Be sure to tell him that he will notice nothing unusual about the drowsiness; tell him that it will be just as pleasant as the approach to natural sleep that he has ever experienced. Let him not expect anything unnatural to occur, for such will distract his attention and make him feel excited and less passive than he should be. Let him understand that it is for his good to be hypnotized if he is sick, or to help him cure a bad habit, Tell him that you will not make him appear ridiculous, and that you will only keep him asleep for a few minutes. Tell him to look earnestly at whatever you direct, and never under any circumstances to look away from it, no matter who comes into the room or around him he is going to gaze straight at the object and no other, METHOD No. 1.Take any bright object (I generally use my watch), between the thumb and fore and mid- dle fingers of the right hand. Be sure that the light falls in the object in lessons teach on the your hand. Hold it from eight to twelve inches from the eyes, at about ten inches above the head so as to produce the greatest possible strain upon the eyelids, and enable the sub- ject to maintain a fixed steady stare at the object. The subjects eyes must be fixed steadily on the bright object, and his mind riveted upon the idea of the one object. When you notice the first change in your subjects face and eyes say such words as these: Keep right on looking at it, directly you will be drowsy. You are sleepy. Your eyelids are heavy. You are asleep. Let your voice grow lower, lower, till just above a whisper. Pause a mo- ment or two. Give him time. Never hurry. You will fail if you try to hurry too much at first. He will think it more natural if you give him a moment to get sleepy. Let him only listen. As soon as the eyelids really grow heavy, say: Your eyes are al- most closed now, making your words long drawn out and spoken in a tone which will not arouse him, but will, instead, indicate that you are yourself sleepyand almost gone. Continue as follows: Directly your eyes will have to closeyou just cannot keep awake see they are closingnow they are almost ready to closenow they will close and you will sleep. Close them. Pause a moment, then say: Sleep. Give the command to sleep in a quiet, yet firm and masterful way, in a low tone. You will see that the eyelids may quiver for a few seconds, sometimes for a minute, but very soon the sub- ject will settle back in his chair, fre- quently with a sigh, and the eyes will become quiet, and his limbs show per- fect relaxation, Let him remain so for some minutes, saying nothing to him at all. When you are ready to operate, it is well for you as a beginner, espe- cially if you have a new subject, to constantly make suggestions. For in- stance, you say: Nothing will wake you, nothing can hurt you. You can open your eyes, but you will stay asleep. Now I am about to raise your arm, but you wont wake up. Nothing will wake you. Rub the arm a few times and say: Now you cant take it downsee, you cant. You are sound asleep, and you will do every- thing I tell you to do, but you will 28 BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE not wake upyou cant wake up till I tell you. The arm will remain in the position in which it is placed, and if you tell him that no person can take it down or bend it, you will find it true that no one can, I always begin operations in this way, placing both arms in an uplifted position, with both legs out- stretched in the same manner. When you are ready to take them down rub them gently but firmly (rubbing from the body, and always raising the hands when reaching the extremities), and say: Now you can take them downsee, you canyou will do all I tell you. You will have to do so. No one can wake you except myself. Speak to your subject just as though he were awake and in full possession of his senses. Although fast asleep to every one else, he is keenly awake to you. He went to sleep with his mind absorbed with the idea that you alone could control him, and this is the rea- son why no one else can make any impression on him. This connection between the subject and operator is called rapport, which is a state of sleep in which the attention of the subject is fixed exclusively upon the Hypnotist, so that the idea of him is constantly present in the subjects memory. It is possible, however, to put your subject en-rapport with any other person by simply suggesting to him to he is to obey the requests or demands of that person until further notice. METHOD No. 2.The subject re- clines on a couch or easy chair, and you stand beside him. Hold the first two fingers of your right hand at a distance of about twelve inches from his eyes, at such an angle that his gaze shall be directed upwards in a strained manner. Direct him to look steadily at the tips of those fingers, and to make his mind as nearly blank as possible, After he has stared fixed- ly for about half a minute his ex- pression will undergo a changea far away look coming into his face. His pupils will contract and dilate several times, and his eyelids will twitch spasmodically. These signs indicate a commencement of the desired hyp- notization. If the eyes do not close of themselves, shut them gently with your left hand, and say: You are be- coming sleepy; your eyes are very heavy; they are getting more and more heavy; my fingers seem quite indistinct to you (this when the pu- pils are observed to dilate or con- tract); a numbness is stealing over your limbs; you will be fast asleep in a few minutes; now sleep. This is a good method to use with children, and if they are hypnotized for any special reason hold their right hand with your left while talking to them. METHOD No. 8.Seat your subject if convenient in an ordinary chair (mot an arm or rocking chair), with both feet flat upon the floor. Place his hands on his thighs with the palms down, the fingers pointed towards the knees. Then, standing three or four feet in front of him, request him to relax as much as possible, mentally and physically. Then say to him: Look at one of my eyes, and draw his attention with the index finger of your right hand to the eye you wish him to look at. Lower your hand im- mediately to your side, and gaze di- rectly and steadily into one of your subjects eyes until his pupil begins to dilate. This will require from five to ten seconds. Then repeat slowly the following: Close your eyes gently arch your eye-brows. Now you will find it hard to open your eyes. Try trytry! All right, you may open them. Relax all tension in yourself when you say All right. You must, of course, feel confident that you can hold his eyes closed for a few seconds. Your manner and tone should be such as to convince him that you can do so. As soon as you see that you have pro- duced an impression at once release your subject for a moment. This will prevent his forming adverse auto-sug- gestions which might destroy the slight impressions already made. Af- ter a moments rest, repeat the opera- tion, saying again: Look at one of my eyes. Close your eyes gently, and so on, just as before. From the mo- ment you commence keep up a stream of oral suggestions, and repeat the above over and over again until you are quite sure your subject is under your influence. How To Perform The Daven- port Brothers Spirit Mysteries The manifestations of the Davenport Brothers are produced in either a cabinet or a darkened room, and in no instance while the operators are in full view of the au- dience. In_a darkened room their manifestations mostly consist of the thrumming (without muric) of guitars, ringing the bells, rattling of tambourines, ete., while at the same time the instruments are movedas indicated by the sounds from themwith considerable rapidity about the room. The same sounds and movements also occur to a limited ex- tent after the operators have been bound by a committee from the audience, the reintro- duction of light disclosing them still in bonds as placed by the committee. They usually extricate themselves from the tying after the light is again extinguished, in less time than the committee cecupied in binding them. During their entertainment they are also bound with ropes by what they assume to be a spirit power, without mortal assistance. To all appearance the tying done by the spirits is as methodical and secure as any that a mortal could do. Yet the very in- stant that darkness supervenes, after the knots have been examined by the committee, the musical instruments are _ sounded, and various manifestations made that could not possibly be accomplished without the use of hands; immediately on the cessation of which light is produced, and the mediums are ascertained to be bound as _ they were before the extinction of the light. Some- times, while he is thus situated, one of the mediums will have his coat removed from his body in a few seconds time. A performance of the DPavenports, which many spiritualists have asserted to be an in- dubitable evidence of the exercise of spirit power, is as follows: One of them sits with his right side to the table on which the instruments are lying. The other takes a seat beside, and at the left of the one at the table. An investigator sits in front of the mediums, and puts a hand on the head of each; and, reaching up, each medium puts his hands, in separate places, but close to- ether, on an arm of the investigator. The fight is extinguished, and sounds are made on the instruments, the latter being moved, and perhaps brought in contact with the investigators head. That gentleman is not conscious of any change in the position of the mediums. Their hands seem to him to remain constantly clasped to his arms, in which position they are found to be when the light is again produced. The mysterious cabinet in which the Davenports give their public exhibitions is about six feet high, six feet wide, and two and a half feet deep, the front consisting of three doors opening outward. In each end is a seat with holes through which the ropes can be passed in securing the performers. In the upper part of the middle door is a lozenge-shaped aperture, curtained on the _in- side with black muslin or oil cloth. The bolts are on the inside of the door. As preliminary to the manifestations, and in order that it may not be supposed that they are the operators, the mediums sub- mit to being bound by a committee from the audience. The doors are then closed and bolted, it being necessary for the mortal * manager to reach through the aperture to secure the middle door. A tremendous racket is soon made in the cabinet, the noise of the musical instruments being combined with a general whang banging; and sometimes peo- ple in the audience think they can distinguish the sound of a cloven hoof kicking things around inside the structure which encloses the mediums. Usually, after the first performance, the doors of the cabinet are opened, and the committee requested to observe that the op- erators are still bound; but sometimes there is an interval just before the opening of the door, in which a rattling of the ropes is heard, and then the mediums walk forth, free. If they are observed by the cemmittee before the ropes are removed from them, the doors are again closed till the untying is ac- complished. Being again enclosed in the cabinet, the young men are bound by what they assert to be a spirit power, during the exercise of which they are passive. The spirit tying is submitted for examination to the com- mittee, by whom it is pronounced to be ap- parently so secure as to preclude the pos- sibility of the mediums being able to use their hands. No sooner are the doors closed, however, than hands are seen at the aperture in the middle door. These hands are visible for but an instant at a time, and with a rapid vibratory movement while in view, so that it would not be possible far the ob- server to identify them as belonging to the mediums, however positively he might be- lieve them to be theirs. Immediately on the disappearance of the hands from the aperture, the cabinet doors are opened, and the committee, after an ex- amination, report the mediums to be still bound. The doors are again closed, and in- stantly the spirits strike up a lively tune on a violin, with a beil and tambourine ac- companiment. That the audience may be still more pro- foundly impressed with the wonderful powers of the young men, they sometimes request that flour be placed in their hands, as a security, in addition to the spirit tying, against their being able to use those members. Their request being complied with, a hand or two is shown at the aperture, some noises are made on the musical instruments, and then the mediums exhibit the flour still in their hands, with none spilled on their clothing or the fivor. Sometimes they permit one of the com- mittee to sit in the cabinet with them, for a short time, while they are bound, but he, too, must be bound, with his right hand se- cured to one mediums shoulder, and his left hand to the other mediums knees. The lights in the hall are then turned down so that it is quite dark in the cabinet. The gentleman in contact with the mediums is banged over the head with an instrument of music, his hair is pulled, his nose tweaked, and alto- ether he is pretty considerably mussed up. eing released from the not very pleasant position, and perhaps looking somewhat scar- ed, he reports to the audience what has been done to him, with the additional statement that he did not detect any movement on the part of the mediums. If not the manifesta- tion of spirit power, what is it? is a question which very naturally arises in the minds of those present. An answer is contained in the following explanations: In a darkened room, the investigators be- ing seated by the walls, the mediums grasp the guitars by the neck, next the keys, and swing them around, and thrust them into different parts of the open space of the room, at the same time vibrating the strings of the instruments with the forefinger. The faster the finger passes over the strings, the more rapidly the instrument seems to move. Two hands can thus use as many guitars, and a tea-bell, clasped by the iittle finger of either hand, can be rung at the same time. Or one performer can sound a guitar and bell with one hand, and play an accordion or con- certina with the other, an end of the last named instrument being held under the arm against the body. In the darkness the audi- ence thinks the instruments go furthur than they really do: and the room being close, the sounds are echoed or reflected frem the walls. When an investigator is sitting with the mediums at a table whereon musical instru- ments are lying, his hands resting on their heads, and their hands clasped to his arm above the elbow, the medium next the table removes one hand from the arm without be- ing detected, simply because the presence of the other hand, which is nearer the shoulder, is so great as to cut off communication by means of the_nerves of sensation from the arm below. It is thus impossible for the investigator to determine whether both hands of the medium are on his arm or not. He thinks they are, because the sensation in his arm remains the same. In the first place, the left hand of the medium is put heavily on the arm next the shoulder, and the right hand auite lightly, close by the other next the elbow. Both hands are seen to be on the arm, and are presumed to be pressing with equal force. The light is extinguished, and perhaps the medium takes the mans atten- tion momentarily from his arm, by suggest- ing that their feet be placed in contact; then it is that with a gradually increased pressure of his left hand tine medium carefully re- moves his right hand, and while he preserves a rigidity of the muscles of his neck and back, so as not to move his head, he takes the guitar (which lies within reach) by the neck, and extending the body of the instrument as far as possible, moves it in a half-circle, vibrat- ing the strings with his fore-finger. That the demonstration may be more striking, per- haps he hits the guitar against the head of the man with whom he is in contact. If he wishes to ring a bell at the same time, he ean hold it with his little finger. He can sound, in turn, all the instruments lying on the table: then, carefully replacing his hand on the mans arm, he is ready to have a light produced. The other medium really holds on with both hands to the arm he has clasped, feeling sure that while he does so it cannot be interfering with the operations of the spirits at the table. Should the medium put his right hand on top of the extended thumb of his left hand, with an appearance, to the investigator, of both hands being on his arm, the same re- sults could be produced with less risk of de- tection; for the presence of the thumb, where the right hand was seen to be, would lead the investigator to suppose, in the darkness, that the hand was still there. If in their dark seance, phosphorus having been put on the instruments, you shonld seea phosphoresent light very far above the stage, you may take it that the instrument which is heard is not where the light is seen, but that the phosphorus has been rubbed from the instruments, and some other put on a piece of card-board, which is attached to a folding rod and elevated in the darkness, to the de- sired position. To the Davenports, the extrication of them- selves, after being bound by a committee, ig a brief and easy task. A simple twist of the wrist will convert a square knot, us- ually considered the most secure, into two half-hitches, thraugh which the part of the rope they enclose can be easily slipped. With a little slack in the rope any ordinary knot can be made into a slip-knot. It is hardly possible to bind a man without causing him pain, so that he cannot get a slack In the rope. The writer has been bound with ropes a great many times by people who were de- termined to make a good job of the tyirg, and not once has he failed to release himself, often in less time than was occupied in bind: ing him. After the Davenports have been bound in their cabinets by a committee, and the doors of the structure are closed, they immediate- ly set to work to loosen the knots next their wrists and extricate their hands, which they usually succeed in doing in a short space of time. some instances one of them will have a hand at liberty as soon as the middle door is bolted, which he exhibits at the aper- ture, to be followed shortly by other hands; then both the mediums do their level best in making a noise with such instruments as they have at hand. Speedily getting their hands back in the ropes and drawing the knots close to their. wrists, they make some additionai noise with one or two instruments which they had so placed as to be still within their reach, and then give a signal for the opening of the doors. The knots are examin- ed by the committee and reported to be the same as they were; the doors are again closed and the operatives release themselves entirely 1rom the ropes, untying every knot. Sometimes, after being tied by the com- mittee, the mediums cannot readily extricate their hands and get them _back as they were, in which case they do not have the doors open till all the knots are untied, it being a better policy for them to wait till the spirits have tied them before making a show of hands or torturing the musical instruments. The important point with the Davenports, in tying themselves, is to have a knot next their Wrists that looks solid, fair and square, but which at the same time will admit of being slipped, so that they can get their hands out in a moment. There are several ways in which such a knot can be formed, one of which is as follows: A square knot is loosely tied in the middle of a rope, then the ends of the rope are tucked through, in opposite directions, below the knot, and the latter is then drawn tight. There are then two loops, which are left just large enough for the passage of the hand through them. The ends of the rope are then put through the holes in the seat, and tied be- neath, and also to the feet. Lastly the hands are put through the loops, and the knot drawn close to the wrist, coming between the latter. No novice in tying would suspect from the appearance of such a knot, and without taking particular pains in tracing the direction of the rope in forming it, that it could be slipped. As the hands of the mediums when thus tied are at their backs, close to the end of the cabinet, the commit- tee cannot have a very good opporunity to observe the most important knot. The doors next the ends of the cabinet are first closed by the manager, and as the medi- ums are then concealed from view of the audi- ence, they strain open the loops and are ready to use their hands as soon as the middle door is closed, which one of them instantly bolts on the inside. Then their hands are thrust under the curtain, which hangs over the aperture in the door, and exhibited to the audience; but as. before stated, the hands are exhibited but for an instani at a time, and with a vibratory motion of them; other- wise they might be recognized as belonging to the mediums. To make the hands look large or small, they spread or press together the fingers. With that peculiar motion impart- ed to them, four hands at the aperture will appear to be half a dozen, or more, as two pennies, rubbed together between the balis of a pssons thumbs, will present what ap- pear to be the edges of three. A ladys flesh-colored kid glove, nicely stuff- ed with cotton, has sometimes been exhibited as the hand of a female spirita critical observation of it not being allowed. These mediums_ once exhibited what they doubtless supposed would look like the hand of a negro; but it was of uniform blackness, palm and all. At one of their entertainments, when, in addition to the exhibition of spirit hards, a naked arm was protruded from the aperture an old lady, who, on account of the dimness of her vision, was permitted to stand close by the eabinet, saw, notwithstanding her defective sight, what made her exclaim, Well, I declare! They must practice vacciu- ation in the other world, for J see marks of it on that spirit. arm! When the spirit arm was shown at another time, rope marks were seen on the wrist! ~ It takes these mediums but a few secends to get their hands back into loops, and draw the knots close to their wrists, ready to be examined by the committee. In making the music, one medium holds the violin in the manner usual with most players of that instrument, and with the little finger of the bow hand he clasps a bell, which rings in time with the music. The other medium beats the tambourine on his head or knees with one hand, while his other hand is engaged in making a noise on something else. The performances of these young men are interesting on account of the ingenuity and expertness exercised by them, and would not be in the least objectionable were it not for their pretended mediumship. Electrical Psychology The most easy. sure and direct mode to produce electro psychological communication is to take the individual by the hand, in the same manner as though you were going to shake hands. Press your thumb with moder- ate force upon the ulnar nerve, which spreads its branches to the ring and little finger. The pressure should be nearly an inch above the knuckle, and in range of the ring finger. Lay the ball of the thumb flat and particularly crosswise so as to cover the minute branches of this nerve of motion and sensation. When you first take him by the hand, request him to place his eyes upon yours, and to keep them fixed, so that he may see every emotion of your mind expressed in the countenance. Continue this pressure for a half a minute or more. Then request him to close his eyes, and with your fingers gently brush downward several times over the eyelids, as though fastening them firmly together. Throughout the whole process feel within yourself a fixed determination to close them, so as to express that determination fully in your countenance and manner. Having done this, place ycur hand on the top of his head and press your thumb firmly on the organ of Individuality, bearing vartially downward, and with the other thumb still pressing the ular nerve, tell himyou can not open your eyes! Remem- ber, that your manner, your expression of countenance, your motions and your language must all be of the most pcsitive character. If he succeed in opening his eyes, try it once er twice more, because impressions, whether physical or mental, continue to deepen by rep- etition. In case, however, that you cannot close his eyes, nor see any effect produced upon them, you should cease making any further efforts, because yeu have now fairly tested that his mind and body both stand in positive relation as it regards the doctrine of impressions. If you succeed in closing the subjects eves by the above mode, you may then request him to put his hands on his head, or in any position you choose, and tell him, you can not stir them! In case you succeed, request him to_be seated, and tell him, you can not rise? If you are successful in this, request him to put his hands in motion, and teil him, you can not stop them! you succeed, reauest him to walk the floor, and tell him, you ean not cease walk- ing! And so you may continue to perform experiments involving muscular motion and paralysis of any kind that may occur to the mind, till you can completely control him, in arresting or moving all the voluntary parts of his system. How To Make Persons At A Distance Think Of You Tet if be particularly remembered that Faith and concentration of thought are positively needful to accomplish aught in drawing others to you or making them think of you. If you have not the capacity or understanding how to operate an_ electric telegraph battery, it is no proof that an ex- pert and competent person should fail doing so; just so in this case; if faith, meditation, or concentration of thought fail you, then will you also fail to operate upon others. First, you must have a yearning for the per- son you wish to make think of you; and secondly, you must learn to guess at what time of day or night he may be unemployed, passive, so that he be in a proper state to receive the thought which you dispatch to him. If he should be occupied in any way, so that lis nervous torces were needed to eomplete his task, his Human Battery, or thought. would not be in a recipient or pas- sive condition, therefore your experiment wouid fail at that moment. Or if he were under heavy narcotics, liquors, tobacco, or gluttonous influences, he could not be reached at such moments. Or, if he were asleep, and you operated to affect a wakeful mind or thought, you would fail again at the mo- ment. To make a person at a distance think of you, whether you are acquainted with him or not, matters not; I again repeat, find out or guess at what moment he is likely to be passive; by this I mean easy and careless; then, with the most fervent prayer, or yearn- ing of your entire heart, mind, soul, and strength, desire he may think of you; and if you wish him to think on any perticular topic in relation to you, it is necessary for you to press your hands, when operating on him, on such mental faculties of your head as you wish him to exercise towards you. This demands a meagre knowledge of Phreno- logy His Feeling Nature or Propensi- ties. is you cannot reach through these opera- tions, but when he once thinks of you, (if he does not know you he imagines such a being as you are), he can easily afterwards be controlled by you, and he will feel dis- osed to go in the direction where you are, if circumstarces permit, and he is his own master, for, circumstances alter cases. I suid you, cannot reach his Feeling, but oply his Thinking Nature, truly, but after he thinks of you once, his Feeling Nature or propen- sities, may beccme aroused through his own organization. In conclusion on this topic, let me say, that if you wish the person sirzply to think of you, one cperation may answer: but on the contrary, if you wish him to meet you, or go where you are, all you have to do is to persevere in a lawful and Christian manner to operate, and I as- eure you, in the ccurse of all natural things, that is if no accident or very unfavorable circumstances occur, he will make his way towards you, and when he comes within sight, or reaching distance of you, it will be easy to manage him. How To Charm Those Whom You Meet And Love When you desire to make any one Love you with whom you meet, although not per- sonally acauainted with him, you can very readily reach him and make his acquaintance, if. you observe the foregoing instructions, in addition to the following directions: Sup- pose you see him coming towards you in an unoccupied mood, or he is recklessly, or pas- sively walking past you, all that remains for you to do at that moment is to concentrate your thought and send it into him as before explained and, to your astonishment, if he was passive, he will look at you, and now is our time to send a thrill to his heart, by ooking him carelessly, though determinedly, into his eyes, and praying with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, that he may _ read your thought, and receive your true Love, which God designs we should bear one an- other. This accomplished, and you need not and must not wait for a cold-hearted, fashion- able, and popular Christian introduction; neither should you hastily run into his arms, but continue operating in this psychological manner; not losing any convenient oppor- tunity to meet him at an appropriate place, when an unembarrassed exchange of words will open the door, to the one so magnetized. At this interview, unless prudence sanction it, do not shake hands, but let your manners and loving eyes speak with Christian charity and ease; wherever, or whenever you meet again, at the first opportunity grasp his hand, in an earnest, sincere, and affectionate manner, observing at the same time, the following important directions, viz.:As you take his bare hand in yours, press your thumb gently, though firmly, between the bones of the thumb and forefinger of his hand, and at the very instant when you press thus on the blocd vessels, (which you can before as- certain to puwisate,) Jook him earnestly and lovingly, though not pertly nor fiercely, into his eyes, and send all your hearts, minds, and souls strength into his organization, and he wiil be ycur friend, and if you find him not to be_ congenial, you have him in your power, and by carefully guarding against evil influences, you_can refarm him to suit your own purified, Christian, and loving taste. Writing On The Arm The conjurors explanation was a great lesson in spiritualism. I next asked him to elucidate the trick of writing on the arm. Qn the occasion of my visit to Mr. Forster, when the raps | indicated the second pellet, he required the spirit present to write the initials on his bare arm. Mr. Forster placed his arm under the table for a moment, then rested it in front of a lamp burning on the table, and quickly rolled up the sleeve of his coat. The skin was without stain or mark. He passed his hand over it once or twice, and the initials of the names 1 had written on the second pellet seemed to grow on_the arm in letters of crimson. Its a trick I do every night. It goes with the audience like steam, said the conjuror. Very simple. Well, suppose_a name. What name would you like? Henry Clay, I replied. Down went the conjurors arm under the table. In a few seconds he raised it and exposed the bare forearm without mark upon it. He doubled up his fist tightly so as to bring the muscles of the arm to the surface, and rub- bed the skin_smartly with his open hand. The letters H. C.? soon appeared upon it in_ well-defined writing of a deep red color. There you have it, gentlemen; that's the blood-red writing. Very simple. All you have to do is to take a lucifer-match, and write on your arm with the wrong end of it. If you moisten the skin with a little salt water first, all the better. Then wet the palm of the other hand, rub your arm with it. Send up the muscles and the blood- red writing will come out. It will fade away in less than no time. If you look under the table, you will see that I have a little piece of pointed wood. I can move my arm under that and write the letters without using the other hand. But thats a trick which wants practice. Song and Joke Book No. 1. 8%,2993) is 100 Song and Joke Book No. 2. 39..1323- 3a 100 Song and Joke Book No. 3. %,2333. ia 100 American National and School Songs. P%;.." 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